When 14 year old Nico Di Angelo first got his Soul-Watch, he threw it away.

He had barely even checked whatever insignificant numbers were digitally written across it, his eyes too full of tears to make out anything other than the hatred for the blurry red digits. In an adrenaline fuelled desire, he threw the band into the bottomless, black lake, watching it sink to its depths.

Nico was sitting there in the hospital, and there were all sorts of people surrounding him. They spoke in low, hushed voices but the child still heard his own name amongst the concealed conversation. Nico couldn't bring himself to care about whatever the men in suits were discussing though, he had just lost a sister.

"I'm sorry, she didn't make it," the nurse had told one of the men, this one in a pinstriped suit and a top hat. Nico didn't even know the man, but it made him quell with hatred and spite since this random adult was the first told about his own sister's death. They had only had each other, just Nico and Bianca and Bianca and Nico. Everything was dependent on the other, like a lifeline to hold onto, except it wasn't money, shelter, food nor water, just a sibling. Little Nico Di Angelo was so grateful for Bianca, the only single person who cared about him always by his side.

Until that moment, until that nurse came out with a mournful glint etched into her eyes. As from that moment, Nico was alone, no one was there for him in the world. The only person who did, was now in the depths of the afterlife.

Nico's head leaned back, hitting the wall behind him and trying desperately to fight of tears, squeezing his eyes tightly shut. But they fell nonetheless, and Nico broke down into a heap of sobs with not even a single acknowledgement from anyone.

But then there was that blinking, visible through even his shut eyelids, a pulsating scarlet. He didn't understand right away, so caught up in sorrow to forget about the rite of passage everyone anticipated as a child. Then Nico saw the clock, it had struck midnight, signifying a new day, and a new birthday for the young Italian.

From there, he ruefully pieced it together. The infamous Soul-Watch, uniquely to be discovered by only its future owner as soon as they turn 14. Nico like any other eager child, was more ecstatic when he first heard about it from Bianca, how he loved to sit and listen to the stories of how others found their watches in the most bizarre of places.

And here Nico was, finding it on a hospital desk, just mere minutes upon his sisters death.

Nico remembered seeing a much more vivid red, snatching his band of the table and slipping away out of sight, looming into the shadows just like he was so good at when he'd play hide and seek with Bianca in the forest. Nico ran before he could even think about where he was going, bringing himself unknowingly to a body of water.

The scene of the starry night sky refracted on its surface, effectively painting an ephemeral beauty. Yet the depths delve deeper than what Nico could possibly see, and paired with a guttural shout, he threw the only tie to the only other person that could possibly care about in the dark, liquid abyss. Impossible to ever reach again.

Nico sank to his knees and sobbed in the soil until he was found by the same pin-strip suited man, who escorted him out in bitter silence. Inwardly, Nico made a solemn oath to himself: saying he would never try to receive the watch again.

And it had been 7 years; Nico stayed true to his word, and never returned to the starry lake since that mournful night. If he was honest with himself, the temptation still gnawed at him, and for his own selfish reasons he sometimes just wished for a memory of the tear coated glance he took of the watch. Yet here he was, 21 years of age, and still unknowing of when his soulmate would be found or even if he had already found the one.

Nico Di Angelo has changed a lot since that starry night. He was no longer the bright eyed, beaming innocent child that everyone adored, that rushed forward to pinch his olive tinged cheeks. Instead he was an outcast, a social reject who wore leather and had stupid piercings to keep people away from him as he wanted them too.

But although socialising was kept to a minimum, Nico still made endeavours and affairs. Usually with those too impatient to wait the time until they meet their destined, looking for a quickie before they're out. Nico didn't mind though, he never wanted to commit to anything in the first place, but these one night stands would only happen once every often, which only made Nico stupidly regret disposing of the Soul-Watch in such an over dramatic manner.

When he did meet the one though, it was just about to be like any other hook up Nico would attempt to conquer. This time, it was at some frat party that the Italian had crashed for perhaps a drink or two. However as soon as he entered those widely opened doors, his attention purely latched onto that glowing, golden hair contrasting against the dull crowd, rather than the beverage table.

Nico frowned when he saw the blonde smiling and laughing with pretty ginger girl, automatically presuming it to be most likely a soulmate than a friend that he would be that up close and personal with. This was confirmed as the ginger kissed golden haired boy on the cheek, before making her way through the crowd into an indistinctive direction.

There is no shame in trying, Nico thought to himself... but he would never get in between a soulmatch — he did have some decency. Nicking a brimmed filled solo cup, he was just about to leave it until he saw that same red, pulsing light upon the blonde's tanned wrist.

Nico hadn't seen one flash since he was fourteen, besides in both dreams or nightmares. Sure, he'd seen them on others, but he had never saw them glow just like his did all those years ago, and soon enough he found himself drawing closer to it, as if it were a beacon.

Nico was only a couple steps away until he realised that he had no way of initiating conversation with this blonde, so he stopped dead in his tracks, trying to think over the ear splitting bass of some electronic song. He didn't get much time though, not until he had heard the guy behind him claim he was 'so fucking drunk' before he toppled into Nico in a clumsy haze, Nico falling into the blondes grasp in a lucky save.

And Nico was just about to say a quick thanks, but that beeping, though the music heavily overpowering it, still dominated his mind and prevented to make sense of any of the mushed thoughts in his brain.

The strong armed blonde (from what Nico could tell with his muscled bicep pressing into the small of his back) looked down at the red gleam, then directly into coffee brown eyes, a breathtaking smile gracing his freckled face, now showing off a previously hidden dimple.

"I found you," he breathed giddily, "Fuck, you're my soulmate!"

"Sorry," was the first thing Nico thought to reply, and when he voiced it, he of courses noticed the furrow of his apparent soulmate's brow. The Italian himself then winced, not exactly as smooth as he hoped for a soulmate endeavour to go.

"No, no, why sorry?" The blonde questioned, still holding Nico in the dip which apparently both of them forgot about but weren't going to move anytime soon, "I couldn't of imagined anyone more..." The soulmate didn't finish his sentence, not letting anything slip past the suggestiveness of his bitten bottom lip.

Nico wanted to run, just like he had ran all those years ago. To push everything away, just like he was so good at doing. But now? How could he run when this warm embrace was so enticing, when his soulmate was literally a blonde angel on earth?

It was crazy to be so intoxicated already, and Nico hadn't even had a single drink at this point, instead drunk in the depth of deep, blue eyes.

"Hey, where's your watch?" He asked curiously — a fair enough question — eyes scanning over the bare wrist that should be holding the timer.

The Italian responded with a shrug (as best as he could while still held in this position), "It's a long story," and it was only that point, he realised how erratically his heart was beating, embarrassed with the fact that his soulmate might hear.

"I'm Will, by the way."

"Nico Di Angelo."

"Well Nico Di Angelo, would you do me the honours of perhaps joining me for a dinner?"

Nico never did dates, but he still remembered how his heart soared at the request. Just like it still did whenever he looked at the ring that now laid on his left hand, his heart fluttering more than a stupid watch that could never compare to this.