Chapter 1: But innocence is gone and what was right is wrong
I do not own anything of Haikyuu. Chapter title by Imagine Dragons. Leave a review if it pleases you. Second chapter soon to follow.
Tsukishima Kei was three years old when he first learnt about soulmates.
That the image inked onto one's skin that stayed with you throughout life had an identical partner on a person who was viewed as the most compatible. The mark would become coloured in once the two soulmates touched each other. Society generally viewed as soulmates as two pieces of a puzzle that fit together in such a way that there was unconscious bias against those that were together without a matching mark.
His parents both have star marks, found right behind their left ears, coloured in a way reminiscent of a yin and yang sign. They met while in university; his mom an art major and father in law school. They were considered the average age when they met, in their 20s and the two immediately started to date. Five years later Tsukishima Akiteru greeted the world. Six years after that, Tsukishima Kei filled in the last piece in the Tsukishima household.
Kei was an inquisitive child and as soon as he was old enough he asked his parents what the marks on his skin were. Kei, only being a precocious three year old, did not realize that it was not normal to have multiple soul marks. Sure, there were plenty of documented soul marks for one other person, and to a lesser degree of two marks on an individual. However, three was considered something extra. There was under two million recorded cases of an individual carrying more than two marks. Three marks, depending on whom you asked, was either proof that you were blessed to have your soul match to such a degree with not one, but three people was incredible. The others would say that it was unnatural and pushing the limits. Sadly, for Kei, his parents fell into each category.
Tsukishima Kei was three years old when he did not quite understand when after he uttered that question and showed his parents the outline of a cat, a horned owl, and reeds scattered on his bicep, shoulder blade, and back respectively, his father made such a sour face and turned back to his work. Or why after that day, his father started talking to him less and less. Or why after Akiteru and he went to bed, his parents' voices would get louder with rage and annoyance.
The one this Tsukishima Kei understood was that his name was uttered a lot in these fights, and the mentions of his soul marks. Never Akiteru's.
Tsukishima Kei was three years old when he first started doubting soulmates.