For as long as Lovino could remember, his wrist had been blank. Most everybody else had the tattoo since birth-the first words that they would hear from the mouth's of their soul mate. He didn't get made fun of for it. On the contrary, looks of pity were all he received when they saw his pale arm, void of words. Lovino hated it. He couldn't stand other people being sorry for him. What was even worse was his brother.

Perfect, perfect Feliciano. He had always been better at everything. Lovino knew this. He had a tattoo, wonderful art skills, he was cute-everything that Lovino believed he was not. He had already concluded that because he had no tattoo, he didn't have a soul mate, which meant that his parents would only get grandchildren from Feli. Lovino hated his life. His parents loved his younger brother more than him, and Lovino would probably end up dying alone. He couldn't take it. Lovino had become cold. He lashed out at any sign of affection, because the little voice in his head told him that it was all because they felt sorry for him.

Eventually, Lovino had had enough. He moved away from his stupid Italian family and ended up in Spain for college-he was becoming an art major, but only because that was the thing he thought he was actually decent at.

Little did he know, this choice would change the rest of his life.

.o0o0o0o.

Lovino was late. Very very late. He rushed down the sidewalk, not caring about how many people he cut off. These stupid Spanish people were slow, and if he missed his first class, it was definitely their fault. Most of them moved out of the way, thankfully.

Except for one person.

"Watch it, bastard!" He said as the person bumped into him. The man stopped, but Lovino kept going because if he was late, his future was in danger. When he felt a tugging at his shoulder, though, he whipped around. "What do you-" But his words were cut short and his eyes widened.

Before him was the most beautiful man he had ever seen-messy hazel locks and piercing green eyes. And in that moment, with this stranger holding his shoulder and looking at him in a way Lovino couldn't describe, nothing had ever felt so right. Then, the stranger held out his wrist and showed him something that made his heart flip.

'Watch it, bastard!' was there, inscribed in beautiful, loopy letters that looked suspiciously like his own handwriting. Lovino looked back up into those green eyes, and felt for a moment that he could die right now and he would be happy. The moment was ruined, though, when a girl similar to this stranger ran up.

"Antonio, there you are-who's this?" So his name was Antonio. For some reason, all he could think was that Antonio was the most goddamn beautiful thing he had ever heard. Antonio looked at her excitedly and made some sort of series of hand motions. The girl squealed and looked at Lovino. "You're his soul mate! Oh my gosh! This is perfect!"

Lovino paused for a moment before speaking. "I-If we're soul mates, how come he has a tattoo and I don't?" Both of their faces fell and the girl spoke again.

"Antonio's been mute since birth." This should've shattered his heart with pity and other feelings he couldn't describe, but instead it swelled with-with-

Love.

"He says that he hopes it's not a problem." She said. For some odd reason, he laughed.

"There's no goddamn problem at all." Antonio smiled and Lovino felt like he just fell in love with the man all over again. "I'm Lovino," he added softly.

And there began the life where Lovino felt happy, where he wasn't second to anybody else because he knew that Antonio loved him and no one else.

And it was goddamn perfect.