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You are born with a black stain drawn on your body which shows where you and your soulmate will first make contact. It can be anything and everything: a small dot on your nose or the shape of an opened hand on one of your cheeks; you could have one of the palms of your hands entirely black or a line that goes up to your elbow; a spot on your waist or on the back of your neck; one on your knee or even on your butt -even if that could be slightly embarrassing-. Anyway, it could be of any shape and form, and it could be found anywhere on your body.
The first touch of your future lover is something extremely important and crucial for the relationship to work, as it will actually indicate who your soulmate is. Of course, knowing that, you were bound to be careful and extremely vigilant of your own mark, so you wouldn’t miss said soulmate. Once the first contact was made, the mark will glow with multiple and diversified colors, which happened so it would get your attention, but it didn’t always work, and sometimes people would miss their soulmates; it only took the soft and casual brushing of fingers as you walked down the street to make you miss it.
When you do make contact with your soulmate, the mark will become lighter and lighter, appearing to be almost invisible but never really disappearing, and the mark could be “reactivated”, which was exactly what it sounded like, the mark glowing up each time you and your lover repeated the first-ever touch you had with each other. So, even if you missed it once, you always had a chance to meet your soulmate after all.
Kouda walked behind Satou, glancing for a moment at his right hand; each one of the tips of his fingers -except for his thumb- had a dark spot on them. As he heard his friend go on and on about a recipe he had recently read, he wondered, as many times before, who could actually be his soulmate, and how their first contact would happen.
He looked up at Satou, more precisely, at the right side of his neck, where his marking was. As other marks, it wasn’t perfectly drawn on his skin, but of course, that was, in fact, perfectly fine. His soulmate probably had their own mark on their hand or something similar.
Uhm…
Without thinking, Kouda reached out and touched Satou right where his mark was, making sure that his own was in contact with it. However, nothing happened, aside from Satou jumping, startled. He turned to face Kouda, a confused expression on his face.
“What-...” he started saying before his eyes fell onto his friend’s still raised hand. He put two and two together and soon enough a soft blush covered his cheeks. “...oh. Erhm, y-yeah? Why did you…?”
Kouda quickly lowered his hand, pretty embarrassed. Nothing had happened, not a single color shone from their contact. He simply shrugged, looking away.
“Dude, don’t scare me like that, I almost had a heart attack.” Satou’s tone was more joyful now, calmer. Maybe relieved? “But yeah, I mean, who wouldn’t want to try their luck at being this sweet boy’s soulmate, huh?”
He playfully hit his friend on the back, making him nervously laugh, and they started walking again.
Aside from still being a little flustered, Kouda was glad that Satou didn’t take him too seriously, as trying to do what he had just done still was pretty weird and not something you would usually do.
But hey, it really didn’t hurt to try.
“Hm? My mark?” asked Shouji, tilting his head to one side.
Kouda nodded a couple of times. They were in his room, studying, or at least they were doing that just before Kouda wrote down the question for his friend to read.
The mouth that was just speaking with him morphed into an eye that stared at him with curiosity. Shouji formed another mouth with one of his limbs.
“Why are you asking about it?”
Kouda shrugged.
“Curiosity?”
Kouda thought about it then nodded. There really wasn’t any other way to explain it, to be honest. He didn’t think that he would actually find his soulmate during his time at U.A. High School, but, why shouldn’t he try it?
Shouji tilted his head to the other side, eyeing him with interest. He then leaned towards Kouda.
“Would you like to see it?”
Kouda opened his mouth, but closed it before he could make any sound, and nodded once more.
“...alright.”
With a sigh, Shouji changed back his limbs, and lifted one of his hands, reaching out for his mask. He seemed to think about it for a moment, but eventually, to Kouda’s surprise, he lowered his mask.
“Sorry about this, maybe I should have warned you before, as it can be upsetting to some people.” laughed Shouji, using his actual mouth for once.
Kouda’s eyes traced the facial features of his friend, quickly locating his mark: it laid over the cheekbone of his left cheek. Gently, Kouda brushed his fingers against the dark spot, feeling Shouji flinch under his touch.
But nothing happened.
“...sorry…” muttered Kouda, backing off a little bit.
Shouji blinked a couple of times, mouth slightly ajar.
“I… Don’t. It’s fine, not like you did nothing wrong.”
There was a moment of silence.
“...i… i like your face,” said Kouda, thoughtful. “...maybe you shouldn’t hide it…?”
His friend stared at him, and his expression soon enough changed for one of delight.
“Maybe...”
“Hey, Kouda?” asked Uraraka, walking towards the desk of her friend.
An inquisitive glance answered her query and she giggled nervously.
“Sorry! Sorry.” she shifted her weight from one leg to the other. “...hm, yeah, I was wondering… Would you mind trying out my marking? I know it’s a strange question, but uhm… Y-Yeah, there’s no way to rationalize this, sorry! But… Well…” she raised her right hand, showing him that her own markings were also on the tip of her fingers. “...yeah, basically.”
Kouda felt his heart flutter in his chest. Or did it miss a beat? Hard to tell to be honest… With a soft hum, Kouda lifted his hands and watched as Uraraka’s eyes shimmered with excitement.
She brought her own hand to Kouda’s, fingertips touching softly.
Two things happened. More precisely, one happened and one didn’t.
First, their markings didn’t light up, keeping their usual dark shade.
And second… Kouda was affected by Uraraka’s quirk.
It was something really foreseeable, really. What did they expect?
Kouda let out a surprised yelp, and Uraraka did the same, before quickly bringing her hands together as to cancel the effect of her “Zero Gravity”. Thankfully, Kouda wasn’t too high up when that happened, and he only suffered a small fall, almost stumbling face-first into his desk but regaining his balance before anything like that could happen.
“I’m so so so so sorry!” apologized Uraraka, bowing her head time and time again.
Kouda waved his hands, dismissing his friend’s words. And just now he noticed that Uraraka had a mark on each and every one of her fingers… including her thumb. So, they didn’t actually match…
After giving it some thought, Kouda reached out and squeezed her shoulder, and once she lifted her gaze, he gave her a thumbs-up, smiling warmly.
“Yeah… You’re right. At least it was fun.”
And she smiled back.
“...wonder why he doesn’t have his mark on his cheek, there’s no way his soulmate wouldn’t slap the shit out of him.” blurted out Bakugou, getting out of the locker with Kirishima close behind him.
“Hey, wait up!” Kaminari ran after them, still putting his shirt on.
Mineta watched them leave, rubbing his neck right where they had hit him. He had tried to sneak a peek into the girl’s locker, like he had done time and time again, but of course he -thankfully- hadn’t succeeded. Which was fine. Only thing was that he was getting pretty tired of doing all of it.
With a sigh, he let himself fall onto one of the benches, swinging his legs from side to side as he didn’t actually reach the floor. Maybe he should just, stop. Stop everything. It should be easy, not being a trashy human being. But he had done it since the beginning of time, and it had practically become a habitude.
...That was a terrible excuse. But, hey, his entire life was based on a terrible excuse anyway, so whatever.
He swung his head upwards when he heard someone entering the locker room from the showers, although he visibly relaxed when he saw that it was just Kouda.
“Man, you scared me. Why haven’t you left yet?”
Kouda shrugged, pretty occupied drying himself up. Mineta didn’t know what he had expected from him, it’s not like anybody had had an actual, fluid conversation with him, so he simply looked away, finishing to buttoning up his shirt. However, he caught himself glancing towards his classmate more than once, and he cursed at himself from doing so. Why couldn’t he simply be normal like the other boys and like gir-
Of course he liked girls, he loved them! There was absolutely no doubt in that, everyone knew it! Everyone knew about it.
A soft cough made him look up, and when he lifted up his gaze, he found Kouda crouching in front of him. Even if he felt as if his soul had left his body, Mineta frowned:
“Y-Yeah?”
Kouda pointed at him and then held a thumb up, asking if he was okay.
“Yeah, of course. Why?”
Kouda pointed to the side of his head, where one’s ears would be, and then at the door, and Mineta understood that he had heard what the others had said.
“Dude, it’s nothing. They’re pulling my leg, that’s all.”
Kouda lifted his right hand and wiggled his fingers as to show his mark, and then pointed towards Mineta once more, tilting his head to one side as if he were asking a question.
“Wanna know where mine is? Why?”
Kouda pointed at him again, insistent.
“Okay, okay! Damn you’re demanding…” he turned his face, showing off a dark marking that was behind his ear. “Looks like a chicken nugget if you ask me…” he turned to face Kouda again. “Happy?”
However, he jumped in his seat when Kouda brought his hand closer, fingertips brushing against Mineta’s mark. Now he could guarantee that his soul had really left his body. He stared at him with wide eyes as Kouda pulled back his hand, busy looking at his fingers.
Kouda looked back at Mineta, smiling softly.
“...no luck,” he whispered, getting up. After dusting off his pants, he gave his classmate the thumbs up. “...try being kinder and don’t give up.”
“Oh… Of course! Can’t wait for the day that a hot girl will touch me and let the sparks fly!” he chuckled nervously, rubbing his fingers against his mark.
His classmate flashed him a pitying smile and shrugged, turning around to get his stuff back so he could leave the locker room.
Mineta watched him go, still rubbing his mark. He loved girls, he told himself. Of course he did.
There was no doubt about that, wasn’t it?
“Ah, Kouda! Do you have a moment?”
Kouda stopped, lunch in hand, and was met with an overly excited Midoriya who was running towards him, notebook in hand.
“Sorry to bother you! Turns out I’m asking our classmates about our markings and all, and I wanted to ask you about yours! Official research purposes, of course!” he nodded towards his notebook.
It was labeled “Class 1-A”, although Kouda could see “Notebook #11” scratched out on the cover. Realizing that he was simply staring at him, and that an answer was needed of him, Kouda nodded, showing off a small smile to reassure him that it was alright.
“Great, thank you!” they started walking together and Midoriya clicked his pen. “Where are we going, the cafeteria?”
Kouda shook his head no and then pointed towards the ceiling.
“Oh, the rooftop? Is that allowed?” he received a nod in answer. “That’s neat, didn’t know about it. I’ll have to go there with Uraraka and Iida, although I feel like convincing Iida is going to be pretty difficult.”
They were walking up the stairs when Midoriya asked the first question. Actually, there wasn’t a lot to ask about the marks, as they were pretty mysterious and nobody knew a whole lot about them aside from where they were, but it still was important research for Midoriya so he could know more about his classmates. It was a pretty good icebreaker anyway.
“So… Where are they? Can I see them?”
Kouda lifted his right hand, and waved his fingers around, showing off his darkened fingertips.
“Oh, cool! They’re pretty similar to Uraraka’s, you know? Although hers are on every single one of her fingertips, while yours only cover four of your five fingers. I mean, I guess you already realized where are yours, so there was no real reason for me to say that, but it actually helps me think if I say things out loud, as you may already know. Kacchan always makes fun of me because of it, but it’s actually a pretty good method! I personally think that everyone should try it, as you are more likely to remember things you said than things you only read, did you know it? Of course, everyone has their own methods, and every single one of them is perfectly valid, but trying to find out things that are out of your comfort zone will help you grow up as a person.”
Midoriya spoke everything Kouda kept quiet, which created a very interesting contrast between the two of them. As Midoriya kept going on and on about the different learning methods he knew about, Kouda guided him to a bench where they could sit.
“...oh. Thank you.” simply said Midoriya, snapping off of his thoughts. They both took out their lunches, and while Kouda started with his sandwich, his friend quickly wrote down what he had learned. “My own mark is on my chest, although it doesn’t have any particular shape. I suppose that my soulmate will push me or something. How do you think your first touch will take place?”
Kouda tapped his chin thoughtfully. Of course, he had imagined one hundred and one possible scenarios, but there was no way to properly determine what will really happen. So, he simply shrugged.
“Yeah, it’s pretty difficult to imagine. Knowing how yours is, it will probably be the brushing of fingers against your soulmate. Maybe a caress?” Midoriya frowned. He then let out a soft “oh, right”, and brought his hands to his collar. “I didn’t ask you, but since we’re here, would you like to see mine?”
‘And maybe try it’ was something he didn’t say but something that Kouda -and actually everyone else- assumed he meant. It was something that was always implied when speaking about those strange marks that embellished their bodies. And so, Kouda nodded, and as usual, he felt his heartbeat quickening.
“Great.” Midoriya smiled, and finished unbuttoning the first buttons of his shirt. He didn’t need to completely open it, just the top was necessary. The mark laid, as he had said, on his chest, a kind of a rectangular dark stain.
Indecisive but at the same time willing to try it out, Kouda lifted his hand and softly brushed his fingers against his friend’s mark. But nothing happened.
“It was worth trying,” said Midoriya, closing back his shirt. “Whoever your soulmate is, they’re very lucky to have you. With that being said, would you mind if we kept talking? I have some questions about your quirk…”
To say that he was bored was an understatement; Kaminari was practically falling asleep on his notebooks, as everybody else was busy studying and whatnot. They didn’t even want to take a break! Just because they already had one ten minutes ago wasn’t an excuse though… He let out a dramatic sigh, which resulted in Bakugou glaring menacingly at him, murder surely crossing his mind.
“Oi, dunce face, quit bein’ such a drama queen and just fuckin’ focus, it’s not that hard.”
“But I’m booored! Can we do something else?”
“No.”
Kaminari whined, only to get hit by a book that Bakugou threw at him.
“OW! That hurt!” seeing as nobody acknowledged him, he scoffed and got up from his seat. “Fine! Since nobody wants me here, I’m gonna go get a snack from the kitchen!”
“Oh! Can you bring me a coke?” chimed in Sero.
This time, it was Kaminari’s turn to throw the book towards his friend.
When entering the kitchen, he found Kouda there, pouring himself a glass of water.
“Kouda! Sup my dude! How are ya?” he didn’t seem to care that he had clearly startled his friend and simply proceeded to rummage through one of the cupboards for a bag of chips or something.
Kouda stared at him, somewhat bothered because Kaminari had made him spill water on his shirt surprising him like that. Feeling the insistent gaze on him, Kaminari turned around.
“What?”
Kouda blinked a couple of times, not really expecting a direct confrontation, and then shook his head.
“Huh? You sure?” he frowned and then realized what had happened. “Oh shit, that would be my fault. Sorry ‘bout that.” he rubbed his neck, bothered. “...yeah, my bad, dunno what else to say.”
As an answer, Kouda shrugged. He also didn’t know what to say. And it wasn’t that big of a deal anyway. Remembering that Sero asked for a coke, Kaminari took out one of the bottles they had in the fridge and went to take out a glass from one of the cupboards that were above the sink. When he did, Kouda caught a glimpse of his wrist, which had his mark on it. Kaminari froze when Kouda leaned over to get a closer look.
“What? Interested?” he smirked. He was somewhat surprised when Kouda nodded in agreement but he didn't back off. “Alright, buddy, wanna try?”
The touch of Kouda’s fingers was surprisingly gentle knowing how big and calloused his hands were, but it was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. But the touch didn’t trigger any reaction, so Kouda drew back and Kaminari finally reached for his glass.
“Welp, a shame. We have to keep lookin’ though, can't give up this easily.” shrugged Kaminari, a smile on his face.
“DENKI! MY SODA!” the voice came from the common room.
“SHUT, YOU CHEAP TAPE!” screamed back Kaminari, before waving goodbye to his friend and leaving the room.
“...I personally think that my soulmate will push back my hair for our first touch,” said Sero, sitting back on one the couches. “Don’t know why though, just a hunch.”
His tone was playful and Kouda couldn’t help but chuckle at his words.
Why was it so funny? Simply because, behind his long, dark bangs, was Sero’s mark, right on his forehead; it looked like he had smudged black paint on his face with his fingers.
It was probably why he had bangs, thought Kouda, to hide a little bit the mark. Some people could be pretty self-conscious when it came to their markings, and behind his joyful persona, it seemed as if Sero might be a somewhat insecure person.
“It’s like Uraraka’s, y’know? In her case, it’s even more obvious, and I would really like to see the face of her soulmate when they’ll first touch and they will be sent through the airs because of her quirk!”
More laughter. The scene was a pretty funny one to imagine, to be honest.
Hanging out with Sero was always great, even more if you needed to relax or something. They had just had an exam which Kouda was pretty anxious about and having noticed it, Sero had asked him to spend time together in the common room, to sit around and maybe talk a bit together, and Kouda had gladly accepted it, even if he himself didn’t talk a lot.
“Now that I think about it, I may be a little bit annoying.” suddenly said Sero. When he received a confused look from his friend, he lifted his hands in front of him. “Hear me out, hear me out. I’m only saying it because it looks like I’m only talking ‘bout our markings. And I’m only saying this because the other day Bakugou snapped at me, telling to shut up ‘bout it. So, y’know, we can always talk ‘bout other things, yeah?”
Kouda tilted his head to one side, but then shrugged. As Sero was also one of the few students who knew Japanese Sign Language, Kouda signed [I don’t mind, I like to hear you talk about it], which made Sero smile.
“Thanks, dude, I feel valid now.”
He shifted in his seat, crossing his legs under him. After giving it some thought, he used his quirk to take one of the pillows that laid on the couch opposite from them and added it to the ones he was leaning on. What could he say, he loved being comfortable.
When he finished, he lifted his gaze, meeting Kouda’s who was observing him attentively. But before he could ask him what was wrong, Kouda got unusually close to him. Carefully, he pushed back Sero’s hair just as the latter said before, fingers tracing the dark mark that laid on his forehead.
He then drew back and he signed [Nothing happened, but that was how you imagine it would go, right?].
Sero let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and smiled widely.
“Yep. You got it.” he then playfully punched him. “Thanks for listening to me, dude.”
“Ribbit. Thanks for helping me, Kouda. I would have asked Uraraka or Mina to give me a hand, but they were busy, so, thanks.”
Both Asui and Kouda were sitting on the floor of the girl’s room. He was behind her, gently taking strands of her hair and carefully braiding it, making sure to do it as perfectly as he could.
“I actually didn’t know you could do it, ribbit, and to be honest, I’m kinda glad you can do it.” continued Asui, closing her eyes. “I very much prefer you taking care of me than Aoyama. He’s nice but too much for me.”
Kouda nodded, even if he knew that she couldn’t see it. Her hair was silky and smooth between his fingers, and the strands had such a soft shine that you couldn’t help but admire it. The only thing was that Kouda didn’t know how she managed to keep it so perfectly. He himself didn’t have any hair, so he didn’t personally know the struggles that came with it, but he knew that others usually complained about how hard, how bothersome it was to take care of it. And let’s just not talk about the amount of gel that Kirishima used every morning to maintain his hairstyle, and simply go back to Asui’s amazing hair.
He crossed the strands, slowly working on the braid.
“As I said before, we’re going out with the girls of class 1-b, and I wanted to try another style,” said Asui, taking care of not moving as to not disturb her friend’s work. “Turns out we all had the same idea, so no one was available to help, ribbit.”
Kouda nodded again. He really didn’t mind, it was such a relaxing activity and he was enjoying it quite a lot. Having arrived at the end of the braid, he took great care into tying it, making sure to not pull it or hurt his friend. He clapped a couple of times, indicating to Asui that he had finished, and she turned around to face him.
“Thanks, ribbit. I almost didn’t feel a thing, so I was doubting you were even doing something.” they both laughed. “I do have a lot of hair, so thanks for helping me, ribbit, you’re very kind.”
Kouda smiled softly. He was at ease with her, he had to admit. With others, things could get pretty stressful, but everything was so appeasing in her presence. His eyes wandered on her, avoiding direct eye contact, and he soon found her mark. It was drawn on that spot where the neck meets the shoulder. Thinking about it, he ended up leaning slightly towards her, and without touching her, he put his arm around her, fingers only brushing against her skin right where her mark was, before he softly brought the braid over her shoulder, letting it fall to her side.
The markings didn’t glow.
“It’s a shame. You’re adorable, ribbit.”
“LISTEN, YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE ARE RULES, AND THAT THEY NEED TO BE FOLLOWED, NOT BROKEN. WHY DOES IT SEEM A CONCEPT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?”
Iida’s screams could be heard from anywhere in the Heights Alliance, and every student felt the urge to hit their heads against a table and to curse the one of them who had made their class representant angry. Or maybe hit that person’s head against a table. Or simply throw them from one of the fifth-floor window. Either of those options seemed perfect.
Kouda had the chance to be in the same room as Iida when everything happened. What was the reason for his sudden anger? Tokoyami sitting on top of the common room table.
“IF EVERYONE, IF EVERYONE DECIDED TO DO THAT, WHAT WILL WE ALL DO? WE WOULDN’T NEED CHAIRS ANYMORE, WOULD WE? SO WHY SHOULD WE KEEP THE CHAIRS HERE?”
He was chopping the air, making swift and angry motions with his arms. You could even see the smoke coming out from his ears, which really made him lost the small credibility he had. If he even had it in the first place.
Kouda glanced at his fired up friend, frowning. They were sitting next to each other just moments ago, in peace, and now that peace was broken. And that was frustrating. He tried focusing back on his book, but the screaming went on and on and on. So, after a moment, he had enough.
He tapped his hand against the table a couple of times, but when that failed to catch Iida’s attention, he practically stamped his fist on the table, making both Iida and Tokoyami jump, promptly turning around to face him. Before Iida could open his mouth once more, ready to lecture Kouda for the noise he had made, the latter quickly pressed his fingers against his lips, pressing them against the black mark that was on Iida’s face.
The class representative let out a soft gasp through his closed lips, naturally surprised but at the same time, tension grew on his shoulders as he waited for something to happen or not.
And, well, nothing happened.
Kouda quickly lost interest, drawing back and focusing once more on his book, leaving Iida speechless. The class representative opened his mouth to say something but closed it again, and sat down, staring at his lap, still pretty confused. He glanced towards Kouda and brought one of his hands to his lips, right where his mark was, a dark, black sort of lipstick he couldn’t take off.
Well, now he knew that he would probably meet his soulmate in a similar situation.
So, in a way, he had to keep making lots of noise, right?
“Kouda. Can I try your mark?” asked Todoroki, standing in front of him.
After the initial surprise, Kouda nodded.
“Mine is on my face. I suppose it’s pretty obvious, but you’re never sure.”
Indeed, Todoroki’s mark laid over his scar, although it still was smaller than the latter, only covering his eye and a little bit of the higher part of his cheek and his cheekbone.
Todoroki stared at Kouda blankly.
“I’m waiting.”
That made Kouda extremely nervous, even if he actually didn’t know why. It felt as if he was about to disappoint his friend no matter what he did, as if everything suddenly fell on his shoulders, a weird weight added to the back of his mind.
He lifted his trembling hand and Todoroki closed his eyes. Kouda took a deep breath and he slowly brushed his fingers against the mark, being extremely careful, as he was not only touching his friend’s face, but also his eyelid, and what was a pretty big scar.
There was no reaction and Kouda backed off a couple of steps, probably more than what was needed, but he just had to do it.
It took him a moment, but Todoroki finally opened his eyes. He blinked a couple of times, and then stared at Kouda, waiting for an answer.
“No? Well, that is fine I guess.” he looked away, and then focused again on Kouda. “Thank you. It was pleasant.” he nodded as he spoke. “Yes, thank you.”
“Of course I have a mark! What are you even saying?!”
Hagakure was getting pretty fed up with other people sticking their noses there where it did not concern them. In a way, she understood that they were curious about her, but that did not give them any rights to be invasive. What about her personal space? Her privacy?
“Just because YOU cannot see it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist!”
The other student, a boy from the second year heroic course, looked at her like she was crazy, and after muttering what seemed to be an apology, he turned around and walked away. Hagakure scoffed and did the same, stomping loudly towards her classroom.
And so, she almost -angrily- bumped into Kouda, who was just walking around the corner. The two of them let out surprised yelps -although, funnily enough, Kouda’s was more high pitched than hers- and she stumbled backward to dodge, catching herself before falling.
“God, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” she apologized, rubbing her hands against her skirt. “I was kinda blinded by anger, sorry.”
Kouda waved his hands, dismissing her words. He then asked her, via sign language, what had happened. Hagakure had been learning Japanese Sign Language as the rest of the class, and even if she wasn’t the best at it, but she managed.
“Ah, nothing, nothing, just a stupid boy saying stupid things. The usual.” Even without words, she understood perfectly what the confused look he gave her meant. “He asked about my mark, as many others did before.” she slid a hand through her hair. “You know, even if none of you can see me doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. I mean, I can see myself, and I can assure you that I have a damn mark!”
She was starting to raise her voice again and Kouda waved his hands, trying to get her to calm down.
“Sorry, sorry, it’s just… exhausting! And when I explain it to them, they don’t even believe it! I shouldn’t even have to explain myself that much for god’s sake!”
Kouda gave her a pitying her look and then asked her.
“Huh? Where is it?” even if she was just complaining about it seconds ago, she was somewhat taken aback by her friend’s interest. She then lifted a bit the side of her white shirt, pointing at a spot on her hip. “It’s just there. Why?”
Without saying a word, Kouda reached towards her with his hand and lightly touched her skin with the tip of his fingers, surprising her. Hagakure’s head swung to her side, staring intently at her mark, but when nothing happened, both Kouda and her stepped back, leaving some space between them.
“That was…” she took a deep breath before jumping straight into his arms, “...absolutely adorable! Aw, Kouda! You shouldn’t have! You’re going to make me cry, you pure ray of sunshine!”
Poor Kouda was only able to violently blush, patting softly her back as she kept squealing and screaming whatever crossed her mind.
Kouda stared blankly in front of him, at his desk, being unable to properly process what was happening.
Aoyama stared at him back, eyes sparkling with interest, his usual closed smile plastered on his face.
“Hello there~” he said, blinking slowly.
Now, that was uncomfortable. Kouda rubbed his neck, still not knowing what to say. In class they didn’t teach you the procedure to follow when you found one of your classmates practically lying down on your desk.
Kouda nodded very slowly, glancing to his side as he tried to avoid Aoyama’s gaze. There were only a few students in the classroom and they weren’t paying attention to them, occupied with their own matters, so there was no one to give him a hand with… that.
“Kouda~”
With a sigh, Kouda finally looked him in the eyes, ready to get it over with. Aoyama smiled even more widely.
“Do I finally have your attention?~ Parfait !~” he changed his posture, now sitting down with his legs crossed. “It has come to my attention that you may have tried your luck with other’s marks, and I was wondering when the opportunity will be given to moi !~”
...That he didn’t expect. However, after overcoming the initial shock and confusion, Kouda shrugged. He actually didn’t need to look extensively for the other’s mark; it was quite literally right on his nose, a quite wide, black line that covered the bridge of said nose.
Even if it seemed quite an entitled and exigent demand, it still didn’t hurt to try, it never really did. And so, before he could properly think about it twice, he traced the curve of Aoyama’s slightly upturned nose with the tips of his fingers, making the blonde giggle cheerfully.
“Oh! It appears it did not work…~ What a shame~” he got off the desk, stretching exaggeratedly as if he were a cat. “ Merci beaucoup comme même , my dearest, it was real nice of you to do so!~”
Kouda watched him walk away, still perplexed by Aoyama’s attitude and way to handle things. It seemed surreal, but so was apparently every interaction everyone had with Aoyama, and in a way, Kouda was very curious to see who would be this sparkling boy’s soulmate.
Something pretty interesting to discover indeed.
Kouda had to admit it, he was most comfortable when he was spending time with Jirou. He thought she was really pretty and very confident, and she was such a strong person overall that he couldn’t help himself but admire her. In a way, he hoped to become as brave as she was, able to overcome whatever got in his way.
Also, she had a really nice voice.
That was probably the thing he liked the most about her, if he was being honest. Even if they didn’t exactly share the same taste in music he could appreciate her songs and her voice.
Kouda watched her as she played the guitar, sitting on one of the sofas of the common room. It was very early in the morning and so they were the only ones there, simply enjoying the silence of the dormitories, without any loud students bothering them, only he soft voice of the musical instrument’s cords. Jirou was humming the lyrics of a song Kouda didn’t quite recognize, even if it sounded to him.
As he watched her play, his eyes fell on one of her hands, whose back had a black mark that covered it entirely.
For a moment Kouda stared at his friend’s mark, and then glanced at his own, thoughtful. He really wanted to try them out, but he didn’t want to interrupt or bother her or anything like that.
He was so deep into his thoughts that it took him a moment to realize that the music had stopped, but when he did and that he lifted his head, his eyes met Jirou’s, who was holding her hand in front of her.
“You still have trouble speaking up, mhm?” she asked, smirking.
After the initial surprise, Kouda smiled softly and shrugged. And then he reached out in front of him, brushing his fingers gently against her skin. They both waited, but since nothing happened with the first contact, nothing else was going to happen, so it was kind of useless to keep on waiting. Maybe they both had hoped for something different, but in the end, they broke off contact, smiling politely at the other.
Jirou started playing her guitar once more and Kouda sunk a little bit in the couch, getting comfortable once more.
“You know,” said Jirou as she stroke the guitar chords, “it’s nice of you to have thought about me. Not all do that.”
Kouda shrugged once more, and then signed [I enjoy being with you, so it was logical?]. That made her laugh, before shaking her head side to side, her earphones swinging with the motion.
“You are too kind for your own good. But hey, thank you. I still appreciate it.”
Kouda watched as Bakugou blew up a pillow that one of his friends threw at him, and then he watched as he started to scream at the top of his lungs, seemingly ready to murder someone on the spot.
Kouda then turned around and walked away, ready to get back into his room.
If it turned out that Bakugou was actually his soulmate, well, he was going to leave that matter into destiny’s hands, as there was no way that he would voluntarily try and make contact between their marks. If they were bound to be together for the rest of their lives, they would need to find it by accident, there was no way that Kouda would risk getting his head blown off…
Let’s just say that it wasn’t actually something he looked forward to.
Ashido was furiously slurping the slushie she had bought, humming joyfully with each taste. It was saturday and the entire class had decided to go to the mall together, to spend some quality time in group. After going to -literally- all the shops that were opened at the moment, they decided to split up to go buy whatever they wanted to eat. In Ashido’s case, she wanted a slushie, and so she got one. Kouda, as well as Hagakure, Uraraka, Shouji, Sero and Mineta, accompanied her, although they ended up getting ice creams while Kouda himself got a vanilla milkshake.
They were joking around, laughing and whatnot, even more when Shouji started to form more mouths so he could steal some spoonful of his friends ice creams, which ended up becoming a competition to see who could eat their frozen dessert before Shouji took them.
As both Ashido and Kouda had -thank god- bought a drink, they didn’t need to worry about it getting stolen, and so they watched as the others tried to outrun Shouji, which was turning out to be quite a difficult task.
“Aw, look at them go… They grow up so fast.” she wiped away some invisible tears as she watched the others screaming and shouting and overall bothering the other clients that were trying to go shopping in peace.
Kouda nodded vehemently in agreement, holding back a snort when Mineta almost fell face first on his ice cream if it hadn’t been for Shouji who quickly formed an arm to grab him.
“Sooo… How’s it going, Kouda? Anything new?”
He shook his head no.
“Aw, what a shame. But, actually, me neither. It’s just… School, yeah?”
He muttered something under his breath in agreement.
“Yeah, yeah… School…” she loudly slurped her drink again. “Oh, uhm, by the way, Sero told me you were especially lovely with him the other day, so I wanted to try my luck with ya.”
Kouda almost choked on his milkshake, and ended up coughing for almost an entire minute, trying to calm down, all the while Ashido laughed hysterically.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! But, yeah, wanna try it out, big boy?”
It took him another moment to properly regain his composure, and when he did, Ashido had already cuffed up her sleeve up to her elbow, showing off the mark that was on her forearm. Trying to avoid making a fool of himself even more, Kouda was quick to make contact, drawing back as soon as they saw that nothing happened.
“Dude, no fair!” whined Ashido, slurping her slushie once more. “What a shame…”
Kouda was about to apologize -even if he really couldn’t have done anything about it- but suddenly someone snatched the milkshake from his hand. He turned around only to see Shouji walking away, milkshake and two ice creams in his hands.
“...h-hey!”
Ashido burst out laughing once more, watching how the others started to chase Shouji down again, Kouda joining them this time.
Physical Education class ended, leaving all of the students utterly exhausted.
“Alright, class dismissed, go change and… Whatever, just don’t get in trouble, please.”
They all muttered something in agreement, and while some dragged themselves to the changing rooms, others went directly to the Heights Alliances, probably wishing to throw themselves on their beds and sleep for days.
After giving it some thought, Kouda decided to go directly back to his room, not wishing to stay in the school buildings anymore time than necessary. As he did so, Kirishima caught up with him.
“Hey, how are you?”
Kouda gave him the thumbs-up, although he could feel his hands shaking ever so slightly.
“Yeah, he did try to push us more than usual, huh?” Kirishima stretched his arms, feeling his back cracking. “Do you mind if I walk with you? My squad decided to go to the locker rooms, but I wasn’t feeling it to be honest, been feeling kinda tired lately…”
Kouda nodded, flashing him a small smile.
“Nice, thanks bro.” there was a moment of silence as they walked side by side. “So… Is there someone you like…?” the very confused and slightly panicked look that Kouda shot him made him laugh. “Sorry! Might have sounded weirder than I expected… And I know we don’t talk that much, but… yeah, is there someone you like?”
That was actually a question no one really asked. As everyone had their soulmate’s mark drawn on their bodies, most of the time your own feelings were put aside as you looked for the one who was meant to be yours. So, long story short, Kouda really hadn’t thought much about it. That’s what he wanted to say at least, as he had to admit that he had had somewhat of a little crush on maybe more than one person in his class.
Kirishima watched as a soft blush covered his friend’s face, and he smiled widely, showing off his sharp teeth.
“Oh, so there is someone!” Kouda shrugged. “What, not sure? Oh, wait, did you… Did you try it out with them?” This time, Kouda nodded. “Ow, that’s unfortunate...Can’t say the same for me though… I’m not brave enough to do it, to be honest. Don’t know how you did it.”
Kouda looked at him, tilting his head to one side. Kirishima was rubbing his neck, right there where it connected with his back, right there where his mark was. When he noticed the insistent gaze of his friend, he nervously laughed, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his sweater.
“Sorry, might have sounded sad…”
Kouda shook his head, and after taking a couple of steps forward, he stopped. Kirishima did the same, turning around to face him, confused.
“What happened?”
Kouda closed the distance between, and brushed his fingers against Kirishima’s mark, making a small circular motion. When nothing happened, he stepped back, smiling softly.
“...did it like this…” he simply said.
“...right… r-right, okay…” Kirishima nodded slowly, rubbing his neck some more. “...right, that… Uhm, thank you. That was… Well, that was nice of you. Thank you.” After another moment of silence, they started walking again. “...maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to try it myself… Yeah. That would also be nice.”
“Do you need help?”
Kouda jumped in his seat, startled by Yaoyorozu’s sudden presence. The girl let out a quiet chuckle before apologizing.
“I’m sorry, I thought you noticed me. Do you need any help?”
It was the weekend and they had asked their homeroom teacher if they could organize a study session in the school library, and well, the answer had been yes, as long as they didn’t misbehave. Not everyone had turned up, of course, but they still were a pretty big group.
To answer his friend’s question, Kouda shook his head. He was slow when it came to making his homework, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he didn’t know what he was doing. He just… liked to take his time.
“Perfect! Some of the others are already packing up, but…” she seemed indecisive. “...If you haven’t finished yet, I would like to know if it would be okay for me to keep you company for a while.”
Kouda signed in response [Of course, you don’t need to ask].
“Thank you a lot!”
Yaoyorozu took a seat on one of the chairs across from Kouda’s, and took out a book she had brought from her room, diving straight into it.
So lost she was in the words she was reading that Kouda had to snap his fingers more than once to catch her attention.
“Ah, yes?”
Kouda pointed to his closed notebook and signed [Finished, are you ready to go back?].
“Ah, yes!”
She quickly closed her book and put it away, and Kouda could’ve sworn that she was trying her best to hide the cover of said book.
As they walked down the now dark hallway, Kouda decided to ask her if she was okay.
“What? Me? Yes, of course, everything is fine!” She read Kouda’s hands as he asked her another question. “Oh, my book? It’s, uhm, unimportant and, uhm… a little bit embarrassing…” she nervously chuckled.
Kouda was fine with not receiving a more detailed answer, however it seemed as if Yaoyorozu needed to get it off of her chest, because she soon enough started talking.
“It turns out that I, well, I have been getting pretty… Worried? Yes, I think we can say that… I’ve been getting pretty worried about my soulmate mark, my soulmate themselves, what will happen… And my mother gave me this book which covers more or less everything about markings… She very much prefers me reading things from a respectable source than from the internet, yes? Anyway… I’ve been reading it, and you’re actually the first person I’ve told about it, but I haven’t able to reassure myself? It feels so… strange, so… difficult to comprehend. And I have always been so careful when it came to my mark, always keeping an eye on it to make sure I wouldn’t miss it lightning up. I really want it to happen, but at the same time, I’m kind of scared of it!”
She sounded so distraught, and Kouda realized that she probably hadn’t spoken about any of this with anyone else. He snapped his fingers a couple of times to catch her attention.
[Where is your mark?] he signed.
In answer, she lifted her left hand, showing how the higher part of her palm, just where the fingers were connected with the palm, had that dark shade every untouched soulmate mark had. She started to lower her hand when Kouda extended his own, asking for hers. She stopped moving altogether, frozen. Carefully, Kouda reached out for her, gently brushing his fingertips against her mark. When nothing happened, Yaoyorozu let out a soft sigh, flashing him a shaky smile, before clasping his hand in hers tightly.
“Thank you.” she simply said.
Ojiro slowly swung his tail from side to side as he watched a video on his phone, exhaling sharply from his nose from time to time instead of actually laughing out loud. Let’s be honest, everyone does that, and he was no different from the others. He looked up from his phone when the video ended, taking a moment to watch his surroundings.
There were some of his classmates, well, friends, going in and out of the common room, walking up and down the stairs. They had been denied the opportunity to go out, as last time they did, Midoriya and Bakugou ended up fighting in the middle of the street, and as punishment, their rights to go to the karaoke they had planned to were taken back, to everyone’s dismay. So now, obviously, they were making their own karaoke right there and then, in the common room.
The couch he was sitting on sank a little bit when a new weight was added to it. Ojiro glanced to his side, founding Kouda sitting now next to him, Yuwai, his bunny, on his lap. As soon as his brain properly processed the little rabbit’s presence, Ojiro's eyes lit up and, unconsciously, he started to swing his tail faster.
“Oh, hello there!”
The words left his mouth before he could stop himself, visibly startling Kouda. The latter quickly calmed down when he realized that it was actually his furry friend who was receiving the attention and not himself, and he whispered something to Yuwai. Soon enough Yuwai, after twitching her nose for a moment, jumped to Ojiro’s lap, who couldn’t hold back an excited gasp.
“Thank you!” he said, promptly focusing on gently petting the bunny.
Kouda watched them, a small smile on his face, and he huddled up more against the sofa. He wasn’t partaking into the preparations as nobody had asked for his help and he was too shy to go up to any of them and propose his aid.
His eyes unintentionally looked for his friend’s mark, but he was unable to find it, which made him frown. Trying to not be rude, he tried to not stare much at him, but it was beginning to bother him. He actually didn’t remember seeing Ojiro’s mark, not even when they went to the swimming pool together. A thought crossed his mind that made him blush, and he quickly dismissed it, cursing at himself for even allowing it.
Ojiro glanced at his friend, who was apparently having an existential crisis right next to him -that was an exaggeration, but he was looking pretty anxious-.
“Are you okay?”
Kouda jumped again, and this time, he let out a nervous laugh. He then signed [Yes, sorry].
“Did something happen?” Kouda shook his head no, but Ojiro had learned to read his quiet friend’s body language, so he knew something was bugging him. “What were you thinking about?”
Kouda shot him a frustrated look. As time passed, it was becoming more and more difficult to hide things from his classmates, and as they were all trying to get him to get out of his shell, they asked him questions until they were satisfied with the answer he gave them.
And so, after letting out a sigh, he asked [Where is your mark? I don’t remember seeing it].
“Oh, that’s it? You could’ve asked without any problems!” Ojiro gently put Yuwai to his side, and brought his tail to his lap. He pointed to the tip, which was covered with blonde hair. “It’s actually there, although you can’t really see it.”
Kouda nodded in understanding, still pretty flustered by his last thought.
“What? Now you’re gonna tell me you would want to try it, no?” joked Ojiro, trying to get his friend at ease. However, to his surprise, Kouda shrugged and then nodded once more. “...really? Well, I’m not going to stop you.”
With a cautious hand, Kouda reached for his friend tail, and even if he couldn’t see the mark, as Ojiro had said before, he gently felt around, taking notice of how soft was the fur that covered his tail.
Ojiro held back a chuckle as the touch made his skin tingle. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t pretty vigilant of his mark, trying to see if there was a glimpse of light or anything, but soon enough, they both concluded that it wasn’t meant to happen, and so Kouda drew back his hand and Ojiro moved his tail away.
“So… Are you going to sing?”
“Alright, please, everybody settle down!” for once Iida wasn’t screaming at the top of his lungs, but he couldn’t resist trying to put some order.
However, they were all in a pretty good mood, so they let that slide, even if Bakugou shot him an angry look, and they started talking to each other to see what seats were going to be empty and which were already taken. Satou came back from the kitchen with a couple of bowls filled to the brim with popcorn and Sero followed close behind, some bottles of sodas at hand.
Kouda sat on one of the ends of the couch, trying to take as little space as he could, even if his wide frame made it somewhat difficult; but even if he had tried to sit on the floor, the others didn’t allow it, and if he tried it again, they would immediately jump and make him sit on the couch again. So, he accepted his fate, and simply tried to not bother others too much.
It took them a moment, but finally they were all ready and set. The movie they had chosen started to play even if the room was still somewhat lit; they had decided that it would be best to avoid any violent awakening of Dark Shadow and to leave the lights on, at least a couple of them, not wanting to ruin their desired movie night. However, it was still dark enough to notice a phone lighting up, as happened with Iida’s, who promptly received angry looks from his classmates and had to turn off his smartphone to avoid getting murdered right there and then.
Having mentioned him, Tokoyami was actually sitting close to Kouda, on the arm rest of the couch, legs crossed under him. He seemed pretty interested in the movie as he didn’t know anything about it, like the vast majority of the class; others only knew the trailers or summaries they had read on the internet.
The movie started and it didn’t seem that bad; actually, nobody was able to take their eyes off of the screen. It was a story of heroes, a theme they all knew and loved, and it was remarkably well done.
Tokoyami leaned over Kouda to grab some popcorns, and the latter backed out a little bit to leave him some space. He received a small nod in gratefulness before the bird headed boy sat down once again, eating the little snacks as he could with his beak.
The movie kept on going, although some of them were starting to grow bored of it; the beginning was just fine but now it started to resemble more and more a stereotypical hero's story, romance overtaking the action. Countless of movies before that one had done the same, and even sentimental persons such as Uraraka, Aoyama, Satou and Yaoyorozu were tired of it, some more than others. Kouda was now sharing the leftovers that were im the popcorn bowl with Tokoyami, munching them thoroughly. It was a fun experience as Kouda learned that Tokoyami could actually eat the half-popped popcorns without hurting himself, thing others couldn’t do. The wonders of having a beak.
It was nowhere near the end of the movie, however it seemed as it could end now without missing any important parts of the plot. Kouda was snuggled against a pillow, and was even starting to feel as if he could fall asleep, when he glanced towards his friend; Tokoyami was leaning his head over the top part of the couch, just above his head, rolling his eyes everytime the characters said something stupid. Kouda tried focusing on the screen once more, although he did lift one of his hands -in a way that wouldn’t bother the others- to gently scratch Tokoyami’s lower mandible, the lower part of his beak, to try and entertain himself a bit.
He was quite surprised when Tokoyami let out some pleased chirps, and he closed his eyes, listening to them, when suddenly someone screamed:
“I KNOW THE MOVIE IS SHIT, BUT WE AGREED ON NO PHONES!”
Kaminari’s voice was extremely loud compared to the silence of the room, but instead of getting mad at him, the others started to look around to see who was it that decided to interrupt the peace.
Kouda listened closely, waiting for them to resume the movie, when the noises surrounding him slowly faded out, and for a moment, he thought that he had actually fallen asleep; that was until someone cleared their throats and simply said: “Kouda?”
He opened his eyes to see everyone staring at him with wide eyes. Panic quickly settling in, he looked back at them, confusion dancing in his gaze. The only answer he received was Ojiro pointing at something above him. And, when Kouda looked, he let out a high-pitched squeal and quickly covered his face with his hands.
He had looked for them for so long, he had tried it with so many, only to be discovered in a moment when he wasn’t even paying attention.
His fingers lit up when touching Tokoyami.
His fingers lit up when touching Tokoyami’s mark, which was right on his lower mandible.
He sunk a little deeper in his seat, even more conscious of everybody that was staring at him, his face slowly heating up. He only opened his eyes a bit to look at his fingers, noticing how the mark had now seemingly disappeared, making his head spin and turn and making him feel weird.
“ You! You, you, you! ” a new voice joined them, even if Tokoyami tried to stop them.
“Dark Shadow, n-!”
“ We are so excited to meet yoouu! ” Dark Shadow nuzzled Kouda, who could only let out another embarrassed squeal. “ Kage is very much happy to know that it’s you! Even if he’s not saying anything! ”
“D-Dark Shadow, silence!”
“ He’s sooo flustered! You’re both soooo flustered! ”
The creature put its arms around Kouda, hugging him closer. And that is when the rest of the class completely lost it; practically all of them -aside from a few- started to scream in excitement, more entertained by this event than by the movie they were watching. They wanted to see their marks, they wanted to ask them a million of questions; how did it felt? Did anything change? How were they feeling? They even pulled -to Kouda’s dismay- his hands from his face, watching closely the spots where his markings were.
Yaoyorozu was able, thanks to Jirou and Satou’s help, to calm things down a little, and to give her friends some breathing space as she lectured her classmates. Yes, she too was very much excited and happy for her friends, but they had to keep in mind their feelings; it must have been a very shocking discovery for them and they didn’t need to shake them up more than necessary.
As Kouda tried to calm down, feeling his panic growing inside of him, a small hand slid into his, giving him a gentle squeeze. He glanced to his side, quickly looking away when his eyes met Tokoyami’s.
“I must apologize for all of this. We did cause quite a scene.” he gave his quirk a stern look, which made them go back into his body. He then asked, with a soft tone; “...would you like to try it again, once there is nobody left to intervene?”
And, despite feeling like a complete mess at the moment, Kouda nodded slowly, eyes stuck to the ground but a smile slowly painting itself on his face.