Chapter Text
When he was four, Izuku was told he was quirkless and in that moment he accepted that he would have a hard time becoming a hero. He was six now and there was rarely ever anyone that was without their marks at this age. Their special soulmate marks! Throughout all of class, Izuku kept his head held high. Even when Bakugou picked on him, he smiled and hummed. Even though it was July, Izuku had on a long sleeved cotton shirt. He didn’t want to spoil the surprise of who his soulmate was. When his classmates and teachers asked, he smiled and said “I’ll tell you tomorrow!”
Soon after lunchtime, it began to rain. Even still Izuku’s mood didn’t change. That only seemed to make Bakugou even more angry at him. Izuku continued to ignore his taunting and harsh nickname. One of his teachers said she was proud of him for doing so. As the day continued, Izuku got more and more excited. Finally, the bell rang and signalled school was over. Izuku quickly grabbed his things and rushed outside as fast as he could. His mother stood on the sidewalk with an umbrella and a smile.
“How was your day, Izuku?” she asked.
“It was fun! But really slow! I wish it could have gone faster! I wanna talk to my soulmate!” he said, excitement lacing every word.
Inko giggled at her child. She hoped and prayed with all her heart that Izuku would have a soulmate. She didn’t think she could handle another crying session like before. She ushered Izuku under the umbrella and started on their way home. Izuku hopped into some nearby puddles for a short moment before turning to his mother. Inko took a deep breath for the bombardment that was surely to come.
“How was your day? What’s for dinner? Is dad home? How’s your soulmate?” Izuku’s words seemed to fly out of his mouth. Luckily, Inko knew how to keep up.
“It was lovely. We’re making katsudon. No, he’s not. Toshi is fine.” she took a deep breath. Going at the same pace as her son was hard work.
“My favourite!” Izuku bounced on his toes.
Inko nodded and let her smile grow. It was his birthday and hopefully his “I have a soulmate” day. As they continued their walk, Izuku asked all kinds of questions about Toshi and how he was doing. Inko did her best to give positive answers to every question, but to be honest, she had no clue how Toshi was doing. He had been quiet for a while now and said he was very busy with figuring out his new job. The two soon arrived at home and Izuku’s questions stopped as he raced into their home. He got prepared to flop onto the couch.
“Izuku! Shoes!” Inko called.
“Oh right! Sorry!” Izuku quickly ran back to the entrance and took off his shoes.
“Izuku, I know you’re excited,” Inko sighed, “but please try to calm down at least a little. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“Okay, mama.” Izuku quickly kissed her cheek and walked back to the couch and gently sat down on it.
Inko smiled and moved into the kitchen, quickly getting to work on making her son’s birthday dish. Izuku rolled up his, now regrettably, damp sleeves to see his marks. Well, that’s what Izuku called them. They were actually writings from your soulmate. His mother told him that when your soulmate wrote on their skin, you could see it and vice versa. You could also see other marks like bruises, but not scars. Izuku quickly noticed that there was already a few little bruises on his knuckles. They reminded him of Bakugo and how, even at their young age, he would pick on kids. Especially on kids like him. Izuku shook his head to erase those thoughts from his mind and began looking at his right arm. Nothing. His left arm. A few characters were starting to be written. Izuku gasped and waved it.
“Mom look!” he shouted.
Inko paused in her work and looked over. “That’s great sweetie!” She beamed.
Izuku gave her a big smile and looked at his arm again. A whole sentence had been formed and others were slowly being written. Izuku wiggled in his seat as he began to read them.
Shouto, how was your day? Did you throw up again?
Fine. How was yours? And no. Not yet, at least.
Fine. Deku was annoying, though. He ignored me.
I see. Maybe he won’t ignore you tomorrow, Katsuki.
Izuku rubbed his eyes and looked at the characters again. They were indeed the exact ones that Bakugo had in his name. Izuku didn’t want to believe *he* was his soulmate. And who was Shouto? That was a name he didn’t recognise at all and what did Bakugo mean by throw up again? Did Shouto have a stomach virus? Izuku had so many questions.
“Izuku, did you find out who your soulmate is?” Inko called from the kitchen.
“Yeah, it’s Shouto and Katsuki.”
Inko paused as she reached for the bowls. “Do you mean Shouto Katsuki?”
“No, there’s two separate names in two different types of handwriting. Shouto and Katsuki.” Izuku turned to his mother. “I think I have two soulmates.”
There was a loud crash as Inko whipped around to stare at her son. Izuku looked at the now broken white glass bowls on the ground at his mother’s feet. He looked back up at her and became uneasy. Inko’s right hand was clasped over her mouth while her left kept her steady on the counter. Her eyes were wide and her brows knit closely together. Inko carefully stepped around the glass and into the living room. She grabbed a pen from on the table and quickly wrote a short message to Toshi on her left arm: “have you ever heard of someone having two soulmates?”
“Mama—”
“Izuku, until Toshi replies I don’t want you telling anyone about this.” Inko raised her voice at him then quickly took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’ve never heard of this. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
A moment passed. “Okay, mama." He replied.
Inko looked down at her left arm and quickly read Toshi’s reply. “Can’t say that I have, Inko. It’s possibly very rare and if not, then it’s kept hush hush by the person, their soulmates, and the families.” Inko looked at Izuku and immediately knew he had already read what Toshi told her. His shoulders sagged and he gave a sad pout.
“Izuku, tomorrow, will you be okay with telling the people at school that your soulmate hasn’t had their sixth birthday yet?” She asked softly.
“I’ll tell them I don’t have one.”
“What? But Izuku—”
“No one will be surprised. And if I say they haven’t had their birthday yet, they won’t stop asking until I tell them they have and that will get weird the longer it goes on.”
Inko hugged her son close. She felt him tense and she knew what was coming before it arrived. Izuku started to sob into her chest and Inko’s heart broke into a million pieces. She hoped that Izuku would be able to talk to his soulmates, but she knew him too well. She knew he wouldn’t.
“I’m sorry, Izuku.” She whispered.
The next day at school, Izuku’s classmates surrounded him and asked him who his soulmate was, if they were in the class or one of the other classes. Izuku was very tempted to say his soulmates’ names. Instead he glanced at all of his classmates, at his teachers, and quickly at Bakugo’s arms to check for Shouto’s name. He didn’t find it. He took a deep breath, tensed his body, bowed his head, and closed his eyes.
“I… I don’t have a soulmate.”
The room went silent. Izuku heard his teachers quickly start moving to protect him from any pushing hands or flying fists, but he knew he couldn’t block out the other kids’ words. Bakugo was the first to speak.
“Makes sense that *Deku* wouldn’t just be quirkless, but soulmateless too!” he laughed.
One of the teacher’s began to lecture him, but Izuku had already begun blocking everything out. He wondered how long he would have to keep this secret. Izuku decided then that he would always wear long sleeves and would never read what was on his arms. No matter how interested he was, he would do his best to refrain from it.
Around eight years later, Izuku had a run-in with his hero All Might who told him he could become a hero and began training to accept the quirk One For All. All Might had him work on moving all of the garbage from a nearby beach. Izuku was busy pushing a file cabinet when All Might spoke up.
“Midoriya, my boy, I had forgotten to mention,” he spoke, “but you will have to keep this from your friends, family, and soulmate.”
Izuku gave a hollow laugh. “The last one won’t be hard. I don’t have a soulmate.”
“Then what are those writings on your arms?”
Izuku froze. He had completely forgotten that he was wearing a short sleeved shirt today. He had come early in the morning with a long sleeved one but All Might told him to change. He thought nothing of it then, but now was a completely different story.
“I write notes to myself.”
“Those include asking how your day went? Twice?”
Izuku looked at his left arm to check that it indeed said that.
Shouto, how’d ur day go
Fine, yours?
Fuckin busy
I can tell.
Fuck. This is not at all what Izuku wanted. He began to panic. What if All Might took back his offer? What if someone came by and saw him? What if they knew him? They’d know he’d lied all these years. He’d be in deep shit then. Izuku’s breath started to quicken little by little. He licked his lips and opened his mouth to speak.
“I have nothing against it.”
Izuku whipped his head around and started shocked at his mentor. “You… You don’t?”
“Not at all. I think it’s nice. Now get back to work, my boy! We don’t have a lot of time!” All Might hopped down from his spot on the pile of garbage and gave Izuku a quick pat on the back.
“Right!”
All Might had never guessed his student would be so amazingly rare. As he watched Izuku train, he began to wonder how Izuku’s life would go. How society would react to an amazing hero with two soulmates.
Around ten months later, Izuku had taken and passed the entrance exam to U.A.. His life had started to brighten ever since All Might had personally come into his life. He was enrolled into the hero classes and doing fairly well. He had made new friends, such as Uraraka Ochako and Iida Tenya. His only problem was how Bakugo seemed to hate him even more for lying about not having a quirk, even though he had told the truth all those years. Things had only just recently changed. Izuku smiled at the new memories as he walked to his classroom. Things were going well and luckily no one had brought up soulmates.
“Tsuyu I can’t believe it!”
Izuku paused at the open door of the classroom. Uraraka was holding Asui’s hands with a big smile on her face. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
“I can’t either, Ochako. To think we’d be in the same class.” Asui sounded close to tears.
“Um, what’s going on?” Izuku asked, though he feared he already knew the answer.
“Deku! Me and Asui are each other’s soulmates!” Uraraka cried happily.
Izuku felt his face drop. It was exactly what he had feared. The class quickly moved to the topic of soulmates and asking one another who their soulmates were. Izuku quietly slipped into his seat and kept his head down. He braced himself for the question that he knew was to come. Everyone cheerily described their soulmates when asked who they were. Only Bakugo and Todoroki refused to reply, saying it was no one’s business but their own. Izuku wished he had the same confidence to shut the question down. Oh how he wished he could just avoid it, but that wasn’t who he was. Izuku began to fiddle with the ends of his sleeves under his desk. He pulled them up slightly to poke at the freckles along his wrist. He caught a short conversation between his soulmates.
Deku’s still fucking terrified of this damn shit
Be nice… Hold on, are you talking about Midoriya? From our class?
Izuku gasped softly and looked up. He carefully looked at Bakugo and Todoroki. They were both writing on their wrists and arms. He carefully looked at his arm. More characters, words, sentences were showing up. It couldn’t be. Izuku didn’t know if he wanted this. Both of them were incredibly intimidating and Bakugo is his childhood bully and, only to Izuku, his childhood friend. Todoroki had this air of importance around him and Izuku didn’t know how he could handle that. Izuku started quickly, quietly mumbling to himself before being tapped on the shoulder by Ashido.
“Midoriya, who’s your soulmate?”
Ah, there it was. The question he dreaded.
Izuku looked up at Ashido, his classmates, Bakugo, and Todoroki, then back down at his wrists. He tensed up and and prepared himself to block everyone out. “I don’t have one.”