Archive of Our Own ^beta

Inko sneered at her son as he walked through the apartment. Of course, he knew why she was mad at him, but he wasn’t sure why it had to last all fifteen years of his life. Izuku was just glad he had a place to sleep. 

He was glad for a few things, honestly. 

One, that he had a roof over his head at night, even if what happened under the roof made him want to curl into a ball and never see the light of day again. Two, that the small apartment complex they lived in was relatively empty. It wasn’t in a terrible area, but his–mostly absent– father was more interested in how their family appeared rather than how his wife and oldest son were treating him. So he bought out the apartments on all sides of their own unit, to decrease the possibility of someone hearing Inko scream at him, when she deemed him worthy of human interaction rather than just plain abuse. Three, that where students attended high school was relatively up to the student. Four, that while he wasn’t popular in school, he was at least left alone for the most part, besides the occasional teasing from his one friend, Kacchan. He was well aware of the fact that he was stupid, and by some miracle, got into the high school of his choice. He was not going to waste the chance by getting distracted and making friends, then forgetting to study and failing out of the school.

He always did feel bad when he turned down Kacchan. He hadn’t been able to hang out with him outside of school since early middle school, and now they were in high school. He knew, of course, that Kacchan would make it into UA High. He had been very happy to learn that Izuku had also made it in. Izuku had never studied so hard for a test. He knew it was going to aid him in getting out of his house as fast as he could. He did get a little discouraged when he was taking the exam and it seemed too easy. Obviously that meant he didn’t understand anything on the test, and it all went over his head. It had worried him, but he had persisted. He was glad they didn’t send out their exact scores on the exam though. He didn’t want to know how close he came to failing. It would be one more thing his mother would use against him. 

UA Practical High School had an interesting way of teaching that no other school implemented, though he assumed it was because they kept their methods under tight wraps. They had a very independent way of teaching, letting the teachers choose the curriculum, and the students were also very independent in their learning. The institution, UA Academy, was not a private institution, but all of the entrance exams were very hard to pass, even the primary school one. The primary school was relatively normal, but it was the middle school where things got interesting. Classes started off normal for the first semester, but then quickly ramp up to high school level, and stay that way. The classes they taught at the high school were on par with college classes, and most, if not all of them also contributed to college credits. This also made it hard for people who hadn’t attended their middle school, like Izuku and Kacchan, to get into the school. 

They had a 100% graduation rate, and Izuku was not going to take any chances on getting out of his house. 

Izuku had almost made it to the hallway when he felt a hand tangling into his hair and yanking him back. He felt something in his neck crack, and he nearly cried out, but he knew that reacting verbally would make it worse for him. Instead, he bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood. 

“Where is the little twerp going? Trying to escape me? You know that’ll never happen, you fucking idiot .” His brother, Tomura, hissed “You’ll never get rid of me. I’m never going to let you live without knowing how much of a fucking disappointment you are. How much it drags us all down that you are alive. How much you damaged the rest of us by just being born. God, when will you just take a swan dive off a roof, maybe then you’ll actually find your purpose in life.”

Izuku could feel his eyes burning. Both from the pain of his brother practically pulling a handful of hair from his head, and also from the words. 

Was he right? Should he just die? Should he commit suicide? It had never occured to him before. 

—

Katsuki was at home for a couple of minutes before his mom said something about his mood. He had come home, upset that Izuku never wanted to hang out with him. He didn’t think that Izuku didn’t like him anymore, because he was more than happy to hang out with him at school, but always came up with some sort of excuse to not hang out with him after school. His mom was more than familiar with his troubles about this by now. 

“Mom, how do I ask him about it? He always says he has to get home, and that maybe we can hang out tomorrow.”

Mitsuki had a weird expression come over her face, “Go over to his place, and see if he can come over. Maybe he’ll change his mind, or his mom will say he can come over.”

With that, he was on his way. They didn’t live too far apart, which is how they became friends in the first place, in primary school. So it didn’t take more than ten minutes for him to reach the small complex the Midoriya’s lived in. They lived on the ground floor, and he quickly found their unit. 

Just as he raised his hand to knock on the door, he heard something inside. 

“It’s all your fault, Izuku! All of it! You are the reason I’m like this! If I had never had you, I would be normal!” 

Katsuki could tell it was Auntie Inko’s voice, but he was very confused as to the context. He had never heard her raise her voice like that. 

“You’re good for nothing, and I hope that you know I hate you!” She shrieked again. Katsuki felt his blood run cold, and he crouched down as he crept over to the window that looked into the living room of their apartment. As he peeked through the window, he felt like he was going to faint. 

It had been a few years since he had been inside the MIdoriya’s apartment, their shared dinners usually happening at his own house, but he knew the layout. Tomura, Izuku’s older brother, had Izuku pinned against the wall near the hallway, by his neck with one hand as he punched his other into Izuku’s stomach. Inko was watching from the couch. 

Katsuki fell out of his crouch, landing on his hands and knees under the window. He took a moment to catch his breath, collecting his thoughts. He had to help him. He couldn’t let his friend suffer like this. After a moment, still hearing Inko shriek at Izuku, and he could hear Tomura laughing, he carefully got up, and walked away from the building. 

When he got a respectable distance away, he pulled out his phone, dialing 110. It didn’t take long to get an answer. He started to speak, and had to take a deep breath to calm himself to actually make sure the lady on the phone could understand him. 

“I- I went to my friends apartment to see if he wanted to hang out, and his mother and brother- they’re choking him and hitting him! He’s fifteen! He- his brother is twenty!”

“Okay, can you please tell me the address?”

—

Yamada Hizashi was not expecting a phone call that day. It was a early Wednesday evening. He and his husband, Aizawa Shouta had had both of their children, Eri and Hitoshi for years at this point, and formally adopted both of them as soon as they were able. It was not often that he or Shouta got calls from their social worker anymore. They had not gotten into fostering for the money, only taking it up when Shouta managed to wheedle out from Hitoshi that he was being mistreated in his current foster home, when Hizashi had successfully invited him to dinner once. Eri had come after, from the same social worker, from a terrible situation.

Hitoshi was in a foster home, and mainly being neglected, with some physical abuse. Eri’s older brother was leading a small cult, and was bloodletting her and keeping her locked in a room, for who knows how long, to give offerings to whatever his cult was worshipping. They got her at the age of two, and she was four now.

They both had the same social worker, which is why they had been given a call about her. This social worker didn’t take very many field cases anymore, as he was older, and near retirement. They got a call from him every once in a while to check in on the kids, but this was a bit too soon after his last call. 

But he answered. Hizashi was standing in the kitchen, looking at the week-long menu board he had sitting on the counter. It was something they implemented when Hitoshi started to live with them, to reassure him that he had meals to look forward to, and that he was, in fact, going to be allowed to eat them. (Whenever Hizashi stopped to remember the reason why the board was implemented, he was filled with anger every time.) Hitoshi no longer struggled with making sure he was allowed to eat, but they all liked the menu board, so they decided to keep it.

“Hello, Yamagishi-san!”

“Hey, Yamada. I have a kid for you, if you’re interested. I know you two don’t want to take in a bunch of kids, and I promise this is the last one I am going to offer you. He’s the last one I’m taking on before retirement. But I figured I’d call and ask before reaching out to another family, because he is a student at the school Shouta teaches at.”

His brows furrowed at that. There were a lot of kids at the school Shouta taught at. UA Practical High School wasn’t exactly a small school, and was part of the bigger UA Academy that included the primary and middle school. He taught at the middle school, and it was pure luck that Hitoshi was in his own class, his first year of middle school. 

He could hear his family in the living room, off the kitchen. The TV was on, mainly as background noise, as he was sure Hitoshi was on his phone and Shouta was asleep, and he could hear Eri mumbling as she played with her dolls on the floor. 

“Can I hear the name of the kid?”

“Midoriya Izuku.” Came the social worker’s gruff voice. 

Hizashi dropped his phone. 

There was no way. The brightest kid in Shouta’s class, who Shouta would grumble about him being a problem child with how little he seemed to care about himself. Neither of them had ever noticed any signs of anything serious, granted Hizashi had never met the kid. Hizashi scrambled to pick his phone up and took a second to keep his voice calm before responding. 

“Can I know why he is being placed in a foster home?”

“He was taken into emergency protective custody after an anonymous call about extreme physical abuse was placed with the police, and we found extreme physical and emotional abuse. His parents and older brother have lost all chances of the possibility of the kid ever living with them again. We had a quick psych consult done here as well, and the kid seems pretty depressed. Unfortunately, I would not be surprised if he was suicidal.”

“Okay, let me just quick ask Shouta. I- okay.” Hizashi felt like a rock was in his throat. He pulled the phone from his face, and pressed the mute button and set his phone on the counter. 

“Shou, please come here.” He knew that while his husband was sleeping, it was more of a very shallow power nap. He heard a grunt, and soon heard footsteps going into the kitchen. 

When his husband saw his face, his own expression became serious, but curious. “What’s wrong?”

“Midoriya Izuku was taken into emergency protective custody, with no chance of him being returned to his biological family. Yamagishi wants to know if we will take him in. I- I just wanted to make sure you knew before…”

“Of course my answer is yes! Oh- oh my god.” Shouta looked like he was going to be sick. Hizashi unmuted his phone and brought it back to his face.

“We will take him in. Do you want us to come get him?” He asked. 

“Ah, yeah. That would be ideal. I am still wrapping up stuff with this case, and I can come check in on him in the morning.” This wasn’t normal. The social worker generally came to drop the kid off at the foster family’s house, but this wasn’t a normal situation. They already knew the kid. 

“Okay. We will be on our way then. Thank you for calling us.” He said, and Yamagishi said his goodbye, and they hung up. 

Shouta wrapped his arms around Hizashi. Hizashi did the same. He knew what his husband was thinking. If only he had seen signs earlier. But there were no signs. He didn’t get too close to anyone, and acted well enough that no one saw anything concerning to the point to ask him to go see the counsellor. 

“Okay, we need to tell the kids. Just remember, he is going to be somewhere safe now.” He said, and Shouta nodded, pulling back from him.

Shouta walked to the living room, while Hizashi went to grab his keys. 

“Hey, Hitoshi?” Shouta got the attention of his son. 

“What’s up, dad?” He asked, looking up from his phone. 

“Can you watch Eri for a little while? Zashi and I are going to go pick up a kid. We just got a call about… Midoriya. He is coming to stay with us.”

Hitoshi raised his eyebrows, and nodded. He had only met him recently, as he was switched to the same homeroom just a few weeks ago. 

“Is he okay?”

Shouta sighed, his eyes closing. Hitoshi could tell, by how pale his dad seemed to have gotten in the last fifteen minutes, that the answer was probably a ‘no’.

“I don’t think he will be for a while, but at least he is going to be in a better situation.” Is the answer Shouta gave, and it was what he was telling himself over and over in his head.

—

Getting to the police station felt like it took days. In reality, it was probably twenty minutes. When they got there, both of them rushed inside. It didn’t take long to see where Midoriya was sitting, swinging his feet. Yamagishi was standing near him, talking with a couple police officers. One of them Shouta recognized as Detective Tsukauchi. When they walked closer, Yamagishi turned to them.

“Ah, wonderful of you two to make it here so quickly. Midoriya, you will be staying with these two.”

Midoriya stood up, staring at them with wide eyes. “Aizawa-sensei?” 

Shouta pulled him into a tight hug. “Kid, please, you need to tell someone about the bad things that happen to you.” 

Hizashi wrapped his arms around both Midoriya and Shouta. Midoriya looked like he was going to cry. Yamagishi was happy at least someone was able to pull some emotion out of the kid. He hadn’t been able to get much out of him. 

—

The next morning, Izuku woke up on his own. He had ingrained in his brain to wake up earlier than both his mother and brother, in order to get ready and get out of the house, wether it be to school or to the library. He never dared to eat what was in the house, and on the weekends the older librarian sometimes would give him some snacks.

He didn’t recognize the ceiling of the room he was in, and it took a solid thirty seconds of laying stock still in the bed before remembering the events of yesterday. They had gotten back late after everything with the social worker and the police department, he was told that they had two other kids in the house, but he had not met them yet.

The room was bland, as it had been a guest room before he came to stay here. He was told that he was going to be allowed to decorate it however he wanted, and they would go shopping for stuff soon. That seemed stupid to him, but he would ask about it later.

He knew it was early, and he knew there was no chance of him falling asleep again, so he decided to get a start on his day. He still had school today.

Izuku remembered the conversation Aizawa-sensei had with him yesterday, making sure to let him know that he was welcome in all rooms of the house, of course knocking on other’s bedroom doors. 

Not bothering to get dressed, feeling like he could trust his teacher enough not to scold him for not being ready so early, he stepped out of his room. 

The hallway was quiet, but he could smell coffee. Someone must be up. Izuku felt his body lock up again, in fear of someone seeing him and grabbing him. It took a minute, but after enough deep breaths, and repeating ‘No one in this house is going to hurt you’ like a mantra, he started to trek out of the hallway and towards the kitchen. 

He peeked into the kitchen, to see who was awake before he revealed himself, and immediately gave himself away.

“Aiyama?” 

Both Aiyama Hitoshi and Aizawa-sensei were in the kitchen, leaning against the counter and drinking coffee.

Now that he was thinking about it, Aizawa’s husband said his name was Yamada Hizashi, and if they had a kid together, merging their last names made sense. 

“Hey, Midoriya.” Hitoshi said, lifting his mug to his lips.

“Hey, kid. How did you sleep?” Aizawa asked.

“I slept well, Aizawa-sensei.” 

“Ah, none of that. Just Shota at home, please.” He said, offering a small smile. Izuku nodded, and he kept speaking. “Why are you up so early? Are you hungry?”

“I… it’s a habit to get out of the house before anyone else was awake. And no, I don’t eat breakfast.”

“Don’t eat breakfast by choice or necessity?” Hitoshi asked, “Also, you can call me Hitoshi, if I could call you Izuku?”

Izuku nodded at Hitoshi, taking a moment to answer the heavier question. “By necessity.”

He nodded, and Shota made a pinched expression.

“Well, if you look at that menu over by the fridge, you’ll see we have a weekly menu of what our meals are going to be. Of course, if you’re craving something, papa doesn’t mind changing it. But I found it really helped me out when I first came here. I think it’ll help you out as well.”

Izuku could feel his eyes start to water. He hadn’t spoken to Hitoshi much since he had been transferred to their class, but granted he didn’t really talk to anyone. Looking over to the menu, he saw that they were having rice, miso soup, tamagoyaki, and boiled vegetables. It was written in a way that every part of the meal was written out. 

“O-okay. Thank you.” He said, and lifted a hand to wipe away a stray tear. 

“Toshi, do you wanna go to your room for a bit, I want to talk to Izuku.” Shota said. Hitoshi nodded, stopping to refill his coffee, before disappearing down the hallway.

Shota waved over to the table, and Izuku followed, sitting across from him. He was nervous.

“I just want to talk to you one-on-one for a sec, and also let you know what the plans are for today.” When Izuku nodded, he continued. “Today, we have an appointment with the pediatrician for you, to see where you are with immunizations, and overall. After that, we are going to go out for ice cream, as a family, because we know this is all a lot to happen in such a short amount of time, and ice cream will make you feel a little better. How are you feeling?”

“Am I not going to school today?”

“No, we pulled you, Toshi, and Eri out of school today. If you feel up to it, you can go back tomorrow.”

“I can’t miss a day of school, I’ll fall behind! I feel like I can barely keep up now! I’m not as smart as the rest of my classmates! I know that Kacchan and I are two of the three in the class who didn’t already attend UA Middle, and I’m nowhere near as smart as Kacchan or Ururaka!” Izuku worked himself into a panic, already thinking about the notes he was going to miss, and how he was probably going to flunk out of the school.

Shota raised his eyebrows at the reaction. This reaction and the test scores did not match up to each other. He knows that Izuku was the top scorer on every test that his class had taken, including the entrance exam. He scored above the kids who had attended UA since primary school. He was always the first to answer questions in class, and he had seen the notes in the kid’s notebook when passing by his desk. 

He had a feeling that this wasn’t him studying to keep up, and not to fail out. This was insecurity from living in a hostile situation.

“Don’t worry, Izuku. I will make sure to get you a copy of the material they went over in today’s classes. You don’t need to fret over it. I won’t let you fall behind.” He said softly, and at his words, Izuku seemed to be calming himself.

“Can you tell me how you’re feeling with what’s going on? With coming to live here?”

“I… I feel fine. I feel more relaxed than I did living with my mother. Though… I’ve heard that foster kids don’t stay anywhere for long, and that they should never get comfortable. So why do we have to go shopping to decorate the room I’m staying in?”

“Oh.. Izuku, we don’t- Zashi and I don’t foster to get the money. We- you are our third foster kid. We foster to adopt, and you’re the last kid we’re taking in. We plan to do the same thing for you that we did with Toshi and Eri. That room is your room, permanently. You’re here to stay, as long as that is what you want.”

“Oh. I see. Well… that would be nice, I guess.” Izuku wasn’t too sure how to react. He wasn’t sure what a loving family was like. “Can… can I have a hug? I haven’t had one of those in a while.”

Shota felt like his heart was breaking. This poor kid- his poor kid, having to live through such a rough life. He nodded, and stood up, opening his arms. Izuku also stood up, walking around the table to bury his face in his chest. Shota closed his arms around him, and closed his eyes, not wanting to cry.

“Can I join in on this hug?” Hizashi’s voice sounded from the other side of the kitchen. Izuku flinched, but lifted his head up, and saw Hizashi, who was holding a very sleepy Eri. He nodded shyly.

“Sweet. This is Eri, she’s your new little sister.” He said, and wrapped his free arm around Izuku while leaning into his husband. Eri waved a hand at Izuku, then buried her head into Hizashi’s neck. 

—

Izuku felt out of place at the doctors office. They had gone as a family, but Hitoshi and Eri stayed in the waiting room, Eri effectively entertained by the toys they offered.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had been in a doctors office. Once he was about four, his mother stopped taking him. Any injury he had, he had to patch up himself. He was lucky enough to not have anything too serious.

Now here they were, Izuku sitting on the weird cot table, and his guardians(dads?) in the chairs, waiting for the doctor to come into the room. Thankfully, it didn’t take long, and there was a soft knock on the door. 

A woman came from around the door. She had soft brown hair that was a little below shoulder length, and she was tall. 

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you, Izuku. My name is Shirakawa Tooru. You may call me Dr. Tooru. I understand this is your first visit for quite a while?” She introduced herself while closing the door behind her, and walked to the doctor seat, and logged into the computer.

“Yes, ma’am. I don’t know the last time I was taken to a doctor.” Izuku answered, playing with his fingers.

“Well, luckily you were taken to a clinic in our medical system, so we do have all of your records. It does look like you’ll need a few shots today, as well as a blood draw. How do you feel about that?” She said, turning to look at Izuku.

“Ah.. that’s fine. I should get those updated.” Izuku nodded, and she smiled at him. She turned a little to address both Izuku and his guardians.

“Nice to see you two again. The nurse told me that you recently took Izuku into your home? And that Izuku was pulled from where he lived due to abuse?”

“Yes, we are fostering him, and will be adopting him as soon as we are able.” Hizashi spoke, clutching Shouta’s hand. He was very protective over his kids. Sure, he had just met Izuku last night, but he had been hearing about him since the start of the school year. Izuku was his kid, and no one was going to take him from him. 

“Alright. That sounds like a wonderful plan. Izuku, how do you feel about that?”

“It sounds nice. It sounds a little too good to be true, but that is something I will need to work on. I know that life is not supposed to be like how it was with my mother.”

Dr. Tooru nodded, and spoke again. “Izuku, you’re a little underweight. Do you have any issues eating?”

Izuku shook his head, his face flushing a little. “No. I was not allowed to eat in the house. I usually was only able to eat lunch on the weekdays, and then the nice librarian at the library would give me snacks sometimes on the weekends.”

Hizashi squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep the tears from falling. He was underweight, and most definitely malnourished. 

“I did have breakfast for the first time in years, today, though. That was nice. It was very good. And we’re getting ice cream after this.” Izuku could feel a smile on his face from the memory of breakfast. It was fun. It felt right. The five of them were at the table, talking, and enjoying the company of each other. Eri was finally awake enough to introduce herself to him, and had all kinds of questions for him, which he had no issue entertaining her.

“I see. That’s good, I’m glad you’re enjoying food, and that you’re looking forward to it. We see sometimes that when people don’t have healthy access to food, they can develop eating disorders. That isn’t something we want you to develop, so keep the great attitude you have! Now, I do apoligize, but I need to ask some hard questions.” She said, and Izuku nodded to her.

She grabbed her notepad and pen, and turned fully to Izuku. “Can you–and you don’t need to be detailed, I just want to know so I know what I need to possibly look out for–can you tell me what you experienced, when I ask?” Izuku nodded to her question, and she spoke again.

“Did you experience physical abuse? If so, where?”

“Yes. Usually just grabbing, pushing, punching, pinching, and kicking. Occasionally I would be choked, and yesterday my brother grabbed me by my hair and I felt something in my neck crack.”

Hizashi felt tears fall down his cheeks, and he felt a little nauseous. But he was going to stay here. He needed to support his kid. His son. Shouta was clutching onto his hand like a lifeline, and he was fighting tears himself.

Dr. Tooru took a moment to respond after that, writing it down on her notepad. “Any emotional or mental abuse?”

“Um… yeah. My mom hates me because her pregnancy with me was hard, and she ended up having me a couple months early, so I was in intensive care for a while. She said it effected her so much, and that she hates me for it. Both her and my brother said I’m worthless, and that I’m stupid, and that I’ll always be pathetic. My brother also told me to kill myself yesterday.”

Her head snapped up at the last part. “Do you have any suicidal thoughts, ideation, or thoughts of self harm?”

“Not that I… know of? It had never really occurred to me before. I was very focused on surviving.”

“Okay. Well, that’s good. We want you here, happy and healthy. If you ever get those thoughts, please let either Aizawa or Yamada know immediately. I have another hard question. Have you ever experienced sexual abuse?”

“No.”

—

Bakugo Katsuki was anxious. He had called his mother immediately after getting off the phone with the police, sobbing over the phone that Izuku was getting abused. He felt weird being the one who was crying. Izuku was always the cryer between the two of them. He was just so shocked, the information upsetting him so much. He couldn’t do anything but cry. 

Mitsuki was quick to pick him up, telling him that he shouldn’t be around when the police came. That he didn’t need to see it. 

He went to school the next day, unsure if he’d see his best friend, but hoping he would.

He didn’t, and it didn’t make him feel better. He lasted until the lunch bell rang, dismissing them from class. He walked to Nemuri-sensei, who was covering Aizawa-sensei’s classes today.

“Nemuri-sensei, do you know where Midoriya is, today?”

“He was pulled out of school for the day.” She said, though Katsuki could tell that she knew more.

“I… I was the one who called the police on his mom last night. I just want to make sure he’s okay. Do you know who he’s staying with?”

She sighed, and offered a kind smile. “I’ll get ahold of his guardians, and see if he is feeling up to having a visitor after school.”

“Okay. If he is okay with it, make sure to tell them that my mom would be coming. She’s worried sick over him.”

—

Izuku was very happy to get his ice cream after the appointment. His arms were sore from getting shots, and he had a bulky bandage on his hand from getting his blood drawn, which he should be able to take off soon. He felt a little drained from the nearly hour long appointment. 

It was made better by the massive cup of cookies-n-cream ice cream with sprinkles he was awarded though. 

They were now back home, ice cream long gone. They had said they would go shopping either tomorrow, or Saturday if he decided he wanted to go to school tomorrow. Now, Izuku laid in his room.

He was sitting in silence. He didn’t have a phone, his mom never deemed him important enough to have one. It wasn’t anything he wasn’t used to. But he felt empty, somehow. His life had always been so full of panic, always keeping vigilant. And now he wasn’t doing any of that. 

His thoughts were starting to turn depreciating, but he was interrupted by a knock on his door. He flinched just a little, but knocks weren’t even a thing at his mothers, so that kept him calm. 

“Come in.” 

The door flung open, and Kacchan was there. He looked scared. 

“K-Kacchan? What are you-“

“I was so fucking worried about you!” He said. It was odd. Kacchan was usually so loud, but he was nearly whispering. 

Izuku couldn’t stop the tears. He started to cry. Kacchan rushed forward to pull him into a hug, and Izuku clung to him. 

When he eventually calmed down, they were laying next to each other in bed. 

“‘M sorry for never agreeing to hang out with you after school.”

“You fucking twerp, I don’t blame you. You had shit going on at home.”

“How do you even know about that.”

“I called the police. I came over to see if you wanted to hang out and… I saw Tomura… I saw him choking you.” He said, tightening his arms around Izuku.

“I’m sorry you had to see that.” Izuku replied, unsure what to say in this situation. 

“Are you up to see my mom? She’s worried about you.”

Izuku nodded. He liked Mitsuki. She was always nice to him. 

They made their way out to the living room, where Shouta, Hizashi, and Mitsuki were. Mitsuki shot up out of her seat when she saw Izuku. She blinked at him a couple times, her hands opening and closing. Then, she opened her arms, and Izuku couldn’t help himself. He rushed to her, and buried himself in her arms, wrapping his own around her waist. 

“Oh, Izuku, baby. I’m so sorry you didn’t feel safe enough to tell anyone. It’ll be okay. They’re going away for a long time, and you’ll never have to see them again. You’ll be safe here.”

Izuku nodded, and pulled back, wiping at his eyes. 

Mitsuki chewed at her lips for a moment before pulling Izuku back into a quick hug, then let him go. “Okay. I need to stop smothering him.”

Izuku had a wobbly smile on his face. Mitsuki and her semi-aggressive caring tendencies always made him feel better. He moved back over to the edge of the room, where Kacchan was standing.

Mitsuki turned to Shouta and Hizashi, and sat back on the couch. “I’m sure the adoption process will go faster with all the evidence against her. Don’t worry about any court or lawyer fees. I will pay for everything. It’s the least I can do. I should’ve noticed something was going on earlier. God- she’s such a good liar.”

Izuku could tell. His life wasn’t over, but it was staring over. He was getting a second chance. The chance he deserved.