SOULMATES [My Hero Academia]

First and Last - Katsuki Bakugo

-

You know that old saying...

"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade"?

Well, how the fuck do you make lemonade out of a lemon like Katsuki Bakugo?

Riddle me that.

That's what I mulled over for the majority of lunch, sitting beside my best friend Hanta Sero, as I said nothing for the third month in a row to Bakugo. I was careful to never speak directly to him for a reason, always having conversations with Han in hushed tones, or whispering with Mina about whatever, but...

Bakugo was making selective mutism increasingly more difficult.

"What the fuck are you two extras whispering about over there?" he snapped, finishing off his carton of milk and crushing it in his fist.

Sero and I exchanged a knowing look, his eyes darting to my left forearm for the briefest second before he cleared his throat and answered, "Nothing you'd care about, man. No big deal, so chill out."

"Well why do they fucking sit with us if they're gonna be so goddamn quiet?" Bakugo hissed, gesturing to me with a scowl.

I responded with an unimpressed frown... and a middle finger.

Pretty self-explanatory.

He didn't like that very much. "You motherfu-"

Mina stepped in for the both of us, also knowing the underlying situation, and said, "Hey, hey, hey! What does everyone think of that project Aizawa's assigning tomorrow? Group projects are the worst, am I right? Who do you hope you get partnered with, 'Splodey Boy?"

"Don't fuckin' call me that!"

And once again, I became invisible. When Mina got a second, I gave her an appreciative smile, and she returned it.

Her and Han were the only ones who knew that Katsuki Bakugo was my soulmate. And they did their very best to help me not get murdered by him before he could figure it out.

I've known since the first day of our second year, when I transferred into his hero class from the business course. Lost and wandering the hero wing of UA, I was looking for class 2-A, when none other than Katsuki Bakugo barreled into me, knocking me to the ground and continuing on his way. He didn't even stop to help me, or even look over his shoulder, but he did remember to yell, "Outta my way, you fuckin' extra!"

Those exact words had been tattooed in black across my left forearm from birth, from my inner elbow to my wrist, and once he spoke them, my entire arm lit up with a searing hot pain, tearing at my skin like knives and needles and fire. And just as quickly as it started, the pain was gone in an instant. I scrambled to push the sleeve of my blazer up to look at my arm, and found the letters now faint pink, like scarred flesh.

So that was it. Katsuki Bakugo was my soulmate.

And he treated me like trash.

So I tried to stay out of his way, tried to make his life as easy as possible. Because someday, I'll lose my nerve. Someday, I'll find the courage. And the words that will come out of my mouth...

Well, let's just say, I doubt they'll be very romantic.

-

Katsuki Bakugo was having a bad day.

He'd missed breakfast, after sleeping through his alarm, and nearly got to class late, resulting in a lecture from that four-eyed irritation factory, Tenya Iida. Then, of all people, he got matched with the class mute for their partner project, and even after talking to Mr. Aizawa about it (read: begging to be switched with someone, anyone else), he was stuck with them.