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He was fairly young when he realized that he had a soulmate. It was a normal thing for people with soulmate to have a band of their soulmates skin imprinted upon them somewhere on their bodies. Most realized it at birth, destined to love someone of noticeably darker or lighter skin that their own. Creating a beautiful band of color around their bodies.
But at 10 years old Shiro’s skin did not fill him with the same wonder that it did others when they first realized that they had a soulmate. It filled him with worry and terror. A section of his side, just above his waist had become pink and scarred over numb and dull to the touch. Shiro panicked and ran to his mother with tears in his eyes, terrified of what could have possibly gone wrong with his soulmate for them to have gotten such a horrendous wound.
His mother picked him up and tried to soothe his worried sobs. Assuring him that his soulmate was likely fine, maybe just a bad accident. Like the fall he’d seen his classmate take that had split open their chin. But even his mother knew, a wound that size would be very difficult to come back from.
As Shiro continued his way through middle school, the number of scars on his lower abdomen grew and the band of skin became altogether darker. His soulmate must have been out in the sun a lot and must have liked doing very dangerous things. He rubbed at his lower back feeling the raised skin from yet another scar that appeared on his midsection last week. The scars had only gone and multiplied over the past year. The first few times it made him panic. Now, they were just another thing that Shiro knew about his soulmate.
He liked to lay in bed and brush his hands over all of them. Imagining where they could have possibly gotten them from. Maybe from a sword. Maybe a sharp corner. Maybe a tiger. Shiro smiled at the thought. His soulmate fighting a tiger somewhere in the world, sword in hand, deep in the jungle another of a thousand adventures that they had already been on. Shiro fell into a dream of his soulmate fighting off some villain in some far away world.
She didn’t remember getting that scar. Kagome ran her hand over her defined bicep staring at a small pink scar on it. Sango stared at her from across the spring observing her arm as well.
“Kagome-sama.” she said perplexed.
Kagome was brought from her thoughts “Yes?”
“Have you been carrying your bag on that arm?” She said wading closer.
Kagome stared back at her arm even more confused “No? Why do you ask?”
Sango took hold of her upper arm and stared at it intently “It looks lighter than the rest of your skin.”
Kagome looked at her arm even more confused until the thought came to her. She shot out of the water surprising Sango.
“Do you think it’s my soulmate?!” Kagome says excitedly
Sango brightens at the idea. “It just might be!”
Kagome smiles wide and jumps out of the spring to quickly dress and find Inuyasha.
Even when Kagome woke the next morning the stone in her stomach stayed. After a fervent argument with Inuyasha trying to get him to show her his right arm to check for a small scar that would prove her as his soulmate. Inuyasha shouted something at her that changed her feelings on her soul mark altogether.
“What the hell are you talking about?!” He shouted as she held onto his right arm.
“My soulmark! You know that band of skin soulmates will get? Well my skin is lighter on my arm and there’s a scar there! Which means-”
“Scar?” Inuyasha snapped. “I’m a half demon! I don’t scar Kagome!”
Kagome laid in her sleeping bag as long as she could before Inuyasha snapped at her to get up and be ready to leave.
Inuyasha’s word’s had felt like a hammer smacking her heart with each syllable. Even now it still felt bruised.
But as she dragged herself up and helped clean camp she watched Inuyasha snap and growl at Sango and Shippo. It was probably for the best that Inuyasha wasn’t her soul mate.
It had been nearly 6 years since the first time he had gotten a mark on his abdomen. Shiro would almost say that he would have been concerned by the lack of new scars except for the fact that his soulmate was apparently no longer being harmed . Something that Shiro should be celebrating if not for his worry. Why did they stop? Did they stop adventuring? Stop fighting entirely? The strip of skin that used to be tanned in the past had faded back into a paler color, suggesting that they had stopped being in the sun altogether as their skin paled past his own natural skin color.
Shiro still ran his hands over the multiple ridges of raised skin against his abdomen but did it more so when he was nervous. He would silently ask his soulmate to lend them their strength. The same soulmate who had fought off claws and swords and teeth judging from the scars on his waist. Even as he sat in the testing room to be accepted in the Garrison he still ran his hand over the wound on his left hip. He prayed to it. “ Please. Please let me get into the Garrison.”
She beat away a shrub as she tried to wiggle her way through the forest in hopes that she could actually find her way back on the trail. She just had to take this hike. The one that involved trees and mud and worst of all, bugs. She had decided to take her friends up on a small hiking trip to get her out of the shrine for once. She’d barely walked down the steps of the shrine 5 times in the 10 years she had been back. Something that she was being reminded of as she sweated and wheezed her way up the mountain. Halfway up she had finally given in and shrugged off her jacket, not only showing off a multitude of her scars from the Feudal Era but also the dark tan band around her upper arm from her soul mate.
She could see the complete size of it now, reaching from lower bicep to upper forearm of darkened skin with small pink scratches along it. Likely from clumsiness or from her soulmate holding fussy cats. Nonetheless, whoever they were, they had very recently decided that they liked the outdoors and were trying their hardest to have the best tan before summer ended.
(It was an amusing thought to entertain.)
Kagome wheezed as she pushed her way onto a clearing somewhere near the top of the mountain. She’d show her soulmate. She’d get an even better tan. The best tan. A tan that will make their own over the top ass feel under accomplished. She leaned over on top of her knees catching her breath and closing her eyes, biting back a laugh.
She hoped her soulmate was nice and wasn’t too angry about the series of scars they undoubtedly had someplace on their body. She prayed that they didn’t get her hands. Whose knuckles where forever scarred pink and whose fingertips will never recover from the years of pulling and releasing thousands of arrows. She groaned as she took another large breath. She straightened herself slowly still stuck in her thoughts as a shadow suddenly passed over her and a bright light took her sight.
He was to be sent on his first mission as a pilot of the Garrison. As best of his class he was chosen to be the pilot of the mission Kerboros. It would be the farthest humans would ever travel. He would be going to the edges of the solar system. His heart thumped in excitement as he sat back in his couch staring at the mission file. He would be piloting Matt Holt and his father to collect information.
Shiro broke out into a happy grin and flopped back on the couch his shirt sliding up, beyond excited for his future in space. Going to fix his shirt his hands fell to his waist, tracing some of the lines on his abs. His smile faded slightly. How far away would he be from them? Thousands, millions of miles. Light years maybe. He bit his lip and sighed, sinking further into his couch. He wondered if they had gotten back into their old habits.
It had been small, but Shiro would have never missed it. A new mark, a small scratch on his left hip. Something that would likely fade altogether in a year or so. Just as some of the more prominent marks had faded in color and intensity over the past 10 years. He had been happy for them, but yet again worried. Were they having fun? Did they even want to be apart of the trips that seemed to always give them such serious injuries? Shiro didn’t know. But even so, even if he was millions of miles away from them he would carry an essential part of them with him always.
She had already forgotten how long she had been in captivity. It must have been years. Had to have been. Maybe. She had been dragged onto an alien ship due to the power signature she had been giving off. Apparently such things can even been tracked and felt in space. They had been after something that they were determined that she could give. She never really knew what it was exactly they had been asking her for considering that she had only just begun to understand what the creatures were saying. Some were called Galra, others were known as druids. The only way she could really tell was from whether they wore armor or cloaks much like the one that had been given to her.
Another thing she knew is that the creatures that she was given and treated were never Galra or Druid. Always some other form of organism or alien, and they were always fresh from a fight. Druids would often hover around her as she worked trying to figure out her magic and to perhaps replicate it. For reasons she had never quite figured out but it had something to do with their ruler.
She assumed it was the regular thing that happened to rulers that wanted to live forever. Sick or aging ruler of an age old empire not being allowed to pass as they may not have an heir, their empire would fail, or they were just plain evil and possibly from an episode of power rangers.
Soldiers burst into her chambers shocking her from her thoughts and pausing the herb grinding. She for a moment feared that they were coming to beat her only to realize that they were dragging a creature in with them. The soldiers threw them on the medical table and one barked, “Quickly!”
Kagome hopped from her table and made her way over, her feet quick. As soon as her patient came into view air rushed from her lungs and made her feet stop .
He was human. A human being. All the way out here. Air returned to her lungs as the Galra growled a threat and snapped, “Before the next round!” She couldn’t figure out if he was referring to a measurement of time of an actual event. But, she rushed forward anyway, to survey the human. He had a deep gash across his face.
Handsome. She thought absently as she tried to wipe some of the blood away from his eyes and the gash itself. They would likely put him right back into whatever battle he was in the midst of as soon as they deemed him well enough. So she did what she could to better his chances as she laid a hand over the deep gash on his nose and begun to heal. A pink light enveloping her hand and his face as it began to try and stitch itself back together. She continued to try and wipe the blood out of his eyes and from around his mouth as she healed him.
He really was quite the looker. An almost sight for sore eyes if he wasn’t in such pain and herself in deep captivity. When was the last time she had seen a human? Probably since she had left earth, it had to have been close to a year. A smile teased at her lips at the thought of earth. Even the Feudal Era had managed to remind her of home every once in awhile. But here, millions of miles away, all she had was this stranger.
He groaned as the healing process on his face began to come to an end. That was apparently enough of a sign for the Galra soldiers surrounding her that he was yet again ready for the next battle. They shoved her away from him as they dragged him from the table. Kagome moved to advise against moving him so soon but thought against it at the memory of Galran claws. As they made their way to the door. One of the Galrans gruffly said, “Veprit Sa.” before dragging one of the only humans she had seen in years away.
It had been a nervous habit before but now it was his only form of comfort. To caress his own sides. It was one of the few things he had left to focus on. His family so far away. Matt and his Mr. Holt likely on a ship galaxies away. But his soulmate was right here. Right across his upper waist. He traced the largest mark he had gotten from them on his left hip still toying with the idea of how they had gotten it.
Maybe it was from one of those tigers she had been fighting. Maybe it was something even more dangerous. Like a lion. He leaned his head back against the cell walls. Lions had been a constant thought in his mind next to his soulmate. They kept appearing in his dreams. 5 of them all different colors and the darkest calling to him. He felt at his lower back tracing a series of claw marks.
Those marks had to have been from some sort of big cat. They looked far too much like the marks that the Galra left on him to be any other type of animal. He hoped his soul mate was safe. Whatever they were doing. And whatever creature they were fighting.
He selfishly hoped that they were thinking the same for him. He hoped that they managed to notice his scars amongst their own. Their scars had ever so slowly begun to blend with his the longer he fought as the Galra’s Champion. He felt at his face. A raised ridge now crossed his nose a recent scar to add to his collection. Shiro choked back a sob at the thought of his mauled face. It was dumb to be upset about, but it still struck something deep within him to think about how he would never be able to hide his past from plan view. How it would now forever sit plainly on his face.
It could have been worse. The Galra could have just left him in the ring between rounds and left him have bleed all over himself for the rest of the fight. Instead they had taken him to some sort of special Druid healer that the Glaran royalty had tucked away in the deeper parts of the ship. The thoughts of a Druid using their magic on him sickened him even more so when he thought about what could have possibly made them special by Druid standards.
His cell door cracked open. “Champion.” A soldier barked. He pulled himself from the floor with a groan.
“You have a match.” they said gruffly through the opening. Shiro dared not try to charge them. He’d tried it before, and it didn’t end well.
Shiro nodded glumly, running his hands over his abdomen yet again asking for luck.
Ever since the Galra had dragged the human down to her chambers weeks past her thoughts had been filled not only of him but of her soulmate and what they could possibly be doing. She hadn’t looked at the band of skin in so long she was shocked to find that the tan that they had been working so hard to acheive had already faded completely. Even if they had stopped tanning altogether the day she had left, that meant more than 8 months had passed. Kagome ran her hand over her arm. Their tan had completely gone and now looked to be a much closer skin color to her own, but new scars that she had never recalled receiving took its place.
She shuddered at the thought of them being harmed and worried for what they may have been doing to earn them such wounds. She thought of her own and thought of the pain and sacrifice that each mark on her skin held. She wondered if it was the same for them. Where each small mark reminded them of a particular battle or feeling.
Some scars she had she’d forgotten how she’d gotten them but others she’d never forget. Inuyasha trying to clumsily stitch her shoulder as she cursed at him for having and unsteady hand. The wound Sango taught her how to bandage her own arm. The wound that Shippo loved to stroke his tiny paws over as she held him close to her chest.
All of them meant something to her. And she had never seen them as faults or as imperfections. She saw them more like tattoos of writing her own story upon her skin. Each one was a moment and memory no matter how painful they were to receive. They were a part of her.
Kagome held a hand to her arm. And now her soulmate was even more so a part of her than they knew.
Shiro howled and screamed in the ring. He thought his opponent had fallen dead, had stopped breathing, but something with how their respiratory system worked had proven him very wrong as they kept their teeth latched onto his arm.
He screamed as he tried to beat them off. Slashing wildly at the creature attached to him. One of their three arms fell from him, then two. He threw punches with his left to daze the creature and try to peel them off himself but they retaliated by twisting his arm within their jowls.
He screamed.
A long and bellowing scream that left its mark on his memory alongside the blistering pain.
Kagome continued her work on her new recipe grinding her herbs to a fine grain. She pulled her robe sleeves up to grind a little easier. Her right arm having issues with holding the bowl. She put down her herbs and shook her arm, trying to shake the numbness seeping in from her right arm. What was with her today?
She moved forward to start back on her herbs when a sickly pink came into her peripheral. She gasped and stepped back in horror of her own arm. The entire space where her soul mark used to be had become a mass of scarred skin.
Kagome shuddered and leaned against a table behind her pulling up her sleeve all the way to look at the entirety. The new scar stopped just at her mid bicep a thin line of sickly pale skin peeking out from beneath from the spiderweb like scarring, but ended just at her elbow. It nearly took up the entirety of her soul mark. Their tan, the tiny cuts they had gotten over the years. Gone. Now just a mass of angry pink skin. She ran her had over it feeling at it. It reminded her of the skin that covered her left hip a sizable chunk of her side missing from the centipede woman’s bite.
She drew in a breath at the thought. Oh God. Had they lost their right arm? She rubbed at the scarred skin still as she thought it over. Whatever her soulmate had been doing over the past year had cost them their arm.
More than ever Kagome wished to be near them. To comfort and ease them. She had no idea where they were but not more than ever she prayed for them to be safe, and for them to escape whatever hell they were living in.