Work Text:
Another day at his school and he could possibly be going insane. The bullying and the homework were bad enough but it was that time of year that every one of his class mates was talking about it. He looked down at his arm and saw only faint signs, nothing clear and certainly nothing like what he’d witnessed in his classes today.
At the beginning of the day all of the teenagers who had just turned 17 or were older had been ushered into the gym to get ‘the talk.’ Dan thought that it would be the most boring thing in the world and he should find a way out of it if he could. Until he heard ‘mine showed up today. It’s a horse with an H on its back’ and ‘I’ve had mine for a week. It’s a beautiful lily flower.” When Dan looked down at his wrist, there was barely anything there, clearly nothing he could tell anyone about. So when a friend asked him if he’d seen anything he lied and said that it was a ‘polar bear’. Clearly he should’ve thought that lie through more as they walked away laughing but his mind was panicking. What if his sign never showed up?
“Attention!” The headmaster cleared his throat effectively shutting up all of the teenagers. “As you probably have seen by now, signs on your wrists or upper arms have appeared. They should come in pictures or words. What shows up represents you in some shape or form. Do not worry if you don’t understand it yet however. I didn’t until I was in my early 20s.” Small whispers could be heard all around as the teens looked down at their arms trying to figure out if they understood their symbols. “Here is the more complicated part. Your sign matches someone else. This person may be your best friend and more often than not is your soul mate. I strongly discourage you to actively search for your soul mate as it will only cause heart break. Live your life freely and happily. You’re dismissed to your classes.”
Dan couldn’t help but look down once more. His sign hadn’t changed at all. He still couldn’t read it and it was beginning to frustrate him. Was there no way to speed up this process or was his sign just broken and he was doomed for the rest of his life?
When he went home that night, mumbling about a lot of homework to his mum, he spent the next two hours on the internet researching about signs and found nothing helpful. Dan frowned and gave up for the night. Unplugging his laptop, he climbed into bed and pulled up his favorite website YouTube. He had recently discovered it thanks to a friend and was addicted, as in it had pretty much taken over his free time. Going through different videos, he happened to see a thumbnail of a video of a guy with a similar fringe to his own. Curious as to whom that even was, Dan clicked on it and laughed at the accent but was immediately intrigued. He had to know more about this black-haired guy behind the video.
A few months passed by and Dan had successfully gotten AmazingPhil, “please just call me Phil”, to notice him. They talked on Twitter constantly and Phil had given him, to Dan’s disbelief, his phone number. Shared interests and never ending conversations started a good relationship that helped Dan make it through each day.
He still didn’t reveal that his sign was only half showing by now to anyone. The only reason for that was because it was not even in English. Every time Dan looked at it he scowled. How was he supposed to translate something when he wasn’t sure what language it was in and it was only half complete anyway? He was pretty sure his mum had noticed of course. The look she gave him after peeking at his arm was skeptical and all Dan could do was raise an eyebrow and shrug.
“So the train arrives at noon yeah?” Phil asked. Dan nodded looking at his web cam. The nerves were kicking in for meeting Phil tomorrow and they were finalizing plans over Skype.
“Anything important I need to bring?”
“You would be preferable.” Phil winked. Dan looked down trying to hide his blush. “I can still see that you know.”
“Shut it. I gotta go but I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh my god that sounds weird!”
“It does. Talk to you later.”
“Bye.” Dan pressed ‘end call’ and closed his laptop lid. He was about to have the biggest day of his life and he had to stop his stomach from having a million butterflies going crazy in it. Sleep would be nearly impossible tonight.
Dan tried to act casual, drinking his Starbucks drink while sitting across from Phil. However his mind was going a million different ways and he could barely stay focused. He was so happy but so nervous. Phil pointed out a couple of weird people and finally the tension dissolved between them. Dan put down his drink and laughed pointing out an old man staring extra long at the menu.
“Dan…your wrist.” Phil suddenly stopped, his eyes opened wide.
“What about it?” Dan looked down to see that his ‘soulmate sign’ was in plain sight. However now it was his turn to be confused. “What the hell? It’s finished!”
“Finished?”
“Yeah I’ve been going crazy. It’s not a picture or a symbol or even in English!” Dan stared at his sign in awe. “It’s just Japanese! Thank goodness.”
“How do you know that?” Phil asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Anime. Tons and tons of anime.” Suddenly Phil burst out laughing, making Dan feel slightly insecure about what he had just revealed about himself.
“No no don’t worry. I’m not laughing at you. It’s just…I thought I’d have to move to Japan or something to find you! Turns out you’re just a giant weeb!” With that, Phil rolled up his sleeve and revealed a small sign on Phil’s arm identical to the one Dan had on his wrist. Dan couldn’t stop the smile that crossed his face. “It means true love. I looked it up.”
“That’s so cheesy.” Dan said reaching over to take Phil’s hand in his.