Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boubei-eu LOVE!
Title: Unwanted Words
Romance: Kinshiro x Atsushi/Atsushi x Kinshiro
Word Count: ||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: G
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section B13, fic of exactly 1,000 words; Written for the 2015 Advent Challenge, day #4, post a fic for a challenge.
Note: This is a soulmate identifying marker universe. In this universe, what identifies soulmates isn't a timer or a name or the first/last words. It's the most important words that one's soulmate will say to one.
Summary: Those words burned across Kinshiro's skin, telling him something that he didn't want to know. He'd wanted to once but not now. Not when he had no other goal but to conquer the world and the Battle Lovers stood in his way. Especially one of them...

Kinshiro refused to look at the words, painted in elegant calligraphy across his left arm. He didn't need to, really. He'd seen them every day of his life and could probably have reproduced them perfectly himself if he'd ever needed to. But he would much prefer to tell himself that they didn't even exist. He didn't want them to. He would rather that he had a blank arm, or that they said anything else altogether.

Instead, words that he knew now identified an enemy rested there. He'd spent his entire life until today wondering just what they could mean. No one who had seen them – and there were few who had – could understand them. Read them, yes, that was easy enough. They were in plain Japanese. But know what they meant and who might say them? No. No, everyone else was just as confused as Kinshiro himself was.

If it had been a simple set of words, an introduction, or a declaration of love, Kinshiro would've understood that. Perhaps not especially wanted it these days, but understood it. That was what most people had, after all.

Everyone knew that those people who had words on their arm had a soulmate. Not everyone in the world had them, but those who did were destined to find someone to be their companion for all time. Sometimes it was romantic. Sometimes it wasn't. But the two – or more – were meant to be together, and interfering was considering quite rude.

Kinshiro hadn't ever cared about what anyone else's marks had. He did find it interesting that Akoya had two sets of words, though. That wasn't common, but it did happen. Akoya found himself quite satisfied by it, though he no idea of who his two future soulmates might be. They would have to be perfect, just like he was, he'd said more than once, and the odds of finding three perfect people in Binan were slim to none. So Akoya had reassured himself that he wouldn't find his future in high school.

Kinshiro had mused much the same, until the day they set forth their plan to conquer the school: the day that the Battle Lovers appeared to stand against them.

At first he'd only been annoyed that someone wanted to get in their way. What else could he have been?

But then he heard their names. Four out of five meant absolutely nothing to him. The fifth… the fifth…

His heart squeezed at the very thought of that fifth name, the name that he'd known since before becoming Chevalier Aurite, since deciding that conquering the world was the only way to gain what he wanted, since as soon as he could read and saw what was on his arm.

Why? Why of all people did it have to be him? Why couldn't it have been anyone else? Anyone, so long as it wasn't one of those who fought against him.

Why couldn't it have been Atsushi?

Kinshiro did not often think of his old friend as his old friend. Doing so made his heart hurt even more and he couldn't concentrate on what he needed to do. So he simply avoided Atsushi and that made everything a little better.

If Atsushi had been his soulmate, then they would never have been separated. Atsushi would never have chosen curry and Yufuin over Kinshiro. Soulmates knew better than that.

He'd read the words on Atsushi's arm before and a tiny part of him always wished that he would be the one who said them to Atsushi. But it didn't make sense, when he hadn't done anything wrong at all, and it was Atsushi who needed to apologize to him.

But the words on his arm made even less sense. He could see himself with Atsushi. He could imagine a life with him, and he thought perhaps he would even have it, once he'd taken over the world. Then Atsushi would see that he'd been wrong and would offer his apologies and they could be together forever…

So, the words on Atsushi's arm meant that Atsushi would fight with someone else and they would apologize. It was probably Yufuin, really. Who else would Atsushi love these days?

He'd come so close to having Atsushi back, not that long ago. He and Yufuin had a fight, and Kinshiro decided that perhaps now was a fitting time to accept Atsushi's apologies, which he'd surely give now that he no longer had Yufuin around.

Only that morning, when Kinshiro placed himself where they could speak to one another, he'd seen Yufuin and Atsushi together, laughing, as if nothing had ever happened between them at all.

Kinshiro swore then that he would never, ever accept any apology that Atsushi tried to give him. It would be false and brittle, just like everything else Atsushi tried to give him.

He stared at the words again. This was his enemy, but would it make such a difference? Perhaps this meant that he would win, and his enemy would fall down at his feet? It wasn't such a strange idea. It offered more hope than anything else he'd considered in years had.

Kinshiro traced the words with one finger and made up his mind. When the time came, when he heard those words for himself, he would offer a hand to his enemy. There was nothing to indicate what kind of tone they would be said in, so the situation could be almost anything.

Yes. He would have his soulmate and he would forget Atsushi.

Across his arm, the words burned in bright green script, clear to anyone who dared to read it. Kinshiro kept his arms as covered as he could, not wanting anyone else to see them. They floated behind his eyes every night as he slept. Akoya and Arima knew of them, but were as confused as he was over what they could truly mean. Even Zundar-sama had no idea. But there they were.

I am Battle Lover Epinard!

The End

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.