Chapter Text
Izuku was alone.
He dove back down into the bag, in the hopes that someone would come back to find him. Izuku listened to the footsteps and quiet speech around the park, waiting for Katsuki's familiar voice to come crashing through the calm. He wouldn't leave his bag alone for very long, would he? But it was getting dark now, and there was still no sign of them. Izuku remained in the bag, knowing he would be easiest to find if he stayed in the place he was left.
Eventually, the quiet noise of the park goers dissipated into the chirps of cicadas and crickets. Izuku continued to wait. It'd only been about twenty minutes since his friends had gone—the sunset had finished, driving away the rest of the people. Izuku's ears prickled at familiar voice—a hushed tone, low and scratchy.
It was Shigaraki's.
~~~~
Izuku froze, staying perfectly still inside the bag as Shigaraki spoke again.
"Grab the backpack—it's the explosion kid's."
Midoriya felt someone roughly grab the bag and put it on, very clearly being surprised at the weight.
"Now c'mon, we have to get out of here." The voice said. Izuku stayed as quiet as possible, somehow managing not to yowl as Katsuki's laptop smashed into his face.
He was carried for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes. Then he heard the noise of a key entering a lock, and said lock clicking open. After entering what he guessed was their hideout, he was shouldered off and flung onto something hard. A table, maybe?
He heard scuffling and muffled cursing along with what sounded like shoes being thrown on the floor. Then he saw a hand appear over the bag—it was half purple, with staples in it. It was Dabi.
Another hand came into view and began unzipping the backpack. Dabi looked a little surprised at the little green fluff at the bottom, tilting the bag towards Toga as her head came into view.
"Oh, it's so adorable!" She squealed, licking her lips. "I just want to stab it~!"
Dabi, who was having none of that, scooped Izuku into his arms. Izuku allowed it, because getting held by Dabi was surely better than getting stabbed by Toga.
"C'mon, just one tiny slice?" Toga whined.
"No." Dabi responded, turning to the side to block her from the cat. Twice was then able to see the cute fluff from his spot on the couch, and he called out. "Is that a cat?"
"Yeah," Dabi said, "and Toga's trying to stab it!" Toga pouted as Twice came over to pet the cat. "It's adorable!" He said, running his hand along Izuku's fur.
"What are you idiots doing?" Shigaraki asked, crossing the room to see what the commotion was.
"What are you holding?" He asked Dabi, his view still partially obscured by Twice. Shigaraki nudged him out of the way in order to see what they were looking at. Tomura's eyes widened as he spotted the tiny ball of fluff frozen in Dabi's arms.
"A cat? Where in the world did it come from?" Shigaraki asked. Dabi shrugged. "Inside the bag." He responded.
Shigaraki's face twisted in confusion. "Why would that kid have a cat in his backpack? He paused for a second, looking closer. "And why is it green?"
The other three began to squint at Izuku's fur, finally noticing the hints of green on the black strands. "Huh." Twice said. "I don't think that's normal."
Dabi rolled his eyes. "No duh it's not normal, but it could've been hit by a quirk or something that changed its color. I don't know of any cat safe hair dyes."
They continued debating theories on why Izuku's fur color was so unnatural, but his panic had already tuned them out. "What am I going to do?" He thought, closing his eyes. "Kacchan will surely notice his bag is missing, but it would probably be credited to regular annoying thieves and not the fucking League of Villains!"
Izuku took a deep breath to regain his composure in order to think more clearly. Unfortunately for him, the L.O.V. attributed his closed eyes and breath to sleeping, and made such a commotion trying to not wake him up that he couldn't think about anything but the chaos. They eventually, after a lot of bickering, set him on a throw pillow that had been laying on the floor and left to update Spinner.
Izuku finally unfroze as the villains left his sight, his joints unlocking as he stretched his paws out across the pillow. Midoriya figured his best bet at surviving was to act like a normal cat and hope that Katsuki had a tracker on his laptop.
"Wait. No. Kacchan would never have a tracker on his device, because someone could trace him with it!" Izuku mentally smacked himself. What was he going to do now?
At that moment, Spinner entered the room, trailed by Dabi and Toga, clearly eager to see the cat everyone was talking about. "Aww, it's so cute!" He exclaimed, leaning down to run his hand along Izuku's fur.
Midoriya's spine tingled with fear but he forced himself to stay still and allow it—if he annoyed them, he might get handed over to Toga.
He let out a breath at the sound of the doorbell, hoping it would draw at least some of them away. Dabi left to go answer it, and soon he heard Hawks' voice calling out, "I brought the chips!"
Izuku froze. "Why is Hawks here? Is he some kind of double agent? Is he giving them information? Is he helping them?" His thoughts spiraled.
Bakugo was freaking. By the time he had made the other two boys go back for his bag, it was gone. Worse, the cat was nowhere to be seen.
Denki and Kirishima were helping search, but the sun had gone down and it was unlikely they were going to find an undoubtedly scared cat in a dark park with loads of foliage to hide in. By the time the clock struck seven, Kaminari and Eijiro had both given up on searching and were trying to convince Bakugo to head home with them.
They finally convinced Katsuki by reminding him that he had to be home for dinner and was probably already going to be late. Even with the threat of his mother's wrath, the two boys had to practically drag Bakugo to the train station.
Katsuki sulked throughout the ride home, feeling guilty about leaving his cat (and bag) alone. Kaminari and Kiri shared a worried look before averting their gaze to out of the windows. They knew better than to ask Bakugo a question about feelings in an enclosed space filled with onlookers. After they got off, however, Kiri approached him.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Fine." Bakugo grumbled, avoiding Eijiro's eyes.
"It's not your fault we lost the cat." Kirishima said quietly, shooting Kaminari a warning glance when he began to speak. Bakugo kept his eyes on the floor.
They walked through the train station in silence. Kiri didn't know what to say, Denki was afraid of making it worse, and Bakugo stared straight ahead, doing his best to not lock eyes with either of them.
When they exited the station, Katsuki left in the opposite direction of the other two boys, even though it was the long way home. He needed to sort out his thoughts anyway. Why had he been so emotional lately? Katsuki knew the answer. It was because Izuku was missing. As much as he hated to admit it, he had grown fond of the nerd. And now, he was worried. Izuku was never good at taking care of himself. What if he had passed out somewhere and someone with bad intentions found him?
Katsuki shuddered, not even wanting to think about that. Either way, that wasn't his only problem. The cat was gone. They'd searched for at least thirty minutes and found no trace. His best guess was that the cat stayed in the bag (no pun intended) and the thief didn't notice. "Hope you're doing okay, little guy." He thought, staring at the sky. That's when he noticed the girl following him.
He recognized her from earlier. Kaminari had given her a picture of Midoriya and explained that he had gone missing. She had looked really scared when she saw the image but tried to feign just being concerned, wishing them luck in finding him.
Now she was trailing Katsuki, looking scared but determined. He paused, turning around to look at her fully. He crossed his arms, trying to look like someone not to mess with. She approached slowly, stopping when they were a few feet apart.
"Why are you following me?" Katsuki asked.
"You're-You're searching for this boy?" She stuttered, holding up the missing poster they had given her.
"Yes, and?" Katsuki prompted, resisting the urge to yell. If she had information, he didn't want to scare her off.
"I saw him the day he went missing." She said, seeming to steel her nerves before continuing. "He fell, and I tried to help him up, but-" Her voice cracked. "My quirk's really strong—any physical contact will..."
"Will what?!" Katsuki said, unable to contain his harsh tone any longer. She swallowed.
"Will turn the person into a cat." The girl finished. "I know it sounds dumb, but-"
Katsuki cut her off. "Would the fur color be the same as the person's hair?" He said, his eyes widening in alarm. She nodded vigorously. Bakugo's expression morphed into barely suppressed panic.
"I-I have to go." He mumbled, turning to run.
"Wait!" The girl said. "Take this," she insisted, throwing a slip of paper at him. He caught it in surprise and took off, shoving it into his pocket as he ran. It was only a few blocks further to his house (plus he was in good shape from training) so he ran the whole way. Bakugo fumbled with the key as he tried to unlock the door. Mitsuki got to it before him.
"Where have you been?! You said you'd be back by seven! It's-" Right then she noticed how hard the boy was trembling. "Katsuki? Are you okay?"
"Deku's gone. He's gone and it's all my fault." He mumbled, his eyes flickering from place to place on the porch floor.
"Oh 'Tsuki," she consoled. "It's not your fault that Izuku's gone missing." She pulled Katsuki into a hug. The boy stayed stiff, making no attempt to hug his mother back.
"It is!" He maintained. "He was turned into that cat we had, and the cat jumped into my backpack this morning, and I let it stay there, and then Kaminari distracted me, and then somebody stole the bag and took the cat with them!" He was so upset he couldn't even speak clearly.
"Slow down." Mitsuki concluded, letting her grip go slack enough to look her son in the eyes. "You said Izuku was turned into a cat, and he was the stray we took in?"
Katsuki nodded.
"Okay. We can think about the implications of that sentence later. You also said that the cat—well, Izuku—was in your bag when it got stolen?"
He nodded again, not trusting his voice. Mitsuki exhaled. "Okay." She said, reaching for her phone.
"Hello, police? I have information relevant to Izuku Midoriya's case."