SOULMATES [My Hero Academia]

Dreams and Stardust - Katsuki Bakugo - Part One

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I was young when I realized my dreams weren't my own.

My parents sat me down after a particularly rough night and explained the whole thing: we lived in a world where soulmates were real, and until we found them, we saw our soulmate's memories in our dreams. It didn't make sense then, not for a while. Not until one of my friends found their soulmate and stopped talking to me entirely, too busy with their new soulmate for me. Not until my older sister found their soulmate and moved away and never came back. Not until my grandma passed away, and my grandpa passed away a few days later from heartbreak.

Soulmates.

My soulmate's dreams got worse, more frightening and reckless; Some nights he never slept, which meant I couldn't either. I was in middle school when my parents started me on teas, creams, pills, anything to make the dreams stop. If having a soulmate meant nightmares and sleepless nights, then I didn't want one.

But, as the last summer of middle school faded into the first fall of high school and a new adventure awaited me, I felt ready to try again. Ready to find him.

Kacchan.

The answer was obvious: if I found him, then the dreams would stop. His name was one of the only things I had to go on, besides the fact that we spoke the same language and seemed to both live in Japan. And, unfortunately, my quirk wasn't something that could help me find him. So I just had to hope that he could start giving me better hints in his memories.

Like he's the cooperative or considerate type. Right.

And the more terrifying part... what was he seeing in his dreams every night? What memories of mine were playing for him on repeat? What did he know about me?

And... did he care?

-

Bakugo woke with a start, shivering with a cold sweat and heart slamming against his rib cage. How long had it been since he had a dream while he slept? Years. Years and years.

They were back. His soulmate.

In the dream, he was in their shoes, seeing everything from their perspective like usual. He was in a school bathroom, colors different from the ones at his middle school, uniforms different from his, surrounded by five or six guys.

"Still no soulmate, huh?" One of them - a broad-shouldered, janky-teethed thing - taunted, leaning in and placing a hand beside their head, his soulmate flinching. "I can help you pass the time until you find 'em." The tall boy sneered, licking his lips.

Bakugo's stomach was in knots, wanting to activate his quirk and blow up the whole bathroom to escape. His soulmate shook their head, and out of their mouth came, "I'd rather fuck a cactus. But thanks for the offer." A shimmer of pride stuck in Bakugo's chest as he watched the words smack the opposing boy's ears. Ballsy move.

Without warning, the boys closed in, fists smashing and shoes colliding, and, thankfully, no quirks. Bakugo sat back and watched as his soulmate absorbed it all, never let a single tear fall or whimper escape. When the boys were done, they washed their hands, dried them, and dropped their paper towels on the crumpled form of Bakugo's soulmate.

He screamed for them to get up, to fight back, to say something, to do anything. But it was a memory. He knew that, deep down. They stayed on the floor until the last student left... until Bakugo woke up.

Grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes, Bakugo groaned in frustration. Why didn't they fight back? Why didn't they call for help? Why didn't they use their quirk? If he'd been there, he would have beat the shit out of all of those kids. They better hope that they never meet him in real life, or he'd make them regret hurting his soulmate.

He let his arms flop to his mattress and stared up at his dark ceiling. Relief washed through him, slow and soothing as honey. His soulmate was okay. They were alive, still in Japan.

Somewhere out there.

-

[Your dreams are actually your soulmate's memories. Courtesy of wlwprompts on tumblr.]

A/N: reformatted on 08/03/2020.