Hello, thank you for reading this story. Just for some background information, this is a Soulmate AU where people who have soulmates (some people are just Normal and don't have soulmates) are born with one of four kinds of soulmarks:

1. Telepathic communication. One person touches their soulmark and can talk to their soulmate in their head. Language barriers do occur, as one's soulmate may not understand the language of the other person. People who fall under this group are generally called Readers as shorthand for Mind Readers.

2. Body swapping. Requires both people to touch their marks. One person touches their mark and it feels warm to indicate a requested switch. The other person has to touch their own mark to allow the switch to happen. People who fall under this group are generally called Swappers, short for Body Swappers.

3. Shared emotions. Touching the soulmark transfers your emotions to your soulmate. They can respond by touching their mark and sending you theirs. People who fall under this group are generally called Feelers.

4. Written marks. Once a soulmark is being touched, anything marked on the skin of the initiating soulmate appears on the skin of the other. The instrument used to mark the soulmate also carries over but will not disappear until the soulmate who placed it removes the mark (If a pen is used, pen appears on the soulmate. If paint is used, it will appear on the soulmate etc). People who fall under this group are generally called Markers.

A person can have multiple soulmates, but all of their soulmarks only fall under the type that they were born as.

People can temporarily block their connection with any of their soulmates by blocking the mark with a patch.

…Konnichiwa?'

It bubbled up from the inside of his own head; a tentative greeting that was so clear and so sudden that it sent Victor tumbling to the ice beneath his feet.

What the…?

Victor scrambled back up, ignoring the slight stinging in his palm and Yakov's shout from the side of the rink, and looked around. There were five other skaters around him, practicing their jumps and spins, but all of them wore intense looks of concentration as they tried to perfect their various routines. Victor, himself, had been practicing the choreography of his free skate program before his stumble. It wasn't exactly perfect — he still needed to tighten up the timing of the expressive footwork that preceded his quad Salchow — but he needed to be prepared for the NHK Trophy, which was only a few days away.

Well…Yakov thought he needed to be prepared. That's why he was working him so hard right now. Victor thought he was doing fine. He'd already performed this program at Skate Canada a few weeks before and, while he had to admit that his routine wasn't objectively perfect, it was good enough to have won gold there. And he'd definitely won gold at other competitions with weaker programs before.

But Yakov wasn't satisfied so here he was, back in St. Petersburg, running through the same part of his short program again and again and again and…

And then he'd heard the voice.

Nobody had called out to him, he knew that. The word had been too quiet for any of the skaters around him to have uttered, as none of them had been that close to him. He briefly considered that one of his soulmates had called out to him, but shook off the thought. He hadn't been wearing any patches today, after all, so they all had a clear link to his mind if they wanted to bond with him, but he hadn't recognized the voice, nor had he felt the usual tingling warmth from any of his soulmarks to indicate who had made the bond.

As a Reader, he bonded with his soulmates through a telepathic link and having secret conversations in his head with people who understood him, no matter how far away they were, was a comfort for the boy who loved meeting new people and sometimes felt lonely from his place on top of the world. But time differences were sometimes a pain and the connections were silent today. Even Yelfim, who was a student in Moscow and the soulmate he was closest friends with, hadn't bonded with him all day.

Victor waited another second before he shook his head. Maybe he'd just imagined it. Whatever he'd heard, he certainly didn't understand. It hadn't sounded like Russian, and there had been no follow-up for whatever had been said. He had a feeling that he was missing something, a niggling thought in the back of his mind that hadn't worked its way forward yet, but he couldn't just wait around to realize what was out of place.

So the young skater came back out of his own head to listen to Yakov shouting at him. He had no idea what his coach had said, but he responded anyway, throwing out a quick apology and the flash of a smile, before getting into position to run through his routine again and again and again…

It wasn't until practice was over two hours later, and Victor was changing back into his casual clothing, that he looked at his arms and froze. He'd been wearing a black, long-sleeved compression shirt while he was skating so he hadn't noticed the clearly defined black soulmark on his left wrist until he had peeled the article of clothing off, but he was paying attention to it now. It wasn't the mark itself that drew his attention. Nothing about the mark itself had changed; it was the same pair of outstretched wings — sharp, familiar lines that stood out against his pale skin. No, what had changed was the skin around it, or rather, the feeling of the skin around it. It wasn't cold.

Now Victor was standing shirtless in an air-conditioned changing room at an ice skating rink, so feeling a little chilly wasn't exactly unexpected. But for the 18-year-old who had gotten used to the feeling of ice on his wrist, the sign of a blocked connection, the lack of cold was a bit of a surprise.

As he stared at the pair of wings that spanned his wrist, he immediately thought back to two hours before and the mystery voice that had quietly penetrated his head. He placed two fingers over the soulmark and closed his eyes. He didn't need to say anything out loud — the message would be heard by his soulmate whether he spoke it or thought it — but he wanted to make the moment feel more real. Besides, no one else was currently in the changing room so he wouldn't exactly seem crazy to his rink mates by talking aloud here.

"Privyet. Kak vas zavoot?"

'Hello. What's your name?' Silence answered him, but Victor couldn't help the smile that slowly spread across his face or the excitement that blossomed in his heart.

Could it be?

The next time Victor heard from his mystery soulmate, he was in Sendai, Japan. He, Yakov, and his rinkmate Sergei had arrived in the city for the NHK Trophy and, as much as Victor had wanted to explore the area after checking into the Nagamachi Inter, Yakov had insisted that Victor rest for the evening before early practice the next day. Victor, of course, tried to argue against that; he was 18, dammit, and responsible enough not to wander too far. He'd never been to Japan before and had practically jumped off the airplane, eager to take in his new environment.

"You can explore all you want after you clean up your short program!" Yakov said, though.

"Why? You're letting Sergei go out!"

"You are not Sergei. And he's not the one who's been performing inconsistently in these past few days."

Well, Victor couldn't deny that. After his mystery soulmate had reached out to him, he hadn't been able to keep the echo of that voice out of his head, and even he knew that it had affected his practices in his last few days at the St. Petersburg rink. There was no way he could tell Yakov that, though, so he just opted for crossing his arms.

"You need to rest, Vitya," Yakov stood firm, his frown deepening even more, "You need to sleep off your jet-lag and be prepared for tomorrow and I know you didn't sleep a wink on the plane."

"But Yakov…!"

Victor hated whining, but he couldn't believe his coach was making him miss this opportunity. Yakov always had the last word, though, and the teen soon found himself lying in his hotel room, playing Solitaire on the new iPhone that he'd bought while in Canada as the minutes passed. After about half an hour had gone by and Victor had gotten sick of the card game, he flipped through the hundred or so photos he'd taken of his beloved Makkachin. After a few minutes of that, he closed his eyes and visualized himself going through both of his programs; a mini-Victor spinning and jumping, ponytail flowing behind him, in his mind's eye.

His sudden restlessness wasn't due to any nervous about this competition. He was already at the top of the skating world and, at this point, gold was pretty much assured. Nor was he scared. He had no greater love than the ice beneath his feet. The feeling of the wind rushing past him as he practically threw himself across the smooth surface. The dull ache in his legs as he pushed himself to jump higher and spin faster. Even the sting of the ice whenever he fell out of a spontaneous quad he hadn't even prepared himself for. There was no better feeling than that for the teen. Yakov called him reckless, but he liked to think of himself as just living.

During competitions, exhilarating the audience — hearing the cacophony that erupted from the faceless masses every time he struck his final pose — was his favorite thing ever. He would do anything to keep them cheering. Everyone looked towards him as the prodigy, the ace, the boy who kept his youthful grace even as he was losing his boyish features. He loved every minute of it. No, he wasn't nervous. He would always be the first one on the ice, no matter how taxing it sometimes was.

So why was he beginning to feel like he was spinning his wheels, wanting more when there was nowhere to go?

He and Sergei weren't sharing rooms, but he still bolted up and looked around instinctively when a small voice cut through the silence of the room. But there was the warmth in his wrist, indicating an attempted bonding. After feeling cold for so long, the feeling of actual warmth was definitely an odd one. His eyes caught the green LED of the clock beside his bed — 7:00 PM.

'A-ano…konbanwa?'

'Konbanwa'? That was a phrase fresh in Victor's mind. 'Good evening'. He'd learned it from the textbook Yakov had thrown at him one day, as part of the basic Japanese he was told he would need while in Japan. He'd heard it on the lips of the taxi driver who'd taken them from the airport to their hotel. So his soulmate was Japanese, or at least spoke the language, and was somewhere where it was evening.

Victor, ever the romantic, momentarily wondered if his soulmate was actually in Sendai with him, but his rationality quickly shot down that thought. That would be too much of a coincidence. Unable to keep the excitement out of his voice, the teen grabbed his left wrist and responded with the little Japanese he had learned.

'Konbanwa! Watashi wa Victor desu! Onamae wa nan desu ka?'

His pronunciation of the foreign words didn't sound any better in his thoughts than they sounded aloud, but it was the best he could do at the moment. In the short silence that followed, he released his wrist and allowed himself to wonder about his soulmate. Who were they? What did they look like? Where did they live? Did they have any siblings? What was their favorite thing to do? What was their favorite food? Did they like dogs? Or were they a cat person? Question after question shot through his head at a mile a minute, racing and swirling past each other as he waited for a response.

He'd wondered these things about all of his soulmates, at one point or another, as each one had appeared over the years. He couldn't help it. He loved learning about the mysterious people who were somehow connected to him by the odd biological mechanisms that were soulmarks or, as he liked to think of it, by fate. He liked hearing the different personalities laced within the voices that were conjured by him touching his soulmarks, from the bold, sarcastic tone that Claire had when he touched the comet on his back, to the gruff seriousness of Tobias' voice that reminded him of Yakov when he grazed the scales of the fish on his shoulder, to the light-heartedness that tinted each Russian word from Yelfim's thoughts when he clutched the leaf on his right hand. The voice of his winged soulmate, however, was neither bold, nor serious, nor laced with laughter. It was shy and hesitant, and that only piqued Victor's interest more.

'… Konbanwa, Victor. Patchi wo kite, gomen nasai. Boku wo yurushite kudasai! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.'Now that his soulmate had said more than one word, Victor could tell that his soulmate was a boy like him. He was definitely younger than Victor too, with his voice still holding the awkward pitch of a kid who was just escaping the clutches of puberty.

Victor frowned. His Japanese wasn't super advanced, and he didn't understand all of what his soulmate had said, but he had picked out the words 'patch', 'sorry' and the phrase 'please take care of me' so he figured he could piece together what his soulmate had said…hopefully. He assumed his soulmate was apologizing for wearing a patch so he shook his head before gripping his wrist again, desperately wanting to assure the boy that there was nothing to worry about. Victor wracked his brain for the few Japanese words he knew that could possibly pass for a reply.

'Um…Anata wa gomennasai…naze desu ka?'

Okay, now Victor was sure he'd gotten that wrong. He didn't know how far into this conversation he could go before being unable to keep up so, before his soulmate could respond, he quickly added:

'Do you understand English?'

There was a pause.

'A little bit. Not much.'His soulmate sounded a little ashamed to say it.

Victor felt a hopeful, though. 'A little bit' was still better than 'not at all'. Victor had been lucky so far in that, although all his soulmates were spread across the world, English that allowed them to circumvent whatever language barrier they might have had. It allowed Victor to talk to Abbas, who was Egyptian, and Tobias, who was German. For the latter, Victor had been learning a little bit of German from his friend and fellow skater, Christophe Giacometti, but English was still much easier for Victor and Tobias to use.

'That's fine.' Victor replied. English was good.

'But!'his soulmate said with a sudden ferocity, 'But, I will learn more…for you. Don't worry!'

Victor couldn't help but smile softly as he thought about his soulmate learning English for him. He knew it would take a while, but he was suddenly excited for the day when they'd be able to understand each other well enough to properly get to know each other.

'Thank you!'

There's an awkward pause before, 'It is my birthday today.'

Hmm? That was nice to know. Now Victor was back to wondering again. How did he celebrate it? Was there cake? Did he receive gifts? How old did he turn? He also made a mental note to remember November 29th as a special day. Because it was his soulmate's birthday. None of his other soulmates had November birthdays.

'Happy birthday!'

'Th- thank you. I am 15 today.'

'Cool. Did you do anything fun today?'

'…I skated with my friends. They had fun too.' Victor could hear a hint of excitement in the boy's voice at the mention of skating and he smiled.

Victor felt like he was floating, he was so giddy. He couldn't believe they were actually talking after a year of silence. And his new soulmate was a skater! Was this actually happening? Victor closed his eyes and reveled in the happiness that grew like a bubble, slowly encompassing him, filling him with a warmth that wasn't entirely physical.

His soulmate spoke up again, 'I must go now, sorry. I eat dinner with my family so...'

…Aaaand there went the bubble. Victor had to let go of his arm of a moment so that his groan of frustration wouldn't pass through the bond. He couldn't believe his soulmate had to be pulled from his grasp so soon, especially when they'd said so little. When were they going to bond again? Victor hoped it would be soon. He knew that he wouldn't be able to get his shy soulmate out of his mind for the rest of the evening. He might not even be able to get to sleep that night. But, as much as he didn't want to, he had to let his soulmate go.

At least for now.

'Okay then. Bye.'

And then the ice was back. His soulmate must have put the patch back on. But, even though the bond had been broken, Victor kept his eyes on the mark, even as he lay back, with a ridiculously large smile on his face.

The wings on his wrist, which had bloomed out of nowhere a month before his 17th birthday, had been cold since the day after they had appeared. While he hadn't understood why his soulmate hadn't jumped at the chance to get to know him, as he had wanted to from the moment the mark had appeared, he didn't hold it against him.

Although Victor had personally been very excited to bond with his soulmates when his own marks had started appearing at age 13, he had also seen other skaters his age who had resolutely ignored their soulmarks. Granted, many of them didn't go as far as to patch up their soulmarks, allowing their soulmates to at least bond with them . Victor remembers seeing Markers like Georgi letting their soulmates write all over their skin while they were too nervous to write anything back. But some of them did patch up their marks, preferring to spend an extra few minutes in the changing room to place the beige-colored patches on every mark they could reach before heading out onto the ice.

So Victor got used to feeling cold at his left wrist. He got used to it over two whole years after failing to hear a response whenever he'd tried bonding before, calling out into the depths of his mind in the few hours a day when the cold feeling disappeared. The only consolation he had that his soulmate hadn't placed a permanent patch on was that his wrist never felt hot before the cold came back.

But finally, finally, they had called out to him! After two years of silence, after he'd almost given up on connecting with the one soulmate who didn't answer back, after he'd gotten used to the one icy spot on his entire body. They had bonded with him!

Victor was in the elevator half an hour later, heading down to dinner with Sergei, before he realized that he still hadn't gotten his winged soulmate's name.

Thank you for reading. This story basically came out of me wanting to do something with the 5 pages of soulmate AU meta I had written one day. I don't know exactly where I'm going to take this story, but I had a lot of fun writing this first chapter so I'll keep going. I'm going to try and keep this story somewhat canon-compliant, but some things will have to be different.

I also tried to stay accurate to real life with certain details and dates, with the timeline assuming the year we see in the show is 2016. The NHK Trophy WAS held in Sendai in 2007 on Nov. 29, Sergei (Dobrin) was a real Russian skater who trained in St. Petersburg who went to the NHK Trophy in 2007, the iPhone 2G was released in 2007 (and you KNOW Victor would get it). I don't think I'll mention it in-story, but I made Victor's first bond with Yuuri on the 25th of November because that's when the Japan Junior Nationals was going on and I figured Yuuri would make it and be nervous enough to reach out to Victor.

So what did you think? Loved it? Hated it? Curious to read more? I'm thinking of making the next chapter be from Yuuri's POV but I'm not sure yet.