Work Text:
Narumi finds her soulmark at the start of her second year of middle school. It’s on her back, just right of her spine, and she sees it for the first time while spinning around in the mirror, trying on her first bra.
She bursts into tears and runs downstairs to tell her mom.
“How am I supposed to know who my soulmate is?” she cries in the middle of the kitchen, still in her uniform skirt and training bra. “I could have had it for years and years! I’m never gonna find my true love! It’s supposed to be on your hand so when you meet your soulmate you know!”
“Don’t be silly, Naru-chan,” her mother says, chopping carrots. “Remember, we went to the beach last summer? You didn’t have it then, I’m sure of it.”
“Anyone I met in the last six months,” Narumi whimpers, sinking to the floor dramatically. “I’m going to die alone!”
“Don’t be silly, Naru-chan,” her father says, over on the couch. “Lots of people don’t have soulmates, and a cute girl like you will certainly find love.”
Narumi, still in her uniform skirt and training bra, gives the soulmark on her father’s wrist a sullen glare.
Hanako gets home after volleyball practice, strips to take a bath, sees a soulmark under her right breast, screams into a towel, and throws her jersey violently against the wall.
It can’t be! She refuses!
There’s simply no way in hell…!
Any fleeting feeling of satisfaction or pleasure at having won the gym, knocked that goddamn third year captain off his perch — gone. She seethes in the bath until the water is cold and she’s quite wrinkly.
Well. Like hell she’s ever going to —
Her mouth twitches from dark humor. The only way Kabakura-senpai would ever, ever know is if he ever saw her shirtless. And like hell she’ll ever get anywhere near that stage with him. No. Hanako likes volleyball, but she knows she’ll never be a professional athlete. No. She’ll finish high school and maybe work in the theatre and never see that bastard upperclassman again.
Hell, she’s never particularly wanted to end up married with children…
And if he has a soulmark now, too…? Heh. Let him rot. He’ll spend the rest of the year wondering why his little underclassman isn’t fawning over him, and then she’ll never see him again come April. Perfect. Take that.
Soulmates.
One day, Hirotaka wakes up and finds that he has a mark on his arm, just above the elbow. This surprises him a little. It means he’s growing up, and he isn’t sure how he feels about that. To be frank, when the boys in his class talk about that sort of thing… it isn’t that he doesn’t want to listen, but it makes him feel a little… odd. He’s not in a hurry to get a girlfriend or anything.
So he’s surprised. But he isn’t alarmed.
Narumi bursts into his house a few weeks later, while he’s playing Donkey Kong and Nao is coloring nearby. “You’ll never guess what happened!”
“Okay,” says Hirotaka.
“What happened?” Nao asks happily.
Naru flops down in front of the TV. Hirotaka has to crane his neck around her. “I got a soulmark!”
“Wow! Can I see?” asks Nao.
“It’s right here,” she says, pointing over her shirt at her back.
“Wowww, that’s so cool! Do you have a boyfriend now?”
“Yup!”
Hirotaka misses a jump. He quickly recovers.
“Takkun in my class. We met after-school right around when the mark showed up. He’s really cute, but he doesn’t like games so much. Oh, but he’s really into basketball!”
“That sounds fun. You can play together!”
“Yeah!” Narumi puts her hand over her heart. “I’m so glad to have finally met my true love. You’ll understand what it’s like someday, Nao-chan, Hirotaka.”
He finishes the level with a near-perfect score, anyway.
He isn’t alarmed to have gotten a soul-mark. He’s just…
Even though it’s a shitty room in a shitty dorm barely large enough to sleep in, it’s his and it’s private, and by the time Taro has yanked off his shoes, Hanako has already tackled him, pushing his jacket off his shoulders even as she’s pressing against him, all mouth and teeth and boobs — he takes hold of her face, not to slow her down but to try and regain some ground, she’s sitting astride his lap and he isn’t sure how that happened and that’s going to be awkward really soon, except that this has been coming for a while, a few weeks now, from walking her home after school to holding hands and a few shy kisses, to making out in private corners, and now she’s trying to pull his shirt off him and he has her by the hips, pushes against her, pulls her against him — those tits god — she pushes and squirms backwards, trying again to get his shirt off, and dizzily Taro thinks: we should slow down or something, aren’t first times supposed to be romantic or some shit?
He kisses her again and she’s distracted, they just makeout for a minute, all his thoughts hazy and far-gone — she’s such a pain in the ass, yes, but — he pushes her glasses up her face, out of the way, and she pulls away again, which sucks because he wants to keep making out, she pushes them back onto her nose and he just kind of… catches his breath for a second, staring at her. Her expression’s as cool as ever, but she’s flushed and her hair’s a mess.
“Take off your clothes,” she says smugly, and he reaches for his tee-shirt automatically before stopping.
“Uh — same to you,” he says, pulling it off. He has his socks off too before he notices she’s just watching, staring really, and he feels a wave of embarrassment because she’s still in her uniform and he’s turned on as fuck and it just now occurs to him that this might be some sick prank, that she’s making fun of him, like they’re playing chicken again and he’s losing —
“Well, Hanako?” he says, trying to sound smooth and confident, and is immensely relieved when she scoots forward and sits astride his knees and lets him kiss her again, and he tugs at her blazer and then his whole brain short circuits when she goes straight for the button of his jeans. “What the hell?” he exclaims, just as she mutters,
“Where is it? I want to see…”
“It’s — I mean, yeah, it’s — at least let me get the futon out!”
“No! I want to see it!”
“It just feels weird to be the only one who is getting stripped here! Not that I have a problem with you taking the lead even though —“
She slaps her hand over his mouth. “If you ruin this by comparing it to anime, I am walking right out of here.”
Taro shuts up.
She tugs at his jeans and he covers his face with his hands. “Where the fuck is it? I want to see the mark!”
“…Huh?”
He lowers his hands. Hanako looks upset and furious, and suddenly it all clicks — Taro sits back up slowly, bending his right leg so he can get at his ankle. He rolls up his jeans a bit, revealing the mark he’s had since — well.
“You mean this?” He looks to see her staring at it with a stormy expression. “Hah… you don’t have to worry. Just because I have one… I’m pretty sure the other one belongs to some random girl I ran into in a shop or something. As long as I don’t know who my soulmate is… uh… it’s basically like I don’t have one, so…” She’s giving him an odd look.
To tell the truth… he’d found it the day they’d first spoken. For a while he’d kind of thought… but it had been over a year, and obviously not.
“Oh! You’re one of those weird girly-girls who still think it’s cheating even though you don’t know who your soulmate is? Well, it’s too late for that at this point, since we’re already going out. I didn’t think you were that old fashioned!” Taro laughs.
“You’re really making me want to just leave and never come back,” she grits out.
“Eh?”
She jumps him for a third time, wrapping her arms around his neck to kiss him. Taro is completely fucking lost at this point, but… Damn, those tits!
She gets his jeans off and he gets her down to her underwear too, and then bursts out laughing: she’s wearing this sexy frilly crap under her uniform. “You planned this, you wanted to do this!” he accuses her, laughing.
“Idiot! Of course I did! You think I’d just randomly —“
“You wanted to do it!” he crows, relieved for reasons he can’t and won’t examine: just that knowing that it isn’t an accident… that she can’t pretend tomorrow or in an hour…
She throws her bra at him, flushed to her shoulders. He kisses her, and then her chin… and then her neck… and then… and then the soulmark right under her boob…
Wait.
“What the FUCK, HANAKO!?”
Nao’s soulmark is on the back of his wrist, where it just barely peeks out from long sleeves. It’s a little annoying at work, because some people like to comment on it when he hands them their drinks… not because he thinks they’re rude, but it’s just so embarrassing sometimes! Especially when it’s a cute girl looking at it, and then he gets all shy, you know?
His friends are pretty unsympathetic. His boss gives him permission to wear the long sleeved version of his uniform, even in summer.
“It seems like a pain to me,” says Koyanagi-san one afternoon — she, Kabakura-san, Narumi, and of course his brother are on their lunch and he’s taken a break to sit with them. “Imagine, thinking ‘my soulmate could be anyone’… what a hassle.”
“Yes-I-wonder-what-that’s-like,” Kababura-san says angrily, for some reason, not that Nao is judging or anything!
“I know what it’s like! And I understand, Nao-chan, even if no one else will!” Narumi says, a little dramatically, reaching for his hand. Nao laughs and lets her.
“Hey — Nifuji is right here–!” Kabakura-san interjects.
Niisan is playing a game, however, and doesn’t involve himself.
“Huh? But…” Narumi interrupts Nao before he can formulate his question completely.
“You don’t get it, senpai! I spent years and years. I dated in middle school, in high school, even college students if they were from my town. When you don’t have any way of narrowing it down… it’s so tempting to just think you should settle for the first person who comes along… but don’t give up, Nao-chan!”
“I mean… it’s not that important, is it?” Koyanagi says with a little laugh. “Plenty of people never find their soulmates, but who cares? It’s not like it really makes a difference, if you’re happy. Or do we no longer believe in choice and free will when it comes to love?” Kabakura takes an annoyed swig from his coffee.
“Of course Nao-chan wants to find his true love!” Narumi interjects.
“I mean… s- sure I do,” Nao says, waving his hands, a little embarrassed. “But I’m not in a rush or anything! I- I guess I have faith that when the time is right, I’ll meet her again. Maybe the reason why we didn’t realize it at first was because we weren’t ready… I mean… I’m just a college student working part time, so I can’t blame her for taking her time!”
The girls look suspiciously teary-eyed at that, which just embarrasses him more. He finds himself looking at his soulmark. Like all marks, it’s a small but intricate design: enough to be unique, but not so much that you don’t grow to know yours like… well, the back of your hand, in Nao’s case. His looks a little similar to his brother’s, since they’re related and all, but in terms of the ones he’s seen on other people…
Oh, well. He wonders what she’s like, of course. But… it’s okay if you need to take your time. I’m not in a hurry, so please do what you need to do…
Koyanagi-san and Kabakura-san have started bickering over nothing, and Narumi is watching Niisan play his game over his shoulder. Nao smiles at both couples. Well, maybe don’t take too long…
The Starbucks’s door jingles as it opens, and Nao looks over reflexively. He brightens. “Heyyyy! Kou-kun!” he calls, standing and waving.
Kou freezes in the doorframe, hunched over like always. Looks at Nao and the group at his table… and turns and walks right out again. “Ah! Hang on!” he calls. “Sorry, I’ll talk to you guys later! Have a good day!” Nao apologizes hastily, and goes to rush after his friend.
“Does it bother you?” Hirotaka asks, out of nowhere on their way to the train station.
“Huh?” Narumi tries to remember what she was just talking about. Nothing important: just chatter about work and manga and… uh…
“The soulmate thing.”
“Ah…” she tucks her hair behind her ear.
Hirotaka takes a moment to think and clarify. “Me not being your soulmate.”
“I knew what you meant…!” Narumi rubs at her cheek. “Uh… well…” she really wishes he wasn’t so tall. And staring her down, so tall-y. “I mean, isn’t that whole true love thing kind of just an anime cliche anyway? Who needs that crud IRL?” But he’s still staring. “I mean… maybe a little.”
Hirotaka lets out a puff of a sigh, as if exhaling cigarette smoke.
“But… for real,” she continues hesitantly. “Just because we’re not soulmates… I mean, I still have a lot of fun with you… and… ‘suddenly, a new challenger arrives!’ is definitely the kind of plot that only happens on TV, soooo we don’t need to break up or anything!”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Hirotaka says. He thinks about playing video games as a child, as Narumi and Nao coo over marks. “I’ve had time to get used to it.”
He’d thought, back when they were kids, that maybe… ah, well. He’s still mostly a kid, it’s true, but he’s given up on some things. “Get used to what?” Narumi demands, grabbing his hand in one of hers and his arm with the other, shaking him. “Are ya sayin’ yer settling for me??”
“Well… that’s true,” he says, giving the flat expanses of her blouse a glance, then laughing as she shakes him even harder.