Chapter Text
“I’m sorry, I don’t have anything to offer right now.” Izuku frantically moved inside his kitchen, trying to find something inside the drawers and cabinets to keep his mind out of the fact that Bakugou Katsuki was in his living room. “I could make you some tea.”
“I’m fine, I told you already.” He could hear the slight annoyance in the alpha’s voice. “Stop fidgeting already and come talk with me.” The voice came out too hard, making Izuku flinch. Katsuki scratched the back of his head, frustrated. “Do I scare you that much?”
Yes, I’m terrified. He stopped by the threshold protectively hugging his own waist, almost as if his arms could work as a wall keeping Kacchan away. “Can you really blame me for it?”
Izuku had been asking himself until now if letting the alpha come in had been a bad idea, but the moment Katsuki looked up and their eyes met... He was certain it definitely was
It would be so easy to let his defenses crumble, wouldn’t it?
It scared Izuku. How easily disarmed he was by those eyes.
The blond needed to leave. Now.
“I lost control at the bastard’s house. I know. It was shitty, but I didn’t know you would be there and… your scent...” The way he said it sent a shiver down Izuku’s spine. “Fuck, Izuku, everything about you drives me insane.”
Izuku’s mouth hung open in disbelief. “You have no right to say that.”
Katsuki took a step forward and Izuku took a step back, they continued this game until Izuku’s back was against the wall. Katsuki was so close right now, the omega couldn’t help but shiver. His ruby eyes blazing over him, his breath and body hot close to the touch, his lips grazed against Izuku’s temple, a hand tilted his chin upwards as his lips previously trailed a path from his eyebrow, eyelid, lashes, cheek, nose, all the way to his lips.
Izuku didn’t dare to breathe too scared of knowing what Katsuki smelled like right now. Even scarier was to confirm if his treacherous scent and body were giving him away.
They probably were, as the chaste touch of their lips lasted only a second before Katsuki’s face traveled to the side of his neck. His nose just above Izuku's scent gland.
Izuku felt his whole body drenched in icy water at the intimate touch.
The husky voice made the omega shiver. “Fuck, I know, I don’t know what to say… I don’t know what I should say, to make things better.” Katsuki's eyes met him again and Izuku felt his breath catching up in his throat, he had never seen Katsuki so broken like this.
“I should have thought better about… What I should have said and how sorry I am… But I don’t want you to think that I’m just a lustful knothead or something. I won’t do anything to you if you don’t want me to, Deku… I would never hurt you.”
And that was when Izuku’s self-control snapped alongside the spell he had been under.
How dare he?!
“You’ve been gone for 20 years, Kacchan!" The swallowed tears hurt the back of his throat. "20 YEARS! You abandoned me, you promised me you would be there, that you would mate me, and then left me alone! Suffering…” He could feel the alpha’s hurt scent at his words and the only thought in his mind was: good, suffer as I did.
“You say that you won’t hurt me? Too bad, you already did, for years I suffered alone because of you, and when my life is finally where it was supposed to be, you come back to take it all away? Wasn’t taking my happiness away with you once, enough?”
“Deku... Izuku…” He tried to catch Izuku’s face in his hand, but the greenette forced himself to face the other way. “I was dumb, and I didn’t think things through… But you don’t know the whole story… I had to go, make a name for myself… I had to become someone worthy.”
Izuku let out a humorless laugh. “Well, I hope it was worthy, Kacchan, becoming rich, owning a business, having whatever partner you wanted over the years… Because you had me, and my whole heart. I gave you everything I had and I wasn’t enough.”
Katsuki’s voice faltered him, a whispered torment that for a second Izuku thought he had heard saying “I want you.” But that couldn’t be the case, obviously, because if so, he would never have left in the first place.
“You say you won’t hurt me? Fine, then leave. I don’t want to see your face anymore. Ever.” Katsuki was too intoxicating up close, his intense eyes, his hair, his scent… “Even your scent hurts me. I don’t want to smell it ever again.” He felt like he was about to die on the verge of tears.
“Izuku…” He was begging now, which was funny, because Bakugou Katsuki never begged, and even if he did, He would never need to do so with Izuku.
But things had changed in the last 20 years.
Izuku refused to look at him, steeling his resolve and words, slapping Katsuki’s hand away. “Leave.”
He closed his eyes, waiting for the worst, but then a soft touch of those warm big hands caressed his cheek, leaving the lingering sensation of his fingertips there.
He felt Bakugou’s presence and his heat pulling away like a physical force.
Izuku only dared to open his eyes with the sound of the front door closing, Katsuki had left without another word.
His knees finally gave in as his body slid to the floor the hot wet tears finally falling, as whatever place Katsuki had touched, over his face, his neck his waist… Everything flared up as what could only be described as a pseudo-heat wave hit him one more time.
It was uncomfortable but subdued this time, he wouldn’t be the usual blabbering and desperate mess, but his heart ached in the loneliness all the same.
He was conscious though, he knew he had to take his medicine and lay down to rest. Hopefully, he would be better by the time Akio came home.
With effort, Izuku got up and dragged himself to his nest, only for his eyes to fall over his wardrobe in the process.
Ah.
He had forgotten to give the damned shirt back.
“Mom?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Did something happen between you and Kacchan in our last year of high school?”
Izuku had taken the day to visit the gallery where his new exposition would happen. During the tour, his mom had sent him a text inviting him for dinner, and since Akio was spending the weekend with Neito and Hitoshi, Izuku didn’t have to worry about cooking today, so he promptly accepted the invitation.
Besides, it had been too long since the last time he had a proper meal with her, and Izuku missed those times dearly.
Still, even with them having such a familiar and comforting time together, Shouto’s words and Katsuki’s weird behavior last week started to creep into his mind.
Could his mom know something about what had changed? Why Katsuki had left 20 years ago?
She was washing the dishes when he just could not hold the question inside anymore.
Inko’s back visibly tensed up at the words. She turned off the water and turned to face her son, a sad smile on her lips.
Izuku blinked in surprise. He knew those eyes. She did know something.
Drying her hands over her shirt, the woman took a seat at the table, right in front of him.
“Is there a reason you’re asking this now, Izuku?” He blushed in embarrassment, averting his gaze from her. Every time his mom had tried to bring his former best friend up over the years, Izuku had harshly cut her off. Only to bring the blond up himself, all of sudden.
Inko reached for his hand. “I’m not judging you, baby, I just want to know.”
“Sorry…” He sighs. “It’s just that, Kacchan is back in Japan. And I’ve met him. A couple of times.”
She nodded along with his words. “Have you boys… talked about things?”
“No… I didn’t want to see him, even less talk to him after… well, after everything.”
Inko’s eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. “Then how-”
Izuku sighed. “Akio’s sire… Neito-kun and Kacchan are business partners. They own a shipping company together with Neito’s husband.”
To her credit, despite being quite old fashioned and traditionalist woman, Inko just nodded, hearing him out.
It was weird enough that when Izuku told her Akio wanted to meet his sire, her eyes sparkled with the prospect of her son finally mating with an alpha, after all these years!
The confused shock on her face when Izuku explained to her that the guy was actually married already, to another alpha nonetheless, but had no intention of picking an omega over his husband, was quite priceless.
She didn’t need to know about how, sometimes, Neito’s eyes stared at him with such intensity behind them that made his breath catch in his throat, or how it made his cheeks grow warm.
After all, this had nothing to do with anything.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
At first, when Izuku decided to be a single parent she showed reluctance at the path her son had chosen. Not only because the concept of in vitro fertilization was something mind-boggling to her, but because she knew the hardships of being a single omega raising a child all on their own at first hand.
But since Izuku had been resolute in his decision, mustering a strength he had missed after Katsuki was gone, Inko did all in her power to help Izuku in achieving a better life than the one she had.
After Izuku’s sire, a knothead alpha, had abandoned her pregnant. The woman had been judged, with no support from this mateless exclusionary society, isolated from her family, alone.
Still, she raised him with all the love in the world.
When the results from his secondary gender came back with the word “omega” written in bold black, she held him close and told him everything was going to be okay.
But in the dead of night, Izuku had heard her cry her eyes out in her room scared of the cycle repeating itself, scared of what the future reserved for her child.
She had been his rock throughout those years. She was his mom.
As he told her what had happened in these last couple of months, after meeting Katsuki at the ball, Izuku’s heart grew heavy at the grave and guilty expression that crossed her face.
“So Todoroki-kun told you about it?”
“He didn’t say anything… Just that I needed to ask you about something that happened. About why Katsuki left. I don’t- I don’t understand it, though…” Izuku sighs, frustrated, already regretting bringing this topic up. “He left because what we had- Because I wasn’t enough… I was the omega dumb enough to believe him before he left to see the world.”
Inko’s hands cup his over the table. Izuku can feel the slight trembling in them. Her eyes are downcast, not meeting his, and Izuku starts to become scared. “Mom…?”
“You’re wrong Izuku.” She lets out an unsteady breath, taking a moment, before finally looking up at him. sad eyes and a sadder smile on her features. “He left because of me.”
For a second, everything freezes and Izuku even forgets how to blink.
Slowly, the feeling of having his blood being drained out of his body began to spread.
He stared at her as if waiting for the woman to tell him it was all just a joke, but she didn’t, she just stared back at him.
“What are you talking about?” His voice came out hoarse, barely above a scared whisper almost as if the words had scratched and fought his dry throat on their way out.
“I thought it would be for the best.” Inko began explaining. “I- I was so afraid that your life could turn out like mine, baby… You were just kids, and you kept going on and on about becoming mates when you grew up. It was sweet, but you kids couldn’t know.”
His mother wasn’t looking him in the eyes anymore. “Then you children learned what your secondary genders were… Katsuki was an alpha, and you… you were an omega, Izuku. I blamed myself. It was awful knowing I wouldn’t be able to provide for you, baby. You were alone, and I was working all the time…”
Her voice cracks in a breath as the woman looks for the right words. “ I wanted to make you happy… I wanted you to have a better life than we had… and then, the kids at your school began to pick on you because you were poor and an Omega…”
When entering High School, he and Katsuki had both won a scholarship in one of the best private high schools in the district. It had been hard. The fact that both of them had won it in the same year... it had been a miracle.
He always knew Kacchan would get it, but to be rewarded like that for all the effort he had put into it. That would be a first in his life.
The happiness over the fact they would be together was quickly overtaken as the results of their secondary gender exams came out at the beginning of their first year.
Katsuki being an alpha had been expected, and deep down Izuku always knew. He was Kacchan’s fated mate, after all.
He had to be an omega.
He thought he was ready. But nothing could have prepared him to deal with the vicious kids from his new school.
The bullying, shaming him for his status, lack of wealth, telling him horrible things.
Every time he tried to fight back or denounce the behavior, it became clear what they really thought the poor "social-project" omega boy deserved, with their dismissive looks and punishing him instead of the rich kids with powerful parents.
Kacchan tried to help, intimidating and scaring the kids out of their bullying, but he was just a kid himself, with no power or status, despite being an alpha.
In the end, Katsuki had just exposed his Achilles heel, and the kids started treating Izuku even worse because of it, knowing how hard it would hit the blond, so every time Katsuki attacked, they retaliated over Izuku instead.
“I was so powerless to go against the board and the parents- and Katsuki kept buying those fights with the kids! I know he was trying to protect you, I know that! But it only made things worse. Everything was so awful, I needed to take you out of that school…” A pause. “Then your friend, Shouto-kun… he was able to help.”
Izuku remembered it well. Shouto was a quiet alpha boy back then. He kept his distance from the rest of the class in their first year, especially the omegas. They became friends by accident, studying in the library together.
To Izuku’s surprise, he was a lot warmer and nicer than the greenette had assumed at first.
“Well, it’s easy with you,” Shouto answered him, the one time he asked. “It’s not like you would suddenly become interested in me or anything, right? You already have a mate.”
Katsuki and Izuku never talked with people about their status, but since they were always together, people usually assumed they were a couple. It was something they didn’t feel the need to comment on, truly knowing what they were for each other.
Shouto was the first one that just knew they were a pair.
As both boys grew closer in friendship, Katsuki and Shouto’s relationship also began to develop. By their 2nd year, the three of them were best friends. Izuku had been so happy he could almost forget the harsh words and looks his classmates sent his way.
Then, during their 3rd year, Shouto left for a semester abroad at his father's wishes and everything in Izuku’s life took a turn for the worst.
When Shouto returned, even with Izuku trying to hide it from his friend, the boy was quickly catching up on what was happening.
He told Izuku he would take care of it, and he did.
One day, Todoroki Enji came to the school and everything changed.
The students stopped, the teachers and the school began paying attention to it, taking action, protecting him.
Now that he thinks about it, Izuku realizes something had changed about Katsuki sometime after that.
After he was gone, Izuku had just assumed those were the signs that Katsuki had grown tired of him, signs he had chosen to ignore.
But now, seeing his mother's absolutely wracked with guilt, he realizes that maybe, there was something else behind it all.
Izuku swallows, ignoring his erratic heartbeat, trying to make his voice sound even. “Mom, look at me.”
She does, her eyes are filled with tears. “I’m so sorry, Izuku.”
A shiver runs down his spine, he has a bad feeling about this. “Mom, what did you do?”
“I arranged a marriage between you and Shouto-kun.”
Izuku stared at her and shock. He couldn’t have heard it right. No, it made no sense. His mind was playing an awful trick on him.
But as Inko continues, reality crashes over him like a ton of bricks.
“After Shouto-kun's father took care of everything, I went to thank Todoroki-san. We talked about how you and Shouto were growing closer… He was reluctant about Shouto's lack of interest in omegas despite already having had his rut. But he was surprised and happy when he learned that Shouto-kun had grown fond of you. He hoped that it could lead into something else in the future and I- I accepted his proposal.”
Izuku’s mouth hung open in disbelief, he could feel the sharp, wincing pain spreading through his entire body. “You sold me out?!”
The practice wasn’t uncommon in this society. Omegas were the rarer sub genders in the population, male omegas were especially sought out. A good part of omegas who still weren’t part of the elite could end up married into it for that reason.
Families like his, omegas not unlike himself, looking for better opportunities and status would actively search for them, which ended up creating the stigma of poor omegas as “desperate gold diggers”.
Izuku could understand what led those people into doing it, during his hardest times some propositions he received sounded really appealing, but he prided himself in never taking up any of them, including Shouto’s well-intended one after Akio was born.
To learn that his mom had done it behind his back so many years ago hurt his pride and his heart.
“I can see now how dumb I was back then… But I was so helpless, I didn’t know what to do, how to help you, how to make your life easier… But he could, they could, baby. Help you to follow the dreams I could never-”
She stops herself, choking on emotion, realizing how that might sound as if she was trying to justify her actions. “We were supposed to tell you after your graduation when you both were in college, that way you could have some time to try out, to start thinking of each other as mates.”
The words leaving his mother’s mouth just felt wrong. He wasn’t Shouto’s mate, he was Kacchan’s-
Izuku freezes, understanding dawning upon him.
His voice was more trembling than he had expected to. “You told Kacchan about this?”
The woman covers her face with her hands, trying to regain some composure before answering, looking up at the ceiling, trying to dry up the tears of shame pilling in her eyes.
“He wasn’t supposed to know. Not like that at least. I was talking on the phone with… Your father.” Even after all those years, Inko was still bitter talking about him.
“I can’t even remember why he had called, but things got heated and they turned to you. He accused me of not carrying enough about you, your future. Him. Who left us before you were even born. I got so mad that I ended up shouting about how I had secured you the best possible match. When I hung up, Katsuki-kun was there, and… he- he had heard everything.”
Izuku felt the room spin around him like he would faint.
“He asked me what I was talking about, I tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn’t let go. I sat down with him, and I told him about my talk with Shouto-kun’s father. How we were considering arranging a marriage between the two of you. I told him that the time for childhood crushes was over, it was time to grow up and face the real world, do what was best for you two. What was best for you. If he truly cared for you, he would know that it would be for the best.”
Izuku felt like he had just entered the Twilight Zone. All of these decisions over his life happened 20 years ago! Why was this the first time he was hearing that?!
“After your graduation, Shouto-kun called everything off. He said that if we tried anything he would refuse to take his place as heir. We hadn’t told him anything yet, but he knew about the plan, somehow. Katsuki disappeared the next day and… we never spoke of it again.”
Izuku felt numb. “Why didn’t you tell me anything?”
“At first, I thought I had done the right thing. I know better now, I was projecting my fears, my struggles onto your life, and I wasn’t fair to you. It took me years to realize that Katsuki-kun might have left because of my words. I saw you suffering and I became so angry at him! If he truly had loved you as he said, he would have stayed and proved me wrong, wouldn’t he? I thought he ran away because things didn’t go his way, because it might be harder than he had thought. But I realized how harsh I had been to him. I tried contacting him but I didn’t know his number or where he was.
“I tried talking to you about him but you never let me-” She stops. “No, those are just excuses. I didn’t do it because I was too much of a coward Izuku. After I realized my mistake, I thought about how you would come to hate me if you learned the truth. So many times I wanted to tell you, but- I couldn’t. I was afraid of losing you, even if I deserve to, You are everything to me and I’m so, so sorry for what I made you go through.”
Inko got down from her seat, kneeling on the kitchen floor, bowing to his feet. Izuku couldn’t see her face but he could hear the tears in her voice. “I’m so, so terribly sorry, son. I should have told you this a long time ago.”
Izuku immediately tumbles to the floor as well trying to get her up. Tears flowed freely from his eyes “Mom, please get up. Look at me.”
She doesn’t, but the boy forces her to at least look up at him, and for a second Izuku can barely recognize her. All that raw emotion, despair, and sadness on her face.
Had she been holding this inside her all along?
Every smile she gave him even when she was beyond tired from work when he was a kid, all the times she stood up taking care of Akio when he had to work, all the times she was there for him during those almost 40 years crossed through his mind.
Every wrinkle, every callus on her hands, every grey hair she had because of him, he could see it all now, bare, in front of him.
This woman who cared and provided, who had lied to him, who wanted his happiness, who cowardly kept him in the dark, who was afraid to be left alone.
Someone who went above and beyond, through flawed and wrong paths she thought were the best.
Not a hero, a flawed human.
The mom that he loved and that loved him right back.
When he spoke, his voice was hoarse, numbed and it felt like he was hearing it through someone else’s ears. “I can’t promise you everything is going to be okay, right now. You, you’ve kept me in the dark on this… You should have told me it years ago- Hell, you should have never tried to separate me from Kacchan! He is-” Izuku chokes on the word and the tears on the back of his throat. “-he is my fated mate!”
She sniffs, desolated. “I know. I know it now… I’m so terribly sorry, Izuku.”
“I- I can’t talk about this. Not with you. Not right now. I have- I have to think, okay? I have to think for myself about this.” He helped his mother up on her feet, she was holding onto his hand so tightly, like they had reversed roles and she was the little kid.
“But I can’t be here right now.” He let go of her hand. “I won’t answer your apology yet, I have to think. But I’ll call you when I get home, okay? Are you- are you fine to be alone right now?”
She nodded before asking him with a wobbly yet motherly worried tone “Are you?”
Izuku shrugged. “I’ll manage.”
Izuku lets his mom walk him out the door. Before he steps outside, he turns to face her one last time. “I love you, mom. That won’t change.”
Her eyes widen, surprised by the statement, at first. Then, her eyes once more fill with tears as she offers him the most heartbreaking smile. “Thank you, Izuku. I’m sorry for putting you in a situation where you would have to say it.”
When she closes the door, Izuku watches it for a couple of seconds, before starting to walk back home.