Work Text:
Ever since he was a kid, Satou had the habit of drawing on his own hand. Always flowers, small, big, it didn't matter. He never got anything back, but that didn't upset or stop him, in fact, that inspired him. His whole childhood and part of his adolescence, he spent learning to draw every single flower he came across. It was his secret talent. So secret, he himself didn't consider it a talent, he thought himself average at it. So thinking about his drawings wasn't really a common occurrence.
When he reached high school, he started drawing more on sketchbooks and less on his hand, he didn't want to seem immature. Still, his soulmate never answered, be it in kind or anything at all . Not even a line made by mistake while handling a pen. It was natural that after so long without anything , he kind of lost hope. So he focused more on others and their lives.
He knew the dark purple and light blue haired kids from the class next to him were soulmates, that apparently pretty girls 1 and 2 were also soulmates, but they always denied when asked. He always heard the gossip from the grapevine and paid a lot more attention than he should, but let's be honest, who doesn't love a good gossip?
So, when the light purple haired pervert from their school revealed his soulmate died when they were kids? He was like the third or fourth to know. When people found out that was a lie? He was the second to know and, though he's not totally proud of it, he even helped pass this around. When green haired girl claimed she was pink haired boy's soulmate? He was even there! That also meant he was there when pink haired boy quickly proved she was wrong to think that by drawing on her arm. All of that to say that, when people started talking about some Saiki and how he was a psychic? He knew very quickly. To say he believed was something else.
The week after that, pink haired boy started acting differently than before and, finally, when he saw him vanish from inside the building to outside within a second, he connected the dots. Pinky, as he sometimes called him in his head, was the Saiki guy everyone talked about and he was really a psychic ! So exciting! Didn't mean it changed a thing in his life, since they weren't friends, but boy was that a great gossip to tell the grapevine.
He shouldn't have been that surprised when everything changed after that, not really. But that still surprised him. Dark purple haired guy approached him one afternoon, on one of the rare days he decided to fill his hand with pretty flowers.
"Wow, those are some sick drawings!" He said sitting in a vacant chair next to him.
"Uh… Thanks. Do I know you?" Satou asked, not really one to beat around the bush.
"I'm from the class next door." He said, like that explained it all.
"Ah, so that's a no." He answered, smiling. Just because he was direct didn't mean he was plain rude.
"Yeah, we don't know each other." He nodded, voice serious like that was an occurrence he and everyone else went through.
"Do you need anything?" He asked, curious about why the stranger approached. And he knew the guy wasn't a complete stranger to him, nobody in that school was really a stranger to him with the ungodly amount of gossip he got daily, that didn't mean he was that great at recognizing people.
"Oh, I noticed the flowers. One of my friends has them constantly and, I hear in the hallways, that you're the expert at drawing them." He stared straight at his eyes, waiting for something.
"Why are you telling me this?" Confusion fills Satou. Yes, he would love to meet his soulmate, but because they wanted to meet him, not because one of their friends couldn't mind their own business. "Look, if your friend doesn't want to talk to me or meet me, that's their right. I don't appreciate you coming in here and just exposing someone who never even wrote me something. Now, please, leave me alone."
Purple guy looked stricken, as if completely shocked that he was a minimally decent person, which would have hurt his ego, if he gave a damn about Grape's opinion. The guy fixed his glasses – the ones that stayed in place the whole time, mind you –, got up and left, as if in a daze. Satou didn't care, he just looked at his hands again, looked at his sketchbook and began to draw a daisy in his wrist.
Next day, mohawk boy came up to him while on recess. He was one of the people around school he could say that he knew for sure, after all, Nendou was very talkative and extroverted, besides a great gossip buddy.
“Hey, guy from next door!” He called him, like he always called him, no matter how many times he told him his name. “I hear from one of my friends that you're my buddy's soulmate! That is so cool! You draw very pretty flowers, okay? Bye bye.”
And before he could even think to answer, he left, making someone nearby cuss and getting his attention. It was light blue haired boy. He looked frustrated and complained how Nendou didn't do what he was supposed to. Satou quickly connected the dots and approached him.
“I thought I told your boyfriend not to force anything, didn't I?” He announced himself, standing in front of him, arms crossed.
“Look, my friend is very introverted and we just wanted to…” He interrupted the boy before he could talk too much.
“I'm not one from confrontation, but I'll say it one more time. I'm not interested in forcing someone to out themselves. If your friend wants to talk to me at some point, they will. On their own terms.” He turned and left, leaving blue boy behind, mouth agape and still processing what happened.
Just like that, it became a frequent occurrence. Pretty girl 1 on monday, green haired girl on tuesday, orange haired girl on wednesday, red haired boy on thursday, light purple haired boy on friday and so on and so forth. Two weeks were spent like this, with weird kids and their varying hair colors coming up to him, trying to make something to set him up with whoever their friend was and him shooting them down and telling them to leave. Finally, a new monday came around and, when he turned around during recess, Pinky was standing behind him. To be completely honest, Satou saw the guy maybe 4 or 5 times, only seeing him from up close once. Even then, he could always admit that his first thought when near him was usually along the lines of: so pretty.
“Hm…” The boy grumbled, glancing at him and looking away. Satou tried to force his brain to work, he knew his name, didn't he? “Saiki Kusuo.” He answered, never moving his mouth. That's when it clicked, Saiki Kusuo, the freaking psychic . Man, for someone who was so into gossip, his memory was awful. “Maybe it's because you learn so many things about so many people, so quickly, you can never focus on remembering who did what.”
“Huh… You're probably right.” The brown haired boy nodded, taking Saiki's comment very seriously. “Are you also here trying to out my soulmate? Because that wouldn't be very cool of you.”
For some reason Satou didn't understand, he held Saiki to a higher regard than most of the people who talked to him until now. He knew it was baseless, he didn't even know the guy. But something about him just exuded that kind of trust.
“No, I just… Why are you turning everyone away when they try to tell you who it is?” He asked, seeming unsure.
“You know why.” Satou said, not unkindly. “You can read my mind, you understand perfectly why I stopped them.”
“I just…” He breathed heavily, for the first time in their conversation parting his lips. “Wouldn't you like to meet your soulmate?”
“Of course I would. Who wouldn't?” He smiled sweetly. “But Saiki, they're my soulmate, they're perfect for me. I don't wanna ruin something good before I even have the chance to meet them just because I wasn't patient. I can wait for them, for when they're ready.”
“What if they're never ready?” His voice turned darker, leaving a bitter taste at the back of Satou's throat.
“They will be. If not now, then in our next life.” He politely replied, even if he had no obligation to.
Satou then waited to see if Saiki would do or say anything else, but when the boy kept himself frozen in place, he turned and left. Well, what a group of people his classroom neighbors were, all of them oddballs.
After school, he noticed Saiki outside, leaning against the wall, as if waiting for someone. A memory then came to him, something so similar to this. He saw Saiki before the whole psychic thing and even before the thing with green haired girl. He saw him outside, enjoying things he enjoyed too. He remembers thinking that it was a bit weird to do all of those things at once, but now, he couldn't help but admire a little bit. How beautiful he was, skin glowing under the sunlight. He just wished he could admire his eyes a little better, he always found them so charming behind those green glasses.
Days passed and, it seemed, wherever he looked, there stood Saiki, as beautiful as ever. He never approached him again, but Satou waited. He could be patient, wait for him to come around. He knew he would, if not in this life, maybe in the next. While he waited, he drew on his skin, he knew Saiki would appreciate his drawings. At first he stuck to his flowers, like usual, but slowly, he started doing things he admired on him. Charming eyes, small but pink lips, a rare smile, the upturned nose, his neck with three little hidden moles behind the ears. Beauty in its most primal form.
It was in one of those days that Saiki finally approached him again, when he was drawing his favorite part of him, his gorgeous eyes. He didn't notice him coming to him until he saw his shadow covering the light he was using to draw.
“Why do you keep drawing me?” Saiki asked when he reached him. Neither of them acknowledged that Satou normally covered his drawings and that he never mentioned it to anyone.
“Well, I draw a lot more flowers, but I always draw what I find beautiful, so…” He answered, smiling up at him.
“Did you… did you just call me beautiful?” He seemed flustered over that small comment, something that surprised Satou greatly. How could such a gorgeous boy not understand just how ethereal he truly is?
“I did, didn't I?” He teased lightly. “You just have such a unique beauty, unlike anything I've ever seen.”
Saiki stared at him, but that didn't really bother Satou. Normally he would probably be much shier when talking to someone he had a crush on, but Saiki knew what he was thinking anyway and the knowledge that he was most likely his soulmate was a real motivation boost. In the end, it didn't even matter if Saiki was his soulmate or not, he was interesting, beautiful and, even if a little weird, very charismatic in his eyes. Overall, he would love to have a chance with him, even if for a little while.
“Do you really mean that?” He finally spoke, after some time in silence.
“Which part?” He tilted his head a bit.
“That you don't care if I'm your soulmate or not, you would still want to try with me.” He mumbled, or at least Satou thought that was what he did, seeing as his lips never parted, so he most likely never used his voice.
“I mean… You took that from what I thought, it's very unlikely I would just lie to myself and, even then, wouldn't you know?” He understood though, because even with confirmation, sometimes some things just seems too good to be true, and he felt so flattered that Saiki felt like that about him.
“But wouldn't you like to be with your soulmate?” He seemed a little confused, which Satou could understand. Even if you can read others' minds, sometimes you just reserve certain thoughts to the privacy of your own home.
“They're perfect for me, at some point in time we'll be together. I would love to meet them in this lifetime, as me, but I don't think my soul will just disappear after I die, so maybe we're not destined to meet this life.” He shrugged, looking up to the sky. “I know not everyone agrees with how I think, but I feel you should enjoy life to its fullest. Meet people, fall in love, break up and all of that, you know? Because even the hurt will pass and, someday, you'll have good memories to cherish.”
“I want to be a good memory for you to cherish when that day comes.” Saiki suddenly said, and it surprised Satou for a moment, but he quickly recovered himself and smiled brightly.
“I want that too, Saiki.”