This is actually my first attempt at writing fanfiction in a while, and my first solo attempt at writing KHR! fanfiction. I thought I had moved beyond this series after the manga had finished, but I recently started watching the anime again and despite its flaws, I still think the series is fairly entertaining and the characters lively and enjoyable. That said, a few things have always bothered me, but none more than the way that the girls are portrayed in the series. So my main desire to write this was to portray the girls doing more, since I thought there was a lot of wasted potential with them. But I also wanted to try my hand at a soulmate au fic, and it really bothers me how so few soulmate aus involve platonic relationships. So essentially, this fanfiction is my attempt to combine these two desires together and make a contribution to this fandom, which was probably the first fandom I actually got invested into. I'll admit that I'm not entirely sure of the scope of this story at the moment, but I hope to at least produce something positive from this. Hopefully you'll stick around with me.

Tsuna had always worried about the day when he would meet one of his soulmates for the first time. All that everyone around him seemed to care about were the soul marks that were scattered on each other's bodies. How many, what shapes, what colors – if it was related to the marks, it was relevant. But for Tsuna, his soul marks brought him a sense of dread rather than fascination. It didn't help that quite a few of his marks were depictions of various weapons, but the fact that he had eleven marks, which was far from the average of two was what really got to him.

Ever since he could remember, his mother had been preparing him on how to handle his… situation. When he was still an infant, she had taken a picture of all of his marks so he would know their original forms – if a mark didn't match up with the picture, he had at least had one direct interaction with one of his soul mates, and so the two of them would have an identical mark on both of their bodies. But knowing what the marks looked like wasn't enough – he needed to be able to survive, if the gun sketched over the center of his spine was any indication of the dangers he might encounter. And so before he was ever in a school, his mom, aware of the potential dangers soulmates could bring, had Tsuna training his body daily so that if someone were to try to hurt him, he might have a chance of fighting back and surviving. He never questioned his mom about her motivations or why she was so quick to interpret that the marks would more than likely bring more than just a little bit of trouble – even without her saying anything, he saw the way she stared at her own mark, a brilliant night sky filled with gleaming stars plastered on her right arm, with downcast eyes. With his father's constant absence and the tears that poured out from under the furrowed eyebrows of his mother whenever he contacted her, Tsuna was just beginning to comprehend the anguish that his mother felt. On those days, she would place him on her lap and say, "Love isn't easy, but one day, you'll have a lot of people who love you."

By the time he was six, he already started hoping that he wouldn't meet any of his soulmates. Not if it would cause him as much pain as his mother felt. But being surrounded by kids still filled with excitement, well, he wasn't exactly mister popular when the others caught wind of his cynicism. When asked in an assignment to convey his feelings on his marks, he honestly remarked that he would rather not meet his soulmate and live a happier life than meet his soulmate and suffer. Unfortunately for him, nobody else in his class comprehended his sentiment.

"What a loser," one of the kids in his class called out to him one day, "how sad do you have to be to not want a soulmate?"

"He probably doesn't want one because he doesn't have one!" Another boy called out. A few of their classmates started surrounding Tsuna, backing him up against the wall. If it had just been one, he might have been able to fight back, like his mother was teaching him how. But three? He was forced into a defensive position.

"Why don't we check, just to make sure?" One of the boys asked, and Tsuna was already pushing his back up against the wall, preparing to kick them away. He didn't want their hands on him, roughly pulling at his clothes just to get another reason to ridicule him. He was all too grateful that none of his marks were visible on his legs or hands, but there was one on his wrist and another on the back of his neck that were barely hidden by his shirt. It wouldn't take too long for them to find all of the strange marks. He needed a way out, a chance to escape.

"What are you three doing to that boy?" a voice boomed from behind from behind them. Looking up to see a teacher scrutinizing the scene, Tsuna sighed his relief. His would-be tormentors gave lame replies before the teacher ordered them to separate and return to their class immediately. After checking to ensure that Tsuna was okay, the teacher also sent him off as well. Although Tsuna did his best to hide the pain and embarrassment in his face with a smile, his mother immediately noticed something was off when she picked him up that afternoon. Seeing the way he clutched his sleeves, she knew what the trouble had been.

Tsuna had gotten used to being the last one picked for a team during PE or recess. Though he wasn't the weakest student in his class or the most athletically inapt, he knew the other kids preferred to avoid him for the same reasons that they always did. So when it was time to play baseball and he was automatically sent far outfield when it was his team's turn to take the field, he didn't complain. Knowing how unlikely it would be for one of the batters to swing hard to send anything towards him, he shifted his head upwards and watched as the clouds morphed into dragons, whales, and all sorts of other creatures. He almost didn't notice when his classmates started yelling his name, telling him to pay attention. He was so focused on the that was on a straight course to crashing into his face, that he failed to notice the figure dashing towards him. Squeezing his eyes shut and meekly raising up his hand so he could claim that he attempted to catch the ball, he was surprised to hear the soft thud of the ball without feeling anything on his face.

"Caught it!" another kid exclaimed besides Tsuna. When Tsuna finally opened his eyes, he noticed one of his classmates, Yamamoto Takeshi, standing right beside him. Although the boy had a wide grin on his face, his eyes were slightly narrowed as he looked at Tsuna. "Try to pay a little more attention next time, okay?"

Tsuna nodded, trying to formulate a response. But before he could get any words out of his mouth, he noticed an extending mark on Takeshi's right arm. Rather than containing a single, simple image of an object or place like most of their classmates' marks, Takeshi's depicted a scene of a small blue bird flying under a blue sky filled with dark clouds. Tsuna had only seen marks like that on adults, like his mom.

"Hmm? Is something wrong?" Before Takeshi looked back at Tsuna, he had thrown the ball back infield, too focused on the game to notice his classmate gazing up at him.

"Oh, sorry!" Tsuna said, immediately averting his eyes and forcing his head down a little. "It's just... Your mark isn't like everyone else's."

Out of the corner of his eyes, Tsuna noticed when Takeshi looked down at the image on his arm. The other boy's expression immediately widened, his grin disappearing to as his mouth opened just for a moment. But just as quickly as shock overcame him, Takeshi managed to fix his face with an amused expression that seemed to sit naturally on his features.

"Wow! It wasn't like that earlier. I wonder if maybe..." As Takeshi looked at Tsuna, Tsuna couldn't stop the heat that was rushing towards his cheeks as he understood what the other boy had just insinuated. Even though he had the same thought just moments before, he didn't dare say it out loud. Tsuna had nothing against Takeshi, but the thought of being the soulmate of someone as well-liked as him, it just didn't sit right with him. And yet... "It's a shame that-"

"Inside, when we're changing, please wait for me!" Tsuna cried out, cutting the other boy off before he could finish. Tsuna's sudden outburst startled Takeshi, but once he understood Tsuna's implications, he nodded and returned to his infield position. For the rest of the game, Tsuna was even more distracted than before, but fortunately for him, no one else got close to swinging outfield, and no one expected him to hit the ball when his team was up to bat.

Once it was time to change, Tsuna immediately isolated himself from the rest of the class. He was used to changing after everyone left, but for once, he started changing immediately. Carefully examining his arms and torso before putting his uniform back on, he looked for any differences in the marks. No. No. No. No. No. No. No- At the top of his left forearm, the first thing he noticed was blue. The blue sky, blue bird, blueish gray clouds... And then he knew.

"Takeshi-kun?" Tsuna called out hesitantly after dressing again, unsure if the boy was even around.

"Oh, hey, Tsuna! I didn't see where you had run off earlier."

"Ah, sorry about that... But I have something to show you," Tsuna said, pushing up the sleeve of his left arm. Tsuna waited as Takeshi examined his arm, anxiety plaguing him about how the boy in front of him would react.

"So does that mean...?"

"Yeah," Tsuna replied, "it looks like we're soulmates."

I know Tsuna always calls Takeshi by his family name, but I figured since they were kids, he would probably be a little less formal. I hope that change doesn't bother you, since I'll be using it throughout the story.

Sorry if the characters seem a little OOC, though I guess that they were never going to be exactly like their original counterparts in the first place. Still, I'll try my best to make sure that they don't deviate too much aside from the changes that would require them to be quite different.

Also, I apologize for any mistakes I might have made with grammar or spelling. I tried to catch as many mistakes as I could, but I'll need to go back later and check to make sure I didn't miss anything else.

Please let me know what you guys think! I'm curious as to whether you have any guesses about who the remaining ten soulmates could be. And what you think in general, honestly.