Chapter Text
Izuku carefully edges his way into the house, arms full of groceries, and gently shuts the door with his hip, hoping he won’t hear his mother yelling at him for making a racket. The house is empty though, which means she must be out. He doesn’t think gambling, but it’s heavily implied in his thoughts.
Izuku’s father died when he was six, a fairly famous rescue hero who worked heavily abroad and who was gone more than he was home. They were given his life insurance after he died in the line of duty, a rather large amount of money, as well as the pension from his agency he helped build from the ground up. A gift from his partners in the agency to ensure they wouldn’t want for much.
Adrift, his mother had done the best she could. Used some of it to buy a small, but modest house and paid it off so they wouldn’t have to keep renting. Most she set aside and the rest she used for bills and other necessities.
The whole family had been supportive of her: uncles and aunts, cousins galore, his grandparents from both sides, all flocked to them to offer aid. Inko soaked it up, basking in the attention. But eventually, the attention faded and she was left a hero’s widow with a quirkless son.
Needless to say, things started to go downhill not long after the attention started to fade. Not needing to really work, she spent most of her days doing whatever she felt like. Resentment started to curdle in her chest as she had to take care of Izuku, a disappointment of a child and a reminder of what she lost, Izuku looking a lot like his father.
The first lessons started around his eighth birthday.
It was small at first. Helping with cleaning the house and other chores soon morphed into Izuku doing all the cleaning. She didn’t care about his excuses of not being able to reach, or not having the supplies needed to clean. It was his job now to keep the house clean and he needed to figure out how to do it without her babying him.
So he did. She kept a small stash of petty cash that she used for groceries and other expenses, so Izuku would take a little from it and buy what he needed. He made a list of chores and a schedule to keep on task. And he kept the house clean, even if he was tired from school, or hurting from bullies. Even if it meant having to stay up late to study or complete homework, he did it. His mother just wanted to help him survive the world. He needed to know how to do this.
When it became clear he could handle the cleaning, she added more: grocery shopping, laundry, picking things up for her, learning to cook, it all piled up until he was doing pretty much everything except for a few things she kept for herself.
When he was nine, she gave him his first cellphone. Mainly because if she needed him to get her something, she’d have to wait until he got home from school to do it. This way, she could just text him and he’d get it on the way home. Convenience was her driving force.
Six months after getting the phone, he met Aizawa Shouta, his dad’s half-brother. It was amazing to meet him and his husband Yamada Hizashi. When Izuku asks why he’d never met them before, Aizawa explained that he’d had a falling out with most of the family. He wouldn’t say what it was, but that he didn’t interact with them much, if at all.
His uncle had a busy life, but they tried to meet up when they could. Just before his tenth birthday, Kacchan and his cronies broke his phone, smashing it under a heavy foot with an added explosion, too. Shamefaced, he was forced to tell his mother his phone broke, though not how it broke. She yelled at him of course, said she wouldn’t get him a new one if he was just going to break it.
Unable to inform his uncle, Izuku sent the man an email from the school computers that his phone broke and he wouldn’t be able to call or text him for a while. Aizawa set up a meeting and gave Izuku a new phone, the man saying he wanted to keep in contact.
When his mother found out about the new phone, she blew up. Demanded to know where he got it from? Did he steal it? Did he steal money for it? When he explained about meeting up with his uncle and the man giving it to him, she went quiet and then grabbed his arm, dragging him to his room to lock it from the outside. She hadn’t felt the need to lock his door like this in a while.
He couldn’t hear what exactly she said on the phone call to his uncle, but it was loud and full of a lot of curse words. The next morning he was let out of his room to make breakfast for her and she told him sharply to stay away from Aizawa. Thankfully, she didn’t take away his new phone and he quickly changed Aizawa’s phone number to a different name. Just in case she went looking through it.
It wasn’t long after that that the bullying worsened, both by his peers and even the teachers. Izuku suddenly started getting low scores on tests he knows he did well on. When he checks his answers, he finds them erased, a blank rather than a wrong answer, or some even written in someone else’s handwriting with the wrong answer.
Unfortunately, his grades start to drop. Which means his homeroom teacher calls his mother to inform him about his poor grades. That was a bad night all around. It was a Friday in late November. It wasn’t expected to snow, but the cold was severe and people were warned to not stay outside for too long.
She locked him out of the house, taking his keys and shoved his book bag at him. Telling him he better study up and get those grades up, or this would happen more often. Freezing with just a thin hoodie on, he hadn’t known what to do. He didn’t even have his phone, the device still charging beside his bed.
Shivering, he’d looked around and found the old shed in the back of the house. Neither of them did yard work. That was one of the few things she didn’t make him do, that would involve having to buy the equipment to do it. So instead she arranged for a crew to come by twice a month to maintain the yard. So the shed was mostly empty except for some odd bits of furniture and some boxes of old stuff.
He’d managed to scrounge up an old blanket from one of the boxes, curling up under it, leaving no part out. As the wind howled that night, he’d barely managed to stay just warm enough, though he didn’t sleep, too busy shivering. She’d let him in the next morning, not even asking where he slept and pointed towards his room. He spent the rest of the weekend studying. He also started to write his answers in pen which is much harder to change than pencil. His grades eventually went up, but the lesson was learned.
The gambling started six months back. It was small at first, just a few bets here and there, money spent on machines. Then she started to go bigger, having him deliver money to scary men in smoke filled bars with a note on her bet. It got to the point where cigarette smoke didn’t even bother him anymore.
She got in too deep though, made a few bad bets and suddenly, most of the cushy money she had was gone. But rather than get a job to recover her money, or just stopping the gambling, she had Izuku get a job, running messages for those same shady guys. Most of the money went to her, but a few bills were specifically for him, tucked into his pocket by a few of the kinder men there.
And now, they’re here. Izuku spends what little time he has between school, taking care of the house, cooking meals and studying, running messages for criminals. He’s not stupid, even if he’s only twelve. It doesn’t take a genius to realize his mom’s in too deep, but what can he do. He’s just a quirkless kid.
His uncle asks how he’s doing a lot and he always lies, saying he’s fine. If none of the rest of the family, who come by often enough to have seen him doing a lot of the work around the house haven’t said a word, he doubts his uncle will.
Putting the groceries away, Izuku checks his mental schedule for the chores and starts on the floors. No need to make her angry by not doing his daily tasks. After that, he makes dinner. Something simple that will reheat easy since he has no idea when she’ll be back. Once all that is done, he grabs his own bowl and heads to his room to study.
The walls are bare. What hero posters and figurines he’d collected as a child long since taken away and shredded, or thrown out. All he has is a bed, a dresser and a desk with a clunky old laptop on it that used to belong to his dad. He’d found it stuffed in a box when he was cleaning. He’d taken it for his own, managing to figure out the password, his birthday, and use it as his own. His mother never commented on it, so he kept it.
It’s nearly midnight when he hears the front door bang open, Izuku sitting up. His mother’s soft, drunken giggles announcing who is in the house. Sliding out, he comes out and sees her dropping her things all over the floor, muddy shoe prints all over his freshly cleaned floor.
He gets her settled on the couch before rushing about cleaning up her things, shutting and locking the door, and starting to heat up her dinner. Once it’s ready, he hands it to her than spends the time as she eats cleaning up the muddy foot prints and wipes down her shoes.
She tosses the dishes at him and then stumbles her way to her room. Once the kitchen is clean once again, Izuku peeks into her room to see her passed out on the bed, half under the blankets. Sighing, he walks in quietly and sets a glass of water on her bedside table and puts some aspirin next to it before he goes back to bed himself.
He gets up the next morning and does as he usually does: making breakfast for both of them. He knows by now what she wants when she comes home drunk, so he makes food for her and then a quick breakfast for himself and heads back to his room. It’s a long weekend, so he doesn’t have school today, but that doesn’t mean he stops studying.
He hears his mother get up and grab the breakfast he left for her warming in the oven. He’s still studying when she knocks at his door. “Izuku, honey,” she says sweetly and he frowns. His mother hasn’t called him pet names in years.
“Yes, mom?” he asks cautiously.
“I was just thinking, you’ve been working so hard here lately and deserve a treat. I got a little extra money last night, so…how about we have a small vacation, just the two of us?” she asks, looking excited.
“A vacation?” he asks in surprise.
“Yes, I was thinking to Fukuoka, maybe explore the city a bit,” she says with a grin.
“I…when would we go?” he asks nervously, a small bead of hope glowing in his chest that maybe this is a sign that things are getting better.
“Today, I’ve already booked train tickets, so start packing some clothes and get ready to go,” she says with glee and Izuku nods, jumping up.
He doesn’t have any actual luggage, but his backpack is big enough to stuff some clothes in. He also tucks his laptop in it, carefully wrapping clothes around it. He’s still got homework due at the start of the week he needs to finish, so he’ll work on it while they’re away. He snags some toiletries as well, some extra socks and then he zips up the bag.
His mother is already waiting for him, a small bag sitting by her. She smiles softly at him, like she hasn’t in so long and part of him is wary, but mostly, he’s just hopeful that she’s finally realizing he’s worthwhile and not a burden for her.
“Come here,” she says and he steps closer. She runs a quick finger through his hair with a frown. “You’ll need a trim soon. Maybe we’ll get that while we’re in Fukuoka.”
“Okay,” Izuku agrees, willing to agree with anything right now. Normally, he trims his own hair. Most of the cheaper hair places around here won’t take him and those that do don’t know how to handle his curls. It took a lot of trial and error before he figured it out himself.
“Well, let’s go,” she says excitedly and Izuku nods. He pats his pockets to make sure he’s got his wallet, phone and keys before he follows her out of the house. They’re taking the bullet train to Fukuoka, but they have to catch a train to that particular station, so it takes about twenty minutes to get there and then waiting for their train to get there.
They don’t chat, his mother still slightly hungover. Instead, she naps and Izuku catches up on some of his hero analysis, using his phone to watch recent videos posted of a new up and coming hero. They have lunch, buying a few sandwiches on the train, and by early afternoon, they’re arriving in Fukuoka.
It’s the furthest he’s ever been from home and Izuku looks around excitedly, taking it all in. The smell of the sea is the same, yet slightly different from back in Musutafu. It’s nice.
His mom leads the way to a decently sized hotel not too far from the train station and checks them in, though she tells him to stay off to the side as she do it. He people watches as she checks them in and grins, excited for once. He doesn’t see her frown down at her phone, type a message to someone, get one back and grin.
“Izuku, this way,” she calls and he follows her to the elevators.
They arrive on the fifth floor and quickly get settled in the room. The window has a nice view of the water and the city itself. “Alright, Izuku. I’m going to step out for a bit. I just need to get some things done. You get comfortable and when I get back, we’ll go get an early dinner and do some sightseeing,” Inko says and he nods. “Remember, stay in this room. I don’t want you leaving and getting lost or worse in this big strange city.”
“Yes, mom,” he agrees.
She looks back at him once where he’s sitting on one of the two beds in the room and then leaves, the door shutting firmly behind her.
Since it’ll probably be a bit until she gets back, Izuku considers doing some homework. Better to get it done now so he can enjoy the rest of the weekend. Then he remembers that part of his homework needs to be printed out. Normally, he did it at school or the local library, but then she made this spur of the moment plan.
Well, he remembers seeing a small office room on the first floor that was open to guests and there was a printer in there. It won’t take more than a few minutes to get it printed out. He doubt’s she’ll be back before he’s got it printed out.
He snags his bag with his laptop in it and makes sure to tuck his wallet, keys and phone in his pockets before slipping out the door. Still a little jittery, Izuku decides to take the stairs, needing to move a bit. He gets a few floors down and pauses. Maybe he should have left a note in case she does get back early to say he’s down in the lobby.
Nodding, he heads back up to do just that. He gets to the stairwell exit for his floor and as he goes to open it, he looks through the small window in the door. There’s a man in dark clothes coming down the hall, nothing unusual about that.
Until he stops in front of their hotel room and Izuku frowns. Maybe he read the room number wrong and when he goes to try his room key, it won’t work. He’s about to come out of the room to tell him he has the wrong room when the lock beeps and he opens the door.
Izuku’s heart starts to beat heavily in his chest as the man just walks into their room and then not even a minute later, comes back out, looking around. He ducks down before he can spot Izuku in the stairwell. Breathing short, panicked breathes Izuku moves as quietly as he can away from the door and starts to go down the stairs, picking up speed the further he goes.
When he hears a door open to the stairs from above, he panics further and ducks into the second floor, ignoring the footsteps coming down rapidly. He breathes a sigh when he spies a small janitor closet open and ducks in, closing the door behind him.
Breathing heavily, he hears the stairwell door on this floor open and quickly covers his mouth, trying to silence his breathing as heavy steps go down the hall. They pass his hiding spot and slowly fade until he hears the elevator ding and close.
Crying now, Izuku fumbles out his phone, praying he has reception in here. He tries calling his mom, but it just goes straight to voicemail, not even ringing. He does this two more times, but nothing changes. He should call the police; it’s drilled into kids that if something happens, call the police. He doesn’t though because his uncle always told him if he ever needed him, no matter what, to call him and he’d come.
So he shakily scrolls through his contacts before he finds the right number. Hitting it, he puts the phone to his ear. “Come on, come on,” he whispers, shaking, as the phone rings two more times and he’s about to despair before it connects.
“Izuku?” Aizawa asks over the phone.
“Uncle Aizawa,” Izuku breathes out, relief slipping through the panic, but he’s not safe yet.
“Izuku? What’s wrong?” he demands.
“I…I…someone came into our room and mom’s out and I don’t know what to do. He followed me down the stairs and I hid, but I think he’s still in the building and…and…,” he can’t keep talking, breathing getting short.
“Izuku, I need you to breath, in…and out,” Aizawa says calmly, exaggerating his breathing for Izuku and Izuku copies as best he can. “Alright, better. You said a man came into your room, your bedroom?” he asks.
“Hotel room,” Izuku says softly, calmer now.
“Izuku, where are you?” he asks, sounds of movement coming from his side of the phone and soft voices.
“Fukuoka,” Izuku whisper.
“Fukuoka? Why are you there?” he asks in surprise.
“Mom wanted to do a mini vacation. It was kind of a last minute sort of thing,” he explains, still straining to hear if someone is coming back into the hallway.
“Okay, did you try calling Inko?” he asks.
“It just goes straight to voicemail,” he whispers.
Aizawa curses, voice muffled by the phone pressed to his chest, and speaks to whoever is with him and then is back on the line. “Okay, Izuku, I need you to be brave for me, can you do that?” he asks.
“Yes,” Izuku whispers.
“First, can you tell me the hotel address?” he asks.
“Um, hang on,” he says and pulls out the key card in his pocket which has the hotel’s name and address on it. He quickly rattles it off to him.
“Good, good. Unfortunately kid, I’m still in Musutafu. There’s no way I can get to you any time soon,” he says apologetically. Izuku’s breathing picks up again. “Hey, no, calm, remember.” Izuku hums softly. “I’m going to give you the address of the nearest hero agency. You need to head there. I’m going to call him as well so he’ll probably meet you half way, but you need to get out of that hotel, alright?”
“How?” Izuku whispers.
“Disguise. Do you have anything with a hood?” he asks.
“I’ve got my hoodie on,” Izuku says.
“Good, put the hood up. If you have anything that can cover you face, wear it. Stay to crowded places and move as quickly as you can. I’m coming Izuku, I promise you, but you need to be a little brave for right now, okay?” he whispers.
“What if they hurt mom and that’s how they got our room key?” he asks.
“The police will be looking for her, but my first priority is getting you out of there and to safety, okay?” Aizawa says and Izuku nods silently, giving a slight hum.
“Alright, hood up and stay to crowded areas,” Aizawa reminds him. “Keep the phone on, but tuck it into your pocket. I’ll be listening.”
“Okay,” Izuku whispers. Standing on shaky legs, he tiptoes to the door and listens, but he can’t hear anyone outside the door. Opening it a crack, he peeks out, but sees the hall is empty. He silently slips out and stares, not sure which way to go.
He pulls out the phone. “Do I take the stairs or the elevator?” he asks softly. “They followed me down the stairs before.”
“Elevator, they’ll be waiting by the stairs and the elevators have camera directed on them usually. They’ll want to avoid their faces being seen,” Aizawa decides and Izuku nods before tucking the phone away.
He quickly darts down the hall to the elevators and presses the button. His leg jitters as he stands, his eyes darting around before it finally opens and is thankfully empty. Once it closes, he sighs a little before he pulls up his hood, making sure none of his hair is peeking out. He snags the face mask he keeps in his bag and pulls that on as well.
Heart in his throat and palms sweating, Izuku takes a steadying breath as the elevator comes to a stop and then steps out. He keeps his head down, not looking around, and starts to walk for the front of the hotel. It’s not even that far, maybe fifty feet away. He can do this.
“Have a good day,” the receptionist calls and Izuku nods before he ducks out of the hotel and out into the sunlight of the outside. He grabs his phone and sees a text from Aizawa with a map link and opens it. The agency isn’t that far at all and he turns in the direction he needs to go.
He walks, keeping to the busy street, but he feels like eyes are on him. Shakily, he looks around and pales as he sees the same man from the hall following behind him at a distance talking into his phone, but staring right at Izuku.
Swallowing nervously, Izuku times it and then darts across the street, hearing a faint curse behind him as the man tries to follow and gets honked at by a car that swerves to miss him. “He’s following me,” Izuku whispers into the phone.
“Keep going, the hero is on his way. You’re doing great Izuku,” Aizawa says over the phone.
He walks a few more minutes when there’s a sudden flash of movement and red. He jumps, stressed out and scared already. He nearly bolts before he registers the man in front of him. “Midoriya Izuku?” Hawks asks, golden eyes serious.
“Y-yes,” Izuku gets out, tearing up now that the hero is here.
“You’re uncle sent me, come here, kiddo, let’s get you out of here,” he says with a friendly smile, but his golden eyes are looking behind Izuku.
Izuku darts forward and hugs the hero. Strong arms grip him, there’s a lurch and then they’re in the air, Izuku clinging to him. He hears Hawks give a faint curse, but Izuku is too relieved to pay attention to anything now that he’s safe.
They only fly for a few minutes before they touch back down at his agency, the hero entering by way of a balcony on the side. “There we are, safe and sound. Come on in and we’ll get you comfortable while we wait for your uncle to arrive,” Hawks says gently, leading the still shaky Izuku into his office to a couch.
“What about my mom?” he asks worriedly. She may not be the best mother, but she’s all he really has.
“The police were called shortly after I was and are on the scene. If something happened to her, they will let me know. Right now, just focus on calming down and relaxing. I promise we will do everything to find her,” Hawks assures him and Izuku nods.
He pulls out his phone and puts it to his ear. “Uncle Aizawa?” he asks softly.
“You’re safe then,” Aizawa says and Izuku hums in agreement. “Stay there. It’ll be a few hours for us to get there. We’re flying in, so I might be phone silent for a bit, but if you need anything, ask Hawks, okay?” Aizawa says easily.
“Okay,” Izuku agrees. There are a few more reassurances and then the phone call is ended. He glances at the time recorded. All of that within the span of half an hour. They’d only just arrived in Fukuoka. This was supposed to be a nice trip and now all this happened. Izuku curls up on the couch, holding his phone while he waits for his uncle to call or text back.
A knock a few minutes later is a woman coming in with some hot chocolate and a few pastries that she gives to Izuku who smiles shakily. He drinks and eats, but he mainly focuses on the phone. Nearly two hours later, his phone lights up with a text saying they landed in Fukuoka and would be there shortly.
He sits up, nearly vibrating as he waits before fifteen minutes later, the door to the office opens and Uncle Aizawa and his husband Yamada, come storming in. Izuku is up off the couch and darting over before anyone says anything.
Aizawa crouches and takes his full on tackle, crying as he finally has someone here who he knows. “Shh, shh, I’ve got you. I’m here,” Aizawa murmurs, rocking him and rubbing his back.
Aizawa picks him up without any difficulty and Izuku just clings to him like a limpet. “Thank you, Hawks,” Aizawa says to the man as the hero comes over.
“Of course, always glad to help. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to catch the guy trying to nab him. He had a getaway car waiting, so I’m guessing this was more than one person. The police are looking into it, but they haven’t come forward with anything. No word on the mother either, though they did find her phone in a garbage can outside the hotel,” Hawks murmurs softly.
“Damn,” Aizawa murmurs.
“If you need a place to stay, I’ve got plenty of room here at the agency. I’m keeping tabs on the investigation and running point for anything so they’ll come here when they know more,” Hawks offers.
“Thank you, we’ll take you up on that offer,” Yamada says before Aizawa can speak and the man nod.
“I’ll show you to the suite. Let me know if you need anything,” he adds and they nod before the man leads them out of his office and down the elevator to a lower floor where the guest rooms and the one suite are located.
A few more passing comments and then it’s just the three of them in the room. Aizawa sets him down on the bed before sitting next to him, Yamada taking the other side. “Better?” he asks and Izuku nods, Yamada snagging a tissue from the side table and handing it over so he can clean his face. “Can you tell me what happened leading up to this?” Aizawa asks and Izuku nods.
“Mom came home late last night, ate and went to bed. She woke up this morning and I thought it was just going to be a usual day, but then she said I deserved a treat for working so hard and wanted to do a mini vacation. We packed and headed out for the train. We’d only been in Fukuoka for what, fifteen minutes when we made it to the hotel and checked in, twenty b the time we were in the room. She said she needed to do a few errands, but that when she came back, we’d go have an early dinner before we did a little sightseeing. Told me to stay in the room until she got back,” Izuku says.
“But you didn’t,” Aizawa says and Izuku shakes his head.
“I decided to work on homework while she was out, but I needed to print something and was going down to the lobby using the stairs. I went back to leave a note in case she came back and that’s when I saw the guy coming down the hall. I thought he just had the wrong room number…until…,” Izuku trails off.
“Until he opened the door,” Yamada finishes for him and he nods numbly.
“I’m glad you’re safe and I’m proud of you for using your head. A lot of people would have panicked and made it worse,” Aizawa murmurs, bending slightly to catch his eye while squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. “Until they find Inko and we get this all sorted out, you’ll be staying with us, okay?” he adds.
“But…what if they can’t find her?” he whispers, wringing his fingers anxiously.
“The police and the local heroes will do everything they can to find Inko and the men who tried to take you. I know it’s hard, but let’s try to not stress out too much. You’ll make yourself sick. We promise, as soon as they have any news, we’ll tell you,” Yamada reassures him.
Izuku nods, shoulders drooping a little. “It’s late. How about we get something to eat and then try to get some sleep. If they call, we’ll wake you, okay?” Aizawa bargains and Izuku nods again. They both hug him and he feels a little guilty as he soaks up the warmth and reassurance. When was the last time he was hugged so much?