Hello readers! So, welcome to a new story. Just a quick word before we get started, then I'll see you again at the end of the chapter.

So this is a Soulmate AU starting at the beginning of Season 3, Rachel's senior year. Events from Seasons 1 and 2 progressed in roughly the same manner with the exclusion of Quinn's storylines. More changes will be visible as we progress.

Usual disclaimers: Glee and anything you recognize aren't mine.

Now on we go, and I hope you enjoy!

One more year until graduation.

That was the mantra running through Rachel Berry's mind as Mrs. Collins called her English class to order as the first period bell rang. It was the first day of senior year, and Rachel was more than ready to get the entire year over with. Then she could get out of Lima, Ohio, to where she truly belonged – New York City. Still, it wouldn't do to slack off; it was her policy to give 110% effort into everything she did, and so she pulled out a notebook and a pen.

While Rachel was prepared to put in the effort for this class, the only thing she was truly invested in was the New Directions, the school glee club, where she was (co-)captain and (some of the time) lead singer. The New Directions had placed 12th at the National Show Choir Competition last year, and this was Rachel's last chance to obtain the title before she graduated. It would be icing on the cake on her college applications. She'd been preparing her essays and audition pieces all summer, and a National title would be the perfect edge she'd need to secure an acceptance to the performing arts school of her choice. And from there, she'd make it to her dream – Broadway.

Rachel had it all planned out. As soon as she graduated – with a 4.0 GPA preferably – she'd be headed to New York City to study musical theatre, preferably at NYADA or Julliard. From there, she would use her notable talent to secure auditions in stage productions; school productions to start with before moving on to obtain real acting experience in the stages of New York. The ultimate goal was a starring role on Broadway. She smiled as she daydreamed of being up on one of the famous stages of the Great White Way, the applause of hundreds thundering as she took her bows. She'd have a Tony award by the age of twenty-five, and then –

A scrunched-up wad of paper flew through the air, hitting the side of her head and breaking her thought process. The paper ball landed on her desk, uncrumpling to reveal a very unflattering and semi-pornographic drawing of herself done in pencil.

Reality crashed back around her as she methodically crumpled the drawing back up, stuffing it into the desk as she pointedly ignored the snickers from the bunch of cheerleaders who had thrown it at her. Rachel was more than used to such treatment from her peers, whom she knew found her annoying at best and utterly insufferable at worst. Even most of her so-called friends in Glee Club only tolerated her for her talent. Oh, she could hold a civil conversation with most of them, but she knew how they really felt. Santana Lopez had put it quite eloquently at Sectionals last year.

"We only pretend to like you."

The comment had been flippant and Santana was always abrasive, but it had hurt nonetheless and it was unnecessarily cruel, stinging even almost a year later. Rachel knew she could be bossy and annoying and exceedingly selfish, but she only ever had everyone's best interests at heart, even if she did mostly go about it the wrong way. Unfortunately, no one ever quite understood that. Even Mr. Schuester, their director, didn't particularly appreciate her attempts to improve their performances, if the way he let her teammates lambast her was any indication. Still, she did her best to keep her head high, never letting on just how much it all affected her.

The class passed by without further incident, and she proceeded to pack up her things, tucking her papers into her binder before heading to her locker. Picking up her packed lunch – McKinley's cafeteria food bordered on inedible most days – she made her way to the cafeteria. Glancing around, she brightened when she saw a couple of her glee teammates sitting at a table.

"Hello Kurt, Mercedes," she greeted. "Do you mind if I join you for lunch?"

"I guess not," Mercedes replied, waving at her to sit down. Mercedes Jones was another of the glee club's female singers, and Rachel admitted that the girl was quite talented, if not a bit of a diva. In fact, Mercedes was more of a diva than Rachel herself was. The similarities between them caused the two girls to clash quite a bit, but after last year's cessation of hostilities Rachel was hopeful that they would manage to be friends this year.

Kurt Hummel smiled at her as she sat down, and she returned the smile. He was probably one of the glee club members she got along with the most due to their shared interest in all things Broadway. "So, how was your summer?" he questioned solicitously, brushing back a lock of perfectly styled hair.

Rachel smiled widely at the question. "It went quite well, thank you for asking. I spent most of it here in Lima, though my dads and I went to New York for a week. I spent quite a bit of time in singing lessons, of course, and… oh, we did go to visit Daddy's cousin Leon and his family in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago."

"That's nice," he finally said absently, and Rachel's smile flickered for a moment. She suspected that if she'd asked him what she'd just said that he wouldn't remember half of it. Oh well, she was used to people tuning her out. Kurt leaned forward excitedly. "Guess what happened over the summer?"

Rachel tilted her head curiously. "What?"

Mercedes groaned. "Kurt…"

"Mercedes met her soulmate," Kurt announced gleefully. Rachel's eyebrows rose at the statement, her gaze flickering to Mercedes, who had buried her head in her hands.

"Really?" she asked, intrigued. "Who is it?"

Kurt answered for Mercedes. "His name's Shane Marcus. He's a new transfer, just moved here last month, and he's on the football team."

Rachel smiled. "Well, I'm happy for you, Mercedes," she commented kindly. She was happy for her teammate who had found her soulmate. Everybody had one, the one person that was somehow your 'best match' in the whole world, the one person most suited to them. Nobody knew exactly how it worked, or who or what decided pairings, but soulmates did exist. "How did you find each other?"

Mercedes shook her head in annoyance as Kurt laughed. "Oh, that was my fault," he explained. "See, we were at the Lima Bean for coffees a few weeks ago, and we were in line."

"Kurt was waving all these college brochures all up in my face –"

"It's important, I still haven't decided which colleges I'm going to apply to!"

"– and then the cashier calls us over and he shoves a bunch of them at me, and he gave me this wicked papercut on my finger," Mercedes continued.

"So, she was making this huge fuss over the tiny papercut," Kurt rolled his eyes.

Mercedes gave him a nasty look. "Then we noticed this big guy standing behind us in line, staring at us like a creeper with his finger in the air –"

"And I noticed he had a new scar in the exact same spot Mercedes' paper cut was!" Kurt squealed.

"Wow," Rachel commented, smiling. The most defining feature marking a pair of soulmates were their soul scars. Anything that happened to a person's skin would be mirrored perfectly on their soulmate's skin– cuts, bruises, burns, if it affected a person's skin, it affected the soulmate's as well. Rachel thought it was rather inconvenient at times, especially when a mark not of her own doing appeared on her face. But it couldn't be helped, and it was just the way the world worked. "That seems incredibly serendipitous."

"I know, right?" Kurt exclaimed.

Mercedes rolled her eyes now, though there was a small smile on her face. "White Boy here was freaking out more than Shane and I were."

"Oh please, you stood there staring at each other for close to five minutes."

"We did not!"

"If you don't mind my asking, how are you planning to proceed with your relationship?" Rachel cut in, attempting to redirect their argument. "Are you dating now?"

"Yeah," Mercedes admitted, smiling. "He asked me out a couple weeks ago, and it went great. He's really sweet."

Rachel smiled genuinely. "That's great to hear."

"What about you?" Kurt asked. "Any luck finding yours yet?" He had been lucky enough to meet his own soulmate last year, a boy named Blaine Anderson who attended Dalton Academy a few towns away.

"Not as of yet," Rachel answered vaguely, taking a bite of her lunch to keep from answering.

"Right." Kurt smiled sympathetically, the smile that he'd taken to adopting ever since he'd met Blaine. Rachel frowned.

"You know, just because you've met your soulmate doesn't mean you get to act all patronizing towards everyone else," she said with a pout.

"I'm sorry. But, everything they say about meeting your soulmate? It's true. We just… click." Kurt sighed dreamily. "Have you tried talking to them?"

Rachel shook her head. "I don't think I'll be trying that anytime soon."

Anything that happened to a person's skin was immediately reflected in their soulmate's, and this included ink. Of course, this led to soulmates actually being able to write each other messages that would instantaneously appear on their partner's skin, which meant that it was in fact possible to talk to one's soulmate without any prior meeting.

"Why not?" Kurt argued. "It's how Blaine and I met."

"I'm aware," Rachel nodded dryly. It had been the topic of the previous year in glee club. Kurt's soulmate had written him frequently since they entered high school, and Kurt had never responded. First, it had been because he hadn't yet come to terms with his sexual orientation, and later it had been because Kurt hadn't quite felt ready to meet Blaine yet. When Kurt had finally gotten up the courage to respond, he'd found out that Blaine was the lead singer of the New Directions' rival glee club, the Dalton Academy Warblers, which had of course been a topic of interest for the New Direction kids. Rachel shook her head, remembering the drama that had ensued. "But I don't think that method is going to be exactly right for me."

Kurt narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, that doesn't really make sense," he argued. "I would have thought that you'd be bombarding your soulmate with all sorts of questions and annoying the hell out of them by making sure they know who Barbra Streisand is."

Rachel hid a wince at the reminder of just how talkative and annoying her teammates found her. She tugged on the sleeve of her argyle sweater, shrugging. "I just think that when it's time for us to meet, then we will. Like Mercedes and Shane," she looked at Mercedes, who smiled.

"What happened to your hands?" Kurt asked suddenly, picking up Rachel's right hand in his. "Have you been in a boxing match recently?"

She snatched her hand back. "Don't be ridiculous, Kurt," she scolded, rubbing her fingers lightly over the light but visible bruising on her knuckles. "They're not mine."

"Ohh, I see." He smiled slyly. "This should be the perfect icebreaker then. You're probably entitled to ask your soulmate what they've been up to that would cause those," he nodded at the bruises.

Rachel shook her head. She tilted her head curiously though. "Why would you say I'd been boxing?"

"Because Blaine gets those sometimes," Kurt shrugged. "After he goes to the gym. Something about all those impacts on the sandbags. It drives me crazy."

"Oh." She supposed that made sense. She hadn't ever been able to figure out just what had been causing the bruises apart from the fact that it had been her soulmate. They had appeared on and off around the time she'd turned twelve. She'd tried asking, of course, but –

"Do you know if it's a guy or a girl?" Mercedes prodded, returning to their previous line of questioning.

"Well, I'd like to think I'd be open to either," Rachel stalled uncomfortably.

Kurt opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by a person approaching their table. Rachel was relieved for a second, but then she groaned inwardly as Finn Hudson came to a stop beside her, aiming his trademark half-smile at her. "Hey guys. Mind if I sit?"

"Go ahead, Finn," Kurt nodded.

"Cool." Finn took the seat next to Rachel, who was cursing her luck at the moment. "Hey Rachel."

"Hello, Finn," she nodded evenly. Finn Hudson was McKinley's star quarterback, the New Directions' male lead, Kurt's stepbrother, and, most importantly, Rachel's ex-boyfriend. They had gotten together the summer after sophomore year and had stayed that way all the way up to December of junior year. Then she'd found out that he'd lied to her about being a virgin and she'd retaliated by making out with Noah Puckerman, another of their other teammates, which had admittedly not been her finest moment. Finn had broken up with her, but then out of the blue, he'd kissed her onstage during their Nationals performance the previous May, which had been a contributing factor to their 12th place finish. Afterwards, he'd proceeded to inform her that he still had feelings for her and wanted to get back together. Needless to say, she'd been blindsided and rather upset, which had led to them taking a break for the summer, trying to sort out her mixed feelings. From the look he was giving her though, he was still very much interested.

If she were honest with herself, she still did have feelings for the tall football player. He was fairly attractive, popular, and while not the sharpest tool in the shed, he could be sweet when he wanted to be. But the biggest issue was that he wasn't Rachel's soulmate. She'd known early on, and it had become public knowledge when he'd accidentally broken Rachel's nose with his elbow during glee rehearsals one day. The resulting bruise on her face had been extremely conspicuous, but Finn's face had remained clear.

While it was a little unusual for someone to end up with people other than their soulmate, it wasn't all that uncommon to have other romantic interests, especially if they hadn't met their soulmates yet. And sometimes, soulmates ended up being more of platonic friends than romantic interests. Very close friends, but platonic friends. With this in mind, Rachel knew perfectly well that she wasn't guaranteed to end up with her soulmate. Still, the hopeless romantic in her still hoped that maybe she would.

She shook her head, standing up. "I should go, I have some things I need to take care of before my next class."

"Oh." Finn looked a bit disappointed. "Okay then. I'll see you around?"

She mustered up a smile, nodding at him before saying her goodbyes to Kurt and Mercedes. She returned to her locker, tossing her trash in the bin on the way. Picking out her things for her next class, she thought back to her conversation with Kurt and Mercedes, which had gotten a bit too personal for comfort. It was a widely accepted fact that everyone had a soulmate, but it was still personal information and it was rather rude to keep pushing if someone didn't want to discuss it. It was like discussing someone's sexuality; it was fine if that person brought it up, but otherwise it wasn't something that was discussed just like that.

And to be honest, it was a rather sensitive topic for Rachel. One of the side effects Rachel's lack of friends had was that she spent a lot of time observing people. In every pair of soulmates she observed, she could see the joy that came from being with that one person who understood them better than anyone else, who could push them to be the best version of themselves they could be.

Rachel wanted that too.

Unfortunately, with the way things were going, it looked like she wasn't ever going to get it.

..

Ten minutes later Rachel was back in a classroom, waiting for her AP Biology class to start. It was hardly her first choice of class, but she needed the credits and none of the other AP classes had fit into her schedule. The only other thing available in this slot was an advanced physical education class, and she'd had quite enough of dodgeball to last the rest of her life, thank you. The bell rang, and the teacher started calling roll.

"Berry?"

Rachel raised her hand. "Present."

As the teacher continued to call roll, Rachel let her thoughts and her eyes wander. She didn't share this class with any of the glee club members, meaning that she had no friends here. Well, it could be argued that she had no friends in glee either, but that was probably uncharitable.

"Fabray?"

"Right here."

Rachel glanced over to the door, where a new student had just appeared. In such a small school as McKinley she knew everyone by face if not by name, and even if she didn't, she was sure she would have remembered this boy. Her eyebrows rose at the new boy's appearance, and she eyed him with appraisingly. He had what was probably originally blonde hair, only now it was highlighted with a bright flamingo pink. He had a single earring and was wearing a leather jacket and grungy jeans. All in all, Rachel thought he looked like a punk. She prided herself on not being one to judge by appearances, but grunge was not exactly her style.

At the same time though, she couldn't help but notice the way his pink hair was slightly ruffled, giving it an attractive windblown appearance, or the way his white shirt hinted at a nicely defined body. He was tall, too; not as tall as Finn, who stood a good bit over six feet, but a decent height. She looked at him in interest, wondering what his name was. Maybe –

"Quinton Fabray, right?" Mrs. Shaw questioned. Rachel felt a small pang of disappointment.

"Mhmm," the punk – Quinton Fabray – answered, offering her a smile that was more of a smirk. "I just transferred in. I've got my papers here." He held up a few documents.

Mrs. Shaw nodded. "Give me your papers and find a seat."

"Yes Ma'am." After handing the Mrs. Shaw his papers, Quinton turned to find a seat. Suddenly his eyes met Rachel's, and Rachel's breath caught at the striking shade of hazel that bored into her gaze.

"Mind if I sit here?" He gestured at the seat next to her. Rachel shook herself out of her stupor, nodding absently.

"Go ahead."

She couldn't pull her eyes away as he settled into the desk next to her, unable to ignore him. All right, so maybe Quinton Fabray was a little bit attractive.

..

"Are you insane?" Kurt stared at her as they waited for Mr. Schue to show up in the choir room for their first glee club meeting of the year. "The boy is capital H Hot. If I didn't have Blaine I'd totally be trying it on. His soulmate is so lucky," he sighed dreamily.

"Well, maybe he's hot," Rachel admitted, sighing inwardly. Who was she kidding, Quinton Fabray was incredibly hot. She brushed away the tiny, irrational spike of jealousy at Kurt's fawning. "But I'd like to think that I'm not so shallow as to only think about looks. He smelled like cigarette smoke, and I've heard rumors that he's hanging out with the Skanks under the bleachers."

"Ooh, a bad boy," Kurt smirked, before shaking his head. "I suppose you're right though," he nodded. "Probably best to stay away."

"Exactly." Rachel sat back in satisfaction, folding her arms across her chest as Mr. Schue entered the room. She'd never admit to Kurt that she'd spent most of her class stealing glances at Quinton Fabray. She wouldn't lie, there was something about the new student that drew her attention. But he wasn't her soulmate, and she shook her head, firmly putting him out of her mind. She didn't need any pink-haired, hazel-eyed punks distracting her this year.

After all, it was just one more year and she was done.

She was in the second grade when she came home, settling down at the kitchen table for a snack as her two dads puttered about the kitchen. Hiram and Leroy Berry had adopted Rachel mere days after she'd been born, and they were the only parents she'd ever known. She loved them both, and while the other kids at school shunned her for her unconventional family, she didn't care (much).

Today, the seven-year-old excitedly asked them about a rumor she'd heard at school. "Daddies, is it true that if you write on your skin, your soulmate can see it?"

Hiram rubbed his chin, turning to look at his small daughter. "Well, yes. But since it's not really a mark, it goes away really fast. Watch." He found a washable pen, drawing a smiley face on his forearm. Rachel's wide brown eyes immediately glanced at Leroy's arm, where the same drawing appeared for about ten seconds before disappearing. It made sense, Rachel often found pen marks on her fingers that she knew she hadn't made. The marks vanished quickly though, unlike the ones from her soulmate's actual injuries.

"Cool!" Rachel grinned. "Do you think if I write something to my soulmate, they'd answer?"

Leroy smiled. "You could try. But don't get too disappointed if they don't write back. They might not be looking, or maybe they're just not ready to answer." His face became serious. "Before you try, this is very important, okay? You can't force your soulmate to talk to you. Ever. If they're not ready yet, you wait for them to be ready."

Rachel looked up at him, confused. "But what if they take forever?"

Leroy exchanged a look with his husband. Hiram smiled softly, sitting down next to their daughter. "Honey, not everyone is as brave as you are." He reached out to tweak the little girl's nose. "Sometimes they're just not ready yet to meet their soulmate."

"But you said a soulmate is the person who's going to be the best person in the world for you, and is going to love you just the way you are! Why wouldn't you want to meet them?"

"Because sometimes they're scared," Hiram said simply. "Do you want to know a secret?" Rachel nodded. "It took me three years after your Daddy first wrote to me for me to write back."

Rachel's eyes widened at that. "Why?"

Hiram glanced at Leroy, who sent him a smile. He looked back down at Rachel. "Because I was scared to see a boy's name written on my skin, honey."

Rachel was quiet for a moment. Even at seven years of age, she was no stranger to the homophobia in the world around her. And importantly, she understood the need for people to come out in their own time. "But you talked to him eventually, right?"

Hiram and Leroy both nodded.

"Okay." Rachel nodded as well. "I still want to try." She borrowed Hiram's pen, tongue sticking out slightly as she carefully wrote on the inside of her left arm.

Hello! My name is Rachel. What's yours?"

She waited for a few minutes, the excitement dimming a little when she didn't receive a reply. Just when she was about to call it quits though, her eyes widened as letters slowly began to inscribe themselves on her arm.

My name is Lucas.

Hi again everyone! It's been about two and a half months since I finished Something, and I've been wanting to put something new out for a while. Real life has been rather busy though.

Anyways, this plotline has been floating in my hard drive for a while, and I have a general idea of where it's going, but it's kind of hard to get it into words. I'm hoping that posting a chapter will kickstart my progress, but no promises.

So this chapter is a prologue of sorts to get us into the world and set things up a bit. As you've seen, it's a soulmate AU where soulmates share the marks on their skin. It's also a genderswap AU again, because there are already so many good Faberry stories out there that I want something that can put a different spin on it.

Hopefully you enjoyed this little thing, and whether you did or not, feel free to leave me a review so that I can gauge whether I should keep going or whether this is just a piece of junk that I should shelve. If you've got any suggestions, I'm more than open to that too.

Thanks for reading!