Destiel One-shots

Soulmates Are Key

Everyone knew about the keys.

It was difficult not to, seeing as nearly everyone had one.

When you were born, a necklace with a key on it would appear. Usually it was just a boring old-fashined key on a plain black cord. You couldn't take it off, and you couldn't change it. The key only disappeared when you found your soulmate. No warning- it would just vanish and you had to figure it out. Some people had fancier keys, with engraved designs. Some had silver or gold ones rather then dull copper. Some had theirs on a chain or a purple colored string rather than a cord. 

No one knew what the differences meant, and it was very rare for anyone to be born without a key. Half the time, when someone was born without a key, they died young. Everyone just assumed it meant that since there were gone so soon, they weren't mean to have a soulmate. Others were just keyless. It was a pitying thing, because then people assumed you would never find love and never be happy. 

After all, why would anyone want to be with someone that wasn't their soulmate?

******

Dean Winchester didn't care about the keys. It just wasn't a big deal to him. Love wasn't a big deal to him. And after all, the key thing had paired up his parents, and he had seen how badly their relationship had gone.

The system had flaws. Dean knew that. So he didn't believe in its perfect design or the fact that it had properly matched him up with his soulmate. Whatever.

If he found his supposed soulmate, sure, he'd give it a try. He had nothing to loose.

But if it didn't work, then it didn't work, and Dean would end it. Keys be damned.

*****

Castiel Novak thought the keys were fascinating. He didn't quite believe that the universe could match everyone up with their soulmate on the day they were born, though. After all, people grew and changed all the time. He was a completely different person now then he had been when he was eight, and yet he still had the same soulmate. How could the universe know who he was meant to be with before it even knew who he was?

But the subject still interested him. He'd spend hours examining people's keys and researching them. 

His key, for example, was silver with a slight twinge of blue. It was an old fashioned key, but there was an interesting etching trailing down it, like old runes or symbols. Cas liked tracing the etching, and he'd drawn it dozens of times, wondering what it meant or if his soulmate's key was the same.

He had a feeling that had something to do with it. Two people got the same key, and had to find their match. Or maybe it had something to do with the string the key hung on. It's shape. The weight of it. There were an endless amount of details. Cas just wanted to find his soulmate to compare it, but that was the endless problem.

Once you met your soulmate, the key vanished and never returned.

That's what made them so hard to study.

*****

Sam Winchester was born keyless.

He didn't know what that meant. He didn't feel any different, or that he was incapable of love. He just didn't have one.

Dean didn't care about it. Said he was better off without one. 

Mary was a little sad for him, but if Sam didn't mind being keyless, then she wasn't going to make a big deal about it.

John had minded though. Had seen it as some sort of birth defect, or a sign that Sam was going to die in his childhood, and that Mary shouldn't get too attached.