Work Text:
Katsuki cursed the day humans learned to fly. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to take a species that loved and bred through the concept of soulmates and put them on different planets?
It used to be simple: a ringing in your head appeared when you came of age, along with a pull towards whoever was on the other side. A bit of travel and if you survived, it was, supposedly, a guaranteed match. A promised life of love and joy and whatever other shit the fairytales talked about, all the things everyone longed for. It became easier once the internet came around - entire websites and government agencies were dedicated to helping people find their other half. The journeys that used to take months, even years, were cut down to mere weeks. More paperwork, sure, but less death, a tradeoff many people were happy to take.
And then they learned to fly.
Humans had been looking at the sky for eons, wondering what was out there, and some bastards decided to find out. If the scientists on Prix ever did actually make a time machine, Katsuki had sworn the first thing he would do was go back in time and destroy whoever decided space travel was a good idea.
Ever since he turned nineteen, the pull had been unbearable. At first it had started as a small, persistent scratch in the back of his mind - the new bond weak, the distance between them too large to understand. Something he could easily ignore, at least for the first few years as he tried to finish college. It’s not like he could actually do much; traveling between the quadrants if you weren’t part of a crew was still expensive, causing most people to not leave their galaxy their entire lives. Though most people were lucky, either able to find their soulmates on the same planet, or at the very least in the same system.
As time passed and the bond developed, Katsuki could feel he wasn’t one of those lucky bastards. That whoever was stuck with him was out there, far beyond where a normal passenger ship would take him. So he was stuck getting out of there by himself.
Thank the Space Whale becoming a captain was easy as fuck. A degree, some practice, and he was quickly hired by the sleepiest hobo he’d ever met for a delivery company. The kind that traveled between the galaxies, making weeks-long trips from station to station, planet to planet, delivering goods as needed to whatever backwater planet could afford them. The perfect job to follow the pull of the bond, to figure out wherever his soulmate lived and take them with him to the stars.
That is, if the asshole would sit still for a single day and let him find them.
The universe just loved to laugh at him. As the bond grew stronger, becoming a deep, urgent need, his soulmate just had to move. Had to take it upon themself to also get on a ship and start flying around the galaxies, making the bond go haywire as between one delivery and the next they were constantly at opposite ends of the universe. All the while, the bond banged a gong in his head, demanding he find the other half to just make it stop.
If he found them, he was tying them to his cabin bed and not letting them leave.
It was worse when he could feel them crossing paths, where they just missed each other by a hair’s breadth. When he landed a ship just as one left, both of them too far into their own processes to reverse so the soulmates could be united. When they passed each other through the emptiness of space, no port where one could be handed off to the other. Once, they had been on the same damn planet, their bond pulling at them through the grass and ground, only for his constant schedule and the yelling hobo in his ear forcing him to leave before he could figure out which continent his other half was holding out on.
It was painful, that stabbing pull, demanding his attention without the ability to give it what it wanted, without the ability to soothe the aching need within him, to calm the desperation. Just having to accept his lot in life, gritting his teeth and hoping that, one day, they’d actually manage to align their stars.
Align they did. Beautifully, violently, and perfectly them, as Katsuki would soon come to find out.
The moment he landed on the space port, he knew. He could feel the bond thrumming between him and his other, tugging at his skin, his bones, his very soul begging for them to finally be united. And by the stars he lived by, they would be. The space port was only so large - there were only so many places for the bastard to hide.
Not that he got the chance to look. Not when a damn pirate raid interrupted him.
It was always a concern that pirates might try to raid the ship and steal their lives and livelihood. But that was in deep space, where no one could hear their cries for help; not here, in civilized space, when help was but a quick light jump away. Plus, the port was swarming with guards, with crews who were unarmed but still well trained, and with civilians who were more than happy to protect their home.
It was only desperate idiots who dared try something so foolish. Desperate idiots made dangerous foes. Katsuki loved dangerous foes.
The smoke made it hard to breathe. The red flashing lights made it hard to see. The mass of moving bodies made it hard to tell friend from foe, ally from antagonist, companion from combatant. The automated voice playing overhead didn’t help matters, the conflicting directions coming from each sector blending as he ran through the crowd towards the docking bay, drowning out the screams coming from the people. Robots made it easier, carving a path through the bodies towards the damage he could follow, their metal hands already twisting to form the tools needed for repair.
His stomach twisted as he saw how many robots flooded towards the bay, how many would be needed to repair this safe haven if they could drive away the invaders.
Katsuki wasn’t a religious man, but even he considered sending a prayer off to the Space Whale as he jumped into the pit, the full extent of the damage laid out before him. The shields were barely holding, the only reason they still had air. Multiple ships had been torn apart, parts scattered across the bay for the fight to spread over and around. Fire threatened to spread, only held back by the foam spread by the few bots that had already arrived, their poor processors trying to get things back under control.
Thank the Space Whale, whoever these dumbasses were, they all decided that wearing the exact same outfit was a good idea. It wasn’t, but it sure as hell made good targets.
Katsuki lost himself in the fight - ducking under knives and between the lasers shot haphazardly into the fight, no care if they hit their intended target so long as blood was split. It was easy for him to snag a gun for himself from one of the pirate bodies, their grip loose and easy for him to steal from. It wasn’t his own, left on his ship to follow the port’s rules, but it was good enough, with an almost full charge. More than enough to hold his own, even if he wished for the tried and true blaster that had carried him through so many battles previously, that he knew like an extension of his own arm.
If it meant his life, though, he’d make do.
Jumping between the wreckage of the destroyed ships, Katsuki shot into the crowd at the garish outfits, enjoying the added chaos as the pirates realized more enemies were on their ass. More were coming too - Katsuki could hear the robotic voice above them change into something more coordinated, less chaos and more orders as the official defense force of the port tried to gather. It wouldn’t be long before this was over, these dumbasses either arrested or dead for trying this desperate ploy.
Some might call him just as bad as the pirates, enjoying himself as he helped to force them to scatter, baring his teeth as enemies fell before him. He’d counter that enjoying the stupidity of pirates was a perk of the job.
A perk he was enjoying far too much, because he didn’t even notice the ringing in his skull until he collided with the person who finally made it all go quiet.
A battle was no place to fall in love, but fuck if that wasn’t exactly what happened as Katsuki turned and caught sight of green: green hair dulled by soot and tousled by action. Green eyes crinkled as he squinted through the smoke, his own blaster kept level as he fired over Katsuki’s shoulder toward a pirate. Even green clothes, what had to be the absolute dumbest jumpsuit torn to show his arm had been hit, skin raw and scorched. Still he was fighting, determination keeping him on his feet against the pirate raid.
He didn’t even know his name, but Katsuki was ready for a life with this man by his side.
As if they’d known each other for years, the two of them fell into step, covering each other’s backs as they fought their way through the thinning crowd. It was easy to follow the man as he fought his way towards the wall, shooting above and around his twisting form, even at once grabbing a handful of curls to force his head down so Katsuki could shoot over it, only getting a feral grin Katsuki knew was mirrored on his own lips when he raised it back up towards him. Reaching the wall, the man pushed Katsuki into a nook, providing them a covered place to shoot at their enemies from, protecting them from any friendly fire as the guards finally arrived.
It didn’t take long for the guards to finish the pirates off, their own well placed shots from their nook helping to take down those last few who resisted. Even as the pirates fell, either dead or throwing down their weapons to be arrested and led to the brig, the two of them stayed in their nook, happy to wait for things to clear so as to not be accused with guns in their hands and looking like the fight they’d been through. It wasn’t until the coast was clear, only the repair bots putting out the last of the flames and beginning repair on the hole in the port that they left, finally as alone as they could be.
Katsuki expected many things: a name, a kiss, a proclamation of love now that he’d finally found his soulmate. Katsuki wasn’t expecting the shorter man to wrap his arms around his waist and lift him off his feet, spinning them amongst the rubble as he laughed.
“I finally found you!” Katsuki could barely breathe as his soulmate squeezed him tighter, his shirt already sticking to his skin as tears leaked through the fabric. His weight and struggling didn’t seem to matter - the man just held him tighter, words slightly muffled as he pressed his face against Katsuki’s stomach. “I’ve been looking for so long and we kept missing each other but you’re finally here! I want to know everything about you, who you are and how you got here and what kind of job you do that kept taking you across the galaxy because every ship I got a job on kept passing yours and I thought we’d never find each other but-”
Katsuki finally squirmed his way free, forcing his bruised ribs to expand as he took a deep breath and a step back, wiping at his shirt and immediately regretting it as the dampness spread from the fabric to his hand. Surprisingly he wasn’t pissed; if any of his crew had tried some shit like that, he would have happily put a hole in their head for as much as they liked to tease he was soft. For his soulmate, apparently, the rules were different.
“If you don’t stop,” Katsuki teased, lifting the edge of his ruined shirt to wipe his soulmate’s cheeks, “there won’t be enough water left on the station to rehydrate you. I’d like to keep you around for a while, since I went through all the trouble of finding you. Dumb bastard, couldn’t stay still so my ship could find your ass sooner.”
The man laughed, leaning into Katsuki’s touch as he cleaned his face. “I didn’t know you were looking too,” he sniffed, wrinkling his face as Katsuki rubbed harder, happy to accept the strange affection. “Not everyone can get a job on a ship, you know?”
“I know,” Katsuki agreed. “That’s why I got my own.”
“You’re a captain,” his soulmate asked, eyes shining bright with amazement, smile too wide and addicting. “That’s amazing!” A quick glance around the destroyed port dimmed his smile a bit, lines appearing between his eyebrows. “I’ll have to check with my captain, but I’m pretty sure our ship was one of the ones damaged. I’m sure I can get my contract nullified, so I can come with you. If that’s ok?”
The shy, hopeful look made Katsuki’s chest ache. As if he had any other answer.
“What’s your name?” Katsuki asked, hands sliding from the man’s face to take his hands instead. To grasp them tight in his own, prepared to never let go.
“Izuku,” Izuku said, smiling wide as he squeezed back. “Izuku Midoriya.”
“Welcome aboard, Izuku.”
There was peace in having your soulmate nearby.
The ringing in his head that had been Katsuki’s constant companion since he was nineteen had disappeared the night he met Izuku, leaving an almost unsettling quiet. Not that he could complain - the silence was a blessing, especially when it accompanied Izuku on his ship, bouncing either between their shared cabin or the engine room, where he had been claimed by Mei and Iida as part of their team. He couldn’t complain when Izuku was constantly surprising him, keeping him on his toes whenever they landed on a new planet, dragging him into some new extra’s problem and solving their issues, making the universe slightly better. He couldn’t complain when they spent so many days standing on deck of his ship, planning their adventures together through the galaxy.
He still couldn't understand who thought it was a good decision to take a species that loved and bred through the concept of soulmates and scatter them across so many worlds. It was a dumbass decision, no matter how many times Izuku and his crew had tried to gang up and convince him otherwise. Humans had never been meant to fly.
But seeing the starlight reflected in Izuku's eyes, gazing in wonder at the space around them, Katsuki had long since decided that, if the scientists on Prix ever did make a time machine, the first thing he would do was go back and thank the person who decided space travel was a good idea. Well, second.
Stealing another first kiss had made it to the top of his list.