Chapter Text
The only thing of y/n’s past she can remember, was a cage. Thick black bars forming walls around her. Trapping her inside, never opening, never bending.
She can remember how cold they were to the touch. How her blood would drip from them after hours of trying to claw her way out, to no avail.
She can remember what it was like when light was shone upon her for the first time in who knows how long. How blinding it was after sitting in nothing but darkness. She can remember how nothing good ever came from the light.
And then she was here. Her 10 year old self sitting in the broom closet of a rundown orphanage.
The workers moved almost all the children to a different orphanage about 2 hours ago due to low funding. It’s almost all because she’s still here, muzzled with quirk suppressing cuffs on.
The head of Musutafu Orphanage, Akabane-san, her mind supplies, didn’t like her because of her mutation. ‘I like to think the bitch just doesn’t like cats. It makes me feel a little bit better’. Y/n says to herself. To think it’s not her, it's just cats the old lady doesn’t like. Either way y/n is still treated like an animal.
With a smooth familiarity, y/n dislocates her thumbs and slides the cuffs off. Quickly popping her thumbs back into socket, she slides into the shadows, traversing through them until she’s outside the house.
‘Ok, well they obviously aren’t coming back for me. Which is fine. Means I won’t be locked in a closet anymore.’ Y/n hops back into another shadow and listens. She can hear people miles away talking and laughing as they walk in the bright light of the sun.
‘Man I hate the sun. Ok first things first sleep until sundown, it’s easier to hide in the darkness.’ Nodding?? to herself y/n makes her way through the shadows, hopping from one to another all the way to an abandoned building.
It’s quiet and dirty when she finally pops out of the shadows.she’s in an unfamiliar area. It looks to be an abandoned apartment building of some sort. Not thinking about it too long, she makes her way into a random apartment.
It’s dusty and has clearly been abandoned for a while with cobwebs almost everywhere. The air smells stale and- ‘OMG WAS THAT A ROACH-‘. Shivering, she takes a deep breath and calms her racing heart. Biting back the loud screech building up in her chest. Her ears flush to the sides of her head in fear.
Deliberately ignoring the offending bug y/n looks around for a decent corner to nap in. Which, really, there aren’t many. They’re all either filled with trash or bugs.
If it’s one thing y/n is terrified of though, it’s bugs. The thought of napping somewhere she just saw a fucking war criminal roaming around like it’s their right, was really not appealing.
Then again she doesn’t have much of a choice. Nap with small bugs or chance a damp alleyway with possibly bigger bugs. ‘No fucking thanks’. She thinks with a scowl. Her fluffy black ears flickering in irritation.
After a little bit of clearing webs and dust she finally finds a suitable place to sleep. Well, as suitable as it can get.
With a tail flick, y/n shifts into a small, fluffy black cat. Or kitten? She’s about the size of a 3month old kitten. Literally just a ball of fluff with legs.
Annoyed with her own size, y/n curls up into a tight ball in the corner of the room. She lets out a nasty (cute?) hiss to warn the evil creatures that roam the floors and walls to stay away and promptly passes out.
———————————————————————
Y/n blearily opens her eyes to darkness. Well, as dark as it can get with a cat's night vision. Her joints pop as she stands up. Years of sleeping in a closet wears down on you after a while apparently.
Taking a moment to stretch in a cat-like fashion y/n shakes off whatever dust decided to settle on her fur and pops into the darkness, working her way out of the bug filled building.
‘Alright. Water. I really need water and food.’ Traversing the darkness and shadows y/n comes back out in a nasty smelling alley way. Previous thoughts of larger bugs in alleys gets her scampering quickly out onto the sidewalk. Her black fur blending her into the night perfectly.
‘It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been out here. With Akabane-san monitoring my closet to make sure none of the moving people noticed me, it’s been near impossible to get out. Bitch. Hopefully that nice black haired man will still be out and about and give me food and water like before.’
Y/n thinks to herself she kinda likes the black haired man. He always gave the best pets. Smiling in her head, the small kitten trots her way through the city, listening to the darkness that whispers to her the black haired man’s whereabouts.
The shadows tell her he’s a few blocks away on the roof of some restaurant. Tail flicking idly she silences the whispers and makes her way towards the man's location.
She passes a few drunk people and a homeless man- ‘oh man those scars are wicked’, before she finally reaches the restaurant the black haired man is sitting on.
Tail held high y/n looks up at the faint black blob that is the black haired man and lets out a loud screech (meow?). The black haired man jolts lightly and whips his head around. Y/n let’s out another loud mew and the man ‘finally’ looks down.
Y/n sits up on her back legs and paws at the air while the black haired man uses his weird scarf thingy to make his way down off the roof.
“Hey there kitten. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been huh?” The man says crouching down.
He gives y/n chin scritches and runs his fingers through her feather soft fur. She puts her front paws up on his knees and purrs.
‘I’m glad you asked. I've been locked in a closet under close surveillance and couldn’t get out.’ Y/n responds but it comes out as a mixture of mews and chittering, as it always does.
The black haired man chuckles and picks her up. Stuffing her safely in his scarf, he stands up and swings his way back on top of the roof.
‘He’s so warm. Oh I missed this homeless looking man.’ Y/n things to herself and rubs her head against the man’s scruffy chin.
The man huffs fondly and pulls her back out of his scarf to set her down. Reaching into one of his pocket thingys he pulls out a collapsible water bowl and sets it down for her. He quickly fills it with water and pushes it towards her.
“Drink up little kitty, you must be thirsty. You’re thin as hell too. Are you hungry?” The man says. Worry clear in his voice.
To his question y/n pauses in her water drinking to meow loudly back at the man. ‘He’s worried about me? Why?’ The kitten thinks.
The man softly smiles at her. “Yeah I thought so. Here kit I keep a can on me just in case I run into you again.” The man says, pulling out a can of shredded tuna.
“It’s your favorite.” He adds.
With a happy chortle y/n scampers to the offered can of tuna. ‘Golly gee I love this man.’ Y/n thinks to herself.
“Slow down kit before you choke.” The man says amused. With a hint of concern?
Y/n’s tail sways side to side as she chows down and it’s not long before the can is empty. Looking up at the black haired man y/n gives a thankful mewl and rubs her head against the man’s knee. In return she gets more pets and chin scratches.
“You gonna let me take you home yet?” The man asks.
At that y/n pins her ears back and scampers away a few steps. ‘Sorry guy, I can’t. You’ll find out I’m human and put me back in an orphanage. I don’t wanna go back to the orphanage. I don’t wanna be locked away again.’ She thinks to herself.
The man sighs. “Yeah I didn’t think you would. Maybe next time.” The man says looking at the small kitten with longing.
A tail flick and one last sip of water later, y/n disappears back into the shadows. ‘I doubt it’ll be next time either Mr. But maybe one day I’ll work up the courage to tell you.’ Y/n thinks before she’s taking off through the night again.
For hours y/n floats through the dark seeing everything she’s already seen a hundred times over but never gets tired of it. She overhears a few shady looking men talking about some weird drug. Trigger? Who knows. Y/n ignores it knowing drugs are bad and keeps going. To where? She doesn’t know but it’s somewhere.
———————————————————————
Shota was getting ready for patrol when a can of tuna on the counter caught his eye.
“Are you gonna bring that with you?” Hizashi asks. Shota looks at his husband. A hint of sadness flickering across his eyes. He had planned on not bringing it. Believing that the kitten was probably dead now after weeks of not seeing her. The thought fills him with dread and guilt for not bringing her home the last time he saw her. But he decided one last time wouldn’t hurt.
“Yeah. This is probably the last time I’ll bring a can though.” He responds. The thought breaks his heart but there’s nothing that can be done about it.
“I’m sure she’ll turn up again sho. From what you’ve told me she’s a strong and spiteful little thing.” Hizashi says, trying to comfort his husband. It works a little bit but Shota doesn’t get his hopes up.
Giving the love of his life a kiss, Shota makes his way out of the living room window of his little three bedroom apartment.
‘God I hope she’s alright. I should have snatched her up the last time I saw her and brought her home with me.’ Shota thinks with a sigh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was around 1am when he heard it. A familiar high pitched meow. ‘Holy shit is that her? Am I going crazy?!’ The man thinks. Whipping his head around he looks for the small ball of black fur.
There was another loud meow and he looked down. Sitting there on her hind legs, paws batting at the air, was the small kitten he’d been searching for, for weeks.
With a relieved sigh Shota makes his way down off the roof. “Hey there kitten. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Where have you been huh?” He asks.
The kitten just mews and chitters at him the same way she always does. Chuckling softly, Shota picks the small kitten up and stuffs her in his scarf. ‘I really gotta find a name for her, I can't just keep calling her “the kitten” in my head’. Shota thinks to himself.
Pulling the kitten out of his scarf, Shota sets her down gently on the roof. ‘Fuck she’s so skinny. Thank you Zashi for making me bring that can of tuna.’ He thinks internally.
Shota pulls out a collapsible bowl and fills it with water for the small kitten. “Drink up little kitty, you must be thirsty. You’re thin as hell too. Are you hungry?” Shota asks.
The kitten pauses her drinking and mewls loudly at him. “Yeah I thought so. Here kit I keep a can on me just incase I run into you again.” Shota says, pulling out a can of tuna.
“It’s your favorite.” He says. Watching the kitten hop over to the open can, he thinks fondly back to when he first tried feeding her. Shota was carrying a popular brand of wet cat food that he usually fed the strays near his apartment but then he saw this little thing nosing around in some trash and decided to give it to her. But contrary to what Aizawa thought was gonna happen, this little black fur ball sniffed and hissed at it. Every other stray he’s fed had loved that brand but this little one despised it.
She despised every type of wet cat food actually, until one night Zashi suggested bringing a can of regular canned tuna they had in the pantry. Shota had agreed not knowing what else to give the little thing. Turns out that was the right thing to do since she inhaled it like she was now.
Focusing back on the kitten, Shota saw just how hungry the cat was. She was eating so fast like it was her first meal in days. Fearing for her health, Shota spoke up “Slow down kit before you choke.”
The kitten ignored him but soon finished eating and mewled at Shota. She was rubbing against his knee and purring. She looked so cute he couldn’t help himself but give her more pets.
“You gonna let me take you home yet?” Shota asks. Already knowing how she would react. The kitten pinned her ears back and backed away, lowering her body to the roof.
Shota shook his head and sighed. “Yeah I didn’t think you would. Maybe next time.” Shota offers. He wanted so badly to just grab her and take her home with him anyways. But feared he’d get his ass kicked by a kitten and refrained.
‘Next time I’ll bring her home with me scratches be damned.’ He promised himself.
With one last sip of water Shota watched as the kitten disappeared into the shadows once again when it hit him. ‘SHIT WE’RE ON A ROOF!-‘. Shota frantically looks for the kitten but like always the little bundle of fuzz was nowhere to be seen.
———————————————————————
It’s been a few days since y/n saw the black haired man on the roof. She’s been catching rats and pigeons to feed herself. She fears next time she sees the man he’s gonna try and take her home. And as much as she’d love that she just can’t. He won’t want her once he finds out she’s human. That she’s a mutant.
Shaking that train of thought off y/n hops out of the shadows she was hiding in and walks over to the dumpster that sits behind some random sushi restaurant.
Her ears twitch and swivel at every little sound. Having a cat mutation has its perks she guesses. With heightened senses and naturally being extremely good at stealth, she knows if someone is approaching.
The muzzle that is still clasped around her face rubs achingly at her jaw. She still hasn’t been able to get the damn thing off her. Apparently the muzzle is also quirk resistant so she can’t make her body mist (smoke?) and let it just fall off her. No, the damn muzzle turns to mist (smoke?) too. It’s as if the way they made the muzzle as soon as it’s on it becomes a part of you.
Choosing to ignore it for now y/n focuses back on searching for freshly thrown out food. She’s been coming around to this restaurant for a few days now. Tracking when the workers throw away leftover food.
That was her first mistake.
“Oi!! You damn brat get out of here!” One of the restaurant workers yells at her. The man threw something at her but y/n swiftly dodges and the object hits the small metal trash cans behind her with a loud *clang*.
‘Thank fuck for cat like reflexes amirite.’ Y/n thinks to herself mildly amused before cursing internally and running from the angry worker. ‘Not the time y/n/n.’ (An-y/n/n stands for your nick name :D)
The man doesn’t follow her but she does sense someone else following her. Dipping back into another alley way y/n is just about to hop back into the shadows when the nice black haired man from the rooftop lands in front of her.
Sliding to a stop y/n looks up at the man and pins her ears back. Her tail puffs up trying to make herself look bigger and in turn more threatening in hopes the man will leave her alone. ‘Oh no, oh no oh no oh no. This is bad if he catches me he’ll take me to another orphanage or worse find out it’s me and stop giving me pets!!’ Y/n thinks to herself frantically. Her eyes darted around the alley searching for an exit. She’s not stupid she knows about his quirk. And how she does NOT want him to use it on her.
“Relax kid, I'm not gonna hurt you.” He says crouching down. To anyone else his face would look unchanging in the dark alley. But y/n, with her night vision, could see how his brows twitched with the movement.
‘Oh I feel you there old friend, achy joints fuckin suck.’ Y/n absently thinks to herself.
“That looks like it hurts kid. Can you let me help you take it off?” The man asks, gesturing to the muzzle.
Y/n looks at him warily. On one hand she really wants this damn muzzle off. On the other hand, she really doesn’t want him to take her back to the orphanage.
The man sighs and speaks up again, gaining y/n’s full attention. “I’m a hero kiddo. I just wanna help you okay? I’m not gonna hurt you. And I’m not gonna arrest you or anything.” He tacks on at the end.
‘Yeah man no shit I haven’t done anything wrong.’ Y/n thinks to herself wearily.
Still eyeing the hero closely, y/n takes a hesitant step forward. Her tail clutched in her hands and held tightly to her chest.
“That’s it kid you’re okay. Let’s take a look at this thing, yeah? Hopefully we can get it off.” The man says, telegraphing his every move.
Y/n relaxes a little bit. She knows he won’t hurt her. That’s just not the type of man he is. She’s really just worried about him recognizing her. Which honestly, is a dumb thought because he’s only ever seen her as a cat, but still.
Y/n faces her ears backwards so that she can hear everything he does clearly.
“Damn this thing is on here tight. Sorry kid this might hurt a tiny bit.” The hero says before he quickly jerks on the muzzle and with a snap, it slides off onto the dirty alleyway floor.
Y/n scuttles away from the man and crouches down against a wall. Her small hands rub against the aching spots where the muzzle chaffed.
“Hey kid can I take a look? I just wanna make sure your injuries aren’t infected.” The man asks and explains his reasoning.
Y/n feels a little comforted at the fact he still hasn’t recognized her yet and that he’s still trying not to scare her.
Giving a small, barely perceptible nod of her head. The hero steps forward and crouches down in front of her. She could hear the way his knees popped when he did and pinned her ears back with worry.
“Don’t worry kiddo I’m fine. Just old.” The hero says with a small smile. This gets a small twitch at the corners of her mouth in return.
“Alright I’m gonna touch your face just so I can see better. Is that okay?” He asks.
Tail still wrapped around her and clutched to her chest, y/n nods her head and raises her chin a bit.
The hero gently grabs her chin and turns her head from side to side. His brows furrow slightly at what he sees.
“They look like they’re in the beginning stages of infection. We gotta clean those owies up a bit kiddo.” The man says. ‘Did he really just say owies? What am I five?’ The mutant thinks to herself, ears flickering lightly.
“O-oka-ay” y/n says just above a whisper. It comes out cracked and wobbly due to the lack of use.
“Okay kiddo. I got some disinfectant stuff in my belt. I’m gonna grab them out okay?” He says.
Y/n nods her head.
“Can you tell me your name? I can just keep calling you kid.” The hero asks
Y/n thinks on it for a bit. If she tells him there’s a possibility that he’ll search her up in the system and see she’s an orphan and then try and take her back there. She really doesn’t wanna go back there.
But that would only happen if he manages to catch her. His quirk only works on people he can see right? So if she hops into the shadows he can’t see her. Therefore he can’t cancel her quirk and take her back. Nodding to herself she decides she’ll tell him. Right after he tells her his first.
“Y-you f-first.” She says, looking at the man expectantly.
The hero raises his brow at her. When she doesn’t back down he huffs.
“You can call me Eraserhead kid. That’s my hero name. I don’t give my real name out to people for safety reasons.” The man, Eraserhead, tells her.
‘Ok like that’s fair but I want to know your real name.’ Y/n thinks and her ears flatten a bit. Eraserhead slowly lifts his hand and mumbles that he’s gonna start cleaning her face.
After a minute of silence y/n whispers.
“My n-name is y-y/n. I d-don’t know my last na-name.”
The hero pauses for a moment and nods his head.
“Alright y/n thank you for telling me. Can you tell me who put that muzzle on you?” Eraser asks.
‘This man asks a lot of questions.’ Y/n thinks to herself. Looking at the man she debates whether to tell him or not. She settles on telling him. Maybe he can arrest Akabane-san so she doesn’t muzzle anyone else like y/n.
“The h-head of the o-orphanage I stayed at. H-her name is A-Akabane-san. She didn’t l-like me very m-much. B-because I’m a m-mutant.” Y/n said. The stuttering is slowly going away but her throat is so dry and itchy she doubts it’ll be gone anytime soon.
“Orphanage? Which one? Do you know the name?” Eraser asked.
“The M-Masutafu Orphanage. They-they moved a week o-or so ago. They l-left me in the c-closet.” Y/n shrugged looking down now that the man was done treating her wounds.
“They locked you in a closet? God kid what else did they do to you?” Eraserhead asked while slowly standing up. His joints popped again and y/n’s ears twitched at the sound.
‘I think that’s enough information. Enough to get the quirkiest bitch arrested at least.’ Y/n thinks and stands up.
Shaking her head y/n backs away from the hero. Slowly inching her way into the darkness.
“Hey kiddo it’s ok you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I just wanna help you.” The man says hands up in a placating gesture. It’s clear he’s trying to keep her from running off but y/n already made up her mind and doesn’t plan on sticking around.
Y/n stares at the hero wide eyed before darting off into the shadows. She can faintly hear the hero curse and call out to her. She ignores him and zooms through the dark, away from the hero.
———————————————————————
“Fuck!” Aizawa cursed himself. Of course the kid would run away. He didn’t mean to pry but damn it he couldn’t help himself. The little girl, y/n was so small and skinny. Her eyes were such a beautiful shade of y/e/c (An-your eye color) and were framed by dark eye bags that rivaled his own. Her fluffy little ears pinned back on top of long messy black hair and her tail clutched to her chest. She was so god damn cute, Shota just wanted to wrap her up in his arms and never let her go.
He vows to himself he’s gonna get that orphanage shut down even if it kills him. No child should have to deal with something like that. Poor kit.
Pulling himself together Shota searches around the rest of his patrol to try and find the small child. She looks like she couldn’t have been older than 10. 7 at the youngest. He’s gonna have to look her up in the system.
With only 30 minutes left in his patrol, Shota shoots a text to his husband that he’ll be a bit late and makes his way to the police station.
‘Hopefully Tsukauchi can help me figure out more about this kid.’ He thinks to himself.
Landing roughly in front of the precinct, Shota walks in and b-lines for Tsukauchi’s office. Nodding to Sansa as he passes he knocks on tsukas door.
“Come in.”
“Hey I need your help with something.” Aizawa says slumping down in the chair across from Tsukauchi.
“Sure thing. Tell me about it.” He responded, pulling out a notepad.
Aizawa explains everything that happened, from the girl getting shooed away by the angry restaurant worker to her disappearing after he tended to her wounds. The more he told, the more the look of sadness on Tsukauchi’s face grew.
When he was finished, Aizawa huffed and ran a hand down his face.
“She was so small and skinny tsauka. She looked so scared and her voice cracked every time she talked. I don’t even wanna know how long she’s had that damn thing on.” Aizawa groaned.
“I understand Aizawa. We’re gonna help her though don’t worry. We’ll find her.” Tsukauchi reassures.
“I know. I know. I just hope we save her in time.” Aizawa said, looking at Tsukauchi with a knowing look.
Said detective grimaced and nodded.