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It started with a single red yarrow flower sprouting right out of the middle of his arm. Bakugou stared down at it, his other arm frozen in midair having stopped mid-play to gawk at the flower. The blinked, once, twice before he inhaled and shouted.
“MOM!”
Alarmed, his mother came running, throwing open the backdoor and looking around frantically. Katsuki raised his arm, pointing with his other hand.
“I grew a flower!” He called out and his mother’s shoulders eased before she came over to him and looked down at him with a hand on her hip.
“Let me see,” she said, taking his arm in her hand and Katsuki looked at her with excited eyes.
“Is it my quirk?”
“No, it’s your soulmate,” his mother answered and Katsuki frowned, taking his arm back and glowering down at the flower.
“What’s a soulmate?” He asked and his mother huffed.
“It’s your special partner that the universe made just for you. It is what your father and I are. We are soulmates. It is your one true love.”
“True love,” Katsuki scoffed. “So it’s not my quirk?”
“It’s better, Katsuki. When you grow flowers it means your soulmate is thinking of you. Someone out there is thinking about you with love.”
“Yeah, well, I’m thinking about more important stuff than that mushy garbage,” Katsuki huffed. “I’m going to be the greatest hero ever. Heroes don’t need soulmates! All Might doesn’t grow flowers!”
“You don’t know that. Katsuki, All Might could have already found his soulmate and that's why he doesn't grow flowers.”
“Or maybe he doesn’t need one because he’s that awesome.” Katsuki reached with two fingers and pinched the flower between them before he plucked it from his skin. “I don’t need a soulmate. I just need my quirk to come already!”
“You’re impatient and immature.” His mother told him, ruffling his hair. Katsuki shoved her hand off and she huffed and him before going back inside.
___
Eijirou was four when his mother told him about soulmates. Four when he felt what real love was because he felt it, inside him, growing and growing so much he felt like he would explode.
There was a single framed flower in the wall and Eijirou asked why and his mother told him why.
“That’s your mother’s and I’s flower,” she answered smiling at it gently.
“Your flower?”
“The flowers we grew with our love,” she answered and Eijirou still was confused. His mother scooped him up into his arms and pointed at it. “You see Eijirou, when you love someone, truly love them, with all your heart and soul, you will sprout little tiny flowers on them.”
“Is that a quirk?” He asked and his mother shook her head.
“No, it is fate, darling. Soulmates grow flowers on each other's arms.”
“Soulmates,” he repeated with sparkling eyes.
“Soulmates are two people who love each other like mama and I do.”
“But I love you and mama but you don’t grow flowers.”
“It’s a different love, Eijirou. A special love, true love. You will know it one day.”
“I want to know it now! I love you and Mama, I can love my soulmate too!”
“Then think about them Eijirou, think about that love. Think about it with all your heart and soul.”
Eijirou did. He squeezed his eyes shut and thought about this mysterious person. This fated destiny he had. It excited him. It thrilled him. His heart raced and he could feel the heat in his cheek as he thought and thought before he took in a deep breath and peeked open an eye to stare down at his arm. He deflated seeing no flowers, frowning down up at his mother.
“It didn’t work.”
“Of course it did Eijirou, the flowers don’t grow on you. They grow on your soulmate. And when your soulmate thinks of you they will grow on you.”
“Why haven’t they grown then? Don’t they love me?”
“You are young Eijirou, and so might they be. You need to give it time. But I promise you, honey, love will come to you. You are filled with it. As long as you love them, they will love you, and one day, you will find your flower.” Eijirou's mother placed a single kiss on his head before setting him down and Eijirou stared up at the flower with sparkling eyes.
One day...
—
“Poppys? How romantic,” a girl sighed to Katsuki’s left causing him to roll his eyes so hard it nearly gave him a headache.
“I heard Yuki had irises.”
“Ami had Forget-Me-Nots!”
All three girls sighed collectively and Katsuki is about to bark at them to leave his fucking corner when one of the no-names from his class comes up to him. It’s one of the more bearable ones, one that actually hangs out with Katsuki. Renji? Something like that.
“You wanna go to the arcade after class, Bakugou?” He asked and Katsuki scoffs.
“Think you’ll get into high school playing video games all damn day, you fucking loser.”
“Harsh man,” he said but Katsuki shoved himself away from his desk and Renji followed, collecting another stray with a wave, Ashitaka? Something like that. “Those girls are giving me a fucking headache.”
“Awe, our Kacchan not a softy for love?” Ashitaka joked and Katsuki glared at him.
“This flower business is a pain in my ass,” Renji sighed, scratching the back of his neck.
“Why?” Ashitaka asked because Katsuki didn’t care to.
“Because I heard Amu, the third year had Lobelia’s.”
“Isn’t that—"
“My flower? Yeah.”
“Dude that’s awesome, and older girl,” Ashitaka nudged him and Renji gave him a shove.
“Like hell it is, how am I suppose to approach her dude? I’m a first-year! What’s her family gonna say? I heard she’s got a rich family. My folks ain’t much compared to her.”
“If you idiots want to talk about this shit go bother someone else!” Katsuki barked at them making them both go silent.
Then he felt it, an itch under his skin. his eye twitched, a wave of annoying anger filled his blood before he yanked back his left sleeve and sure enough, five flowers had sprouted.
“Oh wow, that’s a lot,” Ashitaka noted and Katsuki sneered down at the little red bastard before he pinched one between his fingers and yanked it out. He follower with the next four until they fell to the ground and he stomped on them.
“Nothing but a bunch of fucking weeds,” Katsuki growled, storming off and leaving his so-called friends behind.
—
Eijirou wondered what it would be like to date someone younger than him. He hadn’t considered it if he was honest. Well, that’s a lie he had before but not really. Not like he was now.
In his third year of middle school, he still hadn’t sprouted a single flower. His parents were ever supportive of his soulmate, encouraging him to not give up because they were out there and maybe they were right. Maybe they were just younger than him. Not everyone learned about flowers as young as he did. And what’s a seven or eight-year difference when adults anyways. Right? Yeah, maybe he’d have to wait until he was older to do anything but he was patient! He was a man and a good one at that.
Still, not a single flower? It was discouraging, to say the least. Eijirou sometimes feared the worst. Maybe he didn’t have a soulmate. Maybe they were dead. What if they died at birth? What if a villain killed them? What if’s plagued his mind and he just wished, god he just wished, for a single petal. A single bloom!
Every day he searched his entire body head to toe for any sort of floral bloom but he always came up empty and today was no exception.
His mother tried telling him that maybe his soulmate was shy but Eijirou was thinking more along the lines of they weren’t even alive at all.
But he wouldn’t give up hope, not yet at least. He was a man. A proud man. He had dreams outside of love. Aspirations outside of finding his soulmate. Hell, he got accepted into UA! UA of all schools!
His soulmate was out there, he just knew it but he had to be someone worth meeting first. He wanted to be the man of his dreams so that when he met his soulmate they’d look at him with awe and know without a doubt in their mind that he was the one.
He just had to keep at it and one day they’d come. They, or maybe he, just wasn't ready to bloom yet.
—
Katsuki spent at least ten whole minutes of his collective day ripping out flowers. When he woke up, he’d pick flowers. After his shower, he’d pluck more. In class he’d pluck, after school, he’d pluck, and before bed, he’d pluck. It only seemed to be getting worse with time and Katsuki believed whoever his soulmate was, they were the biggest fool to ever exist.
Katsuki was certain he’d never given them a single bloom. He could bet his life on it. You needed love to make things bloom, and Katsuki never loved them.
How could he? Love a stranger? Someone forced to be with him by ‘fate’. ‘Destiny’? Bullshit. Utter bullshit. If Katsuki, and it was a big fucking if, wanted love he’d find them all on his own. Fuck fate. Fuck destiny. Katsuki made his own luck. He made his quirk as powerful as it was. He made his grades as high as they were. He studied. He worked. He trained. He was nothing but self-made and he’d be damned if he let someone choose his fate for him.
—
Bakugou was a funny person. He was littered with flowers and seemed to hate it. Which was funny because everyone always teased him for it and that only seemed to fuel the fire. They've all become closer, the class, through trials and tribulations but Eijirou couldn't help but think that there was something deeper with the hate Bakugou had given off. Something that seemed almost genuine.
But who hated their soulmate? Especially not one who clearly loved Bakugou so much. Eijirou was envious if he was honest. The ripe age of sixteen and not a single flower to his name. He'd kill to be in Bakugou's shoes but Bakugou seemed to only hate his own predicament the more the flowers bloomed.
“Hey,” Eijirou called one day the two were studying together. Bakugou plucked out tiny flowers from his arm and tossed his a halfhearted glare.
“What? You stuck?”
“No, it's just...I wanted to ask you something.”
“What?”
“You're soulmate really seems to love you.” Eijirou began and Katsuki rolled his eyes at him. “No, dude, I'm serious. I mean. Every day you sprout like what? Fifty new flowers? That's a lot. That's special.”
“The fuck is so special about some jackass who doesn't take a hint?”
“What do you mean?”
“I knew you clowns weren't bright but I figured you'd be better than the rest of them,” Bakugou scoffed and Eijirou took mild offense. “You actually believe in this soulmate shit? This mysterious person that what? God made?”
“It's fate,” Eijirou muttered.
“It's bullshit,” Katsuki shot back. “I'm supposed to just love this person because fate said so? Fuck fate. I make my own fate. I made myself who I am. Not fate. Fate didn't bless me with a brain like Ponytail. Fate didn't bless me with a quirk like fucking Deku. Fate didn't give me my rights, I earned them. And I sure as hell don't expect some jackass called fate to place some nobody in front of me and expect me to fall in love with them just because they grow the same fucking flower as me. I'm picking my own partner. I'm making my own fate. Fuck soulmates. And fuck these stupid fucking flowers!” Katsuki raked his hands down his arm, ripping out flowers as he did and threw his handful into the trash.
That's when it dawned on Eijirou. Maybe his soulmate wasn't dead. Maybe, just like Bakugou, they hated Eijirou. Hated him for who he was. Hated him for forcing fate upon him. What if they already found love? What if they wanted to be with someone else but they didn't grow the same flowers and they knew it wasn't supposed to be?
Eijirou's seen it before. Rejection because of flower differences. It was a common thing. So much so people often remained silent because rejection was bound to happen and they'd rather be silent than be rejected.
But Eijirou believed in soulmates. He believed whoever had his flower was his true love, but maybe he was naive. Foolish even. It's not like he even knew what his flower was.
It wasn't like his soulmate actually loved him.
–--
It was sometime during his second year that Katsuki finally admitted to himself that Kirishima was his good friend. Sure he had friends, for once, a real friend at that. Not those fake groupies like Renji or Ashitaka. Not clowns that hung around him for attention. But people who actually liked him and appreciated him and thought he was somehow, somehow, a good person.
Kirishima was of course the leader of this pack. His voice was the loudest and strongest and spoke to Katsuki the most and Katsuki...well, he appreciated it. It meant something to him. He wasn't sure what. But it meant something. And he wanted to return the favor. He'd be damned if he was stuck in some one-sided friendship. Fuck that. He'd care for Kirishima and the others just as hard as they cared for him. Harder even. Because he didn't half-ass anything, and that included friendships.
And by this point, Katsuki noticed one think about Kirishima, and that he was sad. Every time the topic of soulmates came up Kirishima looked so desperately lonely that Katsuki genuinely felt bad for him, and he didn't understand why. Kirishima was a catch! He was smart and talented enough to get into UA. He was on his way to becoming an incredible hero, and he was fucking nice. Genuinely a good person. But Katsuki asked one day. Asked about Kirishima's flowers, because no one ever did. And Katsuki never saw them.
“I never grew any flowers,” Kirishima said with a sad smile. “I don’t think my soulmates alive. Or maybe they hate me.”
It could happen, death of a soulmate, but it was rare. But to hate someone like Kirishima? That was just foolish.
Katsuki decided then and there that soulmate be damned, he'd make flowers bloom across Kirishima's entire body. He'd force them to grow if he had to. Fuck soulmates, fuck the whole damn world. Anyone stupid enough to deny Kirishima this happiness didn't deserve him.
Maybe he didn't exactly love Kirishima, but he felt something. Something he didn't know what to call and something he didn't know what to do about but it was something! And that something was enough. It was enough for Katsuki and damn it should be enough for fate too.
–--
Fate, Eijirou decided was very, very, very funny.
He scratched at his ankle and felts something come off. He frowned, glancing down thinking it was a scab when in fact he saw a flower.
He was confused. A flower? Where did it come from? How'd it get in here? Why was it Bakugou's flower? Maybe it got stuck on him. He was just in his room after all.
He huffed, that must have been it. Eijirou was sitting on his floor, no doubt on a flower that stuck to his skin and he just now brushed it off.
Funny, Eijirou laughed. For a second he thought it was his but fate was a prankster. It was just a little prank, but a good one at that.
–--
So Katsuki learned to call what he felt a crush. He learned to call it that during heroic training because Kirishima stood in front of Todoroki's hot flame and took it like a champ. Katsuki stared impressed and Todoroki upped his heat but Kirishima only hardened more until the flames died off. He remained standing, steaming, but upright having taken over 100-degree flames like it was nothing. Kirishima shook off the soot on him before knocking his knuckles together and Katsuki could only think one thing.
That was hot.
–--
Eijirou liked Bakugou. This he knew after Kamino. Feeling his hand squeeze his own, high off adrenaline and fear, well, he was surprised he didn't end up doing something foolish with Bakugou. He kept his cool around him, but couldn't help but notice the endless flowers on his skin and the lack of them on his own.
Now, it could be possible that Bakugou liked him and they just weren't soulmates. This Eijirou might consider to be a win-win situation. Bakugou for lack of a better word hated his soulmate. He wanted nothing to do with whoever they were and Kirishima did feel bad for this mysterious person, but at the same time, if he could snatch Bakugou up he would in a heartbeat. Yet, every time he tried he was reminded of blooming flowers and fell short.
Could he really do that to someone? Take away their soulmate just because he probably didn't have one of his own? What if Bakugou ended up meeting his soulmate one day and actually liked whoever they were? What if Eijirou was dating him? Would he be dumped? God, that would sting. Dumped for a soulmate, how cliché. 'Sorry babe, I met my real soulmate and it's not you'.
The idea tugged at his heart and kept his mouth shut.
–
Katsuki was starting to get pretty damn pissed off. Fuck fate. Fuck destiny. Fuck soulmates. And fuck the world.
Katsuki liked Kirishima. He liked him, okay? Like liked. Maybe not love because he was only a kid but still. But every time he saw that mother fucker he was as flowerless as the day before and Katsuki was starting to think fate was just an asshole.
So they weren't soulmates, so what? It's not like Katsuki liked his soulmate. And it wasn't like Kirishima's gave a damn about him. So what did it matter if they weren't soulmates? Katsuki thought they worked well together. They were equals in every regard. They fought together, studied together, fucking even ate the same damn meals together. They were fucking close, okay?! So Katsuki decided enough was enough. He'd ask out Kirishima because he liked Kirishima. And maybe he wasn't sure if Kirishima liked him back, but he wasn't afraid of rejection.
Maybe a little. But only if that rejection was because of Kirishima's own stupid soulmate. What if that idiot believed his soulmate would one day love him and would hold out until the end of time for him? Then Katsuki would be fucked.
But Kirishima wasn't a dummy. Katsuki knew this much. He wouldn't turn down the offer of potential partners just because they weren't his soulmate. This, Katsuki was counting on.
However, for the life of him, Katsuki couldn't get Kirishima alone for a second. The social butterfly was fluttering around from one person to the next, seemingly avoiding Katsuki and Katsuki was not having it.
“Shittyhair!” He called, having watched the bastard for twenty whole minutes until whatever conversation he was having with pinky ended. Kirishima perked up at the nickname, giving Katsuki a wave and walking over to him.
“Hey man, what's up?” He asked and Katsuki's shoulders deflated as he eased his rigid posture.
“Need to talk to you,” Katsuki said and Kirishima's arm came up to cup his other one.
“Can it wait a second? I forgot I had to tell Denki this thing.”
“Can't it wait?”
“No, sorry I'll forget again. I'll be back, promise!” Kirishima ran off still holding his arm and Katsuki was left sighing. He looked down at his feet and frowned slightly catching red from the corner of his eye.
Flowers.
Scowling, Katsuki plucked them out and stormed off.
–
Eijirou couldn't rightfully ignore him forever. That would just be unfair. And unmanly. But, mostly unfair.
It's not like it's Bakugou's fault. Well, actually, it is, but that's not the point. The point was Eijirou needed to be a man and men didn't hide in their rooms until ten at night too scared to talk to their best friend and maybe big-time crush about a very touchy topic that might lead to total rejection.
But would it?
Fuck, he really didn't know anymore.
Taking in a deep breath, Eijirou knocked on Bakugou's door and waited. Bakugou answered with a neutral face and dressed in his usual black sweatpants and tank top attire. Eijirou swallowed before smiling.
“Hey,” he greeted and Bakugou just stared back. “You uh—wanted to talk earlier.”
“You done avoiding me?” Kirishima winced, inhaling sharply.
“Wasn't...doing it on purpose.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I just...Can I ask you something?” Eijirou came out with and Bakugou pushed away from his doorframe and silently invited him inside. Eijirou entered his room and took a seat on his bed while Bakugou shut the door.
“So?” Bakugou asked after a long moment of silence. Kirishima took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
“Do you really hate your soulmate?”
Bakugou thought it over for a moment before he sighed and scratched at the back of his neck.
“Hard to really hate someone you don't know,” he admitted. “I did, for a while. But, now I just...” He trailed off with a shrug.
“But, what if you did know them? Or you got to.”
“I don't think...” Bakugou stopped himself and let out a small sigh before looking out the window. “The person I like isn't my soulmate.” He confessed and Eijirou's eyes widened.
“Do they...not grow the same flower?”
“That's the thing. I've never seen their flower. But I don't think it's the same.”
“Oh.”
“I like them. But, when I look at them, they don't bloom. I mean, fucking I got flowers blooming out my damn ass but I can't seem to find a single flower on this guy. I...I hate it,” Bakugou muttered. “I hate soulmates. I hate that I can't choose who I want to be with. I hate that they probably won't choose me because we don't have the same flower. I hate that what I feel feels invalid somehow. Like it's not real.”
“Yeah,” Eijirou muttered. He understood that. He's his fair share of crushes but never even got a chance to ask half out before he got rejected. No flowers? No romance. And without a flower to his name, Eijirou had been a pretty sorry sight in terms of love. “I think I get how you feel.”
“You like someone?” Bakugou asked in a small and quiet voice and Eijirou nodded.
“They share a similar view to you actually,” Eijirou told him. “They want nothing to do with their soulmate, but, I don't know what to do. They don't know it's me. And I don't know if they even like me. I mean. I think I do. I might have gotten a hint but...”
“I think anyone stupid enough to care about flowers doesn't deserve you,” Bakugou told him and Eijirou's eyes widened at his words. Bakugou scowled down at the floor, not meeting his gaze. “I don't understand how someone as great as you doesn't have a single fucking flower on you. It seems impossible. You're everything anyone could want in someone but people won't even give you the time of day just because you don't have a flower. So what? Fuck that. Anyone like that is a dick and you didn't need them anyway.”
Kirishima felt that familiar feeling he got that made his heart race and toes curl. That itch, just under the skin, right on his hand. He moved his other one to cover it but he felt it brush his skin and he swallowed heavily.
Now or never.
–
Kirishima was rather silent after that and Katsuki wondered if he got the hint. Wasn't a real confession by any means, Katsuki was just being honest. But his mom always told him he was too honest. Kirishima laughed a lot and called him blunt. Katsuki didn't see this as a bad thing exactly. But when it earned him silence he could almost say he was hesitant.
“Hold out your hand,” Kirishima told him and Katsuki gave him a hesitant look. “Just do it, man,” Kirishima said with a smile and Katsuki did be it skeptically. Kirishima placed his closed palm on his before opening his hand and pulling away after dropping something light in his palm. Katsuki stared down at it with confusion.
It was his flower.
He glanced up at him, confusion evident in his face and Kirishima stared back giving no answer.
“I don't get it,” Katsuki eventually said and Kirishima let out a light laugh.
“What's it look like, dude?”
“Looks like my flower.”
“Well, it's not.”
“Then who's is it?”
“Mine,” Kirishima answered and Katsuki's eyes widened. “It's my flower. And I think it looks a lot like yours. Don't 'cha think?”
As if on cue his palm itched and one popped up next to the flower, comparing itself to a twin copy and Katsuki stared dumbfounded.
“But...”
“Turns out mine grow mostly on my legs.”
“On your legs.”
“Yeah, man,” Kirishima pulled up his pant leg to reveal small patches of red yarrow flowers. Katsuki stared at the flowers, his brain trying desperately to catch up to the rest of the situation.
“When did you...”
“I didn't even notice at first,” Kirishima confessed. “I thought your flowers just stuck to my legs. But then it started coming in bunches and...yeah.”
He dropped his legs back down and Katsuki still stared at it unsure what to say.
So they were soulmates. Soulmates. Him and Kirishima.
Katsuki let out a huff, finally taking his gaze off the leg and leaning back on his arms.
“Well fuck me, I guess,” he said and Kirishima gave him an odd look.
“What do you mean?”
“I spend my entire life hating you and vowing to find my own love and when I do it just turns out to be you regardless. Fate played me like a fiddle. I thought I finally chose someone on my own accord but, guess not.”
“It's not like you knew,” Kirishima tells him. “If anything, I'd say you still chose. I just think...you had a little push in the right direction.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Bakugou?”
“What?”
“You want to do something after school tomorrow?”
“You asking me out on a date, shittyhair?”
“Yeah, I am. You, uh, gonna accept?”
Katsuki let out a huff, looking the teen over before shaking his head with a slight laugh.
“Yeah, I think I will.”