Fred's knee gently thumps impatiently against the underside of his desk as he stares longingly at the clock-honestly, when his dad had asked him to audit a couple of classes at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology to learn more about the family business (even though he was already taking a full load working towards earning an English degree at SF State), he'd agreed just to avoid a major argument (he'd had enough of those to last him a lifetime, thank you very much.)

He'd thought it would be easy enough-he didn't even have to do the coursework, he just had to sit in the classroom and pretend like he was paying attention. But this was a three hour lecture, and even if it was only once a week it was torture. Sure, maybe it was a good thing for him to know more about the stuff they were teaching at this school since he was going to mascotting for it (that was part of the deal, his dad had managed to help him get the open mascotting position at his alma mater since Fred was willing to sit in on the classes.) Unfortunately the professor droning on and on about circuits and raspberry pi's (wasn't that some kind of dessert?) didn't exactly inspire much school spirit in him. His one consolation was that everyone except a few diligent students in the front row had given up on note taking by this point and were looking just as lost as he felt.

The fanboy only stopped his fidgeting when the knee thumping apparently got a little too loud and the professor turned to give him a nasty glare before returning to his lecture. Fred fought the childish urge to stick his tongue out at his back but decided against it-his father would kill him if he got kicked out on the first week of classes. He debates pulling out his phone to check his tumblr feed, but even if he hid it under his desk or behind a book he might risk the same fate. So he went back to his boredom buster of the last hour-tattoo spotting.

It was a game that he'd been playing since he was little and, admittedly, had gotten him into trouble on a number of occasions when he'd accidentally taken it too far. Still, it was a lot of fun and had left him a much more observant person, so he was willing to accept the bit of risk that came with it. His eyes trail across the row of students he'd left off on before he'd accidentally gotten caught staring at someone with a tattoo that was especially tricky to find and had had to quickly pretend like he was actually paying attention to the lecture.

No one really understood when or how it had started happening. Maybe things had always been this way-there were certainly no historical records to say otherwise. Every human on the planet was born with a tattoo-like a birthmark, only personalized to fit their personality and passion in life. Some people thought that a tattoo controlled your destiny, while others felt that it was something that you could make whatever you wanted to of-Fred was definitely among the latter camp. Still, even he couldn't help but admit that often times a tattoo said a lot about a person, and ever since he'd been little he'd been fascinated with the phenomena. He felt like it was a secret code that he needed to break. Many others had tried and failed to understand how exactly the tattoos occurred or what they meant-every culture and people group had their own interpretation. Some religious sects and cults claimed to be "enlightened" and to know the true meaning behind it, but Fred had looked into all of them and none of them honestly seemed to have "the answer" or anything close to it when you looked too hard into their teachings. So he was honestly still out here on his own, trying to figure things out.

Well, not exactly "figure it out" anymore-eventually he'd come to accept that maybe the whole tattoo thing was too big of a mystery to be understood by any one person, and he'd decided that maybe that's the way whatever divine influences that were out there meant it to be. Maybe there really wasn't one right or wrong interpretation, they were all looking at different pieces of the same puzzle and it wouldn't be until some time in the future-if ever-or maybe in whatever came after this life that they would be able to see the whole picture. Still, that didn't mean that Fred had to give up his game-if anything, he liked to think the Powers That Be enjoyed his curiosity and the way he marveled at all the creativity and artistry that must go into designing each of those unique tattoos.

All right, let's see… Fred was back to staring at the girl he'd been trying to figure out before. Her tattoo wasn't in an obviously visible place which was making it hard to him to find it-that was his game, trying to find people's tattoos and guess what they might have to say about that person. Eventually he had to give up-either it was placed somewhere he just couldn't see from this angle, someplace that she couldn't show for modesty reasons, or she was just one of those people who had a thing about keeping their tattoo covered. He knew that some people had reasons-personal, religious, or otherwise-to keep their markings covered, and he was willing to respect that. Still, he thought it was a shame that someone felt like they couldn't share something that was so beautiful and amazing with the rest of the world.

Then again, Fred knew that there were some people who took it too far to the opposite extreme-making the tattoo the most important thing about them, more important than their own personhood, marking it all over everything they owned and finding every possible way that they could to show it off. Some celebrities cashed in on the branding that came with their tattoos, selling items with their mark on them, while fans would create artificial tattoos to show their devotion. A few fans even actually had the tattoo show up on their bodies, and Fred had to cringe slightly, both for their sakes and the sakes of the celebrities.

Receiving someone else's tattoo was the sign of the purest and sweetest love. It never went away, and it was often the way that a couple realized that they were meant for each other. But one-way markings were more than possible-not uncommon, actually-and the idea of a fan having the mark of someone they cared so much about but would never actually be able to return those feelings must be ridiculously painful. At least it wasn't as bad as a true unrequited love, though. Fred had seen enough of those to know how much it must hurt to have the mark of someone you loved but could never be with as a constant reminder on your very skin. As unpredictable as the location of tattoos showing up could be, at the very least the unrequited ones tended to appear in places that were usually covered or hard to see, which the fanboy could only hope helped in some form or fashion.

Fred himself had never been marked by any tattoo but his own-he'd never found the right guy, honestly, and for now he was perfectly content with the midnight blue Japanese dragon that wound around his left wrist like a playful pet. Someday, if he was lucky, the right man would come along and he'd feel like the luckiest guy in the world to have his tattoo on him and to see his own dragon on the person he would hopefully spend the rest of his life with. But for now it was just him and Ryu, as he'd playfully named his marking (hey, it looked like an animal, it wasn't that weird!), and he wasn't in a rush to find anyone.

The sudden sound of books being closed and papers being shuffled brought the fanboy back to the present and he realizes that class must be over.

Finally! He grins and he stand up and slings his bag over his shoulder. Freedom!

He makes his way to the door, trying his best to get lost in the crush of students all surging through it on their way out into the late August sunshine. He didn't know if the crotchety old professor running this class might try to stop him on the way out and talk to him about his "behavior", but he wasn't about to stick around to find out!

As soon as he's out the door, he closes his eyes and tilts his head towards the sun, opening his arms to welcome its warming rays. So maybe he was being dramatic, he'd only been in there for three hours, but it felt like longer!

"That's exactly what I want to do after a three hour lecture."
Fred's eyes instantly fly open and he lowers his arms, blushing slightly. He knew that he'd been acting a little bit like a drama queen, but he didn't expect someone to actually call him on it! Still, the chuckling that came with the words was friendly, and he turns to find-

Oh. Wow. Fred definitely wasn't a believer in love at first sight, but this guy was making a pretty good case for major aesthetic attraction. Soft black hair with bangs just a little too long so they kept falling into his gorgeous almond shaped brown eyes, the clothing style of a classic nerd, he was pretty much the cutest person Fred had run into, either in real life or in fiction. His entire being just exuded sweet, simple innocence, but without giving off the air of being someone who needed someone else to take care of him. At a glance, he was definitely someone Fred could see himself majorly falling for if given the chance-and he'd just made a complete and total fool of himself in front of him.

Still, the other guy wasn't walking away, just looking expectantly at him up from under those heart-meltingly thick black eyelashes as if waiting for his reply.

"Well, yeah, y'know, these long classes can be such a pain in the neck," the fanboy finally manages to get out before playfully rubbing the back of his neck and, giving an over-the-top wince, adding, "Literally. Who knew that sitting in a cold, hard chair made out of unforgiving plastic could make you so sore? Wait, pretty much anyone who knows anything about spinal care on the planet."

"Pretty much," the stranger laughs, and Fred's heart almost stops at just how beautiful his smile was. "Still, I guess that there's something to be said for the budget-there are more important things for the money we pay for tuition to go to than better chairs."

"What's more important than students' health and well being?" Fred counters-damn, he really needed to curb his natural instinct to argue any point to its sometimes extremely messy end.

"The technology and supplies in the labs that are going to helping students build a better future?" the other man answers with a wry smile.

"...All right, fair point," Fred agrees, glad that the extremely cute stranger had come up with a satisfactory answer that might get his stupid mouth to stop talking nonsense.

"So, what major are you?" the other man asks, gently shifting his bag's strap into a more comfortable position on his shoulder (okay, he was carrying an actual bag, not just a backpack-maybe he was just being fashion forward, or was that maybe just a tiny bit of a good sign that he might actually be gay?)

"I'm majoring in robotics, but I'm taking some medical classes too for research," the guy prompts gently when Fred doesn't immediately answer, too caught up in trying to figure out if the other man was holding an actual extended conversation with him just out of politeness or if this was just a very casual form of flirting.

"Oh! Robotics!" Fred finally manages to get out. "Robotics is awesome! I mean, not that I'm a robotics major! I might be if I was any good at it, but I can't even hammer a nail into wood. I'm an English major. Actually. At SF State."

"An English major?" If the other man was at all put off by the way the poor fanboy had pretty much just vomited a whole rainbow colored stream of social awkwardness onto him, he didn't show it. Instead he just says calmly, "That sounds like a lot of fun! If I wasn't going for robotics, I might have considered doing that myself-maybe become a high school English teacher or something since I've always loved reading and working with kids."

"Maybe it can be your backup plan?" Fred offers weakly, taking the guy's chance at redeeming himself like it was the last life preserver on the Titanic.

"Maybe," the stranger agrees with a warm smile before adding curiously, "So, I have to ask, if you're an English major over at SF State, what were you doing in an intro to robotics class?"

"My dad," Fred answers, glad for a more normal conversation topic. "I think he wants me to follow in his footsteps and he hopes that having me auditing a few classes here might change my mind but being an engineer just isn't for me…"

"It's definitely not the path for everyone," the other man agrees with a sympathetic smile. "I'm lucky that I ended up taking after my parents so it wasn't a struggle for me to fulfill their dream for me. Y'know, not that they're actually around to see me doing this… I mean, in a metaphorical sense, maybe…" He flushes bright pink, something which, if possible, made him appear all the cuter.

"I'm sorry," Fred says gently, his heart going out to the stranger. "I can't even imagine what that must be like…" Sure he wasn't particularly close to his own parents, but he couldn't imagine not being able to see them reasonably whenever he wanted to or knowing that he could go to them if he was in a particularly tight spot.

"It's okay," the other man hurries to reassure him. "It happened when I was eight-it's been so long it honestly doesn't hurt that much anymore. I'm just glad that I'm hopefully making them proud."

"I'm sure you are," Fred answers with a warm smile.

"T-Thanks…" The stranger rubs the back of his neck, seeming to be blushing again, although whether because of the friendly reassurance or something more Fred couldn't tell and he was almost afraid to hope that he might actually be getting slightly flustered.

"So, um, I guess I should probably let you go…" the other man says when the moment of silence between them starts hedging into the realm of awkwardness. "It's late on a Friday so I know you probably have plans…"

"Not particularly," Fred answers with a tiny shrug, and he was being perfectly honest. "Not unless you count a Captain America movie marathon-I need some major destressing after the first week of school…"

"Captain America?" The stranger's eyes light up, and Fred instantly senses a fellow fanboy.

"You like the movies?" he asks as casually as he can.

"Anything Marvel I can get my hands on!" the other man answers with a grin before admitting, "Well… Honestly I've been a bit underwhelmed by some of their questionable choices lately… But the originals, at least!"

"This sounds like a conversation we need to have!" Fred chuckles, feeling a major geeking out session coming on. "Maybe if you wanted to join me for the marathon, we could kill two birds with one stone-destress from school and vent about our mutual frustration with the writers and directors?"

"That… Actually sounds pretty amazing," the stranger admits with a tiny grin. "You're sure you wouldn't mind me crashing your movie marathon?"

"Please, crash away!" Fred replies, trying not to sound too eager. "I don't live too far off campus, but my ride should be here pretty soon if you don't mind hanging around for a bit!"

"Actually, I might have a better idea," the stranger answers with a slight smile. "How do you feel about motor scooters?"

"...I've never actually ridden on one before, but I'd definitely be open to giving it a try!" Fred replies with a grin.

"Perfect!" The other guy chuckles. "Just give me directions and I can get us there."

"Sounds awesome," Fred agrees, trying not to think about just how cozy the idea of riding on a moped with his arms wrapped around this seriously cute guy's waist sounded.

"C'mon then!" The stranger grins back at him and waves for him to follow him towards the parking lot. Halfway down the stairs of the building they'd just left, though, he suddenly stops and turns around.

"Oh my gosh, I just realized, I never even asked your name, did I?" he says, seeming majorly embarrassed at his social faux pas.

"Hey, it's okay, I never asked yours either!" Fred hurries to reassure him before putting his hand out to him. "I'm Fred."
"Tadashi-Tadashi Hamada," the other man answers, taking the hand offered and shaking it.

Fred probably would have tried to come up with something charming or at least clever to say in response to that, only just then he spotted a tattoo on the other man's right forearm and instantly his attention is captured by it.

"Oh, may I?" he asks, gesturing to the mark-he wanted to take a closer look, but everyone knew that it was considered majorly rude to touch someone else's tattoo without asking permission first.

"Sure!" Tadashi smiles and offers him the arm.

"Aw… It's so cute!" Fred grins down at the image of a small black robot with a yellow smiley face on it.

"Thanks," Tadashi chuckles before admitting, "It's not actually mine, though."

"I-It's not?" Fred does his best not to let his sinking hopes show on his face-shit, he should have known that someone as attractive as this guy would already be taken…

"It's my little brother's."

"It's… What?" Fred blinks rapidly, trying to process what he'd just heard.

"Yeah…" Tadashi lets out a quiet laugh. "Most people don't get it either, and I'm not sure I fully understand it myself. But I guess that you get someone's tattoo when you really care about them, and ever since our parents died, Hiro's been my whole world. It's not like we're totally codependent on each other or anything weird like that, but we've been through so much together that it makes sense that it would show up somehow, right?"

"I guess so," Fred agrees, hoping that he wasn't visibly showing just how relieved he was feeling that this wasn't a sign that the other guy was already in a committed relationship. "That's pretty sweet, actually! It must be nice having a sibling you're so close to!"

"It is," Tadashi agrees with a warm smile-it was obvious, even to someone who had just met him like Fred, just how much he must care about the younger boy.

"So, do you mind if I ask what your actual tattoo is?" Fred asks, hoping that this wasn't taking things too far.

"Oh, sure!" Tadashi chuckles and gently pulls up the hem of his shirt to reveal a spray of cherry blossoms on the right side of his torso-well, not just cherry blossoms, Fred found upon closer inspection (and yes he was doing his best not to drool over the bit of Tadashi's lightly toned abs that he could see.) There were little metallic gears mixed in among the blossoms. It wasn't like anything the fanboy had ever seen before, but it was absolutely breathtaking.

"Wow…" he finally breathes when he finally forces himself to pull away-he could have looked for hours, but he was bordering on the creepy zone as it was, he didn't want to risk royally messing things up between himself and this guy he had just barely met. "That's amazing!"

"Thank you…" Tadashi was blushing again (he apparently did that very easily-not that Fred minded, he looked so cute when he did it!) "I guess it's kind of fitting for me…"

"Totally!" Fred agrees with a grin.

"For the record, yours is really amazing too," Tadashi puts in, and his tone was too sincere for him to just be returning the compliment out of politeness. "I've never seen a dragon that detailed before…"

"I'm pretty fond of him," Fred answers with a pleased grin. "He's kind of been my friend when I haven't really had much luck with human friends…" Oh wow, way to sound like a pathetic loser…

To his great surprise, though, Tadashi smiles sympathetically and says in the gentlest, sweetest way, "I know exactly how that feels… But maybe, if you don't mind, we could try being each other's friends?"

"I'd really like that, actually," Fred answers, trying not to grin too hard. It wasn't like he was getting an official date with him or anything, but friendship was a good start!

"Awesome." Tadashi grins back at him. "Friends, then?"

"Friends," Fred agrees, beaming as he shakes his hand.

Three months into the semester, Fred couldn't have been more grateful for that fateful meeting with Tadashi on that first day of class. But he was seriously starting to regret that he hadn't made the fact that he had decidedly romantic feelings towards the other man a bit more clear. It wasn't like he was exactly hiding the fact that he had a major crush on Tadashi-he wasn't above lightly flirting with him when they were hanging out or studying together, and the respectful but still lingering looks weren't as few and far between as they probably should have been. And it wasn't like Tadashi was resisting or even showing any discomfort with any or this-heck, if anything, he was the one who had turned them into the cuddly best friends that they were, always insisting on snuggling up to Fred whenever they were watching a movie together. But as many times as the fanboy had tried to gently find out if Tadashi was at all returning his affections in a more romantic way without outright blatantly asking if he liked him, he was never able to get a clear answer out of him.

If anything, lately he was worried that Tadashi seemed to be wanting to spend less time with him than usual. He said it was because he was working on an important project for a class, and Fred could understand that. But still, he couldn't help but worry that maybe something was seriously wrong. The last time he'd seen him on Friday, the other man had barely said goodbye to him before bolting off for the parking lot. It hurt a lot, honestly, to think that maybe what he'd thought was an amazing friendship might be coming to an end. But he wasn't about to let things just slip away-if something was going on, then he wanted Tadashi to be honest with him and tell him what was going on instead of just avoiding him until he finally gave up.

So here he was, waiting on the steps outside the door to their Friday class, determined not to let Tadashi go in until he gave him some answers.

As he'd expected, Tadashi was one of the first ones to arrive-he was always already inside the classroom no matter how early Fred got there, so apparently staking things out two hours early had been a good plan. He could almost see the fear in the other man's eyes when he spotted him on the steps, obviously waiting for him, and that sent almost a dagger-like pain through the fanboy's heart-had Tadashi finally figured out how he felt about him and was somehow scared of him now? That was as messed up as it was hurtful. Still, he couldn't jump to conclusions-he was going to wait until he actually heard the words from the other man's explanation.

"Hey, Dashi," he says, standing up to meet the man he still desperately hoped was at least his friend once he finally reaches the bottom of the stairs.

"H-Hey, Fred," Tadashi answers, not quite meeting the other man's eyes. "W-What are you doing here?"

"I figured you haven't really had time to hang out after class so maybe I could actually catch you for a bit before it started," Fred answers, trying to keep his tone level. Still, a slight note of accusation makes its way into his voice despite his best intentions, and the other man visibly winces.

"F-Fred… I-I know I've been acting really weird lately, i-it's just…" Tadashi mumbles, trailing off before finally just whispering, "I-I'm sorry…"

"You're sorry," Fred states flatly when the other man doesn't elaborate past that. "Seriously? That's all you have to say to me after blowing me off after all this time?"

"...Yes," Tadashi finally answers in a small voice.

"Well, that's just freaking craptastic." Fred usually didn't get annoyed or let himself be snarky, but he felt like he was justified in this case. "After everything we've been through together, you're just going to end it like this? No explanation, no nothing?"

"F-Fred, I'm sorry, I just don't know how…" Tadashi whispers, staring down at the ground and looking like he was doing his best not to cry.

"Save it!" Fred snaps, sounding harsher than he meant to-he didn't want to see Tadashi cry, if he saw him cry then he'd want to tell him that everything was okay between them when it wasn't. He couldn't do this anymore, all the second guessing and never knowing where he stood with him. He was emotionally and mentally exhausted, and he was just done with all of this.

He was just turning to walk away-away from all this heartache that was probably going to follow him around for a very long time-when suddenly he hears Tadashi gasp and, without warning, reach out to grab his arm.

"W-Wait!" the other man cries, and Fred does his best not to get his hopes up too high even as a small ray of optimism sparks to life in his chest.

"What is it?" Fred asks, turning back towards him despite telling himself that it was probably a really stupid idea.

"T-The back of your neck…" Tadashi says softly, his fingers reaching out to gently touch the soft skin. "Y-You have my tattoo…"

"Y-Yeah," Fred mumbles, refusing to meet the other man's eyes. "So?" The truth was, the tattoo had been there for a couple weeks-Fred hadn't even noticed until one of his classmates had pointed it out to him. It was in such a hard place to see, though, he'd honestly taken it as a sign that the relationship was doomed.

"O-Oh my gosh…" Tadashi breathes.

Fred, despite his better judgment, looks up at the other man, expecting to see disgust and revulsion on his face, preparing to be told that he never wanted to see him again. But, to his great surprise, he found that Tadashi was actually looking relieved of all things. In fact, he was outright grinning.

Without another word, the other man lets go of him before quickly unwrapping the scarf from around his neck and shedding his blazer.

"Look," he says softly, reaching out to move Fred's hand to the skin of his own neck. He didn't have to tell Fred to look, though-he was already looking and he could see it as clear as day.

"Y-You have my tattoo…" Fred breathes, fingers tracing over the lines of the midnight blue dragon wrapped around the other man's neck.

"Yes!" Tadashi answers, beaming. "I-I've had it for a couple weeks now! But I didn't know if you felt that way about me, and when I never saw any sign of my tattoo on you…"

"Y-You've been covering it up and avoiding me because you thought I didn't feel the same way and you were afraid I'd see it?" Fred asks gently, wrapping his arms around the other man's waist.

"Y-Yeah…" Tadashi admits, blushing bright red. "I'm sorry, I should have said something even though I was scared instead of just avoiding yo-"

The rest of whatever he had to say was cut off as Fred presses a sweet, passionate kiss to his lips, releasing all the pent up emotions of the last three months at once.

"W-Wow…" Tadashi breathes, eyelids fluttering slightly when they finally break for air. "That was…"

"Amazing?"

"Yes, definitely!"

"I'm glad you think so!" Fred chuckles even as he beams down at him, gently tracing his fingers along the other man's cheek. "So… You honestly like me like that?"

"I do," Tadashi agrees, grinning shyly up at him. "I'm just sorry now that I didn't say anything sooner…"

"I'm just as sorry I didn't say anything the first night I met you," Fred chuckles.

"I probably wouldn't have known what to say if you had," Tadashi admits honestly. "I think it kind of took the tattoo appearing for me to finally know for sure…"

"Well then, I'm glad I waited." Fred grins down at him, lovingly tucking a loose strand of hair behind the other man's ear. "You were definitely worth every second of waiting."

"T-Thank you…" Tadashi answers, blushing but looking ridiculously happy all the same. "Y-You were too…"

"I'm glad you think so." Fred tenderly pecks his cheek before saying, "What do you say we get out of here, go find someplace to celebrate?"

"But what about class?" Tadashi asks, frowning slightly.

"Oh, c'mon, you have perfect attendance, missing one night isn't going to kill you!" Fred answers, playfully tugging on his hand. "It's not every night that you find out that you're tattoo soulmates with someone!"

"I guess not…" Tadashi admits, finally relenting. "Okay, we can skip tonight-but you'd better have someplace really good in mind to keep my mind off of things so I don't end up feeling guilty the entire time!"

"I promise, I'll find us somewhere amazing!" Fred promises-and he knew that he would. He would find the best damn romantic spot in the entire city and take Tadashi there, because he deserved that and more! But he knew that honestly anywhere they went that night would be perfect-as long as he was with Tadashi, everything would always be perfect.