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Tsukishima had absolutely nothing against piercings or tattoos. In fact, he had plenty, one of the perks of running his own business. What he hated was that the one tattoo that he didn’t actually get to choose, the one that was supposedly descriptive of his soul mate, was the most unhelpful thing possible. It wasn’t that it was ugly, necessarily, the geometric pattern would be interesting if it weren’t supposed to help him identify his soul mate.
Honestly, how was one supposed to identify someone based on a bunch of black triangles all stuck together to look like spikes. Some were plain, some were just outlines, some had patterns in them. Ridiculous. It would be so much easier if he were one of those lucky assholes who got their soul mates first words to them tattooed instead. Damn those bastards. At 23, most people assumed that even the fairly grumpy Tsukishima would meet his soul mate any day now, but he wasn’t sure he would. Even if he did how the hell would he know since all he managed to get were a bunch of spiky looking triangles? Besides, Tsukishima was way too busy to bother actually looking. He had clothes to design and critics to please; one didn’t become this successful by wandering around looking for someone who looked (or maybe acted?) like a triangle, whatever the hell that meant.
“Tsukki maybe it’s like a design?” Yamaguchi hummed.
Tsukishima rolled his eyes at his best friend, “Obviously but that doesn’t really help.”
Yamaguchi just smiled, immune to Tsukishima’s grumpiness, “No, I mean like maybe they have a tshirt with that design or something.”
Tsukishima sighed, and Yamaguchi stifled a smile at his friends dramatics.
“Maybe. I doubt mine will be as obvious as yours though, not everyone has their soulmates flower hairclip tattooed on them.” Tsukki huffed.
“Oh please, it was plenty confusing until I actually met Yachi, then it was just so obvious. Yours will probably be like that too; it makes no sense now but once you meet them then ‘BOOM’!” Yamaguchi teased.
“Mmhm. I’m sure it will be like ‘BOOM’” Tsukki said with less enthusiasm than his friend, but he seemed less grouchy than before, so Yamaguchi considered his mission a success.
“Yeah…wait don’t you have a meeting with some models and some of the other designers in this season’s show?” Yamaguchi asked.
“Shit, yeah. I should get going. See you the show?” Tsukki said in a rush.
“Yep! Me and Yachi are coming and so is King and Hinata!” Yamaguchi grinned.
Tsukki rolled his eyes and just said, “Brilliant, just what I need; those idiots running around one of the seasons biggest shows.”
Yamaguchi laughed as Tsukki ran out the door.
Tsukki ran down the block back to the office where they were all meeting: he wasn’t late yet but if he didn’t hurry he would be. He took the elevator up and then finally arrived. He opened the door and went in, barely a minute late.
“Hey now, this is a designer only meeting, models don’t need to come in for another hour.” A deep voice to his left greeted him quietly as he sat down, he doubted anyone else heard the man.
Tsukishima’s brow furrowed in annoyance as he turned to meet the other man’s eyes; the man was absolutely bizarre looking. But not…unattractively so. Tsukishima thought he might be wearing just a little eyeliner, he had at least a dozen piercings (an industrial and a few cartilage in addition to his earlobes and also a labret. He nearly had more piercings than Tsukishima.) and his lips were turned up in a lazy, confident smile. What was bizarre about him was his hair. It was black and sticking out in every direction it could, with fringe coming down over one eye. It was essentially bedhead. A really sexy looking bedhead, but bedhead nonetheless.
“Fuck off. You can’t even style your hair, so I doubt you can design clothes.” Tsukishima hissed. He turned away, paying attention to the lead sponsor of the show. He didn’t see the dumbstruck face of the other man, or the way he stared at his wrist for several minutes before tuning back into the conversation.
The meeting ended and they were supposed to go and talk with the models, though it was more a courtesy thing than mandatory. Tsukki walked back toward the elevator and someone ran to catch up to him.
“Wait a second!”
Tsukki rolled his eyes at the voice and turned around, irritation rolling off him in waves.
“Hey! I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to be such an ass.” He said, almost sheepishly. It seemed a drastic change from the flirty arrogant persona that he was wearing only an hour ago.
“It’s fine, I’m going to go now.” Tsukki turned to leave.
“Hold on one more second. At least tell me your name?” The man called.
“Tsukisima Kei.” He replied, still irritated.
“Brilliant! You were the one who designed the Ocean Waves dress last season, the one that was featured on the cover of last years spring issue?”
“Yes, that was me…” Tsukishima said, annoyance fading slightly.
“I’m Kuroo Tetsuro, by the way.” The man grinned again, “I supposed we’ll be seeing each other around then.”
“I suppose so.” Tsukishima said as they parted ways.
From what he knew of Kuroo’s designs, he seemed to prefer fall and winter fashion, lots of dark red and blacks. He was impressive to be sure and designed plenty of avant-garde but also more wearable clothing for sure. That man was a high end designer, just like Tsukki. Tsukishima grumbled and went back to his studio. For some reason, he wanted to design something to impress that idiot Kuroo.
It was a few weeks before they met again, this time it was the night before a show, the party was noisy and glamorous and Tsukishima wanted to leave.
Kuroo approached him, and handed him champagne, “I’ll tell you what, Tsukki.”
“Hm?” He grumbled skeptically.
“If the show is a hit tomorrow, I’ll treat you to dinner.” Kuroo smirked at him teasingly.
“And why on earth would you do that?” Dates weren’t really common, considering everyone had a designated soulmate already. Sometimes people would go as a way to get to know their soulmate, but he and Kuroo weren’t even friends. It felt like Kuroo knew something he didn’t.
“Just feel like getting to know you better! One designer to an another and such.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass. I always go out with friends after.” Tsukki said coolly.
Kuroo sighed dramatically, though his smile was back as fast as it left, “Alright, then. Maybe some other time.”
It was the day of the show and Tsukki was on edge as usual. Kuroo seemed perfectly at ease which made Tsukki more irritated.
“Hey now, be so skittish. I’m sure your designs are great.” Kuroo grinned lazily, his hair seemed even more spiky and our of control than usual. He even managed to sound genuine.
Tsukki just raised an eyebrow at him. Kuroo laughed and grabbed his arm, “C’mon. Lets take a sneak peek at the audience and see who’s shown up.”
Tsukki let himself be dragged along, which was strange considering that usually he only let Yamaguchi drag him around. He wasn’t sure why he was strangely at ease with Kuroo, despite the fact that Kuroo was infuriating most of the time.
Tsukki’s models walked the runway with no problems, and from the looks of the critics faces, he may have actually passed with flying colors. Kuroo was up next.
Kuroo’s models were all stylish, with obvious inspiration from more avant-garde looks, they were funky and dark, though they were still wearable and aesthetically pleasing. Dark spikes came off the sides of sleeves and triangular patterns featuring red and black overlays were s striking part of his collection. The last of Kuroo’s designs finally walked and Tsukki just about had the breath knocked out of him.
Black triangles overlapped to form a huge collar of a very avant-garde dress. It almost mimicked the spiky hair of the dress’s designer.
Oh, shit.
The show ended and Tsukki stormed over to Kuroo and dragged him outside.
“Did you know?” Tsukishima demanded, face horrifyingly red.
“Did I know what?” Kuroo asked, a little concerned.
Tsukki took off his bracelets and showed him the tiny triangles. “This!”
Kuroo’s face flushed bright red, “Oh you mean that um, no I didn’t realize that the dress was what was going to let you know…”
“But you knew we were soulmates?”
“Ehrm, yeah?” He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.
“What’s your tattoo anyways?”
Kuroo grinned sheepishly and replied by showing him the inside of his left wrist, where black letters spelled out “Fuck off, you can’t even style your hair.”
“You know it’s a real shame it’s not the whole quote, Tsukki.” Kuroo snickered.
Tsukki sniffed, “Asshole”
“So…dinner tomorrow then.”
“Dinner tomorrow.”
………………………………….
“I can’t believe that was two years ago, it’s been so long! We’re so oooold.” Kuroo slung his arms around Tsukki’s shoulders from behind him.
“Yeah, you’re practically the crypt keeper.” Tsukki smirked.
“Rude! Are you almost done? We’ve got another two months before the show anyways. Lets go home and order in.” Kuroo tried to coerce him away from his work. The promise of ordering in was an excellent motivator for Tsukki.
“Ten more minutes.” Tsukki continued sketching.
Kuroo remained with his arms latched around his soulmate’s shoulders. The little geometric pattern had grown the last few years, Tsukki had taken to adding a new triangle to the design every year, and it made Kuroo ridiculously giddy that another triangle would be added next week.
Another year, one of many more to come.