Jaberwocky

 "Hey, lookit what we caught! He ain't so tough if he can't yell, is he?" The villain held Present Mic up by the scruff of his jacket. He was dangling limply but his eyes were open and tracking his surroundings, which calmed her somewhat. She took a deep breath, the sound muffled by the special respirator on the mask she wore, and prepared to inch her way over for a rescue.

One of the others, a large man the size of at least three combined in bulk, grabbed him before she could get much closer, however. "He's still alive, idiot," he snarled. Without so much as a warning he dashed the Voice Hero into the wall of rubble they'd created fighting. He sank down the pile, sunglasses completely shattered and his eyes closed. As he came to a rest at the bottom Elly saw a trail of blood.

She bit her tongue, but it wasn't enough to stave off the inevitable. She didn't know if he was badly injured or DEAD, and -

...and, and

That

cAuSeD

HeR

TO

<b>SNAP</b>

All the color blossomed back into her form in front of the villains, and she hissed, her ears flattening and her tail stiffly lashing around in the air.

"It's the other one!"

"Aww, kitty looks like she's mad we broke her friend."

If they'd paid more attention, they would have noticed the hero's eyes glazing over, the milky, cool whites showing instead of the purple pupils. Her gloves flexed, and the needle-like claws whisked out of the pads all at once.

"Kick 'im out of the way, then we'll add her to the pile."

One of them made as if to pull back his foot to kick Mic's prone body, and then paused as he heard a grating, inhuman snarl to the left of him.

The street light over the pair flickered, then the entire street's worth of lights went out. The neon signs on the shop fronts followed, and any remaining artificial light inside or out, including car headlights far in the distance.

"What the hell?!"

"I thought the bitch could only turn invisible -"

"...another hero?!"

"Only <i>one</i> claws that snatch!" The voice called. It didn't sound like it was spoken out loud, more like whisper-screamed directly into their ears. It didn't  help that it was spoken in a garbled mix of English and Japanese, so that they could only understand parts of the nonsensical growling. "Only <i>one</i> frumious <i>bandersnatch</i>!"

The stars went out.

"Screw this!" One of the burly men yelled, and the sound of footfalls receded rapidly into the distance.

"You fucking coward!" His companion started to turn but heard a muffled scream and an odd, slumping noise. He twitched around, squinting, trying to see in the darkness. After what seemed forever in the pitch black, surrounded by strange, tittering laughter combined with haggard breathing, he made out a few, faint glowing lights. Relieved, he rushed forward but froze, his blood cold as he saw only a pair of mismatched, rolling orbs and a toothy, fanged grin.

He screamed, too, before everything - <i>everything</i> -- went black.

Some time later Mic woke up in the hospital with multiple bandages and an I.V. He blinked, his vision blurry, and a pair of glasses were handed to him. He put these on and looked over at the person sitting beside him.

"Ches," he sighed in relief.

"Thank god." She rested her head on the edge of his bed with a shaky sigh. "I thought you were hurt worse than they were letting me know."

He frowned. "Why would they do that?"

"Uh... no matter. Hey, so anyway, how bad is it?"

"On a scale of one to I never wanna get outta this bed?" He paused, then grimaced. "Ehhh, I think I hafta pee, and I don't wanna do it with the catheter in."

"I'll go," she said quickly.

"Aw." But he nodded, definitely not wanting her to watch - well, that. "Thanks for lookin' out for me."

"I'll come back later, if you want." Her ears perked eagerly.

"I want," he told her seriously.

So she came back that night and often in the few days they kept him laid up, until Recovery Girl had visited enough times for him to heal. Elly was waiting anxiously in the main area of the teacher's dormitory when he arrived, and she let out a loud mew and threw her hands around his neck.

Aizawa raised his eyebrows as he glanced over. "Thank god. She's been insufferable since you got injured."

"Welcome back, Yamada," Hizashi said, pantomiming his friend shaking his hand. "Oh, thanks, Aizawa."

The scruffy man snorted. "You're getting a much better welcome than I could manage."

Elly blushed but didn't want to let go all the way. She slipped off the Voice Hero's neck but took his hand. Hizashi curled his palm around hers immediately. "True, true." He nodded sagely. "Hey, why don't we head over to my room so's I can grab a hair tie? Mine snapped on the way over."

"I was wondering why it was tucked into your shirt."

"It's annoying." He shrugged. "Goes flying all over the place when it's loose."

The couple wandered down the hallway, Hizashi occasionally throwing a finger gun to a colleague that stuck their head out to say <i>welcome back</i>. When they reached his room he opened the door and gestured grandly inside.

"Ladies first."

Elly flicked her tail at his back, making a little face at him as she did, but she walked in and leaned on a shelf while he strode into the bathroom to look for hair supplies.

"Oooh, I like this singer," she murmured as she flipped through some of the records he had out.

He startled her by speaking right behind her ear. "Hey, me too! He's one of my faves."

She spun about to find he had pulled his blond hair back into a simple ponytail. His green-gold eyes were warm and friendly from behind his red-rimmed glasses, and he was smiling at her crookedly.

"I guess we should go back out," she murmured.

He blinked, and then his one eye squinted at her in thought while the other remained large. His pointed mustache wriggled as he pursed his lips. "You sound sad."

"Oh. Um, I just... no, I just liked seeing your room?" She ended on a weak note, her ears folding back and a shaky grin on her lips.

"You never saw the bed." He glanced slyly over at the western-style mattress.

"Oh, no you did <i>not</i> just say that," Elly breathed, her tail swishing as she crouched down slightly.

Hizashi's eyes widened as if he realized he might be getting slapped, and he winced as she lunged forward...

...only to find his hands full of warm, soft and utterly pliable, <i>eager</i> cat lady.

She tackled him to the bed while he let out a surprised gasp. "Oof!"

"Mmmn." Her hands roamed greedily under his shirt, grasping his pectoral muscles and shuddering with pleasure. "Ohhhh... yes. Oh God, you're so <i>cut</i>. Zashi, how were you hiding all these muscles from me?"

He squirmed under her touch, gasping and pulling the sheets off the bed in some rather frantic, inspired writhing. His body felt like it was on fire under her touch, hot and tingling. Below, it was worse as his groin doubled in pressure, a heavy weight that crushed him faster than he could remember in years. "Dunno," he panted, "<i>why</i> I was hiding anything at this point."

She captured his mouth in a warm kiss and he whimpered, relaxing in her arms as she delicately slipped her tongue past his lips. "Oh, Zashi, I want you <i>so bad it hurts</i>."

"Ches! Y - you, are you ser - <i>eeeeee!</i> -- ous?" His voice rattled the windows as her hands traced his abdomen, her mouth hot on his neck. "Babe! Babe... oh, fuck. I want you, too." Hizashi gave up and rolled her over underneath him, breathing hard and kissing everywhere he could reach.

"Mnnn, please, I need to say it, but please <i>please</i> Zashi don't stop. You don't have to say it back, I love you, I feel like I'm dying to get to touch you, kiss you..."

He hiccuped, startled at her vehemence. "Ches baby? You okay?"

"No I'm not!" She clung to him, kissing his Adam's apple and whimpering faintly. "It's okay though, ignore me - take me, <i>use</i> me, I don't mind, I just need you if only for right now, I - I need all of you I'm allowed to h - have!"

"Whoa, now," he said softly, moving to disentangle her from his lean, warm body. She started to cry and beg harder, pleading that she <i>didn't mean it</i> and she'd <i>be quiet</i>. "Whoa! <i>Elly</i>!"

The use of her given name he'd never spoken before snapped her out of her fearful babbling.

"Relax," he hummed quietly, using a little hint of his quirk so she could feel the soothing vibration. "First off, I guess I shoulda told you how I felt a long time ago, huh? I love you. I was scared ya didn't like me back." Hizashi paused, then rolled his eyes and added in a comical drawl, "I can see I was wrong."

Elly nodded furiously, her eyes streaming tears but a small smile starting to quiver on her lips.

"Second, it's cool, ya dig? I'm up to give you <i>all</i> of me if you want. I don't do halfsies when it comes to anything, let alone love." He kissed the corner of her mouth, his eyes never leaving hers. "But, y'know, are you sure you want that? I'm not really all that great. I got a lot of bad habits, and I'm not always the Mr. Sunny Disposition everybody thinks I am."

"I know you, Hizashi. Not as good as I want to, but better than most people. It doesn't matter, I'll always love you."

"Awesome," he sighed. "Because we can't, uh, do this here. Nezu'd kill me if I broke any more windows and I doubt I could hold my Voice back if you dropped your hands any lower, babe."

She flicked one ear, her expression unamused. "How many windows <i>have</i> you broken, Hizashi Yamada?"

He shook his head wildly. "Oh, no! Nuh uh, it's 'cause of bugs! I saw a spider a month ago, and I've done it twice before when I first started working here. All unrelated to - to sexy stuff," he finished lamely.

She giggled. "I was teasing. It's fine."

He pantomimed wiping sweat from his brow. "Phew!"

There was a light tap at his door just then, and Aizawa poked his head through. He took in the overly disheveled couple, with Hizashi's shirt pulled up to his neck and coughed once. "Am I interrupting ...something?"

"Nope," the blond man said as cheerfully as he could as he patted his clothing back in order. Elly fixed her hair with a couple of quick strokes.

"There was a disturbance in the area while you two were fighting. Cops want to talk to you both about it."

Her ears pricked. "Are they here?"

Aizawa nodded. "Main room."

After he left, Elly grabbed Hizashi's hand. "This is all my fault!"

"Wha? Nobody was hurt, yo. And there wasn't any major damage. I doubt it's like, bad or anything. They just wanna know what happened."

She bit her lip and followed him to where the two officers stood in the common area. They were seated at the wrap-around couch and both had their notepads out. Hizashi waved and she smiled at them.

"Hey, how can we help?"

"Mr. Yamada, Ms. Sketchit."

"Uh huh."

"Hi."

They sat together, Hizashi propping on leg up on his other and idly shaking his foot.

"Yamada, did you see anything after you were knocked into that pile of rubble?"

"No," he answered truthfully. "I damn near got my block knocked clean off. Passed out and only woke up in the hospital."

Elly took a deep breath. She hesitated, but then took Hizashi's hand for strength, though she looked as if she were aware he might pull away. He didn't, but the policemen noticed and were surprised.

"It was me," she confessed.

"Excuse me?"

"Whenever something very traumatic happens in a fight, such as children being injured badly, or - or someone I love getting hurt -"

Hizashi jumped a little.

"It's my ultimate attack," she added. "I call it the <i>jabberwocky</i>, from the insane poetry of Lewis Carroll with the same name. I dig deeper than normal and blot out <i>all</i> light within enough of a radius that the villains can't see anything at all. Total darkness."

"That explains the odd blackout," one cop exclaimed in relief. "We thought we had either a vigilante or an electric problem on our hands that we couldn't solve."

"I'm sorry," Elly apologized. "That attack isn't widely known, and I try not to do it at all, especially because it terrifies the populace when the sun is suddenly gone in the middle of the day."

"Lucky it was night."

She nodded gravely.

They spoke briefly after that but they had gotten what they came for, and eventually left. Hizashi and Elly stayed sitting on the couch for awhile after they were gone.

"So, um. Ya went crazy when I was hurt, huh?" The house slipper on his foot slid off and he didn't notice.

"Yep."

"So... I literally drive you crazy."

She turned to find him grinning like a loon, his eyebrows wiggling. Elly wrapped him on the arm and he snickered.

"Yes! Yes, you drive me crazy, Hizashi."