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Soulmates are forged, not born. They leave their mark on you, and your heart.
A stripe of green on the back of his hand, the only soulmark Izuku seems to keep. His mom has one matching on her fingers. His mark on her heart.
Oh, he had others; a curl of red flame on his cheek from his father. But time apart caused it to fade as Izuku forgot him little by little until it disappeared under his freckles. And he had an ash yellow starburst on his shoulder, from Kacchan. That too disappeared, though overnight. Izuku doesn't understand why it happened, just that it did.
Izuku had one mark, and it was from his mom. Useless, they called him. Unmarked, unloved, unloveable.
Until he discovers a secret, saves an old friend, and meets his hero a second time.
"You can be a hero," All Might tells him. Izuku cries and cries again when he spies a small lock of All Might's hair turn green. And Izuku knows he can be loved.
He returns home that night, still smelling of slime and smoke, and greets his mom. She starts crying when she sees him.
All Might dyes the green lock back to blond. He wants Izuku to be able to forge his own path, outside of All Might's shadow.
Izuku's third and fourth marks come in soon after he starts school. Pink ovals dust his fingertips and dark blue lines wind up his calves. Uraraka and Iida have their own collections of marks, but they cry with him, overjoyed on his behalf that he finally, finally, is loved.
After USJ, a green frog finds its home on his forearm.
Izuku traces them at night when he can't sleep. He is loved, and people have accepted his love. He doesn't have to be alone again.
Izuku sees the marks twist-up Todoroki's arms before he sees them on himself. An increasingly familiar green stripes up Todoroki's hand and arm. When the bandages come off, Izuku's own scars are bright red and pure white. He marvels at them, as they twist around his cooked fingers; he never expected to make that kind of mark on Todoroki.
After the dorms are built, sometimes Izuku finds himself wandering into his soulmates' rooms, resting his fingers on his marks on their skin. Dusting on fingertips, stripes on legs or arms, a sun in place of a frog. He touches them with reverence and they let him. His lack has not gone unnoticed, and his soulmates have quietly vowed to never let him be alone again. If it was this simple to let him feel loved, they would let him.
More follow, some less surprising than others. A red seahorse on his back; Kouta. A sparking lavender swirl on his stomach: Aoyama. A silver streak on his forehead; Eri. A yellow smile next to Tsuyu's frog; Mirio.
The one that surprises him most is this: an ash yellow starburst on his shoulder.
It doesn't come in all at once like the others had, rather it slowly fades in some time after his match with Kacchan. Inch by inch they rebuild their friendship. And although it seems to be taking a different shape, Izuku is glad Kacchan is no longer turning him away.
These bonds we forge leave marks on our hearts and our bodies. A declaration that we love and are loved.