Based on prompt where your soulmate's first words are tattooed on your wrist.

Petra was twenty-one, and she was starting to think that she might never find her soulmate. The words imprinted on her wrist, written in a scrawl corresponding to her partner's handwriting, read And her? It was the most basic set of first words that she could ever imagine. What's worse, she didn't know in what context she'd ever hear those words. She heard it almost everyday. Plus, it wasn't something specific like what her friends had-Hanji's said You're going to burn the building, and that's how she found Moblit. Nanaba's said This is a bike lane, and she met Mike when she was going for a run in the park. Hell, she even knew a kid who found his soulmate when he was sixteen and in high school.

There are about 1.5 billion English speakers, and a zero percent guarantee that she'd ever find them. She knew how common it was for people to give up when they passed their late twenties, and just pair up with other people who never found their loves. Sometimes if they were lucky, they'd find them sometime in their lifetime, but there were still so many people who died without ever finding out who they were matched up with.

She slumped even further into her seat. She was dating someone. His name was Lionel, and he was perfectly nice. Her first words had matched the one on the inside of his wrist (Sorry, I'm lost), and he had stopped her before he could say anything else by kissing her firmly on the lips. It was more shocking than it was romantic, and when he pulled away, he said, "It's you."

It took her a few minutes to tell him, to muster up the courage, to tell this poor guy that her words didn't match what he said. And by the time she told him, he had coerced her into following him into a Starbucks and sitting down for a drink-to get to know each other better. She tried to ignore the crestfallen look on his face when she'd told him that, and had bit her lip, her whole body tensing as she watched him looking dejected across the table.

"Maybe we could try it out," he said, his face full of doubt. "If you don't find them, maybe we could still be together. Sometimes there are flukes like these-there's all those stories about how one person has the words but not the other. And sometimes they're happy together." He looked around nervously, shifting in his seat. "That is, until you find them. It could be like an open relationship, maybe."

Petra watched him. He seemed nice. Was undoubtedly good looking, and seemed smart enough. She paused. "Alright." His face instantly lit up.

They've been dating for seven months.

As open as they initially said it would be, that didn't mean that Petra was constantly talking to people, flirting, going out and searching for the one, quite literally. She'd grown tired, in all honesty, and she was starting to get used to being with Lionel. She liked the lazy kisses in the morning, and the way that he would greet her when she came out of her psychology lecture, a shot of espresso in hand. She was beginning to accept that she might not find her mate, and that Lionel was just about the next best thing. She had yet to hear the words matching on her wrist (or moreso have someone say that she just said the ones inked on theirs), and Lionel hadn't heard anyone say her words since.

"They say that the longer you're with your love," Lionel had said one morning, "The more faded your tattoo becomes. Sometimes it takes months, years. Other people have theirs become just vague imprints after a couple of hours."

Petra had been lying in his bed, head on his naked chest. She remembered how he rubbed circles into the side of her body, and how despite his warm, comforting presence, she'd felt cold in the immediate seconds after he'd mentioned that.

"A lot of people fall in love," Nanaba said to her in the cafeteria. "Even if it's not with their soulmate, it doesn't mean you can't love someone else."

"Yeah," Mike added, his arm firm around Nanaba's waist. "A lot of people say that it's because there's a little bit of soul-mate in them. Or that you had a chance to fall deeply in love with them in past lives, but you chose someone else."

Petra glanced up from her decrepit scrambled eggs, eyeing the both of them. "Easy for you to say. You've already found each other."

Nanaba laughed. "True enough."

"When are you getting married?" Hanji piped up.

The two looked at each other, uncertain. "We're not sure… we were thinking about maybe pursuing other loves first." Petra's eyes widened at Mike's words. "It's just," he added quickly after, "It's just we've been together for so long, and we know we'll always be there for each other it might… it might just be nice to see what it's like with other people too."

Petra turned back to her eggs. Depressing enough that her friends had already found their loves. Even more depressing that they could go date other people. Petra couldn't even begin to imagine what she would do if she had found her love…

She couldn't stop thinking about it when Lionel greeted her back at his apartment on campus, and she felt bad because of it, but she knew that he recognized the look on her face. Before he'd tried to console her or stay away, but what he learned was that she liked to treat it like nothing was wrong. So he kissed her, asked her about her day, and settled into the couch next to her. But it was like he was on a whole different frequency, and Petra couldn't hear his words. It was like they were underwater, and she didn't understand what he was saying, because she was thinking about her soulmate. She kissed him, effectively cutting off his words, then laid her head back into his lap, and stared at the ceiling.

Hanji invited her to a party the next evening. As much as Lionel and her were close, he wasn't close friends with her's. So he opted to stay back and finish some work while she went to the frat house party. Petra had been to many like these-especially before she'd met Lionel and was hoping she'd find her soulmate there. She used to try to talk to as many people as possible, and would subconsciously scratch at her tattoo, as if checking whether or not it was still there. But now, it wasn't half as exciting. She let herself be dragged in tow by Hanji, greeted by the same smells of alcohol, smoke, and sweat as they walked to the kitchen. There, she was surprised to see how many of her friends, and Hanji's friends were there. They surrounded the island, decked out with food and drinks, consuming it at an unhealthy rate. Mike, Nanaba, Moblit, Erd, and Gunther all chorused their hellos, drinking and swinging around in a drunken daze. They were laughing and shouting at each other, shoving pretzels into their mouths. Petra took a shot when Erd offered it to her, if only to stop being disgusted by them and instead just act as drunk and out of it as them. She was taking a second shot when she noticed Erwin walk into the room. There was a time when she used to hear about him from Hanji and she used to hope that he would be the one. But when she met him, it was as disappointing as you'd expect. Still, that didn't stop her from staring at him every so often and letting her thoughts drift. But tonight, through her drunken haze, her gaze slipped from him, and spotted a shorter black haired guy walking with him. He was hot. His features were striking-from his hair, to his jawline, to his dark grey eyes. She'd never seen him before, but god, she really wanted to again. Petra couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this attracted to someone she'd just seen, and she immediately tore her gaze away from him when his eyes met hers. She suddenly felt self conscious, and was glad that she'd made some effort to look good tonight. Not that it would matter.

Erwin greeted everyone around the island, and grabbed a handful of pretzels, feeding them into his mouth. He drifted seamlessly into their conversations, and Petra watched as his friend gazed at the rest of them, staying silent, for the most part. It wasn't until Hanji forced the two of them to come over to their side, and begin chattering to the both of them excitedly.

"Levi," Erwin said, referring to the guy next to him. "You know Hanji."

"Unfortunately more than I care for." his voice a deep baritone.

"Leviiii-" Hanji sang.

Erwin continued by doing the rounds, introducing (or re-introducing) for that matter, everyone for formality's sake. When they got to Petra, Levi raised his bottle towards her, pointedly holding her gaze.

"And her?"

"Petra," Erwin responded, smiling.

"Oh, she can talk too." Petra said, giving him a forced grin, annoyed that he wouldn't just talk to her directly. "But I don't suppose you would care much."

She took another shot, missing the way Erwin's grin widened slightly, or Levi's eyes narrow just a fraction. Levi watched her throw the glass back, and caught a glimpse of the words scrawled on her wrist.

Petra woke up nursing a headache. Light streamed in from the window across from her, and she closed her eyes in annoyance. She was hungover. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten this blackout drunk. She struggled to remember what happened last night, but she couldn't remember anything past meeting Levi-Erwin's friend. The hot one. Right.

But when she turned to pull the sheets under her, she realized that these weren't her sheets… or Lionel's, for that matter. She turned on her side, and her nose brushed against Levi's. His eyes opened lazily, and she noticed, when he rolled over to wrap his arm around her stomach, that he was naked. And so was she.

Her face became hot when she realized what happened last night, and she struggled to remember the details. Her heart pounded, with worry, but also with this undeniable sense of excitement. She glanced down at him, and was shocked when he kissed her. It was gentle, and asking, but god was it fantastic. She almost found herself kissing back, until she pulled away, sitting up. She struggled to pull the sheets to her chest.

"I-uh, I don't-" she struggled for her words, and began to trip on them more when he met her gaze, his arm still on her stomach.

"You don't remember," he stated.

"I… no…"

He looked at her, almost frustrated. "Didn't realize that you were so drunk. Or that it would happen this way."

"This… what way…" she watched as he lifted his wrist, showing her the ink embedded in his

skin, then ignored the way her heart began to race and her skin burn when she felt him lift her wrist up next to his own.

"Us, we're…" he paused, uncertain how to continue. "This is us."

Petra's cheeks turned red, and she sat up, ignoring the sudden head rush she felt. "No, no, I…" Petra turned back to face him. His expression was near blankness, but Levi watched her with a mixture of amusement and disappointment. She was cute, but damn, this really wasn't the reaction he was expecting from his soulmate after first sleeping with her…

"I have a boyfriend." His heart dropped. There was a cold pause between the two of them, and Petra bit her lip.

"You… you do," it came out more as a statement than a question, a low rumble from his chest

that Petra appreciated.

"I… I do."

"You didn't want to wait?" Petra sensed the tinge of disappointment in his voice, and when she looked over at him, she saw that his gaze was back towards the bed, looking away from her. She watched him, this absolutely gorgeous guy who'd she'd… just slept with apparently. But it wasn't just any guy. It was her soulmate. He was, quite literally, the one. On an impulse, Petra fell back from her sitting position onto her side, and planted a soft kiss on Levi's cheeks, just shy of his mouth. She felt his hand trace its way up her jaw, fingers tangled in her hair, and he pulled her closer, so that their lips actually met. He could get used to this.

When she pulled away, slightly breathless, her cheeks tinted pink, he was tempted to kiss her again. But she stopped him before he could. "I mean, I did. I waited for you for so long, but I was afraid you'd never show up so I… settled. And don't act like you didn't try either."

Levi propped himself up on his elbows, glancing back at her. "What's his name?" he asked finally. "I want to at least know about this guy."

"Lionel. He's… he's very sweet."