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Chapter Text

This had to have been one of the worst days in Aizawa’s life, if not the worst. 

He had been running after a known criminal to arrest him on suspected drug distribution charges. Then the criminal’s accomplice suddenly appeared out of an alleyway and used his quirk. The world went dark. When Aizawa came to, he was laying down on the ground, his tired, caffeine-abused brain assuming he had gotten knocked out or something of the sort. It was still dark outside, so he most likely had been out for a couple of minutes or a few hours at most.

In the distance, Aizawa could hear Tsukauchi’s familiar voice as a team of policemen followed him behind, which meant that Aizawa had been out for only a couple of seconds. So the accomplice didn’t have a very strong quirk, considering he was knocked out simply momentarily. Catching the criminal was a joint operation between Aizawa and Tsukauchi, so his voice echoing throughout the alleyways didn’t surprise Aizawa. He attempted to get up and answer Tsukauchi as he rounded the nearby corner, but was astonished by the sound that escaped him,

“Meow!”

“Gah!” Tsukauchi exclaimed in surprise as he aimed his weapon at Aizawa, but just as quickly put it back down, “Team, lower your weapons. It’s just a black cat. I couldn’t see it because of the darkness.”

A few officers in the back chuckled at a seasoned and well-experienced detective not batting an eye at chasing after a criminal, but jumping in surprise at the cutest meow from a cat. After the brief encounter, Tsukauchi and the rest continued running in the direction where the criminal was expected to have gone. 

Aizawa tried the best he could at getting Tsukauchi’s, the officers’, or anyone’s attention really, but to no avail, as only the cute sound of meowing continued to be the only sound to escape him.

Me? A cat? This can’t be. I must be dreaming, Aizawa thought to himself. He looked down and only saw black paws beneath him. He jumped away, but the paws followed him. He attempted to stand on his back legs, noticing how his eyesight still remained low, unlike the usual much higher one. His paws couldn’t support the upwards stance as he fell backwards and closed his eyes, bracing for impact. The fall was far shorter than usual and barely hurt. He glanced to the side and noticed a broken mirror next to a dumpster with some shards still attached to the frame.

He quickly got back on his feet, on four not two, and clumsily made his way to the mirror, gazing back at his reflection in disbelief. Right back at him stared an all-black cat with red eyes. Aizawa cocked his head to the right. The reflection did the same. He lifted up his left paw, and the reflection followed. Aizawa glanced to his paw and back into the mirror for way too long. This absolutely cannot be anything other than a bad nightmare.

A sudden idea popped into his mind as he clumsily, still not entirely grasping how to walk on all fours, walked around the alleyway, pinpointing where the criminal’s accomplice had attacked him. Nowhere in sight could he find his clothes or capture scarf. He’s seen ‘The Princess and the Frog’ and he convinced himself that his clothes absolutely must be still lying around if he really got transformed. It can’t be that his clothes also got transformed, can it?

Aizawa laughed at himself and his logic, and told himself this is just a dream. A really bad dream. A nightmare. I will wake up in my own body. Surely.

Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion hit him out of nowhere despite feeling more than awake just moments ago. Aizawa tried to fight it, but succumbed to the sleepiness while promising himself that he will get enough sleep from now on so sleep exhaustion doesn’t give him crazy dreams like this ever again. This has to be due to sleep exhaustion, right?

I will… definitely get enough…  sleep from… now… on… zzz.

Aizawa felt something brush against his body, slow and gentle, warm and comforting, a nice feeling - wait a minute. Something was touching him? The underground hero Eraserhead??

He woke up immediately, his back arched upwards as a hissing sound escaped him, his red eyes locking onto a startled boy in front of him.

“Woah!” the boy retracted his hand immediately, raising his arms up in a forfeiting manner, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just checking how you were doing.”

The boy had green curly hair with traces of black tones mixed in and big green eyes. He had freckles scattered around his face, neck and the backs of his hands. His mouth was curved into a small smile and his overall posture indicated no threat to Aizawa. He attempted to say ‘You caught me at a bad moment, now scram’ but the only noise that left him was a long, deep “Mreoow.”

He froze at his voice still being that of a cat’s. He glanced down and sure enough, yet again two black paws stared back at him from below. He lifted one up, gazing at it completely bamboozled before freaking out and starting to dart around the alleyway, his newfound cat reflexes in overdrive. He ran from one dumpster to another, knocking out trash and littering it all over the place. Out of nowhere, he felt something wrap around him, restraining him. His chest was expanding and falling back in too fast, he was hyperventilating, as any prideful hero would at the notion that they now have become a cat. He was fighting the invisible force holding him down, genuinely scared for his life.

Is it the criminal? Did they find me out? What’s going to happen to me? I’m defenceless like this.

“Hey buddy calm down, you’re okay. You’re safe.” A reassuring voice came from behind Aizawa, trying to help him regain his composure. Catposure? He doesn’t really care anymore because what the hell is going on. Despite the boy’s black blazer being wrapped around Aizawa, in a fit of panic, he managed to wiggle one of his front paws loose and swung at the force restraining him, not caring who or what he struck as long as he managed to get free.

“Ouch!”

The sound of the boy yelling out in pain brought Aizawa back to the present in a single moment, the exclaims of those in need always taking priority over his own feelings. He glanced back trying to see who was injured.

He saw the boy with one of his eyes closed as the other looked at his arm. Aizawa followed his gaze and saw his front paw lodged in the boy’s arm, blood dripping onto the cold concrete below them. Aizawa realised that his claws came out and dug into the boy’s skin, but he had no clue how to retract them. 

He wriggled his toebeans, trying to detach from the boy, but it only seemed to hurt him more as the boy now hissed in pain. Aizawa was expecting him to start crying, freak out and drop him. But no. The boy’s grip on his small body remained just as tight, but not too tight. It was just enough to hold him down while giving room to breathe.

“It’s okay. I know you’re scared. I know what it’s like to have someone bigger than you suddenly grab you. I promise I’m nice.” 

Aizawa stared at the boy wide eyed. The boy kept his composure, even when attacked. He didn’t lash out or blame him, he instead comforted the perpetrator, ignoring himself as the victim. Aizawa caught himself thinking that this level of composure was essential for hero work. But then again, he had said something about also being grabbed by someone bigger? Was he a victim of domestic abuse, perhaps? What exactly did he mean by that?

“Uhh it’s nice of you to have calmed down but I would really appreciate it if you could take your claws out of my arm now,” the boy suggested to the cat as he gestured with his head to his still bleeding arm.

Aizawa ignored the way the boy talked to a cat like he was an actual person (even though he was) and looked to his paw still lodged in place. He closed his eyes and prayed to God to just be on his side this one time and let him have control of his new body, at least his claws. He didn’t want to injure the boy any further. Thankfully, his new body followed his orders and he was able to retract his claws without any further issue.

The boy sighed in relief before slowly unwrapping Aizawa from his trap, “I’ll let you go now, just promise not to run away.”

As Aizawa was being lowered down, he remained unmoving. When his paws finally reached the ground, he decided to walk towards the crouched-down boy and apologise in the only way he knew cats apologised from his own experience - by rubbing his head against the boy’s leg.

The boy gasped in awe as he reached down to pet the cat. Aizawa decided to let him do it this one time as a part of the apology, choosing not to acknowledge the way he liked the gentle strokes along his back, his tail sticking up straight. The boy petted him for a little while longer before getting up and dusting off the knees of his black school uniform. He then looked back at his arm, “Oh, right, I was bleeding. Gotta get a bandaid on that.”

The way he nonchalantly reacted and just blatantly forgot about his injury made Aizawa worry. Did he get injured often? If so, by whom? Who would cause harm to such a caring, young boy?

“Well, it’s been fun little one, but I gotta go now. Otherwise my mom is going to get worried.” With that, the boy waved goodbye and began to walk away. Aizawa stared at his back, his overly bright yellow backpack sticking out against the grey backdrop of the city. Aizawa looked around and was hit by the sudden realisation that he had absolutely nowhere to go. He definitely wouldn’t be let into the police station Tsukauchi works at, he could be hurt due to the stereotype that black cats bring bad luck, the criminals know he was turned into a cat and would surely find him there, and if he really was stuck in the body of a black cat, he would rather be around that boy than sleep in the alleys. It was simply too dangerous for him now that he was a defenceless cat.

Aizawa ran up to the boy and began wrapping his body around his feet, meowing, and patting his pant leg, trying to get his attention and for him to bring him with him. The boy looked down, “What’s the matter? Do you not want to stay here?”

Of course not! Take me with you at once! “Mreooow!”

“Let me see,” the boy crouched down and checked around Aizawa’s neck, “no collar, huh? I guess we’re both alone. Should I take you with me?”

Of course! “Meow!”

“Are you sure you want to come with me?”

Why wouldn’t I want to go with you? “Meow?”

“Arghhh you’re just too cute!” the boy grabbed Aizawa’s face and began playing with it, “I have to take you with me, it would be criminal not to!”

You have no idea what is criminal and what isn’t, do you? Aizawa thought to himself as he succumbed to the boy’s desire to play around. 

“If I’m taking you with me, I should give you a name,” the boy said as he scratched his chin in thought, trying to think of an appropriate name to call his newfound friend, “What about Midnight?”

That reminds me of my co-worker, absolutely not. I will not be caught dead with that name , Aizawa glared at Izuku as his tail began to wag in a disapproving manner.

“I agree, it’s too basic,” the boy responded as if he could read Aizawa’s mind, ”then what about Lucifer? You have unusual red eyes.”

Are you serious? You’re going to name me after the devil? Aizawa’s tail began to wag even more furiously.

“Yeah, that sounds way too evil. Hmm…. Oh! You were pretty active back there with the way you jumped around when you first woke up. To have so much energy after just waking up you would probably need like a dozen coffees so I should name you something eccentric- wait, that’s perfect!” The boy grabbed Aizawa behind his front legs and lifted him up, “I’ll name you Coffee!”

I can’t even argue against that. If only you knew the addiction I have to coffee. Wait, can he actually read my mind? Help! I’m actually a Pro-Hero stuck in a cat’s body! I got attacked! Get me to detective Tsukauchi and I-

“Aw, you like the name? Your tail stopped wagging! I’m glad! My name’s Izuku, by the way! Pleasure to meet you, Coffee!” 

The boy’s - Izuku’s - beaming smile made it clear to Aizawa that he was not a mind reader at the least. If only he knew of the things Aizawa was thinking about, that smile would not have been there at all. Before Aizawa could start wagging his tail in frustration of not being understood, Izuku placed him in his arms as if cradling him. He then started giving him chin scratches, which just felt way too good for Aizawa to complain. For now, at least.

“Alright, let’s get you to your new home, Coffee,” Izuku said as he walked back on to the bustling sidewalk of the main street to continue his usual journey home from school. Only this time with company that was more than he had bargained for.

Chapter Text

“Oh man I didn’t think this through! My mom is so not going to approve of me getting a cat!”

Aizawa watched from his seat atop a bench as Izuku paced back and forth in panic at the local park. It really appeared as if he hadn’t thought things through. Then again, he’s a teenager, so Aizawa wasn’t expecting much to begin with. Izuku paced for a few moments longer before Aizawa could practically hear the ‘ding!’ of a new idea appearing in Izuku’s head.

“Don’t you fear, Coffee, I have a master plan!” Izuku said as he walked up and sat down next to an Aizawa whose expectations were down in the trenches. This can’t be good.

“Listen, my mom won’t be able to disapprove of me adopting you… if she simply just doesn’t know I adopted you!” 

Aizawa slowly turned his head to Izuku to give him a blank stare. Was that really the masterplan the kid came up with? Just not informing an adult of your bad decision? But then again, the pro of having a warm place to sleep outweighed the con of having a kid lie to his parents. It’s all for the better good. It’s all so Aizawa can return to his rightful place as a hero. As a human. Hopefully.

“I live in an apartment so I only have one entrance and my mom is already home from work, so you have to stay as quiet as possible as I sneak you in, got that?” Izuku waved a finger at Aizawa just like a parent would to a kid when scolding him.

How the tables have turned, Aizawa internally laughed as he was reminded of how he scolded his class back at UA. He could go down a spiral of how are they doing without him, are they scared of what became of their teacher and anything of the sort, but he knows they’re smarter than that and in good hands, so worrying about them is the last thing he should do.

“I’ll buy you tons of treats if you don’t make a peep, Coffee, I promise,” Izuku looked at Aizawa with desperation, as if asking a literal cat to agree. Luckily for him, Aizawa was no ordinary cat.

Worry about yourself, kid. “Meow.”

Izuku’s green eyes stared into Aizawa’s red for a few moments with absolute silence except for the sound of the afternoon birds chirping in the background. Aizawa hadn’t meant to meow, let alone let out any noise. The plan for him to stay quiet was already falling apart.

“This is going to be a failure, isn’t it? Why am I even bothering to ask a literal cat to agree to my plan that isn’t even a plan,” Izuku said while slumping forward and letting his head rest in his palms. His response appeared as if he was reading Aizawa’s mind yet again. Aizawa was really starting to believe that Izuku had a minor mind reading quirk. Maybe if he repeated his hero name enough times in his mind, the kid could eventually hear it.

“Don’t stare at me like that, Coffee,” Izuku turned his head back to Aizawa, feeling his gaze on him. Meanwhile, Aizawa was intently chanting ‘Eraserhead Eraserhead Eraserhead’ in his mind on loop. “I know it’s not a great plan. It isn’t even a good plan. But when it comes to my mom, I’m just always bound to mess up somehow. It’s so hard to constantly lie to her. But then again, hiding a cat in her house would be one of the milder lies I’ve told her.”

Oh, quite the delinquent, are you? Aizawa assumed from what Izuku told him. If he’s lying to his mom that much then that means he must be a daredevil, constantly searching for trouble. However, nothing about the kid indicated that. He was more of a nervous wreck than a delinquent. Then he must be telling white lies. If not, then who exactly did Aizawa follow home?

“I know you don’t like being wrapped in a way you can’t move,” Izuku looked back to the wound on his arm where the blood had already crusted, a painful reminder for Aizawa, “so I’ll try to be gentle, okay?”

Izuku took off his blazer and put it behind Aizawa, ready to wrap him again, “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s going to protect you. You don’t have to fear it. Just focus on me. You’ll be okay.”

Aizawa could do nothing but look into Izuku’s eyes, mesmerised by his words, their reassurance flowing through his body. Since Aizawa was a nighttime hero, he often didn’t have to comfort citizens like day heroes did. He had never really seen a reason to comfort citizens before handing them to someone who is more adept at helping them than himself. He guessed the warm feeling in his chest was how everyone felt when comforted after going through something. It was nicer than he thought. 

Before Aizawa knew it, he had been completely wrapped by the blazer and now in Izuku’s arms, “I’ll carry you as far as I can like this in my arms, but when we get closer to my apartment, I’ll have to put you in my bag. I just want you to get a bit more used to being wrapped before we execute my plan. It’s going to be dark, but only for a little while.”

Aizawa was speechless, gazing up at Izuku from his place in his arms. The kid had such a natural talent for emotional intelligence. He truly was one of a kind, since it was so rare to see that in a person, especially a teenager. 

The two were now walking over to Izuku’s apartment building, with Aizawa slightly mad at being cradled, but hey, as annoying as this was, it was still better than being in that alley where threats lurked around at every corner. 

Once the pair stopped right in front of Izuku’s apartment door, Aizawa could clearly read the surname ‘Midoriya’ on the name plate outside. So the kid’s full name is Izuku Midoriya, huh? I’ll keep that in mind.  

Izuku took in a deep breath and exhaled, his expression suddenly becoming emotionless. It was as if he was an actor who was preparing to go on stage, completely wiping away any trace of himself and embracing an entirely different character.

“Alright, Coffee, time for you to get into the bag. Don’t worry, I’ll turn on the flashlight on my phone so it’s not completely dark in there. I’ll place the phone under a notebook so the light is not too blinding. I don’t have a lot of books in my bag today, so you’ll have plenty of space. Well, not to roam around, since you’re wrapped in my blazer. Alright, I’ll stop rambling, just hold on a sec.”

Aizawa had noticed the kid’s tendency to ramble back at the park, but it was really shining through before a tense situation. It was like he was giving himself a pep talk. Which was good, many psychological studies approved of this, so Aizawa couldn’t say he wasn’t proud of him on some level.

Aizawa was gently lowered down into Izuku’s bag before Izuku whispered a quick, ‘see you soon!’ and closed his bag. Not long after, Aizawa heard the creak of a door opening and muffled voices, which he could still make out. Was it because of the heightened hearing due to the cat ears?

“Izuku, baby, welcome home!” The voice of an older woman echoed in Aizawa’s sensitive cat ears, and he presumed from the way she was speaking that she was his mom.

“Hi, mom!” 

Yup. Aizawa assumed correctly.

“I heard you talking outside. Who was it? One of your friends?”

“Um, yeah, you could say so. We recently met and live kind of nearby.” Nice save, kid. It’s a little bit of truth mixed with lies. A perfect combination for a believable lie.

“That’s nice! Invite them over for dinner next time! So, how was your day, sweetie?” Izuku’s mom asked, but Aizawa could hear the nervous undertone. Has something happened in the past to make her worried about her son’s school life? Izuku had mentioned getting grabbed by someone bigger back in the alleyway, so could this have something to do with school violence rather than domestic abuse? Aizawa needed more information to draw more conclusive results. It was too early to tell.

“It was great! We had a, um, we started the school festival’s preparations today and-”

“Izuku take your shoes off and come inside first before telling me.”

“Oh, right, haha,” Izuku nervously laughed, “I was just so excited to tell you.” 

He quickly took off his red shoes before carefully picking up his bag and starting to make his way over to his room. From what Aizawa could make out, Izuku’s mom attempted to take the bag from him, “Let me take care of that for you-” 

“No!” Izuku yelled a bit louder than necessary, “I, uh, I mean, no, you don’t have to. I needed to bring a lot of books today, so it’s heavy! Hey, um, why don’t I tell you about today at dinner? I want to get some studying in.”

Izuku began walking again, his mom’s worried voice following him down the hallway, “That’s completely fine, baby. But if today was festival preparation day, you wouldn’t have normal lessons, so why would you have a lot of books?”

“Oh, uhh,” Aizawa could practically hear the gears turning in Izuku’s head on what lie to spew out next. In fact, this entire conversation had been painful to listen to from a professional's perspective. For example, if Izuku was so excited to tell his mom about career day then why was he rushing to put his bag away first and study? It was too suspicious. The kid is better than average, but could still use some improvement. “I needed to bring a lot of them home to study for tomorrow!”

“...Alright, Izuku, if you say so. Just don’t strain yourself!” Izuku’s mom’s voice was growing fainter and fainter as Izuku walked to his room, but the slight distrust in it couldn’t be mistaken. She knew Izuku was lying to her. But she didn’t question it. She’s a good mom, she trusts him.

Aizawa heard a door shut behind him before the zipper on Izuku’s bag was opened, “Sorry to keep you waiting, Coffee,” Izuku spoke quietly. 

Izuku was about to lift Aizawa out of his bag when the blazer partially slipped off and Aizawa’s foot came into contact with something wet. His cat reflexes propelled him into the air and before he knew it, he had knocked over an All Might figurine and landed with a pretty loud thud, sabotaging the entire plan of him staying quiet. That was the only thing he had to do and he failed. These stupid cat reflexes. This would’ve never happened if I was a human.

“Izuku, honey, what was that sound? Are you okay?” Mom’s voice (it was easier to just refer to her as ‘Mom’, since he didn’t know her name) could be heard from the other side of the door alongside approaching footsteps. Izuku and Aizawa made eye contact. Uh oh.

“Yeah, mom, I just knocked one of my books off my desk, nothing to worry about!” Izuku announced, cooking up a good lie pretty quick. Aizawa had to commend him for that.

“Okay! Just making sure.”

Mom’s footsteps grew fainter as she went back down the hallway to whence she came from. Phew, the both of them get to live to see another day. Aizawa took note of how Mom was pretty overbearing, constantly checking in on her child and trying to do everything for him. This could explain Izuku’s nervousness.

That could wait, though. For now, Aizawa had to figure out how to tell the kid that he’s a person transformed into a cat. And not any ordinary person, but a Pro-Hero at that. But first, he has to find out what the hell touched his paw in that bag. He walked over and peeked inside only to see a corner of a notebook sticking out from a pile, water droplets slowly dripping down to the other books inside.

Izuku must’ve noticed the way he was staring, because he spoke up, “So that’s what scared you. It’s just one of my hero analysis notebooks. It got thrown into my school’s fish pond earlier today.”

Thrown?

“Let me show you,” Izuku reached down and Aizawa backed away by a couple steps, trying to avoid launching himself who-knows how high and far again, “This is one of my hero analysis notebooks. Number 13, to be exact. How funny, I just realised I seem to pick the ‘unlucky’ all the time. Not to say that you’re unlucky because of your fur colour, Coffee, it’s just that the number thirteen is associated with bad luck in a lot of cultures just like black cats. Like, for example, ‘Friday the 13th’, that's why I said that. I think that having both you and this notebook is the luckiest coincidence. Ah, but the notebook is in a bit of a bad condition.”

The unimpressed Aizawa looked over from Izuku scratching his cheek to the notebook in his hand and his eyes widened. ‘Bad condition’ was an understatement. The notebook appeared to have been burnt in specific places, like it had been subjected to multiple small explosions all at once. It was completely drenched and some of the ink was smudging, which would make the text unreadable in most cases but apparently not this one. While the ink had smudged, it was only by a little. It all seemed to have been done deliberately, which explained why Izuku had said his notebook was ‘thrown’ into the fish pond.

“I anticipated something like this would happen, so I used waterproof ink. It’s gotten so much easier since I started using it because now I don’t have to rewrite entire notebooks after they’ve been burnt or drenched!”

Aizawa looked back to Izuku, a sort of unsettling feeling settling in his gut. The kid anticipated this happening to him? How much has he suffered to begin to expect it? And from the looks of it, it’s a monthly occurrence at the least since he’s gone to such lengths to preserve his writing.

Aizawa was going to attempt to comfort Izuku when the boy suddenly glanced at his phone and gasped, “It’s time for the Heroes Special News! C’mon Coffee, we can’t miss this!” 

Izuku practically snatched up Aizawa and placed him on his bed next to him as he himself plopped down, not leaving a moment for Aizawa to grasp what was going on. Aizawa tended to avoid watching news because all he could see were daylight heroes showing off, which was infuriating since they treated their professions more like a show than actual work. 

Izuku opened his computer and quickly searched up a website name before clicking on a purple link, meaning he had opened this link at least once before. Though judging by how excited Izuku was, Aizawa guessed he opened it at least once a day. 

The excitement only lasted shortly, both Aizawa and Izuku freezing as they read the headline below the news anchor:

“Pro-Hero Eraserhead announced missing as of this afternoon.”

Chapter Text

“Police have announced that the Pro-Hero Eraserhead has been declared missing as of this afternoon. He was last seen during a joint operation to arrest a suspect in the case involving…”

The voice of the news anchor trailed on as Izuku and Aizawa silently listened on. Aizawa only huffed, knowing that it was only a matter of time before his disappearance would be announced to the public. The entire reason his face was being broadcast all over the country was for Tsukauchi to get as many leads as possible on his vanishing. Though, Tsukauchi probably knew that it was a fruitless endeavour, as people rarely paid attention to underground heroes. Not to mention, Aizawa did his best to stay out of everyone’s eyes, making tracking him a difficult challenge. 

Aizawa was not troubled by seeing his face on the news in the least, but it was a different story for the teenager next to him, “What?! Eraserhead has gone missing? That’s terrible!”

Izuku was freaking out, his expression becoming grim, as if he knew who Eraserhead was-

Wait a minute, an idea suddenly struck Aizawa, if he knows who Eraserhead is, then that means he could potentially identify me! I have to seize this opportunity, it might be the only one I have!

Aizawa began clawing at the computer screen where his face was displayed and began meowing, hoping that the kid could make at least some kind of connection.

“Yes, Coffee, he’s gone missing! Where could he possibly be? There’s no way a hero like him would just disappear into thin air,” Izuku pondered as he brought his hand to his chin in thought.

He’s right in front of you, kid. Can’t you see? “Mreooow!”

More importantly, it appeared as if the kid had actually heard of Eraserhead before. Not in passing, but as in an actual hero that got his attention. Which was a bit alarming since Eraserhead’s sole mission was to remain as unmemorable as possible. However, if that meant that he could be identified, then he had no choice but to work with what he's got.

Aizawa clawed at the screen and then attempted to point to himself, repeating the motion multiple times while looking at Izuku. Unfortunately for Aizawa, Izuku had gotten himself into a mumbling fit, not even paying attention to the cat in front of him.

What kind of cat owner even are you if you don’t pay attention to it 24/7?

Izuku finally looked up and saw Aizawa’s attempt at pointing to the screen and himself. Izuku’s eyes widened and a glimmer of hope crossed Aizawa’s mind.

“Hold on a minute..” Izuku looked at him and then the screen once, and then once more, “...didn’t I do an entry on him in one of my hero analysis notebooks?”

If Aizawa could facepalm, he would’ve done so. How can a person be so oblivious? Then again, Aizawa’s pointing motion could be mistaken for just how a cat acted. And Aizawa didn’t want to try and paw at Izuku, in case his claws came out and he scratched him again. He didn’t want that to repeat. Ever. Wait… what did Izuku mean by he has done analysis on him?

“I’ve definitely done analysis on him! Let me find that notebook real quick,” Izuku sprung up from his bed and rummaged through a pile of notebooks on his desk before holding one up in the air triumphantly and returning to his bed, “This is the one, Coffee! Look!”

Izuku positioned himself behind Aizawa on the bed, holding the book open so that the both of them could read it. The notebook had those same small burns all over it just like the one Aizawa saw just earlier. This was edition eleven, so it meant that the destruction of Izuku’s notebooks had been going on for at least the last three notebooks of whatever little project he was working on. So the harassment had been going on for at least long enough for him to fill three whole notebooks.

Aizawa didn’t get a chance to dwell on this too much as Izuku stopped on a page opening in the notebook with the name “Eraserhead” scribbled on the top of the page. But what really grabbed Aizawa’s attention was the drawing he had done on the next page over. It featured Aizawa in all his teenager-scribble glory, from the floating hair to the capture scarf around his neck. The kid had written information about his gear next to the drawing, which Aizawa saw was alarmingly somewhat accurate. On the first page under the title “Eraserhead” a bunch of bullet points were made, all containing facts about the hero. The fact that the kid had heard of the hero was startling enough, but for him to have so much information and an entire drawing written down in a notebook? Now that was horrifying. Did this kid have some kind of information gathering quirk? No, then he would’ve been able to tell that the cat affectionately named Coffee was actually Eraserhead. Maybe that quirk only worked on humans? If so, then this situation just got so much more frustrating.

Izuku pointed to the drawing and began to speak, “Alright, Coffee, listen and learn. I’ll show you how I do my analysis but you have to keep it a secret. First I started by drawing what the hero looked like. I only saw him from a distance, but his hero costume was pretty simple so it wasn’t hard to grasp what it looked like. He had black, baggy pants and a loose black shirt with long sleeves, a floating white scarf, and bulky yellow goggles. Not to mention, his hair floated too! Which made me think he had some kind of telekinesis quirk that let him move the scarf around as he wanted. But the absence of any other object moving even when the scarf was captured in the fight made me think it was a support item instead.”

“Evidence that further supports this theory is that the person fighting him suddenly couldn’t use their quirk when in his presence. Which made me think that maybe he had a sort of distance from which he could erase a quirk. A quirk erasing quirk! Isn’t that cool? But the villain could still use his quirk when Eraserhead turned his back to him, so it wasn’t the distance that determined the quirk erasure, but in my opinion, eyesight! Because what other purpose do goggles have other than to prevent the enemy from seeing your eyes! And in this case, Eraserhead’s eyes are his most important weapon as they let him erase quirks, hence the goggles being bulky to not only partially conceal his eyes, but also to protect them!”

Aizawa actually intently listened to Izuku’s rant unlike how he had ignored the rest. The kid’s reasoning was flawless. It was logical and sound, and literally spot on. Aizawa couldn’t help but stare at Izuku throughout the entire time he talked, taken so by surprise that he forgot he was trying to tell the kid he was that same Eraserhead.

“I got the chance to meet him a while ago when I got beaten up and left in an alley. He didn’t show up to rescue me, he probably didn’t even see me, since he was preoccupied with fighting a criminal that happened to have run in there. It was probably for the best that he didn’t see me, because then he would’ve prioritised rescuing me instead of arresting him.”

Aizawa couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Of course he would prioritise rescue over capture if he had seen him back in that alley. All of Aizawa’s fights primarily took place in alleys, since they were discreet and usually the meeting spot for a lot of criminals, but he had never thought that a kid was nearby for one of his fights. The kid’s concealment skills were superb. 

But the part that disturbed Aizawa the most was when Izuku had said that he had been beaten up and left in an alley. Who would go to such extreme lengths just to harm a kid? This was more serious than just the school violence Aizawa had originally suspected.

“Sorry, that part was a little dark, wasn’t it?” Izuku said somberly as he reached out and petted Aizawa on the head. He forced a sad smile, and that completely broke Aizawa’s heart. For a kid to experience such a thing and still be able to force a smile on his face, what exactly had he gone through?

“Izuku, dinner’s ready!” Mom’s muffled voice came through the cracks of the door. 

“Be right there!” Izuku hollered back, his hand still resting on Aizawa’s head. He gave him a few more pats before getting out of the bed with a creak, “I’ll be right back, Coffee. I’ll try to smuggle something tasty back for you to eat.”

Izuku put a finger on his lips, signalling for Aizawa to be quiet as he walked over to the door. He waved goodbye and stepped through the door frame. It had already gotten dark and the only source of light in Izuku’s cozy room was a table lamp, which wasn’t very bright. As Izuku closed the door, the ray of hallway light narrowed until Aizawa was left sitting in darkness. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to it. What he wasn’t used to was sitting in darkness in a teenage boy’s bedroom without said teenage boy. 

No matter, he could take this as his chance to investigate. His eyesight in the dark was even keener now that he was a cat and his sense of hearing was heightened, so he could snoop around as much as he wanted and would still be able to hear Izuku returning from dinner. He knows a teenager’s room is a sensitive subject, but he needed to gather more information on the kid in order to help him.

Aizawa glanced around the room, taking it all in for the first time since arriving. And dear Lord the boy’s tastes certainly were… something. The walls were decorated with All Might posters. The shelves were packed with All Might figurines. His desk was littered with All Might books. A box underneath his bed contained only All Might CDs. His computer background was All Might. Just All Might, All Might, All Might.

This boy really loved All Might, huh? Maybe a bit too much, but who was Aizawa to judge. He had his hero fanboy phase too, which made him want to be a hero himself. Although the amount of All Might themed merchandise in this room was a bit excessive, there was nothing else that really caught Aizawa’s eye. Well, there was a first aid kid at the very bottom shelf underneath a bunch of school papers which Aizawa just figured must be because Izuku doesn’t use it much and it’s just there in case of an emergency. 

After Aizawa was done snooping around and couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary, he jumped up onto Izuku’s bed where his computer was. He had managed to close the browser that the news was on, so maybe he could open a document and write something else? Pen and paper definitely wouldn’t work. He tried, and he couldn’t even get past the stage of opening the pen. 

After a few misclicks and rage quitting, Aizawa managed to open a new document on the kid’s computer. Controlling his paws was really hard, as he couldn’t really move them separately and would manage to press only two letters at once if he was lucky. The space bar being so spacious was a true gift as he had no problem pressing it compared to the other tiny buttons. Writing documents in cat form was exhausting, thank God he hadn’t been turned into a cat when he had to do office work. But then again, they probably wouldn’t make a cat do office work.

Aizawa had thought his clicking and clacking had been discreet and undetected when the bedroom door opened slowly, Izuku stepping through and turning on the lights. The sudden brightness almost blinded Aizawa and he fell backwards, covering his eyes. Is falling backwards going to be a common occurrence for him from now on? He had managed to do so back at the alley where this whole mess started.

“Coffee, what are you doing? Did you play around on my computer?” Izuku attempted to scold, but couldn’t hide how he thought the act was cute. He walked over to the bed, his hands behind his back, “Here, I got you some food!”

Aizawa looked down at Izuku’s hands now in front of him to see an absolutely delicious-looking piece of katsudon laying on a tissue in them. Aizawa began to drool as his stomach rumbled. Right. I haven’t eaten anything in nearly 24 hours.

“Sorry to keep you waiting so long for food, here you go,” Izuku spoke as he slowly lowered the tissue on the bed, struggling to hold back a laugh as Aizawa dug in as soon as his mouth could reach the food. Truly cat-like.

“Alright then, let’s see what you were up to on my computer while I was gone,” Izuku turned away from the black cat in his bed devouring the katsudon as if it could grow legs and run away at any moment. Despite being preoccupied with eating, Aizawa was still looking at the computer screen and Izuku to make sure he didn’t miss his reaction to his message.

‘ML EdrawswetrhdeD JIK VCt ghbpodsyu’

Izuku slowly but surely read it, his puzzled expression giving away his confusion, “What is this, Coffee? Were you trying to copy me typing? That’s just adorable! I have to take a picture of this!”

The kid brought out his phone from his pocket and positioned its camera so Aizawa’s meticulously crafted message was in the background of him side-eying Izuku while licking the last few crumbs off of the tissue. The tissue got stuck on Aizawa’s tongue, and as he jerked back to get it off, Izuku pressed the ‘capture photo’ button on his phone.

Izuku revealed the results to Aizawa, who had broken free from the tissue, and both winced. Aizawa was completely blurry, but his dishevelled fur and panicked, half-open eyes were still visible. The message in the back had taken all of the focus and Aizawa’s distress luckily hadn’t obstructed it.

Aizawa stared at the photo in disgust but when he looked to see Izuku’s overjoyed face, he decided that one bad photo wouldn’t hurt, “Coffee you look so cute! Yes you’re a bit blurry, out of focus and feral-looking, but I managed to capture you and your very first words, well, written words, so I couldn’t be happier! This is going straight to the favourites folder.”

The only reason Aizawa hadn’t propelled himself towards the ‘delete photo’ button was due to the fact that his message was now permanently on Izuku’s phone. If he managed to drop enough hints, maybe the kid could connect the dots, as he had when he had done his hero analysis. It could also be used to prove his identity to the police if Izuku was convincing enough. The kid was smart, quirk or not, so Aizawa could only hope he started to pick up on his signals soon enough.

The rest of the evening passed by without any further events. The kid did his homework while Aizawa sat on his desk and pawed at his hand whenever he did a question wrong, to which the boy chuckled and erased his answer, “Okay, teacher Coffee, I’ll redo it.” After doing his homework, Izuku went to the bathroom. For a while. Aizawa thought it strange for him to be gone so long but didn’t question it.

When Izuku returned, he had already put on a tacky shirt with the word ‘shirt’ in the front as well as basketball shorts. His pyjamas, Aizawa presumed. His hair was also a bit messier and his teeth were whiter, suggesting he brushed his teeth. He even smelled as if he had used some sort of product, judging by the floral scent following behind him. Good. He was hygienic, which was rare for a teenage boy. 

Izuku’s shirt was short sleeved, and that’s when Aizawa noticed the bandages on both of his arms, reaching far further up than the wound Aizawa had inflicted on only one of the boy’s forearms. The way his bandages seemed to reach his shoulders on both hands set off every red flag in Aizawa’s mind. He hadn’t noticed earlier as Izuku was wearing a white long-sleeve shirt before. He didn’t even want to think about the possibility, but he had to assume that they may be due to self harm.

Izuku looked so cheerful. He had so much love for heroes. He was highly intelligent. He was kind to his mom and street animals alike. He was a bit oblivious and a tad short of a good liar but those qualities could be improved with some training. He had so much to contribute to the world.

I mustn’t jump to conclusions, Aizawa thought to himself. He felt his heart beating heavily in his chest. It was as if a part of him had been torn out at the mere thought. Was he starting to develop a soft spot for him? Whatever it was, he promised himself to be there for him. I’ll just observe him for tonight.

That night, Aizawa curled up on the pillow next to Izuku’s head and layed there, keeping an eye on him throughout the night.

Chapter Text

Aizawa awoke to the feeling of the mattress’ level evening out, as if someone had just gotten up from it. When he opened his eyes and lifted his head from the comfortable pillow he was resting on, he saw Izuku awkwardly standing by the bed like he had just gotten caught red-handed. 

“Did I wake you up, Coffee?” Izuku’s raspy morning voice further woke up Aizawa, making him look up to the kid and see his disastrous bedhead, “I was trying to be careful not to wake you but it looks like I failed. I guess you can’t trick a cat’s instinct.”

Aizawa looked around the room to the All Might posters and down to his paws. Yup. Still a cat.

He was hoping that the cat-transformation quirk had a time limit and he would be turned back into his human form again sometime soon. Maybe it took a couple days or a week for its effect to disappear, he just needed to give it time. Yeah, time. It’s not like this is permanent… right?

“I’ll get ready for school now. You can go back to sleep,” Izuku said as he yawned, the morning tiredness evident on his exhausted complexion. Aizawa glanced at the All Might alarm clock on the nightstand - of course it had to be All Might themed - and saw that it was around seven in the morning.

The kid’s morning schedule was just like any other teenagers’, if not a little more organised. He woke up and got dressed. He then went to eat breakfast and brought back some bacon for Aizawa as his very own breakfast. He then went to the bathroom to freshen up before finally packing his bag with the books and homework he was studying last night.

As the last step, the kid put on his massive yellow backpack and then looked to Aizawa, “Alright, I gotta go to school now. Coffee, you better behave while I’m away. I left you a bowl of water and another with some leftover katsudon. If you need to go to the bathroom, use this litter box that I have from the time I actually had mom’s permission to keep a stray cat for a few days,” Izuku pointed to a box that thankfully was completely covered, which would at least spare Aizawa from the humiliation of being seen using a litter box, “And most importantly, stay quiet. Please.”

Izuku turned away from the bed where Aizawa was peacefully resting when he suddenly felt a tug on his pant leg. When he looked down, he saw Aizawa with the cutest dilated pupils and the most adorable look he’s ever seen. 

“You have to let me go, Coffee, I can’t take you with me to school,” Izuku said as he picked up Aizawa and put him back on the bed. Unbeknownst to Izuku, Aizawa had practised deploying and retracting his claws for the majority of the night, which allowed him to cling to him. Aizawa’s claws dug into the kid’s shirt, which panicked him.

“Okay I’ll take you with me just don’t ruin my school uniform! Do you know how much this costs?!” Izuku yelped out in a panic and Aizawa victoriously let go. Now this is what you call a master plan, kid.

Aizawa didn’t necessarily need to go with Izuku, he could easily stay back at his bedroom and sneak out to search for ways to contact Tsukauchi once Izuku was on his way to school. That way, he could make an attempt at some kind of contact with the police force or other heroes, for example, Present Mic, as he was surely making a fuss over his disappearance. However, he didn’t know why, but he couldn’t stop worrying about the kid. He had seen the bandages. He had heard his heartbreaking stories. He had smelled the burnt pages of his notebooks. And those were just a few the kid himself considered to be unimportant things; as if they were normal. So Aizawa decided that establishing communication could wait until he observed the kid’s school life.

As Aizawa was thinking, Izuku dusted off his uniform and made sure that no claw marks or holes had been made. Once he confirmed that there were none, he gave Aizawa his best try at an angry glare, which didn’t work in the slightest, before grabbing him again, “I’ll let you go to school with me if you stay quiet no matter what happens, got it? You absolutely cannot make a noise. You cannot let my classmates know you’re there. You have to be as silent as a mouse. Heh, telling a cat to be a mouse, ironic.”

Aizawa simply cocked his head to the side in confusion and a bit of fear in all honesty, because what had those classmates done to make him tremble in fear. Aizawa could feel Izuku’s hands shaking as he was holding him up, and he was sure that the shaking wasn’t caused by his weight. Izuku had held him like this for longer without shaking. So it must be school violence, as Aizawa had unfortunately suspected. 

This was one of the times Aizawa wasn’t happy about being right.

“You’ll have to go back into my bag while we walk out of the apartment. After that I can take you out until we reach my school,” Izuku explained as he lowered Aizawa into his bag, “Remember, you absolutely must be quiet. I don’t know what will happen to us if you don’t.”

With that worrisome last message, Izuku closed the bag and Aizawa was left in the uncomfortable darkness of the cramped bag. He wasn’t wrapped this time and neither did he have a flashlight, but it was better this way. He was less noticeable. And he could stay still, he was trained to, so how hard could it be.

They successfully made it out the door without arousing suspicion, after which Izuku put him in his arms. Aizawa wasn’t very comfortable and jumped down, walking side-by-side with the kid, watching the kid’s eyes widen in surprise at him not running away. They stopped by a store and Izuku bought as much tuna and cat snacks as he could afford with his allowance. 

Once the pair was nearing the school, Izuku stopped and crouched down, opening his bag, “You promised to be quiet, so this is your time to shine, or, well, dwindle, you get what I mean. My classmates aren’t nice. They don’t like me making friends, so they’ll be especially mean to you. I don’t want that to happen to you, Coffee. I really don’t.”

Aizawa couldn’t tear his eyes away from the kid’s expression. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was pressed into a thin line, so nervous he didn’t know what to do with himself. His eyes were filled with an unreadable expression. It looked desperate yet sad at the same time, two very conflicting feelings. Aizawa obediently jumped into the bag, worried beyond words, in his case literally as he could not speak. Judging by the kid’s body language and the tremble in his voice, Aizawa had to be absolutely quiet today. No jumping around like yesterday. Going to his school required more concealment skills than most of his missions. Which did not sound good at all.

Once Aizawa heard the familiar sound of a classroom door sliding open, he heard an angry voice greet Izuku, “Oi, nerd, you still showing your face here? Just get lost already!” 

The boy’s comment was followed by a bunch of snickering and laughter which sounded like almost the entire class. Was the whole class in on this? How could teachers let this cruel behaviour slide?

“Haha, good morning to you too, Kacchan,” Izuku nervously laughed and greeted the main instigator of the bullying, as it appeared. He resumed walking and stopped by his desk, nonchalantly slumping his bag against it, doing his best not to make his classmates suspicious by being too careful with his bag. It felt like if Izuku cared too much about it, his classmates would obliterate it.

Izuku carefully opened his bag and took out his school notebook and his pencil case, leaving a small enough gap in the zipper for Aizawa to be able to see Izuku. Aizawa observed that he was sitting at the very back, so at least nothing could be thrown at the back of his head. Aizawa had seen his fair share of bullying and he wished so badly to be able to do something about it if he saw Izuku suffering. No child deserved that kind of treatment.

The classroom door slid open and the class immediately quieted down, so Aizawa assumed that the teacher had arrived.

“Class, settle down. We have decided to dedicate this day to nurturing your futures and determining what course to take in your further education. In other words, today is career day!”

The class erupted in cheers and applause. Though, Izuku remained quiet in his seat. Aizawa could see a couple kids use their quirks, which was highly prohibited without a licence that he doubted any of them had. Did the teacher not care at all that students were using their quirks during class time? Aizawa was going to make sure that the school would be investigated once he returned to being human.

The teacher put down a piece of paper on everyone’s desk, “Please write down what schools you would like to attend. List the top three you are currently considering.”

The kids started writing as soon as the teacher finished his instructions, and Aizawa assumed that the top choice for everyone would definitely be UA, since heroes were all the craze. All the kids saw on the news were carefully selected daylight hero achievements, where they purposefully didn’t show clips of heroes losing or the more serious battles. And they most definitely didn’t address the real percentage of crime in this country, the Hero Commission would never let that happen.

Once the students finished writing, the teacher gathered the papers and returned to the front of the classroom, Izuku’s leg bouncing the entire time out of nervousness. The teacher then announced that the class would have other career-building activities as they needed time to process their answers individually. The day seemed to pass by with no minor incidents, just a couple harsh remarks here and there. Izuku managed to sneak Aizawa some snacks in between classes too.

But that all came to a stop once the teacher announced Izuku’s top choice school as UA to the entirety of the classroom. There was silence before the entire class erupted in laughter. One voice in particular, the same one that had greeted Izuku in the morning, affectionately named ‘Kacchan’, stood out from the rest. 

“Deku, don’t tell me you’re seriously considering UA? In case you haven’t noticed, it’s a school for heroes. You know, people who actually have quirks, not a quirkless loser like you, dipshit.”

Anger bubbled up in Aizawa, but he felt so useless as he wasn’t able to do anything, simply shaking in rage in the darkness of the backpack he was confined to. What he was most angry about was the teacher not even bothering to intervene, as if this was something he was used to, something he condoned . Aizawa’s stomach churned as he saw a hand fly at Izuku’s face, smoke and fire engulfing it completely. Aizawa almost jumped out of the bag when he met Izuku’s eyes and he subtly shook his head, as if sensing what Aizawa was about to do.

Aizawa finally knew why Izuku was treated the way he had described. And it was such a stupid reason as quirklessness at that. Were these really the kids that were hoping to be future heroes? How were they expecting to become heroes if their entire collective was more villainous than some of the gangs that Aizawa’s seen in his time fighting crime?

‘Kacchan’ and the other classmates pushed Izuku against the wall and started beating him as he fell to the ground, some even using their quirks on Izuku while the teacher simply did not do anything. Aizawa noticed the way an explosion flew right at Izuku’s abdomen and he scrunched his face in pain, but did not dare to make any noise. 

Aizawa froze. For the first time in his hero career, he could do nothing but stand by as others took out their frustration on innocent people. He had set out to stop this kind of treatment, yet here he was, watching the very thing he had tried so hard to stop unfold before his eyes. And there was absolutely nothing he could do to make the situation better except for hiding in the shadows, just as he had promised. 

The kids only stopped beating Izuku when the school bell rang, announcing the end of the day. They all grabbed their bags and ran out of the door, leaving Izuku beaten and on the floor, apparently not really looking at anything, simply lost in thought like he wasn’t even there mentally.

The only reason izuku got up was because ‘Kacchan’ was holding his hero analysis notebook and mocking it while two others snickered in the background, “What’s this? Did you dry this off, Deku? How desperate do you have to be to dive into a fish pond to get it. It’s so pathetic. Let me remind you where your place is, this ought to do it,” The sound of popping rang through the classroom as Kacchan released explosions upon the notebook, and Aizawa got his answers on how those notebooks got so badly burnt. 

“Maybe I should throw it in a dumpster next time, or are you going to dig through it like the trash you are? Deku, if you want to be a hero that bad, why don’t you just take a swan dive off the roof and hope you get a quirk in your next life?”

The three left while snickering, hyping up this Kacchan fellow as if he had just achieved world peace when he had done the exact opposite. Aizawa was so going to burn this place down once he became human again. He would make sure that those kids would never get to see the inside of UA for the entirety of their lifetimes. 

But before he could physically banish them from his life like he had done mentally just now, Aizawa had to make sure Izuku was okay. He poked his head out of the bag and checked whether the coast was clear. Once he determined that it was, he jumped out and comforted Izuku by licking his face. Which wasn’t delicious but Aizawa had heard that cat saliva helps heal wounds. Or was it dog saliva? Who cares, there’s a physically and emotionally damaged kid in front of him so anything he did should be able to console him.

Izuku mustered a sad smile before pulling Aizawa off of himself and telling him that they had to go home too, “At least Kacchan didn’t throw it out the window like he did yesterday.”

Aizawa knew the kid was trying to be positive, but it made the situation even sadder. His heart broke for him. He hadn’t even eaten any lunch that day, too scared to leave his bag alone in case his classmates decided to do something to it.

The walk back home was quiet. Aizawa was walking next to Izuku again, the kid silent and deep in thought, not even attempting to talk to him. Which would be considered normal for anyone else, but in this case, Izuku not talking to his cat was alarming. Aizawa didn’t get a chance to snuggle up to Izuku’s leg when as soon as they entered a tunnel, a green sludge erupted from the sewage and engulfed Izuku.

Aizawa jumped up and attempted to claw at it, begging for it to let the kid go and give him a break. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t do anything for the second time that day, which was starting to take its psychological toll on Aizawa too. Why was the world punishing him? His entire life was dedicated to carrying out justice, so why was he being prevented from helping the one kid in need of it most?

Just as the both of them had lost all hope, a sudden strong gust of wind appeared out of nowhere and blew the sludge away, leaving Izuku and Aizawa hanging in All Might’s muscular arm.

“Do not fear, All Might is here!” The hero cheerfully announced as he set them down and shoved the sludge villain into a tiny bottle. This was the first time in Aizawa’s life he was glad to see All Might. He then looked over to Izuku who was fanboying like he had expected. At least the kid was genuinely smiling now, he needed something to cheer him up.

Izuku held out his notebook and a pen, “Oh my gosh All Might, can I get your-”

“Of course!” All Might cut him off and signed the notebook in one swift movement.

“Thank you so much for saving me. I don’t know what would have happened to me or my cat if it weren’t for you,” Izuku thanked as he bowed, expressing his gratitude to the hero.

The hero gave a thumbs up and a smile, “No problem! Remember to stay safe out there!” before assuming a stance to fly off, when Izuku shouted out, “Um, could I ask you a question?”

All Might looked down to his wristwatch and back to the kid, “Sure, but make it quick. I gotta deliver this guy to the police.”
You don’t even have time for one question? How insensitive can you possibly be, Aizawa scoffed at All Might’s horrible treatment of one of his biggest fans, if not the biggest.

Izuku squirmed a bit before nervously fidgeting with his fingers and shouting out what he had wanted to ask, “Can someone quirkless be a hero?!”

The question was sudden and unexpected, and it made both Aizawa and All Might freeze up. Aizawa looked over to All Might, you better tread carefully here, Number One.

All Might simply stared at the kid for a couple seconds, speechless, before he finally gave his response after coughing into his fist, “I’m sorry squirt, but without a strong quirk, you’ll never make it. I suggest you give up and aim for a safer profession. For example, you could be a police officer!” 

All Might had put his hand on Izuku’s shoulder and said the last sentence as if it was encouraging, some profound never-before heard or thought idea. But it was the wrong answer. Aizawa was already clawing at All Might’s leg, though his claws were no match for his calves. All Might simply shook off Aizawa before giving Izuku another smile and a thumbs up, “Stay safe, kid!” and took off.

Aizawa had just witnessed the kid’s dreams get mocked and shot down for an entire day by his peers and number one idol, but he was strangely calm. Too calm. Izuku’s expression was unreadable as he finished his walk home, where his mother thankfully hadn’t arrived yet. Aizawa knew that he wasn’t doing great, that this day would most definitely leave a lasting impact for the rest of his life. Aizawa’s list of people he hated had grown exponentially after spending just one full day with Izuku.

Though, Aizawa soon got to witness Izuku’s real feelings.

Izuku walked into his bedroom. He slowly took off his bag and placed it on the floor in the middle of the room. He then stepped onto his bed and faced the various All Might posters on his bedroom wall. The ‘You can do it!” text on one of them seemed to drive the knife wedged in Izuku’s heart even deeper in. Izuku winded up his arm and tore it down in one swift movement. The taped corners were still stuck to the wall as Izuku angrily tore the poster apart, his expressionless face contrasting the frustration showcased by his movements.

Izuku then looked over to the rest of the All Might themed merchandise scattered around his room and Aizawa knew this did not mean well.

Chapter Text

Aizawa could do nothing but meow helplessly as Izuku tore apart his room. The kid got told to kill himself just earlier that same day. The number one hero he idolised had told him he could never achieve his dream of being a hero. His classmates basically screwed into his head that his quirklessness was a disease that prevented him from reaching anything but the very bottom. 

Izuku tore the posters down in turns, one arm tearing a poster down while the other was winding up to rip off the next. The number one hero’s face suddenly felt daunting and as if it was mocking him; a reminder of the words that had ripped his ambitions out of his very soul and left him stranded to piece the shards back together.

The floor of Izuku’s room was now covered in crumpled pieces of paper that once served as his inspiration. The slightly lighter rectangles on the wall were a reminder of something that once was there, and everything that he could’ve been. 

Izuku was panting, angry tears running down his cheeks as he hopped down from his bed and started picking up his All Might figurines off the shelves one by one, dunking each with all the might he could muster into his trash can. Aizawa tried to paw at his leg, begging him to stop and think for a moment, but Izuku was someplace else mentally that Aizawa could not physically reach. 

Izuku picked up the last All Might figurine off the shelf, only this time, stopping to stare at it, conflicted. Aizawa noted that the figurine appeared to be a lot more worn out than the rest, the colours faded at a few places. Then it came to him why Izuku was so hesitant with this particular one. When entering the kid’s apartment, Aizawa hadn’t had the need to be in his bag as his mother wasn’t home. He had seen the various family pictures in the living room. In one of the pictures of Izuku as a kid together with his mom, he was holding onto an All Might figurine. 

The same figurine he had now thrown on the floor and stomped on, shattering it into pieces, sending them flying and scattering among the crumpled pieces of posters. The angry tears only intensified as Izuku gathered all of his All Might CD collection and threw it in the trash in one swell swoop. He watched as the CDs laid there, some broken from the impact. 

Izuku noticed one last CD on top of his shelf and began to reach for it before suddenly wincing in pain and crouching down, grabbing at his abdomen. Aizawa immediately ran up to Izuku, trying to assess what was hurting, what had he injured. Izuku lifted his palm off his school uniform’s white shirt, which was now dyed crimson. Izuku only stared at his hand, slowly moving his gaze onto his stomach and sighing, “Damn it, I got the shirt dirty…”

That’s your biggest concern? You’re bleeding out of your abdomen, where your most important organs are, and all you can focus on is the shirt getting dirty? Aizawa thought to himself, distraught over the fact he couldn’t pat the kid on the back, tell him he’s allowed to worry about himself, that he is allowed to feel this way, that he has every right to be angry, that he should take better care of himself. Instead, his feline body sat inert by Izuku’s side, his worry-filled eyes looking intently at the mess of a kid in front of him. He couldn’t help but think that the messy room was a reflection of Izuku.

Izuku glanced at his cat briefly, his eyes softening, which made him quickly avert his gaze as though he could feel Aizawa’s worries. Izuku stared at the floor for a moment longer before lifting his head up and putting his hand back on his stomach. He used his other hand to grab onto the shelf to help him stand up, his face truthfully showing how painful the injury was. He then walked over to the drawers where Aizawa had been snooping around the previous night and lifted out the first aid kit. It was then that Aizawa understood the first aid kit wasn’t unused, it was hidden. He made his way over to the bed and sat down, Aizawa jumping up to stand by him.

“Sorry you had to see all that, Coffee. I didn’t mean to worry you, I just… didn’t know how else to express myself,” Izuku tearfully said as he cracked open the first aid kit and placed bandages and disinfectant on the sheets, “I knew that being quirkless was going to be a huge hurdle in me becoming a hero, but I believed that I could do it. Imagining myself as All Might kept me going. Looking back though, I guess that was a pretty childish and impossible dream.”

Before Aizawa could try to purr or snuggle up to Izuku in an attempt of comforting him in true cat fashion, the kid took off his shirt, the sight of which stopped Aizawa dead in his tracks. The entirety of Izuku’s abdomen was bandaged, multiple spots coloured red with blood. He was bleeding this whole time, and he hadn’t shown or said a thing about it. The bandages did not stop there, as they diagonally crossed his shoulders. His back was decorated by large pieces of gauze covering the wounds the severity of which Izuku could feel but not see. Just how many injuries had this kid been walking around with? Aizawa watched him smile and joke around this morning as if he was any ordinary teenager. 

“I usually change them in the bathroom so mom doesn’t walk in on me, but she’s not here, so I’ll just do it in my room. Besides, I feel too tired to walk to the bathroom today,” Izuku announced as he began unwrapping himself from the bandages that served as an extra layer of skin. Aizawa didn’t think it could get any worse, but it did. 

The kid revealed his lower torso littered in purple-blue bruises and nasty burn marks. The burns were such that every patch of skin that had been torn off with a blast was surrounded by a ring of scorched-black skin. The various bruises covered so much of Izuku’s lower torso that they almost merged into one, colouring Izuku’s abdomen a purplish colour. Among the bruises and fresh burn marks were red spots, which Aizawa assumed were healed burns. Just for how long had the ‘Kacchan’ kid gotten away with abusing a peer to such a degree? This went beyond just hatred and was nearing a desire to bring Izuku as close to death without actually killing him. Not to mention, Izuku was intentionally only struck in places that could be covered with clothes so no one would immediately see the wounds and get suspicious. Including his mother. Hence why he had to lie to her. 

Every move Izuku made was starting to make sense to Aizawa.

Aizawa only noticed he had been staring when he looked up into Izuku's eyes, now realising that at some point the kid had picked up the bandages and disinfectant, squeezing them in his hands as he observed Aizawa back.

“Looks pretty bad, right?” Izuku tried to crack a joke, but his own voice cracked, tears still pooling at the corners of his eyes, “Don’t worry, I’m used to it. I’ve dealt with worse before. I usually don’t let this get to me, but I guess today is just not my day.”

Izuku tried to smile, but his voice cracked once again at the last sentence and his tears resumed to flow. The next moments occurred in silence, Aizawa’s paw resting on Izuku's thigh the entire time in an attempt to comfort, not a single word or meow spoken between the two. Izuku disinfected his wounds and voiced his yelps of pain instead of keeping them quiet, as he usually did. It must be rare for the kid to audibly express his pain out in the open, with how he’s surrounded by awful classmates during the day and a worried mother at night. 

The skill with which Izuku wrapped the bandages around himself suggested to Aizawa he really was used to this. He did it so precisely that if he told Aizawa he was a doctor, he would believe him without doubt. When Izuku struggled with placing gauze on his back, Aizawa gently patted down the edges Izuku couldn’t reach to seal them. It was teamwork which neither Aizawa nor Izuku had ever experienced or anticipated, though strangely soothing. 

Izuku felt a weight leave his shoulders as he imagined Aizawa’s paws on his back as a person’s hands, feeling comfort at the thought that someone outside his family could understand and care for him while being aware of his quirklessness. As for Aizawa, he could breathe a little easier as the uneasiness tightening his chest dissolved at the thought that, despite not being able to be a hero with his current body, he could still help a boy in desperate need of saving, one paw at a time.

Just as Izuku put on a shirt to cover his extensive bandages, his phone panged with a notification. Izuku lifted the phone to his face, the light from it illuminating his swollen eyes from crying in the now dark room. Aizawa stepped onto Izuku’s leg to reach higher ground and be able to see the message he received. Though, Aizawa’s head and ears covered most of Izuku’s screen so he couldn’t see anything, making Izuku chuckle and move his phone away, “Coffee, I can’t see the screen if you do that. Come here.”

Izuku lifted his arms and patted his lap, gesturing for Aizawa to settle there. Aizawa took the offer, hoping that it would result in another chuckle from the kid. Once comfortable, Izuku opened his phone again to his messages. Aizawa felt a tug at his heart once he saw that Mom was the only real contact he had in his phone. The rest of the messages were from delivery guys and various subscription notices. 

The message from Mom read: "My boss asked me to cover the night shift after the morning one. I’ll be home late but don’t worry, I left some food in the fridge for you to eat. Don’t wait for me and go to sleep, I love you sweetie!<3”

“Oh, right, I have to feed you, Coffee,” Izuku said after a few moments of staring at the message with a blank expression. 

What about you?   “Mreow?”

“I don’t feel very hungry,” Izuku said as he flashed that small, sad smile of his and pat Aizawa on the head.

But you didn’t eat lunch. A boy your age has to eat three meals a day to be healthy. “Meow. Meoow!”

Izuku sighed before looking out of his window at the city lights turning on one by one before turning back to Aizawa in defeat, “Alright, I’ll eat with you.”

Mission success, Aizawa thought to himself as he leapt off of Izuku's lap and began clawing at the door. Izuku got off the bed with a grunt and a chuckle before opening the door and leading the way to the kitchen. Izuku also took this chance to show Aizawa around the apartment that he hadn’t gotten to see much of. 

After the tour, Izuku placed his plate and Aizawa’s bowl of food on the table. He then proceeded to also place Aizawa on the table so the two could eat at eye level. 

“Don’t let mom know I let a cat sit up here,” Izuku swore Aizawa to secrecy as if Aizawa had any way of telling her in the first place. 

Izuku liked to eat while watching something, so he opened hero news on his phone to entertain him. Aizawa wasn’t sure, but he had heard somewhere that watching a video while you ate was often due to longing to hear somebody’s voice out of loneliness. And Aizawa could definitely understand why Izuku would feel that way.

“...due to no leads on the disappearance of Eraserhead as of today, the police force has released more descriptors of the lost hero. He wears a white scarf around his neck, which is not shown in the picture,” the news anchor pointed to a photo of Aizawa's face being broadcast all over the news, again. “When his quirk is activated, he has glowing red eyes and his hair floats. Anyone with information regarding the…”

Wait, Aizawa suddenly got an idea, I haven’t tried activating my quirk in this state. I had just assumed I wouldn’t be able to use it, but what if that’s not the case? 

Aizawa had lifted his face from his food bowl and stopped eating, which caught Izuku’s attention. He stared at his cat staring at blank space for a couple of seconds before Aizawa slowly turned his head to look him in the eyes. Then, Aizawa’s red eyes began to glow as his fur stood up, like he had static electricity built up in there all of a sudden.

Izuku stopped munching on his food and looked at the news, where Aizawa’s quirk had been described just now, then back to Aizawa, and back to his phone again. His eyes widened as he attempted to shout something out, but instead he choked on the unchewed food in his mouth. He grabbed his throat and leaned back, which made him fall backwards with his chair, leading to a loud thud.

Aizawa watched all this occur and worriedly peeked over the edge of the table to see izuku spit out his food and resume breathing. He could also hear a muffled voice from a downstairs neighbour shout, “What are you doing up there today? Be quiet!”

Izuku quickly stood up from the floor before slamming his hands on the table, startling Aizawa, “You… are you Eraserhead?”

“Meow!”

Aizawa pathetically meowed back, not being able to talk. A cat’s vocal range was unfortunately not on the same level as a human’s. If he was transformed into a parrot, this entire story would’ve been much shorter.

Izuku facepalmed, “Right, a cat can’t speak.” 

He pondered a bit before he seemingly got an idea in his panicked state. Because who wouldn’t be panicked if the stray cat you randomly picked up in an alley actually turned out to be a cat-ified Pro-Hero that also happened to witness the darkest moments of your life all unfold in a span of two days, “Okay, wait, blink twice if you’re Eraserhead.”

Aizawa blinked twice, hope returning to his body. Did the kid finally get the memo? If so, then he was saved. Aizawa finally looked back to Izuku to see him standing in the middle of the room with his mouth wide open in shock. 

“Are you- seriously how- what even- are you seriously THE Eraserhead? The one that’s been missing??” Izuku managed to ask after a brief fight with his tongue to formulate an actual sentence.

Aizawa blinked twice.

Izuku went insane.

He began running around the room, grabbing his head with both of his hands and quietly screaming as to not disturb his neighbours any more than he already had. He didn’t need a noise complaint on top of having a whole missing hero in his house. 

“This can’t be. It must be the exhaustion catching up to me. Yeah. That’s just it. And the cat blinking twice must be a coincidence. Nothing more. My brain must be playing tricks on me. It’s just a coincidence that he happens to have red eyes and all-black fur. And its fur could’ve just stood up because it got frightened. Right?” Izuku looked back to Aizawa, who did not plan on letting his only chance at being recognized slip by. 

Aizawa meowed loudly enough to get Izuku’s attention and then started clawing at his phone. Izuku decided to just watch, as if trying to determine if the cat was actually Eraserhead or if he was just finally going insane. Once Izuku saw Aizawa fail to click on the photo app a couple of times, he finally understood what he was trying to do.

“Excuse me,” Izuku sat back down in the chair he picked up from the floor and grabbed the phone, letting it rest on the table so Aizawa could still see what he was doing. Izuku pressed on the photos app and once he went to the favourites folder, Aizawa knew the kid had gotten the right idea. He was lucky that someone with a bit more brain power than the usual teen picked him up.

Izuku didn’t have to scroll very far before he found the photo that the both of them were looking for. It was the photo of a blurry Aizawa battling a tissue with the message he had typed out on Izuku’s computer in the background. Izuku zoomed into the computer to better see what was written down.

“‘ML EdrawswetrhdeD JIK VCt ghbpodsyu’?” Izuku questioned and glanced at Aizawa, who just nodded in encouragement. “Am I supposed to decode this? Is this some secret hero code or something?”

Aizawa rolled his eyes and shook his head no, Why would I ever use hero code for a teenage boy who knows nothing about them.

“Ah, right. Why would you use hero code for a teenage boy who knows nothing about them.”

That’s what I said!

“Okay, let’s take into consideration that your paws made it so that you pressed multiple letters at the same time. I’m assuming the word ‘EdrawswetrhdeD’ means ‘Eraserhead’. The first and last letters match and if you look closely enough, all of the letters to spell out Eraserhead are present. I’m going to go ahead and also assume when you tried to press ‘A’ you hit caps-lock by mistake since there’s not a single ‘A’ in there. Which makes me think that ‘VCt’ is supposed to be ‘cat’. Is ‘ML’ supposed to be ‘I’m’?”

Aizawa nodded just as he had done for the previous two words when Izuku got them right. 

“‘I’m Eraserhead JIK cat ghbpodsyu’.”

“What the hell do the rest of the words mean?” Izuku slumped back in his chair in confusion, running a hand through his green curls. Aizawa only stared at the kid in anticipation. “Based on a hunch, to me it would make sense that 'JIK' is supposed to be ‘in’ and the last one is ‘body’?”

At the realisation of what the whole sentence meant, Izuku facepalmed, “Oh my gosh I’m so stupid you literally spelt out ‘I’m Eraserhead in cat body’ as soon as I brought you home and I had no clue and went on to treat you like you were an actual cat which is so disrespectful to you as a Pro-Hero since you sacrifice your life to save others’ and I was being so rude-”

Aizawa only managed to shut Izuku up by placing his paw on his lips. The boy had gotten incredibly nervous at the thought of treating a hero as a cat, which was understandable, but he made it seem as if it was some crime. Aizawa wished he could communicate to the kid that treating someone who looks like a cat like a cat was absolutely not an offence. To his dismay, there was no other way of communicating other than blinking. So Aizawa just shook his head no with his paw still resting on Izuku’s mouth.

There were so many things Aizawa wanted to praise Izuku for. The kid managed to figure out his identity after only spending two days together. His thought process was extremely well organised and he had an exceptional ability to connect the dots to draw an accurate conclusion. He was so incredibly talented in so many ways and yet he had suffered for lacking a mere quirk that in most cases wasn’t even practical. 

“You’re right,” Izuku said after Aizawa removed his paw from his mouth, “I should try and calm down. So you’re missing. And a Pro-Hero. In a cat’s body. Those are the facts. I’ll bring you to a police station tomorrow, since it’s gonna be the weekend. From there, the police officers will take care of you and we’ll part ways," Izuku said the last part a bit somberly. Only Aizawa knew that he would be sure to try and take in Izuku and nurture his talents once he regained his human form. Every kid deserves an opportunity to show how bright they can shine.

“Um,” Izuku began to say something but then closed his mouth, fidgeting with his fingers nervously, “I’m sorry.”

For what? “Mreow?”

“I’m sorry you got a glimpse into my life.”

Aizawa’s eyes widened. It felt as if a dagger had been embedded in his heart. How could someone so young ever say such a thing? How could he ask for forgiveness when he should be asking for help?

“I know I’m not the most interesting person out there. I might be at the very bottom of the list, actually,” he attempted to let out a small laugh, “My life isn’t exciting or anything fun, it might even look a bit depressing from the sidelines, but I just wanted to say sorry for dragging you into this. It shouldn’t be something a Pro-Hero like you has to get involved with. You have bigger things to worry about.”

This kid was so smart when it came to others, but when it was his turn to talk about himself, suddenly he became an idiot that disregarded his own feelings. 

Just like the night before this one, Aizawa slept next to Izuku. Only this time, he allowed for the sleeping kid to cuddle him. He might be getting attached to him, but he didn’t care anymore. Izuku’s happiness was something that he rightfully deserved, and Aizawa was going to make sure he got it. 

Even if it meant being hugged. Which he detested when it came to others, but not Izuku.

Chapter Text

“We’re here,” Izuku announced his and Aizawa’s arrival to the police station that Detective Tsukauchi worked at. 

After figuring out Coffee’s real identity as the missing Pro-Hero Eraserhead the previous night, Izuku suggested using morse code as a form of communication. Aizawa could blink whatever he wanted to say and Izuku would understand everything he meant, including that he could lead them to where Tsukauchi was, the detective that could help them. They also agreed on Izuku calling him Coffee out in public, so that bypassers wouldn't give them weird stares for a cat to be named the same as a missing Pro-Hero.

With a mode of communication being established, Izuku then went on to extensively apologise to Aizawa for having to see his emotional outburst and for embarrassingly addressing him as Coffee. To which Aizawa responded, “-.. --- -. .----. - / .-- --- .-. .-. -.-- --..-- / .. .----. -- / .--- ..- ... - / --. .-.. .- -.. / -.-- --- ..- .----. .-. . / ..-. . . .-.. .. -. --. / -... . - - . .-.”

Both Izuku and Aizawa acknowledged that although morse could provide them with a clear way to talk to each other, it took too long. And Izuku couldn’t fully understand what Aizawa was saying unless he had a cheat sheet and a piece of paper to write down what Aizawa was blinking. So the two just decided to be short and concise and only use it in case of urgency as Aizawa had admitted that Izuku was correct most of the time in interpreting him.

Izuku had quickly scrambled to clean up his room after he had calmed down from whatever that entire day was. Though, he didn’t restock his shelves with the figurines, put back up the posters from where they had been ripped off, or take the CDs out of the trash. Instead, he took everything that he had smashed and threw it out in the dumpster outside his apartment building. He stared at the dumpster for a moment, feeling a weight he hadn’t known he was carrying roll off his shoulders. Thankfully, Mom never found out about the trashed state Izuku’s room had been in that night. Nor about the lack of All Might in his room. For now.

He was going to tell her soon, he just couldn’t face her with the harsh truth that both were aware of but never once spoke about out loud. He couldn’t be a hero without a quirk. That was common knowledge. That was something he needed to fully digest before bringing up to make sure all the sadness and frustration didn’t spill out alongside.

Now, Izuku was staring at Aizawa standing right outside the police station. He looked at the hero who had been by his side through those harsh moments. The hero had seen the absolute worst sides of him, and still cared for him. Izuku didn’t want to let him go, as he hadn’t felt comfort like this with anyone in so long, but he knew it was selfish of him to wish for him to stay. Eraserhead had responsibilities, and he wasn’t one of them.

“Um, before we go in, I want to tell you something Coff-, I mean Eraserhead sir,” Izuku began, confused on how he should now address the cat he’s kept by his side. Aizawa turned around with a confused look in his eye, because by all means, he didn’t mind being called Coffee. It had started to grow on him, though he would never admit it. 

“I just wanted to say thank you. This is probably the last time we’ll see each other and I wanted to thank you for being there for me. You were with me on possibly the worst day of my life, and I couldn’t tell you how much you being there for me helped me get through it all. You know, I was going to latch onto All Might's leg that day if you hadn't been there, Coffee- I mean, Eraserhead sir. Which is reckless, I know, but you saw me that day. I was just desperate. Well, what I’m trying to say is, just, thank you. For being there.”

Izuku was scratching the back of his neck, his cheeks a little flushed in embarrassment of his own speech. Aizawa could do nothing but stare at Izuku while the occasional bypasser gave them weird looks over a kid spilling his heart out to a cat. His speech had been heartfelt and genuine, Aizawa could tell. He was sad to have to leave him too, but he promised himself he would be back.

Trying to avoid an awkward atmosphere because of the sudden silence between the two, Izuku gestured to the entrance, “Shall we go in?”

They walked in together and were immediately greeted by quite the sight. There were multiple police officers sitting at their desks with piles of documents, answering the phone that seemed to ring again as soon as the previous call had ended. Secretaries were running around with papers and coffees for the officers in hand, supporting them through this bustling work environment. 

Not to sound self-centred, but I think this might be because of my disappearance.

“Coffee, this is because of you isn’t it?” Izuku asked, chuckling, not noticing the way he reverted back to addressing Aizawa by his nickname. Aizawa begrudgingly nodded, amazed by just how much effort was being put into finding him. It tugged at his heartstrings a bit. He’ll make sure to show his gratitude once he turns back, but not too much.

Izuku walked up to the front desk where the receptionist was as busy as one could possibly get. He visibly felt bad about interrupting her work, but knew it was something he had to do, “E- Excuse me?” 

Izuku stuttered and he immediately felt embarrassed. By the looks of it, Aizawa guessed he was internally cursing himself for his speech impediment. The receptionist looked up from her work, looking Izuku up and down with her sharp stare. She adjusted her glasses and straightened her posture, “What can I help you with?”

Her voice was serious and it was evident she was annoyed by the disturbance in front of her. Aizawa knew it was only because she had a lot of work and because there was no shortage of teenagers being dared to prank the police. The receptionist was probably feeling a mix of these scenarios from the obviously nervous Izuku. 

“I have information regarding, um, Eraserhead?” Izuku managed to say, obviously intimidated by the receptionist.

“Fill out this form and submit it, we’ll review it as soon as we can,” she handed Izuku a pen and paper as she said this. 

“Oh, uh, I don’t need this,” Izuku responded, “Actually, he’s with me.”

The receptionist looked up and glanced around the busy office, not seeing anyone resembling Eraserhead next to Izuku. She sighed and rubbed her forehead, “Listen, kid. We’re busy as it is. We don’t have time for jokes or whatever dare your friends set you up to.”

“No, seriously! Look!” Izuku bent down and picked up Aizawa from the floor, “This is him!”

There was a moment of silence between Izuku, the receptionist, and Aizawa. Aizawa stared at her, recognizing her as always being the one who brought him case files and took care of assigning him work when necessary. But it seemed she did not recognize him at all.

The receptionist was about to say something when a man emerged from a door behind her. Inside, Aizawa could clearly see a desk stacked with piles of paper and folders. There was also a board with a red string connecting various pictures and news articles. Was the picture in the centre of it all… of him? It was too far for him to be sure.

“What’s all this ruckus about?”

The man had sunken eyes, with dark circles beneath them. His hair was messy and unkempt while some stubble had begun to grow on his chin. His tie was loose and his white office shirt was wrinkled.

Has he been sleeping in his office again? Aizawa internally questioned just as he locked eyes with his detective long-time friend, Tsukauchi. The detective stared down Aizawa, then the kid. He rubbed his eyes and walked up to them.

“Can you please tell me why you’re holding up a cat in a police station?” He finally said in a tired voice. He was now standing in front of them with his arms crossed. He was tall and towering over Izuku, who was of a much shorter stature. After seeing Izuku’s point of view, Aizawa now knew why everyone was always so scared of him and police officers in general. But to be fair, he was probably trying to scare Izuku off so they could continue their work.

“This cat is Eraserhead!” Izuku declared, extending his hands, trembling a bit in fear. Tsukauchi raised an eyebrow and leaned down to look into Aizawa’s eyes. 

“People have brought various different people claiming that they’re the missing Pro-Hero Eraserhead, even demanding a ransom for them, but a cat is a first. What proof do you have of him being the real deal?” Tsukauchi asked again, his demeanour and form of speech shifting to a more interrogative style. Tsukauchi wasn’t convinced, that was for sure.

Aizawa guessed Tsukauchi was now using his lie-detection to verify the facts. Aizawa also guessed that it wouldn’t be of much help since the quirk registers something as true or false based on the person’s own beliefs. If a person said that the sky was green and firmly believed that, then the quirk would register that as truth. Despite the power the quirk held, it had its limitations, same as every other quirk, unfortunately.

“He can activate his quirk! His hair stands up and his eyes glow. Show them, Cof-, I mean, Eraserhead sir.” Izuku had made a blunder yet again, almost calling Aizawa by his cat name. Which made the credibility of his claim even worse. 

“Okay, Eraserhead, ” Tsukauchi said in a mocking tone, “Let’s see you activate your quirk.”

Aizawa was very displeased with how Tsukauchi was handling the situation, but he understood it was due to a combination of exhaustion and the lack of confidence Izuku had in his own claim. Aizawa closed his eyes, ready to activate his quirk. That was all he had to do to prove himself. I can do at least that much. He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes wide, trying to emit his quirk.

“...Uh, Eraserhead? You can go ahead and activate it now,” Izuku’s nervous voice came from behind him. Hadn’t he activated it yet? He’s sure he had. He looked down to his paws, and gravity still had its effect on his fur, as it pointed downwards.

This can’t be, Eraserhead thought to himself, It’s supposed to be standing up. Why isn’t it standing up?

Tsukauchi sighed and fully straightened out, “Nice try, kid. Just because a cat has black fur and red eyes that match the appearance of Eraserhead doesn’t mean that it’s actually Eraserhead. We have work to do, so be on your way now,” Tsukauchi pointed to the door and turned around to walk back into his office. 

However, he was stopped by Izuku tugging on his shirt sleeve with one hand, while the other had shifted Aizawa to rest on his torso, his front legs stretched over his bandaged hand, “Sir, wait! Please, I’m telling the truth. He can understand everything you say to him. We have been communicating in morse code, I can prove it if you just give me a chance to-”

Before Izuku could finish his sentence, Tsukauchi had grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back, all while Aizawa was still dangling down by Izuku’s side, “I could arrest you for assaulting an officer if you don’t let up. Give up this little act and go find someone else to bother. Men, escort him out, please.”

Two police officers got up from their tables and left their phones ringing, very clearly annoyed by having to stop their work to throw an idiot teenager out. Izuku complied and walked out, the two men only a couple steps behind him. Once Izuku was outside, he looked back to see the two men now guarding the entrance, waiting for him to get out of their sights. 

“Coffee, why didn’t you activate your quirk? I did say in my little speech that I wish you didn’t have to go, but I didn’t mean it literally. You should’ve proven your identity and asked for their help. They need you,” Izuku said as he let Aizawa down from his arms.

Aizawa wished he could say You need me too but could do nothing but stare back at Izuku, also dumbfounded as to why he couldn’t activate his quirk. He started blinking and Izuku brought out his phone to write down the dashes and dots.

“‘I couldn’t’? What do you mean, Cof- Eraserhead sir?” Izuku translated the message, still not being used to addressing what was supposed to be his short-term pet.

Aizawa simply stared at Izuku, trying to activate his quirk to no avail. He couldn’t get his fur to stand up on command. He couldn’t make his eyes glow, otherwise Tsukauchi or Izuku would’ve said something. He was changing. Something had happened for him to be unable to wield his own quirk. Was this some sort of time thing? Or does the cat-transformation quirk have more to it than just changing the appearance?

“What’s the matter? Are you saying that there’s a possibility that the transformation quirk somehow took away your ability to use your erasure? How is that even possible??”

Aizawa slowly nodded, a concerned look strung across his face, while Izuku lost himself in a rambling fit.

“So, that means that either another quirk was used on you or the transformation quirk has more to it than we initially thought. I don’t know the whole story of how you were transformed, but the first explanation doesn’t seem plausible. You were able to use your quirk just yesterday, the second day, but not today, on the third day of your transformation. Why would it have such a long time-lag? So that leaves only the option of this cat-transformation having more to it than we know. I’m assuming the criminal who used his quirk on you wasn't caught, otherwise the police would probably have the details of his quirk by now. What could possibly-”

Before the sentence could leave Izuku’s lips, Aizawa used his paw to close it shut, his ears turning in different directions, trying to pick up the direction of the movement he was hearing. He knew Izuku was perceptive enough to understand that his body language meant he had picked up something with his heightened hearing. Aizawa then quickly darted into the nearby street, an at first confused, but then panicked Izuku following behind him. Aizawa peered back around the corner to the street they were just on and Izuku did the same, his head above Aizawa’s as if they were in a cartoon.

Aizawa watched as two officers left the police station they had just been in, coffee in hand, chattering amongst themselves. Aizawa looked up to Izuku, who was listening intently. When they made eye contact, Izuku nodded and gave a thumbs up, indicating he could hear what the police officers were talking about. This saved Aizawa a lot of effort as he wouldn’t need to translate the whole conversation into morse code later.

“...has happened before, so I don’t understand Tsukauchi’s deal. This is not the first time an underground hero has gone missing. In fact, they sometimes disappear on purpose,” one of the officers complained and took a sip of his coffee.

What he’s saying isn’t wrong, Aizawa confirmed, as there had been instances where he hadn’t told anyone he was going no-contact to carry out a mission.

“But he was working very closely with Detective Tsukauchi on the case, so why would he decide to abandon him right then in that alley? He’s smart enough to know that the criminal they were pursuing was dangerous, and that Tsukauchi was right behind him. He would’ve probably had to injure Tsukauchi in some way to prove to the criminal that he’s no longer affiliated with the police,” the other officer argued back, defending the hero.

“Yes, you’re right on that one. But it’s just too weird to me that Tsukauchi would announce his disappearance just one day after losing sight of him. Usually underground heroes are kept underground, but Eraserhead was made very public very fast. Announcing a hero’s missing is bound to also cause public panic, which is never good.”

“Yeah, getting the public worried is the last thing we want. Plus, other criminals will get the message that heroes can be taken down and criminal activity will increase. All of this is just making me think that something happened in the brief moment when Tsukauchi was left alone with the suspect the night Eraserhead disappeared. Tsukauchi refuses to disclose anything, but I believe the suspect must’ve said something to him.”

Tsukauchi and the suspect were left alone that night? That must’ve happened after I was transformed. I have to uncover exactly what happened that night. It must be the reason that Tsukauchi is so on edge to find me.

“Well, anyways, we haven’t found his body or received a legitimate ransom request, so we can’t exactly rule out those possibilities either. Eraserhead could easily take care of the criminal by himself, which makes his disappearance all the more strange.”

“Alright quiet down now, don’t let anyone hear you. We don’t want to get in trouble for discussing an active case outside the station," the police officer looked around as he said this before a sudden tune erupted from his pocket. "Hold on, my phone's ringing. Ugh, it's my work phone. Damn this profession.”

And just as soon as they had come out for their coffee break, the officers returned back to their posts to answer the seemingly endless phone calls. Izuku and Aizawa looked at each other once the officers were out of their sight. Izuku smiled weakly knowing that they had just uncovered an important clue. 

Both nodded in acknowledgment. They knew the police would not help them, so it was upon themselves to undo the transformation. However, uncovering this truth was going to be no easy feat if Tsukauchi withheld this information even from his closest subordinates.

“Tsukauchi and the criminal were momentarily alone the night you got transformed. Now we have to find out what secret they exchanged,” Izuku declared, a sharp focus in his eyes that Aizawa hadn’t seen before. 

Chapter Text

“What could possibly be so secret that Tsukauchi can’t tell anyone he knows about it? And what also caused him to search so desperately for you?” Izuku was murmuring to himself while Aizawa walked a few steps in front. Aizawa was leading him to where he had gotten transformed three days ago, hoping to find at least a clue for Tsukauchi’s strange behaviour.

The two turned a corner into the same sketchy alleyway that Izuku and Aizawa first met. Izuku looked up from the pavement and glanced around the area, immediately recognizing it, “Hey, isn’t this where we first met? I can’t believe it was only three days ago, it feels like we’ve been together for way longer!”

Izuku excitedly ran around and pointed to where exactly Aizawa had been sleeping, where he crashed into when he ran around, and where Izuku had wrapped him in his blazer. Aizawa was feeling too embarrassed to even do anything, recalling his first few hours of being a cat. He couldn’t control his claws, let alone even walk. Aizawa glanced down at his paws and how easy it had been for him to adjust to being a cat. The realisation was frightening; the thought that this could be irreversible settling in the back of his mind.

Before he could spiral, his heightened hearing picked up footsteps in the distance coming from the same side alley where the criminal had originally popped out from and transformed him. Aizawa quickly latched one of his paws into Izuku’s pant leg and dragged him behind a nearby dumpster, fear settling in as the footsteps grew closer and Izuku’s expression got increasingly worried. 

Aizawa thought he got over this whole thing of being transformed into a cat. It can happen in this world of quirks. It’s probably happened somewhere before. But his uncertainty about the situation didn’t calm down. And the footsteps were still getting closer. If those were the same criminals from three nights ago, then he didn’t even know what he could do to protect Izuku except for hiding like a coward.  He couldn’t even use his quirk anymore, the weapon he always relied on.

Izuku and Aizawa both intently listened to the footsteps exit the alley before coming to an abrupt halt. One of the two pairs of footsteps sighed, a man, judging by his voice, “Are you sure? It’s been three days.”

“He’s gotta turn up eventually. He’ll want answers,” the second pair of footsteps, a woman, answered.

Izuku listened in on the conversation, the gears in his head turning with each word uttered, trying to somehow link it to something else in his mind. Meanwhile, Aizawa had frozen at the woman’s voice. He had heard it before. But where?

Aizawa had to know. He had to confirm. Without a word, Aizawa jumped up on Izuku’s shoulders and rested his front paws on his head, trying to get a view of the two over the dumpster. Izuku had to stifle a yelp with his hands over his mouth at the sudden movement from Aizawa. 

“What are you doing?” Izuku whispered as quietly as he possibly could, but Aizawa didn’t answer. Not because he couldn’t, but because his body wasn’t listening to him. The sight of the woman had confirmed his suspicions. It was the same one that had turned him into a cat. He hadn’t realised it because of the darkness she had been surrounded with, but now he was absolutely sure it was her judging by the silhouette. 

“Alright, if you say so. But what makes you so sure he will be coming back?” the man inquired.

“You know how I keep my quirk a secret from everyone, right?” The woman said, watching the man slowly nod before resuming, “There are only two people I have told of how my quirk works. The first is your leader. The second is that Detective. And he knows he can never tell anyone about it, or else everyone he loves will get into unfortunate ‘accidents’. I made sure of it. Poor detective.”

The woman let out an evil laugh at the last sentence, watching the man turn pale. The man sighed under his beak mask, turning his head away and leaning on a nearby wall, “I really don’t get why Overhaul keeps you around with your quirk as secretive and dangerous as that, Noroi.”

A name! Aizawa and Izuku locked eyes, knowing that they had just struck gold. But their smiles wilted as soon as the culprit named Noroi continued talking.

“He keeps me close because he knows he needs me to get Eraserhead. Overhaul’s quirk-erasure drug preliminary tests all yielded results that were not what he was looking for. If we get our hands on Eraserhead, we’ll be able to make him our subject number two,” the woman finished with yet another wicked laugh, the kind which sent shivers down both Izuku’s and Aizawa’s spines.

From the conversation, it was evident that this group with their leader Overhaul were trying to develop a quirk-erasing drug. Which was already horrible enough. But what had they meant when they said Aizawa would be “subject two”? Did that mean that they already possessed someone with quirk-erasing abilities, and Aizawa would just be added to the list? There’s a person stuck under their clutches, forced to be ‘subject one’. Aizawa realised just how dangerous the criminal he had been chasing that night for the “drug charges” really was. Those were no ordinary drugs, but quirk-erasing drugs in their preliminary stages.

Aizawa adjusted himself on Izuku’s shoulders, which caused Izuku to lose balance. Izuku tried to readjust it by sliding his leg back, but he accidentally kicked an empty can. The woman and man stopped talking. The can made a loud metallic noise and rolled for a few seconds before coming to a halt right in the middle of the alley.

We’re going to be found, both Izuku and Aizawa unanimously thought.

The two didn’t have much time to think as the man started to slowly walk towards them and yelled out, “Who’s there!”

Aizawa was frozen, but he watched as determination took over Izuku. He quickly ducked to hide Aizawa, so his peering head couldn’t be seen. Izuku then promptly shoved him under the dumpster and in between the piles of trash while mouthing ‘don’t move’. Aizawa was supposed to be the hero, but Izuku was the one who was protecting him. Izuku then quickly covered himself in grime and a mystery liquid that had been spilling from the dumpster. He was already wearing a shirt that said “shirt’ on it and joggers, so the dirt and smelly liquid made him look and smell like a homeless teen. It was too late to act when the realisation came to Aizawa, as the first man with the beak mask was already looming over the crouched down Izuku.

“Didn’t you hear me? I asked what you were doing here!” The man yelled out again and reached for Izuku, grabbing him by the back of his shirt and lifting him up. White hair the shape of arrows had slipped out of the man’s hood and were pointing to Izuku. The hair was his quirk, most likely. Aizawa saw Izuku do the same ritual as he did before entering his home, where he prepared to put on an act.

“I’m so sorry!” Izuku wailed out, his dirty hand grabbing the pristine white coat of the man holding him, “I- I was just searching for food. I haven’t eaten in days! My mom threw me out a few days ago and I have no- nowhere else to go, I just ended up here! And then I heard you coming and I thought you were the cops and you would a- arrest me and that’s why I hid-”

“Shut up already, you dirty little maggot!” The man let Izuku drop back down to the hard concrete upon seeing his sleeve dirtied. Even though he was wearing a full face mask, the disgust on his face was made clear through his voice. It was understandable though, Izuku had smeared the dirtiest substances in the vicinity on himself. And now him.

“What’s happening, Kurono?” The woman, Noroi, had walked over to the scene during Izuku's rambling. She was wearing an all black robe that covered her entirely alongside a black beak mask. Her outfit was the same as the man’s, but the opposite colour. 

“Usually I can pick up on anyone in the vicinity, but this kid managed to go undetected by me. He’s got quite the stealth capabilities,” Kurono, the man, informed, making the same conclusion Aizawa had about Izuku’s stealth being top-tier.

There was a brief silence between the three of them, the man in white waiting for the woman in black to tell him what to do, despite bickering with her just mere seconds ago about her role in the gang. This suggested that she was his higher-up, though he disagreed. The woman in the black robe leaned in, talking to Izuku in a cheerful voice while also exuding bloodlust, “So you heard everything, right?”

“I promise not to tell anyone, just please don’t kill me!” Izuku yelped out, Aizawa being absolutely sure he wasn’t acting when he said that. 

“Haha, we would never,” the woman waved off Izuku’s concern with a happy voice, before menacingly adding, “as long as you do as we say.”

Izuku had closed his eyes and put his arms up to guard himself from any attacks, knowing it was futile. He slowly lowered his arms and opened his eyes at the chance he could live despite having heard about their malicious plans.

“I’ll do anything! Just please don’t kill me!” Izuku dropped to his knees with his hands now clasped together, begging.

“Now that’s a good boy!” The woman went to pet Izuku on the head but retracted her hand instead upon seeing flies buzzing about, “Ah, your hair has a little… trash in it. Anyways, you said you were kicked out and have nowhere to go?”

“...Yeah,” Izuku responded, hoping he was hiding just how scared he really was. He was betting his entire life on this one act in the most literal sense.

“Then, how about I give you food in exchange for you staying in this alley and keeping an eye out for anyone wandering into here looking for something?” The woman cheerfully clapped, her cheerful demeanour back in full swing. She seemed to change between being happy and wicked in a matter of seconds, her mood changing abruptly and without warning between the two.

“And what do I do if I spot a person like that?” Izuku asked, curious as to how much they knew about Eraserhead’s situation. Because if they already knew he was a cat, then chances of fooling this woman would be zero. It felt as though the woman, Noroi, knew more than she let on and was testing Izuku, just like Izuku was testing her. She had only told two people about how her quirk worked, one of them being their leader and the other definitely being Detective Tsukauchi, who held the key to this entire mystery. Why would she tell a Detective how her quirk worked? Was she purposefully trying to get Tsukauchi to go to her? If so, what did she intend to do with him? And what exactly was her motive? What was she gaining by colluding with this gang and their quirk-erasure drug experiments?

“If a person like that shows up, simply take a picture of them!” The woman dug around her robe’s pocket and placed a flip phone onto Izuku’s extended hands, raising every red flag in Izuku’s mind even further up than he had thought they could go. Was she trying to establish long-term communication with him? But why? Was there a tracker in it?

“Don’t look so worried, it’s just a regar old phone. And if you do your job well, I’ll even think about recommending you to our boss.”

“Noroi! You can’t just-” the man in white tried to protest, but was immediately silenced when Noroi extended her hand in his direction, all five fingers mere inches from his face, “Silence. Or do you want to find out how my quirk works the hard way?”

The man did not move. He merely stood for a moment before bowing, “I apologise for my impudence.”

“Haha, just joking! God, no need to be so serious,” Noroi taunted him while patting him on the shoulder, making him flinch. The action seemed more of a threat than a friendly gesture. “Alright then, kid, you’re unofficially welcomed to the Shie Hassaikai!”

With that last message, the two disappeared into the alley they came from, the woman waving goodbye. Izuku waved back, too dumbfounded at what had just happened to formulate a coherent thought. Once Aizawa had determined that the criminals were a safe distance away from them, he emerged from his place under the dumpster.

You can stop waving now, Izuku. “Meow!”

Izuku slowly turned his head towards Aizawa. He then suddenly slumped forwards and grasped his head firmly in his hands. Aizawa immediately began fussing around him, trying to figure out if one of the robed person’s quirks had affected Izuku. After a moment of not saying anything, Izuku turned his head to look at Aizawa with a nervous laugh.

“Coffee, I think I just joined a gang.”

Aizawa had heard the entire ordeal. He had felt the bloodthirst. He had seen the men debating between killing him on the spot or giving him a second chance. Though the second chance came at the heavy cost of Izuku now being their unofficial underling. Aizawa would normally tell Izuku to get out of there and never go back. The men saw his face. Izuku was in danger. 

But another part of Aizawa knew that this was their only chance to uncover the truth. As bad as he felt, as much as he wanted to run, he knew if he did, then he would stay a miserable cat for the rest of his life. Chances of turning human on his own were slim, with how the criminals were waiting for him to turn up in a search for answers, knowing that he had no other choice. 

Aizawa knew for a fact he had to use Izuku, as messed up as it was. 

“Man, what do I even do? I have to take a picture of any random person who wanders into here? And I have to stay in this alley indefinitely just to receive food? This deal is way too one sided!” Izuku exclaimed and looked up at the sky, his worried expression slowly shifting to a serious one. 

“Coffee, I know you don’t want me to do this, but our best bet for turning you back is for me to infiltrate the gang. The more involved I am, the more answers I’ll get. I have a plan in mind on how to convince them I’m completely on their side, well, moreso a rough idea. Anyways, I just need you to trust me, okay?”

Izuku turned his head to Aizawa, who was sitting beside him with his tail wagging in disapproval. Despite Aizawa’s body language indicating his dislike for the idea, he internally agreed with Izuku. This was their best bet.

“But before I go home and prepare for my plan, I should probably get cleaned up,” Izuku said as he smelled himself and almost threw up.

Chapter Text

The bell of the gym front door rang, signalling someone opening it. The receptionist looked up from her desk with a smile to greet whoever just stepped through, but no sound ever left her lips. Her eyes were glued to the peculiar individual, watching and observing, the same as everyone else. Some had begun to whisper amongst each other, shooting glances of pity and disgust at the boy and his equally grimy cat.

Izuku brought out his gym membership card from his pocket. He tried to scan it, but a sort of sticky substance was preventing it from working properly. Izuku simply wiped it off on his shirt and tried again, this time hearing the beep as a small door opened up for him to enter.

He was lucky that his mom had gotten him that gym membership despite him protesting against it. Here, he can clean up in the showers and switch into the gym clothes he had stashed away in his designated locker. 

“You know,” Izuku said as he picked up Aizawa from the floor, carrying in his arms to delay getting kicked out for dirtying the place with a pet no less, “the only reason I kept gym clothes here was in case I needed to change after Kacchan… would play rough. Who knew they would also come in handy for a secret mission with you!”

Aizawa looked up to Izuku, noticing the way he had hesitated finishing that sentence despite trying to appear cheerful. It was that same sad smile again. It masked how hurt he was. How prepared he was. How he thought it was inevitable that someday, he would be beaten up so badly that his only refuge would be this gym that was far enough away from his house for no one in the area to recognize him. 

Izuku had already told him his mother bought the membership. Did she intentionally seek out a place where the likelihood of Izuku running into anyone from school was low? She's perceptive, Aizawa already concluded that about her, but too soft hearted to physically intervene.

As Aizawa pondered, Izuku had already unlocked his locker where a blue tracksuit and sports shoes lay in wait. “Alright, I'll hop in the shower real quick. You, though, stay right here,” Izuku said as he made his way to the showers walking backwards and pointing to Aizawa, only to slam into a wall.

He quickly regained his composure and scurried off to the showers, drawing even more attention to himself. The reason everyone was staring at him in the first place was because of the awful stench radiating off of him. And the way he was covered in all sorts of different stains with flies buzzing about his unruly hair, it was inevitable. At least Izuku had a place to freshen up. If his mother saw him like this she would surely never let him leave the house ever again.

Aizawa jumped up on the nearby locker room bench and snuggled up, deciding to take a nap while Izuku showered. Just as he was drifting off, he felt hands wrap around him and pick him up. To his dismay, there was only one person in this entire gym willing to touch a dirty street cat.

“Oh you're not getting off easy, Coffee!” Izuku, wrapped in a towel, said as he began walking back to the showers with Aizawa in his hands. Once Aizawa registered what he was trying to do, he began gravely protesting.

He trashed about as much as he could, meowing and hissing all over the place, which only made the path to the showers even clearer as everyone stepped away, parting like the red sea. They looked at the duo as if they were crazy. We might as well be if everyone thinks so anyways.

Aizawa gave up as Izuku turned on the shower and rubbed soap into his fur. He just sat there and let it happen, sumping in defeat. After the agonising shower, Izuku blow dried his hair and then Aizawa’s fur. Izuku tried to conceal his laughter but couldn’t, witnessing the way Aizawa’s fur had become fluffy.

Your hair looks the same, you know? So quit laughing, Aizawa tried to say, but it got lost in translation. He tried to let it go, but the sound of a camera shutter going off irritated him and he decided on exacting vengeance instead.

Clean, freshly dressed, a bit roughed up from fighting and dry, the pair left the gym looking like entirely different people. Or person and cat. Both fit, technically.

The walk back home was strangely enjoyable. Aizawa listened to Izuku ramble about whatever came to his mind. He didn’t mind being the listener if it meant Izuku could be distracted from the terrifying thought of being on a gang’s radar. It was definitely something to fear. The exchange back in that alley was horrifying by everyone’s standards.

The relaxing atmosphere seemed too good to be true. And it was.

As Izuku reached into his pocket for the house keys, still giggling about the photo he took of a “poofball Aizawa”, as he called it, the door opened with a bang. Aizawa instinctively jumped back, Izuku doing the same. Though Aizawa noticed it wasn’t fear on Izuku’s face, it was worry.

“Izuku! Where have you been all day?” Mom’s voice echoed through practically the entire apartment building. Anger and disbelief were mixed together in her tone. 

Izuku gulped, “What do you mean? I-”
“You left first thing in the morning without telling me anything except for a note that says ‘be back later’. You didn’t mention where you were even going! You never do that. A- and then I walked into your room to clean up a bit, only to notice your entire All Might collection missing. The posters, the figurines, even the CDs- they were all gone! I-I thought we were robbed! Or you were kidnapped! Or you ran away! And now you’re standing here in your gym clothes? You didn’t even leave in those!”

By this point, it was evident that it wasn’t anger that Mom was feeling, it was a mother’s love and concern. Her small frame was shaking in nervousness, her fingers fumbling and stumbling all over each other as she talked, not knowing where to put all the emotions her body was too small to contain.

Aizawa looked over to Izuku, who stood speechless. He wasn’t prepared to talk about the All Might situation, that was for sure. He had mentioned that he wanted to be the one to bring it up when he was ready. But time was not on his side, and neither was luck. 

Aizawa stepped back, starting to believe in the superstition about the luck of black cats being dirt poor himself. Izuku was only getting himself hurt ever since he took him in. Physically, mentally, emotionally, you name it. Maybe sending him into the enemy’s den is not the best plan. He can’t possibly sacrifice him for a goal as selfish as becoming human again. He can’t have Izuku getting even more hurt than he already is.

“I- I can explain! Please just-” Izuku tried to reason, but Mom was having none of it.

“Izuku, please! I’ve had enough of your excuses!” Mom’s voice began to tremble, “Let’s discuss this further inside, I can’t have the whole neighbourhood hearing this.”

Mom grabbed Izuku’s wrist to pull him inside and Izuku winced. Mom let go in an instant, but there was a brief silence between the two. They were gazing into each other’s eyes as if having a conversation in a language only the two of them spoke. Izuku retracted his hand back to his side, his other rubbing the burned spot under the bandages that had just been squeezed a little too hard.

“Baby, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Mom tried to apologise.

Izuku only brushed past her as he entered the apartment and took off his shoes, closing the door behind himself just as Aizawa managed to sneak in. Izuku cursed himself for letting that noise slip out of him. He’s kept this act up for a decade, yet one tiny slip up was going to cause all his hard work to go down the drain. 

“I- It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

He tried to quickly evade back to his room, still trying to dodge the inevitable conversation.

“You can’t keep running away from your problems like this, Izuku!” Mom finally shouted out, stopping Izuku dead in his tracks. He stood with his back turned to her, obviously hurt by her words, knowing she was right. She reached out for him again but froze once she remembered how she had unintentionally hurt him. She then seemed to ponder for a bit and realise she hadn’t grabbed him hard enough to cause him to react like that.

“Baby, excuse me for a second,” she said as she reached for Izuku’s hand. She lifted it up and pulled down the sleeve of his tracksuit to reveal bandages reaching so far up his arm she couldn’t see the end. She immediately let go and gasped. 

Izuku just stood in the middle of the room with his hands squeezing the hem of his shirt. He knew she would find out one day. He knew he couldn’t take this secret to the grave, as much as he wanted to. He was planning on coming clean to her. He really was. But after graduation so none of it would bother her anymore. That was the plan. However, the plan had fallen apart as soon as he had left the house that morning. 

“Mom,” Izuku said, his voice barely above a whisper, “I have to tell you something.”

“Izuku, baby, you know I’ll always be on your side,” Mom began to speak, her own voice losing volume as she choked on the tears welling up in her eyes, “so just please tell me what’s going on. These past few days it just feels like I don’t know you anymore. And my boss wants to send me on this week long business trip tomorrow and I’m thinking of calling it off because I can’t trust you to be alone and, and-”

Izuku ran to hug her, his hands squeezing around her tightly as he nuzzled his head into her shoulder, tears welling up in his own eyes, “I’ll tell you everything, so please don’t cry.”
They really are so similar, Aizawa thought to himself as he watched them start crying in each other’s arms. He was hiding underneath a shoe rack, waiting for the right time to emerge. Which might take a bit more than just a while. 

Once they finally calmed down enough to be able to talk in comprehensive sentences, they sat down at the kitchen table with a tissue box. Izuku wanted to open up about everything, but he had no clue where he should start and how much he could reveal, not knowing how much of the harsh truth his mother could take in one go. 

“Mom, I’ve always known that you had a rough idea about what was going on with me. You always took extra care after I came home from school to not agitate me. You would sometimes stare at me without saying anything, but look away and pretend to be preoccupied as soon as I looked back at you. You never tried to force the truth out of me, which I'm grateful for,” Izuku looked up from his fidgeting hands to his mother drying her eyes with one of the tissues.

She sniffled and clasped Izuku’s hands, “I never knew how to bring it up. You seemed so desperate to sweep it all under the rug. I felt as though even the smallest concern for your school life would make you uncomfortable.”

Izuku squeezed Mom’s hand back with a sorrowful look in his eyes, “I mean, you’re not exactly wrong,” he tried to laugh, but only an awkward choking sound came out as his eyes filled up with tears again, his voice trembling and quiet, the corners of his smile shifting downwards, “I didn’t want to disappoint you, Mom.”

The words seemed to cut right into Mom’s soul, her expression shifting between so many feelings before settling on turmoil. She wanted to speak out and reassure him, but decided to seal her lips and hear her son out fully.

“I just, I don’t fit into society like others do. It’s not easy for me. The same way it hasn’t been easy for you. You’ve worked so hard to build this life for us. I know it’s hard as a single mother. And with a quirkless child at that. I just wanted for you to know you are a great parent, because I didn’t want you to get hurt thinking it was something you did. You’re the best mom anyone could ever ask for.”
“Oh, baby,” Mom leaned forward to caress Izuku’s cheek, “Thank you. I appreciate you looking out for me, but not like this. I know it’s hard to speak up and ask for help, however communication is key. Let’s talk things out from now on, okay, sweetie?”

“Yes, mom,” Izuku leaned into the warmth of her hand on his cheek, grounding him, “Actually, I wanted to bring up the All Might merch disappearing thing to you myself. I wanted to tell you soon, I just didn’t know how to.”
“I’m so sorry! I should’ve let you come to me instead of cornering you into-”
“Mom, it’s okay. I actually ran into All MIght the other day,” Izuku watched as Mom’s expression shifted to surprise, “and I asked him, um, if…”

Izuku cleared his throat trying to find the words, “If someone quirkless could be a hero. He said no, that it’s too dangerous. And that day I just realised how unrealistic my dreams had been. I couldn’t handle seeing his face all over my room after hearing that from him.”

“But it’s not like I’m completely giving up!” Izuku quickly added once he looked up to Mom’s tearful expression, “He told me I could be a police officer instead. And although it’s not my original goal, it’s a lot more doable and I think I could be a detective! I could work with heroes and stuff, you know? So-”

“Izuku, I’m proud of you no matter what you choose to do,” Mom interrupted the mumbling fit he was about to have, “Yes, I’ve constantly worried for your safety ever since you were little. But I look at you now and realise you have changed. You have grown up. You aren’t the same fragile kid from before that I had to protect, rather, a young man with his own choices to make and path to walk. I’ll always support you. I’ll be your number one fan!”

She laughed while holding her fist in the air, pumping it up and trying to lift the atmosphere because boy was it heavy and crushing Aizawa. He felt as though he wasn’t supposed to hear any of this. But at the same time, it brought a sense of comfort to him seeing Izuku relax his shoulders, the stiffness and fear leaving his body. He finally looked at peace in his own home.

“Mom, stop!” Izuku laughed, his cheeks turning pink in embarrassment. The two laughed for a moment before Mom quieted down and sighed.

“I didn’t want to bring this up because I wanted you to be the one to speak to me on this, and I didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but those bandages,” Mom’s eyes glanced down to the sleeves of Izuku’s tracksuit, “I’m sorry for pulling them up like that. It was wrong of me. I knew you tried to hide it from me but sometimes you would leave the disinfectant and bandages out in the bathroom. I couldn’t help but worry. Are those from… Did you…?”

Izuku tilted his head in confusion until he understood what she meant, “No, no. Don’t worry about that, I didn’t do that to myself!”

Mom frowned and it was obvious it wasn’t helping calm her anxiety. Her voice was fading away as she kept on thinking about it, “Then who? Who would hurt you like this?”
“...My classmates. They don’t like having a quirkless kid in the same class as them so they thought they could, um, get me to drop out if they were mean enough.”

Mom gasped once again, her hands covering her mouth in disbelief. She looked down to the floor and clasped her hands together, holding them up against her head. It looked like she was blaming herself for not asking sooner, because the signs were there.

“Mom, it’s not your fault. Please, lift your head,” Izuku began worrying. He had opened up to her as they both wanted, though he did leave out Kacchan’s name. It seemed their relationship ran deeper than Aizawa had originally thought if he was willing to protect him. Or maybe it was just out of fear.

“As for where I was today,” Izuku began, trying to change the subject and looking over to where Aizawa was still waiting under the shoe rack with the same sadness in his eyes that Mom had, “I was helping out someone. A friend. I’d like you to meet him.”

Izuku beckoned for Aizawa to come closer, a worried Mom looking back only to get startled by the shadow underneath her shoe rack moving. Aizawa quickly made his way over to Izuku, who then put him on the table.

“This is Eraserhead. The missing Pro-Hero.”

“...Huh?”

Mom and Aizawa stared at each other in silence. Which was the second time he was introduced as Eraserhead to someone and received a blank stare in return. Which is two times too many.

“Izuku, honey, I’m so sorry you’ve felt this way for all these years. It must’ve been such a heavy burden to carry. But are you sure you, um, haven’t just imagined that cat being a hero? Maybe you should see a therapist?” Mom asked with disbelief, trying to sound as nice as possible while suggesting her son was psychotic.

“Listen, I know how it sounds, but this really is Eraserhead. We’ve been communicating in morse code.”

After a brief demonstration and a translated “Good evening, Mrs. Midoriya”, Mom was only somewhat convinced. Aizawa knew it would take way more to fully convince her of his identity since he can’t do much except pathetically meow for now. And she was probably extremely sceptical of whether Izuku was telling her the truth because her confusion indicated she didn’t know anything about morse code.

“I didn’t tell you where I was going because I know how ridiculous this whole situation sounds. I only picked him up by chance and later found out his real identity. I went over to the police station so that the authorities could take over from here on out, but, quite predictably, they didn’t believe me. So I brought him back. But the Detective didn’t need to fold my arm behind my back and force me out so aggressively. Also I’m in my gym tracksuit because I slipped and fell into a dumpster on my way back. I have the clothes right here-”
“Wait, what? A Detective used force on you?” Mom said, completely ignoring the last part. 

“Uh, yeah, but that was only becau-”

“I have a bone to pick with that Detective. Lead the way to the station, I’m going right now!”
Aizawa jumped down from the table to lead her there, waiting for Mom to put on her shoes by the door, all the while Izuku was panicking behind her. 

“Mom, it’s not that serious, I’m fine!-”

“No, you’re not,” Mom said as she looked back with an intimidating look in her eye, Aizawa doing the same. Izuku felt as if he was being scolded by two parents at once, which was double the amount he was used to.

“I don’t know whether this cat is Eraserhead or not, but what I do know is that the Detective’s actions were completely unwarranted and overly excessive for a teenage boy.”

“Well, I was the one who tugged on his shirt while he had his back turned, and considering his line of work, maybe his reflexes just kicked in! So please don’t go, Mom. I’m fine. I really am.”

Mom had put on her shoes and was standing in front of the door with her hand on the handle, though she froze at Izuku’s pleas. She seemed to mull it over for a moment before glancing down at the black cat by her feet and the nervous teenager in her living room.

She sighed in defeat, “Okay, you win. For now. I can’t ruin this moment by just storming out on you. Especially right after we finally got to be honest with each other. How about we watch your favourite movies tonight? We have popcorn in the pantry. And this little friend, uh, what did you call him, Head Eraser? He can stay with us for the moment. But we’ll talk about him in the morning for sure. Got it?”

Izuku perked up enthusiastically, “Okay!” and scurried off to prepare the couch and get the popcorn for their movie marathon. Aizawa walked past Mom and into the living room when her voice suddenly stopped him in his tracks.

“Hey, if you really are that missing hero, can you promise you’ll keep Izuku safe? I’m leaving for the business trip tomorrow and I need to know that he won’t do anything rash. Gosh, what am I doing speaking to a cat?” Mom rubbed her head seemingly thinking she was going crazy.

Aizawa only stood in the walkway, staring at her getting comfortable on the couch Izuku had prepared, knowing it was already too late to honour her wishes.

Chapter Text

From the other side of the bedroom door in the kitchen, Izuku’s and Mom’s muffled voices could be heard through the stiff morning air. However, Aizawa did not try to listen in, knowing the words exchanged were not for his ears to hear. Instead, he remained curled up on the comfortable cushion laid out for him in Izuku’s room. After all, the night before Izuku had finally gotten the chance to be honest with his mother, and now they could talk it all out. Years of undisclosed secrets and fears laid out bare for his mother to wrap in a comforting blanket of warmth.

Aizawa felt a pang of guilt as memories of Mom swinging the door open and grabbing Izuku flooded in. If Izuku hadn’t tried to help him, hadn’t picked him up - had never met him, then none of this would be happening. Izuku wouldn’t have to go through these emotional rollercoasters one after another, trying to balance Aizawa’s life on top of his own.

Aizawa flicked his ears as he heard what sounded like the front door closing shut and footsteps hurrying in his direction. Aizawa lifted his sleepy head in time to see Izuku bursting through the door and sliding straight to a box hidden under his bed. He had to rummage through piles of old notebooks that were in the way before he got to the actual box, struggling to pull it out of its comfortable spot. Izuku held it in his hands as he blew a layer of dust off the top and straight into Aizawa’s face, coloring him grey.

“Sorry,” Izuku apologized, though it was obvious he was holding in a laugh. Aizawa wasn’t amused and flicked his tail back and forth to show that. Aizawa then shook the dust off himself and onto Izuku’s bedsheets in retaliation, watching the joy leave Izuku’s eyes. Izuku wasn’t very amused either and resorted to just shaking his head in a scolding way. 

“Jokes aside,” Izuku began as he lifted the lid off, “it’s time to start planning this thing out. I used to be super into true crime, well, I still am, but more on the sort of crime heroes deal with. Back then I was more into crime that the police dealt with. You know, the cases that could be solved without needing to use quirks. Don’t look at me like that, I just wanted to feel like I could fit in law enforcement.”

Aizawa hadn’t noticed he was making sad eyes, though Izuku sure had. Aizawa wanted to show he understood Izuku in a way that didn’t seem like pity, so he extended his paw and let it rest on his hand. Izuku did not remove it or shy away from it, finding comfort in the small gesture.

“Basically, this is relevant because I, uh, how do I explain this. I used to try solving cases myself before the actual assailant was revealed. So I used to have a clipboard set up with red yarn to connect the dots, like in movies.”

Curious, Aizawa peeked inside the box and sure enough, there was a ball of red yarn, clips, a disassembled clipboard, and piles of notes and fake files. Well, Aizawa thought they were fake but he could never know with this kid so he decided to put it aside for now. As cringeworthy as it might’ve felt for Izuku to admit he was into this, it only amazed Aizawa. The kid kept revealing more and more about his capabilities, his brilliant mind, and his determination to succeed despite the handicap of being quirkless. The more Aizawa got to know him and his pure heart, the more uneasy he felt about using him to turn human again.

“Alright, we know these two people, Noroi - the woman seemingly in charge of the man with the arrow hair quirk, Kurono, who seemed forced into being her subordinate. So, the hierarchy in the Shie Hassaikai gang goes something like this-” and with that, Izuku spiraled into a mumbling fit.

Aizawa couldn’t focus after a while as his cat instincts took over and he started playing with the red ball of yarn Izuku was unraveling, it rolling on the ground being too enticing to pass up. Izuku, unaware of this, scratched his chin in thought and muttered to himself while making little cards with names and rough sketches of the suspects. Izuku had gotten up close and personal with them, which allowed for the sketches to be detailed. But because of the beak masks they wore, there was unfortunately no possible way to see their full faces, rendering a possible police sketch in the future impossible. Izuku put up the names and sketches on the clipboard, connecting events and those with ties to each other with a red string.

Izuku circled the red yarn around the pin on Noroi’s card and connected it to ‘Detective,’ who was currently speculated to be Detective Tsukauchi because the conversation between the police officers and Noroi’s confession in the alley matched up. Aizawa stopped playing with the ball of yarn once hearing Tsukauchi’s name as if snapping out of a trance. A trance that was weirdly hard to break out of. He shook it off, though, and then fell into deep thought, wondering what it was that Tsukauchi heard that made him work constantly, not even leaving the station to sleep. How severe was Noroi’s quirk for Tsukauchi to worry so? Was it more dire than simply being turned into a cat?

“Alright, this about sums it up,” Izuku backed away from the clipboard and placed his hands on his hips, his chest puffed out as he stood proudly before his finished project. He then crouched down on the floor and brought out his Hero Analysis edition 13 notebook, opening it to a blank page and clicking his pen a few times, “Now for the actual plan now that I’ve got a very rough grasp of how things work. Okay listen up, Cof- I mean, Eraserhead sir, this is what we’re going to do…”

“Do I look homeless enough?” Izuku asked as he walked back to the alley in the same shirt and shorts he had the day before when he had gotten entangled with a literal gang. He had dirtied himself again by rolling around on the ground with Aizawa on the side looking at him like all of his brain cells had spontaneously combusted at the same time. 

“Wow, that’s not a sentence I thought I would ever mutter,” Izuku added as if trying to talk away the nervousness from the situation.

Aizawa walked beside him, fearing for what was to happen next even though Izuku had briefed his plan to him. It was a good albeit risky plan. He wanted to tell Izuku to prioritize himself more, that it doesn’t matter what happens to his cat form as long as Izuku walks out as unscathed as possible. He cannot have anyone else sacrifice themselves for him. 

As Aizawa was thinking, Izuku took out the flip phone he had been given and captured a few photos of people passing by to show to Noroi. He needed to show her that he could be trusted to do his homework and, therefore that he could be a trusted official Shie Hassaikai member. 

Izuku had left the phone in his gym locker since he was too afraid a tracker was installed to take it back home. He had no qualms about putting his life in danger, though the same couldn’t be said when it came to his mother. Aizawa felt his chest tighten at the thought of using such a brilliant boy with a bright future ahead of him for his own selfish goal. Just as he was going to meow for Izuku to turn back and rethink the plan, Izuku turned into the alley.

“Heyo, there you are!” 

Izuku and Aizawa froze in their tracks once they heard the familiar voice. Aizawa still hadn’t turned the corner, so the villain couldn’t see him. Aizawa got the feeling that if she caught a glimpse of him, she would know immediately that he was the one she was searching for. Her menacing aura filled the air around them and stiffened it.

“I was looking all over for you. Where did you go?” Noroi asked though it was evident that under her cheerful demeanor lay much more sinister intentions.

“I- uh-” Izuku struggled to explain himself since he wasn’t expecting to run into her so soon. He coughed into his fist and regained his composure fairly quickly, going through the steps of the plan in his head. 

“I had gone out to find some food..” he settled on saying. Then his stomach rumbled very loudly at the perfect timing, echoing throughout the alley. Izuku was glad he had skipped yesterday’s dinner and today’s lunch. In partly faked embarrassment, his cheeks flushed and he scratched the back of his neck, “Haha, it’s not as easy as I thought to find something edible on the streets.”

There was a brief silence between Izuku and Noroi in the dimmed afternoon sunlight coloring the alley a shade of golden orange. It was definitely too late to withdraw from this mission now.  There was no choice but to go through with it, whatever meows of protest Aizawa wished to voice were now being forced into silence. 

Noroi took a few steps towards him, it taking every muscle in Izuku’s body not to take a step back. Fear, anxiety, and uncertainty were mixing into a big ball of dread that was settling into the pit of his stomach. Noroi then proceeded to fling her arm around his shoulder, “Why, you poor soul. Follow me. I’ll make sure to get you all cleaned up and fed until you can’t eat anymore. That is if you followed through with the orders I gave you?”

Noroi cocked her head to the side, her domineering figure making her almost look like a curse with the way she was bending down unnaturally. An evil grin glistened in her eyes, the lenses on the beak mask becoming see-through in the sunlight. It let Izuku’s scared irises look into the eyes behind the beak covering her entire face. Izuku stood there, mortified by the eye contact, until he snapped back into reality and lifted the flip phone out of his pocket. He then offered it to her, hands trembling, like it was a sacred object.

Noroi simply picked it out of his hands and went through the photos with indifference, looking at all the dissimilar people Izuku had managed to photograph, of which there were only three. He had meant to take pictures of more, but Noroi’s unexpected appearance had caused a halt in those plans. 

Izuku took in a deep breath, getting ready to put on a performance, “I wish I could’ve taken more but, um, not that many people linger around here since the area is kinda sketchy so I’m really sorry. I can take more if you want-”

“No, no, that won’t be necessary,” she said gleefully, her arm still on Izuku’s shoulder, “You captured something that I’ve been looking for.”

Her grip tightened on him and Izuku began to internally panic, hoping it didn’t show on his face. Did he accidentally take a picture of Aizawa and didn’t notice? Or of the city and she could now identify what direction he came from? Or maybe he took pictures of innocent bystanders who were going to be killed off one by one by this evil villain gang? If the latter was the case, he would never be able to let go of the guilt. He was starting to drip sweat, which Noroi took note of.

“Ew, teenage boys,” she retracted her hand and waved it around to fling off anything that had attached to it, looking at Izuku in disgust. “Anyways, you did a good job. Now follow me, a warm meal awaits you.”

Noroi took her hand off Izuku, the immense pressure dissipating from his body as his lungs gulped down a deep breath of air. He hadn’t even noticed he had stopped breathing. The fear of this tall woman and her mysterious power that was able to strike fear even in the hearts of gang members had seeped into his bones, rattling his frame as he trembled in fear. He didn’t know if she would deem him useless and use her quirk, which seemed to work by physical contact, on him too. The hand leaving his shoulder signified she had spared his life yet again.

She began walking forward into the shadows, looking back to make sure Izuku was following, “Come now, Shie Hassaikai awaits you.”

Izuku gulped and jogged up to her, matching her pace while staying behind her in obedience. She had a way of speaking that seemed inviting, but if you listened in just below the surface, you could hear the wickedness of her soul beneath it reverberating. Aizawa watched as the two walked off, following behind the sound of Izuku's heartbeat at a safe distance, making sure he didn't have to go through this ordeal alone.

I sincerely hope you know what you’re doing, kid.