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Everyone has a soulmate. Almost everyone finds their soulmate and forms a relationship with them, be it romantic or platonic. Some people have the link, an anomaly in which anything that is written, drawn, or doodled onto one person's skin will appear on their soulmate's skin, in the exact same place. Roman has the link.

Or at least, he likes to believe he does.

****

To be honest, he isn't really sure. He imagines that he is one of the special people, one with the strongest bond to his soulmate. To the person he is destined for, to love and cherish forever. The one who Roman will 'just click with.' The one who will love him and understand him, the one Roman is perfect for. What a glorious idea! The idea of a soulmate is something Roman has fantasised about forever. He's tried to imagine what his soulmate will look like, but it always changes. He's dreamed of their meeting, he's imagined the first time his soulmate's writing will appear on his skin, he's dreamt about the feeling of meeting someone who's soul, who's very being is so perfectly suited for Roman, and he is always filled with a feeling of awe. That one day, he will meet someone who he is perfect for.

Only problem is, it can't come quick enough.

****

Roman has been writing and drawing on himself since as long as he was able. At the beginning, before he knew how to read or write, before he knew how to draw so you could decipher what the picture showed, he would just grab marker pens of pretty colours and scribble up and down his arms in lines and patterns.

No new ones ever showed up.

Then, when he learnt to read and write, he began by writing tiny little things, like 'hi' or 'I'm Roman', then went on to write long messages or start conversations that nobody ever replied to.

And when he learned to draw, well, it fast became one of his favourite things to do. To pick the colours he knew went well together, to decide what pattern or drawing he wanted to create, to press the cool pen tip to his skin and let the lines flow freely, springing from his imagination onto his skin (and hopefully somebody else's skin too.)

And for years, nobody replied. No new writing appeared on his skin, nobody's handwriting but his own, nobody's artistic creations and doodles but the ones he drew himself. But Roman never let it get him down; there were stories everywhere about soulmates who didn't meet for years, about links that didn't start up for a long time. It was common knowledge that no link started from birth; many took years to activate. Roman just couldn't wait! He wanted to feel the tingle of somebody else's drawings coming through to him. He wanted to see the writing appear. It simply couldn't come quick enough.

****

A few years on, and Roman had a routine. He would wake up, eat breakfast, get ready for the day, snatch up a pen and doodle something quick on his wrist. Be it a 'Hello!' or a 'Good morning!" Or simply a quick drawing of a flower, he never failed to add something daily. And it wasn't that he had lost hope, no, Roman would never do that. It wasn't that he though he didn't have a link; he did! He knew he did. He couldn't explain it, he could just feel it. It was simply that his soulmate had never replied, that their link hadn't started yet, so he didn't pay much attention to the quick drawing of a crown he had just doodled. He didn't think the link would be activated suddenly, and so his soulmate was at the back of his mind.

****

Later in the day, Roman was lying in the park with his best friend Patton. Patton, aka Morality, aka Dad, (he was the Dad friend and had an unabashed love of dad jokes) was sitting in the shade of a tree as the hot beams of sunlight shone down onto the ground. He was trying to make the longest daisy chain ever, and then trying to make it a necklace for Roman. Roman was lying on his stomach, kicking his legs absently, sketching in his sketchbook. He was trying to draw a rose (how terribly cliche, he knows), but his right arm had started itching a few minutes ago and it was driving him mad. It was like a strangely strong mix of itching, and tingling. Like a frustrating case of pins and needles. Roman was determinedly trying to ignore it, but the tingling was annoyingly persistent, and finally with an agitated groan Prince shot his hand out and rubbed his wrist, glaring and frowning in annoyance. When he lifted his hand away and his eyes focused on the wrist, however, Roman's eyes opened comically wide and he gasped in shock, springing backwards into the grass and cradling his arm, staring at it in amazement. For underneath his hastily sketched crown, a tiny drawing of a pair of headphones was slowly appearing on his skin, fading up from nowhere.

****

As soon as Roman glanced at the drawing, the frustrating itching went away and left only a pleasant, magical tingling.

"Holy shit. Holy shit!" He yelped, the full realisation of what just happened hitting him. "P-Patotn! I knew it! I- I knew it! It happened! It's happening! I have it, I knew it! There's someone for me, it's real, it's happening!" He rambled, yelling for his best friend, who immediately scrambled towards Roman. He looked panicked; apparently Roman wasn't doing a very good job of describing what had just taken place.

"Are you okay? Princey? What's wrong?" He asked, eyes full of concern through his glasses. Roman stared in awe at the small doodle scrawled upon his arm. It was evidently just that: a doodle. An absent drawing, right underneath Roman's crown, which meant that Roman's drawing probably hadn't transferred over. So what would he say? What was the first thing on wrote to their soulmate? Or did he just draw? What did he do? Roman couldn't remember a single thing that he had daydreamed about. So, casting one more look to his arm, he thrust it out and presented the drawing to Patton. Patton inspected his friend's arm, then his eyes flew wide open.

"Oh! You didn't draw this! Oh my goodness, Roman, your soulmate!" He squealed, eyes lighting up in excitement. "What are you going to say?" Patton gasped. Roman shrugged helplessly at him.

"I don't know!" He wailed. "They're my soulmate, the one person I'm destined for! It has to be perfect, but I don't know what to do!" He yelled.

"Ok, ok, don't worry! Anything you write will be perfect! Like it's destined to be. Go ahead, just write something, Prince!" Patton urged. Prince took a deep breath.

"Okay. Okay, thanks Morality. Okay." He grasped his black felt, and had a mind blank. He had no idea what he was going to do. So he started off easy.

****

Roman pressed the cool tip of the pen to the base of the crown he had drawn, and traced it carefully. When the crown had a perfect other layer of ink upon it, he wrote a single hesitant message. Prince guessed he was still in shock. In his elegant, loopy handwriting Roman wrote, 'Oh my goodness, I suppose we're soulmates. Hi.' He and Morality waited with bated breaths for the reply, and after a minute quick words appeared atop Prince's skin. The handwriting was small and pretty messy, the angles of letters sharp.

'Holy shit, you're my soulmate. I have the link. Hi.' Roman no longer had a filter, he was just saying the first thing that came to his mind as he traced the sentence scrawled upon his wrist by another hand.

"Eloquent." He mumbled absently. Patton laughed.

"Ask his name, lover boy." He teased. Roman blinked.

"Oh! Of course!" He exclaimed, fumbling for his pen. 'It's nice to finally meet you! (Well, write to you, I suppose.) My name is Roman. Who are you?'

The reply came quickly. 'You can call me Anx. So, Roman, now that we're soulmates I suppose we should know a bit about each other."

And thus it began.

****

The conversation they had, scrawled along arms until there remained no room, letters dropped across knees and sentences rubbed off to make room for new ones. They talked until the sun began to set, at which point Roman was lying with his head in Patton's lap, Morality weaving daisies into his hair and watching the conversation between Roman and Anx flow. They learnt that Anx was a boy, ever so slightly younger than Roman, complete with quick wit and scathing sarcasm, yet undertones of friendliness. Eventually Morality had to snap Prince back to reality.

"Listen, Ro, you gotta go home, it's getting late."

"No, I'm talking to Anx! My soulmate!" Roman sighed dreamily.

"I know, Princey, but why don't you just swap phone numbers? You've run out of places to write on anyway." Patton offered, making Roman jump up in excitement.

"Of course! Thank you, Mo!" He beamed, before hastily writing his phone number in large, loopy letters on his already ink stained skin. Moments later a scribbled number appeared underneath it, followed by a winking face. Prince blushed and Patton cooed teasingly at him.

Later that night, Prince was standing under the warm water spray of his shower, watching sadly as the ink rinsed off his skin and swirled down the drains in pale clouds of black and blue. His first conversation, his first few hours talking with his soulmate, the first few precious facts he now knew about Anx, the beginnings of Roman's crush, gone with the water. It was depressing and suddenly Prince was full of dismay and sadness.

Until, when he stepped out of the shower and got dressed into his pyjamas, his phone dinged. And when he checked it, Anxiety's phone number flashed on the screen. It had only been about half an hour since they talked last, but the thought that Anxiety wanted to talk to him already made Roman's heart flutter.

Heya, Princey. Was the simple message.

Roman smiled.

****

After that, he and Anxiety talked daily, be it by texting or writing. Sometimes they simply drew and smiled at the now familiar tingling sensation. By now, they were dating, even though they hadn't actually met each other yet. It was just the obvious option; they had both developed crushes straight away, and the feelings only bloomed and developed and flowered into something stronger as time went on. Roman, being the romantic sap he was, had been writing Anxiety love letters and notes every morning since they had started dating. Today's one was silly and cheesy and Prince was smiling as he wrote it.

'Anxiety, my love, my sunshine, my chemically imbalanced romance, my darkly dressed wonder, my Disney prince, my angel, you're looking adorable today! You look so cute, especially stunning, absolutely ravishing, you beautiful, magnificent creature. Also, don't forget I love you!' He could practically see Anx's blush (although he'd never actually seen Anxiety; he was too shy and, well, anxious to send a selfie, But that was okay, Roman didn't care about what Anx looked like. He already loved him.) A moment later, the words faded a bit like Anx had halfheartedly attempted to rub them off. Prince grinned.

Shut up, you idiot. Was Anxiety's reply. And then, scrawled underneath that, I love you too. It was a Saturday, so Roman just lounged around the house, talking to his soulmate for a bit (sometimes he still couldn't believe he was lucky enough to have Anxiety as his soulmate.)

It was barely an hour later, when Anxiety sent him a short message so abruptly and unexpectedly that it made Roman fall off the couch.

I want to meet you.

****

He stared at the message in shock, excitement and happiness bubbling up and surging through him, making a beaming smile leap out onto Roman's face. He had been waiting for this! He'd been wanting to meet Anxiety for weeks, but he hadn't wanted to pressure him into anything's he wasn't comfortable with. And now Anxiety finally trusted Prince enough to meet him! Yes! When he realised he still had to reply, he scrambled desperately for the pen he had accidentally thrown at the wall as he fell. He basically jammed the marker against his skin, writing the words as fast as humanely possible.

Oh my goodness are you being serious??? Yesyesyes!!!!I I would love to meet you in real life!!! Glancing back over the extreme reaction, Roman was suddenly worried he'd overwhelmed Anxiety. Thankfully, his boyfriend's reply came quick.

'Lol calm down pretty boy. Um so hey if we're doing this, I remember we talked about this place a while ago, there's that park a while away from both of our houses?' And then 'btw, im really excited too.'

That made Roman smile fondly at his own wrist. But yes, he knew the park. It had been the source of some of their conversations, being the place that Prince was in when the link started working and the place Anx used to love going to as a kid. It would be the perfect place to meet; it was now officially Prince's dream meeting spot.

It didn't take long for them to organise the meeting, The park was pretty close to both of their houses, and it wasn't too big, which meant they should be able to find each other pretty easily. Now, Roman had to get ready!

****

He put a simple white shirt on and his favourite white, red and gold jacket, and dark skinny jeans (that he knew made his legs looks great). He styled his hair until it was impeccable and checked his face in the mirror, and sprayed some deodorant on himself. Then he took a few deep breaths while looking in the mirror, gave himself a quick pep talk because jeez, he was about to meet his actual soulmate! And then, before he knew it, Roman was walking out his door and down the road.

****

When Prince arrived at the park, he looked around but couldn't see anyone who looked his age. There only seemed to be adults or little kids milling about. Sighing, a bundle of nerves still heavy in his chest and weaving through his ribs, Roman decided to make his way to the tree where he first started talking to Anxiety. It was one of the biggest trees in the park, its sturdy, sweeping branches looping and twisting around each other, the bright emerald leaves fluttering and swaying in the wind, their glossiness reflecting the bright sunlight that shone down upon the earth. Prince wandered up to it, lost in his thoughts and fantasies and wondering about how he was finally going to meet Anxiety!! He was going to meet his soulmate!! That was both exciting and terrifying. He absently lay his hand on the tree trunk, the familiar bark comforting underneath his fingers. He couldn't say how long he lingered there, lost in his own mind, until an oh-so-familiar tingling sensation began emanating from his wrist.

Behind you

****

Anxiety was feeling anxious, but that was only to be expected. He was also more excited than he had ever been before He was about to meet his real life, honest to god, actual soulmate! The guy he'd been talking to for weeks, the one he'd been dating without ever actually seeing his face.

Heck, how was he going to know who Roman was? He had no idea what he looked liked!

Wait, all the cheesy movies said there was some kind of pull, maybe that was a real thing, maybe it would lead him to Prince.

Or maybe it wouldn't.

Maybe he would just see someone with the same writing as him, that way he would know exactly who Roman was!

Or maybe he would never find Roman, ever. Even thought that was incredibly unrealistic as they could just arrange another place to meet. In the end Anx decided to try to ignore the nervousness and focus on his excitement. Even though he'd never actually seen Prince, and Prince hadn't seen him, Anxiety's crush on the dramatic boy was stronger than anything else he'd ever felt. It was almost scary, but it was also feeding a fire of excitement in him with every step closer he took to the park. He was about to meet Roman!

When Anxiety arrived in the park, he was suddenly flooded with emotions and memories from his childhood. He used to come to this park all the time; he had loved to roll down the hills and throw sticks into the creeks and climb the trees. There had always been one tree in particular that was his favourite; it was one of the tallest in the park, and its branches curved and were low enough to clamber upon and sit on. Anxiety took a quick look around him, in case he suddenly saw his soulmate, but he felt nothing. There were only a few adults stretching in the bright sunshine and some kids running around and laughing.

Well, he had no better plan. He might as well head to his favourite tree.

****

Anxiety climbed up the grassy hill the tree grew on top of, steadily ignoring the heat beating down on him. He looked good in black, so he was willing to suffer. He was strangely excited about going to the tree, but he pinned it down to just being happy about childhood memories. Running a hand through his dark floppy hair, Anxiety took the last step up the hill and looked towards the tree, then froze.

A guy was leaning against the tree, one hand resting on the bark, his back to Anxiety. He looked like he was staring off into space, daydreaming. He was tall and lean, but looked strong at the same time. The dark jeans he was wearing made this guy's legs look great. He was wearing a white, red and gold jacket, and had neat, light brown hair. Anxiety couldn't see his face, but just judging from the back of him he was attractive. Like, really fricking hot.

And then Anxiety saw the back of the man's hand.

****

Drawn on the back was a large, elegant, looping infinity sign that merged seamlessly with Roman's loopy handwriting, spelling out the word love then flowing back into the infinity sign. The word love then had a thin line crossed though it, with the word pizza written in a messy scrawl underneath. Anxiety knew all the details about the silly little drawing, because he had the same thing formed on his own hand.

Which meant... that this was Roman.

Holy shit.

Holy shit!

This guy was his soulmate?? This was Roman?? He was Anxiety's boyfriend?? How the fuck had Anxiety gotten so lucky? What kind of flaw in the universe's system had gifted him with this guy? He didn't really know what to do. He didn't know what he wanted to say.

So he decided not to say anything, and to simply write. So he took the pen out of his hoodie pocket, looked for a space between the drawings and words and ink stains that already dotted his skin, and wrote Behind you.

Anxiety watched nervously as the ink dried on his skin, and watched the words fade up onto Roman's own skin. It was so strange to see something that he wrote appear on someone else's skin. Anx was full of apprehension as he watched Prince look at his arm in surprise, then stiffen.

Then slowly, slowly, Roman turned around.

All the breath whooshed out of Anxiety's lungs as their eyes met.

****

Behind you. Two words, that probably shouldn't hold so much meaning. How could two words possibly hold how important the meaning behind them was? How could two small words create so much feeling and emotion within Roman?

Behind you. He was about to see Anxiety, he was about to see his soulmate for the first time. All he had to do was turn around.

He was suddenly full of nerves, but he had to face his fear. There was no use waiting any longer! So Roman turned around, looked behind him, saw his soulmate, and promptly forgot how to breathe.

****