IzuOcha Week 2017: Day 3

Note: Adult characters.

Note: Idea by Waifu from discord

Panda

SevenRenny

The clock in the empty apartment tick-tick-ticked away as seconds passed. The snow stuck to the window's outside frame, coating the sides and corners. The white world outside was quiet.

With a click, the apartment door was unlocked and quickly pushed open. The two adults stumbled in; chunks of snow crumbling off their cold wet boots. Ochaco bend down to pull off her boots, but her boyfriend simply toed his off hurriedly, clutching the front of his jacket to his chest. He almost tripped forward, only catching the wall to save himself and the ball of fur stuffed into the front of his jacket.

"I'll get the heating pad!" Ochaco yelled, tearing off her pink winter gloves as she ran off. She didn't even take off her thick coat while waiting for the pad to heat up. Izuku had taken off his winter scarf and used it to wrap the fluff ball in a warmer cocoon before he had stuffed the kitten into his jacket for body warmth.

He unzipped his jacket to have a glimpse. The black and white kitten was curled up like a shell, frozen in place, its flimsy, crocked tail hanging limply between its legs. All four paws were drawn in toward its stomach, resulting in the kitten looking more like a perfect ball. He quickly reached in and used the end of the scarf to rub off any snow still stuck between its toes. There were tiny white flakes hanging from its whiskers.

"I got it!" Ochaco came back hurriedly with the pad.

"Ah, thanks! Let me just…" He unzipped his jacket further and Ochaco managed to reach in and press the pad against the scarp so the fabric could absorb the heat and spread it out evenly. Izuku bit off his glove so he could massage the kitten with his bare hands.

"Poor kitty," Ochaco whimpered.

They had been confused when three children rsn up to them during their walk with the frozen-furred bundle, unsure what to do with it after finding it stiff and almost lifeless in the snow.

The two breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the kitten squint and blink. They'd worried it might've been too late to save it. It opened its jaws slightly, but no noise came out. When it was clear the kitten wasn't at death's door anymore, they took turns holding it so they could change into more comfortable clothes, passing the kitten to one another to keep it warm.

"Here," Izuku said, holding up two hot drinks.

Ochaco, sitting up in bed with her legs crossed and the bundled up kitten between her thighs, reach up for the offered chocolate. "Ah, thanks."

He placed his mug on the nightstand before sliding in bed next to her. Her orange sweater and his blue one were of the same design, but different in color. Izuku nudged the scarf aside to check on the kitten. He could see it breathing, snuggled up on its side, its paw beneath its chin. Slit eyes glanced calmly at him.

Izuku smiled. "I think it's doing better." He rubbed his thumb against its forehead and it sighed, closing its eyes again.

It took them a few hours before they started to see major progress. They'd placed the bundle between them in the bed so Ochaco could respond to the emails from her Hero agency on her laptop and Izuku could shuffle through the mail letters (interview requests, the Hero Costume Fix-It company, coupons, etc...); both checking on the heating pad in between short breaks.

"Awww, you're feeling better!" Ochaco cooed when she saw the kitten kneading at the scarf, tiny claws attached to pink flesh visible from its spread-out toes. She scratched the kitten's cheek with one finger, and it nudged its head around so she could scratch under its chin.

At some point, it gained enough strength to lift its head and look around, checking the unfamiliar ceiling, the blanket, and the two humans.

Ochaco waved a hello at it. "Yeah, hi!" she greeted with what sounded like baby talk.

Izuku chuckled at its confused expression. "Glad you're okay now."

It mowed and it sounded more like a chirp. It curled its paws beneath its chest to warm up its paws, relaxing, deeming the two stranger giants meant no harm. It only made the effort to tiptoe out when Izuku brought back a plate with a meaty mix of whatever they had in their kitchen. Its paws dipped into the blanket, sniffing around carefully to find the source of the smell.

"Here you go." Izuku placed the plate over a plastic sheet on the bed for easy cleaning. The kitten sniffed his hand first before gnawing at the food.

"It looks like a little panda," Ochaco commented. The kitten was white, but had black ears and markings that made it look like it was wearing black pants. It turned out, Panda – as Ochaco started calling it – liked to make 'umm nom' noises while chewing. After liking its paw and face clean, it decided it missed the warmth and crawled back to Ochaco's lap, purring and curling up right there for a short nap.

At that moment, they were just glad it was okay.

It was only after an hour or so did they realize they'd taken a cat in without question.

"Ah…"

"Umm… Izuku? The kitty…"

"Yeah, I… just remembered, too…"

They had a feeling the kitten would stick around for a while.

…

Amputation.

The word almost sent the both of them panicking.

"The end of his tail's frostbitten," the vet explained, rolling the kittens limp tail in his hand. "It's very much already dead. Only thing we can do is remove it. Don't worry, cat's do fine without tails." In fact, Panda didn't seem to feel his tail being messed with, too busy sniffing the examination table.

He didn't seem to notice his missing tail after the surgery, but was more bothered with the cone around his neck.

"Ah, Panda, careful!" Izuku warned as the cat kept backing away, trying to somehow back out of this tunnel he found himself in after waking up from a drugged state. He wasn't even walking, but more like shuffling backwards, which looked ridiculous.

Ochaco managed to block his back from hitting the kitchen cabinet with her hand. He snapped his head up to check what had touched him – then noticed the long strands of hair hanging the sides of Ochaco's head.

He seemed to freeze in place, staring intensely at the dangling strand with wide pupils. He suddenly swatted at her hair, forgetting about the cone.

Ochaco giggled, rearing her head back so not to let the cat grab her hair and stick it in his mouth.

That gave Izuku a brilliant idea. Using a spare red shoelace, he dangled that in the air and sometimes dragged it across the floor. It was nice to finally see the kitten so lively, jumping and sliding around. He had developed a bunny-like hop whenever he ran. His short, stubby tail only added to that image. With no tail weighing his hindquarters down, it made it seem like his hind legs were longer than the front.

The couple learned to keep lids on trash bins so Panda wouldn't go digging for treasure again. They also learned to keep the bathroom door closed after Izuku discovered the missing roll of toilet paper. Bless Ochaco for coming to his rescue. They still weren't sure how Panda had skillfully taken the whole thing, mistaking it for a toy. The little guy was a smart cookie. It was hard not to joke about him having apposable thumbs after he began opening bottom drawers.

The clumsy kitten slowly morphed into an athletic feline, jumping silently from one platform to another with ease. The tiny thing wasn't so tiny anymore. If it wasn't for the wallpaper picture on Ockaco's phone, and the way Panda would curl up in Izuku's hoodie, they wouldn't have noticed the size difference.

Even with the oversized bell attached to his bowtie collar, he still managed to sneak into prohibited rooms silently.

Ochaco was still baffled how Panda had managed to follow Izuku into the standing shower. Both bathroom door and glass shower door had been closed, and he still managed to find his way in without getting noticed until he decided to hop onto the sink countertop then up and over the glass wall, joining Izuku in the shower.

"I don't know how he got in!" Izuku complained over Ochaco's giggles.

She'd heard him yelp in the bathroom and heard the water get turned off. It wasn't clear why he had freaked out, until she saw him wipe the fog off the glass and he showed her the wet cat under his arm. A wet Izuku was holding an equally wet cat was something Ochaco would never forget.

"Following daddy again?" Ochaco said, giggling.

Used to the joke by now, Izuku sighed and pushed the glass door aside, feeling a slight breeze now with the door open. He had had a mini-heart attack when he felt some wet creature rub against his naked legs.

Izuku handed the trouble maker back to Ochaco. The cat clung to her, regretting the decision he'd done minutes ago. His face seemed to say 'Help! Get me out of here – I made a mistake!'

"You silly boy," Ochaco teased, still finding the whole thing amusing.

It was strange how this tiny creature made such a difference in their lives. They'd get home from hero work to a happy cat heaving between their legs, oblivious to how tired the two seemed. There were also 'weird cat moments' every now and then, like how Panda tended to overreact over having tap stuck to his paw, or having him jumping ceiling high when he had accidentally shoved a tissue box off the counter whilst stretching.

He had different habits for each of them. He would still crawl into izuku's jacket or shirt and rest there against his chest while his dad worked on his laptop. Ochaco found that oddly adorable, especially when he'd stick his head out from the top to peek at her from under Izuku's chin.

He also liked to sleep on Ochaco's belly when she'd fall asleep on the sofa. Izuku knew she tended to do that a lot, but he hadn't expected the cat to pick up after her behavior. It was comical, really. Sometimes they'd have the same lazy poses, with one leg dangling off the edge, sometimes stretching at the same time.

They hadn't mentioned getting a cat to anyone, so when Mina came for a visit, she had almost screeched when Panda suddenly jumped on the sofa, over her lap, over the coffee table, then finally landing on Ochaco's lap.

Still so sneaky.

"Wah – When'd you guys get a Furbaby?" Mina demanded to know.

Furbaby? Was that an actual word? They weren't sure.

They eventually began to understand the 'baby' part, though. Panda was more like a playful child. When at the vets, they'd see the word 'parent' instead of 'owner' on the papers as people tended to see their pets as their own children, and Ochaco and Izuku came to understand that at some point.

Ochaco would kiss the living daylights out of it, because that face was just too hard to resist. Izuku couldn't help spoil him as well. While they didn't really like scooping the litterbox and hearing temper tantrum mows whenever the cat needed a bath, at the end of the day, those fuzzy head rubs and snuggles were worth it.

Note: Couldn't come up with anything, so here's a quirky cat.