#alley cat remix au

[thornfield13713]

With the differences in Todoroki’s character in the alleycat remix au, how exactly does the sports festival arc change? Since he uses his fire freely already, I’d imagine it’d have to be fairly different.

Hm. 

Good question.

I am still working on the Sports Festival thing here, but Todoroki’s issues are probably a bit different here - he doesn’t associate the fire as much with his father, he’s also a bit less aware of just how awful Endeavour is. Like - he is aware that Endeavour’s training of him is brutal and terrible and not something that should’ve been done to him, but he’s bought in a lot more to Endeavour’s excuses for doing it, and growing past that is going to be a major character arc for him.

And Izuku is one of the first steps towards that, as he is understandably appalled by what Shouto tells him. Like- Izuku’s had a much wider experience here. He had Inko, who loved but could not protect him, he had his various foster-families, who ranged from all right to awful, and then he was on the street without a caregiver, and then he was with Aizawa, who is an absolute disaster...but a disaster who loves his kids and is doing his best by them, and who also trained them himself. So Izuku has seen awful home situations, and he’s seen what ‘hero training the next generation at home’ should look like, and from both perspectives he is qualified to say that this is fucked up.

So...I don’t actually know how that changes, but hopefully I will have it figured out by the time I write the Todoroki-POV section of the Sports Festival piece.

[buckybarnesbingo]

BBB Week 33 Roundup!

(gif by xxxxxx6)

Title: War Collaborator(s): call-me-kayyyyy Link: Tumblr Square: Y1 - bucky/clint Rating: Gen Ship(s): winterhawk Major tags/warnings: god tier boyfriends, greek deities, Ares!Bucky, Apollo!Clint Summary: Bucky is based loosely off Ares & Clint is based loosely off Apollo. Word count: n/a

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Title: Sex Revenge Collaborator(s): Bird/plutosrose Link: AO3 Square: K3 - Revenge Rating: Explicit Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Major tags/warnings: Hookups, Drunk Sex, Infidelity, Hangover Summary: After seeing his boyfriend making out with someone else at a bar, Bucky goes home with a guy who turns out to be the captain of the football team. Word count: 1194

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Title: Alpine🌸 Collaborator(s): call-me-kayyyyy Link: Tumblr Square: K1 - alpine Rating: Gen Ship(s): bucky & alpine Major tags/warnings: cuteness overload, alpine is the best cat ever, flower power Summary: Bucky and Alpine try on matching flower accessories. Word count: n/a

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Title: Always Come Back To Him Collaborator(s): Jordan Link: Tumblr Square: B1 - AU of your choice Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes x Reader Major tags/warnings: mafia business? Summary: You have history with the mafia boss, Bucky Barnes, but you tried so hard to stay away from him and his goons. What happens when he finally finds you and makes you realize everything you felt about him was real, and that you never really hated him in the first place? Word count: 1.9k

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Title: My Little Angel from Heaven Above Collaborator(s): Bitters/Bittersweet_in_Boston Link: AO3 Square: Y5 - Bucky/T’Challa Rating: Mature Ship(s): Steve/Bucky Major tags/warnings: Alternate Universe: Modern Setting, Alternate Universe: Vampire, Vampire Bucky, Pre-serum Steve, nightclub, fangs, Halloween Summary: Bucky meets his friend T’Challa in the club on Halloween night. They pursue their respective crushes, T’Challa an old friend, Bucky a grumpy angel he catches sight of on the dance floor. Word count: 3441

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Title: Familiar Ghost Collaborator(s): LBibliophile Link: Tumblr Square: C2 - angst Rating: Gen Ship(s): Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes Major tags/warnings: Winter Soldier reveal, hallucination, drabble poem Summary: When the Winter Soldier's mask comes off, Steve isn't surprised. Bucky's face has haunted his dreams; it was inevitable he would start seeing him while awake too. Word count: 100

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Title: Forgotten Collaborator(s): Noe / unnuevosoltransformalarealidad Link: Tumblr Square: K2 - Bucky train CA1 Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes x Reader Major tags/warnings: Plane Crash, Accident, Memory Loss, Angst Summary: Bucky may have not lost his life in the plane crash, but without realizing it, he lost everything else Word count: 1349

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Title: one foot in the grave, one foot in the shower Collaborator(s): cyanica Link: AO3 Square: B5 - au: supernatural Rating: Mature Ship(s): steve/bucky Major tags/warnings: blood, gore, injury, horror Summary: “Tell me again what happened,” Steve heard himself say, over the red, over the smell of crismon leaking all over the tiles and dripping down Bucky’s neck. Maybe it was just the poor yellow lighting of their bathroom, but Steve could’ve sworn Bucky’s whole body was changing, too. Or Bucky is bit by a vampire. Word count: 1136

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Title: Be careful of who you meet in dark alleys Collaborator(s): Girl Back There Link: AO3 Square: Adopted - Power Swap Rating: Teen Ship(s): Bucky/Steve Major tags/warnings: Vampire AU, Blood Drinking, Digital Art Summary: ...it may be the last thing you do. Word count: N/A

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Title: Date Night: Intermission (Remix) Collaborator(s): newtypeshadow Link: AO3 Square: K3 - Judge, Jury, Executioner Rating: Mature Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark/Winter Major tags/warnings: Kidnapping; Non-consensual ensorcellment; Bucky & Winter are Separate Personalities; Symbiote Winter; Flerken Tony Stark; Furry, Tentacled Vengeance Summary: Tony is just a house cat. Just a house cat. Just a house cat. And because he is just a house cat, he will not flerken the fuck out on this demon masquerading as a lady and touching his mates' hand while leaning too close to show off her tits. OR: When Tony, Bucky, and Winter are kidnapped in the middle of date night, Tony—who is definitely only a cat—is spitting mad. Word count: 2165

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Title: The Trouble With Tony Collaborator(s): newtypeshadow Link: AO3 Square: K1 - AU: Roommates Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark Major tags/warnings: Alternate Universe, Roommates, Pining, Pre-Slash Summary: Bucky has a serious problem with being Tony Stark's roommate, but not for the reasons you'd think. Word count: 100

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Title: Boo-tiful Collaborator(s): LBibliophile Link: Tumblr Square: K4 - image [Bucky tripping/falling] Rating: Gen Ship(s): Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark Major tags/warnings: Halloween, meet cute, coffeeshop AU, drabble and moodboard Summary: Bucky tries to salvage a first meeting with a bit of spooky spirit. Word count: 100

[earnestly-endlessly]

hi friend!! can you rec me all fics which involve cherik and cats? apologies if you've done this before :)

Hi anon, thank you for the ask. No, I don't think I have done a list involving cherik and cats before. Once again I've divided the list into different categories because the ask wasn't clear on whether you wanted fics where they are cats or just ones that involve cats, so I did both. I hope you find some good ones on this list :)

Cherik Cat AU

-They are cats or get turned into a cat-

Humane Society – smilebackwards

Summary: Once Erik finally allows himself to decide that Charles is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread, he spends the next week being incredibly bitter that he's Charles' cat and not his boyfriend.

the pawsitively unfurtunate tail of his royal majesty king charles the third – ikeracity

Summary: A vicious curse transforms Charles Xavier, High King of Westchester, into a cat. This is very unfortunate for a number of reasons.

Having Kittens – so_shyy

Summary: 'My boyfriend is a pregnant female telepathic cat,' Erik said. 'I think this time I'm entitled to panic.'

Cafuné – nanashi_tomo

Summary: So of course, the rest of the afternoon was spent in a rousing game of ‘What Can We Do To Make The Professor’s Tail Puff Up Like A Bottle Brush?’

The Cat’s Meow – ferretbaby

Summary: Based off a prompt on kink meme: When Erik offends a potential recruit to the Brotherhood, the mutant gets back at him by turning his beloved cat into a human being. Cue Charles pouncing on Erik, waking up all over him, trying to sleep over Hank's computer cause it's warm, chasing birds, caressing himself over other people and overall bothering Erik until he gets petted and purrs happily. There is sexy time eventually.

Notes/Warnings: Slight Beastiality (Charles is half cat here), sex, crack, romance.

Sex Kitten – Cesare, helens78

Summary: On a recruitment trip, Charles and Erik encounter a mutant whose power leaves Charles a little... changed.

Kitty Cats and Sacred Pacts – Ember

Summary: Erik is an every day citizen whose line of work just happens to force him to rub elbows with the wealthy. And so when a very important costumer asks him to look after his pet, Erik has really little choice but to say yes. Even if that pet happens to not be all that every day...

In a society where Felixes, a race of cat like people, are pets for the rich, Erik finds himself with a luxury item he may be falling in love with when he acquires Chance. Not only that, Erik is soon plagued with odd dreams of a past life... and a great tragedy which became of it.

But the Cat Came Back – twelve_pastels

Summary: “Oh, look! It’s Charles, and he’s been transformed into a cat by a malevolent government program! I wonder how I can change him back and thereby secure his love forever and ever, amen?”

Strays – Teacandles

Summary: Raven's handicapped corgi Charles has a bad habit of finding stray kittens and bringing them home with him. One day, instead of finding an adorable kitten, Charles befriends a rough-and-tumble alley cat. Hank is not amused.

Hairy Conniption Fits (and other hazards of fatherhood) – Quietbang

Summary:The one where they're all kittens.

-Involving Cherik and cats-

Feline Persuasion – unforgotten

Summary: When Charles looks down at his wristwatch and realizes he’s been going on about catnip brands for at least ten minutes, he realizes several other things too: he is officially a crazy cat person now. And he is never going to get laid again.

The kitten! Verse – Ren

Summary: Modern AU in which Charles and Erik are flatmates. Charles studies psychology and likes tea and chess and keeps bringing home stray kittens, and Erik lets him because he's maybe perhaps a little bit sort of in love with him.

Series

On the nuisance that are cats and their owners – sirona

Summary: Fucking cats. Fucking Charles with his soft heart and his blue, blue eyes and his fond smirk that turns filthy at the drop of a hat. Fucking Erik for not being able to refuse him anything when Charles looks at him like that.

A Shark Amongst the Kittens – orphan_account

Summary: Charles has a lot of cats. He sort of collects them without meaning to, really, and it isn't his fault.

Enter The Purrminator / More Tea, Purrfessor? – Anonysquirrel (chibirisuchan)

Summary: "I think Mendel would be a perfectly lovely name for a cat -- especially one displaying such a pretty instance of Ss bicolor genes and a non-tabby agouti mutation! The tuxedo pattern's genetics are fairly well established, but no one's quite isolated the allele for those mittens--"

"I could get behind Tux. Or Tuxie, if he's a she."

"I can't," Charles said, rubbing his temples. "Honestly, love, it's a miracle we've ever managed to name our children."

In which Alex brings home more strays, and Charles doesn't mind.

A Cat Named Erik (The Very Next Day Remix) – JackyJango

Summary: One day, Logan breezes into their house like he bloody belongs there, with a cigar stubbed between his lips, a cat in hand and an expression so smug that Erik wants to do nothing more in that moment than burn Logan’s eyes with the said cigar.

'I found this cat while rescuing a building, Charles. He was homeless. I thought you'd like to keep him,’ Logan says. Erik begins to protest but Charles holds the cat and awws and coos, and Erik's protests die a strangled death. Logan smirks looking directly into Erik's eyes, and says, 'Oh, and the locals say that his name is Erik.'

Series

Whiskers in a Twist – endingthemes 

Summary: Charles brings home a cat. Erik is not pleased.

[aftgficrec]

are there any homeless neil fics¿? tyvm for ur time!

Neil’s housing situation is frequently just as dire, if not more so, as in Millport.  Homeless Neil features in a few previous recommendations (see below), and here are a few additions to the list. - S

homeless Neil here

‘hearts’ series here

‘Lock away that winter of mine’ series here

‘how many more spider-people are there?’ here

‘Exy's Next Top Model AU’ here

‘in the summer silence’ here

‘the prettiest blue’ here

Coming Home by pandaseek [Not Rated, 20848 words, complete, 2020]

None of this mattered right now. Not when he hadn’t felt his fingers or his feet in hours. He wore every jumper he possessed, and his hands were buried inside the pockets, but it did nothing to stop the icy winds tearing through his clothes and chilling him to the core. He needed to find somewhere out of the elements to sleep for the night.

He hated suburbia for this very reason. Plenty of nice homes, all occupied with people who were far to concerned about strangers camping in their woodsheds or breaking into their cars. He had to find something soon though, he knew he wouldn’t make it back to the interstate like this. He turned his eye’s back to the rows and rows of neatly manicured near identical houses. Looking for anything that might stand out as uninhabited or dark enough that the owners would miss his shadow slipping into their garage for the night.

Too many lights shining brightly out of windows drew his attention at last to a dark spot in the street 20minutes later than he would like. His teeth were chattering, and he was getting desperate enough to risk slipping into an occupied house. The darkened house down the street looked like heaven wrapped in a bow tie just in time for Christmas.

tw: violence, tw: gun violence

Say Goodnight by justdk [Rated T, 2280 words, complete, 2020]

Neil is used to being cold and hungry and alone. Being homeless isn’t great but it’s better than the alternative – being dead. And these days, if he’s really desperate, he can stay at Carson’s. Except Carson’s family is on vacation visiting relatives in south Florida.

[short version: homeless and cold, Neil reaches out to Andrew]

A Key Rusted In The Rain by Detective4 [Rated T, 2438 words, complete, 2020]

When Neil returned from his evening run to his temporary shelter, he did not expect to be greeted with shouting and a fist to the jaw. However, life liked to keep Neil on his toes, and Neil wanted to cut life off at the knees.

Coffee-Cats-Home (Neil lives out of his car remix) by Autumnalpalmetto [Rated T, 3076 words, complete, Aftg Remix 2020]

After losing the room he was renting, Neil has no choice but to live out of his car. The heater doesn't work well-or at all really-and he needs to find a place to stay warm during the day. Enter a barista who is a little too lenient on letting cats into his coffee shop, and a little too ready to invite strangers into his home.

Coffee-Cats-Home by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot) [Not Rated, 2614 words, complete, Aftg Summer Exchange 2019]

Neil slumped over and cradled his head in his hands.

“Sir, look at me. Sir?” the irritating voice continued from above Neil’s head. “It’s company policy. No animals of any kind in this coffee shop.”

Neil and his cat lose a home. But they find a better one.

tw: panic attack, tw: violence, tw: abusive relationship

Just Don't Leave by thesaroscycle [Rated T, 7032 words, complete, 2018]

Neil tried to ignore it. He really, really did. He was just trying to get to the Foxhole alley as soon as he could, sit in their heating and order something warm before he went to sleep where ever he could find for the night. Everyone else was ignoring the sound too, though, and he couldn’t help but wonder what had people looking away from something crying like that the same way they looked from him when he walked by. What he didn’t expect to see was a cat.

tw: panic attacks

walls, windows and a mystery by jemejem [Rated T, 2311 words, complete, 2019]

Andrew arrives home from three months of dealing with international flights, Kevin and Exy bullshit, only to find his new place with a little more than walls and windows.

[badass-at-fandoming]

OTP Meme

Grabbed from @robotslenderman. Thank you! I liked learning about Arturo and Olivia. :D

I felt like a little pick-me-up so I decided to do this. Thank you @brightstorm98 for suggesting Beckett and Sergio.

Beckett is Beckett. Sergio is my original Malkavian ghoul character. You can read about them in my fanfic series, A Kinder Universe. Sergio first briefly appears in “Bad Idea” is the star of “First Date,” and pops up again in “Bonpensiero Bloodline Remix.”

Quick n’ dirty: Sergio is a former Prince of Sicilian Mafia, who faked their death and became an Los Angeles fashion designer and ghoul to a Malkavian. Sergio uses he/they pronouns.

DISAGREEMENTS.

Who is more likely to raise their voice?

Sergio. I kinda picture them as Dante’s Inferno with their temper. They run very hot, but their truest, purest anger is ice cold. That’s when bodies start dropping.

Who threatens to leave but never actually does?

I think it’s probably about even. It’s more of a “Maybe I should leave you be” sort of vibe. Both of them can recognize when it’s time to take a step back and cool off. Sergio would still let loose a couple invectives before leaving. Beckett more bottles it all up.

Who actually keeps their word and leaves?

Unless it’s a case of “I’m going to do a suicide mission so you don’t have to,” neither would actually leave the relationship. But they’re both independent spirits in a loose polycule, so there are periods where they’re not together. Sometimes Sergio doesn’t want to go places. For example, Liberteria is awesome, but it’s a chock full of blood-hungry, stinky Brujah, so Sergio would rather stay in Casablanca and party. Sometimes Sergio wants to focus on a different relationship, such as them and Cesare. Sometimes the projects one of them embarks on are of an extremely personal nature, so space is granted. Example: Sergio has no clue that Beckett is paying off that Giovanni scumbag to not hurt Emma’s ghost. Only Anatole has one inkling about that.

Who trashes the house?

Sergio. Listen! The mess is part of the creative process! They’re designing the next big sensation in fashion! It will be the talk of Paris! Please don’t touch the fucking scissors; they’re the only decent sharp ones. I KNOW they’re in a slipper, but that is the only place for them.

though lol @ beckett having a house aldkfjalkjgl

Do either of them get physical?

I assume this means during an argument? Sergio has a bad(?) habit of kissing Beckett to prove a point, or encourage him to agree.

How often do they argue/disagree?

I feel I’m being terribly boring here. A normal couple amount?? They’re both adults. They hash things out. A hot button topic would be safety. On a dare, Sergio will rush in where angels fear to tread. Beckett disapproves when Sergio breaks into places without telling him beforehand. But it was easy as pie! They turned invisible, picked the locks, decapitated some patriarchs, and whallah, they have the artifact he wanted! Stop looking at them like that, you know we will be out of the country before those wraiths can snitch. Also: I took their fetters.

Another hot button would be their mutual stubbornness. Sergio will insist they have the best idea. Beckett will think he’s right. They butt heads, and Sergio’s not above playing dirty, which is a whole other problem.

Beckett would land in hot water with Sergio if he kept his heart closed off. Sergio is all about openness and feeling one’s feelings.

Who is the first to apologize?

Sergio. They are like EMOTIONS. Beckett is like “My plan is I will keep all my emotions locked in my chest, and, eventually, I’ll die.” Sergio is overt. Beckett is covert.

SEX.

Sergio is Beckett’s dom. Beckett goes to them when he wants to surrender.

Who is on top? Who is on bottom?

Beckett canonically says Bottom Rights

Any kinks?

Dom/submissive. Bondage. Leather. Bloodplay. Orgasm delay/denial. Nipple clamps.

You know when cats get overstimulated and they just lay there with their paws in the air? That’s Beckett after a session with Sergio.

Who has the strangest desires?

.It’s pretty strange that a Kindred of Beckett’s age is into sex at all, but it’s my AU and I do what I want. In my world, he’s a touch starved disaster.

Who’s dominant in bed?

Sergio. They’re the dom, and it’s a reward to touch them.

Sergio is a stone bisexual, which means they don’t like to be penetrated or have their genitals touched at all. I did this partly because I’m wary of writing a scene that depicts Sergio’s junk. An enby reader who identifies with Sergio might read that they have ABC, and the presence of ABC might trigger gender dysphoria. I want those readers to keep however they picture Sergio in their head. Overall, I also don’t like the cis reader tendency to await for an enby character’s genital reveal, in order to figure out “what they are really.” As if genitals had anything to do with gender.

I created Sergio because a)there needs to be more enby characters in Vampire and b)I need practice writing enby characters. I’m not nonbinary so I KNOW I’m going to mess something up. Nature of the game. There are plenty of strategies for writing sex with a nonbinary partner, but I’m not confident in my ability to do so as of yet. So, for the moment, Sergio keeps their pants on and orders Beckett around.

Is head ever in the equation?

Yes! Sergio will lick Beckett like a lollipop.

If so, who is better at performing it?

Sergio, haha. They spent a long chunk of their life living loose and fast in Hollywood.

Ever had sex in public?

HA! Yes.

Who moans the most?

Beckett, and Sergio loves to tease those noises out.

Who leaves the most marks?

Beckett. He’s delighted that he CAN leave marks on Sergio. His other lovers are Kindred, and they heal too quickly to leave a fantastic hickey.

Who is the more experienced of the two?

Depends on how one defines experience. Beckett has had more lovers. Sergio has notably better technique.

Do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’?

They and other characters refer to them as “sessions.”

How long do they usually last?

Hmm...probably depends on what they’re doing. I think it would average out to about an hour? Maybe two hours? Four hours at the longest. 10 minutes at shortest.

Rough or soft?

[Lady Gaga’s “I Like It Rough” starts playing in the background]

Is protection used?

Now that I think about it...that’s probably a good idea. They don’t have to worry about pregnancy, but STIs are a pain. The AIDS crisis is freaking dicey and utterly terrifying.

Does it ever get boring?

No. It becomes familiar. Comforting and warm. As easy to slip into as a daydream.

Where is the strangest place they’d have sex?

I haven’t written any strange places yet. Making out in an open alley during the 1940s was certainly dangerous. End of the world or no.

FAMILY.

Do they plan on having children/or have children?

Nope. Sergio isn’t interested in acquiring children, and Beckett wrote off having children long ago. Sergio is happy to be the immortal cousin to the Garcia family. The Garcia’s are a human family their regnant, Cassandra, takes care of.

Sergio knows how to care for a child, in the casual way one acquires when living under the same roof as one. To Beckett, children are more foreign, and he’s extremely worried that he’ll accidentally hurt them. That being said, put a baby in his hands and, after the initial nerves pass, he absolutely melts.

If so, how many children do they want/have?

n/a

AFFECTION.

Who likes to cuddle?

Both! I’m a sucker for cuddlebug characters.

Who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places?

Sergio. They initiate a lot of the casual affection.

Who struggles to keep their hands to themselves?

Once he gets going, Beckett.

How long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable?

Depends. Sergio is human, so there’s varying tolerance for how cold Beckett is. Sergio is the one who gets uncomfortable though.

What is their favourite non-sexual activity?

murder Going on Noddist adventures!

Where is their favourite place to cuddle?

Bed. Do you know how cozy bed is

SLEEPING.

Who snores?

Sergio, as the one who has to breathe.

If both do, who snores the loudest?

Sergio.

Do they share a bed or sleep separately?

Depends. They like snoozing together, but they’re not always in the same place.

If they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart?

They’ll cozy up temporarily, but the need to get into an actual comfortable position for sleep will pull them apart.

What do they wear to bed?

Nightgowns. Both of them grew up wearing those to sleep.

Are either of them insomniacs?

Beckett has a God-ordained sleep schedule, so moon’s out, Beckett’s out. Sergio is variable. They have depression, so sometimes they’re asleep like 12 to 16 hours a day. Other times, when their brain is providing the serotonin, Sergio will push themself to stay up at all hours. During “First Date,” Sergio is awake all day doing work and stays up all night to smooch Beckett.

Can sleeping pills be found by the bedside?

Beckett has picked Sergio up, laid them on the bed, and squished them until they fell asleep. That’s all the help to snooze Sergio needs.

Do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side?

Like I said above, they’ll wrap around each other for a bit, but eventually straighten out and just lay beside each other.

Who wakes up with bed hair?

Both! Beckett more.

Who wakes up first?

Sergio, most like. Being an Elder, Beckett usually wakes up an hour or two after sunset.

Who prepares breakfast in bed for the other?

If he’s feeling especially mother hen-ish, Beckett will bring Sergio breakfast in bed. Whenever Sergio is in bed, there’s breakfast for Beckett.

What is their favourite sleeping position?

Sergio likes to snuggle up to Beckett. When Beckett needs a lot of reassurance, he may put his head on Sergio’s chest to listen to the sounds of their living body.

Do they set an alarm each night?

Sergio will set alarms to rouse themself at the appropriate The Vampires Are Up(TM) time

Who has nightmares?

Both, though rarely.

Can a television be found in their bedroom?

Life with Beckett is a life on the road. Motels will have TVs so yes. In Sergio’s bedroom in LA or Beckett’s airplane? No.

Who has ridiculous dreams?

Beckett. He has the more bizarre connection to the Cobweb.

Who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed?

Neither of them are bed hogs, but I guess Beckett? He’s bigger.

Who makes the bed?

They each make their own sides of the bed.

What time is bed time?

Dawn.

Any routines/rituals before bed?

Cuddles!

Who’s the grumpiest when they wake up?

Sergio can be grumpy or frustrated, but that’s not as much as an Emergency Alert if Beckett wakes with a hungry Beast.

WORK.

Who is the busiest?

Beckett, as he has a never-ending trot across the globe.

Who rakes in the highest income?

Sergio. By virtue of them actually having a steady trust fund and investment portfolio, plus any clothes they design and sell under a false name.

Beckett is like #FreelancerLife and leaves notes on museum doorsteps asking if they want this 400 year old piece of pottery and the curators are like sir what the fuck

Are any of them unemployed?

Nope

Who takes the most sick days?

Sergio, by virtue of ability to get seriously ill and more prone to injury. Beckett can only suffer from the Withering.

What are their jobs?

Beckett is a Noddist scholar, anthropologist, and archeologist. Sergio is fashion designer.

Who sucks up to their boss?

I guess the closest thing either has to a boss is Cassandra, as Sergio’s regnant. They will flatter her to the stars and back.

Who is more likely to turn up late to work?

They’re both likely to be delayed by complications. Complications such as assassins, traffic, angry Kindred officials, mascara not cooperating etc etc.

Who stresses the most?

Beckett. He worries a lot.

Do they enjoy or despise their careers/occupations?

They’re both in love with what they do.

Are they financially stable?

This is fantasy fiction so of course they are. I have enough money troubles irl.

HOME.

Who does the washing?

Most of the places they live (like motels) have a dedicated maid service, so it would be a mix of Sergio, Beckett, and the professionals.

Who takes out the trash?

Ditto to above.

Who does the ironing?

Sergio! They find it soothing.

Who does the cooking?

Also Sergio! Beckett is fascinated and regrets that he didn’t have the chance to eat Italian food while he was alive.

Who is more likely to burn the house down just trying?

BECKETT NO

Who is messier?

Like a messier eater? Beckett, because blood stains are pain. He is very neat, but when he does fuck up, ugh.

Who leaves the toilet roll empty?

No one, what the heck

Who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor?

Both of them. Sergio is fussy with clothes when they’re wearing them, but is more lack when it comes to taking clothes off. Ideally, the outfit lands in the hamper, but sometimes one is too tired or preoccupied with kissing.

Who forgets to flush the toilet?

Dude, what, no.

Who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere?

Beckett: Sergio, my dear...why is the car making a horrendous beeping noise.

Sergio: My God, that is awful--oh, I see, it thinks you have stolen it.

Beckett: wha--the car is mine!

Sergio: And this is what happens when you break into your own car

Who answers the telephone?

Both of them have their own cell phones. They could pick up a call for the other if the other is preoccupied, but it depends on what the caller ID says.

Who mows the lawn?

Neither of them knows how.

Who does the vacuuming?

Ditto for the other cleaning questions. Sergio vacuums more than Beckett because vacuums hurt my ears and I don’t even have super senses.

Who does the groceries?

Sergio, because they eat. If Sergio asks and gives Beckett a list, Beckett will go.

Who takes the longest to shower?

Beckett. He likes to stand in the warmth and soak.

Who spends the most time in the bathroom?

Sergio because makeup is awesome.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Is money a problem?

Nope.

How many cars do they own?

Neither of them own cars. They rent ones when they travel. Beckett has a jet.

What’s their song?

I haven’t found one yet. “I Like It Rough” by Lady Gaga is my best guess.

I do have a Beckett playlist here and I associate Sergio with “Que Sera, Sera” by Doris Day, “Crying Lightening” by the Arctic Monkeys, “Gangster’s Paradise” cover by Postmodern Jukebox, and the “Careless Whisper” cover by Postmodern Jukebox.

Do they live in the city or in the country?

They globe-trot, but Sergio’s “home base” is in LA.

Do they own their home or do they rent?

Hotel and motel bills oh no! Or they rough it.

Do they enjoy their surroundings?

Yes! Sergio and Beckett love traveling.

What do they do when they’re away from each other?

When Beckett is off adventuring with someone else, Sergio follows their other passions. They design new outfits, romance their other partners, adore their fish, try new beers, help Zelde build her inventions, and generally lives their life.

Where did they first meet?

LA. Read it here, but again it’s more a cameo.

Who spends the most money when out shopping?

LOL Sergio.

Who’s more likely to flash their assets?

Sergio is more likely to flash their cash to get what they want. Or flash Beckett’s prestige FOR Beckett. “Do you know who this is? This is the Beckett, scholar and the smartest man you will ever meet. He has thought more thoughts than you have in your entire pathetic life. So why don’t you run along to your little Elysium and tell your Keeper to let us in.”

Any mental issues?

As a Malkavian ghoul, Sergio has a lighter version of the Clan bane. They have depression. It’s the type where one has periods of low moods.

Who finds it amusing when the other trips over?

It’s hilarious when Beckett trips.

Who’s terrified of bugs?

No, haha.

Who kills the spiders around the house?

Neither mind the spiders. Sergio would kill a spider in a silly, dramatic fashion to make Beckett laugh.

Do they have any fears for their future?

Oh yeah. Beckett’s fears are more the personal, about the future of those around him. Besides the obvious of their regnant dying, Sergio worries are broader, about USA and global politics, cultural changes, justice etc.

Their favourite place?

No place is better than a lover’s arms.

Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner?

Sergio will surprise Beckett by spiking their blood with something interesting. Like, they will tell him before he drinks, but Beckett didn’t plan on experimenting with acid.

Who pays the bills?

Beckett tries to, but Sergio is more likely to pay things off.

Who’s the tallest?

They’re the same height.

Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other?

No, they’d ask permission first.

Who wanders around in their underwear?

Sergio, haha. Beckett automatically gets dressed every night.

Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio?

Neither of them are real singers, but Sergio is more likely to be caught humming.

What do they tease each other about?

Beckett will tease Sergio about their recklessness and cosmopolitan ways. Sergio will tease Beckett about his fashion sense and disaster bi ways.

Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times?

Sergio spends a lot of their first date roasting Beckett’s outfit.

Who crushed first?

Sergio. It’s subtle, but Beckett has to slowly remind himself that ghouls are people over the course of “Bad Idea” and “First Date.” It’s like a compassion muscle that he has to limber up.

Any alcohol or substance-related problems?

Sergio is addicted to vampire blood. Cassandra’s specifically.

Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am?

Hahahaha, probably Sergio? They get drunk WAY easier. If Sergio and Beckett are hanging out, Sergio will likely give Beckett a sip, which means Beckett will be drunk too.

Who swears the most?

We’re beginning and ending this with Sergio swearing, hahaha,

[oikaawatooru]

cat leaps

chapter 4: heel turn

1 | 2 | 3

break dance au

thanks to @lay-it-on-me-lahey, the real mvp

read on ao3

whatchu gon do with that dessert - dessert (remix); dawin, silentó

Marinette zig zags in between the tables in the ice cream parlour, trying to keep the massive sundae stationary on the tray. She’s lucky she manages to make it to the table her friends are sitting at without a disaster. She takes a quiet pride in it.

Nino grins at her from his spot in the booth. His arm is thrown not-so-subtly over the back of the bench i.e. behind Alya’s shoulders. Marinette resists a groan.

“Nice of you to join us,” he grins at her.

“Where do you work again, Nino?” she asks airily.

His grin falls. Good.

“Can you put it in the middle please, Marinette?” Alya asks, eyes glued to her laptop screen.

“No thanks.”

Alya looks up. “What? Why?”

Marinette rolls her eyes at the whine in her voice. “You owe me for the last five sundaes. If I keep putting it on my tab 1—” she puts up a finger of her free hand “—Mme Kurtzberg is going to stop allowing me to do it, and 2—” she puts up another finger “—I won’t have any money left. These things aren’t cheap.”

“I know, that’s why I use your employee discount.”

“I don’t have an employee discount.”

Alya pouts. “Just this once? Last time, I promise.”

Marinette nearly caves from her pout but she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“You said that last week,” she says.

Nino looks like he’s about to say something but Marinette shoots him a glare. He tried to sneak her the money last time in her apron pocket, but this isn’t his price to pay.

Alya leans back into her seat, arching her brow knowingly.

“Is this because you’re still intent on making Chat Noir some new clothes?”

Heat rushes up Marinette’s neck. “No! I literally have every other thing in my life to save for! The Academy has upped the tuition this year—”

“Yeah,” Nino mutters, “not cool.”

“—demanding a contribution from scholarship students, I still have to pay for Ladybug’s entry for Miraculous—”

“Okay,” Alya points out, “but that’s not due for another few weeks.”

“—and I would actually like to be able to afford some new clothes!”

Alya doesn’t buy it. “His hoodie just really bothers you, doesn’t it?”

Marinette sighs. They’ve had four practices so far and every time, Chat Noir has turned up in his signature thick black hoodie. Sure, it really hides his body, the hood does a good job of keeping his face in the shadows, but the drawbacks. He’s going to faint in the heat one of these days and Marinette will have to call an ambulance for him and if he doesn’t recover in time for Miraculous and they’ll be down their best dancer.

“So much. So much, Alya, I get hot just looking at him. I spent more money than I would like on some new fabrics. I’ve pinned the pattern down, all I need are his exact measurements. Also his outfit is an eyesore. It physically pains me to see a dancer in clothes like that. We all deserve nice clothes. It’s one of the ten commandments.”

“It’s definitely not.”

Nino tries to cut in. “You guys know I’ll pay for—”

“NO,” the girls say firmly.

“Then allow me,” says a new voice.

Before she can react, Marinette has a crisp twenty euro note pressed into her free hand courtesy of the sublime Adrien Agreste. The moment she meets his eyes her brain short circuits from an information overload. His friendly, polite smile; his proximity; his hand that is on her hand.

“Hrrngh bublng,” Marinette replies.

She immediately wants to dive out the storefront windows.

Adrien frowns in confusion (or maybe it’s concern? When will this boy stop being so good) at her.

She’s not used to him. A week and a half of their tentative friendship and she is still not used to him. She hopes there’s a time limit. She really hopes she doesn’t have to act like a fool 24/7 for the rest of their friendship.

Nino and Marinette have taken to hanging out with him at the academy. He’s good company. Nino warmed up to him immediately and Marinette can definitely see why. Adrien is charming, kind, warm, and can even be occasionally funny. He’s relaxed enough in demeanour to keep up with Nino and passionate enough to keep Marinette interested.

And he’s really, really smart. (It’s kind of a turn on.)

They’d invited him to the parlour this afternoon. Alya, being in university, hasn’t met him before today.

Adrien is about to ask her what’s wrong, she can see it, when Alya comes swooping in to rescue her.

“I am not paying you back twenty euro, Agreste,” she says, plucking a spoon from the tray when Marinette sets it down. “But thanks.”

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Alya,” he says, holding out his hand. “And there’s nothing to thank me for.”

Alya quirks an eyebrow and smiles. Alya approved.

She shakes his hand. “Yeah, yeah, rich boy. Tell me that when you don’t have so much money and you’ll understand why there is.”

When Adrien blushes Marinette has to take a moment to turn her head, mutter “Oh my god” under her breath, and swallow a couple of times before she can turn back with a smile.

“Well thanks from me too,” Marinette says. She is an adult for heaven’s sake, she can talk to a boy. “I’ll get your change now.”

“Keep it,” he says.

She looks at him flatly. “No.”

“Not even as a tip?”

“I don’t take tips from my friends.”

He gives her a strange sort of smile—half-soft, half-uncertain and it’s a testament to her wavering resilience that she’s able to smile back. She doesn’t know what his meant but it sure pulled the pins out of her knees.

“Don’t fight it, Agreste,” Alya says through a mouth full of chocolate deluxe sundae. She shovels in another bite before she continues. “It’s not worth it.”

Marinette finds relief when he turns his head to Alya.

“You’re, uh,” Nino says, “you’re really chomping down into that sundae, Alya.”

Nino is watching her eat with a hilarious blend of mild fear and reverence. Marinette rolls her eyes from behind the cash register and goes back to hand Adrien his change.

“Mmffhmm.”

They all watch as she continues to load in bite after bite. “Have to—” chomp “—squad practice—” chomp “—tonight—” chomp “—have a lot—” chomp “—to organise.”

Chomp.

“You’re going to get brain freeze,” Marinette says, sliding Adrien’s change across the table to him . She might be keeping some semblance of cool right now but if she touches him she will probably spontaneously combust.

“Practice?” Adrien asks.

“Yeah,” Marinette says. “Alya is the captain of this hip hop group. She takes it very seriously.”

Nino winks at her surreptitiously and she aims an equally as surreptitious kick at him under the table.

“And there’s practice tonight.”

Marinette nods. It will be their fourth practice. Adrien hums, his face politely interested.

“There wasn’t meant to be,” Alya says. “But I had to cancel tomorrow so I sent everyone a text this morning, I think. Except this one guy. But he never gave me his number. So I put it up on the Facebook page. I think he’s in the group, but I’m not sure. Either he’s the one with the profile of a vampire—solid black profile pic I shit you not—or I’ve let some random person by the name of ‘Chat Noir’ into it by accident”

“Ah,” Adrien says.

Alya turns to Marinette. “Will you sweet talk Chat Noir into giving us his number please? He seems to have a soft spot for you.”

Marinette snorts. “Sure. As long as you let me take his measurements after practice.”

“Deal.”

“His measurements?” Adrien asks.

Marinette feels shy suddenly, her cheeks heating up again. Sure Adrien is their friend, but he doesn’t know about her hobby. He doesn’t know how she likes to design clothes and dance costumes. It’s something she usually saves for herself, or the people closest to her. If she’s wearing one of the things she’s made and someone asks about it, she’ll tell them, but she’s never really talked about it with someone who hasn’t been in with her.

(Never mind someone she’s hopelessly crushing on.)

Alya beats her to it. “Marinette has this thing where she likes to design clothes and apparently this Chat Noir kid is wearing something that’s driving her crazy. She thinks he’s suffocating himself. So she wants his measurements to design something to help him not die of heatstroke.”

“Alya!” Marinette hisses. “You’re making me sound like I’m obsessed!”

“Honey, that kid has no idea the value of a Marinette-made outfit. You’re probably gonna make it look cooler than anything he’s ever worn in his life. He doesn’t seem like he’d know fashion if he were dropped into an issue of Vogue.”

Adrien coughs lightly, his grin sun bright. “I think that’s really generous of you, Marinette. You obviously don’t have to do it, but even the thought of it is especially kind.”

Marinette can’t keep eye contact. It’s bad enough her whole heart has melted at the compliment, but with his eyes on her it’s like her skin is going to drip off any second now too.

“Yes, well,” she mumbles. “It’s mostly because I need to get his size for the squad’s uniforms.”

Nino shrugs. “Or you’re actually cool with becoming his friend and you’re doing something nice. That works too, you know.”

“Shut up and eat your ice cream.” She wipes her hands on her apron. “I’ll see you after practice Alya.”

“Sure thing, girl.”

She hesitates but then, “I’ll see you later, Adrien?”

“I’ll see you later, Marinette.”

She smiles back.

~

“You’re—going to die—just so you know.”

Marinette tries to keep her voice under the volume of the music as she twists around Chat Noir.

“Don’t worry—” he drops low as she opens her legs in a wide plié in front of him “—my Lady—” he slides through and weaves his body upright “—this alley cat—” they slide into formation with the rest of the group “—knows how to—” he spins away for his solo and she when he finishes she slides right back in beside him “—protect himself.”

His last words are punctuated with a big grin.

She rolls her eyes and concentrates on the routine for the last few bars of the song, the warmth of his smile lingering in the air.

Or maybe it’s the heat radiating off him because he’s back in that ridiculous hoodie.

He’s so hot, little black-tinted beads of sweat are rolling down his cheeks and dropping off his sharp jaw. His face is red beneath his grease paint and he’s panting hard.

He’s not going to get relief anytime soon either. Marinette can see Alya’s frown from where she stands by the end of the hall and it’s aimed right at him. She’s working herself up to chew Chat Noir out for arriving 20 minutes late to practice.

If there’s one thing Alya likes it’s punctuality, and one of her dancers late for practice is enough to make her sour for the next couple of hours.

The group finishes the routine and Marinette turns, panting, to where Chat Noir stands.

“Why were you late anyway?”

Before he can answer, Alya’s loud voice calls through the hall.

“Alright kids. Stretch out, that’s enough for today.”

Marinette offers him a sympathetic smile and touches his forearm.

“Good luck,” she whispers, before running off to grab her water bottle and duffel bag. If she didn’t have to change and take off her stage makeup, Marinette would have stuck around a little longer. She and Chat Noir have settled into a routine of easy conversation as they cool down and stretch out at the end of practice.

She almost can’t believe how well they get on. His jokes are cheesy and he’s a little liberal with his charms but there is an endless and intriguing amount of intellect in those eyes of his. They talk about anything, having strayed from the topic of dancing after their first practice and Marinette has found it’s just as easy to talk to him about everything else. Of course, neither of them divulge too many personal details, but there is a natural flow to their friendship that strengthens every time they meet.

So it pains her a little to rush off now and leave him to the dogs. Alya rather.

But she’s doing this for his sake. If she can change and catch her breath quickly enough, maybe Alya won’t have enough time to get really mad at Chat. She can already hear Alya raising her voice a little from her bathroom stall.

Once she’s pulled on a new set of clothes, wiped her face, and her cheeks pull off a rosy glow more than tomato red look, she sprints out of the bathroom and back to the dance hall, tucking her sweaty and gross ponytail into a cap.

“I’m here!” she calls, wincing as she interrupts Alya’s scolding. Her words echo in the room, empty now but for Alya and Chat Noir. They probably high tailed it as soon as Alya started on him.

But now, Alya rounds on Marinette, eyes flashing. It’s definitely something to be able to take on an angry Alya, but she’d rather have it be her than Chat Noir, who looks like someone told him he couldn’t dance again. She probably gave him the whole spiel of “letting the crew down”, and the poor kid seems to have really taken it to heart.

She smiles at him and he gives her a small one back.

“Hey, Princess,” he says.

“Hi, Chat Noir,” she says.

Alya purses her lips. “Marinette. He’s all yours.”

“I’m—what? Hers—what—”

“Stop talking, Chat Noir. Be glad Marinette took pity on you and came in so early. Don’t be late again. This is a strike on your record.” She retrieves her iPod and leaves, shooting Marinette a pointed look.

He looks so surprised that Marinette laughs, as if he’s never had anything but a clean record. It’s strangely contradictory to what she would have thought about him. A guy like him who, so arrogant and cheeky, one would imagine his record anywhere to be full of spots.

“Now—” Marinette says.

“I have a record here?”

“Of course you do. Alya takes this very seriously and so should you.”

He grins and his whole body relaxes. “I take this as seriously as I take our relationship, Princess.”

She blinks at him. “Great. Then as a show of good will for this relationship, you’ll hold your arms out and let me take your measurements. I need them for the squad’s uniform.”

She studiously avoids his eyes for that last sentence, rummaging around in her duffel for her measuring tape and hoping her excuse is enough. It technically isn’t a lie, but the whole truth would just lead to him teasing her for it and she doesn’t want to give him chances he wouldn’t ordinarily have. This isn’t the first time Chat Noir has met Marinette after their initial encounter, but he hasn’t stopped teasing her as much as he did the first day.

He frowns slightly. “Have you gotten Ladybug’s measurements yet?”

The question catches her off guard. “Uh-uhm, yeah. I have. She gave—I got them when she came over. The other night. To my house.” She clears her throat and pretends to flatten out a wrinkle in her tape, praying the lie doesn’t sound as bad to Chat Noir as it does to her.

“Wait,” he says, and she cringes, ready for an accusation she’ll also have to lie her way out of, but he surprises her. “You know Ladybug personally?”

“Yeah,” she says quietly. “We’ve known each other for a long time. She’s… nice.”

“Cool,” he breathes, and the admiration in his voice almost makes her wince. She bites her lip instead.

She’s tired of this already—all this secrecy. It weighs down on her having to lie to her parents about what she’s doing, of not being able to tell them how proud she is about being able to dance like this. It’s exhausting going into school every morning afraid she’ll somehow slip in her movements and her teachers will realise she has been dancing very differently to how they’ve been instructing her.

But lying to Chat Noir is fast becoming the worst part of this all. He and Ladybug are becoming fast friends, but so are he and Marinette. There’s something she has with him, some lightning-strong connection, that she’s never encountered before and even if they have only known each other a few weeks, they’re close. He’s a brilliant person even beyond the dancing and Marinette hates this game, especially when he believes her.

If she didn’t have Alya and Nino to talk to and to support her, she doesn’t know what she would do.

She sighs quietly when she motions for him to raise his arms.

“So do you like fashion then?” he says. His voice is lacking the laughter it usually has, strangely soft, and it makes her look up to meet his eyes.

Marinette measures his arm, deciding if she wants to answer.

“Yeah,” she says, after taking note of it and moving on to the other one. “I’ve been into it ever since I could remember. I like to sew and knit and design. I like to look at all the fashion magazines I can get my hands on and then make up my own. I like fashion.”

He hums. “Do you have any favourite designers?”

She snorts. “Why, are you looking for tips? Because—and I say this as your friend—you could probably use some.”

He pokes her in the stomach, making her squeak and lose track of measuring his torso. His smile is fond.

“Really,” he presses.

She sighs. “Gabriel Agreste.”

She can feel him tense from where she measures his waist, probably tickling him.

“Sorry,” she murmurs.

“Why?”

“Why am I sorry?”

“No. Why Gabriel Agreste?”

Marinette writes the measurement down and straightens to look at him. He’s looking at her like there’s something fundamental about her he doesn’t understand.

“He’s very clean,” she says slowly, feeling a little unsettled under his gaze. “All his lines are careful and beautiful and perfectly elegant. If royalty were a style of fashion, Agreste would be it. It reminds me of how much there is to admire in fashion like that, and how much of a challenge it is.”

“A challenge?”

“Yeah.” She pokes at his legs to get him to spread them. “To go against that kind of fashion. To take all those perfect, brilliant lines and throw them out the window. Take the route no one has, you know?”

His eyes haven’t changed when she glances up at him and it makes her jut her chin out, defensive, even if she doesn’t know why she’s reacting like this.

“That’s…” he pauses. “A really inspired way to look at it.”

“Thanks,” she says slowly, straightening and putting away her instruments. “Now. I want to talk to you about something.”

His eyes brighten, immediately losing that faraway, thoughtful look. “Oh?” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively and she punches his shoulder (not very lightly).

“I need you to wear something lighter to the next squad practice. You can’t keep dancing in hoodies this thick, it’s going to kill you. I’ll know if you don’t.”

He looks at her surprised for a moment before releasing a bark of laughter.

“I’m not joking! Did you even bring a bottle of water to practice?”

His smile is wide as the whole sun. “In my defence, I was rushing to get here on time.”

“You were late.”

“I was rushing to try to get here on time.”

She raises her eyebrows at him. “Whatever. Wear a t-shirt or something on Sunday, okay?”

“I would, Princess,” he frowns, “but the hoodie helps with the whole hidden identity thing.”

“No one is going to recognise your biceps if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She gives him a look before he can reply.

“You’re going to faint from dehydration one of these days,” she says.

He pouts. “But I can’t cover my face if I don’t have a hood.”

“I don’t know if you’ve seen yourself recently—consider the walls are mirrors here—but your whole face is painted black. Who could possibly recognise you?”

He laughs, but it’s a weaker sound than she’s used to hearing from him. “I would feel more comfortable with additional protection.”

She rolls her eyes at his wording but pulls her cap off her head anyway. “Fine.”

She reaches for his hood slowly, giving him time to duck away, and when he doesn’t, pushes it back off his head. His eyes don’t leave her face as she fits her cap snugly on his head, searching again, but she ignores them.

“There,” she says. “It’s black and it casts a shadow. Fits perfectly with your aesthetic, no?”

He looks up to catch his reflection in the mirror and when he sees how it still disguises him he grins.

“Ah!” he exclaims. “It’s perfect Princess, thank you!” He takes her hand and twirls her around, catching her by surprise.

She laughs despite herself and when he stops to kiss her knuckles she’s still giggling.

“Thank you,” he purrs, and his face is so annoyingly charming that she pushes him away by the nose.

“You’re shameless,” she says, but it falls flat with her smile.

His pout doesn’t seem all that sincere either.

“And late,” he says, pulling his phone from his pocket and checking the time. “Well, Princess, this is where I must leave you.”

He goes to leave when she remembers. “Oh! Before you go, can I have your number please? Alya isn’t sure you’re getting all her messages about the squad, and she thinks it might be easier if I can pass along the message.”

He looks like she threatened to kick a kitten, puzzling her thoroughly.

“I, uh,” she tries, “won’t give it to anyone if that’s what you’re worried about.”

His mouth opens, then closes. Then opens again. Then closes.

“Chat?” she asks.

“I—” he says weakly. “Don’t have a phone.” They both look at it, then back at one another. Another few moments pass. “OkaysorryMarinettebye!”

She doesn’t even catch her breath before he’s gone, sprinting out like his tail is on fire.

“I—” she says.

What just happened?

[thornfield13713]

Now seems like a good time to ask, with the latest chapter and all, how is Hawks doing in the alleycat remix au? How has Endeavor’s loss of power affected him? What does he think of Extinguisher?

Okay.

So, first thing...Hawks is 22 at the time of his first appearance. Aizawa is, apparently, 30. So, thirteen years ago, when Aizawa was seventeen, freshly-escaped from the Nomu labs and removed Endeavour’s powers, he was nine.

We don’t have an exact age for Hawks when Endeavour saved him as a child and thus kickstarted his entirely undeserved hero worship, but for reasons of convenience I’ll say it probably happened not too long before this. So, Hawks is in the first flush of hero-worship when the news comes out that Endeavour has lost his powers and been forced into retirement from the hero industry. I’d put him at about eleven when he gets the offer from the Hero Public Safety Commission, and accepts.

While everyone in this story is far too soft on Endeavour for my liking - he should, at the very least, be facing social consequences within the hero community, and preferably legal ones as well - Hawks is one character I think it actually makes sense for. Endeavour has been his idol since childhood, and it’s a character flaw that makes sense that he can’t be entirely objective about someone who saved him twice - once directly, and once by arresting his own abusive father. The thought that Endeavour is just another, superpowered form of that same abuser is probably genuinely painful for him. This is not a defence - he’s still a grown adult and a hero and should know better than let his own hero-worship get in the way of holding someone to account for their crimes - but it’s psychologically understandable.

As such, here, Hawks is probably Endeavour’s last remaining fan from the old days, and is probably a bit more open about it, just because Endeavour is no longer technically competition and being a bit nostalgic about an old favourite hero is the sort of approachable quality the Hero Commission seems to want him to have. He’s entirely genuine about it, and also has more of an excuse for not knowing what Endeavour puts his family through. All of which means that he also has a personal bone to pick with the Extinguisher, and will probably not change his mind on that even after learning that said Extinguisher was a scared teenager who had just escaped from a living hell and was just trying to survive another day. Or, at the very least, even if he accepts that as a reason, he’s probably not going to be too impressed with the fact that Aizawa is genuinely unrepentant about what he did, and is probably going to draw a direct line from his attitude that people who throw fireballs at scared kids do not deserve to be called heroes to Stain’s later crusade. This isn’t fair, but, again, Hawks cannot be objective about Endeavour, and that is more interesting when treated as a character flaw than just brushed aside.

[thornfield13713]

In the alley cat remix au, how exactly do the heroes find out about the whole midorigiri situation? How do they react? Izuku, Hitoshi, and Bakugo in particular.

I suspect Midorigiri takes a while to figure out.

I know that Izuku and Bakugou get the first hints of it at the USJ, where they both hear Midorigiri speak, and recognise her voice, even if they both think later that they’re just confused/imagining things, because Inko is dead, right? She has to be. And even if she wasn’t, she’d never work for Shigaraki and she’d never be involved with an attack on Izuku’s class.

I suspect the hints build up from there, but Izuku gets confirmation when he is abducted along with Bakugou during the attack on the training camp, and has it confirmed that, yes, All for One is his father, and if Izuku will come with him, the three of them can be a family again...if you ignore the fact that All for One is a supervillain and Inko is a nomu whose capacity for disobedience is decidedly limited. Izuku is horrified and devastated, but can’t tell the heroes without putting his adoptive family in danger. He can, however, tell Aizawa, who is finally starting to branch out from vigilantism in one district to find the people responsible for all these attacks on his kids.

The rest of the world finds out after Midorigiri is arrested and imprisoned, when tests are run and they find her DNA matches with a missing person - Midoriya Inko. This is also around the same time that the Aizawas’ situation is blown wide open by the events of the home visits.

[thornfield13713]

So, in the Alley Cat remix AU, do Izuku and Hitoshi know that Aizawa was the Extinguisher? If so, did they just kinda... put two and two together? Or was there a specific moment they found out? I’d imagine it would become very obvious if they ever saw him permanently suppressing someone’s quirk, but the only specific instances he’s done that that have been mentioned have happened away from Izuku and Hitoshi, so do they even know that he can do that?

They do know.

They sort of gradually put it together over time, but by the time Eri joins the family, they know, because that happened specifically because somebody was looking for the Extinguisher - Eri’s grandfather, who wanted to erase her Quirk permanently so that she would no longer be at risk of accidentally killing her loved ones with her uncontrolled abilities.

So, they know who he was, and they know that it was a complete accident the first time, though he isn’t precisely sorry about it - nobody whose first response to an obviously-homeless, traumatised teenager shoplifting jelly packs is to throw a fireball at them deserves to be called a hero, so far as Aizawa is concerned.

[thornfield13713]

wait, so AfO turned his own wife into a nomu? That is fucking TWISTED, what happened?

In my defence, Inko being Kurogiri’s replacement was part of the original AU I am remixing (I am not the first to write a variant on this AU idea, so I hope the original author doesn’t feel this is plagiarism), but also provided a nice way of explaining Izuku ending up an Aizawa without necessarily fridging her, as Inko’s story of reclaiming herself is now an important part of the AU, albeit a third strand from the Todoroki and Aizawa plots.

Ok. So, in order for this to work, Inko got Nomuified a few years after Shirakumo did in canon, which I can excuse here because All for One’s first target somehow managed to escape his clutches and go to ground. So, he has to find a new one. Now, there are a few issues with this. As this post notes, Aizawa was...actually pretty ideally suited to the task All for One had in mind. He has a Quirk that can allow him to keep control over Shigaraki relatively easily, although the process of making him into a Nomu ended up undermining that fairly early on, much to All for One’s displeasure. He was easily missed and overlooked, and his disappearance didn’t cause too many ripples except among his friends. And, though he will deny it forever, he’s always had a nurturing side to his personality, even if he stamped down hard on it after Shirakumo’s disappearance. While All for One was willing to make use of a replacement that wasn’t quite as ideal in canon, here, it takes him a while to find another suitable candidate.

When he does, it’s by accident. He’s still in the habit of visiting Inko and Izuku at this point, though not often and never for very long at a time. Izuku is seven when his mother finally puts together the recent disappearance of a boy named Tsubasa with Izuku having been coaxed into telling his father that Tsubasa had been bullying him, and the description of the last people seen with the boy with some of her husband’s ‘colleagues’ that she has occasionally seen in passing, but never spoken to. And, because Izuku had to inherit his survival skills from somewhere, she decides to confront her husband about it. Because she has rather more in the way of caution, however, she does so over the phone, informing him that she will be suing for divorce and making preparations to change their names and disappear, or go to the police and ask for witness protection, to get away from the husband she is now certain ordered a hit on their son’s bully, who might have been a brat, but was still a seven-year-old boy who didn’t deserve to be murdered. 

All for One’s people come for her the next night. She and Izuku had left their apartment by this point and found a cheap hotel to obscure their tracks while Inko gets enough of the evidence together to go to the police, but the precaution doesn’t help them due to one of these underlings having been given a tracking Quirk. The last thing Izuku remembers is his mother telling him to run and find the nearest police officer or station, but she doesn’t have time to tell him the rest. All for One’s subordinates were ordered to bring him his wife and son. They succeed in only half of this objective, as Izuku is able to figure out early on that they can’t get to him as easily in a crowd, forcing them to break off the pursuit or expose themselves.

As for Inko? I think that All for One believes he loves her. I also think that, on some level, he isn’t quite sure what that word means. This is a man who locked his brother, whom he also believed he loved, in a vault. His definition of love might be best summarised as ‘wish to have entirely for myself’. And Inko, unfortunately, gets in the way. He liked having a family. He liked the feeling that he was providing for them, liked the ego boost that gave him and liked dropping in for visits and having Inko and Izuku pay attention to him. I am not sure he is capable of the more selfless aspects of love, and I am quite sure he would consider them a waste of time if he did. I am not sure he would see any particular flaw in the idea of holding Inko and Izuku hostage and continue viewing this as him ‘providing’ for them. Unfortunately for Inko, she has defied him twice over at this point. She was going to leave him, and will keep trying to escape him as long as her will is her own. And she allowed Izuku to get away. Bought him time to do so, in fact, and with his operations in Japan being chipped away at by All Might since his return, All for One’s resources to reclaim him are increasingly limited. He needs some way of preventing Inko from escaping and punishing her for betraying him, and he needs a caretaker for Tomura. The solution, when he hits on it, is obvious.

Tomura is eleven years old when he is presented with his new caretaker, his Aunt Midorigiri (I am not sure whether I am using the idea that Inko is Shimura Nana’s daughter, but it’s a neat idea). Once again, I am referring to the original AU being remixed with both the name and the idea of the end product of her Nomufication. Unlike Kurogiri, she is genuinely made of mist without a physical body, due to the process being rather more advanced by the time she was subjected to it, and while it does feel like cheating to have her be capable of the same variety of portal-creating as Kurogiri, I would like to point out that that wasn’t part of Shirakumo’s Quirk either, and was probably grafted on. She appears quite insubstantial, and people go straight through her - I may add the detail that one of the Quirks used in the process was a poison gas Quirk, to explain the green gaseous form and as an additional means of defence. She can manifest a humanoid shape out of green mist, and usually does, but her memories of her life before are, while still present, quite vague, making it hard to identify the form she chooses.

Her voice is still the same, though. Which leads to an absolutely terrifying moment at the USJ when she addresses the fleeing Class 1-A and two students recognise that voice.

“Auntie Inko?”

“Mum?”

[thornfield13713]

you say Inko's memories are vague, but she still has them? Why?

Simply put?

With Kurogiri, Shirakumo was a means to an end. Not even the first choice, and nobody All for One cared about. With Inko...I’d argue his feelings for her are pretty damn twisted, but they’re still there. He cannot just write her off as a means to an end. He wants to keep her close, and for her to obey him, but he still wants her to be Inko to some degree.

Her becoming mostly mist was honestly at least in part a blessing in disguise in this regard, because a man having his estranged wife put through a series of inhumane experiments to turn her into a nomu, a species defined by compliance and blind obedience to his will, was always going to have Implications, but at least this way limits how many ways those Implications can be played.

So, most of the time she remembers enough to remember that they were married, and if she doesn’t, All for One is quite willing to remind her when he wants the role played again, even within their current limits. It’s almost more convenient this way, without the overhead of travel time and secrecy. She doesn’t often remember her anger at him, and due to her conditioning cannot act on it when she does. She also remembers that they have a son. This, too, can be turned to All for One’s advantage, as it makes it a lot easier to get her to accept the charge of taking care of Tomura despite having more memory and more of her own will than most nomus. She does sometimes remember, however, that this isn’t her son. Not often, but sometimes something will happen and she cannot help but see all the places in which Tomura is wrong. These episodes aren’t frequent, but tend to be distressing to both Midorigiri and Tomura himself, and All for One is quite willing to turn them too into tools in Tomura’s indoctrination.

[thornfield13713]

so, how do Shirakumo and Yamada deal with the aftermath of Aizawa's death? I know losing Shirakumo basically defined Aizawa's personality as an adult, so what was the effect here?

In many ways, Shirakumo appears to have been the heart of this little trio. Aizawa and Yamada have their own emotional issues - Aizawa’s are obvious, but Present Mic clearly has a lot of rage and grief underneath the bombastic exterior that doesn’t really come out until later in the manga than the anime has gotten to yet.

This doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to be seriously affected, but he’s probably not going to spiral in quite the same way as Aizawa did without him, and that in turn means that Present Mic probably isn’t going to need to bottle up all his own issues resulting from the death of a friend to try and support him through it. This isn’t to say there was no effect.

On some level, Shirakumo blames himself for Aizawa’s death. It’s not altogether rational - he was getting the kids out, using his cloud as transport, and thus couldn’t have helped and didn’t get crushed under rubble - but on some level, he feels that if they’d been working as a pair, if they’d joined forces, they could both have come out of that encounter alive. It bleeds into his teaching style a lot, where he tends to emphasise teamwork, respect for your classmates, helping each other, and takes a very dim view of showboating or people insisting they can always work alone, because attitudes like that get people killed.

Yamada...has had more time and more ability to work through his feelings around Aizawa’s death, because Shirakumo is more willing to open up and easier to open up to in turn than Aizawa, who just closed himself off from everything emotionally after Shirakumo’s death because he is bad at processing his emotions. The grief is probably always going to be with him, and honestly he’s probably a bit less loud here because while that is his natural personality, it’s kind of hard to play the role so hard without someone quiet and snarky to balance you out. He’s still loud and enthusiastic, but a bit less constantly so, and doesn’t exaggerate it so much when not actively engaged in hero work.

I think Shirakumo pushed for the idea of starting an agency together with a cat, fulfilling the dream the three of them came up with together, as a way of honouring Shouta’s memory and also because on some level these two have been holding each other together ever since what happened. Again, it’s not that the canon relationship between Aizawa and Yamada is unbalanced, exactly, but Aizawa has clearly responded by trying to bury his own emotional damage, which makes it very difficult for his remaining best friend to express his own, especially when Aizawa’s trauma is so much more obvious.

I’m not actually sure if anything romantic developed between these two in Shouta’s absence. Like...it’s possible, but at the same time I sort of feel like in that regard, Aizawa was the linchpin. So there might be some feelings there, but they haven’t quite been able to deal with them yet. Somehow, it’s always just felt...wrong..without someone to balance them out.

[thornfield13713]

will shirakumo and hizashi ever find out that while they were mourning aizawa, he was being tortured and experimented on, and then living on the streets for years? is the connection ever made between extinguisher and alley cat? does any documentation of his failed noumufication exist?

Well, there wouldn’t be much point in their plot if they didn’t.

I think they find this out fairly early on after they start reaching out to Aizawa, because the first question they have is ‘what happened to you’, and Aizawa...is in some ways quite inured to the horror of his own backstory. He is traumatised by it, sure, and he has nightmares about it and is terrified of going back to the point where he lived on the streets for years despite having the resources to do otherwise because he was terrified that establishing a stable life and identity for himself would mean getting dragged back...but it’s also ordinary to him. He lives with it every day, and while he knows objectively that it was wrong and horrifying...he’s really not used to just how horrified people are by it, because it’s not something he directly tells people about very often. Even his children only know bits and pieces because...why would he tell them the details of the experiments done on him, the pain, what it was to be treated as something less than human. Even Eri got the bare-bones of ‘we have been through the same thing’.

Shirakumo and Yamada...push him far enough that he tells them what happened to him...mostly as a form of lashing out. You want to know what happened to him? He’ll tell you every awful, bloody, hideous detail and see whether you’re so keen to get close to him after that. The point of the story, as he tells it, is that whoever he was before, that person does not exist anymore. He died in that lab and they can’t get him back. It’s also...he can’t quite stop once he’s started, even as it becomes clear that he’s not having the desired effect. He hasn’t been able to talk to anyone about all this ever, not like this, and now he’s started it’s impossible to stop even as he gets increasingly uncontrolled and knows that he’s doing so.

For Hizashi and Oboro, it’s almost as bad. Ok, they’re not having a very visceral trauma reaction out loud, but at the same time...they’re learning that while they were grieving and moving on with their lives and trying to honour their friend by founding that little agency together with a cat, and then by becoming teachers together...he was going through something that...it’s barely recognisable as experimentation from Aizawa’s perspective, partly because the experiments kept failing, and partly because when you’re in that much pain, are you really paying attention to what the people inflicting it are saying? The worst part is, they accepted that he was dead without a body because enough blood was found that his survival seemed nearly impossible, and thus never went looking, and if they’d dug a bit deeper, maybe they’d have found him.

There are some things he keeps back from them. First is Extinguisher. He may allude to having been attacked by heroes when he wandered into a convenience store half-dead and tried to get something to eat, but he isn’t going to directly lead them to what happened there, because he is all too aware of how much that particular story has spiralled out of his control and really doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in Tartarus, please and thank you. The other part is Alley Cat, because...he isn’t really sure he trusts these two heroes not to bring him in as a vigilante.

They figure that part out on their own. It’s not even all that difficult, because All Might saw Alley Cat at Kamino, and even had a brief conversation with him, and while it was dark and Aizawa was not immediately recognisable with his hood up and his face mostly covered, Toshinori is clever enough to put together ‘strangely invested vigilante’ with ‘these kids have had some serious training’ and ‘their father is a former UA student who disappeared under mysterious circumstances’. And, being himself, he shares his suspicions with the others in the know because...he really does need some idea of what is going on here. So, figuring out ‘Alley Cat’ from there isn’t hard. Which leads to some very careful fudging of the situation because neither Nedzu, Loud Cloud or Present Mic actually wants to see Aizawa get locked up for vigilantism and...you know, he has technically had a provisional hero license this whole time...

Making the connection with Extinguisher...probably takes a bit longer, and I’m thinking of tying that into the Shie Hassaikai coming back into the narrative. They might not have the resources to create Quirk-erasing bullets without Eri, and Chisaki might have taken a while to adjust to being ‘cured’, but he might finally have tracked down Eri Aizawa, who is the right sort of age and has a Quirk that is down on record as...something similar enough to Eri’s actual Quirk that her teachers have a chance at dealing with it.

As for records...I don’t know. It’s going to depend on how things evolve in canon, but I wouldn’t keep records of that sort of thing anywhere they might be found.

[thornfield13713]

Do the Aizawa's ever develop any typical family traditions or rituals? Along the lines of family movie nights, bed time stories that sort of thing..

Yes, I’d say so.

One of the more notable is the habit of camping out on the living room floor after nightmares. Everyone in this family suffers from nightmares, and they’re easier to deal with in company. Added to which, buying multiple sleeping bags seemed more rational to Aizawa than investing in actual bedding, so it’s fairly easy for them all to just move into the living room because it’s easier to deal with nightmares in company, when there’s someone there to wake you up or listen to whatever was frightening you. This one endures even after Hitoshi and Izuku have moved into the dorms, when this habit spreads to the rest of their social circle, most of whom have a few nightmares of their own after the USJ and subsequent events.

Both Izuku and Hitoshi are somewhat out of the bedtime story age range by the time the family forms, but Eri isn’t, so Izuku tends to tell her hero stories, of which he has a truly worrying number due to his special interest in heroes. Hitoshi is better at making things up off the top of his head, whereas Aizawa is comically awful at storytelling. Just...the worst, to the point where Eri finds his efforts more funny than anything else, even when he’s trying to be dramatic.

They also have a regular haunt at that one cat cafe I’ve mentioned before, which is barely scraping by and is probably a front for something not-exactly-legal but not exactly dangerous either, because the owner is willing to give discounts rather than pay protection, and because cats are one interest this family has in common.

[thornfield13713]

i assume both heros present mic and loud cloud have encountered alley cat at some point - but have they encountered mr aizawa, father of the aizawa brothers?

Hm.

Good question.

I am not sure they have encountered Alley Cat, exactly - they have definitely heard of him, but the thing about his area is a) it’s not somewhere heroes often operate, because that’s why he chose to hide there in the first place, and b) it’s not somewhere with an overwhelmingly high crime rate anymore. There’s probably a lot of quiet shadiness going on, sure, but the sort of crimes heroes get involved in...not so much. Which means that it has largely managed to escape the attention of heroes because spotlight heroes prefer flashier jobs and underground heroes tend to gravitate towards places with more crime.

As for whether they’ve encountered Aizawa...

Shirakumo catches sight of him briefly at the Sports Festival, during a break in the action. He thinks at first he’s seeing a ghost. Aizawa was able to sneak into the Sports Festival with Eri by ‘borrowing’ passes, to watch his two eldest children compete. And was almost immediately overwhelmed by a wave of familiarity and choking shame that he couldn’t really account for, leading him to have a quiet, restrained sort of breakdown in the stairwell about halfway through the Sports Festival, just after the second task. This is what Shirakumo sees, but by the time he processes that, no, he isn’t hallucinating, and that skinny dark-haired man in the shabby black jacket really does look surprisingly like Aizawa Shouta, Aizawa has realised he’s being watched and got out of there - and probably moved to the other side of the stadium because it isn’t paranoia if they really are out to get you.

After that, Shirakumo tells Present Mic, who is...pretty sure it’s just a flashback, because it’s been hard not to see Shouta everywhere ever since the brothers Aizawa walked into Class 1-A, short, scrappy, black-haired (hair dye was a useful way of preventing themselves from being identifiable at first glance, and in Eri’s case in particular that matters. Also, it’s easier to claim to be biological family that way, and thus avoid sticking out even more) and with a disturbingly familiar, if much more brutal than they remember, style of fighting and a penchant for using ropes and cables in a very familiar way. (Aizawa may not have access to his capture weapon anymore, but the knack for using long cables for fighting from a distance remains, and is something he’s done his best to pass on.)

Despite this, this is when they do a bit of digging into the paperwork for the Aizawas. And find that their father, on record, is Aizawa Shouta. A lot of the paperwork is forged, through a few unorthodox contacts Aizawa picked up early on in his vigilante career, but since nobody in the labs that are the first thing he remembers ever called him by name, he’s sort of working on the assumption that he just picked the name ‘Aizawa Shouta’ out of the air the first time someone asked him his name. It felt right to him, sure, but it felt irrational to assume that he’d remembered that when everything else about his past was a blank. According to said paperwork, the boys were born to two different mothers while Aizawa was in his teens, and would’ve been a year or two old when he ‘died’. Since so far as they remember, Shouta was an only child and the single least likely person they knew to be a single father of two at seventeen, even if he was a bit secretive, this just confuses Shirakumo and Yamada more.

Present Mic doesn’t see Aizawa until dorm permissions happen, and Aizawa assumes, wrongly as it turns out, that refusing to attend such a thing would be more suspicious than agreeing to do so even if he is decidedly wary of the idea after all these attacks. He is somewhat unprepared for Hizashi’s very loud response to his dead best friend grumpily answering the door of his apartment after far too little sleep with an armful of six-year-old.

[thornfield13713]

on the mic and oboro side of things - how does hitoshi inform them on the brainwashing? how do they react to "hey my dad thinks you might know him, meet him at this shady abandoned warehouse" situation? how do they feel upon meeting aizawa, seeing him as an adult when they'd resigned themselves to the memory of his 15 year old self?

It happens like this:

“Mic-Sensei?”

Yeah? You have a question about the homework-”

“Remember what happened during the dorm permission visits.”

Hizashi has never, so far as he recalls, been under mind control before. It’s not a pleasant experience. And going from the end of his third-period English class, from which Aizawa Hitoshi has decided to stay behind for some reason instead of going to lunch, to being plunged straight into the memory of seeing his dead best friend, fifteen years older, obviously exhausted, badly-scarred and with a six-year-old girl in his arms...and everything that followed.

On the one hand, absolute confirmation that he really hasn’t been going mad, that something really was deliberately kept from him by one of his students...and also that said student is the son of his dead best friend, who isn’t dead, but definitely has a lot of explaining to do.

What I am getting at is, both Aizawas are getting marched straight to Principal Nedzu’s office, as are All Might, Loud Cloud and Midnight because this has gone far enough and they do all need some answers.

The ensuing explanation is...awkward.  Hitoshi was actually the one to propose this plan, and Aizawa honestly wasn’t keen on it,  but Hitoshi was the one who felt the need to drop the command and actually make sure Present Mic knew what he’d done because...honestly, this sort of implanted command has always made him feel uneasy. It’s the most villainous thing he can do with his power, and he knows it.  In the end, Aizawa agreed to this version of the plan because Hitoshi was going to come clean with or without permission, and they both knew that Aizawa couldn’t stop him without crossing a lot of lines he is never going to.

None of this meant it was a good plan.

So - yes, their father is Aizawa Shouta. Yes, they’re increasingly sure it’s that Aizawa Shouta. No, they don’t know how he’s alive, he just is. No, he doesn’t remember any of them, and that’s why he reacted the way he did. Yes, he wants to meet. At this address. Yes, we know it’s a shady abandoned warehouse, he likes shady abandoned warehouses. Yes, Hitoshi’s father asked him to brainwash two of his teachers, and yes, he agreed to do it because he was pretty freaked out by the whole thing too and also...kind of worried about the whole ‘illegal vigilante’ thing.

Everything about this screams ‘trap’ to cooler heads. Mic and Shirakumo are not cooler heads. They just heard that their dead friend is alive and wants to see them. They are going to that warehouse, trap or no trap.

As for how they deal with the person Aizawa has grown up to be...in some ways, it feels like he’s a stranger. In others, it’s like stepping back in time. He’s still him - prickly, wary, the way he was at the very start of their friendship - but their lives are so entirely different now without the structure of school to bring them together, and....they can’t just fall back into old patterns, because one of the three doesn’t remember those patterns. There’s also the mystifying conviction he’s picked up that the person he used to be was more like them, as opposed to being their quieter, balancing foil. It’s...going to be rough, especially because he was apparently so paranoid that he had Mic’s mind controlled rather than face him once already.