Chapter Text
Izuku was mesmerised when the flowers bloomed on his skin for the first time.
He was five at the time, playing in a sandbox with Kacchan and their other friends when a violet petals appeared on his forearms. He abandoned making a sand castle and focused on the colours. They were beautiful, probably the most beautiful thing he’s seen in his short life. His friends were focused on and hadn't noticed Izuku’s distraction. The boy pulled the sleeves of his top hiding the flowers from sight, guarding them because they were too beautiful to share them, and excused himself to come back home and examine them in his room.
That night he tried to refuse a bath, making a fuss for the first time since a long time. He wanted to keep the flowers a secret but his mother was merciless, ushering him to the bathroom and tugging a shirt off his torso with a laugh. Izuku could tell the moment she saw the flowers painted on his skin, the confusion apparent on her face. He was ready to excitedly ask if she liked them, already opening his mouth but that very moment her eyes turned sad. And it didn't feel right because the flowers were beautiful. So he opted to chatter about the sandcastle he built today and about a Sand Hero whom he saw on the TV last week.
The flowers keep coming. Everyday Izuku’s body was decorated in a new pattern of colourful petals and green leaves. Not only on his arms but also on his legs and chest, on his back, some on his stomach. New ones would appear before the previous had the chance to disappear, making it almost impossible to distinguish the species but it would usually take around a week for a given flower to start fading away.
He’d spend hours inspecting them and wondering where they come from but never actually asking his mom about it because whenever she saw them her face would fall.
So he hid the pictures under his clothing, long sleeves and pants. Because if their beauty made his mum sad maybe they would make other people sad too and he didn’t want that.
Izuku was almost seven when several white roses bloomed around his left eye and his mum insisted on him staying home until they disappeared.
Inko had already noticed that other kids treated her son differently because he was quirkless, especially Bakugou Katsuki, who used to be Izuku’s best friend, acted differently. She wasn’t blind to the scratches and bruises that Izuku brought back home every time he went out to play with him and maybe she could justify them by her son’s clumsiness if she hadn’t walked past the playground to witness Katsuki-kun threaten some kid with his Quirk.
Maybe she was an overprotective single mother, who was also at the same time too scared to mediate the situation, but she was afraid that the flowers on his skin would alienate her son even further from the rest of his friends.
So when the white roses appeared she called the school and lied about Izuku being sick.
“They stopped, the flowers, there are no new ones”, Izuku stated on the fifth day of staying home, tracing a smooth string of washed out buttercups on his forearm.
“That’s good” answered his mum, sitting next to him on the couch. She hugged him with one arm, grabbing his tiny hands in another to stop her son from touching the flowers on his skin. Izuku looked up at her but her eyes were glued to their connected hands.
“Why do they make you sad?”
“What are you talking about, Izuku?”
“My flowers. Everytime you see them you get sad. And now that I have them on my face you don’t want me to go to school.” Izuku kept looking at her face but she’s been avoiding his eyes ever since the roses appeared. “Do you hate them?”
“I don’t hate them.”
“Then why?” the boy jumped off the couch and turned around to face his mum. “You can tell me! I might be quirkless but i’m not stupid!”
Inko sighed heavily and reached out her hands to grab her boy then gently pulled him onto her knees.
“Izuku” she started, combing his hair with her fingers, “I have never though you are stupid. I know you are a smart boy, sometimes I even forget how smart you are. I am sorry.”
She took a moment to brace herself, half regretting that she had been avoiding the topic for almost two years now. Soft hair between her fingers helped her to stay calm.
“I don’t hate your flowers, I think they are pretty.”
“Then why…?” Izuku was ready to throw a fit again but she hushed him and adjusted his small form on her knees.
“Have you ever heard about soulmates?” The boy shook his head. “They are really rare but i think you have one. Those flowers are proof.”
“Is having a soulmate a bad thing?”
“No, it means that somewhere out there is a person who is perfect for you, a person who will love you unconditionally and bring the best out of you.”
“Then why are you always sad when you see my flowers?”
“Because they don’t appear out of nowhere, Izuku. You and your soulmate are connected. And whenever one of you is hurt the flowers appear on the soulmate’s skin.”
“So my flowers…”
Inko nods and cups Izuku’s face with her hands, looking him in the eye for the first time since a really long time, taking in the floral ornament around his left eye trying not to imagine how it must look on her son’s soulmate’s face.
“It means they hurt. And it makes me sad because I am yet to see a kid that hurts themself this much during play.”
“Is that why you said it is good that there are no new ones? You think someone is hurting them and that they’ve finally stopped?”
“Yeah”
“Then I am glad they stopped appearing too.”
It only took a few more days before new flowers appeared on his back and for the first time Izuku thought that he hated them.