Chapter Text
A week later, Katsuki and Todoroki were sitting in Katsuki's dorm room. (How the half and half bastard had wormed his way into room privileges, only the Fates themselves knew.) Todoroki was sitting with his legs splayed out, trying to convince Bast to come to him. Katsuki had taken the bed (obviously) and was crosslegged, trying to go over homework with Todoroki.
"Okay, if All Might had 1,139 Newtons of force applied to him by EraserHead, but weighs 302 pounds and EraserHead weighs 154 pounds, how many Newtons of force does that come out to?"
Todoroki frowned, pretending to think. "I don't know. If Bast weighs 5 pounds, and her weight steadily climbs by 0.2 pounds per day, how much would she weigh in 7 days?" It was Katsuki's turn to frown.
"Is this based on something real? 'Cause I was thinking she was getting a little heavier too."
Todoroki hopped up, startling both Bast and Katsuki. "What if somethings wrong with her?! We should take her to the vet!"
Katsuki sighed, throwing his homework to the side. Clearly, it was not getting done anytime soon.
"Alright, she can't keep eating leftovers anyway. Those are probably what's making her gain weight. A vet checkup is the first thing we should have done."
Katsuki thought back to when he first found Bast.
~~~~~
It's cold, way too cold for running, in Katsuki's opinion. Unfortunately, if he took a cheat day today, he would want to take a cheat day every day it dipped below 10 degrees celsius.
Today, he decided that what he needed was hot tea, and maybe a little pick-me-up from one of his favorite little shops scattered around the shopping district. However, the cat distribution system that people were always talking about had other plans.
Katsuki heard a pathetic mewling coming from a nearby alleyway. Suuure, let's go check out the dark, secluded alley. Perfect kidnapping grounds. (If you couldn't tell, kidnapping was a bit of a sore spot for him now.) But the hero-in-training in him told him that something was happening back there. Pulling his headphones off to dangle around his neck, he pounced into the alleyway.
"Okay, shitty villain, what the hell is going on... here?" Palms flaring, best sneer on, and prepared fro anything, Katsuki charged into the alley, only to see a cat. A CAT. Katsuki couldn't help but be frustrated.
That is, until he saw the state the cat was in. Clearly a girl, but covered in the gashes and dirt found on the rough housing tomcats. His heart did a weird flutter kick for the thing. "Come here. It's okay." Katsuki's voice was much softer than the one he went in with, attempting to gain the trust of the unexpected fiend.
Unfortunately, the cat did not return the feelings of camaraderie. She arched her back and hissed. "Hey, hey. Everything okay, I won't hurt cha. Come here, kitty kitty kitty." Oh, if the idiots could see him now. (He refused to call them the self-proclaimed 'Bakusquad'.) Scratch that, they would never see this side of him if they wanted both him and themselves to live.
Suddenly, and idea popped into his head. He had half a scone that was supposed to be saved for later! Katsuki fished it out of his hoodie pocket, praying it worked. Hesitantly, the cat rose from its spot on the ground to move towards him. Even slower, Katsuki held out his hand to let the cat sniff it.
Apparently, he was acceptable. The cat got even closer. He offered to let her crawl up his hoodie. The cat relented, not without some claw digs into his soft stomach and chest area, though. As he walked, she poked her head out the head hole of his hoodie. She settled with her head right against his neck, under his chin. She was wriggling her way into his (unwilling as it was) heart.
Unfortunately, so were her fleas. Well, his skin, not his heart. The skin over his heart. Whatever.
Once he was back at U.A., (and had gone through the whole Todoroki thing) he went straight to the bathrooms and dunked her in a sink. Sure, he was probably going tp get caught like this, but his room was not getting infected with fleas.
After the bath, they came to a mutual understanding. He wouldn't put her in any more water and she wouldn't scratch his face off while he was sleeping.
~~~~~
Katsuki grinned as he grabbed the pink rhinestone carrier from the shelf. Todoroki gave him an odd look but din't comment on it. They tramped through the rest of the store, not speaking in favor of a shake of a head here and a jerk of the hand there.
The carrier was all but forgotten until they were at the checkout.
"Oh, you have a little princess?" The clerk's voice piqued just barely above her monotone as Todoroki forked over the credit card.
"Nope. She's a real monster." Katsuki's smile grew bigger. The clerk didn't react. She had probably seen so much weird shit that nothing fazed her anymore.
The two of them walked back in silence. At least until Todoroki ruined it. "Why did you call Bast a monster?" He seemed genuinely curious, the weirdo.
"Because of these." Katsuki rolled up his sleeves. Long pink scratches ran up his arm.
Katsuki thought Todoroki's eyes were going to bug out of his head. "She gave you those?!" Katsuki laughed.
"Yup. I gave her a bath. Don't know if you noticed, but she was filthy." Todoroki shook his head.
"And to think she likes you better than me."
They made it back to the dorms, but there were a couple of people sitting around in the common room. Katsuki glanced at Todoroki. Well?
Todoroki walked over to Deku (of course he was in the common room). "Midoriya." Todoroki greeted him with his usual deadpan voice. "May I sit there?" Deku started stuttering, which in Deku-speak meant yes.
Katsuki stamped up the stairs. No one payed him any mind, long since used to his bullshit. Even still, he kept the cat carrier carefully at his side so that he could put it behind him or in front of him if necessary. Luckily, nobody noticed the bejeweled lump at his side.
He slipped into his room. Todoroki followed him a minute later. "Hey." Katsuki greeted him. Todoroki nodded. "Now all we need is to get Bast in the carrier..." Katsuki mumbled. Todoroki went over to the cat, currently seated on the bed.
"Come on cat. Get in the carrier." Todoroki plunked her in front of the cat box. Bast turned up her nose at it and stalked to the corner. Katsuki let out a disbelieving laugh.
"You really thought that would work? Cats don't work like that, dumbass!" Todoroki looked slightly disheartened at that. He somehow gave a convincing pout.
"You are very mean Bakugo. Even when you are not trying to be." Katsuki, still snickering, put his hand on Todoroki's upper arm to steady himself.
"I'm sorry! Its just funny how you fucking pout and, you know, thought putting her down in front of the thing and thought she would just... go in!"
He started laughing again. This time, Todoroki let out a cautious chuckle as well.
"I suppose it is a little silly. You know," he said, "I think this is the first time I've heard you genuinely laugh without being forced. Its nice. Infectious." Katsuki was a bit stunned.
"What." Real eloquent, Katsuki.
Todoroki quickly looked away.
"Oh-oh, you know, it's deep. Like my father's... but nicer?" Katsuki could respond with a joke, Kaminari style, but it might be insensitive. On the other hand, he didn't know how respond to that really any other way.
"I didn't know homunculus weirdos laughed." Todoroki finally let out a roaring laugh. God, that could have gone so much worse.
"I like your style, Blasty." Katsuki had a sense of deja vu.
"Wait, are you using my words?" It was Todoroki's turn to pause.
"Maybe." They were awfully close. When did that happen? Katsuki's heart was pounding. Why was it doing that? Katsuki swallowed, licked his lips. His eyes found Todoroki's.
Todoroki cleared his throat. "We should get Bast in her carrier." Katsuki stepped back.
"Yup. Definitely. Lets do that."
The struggle to get her into the box was expected on Katsuki's end, but Todoroki was again surprised at how much violence could be packed into one cat's body.
"I'm going to use my quirk."
Katsuki shut that down immediately.
By the grace of some forgotten god, they managed to get to the vet's office in one piece. More or less. Todoroki had volunteered to do most of the work. Big mistake. He had long, arching, bloody scratches up his arms. Katsuki had laughed at him.
Cruel? Maybe. The look on Todoroki's face? Priceless.