Izuku shivered in his seat seeing the single drop of blood ooze down his classmate's finger. The only thing his brain could do was scream at him for how hungry he was. It took all of his self-control to not latch his lips around the girl's finger and suck as if his life depended on it.
Of course due to the unfortunate fact of him being Izuku Midoriya meant that others in the class saw him seize up. "Hey look he's going to pass out or something." The other students laughed uproariously at their misunderstanding for why he was fixated on the drop of blood.
If they only knew the truth.
Why their classmate was always so frightfully pale, why he moved lethargically, why his body was so much weaker than it should be. That it was all due to his incredible and frightening heritage that would have turned them from taunting bullies and into a frightened mob.
Izuku Midoriya, to the surprise of no one who could see the signs, was a vampire. One of the true lords of the night and the last of a dying breed of monster.
In centuries long past creatures like werewolves, hags, yeti and more would roam the world terrorizing the humans. Even when they made walls of wood around their villages and towns, with weapons of iron and steel to fend off the beasts it was only ever an inevitable until the humans were put in their rightful place at the bottom of the food chain.
However things rarely ever go to plan and Man created more devastating weapons, chasing the monsters into the night, hunting them until all but the most hidden were brought to extinction.
Thus from the shadows the few remaining monsters operated, of them only the mighty vampires were able to survive in the modern world, blending in somewhat and using their vast accumulated wealth to create little holdings for themselves.
Midoriya was from one such vampire family, having fled Eastern Europe sometime in the mid 1500s to the recently discovered, by western civilization, island nation of Japan. It was a brilliant decision at the time as their culture had never even heard of vampires before. The nation had its own malevolent spirits and monsters, but as something that passed so much like a human and with their newly minted name they were blending into the background of society quite well.
As time went on it became harder to keep the monstrous bloodlines going as finding a mate who would not reveal their heritage was becoming more and more difficult with how connected the world was becoming which is why Izuku Midoriya had been the last vampire known to be born in the past two centuries. The tumultuous times created by the advent of human quirks posed a potential threat to any monsters that could be caught.
So Izuku rarely saw his father who spent much of his time away from the world of heroes for fear of being recognized, but that did not mean Izuku was completely without.
He still had his dear mother who, while human, as vampires no longer turned their brides to prevent too many people noticing immortal people, loved him all the same. His father sent shipments of gold and jewels that had been hoarded for centuries which allowed their family to live quite leisurely, if they had to be conservative about it to avoid drawing attention from the government as to where the wealth was coming from. And the few blood bags that could be procured was enough to sustain Izuku during most months.
His mother, bless her mortal soul, would try to convince Izuku that feeding off of her once in a while wouldn't be a problem. But he held a deep fear that once he started he would be unable to stop, his thirst was insatiable and while the euphoria of a full belly was what he deeply craved, the moment the clarity set in he would be devastated if his mother was hurt.
That was why he resigned himself to the agony of always being on the brink of starvation, he would rather be weak and unable to defend himself than to imbibe himself of his mother's delectable red nectar.
But things rarely are that simple. A botched hijacking of his body and the subsequent rescue by the number one hero had Izuku fixated so much on the pungent stench of blood on the man that he acted on instinct when he followed him out from the tunnel and grabbed on. 'Just a sip.' was all Izuku could think about when he held onto the pants of the man that clearly had blood to spare.
He hadn't meant to discover the secret of All Might, that had been entirely an accident, he just couldn't control himself when he could smell the building metallic scent of the life-giving liquid. But he couldn't exactly tell All Might that he followed him because he wanted to drink his blood, that would at least be weird if not illegal. So he fabricated a story of wanting to be a quirkless hero because as a vampire he would not develop a quirk naturally. Supposedly a sasquatch in Bali had manifested a quirk, but Izuku just thought that was poppycock and instead was just a really hairy guy with a quirk instead.
Once All Might departed the building and no one else was in sight Izuku began debasing himself by licking furiously at the blood that was flecking the roof of the building he had been left on. It was so glorious to drink blood that was much fresher than what came out of a cold blood bag. If anyone had been looking, the drunken stare on his face would be considered both frightening and quite lewd.
Izuku was in a daze on his walk home after his small snack, it had been like a glass of water in the sahara, not enough to save him but enough that it felt like manna of the gods and he was primed to drink more. So when he arrived at the scene of destruction with more scents of blood filling the air he could be forgiven for acting on instinct and pushing through the crowd. It was not his intention to try and save one of his bullies, but Izuku thought that it would be awful to waste all of that blood seeping from the cuts covering Katsuki's body that he created in his attempt to fight against the slime villain.
It was confusing to him how an attempt to feed upon the blond teen ended up with him under the tutelage of the number one hero, but if it meant he could be around All Might and his glorious blood spewing habit, it would simply be something Izuku would tolerate. Even if he wasn't so sure this hero business would work out.
All Might was scratching his head as he tried to figure out his new pupil. On some days Midoriya seemed to not only meet the written goals of the American Dream Plan, but exceed far beyond what was expected from a quirkless kid of that size and muscle mass and yet on others Midoriya seemed like he was on the brink of dying. 'Is it drugs?' All Might wondered as he watched his protege with ease toss a car's rusted out shell into the truck bed.
"And done," Izuku smiled while looking over the cleaned beach. To his surprise he actually enjoyed the physical exertion put on him over these last ten months. While he never cared all that much about doing good or bad, this was still something that he accomplished and he took pride in his hard work.
'He doesn't seem like the type, his arms and neck are clear of needle marks which are the typical spots junkies inject with, but the smarter ones do it between the toes since footwear would prevent anyone from noticing,' All Might pondered as he looked over the work Midoriya had done. With the ups and downs All Might had some concerns about it being finished in time for the U.A. entrance exam, something he hoped that Midoriya would participate in rather than All Might bringing him in as a recommendation student.
'But then again, all the signs are there. The tiredness one day and then the sudden energy the next. Something doesn't add up with young Midoriya.'
"HEY, ALL MIGHT!" Izuku shouted in the hopes of getting his mentor's attention, something he had been trying to do for the last couple of minutes.
"Gah, what? Huh?" The titanic blond man stammered while looking around before settling his gaze back on Midoriya.
"You zoned out there big guy?" Izuku tilted his head and took stock of the skeletal man's appearance. He wasn't sure if everything was just getting to him or not.
"Sorry young Midoriya, just thinking," All Might chuckled as he couldn't decide on whether his student was a dope dealing fiend or just a weird kid. "We've come so far in these ten months that I'm sure you are ready for my quirk."
Toshinori was deciding that he had been right about Midoriya being the perfect candidate for the quirk and it was just his self doubt clouding his mind on what was the correct decision.
"Wait, so what now? We only have a few hours until the U.A. entrance exam," Izuku questioned. It would be a bit late to start any new exercises.
"No nothing like that," All Might waved dismissively to his pupil. "I simply provide you with something that contains my DNA, like hair, skin or a bit of blood and then pass on the quirk to you."
"Blood," Izuku said barely above a whisper as he looked at All Might's bulging neck muscles.
The man turned his back and reached up to pluck a hair from the top of his head when he felt something wrap around his torso. "What the-?" All Might cried out in shock at the sudden attack.
"I'm sorry All Might but you said blood would work," Izuku managed to get out before he sunk his fangs into the man's neck.
Toshinori was a hardened veteran of heroics who had seen hundreds of battles in his time and faced numerous frightening foes. He was the stuff of legends, so it would have been embarrassing to see him screaming like a girl and trying to dislodge a short teenaged boy from his back as he ran up and down the beach. Finally he was able to get Izuku to lessen his bite and tossed him away, keeping one hand on the two bleeding holes in his neck while also panting from the difficult task of getting the young boy off him.
"Young Midoriya… what the fuck was that?!" He gasped out as he looked at Izuku cleaning the blood from his lips, his tongue far longer than he'd noticed before licking away at his blood on the boy's hands.
"You said-" he stopped to slurp the blood from his fingers. "Blood would work."
"Yeah! Like a drop. You didn't need to… what even prompted you to do such a thing?" All Might said wary of the young boy who looked at him with a hunger he'd only ever seen in starving animals before.
"I- I- didn't think that… well you were so," Izuku stammered as he tried desperately to think of a way to play this off as a misunderstanding but he had drank for too long for it to just be a dumb kid thing. All Might clearly watched him try to suck him dry. He knelt down in the sand and slapped his palms on the beach. "I've just been so hungry lately, and you always spew up your blood and just throw it away. It has been maddening."
"Do you know how hard it has been to control myself when you are like a rich man throwing away perfectly good food into the trash in plain view of a starving homeless man?" Izuku pleaded. "I might be a monster but I have limits, I thought you were offering, so I couldn't help myself."
"Help yourself how?" All Might took a wary step away from the boy.
"To feed, I'm a vampire," Izuku answered as he looked into All Might's eyes. "I need blood and it's been rough having to go through my blood bags more than usual just to keep up with your training. I've not had a drop in three weeks and I was going crazy. I was ready to dig in the trash cans of the girls' bathrooms around the city just to get my fix."
"You… are a vampire?" All Might questioned even as things started to piece together. Izuku was already looking a million times better than just a few minutes ago, so clearly drinking blood had a positive effect.
"Yes, one of the last left alive," Izuku slumped into the sand as he resigned himself to his fate. He had blown his cover in front of, quite possibly, the strongest being on the planet that he couldn't fight off in his weakened state. There was nowhere to run or hide, maybe if it had been the middle of the night and not the break of dawn he could manage to get away with his currently enhanced strength from getting to drink for the first time in so long. But not anymore.
All Might look at the young man on his knees before him, this was clearly something he should report. If Young Midoriya was telling the truth and Toshinori didn't believe that he had a reason to lie about this. A real life monster was in front of him and it would be his job, no his duty to stop it here and now. He reared back his fist ready to strike down the creature when he heard it sniffle.
"Just tell my mom… tell her that I'm really sorry. If I had just refused your offer I could have been at home with her helping her make dinner, now she's going to wonder what happened to me. Why I just never came home. All Might, please, don't let my mother waste away thinking she had anything to do with this. She'll understand why you had to kill me," Izuku begged as he waited for the punch that would send him to oblivion, but it never came.
All Might couldn't do it. It was against everything he stood for to kill someone who was surrendering. Let alone a child, one who for the past ten months at least hadn't hurt a single person until he slipped up due to starvation. "Have you ever killed anyone before?" Asking an important question which would determine what he did from this point on.
Izuku just shook his head in response. "No sir, I don't feed on people, never have. I want to when I run out of blood bags, but I know it would cause more problems than solved if I gave in and started attacking people."
"So this entire time the days when you've done well?"
"I would drink from the bags I was rationing."
"And the days you struggled."
"Well I probably hadn't really eaten in days by then."
It wasn't a complex puzzle to put the pieces together of. So with a heavy sigh All Might sat down in the sand in front of the boy he had trusted with his secret. "You're just a kid."
"I'm a monster, what difference does it make how old I am, monsters are killed by humans."
"Yeah but that was… long ago," All Might tried to reason. "You all were supposed to be myths, urban legends, not real."
"Well we are, whatever's left of us that is."
That was what was in front of him, an endangered species that had to hide for fear of being wiped out. "Shit kid, why the fuck didn't you say anything?"
"How could I have?" Izuku argued. "You are a hero, by definition you historically stop the monsters, it's only recently that we've been gone that you turned it to fighting villains. But you can go and tell the public and they'll have the torches and pitchforks at the ready to put my head on a spike."
"They wouldn't do that." All Might protested against the idea of innocent civilians being so bloodthirsty they would slaughter a child just for what he was. But he paused as he realized he had been prepared to do that, even for just a moment, when Izuku told him what he was. Of course the public would panic, maybe Izuku would be lucky and put to death quickly, if not he'd be a lab rat for the government.
"Now who's delusional," Izuku smirked.
"No!" All Might stood up proudly, he had to believe people were better than that and they just needed a reason to believe it. "I'm not delusional and you will help me prove it. Young Midoriya, I said this to you ten months ago, but now again. You can be a hero. Take my quirk and show the world that you are not a monster."
Izuku looked at the blood soaked hand offered to him then up into the glowing blue eyes of the hero framed by the rising sun. "You're absolutely insane All Might." Izuku sputtered out with a laugh as he crawled forward and licked the blood from the man's hand.
"Well I think we're all a little bit crazy," Toshinori responded as he hoped he was making the right choice.