Midoriya Izuku.
Midoriya.
Izuku.
Izuku.
The name feels gentle in her mouth as her lips curve around it. It feels like comfort, and tastes like iron and what she imagines the purest love must. She smiles every time she thinks it, and giggles whenever she gets the chance to speak it. Whenever she'd heard the other kids at school talk about the strange boy who was there when Ingenium was attacked, it made her heart flutter a little bit. She'd recognized him immediately, even if nobody else had.
Izuku. Her first friend. Her best friend, even if they haven't seen each other in years. Not since their secretive meetings in the alley by her apartment. They had had so much fun playing together one last time before her asshole dad beat her bad enough to put her in the hospital. By the time she was released, her best friend had disappeared without so much as a goodbye. She wouldn't have made her dad angry if she'd known it would make her lose Izuku.
She doesn't blame him, of course. She's pretty sure he had helped kill her dad back then, and is 100% certain that he made sure that she wouldn't be hurt ever again, so it only makes sense that he had to leave after that. She wishes he would come back, though. As nice as her current foster home is, she still daydreams about Izuku coming to steal her away to go live with him and his family instead.
Living with her bestest friend in the whole wide world would be nice, she thinks. Even if he does kill people. It's not something she's wanted to do since she got placed in this foster home, but she did think about it a lot when she was living with her dad, and when she was in the group home, and then when she ran away and lived by herself for a year. She doesn't really want to do it anymore, but if he asked she'd be willing to do it for him.
You'd be such a cool hero, he'd told her once. He didn't know anything about her quirk back then, and she had wanted to make sure it had stayed that way so she hadn't corrected him. She hadn't told him about how she sometimes dreamed of what his blood would taste like if she took the chance to sink her teeth into his flesh. She still thinks about the way his eyes would light up and his cheeks would flush so deliciously when they played heroes together, fighting bad guys and monsters made of trash and scaring away the occasional rat. The way he smiled at her made her want to believe that he really would have thought she could be a hero, even if he had found out why there were blood stains behind the dumpster. She was just lucky that Izuku had never come to play while she was busy draining the blood from the birds and stray animals she managed to catch.
She wonders if he still wants to be a hero. Maybe he's playing make believe with someone new now.
Himiko leans back in her chair with a heavy sigh, eyes cast towards the textured ceiling. She considers the small water stain in the corner of her room and frowns, thinking about how so not cute it is. She wishes they'd let her paint the room pink, but since it's supposed to be a temporary space they keep saying no. Her hands tap unsteadily where they lay, stretched in front of her and lovingly tracing the pages of the notebook where she's glued the pictures she'd painstakingly printed from the kiosk at the local convenience store. They're all of Izuku, shots from the video that she had screen grabbed on the hand-me-down laptop her foster parents had gifted her when she started at her new school.
Izuku had been the bait, everybody liked to claim. She didn't bother defending him since nobody is really supposed to know that she knew him. She figures he probably wouldn't be very happy if she started telling everyone that he and his (maybe?) dad had killed her dad.
She keeps his missing poster in her bedside table drawer. It's been folded and unfolded so many times that the creases across his smiling face look more like scars. One wrong move would tear it into a dozen different pieces, so she always makes sure to handle it carefully whenever she pulls it out. She's had it since the third night they played together, and it's one of her most treasured possessions.
She'd found the missing poster stapled to a lamp post while out running errands, body still sore from the beating she'd received the night before. The bandages her new friend had dressed her wounds with had been itching beneath her shirt. She had stared at it for a long, long time before silently pulling it down and tucking it away in her bag. Help bring him home, the text beneath his picture had pleaded. She never said a word, though. After all, she knows better than anyone else that sometimes anywhere is better than being home with someone who didn't love you like they should. If he had actually wanted to go back home, he would have said something. Probably.
Either way, it's too late now. His face is all over the internet and the news, tying him to the attack on Ingenium. Painting him as part of the plan. No take-backsies anymore! Lots of people are praising the ingenuity of the tactic. Even more are calling for both their heads to be placed on pikes. Himiko always makes sure to click the dislike button on those sorts of comments.
She thinks about the blood that stained the concrete a dark, dark red when Izuku's dad sliced clean through Ingenium's legs. She thinks about the dark brown stains on Izuku's clothes. It makes her mouth water and her cheeks flush in a way that doesn't have anything to do with the mind numbing hunger she used to feel. She's pretty sure it doesn't make her a bad person.
She hasn't felt the urge to drain anyone since she was brought to this foster home. They specialize in "special cases" and "difficult quirks." Her foster dad is a quirk counselor and her foster mom is a pediatric nutritionist. It's sort of the perfect combination, and she can't deny that their careful control of her diet to make sure she's getting all the iron and B-12 and whatever other things her quirk makes her body crave like a drug has taken the edge off.
She still likes the look of it, though. Sometimes, she still craves the warm feeling of it running down her chin, squishing between her fingers, and sliding down her throat. The smell. The taste. Even the sight! It all satisfies some lurking beast deep inside her in a way food and supplements never can. It makes her mind hazy, her heart elated, and her brain finally quiet from its constant spiral of relentless noise.
She sometimes wonders if it's her quirk's way of making sure it's used, or if deep down there's just something wrong with her. Maybe something inside her brain or her soul got twisted before she ever even entered the world.
During that year on the streets, she sank her teeth into human flesh for the first time. Human blood had filled her mouth and overwhelmed every one of her senses. It had been like nothing she'd ever felt before. No cat or pigeon or rat could ever hope to compare.
And then, she discovered the full scope of her quirk.
It had been thrilling, relieving, to finally know that her cravings had a purpose. Her quirk hadn't turned her into a monster just for the sake of it. She'd cried that first time she tasted human blood, and kept on crying as a new skin grew and sloughed off, overcome by a rush of emotions. Then, she'd gorged herself. She scoured the streets for drunks and addicts passed out behind dumpsters, or the victims of muggings gone wrong. The feeling of her body changing, her stomach full, and her quirk finally allowed to do what it was always meant to…. It was exhilarating.
But not sustainable. All it took was one do-gooder taking note of her ragged old clothes and dirty hair and the blood beneath her fingernails before she was being dragged to the police station, and then to another group home. It didn't take long for them to get tired of dealing with her, and then she had been placed with her foster family.
Oh well. She is as happy as she can be here, anyway. There's worse places she could have ended up, so she's not going to start complaining any time soon.
"Hey," a voice calls from the doorway, breaking her out of her thoughts. Her head snaps towards it with a wide smile already in place. To his credit, her foster brother doesn't so much as blink. He's been here for forever, and is used to the weirdos.
"Are you almost ready to go? If you make me late to school again I'll make you walk off a bridge."
"Stop being so extra, To-chan! I'm ready."
It's hard not to laugh at him and his dramatics. She snaps her notebook closed and tucks it into her backpack, hiding her best friend away once again. To-chan makes a face.
"Stop calling me that. It's stupid!"
"You're stupid, so that means it's perfect for you!"
"You're the stupid one!" he shoots back, the tips of his ears burning bright red. She giggles, hiding sharp teeth behind the soft skin of her palm.
"Oh, don't forget about tonight," she says as they step out into the brisk morning air, sidestepping his half hearted swipe at her book bag. He stumbles a little, but catches himself before he falls. She's a little disappointed.
"What's tonight?" he asks, blinking big droopy eyes. He looks like he hasn't slept yet this week, blood vessels burst and seeping red into his sclera. She thinks it compliments the pretty purple of his irises.
"I've got those stupid extra lessons, so you'll have to walk home on your own."
"I don't get why you have to do them," To-chan complains. "You already know all about your quirk. They're just teaching you stuff you already know!"
They're teaching her more than that, but she isn't supposed to tell anyone that. She thinks it's cute how he doesn't want to walk home alone. It's kind of nice to have someone who knows all about her and is still willing to hang around. He probably feels the same way. After all, they both know the pain of friends and family rejecting them because of their quirks. She just wishes that Izuku was here with them, too. She thinks he and To-chan would be great friends. She wouldn't mind sharing.
.
The cat's favorite pastime is walking over Chizome's face at ass o'clock in the morning any time he comes home on his days off. It's only by dumb luck that he hasn't killed her yet, because when he jolts awake thinking they're being attacked, he starts swinging the knife he keeps underneath his pillow pretty indiscriminately. Izuku had learned that unfortunate lesson back when he was eight, and has the scar along the length of his forearm as a permanent reminder.
"Izuku," he growls, and the kid grumbles and rolls over on his own futon, doing his best to ignore Chizome in favor of another few hours of sleep. The cat has settled on the floor in the space left between them, breaths wheezy as it stares at him with unblinking eyes. They glint in the darkness and he swears he sees them narrow suspiciously at him. If he didn't know better, he'd almost say it was daring him to try something. After a few seconds of intense staring, it sneezes. He recoils as he feels something wet hit his face and his hand tightens instinctually around the hilt of his knife.
He scowls and reminds himself that he's the one who said Izuku could keep it. He doesn't like to go back on his promises when he can help it, especially since she seems to make the kid happy. It's useful to have her on hand considering there's very little else he's able to leverage over Izuku with all their belongings scattered as ashes in the wind, but this cat is testing his resolve.
"She's just playing," Izuku mumbles in response to Chizome's warning growl, voice muffled due to the fact he's currently laying face down, practically smothering himself in his pillow. "Just ignore her and she'll leave you alone."
"If you don't get this thing under control, she's going back outside."
That gets his attention, and Izuku jolts upright and scrambles to untangle himself from his blankets.
"You wouldn't!" he gasps, scandalized by the thought as he scoops the scrappy little beast up and cradles her like a baby. "Nikko is too gentle to be outside!"
Though he can't make it out in the darkness, Chizome's seen this happen enough times in the daylight to know that the cat has gone stiff, ears pinned back and claws out. He's really not sure what Izuku sees in the grouchy little thing, but the kid keeps insisting she's worth the trouble.
With a groan, he pushes himself to his feet, stretching his arms high above his head. The first grey hint of dawn wavers through the slats of the boarded up window, and that's good enough for him.
"Since you're up now, we're doing morning training."
"What?! No!"
"Actions have consequences, and since your cat woke us both up you're the one who has to pay for it."
"But I was having such a good dream," Izuku moans, burying his face in the cat's ratty fur. She meows, not terribly happy with the treatment but not yet miserable enough to start clawing and biting in an effort to escape his coddling. Chizome rolls his eyes and turns away.
"If you do well I'll let you take a nap after lunch."
Those are guaranteed to be the magic words every time. Without further complaint (at least none that are audible) he places the cat gently back on the ground. Izuku heads towards the genkan and begins pulling on his shoes. He seems to struggle with it, and Chizome grimaces; looks like he'll have to buy new shoes for the kid sooner than he'd anticipated. That's the third pair he's outgrown this year.
Chizome tosses his hoodie at him, which Izuku catches with one hand and pulls over his head in one smooth move. Chizome checks that the 'Parenting Teens for Dummies' book he'd borrowed from his boss's personal library is still tucked away in his bag before he scoops it up and fishes the key out of his pocket to unlock the internal padlock on the door. Izuku steps to the side, waiting impatiently for permission to cross the threshold into the cold predawn air.
Chizome gestures him forward and as Izuku trots towards the training ground, Chizome sits down heavily, cross legged on the engawa. His knees creak and he wonders if he should add yoga or some shit like that to their morning routine. The life they lead isn't particularly kind to the joints, and he's certainly not getting any younger. He's sure that Izuku would also appreciate still having full use of his knees when he reaches twenty. The added flexibility wouldn't hurt either, and the kid needs every advantage he can get.
The cat settles herself several feet away, watching him with those unblinking eyes. Probably wanting her breakfast in a bowl instead of hunting for it. She's become a lazy little thing, too used to getting nibbles of egg and fish from Izuku's plate or her kibble. He's positive that she's gained several pounds since he was last at the house two weeks ago.
She meows. He resolutely ignores her.
Sorry this chapter is late and shorter than usual. I've been having a really bad case of writer's block and lack of motivation for this fic, so I want to thank everyone who's read, favorited/bookmarked, and especially those of you who left reviews! They really are the things that kept me going.
I've made the decision that I'm going to split this fic up into two parts. Once we hit the canon timeline that's going to be part two, that way this fic doesn't become a 100 chapter behemoth lol.
Feel free to find me on tumblr at daboyau if you ever want to ask questions or chat. You can also join the discord!
We have fun there.
Shout out to to my incredible beta, Shaegal! She has done so much for me and this story, and her support and enthusiasm has been such a bright spot in my life.