Yagi had a cat.
It wasn't really a big deal to Aizawa -it was- but the last time he checked the teacher dorm rules, pets had been strictly against them. With Nezu being a sophisticated mammal, he had a thing against seeing others play with pets, especially mice. Sekijiro had been forced to find a neighbor willing to take of his dog during the school days and even Thirteen's fish was off limits. Aizawa is pretty sure that both were still working out the trauma with the school concealer, Hound Dog.
Really, the only one who had a real reason to keep any pets in their dorm at all was Koda Kouji but even he was limited to only the rabbit. It wasn't even allowed out of the boy's room unless he, or anyone else, was carrying it. Aizawa had told the students that if he saw any white rabbit fur on the dorm couches or carpets, he would report it and the creature would leave. He wasn't cruel -he definitely was. He was just a man who liked to see his normally ambitious class following at least some set of rules. He was bluffing, mostly, but the look of horror on the kids' faces was enough to convince him that they would follow the rules. And even if they didn't, they knew to vaccum after.
Knowing how strict the rules were, Aizawa was very surprised to feel a soft, purring hair ball rubbing against his legs as he sat on Yagi's couch during a longer grading session. Looking down, Aizawa couldn't help but let a small smile slip as he watched those adorable, green hazel eyes look up at him. Reaching down slowly, he ran his hand down the cat's back and felt his heart leap as the purring intensified. Oh boy, he was already a mess.
"Ah, I see you've met Mittens?" Yagi's voice sounded nearly surprised but the hint of joy in it made Aizawa feel warm.
Then, the name registured. The dark haired man couldn't resist looking at his brightly smiling coworker -it hurt his eyes just to watch- and give him a face that said "are you serious?". Mittens? What kind of a name was that? He had so many options to choose from; Mochi, Lilly, Chibi, Leo, Kai, and even Hime. Yet, he chose Mittens? Aizawa had never met anyone remotely pleasant who named their cat Mittens and the hero could feel his friendship with Yagi already beginning to break apart.
"What?" Yagi asked, obviously confused.
"Mittens?" Aizawa didn't care to hide his displeasure. Just saying the name felt gross.
At that, Yagi laughed, his head falling back. It was loud, yet not annoying like his usual All Might laugh was. This was was less booming and more...Aizawa couldn't quite find a word to describe it. It had a slight wheeze to it -likely from the poor health- but it still rang nicely. "Oh my, Aizawa. If I had known you were an expert in cat naming, I would've come to you immediately." The man smiles, still chuckling softly.
Although the words seemed rude, the way Yagi said it almost sounded...genuine. Would he really have come to the younger man just to name his -likely smuggled- cat? Huffing out a breath, Aizawa shook his head. "It doesn't take an expert to know that Mittens is a bad name."
"Is that so? Well, what would you name him, then?" Yagi gave the man a curious, if dangerous look.
Aizawa thought over the question and looked back down at the mess of purring fluff that had made it's way into his lap -he hoped his students weren't allergic. The cat was bordering fat, based on the extra width to it's stomach. Obviously well loved and well fed, even though the owner definitely wasn't, but that was a conversation for another time. The cat was black everywhere but it's paws, belly and lips. It had a smaller nose than most cats Aizawa has seen but it just seemed to make it that much more cute. After another long look, Aizawa had it.
"Mistoffelees." He stated it strongly, with confidence.
Yagi had the nerve to laugh again. This time, it was more of a giggle that the man was trying to keep down, but it kept coming back up in new bursts. Aizawa scowled from his side of the couch, wondering how a man who named his poor cat Mittens had any room to laugh. After a little while, Yagi began to cough and a pang of worry crossed Aizawa's mind as he saw a drop of blood land on the older man's handkerchief, but he didn't say anything.
"Mind to share what's so funny?" He used his teacher voice. The same one that got Kaminari to quit petting Ojiro's tail in the middle of class or stopped Bakgou's constant yelling.
"I didn't take you as someone who watched musicals, Aizawa." Yagi let out another chuckle, sounding much too proud.
Aizawa felt his eyebrows furrow. "Cats is a popular musical, Yagi. It isn't like I would need to have seen it to know who the characters are." That last one might've been a lie, because he definitely has seen it, several times. "Besides, if you haven't seen it, then how do you know where the name comes from?"
The bright smile that Yagi gave him didn't leave Aizawa feeling satisfied with his response. "As you said before, it's a popular musical. Perhaps I've just heard of it."
That was a lie, but Aizawa didn't press any further. He still had half of his class's assignment to grade and if he didn't finish it soon, he would be too tired to give any reasonable scores. Turning back to the sheets on his lap, Aizawa started slightly when he remembered that Yagi's cat was laying there. It had fallen asleep by now, snoring softly. He didn't dare move in fear of waking the precious creature, but he had to get his grading done.
Yagi must've seen his problem, because not a second after Aizawa attempted to pull his pencil out from under Mittens' fat stomach -without much success- the man was reaching over and pulling the cat into his own lap. Mittens let out a startled noise as it was lifted but didn't protest, letting Yagi lay it down between them on the couch. There, it curled and twisted it's body to get comfortable before falling back asleep. Aizawa was hypnotized by it, his gaze never straying from the ball of fur.
"Aren't cats against the rules?" Aizawa finally said. He hadn't wanted to bring it up in the middle of their earlier conversation and a part of him was also scared that once he did, Yagi would look at him in surprise. He wasn't aware of how commonly known the rule was and if Yagi hadn't checked before moving in...well, Mittens would be gone. Aizawa didn't want that at all.
"Yes." Was Yagi's only response. The idiot didn't even look up from his papers when he said it. Why was this man so difficult? Wasn't he supposed to be nice to people by nature?
"...and?" Aizawa usually wasn't the one having to push answers out of people. Most times, he didn't care enough to do so, even when he was curious, but he couldn't just let Yagi knowingly break the rules -oh, yes he could. He just wanted to know why Yagi would do it. All Might was such a rule follower, after all.
"Mittens was a gift from Recovery Girl. She said that since I'm retired, I'll have time to take care of a cat." Yagi's neutral face flashed from fond to irritated. "If I had known that it was just another way of her trying to get me to eat more, I would've rejected it." Aizawa didn't say anything, trusting that Yagi would continue now that he's gotten passionate. With a sigh, the man set down his pen and ran a large hand down Mittens' back slowly. "In order to take care of Mittens, I can't be taking on more work than I already have with my core classes. I need to return between breaks to feed him and make sure that he has water, every day. Of course, that also meant that I had no excuse to skip meals either."
Aizawa knew Recovery Girl was clever, but he never expected something like this. All of the teachers worried for Yagi once they realized just how badly he was and it's still something that he's struggling with. At first, everyone had volunteered to take over part of his job, wanting to ease the burden that he carried, but that only made things worse. Instead of accepting their help, he would find ways to help them with theirs. Several times, Aizawa had seen a fresh cup of coffee on his desk in the morning and even during their lunch break.
Now, Recover Girl has figured out a way to get Yagi to keep from doing too much work, but also avoid making him feel useless at the same time. With a cat, Yagi can use his drive to serve onto his pet, which he obviously has been doing.
Now that Aizawa thinks about it, the man does look better than he has since he started working at UA. His cheeks are a bit more filled in and his smile is a little brighter. He doesn't slouch into himself whenever someone passes by and he doesn't keep his gestures restricted to small waves of his hands. Yagi is finally living for himself instead of for the public.
"I have to say, I'm almost jealous." Aizawa doesn't laugh, but he does let a smile slip onto his lips. "Maybe you could work off all of the help you've needed with your computer by letting me pet Mittens." Just remembering how often the man would tap his shoulder because he had clicked this or done that incorrectly made his head throb.
Yagi smiles despite the slight teasing tone the younger hero used and nods. "I'm sure Mittens would love to have someone to play with besides me. I may need a little break to heal the scratches." As if to prove his point, Yagi shows his hands and Aizawa notices that he has quite a few of them. They're not very deep, but they're longer and a few stretch across his knuckles and palms. Looking to the suspect of this abuse, Aizawa sees Mittens stretch out, his head rubbing against the couch.
"I wouldn't mind getting a few scratched." Aizawa mutters, almost to himself. He's had far worse that kitty scratches.
"Then, maybe we can do this again tomorrow evening?" Yagi asks, a ray of hope shinning in his eyes. This time, Aizawa looks up and meets those bright irises.
"Yeah, I can do that." Maybe he could assign a pop quiz to grade tomorrow.
Author's Notes: You guys really liked the other Erasermight fic I wrote so I decided to do another. Of course, you can take this as just friendship as well. I too am a sucker for these two being good friends! On a side note, I was going to give All Might an orange tabby cat, but decided to use my own cat instead (yes, his name is Mistoffelees). And I also apologize if anyone does have a cat named Mittens. I don't hate the name, personally.