Tattoo

Chapter 1: Soulmarks

Authors note: This was a one-shot I was working on for a while (whenever I got writers block on my main fanfic To Earth And Back) and it turned into a larger fanfic. Most likely this will be less than ten chapters, but there will be slow updates since I'll mostly be working on my other fanfic. Anyways, I decided to post this since it was obviously too long for a one-shot, and it was a good ending point

Keith was 10 when his tattoo appeared. It wasn’t an unusual age, most people got theirs around the same time, but it wasn’t normal either.

The tattoo revealed whatever your soulmates first thought about you. Keith had been eagerly waiting his entire life for his to appear. Home after home. Family after family. Waiting for the day he would finally find love.

The love came a bit sooner than he expected when he was adopted by a family that loved him. It was strange to go from never knowing love to suddenly being surrounded by a loving mother, father, and older brother. Ten years old and Keith had already found love.

“Shiro” I whined, rolling onto my back.

“No.”

“Bu-”

“No.” He said even more firmly. “Do your own homework.” I groaned as I rolled back onto my stomach, staring at the garble of numbers in front of me.

“It doesn’t make any sense.”

“What it is?”

“Division.”

“Do you know how to multiply?”

“Yes.”

“Well it's that but backwards.” He pointed to a couple of the problems I had finished. I smiled as suddenly everything made sense.

“Thanks Shiro. You’re the best teacher ever.”

“Anytime buddy.” Shiro smiled down at me, ruffling my already messy hair. I let out a puff of air, blowing my bangs out of my eyes before going back to work.

Half an hour later I joined Shiro on the floor to play video games.

“You’re done with your homework?”

“Maybe.”

“Kei-” he started to say, his voice dangerous.

“I did. I did.” I laughed as Shiro rolled his eyes, handing a controller into my tiny hands.

Later that night I woke up to a pain in my arm. I looked down to see a blue mark smeared across the surface. I watched as the blue became darker, the pain increasing.

“Mom? MOM!” She rushed into the room a few moments later.

“What is it Keith?” I lifted my arm and she studied it before smiling. “Tadashi, Shiro, could you come here really quick.” She called out the door. Seconds later Dad and Shiro entered the room, confusion written across their face.

“It's time.” Was all my mother said before lifting my arm. The others gasped before smiling.

“What? What is it? It hurts a lot.”

“Don’t worry honey. It’ll only hurt for a bit.” The others surrounded me, holding up their own arms. My eyes widened as I realised what they were showing me.

Nerd. I bet he’s majoring in math scrawled across my father's arm in flowery yellow writing.

OHMYGOSH She’s just so beautiful! I wonder if I can talk to her? Along my mother's arm in an unorganized black.

WOW he’s a hunk isn’t he? spread up Shiro’s arm in a soft pink.

I glanced at my own arm, wondering what it would say. Over half my class had the marks already. Most of them were romantic and cute. Thinking about how nice they look, or how sweet they are. Some of them were mean. A few using very… colorful… language. A few of them were extremely weird. One annoying kid, Lotor, just had a picture of a cat. It wasn’t unheard of to get something other than words, but it was definitely rare.