Chapter Text
Izuku woke to the feeling of lips on his throat, Hizashi's legs tangled with his, each kiss punctuated by a soft, needy whine. Izuku hummed in response, still half asleep as he slid his hand down Hizashi's back and pulled him flush.
Hizashi crooned against his throat, leg sliding over Izuku's thigh to grind against him, already wet and eager. The scent of his heat was thick and sweet, and Izuku mouthed sleepily at the skin beneath his lips.
Wait. Heat?
Izuku's lingering sleepiness dissipated, eyes snapping open. Hizashi was in heat. Hizashi was very, very in heat, his scent so strong it made Izuku dizzy with want. The urge to roll his mate on his back and take him apart was so strong that he almost forgot this was a big deal. They told him Hizashi hadn't had a heat in five years.
He was definitely having one now.
"Shouta," he said, throwing an elbow into Shouta's gut because holy shit.
The move earned him a grunt and a grumble that sounded like it might be a question. "Hizashi's in heat," Izuku said, and Hizashi nipped at him as if to punctuate the statement.
Shouta's head popped over his shoulder. " What?" he demanded, voice sleep-rough but urgent. Hizashi slipped a hand around Shouta's neck, tugging him over Izuku to kiss him wet and filthy, moaning into his mouth like it was the best kiss of his life.
Then Hizashi pulled away, back to mouthing at Izuku's throat like he meant to eat him whole and grinding against his thigh, needy but aimless. Shouta stared at him, wide-eyed, before looking at Izuku as if he could somehow explain it. "How?"
Izuku didn't have answers any more than Shouta did. He might have been building to this since the moment Izuku came home. Or maybe the three of them together again was the catalyst he needed, the affirmation that everything was as it should be.
Hell, maybe it was just a fluke.
"No idea. Explains the knotting though," Izuku said, petting Hizashi's hair and getting a stuttery purr in response. If Hizashi was this deep in, he was already going into heat the night before. Shouta must have been affected, except none of them realized because they didn't expect it.
Hizashi was getting impatient with their talk, biting out a frustrated whine against Izuku's throat. What did the reason matter? Hizashi was in heat and that was that, and Izuku drew him in for a soft kiss, a teasing brush of lips. He pressed his thigh hard between Hizashi's legs, swallowing his gasp with a smile.
Shouta swore over his shoulder, cock already half-hard against Izuku's ass. Izuku wriggled against him, and Shouta bit his ear in reprimand and rolled away. Hizashi made a soft sound of distressed displeasure, and Izuku ran a soothing hand down his back as he craned his neck to see what Shouta was doing.
He snatched his phone from the nightstand, tapping out a rapid message before pressing the phone to his ear. Izuku could make out Shade's voice when the call connected. "I need you to pick up Eri from the address I sent you," Shouta said. Shade tried to ask a question and Shouta cut him off. "Hizashi's in heat," he said, and then immediately hung up, tossing his phone aside.
The issue of their daughter resolved, Shouta rolled back over them both with a deep, rumbling growl that made Izuku shiver. Shouta cupped Hizashi's face with a gentle hand, Hizashi melting into the soft touch. The tenderness between them caught Izuku behind the ribs. No matter the mistakes they'd made while he was gone, it was clear they still loved each other as much as they ever did.
Izuku slid from between them to give them space, but only managed to ruin the moment. Hizashi's breath hitched on a sharp, anxious whine, reaching after Izuku.
Izuku caught his hand, pressing a kiss to his fingers with a soft pang. "I'm not going anywhere," he soothed, sharing a concerned look with Shouta. Hizashi already had a bad case of separation anxiety during his heats. Izuku had a feeling the last five years may have made it worse.
Hizashi settled, like Izuku's touch was all he needed. His attention returned to Shouta as he squirmed beneath him, anxiety fading under pressing need.
Shouta bent to kiss him, slow and deep, and Izuku watched them with a satisfying curl of arousal. Hizashi's captive hand twitched in his grasp, and Izuku stroked a gentle, teasing touch along the inside of his arm. Wrist to elbow and back again, over the heel of his hand and along his palm. Izuku smiled when Hizashi's breath caught through the kiss.
He broke away with a soft gasp, trying to tug Izuku closer even though there was nowhere for him to go. Hizashi was sometimes impatient with logistics when he was in heat—he wanted them both at once and got frustrated when it didn't work.
Izuku bent over his arm, kissing the delicate underside of his wrist. "There's plenty of time," he said, lips brushing Hizashi's pulse. Heat made everything feel urgent and immediate, but they had days to take Hizashi apart again and again.
Shouta was watching them with a thoughtful look. "Lay down."
Izuku did, unable to help a smile when Shouta nudged Hizashi on top of him. "Hi," he said softly, capturing his mate's face for a kiss, smiling at the happy hum he got in return.
Then Shouta draped himself along Hizashi's back, their combined weight a pleasant pressure. "How's that?" Shouta asked against Hizashi's ear. "Now you have us both."
If the dazed, blissful expression on Hizashi's face was any indicator, Shouta made the right call. "I think he likes it," Izuku said.
"Good." Shouta grabbed a handful of Hizashi's hair, gripping tight, and Hizashi's breath caught. Shouta held him like that for a moment, using his grasp to tilt Hizashi's head back, baring his throat. Hizashi whimpered but didn't move, chest heaving.
"Look at you," Izuku breathed. Hizashi was staring at him, eyes dark and glassy, skin flushed, the perfect line of his throat bared for Izuku. "So pretty," he praised, licking a stripe up Hizashi's throat, feeling the rapid hammer of his pulse beneath his tongue. "So good. "
A thin whine tore from Hizashi's throat, and Izuku bit at the skin beneath his lips. Soft, teasing, not even hard enough to bruise. Shouta released him and Hizashi gasped like he'd only just remembered to breathe. Then he dove for Izuku, hands tangling in his hair and tugging hard as lips sought lips, artless and needy. It was a kiss full of teeth and deep, probing tongue, each break punctuated by a breathless sound of desperation.
Shouta kissed lazy and slow along Hizashi's back, his shoulders. He pulled Hizashi's hair aside to kiss up his spine, lingering at the back of his neck.
Hizashi froze with a gasp, and Izuku realized that Shouta had his teeth in Hizashi's neck. Not a bite, but the threat of one. Hizashi's breath was a rapid, shallow stutter, Shouta growling into the hold. Shouta held him there for several seconds, tension so thick it was making Izuku squirm. And then he let go.
Hizashi collapsed into Izuku's arms with a choked sob, and he stroked Hizashi's hair, soothing. "You're okay, you're okay," he said, shooting a frown at Shouta. There was teasing, but that was just plain mean. Hizashi enjoyed being bitten on a normal day. When he was in heat it was something closer to a need, a shaky desperation for the reminder that he belonged to them.
Shouta better make good on that promise.
For now he seemed unrepentant, hands sliding along Hizashi's back, catching him by the hips and lifting him on his knees. He sat back, watching Izuku and Hizashi with his cock in hand, stroking lazily. Then he leaned forward, just a little, his free hand digging into Hizashi's hip, as Hizashi whimpered against Izuku's shoulder. He tried to push back against Shouta, but Shouta wouldn't let him.
Izuku couldn't see from his angle, but he knew exactly what Shouta was doing. Teasing Hizashi with the press of his cock, enough to spread his aching pussy around the head, but no more than that. Not enough to scratch the desperate urge. Izuku swallowed, shifting around a sudden ache of his own. It was a pretty visual.
Shouta didn't tease him for long. He grabbed Hizashi hips and slid home, slow and easy until they were pressed flush, Shouta's cock buried inside him. And then he waited, until Hizashi was squirming against him, whining with soft frustration. Until he was desperate for Shouta to move, to fuck him, to knot him and fill him.
God, but Izuku wanted to watch. He liked holding Hizashi while Shouta took him, but there was something about watching Shouta's cock slide in and out of Hizashi's perfect pink pussy that made him a little crazy. Izuku caught Hizashi's face and tugged him into a long, deep kiss, tongue-fucking him urgent and rhythmic. Giving him a taste of what he wasn't getting from Shouta until Hizashi was moaning around it.
Then Hizashi broke the kiss with a gasp because Shouta was moving, fucking into him with sharp thrusts. The wet slap of it was deliciously obscene, because Hizashi was always dripping for them.
Izuku slid two fingers into Hizashi's mouth, crooning when his mate started sucking blindly, eager to take anything they gave him. "You're perfect," Izuku praised against Hizashi's jaw, ducking his head to bite at the flesh beneath his ear. There was no teasing now. Izuku bit him hard and possessive, enough to bruise, enough to bleed. Hizashi moaned around his fingers, and Izuku bit him again, filled with fierce, territorial pleasure.
Strong hands tangled in Izuku’s hair, and Shouta pulled him away to kiss him over Hizashi's shoulder, rough and hard. "As soon as I'm done with him I'm going to come down your throat," Shouta promised against his lips.
Fuck. Izuku pulled his fingers free of Hizashi's mouth, hand slipping between them to touch himself with a violent shudder. The image of Hizashi's talented tongue between his legs and Shouta's cock in his mouth made it so fucking easy to get off, the dizzying swell of imminent orgasm cut short when Hizashi yanked his hand away.
The sound of protest was barely past his lips before two fingers plunged into his sopping pussy. He was already so close that Hizashi had him coming in moments, body throbbing around Hizashi's fingers as their lips clumsily crashed together.
Shouta surged forward, sinking his teeth into Hizashi's neck, and Izuku swallowed his scream as Hizashi came. Shouta fucked him through it with sharp, relentless thrusts that left Hizashi a whimpering, overstimulated mess in Izuku's arms. A final, rough thrust forced the thick swell of his knot inside Hizashi before Shouta slumped over his back, sated.
They lay in a breathless, sweaty tangle, but Shouta didn't let them rest for long. He caught Izuku in a lazy kiss while he thrust shallowly inside Hizashi. The stretch of his knot made Hizashi gasp each time, and it wasn't long before he punched another, softer orgasm from their mate, nuzzling against his throat in tired satisfaction as Hizashi shivered between them.
Izuku lay beneath them, tired and satisfied, stroking Hizashi's hair as he drowsed in the warm, sticky comfort of his mates. This was nice. He didn't often get to experience Hizashi's heats without his own getting in the way. There was something satisfying about the shared, frenetic desperation, but having Hizashi fall apart in his arms? That was good too.
He knew from experience that there wouldn't be much time to sleep. Being stretched on Shouta's knot kept Hizashi satisfied for now, but it wouldn't be long before need had him by the throat again.
For the moment though, it was quiet and peaceful, Hizashi purring loudly between them. Shouta's fingers tangled with Izuku's, and he closed his eyes against the sudden burst of happiness. This was the way things should be, and he was grateful to have it back.
* * *
Izuku was nervous.
That wasn't unusual. A lot of things made him nervous, especially since he came back. But this was different.
This was his mom.
He'd been back for over a month, and Izuku had put off seeing her because as much as he wanted to, as much as he missed her, he was afraid. Afraid that she'd look at her son and see a stranger. Afraid that the ten years lost would be too much for her, and that they could never go back to being what they once were.
They'd texted, a little. Shouta insisted, so that she didn't start worrying and storm the school. Or at least that's what he said. She knew that there'd been an incident, and that Izuku was fine. He hadn't been able to bring himself to say more than that. It seemed cowardly to drop this sort of bomb over text, but he was too afraid to do it in person. So he found himself stuck in a weird sort of limbo until Hizashi decided he'd had enough.
He threw Izuku out of the apartment until he went to go see his mom.
Which Izuku thought was a little harsh, but he supposed he was being a giant coward about the whole thing. It was just. He couldn't bear to see her disappointed. It would break his heart. But he also knew he wasn't doing either of them any favors by dragging it out.
Which was why he was lingering outside her apartment, tying himself in anxious knots.
She was so much harder than everyone else had been. He’d been nervous how the others might take it too, but it had all gone okay. His friends accepted him back with lots of teasing. All Might had crushed him in a hug and tried to pretend he wasn't crying. But this? This was his mom. It was different somehow. Bigger. Scarier.
Some big tough hero he was. Couldn't even face up to his own mother without quaking in his shoes.
Izuku swallowed and squared his shoulders. The only way out was through. He had to do this. He knocked on the door, holding his breath as he heard the sound of footsteps on the other side.
The door swung open and there she was. His mom, exactly as he remembered her. She smiled, soft and warm the instant she laid eyes on him. "Izuku!" she said, and tears pricked his eyes. It had been so long since he heard that voice say his name.
Then she blinked, brows pinching, and Izuku resisted the urge to cringe from her scrutiny as she studied him in quiet confusion, a man where her boy should be. "You look... different," she said, uncertain. "When you told me something happened I didn't expect this. Was it a quirk? Is it permanent?"
"It's a long story," Izuku said, and it was a half truth. He could tell her he'd been gone for ten years, but those years contained so much of him that it wouldn't really explain anything at all.
"Then you'd better come in and tell me all about it," she said, taking him by the wrist and tugging him inside. The apartment smelled like katsudon, and for some reason that was what pushed him over the edge, the burn of tears spilling free.
"I hope you're hungry! You haven't been home in a while so I might have gone a little—" She turned, cutting off with a soft gasp. "Izuku, sweetheart, what's wrong?"
Everything and nothing. "I'm sorry," Izuku said, voice wobbly and words so inadequate.
His mom sat him on the couch, wiping his tears away with gentle hands. "What for?"
For living so much of his life without her. "It was a quirk," Izuku sniffled. "But it's not what it looks like. I went back in time."
She stilled, her hand still on his cheek. "What?"
"I don't just look older," he said, forcing the words out despite the storm in his gut. "I am older. I'm twenty-eight. I was gone for ten years."
His mom snatched her hand back with a soft gasp, scanning his face even as she shook her head. "Izuku, that's not funny."
A reflexive denial of something that seemed impossible. Izuku understood the impulse. He took her hand in his. "It's true. I went fifteen years into the past, and it was ten years before the quirk brought me back again."
She tugged her hand from his to stand, like the news was too big to take sitting. "That's impossible," she insisted. "There's no such thing as a time travel quirk, you can't have possibly— " She cut herself off with a sharp breath, pacing back and forth in front of Izuku. "If this is some sort of joke, it's not funny."
"I wouldn't joke about this," Izuku said, catching her hands to still her. He stared up at her, at the woman who raised him, and implored her to understand.
She sucked in a tremulous breath, pulling one hand from Izuku's to cup his face. She stared at him, searching, and then stroked a thumb over the faded scar by his eye. "This is new," she said softly.
Izuku leaned into her touch. "There's a few new ones. I got better at not getting hit over the years."
The weak joke still made her smile, small and fleeting. She studied him like she was searching for her son in the face of a stranger, in the face of a man she should have come to know gradually, not all at once. Then she frowned, tilting his head. "Is that... a bond mark?"
A bond mark and a scattering of still-healing bruises and bites from Hizashi's heat, because Shouta had developed a territorial streak in Izuku's absence. Between Izuku's disappearance and his struggles with Hizashi it made sense, but the idea of explaining them to his mom still made him feel like an embarrassed teenager.
"I'm married."
"You're eighteen," she said, scandalized.
"I'm twenty-eight," he reminded her, and decided that she didn't need to know that he'd bonded with Shouta and Hizashi within months of his disappearance.
"My son is married," she muttered, going back to her anxious pacing. Then she froze mid-stride, turning to Izuku with a look of pure distress. "I missed your wedding ?"
"There's pictures!" he soothed, something in him settling at her mundane concern. "And we recorded the ceremony. I wanted you to be able to see it."
She sniffled, wiping hastily at her eyes. "Tell me about your mate. Who did my baby marry?"
Izuku swallowed a grimace, because there was no way this was going to go over well. She'd met Shouta more than once. Izuku wasn't sure if she'd ever met Hizashi, but she certainly knew who he was. "I need you to remember that I love them both and that I'm very happy with them."
"Both?" she repeated, because having more than one mate wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't exactly common either. Then the rest of his statement registered, and she wrinkled her nose. "Izuku, I don't like that qualifier."
She wasn't going to like it any more when she knew why. "Shouta Aizawa and Present Mic," he blurted, giving her the names she was most likely to recognize. "Hizashi. Is his name."
"Your... teacher?" she said slowly, like she was trying to wrap her mind around the notion.
Izuku winced. He knew she was going to get hung up on that. "I mean, yes, but he wasn't my teacher when we met. Or I mean, I guess he was when I first met him , but not when we met in the past."
God, he sounded insane. "We were the same age," he finished weakly.
"Oh Izuku, surely you can do better than that man?" She sounded so appalled that it would be funny if Izuku wasn't a little offended on his husband's behalf.
"I doubt that," Izuku said, but there was no way he could explain it to her. A decade of love and five years of waiting. He could see how Shouta might seem a strange choice from the outside, but there was no one Izuku wanted besides the mates he had.
"And the man from the radio? I don't—isn't he one of your teachers too?"
Oh, this was going to be a sticking point. "Not when we met," he reminded her.
"You're married to two of your teachers?" She didn't sound upset exactly, more like Izuku had totally rearranged reality in the last five minutes and she was trying to keep up.
"Time travel complicates things," Izuku said, because that was the truth.
His mom stood in front of him, staring at him with a hand over her mouth. "You're twenty-eight," she said at length.
"Yes."
"And you're married to your teachers."
He was not going to get annoyed with her because he knew from her end it had to be very weird. "I'm married to two men I love very much."
Her brow wrinkled, but she didn't argue. That was fine. He knew she'd warm up to them once she had a chance to actually meet them. Or in Shouta's case, know him as a person and not her son's teacher. "Anything else I should know about?" she asked with an edge of tired humor.
"I might be a paradox?" Izuku offered.
"What?"
"You know when I was six and I ran off when that giant villain was rampaging?" Izuku started, because this had been bothering him for years. Every time he thought about it he went in circles until it gave him a migraine. Chicken and egg time travel bullshit.
"How could I forget," she said, sitting beside him again. "You've always had a terrible sense of self preservation. You nearly gave me a heart attack."
"And you remember the hero that saved me?"
"Vaguely," she said, brows furrowing as she tried to figure out where he was going with this. "I never got a chance to thank him. That always bothered me. I never learned his name, if that's what you're asking."
"It was Six Shot," Izuku told her. "An underground hero." She nodded, waiting, and Izuku plowed on. "Except the thing is, Six Shot was me."
She stared at him. "I don't follow."
"While I was living in the past, the only way for me to work as a hero was underground. Six Shot was my hero name. I saved myself. Somehow." Izuku still didn't understand how. "So, I might be a paradox."
His mom digested this with a slow shake of her head. "Well, in that case. Thank you for saving my baby. He means everything to me, and I don't know what I'd do without him."
Izuku sniffled, tears threatening once more. "Yeah, no problem."
She patted his hand. "Why don't we eat and you can tell me about everything I missed," she said, her own voice a little unsteady.
It was both nostalgic and cathartic, sitting at the table with his mom and eating his favorite food, telling her all about the last ten years. About Higari and Shade—the wedding story made her cry—about his job and his mates and his life. Everything they should have been able to share while it happened.
"I also have news," Izuku said slowly, food long finished and his hands wrapped around a mug of tea.
"Bigger news than the fact that you just got back from a ten year trip to the past?" she asked, teasing.
Almost. At least it felt that way to Izuku. "I'm uh," he started, winding up to it. She'd thawed a bit on the idea of Shouta and Hizashi after hearing Izuku talk about them, but he wasn't sure she'd appreciate the reminder that they were having sex. He took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."
She stared at him, and Izuku stared back, nerves mounting. Then she let out a gusty sigh. "Oh thank god I didn't miss my own grandbabies."
It was so unexpected it made him laugh, and just like that, the last of the weight dragging him down disappeared. His mom was the last discordant note, the last missing piece, and now everything was right again. He was back, he was home, and everything was going to be okay.
* * *
Today was the day of his first ultrasound, and Izuku was a little nervous. He wasn't sure why, exactly. Maybe because today was the day that might make it real. Maybe he was anxious that time travel had done something weird to the baby.
Or maybe it was good old-fashioned new-parent nerves.
He got up early, showered and dressed and got Eri off to school. Then he cleaned the living room to give his hands something to do. After that, the kitchen. He was in the middle of scrubbing a particularly stubborn spot on the stove when warm arms encircled his waist. "Are you cleaning? " Shouta asked against his ear, amused.
Izuku leaned back against his chest for a moment, basking. News of his pregnancy seemed to have shattered the last of the walls between them, and every small bit of casual affection felt like a gift. "I'm distracting myself," he said.
Shouta hummed, palm splayed across Izuku's belly even though there wasn't anything to feel yet. There was something proprietary in the gesture that kind of did it for Izuku, and he was a little concerned Shouta was training him right into a new kink. He slipped from Shouta's arms with a pang of regret because he didn't have enough time to do anything about it, as tempting as it was.
"Nervous?" Shouta asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"Little bit."
Shouta looked around at the sparkling kitchen and raised an eyebrow.
"Okay a lot," Izuku admitted, pouring his own cup. Shouta frowned at him, and Izuku said, "It's decaf." Which was a travesty but apparently bombarding a baby with caffeine was bad or something. Maybe. People did not seem to agree.
Shouta stared at his mug with abject disgust and then poured it down the sink, untouched.
"You're so dramatic," Izuku said, rolling his eyes. Then he took a sip of his own coffee and did not make a face because he was trying to prove a point.
"I'll get one on the way," Shouta said with zero remorse for the waste of subpar coffee. He leaned back against the counter and watched Izuku for a moment. "You know there's nothing to be nervous about, right?"
He did know that! It sure didn't seem to matter though. "How come you're not nervous?" Izuku asked. Out of all of them, he would have expected Shouta to be the worst off, and yet he seemed to be taking everything... surprisingly well.
"Hormones," he said, which was not the answer Izuku was expecting.
"What?"
"Pregnancy hormones affect omega pheromones, which, with constant exposure, tend to have a calming effect on alphas," Shouta said.
Izuku stared at him.
"I looked it up," he added.
That did sound familiar, now that Izuku thought about it. He might have come across it in his reading at some point. "Because you thought it was weird that you weren't freaking out."
Shouta grimaced, then conceded, "Because I thought it was weird I wasn't freaking out."
"So I'm just... what? Drugging you zen?" Izuku asked with a creeping grin. There was something funny about the fact that omegas were designed to calm their high strung mates. Purring, hormones, the works.
Shouta shrugged. "I suppose. Not like it's unusual for omegas to have a tangible effect on alphas."
That was true. Izuku had read some studies on the physical effects of an omega in heat on an alpha and it was genuinely fascinating stuff. "It's probably for the best if one of us isn't anxious."
"Don't get used to it," Shouta said with a wry smile.
A groan from the living room interrupted them, and Izuku looked out to see Hizashi collapse on the couch, burritoed in a stolen blanket from their bed. "I'm sick," he announced.
Shouta straightened, alert like Hizashi had declared they were under attack. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I just barfed up everything I ate for the last six weeks," Hizashi said, burrowing down into his blanket. "Might do it again just for kicks."
Oh, what terrible timing. Izuku made to go to him, already thinking about what they'd need to pick up when Shouta's hand on his arm stopped him. "No."
"No?" Izuku asked, confused.
"If he's sick you should keep your distance," Shouta said, putting himself between Izuku and Hizashi like some sort of overzealous guard dog.
Ah. Apparently the hormonal zen did not apply when something activated the protection protocol. "Shouta, we slept in the same bed. If he's sick we probably all are."
"Babe, it's not like I've got, I dunno, rabies or some shit." Hizashi made a piteous sound. "Someone come snuggle me, I feel like garbage."
Shouta seemed torn, looking between Hizashi and Izuku like he couldn't decide who needed him more. It was sweet, if a little silly. "We should get you to Recovery Girl," Shouta said to Hizashi after a moment.
"Oh my god, Izuku what have you done to him?" Hizashi complained. "Shouta, I threw up. It's probably a stomach bug or the flu or some bad shrimp. She's gonna tell me to get lost."
Izuku could practically feel the anxiety coming off of Shouta. Alphas could be a little overprotective of a pregnant mate, and apparently that extended to potential illness. "Okay," he said, laying a soothing hand on Shouta's arm. "You take Hizashi to Recovery Girl, and I'll go to my appointment by myself."
Izuku had never seen a man who more clearly wished he could split himself in two. "You think I'm being unreasonable."
Izuku smiled. "A little bit, but it's not your fault."
"Nooooo," Hizashi moaned. "I wanna go and see the weird little blob while a doctor tries to explain to me that there is meaning in the weird little blob."
It was sweet how much they both wanted to be with him. And Izuku did want them there, but he wasn't going to drag Hizashi around the city in his state. Besides, Shouta needed to find out what was wrong with him before he went crazy and tried to quarantine Hizashi in their own home. And out of the two of them, Hizashi definitely needed Shouta more than he did.
"It's fine," Izuku soothed. "This won't be my last one. And I don't think they really do much more at this point than confirm that there sure is a baby in there."
Hizashi grumbled, and Shouta didn't look much happier.
"It's a routine appointment," Izuku told them. "Go get Hizashi checked out, and when I come home we can all look at the weird little blob together. How's that sound?"
Nobody was happy with the compromise, not even Shouta. But like Izuku said, it was only a routine appointment, and there would be plenty more.
* * *
Izuku stared at the grainy little printout in his hands, trying to see whatever the doctor saw in the grayscale image. The weird little blob, Hizashi called it, and he wasn't wrong. No matter how much he stared, he couldn't make sense of what he was looking at, couldn't pluck any meaning from it. But the doctor was sure.
Twins. Izuku was having twins.
That's what he got for assuring his mates the visit was routine. Izuku had scarcely managed to wrap his head around the idea that he was having one baby, and now there were two.
It was exciting. It was terrifying. Izuku was so, so glad there were three of them because holy shit, twins. They didn't even know how to handle one baby, and now there were gonna be two.
Izuku stared up at the teacher dorm, nervous and contemplative all at once. They were gonna need a bigger place. Eri was going to be ecstatic. Shouta was going to be nauseous. Hizashi would be thrilled.
It was easier than breaking the news to them the first time. They'd stabilized. Shouta could kiss him now without uncertainty or hesitation.
Well, he could do a whole lot more than kiss him, but that was beside the point.
There was none of the fear of last time. It was just... more. A bonus baby! Buy one, get one free.
Maybe the reason it felt so surreal was because until now the pregnancy didn't feel quite real. Izuku didn't have any symptoms aside from his effect on the people around him. No morning sickness, no mood swings. If it wasn't for Kacchan's offhand statement Izuku would probably never have suspected he was pregnant at all until he missed his next heat. Or started showing. He wasn't sure which would happen first.
And now, before the first baby even felt real, he had two. Two small, would-be humans growing inside him. And it was so strange, because he never thought he'd have kids. Not when he was young and quirkless and unwanted. Not even after he got married, because he thought he was going to die.
And oh, Izuku still had some complicated feelings about the idea. Would his children be quirkless like him? Izuku had every intention of dying with One for All. He wouldn't seek out a successor, and he certainly didn't want to pass it to any of his children. If they were quirkless, would they resent him for that? Would they go through everything Izuku had gone through, would they have to endure the ridicule of society because Izuku was defective?
Even if they were like him, he would never, ever do anything to make them feel less for it. As much as he loved his mother, that was where she failed him. Izuku would not repeat that mistake. But he wasn't foolish enough to think he could protect them from the rest of the world and its prejudice.
There was nothing he could do about it now. His children would be quirkless, or they wouldn't. Worrying about it now, when they were nothing more than weird little blobs was pointless.
He'd love them regardless, and that was what mattered.
Izuku pushed open the door and went inside with a nervous turn of his stomach. He still wasn't sure how his mates would take it, but how much harder could two babies be?
The answer was probably a lot.
Hizashi and Shouta were already home when Izuku got there, Hizashi curled up in Shouta's arms and looking a little less miserable than he had that morning. Probably nothing serious then. Which he expected, the trip to Recovery Girl was more to appease Shouta than anything else.
"Hi!" he said as he kicked off his shoes, and both of them jolted like they hadn't heard the door, stiffening and turning unreadable stares on Izuku.
...They couldn't possibly know, could they?
Hizashi seemed to wrestle with himself for a moment before he asked, "How did it go?"
Izuku stared at the picture in his hand and decided it was best to rip the bandaid off. "It's twins."
The silence that met him did nothing to soothe his nerves. "What?" Shouta asked.
"Twins," Izuku repeated. It was fine, they were just a little shocked. Izuku sure was when the doctor first said so.
Except. Except they didn't look happy at all, not even Hizashi, who looked more than a little distressed. "Oh no," Hizashi said.
Izuku's heart sank like a stone. "Oh no?" he repeated, wounded. Sure, it would be harder than one, but surely it wasn't the worst news? Except Hizashi still looked distressed and Izuku felt like someone just kicked him in the heart.
Hizashi startled, hands flailing. "No! Wait! Not like that! I'm not—I just meant—" Hizashi cut off the hysterical rambling with a sharp breath. "It wasn't a stomach bug," he said.
Izuku's anxiety was immediately overwritten by alarm. Was Hizashi seriously sick? Was that why Izuku's news upset him? "What was it?" Izuku asked, bracing himself for the worst.
Hizashi gnawed his lip for a moment, before Shouta nudged him. "It was morning sickness."
Izuku pressed a hand over his chest, relieved. Then the implication struck and he froze. "You're pregnant?" he asked, the question coming out like air escaping a balloon.
"Surprise," Hizashi joked weakly.
Izuku's thoughts tripped over each other like a bunch of drunk men on a stormy sea, trying to make sense of the news. Hizashi's heat was so unexpected that Izuku, who was usually so good at keeping track of these things, forgot about birth control. Either because his entire reason for being so militant was gone, or because he was already pregnant himself. Or maybe he was so caught up in his mate's heat that it slipped his mind.
And even then, the odds were so low. Omegas were more fertile than their beta counterparts, true, but the first few heats were almost always sterile. Like the body was taking a few dry runs before everything kicked in. Hizashi wasn't a teenager, but his body was coming back online after five years of dormancy. Izuku didn't know how that usually worked, but it seemed possible that it was a little like a second puberty.
Not that it mattered anyway, because Hizashi was pregnant.
"Three babies," Izuku said, trying to wrap his head around it. Hizashi was a month behind him. They'd have three whole infants. They were as good as having triplets.
"Three babies," Hizashi agreed with an edge of hysteria.
Izuku stumbled over to Hizashi and grabbed his face, tugging him in for a kiss, excitement burning through him in a terrified sort of way. He knew how much Hizashi always wanted this. "You're gonna have a baby!"
"I am!" Hizashi said, giddy with nerves. "And you're having two!"
"Apparently!" Izuku's life had turned into a comedy sketch.
Hizashi clutched at Izuku's arms. "I think I'm gonna hurl."
Izuku drew back. "Literally or figuratively?" he asked, because it could go either way.
"Undecided," Hizashi muttered, and Izuku laughed, stroking his hair.
"Three babies," Shouta said, stunned and still catching up. Hizashi wasn't the only one who looked like he was thinking about throwing up.
"Now you're freaking out?" Izuku asked.
"Now I'm freaking out," Shouta agreed woodenly. "Apparently there's an upper limit even hormones can't handle." He looked up at Izuku, expression almost comically distressed. "We haven't even figured out a name for one," he said, like this was somehow the greatest concern. Then, with dawning horror, "We'll be outnumbered."
He was right. Two months ago Izuku had zero children, and in less than a year he'd have four. It was dizzying to consider. It was going to be awful, and exhausting. It was also going to be amazing in ways he knew he couldn't even understand yet.
"It'll be okay," he soothed, petting the two of them like a pair of anxious puppies. And he meant it, Izuku realized.
"Of course it will," Hizashi said, catching Izuku's hand and pressing a kiss to his palm. "Can't think of two people I'd rather have three kids with all at once."
Shouta looked unconvinced, and Izuku kissed his hair. "You're already a great dad," he said. And it was true. Izuku might not have been there to see it happen, at least not in the way he wanted, but there was no denying it. Eri and Shouta wound up being exactly what the other needed to heal, and Izuku wasn't going to let him doubt himself again. He took one of Shouta's hands and pressed it to his belly, and the other to Hizashi's. "And you'll keep on being a great dad."
Shouta took an unsteady breath and nodded.
They were gonna be okay. Sure, the idea of having three kids was big and scary and overwhelming. He didn't blame Shouta for being anxious. They all were. But under all the uncertainty, Izuku was surprisingly okay with it. It would be hard, and a lot to handle all at once, but they'd figure it out. They could do anything as long as they had each other.
It felt like his life was finally starting. Or maybe starting over. Izuku no longer had the specter of a half-known future hanging over him.
Things were messy and imperfect, but for the first time since they met, the future was unwritten, and they were finally free.