MIKE202303: You seriously make my day! XD
speckledblight: Yeaaaa! I just want to say I really like your name! It makes no sense but at the same time does!
ImSoBored246: He does deserve it. But sometimes life throws you sour grapes! XD (WARNING: Sour grapes may taste good to some and therefore this comment makes absolutely no sense!)
Naowt: Thank you! Hope to see good things!
Sorry for taking so long to update!Enjoy!
...
Izuku didn't know where the time went, one moment Eri was still 4 months old and now she was older than 3 years old.
Izuku remembered how it was for him back then. He had run himself ragged for the first two weeks looking things up on how to take care of her and then practicing it.
It wasn't until Mitsuki and her family came back from their trip that he was able to let her take care of Eri while he went to school and not to mention Mitsuki was a huge help, what with all her experience and all. She had taught him all he needed to know and more. He still remembered that one time where she thought it was good for him to get a demonstration of what breastfeeding was. He was sincerely glad it was a one-time thing because his head had almost combusted because of how much heat rose to it. Regardless of her rather crass personality, she knew how to take care of a child at a physical level. Mentally? Izuku was still on the fence about how stable Katsuki really was. Katsuki always got top marks in gym class— not without Izuku interchanging with him for the top spot— and he was healthy. All that training was worth it but tiring.
He remembered how the moment he entered class he had significant bags under his eyelids and he slept all the time. For about a week Katsuki has actually asked him "What the hell is wrong with you!" before he groaned in response to his loud shouting. Izuku thought that subtly, Katsuki's shouting was getting quieter when directed towards him because even if he was a jerk he held respect for Izuku that only rose when he found out his new responsibilities. Mitsuki once told Izuku that Katsuki asked for a baby to take care of just to get even.
Eventually, it all evened out. School and home life eventually began to coincide with one another. Mitsuki watched Eri while he went to school and when he was home everything else was on him. Simply enough, is what he thought. My the time he was ready for high school he had changed.
Turned out that his analytical skills and his quirk notes brought him some people with large funds. He ended up not needing either of his jobs because support gear companies and other individuals paid him plenty for his ideas and even some designs. He started making notes on villains as well because they were becoming increasingly more beneficial to have notes on. Izuku didn't know it but he had probably sold some notes to the police before.
Not that he cared. He didn't like the government seeing as they did absolutely nothing to help him as a nine-year-old when that incident happened. Leaving him all alone to fend for himself, just because he was quirkless! He was lucky that he had Mitsuki as a neighbor or he would have been forced to roam the streets. The Bakugo family was never close with his but he had an odd friendship, no acquaintance with Katsuki Bakugo after standing up to him and earning his respect so out of the goodness in most likely the father of the house's heart they let him in. Not without proper assurance that he would earn his stay. He could never thank enough, she had done a lot for him. Much more than anybody else, especially the government, bastards wanted to leave him in the streets. Then he would become what he disliked more than the government... a villain. He didn't care for heroes, police or villains but he cared for Eri and to let her have a good life he was going to have to get a good job. And that starts with the General Education course at U.A.
As Izuku stared at the humongous front gates of the prestigious U.A high school he couldn't help but think back on how Eri had completely changed his life. He wasn't so gloomy anymore and he couldn't help think that he became more mature and looked more mature because of her (might just be in his head but he felt like he was taller and had less of what Mitsuki called a "baby face"). He was actually happy.
He loved her and he thought about how much she has grown.
When Izuku awoke he could feel the draft of air upon his lower torso. He could also hear a faint beeping sound the erupted from the left side of the room. The beeping was consistent and rhythmic but occasionally a slight shrill babble or giggle would settle in through the noise.
Izuku recognized the beeping as his watch but the giggles were not very familiar. He groggily lifted his head and turned to make sure he wasn't imagining things. Peeking his eyes open he was met with the sight of a baby laying on her stomach staring at him.
She stared at Izuku while holding his black watch in her hands. The watch was slick and shiny and dripping with slobber. She inched the watch back up to her mouth and gave a soft chomp on it. When she took the accessory out she squawked an indiscernible string of noise and smiled as it continued to beep. She then tilted her head and held it out to him for him to turn off.
After taking care of Eri for about two or three months he had expected her to start talking. In all the websites he had studied they all said that a child should start saying simple words at around six months.
Well, she was a seven month-year-old and she hadn't said much other than the common rambling of noises that she definitely thought were words. It was quite funny and adorable to Izuku because right after she spoke her incoherent words she would scrunch her eyes or tilt her head as if expecting a response.
The green-haired kid tried to hold back an amused chuckle back it was no use. He lethargically rose from the bed and stretched his stiff limbs to ready himself for the day. He bent down towards Eri and carefully pulled it away from her tiny hands.
"Papa."
Izuku mumbled a noncommittal noise before he could fully process what he heard. It had become a routine where she would utter some noises and he would hum as an answer. Eri was always satisfied with his answers so he never really went beyond that unless he felt like teaching her some basic noises to help her for simple words.
Izuku's head whipped around so fast he almost gave himself a headache. His eyes were blown wide open.
"Huh!?"
Izuku practically screamed his response.
'Did she just call me Papa?!' Izuku was having a hard time believing what he just heard. Papa? Like, father or dad? Him a father? On what planet?!
"E-Eri, um, say that a-again?"
Even though his voice took a higher pitch than normal and he started stuttering he needed to make sure whether he heard her right or not. If he heard her right then... he didn't know what would happen then but if he heard her wrong then he would have to do some soul searching and figure out why that was the first thing that came into his mind. It wasn't like caring for someone in that way was what he wanted. Right?
Instead of saying it again she devolved to a string of giggles. She looked up at him and gave him a wide smile showing off her two lower front teeth, Izuku knew she was mocking him.
'So that's how she wants to play this?' Then he would have to bring her in front of someone she wouldn't dare to mock.
Mitsuki!
In record time they were fully dressed and ready but also at the front door and waiting for the hot-headed blonde female to open it. Mitsuki swung the door open with a deep scowl, it was clear that she was not in a good mood but this was too important for him to care so he blitz pass her and set Eri down on the couch.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRAT?!"
"Mrs. Bakugo don't scream. Tell Eri to say it again."
"Mitsuki, and what're you talking about."
"It doesn't matter just say it."
Mitsuki was a bit annoyed at him because he was being rude but wanted to get this over with before her son came downstairs and most likely started a commotion. She released a frustrated sigh before looking Eri dead in the eye.
"Say it again," Mitsuki grumbled.
Eri's smile widened while Izuku's eyes widened. Izuku couldn't understand what the heck was going on. As Mitsuki would say, Eri was being a "LITTLE BRAT".
About five minutes went by of Mitsuki continuously telling Eri to say it again only for Eri to stare at the both of them. It was starting to get annoying for both Izuku and Mitsuki.
Mitsuki's son Katsuki Bakugo eventually came down the stair and into the living room. He was honestly just a male version of his mother except shorter.
"What the he—" Izuku quickly cut off Katsuki's swear with a glare, "heck, are you doing up here, Deku?" Katsuki would have ignored Izuku's glare but he knew that swearing was not allowed near the baby so he relented otherwise he would have torn Izuku a new one for thinking he could get away with that.
The relationship between Izuku and Katsuki is a bit of a weird one. They've known each other for a long time and were even friends once but Katsuki started bullying Izuku when Izuku was diagnosed as quirkless. At first, Izuku was devastated but he had other things to worry about and letting himself get pushed around would just make his situation worse so he stood up for himself. In the beginning, he would get brutally beat up but eventually, he started to even out with Katsuki, so now they have mutual respect for each other but they aren't really buddies.
Izuku looked back at Eri and then shrugged and proceeded to walk towards the door next to Katsuki.
"It's nothing really, well I'm off to school."
As Izuku's hand fell on the doorknob he heard it. It was kinda faint but even so, he still heard it.
"Papa."
Izuku whirled around and looked towards Eri with a smug smirk plastered on his face, the smirk pushed his light freckles farther up his cheeks. Izuku knew his response to Katsuki would get something out of her. Izuku couldn't help but think, 'Sometimes I'm a genius.'
Katsuki's almost constant scowl was replaced with a look that screamed immense shock. Mitsuki immediately started howling with laughter. Her laughter confused Izuku.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing… Pfft... Daddy Midoriya, kekeke!" Mitsuki responded in between her screams of laughter.
A light blush started to spread to Izuku's cheeks because of his embarrassment, which only made Mitsuki laugh more. No one noticed Katsuki leave with an annoyed grumble but significantly less of a scowl on his face.
As Mitsuki's laughter died down to a stop Izuku exhaled a small huff of slight anger and embarrassment. He would have been angrier if not for the fact that Mitsuki at least tried to hold back her embarrassing statement... even if only for a second.
"Well, I guess we found the last name for her."
Izuku lifted his eyebrow in response to Mitsuki's statement, to which she decided to elaborate.
"Eri Midoriya!"
It had been a couple of months since the "Papa Incident" as Izuku called it and he was trying to take the next step in Eri's growth. She was around the age when she should start walking on her own two legs instead of crawling everywhere or having to be carried. Not that he minded carrying her.
He had spent about a month of trying to get her to stand up and take at least more than two steps. So far he had only gotten her to take about two steps before she fell right back onto her behind.
His plan was to entice her to get up and walk to him without any help by placing something of interest in front of him.
Over time he had figured out that Eri really liked apples, she had plenty of different fruits and she never expressed a dislike for any of them but when it came to apples she would just keep on munching on them.
So he set up a plate of sliced apples on his lap and placed her some feet away from him as he sat in his computer chair, waiting for her.
He waited and waited. He played with the apples, he swung them through the air, he flailed them around as if the apples were the arms of a drowning swimmer, swished them through the air as if an airplane on a trip, even making the appropriate noises but no matter what she didn't move. She pouted sadly at his inability to give her the apple she desired.
Izuku released an exhausted sigh getting tired of this pointless game he was playing. He wondered if something was wrong with the apples.
He peered at the apple slices closely trying to find anything off about them. 'Nope. Same old apples.' He sighed again. 'Fine. If she's not gonna eat them then I am, can't let perfectly good apples go to waste.'
Izuku lowered the bright red apple slice into his mouth before taking a juicy bite.
Eri flinched.
He took another bite staring intently at Eri. Just as his teeth claimed another piece of the apple she started to move.
'She looks upset!'
Her face was scrunched up in anger and Izuku watched dumbly as she slowly rose onto her two legs and took a few steps towards him. His eyes were blown wide, eyebrows raised on his forehead, mouth gaping in surprise and pride.
He so lost in his shock that he had barely registered her finish the last few steps with determination before placing her small palms on his knees. He was jolted out of his daze when he felt a small thud on his lower thigh.
"No."
Her voice was so quiet he almost missed it but the look on her face said it all. Anger, sadness, and betrayal. 'Betrayal? Is she mad because I ate one of the apples?'
Izuku had read up on parenting enough to know that when a child hits an elder that punishment or some form of discipline was supposed to occur as a consequence for their actions but he was still stuck on the fact that she had actually walked.
She walked by herself!
'This calls for a celebration! Apples! I have to get more apples! Apples for everyone!' Izuku was so lost in his own stupor he hadn't even realized that he was spinning around the room with Eri in his arms and a stupid grin on his face.
Eri had only been at the preschool for two weeks and the other kids had made her cry! Oh man, if he was three years old again he would beat the snot out of them!
He had arrived right on time for when the preschool let out all the little toddlers to their parents. As he worriedly approached his crying daughter (that's right, she's his daughter and he is not afraid to say it) he could hear the crunch of the winter snow as it dug under his signature red shoes. The snowflakes fell down around them as Eri towards his with tears falling out of her eyes.
The scene made his heart clench, he had always thought his daughter looked adorable and serene in the winter because of the white snowflakes that would fall around her that went perfectly with her light bluish, white hair and wide smile, but right now the stinging cold and slowly falling pieces of snow made it all seem so sad.
What had happened to make her like this? 'It doesn't matter, I'm gonna cheer her up,' Izuku determinedly thought.
Eri crashed into his right leg, clutching it tightly between her arms. As he bent down to Eri's level he noticed a lady not too much older than him approach them with a worried frown on her lips, but he ignored her because Eri was more important.
Izuku reached behind her and tenderly patted her back to try and ease her tears away. The unfamiliar woman finally reached them and bent down to their level. She was dressed in a thick green jacket, with warm black pants, and black boat to combat the weather and the snow but her attire isn't what caught Izuku's attention. What had caught Izuku's attention was her eyes and hair, eyes a bright red similar to Eri's but even brighter and pitch-black hair that reached her hips. He thought that at night he probably wouldn't be able to see her hair at all and then a second thought lodged in his mind that her hair complimented her pale skin to make her even more stunning.
He coughed into his hand and pushed his glasses—he had finally gotten glasses recently after he realized they could be really helpful for his sight—up his nose when he realized he was staring, he also did the action to hide the light blush that was spreading through his cheeks, thankfully he could just blame it on the cold. He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard her talk.
"What's wrong Eri?"
Her voice was so light and caring and mesmerizing that he wasn't fully sure if his heart had skipped one beat or two. He wasn't sure what was happening, never before had he felt like this. Well... That one time he had seen Mrs. Bakugo in a dress doesn't count.
Once again Izuku had to refocus on the matter at hand because along with all the other captivating elements in her voice, there was also worry.
Eri's head was ducked low with her hands on her head as she stared intently at the snow. When her sniffles finally died down she spoke, albeit without raising her head.
"I-I don't like it here."
The sadness that laced her voice caused the woman to gasp but before she could do anything Izuku was already on his knees, without any regard for the wet snow underneath him, lifting his daughters head up so she could look into his eyes.
"Why not?"
He spoke in a low voice as to not startle her. She was starting to calm down now but the hurt in her eyes was there still.
"'Cause everyone is mean."
Was it bad that a small part of him wanted to beat those other three-year-olds up?
"How so?"
"They said that I'm a fake unicorn 'cause of my horn but I told them I'm not."
'Why would those punks say that? Her horn is barely even noticeable. It only grew like an inch or two in all these years." Izuku felt his right eye slightly twitch.
"That's right. You arent a unicorn, or even a fake one. Your Eri, the best little girl ever."
Eri lightly shook her head before continuing.
"They didn't listen. They're meanies. I don't like my horn."
Izuku bit his lip in a small show of anger. He knew that little kids could be extremely hurtful and discriminatory even if they didn't mean it, heck he was subject to his fair share because of his quirklessness but since he had experienced it he didn't want his daughter to experience it all, he knew how it felt.
"Well I love your little horn and it is amazing and what is one of our sayings?"
He knew this saying was very biased and not entirely factual but it really helped with her questions. Eri was smart for her age, she knew more words than her peers and how to say them, so naturally, she also had more questions. At first, they were nice and innocent questions but then she started questioning herself much like she was doing now (which still didn't sit right with him seeing how a three-year-old could question herself in such a way) so eventually, he had told her that he was always right. But her being smarter than he gave her credit for knew it wasn't entirely true.
"You're always right... seventy percent of the time."
Izuku was stunned and felt a little betrayed. He replied in a hushed whisper.
"Eh? I thought we agreed on "most of the time"?"
"Uhh, uh, I changed it," Eri responded with a light shake of the head. He pouted slightly but decided to comfort her.
"Alright then, but this is one of those times I'm right. But, if you don't want to show off your awesome horn right now why don't you wear... the slightly less awesome hat!"
He took off his green beanie and pulled it over her bluish-white locks, cuffing the ends so that it fits snug over her head. Her eyes lit up, any trace of her previous tears vanished, a small smile on her lips.
"Really?!"
Izuku couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips too.
"It's yours now!"
Eri immediately ran full force into his arms almost knocking him over. As he stood to full height he noticed the previous lady, who seemed to be the same height as him maybe a little smaller if you got a scale, hiding her chuckles behind a dainty hand. 'She looks like a worker. How have I never noticed her...? It doesn't matter, I should really ask for her name. That's the polite thing to do.'
Izuku let the small smile rest on his lips as he bowed in a show of respect and to be polite. She returned it in kind.
"Hi. I'm Izuku, Izuku Midoriya."
"Aki, Aki Sada. And you must be the...?"
"The father..."
He was fully expecting the shocked expression, honestly, it would have been odd not to get it. Yea, the glasses he bought definitely made him look older, more mature but he still looked like a highschooler but instead of a soon to be first-year student he probably looked more like a second-year student, so that's a plus. Especially if he wanted an older girl like Ms. Sada to notice him.
Wait what is he talking about?! He needed to focus! Right! The reason for her expression. He's been through this conversation so many times it was almost automatic.
"Yes, I'm young, and no, you can't have her."
Or maybe it wasn't almost automatic but just automatic. 'I didn't even mean to say that, especially not like that, I must have sounded so rude!'
"Err... s-sorry, a force of habit, it's just, I've been through this conversation a lot a-and by the end of it they ask if they can have her... Or maybe we've just been around too many old people."
Izuku tried to play it off by giving a nervous laugh along with nervously rubbing that back of his head. Why is he so nervous?! His anxiety died a whole lot when she let out a genuine laugh of her own.
"It's fine, I bet you do get asked that a lot, she certainly is an amazing little girl."
He smiled fondly while tilting his head so that he could catch a glimpse of the little girl's face that laid on his shoulder.
"Yea, she really is..." There was a pause in between their conversation, that's when Izuku decided to ask a question that has been on his mind. "Do you work here?"
"Oh, yeah, but before, I usually got off before pick up time so that's probably why you hadn't seen me before, but from now on I'll be at all the pickups," Her smile grew a bit and she puffed out her chest slightly indicating that she was proud of that. Izuku released a small snort causing her to look at him with a miniature angry pout and arms across her chest that inadvertently pushed up her respectable bust.
"What?" She lightly snapped.
It was too much. He tried to cover his mouth to keep his chuckles at bay but it didn't work and Ms. Sada was increasingly becoming more upset. "Nothing, nothing..." He returned to normal before continuing. "No, that's good, that means we can talk again!"
Her cheeks started to heat up a bit. "Ah, yeah, okay, sounds great!" She smiled a little bit wider than before and waved goodbye to him and Eri as they left.
As she turned around she finally had a moment to think to herself. 'Oh god, Aki! Were you just flirting with a high schooler?! He clearly wasn't even a third year! No! Either way! Your 19! Get a grip!'
...
I'm just gonna say this, Aki is pretty important.
The next chapter will him actually in U.A, my bad. Oh yeah, he's a general course student but he has like privileges I guess so he's a part time-ish class 1-A student. You'll see.
I gave Izuku glasses because I think they make people look more sophisticated (said with a British accent). No, but for real, why not?
Should I make him friends with Hitoshi Shinso? Well, he'll have other friends anyway but what's one more going to do?
Review, please!
