Chapter 23
"Casual Friday"
Alarice walked out of the testing building, a gentle smile on her face.
"I'm proud of you." Sunshine was next to her, walking out with her, having shown-up to see the fruits of their labors. "You did well."
Alarice barely heard her, still consumed in the elated thoughts in her head. All she wanted to do was go dance-out this energy. Or run, or just have a sick jam session. Maybe swim for a few hours? UA had an indoor pool, or maybe she could see how many snowmen she could make before getting tired. It was snowing, after all. "I did."
"Are you ready to head back to the School grounds?" Sunshine began, noticing that Alarice wasn't even paying attention to her.
Before Alarice could answer there was a sharp whistle. Looking up at the waving blond heading over. Even Yagi looked up, wondering if it was for him, as he got the two boys in the car. Sunshine paused to see who it was, herself. Alarice didn't see her face, as Yamada made his way over, manbun looking a little messy. "Hey hey! I made it over as soon as I heard! Congratulations Pupper!"
"Thank you, Mr. Yamada." was Alarice's response, smiling back at him.
"Hey, I said you could call me Hizashi-sensei." was his response, a mumbled 'its weird when people call me ' ' under his breath and a cheeky smile on his face. Stone heard it but she just let out a low giggle at his expense.
"First names and nicknames are a little too much aren't they, Mr. Yamada?" Sunshine's voice was a little too chilly. Yagi made some comment quietly that he was taking the boys back to UA, not hearing the conversation, and getting waved-off by Sunshine. The trio stood there for a moment.
"Oh, Miss Sunshine, fancy seeing you here!" He grinned wide, hardly bothered by her comments. "It's not that strict, depends on the person, I prefer my first name, especially when I'm not in uniform. She can call me Mr. Hizashi too if she really wants."
"I don't mind it, the nickname, that is." Alarice defended her teacher, albeit, quietly.
"I see." Sunshine stated, before looking at her phone. "So what did you come here for?"
"To offer Stone a celebratory cheese burger?" Yamada asked, giving a shoulder shrug and holding back his tone from being defensive. She was her god-mother, He really didn't have any power in this situation. "If that's okay? It's kinda cold out here, and you're invited too."
Sunshine shifted on her heels, contemplating. "Fine." Though she was looking at her phone again, quickily, afterwards.
"Alright, well let's go then." He commented breath making little puffs of steam as he spoke. He looked over at Stone to see her using him as a winder-breaker. He buried the lower half of his face into his black scarf, but was still loud of enough he could be heard through the fabric. "Come on, let's get you some burgers before you're a puppy dog, buried in snow."
At the comment, Alarice shook the snow from her hair, and followed behind him, almost unaware that they were basically friends, now. She was still a little in awe and worried about her favorite hero looking out for her so suddenly. Not that she didn't appreciate it, it made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Not to mention that knowing he was potentially paying attention, she did have an urge to do her best. BE her best, at all times. Over greasy food, and Stone eating at-least three burgers on her own, she told him all about her test. Sunshine only occasionally cutting into talk about the test, herself.
Getting back to campus, she noted that Bakugo and Todoroki weren't back yet, but that was alright. She spent the rest of the evening in a surprisingly aggressive snow ball fight. UA student snowball fights got really intense, she was surprised Aizawa hadn't shown up at one point, but perhaps he knew he didn't need to.
Finally, it wrapped quietly with hot chocolate and the company of more calm friends.
000
UA campus was quiet for now, as snow had layered the campus grounds in a thick coat of white fluff.
Stone came downstairs that morning to Denki's voice shouting "This is a Cat! Not a Cocktail!"
When she inspected what was up, he was holding a fluffy looking cat, that didn't seem to care about the undignified way in which it was being held. A few classmates looking completely disinterested and only vaguely amused by Kaminari's commentary. It had a cute looking collar on, too. "That's probably just its name." Jiro chided, taking the cat from Kaminari and handing it to Koda.
"Who names their cat 'Cocktail?' " He asked, pointed accusatory at the cat, while Koda offered it food and water. "Sup' Rice."
"Sup... maybe its for the tail? It looks like a cock's tail." Alarice offered, pointing at its froofy looking tail that definitely resembled that of a cock's. She saw Denki's face and cut him off, quickly. "As in male chicken. A Boy chicken is called a cock."
"I know, it's just-" He couldn't stop the face he was making. Alarice looked at him exhausted already. He failed to bury his immature sense of humor and was snickering to himself.
"Whose cat is it?" Alarice asked aloud, ignoring his snickers, to get to the heart of the matter.
"Don't know, Shoji found her outside under a bush, and brought her in." Jiro responded calmly, kneeling down automatically to pet the cat. "The collar's a dead give away that she's someone's pet, but her name tag is barely hanging on, and it doesn't have a phone number."
"ohh.. she's soft, too." Alarice commented, unable to resist the urge to pet the cat herself. Someone took very good care of this cat. Besides the signs of having gotten wet from melting snow, and a few leaves, she looked really clean. "We should return her."
'I could ask her to walk us to her home?' Koda signed, watching the cat eat her fill and drink.
"I think that's a good idea." Jiro commented softly, still enraptured in petting the cat. Stone moving back to allow Kaminari to come back over, just to pet the cat again too.
"Really we can't keep her?" He whined, clearly enjoying having a cat in the dorms.
"She's not ours, Denki," Stone said quietly back. "We can't keep her, her owner is probably really worried about her."
"Unless its really far." Kaminari almost dramatically added, only to be countered by Alarice.
"She probably belongs to some one on UA grounds." Alarice said, upon remembering her olfactory memory. She was pretty sure she had smelled cat on someone, but it had been such an unimportant thing the time, that she didn't bother to remember who. Just that she had.
Jiro stood up, and heading over to get her winter clothes on. "We should do it now though. Since it stopped snowing, it was supposed to snow more again later today."
The kids let her eat while they got themselves into warmer clothes, before scooping Miss Cocktail up and carrying her outside, much to the disappointment of a few newcomers to the situation. The snow wasn't so deep she couldn't walk and Koda asked her to show them her home. Which seemed to work as the cat started walking, the teens behind her chatting among themselves.
The cat definitely seemed to meander a bit. Opening the question on if the cat thought the whole of UA campus was it's home. It took a few detours before it before it came to stop in-front of the teacher's building. Many UA teachers lived entirely on Campus now, just like the students did.
"Well it would make sense that she's a teacher's cat." Jiro commented while the other three were quiet.
"Or, she's just decided to stop here, she seemed a little confused." Kaminari accused albeit gently, picking the cat back up again. The cat not even struggling and accepting being held. Koda just gave a shrug, it was possible that he hadn't been specific enough and she considered all of UA her home afterall. "Only one way to find out." and Jiro pushed the little buzzer, since this was a teacher's building.
"Yes?" A calm male voice answered, it sounded like Vlad.
"Its Jiro, From 1-A, We found a cat, can we bring her in and see whose cat she is?" Jiro asked nicely while Stone began to scratch the cat behind the ears.
"Oh. Yeah you can. Hang on."
The little intercom voice cut and in a few long moments later, the door was opened by Vlad, who usually looked most like a dad, as a teacher with fangs could look. His sweater was really helping that image too, it looked hand knitted. "Ah. That's Aizawa's cat." He said almost immediately upon letting the kids into the foyer of the building and seeing the cat in Kaminari's arms. "He's out looking for her, I'll give him a text, hang on."
So he did and they stood there awkwardly holding the cat. Deciding it was better than letting the cat run loose inside the Foyer. A little mortified it was their home room teacher's cat they were holding.
"I can't picture Aizawa putting such a cute collar on a cat." Kaminari whispered.
"or him naming it Cocktail." Jiro added on.
"Um, Sir, can we leave her with you?" Stone asked, receiving a gentle head shake from Vlad. "Sorry kids, I actually have to head out, but he said he's heading back so just hang-" He was interrupted by the door coming open, and Toshinori walking in. Neck buried in a thick scarf. "Just hang tight. Hey Yagi, the kids found Aizawa's cat. Do you mind watching them? I'm about to be late."
"Sure, I don't mind." The blond said, nodding and waving Vlad off. "Cocktail was with you kids huh?"
"Well, Shoji found her under a bush by the Dorm early this morning, we already fed her, and gave her water." Stone answered. While Yagi was careful to remove his shoes, and then scarf and coat. Wearing a t-shirt, with a tight matching long sleeve underneath it. The shirt he had on, had Alarice almost immediately biting her lip to hold in the immediate amusement. "Aah, I was out looking on my own for her, Aizawa will be happy to see she's fine, and taken care of." Yagi added with a warm grin, walking over to pet the cat too, oblivious to Stone's reaction. Or that it had spread to Jiro too.
Kaminari was holding the cat out so Toshinori Yagi could pet her, the cat emitting loud purring at being petted by familiar hands. When Alarice's voice cut through, wavering slightly. "Excuse me, Yagi sir, but, w-where did you get that shirt?"
"hmm? Oh my shirt! I got it when I was in the US. It's old but its very comfortable, why do you recognize it?" His tone was so gentle and sweet that Stone didn't know how to explain that she didn't necessarily recognize it. So much as what the white letters on the black shirt, decorated around it, in abstract, bone-like patterns meant.
The combination of three facts made it nearly impossible to not smirk. All Might, admittedly, retired, but All Might, in his currently scarily skeletal state, was wearing a shirt that said; "BONE DADDY" .
"y-yeah I kinda do sir-" Stone tried really very hard not to laugh, but she was struggling to find words. Thankfully, Aizawa and surprisingly to the kids, Yamada came in together, stopping her from having to say anything.
"Ah, Aizawa, look who your students found for you." Yagi invited, still petting the top of Cocktails head while she purred loudly. While the pair removed their shoes. The dark haired man didn't say much of anything, focused entirely on his cat. Retrieving her gently from Kaminari's arms. Aizawa was a hard read but he seemed happy to have her back, holding her close to his chest. "Thank you." He said simply. The cat mewed gently at being back in his arms.
Behind him Yamada finished taking off his shoes, and placing them in the appropriate spot, doing the same for Aizawa who hadn't. He was also, notably to the kids who did notice, trying not to smirk or laugh and failing to hide the former. "See, I told you she wouldn't get very far." He told Aizawa, almost deliberately ignoring Yagi's shirt, though he clearly saw it.
"She's been fed too." Kaminari pointed out for the second time, while he and Koda looked proud of themselves. The two girls and Yamada all seemed to be fighting the urge to laugh about Yagi's shirt. Aizawa nodded, having already thanked them, then turned to take her back to his apartment, leaving the group since his job there was done.
"Well, I'm glad she's been found." Yagi said with a gentle nod to the kids, and heading on his own way, collecting his stuff. "OH, and I'm glad you like my shirt, Young Stone."
This left Yamada who stood there in front of the students as Kaminari and Koda prepared to leave. A sharp inhale and put one hand on either girl's shoulder. "Now. Listen you two...," He paused, as his grin became almost manic. "You can NEVER tell him what that shirt means."