Chapter Text
Rody was given several empty boxes. It wasn’t like he and his family owned that much to begin with, but they accepted it with grace. They packed up his things, and he hoped that life as immigrants, as looking different and coming from a different culture, wouldn’t isolate his siblings from the world even more. Surely, it was better to be an immigrant than to be related to a criminal, right?
Well, when they were older, he supposed that they could make that choice for themselves. He sincerely doubted that his soulmate, after all the resources and everything that they were using from him, would allow them to just walk out. Maybe he could just get his siblings out…
His soulmate, who was thin and even smaller than Rody, looked like something the wind could knock down. The touch of a cold blade against his throat told Rody one of two things.
One, his soulmate knew someone dangerous. Meaning, he was also putting his neck on the line so that Rody and his siblings could immigrate to Japan.
Two, Izuku was a dangerous, dangerous man. Rody wouldn’t be able to walk in the light after this. He was going to stain his hand into something dark, dirty, and filthy.
Before, he had been careful not to ever become a villain. It was a thin line, but he was good at traveling through it. Once someone goes down that path, there really is no salvation for them. Not just him, but also his siblings, who would only be known as a villain’s family member. Here or there, it would appear that nothing would actually change.
Was this really the best that Rody could do?
-
“So uh… Do I need to meet your boss? Coworkers? Wh-what should I say?”
And the man with scary-looking scars and hair as white as snow next to him snorted. Rody felt his face heat up, and he turned back. Lala looked at him, curiously, and Pino remained tucked in his hoodie pocket, out of sight. Out of anyone’s sight. He was carrying his sister, her arms wrapped around his neck and his arm under her bottom like a seat for her.
Her constant warmth felt like the only thing that was grounding him into reality. His other hand was held in Roro’s deathgrip. His younger brother must have either picked up on his unease, or he was equally scared about the same things that were bothering Rody.
Afterall, they made it to Japan by walking through a portal. Which. What?
“Izuku,” the man standing by the elevator door said, a thick accent but speaking slow enough that Rody understood him with clarity, “Is our Emperor.” His blue eyes met Rody, and for a moment, Rody thought that he would be beheaded for speaking so presumptuously.
Emperor? Weren’t the East Asian countries democratic?
The moment shattered when his soulmate spluttered and kicked the man in the leg. The blue-eyed man rolled his eyes and stared at the elevator number pad like nothing happened at all. After a few more phrases spoken in a language that Rody thought was Chinese until twenty minutes ago (it was something else, Japan, whatever that was), his soulmate turned back to him.
“Don’t worry about that,” Izuku told him. “Dabi’s,” he made a motion to his head, “strange.” The man in the corner, Dabi, snorted back. And Rody wondered if strange was the word to describe someone who was about to set a bar in a blaze of blue. “My friends and I live here,” he continued to explain. “They are rough, but they won’t let anything happen to you.”
The door dinged and it opened. A row of men on their left and a row of woman on their right, dressed in business suits straight down, stood proudly. With their hands folded in front of them, they lowered their head at once and said something in unison. He didn’t know what, because it didn’t sound like a greeting he heard the others give them. The spectacular display had his stomach churning.
Roro squeezed his hand tightly, and Lala gasped.
“...Wow…” she said, dazed and dreamy. “Is he a prince?”
Rody grimaced.
“An Emperor,” he mumbled, “apparently.”
Izuku's face turned bright red, "Th-this isn't normal!" he shouted at him. "They don't normally do this!" And he turned back to them, flustered and talking in a different language, and the white haired guy at the elevator tag was shaking with laughter.
The sight of it, at once, made Roro's grip relax, and Rody wondered if maybe there was something more to this after all. He would rather be treated as a joke than be a villain, after all.
-
"This is your room," Izuku said, passing him a small envelope, "We put two keys in there. If you need any more, or if you need the lock replaced, contact that number again.”
But Rody didn’t have a phone, and he wondered how he was going to explain that. Come to think of it, moving to Japan was a really impulsive decision. Out of his element and not even able to speak the language, what the hell was he going to do?
Right, mooch off his clearly capable if a little frightening soulmate of his.
“I will set you up with a bank account. Use it as you see fit. It’s going to be hard living in a new country, but I don’t want you to think that you’re alone,” Izuku continued, that gentle smile on his face. “We can talk more about it later, if you want to take the time to settle into the room. Don’t worry about dinner tonight. Someone will come by to let you know when it’s time for dinner.”
Was it that obvious that Rody was uncomfortable? Well, he supposed that it must be, since Pino was burrowing himself in his pocket, trembling like a leaf.
“Let’s go!” Lala laughed, a sense of adventure that he envied.
“Yosh! Let’s do this!”
And Rody wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. He had memories of being a lot richer, living in a big place packed with memories and the smell of home, and he had memories of that tiny little trailer that Lala and Roro learned how to cook by stirring a soup that he thinned out a little more every day.
Then, they were here. An apartment, just a little bit bigger than their trailer, with two rooms and their small amount of boxes neatly packed in the center. There was some furniture, things like couches and curtains on a carpet-flooring, white walls, and pretty much what Rody thought rich-people apartments looked like. It felt like someone rolled out the skeletal exterior, and they were free to add upon it so that it became home. On the counter was a furniture magazine.
“Alright!” Rody said, keeping strong for his siblings so that they would never know fear. He gave a loud laugh as he placed Lala on the ground
And then, Rody realized that the dining table they placed next to the kitchen was the one from the trailer. He wasn’t sure why he was so shocked, was he expecting to be given a new identity and stripped of everything that he had ever known? But he was. He didn’t think that it would be this nice. Or this was easy. He placed his hand on the table, feeling like maybe things weren’t that awful. A table that looked clearly older than everything else in the apartment, and a little out of place.
It was a start, and Rody wasn’t the type to let opportunity slip by him.
-
There was a polite knock on the door, while Roro and Lala were exploring the room (they had a full bathroom and a laundry unit, which surprised all three of them in very different ways), and Rody came to get the door.
At the door was Izuku, with a bag in his hand.
“It’s nothing special,” he said, “but I love the fried chicken around the area. Do you… like fried chicken?”
“Sure!” Rody said, and he took a step back, “Come on in.”
The young man stared at him for a moment longer and then passed the bag over, “It’s alright. I need to get back to work. And here’s a folder with all of the information printed out,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be able to meet you for the rest of the week. Call the number on the card if you have any issues, and we will figure it out.”
Work? Right, Rody. He worked. And suddenly, this life didn’t seem so glamorous.
“Uh right, I… Thank you. Really, thank you.”
Izuku met his gaze, and he gave a smile. The fatigue on his shoulders didn’t seem to touch his eyes in that second.
“Of course,” he said, nodding his head.
Rody couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it was a cultural thing. It was just expected to fly halfway across the world to find your soulmate and take their whole family in and make sure that they’re okay. Give them fried chicken and set them up in a nice apartment with furniture and stylistic choices that remind him of home.
“Have a good evening,” and Izuku bowed.
“Right!” Rody bowed back, “You too,” he said.
Green eyes stared at him, and his heart skipped a beat. The smile he received this time was not the gentle one from before, but something else that had his face heating up and Pino chirping loudly behind him. He closed the door, and leaned against it.
Wow.
-
Somewhere in the back of Rody’s mind, he thought that his siblings would have given him a perfect excuse.
That this life was too much for them, and that they were homesick, and that would be the reason why Rody could leave. It would be fine. It would have been perfect.
The next few days, between getting a bank account and jet-lat and having someone come in and help him out learn about a language and a culture he didn’t even know existed, blurred. He was encouraged to leave the apartment and walk around the block, and for a bustling city, everything was pretty clean and nice. High buildings that touched the skies, busy sidewalks, and the smell of delicious food trucks, were all similar, even in another country. Overwhelming at first, and then it started to dial down as they got used to it. People kept to themselves for the most part, looking down at their mobile devices. There were the occasional group of teens laughing too loudly and walking too slowly, and all the older passerbyers glaring at them as they walked by.
Familiar, all things considered.
Within a few days, his brother and sister were registered to go to the nearest public school. As they grew older and learned about what they wanted to do, they could work to take exams and go to other schools, as well. Definitely different to what Rody remembered back at home, but the explanation he got was pretty standard. They were so cute, with their uniforms and their school bags.
And clothes. Clean. New clothes. They were also given fabric and a magazine, told to just mark the things that they wanted, and after a joke or two, Rody realized that it was not a joke, and they had packed their wardrobes (until they got something for that too, and their apartment still felt spacious).
And pictures. Rody could take pictures of his siblings. They had several picture frames and already packed an album full of pictures of them. Realy, physical evidence and Rody didn’t know how to deal with the fact that his heart kept trying to swell out of his chest.
“Yeah, the grammar is hard,” Roro said, “but I’ve been getting a lot of help. The teacher-the sensei is really nice!”
“Sensei said that my writing is really pretty,” Lala said, already a pro-speaker and just as Rody expected, she was a thousand times smarter than him.
Rody, who had been learning using videos and the guy who was teaching him everything, felt even more determined than ever to work harder. If his siblings ever want help, he would help them. Because, Rody, who was no longer a breadwinner and just sitting around watching his bank account increase, wanted to still be relied on by his siblings.
And like that, four months passed. If he didn’t believe that humans were adaptable creatures before, he sure as hell believed it now.
It helped that they were given some distance and a place to just hide away from everything that was too different outside.
-
“Er uh… Sero uh… Sero-san?”
His tutor looked up at him, “What’s up?”
“How…” Rody wanted to ask. What was his soulmate doing? Did he miss him? In the two minutes before sleep took him, did he think about Rody like Rody thought about him? Did he linger in the lobby of the first floor and wonder if he would see just a glimpse of him?
“How…?” Sero repeated back.
“...How does the trains work?” he chickened out instead. “Lala mentioned that her class is going on a field trip, but she doesn’t know how trains work. Thought maybe I could… teach her?”
The man grinned back, nothing less than friendly, “Grab a jacket, I’ll show you right now.”
-
“Rody, look it’s your soulmate!”
And Rody loved Lala with his whole heart, he did but. But sometimes she did things and said things that made him wish that the ground would swallow him whole. Or like Pino squawking before flying straight to hide in the hood of his (not brand new, but it still felt like that to Rody) sweater.
But before he could say anything, green eyes met his. Wide and surprised, before a soft pink flush crossed his cheeks, and Rody felt his mouth go dry. The image Rody had of Izuku, of Izuku and his gentle smile and suspicious business card, was that he was someone who was confident. He was confident like he never had a reason to be otherwise. Confident and dangerous, Izuku was powerful with every step, every movement, and the person who met his eyes didn’t feel like that at all.
Licking his lips, he lifted his hand up over his head. He waved, a grin on his face, and Pino trilled around his head. God, could he be any more obvious?
Izuku’s cheeks darkened a little more, and he nodded back. A smile stretched his lips, and Rody wished they were a little closer so he could count the number of stars that collected in his eyes.
“Go say hi,” Roro said from the side, giving him a meaningful look. “He’s the reason why we’re living like this, right? At least say thanks.”
“The mouth on this kid,” Rody said, ruffling his hair without pulling his eyes from Izuku, just shy of eight feet from him. “Alright, alright, you just watch your niichan…”
The words died in his mouth because the young man came closer instead. The earlier blush receded into something lighter,
“Good afternoon, Soul-san, Soul-kun, and Soul-chan,” he said, giving them a polite bow.
While Rody was trying to scrape his jaw off the ground, Lala and Roro gave polite bows back. Easily, they made the switch to Japanese. He supposed that it was easier for a child to pick up language, especially since they went to school, than for a bum like him. Luckily, he was a fast learner.
He bowed back.
“Hello, uh…”
“Izuku is fine,” Izuku replied, a polite smile on his face. Unlike before, he was in a dark green hoodie and a pair of slacks.
“Oh, because you’ll be a Soul soon?” Roro asked, ignorant to the fact that Rody felt like his heart was going a mile a minute.
“Then, just call me Lala!” Lala said, “And Roro doesn’t deserve anything special so just Roro is fine. And I guess Rody-nii will be Hubby, huh?”
And it was like someone had lit a fire or something. Izuku’s face turned an alarming shade of red as he gave a quiet, “What?”
“Wow!” Rody laughed nervously, his heartbeat thundering in his chest. He grabbed his brother and sister, and shoved them behind him. “Nice weather, right?” he said, loudly as he looked at Izuku. His face felt hot, but Izuku looked like he was running a fever.
Roro rolled his eyes, and Rody wasn’t looking forward to how he was going to be as a full-fledged teenager soon.
“I-it is,” Izuku nodded, stumbling over his words and looking away. Rody felt his heart flutter at the sight of him, and blamed the stupid bond that he was born with for this nonsense. “I-I can’t stay for long, so I’ll leave first.” He gave a polite bow and Lala kicked Rody’s knee.
And Rody knew, okay?
“If you’d like,” he said, hoping that he didn’t sound too tongue-tied and his accent wasn’t too thick, “Do you wanna come over for dinner? We’re… We’re going to make some pasta tonight.”
And wide green eyes stared back at him with so much hope that he felt like the sun could get eclipsed and he wouldn’t even notice.
“I-I’d like that,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. He pushed his hair back and nodded again, shyly, “If-if you don’t mind.”
“Yeah,” Rody replied, breathless like someone punched him in the stomach. It should be a crime to look that cute. “See you in like two hours.”
Maybe, he thought to himself, not the kind of villain that he thought.
-
Izuku came over for dinner. Dressed in a hoodie and jeans, he looked like anyone might on the street. Just a normal guy, visiting another normal guy for dinner. Super normal.
Still, Rody stood at the door, stammering like an idiot for a whole minute, before Roro shouted out, “Let him in!”
“C-Come on in.”
At the very least, however, Izuku looked just as tongue-tied. Rody wondered if that, too, was because of the bond that they had no choice about. His heart pounded in his chest and his hands felt clammy no matter how many times he tried to rub them on his pants.
Dinner was great. Izuku laughed quietly behind his hand, even when Rody stubbed his toe and spilled pasta all over himself.
With his head in the clouds, Rody felt like it was too damn easy to imagine a future like this. Him and his soulmate, filling in the aching vacancy left behind by tragedy, giving his baby siblings everything that they really deserved. They ate the dinner that Rody cooked, food that was good for the soul (as his dad always said), and tucked his siblings together and spent some hours to each other in the late hours before midnight.
“Did you help me because I was your soulmate?” Rody asked, unable to hold it back anymore.
Between them, he placed their tea down on the coffee table that was given to him. He took a drink from his, uncaring about how it burned his tongue.
Izuku shook his head, as he took the cup and held it in his lap. “Thank you,” he said, before he continued to answer his question, “I helped you because you asked for help.”
And god, Rody almost believed him. If only that were the case.
“But I found you because you were my soulmate,” the young man added. He gave a small smile, and Rody wondered if he learned a foreign language before or after learning that they were soulmates. When he was 18 and got the mark, he didn’t really pay it any mind, since he figured that his soulmate would just be disappointed when they met.
Now, he was starting to wish that he tried a little more.
Izuku stared out forward, and his hands clenched each other so tightly, it looked like he was strangling someone while praying.
“...This is going to sound bad and I am grateful for what you’ve done for Lala and Roro,” Rody said, “I am grateful. Really. But this… all of this feels too good to be true.”
Izuku’s gaze was gentle, but there was something to it that he couldn’t describe. His gaze was dark, and it took a moment before Rody realized that he knew that look. He couldn’t remember, but it was a look he knew well.
“...Soul-san,” Izuku said, “Thank you for being honest.”
“Rody,” he replied back, hands in his pocket and leaning against the doorframe, “since we’re not strangers.”
Pino chirped, pushing up against Izuku’s cheek before returning back to Rody.
The look on Izuku’s face was the same as the one he saw in the mirror. The gaze of someone that didn’t think that they were anything worthwhile or important. The thought that they might be more similar than he thought made his head spin.
The same way that Izuku pulled him out of that hellhole, always wondering and always hungry, he wondered if he could do the same. He wasn’t some unfortunate fool. He wasn’t some deadweight soulmate.
He was Rody Soul.
“Come over for dinner anytime,” he said.
That wide-eyed stare returned and Rody felt brave. He stood up, placing his tea on the table, and closed the distance between them. Taking Izuku’s hand in his, he interlaced their fingers, felt something slide into place in his heart, fill him up from the inside, and wondered if Izuku’s heart was beating just as fast. His cheeks turned into that rosy color, and he didn’t shake off the grip, so Rody took it as a sign.
“I… don’t think we’re platonic soulmates,” he said, lifting his hand up and kissing his fingers. He gave him a crooked grin, hoping that he came off cool and suave and not like some crazy freak because that’s how he felt. “I was a little slow to this, but I… I don’t want to let it go like this.”
He released him (regretful) and took a step back (definitely the hardest thing he’s done since they came halfway around the world). His fingers trembled, tingling from the absence of warmth.
“I…” Izuku’s voice came out like a croak, and Rody felt an immense amount of relief fill his gut. “I’d like that.”
God, he thought that his earlier smiles were all gentle, but the smile Izuku just gave him made him feel like the insides of a chocolate molten lava cake.
He didn’t even remember how Izuku left, but his heart pounded as he leaned against the closed door of the apartment.
-
Life was good. Rody didn’t worry about rent and bills. Rody didn’t worry about where their next meal was coming from. Him and his siblings ate together everyday. He walked them to school and then back. He greeted the same faces he always saw.
And after being here for half a year, he finally bit the bullet.
“Sero,” he said, “Should I get a job?”
The black-haried man, who taught him how to do everything from use the remote for the TV (and to think he would get to the day he and Roro would get creamed by Lala in Mario Kart), to using a dishwasher (mind. blowing.) and all of his lessons in the Japanese language, arched an eyebrow back.
“Like a part-time?” he asked. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but what’s up?”
“Ah, I just wanna do something,” he replied. “I feel bad that I’m just sitting around not doing anything but receiving,” he made a motion at the general place around him.
And for the first time, he saw Sero’s expression harden. “...Did someone say something?”
No, everyone was really, really, really respectful. He figured it was just a culture thing, but wow. Things weren’t like this back home.
Not home, but back at Otheron. He wouldn’t ever go back to that life, of course, but somewhere in his heart, he still considered that place home.
“And I uh… Sorta wanna meet up with Izuku, you know? Tell him that I’m not a waste of space, just eating his money and growing fat.”
“I’ll see what I can do for you about the part-time,” Sero said, “There’s no shortage of work around here.” He tilted his head, and hummed, “Can’t imagine anyone saying no, but Midoriya is going to be harder.”
“Midoriya?” Rody sounded the word out slowly, he didn't know that one.
“...Midoriya Izuku,” Sero said, “Family name Midoriya, first name Izuku.”
That made sense. Rody vaguely remembered something like that being mentioned. Geez, he was really making a mess of himself like this, getting a guy’s name after moving halfway around the world for him. “Gotcha, so I’m Soul Rody.”
“Yep! Got it in one!” Sero gave a wide grin, and Rody returned it. This felt more familiar.
“So,” he said, feeling like the mood was good, “What does he do?”
“Midoriya?” Sero echoed and then grinned, “He’s our Emperor.”
Rody learned a new word for his vocabulary cards (and god he was glad he wasn’t Roro or Lala because they had a lot of things to learn and memorize, while he only needed to know about the practical things), but the word brought him back to that elevator. The cold smile on the white-haired man’s face and the suspicious business card was yanked to the forefront of his mind and he felt dread pool in his gut.
“Emperor,” he mumbled to himself. What did that even mean?
He googled it on his phone (also something that Sero taught him), but couldn’t get an answer. Just looking at the news, he wouldn’t think that Izuku was anything special or well known. Maybe he was an emerging power?
Rody was never a part of politics, never really cared either. Seemed like he wouldn’t have a choice anymore.