Work Text:
𝔽𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝕀𝕟𝕜
by HomosexualSalmon Inspired by
𝔓𝔢𝔯𝔪𝔞𝔫𝔢𝔫𝔱 ℑ𝔫𝔨 𝔟𝔶 𝔐𝔞𝔵𝔦𝔫𝔢
“Kacchan…” Katsuki paused at the door to the teacher's lounge, the reality of what he and Deku were about to do finally setting it.
The past week, the first week of school after summer break they have been very open about their relationship, their words, and everything to do with this whole ‘being soulmates’ bullshit…To their friends. The only adults in their lives they both explicitly sat down and told were their respective parents. Of course, due to how fucking impossible it is for his friends to keep their mouths shut, Aizawa found out the day they came back to class but the man had little to say about it.
Unlike most of his students, Aizawa wasn't a fucking gossip, so word didn’t spread to the rest of their teachers, annoyingly. Meaning here Katsuki was, after school on Friday. Ready for his weekend with Izuku to start, Having felt like this week he was having to share him with his friends too fucking much. How he survived before not having had a single moment alone with Izuku since middle school, he doesn’t know. He just knows he is annoyed because now he has to go into the teacher lounge, where All-might is waiting like he usually does for their weekly de-brief, and tell his teacher and his childhood idol that he and Deku are soulmates.
His nerves about this entire ordeal have started to appear seemingly out of nowhere…but not really. It’s the small things that he has noticed while parading around campus with Deku in his clutches all week. Not caring if they share a chaste kiss in the lunch room, or sit a little too close to each other in the library while studying. He’s noticed people staring.
The initial stares were simply people being curious. While Katsuki knows not every fucking extra at U.A. knows his whole past with the nerds, He knows there was still an obvious air of rivalry and anger around them before everything changed. Their very public and open fight at ground beta that got them on house arrest helped spread the overall message that Izuku and Katsuki, not the closets of friends. So, Katsuki understood feeling like an animal in a fucking zoo when he suddenly was blushing at Deku and sucking his face off, without shame. He figured at some point, people would fuck off and get bored.
That hasn’t been the case.
A few people, mostly underclassmen that Katsuki normally, wouldn’t give two shits about, have this look in their eyes whenever they pass. It’s a look filled with what Katsuki can only describe as disgust. A look he might have sent someone's way before he turned seventeen, being how before all this he thought this whole ‘soulmates’ thing was fucking stupid…but their eyes only seemed to linger on him and Deku. When walking with Kirishima and Mina, their eyes were focused strictly on them.
After a few days of this, and frankly, being annoyed as shit from the constant uneasy feeling he got just trying to traverse the hallways, he half-heartedly mentioned it to Kaminari who, once again, opened Katsuki’s eyes for him.
“It’s not because Midriya is your soulmate, Kacchan, It’s because he is another guy,” Kaminari said it like it was the fucking most sensical conclusion one could come to.
“Hah?” Katsuki wasn’t an idiot. His mind supplied him with a fear of being judged for Izuku being a guy when his mom had him tell his dad about his soulmate. It was more based on ‘my parents expect that my soulmate will be a girl, that I will give them grandkids .’ then ‘my dad is a fucking homophobic asshole. ’ though.
“Come on, You can’t expect everyone to be on board with same-sex soulmates? Haven't you read the stories online where people swear their words are wrong because they belong to someone who is the same gender?” Katsuki scoffs,
“Fuck no. I don’t read any shit about any of this shit, Until my birthday I didn't care, remember?” Katsuki hides his smirk, if anyone should remember the many awakenings Katsuki’s birthday brought him, it’s Kaminari.
“Yeah but dude, You had to have looked into how your words' appearance worked if you thought you were gay. Right?” Katuski simply shakes his head.
“I didn’t know I was gay until we kissed, dipshit.” And even then, Katsuki never really thought too deeply about it. He was more focused on if Deku was gay, or Bi, or whatever label the nerd could use that at the end of the day meant ‘could be my soulmate’.
“Well, you know now, it’s probably best you at least read some articles or something.”
And Katuski fucking did…But he would never admit to Kaminari that he took his advice and…it was eye-opening, to say the least. He fell down a rabbit hole of stories like Pikachu mentioned about same-sex soulmates and how fucking lucky he and Deku got.
A lot of people older than their parents, even their parents-parents, would go almost their entire lives without meeting their soulmates, because, they didn’t see people of the same fucking gender as an option. Some people died only having met their soulmate once, and thinking the words being said to them were a fluke, because, even if they were fucking tattoed on their arm in permanent ink, them being said by another man was ‘just coincidence.’
That or a lot of people, like himself, had not had an urgency to do that type of self-discovery before they turned seventeen only to find out from their soul mark, that they to some extent must experience same-sex attraction because of who they knew their words were said by. However, Katsuki differs from them because he didn’t think about the fact that Deku is a dude, being more fucking stuck on the fact it was just Deku, Period. Thank god, because a lot of the stories he read were people hating themselves and their soulmates because they weren’t ready to accept that part of themselves, or worse, they already had a prejudice against being attracted to the same sex.
He couldn’t even handle, at this point, reading the stories of people being outed to everyone in their lives by their soulmate's words. Some pictures he saw made Deku’s original words seem nice in comparison. Falling down this rabbit hole, however, made him more curious about the people in his life soulmarks, and what they said. Particularly, his teachers.
It was easy the next few days at school to see what his teacher's words said. He never realized how most of them didn’t seem to try to hide them. Aizawa was the first one he was able to fully make out, being his homeroom teacher. I tend to be loud. Was scribbled across his arm in the oh-so-familiar script. In his English class, he was quite amused when Present Mics arm read You're loud, I’m tired. He knew they were married, but he never cared about their words until now… He found them kinda cute. It told a story, similar to both him and Deku’s current and previous words.
A lot of his other teachers had similar words, clearly first meetings or close to it. Midnight's arm saying Geen, Green, harder almost made Katsuku lose his shit in science class. That's about when he clued Deku in on his little curiosity. They pointed out all the words they saw on anyone's arms to each other the next day, which in turn brought them here, Outside All-might’s office.
It was supposed to be an easy-to-answer question. His boyfriend knows everything there is to know about the former number-one hero, Even more than Katsuki. His answer surprised him, to say the least.
“All-Might doesn’t have any.”
“What? That's impossible?” Katsuki didn’t know a lot about how this shit works, but he is almost certain that's not how it works.
“I don’t know, Kacchan. I’ve seen both his arms and they are blank.” He learned Deku never asked the man about it, simply because it was embarrassing to bring up any type of romantic thing like that with his former childhood hero turned mentor, and Katuski can agree with that, but, he was also so fucking curious. The internet lead him to no real information, just gossip about tattoo removal and shit. Deku suggested they ask him when they tell him they are soulmates and…Katsuki got impatient.
“Give me a second.” Katsuki knew the chances of All-Might not accepting them as soulmates because they are both guys were low…but his brief research online did teach him some things, the number one thing being that All-Might was from the generation of soulmates that were the most anti-same-sex, the ones who died not acknowledging the person they were supposed to become one with. Not knowing anything about All-Might soulmate at all, made Katsuki draw some depressing as fuck conclusions…
Maybe the man really did find a way to remove it because it belonged to another man.
“You can’t seriously be worried All-Might is going to reject us?” Katsuki expressed his worry to Deku last night and of course, his boyfriend, the number one all-might fanboy, was eager to go and tell the older man and rid Katuski of all his worries as well.
“It’s a possibility.” Katsuki can’t help but keep it in the back of his mind.
“One so small, it’s not even worth worrying about. All-Might is friends with Aizawa-Sensei and Yamada-Sensei for crying out loud!” Katsuki himself wouldn’t call them friends…more like coworkers who put up with each other. Their teacher seems to just be annoyed by the man if anything…having known All-might personally now he kinda gets it. He can be aloof at the best of times and loud all the time.
Katsuki turned the handle into the room, greeted by the same skeletal smile as they are every week, the sofa opposite of the man ready for them to sit, a tray with cookies and tea set out, thoughtfully.
“Midoriya and Bakugo-Shonen! You are a bit late, boys! Come sit! We have a lot to discuss.” Katsuki swallows hard hearing that, sharing a look with Deku. They were certain the man hadn’t found out, but they never knew who could have said what, whe— “We haven't had a chance to talk since before summer break, I must hear about your internships!”
Ah. so he has no idea.
“Actualy, All-Might…There is something me and Kacchan wanted to talk to you about before we get into any Hero stuff.” Katsuki stiffens. Funny how within a week his body's initial reaction to any stressful emotion is to reach down and grab the nerds hand for reassurance when before, he simply exploded the sweat on his hands and yelled at anyone and everyone.
“Oh, well I’m all ears, boys.” Katsuki simply follows his boyfriend's lead, sitting down, with a little less space between them than usual but who would notice that? Deku doesn’t come right out with it. All-Might offers them cookies and tea and Deku makes them each a cup with a few sugars each, less for Katsuki’s because somehow in a week, Deku learned how he takes his tea, or maybe, he always knew.
“We wanted to talk to you about—” Katsuki has taken this time to just, look at All-Might. He never has gotten used to being able to observe the man up close, so casually. He doesn’t fucking fan girl over him all the time Like Deku still does. The shock has worn off a lot, but getting to see every wrinkle, every crease in his suit up close, seeing how they have changed over the years, is truly something Katsuki thinks he might never not get a kick out of.
Katsuki's eyes fall on All-Might's arm for a moment, exactly where Deku’s own words are scrawled across his arm, and it’s blank. Just as Deku said. Nothing is there, not even a scar or a faint reminisce…He can’t help the feeling of curiosity that's bubbling up inside him, alongside the fear he's been building all morning.
“About your soulmate!” Katsuki—admittedly should probably have let their confession come first, seeing as it was seconds away from leaving Deku’s lips, but, Katsuki feels like All-Might’s is more important. His and Deku’s words are here, they are bright and fresh, new. Permanent ink, While Katsuki can’t shake that somehow, All-might were not. It just doesn’t make sense he never had a soulmate. Katsuki can’t fathom not having what he feels for Deku.
“Kacchan!” Deku scolds him, for interpupting or for his tactlessness, He is sure he will hear about it once they are alone, but the look on the older mans face is enough to make Katsuki start to regret his actions. All-Might looks—lost.
“Y-You don’t have to tell us, You know if you don’t want to! Kacchan asked me about your words and I—I’ve seen your arm…” Deku’s words trail off as the former number-one hero rolls his sleeve up completely, rubbing his arm fondly.
“I wondered if this would ever come up. It’s usually something people ask me sooner.” Katsuki’s brows furrow. It doesn’t seem to him like this is something the older man was prepared for them to ask about, considering how far away his words feel from the present.
“So, You had words? How is that possible?” the book on soulmates that Ponytail lent him and he never even opened, suddenly feels far more important than it did when it was thrust into his and Deku’s hands last week…
“Nobody talks about it, I don’t think it’s very much in the spirit of Soulamates. The fairytale we have made of it, that is. I guess each of you will learn of this one day, when I’m long gone, hopefully no sooner…Bakugo-Shonen, Midoriya-Shonen, It’s possible but only when one’s Soulmate passes.”
Deku’s sharp intake of air is the only sound in the room after All-Might’s lips press into a film line. Katsuki doesn’t know what to do, besides, grasp at his arm, feel the slightly raised skin under his sleeve…A physical reminder that Deku is here. He is alive.
“All-Might—You’re saying—” Deku seems to be at a loss for words, just like Katsuki but him is far more telling, His boyfriend always has something to say. Katsuki for once, fills the space with his own words, his questions, Selfishtly, He has so many…
“Did you ever meet her?” All-Might laughs slightly under his breath before responding.
“Of course! We met far later in life. It wasn't as young and fun like, like some, Your teachers have more of a fairytale story if you're interested.” Katsuki wonders if that was All-Might attempt to stop this, to not talk about it now, or ever again. To not have to think about the soulmate he lost.
“Did you—Were you in love?” It’s a weird word to hear, Love. Specifically coming from Deku’s lips. Katsuki would be lying if he didn’t already feel love for his soulmate, even if the romantic aspect of their relationship is so new. Is Deku asking if All-Might and his soulmate dated? If they married? Or if they just loved each other?
“I don’t think I spent a single day since we met where I wasn’t in love. Even when we were apart.” Katsuki's mind flashes to stories he read online of people who met their soulmate while traveling, far, far away from their daily, established lives, forced to be away from their other half for years at a time due to unfortunate circumstances. Katsuki never felt more lucky to have grown up down the road from Deku.
“She must have been great.” Katsuki doesn’t know why he says it. He knows nothing about this woman. But, just the look in All-Might eyes, He can feel the memories that are flashing behind his eyes, the way they shine. He sees it in his own eyes when he thinks of Deku, late at night, washing his face, or brushing his teeth, and it scares him.
“He was.”
Both Katsuki and Izuku don’t realize what the hero said at first, still caught up in the sadness of it all. Katsuki is the first to replay the hero’s words in his head—
“H-He?” whether it be Katsuki's uncharacteristic sputter, or the words finally registering, Deku’s focus shoots up from his lap.
“Yes, I guess I should have clarified earlier, My soulmate was Sir, Young Midoriya.” Katsuki looks over at Deku instantly at the address, green eyes already shining, rimmed red in an instant. He wasn’t there. Half their class wasn’t, but of course, he's heard of All-Mights former side-kicks passing. Sir Nighteye’s death was something that hit Deku, Kirishima, Uraraka—all the people Katsuki is finding he is holding closer and closer recently, hard. Of course, he knew it was hard on All-Might. They were publicly friends—and rumored to not be very close long before his passing. He has heard stories from Pros over the years being at U.A. What it's like to lose friends and loved ones because of this high-risk career they have all chosen. That is what Sir’s death was to him, and many others. Another hero lost too early.
But for All-Might—It was the loss of his soulmate.
“I’m so sorry! All-Might! I–I didn’t—I could have tried—Had I known—” Katsuki reaches for Deku’s hand the moment the sob tears from his lips, grasping it tight between them. All-Might doesn’t miss it. Katsuki can see, even as he tries to comfort Deku, his eyes falling on their intertwined fingers.
“Midoriya-Shonen! You did the right thing. You saved Young Eri. Sasaki-san—Sir, He would have wanted that young girl to live. You would not have been able to change what happened, even had you known what we were to each other.” Katsuki knows all of All-Might’s words, everything he is saying is already known to Deku. He wasn't close with him then, but, Everyone heard him up at night, whether it be aimlessly muttering to himself in the common room, pacing till the sun rose, or screaming in his sleep until his nightmare subsided. He felt guilty, but, He also, is a hero who knows more than anyone, he can’t save everyone.
“You two had a bit of an age difference, huh?” Deku wipes his eyes, a shaky smile trying but failing to fall naturally on his face. Katsuki squeezes his hand.
“I don’t know shit about soulmates, but I know my parents are close in age…and well—” Katsuki taps his finger on Deku’s knuckle. They are three months apart in age…
“12 years. It was a shock to me…Sasaki-san was able to use his quirk to see his word long before he got them. Not that it did us any good. I had my words not knowing who they were from, longer than after I heard them.”
“That's probably for the best, He was in elementary school when you were in your last year at U.A.” Katsuki’s eyes widened at the realization, It’s not something he ever thought about. All-Might notices his shocked expression and laughs,
“We were well into our respective adulthoods when we met. It’s a funny story. I rejected anything to do with him when he first approached me. He was a fan, not too dissimilar to you, Young Midoriya. He was very—intense about wanting to be my sidekick. It wasn’t our first words on our arms so I had no idea who he was when I turned him away. Thank god he was persistent. Sasaki-san was just as surprised as I was when the words on my arm fell from his mouth and Vise-vera…It was a few days into our official debut as hero and sidekick.”
“You don’t have to tell us—”
“Oh boys, I have no qualms telling you our words, they were nothing special, but we learned to love them. Mine said knock, knock and his said, Who’s there?” All-might at that moment, smiles so wide, Katsuki doesn't know if he has ever seen a photo of him seeming so happy…It makes the whole situation hit so much harder.
“You both must have been so confused!? Those aren’t unique—anyone could have told you a joke at any point!” Deku exclaims, Katsuki hadn’t thought about that—he and Deku’s words were so, unique. There was no question they were each others.
“It’s part of the reason I kept my words hidden so well. I knew in my line of work, so many people wished I would be their soulmate. I would have been told knock knock jokes left and right—But Sasaki was the first person to randomly, tell me a joke.”
“What was the joke?” Katsuki lets the question slip from his lips, not realizing how personal it is.
“I—Don’t remember…at some point, it slipped my mind, and when I realized that, He was already gone.”
“All-Might—” Katsuki can’t. He can’t think about how much that would fucking kill him. He wants to remember every single smile, every single word Deku says, Forgetting the ones that intertwined them, while Katsuki wished for a long time he never told Deku to take a swan dive off the roof—now he didn’t. It was what connected them and made them so much better, Him be so much better.
“The words don’t matter, What matters is what comes after. Do you hear me?” Katsuki looks over at Deku, who is staring down at their hands, still intertwined.
“All-Might! Me and Kaccha—”
“D–Izuku is my Soulmate, All-Might. I was freaking the fuck out before we came in here because I didn’t know if you would accept that we are both like—”
“Men?” All-might supplies the awkward statement, Katsuki is, admittedly, still getting used to being so point-blank about that part. “In my line of work, you spend a lot of time around—strong men in, how do I say this…tight spandex unitards…I had a suspicion my soulmate was male, and it never bothered me.”
“Kacchan—see! You should have known, You are also around alot of men in spandex!” Deku teases him, Poking his cheek playfully. Holding back there quickly growing affectionate tendency is out of the water now.
“So you kept it from the media because—you didn’t want people trying to trip you up, say fucking knock knock jokes? But—After? Deku said he saw your arm and never saw any words, so you kept them hidden?” Katsuki ignores Deku, he knows he is an idiot who…was just a fucking late bloomer. He doesn’t need that to be rubbed in his face in front of All-Might.
“It wasn’t because we are two men. Please, Boys. Don’t get that in your head. I think you and Bakugo, if you choose to do so, will have no problems being out, being the number one and two heroes someday. Sasaki however, wanted to be sure we would have a similar fate. When he used his quirk to make sure our coming out would be accepted, he instead saw us apart. We didn’t know why or how it happened, and we tried our hardest to stay together but—we clashed. It wasn't that I didn’t love him, or he didn’t love me but the fear of losing each other was too much—” Katsuki's eyes begin to burn, his situation with Deku—he relates to that part. Their words might not have been cute, or fairytale-like, and they might not have been the perfect pair from the start but in his entire life, deep down he has had a fear of losing Deku. He felt like a permanent being in his life forever, even if they weren’t friends. he was a constant.
The idea of him being anything but that is the scariest thing in the world to Katsuki.
“And your words they—?” Deku took the last question Katsuki had out of his mouth. He will never see it. Mark his words, he will never see the words leave his arm. Seeing them leave Deku’s arm just a few days ago, even for a moment was terrifying enough.
“Slowly, they faded. I wasn’t sure why at first. I worried it was because somehow, I lost my love for Sasaki-san, but, I learned it’s more so of an opening. I’ve heard stories of other people, around the world, getting new words later in life, someone else who lost their original soulmate. I’ve gotten none, I’ll be honest I'm not completely ready for that, but, in years to come, I think it could be nice to have that again—the feeling of being connected it’s—”
“Something you can’t imagine living without once you have it.” Katsuki finished All-Might thought, because, he feels the same.
“Kacchan.” Deku smiles at him, Squeezing his hand tightly.
Fin.