Chapter Text
There were only four times that Inko had worried that her heart would stop.
The first was when her house lost power during a heavy storm when she was seven. Her parents had both gotten trapped at their work, leaving her alone as the news broadcasted how it had been years since there had been something on that scale. The lights snapped off as the rain beat against the roof, leaving Inko alone in the dark with no way of knowing what would happen next.
The second was when she fell off of a bridge when she was ten. Luckily, there had been a hero nearby and she came out alright, but the memory of having time slow while she fell back still haunted her from time to time.
The third was when her school went on lock-down due to a villain attack only a few months ago. She’d been huddled in the corner with the rest of her music class, their teacher crouched by the door with a guitar in his hands as a weapon in case someone tried to come through. She had her hands pressed against her face so tightly she thought she might have passed out.
The fourth? The fourth was just hitting her as she sat on the bathroom floor, staring at the little plus sign that she’d been hoping wouldn’t appear. All the other times that her chest felt that hollow, though, there was an emotion to tie to it. Fear, worry, confusion. But this time? She just felt numb. She had no feelings, no thoughts, just an emptiness as she looked at the pregnancy test as if the result would change the longer she stared.
A soft knock at the door shook her from her stupor, making her jump and try desperately to hide the evidence.
“Inko? Sweetie, what’s going on in there? Are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine, Mom!” She answered automatically. Her voice wavered, though, making her mother pause.
“I’m coming in.”
“No no no, it’s fine, seriously, don’t come in-”
It was too late. Her mother’s bright green hair appeared in the doorway. She looked down at her fifteen-year-old daughter hunched on the floor, scattered packaging immediately clueing her in. Her eyes widened and she came fully into the bathroom, snapping the door shut before sliding down to the floor as well.
“Oh, honey. Was it…?”
The question hung unfinished, but its intent was clear.
Inko finally had an emotion bubble up: grief. Her eyes welled with tears as she threw herself into her mother’s arms, curling up against her chest and sobbing. Her mother said nothing, simply cradling her and slowly rocking back and forth. She smoothed her hair gently, allowing her daughter to let everything out.
They sat on the floor for a long time in that position. Eventually, though, Inko’s breathing slowed as she ran out of tears. She sighed, sitting up and away from her mother as she wiped at the dried tear tracks on her face. Her mother reached out and grabbed her shoulders, smiling softly.
“You don’t have to have an answer right now, but just know I’ll support you no matter what. If you want to get rid of it, I’ll take you to the appointment myself. If you want to keep it, we’ll shop for onesies together. If you want to give it to someone else, I’ll help you find a good home. Your father and I will be with you no matter what. Okay?”
Inko nodded and croaked, “Thank you.”
Her mother nodded. “Of course, Inko. You’re my daughter and I love you. Nothing could ever change that.” She gave a final squeeze to her shoulders before pushing up to her feet. “C’mon, let’s get you some water.”
Inko nodded again, taking the outstretched hand her mother offered and letting herself get pulled up.
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“Midoriya!”
Inko turned after hearing her name called, gripping the strap of her bag. From across the parking lot, she could see her music teacher running toward her, waving his arms wildly to get her attention. She couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face, turning to fully face him as he got closer. He doubled over a few feet from her, gasping for air dramatically.
“What’s wrong, Mr. Jirou?”
He lifted a hand to pause her, gulping in a few more breaths before raising himself again. “I-I heard that you’re pulling from school?! What’s going on?!”
Her smile tightened. She looked around for a moment before slumping in on herself. “It’s only for a few months. My family is going to America for a bit. I… They have more families there willing to adopt.”
He tilted his head, confused. For a few moments, there was an awkward silence as the cogs in his mind worked together before finally clicking. His eyes widened, looking down at her stomach before back up at her. “O-Oh! I didn’t… Is this an ‘I’m sorry’, or a ‘congrats’?”
She pursed her lips, turning away to blink away tears. “I… I don’t really know. If I’m being honest, I still wanted to have something to do with him, but we’re having too much trouble finding a family here. My dad says that Americans are easier to convince. So… yeah.”
“Wait, him? You know the gender already? Just how far along are you?”
She smiled slightly, raising a hand to rest on her stomach. “About four months. They say I should be showing soon. That’s also why I wanted to pull, I don’t want the other kids knowing.”
Her teacher studied her for a moment. He glanced over somewhere, likely towards his car, before finally looking back. “I’ll take him.”
Inko’s head shot up. “What?”
He smiled, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck. “My wife and I’ve always wanted to have a few little rugrats running around. But, there’s been a lot of issues. She’s already had a few miscarriages. She’s two months along now with another one, though, and we’re pretty hopeful. If I’m being honest, though, we’ll be lucky if this one actually makes it. Even if it does, though, we have plenty of room, and we can take care of your little guy. And you’ll still be able to see him anytime you want, of course. I’ll have to talk to Mika, but she’ll probably be more on board than me.”
Inko stammered, trying to find words. “A-Are you sure?”
“Of course! Believe me, you’d be helping us more than anything. I’ll call your parents about it later. If that's okay with you?”
Inko couldn’t help the tears welling in her eyes as she threw her arms around her teacher. “Yes, yes, of course! Thank you so much, you have no idea how much I appreciate this!”
He returned the hug, smiling softly. “You’re a good kid, Inko. Whatever kid you have is sure to be just as much of a blessing.”
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“Heads up!”
Izuku looked up from tying his tie just in time to get domed by a can of Monster.
“OW! What the fuck?!”
Kyoka almost doubled over with laughter, clasping a hand over her mouth as she cackled. “I said heads up!”
“Yeah, and then you chucked a metal can at my face!” He growled, snatching the carbonated weapon up off the floor. He studied the label for a moment before frowning deeper. “It’s not even one of the good flavors, are you just trying to get on my bad side?”
“Oh, yeah, how terrifying that would be,” She mused sarcastically, folding her arms. “The big bad guitarist is gonna write an angsty song about how his sister threw a soda at him.”
He rolled his eyes, walking past her out of his room and down the hall. “Or I could have you blacklisted from getting any repairs or upgrades on your hero costume from the support course.”
Kyoya’s eyes widened as she shrugged off the door jam and followed him out to the living area. “Hey, that’s not fair! We haven’t even started yet, you don’t have that kind of power!”
“Gimme two hours, I can be very persuasive.”
She scrunched up her face before running past him yelling, “MOM! IZUKU’S TRYING TO GET ME KILLED BY FAULTY EQUIPMENT!”
Izuku’s eyes widened and he ran after her. “THAT’S NOT TRUE, SHE’S LYING! AND EVEN IF I WAS, IT’S BECAUSE SHE STARTED IT!”
As they rounded the corner into the kitchen, their mother was already glaring lightly at them from where she stood by the stove. “Can you two seriously not go ten minutes without starting a war?”
“Oh, let them be, Mika.” From the breakfast bar, the familiar face of Inko beamed at the two newcomers. “They’re just excited to be going to such a prestigious school. Right, guys?”
Izuku tilted his head. “What’re you doing here, Mama Inko?”
She scoffed. “I wanted to see you off! What, you think I would want to miss such a big day?”
“It’s just school,” Kyoka muttered, walking over to the fridge. A light blush had started to spread across her face from the praise Inko was giving them. Izuku started to follow her, but was stopped by Mika grabbing his upper arm and turning him to face her.
“Hold it.” She leaned over, squinting at his ears enough to cause a crease between her brows. “Don’t tell me you gave yourself another piercing.”
Izuku took a step back, covering his ears as if hiding them would help his case. “Uuuuuh, no?”
She tsked and pulled his hand away to look closer. “Izuku, we talked about this! Just ask us when you want another one, we’ll take you to a parlor! If you keep doing this in the bathroom, you’re going to get an infection!”
“But that takes so long!” He whined, fidgeting with the new upper lobe piercings. With the new additions, he’d been brought up to seven on each ear, those being the standard lobe, three upper lobes, two helices, and a bar on his right ear breaking the symmetry from the chain on his left. Not to mention the ones on his face, which included double piercings on his right brow, his septum, and the snake bites he found himself chewing on too often.
Izuku wasn’t fully sure why he kept piercing himself, it was more of an impulse that he would indulge. He hadn’t once regretted any of them, enjoying the pleasant feeling that filled him whenever he caught sight of them in his reflection. His parents had been against it at first (understandably so), but after he kept doing it they gave up on trying to stop him and opted with making him go through the proper channels.
Mika groaned dramatically, turning back to the fish she was preparing. “Just don’t go for anything dangerous on your own, got it? Nothing that could make you bleed out in the bathtub.”
He hummed playfully for a moment, holding his chin as if he was really thinking it through before agreeing. “Sounds doable.” He smirked and walked past her, serving himself some rice. “By the way, where’s Dad?”
“Already left for work,” Mika announced. “Something about a killer new song that he had to share with the band.”
Izuku nodded, taking his bowl to sit next to his birth mother. She appeared to be doing some sort of paperwork, her hair pulled back into a loose bun to keep it out of her face. Seeing him looking at it, Inko leaned back, pushing it over for him to get a better look.
“What’dya think? Would you hire me from this?”
He furrowed his brows, finally recognizing the papers as resumes. “What happened to your job at that clothing store?”
“They’re closing down. Wanted to move into the support item business.” She bumped shoulders with him. “Maybe you could work for them when you're older.”
He smiled before shaking his head. “No can do. I’m afraid Kyoka has booked up my services for her future agency.”
“ Theoretical future agency,” Kyoka corrected, leaning against the counter near them and downing a ramune. “I could end up joining up with one of the agencies already around. Or I might make one with someone who has a more reliable source for support items.” She smirked, raising an eyebrow to accentuate the challenge.
Izuku huffed. “Alright, fine. If you wanna play like that, I might join someone else’s agency, too. Maybe it’ll be someone from your class, and then I’ll be directly competing with you.”
She stuck her tongue out, taking another sip from her drink. She glanced up at the clock on the wall before half-choking. “Holy shit, we gotta go.”
Izuku looked at the clock as well before his eyes widened. He quickly wolfed down the rest of his rice, practically chucking the bowl into the sink before following his sister to the door.
“Bye Mom, bye Mama Inko!” He threw the farewell back while shoving his feet into his red high tops, rushing out the door behind Kyoka as the women in the kitchen chuckled to each other. The door snapped shut behind him as they jogged away, slowing once they got to a point where they wouldn’t be late. He finally opened the Monster that had been thrown at him before, sipping it slowly as the siblings walked in step with one another.
Izuku glanced at Kyoka, noticing how she was twisting and turning her earphone jacks around her finger over and over again. He raised an eyebrow, bumping shoulders with her to get her attention. “Hey. What’s up?”
She frowned, not meeting his eye. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Kyoka.”
She pursed her lips. “Fine. Maybe I’m nervous. Like, hypothetically, I could possibly be worried about what to expect. And that I won’t fit in… If I was nervous, which I’m definitely not.” If she had been avoiding eye contact before, she definitely was after saying that. Apparently, the sidewalk had become the most fascinating thing ever, because it was the only thing she was looking at.
“Well, that’s stupid.”
“Hey!” She finally looked up, punching his arm.
Izuku raised his hands in surrender. “What?! It is! You earned your place in that class, which means you’re capable enough to handle whatever they throw at you.” He scratched at his brow as he continued, “I mean, statistically speaking, the hero course has a point two acceptance rate, meaning they’re not accepting people willy-nilly. If you weren’t qualified, they wouldn’t have let you in, simple as that.”
She pursed her lips, not seeming convinced. “I guess. That doesn’t mean I’ll fit in with the rest of the class, though. I have no baseline on what a whole class of people that want to be heroes are like. Oh, god, what if they’re all extroverts ?” She shuddered at the thought, looking like she was about to hurl.
“Well, that would be a travesty,” Izuku stated plainly, sipping from his can. “Doesn’t matter, though. Wanna know why?” He lightly punched her arm earning a scowl as he smiled down at her.
“Because your ass will be there?” She murmured with an eye roll.
“Exactly.” He pulled her in for a one-armed hug despite her protests. “Don’t you worry a single hair on your pretty little head, I won’t let the big scary hero students lay a finger on you!”
She shoved him off, fussing with her hair as she tried to suppress her smile. “Great, now I’m gonna look like shit on the first day!”
He rolled his eyes, dropping his empty drink into a recycling can they passed by. “Please, you’re fine. For real, though, if anyone messes with you, let me know, I’ll beat their ass.”
“Izuku, I don’t think you could take a hero student if you wanted to,” Kyoya pointed out, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. “Some of these kids have been training for years, they’re not gonna get taken down by some quirkless support course student.”
He gasped dramatically. “How dare you?! I would definitely be able to fuck shit up in the name of defending your honor.”
“I can defend my own honor, thank you very much.”
“Oh, yeah?” He stopped walking, looking up at the gates of UA before looking back down at her. “Prove that to them.”
She looked forward with wide eyes, as if just realizing where they were. With a shaky breath, she nodded. Waving to him, she continued on through the gates towards the doors, her hero career officially beginning.
Izuku waved back with a smile, happy to watch her go. With a steadying breath of his own, he walked through the gates as well, happy to start his career helping her.