Chapter Text
Keigo could clearly hear the yelling happening outside of his closet. As hard as he pressed his palms over his ears and held his feathers into his body, he could still hear his parents yelling at each other.
“This is your fucking fault! And you just want to dump it on me?! I didn’t want the first fucking child, let alone one that isn’t even mine!” his mother screamed.
“Well, you’re going to deal with it! That woman dumped the baby on me and ran. Now you will deal with it.”
The sound of glass shattering had Keigo curling further against the wall and pulling his wings around himself. “I’m not going to deal with this fuck up!” his mother hissed.
“Then give him to the brat! I don’t care,” his father yelled. The front door slammed and his mother yelled after the other man.
She fell quiet and Keigo could hear his mother coming to his closet before the door was being ripped open and a bundle of blankets was thrust through his wings into his lap. “Deal with it,” she hissed before also slamming the front door on her way out.
Keigo gently peaked inside the bundle in his lap. He was met with grey-green eyes and chubby cheeks. He gently cooed at the baby as he wrapped him in his arms. He noticed the baby squirming a bit and his face beginning to screw up. Keigo, not knowing what to do, unwrapped the baby, freeing him of his swaddle. He was surprised to see fluffy wings attached to him.
The baby, seemingly more comfortable now or at least not on the verge of crying, just stared at Keigo. Keigo stared back. The baby chirped. Keigo chirped back.
“I guess you need a name,” Keigo whispered to his brother. “I’ll call you Izuku. I’m Keigo and I’m seven.”
Izuku chirped and Keigo felt a small smile stretch across his face.
<...>
Their father did not return. He’d been arrested by the number two pro hero Endeavour. Keigo was glad he wouldn’t have to deal with his father and raising his brother at the same time.
Keigo’s mother did return. She wasn’t much of a parent. Neglectful, angry, and outright refusing to acknowledge Izuku’s existence. Keigo took care of his brother to the best of his ability.
Izuku took his first steps and Keigo was right there cheering him on. Izuku’s first word was Keigo and Keigo was so proud. Keigo tried to teach him as much as it was possible to teach a toddler. He had absolutely no clue what he was doing, but he was trying his best and that was more than Izuku would have otherwise.
Keigo also tried his best to protect his little brother. Tomie could be cruel, especially towards Izuku who she would refer to as ‘that whore’s son’. Keigo had Izuku practically glued to his side.
He loathed thinking of the last time Tomie had gotten to Izuku.
Keigo had gone out in search of food for him and his brother. Things had gotten out of hand. Everything had happened so fast. One moment he’s walking to the store, the next moment he was startled into the air by the loud honking of horns, screeching of tires, and the sound of metal crunching against itself.
Keigo sent his feathers out to help in the way he knew he could and pulled the people out of the wreckage of the car crash. Next thing he knew he was being thanked by some pro heroes and the police were taking his statement.
He sprinted back from the store when he realised how long he’d been gone.
The sight that met him when he entered the trashy apartment was awful. He’d been able to sense something was wrong before he even opened the door, his wings fluttering with such a sense of wrongness .
Then he heard the shattering of glass and the cries of what could only be Izuku and he was through the door before you could blink.
Izuku was curled in the corner of the kitchen, pressed against the cabinets. Fluffy wings wrapped around to shield his small frame. There were gaps in his plumage where feathers were missing that Keigo knew were there before he left. The light caught pieces of broken glass that were stuck in the child’s wings and fell all around him.
The worst part was the pure disgust on the face of the woman who stood over Izuku. She held another glass in her hand about to bring it down on the toddler but had frozen the moment Keigo had flown into the kitchen.
The fluffy ball of a child whimpered and peered through his wings at his older brother. Keigo caught a glimpse of blood and immediately sent feathers to pull his brother away to their closet they called a room.
Keigo spared a parting glare at Tomie before sprinting to the closet and pushing the single chair under the door handle to prevent Tomie from getting in, should she choose to try.
Keigo was immediately in the makeshift nest of dirty clothes, a singular sheet and two small pillows, tucking himself next to Izuku.
“Zu, can you lower your wings, so I can see you?” he asked, reaching out to very lightly tap on one to indicate what he wanted. Izuku very slowly lowered them, allowing Keigo to see the state his brother was in.
Izuku had blood dripping down his forehead coming from under his green-tinted black curls. His hands were where most of the damage was though. Keigo ended up spending hours picking glass out of Izuku’s hands and wings and patching Izuku’s wounds.
From then on he vowed never again to leave Izuku alone with Tomie.
<...>
It wasn’t long after that day that something happened, though Keigo had yet to know if it was good or bad.
A woman and a man were in their house. Izuku clung to Keigo’s leg as they peered out of the closet watching the professionally dressed pair speak with Tomie.
“In return for parental rights you, of course, will be rightfully compensated,” the woman said, handing Tomie a packet of papers.
Tomie looked over the papers with a hard look on her face. “And will you be taking the other one?” she asked.
The woman raised an eyebrow. “Other one?”
Tomie nodded. “Keigo, brat! Get your asses out here!” Tomie yelled in the direction of the boys. Keigo picked Izuku up and scrambled into the living area. “Other one,” Tomie repeated, gesturing to Izuku. “They’re a package deal.”
The woman and man stared at the two boys, frowning. At the examining look, Keigo held onto his brother tighter. The professionally dressed adults exchanged a look before smiling tightly at Keigo.
“Hello Takami,” the woman addressed him. “I am here as a representative of the Hero Public Safety Commission. We wanted to extend our thanks for your heroic act the other day as well as an offer for you to become a hero. Would you like that?”
Keigo wings twitched in excitement, a movement mirrored by Izuku. A hero! He could help people just like Endeavour helped him. He would be able to protect others. Protect Izuku.
He nodded. “How?” He tried to catch Tomie’s gaze. His mother had her attention focussed firmly on the packet in her hands.
“You would come with us and live at the Commission headquarters. We would train you to be the perfect hero that society needs.”
Keigo cocked his head and readjusted Izuku on his hip. “What about my brother?”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, but her smile stayed plastered on her face. Turning back to Tomie she asked, “Does the child have the same quirk?”
Tomie shrugged. “The brat has that bastard’s wings. Fuck if I know about anything else. Keigo didn’t have telekinetic feathers ‘til he was four and the brat is like 14 months, I think.”
The woman’s smile faltered slightly. “Then we won’t be taking him now. If he has the same quirk as your son then get in contact with us and we’ll see what we can do. There is no point taking him without knowing.”
Tomie shook her head. “I’m not keeping that whore’s son. He’s not mine and Keigo is the one who takes care of him. I won’t.”
The woman scowled and turned to the man. They whispered to each other before one typed something into their phone. It took a few tense minutes before the woman finally turned back to Tomie. The tight smile was back. “We don’t normally accept children before their quirks fully develop, but we will make an exception. We don’t see quirks as special as these boy’s very often. Will you work hard to show your appreciation?”
Keigo held tightly to Izuku. He knew what would happen to his baby brother if he left him here. Tomie would kick him out and a baby on the streets would not last long. Besides, they would become heroes and that's what he wanted to be.
Keigo nodded.
They left with the professionally dressed pair.