Red Strings: A My Hero Academia Soulmate AU

💛❤️💛❤️ pt.1

Warning: angst (at least for part 1 😉)

You knew your soulmate was out there somewhere. You had a mark on your leg to prove it. But soulmates could be a tricky business. Just because you technically had one didn't mean you would automatically find each other. You knew if you did happen to find him, you'd drop everything to be with him. But you also knew it wasn't realistic to live your whole life waiting for someone who might never show.

Your family, your very existence, was a weird contradiction on the whole concept of soulmates. It started with your aunt, your mom's older sister. She waited, shaped her entire life on the eventuality of finding her soulmate. But one day, her mark disappeared, meaning her soulmate had died. Without something to live for, she sank into a deep depression, mourning the loss of something she never had. She eventually wasted away and died young. This, obviously, impacted your mother. She swore she wouldn't wait around for someone who might never show up.

She met and married your father, who was not her soulmate, had you, and lived happily for three years. Then came the day she happened to stumble across her actual soulmate. It threw your little family for a loop. Unable to resist the soulmate bond, she divorced your father. But even that was a blessing in disguise as your father found his soulmate less than a year later.

It's somehow not weird at all. You've turned into one happy family, with both your biological and step parents being amazing people. But it's shaped your outlook on life. If your mom and dad had waited for their soulmates, you wouldn't be alive. And, even though you know it was hard on them for a while, no one held any resentment toward each other.

You decided to take a similar approach to your mom. There were no guarantees in life, so you decided to live on a whim, doing whatever made you happy in the moment. And what made you happy at the moment was Mirio Togata.

A bright ball of sunshine, Mirio made you laugh with his dumb jokes and made you smile with his optimistic attitude. With him around, you felt like nothing could ever go wrong. Until the day it did.

You stood in the hospital hallway, tears streaming down your face, as you watched your boyfriend of four years, embracing another woman. You had just visited yesterday, encouraged at how he was keeping his spirits up despite losing both his quirk and his mentor. But looking at the scene in front of you, it was obvious what happened. The young woman, wearing hospital scrubs, was stroking the mark on Mirio's neck. The same mark you swore didn't matter. But it mattered now; he had found his soulmate.

You turned and left the hospital, Mirio none the wiser. You sat on a bench outside, and stared at the perfect blue sky, highlighted by puffy white clouds. You had sworn to yourself that you would never regret choosing to live this way, but the way your heart hurt...you were nothing if not full of regret. You felt the bench shift beneath you and knew someone had sat down next to you, but you refused to move your eyes away from the sky.

"You saw him, didn't you Y/n?" There was a long pause as you refused to respond to Mirio's best friend. "I'm sorry, but you always knew this was a possibility. I hope this doesn't ruin things between all of us."

Despite still being shy around you after all these years, Tamaki's arm landed around your shoulders in an attempt to comfort you. But it only caused your tears to flow once again. He pulled you closer and you sobbed into his chest.

"What do I do, Tamaki? I mean, I followed you guys to UA. I literally came to this school to learn business to help him further his hero career. And for what? I don't think I can watch him be happy with another woman while I'm left all alone."

"Just because you and Mirio won't be dating anymore doesn't mean you can't still be friends. Look at your parents. They get along fine now, right? Maybe you should talk to your dad about how he dealt with your mom finding her soulmate first. You've always talked about these things with both your moms, but not so much with your dads. You really need your dad's perspective right now."

"You're right. I'm a fool for not expecting this to happen sooner or later. Thanks for being a good friend, Tamaki," you said while squeezing him tight.

You caught the train and took it to your dad's house. As you walked in the front door, you yelled, "I'm home," and were immediately greeted by your step-mom. "Is Dad around?"

She took one look at your puffy eyes and pulled you into a hug. She sat you down on the couch and went to get your father for a much-needed talk. After explaining the scene you had witnessed today, you asked the question that had been weighing on you since your talk with Tamaki.

"How did you deal with it Dad? Mirio and I have been together for a long time, but you and mom were married. You had a child. I know everything worked out fine in the end, but when everything went down, what did you do?"

"In the case of your mother and I, we had a conversation before we got married, all the "what ifs" that could happen. And we had a plan for if either of us ever met our soulmate. But that doesn't mean it wasn't hard. I loved your mother, I still do, but it's not the same as what you feel when you meet your soulmate."

I noticed he squeezed my step-mom's hand as he spoke. Both of them were smiling, not a hint of whatever pain they previously went through present on their faces. But my dad's smile turned sad when he looked at me.

"You don't remember because you were too young, but I left for a while. I didn't regret my choices and I didn't begrudge your mom her happiness, but I still had to separate myself from the situation. Right about the time I had accepted everything and came back was when I found my own soulmate. But even if I hadn't, I was at a place where I could be around your mom without it hurting too bad. You'll need the same time. You may need to distance yourself from Mirio for a bit. I won't lie, it will hurt to see him happy with someone else. But it will get easier, I promise. Especially because you always knew this could happen."

You knew your dad was right. But you at least had to have a conversation with Mirio first. You didn't want to completely ghost him without notice. You texted him, asking if he could meet you in the hospital's courtyard.

You sat on a bench waiting for him, a sad smile forming on your face when he finally approached.

"I'm sorry, Y/n."

It was hard to look at him when his face was devoid of his usual grin. "I know. I'm trying to be happy for you, but it hurts. I'm gonna need some time, obviously. It's hard to just turn off my feelings, but I'm hoping we can go back to being friends in the future."

I looked up, hoping to see a sad smile similar to mine, but was shocked at the tears streaming down his face, his lips in a grim line.

"We can't be friends anymore, Y/n. Saori, my soulmate, I told her about you and she's really angry. She can't understand why I didn't wait for her. She doesn't want me to see you ever again. I tried to reason with her, but she threatened to leave me. She's my soulmate, Y/n, I have to give us a chance. So, at least for right now, I can't see you. I know this is the most horrible thing I could do right now, but, please, I'm begging you to understand."

You were at a loss for words. You were already planning not to see him for a while, but this was different. Did you really have to live in a world without your sunshine forever? You closed your eyes tight, knowing what you had to do. He had just been through one of the worst experiences possible as a hero and you didn't have it in you to hurt him worse. Heart shattering in your chest, you stood and turned your back on your him. Seeing his tears only made your own begin to flow once again.

"I understand. Goodbye, Mirio."