To the guest reviewer who said that I shouldn't put too much angst into this story. Thank you for that. I want the angst in this story and I'm glad that you are feeling that it is too much. Situations like these are serious situations, much like similar situations in our own society. These things aren't solved over night. They can last for years, and keep affecting others long after the situation is solved. Yuri is a complex character who has gone through a lot of hardships. To suddenly have everything be better overnight would be a crime and unrealistic. Yuri is on his way to healing but the angst is still needed. I am glad that I am making you feel that way, because that means that I am doing my job as the author of getting my vision across to my readers. I'm sorry if others feel the same way and if it makes you uncomfortable, but that is just this kind of story.

Un-Beta-Ed

Soul Mates

Chapter 12

"What's a Soul Mate?" I asked my mother one day as she was washing up the dishes. I was around the age of three at the time. I had overheard some of the adults speaking to my mother about it.

"Well… It's like a best friend, but more." She responded back as she set down the current dish into a drying rack.

"It's the one person in the world who knows you better than anyone else." She paused for a second before turning and looking at me with a smile before continuing, "It's someone who makes you a better person." She turned back to her dishes and laughed briefly at herself shaking her head. "Actually, they don't make you a better person. You do that yourself, because they inspire you."

She paused her washing again and turned off the water before bending down to my height. She dried off her hands on her apron and placed one hand on top of my head. "A Soul Mate is someone who you carry with you forever." She gave a quick sigh before standing up and walking around the kitchen towards the table to gather some more dirty dishes. "It's the one person who knew you and accepted you, or believed in you before anyone else did- When no one else would." She picked up her dishes and walked back towards the sink before dropping them in.

She turned once again and smiled at me "And no matter what happens, you will always love them. Nothing can ever change that."

I sighed as I got out of bed. It had been about two months since my loss at the Grand Prix finals. I had yet to return home to visit everyone. I couldn't go back home yet. I was defeated, a total loser. I had made it to the airport with Celestino but was unable to get onto the plane. I saw Viktor there. All was well until he spotted me. I was ready to face my life at home in what was sure to be chaos waiting for me. That was until Viktor asked me a simple question.

"Did you want to get a photo with me?"

I was dumbfounded. Yesterday he was defending me from the prying eyes of the media before my performance and the Grand Prix and now I was just another one of his fans. No more, no less. A bystander. A stalker. I wasn't worthy enough to be deemed as an opponent towards Viktor and his skating. I grabbed my suitcase and walked out of the airport and didn't look back.

Celestino and my family had left numerous phone calls on my phone. I couldn't reply back. After about a week of non-stop calling, I finally texted saying that I was still alive, and for them not to worry about me. I needed time to figure out what I wanted to do, what I could do.

I realized that it was foolish of me to put all of my playing cards into skating and making an impression at the Grand Prix. Obviously, I wasn't the skater who everyone thought I was. I should have had a back up plan.

I was roaming around from place to place. I had traveled from Sochi over to Moscow, then went across Europe and found myself in Berlin. Truth be told, I don't even know how I ended up here. It was just endless days of walking, staying in cheep hotels, and more walking on an endless cycle. I couldn't communicate with most people as I never spoke the native language. There weren't many English speakers and even fewer Japanese speakers. In each place I stayed in, I managed to find a skating rink.

I was fed up with skating. I wanted no part of it, but it kept creeping up in weird ways. There would be advertisements of a local rink in the hotel, or showing past skating competitions on the television, or children walking around with skates on their backs. I was done with skating, so why did i feel the need to follow these leads and explore their rinks?

I eventually gave in one day and followed one of the maps on a pamphlet while in Berlin. I stumbled across an outdoor skating rink called Horst-Dohm. A simple circle track out in the open. I pulled out my skates for the first time in months and put them on and tied them in a muscle memory induced pattern.

My first steps on the ice were terrifying. I felt everything once I had made contact with the ice. My falls, the laughing, the failure, but I was shook out of it, as a little boy bumped into my leg.

"Tschuldigung!" The child said to me before taking off down the rink. I had stayed in Germany long enough now to know small words like "Sorry" and the likes. An older lady came up to me and started speaking in fast German to me. I shook my hands franticly and spoke in heavily accented English to her saying "I can't speak German."

"Ahh!" She laughed. "That was my son who bumped into you, sorry." She spoke with an accent back to me in English. A breath of relief washed over me as she said so. Communication was one of my biggest fears now. "What brings you to Berlin? Do you have a traveling partner?"

I shook my head. "I don't know what brings me here." I replied honestly back. A man skated up to us and stopped next to the woman and picked up her hand. She spoke a few quick words to the man and then turned back to me and spoke in English.

"If you need a place to stay in the meantime, you are welcome to stay with our family."

Family. The word buzzed out to me. A warming sense flowed down into the core of my body.

The gentleman who I assumed was her husband, nodded in encouragement to his wife's words.

"It is the least we can do, after my son bumped into you. Plus, we can work on his English together as a means of payment, if that's what is going to stop you from accepting." She winked at me.

I laughed slightly and agreed to step out of my comfort zone and accept their hospitality.

A week had passed. A week and a half. Two weeks. I was enjoying my time with this family. I had told them that I was away from home as he situation was hard. Nothing more, nothing less. Everything was great until one day, the boys mother said my full name.

"Yuri Katsuki." I paused in my task of teaching her child English and looked up towards her. I had never told her my full name. Only that I was called Yuri. They never told me their full names. Just their first names. It was a mutual agreement between all of us. I was just a wandering boy stopping by before continuing on my journey.

She looked up sadly at me before asking, almost pleading, for me to speak with her. And not just your average conversation, she wanted me to open up to her. She sent her son away to his bedroom to continue practicing.

I found myself sitting at their kitchen table with my hands twitching nervously under the table. I didn't know where to begin. So she began for me.

Adelina, as she called herself, began to tell me about her journey in life.

"I had met my Soul Mate when I was just 3 years old."

A pounding in my ankle that had been long since forgotten started up again at the mention of Soul Mates.

"My parents were ecstatic for me. I was too. I had no idea what it meant to find your Soul Mate, only that it was supposed to feel right. But it wasn't. Nothing felt right about this." She paused before continuing. She nodder her head towards the door. "I became pregnant with my son at the age of 15, and not by my choice."

The weight of this conversation had finally reached it's point. She was telling me her story so I could trust her.

"Of course, my son is the light of my life. I love him and adore for him. But the father was a monster. I couldn't even begin to think of raising my unborn child with him. So I ran. I ran and I ran and I ran. The father tried to find me of course. But I was lucky enough to run into Markus first." Markus, I had learned later on, was the current man who was living with the family.

"Soul Mates are supposed to keep you safe, make you feel loved. They are the one person who understands you better than anyone else." A pang of familiarity rose in my chest.

"That's what Markus was to me. A safe spot. He didn't judge me at all, being 15 and pregnant and running away from home. Instead, he ran away from his home with me. He stayed with me throughout my pregnancy, helped care for me when I was no longer able to work, and helped me raise my son. That's what a true Soul Mate is to me, Yuri." She reached a hand out and wiped the tears that had escaped unknown to me on my face. I flinched back from her touch. She paused for a moment before continuing her reach towards me. I stayed still this time and allowed her to do as she pleased.

"It is hard to live in an abused relationship with your Soul Mate. Trust me, I know. I don't need you to tell me your story entirely. I just want you to know, that there are others who can help you, and others who will help you. Not everyone feels the same way about Soul Mates." She stood up and turned around to me. She lifted her shirt slightly up and showed me her lower back.

I averted my eyes at first, before she encouraged me to look. I looked carefully and saw a tree, full of life with roots digging into the ground. It was beautiful.

"Is that your Soul Mate mark?" I asked.

"It was at one point." She lowered her shirt back and sat back down in her chair. "Originally, my mark were three doves in that exact spot."

I was confused right away. From my knowledge, Soul Mate marks didn't change.

"There is a special artist here in Berlin, who works with Soul Mates in abused relationships. He gives their marks new meanings by tattooing over them. It took me a while before I decided on what I wanted. I decided on the Tree since Markus is the roots to my new family, my new life, and the life I wanted to raise my son in."

I couldn't help the feeling of happiness in my chest. I felt like I could use this, somehow. Maybe the situation in Japan would be harder to bring everyone's attention to it, but if it works in other parts of the world, then maybe I can bring some of this back with me.

I asked Adelina if she could introduce me to the tattoo artist. The next day we set out to meet him. He was a humble man by the nam of Rollan. I spoke with him about how he reached out to others and how those broken Soul Mates found him. There wasn't a lot of information he could offer me though. It was mostly through word of mouth as Soul Mates who were abusive were such a taboo topic. After a few moments of silence, I told Rollan that I wanted to do something to my mark.

He studied me for a few moments before he nodded towards me and asked me to show him my marking. I rolled up the hem of my pants. I felt a hand behind me and looked at Adelina standing behind me with unspoken words of support evident on her face. Rollan asked me to tell him what my mark was.

I stared at him for a moment before pointing back towards it.

"Yes, I can see it, Yuri. But what exactly is your mark?" He asked me again.

I looked down at the area of my ankle and opened my mouth to respond but no words came out. I closed my mouth before trying again to say my answer but my mind was drawing a blank. I shook my head and stared at him before speaking.

"I can't remember."

A look of sadness passed his face for a brief second before he stood up and walked towards me. He took my hand firmly in his and said. "Your Soul Mate is not to blame for your aches, Yuri. Trust me, you do not want to cover this up until you meet your true Soul Mate. If the one you meet with the same mark, is not the one for you, then come back and see me. Please, don't do anything to this mark on your body, not yet." He said to me.

He knew. He knew of my hatred for these marks but yet he would not cover it up. The pounding in my ankle grew stronger with heat flaring around it.

He put his hand over the area where my mark should have been, still unseen to my eyes and said. "It's a beautiful mark, Yuri. I know you will do something special." He smiled at me with words of encouragement.

We left the shop back towards Adelina's house. This would be my last day with the family as I would be leaving on a plane back to Japan the next day. I had stayed away from home for long enough.

As I went to sleep that night, my mothers words played back in my head.

And no matter what happens, you will always love them.

Nothing can ever change that.