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“Crap, crap, crap! I’m gonna be late!” Toshinori muttered, sprinting down the street towards UA. His suit was thrown on haphazardly, and would definitely need a retouch when he got to the school. He’d probably forgotten his notes on his way out the door. He had minutes to spare until the first bell and was definitely not going to make it on time.
All of those things were unfortunate, but they weren’t the foremost source of his troubles right then.
No, that dubious honor belonged to the thirty pound ball of fluff currently clutched to his chest; Texas.
Texas was the name of the absolutely humongous Maine Coon that shared Toshinori's small apartment. He was nearing seven now, and had long since reached his peak physical condition, a sprawling mass of muscle and golden fluff that could put any lion to shame. Texas was very friendly, but afraid of nothing, and took no shit from anyone. Not even his owner, which is how he’d landed himself in this predicament. Well, that and poor planning.
Toshinori realized a bit belatedly that he’d booked his cat's annual vet visit a little too soon after school let out. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem. He could sprint across the city in mere moments in his hero form, but he’d promised Nedzu to take it easy with his time limit dwindling after the attack at USJ. He wasn’t to use his powers outside of teaching and helping those who truly needed help from him specifically. Unfortunately, saving himself from having to trek across town on foot with his massive cat in tow didn’t qualify for either of those criteria.
So he’d decided to make do by taking him to school and letting him hang out in his office while he worked. With that thought in mind, he bought a basic cat carrier and planned on getting up a bit early to lure the huge beast into it before he went to work via the train. However, when he’d made this plan, he’d failed to take several factors into account.
The first of which was that Texas was not used to being in a cat carrier.
Toshinori assumed it would be fine. The golden feline was chill with most anything, including being held while his owner literally leapt across the city.
It was not fine.
Oh sure, he’d managed to coax him in to the carrier with a bit of his favorite canned food, but then the door had shut. Texas soon realized he was trapped in something, and decided very quickly that wasn’t going to stand. At first he’d only yowled, which broke Toshinori’s heart a little but was tolerable in the long run. But when complaining to his owner didn’t have the desired effect, he’d decided that the still-closed crate door was clearly a challenge: and oh, had he accepted.
Toshinori winced at the thought. He was definitely not going to be able to return that. Not after Texas had...for lack of less punny terms—smashed it. The wire door was bent at a horrible angle now and he really wasn’t sure how something so lazy could be made of that much freaking muscle. Texas had more than proven his ability to wreck containment devices, and there was no way they’d just let him hold a loose animal on the train.
So Toshinori was left scrambling to figure out what to do. He couldn’t really reschedule the visit with his current time-table. Dr. Nemao was the very best feline vet in the city and her wellness appointments were booked four months out. And Texas really needed his new flea and heartworm preventative prescriptions. Could those wait? He wasn’t super savvy with animal-knowledge, but he at least knew he didn’t want his big buddy to be dealing with fleas or any other nasty little things, so he decided that wasn’t a viable option.
That left him with carrying Texas as he usually did. In his true form. All...the way...to UA.
Toshinori groaned in relief when he finally made it through the gates. Texas, in opposition to all the hell he’d raised earlier, was contentedly purring away from his position of comfort, and barely noticed his owner’s transition to hero form, only adjusting himself to get comfortable against the hard wall of muscle.
Said owner was currently sorting through a laundry list of priorities in his head. He needed to get Texas to his office, but he should also probably check in with Aizawa-kun and the Principle to explain his tardiness. A flash of guilt shot through him and he found himself automatically rerouting to Aizawa’s home classroom.
~~~
“I am here! Belatedly!” Toshinori announced with a signature grin.
“Many apologies for my tardiness, students! Punctuality is important but life sure has a way of tripping you up sometimes, am I right?” He called over the students’ greetings and a few gasps of surprise as they spotted his current furry problem.
“Don’t justify your delinquent behavior, All-Might,” Aizawa scoffed. He turned towards him with a scowl which died the second his eyes landed on Texas. He stared, unblinking for a long moment, and Toshinori wasn't sure he’d ever seen the perpetually tired man’s eyes so wide when he wasn’t using his Quirk.
Aizawa finally blinked. “Is that a cat?”
Toshinori man startled and looked down with a grin, running a massive hand over the feline’s back. “Ah! Yes it is. Well, he is, I should say. He's my cat! We have a bit of an errand to run after school and-”
“You have a cat,” Aizawa interrupted.
Toshinori blinked. “Yes. His wellness visit is right after school so I figured I'd let him hang out in my office while I worked.”
Aizawa scowled again. “By himself? No. Give him here. He can stay with me,” he demanded, already moving to gather the massive feline into his arms after a cursory sniff check.
“I, oh, well okay then...that works, I guess.” Toshinori stammered, helping to pass Texas over. He hadn't expected this response at all. Maybe a scolding or-
“What's his name?” Aizawa asked, snapping him from his internal ramble.
“Oh! Texas. His name is Texas,” he supplied.
Aizawa snorted. “Typical.”
“H-hey, it fit him!” Toshinori insisted in protest, but Aizawa had already dismissed him in favor of staring down at his cat like Christmas had come early.
He snapped his gaze up to the chattering students. “We're doing study hall today.”
“But you just said we were-” Kaminari began.
Aizawa cut him off with a curt “Change of plans. Study hall until English class. Get to it.”
“Well, I guess it's not every day that someone gets to hold All Might's cat,” Mina whispered a little too loudly, prompting Iida to shush her and several students to snicker.
Aizawa silenced them with a venomous glare.
Bakugou scoffed and made a show of grumpily pulling out his notebooks, which had the intended effect of getting the more studious students back on task, and the rest of them eventually followed with minimal groans of protest.
Young Midoriya looked like he might levitate out of his seat with the force of how many questions he had, but even he eventually appeared to get a hold of himself and settle down to—okay that was definitely not studying, that was drawing Texas on the All Might page of his latest hero journal, but Toshinori'd take what he could get in that regard.
“I've got this. Go do your paperwork,” Aizawa told him a moment later. He glanced down to see that Texas had made himself right at home, draping himself across both of the man’s shoulders and behind his neck like an opulent feather boa. He bit his lip against the bubble of laughter building in his chest, knowing Aizawa-kun would not appreciate it in front of the students. No matter how incredibly silly he looked right then. He could already hear the wispy giggles from a few of the students building again and figured he should probably cut and run while he still had the chance. With that thought, he nodded and beat a hasty retreat to go explain his tardiness to Nedzu and get his papers in order before his first hero studies class, which was—oh goodness, way sooner than he'd like!
~~~
Lunch time found a bedraggled and deflated Toshinori dragging himself towards the staff room for what he felt was a well deserved break. Maintaining his hero form was entirely too much effort these days. Especially while running combat drills with the boisterous class 1B. That Monoma kid kept trying to not-so-subtly get close enough to copy his Quirk and Toshinori was honestly a bit scared of the outcome of his potential success. He was unsure of what would happen; if the kid would break his arms or just have an otherwise useless stockpiling Quirk for five minutes. And would the ‘passing down’ portion of One For All work if that were the case? Could he accidentally pass down his own Quirk? Was there some sort of default he reset to when the five minutes was up? Way too many variables there. In any case, there were a lot of possibilities that he didn't want to explore, and he also didn't want the kid to put two and two together if he ever copied young Midoriya's after having copied his.
He wearily wrenched the door open and stopped still, staring at the sight that greeted him. Aizawa-kun was ensconced in his sleeping bag and laid across the couch, which was nothing unusual by itself, but the golden furred cat face peeking out from within the same sleeping bag was certainly new. Of course his cat would willingly climb into a zippered sleeping bag but demolish a cat crate for daring to enclose him. That was just his luck.
He tried to sneak past the snoozing pair to the coffee machine, but it seemed Aizawa-kun was an eternally light sleeper.
“Where did you get this cat?” The man asked, still lying prone but clearly awake now, watching Toshinori prepare a cup of much needed coffee.
“Oh, he was given to me years ago while I was visiting the states. I rescued his previous owner from a villain attack. He was the last of his litter, she’d said, and told me she understood why he hadn't found a home yet. That he was meant to be mine.” The memory brought a soft smile to his gaunt face. Texas really had been through a lot with him. He'd been a little smaller then, but his comforting weight and diesel engine purr had staved off many a nightmare after his disastrous battle with All for One six years ago. He wasn't sure if he'd have made it through without him.
“She must have been a show breeder. He’s definitely a purebred Maine Coon. Probably show quality,” Aizawa told him, having worked a hand out of his bag to stroke Texas's furry head.
“Huh, I didn't know. Are those very common?” It had never occurred to him that Texas might be special outside of being an especially large cat. Weren't all American cats that large? Admittedly, he hadn't paid all that much attention to the local varieties, being more concerned with the local crime scene.
Aizawa stared at him for a moment. “Not all that rare, but definitely expensive.”
Toshinori blushed. “Oh. I'd never really thought about that.” since becoming the Symbol of Peace, money hadn't really been a thing on his radar beyond making sure that most of his merchandise proceeds went to charity and educational programs. He barely kept any of his income, but it was more than enough for him to live a comfortable lifestyle. He was something of a minimalist anyway. He mostly stuck to the basics with a few indulgences here and there. He admittedly had an embarrassing amount of his own merch stuffed in his master closet, but a part of him would always nerd out a little bit about the fact that such things existed. Plus he was often given the prototypes and first runs of them, so it's not like he'd spent money on it. That made it okay, right?
Aizawa nodded to himself as though he'd expected that answer. “Doesn't really matter. He's a great cat.”
Toshinori grinned. “I think so!”
“It's funny. I'd pegged you as more of a dog person.” Aizawa said after another silent moment of contemplation.
“I do like dogs. But I'm really too busy to have one. I never knew when I'd be home most nights. Still don't, in fact. Depends on how many extra pages young Midoriya's decided to add to his essay that day.” He joked.
Aizawa snorted. “That's why you've been avoiding assigning them. You should set a limit.”
“Probably.” He agreed easily. Although he was sure he wouldn't. It was hard to curb such youthful enthusiasm. Plus, he'd learned a lot about his young charge from the rambling pages, and he wouldn't trade it for the world. He'd never had the opportunity to have children and was pragmatic enough to realize he likely never would, so offering guidance to young Midoriya and the other students filled a bit of a void he hadn't really known he had until it was being patched.
At least he still had his cat. Provided he could get him back from Aizawa-kun, that is. He let out a breath of laughter at the thought and finished his coffee. “Well, lunch is almost over. I suppose I'll see you two later.” He called, intending to head out.
He didn't make it fast enough.
“Yagi.” Aizawa said, and he found himself frozen. That was not a nice tone. “Did you even eat?”
Toshinori flushed clear down to his toes. How was he supposed to answer that? “I…”
“Yagi.” He swore he felt the temperature drop. He glanced back over his shoulder to find both man and cat glaring at him. That wasn't fair! Even his beloved fluffy friend had betrayed him!
“I haven't.” He answered. Probably a bit too guiltily if the other teacher's next question was anything to go by.
“Since when?” Aizawa demanded, carefully sitting up while redistributing Texas’ considerable bulk.
Shit. His body inflated as it coursed with One For All on reflex and he grasped at an excuse to bolt for sanctuary. “You know I actually remembered something-”
Oh hell. Aizawa was on his feet now and Toshinori was going to die. His eyes were glowing and-fuck! That was the weirdest thing he'd ever felt in his entire life. Like the shriveled remains of his stomach had melted and leaked out through his shoes as Erasure smothered his power. He was small again, and Aizawa looked pissed.
“You've not eaten anything today, have you?” He asked, his hair falling back into place when he blinked.
No. He hadn’t. Fuck. He rubbed the back of his neck and let out a too-shaky laugh. “I was really busy this morning, Aizawa-kun! It may have slipped my mind a bit.”
The other man scoffed. “Idiot.” He turned to his sleeping bag and dug around for a moment, coming back with a metallic pouch that Toshinori only saw a glimpse of before it was flying at his face and he caught it more out of reflex than intention. “Drink that. So you don't die from stupidity.”
Toshinori opened it carefully and did just that, in guilty silence, before the bell rang and he had an excuse to bolt for freedom. Whew, he’d take fighting villains any day of the week over that.
~~~
Soon enough, the day crawled to an end, and he found himself dreading the inevitable encounter with his stern co-worker. Would he still be sore about earlier? Hopefully not. He entered the classroom to find that his cat had taken over most of Aizawa’s desk, stretched out on his back as far as he could.
He smiled at that. He certainly knew he could get away with anything he wanted. Toshinori knew he’d probably spoiled him a bit, but to be fair, he’d never had anything else to spoil before then. Plus Texas had been there with him through some extremely trying times, so it was the least he could do to repay him.
Aizawa was busy grading papers on the tiny amount of space not occupied by Texas’ fluffy bulk, so he didn’t acknowledge him at first. The first thing he said to break the silence was not the scolding he’d expected earlier, but “Can I have your cat?”
Wait. “No?” Toshinori answered without even thinking. “You’re welcome to visit him any time you like, but I’m afraid I can’t bring myself to give him up. I’d be all alone in my apartment then-There’s no way I’d be able to sleep. And what if he missed his cat tree-”
“Okay.” Aizawa cut off another rambling thought. “You’d better get him to his vet appointment then. I’ll see you later.” He said casually. Toshinori blinked, certain he’d missed something in that conversation. When nothing more appeared to be forthcoming, he shrugged and gathered up his ridiculous puddle of cat, who accepted his interrupted napping with only a little sound of protest.
“Till tomorrow then, Aizawa-kun.” He gave a little half salute on his way to the door.
Aizawa huffed. “Later.”
Kind of an odd response, but Toshinori shrugged it off and focused on making his way to the vet’s office. Thankfully it was fairly close by, and even more thankfully, Texas loved his vet.
Dr. Nemao was a soft spoken woman with a minor healing Quirk and a heart of gold, and she had Texas’ check up over and done with in no time after a short wait. Toshinori started home armed with a new box of flea and heartworm prevention and a much lighter conscience, very happy to be done with the day’s ordeals.
~~~
Speaking of ordeals.
If, earlier in the day, someone had asked him what he’d expected to see when he walked in to his should-be-empty apartment, Aizawa Shouta crashed out on his couch in his signature yellow sleeping bag would not have made the list. Maybe the list of ‘top ten unreasonable fantasies he tried to smother on a daily basis’, but definitely not in the ‘expected to actually happen in reality’ list.
So when he opened his front door to just that scene, he was more than a little shocked. He let a squirming Texas loose from his arms and went back to unsuccessfully trying to figure out what had become of his life.
“A-Aizawa-kun.” He began, not entirely sure where he was going to go from there.
The tired man cracked an eye open. “I moved my stuff in.” He said, gesturing at a single box that currently rested against Toshinori’s living room wall.
“Aiz-” He tried again. “Call me Shouta.” The dark-haired man interrupted. Toshinori swallowed compulsively.
“Ah...Toshinori then. Or...Toshi, I guess. If it’s easier?” He ventured. He was honestly still pretty confused about the whole ordeal but at least that was cleared up.
Aiza-Shouta heaved a sigh and sat up, wiggling his way out of the sleeping bag to sit on the couch proper. “Toshi…” He began, as if testing the weight of it, and Toshinori felt himself flush ridiculously just from that. He could barely hear the man’s next words over the blood pounding in his ears. “You’re...not subtle.”
“What?” He asked numbly. What was he-?
“I’m a teacher.” Shouta said in a way that was probably meant to be meaningful, but Toshinori couldn’t decipher the weird look on his face to save his life.
“Yes…?” How was he expected to answer that? He had great combat sense but the art of subtly weighted communication would probably always be beyond him. Even when he allowed himself a bit of sarcasm, he was still pretty straight to the punch.
“I can recognize a crush when I see one.” Shouta dead-panned.
Oh. Oh. No, no, no, no, no….Toshinori’s mind spiralled into panic as he tried to think of a way to play off his unprofessional and probably unwanted behaviour. But wait. Hadn’t he said-
“I can also recognize a crush when I have one.” Shouta was saying then, and Toshinori’s mind completely blanked.
“I was going to ignore it. Professionalism and all that.” He continued, and Toshinori felt a little bit of the hope he didn’t know he’d had festering falter like a sputtering candle flame. “But then you had to go and have the perfect cat on top of everything else.”
“What’re you-?” He had to ask, his head was a mess of conflicting feelings the like of which he hadn’t dealt with in decades.
“I’m saying I love your stupid face and your terrible personality and your gorgeous fucking cat. I moved my stuff in. We’re dating now.” He flopped back against the couch, looking exhausted by that much emotional expenditure.
Toshinori was pretty sure his chest was on fire. That small candle flame of hope had roared into an inferno and he thought he might combust. How had this-? Why had this-? How could he-?
“Shut up.” Shouta lifted his head long enough to say.
“I wasn’t-” Toshinori began.
“You’re overthinking again. Don’t.” He answered dryly. Toshinori would have scrambled to find a reply to that, but he was interrupted by a blur of black fur vaulting onto his knee. The tiny creature stared at him for a long moment before it hopped down and raced to tackle a perturbed Texas at the other end of the room. The bigger cat flopped onto its side and gently batted it’s companion back with perfected feline grace.
“That’s Furosha. We’re a package deal.” Shouta supplied.
“I...I can certainly live with that.” Toshinori answered slowly, hoping against hope that this wasn’t some strange dream.
The other man’s lips quirked into a minuscule smile that threatened to melt Toshinori’s remaining insides. “Good.”