Up in Smoke (Soulmate AU)

Was he?

So, now he was hooked.

No, if ands or buts about it. He seriously couldn't get her out of his head anymore. She was the prelude to his every waking thought. The genesis to his existing motives. To be with her, to be beside her, to be a part of her. This was a fucking nightmare.

And a beautiful one at that.

At least he was getting sleep now that the waters between them seemed a bit calmer. She wasn't acting like she hated him anymore, which was good. But now she was treating him like everyone else that wasn't Deku. Poker-faced, robotic but, appropriately courteous. And that was somehow worse. He hated it. He hated the way her eyes would light up whenever she looked at him. He hated the honest curl in her lips whenever she'd hear him talk, the way her shoulders would untense, the laughter he'd give her that could make his heart flutter from across the room. He hated it because it should have been his.

But he also noticed some more alarming things about her too.

Like the barely noticeable flinching that came with unwarranted contact. How her eyes always followed the movements of her peers, almost as if she were preparing herself for something. One time, the octopus kid slammed the door on his way into the classroom and he barely ~ just barely missed the sudden rise in smoke that nearly enveloped her head for that moment. The way her lips slightly parted, the way her eyebrows sprang before quickly settling; it looked like fear.

And that made him curious.

"I could faintly remember a fight your dad had with pro hero Endeavor back in the day."

Who was her father?

Bakugou was sitting in front of his study desk, his fingers twitching impatiently over his keyboard as he stared at the blank search bar with a clouded scowl. He felt a little creepy doing this. Searching the web for information she likely wouldn't give to his face seemed too intrusive to be comfortable with. It wasn't like he was stalking her or anything. (Though the bracelet of hers he found and pocketed might arise some suspicion if she'd ever found it here, sitting comfy next to his digital clock.) He was simply using the information that could be provided to him to understand her more. I mean, she was his business ~ and he wasn't the type to leave any job half-assed.

"Endeavour career coun-" No, no.

"Villains who have fought Endeavor" Search.

Holy shit. He wasn't number two for no reason. Articles of lists stacked on top of each other like a clusterfuck of names knelt down to his successes. Paragraphs of accolades and praise leaning over the names of those he had defeated. And not a single one seemed to relate to his soulmate.

He sighed as he refreshed the page, wiping his screen clean as he met the empty search bar again. Alright, how do I do this? He rubbed the frustration off the side of his face, laying in his palm for a moment. Was he missing something? Should he just go back and look again? He exhaled between the fingers that had roamed toward the bridge of his nose.

The same fingers she had scarred.

He sat up as he reached for his keyboard again.

"Villain white fire quirk Endeavour" Search.

The immediate large blue letters took him by surprise.

White Viper.

" White Viper , his real name still unknown, was perhaps as heinous as he was secretive. Speculation suggests he bribed and even threatened government officials into wiping any record of birth or quirk registration from Japan's local and even classified systems. Even as he is contained little is still known about the man behind his crimes, but what is known; is that he wore a mask that fit him. White Viper: The man who is poison.

His left-hand man, the now missing Stinger , 48, (at last appearance) Served the title quite literally for the now detained criminal. A plenitude of poison white fire only emitting from his right hand, he was able to topple and rebuild organizations built on the basis of his barbaric crimes. Surviving victims like ex-cop Sousuko Hyimada, 35, say "He was a sadist. A devil in a man's skin. He tortured me and my commanding officers for days until I finally escaped." Torture methods include:

• Forced inhalation of poison smoke.

• Dismemberment by acid fire. See details

• Toxic branding.

• Slow evisceration by flame infection. See details

• Cranial penetration by-

Bakugou closed his laptop and abruptly stood from his seat, the force sending his chair rolling into his bed.

He paced his room as he thought. His hands pressed against the top of his head as he blew out a long breath through pursed lips.

Great! He thought. So his future father in-law was a monster! Great. This was just perfect. -Why couldn't he have been like a bank robber or I don't know a cool mobster or something? But nooo! God, what was he gonna tell their kids?! "Hey, dad? Why haven't we met grandpa yet?" "Because he's the devil, sweetheart now eat your food." Fucking hell.

He could only imagine what she must've been through. Scratch that. He didn't want to.

Of course, she had latched onto Deku like she did. Mr. GoodyTwoShoes was everything her father wasn't. One of those comic book types. "Ho! Ho! Justice above all!" And all that jazz, where this particular blonde shouted "Die!" and "Go to hell!" whenever he had the chance to do so. (He even accidentally grunted it once while he was jacking it, but he hasn't even let himself  live that down.)

Is that it? Was she afraid of him? Did she think he was like her father? He wasn't that scary. Was he?

He caught a glimpse of himself in his body mirror, noticing the living glare that was his face.

His lips tightened.

Was he?