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Uzui Tengen was born with four names on his wrist. It’s already extremely rare for someone to have more than one soulmate, but four is almost unheard of. He isn’t sure about the hard statistics of it and never really cared about them anyway, but what he does care about is that he’s a special case and that’s all he needs to know.
He isn’t like everybody else, he doesn’t have only one name like the rest of the world.
He is different.
And he can’t think of anything more flamboyant than having four soulmates.
He meets Hinatsuru on his first day of preschool, both of them just kids with barely any real understanding of the meaning of soulmates. Everyone is looking at each other wrists comparing names and when he looks at hers he sees his name there. They both grin widely at the other when they realize what it means that they match, that they are what others call soulmates.
“Why do you have so many names?” She asks, curiously tracing her fingers over Tengen’s names.
“I’m special,” He says, voice low as if he is telling an important secret.
Hinatsuru just giggles in response, nodding her little head in awe and Tengen knows right then that soulmates are really meant to be.
Suma he meets when he is 13. He and Hinatsuru are in different classes that year and one day he stumbles upon a girl crying on the floor with her knees bleeding.
“Are you okay?” He asks, crouching down to look closer at the wounds, they look superficial but she should probably still clean them up.
He looks up at her and finds her staring at his wrist, completely frozen, tears still falling down wide eyes. He looks at her wrist and as expected there it is, his own name imprinted on pale skin.
He smiles at her, patting her head and she just blinks and cries harder. Uzui loves her instantly.
He doesn’t meet Makio until he is college, he is walking down an aisle not really paying attention to where he is going, trying to type a response to Rengoku so they can go eat lunch later when he crashes into someone.
He hears a yelp as something hits his chest. He looks down and there’s a girl splayed on the floor in front of him, frowning. He opens his mouth to apologize and is leaning down to help her up when she straightens herself up.
He is sure he is about to get an earful and likely get the shit kicked out of him but is as she is reaching out for the collar of his shirt that he sees it.
Tengen closes his hand around her wrist and before she can say anything he shoves his, her name, in her face.
She looks at it and blinks slowly then looks at his face and back to his wrist. They both stare at each other for a long second before they burst out crackling.
God, Tengen loves fate.
Tengen looks down at his fourth name, his only missing soulmate. He is well aware of how lucky he already is, barely 23 and already met three of his soulmates. A lot of people his age haven’t even met their one soulmate.
It could be years before he meets the owner of that name but Tengen has always being an impatient creature and every year that goes by without him finding his fourth soulmate feels like the empty hole inside of him carves itself bigger and deeper.
He sighs, entering his brand new classroom, there are kids everywhere talking all at once and he already feels tired just looking at them.
“Alright you brats, shut up!” He says loudly, talking over the already overwhelming noise. “Class is starting!”
Once they have calmed down and everyone’s on their seats he starts writing his name on the board for them to see.
“I’m Uzui Tengen, your flamboyant art teacher and y’all have been blessed with having me, the coolest teacher, in charge of your class this year!”
He hears giggles and some whoops from behind him but thankfully they stay mostly quiet.
“I know most of you are already familiar with each other,” He elaborates, turning around with the class list already on his hand “But I have no idea who any of you are so I’ll have you introduce yourself in the most flamboyant way!”
He starts calling each name on the list, trying his best to memorize names and faces. He is still laughing under his breath at the last one, a blue haired brat, Inosuke that’s his name, who introduced himself as the king of the mountain. He likes him a lot.
He looks down at the next name on the list and stops. He reads the words again and again, slowly, as if he hasn’t been looking at those same letters for over two decades, as if he hadn't had them imprinted on him since birth.
There’s suddenly a vice closing around his throat, blood hot in his veins. He looks away from the list to the seat right behind the Inosuke kid.
The first thing Tengen sees is bright blonde hair and he thinks deliriously that Giyuu must be having a stroke about it. He can’t believe he didn’t notice him before, he sticks out like a sunflower in a field of daisies. And truly fate really does his job well.
Tengen stares at a pair of gorgeous golden eyes the size of the sun, the kid is looking at him in pure unadulterated shock and yeah, he knows, probably has known since Tengen introduced himself and he wants to laugh, this pretty little thing is really his. His.
The kid blinks and now that Tengen is paying closer attention to him there’s a slight sheen in his eyes and his lips are trembling a bit just as if he was about to—Tengen smiles, mad with happiness.
Fate really knows him well, doesn’t it.
He looks at the kid in the eye once again and Tengen swears he can almost hear him sob. He can’t believe this is really happening.
How is he this lucky?
He opens his mouth still smiling and looks directly at his soulmate.
“Agatsuma Zenitsu” he calls softly, like a promise.