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Soulmates, at least in concept, have been around since the dawn of time.
Soul-marks , however, have only been around since about three hundred years before the appearance of quirks. A mark would appear somewhere on your body that matched perfectly with someone else's, in location and in shape. They appeared within the first couple of years of life, some as early as birth.
In that regard, Midoriya Izuku thinks himself lucky. There are people out there who never manifest a soul-mark, live their lives without the promise of a perfect person. He got his soul-mark when he was two, a simple hollow square on the back of his neck, easily hidden behind a shirt. At the very least, he has a soulmate, even if he doesn’t have a quirk. The students teasing can’t say he’s completely worthless because there's someone out there who wants him, even if they might only stick around long enough for him to admit that he’s quirkless.
Midoriya doesn’t have a quirk, he’s a bit short and plain-looking, but he has a soul-mark, and that’s enough until it isn’t. Until he realizes that his soulmate doesn’t want someone quirkless because no one ever does. Midoriya is fourteen years old when Bakugou leans down close and murmurs that even his soulmate wouldn’t want someone quirkless, and tells him to take a swan dive off the roof and pray for a quirk in his next life.
Midoriya is fourteen and for the past ten years, he’s been absolutely terrified of how disappointed his soulmate will be when they meet.
And then he meets All Might, and suddenly everything is different, and he has a quirk now, one that might worry his soulmate but won't disappoint them. Midoriya Izuku, now fifteen, walks into U.A. and thinks that maybe everything will be okay.
Kirishima Eijirou is fourteen, still in middle school, his hair still black, and he’s starting to think that maybe his soulmate will be disappointed when they meet. He wants to be a hero. He so desperately wants to be a hero, but the few times he actually gets the chance to act like the hero he wants to be, he freezes. His quirk isn’t flashy, and he’s a coward to boot.
His hair and the collar of his uniform cover the simple hollow square hidden on the back of his neck, and when he scribbles U.A. off of his high school preference sheet, the mark feels like it burns, and he almost cries, coward that he is. A middle school burnout with a shitty quirk that hurt him the moment it manifested would be a nightmare scenario for any sane person thinking about a soulmate.
Then he rediscovers Crimson Riot and makes a decision. He works harder than he thought possible, trains for the U.A. entrance exams, and actually passes . He dyes his hair bright red, remakes his image the way he wants to be, and decides to never allow himself to freeze up that badly again. Kirishima Eijirou, now fifteen, walks into U.A. and thinks he’s starting to become the person he wants to be, finally.
According to both Murphy’s Law and the laws of irony, it makes sense that things start to go wrong the moment Midoriya thinks they might be getting better. If they hadn’t gone wrong, the universe would have conspired to make it go wrong even more spectacularly. Destiny doesn’t like to be trifled with, after all.
It’s only the third day of school when Uraraka bounces up to Iida and Midoriya at lunch, one hand dragging along a surprised Asui, and she excitedly announces that she’s met her soulmate. It excites Midoriya, because he’s never actually seen anyone around their soulmate before, and he wants to see what he gets to look forward to.
When he sees them walking hand-in-hand in the halls, he thinks that might be alright, but then things just keep on going. They get affectionate and cute, calling each other pet names and sneaking kisses, and Midoriya starts to think less and less that this is something to look forward to. More power to them if they enjoy it, but Midoriya tries to put himself in their place but finds himself uncomfortable. He wonders whether its the fact that they’re both girls (and wouldn’t that be a revelation on its own), but he sees Sero and Kaminari in class acting just as affectionate and it causes that same disconnect.
The problem finally hits him right before he falls asleep one night, and he sits straight up in bed before scrambling for his phone. He looks up what he’s feeling, finds terms that date back to before soulmates, but every modern account he finds for these terms comes from someone without a soul-mark. There’s nary even a suggestion that someone who has a soulmate could feel this way. His searches bring up nothing. (Midoriya cries that night, and he thinks that there's something wrong with him.)
Midoriya Izuku, fifteen, is aromantic, and he silently hopes he never meets his soulmate and has to see the disappointment on their face. He lets the hair on the back of his neck grow out a little bit, covering the soul-mark nicely by the time the Sports Festival begins to approach. Uraraka and Asui become more couple-like by the day and watching them hurts because it reminds him that even now he’s going to be disappointing his soulmate in the worst way.
Murphy’s Law has long since conspired to make Kirishima question his own bravery and Kirishima, coward that he is, idiot that he is, forgets to take this into consideration when he thinks things are going really really right.
For Kirishima, everything begins to go wrong the day they’re attacked at the USJ. He’s stuck with Bakugou in the ruins area, and they fight back to back, taking out small fry together. Kirishima tries to be friendly but Bakugou is naturally temperamental, and it’s hard to get anywhere with him like this. But the light catches Bakugou’s form just right, silhouetting him against a window in the ruins, and Kirishima’s mouth goes dry when he realizes that Bakugou is really hot, and he might be gay.
Things only go downhill from there, as Kirishima tries desperately to get closer to the angry loner that Bakugou’s made himself into. He only really succeeds after the Sports Festival, when he basically forces his way into Bakugou’s team during the cavalry battle and barely loses an endurance battle to the endless barrage that is Bakugou’s attack. The entire time he tries to catch a glimpse of the back of Bakugou’s neck, hoping to catch sight of that stupid square, so he could bring up the fact that their soul-marks matched, and then his stupid crush could be validated and he’d feel less like his entire world is shifting on an axis.
Then he makes Bakugou laugh and catches sight of a four-pointed star on his tongue, and he suddenly sees just how deep the crock of shit he’s gotten himself into really is. Kirishima almost cries, right there in the middle of class, because Bakugou isn’t his soulmate. He doesn’t cry in class, because he doesn’t want to answer questions and crying in the middle of class is definitely cause for questions. (If he cries that night, alone in his room long after both of his moms have gone to sleep, well then that’s no one’s business but his own, now is it?)
What makes this worse is that the feelings don’t leave . He watches Bakugou, brilliant and violent and fucking powerful , he watches his friend grow and learn and tutor him, and his heart skips a beat every time Bakugou grins. He spends too long watching Bakugou’s lips when the boy speaks, watches the way his muscles flex during practical heroics classes and feels his heart melt, no matter how hard he tries to push them away.
The feelings just don’t go away no matter how much he tries to focus on school instead of his friend’s lips. He looks up stupid articles for teens and tries to focus on other people. Mina’s cute, but she’s also a girl. Sero and Kaminari are dating and soulmates , so they’re both even worse objects of his affection. Even if they were viable options for his crush, trying to direct his affection elsewhere doesn’t work. Finally, he resigns himself to seeing this crush through to the bitter, inevitable end, and every time he stares just a little too long at Bakugou, he silently apologizes to his soulmate, whoever they are, because he’s falling for Bakugou too hard and too fast to just stop now.
Midoriya Izuku covers his soul-mark with his hair, looks at peoples backs rather than their necks when he walks behind them and hopes to every god he can think of that his soul-mark disappears so that he can be normal for once . He feels the guilt building in his throat, caught on his tongue like sludge, and he wants to cry every time he thinks too long about his soulmate.
(In the dark of the night he desperately searches up terms, hoping that there are people like him out there who have soul-marks but never have a desire for romance, and all he finds are platitudes that he’ll fall for his soulmate when he meets them, and he tries to tell himself that he’ll love them when he finds them, but in the back of his mind he just knows that he can’t , and he’ll never love them like these articles say he will.)
Kirishima Eijirou doesn’t hide his soul-mark, but he doesn’t stop hanging around Bakugou either, letting the feelings grow stronger and stronger the longer he’s around him, and tries to stop guilt from choking him whenever he remembers the mark on Bakugou’s tongue, tries to stop the jealousy that fills him when he seems Kaminari slide into Sero’s lap— because of course they found their soulmates that easily— and hopes to every god he can think of that his soul-mark will magically change one night.
(One night he searches for answers, trying to find out if what he’s feeling is common and he’s so relieved to read about people with soulmates who fall for other people before they meet their soulmates and working it out with their soulmates once they do meet, but he sees just as many people saying that polyamory outside of a destined soul group is wrong and immoral and his feelings are disgusting , and he closes the tabs feeling worse than he did when he started, and all he can do is hope that his feelings for Bakugou will fade when he meets his soulmate.)
Midoriya lies awake and apologizes to his soulmate for still being useless, even after all this time.
Kirishima lies awake and apologizes to his soulmate for still being cowardly, and for never being enough for them.
It all comes to a head at Kamino Ward.
“Your hand can still reach him!” Kirishima's hand trembles, and he can’t look at Midoriya’s mouth, focusing instead on his forehead. He heard about how Midoriya had reacted, arms absolutely decimated and still desperate to save Bakugou. Shouji and Todoroki had both mentioned the absolutely haunting way he had screamed, head to the ground, unable to even hold himself up with the state his arms were in.
Kirishima is half convinced that Midoriya is Bakugou’s soulmate, and his heart aches at the thought. He knew this would happen eventually, and he’d have to face the facts. He already knew that Bakugou had a soulmate who wasn’t him, a soulmate who will love him and he’ll love right back. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt any less because yeah, he’s still in love with Bakugou.
He tries not to let any of the pain of his aching heart slip onto his face, shoving it behind a determined front.
Mina clarifies and Todoroki, seeing the distracted expression on Kirishima’s face, takes over the explanation of what they’re planning. Iida yells, the rest of the class adds their own input, but Kirishima isn’t really listening, eyes flicking back over to Midoriya periodically.
Midoriya’s eyes have grown distant, his expression growing contemplative. He doesn’t look at anyone when they talk, their words clearly going over his head the same way that they’re going over Kirishima’s. Kirishima looks away, eyes catching on Asui as she brings one hand up to her face, preparing to speak.
“We’re all still in shock over Bakugou’s kidnapping,” she starts, voice shaking a little nervously. She looks at Kirishima, then Todoroki, and finally settles on Midoriya, one hand reaching for Uraraka’s hand. “You guys are jumping to a possible solution too quickly. It doesn’t matter the reason behind it. If we start another fight, use our quirks unlawfully, we’re no better than the villains.”
Kirishima winces, visibly flinching as though Asui’s words stab through him. He glances at Midoriya, seeing his friends expression darken at Asui’s harsh truth. The tension in the air stagnates, and for a while, none of the class speaks. The door opens as Midoriya’s doctor enters, and the class takes the chance to leave.
Kirishima lingers, leaning down a little so his voice can be softer.
“We’re going to head out tonight. I don’t know if you’re well enough to move but if you are, you’re welcome to join. Todoroki and I will be outside the hospital tonight.” Kirishima watches Midoriya’s expression, as much of it as he can see, and tries to ignore the pit in his stomach.
Midoriya still hasn’t said anything since the topic was brought up.
“I mentioned this to you because I figured, out of all of us, you were hurt the most by this.” There. The hint is there. If Midoriya and Bakugou are soulmates, Midoriya will know he at least suspects it. If they aren’t, it could be any number of things. Kirishima’s still pretty sure they’re soulmates, though.
As he turns to leave he tries to ignore the bile on his tongue, leaning his head back against the wall outside Midoriya’s room. He really hopes Midoriya won't be well enough to join them. He doesn’t want to see that reunion up close, because soulmates are supposed to love each other.
Kirishima’s just broken.
He takes a moment to breathe, closing his eyes, before he pushes off the wall and goes to join the rest of the class in checking on Jirou and Hagakure.
Really, it probably went wrong the moment Yaoyorozu suggested disguises. Kirishima brushes out his hair and gets a shirt with a high collar and— wow he really needs a haircut, his hair is about to pass his shoulder blades while down.
Midoriya’s hair is also getting long, and part of the disguise for him is slicking it back and tying his hair into a small ponytail at the base of his neck. His hair is unruly, curling up into a little puff.
“Oi, you talkin’ to me?” Oh. And the accents. Kirishima laughs at Midoriya’s attempt, elbowing him in the side.
“You gotta stick your chin out more!” Midoriya’s lips twitch, trying to keep from smiling. He throws his shoulders forward, hands in his pockets, and tries again.
“Oi!” He tries again, pushing out his chin so the sound is longer and more drawn out. Kirishima snickers at the sound, covering his mouth.
“That’s good, man. Let's hope we don’t actually have to talk to anyone though.” Kirishima points to Iida as he says that, who’s stiff as a board and seems to only have one volume when getting into character, which is loud. He yells something about a girl with huge boobs and Midoriya tries desperately to hide how hard he’s giggling at that.
Kirishima shoves his hands in his pockets, and the thought that Bakugou and Midoriya would be good for each other rises unbidden in the back of his head. His expression falls into something decidedly neutral, looking around the crowd as he banishes the thought. No one seems to be looking at them, but he can never be too sure.
“Look! It’s U.A.!!”
Their entire group stiffens and Midoriya, acting on some weird combination of instinct and method acting, turns around and shouts “O-oi!”
Kirishima turns and looks to see the screen above them is playing a video from the press conference Aizawa spoke at, and their blood runs cold, watching his teacher bow to the media vultures he hates. Vlad King is with him, along with Nedzu, and it never occurred to him before this moment that yeah, of course, U.A. would have to release an apology statement.
He stops paying attention to what’s being said and instead, he begins to focus on the crowd around them, hoping beyond hope that no one recognizes them as tensions rise. Five U.A. students in the middle of a crowd which is starting to get upset at that very school wouldn’t go over well if they were recognized.
By chance, Kirishima catches sight of the back of Midoriya’s neck and blinks as he sees a hollow square on his skin, clear as day. Oh. That’s a soul-mark.
Kirishima’s first thought is thank god, Midoriya isn’t Bakugou’s soulmate.
Then his mind actually processes the soul-mark. His second thought is more panicked.
Oh, fuck. Midoriya’s my soulmate.
Yaoyorozu tugs at his arm and he turns as she gestures that they need to get moving.
Kirishima turns back to Midoriya, whose eyes are still focused on the screen. Kirishima reaches forward and catches Midoriya’s sleeve between his fingers, tugging him forward. He grabs Midoriya’s wrist when that doesn’t work, gently pulling, and Midoriya finally gets the hint, tearing his eyes away from the screen to follow after Kirishima.
It isn’t until they’ve broken away from the crowd and have turned down another street that Kirishima remembers to let go.
The group travels in relative silence from that point on, and Kirishima takes the chance to think over what he’s learned. Midoriya isn’t Bakugou’s soulmate, because Midoriya is Kirishima’s soulmate. It feels kind of like he’s traded something bad for something worse. He can’t look at Midoriya as they traverse the streets. (Thankfully, Midoriya seems lost in his own little world, trying to get into character for the few people he’s seen.)
Oh god , he’ll have to tell him. There's just no way to avoid this shit, he has to tell Midoriya eventually. But eventually is not now, and he needs to focus on the now, and not how absolutely heartbroken and upset Midoriya is going to be when Kirishima breaks it to him that he has the worst crush on Bakugou. He shakes the thought out of his head and huffs, frustrated.
As it turns out, Kirishima is really bad at focusing on the now when soulmate shit is involved, up until the moment they arrive at the warehouse. Then everything happens too fast for him to focus on anything but the oppressive fear that villain brings and the sensation of flying through the air. He calls to Bakugou and feels their hands clasp together (and god it's more uncomfortable than he imagined, Bakugou is really sweaty by nature of his quirk), and he can’t help but grin as they fly through the air, laughing like a goddamned maniac all the way.
When they land, Kirishima just barely stops himself from hugging Bakugou. It’s a near thing, but he hesitates, instead choosing to put his hands on Bakugou’s shoulders, a little awkwardly. Kirishima sighs, exhausted and elated and stressed all at once, and he lets his head drop, shoulders hunching as he tries to blink relieved tears out of his eyes.
“I knew you’d be okay, but it’s still good to see with my own two eyes.”
Bakugou scoffs and hugs him anyways, and Kirishima forgets about Midoriya’s soul-mark for that moment. Bakugou runs warm, and he hugs like it’s a competition. He’s about Kirishima’s height and he puts his chin on Kirishima’s shoulder. He’s tense and he’s a little uncomfortable until Kirishima hugs him back with a fierceness to match. It’s the best sensation Kirishima’s felt in ages, and he smiles into Bakugou’s shoulder.
Somehow, Kirishima manages to avoid Midoriya when they move into the dorms. It’s not too surprising, considering that before Kamino they weren’t exactly close, but sometimes Midoriya will catch sight of him and start to say something, and Kirishima pretends not to hear.
The mark on the back of his neck burns every time he does, and he really hopes Midoriya doesn’t know that they’re soulmates.
It’s wishful thinking, though. His hair exposes his soul-mark in clear detail, even if Midoriya’s hair covers his own. He’s also pretty sure that avoiding Uraraka after class one week was a really bad idea because now he thinks the whole friend group is onto him.
It’s a lot harder to avoid five people than it is to avoid one, but Kirishima still tries.
Midoriya’s not dumb. His grades set him in the top five of his class, and he does analysis as a hobby . That means that when Kirishima begins to avoid him, Midoriya notices. It’s pretty obvious, really. He just wanted to ask Kirishima about a chore schedule, and Kirishima turned the corner like his life depended on it.
Kirishima is really bad acting natural when trying to avoid people. It’s kind of funny, really.
It would be funnier if Midoriya wasn’t the one being avoided, and he doesn’t even know why. Uraraka tried to ask on his behalf, but Kirishima booked it out of the classroom as soon as he saw the shorter girl approaching him. Now Asui is a bit peeved on Uraraka’s behalf, Iida has joined in the efforts to try and ask Kirishima why he’s avoiding them, and Todoroki is cooking up a new conspiracy theory. Something about Kirishima being replaced by a body-snatching alien.
Midoriya loves Todoroki, really, but his conspiracy theories border on stupid sometimes.
Midoriya watches Kirishima’s back from across the cafeteria as the red-head laughs at something Kaminari said, and his eyes catch on the mark on the back of Kirishima’s neck and oh. He knows that shape. The back of his neck burns and everything falls into place.
Kirishima knows that they’re soulmates, but for some reason, he doesn’t want him. Midoriya should feel relieved. He’s aromantic. The universe made a mistake and Kirishima knows it.
Instead, he just feels vaguely sick, and he pushes his lunch away, half eaten.
Uraraka and Iida give him twin concerned looks, while Asui and Todoroki both give him blank expressions, each twisted just slightly with their own concern. Midoriya fakes a smile, pushes away from the table, and says he needs to go to the bathroom. He tells them that he’ll be back before lunch ends.
He technically keeps his word, rushing back in a minute before lunch gets out, just in time to return his tray to the front of the lunch line and head back to class. He fields his friend's questions as best he can before class starts again, hoping that his eyes aren't too red from the frustrated tears he found himself crying in the bathroom because even after all of this his soulmate still thought he wasn’t good enough even before he told them he was aromantic.
It hurts, and he hates it.
Their tentative mutual avoidance comes to an end, as some things do, with the meddling of their class.
It starts rather simply. Midoriya’s hair has an incident involving Bakugou’s explosions and an unfortunate proximity to him, which resulted in his mom sending him to get a haircut.
Midoriya returns to class the next day with his hair more reminiscent of how it was at the beginning of the year, if not a bit shorter at the sides and back. “I had to get an undercut,” he explains sheepishly, “to completely get rid of the burnt bits of hair. It’s not completely undercut, but it’s close enough to that style, I guess.” He keeps one hand on the back of his neck as he explains, adding to the nervous, sheepish look.
If he keeps picking at the neck of his uniform top during class, no one mentions it.
When they’re getting changed into their hero costumes for their practical heroics class, still working on developing special moves, it’s Kaminari who shatters the wall Midoriya and Kirishima have built between them with a poorly placed comment. Kaminari, whose costume was among the easiest to get changed into, turned once he was dressed and caught sight of the back of Midoriya’s neck, eyes drifting over the hollow square in surprise.
“Ah-! Midoriya, your soul-mark,” he starts, raising a hand to point at it. Midoriya stiffens, slapping a hand over the back of his neck nervously. Kaminari hesitates for a second, before barreling forward, completely missing the panicked look Kirishima shoots him before.
“It matches Kiri’s!” Midoriya is still standing stiff, and across the locker room, Kirishima’s hands shake nervously. Green eyes look over to Kirishima, before turning back to his locker as he tries to casually zip up the front of his jumpsuit, biting his lip.
“Does it really?” Both boys desperately attempt to look casual in their avoidance of each other's gaze, terrified of where this conversation might be going. Neither stops getting changed. “Not sure we have time to talk about this right now, though. Aizawa’s expecting us at Gym Gamma soon.” Kaminari, thankfully, recognizes the forceful topic shift and drops the topic, agreeing with Midoriya and heading out of the locker room in a manner too quick to be called casual, leaving behind the newfound tension in the locker room.
No one dares to speak as Midoriya and Kirishima silently finish getting suited up, leaving the locker room without looking at anyone.
None of the boys know what to think of the way the two of them were acting upon mention of the soul-marks. There are a couple of awkward glances around the locker room, eyebrows raised, but when they arrive at Gym Gamma, Kirishima and Midoriya have taken their places at opposite ends of the gym, already training.
By the time evening rolls around, Kaminari has told Mina, who’s told all of the girls, who become determined to find out what’s going on between those two if its the last thing they do. Or, well, Hagakure, Ashido, and Uraraka do. Yaoyorozu thinks they should work it out themselves, Jirou is uninterested at best, and Asui isn’t one for meddling in the first place.
Unfortunately, none of them are very good at this kind of thing. Their plan is to divebomb Midoriya when he starts to head back up to his room that evening and throwing him in Kirishima’s room instead. The plan works, for what it’s worth, and Midoriya finds himself disoriented, face-up on Kirishima’s floor.
The main problem is that Kirishima’s nowhere to be seen. The girls outside the door claim that they saw him come up. Midoriya argues that it doesn’t change the fact that Kirishima isn’t in the room, but the door still won't open. Midoriya really doesn’t want to break Kirishima’s door just to get out, so instead, he heads to Kirishima’s balcony door.
He’s in the process of hooking his leg over the balcony when someone clears their throat next to him. He stops mid-move, halfway over the balcony, and sees Bakugou standing on the next balcony over, door open and arms crossed. The blonde raises an eyebrow.
Midoriya forgot that Bakugou and Kirishima were neighbors.
Shit .
“Bakugou? What’d you see out there dude?” Midoriya pales, scrambling to actually push himself over the balcony so he can drop down to the next one down. Kirishima and Bakugou are neighbors and Kirishima is in Bakugou’s fucking room.
Double shit.
“Deku,” Bakugou starts, leaning against his balcony door, almost amused by the sight of Midoriya trying to sneak off the balcony without catching anyone’s attention. From inside the room, Kirishima makes a choking noise. On the balcony, Midoriya freezes.
“Kacchan.”
“Why are you trying to sneak off shitty hair’s balcony?” Midoriya laughs, nervously, right as Kirishima pokes his head over Bakugou’s shoulder, his face paling at the sight of Midoriya half over his balcony.
“Dude—! That’s way too dangerous! Get back on my balcony!” Midoriya stares at Kirishima, before slowly shifting his weight back and stepping onto the balcony once more. Kirishima visibly relaxes, before the absurdity of the situation catches up to him. “Wait, why are you on my balcony?”
Midoriya just points back into the room.
“Three of the girls put me in your room for some reason and won't let me out.” Bakugou scoffs, turning to push back into his room, leaving Kirishima on his balcony.
“They probably want you two to talk about this soulmate bullshit,” he calls over his shoulder, before closing the balcony door behind him.
“Bro?”
The balcony door locks. Midoriya stares at the door, then turns to face Kirishima, who has a similar shocked expression on his face. They stare at each other for a length of time, before Midoriya looks away, nervous. Kirishima sighs, and moves to jump between the two balconies.
“Hey Midoriya, move back a little or prep to catch me.”
“Kirishima this is a terrible idea— oh fuck !” Kirishima jumps the gap and Midoriya, instinctively, flings his arms open, awkwardly catching Kirishima and stumbling backward. One for All sparks just barely , and he catches himself with the increased sturdiness of his body. Kirishima steps back, laughing just slightly.
“Super manly, dude!” Midoriya laughs with less energy, already dreading the coming conversation. The mood drops with Kirishima’s smile, and for a minute the two teenagers stand uncomfortably on the balcony, not quite looking at each other. Kirishima clears his throat awkwardly.
“Would you like to come in?” He makes a grand gesture to the still-open balcony door, and Midoriya can’t help the little snort that escapes him at Kirishima’s dramatics.
“Sure, Kirishima.”
After a couple of minutes of awkward shuffling, the two boys find themselves sitting on Kirishima’s bed, looking away from each other. Midoriya takes a breath, careful, and tries to start.
“Look, I-!”
“This is—”
They stop, look at each other, and then start laughing. Midoriya runs a hand through his hair, and Kirishima finds himself leaning back, laughing boisterously. At that moment, it hits them that they’re both uncomfortable with the whole ‘soulmate’ thing, and the relief that brings is palpable. Kirishima gestures for Midoriya to start, finally relaxing.
Midoriya sighs, flopping back onto the bed as he does, staring at Kirishima’s ceiling.
Just rip off the bandaid, he can ask questions later.
“I’m aromantic.”
Kirishima blinks.
“Huh.”
“Just huh ?” Midoriya turns to watch Kirishima’s expression, watching as the gears turn in Kirishima’s head. “No questions or anything?” Kirishima shakes his head, leaning back to join him.
“Nah, I came across the term while I was doing a bit of research cause, well… I’ve got a massive crush on Bakugou.”
It’s Midoriya’s turn to blink, and say “huh.” Kirishima laughs at the parroting, lifting his head to cross his arms behind his head.
“Yeah, see, I started crushing on him at USJ. I figured it meant we were soulmates so I kept trying to find a way to ask him about his soul-mark or like, look at it? But, well…”
“Kacchan’s soul-mark is on his tongue.”
Kirishima nods.
“I started looking up information because the crush just wasn’t going away. Aromantic was a term that came up a couple of times before I figured out that maybe saying ‘I don’t like my soulmate’ might’ve been the wrong way to put it.” Midoriya laughs at that, and Kirishima grins at him, easy and relieved.
They’re quiet for a long moment, before Midoriya quietly says, “so, what does us being soulmates mean?” Kirishima sits up, shrugging.
“I dunno. Luckily for us, we happen to have a laptop.” Midoriya follows him up, nodding.
“That we do. Mind looking up non-romantic soulmates to see what that brings up?”
Midoriya ends up searching up the term, reaching Kirishima’s desk first. As it turns out, non-romantic soulmates doesn’t bring up much. It does bring up a recent scholarly article, and Midoriya glances over it before grinning.
“I think this one may be what we’re looking for. Though it has long been assumed that soulmates are purely romantic, it may be that this is an oversimplification of what soulmates really are. A soulmate is your literal other half, someone who will always be there for you. To claim that this can only be romantic in nature is ignorant at best and exclusionary at worst. ” Kirishima leans over Midoriya’s shoulder, pressing his chest to Midoriya’s back as Midoriya scrolls down the article, half reading bits and pieces in a mutter as he looks for something else to pop out.
“Oh, what about that?” Kirishima points to the screen, before reading aloud. “ For some people who aren’t attracted to their soulmate, they may fall into a relationship that's something closer than friends, more central and important yet non-romantic. In pre-soulmate times, the term ‘Queerplatonic Partner’ was coined by the aromantic community. It’s also been written as ‘Quasiplatonic Partner’ due to the controversy surrounding the term ‘queer’... That sounds okay to me.” Midoriya smiles, leaning back into Kirishima, who instinctively crosses his arms over Midoriya’s chest. “Open another tab for this ‘platonic partner’ stuff, let's see what that’s about.”
“Bossy.”
“Hey, you’re the one in the chair!”
Midoriya laughs, and for the first time in eleven years, all this soulmate stuff feels right.
Kirishima smiles at the sound, and for the first time, he knows that his soulmate isn’t disappointed in him.
“So… are you two dating?” Midoriya looks up from his cereal, mouth full, and tilts his head questioningly. Uraraka lifts her hands, then puts them down, looking from Midoriya to Kirishima. Midoriya follows her gaze before humming, holding up a finger so he can swallow.
Uraraka waits patiently, taking a careful bite of her own breakfast. Iida looks torn between telling her to not pry into private matters and just letting Midoriya answer. Asui and Todoroki, par for the course, appear uninterested save for the fact that they watch the interaction with the same detached amusement one might watch a bird forget to fly and instead try to run away.
Midoriya swallows, putting down his spoon.
“No,” he says simply, “we aren’t.” Uraraka blinks in surprise.
“But aren’t you two soulmates?”
“We are.”
“And you talked about it yesterday right?” Midoriya sighs, smiling softly.
“Well, yeah. I wasn’t kidding when I said Eijirou wasn’t in his dorm when you locked me in, but he was in Kacchan’s dorm, so we ended up talking anyways. We discussed the whole soulmate thing, but we still aren’t planning on dating.” Midoriya takes another bite of his cereal, humming as he looks for his words, glancing around at his friends to see who was listening. Uraraka looks the most invested, but by now the whole table is blatantly staring at Midoriya in confusion.
Midoriya swallows, pushing his cereal forward to make room for his elbows.
“We aren’t planning on dating because neither of us sees the other in a romantic light. Eijirou is interested in someone else, and I’m uninterested in romance altogether,” he summarizes, nodding to himself.
It’s Iida’s turn to look completely lost, tilting his head in confusion.
“But what does that mean for your soul-marks? I’ve learned my whole life that soulmates are romantic partners.” Midoriya shifts his attention to Iida, tilting his head.
“That’s not exactly right. A soulmate is just your metaphorical ‘other half’. Eijirou and I are what's known as ‘platonic soulmates’ . We’re important in each other’s lives, and destiny dictates we’ll likely always be together, but we aren’t romantically involved. You might see us holding hands or being otherwise physically affectionate, but that’s more a product of the unique nature of our relationship than actual romance.”
Iida nods, slowly. On Midoriya’s right, Todoroki sighs and puts down his utensils.
“Thank god,” he says, suddenly. “I found out who my soulmate is and I can’t imagine dating him.”
Midoriya blinks, before furrowing his eyebrows.
“Who’s your soulmate, Todoroki?”
Instead of answering, Todoroki sticks out his tongue to reveal the four-pointed star marked there.
Midoriya begins wheezing with laughter, slowly putting his head down on the table as he tries to imagine Bakugou and Todoroki dating.
“Destined rivalry,” he chokes out, pointing at Todoroki with one hand. “Kacchan is your soul-destined rival and he’s going to hate it!”
Todoroki smiles, almost a smirk.
“Good.”
Midoriya just laughs harder.
“So, are you dating Mido now?” Kaminari asks, biting into an orange. He doesn’t bother to swallow before he continues, “I heard Mina locked you two into a room together last night to talk about feelings or something.” Kirishima snorts, glancing over at Bakugou. Bakugou, for what it’s worth, is tense but not immediately blowing up the table at the mention of Midoriya, so that's a good sign.
“Nah, we aren’t dating. Izuku’s aromantic, and I’m not interested in him.” Just barely, Bakugou relaxes, stabbing his pancake instead of looking like he’s contemplating detonating it with his eyes. Ashido nearly chokes on her water, coughing as she slams the glass down onto their table.
“I’m sorry, Midori is what?! ”
Kirishima blinks.
“Aromantic. He doesn’t feel romantic attraction and he’s uninterested in romance. It came up when you locked him in my room yesterday.” His eyes narrow. “Actually, speaking of locking him in my room, I wasn’t even there!”
Ashido looks away, nervous.
“You weren’t?”
“No, I was in Bakugou’s room studying!” Kirishima turns to Bakugou next, pointing an accusatory finger at him. “And you! Why’d you lock me on your balcony? I had to jump across! I could’ve gotten hurt!” Bakugou shrugs, shoving a piece of pancake in his mouth.
“You needed to talk to the nerd. Wasn’t like the soul-mark was gonna go away if you just ignored him long enough.” Kirishima huffs, crossing his arms.
“It was still rude.”
“Wonder Rock, the day I’m not rude is the day Aizawa-sensei admits that the soul-mark on the back of his hand matches Mic-sensei.”
“So if you aren’t dating,” Sero interrupts, still smiling, “then what are you two to each other?” Kirishima points at Sero, grinning.
“Good question, Sero! We actually ended up looking up a bunch of terms last night. Izuku and I are queerplatonic partners! It's like… a step above best friends. Platonic life partner, I guess?” Kaminari raises a hand.
“Pikachu, if you’re about to make a reference to that fucking two-hundred-year-old comic you keep trying to get me into, you’ll lose that hand.”
Kaminari’s hand goes down.
The rest of the year goes something like this:
Midoriya and Kirishima don’t bother to hide their new relationship, and the class finds out within minutes of listening to the two speak. They have to explain several times that no , they aren’t dating, because the entirety of Class 1-A was never in the same place at the same time, but it's worth it in the end.
The raid on the eight precepts goes down about a month into their relationship, and both of them nearly cry when they find out how badly the other was hurt. (Midoriya actually does cry, but he tries really hard not to, and Kirishima is nice enough to not point it out.)
Bakugou finds out that Todoroki is his soulmate during their remedial lessons, and he hates it, refusing to even talk about it. Midoriya finds this hilarious, and Kirishima is quietly relieved that Bakugou’s soulmate isn’t a romantic soulmate either.
Aizawa holds a lesson on the importance of hiding soulmate relations from the media. It’s a part of a hero’s private life, and revealing that sort of information is dangerous for a hero. His eyes linger on Midoriya and Kirishima for a moment, but no one comments on it.
Hagakure admits quietly that her quirk didn’t actually manifest at birth, and she knows where her soul-mark is, but she hates that she has no way to prove it. The class is as supportive as they can be, and Midoriya ends up trying to help her figure out how she can prove it.
Kirishima alters his hero costume to cover the mark on the back of his neck out of necessity, and Midoriya laughs when Kirishima complains that the alteration looks like a choker.
Kirishima introduces Midoriya to his moms, romantic soulmates who are delighted to meet their son’s soulmate. Midoriya, in turn, introduces Kirishima to his mom, who basically adopts him on sight. Both interactions are embarrassing and a little silly, but it makes them happy.
Kirishima and Midoriya sit together at lunch now, their friend groups converging to steal one of the biggest tables in the lunchroom once they do. Someone makes a joke about Ashido and Iida being soulmates given that their entire table had soul-bonded pairs sitting at it. Iida reveals that his soul-mark is on his foot, and Ashido awkwardly states that hers is on her hip, and the joke just gains more traction as neither of them can prove the locations of their soul-marks. No one actually believes it, of course, but it's an easy tease that will only go away when one of them meets their soulmate.
Kirishima and Midoriya spend the year getting closer and more comfortable with each other, and they accidentally fall asleep in each other's rooms so often that Aizawa ends up trying to enforce a curfew, and promptly drops it once Midoriya panics and tries to, again, jump off the balcony to make it back to his room before Aizawa discovers them breaking curfew. Aizawa is significantly less amused than Kirishima is at the sight of the damage on Kaminari’s balcony, and the next morning he trades the rules. A student didn’t have to be in their own rooms, just in a room, and balcony hopping wasn’t allowed.
Kirishima finds himself with Midoriya asleep on his chest. He smiles as he smooths back green curls from Midoriya’s face. He’s so thankful this soulmate stuff worked out how it did, despite the fears and anxieties they both came in with. Midoriya is one of the most important people in his life, and he wouldn’t trade that for the world.
His fingers dance over the soul-mark on Midoriya’s neck, smiling, and he falls asleep with a contented smile on his face.
Yeah.
This was good.