Of Cats And Crows

Chapter One

Long ago, people started to notice strange markings appearing on people's skin. No one is quite sure when it started. But humanity finally realised what they were deep into the fifth era. After completing a task- wich would be as unique as each person themselves- it could be as simple as washing the dishes when you are seven, to winning the Olympics at the age of 55- a small area on a person's skin would become shaded, as if permanently tanned, and it would only fade when another person became sixteen and drew on the same place on their bodies in either blue, red, white, or black ink, in the same place. If the person had not yet done their task (and their was no way of knowing what task it would be until the mark appeared, either the discolouration of skin where the mark was to be or the mark itself), and yet the other had drawn on the place, the mark would not appear until the task was completed.

Gradually people gave this ritual a name; the bonding of soulmates, for indeed, these people were soulmates.

Yet not everyone found their soulmate. If a soulmate died, the permanent vibrancy of the marking would dim, to grey, or a paler blue or red depending on what coulour ink was used. Not every soulmate pair was romantic; it could be platonic too. Some were rejected; and the ink would turn darker than before. Some didn't bother with soulmates at all. It was hard not to believe in them in a world surrounded by people who had joined through a small drawing on their skin, but there was and probably always would be oblivious idiots in the world.

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

Hinata looked down at his bag, contemplating the contents.
Clothes? Check. Medicine? Check. Torch in case he needs to go to the bathroom in the night again? Check. Volleyball magazine- to be read on the bus- check. Sweets? Check.
Hinata nodded to himself, he had all he needed for the two week long training camp at Shiritorizawa.

The boy sighed at the rather large yellow and black zip bag, wich contained his medicines. Tesserian Foore, the extremely rare medical condition that his father had died from, was both dangerous and unique. Unfortunately, it was also heridatery, and Shouyou Hinata had gained it from his father. As it was rare, not much was known about the desease; he was always being given new medicine to try, but the doctors had decided that he was allowed to do sports, yet he had to be careful, and if he needed to, take a break. He had agreed. What they didn't know, was that 'being careful' and 'taking breaks' didn't seem to be in his vocabulary, as seen by the constant bruises he came home with, the root being the many volleyballs he was constantly being hit by.

The teen smiled, at least this camp would be fun. He was all prepared for emergencies! Surely with all the precautions he was going to take, he would be fine. He would last the entire camp without passing out, he was sure of it! Hinata nodded, his mini pep talk over, and glanced at his soulmate symbols. Unlike most, he had gained two symbols, meaning he had two soulmates (and he fully believed that this made him extra lucky, whatever anyone said about it being 'wierd' - not that many did). The symbol had appeared after Hinata had seen the tiny giant, and had pledged to defeat the King of the Court, the tyrant Kageyama Tobio, who was now his partner on the court. The appearence of the bruise-like marks had made him all the more determined to become the best at volleyball.

The pen markings had appeared at two different times the previous year, indicating both his soulmates were about a year older than him. On one arm was a drawing of a Calico cat, curled On top a switch. It was surprisingly detailed for its small size, the cat being in black and white and his skin tone ontop of a blue and red console that peeked out from underneath the fur. ( I'm sorry I have no inspiration for what the drawings would be) and just above his anckle was a drawing of a volleyball in blue, red and white, with a black outline of a sword infront, and a shield behind both, as if it was a coat of arms like one of the English stories he'd read.

This was all before he had discovered that he had Tesserian Foore. Although the fifteen year old still thought that soulmates was a magical idea, he didn't believe he deserved them, completely believing he would simply be a burden, that if he did fall in love with the people, he would simply bring suffering to them, like his father's death had to his mother. He didn't want to put anyone through that, let alone his soulmates.

Of course, he didn't blame his father, but hearing the quiet sobs of his mother late at night, when she believed he was asleep, broke him a little more each time. The thought that if he lost the fight against the illness, his younger sister Natsu would have to grow up without both a brother and a father that had originally been there, hurt him immensely. But it just strengthened his resolve to live. He didn't want a soulmate. No point hurting more people than need to if he failed. But that wasn't going to stop him from making friends, or making the most of what he had while he had it. The possibility of death would not stop him from living, after all, death was inevitable. Eternal. Life was finite, for some more than others. Hinata had been taught to make use of what he had and be thankful for it, so he would live his life to the full, so that when death came knocking, he could take it's hand and go forth on to the next adventure.

Well, mostly live life to the full. He really didn't want to hurt another person by his death. And his soulmates... Well there were two of them. They surely had each other. They didn't need a useless, broken, deseased boy who was simply prolonging his life span against the inevitable.

Sighing again, Hinata shook his head of the bad thoughts and zipped up his bag for the next day, then crashed onto his bed, not forgetting to take the pills on the bedside cabinet and set his alarm early the next morning so he would be up in time for the training camp. Soon the small ginger haird figure fell into a deep sleep, weary from all the thinking and the volleyball practice he had earlier.

Hi! I hope you like the first chapter!

Did the soulmate explanation make sense? I'm not sure 😅

I didn't have much ideas for the markings, so I hope those two are good enough!

Does anyone have any ideas for other soulmate markings- for the rest of the players?

Oh, and the desease is entirely made up. The illnesses I have come into contact with (by myself or others having them) either don't work with the story line or are too sensitive a topic for me to write about, and I didn't want to use something I had never come into contact with, as I probably wouldn't write it well, and possibly disvalue the desease, so I hope you don't mind me making one up!

I hope you enjoyed this! Another chapter will (hopefully) be out soon depending on how my schoolwork is going. Oh, and btw I have a discord in my bio if you want to join! Don't have to tho! 😸

Remember to look after yourselves, because wether you believe it or not your amazing ❤️
-Crescent