MHA Stories i find on Ao3

Burn Your Wings

By: oWhiteKiwiwBird

Life isn't fair, and it certainly isn't kind.

Little  Izuku doesn't know what that means yet, but he does know that his  father acts differently when he's at home and when he's outside. He  watches silently as his father smiles and laughs with other people on  the few occasions he sees his father in public and cowers under  Hisashi's hard sneer and rough hand within the confines of their home.

Being a bad person is not the same thing as being a villain.

Hisashi is not a villain (yet), but he is a bad person.

Like  all children, the only world Izuku knows is his own. He thinks his  world is absolute, and so Izuku doesn't know that it's wrong. He just  knows that it is. It always has been—and always will be—this way, he  thinks.

But the first time his father beats his mother, Izuku's world snaps.

Hisashi  had never been gentle, either with Izuku or Inko, in the privacy of  their home. But he hadn't been outright violent, either.

That is, until he became violent.

One day Hisashi came home drunk, and it was only—ha, only—a  backhanded slap to Inko's face then. But after that one time, it became  a common occurrence. Then it got worse. He started really beating her.  Then, he began to beat her even when he wasn't drunk.

Inko  has started locking Izuku away in the broom cupboard whenever it was  time for Hisashi to come back home, fearful of what the man might do to  their helpless son. And Izuku does feel helpless. He curls into himself  sobbing silently as all he can do is listen to the furious panting and  swearing of his father, the muffled cries of his mother, and the  merciless sound of flesh pounding on flesh.

He  scrabbles at the door until his fingertips are bleeding, but he is never  able to get out until his father wanders away to sleep in the bedroom  and his mother—tired and broken and bruised and bloody—is finally able  to pick herself off the floor and deems it safe enough to retrieve him.

But one day, Hisashi comes home sooner than expected.

Inko  panics. She drags and shoves Izuku inside the broom cupboard, but in  her haste doesn't have time to lock it. Hisashi, not knowing and perhaps  not even caring, just falls into habit and starts beating her.

But Izuku does know, and does care, so he scrabbles at the door with raw fingertips, and this time, it actually opens.

Izuku's  small body comes tumbling out into the living room. Both his parents  turn to him, Inko's bruised face falling in horror and Hisashi's  features twisting into a sneer.

"What's this?" he  asks, but soon turns away from Izuku's trembling body with a scoff.  "Whatever. Run along, boy, I don't have time to deal with you right  now."

Inko's defeated body sags with relief, but Izuku's freezes with despair.

Hisashi is approaching Inko again, not even caring that Izuku is there.

If there's one thing that's greater than Izuku's fear of his father, it's his fear for his mother.

But  Izuku knows that he can't do anything to stop his father. Hisashi is  the absolute ruler of their household, he's too big and too strong, and  is hell-bent on beating his mother again.

Izuku can't stop his father. He can't save his mother.

So Izuku does the only thing he can.

He steps between them.