You hadn't meant to fall in love. Yes, you wanted to go out on a date, but that didn't necessarily mean having to fall in love.

Love was something society seemed to either hate or love these times. It was strange, the fact that people either lived with their soulmates and were incredibly overjoyed, or people lived with others, the fact that they weren't meant to be together overshadowing their whole relationship. You didn't want to find your soulmate. Or maybe you did, but you were scared of it too. You wanted your freedom, no one told you what to do or who to go out with. And you had it, you saw the bliss some of your friends were in because they had found their soulmate, and the misery that sometimes overcame your parents, seeing as they weren't a ‚perfect match'.

That was what it was called, because even for society the term ‚soulmate' was far too cheesy.

You couldn't have cared less to find your soulmate, you were afraid of it even! What would change when you found him, or her? You were happy with your life, you didn't want your perfect match to change anything.

The date you were on now was set up by one of your friends. And yes, as cliche as that sounded you only went there to please her.

But as soon as you had seen the boy you had known you liked him. Aethelred, yes you had laughed as you heard the name leave your friend's lips but as she said ‚what can he do for how his parents named him?', was tall, broad shoulders clad in a leather jacket, which definitely complimented his features, his hair wasn't short but not quite long either, some strands of it touching his forehead in a way that made you want to run your fingers through it. And his eyes, his eyes were a mix of light blue and grey, it had a hypnotizing effect on you. A light stubble grew on his face and you just had to think about what those stubbles, and his mouth, would do to you someplace down south.

It had been the first date, you hadn't even talked to him yet and you were already thinking about sex. Just brilliant.

Moving towards him you suddenly hadn't been all too sure if it even was him. You had decided to meet at a bar, which was stupid in retrospect because you had never seen each other before. Though you had a weird kind of calling towards the stranger you suddenly hadn't been that sure if it even was the boy you were supposed to meet.

„Aethelred?", you had asked him as you stood in front of him, ready to embarrass yourself if he wasn't the person you were supposed to be on a date with.

The smile that had appeared on the stranger's face made your body heat up in happiness.

„Yes", he had answered as he pronounced your name, the hairs at the back of your neck sticking up from it. You had never felt someone have such a huge effect on you.

„That's me", you had answered and waited for him to talk.

And that he had. Aethelred was perfect in every way. He was kind, funny and oh so caring. After a few drinks, ones that didn't have too much alcohol in them because you didn't want to hit it off at the first date and neither did he, it seemed, you had decided that staying at the crowded bar wasn't the best idea and so you had made your way outside, deciding to go for a walk through the city.

It had been cool but you didn't live too far away, you had walked very slowly so the walk and the conversation would be longer. After a while Aethelred had given you his leather jacket, which you had thanked him before because it really had been cold and the scent that had surrounded you after putting on the jacket had your knees go week.

Once you had reached your doorstep you had continued standing there, not minding the cold. He hadn't wanted to come in and you were quite happy about that, though you also had a devil on your shoulder saying you should fuck society's expectations and sleep with Aethelred in the process immediately.

You had shushed that voice though and you had only gotten a soft kiss on the cheek, his stubbles scratching your soft cheek while pulling away, which had made your knees weak and a blush form on your cheeks.

You had turned around and opened the door, afterwards turning back to see that Aethelred had stayed to see if you got home alright. That had made you smile and blush yet again and after waving to him that you were indeed alright you had closed the door.

That had been the first time you had seen each other and from that moment on you thought about him every second of every day. It was entirely strange, you usually weren't the type to fall for people that easily, but Aethelred occupied your mind far too much for your liking. Your friends teased you about it, but there was nothing you could do. And from what you heard from the friend that had set you up he wasn't much different. Which, of course, made you so happy.

And since your love life apparantly was the most important topic of any day to your friends you gathered some information on Aethelred by listening to your friends' stories.

He was the first son of his mother's, but shortly after his birth she had found her perfect match who had fathered his half-brother, though her perfect match had died tragically and she and her both sons now lived together with Aethelred's father.

Another fact about him seemed to be that he was very, very rich. His family apparently owned some business that made them very wealthy, which you weren't exactly repulsed by.

You certainly weren't a gold digger, but a boyfriend with money wouldn't exactly hurt.

The first time Aethelred called you wasn't quite yet three days after your first date, and you were so giddy to see his caller ID that you picked your phone up on the second ring, which frankly irritated the both of you. He waited to hear more ringing but there was none, and until you had said ‚yes?' the both of you were confused. After that there were fits of laughter from both you and him.

He came straight to the point, telling you what a fantastic time he had had and that he wanted to see you again. And you were so happy that he said so, you immediately agreed.

The second date was both blissfully wonderful and a catastrophe at the same time.

You went out to eat, he brought you to a fancy restaurant and after long talks and a costly meal you brought him home.

Over the meal a tension had built and you ended up all over each other so that you didn't even take your time beforehand. The sex you had was the best you had ever had and Aethelred was the most caring partner you had ever had sex with. It wasn't that he was too vanilla, rather the opposite but he saw your every reaction and acted accordingly.

It was long and heated and after you finished he stayed the night.

The next morning you didn't even want to look at him. Only for the simple reason that you didn't want to find his mark.

You would have loved to study him, his body and features to great detail, Aethelred was too fascinating not to, but you didn't want to see it.

The mark was some kind of birthmark that only two people in the world ever shared.

It was the thing that showed if the couple belonged together.

Your own birthmark was situated on the inside of your right forearm, a mark that looked quite similar to the anglo-saxon rune that meant 'ash'.

His would have to be at the exact same place on his body as his partners would be and you didn't dare look for it.

You just moved to the bathroom and later to the kitchen to make breakfast until he would wake up and come out of the bedroom to eat.

Lucikly for you Aethelred had worn a long sleeved shirt the night before so there was no danger of seeing his mark when he was fully clothed.

You were scared that he wasn't your match, and you were scared that he was. So you simply stayed away. You felt too good with him to have any revelation ruin what you had.

When Aethelred finally came out of the bedroom he was thankfully fully clothed and you had made pancakes for the both of you. You were still arranging them when you felt Aethelred come up to you from behind, hugging you to him and pressing a kiss to your temple. It was such a couple's thing to do that your breath caught in your throat. Of course you hadn't talked about being in a relationship yet, it had been the second date and neither of you had probably anticipated for it to end like this. But you couldn't lie, you loved it. The feeling of his hands on your hips pulling you close was a feeling you never wanted to forget.

„Good morning", he muttered and you answered with the same words, trying to grasp the situation you were in. You really felt for Aethelred, but even though you felt like he did the same for you you didn't know for sure, which added to the stress you were already feeling because of the match thing.

You didn't want to think that way but maybe Aethelred had just wanted to sleep with you and would never call you again. Had he seen your mark? You weren't sure, in the bliss and the rush of the moment you couldn't remember if he had looked at your forearm. Your heart sped up for a brief moment because you thought to remember a moment where he had kissed the inner side of your right forearm affectionately, but that just couldn't be. You must have dreamt that.

You put the pancakes on the table, together with the dishes, jam, maple syrup and blueberries and waited for him to sit down, which he did. The sleeve of his right arm was perfectly in place, shielding his skin from your vision.

Sitting in front of Aethelred you didn't have a thing to talk about, even though the both of you couldn't have shut up at all last night. Now you were sat in silence and he was looking at you, studying you.

„You don't want to talk about us, do you?", he asked and the hurt in his voice and eyes tore at your heart. You didn't know what to say.

„Why?", he continued asking and you shook your head. You didn't know why you had tears in your eyes, but you had them. You weren't crying, you certainly didn't mean to, but you were unwilling to talk about it.

„I'm not going to talk about it", you answered as you looked at the untouched pancake on your plate, just so you didn't have to look at him.

„Why not?", Aethelred pressed as he reached out for your hand that was laying on the table but you pulled it away. „You know that we are...", he began but you shook your head rapidly and raised your voice.

„I said I don't want to hear it!", you said angrily and looked at him now.

„If you are my match then that's wonderful, before I met you I was afraid that my match would be restricting me and I realized that if it were you then I would be perfectly happy. But I don't want to know, I don't want to know because I finally met someone I like, we had two dates together and I'm already thinking about spending my life with you, how sick is that? What I mean is that I couldn't stand being in a relationship with you knowing that the perfect match for you is still out there, that would hurt me far too much, I couldn't live with it!", you finished your monologue and saw Aethelred's face. He looked much too calm. Why wasn't he angry with you?

„Yes, but you see we...", he began and you again interrupted him.

„How many times do I have to say it, I don't want to know!", you shouted and stood up and he nearly jumped up from the chair he sat in.

You stared at him through glossy eyes as he put his hands on the table gently, facing you. „You are my perfect match", he said and your heart began to beat so fast and hard you felt like you had misheard him. Feeling dizzy you watch him roll up his right sleeve, showing you the birthmark that had strange similarities with the anglo-saxon rune, the same one you had on your forearm.

Now the tears did fall as you stared at his exposed skin in shock. „You're my perfect match", he muttered again and this time you looked into his eyes that were filled to the brim with admiration.

You tears of shock turned into ones of happiness as you stubled towards Aethelred, your legs unsteady until you felt his arms around you, hugging you to him tightly.

After a long while of holding onto him you finally calmed down enough to pull away far enough to look up at him and kiss him passionately.

Being with Aethelred and knowing he was the one for you made everything even more intense and you realized that Aethelred was everything you had ever wanted and everything you had never known you needed put together. And you would never let him go.