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In a world where everyone had some kind of connection to their soulmate, Shinsou was cursed.
Why else would he, an insomniac, have a connection to his soulmate through their dreams? Literally anything else would have been better. He knew plenty of people that had other connections—writing showing up on each other’s arms, seeing color when they meet, a clock counting down to the moment they first saw them, even a red ribbon or some corny shit like that. But no, Shinsou could see their dreams.
Well, he’d had one weird dream and assumed that had to be it. There really wasn’t any other explanation for why he’d suddenly dream that he had yellow hair and was playing a guitar in a band. Not that he didn’t like the guitar, it just wasn’t exactly something he thought about. He had other things to deal with. And then there was the yellow hair and, well… Shinsou definitely preferred his purple.
Most people were able to tell who their soulmate was with ease, but Shinsou had practically nothing to work with. He hoped his soulmate was a heavy sleeper and had more than enough material to find Shinsou, because there was no way Shinsou would be able to find the guy on his own.
The front door slammed open, interrupting his train of thought. Shinsou winced.
They were back early. Damn it, he’d meant to grab dinner before they got here. His foster parents favored the demon twins, who like him, had quirks that many thought were villainous. They acted out because of it, especially when they found someone whose quirk was more ‘villainous’ than their own. Someone like Shinsou.
It didn’t help that their foster parents seemed to agree with them.
He sighed, hunching over his homework, determined to look busy so that maybe they would leave him alone. At least he’d managed to eat lunch, today. Working in the kitchen while the twins were there was always out of the question—they always made up some story about how he was stealing their food when he did that.
The door banged against the wall and the demon twins barreled into the room, laughing and taunting each other. The second they noticed him, they both immediately fell silent.
“Why are you here?”
Shinsou didn’t respond. Vocal responses always made them angry.
The twelve year olds huffed, then came over to the desk where he was working on his math homework.
“Boooooring.” The pink-haired demon poked the stack of papers next to Shinsou, sending it tumbling to the floor. “Oops.”
His blue-haired twin laughed, then stepped on the papers, wrinkling them. Shinsou cringed.
He hated this. He hated it so much, but if he even lifted a finger his foster parents would yell at him and say it was his fault and the demons would blow things out of proportion and—
“Your top school is UA’s hero program?” Blue girl laughed, holding up the form Shinsou’d had to fill out for his middle school. “Like they’d ever take a villain like you. They only accept people with heroic quirks like ours.” The girl sneered at him.
Blue fog began to form around her hand, and Shinsou scrambled out of the chair, knocking it over in his haste to get away from her. That fog was not good. It paralyzed whoever breathed it in, and her brother’s fog was the only thing that removed its effects. They’d once left him paralyzed for over twenty four hours, and the only reason they’d released him was because they’d had school the next day and they didn’t want their foster parents to know about it, which they would if the school called them because Shinsou was absent.
The twins laughed at Shinsou’s obvious fear.
“People say our quirk is bad, but you’re the one with the real villain’s quirk.” The boy glared at him. “Stop pretending like you can actually do something good.” He kicked Shinsou’s homework, sending a few pieces of paper flying across the room, then grabbed his sister’s hand. “Come on, let’s leave this loser alone. He’s no fun anyway.”
And then they were gone. Shinsou’s shoulders sagged in relief, and he bent over to pick up the scattered paper.
One day he would show them.
One day he would be a hero, and everyone would be sorry for calling him a villain, for ordering him not to talk...but for now, he had to bear this.
Just a few more years, and he would be free.
Shinsou stared at 1A. At all of their smiles and cheerfulness, despite the fact that they'd been attacked. Some of their quirks were obvious, but all of them had quirks that he would’ve done anything to have. Heroic quirks. Quirks that made their lives easy. Quirks that everyone around them loved. He sneered. He would earn his place in the hero program, and at least one of them would have to deal with the lower lifestyle of general studies.
Before he could think better of it, Shinsou opened his mouth. “There are quite a few people who enrolled in general studies because they didn’t make it into the hero course. Did you know that?” Empty stares met that pronouncement. “The school has given us a chance: if we do well at the school festival, they’ll consider our transfer into the hero course.” He grinned, “Of course, there’s only so many slots, so that would mean they’ll have to transfer someone out.” He shrugged, “I didn’t come to scout the enemy.” He already knew his enemy—privileged idiots with strong, flashy quirks. “I came to declare war.”
Shinsou’s eyes traveled over each one of them, watching as his statement sunk in, then he spun on his heel and pushed his way back through the mob of idiots and headed toward the cafeteria.
He’d made it this far. He was at UA. Now he just needed to make it into the hero course.
“Wait!”
Shinsou froze, slowly turning back around and raising one eyebrow at the kid with yellow hair that was shoving through the crowd. He’d been one of the idiots from 1A.
Whatever. Like Shinsou wanted to talk to some hero student. He turned back and kept walking, but then there was a hand grabbing onto his shoulder.
“I said wait! Dude.” When Shinsou made no move to turn again, yellow hair walked in front of him with an exasperated sigh. “Come on! Do you not even recognize me?”
At that, Shinsou blinked. Recognize him? “Why would I recognize you? You’re just some 1A idiot.”
That earned him a long groan and the kid dropping his head into his hands. “Have you never even dreamed of me? How does that work? Do we have different soulmate signs or something so you’ve never seen me?”
Yellow hair.
That dream. The guitarist boy with yellow hair.
This… this was his soulmate? Him? Some hero student with a quirk that had made his life easy? How… how would they ever even understand each other?
“Dude, I know you don’t talk much, but can you give me something here?”
He knew Shinsou didn’t talk much? Did he know why? Shinsou’s eyes narrowed. If this guy told any of his little hero buddies—
“I won’t tell them your quirk, promise.” The boy rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. “Not that I think they’d care! I just…” He groaned again, biting his lip for a second before he continued, “I get it—the element of surprise really helps you out, right? And it’s not like you could’ve done anything to those robots at the entrance exam.”
Shinsou stared at him. He didn’t understand. The boy could use this information to curry favor with his classmates. But instead he was promising not to tell anyone?
“Would you just say something? Please?” His yellow eyes were pleading as they looked up at Shinsou.
He supposed he should respond, but it’s not like he knew anything about the boy… Shinsou sighed. “I’ve only had one dream. I have insomnia.”
The guy blinked. “Oh.” He frowned. “I know they don’t happen every night or anything, but jeez, talk about bad luck…” He gave Shinsou an awkward grin, “I guess it would be hard to recognize me from just once. But I would know you anywhere, man! I swear you gave me a heart attack when you showed up outside my classroom!”
Shinsou didn’t know what to do. This boy apparently had learned a lot about him from the soulmate connection, but Shinsou didn’t know anything about him.
“Do you not believe me or something?” Now the boy was frowning a little. “Your favorite color is purple. You have a foster family and hate your foster siblings and they honestly deserve every bit of that if your dreams are anything to go by. You like riding bikes and love cats and—”
“You like guitars.” Shinsou couldn’t take this. The guy was rambling out all these details of his life, but all he could say back was ‘you like guitars?’ He felt so pathetic.
Yellow eyes blinked, and then he gave Shinsou a blinding grin. “That was your dream? Man, I’ve always wanted to be in a band. It would just be so cool! No one back in my middle school knew how to play anything well, though.”
Shinsou rubbed at the back of his neck, unsure of what to do. This was supposed to be the one good thing in his life. No one was supposed to be able to take his soulmate from him, right? But he didn’t know what to do! This guy was so optimistic and cheerful and the complete opposite of Shinsou. How were they supposed to relate to each other? Shinsou barely even knew anything about him! “The only other thing I remember from it was that you were blonde.” He shrugged, “So thanks for not dying your hair, I guess.”
“That’s cool!” the boy laughed “I guess my hair is pretty distinctive with the lightning bolt and all.”
Lightning bolt? Shinsou’s eyes flickered to his hair and, sure enough, there was a black lightning bolt in his soulmate’s hair. Huh. He’d actually not noticed that.
“Before you ask, it’s totally natural.” Another bright grin. “Part of my quirk.” The guy made finger guns at him (how lame was he?) and electric sparks shot along his fingertips.
Ah. Electricity. That would definitely make it easy to get into the hero course. A quirk like that could destroy robots with ease. Shinsou snorted and looked off to the side. Hesitantly, he asked a question. “How much do you know about me? You mentioned my family, but…” Fuck, most of Shinsou’s memories were nightmares, and not anything he’d want to inflict on this guy.
Shinsou blinked at the dark look that crossed over his soulmate’s face. “I know enough. Those people… Dude, Your quirk is awesome. Don’t listen to them, ok? You’re going to be an amazing hero, Hitoshi.”
Shinsou’s brain froze. No one… no one had ever… how could he just say that? How could he claim to know Shinsou’s quirk, but still answer a question that Shinsou had asked him? And not only that, but to tell him he liked the quirk? It didn’t make any sense!
“I can call you that, right? You don’t mind if I use your first name? Sorry, I just assumed since we’re soulmates, but I shouldn’t have and everyone always tells me I jump to conclusions too fast and—”
“It’s fine.” It was nice, even. No one ever really used it, so Shinsou wasn’t sure how the boy had learned it.
“Awesome!” The boy grinned at him, reaching out to grab Shinsou’s hand and pulling him down the hallway before Shinsou could react. “Come on, I’ll buy you lunch!”
Shinsou’s eyes widened. “You don’t—”
“Dude, I know your home life’s shit.” The smile was softer this time, and it didn’t reach his soulmate’s eyes. “Let me do this. Besides, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t treat you to lunch?”
“Boyfriend?!” They’d just met! He didn’t even know the guy’s name! But he said that he liked Shinsou’s quirk and he didn’t seem to be afraid of it and actually wanted to spend time with him… Shinsou forced himself to relax and smirked at the boy. “Do you regularly kidnap people and declare that you’re dating them?”
“Only the man of my dreams!”
Oh.
Hell.
That line was corny as shit, but the boy had answered his question again, and he’d done it automatically with a bright smile and cheerful eyes, his expression completely open.
Shinsou couldn’t remember anyone ever looking at him like that.
He liked it.
He liked it a lot.
Shinsou may not even know his soulmate’s name, but he did know one thing: he’d do whatever it took to make sure that this boy always looked at him like that.