Chapter Text
Being born into a world in which he holds god-like powers, Saiki Kusuo is able to heal himself with nothing more than a thought to complete the process. Sometimes, he does wonder whether his soulmate would be able to see all of the memories accompanied by the flesh marks he’s had to heal. But as quickly as the thoughts appear, he shoos them away, there’s no way that he could have a soulmate, it would be too much of a pain.
So, he goes through school life, watching in amusement at some of the people who end up becoming soulmates. He’s older and he does believe in soulmates having watched his insufferable parents his entire life.
Once, just for fun, he’d held his mother’s hand to look for scars on his father, he’d been startled to find most of them spanning over his arms and a few were creeping up from his shirt.
So, he surmised that emotional scars were displayed as well, because his mother had them as well, far fewer, but there were still some surrounding her chest.
“Ehh? You can see the scars?” His father had cried in shock.
Saiki nods once, he’s old enough to know now that it’s fairly rare for one to actually meet one’s soulmate. Which is good for him, and his potential soulmate, because he doesn’t really want to picture the mess of scars his skin would look like.
He’s not saying that he’s an emotional disaster though he does suppose that he’s mildly emotionally constipated. What he’s more worried about are the countless times he’s been hurt bad enough for a regular human to immediately perish.
He also knows that one can have more than a single soulmate, polyamorous relationships exist, and since soulmates reflect who is the perfect complement to everything about yourself. But, considering that, there are also reports of platonic soulmates, persons who have identified as aromantic or asexual or both still having soulmate bonds. According to society, soulmates are strictly romantic bonds but such a theory is still debated.
Saiki knows that he’s not sexually attracted to any gender. It’s simply not his cup of tea, but the question then remains that if he does have a soulmate, would they understand the concept?
He hopes that he never meets his soulmate, simply so that all of these messy emotions remain unanswered.
*
It’s the beginning of a new school year, he’s unexcited to say the least, school is one of his least favourite places on the face of the earth. He’s constantly under scrutiny to remain the most unremarkable, average person of the year.
Either way, school is annoying, people are annoying.
Nendou, being the idiot without any thoughts he is, manages to creep up behind him and terrify him as per usual. Not that he’d visibly react to it, he’s not that stupid. Nendou has an interesting complexion, a face that only a mother could love, but the most interesting part of it is that a giant scar runs the length of his eye. He has fewer scars on him than what his mother had, which isn't surprising considering the buffoon acts like he has one state of existence; annoying Saiki.
So, unfortunately, he has to be a soulmate of Saiki, but either the idiot doesn’t realise it or doesn’t care. He’s betting on the latter, it would be rude to comment on one’s scars if everybody could see them, so Nendou has yet to say anything.
Saiki is happy with that, if he doesn’t realise that they share a soulmate bond, then he doesn’t have to go through the awkwardness of deciding what to do with the knowledge of being soulmates.
“Guess who.” He says, awfully cheerful for the beginning of the year.
‘Idiot, who else can sneak up behind me?’ He thinks to himself, already ready for school to be over.
Unfortunately, his plan to not stick out goes to shit on the very first day, with Nendou getting him into the ambulance on accident.
‘Good grief, if this is the way that the year is going to go then I’m out.’ He thinks, lying upon the stretcher as paramedics hustle him into ambulance.
The following day, walking into the lockers, he’s swapping shoes when he hears the tail-end of a student’s thoughts, ‘What the hell? I’m soulmates with this guy? How the fuck does he have so many scars?! Who hurt him? Okay, calm down Kaidou, maybe he’s been abused, it would explain the burns, cuts etcetera but how are you supposed to approach him? He’s your soulmate! You can’t just casually comment on his scars, that’s rude- oh shit he’s coming over this way. Maybe he can see my scars too. Act casual!’
The kid with bandages on his hands looks over, a blush staining his scarred cheeks, barely sparing him a glance, Saiki walks past him into the school hallway. Maybe he’ll get lucky, maybe the kid won’t be in his class, maybe fate will look upon him…
He takes his seat in class and crosses his fingers silently that the kid’s thoughts will go on past. Of course, luck has never favoured him and the kid walks into his class, “Oi, aibou, that kid’s looking at you.” Nendou points to Kaidou who startles out of his gaze.
Saiki sighs as Kaidou makes his way over. “H-hello, I’m K-Kaidou.” The boy sticks out his hand, Saiki ignores it, hopefully not being talked to will make him go away.
‘Man, what is this guy’s deal? He’s my soulmate, right? That means he can probably see my scars. So why’s he ignoring me? Is it that he’s not into dudes? Oh fuck, what if he’s homophobic?! But what about that big guy? He’s got a scar on his face and on his arms. He’s clearly a soulmate.’
‘Good grief, he isn’t going to go away, is he?’ Saiki extends his hand, blank face employed as per usual.
“I’m Nendou, runt.” Nendou sticks a thumb into his chest. “You wanna get ramen this afternoon?”
“Sure!” ‘Thank god, then we can talk about… this.’ Kaidou thinks to himself.
Saiki huffs a small sigh, this is going to be a mess, he can feel a headache coming on from dealing with the pair for the small amount of time he has.
After school has ended, the trio meet up at the gates, “There’s this real great ramen bar, I’ll show you guys to it.” Nendou exclaims with a grin.
“O-okay.” Kaidou stutters out, following the pair quietly.
“Oi, runt, why have you got bandages?” Nendou asks out of the blue, as they wait in line to get into the ramen bar.
“Ah, that’s -ah, because…”
‘Because you have 8th grader syndrome’ Saiki surmises for him.
‘I can’t just tell him that I’ve got worse scars underneath here than what’s on my face…’ Kaidou’s mind unwittingly flashes back to junior high school in which he was bullied for being a nerd. From what Saiki can gather, the scars underneath his bandages are more so emotional than physical scars.
“Because I have a power that I have to keep sealed away or else the entire world would explode. To protect the world from the Dark Reunion! I, Jet Black Wings, will prevent the Dark Reunion from completing their pl-”
“I see.” Nendou says, shoving a pinkie up his nose.
‘He’s not even listening! Oh well…’
They take their seats and Nendou puts his hand up for three ramens, “Uh, so…” Kaidou begins, Saiki can’t help but feel a little bit sorry for the boy, he’s stuck with both Nendou and himself. “We’re soulmates.”
He whispers the second part but Nendou blinks dumbly at him, “We are?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed either of our scars.” Kaidou exclaims, quieting down at a glare from Saiki.
“Ohh… right… soulmates, I figured that it didn’t matter because Saiki is my aibou.” Nendou says. “My mother told me it’s rude to comment on people’s scars though…”
‘That was surprisingly thoughtful, after all, Saiki does have an awful lot of scars…’
“So… we’re non-romantic soulmates then?” Kaidou asks, scratching his head.
Saiki nods once, just in time, for the ramen to arrive. No more words are shared, they simply dig into the ramen.
‘I wonder how I can ask Saiki about his scars… it makes me worried that he has so many… and he’s so quiet! I haven’t heard him speak once since I’ve met him. I may be weak… but my soulmate is in trouble…’
‘How sweet… and annoying.’ Saiki thinks to himself, hiding a smile behind the ramen.
“Ah well, romantic or non-romantic, you guys have to admit that it’s pretty cool that we found each other this early in life.” Kaidou says with a grin.
That’s one thing that Saiki can agree with, out of all the soulmates groups, he’s found himself these guys this early in his life… God must hate him.
“Well… I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” And thus the group disperses without a further comment. “Oh, would you look at that, I have to go that way too Saiki!” Kaidou sheepishly rubs the back of his neck.
‘Liar.’
Saiki nods once and falls into step with the other boy, “Uh, so, Saki, I know that it’s rude and all to ask about scars, but are you… okay? You’ve got a lot of scars…”
“I’m fine.” He projects to the other boy. “I’m just clumsy sometimes.”
“Right…” Kaidou trails off into an uneasy silence. ‘If he was getting abused… it’s not like he’s going to easily admit it… the best you can do is to be with him.’
Wondering whether he can dispel theories of being abused by inviting Kaidou over, Saiki turns to the other boy, “Do you want to come over? See the place?” It does mean that Kaidou will always know where he lives and thus be capable of coming whenever he wants to, but, he finds it unnerving that he’d think that his parents would abuse him.
One look at them and their loving tendencies should dispel any thoughts of abuse he has.
“O-oh, r-really?” Kaidou asks, surprised.
Saiki shrugs, “Why not? Might as well know where it is now.”
“Ok-kay.” Kaidou says hesitantly, following Saiki through the neighbourhood, his thoughts becoming a jumbled mess that Saiki doesn’t wish to look through.
‘Oi, I’m bringing back a friend.’ It’s a whispered thought into his mother’s mind but regardless he can hear her happy thoughts of ‘My Ku-chan has a friend!’.
“This is your house?” Kaidou asks, looking up in awe at the size of it.
He nods shortly and opens the gate, beckoning the hesitant boy into their home. “Ah! Ku-chan! You brought home a friend!” His mother, as obnoxiously emotional as ever exclaims as she gives the boy a once over.
“I’m Kaidou, pleased to meet you.” Kaidou gives a small bow.
“It’s lovely to meet you too.” His mother cries, twin streams of tears running down her face. “Ku-chan never brings friends home.”
‘Oi, oi,’ He gives a half-hearted glare at the woman, he doesn’t want Kaidou to-
‘I’m Saiki’s friend?! The first he’s brought home?!’ And yup it went straight to his head, a pleased expression springing up on it.
‘Good grief, now he’ll never leave me alone.’ Saiki sighs to himself and shows Kaidou to their loungeroom, flicking on the tv, he makes sure to change to a channel with a show that Kaidou can’t unintentionally spoil for him.
‘Now’s your chance, just ask him, come on Kaidou.’ Kaidou mentally psyches himself up, taking pity, Saiki interrupts.
“Do you want to do our homework together?” It may have been the first day back, but teachers can be downright sadistic when it comes to their workload, especially as it is their last year of junior year.
“Hmm? Yeah, sure.” My mum would probably kill me if I wasn’t doing homework anyway, but when can I ask him?
They splay out the work on the coffee table in the lounge room and get into it, Saiki ensuring that his answers are perfectly average.
Fuck it, you want to be a hero? Ask your soulmate. “Hey Saiki, are things… okay here?”
He tilts his head with the innocence of a child and asks for clarification.
Kaidou licks his lips nervously, “Like, you’ve got a lot of scars man, are your parents…?”
Saiki adamantly shakes his head, “If that was all you were worried about then please, let me assuage your fears, I’m just very clumsy.”
“Okay.” Man I hope that’s the truth.
But when Saiki's father returns home, Kaidou's thoughts calm down in the mess of swirling emotion they'd been in since he met Saiki. He supposes his father has that effect on people.
And just like that, it becomes routine that the three of them go and get ramen together, many a time has the thought crossed Saiki’s mind that perhaps he should tell his soulmates of his abilities. Every time, unfailingly, he quashes the thought, no one may know about the abilities, of course, his family is the exception, but it would be hard to hide from them.
So, he sustains his perfectly average grades, and hangs out with Nendou and Kaidou, it doesn’t matter that he becomes steadily broke for it.