Chapter Text
After the Sports Festival was over, Izuku headed home. He walked slowly since he was sure his mother would scold him for hurting himself with his new quirk. She always got after him when he came home injured even when he was still quirkless. As she complained about the cost of burn cream and bandages, he told himself that she just didn’t like seeing him hurt.
He’s been telling himself that for the past decade. It wasn’t that he was a burden.
It wasn’t, right?
Today, he would get his answer. Today, he would learn the truth.
Opening the door to their apartment, the silence was overwhelming. Had she left? Izuku headed further into the apartment to check for his mom. She wasn’t in the kitchen. The bathroom door was open and the room was empty. He stopped in front of her bedroom. She didn’t like when he went in there, so he knocked. No answer. He knocked again, calling ‘mom’ quietly.
No answer.
He opened the door just to be sure she wasn’t in there. His heart plummeted when he saw what was inside. Shaking, he stepped inside the room, ignoring the blood that stained his shoe when he did. He approached his mother who was propped up against the foot of her bed. Her head lolled to the side and her arms limp against the floor, the bleeding stopped only because all her blood had drained out of her to pool on the floor. She was dead.
There was a letter on her bed addressed to him.
Izuku -
By the time you find this, I will be gone. I want you to know that this is your fault.
Giving birth to you was my greatest regret. Your quirkless status destroyed my marriage, ruined my career, and became a constant source of stress for me. I tried so hard to be a good mother despite how burdensome you were, despite how you leeched the life out of me. I fed you and clothed you and bought medicine when you were hurt even though I thought it was a waste of money since your kind doesn’t live very long. I was a good mother!
You threw all that back in my face. Getting a quirk only after you ruined everything for me and made me a social pariah… Going into the hero course to show off that quirk that could have prevented every hardship you put me through… And now seeing you in the Sports Festival, breaking yourself and still so useless even with a quirk… I can’t take it anymore.
Go be a hero with your fancy new quirk if you must. But know that you killed me.
- Inko
Class was canceled for the next two days due to the second and third-year Sports Festivals. So Izuku just stayed home with the corpse of the woman who apparently hated him. It was late the night before he’d have to go back before he finally got over his shock and called someone.
“Aizawa. Who is this?” the gruff voice of his teacher answered.
“Aizawa-Sensei… It’s Midoriya,” he managed.
“Midoriya? Why are you calling me at… 1 am on a school night, Midoriya?”
“There’s a dead body in my apartment,” he told his teacher.
There was a pause and then some aggressive rustling. “Were they dead when you got there?”
“Yeah… I was thinking I should call someone. You were the first person I thought of,” Izuku mumbled, feeling numb still.
“I’m glad you trust me, Midoriya, but you probably should have called the police,” Aizawa scolded half-heartedly. “I’m sending someone over and I’ll be there shortly myself. Now, do you know the person in your apartment?”
“It’s my mom,” Izuku replied quietly.
He heard a muttered curse on the other end of the line. “Do not hang up. Stay on the line with me. ETA, 7 minutes.”
“Okay.” And for 7 minutes, all Izuku could hear was the sound of rushing wind and the deep, calming voice of his teacher telling him about his two cats, Bastard and Muffin.
“When would you say her attitude toward you changed?” Inui asked calmly.
“The day of the diagnosis,” Izuku answered. “She became apologetic and hyper-protective. Then about a year after that, she got demoted at work and changed again.”
“And how did she change that time?”
“She would cycle between being hyper-protective and ignoring me entirely. It worsened until she was always indifferent towards me unless she was putting on a show for others. If she hadn’t had to work so much because of me then may--”
A loud honk cut him off. Inui was holding the bike horn he got to discourage Izuku’s self-deprecating comments. “You are not a burden. She was simply caring for you as all parents are legally and morally obligated to. What did she choose?”
“She chose to have me and keep me,” Izuku recited. “She chose to be my parent.”
“Very good,” Inui put down the bike horn. “Our time is about up but for your homework, I would like you to make a list of things all parents have to do once they choose to have a child. We will then go over whether or not she was meeting your needs and how it compares to your living situation now. All right?”
“Okay, Inui-san,” Izuku replied. When he was released from the session, Aizawa was already in the waiting room to take him home.
It had been 2 months since the night he called Aizawa. The man and his husband, Present Mic, believe it or not, fostered him without hesitation. Izuku had tried to tell them that they didn’t need to but his polar opposite teachers insisted. He’d been seeing Hound Dog, UA’s counselor, twice a week since then. Slowly, but surely, he was healing with their help.
The contents of his mom’s suicide note had obviously exposed the fact that he used to be quirkless to his strict homeroom teacher. Izuku had initially been terrified that he’d be expelled but the man simply enrolled him in proper quirk counseling. Something Izuku never had before. Neither Aizawa nor Mic had any problem with the fact that he used to be quirkless.
Of course, that could be due to the fact that he has a quirk now . He wasn’t sure.
But as he sat with his new foster parents for dinner each and every night, eating meals together consistently with no one making him feel guilty for needing food, he wondered if this was how family always should have felt. He found himself growing more and more comfortable with them.
Just like when All Might gave him One For All, things were looking up for him.
Until they all came crashing down.
Familiar purple eyes stared at him in obvious surprise and anger. Izuku had known that Aizawa was training Shinsou a few nights a week after school, but he wasn’t sure why the boy was in their apartment right now. With a duffle bag. What was happening?
“Hizashi, Izuku…” Aizawa addressed both of the house members still out of the loop. “A situation came up with Shinsou’s previous foster home. We’ll be taking him in now. It was a little last minute or I would have warned you.”
Mic recovered first. “That’s fine, Shouta! Hey, Little Listener, how about I get you set up for the night while Shouta changes out of his hero uniform?”
“Um, sure,” Shinsou agreed awkwardly. He followed Mic to the room that Izuku was currently using with Izuku trailing behind the pair.
“This has been Izuku’s room as of recently but I’m sure it’s got enough space for the both of you. For tonight, we only have a spare futon but we can get a bed first thing after school tomorrow,” Mic rambled. “Along with some clothes, toiletries, and anything else you’ll need.”
“You don’t need to spend money on me,” Shinsou dismissed. Izuku had said the same thing.
“Nonsense. As your guardians, we will provide for you. It’s not a problem.” Mic had said the same thing to Izuku when he first moved in. Many, many times. Until he was sure Izuku understood that he meant it. “I’ll go get the futon out of storage. You can start getting settled in.”
And then Mic was gone, leaving Izuku with Shinsou. They had faced each other during the Sports Festival and Izuku was pretty sure Shinsou didn’t like him much. That didn’t mean Izuku couldn’t be civil! “The bottom three drawers of that dresser are already empty and then I can clear off a couple of shelves for you,” Izuku offered, already heading over to clear the shelves.
“Don’t strain yourself,” Shinsou scoffed. Izuku froze and turned to Shinsou, taken aback by the hateful glare being sent his way. “I don’t need you breaking your arms with your stupid, flashy quirk and leaving me to get blamed for it.”
“I wouldn’t--” Izuku tried.
“It’s lazy, arrogant assholes like you who coast with your flashy quirks that take opportunities away from people like me. You didn’t even bother to train your quirk and somehow you got into the hero course. Someone who breaks themselves is just a liability,” Shinsou spat at him.
Izuku could only gape at the other boy.