Chapter Text
After Bakugou and Kirishima had left, Izuku called a taxi and went to his mothers. Almost afraid of anymore surprise guests. Thankfully, his mother hadn’t asked what was wrong. No, instead, she hugged him, made him dinner, and tucked him into his childhood bed, just like she’d done so many times before. The next day, the two made their way to the Bakugou family residence, for the weekly get together his mother had with Bakugou’s mother.
He sat at the table with his mother and Mitsuki, all drinking their tea in a moment of peace that he couldn’t help break.
“You know, don’t you?” He asked Mitsuki. Her red eyes, somehow the same and yet so different from Bakugou’s were confused for a moment. “You always had this look anytime it was showing. So, you know, right?” He clarified slightly. Recognition clicked, and her tea was quickly sat down.
“Yeah, I know. I’ve changed your diapers, of course I know.” She confessed, looking uneasy. Glances towards Izuku’s mother every so often only seemed to increase the tension in the room.
“Why didn’t you ever tell him?” Izuku questioned and Mitsuki sighed.
“By the time he was old enough to know what soulmates were, well you know how he acted. Especially towards you. Plus, I saw how you took after Inko with keeping your mark covered and shying away from the topic. The first time I knew for sure that you saw his, you turned away from it, and I honestly couldn’t blame you! I wasn’t gonna force you into something you didn’t want, especially when Katsuki was such a brat. I tried to tell him that he’d regret how he was to you one day, but then you never told him. You both went to UA and Eijirou came along, and I just didn’t know what to think after that. I just thought- I thought it was your business to tell him.” Mitsuki explained, sounding exhausted and ending with her elbow on the table, hand pressed against her temple, cradling her head.
“Did something happen, honey?” His mother asked, reaching over the table to grab onto one of his hands.
“They told me they wanted to be with me, and I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do with that information.” Izuku confessed, feeling his heart and brain completely at war with one another.
It wasn’t like in his 22 years, he didn’t see that soulmates were far more likely to be happy with one another than they were to be anything else, but it still didn’t stop him from remembered just how much hatred his father showed his mother or how awful Bakugou was to him for so many years.
His mother’s hand left his own and reached forward, to his forehead, brushing the curls that fell into his face, away. He and his mother were alike in so many ways. Their hair, their eyes, the way they faced the world with their emotions, and subsequently their tear ducts. Sometimes though, in his darkest moments, he thought he was like his father.
Life would be easier if he’d just removed his mark. There were so many fights he could have just tilted or moved his body ever so slightly, and all evidence of a valknut on him would have been erased.
That thought alone terrified him enough to never want to be with anyone, let alone the two people he actually loved.
“You should show them.” The gentle voice brought him out of his deeper thoughts and he jerked away from his mother’s hand as if it were the fire that he’d been thinking about.
“What!?” He jump to his feet, his chair clattering to the ground behind him.
“You should show them your mark. You three, you belong together.” She stood up, standing a foot shorted than him, but somehow making him feel like a caged animal as she walked forward, careful to not spook him. She reached her arms up to his face and he instinctively leaned down so she could cup his face. “My little boy is all grown up.” She softly began to pat his face, giving him a wobbly smile. “I shouldn’t have let you be afraid of being loved for so long. I should have sat you down, but I was scared that you’d end up just like me. I didn’t realize that, by not telling you, I wasn’t even giving you the chance to be any different.” He wanted to protest, but she didn’t give him the chance. “You go talk to them. You deserve a chance for things to be different. You understand me?”
Reluctantly, he nodded. Their matching green eyes both filled with tears as he gave her a quick hug before leaving Mitsuki’s and making the trek to Bakugou and Kirishima’s. The walk, he’d hoped would give him time to think of anything that he was going to say, but as he stood in front of their apartment door, he was still clueless.
As much as he knew he needed to follow his mother’s instructions, he didn’t was to show them. The selfish part of his brain wanted to ruin his mark and then say yes to them. To forever leave them in the dark, and never have to face up to fate, but he knew that wasn’t an actual option.
His hand moved on reflex, knocking on the door. Kirishima opened it just a few seconds later and instantly Izuku was pressed against a warm chest, ribs painfully throbbing against the pressure, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. A pleasant hum filled his entire being, and just for that split second, he let it lull him into thinking it would all be okay.
“You came!” Kirishima exclaimed, while Izuku finally took a step away.
“Just to talk.” The other lost a bit of his excitement, but moved away to let Izuku into the apartment.
“Deku. I’m just finishing dinner, go sit down, we can talk over food.” Bakugou didn’t up from the pot he was stirring once, but Izuku could still see how tense he was. None of them spoke, not until they had all taken a few bites and Izuku just couldn’t take the tension anymore.
“My mom and dad are divorced. Divorced soulmates. It’s pretty rare, but it still happens. I don’t really like to talk about it, neither of us do. We just generalize the whole story by saying we don’t like soulmates, and when people find out my mom isn’t with hers anymore, they tend to tip toe around the subject.” Izuku pushed his food around, not looking up, but knowing that both men were looking at him intently. “My dad was a shitty person. A real piece of work asshole. He screamed about how he never loved either of us, and right before he left, he said he’d rather burn his mark off than ever see it again. That’s why mom doesn’t show hers. Honestly, it’s part of why I don’t show mine either.”
“Midoriya…” Kirishima trailed off in a comforting tone, but Izuku shook his head, stabbing a piece of zucchini before pushing it around his plate.
“I wanted to burn mine off too. I refused to look at it for so long. I hated what it meant, how it made me feel, and how I knew that if anyone else ever saw it, I’d end up just like my mom. I’d be rejected and I just didn’t think I could take it. So, I made it my choice.”
“But you’ve met them, did they reject you?” Bakugou questioned, disbelief replacing the usual aggression.
“I never told them I was their soulmate.” Izuku huffed out a sorrowful laugh. “I could never bring myself to do it.”
“Deku, what the hell!?”
“You never even told them?”
Kirishima and Bakugou’s voices blended together and Izuku gave a sad smile, glancing up at them. He could see their skepticism and confusion, and it only made him feel worse about the whole situation.
“No, I didn’t. Are you sure you want to be with me? I’m a coward.”
“You aren’t a coward. You had to have had a reason for not telling them.” Kirishima defended. Izuku pushed his plate away and dropped his head down once more, almost touching the table.
“I knew it would have been bad if I told them.” He looked up slightly, staring into Bakugou’s eyes. “I met them before UA.”
When I was quirkless.
“Oh fuck.” Bakugou sat back, a hand running through his hair in understanding. “Okay, that explains why you didn’t tell them back then, but when you got into UA? It would have been different then!” Izuku looked away, wincing and pulling his head into his shoulders.
Not to them.
“Can someone please fill me in? I can’t read your minds.” Kirishima’s request was ignored for the time being while Izuku watched Bakugou start working it out.
“But you told them you were leaving, who the hell do you still talk to that bul-” The word got caught in his throat as his face began to lose color. “No. No. No!” He stood up abruptly, blonde spike sloshing from side to side with Bakugou’s distressed head shaking.
“What’s going on!?” Kirishima went to touch Bakugou but his hand was slapped away.
“I’m sorry.” Izuku whispered, shame once again filling him. Tears dripped off the end of his nose, landing at the table.
“Guys, please, someone fill me in. I feel like I missed an entire conversation!” Kirishima pled, leaving Bakugou and the explosions that were beginning to pop, in favor of sliding an arm over Izuku’s shoulders. As much as Izuku wanted to lean into the comfort, he as gently as he could, shrugged off the arm and also stood up. With his arms wrapped around himself he smiled slightly.
“Deku- Oh, God. I nicknamed you Deku. I told you to-” Bakugou looked back with an expression that Deku had never seen on his face before, guilty remorse. The look told Izuku exactly what he was thinking.
This is all my fault.
“Guys, please!” Kirishima’s arms hardened with his shout and Izuku finally moved his focus away from Bakugou’s meltdown. Izuku nodded at the other and gently pulled down the side of his shorts until one side fully exposed his hip and then watched slowly as Kirishima’s eyes slide down to look at the valknut that he’d kept covered his entire life.
“Sorry, Kiri.” Izuku confessed, pulling his pants back up. He saw how Kirishima became completely still, his eyes still staring at his shorts, where the mark was hidden once again.
With Bakugou’s melt down and Kirishima’s stunned silence, Izuku took his leave. Neither male stopped him, and as much as it hurt, he took that as his answer.
Walking down the street, he wasn’t sure where to go. He could go back to his mother’s. She would not only understand the soul shredding feeling that filled his bones, but had gone through it herself, which was comforting in a way Izuku knew he didn’t deserve.
He knew he shouldn’t have gotten close to Bakugou and Kirishima. He should have ignored the first text message. Should have gotten a new gym buddy. Should have stay in Amer-
Izuku stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, calming his tears, and wiping the snot from his nose, as he reached for his phone. The call rang three times before a groggy voice picked it up.
“Deku? Kid, I know you’re in Japan, but it’s 4 in the morning here.” Izuku’s old boss in America, Mr. Clarkson answered.
“I’m sorry Sir, did I wake you?” He couldn’t help how his voice shook ever so slightly with each word.
“Well, no, but that sure as hell don’t mean I’m not tired.” Mr. Clarkson often reminded Izuku of Aizawa. Both men were famous for their poor sleeping schedules, addiction to coffee, and no-nonsense personalities. “What’s going on, Izuku? You sound upset.” The American use of first names made Izuku smile slightly with nostalgia.
“If I asked, could I come back and work for you?” Izuku began walking once again, picking up his pace towards his apartment. Silence filled the line for a few seconds before Mr. Clarkson sighed loudly.
“How about you tell me what’s going on, then we can talk about jobs.” He instructed, and just like that, Izuku spilled everything. By the time he was done he was back home, feeling unwelcome in the barely lived in and dusty apartment, despite his name being on the lease.
“-I just got off a 6-month assignment, so right now I’m on a mandatory month leave. I just think leaving would be best.”
“Kid.” Izuku breath hitched in his chest as he waited for Mr. Clarkson to continue. “That’s a real fucked up story.” He couldn’t stop the helpless snort he instantly let out. Of all the people he’d met while in America, very few of them ever watched their language. “I’m gonna tell you what you what you’re gonna do. You need some fresh air. Let all this drama simmer down. I’m sure those boys are freaking out just as much as you are. So, come on back here.” A wave of relief melted off a sliver of pain in his soul. “But for a vacation only. Bring your mom. Half the heroes here have heard enough stories about the woman, we miss her as much as we miss you. Take a rest, Kid. You just got off assignment. I’ll set you and your mom up for a couple weeks in a hotel, and as payment, you can help us with paperwork.”
“I thought you said to take a vacation, now you want me to work?” Izuku jested. He earned himself an annoyed huff.
“That IS a vacation to you. I’m sure the old log office looks just as bad as when you left the first time.” Memories came to mind of his first month at the agency, where they had him half on paperwork and half shadowing one of the other heroes. Their file room, straight out of an auditor’s nightmare, was a person project of Izuku’s during late nights when he couldn’t sleep. It was exactly the sort of boring and mundane thing he needed to put his mind at ease.
“You aren’t just saying that because no one else will do it right? You really want me to come back?” A broken hiccup forced it’s way out of his mouth, cutting off his ability to breath for a split second. Izuku felt the cry deep inside his soul for at least one person to want him to be around. He hoped that maybe if he had that, it was calm down the raging storm of torment he was feeling.
“Email me your flight details, I’ll make sure a car is there to pick you up.” The call lasted only a few second longer before Mr. Clarkson hung up leaving Izuku to breakdown on his couch one more time before working up the courage to call his mom.
He hovered over her contact for a moment remembering all the days that she smiled for him, despite everything she must have been feeling.
“Izuku, sweetie?”
“You’re the strongest person I’ve even met. I should have appreciated that more, I should have appreciated YOU MORE! I’m sorry, mom. Please, tell me how to make it stop. Tell me how to make the pain stop.” He screamed and begged into the phone. With the phone clutched to his chest he curled around it, listening to the soft shushes from his mother like a child listening to a lullaby. “It didn’t go well. They couldn’t even say anything. Bakugou freaked and Kiri just stood there, completely silently. As soon as Bakugou figured it out, he just kept saying ‘no’. I- I called my old boss. Will you go to America with me for a few weeks? The heroes there want to meet you and I just- I want to be around someone who understands.”
“I’ll tell work there was an emergency.”
5 hours later, Izuku and his mother were on a plane, running away from all the problems Izuku wasn’t strong enough to face. He cried on the plane as his mother rubbed circles on his back, telling his how it was okay to let out.
“How did you do it?” He asked again, expecting some grand advice. Instead, she looked him in the eye with one of the blankest faces he’d ever her make.
“Swallow it down. Fake it. Hold back the tears like you hold back fear when you fight villains. You put on a mask and you swallow all the hurt down until no one notices. It feels like it’s killing you slowly, and you let it. That how I did it. I lied to myself and everyone around me.”
On reflex, he swallowed, feeling like a ball was stuck in his throat. He didn’t respond for a long time. Not until hours after almost everyone on the plane had fallen asleep. He’d stared out the window, allowing himself the time to grieve before he did exactly what his mom told him to.
“Deku doesn’t have soulmates. Deku is a hero. He’s brave and he never shows fear or pain. I don’t have to be Midoriya Izuku, not right now. Right now, I’ll just be Deku.” He whispered to the world, slipping into his hero persona, with flashy smiles and loud laughs. He pushed away the pain in his heart and ignored how the little voice in his head begged him to stop. “I can pretend.”
When they landed, Izuku looked at his mother and smiled widely. For the first time in his entire life, he noticed the edge of fakeness in the smile reflecting back to him.
It seemed like just another thing he had in common with her.
For the next two weeks, Izuku did his best to forget about soulmates, and all things that reminded him of Bakugou and Kirishima. He texted Shinsou and Todoroki about his impromptu vacation, and since none of his other friends were aware he was back from his mission, he turned off his phone and left buried in the bottom of his bag.
New York was the exactly the same as when he’d left. It was easy to fall back into routines he barely remembered until smelling the slightly pungent odor the permeated the entire city.
Greasy food for every meal, jogging around parks, site seeing, catching up with old friends, and analyzing new quirks. His mother practically had every hero agency at her beck and call while Izuku was nose deep in improperly filed reports.
It was glorious, and exactly what he needed. The tension from his 6-month missioned rolled off of his shoulders and everyday he breathed just a little easier as his injuries healed. It was almost enough to forget the gut wrenching empty and shattered feeling that was just below the surface of his being.
“Izuku!” Mr. Clarkson called, walking over to Izuku and the group of heroes that were telling his mother the most embarrassing moments they remembered about him.
“How can I help you, Sir?”
“I need you to do me a favor. There’s a meeting, in Conference Room A, I thought they could use your input.” Mr. Clarkson lazily pointed behind him and Izuku nodded immediately, glancing back to his mom.
“Mom, are you gonna be okay here for a few minutes?” Before she could answer, Mr. Clarkson waved him off.
“I’ll make sure Inko here is just fine.” Mr. Clarkson gave a small smile to his mother and Izuku felt his eyebrows drawing together in confusion. “How about you and I go get a decent meal. I remember how bad the kid’s eating habits were, I’m sure you could use something better than 2am street food. I know a lovely bistro down the road I think you’ll enjoy.” Izuku watched, feet rooted to the ground as a light blush spread over his mother’s face as she nodded. Mr. Clarkson offered her his arm which she freely took before the pair turned back to Izuku. “Go Kid. Don’t leave them waiting.”
He didn’t move, not until Mr. Clarkson and his mother were on the elevator, and all the heroes around him were laughing hysterically. After a hard clap to one of his shoulders he walked in a confused trance towards the conference room, not bothering to knock when he arrived.
When he walked in, he immediately noticed the room was dark, but before he could leave, the door slammed closed behind him.
“Do you know how HARD it was to FIND YOU!” An angry and far too familiar voice screamed. The lights flipped on and Izuku was met face to face with the two people he’d refused to think about since the plane ride to America.
“YOU LEFT US! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE US?” Kirishima screamed, slamming his fists against his shoulders, causing him to fall back against the door. He reached for the doorknob, ready to make a run for it when an explosive fist came out of nowhere, hitting him directly in the jaw.
“DON’T YOU DARE RUN AWAY AGAIN!” Bakugou shouted, fist still in the air from where is made contact with Izuku. It hadn’t had any real force behind it, only enough to get Izuku’s attention.
It was then he saw how Bakugou and Kirishima both had tears running down their faces, and how the swollenness of their eyes indicted those tears weren’t something new.
“I-” Any words Izuku tried to make got stuck in his throat as he looked at the two men in front of him.
They chased after him.
“I won’t let you reject us.” Bakugou whispered, broken and raw. “I know this is my fault, but I won’t let you go. You and Ei. I need you. I know, you and I, we’re messed up. We need work. I’ll do it. I’ll do the work.” Tears filled Izuku’s eyes as he listened to words, he never thought he’d ever hear.
“Please, Izuku.” A shiver ran up Izuku’s spine as Kirishima used his name for the first time. “I love you. Please don’t leave me. Please. I’m not strong like you and Katsuki, I need you. Please love us.” Sobs ripped from the red heads chest and Izuku didn’t stop himself from launching himself at Kirishima.
“I love both of you too.” Izuku promised. Wrapping his arms around Kirishima just like it was the first time, in their second year. This time though, went his hand slid up and his finger tips grazed against red hair, he didn’t stop it from burying itself in the soft locks that were out of their usual spikey style. Nor did he pull away was Kirishima’s hands tightened as his waist or when his teary face buried into the side of his neck.
“Then why?” Bakugou asked him behind him. Izuku turned to look up at red eyes he’d known his entire life. He finally pulled himself away from Kirishima and turned his body fully to face the other. When their eyes met again, Bakugou completely disregarded his previous question. “I’m sorry.”
Izuku hadn’t known how much he needed those words until he heard them. It didn’t fix everything that they needed to talk about or get them the years they’d lost back, but it cracked a wall in Izuku’s heart. Before he knew it, his legs were dangling in the air, toes barely scrapping the ground as he hung from Bakugou’s necks. Strong arms held him, making sure he wouldn’t fall. Kirishima soon joined, wrapping his arms around both of them and melting into them.
It took a few minutes before any of them were able to move. Eventually they sat down at the oval conference table. Izuku at the end, and Bakugou and Kirishima flanking both sides.
“I told Ei. Not everything, just my side.” Bakugou confessed, staring at his clenched fists.
“Then, I’ll tell you my side.” He talked about being quirkless, knowing about Bakugou’s mark since they were six, getting One for All, meeting Kiri, watching them be happy, and ultimately watching them not need him.
“Were you ever going to tell us?” Kirishima asked once Izuku had finished. He sat there, avoiding each pair of red eyes and looking at the patterns in the grain of the wood table. He knew his answer. He’d made his choice at six, and then again every time a new opportunity presented itself.
“No.” He whisper simply. “I’ve thought about what it would be like, to be with you guys, but I never had any intention of showing you.”
“Please don’t reject us again.” Kirishima begged, a vulnerability that Izuku had never seen before weighed heavily on the hardening users face. Izuku instantly felt everything in his body freeze as he processed the words.
Reject them?
No, that was wrong. He didn’t reject them. He was the one that-
Weeks worth of delicious fried food formed a heavy rock in the pit of Izuku’s stomach.
He was the one that left them. So many times. He was the one that said no when they asked to be with him. He was the one who kept popping back into their lives when it was best for him, and then running off to do whatever he wanted after.
He’d always been so scared of being rejected; he hadn’t even realized he’d been the one rejecting them all along.
“I didn’t mean to. I was scared. I’m sorry.” He confessed, over whelmed by the sudden realization of his own fault in the situation. He remembered the words both of them said to him when he first walked in, and only felt his guilt increase.
He reached over to grab one of the hands that Kirishima had been fiddling with nervously on the table, lacing their fingers together. He could feel Bakugou’s eyes on staring at the intertwines hands, but he ignored the other at he focused his attention.
“You’re wrong. Earlier, you said you weren’t strong like Bakugou and I, and that is so unbelievably wrong. When I first met you at UA, I was in awe of you. You pushed to be everyone’s friend and you handled so many different personality types. Aside from your quirk, you’re so many people’s rock. The valknut, each of the three triangles each mean something. Earth is one of them. You’re so strong, you’re the foundation for everything around you. I never meant to reject you.” He paused slightly, glancing back backwards enough to show who he was talking about, but not enough to actually see the other. “I never meant to reject either of you.”
Kirishima’s pulled him by the hand into an awkwardly positioned hug. Izuku’s felt the edge of the table digging painfully into still healing ribs, but he hugged back regardless. When he pulled away, he readied himself for the far harder conversation.
“We’ve improved a lot.” Izuku started, feeling tears already well up in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away with the back of his hand, trying to blink away he missed. “We’ve reached a spot that we’re friends. Best friends even.”
“But not more.” Bakugou finished for him, clenching his fists and glaring out the darkened conference room windows.
“We could be.” Izuku defended quickly. Two set of red eyes snapped to him in an instant. “We could be more. You’re right, we need work, but if you want to be, we could be.” He took a deep breath, feeling his own heart pound in his chest and reverberate in his ears. “I don’t want us all to be together because we’re soulmates though. I want it to be because we love each other, and if one day we should stop, then we break up. We can go back to being friends, and we’ll always be in each others lives as that, even if we don’t work out romantically.”
“Are you already planning our break up?” Bakugou asked, voice a mixture of concerned and teasing.
“I guess, I’m just trying to let you guys know, whatever happens, I’ll never reject you again.”
“Go on a date with us.” Kirishima all but shouted, looking excited. Izuku and Bakugou both looked at him like he was crazy.
“Right now?” Izuku gave a bewildered look. He knew each of them looked like emotional train wrecks, with their comfortable clothes and swollen tearstained faces. It wasn’t really his idea of a date night look.
“Why not, nerd? You think this is the worst we’ve ever seen you look?” Bakugou added, giving the smallest of smiles. Izuku felt himself grin and laugh lightly before standing up.
“I know we still need to talk about this, but I think a date would be nice.” He felt the blood rushing to his cheeks and a smile forcing its way onto his face. “There’s a place a few blocks from here. They have burgers and deep-fried Oreos. We could go there.”
“I’d go anywhere with you two.” Kirishima promised. Bakugou and Kirishima both laced their fingers with Izuku’s as he led the way out of the conference room.
They were silent on the way to the restaurant. Izuku watched his soulmates look around as they walked. Laughing at their offended looks when people would bump into them or when cars around them would honk for seemingly no reason. He of course called his mother and gave her the quickest of run downs, and then very obviously tried to ignore how she didn’t seem too unhappy to be left alone for the night.
It was easy to fall back into old habits with Bakugou and Kirishima. Teasing and laughing. It felt like it had before Izuku had gone on his mission. How the three fell together, like fate had intended. There were still things they needed to talk about, things they need to settle, but the soul altering pain had faded.
They stayed in America with Izuku and his mother for the last week of their vacation. Bakugou complained about fatty food, Kirishima fell in love and sent Fatgum hundreds of pictures, his mother had more meals than Izuku deemed necessary with Mr. Clarkson, and Izuku felt more at ease than he had in maybe his entire life.
Todoroki and Shinsou brought a bottle of wine over upon his return as a celebration of Izuku being allowed back to work and also finally coming clean to his soulmates.
“We’re taking it slow. Just dating, as if we weren’t soulmates. Bakugou and I are gonna start seeing a therapist though, to try and work through our issues together.” Izuku told them as they drank. It was been something Bakugou suggested, after his own success with therapy through the years.
“So, are they your boyfriends? You going public with it?” Shinsou questioned.
“We all know we love one another, that’s enough for now. Titles don’t have to come right away, and neither does telling the public.”
After finding out that Kirishima’s third degree when Izuku had gone on dates in the past was not him being nosey, but was actually his jealousy, Izuku thought Kirishima would have been the first one to slip up and tell the media.
Never in a million years did Izuku think it would be him that told everyone.
7 months after they’d begun dating and 6 months after starting therapy, Bakugou and Kirishima had easily become, Katsuki and Eijiro. The trio had arrived at a hero event together, much like they had a hundred times in the past. Pictures were taken, the trio smiled when they needed to, and made fun of each other at every turn.
It wasn’t until they were stopped for interviews that things went a little different than they had in the past.
“Deku! You’re 23 and in the top 10 heroes, such an amazing feat. How does it feel to be the only top ten hero without a soulmate?” The reporter shoved a mic into Izuku’s face and snapped photo after photo of his shocked expression.
“Excuse me, but I prefer to keep my love life private, I’m sure you understand.” He went to move away from the reporter, ignoring his desire to grab the hand of one of his soulmates.
“It must be hard for you to watch Dynamight and Red Riot, two more top ten heroes, and soulmates. Is that why you so often third wheel with them?” The female gave a sickeningly sweet smile, putting the camera in his face again.
There had been a faction of people online that expressed their dislike for Izuku being so close to the other two men long before they’d all begun to date. Usually, their concern was that Izuku somehow got in the way of their relationship, and was ultimately trying to ruin it.
It was a conversation that had come up more than once in therapy.
“Oi, knock that crap off. The nerd isn’t a third wheel.” Katsuki answered for him. Suddenly sandwiched by his soulmates, Izuku felt tremendously better, until the reporter opened her mouth once again.
“You don’t have to stand up for him Dynamight, everyone knows Deku is just jealous because he doesn’t have a soulmate.” Like something from a movie, the area quieted down almost instantly.
“I have no reason to be jealous.” Izuku told her, voice low and daring her to speak again. Eijiro was already placed a hand on his shoulder trying to calm him down while Katsuki was letting the small sparks in his fist pop at his sides.
“Lady, you’re being really rude right now, Izuku has done nothing wrong.” Eijiro told her. The use of his first name seemed to set her off in someway.
“Both of them coming to defend you? You three are awfully close. Maybe they just use you as a side piece instead of a third wheel.” Her catty side comment put multiple things into action all at once. Izuku pushed Ei into Katsuki to keep him from attacking, every camera was immediately pointed towards them, and Izuku lunged to grab the microphone.
“Don’t you dare talk about them like that. I’m not their side piece or their third wheel, I’m their soulmate!” Izuku glared at the reporter who looked ready to burst.
“No, you aren’t! You don’t have a mark!” She shot back.
“Oh, you wanna see my mark? Then I’ll show you!” He threw the microphone in the ground, not caring about how he probably broke it. He reached for his belt and then smacked away two different hands that tried to stop him. “If they wanna see, then I’ll show them!” Only a few seconds later, his pants were around his knees and his boxers pulled to expose the mark on his hip. As soon as he was sure everyone got a good look, he turned around the grab Katsuki’s face, smashing their mouths together before repeating the action with Kirishima. He wouldn’t call either of them kisses, more likely an aggressive display of belonging that he hadn’t ever known he would do. “That enough proof for you?”
With that, Izuku pulled back up his pants, grabbed his soulmates hands, and tugged them away.
Of course, there was backlash. From fans, the hero commission, Izuku’s friends, pretty much everyone had an opinion, but most of the backlash fell onto the reporter verses Izuku. Of course, they commission gave a slap on the wrist to Izuku for not informing them of his soulmate connection, he had to give a verbal apology to his fans for his aggressive behavior, and answer hundreds of questions from friends. Interviews were had with all three of them to relay the backstory of everything, especially since Izuku had been on dates in America.
Surprisingly, people were sympathetic to his story.
After that, Katsuki and Eijiro took every opportunity they could to shower Izuku with affection in and out of the public eye. Holding his hand, slinging an arm over his shoulder, the time Katsuki just picked Izuku up when he was taking too long talking to someone, the flowers Eijiro sent to his office every Friday before date night. It was nice in ways Izuku had never known.
Two years after the press incident, as Izuku hung up the last photo on the wall of their new house, he couldn’t help but smile at the ring that sat on his left hand. It had been a hard journey, but it was one that he wouldn’t change a second of, not when he ended up with the two greatest loves of his life.