Multifandom Soulmates

1. My Heart Beats To Your Melody

Fandom: Regal Academy
Ship: Shawn/Astoria

Astoria heard songs in her head since she was young. She was maybe ten when it first happened. She asked her mother about it and that was when she was explained the concept of soulmates.

"Your soulmate is your ultimate romantic partner. Someone you were meant to love. He is your perfect match. The music you're hearing, only you can hear. He is listening to it right now. You hear it to signal that you are his soulmate."

"But... how would I know who's listening to it?" Astoria asked.

"The world is full of mystery. One way or another, you will cross paths with your soulmate."

—

As Astoria grew older, she denied ever hearing songs. She mostly hid it from her grandmother to whom she never told that it was happening.

"You should focus on finding a prince," Rapunzel would say. Or she'd say "If you don't meet people, how will you ever find your soulmate? Some handsome prince is surely listening to beautiful songs you could hear."

"Well, I haven't heard any songs," Astoria would shoot back. But she was in fact hearing them. Sometimes, they were familiar, songs she too had heard before, but they were sometimes also weird. There were instruments and sounds she couldn't identify and the melodies were sometimes strange. Hearing them would often annoy Astoria. Not because of the music itself, but rather their timing. She'd often try to study or focus on something and then out of nowhere, a series of "OH"s would start playing in her head before the lyrics began to play and distract her. It took her time to get used to life with the endless music in her head. Her soulmate was clearly a music lover. Astoria herself would rarely listen to music. She heard from her grandmother that it could help her soulmate learn her song preferences, and through them, her, but that just drove Astoria further away from listening to songs herself.

—

When she started Regal Academy, her experience with soulmates changed. Rather than her grandmother nagging her about finding what prince her soulmate is, everyone else was talking about theirs and others'. Rose would often ask the others about the type of songs they heard and Travis would complain about hearing Chinese melodies. They'd often catch other students talking about it too.

Often Astoria would squeeze her eyes shut with a huff in the middle of class or reading, a response Rose quickly learned was Astoria hearing music. Rose and Joy were incredibly interested in Astoria's soulmate. At that point, Astoria was so used to denying hearing music, that she denied it to her friends too. She'd make up an excuse, though she knew she wasn't fooling them.

After a certain point, the songs lessened. Astoria wasn't sure when exactly and she certainly had no clue about the why. She only knew that the songs didn't appear during the day, only in the morning and afternoons, as if her soulmate had gotten busy. It took a long time for her to realize, but Astoria missed the songs. That realization hit her like a bus. As much as she tried to deny it, the idea that there was someone out there, listening to songs she too could hear, was comforting. "In a friendly way," Astoria would repeat to herself. But the afternoons would still quickly become her favorite part of the day. School would end and she'd start hearing the songs. Astoria sometimes caught herself singing the lyrics to some of the songs her soulmate would listen to, sometimes even when he wasn't listening to them. She shrugged it off. Of course, she'd sing them. The lyrics were catchy.

—

After Shawn had arrived at Regal Academy, Astoria found herself in an inner conflict. It was like she was at war with herself. She wanted to be around him and push him away at the same time. She wouldn't admit even to herself that she liked him and that she secretly hoped he was her soulmate. But that was ridiculous anyway. He couldn't possibly be her soulmate. Some of the songs her soulmate listened to were so different, they couldn't possibly be from the Fairytale Land. Her soulmate had to have been from Earth. Ultimately excluding Shawn. It was probably for the best. If her soulmate was in a different dimension, there was no chance she'd meet him and then she didn't have to get married. She could focus solely on her studies.