Chapter 1: Within an Emerald shell
Chapter Text
Todoroki Touya peeked around the stairwell, looking up the stairs, before glancing back to the group of nervous family members pacing the living room. His own mother nervously tapping the ground with her tail, he looked away and back up the stairs. He couldn’t help but be curious – was this cousin going to be like him or his siblings? So far he was the only one of his generation to have the dragon Mutant Quirk, his two young siblings being human, and his youngest sibling yet to be born, but his mother was certain another human. Sure being the youngest had its perks, but he wanted someone like him. He glanced back to the family before silently climbing the stairs.
Well, he didn’t want them to be exactly like him. He was – disformed to say it nicely. Scaleless with the body of an ice element dragon, but with fire within. Highly unpredictable fire he could barely control. Being scaleless also meant he had to be extremely careful with anything cold – he hadn’t been able to hug his siblings since their quirks manifested as they had ice, they were too cold for him to touch without his body wanting to hibernate – and for him that would likely mean death.
Touya size-shifted smaller to squeeze into the bedroom where he froze, his aunt and uncle were looking down at an egg, emerald in colour. His aunt looked so tired, but pleased as she softly petted the egg. His uncle was just frozen staring at it like he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. Touya looked at the egg too, hearing the heart beat within the shell, it was almost hypnotising.
“Touya-” He jumped and looked to his aunt, Midoriya Inko smiled softly. “Would you like to come and say hi to your baby cousin?” She asked, Touya remained small and crawled foreward and into the next. He had never seen an egg himself, of course his parents kept his shell, but this was the first time he was seeing an whole egg. He reached forward with his claws and placed his hand on the surface, it radiated warmth, thumping like the heartbeat. He proceeded to climb on top and curl up, causing his uncle to chuckle. Hisashi huffed, fire leaking between his fangs and softly kissed the egg. The older dragon mutant turned to his wife with a smile.
“You are perfect my love, do you need anything?” He asked.
“Just some rest. I can trust you and Touya to protect them.” Inko smiled, placing a hand on his cheek. “And you need to tell the others.”
“I know- but, in a bit.” Hisashi smiled, he grew bigger in size to fully curl around his wife and their nest, his tail curling around the egg and Touya. “I want to enjoy this moment.” Touya said nothing and pressed his ear to the egg, hearing the baby within. His aunt and uncle watched with silent smiles as he made small scratching against the shell, and there were small scratches back.
After a few minutes alone, just enjoy the sounds of the two young dragon mutants communicating via scratching, Hisashi went down stairs to announce the good news to the family.
“Touya…” Rei sighed as Enji tried to lift his tiny dragon child, who clung to the egg and hissed like a cat. Rei sighed, rubbing her snout at the scene, behind her the rest of the family were too busy laughing at the scene.
“Hisashi was just the same when you were laid.” Hisashi and Rei’s mother chuckled. “He wouldn’t let go for the life of him.” Rei sighed, but smiled fondly as Enji tried talking to his son, but Touya just made growls back, holding himself as close to the egg as possible.
~*~*~*~
Inko was glad that the time between giving birth to the egg and it actually happening gave her enough time to really recover from it all. She was also grateful for how the rest of the family were very involved with the care of the egg. There was always one Dragon mutant watching over it, and she knew it was safe with them – and Touya who hadn’t let go of the egg at all, continuing to communicate with the baby inside with small scratches.
She was thankful for the breaks she got to have with Rei too, her sister-in-law was happy to give her some advice on raising a dragon mutant and different things she would need to look out for. Inko had her own worries, whilst rare, she knew birth defects could happen. Due to Dragon Mutant being a genetic quirk, only those in the Midoriya bloodline would understand how to deal with them.
“You have that look on your face.” Rei said softly, raising her head from sipping her tea – one disadvantage of being a dragon mutant, she always felt her neck was just too long not to look weird when trying to be normal. Her clawed hand like paws held her cup carefully as she watched Inko. “What’s bothering you?”
“I-I guess I’m just worried about possible defects.” Inko sighed. “I know how hard it was for you and Enji after Touya hatched – it was touch and go and I don’t know if I’d be strong enough to deal with that.” Inko admitted.
“Oh Inko.” Rei frowned “I know – its daunting, but we made it – and we know what needs to be done if someone else is born with such defects. Grandpa Ryuu has made sure to document it all, so future generations will know too. If something new pops up, we can figure out together – as a family.” She let go of her cup and took Inko’s hands, the woman looked up at her. The Ice dragon Mutant smiled “We’re family, Inko. We’ll deal with everything and anything together – no leaving each other behind, no letting anyone fall to despair and what ifs.” Inko teared up and Rei wiped away her tears. Enji looked into the room giving his wife a small smile, Rei smiled back. Everything would be just fine. They had each other to lean on.
~*~*~*~
A week after Inko had her birthday, and 2 months after the egg had entered their lives – it finally began to hatch on the 15th of July Inko and Hisashi stared at the crack in the egg, Touya patted it softly, he looked up at his aunt and uncle.
“Are they okay?” He asked concerned.
“It’s fine, they are just ready to say hi to everyone.” Hisashi explained with a smile, lowering his head and nudged the egg lightly. Touya hopped off it and sat on the edge on nest watching curiously. The egg wiggled violently, falling to the side and more cracks appeared on the surface. Inko sat in the nest and placed a hand on the egg, petting it softly.
“Its okay baby, I can’t wait to say hello.” Inko said softly, the egg was still for a moment, before it wiggled again, a scratching sound replied, and a small piece of the shell broke off – letting small chirping sounds to be heard within. Hisashi and Touya’s ears perked up, apparently the rest of the dragon mutants heard from downstairs, and they came up too, but remained outside the bedroom, all shrunk in size to let more of them stand to watch. Hisashi nudged the egg again, keeping his snout against it, from the small opening poked a tiny green snout, Hisashi froze at the contact, eyes locked onto the emerald scales and chirping. He didn’t move again, as the baby within continue scratching at the inside of the shell, and continued to occasionally press their snout to their father’s when they needed a break in escaping.
“Are they having trouble getting out?” Touya asked worried, Inko had began to worry too – it had been a while since it began, and the baby was having another rest from trying to escape. Hisashi grumbled with concern, the baby chirped in reply – tired. Hisashi growled softly and raised his head as he looked over the shell – aside from the initial crack, nothing new had appeared. Hisashi lowered his head again, he carefully pushed against the crack, trying to help soften the shell enough for them to escape – remembering what Rei had to do to help Touya get out of his. He continued to help soften the shell from the outside, the baby seemed to understand what he was doing and got back to their escape effort. Once Hisashi backed up a little, as the shell began to move and finally more began to break up.
What surprised the family the most was the amount of fur this baby had. It was natural for them to have fur, all of them did, from their heads to the tips of their tails, but the baby had more then usual. Inko sighed in relief and carefully lifted up her baby.
“A little girl.” Rei commented, Inko smiled as her baby girl curled up on her chest and happily went to sleep there. Hisashi watched his daughter with complete adoration.
“We agreed you would name a girl.” Inko looked at her husband, who teared up.
“Izumi.” He replied. “Midoriya Izumi,” Inko kissed the top of the baby’s head.
“Izumi.” She smiled softly. “Welcome to the family baby.”
Chapter Text
Author note: So I am currently on holiday so I am posting a ton of chapters I have at the ready but not posted, so I hope you all enjoy.
“Okay, are you ready?” Touya asked, before him stood 5th month old Izumi, like all Dragon mutants, the first 4 months saw a huge growth rate. The youngest Dragon Mutant stood oddly, trying to mimic her old cousin’s stance. An issue with being eastern dragons, they all had too much neck and body, it was odd to try and stand normally. And being new to everything, Izumi struggled. She decided to just sit comfort, which Touya annoyingly had to agree with his siblings – it did look like how dogs sat – but how else were they meant to sit comfortably? “Okay, I know it’s hard.” He agreed, letting himself fall on to all four legs and stretched, which Izumi mimicked. “Right back to the lesson! Each dragon has an element! My mom is ice, your dad is fire, I’m fire, Grandpa Ryuu is water and there is everyone else. We need to find your element!” Touya told her, Izumi raised her forelegs and let out a small growl. “That’s the spirit! Let’s go!” He turned and darted off; Izumi was quick to follow after him.
Inko stepped back as the young Dragon mutants ran pass with a smile.
“Where are you two going?” She asked, causing them both to stop. Izumi jumped up into her mother’s arms, Inko held her and kissed her forehead. “You’re both in a rush.”
“We’re gonna find her element!” Touya told her proudly.
“Izumi still might be a little young for that.” Hisashi entered the room, lowering his head as he walked through the doorway. “I didn’t find my fire until I was about, I think closer to a year old.” He kissed his wife and then Izumi’s forehead.
“But Mom got her’s early.” Touya said, “And I got mine super early too.”
“We all find our elements at different times. I recall my great aunt Tama had her element from birth.” Hisashi said, scratching his chin, “Earth Element, apparently, she would keep burrowing in the garden and would take hours to find her. But then Grandma Nemi didn’t have her element show up until she was 15. Different for us all.”
“So, we can’t try and find out?” Touya pouted, Hisashi chuckled glancing to his wife.
“There’s nothing wrong with trying but thought a heads up about it would make it less like for you to get hopes up if she doesn’t find out so soon.” Hisashi told him, Inko put Izumi down and she chirped lightly.
“But you two better be safe, okay? And no leaving the garden.” Inko told them.
“Promise. Come on Zumi!” Touya grinned, running off, Izumi followed after him.
“We don’t have to worry about her flying off so soon, do we?” Inko glanced to her husband, who shook his head.
“We usually learn to fly naturally at 1, but closer to two. Only exceptions are if one of us have a sky related element.” Hisashi explained. “But I don’t think we have much to worry about.” He assured her.
“That’s a relief, we should keep an eye on them just in case.” Inko muttered softly, Hisashi chuckled and hugged her.
“Leave that to me.” He told her “You’ve been looking forward to that day out with Mitsuki for a while now.”
“Thank you Dear.” Inko smiled, kissing his cheek, Hisashi nuzzled her happily.
~*~*~*~
As more of the family came to visit, they all found themselves outside, watching Touya and Izumi playing around, but no sign of her element.
“Reminds me of when we were little. You were trying to help me find my element too.” Rei looked at her brother. Hisashi chuckled, Inko looked at him curiously, before looking at Rei – who giggled. “I accidently froze him and well, we still have video and pictures of that actually.” Rei tease, Hisashi groaned and covered his snout. But a shout from Touya got everyone looking at the kids again, as Izumi was quickly racing into the sky.
The family were just frozen in shock before Inko yelled out for her daughter, but Izumi completely ignored her. Hisashi immediately jumped into the sky and chased after her, quickly recovering from the shock of how quickly she had been able to take to the air. He curled around his daughter in the air, the young dragonling taking the moment to land on her father, giggling happily as she climbed up to his head and nuzzled him. Hisashi smiled at her in turn and nuzzled her back, for as shocking as it was, he couldn’t help but feel proud of her.
“You gave your mother and I a heart attack little one.” He said softly. “Too young to be flying.” He told her. “Maybe air is your element.” He mused softly more to himself. Izumi chirped happily and jumped off him again and started off running through the sky again, this time before Hisashi rushed after he looked to the air beneath her paws, how it almost seemed like she was running on a path of electricity. He shook his head and took off after her, this time running alongside her. Izumi looked up at him as she ran, Hisashi raised his head and let out a long stream of fire. Izumi watched in awe and laughing, her body began to spark in an instant she vanished in a flash of lightning only to appear a little way ahead of him. Hisashi laughed and caught up, he managed to herd her back towards the family home. He was glad they were up so high – gave them a chance to get back above their land so they wouldn’t get into too much trouble.
The family watched as father and daughter landed, Hisashi smiling down at Izumi with pure joy, Inko rushed over, Izumi was quick to jump into her arms, hugging her mother tightly.
“Don’t scare me like that again.” Inko kissed her forehead, Izumi chirped happily. Hisashi let himself get to a reasonable size and stood dusting himself down. “I thought she was too young to fly.” Inko asked her husband.
“Usually she would be, she has an element connected to the sky however, so she picked it up faster.” Hisashi explained.
“Is she air like me?” Great Grandpa Akemi asked, hopefully.
“Or Water like Grandma Nemi was?” Rei asked. Hisashi chuckled and shook his head.
“Let’s just say, if she gets struck by lightning, don’t be too worried.” Hisashi grinned.
“My poor heart.” Inko huffed and held her daughter out in front of her. “Don’t go out in thunderstorms until you’re at least 13.” She warned. Izumi chirped lightly, tilting her head to the side confused.
Chapter Text
A week after Izumi discovered her element, Rei went into labour. Izumi and Touya had snuck out, escaping the rest of the family as they quickly made their upstairs and stopped in the hall outside his parents’ room. Izumi curled close to her cousin as he stared at the door. The two dragonlings, hid behind a potted plant as Enji left the room, leaving the door open lightly. The two dragonlings stared at the door with wide eyes, Izumi followed Touya as he headed in. Rei chuckled as she saw them.
“I had a feeling you two were waiting out there.” She smiled. “Would you like to meet them?” The two children approached, gasping softly at the egg in the nest, with Rei’s tail curling around it.” Touya smiled and bound forward, rubbing against the egg happily, Izumi climbed on top of it and rested her head against it, as if trying to listen to what was going on inside.
“They’re going to be like us?” Touya looked up at his mother who nodded.
“Yes, and you can help them find their element, just like you helped Izumi.” Rei smiled, Touya grinned and little scratched at the egg, the baby inside scratched back. Izumi chirp happily and joined in with the scratching. By the time Enji had come back with Natsuo and Fuyumi, Izumi was napping on the top of the egg, and Touya was curled around it’s middle, lying on top of his mother tail.
“I honestly shouldn’t be surprised.” Enji chuckled as the kids peered at the egg from outside the nest.
“They’re going to be quite the trio.” Rei agreed, nuzzling the dragonlings and egg happily.
~*~*~*~
Two months later, into the new year, the egg finally hatched, but the moment the egg burst into flames and then was subdued by ice had Enji and Rei shooing the other children from the room. Natsuo and Fuyumi ran downstairs to speak to the family about it, but Touya stared at the door sadly.
“Sad -why?” Izumi surprised him by speaking, she was watching him curiously.
“Last time an egg hatched like that – it was me.” Touya frowned. “But, broke by Ice and gone by fire. He’s going to have two different elements like me…”
“Bad? Sounds good.” Izumi said.
“I’m scaleless Zumi, if they’re like me-” Touya shook his head. “Its not easy living with two elements. The external element causes too much trouble for us.” Izumi was silent, but looked up at the door as sad cries of a dragonling reached them.
Over the next few days, Touya and Izumi watched and listened to their families talk about what to do with another dual element dragonling, the worry in Rei’s voice at the realisation that Shouto was like Touya, different external and internal elements. But Shouto was scaled so there was likely to be less of a backlash power wise. Izumi sighed causing her cousin to look at her, Izumi motioned for him to follow her. And he did – curiously.
Izumi was shaking her head at how silly her family was as they hopped into the nest. Shouto raised his head tiredly, letting out barely audible cry. Touya frowned lightly as his baby brothers body twitched unvoluntary, the room too hot for his fire body and internal ice. Touya squeaked as Izumi pushed him towards Shouto with a look of expectancy. Touya’s eyes widened, and in understanding, he curled up with Shouto who immediately began to relax, purring softly. Izumi seemed proud with thw fact she had managed to solve the issue.
“How did-” Touya began, before his parents rushed in, and in their panic tried to remove Touya from Shouto. Touya panicked at the anger they had, believing he was just going to hurt his baby brother. He teared up, but hid his face, until there was a groan from the side.
“Stupid.” They all stopped to look at Izumi, who looked annoyed. The family outside door were equally as stunned.
“Her first word…” Inko began from outside.
“Shouto is ice and fire, Touya fire and ice, two halves, that make a whole.” Izumi said proudly. “Shouto’s fire body safe for Touya, Touya’s ice body cooling Shouto.”
“You’re a genius.” Touya said in awe, Izumi giggled and chirped.
“Its common sense.” She replied proudly and glared at her aunt and uncle until they let Touya down, and curl back around Shouto who let out happy cries, curling further into his big brother. Izumi sat at th edge of the nest proudly. The rest of the family not sure what to do, but Inko did cry at not being her daughters first word.
~*~*~*~
Touya and Shouto were pretty much glued to each other’s side, Shouto would pick up a huge fuss if his brother was taken from him but usually settled if Izumi was there as he would then just curl into her.
“I owe you Zumi.” Touya told her one day, when they were outside, his parents had taken Shouto to the family doctor to see if everything was okay. Izumi looked at him confused.
“What’d mean?” She asked.
“I was – when they were acting like I was hurting Shouto. It hurt you know, they were treating me like I was planning on hurting him.” Toua frowned. “You got them to stop.”
“Were bad.” Izumi sighed, her tail tapping against the ground, a frown on her features.
“They were, in a way.” Touya agreed, he watched her softly and nuzzled her lightly. “So, thank you. For sticking up for me.”
“Always.” Izumi nuzzled him.
“Though, why didn’t you tell your parents you could speak?” Touya asked.
“Everyone busy with Shouto.” Izumi frowned. “Tried, they too busy.”
“Oh, sorry Zumi. But hey at least we have each other, right? Always.” Touya smiled, Izumi giggled and nodded, jumping on to his back.
“Let’s fly!” She told him, standing up, tail wagging. Touya chuckled and stood too with a nod.
“But let’s warn Uncle Hisashi first before we go.” Touya said, Izumi nodded in agreement.