Up in Smoke (Soulmate AU)

Constants and Variables.

If there was one thing Kirishima knew for sure? This whole situation put a bad taste in his mouth.

Constants and variables, we'd start there.

Soulmates. They were a rare phenomenon. Babies born with clocks on their wrists ~ nobody knew where it came from. Quirks were different, they could be dissected through scientific expression and study; a simple mutation with a meaning behind it. It was strange but explainable. But soulmates - Soulmates were different. People being drawn to each other. Pairs being born at two different sides of the world just to inevitably meet in the middle. Destiny had become an art form, a physical aspect of life! But only for some.

0.01% of the population. That's 800,000 out of 7 billion and he just happened to know two pairs of them. His best friend and his grandparents.

He knew It wasn't totally uncommon to initially refuse your soulmate, his grandfather was a prime example of that. No one wants to be tied down to someone at such a young age. Being told that you'll have to spend the rest of your life with a complete stranger? Anybody would say the idea was, at the very least, objectionable. He and Ganny hated each other for a while, I remember. But they kept being pulled together. Like a rubber band that snapped back whenever they stretched too far. Pops even tried to leave Japan at one point. But then his sister got sick and he had to travel back. He and gran bumped into each other at the hospital that day. Her cousin had broken his leg and stayed a room over. It was as if the harder they tried to run from each other, the more they were pulled together. Something would always happen. Something would always make their bond stronger.

 

Constant.

 

But no matter how true that was, people had the right to feel the way they wanted to feel. Bakugou was a little sharp around the edges and as upsetting as it is to say - it's not hard to initially not like him. He remembered being a little agitated when he told him how he managed those scars on his fingers.

"Oh my g- Have you never talked to a girl before?! You don't touch them without their permission, bro. That's like the first rule of manliness! You can't break the first rule of manliness!!"

"Fuck off, alright. I get that."

"Do you?!"

He had his vices.

But underneath that, he was truly a great guy. His passion was what pulled him in to the explosive blonde. His resolve, his indomitability. He was, without mention of his previous actions, the epitome of manliness. Being manly was not backing down. Being manly was putting your all into achieving your goals, and from the display he had been offered in the locker rooms, being manly was letting yourself be vulnerable. He was capable of being vulnerable. He cared about things ~ even if a little too much. He could see the error in his ways and feel regret for them. Or from what he'd seen, downright degradation. He cared about that girl. He cared about the way she saw him. He cared so much that he even let himself suffer, even if that meant letting her be happy with the man she wanted.

"I told her she could be with that fucking loser. I just...I didn't want her to hate me any more than she already did. I fucking-.... I let her go. Why did I- fuck!"