Mark 12

 Elly stared at her neighbor across the cafe table, stunned at the news he just dropped on her.

"I've heard of this happening," she said, hesitant and filled with dread. "But usually it's in cases where <i>both</i> people have lost their soulmates. Hizashi's - he's not..."

"He's fine," he assured her. "It does happen with children, too," he added quietly. "Young kids don't form romantic relationships, so they go through a few friends that act as platonic soulmates while they need them."

"Oh, yeah. That never happened to me, but it did a few kids I knew growing up."

He stared at the Mark bitterly for a moment. "This has to be something similar."

Elly sighed, shaking her head. "All right, Aizawa. We need to discuss this. <i>All</i> of us."

He winced, a hand creeping up to rub the back of his neck as he stared mournfully out the window. "Yes. I can't run from it anymore."

Hizashi did <i>not</i> take the news well.

When they showed up together at the town home he welcomed them in, thanking his friend with a huge smile. "Hey, ya finally met, huh? And gave her a ride home early? Awright, what an awesome day!" He hugged her happily.

"Yeah, about that..." Aizawa rubbed the back of his neck once more. Elly saw this was a nervous quirk he had and took a deep breath. He was going to jump right into it.

"Yeah, what?"

Aizawa rolled his sleeve back to show him the Mark.

The blond-haired man blinked, gaping, until Elly showed him hers next to it. Then she gasped, surprised, as Hizashi began bawling, his hazel eyes squeezed shut and tears spilling down his face. He wobbled and might have fallen if she didn't grasp him by the arm.

"Hizashi!"

"Yamada! Snap out of it!"

"<b>No!</b>" His voice control was impressive, he really got under it and projected a loud shout that caused Aizawa to grimace and clap his hands over his ears.

"Sweetie, please," she begged, rubbing the arm she held. "We need to talk. It's okay."

"N..." The undercurrent of fright he heard from her calmed him down a little. He squinted at Aizawa through damp eyelashes. "N - no, she's <i>my</i> baby," Hizashi whined. "I love her. You can't - you can't take her away... Ches, what's happening?"

"I'm not leaving, but we do need to talk," Elly suggested, pointing in the living room. "Zashi, we'll take the couch. It's okay, sweetheart. Just sit for now." She pressed gently on his shoulders, settling him in his favorite spot before going to the fridge to pour three beers.

Hizashi grabbed one the minute she set them down. He lifted the tall glass to his lips and drained about half all at once. Elly watched with a worried look on her face but was silent. "A'ight, let's fuckin' Google this shit," he snapped loudly. "Ain't gonna freak out 'til I get some more <i>info</i>."

"Yamada," his friend started, but the DJ cut him off with a violently flamboyant hand gesture.

"Nuh uh! Listen!" He proceeded to read aloud from his phone. "A person has multiple soulmates - it'd be impossible not to -- meant to come in and out of their life over the years; these soulmates can be both romantic and platonic."

"The kids," Elly murmured. Aizawa grunted, nodding.

"I don't like it, but..." Hizashi tossed his phone negligently onto the coffee table with a frown. "Basically each soulmate serves a necessary purpose in our lives. It could be that you've reached the point where you know you should be, well, over things..."

Aizawa touched underneath his eyes with trembling fingertips. "I don't know that at all."

"Your heart probably doesn't," she said sadly, "but your mind might."

"Well, if yer <i>brain</i> realizes it, then ya need support and friendship - and Ches is the perfect match for that." He paused, then added darkly, "it'd <i>better</i> be that," while drawing his knees up in front of his chest and glaring at the man opposite him.

"I don't need another loud friend," the dark-haired man grumbled from where he was slumped in a plush chair. "And I don't want to be <i>over</i> any - anything."

"This sucks." Elly stroked Hizashi's long, blond hair while he grumbled under his breath, still pouting. "How the hell did we not know about this, any of us? Have either of you ever heard of an adult finding double Marks? Or more, even?"

"Nuh." He pulled her possesively against him, his frown drawing his expressive eyebrows into an almost comical point.

"I would conjecture most people stop really looking once they've found their partner." Aizawa took his glass and held it for a moment, staring into the amber liquid dully. "Others may have refused to believe there's another out there after..." He trailed off, his eyes far away. They knew what he was thinking and silence reigned for a little while.

"You're obviously not into me like that type of soulmate," she ventured at last, placing her glass down.

"I wouldn't know."

"What's that mean?" She got up to settle her tail in a better position, curling it alongside her.

"So, I guess I better explain. I'm bi and demi, sort of ace but not all the way." Aizawa explained. "So I wouldn't experience what you two did anyway. I have to be emotionally connected to my partner before I'm in any way inclined toward them." He held out his arm, the Mark so faint it was barely noticeable. "It might be why this is so light. I don't know you well at all."

"It's darker than your first one," Hizashi muttered. He shook his empty glass and uncurled himself from his tight sulk to rummage around in the kitchen.

"Oh, uh..." Elly frowned, trying to remember everything she knew about the terms. Bi wasn't difficult, but the others she hadn't heard as often so she asked in as gentle a manner as possible. "I'm a little confused, Aizawa. I don't want to ask an insensitive question, but I'm not sure I understand exactly what <i>demi</i> means, especially when combined with ace."

He shrugged. "Don't be worried about offending - it took <i>me</i> a long time to figure out how I felt. I can't expect you to get it right away when it's more complicated from how you function."

Elly sighed with relief. "Thanks."

"I'm not interested much, if at all, in sex with another person unless I'm in love, and my desire is rare even then. I also have to be emotionally connected to someone - to know them well -- in order to feel love in the first place."

"Isn't that how it works? You get to know someone and then you fall in love?" Her furry ears wiggled with amusement.

"Is it what happened to you two?" He snorted. "You jumped on each other from the second your Marks aligned."

"Hey, now -" Hizashi was walking back from the fridge with another huge glass of beer. He hadn't known this fact about Aizawa, and the idea that he possibly wouldn't be sexually attracted to Elly appeared to calm him down some. "It wasn't <i>that</i> fast."

"Really? How many dates until you slept together?" They looked away and the blond-haired man coughed shyly. "I thought so. It's different for me. I don't get crushes or feel attraction to <i>anyone</i> unless I bond with them. And even then sexual attraction's still rare."

"We kinda bonded -"

"Hizashi, we moved really fast. And we definitely were attracted to each other right away."

Aizawa rubbed a hand across his eyes, gritting his teeth. "Look, I'm not deliberately trying to be an asshole. The point is, if I stay far away I'll never fall in love with you."

"But I'm right <i>next door</i>. We share a wall."

"Yes," he said sourly. "I know."

They all stared at each other.

Hizashi took a giant swig of beer and burped loudly. "Well, I guess, uh... <i>fuck</i>."

"That sums the situation up perfectly, thank you."