DISCLAIMER: I do not own My Hero Academia. If I did, you best believe what happened in the manga recently, and most of the plot as we know it, wouldn't have happened. This work is not for profit, but for my own fun and creative fulfillment. I do however own the OCs used in this fic, sorta?
CW: mentions of abortion
Originally Written: May 2021
It had been a week since Tenya had found the picture, and in that week it was all that Tenya could think about. At first, he had been able to hide the fact that he was distracted from his classmates and blame it on outside pressures such as the start of a new school year. But as his performance in said classes began to falter, he knew that he couldn't avoid the subject any longer. His mind had come up with many excuses as to why he shouldn't focus on it. It was none of his business. It was probably just a picture Tensei had borrowed from a friend that he hadn't given back. It was a picture that Tensei had printed on photo paper.
By the time he had gotten to the last excuse, Tenya knew that he had to talk to his parents about what this meant.
Having gotten permission from Aizawa to go home again, he pulled the photo out from the pocket of his khakis and looked it over once again as the car pulled into the driveway of his family's estate. He must have combed over this photo over a hundred times in the past week trying to look for any hidden details he might have missed. There was no writing on the back of the picture that gave any hints as to who the girl or the baby was. The baby was wrapped in a light blue blanket, and its face was obscured by the girl's arm. The hospital room that the girl was in gave away no details either. It looked like your standard hospital room.
"Tenya?" called the driver of the car, pulling Tenya out of his thoughts.
Tenya put the photo back in his pocket and looked up, "Yes?"
"We're here."
Tenya nodded his thanks and looked out the window. The Iida manor stood tall and strong. It's modern, for the time, architecture was a bold choice by his grandfather, but one that would define his family for years to come. To this day, Tenya's heart swelled with pride that he would be following in the footsteps of his family by becoming a Pro Hero. There was nothing that he would rather do more.
As the car slowed to a stop, his mother stepped out of the front doors to greet him. Tenya opened the door and walked to greet his mother with a warm hug. Even though she was nearly sixty, she didn't look her age at all. She had managed to keep her muscles from her prior days as a Pro Hero. Her blue-black hair hung in a sleek bob around her face with a couple gray hairs around the front.
"Coming home two weeks in a row?" said his mother with a smile. "Aren't we to be so lucky."
Tenya chuckled, "It's great to see you too Mother. Are Father and Tensei in?"
His mother looked up at him with her blue eyes, "Your father is in the living room, and Tensei is out running errands. Are you going to stay the night?"
"I am not able to at the moment," clarified Tenya as the two began to walk into the estate. "I'll need to get back before curfew. I should be able to spend the day here, but first there is something that I wish to speak to you and Father about."
"Is everything alright dear?" asked his mother, brows narrowing in concern.
Tenya nodded as he held his mother's arm while they walked through the manor, "I believe so. There's just a matter that I require your input on."
His mother nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer, asked another question, "How was your friend's anniversary dinner? Did the outfit you all pick out work fine?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Tenya, happy for the distraction. "Bakugou ended up taking Midoriya to a very sentimental place for the two of them where they had a moonlit picnic. From what he told us, it sounded quite lovely."
"That sounds nice," sighed his mother. "I'm lucky if your father remembers to come to dinner lately."
Tenya chuckled and patted his mom's arm in sympathy. In truth, he was glad that things were working out for Bakugou and Midoriya. While he didn't always understand what Midoriya saw in the feisty blonde, anyone who had eyes could see that he made Midoriya the happiest man on the planet. If his friend was happy, then Tenya was happy.
As mother and son arrived in the living room, Tenya spotted his father sitting on the vast sofa reading what appeared to be the morning newspaper. For as long as he could remember, his father spent every Saturday morning going over the newspaper with a fine toothed comb. He liked reading the reports on the goings on in the Hero World. While he usually didn't enjoy being disturbed during this time, Tenya figured this was going to be an important exception.
"Dear?" asked his mother hesitantly. "Tenya's here, and he has something he wants to ask us."
His father looked up from the newspaper without giving Tenya a smile. His father had never been the warmest man on the planet when it came to him. He was a man of few words and many nods. Tenya had always chalked it up to his many years as a Pro Hero making him harder. Though the fact that Tensei was the epitome of warmth never failed to bring a chuckle out of Tenya internally.
"What is it son?" asked his father as he set down the newspaper, gesturing for Tenya to sit at the chair opposite of the sofa.
Tenya sat down as instructed. He could feel his heartbeat starting to increase and pound in his ears. Why was he so nervous? Nothing was going to come of this. He was probably just making a mountain out of a molehill. But then why did staring at this photo seem to trigger some sort of feeling in him?
As his mother sat down beside his father, Tenya took a few calming breaths as he stuck his hand into his pocket. As he rubbed the old photo with his hand, he sighed and mentally prepared himself for whatever answer he was about to receive. He could handle anything that his parents would tell him.
"When my friends and I were helping Midoriya prepare for his date," started Tenya, not looking directly at his parent's faces. "We found something in one of Tensei's old blazers and I wanted to see if you two could help me. I'm not sure if it's something that belonged to one of Tensei's old classmates or just something he found, but some clarification would be very helpful."
His mother chuckled, "You didn't really come all the way here to ask us to help you give something back to one of your brother's classmates did you? I'm sure after sixteen years they won't miss whatever this is."
Tenya sighed and pulled the photo out of his pocket, "Ordinarily I would agree, but this seemed more...personal."
He set the photo down on the coffee table between himself and his parents, and slid it closer to them. As soon as his parents got sight of the photo, any comfort Tenya had that he could handle whatever his parents might say was gone. There was no mistaking the spark of fear and recognition that lit up in his mother's eyes, and a quiet fury in his father's. They knew what this picture was about.
"W-where did you find this again?" asked his mother, grabbing the photo and inspecting it cautiously.
"It was in one of Tensei's old blazers in my closet. I'd imagine it's from his middle school clothes that we shared."
His mother spared a glance at her husband as if asking for permission to say more, "Kenji?"
His father nodded subtly. If Tenya hadn't been watching his father like a hawk, he might have missed it.
"Do you guys know what's going on?" asked Tenya hesitantly. He considered himself mature for his age, but at that moment Tenya had never felt more young.
His mother cleared her throat, "When your...when Tensei was in middle school, he was on the more rebellious side. He fought with your father and I all the time, had no interest in being a hero, and hung out with….interesting...people."
"They were future criminals in the making, Aiko," sniffed his father judgmentally. "Let's not mince words here."
Tenya's eyebrows furrowed as he took in this new information. He had never known that Tensei had gone through a rebellious phase when he was in middle school. Why? And why did his mom hesitate to call Tensei his brother?
"Tensei was disregarding curfew and sneaking into nightclubs and going to all sorts of parties with these people. While he continued to get good grades and his teachers liked him, he wanted nothing to do with us or the family legacy.
Sometime in the middle of his second year of middle school, he met a girl. Her name was Aino Reika. I only met her once or twice but she had a passion and a fire inside of her the likes of which I'd never seen."
His father scoffed, "That girl was nothing more than an overly energetic hothead who was looking for the right wealthy family to sneak her way into."
Tenya wasn't sure he liked the way his father spoke about this Aino girl. If his father's comments about their wealth were any indication, then Aino must have had financial struggles. To dismiss this girl for her lower class and to brand her as a golddigger seemed harsh, especially given that one of his best friends was Uraraka.
"Needless to say," said his mother, ignoring her husband's comments. "Tensei fell in love with this girl. To my knowledge, they began dating very quickly and were getting very intimate and loving with each other."
Tenya was not sure what he had been expecting his mother to tell him about this picture, but this story certainly was not it. Where he normally could sense as to where things were headed in order to stay grounded and rational, now he felt lost and at sea in a way he hadn't felt since the Stain incident had gone down.
"When December rolled around," said his mother, her voice was barely above a whisper at this point and she seemed like she was about to burst into tears. If Tenya weren't confused and trying to process what was going on, he'd reach out and hug her. "Tensei and Aino came to us and told us...that they were pregnant and that they insisted on keeping the baby."
Tenya felt his blood run cold. He had an idea as to where this story was headed now, but he was too scared to admit it to himself. Feeling trapped, he had no choice but to continue to listen to the story his mother was telling.
His father put his hand on his mother's, "I'll take over honey. When Tensei and the girl came to us with this news, we were furious. He was going to throw away his entire future, ruin our family name, and abandon everything we'd worked for all for some girl and some fetus? Once we got over the anger that our fourteen year old son had gotten a girl pregnant, we had to think rationally about this. There was no way I could allow that to happen. We could never show our faces in public or in the media again if that had happened. The tabloid headlines alone would ruin us. So, we issued the girl and her family an ultimatum. Since she was insistent on having this baby one way or another and we would never tell another woman what to do with her body, she and her family were to move out of town immediately and drop all contact with Tensei and never show their faces in this city again. We would give them some finances to support her pregnancy expenses and she was to never discuss who the father of that child was. If she didn't agree to this, we were prepared to use any and all resources at our disposal to ensure that her family would be blackballed."
Tenya's mouth fell in shock. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His parents were willing to financially ruin a...fourteen year old girl and her poor family all for the sake of what? Their reputation? They didn't see how horrible that sounded? Yes, Tensei had made a mistake that would impact him for the rest of his life, but to practically throw away their own grandchild all for the sake of their reputation. Even Tenya couldn't deny how despicable that sounded.
"Luckily the girl and her parents had common sense and left town not long after that and we never heard from her again. As for Tensei, we told him he had no choice but to straighten out his act for all the trouble he had put us through. We sent him to stay with his grandparents during winter break, and when he came back he agreed to our terms and began to work towards applying for UA," said his father, finishing the story.
"You...you guys were willing to throw away your own grandchild...so your names wouldn't be ruined?" said Tenya, disgust filling his voice. "I have a niece or nephew somewhere out there that you never told me about? Does Tensei even know? Did the child survive the pregnancy? Did Aino?"
Tenya watched as all the blood drained from his mother's face. He had never seen her look so pale or scared in his entire life, and his mother had been a Pro Hero. She turned and gripped her husband's hand tightly. Tenya's anger slightly faded into confusion. He wasn't sure why they were reacting like this.
"Honey," started his mother. Tenya knew that voice. That was the overly sweet and saccharine voice she used when she was about to deliver bad news. He had received it when his mother had told him that his dog had died. "You are that child."
Tenya felt his heart plummet into his stomach. There was no way it could be possible? Right? He looked like his mother and father. He had seen pictures of himself as a baby. They were all over this house. But...there weren't any pictures of him and his mother in the hospital like there were of his mom and Tensei. And since he and Tensei looked so much alike…
"Is it true?" asked Tenya, turning to look at the man who he had always called father. Tenya knew he'd get an honest answer from that man.
He nodded his head as if to confirm what his wife had said.
Tenya had never felt so hopelessly lost in his life. Then again, he had never suspected that he would ever have the foundation of his being uprooted in the span of fifteen minutes. He looked at the people he had once known as his parents...no… his grandparents. The woman in the picture was his mother! That baby was him! And Tensei. Tensei was his...father. As his thoughts began to turn to Tensei, an image of him in the hospital after his encounter with Stain popped into Tenya's mind. At that moment, Tenya could feel the trickles of rage beginning to fester.
"What happened next," started Tenya, looking down at the ground. "Clearly I didn't stay with her."
His...grandmother..cleared her throat, "We were in the middle of having breakfast as a family during the first week of September. It was the weekend at the time since Tensei was still training then. The doorbell rang. When Tensei went to check to see who it was, he didn't come back for several minutes. We followed to see what the commotion was, and we saw...Tensei holding you in his arms with a basket at his feet. I'll never forget the look on his face. He was so happy as he was playing with your little fingers while you were sleeping. When we inspected the basket for further information, we merely saw a lone piece of paper. It had your name and the message, "Please give him all the chances I never could" written on it as well as that picture. Initially we were furious that she had disregarded our orders, but it was decided we could pass you off as our second son. I had been in hiding for a while due to health reasons and was still at an age where I could realistically have children. It helped that you looked so much like an Iida. In order to keep the peace, we decided it would be best to raise you as our own."
Tenya could hear the rage leaking into his voice and looked up to meet his grandparents' faces through his teary eyes, "Were you ever planning on telling me or was I always going to be left in the dark?"
He never wanted to be so wrong in all of his life. He didn't want to believe that the people who had raised him his entire life could be so heartless and cruel. There was no way the man and woman who had raised him...were capable of such things.
They were silent. His grandmother wiped away a tear while his grandfather looked away in stony silence. That was all the confirmation he needed. He never thought heartbreak would be an emotion he'd experience, but at that moment Iida Tenya could feel his heart physically breaking.
"So," started Tenya once more, the rage consuming him. "When Tensei was at risk of death after being attacked by Stain and lost use of his legs, you still weren't going to tell me? You both watched me go through the worst pain in my life, and didn't think to tell me that the man that I loved and cared for more than anything whom I might have lost was my father?"
"Tenya," started his father, but Tenya wasn't about to have it.
"No!" shouted Tenya, startling them. Tenya never showed anger in front of his family, let alone fight back. He couldn't even remember the last time he had felt his emotions so strongly. "You separated my parents. You blackmailed my grandparents and drove them out of town. You kept me from my mother and didn't tell me the truth about my father. Before I showed up at your door, you were just fine with throwing me away and never thinking about me again? You were just fine with potentially me being the child of a single teen mother who was struggling financially? Your reputation in society and the name was worth more than the life of me or my mother?"
"That's not fair!" said his grandfather sternly. "What did you expect us to do? I was in the prime of my career and was supporting my family. Tensei got some trashy girl pregnant when he was in middle school! My wife and I were supposed to do what? Accept her with loving open arms? We were just supposed to take all of the humiliation and shame that would undo all of the goodwill our family had done? Generations of heroic actions stripped away because our son couldn't keep it in his pants long enough to not make the biggest mistake of his life! Throw away a potentially successful Pro Hero career for what? Some girl who'd dump him when someone better came around and a fetus no one wanted?"
His grandmother sharply inhaled and moved her hand away from her husband's.
"Is that what you think of me?" asked Tenya, any trace of anger gone from his voice. By this point, the tears were flowing freely down his face and clouding his vision. "I'm just a mistake?"
"Honey," said his grandmother in that fake voice again, she tried to put a hand on his knee. "Of course not! You know we lo-"
"NO!" screamed Tenya, pulling his legs away from his grandparents. "I think it's best I go."
Before the man or woman could let a word out, Tenya snatched the photo out of their hands and held it close to his heart. He walked as fast as his legs could take him. Frankly he would have activated his Engines if it meant getting him out of this place fast enough. He couldn't be around this place or these people right now. He needed to get out.
By the time he reached the driveway and the front lawn, he could vaguely hear the sounds of his grandparents calling after him. But Tenya refused to listen as he approached the car that had taken him here. He mouthed the word "UA" to the driver and got in the backseat without hesitation.
Tenya barely remembered the drive back to school. He had been too busy sobbing to pay attention to the outside world. Tenya was normally not a big crier, but in that moment it felt like all of the tears he had saved up came pouring out of him at that moment. Before he knew it, the driver was gently rubbing his knee to signal him that he was at UA.
Nodding his thanks, Tenya exited the vehicle and began the walk back to Heights Alliance in silence. He stared down at the picture once more, tears filling his eyes. That woman was his mom. He had a whole other side to himself and his family that he had been deprived of. What was her quirk? Where was she now? Did she miss him?
Did she regret giving him up?
As he opened the doors to the 2-A dormitory, Tenya's heart sank as he realized he'd have to face his classmates. What would he say? What could he say? He had been too deep in his thoughts to realize that he had bumped into someone wearing very familiar red sneakers, dropping the photo in the process.
"Sorry," muttered Tenya under his breath as he bent down to pick it up, tears falling onto the floor.
"Iida?" asked the calm yet loving voice of Midoriya. "Is something wrong?"
Tenya looked up to see Midoriya's wide green eyes staring back at him in genuine concern. Before Tenya could get a word out, he exploded into sobs and sank to the floor of Heights Alliance. He didn't care who saw at that moment. What did it matter? His whole world had just been thrown off its axis.
Tenya felt soft arms wrap around him. He opened his eyes to see Midoriya embracing him in a warm hug. He rubbed Tenya's back soothingly, not saying a word. As Tenya cried into the sleeve of Midoriya's blue hoodie, his friend just sat there hugging him and rubbing his back. He was the rock that Tenya needed to keep him steady while his world was consumed by the tsunami.