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By all means, so one should have been surprised in the slightest by what they found. Anyone capable of putting two thoughts together should have been able to figure out this fact a long time ago, and yet, it still came as a shocking surprise to many of those at UA.
In all honestly, this was one of the milder side effects of his quirk. This side effect wasn’t even super uncommon in regular life. His cat side simply amplified what can normally occur in “regular” humans.
Izuku Midoriya is a cat, and cats like to nap in… unusual places.
Mina & Denki:
“Whaaaaaa? How is he laying like that???” Mina leaned in closely towards her sleeping classmate. “That can’t be comfortable.”
Denki’s head contorted left, right, and even upside down as he tried to figure out exactly how Midoriya had contorted himself into his current position. “How is his leg twisted that way?”
The two friends looked down at the napping boy. His position was quite precarious. He was balanced on a wide window ledge with his head and a majority of his torso hanging in open air, his arms limp and brushing the ground. His legs were spread wide in a pseudo split with one of his feet resting against an upper edge of the window frame, his other leg falling closely to his head. The most worrying part of his position was his tail, which was dangling out of the window.
“… I bet you 1000 yen I can recreate that pose,” Denki said to Mina with a slightly manic grin.
Mina narrowed her eyes, considering the electric blond before her for a moment. “… I bet you 2000 yen I can get into that pose before you.”
The two friends shook on the bet and took their places in their own windows. To maintain some semblance of safety, they kept the windows closed. With a quietly shouted “start,” the two began to contort themselves around. All things considered, the two must be commended for their attempts, despite how poorly executed they were.
What the two of them never considered was who would judge their competition as to who was faster and who was more accurate, but this fact didn’t end up mattering in the slightest. Denki, for all of his good qualities, appeared to have forgotten to check that his window was properly secured. The windows they were bending around in did not simply slide up and down, but rather, they swung out. Losing his balance for a second, Denki slammed against the glass, opening the window fully.
“Oooooh fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck—” his mantra of ‘fucks’ continued on as he fought a battle to regain his balance. A battle he would inevitably lose.
Mina, being a good friend, looked over at her friend in concern, but soon found herself in a predicament of her own. Despite being closer to Midoriya’s position, she didn’t quite have his sense of balance and flexibility. This led to her becoming tangled in her own limbs, falling face first towards the ground.
Before Denki could fall of the window and Mina could break her face, a very familiar scarf shot out and caught both of them. Denki was hauled back into the building unceremoniously and Mina was left suspended in the air for fear of her simply falling on her face if she were moved.
“What… what the hell do you two think you’re doing?” Aizawa enunciated each syllable clearly, already knowing he’d be leaving the school with a migraine. Despite his annoyed tone, he still took care to set Denki down gently and pick up Mina from her under arms so she could stand on her own feet. “Do you have an excuse? Or were you just being idiots in the usual fashion?”
“Heeeeeeey Mr. Aizawa,” Denki said, laughing breathlessly. “We uh… we were trying to figure out how Midoriya was sleeping in that position. So, we tried to recreate it…”
Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose. “So, it was your normal brand of idiocy. Fine. Whatever. Just falling out of windows like it’s no big deal.” He glanced over at the mentioned sleeping boy. How he was still asleep with all of the commotion was a mystery to everyone. “I’m not going to even bother telling you off.”
The two students brightened.
“I’m not going to tell you off, because you’ll be telling Bakugou what you two were doing.”
Their faces fell in unison.
“I…. I think I’d prefer you telling us off, Mr. Aizawa,” Mina said, paling to a rather interesting shade between carnation pink and champagne pink.
“I know, that’s why Bakugou will be telling you off.” Aizawa would be lying if he said he didn’t get a small sense of joy watching all of the remaining hope draining from their faces. “Now go. I’ll know if you don’t tell him.”
The two students nodded glumly and turned to walk towards the lunchroom where the “mom” of their friend group was. The two accepted their fate as they walked towards the execution, knowing nothing could save them.
Aizawa would definitely be asking Nezu if he had a recording of Bakugou yelling at them. Who’s he kidding? Of course, he’ll have a recording.
The Big Three:
“Oh god oh no oh god oh no…”
“Taaaamaki! What’s wrong? …. Oh wow! He looks dead!” Mirio laughed lightly.
“Don’t say that, I can’t handle finding a dead body in school. First, they make me give an oral report and now I’m finding dead bodies. Great. I love this. I wish I stayed at home.” Tamaki wilted where he stood. The stress that always wracked his body was painfully clear. The poor boy never got a break.
“What are you two looking at?” Nejire waltzed over, her arms swinging carelessly by her sides. “Awwwwwe, kitty!” She leapt over upon taking in the sight of Midoriya curled up in the middle of the hallway.
Now, when people say they found an object “in the middle” of something, it is quite often hyperbole. They didn’t find the object in the center of the room, but rather off to the side in a position where it wasn’t quite in the way, but was noticeable. This wasn’t the case for Midoriya’s current napping spot. He was laying fully in the center of the floor, positioned perfectly in a sunny spot.
Taking some care to wake Midoriya up, Nejire fawned over him, whispering softly about how adorable he way. It didn’t take much for Mirio to join her. Meanwhile, Tamaki continued to spiral in his thoughts that he found a dead body.
“— not my fault, I just stumbled upon a dead body in the middle of the floor. If I had known there was random body here, I would’ve taken a different way to the classroom. I don’t even know how he died! Oh god… do I have to tell his family that he died? I really wish I had stayed at home, this is too much for me to handle right now. This is too much for me to handle at any time.”
“Tamaki, he’s not dead,” Mirio said, poking Midoriya’s cheek. “Come here, you can hear him doing a weird purr snore.”
“… but I don’t like getting that close to people.”
“It’s either that, or you won’t have proof that he’s not dead.”
Tamaki slowly squatted down next to his friends, the three of them hovering ominously over the cat boy. Right as he leaned in to listen for the ‘purr snore,’ Midoriya woke up.
Midoriya’s eyes slowly pried open. “Huh?” He tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. “Who smells like chicken?”
A silence stretched between them before Mirio busted out laughing. “Tamaki is a chicken in more ways than one.”
In response, Tamaki blushed darkly and tried to disappear into her shirt collar.
“Is Tamaki a chicken mutant?”
Mirio cackled instead of giving an actual answer.
“Hi cutie! What’s your name? I’m Nejire Hado, but you can just call me Nejire!” Somehow, Nejire managed to lean even deeper into Midoriya’s personal space. “These are Mirio Tougata and Tamaki Amajiki.”
Midoriya slowly sat up, his ears perked up high and his tail swishing about slowly. “Nice to meet you, I’m Izuku Midoriya.”
“Can I call you Izu? I’m gonna call you Izu!”
Midoriya’s ears twitched a bit in response. “Is there any reason why you woke me up?”
“Oh, not really. Tamaki thought you were dead,” Mirio said as he ruffled his tormented friend’s hair. “Hey hey hey, you’re a cat, right?” At Midoriya’s nod, he continued on. “Could you qualify as an emotional support animal then? I think Tamaki needs one. He has too much stress in his life.”
Midoriya looked over at poor Tamaki who was caught between hyperventilating and crying. He really didn’t look like he was doing well. Without any hesitation, Midoriya sat right next to him and wrapped his tail around the other boy’s waist. He took Tamaki’s hand and placed it right on top of his head, between his ears.
“I think I could qualify as an emotional support animal.”
Tamaki took a second to comprehend what had happened before he relaxed enough to run his finger’s through Midoriya’s soft and fluffy curls. He was startled when Midoriya started to purr, but quickly relaxed. In all honesty, it was likely the most relaxed Tamaki had ever been since attending UA. It didn’t take too long before Midoriya leaned against him and started to doze off.
“Oh shoot!” Mirio grabbed the back of Tamaki’s collar and hauled him to his feet. “We gotta go! See you later Midoriya!” He hauled his once again panicking friend down the hallway, Nejire following close behind, skipping happily.
But Midoriya? Midoriya didn’t respond at all for he was already asleep again in the perfect little sunspot.
Shinsou & Monoma:
“I don’t like you.”
“And I don’t like you.”
“… but maybe we can reach an agreement? Just this once.” Monoma looked up at the tall purple boy. Neither of them liked the scene unfolding in front of them. A rather impressive group of students from general education were crowded around the sleeping form of Midoriya who was sleeping in the middle of the hallway for some reason. If they were just crowding him, that would have been annoying for forgivable. But no, the students were trying to stack things on top of him, trying to see how much they could balance before he woke, or everything fell down. aNeither would openly admit that the liked the boy, admitting it would be a sign of defeat.
No, they didn’t like the boy in the slightest. He was simply a classmate from the horrible class 1-A that happened to have a cat quirk. No, they weren’t helping him because they liked him, they were helping him because he was someone in need. As two aspiring heroes, they couldn’t ignore anyone in need of help.
“Just this once, I’ll work together with you,” Shinsou said as he held out his hand. The two boys joined hands and shook on their agreement. “Alright… you should copy my quirk. Those idiots are from my class, so they know about my quirk.”
Monoma nodded as the sensation of Shinsou’s quirk settled over him. “How do I use it?”
“Ask them a question. As soon as they answer, you should be able to feel a tingling in your head. Focus on that and it’ll put them under your control. Once you have them, tell them to walk back to their classroom. Emphasize that they should avoid stepping on Midoriya.”
Monoma nodded along, easily taking in the quick lesson on the other’s quirk. “That’s easy enough, I’m good at getting reactions out of people. What’ll you do while I deal with the idiots?”
“Me? I’ll take off whatever they put on Midoriya. After that, I’m gonna take pictures of him and send them to Mr. Aizawa.”
“… can you send them to me as well? They’re for research purposes.”
Shinsou snorted in amusement. “Sure, gimme your number once the idiots are gone.”
Nodding in agreement, the two boys parted so they could each complete their portion of the plan.
“Quick! Is Izuku Midoriya a furry?” Monoma called out, seeming to enjoy his newfound power.
“… yes?”
“Is he a furry? Or is he just kinning cats really intensely?”
“No! If he was a furry, that means I like a furry…”
“No, he definitely is a furry.”
“… are we all furries?”
“I think everyone is a little bit like a furry.”
After a few more passing comments, Monoma seized control of the small group and ordered them to walk away, emphasizing the point that they should walk around Midoriya and not over him (or on him). Once the last student disappeared into their classroom, he released his control and a breath.
No longer fearing breaking a group of students out of Monoma’s control, Shinsou began to cackle. “Furries? Really?” Tears rolled down his cheeks. He wiped them away carelessly and shook his head. “I’ll have to use that one.”
Once he calmed down, Shinsou squatted down next to the somehow-still-sleeping figure of Midoriya. He pulled out his phone and took a few pictures.
A few means creating a new album and filling it… right?
“You better send all of those to me,” Monoma said. He was trying to look reserved and cool as he leaned against the wall. “Keep up your promise.”
“I will, I will. Remember, this is the last time we work together for anything.”
“… unless a certain cat-like student needs help again in the future.”
“That goes without saying.” Shinsou handed his phone to Monoma so he could insert his phone number. Once he was handed his phone back, he sent all of the pictures he had just taken. “No one will know about this.”
“Of course, that goes without saying.”
Monoma nodded stiffly. “Right. Well. This hasn’t been… horrible.”
Shinsou nodded slowly. “Yeah… see you around.”
The two boys looked away from each other quickly. They walked stiffly away from each other in opposite directions despite the fact that their classrooms were in the same hall. After taking a few steps in the wrong direction, Monoma spun on his heel and tried to follow Shinsou as quietly as possible.
While walking away, neither gave a second thought to leaving Midoriya sleeping in the hall.
Shouta:
There are a lot of things that Shouta had come to expect while working at UA. He had accepted that he would never sleep for more than three hours straight, he would never be able to go a single day without a disaster, and that no matter how early he got to the school, Ectoplasm would ALWAYS drink the last cup of coffee from the pot.
What he hadn’t been expecting was to find his Number One Problem Child laying in the middle of the hallway, dead asleep.
“What… what the hell?” He walked over and bent down to look at his least favorite kitten. He lightly poked Midoriya’s shoulder to try and see how deeply asleep he was.
His tail didn’t even twitch.
He sighed softly and looked at the clock. It was nearing towards the end of the day. He wasn’t sure how long Midoriya had been napping in the hall, but he must have been tired if he was still here from the incident this morning with Mina and Denki. Midoriya may have gotten away (mostly) unscathed during the day due to the low traffic in the hall, but the second school released for the day, there was no chance he would remain unstepped on.
“Why is it always you?” Taking special care, Shouta gently lifted his student up and into his arms. Almost immediately, Midoriya began to curl into his capture weapon. “You are my least favorite student. I’m expelling you tomorrow.”
Shouta began to make his way down the hall towards Recovery Girl’s office. If his student was going to sleep, it was going to be somewhere safe. He really should be telling the boy off for sleeping through his classes, but he didn’t have the heart.
“You’re lucky your friends are nice enough to take notes for you,” Shouta said under his breath as he struggled to open the door. Once it was open a crack, he opened it the rest of the way using his foot. “Recovery Girl, I have a student that needs to sleep here.”
She looked up from her desk, setting papers down neatly. “Did he get hit with a sleeping quirk?”
“… no”
“Sick?”
“No.”
“Pass out during training?”
“No.”
“Then why does he need to sleep here?”
“… he’s tired. He’s been sleeping all day and I don’t need him getting stepped on once class lets out.”
Recovery Girl sighed fondly and shook her head. “You’re getting soft,” she said, and she jabbed her cane at Shouta. “He can take the bed next to the window. I’ll send a message to his mother to let him know he’ll be sleeping here.”
“I’m not getting soft,” he grumbled under his breath as he walked further into the office. He attempted to set Midoriya down. Keyword. Attempted. The boy had latched onto his capture weapon fiercely and was refusing to let go. No matter how much he twisted, pried, and pulled, he wouldn’t budge an inch. “Alright. I guess I’m napping with you.” He slid onto the bed, next to his student. “You get this for 20 minutes and then I’m leaving.”
Shouta said two lies while in Recovery Girl’s office. The first being that he wasn’t turning soft, and the second that he would only stay for 20 minutes. No, Shouta Aizawa did not stay for 20 minutes. The overworked teacher ended up sleeping for the entire night. He didn’t stir once, not even when his husband peeked in through the door to see how he was doing.
Needless to say, it was the best sleep he’d had in years.
Bonus Scene:
“So… you want me to pretend to sleep?”
Yamada nodded quickly. “Yes! He hasn’t been sleeping much and he needs a reason to lay down. If he finds you ‘asleep’ and takes you to Recovery Girl to keep sleeping, you can hold onto him and force him to lay down too.”
“But that’ll only work if he actually cares enough to take me there,” Izuku said in confusion. “What if he just walks past?”
“Of trust me,” Yamada said with a soft smile. “If it’s you, he’ll definitely take the time. Just do what I said, and he’ll sleep for at least two hours. That’s all he needs.”
“Well… alright! I love napping, so I have no problem with pretending to nap if it means I get to sleep more.”
Yamada watched as his student got into position. He most definitely hadn’t orchestrated it so that his husband would walk through this hallway and see his student. He most definitely didn’t do that; it would be underhanded and lying.
But maybe… maybe it was fine, just this once.