Based off of a thing I saw on Tumblr one time where the patch of your skin where your soul mate touches for the first time is black until it happens.

Akira knew that his
soul mate was out there, somewhere, waiting to kiss him, and he knew
their first touch would be a kiss. The black of his lips had been
telling him that for years. Back in junior high he had so many people
tell him he was lucky to have the dark color on his lips. There were
a few whose marks were on their throats, leaving them scared and
confused; a few others had theirs on their cheeks in what were
obviously slap marks but were played off as gentle caresses. Nobody
really wanted to think their soul mates could hurt them, but the
proof was out there in story after story after story. But lips? No,
you could never hurt someone when your first touch was a kiss.

When Akira had been
arrested and shipped off to Shujin he decided that for once, he would
hide the stupid mark. It wasn’t hard to find lipstick good enough to
match the color of his lips and able to cover the darkness behind it.
He didn’t want every person whose marks were in the same place to get
their hopes up whenever they saw him. He wanted his first kiss to be
from his soul mate. Not a stranger. Not someone he wasn’t supposed to
be with.

When he met Ryuji
for the first time he immediately noticed the bright color around his
wrist. A part of him felt jealous; the color there was still
saturated and mobile which meant whoever his soul mate was touched
that spot regularly. He remembered seeing his parents, their marks
dull and still on their shoulders the rare times they decided to wear
anything that might show the barest hint of skin. They always said ‘I
love you’ to each other but Akira knew. They were hollow words meant
to ease their consciences about the fact that over the years they’d
drifted apart and their connection had faded. It felt like they were
holding on to hollow promises at this point, staying together for
social reasons and maybe even for Akira’s sake.

He expected a
divorce the moment he left home forever. Could soul mates ever really
fall out of love though? Could something like that happen to a
person? Every person he had asked dodged the question and changed the
subject to something completely unrelated, which gave him all the
answers he needed. Soul mates could very well be temporary. But he
wanted to believe that he would have his forever. The first contact
they would have was their lips, after all, that had to mean
something.

When he saw Ann up
close he saw the color there and watched it pulse brighter after
she’d grabbed Ryuji’s wrist to pull him close to her. He couldn’t
even feel surprised. Akira wasn’t blind, Ann was gorgeous, a model in
both looks and work. There were a few other students there with
bright flashes of light on them and still, still
Akira felt jealous.

Yuuki’s
lips were black too. It made his heart jump in his chest.
Could…could it be possible? Could he be so lucky? He wanted to
believe. He’d had conversations with Yuuki before and they were all
so pleasant, comortable, easy. Something he felt pretty certain he’d
never had before in his life. After a while he felt confident enough
to show Yuuki the mark and they kissed and…they stayed dark.

Akira
felt so stupid, he’d wanted his first kiss to be with the person he
was supposed to be with and it wasn’t. Would his soul mate be
alright, knowing that his first kiss had been taken? Would it be a
problem for them? He hoped not. He really, really wanted to believe
that everything would be okay for him.

Yusuke’s
lips were black when they met. The second time they saw each other
they were bright and swirled with life. Yuuki’s were too, and Akira
understood. They’d found each other finally. More and more of his
friends, his teammates, found their soul mates and it made him spiral
further into himself. Jealousy was an awful look for Akira, but it
was one that he began to carry more and more often.

Even
Akechi noticed. That damn detective that chased the Thieves to the
end of the earth and gave Akira company from time to time. Their
chess matches were entertainment to him, their conversations (when
they didn’t begin to go down the rabbit hole of the Thieves) a nice
comfort to him. He always kept his lips covered with color and always
refused to drink anything around Akechi. The lipstick wasn’t cheap,
but he’d found over time that enough rubbing and it would begin to
fade. The color would show through and people might start bothering
him.

On
a whim one time he had asked Akechi about where his mark was.
Everyone had one, right?

“I
don’t,” Akechi had told him. “Some people are lucky enough to be
born without a soul mate. They aren’t forced to spend their lives
waiting anxiously for some fated attraction to begin. It’s stupid to
believe that there’s someone out there for you. The concept of soul
mates is abhorrent. What if your supposed ‘soul mate’ isn’t who you
thought they were? Why would you want to put the entirety of your
happiness in whether or not another person decided you were worth
their time?” Akira had watched Akechi take a small sip of his
coffee and smile and Akira’s heart had fluttered in his chest. Their
eyes had met and Akechi returned with, “Where is your mark?”

“I
don’t have one either.”

Why
couldn’t Akechi have had black lips? Why couldn’t they have matched?
Why couldn’t Akira have been lucky for once in his life?

He
got lazy one night. Sojiro knew about the mark, knew about how sore
of a subject it was for him and never talked about it. The lipstick
in the center of his lips had smudged off while he was studying and
had rubbed off on the coffee cup. The cushion of the booth behind him
felt nice and the cafe felt cool and relaxing and Morgana sat curled
up at the end of the table-

And
Akechi walked in with another of his paper smiles on his face. Akira
scrambled to hurry upstairs and in his panic managed to drop his cup
on the floor. It didn’t break thankfully, but it spilled everywhere
and Akira let out a soft swear.

“Don’t
worry about it kid, just let me take care of it,” Sojiro hummed.
Akechi stared in surprise and set his case down on the stool nearest
him slowly, almost like he wanted to help. “You too. I got this,
don’t worry-”

“Your
lips.” Akira slapped a hand over his mouth and without a word
turned to dart upstairs. Morgana stood from his place on the table
and began following after him up into his room. Akechi stared after
him with confusion on his face for a few moments before carefully
moving past Sojiro upstairs to find Akira scrambling around his room
obviously on the hunt for something.

“Where
is it where the hell is it where is it!?” Movement out of the
corner of his eyes made him stop and turn, expecting to see Sojiro
standing there and maybe even holding the tube of lipstick and
instead found Akechi standing there slackjawed. Immediately Akira
turned back to continue looking through his things and trying to hold
back tears. “Go back downstairs Akechi I’m fine, don’t-”

“You
told me you didn’t have a mark,” Akechi whispered. “Why did you
lie?” Akira set his hand on his table and stared down at the floor
in front of his feet. His lips pursed slightly and smeared more of
the lipstick around. “Why did you lie to me Akira? Why do you cover
it up?”

“Because
I don’t like it,” Akira answered back quietly. “People always
told me that I was lucky to have my mark on my lips. That it meant I
would probably never be hurt. I’ve had plenty of people with matching
lips try and kiss me and when I slapped them away they backed off but
it’s annoying. They said that whoever my soul mate was would probably
be romantic or something and all I can think about is the way
everybody sees me.” He wiped a few stray tears from underneath his
eyes and yanked his schoolbag up to begin looking through it. He
found his lipstick tucked underneath one of his books and pulled it
out before hesitating and setting it down on the desk beside him.
Akechi had seen the mark after all.

“Show
me.” Akira turned to him in confusion and watched Akechi step
closer to him. Curiosity shone in those soft crimson eyes, a strange
sight for Akira to see, and convincing enough for him to calmly wipe
the lipstick away as asked. Akechi stared down at his lips for a
long, long while in thought.

“Why?”

“For
this.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Akira’s and his
heart jumped up into his throat. For a moment he kissed back happily,
forgetting all about soul mates and marks and the world around him.
For a moment all he could think about was the fac that he and Akechi
were finally kissing, finally touching for the first time and that
Akechi felt so warm against him.

Once
his brain caught up to him he shoved the brunette away and wiped at
his lips roughly. He opened his mouth to argue and yell before his
eyes caught a flash of light from Akechi’s lips and wonder in his
eyes. He turned to his mirror and stepped forward and gasped.

The
colors, he thought, looked so much brighter on your own skin than
they did on someone else’s.