Title: Your Touch
Ship: Taniya x Misawa
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 1,285
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: YGO soulmates: C14, K rated; Include The Word Boot Camp, YGO, #16, account; GX Rare Pairs Week day #7, Free Day
Notes: This takes place in a soulmate AU
Summary: Misawa has never encountered anyone that he thinks might be his soulmate. With all the ways to identify one, he just never knows – until he encounters a woman like none other – Taniya, the Amazon of the Seven Stars.

Do I have a soulmate?

Misawa had considered this more than once in his fifteen years. Not everyone did. Most people didn't, in fact.. But there were still that small fraction of people who not only did have someone that the universe wanted them to be with, but clearly marked them in some fashion or other. The methods varied; Kaiser Ryou carried tattered black wings on his back and had since the latter part of his first year. No one knew why exactly but rumor had it that his soulmate had somehow perished. Principal Samejima and Tome-san could hardly be stopped from showing off their marks that glowed whenever they were close enough to reach other. There were others, in so many different ways.

But Misawa had nothing. He saw color clearly, unlike Manjoume, and he'd never experienced any unusual dreams, such as what Asuka's friends Momoe and Junko shared. No one had ever said his name in a fashion that struck deep in his heart. He'd never been able to heal anyone by touching them, or vice versa. So either he'd never encountered his soulmate in a situation that would allow their souls to resonate or he just didn't have one.

I think I would rather not have one. They were, perhaps, more trouble than they were worth. He saw so many people who focused on that and ignored the important parts of life, such as achieving the greatest grades and making his mark on the world. He didn't think he would really have minded if he met such a person, but he refused to go out of his way to go looking for them.

And so he kept his focus on his studies - at least until Principal Samejima chose him to be one of the defenders of the Seven Spirit Gate Keys. A tiny part of him worried that perhaps something might spark with one of the Seven Stars - he didn't believe it; he would never be attracted to a dark duelist, not to someone who attacked unfairly and without care for others. But it wasn't completely impossible.

Darkness stood reveled as Asuka's brother. Not so much as a twitch.

Camula faded away, defeated, with a heartbreaking cry. Nothing at all. He didn't worry, not quite so much. Not on her account, at least.

A few days passed. Nothing happened - and then it did. People vanished and when Misawa and the others searched, they found a woman paying them to build an arena. The sight of her made Misawa's heart beat faster. Never before had he seen someone like her - tall and well muscled and with fierce eyes that stared right into him, reading him down to his soul. He'd never felt so known with a simple look before.

Taniya was her name. Taniya, the third of the Seven Stars. Misawa fought to get his mind where it belonged as the two of them dueled one another, and he did his best to ignore all of her talk about marriage. He'd long ago sworn that he'd only marry his soulmate, and if he didn't have one then he would simply do without. It wasn't that important. If it were, then his soulmate would appear. Simple as that.

Despite his best efforts, Taniya began to work through his defenses, sharp words slicing into places he'd never known had holes, into desires that he'd never known that he had.

I can't listen. I have to defend my Key! It didn't matter how beautiful Taniya was - which was very beautiful - or how strong - which was a lot - or anything else. He made an attempt at a strike - and saw right away that he'd made a very powerful mistake, as the battle turned around in her favor.

Misawa fell backwards, his eyes glazed over, barely hearing that Taniya wanted to duel him again now that she had his key. If she wanted to duel, then he would duel. Never before had he encountered an opponent like her. Juudai came close but the two of them were too different.

He started to get up as the doors closed and it was just the two of them - three if you counted her tiger - there. Misawa blinked slowly, getting his mind back together, and looked up to see Taniya standing in front of him, one hand no her hip, the other held out to him.

"Are you ready?" The Amazon asked, and he nodded slowly. He truly wasn't sure if he was, but he wasn't going to back down. This time he would win; he was certain of it. Whether or not he won back his Key didn't matter, not when he could impress her with his skills.

He raised his hand and set it in hers. She pulled him to his feet - and in the moment of the touch, Misawa's eyes widened and he swallowed, his entire body tingling. He'd touched a few people over the years, but never before had he experienced anything like this. He stumbled, trying to get himself put back together mentally and not having a great deal of luck. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but Taniya shook her head.

"I felt it too," she said, releasing his hand and crossing her arms. "But you're going to have to do better than that if you want to be my soulmate."

"Better?" Misawa wrenched the word out, still trying to get his head together and still not having a great deal of luck with it. "What do you mean?"

"If you can beat me in a duel even once, then I'll accept that you're my soulmate," Taniya told him, reaching for her deck again. "But if you can't, then that's it."

Misawa steeled himself up. "You'll see what i can do when I really try, then."

"You mean you haven't been trying so far?" Taniya snorted as she shuffled her deck. "You'd better start trying, then."

Misawa swore that he would do his best then and there. He would win! He would show her that he was capable of being so much more than she'd seen so far. His hand still tingled from that one moment of contact and he wished that he had time to think about it. But that would have to come later - perhaps not much later.

He didn't win. It wasn't often in that night of endless dueling that he could even scratch her life points. Misawa quickly understood that she was now playing at her very best, and when she did that, he stood no chance against her.

That made it all clearer than anything. He wasn't surprised that he had a soulmate of such a caliber - what else would he have had? Certainly no one lesser. And yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't do anything that would even mildly impress her.

What else could he do? She stood so far above him that he had no idea of what to do and with each duel, his strength grew less and less. Somewhere outside of the arena was the rest of the world and right now, it meant nothing at all.

I have to get better. I have to get stronger. He had no idea of how. But as the sun began to peek over the horizon and he realized how tired and hungry he was, Misawa decided that somehow he would do it. Whatever it took, he would prove himself worthy of her. No matter how long it took. He would make sure that it happened.

Taniya deserved the best. So he would strive to be the best for her.

The End

Notes: It took a bit for me to settle on writing this. But I'm glad I did. Tigershipping doesn't get the respect it deserves. She helped him become a much better person – something he drastically needed.

And now it's time to catch up on GX Month itself.