Chapter Text
Izuku checked the address of the building on his phone, then looked back up. There was no mistake, the massive fifty-story building that towered over him was his new apartment building.
..or rather, Ochako’s, but he was going to bunk with her for the time being.
“Zuzu!”
Speak of the devil - or witch - Ochako sprinted out of the doors and swept him in a hug that made his bones creak. “It’s been so long!” She set him back down, giving him a softer look. “But I wish you were here under better circumstances.”
Izuku was suddenly reminded of the barely healed wounds that throbbed all over his body. “Yeah,” he said, smile weak. “But I’m glad to be here. Really.” He grabbed her hands and rubbed his cheek with hers, the wolf-instincts in him demanding that he greet his pack. “Thank you for letting me stay with you.”
Ochako wrapped her arms around him in a lighter hug. “Of course, you silly.”
Izuku burrowed his face in her shoulder to blink away tears and hugged her back. He relaxed in the old magic that thrummed in her veins, wrapping him in a blanket of security.
For the first time in a year, he felt safe. He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, under the cover of a blanketed sky that made them feel alone in alone in their world.
Ochako eventually pulled away and looked at him with red-rimmed eyes. (There was no doubt that he looked the same.)
“Let’s get you settled in, yeah?” She glanced at the two suitcases next to him, and suddenly the warm browns of her eyes were replaced by the sparkling, bubblegum hues of her magic. Izuku’s luggage floated up, surrounded by the same bright glow. With his hand in hers, they walked into the building.
“I noticed you don’t have much,” Ochako commented. “Well, that’s okay!” She looked over her shoulder to give him a bright grin. “I can get you some stuff later.”
Izuku stumbled. “Ocha, no.” He would die if Ochako bought him anything. She was already allowing him to stay in her apartment rent free, and Izuku didn’t have a job to pay her back yet.
The woman snickered. “Ocha yes. But,” she squeezed his hand,” if you pay me back for anything, I’ll be very mad, you silly mutt.”
“But-”
She squeezed his hand again. “Shh.”
Izuku fell silent, knowing that he wasn’t going to win the argument. (Although there was no way he was letting go of paying her back. He felt bad enough as it was.)
Instead, he looked around the lobby, taking it in for the first time. He went silent for another reason, awestruck. The first thing he noticed was the small fountain in the center of the room, surrounded by couches. Next was the sheer size of the lobby. It had to be at least a few football sizes long, and he had to tip his head all the way back to see the chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. They were the only sources of light, shining bright as the gloom of the day filtered in through the windows.
He assumed that the floor-to-ceiling windows were why there were so many plants that decorated the lobby, (including palm trees, what the fuck). Overwhelmed, he looked down and saw the tiled-patterns that made up the floor. It was one of the many odd victorian styled twists in the lobby, including the massive, roaring fireplace near the exit to the elevators where the plants ended.
Ochako pulled him towards it, and Izuku marveled at how she could go about without taking in everything. Well, she’d been living here for four-or-so years, but still. Izuku didn’t think he’d ever get used to the sight, even though he came from a mansion in the woods.
A mansion he hoped was still up.
Izuku shook his head. Positive thoughts, he reminded himself.
As he and Ochako passed by the lobby desk, she gave the person there a nod. The receptionist, a woman with pink skin that Izuku blinked a few times at, nodded back. Until she saw Izuku. Then she gaped, dark eyes opening wide.
Hm. Izuku didn’t like that.
“Ochako,” he said when they were in the small room for the elevators, “why did they look so startled when they saw me?”
Their shock wasn’t a normal ‘oh, a new person’. It was a different kind of shock, one that prompted Izuku to narrow his eyes at Ochako.
Ochako grinned at him. Izuku frowned.
There was most likely a sane reason for this. Ochako wouldn’t keep anything important from him, right?
Right?
(From regretted experience he knew the answer was no. Still, he sent a prayer to whatever deity that gave him pity to keep him from dying. At least for the next few weeks.)
“Don’t worry about it,” she said as the elevator dinged. The two squeezed in.
Izuku sent her a flat look. “That literally only makes me more worried.”
She patted him on the cheek and gave him another grin. For the rest of the ride, she stayed quiet, leaving Izuku to stew in his anxiety. The only reason he could think of for the shock was that he was a werewolf.
But werewolves weren’t anything to be so shocked about.
Well, that was a lie, but Izuku was wishing that it was the truth. The two stepped out of the elevator as it came to a stop on the forty-fifth floor. A strong smell that seemed permanently set into the walls immediately attacked his nose. He’d thought it was the flowers, back down in the lobby, but..
He closed his eyes and sniffed, trying to figure out what the smell was and why it aggravated him. It was something he’d never encountered before, but he knew what it was. It was the same way he knew to shift into a wolf, why he knew how to be something more than human, a knowledge that he was born with.
Izuku’s ears went flat with fear as he came to a realization. “Ochako,” he said, voice weak. “Why do I smell a vampire?”
Ochako froze. “I really should’ve known you’d figure it out this quickly. Well,” she laughed sheepishly, “he may or may not be this building’s owner?”
Ice settled in Izuku’s blood. Werewolves and vampires got along like oil and water, fire and ice - that was to say, not at all. They had been enemies since the dawn of existence, and although their relationship was at a point where they didn’t always try to kill each other anymore, Izuku really didn’t want to take his chances.
There were two hierarchies in his world that Izuku knew intimately: the supernatural and the human. Werewolves and vampires were at the top of the supernatural list - that’s why they fought so much - it was for dominance over each other. The human list was about how much power you had. How important you were to society.
Whoever owned this building was obviously at the top of that list too.
Great. So Izuku was a werewolf encroaching in the territory of what might be one of the most powerful supernatural families in the world.
(Nevermind the fact that he was exactly the same. Everyone, no matter who, knew of the Yagi family.)
“Please tell me he at least knows I’m here,” he begged Ochako. Encroaching in a vampire’s territory was one thing. Encroaching in a vampire’s territory when they had no idea was another.
It was like crossing into a danger zone covered with repeated warnings and choosing to ignore all of them. Now it would only be a matter of time until he had to pay the consequences.
“I’m going to die,” Izuku groaned. Ochako squeezed his hand.
“If he dares touch a hair on your hair, I’ll hex him to hell,” she chirped.
What? Izuku’s head shot up. “Ochako, no.” There was no way he was going to let her fight a vampire over him. Witches were strong, but not that strong. Vampires’ almost god-like strength was one of the reasons why they were so feared.
Ochako laughed. Izuku resigned himself to his fate.
It was official. Life hated him. First, he escaped a creep who would stop at nothing for his hand in marriage - but it was to a different kind of hell. He was going to die, from either the semi truck that hit him when he ran into traffic, or by the vampire.
Both were equally as likely options.
“Ochako?” He asked.
“Yes?”
“Please kill me.”
Her ever-growing laughs did nothing to alleviate his internal screaming.
_
Izuku leaned against the railing of Ochako’s balcony, watching the sun set over the city. It had been two months since they’d moved here, and so far, they were doing a good job of keeping the vampire from knowing he existed.
Mostly by only ever leaving the apartment so they could go to their job at Daikaku’s Newscast, but semantics.
“You okay, Zu?”
They turned to see Ochako standing a few feet away, concern in the knit of their brows.
“Yeah, I think so. I hope so,” they said, turning back to the city. The wind buffed their hair, carrying the smell of rain. The sky, clear for now, was made up of several hues of oranges and pinks, giving Izuku a welcome anxiety-relief at the sight.
Izuku wrapped a hand on their wrist absentmindedly, thumb rubbing over the sandy skin where Sh-
Where he had nearly killed him.
Izuku’s gaze fell to the marred skin of his wrists, and with it, their beating tail stopped. A hand gently rubbed his shoulder.
“He can’t get you anymore,” Ochako said softly. “You’re safe here. Yagi-san and Inko-san will do their best to crush him and his father’s company to the dust to protect you.”
Izuku swallowed, their throat dry. “Y-yeah. I know,” they sighed. “I just. What if he finds me?” Their eyes stung as they blinked away tears to meet Ochako’s gaze.
“If they do, then we’ll protect you.” She leaned against him, drawing a symbol onto his skin. The protection spell she’d placed on them on the first day fizzed to life, lighting Izuku’s skin in pink. “You have me, Tsu-chan, Shou-kun, Hito-kun and Ten-kun, hell, even Katsu-kun’d come down if he thought there was a chance of danger.”
She wrapped a hand over his. “Aizawa-san may be a vampire, but he’s a good man. He’ll protect you if worst comes to worst.”
Izuku nodded. They felt a strange sort of vulnerability at the discussion, causing them to pull their arms closer to their chest. Ochako rested her head against their shoulder, giving their hand a squeeze.
The two stayed like that until the sun set.
_
“Hey, Shouta, have you heard about the newest resident?”
Shouta looked up from his book to raise a brow at Nemuri. Of course he knew that there was a new resident; he owned the building, and any confirmation of someone new had to pass by him.
But anything personal about the new guy?
“Not apart from what Uraraka told me,” he replied. Most of the time, he would do a full scale review of whoever he allowed into his territory. However, Uraraka had put her word in for the new resident and told him that the mystery person was currently at odds with some other people and needed a place to stay.
This information, along with the fact that Uraraka had become something akin to a trusted friend after she became some semblance of an unemployed bouncer after helping him remove some unwanted individuals, allowed Shouta to skip the checks.
Nemuri pouted. Shouta gave her an unimpressed look. She was a thirty-year-old woman, not a teenager. If she wanted to know so badly about the resident, then she should go and talk to them instead of gossiping.
“It’s weird though,” she said, reclining back onto her place on the couch. The barbed edge of the succubus’s tail slapped the cushions like an annoyed cat. Hizashi and Shirakumo both perked up from their spot where they cuddled next to her.
She took it as a cue to continue. “Well, the newbie’s been here for what, two months? It’s been kinda a while, and nobodies seen them yet! It’s kinda weird, don’t you think?”
Shouta hummed. Nemuri did have a point - different species kept to themselves. That was fact. It was also a fact that Shouta’s complex resided probably some of the nosiest and loud-mouthed monsters willing to mingle on the planet, something he detested on the best of days.
Someone should have blabbed by now.
The image of Mina’s strangely scared face when spotting him a few days ago rose up in his mind. Shouta hadn’t given it any attention at the time. Mina was one of the stranger residents, and although she was good at her job, the last time Shouta had willingly interacted with her was a month ago to extract her and her equally as intoxicated friend from on top of the palm trees in the lobby.
(He’d reviewed the footage, and it’s never answered how the fuck they got there. He’d never asked them either for the sake of what little sanity he had left.)
But her looking so fearful of him, especially when the normal look on her face was a glint in her eyes that meant nothing but headaches for Shouta later? There was something up.
Shouta groaned into his hands at the revelation. “I hate it when you’re right.”
He didn’t have to look up to know that Nemuri was grinning. She patted him on the back rather unsympathetically. He sighed harder.
Shouta stood up, setting his book down. Hizashi raised a brow, tipping their phone away from their face.
“Are you gonna go and check to see what’s up right now?”
The three knew the answer without Shouta having to even answer. As owner of the complex it was his job to make sure nothing interrupted the peace. (And although he wouldn’t admit it, he was just as curious as his friends.)
Shouta walked to the door, glancing behind him as he heard shuffling. Nemuri, Hizashi and Shirakumo stood behind him like the world’s most annoying ducklings. He stared at them, eyes narrowing in a silent question.
“We want the tea, Shou!” Nemuri said, setting her hands on her hips. Hizashi and Shirakumo nodded, both with equally as wide grins on their faces.
Shouta felt his eye twitch. “You can come as long as you promise to never say that again.”
Nemuri grinned and bustled past him without agreeing. The other two ducklings followed after her to the elevators. Shouta watched them go, feeling particularly like the parent to a bunch of rowdy teens.
He relented with another bone-tired sigh and followed them into the elevators. It didn’t take long to reach Uraraka’s apartment; she was only five floors below him.
As Shouta left the elevator, he noticed a strange smell that wasn’t there last time. He couldn’t place it, which was weird. Over his life, he’d met a variety of people and creatures, so why didn’t he know this one?
There was no doubt that this smell belonged to the new resident, which meant that he’d be finding out what they were either way.
He knocked on Uraraka’s door. There was a small ‘coming!’ followed by some low chatter, then thudding footsteps.
“Hey! Wha-” her voice trailed off midway as she noticed who was at the door. “Aizawa? What are you doing here?” She paused and peeked her head out to look both ways, causing Shouta to take a few steps back so she wouldn’t hit him. “Is there something wrong?”
“Yes,” Shouta bluntly replied. “Everyone’s been acting strange-” he paused, considering his words “-well, stranger than usual, since your roommate came to stay with you. Is there a reason for that?”
The answer was written on her face in the way it paled and how she glanced back into her apartment.
Shouta frowned. “Uraraka,” he began, feeling his brow beginning to twitch in annoyance, “I trust you didn’t take advantage of my faith in you.”
The woman froze. “Well, it really depends on what you mean by that.”
“Uraraka.” Shouta shut his eyes, fending off the beginning stings of betrayal that jabbed at him. He inhaled and got whiplash as he realized who, what, exactly his new residence was. “Did you seriously invite a fucking werewolf into my home?” He snapped, unable to keep his fury down.
The trio behind him gasped. He would’ve been amused by how soap-opera it was, but the fury that raged in his veins kept him focused. A werewolf. A fucking werewolf of all things. He’d trusted Uraraka and she’d invited the one species he couldn’t stand into his own home.
As if hearing his thoughts, Uraraka held up a hand. “Aizawa, I know I,” her eyes flickered to the ground, “I know I broke your trust. And I know that you and werewolves have centuries of history between you two but-” she bit her lip, hesitating “-my friend needed a safe place to stay, and this was the only place that I could think of. Not only does he have me here, but you’re here too, a mix of both hierarchies. A vampire and heir to the CEO of Aizawa Complexes.”
Her hand on the side of the door clenched as she bowed low. “I know I fucked up. I know I betrayed your trust. There’s no excuses for that, nor should I give you any. But please,” she said, voice a hoarse whisper, “don’t punish my friend for my mistakes. Allow them to stay here.”
Shouta watched her, torn. He was pissed about what she did, but in the four years he’d known her, he’d never seen her cry - never heard her so desperate - but now she was, tears hidden behind her hair dripping onto the ground. Fuck. There was obviously a lot going on that he had no context to, and the way Uraraka looked so defeated tugged painfully at his heart.
(He did have one, no matter what the humans believed.)
He groaned, rubbing his face with his hand. There was no way he could say no. “Fine. They can stay here. But make sure they stay out of my way.”
Uraraka’s head shot up, her large, shining brown eyes staring directly at him in disbelief. “..seriously?” She bit her lip, the ghost of a barely there grin on her face, as if she didn’t know whether or not she could smile. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Aizawa-san.”
Shouta dismissed her with a grunt and a wave of a hand. He couldn’t deal with so many emotions in such a short amount of time. “Just don’t betray my trust like that again.”
She subtly flinched, which made him feel slightly like an asshole. (But she should’ve known better, really, when it all came down to the wire Shouta was rational. As much as he despised werewolves, he wouldn’t cast away someone in need, and after all the time Uraraka spent with that, she should’ve known.
...he might have been a bit bitter.)
“Of course! This is a one time thing!” Uraraka bit her lip, shifting her eyes to the side. “I am sorry, and I know I should’ve asked, but..”
“You couldn’t risk the chance that I’d turn them away?”
“..yeah.”
Shouta sighed again. “What’s done is done, and I’m not going to throw them out over your mistakes. You can make it up by working extra hard to make sure the foolishness stays down with our residents.”
He turned, not bothering to watch her reaction. His friends were watching him with sparkling eyes.
“Softy,” Hizashi sang. Shouta sent them a death glare in return.
“I am not,” he hissed. He was merely being rational. As long as the werewolf stayed out of his way, it’d be fine.
_
As his luck would have it, Shouta ran into the werewolf a month later. His relationship with Uraraka, albeit still a bit rocky, had been more or less patched up. The tomfoolery in the tower had luckily stayed at a minimum due to her fired up strictness, something he appreciated immensely.
He could actually focus on his work instead of seeing what the idiots - Mina and Kaminari in particular - had fucked up this time.
That was, until, Mina thought it was a good idea to bring in a box of kittens she’d found abandoned in an alley and shoved it at him. Honestly, he was busy. As much as he adored cats, he didn’t have enough to take care of more than the one he already owned - a bastard by the name of Queen Fluffkins the Third. (His ‘Trio of Terror’ had come up with the name, and all if Shouta’s attempts to change it were futile. It was the only thing the cat responded to - full name or nothing.
He could feel a year taken off of his lifespan every time he had to call them that.)
Shouta was still searching for a shelter that could take the kittens in. In the meantime, he’d resigned to allowing his nephew, Hitoshi, take care of them.
After what happened with Queen Fluffkins the Third, there was no way he was allowing Nemuri, Hizashi, or Shirakumo even be close to the kittens.
However, he and Hitoshi were busy people who couldn’t always keep an eye on the kittens.
Which currently led to Shouta’s predicament: racing around the tower to find seven lost kittens and praying to whatever deity that listened that he could find them.
He’d already managed to find six of them, thanks to enhanced senses and the ability to check the security cameras on his phone, but the seventh was still missing. Panic tore through him at the image of the kitten lost and alone, mewing in pain-
Wait. His head shot up as he realized that he could actually hear the noises coming from the door to the floor below the stair level he was on. Shouta began to walk quickly in the direction. As he got closer, his nose picked on another thing that sent a chill of fear settling in him.
The werewolf was there. The werewolf was there with some poor, defenceless kitten, doing Gods knows what. He began running without realizing it, heart pounding in his ears. If the werewolf even touched a hair on the kitten’s head, he’d rip their arms off and beat them with it.
Shouta reached the door and stumbled to a halt as he heard laughter. With a frown, he cracked the door to the floor open.
“Aren’t you a little lioness?” A voice cooed. Shouta spotted the werewolf and blinked. They were allowing the kitten to bat at the sleeves of the oversized turtleneck that practically hung off of them. He spotted their tail, the same colour as their hair, batting furiously from side-to-side.
(He was surprised it hadn’t fallen off.)
The werewolf looked absolutely delighted, doe-eyes framed by a smattering of freckles and curly hair, almost sparkled.
Holy shit. This was the least threatening werewolf Shouta’d ever seen. The kitten batted at their hands again, making the werewolf squeal.
Shouta froze as he realized he was beginning to smile at the rather adorable sight.
Fuck.
A wave of panic hit him. He was not going to find the werewolf cute. It was only the kitten.
Only the kitten.
Shouta cleared his throat and stepped in. “You found them.”
As if on cue, the werewolf’s ears slammed against their head, and their tail curled low. They turned to watch him with wide eyes, pupils near pinpricks. As Shouta drew closer, they tipped their head back to show their neck.
A sign of submission. A part of Shouta, the more vampiristic, preened smugly. The larger part of him made his heart clench at their fear.
“You don’t have to do that.”
The werewolf immediately tucked their head low and avoided any eye contact.
Shouta shifted awkwardly. They were obviously scared - possibly terrified - of him. He’d have to hurry it up for the both of him. Shouta bent low to pick up the kitten, tucking them close to his chest. He turned without a word and started to walk away.
Right as he reached the doorway, Shouta glanced back at the doorway and jolted.
The werewolf was watching him - or rather, the kitten, with shining eyes. They looked longing, yet forlorn, body angled towards him but still on the ground with their arms wrapped around themselves.
The scene gripped his heart in some unknown emotion. He opened his mouth and hesitated. Damn it, Hizashi was right. He really was a softy. “If you want, my evenings are free on Thursdays. You and Uraraka can come over to see the kittens.”
And with that, he left.