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Izuku has never been a fan of the idea of soulmates. The idea itself was fine, when a person turned 18 they would get the name of the person they were meant to be with strewn across their wrist and the names of their closest friends on their upper forearm. It was a phenomenon which had happened to all quirked people since the dawn of quirks.
The problem was, as it often is, with the execution of it.
People didn't always match their soulmate. A strange concept, but it was true. Put quite simply, a person’s soulmate was determined by their best possible person to match to, not the best possible combination.
It was relatively rare for a set of soulmates to actually match one another. As such, it was more of a fantasized idea than anything else. Izuku truthfully doesn’t know a single true soulmate pair. Most people simply ignored the name on their wrists and followed their hearts instead, no matter how disastrous.
Despite all of that, Izuku didn’t expect to get a soulmate written on his wrist or upper arm at all.
He was born quirkless, afterall, no matter the fact that he’d spent nearly two years with One for All before losing it during the war.
His birthday is only hours away now. Class 1-A has been preparing a party for him over the course of the last week, preventing him from entering common areas.
Katsuki has also been distant at best over the last few months, his focus ironclad on his future as a hero and little else. But at the very least Izuku had seen him helping with the preparations for his birthday party.
The rest of his friends helped to make up for Katuski's distance, but he still missed the boy who'd become his best friend.
He tries not to let it bother him too much though. This is already leagues better than his past couple of birthdays, (considering there’d always been something or other villain related going on.)
The fact that at least most of his friends are still just that, here and totally invested in throwing him a party brings a small smile to his face, regardless of Kacchan’s distance.
Izuku sighs and fidgets with his shirt sleeves, long to the wrist for once, instead of his usual casual printed tees. If anyone asks about it he’s ready to grin at them with a response about being photo ready for today, with a nice button down dress shirt and pressed slacks to match.
But the truth of it is…
Well soulmarks are known to appear at the exact hour that you turn eighteen. And Izuku doesn’t know when exactly that will be.
Sure a part of him is bracing for nothing at all to happen. But either way he wants to protect his privacy as much as possible, wants the ability to check the names that appear in private, to cry or sigh without anyone around to see it.
He could have called his mother and asked her what the exact time of his birth had been…
But he hadn’t wanted to get her excited for it either.
He just…
Wants to pretend that nothing is about to change.
For as long as he possibly can.
That was, even if he would get one at all.
He tries to not particularly get his hopes up in either direction. Scientists hadn't ever figured out what the actual trigger was for soulmates being connected to quirks, so it was truly a toss up if he would get one or not.
He makes his way downstairs with a gentle intake of breath, careful not to make a lot of noise.
He wasn't fully sure he was able to head downstairs yet, but he couldn't keep just waiting.
The sun is coming straight through the curtains to the common room, bathing the area in a warm light and illuminating all the glitter in the birthday decorations the rest of his class had put up.
Ochako beams at him, bright and loud, as he enters the room.
“Happy birthday!” she yells.
The rest of the class, from their places putting finishing touches on decorations, chime up in a surrounding chorus of love and support.
He grins at her, glancing around the room to observe all of the decorations. “You guys really outdid yourselves,” he tells her fondly.
“We wanted to make sure it was perfect for you! It's been a crazy few years for all of us.”
He can already feel the smile embedding itself onto his face. He doubted it would go away that night.
For the longest time Izuku just stands there in the entryway, beaming with slightly teary eyes as he slowly takes it all in.
Tenya is waving his arms excitedly, seemingly oblivious to the streamers and balloons someone has hung from them that jump and dance with his every move.
Shouto has a party favor in his mouth and he’s strolling aimlessly about the room, casually walking up to people so that when he blows into the cheap paper roll, the paper unfurls to whack them lightly in the cheek.
Kyouka, Fumikage and Momo are gearing up to play some live music, the three of them having formed somewhat of an official band following the culture festival that Denki sometimes takes part in.
Tonight however Denki, like Shouto before him, has decided to be a menace, swiping his hands above various classmates’ heads with the teeny tiniest amount of his quirk active so that their hair stands up straight with static.
He doesn’t approach Katsuki, likely because he doesn’t want to die, but also Izuku can’t help but notice that Kacchan seems a bit more on edge tonight than usual.
At length Ochako dashes into the center of the room, twirling excitedly in her cute party dress so the skirt flares out prettily. She presses her fingertips together with a bright and cheery, “release!” that sends what feels like hundreds of balloons previously chilling on the ceiling cascading down like a colorful squeaky waterfall to fill the entire common room floor below.
“The floor is lava!” Hanta cheers, immediately yanking himself into the air with his quirk.
Izuku’s classmates are quick to follow suit, those without flight quirks leaping onto the furniture while Ochako floats around the room giving out high fives to whoever reaches out to her.
Rikido is bustling around the kitchen with the finish touches on the various baked goodies he’d prepared and…
And through it all Izuku stands in the doorway, beaming at so many of his precious loved ones doing all this just to celebrate him.
He moves into the room quickly, jumping as quickly as he can into the main part of the room to get a high five from Ochako. There’s a couch nearby to jump off of and some of the hanging decorations are made of cording almost as if they were planning to have them all play floor is lava from the get go.
Given the fact that he’s worked out far more extensively with his own strength and mobility than the rest of his peers to keep up without a quirk, he’s able to navigate far better than those without movement or mobility based quirks.
It’s a wonderful day.
Every member of his class chose a different game for them all to play throughout the day, turning the day into a competition on top of a celebration.
He really couldn’t be more thankful for his peers. Over the past few years, 1-A had really become his family.
After all their games are done and the whole class is just starting to get hungry, Kacchan pokes his head out of the kitchen which he had retreated to for the last few games.
“Oi, extras. Dinner is ready.”
Dinner was katsudon. Of course. Because what else would it be when it had been Izuku’s favorite food since he was little and Kacchan had always been by his side.
Even when they were in middle school and Kacchan didn’t even tolerate him, he still helped Izuku’s mother to make katsudon for his birthday every single year.
It was how Kacchan always showed that he still cared, regardless of what happened the entire rest of the year.
After they finished eating, the party started to slowly wind down. A few of his classmates started to pack up the decorations and another few began to take care of the dishes and games from earlier.
During dinner Ochako offers to host a sleepover in the common room for them all, but Izuku gently brushes her aside. All he wants to do is head into his room and confirm whether or not he got soulmarks.
He offers a bright grin to his peers, thanking them once again, before heading up to his room.
Sitting down on his bed, the door already locked shut behind him, he takes a deep breath.
In many ways, he doesn’t really want to know one way or another, but he knows it’s not something he can avoid forever.
He moves to begin unbuttoning his top when a knock sounds at his door.
“Izuku, can I come in?” Kacchan asks from the other side, softer than he’s heard from his best friend in a long time.
And really Izuku kind of wants to brush him off, really wants— no needs— to be alone right now.
But also…
Kacchan has been distant. For what feels like months at this point.
Yet here he is, reaching out first. If Izuku pushes him away now… will he ever reach out again?
A part of Izuku flinches back at the very thought and before he knows what he’s doing he’s already pulling the door open.
Kacchan nods and walks past him without a word and Izuku lets out a long sighing breath and slowly locks the door shut again.
For a couple of breaths he simply stands there, facing the door, bracing himself to face whatever had been so important that Kacchan had practically followed him up here.
As the silence continues to stretch Izuku sighs one last time before finally turning around. “What’s up Kacchan?” he asks, his voice coming out quieter and more hesitant than he’d really like.
Kacchan hesitates and Izuku can see him work his jaw silently and swallow a couple of times before he finally speaks.
“Statistically speaking… most soulmarks don’t actually amount to anything. People don’t always know the name that appears on their wrist and even if they do there’s no guarantee anything will actually happen…”
Izuku gapes at him. “I. I know that Kacchan. I’m not expecting anything.”
Kacchan nods. “Good. That's… good. I’m not expecting anything either.”
And Izuku… stops.
He’d been so wrapped up in his own head about getting his soulmarks today that it hadn’t really registered that Katsuki’s birthday had already passed. A couple of months ago in fact.
…around the same time Kacchan had started avoiding him actually.
For the longest time Izuku just stares at Katsuki, willing his best friend to look at him.
Kacchan refuses to meet his eyes, his hands fidgeting with the sweatband he’d started wearing over his wrist and—
“Who’s name is on your wrist Kacchan?”
The question slips out unbidden but Izuku doesn’t even try to take it back because Kacchan’s head has whipped up to stare at him like a deer caught in the headlights.
“It doesn’t matter—“
“Who’s name, Kacchan!”
And slowly, ever so slowly, Kacchan slips the sweatband off his wrist and turns it so Izuku can read it. “Yours,” he croaks.
The Midoriya family waterworks, if they weren’t strong earlier in the day, are certainly strong now. He sucks in a deep breath before gently reaching out to take Kacchan’s hand in his, pulling his best friend close to his chest in a hug.
He pulls them both to be sitting on the edge of his bed.
He hasn’t seen Kacchan cry since he was small and yet here, in his arms, his best friend is slowly soaking the edge of his shirt.
“Did you look yet?” Kacchan asks him ever so softly.
Izuku’s breath hitches in his throat.
“No.” He pauses. “You know I was born quirkless-” His hands tense up. “I wasn’t sure if I would have any.”
The wheels seem to take a moment to churn in Kacchan’s mind.
“I see.”
Kacchan holds him tight for another minute, allowing them both the time to cry out all their tears.
The world seems to still for just the two of them.
“May I?” Kacchan eventually asks him. He doesn’t need to clarify.
Izuku takes another deep breath before nodding.
They both stand back up.
He lets Kacchan undo the buttons on his shirt with gentle care and slide it off of him, folding the shirt and setting it on Izuku’s desk. He knew he was shaking too much at this point to even so much as attempt it.
Izuku keeps his own eye contact with the ceiling as Kacchan takes his wrist gently, gasping slightly as he looks down at it.
Kacchan just gives him another hug.
“Check it,” Kacchan tells him.
There, on his shaking wrist, is the name of his best friend.
A matching pair.
He can’t seem to stop shaking, the various conflicting emotions slowly overwhelming him as he begins to cry once more in Kacchan’s arms.
“Do you want to try this?” Kacchan asks him.
“Yes,” Izuku chokes out without hesitation.
And perhaps that’s all there is to it.