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“Oi, Featherhead.”
Hawks just about jumped out of his skin, wings flaring and almost catching Miruko as he spun around. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you it’s rude to peek at someone else’s mark?”
“Nah.” she grinned, slapping her thigh and drawing his attention to the pale, precise script there, visible through the high slit in her fancy Hero’s Gala dress. “I’ve been showing mine off since I could read.”
“So you’re the number four hero, even with...” he read the incomplete sentence, then tilted his head slightly. “Does it continue higher up?”
“Nah, I figure I’ll interrupt whoever it is before they finish.” she smiled, sharp as any tiger despite the bunny ears which twitched atop her head.
“Well, I can see why you’d brag about that.” he demurred. Soulmarks were a guarantee, after all. Miruko would reach number four at some point, even if only briefly. “I look forward to working with you.”
“Oh?” she hooked an arm through his, pressing up against his side. “You think you’ll be up there with me?”
“I know I will.” he smirked. “We’re the youngest heroes here, after all. Not everyone gets an invite.”
“Well, at least you’re not a birdbrain.” Miruko laughed. “I think you and me are gonna be great friends, uh-”
“Wing Hero Hawks.” he said, guiding her towards the dance floor. “And I think you’re right.”
---
Touya stared at himself in the mirror and rubbed at his chest, fingers tracing the skin where his soulmate’s caustic first words were now hidden under thick burn scars. Why the fuck did it have to be you. Why indeed? Why did he even have a soulmate, if they would only hate him as much as Father did? Blue flames flickered at his fingertips, and he grimaced as he dragged one burning nail in a line across where the marks might reappear. Soulmarks only counted if you met your soulmate, after all, and as of two days ago Todoroki Touya was dead. Whoever had been meant to be his soulmate wouldn’t have a chance to meet him now unless he went back, which he was never going to do.
---
Several years and two and nine careless words later, a hero and villain found themselves staring at each other in the light of their own glowing soulmarks, and shared a single thought.
Fuck, this just got complicated.