SOULMATES [My Hero Academia]

Treats and Timers - Momo Yaoyorozu

-

"How much longer, Yaomomo?" Jiro asked, gesturing at her friend's wrist with a jerk of her chin, powering down her stationary bike. They were at the gym near their apartment, trying to stay fit between their shifts. It was early morning, the place nearly deserted in the slippery hours between midnight and dawn.

Momo held her wrist up for Jiro to see as she jogged on the treadmill, breathless and sweaty.

00:003:12:14:15

Jiro nodded and wiped off her forehead with the back of her hand. "Three days isn't so bad," she said between gulps from her water bottle. She held up her own wrist for Momo to see. "At least you don't still have almost two years on your timer." Her own timer said: 01:217:06:45:34.

Laughing, Momo shook her head and gradually slowed down the treadmill, hopping off to the side. "It could be much worse, Kyoka," she said. They both knew plenty of people with ten, twenty, thirty years still on their clocks. And they knew some that lost their clocks early.

They walked across the gym, arm-in-arm, toward the weights. "Are you excited?" Jiro whispered, elbowing her friend. "Three more days!"

"Honestly?" Momo said, finding a leg press and stacking some weights on it, "I'm terrified. The closer it gets, the worse I sleep, the less focused I am, the more nauseous I feel." She retied her ponytail and slid down into the leg press. "I try to imagine it, and my brain spins out of control... thinking about all of the ways it could go wrong, all of the places it might happen, all of the things I might say or do wrong."

"Hey," Jiro stood over her, squinting into Momo's sweaty face. "Stop with that talk. You are majestic and smart and beautiful and amazing. Your soulmate will see that the second they lay eyes on you, and it'll be happily ever after. Positivity, Yaomomo." She flicked Momo in the forehead and sat down to bench press, waiting for Momo to finish and spot her. "Everything will be great. You'll see."

Momo let the leg press clunk back into place and caught her breath, staring at the distant off-white ceiling. A balloon was trapped up in the crisscrossing metal rafters, 'FEEL BETTER SOON' printed in cheery font across its shiny surface.

Everything will be better soon.

Positivity, Yaomomo.

-

Of fucking course.

I grumbled and groaned the whole way to work, my pissy mood getting the better of me. Children ran for cover. Bystanders quaked in their fancy clothes on their way to their fancy jobs. Fuck them. Fuck them all.

Why today? Why?

Despite my detailed explanation - and multiple attempts at bribery - my boss would not give me the day off to meet my soulmate. So, as fate (and my evil boss) would have it, my soulmate would just have to find me at my place of employment.

"Large triple caramel latte, no foam, extra whip, extra chocolate syrup, and sprinkles?" I yelled, already turning away from the pickup counter to start on the next drink. There was no time for niceties, plus I was still not in the mood. We'd had someone call out "sick", so we were at a significant disadvantage during the lunch rush. And on top of it all, someone had spilled their coffee all over me when they went to pick it up - only the second drink I'd made that day, and damn near perfect - so now my shoes were soaked and my jeans were coffee-stained.

Perfect soulmate-meeting outfit: destroyed.

An elbow dug into my ribcage as I foamed some milk, and I hissed, ready to curse out whoever was on the other end of the appendage, only to find my best friend passing me an empty cup from the register. "What's with the bandage, nerd?" Sakura asked, jerking her chin at my wrist during a brief lull in her line. Her Barbie-pink hair was pulled back into two boxer braids over her shoulders.