skystar99: I hope I don't let you down :)
Kyodon: Me too? heh
Naowt: Thanks! I felt that last time a bit too much so I toned it down a bit (or maybe a lot?) but I still like this. Try something different I guess, I'm not like a experienced writer or anything so gotta try new things but your words were like the perfect constructive criticism, I really want to try harder now! And I just want to say I really love "A Way to Fall". Hope you finish that!
HankFlamion18: Two peas in a pod! ;) And thanks!
MIKE202303: Nice!
ImSoBored246: Thanks for the kind words! No sleep gets to us all.
MiseryWolf97: In due time... In due time... Kukuku
Johnny Spectre: I am honored!
Everything aside, thank you to everyone that followed, favorited and reviewed. Your words are appreciated! :)…
Izuku was ready to just leave the brown box on the ground before a choked sob came out from inside.
Izuku froze.
He strained his ears to make sure what he heard was real. A few moments later the noise came again.
"Is this box crying!?"
Rapidly opening the flaps of the cardboard box Izuku peered inside to make sure he wasn't hearing things.
What he opened the box to shocked him to his core. His breath hitched in his throat and his eyes blinked hurriedly as he tried to understand what was going on.
Inside the middle of the box laid a baby!
The baby was sleeping so maybe it was sleep... crying? Was that a thing?
Clad in nothing but it's skin. From what Izuku could see it was most definitely a baby girl. She had a tuft of light bluish white hair on top of her pale skinned head. The hair had a distinct line down the middle. Next to the clump of hair was a small protruding piece of skin. Similar to the very early stages of a horn. Near her head laid a small beige note.
Carefully reaching inside as to not wake the baby he lifted the note up to eye level and opened it. Once it was open he began to read what was written on the note.
Dear Izuku,
We have left you with a gift. Hope you like it! Well mainly because either you take care of her or she dies. You must raise her, no one else or she dies. Hahaha! We have plans for you, dear Izuku.
Her name is Eri. You can give her whatever last name, don't really care. Birthday is December 21st. Hope you enjoy! Oh and P.S. When her quirk manifests, villains will be coming. I can promise that!
From, Me
Izuku read and reread the letter over and over again trying to get a grasp at what was happening to him. He had to list off the sequence of events that led up to his predicament right now.
He was walking home from his time-consuming jobs late at night, he turned the corner onto a surprisingly busy street. A man with a horn and blue eyes bumped into him and dumped the box in his hands. Inside said box was a child! And a note saying he had to raise it!
This was too much for the almost thirteen year old. He had to sit down.
Izuku only realized that he had walked to his home during that whole time when he set the box down on his bed and dropped into his chair. she had been so lost in thought he made it home based on muscle memory.
He was thinking about what he's going to do. He knew how to take care of himself, he's had plenty of time to learn how to do that but taking care of a baby. He had no idea what he was going to do.
He knew babies needed diapers and food and a lot more necessities but how was he even supposed to take care of this child and do the things required for him to live. He had to go to work to pay for things and now he also had to pay for her things too.
He rolled over to his desk and lightly tapped his forehead against the wood. It produced a small thud as he quietly released a breath through his nose.
He needed to come up with a list of things to do and his priorities.
He needed to keep his job but also had no way to go to work and take care of her.
He had to go to school but he had no one to watch her while he went. He would rather not go but a bad attendance record would probably be a hindrance for him when he tried to get into U.A.
He had to find out what exactly a baby needs to survive. What's good for the baby girl and what wasn't.
How much money would he have to spend on her? He would probably have to get another job because from what he heard from his coworkers that were mothers babies weren't cheap. That meant even less time to actually be there watching the child.
Right now his brain is working more than it had worked in a while. It kind of made him excited to finally have something spur of the moment to challenge his intellect. He is by no means a genius but when he already knows what the teachers are teaching in school nothing really challenged him anymore.
He tackled each problem one by one.
How old was the child? The note left by what was probably her birth father had said her birthday was December 21st. Izuku suspected it was her father because he had a similar horn type thing atop his head from what Izuku could see. He was 90% sure that pathetic man was the father. How he could just leave a child to a complete stranger baffled him. A four month year old no less!
Izuku looked at the note once again. It had addressed him specifically. How did the man know him, know his first name no less? Izuku couldn't remember meeting anyone with the characteristics he had. The note also said that "We have plans for you." We? So it wasn't just him by himself, someone else was in on this. Perhaps the mother? No wait it said "From, Me", he knew a certain person that always wrote that on their letters. But why and how the hell is she involved in this? She could never just leave him only could she?
Izuku was worried by how the note mentioned villains coming after her. But if it involved who he thinks it involves then he wouldn't be surprised but what would her quirk have to do with it? Was she like a super early recruit? Either way, her quirk could potentially be advantageous for villains seeing how they had their sights on someone that couldn't even speak yet.
Even without the threat, there was no way in hell that he was abandoning her. Izuku won't let her experience abandonment. No one should have to experience ever.
He needed to clear his head and think about the other problems at hand. Like his jobs and the extra potential extra job, he might have to find.
He had to find a baby sitter. He didn't know many trustworthy people. Let alone mothers that would know what they're doing.
The only he could think of was Mitsuki that lived upstairs but she was on vacation right now and she would be gone for about two weeks. So until then, he would have to find a way to take care of the child for the next two weeks without work or school.
He had enough sick days stacked up from both jobs that he could miss about two weeks worth of work and his both of his bosses were kind enough to still pay him so that was a win. He would call in and alert his employers that he would be out.
Izuku didn't want to explain the real situation to them because either they wouldn't care too much or adamantly tell him to go to the police. They were good people but … he'd rather not. Izuku could do this. He took care of himself and he could take care of her with a little help from the stay at home mom upstairs. Mitsuki was an intimidating woman but he had no doubt that she would do him this favor.
Izuku didn't need pity. Never before had he needed it and he didn't need it now.
He didn't own a phone so he would have to use the key left underneath Mitsuki's welcome to get into their house and use their phone. Izuku wasn't entirely sure why they had a welcome mat because besides the father of the house none of the occupants in that home were very welcoming.
That settled the job situation for now but with school. Izuku used his brain to come up with many scenarios where he would be able to go to school and the child would be safe but after ten minutes he found none. Reluctantly he accepted that he would just miss about two weeks worth of school.
That would mean he would get about one week to finish all his final tests and classwork before the current school year ended.
Now he needed to find out what he needed to successfully take care of her. Maybe he should have bought that computer he saw a while ago. That sure could come in handy right now. His only other options were to go to the library but a screaming baby in a library would not only get him kicked out but mildly annoy him at the same time.
Maybe there was a computer upstairs he could use for a couple of minutes. He was only borrowing it and wouldn't move it from its spot so no harm would be done. Right?
Now he had a plan to write down.
1. Call work and get time off
2. Use the computer to figure out basic child information.
3. Figure out what he needed to buy and if he had enough money.
4. Go buy the things
Izuku felt good about his plan. Now he could rest and in his comfy bed and have peace of mind.
He peeled his head off of the cold surface and span around to face his bed. He threw his hands above his head and gave a mighty yawn before using his hand to cover his mouth.
Getting up from his chair his eyes widened when they fell upon the box laying in his bed. He had completely forgotten about her physically being here during his internal planning.
He started to walk over to the sleeping baby to try and get it ready for bed. He should probably wash the child but he would rather not because she was silently sleeping and he had no clue as to how to safely complete the action.
As he made his way his foot jerked in mid-air causing him to miss his foot placement and plummet to the ground. Once he realized what was happening he whipped his arms out to his sides in a push-up position and caught himself inches before he hit the ground.
He left out a sigh of relief that he didn't just hurt his face on the ground or wake the baby up with his loud fall. He looked down towards his foot to find out why it failed him and got the glimpse of his shoelace out of its loop and tucked underneath his other foot.
So he tripped on his shoelace. When had it even come undone? Izuku was probably just tired, he has been up for about twenty hours without sleep.
He moved his head to look at the box and quietly waited a couple of seconds to make sure the child had not awoken. Sensing that he was in the clear he dropped to his knees and pushed up into a kneeling position. Which was not the brightest move.
Once his knees touch the ground producing a low thud the baby had awoken. As the cries started Izuku hung his head in shame. Shame because he had tried to be careful only for it to be fruitless when he was practically in the clear.
"Tch!"
Izuku scrambled to the baby and lifted her out of the box. He needed her to quiet down but he didn't know of any techniques or actions to do. Izuku remembered what he saw on the train earlier and was about to blow on her stomach until he remembered that it only seemed to anger the child on the train. That wouldn't work.
Maybe saying her name could get her to calm down. He had to stay calm so that she would become calm.
"Umm... E-Eri...Eri, shhh. Shhh, Eri."
While saying the comforting words Izuku reaches for her hand and gently grasped it in between hers. Her tiny hand grabbed onto his thumb and lightly squeezed as she quieted down.
Izuku breathed a sigh of relief when Eri stopped crying. So saying her name and grabbing her hand quieted her down. That is very good to know.
Izuku looked into her open eyes.
Bright red.
Her eyes were so different from that man's earlier but they also were so wide and full of emotion. The size of planet eaters, eating huge planets just for breakfast. Teeming with little stars of emotion in her own solar system, so much so her eyes were like containers, brimming to the edge with pure feeling.
Her eyes seemed to try and absorb everything. She needed to know everything, everything about him. Curiosity without limits. Looking not at him but into him for answers.
They begged and pleading for entrance into Izuku's heart, they wanted access to his feelings. Izuku never made an attachment towards others because others only hurt him but this child was making him waver.
Izuku never felt so many emotions flood through him at once. Like a geyser burst through him all at once and reached unobtainable heights. Skyrocketing to heights never before seen because izuku had locked those feeling away for no one, not ever himself to see.
And it terrified him.
He quickly looked away.
Making sure not to make eye contact with her Izuku laid her on the bed and began to search for something she could wear as clothing. He went into his closet and pulled out some clean underwear. Putting her legs through the holes and hoisting it up it honestly looked like it would fit better as some type of shirt.
He searched for the smallest shirt he had at the moment. Finally finding that old All Might shirt that he had gotten as a welcoming gift from Mitsuki he slid her head through the opening in the neck and put her arms in the sleeves. It looked a lot like a full-body suit but extremely baggy.
It reached past her feet and the sleeves ended in the middle of her fingers exposing tiny fingertips for all to see. It practically covered her entire body beside her head. Izuku thought that the shirt would do as pajamas for her for now.
He stood up straight and inspected the sleeping girl. Izuku had no idea how she had already fallen asleep after waking up moments ago but it was a relief.
He chucked off his clothing and put on some pajamas. Tiptoeing back to the bed he lifted her up into his arms and laid on his back and softly placed her on his chest.
He peeked down towards the girl once more to make sure what he experienced wasn't fake, some ploy summoned up by his heart and mind to play a joke on him and scare him. He had to make sure that all that emotion wasn't real, to confirm his prior beliefs.
He was wrong. The second their eyes met it was the feelings all over again.
All the emotion. It was like her eyes were forcibly peering into his soul. They broke through layers of distrust, hatred, and deep-seated sadness. They penetrated his tall walls, the outer walls to the castle that is his heart. They conjured up titans to dent and smash his walls down. Destroying them until there was only a tiny shell left as protection. Izuku never believed this to be possible but the lock and key theory found by the centuries-old chemist, biologist and psychologist stand true, for every lock, there is only one key.
Izuku could already tell that this little girl was the key to his heart, his love, and care for someone else. She was like a substrate and him, an enzyme. He stood no chance against her, she was already at the active site, key in the lock and ready to turn it and set free what is hidden.
He hadn't even known this child for a day but he could already tell soon he was going to be falling and bowing to her whims.
He quickly shut his eyes and pulled the covers over them to get ready for sleep. He really couldn't deal with this while sleep-deprived.
That's what he told himself but he knew that he had already lost. He knew deep down that he had already formed an unbreakable bond and he would do anything to protect it.
...
I didn't really like this. I wanted to do more but decided that I can just explain how he molded himself into being somewhat (ok a pretty good one) capable as a father in like a summary, kinda I don't know, hey I'm trying here, in the next chapter. The next chapter is the last of super happy nice stuff for a while.
I think.
I don't know.
Maybe?
I have a roughish outline (It's slowly becoming more solid) of what I want to happen but that can always change. I now next chapter will have cute moments! Yay! At least I think they're cute.
I don't know.
I contradict myself a lot. Don't I?
Tell me your thoughts!
