Father Figure (BNHA)

A second home

"I'm sorry, but your son is quirkless."

The words echoed in Izuku's ears as he ran to the nearest park, ignoring the shouts of his mother as she noticed he was gone.

He was quirkless, a failure. He couldn't be a hero, he would never be able to smile at people and tell them, with confidence, that they were going to be okay, because he was there to help them.

He was only four years old, and his dreams had just been washed away, leaving an abyss of very limited possibilities.

His mother had tried to reassure him, but had just started crying herself. That had been the thing that broke Izuku the most. Not even his mother, who could see the good in everything, could reassure him that it was okay.

That there was still hope for him.

He reached the park and ran to the swings at the back, near a wire fence, looking out over a koi pond.

Izuku collapsed onto the swing, managing to balance, even this his knees pulled up to his chest. He watched the water of the pond swirling as the fish moved about, felt the wind blowing through his hair, listening to it as it blew through the leaves of the nearby trees, blowing them to the ground.

It didn't feel real.

How could the world just carry on like this, even after he had received world ending news? How could the wind still blow, and time still tick forwards when his world had come crashing down so quickly and so hard, crushing him beneath it?

He was only four, but he had already given up.

If he knew what suicide was, then maybe he would climb the fence and walk over to the koi pond for a little swim. Maybe he would have done it anyway.

Izuku heard the sound of twigs breaking, not far from him, but he chose to ignore it. He didn't care if anything happened.

Izuku saw a man sit down on the swing next to him, slowly swinging backwards and forwards, like the steady tick of a bomb, ready to go off, but he ignored it. He didn't care if anything happened to him.

"Dont worry, kid. I understand. I was only five when I got my quirk. I thought I was quirkless, and that I would never be a hero like I had always wanted to be."

Izuku looked up at the man, who just stared down at the swirling pond. He had messy pale blue hair and chapped lips. His eyes were red, but were filled with sadness and regret.

"Even with my quirk, I never did become a hero, but being a hero wasn't the right choice for me."

Izuku cleared his throat and spoke softly. "So what did you do instead?"

The man looked over at Izuku and smiled warmly. "Do you want to find out?"

Izuku nodded and the man held out his hand. Izuku took it, briefly noticing that the man was careful to only touch him with four fingers.

The man lead Izuku out of the park, and into a new life.

***

The man, who Izuku now knew as Tomura, taught Izuku things he had never thought he would learn.

Like now, just after Izuku's sixth birthday, when he's playing with the new toy Tomura got him. Not an action figure, or a plushie or anything else a six year old would normally play with.

No, Izuku is playing with a gun.

This wasn't his first gun. Tomura had first given him one for his fifth birthday, and had taught him how to use it. But he had lost that gun when he had tried to take it to school with him.

Katsuki Bakugou was an asshole and a bully. Even at five years old, Izuku could see that. So, of course, he followed the example set by his role model and father figure, Tomura, and brought his gun to school one day.

Unfortunately, he had to get rid of it at lunch when two bullies tried to go through his bag. He had thrown it out the window and it wasn't there when he went to find it again.

"Well," Tomura had said when Izuku told him what happened. "He didn't get caught, so it's fine."

Izuku raised his new gun and fired at the target, not quite getting a bullseye, but getting pretty close. He turned to Tomura with a big grin on his face.

"Dad! Look! Look! Look! Look how close I got! I'll be able to get the bullseye soon!"

Tomura looked down at him with a look of pride, he smiled widely and said "You just called me dad."

Izuku turned red. "Sorry, Tomura! I didn't mean to."

Tomura just smiled and walked over to him, picking him and looking into his emerald green eyes. "Don't worry, kid. I dont mind."

Izuku grinned widely and Tomura booped him on the nose, making the boy laugh. The door opened and Kurogiri peered inside.

"Inko says she wants him home now."

Tomura and Izuku have him matching pouty faces but Kurogiri still insisted he needed to go.

Tomura and Izuku made their way back to Izuku's house, where he still lived with Inko.

Tomura had basically become Izuku's babysitter. He would look after Izuku most evenings and some of the weekends, so that Inko could go to work. She was gratefull to him for being so willing to look after her boy, without wanting anything in return.

Tomura just said he enjoyed having Izuku around. Which he did, more than he would ever admit.

Tomura knocked on the door to Izuku's house and Inko opened it, smiling at Tomura widely. "Thank you so much for looking after him all the time, I dont know what I would do without you."

Tomura looked down at the boy, miming shooting his mother, though he was stood behind her so she couldn't see him.

"Don't thank me yet."