Alpha Izuku Midoriya

Izuku had always known your heats were different.

The first time you had explained it to him, he had spent an embarrassing amount of time researching afterward, convinced there had to be something he was missing. Omegas were supposed to become vulnerable during their heats. Feverish, overwhelmed, sometimes unable to function without medication or an alpha nearby.

You?

You got warm.

Your cheeks would stay flushed, your scent would become sweeter and stronger, and you would get noticeably more needy and interested in him than usual, but otherwise you could function perfectly fine. You could cook, shower, leave the house, complain about being bored, and apparently decide that the middle of a heat was the perfect time to go grocery shopping.

There was no debilitating pain. No collapsing into a nest for days.

Which was exactly how Izuku ended up pushing a shopping cart beside you while you wandered through the produce section as though your scent wasn't currently making every alpha within twenty feet glance in your direction.

Izuku noticed every single one.

His hand tightened around the cart.

He didn't like it.

Not because he thought you couldn't handle yourself. You had been living with these heats long before Izuku became your alpha. You knew your own body.

The problem was that your scent didn't carry him.

Not officially.

You and Izuku were together. You called him your alpha. He called you his omega. Everyone close to you knew the two of you belonged together.

But Izuku had never claimed you.

That decision had been his.

Maybe it was ridiculously old-fashioned and hopelessly romantic, but Izuku wanted to wait until you were married. He wanted the ring first. He wanted to stand in front of everyone you loved and promise himself to you before putting a permanent claim on you.

He wanted there to be absolutely no question that the bond meant more to him than instinct.

Usually, he loved that decision.

Today, he was beginning to hate it.

Your unclaimed scent was incredibly obvious during your heat. Pure omega without an alpha's claim mixed into it, and while most people had enough common sense and decency to notice the green-haired alpha practically glued to your side, apparently one idiot hadn't gotten the message.

Izuku had only turned away for a moment.

He was comparing two brands of something you needed, muttering under his breath while reading the labels, when he heard an unfamiliar voice behind him.

Then he smelled an alpha.

Too close.

Izuku's head snapped around.

You were standing several feet away, frozen beside the cart.

An alpha Izuku had never seen before had positioned himself directly in front of you.

Izuku's expression immediately hardened.

The stranger was saying something to you, leaning closer as though he had every right to invade your space. You tried stepping around him.

He moved with you.

Izuku started walking.

Fast.

Then the alpha reached for your wrist.

Something ancient and territorial surged through Izuku so violently that his vision seemed to sharpen.

"No." His voice carried across the aisle.

The alpha barely had time to turn before Izuku was there.

Izuku caught his wrist before his hand could close around yours.

He didn't crush it. He didn't twist it.

He didn't need to.

The strength behind Izuku's grip made the warning perfectly clear.

"Don't touch them."

The stranger's nostrils flared. "They're unclaimed."

Izuku went completely still.

For perhaps half a second, the grocery store disappeared.

The lights overhead, the music playing quietly through the speakers, the cart sitting abandoned beside you. None of it mattered.

They're unclaimed.

As though that meant available.

As though that meant alone.

Izuku stepped between you and the stranger, completely blocking the alpha's access to you. "They're with me."

"Then why don't they smell like you?"

That one landed directly on the insecurity Izuku had been wrestling with all afternoon.

His jaw tightened.

Because he loved you.

Because he wanted to marry you.

Because claiming you wasn't something Izuku wanted to do impulsively during a heat just because his instincts demanded everyone know you belonged together.

Because you weren't an object he needed to stamp his name onto.

But none of those explanations belonged to this stranger.

Izuku released the alpha's wrist and immediately moved his arm backward, reaching for you without taking his eyes off him.

His palm remained open.

An invitation.

Never a demand.

The moment your fingers slipped into his, something inside Izuku settled.

Only slightly.

He drew you gently behind him. "They don't need a claim for you to respect their answer."

The alpha scoffed. "An omega walking around smelling like that knows exactly what they're doing."

Izuku's expression changed.

That familiar softness disappeared entirely.

He took one step forward.

The other alpha took one backward.

"You should think very carefully about what you say next."

Izuku didn't raise his voice. Somehow that made it worse.

The stranger finally seemed to properly look at him.

Green curls. Freckles. Broad shoulders beneath an oversized sweatshirt. The unmistakable build of someone who could put him through the refrigerated display without much effort.

Then recognition flickered across his face.

Deku.

The alpha's confidence vanished.

Izuku didn't care whether it was his reputation as a hero or his presence as an alpha that finally got through to him. "Leave."

The stranger left.

Izuku watched until he disappeared around the end of the aisle.

Only then did he turn around.

Every ounce of aggression vanished the instant he saw you.

"Hey." His voice softened immediately.

You were still flushed from your heat, but there was something shaken behind your expression now that hadn't been there before.

Izuku's heart squeezed. "I'm right here."

Izuku wrapped his arms around you.

He lowered his face into your hair and breathed slowly, deliberately calming the sharpness of his pheromones before they could overwhelm you. His instincts were screaming at him to scent you until nobody could possibly mistake who your alpha was.

Another, louder instinct wanted something permanent.

Claim.

Izuku swallowed.

No.

Not like this.

He wasn't letting some stranger turn something precious between you into a frightened reaction in a grocery store.

He pressed a gentle kiss against your temple.

"I know," he murmured. "I know what everyone's going to tell me after this."

He could practically hear Katsuki already.

Deku, just claim your damn omega.

Izuku almost laughed despite himself.

His thumb stroked slowly across your hand.

"But I'm still waiting."

He leaned back enough to see you.

A tiny smile finally appeared on his face, though his eyes remained serious.

"Because when I claim you, it's not going to be because some idiot scared me into doing it."

His cheeks turned pink.

Apparently even after everything, saying the next part made him nervous. "It's going to be after I put a ring on your finger."