Author's Note: Fear not, because this will not be the last chapter of this series. Like the last theme series, I'm going to do one final chapter to wrap up some loose ends. As such, the final chapter (101) will take a little longer to come out. HAHAHA WHAT'S NEW ABOUT THAT THOUGH. I'll just sit over here and cry a little.

For clarity on this theme: Seto is five years older than Mokuba, and Mokuba is three years older than Rebecca Hawkins (in the Japanese anime, Rebecca's actually older than Mokuba, so I used her American anime age).

Yoooo Google image search a spiral galaxy, they are beautiful and we are in one.

Heart

Seto had just turned fourteen when the mark appeared over his breastbone, tilted slightly to the left. He noticed it while he was changing after a beating, dark against the pale skin of his chest. He unconsciously pressed a finger to the blue-black lines, frowning.

The maid that had been sent to dress his wounds looked at it for a moment, then reached out to grab his shoulder. "I'll show you how to cover that in the morning."

"What—" Seto began, confused.

She gave him a stern glare. "Never show that mark to your step-father."

The maids and bodyguards had rarely ever gone out of their way to help him. It had to be very important that he hid the mark he'd gotten.

So he'd hidden it, and never gave it a second thought again.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Do you have a heart-mark, Seto?" Mokuba asked one day. He'd just turned fourteen.

Seto didn't look up from the contracts he was going through, because the sooner he finished them, the sooner they could go celebrate his brother's birthday. "Would it matter if I did?" he replied, not unkindly.

"…I guess it wouldn't," the younger teen answered, frowning. He'd watched a maid use make-up to cover up a mark on his brother's chest when he was nine. He didn't know whether it was a scar or a heart-mark. He didn't need to know, though. Even if it was a heart-mark, Seto was already too jaded by life to believe in a thing as stupid as soul mates. "Can we have strawberry cake?"

The brunet finally glanced up at him with a small smile. "If that's what you want. It's not my birthday."

.-.-.-.-.-.

Mokuba rushed into Seto's office without even checking if he was in a meeting. "Rebecca Hawkins has a heart-mark exactly like mine!"

Ms. Oikawa, the head of advertising, stared at him in surprise. "…Congratulations?"

"I'm three years older than her!" he wailed.

"…I'm eight years older than my mark-mate," she muttered, scowling.

Mokuba tugged at his hair. "She's graduating from high school next year! I'm not nearly as smart as she is! How am I going to impress her?!"

"By not being intimidated by how much smarter she is than you, clearly," Seto muttered, resigned. "Ms. Oikawa, if we could reschedule-?"

"You're depriving me of quality entertainment," Ms. Oikawa drawled, but she stood up and began toward the door. "I'll have my assistant get in touch with your secretary to reschedule. Good luck!"

Seto could have sworn he heard her mutter 'you're going to need it.' But she wouldn't have said that. Right?

"Seto, help me impress her!"

She fucking would have.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Seto was seriously surprised that Mokuba had managed to impress Rebecca enough to marry him. Sure, they were soul mates, but Rebecca seemed like the type to disregard that fact if she didn't think her soul mate had potential.

She'd actually said that to him, that his brother had potential. Seto had been stuck between irritation (of course Mokuba had potential) and pride (he was glad that she thought Mokuba had potential). Mokuba had beamed, though, so he'd begrudgingly decided to just leave it at pride.

"It's nice that they like each other," Joey said, watching them dance their first dance at the wedding reception, something slow.

Seto didn't say anything, because he'd thought that anyone who was friends with Yugi and Téa had to believe in the sanctity of soul mates. Those two were sickeningly in love.

The blond raised his glass slightly in some sick facsimile of a toast, quietly adding, "I hope they continue t' like each other."

From anyone else, it might have seemed like a threat, or cynicism, but from Joey, it sounded like an honest hope. It was funny, somewhat. Joey seemed like the type of guy who would put his heart-mark on a soul-site as soon as he got it. But he hadn't. Seto knew, because he'd overheard Yugi and Tristan talking about it.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Serenity and Tristan shared a heart-mark. Joey wasn't happy about it.

"So did Ma and Dad," he said when Seto mentioned it, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice and failing. "And Dad beat her until she couldn't take it anymore."

"…Oh." That made sense. Why would Joey trust a soul mate when he'd seen dysfunctional soul mates firsthand?

But he couldn't help himself. "What does yours look like?"

Joey gave him an icy stare before he turned on his heel and walked away.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Seto went home after Tristan and Serenity's reception and took a good look at his heart-mark for the first time in years. A star was right above his sternum, with two thin, curling lines extending from the sides and curling around it like a spiral galaxy. It was no longer than his index finger.

It was beautiful. And he was twenty-six years old and had never given it a good, long look before.

It was fine, though. It wasn't like his heart-mark mattered in the end.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Seto didn't see Joey's heart-mark until they'd been dating for nine months and they'd finally gotten naked together. Joey didn't say much—didn't really look at his mark at all. Seto looked, though. He looked at that star over the blond's sternum and swallowed thickly when he saw the two thin, curling lines extending from the sides. He didn't say anything though. Joey wouldn't have appreciated it.

He was surprised when he woke up the next morning to the feeling of the blond's thumb slowly rubbing back and forth over his mark.

"Ya hit me once, and I'm never speakin' t' ya again," Joey whispered, eyes not moving from the blue-black lines.

Seto frowned, brows furrowed together. "Why would I ever hit you when you could knock me out in one punch?"

"I could not," the blond scolded, but paused after a moment. "…Okay, yes I could. But I wouldn't!"

The older man finally looked down at his face, smiling a little. "I know you wouldn't."

Joey looked up at him, appraising, and seemed to decide that he was telling the truth. "You're dumber than a mud fence, you know that?"

Seto lifted his hand to press his thumb against the mark on the blond's chest. "So you've said." He slid his thumb over the mark slowly, then leaned in to give him a short kiss. "Good thing you like mud fences, then, huh?"

"I guess," Joey conceded, reaching up to cup his jaw and draw his face back down for another kiss. "Dummy," he whispered, smiling against his mouth.

"Jerk," Seto whispered back, stroking his thumb along Joey's heart-mark one last time before he slid his arm around the blond's waist and rolled on top of him.

Joey looked up at him through his lashes. "…Guess we make a pretty good pair, huh?"

Considering they'd started their relationship without knowledge of their matching marks, Seto certainly thought so.