Chapter Text
A few years back, Izuku somehow ended up marrying a pregnant woman. She was around 1-2 months pregnant at the time and kept quiet about her past. The only thing she ever hinted at was that she ran away for a better future, and Izuku didn't pry any further than that. There was no love between the two; Izuku wanted a family, and she needed a stable home. They were more like roommates than anything else.
She always expressed her desire to visit the beach more often, loved public spaces, and cherished feeling 'human,' as she put it, mentioning he couldn't wait to show her child these things.
Tragically, she passed away while giving birth, leaving Izuku to raise a child that wasn't his. However, that fact never bothered him. He tried his best to fulfill the roles of both parents while working to support them both. Eri, that's her name, turned out to be a healthy child despite her mother's struggles, which Izuku knows is what her mother would have wanted for her—healthy and strong.
Every year on Eri's birthday, after she fell asleep following their celebration, Izuku visited her mother's grave. He cleaned it up and placed fresh flowers on it before returning home to sleep next to his daughter.
Unfortunately, due to living on a professor's wage without a partner, raising a child, and affording bills, they couldn't have separate rooms. However, Eri always said she liked it when "Papa" slept with her because he protected her from the monsters under the bed and in the closet. Izuku couldn't help but feel proud of how he had raised her.
And so, this had been their life for a few years. Izuku took her to school, then attended his job at a nearby school to teach. He always left 30 minutes early to pick her up from school, and they would go home together.
Inko had offered to help countless times, suggesting they move to her house. Although Izuku was grateful, she lived too far away for them to keep their already established schedule. However, he allowed Eri to visit her grandmother on long weekends so they could bond, and he could catch up with grading.
Izuku fidgeted with the ring on his finger as he stared at the low grades on the papers before looking down at his hand. He knew he no longer needed it, not after... that, but it kept his coworkers and students from asking too many questions, though some still did.
"You know, she would've liked you to get another wife so you aren't lonely," some of his male coworkers would say. He always awkwardly laughed about it, ignoring just how rude something like that was.
It was cruel
He glanced at his phone, saw the time, and pushed his papers aside, stretching. It was the last day of the long weekend, and it was time to pick Eri up from his mother's house. He couldn't wait to hear about Eri's little vacation with Grandma. He knew she always loved playing with Inko, especially today since her birthday was tomorrow
He already had a plan for it after she returned from school. By working overtime, he was able to afford a small custom cake with her favorite princess design inside the fridge. He also got cheap balloons and a "Happy Birthday" sign—it would be perfect.
**
By the time Izuku arrived at his mother's door and opened it with his key, he frowned upon finding his suddenly sick child in her arms when he left the child healthy and giggling. It was easy to tell she was sick from how red her face was, with rashes covering her body.
Kids get sick, he thought, recalling his own occasional colds, but this looks bad, and she hasn't called the hospital or me about it.
"What happened? Why is she sick?" he asked quickly as he rushed to them, examining her arms. "And why haven't you called me???"
"Izuku!" his mother looked shocked at how quickly he had arrived.
"It's okay—it'll pass, it's nothing bad."
"No! No, it's not okay at all!" he quickly grabbed his phone to check nearby hospitals as he searched for her bag.
"/It's okay/," she repeated, trying to calm the crying child down, but her cries and whimpers only intensified Izuku's parental instinct.
"I wanted to rub some healing herbs on her before she left for good luck, but she started getting sick out of nowhere! I–I know it's gonna pass…but how old is she again?"
Izuku tried not to roll his eyes at his mother's superstitions. Another reason he didn't want to move in with her—her house was full of herbs and powders for 'evil spirits.'
"When she was young, I allowed it because she just sneezed, but she looks like she can't breathe!"
"I'm doing this for her own good. I did the same thing to you, and you turned out healthy."
Izuku can't help but mentally face-palm at that
Izuku shook his head, grabbing her tiny bag with all her things. "We will talk about this later on the phone, but I'll warn you, if you do this again and she gets an even worse reaction to the point I have to bring her to the hospital, you will...never see us again," he said firmly, taking her from Inko's hold. Eri weakly grabbed his arm, giving it a weak squeeze, and Izuku couldn't help but pick her up and hug her.
With the way she coughed so dryly and painfully, Izuku's parental instincts were all over the place. "I'll take her to the hospital right now," he corrected himself, moving her to his hip with one hand so he could touch her warming forehead. His frown deepened.
He didn't want to wait for this to pass and risk it getting worse. What if she had developed a new allergy from all the leaves his mother liked to put on her head?
"I—use the one you always go to, not a new one!" she said, trying to follow them to the door.
"I'm sorry, Izuku. I'm really doing this for your own good! I would never hurt my grandchild," she looked heartbroken, squeezing Izuku's arm as she seemed on the verge of crying.
"Apologize to her when she's not choking on air," Izuku said, running to the nearby bus stop.
This was a new area for him, but he wasn't going to travel for almost an hour to go to the hospital he always went to just because his mother said so. She had already done more damage than good.
"Everything hurts," she whimpered, and Izuku rocked her as he fast-walked to the nearby bus station.
"I promise—you will feel so much better soon."
"I trust Papa," she whispered, going into another coughing fit.
Izuku ran for 15 minutes. He wasn't going to call himself athletic because he wasn't. He was used to walking around his class explaining literature for hours and spent the rest sitting down grading papers. But he was full of fear. Her face was becoming even more red, and her coughing got worse, so he just had to run for however long his body gave him the adrenaline to do so, running to the back to the emergency area, begging for someone to see his daughter who seemed to be having a sudden allergic reaction.
They took her in quickly, taking her from his hands, and she let out a wail.
"They have to look at you," he said quickly to ease her nerves. "Okay? I’ll be watching you so nothing will happen, believe me. But I need you to be a little brave for me, okay? Didn't I always protect you from the monsters in the closet and under the bed?" he asked, and she took the biggest breath she could in her situation and let go of Izuku so she could have her blood tests done. Since she wasn't allergic to peanuts or anything else, the only thing he could tell the doctors was that she may have touched a plant that had given her a reaction.
"Don't worry, she will be fine," one of the nurses reassured him slowly as he tried to regain his breath. The run was finally taking a toll on him, and he nodded, thankful for her as it seemed she was very understanding of his panic
"Please grab the paperwork when you're able to do it, but maybe have a drink first," she offered a styrofoam cup to refill it, and he grabbed it with his shaky hands and filled it with water
His child is fine, she will be okay, and they can have their little party tomorrow
**
“This is suspicious,” one of the nurses said to the other as she stared at the screen of the results, all saying that she was healthy and good
“Hm?” the other one hummed, looking over.
“When the father said she had never had another allergy and this was suddenly caused by a plant…I didn't think much of it. Human children tend to get sick from all those silly things...but she grabbed me with her hand and…” She showed her arm to be slightly red and itchy, and both shared a glance.
“Wolfsbane, she had the same reaction we would have to Wolfsbane.”
In an instant, the other nurse started to look at the database. “I'm looking for it right away.”
“How did that human manage to raise a pup?” the one with the rash asked as she put cream on it. “Even the adoption system wouldn't cause this big of a mess like this,” she added.
“Because she wasn't adopted—or at least not from the foster care system,” the one on the monitor said. “She's from the runaway wolf from our pack. The DNA and physical characteristics are too closely related.”
They shared a glance again.
“That human has been with a pup from our pack for years, and we had finally found her. We need to call our alpha immediately.”
One of them scrambled to their phone and called, being answered immediately, usually when a nurse calls it's not a good thing, but this time it was
“Alpha—sir, we believe we found the child of the runaway omega,” the nurses whispered on the phone. “She’s with a human—" She leans to the side to read the screen "...Izuku Midoriya…" she gives the name "Given the medical records, he doesn't seem to have been trying to keep her a secret with how often he went to get the checkups meaning this was all a understanding…what do we do? Keep them here longer until you come here? Her 10 birthday is tomorrow”
[...You do nothing.]
She swallowed thickly.
“But sir—that pup has been missing for years. It is our right to take her before we can't find her again—”
[Are you going against my order?]
The two shared a panicked glance before looking back at the phone.
“N-no, alpha.”
[Then you do nothing. By the time he leaves, there will be someone following them. He was dragged into this whole mess, and it's against the treaty we made with the human government that protects us from hunters hurting its civilians who don't know about this life. If you hurt a strand out of his hair, you two will pay the price so our pack doesn't have to suffer, understood?]
They said their small stuttering yes sir and of course
[Good job on finding her.] He hung up, and both nurses looked at each other, letting out a shaky sigh.
“I feel bad for him,” the one with the recovering rash said.
“He looked to be a good father.”
Both couldn't help but peek over the window inside the room, seeing Izuku kiss Eri on her forehead, checking her over.
Oh well, he will be handled in whatever the head of their pack wishes, it's out of their hands.
TBC