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.