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English
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Published:
2018-06-08
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3,123
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1/1
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Not a Cat-astrophe

Summary:

There was a lot of things Midoriya was expecting when he started being a sidekick.

He was not expecting his old classmate to be in the backroom of a pet shop with the name, "Pets Ultra!!" surrounded by about 20 cats.

Notes:

Prompt "Thats a lot of cats" - Tododeku

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Izuku’s body ached all over, nothing new for him it came with being a sidekick, but it was still noticeable. No bones were broken, but the group of villains that decided to attack the shopping district had mobility quirks, meaning none of the heroes could stop to rest for a minute.

Ergo, the aches.

It should’ve only taken a pro hero and maybe two sidekicks to take down the villains, but the villain’s quirks made the fight drag on and eventually, three pros and seven sidekicks from various agencies had joined the fray. They subdued the villains and handed them over to the police, but Izuku wasn’t done. One of the villains, the self-proclaimed “Push ‘n’ Pull,” made it a habit during the fight to slam cars and occasionally heroes into nearby buildings. All buildings were structurally sound, but broken glass and tables littered the sidewalks and in store fronts.

Izuku stretched his back out before making his way to a nearby restaurant he’d seen one of the cars crash into.

He didn’t have to, but… he had to.

For he was here.

By the time he’d recovered from the fight, the owner of the restaurant and their family were cautiously coming out from safety.

“Hey there!” Izuku said with a smile, “Can I help you with the clean up?”

“You- you’re Deku!”

“Yes, but I wanted to see if you guys needed help with cleaning up.”

He ended up helping two restaurants, a clothing shop, and a café clean up. The owners were at first confused to see one of the most prominent sidekicks offering to clean up, but they quickly got over it, wanting to take advantage of the extra set of hands. He picked up glass shards, swept up dust and pieces of brick, and righted tables.

The last shop that seemed to be within the radius of the fight was a pet shop, with the name “Pets Ultra!” in gold and burnt orange paint. He opened the door with a jingle of the bell on top. It looked to be in the best shape out of everything he had seen. The glass was cracked, but not shattered. None of the taupe colored walls were cracked or crumbling. Dog toys, leashes, collars had fallen off the ground. A couple of bags of food had fallen over, one of them burst open on the ground. Unlike the other stores, there was no one inside, or at least no one he could immediately see.

“Hello?” he called out, “Is everyone alright?”

Silence, then, a muffled voice, coming from a back room, “Midoriya?”

Izuku stopped mid-step. “Todoroki?”

He’d seen Todoroki during the fight, but between apprehending the villains and helping clean up, Izuku had lost track of him. But he was still here? In a pet store?

“I’m in the back, through the employee only door.”

His eyes fell on the door pretty quickly, pushing it open and stopping in his tracks.

Todoroki sat on the ground of the back room, animal cages lines the walls around him, several seemingly snapped open. Surrounding him were about twenty cats; some sniffing Todoroki’s arms, some laid on his lap, some just wandering around, like they had no cares. One was batting at Todoroki’s long hair, now pulled in a loose pony tail, and another walked out between Izuku’s legs.

His heart swelled at the sight, suddenly very aware that his high school crush was coming back in full swing.

“Hey,” Izuku paused, still taking in the scene in front of him, “That’s… that’s a lot of cats.”

Todoroki nodded. “After the fight, the owner asked me to help her. It turns out, she wanted me to watch the store while she made sure her family was okay.”

Izuku picked up a cat that was circling around his legs. It was all white and very accepting of being suddenly picked up. “Ah, I understand. I think I got three free meals from helping the other stores around here.”

“Are you going to use them?” Heroes often were given gifts, but whether they should accept and use them was an often-debated topic. Izuku, only a sidekick, already had a corner of his bedroom dedicated to drawings children made of him.

“No, I gave out two of them to police who were still around.” He felt his face heat up. “I kept the café one, but I’ll probably use it to treat someone else. I really like the café.”

Todoroki didn’t respond, not looking disapproving or accepting, which Midoriya took as him being fine with it.

“Do you, uh, do you need help? Cat-sitting? Not that it looks like you’re doing a bad job, but there’s a lot of cats and the own hasn’t been back and it’s been an hour and there’s a cat out there – oh shit! I let the cat out! And there’s cat food spilled!”

Right before Midoriya left the back room to grab the other cat, he heard Todoroki say, “Yes, you can stay and keep me company, if you want.”

His cheeks absolutely did not flush red. Nope, not at all, it was just the heat.

The cat was easy to find, chowing down on the spilled cat food. At the sound of footsteps, the cat looked up at him. It was a large tabby cat, probably very used to sneaking second meals. It looked up at him like he had better food, like tuna or anything other than dry cat food.

“Hey ther- Oh god!” Without warning, the cat leaped and scamper up his leg. His arms were full of the other cat, so he couldn’t help the cat move up his leg, up to his hip. He angled his back, hoping it would help the cat, not allowing him to fall. And it did, the cat taking the opportunity to scamper up until it was perched on his shoulders.

“Oh…  okay.”

His sense of balance was momentarily thrown as he wasn’t used to having a large cat on his shoulders, but he was able to make it back with out dropping any cats. When he got back to the back room, Todoroki looked up and gave him a small smile.

Izuku brushed off his pounding heart with a smile of his own. “So, were all these cats out already?”

“No, I just…” Todoroki paused as a very tiny kitten made their way up his arm, claws digging into the fabric of his costume. They sat down on his shoulder, headbutting Todoroki’s temple.

Izuku held the cat in his arms a bit closer, his heart was threatening to burst.

“Um, the cats were scared in their cages after the fight, so I figured they’d feel better less confined. And…” He gestured to his laps. Izuku’s eyes lit up when he realized the cats were congregating on Todoroki’s rights side, his fire side. They wanted to get closer to the heat.

Too cute!

“I don’t know how you’re able to manage all these cats, I can barely handle two.” As if he heard the complaint, the cat in his arms started the squirm, so he let him go.

Todoroki shrugged with one shoulder, the other occupied by the tiniest kitten he’d ever seen. “I don’t know. I did get scratched earlier.”

“Oh, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’ve had worse.”

Midoriya was about to comment how that wasn’t the point, but he did have a fair point. Some cat scratches would be fine in compression to what the dealt with in one year at U.A. Instead, he settled down near Todoroki, where there was a space relatively cat free.

“Have you ever had cats?” he asked, in a momentarily quiet moment or however quiet a room full of 20 cats could be.

Todoroki said nothing, and Izuku’s heart stopped as soon as he realized his question.

“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry, I-”

“Midoriya, it’s fine. I don’t expect you to remember everything about me.”

“Right! I… yeah that makes sense, but I should’ve remembered- I had a fish once but fish never live long lives, and apparently especially the ones you get from carnivals as a prize for arcade game! But…”

“I had no idea you rambled about normal things. I thought it was just something you did for strategizing.”

“What? I, I mean I guess. I’m also tired and-” he stopped talked as Todoroki moved the cat from off his shoulder, holding the cat like it was a both delicate and a bowl, hand wrapped around the cat’s midsection.

“No, no you, uh, you don’t hold a cat like that.”

He leaned over, taking the cats from his hands.

“My uncle has two cats, so you cradle the arms and support the back like so.”

Todoroki watched his hands, trying to mimic them.

“Here, you’d hold them like this.” He held Todoroki’s hands, shaping them as if he was holding an invisible cat. Immediately his brain short circuited, feeling the callouses and scars from the recent years of being a sidekick, but he continued to coach Todoroki. It was worth it… for the cats.

“Okay, try it.”

The next couple of minutes was spent with Todoroki picking up and putting down cats.

The life of a sidekick.

Once Todoroki got the hang of holding cats, they spent the time catching up. They and every other U.A. alum still kept in touch, but with most of the having full time jobs as sidekicks, it got hard sometimes to find time to talk face to face. Izuku retold the fight he’d been caught in the middle of that included an ice-quirk hero and a lightning-quirk villain. Todoroki had him in stitches, telling him about how he froze an entire lake by accident and then had to skate with his fire side to melt it off.

Their story time was cut short by the sound of metal banging, deeper within the room.

Both sidekicks jumped to their feet, cats scrambling away.

“What was that?”

Todoroki looked in the direction of the noise. “Maybe a cat that was sleeping just woke up.”

“Ah, I’ll let it out.”

Midoriya slowly walked buy the cages, looking through each cage to see if a cat was hiding. Near the middle of the row, a cat’s backside was pressed onto the cage door. The cat turned toward him, making a noise in surprise and Izuku’s eyes widened when he saw it.

No way…

“Todoroki, look!”

Izuku reached for the cat that caught his attention and hurried over to where Todoroki was now sitting again. He held it up in Todoroki’s face. The cat’s face was two different colors, matte black with a green eye on her right side and tabby orange with a yellow eye on her left side. There was a perfect line down the center of her face were the two met. The rest of her body was the same matte black as the fur on her face.

With awe in his voice he said, “It’s you as a cat!”

Todoroki looked at the cat in surprise before bursting out into laughter, body shaking as he tried to contain it.

Midoriya felt his heart grow three sizes, the squirming cat in his hands feeling left out as it escaped his hands, padding toward Todoroki. It leaped onto his shoulder as the other cats started to crowd around Todoroki again. The two-tines cat headbutted Todoroki’s ear and then took to kneading at his shoulder. Todoroki brought up a hand to

“We should do this again.”

Todoroki raised an eyebrow. “We should… pet sit an entire store full of cats?”

“No, I- We should hang out more. Like, get coffee before work, or something,” his voice faltered at the end, suddenly very self-conscious of his words.

“Oh, I agree.”

Before he could respond, the front door to the store burst open, with a woman’s voice calling.

“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting, my family and I-!”

“It’s fine,” Todoroki said first, as she came though the employee only door. “Is everyone okay?”

She took a deep breath, having apparently run back, her dark brown hair falling out of her ponytail. “Yes, they just felt the tremors of the attack.”

“That’s good, but we should be going,” Todoroki said, gently lifting the cats off of him. This did nothing, as they came back onto his lap just as quickly. Izuku bit his tongue to keep from “awwww-ing”.

The woman wrung her hands. “I, um, c-can I ask for a picture? No one will believe me if I said you two were here. It’s a selfish request but-”

Izuku gave her a smile, “Oh, that’s fine! I’m okay with it.”

“As am I.”

His eyes widened. Todoroki wasn’t the type to pose for pictures. There was a video that had gone viral on Twitter where he posed with a child, then jumped up and off a wall to avoid reporters. 

The woman smiled, “Oh, thank you! If there’s anything I can do… If you two are ever able to adopt, please, it’s the least thing I could do.”

“It’s fine, it’s our job,” Todoroki said, attempting to get up.

The woman waved her free hand as she took out her phone. “Oh, you don’t have to get up! This will be fine!”

Todoroki hesitated, but nodded, settling back down. Izuku crouched down next to him, picking up a cat to make room.

“Okay,” the woman said, camera to her face. “One, two-” The flash on her phone camera went off. She fiddled with the phone before taking one more without flash.

“Okay! Thank you two so much!”

The two sidekicks stood up, cats vacating the area as their heater got up. “It’s no trouble,” Izuku said with a smile. “Do you want us to help you get the cats back in the cages?”

“No, no! You two have done enough for me! Just make sure no cats follow you home.”

They both gave her a short bow before Todoroki left the backroom. Izuku held the door for a moment, fingers digging into the smooth steel.

“If you want to do me a favor…” He said quietly to the store owner, “can you send that photo to me?”

Her eyes widened. “O-Of course, Deku!”

He gave her a smile, the relieve settling in his heart. “Thank you! You can you the email on my hero website. Have a good day!”

He turned and left the store, as blush crawled up to his cheeks. He had it bad.

-=-=-

The last streams of light from the sun were filtering from between the buildings. He considered hailing a cab to head back to the hero agency, but he decided against it. He had spent much of the time after the fight lounging around with Todoroki, so he could manage the walk back just fine.

As he swiped in to the hero agency, Aoyama step up behind him. “Midoriya, why- achoo! Why are you - achoo!

“Oh, right, I forgot you were allergic. Sorry, Aoyama, I was helping a pet store and I’m covered in cat hair! I’ll get changed right now!”

“It is alright.” He sniffled. “It is not the end of your shift?”

“I…” The doors slid open and, despite the cool rush of air conditioning, Midoriya felt his neck grow hotter.

“And did you not get hurt in the fight this afternoon?”

“You’re right.”

“As always,” Aoyama said with a sparkle as the turned into the main room where sidekicks did their work. It looked much like an office building, but there was a considerable amount of scorch marks and desks being held up with a pile of not done paperwork. It was a chaotic space, but it was theirs.

“Let me just start some paperwork and check my emails.”

“Bon.” Aoyama let out another sneeze, turning to go to his desk.

Midoriya sat down at his desk, considerably more organized and cleaner than the others, excluding the depressions in the wood made that one time he gripped the desk too hard, waiting for news of a major villain attack.

True to his word, he did get some work done on paperwork, but if he check his email every ten minutes, well no one could prove it.

When he finally did get an email from “Pets Ultra,” he nearly flipped the desk with excitement (something that had been done… three times in the past). He clicked on the email hard, as if the harder he clicked the faster it would open.

The email had a short message, explaining how she was the woman from the pet store, how thankful she was, and how she attached both images.

He glanced around him and, taking solace that the only people in tonight were facing away from his screen.

He clicked on the first image.

It took a minute to load before it popped up.  He took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself as his eyes landed on Todoroki, half covered in cats-

And actually smiling.

It was barely a quirk of the lips, but after years of spending time with him, he knew it was a smile. It was the type of smile Todoroki wouldn’t even give reporters. Any official picture had Todoroki stone faced, expressionless to the naked eye.

So, seeing this, it felt like he was looking at something precious.

Midoriya looked around once again, before forwarding the images to his persona email account, shutting off the computer, and gathering his stuff, ignoring the fuzzy feelings in his chest.

-

As he walked home, his phone buzzed. He opened it, expecting it to be an emergency alert. Instead, a text message from Todoroki popped up.

8:35PM: Were you serious about getting coffee?

His fingers flew as he replied.

8:35PM: Of course! ヽ(^o^)

He stared at his phone for a second before sighing at himself, shoving it in his pocket. He shouldn’t expect Todoroki to respond immediately.

Repeating that sentiment in his head still made the dark walk home feel longer.

By the time he was pulling out his keys to his apartment, his phone buzzed. He whipped it out, nearly flinging it out of his hand. He was momentarily blinded by the bright screen.

8:41PM: How does Friday at 7AM sound?

He beamed at his bright scream.

8:42PM: Sure! (*^▽^*) But where should we go?

His reply came much quicker.

8:42PM: Did you say something about having a free meal at a café?

He read the message, once, twice, three times, but he still couldn’t believe the words on his screen. Was Todoroki flirting with him?

He snapped out his stupor to respond with what was hopefully a “yes” that wasn’t too enthusiastic.

Notes:

EDIT: Holy shit, thank you all for 100 kudoses in 2 days!!! I dont think ill ever get used to triple digits and for yall to give it ti me in two days!!! Yall too amazing <3

I feel it's very clear that I don't know much about hero agencies, nor do I have a clear idea on what Pro Hero Midoriya would be the sidekick for. What I do know, is Todoroki is adorable with cats and that's all the knowledge necessary for me to write this fic.