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Looking up at the alpha staring him down, tips of their eye-teeth on show, Izuku just shrugged and said, "Okay.”
“Huh?”
“I said okay. You win. I’ve met all of you now across an entire year, you can afford a second omega, mama likes all of you, seems to love you for some reason, no accounting for taste on that one but okay, you win.”
“She’s yours. I hope you are all very happy with each other, she’s great, awesome even, you are fucking lucky to get her and I hope you never forget that.”
“When she moves in with you please carefully pack up my room and put my stuff somewhere safe, I’ll come get it in a few years.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t want anything else, just that. Remind her I have my trust fund to live on so to give all of you room and space as a pack to bond and not worry about something like me hanging around I’m gonna go travel for a few years.”
“Tell her I love her, and I’m sure we’ll meet up again one day not too far in the future.”
Izuku took his keys out of his pocket, had already made sure to have his ID, trust fund booklet, and any money he possessed on him as well as a basic shoulder bag with essentials in it and dropped the keys with a tiny clink to the table top.
“I won't need these any more, you guys have fun, I’m gone.”
Walking out was like turning his nerves to razor wire and pulling hard on all of them, slicing him to pieces but he did it, without pause or stumble, he did it.
Simply walked out, gave her a new life, left a letter behind hidden in her bedside table telling her thank you for being so good to him for all his life, and just kept going
Sixteen years old, well, fifteen and a bit anyway but that may as well be sixteen, close enough anyway.
But he’d been drifting for a year now after he’d failed to get into a hero school, any hero school, he'd tested out of high school in a fit of pissed off rage at a system so rigged against so didn't even have to do that anymore to distract him from life so it didn’t matter that he spent so much time in his room really even if his mama’s new pack thought he was a waste of space lay about looser but….
It was hard to get up in the morning when every dream he’d once had died before he even started properly living.
Even Katsuki couldn't get a rise out of him anymore, and by gods he’d tried, insults and tough love and bracing speeches and more yelling like soooo much yelling but Izuku just didn't care anymore.
Just.
Dreams hurt too much.
It wasn't even anyone's fault really, bad enough to be quirkless but there were quirkless heroes.
Not many of them but they did exist.
No, quirklessness was a pest, felt stupid and stupider and even more stupid on top of a fucking mile high sunday of stupid but at the end of the day, two out of every ten people on the planet was born quirkless, he wasn’t special.
No, it wasn’t being quirkless that fucked his life totally, it was his primary sexual designation.
The rarest in the world he was.
Alpha, Omega, Beta.
Everyone knew the primary sexes.
But how many had ever heard of Neutral?
Patting his bag slung over his shoulder as the snow began to fall, he remembered his mothers expression when they were told, remembered her tears later, remembered all of it.
All of it, school and the neighborhood and their friends and affiliated packs and teachers and classmates and once friends but….
Not friends for long.
Neutral.
It sounded okay but it only took a few years to switch from Neutral to Neuter.
Even that he’d have been able to handle, bad as it was he’d have dealt with it but he didn't fit into any official boxes any more, those three tiny boxes one had to put a tick mark in when filling them out, they didn't have a fourth option of Neutral, or even Other.
Nope, so his forms were always flagged, queried if he was lucky or just tossed in a shredder as incorrectly filled out if he wasn't.
And he wasn't lucky.
He was sure that’s why he’d not heard back from any hero schools, not a peep, even though Katsuki got his acceptance letters, both the invite to take the test and congrats on being accepted.
Izuku’d gotten crickets, chirping loudly in the silence of no letters at all.
Blinking as he realized he didn't know where he was, or how long he'd been walking either, but his bag of very sparse items now sported a snow cap with how hard it was coming down all of a sudden, he sighed at the dirty light and started looking for somewhere to hunker down.
Hunker, such a silly word, but it gave the feeling of the moment so he gave a crooked laugh and continued on his way, now looking for a sheltered spot to spend the night.
He didn't need shelter, but he didn't want to be looked at right now, or talked to either.
An hour of searching and he finally gave up looking for the perfect spot and just used a space behind some bins.
It was under an overhang so the snow wouldn't bury him, and he had his thing so it was an okay spot to ride out the night.
The thing that made all this possible, even running away.
It’d taken him weeks to get the courage up to try and steal it, if he’d been caught he’d have earned a one way ticket to juvie with how much it was worth but he’d done it.
Snagged it and simply walked out with the store model demo unit.
The Explorer Nine Thousand, the most advanced sleeping bag anywhere. With it he could sleep safely and comfortably on ice, or in the full sun of the hottest place on earth.
With it he would simply float away in a flood, rather than drown.
It had built in quirk protection as well as the highest of high tech and was a survival capsule that needed nothing else to survive the harshest of conditions and it even blended in with its background via a chameleon effect so was hard to spot when in use.
He’d seen it in a camping store when he turned eleven, dreamed of one day earning enough to buy one, then life rolled over him like a threshing machine and now here he was, tossing it onto the cold wet ground after making himself homeless.
His Mama was a wonderful person, his Dad and Granda had been too but together they’d picked a crook to manage his trust fund.
Curled up like a bug in the comforting hug of his stolen bag, Izuku looked at the professional booklet, opened it to gaze at the money numbers and gave a harsh bark of air.
A lie.
All of it.
Automated emails telling pretty lies to trusting fools and he was penniless rather than the comfortably well off everyone believed him to be.
No trust fund, no home, no pack, no friends, no help, no hope.
Tugging his one non essential from his shoulder bag he slid deeper into the bag and clutched Soft to his chest and tried to cry, but he was just too empty.
Where his mama used to live was hollow now, no pack inside him any more, like when Dad died but even worse.
No smell of pack on his body, no feel of pack in his heart, no safety of pack to protect him, just him, a stolen sleeping bag, and a ratty tattered old stuffed toy.
A faint smile when he thought of her name, Soft, and how Kacchan had fought him on it, and on her being her because Kacchan said boys only had him toys, and "So what if he had a pink nose and Soft isn't a name he should be Murder Claws of Death or or or Emperor of DOOOOM!!!"
But Soft she was, and Soft she remained, even with her ears chewed and sucked down to nubs from when he was little, even with the accidental tail amputation that he’d had to assure Kacchan she didn't mind, “Cause now she’s a bob tail Kacchan, and even cooler than ever!”
Faded and worn and so special he curled around her like a broken thing and held on tight, he’d done loads of research on surviving packless, surviving becoming packless, but nowhere had it said it’d feel like this.
*
Deeply asleep the noise that woke him with a HUGE crash first had him wondering where he was and what was mama doing in the kitchen was she okay what was going on, as it sounded like nothing on earth, crashing rattling yelping cries and sobs….
A resounding crescendoing thud and he finally woke up enough to remember where he was and worked it out that someone had fallen into the trash cans he was behind and now was on the ground crying.
An adult voice but wailing like a hurt puppy.
Unable to resist, Izuku peeked out into the weirdly lit darkness, snow deep and still falling hard, and someone was huddled in the wreckage, sobbing with abandon.
Wincing at the burning cold of the storm laden air, Izuku crawled from his warm spot and cautiously crept forward, asking gently, “Can I help?”
Because while a few scenarios did fit an adult acting like a pup, drugs and alcohol being two of them, a quirk effect fit better, and a switching quirk fit best of all because of how often it happened and yep, nailed it, he thought when the omega looked up, face blotchy and swollen from crying, and said, “Hep’s me?”
“Yes sweetheart, I’ll try and help.”
They scooted closer with a shudder of cold and said, eyes huge as they looked all around at the deserted alley and falling snow, "I don’ no where I’s is!”
Already shivering himself Izuku thought for a grand total of three seconds before saying, “Come with me, right over there, good puppy, such a good puppy you are now, let's get these wet clothes off you and - ”
Pulling his towel from his bag - one change of clothes, one towel, one cuddly toy, one drawing pad, one notebook, assorted pencils and pens and that was it cause he'd eaten his snacks already, but the towel he now used to briskly scrub down the naked and shivering masc omega was already proving a lifesaver and then Izuku tucked the stranger into his bag, stripped off himself and crawled in.
It was a tight squeeze to get in with him but once they positioned and shifted and cuddled close it was not just okay…. it was amazing.
“Touch starved to the max, me,’ Izuku thought with a dopey sigh, ‘cuddled up bare skinned to a complete stranger in a stolen sleeping bag and it's the best I've felt in ages.’
“Where is we?” Said stranger asked, hoarse adult tone, frightened child's words, and Izuku asked instead of answering, “How old are you sweetheart?”
“I’s five!”
“Oh, how perfect, I used to be five once too.”
“Really?”
“Uhuh, I’m much older now though. Do you remember what happened to make you all big and lost?”
“No!” A heaving sob as Izuku was clutched tight the way he’d held Soft earlier, and Izuku didn’t have a purrr to give for comfort but he managed a hummm that seemed to do the job when the death grip around him eased off a bit.
“That’s okay, all that means is it was from this end, you and big you just swapped places for a bit, big you is in your tiny body, and little you is in your big body here with me, and I bet big you is really surprised right now!”
"Switching quirks never last very long, so all we have to do is keep warm, stay safe, and wait it out.”
“Can you tell me your name petal, I'm Zubug and this is my bag we're cuddling in so the snow can’t be naughty and make us cold and wet again.”
A tiny giggle sounded just as sweet in an adult omega's lilting voice as it would have on a tiny pup and he got, “I’s Shou-chan, dat’s me.”
Not even bothering with family or pack names, Izuku settled in to enjoy the physical contact, the warmth and the softly hissing snow as it fell even heavier, and said as he held her up, “Would you like to hear the story about how Soft here became a hero?”
Four stories later came the first huge yawn and damn, Omega teeth were awesome, huge yet hidden behind soft smiles, he’d always loved his mama’s teeth - yanking back from that thought lest he howl his emotions aloud he was blindsided with, “Why’s you sad?”
“Sad?”
“Ummm hmmm, cans smes it.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
No one had been able to smell Izuku’s emotions for most of his life, he never gained the glandular growth when his peers had that gave them the aromas of growing up, Neutral meant no primary gender development which meant no glands maturing meant no one could smell his emotions once he grew past puppy hood.
“Really really?”
“Yep yep yeppers, you smells like me do sometimes.. Sad sad sad.”
Deciding to ignore the fact this omega could smell his sadness, Izuku asked, “Why are you sad sad sad sometimes?”
“Cause I’s gots a bad quirk.”
“Really, what does it do?”
The omega tucked his head totally into hiding and said, muffled and tiny, “I’s turns quirks off.”
“Oh wow, that is amazing!” Izuku replied in shock, “Do you want to be a hero?”
“Uh huh, buts peoples sez I’s only gonna be a villain cause I’s bad.”
“Not mamma n dadda n Temo n Ceedy n Moso, dey all says I’m good but ev’b’dy else says it.”
“Well,” Izuku said with utter conviction, “I’m going to be part of your pack right now and say that is an amazing quirk and you'll be super duper amazing at being a hero if you still want to be one by the time you get as old as me.”
“Really?”
“Yep, but!”
Huge black eyes stared in dread at the tiny word but so Izuku hurried on, “You are going to have to work smart, and hard, and hard and smart to do it.”
“Cause if you turn quirks off, then you need to be stronger than the person you just turned off, so lots of gymnastics, lots of dancing. Both of those make you fast and flexible and give you good balance. Then you need martial arts to fight strong and hard and smart, and you need a weapon of some sort to give you distance and range.”
“That's so you can fight far away from your body, and they can’t reach you.”
“Wooooah, you’s so smart! Tells me all dat agains so I don’ forgets it!”
“Okay, oh, how about instead I tell you the story about when Soft's best friend Ticho had a quirk that turned off other quirks and he trained to be the best hero in the world? That way you can remember the story and just do what he did.”
It was an easy story to tell, all Izuku had to do was adapt it from a quirkless neutral hero to a quirked omega hero but he enjoyed doing it for the little guy, even if Izuku never became a hero himself the story might live on, and when Shou-chan finally yawned himself to sleep Izuku tucked Soft into his arms and wriggled out of the bag, shoving himself into his frozen clothes with muffled hissed yelps at how cold they were, grabbed his stuff and left.
The quirk effect would time out really soon, and while he’d stripped off to help warm a shock victim, he was in no way prepared to be in that same bag with an adult omega who may or may not be a hero.
Yeah, no thanks.
Leaving Soft was a wicked blow but he was letting go all his past life, and the kitten whimpered when Izuku tried to get her free of the snuggle grip from hell so he’d just given up.
So what if she’d been with him all his life almost, now she was gone too.
The sleeping bag was a worse blow really but, spotting the bus station still open, despite the falling snow, he simply walked in, threw all the rest of his money on the counter and said, “South!”
He was in a seat beside a hugely fat alpha in less than three minutes when the bus pulled out, headed south.
No snow or cold in the south meant he didn't need his sleeping bag.
Lifting his feet to the seat he gripped around his shins, pulled his knees to his chest and hid his face behind his knees, shutting the world away, cause it was all just too much.
*********************
For as long as Shouta could remember he'd had a story in his head, all about how to become a hero, told in a sweetly soft voice filled with care.
He'd followed it, followed the story, done the work because the story said it’d be hard, would be tough, that people would fight him and try and stop him and try and crush his hopes and dreams but if he did the work, held on tight, believed in his quirk and did the hard part of making himself strong….
Then his dream was in reach.
He could do it.
Of course the story said it in story words and it would have been so easy so many times to just give up but that voice, so sad but staying strong…. for him….
Shouta’d been fifteen and sitting in class 1A when he realized it was a switching quirk, had to be, and that whoever it was who'd taken care of little him in big hims body had gifted him the story.
The story that made it possible for him to pass the entrance exam of UA high, to take a non combatant quirk and slam the biased exam.
To be in the top third of the accepted students.
One day he’d meet the person who'd made it possible, and he’d thank them, and maybe find out why they been so sad that day.
But until then he was going to be the best damned hero student UA’d ever seen!
*
Waking warm and comfortable and drowsy with peace and the smell of pup and so tired, Shouta almost fell right back to sleep but…. the smell of pup?
Warm?
He was always cold!
Unless he was snuggled in the middle of his pack in the big nest he was always cold.
Cold hands, cold feet, cold nose, just cold!
Not right now though, now he was warm as toast and bonelessly comfortable, despite the smell of snow overlaying everything else and the close smell of pup making him more and more worried.
Super nose, rare as hens teeth and a curse and a blessing all rolled into one, the pup smell was not strong, not like most older pups who stank to high heavens to him but was a gentle fragrance of care, and loss, of love and comfort as well as a melancholy so deep it was painful.
Opening his eyes an empty alley was all there was to be seen, empty alley covered in snow, no pup, just him in a bag with a very old, clearly much loved plushy in his arms.
‘Sleeping bag huh? Effective one for a change, once I find the owner I might get one of these for me, cause damn it’s nice in here!’
Needing to let someone, anyone, know where he was, he was reluctant indeed to venture forth, especially as he seemed to be naked and his clothes nowhere to be seen!
*
He’d eventually had to shuffle out of hiding, wearing the sleeping bag, when he heard street cleaners beginning to clear the snow, and gotten many odd looks and suspicious questions but eventually a van pulled up, his pack tumbled out and he was swept up and tumbled and rolled and pressed against and chirruped and hummed and purred at and thank gods for Uncle Ecto because his fool of a pack were too emotional at his recovery to be able to drive or even think really but -
He was right there with them in the full body tackle hug, so had no moral high ground at all to take on this one!
****
Resolving to never get onto another long-haul slow-way cheap-ass-seats bus again as long as he fucking lived, Izuku finally stumbled off the bus and gaped at the view.
Bus depot’s everywhere seemed to tuck themselves into the ugliest places in a town or city but not this one, it overlooked clear blue water, rippling waves, swaying tropical plants and low slung architecture, painted brilliant white and shining in the sun.
Even the roads were amazing, smooth light colored stone, clearly quirk flowed into place, he bent down to test and it was cool to the touch, despite the already sweltering heat and blazing morning sun.
“Awesome!” he breathed, before standing again and freezing to let the dizziness pass.
It had been a long long time since he’d eaten.
The bus ride had been fifteen hours of hell, he’d been stuck with an aisle seat almost at the back so no view at all and a constantly changing seat partner because they stopped at every single stop along the way and the bus stayed packed.
The rest stops let him fill his bottle with water but he’d spent every penny he’d had, so no food for him along the way.
He was too hungry now to even feel it, but he’d read about fasting, and also about what one could forage all along his country's length so was sure he’d be okay soon.
After all, he was looking at the ocean, how hard could fishing be?
*
Very, as it turned out, fishing was very hard.
No money meant no gear, no gear meant he was trying to use a sharp stick but even that was hard cause he had no knife to sharpen it with so was using a bit of broken off driftwood that was sharpish rather than sharp....
How had he forgotten a knife?
Feeling so utterly wretched and stupid as he tried and tried to find any fish at all in the privacy of a tiny cove to use his broken stick on, he finally gave up and sat on a sea wall across from loads of tiny shops and restaurants, feet dangling over deep water and watched food swimming past, occasionally breaching the surface to snap bits of food tourists tossed in.
Izuku was too tired to even feel indignant at people wasting food like that, because of course no one could smell how hungry he was, sitting there, an abject failure of a person.
No amount of studying had prepared him for life alone, no amount of reading had trained him on how it felt to be so hungry, no amount of dance and gym and karate classes let him find food on his own.
Come nightfall he’d try digging in the trash, would find a big store and maybe they’d have skips and such like for him to root through for thrown away spoilt food, for now he’d pant in the sun, drink the last swallow of his bottle and feel miserable, sick and stupid and still so fucking young and needy.
Why was he still so needy? Why did he just want one person to stop and ask if he was okay, even if he’d have to lie and say he was fine. Just…. why was he like this?
Tilting his head so no one would see his tears he watched huge fat silver bodies lazily drift past and wondered if he fell in if he'd get time for a bite or two before they ate him or he drowned.
'A fair trade,' he sniffled a laugh, 'a few bites for me, a few bites for them.'
Someone sat down beside him but they were down wind and he didn't care really, the jetty wall was long enough for loads of people to sit down like he was doing, it wasn’t his after all so fair play to anyone who did it really cause it gave a great view of the big fish, he just kept looking down, and time passed easily for a few moments before the stranger asked, “How about we write a new story now?”
Looking up in blank confusion, Izuku said, “Huh?”
“A new story,” the omega from the sleeping bag handed Soft to him and kept going, “one where a Neutral pup finds a new pack, becomes a hero, and spits in the eye of the entire fucking world.”
Curled around his returned friend Izuku managed a nod, because speech was beyond him now, and he was gathered into a side hug and they both watched the fish lazing their lives away, fed on scraps, and let someone else make the plans this time, because his had epically failed.
“How about we get some food, you meet my pack mates, then we head back to the holiday rental house and meet my pack leaders and we make a plan from there, because looking at those fat fuckers down there is making me ravenous.
“Yeah,” Izuku choked out a broken laugh, hugging Soft close to his chest, “me too!”
***
Together they did write a new story, one where Midoriya Izuku became Aizawa Izuku of Pack Nezu, a story where he had a pack that loved him very much indeed, a sire who had a super nose that could sniff out all his emotions which was a blessing and a curse of the first order, and he eventually became a hero, underground, just like his dad!