Chapter Text
Eijirou was always looking forward to meeting his daemon. He couldn't wait to see what his soulmate would be like, what kind of animal he would get. Honestly he was just excited to have a friend. However, reality is disappointing.
***
The morning of his 5th birthday was filled with noise-
Specifically the shrill barking of his newly discovered daemon.
“Ei, you know I hate to be like this, but do you think you could try and shush your daemon? It’s incredibly early and you know your Ma hates mornings.” His mother suggests, resting her hand on his shoulder. He nods, and moves to calm the agitated animal. His hand reaches forward to pet the golden furred daemon only to recoil at the snap of teeth. His daemon continues growling, pacing the floor by the end of his bed. Eijirou begins to tear up a bit,
“It tried to bite me.” He whines, looking at his hand and picturing the bite mark. His mother brings him back and holds him in his arms.
“You’re ok, it's ok. They don't seem aggressive unless you get in their space, so let’s just leave them be for now ok? We’ll get Ma and we can help ok?” He nods, looking down at the snarling daemon in his bedroom.
***
Your daemon is supposed to resemble your soulmate in as many aspects as possible. This gives you a chance to get to know your soulmate before ever meeting them, and as some people never meet their soulmates in the first place, it means they have their soulmate with them one way or another.
“Does that mean that my soulmate hates me?” Ei asks his Ma at dinner that night. His daemon had finally settled down, and they had taken her to the vet. The vets had checked out the daemon, and had told the family everything they’d need to know.
“Of course not sweetie, he's probably just rough around the edges.” She said, setting her fork down. “He can't hate you, he hasn't met you yet. But you also need to know, you and your soulmate dynamic will be different from mine and your mothers. Each pair is unique and different, so I can’t say much.-”
A small whine calls their attention from the other room.
Eijirou and his Ma look at each other.
“Do you want to try and get close to her?” she asks quietly, the bird daemon on her shoulder remarkably quiet. Eijirou nods, walking slowly into the other room. They had found out his daemon was a Korean Jindo, with ash blond fur and a little bit of spikes around her scruff and along the ridge of her spine. She looks almost peaceful as she dozes, eyes barely open. When her gaze finds Eijirou her lip curls and she flashes her teeth. Instead of cowering back like before, He shows his own teeth in return. He remembered learning about wolves in school, something about how teeth meant aggression?
The daemon drops her scowl, still glaring at the boy. He walks over to the dog. She doesn't move, she just glares at him. He eventually makes it about a foot away and just sits down next to the animal. She regards him coldly.
“Hey… We’re going to have to get along someday, you know? So we’ll both work on it.” He says, eyes tracing over the lines on his hands. He looks up at the daemon. “I'm going to put on a movie, ok?” He asks. His daemon adopts a look of disinterest, gazing past him. Eijirou walks over to the TV to play a movie. Well, a documentary. It was about ancient history.
The narrator drones on about different ancient civilizations, talking about technological advancements, art styles, and basics on their society. He looks over at his daemon, who is awake and curling up on the couch, about 4 feet away from him. The narrator goes over the different areas of ancient Greece. He looks over at the dog, who has finally fallen asleep.
“Hey Ma?” He calls into the other room
“Yeah Ei?”
“Can I call her Spartan?”
-
“Thank you Mrs and Mrs Kirishima for coming here, I'm afraid I have some bad news about your son-”
“It's not my fault! Spartan just doesn't get along with people! Tell her ma.” Eijirou defends
“Hush child, the adults are speaking.” His teacher dismisses. “As I was saying, your son and his daemon are continuously disrupting class, and if this habit continues, I'm afraid to say that we can't have him here at school.”
“What happened?” Ei’s mother asks, coming to stand behind her son.
“Well his daemon is overall aggressive, and has been known to lash out at other students and daemons. If he can't control it he should be kept at home until he can.” His mothers just stand there, slack jawed
“Excuse me ma’am. If I might ask, what is your soulmate like?” His ma asks, her voice steeled and cold. The teacher's eyes flick to the little brown field mouse on her shoulder.
“Oh my soulmate’s the best, I love him so much and I wouldn’t trade him for the world-”
“But when it comes to my son's soulmate it's a problem?” Ei’s Mother suddenly interrupts, her anger clear in her voice. A startling contrast from his Ma’s cold tone. Rio on her shoulder, looking equally agitated. He looks between his mothers and the teacher, watching the silent battle of wills go down in real time. He absently reaches his hand out and strokes Spartans fur. She ducks out of reach, but he eventually gets her behind the ear and she melts just a little bit. His teacher sighs,
“I understand your point here but it's becoming a problem. It's scaring the other students and their daemons and it seems unfair to subject that on the other kids.” His teacher defends meekly,
“Correct me if I'm wrong, but when we enrolled our boy here, we did so because we noticed that this middle school was the only one in the area that is daemon friendly. If you end up asking my son to leave because of his daemon I'm going to have to ask the school to update that policy. You know, for the sake of other parents and such.” His ma counters, before turning to her son and wife. His mothers’ parrot daemons shake themselves out, mirroring their opposite’s emotions. The teacher stands there as the family escorts themselves out of the office, unable to formulate a sentence in response.
In the end, Eijirou would stay at the school. And the teacher? Never said another word about Spartan.
-
“Good morning class, I understand that it's your first day at a new school, and I know it's hard to transition from middle to high school, so today we’ll be having a social day.” The teacher announces, looking around at the excitement of the students as they turn and talk amongst themselves.
Eijirou self-consciously rubs the back of his neck, feeling odd with his new hair color and style. He feels the comforting weight of Spartan laying by his feet, and smiles a little. After all she was his biggest inspiration after Crimson Riot. He runs his fingers through the spiked up hair on his nape as he looks around. A girl walks up to his desk, a silver squirrel daemon perching on her shoulder.
“Hey! Can I pet your daemon? She looks so cute and fluffy.” The girl asks, smiling.
“I don't think that’s a good idea-” but the girl was already reaching. Eijirou, in an attempt to protect her, swung his hand to block, but Spartan was already in motion. Fortunately he managed to prevent the girl from losing a finger, but the shock was enough to garner the attention of the class. “As I was saying, she's not very friendly towards strangers and I don't recommend getting in her business if you want to keep your fingers.” The girl was just frozen, the realization that if she hadn't been stopped she would have had a lovely set of teeth marks embedded in her hand clearly on the forefront of her mind. Unfortunately for Eijirou, his daemon had become the new topic of conversation
“Wow, that’s rough bro. How many times has she bitten you?” One boy asks
“Why would such a nice guy like you get such a cruel soulmate?” Another girl asks
“God you don't think his soulmate is abusive, do you?” someone mutters. At this the whole room goes quiet, save for a few hushed whispers. Eijirou turns,
“Excuse me?” He asks, only adding to the silence. “I think you guys should mind your own business. It doesn't affect you anyway so what's the point of even talking about it. So my soulmate has flaws. Everyone does.” He defends, sitting up and glaring at all the gossipers. The room remains quiet, until that same someone speaks up
“But like, what if they actually are abusive, or a psychopath?” if the room was quiet before, it's dead silent now. Eijirou turns once again to the offending voice.
“Again, none of your business. And another thing, Spartan’s not aggressive for no reason. She's being defensive, and honestly I can't blame her for lashing out at a hand she doesn't know. She's plenty friendly to me and that's all that I care about.” He glares, ruffling his daemon's fur to prove a point. “I'd assume my soulmate is the same way. Maybe you should take a moment to consider that everyone is different and unique in their own ways hmm? Besides, what makes you more knowledgeable about my soulmate?” The teacher then intervenes and the subject is dropped, but that doesn't stop the pitiful glances that he gets periodically through the class. Each glance is met with an exasperated expression and the occasional eye-roll.
Eventually class is let out and he's allowed to lunch. There he meets another boy.
“Hey dude, My name’s Kaminari. I heard about your whole daemon thing, and if it makes you feel any better, mine ignores me all the time. She's either sleeping and ignoring me or actively ignoring my presence. ‘S why I call her Morpheus.” He introduces, sheepishly rubbing his hand through his hair. Eijirou smiles,
“Hey, I'm Kirishima. She’s called Spartan for pretty obvious reasons I’d guess. Our daemons are our own business, and they don't define us.
“Exactly.”
-
Eijirou drops himself on the couch after entering his apartment. It’s the last night he's supposed to live there, before moving in with Kaminari. Neither of them necessarily needed to be roommates, especially since Kaminari could just go live with his boyfriend. But it was more of a convenience for both of them. After high school they both ended up rooming together for college, and eventually just grew used to the company and living with each other.
In the corner of the room, Spartan shakes herself off, before walking over to Eijirou.
“Hey girl, do you want to sit and watch a movie with me?” the redhead asks, tipping his head to look her in the eyes. The dog huffs, but clambers up onto the couch and rests her head on Eijirou’s lap. He runs his fingers through the spiky ash blonde fur. Spartan merely huffs at the attention,
“You know, I’m really glad you warmed up to me.” he whispers into the quiet room, as if telling a secret. “As a kid, I was so worried that you were never going to let me close, and that by failing to get close to you I’d never have a chance with my soulmate.” he pauses, taking a breath. “But it was a challenge. I don’t think I would have been worthy or ready to meet my soulmate without having proven myself worthy to get past your defenses. While I hope my soulmate has mellowed out like you have, if he hasn’t I know I can wear him down. I mean I wore you down didn’t i?” he laughs, ruffling the fur between her ears. Spartan lets out another huff, but moves her head into the hands currently working wonders on her ears.
His phone buzzes, alerting him that Kaminari sent him a text. Without pausing his ministrations, he leans over to check the message. It’s about the move tomorrow. Eijirou types a response and sends it, before turning his attention back to Spartan.
“I hope you know how much of an effect you had on me, without you I probably wouldn’t have been able to get here. You were my motivation to build my confidence, to start working out. Hell, even my hair. I’m so thankful for you and I hope my soulmate is as thankful for their daemon as I am for mine.” He finishes, bringing Spartan up to wrap his arms and press his nose into her fur. She growls and huffs, but does nothing to escape his arms. Eijirou smiles, tearing up just the littlest bit,
“...Thank you...”