Sidney Crosby comes away from Worlds with a gold medal and a soul bond. He had to fight to win one and he's ready to fight to keep the other.

It must happen during the Stanley Cup locker room celebration. Sid walks in, and sweeps the Cup up over his head amongst an eruption of champagne spray. Sid is so brilliantly, incandescently happy that he doesn’t even notice that not all the joy he feels is his own.

Nicky wanted a family. He wanted a family very much, but not like this.

Nicklas Backstrom knows that Alexander Ovechkin is his soulmate but they never talk about it.

It’s going to be a big deal, his mother had told him, and Nicklas had listened. His mom’s not an idiot. It’s going to be a big deal, she’d promised, if and when you find them. It’s going to be more than you thought it would, and if and when you know it, you’ll know it for sure.

Mitch keeps it to himself most days, the fact that he carries around Dylan’s handprint.

Nicklas drapes his towel over his shoulder. “Looking for a ride?” “It’s nap time,” Alex says with a shrug. “So we should nap.”

Connor knew that some people started dating before they got their soul marks at twenty-four. He just never expected those people to be anyone he knew.

McDavid sits back up. "Is this what your head is like all the time?" he demands. Jack shrugs. "Sometimes I think about hockey," he says.

Connor mutters "I thought you didn't like me," out of the corner of his mouth. "I don't," Jack says. Connor's staring at him. "But you knew," he says. His words might be generic-- gave him a time and place, maybe, but not person. But Jack's weren't. Aren't.

It’s okay to be a wolf in the NHL now. That’s what everyone tells Dylan, anyway. To Podfic: "I Love the Riddles That You Speak" & "Race Like Falcons to Crash and Burn"

Dylan Strome goes to Edmonton to deal with, like, a lot of stuff. Mostly Connor, because they're apparently bonded, or whatever.

Connor would give up a lot to have his soulmate write back even just their name.

“Hey, boys,” Nail says loudly. “Look at lovebird potentials over there.” Someone hits pause on the game, and suddenly the room is quiet, everyone staring at Ryan and Connor. Ryan rolls his eyes. “Stop it,” he says. “Just because we’ve both got marks on our hands doesn’t mean we’re going to bond to each other.”

Sex bonding for chemistry has never been fun for Kris. He’ll take a knot, but he’s not going to beg for it. He’s not going to roll over and make it easy. Kris may be an Omega, but he’s an alpha in bed. Lucky for him, he finally has a D partner that understands.

"The bond's fucked up, boys," Jamie says. There are nods around the room, from all the vets. "We gotta fix it." He says it like it's a general statement, like collectively they're all going to do something to fix it. Jason knows it's really directed at him.

“Most of the time, curses aren’t specifically or intentionally cast,” Alex explains. “It takes a lot of supplies, and time, and energy to set a curse. Most magic carriers won’t do it; it’s not worth it.” “If it’s not a curse…” “It’s a mutated spell.”

“So, like, a couple of the guys here know, now,” Alex says. “About our whole --” he waves his hand absently. Our whole soulbonded thing. You know, casual, is what's not said, but Dylan can fill in the blanks pretty well.

Aka Darth Talon, Arla Fett, and Xanatos break the timestream. It isn't the worst thing that could happen.

JASON TODD - EXPOSED!! By Vicky Vale (@vickyvalegazette) BREAKING NEWS - Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor and all-around heartthrob Jason Todd has had his Soulmark exposed to the public in a wild escapade at the Gotham International Airport today upon his return from shooting his latest project. Who is the lucky person with the matching mark? Who will color in the black shapes in Jason Todd’s Soulmark and Bloom with one of the hottest celebrities on the planet? We will report on this as it develops! Stay tuned to the feed!

Jason Todd is a fourteen year old Sentinel, struggling with senses, his place in the world and a legacy he's more than half convinced he'll never, ever live up to. Time Drake is an eleven year old Guide who can't connect with people, watches heroes from afar and yearns for more than a life of empty echoes and loneliness. One night, on a rooftop in Gotham, two unlikely souls meet.

“We need you to Claim Tim.” Jason’s shirt falls to the floor as he turns around to stare at the acrobat, “What the fuck.” “Yeah.” Dick runs a hand through his hair with a manic giggle. “That’s fair.”

Denki is twelve when he is flicking through the TV channels and lands on an old RomCom movie about soulmate marks – specifically the same type that he has. “I can’t believe I’ve had to walk around with a cheap pickup line written on my ankle my entire life because of you!” The leading lady yells at the leading man as he stares at her in awe. Denki laughs. “Oh no.” His mother says, watching him. “Oh no, indeed.” His sister repeats quietly.

Keigo has known since he was a child that his soulmate is going to hate him. He knows he is one of the unlucky few who have a mark displaying pain, instead of love. That he’s got his tragedy inked onto his body for all the world to see. Why else would he have the shape of a large hand wrapped around the base of his throat? Keigo's not expecting his soulmate to care for him, he's not expecting to end up caring for the League of Villains, and he's definitely not expecting a happy ending. He's wrong, on all accounts.

If the gods were going to take him away from Cersei and everything he’d known, bind him to a boy half his age, Jaime almost would have preferred it if Robb Stark had been a fool, had been as dull and self-righteous as his father. Seven hells, he could at least have been ugly.

Mission: What If? Fated Lovers On Another Planet has successfully been activated! This is Shang Qinghua's fault.

“Luffy,” his mother says, passing on a name and a blessing all at once. “Oh, my Luffy… You are going to be so loved, I just know it.” She dies with a whisper and a smile on her face. Luffy, only a few minutes old, scrunches up his impossibly tiny little face and begins to cry. And then, like magic, seven other newborns scattered all throughout the seas did exactly the same. (A One Piece/Sense 8 fusion)

It’s said that soulmate marks are gifts from the gods. Certainly, more than this has been said but, well. Luffy’s never really been one for gods or any of that stuff. Those stories are always so boring and long-winded.

Around ten in the morning, Nami signals that they’re approaching an island. At noon, the Thousand Sunny docks in a bay full of white sand and sunflowers with rusty yellow petals. At one, it’s safe to say all the Strawhats have scattered around the island on various errands or explorations. By two in the afternoon, everything changes. "Luffy?" He speaks without speaking. "Sanji?" Luffy answers without answering. "What the fuck—", Zoro curses without cursing, and suddenly all three of them—all /one/ of them—is knocked flat on their ass on the ground.

Two months after the Guard officially moves to Coruscant, the lawyer shows up. _ In which Obi-Wan Kenobi never returns to the Jedi order after the war on Melidaa/Dann and instead finds another way to follow the Force's will. Namely, by fighting sentient-rights abuses all over the galaxy and emancipating the Grand Army of the Republic, one clone trooper at a time.

It all comes down to this: the babies in his arms are just so little. “You should sit down, Sir. Let Waxer and I take the tubies for a minute,” Cody gentles. Despite the even, easy tone, despite knowing that it’s Cody and that, as the last twenty-four hours have successfully proved beyond a doubt, Cody would rather die than see any harm come to him, Obi-Wan can’t suppress his immediate reaction to the thought of putting the twins— his twins, his now, and he’ll die before he lets anything touch them—down. “Full disclosure, I don’t believe I am capable of letting go of them, at the moment.” He thinks for a beat and then adds, “Possibly ever.”

"I fear that, when you reached into the Force to ease this man's pain, you reached too far. And without proper shielding… it’s easy to see how a rudimentary connection might have been established," the force-ghost of his former master says contemplatively, as if he is not casually ruining Luke's entire life. Luke buries his face in his hands. “You’re saying I gave too much.” “In a sense, yes," Ben replies. “I’m a force-whore,” Luke moans. “Oh, kark. Leia is going to kill me.”

“If you're not very careful right now,” Obi-Wan says pleasantly, “I'm going to push you into the lava.”

Nathaniel Wesninski is six years old when his first soulmate mark comes in.

Jeremy Knox and the soulmate. Guest starring: Exy, a transfer student, generalized anxiety, older sisters, drunk lesbians, bread, cake, a shed, the beach, the absence of Hennessy, Star Wars, Renee Walker, self-taught smooth talking, gratuitous French, No. 1 Trojans fan Kevin Day, relationship drama, general drama, the power of Friendship, questions, answers, team spirit!, and, of course, romance.

Neil is a bound witch on the run, making a choice between fleeing, slavery, and death. To Andrew, he looks like a useful weapon - at first. It turns out that ‘useful’ isn’t all he is.

Jean doesn't have his soulmark anymore.

Five times Tim Drake gained an unrequited soul bond and the one time he didn't.

Three days after he signs his death sentence to Palmetto State, five after Andrew Minyard knocks him breathless to the ground, Neil's gaze snaps to the locker room mirror and stares, frozen, at the word threat scrawled along his spine in terrifying bold. All in all, he isn’t thrilled about the situation this puts him in, but based off the negative connotation, it isn’t one-sided, either. On the bright side, at least this means his soulmate doesn’t harbor any delusions of grandeur.

After everything Jason did, can Tim actually want Jason as his mate? Is that even in the realm of possibility?

Just once, when the trade to Dallas is announced, Tyler forgets to give a shit and asks Brownie if he can read it. Maybe that’ll cheer him up in fucking Texas, he thinks, but Brownie just stares. “Never seen those kinda letters before, dude. Like, that’s not even an alphabet that exists, I bet.” Then he seems to remember that this is Tyler’s soulmark they’re talking about. “Sorry, man. I have no idea. Sucks.”

[oh my god, they were soulmates?!] Tim’s soulmate likes some very odd things. It started off relatively mundane—Pokemon cards, chips, chocolate bars—but around Tim’s 14th birthday, things started to get weird. Tim started to feel the urge to collect what he could only describe as “paranormal investigator bullshit.”

Jazz meets her soulmate in, of all places, Park Row. Or as the locals call it, Crime Alley. Seems about right for her life, she decides as she kicks the shit out of the guy who was trying to stab him for his wallet fifteen seconds ago. Her soulmate watches her curiously, seeming unconcerned by the fuss, and takes a sip of his smoothie. Also seems about right, for her soulmate. A guy who got too nervous when necessary violence happened was not going to survive Thanksgiving in Amity Park, much less Christmas. Well, it is Gotham.