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Todoroki felt terrible for his soulmate. He had enough scars as it were, starbursts of a rich, deep royal green decorating his chest and back. Most disappeared within a few weeks. The rest were there to stay. And then Todoroki had to add to it with the scar, decorating half of his face. He still wondered just how much his soulmate had hurt after that, if the burning he had felt had transferred. He had his own scars from training, but he didn’t know what color his scars were. Whenever his soulmate got hurt, another starburst that would hopefully fade would appear.
And that was ignoring the small, thin, green marks that adorned his arms.
Another thing he learned is that soulmates can feel a ghost of their soulmate’s mental pain too.
Todoroki was 14. It was October 15, at 3:15, when the wave of pain hit.
It wasn’t physical. But, all at once, fear and hurt and heartbreak and a hundred other emotions he couldn’t name flooded his mind.
He didn’t register the glass dropping from his hand and Fuyumi’s terrified scream.
(He later learned that she had found him in the kitchen, just laying on the floor. He had been crying, and mouthing something no one could hear.)
After that bombshell, he had been hyper-aware of his soulmate’s pain. So when the little marks appeared about three hours after, a stinging sweeping through his system as thin green marks appeared on his arm, he wasted absolutely no time in grabbing a marker, for the first time, and finally writing to his soulmate.
You’re going to be okay, don’t give up yet
For good measure, he drew a little heart next to the message. If those hearts multiplied and eventually were moved to his legs and stomach because his arms didn’t have any more room, then that was his soulmate’s problem because this was Sharpie and it wouldn’t come out in one shower.
His smug smirk had earned a bright grin from Natsuo and an exasperated groan from Fuyumi. Especially when they saw the hearts.
Worth it.
So, yeah. Todoroki’s soulmate was in a lot of pain. And, even through the aches and pains of his own ‘training’ with his father, Fuyumi’s worried glances, and Natsuo’s whispered threats to Endeavor in the cover of night, he was worried more about Green. Because Green needed help. A lot of help.
Todoroki took the recommendation exam, and it went well. Flying colors, amazing, all the jazz. He got into Class 1-A, the main hero class. All was well. Not. When the time came for general exams, he was already in edge. His soulmate was feeling something. A tiny bit of nervousness, with a splash of excitement, and a touch of fear, and ten other emotions he couldn’t name swirling in the pit of his stomach. And then it hit again. It had been a year since the small cuts had appeared on his arms, but this was different. If he didn’t know better, he would say that it felt like his legs exploded from the inside. They hadn’t, and he knew this, but the pain was all-encompassing and wait his arm is the same now??? Is his soulmate even okay??? Then the pain faded away and left Todoroki trembling on his bed, ghosts of pain not his echoing through his mind.
Cut to the first day of U.A. He wasn’t there to make friends. He was there to win, to accomplish the goal of the father that wasn’t even his own. Then a fluffy green head of hair came through the door, and Todoroki’s world narrowed down to it. The boy had his head down, but a yell from the explosive blond with his feet up on the desk and a bright red scar over his right eye had his head snapping up.
The ice blue mark spanning across half his face was such a familiar sight that Todoroki felt his heart clench. On him, the mark was ugly, showing the pain of a mother that had finally broken under stress. But on his soulmate? It was beautiful. The light blue perfectly contrasted the forest green hair and emerald eyes, in a way that had his heart beating faster. Then the green-haired kid looked straight at him, and the world went silent.
Todoroki watched at the boy’s charred notebook slipped out of his arms, arms that he knew were scarred by both others and his own hand. His eyes had widened, in either surprise or shock. He drifted closer to the dual-haired boy, and Todoroki drunk the look of his face in. Freckles spanning his face, lightly tanned skin, and long lashes. By the door, he saw a yellow caterpillar (is that what it was????) standing up, facing the two. A brown-haired girl was next to it, eyes skating back and forth between the two and the explosive blond. Said blond did not look very happy.
“I guess we’re soulmates…” His mate’s voice was kind of high, but it suited him.
“I’m Todoroki Shouto.” Green’s eyes widened a fraction, and he scrambled for the words to say.
“Oh- oh, uh, yeah! Hi! I’m Midoriya Izuku!”