This is a purely self-indulgent story that has barely gotten any editing, so don't expect much from it. I just wanted to write something with my two favorite characters, and I saw this comic with Shigaraki and Dabi as cats and got inspired.
When Tomura stepped out into the rain that day, he had been planning to stop by the apothecary for salamander tails and snake eyes and then visit the grocery store since he was running out of vegetables. He had not planned on adopting the stray cat that he found on the way home.
Unfortunately, Tomura had a soft spot for cats, and the moment the scruffy black cat looked at him and let out a scratchy mew, Tomura knew he was a goner. He mentally pinched himself as he approached the cat, who stood up and arched its back slightly as though trying to appear more intimidating than it actually was.
Tomura stopped a couple feet away, eyeing the cat calmly. He noticed the scars that spanned the cat's neck and paws, where fur had been torn out and the skin had been charred. The thought of the cat being a victim of animal abuse made Tomura's blood boil and a corner of his mouth pull up in a grimace.
"You look like shit," he muttered as he took in the animal's sorry state.
The cat yowled in response as it relaxed its stance, shaking its head and sending water droplets flying everywhere.
Tomura grunted as he moved a little closer. The cat watched him with wary, blue eyes but didn't run away. "Huh. You don't act like you've been abused. Where did you get those scars then?"
He didn't get an answer, but he hadn't been expecting one. "What are you doing out in the rain anyway? I thought cats hate getting wet."
The cat flicked its tail. Tomura reached out a hand, wondering if the cat would allow him to pet it. The feline leaned away and cast a suspicious look at his hand, and Tomura couldn't help but snicker at the cat's expression.
"You wanna get out of the rain?" Tomura withdrew his hand, placing it back in his pocket as he observed the cat, who blinked slowly and took a few steps closer. It paused for a few seconds, and Tomura couldn't help but feel as though he should have said something different.
Then, it jumped at him, hooking sharp claws into the soft fabric of his sweater. Tomura yelped and stumbled at the sudden weight, nearly dropping his bags as the cat clambered onto his shoulders and into his hood. It curled up contently, ignoring Tomura as the latter growled angrily at the stinging scratches left on his back.
"You absolute shit." The wizard apprentice glared over his shoulder but started walking nonetheless. He couldn't stay angry at a cat for long, even if the cat acted like a complete jerk. Maybe things would get better at home.
Things did not get better at home.
As Tomura hung up his umbrella and put his groceries away, the cat jumped out from the sweater's hood, no doubt leaving fresh wounds on Tomura's back. It disappeared as Tomura hissed and cursed at the pain, and when Tomura went looking for it, he found the animal curled up on his favorite armchair. The apprentice felt a headache coming when he saw that the water from the cat's fur had thoroughly soaked the seat of the furniture.
When he grabbed a towel and tried to dry the cat off, the piece of shit decided to take off running, leaving Tomura to scramble after it as it knocked plants off the windowsill and tore up the tapestry of the famous wizard Yagi Toshinori that hung on the wall. At one point during the chase, Tomura had gotten frustrated enough to let out an aggravated scream, which the cat answered with an equally loud screech of its own.
"I'm just trying to get you dry!" Tomura howled as he lunged for the cat, "Why won't you stay still!"
The cat hissed and spat from its spot on the dining table before diving for the ground. With a speed that surprised himself, Tomura reached out and wrapped both hands around the cat's midriff, sending the feline into another bout of yowling and thrashing. Tomura nearly dropped the cat in shock but managed to wrestle the little monster to the ground and swipe the towel across its fur.
"It's not like I'm trying to kill you," Tomura muttered, panting from the impromptu pursuit of the little furry devil.
The towel muffled the cat's low growl.
Once Tomura was satisfied with the cat's fur, he let the animal go, watching as it darted under the bed. With a sigh, he grabbed a salve from his medicine shelf and headed for the bathroom, where he stripped off his sweater and shirt to examine the scratches on his back. He applied the ointment to the cuts he could reach, threw his clothes into the laundry basket, and placed the balm back on its shelf before heading into the kitchen.
The cat had crawled out from underneath the bed by the time Tomura finished making dinner. The apprentice turned to find the animal sitting on the table and watching him, and Tomura faltered for a moment before setting down his bowl of noodles.
"What are you looking at?" A part of Tomura couldn't believe he was talking to a cat, while the other part was already trying to think of a name for it. "You're probably hungry, aren't you? I sure as hell hope you like pork 'cause that's all you're getting."
Apparently, the cat loved pork because it didn't take long for it to finish the bowl of chopped meat that Tomura placed in front of it. It also didn't take long for it to start stealing from Tomura's share of food, even going so far as to snag a few noodles and pieces of cabbage. As Tomura dumped a few more noodles into the cat's bowl, he could swear the furball was smirking.
At the end of the day, Tomura supposed that it could be worse. Aside from the drying fiasco and the dinner thievery, the cat was well-behaved, lounging around on Tomura's armchair and watching as the apprentice flipped through his spellbook. Tomura would have even forgotten that he had a cat if it weren't for the soft paw steps on his comforter long after Tomura went to bed. He could hear the quiet rustling as the cat shifted around, and he felt the animal curl up against his back.
A part of Tomura wanted to squeal like a kid, but he didn't want to scare the cat away, so he only allowed himself a small smile before drifting off to sleep at the sound of the cat's soft purring.
As days passed, Tomura started having suspicions that his cat wasn't just a cat. Sometimes, when he woke up in the morning, he would find books lying around on the floor, flipped open to random pages, and Tomura always put books back on his shelf when he was done with them. At the first incident, Tomura had panicked, thinking that someone had broken into his house while he was asleep, but none of the protection spells he set up had been triggered, and there were no signs of a break-in. Naturally, he turned to glare suspiciously at the cat.
"You the one who touched my book, Patchwork?" he asked, arms crossed over his chest.
The cat – whom he temporarily named Patchwork – looked at him with apathetic, blue eyes and let out a low meow.
Another thing that tipped Tomura off was the fact that the cat seemed to understand what he said.
His neighbors, the Midoriyas, were a family of ghosts, and Tomura was good friends with the son, Midoriya Izuku. In fact, Izuku often came by with cookies that his mother baked, dropping them off even if Tomura wasn't home. After all, a door wasn't going to stop a ghost, and Tomura didn't mind. Izuku was the epitome of politeness, and Tomura trusted him.
One morning, Tomura jerked awake to a terrified squawk and the sound of hissing. He bolted out of bed and rushed into the kitchen to find Izuku cowering in the corner, clutching a box of chocolate chip cookies to his chest while the cat growled and bared its teeth at him.
Tomura bit his lip so he wouldn't laugh. "What's going on here?" he asked, leaning against the doorway.
"T-T-Tomura!" Izuku squeaked, voice trembling as he stared at the fluffed-up cat, "I didn't, I didn't know you had a cat! I j-just came to drop off some cookies, and it attacked me!"
Tomura wasn't sure if he wanted to scold the cat for scaring Izuku or praise it for knowing how to hold someone hostage.
Instead, he sighed and sat down at the kitchen table. "That's enough," he told the cat, "Izuku's a longtime friend. I gave him permission to come and go as he pleases."
The cat fell silent, and the fur along its back and tail smoothed out. It eyed Izuku for a moment longer before padding away into Tomura's bedroom. The wizard apprentice stared after it, thinking about how the cat's response was so human.
It was probably a werecat of some sort.
"That's a werecat," Todoroki Shouto stared at the black cat, who stared back, "He's also my brother."
Well, damn. When Tomura left the house with the cat in tow, he hadn't expected to meet Shouto and sit down to discuss the furry monster that had been eating all of his food for the past month. He had to admit that it was nice to have his suspicion confirmed though.
"Your brother, huh," Tomura squinted at the black cat, who gave him an unimpressed look, "I guess I can see it in the eyes."
Shouto raised a hand to the left side of his face, where his eye was the same bright blue as the cat's eyes. "I guess."
"So how'd your brother get those scars?" Tomura prodded at one of the cat's paws, earning himself a sharp nip on the finger.
"Fought with our father," Shouto explained, his voice tight, "He used up a lot of energy for that fight, so he got stuck in cat form. Ran out and found you."
More like I found him. Tomura thought back to the rainy day where he met the sopping wet feline. Now that he knew the story behind the lonely cat sitting in the rain, he realized something in the werecat's hunched posture and bowed head.
The image screamed defeat.
Tomura sucked in a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. "So what's his name? I've been calling him Patchwork, but what do you call him?"
"It's Tou–" Shouto stopped when his brother let out a loud yowl. Tomura watched as the two exchanged looks. The werecat's tail waved through the air, the tip flicking periodically, and Tomura guessed that he was probably communicating with his brother.
Finally, Shouto spoke up. "He says he's called Dabi."
Tomura didn't question it. Not out loud, at least.
Shouto's cellphone beeped, and he glanced at it. His mouth pulled into a displeased frown as he stood from the table. "I need to go, but before that, have you fireproofed your house?"
"…No? Should I?" Tomura blinked.
"Yes, as soon as possible," Shouto looked at Dabi, who blinked back, "Actually, it would be best if you did it as soon as you get home today."
Tomura would do it tomorrow.
As Tomura rose from his seat, Shouto transformed, landing on the tabletop as a red-and-white cat. He sidled up to Dabi, looked up at him, and gave the bigger werecat a tentative lick on the cheek. For a brief moment, Dabi's eyes widened and his body tensed. Then, Shouto mewled softly, and the black cat relaxed.
Dabi gave a scratchy mew of his own, raising one of his paws, and for a moment, Tomura thought Dabi was going to scratch his brother. However, the black werecat placed his paw on top of Shouto's head like a big brother ruffling his sibling's hair. Then, the smaller cat hopped down from the table and strode away.
Tomura definitely did not smile at the scene.
He definitely should have taken Shouto's advice and fireproofed everything because that night, the protection spells surrounding his house went off and woke him up at three in the morning.
Three intruders, all faeries.
Tomura slipped out of bed, hands trembling as he grabbed the amulet he kept on his bedside table. He stepped out of his room carefully, taking the box of matches from the bathroom on the way. Like a shadow, the wizard apprentice slunk downstairs, keeping an eye out for a faerie. Reaching into the box, he pulled out a match and lit it.
A shriek sounded right in front of him, and Tomura jumped backward in time to see a small creature dart away. A scream tore from Tomura's own throat in surprise, and it choked off just as quickly when the teen realized just how close he had come to death.
The faerie hung back, baring its teeth at him but not daring to approach out of fear of the flame. Tomura retreated until his back hit the wall, brandishing the tiny match as a weak defense. The other two faeries came out of the darkness, stalking around him and flexing their bony fingers, ready to pounce and rip into his neck the moment the fire died. Tomura's breaths turned into sharp gasps. His knees gave way, and he slid down the wall to sit on the cold, hard floor.
When the first growl rumbled through the hallway, Tomura thought he imagined it. However, the faeries whipped around to stare at the stairs. Still shaking, Tomura followed their gazes and stopped breathing.
Dabi stood at the bottom of the stairs, teeth bared and tail lashing, blue eyes zeroed in on the faeries surrounding Tomura, but he was no longer a small housecat.
This Dabi was the size of a full-grown leopard.
As Tomura watched, something blue streaked across Dabi's paws. It curled around the great cat's neck, and Tomura felt a rush of warmth encompass him, protective and reassuring. Then, the match in Tomura's hand extinguished as Dabi burst into flames.
The hall flared blue as the werecat advanced on the cowering faeries. Flattening his ears against his head, Dabi snarled again, the sound deep and threatening and promising a world of hurt if the faeries didn't leave immediately. The intruders fled amidst angry chirrups and terrified squeaks.
The fire emanating from Dabi's scars sputtered and vanished, plunging the hall back into cold darkness. Tomura let out the breath he had been holding and shivered as the warmth of Dabi's fires abandoned him. The werecat turned to him, and cold eyes softened as Dabi padded closer.
The rest of the night passed in a blur. Tomura felt numb as he pressed the buttons on his cellphone to call the police. He sat on the couch in his living room as he gave the officers his testimony, and Dabi pressed into his side whenever Tomura faltered. When the police left, Tomura stayed on the couch, staring blankly at the charred floor. Then, the emotions caught up to him.
Dabi's tail curled around the apprentice's leg as Tomura inhaled shakily and wiped at the corners of his eyes. Shifting in his seat, Tomura wrapped his arms around the werecat's shoulders, happy that Dabi didn't pull away.
"Thank you," Tomura whispered into the werecat's fur.
Dabi keened lowly in response.
Tomura could feel the events of that night taking a toll on his body, and he found himself unable to fight the tiredness that weighed his eyelids. He fell asleep on the couch, curling up against Dabi for warmth. Minutes elapsed, and a scarred arm reached around to wrap securely around Tomura's waist. A sigh passed Dabi's lips, and blue eyes slid shut.
Moments later, one of Dabi's eyes flicked open again, and he raised his head slightly to peer out the window. Then, with a quiet snort, the man laid back down and listened to the rhythmic thrumming of the rain.