Chapter Text
Age 8
Hinata Shouyou
“Mom, can you tell me the story of how you and papa knew you were soulmates again?” Shouyou asks curled up next to his mom, Natsu dozing between them.
“Of course my love.” She says gently patting him on the head. “Your father and I were just starting university. I was running late to class, coffee in hand, when I quite literally ran into your father. Thankfully, I was drinking iced coffee.” She adds with a laugh and a ruffle to his hair. Shouyou giggles. “And then I felt my soulmark grow warm for a moment, and well your father was wearing a white shirt, so there was our mark displayed over his heart.”
“I miss him.” Shouyou says quietly, turning his cheek more into her side.
“I know.” She pats him on the head. “I do too, but I have you and Na-chan to cuddle while he’s abroad.”
“Mama, when am I going to get a soulmark?” Shouyou looks up at his mom with big round eyes.
“Usually the marks will appear sometime between the ages of 13-15.”
“I’m going to love my soulmate so much! I hope they’re really nice.” Shouyou’s eyes shone with determination. His mother laughs as she readies both her kids for bed.
Kageyama Tobio
“Grandpa, why don’t mom and dad ever talk about their soulmates?” Tobio asks with big curious eyes. He is usually too focused on learning how to play volleyball to pay attention to stuff like that, but a girl in his class said that her sister met her soulmate.
“Ah, well, Tobio, your parents are not soulmates.” He responds carefully. “However, not everyone meets their soulmate or sometimes it doesn’t work out, so it is possible to still fall in love with someone else.” He doesn’t mention that his father’s soulmate died and his mother rejected the entire concept all together because she had multiple soulmates and her parents did not approve of their relationship.
“Mom always says that soulmates are nonsense and that you don’t need to listen to fate.” Tobio says. “Or at least that’s what she says when she’s here.”
“Mom doesn’t know what she is talking about.” Miwa says. “She’s just old and bitter.”
“Miwa.” Their grandfather admonishes. “You shouldn’t say such things about your mother. Now, your grandmother and I were soulmates. She was the love of my life. We met by bumping into one another at a market. I immediately asked her out to dinner and we were together until she passed away.”
“Grandpa, what if I don’t want a soulmate?” Tobio asks. Why did he need a soulmate when he could have volleyball?
Miwa lets out a laugh, but her grandfather shoots her a look. “Well Tobio, you’ll be able to make that decision for yourself when you older.”
Tobio nods solemnly. “Excellent. Can you help me with my serve now?” His grandfather chuckles and picks up the ball to help Tobio with his serve.
Tsukishima Kei
Kei likes to read. He has always liked to read. His favorite hobbies are probably reading, volleyball and listening to music. What Kei doesn’t like is that there are so many books out there about finding love with your soulmate.
“Nii-san, why are there so many books about soulmates?” He asks Akiteru one day while they’re passing a volleyball back and forth.
Akiteru catches the ball. “Because a lot of people want to find love.” He replies gently touching his hipbone where his soulmark resides.
“Mom and dad are soulmates.” Kei says simply.
Akiteru sighs. “Mom and dad are exceptions not the rule.” He sits down on the ground and pats the ground next to him for Kei to come and sit. “I know that they fought a lot. And that dad lives in Tokyo now, but I think they did love each other once.” He reaches out and fluffs Kei’s hair, but promptly has his arm batted away from his hair.
“But then why did the world pick them to be soulmates if they could fall out of love?”
“The world works in weird ways sometimes. Maybe it doesn’t take all of the factors of life into account.” Maybe if they didn’t have as much financial trouble or if Mom’s shifts at the hospital were shorter or if Dad had less business trips things could have been different, but Akiteru doesn’t know how to explain this to his little brother. “Soulmates need to work at their relationship. I think that’s where books get it wrong. All relationships need communication and honesty and trust to work, but sometimes I think people forget that and assume the magic of soulmates is enough to keep it together.”
Kei flops on to his back. “I think soulbonds are stupid to begin with. I don’t want to be stuck with some uncool person for the rest of my life.”
“What if they were cool?”
“Tsk. Maybe. But I doubt it.” Kei sits back up. “I’m tired; we should go inside.”
Yamaguchi Tadashi
Tadashi doesn’t remember too much about his parents who died when he was three. He was sent to live with his aunt, but sometimes he would be curious about what they were like. “Auntie Nozomi, were my parents soulmates like you and Auntie and Uncle?” Tadashi asks one day when they are out to lunch.
Nozomi thought back to her beautiful, lively twin sister rushing into their room when they were sixteen because she had met her soulmate, a very handsome man with so many cute freckles. “They were Tadashi, and they loved each other and you very, very much.”
He nods. “What about you? How did you meet auntie and uncle?”
She smiles at him over their ice cream sundaes. “Well, I met Auntie first. We were friends for a long time. Even before we got our marks, she was my best friend and when I found out I was so happy. Your mother was so jealous because I had found my soulmate first. It took us a while to find your uncle. It was strange. Hotaru and I loved each other, but both of us knew that we weren’t the only ones for each other.”
“So you knew to look for Uncle?” Tadashi asks, taking a big sip of his chocolate and strawberry milkshake.
Nozomi smiles, “Kind of. We did find him eventually. He was 2 years older than us when we were in university. He played baseball. Hotaru wanted to go to a game, so we went and then bumped into him later on at a party after the game.”
“Was it love at first sight?”
She laughs, “Well kind of. We had to do a lot of talking about relationship stuff because Hotaru and I had known each other for so long. It took some getting used to having more of us in the relationship, but now I can’t imagine it without him.”
“I see.” Tadashi thinks about it. He wonders what his soulmates are going to be like. He wonders if they’ll like him or if they’ll make fun of him too. “Thanks for sharing Auntie.”
“Of course.” She reaches across the table to give him a fist bump. He smiles right back.