Rating: T

Pairing: Kasaya - Kasuka x Izaya

AU: Soulmates AU (Soul-counter)


Time ticked by slowly in the white-walled room of a central Tokyo middle school, the second hand on the clock seeming to go much too slowly for it to be on time, for them to still be twenty pain-staking minutes away from freedom that day. It was a normal day in Tokyo, a Wednesday, and had so far gone as such.

Kasuka had gotten up that morning, brushed his hair, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, gotten dressed, grabbed everything he needed for school and left with his elder brother, Shizuo, by his side to walk him there. Nothing spectacular had happened, nothing astonishing had changed in the world around him, everyone else was acting normal as usual as well... He was the only one who seemed to notice the time passing more slowly, the unbearable minutes feeling like hours pounded into his head. He seemed to be the only one who couldn't breath quite right, like the air in the room had turned into water instead.

What could have gotten him so anxious, so nervous, so excited, all at the same time?

The ravenett tore his eyes away from the clock on the wall and directed it to another one. The one ever-changing and ticking on his wrist. Not a watch, but a timer.

He cast a quick glance around at his fellow students, eyeing the counters they had on their own wrists and making note of the numbers. One girl across the room: 127 hours, 49 minutes and 7 seconds. Counting down. A new student, male, sitting diagonal to him starting three days ago: 900 hours, 2 minutes, 47 seconds. Counting down. Kasuka spotted a kid sitting in the front row, slouched there and looking impatient as well, glancing around the class as he waited for this to be over. With how he was slouched, his arm hanging down, Kasuka could still read the numbers ticking away on his wrist. 500 hours, exactly, until that boy found them as well.

Kasuka glanced down at his own, throat still catching nervously like the first time he had looked at it that day. 2 hours, 5 minutes, 13 seconds... The boy had no idea how to feel that morning when, to his own surprise, shock and wonderment, the counter on his wrist had gone from a previous 97 hours, 46 minutes, and 19 seconds, to 9 hours, 12 minutes and 57 seconds, a spectacular and frightening jump in time.

His eyes wondered back to the clock. Ten more minutes until they were free to go home. Ten more minutes until he could start searching for the one he was destined to meet.

Time continued to tick too slowly. His eyes wandered around to other wrists once more.

It's said that not only do your counters tell you when you're going to meet someone, but it could also tell you who you're going to meet. It's said that every counter, every single one, was unique in some way, telling the wearer and partner of how their connected judging by the color of it. Some peoples' were orange, of various shades, and told them that the person was a very cheerful person, or that they held something in this world very dearly and would continue to. Some peoples' were purple, and said that they were wealthy, would be wealthy, liked nice things or only settled for the best. Of course others mocked those with purple because of this, thinking they were snobs or that they were selfish. That was mostly with children though, who hadn't learned to judge people for themselves yet.

Kasuka looked back at the previous examples. The girl had a yellow counter, one that was very hard to read against her white skin, making some people think that even when she met her significant other, she wouldn't treat them very well. Others said it would show they were just shy in their love. The new kid close by, he had a green counter, showing that they would most likely be modest or live a kind life, a comfortable one. Most people loved others with a green counter, automatically thinking they were better people than most. The boy at the front, he had a red counter, one showing that they could both be aggressive or possibly both very passionate. Kasuka couldn't say anything about the kid's future partner, but he bet that it was passionate, seeing as the slacker didn't have a mean bone in his body despite being teased for his color.

A glance down at his own wrist. Black... his counter was pure black. It wasn't a too-dark shade of purple, or deep emerald green, or even blood red. His counter was black, the one color that was almost never, ever seen. A frown came to his face as he looked at the color, despite the warmth he still felt reading the numbers. He covered his counter with his sleeve, tugging the other one down as well so it wouldn't be obvious he was dissatisfied.

The middle schooler didn't glance around the classroom this time as he noticed they only had two minutes left, not wanting to drag attention to himself and be kept waiting at school. He also didn't want to see if anyone was eyeing his counter as well, studying it, judging it, judging him because of it... He had no honest guess of what their judgement would be, seeing as almost everyone had a different description of what the black counter stood for, but he didn't want to see if it was something bad. Kasuka already had to deal with the worried looks his brother gave him whenever his wrist was in full view, and the equally worried looks his parents gave him when he was auditioning for something and they asked to see his wrist - he didn't want to deal with obvious hatred right now, and he honestly didn't have the time for it.

He had someone to find. Someone who also had a black counter, who was probably also looking for their significant other. Maybe that someone was even stressing out about their first time meeting more than he was. His special someone could be panicking for all he knew, worried about what kind of person he could be, what they would act like towards each other. Kasuka gulped down a surge of emotion as the school bell rang, signalling that he could run for it now and start his search.

Whoever he ended up finding, sharing a counter with, he promised himself that he would be a gentleman about it. It didn't matter what gender they were, he didn't care about that, and it didn't matter what they looked like or sounded like, or... Honestly, the more Kasuka thought about it, nothing entirely mattered when it came to who he would be meeting. Not to him anyways. This special other had been picked for him, him and him only, by some power that he couldn't even understand - and that power said that, no matter what, you two belong together and should be happy together until the day you die or for even longer. So, as long as this other person is alive and well, Kasuka promised himself that he would be nice to them, treat them right, accept their flaws and their upbringing, he would even accept a few of their scars if he could, if it would make them feel better. No matter what, even if his special other for some reason hated him, he knew he would love them to death and treat them as such. There was no doubt in his mind...

Except for the doubt he still held about finding them.

He lived in Tokyo, one of the most populated places on Earth, and he had to somehow find one single person among the hundreds of thousands that belonged to only him. Saying that it could be impossible... he had every right to say that. There was such a high chance that he could not be looking at his wrist when that someone passes by, maybe bumps into him. He heard from various people that the term 'meeting' when it comes to counters can always be different, only making their encounter harder to pinpoint. One couple 'met' when they brushed hands in a subway car, another 'met' when they locked eyes with each other on the sidewalk, another 'met' when they heard one another's voice, not even directed at each other.

The more he thought, the more he came to realize that him searching could have no affect on him meeting his special person at all. At best, on a perfect day, with perfect conditions and planning... maybe he could have a 5% chance of finding them. 6% if that person was looking for him as well. But that was still such a small margin, such a small hope to follow and pursue. Kasuka clenched his fists tightly as he debated whether or not to just go home, forget about searching for the man or woman or other destined for him and just let things take their course naturally. His chances of finding him were already greater than normal, he had gone from having all the hours in the world to prepare for them and meet them before and now he was practically having his destined shoved into him, with apparently a little less than 2 hours to go now.

Another glance at his wrist. The counter wasn't ticking down anymore, the number frozen in place as he stared at them.

"Ya know... You're brother is still waiting for you at the front gate. If you need to do something, I suggest you do it quickly, while there's still tons of time and light out to do it in." someone at the front of the class spoke up, making his head shoot up to look at them. It was his teacher, now the only other person in the room besides him. He realized, with slight dismay, that despite planning his whole day around finishing school quickly and running off to find his destined, in the first moment of truth he had frozen to his desk, scared as a small child. The elder in front of him smiled, like he knew what had him so worried. He probably did, the man kept a very watchful eye over all of his students, and it definetly wasn't like Kasuka to stay in his desk, unmoving and barely breathing, for so long after the bell. He must have looked pathetic sitting there, but the man just kept smiling. "And if you don't hurry, you're counter might just start going in reverse. So if it means this much to you, I suggest you get going."

The man's words shocked him out of his stupor, his eyes widening slightly as he turned his gaze back to his counter. The numbers were moving again, still counting down, but it seemed extremely slow, almost unbearably so. Kasuka shook his head and stood up, picking up his school bag before beginning to run out of the class room. "Arigato, sensei!" he called behind him, not slowing down as he got closer to the front gate and his brother, who was waiting patiently for him, with a scowl on his face.

"Where were you? I almost thought you went home early." Shizuo announced, the blond leaning away from the wall he'd been using as support when Kasuka was right beside him, finally slowing down again.

"Sorry, I had to use the bathroom." the middle schooler lied quickly, eyes averting to the side as Shizuo nodded and began to walk down the street, stopping after only a couple steps.

"So.. Are we still going to look for that person of yours? Or are we going home?" his elder brother asked, brow raised as he glanced back at Kasuka, wanting to know which direction to head in. Downtown was currently in the opposite direction of their complex, so if they were heading anywhere, Kasuka knew it would be his decision where to go today.

To his own surprise, Kasuka didn't hesitate when he answered. "We're going to look for them.. I only have an hour and 32 minutes left, it would be really rude to keep them waiting a whole other day or so..." And with a nod, Shizuo turned right around and started heading for downtown Tokyo, Kasuka by his side, with a hand held tightly to his wrist.


Woo! I got something up for you guys!

It's not the best I could do, seeing as I'm extremely tired and this probably looks like something I would write when I was twelve, but I'll come back and fix it later on. It needs some more work and explanation anyways.

But, as a heads up, this little AU isn't a one-shot, it's a two-shot~! I have another chapter planned for this one, where Kasuka actually meets Izaya, so don't worry about the disappointing ending. Everything will come together with time...~

And speaking of time, I'm really sorry I haven't updated "Welcome to the Good Life" in a whole week. Like I said before, I've been lacking energy and motivation. This 2-shot is what I came up with to apologize for the wait, so I hope everyone over there reading sees this and enjoys the AU as much as I do.

PS. I have another AU planned for after this one too, but I'm going to be waiting on that one. I WILL NOT start it until I have at least one more chapter up on WGL, because you guys have honestly waited long enough for a chapter and I don't want to make you keep waiting for it, even if that's technically what I'm doing right now anyways.

Stay patient you guys, and once again, sorry for the slow updates.