Step by Step by Step
31. Step by Step by Step
The League was continuing to move forward with the reform program. They each had been matched with one or more heroes to mentor them.
You probably might have guessed that Toga would have been paired up with Vlad. However in a world where quirks could change anyone’s diet, consuming blood wasn’t something they had in common, nore was it her primary issue. Yes most find that unpleasant, but the real problem is when she faces starvation. Then the Omega becomes violent and exhibits animalistic possessive tendencies. As such, Hound Dog became her mentor.
Jin was given the option of either Vlad or Ectoplasm. After speaking with each he went with the fellow cloner. When he’d heard the options, Izuku had suggested the cloning hero because he knew from experience the man was much more open and laid back than his appearance let on. Vlad was kind of, stiff, for someone who taught a bunch of teenagers.
The Blood hero was also an option because testing had revealed Jin’s own quirk had more to do with manipulating his own blood than was initially thought. Jin even cloned someone right down to their own blood type. How that worked by just taking their measurements scientists weren’t sure yet. Izuku suspected it had to do with him touching people as he measured them. It was something subtle that most people missed.
Iguchi specifically requested to work with Gang Orca, however the mutant had not been available. It was disappointing at first, but Ectoplasm offered to take Iguchi on as well. While he wasn’t an animal heteromorph as the reptilian had been hoping to work with, no one could deny the hero had suffered backlash and scorn due to his own fearsome but misunderstood appearance.
Kenji and Atsuhiro both ended up working with Present Mic. Atsuhiro expressed interest in remaining in show business while Kenji wanted a way for her voice and those of so many others who needed it, had a place to be heard. Mic agreed to give the both of them the opportunity to speak on his podcast with the goal for them to gain enough momentum to launch their own channels. He would also help them learn what it took to set up and keep a voice show going (he’d long since moved on from radio.)
Despite her appearance, Midnight was excellent at helping people find healthy ways to cope with trauma. While all of the League had some physical and emotional damage, she was paired with Kurogiri and Dabi. One man was bereft of emotion while the other literally burned with hatred. She welcomed the challenge.
Keigo, like Izuku, was also scheduled for therapy. He was nervous about it. Said it was because he’d been keeping so many secrets for so long. It felt weird to speak about the effect his work with the Commission has had on him. Like he was betraying someone, but not a good someone. More like… telling on an abusive parent.
—
Himiko was now supplied with regular doses of blood. After some (NON INVASIVE) testing it was determined an average of half a liter was needed daily, best drank half in the morning when she woke and the other half with dinner. It was basically equivalent to a cup of coffee with breakfast and a drink with her supper. Enough blood kept her mind and body out of survival mode, and prevented a lot of her mentally unstable behaviors. Which meant a healthy person could safely donate one day’s worth at a time.
If she was training, her intake increased at a ratio of 15 ml per hour of transformation time plus 30ml after recovery. The more active she was while transformed, the more blood she’d need and crave afterwards. The school was able to source from several hospitals, as well as allow her to take donations from Class A and the League. Mei was also working on a jumpsuit that could transform with her, so she wouldn’t end up naked every time she used her quirk. She'd said she wasn't going to be a hero, but Mei still wanted to 'figure it out'.
Kenji was thrilled to be able to speak to medical professionals about transitioning. She was already in touch with several organizations she’d been interested in working with but hadn’t been able to for one reason or another (running from the law as a criminal, etcetera etcetera). Her doctor also prescribed her proper hormone treatment, and they discussed what was necessary for surgery if or when she decided to take things further.
Jin had good days and bad days. You could tell which was which if he was wearing a mask.
Atsuhiro found therapy to be like talking with an old friend who gave sound, if not always wanted, advice. He knew he had issues with trust and authority. He liked to say he had folded to peer pressure, if everyone else was in therapy then he would do it too.
Kurogiri was unlike any other, so they weren’t sure how or if therapy would help him. He was trying though. They were also working on removing the metal device around his neck.
Dabi hated therapy, but it gave him somewhere to rant and yell, and he went because he had to. Took the meds because he was told to. He wasn’t going to ever admit any of this was actually helping. He’d been diagnosed with imposter syndrome with just a splash of borderline personality disorder. Thanks Mom and Dad.
With Keigo they were working on the guilt he felt in asking for help, and also his self worth issues. No meds for now. His doctor educated them both on Postpartum Depression and gender dysphoria but advised against mediations while gravid. For now, the best everyone could do was catch the bird if he started to drop.
Which seemed unlikely since Keigo was also greatly enjoying his new found freedom.
Izuku had noticed his class President gave the Avian a similar stink eye when Iida thought no one was paying attention, but really? Izuku had bigger things to deal with than someone not liking him or Kei. At this point they could get in line
Since Eraserhead had already been working with Midoriya, they just added Shigaraki to his list of troubled young adults. Even though this was to be expected, the underground hero acted less than thrilled.
—
“Mr. ?”
Tiny fingers poked Hizashi’s cheek.
The Alpha groaned and rolled over in the nest. He had it all to himself tonight. Shouta was working on a case and wasn’t home.
“Mr. Yamada.”
The poking becomes more insistent.
The blond ignores it, hoping against hope that…
Small lungs take in a deep breath, catch, and then,
“MR. YamadaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA!”
Hizashi grabbed a pillow and shoved it over his head, trying to drown out the torturous bawling but it was no good. Hizashi laid in the nest commiserating with the villains he's used his quirk on in the past.
The wailing continued.
The blond pulls himself up and reaches over to grab his glasses from the side table as he tries his best to blink away sleep.
Standing next to the nest is a young girl, about five or six, with long straight light blue hair, pale skin, red eyes, and a small gray horn on one side of her forehead.
She's dressed in a navy care bear nightgown with shorts.
And frowning.
“Little listener, why are you awake?” he asked, voice gravelly. He already knows the answer.
She looked down and tugs on the front of her nightgown as she says in a soft voice like the fluttering of flower petals in the wind, “I had a nightmare.”
This was Eri, the little pup that had been rescued from the Shie Hassaikai Raid a week ago. She was currently under the couple’s care. His Omega had gotten cleared to foster the child while they worked with her on quirk control.
Getting up, the Alpha climbed out of his cozy nest and took the pup’s small gloved hand. He held it as they walked to the bedroom door.
The young girl had been so timid at first she barely spoke more than two words at a time, afraid anything she did or said would lead to punishment. He and Shouta were working on that, and the little listener was slowly coming out of her shell more and more each day. There was only one problem…
Their neighbor pounded on the wall as Hizashi made his way down the hallway with the pup, muffled voice shouting through the wall,
“SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP! ”
“Yeah yeah,” mumbled Hizashi as he continued to pad toward the kitchen with Eri right beside him. Once there he poured a small cup of milk and warmed it in the microwave.
He and Shouta had been woken by Eri's nightmares every night since she was rescued.
They'd tried so many things to help, a fan, a stuffed animal that warmed, a nightlight, making sure she was really tired, but so far nothing had worked.
“Mr. Yamada, are you mad at me?”
“What?” the Alpha startled from his thoughts, “No. No, of course not, little listener. I’m just tired. Let's go sit down so you can drink your milk.”
They walked over to the dining table. For some reason the little girl preferred to drink her milk seated there. When Shouta had asked her why, she’d said it made her feel better. His Omega thinks it makes her feel more grown up and less scared
She gives Hizashi a scrutinizing look, sighs and sips from the cup.
They sit side by side on the hard wooden chairs. When she’s done the Alpha quickly cleans the cup and they head back down the hallway. The guest bedroom had been converted into Eri’s space for now.
The blond watches as the little Pup climbs back into bed and then he steps over to help tuck her in. As he’s doing this a voice no louder than the whisper of a mouse says,
“Can, can I ask you something?”
He leans back to look at her with a warm smile, “Of course! You can ask questions anytime you want!”
“Can I see Zuku and Tomu?
And really, Hizashi feels like he should have expected that one. Before he could respond an image flashed within his mind’s eye. Inky black portals appearing during the student’s training exercise. Screaming, running, chaos. Blood red eyes full of hatred behind corpse hands, as villains poured out of the darkness to attack his students…
Hizashi abruptly shakes his head.
“I have to talk to Mr. Aizawa first, ok?” he says. Hizashi does his best not to let his emotions show on his face or broadcast in his scent.
She pouts, the expression squishing her face together, "Ok."
The voice hero headed back to his own bedroom, tumbling down into the nest to sleep.
—
Dabi watched as Hatsume Mei of the support department worked with Izuku on a large computer screen displaying schematics of his her … uh… Quirk Support Suit. (He refused to call it a hero suit, because it wasn’t. He was no hero.)
The capricious inventor was an interesting young woman. A Beta, she smelled almost sickly sweet of maple syrup with a hint of eucalyptus. She was chaotic and full of ideas even bigger than Izuku’s if you could believe it. Dabi didn’t know that was even possible.
The green haired Omega was there to offer input as well. And to keep himself distracted while Tomura faced the music. Or, got sent to prison for decaying some child abusers arms off. The arsonist swears, if they hang his friend for this he’ll set the fuckin HSPC building on fire.
That was something for therapy later, moving on…
Speaking of Izuku, the fire user heard a strange sound and turned to see the wrench the poor broccoli sprout had been holding was now in two pieces.
—
* SNAP! *
Izuku looks down in time to see the electric green sparks of OFA fade and the wrench he’d been holding now broken in half.
Oh shit!
He quickly glanced back and forth, then tossed the pieces into a pile of metal nearby. The loud cling clang it made was lost in the cacophony of the Repair Course around them.
Dabi observed in quiet amusement as Izuku panicked, looked around, and tossed the two halves of the destroyed tool in a pile of nearby scrap metal. Luckily they were in the Support Course classroom, the damn place was so loud that cotton candy dreadlocks chick didn’t hear a thing.
The Alpha sighed, he should probably tune into whatever these two were talking about or he'll have no idea how to use what he'll be wearing. He didn’t want to burn his own ass a second time…
“... it’s made of a metallic fabric created by weaving the metals together at a molecular level. They even added a weave of lubricant further limiting heat transfer by reducing friction and making the suit waterproof too. I wish I could get access to their tech,” Mei said excitedly, “Weaving this stuff manually would be impossible. To do it they manufactured a massive peg board on an atomic level and just removed the pegs to get the right materials they needed to lay on the board with a little static charge.”
Izuku was buzzing in his seat with excitement.
Dabi leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back legs as he listened to two geeks gush over the stretchy inky dark blue fabric.
The trench coat he’d worn for years, with the clunky cooling bands around his arms, was now clearly out of date. It had been something Dabi stumbled on by chance when he’d started building a rep in the underworld as the guy who’d kill any dirt bag skum abuser for the right amount of money.
He’d started simple at first, just doing arson jobs. That all changed one night.
It was the evening he figured out exactly how best to focus some of the repressed magma of fury that constantly flowed through his veins ready to erupt at any moment.
He’d agreed to help a young woman. To stop her uncle from marrying her. Doing so would give the pissant the freedom to molest her anytime he wanted without the risk of getting caught. She'd be trapped in the house with her abuser.
Desperate, and obviously judging him based on his looks she’d approached Dabi late one night in a bar and begged. She said she could pay him well, all he had to do was eliminate the target. It didn't matter how, as long as he was dead but still identifiable.
She showed him the bruises, cigarette and rope burns. And Dabi’s rage temporarily found a new target.
He trailed the guy for a while, just to be sure he was garbage. The second time he watched the man pick up a hooker and drop her off with a black eye the arsonist knew he was a waste of breath.
She’d warned him her Uncle had a fire quirk, but that didn’t concern him. The man was used to being feared.
Not this time.
He barely got two words out before he was dead. Dabi had melted his hand right through the other man’s neck. He still remembers the dull ruffled thunk the abuser had made when his body lurched forward and fell to the floor, followed by the thud of his head as Dabi dropped it.
The Alpha always kept any worthwhile spoils from his work, so after killing him Dabi had gone through the apartment. That’s where he found the coat with the cooling cuffs. He took it without a second thought, and had long since put that support item to good use.
His boots were also fairly flame proof. Those he’d purchased off the black market. He’d get a new pair every now and then. They were way better than any run of the mill tennis shoes. His pants too, were fire resistant. He’d added the white stitching to complete the look.
He was a patchwork nightmare. A boogeyman who lurked in the dark.
Boo.
Dabi turned back to the others at just the right moment. Izuku and Mei looked up at him with sparkles in their eyes.
Good grief.
“Point is, it can withstand even your flames, hot stuff!” she got up and walked away from the table. Izuku jumped up to follow her, waiving at Dabi. He stood up and jogged over until he was trailing behind Izuku.
Now what?
—
They were walking down a long wide hallway of lockers now. Each with red lights indicating they were sealed. Mei stopped when they reached one lit up as green.
She tapped a code into the green locker and a loud click was heard. Then the suit slid from the wall before them.
To anybody else it would just look like a sharp support suit, but Dabi spotted them right away.
Over the shoulders…
Three lines.
~~~ Flashback ~~~
There were four of them.
Toya, Natsuo, Fuyumi, and Shouto.
It had been back when their sperm donor was still trying to train Toya to become the next number one hero.
Dabi can’t remember who came up with the idea for sure. He thinks it was probably Fuyumi though. She's the most sentimental.
Three lines.
For most of his childhood his siblings and those lines became the only constant in his life.
Three lines everywhere.
The early ones were embroidered by the young woman herself. When Shouto was old enough (long after Dabi had tried to kill him… he swears he didn't mean it.) Fuyumi sat them down and taught the three young boys how to stitch them.
They would draw and sew them on their clothes, books, school backpacks, bento boxes, everywhere. At first they only put them in subtle or hidden places, under hemlines, inside school book and manga covers. At some point they realized their parents, too preoccupied with their own problems, didn’t notice or care. So the siblings became bolder, wearing them on wristbands, socks, shoes, collars, belts, anywhere.
Three lines.
The former villain had seen them on Shouto's hero uniform too. Prominently displayed around the Omega’s collar.
He had even added it to his outfit as Dabi. Three large stitched lines across each pant leg.
It was so simple really.
The lines served as a symbol for all of the Todoroki children that no matter how dire the circumstances, they were never alone. They were a constant reminder that their siblings were always there with them.
~~~ End Flashback ~~~
“Shouto told me, uh, well, obviously Shouto told me,” muttered Izuku, bringing Dabi back to the present, “It was his suggestion. I hope we haven’t overstepped. I thought you'd appreciate knowing you have their support.”
The green haired Omega was babbling.
“Shit,” muttered the fire user, turning he yanked Izuku into a hug. The younger man made an Eeep! in supprise and Dabi waved over at Hatsume to join them.
Hugging them he somehow managed to hold back his bloody tears while mumbling, “Thank you both.”
When Dabi let go he leaned back and looked up into the bright lights in the ceiling, blinking rapidly. No crying. He was totally going to kick Tomura’s ass the next time they hit the gym. Giving himself a good shake, the former arsonist stepped closer and took a better look at other details.
He already knew he’d be wearing a full body shimmery blue underlayer. Over that was an armored fire resistant suit. Three extra packs of specialized coolant were clipped into his armor on his back and wrapped around his core. They looked like ribs as they glowed a gentle icy blue. And on top of that was his new and improved jacket.
This outer layer was made of that same dark blue fabric, it even looked oily under the light. Beneath it was more cooling tech, the underside of the jacket glowed that same neon blue. It kept a bubble of colder air around Dabi as he fought, but could also be used to protect others from fire.
Like his old coat, it was long and sported a high collar while being split apart in the back. Held together by thick silvery gold stitching, same as the pants. The bands around his biceps were lighter, smaller and slimmer now, thanks to being constructed using much more updated tech. This linked to his forearm and wrist guards, which were very similar to the equipment Shouto used on his hot half.
The pants were loaded with utility pockets packed with things you may need in any given situation.
The boots went up to his knees, and included knee pads. One was tilted on its side so he could see the burners in the heels. They had been designed to redirect his fire to the soles of his feet. Wicked.
Izuku and Mei shared a knowing look, then pink dreadlocks and clockwork eyes popped into Dabi’s view as the Beta jumped up to get his attention.
Wiggling her eyebrows she asked, “Wanna give it a spin?”
—
“Why is this so…” Dabi pinched the elastic fabric, pulled it away from his hip and let it go. It snapped against him with a loud, *thwack*
“Spandexy? They just are, you get used to it,” said Izuku, having also suited up in case anything went haywire with Mei’s tests. Hero uniforms were a constant battle between maintaining range of motion, durability and protection.
Izuku had the code to his shackles, he'd removed them for the test. Dabi wondered, did the bright young Omega have the pass codes to all the cuffs?
They also had a number of Mei’s well tested fire suppressing devices on hand. You know, just in case.
Dabi had let the energetic inventor clip a bunch of small sensors all over him to collect data. The information would allow Mei to better fine tune the suit.
Then the fire user ran the parkour test, arrow dodges, disk shot, beam run, rescue the princess (a task where you disabled the bad guys without killing any and saved the one dummy while you both took as little damage as possible).
Izuku had texted his friends, and at some point Bakugo and Shouto showed up in time to watch his brother’s last full run.
He finished with a score of 89 out of 100, not bad for only his third try and considering he was rescuing and not flambéing the ‘victims’. Dabi dropped to the ground exhausted. His muscles felt like they wanted to twist him to pieces and he was all out of breath. He is normally, if you recall, a ranged fighter.
To the Alpha’s delight, and despite going all out with his fire as much as he dared, Dabi wasn't burned.
That was a life changing improvement. It left him feeling like laughing and crying at once. If he’d only been given proper support equipment from the beginning…
Bakugo whistles loudly to get his attention, “I’m gonna kick your ass in training you burnt french fry!”
Pulling himself up from where he was laying on the ground and dusting off his spandex pants the fire user managed to amble over to the bench, taking the water Shouto offered to him. He gulped it down until someone batted the back of his head.
“Slow down you idiot,” barked the blond Alpha, “You’ll make yourself sick!”
Dabi met his eyes and downed the rest of the water out of spite.
“What do you think, Sho?” the ravenet asked next, with a halfcocked grin, “Think you could take me out too?”
“I don’t want to fight against you, I want to fight beside you,” says Shouto.
The room fell quiet.
“You know what,” says Dabi, refusing to let the silence grow any more awkward, “We should talk about meeting up with Natsuo and Fuyumi sometime for dinner.”
The dual quirked Omega gave his brother a small smile.
—
The Hero Occupational Safety Board had wasted no time. Before the end of that week Tomura was sitting in front of them giving his account of his participation in the Shie Hassaikai Raid.
He was surprised to see how many people had shown up in support. Eraserhead of course, as well as Toshinori, but also Lemillion and Eri who waved at him excitedly. Ryuuko Tatsuma was also present, along with Ochaco and Tsu, but not the disgruntled sidekick from the van, Tomura noted. The one he had argued with about letting him use the radio and then suit up to go in after Izuku when he’d called for help.
The professional Dragoon heroine wasn’t only here to testify. In addition to himself the board would also be passing judgment on her actions as well, depending on how his ‘trial’ went. That’s right, her ass was on the line here too wasn’t it?
Shit.
Consequences, consequences.
Today he’d worn his gray suit with a white shirt. He looked like any other respectable person about to be hung, Tomura thought to himself.
“You look nice in fancy clothes too huh,” Ryuuko said as she took her seat next to him at the table. She was dressed in sensible flats, a dark burgundy pencil skirt paired with a flowy floral blouse. Her hair was pinned back in a bun.
“I’m nervous as all hell,” he blurted out honestly.
She gave him a kind smile, “Just tell the truth in the right way and you’ll be fine.”
“Sure,” he mutters. Tell the truth the right way? Thinks Tomura. What the fuck does that mean?
He had sat with Eraserhead and prepared his statement and gone over the likely questions he would be asked and how best to answer them. Tomura knew what to say and just how to say it. He knows he can’t show any anger towards Overhaul, only a need to protect the child and his Mate. A lot could be excused for the sake of a child, it seemed.
Testifying took the better part of the day. There was a thirty minute break and lunch was brought in, then they got right back to it. By the time they were finished everyone looked tired.
The board thanked them for their time, and would review the evidence and all testimony before coming to a decision one week from now. Then they adjourned and Tomura wanted to scream.
They had to wait another week!
He fucking hated bureaucracy.
—
Hizashi dragged himself out of their nest and down the hallway to their small apartment kitchen. His Omega, bless the man, had already made them a full pot of coffee. He should be heading to sleep soon after working all night again, but frustratingly as the Alpha entered the room he saw the other was looking no more worn for wear than he normally did. How in the fuck does he do that? Wondered Hizashi.
Shouta was used to sleep irregularities. EightHoursOfSleep, what kind of animal was that? He was tired, but also slightly bemused as he sipped his coffee and watched his Mate stumble in.
The Omega knows exactly what happened last evening, because the same thing had been happening since the first night Eri slept in their home. He was pretty sure he knew what the solution was. It was something they hadn’t tried yet, his partner resistant to it. Or, at least he had been…
“You look tired Zashi.”
The right side of Hizashi’s face twitched and his irritability flooded their bond as the Alpha filled his favorite cat mug with black coffee, drank it down, and did it again.
The Omega went to speak but the blond held up a finger for him to wait while he poured himself a third mug of coffee, this time adding some cream and sugar before sitting down at the table in front of Shouta, who only sipped from his cup in silence.
Smug bastard, thought Hizashi before speaking,
“That’s because I am tired, Shou.”
The raven haired man checked his phone, “You know what the solution to this is right?”
Hizashi collapsed exaggeratedly across the table and nodded. He tried to argue they could make Eri feel safe. They were a successful Omega and Alpha hero pair for christ’s sake! There was no reason Eri needed to see Midoriya and… Shigaraki. The pup definitely did not need to be around that Alpha.
He cringed.
Eww.
That was Hizashi’s mother talking. Piece of work she was. The voice hero will not let that be how he thinks about a young Alpha they were trying to help reform. He just, well, he had zero reason to think Shigaraki Tomura was any good with pups. If he even cared enough to keep one alive that wasn’t even his. That had been the main reason for his resistance. Now though,
“You need to bring her to see them,” he muttered.
“I need to bring her to see them,” said Shouta, nodding.
“But…”
“I should have brought her ages ago. Eri waking up every night, crying or screaming in fear, isn't helping her get better,” interrupted the Omega, “She needs to reconcile her feelings towards them, or the nightmares aren’t ever going to go away, Zashi.”
“I know, I know. I just, what if it does more damage than good?”
Leaning back, Shouta said, “We both know Midoriya would never let that little girl get hurt.”
“It’s not Midoriya I’m worried about.”
Hizashi took a drink from his mug and considered what just the last few days had been like. Eri had been under their foster care since she’d been retrieved from Overhaul. She did fine now during the day. The problem was, after Hizashi had helped her that one night she kept asking to see the Alpha and Omega who saved her. The longer she was denied, the worse her bad dreams were becoming.
The voice hero was honestly concerned the girl may lose control of her power during one of her night terrors, and risk hurting them or someone else. He and Shouta weren’t the only people living in these apartments.
“I do not think you need to worry about Shigaraki either. I'm sure they can arrange for just the two of them to be there when I bring Eri over.”
“She’s going to want to hug them,” said his Alpha, running a large hand down his face as he missed the implication of what his Mate had said, “I keep thinking about letting a dangerous supervillain hug a young child.”
“Former dangerious supervillain. And everyone needs a hug sometimes, Zashi.”
His Alpha gave him a scathing look.
Shouta chose to ignore it as he was busy texting, “While we’ve been talking I’ve confirmed with my troubled young adults that I can swing by with Eri ____day in the early evening between ___ and ___.”
“But I have my tutoring class then!” yelps Hizashi, sitting up in his chair.
“It’s best if you don't go. I’m concerned you might be too protective of the Pup.”
Yeah, his Mate was right.
The blond man huffed but begrudgingly agreed.
—
Izuku ran as fast as he could without using his quirk. He didn’t want to get caught in the hallways doing that, it was an automatic one day detention at least! Of course, being late to Sensei’s class was worse.
Thankfully Izuku managed to slide around the corner into the room with just a minute to spare.
Whew!
“Good morning Izuku,” said Shouto as his fellow Omega huffed past him.
Kacchan glared. The look very clearly said, ‘Why the fuck were you almost late?’
Izuku slipped down the aisle to his seat, “Hah, good morning!”
Izuku took out his notebook and pen, ready to get started. At the bell a yellow man sized caterpillar wiggled up from behind the desk. Unzipping his sleeping bag, Mr. Aizawa stepped out and stood in front of the class.
As all seats were full he presumed either all his students were present or else one of them was very confused and about to have a really bad day.
Next he read the daily announcements, reminded the class they had a History Test coming up and a paper on quirkless defense strategies that was due next week. Izuku only half listened as their teacher droned on. Then something caught his attention…
“Your Secondary Gender Typing Bloodwork is back. I will be sending you down in pairs to pick them up from the nurses office during this afternoon’s training exercise. Once you have picked up your results you are dismissed from class for the day.”
Izuku felt a sudden jolt in adrenaline. He’d been waiting for this. Actual hard scientific confirmation of what he thought might be going on. Something very important that may have also contributed to his and Tomura’s Mating, was right now sitting in a pair of envelopes in the nurse's office.
Then Homeroom was over and they headed to their first class.
The morning dragged on until it was lunch time. The Omega couldn’t wait to see his partner. They had both gotten better at keeping up with conversations they were having outloud and also between themselves inside their heads.
Members of the two packs didn’t always share the same lunch hours, so who they sat with varied. Today Iguchi and Himiko were there. The young woman was already drinking part of her meal.
“What do you have today,” Izuku asked the reptilian, ever fascinated by all aspects of quirks.
Iguchi held up a nugget sized blob, “I breaded and fried some of the cicadas, I like the extra crunch!”
The reptilian also liked how genuine Izuku was. Once it was clear the young man didn’t ask these things to make fun of people, but was asking because his brain was always thinking and the more information he had the better. Besides, Iguchi was getting to try all kinds of insects, fish and fresh fruit. Thanks to the healthy diet, his scales had never looked better.
Just in the last week he’d eaten crickets, ants, cicadas, earthworms (ew, he didn’t much like the squishy ones), mealworms (which tasted a lot like whatever you fed them, which was interesting), catfish were delicious, and he had a few bluegill he was keeping in his tank to grow larger.
When his Alpha got to their table Izuku reached out to him right away, scenting with their wrists.
“Tomura, the blood work is back!”
“Midnight told me this morning. She said you were going to pick yours up at the end of the day around __ and I should go to the nurses then too.”
Tomura still didn’t know why this bloodwork was so important to Izuku. One thing was sure, the Omega was twitchier and jumpier than all hell. The Alpha subtly released a scent to help calm him.
Izuku only cuddled closer to him at the lunch table when he got a whiff. Sighing into Tomura’s shoulder he whispered, “Thank you.”
The Alpha absolutely adored these moments with Izuku. He knew the young man was strong, regardless of all the stereotypes he deals with on a daily basis. Tomura felt like he had to be doing something right when his Omega would accept his help though. Even small tokens of it like this.