Third person pov

The hulking creature had a frame similar to All Might's, with broad shoulders and bulging muscles for days. Only his skin was black, and his brain, exposed. Not only that, but his eyes were... in his brain. Just sitting there right on it. It was extremely disturbing when you really looked at it. Izuku and Kit stood on one side of the room by the door, staring wearily at the creature lingering before Izuku's bed. Trying to sneak it into Kit's would've been futile. Inko wasn't home at the moment-- a prime time to drag whatever this thing was in. Meanwhile, Mitsuki and Masaru both downstairs at the Bakugo household, one making dinner, and the other watching the news. They couldn't risk it.

"....Do you think it's dangerous?" Izuku knew it was a dumb question as soon as he asked it. He winced immediately after the words slipped past his lips. Kit glanced at him briefly before returning his eyes to whatever this thing was. In place of its mouth and nose seemed to be a beak, only it wasn't one at the same time. There were teeth in there. It was terrifying. Where did this beast come from? Why was it hurt in an alley? It had allowed Kit to stitch it up, but not without accidentally chucking Izuku's lamp into a wall and putting a hole in the floor in the process. Izuku really wasn't sure how he was going to deal with that one, but Kit promised he'd handle it.

"I don't know. And I think 'it's' a 'he', but I'm also not about to check." Kit said, still standing slightly in front of Izuku. If anyone was getting out of this mistake, it would be the freckled boy. "Hey, you. Beak boy. Are you going to kill us?"

The creature stared. They stared back.

"Should... Should we take that as a maybe?" Izuku whispered. He didn't know how he felt about this. Kit had come out of the alley, not with some bite wound from a rabid dog, but instead with some mutated... serious, what was this thing? It looked like a black bean had a baby with a bald chicken. It was by no means a pretty sight, yet it seemed relatively docile if you ignored the property damage. It had let Kit, someone a third of his size, drag him out of the alley by his hand. Kit appeared pretty sure the thing was safe. It was just... well, what if it wasn't? It was a truly dicey situation. With quirks the way they were, it was impossible to tell if they was an experiment gone wrong, or a human being in need. Maybe it was a mixture of both.

"I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's not going to hurt us." Kit seemed to decide, sounding confident. He always did when he made decisions, and he was usually right. And in the scenarios in which he wasn't, he'd do anything to change that. Whether that meant throwing the first punch or arguing until he came out the victor. It was stubborn, but inspiring at the same time. Izuku nodded. He'd learned long ago not to doubt Kit. It didn't end well most of the time. Plus, there wasn't a point. Izuku trusted his brunette friend with his life.

"Alright... do you think he has a name? Should we give him one?" Izuku questioned. He wasn't sure what they were going to do with the hulking beast. They certainly couldn't keep it here. Or maybe they could, but Izuku wasn't sure how his mother would feel walking in to see some eight-foot tall bird man with an exposed brain chilling with her son and one of her son's best friends. An exposed brain which had the thing's eyes coming out of it, no less. It still made Izuku shiver to watch the thing look around. Where did the eyes connect to? Was it all implanted in the brain? Did the brain have a pair of indents in it to make way for all the nerves and connections? The freckled boy had no idea.

Kit wasn't sure why he'd spontaneously grabbed this thing's hand and asked it to come with him. The poor thing-- guy?-- would've just ended up in some lab or prison somewhere had he not. It hadn't said a word, nor made any attempts to communicate, verbally or otherwise. Kit knew how the legal system in Japan worked. They'd see him as someone, or something, that was unwilling to cooperate. The terrified woman who'd run from the alley screaming would give her statement, and that would be the end of it. The fact that they weren't likely to dig deeper than that made Kit's nose scrunch up, and his lip curl. 

"I don't know. Do you want a name?" Kit turned, addressing the creature. It cocked its head at him curiously as though it didn't know what Kit meant. Maybe it didn't speak Japanese. Izuku was squinting at it as though trying to figure something out. "Maybe you don't know what a name is. I'll give you an example. I'm Kit, so that's what everyone calls me. That's Izuku." Kit thrust his thumb at his freckled friend, who jumped slightly, and gave a shaky smile.

The beast stared for a moment longer before cocking its head again. It opened its wide maw, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth that could probably take Kit's entire hand off in a single bite. Izuku cringed slightly, but Kit just kept a steady expression, waiting to see what it'd do. It made a small noise, but nothing else came out. It didn't seem happy about that fact. Kit and Izuku both noticed its displeasure, sharing a look. Kit thought for a moment. There was only thing to do in this situation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dabi never thought he'd find himself in a bar with a notepad and pen writing down the life story of some random stranger he'd tracked down through old newspaper articles, yet here he was. Listening to someone recount all that they were and had been before was more fascinating than he'd imagined. He found himself enraptured in the story of the man next to him, only in his early twenties, yet having been through so much. It reminded Dabi of himself. Both of them had been wronged by the same person. It was a step in the right direction, talking to this guy. Dabi could almost see Endeavor's fall on the horizon. It would be so much better than him just dying. The humiliation would be far more satisfying. 

"I used to look up to him, you know. He was my favorite hero." Hawks gazed into his glass of whiskey, seeming a little dazed. He wasn't sure how this mysterious scarred man had found him, but here they were. He'd willingly agreed have his story published. He was an up and coming pro, so agreeing to make a statement about this was risky. Especially considering the magazine this man claimed to work under was popular. "We didn't live in a good neighborhood when we first moved into the city so I could go to school and train to be a hero. A villain fight broke out in our apartment building while I was out. My younger brother and I were sharing an... an apartment together. This was only a year ago, but... my brother doesn't have a quirk. He was going in and out to try and make sure everyone evacuated safely. A beam fell on him while he was trying to get an elderly woman out. He's hasn't woken up since."

"Is there a chance he will?" Dabi found himself asking, his voice oddly soft. He thought about what it'd feel like if Natsuo or Shoto fell into a coma. The mere image made him shiver, and his quirk teemed uneasily in a curdling sort of way. He hadn't had any actual contact with the pair, but he was keeping a close eye on them nonetheless. Was it enough? He was second guessing himself, now.

"They already proclaimed him dead." Hawks gave a bitter smile, prying his eyes from his drink. They were empty. It was a look Dabi had seen on himself. "I won't let them pull the plug. I can't. That idiot is all I have left. He was obnoxious, and a trouble maker... but he's my brother. And I love him more than anything else in this world. No matter how long it takes, I'll wait. I'll pay the bills. I just hope Endeavor burns in hell for what he did, because I know I'm not the only one. My brother wasn't the first, and I know he wasn't the last."

Dabi felt the resolve in him turn to steel. Flames sparked in his eyes. He had never been a fan of heroes. Looking at Hawks now, and knowing he shared the same opinion of Endeavor as Dabi did... it made the scarred man thing maybe the heroes he'd grown to despise so much weren't as bad as he thought. They weren't all monsters like Endeavor. Most were just humans, just like the rest of society. Just like Dabi.

"I promise you." Dabi said firmly, holding Hawks' eyes. "I'll bring that asshole down, even if it's the last thing I fucking do."

For the first time since they'd started talking, Hawks gave a smile that looked halfway genuine. Dabi was glad he saved Kit in that alley.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Eric." Izuku tossed out. The creature shook its head. It had taken almost half an hour to teach it what yes and no meant, but once it clicked, he'd begun answering simple questions without an issue. It clearly understood Japanese. It was as though it had never been asked its opinion on... anything, really. Like it had been talked at in the past, but no too. The thing didn't know what to think, but seemed... happier than it had been before? Kit wasn't sure, and neither was Izuku. It's not like the thing could open its mouth and tell them.

"Keeri." Kit tried. Another shake. Trying to find a name for it wasn't working out well. Kit had dialed Iida and told them they'd gotten a dog, and needed name ideas. The tall teen had been appalled, asking what breed. Kit had just stared at the creature for a brief moment, sitting next to Izuku and towering over the boy, and simply said 'a mutt.' Iida hadn't taken well to that. Especially when Kit mentioned they'd dragged it out of an alley after it tried to attack a woman. He shrieked something about it needing shots. Kit had blurted a flurry of bullshit out about it already having them and then hung up, and now here they were. Sitting in a circle on Izuku's bedroom floor and spouting out names back and forth.

"Tiki." Izuku snapped his fingers as though he'd found it. The creature snorted and shook its head, seeming amused and taken aback at the same time. As though the suggestion had offended it somehow. The freckled boy groaned. "We've been at this for almost an hour! My mom will be here soon. If he ends up staying here the night, we can't just tell her he doesn't have a name. She'd lose it!"

"She's already going to lose it, Izuku. I mean, look at him." Kit gestured. "His eyeballs are coming out of his actual fucking brain. I didn't know that was physically possible."

"It's not." Izuku noted quietly. The unnamed beast looked even more offended than before. Izuku rose his hands in surrender, hoping to avoid getting slapped or something of that like. While the thing hadn't been violent towards them so far, there was no reason it couldn't be.

"I'm sure we'll find one eventually. What about girl names? We never know. Maybe he'd like one of those better." Kit suggested with a shrug. Izuku looked at the creature they'd picked up to search for any signs of interest, but its odd face gave nothing away. Seriously, what were they going to do with him long term? Izuku's mother, Inko, surely wasn't going to let it stay here indefinitely. Auntie Mitsuki would throw a fit. Honestly, the creature would probably eat Luis given the chance. If Luis didn't get to him first. Old or not, that Chihuahua was cut throat.

"I mean, I don't see why not. What's a good girl name?" Izuku could only think of names of people he knew rather than more original ones, but most females strayed away from him or were rude. He didn't want to use a family names, because that was too personal. He was trying to stay in the mindset of not getting attached, but he was quickly growing fond of whatever this thing was. He was trying to figure out of Kit felt the same way, but he never gave anything away. He just carried himself with an air of superiority, and everyone around him conformed. 

"Uh... De...nise?" Kit tried, face screwing up uncomfortably when he realized he had nothing.

In front of them, the creature nodded eagerly. Kit and Izuku blanched.