Chapter Text
Packs were an undeniably important aspect of anyone’s life. Yes, mates were important, and a lot of people thought of finding their mate as the point of their life, their true goal. But a healthy, stable pack was arguably a more important dynamic throughout anyone’s life. A stable pack reared pups, was a village to depend on, a shoulder to lean on, help when you needed it. They shared your successes, your failures, your triumphs and embarrassments, hopefully with open minds and open hearts. A pack was your support system, and was meant to be the foundation upon which healthy mated pairs were built on.
So that’s why it hurt so badly that Izuku didn’t have one.
Pack formation was a milestone in life, and it typically began in adolescence. Often times, the beginning of lifelong packs could be seen forming as early as middle school, and while they ebbed through life, changing, growing, shrinking, it wasn’t uncommon to have multiple members of an adult, established pack come from the very first middle and high school pack they formed. The longer a pack was together, the more solid and unshakable they could grow.
Bakugou formed his pack first. Bakugou was clearly an alpha, even before he presented he commanded a room with his impressive quirk and his natural bravado and strength. Izuku was just lucky to be included, the brash little blonde declaring that ‘It’s okay, every pack needs a beta!’ Izuku had been small and skinny, quirkless, and while all of them had a while until they would present, he didn’t seem to smell like some of the other children who would one day become omegas. With some kids, it was just obvious, and since it wasn’t for Izuku, the common assumption was that he would become a beta when he grew older. So he tagged along, Katsuki’s little shadow, begrudgingly accepted and passingly tolerated.
Until he didn’t present with the other kids. He hit 12, 13, 14, and still no presentation. The other kids were beginning to present, form their first juvenile packs, begin to figure out their place in the world, and Izuku wasn’t. His mother assured him that he was just a late bloomer, betas didn’t present as big or as obviously as alphas and omegas, and tended to present slightly later anyway. It was fine, right? He clung to that for years, but as he hit 15, 16, 17 even and still could not pick up on scents, could not release calming pheromones, could not do any of the things betas DID, he began to fear the worst.
His classmates were….fine. They were fine. They respected him and his newfound quirk. They praised his successes, told him he had a bright future, laughed and hung out with him. But none courted him into their pack. And why would they? A pack could have several alphas and omegas, but typically only one beta, if any at all. And if a pack was only supposed to have one beta, why would they pick a beta who couldn’t smell, couldn’t calm, and hadn’t even presented? Izuku told himself that it made sense, it wasn’t anything personal…
But it still hurt.
He told himself it was fine if all his best friends formed a single pack. And to his credit, Iida was of course a fantastic alpha. As the prime, the head alpha, he took excellent care of his pack, he was so kind and patient and protective of not just omega Ochako but his beta as well, Tsu. That was somewhat rare, betas were typically not scented the same as omegas, or protected quite as fiercely, but Iida didn’t play favorites. Not with his girls. Not with his pack.
Deku would have loved to be in his pack. Iida was such a natural at leading, that even though he hadn’t presented yet, the greenette found himself wanting to follow Iida’s guidance anyway. He could see why his pack was so low key and stable. Even with the pack recently courting Todoroki to join as the secondary Alpha, everyone knew he would accept. Who didn’t want to be taken care of by Iida?
And then there was Momo’s pack. Deku loved the way Momo was so attentive and generous with her pack. She really was a ray of sunshine, as bashful as she could be, and watching her dote on her omega Jirou and beta Tokoyami was so sweet, it could give you cavities. It was almost too sweet; they were such a tightly bonded trio, Deku couldn’t imagine anyone else trying to worm their way in.
The largest pack in the third year class was, of course, Bakugou’s. Was that any surprise? Kacchan always needed the biggest and best after all. Naturally, Bakugou was the prime, like he would ever let anyone lead him, but Kiri was also an alpha right as his side. It was somewhat strange that the blonde had courted Kirishima first; an alpha-alpha pack wasn’t rare, but the fact that the two of them didn’t court Mina, Hanta or Denki until they were well-cemented together certainly was. It was just the two of them for an entire year before they made a move on Denki first, and Deku was sure that no matter what other changes the Bakugou pack went through, Kirishima and him would end up always sticking together.
As a child, Deku had always wanted to be part of Kacchan’s pack. But he already had two betas, more than most packs had. It was unreasonable to expect him to court a third, when and if Izuku ever presented.
There were other packs; duos, trios, quartets. The only students at AU who hadn’t been courted were a select few people who had made the choice to stick with their birth pack until graduation, as uncommon as that was, and Deku, who had no choice.
He threw himself into his work to compensate. He placated himself with the idea that he would just present late and form a pack with his sidekicks, his colleagues. Whatever it took to make him feel alright falling asleep alone, tossing and turning and yearning for the steady breathing and comforting heartbeat of surrounding pack members to lull him to sleep.
___
The summer break was warm. Warmer than Izuku remembered the last summer break being. It felt like he couldn’t get cool no matter how many ice cold showers he took. His skin was hot to the touch, and he was ravenously thirsty. Every nerve on his body felt like it was crackling with heat and pent up energy, and all he could do was writhe in his over-warm bed at home, sweating out every drop of water he feverishly drank. His mother was concerned for him, draping cool wash cloths on his flushed face and muttering about how he must have caught a summer fever, lamenting about what bad timing it was, but he couldn’t hear her. All he could hear was the pounding of his own heart in his ears, and the splitting, unbearable fever headache building in his skull.
That night was hell. He couldn’t get comfortable, and the heat radiating off his body didn’t ebb as the sun went down. His mother had every fan in the house set up in his room before she’d gone to sleep, telling him if the fever hadn’t broken by morning they’d need to go to the hospital. But Izuku didn’t know if he’d make it till then. He felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin, and in the still, cool night air, he stifled whines and hiccups of frustrated discomfort as he clawed at his body. Desperate to escape his clothes that suddenly felt too warm, too irritating, he was sprawled out panting and delirious on his bed, and for the first time, realized that his thighs felt tacky…sticky almost. Reaching down to touch the sudden sticky moisture, he realized it was coming from him. His hole was practically weeping with the stuff, and he didn’t know what exactly had possessed him to do it, but rolling onto his stomach and pressing his face into his pillow, he let out a low, drawn out keen of both relief and impatience as he reached back and pressed an experimental finger against his slick hole.
He was wet, and he had no idea how he was going to go about remedying it.
This had never happened before when he’d tried fingering himself. It had always been so awkward and uncomfortable before, partially because he just didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing! As a beta, he’d known he wouldn’t slick up, but even so, it had always seemed like a chore trying to make himself cum with just his hands. Now, he was quivering and breathing heavy as he pushed a finger in, sliding so easily now, testing out this unfamiliar territory.
It felt good, more of a relief than doing nothing, but it wasn’t good enough. His hole squeezed around his finger as he slipped it in past the second knuckle, his stomach fluttering as he let out a wavering moan. He had to keep quiet, his mothers room shared a wall, but every time his fingertip brushed past….something, whatever it was inside him, all he could do was bite down on his pillow and try to keep his voice down. Still, just a single finger was soon not enough, and when two fingers was similarly too little, his own slick dripping down his hand and onto his sheets, he scissored them open, subconsciously preparing himself to take something even bigger. A something he wouldn’t get that night.
The room was warm with his labored breathes as he drove himself infuriatingly close to the edge again and again, never quite able to throw himself over, no matter how desperately he fucked himself on his own fingers, or frantically stroked his own pathetic weeping cock. It just wasn’t working, he was growing desperate, turning on his stomach to rut unsuccessfully against the sheets. His mind felt numb to any thoughts besides the blindingly infuriating feeling of failed satisfaction.
The first night was rough. There was no relief from it, no respite. All Izuku could do was pant and whine his way until morning, and shamefully try to relay to his mother in the most g rated way possible that he DID need to go to the doctor, but not for a fever. And to the clinic doctor’s credit, they kept an incredibly straight face as a red-cheeked Izuku stuttered his way through an explanation as he sat on the exam table, his mother pacing in the waiting room.
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,” the doctor finally said, scribbling a few things in her notes and setting the clipboard aside. As she spoke, Izuku could feel the room filling with….something. What was it? It smelled fantastic, was there a candle somewhere? It smelled like vanilla and something vaguely floral, not too overpowering, but just enough to cause his shoulders to unwind a bit of the tension he was holding. As he visibly relaxed, the doctor just nodded. “As I thought. You’re reacting to calming pheromones, and coupled with the sudden fever, the sudden onset of uncomfortable arousal, and the production of slick, it points to you simply presenting.”
“Huh?” He looked at her incredulously, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “I’ve never heard of beta presentation being like…this,” he muttered, trying to wrack his brain and remember if any of these symptoms seemed familiar from all the times he’d researched betas growing up. She just laughed though, the scent in the room growing a bit stronger, and moved to open the cabinet above the sink in the exam room.
“Precisely. Because you’re not presenting as a beta.” She took out a sterile wrapped package, setting it down on the sanitized exam tray beside the bed, opening it up to reveal a swab and a vial. “From your symptoms alone, and from your scent I’m positive you’ve presented omega, but if you’d like, I have an easy venom test that can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
“My scent?” He asked, watching as the doctor prepared the simple test, and opened his mouth when she directed for her to press the swap to one of his canines. Swabbing the venom from his teeth, she dipped the tip into the vial, which contained a small amount of liquid, which immediately bloomed a perfectly clear and bright blue.
“Mhm. Since you’re late to present, I wouldn’t expect you to know how yet, but once you get used to secreting pheromones and recognizing scents, you’ll become better at controlling your own pheromones.” She held the vial up for Izuku to inspect. “Red would be alpha venom, blue indicates omega venom, and any shade of purple indicates venom on the beta spectrum. You’ve got the clearest blue results I’ve seen in a long while.” He took the little vial incredulously, shaking it slightly, as if agitating the liquid would turn it purple. It didn’t.
“Is the vanilla scent yours?” he asked, green eyes following the doctor as she turned back to the cabinet, taking out a small blue box.
“It is. You’ll learn to distinguish them soon, but it’s a beta scent. We make good doctors,” she said, opening the box and taking out a small, beige, square sticker, “because beta scents are natural calming aids for others.”
“I guess it is calming,” he said, turning his head when the doctor indicated, and allowing her to fix the patch to the side of his throat. “What’s that?”
“A scent patch,” she said, closing the box of 30 and handing it to him. “Think of them like training wheels, a useful tool to use until you have better control of your pheromones. They’ll keep you from inadvertently triggering anyone around you until you’ve got a handle on it yourself.” He remembered his classmates in middle school wearing these occasionally, though it was a little embarrassing for him to have to wear one now, at 18, when none of his classmates still wore them. He also remembered Kacchan calling them shitty scent blockers and refusing to wear them. When he was unpresented, Izuku couldn’t pick up on dynamic scents at all, but he did remember other alpha students complaining about how Katsuki smelled, and he remembered omega students really REALLY liking it. He wondered how Kacchan would smell now that he could distinguish?
“What do I smell like?” He blurted out, curious as to what his classmates would get a nose full of when he returned after break, but the doctor just smiled, ever the professional, and handed him several pamphlets about presenting as an omega.
“Distress, mostly,” she said kindly, though it didn’t make him feel better. “Now, you mentioned some significant issues through the night will an inability to reach cl-“
“UHUH, YEAH,” he blurted out to cut the doctor off, back to his cherry red complexion and finding it hard to look her in the eye. He knew she likely had this exact conversation with people every day, but it didn’t make it any less humiliating. Izuku was such a private person, he hated relaying the issues to her and didn’t think he could handle it being repeated back to him in such a calm, professional demeanor. She didn’t take offense, of course, and simply nodded to the slightly crumpled pamphlets in his hand.
“It can be an embarrassing topic, and I understand if you’re not ready to discuss it fully, but just know you’re not the first person to have these issues, and I think you’ll find more than enough information on it in the materials I’ve given you.” She was so kind, he thought as he played his hands over his face in mortification, she really was perfectly suited to be a doctor. “And if it makes you feel better, you’re not the latest presentation I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m not?” He peeked out from between his fingers to see her shake her head.
“It’s not especially common, but not unheard of. I’ve had a 22 year old unpresented patient before. Genetics play an enormous role in presenting, and sometimes genes have a mind of their own.” She stood then, and led an embarrassed but grateful Izuku from the exam room out to the waiting room, where his mother promptly enveloped him in a smothering hug. “Everything checks out, Ms. Midoriya, the two of you are free to return home.”
“Are you alright?” Inko sputtered, grabbing Izuku’s cheeks and looking him over up and down. When her eyes landed on the patch on his throat, they widened with sudden understanding. “...OH.”
“Can we just go home now?” Her son asked quietly, acutely aware of the stares they were getting from other waiting patients, and was grateful when they were finally back in the car and on their way back.
“I can’t imagine- …I mean I was a slightly late bloomer, but not 18,” she muttered as she drove, “and an omega…we have nothing but betas in the family, it’s just surprising, is all.”
“Mom, you’re muttering-“
“I don’t know anything about omegas, maybe I should ask Mitsuki and Masaru to speak with you-“
“MOM!” Izuku couldn’t imagine anything MORE humiliating than having the parents of his longtime friend/occasional bully Bakugou have ‘the talk’ with him. He would rather die. “The doctor gave me some stuff to read and I can just google anything else I don’t know! DON’T involve them!”
“I just worry, honey,” she sighed, glancing over at her boy as he tried to hide his face from her. “I don’t know anything about scent patches, or suppressants, or heats-“
“Please can we just listen to music and NOT talk about that?” He begged, as his mother let out a frustrated huff, but ultimately turned the radio up, letting Izuku stew in his humiliation. Heats was the last topic he wanted to discuss with his own mother.
Once he was finally, mercifully safe in his own room, he could collapse back onto his bed and let out the ragged breath he was holding in all morning. His frantic insatiability had died down from last night, but there was still an undercurrent of want beneath everything else, thrumming away in his veins. He simply didn’t know how he was going to satisfy it though. Opening up one of the pamphlets, he leafed through the basic omega information; scent dynamics, pack relationships, bodily changes. Apparently he might get stretch marks now that his system was finally flooded with his correct hormones, not that they would be distinguishable from his body scars. Izuku already had a slight frame, shorter and slimmer than any of the other boys simply because he had been pre-presentation, but he was somewhat dismayed to find that he probably wouldn’t gain any inches vertically from an omega presentation.
“Omegas do not go through the typical height and muscle mass growth spurt that betas and alphas experience,” he mumbled out loud, eyes skimming the info graphics, “‘but can expect to gain some weight, as omegas hormones work to redistribute fat along the figure’- where? Where on the figure?” One hand traced down along his body line, over his chest, his toned stomach, down to the ever-present semi he’d sported since last night. Was he going to get chubby? He was a hero student though? Not that he would have minded really, but he calmed his slight anxiety by remembering that there were plenty of omegas in the hero course, and none of them had gained the kind of weight that might impede his training. He tried to think if he’d ever noticed the omegas he went to class with had a specific body type in common, but he’d never really noticed anything like that before. He’d just never paid attention.
Letting out a sigh, he flipped through the others; one explained scenting, how alphas scented their packs to form a cohesive group, how omegas could do something similar to make betas and alphas feel accepted and needed. How suppressants worked to subdue the unpleasant side effects of heat and rut, though Izuku couldn’t imagine taking a medication with so many alarming side effects. He knew some omegas got a week off of training and school to weather heats, he would much rather do that. Finally, the last one he skimmed through had to do with pregnancy.
Sitting up, he tossed that pamphlet to the side. He for sure didn’t need to stress himself out by looking at that one. Not like he would even need to; he didn’t have a pack, or an alpha. Who in the world would even be getting him pregnant?
That summer break was torturous. Daytimes were easier to make it through, it seemed that his truly demonic thirst for satisfaction really only emerged during the nighttime. His poor mother, who had NO experience with this, as she had only ever been in an alpha-beta pack before marrying, tried to work to calm Izuku down and ease his transition from unpresented to presented with her own calming scent, but it did little good. During the night it was always the same, Izuku left alone in his quiet room to moan into his pillow and claw unsuccessfully at his dripping hole, the tight ring of pink muscle flexing and squeezing around nothing but his unsatisfying fingers. And to top it all off, his body began to ache during the daytime, though whether it was from so many unsuccessful night writhing alone, or from his body working hard to redistribute body fat to fit a more omegan silhouette, he didn’t know.
One thing he DID know, though, was that this break wouldn’t last forever, and when he finally made it back to school, it was going to be a loooong final year.