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Of all the things Izuku hadn’t expected to go through at U.A., to be confessed to after his crush turned into a cat was probably way at the top of that non-existent list. Add to that the fact that they then actually started dating, and if anyone had told Izuku this was definitely in his future back when he was in middle school, he would have laughed in their face—or cried, because telling such obvious lies was cruel at best. But the truth of the matter is that not only did it happen, this strange circumstance—the whole feline conversion, not the confession—repeated itself.
Izuku sometimes wonders if he doesn’t actually have a hidden quirk, some unfathomable mutation that makes him a magnet to the most ludicrous of situations. Sure, it’s his (now) boyfriend who got turned into a cat, but he is the one who has to deal with the consequences.
Though, if he is being honest with himself, looking at everything he has been through, cuddling his boyfriend while he is a fuzzy purr machine isn’t exactly what he’d call a bad time. Even before they were together, cat Shouto or, as some of his classmates liked to call him, Todorokitty had been mysteriously drawn to him. Turns out animal instincts and hiding your feelings don’t really go together, but hey, it worked out in the end, so Izuku isn’t complaining.
Now that they are in a relationship, however, Shouto had been more affectionate in general, so his cat version appears to have the same plans. Izuku had planned to use the day to train with All Might, but when he opened the door to find the red and white Persian cat with a bald patch over the left eye sitting at his door, well, his plans were inadvertently cancelled.
The girl with the quirk responsible for this had been trying to get away unspotted, screeching when she saw Izuku looking straight at her with a thoroughly unamused expression as she sneaked to the stairs. She bolted without another second to lose, leaving him to her mess without an explanation as to how this happened again, and Izuku had no choice but to pick Shouto off the floor as he started rubbing against his legs whenever he tried to take a single step.
It’s not like Izuku didn’t try to leave him in his room while he went about his day for at least a few hours, but the moment he left Shouto on the bed and closed the door, the miserable mewls and the incessant scratching on wood started. Izuku isn’t heartless, how was he supposed to ignore that? How was he supposed to break Shouto’s little heart and make him think he was abandoning him?
So, here he is, sitting at his desk with Shouto purring away on his lap, sometimes kneading at his stomach as he dreams of whatever cats dream of while they slumber. He scratches between Shouto’s ears as he flips through his study notes, smiling contentedly at the warmth, the calm sense of joy that comes with this closeness. All things considered, it could be a lot worse.
Of course, as soon as that innocent thought crosses his mind, the universe is quick to make it known that it is listening, and it is adamant about mocking him at any chance it gets. Without any warning whatsoever, some mysterious force explodes over Izuku’s lap, throwing his chair backwards and him along with it. He squeezes his eyes shut as he lets out a high-pitched yelp that he is most certainly not proud of, the breath knocking out of him when he hits the floor and something heavy presses against his chest.
Tiny sniffs tickle at his neck and he has to suppress a giggle, slowly pushing his eyelids open to see what the hell happened and finding nothing but a head full of red and white hairs, two large cat ears poking from between the locks and twitching when Izuku so much as breathes on them. He feels the blood rushing up to his cheeks when he realises their position, Shouto straddled over him and pressed so unbearably close to him he can feel every movement, every twitch, and—oh goodness.
“Sh-Shouto—” Izuku chokes out, and his boyfriend’s head snaps up to look him in the eye, blue greys blown wide in barely contained excitement despite the absolutely deadpan expression he wears.
“Izuku.” A furry tail whips back and forth behind him, blurring in the background but distracting all the same.
“Could you, um, get off, maybe? Please?”
“But I’m comfortable. You’re warm.” Shouto says matter-of-factly, and as if to prove his point, he rubs his cheek against Izuku’s, turning slightly to lick at his face.
Another undignified squeak dies in his throat as he tenses, hands flying to Shouto’s sides to nudge him off of him as quickly as he can manage. As soon as his boyfriend crawls to the side with a hiss, features scrunching with displeasure at the unwanted touch to his flank, Izuku jumps to his feet and gets a healthy distance between them. Shouto merely sits on the floor, legs crossed and head tilted, staring at Izuku intently. It makes him feel kind of naked, exposed underneath that observant gaze, like vulnerable prey before a predator. Resisting the urge to cover himself up and crawl into a hole, Izuku picks the desk chair off the floor with a nervous laugh and sets it in its rightful place.
Shouto’s ears twitch again and he scratches behind them with one hand, one eye closed and the other squinted, the perfect picture of a house cat yet looking so undeniably like himself it’s all kinds of confusing. Izuku’s heart does a daring flip in his chest at the sight, cheeks burning just a little hotter as he resists the urge to pet Shouto all over.
When he is no longer a cat, he can’t help but think that would be very, very inappropriate, his hands wandering here and there and everywhere and before he knows it—
Instead, he plopa back onto his seat, shaking his head to rid himself of these unwanted thoughts and turning to his desk to continue his studies while Shouto carries on with whatever he wants to do.
It’s impossible to keep cats on a leash anyway, figuratively speaking.
Not even two minutes go by before he feels something brush against his leg. He smiles fondly, thinking Shouto wants more attention, but when he pulls back the chair just enough to swivel it towards him, his boyfriend takes full advantage of his new position. Izuku chokes on a disgruntled noise as Shouto crawls between his legs, climbing up to sit on his lap and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. He rests his head on his own arm, nosing at Izuku’s neck and purring loudly, and Izuku’s entire body freezes in shock.
“Shouto, w-what are you doing?”
“Sleep.”
“There’s a bed r-right there!”
“No bed. Izuku’s better.”
Not knowing what else to do, Izuku grabs onto Shouto on instinct, desperate to get him literally anywhere else, and stands up to take him to the bed himself. There is no way he can work like this. There is no way he can handle being like this to begin with!
Though it seems Shouto doesn’t take very kindly to being picked up, as contradictory as that sounds when he was just ready to fall asleep in Izuku’s arms seconds before. Perhaps it’s something about movement, or maybe cats are secretly afraid of heights despite their tendency to get to the highest spot in the room to look down on everyone around them. Regardless of his reasons, Shouto immediately begins to squirm when Izuku moves, his weight shifting unpredictably and throwing off his balance, tipping him dangerously with no hope of catching his fall while holding on to the big cat in his arms.
They both tumble to the floor in a tangle of limbs, Shouto’s nails scratching everywhere they reach as he hisses and writhes beneath Izuku in an attempt to escape. Izuku splutters when one of Shouto’s knees slams right between his legs, rolling off to his side with a pained wheeze as he tries to breathe through the agony that explodes through him, his vision going dark for a few seconds. Shouto doesn’t hesitate to scramble away, tail puffed into something more akin to a duster than anything else and violently whipping from one side to another as he glares at Izuku.
But then he notices his silent whimpers, and just as quickly as he had jumped to attack mode, he deflates, crawling closer and sniffing at his face with his brows furrowed and his fluffy ears pressing tightly to the top of his head. If it weren’t for the fact that he is currently trying not to cry from the throbbing pain still making the world spin a little, Izuku would have certainly been cooing at how absolutely adorable it looks. Still, seeing that guilty sheen to his eyes, Izuku clenches his jaw and reaches for him, pushing past the pain in an effort to take it away and ease his worries.
As if expecting punishment, Shouto flinches away from his hand and Izuku stops his advance, waiting until he can tell he won’t run and placing his palm atop his head. A small noise akin to a squeak creeps from Shouto’s lips and Izuku can’t help but let out an amused huff, stroking gently, petting him with a little sigh before slowly pushing himself to a sitting position.
“I’m sorry.” Shouto murmurs, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he pushes against Izuku’s hand, lids fluttering closed. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” If there is something that Shouto is nothing like a cat in, it’s certainly his sense of accountability.
Which really puts into perspective that time he threw water onto Kacchan’s lap. If he has enough sense to apologise to Izuku, then that only goes to show how he had absolutely no remorse whatsoever, cat instincts or not.
Well, not like Kacchan needs to know any of that.
“It’s okay.” With a fond stretch of his lips, Izuku taps the tip of Shouto’s nose, chuckling at the way his face scrunches and he pulls away to rub at it with the back of his hand. “I picked you up when you didn’t want to be picked up. Technically my fault.”
Shouto just hums, staring off to the side and crawling to the end of the bed to lie on it with a huff. His ears finally perk back up as he sucks in a breath then exhales and relaxes slightly, Izuku still recovering from the unintentional hit to his livelihood and groaning when he gets on his knees to pick himself up off the floor. With him still having cat brain, Shouto will probably stop feeling guilty in no time, so it’s not like Izuku has to worry about that for now.
As Izuku returns to his desk to get back to work while Shouto naps the morning away, he is struck with a sense of déjà vu at the familiarity of the scene, his gaze occasionally drifting to his sleeping cat-mate against his will. Just like that first time, Izuku tries to focus on his schoolwork, but the urge to look back at Shouto is far too great, especially now that it technically isn’t overstepping any boundaries. After all, there is nothing wrong about staring at his own boyfriend, right?
Though when he gives in to that desire, he jerks in surprise at Shouto glaring icy daggers his way, his ears curved like little devil horns as they face opposite directions. Blinking, Izuku looks around in search of whatever may be upsetting him, wondering if it was something he did again. Then he notes Shouto’s focus is slightly off to the side of his head, looking through him rather than at him. Carefully, he raises a hand and waves it in an effort to get his attention.
His gaze flickers to his hand for a split second before going right back to where it was fixed, and Izuku follows his line of sight, squinting at a random black spot next to one of his All Might posters. He used to have another one there—used to have a whole lot of other stuff everywhere, really—, but he did some remodelling to his bedroom recently and it must have left a mark behind. Read as: kissing Shouto while being watched by pictures and figurines of his mentor from literally every angle made him a teensy bit uncomfortable.
If looked at from a greater distance, that spot could easily pass as a bug.
Slowly, Izuku looks back to Shouto, puffing up his cheeks.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“What?”
“You know what.”
“It’s gonna get away.”
“It’s nothing. It’s not even gonna move—”
“It’s gonna get away.” Shouto repeats, eyes narrowing even further.
Wordlessly, Izuku stretches over his desk, scratching the dirt off the wall then raising his eyebrows at Shouto. His cat ears flatten suspiciously as he stalks over to Izuku, leaning close and sniffing at his hand.
“Where did it go?”
“I took it off.”
“So, it did get away.” Shouto points out, almost accusatory as he takes Izuku’s hand and opens his palm. “Give it back.”
Izuku lets his jaw drop a little, unsure of what to say. Shouto juts out his bottom lip, eyes big and pleading, and he feels his chest squeeze in sympathy. Which, honestly, makes no sense whatsoever. Shouto is already a complicated person—not in a bad way, goodness, Izuku loves every part of him—, but this cattitude only makes things more confusing. He is enthralled by his boyfriend’s undeniable cuteness and yet things like this just put him at a standstill.
For someone who is constantly fighting his way out of deadly situations, he sure feels awfully useless dealing with a harmless one such as this.
Not knowing what else to do, he just swivels his chair to face Shouto completely, reaching for his head once again and scratching behind his left ear with a sigh and a wobbly smile.
“Such a silly little kitten, you are.” He murmurs, and a soft flush crawls over Shouto’s cheeks, his lids fluttering at the gesture and left side feeling just a little warmer than usual. Izuku feels his own face start to burn looking at that cute expression.
Shouto tips his head little by little, guiding Izuku’s hand to scratch down the line of his jaw, under his chin. When Shouto lets out a pleased mewl, Izuku chokes on a noise of his own, feeling like all the blood in his body suddenly pools at his cheeks and taking his hand away so that he can hide behind both. Shouto had no right making such noises with no regard for what they might do to his poor heart, working overtime to try and beat out of his chest as his entire body tingles with a strange euphoria that he isn’t sure is all that wholesome.
When Shouto sniffs at his face, he peeks at him from between his fingers, blushing even harder at his closeness but having nowhere to flee to, stuck between him and the desk at his back. Grabbing onto one of his wrists, Shouto pulls Izuku’s hand away, bringing it back to his head with another soft whine, eyes shining dangerously.
How is Izuku supposed to survive such a critical hit to his heart?
Sniffling, Izuku satisfies his boyfriend’s wordless request, petting him wherever he turns his head to and trying not to spontaneously combust at the sounds he makes whenever he scratches any particularly pleasant spots. If he had Shouto’s quirk, he is sure he would have burned the dorms down at this point.
Slowly, Shouto sinks to the floor, lying on his back and tugging at Izuku’s hand for him to continue his caresses, dragging him out of his chair and onto his knees beside him.
At first, Izuku only pets around his head, but then Shouto starts purring, his tail whipping this way and that as he rolls left and right for a while before stopping on his stomach and crawling closer and closer still. He feels like all the blood in his body gathers on his face when Shouto starts wiggling his rear, tail pointing skyward and curling at the end, the vibrating mewls getting louder and louder.
Izuku eye twitches slightly, blush brighter than he thinks it has ever been and head a little light. It’s one thing if he’s a cat but… but this is…
Looking up at him from under his fringe, ears pressing onto the top of his head, Shouto pouts cutely and Izuku feels whatever dignity he has managed to hold on to up to this point shatter completely. With a trembling hand, he reaches for the small of Shouto’s back, his shirt already pushed back by the tail and position both, and he rubs at the exposed skin.
An embarrassed groan tips from his lips as he covers his face with his free hand, scratching Shouto’s back—much too close to another area entirely, let’s be honest—and feeling his insides burn with shame at how much he enjoys the reactions. Just as he thought, this feels all sorts of inappropriate, even if he isn’t really doing anything indecent.
Thankfully, Shouto quickly gets tired of being pet on the same spot, falling onto his side and letting him scratch along his flank. It’s still beyond embarrassing, but it’s a lot better than… whatever that was. When Izuku’s hand slides a little off course, venturing onto his belly without meaning to, Shouto hisses at him, grabbing at his arm and biting, then pushing against it with his legs.
Yelping, Izuku takes away his hand, rubbing at the slightly sore spot then flailing as he thinks of what’s going to happen when Shouto is back to normal and remembers this in vivid detail.
“Gah, you’re going to hate me when this is over…”
Shouto hums in confusion, moving back to sitting cross-legged and licking at the back of his hand to groom his hair and ears. Faced with his boyfriend’s disinterest, he heaves a miserable sigh and does his best to return to his studies once and for all. Shouto spends an obscene amount of time licking himself all over, and Izuku pointedly glues his eyes to the worksheets on his desk when he notices him bending in ways that are in no way normal for the average human being on his peripheral vision.
Sure, he had told Izuku that he had started doing yoga a while back to help calm himself, and in hero class, he oftentimes appeared to be more flexible than most of their other classmates. But Izuku really doesn’t need a personal demonstration of his skills right now. In fact, he shouldn’t have taken advantage of this situation to touch Shouto a lot more than he otherwise would have. Never mind the fact that Shouto is the one who quite literally dragged his hand to pet him at first.
Exhaling, Izuku drops his head to his desk with a muffled thud, running his hands through his hair and squirming at the weird tingles travelling all over his body.
Why does Shouto have to be so cute on a normal day? Why does he have to be so much cuter now? Why does he have to be so demanding of his attention and affection at random bouts, completely ignorant to social etiquette and personal space? Even more so than usual, anyway.
As if on cue, Izuku feels something shift between his legs, jumping to his feet with a gasp and staring wide-eyed at Shouto once again peeking up from under the desk, this time with his eyes trained on the dangling strings of his sweatpants and looking ready to pounce. Not wanting to go through yet another agonising experience, Izuku quickly shoves the strings past the waistband, removing the tantalising bullseye from Shouto’s field of vision. But then his boyfriend’s expression falls and Izuku feels inexplicably guilty.
“Play with me.” Shouto purses his lips and Izuku splutters.
“I’m working,” Izuku laments, then adding “Or trying, anyway…”
“You’ve been working for so long.”
With that, he crawls closer, standing and reaching for Izuku’s hoodie strings instead, pupils so big he can hardly see the pretty blue and grey of his irises as he swats at them with his fingers, leaning much too close for comfort the way things are right now. Izuku tries to put some distance between them, tripping on thin air and tumbling backwards.
He lands on his bed, air pushing out of his lungs on impact, and Shouto jumps after him, straddling his lap and splaying his hands over his chest, kneading. A much-too-loud squawk creeps out of Izuku’s throat at their compromising position, and someone chooses that exact moment to burst through his door without knocking.
“Midoriya, what the hell is with all this rack—” Mineta cuts off with a horrified screech that Shouto immediately responds to with an angry hiss, definitely not helping the situation in any way whatsoever from what comes out of their classmate’s mouth next. “He’s in heat again!”
The only good thing to come out of this seems to be Shouto’s instinct to fight off the intruder, tail once again puffed to twice its size as he jumps at Mineta. The other slams the door shut before Shouto makes it there, staring at it as if it has personally offended him as he growls lowly but makes no move to open it himself.
“Shouto…” Izuku calls, sounding just a little desperate, melting into a puddle of flustered goo while he slides off the edge of the bed and crumbles onto the floor. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
It’s not like he had much of a reputation anyway, but this is the second time now. As unreliable as Mineta is, this is bound to make some rumours spread—especially since they’re dating now.
Shouto saunters over on silent feet, sitting beside him and leaning into his side. His purrs vibrate against Izuku’s shoulder as he rubs his face into it, tail curling around his waist in a gesture that is almost comforting. Not even trying to resist the urge, Izuku turns and holds his boyfriend in return for a quick hug, bumping their foreheads together and placing a peck on the tip of his nose then slumping back against the bed. He doesn’t want to risk getting scratched up again for holding him too tight or too long.
“You’re lucky you’re too cute for anyone to stay mad at.” Izuku tells him, rolling his eyes at the confused tilt of Shouto’s head in response to his words.
There is still an expectant sheen to his gaze, drifting down to his hoodie’s hanging strings, and a corner of Izuku’s mouth curls into a smile that is halfway from exasperated to amused. In one swift tug, Izuku takes the string out of the hood, dangling it in front of Shouto’s face and giggling at how alert he suddenly looks.
“Fine. You win. I’m taking the rest of the day off just to pay attention to you. Maybe then you’ll stop making my life more difficult than it needs to be.”
Completely ignoring everything he just said, Shouto dives for the string without any regard for Izuku’s safety. Izuku jumps onto the bed just in time to escape his boyfriend’s pounce, twirling it around and laughing as he follows it with his head, completely enthralled. He chases Izuku around the bedroom wherever he leads him, chewing on the ends of the string whenever he catches it then dropping it and staring at Izuku with a demand in his gaze.
Though whenever Izuku reaches for the string once more, Shouto goes for it as well, hands slapping against the back of his when he is too fast for him. Perhaps he is borrowing a little of One for All’s power to be quicker, but Shouto isn’t exactly a regular cat right now, so he thinks it’s fair to cheat a smidge.
They go on like that until Shouto seems to tire himself out and Izuku is also starting to feel a little out of breath. It isn’t what Izuku had planned, though he supposes he can count it as some form of light training, evading his boyfriend’s sharp reflexes as he chased down the dangly makeshift toy.
Curled up atop his bed, Shouto snoozes through the rest of the quirk’s effects while Izuku takes that chance to grab them some food from the kitchen for when he wakes up, thanking his lucky stars that he doesn’t run into anyone on his way there. Knowing their classmates, Mineta’s little distorted story is already making the rounds, and he and Shouto are bound to get a lot of grief about it soon enough.
Which part of the aftermath of this incident will be harder to get over is up for debate as Izuku lies down next to his sleeping boyfriend, ears and tail now gone and leaving him to just card through Shouto’s soft locks. He knows it’s too much to hope for that Shouto won’t remember the (totally innocent) petting, given the last time, but he can at least pray that Shouto won’t be too mortified.
From the way he wakes up with a start a few hours later, eyes wide and face paler than usual, Izuku can only smile sheepishly at the obvious answer.
“Tell me that was just a really embarrassing nightmare.” Shouto all but begs, voice a little strangled.
As Izuku opens his mouth to answer, his phone dings with a notification from its spot on his nightstand, mocking him endlessly with its comedic timing that he in no way finds funny. He reaches for it, blinking stupidly at the message from Uraraka, a bunch of winking emojis over a picture of cat-eared Shouto sitting on him on his bed and looking like they are engaged in less than savoury activities. Izuku doesn’t have time to wonder when Mineta had the chance to even snap the picture to begin with, Shouto diving for his phone and wheezing as he stares at it in petrified horror.
“This is it. This is how I die.” He drops the phone on the bed and crashes face first onto the mattress, groaning miserable.
“Yeah, you and me both. But hey, look on the bright side, at least they didn’t get a picture of the—when I was…” He trails off, face burning.
The back of Shouto’s head swooshes with a plume of fire bursting to life on the left before he quells it and covers himself with his arms.
“Let’s never speak of that again, please.”
Izuku agrees with a little hum, curling in on himself too and letting out a few garbled noises of his own. His phone vibrates with another ping, then another, and they both make a wordless pact to turn it off and not leave the room again until they absolutely have to.