Chapter Text
“It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.”
Shouta opened the door to the small inner courtyard, an isolated place at school he visited to have a smoke during breaks. Nobody tended to go there, but today it seemed to be another story.
“You can do it, friend, it’s not that high.”
The sounds of encouragement lead to a tall and very lean man, hair disarranged in an explosion of yellow. His hands were extended and he was holding his jacket in them, arms lifted above his head as he held it stretched as if covering from the sun.
Before Shouta could make any comment on the situation, a soft meaw was heard, and he lifted his gaze to find a small ball of fur sitting on a tree branch, right in front of the strange man. The kitten had their butt firmly on the tree and no apparent intention of jumping down towards the safety net that had been crafted in front of them with a horrible yellow suit jacket.
“Mh. Don’t think that’s going to help.” Shouta said, catching the other man’s attention until he was turning around.
His looks were quite a shock, with cheeks sunken in and eyes hollow enough to be underneath an unnatural shadow, only his irises shining a bright sky-blue color like two marbles in a sea of black ink. Thankfully, Shouta was famous for being utterly unexpressive, and had students in all shapes and colors, enough to be prepared to look unphased by the other man’s appearance.
“Oh.” The man said, disappointment clear in his voice as he lowered his jacket and held it underneath one arm. “Do you have any other idea? I just… it seems too small to know how to go down on its own.”
Shouta approached the tree, inspecting the situation up close; he knew that kitten, had seen it before when taking a smoke in the same place. Silently, he searched his pocket, grabbing some candies he saved for moments when he couldn’t smoke but wanted to fill the craving with something. Tearing the wrapper off one, he put the sweet in his mouth, keeping the wrapping between his fingers as he squatted down and made some noise with it, hunched over it like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
Shouta could feel the other man’s intimidating eyes on him, but soon enough the kitten was climbing down the tree and approaching Shouta slowly, as if inspecting prey.
“Oh.” The man said, once again.
Shouta let the cat approach him, and then revealed the transparent piece of plastic, which only interested the animal for a second before it was sprinting towards the bushes and disappearing from sight. Standing up, Aizawa turned towards the other man, noticing the way he scratched at his neck in a nervous gesture, head tilted slightly downwards in shame.
“Well, that’s embarrassing.”
Shouta stared at the man, tilting his head slightly to the side, then put a cigarette on his lips after impatiently chewing and swallowing the sweet. “Mind if I smoke?”
“Ah, I guess not. Just please don’t blow smoke my way, I have some lung issues you see.”
The man stood in front of Shouta awkwardly and didn’t say anything else, so Shouta walked past him towards a bench as he lit the cigarette, careful to blow the air as far away from his courtyard companion as possible when he sat down. After a few seconds, blinking slowly as the other man appeared to remain frozen where he stood, Shouta decided to be merciful. “You’re new at School, right? I have seen you around some.”
The man nodded, then walked closer, extending his hand politely. “Yagi Toshinori. I’m doing paperwork at the moment but I’m hoping to become a teacher someday, or at least help the children more directly.”
Shouta nodded, shaking his hand “Aizawa Shouta”.
A simple nod would have done, but he wanted to spare the man even more embarrassment, so he didn’t say that, just like he didn’t mention the fact most teachers were at least partially renowned heroes when Shouta had never in his life seen Yagi before. Maybe his quirk was interesting anyway, he tried not to judge.
“First week I worked here I was walking back home and heard a scream. I broke a window to get into the apartment where I heard the noise coming from, capture weapon flying around me and everything. Turns out it was just a woman singing a song she didn’t know the lyrics to because they were in a foreign language… utterly off pitch.”
Toshinori stared at him, confused at the sudden confession.
“Don’t feel bad for thinking the cat needed help and trying to provide it, the Plus Ultra mentality gets really drilled into your brain in this School, especially when you are getting used to it still. Also, cats are very fond of making humans look stupid.”
After a second of silence, Toshinori smiled, a toothy grin that occupied a large part of his face. It would’ve been creepy if it weren’t for the cute laugh he let out afterwards. “Thank you.”
Shouta blinked at him, then turned his face to the side once again to let out the smoke. “No problem.”
“Mind if I sit next to you?” Toshinori asked, shyly. He seemed to be trying to make himself look smaller with his shoulders so hunched.
“Be my guest.”
Toshinori sat down, hands closed in fists laying on his thighs timidly. “… So did it happen?”
Shouta arched his brows, not understanding.
“Did the cat manage to make me look stupid?”
There was a playful tone in Toshinori’s voice that had Shouta grinning, a sight that wasn’t very common but yet the man seemed to have managed to rip out of him after barely introducing each other. “Maybe a little. But don’t worry, I won’t tell.”
Turns out, Toshinori was surprisingly good company. Shouta found the man went to eat to the inner courtyard every day, since the cafeteria didn’t provide what he needed for his “health conditions”. Aizawa didn’t ask for him to elaborate, but found himself enjoying the company when smoking all the same.
His food didn’t seem particularly special, if only a bit bland and boring, but he never ate too much too soon, rationing his portions enough to look bothersome for his schedule, to the point Shouta even found him munching on a snack in the hallways, but never saw him eating anything consistent. After a while, Shouta started bringing his own food along, keeping the man company in a way that was less harmful than filling the place with smoke, and in a small effort to make him feel less left out. It wasn’t pity, Shouta wasn’t usually motivated by pity, but he could empathize with loneliness and thought Yagi deserved more than eating alone in a bench just because of health conditions.
The kitty that had fooled Toshinori the first time joined them some days, Yagi instantly kneeling down to share his food with no resentment.
That day was no different.
“Do you think they can eat this?”
“Sure, so long as it’s not dairy, grapes, nuts, onions or garlic, mostly everything else should be fine. I’m not sure if this one eats raw meat or not, considering I don’t think they have an owner that feeds them daily. Or maybe they do, you never know with cats.” Shouta shrugged, the cat was sitting on his lap and he used a finger to scratch its chin as he talked.
Toshinori, that had been lifting up a noodle in between pinched fingers, fed it to the kitten, leaning closer to Shouta to do so. It was oddly intimate, his disarranged hair almost grazing Shouta’s cheek, the cat lapping at his long fingers contently.
“Ah. I shall bring them some cat food next time, I think it would be better.”
Yagi sighed, completely unaware of how Shouta was sitting perfectly still, unused to the proximity and still unsure of whether he disliked it or not. He swallowed, looking at the yellow hair that invaded his sight.
“You seem to like cats.” He said, mostly to distract himself.
The comment made Toshinori lift his head until they were meeting eye to eye. He seemed to notice it was too close, moving a bit further on the bench, but not far enough to mean he was uncomfortable with the proximity. He even blushed a little, Shouta trying his best not to gape at that reaction in such a giant, grown man.
“I like all animals. What about you? You seem to know your way around cats a lot.”
Shouta looked at the ball of fur on his lap, green eyes blinking slowly at him as he pet it. “I like cats. Some people think of them as insensitive because of how independent they tend to be, but they are actually very loving once you learn how to read their body language and what they like.”
Toshinori hummed at the comment, thinking. If he came to any conclusion, he didn’t say it out loud, instead going back to eating his vegetables and noodles. After a while, he looked again at Shouta, a smile on his face. “Do you think we should give it a name? It feels odd to refer to them only as kitty.”
Shouta paused, lifting the cat for a second to inspect it. “It’s a male.”
“Miawizawa.” Toshinori said in no time, as if he had already thought about it.
“Absolutely not.” Shouta said, grimacing.
It seemed to do nothing in deterring Yagi, who instead laughed, a sweet sound that ended with a coughing fit. Shouta rolled his eyes, already used to Toshinori’s coughing by then, unaffected by it. He did, however, hand him a tissue, that Toshinori used to wipe some blood off his mouth. Just how ill was this man?
“It’s just that, you sort of look like a cat sometimes.” He completed, after he was done coughing.
Shouta huffed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Toshinori smiled, his signature toothy grin “It was!”