Chapter Text
A sickening crack filled his ears and pain rushed to one of his legs. His vision was spinning too much to tell if the cage had stopped being thrown around. The janitor was yelling something but it was drowned out by the blood and ringing that seemed to consume the waking world. A new, softer voice filtered in. He squinted wanting to find the source. Another rat? He tried pushing past the pain and focused on the stupid rat that found themselves here. He blinked trying to stop the back dots dancing around at the edges. It wasn't enough to stop them but it was enough to make out the rat beside him.
“...Owe..n?”
No, no no! That idiotic rat, he's still sick from the basement incident the other day. No, he's going to get hurt and it's going to be my fault… again. I'm going to get us killed… The world went black the last sight being Owens' worried face, nothing but unreal chaos behind him.
🐀
Aizawa played back the events that got him to this point in time. Nezu casually mentioned how a friend of his out in the country was struggling with a rat infestation. It was just a casual conversation between friends. Honestly Aizawa had completely forgotten about it until Nezu said he was taking a few days leave to visit this friend. And then the next day he got a call where Nezu explained he found out he couldn't speak rat like they originally hoped. Aizawa thought that was the end of it. Boy had he been wrong. Because on Friday he got another call, the janitor Nezu’s friend hired had caught two of the rats. And instead of killing them Nezu offered to take them of their hands. That's how he found himself getting told that he'd be getting class pets. Apparently Nezu had already ordered the necessary stuff and would be getting back Sunday. Leaving Aizawa to set up a pet rat cage on Saturday. And that's how he got here.
Standing at the table next to the window, he had set the cage up yesterday. To be honest it was pretty nice. The cage was a bit bigger than an average hamster cage to accommodate for the two of them. All four walls were made of bars with the bottom being covered with fake grass and had some sheltered areas. Aizawa had spread some enrichment toys around for chewing. Above there were two different levers, the second which was about half way up the cage had some bedding and cover. The third level led to a small hamac at the top of the cage.
He placed the box down next to the cage, taking a breath before opening the top slowly. The first thing Aizawa noticed was the two rats curled up in the corner. The second thing he noticed is how strangely human they seemed. They had rat ears, nose, tail, paws and stuff but other than that they had the same human anatomy. One had a brown orange fur color and was about the size of his palm, maybe a bit smaller. It had a pair of goggles on its head, an orange shirt and brown pants with small bits of green fabric here and there.
The second rat was smaller with a strange cyan color fur. It was smaller than the orange one and was curled up tight close to them. The small thing had overalls and in spots its fur was covered in dirt. Aizawa noted the white fabric tied around its leg but thought nothing of it. The next thing he noticed was the strange stains on the box floor. Assuming they didn't have anything on hand and just used an old box for transport. Looking back to the rats he was met with horrified eyes. The orange one had in the few seconds he looked away woken up and was staring up at him in utter fear. Holding onto its friend tightly, taking this as a sign. Aizawa opened the cage door and carefully started tilting the box so the top was placed flat agents the bars leaving no room for the rats to escape. There was no way he was picking them up, he'd just be asking to be bitten.
A few moments later a small head poked through scanning the cage before nodding slightly and disappearing back into the box. Returning once again with the still asleep cyan rat draped over its back. Making a break for the shelter in the corner of the cage, which made sense. Upon seeing them vanish into the shadows Aizawa removed the box and closed up the door.
They would need time to adjust to the new environment but it couldn't hurt to leave some food out. Right? Instead of a bowl there was a raised panel that attached to the bars, it had slight ridges to keep the food from rolling off. Once filling the tray and not seeing any movement in the shelter Aizawa slumped into his desk chair.
“How am I going to explain this tomorrow?” Well that was tomorrow's headache. It's probably smart to keep the students away from the rats till they adjust. A new thought came to mind. What if they were carrying a disease? No way Nezu had time to get them checked before now.
Groaning, Aizawa sat up and powered on his computer. Nezu would be in meetings for most of the day. He'd just write a quiet email explaining his concerns and hope Nezu would get back to him soon.
🐀
Monday morning came and begrudgingly Aizawa got to class early wanting to make sure that the students leave the cage alone. The rats are probably stressed enough as it is, they don't need giants picking and proding at them.
Ida and Izuku were early to class as always. They immediately clocked the cage, surprising no one.
“Long story, don't mess with it. Though it's not you I'm too worried about." Aizawa only briefly looked up from his paperwork.
“What's in it? If anything at all. It looks empty." Izuku was staring at the cage, eyes narrowed in like every time he's analysing something.
“It's a rat cage. And judging by the size there's at least two, besides rats take at least a few days to adjust to a new cage.” Aizawa looked up at this. Confused at how accurate Ida was of all people. “What?"
Izuku looked just as shocked. “How did you know that?”
“Oh I worked at a pet store to help with hospital bills as extra money for a while.” As if they explained anything.
“A pet store is the last place I'd expect to see you working."
“Say Ida, would you know where we could get them checked out? Doubt Nezu had the time and I'd hate them getting us sick.” Maybe this would work out better than Aziawa thought.
“Yes actually. But did you not ask for their medical records before adopting them?"
“Yeah well about that-” the door opened as Mina walked in, talking with Momo about some new shop that opened up. She gasped walking over towards the window before Ida stopped her.
“Sorry but it's best not to mess with the cage so they can adjust to their new environment.” His voice is kind but stern. Guess if he worked at a pet shop he'd have had dealt with a bunch of little kids.
“Oh uh sorry guess I just got excited." She sheepishly looked away before sitting at her desk.
“Anyways what you were saying about the medical records?” Ida turns his full attention back to Aizawa looking generally curious.
“Oh right." Aizawa puts his pencils down, taking the destruction from paper work. “They don't really have one. Nezu dumped them on me yesterday after returning from a visit
from a friend of his out in the country.”
“Wait like a breeder out in the country?"
“Nope, well maybe an accidental breeder. He's been struggling with an infestation in his attic.” Izuku looked horrified, Momo was looking between Ida and himself confused, only having half the conversation.
“Ah well that explains that then. I'll talk to some people to see if they can come to you. In this case they may be more hesitant around humans.”
“What is happening?” Momo asked, eyeing Ida. He gave her a run down. She seemed disturbed by the mere idea of rats. At this point he started toning them out getting back to work. Lucky Ida took to keeping everyone away from the cage and explained how rats need space to adjust. After the bell sounded Aizawa cave had a quick run down about the plan with the rats before dismissing the rest of the hour for anything the students needed to get done.
Small conversations filled the air. Aizawa had long since lost motivation to do work. The idea of class pets seemed to give the room a slight spark of energy. And if Aizawa thought he heard hushed squeaking and shuffling from the cage he turned a blind eye. Still not spotting any movement from the cage, though it was probably the angle he had.