AN1: As some of you know, it is of my opinion that having a short Author's Note at the beginning of the chapter is aesthetically pleasing.
Born months apart yet the two lived in the same building. Neighbors; one lived on the apartment to the left of the empty one, and the other on the apartment to the right of the same hollow flat.
Hado Nejire, born October 6th.
Usagiyama Rumi, born March 1st.
Most would say that this is an irrelevant coincidence, yet fate liked to play with its cards in a funny way, so a year before they were born, it made sure that Midoriya Inko filled said empty condo. She became pregnant.
On July 15th, Midoriya Izuku was born.
And just like their address, he was just in the middle when it came to birthdays.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves, their story hasn't started just yet.
When Midoriya Inko (Just Inko, please!) became pregnant, you could imagine her surprise at realizing that her neighbor, Mrs. Usagiyama Mako, had been pregnant as well.
"It's kind of silly I didn't realize, I thought you were just getting fat!"
Inko realized she had been utterly rude, but before she could apologize, Mako laughed loudly and called her husband to tell him that she had just become best friends with their neighbor. At Inko's confused expression, the husband, Mr. Usagiyama Mato, could only shrug his shoulders and give his condolences for getting his wife as her best friend.
That's how the Midoriyas and the Usagiyamas became acquaintances (Best friends if you asked Mako).
Around the sixth or seventh month of her pregnancy Inko became hyper aware of smells. That's how she realized that her other neighbor smelled like muffins, and Inko, being a curious pregnant woman —and slave to her cravings at the time— that she was, overcame her shyness for a split second and knocked on the door of her other neighbor. A blue haired beauty around her same height opened the door.
"Do you have muffins?" Were Inko's first words.
The woman, who introduced herself as Mrs. Hado Miya, said yes, and like a good samaritan, let her eat her muffins. Which led to Inko's next question.
"Why are you cooking so many muffins?"
The woman's big blue eyes blinked twice before answering. "I don't know, it's just, lately, I have been having the oddest cravings."
Inko had wide eyes because of that answer. So, as a pregnant woman, she made the connection…to pregnancy.
"Are you pregnant?" She asked innocently.
Hado Miya just tilted her head to the side and put a finger close to her chin, the image was cute enough to make Inko flush.
"Maybe I am?" Miya answered nonchalantly. That day, together, they bought a pregnancy test and as it resulted, she was indeed carrying a child.
That was how the Midoriyas became acquainted with the Hados (Just with Miya though, Mr. Hado works overseas, Inko thought "My husband too! What a coincidence!" but we all know it was not).
"So, she's the other one."
One would think that Mako was accusing Inko of cheating. Her red eyes had a glinted look that promised pain, and her usually aggressive personality shined like a diamond in a sunny desert.
"Hello~," Miyo gave the olive-skinned woman a friendly and utterly harmless smile. "Inko spoke so much about you! Can we be friends?"
"You wish!" Mako showed her teeth as a sign of aggression, her fangs (product of her quirk, Wolf) made their presence known as the back of her hair started to raise. "Inko 's mine!"
Inko, the poor woman, was blushing a storm with an awkward smile. She had a feeling that something like this could happen, especially after Mako sprayed her with some kind of liquid a few days after they met.
The greenette did not want to think of the possibility that it may have been urine, however, she could not deny the possibility that that yellow liquid was indeed piss.
Better not to think about it…at least it did not smell bad.
"Mako, dear…" at her words, Mako turned her head to Inko, and Miyo took the chance to pounce.
Literally.
"Oy! Let me go!"
She hugged Mako tightly.
"Ohh, your ears are so fluffy!"
…While playing with her ears.
"I'mma bite you!" Mako warned.
But Miyo acted first. "Nyumm!"
She cutely bit Mako's wolf ears.
"Oy oy oy!"
Even though Mako did everything in her power to get rid of Miyo, nothing worked. So Mako could only complain loudly while Miyo proceeded to hug, pet and groom her.
By the end of it, Mako was a living tomato and Miyo had a huge smile that lasted for around one week…it lasted until Mako sprayed her face with the same liquid that she had sprayed Inko before.
The greenette, looking at all of this, was only grateful that the whole meeting happened inside her apartment. Though, she would not be surprised if she got some noise complaints.
Time easily went by. The first baby to be born was Usagiyama's. She was a cute little thing with snow white rabbit ears like her father, and she had her mother's red eyed glare, sharp teeth and olive skin. They named her Rumi.
The next one to be born was Midoriya's baby, he had freckles and puffy hair like his father and his mother's green hair and pale skin. The sweet baby boy cried about anything, the reason for which his cheeks were usually red and puffed. They named him Izuku.
The last to be born was the Hado's, she was the prettiest of them all (according to Mako, at least). She was bubbly and was practically the photocopy of her mother, with periwinkle hair and eyebrows accompanied by a fair skin. Easy to laugh, to the point that it was hard to discern if she was crying or giggling. They named her Nejire.
"What the fuck."
Mako was a simple woman, she liked some people and hated some others. She liked Inko, she liked her lots, same with Miyo (She hated the fact that that woman was so lovable). And she knew, her instincts were screaming at her —as always— that their children would get along splendidly.
She just hadn't foreseen how well they would get along.
It was her turn to take care of the babies, as Inko had work to do and Miyo had to answer a social call with some old schoolmates. So she was in charge of the three brats and had the three of them together in her apartment.
Mako would admit, she was a bit annoyed that little Nejire and little Izuku kept hugging each other and that the little girl kept giving the baby boy what she could only understand as sloppy kisses all over his face.
Why did it annoy her?
Well, where was the love for her brat?!
So she decided to take matters into her own hands and took her little baby rabbit and put her in the middle of those two inside the cradle.
And then, what did her Rumi do?
She fucking flopped!
So there she was, looking at her wheat colored brat, flopping in the middle of two babies that then started to hug her as well.
And of fucking course, Nejire began to give Rumi sloppy kisses all over her face while little Izuku hugged her little rabbit tightly.
She will complain about this to Inko later, but for now, she will take pictures.
So many pictures.
Miyo put one finger on her chin and tilted her head.
"No, no, Neji-chan, listen: how will you get Izu-kun if you focus so much on Rumi-chan?"
The woman could only smile as her daughter looked at her with her big and curious blue eyes. In her chubby arms, was an equally confused Rumi. Her white rabbit ears flicked every so often while her glare was directed in one sole direction.
Rumi was looking directly at Izuku, who was trying to get to them with all his little might from the other side of the room. His short arms were flailing around while his feet were trying to find their foothold.
"See? Little Izu-kun will cry if you don't pay him attention as well." The mother explained, clearly expecting her months old daughter to understand the complexities of human social behavior.
Nejire, of course, giggled.
Oh my, how cute can you be?! She was going to gush about her daughter again when-
"Wah!"
Miyo immediately snapped, looking at the source of the sound, and found something that amazed her.
Izuku was crawling!
"Woh!"
And she snapped her head again at the new sound, only to find Rumi with her arms up, Nejire doing the same with the arm that wasn't hugging Rumi.
"Weh!"
They were cheering for him!
"Yes! Go go, Izuku!"
"Wah!"
As if understanding their support, Izuku gave a cry and his crawl became sharper and sturdier. His big green eyes spoke with conviction, screaming resolve and dreams.
"Go Go, Izuku!"
"Woh!"
"Weh!"
The carped gave way to his chubby knees and palms as he got closer.
"Just a little more!"
"Wah!"
As if understanding, Izuku's eyes became glinted and finally gave a last effort. He had arrived to the girls! And fell face first to the floor.
And started crying.
"Waaaah!"
Plop.
And Rumi immediately flopped to his side while glaring at him. "Woh!" She cheered again.
With a giggle, Nejire "flopped" to his other side while hugging him.
Miyo took many pictures.
Oh, how will those pictures come to bite Izuku in the ass in the future.
Inko giggled as little Izuku seemed to be a little overwhelmed by the girls' attention. Nejire tended to be extremely affectioned. Always rubbing her face over anything that she liked, Inko liked to think that it was the way that the baby tried to compel her affection. The targets of said affection were more often than not, little Izuku and little Rumi.
In contrast, Izuku was a hugger, he would hold tightly to any person that showed him affection, and as it was Rumi and Nejire the ones that showed him more affection than anyone else, he ended up trying to bear hug both of them.
Rumi, on the other hand, was a flopper. As Mako had explained, it was an ingrained instinct from her Quirk, Rabbit. So, the wheat colored baby would come close to those she felt safe with and liked, and then, go limb on top of them, It was the cutest thing she had ever seen!
When the three were together, it was a concurrent event to find all of them in a cuddle pie of their own making.
Right now, though, it seemed that little Izuku was at the bottom of said pile…literally.
"You two," she said to the two girls while getting the almost crying Izuku from below both of them. "Let him breathe at least."
Cue two girls crying, because, apparently, taking away their favorite toy (Her son) was a big No-No for them.
She sighed as she started manhandling the three of them into a more comfortable cuddle pie —oh, Nejire got bored of crying and started rubbing her face on Rumi's belly—, making sure that they were on top of fluffy pillows and that couldn't shift or roll around by accident —And then Rumi went limb, of course she would—. Finally she put Izuku right in the middle of both girls, who promptly gave their whole attention to her little baby boy.
Inko smiled in content, watching as her son tried to stretch his arm even farther to be able to hug both of them. Her eyes almost shined in tears at such a scene, shoulder relaxed at the image, knowing that her little cinnamon roll had two friends already.
She was happy.
Birds fly, the sun sets at the west, and time flows.
These are laws and facts, irrevocable to life. And as everything, things move on in life.
Four years have passed since the birth of the three friends, and their bond has not waivered in any matter or form, to the point that Izuku's first words were not "Mama", but "Nemi". Inko analized it enough to determine that he had tried to call Nejire and Rumi at the same time.
Every time she thinks about it, her heart flutters with happiness (and a little bit of envy. She always thought that Izuku would be a Mama's boy).
But not everything can be sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes, it rains.
Resolve was something he found painfully lacking at the moment.
Midoriya Izuku was hurting, crying and bawling. Little fists shaking in frustration as the trembling foundations of his dreams were starting to crash down to the upheaval wind that is called reality.
"Quirkless…"
Such an innocuous word was the one that worked as a stop gap. What differentiated illusions from delusions. What separated a child working for their future from a fool reaching for the impossible.
Izuku could hear All Might's laugh, echoing all around his dark room as he kept watching the video with a blurry vision, hammering every nail to his hopes. Again and again, he kept watching from beginning to end the heroic debut video of the hero that inspired everything he ever wanted.
To be able to make everyone feel safe, to be able to smile and say "Everything will be fine, because I am here."
All of that was crushed by the doctor. "You should give it up." he had said as if that was it, like his every wish and thought meant nothing.
Tears kept coming, and then he heard his door slowly screech open, hesitant steps came in — seemingly thinking that he would run away at any sudden movement.
It was his mother.
Trying…he tried once more, to ask, to question if the possibility was even possible.
Mom…can I be a hero? He said-
No, he didn't. Those words never came out of his mouth.
SNAP.
Izuku was too little to realize that something inside him broke at that moment. That some strings that were supposed to hold him had snapped. He felt it inside him. A fire, a flame that started to radiate heat, burning through his being and making him go stiff.
Quirkless.
A stop gap.
A concept.
A definition and a characterization.
In Izuku's mind, something came to a conclusion.
"Quirkless" is just a word, and his heart beated faster with an echo.
Midoriya Inko was not a brave woman.
She was not determined, nor dreamed high. She was a crying mess in the worst case scenario, a shy lady in the best ones. Some would call her weak willed and lonely. The woman thought that everyone else was right most of the time, not strong enough to defy anything presented to her.
But looking at her broken son, how he cried due to his broken dreams. His trembling bottom lip and shaky pupils, his favorite All Might video playing in the background. Something broke inside Inko. It was her fault, she wasn't good enough. Oh god, how will Mako and Miyo react? Will they care?
Would they ask to not arrange playdates with their daughter ever again?
Inko was Hyperventilating as she slowly and almost robotically walked close to Izuku. Her world was crumbling, but Izuku probably had it worse.
And then he finally spoke.
"Mom…" He said, and only then did Inko realize that in that dark room, Izuku's sniffles weren't heard anymore. Her crybaby of a son wasn't crying. "I'm going to be a hero."
That made her freeze on the spot.
It was not the words that froze her, it was the tone in which they were said. It was not a plea, there was no begging nor negotiation. There was not even the phantom shade of a denial in that sentence.
It was the conviction of those words that froze Inko.
Then Izuku turned on his chair and looked directly at her eyes. She saw something that almost took her breath away.
His face was dirty, dry tears on his cheeks that almost covered his lovely freckles. But his eyes, they were not void of hope as she had expected, neither were they empty with a broken dream. There was a gleam on them. His brow furrowed and his lip formed a thin line in determination.
There was fire in his eyes, and she would swear that for a moment, they shined in vibrant emerald in that dark room.
"Ah…ah…"
She tried to form words, but none came.
"It's okay mom," He continued and gave her a lopsided smile, challenging and almost wild. "I'm going to be a hero."
With that, he dropped off his chair, got close to her, gave her a kiss on the cheek (When had she kneeled?!) and a hug, and walked out of the room. A few seconds later, she heard the front door open.
"I'm going to play with Nejire, mom!"
And then it closed.
Inko reeled, needing a few minutes to get her thoughts in order.
Was…was that her son?
AN2: This is just a concept for now. Working on the 2nd chapter, seeing if something clicks or if it will better to add some other things to the story. Will I update? Will I not? Check up next time to find out!
AN3: If this is not the first fic from me that you're reading, like, maybe you're a long long time fan that's been waiting for me to update my other fics, then let me tell you this. Sorry. It's not that I want to abandon those fics, but honestly? They both got to a point where I'm like "So...what do I do now?" and my mind just goes blank when trying to come up with new chapters.
Believe me, I tried, but everything just gets boring in comparison to the rest of the fic. If I ever get the light bulb and think "Oh, actually, it would be cool if this happened!" then I will go back and update those stories.
Would you believe me if I said that I abstained from publishing more fics because I wasn't able to update the ones that I had published?
I have like 3 Harry Potter fics, 4 MHA fics, and 2 from Naruto. But I told myself not to publish them because not of them get farther than 2 or 3 chapters. But this one fic is the one that I love the most, with 2 of my favorite characters, Nejire and Rumi. I'm just a sucker for overbearing women. Meh. If this ever continues, it will be most likely a harem.
Hope you enjoyed it!
Adios!
