Chapter Text
Midoriya Izuku was born on July 15 to Inko and Hisashi. He had a patch of dark green hair, and bright emerald eyes, just like his mother. He was healthy and Inko couldn’t be more happy with her beautiful baby boy. He was a little small, the doctors told her though, so they wanted to keep him under observation in an incubator for a few days, just to give him the best shot he could have. Inko hadn’t wanted to be separated from her newborn, but she knew it was what was best for him, so she acquiesced.
In the middle of the first night that Izuku was in the hospital, a nurse shuffled into Inko’s room, apologizing for the interruption. Ink just gave an understanding smile and asked what the nurse needed.
“Well, you see…” the nurse started off nervously, wringing her hands, “it appears that little Izuku has a soul companion. They’ve just shown up in the ward, right next to his incubator.” she rushed through the sentence, as though scared she wouldn’t be able to get all the information out to the new mother fast enough.
Inko startled at the news. A soul companion? But those only happened when a child had a family soulmate bond and those were incredibly rare, almost unheard of even. Her brows furrowed. “Would it be okay if I went and met them?” she asked.
“Of course, Mrs. Midoriya! That would be perfectly acceptable. And most experts say it’s important to meet a soul companion as soon as possible so that they grow to trust you with their human.” A gentle smile graced her face as she helped Inko climb out of bed and slip a pair of slippers on before leading her to the incubation ward that Izuku and his new soul companion were in. “It would have been preferable to have both parents present, but I’m sure you can introduce the soul companion to your husband later when he’s back at the hospital.”
Inko inwardly grimaced. Hisashi wasn’t around often, and had barely made it to the hospital to see his son be born. The likelihood of him making it back to the hospital before her and Izuku were discharged was slim.
Inko gasped when they entered the room, her hand flying to cover her mouth. It was hard to miss the soul companion laying next to the incubator her baby was in. It was a large black jaguar, resting its head on its paws, its tail swishing back and forth behind it. Its ears had flicked up and swiveled in the direction of the ward door when they had entered. It lazily opened its eyes to glance at the two women as they approached.
Inko kept her nerve, resolved to meet her son’s protector head on. This large predator would be her son’s lifelong companion, and would not do him any harm, she didn’t need to worry, her son was safe. What she did need to worry about was how the large cat would react to her approaching its ward. She stopped a few feet away from them. Carefully easing herself to sit on her knees, hands clasped in her lap. She calmly looked at the imposing animal that had opened both of its eyes at her approach.
“Hello, I am Midoriya Inko,” she started calmly. The jaguar flicked its ears and she took that as acknowledgement and continued, “that baby is Midoriya Izuku, and he is my son.” She paused, waiting for some type of reaction from the predator.
It huffed and looked up at the incubator it was laying protectively next to, before turning its attention back to Inko. It stood slowly, before stretching languidly and yawning, exposing a terrifying set of teeth that could shred through anything effortless. Inko squeezed her hands together as she felt the anxiety well up, but she stayed where she was kneeling as the Jaguar approached her at a leisurely pace. She held her breath and sat perfectly still when it finally came into her personal space, sniffing at her face. Suddenly it leaned forward and bumped its head into her cheek affectionately. A wet giggle slipped from her as she wrapped her arms around the creature that would be her son’s protector and friend. “Thank you for being here for him. Please take care of him as best you can.” the mother whispered into the big cat’s ear, before placing a soft kiss to its temple.
A purr rumbled from the beast’s chest, and it bumped its head back into Inko’s. Message received loud and clear it seemed.
===Time Skip , 4yo Izuku===
Izuku sat next to his mother in the doctor’s waiting room, with his soul companion dutifully laying at their feet, leaning heavily into them. Hisashi hadn’t made time to come. The small boy was reading another book on the history of soul companions and absorbing all the information he could about them.
His mother had named his soul companion for him since he had been too young. She had named the jaguar Rin - a name for someone dignified. It was also easy for baby Izuku to try and say. Inko had figured that her son should be able to say his soul companion’s name sooner rather than later, she had a feeling that Rin would be happy when Izuku grew to be able to communicate with her.
Ink had been right. The day that Izuku had finally managed to say Rin - only a day or so after saying mama for the first time - that large cat had purred so loudly that Inko heard it from a different room and had come running in. The scene she came across was her tiny son, his indomitable soul companion curled around him, and he alternated between burbling, saying “mama”, and squeaking a tiny “Rin” while gently grabbing at his jaguar’s snout. The predator didn’t seem to mind, however, and continued to gaze at the child with charcoal eyes filled with soft adoration. Inko had cried from happiness at the sight.
However, now Inko was trying to keep the somber mood of this particular doctor’s appointment from reaching her son. She listened as he excitedly explained what he was reading about soul companions. “Mama, did you know that only me and my soulmate can understand what Rin says?” his hand moves to brace underneath his chin, “but you seem to understand Rin just fine, even though you can’t hear what she’s saying!”, Inko chuckles softly at how excited he still is - this is easily the fifth book on the subject he’s read. Her son gets back on track with his facts as his eyes catch the paragraph again, “and I’ll be able to understand their soul companion too!” he chirps to her, eyes wide.
Izuku is bouncing in his seat now, getting so excited over the idea of having something special connecting him and someone else. “This book talks about how soul companions reflect the person their human is connected to! So I guess my soulmate is really serious, huh?” He reached down to pat Rin on the head. Izuku is the only human she allows to touch her. Inko is sometimes allowed to give her a pat or two, but other than that, the young boy is the only person who can reliably pet her without risking his hand being ripped off.
Before Izuku could continue his excited ramblings on soul companions, a scrub-clad nurse enters the waiting room and calls them back. Inko stops herself from nervously wringing her hands, not wanting to tip her son off to how she really feels. To Izuku, this was a visit to the doctor to learn more about when he could expect his quirk to come in. Kachan already had his, and Izuku had been waiting such a long time to know what his own quirk would be like. He really wanted to be a hero like All Might, and he’d make sure he’d become one even if his quirk wasn’t super powerful.
Inko, however, knew that the doctor could possibly have some information that would shatter her son’s dreams, and she knew that there wouldn’t be much she could do to reverse the damage if that were to happen. She simply took Izuku’s tiny hand in her own and stood up to follow the nurse that had come to collect them. Izuku tugged on her hand gently and asked if she could hold his book for him, and she nodded with a smile and took the book from him. His free hand reached down and grabbed the yellow collar around Rin’s neck that carried the legal tags marking her as a soul companion. The tags and the large bell hanging from the collar jangled, letting a small tinkering sound out into the room.