Chapter Text
He was lost.
Not lost in the way that one would think. He wasn't lost in the literal sense but rather the figurative sense.
He didn't know what he was going to do as a career yet and he was already nearing the end of his second year in college. It was making him anxious.
Midoriya Izuku was someone who picked up things fairly quickly. He was smart, innovative, and a good problem solver. Hell, he even managed to get into one of the best universities in Japan. Everything always came so easily to him so usually studies weren't a problem.
But apparently what he wanted to do with his life didn't come as easily.
He was hesitant on picking a career path. For one, he had so many interests that were so different from each other so he couldn't possibly combine them into a single career. Two, the careers that he had been thinking about were either unfitting for him or one that was high risk.
And by high risk he meant either getting injured or being harassed.
Because, apparently alphas loved to try to put their dick in everything that moves. Even if Midoriya himself wasn't all that attractive, he still had a few instances where an alpha tried making a move on him.
In his world, there were three secondary genders. Alpha, Beta, and Omega. He was at the bottom of the food chain, a lowly omega. And a male one at that. Male omegas were something especially rare, something alphas would drool over and pay a fortune for. Yes, pay. As in people would buy and sell male omegas illegally, kidnap and take them away from their families just to make some money.
Which is why he and his mother had a huge talk about it when he presented. Luckily he was old enough- around thirteen- to understand why he couldn't reveal his secondary gender. Him and his mother concluded that it was best for him to conceal his identity as an omega. He would use scent patches, neutralizing scent spray, and things of that nature to help hide it. This way he could appear as a beta when the doctor had given him a checkup, he concluded he was a beta and documented Midoriya as one.
It wasn't very difficult to pull it off. As he grew older he grew taller- unusual for an omega to grow as tall as he was but it worked in his favor. No one would suspect an omega to be six feet and four inches tall. His so-called "omegan curves" had been easy to hide as well. Most people chalked up his big thighs and wide hips because of the fat that was distributed all over his body. His hips and thighs may have been bigger than his torso but his big tummy, arms, and chest had drawn attention away from him.
At least, attention away from what his second gender might be, not necessarily away from him.
He would notice how people would stare at him, stare in disapproval of his chunky body and chubby self. There were only a handful of times that Midoriya could recall being verbally called out for his weight. Even so, those handful of times stuck with him and damaged his self esteem.
The only reason Midoriya knew alphas were going for him was not because of his status as an omega- they were all under the impression that he was a beta- it was because of all the 'extra squish' he had.
He was fat. The only reason alphas looked his way was because of his body, oddly enough. They probably wouldn't even pay attention to him as a person, but instead pay attention to his 'fat ass', big hips, and thick thighs that he knew alphas would eye hungrily. They didn't care for his personality. They wouldn't try to reassure him, either. About his weight. Some would even make comments like, "I had a fun time but I don't think this is going to work out."
And that boiled down to, "I'd date you if you weren't so fat."
Which is why Midoriya came to the conclusion that he wouldn't get a mate. He wouldn't bother with a boyfriend or girlfriend, he would just get a little pet or something to keep him company.
Though being alone for the rest of his life was the least of his problems now. At the moment, he was too preoccupied with looking through job listings. Not for another job- he was already too busy with his current part time job and school- but instead an internship. He wanted to see if he would have any luck figuring out what field he should study.
Most of the ones he found either didn't fit his schedule, weren't in his area, or something he just wasn't interested in.
He sighed and pushed his laptop aside, putting his head in his palms. He decided to slide his food bowl back over to himself, picking up the chopsticks and eating the food he let become cold.
"What's wrong with you?"
Midoriya didn't need to glance up to know that the person speaking was his roommate, Shinso.
"Stupid career stuff," Midoriya grumbled before popping some food in his mouth. Shinso had been one of the only alphas Midoriya could tolerate. The purple haired male was laid back and wasn't one to judge people. At least, not based on appearance, more so personality. Midoriya had witnessed it first hand whenever he and a blond haired beta on campus had interacted.
Monoma Neito had a sour personality in Midoriya's opinion, especially when he had made a backhanded comment on Midoriya's weight. Him and Shinso weren't great friends back then, but that didn't stop Shinso from slapping Monoma and almost starting a fight with him.
Ever since then, Shinso and him started to get closer to each other. Shinso would be like his guard dog in public, except not as...verbal. Shinso would usually send glares to people who stared too long at Midoriya or tried to hit on him. If it got too out of hand, Shinso would pull Midoriya behind him to hide, which didn't really help since Midoriya was a couple inches taller than him; Shinso was around six feet tall. Though, that didn't stop the alpha from protecting him.
"Still? I thought you wanted to go into something science or healthcare related," Shinso raised an eyebrow slightly.
Midoriya glanced off to the side and sighed, "I do, but it's just so confusing." Midoriya had since pushed his chopsticks back into his bowl, pulling his laptop back near him. He opened it, "There are so many options- too many!"
Shinso huffed out a little laugh at that, making his way over before pulling a chair over by Midoriya. The purple haired alpha placed himself down on the chair, leaning in to look at Midoriya's laptop with him. "Well let's see what you got here."
Midoriya sent a small side glance to Shinso with a pout on his face, turning back to the laptop shortly afterwards.
They scrolled through a couple of things, Midoriya waving a dismissive hand at most of the things they took a look at. Either that or they didn't fit his schedule or they weren't a reasonable distance from Midoriya's house.
He did not want to commute 30 minutes for his internship everyday.
Midoriya almost loses hope, Shinso does as well, seeing the way the alpha grumbles when Midoriya rejects yet another option.
But then one caught his eye.
"A research assistant...?" Midoriya murmured in question. Shinso perked up at that, with Midoriya's voice having a little intrigued lilt to his voice.
And he was intrigued.
Fifteen minutes wasn't too bad of a drive, especially considering the location was near a train station, the hours were perfect. They were listed as flexible, which made Midoriya almost a little excited. And a research assistant wasn't half bad. It would give him a glimpse of what something more...intense..? would look like. Plus.. it looked like it paid pretty well considering it was an internship. Sometimes internships didn't pay at all.
Midoriya took a moment to think about it before he bookmarked the page. "I'll go back to it later if I don't find anything," he mumbled aloud for both himself and Shinso to hear. The purple haired male just huffed out a sigh and pushed his hands against the table. In turn, the chair he was sitting on moved away from the table and Shinso stood up.
"Well good luck with that, I'm gonna take a nap."
"M'kay..." Midoriya murmured distractedly, too engrossed in his laptop to give his full attention to the alpha.
He started to click through the job listing, reading through what a typical day might look like and things of that nature. He saves it in another tab to look at and compare to other internships later. Though, he never finds another one as good as this first one that he’s offered.
He held his breath before reaching out and emailing the company to say that he was interested and would like to see if it was possible to schedule an interview. Midoriya sighed after sending it, leaning back in his chair and shutting his laptop. Now, all he had to do was wait for them to email him back.
He stood up and decided to be productive. He didn’t want to sit there and worry, stare at his laptop and wait for a notification to popup from his email. No, he would much rather spend that time distracting himself. And one of the best ways that he liked to distract himself was shopping. Yeah, he supposed it fit the stereotype of omegas loving to shop, but Midoriya couldn’t help it! It was just fun to look around and see all these new and cool things. Plus…they kind of needed more groceries.
Midoriya didn’t waste much time in getting ready, grabbing his keys and wallet, and heading out of the door.
Midoriya found himself humming a little in the grocery aisle, the song being played was one that he had stuck in his head for a good portion of the week. He was trying to remember if they had bread at the apartment when something- or actually someone- bumped into him.
It caused Midoriya to fumble with the things in his hand and drop the gallon of milk in his hand. It fell and hit the floor, bursting open and getting all over Midoriya’s clothes. The green haired male felt embarrassment, shame, and sadness rising up in him all at once. He stared at the liquid on the floor, barely remembering that anyone had bumped into him in the first place.
“Oh- sorry,” was all the person that bumped into Midoriya had to offer. Midoriya would’ve thought it wasn’t genuine if not for what the guy had to say when the freckled male turned to look at him. “I can pay for that. Or, I can pay for all of what you’re buying!” Warm, brown eyes looked up at him and Midoriya opened his mouth to answer, but the guy kept talking, “I was too focused on-...” he cut himself off and trailed off, “...on getting stuff for my mother.”
The gears in Midoriya finally started turning when he realized what he was being offered, “No no! It’s okay, really. You don’t have to pay for everything!”
“Well it wouldn’t be very kind of me to just turn the other way, would it?” The shorter male smiled a little and Midoriya would be lying if he said that it didn’t make Midoriya feel butterflies. Admittedly, the guy was hot. Not that Midoriya was interested in dating him! People can acknowledge when other people are attractive without wanting to date them, right? Besides, Midoriya wasn’t looking for a partne- “What’s with all the mumblin? Worry doesn’t look so good on a face that cute,” the guy interrupted Midoriya’s train of thought. The green haired male squeaked at the comment but the guy paid no mind as he introduced himself. “Shindo Yo.”
“M-Midoriya Izuku…” was all he could mumble. The moment he said his own name the guy, Shindo, looked to have an odd glint in his eyes. Midoriya ignored it, guessing it was probably the lighting in the store that made it seem that way.
His mom had wanted Midoriya to make new friends. Or actually, probably just friends in the first place. Not that she had directly said that to Modioriya, but he could guess that it was the case, especially since he never talked about having friends in elementary through high school. Plus, he could essentially feel the excitement rolling off of his mother through the phone when Midoriya mentioned going out with his friends for a bit. Those friends included an odd bunch: Shinso, this girl named Camie, some people from their university like Awase, Kendo, and Kaibara, some other universities…
Okay, fine. It was a party. But Midoriya couldn’t say no when Shindo had invited him! Plus, this would be the first time that Midoriya would introduce Shinso to Shindo. The purple haired alpha was getting a little antsy whenever Midoriya would mention going to hangout with Shindo. For whatever reason, Shindo always preferred to hangout whenever they could or, when they’re calling, to make sure that they had video chat on. It made Midoriya uncomfortable sometimes to do video chat but if it were for his new friend, he would just have to deal with it.
Shindo had given him his phone number after the incident at the grocery store. Midoriya wasn’t entirely sure why but the man had done it. And what Midoriya had come to find out was that Shindo was an alpha as well. It made Midoriya a little wary to contact the man because of that, but he supposed he gave in, remembering what Shindo had briefly mentioned of his ill mother. Midoriya felt like it wasn’t right to venture further on the topic, but he was eventually able to provide Shindo with a bit of relief. The alpha showed gratitude at Midoriya’s kind words.
Shinso, however, was skeptical. The purple haired alpha was practically his watchdog and helped Midoriya whenever any sort of difficult social situation came up. While Shinso wasn’t all that social himself, he would stand up and take the lead for Midoriya if that’s what it took for him to be comfortable. Midoriya was always so thankful to Shinso, which is why he valued the alpha’s opinion about his newly made friend.
Plus, the party would be a good distraction. Midoriya didn’t really like parties all that much given the big crowds and all of that, but he really needed to get his mind off of work.
Turns out, that same day when he had met Shindo, the company had already replied to Midoriya’s email about scheduling an interview. Midoriya was more than surprised at the quick response he had gotten, with it being around three hours or so after he sent the email. He was even more surprised when the email said that the company was more than happy to set up an interview. Miraculously enough, Midoriya had gotten through the interview and only stumbled over his words a little bit. Within a few days, he had gotten an email saying that he was accepted and he can choose which date that they have offered to have him start his internship.
That day will be tomorrow.
Midoriya was a bundle of nerves and he felt like he should try to do something to distract himself, and the only way to do that was this party. So, he put his brave face on and looked into his closet for something to wear to the party.
Midoriya saw Shindo in the center of a group of guys, and the green haired male immediately tried to find something else to do. He could just try and talk to Shindo when there was a lull in the conversation. There was no need to interrupt him and for Midoriya to make a fool of himself.
Though Shinso didn’t think anything of it. “Isn’t that him?” The purple haired alpha gestured towards Shindo’s direction, “Brownish black hair, brown eyes?”
Midoriya found himself stumbling over his words, “No- I mean yes but- I- he- he’s busy-!”
Shinso gave him an odd look but from Midoriya could tell, the alpha wasn’t going to take that as a reasonable answer. Midoriya was then promptly dragged over, with Shinso saying something about how he didn’t want to stay there for longer than he needed to.
When they got over there, Midoriya could feel the stares of all of the guys around him. Shinso was the first to speak, “Shindo Yo, right?”
“Yes,” Midoriya got nervous when he heard how flat and bored the man’s voice sounded. Did Midoriya pick a bad time to talk with him? Midoriya knew that sometimes Shindo would get a little moody and Midoriya was hoping that it would stop soon; he wanted Shinso to approve of his friend. “I don’t remember inviting you.”
The green haired omega- beta- went to intervene but Shinso was quick to give his response, “And I don’t remember you being described as such an asshole.” Shinso had since put his arm protectively in front of Midoriya and stepped in front of him. Though obviously Midoriya was still able to see over the puff of curly purple hair.
Shindo’s eyes trailed up to Midoriya and a look of recognition passed through his eyes, “Midoriya,” he greeted.
“This- this is my friend I said I was going to bring,” Midoriya announced as he shifted over to where he wasn’t directly behind Shinso. He looked down at Shindo, slightly able to ignore the stares on him as he spoke to the alpha, “This is Shinso Hitoshi!”
Thankfully that somewhat did the trick and Shindo introduced himself to Shinso.
A massive headache had implanted itself in Midoriya’s head.
He didn’t realize that smelling all of those scents at once would be so overwhelming. At some point last night Shinso must’ve noticed and led him back home. Midoriya remembered walking to his room and collapsing on the bed afterwards, completely exhausted from the party.
Unfortunately it seemed that Shinso did not take any sort of liking to Shindo, something Midoriya was a bit upset about. Though Midoriya guessed that not everyone can be friends with everybody. He didn’t have much time to think about it now, seeing the time on his phone told him that he would be late to his first day of work if he didn’t start getting ready soon.
…
His first day of work! How could he forget? He needs to take a shower, get some appropriate clothing on…what clothes should he wear? Would it have to be nice? What was the dress code again? Was there one? He would have to check his phone to see and find the address of the place as well. He was running out of time! He needed to use some scent neutralizing spray as well as some scent patches. Scent patches. Did he have much left? Maybe he would have to run to the store to restock on them. And oh-! His hair! What was he going to do with his hair? Maybe he should stop asking himself those questions before he was late.
Midoriya looked down at his phone before looking up at the building again. His nose crinkled and he felt something churn in his stomach. He’s not sure why, but he had a bad feeling about the place. The building…well the building didn’t look all that bad. It might have looked a little older, but it looked nice overall so Midoriya wasn’t sure why he felt so skeptical about the place. Maybe it was just his nerves? Yeah, that was probably it. He definitely shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
He put on his brave face and stepped inside.
Midoriya was surprised to find the place looking a little…deserted. It surely wasn’t as lively as he hoped for it to be but now that he looked around more, there were a couple of rooms as he looked down a hallway that had people walking about. It was probably so empty because he was in the reception area.
He approached the man at the desk meekly, “Um hello! I’m Midoriya Izuku, here for the research assistant internship…?”
The man’s hazel eyes went wide for a split second before going neutral again. He smiled up at Midoriya and stopped typing on his computer as he turned to the phone on the desk, “Alright, one moment please.” Midoriya nodded and looked around more, messing with his hands, something he often did when he was nervous. After Midoriya heard the phone being placed back down, he heard the shuffling of the papers as the receptionist, a beta as far as Midoriya could tell, sifted through the papers before handing Midoriya one. The man handed Midoriya a pen, “I just need you to sign here. It’s nothing, really, just a common procedure.”
Midoriya picked the pen up and hesitated, eyes skimming the paper. ‘In signing this I agree to the above terms’ Midoriya read at the bottom where he was supposed to put his signature. His eyes drifted up the paper and he read things like ‘I will not share information learned here. All information is confidential and I understand that action may be taken against me if I share any information I gather here.’ Midoriya’s eyebrow quirked up at that, but he supposed that it was reasonable since it was a research facility. He read on, ‘I understand that my peers, my superiors, as well as XXXXX on XXXX street are not responsible for any injuries I may sustain during my time here.’
“That part?” The man hummed out, as if he was reading Midoriya’s mind. Or maybe Midoriya had mumbled that part out loud. “That’s what makes everyone a bit hesitant but I’m sure you don’t have to worry about it.”
Midoriya nodded in a silent agreement and continued to read. He only hesitated for a minute before moving the pen along the paper and signing the thing. Sure, that one bit might have been off putting, but honestly, what’s the worst that could happen? He was probably just going to be running around and passing along papers to his superior or getting coffee for them or something. It’s not like they were dealing with weapons or anything destructive, right?
A woman came along and led Midoriya away from the reception area once Midoriya signed the paper, the thing being whisked away out of his sight by the receptionist before he could think twice about signing it.