Chapter Text
Izuku opened his eyes to see a cake with 4 lit candles.
“Happy birthday Izuku!” his parents greeted him in unison.
“And we have a gift for you, sweetie!” his mother said as she handed Izuku a gift box.
“We know how much you love All Might, son. And although I’m not very fond of the man…” his mother elbowed his father on his side “...we still wanted to give you this.”
Izuku opened the box and grinned widely when he saw what was inside.
It was an All Might plushie.
“Mom! Dad! Thank you so much! I’ll treasure it forever!”
“Can I be a hero like All Might?” Izuku asked, hugging his All Might plushie.
He saw his mother look back at his father who was leaning at the door frame.
“Of course you can, sweetie,” she said as he tucked him into bed and kissed his forehead. “Goodnight.”
Izuku closed his eyes as his parents left. Just before falling asleep, he heard his parents’ voices outside the room.
“Our son is 4 years old now, Inko. He’s not showing any signs of a quirk.”
“Maybe he’s just a late boomer, Hisashi. Or he just doesn’t know how to activate it yet.”
“Regardless, we’re gonna have to get him to a quirk doctor.”
Izuku hugged his All Might plushie in his room, covering his ears from the constant arguing of his parents.
"You’re really just gonna leave us for that fucking brat?!"
"My protege shows more promise for achieving my goals. I have no use for a useless quirkless child."
Quirkless. Useless.
Its Izuku’s fault they were fighting. If he just wasn't quirkless, then maybe none of this would have happened.
"Are you really putting that above our family?!"
A few moments later, he heard the loud thud of their front door closing.
Izuku headed downstairs to their living room. He could hear the quiet sobs of her mother.
"Mom…"
She looked at Izuku with her big teary eyes.
"Oh Izuku…!" She pulls him into a tight hug.
"It'll be okay, sweetie. He may have left us but we still have each other…"
Izuku got bullied in school.
All of his classmates started making fun of him the moment the teachers announced that he was diagnosed quirkless.
Kacchan started calling him Deku. Useless.
He felt like he lost every friend he had that day.
Izuku could see his mother hurting too.
She had darker bags under her eyes, and she would often get in a bad mood.
She would come home smelling like alcohol, sometimes blood, and sometimes both.
Izuku would hear her mutter about how she hates her job, which leads him to wonder what her actual job is, but he's too afraid to ask.
One time, when his mother came home drunk, she slapped Izuku hard in the cheek. She cursed his quirklessness. She cursed about his father leaving.
The beatings became part of their daily routine. Izuku found his All Might plushie as a source of comfort. It was a reminder of times when they were still a complete family, when his parents still loved him. Those were happy times.
He would hug it tightly as he cried himself to sleep.
Everything was painful, but Izuku still loved his mother.
She would always apologize the next morning, giving him lots of hugs and kisses.
And he would always forgive her.
It was the least he could do.
One night, like any other, his mother came home smelling like blood and alcohol. Izuku took the usual beatings, but noticed that she's becoming more violent this time.
He hugged his All Might plushie, wishing that everything would just go away.
He sees his mother use her quirk to grab a cleaver from the kitchen.
Izuku’s eyes go wide.
He was suddenly laying on the ground, with his mother kneeling next to him, gripping the knife.
Izuku would never forget the expression on his mother’s face.
“M-mom…?”
He felt a sting of pain on his neck, then everything faded to black.