A/N: I'm trying to get back to writing. This is probably pointless and blah, but hey, at least I wrote some after weeks and weeks. I'm in a hurry, so forgive me for any mistake.

So..enjoy?

Lia -

****

Mitch remembers the first time someone told him about the tattoos. He is 10 years old, seated at the breakfast table, watching his mom flip pancakes expertedly. Usually his gaze would be focused on the food and nothing else, but today there's something different. It's very hot, and his mom is wearing a strapless dress with a flower print that instantly captures his brown eyes, and that's when he notices. Not that he hasn't seen it before, but he never actually paid it attention.

Today though, while he has nothing else to do than wait for his breakfast to be ready and watch his mom cook, he notices it. It's not even hard, the lack of fabric covering his mom's shoulders leaves the small black name inked on her skin for the world to see.

So he asks. "Mom, who is Ben?"

His mom freezes for a moment, he notices because she was about to flip the pancake and she stopped just before sliding the tool under the cooking mixture. She doesn't answer right away, she finishes preparing his breakfast before she turns to look at him, eyeing him with attention.

"Mitchy," she starts, walking over the table to take a seat across him, placing the plate full of pancakes in front ot him, "you know how dad and I have our names on our skin?" She asks, showing him her left wrist, where the name Mike is written in a angled handwriting.

Mitch nods, quite preoccupied with a mouthful of pancakes to really reply. He has seen that before, of course he has. Dad told him it's a sign of love between he and mom.

"Well," she starts, folding her hands on her lap, "when you fall in love, the name of that person appears on your skin, and it stays there until you stop loving them."

He chews slowly, trying to understand the words she just directed his way. When his mouth is finally empty, because him mom hates when he talks with his mouth full of food, he talks. "Like you and dad?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Oh." He eats some more, thinking. His mom always tells him and Jessa that she loves them, but she doesn't have their names on her skin - not that he knows, anyway. Who is this Ben? Does that mean she loves him more than she loves Mitch? He frowns, a sting of jealousy surfacing in his stomach. "Is my name on your skin too, mommy? And who is Ben?"

She chuckles lightly, although there is a sad edge in her deep brown eyes. "No baby, I don't have your name. Not because I don't love you, you know mom loves you lots, but it's another kind of love. The married people kind of love, you know?"

She still hasn't told him who Ben is. "Okay. But who is Ben?"

Nel sighs. She doesn't feel like having that conversation with her son, but she doesn't want to lie to him either. It's time he learns the meaning of the naming - sooner or later, he will experience it too. "Ben - he was a guy that I knew before I met dad. He was my boyfriend."

Mitch scrunches his nose at that. He has seen pictures of his mom and dad when they were younger and not married yet, and they used to kiss in all of them. He doesn't like thinking about his mom kissing people - unless it's a kiss on his cheek, of course. "You had a boyfriend before dad?"

She chuckles again, clearly amused by his innocence. "Yes Mitchy, some people have lots of boyfriends or girlfriends before they get married. It's normal."

"Oh. Okay then. And he was your boyfriend? What about dad?"

"I met dad later."

He chews some more, still thinking. "So if you have lots of boyfriends or girlfriends you have all their names on your skin?" He pictures himself with a handful of girls' names written on his skin, and he shudders. No, he doesn't like that.

His mom simply shakes her dad. "No, no, like I told you, when you stop loving them, their names disappear. It's your body's way to tell you when it's time to fight for someone, and when it's time to let go of them."

He still isn't satisfied. "Okay. But why is Ben's name still on your skin? You still love him?"

Nel smiles sadly, one of her hand setting on Mitch's smaller one. "He died in a car accident many years ago, way before I met dad."

Well, that is sad. "Oh. And you still love him?" He asks, because that's what she told him. If the name is still on her skin, she still does.

"Just because someone dies, it doesn't mean we stop caring for them. You still love grandpa even if he's not here, right?"

He thinks about it for a minute, chewing on his pancake in silence, before he shrugs. She has a point, after all.

And that's how he knew.

---

The first time Mitch believes he's in love is a few years later. He's fifteen and he's only now starting to understand what the flutter in his stomach whenever a cute boy smiles at him means. There's a boy in his math class, his name is Joshua, and his eyes are the prettiest green Mitch has ever seen. Joshua talks to him during class, asks for his help whenever he doesn't understand a question, and smiles bright whenever Mitch stutters out the reply.

Mitch is torn between the excitement of his first crush and the fear of what will happen when Joshua's name will appear on his skin. You can't control the body part, his mom has told him it usually depends on the relationship built with that particular person, and Mitch is completely terrified that he will wake up one day with a big Joshua written on his forehead. And what would he say to his parents, when he's only now figuring himself out?

He wakes up every morning and the first thing he does is checking himself in the mirror, completely naked, to see if there's something new on his body. He might be slightly obsessed, but no one has to know.

It's with a growing disappointment that he keeps seeing his bare skin, and after months of checking himself, he realizes that Joshua's name will never show up on him. When the school year ends and he knows he won't see the boy for the entire summer, he almost doesn't care, and that's when he accepts the truth. Not every crush can be called being in love.

---

He's seventeen and he has been out of the closet for the past two years when he steps in front of the mirror, one normal morning, and spots the black Scott on his chest, right above his heart. The word is small enough that he would have missed it if it wasn't so bold and dark compared to his pale skin.

Mitch can see the color disappear from his face. It must be a joke, he thinks, there's no other explanation. Scott probably got inside his room in the middle of the night, the fucker, and wrote on him with a marker - it wouldn't be the first time, honestly, although he usually sticks to drawing dicks on the skin of his best friend. Mitch always teases him that it's because he's extremely thirsty for some real meat - a sentence that has only increased since Scott, too, came out.

He rubs at the spot for a couple of minutes, trying to make it disappear, but it only makes his skin red and swollen, the name standing out even more. Mitch feels sick.

It's wrong, it must be. He has knows Scott for years, why would something like this happen now? Yes, they've been spending lots of time together. And yes, the blond boy is cuter than he has ever been, growing more into himself, gaining confidence after finally being honest with himself and others. And yes, maybe Mitch has let himself wonder, once or twice, what it would be like, the two of them, because it's kind of weird that they are so close, so affectionate and, well, so gay...

When he hears the sound of the car outside his window, he almost bursts out crying. They always go to school together, Scott, Mitch and Kirstie, it's been like that since the beginning of high school, and yet for some reason he forgot his friends were due any minutes. He curses his luck and karma and whatever other thing he can think of, throws on a sweater and runs out of the door.

He spends the rest of the day looking down at his chest, feeling naked and exposed even with the navy shirt on, almost like other people can see through the fabric. The skin is tingling, maybe because of the harsh way he rubbed at it that morning, or maybe it's just a side effect of the new addition on his body. He honestly doesn't know.

What he does know is that he blushes harder than usual whenever Scott's blue eyes stop on his face, curling on the edges in a smile that makes his insides twist. Did his hair always look so nice and soft? His smile so white and kind? His eyes so incredibly stormy?

He hopes he sounds indifferent when he interrupts the conversation in the middle of lunch break to ask, "so, did any of you ever had their first Naming?"

Both Kirstie and Scott turn to look at him with different expressions. Kirstie blushes adorably, which doesn't surprise Mitch because she's been babbling about this guy she has been hanging out with for the last couple of weeks, and she tells them that yes, Matt's name showed up on her back.

Mitch wants to be excited for her, he really wants to, but the only thing that comes out of his mouth is, "wow, cool." Scott is painfully silent, which he notices, because Mitch always notices whenever Scott is different than his normal bubbly self.

He can't resist. "What about you Scott?" He tries to ask smoothly, and if his heartbeat increases while he waits for the reply, well, he's the only one that has to know.

Scott just smiles a little and shakes his head. "Nope, not yet." He says, and he seems to not notice the way Mitch's face falls, because he asks, "you?"

Mitch shakes his head, afraid he will give it away if he speaks, and just like the conversation goes back to what was before - which is choir practice.

He spends the rest of the meal trying to subtly glance at Scott, feeling like a bucket of cold water has been dropped on him. How did he never realize that he was going around falling in love with his best friend?

---

As the months slowly ticks by, he's expecting the name to disappear from his skin. He's back to when he was fifteen, checking himself in the mirror every single morning, only to be met with disappointment and, well, fear.

Mitch feels awkward every time he's around Scott. He refuses to take his shirt off when the boy is around, something that he hasn't done since he was still in the closet, scared of the way his body reacted every time he had that expanse of white pristine skin in front of him. If he thinks about it, he's probably had a crush on his best friend since he was able to have those feelings.

It doesn't help his awkwardness.

He starts dating every single boy he knows, keeping things very PG, because how awkward it would be if they saw the name written above his heart. As a result, he's frustrated, and upset, and quite frankly, horny. He's a teenager, for fuck's sake, and more often than not he thinks with his dick rather than his brain.

Mitch always glances at Scott's skin whenever he has the chance, checking his friend out more than he used to. He thinks he's being subtle about it, but both Scott and Kirstie can easily tell. And if Kirstie is giddy about it, she covers it quite easily.

Scott is..flustered. He's gay and eighteen, he knows when he has a guy's eyes raking his body up and down - not that he minds. But it's Mitch we're talking about and, well. Mitch makes him flustered, always has. Still, he doesn't question him - they're always been closer than mosts, he just accepts it for another weirdness of their relationship.

When it's less than a month to his eighteenth birthday, Mitch decides he's getting a tattoo. He tells his parents during dinner, a couple of weeks earlier, and even when Mike tries to tell him he might regrets it, Mitch doesn't let his resolution crumble. He has waited months, dated at least three different guys and tried to find every possible flaw in Scott, but still. The name is still on his chest, and he has long given up the idea that it's a mistake.

He's in love with Scott, loves every single quirk and flaw, loves the crinkle in his eyes when he's smiling, the way he claps when he's laughing, his smooth voice singing with confidence. If the situation was any different, Mitch knows he'd be lucky. Being in love with his best friend, the first person he told he was gay, the person that knows him better than anyone else - and who's gay too. It's movie's worthy, he knows it.

Except, Scott's skin is pristine like the day he was born, besides the small music notes behind his ear that he got with his sisters when his dad had that car accident.

The day before his birthday, he asks his mom what has been on his mind for the past months.

"Mom, is it possible that the Naming is one way?"

She's cleaning the counter with a cloth, but she stops at his words, raising an eyebrow when she turns to look at him. "What do you mean?"

He bites his lip. "Like.. it's about true love, right? And you and dad both have it..and Kirstie and Matt too.. So, it always go both sides right?"

She tilts her head, observing her son with interest. Nel knows it's not some random question, but she doesn't have enough pieces to complete the puzzle. So she just decides to reply with the truth. "Yes, it usually goes both sides."

"Oh."

Mitch feels tears prickle at his eyes. Of course he would be the exception to the human nature's way of bringing soulmates together.

Nel seems to sense there's something else that Mitch isn't telling her. She smiles at him in a reassuring way. "Well, sometimes there might be a delay in the Naming process. Sometimes it takes a while for the heart to realize someone is in love, you know?"

Mitch nods slowly, but he's not convinced. It doesn't matter, he thinks. He doesn't want to see Scott's name on his heart anymore. Something tells him that the universe fucked up royally.

----

He hates the tattoo covering Scott's name, regrets it as soon as the excitement of it wears away. The tattoo artist told him, asked if he was sure at least ten times, knowing it's a very extreme gesture,

Mitch didn't care, he only wanted to stop looking at his body and be reminded that his love is unrequited. But as soon as the icon of deadmau5 is inked on his chest, dark and big enough to cover the small Scott, he feels it. It's wrong. It's not something that he should have done.

The skin itches and burns and he knows it has nothing to do with the tattoo itself and everything with the fact that he did something horrible and, quite frankly, useless. Because that same night, when he shows Scott the brand new tattoo, and feels the light touch of his fingers touching the skin, he knows that this doesn't change anything.

He's still completely in love with him, his heart still beats faster when he's that close.

When they ask him why he chose that particular place, Mitch just lies. He can't tell them it's because his best friend owns his heart and he always has, and that was the only way he could think of to cover every evidence of that.

"I really like deadmau5," it's his reply, which gets him an eyeroll. So quirky, they say. Let them believe it. It's better than the truth, or so he thinks.

---

Scott sighs sadly as soon as he's in the quietness of his own room.

He kicks his shoes off with too much force, the pair of converse hitting the carpet with a loud thud. He strips and gets in bed hoping for sleep to come, but he turns and toss, restless.

When Mitch called him over, that night, for a moment he thought.. But no. He needs to stop. He has been hoping for the past two years, he should just accept that things won't change.

Mitch is not in love with him, probably never will. And it's fine, really, he has gotten used to it. Except when the boy uses his brown eyes to roam his body, a faint blush on his cheeks, and Scott lets his heart flutter with hope that, maybe, one day..

He sighs again, one hand raising to grab his hair in frustration, before sliding down to his ear. There, feeling a bit of sadness at the gesture, he traces with a finger the small music note he got, only weeks after Mitch's name appeared on the skin.

It's not a surprise when he was the one suggesting they got matching music notes with his family after his dad recovery - two birds with one stone, is that the saying?

"What a odd place for a Naming," the tattoo artist had commented when he had showed the minuscule Mitch.

Scott never thought it odd. If you ask him, it's quite fitting. Mitch is small compared to him, yet his personality makes him look bold and bright and taking over every light in Scott's life. And if his name appeared right behind Scott's ear, well, that's just a plus.

Scott is pretty sure he fell in love with Mitch the moment he first heard him sing, so really, it's perfect.

Except for the fact that he has Mitch's name on his skin, and Mitch doesn't.

He sighs again. Maybe, one day. And if that will happen, he can just get his name tattooed on his skin, or something else that reminds him of the brunette that he holds dear to his heart. Namings can disappear, and he never wants the reminder of Mitch to go.

He's daydreaming, of course. It will never happen. Mitch isn't in love with him, he needs to remember that. Even if, sometimes, the way he looks at Scott makes it seem like it.

Scott closes his eyes and lets himself drift to sleep, one finger set on the small tattoo that hides Mitch's name.

He doesn't know it, but in a different bedroom, Mitch is doing the same, unconcerned with the light pain that comes to it, hand full on set above his heart where Scott's name is, uselessly covered.