Title: Collars and Brands
Author: c2t2
Rating: M
Pairings: eventual BakuDeku
Notes: I was trying to write my first ABO and I accidentally a dystopia. orz
0o0o0o0o0
One evening when Izuku was five years old, he stuck his head into the bathroom to tell his mother about a new game he invented.
Inko's slender body and green hair were wrapped in mismatched towels after her pre-bedtime bath. She sat on a stool in front of a mirror, cleaning under her omega collar.
The metal collar began two inches under Inko's chin, and ran down until it flared out and rested on the tops of her shoulders. None of the precious mating gland was accessible to alphas, unwanted or otherwise, except for the one who held the key.
Inko pulled one side of the collar as far from her neck as it would go, then she used a soapy sponge on a long stick to carefully lather the skin underneath, flinching as she scrubbed over the abrasions left by the chafing of the metal collar. She repeated the same scrubbing motions all the way around the collar, then poured cool water down the front, back, and sides to rinse out the soap residue, heedless of the water soaking into the towel around her torso. She finally took several homemade terrycloth-on-a-stick utensils and attempted to dry underneath the metal as best she could, holding her breath as the rough cloth further abraded the sores.
"Mama," Izuku said softly, padding up behind her. He clutched his All Might figurine to his chest.
Inko raised her gaze in the mirror from her collar to meet her son's concerned face, "What do you need, Izu-kun?" she asked lightly.
"Mama, why do you have owwies but none of the other moms do?" Little Izuku didn't yet know the concept of tact. He sniffed tentatively, but he was still far too young to present a secondary gender and its enhanced sense of smell. He couldn't tell just by sniffing if the wounds were infected the way he could have as a fully presented alpha, beta, or omega. He didn't even yet have traces of the scent glands that activated upon presentation.
"It's because I'm an omega, sweetie," she replied patiently. Inko understood that small children didn't know what inappropriate questions were. She also knew that not answering their questions only made them fixate on the subject. "The collar is for safety. Omegas have to wear collars to protect them from mean alphas who want to take them away from their families."
"I know that," Izuku said impatiently, "but other omegas don't have owwies on their necks."
Inko sighed, "Those other omegas have alphas that live with them. The alphas take their collars off at home often enough that they heal, or never get owwies in the first place."
"I don't understand," Izuku hugged his All Might figurine tighter. He was too young to understand what friction and chafing were, or how omegas had accelerated healing. But he persevered, "Why doesn't Daddy just give you the key, so you can take it off yourself?"
"That would be illegal, darling. Omegas can't have collar keys. If omegas had the keys to their own collars, then they wouldn't be protected at all. Mean alphas would just make omegas take their collars off and then take them away from their families."
Izuku thought about this problem for a minute. "Couldn't he give the key to someone else?"
"Well, Izu-kun, collars always have to be worn when an Omega is outside their home, so that would mean that someone else would have to live here. And there is no one that your father trusts that much. He thinks it would be too tempting for another alpha to take me away as his own."
After another minute, Izuku slowly formed a horrible idea. He loved his mother more than anything else in the world, but he also wanted to be a hero with all his heart. He knew a hero wouldn't hide this idea just because it would make him sad.
"Mama, if another alpha took you away, would the other alpha let you take off your collar?" tiny tears appeared in the corners of his eyes at the thought of losing his mother, but he would try to be strong if losing her meant another alpha would treat her better. That's what a hero would do.
"Don't be silly, baby. The whole point of a collar is to prevent that!"
"But if I found a lockbreaker quirk that could get your collar off and then-"
"Lockbreaker? Where did you hear about something like that!" Inko's attention was suddenly and intensely on Izuku.
Izuku quailed, "I-it w-was Kacchan. The g-government is deciding if his quirk could be a lockbreaker quirk. H-he says he might get to be branded - like All Might!"
"Oh dear, that's awful," Inko sighed. Her affection for Mitsuki's child was waning since he got his quirk and started to think he was above the other children. But she also knew a powerful quirk was a double-edged sword, in their society. If a quirk was judged to be capable of opening an omega collar, and the quirk's user later presented as alpha, then the back of their right hand was branded with a mark notifying everyone who saw them that they had the potential to steal an omega. Even All Might had to wear the brand, although since he wore his openly and without shame, it suddenly became cool to have one.
"A-anyway, Mama. If I found a nice alpha-"
"Baby, any alpha who would take an omega away from her family is guaranteed to be worse than what I have now," Inko paused for a moment, "And I owe your father a great debt, darling. I would never do that to him."
0o0o0o0o0
Izuku had the short attention span of all children, and forgot the injuries he saw on his mother fairly quickly. But Inko's plight would pop back into his mind every time he caught a glimpse of sores or the thickening layers of scars around the rims of the collar on his mother's neck.
He learned by talking to the other children that there were criminals who would break omega collars for a lot of money. Izuku disregarded that idea almost immediately. A hero would never cooperate with villains! Not only that, but he and his mom had no money. Inko tried to hide it from him, but sensitive and observant children like Izuku are sometimes able to tell.
Nothing came of it, until a certain incident of Kacchan's bullying brought new information to light.
"And ANOTHER reason I'm better 'n you," the blond boy was saying to the crying child at his feet, "is because I'm not even from the camps. Unlike yours, my parents are real."
"But, but that's common!" his victim whined. "You're not so special, plenty of our classmates aren't from the camps!"
"Yeah, but their moms are all betas or retired omegas. MY mom – is an alpha."
That was when Izuku intervened, and soon he was crying on the ground next to the other kid as Kacchan strutted away proudly.
He didn't forget what he had heard, though. Auntie Mitsuki was an alpha? Kacchan was very mean, but he was not a liar. Did that mean Uncle Masaru was her omega? Were there male omegas in real life? He only saw them in books and TV. Wait a minute, Uncle Masaru didn't wear a collar, so he couldn't be omega. So did that mean the Bakugos were one of those alpha-beta marriages that happened because omegas were rare compared to alphas? He needed more information.
Izuku waited until Kacchan left his house after dinner to play in the park with the other neighborhood kids, knowing he didn't have to come back until sunset curfew. Then he approached the door and knocked timidly.
He could hear music playing inside and the clanging of dishes, so when there was no answer Izuku knocked again, louder this time.
"Just a minute," he heard Auntie Mitsuki's voice call out. Izuku panicked for a moment and considered running, but steeled his nerves and waited rigidly until the door opened. Izuku looked up and up and up and met red eyes.
Auntie Mitsuki looked so much like Kacchan, Izuku marveled, as he did every time he saw her. The light streamed from behind her and shined through her blond spikes as she looked down at him. Izuku's stomach did the same funny wiggle it did every time he saw her. She was just like Kacchan, but a girl. Izuku flushed and it took all his willpower to look her in her intense eyes as she looked down at him.
"Sorry, kid. If you're looking for the Brat, he ran off a few minutes ago."
"N-no Auntie. You're the one I wanted to talk to."
"Oh?" Mitsuki looked amused, "Alright, then. Come inside. You can have one of the cookies I made for dessert today." She stood aside and ushered little Izuku into the house. When she indicated a tall stool by the counter, Izuku struggled to climb onto it for a minute while Mitsuki got him a plate with a cookie from a tray of ginger snaps and poured a glass of milk which she set on the counter in front of the stool.
Seeing his predicament, Mitsuki walked back around the counter and grabbed Izuku under the arms, hoisting him up and plonking him down on the tall stool. The movement was effortless between her alpha strength and Izuku being small for his age.
"Sorry, kiddo. I forgot that other kids don't have the Brat's freakish climbing skills."
Izuku wobbled on the stool, scared to fall, but eventually found his balance and tentatively reached up to the plate and grabbed the offered cookie.
"Thank you, Auntie," he said, remembering his manners.
"Sure. Now, what is it you needed from me?"
Izuku opened his mouth, but realized he had no idea how to start this conversation. He quickly took a bite of the cookie, pretending that was what he was planning to do all along. He really didn't want to look uncool in front of Mitsuki.
The taste of ginger exploded in his mouth. The 'ginger snap' was all ginger and very little snap. Izuku gasped, accidentally inhaling some of the crumbs, and flailed to reach for the milk while his body wracked from hacking coughs from the burning in his lungs. He would have toppled off the stool entirely if Mitsuki hadn't rushed around the counter and caught him.
"Whoops. My bad, kiddo. Here, let me sit you down-" she swooped him up again and plonked him on the couch this time.
Izuku eventually stopped wheezing, and then started to sniffle in humiliation. He had looked so stupid in front of someone he wanted so badly to like him. And worse, this might ruin his chances to convince Auntie Mitsuki to save his mom!
"Aw, jeez, kid. Don't do this to me!" Mitsuki facepalmed from where she had sank down into the chair opposite Izuku. "How was I supposed to know you don't like strong spice? I'm absolute shit with kids, so I'm gonna need you to stop that, now."
The swear word snapped Izuku out of his sniffles, "You said a bad word!" he said accusingly.
"I guess I did."
"So that's why Kacchan always says such bad words then?"
"The Brat does take after all of my worst qualities."
Izuku's tiny brow furrowed beneath his wild curls and he brought a hand to his chin in thought. "Maybe Mom wouldn't want you to replace Dad after all." He muttered quietly to himself.
"Say what now, kid?" Mitsuki's eyes widened.
It all came spilling out then – Inko's injuries from her collar, Hisashi's absence, Izuku's search for a better alpha for his mother, and learning that Auntie Mitsuki was an alpha without an omega mate.
"A-and I promise, if you let me come along with my mom, I'll be good! I won't be a bother at all! Let me stay with her!"
There was a bit of silence, and then Mitsuki barked out a laugh.
"Kid, you're adorable. And that's a real heroic spirit you got there, but there's a lot of stuff you don't understand."
"What don't I understand?" Izuku was getting teary-eyed again in frustration.
"Well, I don't believe in hiding ugly truths from kids, but I would need your mother's permission to talk to you about a lot of this stuff." She looked thoughtful for a moment, "Let me show you something."
Mitsuki walked over to sit next to Izuku on the couch and pulled the collar of her shirt to the side, showing her mating mark. "Look closely," she said, "do you notice anything?"
Izuku leaned in, nose twitching as he smelled Mitsuki's perfume, causing him to blush again. He struggled to concentrate on the lines covering where the gland was hidden under her skin.
Izuku didn't know what he was supposed to be looking for, but after a few seconds he noticed, "It's not a scar!" he said triumphantly. "What are those marks, then?"
"It's a tattoo of Masaru's dental impressions," Mitsuki informed him. "Masaru has a scar from my bite, even though he has no gland for bonding. I have his mark tattooed over my gland, even though he has no fangs to pierce my skin. Do you understand, now?"
Izuku thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No?"
"It means that even though Masaru is a beta, we still have a bond. It's different than the psychic bond between an alpha and omega, but it's just as real. Lots of beta-beta couples get dental impression tattoos, too. It's a sign that we love each other and plan to live our whole lives together."
Izuku thought for another minute. "Why can't you still stay together if you added Mom as another mate?"
"That's surprisingly good creative thinking, kid. I'm impressed. It's true that some people try to be mates with more than one other person at a time, and sometimes they make it work, but it takes a special kind of person to make that kind of relationship a healthy one, and Masaru and I aren't those kind of people."
"Oh," Izuku deflated and slumped down on the couch, his eyes on the floor in dejection.
Mitsuki urged him off the couch and guided him to the door, pausing before opening it.
"One more thing, kid. I want to ask you a favor."
Izuku nodded, not knowing what she could possibly want.
"Don't make your mom talk about it. The circumstances of meeting Hisashi is a real sore topic for Inko. Talking about it might bring up some real bad memories, and it wouldn't even help since you're too young to understand some of this stuff." Mitsuki's red eyes were solemn, "So if you're going to talk to her about this at all, the only thing you should do is ask her to call me and give permission for me to tell you about it."
Izuku's eyes were wide. What in the world was happening?
He walked home in a bit of a daze. Inko greeted him at the door with a smile and a hug. He leaned into the wonderful embrace and basked in his mother's warmth.
This secret was something painful, Auntie Mitsuki had said. Could he really take away his mother's smile for his own curiosity?
Heroes meddled to make things better. That's what they did. And sometimes making things better involved first making them hurt worse for a little bit. But would knowing this big secret really help Izuku make things better for his mom?
Maybe in this case, things were better left as they were.
"Ara~ Izu-kun is muttering with such a serious face!" his mother cooed, her smile infecting him and he felt his own lips twitch.
"It's nothing, mom. I'm glad I'm home."
0o0o0o0o0
When Izuku entered middle school, his class started to develop their secondary genders. The children's wrists itched where the glands were developing under the skin, and their senses of smell improved. Some of them also scratched at their necks once in a while, signs that they might be Alpha or Omega. If one of the girls got a persistent stomach ache, she lived in fear that she might be developing the omega womb, though it usually was just a normal stomach ache or nascent menstrual cramps in her ordinary uterus.
The first one in their grade to present was, of course, Kacchan. To the surprise of absolutely no one, he presented as Alpha. One day he was his normal, grumpy self, the next day his glands turned the pheromones on full-force and he started throwing desks and chairs around the room in the throes of his first rut. The pupils of his eyes completely disappeared into the red irises as the Alpha took control and his canine teeth elongated into fangs that dripped with claiming venom.
Since alpha presentation was a thing that routinely happened in middle schools, the building and furnishings were built to withstand the strength of an adolescent in rut. The school day was only minimally interrupted as Kacchan was taken to a safe facility to ride out his rut. He would also have to attend the class that was required for alphas, to learn the basics of the secondary genders.
Years ago, the government had concluded that Katsuki did not need to be tracked and branded if he presented alpha. His quirk was ruled "too destructive" to be labeled a lockbreaker, which was bureaucracy-speak meaning he couldn't break an omega collar without also breaking the omega inside of it. Therefore, there was no need to warn the public about his potential for omega theft.
As the years passed, a few more alphas popped up in their school here and there. All of them were guys, although the class two years ahead of them had one female present as alpha. More rarely, one of the girls would present as omega, and that was the last their classmates would ever see of them. They had to go to a special school to keep them safe. Since the Reforms for Humane Treatment of Omegas had passed, omegas were not required to go to the camps until after high school. Until then, they were collared with the best collars their families could afford and guarded closely to prevent alphas from preying on them (and to prevent them from trying to escape their duty in the camps by getting Claimed before they could go).
The overwhelming majority of the students were betas, of course. As Izuku's wrist glands and sense of smell developed without any change in texture in the flesh under his neck, he realized he was destined to be a beta. Izuku didn't know whether he should sigh in relief for not having to deal with the hassles of alpha-ness, or be sad that he wouldn't get the physical enhancements that were so useful in a hero career.
Betas were overall considered the smartest dynamic, Izuku reassured himself. So it wasn't that bad. And if he ever managed to get married, the children he adopted from the camps would be assigned to the couple based on Izuku's wife's quirk, since he had no quirk of his own. Who knows? Maybe he would get lucky and father a child of his own with this hypothetical wife. That still happened, sometimes. From what Izuku had heard, around a quarter of his classmates were traditional births by their beta mothers. The exact statistics for that sort of thing could be learned in the Alpha and Omega class, which was a requirement for alphas but an elective for beta students.
Izuku never did take the class. As of yet, he was too mortified to even talk to a girl, so there was no way he would survive the stuff he would have to learn in an Alpha and Omega class.