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Katsuki had never put much stock in soulmates. The idiots around him fawned over the idea, chattering on constantly about how their soulmate was so excited or scared or anxious. His soulmate felt those things too, but that didn’t matter. If he was going to be the next Number One Hero, he couldn’t afford to pay attention to anything but his goals. A soulmate would just be one more thing to work around, someone who got in his way worse than even Deku because at least with Deku he could just shove the nerd aside and tell him to fuck off.
Soulmates were different, Dad had told him. Soulmates were people you couldn’t bear to hurt, because if you hurt them you hurt yourself. Because once you and your soulmate knew each other, once you spent time with each other, the bond got stronger. All the more reason to never seek his out, really. He didn’t need the distraction of someone else’s emotions blaring in his head while he was fighting Villains. And even worse, as they grew up Katsuki realized his soulmate was weak. Her fear and despair became a sort of background radiation, another thing to rail against, another reason to push himself as hard as his body could take and then a little bit harder for good measure.
Soulmates, one of his middle school teachers had said, were destined to meet, and if he had to protect some stupid scaredy-cat damsel then he was gonna do it better than anyone else could.
He was on the edge of sleep when something jerked him awake, his heart hammering in his chest. Loathing, fire-hot, coursed through his veins. Hatred and fear and- his soulmate. His soulmate was... hurt? No, that wasn’t right. Katsuki fisted a hand in his sleep shirt and stared at the wall over his desk, at his list of high schools to apply to pinned to the corkboard. His soulmate, he’d gathered from the ebb and flow of her emotions around vacations and tests, was about his age. Half a year younger, or thereabouts, given how regularly he felt her joy in October, but she would be filling out that same form right now, struggling to choose her path in life. Frustration tore through him, and he wasn’t sure if it was his or not.
Why did his soulmate have to be so weak, so indecisive, so scared? He stared at his own handwriting on the form on his wall, thick and heavy enough to make out even in the gloom. UA, Shiketsu, Ketsubutsu. Hero schools, all down the list. He knew what he wanted, he always had, so why wasn’t his supposed other half someone who had that same confidence? For once, just for once, he wished she would do something to make herself seem even remotely like someone Katsuki could tolerate being bound to for the rest of his life.
The foreign emotions all but vanished, and Katsuki shivered at the feeling of his soulmate’s sudden determination. She was still afraid, but it was muted now, edged with excitement and supporting a stony resolve that made Katsuki grin in the darkness. He fumbled to grasp the bond, unused to doing anything with it but shoving it down and ignoring the feelings flowing through it. But this spark his soulmate was finally showing, this fire catching in her heart? That couldn’t go unanswered. He caught hold of their bond finally, and for the first time in his life sent something over it on purpose. Approval first, then confidence, then a touch of finally that he really hoped translated.
His soulmate lit up, and Katsuki’s breath caught in his chest with the wave of Joy that slammed into him, followed closely by relief and affection and a dozen little flickers of emotion he couldn’t parse before they melted away under the deluge of positivity.
How long had it been, since he felt his soulmate this happy?
Katsuki bit back a curse and did his best to shut the bond down, smothering it under his exhaustion. Sounds didn’t transfer of course, nor did direct thoughts, but he could just tell his soulmate was laughing at him for being in bed already. Katsuki threw himself back down on his mattress, and hid his smile in his pillow as he pulsed aggravation and exhaustion at the bond until it went dim. Tomorrow he would hand in his sheet, his soulmate would hand in hers, and-
He blinked, heart catching in his chest again. Destiny. The course of your life. He flicked the blanket back from over his head and stared at his high school applications list. Soulmates were fated to meet, and only a Hero could be guaranteed to meet another Hero. Katsuki’s smile returned, but even after he shut his eyes it was a long time before sleep took him.
---
Katsuki stared. He couldn’t help it, his soulmate’s first-day-of-high-school anxiety had vanished the second the extra with aggressively red hair had turned those crimson eyes his way. In its place, warmth had bloomed, stealing his breath and leaving his head spinning, knees suddenly weak. All the textbook signs, he thought numbly, of a soulbond being opened fully. “Who the fuck are you, Shitty Hair?” he spat, pressing his left hand to the wall for support as he made a beeline for the desk next to the redhead.
Fuck, his heart was racing, his body reacting to the anxiety echoing through a bond he no longer knew how to muffle. Sealing off the unrealized link had been like stepping on a garden hose, but now it felt more like a pipe, something he couldn’t just crush out of existence so easily. “Quit doing that.” he snapped, falling into the seat on his soulmate’s right. “I don’t bite.”
“Sorry,” the fear-sadness-hatred which had been background radiation for so much of his life flashed across their bond now, ice cold and razor sharp and clearly directed inward. “You’re just... a lot louder in person.”
“Oh fuck you!” Katsuki snapped, and the classroom burst into giggles. “Name, bastard.” he demanded again. “Or do you want me to keep calling you Shitty Hair?”
“I’m getting the feeling you’re gonna keep calling me that anyway.” his soulmate’s mouth quirked at one side, eyes crinkling just slightly at the edges. “But my name’s Kirishima Eijirou.”
“Bakugo Katsuki.” he responded reflexively, and Kirishima’s bright smile showed off a set of wickedly sharp teeth. Katsuki wondered what his quirk was.
His. That was... not as surprising as he thought it maybe should have been? He’d never tried to picture his soulmate, but had held a vague image of some meek, scrawny girl with long dark hair like so many of the girls he saw in middle school or on TV. Kirishima was precisely none of that, broad-shouldered and muscular with sunny skin and flaming red hair and that shark-toothed smile. And if he was in the Hero course, then that meant Katsuki shouldn’t have to hold himself back. Shouldn’t need to worry about protecting him the way he’d assumed would be necessary.
“Gotta say, you’re not what I was expecting.” he said, unloading his supplies into his desk.
“Oh?” Kirishima couldn’t seem to stop looking at him. Katsuki wasn’t sure if he liked it or not, yet, but it definitely had him feeling something. “Hope I’m not a disappointment.” he spoke casually, but his anxiety rang clear across their bond.
“Fuck no.” Katsuki snorted. Kirishima obviously had issues, but Katsuki was already shooting for the stars. He could fix his soulmate’s self-esteem while he was at it, and he’d do it the only way he knew how. Head on. “I’m going to be Number One.” he said, pressing his determination and confidence at Kirishima. He had enough for both of them. “I’m gonna need someone who can keep up, watch my back.” he flashed Kirishima his sharpest smile, the one his old classmates had called scary when they thought he couldn’t hear. “Think you can manage it?”
Kirishima grinned right back, and his forearms hardened into stone before Katsuki’s eyes before the redhead pounded his fists together. “Protection is my thing, dude.”
Katsuki had never considered being part of a Hero Team before, had only briefly entertained the thought of taking a sidekick, but if Kirishima could stand up to Explosion, if his soulmate was meant to be the shield to his spear... “I think we’re going to get along just fine.” Katsuki grinned, and held his fist out for Kirishima to knock his knuckles against.