Red Strings: A My Hero Academia Soulmate AU

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Warning: mature language

You stared at your arm in frustration as you continued to type away at your computer. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see you glaring at your arm and your acquaintances had long given up on you showing them the source of your displeasure. You weren't the biggest fan of the words that flowed up your forearm in delicate script. In fact, you hated them so much, it was rare that anyone saw them. Luckily, having soulmate words you weren't fond of was a common enough occurrence that there were several accessory companies that had taken advantage. You were currently sporting a 6-inch black wrist cuff that hid the offensive words from prying eyes.

The odd thing was, whenever people would ask you if you were nervous about finding your soulmate, you were all smiles. In fact, you couldn't wait to meet him. At this point in your life, you were beginning to grow impatient. Hence, why you were often seen glaring at your own arm. When would the jerk finally show his face? But having the words meant you had to run into each other eventually, right? You decided to consider it a lucky break that you hadn't met him earlier. If you had found each other when you were younger, you were sure it wouldn't have been pleasant.

It took you awhile, you had gone through stages, almost like the stages of grief, but you eventually accepted him, even without knowing who he was. At first you were angry, you hated him. How could someone who was supposed to be your perfect match, spout such obscenities to a person they had just met? Then you grew depressed, thinking that maybe this was a punishment of some kind, that maybe your soulmate would turn out to be horrible, but it was what you deserved. At one point during high school, you even decided you were going on a speaking strike. You'd never find him if you never spoke to anyone. That didn't last long. There was even a time when you thought that just because you had a soulmate didn't mean you had to be together. There wasn't a law that said you were stuck with him. So even if he did turn out to be a jerk, you could still move on with your life. 

But one day, a couple years ago, you were arguing with your college roommate. You were trying to convince her to change her outfit before going to a party. You knew you were going too far, but couldn't stop yourself from making a snarky comment.

"Fine, wear whatever you want! But don't blame me when one of those pervs treats you like a slut because you're determined to dress like one!"

"No wonder your soulmate calls you a bitch, y/n," she muttered under her breath before slamming the door behind her.

It was in the quiet after that fight that you accepted your soulmate. Whether it was your natural personality or the tattooed words themselves that had shaped you, you realized you had grown extremely sarcastic, with no filter to speak of. The words on your arm no longer angered you. Well, they still did. You still had to walk around with them etched in your skin. But you weren't angry with the future speaker of them. You realized that, yes, your future self would most likely say something deserving of being called a bitch.

You apologized to your roommate later that night when she came home in tears. You told her she looked amazing in that outfit, which she did, but that she had to be more selective on where she wore it. And a party with a bunch of drunken college boys was not it. She apologized too. But you had already accepted that she was right. 

A few years had passed since then, and you were trying to live your life the best way you could while waiting for the day your soulmate appeared. You had found a job in an office building downtown after graduating from college. At this point, it was just the daily grind. Until the day the villains attacked.

A group of terrorists had been setting bombs off in random buildings downtown. Your building was in the process of being evacuated. You had just stepped outside when a large explosion sounded from the building next to you. You looked up in terror at the smoke billowing and began to follow the crowd away when you got tangled with someone else and fell to the ground. No one stopped to help you as they all fled the scene. You heard screams and looked up to see a large section of the building break away. You struggled to stand, but before you could run, something slammed into your back, lifting your feet from the ground. You closed your eyes and braced for the impact. Instead, something cold splashed over you, forcing a gasp from your mouth and your eyes to open. 

You found your feet on the ground and turned around to take in what had just happened. A pro hero, drenched from head to toe, stood in front of a fire hydrant gushing with water. Behind that was the chunk of building that had been falling from the sky. He turned to look at you, hands on his hips. His red eyes blazed behind his mask as he scanned your form. You looked down and realized you were soaking wet, presumably from the water you had flown through to escape the falling debris. Not only were you soaking wet, but your white shirt had quickly become see-through. You couldn't help but scoff as you crossed your arms over your breasts.

"Wow, thanks so much, hero," you said, sarcasm dripping with every word.

His eyes grew wide. "What the fuck did you say, bitch?"

Now it was your turn to gape at him. "What? No way," you whispered to yourself as you scanned him more closely this time. You couldn't help it, you began to step back away from him. "This can't be happening," you muttered to yourself. 

You were lost in your own little world for a moment when you felt a hand on your arm. The hero in front of you tugged you closer and began removing the cuff from your wrist. He tossed it to the ground before gently running his gloved fingers over the words engraved into your arm. He returned his gaze to your face before he began to laugh. Your immediate response was to be offended and you ripped your wrist from his hold. He quickly grabbed it back, apologizing.

"Sorry. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing because the words that have kept me going all these years were meant to be sarcastic."

I tried to think back to what I had just said when he quickly removed part of his costume and showed me his arm. Wow, thanks so much, hero was scrawled up his arm in the same flowing script as mine. I couldn't help it, I began to laugh. He had such positive sounding words on his arm, words that could have inspired him into becoming an actual hero, but they were laced with scorn when coming out of my mouth.

"Um, I'm Y/n L/n," you introduced after your laughter subsided.

He smirked and pulled you closer to him. "I've been looking for you for a long time Y/n, L/n," he said while locking eyes with yours. "The name's Katsuki Bakugo."