#(also yes those are Lightning McQueen shoes)

[tainebot01]

Considering that they both attended Themis Legal Academy around the same time, there is a greater than zero chance this happened at some point.

[Image ID: A digital redraw of the ‘Father in emergency room with son due to arrow injury’ meme, with Sebastian Debeste and Hugh O’ Connor from Ace Attorney. Both of them are sitting in an emergency waiting room. Sebastian has an arrow in his upper right torso, and Hugh is holding a Kyūdō archery bag. Sebastian has his arms crossed with his baton resting in his right hand, while Hugh is nervously gripping his archery bag with his left hand. Sebastian has a relatively calm or slightly amused facial expression despite the situation, while Hugh looks rightly concerned. End Description]

[catzula]

of red things like an earphone or a thread

Synopsis: you meet a little boy who lost his big brother's earphone, crying because he's sure his brother will get mad. You decide to look for it together, not expecting to find something- or rather someone else instead of the red earphone, although tied with a red string.

Pairing: Iwaizumi x fem!reader

Honorable mentions: soulmate au, female reader, cursing once or twice, children, 1.8k words, fluff, (K/N) stands for kid name lol

One last wave at your friend and you stepped out of the warm cafe to the cold, rainy winter afternoon. 

The wet wind hit you square in the face as the glass door closed behind you, and you knew you were going to get wet. You already knew it was going to rain that morning when you left your house, but you were too lazy to take your shoes off and get your umbrella. I'm not afraid of getting a little wet." You had thought to yourself like an idiot. Though it was true. You weren't afraid of getting wet under the rain, not, however, a big fan of walking through a goddamn storm. 

You sighed, knowing it was your fault, and you were glad you had at least thought of wearing your good old ski jacket. Closing the hood of your jacket over your head, you wore your earphones and started walking. 

~~~

cold, cold, cold, cold

Only halfway through walking, the cold was all that was on your mind. You didn't even have money on you since you had forgotten your wallet back at the cafe (your friend had texted you they had it and would give it to you the next day), so you couldn't even ride a taxi for the rest of the long walk.

Hopping over puddles of water and mud, you were practically sprinting your way back home, not stopping for any obstacle and wanting to go home as soon as you could. 

Float like a Cadillac, sting like a Beemer, you thought to yourself, laughing when the image of Lightning Mcqueen came to your mind. I won't stop until I reach home, not even if Jesus himself stood before me- 

You stopped just as the thought crossed your mind, eyes focusing on the small body kneeling in front of a wall, face hidden behind short, chubby fingers, and body shaking with soft sobs. 

Your brows furrowed in concern when you noticed the kid had nothing but a shirt on, the shirt already wet and sticking to his body. "H-hey," you turned to the kid, afraid of scaring him into thinking you were a murderer. You got a little closer to the boy, also kneeling when he seemed not to have heard you, still sobbing into his hands. 

"Hello?" You touched his freezing arm as softly as you could, pulling it back whenthe boy flinched, abruptly springing to his feet. You watched him as he wrapped his arm around himself, lips near purple and lashes wet with tears and the pouring rain. He couldn't be more than seven, you found yourself thinking as you stared into his oddly familiar olive-green eyes. You felt your heart stopping as the wide eyes stared back at you, reminding you of someone you dearly longed for and missed. You could swear you had seen that harsh gaze and the way he tilted his chin up with pride before, so familiar, yet strange.

"Excuse me," he muttered between chattering teeth, wiping the tears off his face, even though newer ones filled their places nonstop. "Did you- did you see a red earphone coming here?"

"A red earphone?" You repeated, and he shook his head violently. "Yes! Did you see it?" 

You bit your lip as you tried to remember if something like that had caught your eye, watching a new wave of sobs engrave him when you shook your head no apologetically. 

"I'm sorry," you muttered. "Did you lost it? Is that why you're- well, here?" The little boy wiped his tears with the back of his hand, nodding, still looking back at you with those green eyes, now even brighter with tears. 

"Okay, okay, look, first calm down a little, aren't you cold?" You asked as you started unzipping your jacket and shook it off your shoulders. You smiled at him when he didn't answer your obvious question, averting his gaze with a proud, stern look.

He took the jacket without contest, watching his hands as you dressed it over him. Wind howling in your ears, you were left only with a sweatshirt, a wave of shiver running throughyou when the wind howled even louder, the rain already wetting your heair and making it heavier. A curt nod was the boy's thanks, faintly smiling when you gave him a reassuring one. 

"Let's take you home, okay? You'll catch a cold if you stay out in this cold when you're wet." Your words had seemed to take a wrong affect on him, since he quickly pulled himself away from you with a new round of tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.

"No, no- I can't!"

"It's okay, you can buy a new one and-"

"No, please- my brother will be so angry if he learns I lost it, I can't go home!" The little boy started to unzip your jacket off him with panic clouding his mind when he thought just how mad his brother was going to be. He could already vision the furious look when his brother figured it, swearing he would never lend him anything again. 

"Hey- hey, stop," you caught his cold hands between yours before he could shake off the jacket. "Okay, we won't go home, but let's look for it together, all right?" You offered, trying to bargain with him and stay with him until you could convince him to go home. 

"Okay." He agreed, eyeing you with soft suspicion but still walking beside you as you started to walk the way back.

After what felt like a whole day but was only an hour later, you had noticed just how many red things one could find if they looked around. 

Even if you averted your eyes to your hands, there it was, a bright red thread hanging from your finger. But this was the day you had come to hate the many- many red things that littered the surface since each time you saw a glimpse, and it was never the red earphone (K/N) was looking for and made him cry even more. 

You didn't have it in you to tell him even if you did find the earphone, no way it would work since it was raining nonstop for hours now, either. So you swallowed your sense of cold and went on looking with the boy, telling him funny stories, listening more from him. 

You had no idea why your heart missed a beat each time he spoke of his older brother -how old are you, miss? Woah, really? Then my brother is only e year older than you!- how you found your tummy hurting with how hard you were laughing as he kept telling you a funny thing that happened to his brother and his best friend. 

"He seems like a- well, nice guy." You muttered as you threw the red bottle cap you spotted on the ground to the trashcan. "He is!" The boy answered with sparkles in his green eyes, "my brother is the best!"

"That's nice." You smiled, chuckling when he went on. "He is the strongest, the coolest, smartest guy ever!"

"He does sound really cool. But also seems like he has some anger issues." You muttered as a joke, not expecting him to frown immediately. "He will be furious with me." He bit his lip, your eyes widening when you noticed the tears in the corner of his eyes. 

"Hey, no- I'm sure he'll understand!" You tried to reassure him. "Your brother sounds way cooler to get angry about a red earphone." You smiled, patting his head, laughing when he sniffed. "Really? You think so?"

You thought you were reassuring him. A white lie was all it was, but then, why did it feel so real? Why did it feel like the truth, despite not even knowing who the said guy was?

You hummed. "I'm pretty sure." 

"Okay then, I think we should go home." You smiled, nodding and letting him lead you as he pulled your thread-free hand.

"We're here." He sighed, meddling with his fingers as he stared at his house door. "Can yku, maybe stay with me as I tell him?"

You had opened your mouth to answer before a loud call of the little boy's name made you both jump in your places. You turned around to see where the stomping sound came from, eyes meeting the tall figure running his way to you. 

"Th- that's my brother." The boy gulped, and you did the same as you watched the also wet boy coming towards you.

You quickly noticed his eyes weren't on you but the little boy standing next to you, and you bit back the urge to hide the boy behind you from his seemingly furious brother.

"Where were you?!" He shouted, his big hands running over the small face and body to check if he was injured or not, pulling the boy into a tight hug as the man took deep breathes of relief. "I was so worried- so worried, you hear me? I've been looking for you for hours!" The tall man spoke into the hug. "What were you thinking, disappearing like that?"

"I- I didn't mean to worry you." (K/N) whispered to his brother's hair, hugging him even tighter, burying his face to hide his tears. "I was- with this lady... she was helping me."

You felt your heart skipping a beat when he mentioned you, making his brother break the hug and look at you instead. "Helping you? Helping you with wha-" You watched his eyes widened as he finally got the chance to look at you, and you knew he was the owner of the green eyes your heart seemed to long for. 

"Y-you-" he stammered, chest rising and falling as if he had just run a marathon, but you weren't any better. You could feel your face, your whole body heating up, the thought of hypothermia you just had in your mind a few minutes ago now turning into cursing the global warming.

You watched him as his green eyes wandered down to your hand that stood awkwardly next to you, following the red thread hanging from your pinky to his.

Never in your life had you seen the end of the string, you smiled at the thought. It would always blend in with the world, disappearing into the void, and you had tried to follow it to the end countless times, too eager to find your soulmate, to see where it tied your fate to, failing each time. 

But now, you felt your hands shaking with the overwhelming sense of being able to follow it to the end, the end where it was only a few meters away from you, where it tied to the large hand that reached at yours without even thinking.

It felt warm and safe as you touched his hand, both of you smiling uncontrollably.

"You look cold." He spoke the first time to you, but it felt like you had been together forever, like you knew him as well as you did yourself, not feeling the slightest bit of awkwardness.

"I am cold." You giggled, and you could see how it only then occurred to him that your jacket was hanging on his little brother's shoulders, and you stood there wet and shaking with only but a sweatshirt. The green eyes you would find yourself admiring from then on widened with concern, quickly shrugging his jacket off and wrapping you with it.

"Here, wear this." He muttered as he zipped it as far as he could, making you both giggle. 

Maybe it was an odd day to meet your soulmate, you thought, probably not the best, too, since both of you were wet from head to toe, hair sticking to your face, shivering from the cold, and probably a mess (and sick the next day). But however it was, you wouldn't change it for the world.

~~~

You got a red earphone next year in secret santa.

Hajime got a red earphone next year in secret santa, too.

A/n: if you made it this far, thank you for reading! Here's a lil ❤ for u. Funny thing, this red earphone thing is real lol, it happened to me a few days ago!! But it didn't end with me finding iwa, no no, we couldn't find neither iwa nor the boys red earphones and I dropped him back to his home.