Soulmates AU where soulmates are connected by a red thread and Bakugo hates it because he's tied to Deku, but Deku has two strings. He feels he has (meta)physical evidence that he's not enough for Deku and rails against it their entire childhoods. Deku assuring him he could never care for anyone else the same way only makes him angrier. And then on the first day of high school there he is, the overpowered second soulmate they knew was coming, Shoto Todoroki, son of Endeavor himself. Bakugo will never admit to the moment of trembling defeat he felt looking on Deku's second other half, like an angel from on high had graced the Earth with its presence just for Deku, the personification of everything Deku would love in a single unbeatable package. And a tiny part of him he hates more than either of them accepts it. He was right all along, he's beaten. But the rest of him intends to see it through to the bitter end. He watches them, waiting for the proof he's waited for all his life that Deku will fuck off with soulmate #2. The schoolyear drags on and he's angry and discontent whenever he looks at either of them. Deku looks guilty whenever Bakugo sees him talking to Todoroki. Todoroki seems to think this is just Bakugo’s natural state. Then it drags on more and he's actually forced to learn things about Deku's fated mistress. And he hates it. Because he doesn't hate him. And it forces him to admit he understood on sight why he would be Deku's soulmate. Todoroki slips into his and Deku's world like a missing piece. He's steadfast and staid to their volatile dynamic, evening then out, there to launch off of and catch them when they fall. The bracing, immovable Earth beneath their feet. But he's Deku's, and Deku's alone. Bakugo would rather spin wildly on his own than be half enough for anyone. Maybe he tries, but it’s two hands that reach out to pull him back, two people equally determined and earnest in their desire to keep him in their lives. And Bakugo realizes he's been fighting the wrong enemy all along.
