After Ito-san fills out the small section in the paperwork she has to fill out with his brand new name, the newly dubbed Izuku is ecstatic to go somewhere else. Anywhere else, really. The inside of the police station looks too much like the inside of the compound for comfort and he keeps twisting a small piece of lint he found in his pocket in an attempt to calm his nerves. Of course, being named isn't enough.

The woman has questions and lots of them. Mostly, he lies. A lot. From asking how old he is (still seven) to the names of his parents (he isn't sure) to his quirk (I don't have one), he is inundated with question after question until he wants to throw something. It doesn't help that despite the brief nap he had earlier, Izuku is exhausted.

When they finally finish, Ito-san snaps her leather bound binder closed and Izuku collapses back against the chair.

"Now that that is done. I want to go over the process of putting you into foster care."

"Foster care?"

"Yes, it's a type of emergency care for situations like this or when abuse is discovered in the home of a minor. We will be putting you into an emergency home for cases like this for short term care. A more permanent solution will be found, assuming your father doesn't file a missing children's report."

"I already told you, Father won't. He will come to get me when he wants me."

"Yes… well….For now, you'll be staying with one of the emergency families. You're in luck actually, since U.A. is close by, a large number of the foster families on my rota are actually heroes."

"Heroes." Izuku repeatedly, markedly less excited.

Ito-san nodded enthusiastically, "It's not as common outside of this area, but within it we have nearly thirty families where a member is currently or has previously been a pro hero."

"Father doesn't like heroes." Izuku isn't necessarily certain if this fact is one of the secrets he isn't supposed to talk about. Normally, the man was very, very clear as to what he was to keep his mouth shut about, but his dislike of heroes had never been something that made it onto that list. In fact, the man was very open about his hatred, so Izuku was a bit concerned as to the woman's enthusiasm towards placing him with a hero family. He decided to continue, "Father says heroes are parasites on the system."

The woman frowned back at him, but otherwise maintained her composure, "Well, your father is entitled to his own opinion. If you would prefer I contact families unassociated with pro heroes, that would be possible as well."

"Are you going to contact someone tonight?"

"Yes, I know we have been speaking for quite a while at this point and that it is very late and you are probably very tired. For now, I'll be making an emergency placement request to any of the forty-seven families on this list," she passed a thin piece of paper over to Izuku with a large number of names on it. "Assuming we find a temporary placement tonight, I'll be personally dropping you off."

"What if none of the families want me?"

"I'm a certified emergency family as well. If no one is available to take you tonight, you will likely be going home with me. Then, tomorrow morning I would begin reaching out to individuals further out. Don't worry about it too much."

Izuku nods his acceptance and watches Ito-san stand up and begin doing something with what she calls a 'cell phone' as she moves away from him. He decides to close his eyes tight and relax back onto his chair.

The next thing he knows, Izuku is being shaken awake lightly.

"We have your placement for tonight, Izuku."

He sits up straight, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Where too?"

"The Hoga family, for tonight and maybe tomorrow. Hopefully, we will find something more permanent before Christmas."

"Christmas?" He tilts his head as he looks at her.

She nodded from where she was distractedly collecting her things. "Placements are always harder this time of the year, and since you won't tell us where to find your father, nor has he elected to file a missing person's report, I'll try my best to get you the best Christmas possible."

Izuku took a second to process that before he realized that for some reason, she thought he was complaining. "I'm not complaining, Ito-san. But I am wondering, what is Christmas?"

He nearly jumped as he heard the loud clattering of her binder smack against the floor. "Pardon me," she said as she pushed the glasses back firmly onto the bridge of her nose. Can you repeat that?"

"What is Christmas? The guy at the bookstore said it too." Izuku asked. Had he done something wrong?

"That's a question I've never heard before. I suppose your father doesn't like religion much, either?" She coughed lightly, "Don't answer that, that was rude. For your information, Christmas is a holiday. People give each other presents to celebrate although children received the bulk of them."

"Holiday?" Izuku repeated, "What's that?"

"Are you feeling okay, kid? Is this a joke?"

"No," he looked back at her confused again.

"Alright. Well, a holiday is basically a day where you don't do work. Typically, people hold celebrations of some sort of holidays."

"That's a thing?" Izuku tried hard to think of a day in his life after he had been named Consume where he hadn't had to do anything. Where he hadn't had to practice his fighting techniques or go on extraction missions or study materials his father gave him. There were a few, but Izuku didn't think that was what Ito-san meant. Most of the occasions he did manage to think of weren't very positive. There were no presents in his memories. No celebrations. Days he didn't do work seemed to frequently be punishment days, and the last thing he wanted to do was think about that right now.

"Of course, that's a thing! People who never take a break and relax end up miserable in the long term." Ito-san interrupted his thought emphatically, "Being considerate of your limits is important because if you forget to rest and relax, outside of making yourself miserable, you can really hurt yourself."

Izuku blinked at her owlishly, "Miserable?" He repeated the word.

"Sad, basically. Nothing to look forward to." She explained, thinking perhaps he didn't know the word.

Izuku suddenly felt like it was a bit difficult to swallow. Was he miserable? If he was miserable, why didn't he know before? Was there any point in knowing now? A bit of nervous terror coated him suddenly, because, what if after following through and seeing all the things outside the compound, his father came back to get him and he found himself miserable? What would he do then?

Izuku didn't know and the unanswered questions sat as heavy as a rock in his stomach as he followed Ito-san out to her tiny car.

"Ito-san, how do you know if you are miserable?" He asked after they were fully packed in. Izuku was certain that he needed to know this. He needed to be able to tell later on in case he ever did become miserable. Right now, Izuku was fairly certain he couldn't identify the emotion at all and that scared him a bit. What if there was something wrong with him?

"You're a really odd kid, you know? Hmmm…." She chuckled lightly as they pulled out of the police station. "If you were older, I'd suggest that you check yourself for signs of depression. In fact, you can still do that, although depression in children is a little bit different than depression in adults. Outside of that, I guess the way I would check to see if I was miserable would be to ask what I would change about my life if I could do anything. "

"What do you mean?"

"It's a thought experiment, alright?" she grinned down at him. "You have ultimate power. You can do anything you want, change whatever you want. What do you change? You see, Izuku, those things you're changing are the things you don't like. If there are too many things you don't like or that cause you pain, they can make you sad or upset. Stay sad or upset long enough and eventually, you'll become miserable. Make sense, no?"

Izuku nodded even though he knew she couldn't see him from the back seat of the car. "What if you can't tell when you're miserable though? Like you just stay sad or upset for so long that you can't tell anymore?"

Though he couldn't see it, Izuku could almost hear the frown in her voice, "That sounds like disassociation."

"Disassociation?" He repeats the word.

"Yeah, disassociation. It's common in abuse victims. It's a survival mechanism to distance yourself from whatever is happening to you. Someone basically pretends so hard that they either don't exist, can't feel, or some variation on that, that they literally stop feeling a connection to their body or identity."

Izuku felt a chill go up his spine

He is calm. Serene. He doesn't really exist after all. He forcibly reminds himself. Nothing can touch him. Father can't hurt him. His quirk can't break him.

He shakes his head hard trying to clear it of his thoughts. It isn't like that. Father isn't like that. Izuku isn't abused. He is disciplined. Punished. Taken well in hand. He knows that his father doesn't love him, not really, but the man feels something for him. Otherwise, Izuku would be a numerus, rather than himself. And yeah, he is scared of his father. Terrified really, but everyone is scared of him. It's different.

Despite what he tells himself he still feels rattled by the end of the drive. Fortunately, their arrival at the Hoga residence is enough to shake him out of his thoughts. From the outside of the building, Izuku can tell the property is a well maintained two story building. Ito-san pulls up to the house. He can hear the gravel driveway cracking underneath the weight of the car. It's dark outside, but he can see a small woman standing by the door.

"Come in, come in." Her voice is light and airy. "I've been waiting since I got your call."

"It's alright, Izuku, this is Hoga Tama. This home belongs to her and her wife."

"You will probably be meeting her in the morning," Hoga-san interjected. "Ito-san, sorry but I need to be putting him to bed. It's nearly one in the morning."

"No, no. It's fine. I want to speak to you though for a few minutes after you get him settled in."

"No problem. Izuku, follow me. We have a room set up for kids who will be staying with us temporarily on the second floor." She guided him up a modest staircase and past three separate closed doors before finally reaching the one furthest down the hall. "If you need the bathroom, it's that door right there." She tapped the door beside his. "Go on then."

He was a bit hesitant to go inside, but his exhaustion overwhelmed his nervousness fairly quickly. He pushed the door open.

It was a small room to be honest. There was enough free space for a twin bed, a single slightly scuffed end table, a chest of drawers, and a desk. While he stared slightly at the room, Hoga-san took the few steps past the entryway and opened the bottom most drawer on the dresser and retrieved a set of matching pajamas.

"These aren't new, but they should fit well enough. Can I trust you to get changed and into bed by yourself?"

"Yes, Hoga-san."

"Call me Tama-san, sweetie. No need to confuse yourself with three Hoga-san's in the morning."

"Three?"

"Yes, Ayumi and I have a three year old little one. You'll meet everyone in the morning so go on and get changed. I'll let myself out, then."

Tama closed the door firmly behind her and took a deep breath to fortify herself. Seeing that poor little boy standing so confused in her guest bedroom made her want to cry. He looked so lost, but it was obvious how uncomfortable he was around her simply with her in the same room.

She took the stairs quietly, not wanting to wake Ayumi or the baby, but still wanting to hear more about the poor boy's situation. "Ito-san? I've got him all settled down if you're ready to chat."

"I really appreciate this Hoga-san, you know how difficult placements always are at this time of year. I didn't want to take him home to my place after the day he's had."

"It's fine, you know that. I do want some more information on his situation though. You were really unclear over the phone."

"To be honest, we don't have much. Officer Sato and Tanaka responded to a call regarding a lost child, but he hasn't acted lost at all."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he's remarkably calm. Hasn't cried once, hasn't asked for his parents. He's remarkably insistent that his father won't be looking for him."

"Are you suspecting that he ran away?"

"No, that doesn't fit either. You would have had to see it yourself, he straight up told me that he wouldn't tell me anything that would send him home. Besides that, a runaway seven year old is still typically reported. I know we only found him tonight, but any responsible parent would report their missing seven year old."

"So at the bare minimum, you've got the man for neglect. I'm still not seeing 'odd'."

"It's like he doesn't know what certain things are. He asked me what Christmas was and when I pulled out my cellphone, he stared at it like it was the moon. When I spoke to Officer Tanaka, she said he had trouble with the seat belts."

"Is there a developmental issue maybe?"

"No, because when I brought him here, he had no trouble with the seat belts in my car. It's like he's seeing these things for the first time. And from the little bit he has said about his father, I'm seriously concerned as to whether he should be returning to the man's custody."

"Damn, that's a harsh statement from a state 'family reuniter'."

"I'm serious. When we asked Izuku what his name was he told us it was Consume."

"What the fuck."

"That's not all, I ran through the usual gamet of questions before bringing him over, and Izuku lied on a lot of them, but neither I nor Officer Sato noticed. They only got flagged by Officer Tanaka's quirk. Most of them were innocuous but he lied about having a quirk."

"Is he quirkless?"

"No, he lied and said he didn't have a quirk. And if his father was calling him Consume…." She trailed off.

"You think it has something to do with his quirk." Tama shook her head in exasperation. "That's straight up ominous. Thanks for letting me know. I'll keep an eye on him."

"I know that. Here. Before I forget you need to sign the emergency custody paperwork for temporary custody."

Tama looked down at the document. "Izuku… is this serious? Who wrote this?"

"He needed a last name. Leave me alone, I'm running on like three hours of sleep."

"Still, you named him Midori? Really? At least dress it up a little. Here. " she scratched a haphazard 谷 down beside the previous kanji. "There, at least now he won't be teased for being named 'green' of all things. Sounds better too."

"Midoriya Izuku."Ito-san snorted, "Fine. I'll fix it on the rest of his paperwork. I'll be back for him soon. Hopefully, something more permanent opens up."