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When Nico first met Lewis, it was on the train to Hogwarts, right after the boy had tripped over his untied shoelaces plowing straight into the back of the unsuspecting Nico.
Nico immediately disliked the boy. Not for falling into him, that was an accident, the Brit just gave Nico a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t quite describe it but he’d never felt it before and it kind of scared him if he was honest.
Luckly, he was able to find a seat on the train far away from Lewis and slowly, he began to calm down.
He had no idea what he was so worked up about, but he decided that staying away from Lewis was for the best.
~~~
When the group of first years stopped at the front of the Great Hall to be sorted, Nico made sure he was standing as far away from Lewis as possible.
That said, he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off the boy as he walked up towards the sorting hat. When Lewis turned, the hat placed on his head, Nico became aware that Lewis was looking back at him. Not in the accusatory way he would have expected, but with a curious and thoughtful gaze.
When he was sorted into Gryffindor, Nico clapped politely with his peers, but still couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away, watching Lewis even as he sat down with the rest of the Gryffindors. Suddenly aware of how insanely creepy he probably looked, he averted his gaze back to the front of the room, chastising himself, but still not quite able to get the image of the deep brown of Lewis’ eyes out of his head.
Eventually Nico heard his own name being called out. Shaking himself out of the weird haze he seemed to be in, to walk up to the hat himself.
When the sorting hat declared Nico as a Ravenclaw he almost let out a yelp of excitement. Even as a small child he had wanted to be a Ravenclaw and now that it was happening he felt like he was on cloud nine.
~~~
The rest of the evening passed in a blur for Nico. Dinner was amazing and all of his fellow Ravenclaws seemed nice enough.
But no matter how much he tried to focus on the excitement of his first night at Hogwarts, his thoughts kept coming back to Lewis, in fact, it seemed the harder he tried not to think about the boy with the bright smile, the more he couldn’t get him out of head.
~~~
The next morning as Nico was changing into his school robes, he felt his stomach drop when he noticed a mark on his shoulder.
The mark was in the shape of what could only be described as a blotch about the size of the palm of his hand.
But what worried Nico was the colour of the mark- a rich, warm, chocolate brown. The exact colour that Nico had been seeing in his mind's eye all night. The colour of Lewis Hamilton’s eyes.
The realization hit Nico like a bus.
The day before on the train, Lewis had grabbed at that exact spot on Nico’s shoulder as he was falling.
Immediately Nico started trying to remember everything he’d ever been told about soulmarks.
He knew that everybody had a soulmate, and that when you met your soulmate, the area of your skin that they first touch turns the colour that you most associate with them.
Suddenly Nico was jarred from his thoughts when someone yelled, rather loudly, that unless they fancied detention on the first day for being tardy, they’d better get a move on.
Quickly, Nico got the rest of the way dressed, before sprinting towards his first class.
~~~
Nico spent the entire day in a haze.
Questions kept swirling around in his head- What if it wasn’t actually Lewis and he’d make a fool of himself by saying something? What if Lewis didn’t want to be his soulmate? Nico wasn’t even sure if he wanted to be Lewis’ soulmate. He barely knew Lewis. What if he was an asshole?
~~~
By the end of that day he had come to the conclusion that Lewis was most most likely his soulmate. But even armed with that information, he had no idea what to do next.
Nico had never done this before. How did he even approach the situation? Did he just corner Lewis and announce that he thought they were destined to be together? Did he try to flirt? He had no idea how to flirt.
Eventually, he decided that he’d wait. He’d take any opportunity to hint at Lewis or be nice to him, but he’d leave it up to Lewis to broach the subject.
Finally having a plan in place, Nico felt some of the anxiety he was feeling ease, and he was eventually able to drift into a sleep filled with dreams of a dark eyes and toothy smiles.
~~~
What Nico didn't foresee, was that he still wouldn't have answers by the start of Christmas break.
He assumed that this would all be resolved after a few weeks. Lewis and he would talk, maybe get closer and Lewis would bring it up. But he still didn't even know if Lewis liked him as a human being, let alone as a potential soulmate.
Waking up on the last day before Christmas break, Nico didn't know what to do. He did not want to leave for several weeks without knowing.
~~~
He couldn't focus during any of his classes. All he could think about was Lewis.
As Nico turned to exit the room of his final class, he was met with the eyes he had grown to love over the passing weeks.
"Lewis." he said, more as a statement than anything. "What-"
"I need to talk to you" Lewis said, fidgeting with a lose string on the sleeve of his robe.
"Yeah?" Nico asked holding his breath, aware of the anxious atmosphere surrounding Lewis.
"I-" Lewis started after the rest of the class had filled out, "well." Before continuing, Lewis carefully took off the gloves that Nico noticed had become a permanent fixture of the Brits attire.
Slowly, Lewis turned his left hand so that it was facing up, demonstrating the blue that covered most of his hand.
The colour was a light teal that reminded Nico of the beach. It acted in sharp contrast to Lewis’ dark skin. Nico thought it was beautiful.
Absentmindedly, Nico reached out to gently run his fingers over the colour, feeling the palm of Lewis’ hand under his calloused fingertips.
Slowly, Lewis moved to intertwine their fingers. Nico looked up to see Lewis was looking at him with the same look he was giving him at the sorting ceremony months before.
"So it is you?" Lewis asked in a small voice.
"Yeah- yes, I think so." Nico answered, struggling to get his words out, there was too much he wanted to say.
"On the train, right?" Lewis asked, "when I fell into you."
Nico nodded.
“Did- did you know?” Nico questioned “I mean when did you figure out it was me?”
“Well the mark started when we were still on the train, but I didn't realize what it was until that night. I thought it might have been a couple people, but I guess if I'm honest I always kind of thought it was you."
“But you didn’t say-”
“Yeah” Lewis explained “I was pretty sure you didn’t like me so I was just gonna wait until you came to me, y’know?” Lewis shrugged shyly.
"Yes I know!" Nico all but yelled, frustrated with himself "I was doing the same thing!"
"Well that explains a lot!" Lewis said smiling ruefully.
"Yeah" Nico said awkwardly.
They stood in silence for several seconds before both saying "I should have said something sooner."
They both chuckled before Lewis signaled for Nico to go first.
"I just- I didn't know what to make of you." Nico explained, "I'm used to being able to read everyone in a room, but not you. I never know what you're thinking and as someone who never does anything without knowing all the variables, that's terrifying. I thought that waiting for you to make the first move would be easier, y'know? Then there's no way of me getting hurt. I don't risk anything."
"That's actually the reason I decided to come clean." Lewis said, "I realized that the biggest risk I could take is if I said nothing because I risk losing you. I decided that the not knowing was more painful than the possible rejection."
Before Nico even realized he was moving, he was engulfing Lewis in a bear hug. Immediately, he felt Lewis hug him back and at that moment he knew with out a doubt that it was Lewis.
"I'm sorry" Nico mumbled into Lewis' neck, "I'm sorry I made you think I didn't like you."
"Hey" Lewis said, pulling away just enough to look his newfound soulmate in the eye, "I wasn't much better. We both got scared. It's not like there's training for this."
"There should be!" Nico interjected with a smile.
Lewis laughed "Damn right there should be! That was stressful! I probably have grey hairs after that!."
Nico grinned before resting his forehead against Lewis'.
"I can't believe we wasted so much time" Lewis sighed, "and now we have to wait until the new year to be together again."
Nico nodded "but just remember, we have the rest of our lives to get sick of each other, soulmate."
Lewis smiled widely before pulling Nico back into a firm embrace.