Archive of Our Own

Red.

It is the color of the blood running through our veins, it is the color of the anger we feel, it is the color of love.

It can come in many different shapes and forms; through light, through paint, through the words of those we love. We see it, we feel it, we are even capable of creating it. Human expression has allowed us to do so many things that we don’t truly notice the work of art that is our own life until an exterior point of view comes to us: family, friends, rivals, lovers, all those who live, breathe, exist in our world make us think about ourselves, about the true meaning of being our true self, allowing us to evolve and become another version of ourselves, for the better or for the worst.

Kouda has learned to see, well, to understand red. From the moment he was capable of speaking, he had started to see red. It whirled, it tossed and turned in the air, it drew nonexistent paths that he soon learned to decypher. His eyes traced it, following its shape until he understood.

It connected people. Most of the times, it started on a person’s little finger and ended on another’s one. However, he also witnessed cases where someone had two or more of those linking them to other people. Those cases, as confusing they might have been, only made him realize how much wider it was, more than what anyone could have taught him.

But, what was “it”? It took him some time to understand, but in the end, he did. At first, it was hard, because no one knew what he was saying. His parents were the first to worry about his questions.

“Mommy, what is that thing floating in the air?”

“Papa, why do you have that attached to your finger?”

“Doesn’t that red thing hurt you?”

Such weird questions from such a young child did alarm his parents. What was he talking about? What was the meaning of his words?

But, with some time and patience, they were able to figure it out.

The red string of fate.

That was the identity of the spectre their child was able to see, at least that was what they thought from the information they had gathered. He had the ability to see each person's soulmate if he followed the string that attached them both. It linked everyone he could see, red strings crossing the rooms and the skies; for example, he could see it in his own house, linking his parents, which made his stomach flutter knowing that they were made for each other. However, he never really tried to discover who was in the end of his own string, too shy, too scared he was. But it was okay. “One day.” he told himself as he fell asleep in his bed. “One day I will travel land and sea to discover who you are.”

And then, he entered U.A. High School. A labyrinth of red strings invaded his classroom as, surprisingly enough, most of his classmates -or, well, friends- were actually one another's soulmates. Actually, the first time he entered his classroom, he almost felt his heart missing a bit seeing all the red that suddenly was surrounding him. Sure, it was kind of strange, but who was he to say or judge anything or anyone?

He couldn't see all the end of all the threads, sure, but it soon gave him quite a good idea: he, Kouda Kouji, the most quiet and reserved student of class 1-A was going to play matchmaker!

He spent much more time than what he should've had, but he prepared a detailed plan of his future course of action. Once he was satisfied with it, he went to work.

Kouda started with those who seemed the easiest, Ojiro and Hagakure. It was his first time doing anything like that, so it was extremely hard and difficult, but with some time and patience, he slowly started getting them closer to each other. In reality, his plan was based on a simple idea: organize some hang outs between the three of them, sometimes inviting others, but always arriving late, going away for quite some long periods of time… whatever it took to leave them both alone.

It was simple.

But it worked.

It helped them both get used to being with one another, to learn more about the other, to want to be with the other.

Then, one day...

“Hey! Kouda!” screamed Hagakure, running towards him, waving her invisible arms all around the room. “You’ll never guess what?! Mashirao asked me out! And it was all thanks to you!” she practically jumped in Kouda’s arms, hugging him tight.

Poor Kouda could only nod in comprehension, heart beating fast because of the sudden attention his invisible classmate brought up to him.

“God, Toru, leave him alone, you’re gonna kill him.” chuckled Ojiro, walking towards them.

“But babe! It’s like, super, super true! He really did bring us together!” complained Toru, tightening her embrace. She only let Kouda go when the latter whined softly, asking for her to let go.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I gotta thank you, man, I don’t know how, but it was totally thanks to you. You were our matchmaker.” joked Ojiro, holding a hand towards his girlfriend, who happily took it in her own.

Kouda simply shrugged, trying to make it seem as if it were nothing. However, deep inside he was more than ecstatic, knowing that his plan had worked. And seeing the couple so happy, red string encircling them, made him feel even better. 

The three of them sat down on one of the common room’s couches to talk a bit. Well, only Hagakure and Ojiro were maintaining a conversation, with shy Kouda on one side, quietly nodding or shaking his head. Strangely enough, the latter felt his heart ache when the couple kissed, a feeling that he pushed to the back of his mind, scolding himself for feeling that way. 

However, soon enough their peace was interrupted by some screaming.

They turned around, just in time to see Sero Hanta flying through the room using his tape, and practically dying of laughter as he did so; running close behind him was Iida Tenya, making some big motions with his arms and screaming something about “following the rules”, “being disrespectful” or something along those lines. Although everyone could see that scene, there was a particular element that only Kouda could see: a thin red string that linked both of the boys.

“What? Are they your new objective?” teased him Ojiro, holding his girlfriend tight next to him.

Kouda sheepishly shrugged, a small smile on his face.

It was difficult, yes, but in the end, it was fun: he had never taken part in so many study session in his entire life. It was the only excuse Kouda had found as to explain why he needed to be with Iida and Sero, preferably with only the two of them. Of course, sometimes they hung out with the other students of their class, as more than one needed some help studying, but Kouda always managed to set Iida and Sero together.

And, well, he had to admit that for a moment, he doubted the fact that those two were actually soulmates; they were opposites in every sense of the term; while Sero was chill and relaxed, Iida looked like he needed a good massage and more than his fair share of meditation to try and eliminate at least a pinch of the stress that inhabited his body; while Iida had the ability to memorize every single bit of information that his eyes witnessed, Sero needed to hear the words to be able to remember them all; while Sero was a genius when it came to puns, jokes and smooth flirting, Iida resembled more a rock. A clueless rock that had super speed. He almost never caught on what his friend -or, well, soulmate- was saying, which really amused the latter who wouldn’t stop pestering him with things that he didn’t understand.

But, it soon was clear, they were made for each other: they seemed to always try to find a way to be together, which for Sero translated into getting in trouble to catch Iida’s attention, and for Iida, it translated into lecturing Sero for hours if necessary -which really wasn’t-. They just wanted to catch the other’s attention so badly but they didn’t really know how to do it, so it was really just adorable.

Kouda was actually pretty proud of himself. Yes, he was, and even more when seeing the shocked expressions of his classmates when, one day right before lunchtime, Sero kissed Iida’s cheek, before running out of their classroom, the class president right behind him with a dark shade of red on his face, screaming things about P.D.A. 

Now, Kouda was a quiet person. That wasn’t news for anybody. So, when going back to the classroom for the last classes of the day, when Aizawa had to deal with his students, who weren’t paying attention and who didn’t want to pay attention, too occupied asking a million questions to Sero and Iida, Kouda kept quiet, simply smiling softly at the sight.

It was pretty entertaining watching the proud class president sunking in his seat, too embarrassed to look at his peers, all the while his -now- boyfriend answered everything with honesty, until Aizawa had had enough and threatened to expel everyone if they kept acting like that.

After staring for a moment at his hands, he glanced towards one of his friends, Tokoyami, who was sitting at the desk next to his. He actually was part of the only people who had kept quiet as others screamed, but nonetheless, he had shown interest in his classmates' new relationship, even if he had tried to appear entirely indifferent.

Kouda stared at him, and slowly his eyes looked for his hand, at the red string knotted on his little finger: the string was relaxed, laying on the ground as a sleepy snake. Kouda’s eyes traced the string, and tried to hush down the excitement that grew inside of him as it always happened when he watched how the red string of fate linked both of them.

Discovering that Tokoyami was his soulmate was pretty surprising to say the least, even more when discovering it during his first day at U.A. It seemed too surreal to be true. In the end, he didn’t have to travel that far to find his soulmate.

He had tried to get closer to him, but it was way harder than he had first thought. So, he simply followed him around, he listened to him, and as it didn’t seem to bother him, Kouda felt happy. He couldn’t put into words the joy he felt when Tokoyami confided in him and told him the secret of his quirk, Dark Shadow, the fact that, pretty resumed, with light he was more tame and weak and that with darkness he was stronger but more difficult to control.

He remembered when they fought side by side during the USJ Incident, how Tokoyami put his trust in him, how they defeated the villains together...

Kouda also remembered the day of the Sports Festival, and how happy he was to see Tokoyami fight, how proud he felt seeing him standing on the podium, receiving his medal. Such a great moment…

“Kouda?”

Aizawa’s voice hit him like lightning and Kouda jumped in his seat, quickly turning around to face their teacher, who was staring at him intently, book opened in his hand.

“I am sure that you will be more than happy to get back home, but for now you have to pay attention. If not, I can always kick you out of class.” his voice was monotone as always, and he was clearly extremely tired of everything. As always.

Kouda quickly shook his head no, staring now back at his notebook, trying to ignore his peers’ laughter.

“Everyone else, shut up. The same warning goes for all of you, you already wasted so much of my time.”

The laughters died and when silence finally fell in the classroom, Aizawa started teaching once more. When glancing to his side one last time, Kouda found Tokoyami looking at him. His friend then smirked and shrugged, probably finding all of it kind of funny, and Kouda smiled back, heart beating faster in his chest.

When the bell finally rang, a wave of relief crossed the room as everyone started packing up. For Kouda, it was actually a pretty interesting spectacle: strings flew around the room, weaving with each other, glowing ever so slightly with their own inner lights. 

He was about to turn to talk with Tokoyami -or, well, more like follow him and accompany him outside of the school- when he noticed that he had already left. Somewhat disappointed, Kouda made his way, alone, towards the school’s exit.

“Hey, Kouda, wait up!” called out someone.

It was Sero.

“I wanted to talk to you. You free now?”

Kouda nodded.

“Great! I mean, good, good.” Sero smiled. They started walking side by side. “So, uhm, I wanted to thank you. If you weren’t so in need of our tutoring, Iida and I wouldn’t have spent so much time together and, uh… Y’know, right?” He blushed pleasantly. “I don’t know what made you ask for our help, but it was pretty neat... and useful. So, yeah, thanks.”

Kouda waved his hands, trying to dismiss his friend’s words. ‘It’s nothing’ he wanted to say. ‘I’m just happy to help’. But as always, words didn’t come out of his throat, leaving him smiling softly.

“No, really thank you.” insisted Sero. There was a moment of silence between the two of them as they walked down the hallways. “It wouldn’t be bad if you could give a hand to Denki though, or the poor fella will end up his entire life alone.”

And, although it was only a simple comment for Sero, it made a new idea sprout inside of Kouda’s mind.

However, what happens when someone has, not one, but two red strings of fate attached to them? That is what Kouda asked himself all night long. How was he supposed to make Kaminari, Jirou and Shinsou realize that the three of them were meant to be together? Not only was Shinsou in class 1-C, but Jirou also seemed to not really appreciate Kaminari. Maybe he could try and help others before helping those three?

At the same time, there was no need for him to hurry. He could take his time, nobody actually really knew what he was doing. So, he started by what seemed to be the easiest part of his plan. 

It turned out to be the best thing he had ever thought of when, a week later more or less, during recess, he noticed Shinsou waiting at their classroom door, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible, arms crossed in front of his chest, ignoring the other’s curious gazes. Kaminari -after Sero politely pointed out that they were waiting for him- jumped from his seat, and quickly made his way towards Shinsou, a big smile on his face, and the two of them got out of there, probably going to the cafeteria to eat together.

Kouda glanced towards Jirou, who was staring at the now empty doorway, frowning. He got closer to her, leaning over ever so slightly.

“...is everything o-okay?” he asked, keeping his voice as low as possible.

Kouda only felt comfortable enough to talk to a couple of his classmates, and Jirou was one of them.

“Why is Kaminari with… him?” Jirou asked back without thinking. She then turned to face Kouda, a slightly horrified expression on her face. “O-Oh, Kouda, it’s you, I thought…” She sighed. “Nevermind.”

“...y-you sure?”

“Yes, I-... Wait, do YOU know something about this?”

Seeing how nervous Kouda suddenly appeared to be, Jirou had her answer. She sighed, and grabbing him by the arm, she dragged him to the back of the class as to avoid making a scene.

“So?”

“...they’re g-going out…”

“WHAT?!”

A couple of heads turned to face them, but Jirou didn’t seem to care much.

“They are what?!”

“...going out…”

“Why?”

Kouda blinked a couple of times, confused.

“...they… like each other…?”

“They do?”

Now Jirou seemed more… Defeated.

“I see… I didn’t think that... “ she shook her head. “It just seems weird knowing that Kaminari… likes him.”

“...w-well… He t-told me that he’s g-going out with him but that h-he also likes somebody else… B-But! A-as going out w-with two people c-can be seen as weird, h-he didn’t dare to a-ask the other out…” that was a stretch, and Kouda hoped he hadn’t made a fool of himself.

An entire wave of emotions crossed Jirou’s face: she frowned even more, then she widened her eyes, she opened her mouth to speak but closed it right away, she looked to her side then to the other, and finally stared back at Kouda.

“He… does?” Kouda nodded in answer. “That’s great… G-Great for him, I don’t actually care!”

That was his chance.

“...o-oh, that’s a shame…” he muttered. He then proceeded to cover his mouth as fast as he could.

“What?”

“N-nothing, s-sorry…”

“Kouda, what did you say?”

“...i can’t tell you, I’m sorry…”

And so, he quickly turned around and walked away, preferably as far away as possible from Jirou as he probably couldn’t put up with any more questions. And, he hoped that what he had just done would be enough, as he wasn’t what we could call a good liar.

To his relief, his plan actually seemed to work. The following days, he watched as Jirou tried to talk more with Kaminari, how she tried to spend more time with him, to be nicer to him and even how she tried to get on Shinsou’s good side. The latter seemed pretty reticent at first, but he didn’t say anything seeing how excited Kaminari appeared to be when the three of them spent time together. It didn’t took long for Kouda to realise how Shinsou was starting to look at Jirou, a mix of curiosity and interest and more than once he saw Jirou watching Shinsou, quickly looking away when realizing what she was doing.

But, not everything could be perfect, right? 

To Kouda’s dismay, one day after lunch, Kaminari burst into the classroom seemingly pretty annoyed, stomping loudly. And everyone knew there was a problem when Bakugou told him to knock it off and that Kaminari answered him by giving him the middle finger.

As Midoriya tried to calm down the grenade that was their classmate, Kaminari let himself fall on his seat, ignoring everyone that tried to talk to him. A couple of seconds later, two purple haired students appeared on the doorway, looking pretty preoccupied. They spoke with each other with low voices and Shinsou, after shooting a worried glance towards his boyfriend, quickly disappeared, probably making his way towards his own classroom. Jirou watched him go, and then walked to her seat in a straight line, head slightly lowered.

So, Kouda might have made a mistake…

When classes ended, Kaminari kept on ignoring everyone, and basically packed up his stuff as slowly as he could so nobody would stay behind with him. Jirou tried to talk to him but as she only received silence as an answer, she gave up, muttering a quiet “sorry” when walking away.

Kaminari glanced towards the door, feeling somewhat guilty, but the anger still was buzzing inside of him. He just had to calm down, change his mind, however, it seemed so difficult to do when their words -well, more like their actions- were still fresh in his mind. He was about to get up from his seat, thinking that the classroom was finally empty, when a hand left a piece of paper on his desk, making him jump. Startled, he swung his head upwards, suddenly realizing that Kouda was still there.

“What?” blurted out Kaminari, harshly.

Kouda winced at his tone, but simply pointed at the paper.

[Would you like to talk about it?] was written on it.

“There’s nothing to talk about! And I know that the others asked you to check up on me, but there’s no need for you to do that!” Kouda frowned and shook his head. “What, you gonna tell me that it was your own idea? That because YOU wanted, YOU decided to talk to me? Ridi-” Kouda nodded as fast as he could, taking Kaminari off guard. “-culous…? Oh, you...You’re telling the truth?” Kouda nodded once more. “That’s weird, but uhm, thank you buddy. I appreciate that. But there’s nothing to talk about, really.” He smiled weakly.

Kouda wrote something down and gave it to his friend.

[I’m a good listener.]

And, as he kept staring at him, Kaminari put his hands up, defeated.

“All right, all right, you win. So, you wanna hear my problems, huh?” Kaminari shifted in his seat and Kouda leaned on the desk that was right behind him. “...well, uh, turns out that I’ve been… going out with Shinsou for the last week or so, you know? I mean, of course you know, you were the one who told me to talk to him and all because he was probably feeling lonely or whatever and that we would make good friends… Yeah, so you know. And, uhm, Jirou has started to be nicer to me, and she has been spending more time with me… I had a crush on her for the longest time, so it was pretty neat. Actually, it might sound weird, but I’m pretty interested in both of them, y’know? But, I’m going out with Shinsou, so it’s not like… Nevermind.” He cleared his throat. “And lately she’s also been hanging with the two of us, and it was great, because, I’m spending time with the two persons that I really like, you know? But today they, uhm, they- Let’s say that I’ve started to notice that they’ve been paying a lot of attention to each other. And today, while we were eating, I jokingly asked them if they liked each other or what, as they also were sitting next to each other. And it-it was a joke! But they, they kind of… Doubted? They didn’t answer right away, they glanced at the other but they quickly looked away and… They didn’t answer. Then things maaay have escalated a bit quickly because I… ran off…” Kaminari clicked his tongue, suddenly feeling quite embarrassed. Also, how in the hell was he able to talk that much to someone with whom he practically never talked with?

Kouda had been nodding absently during all this time. And then, to Kaminari’s surprise, he spoke:

“...maybe they love both you and the other? Just as you said before.”

“R-Right, there’s no way.”

“...why?”

“Well, because…” Kaminari interrupted himself. Yeah, why did he thought there was no way?

“...you can always talk about it with them, explain it to them, right? They’ll listen to you, I’m sure of that.” Kouda smiled softly.

And so he did, and barely a couple of days later Kaminari could be seen laughing and jokingly bothering his boyfriend and his now girlfriend, Shinsou and Jirou. The two of them rolled their eyes at the same time when their dorky boyfriend told them the tenth bad joke in a row, and when noticing that, they burst out laughing along with Kaminari.

This time, Kouda had three people at a time thanking him for helping them, which he tried to dismiss to no avail.

He simply was happy to help.

Funnily enough, when it came to Momo Yaoyorozu and Shouto Todoroki, it was yet the easiest mission of them all. Why, you may ask? Because the only thing Kouda needed to do was approach Todoroki, tell him -after practicing his lines for an entire week before that- “Yaoyorozu and you would make a great couple” and then proceed to run away from the crime scene.

Before the day ended Todoroki had actually asked Yaoyorozu out, to which the blushing girl replied with a positive answer, immediately becoming the most classy, richest and pretty couple of class 1-A, if not of the entirety of U.A. High School.

Yaoyorozu took her time to thank Kouda over and over again and gifted him some things, even a little bunny plushie which he loved from the moment he saw it.

Now, Kouda wanted to help everybody, right? However, he wasn’t willing to risk his life for that. So, when one morning he entered into their classroom and he was met with Bakugou screaming at Kirishima at the top of his lungs, the latter laughing like crazy as he used his quirk to protect himself from Bakugou’s explosions, and when Kouda saw, yet again, the red string that linked the two boys, he promptly got out of the classroom. No, Kouda was pretty sure that if he tried to do anything with Bakugou, he would end up dead.

Although…

As he was looking into the room from the hallway, next to him someone cleared his throat, making him jump.

“Dark Deities, it appears that you have a small heart, easily startled.” said Tokoyami, smirking.

“...sorry…” muttered Kouda as he rubbed his neck, bashful.

“Do not worry, I will not say a word about this to anyone. Not even to the spirits of the night.” he then leaned to one side to peek into the classroom. “Have they started an unruly fight yet again?”

“...yes.”

 “How barbaric for them to do so. I do understand that it could be considered “fun” from their point of view, but they should be respectful and try not to bother others too much with their… activities, don’t you think?”

“...uh… yes?”

Tokoyami glanced at him for a moment, frowning ever so slightly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he turned to face the two fighters, who kept on going with their screaming and shouting.

“They really do get along. And they surely appear to be made for each other.”

Kouda’s heart skipped a beat in his chest. Wide eyed, he stared at Tokoyami, doubtful. There was no way, right? 

“...you also… see it…?” he cautiously asked, truly not knowing what to think.

“Hm? Yes, I feel as if they have great… How does one say it? Chemistry? Yes, chemistry. In fact, Kirishima must be the only being here on our planet Earth who is able to put up with Bakugou.”

“THE FUCK YOU JUST SAID, BIRD HEAD?!”

Kouda winced at the sudden screaming, eyes quickly looking for Bakugou who was now staring at them, sparks flashing from the palm of his hands. Tokoyami sighed a seemingly unbothered sigh.

“You will have to pardon me, Kouda, it was great talking to you, but now…” Dark Shadow popped from Tokoyami’s chest, waving excitedly at Kouda, “...I must take care of this matter.” He cracked his knuckles before turning dramatically towards Bakugou. He then took a deep breath and… “WHO ARE YOU, FOOL, AS TO DARE CHALLENGE ME?”

To say that Kouda was surprised was an understatement: he didn’t imagine that Tokoyami would actually do something like that. His voice sounded deep, defiant, strong, and his words were received by a satisfied grin from Bakugou, who was clearly having a blast. No pun intended.

As Kouda watched, impressed, how the two jumped towards each other and started fighting, trying their best to not damage any furniture, Kirishima came to meet him, wiping some sweat from his forehead.

“‘Sup.”

Kouda nodded in answer, eyes unconsciously looking for Tokoyami over and over again.

“It’s uh, pretty heated in here, huh?”

He received another nod in response.

After a moment of silence, Kirishima spoke up again.

“First time watching this?” The confused look Kouda gave him was self explanatory and Kirishima couldn’t help himself but laugh. “Sorry, sorry. Bakugou and I always arrive pretty early and we spend some time, ehm, fighting and all. And Tokoyami usually arrives not so long after, and as Bakugou doesn’t want to tire me so much with this things, his attention shifts to Tokoyami. Eh, at first it didn’t worked, as Tokoyami didn’t want to do anything with him, but after the Sports’ Festival, it became a sort of ongoing challenge between the two of them, you know?”

“I’M GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU!”

“I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, PEASANT!”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING PEASANT, YOU SHITHEAD?!”

“They really do be having a fun time, huh?” smiled Kirishima under the worried eyes of Kouda.

“...you really like Bakugou, right?”

“Yes!” Kirishima smiled even wider until the true meaning of the question dawned on him; he swung to face Kouda, a panicked expression on his face. “Y-You know, he’s my, uh, my man- No, I mean, my dude, my bro, y’know? He’s, uhm, like…” he looked through the room for an answer, an excuse, for anything, “...he’s… To me, he’s like Tokoyami to you, you know?” He had to keep himself for letting out a relieved sigh once he thought he had found a good excuse.

However, when he heard those words, Kouda felt his face heating up at an alarming rate. Actually, his cheeks could probably be a solid contender to Bakugou’s explosions. He covered his mouth with one of his hands for a moment, trying his best to not squeal from embarrassment. When doing that, he caught a glance of the red thread that was knotted on his little finger, which actually, didn’t help him a lot.

Kirishima stared at him dumbfounded, mouth ajar. It also dawned on him once more and a strong blush also covered his face.

“O-Oh, so, you too…?” he asked, clearing his throat.

Kouda didn’t answer, but the redness of his face should have been enough to answer Kirishima’s query.

“That’s… That’s great, I mean, I’m sure you will… Erh, get him?” Kouda ducked his head even more. “At least you have more chances than me…”

“...wha-why…?”

“Y’know, you’re good friends, you get along just fine and all…”

“...but you too…”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same. He would never date me, y’know?”

“...why not?”

Kirishima lifted a hand to run it through his hair, but he remembered the generous amount of hair gel he had put on this morning -and every morning to be fair-, and he promptly lowered it.

“Well, it’s Bakugou! He’s great, he’s one of the strongest person that I know, and there is no way someone like him could be interested in someone like me!”

A particularly strong explosion resonated in the classroom, filling the room with smoke. Kirishima and Kouda shared a worried glance before entering back into the room.

“H-Hey? Bakugou, Tokoyami? Are you okay?” called out Kirishima, silently cursing at the two troublemakers for always making such stupid things so early in the morning. Well, yes, he was doing the same moments before, but that was different. Kind of.

From within the smoke appeared Bakugou, trying his best to not cough -he didn’t want to be seen as weak- and wiping the sweat off of his forehead. He only looked up at Kirishima when the latter got next to him, still visibly tense.

“Dude, are you okay? That was especially violen-” started Kirishima, before being interrupted by Bakugou.

Bakugou grabbed Kirishima by the collar of his shirt, unceremoniously pulled him closer, and pressed his lips against his. It was a quick and forceful kiss, although it was something to expect, at least coming from Bakugou. When he pulled back, Kirishima stared at him with his eyes open wide and his mouth slightly ajar once more. However, before he could say anything, Bakugou proceeded to headbutt him as hard as he could, making him flinch.

“Ow!”

“Oi, shitty hair, I may be getting deaf in the future ‘cause of my quirk, but I ain’t hard of hearing yet.” spat out Bakugou, shoving Kirishima to one side as he walked towards his seat. “Don’t speak ‘bout private stuff if others can hear ya.”

“I-Uh… W-W-Wait! Don’t just… Hey!” he finally got out of his daze and stumbled to follow Bakugou.

As Kirishima nudged Bakugou for answers, a now shaky but excited grin on his face, Kouda watched how the strings that attached to both boys twirled in the air, circling them, surrounding them.

As he stood there, watchful, Tokoyami approached him cautiously, trying not to startle him again. His feathers were quite tousled and he was fixing his uniform as best as he could. Dark Shadow was nowhere to be found, probably having retreated into his host’s body when the “fight” ended, or maybe he retreated to protect himself from Bakugou’s bright explosions.

“It does appear that we were right, mhm?” he nodded towards the couple, who was still fighting. “Cupid has struck yet another couple in our classroom. Such an interesting and peculiar occurence to witness firsthand…”

Kouda hummed in agreement. He looked at Tokoyami out of the corner of his eye, going from his deep, red eyes, to his pale hands, the red string delicately knotted around his little finger. Kouda waved his own finger, watching the thread shudder and flutter with the movement, and he smiled softly at the sight. When Tokoyami turned to face him, he felt his heart skip a beat, although he kept himself from jumping or recoiling, as he didn’t want him thinking that he was actually that weird or stupid.

Tokoyami arched an eyebrow, having noticed his friend’s sudden agitation, but didn’t say a thing; instead he ran a hand through his feathers, focusing on fixing them at least a little bit more.

 “I may have failed to inform you about my… encounters with our explosive classmate. It does not happen very often, but when he does require my presence, I have to face him to fight for my honour.”

“...I see…” Kouda chuckled lightly.

“Oho? Does this issue seem funny to you?”

Kouda opened his mouth to immediately deny it, but he stopped himself and thought about it. Why couldn’t he tell the truth? And so, he nodded slowly, trying to not laugh.

“I do not understand why you would find any of this funny.” scoffed Tokoyami, trying to hide the laugh that was threatening to escape from his throat. “It is not something unusual to do, to start a fight at seven in the morning in the reduced space that is our classroom. Isn’t it something you usually do, dear?”

Now Kouda wasn’t able to hold it back: even if he tried to press his hand against his mouth, he knew the others could hear his squeaky, high-pitched laughter. He even started to feel a couple of tears peeking from the corner of his eyes. 

“...s-sorry, I…” he hiccuped, trying his best to calm down.

It wasn’t even that funny! He found it funny, yes, but to the point of crying of laughter? No! What was wrong with him?!

He was starting to feel more and more ashamed of himself when a quiet snort caught his attention. It took him a moment, but he soon realized that it was Tokoyami. The latter was also trying to not laugh, clenching his teeth and fake coughing from time to time as to keep the noise down, which Kouda found to be adorable.

And so, when they arrived, the other students were met with Bakugou and Kirishima arguing with each other, although this time they didn’t seem to be respecting the other’s personal space like, at all, but they also found Kouda and Tokoyami dying of laughter, the two of them unable to breathe steadily.

Iida had to intervene to calm everyone down before Aizawa arrived, but it wasn’t an easy task: Kirishima was unwilling to leave Bakugou’s side and everytime Kouda and Tokoyami did as little as to look at each other, they burst out laughing once more.

Once class had started, Kouda kept himself from looking at Tokoyami more than necessary, trying to appear normal. Yes, he was his soulmate, but there was something deep inside of him that wanted to keep its distance, at least for some time. He didn’t know exactly why, probably because he was way too shy for his own wellbeing. Yes, it was most certainly because of that.

As he was staring absently at the board in front of him, Kirishima tried turning around a couple of times without the teacher noticing; he got caught during the first tries, but in the end, he had enough time to thank Kouda for helping him with Bakugou before Present Mic could scream at him once more.

“Hey, Kouda!” screamed Ashido as she ran to catch up with him.

A couple of days had passed since Kirishima and Bakugou started going out, and, if Kouda was in the correct, they should have already told the rest of their squad. And, Kirishima may have also probably told them that it was all thanks to Kouda -even if it wasn’t exactly like that-. And so, Ashido was probably going to ask him about it or about help.

Kouda stopped walking as to wait for her and waved back at her.

“Hey, hey, how’re ya’?” she asked, leaning forward to catch her breath. “Waou, you do walk fast, huh?” she patted her skirt a couple of times before standing up again. “Sooo… Hey, I know we don’t talk that much together, but, I was wondering iiiif… There was a way for you to help me… Uhm, find a boyfriend or s’mething? I know, I know, this sounds weird, but hear me out…” Ashido grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him along as she walked. “Kirishima told me you helped him out with Bakugou… But I also was told that you helped all of the couples of our class gettin’ together, yeah? Hagakure and Ojiro, Sero and our class prez’, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki… Even the trio, Jirou, Shinsou and Kaminari! No idea how ya did it, but ya did, and it’s great! So, yeah, ‘was wondering if you could give me a hand, mhm? There’s no one that I like… I mean, that I’m aware of, but maybe you can help me figure it out or something. Whatcha say?”

That was a lot to take in. Ashido talked a lot, and she talked fast. However, once Kouda thought about her question, he nodded in answer.

“You will? Aw, thank you!” she hugged his arm tightly. “It’s not urgent, so you don’t have to hurry or anything, ‘mmkay? Thank you a bunch once more! See ya tomorrow!”

It shouldn’t be difficult to find who was her soulmate. He just had to follow her red string. With some luck, it would be someone of their school. And, if it was someone far away… He would always find an excuse as to why he hadn’t been able to find her a boyfriend. 

Who could be Ashido’s soulmate? Probably someone joyful, with a bubbly personality. A jokester, a prankster maybe. Someone like…

“Huh? Pony Tsutonori?!”

Kouda winced at her high-pitched voice. He was as surprised as Ashido was, to be honest. But, when he followed her red string -which was, quite frankly, a nuisance-, it lead him right into class 1-B’s classroom, and he managed to find the person he was looking for before Monoma appeared from thin air to bother him, and eventually, made him run away.

“But, why?” asked Ashido, genuinely confused.

Kouda couldn’t just tell her ‘she is your soulmate, I know it because I can see the red strings of fate’. While true, he wasn’t sure that she -or anyone else for that matter- would believe him. But, at the same time, what was he supposed to say?

“Is it because of the horns?”

Kouda blinked a couple of times.

“...wh-what?”

“Is it because of the horns?” insisted Ashido. She then pointed at her head. “The horns. You thought it could work… because of the horns?”

Kouda quickly shook his head “no”. The last thing he needed was Ashido thinking he was pulling her leg or mocking her.

“Rrright… So, why?”

He fidgeted nervously, looking for a way, something, anything to say that could explain his actions. However, words didn’t come to his mouth, his throat felt dry and he had to fight the urge to cough which would only make him appear stupid.

After staring at him for a moment, watching him panic, Ashido let out a soft sigh.

“Okay, okay, I’ll trust you. So, uhm, Tsutonori, yeah? I’ll… I’ll try to talk with her, if that’s what you suggest.”

And Kouda could only smile sheepishly, very much sorry for being such a disaster.

When he sat down at his desk, Tokoyami leaned over towards him from his own seat, seemingly curious as he scanned him from head to toes.

“It is somewhat strange seeing you speaking with Ashido. May I ask if something happened?”

Kouda also leaned over, hoping that others wouldn’t hear them, even if the theme of their conversation wasn’t confidential or anything.

“...she asked me to get her a partner, and I-I suggested someone to her and all…” he whispered in answer, feeling a tingling sensation in his belly.

“Oho? Is that so? What a curious project you have in between your hands…” Tokoyami tapped his beak a couple of times. “I wonder if…” He quickly interrupted himself, clearing his throat. “Nothing, I must apologize for this, I was about to word such a foolish statement, pardon me.”

He flashed Kouda a quick smile before sitting back correctly, seemingly lost in his thoughts. Kouda stared at him, wondering what had happened, but his thoughts were promptly interrupted when Aizawa entered the classroom, asking for his students to sit correctly and to take their notebooks out of their bags if they hadn’t done that already.

Surprisingly, Ashido followed Kouda’s suggestion and she went to see Tsutonori as soon as she could. At first, their conversations were kind of awkward, but soon enough it started to get better. In fact, even if Ashido found Tsutonori’s difficulties with japanese somewhat ridiculous at first, it grew on her, and the little and few mistakes she made -really, there wasn’t a lot of them- started to sound sweet. At least, that’s what she told Kouda when she announced that both her and Tsutonori had started dating.

Kouda listened to her gush about her -now- girlfriend for a good thirty minutes, that is to say the entirety of recess. They received some strange looks from the rest of the Bakusquad, who didn’t understand why their favorite alien queen was spending time with someone else that wasn’t her closest friends. However, both Sero and Kirishima were quick to realize what had happened, and they also proceeded to thank Kouda for his help, followed by Kaminari who also caught on on what was happening.

“You really are getting popular, uh?” asked Hagakure once Bakugou had managed to calm down his friends with quite a lot of screaming, which was quite… ironic to say the least.

Kouda waved his hands in front of him, trying to dismiss his friend’s words.

“Don’t be so humble! It’s great! At this point, you could even start a matchmaking business!” Seeing how Kouda widened his eyes in panic, Hagakure chuckled. “Just kidding! Don’t look at me like that!”

He smiled softly, apologetic. Being suddenly the center of attention truly was something he hadn’t expected. Nor it was something that pleasant. But, at the same time, it felt good being able to help others.

“So! Who’s next?” exclaimed Hagakure. Under Kouda’s confused expression, she motioned around the classroom. “Who will you pair up now, haah?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. He hadn’t thought about it, really.

“Oh, really? Uhmm…” she tapped her chin thoughtfully. Or at least, Kouda assumed she did, as she brought her hand towards her face and he heard a soft tapping sound. “What aaaabout… Tsu!” she quickly pointed towards the aforementioned.

Kouda followed Hagakure's indications and stared at Asui for a moment. Asui was actually quite a peculiar case. He hadn’t seen a lot of people like her, but he knew they existed: Asui didn’t have a string of fate. Even if it weirded him out at first, he soon realized that she must be aromantic, or at least, somewhere on the aro spectrum. That didn’t mean that she couldn’t feel love, of course, instead she lacked romantic attraction towards others. And, to answer Hagakure’s question, he shrugged.

“Eeeh? Why not?”

He shrugged again.

“Hum… Maybe you’re right… Tsu doesn’t seem too interested in all of this stuff...” she thought for a moment. “Oh! Maybe you could help Fukidashi?”

Ah? That finally seemed to fully catch Kouda’s attention, mostly because he couldn’t remember who Fukidashi was.

Seeing her friend’s curious expression, Hagakure hurried up to explain herself.

“Yep, Fukidashi, from class 1-B. With, uhm, you know, the “comic” quirk? Speech bubble head?” Kouda nodded quickly, having the student in mind. “Him and I talk fairly often, we get along pretty well! Although… Lately he’s been getting tired about being, eh, the third wheel…? It happens when he tags along with Mashirao and I. It would be nice to go on double dates and so… Do you…? Do you think you could give him a hand?”

Kouda nodded slowly. He was pretty interested in the other students of class 1-B as they didn’t have many opportunities to spend time with them, so playing matchmaker with them was an as good excuse as any other.

“Aw, Kouda! You’re so sweet, thank you!” she hugged him tightly before running back to her seat when Ectoplasm entered the classroom.

Manga Fukidashi was a surprisingly easy going and friendly person, and his expressivity made up for Kouda’s shyness. They sat together during lunch, on the rooftop, and they ate as Fukidashi went on and on, babbling with enthusiasm. What was curious was that Kouda never really saw him eating. And he also didn’t know how he could actually eat...? But he didn’t want to stare as to not be rude, so he stopped thinking about it all together, and kept minding his business.

“...and so, it was like, BOOM!, yeah? Connection! Easy, fast, perfect!” Fukidashi moved his hands all over the place, 

Actually, Kouda was starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable. Yes, he could spend time like that with his own classmates, as he had spent quite some time with them, but when it came to class 1-B… 

He dried his sweaty palms against the fabric of his pants. He was nervous. It wasn’t something new for him, but man, wasn’t it lovely . However, he tried to be polite and he tried to keep listening to Fukidashi speak, even if he already knew who his soulmate was and technically all of this wasn’t really necessary.

And he tried.

But the more time passed, the harder it was getting for him, even more when one took into account the fact that Fukidashi wouldn’t... stop... talking. 

So difficult it got that he couldn’t take it anymore. 

He jumped to his feet, startling the other boy, and he bowed a couple of times, apologizing profusely.

“Kojiro Bondo. Try it with Kojiro Bondo.” he quickly added, before turning around and running away from the rooftop.

As he frantically walked towards his classroom, he tried to calm himself down. Why couldn’t he be… normal and keep up with normal conversations with others? He didn’t have an answer for his question, as much as he would appreciate it, and so he kept on walking. When he turned around a corner, he almost bumped into Tokoyami, but the latter had quick reflexes and was able to dodge him with no problems.

“Dear Gods, Kouda, what happened?” he asked, seeing how panicked his friend appeared to be.

Feeling the urge to slap himself on the face for all of the errors he was making, Kouda smiled a shaky smile, before muttering under his breath: 

“...socializing…”

Tokoyami let out a soft laugh.

“Ah, yes, the Hells of human life, having to keep up with those who surround us.” he then checked the time on his phone. “Well, it appears that we still have some time before class starts, would you like to go grab something to drink to calm down your unruly spirits?”

“...y-yes please…”

Of course, some days later, Hagakure informed him that Fukidashi was actually going out with Bondo, just as Kouda had told him to try. She was extremely excited when she told him, thanking him a million of times, although Kouda didn’t know if she was happy for her friend or for the fact that she know could do the double dates she was so eager to try out.

And then, after all of their hard work, their exams and practical exams, it came time for their class to go to the summer camp.  

They had arrived that same day, exhausted after having made their way through the forest, fighting monsters made of rocks, fighting their hunger and thirst. After diner, they all wanted to spend some time at the hot springs, just to relax and get some quiet, as they deserved it.

Kouda had just taken off his shirt when he noticed that Tokoyami seemed to be waiting for him.

"Kouda? May I ask you something?" he asked.

Kouda nodded, feeling the heat rising to his cheeks. And he not only fought the urge to cover his body in embarrassment, but also he tried as hard as he could to keep his eyes up, and not stare at Tokoyami, at his uncovered bod-... 

He kept his eyes up. 

And he couldn’t deny the fact that he truly felt weird. There was not another way of describing it. He thought that it could have been from the hot sauna on the other side of the wall, so he promptly forgot about those feelings, or at least tried to. And he also tried his best as to ignore the red string that tied them together.

"Thank you. I'm going to be quite straightforward with you. I've been talking with Ojiro lately, and he told me that you helped him a lot to build his current relationship with Hagakure, and other of the newly-formed couples seem to be saying the same thing. Apparently, you have the talent of Eros himself." he lifted a hand, stopping Kouda from either denying or confirming those words. "Just hear me out. It seems that I have found myself thinking about someone, and knowing about your apparent talent when taking those kind of relationship into account, I was wondering if you would be willing to help me."

Kouda nodded slowly, giving him his full attention.

“I am not one to usually surrender under the pressure of others or my feelings, but I would appreciate if you were to help me win over Asui’s affection. I know that it might appear strange to your eyes, but… I would really appreciate it. You are actually my sole option, if I’m being honest, and I trust you enough as to speak about it with you.”

Tokoyami took a deep breath; speaking his mind really took more than what he had first thought. But at least, he did it, so he couldn’t say that he was dissatisfied with his actions.

Kouda, on the other hand, felt his soul leaving his own body when realizing the meaning of his friend’s words: not only was he not the one his friend had in mind, but he now felt obliged to help him in his conquest. 

Because he actually couldn’t say no.

So he just nodded in agreement to Tokoyami’s words, also giving him the thumbs-up to highlight his answer, before swiftly turning around to avoid any more insistent eye contact.

However, Tokoyami was apparently not going to leave him be so easily, as he waited for him in the hot springs, ready to start a new conversation with his friend and the one that was going to assist him. So, poor Kouda found himself sitting in the hot waters next to the boy he liked and soulmate, as Tokoyami made small talk, mostly talking about everything and nothing at the same time.

Kouda couldn’t say that he was unhappy. On the contrary, he was thrilled to be spending time with Tokoyami, happy to be of some help, even if, deep down, it was somewhat of a hard subject for him to tackle. He knew it could be seen as childish or naive, but what could he say? He had always been like that, and unless something else happened, he would keep acting like that.

So, he sat there, listening closely to his friend’s words, eyes closed, and for once, feeling relaxed, peaceful.

He had gotten better at sharing some of his own thoughts and ideas from time to time. With Tokoyami, things were indeed much more easier. Well, him being his soulmate maybe had something to do in all of it.

However, their chat was interrupted for a moment due to Mineta causing a commotion, apparently trying to take a peek into the girls’ hot springs.

Both Tokoyami and Kouda stared at everything that was going on around them. Kouda was about to make a comment about all of it, when he suddenly felt how his heart skipped a beat.

He was used to see red strings all over the place, for example, there was the one that linked Sero and Iida, or even Kirishima and Bakugou. Those were the ones he was used to see when there only were the boys. Like right now.

But of course, there was another one who was much more important to him: softly floating on the water, the red string twirling and spinning next to him. His eyes quickly looked for Tokoyami’s hand, happy to check that it still was linked to his own. 

The red string was slowly turning around them, floating softly on the water.

He lifted his hand, watching the red string that was gently knotted around his little finger. It was mesmerizing. 

However, he suddenly noticed that Tokoyami was looking at him with a confused expression on his face.

Much to Tokoyami’s -and, let’s be honest, everybody else’s- surprise, Kouda abruptly jumped out of the hot springs, grabbed his towel to cover himself up a minimum, and muttering a million apologies at the same time, he ran away, an even more confused Tokoyami staring at him.

Once he was safe and sound in the locker room, Kouda rested his back against a wall, covering his mouth with his hand as to muffle a nervous laughter that threatened to come out. He really had to stop running away whenever he felt embarrassed or whenever he did anything stupid. Or when he got nervous.

Which happened a lot.

He couldn’t know how weird it must have been for the others, but at the same, he knew that more or else everyone was used to the weird stuff that each one of their classmates did, so in a way, it wasn’t that weird. At least, he hoped so.

Now that he had left the hot springs so… abruptly, he couldn’t go back. Well, he could, but it would probably be even weirder, so it was out of the question. The only option he had left was to get dressed up and maybe meet his other classmates, those who didn’t want to go to the hot springs, and follow them around for a while until it was time to go to sleep or whatever their teacher wanted them to do.

And so, he decided to do just that. He was somewhat ashamed to admit that he was struggling to find his clothes. Someone -he didn’t know who- had thrown their own clothes over his, well, his and everyone else’s apparently, and as they were all wearing their physical education uniform, and apparently he wasn’t the only one to have chosen a white t-shirt to go with it, he now was rummaging through a pile of clothes, checking the sizes marked on the tags. When he was little, his mother used to draw a small bunny on said tags of his stuff, and even if by now she had already stopped doing that, Kouda now wished she still did that, as it would have helped him a lot right now. Come to think of it, nothing was really stopping him from doing it himself, so in the end, it kinda was his own fault.

Now, he was starting to get pretty frustrated. He had already checked every piece of clothing -or at least, it felt like that- but he still couldn’t find his shirt. Yes, he had his pants and jacket, but there was no sight of his goddamn shirt. Then, there was a soft cough that resonated behind him, making him jump.

“Are you, perhaps, looking for this?” asked a voice behind him.

Kouda slowly turned around, having recognized the voice.

Tokoyami stood there with a confused yet amused smirk, holding a white shirt that was way too big for him in his hands.

“...probably…” muttered Kouda, reaching for it.

His heart skipped when their hands touched, and he quickly grabbed the top, stepping back to get away from Tokoyami.

“...yes, it is…” he said after checking it.

“Good. It was on the floor, just behind you. It might have fallen when leaving the room for the first time, or maybe someone pushed it off of the bench without noticing it.” Tokoyami went to look for his own clothing as Kouda fumbled with his shirt, too nervous for his brain to work properly. “Also… I got worried about you, that is why I decided to go after you. I hope you do not mind.”

Yeah, you simply want me to help you with Tsuyu, thought Kouda.

“Pardon?”

“...d-did I say that outloud…?”

“I fear you did, friend.” laughed Tokoyami.

“...i’m so, so sorry.”

“It does not matter. Yes, it was surprising coming for you, but it also was quite entertaining. And refreshing.”

Kouda wanted to disappear, he really did. Was it even humanly possible to mess up things like he was doing? At least his friend took it well. Or at least, he hoped that his friend was telling the truth when he said that he took it well.

“What were you planning to do now?” asked Tokoyami.

“...i don’t really know, I just wanted to get out of there…”

“Was it Mineta’s fault? He did act quite barbaric just now.”

“...a-ah, not necessarily… It was just me, I guess… O-Overthinking everything, you know?”

“...yes, do not worry. Shouji did not want to join us for the bath, maybe we can go look for him?”

Kouda simply nodded. After all, his plan was to follow someone around. Well, that someone ended up being his soulmate who was waiting for him to help him win over the heart of another person, so it was somewhat different from what he had imagined, but when life gives you lemons…

The Cabin was way bigger than what they had first thought, and it actually took both of them some time to find the rest of their classmates, and after asking around for a moment, they finally found Shouji, who was hanging out at one of the Cabin’s balconies. He was wearing, of course, a sleeveless shirt and the pants that apparently everyone had on. Well, and his mask. Maybe that was the reason why he didn’t go into hot springs? To not show off his face? 

“Hello.” Shouji formed an eye to look behind him when Tokoyami spoke up.

“Oh, hi. Weren’t you two with the others?” a newly-formed mouth asked.

“It ended up getting quite boring there, and as there was no sight of you, we decided to go look for you. May we stay?”

“Of course. There’s no need to ask.”

Tokoyami bowed his head, and got next to Shouji, leaning over the railing, Kouda following him close by.

The moon was round and bright, hanging in the middle of the night sky as a lighthouse in a stormy weather. The Beasts’ forest surrounded them entirely, but from where they were they could only see the silhouettes of the trees, dark and intimidating.

“...luckily we got here before night fell.” said Shouji. “Can you imagine having to cross the forest right now?”

Kouda shivered. Yeah, no. Better not think about that.

“Would you like for us to picture Hell on Earth, Shouji?” said Tokoyami. “It is usually my job to create a somber ambience, but right now, you surpassed me.”

“Should I apologize, then?”

“The deed has already been done.”

“...I’ll take that as a no.”

The exchange made Kouda smile. And, as a soft wind made them pleasantly shudder as they heard the leaves rustling around them, Kouda could only think about how happy -and tired- he felt right now. He watched as their strings of fate followed the wind’s movements, and he couldn’t help but smile.

...although, if he would have known how hard the next day’s training was going to be, he would have felt much less calm.

His throat was dry and sore, and he had trouble thinking straight. As he reunited with the others -who weren’t in a better shape than him-, he discovered that he even had trouble speaking to them, as the words that came to his mouth ended up attracting animals to the Cabin, as he couldn’t separate his tones anymore. It’s not like he spoke much to begin with, but the few words he said were received by birds, rabbits and other wild animals.

For his training, Kouda was accompanied by Shiretoko, also known as Ragdoll, which helped him figure out different ways to use his quirk to localise people. It actually was quite fun, and it gave Kouda some hope; as his quirk wasn’t as flashy as those of others, such as Bakugou’s or Todoroki’s, he always had had some fear that he wouldn’t be enough, that he wasn’t fitted to be a hero. But, now, seeing how the Wild, Wild Pussycats worked together, in the middle of the forest, far away from civilisation but still being very high up on the Pro Heroes rank, it made him realise that he had a chance. 

He could do it.

Of course, hopes and dreams don’t serve to give you real, long-lasting energy, as well as they don’t fill up your stomach, so he still ended up completely exhausted.

And so, after finishing it all, they all only wanted to eat and go to sleep, too tired to even think properly.

...And then they told them that they had to cook.

Kouda wanted to die. Well, not really, but he had a strong urge to curl up in a corner and sleep for days.

They put him in charge of peeling vegetables with others, as to go quicker. He almost cut himself a couple of times, but each time he managed to catch himself, avoiding any serious injuries. He really didn’t need to make things words.

Kouda would have wanted to say that in the middle of all the commotion, with all of his classmates running around, he took the time to watch Tokoyami work. However, that would be a lie, as he already had to focus a 100% to do his work right. Which was a shame. But, sacrifices had to be done from time to time.

And, when they sat down to eat, the relief Kouda felt was indescribable. The food wasn’t even that great, but it tasted like heaven to him at that moment. When he finished his dish, he stretched his arms, letting out a loud yawn that made those sitting next to him laugh. 

As he waited for the others to finish, holding his face with one of his hands, he caught a glimpse of feathers from the corner of his eye, and, without thinking twice, he reached for them, gently caressing them with the tip of his fingers. His eyes were already half closed, and with the soft touch of said feathers and quiet chirping that he was starting to hear, he would have probably fallen asleep right there and then if it weren’t because some of his classmates started to shush each other at an ironically loud tone.

When Kouda opened his eyes, he was met face to… beak? with Dark Shadow, who was looking intently at him.

“ Can I have some too? ” asked the creature, getting even closer.

Realizing that he wasn’t imagining things, Kouda drew back, almost falling from the bench. He looked around frantically with wide eyes, and he noticed two things that did not help him calm down at all; first of all, those who were sitting at his table were staring at him, smiling widely; second, there were no birds near him, there simply was… Tokoyami. The latter was holding his chopsticks mid air, some curry still on them, but his head was slightly tilted towards Kouda and his eyes were closed. When he opened them, he blinked a couple of times, seemingly confused. But, just as it had happened to Kouda just now, the situation dawned on him, and he turned his head at the speed of light to face his friend, feathery cheeks puffing up.

After a moment of silence, someone spoke up:

“DID SOMEONE GET THAT ON CAMERA?!” screamed Ashido. “PLEASE, TELL ME YES, THAT WAS ADORABLE AS FUCK!”

“LANGUAGE!” screamed Iida from another table.

“ I also want some pats! ” whined Dark Shadow, frowning. “ Kaaaaageeee! ”

“...s-silence, Dark Shadow, don’t… Don’t start now.” Tokoyami swallowed loudly, focusing back on his food.

It took Kouda a moment to properly react; and everyone was able to see that he was going to start apologizing as his face started to turn all shades of red. He let out an embarrassed squeal and tightly grasped the fabric of his pants in his closed fist, hands starting to shake.

“I-I-I’m so, so, so, sorry! I-I thought… No, I didn’t thought… Well, I… I… S-Sorry!”

“...I-It’s nothing.” Tokoyami took a bite of the curry, chewing slowly to try and think of anything else. 

“ Pardonnez-moi , but I didn’t know that our très cher ami could act like a cat and purr when he gets some petting~” Aoyama had to speak, of course he had.

“Well, he didn’t actually purr…” said Satou, thinking out loud. “It was more like, chirping? Chirps? Birds chirp, no?”

“That is soooo cute!” squealed Hagakure, leaning over. “You seemed soooo calm and happy and relaxed, Tokoyami!”

Tokoyami only ducked his head, flustered, trying to ignore his classmates comments.

Of course, they all kept teasing both of them until dinner came to an end, after which they went directly to their shared room, hoping that everyone else would let what had happened go and allow them to sleep without dying of pure embarrassment. As they were starting to lie down in their futons, Aoyama spoke up again:

“Oh?~ Wouldn’t you like to rest in the strong arms of our ami Kouda?~ You seemed to be enjoying yourself with him just now…~”

Tokoyami shot him a displeased glance that made his classmate shiver in fear, all the while Kouda could only watch it all happen, unable to say anything that would not worsen the situation.

As tired as he was, he also found himself unable to fall asleep, and while his peers were snoring and breathing peacefully, he only stared at the ceiling, heart still beating loudly in his chest. He shifted in his futon, looking over at Tokoyami. The latter was sleeping safe and sound under the only window of the room, whose curtains had been taken off as to allow not only the moonlight in, but also numerous other lights that the Wild, Wild Pussycats had installed so Tokoyami wouldn’t lose control of his quirk at night. At first some complained about said lights, whining about how they wouldn’t be able to sleep with them, but they were so, but oh so tired that as soon as their heads hit their pillows, they fell into a deep, abysmal slumber.

It took him another moment, but slowly, with the soft feeling of Tokoyami’s feathers still lingering on the tip of his fingers, he fell into a dreamless sleep, a smile drawn on his face.

The third day was not different from the second, although this time they were all aware of how difficult everything was going to be.

However, this time, the actual worst part of Kouda’s training was when the Wild, Wild Pussycats made him speak with the students of class 1-B who had arrived the day before. They didn’t let him do it with his own classmates, as most of them had already learned to understand Kouda without him having to speak, so he had to go and spend time with class 1-B, which was pretty anxiety inducing to say the least. So, whenever a student was taking a break, Kouda had to go up to them and strike up a conversation, although he turned a blind eye when he saw that Monoma was sitting down, fearing for his own mental state if he did try to talk to him. And funnily enough, Ragdoll didn’t push him to do so, probably having felt the tension in the air that surrounded Monoma.

When dinner time came, class 1-A had to work along with class 1-B to make dinner, and even if a few fights threatened to happen here and there, it turned out to be a pretty fun time overall. Actually, now that Kouda had been forced to speak to the majority of them, he felt somewhat more at ease with them. In fact, more than once they came to see him if they needed help, and he was more than willing to give them a hand or two.

And, well, it was probably because of Fukidashi and Bondo, but Kouda was asked more than once to give out some relationship advice, which he did, at least whenever he could see the strings linking two people that actually were there.

After all of that took place, they finally sat down to eat. Kouda felt his heart miss a beat when he realized that Tokoyami sat next to him, and he felt his face heating up when the others gave him some amused looks. Tokoyami actually flipped them off, which only led to more attention being brought to the two of them.

“...s-should I sit somewhere else?” quietly asked Kouda, leaning over towards Tokoyami.

Tokoyami turned to face him, frowning.

“What? No, of course not! You have every right in the world to sit here, for Heaven’s sake! Do not speak such nonsense, I beg you.”

“...but if I make you uncomfortable after wh-what happened…”

“Nonsense!” said his friend, louder this time, before turning back to his plate.

“...a-alright…” muttered Kouda, doing the same.

Soon enough the rest of their classmates lost interest in them, paying more attention to class 1-B who were telling a story to the others, interrupting themselves all the time and struggling to keep Monoma and Bakugou under control. Kouda was chewing thoughtfully, glancing at the other tables between each bite, when suddenly Tokoyami moved closer to him.

“...it seems as if we have some time to ourselves, does it not?” he then asked, finishing up his meal. Kouda could only swallow harshly, trying to keep his heart from coming out of his chest. “Pardon me from being so insistent, but I was wondering if anything came to your mind. Speaking of Asui, of course.”

“...o-oh…” disappointment threatened to slip in his voice, so he cleared his throat to keep that from happening.

“Yes, and I have to apologize from bringing it up again, but… Some of our compeers have been nudging me about it, and if I have to be honest, I actually do not know how to… erhm, do anything?”

“...oh…”

“Indeed.”

Kouda looked down, at his hand which was resting on the table. Right next to it was Tokoyami’s. And in between them laid the red string. 

Now, that was awkward.

Sure, now he was going to give his soulmate some dating advice so he could go out with someone else. Just, what was his life?

“...w-well… I…”

But, before he could finish his sentence, the Wild, Wild Pussycats called out for them, asking them to clean up and meet up with them, as they had to prepare themselves for the test of courage they had told them about that same morning. Tokoyami got up when hearing that, but before walking away with his plate in hands, he leaned over towards Kouda:

“Can we talk later?”

And Kouda nodded.

“...of course.”

It took them a moment and some chaotic organization to do just what the Wild, Wild Pussycats had ordered, but in the end, they all met up with them, at the edge of the forest. The rules of the test of courage were simple: first, class 1-B will be the scarers, having to, well, scare as many students as possible so they could win, while class 1-A will be the scarees, having to find hidden cards in the forest with their names on them, as a way to prove that they did, in fact, complete the test. After fifteen minutes, the classes had to exchange their roles, and in the end, the class that had scared more students would be considered the winner.

To Kouda’s dismay, Tokoyami ended up pairing with Shouji, and he ended up with Iida. Which wasn’t the worst but… Iida wasn’t Tokoyami. Which seemed pretty obvious.

As they waited for the test to begin, Tokoyami took the opportunity to speak with Kouda:

“...I did hope for both of us to end up pairing together, but destiny seems to have another plan in mind.”

“...w-we can talk after the test, r-right?”

Tokoyami smiled.

“Why, yes, of course. See you after the test.”

“...s-see you after the test.”

However, neither of them thought that that would not happen, as the test was going to end but not in the way they all expected.

It would be much more worse.

Kouda watched as the sixth group, Ojiro and Mineta, prepared themselves to go into the forest. For once, Mineta seemed to be pretty excited about it, even if he considered himself a coward and that Ojiro wasn’t one of class 1-A girls. They were all laughing and joking around, listening closely for their classmates’ screams, when it all took a turn for the worst. 

Kouda couldn’t exactly tell what had just happened, but one moment he was spending a great time with his friends, and the other he found himself running along with them, running away from something, running for their lives.

There was smoke, there were screaming, there was darkness and panic. But moreover, there was fear. Pure, deep, primal fear. Soon enough they arrived back to the Cabin, where Aizawa instructed them to get into the facility and to stay there, no matter what. They met up with Ashido, Satou, Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero and Monoma, who were pretty confused about everything that was taking place. Kan, class 1-B’s teacher, didn’t comfort them, and he tried his best to keep a serious face, even if the shadow of preoccupation and doubt crossed his face from time to time; after all, his students were in the forest, with…

Kouda saw his red thread tensing up.

...Tokoyami.

Panic rushed through his body as the usually smooth movements of his string were suddenly becoming violent and erratic.

Tokoyami.

He wasn’t listening anymore to the conversations that were taking place all around him. He couldn’t. He was starting to feel nauseous, he was starting to have trouble breathing.

Tokoyami.

What was happening? Was he in trouble? Was he alone? Was he hurt? Did something happen to him?

Tokoyami…

Did something happen to him?!

Tokoyami!

Before he could even realize it, his body moved on his own. He ran towards the exit, and before Kan had the opportunity to stop him, he was already out.

He just had to follow the thread. 

His red thread of fate.

Kouda ran straight into the forest, the shadows of the trees swallowing him whole. Branches hit his face, scratched his skin and tugged his clothing, but he did not care. With every step he took fear grew stronger inside of him.

What was he going to find at the end of his thread?

...In what state was he about to find Tokoyami?

He had to stop thinking about it in that way. Everything was going to be fine. Everything. 

Please, may everything be fine.

He had to jump over a log that laid in his path, but one of his feet got caught, stopping him mid air, gravity slamming his body on the ground. The fall made him lost all the air he had in his lungs with a short and harsh gasp. However, seconds later he was getting up, trying to keep up his balance while his head spun in every direction possible. He took one step forward, stumbled slightly to one side, but then took another one. And another.

Little by little, he resumed his run. At least, that was what he tried.

He was starting to have trouble seeing. His vision started to get blurry. After tripping a couple more times, he had to stop. He brought a hand to his face, feeling how his cheeks seemed to be wet. Was he… crying? 

As he stood there, in the middle of the forest, at night, his breathing hoarse and shaky, he felt his tears rolling down his cheeks. He pressed his hands against his eyes, trying to stop it. He had to keep going, he had to. 

Why was he so pathetic?

There was a villain attack taking place right there and then, and there he was, Kouda Kouji, crying in the middle of the forest after having fled the only place where he could have been somewhat safe. What was he doing?

He wasn’t good at anything. Of course not. What could he possibly do? He couldn’t do anything right, so how could he even think of becoming a hero? He couldn’t save anyone, he couldn’t save… 

Tokoyami.

He sniffed loudly, and wiped off his tears. He blinked. And he looked down. He looked down at his hand. He watched the red thread that was knotted around his little finger. He traced the red string with his eyes, watching how it disappeared between the trees right in front of him, how it…

How it lead the way.

He just had to follow it. 

And so he did. 

He started to walk again.

He just had to follow the path that fate had laid in front of him.

Just as Tokoyami had said.

“Destiny seemed to have another path in mind.”

He had to follow that path.

And he had to help Tokoyami, he had to save him.

He accelerated his pace.

So why if he couldn’t become a hero? Did it really matter right now? Of course not! It was nonsense, just as Tokoyami would say. He had to do whatever he could at that moment, he had to do it for him. 

He was running again, his mind much more clearer right now. In fact, he was very much more focused on his surroundings. Analyzing everything that was going on around him, everything that could be happening to his peers. He tried to think of what he could do. He needed a plan, so he could be of some help. Anything.

As his eyes scanned the forest, trying to see where the thread was leading him to, squinting to try and look into the darkness of the night, a thought hit him like a truck, and he almost stopped dead in his tracks realizing it.

It was night. Tokoyami. Dark Shadow.

Kouda knew what that meant. In fact, he had been the first person Tokoyami confided in him about his quirk. During the day, Dark Shadow was easy to control, but he also was weaker. That was what happened when he was hit by lights. But, at night, even if Dark Shadow was much more stronger, it was pretty difficult to control him, sometimes even impossible. He remembered what Tokoyami had told him, how when he was little, he sometimes was overcome by the creature’s strength during the night because of nightmares he had.

So, what exactly could be going on right now?

He picked up his pace. He just needed to come up with a plan. He could do it.

Kouda followed the red thread, this time managing to avoid any obstacles that came into his path. He jumped over another log -this time, without screwing up-, and when he landed back on his feet, a loud, ear piercing, terrible shriek resonated in the forest, and Kouda felt how his chest vibrated from the sound. He had been hearing the noises for some time now, but they were quiet enough for him to ignore them, or at least, for him to not give them his full attention as he focused on the path ahead. And now, seeing how the thread seemingly guided him on the direction of that horrible howl, it didn’t took him much to put two and two together, a soft voice in his head telling him that what he feared the most had actually become true.

But he kept going. And only when he burst into a clearing in the forest did he stop.

In front of him was a terrible scene. In the middle of the clearing were Bakugou, Todoroki and an unconscious Tsuburaba. The first two were pretty injured, and even from a distance Kouda could see an open gash on Bakugou’s face, blood pouring from it as he pressed his hand against it, and Todoroki seemed to have some trouble standing up, probably because he had to fight as he carried Tsuburaba. In other circumstances the two of them would have been able to overcome anything or anyone that stood in front of them, but after undergoing the strict summer camp’s training for two days straight, they were all pretty weakened. On another side of the clearing stood Shouji, one of his limbs bloodied, and on his back was Midoriya, who looked the worst of them all; one of his arms was bended in multiple unnatural angles, the limb all twisted and gruesome. The rest of his body was covered by Shouji’s arms in a strange cocoon, and so Kouda assumed that his legs weren’t in a better shape either. On the floor, on the dirt, laid some white chunks of what appeared to be ivory all over the place. And finally, there was Tokoyami. Or more precisely, Dark Shadow.

The dark creature was now a gigantic mass of darkness, a wide mouth opened to let out those same horrific screams he had heard before; his big, unblinking eyes having taken a shade of red, of blood; his claws nailing the floor with full force. As it lifted one of said claws to hurl itself towards Bakugou and Todoroki, a crushed body came to light, the body of a man covered in leather. However, he was not dead.

In fact, he started to lift himself using what appeared to be his teeth, explaining the origin of those pieces of ivory that were everywhere in the clearing,.

“Fleshhh… No good.” his words were slurred as he breathed them out. “Flesh. Need flesh… No good. No good. Can’t forgive you.” he now stood tall thanks to his teeth, and he let out a blood curdling scream: “I’LL BE THE ONE TO SEE THOSE BOYS’ INNARDS!!! DO NOT SNATCH MY PRIZES!!”

But, before anything else could happen, Dark Shadow slammed his claw against him, breaking off the teeth that were attacking him, and promptly grabbed him, squeezing him without a care in the world.

“ DON’T TEST ME! YOU VERMIN! ” the growl that came from the creature’s throat reflected the sizzling fires of Hell. The crunching of the villain’s bones resonated in the entire clearing as Dark Shadow tightened his grasp.

And, with a quick and violent motion, Dark Shadow thrusted him against a row of trees, yanking them in the process. After taking enough impulse, he let go of him, letting him fly through the airs, having left him too shattered to get up once more.

The creature let out another ghastly shriek:

“ STILL NOT ENOUGH! NEED TO RAGE! ”

And he turned towards the others.

And time seemed to slow down as he did.

Kouda saw that Bakugou lifted his hands, probably planning to use his quirk, but the palm of his hands were soaked with blood and nothing happened; he saw that Todoroki started to leave Tsuburaba on the floor, the left side of his body starting to light up, but as he bend over, he almost lost his balance, having to stop his fire so the entire forest wouldn’t catch on fire, with everyone else still there.

He had to act.

And so he did the only thing that he could do; he screamed:

“ PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU, HELP ME STOP THIS NONSENSE BEFORE ALL YOU KNOW GETS DESTROYED! HELP ME BRING BACK THE PEACE TO THE FOREST! BRING LIGHT TO THE DARKNESS NOW ! ”

It hurt. It hurt to even speak. He was pressing his hands firmly against the sides of his head, and his eyes were closed. If Tokoyami was still there, somewhere, Kouda hoped that he could contain Dark Shadow for him, at least a little bit. He left his security in his hands.

He heard Dark Shadow roar in anger, and the floor trembled in his direction. But he did not move. He couldn’t. The last bit of strength that he had in him he had lost when he screamed his lungs out. And even then, he could only hope that it was enough.

And then, through his closed eyelids, a thousand dots of light came to life, almost forcing him to open his eyes just in time to see Dark Shadow shrinking because of the sudden appearance of those new lights.

The clearing was filled with fireflies.

Kouda felt the urge to cry. But he wasn’t done yet. He could only do so much with his quirk in that situation, and they needed more. So instead of falling to his knees, he took a deep breath and screamed again:

“BAKUGOU! TODOROKI! PLEASE, DO SOMETHING! NOW!” his voice cracked as he spoke, pain slipping through his words.

And they did. Having finally taken somewhat of a break, both boys jumped forward, using their quirks to impulse themselves and to create as much light as they possibly could, dispelling whatever was left of Dark Shadow. 

A kneeling Tokoyami appearing from within the shadows of his quirk, gasping for air as he tried to calm himself down.

“...I’m your worst possible matchup, see?” said Bakugou, smiling widely through the blood that poured from his injury.

Tokoyami only nodded in agreement, unable to speak. Actually, they all benefited from that pause, allowing themselves to finally breathe. Their eyes were all stuck on Tokoyami, waiting for him to say anything.

“...Thank you. I’m saved.” those were the words he was finally able to mutter, head still low, unwilling to look at his classmates.

“We were struggling just to survive against that guy, but in an instant, you…” said Todoroki as he walked towards Tsuburaba to check up on him.

“You okay, Tokoyami? Good job following my instructions.” Shouji let out a laugh that sounded tense instead of joyful.

“Shouji… I’m sorry… You too, Midoriya… My spirit is still lacking.” Tokoyami sighed shakily, trying to get his thoughts straight. “The moment your spare arm went flying… I gave in to the rage and unleashed Dark Shadow. It was the deep of the darkness of the night… along with my own anger. They combined to spur him into a frenzy… but he then grew beyond my control and wound up injuring you, Shouji.”

“Save that for later. I know that’s what you would say…” behind his mask, a tired smile appeared on Shouji’s face.

“R-Right… Of course.” Tokoyami got up, almost falling down as he did. He stopped moving, his hands on his knees as he breathed slowly. When he finally felt better, he straightened himself, looking around him as Dark Shadow’s own memories started to flow into his mind, when suddenly, his eyes met Kouda’s. “I did not see you there… How are you?” Tokoyami smiled at him weakly when it suddenly hit him. His eyes widened as he now remembered exactly what had happened.

Before thinking twice, he walked straight towards him, and when he was close enough, he hugged Kouda tightly, taking the latter by surprise, although he was way too tired to react as he always did. Tokoyami pressed his head against Kouda’s chest, squeezing him into his arms.

It took Kouda a moment, but he finally put his arms around his friend, resting his head on top of his. 

They didn’t say a word, but it wasn’t needed.

When they finally pulled back, they were thrown into the gravity of the situation once more, as they shared with Tokoyami the fact that the villains were after Bakugou. 

Although, if Kouda had to be honest, he didn’t remember much of what happened after. His memory seemed to be fragmented, only being able to remember pictures of single events in his mind: they walked in group, surrounding Bakugou; he tried to watch over Tokoyami, but he tripped more than once, and the others ended pushing him up to the front of the Bakugou Escort Squad so they could actually watch over him and help him if he did fall or pass out; they encountered Uraraka and Asui, who were fighting against a villain, a girl who fled as soon as she saw them; they turned to see that both Bakugou and Tokoyami had disappeared, and Kouda felt his heart squeezing in pain as the villain who took them quite literally explained to them the entirety of his plan; Kouda could only watch as Midoriya explained the idea he just came up with to catch up with the villain, and he soon realized that they didn’t even consider him to try and help them, so he just stood to one side, staring absently at his red string, eyes closing from the fatigue; there was a moment of pure darkness where he supposed that he passed out, and moments later he opened his eyes to see Aizawa running towards them, screaming something he could not quite understand; someone helped him get up, and the small group staggered towards the Cabin accompanied by Satou, who came along with the teachers so the latter could go look for the other students without wasting any time; lights flashing in front of him, and what seemed to be a paramedic worker rushed towards them, immediately using their healing quirk to ease their injuries, and helped them get seated next to their classmates to rest; and finally, he remembered leaning over on Satou’s shoulder, staring at his red string of fate that linked him with Tokoyami just before falling asleep.

Kouda woke up in a bed that wasn't his. He stared confused at the ceiling before realizing that he was in a hospital. As soon as he started to move, trying to get out of bed, a nurse rushed into the room, asking him to stay put as he revised his vitals. While he waited for him to do so, Kouda looked more attentively at his surroundings, realizing that he was sharing a room with some of his classmates, such as Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Hagakure and Honenuki. 

When he asked the nurse for details, he explained to him that a day had passed since the incident, and that at first most students had been hospitalized; however, there were some that woke up sooner than others and who had already left, but others were still unconscious or too hurt to be allowed to leave the hospital. As Kouda pressed him on that last point, the nurse informed him that the boy with the multi-limbs, the one with green hair, the one with the metal-turning-skin and the bird headed boy were those who weren’t allow to leave yet. And, well, him.

Kouda was told that they would immediately inform his mother of his awakening but he didn’t seem to be listening; instead, the first thing he asked when he was able to do it was if he could visit said bird headed boy.

Tokoyami.

The nurse said he had to check with the doctor, but that a priori there would be no problems; however he also had to wait for his mother to come, as family was a priority.

If Kouda hadn’t died during the League of Villains’ attack, he almost died from suffocation because of her mother’s hug. She didn’t let go of him for a single second, even when her son started to complain; but when Kouda felt her warm tears falling on his face, he kept quiet, realizing how truly horrible and heavy the situation really was. When this whole ordeal finally dawned on him, he couldn’t hold back anymore, and he cried the tears he had tried to push back, holding his mother tight in his arms.

And now, there he was. Sitting next to Tokoyami’s bed as the latter slept. Although it seemed like it, he wasn’t in a coma; one of the doctors actually had to use their sleep inducing quirk to keep the boy and his quirk in bed, as they wouldn’t stop fighting and struggling, wanting to check up on his friends, guilt surely eating him up inside, dismissing his own serious state.

Next to him was Shouji, whose injured limb was tightly bandaged. They both kept quiet as they didn’t know what to say.

Nor they needed to speak.

But it came a moment when the silence was too much to handle, and Shouji, using his real mouth for once, spoke up:

“I think we can all agree that you passed your test of courage, Kouda.”

Kouda let out an embarrassed laugh. He had completely forgotten about it. What a night.

“I know it’s not the best way to start up a conversation, but I… I kinda feel the need to talk about it, you know? It all feels… Fake. Surreal. And I really can’t bring myself to understand that all of this actually happened.”

Kouda nodded slowly.

“However… There is something I’ve been wanting to ask you since I woke up.” said Shouji.

“...hm?”

“How… How were you able to find us? We were quite far away from the Cabin, but also Kirishima and the others told us that, in the middle of everything, you suddenly jumped and bolted out of the room in such panic that not even class 1-B’s teacher was able to stop you.”

“...a-ah…” that was the only thing Kouda was able to mutter.

He was obviously rather hesitant to answer. He didn’t want to lie to his friend -and even if he lied, what kind of excuse could he come up with that would explain everything?- but if he told him the truth, he would quite certainly be viewed as a crazy or delusional person. On the other hand, he had no reason to invent such a nonsensical explanation, and it was only him, Shouji, and a passed out Tokoyami in the room, so…

“...t-this will s-sound crazy, but…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t judge. And I don’t think it’ll be crazier than what happened to us.”

Kouda let out a small laugh.

“M-Maybe.” well, here goes nothing. He took a deep breath. “...since I was little, I was able to… I was able to see the red string of fate that… links one person with their soulmate…” as soon as he said those words, the glanced at Shouji, but as always, it was impossible to know what he was thinking behind that mask of his. “...and… y-yes, that is… yes…”

“...huh.” simply said Shouji, before adding: “So that is how you managed to help everyone to find their “perfect matches”, huh?” Kouda blushed at Shouji’s words, and simply nodded. “I don’t see why you would lie about that. But I have to admit that it is extremely interesting.” There was a moment of silence. “I know it may not be the best of times, but, can I ask about mine?”

Kouda let out a small laugh, before nodding.

“...it’s Kuroiro Shihai, from class 1-B.”

It was Shouji’s time to nod as he thought about the answer. It probably wasn’t what he had expected, even if he wasn’t really expecting anything. But, that didn’t mean that it was a bad thing, so to speak. His eyes looked down, at his hands, and before he could ask it out loud, Kouda pointed to his left hand.

“...there.” he simply said, to which Shouji answered with another nod and a smile hidden behind his mask.

“Thank you.” he stared another moment at his hand, before looking back at Kouda. “So… You and Tokoyami…?”

Kouda blushed deeply, eyes quickly glancing at Tokoyami’s hand, which was laying on top of him, inert.

“...I’ll take that as a yes.” laughed Shouji. “However, can I ask you about something else? Tokoyami told me that you were going to help him with Asui. Is that true?”

“...y-yes…”

“Why? Why would you do that if he is your soulmate?”

“...because he asked me to?” said Kouda. And before Shouji could answer him, he lifted his right hand in front of him. “...w-wait. Let me, uh, let me explain.” he focused on his red thread as he spoke, trying to keep up with his train of thought. “I didn’t want to force anything o-on him. If he wants to try it out with Asui, why should I stop him? Besides, he is my soulmate, so we’re going to be together in the end, so even if it hurts a bit, he should be able to do whatever he wants, no?” he reached out to Tokoyami’s hand, sliding his own under his. If you compared both, there obviously was a difference of sizes, but it only made Kouda smile. “I… I don’t want to stop him from doing what he wants…”

Silence fell into the room. Kouda had spoken his mind, so there was no need for Shouji to say anything; even if he didn’t quite understand it, he respected his friend’s opinion, and in a way, he realized that he was stronger than what he had always assumed.

After a moment passed and after checking the time, Shouji formed a mouth to speak:

“We should get going. If I remember correctly what the nurses told me, it’s almost time for Tokoyami’s check up.”

Kouda nodded absently, but before he could even move, the hand that on top of his gently grabbed him, squeezing it a couple of times, making Kouda’s heart stop.

“...n-nonsense…” muttered Tokoyami under his breath, slowly shifting in his bed to be able to look at his visitors.

“Oh, you’re awake.” said Shouji, his smile visible through his words.

“...really?” answered back Tokoyami, letting out a tired laugh. His eyes then looked for Kouda, his gaze softening when he saw how red his friend… no, how red his soulmate was. “...hello there.”

Kouda could only feel his face heating up more and more. 

“...h-hi…”

“...it appears that you and I will… have to talk, yes?” he still had trouble speaking, his mind still filled by a soft, sleepy haze, “...but until then, thank you for saving me.”

He squeezed Kouda’s hand again.

And this time, Kouda returned the affectious squeeze.