Chapter Text
Yuzuru has not put much thought into dates, despite his parents having the same exact day, month, and year tattooed onto their skin in permanent, unfading ink. His mother’s is sketched roughly an inch above her collar bone, easily hidden by necklaces or for some occasions makeup, while his father’s is located on the inside of his wrist, perfectly concealed by a sensible watch or a pair of long gloves.
When Yuzuru was young he had thought this was normal, that all the kids parents at school must have had matching tattoos of numbers he still couldn’t quite make sense of. That is until one day his friend looked at him with wide eyes and a mouth opened in surprise when he mentioned this fact.
“Your parents have Dates?”
“Dates? Well.. I guess those could be dates, couldn’t they?”
“Yuzuru, you mean you really don't know the myths about perfect matches having identical tattoos? I thought it didn’t happen anymore, but… wow, I guess it might. I wouldn’t tell anyone else though. Some people get worked up over people claiming to be matches. Say, Yuzu, do your parents conceal their Dates when they go out in public?”
Yuzu nods his head yes, “Yeah, Mom is always wearing a necklace or makeup, and Dad wears a watch like its apart of his skin.”
“Just like I thought.” The bell rang, signifying the end of recess along with the end of their conversation.
Yuzuru now had a lot to think about. Later, when his mom was tucking him into bed, he dared to ask the question he’d withheld asking at the dinner table. But he was also 8 years old and lacked patience or tact.
“Are you and dad really soulmates?”
His mother looked at him, shocked, “Why are you asking that all of a sudden, Yuzuru?”
“Well, some kid at school said the matching dates on yours and Father’s skin meant you were perfect matches.”
“It’s true, we are by some standards considered to be soulmates.” She paused, like she was calculating what exactly she could say about this topic to an 8 year old. “Your father and I met on my 17th birthday, July 22nd, and ever since we first laid on eyes on each other that date has been etched onto both of our bodies. The next morning the date was tattooed in dark ink in this spot right here.” She moves her hair and shows him the markings, very tiny but still readable. “Finding each other wasn’t easy, though. And even wanting to find your father took me years to do.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to find him? Isn’t he your soulmate?”
“Well yes, Yuzuru. But it’s just.. not that simple.”
“Why isn’t it that simple?”
“Because the more you grow up, the more you care what people think of you. And I cared way too much what others thought. You see, in today’s society Dates have been dismissed as being faked, or been seen as against nature or even evil. That’s why when the date appeared that next morning I tried everything I could to hide it and pretend it wasn’t there.”
“But you and father are together.”
“Yes, we are. Fate has a funny way of removing gravity from beneath your feet and then throwing you into the salty depths of the ocean, and that’s what it did for me and your father. I turned 22 and was sick of the curiosity of who else had this date tattooed on their skin. I thought about all the places I went on that day, but no matter what there were just too many faces I saw. I remember taking the subway downtown with my friends, going to a restaurant and then to karaoke. There were just too many people I saw that day and no logical way for me to find my match. By the time I was 26 and sick of being alone, I finally let my colleague and close friend set me up with a blind date.”
Yuzuru gasps, but his mother continues on, a layer of nostalgia covering her eyes and a wispy smile on her lips.
“He was a charming man, a man I could talk easily with and about anything, despite my shy and closed off nature. I agreed to go out with him a few more times and we got really close, and I eventually felt the need to be honest with him about what happened to me that day on my 17th birthday. About the date I had kept secret for so long.”
She paused to finally look at Yuzuru, who was pretty much at the edge of his bed in rapt attention. “And then? And then what?”
“But to my surprise, he took off the watch he always had on and in dark, black ink was my birthday.”
“So they were the same person all along!” His mother chuckles fondly and runs a hand through his hair, ruffling it a little bit causing him to swat her away.
“The rest you already know. We got married and had Saya and then you, but till this day no one else knows we have matching dates. Because we don’t need them to prove our love. We have you children as proof enough.”
That night Yuzu dreamed of Dates carved into ice and hoped he wouldn’t have to live like his mom and dad, carrying a secret so large and so heavy, and worst of all, permanent.
He still didn’t really think about Dates, and since his parents were the only people he’d ever seen with them he thought the probability of him ever getting one was pretty low. He much preferred thinking about the weight of shiny medals around his neck and the sharp cracks of a cleanly landed jump on freshly cleaned ice, anyway.
Yuzuru wasn’t that interested in dating like the other boys in his class were and even his sister, who had a hockey player boyfriend who skated at their rink. He figured he’d find someone after he’d won everything there was to win. He wanted to land a quad axel someday, surely there was no time for dating.