Chapter Text
he couldn’t say he cared a lot about the idea of soulmates. whenever he saw red string connecting two people or when he’d see two people share soulmate marks with his x-ray vision. he didn’t really care about any of it. but what he did care about, was how annoying it is.
whenever he witnessed people meet their soulmates, their thoughts would gush and become high pitched. it grated on his brain and everyone would be like “awwww!!” and there in turn, grated on his brain even more. the urge to use mind control to rid of soulmates grew in his mind, holding his hand out; he was close to doing eradicating the whole notion of soulmates. until he remembered he said he wouldn’t do that again. and would put back in his control device. (much to his chagrin)
he’s in his 2nd year of junior high and he still hasn’t met his soulmate. which in his world's standard, not all that uncommon. and whenever he saw kids in his classes meet their soulmates, he merely looked the other way and continued with the lesson. he didn’t feel jealous. hell, he was glad he hasn’t met his soulmate yet.
how troubling would it be to keep his powers a secret? or how unreliable would his soulmate be at keeping his powers a secret at all? should he just not meet them? should he just try not to? his already cluttered mind would think of all of these worries before expunging all of them with a sigh.
yeah.. far too troubling. he already had enough on his hands. with his powers getting stronger every year, he didn’t have time to care about a soulmate. first, he had to control his arm strength before meeting someone he was destined to be with.
he witnessed another soulmate meeting on the street as he walked to school. it was between a man and a woman who had both bumped into eachother and heard a ding on their wrists, their timers had stopped. as he heard their ecstatic thoughts of happiness, he sneaked a glance at his own wrist. behind him he could hear the high pitched 'awwww!!! 's and clicks of recording the interaction.
he wasn’t blessed with the simple name of his soulmate. nor was he given a colorful symbol on his body that matched with his soulmate.
he read and reread the kanji that danced across his wrist. he supposed the symbols looked swirly and... big. good grief, the sentence was huge on his wrist despite only being a brief statement.
snapping himself out of his thoughts, he kept walking. he had watched his parents fawn over their red string. always telling him he’d soon find the person who he’d hear the words on his wrist from. someone who was perfect for him. someone who'd complete him.
“you’ll meet them soon, ku!”
“yeah like me and your mother did, kusuo”
“oh you!”
“aw honey!!!”
and then he promptly ended that memory. his school soon came into view and he prepared himself for another sleep walking through the day. his thoughts soon thought back to the couple who had met their beloveds on the street as he didn't bother paying attention in math. someone who was perfect for him? he's nothing like other people, he's practically an alien. if god really existed and had someone set out for him then they must be the most colorful person on earth. and he was not looking forward to meeting this person.
he barely listened and he barely talked as he had no friends. there was no one he wanted to take activities in. no one he cared enough to speak to. other than maybe his parents sometimes. he kept to himself and made sure his popularity didn’t dwindle or fly. just enough, he remembered. just enough. he never quite acknowledged how lonely it was. after all, he liked being alone.
but as he grabbed his bag and got ready to go home, a hand stopped him. turning around, he saw his english teacher look down at him. reading her thoughts, he internally sighed and was ready to just say fuck it and teleport out.
“hello, saiki. can you give these to the leader of the art club? she should be in the art room.”
without giving the psi-user a minute to disagree, the woman shoved the box in saiki’s hand and ran off. what the hell? she didn't even give him a second to respond. his hands were now full of a small nicely packaged box. the woman with the bob quickly turned back around and smiled widely at him.
“thank you, saiki! i have to go to a meeting!”
with a wave, she disappeared down the stairs. her high boots clicking behind her that made his brain want to kill itself. rolling his eyes, he figured he’d just do the request. god, normal people were such a hassle. as he started walking, his x-ray vision looked into the box and he could see expensive looking paints in side the box. at least the frazzled woman was nice he supposed.
(still, why him?)
walking around for a bit, he groaned and he decided he didn't want to go through the trouble of walking aimlessly. using his clairvoyance, he set off trying to find the art room. which was a surprisingly hard feat because of his inability to control the clairvoyance. his invisible eyes bounced around before he finally found the stupid room. blinking back into his body, he rubbed his eyes. gosh, he was not used to that power at all.
letting his feet guide him straight to the art room, he walked past the stragglers trying to get out of school. god, he wished he could just go home now. he came across the art room and as he walked into it, he saw a girl. her hair was pulled back so it wasn’t interfering with her motions. her hands flying over a canvas, painting it in colors. he didn’t hear any thoughts from her as music bopped loudly in her head. her earplugs making it clear she didn’t know he had walked in.
judging by the paint that was smothered all over her hands and smock... yep, this was the art club leader.
he let out a sigh as he walked closer to her. how troublesome, what was she even doing? she shouldn’t keep earplugs in at school. now he has to go through the trouble of making his presence known.
(or you could send a telepathic message into her mind, his own mind supplied.)
nope, he thought as he shook his head. he was not willing to accidentally send the thought to one of the stragglers or teachers that were still around. the most he could do was fake talking but this girl didn't even know he was here.
what a pain.
he tapped the girl on the shoulder before she threw her palette of colors in the air. he side stepped quickly out of the way of flying blue. y'know what? sometimes he was glad he had powers.
“gah! jesus christ!”
‘good grief’
he stood still as the palette fell from the air and landed with a loud SPLAT on the ground. he shifted his eyes to look at the cool hues of the paint on the floor. he only moved his gaze back to her when he heard a laugh.
“hah! what a mess.”
she shook her head before turning and raising her finger to him.
“don’t sneak up on people, sir! it’s all your fault i dropped my palette.”
he now saw her pouty face that was blotched with primary colors. and suddenly, he wanted to take approximately five steps back from the girl. afraid of being dirtied but this wish didn’t come true as she took a dried blue finger and pushed it up against his chest.
“since it’s your fault, you’re going to help me clean up!”
she proclaimed with a smile. he definitely wished he didn’t come here at all. he almost wanted to leave but then he thought about if this girl would spread rumors about him. and if she spread rumors about him, then people would pay more attention to him, and if that happened then he might slip up and if that happened then he and his family would have to-
...
fine, he’ll pick up the paint.
wordlessly, he moved away from her and tried to control his strength as he turned over the palette. he sighed as he wished he could control his grip strength better. from the corner of his eye, he saw a figure crouch down in front of him.
“you can go wash that, i’ll wipe the paint off the floor.”
well.. atleast he had the easy part. walking over to the sink by the back of the classroom, he quickly made sure the girl wasn’t looking as he used his telekinesis to clean the palette. after he put back the palette, he walked back to the girl. she was patiently wiping the paint up with a wash towel.
he could hear foreign music coming from her earplugs flowing into her mind. he’d guess it was english considering he could understand about a fourth of the words. and a few minutes later, she rinsed and repeated the process of washing the cloth and cleaning the floor. he wondered why she even bothered doing that much effort but eh, he couldn’t hear her thoughts anyway.
doing her last round of rinsing, she looked back at him. his eyes easily met hers as she cocked her head at him.
“forgot to ask, why are you here anyway? not many people come here so...”
ah almost he forgot what he was here for. he walked over to the floor by the door and grabbed the box. returning to the girl, he held the box out in front of her.
“my english teacher told me to give you paints she bought for you. so here.”
the words left blunt form his mind, he watched in confusion as her eyes processed what he said. her eyes blinking wildly before whipping her hand out of the sink. effective at only one thing, which was getting absolutely everywhere. he grimaced at the mess as it got on the floor and her shoes but she didn't seem to care. reading the words intently, she smiled happily and looked back up at him. another english song playing from her earbuds started up again, masking her drowned out thoguhts.
turning off the water, she wiped her hands on her dirty smock and took the box. he tried to process what she was so giddy about before she said,
“pink hair is a funny look on a soulmate, no?”
his mouth went slack a minuscule amount as the words went through one ear and out the other. her eyes looked at him expectantly, her smile not wavering. and then, he remembered what his own wrist said.
it definitely was not anything she has said in the past 20 minutes.