Chapter Text
When Saiki tells you his soulmate was an idiot, he means exactly that – his soulmate was a stupid dumbass. One would think he was just saying it, but his lover was exactly as described. The psychic almost always had to bear thousands of injuries during his lifetime, and while it was just a flash of pain; it was still extremely annoying. His soulmate seemed to get themselves a new injury on a daily basis, so often that even a psychic as powerful as Saiki was bothered by it. It wasn’t until he went to PK academy that he realized that there was another human on the earth that was even stupider than whoever his soulmate was.
Nendou, was the name this person went by, Nendou Riki.
The mohawked man was interesting to say the least, but Saiki would like to refer to him as a baboon at the most. The man seemed oblivious to the world around him, and went about life as if he lived in a completely different universe. Saiki had felt bad for Nendou’s soulmate, if he even had one, since the guy was such an idiot. In every occasion that Saiki and Nendou had interacted, it usually ended with Nendou almost mortally injuring himself and the psychic having no choice but to save him from harm.The pinkette had sincerely hoped that the towering boy’s soulmate would give him a coffee jelly or something because this was just too much work.
Speaking of coffee jelly, Saiki was feeling a sudden craving for the sweet delicacy. He hadn’t had a taste of the dessert for the past week, and he didn’t know how much longer he could endure the withdrawel. He’d been feeling a strange feeling today, unlike the usual neutrality he usually felt every year on this day. As if there was something good about to happen.
Today was National Soulmate day, basically Valentines day but only the people who actually found their soulmate can really celebrate it. It’d be a bit hard to celebrate with your soulmate if you haven’t found them yet.
Saiki was among the people who haven’t found their soulmate yet, but that was fine with him. He’d rather spend a day with his delicious coffee jelly than someone who nearly dies every other day. The psychic still remembered the horrid pain he had once felt on his tongue of all places. Who in the world gets mortally injured from biting their tongue?
He pulled on his favorite purple cardigan, picked up his wallet from his desk and found that he had enough money to buy himself some coffee jello right then. Quickly changing his clothes, he bid his loving parents goodbye and ran out of his front door. His hands were shaking from excitement as he clutched the wallet in his pocket, he couldn’t wait but teleporting was not ideal at the moment since everyone could see him.
He sped down the streets that were between his house and the wonderful cafe that was, Cafe Mami. After only a few minutes of running, he spotted his beloved from afar and sped up. Standing in front of the shiny glass doors, he almost fell to his knees in relief; it was so beautiful.
Excited, he pushed open the doors and the waft of the store’s interior hit him right in the face. Because of the holiday, the cafe was bustling today. Soulmates were in every corner, sharing desserts with each other and having a good time. The air was filled with love, and those thoughts invaded the psychic’s mind as he picked them up with his telepathy. But that didn’t matter to Saiki, as long as he got to eat his coffee jelly again. He was elated to finally be able to enter this cafe once more, full of lovers or not.
Right when he thought God was real, a voice came booming from behind him, “HEYY BUDDY!”
The psychic spun around and was met face to face with none other than Nendou. The 50% balding man smiled triumphantly as the shorter boy kept a controlled poker face. He was not expecting to see this man here today.
He still had a good feeling about today though, and he wasn’t going to let that be ruined by anyone, even this boy.
“Hello Nendou, what are you doing here?”
As expected, Nendou was alone. Either he ditched his soulmate somewhere, or he never even found his soulmate. Saiki was 99% sure it was the latter.
The man was holding a diversity of curtains in his arms, making it seem like he was dragging a rainbow of cloth behind him. The pinkette decided to not question the unnecessary amount of drapes the other had with him.
“I’m collecting curtains! You wanna join me?” He asked, as if going around collecting curtains was a completely normal activity. Saiki subconsciously facepalmed as he took a few steps inside the cafe, letting his classmate follow him.
“No Nendou, I don’t want to collect curtains. What are you even going to use them for?” Saiki replied blandly as he walked down the floor of the cafe; looking for a decent place to sit. Nendou followed him into the cafe, the drapes trailing behind him.
The psychic notices his favorite seat near the corner of the expanse was taken by a woman who was alone, so he had no choice but to take the booth closest to the exit. Which in turn, had given the taller boy an opportunity to slide in the seat opposite to the teenage esper, because this booth happened to be a double.
“Can’t say, Buddy! It’s a surprise for your birthday,” it most definitely wasn’t his birthday. In fact, it wouldn’t be his birthday for another few months. But by this point, Saiki couldn’t even be bothered to question the things Nendou said anymore. Rolling his eyes for a moment, he noticed Mera happily walk up to the two boys’ table.
“Hi Saiki, hi Nendou! What can I get you two?” She asked as she gave a polite smile to the both of them.
“I’d like a coffee jello,” Saiki said as excitedly as someone like him could possibly get, which isn’t very much. He looked over to Nendou, and saw that the man was eyeing the window veils with a hungry expression. Saiki decided to turn away from whatever he just saw and looked back at Mera, who seemed to be waiting for Nendou’s order. The girl, concerned, quickly tapped the boy’s shoulder.
“Um Nendou, what would you like?” Nendou whipped his head around with such speed that his neck twisted on itself. The girl with braided hair jumped back in freight as Saiki unconsciously rubbed his neck with a dull pain sprouting.
“I’ll take the same as my Buddy!” Nendou practically screamed and he leaned in the direction of the girl and ‘whispered’.
“You know, it’s my buddy’s birthday today,” he said while staring straight at Saiki, who was trying to not make eye contact, “and I wanted to do something special today for him.” Something pleasant arose around Saiki’s chest area, and if it wasn’t for the fact that today was not his birthday he would have actually felt grateful.
Mera nodded at this, “Oh! I didn’t know it was your birthday today Saiki!” The psychic turned to her and was about to say that it was definitely not his birthday when the waitress continued, “We’ll make the coffee jello on the house for you today and give you a second one, considering the special occasion.” She finished with a smile.
“Thanks.” He replied, any disagreement about his actual birthdate dying at the sound of free coffee jello. Nodding, the waitress made a mental note and skipped her way to other tables to take note of orders. Saiki relaxed in his chair, basking in the glory that was free coffee jelly. Okay, He didn’t feel too great that he had to lie about it but what could he do? It’s not like he was the one who…
Squinting his eyes at the boy across from him, his glory ended and he remembered that Nendou would probably do something extremely stupid today. The pinkette’s classmate was currently tying knots using his vast amount of curtains, stringing them together into a long rope of some kind. What in the actual world was he doing? The esper decided to ignore his classmate for now and observe the lively cafe displayed before him. With his mind being assaulted by thoughts of love, he saw the many people holding hands, and happily hanging out with one another at their respective booths.
He thought about his own soulmate, which he knows nothing about other than the fact that they got themselves in life-threatening situations on the daily. Sometimes Saiki would wake up in the middle of the night feeling a sharp pain from somewhere on himself. Which was an impressive feat, considering how his psychic powers usually helped nullify any pain that came his way. In fact, right this instant the esper felt like something was blocking blood circulation in his arm.
Sometimes the psychic wished that he and his soulmate had a different type of bond method. He’s seen other people meet by following the feathery red string that connected them, or by being brought to a world full of color after making eye contact for the first time.
But no, instead of a simple name written on his wrist, Saiki has to deal with the endless bouts of pain that his soulmate continuously manages to get themselves into. By this point, he can’t even bring himself to care about how he can barely feel his fingers, it’s just a common occurrence now.
And not only that, but he’s beginning to suspect that he and his soulmate also share an emotional bond as well alongside a physical one. Sometimes he would get random bursts of emotion in him that he knows aren’t warranted by anything. It isn’t unheard of for soulmates to have multiple methods of bonds, but it wasn’t every other person who had them.
He glances back at Nendou and sees the other has managed to get one of his hands tangled in the knot that he was tying. The balding student was actually trying to use his mouth to untie the cluster but was somehow making it even worse. The tie was only getting tighter around his hand, and the fool didn’t seem to realize he could use his other hand to help untie it.
WIthout warning, he abruptly paused to look up and catch Saiki’s gaze, which was certainly not preferable for the psychic; the stare made him extremely uncomfortable. The green glasses wearing boy reached over to begrudgingly help the idiot get loose, not knowing why he decided to help the other male.
Once Nendou was free from the tie that he had gotten himself into, he went straight back to tying the ends of the curtains together. Saiki leaned back into his booth chair and went back to basking in the sadness he’d never admit he had. Sure his soulmate was probably impossibly stupid and annoyed him to no end, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to meet them. He’s always felt a pang of jealousy at the kids from school who found their soulmates, but he’d immediately squashed those feelings to oblivion. It was probably selfish of him, to have these emotions. He was a completely different species, he couldn’t possibly give in to something like ‘love’ so easily.
“-ddy! Buddy!” The boy snapped out of his thoughts as he processed the pressure on his shoulder. Mera was standing in front of their table with a silver platter held up with one hand and the other on his shoulder. He saw that the tray carried three cups of coffee jello atop it. She gave him a polite smile and handed the jellies over to the boys.
“Happy birthday Saiki! I’ll come back with coffee for the two of you in a bit!” Saiki almost kneeled down in front of the girl to pray but kept his composure and thanked her. With Mera now walking away, Saiki focused on the coffee jelly with anticipation and delight. With his spoon in hand, he scooped up a piece of the jelly, making sure to get some of the soft cream with it too, and brought it to his mouth. The flavor of the coffee spread around his taste buds as it hit his palate and he hummed in pleasure.
The meal was almost ruined when he looked at Nendou, who seemed to prioritize tying the curtains over eating the coffee jello. Who in their right mind thought binding window sheets was more important than the gift from God that was coffee jelly?
“Awwww! You two seem like such cute soulmates!” A man from the adjacent booth called out as he held hands with another man, presumably his soulmate.
Saiki fucking cried. His disappointment was immeasurable and his day was ruined.
Well.. okay no, he didn’t, and no, it wasn’t, but if he could cry, he most definitely would. He sincerely wished that man thought coffee jelly was his soulmate instead of whatever the fuck was sitting in front of him right now. There was no way this neanderthal was his soulmate. Sure, the boy without a brain got injured more times than he’d like to count but it never once happened and Saiki felt the pain on his end. If it did happen, it was purely out of coincidence.
“So hey buddy, you ready?” Nendou asked out of the blue. Saiki had no idea what the other was talking about and honestly did not want to know.
The half bald classmate looked up from the unholy nest that was the curtains to Saiki, who simultaneously wished he could read Nendou’s mind but at the same time was grateful he couldn’t. That good feeling of anticipation built up again, and Saiki smothered it.
“Y’know, to go bungee jumping,” The balding student clarified, “bungee jumping with my buddy for his birthday.”
...
Bungee fucking what now?