It was common knowledge that the moment you were born, you had an image, something linking you to your soul mate and vice versa, printed onto your skin in vivid detail.

Of course, as with most things in life, that didn't necessarily they were good for you, or that you had to fall in love with them. At least not in the way the masses seemed convinced you had to. You could just as easily see them as a close friend or a sibling as you could see them as a romantic partner.

A white orchid spiraled around the small delicate forearm, showing clearly on sun kissed skin.

"Mamá." The girl spoke, looking over at the woman who stood arranging a vase of violets and sunflowers. "What does it mean?"

The woman left her work and sat down beside her daughter. "What does what mean, little rose?"

"My mark, Mamá!" She giggled in that way children always do. Full of innocence and happiness without any idea of how brutal the real world was.

The woman smiled gently at her daughter and took her arm in paint flecked hands.

"The white orchid, little rose," She began, tracing the petals with her fingertips. "Means innocent."

(Innocent. She laughed hysterically, her 'soulmate' wasn't innocent. He was a monster. A human with a devils heart and horns)

(Was this karma for how she wished soulmates weren't a thing?)

Aveline blinked and looked up from her latest painting at the sound of the door to her apartment being slammed shut.

"Rose?" She called out warily, setting down her paint brush onto the paint pallet.

"Yes, Mamá?" Her daughter answered, poking her head of ash brown hair round the door of her mothers art studio.

"What happened to make you so angry?" Aveline asked, standing up.

Her daughters face twisted as if she was unsure of what facial expression to make. She settled for a small frown that reflected the irritation in her eyes.

"Odette found her soulmate today." The eight year old muttered as she stepped into the room. A book on poisonous plants held loosely in her grasp.

"Odette, isn't she the one being picked on by that boy, Gilbert?"

Rose nodded. "She wasn't wearing a long sleeved top today, he shoved her in a wall and the next thing you know, the frog on her shoulder was joined by a swan."

Unbidden, Aveline's olive green eyes dropped down to the bird pitched on an anchor that was tattooed onto the back of her hand. The once bright image now black and faded.

"Just because its supposed to be, doesn't mean it should be. Remember that, Roesia." She told her daughter, a solemn grow on her lips.

("Remember Roesia. Just because its supposed to be, doesn't mean it should be." She repeated, a bitter smile on her face as she twirled a stalk of hemlock flowers between her fingers and faced the video camera head on)

"What do you want to do with your life, little rose?" Aveline asked, completely out of the blue.

Roesia stiffened for a second before relaxing and continuing to pick the deadly nightshade berries.

"I don't know." She answered after a moment of thought.

"Hmm," her mother hummed. "I would have thought that you would want to be an assassin." She commented neutrally.

"Maybe I do and maybe I don't." The nine year old replied evasively.

Aveline sighed. "I left the mafia because your father, for all he was a violent man, was a civilian and whilst I do sometimes miss the rush I got from killing, I am content with how my life turned out."

"You can't really leave the mafia. It always drags you back in." Her daughter noted, deliberately ignoring the fact she had mentioned her father without being drunk or in one of her moods.

"Regardless of what you choose, I'll always support you." Aveline said, smiling softly at her daughter.

(You lied mother and now you're dead and I'm about to die and Tsuna is dead and he is destroying everything and the world isn't right)

(Was it ever?)

A dozen bouquets of flowers surrounded the coffin.

'Calchium, pansy, lily of the valley, myrtle and white periwinkle. Mamá always said that she wanted those flowers at her funeral." Roesia thought numbly as she stared blankly at the body of her mother, forever frozen at the age of thirty one.

Her past had finally managed to catch up to her in the form of her soulmate and ex husband and his gang.

Roesia closed her eyes and tried to ignore the fact that she should be dead as well.

Purple flames. Violet if you wanted to be pedantic.

If it wouldn't be considered highly inappropriate and possibly insane, she was pretty sure she would have burst out into hysterical laughter as soon as she registered that she had purple flames like the ones from her mother's stories.

"Fuck." She mouthed to herself, tilting her head down to look at the muddy grass.

Because now that she had Cloud flames, even she wanted to live a normal life, she would end up being dragged into the mafia.

A single crystalline tear dripped down her cheek before she brushed it away and hardened her eyes.

Tears wouldn't solve anything. She knew that they just made it all the more sweeter for people and monsters to destroy you.

Odette and the bully who was her soulmate sprang to mind. The tears she had shed as he tormented her with words and actions and dirty looks. The half hearted sympathy from her friends because she had found her soulmate, so what if he abused her? He'd grow out of it with time.

She remembered the day the class had been informed that Odette had taken her own life and how her bully had flinched as if in pain.

Soulmates cannot live without the other once they have found each other, and if for some reason they did survive, they were never the same.

("Lavender, hydrangea, hemlock, basil. I'm sure you can work out what they mean, Byakuran." She stated calmly, dropping the plants onto the ground as she named them, a hateful smile on her lips as she looked at the man fate decided to bind her to)

'Tsunayoshi Sawada,' she mused, 'was an odd boy. He knew that he would be mocked and abused. He knew that he had almost no friends, and yet he still came to school.'

She didn't allow herself to wonder about why the second she made eye contact with him, something inside her had started to scream. About how he would die and how he would hurt and a dozen other things that made no sense because he was there and he was alive and for some reason, he glowed with the brightest light she had ever seen.

("You killed him." She stated calmly as she pointed a knife to her throat.

A part of her wondered if she really had gone mad. It can't have been normal to be so calm even though she was about to commit suicide.

"What made you think I would stay within your grasp after that?" She wondered, a bitter smile on her face as she drove the blade forward. Olive green eyes locked with amethyst)

(The last thing Roesia Antares saw before closing her eyes forever, was the white orchid and the red rose intertwined around her forearm)

I have convinced myself that the creator of KHR! named Byakuran, well, Byakuran to be ironic. There is a high chance of that because, really? White orchid? Not the most villainous name. Especially when taking into account what it means.

I have also come to the conclusion that I really should not be allowed access to WiFi.

Flower language dictionary!

Colchicum

My best days are past

Lily of the Valley

Return of happiness

Myrtle

Love

Periwinkle, White

Pleasures of memory

Lavender

Distrust

Hydrangea (Hortensia)

A boaster, Heartlessness,

You are cold

Hemlock

You will be my death

Basil

Hatred

Rose, Red

Love

Orchid, White

Reverence

Humility

Innocence

Purity

And that concludes our pointless information session. Don't let anyone tell you that I never teach you anything.

Tell me who you think Tsuna's soulmate should be, please.

Any who, thoughts?

See ya