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The no pets in the dorm rule was broken pretty quickly when Kouda brought every animal in existence to come hang out in his room, at which point Aizawa begrudgingly let whoever wanted to bring an animal as long as it wasn’t something big and/or hard to take care of like a dog or horse (this was a legitimate problem. Hagakure is a horse girl).
This prompted Sero to bring in the most terrifying tarantula to ever exist, something half the class made him bring back home because they were terrified of spiders. Kaminari has a hamster that’s certifiably insane, and Kirishima has a few fishes with (unsurprisingly) sharp teeth up in his room. Kouda has, like, six rabbits that he lets people use as therapy animals and Asui has two frogs.
Pets promptly became a pretty fun occurrence in the dorms. What people were not expecting, however, was for Bakugou to be part of the group of people who wanted to bring pets in. And it was even less expected for Bakugou to bring in not one, but two animals. One of which Aizawa was pretty hesitant about.
Everyone wanted to see how this debate went, which was why Aizawa was standing in front of most of Class 1-A in the common room of their dorms while Katsuki Bakugou crosses his arms defiantly and tries to prove his case. Kirishima and Kaminari are valiantly defending him while Sero stays back, mostly because he’s still bitter about the tarantula thing. Mina is too busy laughing to actually be of any help.
Todoroki doesn’t see the big deal, but that’s probably because he doesn’t know the first thing about pets. So he just sits next to Shinsou and watches Bakugou wrangle a cat carrier with a snake slung around his shoulders. Surprisingly, it’s the cat that’s the problem. Somehow nobody in their class is scared of snakes. Which means Sero is extra bitter about the tarantula. Todoroki was on his side, but. Midoriya almost cried, which even Sero knew meant the spider had to go.
Anyway, now they’re dealing with the cat and Midoriya is in the bathroom. Todoroki wonders how he’s going to react once he comes back and sees the scene at hand. Todoroki wonders if Midoriya’s scared of snakes.
“What about Midoriya?” Aizawa reads Todoroki’s mind, “is he scared of snakes?”
“Hah?” Bakugou lets his snake curl around his arm, “Deku loves the little green fucker!”
“The little green fucker?” Uraraka repeats faintly.
“Fine, then,” Aizawa sighs, “you can keep the snake. But the cat’s gotta go.”
“What?” Kirishima tries to defend, “Sensei, why? You let Bakugou Jr. stay!”
“Bakugou Jr. does not bite or scratch,” Aizawa replies.
“Actually,” Kaminari cuts in, “Bakugou Jr. has done both of those things. My hamster is on crack, Sensei. But you let me keep him!”
“Can you fuckers stop naming your pets after me?” Bakugou asks.
“Excuse me,” Kirishima gasps, “Great Explosion Murder God Dynamite the first, second, and third all take offense at that statement.”
“I swear to God if you name one more fucking fish after me-”
“The cat is big,” Aizawa says quickly, “I like cats. Shinsou can attest to that. Present Mic can attest to that. The whole world can attest to that. But cats bite and cats are temperamental and you cannot keep one in the dorms.”
“Cats are assholes,” Bakugou agrees, “but the fucker’s done nothing wrong.”
“Are all your pets just named fucker?” Jirou asks.
“Bakugou,” Aizawa looks incredibly exasperated, “you cannot keep the cat.”
“What cat?” a new voice enters the common room and everyone swivels around to see Midoriya walking into the common room. He sees Aizawa first, and then his gaze falls to Bakugou and he’s immediately lighting up.
“Kacchan!” Midoriya screeches, “you brought them!”
“Told you I would, Deku,” Bakugou replies, “say hi to the assholes.”
“Don’t be mean, Kacchan,” Midoriya scolds, all while excitedly running towards Bakugou’s pets. Midoriya gets to the snake first, and lifts the thing into his arms while happily cooing at it.
“Guillotine!” Midoriya says happily, “I missed you so much!”
“Guillotine?” Mina almost yells, “you named your snake guillotine?”
“The French Revolution is funny as fuck,” is Bakugou’s explanation.
It takes Todoroki until Midoriya has Bakugou’s snake nestled atop his head to realize it’s the same color as Midoriya's hair and eyes.
“Where’s the cat?” Midoriya says immediately after dealing with the snake (Guillotine, apparently). “Give me my baby.”
“Aizawa says I can’t keep the asshole,” Bakugou replies.
“What?” Midoriya gasps loudly, “no! Sensei, you have to let Kacchan keep Grenade Launcher! She’s my only reason to live!”
“Grenade Launcher?” Kaminari screams.
“See?” Bakugou says pointedly, “Deku, cry so Aizawa can’t say no.”
“On it,” Midoriya immediately starts breaking out the waterworks.
“Wait, wait,” Sero waves his hands around, “why is Midoriya in love with Bakugou’s animals? When did this development happen? We didn’t even know he had pets until today!”
“I was there when Kacchan got the kids!” Midoriya says excitedly, and Todoroki does a double take at him calling them ‘the kids.’
“He was,” Bakugou agrees, “the hag wouldn’t let me get the fucking snake until Deku here did the goddamn waterworks. Gets them every time.”
“Tell them about the baby,” Midoriya prods Bakugou, “tell them, Kacchan!”
The baby, Todoroki is learning, is the cat.
“We rescued the fucker from a tree,” Bakugou sighs, “Deku wouldn’t stop screaming until I agreed to get her down, and now she’s ours.”
“ Ours?” Kirishima questions.
“Well, she’s Kacchan’s,” Midoriya explains, “because my mom’s allergic to cats. But I like to think that Grenade Launcher is also mine. I mean, Kacchan and I may have stopped being friends but I kept visiting the baby.”
“The cat wasn’t part of our shit,” Bakugou says.
“Exactly,” Midoriya nods, “Guillotine is Kacchan’s, though. I’m like his fun uncle or something.”
“You are not the fucker’s fun uncle, Deku,” Bakugou argues.
“I so am!” Midoriya pouts and then looks at Aizawa, turning up the sad eyes to 100 percent, “please, Sensei? Can Kacchan keep the kids? Please?”
Midoriya picks up Grenade Launcher from her carrier; Tooroki notes that she’s extremely pliant and cuddly in Midoriya’s hands. Midoriya holds her up Lion King style right in front of Aizawa’s face.
“Look at her, Sensei!” Midoriya cries, “how can you say no to this face?”
“Deku’s face or the cat’s face?” Uraraka wonders, “both are applicable.”
Aizawa looks closer at the cat. He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.
“Shit,” he says, “she’s adorable. You can keep the cat, Bakugou.”
“Yes!” Midoriya literally jumps in the air, and Bakugou yells a “watch it, dumbass!” and reaches for his snake, about to fall off Midoriya's head. Midoriya profusely apologizes while Bakugou holds his snake to his chest possessively, and Midoriya responds by holding the cat out of Bakugou’s reach.
Well, Todoroki figures. Somehow it’s not surprising to figure out that Midoriya and Bakugou own pets together like a married couple. Or that Bakugou named his pets after literal weapons. After that it’s not unusual for Midoriya and Bakugou to walk around the dorms with a snake wrapped around their neck or arms. Surprisingly Bakugou lets the snake stay around his neck, and Todoroki thinks that it’s so he’ll associate his neck with the snake instead of being strangled or muzzled or kidnapped.
Everyone keeps forgetting that Midoriya and Bakugou grew up together, but this pet thing is definitely reinforcing that. Bakugou calls his cat “asshole” and “fucker” and Midoriya picks her up and promises her that “Kacchan doesn’t mean it, baby, he’s just being mean; Kacchan, say sorry to our daughter!”
Bakugou doesn’t say sorry, but Midoriya never seems to mind. He just smiles at Bakugou and continues playing with (sigh) Guillotine and Grenade Launcher.
When Midoriya's not looking, Bakugou smiles back.
Class 1-A just gets used to this new dynamic, which Todoroki fears is somehow worse than when Bakugou yelled at Midoriya whenever he so much as breathed.
Although Todoroki can’t really complain when Midoriya always looks so happy.