This is another Secret Santa present (from the same exchange) for catknigt on tumblr! I really have no excuse for how cheesy this is, but I hope you enjoy!

By the time Toko turned seventeen, she was convinced that she didn't have a soulmate. Everyone's soul link manifested on their sixteenth birthday, but not a scratch of ink appeared on her skin for the entire year. She'd tried writing on her own skin to see if she could garner a response, but nothing ever happened. And every day she had to deal with her classmates and their soul links, she grew more and more bitter.

One day in particular, she was in an awful mood. It was dreary outside, and she already had a headache from her overly noisy classmates. She was used to tuning out their conversations about soulmates, too, but she somehow let one conversation slip through.

"Today's your sister's sixteenth birthday, right?" It was a fairly regular conversation, just about birthdays. No big deal, right?

Makoto nodded in response to Sayaka's question. "Yeah, she's really excited to find her soulmate. It's all she's been talking about for the last week."

And there it was. Toko buried herself in her book, slumping over in her desk chair. She quite literally could not care less about someone else's soulmate, even Komaru's. She'd met Komaru a couple times before, and while she was nice to Toko, she had a feeling that it was only out of pity.

She scratched at her arm involuntarily, the fabric of her shirt rubbing uncomfortably against her already dry skin. If she had a dollar for every time she checked for writing on her forearm, she would be rich.

Needless to say, she ignored the rest of their conversation. Her mood took a nosedive after that, going from mildly irritable like most days to the point where if someone looked at her she would snap at them. She fled from school the minute she was able to, wanting nothing more than to go home and forget about the whole day. She would make herself something for dinner, go to her room, and write until her eyes burned. Just like every day.

Nobody was home when she arrived, as usual. It felt like she could go days without seeing her parents, which wasn't awful in her opinion. She brought microwaved leftovers to her room, already planning the next scene of her novel in her mind. The protagonist was going to meet her true love, and they would seal the scene with a heartfelt conversation punctuated by a cool, running feeling on her wrist-

Wait. What?

Toko set the leftovers on her desk, yanking up her sleeve. At first she thought she spilled some water or something down her arm, but that obviously wasn't the case. Instead, in glittery purple ink, there was a message.

"Hey, Soulmate! You out there?"

All at once, she felt nauseated and lightheaded. This had to be a prank, right? There was no way, after trying to contact them for a year, her soulmate would randomly write back!

Should she even bother writing them back? The two of them obviously had a soul link, but…

Screw it. She uncapped her favorite ballpoint pen and scrawled "Who are you?" under the other message.

A moment passed. "My name's Komaru Naegi! What's yours?"

Komaru Naegi. As in, Makoto's sister who turned sixteen today. As in, the girl she'd met on a few occasions outside of school. As in, arguably an acquaintance-friend. This was her soulmate?

Cold tinged her skin again. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here." As weird as this was, she had no reason not to write back. After all, it was literally impossible to fake a soul link when you're the only person in the room. On an impulse, she wrote more, her writing becoming cramped as she ran out of space. "I've been trying to find you for a year."

That means you're seventeen, right? I just turned sixteen." That, of course, corroborated what Makoto said before. It also explained why she'd never talked to her soulmate before. "Can you tell me about yourself?"

They spent all night writing back and forth, the longest Toko ever talked to anyone. Taking away the face-to-face variable made it a lot easier. Komaru couldn't see how ugly Toko was. That was probably the only reason Komaru was still talking to her.

Before she fell asleep, Komaru wrote out one more sloppy message. "Meet me at the coffee shop with the hot chocolate after school tomorrow."

And Toko, being too tired to protest, said "Okay."

She was a ball of nerves the next day- well, more so than usual. She kept waiting to feel the cool drag of ink against her skin, but the sensation never came. It looked like she'd have to wait until after school for their next correspondence.

So of course Makoto was updating his friends about Komaru's soulmate situation. "Strange, though. They're meeting today, but her soulmate never gave her their name."

Whoops.

Well, it's not like it mattered anyway. She knew who Komaru was, so she could just show up and show her the writing. It was kind of funny how she already felt closer to Komaru than she had before on those few occasions when they hung out. Hopefully, Komaru felt the same.

Still, though, she couldn't help but be a bit skeptical. She knew that her soul link was genuine now, but she didn't even know if Komaru would like her like that. She didn't even know if Komaru was into girls! Heck, she barely knew that she herself was into girls before meeting Komaru.

On the other hand, she wasn't just going to go against the link. Her moms had done that with her dad, and look at where that ended up. No, she would test the waters tonight and let Komaru decide.

X-X-X

Komaru was extremely lucky that Toko knew where the coffee shop where the hot chocolate was, otherwise she'd be wandering for hours. Komaru was already there when Toko arrived, staring into a mug of hot chocolate.

"Hey, Komaru," she said, trying her best not to sound too awkward. She was pretty sure she failed miserably.

Komaru looked up at her with a smile. "Hi, Toko! Wanna sit with me?"

Well, that was easy enough. "Are you waiting for someone?" She couldn't help but be a bit distracted by the ink running down Komaru's arm, Toko's own handwriting taking up a small portion.

"My soulmate is going to meet me here." She glanced out the window for a minute. "I'm kinda nervous, you know? Like, what if whoever it is doesn't like me? What then?"

"I don't think you have to worry about that." But, of course, how would Komaru know that for sure?

She kept right on talking. Apparently she did that when she was nervous. "I know enough about them already- I talked to them last night- but they didn't give me their name. Does that mean they don't like me enough to tell me?" She sighed, slouching over her mug. "Toko, this is all so confusing. It's not like my crush on you-"

Toko blinked hard as Komaru slapped a hand over her mouth. A crush? On her? She didn't think that was humanly possible.

Komaru started to apologize, but Toko could barely pay attention as she rolled up her sleeve, exposing the matching ink marks. It was safe to say that that shut Komaru up pretty quickly.

They were both completely silent for a few awkward seconds, even after Toko tugged her sleeve back down. "So," Komaru started, her voice a bit small. "That happened."

"Yes it did." Jeez, could this be any more awkward? "S-so, you had a crush on me?" Yes, yes it could.

Komaru looked down at the table, fidgeting with a string bracelet she was wearing. "Have. Present tense."

Okay, then. "And now we're soulmates." Way to state the obvious, Toko.

"Kinda overwhelming, isn't it?" Komaru straightened again, a smile back on her face. "But hey! We're both here now. We don't have to look for each other. That's better than a couple of my classmates- their soulmates are from across the country, or other countries."

When she thought about it, the situation did seem kind of perfect. "Are you sure you're okay with me being your soulmate? I-I'm not that pretty, or-"

"Stop it! You're beautiful just the way you are, and besides, I don't judge on looks. You have a good heart, and you're very smart. I always hear about your booksmarts from my brother. I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather have for a soulmate."

All of a sudden, Toko felt like she was inside one of her novels. She felt herself relax, her frown lifting into a semi-smile. She let Komaru take her hand gently, and she couldn't help but think that a year of waiting was totally worth it.