Burning Wrists

The Uniting of Three

Chapter 15
~ The Uniting of Three ~
• • •

[Abuse warning]
Izuku POV:

"Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire." - Arnold H. Glasow.

If setting yourself on fire was what it took to achieve your most ambitious dreams, Izuku would do that. He would do all of that, and so much more. And he almost did, though he never literally caught fire. His entire life, all he's wanted was to be a hero, like his idol, All Might. But he had a few setbacks. Where other kids had hills, Izuku was given mountains. Beta's spent their whole life knowing a vast majority of heros were alpha's and their chances of being a beta pro-hero were low. Izuku was an omega. They had to learn to use their quirks. Izuku... Didn't have one. He also had no friends, no real safe place, and once his mother fell sick, he almost had no food and no home to keep it in, anyway. But through everything, he always had hope. Hope that one day he might be a pro-hero.

It was an unrealistic, hopeless dreamer's wildest dream. But it was all he had. All he could grab on to and refuse to let go of. So he would pour a gallon of gasoline on his head and light it, if it could grant him his life's wish. But of course, it wouldn't. So he had to resort to more drastic measures to get his way.

From 4 p.m. on Friday, to 4 a.m. on Monday morning, Izuku would go down to the ring and work until his arms fell off. It was always enough to get him and his mother through life, with a little extra money to spare for emergencies. Then from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, he had school. A dreadful hell of a place that gave Izuku chills whenever he thought about it. And then from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. after school every day, he trained with All Might, then from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. he went back to the ring and worked some more. It was a schedule that left him very little time for, well, anything. But during the week he could usually scrape up at least 13 hours of sleep over the five days, which was unfortunately very impressive. It would be his life for the ten months leading up to the U.A. entrance exam.

Well, in a way. Katsuki had placed himself bravely between Izuku and the middle school bullies he used to be part of. And over the course of just two weeks, Izuku had gone from the bullied social pariah to the feared social pariah. Feared only because everyone knew that if you looked at the quirkless omega the wrong way, the most dangerous alpha in the school was always two steps (or one, if he was feeling particularly protective on the day — which was usually Mondays and Fridays to Izuku's disdain) behind him and ready to blow your brains out. Which means just three weeks into his ten-month sentence, Katsuki had solved a third of Izuku's problems. No more bruises from school meant fewer bruises to hide from everyone around him, and fewer bruises to shield when fighting his opponents.

Izuku was beyond grateful.

Izuku was beyond terrified.

Katsuki hadn't protected Izuku since they were four. In fact, Izuku could remember the very last time he did. The day before he was scheduled to go in for his quirk screening at the doctor's Katsuki had told him that no matter what the result was, he would always be Izuku's friend. Even if he had a weak quirk or one entirely unsuited for a hero career, Katsuki promised to always protect him. To be his alpha for as long as Izuku needed him to be. And as a child with no father figure or alpha figure in the house, that meant everything to him. If only Katsuki had kept his promise. Though Izuku expected Aunt Mitsuki had something to do with his change of heart.

The point was, Katsuki no longer protected Izuku, and hadn't for a very long time. His sudden urge to do so was... terrifying. Terrifying because Izuku knew why he had that sudden desire to protect him. Katsuki himself cared little for Izuku's safety and wellbeing, as he's shown on too many occasions. But Katsuki's alphan instincts were different. Katsuki had subconsciously acknowledged Izuku as his destined mate, even if his conscious mind wasn't aware of it yet. He had the primal instinct to always protect his fated omega, and he would react and obey those instincts even if he didn't know why they were there. And eventually, he would figure out that those instincts weren't his hormones going crazy or some other biological explanation for it. And he would figure out that Izuku is on the other end of the messages he sends through messily scrawled ink. And he would know.