Work Text:
Getting one's soulmate was supposed to be this grand moment, full of significance and meaning that would later be forever rehashed in the "so that's how we met each other!" stories.
Izuku's was... Kind of chaotic. He barely even realized it had happened until the event passed.
One moment, Izuku was focused purely on the chaos of the cavalry battle, trying to keep track of all the other teams. The next, he was forced to realize that he failed, considering that someone slapped him on the head.
They hadn't managed to take any of the headbands — thankfully — but... Judging by their mad cackle, that wasn't the goal.
"HAHAHAHA!" Monoma Neito was yelling, full Jojo-style arch backwards.
Which was when massive, inky-black, unfamiliar tentackles started leaving his body in writhing masses.
Izuku's eyes, wide-open in shock, met Monoma's confused expression and it was at that moment that he knew, there would need to be another person informed of the story behind One For All.
Monoma seemed to get the tentackles under control -- Izuku suspected his own quirk might have had something to do with that, giving him the experience in mastering unknown quirks quickly -- skillfully using them to steal more headbands, though he mercifully avoided Izuku's team.
At least the extra layer of chaos meant that Izuku's distraction didn't cost his team their spot.
Izuku was just counting seconds until the end of the second round, eager to talk to his soulmate and figure things out. Though Izuku hadn't realized that they were soulmates until he followed a sort of an itch inside of his head, leading him to accidentally copying Hatsume's quirk.
Monoma and him had swapped quirks: the conclusion was obvious.
He made a beeline for the other student the moment the bell rang, waiting just long enough for the winners to be announced before grabbing him by the hand and dragging him towards the teachers' stand.
"What are you doing-!" Monoma protested, though he conveniently stayed quiet while Izuku knocked on the doors.
"Is All Might there?" He asked Midnight when she opened the doors. "I need to talk with him-"
All Might came into view then, passing by Midnight with a word of thanks before ushering Izuku and Monoma both towards the closest empty room.
"First," he said, once the doors were closed and locked behind them. "I must say, congratulations on the soulmateship!"
Monoma didn't really look impressed. Honestly, Izuku didn't feel all that happy about that, either, but that's because he was too busy being worried.
"All Might..."
"I believe, my boy, that you might be the one to unlock the singularity within your quirk," the hero told him sagely. "You will likely be the first holder to get the full potential of Stockpile-"
Multiple dots had just connected itselves within Izuku's brain, like someone zooming out on a network map.
"Stockpile..." He repeated reverently, mentally checking out of the conversation for a hot minute.
All Might, because he was the best, used that time to get Monoma up to speed on the existence of passable quirks and the fact that Izuku was the proud newest owner of the only known one.
"And now you are the co-owner of it, I suppose," he finished, in the tone of someone who's not certain how to feel about a successor to their legacy that stumbled upon it by accident rather than choice.
All Might was getting a crash course in "parents meeting the first boyfriend", was Izuku's thought at that, and the violent blush brought him fully into the present.
"We're soulmates, so it has to be okay," he pointed out reasonably. "Honestly, now that I know it's a stickpile and not a regular strengthening quirk, it makes sense for the matchup to be a quirk capable of copying others; Soulmates often have complimentary quirks."
"Wait, okay, so, let me get this straight," Monoma raised his hands, and then pointed between All Might and Izuku. "You gave him a quirk -- which, insane favouritism to begin with -- and now it turns out that not only you have a legacy quirk, you have more than one legacy quirk?"
Izuku grinned sheepishly. "And we can experiment on them together?"
"Deal."