#all might vestige is so cool and neat for being essentially a man on fire

[shih-coulda-had-it]

Hug #35 with the found family Vestiges because they just deserve it😌

35. cuddle pile || wc: ~600+

the One for All animal shapeshifter AU, remember that? i think they'd make a great cuddle pile.

//

Izuku, fresh out of the best bath of his life and surrounded by his friends, sank into sleep and found himself in an unfamiliar realm. The vestiges held court in a miserable place (which Izuku hoped wasn’t a reflection on his own mental state), all crumbling concrete and once-majestic thrones arranged in a semi-circle.

This was not that. Izuku sat on his haunches and considered the sunlit grassland before him. He was in his shifted form. There was no inclination in him to turn human, and this did not worry Izuku. What he wanted…

He sniffed the air. A cluster of smells, largely unfamiliar save for one. Izuku set off to track it down anyway, using his senses in a way he hadn’t during his hunt for All for One. A half-grown black-footed cat couldn’t exactly travel up and down the mainland as well as a human.

Eventually, Izuku spotted the previous holders of One for All resting under a tree, with not a human form in sight.

The largest shifter was Shinomori by far; the elk had bedded down and placed his head on the dry yellowed grass, but he loomed large regardless. Izuku crept closer to One for All’s sleeping forms on silent padded feet.

En was smaller than even Izuku, enough that he could hang off one of Shinomori’s antlers, wings folded and head tucked. Banjo curled up below his junior and beside his predecessor; his snout twitched mid-snore. The wolverine cracked a pale ice-blue chip of an eye open, registered Izuku’s presence, and rolled expressively before shutting again.

He stifled the urge to jump Banjo.

Closer to Shinomori was Bruce. The Third’s spine was aligned with the Fourth’s vulnerable stomach, a precaution so any night terror of Bruce’s wouldn’t result in a crazed badger tearing into an elk’s guts. Kudou’s red fox form nestled next to him, and wiggling atop both of them was Yoichi. The bright white of the First’s fur caught the dappled sunlight.

“Kyuudaime,” Yoichi greeted. He registered first as prey to Izuku’s senses, and then he remembered that weasels were predators too. Yoichi cocked his head. “Looking for Shimura-kun and Yagi-kun? They’re on the other side of Shinomori-kun.���

“Quiet,” Kudou snuffled, but he did not bother to check the situation.

Izuku blinked in acknowledgment, and he scurried to the opposite side of the pile. He was expecting the dark-furred feline--the black leopard who looked uncannily like Gran Torino, if his own panther shift wasn’t frosted with silvered hairs and shrunken with age--but All Might… did not look like his current self.

The lion was younger, here. His mane was full and oddly sparking, his ribs did not show, and most importantly, there was no terrible scarring from his fight with All for One. All Might let out a laconic yawn and stretched out his limbs, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Izuku sprinting for his face right away.

All Might’s surprised yelp came out as a burst of crackling noise, like wood in a fire, but he bore Izuku’s leap onto the bulk of his body with admirable calm. Sprawled next to him, Nana mumbled a warning to hush and go back to sleep.

Childishly, Izuku asked Nana, “He can’t talk here, either?”

“We’re ghosts, Izuku-kun,” she murmured. “Toshinori is still among the living. You get to commune with us because you are our medium.” She peered over where Izuku was kneading All Might’s mane. “Comfy?”

All Might rumbled a half-hearted complaint. It was still loud enough to disturb the others’ rest, so they earned a whole bevy of reprimands, conveyed with yips, growls, and one particularly heavy sigh.

“Good night,” Izuku shot back, and he snuggled down in the heart of One for All.