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It wasn’t often that Keigo found himself with a problem he couldn’t fix. He was a hero, and a good enough one to make some actual bank on it, so if a problem was a financial kind it was typically an easy fix.
No, this problem presented itself in the form of a week and a half long mission in a completely different part of Japan. The mission itself was not the problem, no, Keigo had gone on longer missions before and worse ones, no this was a problem because he had a kid to watch over.
Izuku had come into Keigo’s life roughly two years ago in the form of a trafficking ring. There had been a group of people hunting down those with hybrid style quirks and turning around and selling them as pets, in a sick way of attempting to strip their humanity. Izuku had been the youngest in the group, barely ten, and to top it off, he’d been a rare cat quirked person. So when the trafficking ring had been busted and the majority returned home, the Commission had asked him of all people to take the kid in.
The idea had been that like recognizes like and that Izuku would feel more comfortable with someone who had understood his trauma. Why the Hero Commission thought that giving a ten year old to a eighteen year old was a good idea, Keigo had no idea, but here they were, two years later in a sort of family. Rumi was the wine aunt, self proclaimed.
Keigo looked at Izuku, who was currently chewing through a power cable. Yeah, he needed to find someone to babysit him.
Kid would end up short circuiting the house and although Izuku appeared to be mature for a twelve year old, over a day away definitely was neglect, Rumi’s opinion be damned. Ugh, and Rumi was going on this mission, usually she would come over if Keigo would be gone for longer than three hours.
Who would want to take care of Izuku without spilling that he had a kid? Keigo really didn’t want to have to print out more NDAs. Most of those had enough loopholes to exploit, so it’s not like it was going to work there. More importantly, who owed him a favor?
Mic did.
Keigo sighed and pulled out his phone, dialing the hero.
“Yo! Present Mi—“
“Can you watch my cat?” He interrupted before the hero could get his whole greeting in.
“You have a cat?” Mic asked, voice lilted in curiosity.
Keigo looked at Izuku, who spat out the power cable and blinked up at him. “...Yes, he’s a cat.”
“Sounds fun! How old is he?”
“Twelve.”
There was a whistle on the other side of the line. “Got yourself an old one? Crazy, never took you to be the one to keep a pet that long."
“He’s adopted. Can you take him is the question? I’ll pay for the cat sitting fees and give you any instructions you need, it’s only for a week and a half.”
“Yeah, sure we can.”
Keigo pumped a fist in victory. “The mission’s in a few days, but I’ll drop him off the night before if that’s okay with you?”
“Sure! See you then, I’ll text you my address.” Mic sounded excited and Keigo said his own goodbyes before hanging up and turning to his kid.
“I found someone. Wanna guess?”
“Present Mic.” Izuku said and he stripped another power cable with his teeth. “He’s loud and I could hear him.”
“You’re too good at this.” Keigo teased and Izuku flashed him a sharp smile before stripping another power cable of its plastic coating.
…
“I think I may have girlbossed a bit too close to the sun.” Keigo says a day later, while he and Rumi are in his kitchen. She’s sitting on the counter, legs crossed and a glass of wine in her hands, and Izuku’s in his room, packing his bags for the week trip to Mic’s.
“How so?” Rumi takes a sip of her wine and smirks at him.
“What if they want to keep Izuku? I haven’t officially adopted him, and they both are older than me-- what if Izuku likes them more than me?” Keigo started to chop some celery and Rumi reached forward to grab a piece, wine in one hand, vegetable in the other.
“Kei, that boy adores you. You saved him from the world and to top it off, you buy him those nice notebooks for his hero writings. You let him wake you up after your sixteen hour shifts when he has nightmares. Hell, that little catbird hates me sometimes.” Rumi took a bite from the celery she stole and waved the bitten stick at him. “But I have never seen that child once look at you with malice.”
Clearly she hasn’t. But she also hasn’t realized why all the plates and glasses were plastic. Cats liked pushing things off counters and Izuku was no exception. Keigo finished cutting the celery and added it to the rice on accident, frowning.
“Dad!”
“Yeah?!”
Izuku came into the kitchen and he held up a Present Mic hoodie. “You think he’ll sign this?”
“Probably. Where’d you get that?”
“Auntie Rumi.”
Keigo shot a look at the rabbit themed heroine, who waved and took another sip from her wine.
…
"What kind of cat is that?" Mic asked.
Keigo turned to see Izuku staring at Aizawa Shouta with wide eyes. His tail was twitching and he looked seconds from pouncing on the poor man.
"Big." Keigo settles on, taking a sip from his coffee.
Okay, yeah, sure he lied a little bit, but only because he knew that Aizawa, aka the Underground hero that hated interacting with children longer than he was paid for would say no if asked to watch a half feral cat child. Izuku was a great kid, he just took some time to grow on you, not unlike a carnivorous leech.
Mic’s mouth opened, probably to ask why the gods had cursed him with a cheeky hero and his son, but he was interrupted by a loud purr and a coo of awe.
"Oh, aren't you just the sweetest, the bestest, yeah you are..." Aizawa cooed and Izuku seemed to be soaking up the attention with a cheeky grin, his purring slowly getting louder as the usually stoic man melts, scratching the area between the cat's ears.
"You broke him. You broke my boyfriend, he's never that sweet to people." Mic looked aghast and Keigo shrugged.
"No refunds."
Then he shut the door and ran.