"Kiri!"

"Huh?" Kirishima jerked upright, just in time to see the last of his classmates trailing out of the classroom. Midnight stood at the front, fussing around in her bag. Slightly confused, his eyes flickered to the right to see Ashido leaning over his desk, her black and golden eyes wide with concern.

"Hey, you alright?" she asked, poking him in the forehead. Kirishima recoiled, playfully smacking her hand away. "You've been totally out of it all day."

Kirishima blinked. "It's the end of the day?"

Clearly, that was the wrong answer, because it earned his a worried sigh and furrowed brows. "What's wrong, Kiri? You can tell me," Ashido promised, her tone sincere.

Oh yeah, of course. My soulmate appears to be an asshole who won't talk to me, I have a crush on a guy who has a soulmate, and last night I had a super creepy dream about our domestic life. But I'm fine!

"Just...a weird night," Kirishima mumbled, pushing his chair back and getting to his feet, picking up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Ashido was right beside him. He hated having such aggressive thoughts, especially towards his friends, but that part of him was something he couldn't seem to silence. Flashing the pink-haired girl a grin, they went to exit the classroom together, only for a lilting voice to call him back.

"Oh, Kirishima! Can I speak to you?"

Blinking a few times to clear his mind of the fog that seemed to have settled into it, Kirishima turned. "Of course!" He sent a bright smile to Mina, who told him she was going to the dorms before bounding out of the door, her pink hair bouncing in time with her steps.

"What did you want to speak to me about, Midnight-sensei?" Kirishima asked politely, making his way back over to her desk. His teacher was rummaging through her bag for a moment before she let out a delighted crow of victory, pulling out a sheet of paper and slamming it with unnecessary force onto her desk.

Chuckling to herself, Midnight raised her eyes to look at Kirishima, who was thoroughly confused but trying to to show it. "I did some research on what you asked me about soulmates." Upon seeing his blank look, she elaborated. "About some people not having them?"

"Oh!" Kirishima felt a flush rise in his cheeks. "You didn't need to do that, Sensei."

Midnight shrugged, unbothered by his apparent embarrassment. "I wanted to. Topics like that are interesting to me." She paused, then cast her dark eyes down to the lone paper on the wood. "You asked me if it were possible for someone not to have a soulmate, and I suppose the answer I gave was incorrect."

"A-sexuals and people not seeking one, right?" Kirishima murmured, the memory returning and momentarily driving back the uncomfortable feeling in his mind.

"Exactly!" Midnight declared, but then picked up the sheet and turned it to face him, a slender finger stabbing at the second paragraph or so. "But then I found this!" She turned it back to face her and began to read. "One can safely assume that, if one can activate the perks of their soulmate connection, then their soulmate is out there, waiting. Only if there is no glow to your forearm can you declare with confidence that your soulmate is lost or has never existed in the first place." Midnight looked at him excitedly, but didn't say anything.

"So..." Kirishima mused. "If you can't communicate with your soulmate, you don't have one?"

"Precisely!" Midnight yanked her yellow blouse sleeve up and trailed her pinky across the delicate surface of her skin. A thin, blue line appeared under her touch. "If I did that and nothing came up, I wouldn't have a soulmate."

And like that, a weight was lifted off of Kirishima's shoulders. Sure, his soulmate wouldn't talk to him, but at least they were there. Alive. Maybe not safe, but Kirishima vowed to find them.

"Thank you, Midnight-Sensei," Kirishima said, trying not to sound too grateful yet still wanting to sound pleased.

"It's my pleasure! Young people and their interests are so intriguing, I'm glad to help you out!" she smiled soothingly, and Kirishima had an extra bounce in his step as he left.

"Bye!" he bid, then practically ran all the way back to the dorms. Upon entering the common room, Kirishima found he couldn't see Bakugo, Kaminari, Sero or Mina. Still, this wasn't enough to bring him off the small high he seemed to have acquired - he had a soulmate.

He had a soulmate.

Now it was just a question of finding them.

---

The door thwacked against the wall as it was opened with unnecessary force, the resounding slam snapping Kirishima out of the reverie he had managed to trap himself in instead of doing the homework that was currently glaring at him. Glancing to his left, Kirishima saw Bakugo, set with his usual frown which seemed more annoyed than usual, storm into the room.

"Hey, Baku-" he began, but was promptly cut off when the blond was shoved aside by Mina, who immediately threw herself on the floor by Kirishima's feet.

"Study session!" she yelled excitedly. Sero and Kaminari followed her in.

"They followed me in here," Bakugo growled, gaining his posture with an intense look directed at the pink girl clinging to his roommate. "Bastards, get out of my room!"

Kaminari tilted his head. "Technically, it's Kirishima's room," he pointed out, sauntering over to the bed but opting to sit on the floor and rest his back against the frame.

"Plus, you promised us tutoring, and we're holding you to that," Sero added with a smug type of glee, walking past Mina who had now attached herself to Kirishima's leg and sat down on the bed.

"Yep! With Bakugo's help, we're all gonna do really well!" Mina cheered happily. Bakugo didn't reply, shutting the door and huffing. He dumped his bag on the floor and pulled out a textbook marked in big letters with the word ENGLISH.

"I saw your results in the test. You're all shit." The excited atmosphere in the room didn't dim at his harsh words. "So we're going to go over this until it gets into those fucking heads of yours."

An hour or so later, Kirishima flipped over a page of his own textbook. Mina chattered away to Kaminari about how difficult English was, although she didn't sound particularly upset over it. Sero diligently worked on the questions Bakugo had instructed them to do. Meanwhile, Bakugo refused to talk to them in any language other than English, and wouldn't answer a question unless asked in said language.

"Bakugo, I'm stuck," Kirishima complained, his accent heavily tinting his words but getting the message across nonetheless. The blond was on him in an instant, leaning over his shoulder and peering at his work.

"What now, Shitty Hair?" Bakugo asked, eyes scanning the page filled with messy scrawl and badly-spelled English words. His eyes narrowed. "How the fuck did you spell 'that' wrong?"

Kirishima frowned. "Sorry. But I don't know what this means!" He pointed to a phrase in his textbook, and Bakugo leaned closer to read it. His chest was pressed against Kirishima's shoulder, and he could feel the blond's heartbeat, thrumming steadily in his chest. Kirishima violently fought the flush threatening to rise in his cheeks and was silently glad it wasn't the other way round, because his heart rate was a mile a minute. As Bakugo began to explain, his voice surprisingly even and manner surprisingly patient, the other three in the room had stopped to stare. Bakugo's hand brushed against Kirishima's gently, in an action you could describe as involuntary but the little reaction the blond gave hinting otherwise, as he finished his explanation.

"I'm going to the bathroom, you shit-heads keep working," Bakugo snapped as soon as he was done, stalking into the bathroom and slamming the door shut. Mina was on Kirishima like a bullet.

"Oh my god, you like him!" she squeaked in a whisper, practically climbing Kirishima's chair in her hyper attempt to get answers. "You so like him!"

"Wh-what?" Kirishima exclaimed, then quickly lowered her voice. "Nuh-uh, Ashido. Bakugo's my friend."

A knowing grin has already crept onto the pink girl's face, but before she could spew out any more of her word vomit, Kaminari intervened. "Dude, it's so obvious. No offence," he added hastily when Kirishima turned his glare to him.

"Well, you're wrong," Kirishima argued adamantly. "I don't like Bakugo, not like that."

Sero, who had been silent for the whole of the study session, piped up. "Even if you don't like him, he sure has some sort of an interest in you."

His next breath caught in Kirishima's throat. "What?!" he spluttered. "Now I know you're definitely wrong! Bakugo has a soulmate!" Yet his traitorous mind wandered back to last night, to his overly-domestic dream, and an intense blush flooded his cheeks despite him fighting every urge of it

Mina shrugged, not seeming to notice. "And so do you! What if you're soulmates?"

Before Kirishima could argue his point more, Bakugo's loud voice reached their ears. "SHUT UP AND DO YOUR WORK!"

Mina leapt off him and back onto the ground, just managing to send Kirishima a suggestive wink as Bakugo threw open the door. "You done?" he asked Kirishima, who smiled sheepishly.

"Ah, almost," he stalled, quickly filling in an answer he was sure made no sense, and the study session resumed.

---

"Thank you, Bakugo."

The blond rolled over on his futon, the fabric shifting with him. "For what, Shitty Hair?" he grumbled.

Kirishima shrugged, leaning over slightly so he could better see Bakugo's face. He looked tired, slanted eyes drooping slightly and his signature frown almost completely gone. He felt guilty, so mentally made a note to keep his thanks short. "Y'know. For helping me. And for tutoring us; I know we have an astonishingly short attention span, but you were really good at it. So, thank you!" he beamed, his words somehow gaining a sparkle at the end that would have made Aoyama jealous.

Bakugo blinked, like he was comprehending Kirishima's mini-speech, before he scoffed. "Yeah, you guys are a fucking nightmare." His voice had an amused undertone that made Kirishima's heart soar. "But if you fuckers don't pass, who am I going to team up with? Deku?"

Kirishima laughed. "Midoriya's not that bad." Bakugo didn't look convinced, but Kirishima continued regardless. "Besides, I wasn't just talking about helping me - us - pass. I also meant you listening to me when I go on my rants, too. You're a really good listener."

"I'm good at everything," came Bakugo's immediate response, and Kirishima couldn't help but chuckle.

Silence ensued, comfortable and warm. "Goodnight, Bakugo," Kirishima bid quietly, turning over again to face the wall.

"'Night, Shitty Hair," Bakugo mumbled, sounding like he was already asleep.

A fleeting, last minute thought flashed in Kirishima's head, and he brought up his pinky to scrawl a few words, not really thinking them through but not really caring either. It was something he needed to say.

I know you're there. We'll meet one day, fate will be sure of that.