Chapter Text
A young boy, probably around the age of 10, stood in front of his two parents. They were usually a loving family, the parents completely supporting of their son and giving him the love all parents should. But things weren’t like this at that moment. The young boy wasn’t sure if they ever would be at this point. His body was trembling in fear as he tried to hold back his tears. His father always told him it was unmanly to cry in front of others, but that wasn’t the problem either. Tetsutetsu felt like he had made a mistake, and a big one at that, though he didn’t completely understand what was so wrong.
On a day like any other, a young Tetsu ran back home to tell his parents some news that he thought was pretty exciting for his age. As he got home, nervous and red in the face to actually say it aloud. He simply told them he had developed his first crush on someone at school, a good friend of his and who he thought was pretty darn cute. But his crush was a boy, a boy he had brought home to play with a multitude of times; his parents had even known the other’s family. Expecting his family to show some positive reaction, or even his father to do that thing where he gave him dating advice, it was impossible for Tetsu to hold back a small squeak when his father blatantly called him an idiot out loud.
That’s when everything went downhill, like a horrible nightmare. Looking at his mother, she had fallen back onto the couch behind her in desperation and her face covered by her hands. The woman was crying as if it was the worst news in the world. The boy didn’t understand, on TV the parents were usually happy to see their children developing like this, right? His father was the scarier of the two though, the man was already of a heavy build and incredibly tall compared to his son, but the dark and angry look he had on his face was what made Tetsu want to run to his room in tears. Instead, the boy stood in the room fidgeting with his hands on the hem of his blue shirt and his eyes focused on his own feet.
“You can’t like other boys, not like that Tet,” His father finally growled as he stopped in front of his son. His brow furrowed in frustration, and looking a lot like what Tetsu would take on when he was older.
“B-but I j-j-” Tetsu was going to try and defend himself before he felt a hot white slap hit him across the face. His Quirk slowly covering his skin in a weak attempt to protect his body while tears finally started falling down his cheeks as he looked up at his father in complete fear. This couldn’t be really happening right now, what had he done wrong? He was too frightened to ask now though. He even looked at his mother for some type of support, some type of comforting look that said his father was being outrageous, but all he got was her shaking her head at him in disappointment.
“You know a hero can’t be gay right? It would never fly with the media,” his father spat down at him hatefully. Gay. Tetsu never really understood the word, some kids calling each other gay just to insult one another. But was he really gay just for liking a boy? He thought girls were cute too though; he just could never talk to them without yelling. His father didn’t stop there with the hateful words though, each and everyone felt like a shard of glass piercing the boy’s heart. “Do you really think All Might would want to work beside such a miserable excuse of a man? A faggot, that’s what you are now. All Might wouldn’t want anything to do with the likes of you. None of these big time heroes would. Would you even get recruited by a producer? Could you even do a damn thing out there? I highly doubt it; no one wants to fight with someone who likes their own sex.”
The mother stood up and walked over to the scene to intervene, her eyes puffy from crying and it was an obvious effort for her not to stutter. “Your father is right; you can’t do anything if you’re hindered by such a disgusting thought process. No son of mine will go around kissing boys, or anything of the like. And there’s no way your dreams of being a hero can come true either with things like this,” she said quickly. Her words felt a million times more harmful than Tetsu’s father’s had been, he was struggling to process what exactly she was implying. Just because of a small crush he had become a disgrace to his family, this felt like a horribly cold nightmare to the boy.
There was no way the young male could look up at his parents now; they were crushing him with everything they had, as if they wanted to see him be in as much as possible. Like how they would crush a disgusting bug that got in the house; but now Tetsu was the bug. Everything he had thought about in the future, everything they said he could be they were saying he couldn’t be. The parents were no longer supportive to him, instead they were rebuking him for certain emotions he thought he couldn’t help.
“Give us your shirt, you don’t deserve it,” Looking up at the sudden request from his mother he saw that she had an expectant hand outstretched. It was his favorite shirt though, looking back down at it, there was All Might’s heroic smile cheesing back at him. It was like it was saying he could do anything, and he felt invincible in the fabric. The shirt was one of his favorites, a limited edition tee that most of the other kids would be jealous of. A gift for all his hard work; that’s what his parents had said the tee was for.
“No…” The boy couldn’t let them take this away. And he shook his head defiantly at them with a strong willed determination. What did a shirt prove anyway, All Might was everyone’s hero; he didn’t just pick and choose who to save. But all was lost when his father picked him up and tore the fabric off of his body. The sound of tearing cotton was loud in the room as the boy screamed, but his father showed no mercy as he was tossed back onto the ground. The two shreds of the shirt balled up in the man’s hands like it was nothing but a wad of paper.
Feeling humiliated, ashamed, and horrible, the boy cowered on the ground and wrapped his arms around his chest. He was sobbing now as his entire body shook. Tetsu had never wanted this; he thought they would be happy with everything. But this turned out to be one of the worst days of his life. And he couldn’t even run from all of this, he was sure his parents would make him come back and stop from going anywhere. The boy felt like they just wanted to humiliate him even more than they already had.
But when his mother appeared by his side and wrapped him into her arms; the boy froze. Maybe they had come to their senses? Maybe they had been confused over what had really been said. Maybe they had misheard what their son had meant, and were finally going to be comforting, apologetic, and soothing to his emotions. That wasn’t the case. In fact, the outcome was probably even worse than what the hero to-be would experience.
“My poor metal boy, I’m so sorry. You couldn’t have possibly known how wrong this was, but mommy and daddy can get you some help. They’re doctors for this you know,” she said to her son as she hugged onto him. But a young Tetsu didn’t want to hear that either as his mom tried to wipe his tears.
“That’s right boy, we’ll get you fixed,” his father was nodding his head as he tried to cool off. The man’s arms crossed over his chest as he sat down in front of them on the ground. “You can be a hero if we can get this mess fixed.”
Tetsu had no words to reply, but this entire situation made him feel frustrated and sad. He was sure he wasn’t broken, he didn’t feel broken. Wasn’t there always some clue that he was doing something wrong? Instead they said his feelings were wrong, a ten year old boy’s feelings for another were in the wrong place in their eyes. He just had a small crush on his friend; it wasn’t fatal to anyone or to anything. The young one wasn’t even brave enough to act on his crush; it was just something he noticed he had had on his friend. But the hero to-be nodded his head as he leaned against his mother quietly, if he had to go to doctors or whatever to make his parents happy again then he would do just that. Even though he didn’t understand why any of this was happening anyway, his parents support meant a lot to him.
“You know honey; I read an ad in the newspaper a few weeks about a Turned Straight camp for young boys and girls. Those who strayed off from the hetero-norm could go there for therapeutic restoration and release; do you think we could get our precious boy involved?” The woman spoke over her son softly. Tetsu was sitting in his mother’s lap as she stroked his hair, his eyes closed but he wouldn’t dare sleep after what had happened.
His father simply grunted, and though the boy couldn’t see it, he knew that he had probably nodded his head in agreement. The dad was always a male of few words, finding it much easier to use hand gestures. But even so, he did love his son dearly. The harsh treatment was a reflex, but he wanted Tetsu’s dreams come true and his wife would think the same as well.
“I’ll go to the camp, I’ll do whatever you want,” the words were barely audibly over a whisper but they were said. It was hard for the young one to not choke on each syllable; he knew this was a mistake even if he didn’t completely understand if it was. He felt his heart rate speed up while another lump built up in his throat, but he wouldn’t cry again. Not in front of his parents anyway. His parents seemed happy enough with his agreement though; his mother hugging onto him and burying her face in his hair, while his father actually moved forward and hugged the both of them in his big arms.
“This is what’s best for you,” They both said to their son. Those very words would seem to haunt the metal hero for years, causing an internal struggle within him. Accept who he was, or accept what was said to be best for him. The words of his parents constantly ringing in his ears, being said over and over again when he came to rather triggering conversations. He would figure out extremely quickly that there was no real way to deny who he was, but he couldn’t exactly just ignore it either. This one scene would be like a horrible abyss in the young one’s mind, always struggling to come to terms with what he actually wanted. A nightmare, that’s what this was.