Chapter Text
Tomura (10) POV
I wake up to the sound of a creaking door. I’m on alert in less than a second, one of my gloves off before I’ve even fully sat up, tense and ready.
But the small form that peeks through the crack in the door has me relaxing a little. I reach over and flick on the lamp. Izuku blinks at the brightness. A yellowing bruise mottles the left side of his face, paired with a slowly healing split lip. He looks at me with anxious hope in his eyes, his hands fidgeting with his quirk suppressing cuff.
“C’mere,” I tell him. He scrambles into my room, letting the door shut behind him. He jumps onto my bed and curls against me. I brush his curls back from his face. “Nightmares again?” I ask, as he tucks himself into my blanket. He nods. I sigh and reach over, flicking the lamp off again. I lay back down and let him cuddle against me.
I used to think that this was escape. I used to think Sensei was my savior. It took me a couple years to realize I traded a demon for the devil himself. He took me in, his wife was happy to have me. She had a baby, just a little thing with a mop of green curls already covering his face. He reminded me so much of my sister that for months I stayed as far away from as I could. But he started walking eventually and could keep up with me and would hunt me down. Giving in to the demands of the toddler ended up becoming my only option. But I wouldn’t change that part now.
He calls me his brother, I let him. Sensei told me I was his second son, told me to call him dad. Changed my last name to match his, changed my first name entirely. Mama Inko took care of us when Sensei disappeared for weeks at a time. I would help her as much as I could. Life was good for nearly four years. But everything changed three months ago when Izuku turned five. A doctor diagnosed him as quirkless. He cried about it for hours. I held him and rocked him, trying to help him calm down. Mama was on the phone with Sensei for most of that time.
When he came home… he was pissed. He yelled and screamed and I panicked. I grabbed Izuku and hid in my room. Shoved my dresser in front of the door and crawled under the bed, hidden, terrified. We could hear the yelling and the arguing. Heard the screams of mama. Smelled the smoke. Sensei tore down my door and grabbed both of us. I stared at Inko’s corpse. Burned nearly beyond recognition, twisted wrong. Izuku was also staring. I tried to shield him, but it was too late.
Since that day we’ve lived in an old abandoned building. It had walls, but it wasn’t really a house. We had mattresses on the floor, lamps that were our only light source, whatever blankets Sensei gave us. The last three months have been… different. Sensei has put me through the ringer with training and experiments with the doctor. Beating me when I don’t comply. But nothing I’m going through amounts to what he does to Izuku. He’s been pushing more and more quirks into him. Getting him used to one just to add another. Forcing him to adapt rapidly. The bruises are becoming a common occurrence on my little brother.
Then there’s Kurogiri. He’s a nanny sort of. And a bodyguard. And a warden. But he keeps us fed, patches us up when I’m too broken to do it myself. Sensei called him a nomu, the first success. How he made him… it reminds me too much of what he’s doing to Izuku.
I yawn. Izuku’s even breathing drawing me out of my thoughts of the past. I feel my eyes get heavy again. Wrapping my arms more securely around him, I let my eyes drift closed and a fortunately dreamless sleep overtake me.