A Christmas Miracle

Traces of me in you

His life as a Junior High student was off to an okay start. As okay as being unnoticed in the class was, but Nagisa'd rather himself be invisible than befriend the people in his class. Not that he thought they were bad people, he just couldn't bring himself to approach others first.

It was that first year when he saw Akabane Karma, and for some reason his eyes searched for him in class too. Akabane was an admirable guy- strong and confident, he did whatever he pleased, and maybe that was what caused the strange fixation, he thought.

Whenever Akabane wasn't looking, he'd let himself watch him talk other, his heart somewhat satisfied with the scene, he'd never be noticed for looking. He wasn't all that noticeable and he'd actually be surprised if someone came up to speak with him. Maybe that was an advantage when there was such a case of borderline creepy staring.

Akabane had really nice hands. His knuckles were sharp against his pale skin, and the way his fingers curled naturally was nice to observe when his hands were out of his pockets.. Snapping his gaze down when the boy turned his way, he feigned writing his notes like the diligent student he was and not staring at someone's hand, out of all things.

One day, like a miracle, Akabane had came to him, in a comic store no less, inviting him to the movies, and Nagisa was sure he was the happiest person for a moment there.

He thought it would be a temporary thing, that Akabane or rather Karma-kun now, would ever speak to him, but then he surprised him the next day by inviting him to the arcade again. The next day, they ate at a fast food place, discussed loudly about the movie and Nagisa barely remembered how not having a friend felt like.

It wasn't until that summer day, when Nagisa realized that his feelings for Karma were not so subtle as he thought it was.

"Wow, that's a really cool tattoo," One of the students whistled.

The other crowed, "Yeah, where did you get it?"

Nagisa was now curious. He'd never seen any tattoo on Karma, and they had to change for PE together. Karma would've told him if he did anything cool, he always liked to tell Nagisa everything, so what was all this about? While everyone was busy gunning him down with the questions, Nagisa sneaked a peek of the tattoo.

Having a glimpse of the 'tattoo', Nagisa paled immediately. It was bigger than a coin, on his right bicep, deep blue scales of a serpentine creature, a short part of the whole thing, and only seeing that, he recognized the tattoo as a soulmate mark. No one else's but the depiction of his own feelings for Karma, and he blanched, going out of the way, to have a second to himself.

Soulmate marks were incredibly rare. They were seen so little that most believed that soulmates were only a thing of the past, for fairy tales and for people who romanticized love. But it was there, his mark on Karma, and he didn't know whether to scream or cry at the thought.

"Oh, get away," Karma waved them off from him, apparently having enough, "I doubt that any of you would have enough brains to get what it is,"

Of course, the mark could mean as a connection of the souls, just friendly and platonic, and that was the only thing that kept him grounded, and he could sigh in relief. It was easy to recognize a mark as his own when just the sight of it made Nagisa feel so familiar yet so strange.

The topic of marks rarely came up, not when Nagisa himself was a blank paper for marking, and it was only today that Nagisa ever found out Karma had hid a soulmate behind that sleeve of his.

At least, the only comfort was that Nagisa could happily remain friends with Karma- not that Karma was ever going to accept these strange feelings that Nagisa himself couldn't come in terms with properly. Life was good, everything was fine.