Wow, I actually managed to make a chapter of over 2,000 words.
"So are Kirishima and Ashido settling in alright?" Shouji's father asked. It was the weekend before school started and Shouji had offered to host his two friends at his apartment for the first week so they could get acclimated easier without having to worry about missing the train to and from school.
His friends were in the living room watching tv, giving Shouji time alone to video chat with his parents.
"They are." Shouji answered. "It's a bit weird, having other people around, but we've clicked surprisingly well."
And they had. Shouji hadn't thought the louder personalities of his friends would mesh well with his own quieter nature, especially in such close quarters, but Shouji's calmer outlook was able to temper the other two, while they got him to come out of his shell more.
His father smiled. "I'm glad! It's nice to see you've finally made friends, and that you're all in the same class is great!"
His mother found that now was the time to put her two cents in.
"Hmph, such promising young Omegas, and they're ruining that with such unrealistic dreams." She scoffed. "No Alpha will want such loud Omegas, though I suppose their figures make up for it. Unlike you, Mezou, they apparently had just enough sense to not bulk up so much. However, if they keep up being Heroes they'll loose that softness!"
Shouji's fists clenched and he tried to keep the glower off his unmasked face.
His father sighed. "Noriko, please.."
She glared at him. "What, Masato? They're throwing their futures away! Omegas should not be out fighting! That is an Alpha's job! That man that Japan calls their Number 1 Hero has set a horrible example! Soon no Omega will want to be with an Alpha, they won't want to bear children, because some delusional Omega somehow cheated himself into being a hero!" She ranted. "How many Alphas did he have to get on his knees for to-"
"Stop it!" In an uncharacteristic show of rage, Shouji stood and slammed his primary hands into his desk, the chair toppling over as he glared at the woman who birthed him, but could barely be called a mother.
She narrowed her eyes. "Shouji Mezou don't you raise your voic-"
He cut her off sharply. "I said shut up! You always do this! Discrediting Omegas, lowering them to mere servants and brood mares to the oh-so-powerful Alphas, all because you're jealous that you were born a Beta instead of Alpha like everyone that wasn't married into your family!" He barrelled on before she could flap her gums again. "All Might has done so much good, he's saved so many people, both from villains and because he's a good philanthropist! He makes millions doing hero work and gives most of it away to charities! He's been seen helping homeless people, lost kids, little old people, he's saved cats from trees, and you still can't get over the fact that he, an Omega, doesn't want to spread his legs and push out babies, because, to you, that's all Omegas are useful for!"
"That is what nature deemed rig-" She tried.
"No! It isn't! Dynamics showed up when quirks did and no one knew how to deal with either, so they put labels and stereotypes onto them and people bought into it, and now we can't escape it, even after so long!" He shouted, teeth bared as he finally vented his frustrations. "Sorry to burst your bubble, mother, but I don't want my life to be spent in a bed or kitchen, looking after children while an Alpha you chose comes home from work thinking I'll bend over instantly for him! I don't even like Alphas, their scent doesn't appeal to me, thinking of a knot turns me so far from on that the sun is wetter than me!"
Her lips suddenly curled in disgust. "Don't tell me those two Omega-!"
He was about to tear out his hair with how incensed he was. "No! I'm not attracted to either Kirishima or Ashido, those are their names by the way, and even if I was, there's nothing wrong with that! You're so narrow minded! But let me tell you something. Omegas can be heroes, they don't have to have children or an Alpha. Any dynamic can be with who ever makes them happy. If you can't get that through your thick skull, then you're no mother to me." With that he disconnected the call and slammed the laptop closed. With a groan he rested his primary arms on the desk and his head hit his hands.
There was a tentative knock on his door and he clumsily pulled his mask over his face, but otherwise didn't move his head, instead he formed an eye and mouth on the dupli-arms closest to the door.
"Come in..." There was a pause, then, slowly, the door opened and his friends poked their heads in. Their expressions were concerned, but their eyes shown with a sad understanding.
"Hey, Shouji, are you okay..?" Kirishima asked quietly.
He huffed a humorless laugh. "No. I guess you heard all that?"
Ashido gave him a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, you were pretty loud and we were worried."
His shoulders hunched. "Sorry.."
Kirishima frowned as the two stepped fully into the room, they both went to his sides and the red head lay a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, none of that, man. Your mom sounded like a real piece of work, I think she deserved it."
Ashido nodded resolutely. "Yeah, the way you were going made it seem like you've been bottling this up for years, meaning she's been like that for just as long. I've met people like that, it's no wonder you finally blew."
"Yeah, man." Kirishima agreed. "If I had to deal with someone like that for as long as you have, I'd have lost my cool way before this point. It's super manly how you've been able to tolerate her your whole life."
Shouji sighed and shrugged, finally lifting his head from his hands. "I didn't really want to yell like that... It's just, I've always hoped she'd come around, y'know? She's my mother, I wanted to be as close to her as I am with my dad, but... I'm starting to realize she may never see me as anything other than some Alpha's pleasure toy.."
Ashido suddenly stood straight, hands on her hips and a determined look in her eyes. "Alright, that's it! You deserve a little R&R, Shouji. Your mom's a bitch and you shouldn't have to feel bad because she can't get her head out of her ass. So! We're gonna make the biggest, bestest nest, and you're gonna finally rant about how awful you think she is while we eat ice cream in our underwear. Then we're gonna watch cringey movies and laugh about the stupid acting and shitty affects!"
That's how Shouji found himself curled up with his friends on the floor of his living room, surrounded by every cushion, pillow, blanket, and soft thing that he had, and then some. He smiled as his friends laughed as he recalled some of the more stupid rules his mother had tried to enforce in his youth.
"Man, I can't believe how much denial your mother was in!" Kirishima crowed.
"I know, she wanted so much to have a pretty little girl Omega, or a muscle-brained Alpha boy, but then the doctors told her I was a bouncing baby Omega boy, she freaked. Dad said she wouldn't hold me for weeks, then suddenly it was like she was convinced that if she dressed me in as many frilly things as possible, the 'boy bits' would miraculously fall off and I'd be a normal Omega girl." Shouji recounted, shuddering at the faint memories. Luckily she had cut it out when his teachers expressed their concern.
Ashido shook her head, spooning a big helping of cookies 'n cream into her mouth, then talking around it. "Well, at least your dad seems cool. Though, it makes me wonder how he fell in love with someone so prejudiced. "
He shrugged. "According to him she was pretty normal when they started dating. He said that looking back on it, she had some signs of being jealous of him and other Alphas, and was a bit curt with Omegas, but she acted perfectly nice until I was born."
"Ugh, well, she's a bitch. But hey! I know at least one thing she did right!" Shouji tilted his head curiously and Ashido grinned. "She was able to push out a sweetie like you! So, we can at least thank her for being your incubator!"
Shouji choked half in amusement and half in shocked embarrassment as his friends laughed. Soon, Shouji ran out of the more interesting stories, and they all decided on a movie to watch, cuddling up under the many blankets and settling into a comfortable silence, only broken when they laughed a particularly cringey scene.
His issues with his mother wouldn't go away so easily, but here, with friends, it would definitely be easier to deal with them.
The weekend passed quickly, and soon the first day of school arrived.
Shouji woke up early, as usual for him, pulling himself from the cuddle pile, being careful not to wake his friends, and stifled a laugh when they immediately moved to cuddle each other in the warm spot he'd left. He took his time to stretch, working the kinks from his spine and cracking all thirty of his knuckles with a pleased groan.
He took a quick shower to wake up fully, and then threw on his new uniform, though he left the shirt half unbuttoned and the vest and tie were hanging by the front door.
He set about making breakfast, the quiet and soft light of the morning, as well as the calm movements as he went about familiar movements, helped keep the impending nerves at bay, letting him just relax.
"Mph, Mina, get your horn outta my nose!"
"Well, why don't you get your armpit out of my nose!"
Ah, spoke too soon.
Shouji shook his head, finished putting the food in the bowls and setting the table, before going into the living room.
His fellow Omegas were in what seemed to be a sleepy battle to the death, seeing as Ashido was halfheartedly trying to gouge Kirishima's eyes out with her horns, while Kirishima was swatting at her with a partially hardened arm.
He chuckled and easily picked them both up, tucking them under his arms like American footballs.
"Come on, this is a shameful way to die. At least wait until we're doing combat training. Then, you could at least blame a teacher on negligence." He said, plopping them down at the table and taking his own seat.
Ashido immediately began stuffing her face, but Kirishima paused before his chopsticks finished the journey.
"Wow, Shouji, you seem to have put some thought into that. Should we be worried?"
Ashido made an unattractive snort. "Aw, our baby Shouji wouldn't do that, would you?"
Shouji rolled his eyes, he wasn't that much younger than them, there were seven months between he and Ashido, and a mere three between he and Kirishima. But apparently since he was born in the year after they were, it made him their baby boy to be protected at all costs.
He tried to be annoyed, but it was nice to have people other than his dad care. He knew they were only joking about most of it, but someone saying he was like a little brother to them was actually kind of nice.
Ashido suddenly jumped up, not a speck of food to be found, and declared. "Dibs on the shower!" And ran like hell down the hall.
Kirishima squawked comically. "Hey, not fair!" Shouji had to put a restraining hand on his shoulder to keep him from bolting after her.
"I'm not waiting last minute for you to finish your stupid hair routine, Eijirou!" She shouted, followed by the slam of a door and running water.
Shouji shook his head and chuckled as Kirishima pouted and grumbled about his hair not being stupid.
They thought Shouji was the baby?
After a few more friendly squabbles, the three were finally in their uniforms and on the bus to UA. Shouji would have walked, but his friends convinced him to relax on the first day.
"Oh, I'm so nervous!" Ashido said, fiddling with the hem of her skirt. "What if I trip and my skirt flies up? What if I accidentally walk into the boys bathroom? What if I get startled and spray acid on another student? Or the teacher?!"
Kirishima held out his hands. "Jeez, Mina, chill out! You'll be fine! I mean, I can't say that the first thing won't happen, but everything else I'm fairly sure won't happen!"
This seemed to have the opposite effect on her, as her eyes widened and her hands flew up to grip her hair. "Fairly sure!?"
Shouji cut in, slapping one hand to Kirishima's mouth, and using three arms to pull Ashido to his side in a comforting hug.
"You'll be find, Ashido." He said calmly, running his fingers through her hair. "You'll have me and Kirishima, and you'll no doubt make more friends than either of us."
Kirishima finally pulled free from Shouji's hand, giving a shark-toothed grin. "Yeah! And if you do end up doing something embarrassing, we'll be there to laugh and help you up!"
Shouji sighed in relief as the bus pulled to a stop at their destination, pushing Ashido into the aisle and standing himself, making sure Kirishima was behind him, as the girl still looked ready for murder.
"Remember what I said? Wait until combat training."
Luckily they were able to reach the school, and even their classroom, without any more threats of injury.
Entering the class, they found that they weren't the first there. Seated in the fourth row in the far back corner was a girl, straight backed and looking well put together. In front of her, kneeling backwards and peaking over the back of his seat, unabashedly staring at the girl's chest while he tried to talk to her, was a very short boy with four dark purple, bulbous spheres attached to his head in place of hair.
In the last seat of the third row was a serious looking boy, his hair split down the middle, one side white and the other red, with heterochromatic eyes and a large burn scar over the upper left side of his face.
In front of him was a bird headed teen, who had his eyes closed and arms crossed as he leaned back on two chair legs. Two seats up was a thin girl with uneven purple hair, she had a bored look on her face as she leaned her head on one hand and twirled an extended earlobe that ended in a headphone jack around her finger.
Only one person sat in the next row, a blond boy in the very front, with short, slicked back hair, and a thick, blond tufted tail stuck through the back of his seat, he was straight backed, with his eyes closed and his hands in his lap, looking as if he were meditating.
In the third seat of the first row was a girl with large eyes, a wide, thin lipped mouth, and long, dark-green hair tied into a bow at the end. And finally, in the fourth seat of the first row-
"Hello, I am Iida Tenya! It is nice to meet you, fellow classmates!" A tall, well built boy with almost black blue hair with a Beta scent announced as he stopped to stand in front of them.
Ashido giggled. "Hi! I'm Ashido Mina!"
Kirishima waved, his usual grin in place. "And I'm Kirishima Eijirou!"
Shouji nodded his head, a duplicate mouth coming up to introduce himself. "I am Shouji Mezou. It's nice to meet you, Iida."
Iida smiled. "Likewise! Welcome to Class 1-A, please find your seats and get comfortable!" He then turned and made a beeline for the bird-headed teen, starting to berate him for leaning the chair back so far.
The trio glanced at each other, then shrugged. Iida seemed nice enough, and hadn't said anything about them being Omegas, even Shouji, who was wearing a new mask with a weaker scent blocking strip at his nose, and none near his scent glands, as were the school rules.
Ashido sprung forward, her seat being the second of the first row. She pulled the chair back and plopped in backwards, facing the green-haired girl. Kirishima and Shouji, not wanting to sit yet, followed to stand next to her
"Hi! I'm Ashido Mina!" She greeted. "I like your hair!"
A faint blush dusted the girl's cheeks. "Thanks. I'm Asui Tsuyu, nice to meet you." She tilted her head a bit, eyes roving over each of them. "It's nice to know I'm not the only Omega here."
Ashido smiled, about to make some type of agreement, but the sphere-headed boy from the fourth row suddenly popped up out of nowhere, wide-eyed and with an unnerving smile on his face.
"You two are Omegas?" He asked, eyes roving over Ashido and Asui, lingering over certain spots for a few seconds too long.
Ashido's lip curled at his blatant staring. "Yeah, what of it?"
"Oh, just wondering. It's just, I've heard Omegas are pretty good in-" he was cut off with a yelp as a hand latched onto the back of his uniform and lifted him clean off his feet, up and up, until he was face to face with Shouji.
"You shouldn't finish that sentence." He rumbled. "I'm going to put you down, you're going to sit in your seat- properly- and be quiet."
The boy stared at him, wide-eyed and trembling, but as his nostrils flared and he gave a congested inhale, his brows suddenly furrowed.
"Hey, you're an Omega too? What's it like to have a va-?!" Shouji once again cut him off, this time with a hand to the mouth.
"You really shouldn't finish that sentence." He stated firmly, then proceeded to carry the little creep over to his desk and plop him into the chair. "Stay. I'll be watching you."
The small teen scoffed. "Oh yeah? How are you gonna do that? You only have two eyes, and that hair isn't going to help any!"
Shouji tilted his head, grin hidden by his mask but easily seen on his dupli-mouth, and lifted the arms he wasn't using to talk. Three eyes opened, locking onto the little Beta instantly.
"Stay." With that, he turned and walked back to his friends. His dupli-eyes, however, stayed locked on target.
Kirishima clapped him on the back when he was close enough.
"Oh, man! That was awesome, Shouji!" He exclaimed.
Ashido and Asui were both giggling. "He looked like he was gonna pee himself when you brought out your eyes!" Ashido
"He still looks like he might." Asui stated. Ashido and Kirishima looked, then broke into fresh laughter.
"Yeah, that was pretty great." The voice belonged to the purple haired girl, who was now leaning against the desk beside Ashido's.
She nodded to Shouji, as the others were too busy laughing. "Hey, I'm Jirou Kyouka. You did us girls a favor, ever since Mineta stepped foot in here, he's been a little creep." She paused. "Well, not as much to me, I don't think I'm busty enough for his tastes. But Yaoyorozu over there," she gestured to the girl in the far back. "has had the full brunt of his perviness, not even finding she was an Alpha stopped him for long."
He shrugged, glad the mask hid his blush. "He was being gross and disrespectful, Ashido and Asui didn't deserve it."
"Still, he needed to be put in his place. He asked Yaoyorozu earlier if she could do herself. I'm surprised she didn't punt him out the window. I would have." Jirou said.
Shouji nodded. That question made absolutely no sense, but he'd been asked it by an alarming amount of people.
Jirou decided to stick around, too bored with sitting at her seat, and Shouji kept back, happy to just listen as his friends got to know their classmates. At some point the boy at the front of the second row, introduced as Ojiro Mashirao, turned in his seat and joined in the conversation, all while the rest of their classmates slowly trickled in.
Soon, all but two seats were filled. Shouji's wasn't close to his friends', but they understood when he decided to take his seat, knowing that he'd still be listening, but his quota on direct human interaction had been filled.
He was enjoying the din of different voices and rustling of movement, challenging himself on listening to each conversation without losing track, when the door opened and one of the last students stood frozen in the doorway.
Iida, who'd been unsuccessfully scolding a hot-headed blond in the fourth row, had gone silent, and then muttered. "It's him."
Everyone's heads turned, and Shouji finally recognized who it was. In the doorway was a shorter, dark-green haired boy, who he'd seen briefly at the beginning of the entrance exam, and who everyone in the fake city had seen break his arm and legs destroying the zero pointer.
The boy seemed startled and nervous at the attention, sweating and stuttering out an awkward greeting.
Shouji was amused to see the boy get increasingly alarmed as Iida approached to greet him. He'd bet his first impression of Iida had been his intense lecture mode.
As Iida dramatically declared that the green-haired boy was a better student for realizing there was more to the exam than villain points- and the boy's face said that he hadn't, in fact, realized that- a bubbly looking brunette, their last classmate, appeared. It seemed she and the boy were familiar with each other.
Then their teacher, a scruffy, tired looking man in black, appeared and told them to put on their gym clothes instead of getting ready for orientation.
Shouji had a feeling things were about to get interesting.
So, who's up for some facts?
The rule about Shouji's mask, is that scents are useful in hero work. Heroes need to know if someone is in heat or rut, if they're distressed but unable to respond, and scents can be used to calm and reassure people, so a Heroes scents can't be blocked. Shouji's allowed to have the block over his nose because he gets overwhelmed easily, but his hero costume won't have it.
Unlike most ABO universes, in mine doctors can pretty accurately guess what a baby will present as, hormone levels, whether a baby has what will become a knot, and who has the proper saliva to naturally make a bonding mark. Presenting isn't really "normal human then suddenly you get a heat" it's just puberty, Betas get normal human puberty, Alphas get ruts and their knots start working, Omegas get heats, but they know what they will be already by the time they're in elementary school.