My Brother, My Keeper

A child, a kitten, what's next?!

Astra wakes up in the car on the ride home slowly blinking her eyes open and glancing around the car, why is the engine so loud? The music is also pounding against her ears plus there's shouting, not here of course but wherever Shoto is which is incredibly disorienting, it seems like the divide he'd built up subconsciously is completely broken... Yamada is sitting in the back seat with her so she tugs on his sleeve to get his attention, he looks at her and she turns off her coms holding them out for him to take. 

"Hearing break little star?" Hizashi signs, little star was the sign name he had given her after that first hearing break she took at the mall, there's been several times when the world was just too loud and she found herself grateful for the breaks.

"Yeah, got overwhelmed, are we almost home?" Astra signs back to him and she sees his lips moving faintly hearing the question he asks Aizawa in her right ear which is always weird she wishes things would be quiet instead of having the constant muffled and garbled noise in one ear. There was an incident when she intentionally damaged her ear to get it to stop but that would concern the people who were nice enough to take care of her even after several episodes. They're already being incredibly generous, and making them deal with any more of her freakish problems would make them want to get rid of her. She feels a gentle tap on her shoulder and snaps out of her emotional spiral.

"We're about ten minutes away. Do you want to stop for lunch on the way home? There's a cat cafe not far out of the way, sleepy cat and I go there pretty often." Astra thinks for a moment, she loves cats though she hasn't ever gotten to own one. She eventually decides that she wants to go to the cafe, giving Yamada a nod. Three minutes later they walk through the door of the quaint corner cafe there are tons of cats but two in particular catch her eye, a calico kitten with green eyes and a burn on its front left leg that is hiding away from most of the bigger cats and a big fluffy salty licorice cat sitting near the calico tail flicking lazily though its posture was protective. She tugs on Yamada's sleeve so she can ask if they can sit at the table nearest those two cats. Once they're sitting at their table Astra gets on the floor near the kitten, if it doesn't want to come over it won't have to but the kitten looks so fluffy and she would love to pet it.

The kitten walks over butting its head against Astra's hand, a small smile spreads across her face as she pulls out one of the treats they bought so they can give the cats something while they're there. The kitten much to Astra's surprise walks over for the treat and starts walking in circles over her legs it hurts a bit and she's about to push it away when it curls up purring softly. All thoughts of pushing it away are long gone as she strokes the soft fur, she's so enamored by the kitten that she doesn't notice Aizawa and Yamada watching her. The kitten purring makes her smile and the salty licorice cat walks over to investigate the person the kitten is with, rubbing its head on her side until she looks down, a giggle bubbles up that warms Aizawa and Yamada to the core before Astra gives the cat a treat, after a few more minutes she is deemed acceptable as it curls up next to her.

The cafe owner brings Aizawa and Yamada their order shortly after and brings over a cup of hot Coco in a travel mug so she won't worry about spilling it on the cats, both men turn to their food and pull out some papers that need graded trying to catch up on the work they have missed while going through the process of adopting Astra when they finish their meal astra is right where she was before they got the food still petting the kitten with a small smile on her face.

"You know I think this is the most I've seen our little listener smile, that kitten seems to make her real happy,"  Hizashi says to Aizawa who is flagging down a worker. She comes over and asks what they need.

"I was wondering if that kitten and salty licorice cat were some of the adoptable ones or if they were permanent cafe residents?" The worker perks up handing them a flier.