Title: Repeat (Tsuna's Story)
Summary: Tsuna's Soul Mark spells out a word again and again, wrapping his hips like a belt. He assumes, despite the strange repetition, that it's one Soul Mark instead of many. His friends disagree.
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People are born with their Soul Mark, but it only fades into existence at around five or six years of age. Children are told, as soon as they can understand, that these Marks are a representation of their Soul Mate.
They are told that it can be a sentence spoken to or from their Soul Mate, perhaps even a word or picture describing them. They are reassured, over and over, that these Marks can be metaphors and most should not be taken literally.
It's not a new concept, even at that early age. Hundreds, probably thousands of websites and organisations dedicate themselves to helping people find Soul Mates. Plus, there's a ridiculous amount of people writing stories about their life journey, whether they find their Soul Mate or not.
Occasionally, a new celebrity has their Mark leaked to the masses and suddenly every single fan is getting it tattooed on themselves. Sometimes talk shows or news channels broadcast stories about people finding their intended.
Love sells, and true love sells even more.
However, despite the media being saturated with such things, it's still a shock to children when it finally happens to them. A boy in Tsuna's class bursts into tears one day because when his Soul Mark fades into existence on his foot, it spells out, God, what a loser. Another girl crawls under a desk and wails about how her wrist has a "Gross, purple crocodile!" on it.
In Tsuna's case, it's a lot more anticlimactic. His Mark is in another language and it takes a while for him to find out what it actually means in Japanese. It makes him pause for a moment, but Tsuna decides that even though his word implies some pretty bad things about his intended, he doesn't care. Tsuna will get to know her first and then make decisions.
After all, the Mark is a guideline. It's initially vague and difficult to interpret in most cases.
As he grows past that wide-eyed, optimistic phase, the teachers start to prepare the children for the worst. They give simplified statistics to the class of five-year-olds, about how likely it is that people guess right.
They warn them that only around thirteen percent of the world's population, the ones who try the hardest, get their Soul Mates. They make sure to emphasise how you don't need a Soul Mate to live happily.
Tsuna's dreams come crashing down.
At home he traces the belt of words that sit low on his hips, just below the edge of his pants, and contemplates if he's lucky enough to be in that thirteen percent.
It's a resounding no.
He eyes the word, repeating in different handwriting (something that's always confused him) and resigns himself to not caring. Unfortunately, thoughts don't work that way. So instead of moving on, his mind picks apart any meaning that can spawn from the word Mafia.
Kyoko is someone Tsuna has always hoped was his Soul Mate as soon as he saw her. Her smile is beautiful, not only because she's cute, but also the fact that it lights up the room with her earnest joy, and just being around her makes Tsuna happy.
So one day he finally gathers up enough courage to ask her what she thinks about the Mafia. Unfortunately, she has no idea what he's talking about. But Tsuna persists and snatches up a pencil, writing it in his neatest handwriting on the corner of a page. Also unfortunately, he writes it in Italian instead of Katakana.
She says she likes how the word looks, unknowing of what it means, and Tsuna falls hard.
From then on, despite not confronting her again, Tsuna is adamant Kyoko is his Soul Mate. It makes sense to him; she likes the word, and his Mark has different handwriting, so she must like how it looks in different forms instead of actually being interested in what the word 'Mafia' represents.
Tsuna is content, because any other problem or hardship they encounter can be sorted out together.
He neglects to find out what her Mark is.
In fact, Tsuna is so certain Kyoko is his intended, that when an insane baby arrives, he completely ignores any signs that his theory could be wrong. This continues for a very, very long time despite hard evidence to the contrary.