Chapter Text
Soulmates got their name for a reason.
Two people connected by the soul, as if two bodies sharing a single entity. They're intertwined by the universe and picked by destiny. They share everything, the elated highs and the downtrodden lows. From every childhood scar, to every broken bone. The death of one soulmate is the virtual death of another. They are one in the same and their scars are living proof of their closeness.
Izuku grew up with many scars. Some faded, some didn't. That was never what bothered him, though. No, what got to him so much was that his soulmate was always so sad.
In his childhood, Izuku had been a very happy child. Inko always swore she couldn't have asked for better. He was always smiling. With him in the house, there was hardly a bad moment. He brightened up the room just by being in it.
But Izuku wasn't a gifted child. He suffered his fair share, suffering that were not his own.
Inko knew, when he was only days old, that something big was beginning. The first mark had come in, mangling the skin of his thigh as if it had been seared and melted in scoldering heats. Izuku cried. Screamed, even. She'd never heard him make such a sound.
It was horrifying, and neither her nor Hisashi knew what to. They had some marks and lasting scars of their own, but nothing this severe. They could only rock Izuku in their arms and try to hush him as much as they could.
Though, it didn't last. When she stripped Izuku the following night to bathe him, the skin was back to its original state. She'd cried tears of happiness, while Izuku looked unfazed, the pain already forgotten.
A healing quirk, they had rationalised.
As time passed and Izuku grew, many marks came and went. Some stayed as scars, though those thankfully were only the small ones that were never worth a healing quirks time. A small white line across his lower back, a thicker but shorter gash on his shoulder and a scared patch of skin on his leg. As Izuku continued to grow and collect scars of his own, those ones blended in with his body and were forgotten.
Unfortunately, the bigger ones never stopped. Although they often disappeared within a day at most, the supposed healing quirk in action, they were still there. Sometimes Izuku would cry, sometimes it would be a small flinch or gasp that he tried to cover up. Sometimes the pain would only be for seconds, and sometimes it would last for hours.
In those cases, Izuku would try to put on a brave face. He'd limp around the house as if his leg wasn't discoloured; he'd do his homework even though the skin on his arm was wrinkled and constricting as another burn formed; he'd smile, even as one side of his face turned purple and he could hardly open one eye. He wasn't suffering the actualities of the injury, he was never rushed to hospital for the severity of what those injuries showed, but he may as well have been from the pain it caused.
Izuku had never broken a bone before, but he knew the pain of bones splintering and fracturing. Izuku never went near the hot stove, all too aware of how skin looked when it came in contact with levels of heat too high to withstand. He knew emotions that weren't his own; mourning, regrets, guilt. He was too young to understand these things, and yet he knew them all.
Inko cried for her son when all he did was smile. Even if the expression turned into more of a grimace, even if he had to grit out some kind of reassurance for her as he clutched his body in varying places. Inko cried in guilt, wishing she had been able to supply a life of less misery for son, as if she were the one who failed him. She cried, thinking about what his soulmate must be going through. She cried because there was nothing she could do to save either of them.
It wasn't her fault, she knew, but she couldn't help but feel like she'd failed as a mother.
—
Izuku had friends when he was younger. They may not have been the best, he may have been the runt of the pack, but he was happy.
There was a point in his life when they had thought Izuku was cool. The marks he gathered, the scars his soulmate continued to receive, they all talked about how his soulmate must be really strong. Maybe they were fighting villains, or saving the day. But that childish admiration didn't last long.
When Izuku was diagnosed quirkless, when he could never match up to his soulmates capabilities, his friends started to doubt the both of them. His soulmate was no longer a hero, but a tortured soul that couldn't stand up for themselves. Because anyone paired with useless, quirkless Deku couldn't be that good.
Izuku tried to defend his other half reverently, but it was pointless in the end.
"Look at this!" Kacchan pulled up his sleeve one day in the park, showing off some new scars on his own. "Mum said my soulmate must have broken their arm!"
The rest of the children looked on in awe, including Izuku. The skin was puckered and white in some places, dotted with scars that looked as if it had been sewn back together. Izuku recognised it well. It would've been a bad break.
"What did it feel like?" one of the boys asked.
"Did you cry?" another leaned in, grinning.
"Pft, as if! I'm not a crybaby like Deku!" Kacchan bosted, letting his arm rest at his side
"Some of them really hurt, Kacchan. I can't help it," he said, slightly ashamed to have let down his soulmate like this, not being able to withstand injuries not even his own. But it was true, a scraped knee or a single broken arm wasn't even close to what his soulmate went through. Only he would know such a thing, though.
"No, your soulmate is just weak," Kaccan said it with a flat expression, like it was just another fact in the world. He didn't tease Izuku about it like he normally did, he just... said it. As if he really meant it.
"That's not true!" Izuku argued, even if he knew it was pointless. "They're strong, they have to be!"
"They're probably dead already," Kacchan sneered, making the rest of his friends snicker.
It hurt. It always did. The way Kacchan talked so negatively about his soulmate — on its own a violation. It made Izuku's everlasting smile wither. He knew not to believe them, but it didn't hurt any less.
After all, the only sign that his soulmate was still around was the deeply embedded emotions that Izuku hadn't yet got the words to explain and the incoming injuries that marked his skin.
Inko didn't comment on his dejected look when he returned home. She did offer him a hug, but there was nothing else she could say or do that would truly lift Izuku's spirits. So, when he trudged over to the computer and asked her to play the video again with big, sad eyes, she couldn't say no.
He watched it for an hour before Inko began to get worried.
"Izuku?" she poked her head in through the doorway, frowning at the sight. The room had grown dark, the sun setting at some point, but Izuku hadn't moved to turn the light on. The only way she could see him was the light from the computer illuminating his face. "Dinner's almost ready. Do you want to come out now?"
"Heroes get hurt all the time, right?"
Inko took a moment to respond, shocked by the question. Despite his quirklessness, he still loved heroes. He worshipped them, particularly All Might.
The clip replayed on the computer screen, All Might's famous, booming voice bellowing the phrase on repeat. Inko didn't know how he had watched it so many times without growing bored.
"They do," she said, her heart breaking for him. The job was far too dangerous, even those with quirks struggled. He wouldn't last a second in that lifestyle.
Izuku stared at the screen for a little longer, keeping his back turned to her. She couldn't all of his face from where she leaned against the doorway, but she could tell that he wasn't crying.
"Is my soulmate a hero?"
The words struck her, along with the smile on Izuku's face as he turned in the chair to look at her with eyes beaming with hope. The question struck her with a moment of shock, the sincerity of his voice bringing up a soft chuckle. Such childish thinking, that excitement in his eyes as he theorised in that little head of his.
"They would be a bit too old for you, Izuku," she said with a warmer tone, glad that he'd found something more positive to focus his thoughts on.
"But what else could they be?"
Inko could think of many things.
When she didn't speak, Izuku fell back to his thoughts, softly murmuring; "I think my soulmate is the coolest hero."
Izuku didn't bring up the hero thing again for a while. He was still obsessed over his favourite: All Might. He still collected merch and watched the video on repeat. He still wrote down whatever he was doing in his notebooks, swinging his little legs back and forth as he laid on his stomach while All Might saved the day on the tv screen.
In a way, there was a peacefulness to it all. His soulmate's injuries had calmed down a bit in recent weeks, and Izuku had only recalled two cuts and a couple bruises since then. He didn't mention Kacchan anymore, and Inko didn't press him on it when he said he didn't want to go to the park anymore.
They felt like a normal family. Just existing in this quirk filled world.
"Mum, did you know All Might went to UA?"
"Hm," she hummed and nodded, though she only briefly recalled watching him once in the sports festival. It was never really her thing, far too violent, but Izuku seemed obsessed with the yearly event. "A very long time ago, yes."
"That's where I want to go," Izuku said dreamily. Her heart stopped.
Putting the bowl back down in the sink before she dropped it, she looked over her shoulder slowly. Izuku wasn't paying any attention to her. He sat cross legged with his elbows on his knees and his head resting in his hands. His notebooks and pencils were scattered around him, but he'd forgotten about them to watch the tv.
On it, All Might walked out of a building, carrying one person in each arm as he smiled his signature smile. It was reminiscent of that video Izuku was obsessed with. Then, it jumped to another scene. All Might's distant figure shooting through the sky, shaking the ground with the force of his landing.
Izuku's face was full of admiration and awe, a soft curve to his lips that she hadn't seen on him before. His cheeks were pink and it didn't take long for her to figure out why. It should have been adorable, she wished she could snap a picture of it to tease him in the future, but...
"You want to go to UA?" she choked out, trying not to shake. He didn't notice, too absorbed by All Might.
"Yeah! Me and my soulmate will team up and fight bad guys!" he punched the air, fighting some fake villain in his head and saving the day.
Izuku, a young quirkless boy, was aiming for UA. Inko wasn't stupid. She may not be that into heroes or the fights, but she knew of the injuries. Even those with strong quirks, those in the top 10, they all endured it. Villains were strong and cunning, there was no way a quirkless could keep up with such evil.
"Baby, you know..." she stopped herself when Izuku turned to look at her. He was beaming, a bright smile splitting his face, his eyes full of his love for heroes. She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. She couldn't, not when Izuku had endured so much already. He was too young to understand, but he would grow out of it.
Eventually, he would realise what being a hero actually meant. The losses it came with, the ugly side that the media didn't show. Then, he would come to understand. He'd grow out of these silly little aspirations and focus on a real goal. Something more realistic.
—
The most severe of the injuries came when Izuku was 9.
He'd awoken with a startle, flinching up in bed. It was almost like a nightmare, he'd thought in his sleepy state. Until the pain had hit.
Izuku's side had felt like it was on fire. There weren't any words in his dictionary to describe the pain; the sensation of his skin being torn, something writhing within his organs and breaking his ribs. It was agony, and he hadn't realised he was screaming until the door crashed open.
But he couldn't look up at Inko, couldn't be reassured by her words as she took him into her arms and stroked his hair. He could only curl in on himself, squeezing his side in hopes that it would release him of the pain.
It didn't. The agony just kept on going, the flashing emotions shooting through his head panicking his young mind. He didn't understand. He'd suffered so much, but there was no pain that had compared to this before.
The screaming stopped, but it left behind quick, aborted wheezes as tears rolled down his face silently. Inko was behind him, her arm wrapped around him as she attempted to shield his body in the only way she knew how. It didn't help, but at least he didn't feel so alone.
The pain became too much to handle and he shortly passed out.
Izuku swore it was just a bad nightmare after that night. That his tummy had hurt when he woke up. He insisted that he was fine by the next morning. But Izuku was only a child, his lying skills were far from good, and Inko knew.
There was a look in his eyes that gave it away. She could see it in Izuku's face; the face of a child that had experienced far too much. The bags under his eyes were dark, the paleness of his face and slow saunter to his steps; it was clear what had happened. No scar had ever left him like this.
Inko never asked to see it. Instead, cried her silent tears and showed him as much love as she could.
For months, Izuku believed his soulmate was dead. He'd used the house computer to do some research on injuries behind Inko's back, still too young to understand the truth of losing a soulmate. The countless articles he read left him crying himself to sleep, deep in the belief that he was left alone in the world, with no real partner to have his back.
Many months later, Izuku had never been so relieved to feel pain. It hurt, his left hand throbbing as a faux pressure twisted it. He cried alone in his room as his hand turned purple, but they weren't tears of sadness or pain. He was happy. Overjoyed, even. And he was sure his soulmate could feel his relief through their bond.
It might have been his mind playing tricks on his — his young, hopeful heart dreaming — but he swore he could feel his emotions being mirrored in some way. Not quite the relief he felt, but a sense of happiness. Maybe knowing they'd been reunited in some twisted way.
—
Izuku never lost his vigour to be a hero.
Sure, at times it was dampened. The bullying, the quirklessness, the world being against him. It was difficult, but Izuku stayed absorbed in his fantasy. The number of books continued to grow and his annotations became more complex as he got older. No matter what, nothing could stop his dream.
"If you want to be a hero so bad, why don't you go and take a swan dive off the roof of the building."
No. Izuku wouldn't let anything get to him.
He held his head high and clenched his fist as he walked down an alley, his soggy book in his hand. Be brave. Smile. Just like All Might. Kacchan didn't mean it, he just wanted a reaction. Don't listen to him.
"A medium sized body. You'll do," the stranger's voice gargled, giving him only a second to think before the impact knocked him forward. Whatever it was that came in contact with him kept him upright as it enclosed over his body. It was slimy, wiggling under his clothes and leaving his skin wet. Then it was in his mouth, down his throat, choking him.
"Don't worry, it'll only hurt for about 45 seconds. It'll be over soon."
This was a villain, something in the back of his mind realised. It came with fear, realising what exactly the villain was doing to him.
Izuku struggled, fingers clawing through the sludge over his face. He kicked his legs, the impact having no effect.
"You're a real hero, thanks. No point in trying to escape."
He was going to die. His soulmate had suffered enough, he couldn't— not like this, not alone. He couldn't leave his soulmate, or his mum. They needed him.
A sudden shockwave blew the sludge away, freeing Izuku of its clutch. For a second, he saw a glimpse of his hero, then he was falling, then everything went black.
The sun was bright when Izuku opened his eyes. He blinked, trying to adjust to the change in light beaming down straight on him. Something tapped his face, making him rouse quicker.
"Thought I lost you there!"
He recognised that voice, but as his memories came back to him in chunks it took him a moment to process it. Deep, booming, reassuring. Yellow hair.
Izuku was up in a second, his head spinning at the sudden movement. The man stepped back, giving him room to breath. He brought a hand up to his head, groaning as he blinked the fog away and looked up, his eyes widening as he realised his mind wasn't playing tricks on him.
Tall, strong muscles, blond hair slicked back and an award winning smile.
"All Might!" he cried, suddenly feeling dizzy for a different reason. The man smiled, pushing a slicked up bang back as he struck a pose.
"I apologise for getting you caught up back there. Mistakes like that aren't my style, but this is a strange land to me. But my success is thanks to you! I have captured the villain!"
It's him! It's really him! He's here!
Izuku scrambled for his notebook, only to find All Might's signature across a double page. He thanked him and tried not to cry at the overwhelming feeling in his heart that he couldn't explain.
"A hero is constantly battling time. I must be going now," All Might said as he stepped back, turning as he readied to leave. The bundle of happiness that warmed Izuku's heart quickly died out, falling apart at his words.
Next thing Izuku knew, he was flying through the air.
They crashed down onto a rooftop moments later. The impact jostled Izuku, leaving him wheezing to take oxygen back into his lungs. All Might walked over to the ledge completely unfazed.
"Wait!"
"No! I haven't got enough time."
He was going to leave again. Izuku's heart twisted uncomfortably again, though he still wasn't sure why.
"Can I still be a hero, without a quirk?!" he yelled shrilly, much louder than he had intended, but time was running out. He couldn't let All Might leave. Not now. Not without an answer. "Can someone without a quirk, be a hero like you?"
All Might stopped. Izuku let out a quick breath, then continued.
"My soulmate gets a lot of injuries. They're really bad, I've got a lot of scars from it," his hand rested over his left side subconsciously, trying to seek reassurance. "It's always been my dream to be a hero, to save them and fight with them. I want to be the strongest hero, to save with a fearless smile, just like y— ahh! A fake?!"
The tall, strong All Might from before had disappeared, leaving a hunched, gaunt figure behind. His clothes, the clothes All Might had just been wearing, hung loose on his body, many sizes too big. The slicked back hair now looked untameable, wilted bangs falling down over the sides of his face.
"I am All Might," he reassured, leaving Izuku even more bewildered. He leaned against the wall, sliding down until he was sat on the floor. "A fearless smile, huh..." he went on to explain the basics of his quirk, revealing his secret identity.
When Izuku saw his scar it was like looking in a mirror. It wasn't as serious as All Might's — his insiders were still completely intact. But the one he saw on his hero, the one he saw on himself every day, was just as disfigured and twisted and as gruesome as it looked.
His eyes were wide and jaw hung slack, but All Might misread the look on his face.
"Pretty gross, huh? Got it fighting a villain a few years back."
"You- that scar- years- we-"
"Heroes are constantly putting their lives on the line," All Might cut him off, leaving him dazed and staring dumbly. "Fighting without a quirk is dangerous. So, no, you can't be a hero without one."
All Might pushed himself up, looking weaker than he ever had been. The sight was painful, twisting in Izuku's gut. Along with his feelings, his guilt, the clenching of his heart and the ghost of such. Neither of them were happy about this, which only made it hurt more.
Izuku didn't think he could bear the weight of so many negative emotions. He wondered how All Might was holding himself together so well, even with the crease of his brow and deep frown. He was hunched, walking, leaving.
The door opened, squeaking. The door closed, silence followed. All Might left him on the rooftop. Alone.
Izuku cried.
Distantly, he wondered if All Might could feel his sorrow. He wondered if the hero shared his tears, if the lump in his throat refused to budge and his eyes still watered even as he began to accept his fate and walk home.
There was a feeling in his body that he knew wasn't his, a deeply bedded guilt and remorse, and now he knew why. He hoped that All Might could feel the way his heart broke under his words.
Izuku dragged his feet the whole way home. Inko would probably be annoyed if she knew, giving him a lecture about keeping his belongings the right way so they lasted him for a long time. The thought almost made him smile, but then he remembered why he was so heartbroken to begin with.
All Might, his soulmate, had crushed his dreams in more ways than he even realised. He'd left, leaving behind a broken heart.
Soulmates weren't made to carry this much of a burden. They were designed to be compatible in every way. They couldn't do this, they couldn't just walk away. But he had.
Izuku didn't expect it to hurt this much.
There was a bang in the distance, but he hardly lifted his head to look. A villain, he guessed. The thought only twisted the knife wrenched inside him. His lip wobbled with another sob, his hands clenching on his bag straps.
He wanted his soulmate. He needed the reassurance, to feel the comfort in his arms. That's what soulmates were for; a pair. Soulmates didn't just turn their backs on each other.
A bit of him hoped All Might would feel as awful as he did. The realistic side of him hurt to know that he felt all of it.
Another, much louder bang made his ears ring. That sounded familiar.
Izuku looked up this time, freezing in shock. A crowd of people gathered around the burning street, the sludge villain that had attacked him earlier rampaging in the middle. He held someone captive, but Izuku couldn't see who with the green sludge covering most distinguishable features.
His hands came up to his mouth to cover the cry. Guilt washed over him tenfold, adding to his already steep pile of sadness.
This was all his fault. All Might had captured that villain. He'd used the last of his time chasing it. Then Izuku jumped in, messed everything up. Now this person was suffering, the same way he had, and it was all his fault—
Izuku's eyes grew impossibly wide and his whole world stopped.
Kacchan.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
One second, Izuku was just another person in the crowd, watching as a middle schooler succumbed to his fate. And the next, Izuku was charging forward with fear coursing through him as he racked his brain for a plan.
A spark of a foreign emotion lit up inside of him, but he didn't have time to dwell as he pulled his bag off his shoulders hastily, chucking it forward in a last minute attempt. His fingers clawed through the sludge, but it was to no avail as his hands had nothing to grasp hold of.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
"I couldn't just stand there and watch you die," he cried, fear taking over him as the villain regained focus.
At least he gave Kacchan a chance to breathe, if only for a second longer.
Pain shocked Izuku's body and he flinched, thinking that was it, the villain had got him, that it was all over, but no impact came this time. He peaked his eyes open just in time to see the sludge villain draw back, ready to strike, before All Might appeared between them.
"I really am pathetic."
He had his usual smile, but Izuku could see the strain in it. There was an unfocused look in his eyes and a redness at the corner of his lips, and Izuku knew exactly why. Somewhere inside him, something throbbed in pain, and then everything moved too quickly for everyone else to see.
Experiencing another one of All Might's punches up close still left Izuku starstruck. He struggled to keep his anger towards the hero in that moment (but he doubted that anger had ever really been aimed at him to begin with). He'd pushed himself harder than he should've, hurt himself and Izuku straining to fix his mistake, to save him. All Might really was amazing.
It was a shame he left so quickly after, leaving Izuku to be scrutinised by the other pros while Kacchan was praised and worshipped. Though, he didn't blame All Might. He knew, after all, about his secret. He knew of the hole in his side and the pain it caused. Even now, something deep inside of him was aching on his left side.
All Might couldn't hold his hero form for long. Izuku had forced him into a situation where he had to, and now they were both paying the price.
After a while the pros loosened up and let him go, giving him one last order not to intervene again. Izuku nodded and looked at the floor.
With his heart feeling heavy, he started his walk home. He took the longer route, not quite ready to go back just yet. He'd already sent Inko a text, informing her that he was in fact not dead and that she didn't need to worry because All Might had saved him. So he had been able to buy himself some time, walking dejectedly through the streets.
"You!" All Might shot around the corner. Izuku jumped with a high-pitched scream, nearly falling back on his ass as he rushed to stabilise himself.
"I want to train you," All Might pointed at him, flamboyant even in his smaller form.
Izuku's eyes widened and the hero smiled. Their bond swelled with it, their emotions kindling the withering flame back to its healthy glow.
"You can become a hero."
Izuku collapsed in on himself, crumpling to the floor as he clutched his side. Tears were streaming down his face before he had even a second to stop them, but he knew he wouldn't have been able to even if he tried. The wave of relief that he felt was so intense, on par with realising that his soulmate wasn't actually dead.
All Might huffed, though it came out more as a breathy chuckle. He wondered if the smile on his face was from Izuku's happiness and not his own. After all, Izuku didn't think he'd ever been so happy. Meeting All Might, finding his soulmate and being told he could be a hero all in one day.
It was as if there was no bad in the world. Nothing would be able to bring him down from this high, and he was happy that, for once, there wasn't a dwelling sadness inside him that he knew wasn't his.
Under it all; the rush of happiness and relief, Izuku felt love. And that was how it all started.
—
Izuku never told All Might about their soulbond.
He wasn't sure if the hero had figured it out or not on his own. Maybe he just chalked up his own sudden change in emotions to coincidence, and not the fact that he was bound to Izuku by fate. That was the most likely scenario, since he didn't know about their shared scars.
Yes. That had to be it. And that was why Izuku couldn't tell him. He couldn't risk losing this chance, his one and only shot at becoming an actual hero, by telling All Might such a vital piece of information.
Izuku trudged home, exhausted after another gruelling day. The sun was setting and the cool wind that had started to pick up felt nice on his skin. Drying sweat made his clothes cling to him uncomfortably, leaving him fantasising about the shower he would have when he got home.
The scent of dinner cooking greeted him warmly when he opened the door. He kicked off his shoes in the genkan and hobbled through to the kitchen, where Inko stirred something as she hummed a tune.
"You're later than I expected," she said without turning, though her tone was lighthearted.
"Sorry, I, uh..." he rubbed the back of his neck, not sure what to tell her.
"I'm just glad you're getting out the house again," she said, thankfully moving on quickly. She turned the heat off and moved the pot, now turning her attention to the rice cooker "But where's all this energy come from? You've never been this motivated before."
Izuku stopped himself before he blurted something stupid out. He couldn't tell her about All Might training him, especially given his time limit and secrets. That would be too suspicious. Instead, he settled on something that was still the truth, just missing a few parts of the story.
"I need to get in shape for UA."
Inko paused, looking over her shoulder. Izuku met her gaze head on, knowing what she must be thinking. Even All Might had thought it until he saw him take action, so it wasn't unexpected.
"You still want to go there...?"
"Why wouldn't I? All Might went there, remember? I have to do this," 'for my soulmate.'
He had a reason more than ever to go to UA, so he couldn't slack off. It was still for his soulmate, after all, since now he was going to be taking his quirk. He was going to do it for the both of them, and for everyone one who needed saving.