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Midoriya Izuku dreamed he was flying. He was in an orchard, zooming and flitting between the trees. It was dark, he thought, but he could tell where he was going just as well as if it were the middle of the day. His wings flapped, bringing him near the window of a farm house before he circled back out to the trees. He smelled the sweet nectar of the peaches he'd come to eat that night and homed in on the delectable treat. Having taken his fill, he flitted off again, leathery wings beating the air as he swooped up to the windowsill of the top floor of the farm house, where a wolf was waiting for him. He flew in the window and zoomed up, landing on a rail placed there for the purpose. The wolf was asleep, its ears twitching. He dropped down and landed right in front of it, snuggling up to its neck and sheltering under the warm fur. He felt the rise and fall of her powerful lungs and felt her move slightly to nuzzle him better, her head shifting to rest at a more comfortable angle. She was soft, and comfortable, and felt her affection and love. He knew no matter what he could always come back to her.
His alarm went off, the quirk-made stimulant pumping into the nap room and bringing him to full consciousness in a few moments. He'd been on the tail of a trafficking ring for most of the last 60 hours or so, and the 1 hour he'd allotted to rest had done wonders for him. He'd grab Ochako and go out incognito for the buy he'd arranged next weekend. The fact they were still able to do so was thanks to two things: an illusion quirk one of the interns had that allowed Deku to change his well-known hair to an ordinary black, and the fact that his wife is a werewolf.
Somehow that fact had yet to become public knowledge, thanks in no small part to Melissa Shield's programming skills which erased any trace of any article which postulated it.
Of course, this meant getting her to wear the collar. It was pretty cool, a piece of tech even he didn't fully understand, storing her hero costume in the collar when it wasn't needed. But it was still a collar.
Otani Hoshi arrived home with a friend. This was abnormal, in her experience. Hoshi had spent the vast majority of the last 6 years very much alone and the only company she regularly kept was Butterscotch, her orange cat. That had changed 2 months before when she reconnected with her old school friend Kyoka Jirou, now one of Japan's famous Heroes. She helped fight in the war, she married Chargebolt after initially laughing too hard at his dumb proposal for him to figure out whether it was a yes or a no, and she bought Hoshi lunch, which was always a plus in her books.
Hoshi had a decent gig, overnight security at a gated community, but it was starting to grate on her. Being around real heroes, people who got out there and did something to make a positive contribution to society… she felt restless. Her scars itched.
Any feelings of inferiority vanished when she talked to Kyoka. Her laid-back attitude and zero-bullcrap policy were a wonderful antidote to falling victim to depression-eating all day and never leaving her apartment. She was so genuinely a good person, even if she tried to play it off.
Butterscotch didn't come to greet them when Hoshi opened the door and let Kyoka in. "Hey buddy, where are you?" she called, opening the fridge to put the leftovers in. She grabbed a beer for herself and offered one to Kyo, who declined. "Patrol in the morning." She used her jacks to grab a water bottle, causing Hoshi to snort out foam.
Huh. No sign of the fluffball.
They talked for another 30 minutes before Kyoka said her goodbyes and went out to take the train home. Butterscotch still wasn't home. Her door had a cat flap with RFID chip reader so only he could go in and out, and all the windows had been closed, so he must have left of his own accord and been doing whatever he does. Maybe he got lucky; it'd be nice if one of them did. She went to sleep missing his warmth, knowing he'd be back in the morning, probably sitting on her chest with his butt in the air making biscuits on her stomach.
A yowl woke her up suddenly, and a thud against her door followed by the tinkle of broken glass had Hoshi up and running in seconds, cricket bat in one hand and using her phone as a flashlight in the other. Butterscotch was there, bleeding and limping as his back right leg appeared to be broken or hurt in some way. He had been able to drag himself through the flap but had fallen over against her trash can and knocked over the empty beer bottle that Hoshi had tossed on the overflowing heap of garbage.
She fussed over him as best she could, but she didn't know anything about wounded animals. But she remembered who did. She reached for her phone and called Kyoka, hoping she'd pick up. Her other hand was bloody so she set Butterscotch down as gently as possible and rinsed it, missing Kyoka's "Hey" as she'd set the phone down on speaker while washing her hands. Turning off the water she heard "-rything OK?" and frantically said "Butterscotch is hurt and all the vets are closed, but I know you said you guys have that animal rescue thing at the Tower and is there any way you can get them to help him? I'll pay whatever, but he's hurt, Kyo, and I need him to be OK." She sobbed the last words out, realizing that her closest companion for the last three and half years was bleeding on her kitchen floor and she didn't know what to do.
The other woman took a deep breath and said in a calm professional voice "OK Hoshi, I'm coming to get you and bring you and BS to the Tower, OK? I can be there in 15 minutes. I need you to get some bandages or clean cloths on him and get some clean and comfortable clothing for yourself. Do you have a crate for him?"
She nodded, then remembered this was a phone call. "Yeah" she said, swallowing an uncomfortable amount of spit that had prevented her from talking.
"OK, good. Get a blanket or old shirt in the bottom of the crate and get him in, if you can without hurting him. If you can't, just try and get things ready and keep him calm until I get there, OK?"
She nodded again, wordlessly. Kyoka seemed to understand. "We have an amazing pet doctor here, OK? We'll get him patched right up. I gotta get off here and catch my ride now. Leave the door unlocked, Hoshi."
She had no idea if it had really been 15 minutes when she heard knocking on her door. Butterscotch was breathing and laying on his side, and the beeding seemed to have stopped. She had the crate ready but couldn't bring herself to shove him in. Kyoka bundled her up, somehow eased Butterscotch in and got him ready for transport, and then dragged Hoshi out with one jack gently wrapping around her wrist.
Kyoka loaded them into a car, which then decided not to be a car anymore and grew engines, taking flight with a quiet hum. Hoshi barely noticed, focusing all her concentration on her own breathing. Kyo was gently rubbing small circles into her back while talking quietly with someone on her earpiece. They landed on the top floor of the new Might Tower shortly after and Hoshi didn't remember all that much of the next hour. She was told reassurances by nice looking people with soft, welcoming voices and brought to a small room where she could lay down and rest.
She had on her oldest blue jeans that still fit and an Invisible Girl pajama top she'd gotten for her birthday a few years back. Why they wanted to make merch for someone who was invisible, she'd not quite understood. She fell asleep in moments, thanks to a few parts per million of a quirk-produced soporific in the room's air supply. She had noted it could be programmed with an equally strong stimulant to wake her up when necessary, but hadn't possessed the energy to set it up.
Hoshi woke up 3 hours later to a gentle nudging from a girl who must be in her teens at the oldest. "Hey miss, your kitty is ready." She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked blearily up. "Butterscotch is ok?" The girl grinned and nodded, assuring her, "he's fine. Dr. Koda said he would talk to you when you're up. He's got, um, Butterscotch down in the clinic."
Dr. Koda turned out to be the former hero student Anima, Kyo's classmate at UA. He'd chosen to stay away from the front lines after everything during the war and become a veterinarian. She was wondering exactly how and why the top Hero agency in all of Japan shared a building with an animal rescue, but she was starting to get the picture. The girl riding down the elevator with her introduced herself as Kazue, Hero name Harmony. "Even the interns are Heroes?"
The younger woman shrugged and said "Provisional Hero for me, 2nd year at UA; I'm here doing community service hours as part of my training. They made it mandatory for provisional licensees a few years back. I get to hang around all the cute animals and have lunch with like half of the top 20 heroes and pick their brains."
Wow, she really didn't fit in here. "Oh, that's… cool. I'm kinda friends with Earphone Jack, she brought me here when my cat was hurt. Never been to Might Tower before." The elevator dinged and they stepped out in the basement, brightly lit white walls looking like a hospital, which in a way it was.
They turned a few corners and found Dr. Koda sitting at a desk typing up a report. He turned in his chair when he saw them and whispered "Hello! Butterscotch is waiting for you." He handed Kazue a page and signed something to her in JSL. Kazue read the summary to her. "Dr. Koda says he was attacked by a dog outside but got away. He was very lucky to get here when he did. The leg is in a cast and he'll need rest for several weeks. His diet is fine, and he would like you to clean his litterbox more frequently."
"Dr. Koda can tell all that from his leg?" She was relieved to hear that her little BS was alright, but that was a little more information than she expected. "No, Butterscotch said so. Dr. Koda can talk to the animals, it's his Quirk. He can understand some of the more domesticated ones too. Butterscotch loves you very much, you'll be pleased to know. He kept asking Dr. Koda when he could snuggle you."
Hoshi broke down crying. The stress of the last few hours and the relief all came through the floodgates at once. And now hearing that someone loves her, truly misses her? Even if it was just her cat, it was too much. Kazue awkwardly hugged the older woman, trying to avoid the more visible burn scars on her arms.
As Hoshi rode back in a taxi with Butterscotch asleep in his crate, Hoshi thanked every deity that may or may not exist that she had a friend like Kyoka.
She knew that Earphone Jack had patrol in the morning, so she settled for a texted "Thank you so freaking much <3" and went to bed, Butterscotch safely laying on a blanket with his leg extended in a cast. He was still loopy from the meds Dr. Koda had prescribed. Hoshi herself normally would have passed out, but that 3 hour quirk-enhanced nap had given her more rest than she normally got in a full night's 6 hours of tossing and turning. Working overnights was hell on the body as she got a little older, and even in her late 20s it was catching up. "I need a new job." She should go work at that Tower, that place was freaking cool.
She finally fell asleep after eating some noodles, thoughts from the day bouncing around inside her head.
The next day, the thought of working at the tower still bugged her. She didn't want to seem like she was using Kyoka's friendship for an in, but rich people called it networking and it worked for them. Kyoka had messaged her back over breakfast and Hoshi'd sent more thank yous and was now looking at the agency website. They had 27 levels in the new building that had replaced the damaged structure All Might's agency had been run from when she was a kid.
The top 8 floors were all Hero Agency, including most of the old Class 1-A and some of their schoolmates and fellow veterans. Several businesses also maintained offices on the middle floors, all thoroughly vetted by the Agency staff and all locally owned. The bottom floor was a public museum and the next 2 were for teaching and counseling services, provided for free by the Agency as a way of both giving healthcare, access to mental health services, and quirk counseling to those who needed it while using the experience to help train prospective students. 3 more floors were R&D for Support companies.
The basement was all animal rescue clinic, 4 floors of it. They had an area in the courtyard that opened up off the highest level of the clinic for the animals to get some fresh air and sunshine, and they had rooms indoors with enclosures that were simulated natural environments. There was extensive use of green spaces, solar energy used wherever they could, and walkable gardens on exterior balconies of several lower floors.
It looked a damn sight better place to work, and just spend time at, than her little guard shack keeping the riff-raff out of the exclusive cultivated neighborhood community she kept "secure." She filled out a job application for a general assistant position, which could mean working any of the different jobs open, of which there seemed to be several varieties. Any of them would be nice, she thought, shrugging on the wrinkled uniform she had forgotten to hang up. One last check of Butterscotch and she was off to work.
Midoriya Izuku, AKA Kenshin Kotaro for the purposes of the mission, was dropping the kids off at the vet. They were currently in wolf-puppy form, Zoya drinking milk from a bottle held by Koda and Toshi napping on Ochako's lap. He hated to interrupt, but work called. "Come on, time to get in position. Still on for the top floor of the hotel. We have Creati and Rule in the next room posing as escorts, Phantom Thief and Tsuburaba posing as their johns, and the floor below is bugged. Detective Sansa is waiting 3 blocks away and ready ro roll." She huffed. "It doesn't matter, he's the detective on the case."
The elevator doors opened to reveal Earphone Jack leading her friend and their new employee on the quick tour. "Of course you have been here, but I'll show you around again anyway. Hello!" She waved to Deku, who was just taking over the bottle feeding while Ochako gently put the other puppy down in a play area. Holy moly, here was the power couple of the century just playing with some puppies? I mean, Hoshi didn't blame them, but it was not the way she'd envisioned meeting them. She'd known, intellectually, that Kyo worked with these two as well as a dozen more of the most well-known people in the country. It was just… so down-to-Earth, so normal.
Deku got in the elevator with his wife after kissing the pups goodbye, and once safely inside Ochako did her part to pose as a tame very large, very intelligent wolfhound. She was far bigger than a real dog, of course, and her fur was the same auburn as her normal hair. She was a striking figure in either form.
They headed up to their top floor office, given to them by universal agreement due to the joint reasons of being the bosses and the capability of flying out the windows or off the roof more easily. Izuku swiped his badge to start the ride up, going over their notes and the faces he'd see.
Hoshi continued on the tour, finally winding up back at ground level where she was assigned to shadow a security guard who checked visitors in and escorted them to the higher security areas ike the Hero and R&D areas. She escorted a Mr. and Mrs. Hatsume to the fourth floor laboratory, seeing just how thick those blast doors really were when they swung open, and running back 30 seconds after they closed. She entered her override code on the alarm panel and entered the lab, wheezing as she struggled through the purple smoke. She heard laughter.
She ought to be hearing "Ow, that hurt, my leg!" or something like that. Maybe "I'm blind!" or "Oh crap!"
An older guard pulled her aside gently and explained how this floor worked, with the worrying phrase "don't mind the occasional explosion. It's how scientific progress is measured in these parts."
What exactly had she signed up for? She checked in a retired detective named Tsukauchi who went all the way up to the top floor to see Mindblank. He met the man at his office and secured the door, drew the shades, and activated some counter-surveillance tech that seemed very impressive to Hoshi as she suddenly found her radio, phone, and tablet all non-functional. On the way back, she happened to see the janitor cleaning what looked like doggie food bowls on the ground in the Deku/Uravity office. The woman noted the look and closed the door. OK, so they have pets, whatever.
The best moment of her morning came near lunch, in the form of a visitor who'd come to check on his bat, dropped off the week before at the clinic downstairs. She escorted him down and ran into Dr. Koda again, who whispered a hello and asked after Butterscotch. He took the man with him into a very high-tech looking room as Hoshi went back to the foyer. Two little husky puppies ran by, and one tripped over her shoe and skidded across the floor. She picked it up and looked in the little pup's eyes, noting the intelligence. His sister came back and batted her boot, wanting her brother down so they could continue the game.
Deku came back in the roof access, grabbing the Wanted poster from their whiteboard detailing subjects of investigations, and pinned it on the "CAPTURED" list with a flourish. A small cheer broke out as Hoshi brought up another detective, a man with a quirk that made him look for all the world like Butterscotch if he was human. She hoped he couldn't read minds. She heard the Hero Uravity say "And then guy who'd pissed himself was all like 'no way man, he's got a loaded wolf!' So I ran up and bit the other guy on the wrist before he could use it, man he needed a bath, and he decided to give it up. Funny how that works, not being willing to trade your hand for a score."
Hoshi had no idea what was going on, but they all seemed to be in a good mood and they cut the checks. "Ah, Detective Sansa! Just have the last of it for you" the heroine called out. "And you must be Ms. Otani" she added over her shoulder, digging through a pile of papers on her desk. She straightened up and handed two folders to the Detective with the cat Quirk. They regarded each other professionally but coolly, Hoshi thought, as she rode back down with the Detective.
He noticed her looking. Detectives are good at noticing things. "She doesn't like cats."
"Oh, um. It's just, my cat Butterscotch looks exactly like you, Detective. Sorry. I… never mind."
He perked up. "Oh, would you mind showing me?"
She happily pulled out a few photos and they chit-chatted until he left the office. Sure are some neat people here. Hoshi felt she was gonna like this job.
Uraraka Ochako dreamt. She was a farmer, always had been. She'd been raised here at the orchard and her family farm had been their own for her entire life. It had its ups and downs, as always, but she liked her life. She liked making pies, and she liked sunflowers. She liked seeing all the little critters, as long as they don't hurt the crops. This little bat had been flying around lately, just one, and she wanted to chase it. She transformed, the wolf in her urging her to run, to leap, to play. She chased the merry little bat as it flew this way and that, through the trees and out onto the rolling fields. The bat was green, and it seemed to glow like a beacon, urging her onwards to follow it through the night and into the light on the other side.
Hoshi was almost done with her first day. The last stop was to check in with the staff at the Hero Agency floors, just to make sure nobody was still there who wasn't supposed to stay after normal business hours. They had the twilight and underground shifts too, of course, but daylight was still the flashiest. She had to stop herself taking pictures as she found Deku and Uravity playing with those same two puppies she'd seen downstairs, one with a green collar and one with pink. Earphone Jack, back to being Kyoka in about 3 more minutes when she clocked out, sidled up to her. Hoshi whispered "Shouldn't they be downstairs at the clinic?"
Jirou gave her a small smile and whispered back "Nah, they like to have the kids up here where they can see 'em."
"Aw, they treat the puppies like family! You did not tell me they were so…. Happy and friendly, I guess."
Jirou snorted. "Trust me, when they get in a fight they're totally different animals. I've sparred with both and why villains still think they can take those two down I will never understand. Come on, gotta check in with your supervisor before we go."
After heading back to the lockers, showering (with amazing water pressure, bless her buttons, this should be advertised in every job listing), and changing back into her civvies, Hoshi was ready to walk to the station with Kyoka. Dr. Koda rushing by in a tizzy stopped the two of them, as he spoke into his phone "Yes, it's confirmed! We found another quirked animal! Please come down!"
The two women looked at each other and shrugged, both taking the stairs down to see what the fuss was about. Inside, Jirou and Otani waited until Dr. Koda came back, Deku and Uravity in his wake, still in costume and each with a puppy. They dropped the little ones in the playpen and asked Jirou to supervise, and Hoshi heard the doctor saying "This bat's quirk affects people's dreams! I've run some analysis and we've found that-" before the door closed.
She looked over and asked "y'all do research on quirked animals?"
Jirou nodded, holding the girl puppy as she said "yeah, we've found a few. Deku's super keen on the quirk analysis side of things, always has been. Uravity's a huge animal lover too, and Koda needed a better fit after the war. We all had it rough. We decided to make some dreams come true and help people as best we can, so now we have one of the top animal rescues in the area, the best Hero Agency ever, and all the other things we provide. All that money mostly comes from endorsements and Deku and Uravity's own accounts, by the way. A lot was left over from when All Might deeded the Agency to him, that's how we set it all up. And then we proved it works, so people keep coming and we keep expanding."
Kyoka rarely spoke so much in one go, Hoshi knew. She teased "so where's your recording studio then?"
Kyoka looked over, "oh, Mia didn't show you? 5th floor. It's soundproof but I can only use it at night."
Hoshi blinked. "I was kidding." The puppies had both made their way over to her by now.
Kyoka stood up as her earpiece beeped, and she excused herself to take a call. "Keep a real close eye on those puppies and do NOT let them run. They know the rules but they try and break 'em. And if either mom or dad catches you, you better be on your best behavior." She pointed at both puppies, and then added an aside "that goes for you too, Hoshi." She walked to the other side of the room and spoke quietly as Hoshi settled back in the play area with the two little furry monsters nibbling at her old tennis shoes. She let them, stroking each one on the head. She talked to herself, a habit she'd developed spending long hours alone with none else to talk to.
"You know, I'm really glad I came here. Today was… pretty cool. I don't think I've ever had one quite like it. I think this is the first step in helping the people a little more, you know? Like, this place exists to be a place where people come for help and that's a place I really needed when I was young. I didn't get it. But working here, even just as a dumb Security guard, I can help all those little kids like me."
When she looked up, a wolf with silver eyes was staring right at her. She dropped the puppies very gently onto the ground and they ran to her, chasing one another around and in between her legs. Then the wolf strolled to the elevator and pressed the Going Up button with her snout.
Kyoka ended her call and rounded up a frozen Hoshi. She bundled the both of them into the elevator, joining the gigantic wolf and the two puppies, and then Deku got on too.
Hoshi didn't dare breathe as the puppies licked her ankle.
She felt a pop and then heard Uravity's voice. "I like this one, we're keeping her." Hoshi looked down to see two very human toddlers at her feet. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see the woman grinning up at her. Her eyes were brown with flecks of silver, hair auburn and the same shade as the wolf's fur, and Hoshi could swear her teeth were fangs and her nails were claws.
Uraraka Ochako extended a hand and shook it with her newest employee. "So Ms. Otani, how was your first day?"