Fic rec - waterlogged (red blue, green)

[sakura_no_miko]

Title: waterlogged (red blue, green)

Author: lein

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Midoriya/Todoroki

Warnings: mild angst

Other notes: soul mates, au, episode-based, worldbuilding

Length: 9k

Summary:  Izuku has never been one to curse but the only way to describe himself as his mother hugs him goodbye that morning, is royally fucked.

He’s really, truly glad no one in their class has a mind-reading quirk because from the minute his feet touched warm sand, his mind has been screaming in tune to the same famous classical overtures Tenya listens to when they study together. Occasionally, the music pauses just long enough for his brain to point out observations about Shouto that make Izuku want to stick his head under the waves and just breathe in.

 

So, I gotta say, I adore the world-building in this fic, in that it’s one of those soulmate AUs where, logically, the rules of having a soul mate could potentially be a giant pain in the ass, but it actually ends up being pretty cute. I mean, it’s one thing to have a ton of children running around with super-powers, but now everyone has multiple superpowers…. I pity anyone who runs daycare in this universe. (Except Present Mic in this fic, lol. He makes it seem more cute and less stressful).

And, before I get into spoilers, ah, the reveal is quite clever. It probably took me longer than it should have but it makes utter, perfect sense.

This is a fic where I really enjoy the prose. There are a lot of succinct lines that tell you so much:

He still doesn’t understand.

Shouto has grown up with everything, everything but love.

He doesn’t understand and he wants to. Izuku has grown up with nothing, nothing but the love of his mother. No quirk, no friends, and a strange band curled around his wrist like a brand. You’re different, it screams but, despite that, he’s always loved it, always found it to be oddly comforting.

Izuku has always wished to become a hero and now he has the chance. To see someone not utilizing their quirk to its fullest potential is strange and frankly, a little infuriating.

I love that comparison — Shouto grew up with everything but love; Midoriya grew up with nothing but his mother’s love. It does really get down to the core issues with their characters, especially at that point in the canon. Shouto is repressing himself, refusing to go forward out of fear and resentment, Midoriya is desperately grasping for something, anything to prove to himself that things have changed, and years of being told he useless aren’t true. Both of them, fighting for the same thing — to prove what they’ve been told all their lives isn’t true, but in the opposite ways.

Also, this is a small bit of worldbuilding, but I really like it:

“Maybe,” Izuku grins. “Maybe, one day, when we graduate, I’ll get a pretty pink band tattooed around my other wrist. It won’t do anything but it’ll mean something big.”

So, so many soulmate AUs make a big deal out of fake marks. Like, faking a soul mark to attract someone you know isn’t really your soulmate. I mean, it’s a good trove of angst, and I’ve got a few fics on my rec list that deal with it, but this is a rare fic I’ve found where someone sees it as a potential positive. Like, yeah, this is an important event, let me share it with you. I’m reminded of the ending of Oil and Watercolor, which is another fic where, mild spoilers, someone tries to cover up a mark that reminds them of a trauma they experienced with a happier mark. Missing is a good example of an angst-y take on it. Glitch has a really angsty take on it.

 

Spoilers now~

Oh, and then the reveal:

“It’s always zero or one hundred with you, Deku-kun. What if this time it’s fifty-fifty?” She says and then points up at a star formation she thinks looks like Katsuki’s hair as if Izuku isn’t having a crisis from her statement.

He’s never thought about it before. Izuku had accepted the hum of his twisted band, the constant ebb and flow of water that forms in the cracks between red and blue, as a catch-all but what if?

What if there’s more?

He wonders if there’s a way to control each colour individually, he wonders if he’s really ready to know.

Dude, I love the reveal. I love, love that the author integrated in the idea of mis-labeling quirks, which was only vaguely mentioned early on in the series. Of course Midoria would assume, oh, it’s just a water quirk, because why would it occur to you to think, oh, I’ve got a constant stream of fire and ice going on that I can’t control, so, water.

Although…um. Well. Let’s just say there were some recent spoilers in the manga — I’m talking like within the last month or two — that open up some interesting possibilities for Todoroki in this AU. Obviously this fic came out way before those spoilers happened, but, ah. If this fic were written right now, with current spoilers, it would be interesting.

Still, I love this fic. All soft and lyrical and fluffy.

 

(Looking for more fic recs?)
Crossposted to pillowfort