Chapter Text
Small puffs of smoke floated into the air like signals heralding the arrival of Katsuki Bakugou, before dissipating into whirls that took on the blue-purple hue of the sunset. Izuku followed them as they rose higher and higher, his little head tilted back as far as it could go.
“Wow!” Izuku exclaimed, his eyes snapping back down from the sky and going impossibly wider with every small spark that popped out of Bakugou’s hands. “That’s so awesome! You’re so awesome, Kacchan!”
There was another loud pop that yielded a large grey cloud, followed by, “Duh.”
Izuku wasn’t deterred by the lackluster response, still spilling out praises as the two walked down the street together. There was hardly anyone walking around their neighborhood street, most people already inside making dinner and spending time with their families. Izuku caught glimpses of activity inside the houses from brightly lit windows of smiling mothers putting steaming dishes on the table and studious children working on homework. Everyone was inside where it was warm and cozy, out of the Autumn chill, but Izuku wouldn’t trade places with any of them right now. He had spent the whole day with Kacchan, running through the woods on an adventure until his cheeks were red and his nose was running. The scrape on his knee was still sore and just now scabbing over, but he smiled brightly.
“I hope my Quirk will be as cool as yours.”
“Fat chance! Mine is the best!”
Izuku didn’t reply, but privately agreed, hunching his shoulders and pulling his backpack up to his neck. Bakugou continued with his head held high, his little legs marching as if he were leading an army. Seeing his friend’s confident strides made Izuku that much more conscious of the way his own steps sometimes scuffed against the pavement, jolting him forward gracelessly.
“You don’t have a Quirk, Deku, so you’re gonna be totally defenseless. You’re probably going to need an alpha for your whole life,” Bakugou said it like it was an undisputed fact of life.
Izuku stopped walking, “I’m going to need an...alpha?”
“Yeah! An alpha to take care of you, tell you what to do and...” Bakugou trailed off, then shrugged, “Stuff like that, ‘cause you’re not going to be able to do it on your own.”
“I-I bet I could...” Izuku mumbled to the ground, slowly walking after Bakugou again.
“Nope! Alphas take care of everybody else, that’s why I’m going to be an alpha when I grow up!” Bakugou’s voice grew louder with conviction, and he raised a small fist in the air, “A hero and an alpha! Just like All Might! ‘Cause I’m super awesome!”
“Oh...” Izuku didn’t quite know the differences between all of the second genders, but Kacchan seemed really confident about it. The part about being a hero he could relate to, and taking care of people.
“Well, then, I’ll be an alpha too,” Izuku declared, “So I can take care of people. We can, we can take care of people together, Kacchan!”
For the first time since they had started walking home together, Bakugou turned around to face him.
“Ha! You can’t be an alpha, Deku! You don’t even have a Quirk, you can’t take care of anyone!”
“I, I will!” Izuku insisted, “When I’m older!”
“Forget about it!” Bakugou yelled back at him, “You’re never gonna get a Quirk, you won’t be an alpha, and you definitely aren’t going to be a hero!”
Tears filled Izuku’s eyes and Bakugou scoffed, turning back around to face the empty street.
“There’s nothing wrong with not being an alpha,” He said grudgingly, mechanically, as if he were repeating words he had heard before, “If there were no betas and omegas then there’d be no one for alphas to take care of. So, shut up, Deku.”
Bakugou started walking again, his pace a little slower now, his hands clenched in irritation.
Izuku sniffled, wiping his eyes on his sleeves harshly. He wasn’t going to be useless, he’d get his Quirk and be just like All Might, then he could protect people too. He could even protect—
“Kacchan,” Izuku started, his voice still thick.
“I said, shut up. I’m gonna be a hero, I’m gonna be an alpha, and that means I’m gonna have to take care of you.”
It was such an innocuous statement. One that Kacchan has made a few times before, a general statement about protecting people and becoming a hero, but it had never been said with Izuku specifically attached to it. Izuku smiled at the ground, his eyelashes were still wet and his nose was running, but his mind kept turning that phrase over and over, his smile getting bigger and bigger with every repetition.
“Kacchan,” He grinned, taking a deep breath and relishing the warm feeling that had wound its way through his insides, “That’s—”
“So,” Bakugou turned around again, the unnatural glow of his red eyes in the light of the setting sun taking Izuku aback, “You should save yourself some trouble, and just give up right now.”
—
“I can hear your stupid muttering all the down the sidewalk, shut the hell up!”
Bakugou jabbed his finger right in Izuku’s chest, startling the other boy and making him wince back.
“K-Kacchan?” Izuku had seen the other boy walking ahead, his pale blond hair wasn’t hard to miss especially against the stark black of their middle school uniform, and had done his absolute best to stay off Kacchan’s radar. Then he had started comparing and contrasting Pro Heroes, which led to him thinking about the most effective team ups, which got him started on how he would reorganize certain agency’s heroes and sidekicks, and he must not have noticed that the other boy had doubled back.
Or that he had been talking aloud, again.
“Sorry, I was just—” Izuku hurriedly cut himself off as Bakugou leaned closer to him, a vicious glare on his face. “K-Kacchan…?”
“Tch,” Bakugou finally backed off, looking Izuku up and down with a sneer, “What the hell’s the point of a male omega anyway?”
Izuku blushed, swallowing hard, “There are, there are lots of different types of—”
“But I guess it makes sense that you are one, useless on top of Quirkless,” Bakugou plunged on, craning his head over the other boy for extra intimidation, “What did I tell ya, you are gonna need an alpha for your whole life.”
This was an old argument between them, one that had been going on since elementary school after that Autumn afternoon. It had only gotten worse when they both had presented, Bakugou the expected alpha and Izuku…the late blooming omega. For the longest time Izuku had thought he was a beta, had made his peace with not being an alpha like All Might, like Kacchan, until last year. He and his mother had just thought he’d come down with a bad cold, just some minor aches and pains with a fever that hadn’t broken in two days. But when the doctor had ran some extra tests, Izuku had walked out of the room with an All Might sticker and a shiny new pamphlet that had ‘Your Omega Body and You’ written in giant letters on the front. The kind that was meant for elementary school kids.
Izuku had shown up at school the next day, stunned when Bakugou had taken one look at him and contemptuously declared him an omega in front of the entire class. Bakugou had always been really good at guessing second genders, and Izuku’s had just reinforced the idea that he had always had since they were kids.
Bakugou smirked, “Looks like you’re still gonna need me to take care of you.”
There was that peculiar phrase again, the one that had filled Izuku’s younger self with such a brief feeling of warmth before Bakugou had told him to just give up. Now, Izuku could only hear the phrase with the degrading meaning Bakugou had originally intended, and it left a familiar sour taste in his mouth.
“N-No, you won’t. I can, I can take care of myself, Kacchan!” Izuku gripped the straps of his backpack and squeezed as if that would give him strength, “You’re not my alpha!”
As soon as the words had left his mouth, Izuku knew he had yelled it too loud, and his cheeks were quickly heating up as he remembered that they were still standing in the middle of a public sidewalk. A group of elementary kids walking past them stared with wide eyes, their little mouths open in shock, the grownups just side-stepped around them, some even covered up a smile or sniggered. Izuku has seen enough of those kinds of smiles to know it was one people had on their face when they were making fun of someone.
Bakugou’s eyes narrowed and he clenched his hands, smoke coming out. Even his cheeks were flushed under all the negative attention.
“It’s a lovers’ spat,” One high school girl didn’t even bother to whisper to her friends as they walked past, all giggling into their hands. “That’s so embarrassing.
Bakugou was growing more and more irritated with every passing comment and while Izuku had been self-conscious as the center of attention of the crowd earlier, now he was exclusively focused on dodging an angry Bakugou. He crouched in on himself, waving his hands in defense and trying to stutter out excuses.
“I-I, I didn’t mean to say that, I mean, I did, just not so—” Izuku cut himself off when he felt hands grab his school uniform around the collar and pull. “Hey!”
Bakugou dragged him off of the sidewalk and into an alleyway, roughly throwing him against the wall. Izuku flinched as his back thudded against the brick, a stray edge catching him right on his shoulder. The pain was sharp and quickly spread to his whole back, but it didn’t distract him from Bakugou’s glare. The ferocity of it had Izuku immediately dropping his eyes to the ground in a movement that was as instinctual as breathing.
“Kacchan,” He appealed, his voice catching in the back of his throat.
Bakugou didn’t let him get another word out. He crowded Izuku further, looming over the shorter boy, “I knew you were stupid, but I can’t believe you’d yell something like that right out in the middle of the street! Now people are going to think we’re a bunch of perverts.”
“I’m sorry, Kacchan. I didn’t mean to say it so loud,” His next word came out softer, “But...”
“But, what?”
“But...you’re not,” Izuku couldn’t quite bring himself to look Kacchan directly in the eye in this charged situation, but he did pitch his voice lower to convey his seriousness, “You’re not my alpha.”
Bakugou narrowed his eyes and let out a snort, “What? You think anyone else is up to the task of keeping your clumsy ass out of trouble?”
“M-m-m-my mom,” Izuku’s lip wobbled, “My mom is my alpha right now.”
“And so? You plan on living with your mom your whole life?”
“No, but...” Izuku took a deep breath, “When I meet an alpha that I...want to take care of me, then, I’ll, I’ll choose them, Kacchan. It’ll be my choice.”
Bakugou’s mouth twisted into an ugly smirk, “No one’s gonna want you.”
The sharp words made Izuku flinch and his lip wobble even more.
“That might...if that’s the case, then,” Izuku trembled, but forced himself to take one short, meaningful glance into Kacchan’s eyes, enough to get a glimpse of bright red, “I’ll take care of myself.”
“You’ll be dead in a week. Useless and defenseless, remember?”
“That’s not true, Kacchan, I’m not! Don’t say that!” Izuku shouted, taking a deep breath and squeezing his eyes shut, “Don’t say that, stupid Kacchan! I’m Quirkless and an omega, and I’m going to be a hero and even if I don’t have an alpha, I’ll take care of myself! But I don’t care what you say, someone is going to want me!”
The yell echoed in the space between the two boys. Izuku was breathing heavily, his fists clenching and unclenching, but his head remained bowed and he didn’t dare open his eyes to see Kacchan’s reaction. He doubted he’d even be able to see through the tears welling up. Perhaps when they eventually spilled out over his cheeks and made their way to the ground, his vision would be clear enough to see the derision on Kacchan’s face when he called him a crybaby.
It was too quiet in the narrow alley, not even the other people and their conversations could be heard, the carefree laughter of the elementary children as they walked to school was gone. There was only the sound of Izuku’s heart thudding in his ears and Bakugou’s deep, angry breaths. He wasn’t even yelling, Izuku thought with a cold shiver, and that meant it was going to be bad. Izuku squeezed his eyes shut harder in preparation for one of the perfectly controlled explosions that Kacchan was capable of, loud and close enough to his face to hurt, but not enough to permanently burn his skin. Kacchan…Kacchan really is amazing, Izuku thought with bitterness.
He was expecting the contact when it came, a hand to his face, pushing it to the side in a move that Izuku could only believe would precede his skull being smashed into the cement accompanied by a loud blast and extreme heat. Izuku brought a hand up to try to break his fall, defending the side of his head, but the pain never came.
“Ka…cchan,” Izuku choked out, trying to squirm away, but Bakugou held on to him tighter and tilted his neck further to the side.
“Shut up, Deku,” Bakugou snapped. “Just hold still.”
Izuku tried to pull away again, “What, what are you doing?”
“Shut up!” Bakugou’s voice had a weird quality to it, deep and like it had been looped on itself over and over. It made Izuku’s ears vibrate and tingle, ringing in his head long after Kacchan had quit speaking. Izuku found his voice dry up at the sound of it, he tried to protest once more, but each time he opened his mouth he could only stutter out a few sounds before shaking so badly he had to close his mouth to stop his teeth from chattering together.
A small furrow appeared between Bakugou’s eyebrows but was quickly replaced by a glare.
“Just,” He started again, taking a deep breath through his nose, “Hold still, and shut up.”
Izuku blinked tears from his eyes, he was scared, he didn’t know what was happening, Bakugou was acting strange, he was acting strange, all they had to do this morning was walk to school, so what in the world—
Bakugou licked him, right above his school jacket collar, below his jaw. A warm, wet feeling that quickly turned cold in the air as Bakugou leaned away.
“Huh,” He said, absentmindedly, looking down at the faint, wet stripe. “I guess it wouldn’t be that easy.”
Izuku’s lips had just now stopped trembling, and his tears had all made their way down his cheeks to leave his eyes clear, but he hadn’t gotten to ask Bakugou what he meant by that because the other boy’s face was buried in his neck again.
Izuku knew Bakugou was licking him, going up and down his neck with long strokes of his tongue that sent goosebumps throughout his body. Izuku felt like the pressure of the universe was pressing down on him, his body was warm, the air around him was warm, but, nothing compared to the heat of Bakugou’s mouth. Izuku brought a hand up to Bakugou’s jacket, intending to push the other boy away, because he was surely going to blast a hole through Izuku’s skin like this! But his hands had no strength, they were trembling so badly he could barely form a fist. Eventually, they dropped to his sides without ever having made a defensive move, and Izuku felt as useless as Bakugou always claimed he was.
Izuku’s head began to feel light the longer Bakugou’s mouth stayed on him, licking, or, Izuku wasn’t sure, this definitely hadn’t been in the pamphlet, he just knew it was starting to feel…really good. A tingly feeling that danced over his skin like the bubbles from a freshly poured glass of soda, or his mother’s hair tickling his skin when she hugged him, the feeling of tall grass brushing against his thighs when he and Bakugou used to play in the park, the strange tension that came over his body when he presented. When Bakugou’s teeth would just barely graze against the skin where Izuku’s neck met his jaw, that feeling expanded tenfold.
Izuku let out a sigh and moved his head to the side to offer more space when Bakugou startled away from him. Izuku struggled to open his eyes, lifting his lids was now a monumental task and Bakugou slowly came into focus.
“Kacchan…?” The name pulled on the inside of Izuku’s throat, pushing itself up where previously nothing had been able to. It felt nice, calming, an intimate whisper to accompany an intimate moment. But where Izuku was calm, Bakugou looked manic. His eyes were hyper focused and his breathing was heavy. He dove back into Izuku’s neck like some kind of wild animal devouring prey.
Izuku let his eyes drift shut in anticipation, except this time, Bakugou’s teeth didn’t just merely graze his skin. Izuku flinched at the sharp pain, convinced Bakugou had bitten him.
“Ow…” Izuku shuddered, his voice still not coming out louder than a whisper. As the pain on his neck became unbearable though, he managed to raise it to a hoarse yell, “Kacchan, that hurts, stop it!”
“Hey!” Came a voice from the opening of the alley. A policeman stood with his hands on his hips, a long green tail swishing behind him in jerky movements. “What are you kids doin’ in there?”
The man’s shout had startled both of them and Bakugou pulled away. Izuku started to stutter an excuse, his right hand moving to cover the mark on his neck in embarrassment.
“W-w-we aren’t—”
“It’s nothing. We’re good,” Bakugou said simply, backing away from Izuku with an unsettling blank look on his face and leaning down to pick up his bag like nothing really had happened. The crazed look in his eyes had calmed and Izuku was now the one who was breathing hard.
Izuku was struck dumb watching how cool Bakugou looked as he was walking away, his blond hair backlit by the sun and his bag slung over his shoulder. Izuku thought it wasn’t fair at all for Bakugou’s voice to be so deep and unaffected when he had talked to that policeman, while Izuku thought if he even attempted to open his mouth, his heart would leap out on to the ground. It was certainly doing its best to try to pound through his chest at the moment.
The policeman didn’t seem convinced at their innocence and eyed Bakugou warily as the other boy turned out of the alley and disappeared. Then he turned his attention to Izuku.
“Hey, you too, kid! Get up and get to school, there’ll be no truants on my watch!”
Izuku felt like a hot mess, his jacket was wrinkled and he wasn’t sure what the state was of the bite on his throat, was he bleeding? Did he need to go to the hospital? Or the courthouse, Izuku thought with terror, were he and Kacchan what the adults called “bonded” now? Was that a claiming bite? Or a bonding bite? What was the difference again, Izuku tried to think hard. Kacchan was an alpha and he was an omega and everyone knew those two went together the most naturally, but was that really all it took for a bond to form? Izuku had always thought there would have to be a bit…more involved, like, adult stuff. Bedroom adult stuff. They hadn’t done anything like that! Had they? Izuku didn’t know all the details about what went on in an adult’s bedroom, maybe he and Kacchan really had done…it?
“Hey, creepy kid,” The policeman’s voice seemed awfully distant now, “Stop with the muttering and the hyperventilating, you’re gonna make yourself pass out. Come on, get up off the ground.”
“He bit me,” Izuku’s voice was hoarse, his fingers brushing painfully across the raw spot on his neck.
“Huh? Speak up.”
“He bit me,” Izuku’s lip wobbled as he told the police officer, his hand cupping his neck.
“What?” The man asked, his face dropping into something more serious, “What do you mean—let me see. It’s okay, don’t worry.”
Izuku sniffled and very slowly revealed his neck. The officer kneeled down, medical gloves snapping as he pulled them on, gently tilting Izuku’s head to the side to take a look. As he did that, Izuku’s thoughts started swirling again.
He was probably going to have to go to the hospital now, the bite might become infected, and then the staff will have to call his mother. What was his mother going to say about all this? Would she be happy, or disappointed? If it was a claiming bite or a bonding bite, would Izuku have to leave her? Was he going to have to live with Kacchan now? Were they bonded? Did they really do it? Did that mean—
“Do, do you think I’m pregnant now?” Izuku blurted out, his eyes wide in horror, grasping on to the policeman for support. Instead of kind, compassionate eyes, Izuku was met with a flat stare.
“Kid,” The officer took a deep breath, “This is just a hickey.”
“A what!”
“A hickey, you know, your boyfriend got a little too carried away, he,” The corners of the policeman’s mouth turned down as he gestured to Izuku’s neck uncomfortably, “Sucked too hard. There’s a nasty looking red mark that might bruise, but nothing that’s broken the skin. There’s no bite anywhere.”
“But, but, but, it felt so weird! And it hurts!”
“Well, yeah, it was close to your gland,” The policeman’s face and the tip of his tail were steadily turning more red as he made a vague general motion to his neck, “Come on, didn’t you learn this in school? It’s close to your gland, and I guess you’re an O, so when it happened it…you know, it reacted.”
“What does that mean?”
“G-Go ask your parents or something.”
“But—!” Izuku tried to press.
“Listen, you’re the one who decided to skip school with your boyfriend to make-out and now, now, these are the consequences!” The policeman drew himself up into a very official stance, his tail adopting the posture as well by sticking ramrod straight up in the air, “And by the way, without going into any specifics, this is not how people get pregnant!”
The police officer had no more sympathy for Izuku after that, he took out a little first aid kit and put some medicine over the hickey while lecturing Izuku about the detriment truancy had on his education. Izuku flushed in embarrassment while nodding obediently throughout the whole thing. His mood only perked up when the officer had slapped an All Might bandage (“Ah! That’s one of the limited edition ones! Could, could I have an extra?”) over it and sent him on his way.
Izuku picked his bag up off the ground and bowed in what he hoped was a ‘good little kid’ way before setting off for school again, sneaking out of the alleyway like he had done something wrong. Just when he was starting to get comfortable, he turned around and saw the policeman following him, a stern expression on his face. Izuku hunched down under the attention, fiddling with his backpack straps, distinctly aware that people were looking at him curiously, pointing and whispering about the middle school kid who was being watched so closely by a policeman.
What if they think I’m some kind of bad guy? Izuku thought in horror, immediately adjusting his posture to one with more confidence, ignoring the pull of the band-aid on his skin.
The policeman was Izuku’s shadow for the remainder of his walk to school, he even stood outside the gate to make sure Izuku went in the building. Izuku gave him a little, half-hearted wave goodbye before going through the doors, which was returned by a nod of the policeman’s head. Izuku let out a relieved sigh when the doors shut behind him and he was alone in the hallway.
Kacchan is probably already in class, Izuku thought, a slight sting of irritation eating at him, He’s probably just sitting at his desk as if he didn’t just...didn’t just…
What did he do? What was the point of that?
Izuku brought a finger to his bandage and furtively pressed down on it, stopping only when the sting became too much. Izuku pursed his lips as the memory of Kacchan’s mouth on his neck was brought back to him, the wet sounds and the heat. Kacchan’s mouth was so hot and the way his teeth had grazed against Izuku’s skin without biting down was, it was, it made him feel—
Izuku swallowed heavily, suddenly aware that he was standing in the middle of the hallway at school, breathing heavily and running a finger along his neck. Anyone looking at him would probably think he was some kind of pervert, which was definitely worse than being thought of as a bad guy.
--
To be continued