Observing the stranger from the feet up, he took in their long, model legs that matched the rest of their thin physique, their completely flat chest to the slightly sun-kissed fair skin that peeked out of the top of their shirt, and then he finally looked the stranger in the eyes. They were beautiful, two hazel orbs so bright they might as well have been prized jewels. And then, he really looked.

Wait.

His soulmate was a man?

There really was no mistaking it. For the arguably feminine beauty the stranger emitted with soft, pretty features and unbelievably soft and smooth looking long, golden blond hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail, there was still undeniable masculinity in his physique as well the sharp angle of his jaw.

The man stared up at him in surprise, presumably for the same reason Chris stared down at him. Glancing down at his glowing veins, he suddenly felt as if the breath had been knocked out of him. 

This was his soulmate.

"Holy shit, mother nature set me with a guy," Chris murmured to himself, smirking a bit in disbelief as he voiced his thoughts out loud. He wasn't nearly as concerned about the revelation as he felt he should be. "Okay... finally life gets interesting..."

Said "guy" still had yet to say anything. Instead, he held a hand to his heart and stared up at him with wide eyes.

"Considering the circumstances," Chris said, attempting to lessen the sudden tension, "you have no right to be more speechless than I am."

After a moment of silence and another few seconds of clearing his throat, he responded.

"And why is that?"

"I've never been with a guy before. Only women, though I guess none of them really meant anything, anyway. They just kinda added to my body count."

Chris had meant nothing by the statement, but it had apparently set off something in his soulmate.

"That's the first impression you choose to give someone?" the man asked in disbelief, his forehead scrunching up some. There was undeniable irritation in his tone, but Chris felt less offended and more amused. "How about maybe a "hello" or a name first next time?"

"Christopher Miyazaki," he said, choosing to take the advice.  He held out a hand. "Call me Chris. You?"

"Skylar Young." He reached out to take his hand, holding on far longer than what would be considered normal in any other circumstance. Their irritation had apparently gone fast, replaced by clear wonder in his eyes. "You can call me Sky."

Chris smiled to himself.

Such a pretty name.

He didn't say this much, though. Instead, he said something a thousand times worse that he truly should've had the sense to keep as an internal thought.

"For what it's worth, you're easily one of the most appealing people I've come across in a long time. You're a little prettier than even a lot of the women I've slept with; maybe being with you won't be such a huge change from what I'm used to."

Sky didn't immediately say anything, but the flush on his face said plenty. He was embarrassed with a touch of annoyance to go along with it which really hadn't been Chris's intention. Sometimes, his mouth just ran before he could even consider the thought of controlling it. That hadn't used to be too much of a problem when he was younger, but now it was perhaps one of his biggest flaws.

"I have a dick," Sky said eventually just as Chris winced from the thoughts running rampant in his mind and that made everything so much worse. Now Sky looked mortified, but his words defaulted to anger. Chris was starting to pick up a pattern. "What? You have to be attracted to men at least a little. If you weren't we wouldn't be soulmates, asshole."

"I'm not upset that you're a guy, I swear," Chris said in a half-apology. "I've always wanted to experiment anyway— "

"I'm not your fucking experiment." Sky narrowed his eyes, venom seeping through the slits. "I'm your soulmate whether that’s convenient for you or not."

"I'm aware!" His voice was gaining pitch as he grew further defensive. "I'm just speaking on personal experience. And trying to tell you that I think you're hot."

Sky glared at him for what felt like an hour but must have realistically been no more than a minute. Then, he muttered something under his breath that Chris couldn't catch as he reached for his back pocket. A second later, he pushed a phone into Chris's hand.

"Put your number in," he demanded, staring him down as if expecting him to refuse.

Chris's fingers scrambled to do as he was told but was immediately met with an obstacle. He glanced up at Sky, cocking an eyebrow. "There's a passcode."

"No shit," Sky muttered, not unkindly. His indignation was slowly but surely dispersing. Another emotion entirely was left behind, but Chris couldn't put his finger on it. Sky looked him up and down. Smirked a little. "One, nine, two, five."

"Wow," Chris whispered to himself as he entered the numbers. It opened up to Sky's home screen, his wallpaper a picture of Sky along with another woman. Chris clicked on his contacts, entering his number. "Is there some type of significance to that?"

"My initials. 'S' is the nineteenth number in the alphabet and 'Y' is the twenty-fifth."

"You realize that makes your passcode easier for me to remember, right?"

"I obviously don't care."

Chris smiled a little. For all of the innocence emitted by his soulmate's appearance, there was a bit of a rough edge to Sky. A tetchy, haughty kind of edge that Chris was having a hard time denying his attraction to.

"I hope you're not expecting me to do the same," Chris said as he handed Sky's phone back to him. "I have some things that I need to take to my grave."

"Not the kind of thing that warrants a police call, right?"

"No." Chris laughed. "Of course not."

Sky stared at him in suspicion for a moment before turning on his heel and beginning to take his leave. Chris's eyes widened a little in shock. For all of Sky's apparent lack of tolerance for rudeness, it didn't seem as if he was any better.

"You're not going to give me your number?" he called after Sky, briefly forgetting that his legs had the option of actually moving.

"Nope," Sky called back. He didn't turn to look back, but he threw a small wave over his shoulder. "I was kinda in a rush before you bumped into me— "

"We bumped into each other— "

"I'll text you later!" Sky interrupted and Chris took that as a cue that the conversation was over.

Chris was left standing stupidly in place with nothing but his mind to weigh him down.

A soulmate who was a man. A crazy gorgeous man with a captivating personality as the cherry on top. There were a lot of things for him to consider, but one thing was crystal clear.

Chris could work with that.