Thanks to AwesomenessUponMe, Related to Moon, AusHunIsForever777 and SansTheLanguage218 for reviewing.

So, this chapter has a trigger warning for abuse. It's not as bad as another chapter I'm working on, but you've been warned.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

IceLith: Touch of Skin

Emil sighed, closing the bathroom door as he stripped of his clothes. He glanced down at his arm, seeing the message that he had written there earlier the day.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Before he went into the shower, he checked his entire body, only to be disappointed that there wasn't a response. As usual.

It was a common thing in their society to write messages somewhere on your skin. The one destined for you would receive the message at the same place where you had written. Your soulmate. That was how Lukas, Emil's elder brother, had met his soulmate. And Emil, though he was reluctant to admit it, wanted to meet his soulmate as well.

He would check every day to see if his soulmate had written something for him, and once a month he would write something. Often, it was just a message expressing the desire to meet, or even just to receive a response. Sometimes, he would write something about himself. His name, what he looked like, his hobbies… But still, he had heard nothing from his soulmate.

He was starting to think that, maybe, he didn't have someone destined for him. But that just couldn't be real.

As he let the water wash over him, he started scrubbing the ink off his arm, disappointed yet again.

Emil groaned as he regained consciousness. For some reason, his body was sore, and his throat felt itchy.

He opened his eyes, before going to the bathroom. But once he caught sight of his reflection, he was forced to pause. What happened?

His left eye was black, and the corresponding cheek also contained a bruise. And several around his neck. He started stripping off his clothes, seeing more bruises on his arms, and he saw… On his stomach, the words HELP ME were written.

His stomach dropped. Asides from writing, one could pass on any self-inflicted markings. Or, sometimes, markings that appeared on the body within an hour of writing, if the other person hadn't read the message yet.

Bruises being among those types of markings.

He searched his body for anything else, hoping that he could get another message. He finally found one under the sole of his foot, and it looked like an address. He quickly went to his room, grabbing a pen and paper to write down the address. And immediately afterwards, he went to look for Lukas.

"Lukas!" Emil exclaimed as soon as he entered the kitchen.

Lukas paused in the process of bringing a mug of coffee to his lips as he saw Emil's state. He immediately placed the mug down and approached his brother.

"What happened?" Lukas asked, eying Emil.

"It's my soulmate," Emil said. "They need help."

"Get dressed," Lukas said. "I'll call Arthur and we can go."

Emil nodded, running towards his room. Under normal circumstances he would have been embarrassed to be seen like that by anyone, but there was no time for that. And Lukas knew that too. It was fortunate that his soulmate was a policeman, though.

And it looked as though Emil's needed the police. Because he knew that Lukas also recognised the bruises around Emil's hips, and the fact that they belonged to Emil's soulmate.

"This is the place," Arthur said.

He had brought a few other policemen with him. The place looked like a regular house, albeit in a less favourable part of town. But inside, most likely, they would find the site of a horrible deed.

Emil bit his lip as the policemen stalked closer. It was his job to stay behind Arthur. They didn't want him to be there due to the danger involved, but Emil insisted. It was his soulmate, after all.

The police pounded on the door, and after a while without response, the officers nodded to each other. Emil watched as they proceeded to break down the door, weapons raised, and as soon as it was done they stalked into the house.

Emil stuck close to Arthur, hoping that they would find Emil's soulmate soon. He wanted to make sure the other was alright.

"Arthur!" one of the officers called, and Emil and Arthur made their way to the officer.

Emil froze in the doorway, feeling his heart shattering. It looked to be a bedroom, and on the bed was a boy that looked to be around Emil's age. His eye and cheek resembled Emil's, except these bruises were far worse. The sheets were pulled up over his lower body, but his upper body remained bare. His wrists were tied to the bedposts.

Emil's eyes were pulled to the other boy's stomach. It would seem that the message hadn't been written with ink, it would seem. The words 'help me' were carved into his skin.

And Emil knew that he had done this to himself.

He only vaguely heard as the officers started calling for an ambulance as he walked closer to the bed. He felt a small trickle of relief when he heard the other boy's breathing. He stopped right next to the bed and extended his hand, stroking the other's cheek. The eyes snapped open, startling Emil.

The boy stared at him, looking scared for a moment. He swallowed nervously.

"A-are you… E-Emil?" the boy asked.

Emil could only nod his head, and the boy smiled in relief before closing his eyes as he went limp.

Toris stared at the message written on his arm. He knew that his soulmate was possibly getting impatient, since he hadn't heard anything from him yet. But he couldn't respond.

All of his efforts proved to be in vain, anyway. He made sure that he couldn't write to his soulmate. He made sure that Toris couldn't be saved.

Toris was denied access to writing implements, and his dominant arm had been broken so many times, and if not the arm, the wrist or fingers. Anything to keep Toris from contacting his soulmate to help him escape from this hell. He wouldn't allow anyone to take away his toy.

But this time would be different. Earlier, he had broken a bottle, and had ordered Toris to clean it up. He had grabbed one of the larger shards, and was now holding it up.

He tried to think of a good place to carve in the message, looking down. His eyes widened when he realised that, if the other got dressed, he would automatically glance down to his stomach. Or, if he had a mirror, he would look there. And it was a large place, though he needed to be careful.

He gritted his teeth as he carved each letter. It wasn't too easy to cut the skin there. Just as he finished the final letter, he burst in.

The two stared at each other for a long moment, with Toris growing more apprehensive. Finally he snapped, snarling in fury. Toris could only grit his teeth at the pain.

Toris opened his eyes, seeing nothing but white. As his eyesight cleared and he looked around, he realised that he was in a hospital room. And with his head resting on the bed, a boy with silver hair was sleeping.

Toris remembered what had happened before he passed out, and he realised that this was Emil. Emil, who had chosen to remain with him while he was unconscious. He couldn't help the tears welling up in his eyes.

One of his greatest fears had been that his soulmate would learn about everything that he had done to him, and would reject him out of disgust. It was also one of the things that he had taunted him with. But seeing Emil like this… But, he couldn't be too sure. Licking his lips, he knew that he would need to confirm it with the other boy.

"E-Emil?" Toris called out in a small voice.

He was surprised when Emil jerked awake, violet eyes instantly going towards Toris. Toris swallowed nervously as Emil regarded him.

"…How are you feeling?" Emil asked.

Toris shrugged, not really knowing how to answer that.

"…He was your stepfather, wasn't he?" Emil asked.

Toris's breath hitched, before he nodded.

"H-how did you know?" Toris asked.

"The police were investigating," Emil said. "But don't worry. He's not going to hurt you anymore. He'll need to get through me."

Toris's eyes widened. While not outright saying it, Emil had accepted him. Without his intention, the tears started streaming down his face. Emil wrapped his arms around him, and he wondered when the last time was that he had been hugged.

"It's okay," Emil whispered tenderly.

Toris clutched Emil's shirt as he cried. Emil's hands were softly stroking his hair, trying to comfort him.

"Why didn't you write to me sooner?" Emil asked.

"I'm sorry," Toris said. "I wanted to. I really wanted to. But… He would make sure that I couldn't write anything. I could never get hold of a pen. And he would… My arm… he would sometimes…"

"You don't have to say it. The doctors told me that it looks as though your arm had been broken multiple times. I can't believe… I just want to rip that bastard apart. He needs to pay for hurting you."

Toris's grip on the shirt tightened.

"I actually managed to write something a few times," Toris said. "But then he would wash it away and punish me. I guess you never saw those, huh?"

"I'm sorry," Emil said.

"How did you manage to find me?"

"The address written under my foot."

Toris chuckled.

"I did that a long time ago," Toris said. "And every time I managed to get a pen. It was the one place he never looked for a message. It's the last place anyone looks."

Emil's grip tightened.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "If only I had seen it sooner."

Toris shook his head.

"At least you did see it," he said. "I can't imagine what would have happened if you could never find me."

"But I did," Emil said. "By the way, I just realised that I don't even know your name."

Toris smiled as he pulled back, wanting to look Emil in the eye.

"Toris."

The prompt is: 'Imagine your OTP living in a world where they could mark/write on their skin and allow the other person to see it. Person A has been checking daily, but has never received a single message from their soulmate. They wake up one day to find their body littered with bruises and messy letters spelling out 'HELP ME' sloppily written on their stomach.'