Chapter Text
Kirishima had known his meet-date was earlier than most others. Most people’s meet-dates placed their first sighting of their soulmate after highschool or in a few cases, during highschool. He remembered feeling lucky as a kid before his quirk developed. His mother would tuck him into bed and tell him all about soulmates. He’d gaze up at her in childish wonderment and imagine a life with his soulmate. Who could they be! They must be so great! His mother would tell him that it was an honor to be able to have more time together than most and, tucked into his plush sheets while protected by the light of his Crimson Riot night light, he believed her.
The first time he doubted his supposed luck was the night his quirk showed itself. He ran -bleeding from above his eye- to his mother, confused about what had happened and why he was in pain. It didn’t take too long to realize that his hand had hardened and cut his eyebrow when he went to rub his eyes. He’d done this to himself. As he cried into his mom’s shoulder, he wondered how his soulmate would react to him having such a scary quirk. Quirks were supposed to help people! Kiri didn’t want to scare away his soulmate! Or much worse, disappoint them…
As Kirishima grew, he tried to remain positive about his quirk. He just had to control it and it wouldn’t be scary anymore! He could handle this! But as he got older and looked around at his classmates’ new quirks and how they developed with them, Kirishima realized he had a much different problem. The kids around him could do all kinds of cool things! Some of them had quirks like Kirishima, ones you could only see when you used it intentionally, but many had quirks that remained apparent at all times of the day. Kirishima looked down at his hands and opened and closed them a few times before activating his quirk. His skin prickled and hardened a bit but it was hard to really see much of a difference between his hardened skin and his regular skin.
‘It’s almost like there’s no visible change at all...’ Kirishima thought to himself. ‘If I really stop to think about it…’ he deactivated his quirk and softly poked at the palm of his hand, ‘what can my quirk really do?’
All at once, Kirishima found his quirk to be underwhelming more than anything else. Even more so, as he looked around at his classmates, he himself felt pretty underwhelming.
Kirishima spent a good few years thinking this way. Despite his best efforts to keep his hopes in check, he found himself dreaming of attending UA as a part of their Hero Course. He knew he wasn’t terribly strong and that his quirk was anything but flashy, but he still couldn’t help but want to become a hero. He continued his montra of ‘if I just work hard enough, study enough, work out enough. Then I can do this’. Even though that helped at first, it got harder and harder to repeat after each tiring day. As his doubts grew, his anxieties did as well. Besides UA, Kirishima had his soulmate to worry about.
‘I’m supposed to see them for the first time at the end of middle school! What am I going to do? What if they don’t like me like this?’ he thought to himself. At this point, he was convinced his soulmate wouldn’t be impressed with a quirk like his. ‘I bet they have the most amazing quirk ever’ he mused in both admiration and melancholy. He would have felt better if he had something to offer, but his quirk was basically bust and he knew he was pretty bland to look at. Dark hair and a nondescript physique. The most attention-grabbing traits Kirishima had were his red eyes and sharp teeth, things he thought made him look more like a demon than anything else. ‘Who am I kidding. There’s no way they’d like me’. Kirishima shook his head at the ground and continued to walk down the halls. ‘If I’m doomed to be unlovable I may as well work harder to get into UA. Maybe that way I can hopefully do something right’. With this thought, he lifted his head and tried to smile his biggest. He’d do his best with a life without love. Even if it stung a bit. Or a lot.
“Are you excited! It’s the big day!” Kirishima’s mother shook him awake with what he quickly classified as too much vigor for so early in the morning. His tiredness, however, was quickly overtaken by confusion.
“...Excited for...what?” Had he forgotten something?
“Your meet-date of course!”
‘Oh shit’
“Wait wait wait” Kirishima frantically tugged at his pajama sleeves to access his left arm. ‘Oh shit. Shit shit shit’ “That’s today?!”
His mother, oblivious to his distress, continued, “Of course silly! How could you forget, you’ve always been so excited for this!” She ruffled his hair. “It’s okay. Oh! To celebrate I made your favorite breakfast! Get changed and let’s eat!” She nearly ran out of his room in a happy frenzy before Kiri could even respond.
‘shit shit Shit Shit SHit SHIt SHIT SHIT. Oh no oh no no no no no no NO! It can’t be today! There must be some kind of mistake!’ Kirishima began to pace around his room. ‘I’m not ready! Oh my gods what are they going to think I haven’t developed my quirk much and let’s face it, i’m still as undesirable as i ever was middle school is too early to meet my soulmate this can’t be happening i’m not ready for this i can’t-’ His breathing became labored and he crouched on the floor and rocked back and forth a bit in an attempt to avoid hyperventilating. He ran his hands through his dark hair and pulled hard in an attempt to center himself. ‘I can’t go to school today. I just can’t. There’s no way I can leave today.’
“Are you coming down, honey?”
‘Ah shit that’s right. My mom.’
“A-aaah I’m not feeling too good” Kirishima yelled back as he attempted to sound as sickly as possible, “I don’t think I should go to school today.” He punctuated his sentence with a cough for good measure.
“Are you sure Eijirou? I don’t think that’s really a good idea” his mother said hesitantly. He could hear her footsteps making their way back to his room.
“Y-yeah I’m sure!” he responded slightly panicked, “I-I think I might throw up. Serious Mom.” He didn’t feel good about lying to his mom, it was such an unmanly thing to do, but he didn’t see any other way of getting out of today.
Her voice came from right beyond the door, “Well if you’re absolutely sure sweetheart.” After a pause she added, “Maybe go on a walk later today if you’re feeling any better.” she suggested. With that she made her way back downstairs and off to work, which left Kirishima alone in the house.
‘Okay, okay. I can handle this. As long as I don’t leave the house today, there’s no way I can meet someone new, or even see someone new!’ Kirishima slowly made his way up on his shaky legs and down the stairs. ‘Now,’ he put his hands on his hips ‘to prepare’.
Not long after, the blinds were shut tight and Kirishma sat curled on the couch surrounded by blankets and pillows. He had the tv switched to an old battle between Crimson Riot and some local villains. As much as he loved Crimson Riot, even watching his old battles wasn’t helping him feel much better.
‘I guess it could be worse. I could be out there now meeting someone who I’ll love for the rest of my life but who will never love me’. He sighed and resigned himself to watching the tv mindlessly. This was for the best.
“W-what’s going on?”
The lights from the tv flashed brightly. He must have fallen asleep on the remote because this definitely wasn’t a Crimson Riot show. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.
//This is an emergency broadcast. There is a villain attack in your area.// the robotic voice from the tv announced. Kirishima sat at attention, concerned about a possible villain attack nearby. The tv screen stopped its blinking and cut to a live feed of a crowded street. Slowly the camera zoomed in on a green slush mass.
‘Was that the villain??!?’
//This green slime is currently unidentified and has taken a middle school student as a hostage. It’s goals are yet to be uncovered and no demands have been made. The student, Bakugou Katsuki, has been trapped within -//
Suddenly Kirishima wasn’t listening to the broadcast anymore. The screen had cut to a picture of the most handsome boy Kirishima had ever seen. His hair was spiky and cool, his features sharp but somehow welcoming. And his eyes, oh his eyes. They carried such an intensity to them that Kirishima couldn’t seem to look away. As he looked into those eyes his left arm began to tingle slightly with a comfortable warmth. With growing realization, Kirishima looked down at his arm to find his meet-date glowing softly in his skin. He looked back up at the screen at his soulmate.
“My soulmate” Kirishima whispered softly.
At once two things came to Kirishima’s mind. First, was that this Bakugou Katsuki was the manliest guy he’d ever seen and second, that since Kirishima saw Bakugou through the screen, Bakugou obviously couldn’t see him. Which meant Bakugou was his soulmate but…
“I’m not his soulmate...”