Chapter Text
Shouta finished up the extra paperwork that came with on-duty quirk mishaps, ignoring the poorly concealed stares from the police in the station. Whatever. Let them have their entertainment. He supposed it wasn’t every Friday that Eraserhead walked in with dog ears and a tail.
“And remember, Eraser,” Tsukauchi said as Shouta handed him the forms. “We don’t know much about this quirk. If you notice anything beyond the ears and tail, let me know immediately. You have my cell.”
Of its own volition, Shouta's new tail wagged through the hole cut in his jumpsuit. “You don’t have to worry,” he said, trying not to grimace.
Hizashi would laugh at him for sure. And Nemuri’s teasing would be relentless. He just prayed to whatever higher power was out there that the quirk would wear off by Monday, so 1A wouldn’t have to see him like this. “Cute” was generally not the look he went for with his students.
But beyond that, this was really no big deal. His appearance was a little different. So what? He’d dealt with way worse. This was fine.
He passed Officer Sansa on the way out. The cat-headed man had the gall to smirk at him.
Shouta had the immediate urge to chase him down and – what, bite him? Maybe just pin him and nip him until he knew his place…
What the fuck, Shouta thought, pulling his gaze away from Sansa.
He hurried out of the station before he mauled any officers. Once outside in the cool evening air, his head felt clearer.
Shit, maybe this quirk is affecting more than just my appearance.
But, it’s just because Sansa looks like a cat. No one else I know looks like a cat. This will be fine.
He thought about Tsukauchi’s request to update him on the quirk. What was he going to do, run back in and say he was overcome by the sudden desire to gnaw on his officer? That was ridiculous. He’d call him if anything serious happened.
Shouta trotted home. His patrol had ended early, per the standard policy to stop a patrol when hit with an unknown or modifying quirk. So, Hizashi would still be up. Shouta texted him so he wouldn’t be too shocked when he got home.
“Got hit by a quirk. I’m fine. Just look a little different.”
He hoped Hizashi wouldn’t laugh at him too much. He still couldn’t believe that he was stuck looking like a stupid dog. He hated dogs. They were so messy and undignified and…irrational.
Case in point: his walk home took forever, because he had to stop and sniff at every goddamn lamppost. He may have wanted to whip it out and pee on them, too, but he managed to suppress that particular urge.
Ugh. This quirk was going to be more annoying than he thought.
As Shouta neared his apartment building, he felt an unexpected eagerness growing. He was going to see Hizashi. It felt like it had been forever since he’d last seen his best friend. He couldn’t wait. Couldn’t wait to jump on him and hold him and kiss him and -
He stopped, gripping his capture weapon so hard the edges cut into his palms.
What the hell?
Sure, he was always happy to see Hizashi. A little excited, even. After all, he was his best and closest friend. But this feeling now was far more intense. His whole body hummed with the physical sensation of anticipation.
It’s just this stupid quirk. Nothing more than a goddamn quirk.
He broke out into a trot, impatient to close the distance between them.
When he entered the building lobby, Shouta forced himself to pause and take several deep, calming breaths. He needed to stay rational. They had lunch together earlier that same day. They lived together, for shit’s sake. Seeing Hizashi now was nothing to get worked up about.
He just had to control his weird new instincts. After all, he had stopped himself from biting Sansa, and from urinating in public. Aizawa Shouta’s willpower was ironclad. This would be fine.
But fuck, he was excited to see Hizashi. His tail was already wagging.
He took the stairs two at a time to their shared third floor apartment.
He had barely put his key in the lock when Hizashi pulled the door open.
“Sho are you okay what happen–” the blond gaped, his eyes wide with surprise. “You look like a–”
Shouta’s self-control was pathetically short lived. After a second of mutual staring, he leapt at Hizashi, enveloping him in a hug and pressing their bodies close.
Favorite person BEST person
Hugging was okay. Hizashi hugged him all the time. There was nothing weird about hugging.
MY person
It took every ounce of his resolve to not plant a big, sloppy kiss right on Hizashi’s cute little lips. He only stopped himself by, instead, burying his face into the crook of the other man’s neck.
Fuck he smells amazing.
“Sho?” Hizashi squeaked, not quite hugging back. “You…okay?”
“I just missed you,” Shouta found himself saying, nuzzling into his neck.
Hizashi eventually relaxed into the hug. “Ok, big boy,” he chuckled. “I think I’m starting to understand this quirk.”
Shouta huffed, trying, and failing, to sound gruff. That would have been very hard anyway, considering his face was still buried in Hizashi’s neck and his traitorous tail had been wagging the entire time.
“So, you’ve got a dog’s ears and tail. Any other…body modifications?”
“No.” The two of them were sitting on the couch, each nursing a beer while they talked about the new situation. Shouta made sure that there was a healthy, totally normal distance between himself and the other man. Hizashi had been cool about the enthusiastic greeting, but Shouta didn’t want to push his luck.
Shouta had managed to calm down once he got into the apartment, safe in the knowledge that Hizashi was near him and that he wasn’t going anywhere. Some part of him was deeply satisfied, just being in the same space as Hizashi. He didn’t think too hard about the fact that the feeling wasn’t an unfamiliar one. He was with Hizashi, he could relax, and they could joke around like they always did.
“What are you suggesting?” he said drily. “Because if I hear the word lipstick I’m going to murder you.”
Hizashi spit his beer all over the coffee table.
Hmm. Maybe he shouldn’t have led with a dick joke.
The blond wheezed, “I dunno, man. Just like maybe you have paws or something?”
“Nope, nothing else.”
Hizashi cleared his throat, trying to act like he didn’t just almost aspirate on his drink. “Okay. But, like, you were pretty, um, friendly? When you got home,” he said. “So I guess you have some dog behaviors, too?”
Hizashi was acting odd. Maybe he was less cool with Shouta’s greeting than he thought. Shouta realized that he should reassure him that, yes, he was indeed compelled to have doggy behaviors, and wasn’t just being a creep. “I almost bit Officer Sansa,” he said.
Hizashi snorted. “You didn’t.”
"Almost peed on a lamppost, too.”
Now Hizashi was full-on laughing. The earlier tension was easing. “Just so you don’t chew on any of my leather, I think this is gonna be fun,” the blond finally said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
“I’m not making any promises.”
This was better. Hizashi was relaxed again and Shouta wasn't doing anything weird. This could work. He turned to put his beer down onto the coffee table. And, in that brief moment his defenses were down, he heard the digital sound of a simulated camera shutter.
“You know, if you’re going to take secret pictures of people, you should really turn that sound effect off.”
“Oh, I’m not making any secret of it,” Hizashi wore an evil grin and tapped his phone a few more times. “I just had to show Nem how cute you are.”
Shouta yelped in indignation and lunged at Hizashi. They wrestled on the couch until Shouta, tail slowly wagging, had Hizashi pinned.
He stared down at the blond, who was strangely flushed, and realized just how close they were.
“Fuck! Sorry.” He pulled himself off and scooted to the far end of the couch. His own face felt hot. “This damn quirk is affecting me more than I thought it would.”
“That’s…okay.” Hizashi sat up, face still red. He ran his hands through his hair and redid the messy bun Shouta had just ruined. “I know you can’t help it.”
He was relieved that Hizashi understood. “Yeah. It’s all the quirk.”
But really. He needed to control himself, before he did something that made Hizashi even more uncomfortable.
He sat himself down firmly on the far end of the couch. There. That was enough space that he couldn’t just lunge at Hizashi without a concerted effort. He would be able to keep himself under control. Most likely.
“Just…smack me or something if I bother you again,” he said.
“Sho…it’s fine. Really,” Hizashi said. He turned to face him fully. “If you need to be, um, physical, that’s okay.” Shouta certainly wanted that. But he doubted that Hizashi did.
“I’m fine over here.”
They put a TV show on. Some game show, the kind with ridiculous tasks and lots of bright lights and colors. Shouta tried to pay attention – any distraction was welcome at this point – but he found his eyes kept straying from the screen and over to the man on the other end of the couch.
So pretty so strong so good
Cursing the stupid quirk and the intrusive thoughts that came with it, he did his best to pay attention to the show. He really did.
Smells good so warm so best
He made it through half an episode before his restlessness was too much to ignore. He wanted so badly to move to the other end of the couch, next to Hizashi.
Instead, he huffed and repositioned himself so that his legs were curled underneath him. But that didn’t help.
So far away
Shouta shifted again, moving a throw pillow and crisscrossing his legs. No, that wasn’t good. His tail was stuck behind him at a weird angle. He straightened his legs and pulled his tail free but that wasn’t right, either. He was just trying legs underneath again when Hizashi interrupted.
“Shouta, what the hell are you doing?”
“Nothing.” Shouta had the pillow in his hands now, fingers fiddling with the seams. He kind of wanted to chew on it, but he didn’t want to look completely deranged.
“Shouta.” Hizashi looked at him, one brow raised.
“What. I’m fine,” he said, tugging at the pillow until a seam ripped and the stuffing burst out.
Hizashi stared at him. An unreadable, almost melancholy expression passed across his features. But before Shouta could consider it further, the blond broke out into his goofiest smile, and said “If I know one thing about dogs, it’s that they lose their little minds over good ear scritches. May I?”
This is a bad idea.
This is a really fucking terrible idea.
Shouta had shifted over to sit next to Hizashi before that thought was even complete.
Hizashi took one of his floppy ears in his hand and started stroking it lightly. Shouta couldn’t stop the small whine that escaped him. The other man just chuckled and ran his fingers around the edge of his ear.
Hizashi wasn’t kidding. This felt amazing.
Dogs like being close to their loved ones. Dogs like to be pet. I’m just acting like a dog. That’s all.
Hizashi started scratching behind his ear, and Shouta knew then that he was completely fucked.
He didn’t even try to stop himself from snuggling up close to the Hizashi’s side.
Would it really be so bad if I just gave in to this quirk?
Hizashi, for all of his earlier awkwardness, didn’t seem to mind. He wrapped his arm around Shouta’s shoulder and started working on the other ear. He hummed while he rubbed the big, furry ear, and then went back to the other. He even ran his hand through Shouta’s long black hair (which still looked exactly the way it always had, though Hizashi had never run his fingers through it like that before).
Maybe it was because Shouta was a touch-starved person, or maybe dogs were just easy to please, but the contact with Hizashi relaxed him. He felt…satisfied. Content. In a way he hadn’t in a long time.
He looked up at the other man, hoping his face didn’t betray everything he was feeling. “This is…not bad,” he mumbled.
“Just not bad?” asked Hizashi, digging his fingers in behind his ear and hitting just the right spot.
Shouta did not let out a small whimper. He did not. “Please tell me to back off if you need to.”
“Nah, you’re good, man. You can have all the cuddles you want.”
“You’re a good friend, Zashi,” Shouta murmured, leaning his head in for more pets. “Promise to tell me if you’re uncomfortable?”
“I promise, Sho.” Hizashi smiled a little smile. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
They sat like that through two more episodes of whatever show neither of them was paying attention to, Shouta practically melting under Hizashi's attention, until they were interrupted by Hizashi’s phone going off in a flurry of notifications. He looked at it, typed something with one hand, and then tossed it away onto a nearby chair.
“Anything going on?”
“Nem’s just freaking out.”
“Well, you did send her a picture. What did you expect?”
“Ah, maybe I didn’t think it through. She wants to come over, and see you, but…” Hizashi rubbed one of Shouta’s furry ears thoughtfully, “It’s late. She can wait. I told her we’d meet her for ramen tomorrow.”
Hizashi started scratching Shouta’s scalp. It felt wonderful. His eyelids were getting heavy. Being hit by a transformation quirk was exhausting.
“Ok, big boy, you're getting sleepy” Hizashi said, turning off the TV. “Time for bed. Do you need a crate or something?”
“Very funny,” Shouta mumbled, curling against Hizashi’s side. “This is good right here.”
Shouta must have fallen asleep. The next thing he knew, he was alone on the couch. The lights were off, and someone had tucked a blanket snug around him.