Snowflakes

Holy shit….

Your first week of classes, but the second week of your college life, has been overwhelming. You knew it’d be different, it’s not high school anymore, but this was too new. Swarms of people roam around campus and different forms of transportation zoom by. The chill sinks into your bones a little. And you’re just there, quirkless, new to city life, staring at the city you’ll have to familiarize yourself with. 

“Y/n!!!! The partying starts now!” your roommate says as she wraps her arm around your shoulders from behind. You jump slightly in surprise, almost dropping your phone, not expecting her screaming or presence. You really need to work on that since you have to be more careful because of your quirklessness. 

Once you realize it’s her, you relax and roll your eyes, “We literally just finished our first week, and you already want to party? What happened to being academic weapons?”. You’re not ready to experience being black-out drunk so early in your college life. That should happen after your first finals or during a holiday. 

“All I heard was more of a reason to party, we just finished our first week!” she exclaims, completely ignoring your second question. You sigh, and you shoot a disappointed glance to your side. “Ohhhh, come onnnnnnnnnnn, don’t we deserve to have fun?” she pouts, side-hugging you even harder, trying to peer pressure you. It’s working a little but she doesn’t need to know that. “Naomi, I don’t think we gave our lives and money away to the university to go and party.” you retort. It’s true, you’re not going into crimpling debt to not walk away with a job that’ll make you the big bucks. 

You’ve waited your whole life for this, the famous college experience. High school was a shitty experience, picked on, excluded, and more. This is a whole new place, nobody knows you, and you can be who you want to be. This university is supposedly one of the most diverse and accepting ones there is. Sure, you want to party and be part of the social university life but you’re literally selling your soul to the devil, debt. You can already see your future for these upcoming years. Cups of ramen noodles sprawled around the floor and huddled into your blankets for warmth. You don’t need a/c, right? 

Naomi shakes you, having noticed your blank experience. “What?” you say as you’re shaken out of your financial situation daze. Now it’s her turn to sigh, she rolls her eyes and glares at you, “Did you even hear anything I just said?”.

You could lie but knowing her, she’d make it hard to continue the lie. “No, sorry, just thinking about….. you know, college stuff….”. She whines at your response, shaking you even more by your shoulders.

“You’re lucky we’re basically stuck together for life,” she says. Before you could even ask her what she meant by that, she drags you alongside her. She has a surprisingly strong grip, although, that’s not much of a feat considering you’re not known for being strong. That’s another thing you have to work on if you’re going to start providing and living by yourself. 

You met Naomi four months ago, only through the phone, but you’re pretty similar. She’s also quirkless, which is becoming pretty rare nowadays. It’s estimated that only about 10% of the whole population has no quirks. You were quite honestly hoping for a roomie that’s quirkless so you could relate to each other. Protests against quirkless people are increasing because of their lowering population. You’ve seen so many online, honestly, it scares you shitless. How could you defend yourself? That’s a later problem though, they’re still not super relevant.

“Naomi-” she doesn’t even stop at your talking and pulling to stop, “Where are you taking us?” you say as you try to pull your arm out of her grip. She keeps running off with you but turns around and flashes a smile, “You’ll see.” Oh god, there are so many possibilities of where she wants to drag you off to. 

Campus flashes around you, nature immersed with huge buildings and halls filled with tons of auditoriums and classrooms. People from all over the world with different cultures pass by, some looking over and seeing you being dragged across campus. Finally, you arrive outside of a building that’s bustling with somehow even more people than the sidewalks you just passed.

“Why are there so many people?” you ask. “There’s an event going inside. AND I might’ve scored us tickets.” Noami smiles while opening her backpack and pulling out two slips of paper. You reach to grab for a slip but she puts her hand out to stop you. “You’ll have to figure it out when we go inside.” she smirks.

You start trying to protest that you don’t want a surprise considering how she just suggested getting black out drunk but she doesn’t let you get a word out. She’s stronger than she looks. Maybe you should’ve listened to what she was saying earlier. 

Once you pass the double set of doors, you see a line of people passing through metal detectors and having their bags inspected. After that, they get their tickets checked. What the fuck is this. You look over at Noami with an eyebrow raised and confused look. She just smiles and grabs your hand and leads you to one line while she goes to another. This little motherfucker–

“Phone, wallet, and electronic devices in the bin.” says a worker while shoving a bin into your hands. You move the bin out of your hands and onto the table to put your things on it, that’s when you notice a slip of paper in your hands. Noami is really a sneaky thing. You put your phone, wallet, and earbuds into the bin and start trying to read the slip but, “Keep the line moving,” the person behind you says. You glance behind you and see a cosplayer of Dynamight. Damn, these cosplayers are getting really good. He glares at you and you turn back around, “Sorry,” you mutter as you grab your things and push them toward the worker that’s inspecting bags. You wait near the metal detector and walk past it once given the go. You walk through without a beep and grab your things. Then show your ticket to a worker.

As you're putting your ticket into your bag, somebody grabs your hand, “Cmon, we’re going to miss it!” You glance up at the person and it’s Noami, of course, dragging you along, again. “Late to what?” you say back while weaving through the crowd and successfully putting your ticket into your bag. Noami glances back at you while still dragging you along, “You didn’t look at the ticket yet?” “No, the security rushed me.” “Well, this will be a more fun way to see your reaction then.” Oh shit, this must something big if she’s acting like this… 

Finally you guys stop in front a big set of doors with another line and worker checking tickets. “You didn’t tell me we didn’t need to put away our ticket.” “I never said you had to either,” Noami says and mischievously smiles. Luckily, this time it’s only one line and only three people are in front of you. You look behind you and see no one else lining up, but a worker is sectioning off the line. “This was a pain in the ass to get, only 50 tickets were available so I expect a grand thank you afterward,” Noami says and laughs. You’re still confused and getting a bit nervous. Why are there such great lengths for this event?  

At last, Noami gets her ticket checked and passes by the worker. You hand your ticket to the worker and see Noami waiting for you while shaking and smiling the biggest you’ve ever seen from her. The worker gives you the good to go. Noami once again for the third time today, grabs your hand and the door opens. The first thing you notice is the 50 seats with two spots open in the third row, 10 seats in each row. Secondly, and most importantly, you notice pro hero Shouto, Dynamight, and Deku sitting on the stage. 

“Holy shit,” you whisper and glance at Noami. She laughs quietly at your reaction and drags you to your open seats. While walking towards your seats, you hear, “I’m so glad we’re towards the end, less people to see our precious interactions” “I know right”. You continue walking to your seats in a daze, there’s no way they’re actually here. You glance up at them again and see pro hero Dynamight housing his usual demeanor, looking pissed off. Meanwhile, pro hero Deku looks… excited? It’s as if he’s the fan and not the number 1 hero of Japan. Shouto, on the other hand, looks neutral, like always. 

Noami and you finally settle into your seat. You turn to Noami and whisper, “What the fuck… are they real?!” and glance at them again still housing the same expressions except Deku is shaking a little? Is he okay?  “Yeah, of course.” she says as if it’s the most normal thing. “I don’t do knockoffs” she rolls her eyes sassily. A cosplayer to her right glares at her but she doesn’t notice. “Yeah, sure, and while we’re stating facts, we’re both super rich and have apartments with monthly rents of 20k combined.” you scoff and roll your eyes. You feel somebody pinch your right side so you jump up a little. “No sass, I fought tooth and nail for these tickets and I don’t want to hear no back talk,” she says jokingly with a stern look and a finger pointing towards you.

“It wasn’t you, it was luck-“ you say before you get cut off. Today isn’t your day for speaking, you’ve gotten cut off and stopped multiple times already. An event manager is suddenly in the middle of the stage in front of the pro heroes and their tables. How is she not shaking and stuttering? Who knows. “Please come up in an orderly fashion in the order of your seats. Any unnecessary touching or comments will not go unhandled. Gifts are not accepted. The first row can come up.” she says calmly. Half of the room groans at the no gifts comment but the first row goes up anyways. Some leave gifts behind, not needing them anymore. 

Holy shit. Holy Shit. This actually happening. You look around and see varying emotions on people’s faces. There’s even a girl softly crying. You feel somebody’s hand on yours, “Girl, you’re shaking. Calm down, it’ll be all okay.” Noami says. You turn to her and she’s also shaking a little, but less than you. She knows touching you grounds you from previous conversations. She’s the best friend you’ve ever had. “You’re right, thank you. We won’t fuck this up.” you say half jokingly, still a bit nervous. Noami blinks and shakes her head, knowing your emotions, “It’ll be iconic if we do fuck up, so it’ll be okay. Also, there’s only like 51 other people that can snitch but we can deny the rumors.” she says with a grin. “Noami, please don’t fuck up on purpose.” you groan. She elbows you with her left arm, “I won’t, that’ll be like the biggest fumble of the century.” she laughs. 

You two wait nervously but less than before. You glance around the whole room 

except at the pro heroes, no need to make yourself somehow more nervous. 

Eventually, the first row finishes and the second row starts lessening so now it’s the third row’s turn to get into the line near the stage, it’s finally your turn. Luckily, Noami and you aren’t the first ones in your line, so you get more time to get your shit together while standing next to the stage’s stairs. 

Now Noami’s the one to look like she’s going to faint, so it’s your turn to comfort. “Hey, where is the confident girl from the last hour,” you say grabbing her hand and she turns immediately to you. “She’s gone, she’s dead. I was faking it.” she says deadpan. “Well, bring her back, even if she was fake. We’re going to get those NDA’s tonight,” you say jokingly with a grin. She goes silent for a little with a thinking face, “You know what, you’re right. Dynamight is going to ask for my NDA and I’ll hook you up with Shouto.” She chuckles out. You both start quietly laughing since you’re close to the stage. 

Someone’s throat clears ahead of you and you realize that Noami is the next one to go up the stage and talk to Shouto. “One minute per hero. No gifts as previously stated.” the strict event manager from before says and moves aside to let Noami go up the stairs and stand next to the tables. You finally notice that there are three tables, each housing 2 chairs, the one closer to the back of the stage, houses the heroes, and the one closer to the stage’s stairs houses the fans. Also, there are people behind each pro hero with a stopwatch counting down the time the fans have left with the pro heroes. 

Noami looks back at you dramatically, as if she’s a wife leaving her husband and lets go of your hand. “Good luck,” you laugh out. “Always.” she smiles while walking behind the fan that pro hero Shouto is talking to, but not close enough to take away his attention. 

The worker with the stopwatch speaks up about the time and the fan moves. Noami goes to sit on the chair opposite of pro hero Shouto and– Something blocks your view, better said, someone. “Same rules as I said to your friend. One minute per hero. No gifts.” she states plainly. You nod quickly, just wanting her to move to be able to see Noami. She senses your limited patience and sighs, allowing you to go up the stairs and closer to Noami. 

At this angle, you can only see the back of Noami’s head, but you can tell she’s ecstatic. You can hear her laugh and talk to pro hero Shouto but you’re so spaced out on the fact that this is real that you don’t know what they talk about. You continue to focus on Noami so you don’t faint. No way this is real. You look around the room, back at the people sitting, two more rows to go after you. 

The worker tells Noami to move along to Dynamight. Wait, that means that it’s your turn now, fuck. You touch up your hair and move towards the chair, not looking at pro hero Shouto until you sit down. “Hi, my name is-” you say until you get a good look of him. His long hair tusseled, similarly styled like his high school days. The white and red contrasting each other, the red matching with scar. Up close, his scar has lines and seems…. real. You’ve grown up hearing about pro heroes but never met one before. Lucky in the sense that you’ve never been in serious trouble but unlucky that you haven’t had the chance to see such beauty. You’re aghast. His grey and blue eyes pierce into your soul, chunks of color splayed all around his iris. He’s so real, are you dreaming? His neutral face is even charming. Also, even being covered up, you can see the definition of his muscles. 

“Is…. what?” he says, snapping you out of your daydream. You refocus on him, he has his head titled but no expression change. Fuck hot guys, they don’t even have to work on their looks or expressions. He doesn’t even need to smile…. “It’s y/n.” you say with a smile. He nods and starts signing a poster. Wait, a poster, where the hell did that come from? You think with a confused expression. He peeks up at you and notices your confused expression and follows your line of sight to the poster. “Did you not know you’d get a poster? It was advertised with alongside the ticket.” he says plainly but somehow not rudely. He finishes signing and stares at you, expecting you to talk. “Well, my friend-” you point to Noami right next you, “bought me these tickets as a surprise. I really didn’t even know this was happening at our school.” He follows your finger and looks at Noami chatting up a storm with Bakugo who nurses a pissed-off expression. What happened to being nervous…. “I understand.” he says. Okay, so is this dude a major introvert? How the fuck are we going to- 

He starts to hand over your poster but knocks over your backpack. Somehow, your bag was open and pencils spilled out. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to knock it over.” he says blinking and not knowing what to do. His eyes widen, being the most he’s expressed himself tonight, but you feel like somehow he’s expressing himself in his own way. “Ah, it’s okay, let me just pick it up.” You say, leaning over to pick up your pencils and see that Noami is doing the same, helping you out. You eventually get them into your bag and make sure it’s zipped up. When you look up, you see Shouto’s hand moving around the collar of his hero suit. On the side of his neck, is a white snowflake with a blue aura that fades into his skin. 

Wait, but isn’t that your soulmark? Rapidly, your hands grab your collar and pull it down a bit, showcasing the snowflake with blue aura. You look up to see his expression, eyes widen somehow even more and his jaw cracked a little open with his head tilted to the side.

No way…

Is pro hero Shouto your soulmate?