Author's Note: Fanfiction Dot Net is currently in the process of a server migration. Just in case this causes the website to go down, this story will still be regularly updated on Thursdays and Sundays on Archive of Our Own. My ID there is "katydid." Hopefully that won't be a problem!

This story now has fanart! The wonderfully talented Dusty Seal provided this art, which is also the new cover art for the story. Delete the spaces to get the link:

dustyseal.

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Chapter Four:

"My mother was a selkie, and my father was a human," his uncle began. "I don't know how they met, but it was probably like the fairy tales—not the kinder, modern stories. The old story where a fisherman steals a selkie's pelt and coerces her into marrying him."

"Was your father a fisherman?" Izuku asked, just to clarify.

His uncle nodded. "An impoverished hired hand on a big fishing boat. He had a gambling addiction and a violent temper. My earliest memories involve my mother begging and pleading with him to let her go. She always had bruises somewhere on her body. I used to wonder why she didn't just leave. Back then, I didn't know that she couldn't."

"No wonder Dad never talks about his parents," Izuku muttered.

"I had no idea selkies even existed, but I was always drawn to the sea. When I was ten, I ran into the ocean and wouldn't come back, until I had a coughing fit and nearly drowned. That's probably when my brother first started hating the ocean." His uncle's eyes became distant. "He's completely human, unlike me, so he could never understand how badly I needed to swim."

"When did you find out about selkies?" Izuku asked.

"As a teenager, my brother found our mother's pelt and gave it back to her. She'd asked him to find it. I'm not sure if she told him the full truth about her heritage, but she did promise him that all three of us would leave that violent house together."

"I'm guessing that's not what happened," Izuku said softly.

"As soon as she touched her pelt, Mom was transported back to the ocean. That's how it works for selkies." His uncle sighed. "My brother felt betrayed. He believed she'd abandoned us. I'm not so sure that's what happened—I think she would have come back for us as soon as she found someone to take off her pelt and make her human again. But we never had the opportunity to find out. Our father went hunting for her, and whether by accident or on purpose, he killed her."

Izuku's hands went to his mouth. "I'm so sorry."

"My brother blamed himself for Mom's death. He thought it had happened because he returned her pelt. Shortly afterward, our father 'disappeared.'"

Something about the way his uncle said that…Izuku frowned. "Are you implying Dad killed him?"

His uncle wouldn't meet his eyes. "I don't want to accuse him based on only circumstantial evidence."

"You don't have to soften the truth for me. I want to know. What is the circumstantial evidence?"

"There was an extremely large life insurance policy taken out on our father a few days before he died."

Izuku winced. "Yeah, that's pretty damning." His heart sank.

"Look, I'm not one to go easy on my brother at all, but my sperm donor was no loss to the world. He bragged to our faces about how no court could ever convict him of murder for killing a seal. He kept our mother's skin as a trophy. And he talked about how he was going to look for another pelt so he could have a younger wife. After Mom died, he started beating the two of us even worse. My brother was just trying to protect us. If you're going to condemn him, then save it for the much worse stuff he's done."

"Worse stuff? What do you mean, worse stuff?" Izuku's voice rose with panic.

"It started out mildly. I wanted my pelt back, of course. I begged my brother to return it to me. But he always had excuses. He was afraid of that time I'd nearly drowned as a child—as if I could ever drown in seal form! He worried I might get caught in a fisherman's net or eaten by a predator. Finally, after months of begging, I got him to take me to a small, private beach and let me swim. It was the best experience of my life."

"I know." Izuku smiled, remembering. He still longed to take the pelt and try it again.

"But when I returned to land, my brother was a shaking, nervous wreck. He shouted at me that I'd been gone longer than promised—I hadn't—and accused me of trying to run away. He took my pelt and hid it from me." His uncle looked down at shaking hands. "His red, angry face looked so much like our father. It scared me so badly that at first I pretended to be okay with it."

"But he still wouldn't give it back?"

"Worse than that. You know how selkies can't get too far from their pelts?" His uncle shot him a curious look. "Come to think of it, how did you get all the way to the ocean? I have trouble believing my brother would want to live within eyesight of his most hated location."

Izuku pondered. "I felt sick on the train ride. But I shrugged it off. Is that why?"

"Yes, it's because you got too far from your pelt. You're one of the lucky ones, to be able to travel a whole train ride away. I'll warn you—if you stay away from your pelt too long, you'll get sicker and sicker."

"So that's why my father insisted on chaperoning my school field trip to California."

"He must have brought your pelt along. If you'd gone an entire country away from it, that would have killed you. Our pelts are part of our bodies."

Izuku felt increasingly angry. "How could he not tell me? That could have been dangerous." What if Izuku had tried to run away to some further location? What if he'd boarded an airplane and hadn't been able to get off before he died?

"Unfortunately, I'm not lucky like you. I can't travel more than a couple rooms from my pelt without getting sick. It was like having a tether attached to my brother." His uncle's face made it clear how much he'd enjoyed that. "He used to carry my pelt around in a briefcase, so we could never be apart. I couldn't even go outdoors without being accompanied by him."

Izuku shuddered. "Whoa, I'm so sorry." He already found his father clingy and controlling. He couldn't imagine how unbearable it would have gotten if he hadn't even been able to go to school alone.

"I kept hoping he'd get as sick of me as I'd gotten of him, but he enjoyed having so much power over me. Magic: a completely legal form of imprisonment." His uncle laughed bitterly. "Not like I could call the police and tell them that I couldn't leave the house until my brother gave me back a seal pelt. They'd just commend him for looking after his poor, mentally ill younger brother." His hands shook. "Then it got worse."

"Even worse than that?"

"Selkies must obey the orders of any human holding their pelts. My brother started out only ordering me not to steal my pelt back. Then he'd order me not to do things he considered dangerous, like visit the beach. Supposedly all for my own safety. It escalated until he was using the damn pelt to make me eat my vegetables and go to bed on time. I couldn't live like that. I was about to go insane."

"That's terrible." A part of Izuku didn't want to believe it, but honestly? That did sound like his dad.

"Fortunately, I had some ability to resist the commands. I didn't let him know. I kept acting obedient, waiting for the right moment when he left the briefcase unattended. It made me horribly sick to defy the order, but I was able to take back my pelt."

"Is that when you ran away?"

"No, but I should have. I decided to give my brother one last chance." The sneer on his uncle's face revealed how that had turned out. "My brother has always been the type who gets worse the more power he has. I thought if he no longer had my pelt to hold over me, then maybe we could go back to having a normal brotherly relationship." His uncle's eyes became pained. "There was a time when we were very close."

Izuku nodded, thinking of his own inseparable bond with Tomura.

"As soon as I returned home, he completely flipped out. He imprisoned me again, this time by brute force. He had this creepy room in the basement…I don't want to talk about it." His uncle shuddered. "It was as if he'd gone mad. He threatened to never let me out unless I told him where I'd hidden my pelt. Fortunately, I managed to escape. My brother probably thinks that I justified all his fears by running off to the ocean and never coming back. But I wasn't planning to run away until he started confining me."

"A self-fulfilling prophecy," Izuku said with quiet sadness.

"I know I've stayed in the ocean too long. I never meant to let my mind get so fuzzy." His uncle touched his forehead. "Selkies need both their seal forms to be happy and their human forms to stay self-aware. It's not healthy to go too long one or the other. It's just, I couldn't find an opportunity to return to land with my brother hunting me so hard, and then I lost myself. I'm grateful you snapped me out of it."

"I won't tell him about you, I promise," Izuku said. "I would never have told him without your permission, but now I understand how important it is."

"I'm worried about you, too," his uncle said. "I'm glad my brother hasn't resorted to using your pelt to command you. Maybe he learned a lesson from how that turned out with me. But if he ever felt pushed, I bet he'd do it. What if he takes your excursion away from home as an excuse?"

"He wouldn't—" Izuku stopped. He could no longer say with confidence what his father would or wouldn't do. Memory scraped at the edges of his mind. "There were two pelts in the basement!"

"Pardon me?"

"It wasn't a dream! It was a memory!" Words poured out of Izuku like a broken dam. "When I was five years old, I saw my father with two pelts locked in a metal box. He picked one up and gave my mother a command. It made her forget about something they'd been arguing about." Betrayal filled Izuku, followed by white-hot fury. "How dare he do that to her?"

"Your mother is a selkie too? I just assumed you got it from your father." His uncle's face went from surprised to horrified. "That's not good. It sounds like the cycle of abuse repeating itself. My brother always thought he was nothing like our father because he would never lay a hand on his loved ones. Even when things got to the worst point, he'd never hit me. He'd use other means of control and fancy himself a saint for it."

"If he hasn't used my pelt against me, that's probably only because he can already ground me and boss me around."

"Or because he doesn't want you to know that you're a selkie. Or maybe he tried and you proved good at resisting commands, like me."

Probably the latter. Izuku dimly remembered his father trying to make him forget about ever seeing the pelt as he'd screamed and threw temper-tantrums. Yet fragments of the old memory still lingered after all these years. "I can't let him do that to Mom." Izuku felt far angrier than if the compulsion had been happening to himself. "I'm breaking the cycle. I'm going to save her."

"I'll help you." His uncle nodded. "You know what I'm really good at? Picking locks. I bet you can guess why."

Izuku's heart raced a mile a minute as he sidled into a convenience store. Better to act casual than jumpy, but that was easier said than done. With his luck, his dad probably had a nationwide kidnapping alert out on him by now. He tugged his beach hat down over his tellingly green hair.

At the cash register, he paid for a cheap pair of flipflops, beach pants, and a truly hideous Hawaiian shirt. After considering a moment, he added a pair of sunglasses, since his uncle's red eyes might prove too distinctive.

He wasn't able to calm down until he finally returned to the cove.

A white seal sunned himself on a rock. They'd both agreed it would be better for his uncle to stay in that form in case he needed to quickly run away. As Izuku approached the water, the seal hopped down. His plump tail wagged.

"Thanks for waiting," Izuku said, yanking the pelt off. He politely turned his back before setting down the clothes. "I didn't encounter any of my father's men. No trouble at all."

The sky overhead had gotten dark. He wanted to text Mrs. Saito to let her know he was all right, but there was a good chance his father had contacted her by now. He couldn't risk letting any information slip. Even though he felt terrible about worrying the kindly woman and the rest of his classmates.

Strange rustling noises came from behind him, followed by a curse.

"What's wrong?" By reflex, Izuku glanced over his shoulder. His uncle was trying to wrestle a pant leg over his head. He'd wrapped the shirt around his waist.

"No! Those go on your legs." Izuku realized he was going to need to help.

"Sorry, it's been too long," his uncle mumbled as Izuku showed him how to fasten the pants drawstring. The oversized pants could barely be tied tightly enough not to fall off the scrawny waist.

Next, Izuku showed his uncle how to fasten the shirt buttons. Then the sunglasses.

When he hung a flipflop over his ear, Izuku raised a hand to stop him. "Those are shoes. For your feet. See, the strap goes between your toes."

Dressed, his uncle struck a pose. "How do I look?"

Izuku snickered. He couldn't help himself. The brightly colored Hawaiian stood out comically against his uncle's pale skin. The shirt was patchwork of different patterns, each one uglier than the last: from the purple penguins on the right side to the poorly drawn guitars on the left side to the bright red background with glittery palm trees on the sleeve. Every single pattern hideously clashed with the green-and-yellow striped pants. The sunglasses shaped like stars only added to the ridiculousness. He looked like he was auditioning for a part in the film Zombie Beach Tourists.

Wiping a tear of laughter from his eyes, Izuku said, "I'm sorry, those were the only clothes I could find. They're very ugly, I'm afraid."

"I don't care. They're not as warm as fur, but still pretty comfortable." His uncle took a step forward. He wobbled. His arms pinwheeled. He crouched down and grabbed a rock. Then he crawled forward.

A bit worried, Izuku said, "You can't walk on all fours. It would draw far too much attention to us."

"That's okay, I can do this." His uncle stood up. "Walking is like riding a bicycle. You never forget how to do it." A shaky step contradicted his words.

"Do you need a hand—look out!"

His uncle accidentally stepped on one of his too-long pant legs and fell forward. Izuku grabbed him just before he smacked his forehead into a rock.

"Thanks." His uncle steadied himself. "Sorry. I feel so useless."

"We'll walk slowly." Izuku helped his uncle roll up the pants legs. Then he flicked on the flashlight on his phone to guide their path.

His uncle gasped. "What's that?"

"This is my phone." Izuku handed it over.

His uncle held up the device, playing with the light. "That definitely isn't a phone. It's too flat."

"It's a smartphone. There have been a lot of advances to technology while you were in the ocean." Izuku grinned. "On the train ride back, I'll show you how to play Candy Crush. It will be fun!"

Izuku offered his arm to his uncle as they climbed up the rocky hill. He accepted with gratitude.

At the top of the hill, his uncle said, "I think I've remembered my name. My brother used to call me 'Idiot.'"

Izuku choked. "That's an insult."

"Oh. So you don't think that's my name?"

"I get that you didn't have the best parental situation, but they probably didn't put 'Idiot' on your birth certificate."

"I'll keep trying to remember, then."

"Let me know if it comes to you."

Only after they were safely sequestered on the train did Izuku breathe a sigh of relief. He'd splurged for a private car. Thank goodness his videos gave him a source of funds separate from his father. Technically, he'd just stolen from his own environmental charity, but he promised he'd put the money back later.

"When that women took a picture of us, I was certain we'd been caught," Izuku muttered.

"She was pointing at me and laughing, so I think it was because of my clothes." His uncle took off his sunglasses and leaned back in his seat. Dark buildings and glowing billboards zipped past the window. "My brother would never expect you to return home on your own. He was probably watching everywhere except the train station, ironically enough. And the police are looking for a lone runaway, not a child with a guardian." He winked and pointed at himself.

"That's true." Izuku let himself relax a little. The bewildering news he'd received today still threatened to overwhelm him. His beloved father had crossed an unforgiveable line. If he stopped to think about it, he might start crying.

He took out a menu and looked it over. He hadn't eaten dinner, yet the pictures of food made him want to throw up. "I feel sick again. Do you think that's because I'm so far from my pelt?"

"Definitely. It's unusual you've lasted this long. Maybe because you've been separated from your pelt your entire life, you've built up an immunity." His uncle gave him a reassuring smile. "I know how awful it feels. You'll feel better the closer you get to your home."

Izuku eyed the shoulder bag holding his uncle's pelt. "Do you think we should find a place to stash that before we go near my house and my dad?"

"If only we could." His uncle sighed. "I'm the opposite of you. I've been a seal too long. Right now, if I even set down my pelt, I'd cough up blood and pass out. We don't have time for me to wean myself off it. Where it goes, I go, I'm afraid." His expression became mischievous. "Let's just not get caught."

Izuku grinned back. "Strategy time. If my dad can command me using my pelt, why haven't I been ordered home already?"

"You've got to be close enough to hear the orders. Apparently magic doesn't move over phone lines." His uncle shrugged. "We'll be fine if we can avoid him. Our exit will be the easiest part. As soon as both of us touch our pelts, we'll be transported back to the sea."

"Then it would make sense to take my mother with us when we break into the basement. But—"

"But you don't know how deeply she's under your father's control," his uncle finished.

"Mom always acts perfectly happy. Which is better than the alternative. But I'm not sure how much she remembers."

"Touching her pelt will remove any orders your father has on her," his uncle said. "It might be safer to obtain the pelt first, then approach her. The problem is, what if your father comes home?"

"I know someone who can help us. My older brother, Tomura."

His uncle perked up. "You have a brother? I'm so excited for another nephew! Is he a selkie, too?"

"No, he's adopted. He doesn't know anything about any of this. I hope it won't be too hard to convince him." Izuku smiled. "But if I can make him believe me, I know he'll help us. I trust him absolutely. After all, we're brothers."

Author's Note:

Poor Izuku. Tomura has been a loving brother to him, and he has none of the information we readers have about Tomura's allegiances in canon. He's in for a nasty shock.

IMPORTANT NEWS: I couldn't decide if I wanted this story to have a good and a bad ending, so I decided to go for both! Or rather, three endings total! Dating sim style, I'm going to write three more chapters: the Bad Ending, the Normal Ending, and the Good Ending. Next chapter will be the Bad Ending. Bring your handkerchief!