Work Text:
He noticed it during the Sports Festival in their first year.
He had been given a blanket to cover himself by Yaoyorozu so he wouldn’t be hit by Kaminari’s electricity. Unfortunately, the blanket slipped just as he gave the order for Kaminari to let loose. Knowing there wasn’t time for him to stop the other boy, Todoroki braced himself for the pain he knew was coming and just hoped the others on his team would be able to keep him from falling.
But, instead, he just felt a soft brush over his skin.
He watched as all the other teams froze and began to yell out in pain. He knew the electricity wasn’t enough to permanently hurt anyone or do any real damage – Kaminari had stated that he wouldn’t do that and Todoroki found himself trusting the blond – but he knew his reaction was unusual.
There was only one reason he wouldn’t be affected by Kaminari’s quirk.
Todoroki pushed the thought from his head, knowing that this wasn’t the time or the place. He had to focus on the festival itself and not worry about the fact Kaminari Denki was his soulmate.
He didn’t bring it up once the festival was finished. Instead, he kept a close eye on the other boy, wondering how someone like Kaminari Denki could possibly be fated to be with him. Oh, he knew that not all soulmates were romantic and that there were many people who chose to marry someone beside the person they were matched to. He thought that was perhaps the case between the two of them. It did not seem as if Kaminari was interested in men, not with the way he constantly flirted with the girls in their class, so Todoroki supposed they were meant to be platonic. However, the two had barely spoken to one another since the Calvary battle.
Todoroki had somehow found himself on “Team Midoriya”, which he wasn’t exactly upset about considering Midoriya was the first friend he had ever had, but apparently, Team Midoriya did not interact much with “Team Bakugou”, which is where Kaminari was located within their class social groups. Oh, he would laugh and joke with everyone but there was always a sort of divide there that Todoroki found hard to cross.
Or maybe it was just because he was so bad with social situations.
Over the next year, many of Todoroki’s classmates discovered they were soulmates. Bakugou and Kirishima discovered it when they were training and Bakugou didn’t notice that Kirishima was distracted and hadn’t activated his hardening. The explosion had rung out throughout the facility and Bakugou’s scream of the other boy’s name had brought people running. However, the redhead had been perfectly fine, blinking down in complete shock at his unburned skin.
Bakugou had hit him again.
Ojiro had shocked everyone when he admitted he could see Hagakure (that had also resulted in a lot of screaming considering her hero attire…or lack thereof).
Ashido had been shocked when Sero stepped in front of her during an attack and her acid hadn’t burned him. Todoroki had been shocked when his brother, Natsuo, had appeared out of nowhere for a surprise visit and set off ice that, somehow, didn’t manage to affect Yaoyorozu in the slightest but left the last of his classmates yelling and stuck to various things. Uraraka had blushed brightly when she tried to use her powers on Tsu during training and it hadn’t worked.
They had all been horrified during their last battle with the League of Villains when Dabi had sent a wall of blue flames at the hero Hawks only for the man to be standing there perfectly calm once they faded away.
Of course, that wasn’t the worst thing that happened that day.
They had all been standing there in a kind of shocked horror, Hawks and Dabi holding each other’s eyes, when Shigaraki attacked. He leapt forward, wrapping his hand around Midoriya’s throat…
…and nothing happened.
Even Dabi and Hawks had looked away from one another in that moment.
But Todoroki still hadn’t managed to tell Kaminari the truth. Of course, he and Jiro had grown much closer over the past year and Todoroki was almost certain the two of them were dating, so he justified his actions by telling himself that he didn’t want to get in the way of their blooming romance.
It wasn’t until the start of their third and final year that Todoroki thought he might have been wrong in keeping such a thing secret. He and the others had just arrived back into the dorms, everyone talking about what they did over the short break, when he saw Kaminari duck around the corner. Todoroki frowned, unsure of why the blond would want to be away from the friends he hadn’t seen in weeks when he was usually one of the most social in the class, and decided to follow after him. He didn’t have to go far – Kaminari was sitting on the ground just around the corner, his knees pulled up to his chest. Todoroki paused, unsure if he should proceed when he saw the sad look that was on the other boys face, but he sucked in a deep breath and slowly lowered himself down beside his soulmate.
“Are you alright?”
Kaminari’s head snapped up, a forced smile already in place, but it faded quickly when he saw Todoroki beside him. “Oh, hey,” he replied, not bothering to hide the way his shoulders dropped and the frown crossed his face. “I didn’t hear you.”
“I’m quiet,” Todoroki said, earning himself a snort from the boy beside him. “I saw you leave and just wanted to make sure everything was alright.”
Kaminari blinked. “Oh – yeah. I, uh, didn’t really think anyone would notice.” Todoroki wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Was he just supposed to say he had noticed? Obviously he had – he had already admitted to that. But why would the other think his friends wouldn’t notice?
After a moment of sitting in silence, Kaminari once again spoke. “Do you ever…I mean, you know we’re the only two in our class that doesn’t know our soulmates?” Todoroki’s eyebrows raised at the sudden question and Kaminari was quick to continue. “I mean, we all know about the big ones…even if some of them are…unfortunate, I guess. But the others – I mean, Jiro has known her soulmate forever, they met when they were like three or something. And Tokoyami met his during his internship our first year… and then Aoyama and that blond idiot from the other hero class…” Blond idiot? Usually when someone said those words they were referring to Kaminari or Bakugou… “And Koda met his last year. Tokoyami did too… I don’t know, I feel like we’re being left out or something. I know it isn’t like a guaranteed thing that you meet but with all of our classmates…”
Todoroki hadn’t known any of this. How had Kaminari?
“I didn’t know they knew their soulmates.”
Kaminari snorted again and gave Todoroki a small smile, one that was so different from the one he usually had on his face. “Uh, well, you don’t really talk to everyone much. You’re kind of closed off sometimes.”
“All of them?” Todoroki questioned, ignoring the remark about him being closed off. He couldn’t exactly argue against it.
“Well…not all,” Kaminari admitted. “Mineta hasn’t…which is probably a good thing. Neither has Shoji. I think Sato has but he doesn’t really talk about it…”
“And that is why you left?”
“Iida met his soulmate over break,” Kaminari murmured. He sighed and stretched out his legs before lifting his hands and staring down at them as he let electricity flicker around his fingers. It was an exercise Aizawa had started him on the year before to help him gain control and Todoroki noticed that he had begun to do it more and more whenever he wanted to turn the attention away from himself.
“I thought you and Jiro were together,” Todoroki finally said, after it was clear Kaminari wasn’t going to elaborate any further on his previous statement. The electricity instantly faded as the other boy turned toward him with a dropped jaw.
“You…what? No! I mean, she’s awesome and everything but…no. She’s probably my best friend, though. Just don’t tell Kirishima,” he whispered conspiratorially as he glanced down the hallway as if he was afraid the redhead would come storming toward him. He chuckled as he did so but Todoroki didn’t join in. So the two of them weren’t dating? That was interesting.
He felt a bit…weird about the fact that Kaminari seemed so upset about the fact that he had not yet met his soulmate. Well, he didn’t think he had, anyway. Perhaps Todoroki had been wrong for keeping the information to himself. Though he had admitted to himself the previous year that he found Kaminari…attractive…he had realized that he would be content if the other found someone that he cared for. Todoroki had never truly expected to find someone to share his life with anyway, so as long as Kaminari was happy, he knew he would be as well.
But if the fact that he didn’t know his soulmate was somehow holding him back…
Todoroki glanced at the other from the corner of his eye and saw how he was once again running electric currents up and down his hands. After taking a deep, steadying breath, Todoroki reached his own hand out and gently grabbed the one closest to him.
Kaminari’s head snapped toward him in horror as he tried to pull away. “No! You’ll get-“ but the words faded when he saw that Todoroki wasn’t affected in the slightest. “What?” he stuttered, his brows furrowing as his hand clenched harder around Todoroki’s. Knowing that the other would probably need more of an…explanation, Todoroki let a small flame dance in his other hand before he reached out toward the other boy.
Kaminari’s eyes widened but he didn’t pull away as Todoroki slowly pressed his still lit palm against the others arm.
Todoroki held his breath as Kaminari stared down at the spot where his hand was resting. The other’s face was a mix of emotions, flickering through them all so fast that Todoroki was unable to even guess what one of them was. And then, “Wh – wait?!” The screech was loud, loud enough that Todoroki jerked his hand back, and loud enough that the previous conversations in the room just outside the hallway stopped.
“Bro? You alright?” Kirishima asked, jumping around the corner with a fierce scowl on his face. It fell slightly into confusion when he saw the two of them sitting so close together, Todoroki’s hand still trapped in Kaminari’s. “Uh, what’s going on?”
“What the hell did you do, IcyHot?” Bakugou snarled as he stomped around his boyfriend and towered over the two boys on the floor.
“I’m sure everything is fine, Kacchan,” Midoriya cut in, his voice calm. The green haired teen had been different since the realization that Shigaraki was his soulmate, more distant, but he was still the person that most of them turned to when something went wrong. “Todoroki-kun?”
Todoroki looked at his friend helplessly as he tried, unsucessufly, to pull his hand away from the blond. “I just-“
“You’re my soulmate?! Since when?”
Oh. Apparently they were going to inform their classmates of the situation as well.
“Soulmates?!”
“Todoroki and Kaminari?”
“That’s a weird one!”
“Kaminari! You got the best looking guy in school as your soulmate! I’m jealous!”
“Tooru!”
“Sorry!”
“What the hell, IcyHot?!”
“Todoroki-kun…”
“Alright, everyone stop!” Surprisingly, the voice belonged to Kirishima whose red eyes were flickering from Kaminari to Todoroki. “Let’s leave them alone for now. I’m sure they’ll talk to us about it later.”
“But-“
“Go on! Clear out!”
“If they want privacy they should get out of the hall-“
“It’s just so weird!”
“Is Kaminari even gay?”
“Is Todoroki?”
“I don’t know, I mean, I always kind of thought he had a crush on Midoriya…”
“Wh-what?!”
“I mean…with your soulmate situation the two of you could easily-“
“N-no! I…we’re not like that! I mean…”
“Shut up, Deku! Shitty Hair, go make sure that IcyHot bastard isn’t doing something to Pikachu!”
“I’m sure they’re fine, Katsuki.”
“Then I’ll go check.”
“Don’t move.”
“I…we should go to my room,” Kaminari finally said, his face bright red as they heard Kirishima attempt to keep Bakugou away from them.
“Like hell you will! Oi, IcyHot Bastard! Stay out of his room!”
“Or maybe your room,” Kaminari said lowly as he stood and tugged on Todoroki’s hand. Todoroki nodded his head and got to his own feet. He didn’t exactly want to deal with Bakugou right at that moment, even if he wasn’t sure what the difference was in Kaminari going into his room instead of the other way around.
The two were silent as they made their way up to Todoroki’s room. It wasn’t until they entered the room and the door was firmly closed that Kaminari’s hand fell away from Todoroki’s own and he turned toward him with narrowed eyes. Todoroki blinked, surprised at the look. He didn’t believe he had seen such a look on the usually easy going boys face. “Since when?”
“Excuse me?”
“How long have you known?”
Todoroki frowned at the question. He had a feeling that Kaminari was going to be upset with the answer…but he couldn’t lie about it, right? The little voice in his head that sounded like Midoriya kept telling him that he needed to tell the truth or he would end up regretting it. Deciding that anything that sounded like Midoriya was probably the thing he should do, Todoroki admitted, “Since the Calvary battle our first year.”
Kaminari’s mouth dropped open and he gaped at Todoroki in a way eerily reminiscent to the days when he would overuse his quirk. Todoroki shifted a bit, feeling uncomfortable with the way the other boy was looking at him. “That long? How?”
“I, um, was unable to cover myself with the blanket in time.”
Kaminari’s mouth snapped shut and his hands curled into fists at his sides. “So you’ve known for…almost two years. And you didn’t tell me.”
Todoroki didn’t like the look in Kaminari’s eyes when he said those words. They seemed…darker…than usual. “I thought you were dating Jiro.”
Kaminari blinked. “You thought I was dating Jiro so you decided not to tell me that we were soulmates.”
“Right.”
“…you really are bad at social interaction, aren’t you?” Kaminari groaned, closing his eyes tightly and pressing a hand against his forehead.
Well, he wasn’t wrong. “I’m getting better,” he protested weakly.
The other boy laughed. “Yeah, I guess you are. Somewhat. So…” he took a deep breath and met Todoroki’s eyes. “I’m not dating Jiro. And, even if I was, you still should have told me. Kind of sucks that you didn’t but I know you well enough by now to know you didn’t do it to be mean.”
Mean? “I didn’t think it was-“
“Yeah, I know,” Kaminari laughed weakly, shaking his head. “That’s why I’m going to let this go and I’m even going to tell Bakugou not to kill you. But-“ he pointed a stern finger at Todoroki. “-do not do something like that again.”
“I don’t think we have a polyamorous-“
“Not what I meant.”
“Oh.”
Kaminari sighed and let his hand drop. “No more secrets, alright?” Todoroki hesitated but nodded his head. “Fine. We can talk more about this later but right now, we should probably open the door.”
“The door?”
Kaminari shook his head and moved around Todoroki to pull the door open. Instantly, Ashido and Hagakure crashed to the floor. Midoriya’s face flushed as he sent Todoroki an apologetic look but the rest of the class just stood there, staring at the two of them expectantly. “Everything okay?” Uraraka asked.
Kaminari rolled his eyes. “It’s fine! So, Todoroki and I are soulmates-“
“We caught that.”
“-and there was a bit of an issue but it’s all cleared up now!”
“What type of issue?”
“Nothing to worry about!” Kaminari said cheerfully, throwing their classmates a grin. “You can all return to your-“
“I’m not leaving you with IcyHot, Pikachu.”
“Katsuki-“
“Kacchan-“
“Fuck off, both of you!”
“What exactly do you think I’m going to do, Bakugou?” Todoroki asked, tilting his head slightly as he looked at the snarling blond.
Kaminari winced, “not the question to ask.”
Judging from the way half of their classmates turned a bright red, Ashido and Hagakure giggled, and the explosion Bakugou set off, Todoroki supposed he was correct. Even if he didn’t understand why, clearly Kaminari did. Maybe that was the true reason they had been paired together all along.