The Yellow Umbrella // Part 1 — Realization
Aizawa Shouta X F!Reader (Soulmate!AU)
A/N: I wanted this to be a one-shot but I really ran with this idea, so now it will be a three-part story. In this AU, soulmates can meet in a mutual “Shared Space” in their dreams if they both fall asleep thinking about each other, but there are certain restrictions in place: they cannot speak their own names, they cannot remove the masks on their faces, and they cannot touch. These constraints are lifted once they make direct, unfiltered eye contact for the first time in real life.
Warnings: Violence, Kind of angsty in the beginning but it’s Happy Ending Certified
Summary: You grew up in a world saturated with soulmate content. Couples shared their meet-cutes in magazines, some starred in reality shows where they swapped soulmates for a month, entire businesses were founded on creating items in doubles for soulmates to share. Everyone you knew had some wisdom to share from their own experience, or the experience of someone they knew. The only thing you never saw or heard about, ever, was what to do if you had a soulmate who avoided you.
The shadows above you swam together as you stared unrelentingly. With a sigh, you shifted again, readjusting so that you were on your side. The stretch felt good, but the wall was no more likely to lull you to sleep than the ceiling.
You squeezed your eyes shut, willing yourself to just sleep. It would be no good if you were dozing off on your feet in front of the children tomorrow, after all. Of course, if you had the promise of a sweet meeting awaiting you when you closed your eyes, you could drift off sooner, but… you doubted he would show. He rarely did.
Not for the first time, you found yourself wasting a sleepless night thinking over all of your past attempts to reach out to your soulmate. There was one time, in the beginning, when you’d first met in your dreams. His mask was plain, no painted expressions or engraved details, with a grille over the eyes. He said he was just curious to meet you, and although you had been disappointed by his admission, you still expected his return. But the next night, you were alone, although you waited in your Shared Space for the whole night, refusing to let your mind give way to other dreams. After that, he rarely dropped by. Usually when he did, he would end up frustrated, as though he hadn’t meant to fall asleep thinking about you. He made no attempts at conversation, though he would answer most of your questions, albeit bluntly. He said your mask was white with yellow primroses climbing up the sides.
Only one time had he willingly come to see you, as far as you knew. You had expected another frustrated groan when you appeared, more distant conversation and failed attempts to communicate. You hadn’t expected to find him breaking apart. You hadn’t expected to see him fall to his knees, or let you take him in your arms.
That was the night you discovered that soulmates couldn’t touch each other in dreams, not really. Although you went through the motions, you felt little more than a light tingling where his body made contact with yours. There was no warmth, no pressure.
You had begged him to meet you then. You told him you would meet him wherever, that you would travel across the whole country if you could just comfort him for real. When he didn’t give you a location, you told him you would be waiting for him on the bench just outside of Kashik station. That was years ago.
You didn’t realize you had drifted off during your remembrances of him until you found yourself in your Shared Space. It was as barren as ever. Despite all the wonderful things you heard about dream spaces slowly becoming decorated and soulmates later furnishing their homes in imitation of that, yours stayed empty. With a bitter sigh, you surrendered yourself to the wave of unconscious dreams instead.
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