Of Dragons and Second Chances - LoweFantasy - 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia (2024)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

A part of his mind still hovered high above the battle even after he’d been reborn. While his sucktastic baby body in the next life sucked milk and cried against his will, he hung there in his memories, watching Izuku roar and tear after the Dead Hands Bastard in flashes of green light. He could see his body too. Dead. Laying in rubble.

“It’s time for you to be processed,” he remembered a voice saying.

A being of light and cloud, but human shaped, had hung next to him. They had seemed familiar, although he knew he had never met them.

“Not in this life,” they had said.

“Whatever, you can freaking wait, I got to see this to the end.”

“You already know how it ends.”

“Like hell!”

But even as he cussed and swore at the being of light and his eyes followed the spark-green path of Izuku, trading blows, decimating buildings, changing the entire landscape like a god, he found he did know.

Izuku would win. Like in every story of good and evil, the hero always won.

Katsuki clacked his teeth in irritation, only to find his, uh, ghost teeth(?) made no such satisfying sound.

“This is f*cked up.”

“How so?” asked the heavenly beurocrat, for that’s what they must be, come to process his soul for the afterlife, god damn.

“I just got started,” he said. “I had plans, damnit, and I worked like sh*t--have you seen my body? When it’s not all bloody and crap, I mean at its prime, I’m f*cking stacked! And I’d just had--screw it, this sh*t is f*cked up. I’m still a kid!”

The titans below moved the earth. Katsuki felt his core move with them.

He was suppose to be there. It had been his destiny to be one of them. To be great. God-like.

“And then what?” asked Mr. Glows-Too-Much.

“What do you mean what? I’d be awesome! The definition of awesome! I’d be history itself!”

“And you aren’t now? You know, in your heart, what Izuku Midoriya will become, and he will have only become that because of your sacrifice. You share his legacy.”

“And that’s messed up!” he shrieked. “My body just…moved! I didn’t even think about it!”

“So you would have let him die?”

“sh*t no, but that’s not the point! God, are angels really this dense?”

Glowy Robes smiled at him, and it made his hackles rise. It was that knowing smile he hated the most that said they found him funny.

“I in no way find your distress funny,” they said. “I just like you, and I’ve come to offer you a deal.”

“...” He wanted to ask how they were reading his mind, but come on, why couldn’t Death be able to read his mind?

Another twist in the cataclysmic battle below caught his attention. Somehow, even from way up there, he could see Izuku’s tears even as he bled.

Idiot had always been a cry baby…

No…not an idiot. His friend.

“We’d just got started…” he said. “It’s no fair.”

“Thus the deal.” The angel swept its arm and somehow scooped Katsuki whole like a great wall, taking him to somewhere ephemeral and light and out of sight of the battle.

“Where’d you take me?”

“Somewhere you won’t be distracted,” they said, and he could see that smile again, except this time it was kind. “Great acts of righteousness deserve a great reward, and there is no greater love than a man who puts down his life for his friend.”

Katsuki wrinkled up to the top of his head. “ Gag, do you have to make it sound so gay?”

“Would you like another chance?”

Now that got his attention. “Like, put me back in time or something?”

“Oh no. What’s done is done, there are no do-overs. That would defeat the purpose.”

He scowled at that. “I don’t see why not.”

“And you don’t have to. What I’m offering is a chance at reincarnation in another world.”

Katsuki almost face-palmed. So that was it. He was going to become a cliche rerun.

“You don’t have to. You could always just go on, like most who die do.”

“On? On where?”

The angel made a vague gesture. Katsuki couldn’t even make out the direction. This spirit stuff was weird as crud.

“On to the next stage of your development.”

Katsuku fidgeted a bit. Not that he had a body to fidget with. Yeah he could see himself, dressed in his battle gear as though the fight had never happened, but he also couldn’t feel himself breathe, or the air, or even the taste of his own mouth.

It was maddening.

“What’s this reincarnation thing involve?” he asked.

And that’s how he found himself back as a baby, unable to move how he wanted to, unable to see clearly, unable to communicate, and suddenly understanding one billion percent why babies cried all the time. He actually had to give credit to those who didn’t. Because, without someone around to care, he’d just die, and he’d already tried out that sh*t.

“Be aware that, whichever you choose, there will be some who will follow after you ,” he remembered the angel saying.

“What, like my own personal haunting? Are their devils or guardian angels stalking me?”

“No. Like your mother.”

Sure enough, the first thing his blurry, developing vision made out was the old hag’s face.

“She’s not…she’s not going to do something dumb like off herself, is she? Just because I died?”

“That’s her own business.”

He couldn’t remember the last time his mom had smiled at him like that, all tender and soft. Most of the time she was hell incarnate. It was no mystery where he got it from.

“Hello, sweet Katsuki.” Her voice was soft too, alienly so. “Did you sleep well?”

He stared into her scarlet eyes, just like his, and tried not to think about how she got to be there, holding him again.

Please don’t have killed yourself, he wanted to say. A crappy son like him wouldn’t have been worth that. Everyone, including himself, would have agreed.

But there she was, holding him close, looking back at him with way too much warmth.

And, of course, because his young body was more instinct than anything, he started to cry.

“Oh no, sweetie, what’s wrong? That doesn’t sound like your hungry cry.”

“Everything all right?”

His eyes may not have worked yet, but his ears worked perfectly fine.

His crying increased.

Because his dad was there too.

“ The point is, they will want to follow where you’ve gone after they die. How they die, or even the life they had before, they most likely won’t remember of their own choice. Too many people remembering might hurt the world, or hurt themselves.”

“If you’re going to wipe my memories--”

“You will remember. That is your special gift for the sacrifice you’ve made. It is unlikely they will have died the same way. We don’t get the opportunity to die for someone else every day.”

“Whatever. Just make sure I get to keep my quirk.”

“Oh, you will. And you’ll look the same, of course. The spiritual and the physical body often look the same.”

His dad’s image was even more blurry than his mother’s. The brown of his hair and eyes seemed to blend into the background, unlike the blond and red of his mother.

He tried to calm himself down. Even as a baby, to bawl at the drop of a dime was demeaning. He was made of tougher stuff than this.

The pads of his mother’s thumbs wiping away his tears was softer than he remembered. Surely, she had never been so soft.

“He sounds hurt,” she said. “I’ve never heard him cry like this before.”

“Well, it won’t hurt to try feeding him. Have you checked his diaper?”

“I just changed it.”

“ Just remember, as you live this next life, it would do you good to reevaluate what it means to be great,” the angel had said. “ And what the rewards of true greatness are.”

“I didn’t die to get unsolicited advice. Just give me back my life and let me do what I want.”

The glowy ass’s smile had turned all stupid knowing again, as though they found Katsuki funny.

Then they’d dropped him into the birth canal, where he was born and drifted among memories of thunder and green lightning.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

Chapter Text

Did he mention that being a baby sucked balls? Because it did. Big, nasty hairy ones.

Katsuki wanted to get this show rolling. He didn’t even know what kind of world he’d been dumped into or how his quirk would show up. But no matter how much he wiggled, squirmed, or screamed, his body wouldn’t even turn over let alone hold in its own poo or say any words. Ugh.

So, in order to preserve his sanity, he let his mind drift for the first few months through his memories. He lingered on his death the most, trying to comprehend the strange mix of regret and satisfaction. He was glad that Deku lived. He was glad to give the self-sacrificing idiot a taste of his own medicine. But dying had been the last thing he had wanted to do. He just had so freaking much going for him. He still had things he need to straighten out, relationships to get right, people to make up to, villains to end.

Whenever he didn’t escape into sleep or memories, he was looking back at his parents, specifically his mother, watching her humiliate herself with baby talk and cooing. Heck yeah it made him laugh, which only encouraged her. If only she knew that her baby boy had the mind of a teenager. Probably best that she didn’t.

But even as he internally mocked her, his heart solidified a new resolution:

I’m going to be a better son to you this time.

So he cooed. He giggled. He did his best not to cry too much, even when all he wanted to do was explode and swear every last vulgar profanity he could think of. He did his best not to think about breast feeding (oh god, he tried), and definitely went space cadet when he had to get his diaper changed. What was pride when you were little more than a drooling lump of flesh? At least no one he knew was around to see him like this. And even if they were, all they’d see was a damn f*cking adorable baby. Probably the best baby that ever existed.

Time past. There was no way he could keep track of it. But his body grew more responsive to his desires, his vision cleared, and his first teeth came in so he could get to chomping on real food other than, you know…tit*.

His first surprise came when he found his home to be, not a house, but a tent. A freaking cave man tent made of canvas and animal skins, decorated with artful rings of feathers, bones, dream catchers, you know, tent-people sh*t. His parents wore leather and furs. The furniture was wood and, get this, more furs. He was surprised that the freaking carpet at least had some color in it that indicated some kind of dyed wool.

And whenever his mom would take him outside to walk him around, it was only to see more tents and more tent-people. He couldn’t even laugh whenever random idiots would make faces at him, because he was too caught up coping with an existential crisis.

Plumbing. Couches. Microwaves. TV. Internet!

He changed his mind. Screw having another life, he’ll take moving on. Being a wispy ghost would be better than roughing it with the Flintstones.

Then he got woken up in the middle of the night by a commotion. His mom brought it a haggard young woman with green hair, clutching a bundle to her chest.

He had a bad feeling about that bundle. And when his mom coaxed the very, VERY familiar, dirty looking woman to let her see what was in it, she gave a great shout.

“Oh! You poor thing!”

And, still in the middle of the night, mind you, Katsuki got introduced to another green haired baby. Green, curly-hair.

The baby didn’t need freckles or more growth to instantly know who it was.

“DEKU!?!”

Yeah, he meant to say Izuku. Bad habits die hard.

But since he was a baby, it came out like this:

“BUBU!”

While his parents lost their ever loving sh*t at his reaction. (“Oh my gosh, look how surprised he is! It’s like he’s never seen another baby before!”) Katsuki quickly did a once over on the bedraggled Auntie Inko and the rather sad, snotty faced baby Izuku.

Neither of them looked good. And they smelled like smoke.

But besides that.

“Why the hell did you follow me?” he screeched. “Are you gay or something? masoch*stic gay? ‘Cause I swear, no one would pay for this bromance.”

But, again, since he was a baby, all that came out was babbling, and poor baby Izuku wasn’t even looking at him anymore. He really hated this baby sh*t.

And, thus, his life had come full circle. Deku and him. Him and Izuku.

Chapter 3

Chapter Text

Auntie Inko and Izuku apparently were one of the few survivors of some secret witch village or some sh*t. Apparently this world had magic, not that most of the people here seemed to like it. Witches and wizards hid away in the forest for a reason. Not that it helped them much this time.

Katsuki got to hear the whole story sobbed from Aunt Inko to his parents while he ‘played’ on the rug with Izuku. Not that there was much playing. After a night of peaceful rest and a full stomach, Izuku was acting like any other baby, gumming his hands, looking around, maybe eyeing Katsuki’s hair and flexing whatever hand wasn’t preoccupying his mouth.

“Don’t you even think about it,” Katsuki hissed.

Or, as the adults heard it. “Onu eee inn buuit.”

Izuku’s dad had apparently stayed behind so that Inko and Izuku could escape, and there was a general assumption in the tent that the wizard was dead.

Katsuki took to watching his parents expressions. They taught him more than what Auntie Inko blubbered.

And turned his back on Izuku. Bad move.

A sharp pain wrenched a yowl from his mouth. Izuku had tight hold of his hair, and seemed insistent on eating it while it was still attached to the scalp.

“Ah! No, Izuku! Let go! Bad!”

Even before Inko had reached Izuku, Katsuki was clawing and punching with every bit of his carefully practiced baby dexterity.

Now Izuku was the wailing one, with four neat red lines across his face, and a few scratches elsewhere. Good riddance.

“Katsuki!”

His mother swept him up. Indignation rose with him. Why the hell was he in trouble now? Did she want him to just let the fart knocker tear off his scalp?

“I’m so sorry,” she was saying to Inko.

“It’s fine, they’re not even one yet--when’s his birthday?”

“I didn’t even know he could do that…” he heard his father mutter.

For the first time in his new life, Katsuki felt a swelling bubble of pride.

And then he got a closer look at the red welts across Izuku’s face and that bubble popped.

Idiot. He’d just messed up a baby. An actual baby. And Izuku at that. And he’d actually felt proud of that for a moment?

The regret didn’t last long. It wouldn’t be the last time Izuku would made a go for his hair.

At least time passed more quickly now that he had to defend himself on top of training. Izuku was technically a few months younger than him, but when Katsuki started walking, damn if Izuku didn’t nearly kill himself trying to walk with him. If Katsuki ate something, Izuku had to too, so Katsuki had fun nibbling peppers and watching that hell go loose. When Katsuki shed the diaper for the true dignity of the toilet (eons before his parents even though he was ready for potty training), Izuku had to try too…and fail, meaning Katsuku got to smell urin and feces following him around until some damn adult would listen to him long enough to take care of it.

It was a long, solid two year reminder of why he’d gotten into bullying Izuku in the first place. It was like being followed by the paparazzi. A stinking, drooling paparazzi.

But…and he breathed in deep every time he reminded himself this…he was the bigger man. He was older. He’d freaking died for this guy. He could put forth the brain power to remember those painful life lessons he’d learned in the previous life and not torture his, uh…friend? Rival? Protagonist?

But this wasn’t Izuku. This was a toddler. A stalking toddler--

No, no, he couldn’t fall for that temptation…

It was only because of his supposed 16 year head start on maturity that he didn’t do worse things to Izuku than let him try his hot pepper snack. At least Izuku grew out of yanking on his hair.

His ‘tribe,’ as he’d learn to call it, had a reason for living in tents, apparently. Every six months they’d pack up, with all their horses and cows and other sh*t, and start moving. Katsuki was born in a gray canyon of sorts, then they went to some wide prairies for the winter, then some sort of sad excuse for a forest, then back to that weird craggy gray canyon. It was definitely untamed wilderness unlike anything Katsuki had known back in Japan, which was mostly green and ocean. While there didn’t seem to be much life, outside of the deer and buffalo the hunters would bring back, he found he liked the vast open space. It gave him the impression of having an abundance of air and when he finally could get out of his bed on his own, he’d start his morning going outside and breathing it in deep. The grasslands were more often than not dry and gold, the craggy canyon cold, and the bushy, short-tree forest a faded blue-green, but there were no buildings, or other people besides his tribe, for as far as the eye could see. Katsuki could spend hours daydreaming about running as far and as fast as he could for as long as he wanted.

And one day, when he was four, he couldn’t resist the temptation any longer.

His morning breath turned into a run.

He sped past the tents, past the roped off corrals for the cows and horses, past the yipping shepherd dogs, then finally burst past the last line of their encampment. It had rained the past week so the prairie had a rare green tint of live grass that came up to his chest. He laughed out loud as his feet flew, raising his hands to the sky, remembering how he use to rocket up by the strength of his quirk. Surely he’d be getting it soon, right? Surely--

A hand caught the back of his tunic, clotheslining his throat on his collar.

“Whoa there. That could be dangerous.”
The guard had the gal to smile at him while he choked his throat back into working order.

And the moment he did have breath--

“f*ck you, old man! I’ll show you dangerous!”

“Hold on there,” the guy was chuckling, and Katsuki might have too if he held up a swarmy little kid making threats. “I’m just keeping you--YOUCH!”

Katsuki hadn’t been coy when he said he’d been training.

Flexibility, strengthened core muscles, and sheer rage got the guard’s arm in his grasp and his teeth on his wrist.

His Mom was her most flummoxed yet when she had to break up a fight between a full grown man and her tiny spawn.

Yeah…he probably should have been above that. But the guy nearly choked him to death! You don’t just grab a kid by their shirt!

He still got a reputation in the tribe for being feral. Damn people don’t have eyes.

At least Izuku thought he was cool…

Yeah, that didn’t help.

“You bea’ up a grown up?”

“Tony hardly counts as a grown up.”

“Who’s ‘ony?”

“Damn it, Zuku, he’s been two tents over since you were a baby! The guy married to the fat lady. With the mole?”

“Mom says she no fat, she’s ‘turdy.”

“Say sturdy seven times fast.”

“S’urdysurd-d-derd, derdy, durd--”

Katsuki allowed himself a cackle.

Izuki wasn’t fazed. “Sturr--oh! Birdie’s out! Le’s play wi’ her!”

“Sure, have fun, bye.”

“Kachaaaaaaan!”

“One squirt is enough for me, I don’t have the patience for two, you know that.”

“You’re kid.”

“Sure. Bye.”

“Nooooo! Wai’ for me!”

And then damn Birdie spotted Izuku and him and started after them with all the intensity of a lion on a gazelle. She was technically a year older than them, but you didn’t exactly have a wide choice of playmates in a tribe of two-hundred-something.

That extra year meant nothing, though. She was dumb as a bag of turds and smelt like them too. Didn’t her damn parents bathe her? Katsuki seriously considered asking his mom to investigate, since technically she was the Chief. Of course she was the Chief.

“Zuku, you shudn’t play wit him. He bad.”

Katsuki slapped a hand on his forehead and let it down slow. He knew she could talk properly, he KNEW she could. Izuku had an excuse, but girls were suppose to be faster at learning how to talk to begin with.

“Kacchan no bad,” said Izuku, as though simply saying it solved everything.

Aaaand, yep. There’s the smell. Just had to get his hand past his nose.

“I’m out.”

“Kacchan, wai’!”

“Wait!” cried Birdie.

He just wanted to punch both of them and be done with it. He really did.

But he didn’t. He just ran away too fast for them to catch and then plugged his ears when Izuku started to cry.

See God? He tries. He really does.

Chapter 4: Chapter 4

Chapter Text

It only got minutely better as they got older.

Izuku’s vocabulary expanded and he properly pronounced all the consonants in a word now. That was good. Birdie had a harder time pretending to be a baby so she finally stopped, and she’d discovered the divinity which was soap, hallelujah. So there was that going for him.

But the toddler stalkers didn’t disappear. They were replaced, because damn it if people kept reproducing. And then there was some unspoken rule that after you pass five you become open game for the teenagers, which was f*cked up. Not that Katsuki could complain much about that, he could handle himself, but he could only ask so much of his stupid kid body when Izuku got thrown into the mix.

Because the little buttmunch just couldn’t stop following him or trying to do everything he did. And he’d fail at it! Spectacularly! Because, get this! He didn’t have 16 extra years of practice with his own brain and life, and just because Katsuki was a genius and amazing at everything he tried didn’t mean he could teach that.

Oh? What, so this was his fault now?

His only salvation was that Izuku wasn’t dumb. With each passing year, Katsuki was forced to admit time and time again that Izuku was a smart little f*ck, even as a brat. Not world ending genius, but smart enough to keep up most of the time with whatever Katsuki was talking about, and even thinking.

“Why do you just get sad sometimes, Kacchan?”

They were sitting in their little hideout on the cliff face, looking down at the river of tents. The teenagers would be hard pressed to get to them here, due to their fat asses being too big to get through the crevice that served as the gateway. Also, if they tried shouting insults to get them to come out, their voices would bounce down to the tribe and they’d have hell to pay, heh heh.

Wait, “Sad?”

“Yeah. Like just a minute ago. You just…look out and get this look on your face, like you’re thinking about something sad. It actually happens a lot.”

“Kinda creepy you’re watching my face like that.”

Izuku gave him his ‘no-nonesense’ look Katsuku knew he’d learned from Auntie Inko.

That kind of made Katsuki smile. Kid copying his mom so obviously like that, as though he could scold Katsuki.

He thought for a moment, considering the freckled, curly-haired mass which was eight-year-old Izuku.

For a moment, he saw Deku, half man, half lightning, gnashing his teeth at the sky. His tears had been like green light.

He looked down at his own hands, calloused and red from probably too many hours of sword practice. His palms had yet to give even a single spark.

“You would rather practice fighting than play,” said Izuku. “You don’t even like to play. My mom says playing is a kids work, that it’s important for them to be happy. Is that why you’re sad? Is someone making you practice all the time?”

Katsuki denied that. His parents were actually worried about him. They’d asked the same question as Izuku multiple times: “Why don’t you play?” He’d even heard his father mutter at night, long after they thought he was asleep, that he worried that Katsuki was afraid of something. That he didn’t feel secure enough to just be a kid. People had started watching the teenagers more closely after he’d wondered that, meaning his mom was ready to pop some teenage heads if anyone caught them in the act.

Katsuki closed his fists.

This was Izuku. And they were just eight. Eight-year-olds were gullible. The truth wouldn’t hurt him.

“I had a life before this one. Then I died when I was sixteen and this glowy-sh*t-angel guy gave me a chance at another life.”

Whatever Izuku had been expecting, it hadn’t been that.

“Huh?” he squeaked.

So, Katsuki opened that can of worms and sprayed it all over him. Aka, he told all the nitty gritty details, sans that he’d died saving Izuku’s sorry ass. Even he wasn’t stupid enough to tell an eight-year-old he’d died because of him.

He thought that he would regret it, frankly. Izuku was nothing if not curiosity on steroids and he’d have questions, and questions he did have. Loads of them. But rather than be burnt out by them, Katsuki found himself relieved, as though he were taking off a too tight shoe he had to wear for weeks. He didn’t have to pretend anymore. He could be really him, the awkward eight years of growing up and the sixteen-year-old. He could talk about the world unlike this one and not be thought of as crazy or mumbling, not that he’d been dumb enough to tell his parents, but sometimes things slipped out.

For the first time, he didn’t fight it when Izuku slipped into his bed for an unplanned sleepover. He faced him under the covers and whispered with him into the night until Izuku and he inevitably passed out from exhaustion. He dreamed he was back at UA, finally back in his desk or on the gym field, ready to pick up where he had left off. In it, Izuku was strong and bold, ready to watch his back. His old friends were there, Kirishima, Mina, Sero, Kaminari, and even all the rest of the extras, as though he had never left.

He woke up feeling like a baby again with tears covering his face. Izuku hadn’t woken up yet, so he carefully climbed over him and went outside to take his usual first breath of open air.

Except it came out a barely muffled sob.

Damn it. It had been eight years. Eight long, busy, humiliating, irritating years.

And yet it still somehow felt like it was just yesterday. And damn…it would never come back.

When Izuku slipped out only a minute later and quietly held his hand, he was surprised. But he didn’t shake it off.

Izuku, the smart little f*ck he was, knew better than to try asking why Katsuki had woken up a crying mess, and he thanked him for that. It was nice not having to fight the urge to punch him.

A few days passed as usual for them, except they spent more time on their shelf, talking about Katsuki’s other life. And at the end of those three days, Izuku came running up to him with a big, goofy grin on his face that told Katsuki he was so pleased with himself he could sing.

“Kacchan,” he held out his hands. “Want to play heroes?”

He held a clumsily made mask of scrap black fabric Katsuki knew for a fact came from his mother’s old witch robes. It had string off the sides to tie in the back and scraggily zig-zag cuts with poor, sandstone-based orange paint around the edges trying to be explosions.

God damn if he didn’t almost cry.

“...Only if I get to be All Might.”

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Chapter Text

On a snowy night on the plains when he was ten, Katsuki woke up to his mother running out the tent with her sword. Outside he heard the fat lady with the mole screaming. The familiar vibration of the roars of battle spiked his blood with fire.

“Zuku--” Izuku had stayed in his mother’s tent that night. He had wanted to be ‘grown up’ but sleeping in his mother’s tent instead of in Katsuki’s bed. Not that Katsuki cared either way, except now. “Damn it!”

“Stay here,” barked his dad.

“I’m a warrior too!” he barked back, his sword and cloak already in hand.

“No!” A hand caught the back of his pants. “You’re a child! I don’t care how good you think you are--”

His dad didn’t finished. A body crashed through one of the wood poles of their tent, toppling a wall into a swath of furs. The light of fire broke through the tearing flap.

Outside, his tribe’s tents had been set aflame. Against the orange light, everyone’s features turned black. Running, screaming, swords flashing, flails, clubs--

Katsuki didn’t recognize the hulking figure rising from the collapsed corner of their tent. They were hairier and darker than anyone in his tribe. For some reason, the men of their tribe grew thin, short beards or no beards at all, and most were blond.

The man spotted him, bared his teeth in a macabre grin, and raised a morning star the size of Katsuki’s head.

Old instincts sparked to life. Katsuki flew beneath his reach, launching his sword into their gut without hesitation.

The surprised cry of pain came over him like the roof of an old home.

“Katsuki!”

He sliced at the back of the man’s knees and kicked him down. “I’m fine, old man! Find mom!”

He had someone else to find.

Sure enough, the tent next door to theirs was empty of both Izuku and Auntie Inko.

Katsuki called Izuku every foul name he could think of. If that idiot was out being a hero at f*cking ten years old he was going to kill that Deku himself!

Few paid much attention to a brat weaving in and out of fights. It was dark, the fires barely showed enough to distinguish friend and foe. He saw one of the hairy invaders dragging away a woman of the tribe and took a slice at their achilles. The bastard dropped to his knees, allowing his tribeswoman to free her arms enough to beat him over the head. Being able to defend oneself was a point of major pride for their tribe.

“Katsuki!” she cried. “What are you doing here?”

“A little gratitude maybe?” He flicked blood off his sword, speckling the snow. “You seen Zuku?” He really hated this having to roar to be heard above the chaos in his squeaky peewee voice. Ugh, he couldn’t wait for puberty.

“Inko’s set up a barrier with her magic to protect the children. I was just leading them to it when --hey!”

But Katsuki had already spotted the tell-tale green of Inko’s magic above the orange glow of the camp, now that he knew what to look for. Auntie Inko didn’t use her magic very often in public, even though none of the tribesmen had anything against magic. Had to do with deeply ingrained survival habits. But when she did, it was usually to make barriers or draw in things from a distance, reminiscence of her old quirk.

He’d just made it through the tents, fire, and crowds enough to see the glowing dome of green when the back of his neck tingled and his cloak yanked him back.

“A brat with a sword!” barked his captor, also hairy and huge--what were these, trolls? “You must be the prin--AUCHK!”

He sliced, he kicked, he punched and bit. A rabid, psychotic cat had nothing on Katsuki.

The man's blood speckling his face warmed Katsuki's cheeks against the cold, winter air.

But his foe hadn’t come alone.

Half a dozen hands grappled with him the moment his captor's grip fell away. One crushed his wrist, forcing him to drop his sword.

And then he heard Izuku scream “LET HIM GO!”

Oh hell no, this wasn’t happening. Sure Izuku trained with him under his chief mother’s tutelage, but that didn’t mean he had the experience or talent Katsuki had.

The low grunt of one of the men and Izuku’s pained squawk proved this. One man wrapped him up so tight in his arms Katsuki couldn’t breathe let alone turn away. They stepped to the side, giving Katsuki a perfect view of the green ball on the ground which was Izuku. The invaders kicked the curled boy, laughing, while others left to find more entertainment.

Fury, blinding and volcanic, erupted from the pit of Katsuki’s soul.

With it came an old, familiar crackling in his palms.

Explosions and fire blossomed into his captor’s face. Blood flung up into the air like mist.

And Katsuki was free, flying towards Izuku only to pivot and throw more and more explosions at the men around him, unable to feel the pain of his arms breaking from the recoil.

The troll men fled. The man he’d first exploded ran away with his hands to his face, wailing and eyeless as blood poured from between his fingers.

Sparks kept popping from Katsuki’s hands long after they were alone. He couldn’t breathe.

“Kacchan! Kachaan!”

Izuku’s voice came to him as though from the other end of a long tunnel. A drop of sweat tickled his chin as it dropped to the ground.

The last thing Katsuki saw was Auntie Inko’s green barrier closing in around him.

Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Chapter Text

It took six weeks for his arms to heal, despite the help of a witch’s healing magic. When the bindings came off he looked down at despair at the amount of muscle he’d lost, not that he could build up much to begin with as a child without stunting his growth. But now even Izuku looked thicker than him!

The only consolation he got from that was his mother declaring him ready for the trip to the dragons.

Apparently, and this was news to him, his tribe had once been full of dragon tamers. (And dragons apparently existed, wowza, wish he had know that earlier.) It made all the dragon decorations make sense. If they had a national flag or symbol, it would have to be a dragon. But, the rest of the world grew insanely jealous of their tribe’s kinship with dragons, so they did all they could to either kill their tamers or steal them into their nations to use their power for their own.

Thus, hundreds of years later, dragon tamers were almost legend. One or two dragon tamers were born in a lifetime to their tribe.

And the mark of a dragon tamer was the magic of their hands, which could vary depending on the dragon their destined for.

“And since you made fire, we’re going to the Burnt Lands,” his mother had said.

“It’s not fire, it’s nitroglycerin,” he’d said, just to be belligerent. He’d been cooped up in a bed and bored to death for days, he hadn’t be exactly cheerful. Especially since he could remember a life where there had been TV and video games. And books. f*ck, if being illiterate didn’t suck balls and make sense at the same time. His tribe didn’t even have a written language, everything was oral.

His mother gave him a look.

“A dragon will help you control your power so this,” she gestured to his stinted arms that were bandaged into thick poles of white. “Doesn’t happen again.”

“I just need to increase my strength. I’ll grow into it,” he said.

“Are you seriously turning down a dragon companion?”

“I’m turning down shoveling dragon sh*t for the rest of my life, if that’s what this is.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Dragons are as intelligent as you and me, brat. I’m sure it can take care of its own sh*t--unless your pig head bonds with an dysfunctional moron.”

That line in her head repeated over and over several weeks later when the first, and only, dragon he’d ever seen slid to a stop at his feet in the black basalt gravel. It picked up its head and dropped its long pink tongue out like a happy dog.

“ Baku-bro! It’s you! I can’t believe it! ”

The voice ringing in his head, like some sort of telepathy, was none other than sh*tty Kirishima’s.

The donkey-sized dragon didn’t even give him time to think as it continued to jabber in his head as it hopped to it’s clawed feet and waved its little wings around like spazed out parasols.

“ It’s you! It’s you! Oh my gaaaaawd, I’ve missed you so much, and you’re so smaaaaaal and so cuuuuute---that was so manly how you jumped in to save Midoriya, but sh*t, man, that was f*cked up! It f*cked me up so bad, do you have any idea what it did to your mom? It was-- ”

“Shut up!” he roared. He didn’t want to know!

His mother, who had been gawking at the dragon, but not really acting like she heard anything, jumped a foot in the air.

“Katsuki!” she screeched. “What the hell!”

“Not you, hag, the dragon!”

“The dragon isn’t saying anything!”

“In my head, Ma, in my HEAD!”

“It’s talking to you in--”

“ Oh, hey, there’s your mom too, what’s she doing here? Isn’t this, like, a different world? ”

“Shut up, shark face!”

“How can you talk to your dragon like that?” his mother shrieked.

“He ain’t my damn dragon! I ain’t done nothing!”

“He came to you, so he’s your dragon!”

“You mean I don’t even have a choice ? DAMN IT, WHO MAKES THESE sh*tTY RULES?!”

Kirishima, bright red, scaley, with hard black horns that looked suspiciously like his old up-gelled hairdoo, dropped his jaw in a very doggy-like smile.

“ I mean, there’s more dragons behind me, but I-- ”

“Then take me to them! I wanna pick!”

“ Whoa, hold on, I was the only one who sensed you coming! That’s a bond if anything. They’ll just kick us right back out.”

“Like hell they will!”

Katsuki spent the better part of a day climbing the black ridge of volcanic rock just so he could look down into the valley, only to be looked at by several giant dragons, the size of freaking houses, and get his head filled up with telepathic laughter.

“WHAT’S SO FUNNY?!”

Him, apparently.

“ Come on, man, I already said I’d be the best dragon ever ,” said Kirishima. “ I even gave up moving on so I could check in on you, doesn’t that mean something? ”

“That’s exactly why I want a different dragon,” he growled beneath his shoulder. “I already have one self-sacrificing idiot giving up his death for me, I ain’t having two.” And he clamped his mouth closed on the disgusting vomit which was his guilt over having dragged his mom and dad over from the other world on top of Izuku. What was wrong with these masoch*stic people wasting their time on assholes like him? His parents at least made some sense, but Kirishima? Hadn’t he lived long enough to have a wife or kids or…

Katsuki didn’t want to finish that thought. For all he knew, Kirishima died young like he had. The only sure thing was that, in order to get this chance, you had to die giving up your life to save someone else. Or was that just to get memories of your past life? sh*t, it’s been too long.

Inevitably, though, he ended up heading home. At least he still had a horse to ride. Like hell he was riding Kirishima.

Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Chapter Text

Not surprising, Izuku was the first to meet them. He must have been waiting on the corner of the village for who knows how long. Katsuki refused to think about that.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, a REAL DRAGON!”

His mother chuckled and kept on going towards the village as Katsuki slowed down to meet Izuku.

Or rather, Katsuki stopped so he could clotheslined the dork in his beeline to Kirishima.

“Oy, show some self-preservation. Dragons have teeth. And claws.” Seriously, would this stupid Deku never change?

After choking and coughing his windpipe back into functioning order, Izuku gasped, “But it’s your dragon, Kacchan! You wouldn’t let him eat me.”

Katsuki did not appreciate the warm fuzzies that proclamation of trust gave him.

He wanted to point out that Izuku didn’t even know if he had that amont of control, but Kirishimi, the ass sized dragon, had already slithered his puppy-dog smile between them.

“ Hey! I know that broccoli head! Midoriya, yo!”

Izuku stared.

Katsuki elbowed the dragon. “Back off, I can smell your breath.”

“Midoriya?”

Both Katsuki and Kirishima froze.

See, there was one thing that was made clear while traveling with his mother chief: only dragon tamers could speak to dragons. It was one of the marks that separated them from your average human.

“Did…did you just hear him?” Katsuki asked, jabbing a thumb at Kirishima.

“Did you just hear me?” echoed the stupid dragon.

Izuku frowned. “Am I not suppose to?”

Katsuki let out an explosive sigh, ran his sweaty hands down his face, and realized he wasn’t even surprised. Of course Izuku would be able to talk to dragons. Of course he’d have some sort of power. Him and his freaking plost armor--nurrrgh.

He let Kirishima explain so he could hike the rest of the way to the village and his bed in peace. No, first a hot bath. Then a bed. Izuku could freaking figure out what to do with that revelation. For one, Izuku hadn’t shown any signs of magic, despite his magical heritage. Unlike back in the previous world, where Izuku’s quirklessness was a source of bullying, here his mother had breathed a sigh of relief thinking Izuku didn’t have magic because it meant Izuku could have some semblance of freedom in the world. He wouldn’t have to hide away like the rest of the witches and wizards.

But, having shown no magic, Izuku would have no clue where to find his dragon. As far as Katsuki’s mother had known there were five types of dragons: fire, ice, storm, earth, and water. Where they lived was anyone’s guess. The tribe use to know, but after most being killed or kidnapped and several generations passing, and all knowledge being passed orally, Katsuki was just lucky that their tribe lived next to the fire dragon grounds by chance. Some of the old farts of his tribe might know where some others were, but he hadn’t asked.

Ugh, Izuku would probably end up dragging him on a quest to find his stupid dragon, ugh, no . At least not until he’d slept for a week straight and got a written promise they’d allow him to conquer at least one territory. He was seriously missing the nicer things of life that living in a canyon, prairie, or sad bush forest gave.

He didn’t even get to his tent before getting a dragon on his heels.

“ We got to find out what Midoriya’s element is!” Kirishima crowed in his head. Outloud he gave a cat-like mewl of sorts.

“It’s Izuku. No last names in this world. Unless you’re noble,” he grumbled as he shoved the dragon head back out the tent. “f*ck off.”

“ Is this where you live? Wow, homey! Where do I sleep? ”

“Outside, Shark Face.”

“What?! But it’s cold! ”

“So make a fire? You’re a fire dragon, aren’t you?”

“That’s probably why he is sensitive to it,” said Izuku who had slipped inside past Kirishima. “He tells me there are a bunch of hot springs and volcanic vents where the other dragons are.”

“Well I didn’t make him leave. He could have stuck around there until spring and then come found me.”

“You found me,” harrumphed the dragon. “ I didn’t even know anything about bonds or--or quirks or anything about my past life until I saw you .”

That made Katsuki pause half-way in peeling off his crusty tunic. “Eh?”

Kirishima’s nostrils were stretching and shrinking in little puffs. “ Before I smelled you I was just a dragon. I didn’t remember ever being human. I didn’t even know what humans were. Then I got this whiff and I just--it was like getting your brain thrown at a wall, man. It all came back to me, and I just knew -- ”

“You still could have stayed.”

For the first time since reuniting, the way Kirishima looked at him actually made Katsuku feel like he was being faced down by a dragon, not a dork in a costume.

“ After watching you die and having to deal with that guilt for years apart from you, do you seriously think I’d be okay with just…hanging around and hoping I can track you down when it’s warmer? That aside, I’m your dragon now. Where you go, I go. You’re stuck with me. ”

Izuku was looking between Katsuki and Kirishimi with his brow furrowed and bottom lip jutted out.

“Kacchan…does he…?”

“Yeah,” said Katsuki, still holding Kirishima’s slit-eyed gaze.

“And he can remember?”

“What do you think?”

“ Remember what? ” asked a blinking ass-dragon.

“Your previous life, dipsh*t.”

“ OH THAT! Yeah, I only started to remember when I smelled you--didn’t I already say that? Only some of it, like how much I missed you, and Lunch Rush, and Mina’s hot thighs--sh*t, Mina!”

“What?”

For the first time since they’d met, Katsuki got his first sight of a sad dragon. Droopy wings, droopy head, hell, he thought even some of his horns seemed to droop.

“ I never got to tell her goodbye…”

Welp. That sucked. Dying sucked in general.

“Well, I didn’t make you ditch out on the afterlife,” said Katsuki.

“ I know man! I just…aw sh*t, now I’m remembering all sorts of stuff and… ” if possible, the dragon sunk even lower. “ I’m really dead now…and a dragon. There ain’t nothing hot about being a dragon. ”

“But you’re a fire dragon,” said Izuku, unhelpfully.

“He means sexually attractive, dork, and not to other dragons.”

“Oh…” Izuku’s face went red.

Katsuki snorted.

“I’m surprised you even know what that means. Aren’t you, like, ten? Your Mom give you the talk or something?”

Izuku’s face just went redder.

“ Stop talkiiiiiiing, you’re just rubbing it in ,” whined Kirishima, letting out a crooning wail that attracted the gaze of several tribesmembers through the open doorflap who had just gotten over the fact that Katsuki had brought a dragon to town.

Katsuki frowned at him. “Rubbing in what?”

“ That I died a virgin. ”

Now that, no one had wanted to know.

Well, Katsuki had died a virgin too, but that was no chip off his shoulders. He died a teenager, and teenagers that jumped sex before they were ready for the commitment and what CAME out of sex were idiots.

“How old were you when you died?”

“ Um…twenty-six? ”

…Okay yeah. That was sad. Especially considering the fact that it was obvious to everyone that Mina had the hots for him just as much as he did for her. Also...TMI.

Poor Izuku had his face in his hands and was muttering at high speed, and no, Katsuki didn’t care to know.

“ Is he okay? ”

“He’s being him, he’s fine. Let’s get some food, I’m starving.”

Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Chapter Text

Katsuki had plenty to say when Izuki half led, half dragged him into a tiny space in the cliff-face. Because it stank.

“Holy sh*t on a stick, what defecated and died here, Zuku?”

Izuku’s little ten-year-old face was bashful.

“I, uh, may have coated the entrance with, um, stuff.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Not really--but I thought if it stank bad enough it could cover up Eji’s nose?”

And since Kirishima--or Ejiro, since he couldn’t really remember his last name for some reason, probably because dragons didn’t have last names and his dragon name had been something unpronounceable--had been riding his butt constantly, Katsuki decided to forgive the offense to his nostrils.

He called the dragon a few choice words as he army crawled deeper into the space. It didn’t go very far, but it did open up high enough for him to sit up. Just barely. The top of his scalp scraped the ceiling.

The shorter Izuku fit just right.

“So, why’d you make a stink hole?” Katsuki asked. “I thought you of all people would be all up in arms about talking to a dragon.”

And he had been excited about it. For the first few days.

Izuku looked off to the side, fingers fidgeting. It was such a Deku habit from their old life that Katsuki felt the corner of his mouth lift up. If only they had paper and pens to keep his hands preoccupied. And, you know, a written language, though wouldn’t witches and wizards have that? Question for another time.

“I…I don’t know how to say it,” he said, haltingly, which would have driven Katsuki up the wall in their previous life, before he learned to stop being such an explosive asshole.

“Did he hurt you?” Hard to imagine, friendly, puppy-dog Ejiro hurting anyone, but Katsuki would put Izuku’s word above the dragon’s any day, even if the first was lying…not that he’d ever tell anyone that.

“No,” said Izuku. “But…I get this tight, achy feeling when I’m around him or I hear you guys talking about…you know.”

“No, I don’t know.”

Izuku pulled on his fingers harder. They didn’t have scars in this life. He didn’t have scars when he was ten in the previous one either, though.

“Your life before this one,” he said quietly. “Our life.”

Katsuki watched Izuku fidget in the half-lit hole in the rock, barely aware of the stink anymore.

Ah…sh*t, he should have thought of this.

“You’re jealous because Eji can remember and you can’t.”

Izuku flinched minutely, then bowed his head.

Yeah, Katsuki probably could have said that nicer. Though it’d probably take him five more lifetimes to learn that particular skill.

He sighed heavily, making Izuku tense up.

“Don’t,” he smacked the kid’s shoulders, as he usually did whenever Izuku instinctively tensed up. You’d think the kid was beaten in this life too, gawd damn.

“Don’t be jealous?” he asked.

“No, don’t tense up like a girl about to pee, I ain’t mad, why the hell would I be mad just because you have damn feelings? And even if I did get mad you should give me the finger and feel all you want.”

Izuku sighed as well, then forced his shoulders to relax and brought his head up.

“I…I don’t want to be jealous of Eji,” he said.

“Yeah. Being jealous sucks balls.” Katsuki had no quick fix for this.

“He’s really cool and really friendly. I want to be friends.”

“Friend him all you want, then you can chatter each other’s ears off instead of mine.”

“...I’m sorry.”

“For damn f*cking what?”

“For making this hole and tugging you into it so I can be with you without your dragon.”

“I needed a break.” He leaned back, wondering if he could get more comfortable by maybe slouching against the wall. He didn’t. Stupid walls had to be jagged. And he was starting to get cold. There was a reason the cliffs were used for the summer months. Mother Earth’s natural A/C.

A comfortable silence spread between them. At some point, they could hear the skitter-scatter of scales and claws and the echo of Ejiro’s voice in their minds.

When it sounded as though Ejiro had long passed them, Izuku spoke again.

“Was he really your best friend in your past life?”

Ugh, Katsuki did not like talking about this kind of stuff. “I guess.”

“...More than me?”

Katsuki had to remind himself that Izuku was only ten right now before he could call him an overdramatic baby. Kids worried about this sort of stuff.

“Don’t you remember me telling you how much of a bullying ass I was to you most of our lives?” Katsuki asked. “It ain’t about who I liked more. It was who was the most determined to deal with my bullsh*t.”

“I would have, um…dealt with your b-bullsh*t.”

Oh gawd, it was like being confessed to by a girl. An ugly, ten-year-old girl with a penis.

Katsuki took a breath and actually stopped to think around his discomfort with this conversation before speaking. He wished he could remember more of how ten-year-olds thought. But then he remembered that this was Izuku, who he’d been friends with since they were babies, both in this life and the last. Izuku, who caught up to his maturity level as best as he could, who wasn’t discouraged whenever Katsuki spoke over his head because he simply had no clue how he should be otherwise.

“We’re best friends now. That’s what should matter. It’s this life that counts, not the last one.”

Izuku’s eyes shone.

“Promise?”

“Ugh, you’re going to make me gag.”

“That’s probably the smell.” But Izuku was smiling, finally. “Come on, Kacchan, promise.”

“I promise we’re the f*cking best bosom companions, yada yada, so go make friends with Eji already so I don’t have to hide in a stink hole to get away.”

Izuku nodded furiously, curls bouncing everywhere, and all but dove out of the hole.

Katsuki waited for him to clear the way before crawling out himself.

Freaking Ejiro was waiting for them, sitting on his haunches and tongue lolling out like a happy dog.

Ferocious dragon my ass, thought Katsuki.

“ Did I hear something about friends? ” he chirruped into their minds.

Katsuki shook off the dirt and…something else that Izuku had smeared around the cave and muttered something about My Little Pony and barfing.

Izuku clenched his heels together, as though readying to tap them and chant ‘There’s no place like home!’

“I-I-I want to, um, apologize. I didn’t--I got jealous and--”

“ No big! ” broke in Ejiro. “ I’d totally be jealous too and not nearly as nice about it, let’s go take a bath too! You stink! ”

Katsuki froze. “No.”

Both dragon and Izuku pouted.

“But--I can make the water warm,” said the dragon.

“My mom made bubbles,” whined Izuku.

To his credit, Katsuki had done very well remembering that these two were children. Or, at least, that Izuku still was. And it wasn’t like they hadn’t taken baths together before.

But gawd damn it, “I’M A MAN! I don’t need an entourage every time I need to clean my ass! Go have your own stupid bubble bath!”

“Can I come?”

Where the hell had Birdie come from?

“Excuse me?” Katsuki did not squawk.

Birdie, an almost twelve-year-old girl now, twisted her hips, swinging her stiff leather skirts about while peeking at him past her lashes. “I could scrub your back?”

“You freaking--you’re 12! You’re growing tit*! What makes you think you can pull off pervy crap like that?”

Any other little girl in the tribe would have bursted into tears and ran, but Birdie had been trailing after Izuku and Katsuki since day one and had never taken no for an answer. So she just pouted.

“It’s not like it’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” she said mulishly.

Katsuki’s skin crawled. By the way Izuku’s hands clutched to his chest like a hamster, he must have gotten the same feeling.

f*cking Ejiro laughed.

“You peek?” croaked Katsuki, scandalized.

Birdie rolled her eyes. “No. But it’s not like your boy bits are going to be any different than my little brother's, and I bathe him all the time.”

“He’s five!”

“And you’re only ten,” she said, grin particularly coy. “Daddy says man bits don’t grow in until you’re at least thirteen. I asked.”

What the hell kind of girl asks that so she can sneak into the neighboring boys’ baths? And why the hell was she even here? Did she stalk them? Of course she did. She always did.

Ejiro stuffed his claws into his maw, as though that could stem the laughing that crackled across their minds.

Katsuki had had enough of the creepy crawlies.

“Come near my bath and you die,” he said, very seriously. “I’ll blow up your face.”

Birdie pouted again. “That isn’t very nice.”

But Katsuki wasn’t listening. “You can come with me, Eji. Be my guard dog.

“ What? It isn’t like you got anything to hide-- ”

Katsuki set off an explosion in the dragon’s face, making both Birdie and Izuku jump a foot in the air.

Ejiro, of course, wasn’t affected in the least.

And since he didn’t trust that stupid dragon as far as he could throw him, he grabbed Izuku’s wrist as well and marched towards the pools set up higher in the cliff that the tribesmen used for bathing. He could feel Izuku’s goosebumps under his palm.

“I think she likes you,” said Izuku quietly.

“f*cking eww.”

“ I thought it was sweet,” said Ejiro.

“Shut up and make sure she isn’t following us. Nothing she hasn’t seen my ass…”

“ She’s right, though. Puberty has yet to grace your bitty boy bits- -”

“SHUT THE f*ck UP, Ejiro!”

Ejiro gasped. “ He said my name!”

Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Chapter Text

“ What’chya doing? ” chirrped through his head.

“Making a bomb,” Katsuki grunted.

Izuku, who was diligently grinding sea shells in a mortar and pestle they’d borrowed from his mom, echoed the grunt. Sweat beaded across his forehead.

Katsuki had his own hands wrists deep in a bowl of charcoal he was mashing up by hand. He had put on some leather gloves to do so, just in case it wasn’t magic that blew up in his hands but his sweat.

They worked outside a cave a half-hour hike away from the tribe’s canyon home. Katsuki had known the cave existed for a year now, but it wasn’t until he had a dream last night that he remembered the now fading memories of his long-ago science classes.

The dragon, who couldn’t even remember his full name from his past life, looked at both of the boys in audible confusion, then at the bowl of yellow liquid some feet away.

“ Is that…pee? ”

“Nitric acid,” Katsuki said. “From bat guano.”

“ Eww, come on man, that’s messed up, how are you suppose to make bombs out of that? And why do you even have to make it if you can just use your magic? ”

“My magic is something only I can use,” he pulled out his arms and shook his hands, leaving puffs of black dust to rain towards the ground. “This way, anyone can do it.”

“Even me,” chirrped Izuku.

The dragon tilted its head, then narrowed its eyes.

“ Why does this sound like a bad idea? ”

“Because we’re blowing up sh*t.” Katsuki stood up and peeled off his gloves. “You done, nerd?”

“Yeah!”

“Got the yellow chalk stuff from your hometown, lizard?”

Ejiro reached behind him to pull a lidded-basket from between his wings. Katsuki had been particularly proud of that piece of work, because it meant Ejiro could fetch things from far away that he couldn’t carry with his mouth since he wasn’t yet big enough for Katsuki to ride.

“Sweet, now, I don’t know the exact ratio, but that’s where trial and error come in.”

Despite having been grinding seashells all morning, Izuku had the energy to bounce in excitement, even giving a little cheer.

Ejiro, however, just gave a dragony frown--which was all in the ears and wings.

“ You seriously had me fly all the way home for something to blow yourself up with? ”

“Shut up, we’re only doing small amounts and from a distance.”

“ How are you going to test it from a distance? ”

That did give Katsuki pause. But only for a moment.

“You can do that spit fire thing, yeah?”

Ejiro did not look reassured. Even though he was a fire dragon, the most Ejiro could do was make a thin stream of fire that was mostly flaming spit. When he went moping around about his lack of prowess, Katsuki had him practice his aim till he could snipe down pigeons.

“Come on, it’ll be sick.” Katsuki gave his best grin, which Izuku mirrored with a fanatic like gleam.

Ejiro sighed. “ Where do you want me?”

Katsuki had picked out a ridge of rock they could hide behind to observe just for the occasion, right above the bat cave. He very carefully (see, Ejiro? Careful.) mixed his first sample of charcoal, ground sea shell, and sulfer, then added a drop of nitric acid. Goose bumps prickled along his skin when it didn’t immediately explode. It wasn’t more than a spoonful.

“Alright,” he said. “Take one.”

He dumped the little black spoonful onto the flat stone twenty or so feet away from their observation point than dashed back cackling madly. Izuku chortled with him, doing some weird wiggle thing with his eyebrows. They both looked at the dragon expectantly.

With one last final sigh, Ejiro pulled his shoulders back and hacked up a thin stream of fire through his front fangs.

It splashed onto the little black pile.

…and sizzled out.

Izuku pouted.

“Welp, it was the first try,” said Katsuki. “Let me go mix up take two. What do you think it needs more of?”

Eleven-year-old Izuku pinched his chin in thought. “Well, the sulfur and seashells are the least flammable thing I can think of, and charcoal’s already been burnt, but I don’t know much about the acid. You said acid breaks down components, yeah? Can make them into something else?”

“Yeah?” No, scratch that, Katsuki was the one with the know-how here. “Yeah.” There we go, that sounded more sure. “Takes extra oxygen molecules out.” Or was it hydrogen? Damn it. He should have written these down when he could still remember…as a baby.

Izuku, however, nodded, probably remembering more of Katsuki’s slap-dash, reincarnated-blurred science lesson and said, “More of the acid, then.”

Take two sizzled for a bit longer, but no go. The third, fourth, and fifth takes didn’t do much either.

It was starting to get dark and a lot of the excitement had worn off when they finally got a hit that sparked, crackled, and smoked.

“Yes!” crowed Katsuki as Izuku yipped. “We’re so close, I can smell it!”

“ Smells like fireworks,” Ejiro mumbled, who had long gotten bored and would have taken a nap if he hadn’t been hounded on to be a lighter.

In his excitement, Katsuki made the next sample a little larger than the last. He wanted to be able to see what was happening this time.

“Okay,” he said once he’d set it out on the blackened testing ground. “Go.”

“ Aren’t you going to duck down? ” asked Ejiro.

“I gotta see.”

The dragon just sighed for the dozenth time that day and spat out a spark, much less enthusiastic than the first half-dozen ribbons of flame.

The world exploded.

Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Chapter Text

Once their mothers had gotten out all their screaming about them blowing themselves up (it was mostly the rock that got exploded, but they’d been hit with some flying shrapnel, which would scar up nicely in Katsuki’s opinion), Katsuki found a good moment, got himself into his coolest pose from besides the dinning room table, and said:

“I give my explosions to the tribe. Go forth and blow sh*t up.”

His mother smacked him over the head. His father actually did too.

Which wasn’t fair. Katsuki had just given them dominance in warfare. They should be setting him up to be worshiped as Murder, King God of Explosions by future generations.

Izuku got it. He was practically jackhammering in place from excitement, even with the upper half of his head still bandaged (his mother refused to use more than the bare minimum of her healing magic as his punishment).

“So much power!” he squeaked.

“I know,” said Katsuki.

“That was just a spoonful!”

“I know!”

“What if we, like, powered projectiles with it?”

“I KNOW!!” Freaking guns already in the works, he was a GOD!

“ You’re both lucky you’re not dead,” said Eijio flatly.

“Tch, like the protagonist would be killed by a childhood experiment,” said Katsuki with his best sneer.

He was getting very used to the dragon-face version of ‘The only thing I’m impressed with is that you can be so impressed with yourself.’

Really, Katsuki didn’t understand. Given Eijiro’s personality, he should be the one geeking out with him instead of Izuku. Maybe this was just more evidence of Eijiro remembering being twenty-six and Izuku only having eleven years of it.

That night, however, exactly twenty-four hours after they’d bombed a hole in the cliff’s scalp, he woke up with all the force of fifty more spoonfuls of their gunpowder as Izuku dropped on top of him, trembling and sobbing.

“Kacchan. Ka-kacchan.”
“This better be important,” he growled. His heart had nearly busted out of his chest, good god, kid.

“Kacchan,” he sobbed. “You’re alive, you’re alive.”

“...Yeah?”

“Don’t you ever, EVER do that again!”

“Blow things up? Sorry, that’s a no.”

“Shut up!” And Izuku actually shook Katsuki against his pelt cot. “I remember what you f*cking did! It was my fight, I had One for All, not you!”

Katsuki didn’t know what stunned him more: Izuku using the big ‘F’ word or him finally remembering his past life.

Unfortunately for both of them, Izuku’s wailing woke up his parents, resulting in a lit candle to reveal all the sobbing mess which was Deku sitting on top of Katsuki like he’d been about to rape him--with tears. Lots of tears.

Thankfully, he had the mind to at least try and calm down and make up an excuse to their tribe’s Cheiftess and Chieftan that he’d just had a nightmare brought about by the head trauma of the explosion, because Katsuki WAS NOT going to explain past life sh*t with his parents who shouldn’t have even followed him into this life.

When the next day came around, all gray-blue at the crack of dawn, him and Izuku spotted each other from in front of their tents at the same time and came at each other with fists to the sides, ready for a fight. The fire in Izuku’s eyes and the downturn of his little eleven-year-old mouth sparked an old excitement in him. No, not that kind of excitement, you sicko.

Speaking of.

“Deku,” he said.

“Kaachan,” he said, equally grim. “I thought you’d grown out of that nickname?”

And, for the most part, he had. But…

“You’re going back to that if you say you aren’t gay,” he said.

Whatever Izuku had been expecting, it hadn’t been that. All fight rushed out of his system with a splutter.

“Ex-excuse me?”

“You can’t say you aren’t some serious masoch*st gay for my ass for following me into this life, you f*cker,” he said. “And just so you know, I like women. Women with firm, palmful titt*es and an ass for miles.”

If he wasn’t more serious about salvaging their friendship/rivalship from a multi-dimensional spanning man-crush, he’d have busted out laughing at the kaleidoscope of expressions trying to contort Izuku’s face off.

“Wha--eek--gack--NO!”

“Prove it.”

“What? How the hell--I’m eleven!”

“No, you sick f*ck! I don’t want to--” what the hell did Izuku think he was implying? “I don’t care if you are gay, just whether you’re gay or not for me!”

“I like Uraraka!” he squeaked. “I LOVE her!”

“THEN WHAT THE f*ck ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!”

“YOU DIED FOR ME!” he screeched back. “I had to make sure you were okay wherever you went!”

“YOU ARE THE NOSIEST WORRYWART ALIVE!! I CAN TAKE CARE OF MY DAMN MYSELF!!”

“OBVIOUSLY NOT, AS YOU DIED!!”

“SO DID YOU!”

“I WAS FIGHTING A SUPER VILLAIN!”

“SO WAS I, f*ckTARD!”

Katsuki’s Mom burst out from the tent, only in her bare skinny sleepwear.

“SHUT THE f*ck UP, BRATS! PEOPLE ARE SLEEPING!”

Just past her, Katsuki spotted Eijiro’s red hide huddled behind his tent, one dragon eye peeked out from around the corner. He ducked back the moment he realized Katsuki had noticed him.

“Tch,” he snatched the front of Izuku’s tunic. “Come on, nerd.”

They had some catching up to do.

Surprise surprise, they ended up heading towards the very spot they’d just cratered the previous day--or was it two days ago now?

“So?” Katsuki growled once they cleared the edge of the village.

“So what?”

“When did you die?”

“Not long after you,” Izuku grumped.

Katsuki harrumphed. That sucked. But… “Did you kill him at least?” That would be even worse unfinished business than Eijiro’s if he hadn’t.

He looked back to see Izuku’s expression still grim, but triumphant.

“Yeah.”

“Good. I’d a punched you if you hadn’t, or if you were doing something stupid like feeling guilty for it.”

“What? No, All for One needed to die.”

“Correction, he deserved to die. f*cker was expired meat.”

Izuku snorted. “For once, I agree with you.”

“Shut up, you agree with me all the time.” Their patched up faces evidence of that.

“In this life I do.” Izuku paused. Katsuki wasn’t looking at his face this time, though. He was focused on hiking up the rock trail zig-zagging up the cliff-face. “Kaachan…it’s good to see you again. I’m…I’m glad we’re friends.”

Katsuki swallowed. “Yeah.”

“Like, really. It was good to start over with you again. Really good.”

“No hom*o.”

“Oh my god, do you have to ruin everything? I already said I’m not gay! And even if I was, do you know how much of an ass you’re being?”

“Not as much of an ass as you for ditching your girl before chasing after some dick you weren’t even really friends with!”

“We were totally friends!”

“You call that friends? f*ck, you’re screwed up, we were rivals!”

“Is that what you call Eijiro? He’s following us, by the way.”

Of course he was following them. “BACK OFF, LIZARD!”

“ Awww,” came the whine across their minds.

“Besides, how’s that saying go?” He could hear Izuku’s smirk and he nearly turned around to punch it right off him. “Bros before hoes?”

“Don’t talk like that. It’s nasty.”

“What? It’s how you talk.”

“You ain’t me, nerd. You’re--ah, screw, I don’t care. I lost sleep because of you, and I’m still recovering. Not all of us have super-healer witches for moms, you know.”

“Hey, my mom heals you too.”

“Not if my mom tells her not to.”

“My point still stands.”

“Sure, whatever, does this mean you’re going to suck less at fighting now?”

Izuku actually paused to consider that, one hand on the cliff-wall, the other to hold a crooked finger to his lips.

“I have no idea,” he muttered. “Muscle memory isn’t exactly soul ingrained otherwise you wouldn’t have to train as much at your age, though enough of it does remain I guess as you’re still better than me, but then I was never really as naturally talented as you. Just how much of memory goes along with your soul?”

“Your muttering certainly comes along with it,” Katsuki griped.

But Izuku was smiling. “Want to test it out?”

“What, the muttering?”

“No! The fighting!”

The old, evil smirk stretched across Katsuki’s face like an old blanket. “Hell yes.”

Long story short: Katsuki still won.

Because he was a GOD.

Chapter 11

Chapter Text

Making guns was a lot harder than Katsuki or Izuku had given it credit. After three years of dinking around doing errands for their tribes one blacksmith so he’d make them their various tubes of shootery, the most they’d managed to make is a basic matchlock pistol and one musket. They were basically tubes with backs that you stuffed a bullet in along with some gunpowder, then stuck a cotton string into the back to light up. It also took three years because the forge didn’t travel with them. It was a permanent fixture to their canyon home, the canyon home being entirely rock and all. Apparently, forging on a prairie that had nothing but dry grass and scrubby trees most of the time wasn’t a good idea. Oh, and forges were heavy, who’d a guessed?

Needless to say, the blacksmith, who happened to be married to the fat lady with the mole, didn’t much care for them at first. He had a lot of work to catch up with and only a part of the year to do it.

Well, Katsuki had had enough of him too. Idiot couldn’t get a tube right. It had to be perfectly smooth on the inside and he kept half-assing it.

“Look, kid, iron's expensive. What you’re asking of me is worth at least a goat and that’s before I work with it.”

Izuku, more understanding and used to getting subpar products, just patiently came up with some files and got to work smoothing down the gun’s tube and handles himself. After giving himself an aneurysm specifically not fighting with their tribes only blacksmith, Katsuki eventually settled down with him to make some stock for the naked metal handles out of a mix of wood and leather. Wood wasn’t all that common to come by either.

One night after a particularly tired day of begging, running errands, and looking for scraps because heaven forbid they actually use money in the tribe or his mom give him some sort of allowance, Katsuki let his face fall beside his dinner.

“Mom, why do we live in such a sh*tty place?”

“I take personal offense to you calling our tent sh*t, brat,” she’d said calmly between puffs across her hot stew.

“Not the tent, hag. The land. It’s resources are dead grass, rocks, and the occasional bison.”

“It’s the price to pay to be free,” said his father. “Our people aren’t as strong as they used to be.”

“Losing the dragon tamers did that to us,” said his mom. “Our lands used to go much farther south, covering the woods until the Spine Mountains. You’d have had iron galore for your stupid death projects from the mountain mines and a child could have found enough food just lying around in the forest.”

“Which is why other people wanted it,” said his dad.

“And now they have it,” added his mother bitterly.

Katsuki understood not wanting to be controlled better than most. He wasn’t about to ask why they didn’t just let themselves become ruled by whatever nation decided to steal what was there. But with his whole body aching, exhausted, and filled to the brim with frustration at having a mind full of dreams and no way to make any of them of use, he couldn’t help thinking that maybe this was an occasion freedom could bite it.

Especially when a handful of their tribe's travelers would come back from their year-long adventures with stories of all sorts of technologies and vast cities and exotic foods. Even Izuku had to admit their stupid bronze-age style of living was tasting a bit bland.

When they weren’t running around doing errands, chores, or trying to get their matchlocks to work, Izuku and Katsuki trained.

Running, climbing, hiking, martial arts, swordplay, archery, slings, spears, clubs, you name it, his mother or father knew. Their hands blistered then healed hard to handle the various weapons and there wasn’t a day where Izuku and Katsuki didn’t end it in a spar into the dirt. For a while, Katsuki consistently rose the victor. But once Izuku’s muscles caught up it began to fall neatly to 50/50, as it should.

Puberty meant an increase in their allotted training since their bodies were finally reaching a stage they wouldn’t be stunted by too much bodybuilding. Katsuki hit his growth spurt first, to Izuku’s dismay, but if he thought Katsuki’s extra height would beat him he was wrong. Exponential came with a downside: growing pains. And Katsuki’s body loved gobbling at his carefully built muscles for the material for said growth.

“Oh great Dynamite,” Izuku liked to say. “So skinny and long.”

He’d get sparks to the face for that one.

Speaking of puberty, they weren’t the only ones who dived headfirst into it.

At sixteen, Birdie had come into her full, womanly form and never missed up a chance to flaunt it wherever Katsuki could see. She especially liked coming to wherever they were training to watch and lick her lips not quite out of site.

Izuku would blush and cover his chest, whether shirted or not. Ejiro would watch on and smother chuckles that released little plumes of smoke from his nostrils.

Katsuki would go ballistic.

“GO AWAY, PERVERT! Ain’t no one going to miss you when I blow your f*cking face off!”

And he had the firepower to do so. The three years along Eijiro’s side had done wonders for his control and arm strength. Magic had to be involved because he could let loose far larger blasts than he could have back in his previous life with only so much bulk and training.

Birdie, however, would just smirk, as she always did when Katsuki laid into her…that came out wrong.

“All bark and no bite,” she’d purr. “What, you don’t like being watched? Is Kacchan shy?”

Only Izuku was allowed to call him that. Creepy little-ass bitch had no previous life of hero-work to qualify her for that honor.

He’d give a roar and start letting loose explosions around her feet. She’d shriek, but since she was used to this sort of distance-fighting of his (ain’t no way in hell he was touching that perv), she’d squeal in almost delight before scuttling off as though he’d just thrown pop rocks at her feet instead of full-on, dirt popping cherry bombs.

“ It’s not like she’s ugly or mean ,” said Ejirio at some point. “ Why not, I don’t know, got on a date with her? ”

Katsuki felt endlessly validated when Izuku joined him in looking at the dragon as though he’d done something stupid.

“ What ?” Eijiro still blinked big, puppy-dog-like eyes, despite having doubled in size.

“We’re not allowed to date until we’re fifteen and have gone to our first bonfire,” said Izuku.

“You’ve lived here how long and you don’t know that?” said Katsuki.

Eijiro huffed. “ Well, it isn’t like anyone talks to me besides you two and your parents. And who’d bother to tell a dragon that?”

“But you hear perfectly fine, don’t you?” Katsuki folded his arms across his chest.

“ Stop iiiiiit, fine, I still think you’re too mean to her. You burnt her foot the other day, not bad, but still. ”

Izuku looked contemplative while Katsuki dropped his jaw, appalled.

“She never misses a moment to sexually harass me! Didn’t you see her smack my ass yesterday?”

“ It is a nice ass, ” said Eijiro with a fangy smirk.

“GAY!”

“She doesn’t have the qualifications,” said Izuku, who’d grabbed a towel to mop up their sweat. This conversation had happened during one of their breaks practicing hand-to-hand combat. “She doesn’t respect his boundaries, for one, and she isn’t particularly clever. She also has no butt and too-large breasts. Too top heavy.”

Eijiro gaped at Katsuki. “ You claim to be a full-blooded man who doesn’t like big boobs? ”

“f*ck, Zu, stop making me sound like a shallow asshole.”

Izuku blinked innocently. “But you are a shallow asshole.”

Break ended then. Katsuki tackled Izuku head-on.

Puberty wasn’t all fun and games, though. Katsuki hadn’t missed the wacky wet dreams or the awkward hard-ons at inappropriate times. He’d known the girls in his tribe since he was a baby, so they were more like cousins than anything legitimate, but his hormonally charged dick didn’t seem to care. And then there was birdie being the creep she was. She didn’t even bother going to the bonfires, insisting she was waiting on him to grow into his ‘man pants’ to take him with her, like a kidnapped bride.

Oh, how he hated her.

Izuku tried to commiserate with him on their second passing through puberty but he didn’t want to hear it. Especially since Eijiro’s ‘puberty’ seemed to come with all perks and no downsides. The worst it got was the shedding.

“ It itches !” he’d whine while scratching off scales.

Katsuki would take itching off flat-metal-like rocks to embarrassing hard-ons any day.

But wait a second….

“Oy, Tinman!”

“He’s just excited, Mr. Smith,” Izuku cut across Katsuki.

The blacksmith gave them both a flat look from where he sat working leather in front of his tent. He was a broad, sturdy man with ginger hair, a scraggy, blond goatee, and a square paunch that was more muscle than fat.

“Whatever it is, no.” He stabbed the thick needle into the leather. “f*cking kid is old enough to know how to be polite and I ain’t got no forge.”

They were near the scrubby bush forest during Spring, so, yeah, no forge.

“You can do this without a forge,” said Katsuki, ignoring the clear dismissal from the adult. He dropped a burlap bag on the ground near the man’s feet. In rustled, as though filled with alluminum coins. “I need you to make me some dragon armor.”

“No.” But then the man paused. “Wait, dragon armor?”

Katsuki crouched down to untie the bag. He yanked it open with a toothy grin.

Inside, piles of scarlet scales glittered in the mid-day sun.

“Huh.” The smith blinked, then turned back to his sewing. “Still, no. You’re growing. Making you armor now would be a waste. When you’re a man come back.”

“Oh, come on, can’t you just, I don’t know, do add-ons?”

“No.”

“Well, maybe you can use the scales for something else anyways,” said Izuku, ever the polite one.

“Shut up! They ain’t your scales, nerd!”

“Technically they’re Eijiro’s.”

“ Yeah, and it isn’t like I’m doing anything with them ,” said Eijiro’s slightly distant voice. He was two tents over letting some kids use his tail as a slide.

“Eijiro said yes,” Izuku told the smith.

Mr. Smith considered the bag of scales for a long moment.

“Nothing comes to mind, but I don’t mind a bit of experimenting,” he said. “Thanks, brat. Did something helpful for a change.”

“I do helpful sh*t all the time, Tinman. Be grateful.”

“Right back at you.”

Izuku just gave a pained smile.

Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Chapter Text

Katsuki didn’t want to be here.

Fifteen-years-old and still recovering from a bad flu, he still couldn’t breathe through his nostrils and decided Nyquil was the greatest loss of being reborn in fantasyland, not TV or internet.

Yet here he was, standing on the edges of a clearing made around a giant bonfire where other teenagers and young adults mingled.

Izuku hung at his side like the awkward dork he was, looking back and forth between Katsuki and where Birdie waited with bated breath and claws. Eijiro hung back with the horses, dozing, because apparently when Katsuki got sick, he got sick too. Bad evolutionary trait if you asked him. At least the lucky bastard got to sleep.

“I can’t believe your mom made you come,” said Izuku for the upteenth time.

Katsuki gave a useless sniff. “Hag wants grandbabies.”

“Still, fifteen seems a bit young. At least we’ve almost caught up to where we left off when we died, right? I mean, age-wise.”

Katsuki just sucked back on the pallet in the back of his throat in an attempt to get snot out the back way instead. When he got the barest drop, he spat it out.

Izuku winced. “That’s attractive.”

“Shut up, nerd. You’re the one who got me sick.”

“You’re the one who kept coming over even when I was sick.”

“You're welcome for flying Eijiro’s ass over to the thicker parts of the forest for citrus fruit and honey to help you get better, dumb ass.”

“I guess that was sweet of you.”

“Ha! It’s because you’re crybaby whining was keeping everyone up at night! It was for the greater good!”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Kacchan.”

Birdie had gone through as many ‘sexy’ poses as naturally as possible and must have decided it was time for a more direct approach. She sashayed over, just managing to dodge a caterwauling couple on the way. Katsuki snorted thickly, wishing they’d bowled her over.

“She’s coming,” said Izuku.

“I’ve got eyes.”

“You going to run?”

“To where?”

Where indeed. The Bonfire was set up in the middle of the fields where the grass gave way to a short, but wide, plateau of sandstone. There, youth from all the surrounding tribes, the remnants of their people when they were once a nation, gathered. Katsuki’s tribe was but one of seven and he could see familiar light-colored, thin facial hair, and propensity to building muscle in the others that connected him to the two hundred and fifty or so people he’d grown up with. Izuku’s green hair stood out like sore thumb, but in the darkening evening it could easily be mistaken as a particularly dark brown, which, while uncommon, still existed in splatterings around the group.

Beyond the plateau, the prairie went on and on until it hit the distant gray cliffsides and the stubby, dry bush forests.

Birdie had dressed to the nines for this occasion. She wore her fullest skirt that swayed when she walked and hugged her hips and waist. She left her arms and shoulders bare, tying her hair to one side so as to leave the view of the swoop of her neck unhindered. Her breasts threatened to spill over the top of her leather top.

“Katsuki,” she purred the moment she was in hearing distance. “You should dance with me.”

Katsuki spat out more snot.

The ‘music’ was a single flute and some drums off to the side. There was some sort of lyre or guitarist, but he looked much like Katsuki felt. He was one of the older boys who used to chase him and Izuku around and got his Karma in being nineteen and still unable to find a girlfriend. Loser. Think his name was Oni-something. Losers don’t deserve to have their names remembered, even if they’ve been around you since you were in diapers.

Actually…Katsuki jerked his chin towards said guitarist.

“Go flirt with someone who’d care.”

Birdie glanced around and her whole face wrinkled like a prune when she realized who Katsuki was gesturing to.

“That’s rude,” she said.

Izuku’s face was carefully neutral and not looking at either of them.

“What?” grunted Katsuki. “You shallow as well as annoying?”

“Yuroni’s a bully on top of being ugly,” she said.

“Well, so am I.”

“You’re not a bully, and you’re gorgeous. ”

Katsuki shuddered, then sighed very, very long. Oh, the irony.

“Zuku,” he grunted.

“He’s a bully,” said the nerd loyally. “Meanest of the bunch. He pushed me into the mud, burned me, my notes, and told me to kill myself. Oh, and he gave me a nickname that means ‘useless.’”

Katsuki nodded, trying to sniff again. Damn, DAMN snot.

Birdie rolled her eyes. “Please, I’ve lived with you two your whole lives, stop being mean. Come on, Kats, I’ve been waiting for you.” She fluttered her kohl-darkened eyelashes. “I’ve been waiting for you ever since you were a little boy. Just come dance with me, yeah?”

“No.”

“I won’t leave until you do.”

Katsuki just looked at her. He could feel Izuku listening closely, even though he could see, out of the corner of his eye, that the nerd was doing a good job pretending he was very involved in watching the other girls mingling about the bonfire.

Katsuki sniffed. It failed, as it always did. Then reached for Birdie.

Her whole figure lit up, her hope unimpeded by her faint confusion as he reached for her skirt.

In one quick move, he bowed his head low enough for the skirt to reach his face and blew his nose as hard as he could.

Birdie shrieked and jerked away, only to shriek again at the snot left behind.

“See,” said Katsuki. “I’m an asshole.”

Izuku was choking, a hand at his mouth to stop the laugh while waving his other hand towards Birdie. He’d pulled out a handkerchief from his shirt, something his mother made him keep on hand even before he’d gotten the flu.

Birdie snatched the offered cloth from Izuku’s hand, even as her eyes filled with tears.

“Am I really that repulsive to you?” she squeaked.

“Yes.” Katsuki didn’t miss a beat.

She gave one, heavy sob before pivoting on the spot and fleeing, carefully pulled-aside hair flying out behind her.

“ Did he…?” came Eijiro’s distant, sleepy voice to their minds.

“Use her skirt to blow his nose, yes,” said Izuku, his voice warbling.

“Just laugh, nerd.”

“No! That was awful!”

“She had it coming.”

“No one has that coming.”

“If they don’t take no for an answer…”

Izuku just rolled his eyes and pointed to a nearby group of girls, who didn’t even try to hide their looks of horror.

“Good luck getting a wife now,” he said.

“Yes, because my life ambition was to get a wife and pop out bratty mini-me’s.” Katsuki did his own eye roll, but it was limited as it made him dizzy. Stupid head cold. He covered his mouth to cough. “The moment Eijiro’s big enough to take the both of us we’re out of here.”

“Yes yes,” said Izuku, who’d heard it a hundred times by now.

“Don’t patronize me.”

“Are you going to bully me if I don’t?”

“Damn right I am, prepare yourself for the wedgie of a lifetime.”

But neither of them moved and went back to a friendly quiet that only really existed between the two of them, watching the bodies move around the orange fire and picking out the few stars strong enough to shine through its light.

Their tired quiet was once more interrupted by a girl. This one had long, honey tresses and the smallest waist above a thick rear and thighs. Her eyes glittered with thoughts as she gave Izuku a small, berry-ripe smile.

“Hi, um, I saw you come in with the Fire Dragon chief’s boy?” her gaze only flickered to Katsuki before returning to Izuku, who was already pinkening. No amount of reincarnations would beat that out of the nerd. “I’m Lilly. Would you, um, like to dance.”

Izuku stiffened, as though she’d asked him to do much more than that.

“Uh, yeah! Yeah, sure! I, um, I’m not the best dancer.”

“That’s okay!” she chirped, like a freaking bird. “It’s just an excuse to get to know you. And your name is…?”

“Izuku! I mean,” Izuku cleared his throat, desperately trying to cover up his prepubescent squeak. “It’s Izuku,” he said, much lower.

She laughed.

Katsuki scowled. Her embroidered cotton dress did nothing to hide the perfect perkiness of her little breasts.

God damn it, she better not be smart or the nerd really would be getting a wedgie.

Izuku must have known exactly what Katsuki was thinking, for as he trailed off after the girl towards the fire, her perfect bubble butt wagging along with walk as all girls’ butts should, Izuku turned around to give him the widest, sh*t-eating grin Katsuki had ever seen.

Sparks popped circles in his palms.

“f*cking Deku…” but he didn’t scream it like he dearly wished to. He didn’t need any more reason to kick himself in the butt.

“ Was that your type that you keep going on about? ”

“Shut up, lizard.”

“ Hey, I feel you, man. Ain’t no pretty girls looking my way, and it’s not like they brought any dragons either. ”

“I said shut UP!”

“ Yeesh, fine, calm your tit*. You're making people stare again. ”

Sure enough, not only had the group of girls started scuttling away while glaring at him, but anyone else nearby was giving him the look too, the kind they should have been giving to a creepy stalker like Birdie.

Katsuki folded his arms across his chest defensively, huffed, and decided he was too sick for this. Despite wanting to punch the dragon, he swiveled about and went to Eijiro’s side, grateful for once for his stuffed sinuses so he couldn’t smell all the horse manure hanging around the makeshift stables. The horses kept a good distance from Eijiro, who lifted up his wing for Katsuki as he came close.

“ You can always ask Zuku to introduce you.”

“What part of ‘shut up’ do you not understand?” snapped Katsuki, flopping against the dragon’s hot, scaly side. He shivered as the warmth sunk in, much more thorough than the bonfire’s ever would be. Perhaps he was sicker than he gave himself credit for.

Even from this distance, where everyone looked like half-orange, half-black figures, he could make out Izuku’s wild hair and smile as he spun about with the honey girl. He thought he could see her laughing too.

Katsuki tried to sniff, only to choke as a thick clog of snot finally busted loose to try and suffocate him. After several disgusting throatal maneuvers, he managed to hack it out to the side.

“ Dude, that’s gross. ”

“You're gross.”

“ Neh, at least my snot catches fire so I can burn it as soon as it leaves. ”

Katsuki raised his palm towards the little pile of phlegm, using his other hand to make a small circle on his palm.

He focused through the remaining throb of his stuffed-up skull and AP Shot the slimy bastard.

It did not catch fire. If anything, it just smeared out in a long, slimy streak lined with black lines where sparks had escaped.

“ ...that was gross too. ”

“Shut up! Nobody asked you!”

“Um…hello?”

Standing half-hidden by the body of a horse, gangly, and with thinning blond hair, was a teenage boy who could have been only a few years older than Katsuki.

Katsuki just looked at him.

The guy shifted in place, flashing slightly crooked teeth. “That’s your dragon…right?”

“How many dragons do you know like strangers snuggle up to them?” he asked.

“Well, the green-haired kid came with you, so--but then I saw you shoot fire from your hands! Which was really, really cool, by the way--”

Oh sh*t. He was one of them. Katsuki thought he had dispersed the majority of the dragon-awed hoard at the beginning of all this.

“Go away.”

The guy blinked. “What?”

“My dragon’s not your entertainment, your test subject, or a llama at a petting zoo. If you’re here to gawk, piss off or I’ll blow up your face.”

When the guy just continued to stare at him, as though unable to compute that a great legendary dragon tamer would be so coarse, Katsuki took aim at his feet and shot another AP shot.

The horse next to him screeched and reared up. The kid flew back, shouting as well. Luckily, he cleared off before the horse could trample him and eventually, after tugging at its leash for ten minutes straight, it calmed down.

Eijiro just gave a draconic sigh.

Katsuki, however, was too busy scrubbing his face down with his hands till it was raw at the unfairness of it all. While Izuku attracted the one girl Katsuki would have actually gone out of his way to get to know, Katsuki got all the dragon dorks.

“I wanna go home,” he moaned.

“Me too, ” said Eijiro.

If Izuku hit it off with that Lilly girl, he was going to kill him.

Chapter 13: Chapter 13

Chapter Text

One of the good things about living somewhere that was three steps above a wasteland is that you could see visitors from miles away.

Said visitor’s included invading armies.

Thus, when the five hundred or so calvary came to a halt in their perfect-ass lines in the dry prairie grass, no a hair nor hide of any of their tribe could be seen.

Katsuki himself watched from beneath a camouflage cloak made of the same grass in the field, listening to his own steady, controlled breaths. Yes, hiding and hoping they’d pass by went against everything fiber of his being, but he also wasn’t stupid enough to see how many of his people would die on the metal armor and spears of this army. Iron, after all, was precious for their kind, so most of their armor was made of leather or hide.

“We know you’re out there!” called out a man in the front of the calvary, with a long, red tail of horse hair poking out of his helmet. Very Roman. “Fire Dragon Barbarians, we know you have a tamer!”

Every hair on Katsuki’s body shot up, hard and electric.

“Give him to us and we shall leave in peace!”

Katsuki clenched his fists in the dusty dirt to hold himself back. Coincidence that these bastards appeared mere weeks after the bonfire? Ha. Like anyone in their tribe would endanger themselves by outing him. It could only be another tribe. Why hadn’t his mother thought of that when she chased him out? Probably because she thought they’d had enough tamers to not bother with the one kid they had.

When nothing by empty tents and a hawk circling above could be heard, the red-tailed-helmet man gestured behind him and a soldier, adorned in armor from head to foot, stepped forward, raising a hand only for it to become covered in flame.

“I’ll give you to the count of five before my fire user lights the prairie,” he cawed. “One. Two--”

“Oi.”

He heard his mother’s muffled gasp as the camouflage cloak fell off his shoulders. But Katsuki held his chin high, doing his best to look down at the men despite being on a horse.

“What does your greedy ass want with me?”

“Katsuki--” he heard his mother hiss.

The captain--for that’s what Katsuki assumed he was--flicked his face towards where his mother hid, but kept his eyes on Katsuki.

“Where’s your dragon?” he asked.

“What’s it to you?” Katsuki folded his arms. “You said nothing about a dragon. Just a tamer.”

“You’re going to need to prove who you’re--”

An explosion, all light and smoke, lighted off of Katsuki’s held out palm.

“Answer the question, dipsh*t,” he growled. “Did all of you come to back crack nowhere for one single kid and his dragon? What, don’t have enough of your own?”

But the captain didn’t answer him, only nodding to the men on either side of him and giving a loud click of his tongue. The entire front line of horses and their riders came forward, lowering their spears at the lone tribesman.

Katsuki ‘tched’ and lowered himself, drawing a spear from his back. The feathers he’d so carefully tied about the spearhead twirled in the breeze.

The horses stopped just in reach of him, making a circle about him.

“You will call your beast,” said Captain Ponytail. “And will come with us quietly, or they all die.”

Katsuki just looked at the shiny, tin-can bastard, something like lava percolating through his veins.

Well…f*ck. He’d hoped he’d be able to maybe talk it out once they saw him, because his mother’s plan B hadn’t accounted for a fire user--were they a mage or a tamer themselves? Weren’t these dickwads suppose to have issues against magicians? Probably not issue enough not to use them, tch. God, even in another world he hated people.

Just as he was considering raising his hands in surrender, a sharp whistle pierced the air.

Horses screamed and dropped in mass as their tendons were cut from the grass.

When a gap in the ring around him appeared, Katsuki didn’t wait for the other spearmen to run him through, he dove, calling out as loudly as he could in his mind like Ejiro had taught him.

“Damn it, hag!” They couldn’t do this! What the hell was she--

Then he felt her claws on the back of his neck.

“Run,” she said. “Grab Izuku and run.”

“Like hell!”

Men shouted. Horses flung back their heads, eyes rolling. Blades whistled through the air. His tribesmen appeared like magic in the grass, grassy humps that somehow avoided the many stomping hooves. Their goats bleated in alarm, their screams frighteningly human-like.

Her nails dug deeper, drawing blood.

“For once in your god damn life, you will listen to me,” she growled. “Get on Eijiro, grab Izuku, and head to the cliff home. We will meet you there.”

“You can’t be serious--ack kk k! Watch--”

He didn’t finish his sentence, diving past his mom to intercept the blade that came towards her head. The force of the metal colliding made his bones shake. His hand went momentarily numb.

Before the man or horse could recover, Katsuki came back around with his other hand full of explosion. The roar filled the sky with heat and his ears rang.

“Don’t you dare try to keep me out of this after that,” he huffed, unable to hear himself.

His mother had her hands over her ears. She looked up, eyes wide, eyebrows steepled, her mouth already twisting for a wail.

“I can’t lose you again,” he barely heard through the ring.

Well, sh*t.

It was the biggest resolution he’d made when he’d realized his parents had come with him to the next life: he was not going to be a f*ck up son again. He wasn’t going to make his parents live through hell again. He wouldn’t make them mourn again.

But god damn it, did that mean he had to live with regret the rest of his life by running away?

Wait, if he ran, wouldn’t these metal buckets follow?

“ZUKU!” He thundered. “ON ME!”

Izuku appeared like magic beside him, grass camo cloak still tied about his shoulders. As a dragon’s roar cracked the air, the boys ducked as one to either side of an oncoming calvary man and sliced at the horse’s legs. All those boring hours of training made the two move like a well oiled machine, ducking, weaving, and slicing to a beat as though dancing.

Eijiro landed in a plume of dust and grass.

While not the size of a house like many of the other dragons had been, Eijiro had reached the height and length of a semi-truck. Spears and arrows slid off his scales, though Katsuki didn’t miss the red hole one arrow punched through the leather of his wings. Neither did Izuku.

Even so, he still scaled up Eijiro’s side with Katsuki and settled in the long, extra-large leather saddle they’d worked jobs for months to get the blacksmith and tanner to make.

“We can’t fly like this,” shouted Izuku as he beat back an arrow.

A shout of pain snapped Katsuki’s attention to one of his tribesmen falling beneath a flurry of hooves and spears. His heart went cold, even as his mother charged into the horses side to burry her sword up the rider’s rib cage.

Izuku shook him. “Kacchan!”

This couldn’t be happening. His second life was suppose to be good. Easy, even. Who said these f*ckers could come in and start smashing up his family?

Red rimmed his vision. He could feel Eijiro beneath him responding in kind, flaming spittle dripping from his maw. Dry prairie grass caught fire like tissue paper.

“KATSUKI!”

His mother was just beneath his foot, blood splattered across her cheek and neck. He couldn’t tell whether it was hers or not.

“Fly! We’ll take care of the archers!”

Sure enough, arrows and stones of their own flew from those still hidden in the grass, hitting helmets, breaking arms, or completely knocking off riders entirely.

Izuku slapped Eijiro beneath him. “Fly, Eji!”

f*cker was his damn dragon, not Izuku’s, but Ejiro spread out his wings. The force of the air to get the dragon up flattened everyone within ten yards of them. The dragon’s eyes were to the sky, but its thoughts were on the ground, echoing in their minds.

“ We can’t just leave them! ”

“We aren’t leaving them!” Katsuki screamed above the wind. “We’re leading the enemy away!”

Even as he said that, the fire Ejiro had set off grew larger, eating an ever widening ring through the legs of shrieking horses. The smell of burnt hair rose with them.

But Eijiro still wasn’t quite large enough to ignore the weight on his back. His rising was slow.

From the back, a spear flew true. It pierced through the tender membrane at the base of Eijiro’s right wing, causing it to tear from his side.

Their world tilted. Eijiro’s pain filled their heads. Even gripping the saddle horn as hard as he could, Katsuki went flying. He hit the ground hard and saw stars.

The thunder of hooves and feet vibrated his already ringing skull. Smoke clouded the blue sky in a black haze.

A dark haired man dropped beside him, sword held out to the side.

“Dad?” But Katsuki couldn’t hear himself over the noise.

His dad’s mouth was moving, even as his fingers checked Katsuki’s neck for a break. Behind him, a dismounted soldier raised his sword high.

Katsuki’s hand flung out, even as more pain made his eyesight go white. Somewhere, EIjiro was being torn to pieces.

The sparks on his palm sputtered.

The sword came down.

A wordless roar and a streak of blinding green burst between them. A body thudded feet from Katsuki and his father.

The soldier about to decapitate his father shrieked, writhing and jerking as what couldn’t only be archs of electricity danced across his limbs.

They dropped like a dead bag.

Katsuki and his father didn’t have long to stare before two soldiers had filled the fallen one’s place. His dad slashed through the staff of a spear.

Izuku caught the blade of the other, his arms and sword arching with brilliant green lights. His eyes were a luminous, electric green.

“What the hell, Zu!” Katsuki ignored his screaming head and forced himself to his feet, palms crackling, back aching. Best he keep his sword at his hip for this.

“I think I found my magic!” Izuku shouted.

“No sh*t!”

The fell back into the fight. Izuku focused on the riders, covered in metal that attracted his clumsy, new found magic, while Katsuki went for the horse’s legs. A surge of relief nearly made him pause as he sighed Eijiro back on his feet, breathing fire and snapping his jaws at anything in reach.

Foes went on forever. A hoof managed to land on his back, snapping something that made raising his left arm agony. But then Izuku pulled him up and they continued, Izuku at a rider, and Katsuki at his horse. Black smoke from the burning plains clouded their eyes and burned their throats.

And, just as suddenly, Katsuki found himself standing in an expanse of corpses, picked through by the rust-splattered remains of his tribe. Blood sprayed armor reflected the dying sun back at him. A dead horse nearby had it’s tongue splayed out of its mouth. Katsuki never knew horse tongues could be so long.

Izuku wheezed and coughed next to him. It took Katsuki a minute to realize he too was making a racket struggling to breathe.

“Zu,” he rasped. “Your leg.”

“It’s fine,” his friend gasped back. “Shallow.” He winced. “I’m a little more worried about my back.”

Katsuki didn’t wait for him to turn. He roughly grabbed Izuku with his leaden, right arm and flung him around, catching him when his friend tipped dangerously.

From his left shoulder to the bottom of the right side of his ribs was a deep, bloody gash. A glint of bone could be seen from his shoulder blade.

“sh*t.” He felt nauseous.

Izuku just wheezed, then dropped to his knees.

“Don’t you dare pass out, you little sh*t!”

“I’ve lost…blood, Kaachan, don’t--don’t be so mean.” His voice grew weak.

“How the hell do you tourniquet an entire back--no! Damnit, Deku!”

But Izuku’s had flopped bonelessly against Katsuki’s legs.

Katsuki groaned, coughed, then threw his head back, fighting for air through his burning lungs.

“Damnit...Eijiro…”

“ I’m here,” came the weary response across his mind.

“Help me with this f*cker before he bleeds out.”

“ What? How? Oh my god, Izuku, is he-- ”

“His mom, dipsh*t! She should be in the bush with the children!”

“ Oh! Oh, oh yeah. I’m com--oh sh*t. ”

“What?”

“. ..I…I almost stepped on your mom . She’s not moving, Kats. ”

_________________________

His mom was dead.

Half the fighting force of the tribe had been wiped out along with her, which was a miracle considering they’d been outnumbered and outclassed. Having a whole-ass dragon probably had something to do with it.

But Katsuki couldn’t find it in him to care. The entire tribe could have survived and he’d still be kneeling next to her, waiting for her to turn her head and yell at him.

But she didn’t. Probably a good thing too, as her organs had to be pushed back into her and her stomach banded up for the funeral.

His father kneeled next to him, heavily bandaged, especially around his head.

Izuku would have been on his otherside if he wasn’t still unconscious from bloodloss and half-way dead himself in the tent for the wounded. Inko, his mother, had passed out soon after going past the limits of her healing magic to at least heal the worst of the injuries.

A single woman, the fat one with the mole, worked over his mother’s body, painting it with fine scented oils and dried wild flowers. Her face was wet with tears.

Katsuki watched her hands work, a thumb rubbing on the fabric of the sling of his left arm.

“I’m sorry…” his father whispered.

“What f*cking for?” They both sounded like smokers from the prairie fires, which still burned on in the distance. It was a second miracle that they’d managed to save so many tents and supplies from the flames.

“I should have protected her.”

A thousand words rose in his throat then clogged into a clotted lump against his closed teeth. Forgiveness, comforting, agreement, and anger. None of it would do.

Truth was, he should have given himself over. Better yet, he should have flown off when they’d seen the men in the distance. But his mother had shot him down, refusing to let him become a possible target. It had always been a possibility that the men were coming for him and Eijiro. It was the only reason they still sought after the barbarian tribes of the north anymore.

Suddenly, a rage of fury washed over him, molten and thick.

“It was her own f*ckning fault,” he snarled. “I was ready to give myself up, I was fine being the target, but she,” he clacked his teeth down hard when his father’s hand fell heavily on his sore back.

“No mother would send their child out to die,” said his father.

“Like hell I’d--” his smoke-abused vocal cords stuck, blocking his air. He coughed and hacked, and each one jolted his broken shoulder blade and ribs.

“It would have been five hundred calvary to two teenagers and their half-grown dragon,” said his father. “You’re strong, but it only takes one lucky arrow to fell a man.” He sighed and took his hand back. “I should have made the smith make you that dragon armor.”

Katsuki scowled down at his hands, his eyes burning. There would be no dragon armor now. The smith had gone down too, with his head cut clean off his shoulders.

The remains of his nausea curled in Katsuki’s gut. The moment he’d gotten Izuku to his mom and turned to start hunting down those still alive among the dead, he’d vomited all over his shoes. Had hurt like hell to. Who knew a broken shoulderblade and some ribs could make every damn freaking movement hurt so much.

Katsuki looked back up at the fat lady with the mole, carefully painting his mother’s face. Her thick bottom lip was raw from being chewed and he couldn’t tell how she could still see from how squinted up her eyes were from crying.

He wasn’t the only one who’d lost his family.

It just made him more angry.

“She was the chief,” he rasped. “She was suppose to do what was best for everyone, not just me. f*cking selfish.”

“Perhaps,” said his father.

Tears finally bubbled up to Katsuki’s smoke-burned eyes.

“Worst f*cking chief ever.”

His father hummed. His cheeks were wet.

Katsuki continued swearing through his abused throat, not caring that it made it harder to breathe and the pain in his back worse. His mother’s face still looked so peaceful. Maybe he hadn’t seen her gutted on the ground. Maybe she had just been injured.

No. He’d made the wrong choice. He gets a second chance at life and he already screwed it up at fifteen.

That night, eleven pyres set up in a circle around his mother burned the bodies of the dead. No one slept, and not a face ran dry.

Katsuki didn’t leave his mother’s side, even as he roared and stomped and raged and threw dirt on the fire roasting her past recognition.

When the morning sun finally came, Izuku found Katsuki still and cold on his knees, his vocal cords torn past use and his gaze set dully on the ashes in the dirt. His father sat besides him, just as still and quiet.

Izuku dropped beside him and embraced him hard.

Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Chapter Text

“What do you miss most?”

“Ny--”

“Besides Nyquil.”

“We’ve had this conversation a million times.”

“A lot’s changed. I’m updating the list.”

“Why’s that a list?”

“Hnrgh.”

Izuku and he both had to lay on their stomach to help their wounds heal up on their backs. Auntie Inko was able to speed along the healing, but not do it completely, especially in Katsuki’s case with a shattered shoulder blade.

Thing was, being stuck on your stomach was even more boring than being stuck on your back. He felt like a baby, set out on a quilt on the grass under the blue sky as he was. It made him think of his mom, which was probably why Izuku had moved his own blanket next to him and was asking inane questions.

Katsuki humoured him and thought hard for a moment to see if his list had changed.

“Mattresses. Blankets in general. Pillows.”

“But we’ve got those.”

“Lame ass ones. And they take forever to make. I mean, like, the microfibre plush sh*t and super puffy pillows without any lame feather stick things poking you in the face.”

“Yeah. I think you mean synthetic fibers, then.”

“Don’t get nerdy on me.”

“Then industrial farming, maybe, for the cotton and stuff.”

“We got sheep.”

“Yeah, but cotton and wool are different.”

“I know that.”

They fell quiet for a bit, listening to the breeze over the bush forest and the murmur of the tribe just a hop and skip away from them. It didn’t take much concentration for Katsuki to be able to pick up on conversations. They were stilted, awkward things, with high pitched children or shaking aged voices. It made his chest tighten, so he tried not to listen too hard unless the lower timber of a healthy, younger adult’s voice pitched in, bringing the white noise back to normalacy.

“I miss pens,” said Izuku.

“I knew that.”

“But seriously, there’s nothing like a nice pen with a smooth, thick line on fresh, blank paper.”

“Nerd.”

“Stationary stores were my bane.”

“I thought that was hero merch stores.”

“Nah. I liked them, yeah, but I had to save up to afford anything. Stationary stores on the other hand, they’re just affordable enough to make you think you can afford everything even when you really don’t need any of it. But then those pens…”

“Stop org*sming over your pen fantasies where I can hear.”

Izuku sighed. “Why do you have to make everything so crude?”

“So it wakes up nerds to how creepy they sound.”

“You’re the one making it weird.”

“But dem pens,” Katsuki moaned in mocking sexual ecstasy.

Izuku giggled and flopped his hand over to smack whatever part of Katsuki he could reach without turning his head around to look at him.

“Stop iiiiitt.”

“You stop it, freak.”

A particularly heavy gust of wind washed over them, warm and tinted with the smell of sulfur. A few feet away, Eijiro snoozed, his wing heavily stitched and lashed to his body by rope to prevent him from accidentally opening it and tearing the stitches. He had just finished a light, rare meal of goat meat. Usually he could go out and hunt his own meat since the livestock of the tribe was precious, but given the sudden population decrease the tribe found they could afford more to the dragon.

Quiet fell between them long enough for Katsuki to drop his eyes close and doze. Depression, recovering from wounds, and boredom made a lethal dose of sleepiness.

“I think Birdie squealed.”

Katsuki wrinkled his nose. “What the hell you talking about?”

“Listen, even if they’re from a different tribe, we’re the same people, right? It was a given that no one would be telling outsiders we had a dragon tamer. But Birdie went traveling after you dumped her to ‘get over it,’ didn’t she?”

He snorted. “Cute. But even she isn’t lame enough to risk an entire tribe just to get back at me.”

“People don’t do reasonable things, Kacchan. And she’s liked you ever since we were little.”

Katsuki rubbed the roof of his mouth with his tongue. It wasn’t a completely new thought to him. He’d suspected Birdie himself. But it was still hard for him to grasp. Birdie’s family was in the tribe. Granted, her father had a bad leg and would have been one of those in the back with a bow and arrow rather in the dirt of the fight, but she had younger brothers too and her mother could fight just fine. Surely she wouldn’t have risked her own family just to get him kidnapped.

Unless she had thought they would give him and Eijiro up without a fight.

And she hadn’t returned yet.

A quick flush of fury, acidic as bile and hot as flame, washed over him, then crawled back like a wave.

“Even if it was her,” he grumped. “We got no evidence and she ain’t around.”

“And she lost a brother too,” added Izuku. “Just deserts.”

“Just deserts my ass. A bratty little brother isn’t the same as a parent.”

He flopped his head over towards Izuku, ignoring the twinge of his healing shoulder. He waited until Izuku felt his gaze enough to turn his head to meet his eye.

A wuff of dragon’s breath rustled their hair.

“As soon as we’re healed,” he said.

Izuku’s gaze was just as determined. “I have my dad’s maps. I know the first place to look.”

“You tried it since then? Your magic.”

“Yeah.” Izuku grimaced. “Shocked Marty’s dog.”

Katsuki snorted. “So that’s why the mutt was crying.”

They stared at each other for a second longer, communicating silently, mouth’s set.

“You should burn the flag,” Izuku said.

One of the spoils of war had been a flag made of thick silk, woven into red and blue stripes with the depiction of a griffin and snake on the front. It was the only lead they had on which country the invaders had come from.

“Waste of quality material,” said Katsuki, turning his head back around so Izuku wouldn’t see his expression. “And for a noose.”

“Katsuki.”

“They killed my mom.”

“ Katsuki.”

“It’s just in case I meet some on the way.”

“That’s murder . You’re a hero. We already killed the entire regiment in self defense.”

“I meant if I happen to meet who sent them.”

“A king? Just so happens to be on the road? Burn it, Kacchan. I’m serious.”

“...”

“I’ll tell your dad.”

“You won’t tell the old man a thing, f*ckwad.”

“Then burn it and forget about it. Revenge won’t do anything but destroy you. We’ll find my dragon--”

“And then what?” Katsuki had to speak through gritted teeth as hot rage rose up in him, popping in his palms. “Fly back here and hope our dear neighbors don’t get greedy again? We’re barely living up here. We’re like savages on the fringes of the world, the only reason our tribe still exists is because of Eijiro and us two.”

“So what? We unify the seven tribes and start a war? Get more people killed?”

Katsuki didn’t say anything.

“I thought so,” said Izuku. “Look, we hardly know anything about this world outside of the northern lands. With more knowledge we can figure out what to do.”

“We aren’t the only ones who have traveled. Why do you think none of the others have come up with any ideas?”

“Because they didn’t ride dragons or come from another world?”

“This is our world now, dork. You think I don’t know how stupid it is to think you’re more special than anyone else? f*ck that, I know where that leads you.”

Now it was Izuku’s turn to fall quiet.

After a few minutes of wuffling dragon’s breath and the muted chatter of nearby children, Izuku sighs.

“I think it’s just as bad of a mistake to assume everything’s been thought of.”

Katsuki gave a non committal hum and closed his eyes again, letting the remaining anger seep out of him once more. It was all about breathing and grounding himself in the sounds of the bushy tree’s branches clicking together.

He missed proper trees. Big ass things with actual leaves in a proper green and not this washed-out, pine and sage crap.

If he ever found out it was Birdie…

“Do you really think your mom remembered?” Izuku asked quietly some time later.

“Dad said she didn’t,” he said. “Looked at me like a f*cking psychopath.”

“Psychopath and delusional are not the same thing.”

“Nerd down.”

“...Maybe we’ll meet some of the others.”

“I sure hope not. You know what them being here means.”

“Well, a lot more people than you think cared about you.”

“And that’s creepy! I was a f*cking asshole.”

“Yeah. But not all the time. And, uh, even assholes can be loved.”

“I can hear you smiling, stop it. f*cking smartass.”

“If you had a swear jar, I’d make millions. I know you have a vocabulary outside of profanity.”

“Nothing as delicious as using forbidden hard consonants to make extras get a clue.”

“Whoa. Now who’s the nerd?”

“Shut up. I make nerdness cool.”

“Sure you do, Kacchan.”

“...Zuku?”

“Yeah?”

“...Thanks.”

“For what?”

“You know.”

“Yeah, but I’d like to hear you say it.”

“Tough luck, I ain’t gonna. Now shut up, I want a nap.”

“Okay. Thanks, Kacchan. For saying thanks.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, well, need to balance out the nerdness somehow.”

“Damn right.”

With that, Katsuki let himself slip off into the dark where his mother flashed grins at him and slapped his arms back into position during weapons training. In there she was as he remembered her, invincible, fearless, and cooing at the baby him in her arms.

Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Chapter Text

Katsuki’s dad hadn’t wanted to let him go. Katsuki could see it in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything when Katsuki started packing the moment he and Izuku got the okay from Auntie Inko. He stood nearby as Katsuki and Izuku loaded up saddle bags on the enormous Eijiro.

“ He looks really sad,” Eijiro had murmured.

“It’s a sad occasion, dipsh*t, stop making it worse,” Katsuki grumbled back.

“We can come back as soon as I find my dragon,” said Izuku from the other side of the mount of red scales and wings.

“ They’ll be okay without us, right?”

“We killed everyone who attacked us, that should be message enough to anyone to leave the tribe the hell alone,” grouched Katsuki, well and done with this conversation, which kept cropping up. Ejirio already knew their staying didn’t promise anything, but being the biggest powerhouse around the dragon couldn’t help but feel responsible, though Katsuki argued the ‘biggest powerhouse’ part. Big he may be, but Katsuki could arm wrestle the dragon’s head to the ground most days with just a well-timed explosion and yank on the ear.

And if someone attacked while they were gone, well, all the more reason to find Izuku’s dragon. The following force would likely be bigger. Katsuki had also talked in depth with his father about joining with a neighboring tribe for protection, using their well established canyon-home as negotiation, especially now that their population had been halved.

They’d done all they could here.

The rest of the tribe wandered out at some point. By the time Izuku and Katsuki had situated themselves on the saddle (“Back off, nerd, you’re gay close.” “Kacchan, are you hom*ophobic?”), they were watched on by a crowd of pale, quiet tribe members. Even the children seemed to sense the seriousness of the moment.

“Welp,” said Katsuki. “Guess this is goodbye. Don’t die, folks, or I’ll kill you myself.”

A few chuckles broke the quiet, edged by Auntie Inko’s bawling.

His father didn’t cry. But the hard way he stared at Katsuki suggested he was trying to engrave this scene into his mind.

“See you, old man. I’ll be back.”

Izuku waved from behind him. “I love you, Mom!”

“I love you too, baby!”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, already sensing the tear works starting behind him.

“ This is so heartbreaking!” cried Eijiro in their minds.

Katsuki kicked him. Hard.

“Move, lizard.”

Eijiro answered with a heartbroken wail and a pump of his tent-like wings.

And then they were up in the late spring sky…and freezing. Instantly Izuku, who was closer to the back where the saddle bags and blankets were rolled up, got to work pulling out their winter furs. Katsuki cursed himself for not getting them on sooner. He blamed his previous habits of avoiding whatever made him sweat when he wasn’t out to kill extras, even though it seemed now his sweat had nothing to do with his explosions.

Once Katsuki steered Eijiro in the right direction there was nothing left to do but to practice speaking telepathically. Though Eijiro spoke into their minds as easy as breathing, Katsuki and Izuku had found speaking to Eijiro’s mind, and in turn each other, had been like thinking really loud into a dark room and wondering if anyone heard it (more often than not they didn’t). With it being so difficult to hear each other over the wind, they now had nothing else they could do but practice pushing thoughts through a mental rubber wall. Eijiro did his best to coach them through it and let them know if they succeeded.

The plains vanished beneath them. When night came they had reached the Spine Mountains, which separated the much fertile continent from the barren northern lands of the dragon tribes. They landed in the first place that looked like it would shelter a dragon from the constant mountain winds. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to avoid the snow, but were able to find a thin enough patch for Eijiro to evaporate.

Their first night away from home was spent tucked against Eijiro’s side, encompassed about by heated wings.

Eijiro was shivering madly when they woke up.

“Holy crap, are your teeth chattering?” Katsuki instinctively started rubbing Eijiro’s side, lighting off some magic in his hands to help.

“I didn’t know dragon’s teeth could chatter,” said Izuku. “You’ve spent several winters with us, why didn’t they chatter then?”

“ Because I never f*cking stayed out all night in the snow! ” Eijiro all but screeched in their minds. “ Can we just get out of here? Like, now? I’m gonna diiiiiiiiieee .”

“You’re not going to die,” Katsuki growled, but rubbed harder.

Izuku quickly rolled up their blankets and tied them on while Katsuki worked himself from Eijiro’s side to his wings. Then he tugged on Katsuki’s arm and they loaded back up into the saddle.

The air above the mountains had somehow gotten worse from the evening before. The air stung and forced Bakugou and Izuku to duck their faces into their clothes, trusting Eijiro to find his way over the mountains.

The moment Eijiro saw green, he dove.

“ Liiiiiiife!!!! Warmth! ”

“f*cking dragon! Warn us before you do that!”

Even so, once Eijiro had found sufficient clearing in the forest to land, they were all on the ground, rubbing their faces and shivering and swearing up and down to never stay in the mountains again.

“ What do you guys have to complain about? I kept you warm all night! ”

“What about you? Can’t you just use your fire or whatever? You’re a fire dragon, aren’t you?”

“ Yeah, FIRE! I can swim in magma just fine, cold is awful! ”

Ignoring Katsuki and Eijiro’s squabbling, Izuku muttered, “A hot spring would be a dream right now.”

Instead, they settled for a really big fire pit, big enough for a teenage dragon to curl itself around. They all agreed that a day of warming up and rest wouldn’t hurt them in the long run.

Besides, they were now facing more green than they’d seen since Japan, and even Katsuki had to quietly admit he’d missed how intrinsically soul-feeding the beauty was. The trees were proper tree-sized, tall and expansive, with moss and ferns and all manner of grasses filling in the undergrowth around them.

“You know, I’d always argue where we lived wasn’t all that bad,” said Izuku at some point after they’d shed their winter wear and were just laying around the clearing. “But…”

“Our land is sh*t,” said Katsuki.

“Yeah. Just this clearing would feed my mom’s goat for weeks. All those hours I spent digging up roots and grass seem like a total waste now.”

“Living for the past fifteen years feels like sh*t compared to our old life.”

Eijiro groaned from where he was curled, as much into the fire pit as he could get his huge body, which was basically just his toes. “ Stop, I don’t want to think about it. Being a fire dragon sucks balls, man. I miss thumbs. I miss sweaters. I miss Mina. ”

Izuku huffed. “Now you’ve started it, Kacchan.”

“Ain’t my fault he’s a loser with no game. He had over a decade.”

“ A girl in my arms would be the perfect way to warm up right now, ” Eijiro continued, letting out an audible croon. “ Mina’s skin was always so soft, especially her hands. Something about her acid stopped dead skins cells from gathering or something. One time I got this burn on my chest and it hurt to bandage myself so she helped me out and hhrrrrnnngggghh.”

Katsuki gagged. “ Never. Make that sound again.”

“Yeah, that was a little,” Izuku’s face had gone a little pink.

“ So sooooooffffttt .”

“Zuku, I swear to god if you don’t start some nerd ramble right now you’re not going to be the only one without a dragon.”

“I can’t just start those things on demand!”

“Why the hell not?”

“ And so waaaaaaaaaaarm, I’m so cold .”

“Because I’m tired and sore and--I never even got to be touched by a girl like that.”

“Oh sh*t, not you too.”

“Do you think Uraraka’s hands would have been soft?”

“ Nah, not with all that working with her wires and stuff, she was a tough girl.”

“Yeah. But she was sweet. She would have helped me. She dried my hair once when I came in from the rain, and she smelled really good.”

“Kill me now.”

“Are you sure you aren’t gay, Kacchan?”

“ He never told me about any girl he liked.”

“Shut up, assholes.”

“No, really, haven’t you ever even had a crush?”

“ I’ve smelt him get hot and bothered a few times--”

Katsuki put a hard stop there by throwing a log at Eijiro. It bounced off his scaled nose, cutting him off short.

“First off, eww. Eww. Second, puberty does sh*t. Third, I’m not f*ckING GAY!”

“He just likes himself too much,” said Izuku, flinging his arms around him in a tight, self-hug. “Oh, why do I have to be so hot and awesome?” He started rocking from side to side and moaning lewdly. “It’s just my beautiful self among all these ugly extras, I can’t let myself go--”

Since Izuku was right next to him, Katsuki settled for a hard punch in the side. Izuku chortled madly even as he yelped in pain and curled up.

“ Are you in love with yourself?” asked Eijrio, all too seriously. “ Like, sexually.”

“NO! That f*cking sexuality isn’t even real, this is why I wanted a different dragon from the start--STOP LAUGHING, DEKU!”

“Nooooooo,” Izuku wheezed.

Katsuki tugged at his hair, threw a handful of grass at the cackling, breathless nerd, and threw himself to his feet. He swore a stream of profanities as he commanded Ejiro to bring his back down so he could reach the saddle bags without having to climb. He wasn’t all that inclined to touching Eijrio at the moment.

“Wha-what are you doing?” Izuku managed to gasp.

“Going hunt’n. Since you dweebs can’t do anything productive but giggle about boobs and sh*t, someone has to be the adult.”

“We didn’t--”

“ Oh! Boobs!”

Katsuki threw another log at Ejiro’s head.

The dragon just laughed at him.

“Are you--ha ha--are you sure that’s okay? You don’t know what’s out--heh--there.”

“If it tries to kill me I’ll blow it up.”

“But--” but Izuku ended up rolling onto his stomach to try and catch his breath.

Katsuki curled his lips in disgust. Pathetic.

He left them like that, several bits of twine and his bow and quiver slung over his shoulder.

The dragon’s guffaws followed him into the sunlit speckled forest. Soon the birds took Eijiro and Izuku place. The air just seemed to be more oxygenated, and technically, it was, but there was also something thicker in how it filled his lungs. Katsuki felt like he could run for hours.

As he went he left slashes on the trees with his hunting knife so as to not lose his way. He wasn’t that stupid to think hunting in this forest would be the same as back home. As he did so, he also kept his eyes peeled for droppings and other signs of game. When he found a tree with nuts, he kicked some down and made his first snare trap at the foot of it. Hopefully, rabbits ate this sort of thing. If not--he put down a pocket full of dried berries next to it. That should do it. Worked for the hares back home so it should work for these Bugs Bunnies.

Three snares later, he found what could only be deer droppings. Again, they didn’t look that much different from home, but all the green gave the impression of an entirely other world--which made him laugh. It was another world. Just one he’s been in for fifteen years.

A tuft of deer hair and antler scratchings on the trees told him he was heading in the right direction. He let himself bare his teeth in a happy grin to have found a trail so obvious as this one. But just as he thought he saw hoofprints in the soil up ahead the sound of something moving over twigs and leaves--something heavy--made him drop behind a tree.

He needn’t have bothered. No sooner did his back hit the tree than a long, venomous green monster struck out of nowhere. A great turret of scales built around him, snapping his arms to his sides before he could so much as start an explosion.

“A dragon kin, hssssssss. Been a long time sssince I’ve seen your kind in my foresssst.”

The giant snake coils both turned and squeezed Katsuki till he faced the head of the thing--or rather, where the head should be. Instead there was the scaly, dark green torso of a man with long black hair braided down his back. Bright red, slit-pupiled eyes stared into Katsuki’s own.

Katsuki’s muscles seize up. For a horrifying second, the barbarian prince thought the gaze of this snake had the power of Medusa or something like unto it and he was about to die.

But the snake-man-thing’s gaze just continued along, eyeing whatever bit of Katsuki wasn’t covered in coils.

Katsuki opened his mouth to yell, probably call it something nasty, but all that came out was the last bit of air in his lungs.

“But where is your dragon?” murmured the monster.

The thing lifted its head to look around, as though Eijiro might magically appear from the bushes. But even as Katsuki wished it and cried out in his head, nothing appeared.

His head began to spin. His lungs burned for air.

The snake monster brought its eerily human head back down to sniff at Katsuki, far too close for comfort.

“Fire,” it hissed. “No. No, thisss won’t do. If you had been anything elssse I could let you live, but fire…”

“Stahp,” Katsuki tried. Black dots popped in front of his eyes.

Wonderful. First real day of the adventure and he was going to get killed off by a man-snake.

What little of Katsuki’s vision was left was filled with the snake thing’s face, drawing closer until all he could see were red eyes and a mouth filled with fangs.

In a last ditch attempt to live, fueled by a thrill of adrenaline and horror, Katsuki let his magic go.

Firecrackers went off. Heat rushed up his sides. An explosive hiss. The pressure lifted, oxygen rushing in--

Katsuki gasped for breath, even as he let off more magic, not caring that he was burning his clothes in the process.

The naga--as his suddenly lightning fast mind supplied--arched back from the pain, only to dive back down, teeth wide--

Katsuki flung a hand free and let loose just as its face hit.

An explosion rocked the forest. Birds erupted from their hiding places. Trees shivered.

The naga screamed, hands to its face.

Katsuki kept firing. Scales, arms, face, anything he could reach. His tunic and cape had been left in tatters, but at least his pants had escaped undamaged. He didn’t have to return to camp in humiliation with his junk swinging out.

For what could have been an eternity or just seconds, Katsuki saw red and heard nothing over the ringing of his ears. His hands quickly went numb as he unleashed more explosions than he ever had since they came in.

Then it was over and he was sitting on the headless corpse of a mother-effing mythical snake creature.

He took a moment to make sure its head wouldn’t grow back like a freaking hydra, because anything could happen at this rate. He thought dragons and wizards were enough, but oh no, this world had to blindside him with judgemental nagas. What was next, fairies?

Oh god, let him not have jinxed himself.

He did.

A bright pink sparkle-puff, about the size of his clenched fist and mostly wings, flew out of the bush.

“ You killed the guardian of the forest!” it shrieked in a voice that was probably used for an Alvin and the Chipmunks album.

“ Murderer! ” shrieked another--a blue sparkle-puff this time.

“ Killer of the forest! ” A purple one.

“Oh, f*ck,” Katsuki spat.

And started running. Like hell was he going to stick around to see what pissed off fairies could do to him.

Their shrieks followed him, like demon-chipmunks from hell.

“Killer!”

“Fire monster!”

“Trash! You’re trash!”

“Dragon bastard!”

“BAD BOY!”

“I was defending myself!” he screeched, blearily searching for his tree marks and jumping logs.

“ You should have stayed where you belonged! ”

“ Yeah! Fire dragons are in the northlands for a REASON! ”

“BAD BOY!”

Okay, that last one kept repeating itself. Katsuki sensed it was the brainless lackey of the lot. He was familiar with the mentality, having had a fair share of his own lackeys.

“Leave me the f*ck alone!” he roared.

A cacophony of helium-high “NO!”s answered back.

Eijiro and Izuku were already on their feet and crouched for a fight when Katsuki burst onto the scene.

At the same time, he felt an unmistakable nip on his bare shoulder.

Cussing, he skidded about and fired, only for the pink lightbulb to dodge.

“ Murderer!”

“ What the hell--” started Eijiro.

Izuku, the saint, didn’t stop to ask stupid questions. He launched himself into the fray of christmas lights, lighting up like a tropical storm.

The fairies screamed in the face of the sparks and shot off towards the branches, their voices for once too high for Katsuki to make out the words.

“Yeah, you better run!” he yelled.

He and Izuku stood their ground, staring into the canopy long enough to make sure the little bastards weren’t going to fly out, before Izuku turned to give Katsuki a pointed look.

“Kacchan,” and god damn it if the nerd wasn’t fighting a smile. “What happened to your clothes?”

He only got half-way through his story (which had been a terrifying experience no one should have to go through), when Eijiro had to bury his snout beneath his belly to muffle his mirth.

Katsuki whirled on him. “I NEARLY DIED!”

Izuku’s cheeks were spasming madly now. “Then the fairies came for you?”

“SHUT UP, NERD!”

All he’d wanted was some peaceful hunting. He wasn’t going to go overboard with it, just a buck, maybe a few rabbits, and head on his merry way, but nooooo. The forest ended up having to be freaking magical and have a vendetta against him over something he couldn’t even control. He hadn’t even used any of his damn explosions, what gave them the right to come after his ass like that?

He didn’t realize he had said all that out loud until a giggle finally escaped Izuku.

Izuku slapped both hands over his mouth.

The heat from his mad dash had yet to leave his face. If anything, it grew hotter. His chest got a sting he did not want to put a name to.

Izuku sobered up quick at the look on his face. “Kacchan.”

“No, by all means, keep laughing. If I’m such a fat joke to you, go find your dragon on your own, see if I care.” He hadn’t wanted to leave his dad anyway.

“ Bro, that’s not it .” Eijiro had pulled his face out from beneath him. “ Sorry, it’s just--it’s the situation we’re laughing at, not you. ”

But Katsuki was already walking to the farthest side of the clearing, his back to them. He was stopped from stomping off into the forest and into the growing evening by the sight of a pink light in the bushes.

Cussing up a storm, he sat his butt down and glared at it, daring it to move. Maybe he had a bottle somewhere he could stuff it in like that f*cking Zelda game or whatever. Show that little sh*t who was boss.

“Kacchan, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh--Kacchan, I’m glad you’re okay.”

“ I was just about to come looking for you, bro, I thought I heard you. Come on, don’t be like that. ”

But Katsuki ignored them, giving the coldest shoulder known to man. He didn’t care if it was pathetic or like a picky housewife.

Because his face wouldn’t stop burning.

Eventually, when night came and it got chilly for Katsuki who only had his boots and pants, he begrudgingly drew near to the fire and accepted the dried beef jerky stew that Izuku handed him. Both the nerd and the dragon didn’t say anything about his hours long pout glaring at a fairy, they just asked him where the naga body was (Eijiro was hungry and, well, best not to let food go to waste). Katsuki was more than happy to direct him to his knife marks on the trees. He prayed to whatever god watched over this world that there was a something nasty and a giant-ass mama fairy to chase after Eijiro. Would show him right.

Eijiro went off, surprisingly quiet for his size and shouldn’t have been able to squeeze through the trees as well as he did. Izuku and Katsuki finished their meal and spent a few minutes staring into the fire before Izuku got up to dig around their saddlebags, which he had untied off Eijiro before he went off. He came back with some saddle blankets, one of which he gently put over Katsuki’s shoulders. He also had Auntie Inko’s medicine kit.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

Katsuki considered ignoring him. But he did feel bruised and his wrists and hands hurt like sh*t from overusing his magic.

So, he begrudgingly held his arms out and let Izuku slather burn cream over his hands and wrists and bandage them up. While Izuku gently poked at his bruised ribs for any breaks, Katsuki remembered when little Izuku had led him into a stink hole in the rock to be reassured that Eijiro wouldn’t take his place as best friend.

“You were an asshole,” he said.

“Yeah,” said Izuku.

“...I guess it was kind of funny.”

“No, you’re right, it wasn’t, you were scared.”

“Like f*ck I was scared.”

“It’s okay to be scared.”

“Tch.”

“I’m sorry.”

“...Thanks.” He watched as Izuku dug out an ointment for bruising and lifted up his arms so he could slather that on too. “I can do this myself.”

“But would you?”

“...Probably not.”

Izuku hummed.

Katsuki looked off into the forest, where occasionally a blip of colored light broke the darkness, like a satellite across the night sky. He suddenly felt a little bad for hoping Eijiro ran into worse trouble than him.

“Eijiro’s still not my best friend,” he said, swallowing quickly in hopes of sucking the words back down. He hadn’t really meant to say them or knew why he did.

Izuku looked up at him with a confused pout, which then turned to a small smile.

“Thanks, Kacchan.”

“Don’t make it gay.”

“And there you go again. I’m sorry for ever accepting Lilly’s invitation to dance.”

“Who?”

“Lilly, the blond girl at the bonfire? The one who fit your type to a tee?”

“Oh, yeah. You sh*t.”

Izuku snorted. “Maybe the reason you never got a girlfriend was because you could never remember anyone’s names.”

“I’m bad with names, shoot me. I still beat your ass most days.”

“Sure.” Izuku clapped his bruised ribs, making Katsuki flinch and scowl. “Get some sleep. I’ll keep an eye out for Eijiro. The fairies seem to be afraid of me.”

And Katsuki wanted to curse Izuku for that, because they sure weren’t afraid of Katsuki.

As they went on to prove when he finally fell asleep after Eijiro returned with nightmares of his mom dying, over and over again. He knew it was them, because he would wake up every time to find one of the f*cking Christmas lights fluttering over his head and cackling.

And Izuku got up every time to scare them away.

Chapter 16

Chapter Text

They left early in the morning after having a surprisingly delicious meal of campfire seared naga steaks. The beauty of the forest was still there, but none of them wanted to stick around to see what other Disneyland sh*t came out of the trees.

Both Izuku and Katsuki commiserate over their poor sleep by looking at the other’s eye bags and sighing. When Izuku inevitably conked out against Katsuki’s back while they were flying, he didn’t make any ‘no hom*o’ comments. He did, however, feel jealous of the nerd because he didn’t have anything to lean on to nap. Not unless he wanted Izuku sleeping on his butt or some other outlandish thing. Not to mention there was a saddle horn in the front that prevented him from just hanging of Eijiro’s neck like a dead monkey on a branch.

Eijiro was not a full grown dragon who’d been flying for a decade or so. Thus, he started complaining around noon for a break, but the forest was still going strong beneath them, like some sort of murderous green carpet. Eijiro was able to spot a river of sorts, though, and suggested they touch down there.

“And, what, get screwed over by mermaids?” Katsuki shouted over the wind. He wasn’t keen on dropping down at all until every damn tree was gone.

“Mermaids are more of an ocean thing, aren’t they? We should be more worried about kappas.”

“That isn’t helping, nerd.”

“ We’ll do fine, I’m a dragon! It’s either go down now while my wings still have the strength or drop out of the sky like a rock.”

So Katsuki didn’t really get a choice in the matter. He grumbled a bit about Katsuki being a weak sh*t, but knew, it his black hole of a heart, that it was really him who was being a coward.

The river just had to be asscrack beautiful like the rest of the forest. Asscrack as in a very pretty crack with glitter and flowers and effing perfume. The crystal clear water burbled over many colored stones and teased dropping grass stalks into dropping lower. The trees leaned across only enough to leave the sun coming through in diamonds and pillars.

They found a grassy bank between the knees of a great oak to chew their lunch.

“Almost makes you want to go swimming in it,” said Izuku around a mouthful of jerky.

“That’s exactly what it wants you to do,” Katsuki grumbled. “Walk in, slip, and don’t get back up. Probably f*cking fairies of the stream somewhere.”

“You know, logically, not everything in this forest is going to be bad. Everywhere has good and bad.”

“And some of that bad makes the good not even worth it.”

Izuku shrugged, probably to drowsy and wind-chilled to argue.

Katsuki certainly was. He inhaled his food, then found his head drooping off his shoulders as he waited for Eijiro to announce he was properly rested.

At some point, Eijiro leaned his big head over the stream, sniffed it, then took a careful sip.

“ Oh my gosh, this water is good! ”

“If you get cursed…” Katsuki mumbled.

But Eijiro ignored him, lapping it up like a happy dog.

Next thing he knew, Izuku was shaking him awake.

“Time to go,” he said. “You want to ride in back this time?”

It was a testament to just how tired he was that he didn’t refuse. He wasn’t upright in the saddle for long. The moment Eijiro stopped his upward climb and evened out, he was out against Izuku’s back.

He woke up again sometime in the afternoon, body aching from sleeping upright and extremities chilled. The sun sat low in the sky.

“ We got a problem,” came Eijiro’s voice.

“Then blow it up,” Katsuki mumbled, only managing to get a few of the words through telepathically.

“ Kind of hard to blow up an entire swamp. ”

Katsuki leaned around Izuku just enough to get a look at the land beneath them. There were still trees, all right, but something about them had changed. They weren’t as tight together, and through the blanks came the reflected glimmer of sunlight. Water. As they flew far enough to not get sun reflected back at them, the water turned a gray brown.

“Wasn’t this on the map?” he asked over Izuku’s shoulder.

“Well, yeah, but I don’t know how fast Eijiro can cover distances. I thought we might be still over the forest by now.”

“If he’s going faster than you expected we’ll just have to get over this by sundown.”

“ Yeah, about that…” There was a reedy sort of tone to Eijiro’s voice in his head.

“What?”

Eijrio gave a long, needy keen.

“His wings are about to give out,” said Izuku.

Katsuki cursed under his breath.

“Maybe we could sleep in a tree or something,” said Izuku. “If we can’t find any dry ground.”

“ I can’t fit in a tree!” cried Eijrio.

“Tough sh*t, lizard, what do you expect us to do?”

“ I don’t wanna be a dragon anymooooore.”

“Did you ever want to be one?” asked Izuku.

“ Maybe for a little bit at first--ow ow ow! OKay, I’m sorry, I have to go down now, my wings are locking up and--owie!”

“Just go! Stop whining!” barked Katsuki.

Which was how the trio found themselves in a mosquito infested, rotten smelling swamp. Katsuki and Izuku were quick to clamber on to some branches that so fortunately were level with Eijiro’s back. Eijrio, on the other hand, was knee and belly deep in water, which quickly turned to mud.

“ Eww eww eww, this feels so nasty!”

“Stop being a girl,” said Katsuki.

The dragon puffed up. “ How about you try it out and tell me it isn’t gross? ”

“Because flying with wet clothes will give us hypothermia? Or did you forget since you’re always butt naked?”

Izuku giggled, because the nerd hadn’t grown up out of naked and bathroom jokes.

Even so, Eijiro kept making sad, whiney noises as Izuku and Katsuki climbed near the trunk of the tree, where a sort of bowl was made where the top of the trunk split off into branches. It wasn’t all that bad of a camping spot, all things considered, especially since the tree was green and soggy enough to not burn when they set up a camp fire to stave off the encroaching evening chill. Good thing Izuku thought to pack some dry wood, though it would only last them for a few hours.

The swamp came alive as the darkness deepened. Crickets started up a symphony as various animals sung and croaked to one another. Fireflies lifted off to drift across the canopy of drooping willows.

Eijrio managed to wheeled his big head into the bowl, looking utterly miserable.

“ I’m so cold, ” he whimpered. “ I’m wet. It’s gross. What if there are crocodiles in here? ”

“Then you eat them,” said Katsuki around a mouthful of dried dates.

“Maybe we should try flying to dry land now,” said Izuku with a frown. “It can’t be good for a fire dragon to spend the night in water.”

As though to verify this, Eijiro gave a great shiver.

Katsuki narrowed his eyes at him, searching the red, scaly face. Eijiro’s teeth hadn’t started clacking yet.

“Even if we do, how will we see anything in the dark?” He slapped his arm, killing another mosquito. Even if he had managed to pull out another tunic from the bags, the vampires still went for his hands and face. Izuku already had some telling welts he was scratching on his neck.

When Izuku didn’t answer, Katsuki sighed.

“Why’d you have to be so high maintenance?” he asked the dragon.

“ Hey! It’s nothing I can control!”

“Try finding a bigger tree. Maybe you can climb in, even if you have to break some branches or stuff, maybe it will make, like, some sort of raft.”

Eijrio gave him the dragon’s version of a disbelieving look, but then he shrugged his huge shoulders and said, “ Couldn’t be any worse than this,” and withdrew his big head.

Izuku frowned. “What if we piss off another forest guardian or something?”

“Then we deal with it then.” Katsuki was tired. Napping on a flying dragon did not a restful sleep make.

Both boys flinched when the sharp crack of snapping wood broke over the night time noise of the swamp. A great flume of fireflies rocketed into the sky like a cloud and several birds gave offended shrieks.

“Mosquitos aside,” said Izuku as he slapped at the back of his neck. “You got to admit, this place is a bit beautiful.”

“Like I said earlier,” Katsuki slapped at his arms. Suckers were going through cloth now. “The good doesn’t always make up for the bad. We’re going to f*cking die of malaria at this point.”

Izuku chuckled, but it was high and nervous.

They slept head deep in both their blankets and hides that night, desperate to have some layer of protection from the mosquitos. But whenever they’d peep their heads out to get a fresh breath of air, either awake or asleep, they’d be waiting to gnaw on their faces.

By morning, both Izuku and Katsuki looked like the victims of a violent allergic reaction, covered in red, swollen hives that crawled up their sleeves and shoulders and hardly able to function past scratching.

Eijrio sloshed over from his wreck of a tree-bed not looking much happier. His soft eyelids were swollen and his nostrils were crusted with specks of blood.

“Mosquitoes got you too?” asked Izuku with deep sympathy.

Eijiro just whined.

“f*ck adventure,” Katasuki muttered with sour venom.

“Yeah,” said Izuku, clawing under his chin. “I wanna go home.”

“Oh yeah?”

“ If we go back now, all this pain will be wasted, ” said Eijrio, sounding as though he were trying to convince himself.

“Whatever, let’s just blow this joint.”

They tied up their bedding and supplies on the saddle and got themselves situated on Eijrio’s back themselves. But just as Eijiro lifted his wings, he let out a bark-like cry and dropped them.

“ Ow! Ow! Owie! Oh sh*t.”

“You going to live?” asked Katsuki, every part of him tightening in alarm despite himself.

“ My wings--ow--I think I pushed them too hard yesterday. And then the cold--ow, every part of me hurts.” And just to add insult to injury, Eijiro’s claws came out to scratch at his poor swollen eyes.

“Maybe try some stretches?” said Izuku hopefully.

And Eijiro tried, only for his wings to seize up and drop the moment he tried spreading them out fully.

“Well, sh*t,” breathed Katsuki.

Eijiro whimpered and dropped his face in the water in shame.

“ So unmanly… ” came his burbly voice in their heads.

“You know, all you had to do was coat yourself in some mud.”

They all jumped, including Eijrio, which sent a great sloshy wave up the sides of the nearby trees.

That last voice had come from the trees, high and feminine.

Izuku and Katsuki rushed to draw their swords from their saddle bags.

“ Wait, that voice,” muttered Eijiro.

“No need to get alarmed,” said the voice again, the whispery sound of scales on branches before a ‘thump’ of something semi-gently dropping into the water. “I’m not going to hurt you, though I probably should for what you did to this poor tree.”

“ Mina?” croaked Eijiro.

Through a curtain of willow branches, long pink and gray body floating atop the water as they swam, came the familiar pink skinned and hair torso of Mina Ashido.

Her black sclera eyes blinked, then she co*cked her head to the side.

“Do I know you?” she asked.

Rather than be reincarnated as a human or dragon, Mina had been reborn as a pink and gray speckled naga.

Katsuki suddenly felt nauseous.

Eijiro must have felt so as well, as all the muscles beneath them clenched.

“sh*t,” said Izuku.

Did it count as cannibalism that they’d enjoyed naga steaks just the day before?

For the first time, Katsuki and Izuku witnessed a dragon vomit.

Chapter 17

Chapter Text

Mina was not impressed that their first reaction on seeing her was to throw up. Even after Eijiro unwisely explained about them killing a naga in self-defense and eating it, she just rolled her eyes.

“That’s what you’re supposed to do, silly, it’s wrong to waste meat,” she said. “Though when a naga dies it’s usually the family and friends which eat their body. You’re probably talking about Shun Shun. He was such a stickler, didn’t have many friends. Pretty sure his own mother died from his nagging. Don’t dragons eat their dead too?”

“ No! ” wheezed Eijiro, though he didn’t sound so certain. He’d probably never been around for a dragon funeral before he left to follow Katsuki.

“That’s some messed up sh*t,” said Katsuki, probably none too wisely. Mina wasn’t exactly their friend yet.

As was shone on her face when her eyes flashed, she sniffed, and curled her fists on her hips.

“You know I could still kill you guys for tresspassing in my swamp and killing a three-hundred-year old tree.”

All three boys froze, as though her gaze had turned them to stone.

“Well?” she demanded.

“Sorry,” mumbled Katsuki.

Izuku elbowed him hard.

“Sorry for calling your funerals messed up.”

“ And I’m sorry for killing your tree,” said Eijiro with many much droopy dragon head.

Mina actually smiled at him. “Oh, I’m not mad at you, sweetie, you would have died if they left you in the water all night. It’s really your tamers fault for dragging you out here.”

“Hey!”

“But he’s probably never had to deal with water bigger than a puddle since you’re obviously from the north. Everyone knows only fire dragons and loser humans live up there--”

“I’LL SHOW YOU LOSER HUMAN--urk!”

Izuku had shoved Katsuki’s face into tree they still sat in, bending his friend uncomfortably in half like a piece of paper. Katsuki could hear his squinty eye grin towards MIna.

“You’re totally right there, Mina, and we’re so grateful for your understanding. Is there any chance you might know where the storm dragons are? Since you know where fire dragons were and such.”

“Get off me, nerd!”

“Well…” Katsuki threw off Deku in time to see Mina put a pink, black-taloned finger to her equally pink chin. “I think we just know about our neighbors. Naga aren’t much for traveling outside their territories, though I could always ask the elders for you. Some of them can talk to the trees.”

“Like trees move much either--OW!”

“Shut up, Katsuki,” hissed Izuku between his teeth.

“ So you’re not going to travel with us? ” said Eijiro, complete with a short whine.

Everyone gave him funny looks.

“Why’d you think I was going to travel with you?” asked Mina, looking utterly confused.

“Yeah, where’d you get that idea?” asked Katsuki, who didn’t appreciate not even being consulted on this.

“It’s not like you could carry her too,” said Izuku, eyeing Mina’s none-too-small massive snake body.

“Oh, no, I can fly,” she said dismissively.

“EH?!” went the other three.

With a cheeky smile that made Katsuki ache for the days she’d flash it before showing off, two draconic gray wings sprung from her back with speckled pink membrane.

“Naga are low-level shapeshifters,” she said.

“ So cool! ” cried Eijiro, who sounded like all his dream had come true, and maybe they had.

“There’s no way those puny wings could lift your big snake ass,” said Katsuki.

“Oh my god, can you just shut up?” asked Izuku. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just chronicly rude.”

“I picked up on that,” she said with a frown, before grinning again and squeezing her black eyes shut.

There came a sound of lots of shifting water, kind of like a big slurrp, and before their eyes her long, python body began to suck into her torso. It was actually kind of nauseating to Katsuki.

In about a minute or two, Mina was standing in the tree with them on two pink human legs…and butt naked, outside of the feather and scale half-top she had over her breasts.

She held out her arms and grinned, breathing heavily. “Ta dah!”

Izuku and Eijiro squealed and covered their eyes. Katsuki just stared, having shorted out.

“What?” she looked down at herself. “Oh…yeah, that’s usually covered by scales. But it’s not like you haven’t seen a naked girl before, yeah?”

Katsuki made something like a squawk in his throat.

Izuku scrambled about himself blindly, finely managing to find and unlatch his own green cloak around his shoulders.

“Here! Wear this. I’m sorry, but humans, uh, we don’t look at the other gender when they’re naked.”

“Huh, that’s weird.” She took the cloak though. “How do you guys mate then? Do you just do it in the dark?”

“We, uh, we’re naked then, but only then. It’s, uh, kind of special.”

Katsuki just made another throaty squawk.

“Then what’s up with your dragon? Isn’t he naked too?”

Eijiro flinched, but didn’t lift his head.

“He’s, uh,” Izuku put a hand before his turned, strawberry-red face. “He’s weird.”

“Ha ha, totally. I mean, I’ve only met a few dragons, but damn!”

“ Not cool, dude,” Eijiro muttered to him.

Mina giggled, which somehow was the key to break Katsuki’s brain back into functioning and he ducked his head into his lap like a child, neck and ears lava-hot with embarrassment.

He hadn’t seen anything--well, okay, he had, but his brain had been so shocked it hadn’t processed it.

“You know what? Traveling with you actually sounds pretty fun.”

Eijiro snapped his head back up. “ REALLY?! ”

Fortunately, Mina had wrapped the cloak about her securely by then, but Eijiro still radiated sheepishness when she giggled again.

“I mean, I don’t know why you’d want me to come, but seeing new places actually sounds fun. Of course, I got to check you over with the elders magic, just in case you really are just your average asshole humans trying to traffic naga or whatever.”

“People actually do that?” asked Izuku.

“ Humans actually do that,” she said, suddenly serious. “No offense, but humans can do the suckiest things no other people would.”

“Except fairies,” muttered Katsuki.

“Fairies are mischievous, yes, but not downright evil.”

“Pfft,” but Katsuki didn’t continue with that.

And since they all knew Eijiro would abandon them, hook line and sinker, if Mina didn’t go with them, Katsuki and Izuku ended up riding Eijiro as he waded through the swamp after Mina’s once more snake-like form. She told them she could only transform three times a day, but she had wanted to be sure she could protect them from any other naga that might be hanging around. Of course, they’d also applied liberal amounts of mud on themselves beforehand too. Sure enough, no mosquitos so much as looked at them. Both boys and dragon would have given anything to have known this the night before.

The elder she ended up dragging them in front of lived in a tree house that looked as though it had grown out of the very branches, moss, and vines itself and was definitely not big enough for a dragon, so Eijiro had to peer through a hole in the viney walls that passed for a window.

The elder naga’s scales and hair had grayed with age and he was a deep, dusty marroon color, even his skin, like Mina. He also had black for the whites of his eyes and bright yellow irises like Mina.

“This is my grandpappy!” she crowed.

‘Grandpappy’ grunted, his frown deep enough to cut his face in two. He looked at Izuku and Katsuki as though they were fresh, steaming dog turds that had been dragged onto his freshly mopped kitchen floor.

“Do I want to know?” he asked.

“Oh hush, Pappy, they’ve already been eaten alive by the swamp. They didn’t have any choice but to land here, their dragon was about to pass out! They were just passing over.”

“Uh huh,” he said, then sniffed. “I smell naga blood.”

Mina finally looked uneasy. “Yeah, about that, remember Shun Shun?”

“Ugh.”

“Yeah, they dropped in to sleep and he tried to kill the tamer just because he had fire magic. Unprovoked, whole nine yards--”

“That’s what they say.”

“Oh my gosh, I can tell when people lie too, you know! What’s got your tail in a bunch?”

“My granddaughter just dragged two ugly humans into my house, what’s to be happy for? Oh, and a fire dragon--burn anything and I’m skinning you alive,” he shouted towards the eye in his window.

“ I wasn’t going to burn anything!” protested Eijrio.

“Whatever,” the old naga sighed. “What do you want?” He looked at Izuku and Katsuki in turn, folding his maroon arms in expectation.

Izuku swallowed, but Katsuki knew that look. Whatever came out of his mouth, if anything came at all, would be a stuttering mess.

So Katsuki squared his shoulders and met the old man’s eyes head on. “We’re looking for the storm dragons. He’s a tamer too.” He nudged his head towards Izuku.

The naga looked at Izuku, who gave a wobbly smile, then shrugged.

“Beats me. Anything else?”

“Pappy,” whined Mina. “Ask the trees?”

“Why the hell would they know? They can’t walk.”

Katsuki cackled, only to be elbowed again by Izuku. Damn, the nerd was worse than a naggy wife.

“But they gossip, don’t they? Maybe they heard something from other trees.”

“And why would trees be interested in dragons? It’s all ‘sun sun sun’ and ‘damn, there are too many birds in my hair to sleep.’”

Mina pouted. “Well, you’re useless.”

“Rude.” The old man mirrored her pout, and in that moment Katsuki was able to see how the two were related outside of their coloring.

“Sorry for bringing you guys all the way here, I should have just gone myself,” she turned and slithered into a doorway in the back of the room. “Where’s your old bag, Pappy? The one with the snake embroidery.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause I’m going with them, silly, and a girl needs the essentials.”

“Excuse me? Like hell you are, what about the swamp?”

“It’s got you, doesn’t it?”

“I’m old!”

“Oh, hush, you don’t look a day over eighty.”

“What am I going to tell your parents?”

“Why do they got to know anything? I’m a big girl, I can do what I want.”

He huffed and finally turned away from the human turds to slide his torso back wherever Mina was digging around. “Girl, you’re being stupid, you don’t even know if you can trust these…” he glanced over his shoulder, wrinkled his nose, then slid into the back room completely where their conversation dropped to murmurs.

“Well, this is going great,” said Izuku.

“This is all your fault,” Katsuki said to the eye in the window.

“ Yeah, it kinda is,” said Eijiro, not sounding sorry at all.

“We could always come back to visit,” said Izuku, whose voice went up a little when he spotted some bones that looked just the right size for human femurs dangling in the corner not far from their heads.

“ What if we never come back?”

“Like hell we’re staying out there! What, you think we’ll die?”

“ Well… ”

“Don’t finish that sentence, I don’t care what you think. We’ll give her a few more minutes and then we’re out of here. I never want to see a f*cking swamp again.”

Izuku said nothing, which meant he agreed. He’d already scratched through half his mud cover.

Mina did come back, however, flashing her fangy, pearly whites and with a disgruntled grandfather watching from above his endless coils. She had a leather satchel decorated with dark green thread snakes along the hems over her shoulder and she’d once more reverted back to legs. This time, however, she wore worn leather pants, also with thread embroidery, that looked a few sizes too big but tied tightly about her hips.

“Alright, boys, let’s do this.”

“Just to make it clear, you’re not the boss of this caravan,” said Katsuki.

She snorted. “What, and you are?”

“Yes.”

Izuku rolled his eyes. “Sure, Kaachan.”

“Watch your tone, nerd!”

“I’m already regretting this,” said the old naga.

Chapter 18

Chapter Text

Katsuki was regretting it too.

Mina was just as chatty in this life as she was in the past. Thing was, there was a reason dragons could speak telepathically, and that’s because, while flying in the air, one couldn’t make themselves heard unless they shouted at the top of their lungs, and that couldn’t be called a conversation. But Mina, hooo, she didn’t take roaring wind as a no.

And f*cking Eijiro just had to be so enamored by her to keep talking back. And Katsuki couldn’t even plug his ears against dragon tele-talk. It made him desperately wish he could fly away himself so he could leave the two to their own devices because if there was anything more painful than trying not to listen to a shouted conversation for hours on end, it was Eijiro’s painful attempts to flirt with someone not of his same species.

He took comfort when they landed and he spotted worn edges to Izuku’s smile and a twitch to his eyes.

“Why don’t you and Mina go find something for us to eat and some firewood?” he’d said the moment the saddle-bags were untied from the dragon’s back.

Eijiro lit up, dropping his jaw in a dog-like grin as though Izuku had just made the move of the best wing-man.

“Oh, you ain’t seen no hunter yet till you’ve seen me,” Mina said. “It is on!”

Then the two had vanished into the thinning woods and hills, leaving Katsuki and Izuku blessedly alone.

They looked at each other. Then gave long sighs in unison.

“Pray to god your dragon isn’t someone else from our old life,” said Katsuki.

“Unless it’s Shou-chan,” Izuku melted face first into the grass. “He doesn’t talk much.”

Katsuki figured Izuku was onto something and went face first into the grass too. It was blessed relief on his poor, saddle-beaten behind.

“If he’s a dragon, he’s probably some messed-up half-breed of a fire and ice dragon.”

“Eijiro had nothing to do with fire.”

“Yeah, but Half-and-Half had issues. Ones that he’d probably tug around past the grave.”

“Maybe not a dragon at all, then.”

“Stop talking. My ears and head are ringing.”

Izuku happily obligued and they spent a lovely time smelling grass and letting the sound pollution drain out of their brains.

By the time Eijiro and Mina returned with a maw full of dead wood and trailing a rather impressive elk behind them, Katsuki felt a bit more willing to not start punching heads.

Eijiro dropped how mouthful of wood. “ Get this, dudes! Fully grown dragons can transform into a human shape! ”

“Of course they can,” Katsuki said into the dirt. Just because his self-control had recovered didn’t mean his ass had.

“That’s cool, Eijiro,” said Izuku, ever the philanthropist.

“Yeah, but Eiji here is still a baby,” said Mini with a fangy smirk and a patronizing pat on Eijiro’s side.

“ Don’t be like that! I’ll be a man yet!”

Mina snorted. “Why’d you want to be man-shaped? Legs are gross, all twitchy and crawly, like bugs.” She shuddered.

Eijiro visibly wilted.

Yeah, Katsuki wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot pole. The traitorous lizard could comfort himself, or better yet, Izuku could do the job.

“Can they transform into anything else?” Izuku asked. “Wait, why didn’t you already know this? You’re the dragon, didn’t, like, your mom tell you?”

“The dragons probably thought it was creepy to be human-shaped too,” said Katsuki.

Eijiro gave him a doe-eyed look of betrayal.

“Well, it’s kind of a myth,” said Mina. She elongated her claws and hunched down at the belly of the deer. “Dragons haven’t had to dwell among humans in centuries, and it’s not exactly convenient to be human-shaped, believe me.”

“Oi! Don’t go gutting that right where we’re sleeping!”

Mina rolled her eyes, but obeyed, dragging away the elk twice her size like it was made of paper.

“Maybe dragons have evolved out of being able to transform entirely,” said Izuku quietly, but not quietly enough.

“ Aw man, why not just stab me while you’re at it? You guys are the worst! ”

“You’re the one who couldn’t f*cking make a move for over a decade,” said Katsuki, already deep at work throwing the logs together for the fire. It was already twilight and cooking meat properly took a stupidly long time and Katsuki was tired.

Izuku pulled in logs with him, many years of practice making him set up logs in just the right shape that Katsuki was aiming for without having to say a word.

“ I was busy trying to save the world. ”

“YOU were busy?” Katsuki snorted. “Izuku, kick him. He took your excuse.”

“Nah, my legs still hurt. I don’t think dragons were meant to be ridden.”

Katsuki cackled. “Here that? Dragons weren’t meant to be ridden! ”

Eijiro gave Katsuki a very unamused look.

“You guys talk about the weirdest things,” said Mina loudly from where she was elbow-deep in deer guts. How her voice wasn’t sore after a day of shouting Katsuki might never know.

Thankfully, having a fire dragon sped up cooking, so they were able to stuff meat down their gullet within a reasonable enough time. Katsuki half expected Eijiro and Mina to keep chattering past bedtime like a couple of bratty kids, but flying all day must have done it because they passed out just as soon as he did. Not even his recovering mosquito bites were able to keep him conscious.

He woke up hurting and missing his old fur cot like a mother…he may have missed his mother too--but like hell would he ever say that!

“I miss my mom’s ash cakes,” said Izuku over a sad bit of cold, fire-grilled elk.

Katsuki nearly hit him for encouraging the whammy-mammy-mom-talk.

“ I miss my mom’s everything ,” said Eijiro, who looked like he was feeling pretty sore too.

Katsuki groaned.

“I thought dragons itch from a young age to get away from their mom’s,” said Mina who actually looked pretty chipper, blast her.

“ I wasn’t always a dragon! ” Eijiro actually snapped. Perhaps the riding joke had been taking it too far. “ I was human in my previous life! ”

Katsuki and Izuku’s heads snapped to Mina for her response.

She blinked. Then chuckled.

“Silly dragon, you’ve been around humans too long. You only get one life, everyone knows that. But, hey,” she shrugged. “That’s why I wanted to travel with you dorks in the first place. Get exposed to different perspectives and beliefs and all that. Oh, and weird food, though I don’t know when that’s gonna start.” She gestured with her chunk of cold venison.

“ But it’s true! ” Eijiro cried. “ They had previous lives too--we even all knew each other! ”

“Pfft ha hah--sorry, um, that just came out. Um, that’s really cool, Eiji. What was this previous life like?”

“...”

Katsuki did not blame Eijiro at all when he quietly turned his back towards Mina and pointedly curled his long neck away from her.

“Hey! I didn’t mean to--aw jee, I’m sorry! The other dragons I met just weren’t this sensi--no, wait, probably shouldn’t say that. Oh, how about I catch you another deer? Being away from a heat source has made you extra hungry, hasn’t it?”

“Don’t think a deer’s gonna pull your foot out of your mouth,” said Katsuki.

Izuku had trotted around to Eijiro’s head and was stroking his horn and muttering stuff Katsuki couldn’t quite hear, but which was probably comforting.

Mina bit her lip. She looked down at her cold meat.

“Yeah…I wasn’t a favorite with the naga either.”

Katsuki considered her sad form as he chewed his latest deer bite. Freaking night-old meat was tough. Took about a million chews just so it wouldn’t choke you to death.

“Guess we know the real reason you wanted to come along then,” he said once he’d managed to swallow.

She pinched her shoulders to her ears. If she’d had her old horns from her previous life, they’d probably be drooping too.

“I’m sorry,” she said, quietly.

He shrugged. “Hey, I ain’t hurt. Not much you could do to offend me.”

“That’s a lie.”

“Say that louder, Deku, I dare you.”

“Nah, that might offend you.”

Katsuki stared at Izuku still petting the damn dragon horn until the nerd looked up and met his eye.

Izuku bolted just as Katsuki launched himself at him.

Good for Katsuki he still had a good few inches over Izuku, and it was all in the legs, so he got that sucker down in record time. He’d even managed to mash his face into the ground before Izuku bucked him off and went for his throat.

“Shou--shouldn’t we, uh, stop them?” Mina squeaked.

“ It’s fine. It’s how they bond ,” said Eijiro.

“Humans…do that?”

“ These ones do .”

“Huh…guess we’re all freaks for our species then.”

Katsuki managed to flip Izuku back under him and had a knee to his back.

“Oi! The only freaky part of me is how amazing I am--shut up, Deku!”

Izuku had started guffawing into the grass, not even trying to keep up the wrestling match anymore.

“Oh my god, he said that with a straight face,” said Mina.

Eijiro just sighed.

Chapter 19

Chapter Text

The first city/village they came to was an exercise in medieval experience. They’d had the stone age experiment over the past fourteen years, but now they got to see all the wagons, the veggie booths, the ‘hear ye hear ye,’ the stocks, the knights, the creepy crones hanging out in corners to eye them suspiciously. Even if they had been stupid enough to bring Eijiro in with them, the narrow streets didn’t have room enough to allow him.

Izuku yanked Bakugou out of the way just as someone tossed out what was unmistakable a chamberpot of pee.

“What the hell! More civilized my ass!” he’d roared.

Izuku clamped a hand around his mouth, gave those staring an awkward chuckle, and hauled him along.

Katsuki managed to claw off his friend’s hand a few blocks later.

“I change my mind! We’re sleeping outside tonight. God damn, the street’s getting on my cloak.” And now he knew that the mud wasn’t all made from rain. Disgusting.

“Yeah, this makes me wonder why I was so excited,” said Mina, who wore Izuku’s cloak so she could keep the hood over her head. It didn’t completely hide her unusual pinkness, but it did make it less noticeable. They’d tried to leave her behind with Eijiro but she’d pitched a fit about them not being able to tell her what to do and that seeing human villages was part of the whole reason she was traveling with them.

“But we need more provisions--” started Izuku.

“Like hell, I’ll set a few traps--”

“I hunt great--”

“We need vegetables!” barked Izuku. “And fruit! Fiber! I haven’t defecated in a week because of you!”

Katsuki blinked. “TMI.”

Mina giggled.

Sure they could have foraged for wild vegetables and fruit. But since Izuku and Katsuki only knew the wasteland flora, they couldn’t tell which was edible in the forest and which wasn’t. Mina was carnivorous so she had never bothered to learn about which plants were edible and which weren’t.

Thus, in the village, they moseyed past the stalls for fruit and vegetables with the few sad coins Mina had happened to bring along with her, scavenged from poor humans who hadn’t been so interesting when they’d wandered into naga territory.

“These apples look like sh*t.”

“They aren’t cross-bred for centuries and perfected by modern industrial agriculture and then specifically selected by grocery stores for appearance.”

“Oh my god, nerd down,” said Katsuki.

“Big words,” said Mina, with a hint of awe.

The stall keeper, a middle-aged balding man with too much hair on his forearms, was squinting at Mina.

Mina met his eye and smiled.

“Hi!”

He blinked once. Twice.

Then started screaming.

“sh*t,” said Katsuki, moving to grab the back of her neck--

Just as Izuku punched the stall keeper. Square in the nose.

He flew back, hit his head on the side of the building behind him, then slid down, out cold.

The three of them stared for an entire second, not breathing.

“Zuku…what the hell.”

“Reflex?” Izuku said, looking just as shocked by his actions as the others.

“Um, guys, the other peoples are staring.”

Because not being noticed by the passersby was too much to ask for. Though, strangely enough, they didn’t make a move. In fact, they just stood there, wide-eyed like deer caught by the eye of a predator. When Katsuki moved to look at one, they’d shift their eyes away, not meeting his gaze. One lady stuffed her child behind her, but didn’t otherwise move.

Izuku cleared his throat.

“I, uh, we mean you no harm,” he said weakly.

And then, it clicked.

“Put your f*cking hands down,” he hissed in Izuku’s ear. “Look at them.”

“What the heck am I supposed to be seeing?”

“Think about what they’re seeing.”

Izuku scowled and squinted.

Katsuki saw it the moment Izuku got it.

“Oh,” he said quietly.

Everyone nearby wore ragged, earthy colored clothes and were at least a head shorter than Izuku and Katsuki, even the tallest man. The baggy clothes couldn’t hide the skinny wrists or knobby knees, and while their faces weren’t hollow and they didn’t look starved, it was clear these people hadn’t lived the kind of life that would build serious muscle and bone like Katsuki and Izuku had.

These people weren’t being weird. They were being smart.

It probably helped that Katsuki was still shirtless from burning up his tunic in the fight with the fairy-friended naga. Nothing to distract from his gazillion ab muscles.

Katsuki smirked. The onlookers flinched.

“Go back to Eijiro, Pinky,” he turned back to the apple stall. “Don’t make me say it twice.”

She pouted. “Lame.” But she didn’t protest further and stomped off.

Meanwhile, Katsuki snagged a burlap sack from a pile next to the unconscious stall keeper and started picking out apples.

“Kaachan,” Izuku hissed. “You can’t--that’s stealing!”

“You better start figuring out a payment then, eh?”

Having more clothes than Katsuki had come with the added bonus of having more pockets, so Izuku had been labeled the great money bearer.

Izuku still jutted out his jaw in disapproval as he counted out some copper coins, went around the stall, and tucked them into the poor man’s pockets.

The man groaned.

“Yep, well, that’s what you get for screaming in people’s faces randomly,” said Katsuki. He stuffed the bag of apples in Izuku’s chest the moment he’d come back around. “Fiber. sh*t away.”

“Sure, Kacchan, I’ll just squat right here,” he rolled his eyes. “You’re so crude.”

“You’re the one declaring your pooping status. Now let’s find some carrots. And onions. I f*cking love onions.”

People parted before them like co*ckroaches in the morning light.

Katsuki shamelessly preened in it. Parting crowds by the mere vision of his chiseled form. It was…sublime.

He didn’t have to look to know Izuku was rolling his eyes, but he didn’t see Izuku slouching to try and hide his bulging biceps either.

“You’d think, living where things actually grow, they’d be better off than us,” said Izuku out the side of his mouth. “You don’t think something’s…up, do you?”

“Big government’s usually sh*t.”

“Or, like, a famine or something.”

“They ain’t starving, they’re just dinky. Nutrition and childhood development and that sh*t.”

“And I’d wager they don’t have the, well, warrior culture that we have.”

“If they're too lazy to throw their sh*t somewhere other than where people are walking I doubt they have the gonads to train. You don’t think these apples will give us the plague or something, do you?”

“Why do you think I haven’t eaten one yet? I got some soap back at camp I was planning to wash them with.”

“Will soap be enough?”

“Well, maybe catching a bug or too will help us. You know the arrival of Columbus and the Spaniards ended up wiping out the natives of the ‘New World’ through new human germs alone, right?”

Katsuki gave Izuku a look.

“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that,” said Izuku with an uneasy grin at a passing couple of girls--who scuttled to the otherside of the street at the sight of them. “But we can’t avoid people forever.”

“...other towns better damn well be cleaner than this pigsty.”

It really was an insult that their tribe was called savages when these people walked around in human muck and only grew to chin height.

They’d bought their onions and just found a gem of a stall that sold carrots the size of their faces when the ominous sound of clanking metal came around the bend. Three knights, dressed head to toe in plated armor, rode through the dirty streets on heavy-footed horses. Katsuki kept his eyes to the carrots, hoping they’d just pass by, fully expecting them to pass by, because two fur-caped randos buying carrots wasn’t anything to send the calvary for, when he heard the horses trot to a stop behind them.

“You, barbarians from the northern lands,” said a much to self-important voice. “State your purpose.”

“Carrots,” Katsuki waved one over his shoulder. He was certain the moment he turned around and actually saw them he’d see red. He hadn’t had enough time to get over his aversion to tin cans on horses.

“Y-yeah, you seen the size of these?” Izuku did his awkward chuckle.

“Turn around.”

“Uh, yes sir. Kacchan.”

Katsuki sighed big and long, put the carrot back, glanced at the cowering old lady at the stall, then slowly turned.

…Yep. He hated them as much as he thought he would.

“What?” he growled.

When the lone man without a helmet just stared at him (he was a fugly normie with greasy brown hair and a lame-ass mustache), the knights beside him started glancing at him. Izuku started fidgeting nervously.

Katsuki arched an eyebrow. “What? Never seen a man’s chest before?”

“Not one half naked in public, no,” said Mustachey, who then cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I have to ask you to come with us to visit our lord.”

Katsuki sneered. “What? Being shirtless a crime?”

“No. But we very well know your tribe's bloodthirsty tendencies and it would be unwise of us to just ignore your presence.”

“We’re just buying veggies,” said Izuku weakly.

“It’s up to our lord to decide what to do with you, not mine. Come along peacefully and we can make this quick.”

Katsuki exchanged a glance with Izuku, but, in the end, picking a fight would take more effort and it wasn’t like they were in a HUGE rush. The men offered them a rid on the backs of their horses, and Izuku and Katsuki only agreed because they were huge horses bred to be able to carry a knight in full armor on their back. They refused to hug another man, though, and watched the world pass by on their hind quarters.

“Getting in all that armor must be a pain,” said Izuku. “Is there a special occasion?”

“We always have some of the knights dressed in their armor for both practice and just in case,” said the man Izuku rode with from within the depths of their helmet. “And yes, they do take some time, but with help it goes by quite quickly.”

“We don’t have lots of iron where we are from, so all our armor is made from hardened hide or leather,” Izuku continued.

“Just go ahead and tell them all our secrets, why don’t ya?” growled Katsuki.

“It’s alright, we already knew that,” said the greasy mustachio normie guiding them.

“Speak for yourself, sir, my grandpa always told me the northern barbarians hardened their own skin to armor by drinking powdered dragon scales and letting themselves be beaten by the elements.”

Katsuki guffawed while Izuku grinned sheepishly.

“Dumbass. I’m the strongest warrior in my tribe, my skin look any different to you?”

“Well--”

“Strongest?” Izuku pouted. “I beat you half the time. If anything we share that title.”

“No one would think it with your dorky baby face.

“I don’t beat people with my face.”

“Oh! But I’d love to see it.”

“Are you two brothers?” asked the knight behind Katsuki.

“Nah.” Katsuki suddenly wondered why his parents never had any other kids. Maybe he was more than they could handle. It wasn’t like his tribe excelled in effective birth control, though he’d heard of the occasional miscarriage and stillbirth.

The knight’s willingness to make small talk went a long way in softening Katsuki’s initial hatred of them. He decided he just hated what they stood for, not the people themselves, but he was always ready to change his opinion should they do something turdy. Maybe he’d always have the initial urge to punch any cavalrymen. Maybe he just didn’t like horses. Either or, fifteen extra years of living had done a lot to settle him down in regards to ‘attack first, ask question later’ when it came to his prejudices.

He wasn’t jumping up to make friends anytime soon, though. Izuku was the one who did most of the talking. Katsuki just corrected Izuku when he had to. For one, he was the strongest. Freaking freckle princess had nothing on him.

The castle that came into view on the other side of the open gates was much smaller than he had expected. It was more like a two story stone fortress than a castle, elegance be damned. The courtyard they crossed had been paved once upon a time, but patches of earth had made their way back into being. A scattering of men dressed in light tunics and pants trained with various weapons on dummies or shot arrows into targets. Katsuki found himself frowning at the number of them, as well as their skinny, subpar appearance.

“Is that a grandpa over there?” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Sure enough, one of five archers practicing in the corner of the yard had a ring of gray hair around his head and wrinkles visible even from there.

All three knights, grease-stache included, exchanged looks.

“The lord should explain,” said Mustachio stiffly.

“These aren’t our best men, for sure--”

“Dieves.”

The knight who had spoken up clamped his mouth closed hard.

Katsuki couldn’t see why admitting to having old soldiers was sensitive information until he saw the look on Izuku’s face.

All good feelings the friendly knights had nurtured vanished.

The extra 15 years of living was just enough for Katsuki to keep his mouth shut until they dismounted from the horses and were led up a short flight of stairs, hallway, and double doors to what had to be a great hall, with long tables that spanned the huge room, wooden rafters, and a stone throne at the other end.

The lord wasn’t on the throne, though. He was at the end of the table with two other men, talking in low voices over a map and several documents. If it weren’t for his deep red coat and black tunic, he could have blended in with the rest of the city of poor dressers.

“My lord, I’ve brought the barbarians.

The lord looked up. His fringe of black bangs moved back to show his face.

Izuku sucked hard through his teeth.

Tenya Iida straightened from the table.

“Gentleman,” he said, just as formal and stiff as their previous life. “Thank you for acquiescing to speak with me. I’m afraid I must inquire about a grim matter.” He paused. “By chance, have we met before?”

Katsuki pressed his thumb and forefinger to his eyes.

“God damn…”

This is what he got for being in a class of self-sacrificing idiots.

Chapter 20

Chapter Text

Katsuki could feel Izuku’s eyes on him, waiting for him to look back so they could exchange ‘a look,’ but Katsuki was still hoping that if he played it cool enough, Jet-Legs would just magically blend into the background with the rest of the plebs and he could get back to his merry quest.

“Whaddya want?” he growled.

Iida looked taken aback, but just for a moment. He made a vague gesture and the three men who had escorted Katsuki and Izuku and they backed up.

At the sound of the large doors closing shut behind them, Katsuki’s neck hairs stood on end.

“Before I ask my question, I would like to swear that we mean you no harm unless you provoke us to do otherwise--and only to defend ourselves.”

“O-oh! Well, we’re just passing through, so, eh heh, no provoking from us!”

Katsuki wanted to slap that stupid nerd. Way to go making them sound like pandering wimps from the get-go. To make up for it, Katsuki puffed up his chest, just a bit, so his well-rounded pecs and abs got front stage.

“Get on with it,” he huffed.

“Well…” Iida scratched the back of his neck. “This…this is awkward to ask…but do you know what became of a large calvary that traveled north? Since I’m sure you just came from there. About sixty-four men, though they were traveling with others--though I suppose you wouldn't be able to tell ours apart from the rest.”

Katsuki felt his blood chill. Beside him, Izuku went very still.

“When was this?” Izuku asked, and good thing, because Bakugou’s mouth had gone dry and sour.

“Little over a fortnight, that's about two weeks, or more like three weeks, just if you didn’t know--”

Bakugou choked, swallowed hard, then purposely leveled his eyes beneath his brows.

“You sent that calvary?” Izuku asked, rather quiet.

“Well, no, our king commanded us to supplement them. Our men were only a small portion of the calvary, but they were our best--”

“Do you have any idea what your king was sending them for?” asked Izuku, again, a kindness, as Bakugou was slowly turning from chill to rolling lava. It burned the back of his throat. His palms heated to blistering.

“We were told it was to escort a newly awakened dragon rider safely through the Forbidden Forest.” Iida’s mouth thinned and he adjusted his rudimentary spectacles. “Perchance…you didn’t see them?”

Sharp pops erupted from Katsuki’s palms. Izuku clamped a hand down on his shoulder hard.

“Kacchan--”

“Oh, we saw them all right,” Bakugou lifted his chin, teeth bared. “Because they tried to wipe out our entire village!”

Iida’s eyes popped. His jaw dropped.

“They--I didn’t think--”

“That they’d try to take me by force?” Katsuki snarled. “Well ha, jokes on you, because we murdered them all!”

“ Katsuki! ” yelled Izuku.

A ringing silence fell between them, edged with Katsuki’s heavy pants and the occasional popping from his hands, which had finally caught Iida’s attention.

“Oh…” whispered Iida. He’d gone pale.

The two men who had backed off to give Iida space to speak with his guests reappeared at his side, drawing swords. Armor clinked behind them as the three at the door readied themselves.

“We really are just passing through,” said Izuku weakly. “And it was self-defense, we didn’t want to hurt anyone--”

“SHUT UP, DEKU!”

“NO! You need to calm down!”

“LIKE HELL I NEED TO---ack!” Izuku had pinched so hard Katsuki's shoulder had popped.

“He just said the king made them do it, not them! They were just soldiers following orders--”

“THEY KILLED MY MOM!”

Another horrible, ringing silence.

Iida stepped back against the table edge, as though his knees had gone weak. “Oh lord…”

Izuku’s hand on Katsuki’s shoulder turned claw-like and he took ahold of Katsuki’s other shoulder to force him around. Katsuki hissed and clacked his teeth, but Izuku just shook him, forcing him to meet his grim gaze.

“Breathe and leave. Now.”

“Don’t f*cking tell me--”

“You said I was your best friend, have I ever done anything to make you not trust me?”

Katsuki couldn’t think straight enough to respond to that. But he knew the basic answer would be something about trusting Izuku, which of course he did, but his hands were blazing and his mouth tasted like bile.

“Go out. Leave town if you have to. Blow up sh*t. But whatever you do, don’t hurt anyone. I swear once you’ve calmed down and had time to think you’ll regret it.”

Katsuki was having a hard time making out Izuku’s face through his reddening vision. The pops in his hands had begun to drip brilliant yellow that hissed as they melted holes in the stone floors.

“Iida, do you have a back door?”

“Uh, yes, we have quite the scenic hunting grounds just through the back--”

Izuku’s hands switched from Katsuki’s shoulders to his wrists and they were half marching, half running towards the door in back of the great hall.

“S-straight then to your left!” Iida cried.

Katsuki was hardly aware of where they were going. He wasn’t there anymore, but back on a burning prairie, blackening bodies falling left and right and horses screaming. Smoke filled his lungs, burning his throat, burning his eyes. He could hear screams andrecognized them. They were his neighbors, his family, run through for nothing. Screaming for nothing. He should have gone, he should have just f*ckinggone.

Then he was abruptly coming to standing in a decimated clearing of blackened tree trunks and scorched earth. His hands hurt, his pants had been singed even further, and his precious fur-lined cloak had vanished somewhere.

Katsuki stared down at his charred hands blankly, his heart just beginning to slow and his ears ringing.

What…what had just happened to him?

Of course he’d been angry before. He’d even been mad enough to blank out for a moment once or twice, but only for a moment, and even then he’d been dimly aware of what and why he was doing something.

But this…this had been…like he hadn’t even been him anymore, but a character in a movie, a movie made of his own memories back when their village had been attacked. He’d even seen his mother again, guts strewn on the ground like she wasn’t the precious being who’d held him with soft arms and nursed his ungrateful ass. He’d seen trees as soldiers, smoke as horses, and his own fire as blood.

He didn’t realize he was crying until he felt the wetness on his wrists. His hands had gone numb from his magic and hadn’t felt the water.

“What the hell,” he croaked, surprised to hear his voice had gone hoarse, as though he’d been roaring for the better part of an hour, and perhaps he had.

He rubbed his eyes hard in an attempt to stop their stupid leaking, then looked around.

“Izuku?” he rasped. “Eijiro?”

Nothing responded. Not even the birds, which would have fled. He couldn’t see anything outside his wide ring of destruction but smoldering trees and underbrush.

He sniffed hard and rubbed at his eyes again. Damn stupid things wouldn’t stop. His hands shook. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like this at all. What the hell happened to his f*cking body? It was like he didn’t even have control.

…Had he blown up someone? Oh god, had he hurt Izuku?

“Izuku?” he started moving, searching his destruction in earnest now. “Damnit, nerd, you better…you better not…”

No, Izuku would have just run like the birds for his own safety. He wouldn’t be hurt. And dead, pfft, not even actual death had been able to butt Izuku out of his life. f*cking nosey nerd would crawl out of the ground with one arm like a zombie just to harass him about sh*t.

Even so, his voice still rose and broke like janky glass.

“IZUKU!”

“I’m here.”

Katsuki whipped around. Izuku was picking his way through some smoldering bushes at the edge of the clearing, his own cloak gone somewhere, but otherwise untouched.

Katsuki hiccuped, smothered that damn girly noise along with another harsh rub of his eyes, and started his way towards Izuku. His legs shook too, and he growled at them for their rebellion. How dare they be tired when he hadn’t even done sh*t.

Izuku had that expression Katsuki hated the most. It was the same one he’d had that fateful day back in their previous lives when they were 5 and Katsuki had fallen into a stream. The one with the soft eyes and the puckered eyebrows, all earnest concern and pity.

No. Katsuki knew better now. That wasn’t pity. Izuku wouldn’t pity him. He wasn’t so cruel.

It still helped a bit when his tears blurred the sight of Izuku’s face.

“I…I didn’t mean to do that,” he said.

“Yeah. It didn’t seem right.”

“I still want to f*cking punch that Toaster.”

“That flies….Kaachan.”

Katsuki wiped his nose on his bare arm. “f*cking what?”

“I think you have PTSD.”

“No sh*t.” Oh. That made sense. But then, holy freak, did that mean he’d just had a flashback? Holy hell, more like a hallucination possession from hell--he’d just been angry…no, he hadn’t been just angry, had he?

Screw this, he’d always sucked at picking apart his feelings. More importantly, “Where’s you’re f*cking PTSD?”

Izuku gave him a sad smile, which he hated almost as much as the gooey ‘are you okay?’ look. “Not everyone’s the same. I’ve had nightmares ever since then and…and I’ve been having a hard time eating.”

“Aw jee, princess, don’t try too hard to find symptoms just to make me feel better.”

Izuku chuckled weakly. “It’s…it’s good to hear you sounding normal, at least.” He quieted and that stupid soft look came back. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’m f*cking fine.” Katsuki pressed the numb-red heels of his hands to his eyes. “My eyeballs just got stung by the smoke. That’s all.”

“Right.”

But Katsuki knew Izuku didn’t believe him for a second.

“You should go back to Eijiro,” Izuku said at length. “I’ll talk things out with Iida so there’s no problems.”

“And the carrots. Big-ass carrots.”

“Yeah, I won’t forget the carrots.”

Katsuki sniffed, still rubbing his eyes. “So you can sh*t right.”

“Yeah, I'll be sh*tting orange. I snagged your cloak before you burned it.”

“Thanks.”

An awkward pause filled between them where Katsuki tried his damndest not to sniff or shake. But his whole body just wouldn't stop trembling. Could this be whiplash from using so much of his magic? Why was he even still standing here, he had a stupid dragon to find. Ugh, but the noisy pink one would be there and he just wanted some peace and quiet, and Eijiro was too much of a talker himself--screw that, he was going to find a hole somewhere instead to bury himself in--

Izuku’s arms around his shoulders broke off his thoughts.

“Stop it,” Katsuki protested.

But Izuku just tightened his hold.

And, somehow, the warmth and Izuku’s quiet presence helped…if just a little. But Katsuki didn’t do something mortifying like start wailing or hugging him back. He was a man. It wasn’t the end of the world. He’d just burned some trees and got smoke in his eyes after Iida pissed him off. Stupid Toaster-Jet-Legs couldn’t even ask why the king had wanted so many calvaries just to escort a dragon tamer who could f*cking take care of their f*cking selves in a f*cking forest--and on that thought, Forbidden Forest? What kind of name was that? Was there a ‘Black Forest’ and ‘Dark Forest’ as well? Might as well throw in a ‘Magic Forest’ just to complete the cliche.

When Izuku finally let him go the sky looked a little softer and Katsuki's eyes had finally stopped leaking.

“Try calling Eijiro, like we practiced,” said Izuku.

“I can f*cking walk.”

“I meant for direction's sake. I’m not even sure where we are in relation to him.” Izuku didn’t comment on how Katsuki’s knees kept knocking against each other trying to hold him up.

“Whatever.”

“You’re cloak’s hanging up just over there.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll try to bring back some dinner too--another reason to call Eijiro. Then I’ll know where you are.”

“Just f*cking go away already.”

“Alright.”

Izuku still hesitated way too long for comfort before finally turning and leaving through the trees.

Katsuki took in a breath and cursed when it turned into a hiccup instead. Then, he let himself flop onto the scorched ground. After a few more breaths, he allowed himself to bow his head and properly wilt.

I miss you, Mom.

Chapter 21

Chapter Text

“No.”

Iida went all slack like a dog that had been left out in the rain.

“But--it’s for the greater good--”

“Greater good my ass, you just want revenge for your brother, just like last time.”

Iida blinked several times, furrowing and unfurrowing his eyebrows in rapid succession as he decided which part of the sentence to address.

“But didn’t you--I’m sorry, I only have one brother, what last time are you referring to?”

Izuku chimed in then. “Don’t worry about it, Kaachan just says stuff sometimes, ha ha, but he’s right, we’re focused on getting my dragon right now not politics or…revenge.”

For that had been exactly what Iida had brought up the moment he’d found their little encampment in his family’s hunting grounds. After taking a moment to gape at Eijiro, big and red and coiled around Katsuki like a building, and then Mina in her pink, snakey glory (because apparently human legs were effing uncomfortable for long periods of time), he’d taken it in stride with a squeaky voice to address the two humans in the group.

Apparently, his elder brother and heir to their little realm had led their calvary. And, since Katsuki had given no promise of survivors, he too had lost family in that poorly led altercation (his words, not Katsuki’s). He’d looked at Katsuki as he said this, voice betraying his emotion ever so slightly. Rather than begrudge Katsuki, as Katsuki did him and his stupid horsem*n, he’d sought to somehow bond with them over this injustice…and get them to come with him to the capital to get at the emperor.

Katsuki didn’t even let Iida start explaining his plan to dethrone the tyrant who sent an entire regiment to die. He shut him down hard.

Iida trembled in shock.

“What? Did you think us ‘barbarians’ would just be up in arms at the first chance of a fight?” snarled Katsuki. He hadn’t wanted to see the stupid Toaster’s face that morning anyway. He’d been doing just fine moping in his dragon’s warm scales, thank you very much.

“Ah, no, n-n-not at all.”

“Wow, that sounded convincing,” said Mina sarcastically from where she stripped meat off a raw fish with her sharp little teeth.

“ You don’t want to fight?” said Eijiro, not bothering to hide his surprise.

Katsuki slapped Eijiro’s side that he lay against.

“I’ve seen that play, read that book, whatever dumbass revenge plan into politics will just end up with one of us dead, all of us miserable, and a sh*t-load of stress.” And he’d had enough of that flashbacking like a bitch and blowing up a clearing. “I get it, what happened was some bastard king’s fault, but there will always be bastard kings and sitting a good one on the throne won’t get the people I’ve lost back.”

“But--but you’d be a hero--”

Katsuki snorted. Izuku made a private little smile.

“Been there, done that.”

Iida gawked at them, but quickly cleaned himself up, as he had been so good at doing in the past life. He straightened into his ‘leadership pose’ and cleared his throat.

“Then, perhaps it will entice you to get your people down out of their banishment in the barren lands. Surely it can’t be easy to live on lands no one but the fire dragons want.”

Katsuki was quiet for a bit, long enough for Izuku to glance back at him uneasily.

“It’s the price we pay for freedom,” said Katsuki. “If we left to live in greener lands, we’d just become a target again for some greedy asshole. We already were a target just because we got one measly dragon tamer.”

Iida gave Katsuki an odd look, as though he hadn’t expected such depth out of the guy who just blew up half his backyard. Katsuki didn’t blame him. They hadn’t technically been his words.

Izuku, however, looked satisfied and turned back to give Iida his full attention.

“So, if you could tell us anything you know about where the storm dragons live, will be on our merry way,” he said. “Oh, and sorry about the trees.”

“Take it as a reminder to not listen to asswipes who try to get you to fight our tribes,” said Katsuki.

“As I said, we had no intention--”

“Forget these guys, my people will knock you out without question if you come all armed to the teeth like that,” said Mina, once more popping into a conversation where she wasn’t invited. “It’s best to encroach on your neighbor’s territory with gifts rather than swords. Just, you know, future advice.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.” Iida fidgeted a bit more, every bit a man still trying to find his footing where he thought he had some. “So, um…your people have literature?”

“Oh my god,” Katsuki dropped his head against Eijro.

Iida flinched. “What?”

“You’re thinking of us as savages again,” said Izuku gently.

“Well, I--he’s half-naked!”

“I burned off my shirt on accident fighting some naga, okay?” snapped Katsuki. “Clothes don’t exactly grow on trees, dipsh*t.”

“I could remedy that.”

“I don’t want your damn charity!”

“That would be very kind of you!” Interjected Izuku over Katsuki.

Katsuki scowled at Izuku, but settled for folding his arms over his chest with a loud “Tch!”

“I’ll inquire with my…advisors, about the dragons, that is,” said Iida. “While I see to that shirt." He glanced down at Bakugou's more than a little charred pants. "And maybe some trousers. Feel free to continue using this clearing to rest. If there’s anything else I can do for you--”

“Stop acting like a kissup, you’re in the same position as us, what do you want?” said Katsuki.

“What he’s asking is if there’s anything we can do for you,” said Izuku quickly. “He sounds a lot rougher than he is, I promise.”

“Like hell,” but Katsuki didn’t say it as loudly as he intended.

Iida gave Katsuki a very odd look which ended in something like a smile that Katsuki didn’t like. He didn’t like people smiling at him in general.

“I’m sure we can find something, if nothing else a dragon scale or two could make our court wizard rather happy.”

Izuku perked up like a kid to candy. “You have a court wizard?”

“Well, yes, I know it’s rather unorthodox and we had to hide her from the king’s men, but it’s a necessity when one lives on the borders of the Forbidden Forest, and I actually don’t much understand all the prejudice against magic.”

“Oh! No, you don’t have to excuse yourself, my mother is a witch. My father was a wizard too.”

“Ah, so I guess you’re rather happy to hear about others of your ilk being treated, well, humanely. Really, there’s a lot in our empire I rather disapprove of.” Katsuki hated Iida’s wishy-washy way of saying there was some messed up evil sh*t going down. “Would you like to meet her?”

“Yes! Please! Oh, but only if we’re not imposing.”

Katsuki groaned and curled back under his cloak, tugging Eijro’s wing back down over him. He was so done with this tight-ass meeting.

“Not at all. If anyone were to know where the storm dragons were, it would be her.”

“I’ll just, um, clean up my breakfast first and then we can go?”

Katsuki got an uneasy feeling and squirmed around to poke his head out from over Eijro’s thigh, where the edge of his wing ended.

“Just because he has his face doesn’t mean he’s your friend, nerd,” he said. “Don’t let him talk you into sh*t.”

“I won’t.”

“No, promise. I know how you are with friendship sap, so look at me and swear it.”

Izuku rolled his eyes, which Katsuki did not appreciate, but he did as he was told and looked up to meet Katsuki’s gaze, so he let it slide.

“I swear I won’t let him talk me into storming the castle.”

“What castle?”

“The king’s castle, though isn’t he more of an emperor?”

“That would be correct, but his orders go through the king of our territory to get to us,” interjected Iida.

“You’re not a part of this conversation, Toaster.”

“Toaster?”

Izuku giggled beneath his hand but schooled his features to look serious for Katsuki.

“We’ll get my dragon and then we’re going home.”

Katsuki gave Izuku one lifted side of his mouth. “f*cking right.” Then he retreated back into the warm, dark red little den he’d made himself.

“Is Toaster a word unique to your people?”

“More or less,” said Izuku. “Now, this wizard of yours…”

Mina and Eijro waited until Izuku and Iida were out of earshot before tucking their heads together to jabber, as jabbery brats were prone to do.

“I’m really surprised. I thought your tamer would be all ‘Yes! Violence! Let’s rule the kingdom!”

“ Me too. He’s always gone on about taking over a kingdom or two whenever he got around to traveling.”

“Maybe it’s because it’s an empire. Even animals know better than to take more than they can chew.”

“I’m right here, you bastards,” growled Katsuki.

“Oh hush, we’re not saying anything bad about you,” said Mina.

“ Yeah, I'm actually proud, that was really manly of you!”

“Sure as hell doesn’t sound like it.”

And perhaps because they weren’t as kind as Izuku to not pity him after his whole mental breakdown, they turned their conversation to more mundane things, like how they didn’t think Izuku and Katsuki would be able to finish all the carrots and apples they’d bought before they’d gone bad and how Eijro was technically an omnivore.

Katsuki found himself unexpectedly nodding off to the low murmur of their voices, soothed by the warmth of dragon scales and the musky fur of his cloak.

Chapter 22

Chapter Text

Katsuki was woken up by a girl stuffing her head under the wing he’d been hiding in and yelling. Well, talking loudly, but it was as good as yelling, so he woke up with a loud ‘pop’ from his hands and a closed mouth scream.

“What the fu--” He stopped. Then groaned.

He knew those stupid pink cheeks.

“I’m sorry, I just,” she looked startled, which was utterly not justified because he was the one who was f*cking startled.

“What the hell do you want?”

“I just--I wanted to see what the dragon was hiding and he let me--he’s beautiful, by the way. You’ve done a good job raising him.”

She was wearing a f*cking pointy cap with a wide brim. Like a witch.

“...Go away.”

“...Sorry for waking you.”

Ochaco Uraraka, or probably just Ochaco unless she was noble (her name sucked either way), bashfully pulled out of his den and let Eijiro’s wing fall back into place.

Katsuki punched the nearest dragon bit to him. “I was sleeping, dipsh*t.”

Eijiro didn't comment on Katsuki's lack of interest that yet another of the classmates had appeared. Maybe he wasn't surprised either. It was becoming a theme. “ It’s time for dinner anyways. You’ve been sleeping all day.”

“Then that’s my business.”

“ I’m worried about you. You should at least eat. You’re even meaner when you’re hangry.”

And since Katsuki’s stomach had woken up as well and decided to try and eat himself, he groaned, rubbed his face ruthlessly to get the dust out of his eyes, and after regretting his existence for a moment, climbed out.

He was not looking forward to seeing Izuku’s face.

Sure enough, the nerd looked like his birthday and Christmas had arrived at once, carried next to the buxom bosom of All Might himself.

“Hey, Kaachan! Lady Uraraka and I brought dinner, you’re just in time!”

Ah, so she was a noble. And was just finishing spreading out a blanket on the burnt forest floor. She wore a dress that went down to her calves with wide brimmed long sleeves in the same dark shade as her hat, but with pink ribbon highlights around the waist and collar. Kind of ruined the dark witch look, if her bubbly stupid face hadn’t ruined that first. Mina had turned back to her human form, not that it helped hide her pink skin and black sclera eyes any, or the sharp teeth she flashed when she grinned, but Uraraka seemed to take it in stride.

Izuku was watching him carefully for his reaction, but Katsuki wasn’t even surprised anymore. Freaking Aizawa could pop out of the trees dressed up as a ninja at this point and he wouldn’t even blink. f*ck this life.

Katsuki didn’t wait for invitation. He plopped his ass down on the blanket and grabbed the nearest roasted bird leg.

“You could at least take off your boots,” said Izuku churlishly.

“All of me is filthy.”

“Then eat on Eijiro!”

“It’s okay!” said Uraraka quickly. “It’s just a blanket.”

Katsuki could sense Izuku’s pout without having to look.

The others eventually settled around on the blanket and started eating without much ado, since Katsuki had already set the precedent of how they were going to start this. Uraraka did say a silent prayer of sorts before starting, however, and Eijiro curled his massive self in close, though noticeably closest to Mina, who didn’t even notice.

Once Katsuki had eaten enough to not feel like the world had done him a personal offense, he wiped his hands on his filthy, burnt pants and setttled his gaze on Izuku.

“You know what this means?”

Izuku just looked at him.

Katsuki grinned. “I get miss flower ass.”

Izuku’s brow furrowed in confusion. Then he swallowed and rolled his eyes.

“Her name is Lilly.”

“Knew it had something to do with a flower.”

“You only remember her butt.”

“Hey, I remember all of her just fine, it’s just the names.”

“Sure, Kaachan. Whatever you want.”

He eyed Uraraka, who had been staring at Eijiro on and off for some time. Then looked at Izuku again, who was pointedly looking away from him.

“You’re not even going to ask, are you?”

Izuku sighed and put his meat pie down. “Well as we know each other, that doesn’t mean I can read your mind. Full context.”

“The witch. You want to take her with us.”

Uraraka jerked her attention to him, eyes the size of plates. “Really?!?”

Izuku flinched. “I hadn’t--of course, if you want too--”

“No no, I couldn’t burden you--”

“It wouldn’t be a burden at all!”

“Then maybe could I--but I still have my responsibilities to the Iida household, the forest--”

“Of course, that’s fine! I just--”

“But if you need a magician--”

“No, I just--I just thought, well, you were really into dragons, and since that’s basically what we’re all about…”

Katsuki thought he might be sick. Eijiro and Mina had been irritating with their flirting, but watching the nerd and Pink Cheeks was just…it was liking watching two fluffy birds dance around each other while fighting over who liked the other the most without actually saying it, when everyone around them was either trying to sleep or eat them.

I wanna go home, he thought.

But when he thought of home his mother was there, barking orders at him with her hands on her hips and standing boldly.

He ate another of their monster carrots in a few angry bites, then got up to flee from the vomit which was Izuku and Uraraka eyeing each other shyly as Izuku told her about their trip so far. Mina chimed in way too often for someone who’d only been with them for a few days at most. Thankfully, Eijiro was quiet, probably because he knew Uraraka wouldn’t be able to hear him even if he did speak. It was still a mystery as to why Mina could hear him. When they asked she had thought it was weird that she wouldn’t be able to hear him and couldn’t even say why. To her, it was a given. Humans were the deaf ones.

He’d just got his hands ready on Eijiro’s calve to heave himself back inside when Izuku stopped him.

“No, you need a bath.”

Katsuki groaned. “You’re not my f*cking mother.”

“You’re even more naked than usual and rank as sin, you’re taking a bath. Iida found you those new clothes too.”

“Fine.” He twirled and leaned like a vagrant against Eijiro, scowling. “But let’s get this straight, you smell ten times worse than me. I’m basically burnt dirt.”

Izuku gave him a flat look.

“I am not having this argument.” But even as he said that, he glanced at Uraraka next to him nervously.

Katsuki grinned, but it was weak.

Damn, he was still tired.

Dinner was a short affair, and once finished Izuku and Katsuki helped gather up the dishes and the blanket for Uraraka, along with a bag of their necessary stuffs they didn’t want to leave with Eijiro. Katsuki may be a jerk but he knew how to show gratitude when someone fed you, thank you very much. He could feel Eijiro’s sad gaze on their backs as they all left, Mina included since she wanted to bathe as well. (“We naga are very hygienic. If you don’t you get these mites under your scales and it itches like crazy! Of course I haven’t had them before. I’ve always been very clean.”) They made her wear Izuku’s cloak with the hood up again, though, because even though the castle folk were use to Uraraka and had begrudgingly accepted the presence of two barbarians, bringing a man-eating naga into the midst of them would just be pushing it a bit too far.

Iida was waiting for them at the back gate as though he didn’t have anything better to do. Katsuki felt even more tired just looking at him.

“It’s good to see you again, Sir Katsuki,” he said with a short bow in Katsuki’s direction.

Katsuki grunted.

“I’ve found some clothes for you. I’ll send them to your temporary quarters along with a bath. Some maids will draw it for you, I hope you don’t mind their presence.”

“Stop treating me like I’m going to eat you, it’s insulting.”

Iida stiffened and blinked at him owlishly. “Sir, I’m just doing my best to be polite. And you did almost blow up my entire estate and everyone inside it.”

Now it was Katsuki’s turn to flinch. Katsuki folded his arms tightly across his bare chest, turned his head away, and ‘tched’ through his teeth.

At least Izuku wasn’t giving him that look like a mother disappointed in her child like he usually would in a situation like this. His attention was to Uraraka who, after greeting her lord, had taken up Izuku’s hand to look more closely at something to do with his magic. Katsuki had only been half listening to her rapid-fire jabber. Whatever happened to opposites attract? Her and Izuku were too much alike. Nerds, both of them.

It was an awkward affair, being led into the castle and passing by servants and guards alike. They all jumped or stared at the sight of Katsuki before bowing their heads and scuttling away. It was his fault, really, and it hadn’t been much better before he’d blown up, but it set Katsuki’s teeth on edge, mostly because he knew it had nothing to do with his muscles this time. He hated not being in control of his own body, and their reactions just reminded him of all that.

The ‘quarters’ Iida spoke of was a stone room bigger than Katsuki expected from this dinky two-floor castle. The walls were of white-washed plaster with a few tapestries and ornamental weapons hung up for decoration, with a simple wooden chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Though, rather than candles, it had little glowing balls of light at it’s sticks.

“Uraraka made those,” said Izuku to Katsuki, as though bragging about his kid.

Yeah, who needed electricity when you had magic?

There was only one bed in the room, but it was large and surrounded by heavy curtains and a canopy. There was a woven rug on the floor and two leatherbacked chairs in front of the large fireplace. The windows were, as most fortress windows went, narrow and devoid of glass. Rather, they used shutters to block out the outside when necessary.

“It’s not much. We’re a rather poor territory in comparison to others. Despite living next to the riches of the forest, we’re not allowed to take much from it by our lord and taxes have been raised rather high for the past few years for…various reasons. Though we’ve never been that, uh, well-off.”

“I could care less if you were rich,” said Katsuki to Iida’s self-conscious excuses. “Thanks for the bed,” he said, a bit more quietly. Again, he could be a grateful ass, thank you very much.

“It’s because there use to be a lot of magic folk here,” said Uraraka. “When they were banished to the forests at lot of the city’s trades and exports went with them.”

“Lady Uraraka,” said Iida.

“What’s so bad with her saying that?” asked Izuku as he set his bag down next to the fireplace. Katsuki followed suit by throwing his bag on the otherside.

Iida shifted his weight. “Well…It’s not exactly our shining moment.”

“His ancestors burned a bunch of us at the stake,” said Uraraka lightly. “It’s only since his parents that they’ve started advocating for magical tolerance.”

“I never got that. If magic can give you good sh*t like that,” Katsuki pointed at the glow balls hanging from the ceiling. “Why chuck them out?”

“It’s because only a small minority of people are born with magic, and not all magic done is beneficial. It’s easy to blame things like accidents and diseases on a curse or to be wary of someone who was born with more power than you,” said Uraraka.

“People were never kind to those who are different,” said Izuku, and there was a distant look in his eye that told Katsuki he was remembering their previous life.

“It should be easy for you to understand,” said Iida. “After all, your people are outcast themselves in part for having similar power over others in birthing the dragon tamers.”

“Not anymore. I’m the only one born in the past hundred years and Izuku was technically born outside the tribe.” Now Katsuki was the one looking off into the distance as he tried to remember a time when his people hadn’t lived in huts on a dry savannah.

“Well, even now, not many dragon tamers are born outside your people,” said Uraraka. “As I told Izuku, outside you and him, there are only four other known dragon tamers in the entire empire. There use to be hundreds, but for some reason, once they were taken out of their native tribes, whatever was passed down from parent to child that made them born dragon tamers started showing up less and less often. When people tried taming the dragons without the ability to communicate or started hunting them for their body parts to make weapons, dragons fled to secret corners of the continent to avoid them.”

Katsuki snorted. “That’s dumb. Why not just destroy us humans? They’re bigger, more powerful.” But even as he said it he already had a sense for the answer. The barbarians were stronger and bigger than the people here, weren’t they? The nearest settlement to the north, and yet where were they?

“I don’t know,” said Uraraka. “Maybe it was a kindness that they didn’t fight us, or perhaps we outnumber them that much. People are also incredibly resourceful, especially in the art of war.”

A moment of quiet fell between the four of them.

Inda broke it with a clearing of his throat. “Well, I’ll just get to ordering up that bath. Please feel free to roam the castle as you like, my home is your home. It’s the least I can do after, well…”

Stupid Toaster. Now Katsuki felt guilty.

“Thanks,” he said again, as though that might help. It always came out awkward when he said it.

“Yes, thank you very much,” said Izuku.

“You’re very welcome.”

“Uraraka, do you have stuff to see to or…?” Izuku looked painfully hopeful.

“Oh! Well, yes, I have put off a lot today. Being the only one able to make protective charms and undo fairy curses does make one awfully busy, but I’ll see you at breakfast, yeah? Or you could--I mean, you can visit me at my lab whenever you like too. I don’t mind. I appreciated your help, I’m so glad to have met someone of the magical folk.”

“Yeah. I’ll do that.” Then Izuku just had to give the sappiest of dorky smiles. “I--I really liked hanging out with you.”

Uraraka returned the smile, because she was a sap too, of course.

Then they were finally gone and Katsuki could do what he had wanted to do since coming in here: laying face down on the rug on the floor. He would have thrown himself on the bed instead if he didn’t stink like sh*t and was covered in soot.

“How do I get her to remember me…?”

Katsuki knew Izuku was just saying the question outloud, not directing it at him, but he answered anyway.

“Blow her up with gunpowder. That’s what worked on you.”

“Kaachan.” No need to sound disapproving, he was just telling the truth.

“What?” Gall, he was tired.

“...Did you happen to bring any?”

For the first time in what felt like forever, Katsuki cackled.

Chapter 23

Chapter Text

Of COURSE Katsuki had packed some gun powder. Who the hell wouldn’t?

But Izuku kept being wishy washy. He kept flipping between horrified at the very idea and cautiously accepting of it like an eight-year-old trying to have a rave party with a light switch.

Katsuki didn’t really care whether he blew up Pink Cheeks or not, but he didn’t need to be the listening ear to Izuku’s constant mutter stream of whether or not to do it.

“---I can remember the dosage we use, but the altitude was higher and the make up might be minutely different, there really is no telling, I could kill her and then--no, no, I should start from stage one, I know her. We can make this work--what am I talking about? I’m a dweeb, I can barely even talk to girls, though I’m not as bad as Kaachan--”

“Oi.”

“--And she’s different now, had a different life, but oh, she’s still the same and she’s so sweet, but she can’t travel with us, I don’t have the time, what if she’s already married someone by the time I get back? Ugh, I wasted fifteen years of my life, if I had known--”

“ Oi.”

“Still, that doesn’t mean I can just set her up to get concussed with gun powder, but it’s not like I can just hit her over the head, what if there is something in the gun powder that does the trick? Ugh, why does there have to be so many variables? And why does she have to look so cute dressed as a witch? Oh my gosh, is this what they call a kink? No, she’s just cute--”

“OI!! Will you shut the f*ck up?!”

“But you’re the only one I can talk to about this, Kaachan.”

“Like hell, you have the dragon, don’t you?”

“But he’s all the way in that clearing, I’d have to leave the castle where she is--”

“What are you, a booger? She’s not even around right now.”

“And Eijiro’s a bigger loser with girls than you are.”

“...It’s like you want to get your face punched in.”

“I’m just stating the facts!”

“I’ve just never had a reason to try, bitch! And it’s not like you want my advice anyways, you just want to jabber.”

“Well I’ve been waiting for you to say something--”

“No you haven’t, and you know it.”

“Well I’m waiting now, what do you think?”

“I think you should just kiss her and get it done with.”

“Kaachan!”

“What? I didn’t say rape her.”

“We’ve just met!”

“Don’t girls like forward guys?”

“Not that forward!”

“Guess you’ll just have to blow her up then, huh?”

“Kaachan!”

“You know, I’m getting really sick of that scolding mama tone, you aren’t the boss of me.”

“I’m actually in distress right now, don’t you even care?”

“Nope.”

“...Asshole.”

“Got that right, so shove off, let me bathe in peace.”

As that was where they were at the moment, lounging in their own separate wooden tubes after scrubbing down every bit of evidence of the outside world with rosemary scented soap and sponges that had probably been used on horses once upon a time. They were certainly rough enough for it, but Katsuki hadn’t cared. He wanted the top layer of his skin off anyway. The mosquito bites were still there, after all. Stupid swamp.

“...Were her boobs always so big?”

Katsuki groaned, loudly.

“Shut up , Deku.”

“No, really, I’ve heard working out can make a girl’s boobs shrink, since they’re mostly fat, so did being in this world and not working to be a hero make her boobs bigger?”

Katsuki leaned out to grab the soap bar and chucked it at Izuku’s head.

“Ack!”

“Get out.”

“God, you are so mean.”

“No, you are, do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for a proper soak? And you have to annoy me with stupid sh*t.”

“Don’t you like boobs?”

“You want me eyeballing your girls boobs?”

“...I meant, in like, passing--”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, okay? I just thought--”

“No.”

“Jeeze…”

The sweet quiet lasted until the Toaster burst into the room.

“There’s a rabid elemental at the gate!”

Izuku and Katsuki looked at him blankly.

“A what?” asked Izuku.

“An--an elemental--wasn’t your mother a witch?”

“Well, yeah, but--wait, rabid? Are they hurting people?”

“They haven’t yet, but they keep setting the training dummies on fire and freezing the boots of anyone who approaches to ask what they want.”

Izuku and Katsuki exchanged glances. Katsuki let out another groan and dropped his head so far back it hit the outside of the tub.

“No.”

“Kaachan, that has to be--”

“I’m getting drunk. I’m getting hella drunk and going to bed.”

“But if he came here, that could mean--”

“Don’t care. I hate ‘em.”

Tenya scowled. “The reason I came is because I need your help, please, my castle is burning even as we speak!”

Katsuki probably would have smelt more smoke if his nose hadn’t been burnt out on the smell from his own self after destroying that entire clearing. Not to mention the rosemary in that soap had been strong.

“Izuku will go,” said Katsuki flippently. At least now he’d get some peace and quiet.

He could feel Izuku’s scowl, but he didn’t care. What he have to be so grumpy about? Wasn’t Half-n-Half his best friend or something? Bosom companions? Savior and devote?

Gaaaawd, he should have just stayed home.

Izuku stuttered apologies as he flopped out of his tub and rushed to dry and dress in the spare clothes they’d been brought. Katsuki took a glance when the dork had gotten them on and had a little chuckle at how poorly they fitted him. These poor scrawny peasants had never had to make clothes for a properly grown man in their life, and Izuku wasn’t even a ‘man’ yet. Just a gangly teenager.

Then Katsuki remembered they’d brought similar clothes for him and smacked a hand to his face. He was bigger than Izuku. Damn it.

Then they were gone and Katsuki was blessedly, blessedly alone. He even managed to doze off before an explosion made him jolt violently in his tub, sending copious amounts of sudsy water over the rim. Swearing up a storm, he heaved himself out and snatched the towel.

“f*cking who’s taking my schtick,” he growled.

He all but tore off the shutter throwing it open and sticking his head out through the skinny-ass window.

Sure enough, just seen through the moonlight and torches, something like an explosion had occured in the courtyard. He could just make out scorch marks, a few flickers of orange flame, and some sparkly bastard standing in the epicenter with wacky colored hair that would make a clown jealous.

But since the castle wasn’t blown up, Katsuki didn’t rush too much toweling off and getting dress. The nerd had survived his explosive ass, after all, so he could be trusted to not be dead. Besides, he could hear his voice in the distance. It was something Katsuki would recognize from a mile away, and at a whisper. No, it wasn’t because they were that close, it was because the nerd’s voice was one of those annoying high tenors that hadn’t broken yet.

Katsuki regretted everything the moment the clothes were on. So f*cking tight. His junk alone was going to be squeezed out of existence, and the moment he so much as lifted his arm the seams were going to bust. Growling, he struggled out of the tunic, then set his teeth on the back and ripped.

“S-Sir Katsuki?”

The little voice at the door made him scowl.

“What?”

“A-a-are you in need of assistance?”

What kind of creep was listening in to everything he was doing? Seriously. But since they were here, might as well use them.

“Do you have a cape? Or a cloak, whatever.”

“Is the tunic not adequate?”

“It’s f*cking small is what it is.”

“Y-yes, I’ll go look.”

It wasn’t till the feet pattered away that Katsuki thought that the voice had sounded familiar. But since he hated the thought that it could be, he went back to work tearing the sad tunic. Once satisfied with the panels he’d made, he went to his bag and dug out his sewing kit.

By the time whoever had returned with their little knocks at the door, he’d torn through the hem of the pants and was using the panels of the tunic to fill in the gap. When he was done his junk would have room to roam.

“Yeah?”

“I found a cloak you could use, Sir Katsuki.”

“So come in already.”

The door squeaked a bit as it opened and a maid with brilliant, curly red hair tied up in bright blue ribbon stepped in.

He secretly gave an inward sigh of relief that it really wasn’t someone he knew from his past life.

Then her face flushed enough to rival her hair and he remembered he was sitting cross-legged and naked on the floor with only his sewing project to hide the important bits.

His first instinct was everyone’s--squawk and hug his chest like a maiden hiding her breasts. But since he was a man , not to mention one with the body of a god, he smashed that urge down and instead gave a co*cky smirk.

“Something you haven’t seen before?”

Poor girl smashed the folded cloak against her face.

“I-I-I’m so sorry!”

“I said you could come in. It’s not like I’m showing anything important. What are you so afraid of? I’m not going to molest you or anything.” A little offensive that she thought he might.

“No! I just…I’ll just leave the cloak here, I’m so sorry.”

She scuttled to the bed, dropped the cloak, then scuttled back to the door, where she hesitated.

It was long enough for Katsuki to notice a hint of a ripe, perky butt through her skirts.

…Hmm.

“Um, Sir Katsuki?”

He grunted, turning his eyes back down to his work just in case she looked back at him and caught him looking.

“If…if you go towards Crown Mountain…you should find a village where someone might know of the storm dragons.”

He jerked his head back up. “What?”

But she was already gone, door swinging shut behind her.

Katsuki scowled at the door for a beat longer before returning to his sewing with renewed vigor.

Yet another damn thing he had to do. Why couldn’t he just finish his bath and go to bed like he wanted? Gotta make himself his own damn clothes, then he had to make sure the nerd was alive, and now he had to chase down some ginger bitch with a fine ass and shake out some answers.

All he needed now was for Eijiro to get lonely and come flying in like an idiot--

A series of alarmed shouts came just before a ground-shaking thud hit the roof of the castle, raining Katsuki with dust and bits of mortar as well as sending the magic-lit chandelier swinging.

He threw down his pants.

“GOD DAMN IT!”

Chapter 24

Chapter Text

The familiar hot metal and stone smell of Eijiro filled the air. He heard Eijiro’s week prrbting protests as men screamed and shot arrows. Another explosion went off somewhere, along with what he swore was the crackle of ice. He could hear Deku screeching something as well.

He closed the shutters. Finished his pants. And once he got them on and felt that they were comfortable, he decided ‘screw it’ and just went to bed, even as the chandelier swung and more dust fell from the ceiling. If it caved down on him, there was a canopy over the bed to maybe mitigate some of it, but that was just weak justification. Katsuki was so fed up and tired he figured at least he’d get some sleep before getting crushed to death.

He’d never been a particularly heavy sleeper, but somehow his raged fueled his melatonin and he went out despite the chaos.

He did, however, wake up to Izuku’s squabbling voice.

“You can’t sleep with me, he might attack you….don’t give me that look, please, you’re an elemental, aren’t you? Can’t you just, I don’t know, do your spirit-phase-thingy?...Alright fine, but you have to be on the edge.”

And then too much muscle and nerd stink got way to close.

Katsuki wrinkled his nose and growled, not yet able to open his eyes.

“It’s just me, Kaachan.”

“Move ‘fa-way.”

“I can’t believe you just went to bed. Eijiro’s chained down in the courtyard now, you know.”

“Just desserts.”

“You’re so mean.”

Katsuki turned over, did his best to ignore another body was touching him, and went back to sleep.

When he woke up he had a freaking Deku snuggled up to his back.

It wasn’t that it hadn’t happened before. They’d had plenty of sleepovers as kids and you couldn’t control what your body did at night. But god damn if it wasn’t gay.

He oozed out of the bed, grumbling low like chunky magma, and squinted at the lines of sunlight squeezing through the cracks of the window shutters.

His stomach growled. He scraped sleep-dust out of his eyes, scratched his crotch, did a roll on the floor in protest at being alive, then finally got up and stumbled to where he’d left the cloak on the floor. After considering it for a moment, he put it on. It was like it had been made for a hobbit. But at least he wouldn’t get so many complaints about his chest being bare.

As he shoved on his shoes, he happened to glance back over at the bed only to freeze as he met a all too familiar monochromatic gaze.

Shouto Todoroki, just as bare chested as him, watched him like the freaking flat, doll creep he was. His white and red hair was just as ridiculous looking as it had been in their pass life, and he looked no older than them at fifteen.

Katsuki scowled at him.

“What you looking at?”

The guy blinked, slow and lazy, like a cat.

Then he faded out of existence as though he’d never been there.

Katsuki stared. Then realized he didn’t care and shoved on his last boot.

Stupid, f*cking magical world proving that his at home education was lacking every day. What was next? f*cking elves? The cookie-making, parasite-in-a-tree kind or the tall skinny ones that thought they were all that?

No-no, he mustn’t jinx himself. And his mom had laughed at him when he’d asked about them. So no, they didn’t exist, along with dwarves and all that schmuck. Right. He knew that.

God, he had to pee.

He stepped out the door to find a maid, waiting for him, like a creep.

Sadly, she wasn’t the ginger with the fine ass, but some middle aged woman who didn’t so much as blink as he loomed over her.

“Where do you people sh*t?”

She pointed past him to a bucket on the floor. A god damn bucket. Like a prisoner in a cell.

He sneered, then ran a hand down his face again.

“You people,” he looked at her. “Are disgusting. At least dig a freaking pit.”

She just blinked at him, then asked, “Will you be having breakfast, Sir Katsuki.”

“Yeah. Where do I go for that? The kennel?”

Her eye twitched. “I’ll inform Lord Iida to meet you in the dinning hall. That would be the main hall that lets out into the courtyard. I’m sure you walked through it when you first came here.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Now to find a proper toilet.

The dinky, two leveled castled turned out to have way more twists and turns on the inside than Katsuki expected. By the time he found his way to the hunting grounds, his bladder was fit to burst and he’d probably terrified half the castle with his regular morning scowl and heavy walk. He found a tree, did his business, and then stomped back to find his way to the dining hall, wishing he had figured out how to make hand sanitizer instead of freaking gunpowder. At this rate, he and Izuku really would catch the plague.

Toaster waited for him at one of the grand tables in the grand hall, with plates full of food spread before them. He smiled and gave a nod at seeing Katsuki, but Katsuki didn’t nod back, to hell with smiling. It was too early for that.

The food was about what Katsuki had expected. Rough bread, some fried eggs, a few strips of bacon, and a plate of apples and pears.

Iida picked up a glass bottle, poured it into a wooden goblet, and handed it to Katsuki. “Did you sleep well, Sir Katsuki?”

“Hn.”

Katsuki sniffed the pale liquid and took a sip to affirm it was some kind of wine. Then he poured it on his hands.

Iida stared.

There happened to be a napkin nearby and Katsuki used it to dry off. Bam, hand sanitizer, as close as he was going to get.

“Is…that a tradition…in your tribe?”

“Sure.” He grabbed a fork and wrinkled his nose at it. Damn, even their silverware was too small. “Do you lot starve most of your lives or something?”

Iida looked bemused. “What?”

“Why the hell are you all so small?”

“I fear, Sir Katsuki, that it is you who are larger. Barbarians are legendary for being so.”

“That’s sh*t. Izuku came from some forest and he ain’t a midget. What do you feed your kids?”

Iida gestured at the table. “Food, hopefully.”

Katsuki snorted. “Obviously not enough.” Then shoved his first mouthful of bacon. Got to go with the best first, eh? Though his father’s bacon had been a million times better, even if it was goat bacon.

“Well, we do try, but we can only cut down so much of the forest for farmland without angering the inhabitants, and foraging can only glen so much. We don’t starve, but we aren’t stuffing ourselves if that’s what you are implying we should do.”

Katsuki swallowed, then stabbed and hung up a far too rubbery egg.

“Protein,” he said, as though to a three-year-old. “Meat. Eggs. Beans. Builds muscles. And milk. Builds bones.” He stuffed the egg into his mouth. Best not to be picky or he might as well shrink like these bastards. “Don’t you have cows? Goats? Definitely pigs.” Since he was eating one.

“I-well-animals need a lot of land as well. And with the taxes…”

“You pay your taxes in cows?”

“If we don’t have money, yes. That’s what’s required.”

Katsuki looked down at the heaps of breakfast before him, then back up at the Toaster.

“Should I feel guilty?”

Iida looked alarmed. “No! No, of course not, eat as much as you need!”

But even as Katsuki cautiously took another bite of bacon, followed by an entire loaf of bread, Iida only chewed a piece of toast topped with what looked like to be apricot preserves.

“You already ate or something?” asked Katsuki.

“Yes. I get up at dawn to train.”

Katsuki snorted. “Obviously it’s not enough.” He pushed over some of the rubbery eggs--like hell he’d share the bacon. “If you want muscles you need to eat what I said. If you don’t got meat, get eggs and beans. You grow beans, don’t you? Not the green kind.”

Iida scowled at him. “I know basic nutrition, Sir Katsuki.”

“Obviously not, if your entire body is as thick as my bicep.”

Iida eyed Katsuki's said bicep, looking not at all pleased by what he saw, but he accepted the plate of rubbery eggs and popped one into his mouth--with a fork, of course. Using one’s fingers was just not proper manners.

Katsuki had just about had his fill when Izuky stumbled into the great hall, shoulders slumped and eyes only half opened. Behind him followed Todoroki, who left wisps of ghostly flame and ice wherever he stepped. He’d somehow acquired a simple white tunic, tied about the middle with a blue sash, and dark brown pants and boots. Even so, his footsteps didn’t make a sound.

He stuck to Izuku’s side like a clingy girlfriend.

“Hey Kaachan,” Izuku yawned. “Hey Iida.”

“Good Morning, Sir Izuku. Would you like some breakfast?”

“Is there any left for me after Kaachan?” he asked wryly, to which Katsuki raised an eyebrow at him. Early bird gets the worm, nerd, no need to waste energy trying to make him feel bad.

“We can always make more,” said Iida. “You are our cherished guests, there is no need to worry about imposing on us.”

“Unless we stick around too long and actually impose,” said Katsuki wryly around a mouthful of bread. “Never fear, skinny man, we’re heading off after this.”

Izuku looked at Katsuki in surprise as he fwumped down beside him on the bench. “What? We didn’t discuss this.” Todoroki landed in the space next to him, close enough that their shoulders touched, but Izuku paid it no mind. “Where are we even going?”

“Crown mountain,” said Katsuki. “Some ginger maid said we should find a village there that might know something.”

Izuku gave him a flat look. “So you just believed her?”

Iida frowned. “I’m sorry, ginger? You mean she had red hair?”

“Yep.” Katsuki crunched down on some apple slices. The rest of the breakfast hadn’t been all that exciting, but damn if he wouldn’t kill for these apples. The only kinds of fruits that grew up in the northern lands were like figs and dates: compact, full of seeds, and with a nutty texture.

“That’s…not good.”

“Why’s that?” said Izuku, who’d found the evidence of bacon on an empty plate and was looking at it sadly.

“We don’t have any red-haired maids in the castle.”

Katsuki and Izuku exchanged looks.

“So a mysterious stranger,” said Izuku flatly.

Katsuki shrugged. “Not like we have anything else to go off of.” He pushed over the egg plate, which Iida had been kind enough to leave two eggs left.

Izuku scowled at the eggs, knowing exactly what Katsuki was doing, and grabbed a handful of the apple and pear slices Katsuki was hogging, earning him Katsuki’s extra-withering glare.

“What do you know about Crown Mountain?” he asked Iida.

Iida jerked a little, probably deep in the well of ‘How did an intruder get into the castle so easily and I only hear of it now?’ and cleared his throat.

“Well, not much. It’s southeast of here, about a week’s travel to reach the first foothills and another three days to get through the pass, if it’s open. It’s known to have a perpetual ring of cloud rather low on its peak, thus the name ‘crown.’ Because of the clouds, it rains quite a bit, which makes the pass rather difficult on the best of days, with mud and slippery stone and all that. But if you can make it through the pass you’ll reach the ocean on the other side, which has some rather rich fishing. If we had ice magic--”

“What about a village before you get there?”

“Well, yes, but it’s rather small.” Iida pinched his chin and frowned. “Can’t say I know anyone from there, which, now that I think about it…” But he must have dismissed that thought as he then raised his hand to call over a manservant who had been waiting at the wall. “Some more food, if you will, especially of the bacon.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“And could you pass the word around that I’m looking for someone from Ninyang village?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Thank you.” He turned back to Katsuki and Izuku. “I’m sorry I can’t be of more help. Ninyang is in a territory that, except for that small fishing bay, is mostly barren mountains so not many live there. It’s not unlike the north which you hale from, if a bit wetter.”

“I think people are too picky about where they live,” said Katsuki as he stabbed Izuku’s searching fingers with an especially squishy pear. Izuku yanked it back to flick pear guts, nose wrinkled.

“Kaachan, stop acting like a toddler. Share some apples.”

“No. Get your own.”

“This food is for both of us. You're being embarrassing.”

“No, you're being embarrassing ignoring the flaming gay man hanging on your arm and looking at you like he wants to lick your face.”

Izuku blinked. Then finally turned his head to Todoroki who was, in fact, hugging his arm and staring at the side of Izuku’s head. When their eyes met, their noses a bare inch apart, he gave the smallest smile and an extra fwoom of ghostly flame poofed out of his red right side.

Pink brushed across Izuku’s freckles.

“Um, Todoroki--”

“Shouto.” It was the first time Katsuki had heard him speak and he was faintly surprised it came out sounding like a normal voice. He’d been fully expecting some phantom echo with all the, you know, floaty-magic-ghost-puffing sh*t.

Izuku decided to skim over that. “Can you, um, give me some space?”

“But you’re my master. I have to stay by your side.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to be touching.” Izuku pushed at him, and again Katsuki was surprised that his hand actually made contact with something solid, even though Half-n-Half looked plenty of that in the moment.

Todoroki pouted--f*cking pouted--as his butt slid down the bench.

“But I’ve finally found you. I…I can’t help myself.”

Izuku sighed. “I know, as you told me a dozen times last night. Do you want anything to eat? Uh, do you eat?”

In answer, Todoroki reached across to the plate Katsuki had stolen and swiped an apple slice.

“Hey!”

But before Katsuki could swipe it back, Todoroki had popped it into his mouth.

“Plants will do,” he said. “Fruit and the like. And…” he glanced at the bread, something flashing in his freaky eyes, though he frowned as though something wasn’t quite right. He still reached out and took the remaining loaf that Katsuki had so magnanimously left behind.

Iida watched this with eyebrows high in interest.

“This isn’t my first time seeing an elemental, but I’ve never seen one so tame and willing to be seen. Usually they just become corporal to intimidate.”

“What are they, like, spirits?” Katsuki asked.

“Sort of. Ochako would explain better.”

“She told me they were like a manifestation of the energy between the invisible spirit world and the visible corporeal world,” said Izuku. “They can go to either side.”

“I’m plenty corporeal,” said Todoroki, voice still painfully flat, although Katsuki thought it might sound a might offended. “I can touch you just fine, Master. I can do anything you need.”

Katsuki scratched his head hard. Why did that have to sound so dirty? Ugh.

“What does he mean by 'master?'” Oh please don’t be what he thinks it is. If he has to travel with this dick--

“Well, sometimes elementals can become fond of a human and make a contract to lend their magic to them. That’s as far as I got last night.”

“And it’s for life,” said Todoroki.

“And you just agreed to this?” Katsuki said.

“Uh, well, it’s Shouto. We were friends, weren’t we?”

“We live on a prairie that's dry %60 of the time. He leaves fire wherever he goes. How are you going to be able to go back home with that?”

“Well, he only burns stuff when he wants to.” He looked at Half-n-Half, who’d snuck closer when he wasn’t looking. “Right, Shouto?”

Todoroki nodded, leaving extra poofs of flame and sparkles of frost.

Katsuki slapped his forehead. Hard. It was like when your five-year-old came home with a stray puppy and demanded to keep it.

“Please tell me he at least remembers why he’s so attached to you,” he said.

“Uh, well, I think he remembers the feelings,” said Izuku.

“I’ve been looking for something all my life,” said Todoroki, unhelpfully. “And that something was Izuku. I sensed him. I found him.” A stupidly familiar glower broke his usually flat expression. “And you won’t take him away from me.”

Katsuki rubbed his eyes hard. His fingers felt especially hot.

“Speaking of masters, shouldn’t you tend to your dragon?” asked Iida.

Oh yeah. They’d had Eijiro chained up in the courtyard, hadn’t they?

Izuku’s eyes went wide. “Oh no, Eijiro!”

But when they went outside, the idiot was still fast asleep, and the horrific ‘chains’ were just a knotted-up bunch on his ankle. He even had a nice little pillow of dismantled, hay-stuffed shooting targets.

Well, that explained why Katsuki hadn’t heard any complaints out of him.

“Where’s the pink thing?” he asked.

“I think she’s asleep with him?” said Izuku. “Like under his wing or something, like you were.”

“Think? Dude.”

“What? She can take care of herself, can’t she?”

Katsuki rubbed his eyes hard again, then ran his hands down his face and considered screaming. No thought. No thought at all.

“If you were so worried about keeping track of everyone, you should have come out last night and helped rather than just going to sleep,” said Izuku.

Todoroki was attached to his arm again, leaving little charred footsteps behind him and melting spots of frost. He was also giving Katsuki that creepy blank stare again, almost as though he was apprehensive that Katsuki might try and separate him from his ‘master.’

“All I wanted to do was find a dragon and maybe blow up sh*t, not gather the f*cking glass menagerie of magical creatures and horny teenagers.”

“I still don’t see what’s your problem.” Izuku frowned.

“You. You’re my problem. Always have been, always will.” He turned. “I’m getting my bags. Let’s blow this place.”

“Please, no,” said Iida.

“It’s just a saying,” said Izuku quickly. “And we still need to find Eijiro food.”

“Oh wow, thanks for volunteering.” He was already at the great hall's front doors.

“Kaachan, he’s your dragon!”

“Who also disobeyed my direct orders to stay the f*ck away and nearly crushed a castle and scared all these midgets sh*tless. It’s not like these malnourished plebs could feed him anyway.”

Iida stiffened. “Please, Sir Katsuki, your assumptions are highly inappropriate!”

But Katsuki was already marching through the great hall and out of hearing range.

There was too much to think about: why the mysterious girl would bother telling them where to go, what they find, if they were just flying into a trap, how to deal with yet another unwanted add-on to his traveling group, what having a contracted elemental would mean for Izuku and, in turn, Katsuki, how the flip he was going to find himself a proper shirt…

He found their room easily enough this time and kicked it open. Probably not the nicest thing to do to a door who’d done him no wrong.

And scaring the everloving sh*t out of the witch atop her ladder as she tended to the magic lights in the chandelier.

Pink Cheeks shrieked as she lost her balance. Katsuki dove.

And caught her neatly in his arms. He didn’t so much as puff.

“Sorry,” he gruffed. Because, despite what everyone said, he wasn’t THAT much of an asshole.

Then he happened to meet her eyes and felt his stomach drop.

Ochako’s big brown eyes had taken a page from Half-n-Half and sparkled. It reminded him of the disgusting way said Half-n-Half had been oggling Izuku.

“Thank you,” she said, breathlessly. “You saved me.”

…well, sh*t, now they had to blow her up.

Chapter 25

Chapter Text

Katsuki hoped it wasn’t what he thought and that Izuku definitely didn’t have anything to notice.

But the only person more observant than that f*ckwad was probably God himself. Or a Birdie to a Katsuki.

And, well, she did follow Katsuki out with a humble traveling pack of her own.

“Oh, are you coming with us after all, Lady Ochako?” Izuku asked.

Ochako blinked and glanced at him. “Huh? Oh, Izuku! Yeah I, um, heard you were going to Crown Mountain. There’s a rare herb there I needed to restock on.”

Iida, who was standing next to Izuku with a passel of what could only be supplies he had brought for them, furrowed his brow. “Didn’t we just get a delivery from Ninjang for you?”

“I’ve been having to make a lot of wards for the castle,” said Ochako quickly. “They all kind of expire around the same time. You know.”

No, Iida didn’t know, but he nodded uncertainly anyway.

“If you say so. I suppose you’ll be safe if you are with them, but do come back quickly.”

“Aren’t you trusting us a bit too easily?” said Katsuki, both because he was and also he really, really, really didn’t want Ochako to get her way.

Iida stopped, thought for a moment with pinched chin and everything, before saying, “This…may sound strange, but I’ve been having the strongest feelings that I’ve known you for a very long time and that, yes, I can trust you. Are you sure we haven’t met before?”

“Yep,” said Katsuki, even as Izuku added, rather unnecessarily, “We’ve never left our homelands before, there wouldn’t have been a chance.”

“Hmm. Alright.”

“ But then there was this previous life,” said Eijiro, rather sleepily. “ Why don’t you just tell him?”

“Because that went so great for you,” said Katsuki.

“Nnng, why are you guys up so early?” A pink head oozed out from beneath Eijiro’s wing and over his thigh. “Wait, we’re leaving?”

“It’s almost noon, Pinky, get your ass moving.”

“Okay, okay, jeeze.”

“I can make your bags lighter,” said Ochako, uncomfortably close and doing the stupid eye sparkle again. “Would you like that?”

Katsuki put some much-needed distance. “No. Stop asking.”

“But they look so heavy.”

“And I’m strong as hell, go away.”

He looked over at Izuku, fully expecting him to be giving him that scolding mama look, but instead he was looking back and forth between Katsuki and Ochako, a squirrely little furrow between his eyebrows and the beginnings of a frown.

Well, sh*t.

He had three options. 1. Do what he did best and asshole to the extreme to scare her away, pissing off Izuku probably to the point of never forgiving him (not like he cared). 2. Pull Izuku over and tell him what was what and then straight up refuse her coming with them, hopefully with Izuku’s support. Or 3. Just blow her up. Wasn’t like Izuku had the balls to make a decision on that anyway.

No, there was no 4. He was not bringing along a Pink Cheeks obviously smitten with him and doing nothing about it. It wasn’t happening, nu uh, no way. Wasn’t she just flirting with the dweeb yesterday? Were girls always this flippant? Damn, maybe life would be easier if he were gay--blargh, uck, no way no way, he’d rather not be attracted to anyone at all. He’d rather hurl! Dudes were just nasty.

Screw it!

He dropped his bag and went for the side pouch.

“Kaachan?”

“At least let me hunt first, I’m starving.”

“ I could hunt for you, Mina.”

“If you could refrain from hunting until you’re out of my territory, that would be much appreciated.”

“Pink Cheeks, go towards that wall, will you?”

“Pink Cheeks? Is that me?”

“Kaachan, what are you doing?”

Katsuki, having eyed the distance between them and a far wall in the courtyard, started walking towards it. The few soldiers still out and trying to practice in the space not taken up by a huge-ass dragon scattered to the far corners, as though already knowing what was going to happen and not wanting anything to do with it.

“Come on, girl, over here.”

“O-oh, um, okay. Can I ask why?”

“Gonna show you a magic trick.”

Her whole visage lit up. “Really? You’re going to show me your dragon magic?”

“Yeah, sure,” he gestured to the wall again. “That way. Few steps. There you go.”

“Wait Kaachan--”

“You keep your ass still, nerd.”

“You can’t--what if you hurt her?”

“She’ll be fine.” He popped out the stopper from the gunpowder bag and carefully measured out what they’d done for their experiments. He’d measured it out so many times when they’d done it that he could remember it. The little circle of his palm. Hopefully his hand wasn’t THAT much bigger than when he’d been eleven.

Meh, Ochako was bigger than they were back then anyways.

“No, wait!”

Katsuki dumped the gunpowder, took a step back, palm up, and fired.

There were several things done wrong at this moment, first and mainly that Katsuki hadn’t discussed this with anyone. No, he could be that close to the explosion. He’d practiced enough with his own magic, and with Eijiro, to be able to control the trajectory of any and all fire, especially abrupt, violent fire-like explosions.

The rest, well…basically everything was wrong.

The explosion, directed all at Ochacko rather than allowed to explode freely, threw her back. Not only was there more gunpowder, but having it all concentrated made it no less than cannon fire.

The little witch slammed into the wall with a loud CRACK.

“URARAKA!” Izuku and Iida screamed.

Katsuki didn’t have to see through the smoke to realize he’d done something wrong.

“Oops.”

Well…at least she wouldn’t be in love with him anymore, right?

Chapter 26

Chapter Text

Thankfully, Ochako’s brains wasn’t splattered across the wall. Apparently she had enchanted her clothing with something a shield spell, but it did make her nose bleed and knock her out for a good five minutes, the entirety of which was spent with Katsuki being yelled at from all sides.

“What the hell--”

“Did you just try to kill her?”

“ Holy sh*t, bro!”

“You seriously tried to kill her?”

“What did she do to you?”

“AFTER ALL I FORGAVE OF YOU!!!”

Katsuki just took it all. Yeah, not much he could say, other than a weak, “I wasn’t trying to kill her. I knew she had those protections.”

Izuku and Eijiro knew very damn well that he did not know that. Izuku was wise enough to not holler so where Iida and the whole courtyard could hear, but Eijiro had no qualms, not being able to be heard by normal humans.

“BULLsh*t!”

“So you really did try to kill her?” asked Mina, sounding more intrigued than appalled for a moment. “No, wait, after she fed you? And clothed you--damn, she was so nice, what is your deal?”

“I WASN’T f*ckING TRYING TO KILL HER!”

“She’s not dead, right? RIGHT?!” asked Iida, even though he was the one to assess the damage and tell them about the enchanted clothing.

Izuku grabbed Katsuki by the latch of his hobbit cloak and decked him---

Or he would have, if that had actually happened outside of Katsuki’s head.

No, Katsuki hadn’t so much as budged after saying “Screw it,” and dropping his bag, leaving everyone waiting for him to drop the other shoe.

“Screw what?” asked Izuku.

“Did you want me to lighten your bags anyway?” said Ochako, all damn sparkle eyed and bouncing.

He rubbed his face very, very hard.

“Let’s just go,” he said.

They released Eijiro, who hadn’t even really noticed the chains, the bugger. Izuku and he got their bags tied back onto the saddle. Mina gave all the poor midget humans a heart attack by popping out her own wings. There was a brief fight where Ochako tried to manipulate Katsuki into letting her ride Eijiro with him and Izuku, in which said Izuku was NO help whatsoever. But since she was a damn witch of course she had a broom to fly, complete with a padded cushion she’d tied onto it for a seat, so like hell were any of her or the nerd’s guilt trips going to work on heim. Eijrio and Mina very wisely kept out of it.

“You are welcome any time,” said the Toaster for the uptenth time. “And please be sure to return our court magician punctually.”

“We ain’t going to keep her,” Katsuki snapped.

Ochako pouted.

Then they were off, probably blowing half the poor castle’s men onto their rears with the force of Eijiro’s wings.

As Eijiro and Mina mutter/yelled to each other about keeping an eye out for their breakfast, Katsuki bundled himself up tight in his fur rimmed cloak, layered underneath with the hobbit cloak in leu of a proper shirt. Ugh, his nipples were getting sensitive. It reminded him of a guy back at the tribe who had picked up a fad from another sister tribe of piercing their nipples. Freak had an entire claw in his nip by the time they left. Weirdo. Did look a little bad ass, though…except it was stupid. What if someone grabbed onto whatever you had dangling from your nipples during a fight? Ugh.

“What are you thinking about?” Izuku muttered from behind Katsuki, probably picking up on his shudder.

“Just thinking about Natso.”

“Oh, his nipple piercings, huh?”

Natso had a lot about him outside of his nipple piercings, of course, but trust Izuku to pick up exactly on Katsuki’s thoughts.

“Your nipples cold?” and gawd damn if Katsuki could hear just how wide Izuku’s smirk was in that one sentence.

“May you lose all your shirts and pants and only depend on midgets to reclothe you,” Katsuki growled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep your nipples warm if you do,” said an ethereal voice that should not have been as clear as it should be.

“Uh, that won’t be necessary, Shouto.”

Now it was Katsuki’s turn to smirk. He didn’t envy Izuku with his new elemental contract. At. All. Even if he did get new fire and ice powers now…wait.

“You got fire and ice powers now, right?”

“Uh, no? I just can borrow Shouto’s.”

“No, they’re yours,” insisted the too-clear voice.

“Where the f*ck even is he?” Katsuki sat up to look around, ignoring the wind beating his cloak open for a moment. He’d gone invisible right before they’d taken off.

“He’s right behind me.” There was a strange little lilt to the way Izuku said that.

Katsuki twisted about to eye his co-pilot. The nerd had his head bowed, curls going crazy, and a writhing caterpillar for a mouth.

Katsuki frowned. “Is he molesting you?”

“What? No! He’s just, you know, holding on…around my middle…and kind of, uh…”

Katsuki scowled. Okay, it had been fun to laugh at the nerd getting a gay stalker, but this was too far.

His hands got hot.

“Tell the f*cker to back the f*ck off or I’m blowing him up,” said Katsuki.

“It’s nothing bad--”

“It’s making you uncomfortable! Get a f*cking spine!”

“I’m making you uncomfortable?” came the ethereal voice, tinged with just some worry.

“Wel, um…yeah.”

“I’m sorry. You should have said.”

Izuku’s face went slack with relief, but Katsuki watched for a moment longer, ignoring the sting of his eyes in the wind until he was sure the nerd was okay before turning back around and retucking himself into his cloak cocoon.

“It wasn’t anything bad, Kaachan, he was just patting my stomach a little low.”

“If it makes you uncomfortable, it’s bad, it doesn’t matter what it is. sh*t, how weren’t you some sexual abuse victim before all this? With a sucky attitude like that.”

“I know he didn’t mean anything by it--”

“No, he’s right,” came Todoroki’s bodiless voice. “I’m not familiar with coporeal customs. I need you to tell me if I do something uncomfortable. I just…have never enjoyed touching someone so much.”

Katsuki nearly got his spine chipped at with the force that Izuku hid his face in his back. He could feel the heat of his blush through his double layered cloak. It tickled a bit as Izuku muttered something that couldn’t be heard over the wind.

“What’s gay?” asked Todoroki.

Katsuki wanted to hide his face as well. Maybe he could get away with blowing up Icy Hot and making him remember. Honestly, he was just as up to dealing with this as Izuku was.

Ochako led the way towards this little village. Katsuki could see the cloud crowned mountain they were aiming for over Eijiro’s spiked head. It was farther than he had hoped, but they could see it, so he hoped a day flying would be enough. At some point Mina dived down, only to catch up with them at an alarming speed with a adolescent boar hanging from her claws, which she happily tore in half, then and there, and tossed the rear end to Eijiro. The dragon proceeded to act like she’d just offered him a bouquet of flowers and her eternal love rather than the butt end of a wild pig, which probably still had sh*t and who knows what else on it.

“No big, no big! I like the brains,” she said, slurping out an eye, then and there, in front of all of them, still flying. “And the eye-jelly. Yum. To bad we don’t have any bread. It’s quite good on toast. It’s the only time I like plant-stuff. A little grass helps make you regular, you know?”

It wasn’t necessary to belt all that, even if they weren’t going so fast so the carnivores could enjoy their breakfast. Seriously, TMI.

Ochako looked like she was desperately trying not to think the same thing Katsuki was thinking.

“Oh, don’t worry, I ran it through a river before bringing it up,” said Mina, having caught Katsuki’s expression, since he wasn’t as polite as Ochako. “You want some?”

“No.”

“Suit yourself. Brains are the best.”

He wanted to gag.

“That’s gross,” said Todoroki.

“Well of course it would be to you, elementals are herbivores,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

And they were off again, Mina licking brains off her claws as she let the wind beat the blood away from her face.

Hey, at least she wasn’t throwing her pee and feces out a window to cover the streets.

Eijrio and Mina were still chatty little f*cks, but at least they’d gotten the worst of it out the first day and managed to enjoy some lengths of silence during their flight. Occasional he’d hear Izuku shout something to Todoroki, but otherwise Katsuki was allowed to enjoy the scenery in peace. It wasn’t much, just more forest, but his eyes kept straying to that crowned mountain in the distance. Something about the clouds made the back of his neck tingle. It was like the feeling he got before a punch came his way--old instincts he’d honed as a hero back in his previous life. But it wasn’t so much a feeling of danger as it was of anticipation.

The feeling increased with the swelling of the mountain as it grew ever closer till it loomed above them, even in the air as they were.

They managed to land just outside the village by the light of the moonlight, and a helpful floating orb of light held out by an invisible line strung to Ochako’s fingertips. Several figures burst out from the silver-lit huts the moment they landed, their steps far too fluid for the average extra, though only one of them held a visible weapon.

“We come in peace!” Ochako yelled. “I’m Uraraka Ochako, court wizard of Tenya Providence!”

“Oh, Miss Witch, isn’t it a bit late to be herb shopping?”

“I’m escorting these folk. They’re only interested in finding the storm dragons for their tamer.”

“Doesn’t he already have a dragon?”

“Oh, there’s two,” Ochako looked back. “Izuku, if you would show them your lightning.”

And so Izuku did after sliding off Eijiro’s massive back, giving a strobe light effect to the half a dozen men who’d come out to meet them.

Katsuki got brief flashes of night shirts, wide eyes, and one man with brilliant red hair.

“We were told we could find someone who might know of their location if we came here,” Ochako continued. “That aside, though, would it be okay if we stayed here for the night? Of course, we can pay.”

Katsuki hoped that meant she’d brought money, as he had no idea how much their leftover three coppers could bring. Monster carrots and apples had drained them dry. Damn, would they have to actually find ways to make money in the future?

He didn’t miss the men exchanging looks, especially with the one ginger who’d hung out in the back.

After they’d had their moment, they’d agreed, though they’d insisted Eijiro and Mina stay outside the village, to which they tried not to whine about.

“Humans are so inhospitable,” Mina had grumbled. “It’s not like I’m going to eat anyone, even if I’m hungry enough to. I’d settle for a horse.”

That just cemented their ostricization.

Katsuki felt a little bad, but not bad enough to do anything about it. The two had already proven themselves perfectly capable of taking care of themselves if allowed to hunt, and they weren’t the only ones who hadn’t eaten anything other than jerky snuck out of the saddle bags all day. And it wasn’t like he’d had a nice little vacation clinging to a wind beaten saddle. Maybe, if they were lucky, the next stretch of their adventure could be done on foot. Katsuki could do with a good hike.

The first thing that stood out about Ninjang village in the silver moonlight was the architecture. They were distinctly Japanese, with stilted foundations, ceramic tiled roofs, and sliding doors. It felt like he’d gone back to his previous life and was walking around historic Kyoto, and the sensation was distinctly jarring. The next thing he noticed was the lack of sewer smell that their last trapeze into civilization had. It made him wonder why Ninjang village was the tiny, forgotten place while Tenya Whatever was the culture center.

As he drew in line with the men leading them to wherever they’d be stored for the night, he found they too weren’t as large as he or Izuku, though there seemed to be more meat on them then the men back in the city. Or perhaps that lethal-like grace in their steps seemed to be giving that impression. The swords at their hips also looked suspiciously like katanas.

“Is this like some secret ninja village or something?” Katsuki said, mostly to himself.

The guy beside him, who looked particularly zitty in the light of Ochako’s magic orb, visibly flinched and looked at him.

Another guy elbowed him in the side, jerking the kids attention back in front of him as though Katsuki hadn’t said anything.

Katsuki smirked. “Not very subtle, you know.”

“Kaachan.”

“What?”

“Shut up.”

Chapter 27

Chapter Text

After he woke up on a futon for the first time in…well, forever, Katsuki just laid there, staring at the rafters and listening.

It was too quiet. Sure he could hear people murmuring to each other outside and the occasional crunch of gravel or dirt beneath feet, but it was practically silent compared the bustle of Jet-leg’s Stinkville.

He glanced over to see Izuku doing much the same, staring and thinking, spread eagle on his own futon.

“Hey.”

Izuku turned his head and met his eye. They communicated silently for a moment, all eyebrows, pointed stares, a shrugged shoulder or two.

“Breakfast and go?” Izuku finally said.

Katsuki nodded and leapt to his feet in one smooth motion. Gawd, he needed a workout. His muscles were twitching for it. All this freezing his ass and getting beaten up by the wind on a dragon did nothing for his skills.

Maybe he could find a ninja up to going a round or two…

When Izuku and him stepped out of the little hut they’d been allowed to sleep in, it was disturbing how many heads turned their way. Even if they all quickly looked back to their own business soon after, it creeped him the hell out.

“Where’s Cheeks?” Katsuki asked.

“She should be just next door,” said Izuku.

Katsuki squinted at the sky to measure the time. “Still pretty early. Here’s a present: you can wake her up. I’ll hunt down grub.”

Izuku flushed. “But she--what if she’s--”

“Then lucky you, perv.”

A twinkle of ice and smoke came a blink before Todoroki appeared at Izuku’s side, as solid as though he’d been there the whole time.

All the heads flicked around from their business again to stare at Todoroki, and stare hard.

Katsuki resisted the urge to growl. He hated noisy busybodies. Didn’t they have better things to do than watch them like entertainment? Just how little went on in this town?

“I can check for you,” said Mr. Flame-and-Frost-Toot.

“Shouto, elemental or not you can’t just invade a girl’s privacy.”

Shouto blinked that slow, cat-like blink. “Why? It’s not like she sleeps naked.”

Izuku flushed. “You don’t know that!”

Another cat-blink. “Humans sleep naked too?”

“And I’m out.” Katsuki pivoted on his heel and got off that porch. He met the unabashed stare of one of the nosey plebs and grunted in satisfaction when they quickly looked away. He waited till he was several steps away from Izuku and his tagalong before saying, loudly, “Alright, which one of you ninja-f*cks is up to trading for some food?”

He could feel more than hear Izuku’s disapproval from behind him.

Several of the townsfolk flinched and proceeded to pretend that they didn’t hear him, walking around houses or continuing their chores of sweeping porches, hanging daikon radishes and carrots, or conversing in low voices. One or two, however, exchanged glances and cautiously approached him.

“We’re happy to feed our guests,” said a man with several moles quietly.

“We’re not so uncultured,” said his female companion, a none-too-subtle ‘unlike you,’ in her tone.

“Tch, I accept no charity,” said Katsuki. “I got a dragon you can pick off and a naga who doesn’t have a choice. Naga venom’s useful for some sh*t, right?” He’d heard that off Pinkie.

The couple’s eyes widened. “That--that would be too much--”

“Well lucky you, that’s what I got.”

As the man floundered through aborted sentences and flapping hands, the woman’s eyes went to Katsuki’s arms.

“How about cutting some firewood?” she said. “You look like you could do quit a bit and our children are preoccupied.”

“Hey, I’m still here,” mumbled the man, pouting.

She ignored him, waiting on Katsuki’s reply.

Katsuki gave his most co*cky smirk. “You’ll have enough firewood to build a second house.”

She chuckled. “Then I’ll have enough food to feed a small army. Your friends are invited.”

“Nice,” he jerked his chin over her shoulder. “Lead the way.”

Sweet. Work out and a meal. He should have come here earlier.

He’d just hammered out enough wood to make a hill his size and break out a sweat when red entered his field of vision, wearing a skirt far shorter than what she’d previously worn.

Katsuki did his best to hide the way he froze up and stared. Best to look casual. It wasn’t cool to look to interested.

He leaned back into his hips, throwing his bare shoulders back and flashing some teeth.

“We meet again,” he said.

The sweet-ass ginger girl returned his grin. He tried to be covert with flicking his eyes up and down her figure. Her simple navy skirt nearly reached her knees, but she wore close fitting leggings underneath and a yakuta like top. Modest. It covered the important bits. That didn’t mean Katsuki wasn’t looking forward to when she’d turn around and walk away. But this view was nice too. She had her curly red hair tied into a high ponytail and bright, sky-blue eyes he hadn’t noticed before, along with the peach-like smile her lips made.

A hot tingle ran up from his toes.

“I’m kind of surprised you came here,” she said. “Do you often follow strange girls back to their village?”

Katsuki shrugged. “You made the effort to dress up and hunt me down, so I figured why not.” He jerked his head behind him, where the crown-topped mountain loomed. “So, there really dragons up there or you just that into me?”

Her peachy smile widened, making the hot tingle strike out against his thighs.

“Oh, no, there’s dragons up there. At least, according to the elder. You should really ask him rather than just depending on my word.”

“Is there a reason why you’re helping me? Besides, you know,” he did a little pec dance, just for her.

She laughed and the sound warmed him more than the hot tingles.

“Oh gal, you really…” she cleared her throat, trying to gain a semblance of seriousness. “Well, I thought it would be obvious. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that the emperor of our country isn’t the best. My village, as you so blatantly pointed out, is in fact a village of ninjas, though please keep that to yourself. It’s a secret, along with the fact that we’ve served rulers of this continent for generations as their shadow. In return the leaders protect our way of life and listen to our requests above all others.”

“Except this guy, apparently?” Katsuki threw out.

She nodded, blue eyes darkening beneath lowered, ginger lashes. “Ten years ago, before he claimed the throne, my village use to be full to the brim with people. Now it’s grown quiet, ever since he kept demanding more and more of our people and sending our agents on missions they couldn’t return from. He’s ignored our council concerning other lands as well and our obligations have turned from serving the ruler to watching helplessly as our neighbors wither under his dictatorship.”

And then a sudden thought occurred to Katsuki as to why the village had been so quiet. “Wait, where’s all your kids?”

The girl’s mouth thinned.

“You noticed,” she said.

“Kind of hard not to, it’s quiet as sh*t.”

She looked down, clasping her hands together. “We…we tried to deny him when our agents kept dying. We, well, more or less went on strike, so he…”

Katsuki scowled. “Did he kill or kidnap them?”

“Hostages are far more useful,” she said with a sad smile. “We may be skilled warriors, but we are few in number. He sent a whole army.”

“Not really original of him.”

“I know. He did the same to your tribe.”

Katsuki nodded, not having to ask how she knew. She’d just said they were basically the informants for the kingdom. Pretty fortunate on their part ot have landed here.

“So what does that have to do with me?” he asked.

“Well--”

“I ain’t fighting no emperor for you, if that’s what you’re asking.”

He was offended that she looked so surprised.

“What?” he snarled. “Why’d you think I would in the first place?”

“Well, he killed so many of your people, including your mother--”

“Yeah, but getting involved won’t bring them back. If anything it would just bring unwanted attention to the whoever’s left and get them killed too,” he snapped, all the deja vu of the Toaster coming back. “It’ll just cause more trouble, and I’ve tried the whole ‘hero’ thing before. Newsflash, it isn’t as awesome as it seems. You work your ass off to change the world only to realize the world isn’t some clay lump you can mess with, it’s just people, and people as a whole don’t change. Save your damn self and send your own hero. You’re ninjas, aren’t you? Assassinate him from the shadows, or does he have a lackey or two ready to kill your kids as soon as you do?”

She looked down. “You got it.”

Katsuki looked to the sky with a groan and a muttered cuss.

“The thunder dragons are actually a guarded secret in our village,” she said quickly. “I thought, well, in return for leading you to your dragon--”

“--that we’d be all cooleo helping you out of the fuzzy goodness of our hearts.”

She nodded, still looking down. He didn’t like that look on her. She was prettier smiling with her belligerent red head thrown back, as though ready to cackle like a cheesy cartoon villain. It made something squirm unpleasantly in his chest to see her all wilted instead.

“Please,” she said. “Your people are known to be master warriors, and as dragon tamers on top of that--and if you get rid of it perhaps you could even demand the return of the remaining dragon tamers to their homeland, or even a lifting of the banishment to the northern lands.”

Katsuki growled and re-hefted the ax in his hand for another swing. “Why the hell does everyone think we aren’t happy where we are?” He readied a block of wood on the stump. “f*cking extras haven’t even bothered talking to us let alone visiting.” He slammed the ax down, cutting the thick wood in two as easy as paper. “Not that we’re complaining, we’re up there cause we hate greedy asshole bastards in the first place. Serious perks to not being a tourist destination, you know.”

She watched him quietly through half a dozen more swings of his ax, her expression unreadable.

“You’re right,” she said at length. “I apologize. I made assumptions without knowing anything.”

“Damn right,” but he didn’t say it with as much strength as he wanted to. It was getting harder to look at her slumped shoulders and downturned eyes.

After adding another foot to his small mountain without her leaving, he rested the ax against his shoulder and used his free hand to scratch at his head vigorously.

“f*cking fine,” he muttered. “I’ll talk to my nerd and see what he wants to do.”

She perked up, big blue eyes flashing at him like headlights.

“That doesn’t mean I’m killing some bigshot for you,” he snapped. “ I already explained why that’s a sh*t-ton mess I ain’t touching, but maybe we could help you get your kids out or something. Maybe teach you a thing or two about living out of sight so you don’t get these stupid problems with dictators.”

She clasped her hands together, beaming. “That’s better than nothing! I’ll talk to to the elders. I’ve been working as their sort of go between if you haven’t guessed already.”

“I figured,” he said grumpily. He hated being so nice. He could almost hear the nerd cheering for him in the background and it made him want to scream. “You don’t strike me as the stupid type that would try to do all this sh*t on their own.”

“Aww, well don’t be like that, you’re gonna make me blush.”

“Shut up,” he said half-heartedly, looking around for some more wood. “Leave me to my work. I got breakfast to earn.”

“I think you more than did that.” She eyed the giant wood pile next to him.

“You softy southerners all get surprised at how much us ‘barbarians’ can eat,” said Katsuki, placing another wood chunk for splitting. “Better safe than sorry, and I need the work out. I can feel my muscles shrinking by the second I’m down here among you plebs.”

“Then how about a spar later?”

He slammed the ax down, wood pieces gone flying. “What?”

She had that cat-got-the-gream peach smile again, and the hot tingles in his thighs returned with a vengeance.

“A spar,” she almost purred. “With me.”

He didn’t even try to hide it this time when he gave her a once over, from her dainty feet, pass the skirt veiling that perky ass, to the top of her curly ginger head. She had good muscle tone, he could see that much. But she was easily half is size.

That doesn’t mean he was stupid enough to judge by looks alone.

“Sure,” he flashed his trademark smirk. “But I won’t go easy on you. I meant it when I said I need a work out.”

“Great!” she chirped, complete with a happy in hop in place that was quickly replaced with a haughty swish of her head that made his smile grow. That was the stuff. f*cking cute, is what it was. “I’ll come by and get you later, then. Enjoy your breakfast!”

She swiveled on the spot and trounced off. Sure enough, that little skirt showed off the bubbly butt far better than the bulky maid’s uniform.

His heart picked up speed and the hot tingles rocketed all over his body.

Well damn. He might just be in trouble.

Chapter 28

Chapter Text

Way back when Izuku had regained his memory, after he’d gotten over all the emotional puss*ness of accepting that Katsuki was alive and well, the attention got turned to Izuku and what had happened after Katsuki’s death.

To Katsuki’s surprise, Izuku was lackluster about his memories. After he defeated Shigaraki, All for One’s replacement body, and then in turn All for One with the help of heroes from around the world, he’d become the number one hero by default. People were naming him the new symbol of peace straight out of high school. It was everything Izuku had wanted.

But it had been tainted by all the lives lost in the battle, including all the friends who had laid down their lives for the world’s sake, though stupid Izuku had to take it all personally and say it was his fault they died, which Katsuki wasted no time in telling him how intrinsically narcissistic that was. It wasn’t all about him, dammit, they were heroes. It’s what they did.

But Izuku had given him a sad look when he had said that.

“That wasn’t hero work,” he’d said. “That had been war. We were child soldiers, Katsuki.”

“What’s the difference?” Katsuki had asked, only to feel stupid a moment later.

“Very few wars have a good side and a bad side,” he said. “There were a lot of good people fighting on the villain’s side for a better world. The Hero Commission was corrupt. The government was prejudice. They were just trying to point those out when hero society insisted on ignoring it. Remember Endeavor abusing his family? Doing it for fame and glory? That wasn’t a terribly unique story.”

“But there were good heroes!” Katsuki had insisted, though he didn’t know why he insisted. Perhaps because he felt like walls were closing in on him, ready to crush him beneath the words ‘you died in vain, you were no hero.’

“Of course there were. There were heroes everywhere. But just because they got the label hero doesn’t mean they were, and I learned that more then ever during and after the war. I thought being the Symbol of Peace or the equivalent of it would make society a better place, like All Might did. But it wasn’t a better society. It was just quieter, because everyone was too sore for losing loved ones and living in terror to get up to anything bad.”

Izuku had heaved a sigh then with the weariness of an old man, at odds with his eleven-year-old body.

“Misery…is often a quiet thing,” he’d said. “Those who truly need a hero often cry out for one where those like heroes or police can’t hear. There’s no changing a broken society on the top, no matter how powerful you are, if its the roots that are rotten.”

“Roots? You’re starting to sound like Hands-Mc-f*ck,” said Katsuki with an uneasy smile.

“He had a point,” Izuku had said, and Katsuki had lost his smile. “Villains aren’t born, Kaachan, they’re made. What people need rescuing from the most isn’t a bad guy using his quirk to steal from a bank or hurt them, but those close to them, like their family.”

He’d gone on to list of what he had suspected as a hero-in-training, then found out as a professional hero: high divorce rates, domestic abuse, verbal and mental abuse, mental and emotional diseases at an all time high due to broken homes and persecution at school or in the workplace, a lack of direction and purpose in youth and adults, homelessness, drug addiction rates, etc.

“It starts with the family,” Izuku had said. “And no amount of legislation or crime control can change the degradation of whether a kid is raised in love and attention. Even I was raised by a single mom because my dad decided making money in another country was more important than being around for us. Your mom was abusive--”

“She was--!!” But Katsuki had deflated, because he’d had that same thought back when he’d been a toddler with too much time on his hands to reflect. His mother had changed in this life. She’d been more hands-on, more physical, more temperamental in the last one. Though still loud and abrasive, she’d been more gentle in this one, and it had gone a long ways in reminding Katsuki of his promise to himself to be a better son.

Izuku went on to list the troubled families in their class alone that he had found out after the fact. Todoroki’s was only the most flashy. But little things, such as neglect, single-parent households, or even just a lack of energy spared for kids while they were growing easily compounded into something more.

“I’m not saying they had to be perfect,” said Izuku. “But healthy…I mean, is it so much to ask that a mom or a dad simply be there?”

And that wasn’t the only thing. Then there was discrimination, which was only compounded by parents being too focused on their careers or other such things to properly educate their children on the fact that, hey, what quirk you're born with has about as much effect on whether you're evil or not as your hair color. Or, hey, don't be a little asshole to others. Or, hey, why are you so miserable and desperate enough that being a little asshole is all you know how to do to cry for help?

“I would have done more help as an underground hero,” Izuku had at the lowest of his ‘society was rotten at the roots’ rant. “They’re the ones that deal with domestic cases and all the rest of the stuff pay attention to. No, scratch that, maybe we would have been better not making people complicit at the suffering around them because they think ‘oh, a hero will take care of it.’ That’s what I tried to change the most. Made it my theme and everything: ‘Someone out there needs you to be their hero.’”

“Yeah, sounds like the sentimental sh*t you’d come up with.” But Katsuki had smiled in quiet approval.

“The best kind of hero work I saw was done by ordinary people in their own sphere of influence. I found a good dad who did his best or a dedicated housewife shone more brightly to me than…than even All Might.”

Katsuki would have gasped playfully, but the pain in Izuku’s voice had been more raw.

“Because then their kids would go on to be good friends--little heroes, whenever they’d see someone being sad or hurt, because their mom or dad was always there when they were sad or hurt. I mean, there’s always exceptions, that wasn’t always the case--”

“I get what you’re saying,” said Katsuki.

“Or just…just people helping out people. Just people caring about those around them, in their own communities. I tried so hard to point that out to people, to use my influence as a hero, but works can only do so much. People have to want to do what is right. They got to feel it. And that’s harder to do when you’re too caught up in your own suffering to focus on anything other than yourself.” Izuku had put his hands over his face then, a steady stream of tears glimmering down the sides of his face and into his hair from where he laid on the stone of their hide out. “There were so many people I couldn’t reach, simply because I was only me. It didn’t matter how many villains I put into jail, those villains themselves just needed help. They had needed a hero. Everyone needed a hero. I just…” He gave another world weary sigh. “I got so tired.”

“Sounds like you needed me around to slap some sense back into your stupid, self-sacrificing brain,” said Katsuki. “You can’t help everyone, not that it never stopped you. I’m surprised you didn’t self-destruct.”

“I did self-destruct,” said Izuku. “More or less. I didn’t last very long after the war. Only five years or so.”

Katsuki gave his friend a hard stare. “You didn’t.”

“I didn’t commit suicide. But eventually I just…burned out, and I had enough enemies by then they just…took advantage of it.” He lifted off his hand to give Katsuki the face he hated the very most: teary, forced smile, with an edge of panic. It had been his trademark whenever he’d jump in to protect some useless extra from Katsuki’s rage, or when he’d jumped in to save Katsuki from the slime villain and had given the answer to Katsuki’s demand of what the hell he was doing. “Died in my sleep. Someone gassed my apartment. Pretty lame, right?”

Yeah. That had been pretty lame. In comparison, Katsuki’s death had been great. All a blaze of glory for the sake of his friend.

“Then how the hell did you end up here?” Katsuki had asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Didn’t some glowing ass death angel come and ask whether you wanted to move on or some sh*t?”

Izuku had blinked several times at him, even maybe slowed the stem of his tears, before he seemed to remember.

“Oh. Oh I guess I did. Man, how could I forget, but it’s so blurry.”

“What did they say?” Katsuki asked.

Izuku frowned in concentration. “I think…I think they felt bad for me. Said something about giving me a second chance to just…live.”

“What the hell, and you weren’t living? You did save people, you were a hero, dumbass.”

“Yeah. They said that too. Like I had forgotten that.”

“Because you did. f*cking ungrateful was what you were. You were a f*cking hero through and through, All Might certified, but because you couldn’t make the world sunshine and daisies because, newsflash, people are idiots, you got all emo, what the f*ck!”

Izuku had chortled wetly. “See? I needed you. That’s why I took the chance. I…I wanted to…”

Katsuki was unamused. “Don’t make it gay.”

“You’re the one who gave your life for me!”

“Which was f*cking manly! At least now you can understand a bit why you irritated me so much.”

“Because you thought I thought I was better than you and was more heroic than you?”

Katsuki bristled. That had been true. Technically. When he’d been young and stupid and crazed by his own insecurities.

“Go back to saying how you needed me to knock sense into you,” Katsuki growled.

“Well, technically--”

“Go back.”

But the nerd had gotten ballsy in his reincarnation.

“Technically, any of my friends would have done the same thing if I had taken the time to talk to them. I kind of worked myself out of any free time.”

“Ugh.” Just imagining it gave Katsuki a headache. “You know what? I’m kind of glad I wasn’t alive to see that, you can be the most stubborn asshole known to man, especially when you think you’re doing the right thing.”

Izuku had hummed in agreement. At least he wasn’t crying anymore.

“So…in this life…in this life, I think…I think we should be, well, a bit more wiser.”

Katsuki snorted. “We? I learn from my mistakes, unlike your nerd ass.”

“Yeah. I intend to too. I’m going to be a hero in my sphere. I’m going to take care of my mom and my neighbors. You’re going to be chief, right?”

“If my mom thinks I’m up for it and the rest of the tribe agrees,” said Katsuki with a grunt. Being Katsuki, he both liked and loathed the idea of being boss. It meant that no one could tell him what to do, which he liked, but it also meant he had to deal with everyone else’s stupidity.

But Izuku then shook his head hard. “No, hold on, that’s the same old thinking. We don’t need leadership to make a difference. We can just…just look out for the tribe. Look out for each other. You know, be the right kind of heroes that don’t self-destruct.”

“You’re making this way more complicated than it has to be,” said Katsuki, who was already quite satisfied with how he was leading his life. He hadn’t bullied the nerd into the ground, he didn’t get in fights with his mom every day, he spent plenty of quality time with his dad helping with chores and tending to the goats, and Birdie hadn’t followed them.

“And…and when we grow up, we can get married and be the best husbands and dads ever--”

“Pfft, yeah, like any girl is going to marry your freckled ass.”

“Weirdly enough, I actually don’t have any freckles on my ass.”

“Uck, don’t make me puke! Wipe that smirk off your face, you’ve gotten f*cking sassy since I was gone, and it ain’t an improvement so shove it!”

“No. No, I don’t think I will.”

“Buttmunch.”

“Asshole.”

“f*ckwad.”

“jacko*ff.”

They gave each other crooked smiles.

“Let’s be happy in this life,” said Izuku. “Not waste our second chance, you know? Live without regrets.”

“Tch, I’m already on it, you’re the one that’s behind.”

“I don’t know. I’m finally best friends with you, aren’t I?”

“Ugh, stop making it gaaaaay!”

“You’re the one who keeps saying it’s gay. It’s just good old friendship. Camaraderie. Bromance.”

“Yeah, sure, I can hear Dragon Ass whining for us at the foot of the canyon, this heart-to-heart is over.”

“Aw, but Kaachan, we were just getting to the good part where we hug and shed all the manly tears--”

“Hug yourself, and you’ve already cried enough for three of us.”

“Yeah. I might have.”

But that promise to themselves had paved the path for the years following growing up in their tribe. It was only strengthened by the teachings of the tribe to watch out for one’s own and to seek freedom in all things. It was drilled into their heads by their culture that no amount of glory or power in the world could make up for failure in one’s own family and tribe, and then their past lives nailed it home with the lingering taste of war, suffering, and exhaustion.

A hero was nosey, yes. But they could only help those in their reach.

Which was why Katsuki was wondering if outing a tyrant was beginning to, technically, be just helping people in their reach. Refusing Jet-Legs had been one thing. That had just reeked of revenge, and the asshole’s soldiers and brother had killed half his tribe, by orders or not. But the ninja tribe was devoid of laughing children and had a sassy ginger beauty with a bubble butt--not that the latter had any weight in his decision. Not at all. He wasn’t Balls-for-Brains. But maybe he and Izuku had talked about having future wives a little bit too much.

Izuku seemed to be thinking something equally as serious as they ate breakfast together on the front porch of the couple Katsuki had earned food from. Cheeks ate with them, glancing over one too many times at Katsuki for his comfort. Half-and-Half was munching on what looked like a whole steamed daikon radish, which, what the hell, who did that other than horses?

An old man had come by and stopped in front of them, as though by some unspoken appointment. Had even brought his own chair. He looked suspiciously like Gran Torino, but Katsuki was half-expecting old faces by now.

“So you got thunder dragons up there.” Katsuki nudged his chin up towards the mountain looming over the village.

“Storm dragons,” corrected the old man. “Though I have half a mind to leave it at that and let you lot get blown to your deaths, you disrespectful brat.”

“Don’t take it personally, he’s like that way to everyone,” said Izuku. “And I mean everyone. ”

Both the elder and Katsuki ‘tched’, only to look away to disguise their looks of horror that they’d been in complete unison.

“In return I have your word that you’ll help us bring back our children?” Torino asked.

“Yes,” said Izuku and Bakugou, with the latter adding, “You need some kind of blood contract or something?”

For the first time, the old man smiled.

“No. No, I think we can do business on that. I’ll have your guide waiting for you once you’re done eating. Best to not put these things off while the weather is clear.”

Chapter 29

Chapter Text

Katsuki had issue with that order.

"I got a spar after this," he said.

Gran-Torino-Look-Alike gave Katsuki the eye.

"You telling me what to do, boy?"

"I'm telling you, I have plans. It's called manners, old man."

"You need to go while the skies are clear."

"And I ain't in no hurry." Katsuki took an especially large bite of his breakfast for emphasis.

Because it was true. The nerd wouldn't die if he had to wait a little longer for his dragon. He'd probably waste a bunch of carbon dioxide sighing at Katsuki's antics, but that didn't hurt anyone. Probably be good for him. Meditation, breathing techniques, and all that jazz. Interesting thought, right there: exasperation-fed breathing for the soul.

The elder obviously didn't like that their carefully guarded secret being given wasn't enough to get Katsuki to kowtow to his schedule, but he also didn't have the ground to argue. This was a mutual agreement, after all. Badass barbarians will help you get your kids; you lead them to dragons. Boom.

"Why do you need our help anyway?" asked Izuku.

The geezer sighed.

"We've already tried before and failed. The king has his eye on us."

Todoroki gave an especially loud crunch on his giant white radish.

"But you're sneaky ninja-ass-bitches," said Katsuki, as though that explained everything because it did. Ninjas were all about being invisible and whatnot.

Maybe-Actually-Gran-Torino snorted. "That we may be, but if the hand is already around your throat, there isn't much to do. Two fresh dragon riders offering their loyalty that he knows nothing about, though."

Both Izuku and Katsuki dropped whatever food they had in their hands.

"You said nothing about us working for him," said Izuku.

"Just because you swear it doesn't mean you have to mean it," said the old man. "We recently got a charm you can wear that can take the place as the subject for the magic, more like a curse, so he'll think he has you sworn in, but really, it'll just be a rock."

"Ah," said Half-n-Half for the first time. "I've heard of those."

The old man nodded. "He'll trust you, it'll let you in, you'll get the kids to us at the rendezvous point and never have to see us or that bastard again...so calm your sh*t, fire boy."

Katsuki stiffened. "Don't tell me what to do!"

"Ah ha ha ha," said Izuku weakly. "Oh god, there's so much that could go wrong with that. So, um, there's an oath curse involved?"

"You didn't know that?" The old man smirked as though he found that hilarious.

Even IcyHot had the audacity to look at them questioning, cheeks full of radish like a freaking hamster.

Which drew back Katsuki's hackles. "We ain't got no reason to know what the rest of you losers are doing down here."

"Except when said losers come and kill half your village," said the old man.

"How did you..." But Izuku didn't finish that question because of course they knew. Freaking ninjas.

"Whatever, just go away. You're ruining our food," said Katsuki.

"Kaachan!"

Katsuki shoved a rice ball into Izuku's mouth. Nerd should have learned by now that he went by his own groove and he didn't need a mother.

The old man chuckled.

"You know, on second thought, I kind of like you two. You're entertaining if nothing else." He groaned as he pushed himself up by his knees. Short little fart. "Fine. Finish your sparring. I'll let Shouta know you'll be a bit."

Izuku choked on rice. Katsuki just chewed. There were lots of Shoutas in the world. But since it was them, it was probablythatShouta. God damn, he was going to laugh so hard.

"And if you need me for anything else, it's Torino."

Katsuki wheezed a little laugh, earning him narrowed eyes from said 'Torino.'

"Something funny?"

"Yeah, but if you don't get it, you never will," he said.

Izuku just moaned and covered his face.

After they ate, they took some of the food to Cheeks because she was a lazy ass who apparently slept in, ("She isn't used to starting training at dawn like we are, cut her a break."--Izuku). And since Katsuki hadn't exactly thought to make it clear where he and his date were meeting for said spar, he decided to go check on the lizard and Pinky in hopes maybe she'd just magically appear on the way. Izuku questioned him and raised plenty of doubts about the wisdom of inviting an unknown ginger variable to fight you, but Katsuki just gave him the finger. Nerd wasn't getting the drop on this girl. He got hit-on dibs, even if the 'hit-on' was literal.

Half-and-Half, who had followed after them like a natural plant hazard leaving burnt and frozen footsteps in his wake ('able to control his powers' Katsuki's ass), didn't talk much. But his curious gaze was just as annoying.

Katsuki's heart did an annoying little jump when he cleared the edge of the town and saw a burst of curly hair that was a bit too orange to be Eijiro's scales. She was talking to a human-shaped Pinky with a hand on her hip. sh*t, she had nice hips too. Ugh, duh, of course, she had nice hips. Nice ass had to have some framework to hang off. No, sh*t, stop looking.

Pinky saw them first and greeted them with a holler echoed by Eijrio, who looked just a little too smug for Katsuki's comfort.

"Hey guys! Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah! Did you?"

"Pfft, yeah. I could sleep on freaking rocks, but Eijiro kept me nice and toasty. It's colder here than at the swamp, you know."

Both Katsuki and Izuku gave the dragon a look the lizard purposely did not meet.

Then Katsuki's eyes met the ginger's and she smiled that peach-sweet smile.

His stomach did a little squiggle he also did not appreciate.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Oh! You already met?" Mina grinned. "Oh my gawd, what a small world! Toru is, like, one of the few humans I've met outside you! Though we didn't get to talk much because she mostly came to talk to our chief, and naga aren't really expected to be all that friendly to humans, but that she'd bring us here too is, like, oh my gawd, now we have to be friends?"

Izuku had flinched next to him and stared a bit too hard at the ginger. Katsuki hadn't appreciated that either.

"Toru?" he said. "Hagakure Toru?"

Katsuki had a hunch.

The ginger babe raised an eyebrow. "Hagakure? Well, I guess I had a grandma who was a minor noble with that name, but they kind of lost that title...but where did you hear about that?"

Izuku did the flapping hands thing he did when scrambling to make up for some sh*t he'd said. "Oh! Just in passing! You know, from, uh, Iida! He mentioned some old nobility might be around here!"

Katsuki dropped his head back but made his groan as quiet as possible.

"Who?" he whispered.

"Later," hissed Izuku.

"Who?"

Izuku sighed, then leaned closer. "Invisible girl."

Katsuki swore.

The ginger girl watched them with unnervingly sharp eyes and an extra curve to one side of her smile. "So there's a story there."

"Lay off," growled Katsuki. "You're here for our fight, yeah?"

"Of course," she chirped and pulled out a katana--a whole f*cking katana--from seemingly nowhere. "Swords, or we doing this hand-to-hand?"

The warm stone that dropped into his hips at the thought of doing hand-to-hand told him that would be a bad idea.

"Uh, swinging blades around probably isn't the best idea," started Izuku.

"Shut up, nerd."

"Yeah, shut up!" chirped Pinky. "Wait, why are you fighting?"

"Oh yeah, starting the morning with some action!" crowed Eijiro.

"You just woke up?" asked Katsuki lowly.

Eijiro looked to the sky. "Ummm."

Katsuki narrowed his eyes.

Eijiro got to his feet, looking properly repentant. "I'll just, um, go get my breakfast...'cause we have things to do today and...stuff..."

They'd been over this all their lives. Eijiro had been raised on the same schedule as them, with his own training with fire, flying, and the like. Like hell Katsuki was going to let his dragon be a lazy ass. Just because they were traveling didn't mean that had changed. He was already too lenient during their stay at the Toaster's Castle. He'd thought, 'Oh, Eijiro's been chained, had to maybe fight a theatrical Half-n-Half, and I just want to get out of this place and am distracted with my nerd's girl having a crush on me, so we'll just skip the lecture and go.' But they'd flown in at a decent time, and no drama had occurred. Lizard had no excuse.

"Soooo..." drawled the now-dubbed Toru, swinging her arms, blade included, about her hips. "Should we find a space for this or..."

Katsuki went over to the saddlebags to pull out the blade that he usually kept on his hip. His clan had a tradition of keeping a weapon nearby, but he left sleeping and breakfast to a large knife hidden in his boot. Was more comfortable that way.

Toru let out a low whistle. "That's a pretty sword."

Katsuki smirked and let his curved blade catch the light, bringing out the waves of color in the silver of the steel. "Damascus. Turns out having fire dragons nearby is great for smithing." And since iron was a precious commodity, they put their all into every bit they got. And as a warrior tribe, a man's weapon was as precious to him as his life, seeing as without it his life might go flying out the window anyhow.

This sword in particular had been a gift from Kastuki's mother on his coming of age. It had been a beauty even among the carefully crafted blades of their tribe, with a rare line of gold coiled into the hilt and pommel. The blacksmith had wept when he had handed it over to his mother, claiming it his greatest work yet.

He was more than happy to let it gleam just a little bit longer in front of his equally fine opponent. She even came closer to get a better view--

And stabbed him.

He moved out of the way just in time to avoid getting his thigh impaled.

Her sweet peach smile curved into something predatory, striking a more troublesome sort of heat through his stomach.

"There's no 'start' in a real fight," she all but purred.

"I wasn't gonna say nothing." He grinned back, all tooth and fang, and lunged.

It was a deadly dance that made Izuku make all sorts of horrified noises. Even Mina and Eijro started voicing their concerns about using very real and very sharp blades for a supposedly 'friendly' match. Later, Katsuki would be ashamed of them all, or at least those who were raised with him in a tribe of warriors, but for now, he was caught up in the thrill of adrenaline.

The flash of steel in the morning sun was finer than the most expensive jewels. The ting of his steel against hers sang like wind chimes. And if he had thought her beautiful before, the way she danced and dodged as though they had choreographed this set his insides on fire. God, had there ever been a girl like this? Why hadn't there been one like this in his tribe? There had been warrior women in his tribe. Hell, he'd been raised by one. But Toru...

Toru made them look like hulking cave women swinging clubs.

In a bright cling that made his heart vibrate, the katana lunged down to the hilt of his own, and he missed the hard hook of her foot around his heel.

In a show of remarkable speed and skill, Katsuki's world went flying. He hit his back hard, sword slipping from his fingers.

The sharp tip of the katana kissed his throat.

"Some great warrior of the north!" she crowed above him.

But Katsuki was too distracted to dish out his usual quip. The sun hit her hair just right, sending it alight like fire. The pupils of her eyes had shrunk to pinpricks, making them look like circles cut directly from the sky behind her. Even the drip of sweat on her chin looked like a glass suncatcher.

Thank. God. This girl was invisible in his previous life, or he would have died much, much sooner.

It wasn't till she'd stepped off and a worrying nerd face replaced her then Katsuki snapped back to attention.

"That was a fluke," he growled, grabbing his sword and accepting Izuku's hand up even as he avoided looking at him. He did not want to see what he was thinking and he knew the nerd too well not to be able to see it.

"Spoken like a true loser," she said, looking illegally cute with her proud little smirk and a hip jutted out.

"He's so in love," whispered Eijiro.

"Totally," loud-whispered Pinky back to him.

He whirled the tip of his sword at them. "Stop talking out your asses or the peanut gallery gets skinned."

"Your threats would have more weight if we knew you'd actually do them," said Eijro.

"I have to agree with him," said Izuku, jerking his chin towards the dragon that was SUPPOSED to be getting his breakfast. God damn it, he can't discipline his dragon right in front of the female, she'd take him for a savage or something. And by the wiggle of his tail, Eijiro knew that. Having friends was the worst.

Toru frowned for the first time that morning. "You all can really hear the dragon talking? Ugh, I feel so left out."

"You're not missing out on anything," said Katsuki a bit too quickly. He swiped a forearm across his forehead to stop the sweat from getting into his eyes. See that? She had actually make him break a sweat. "Damn, Peachy, why don't they just send you to save the hostages?"

He regretted saying in the moment her expression went cold and blank.

"They did," she said.

Not wanting to dig himself any deeper into the hole when he was already internally running around screaming with all the weird emotions she had introduced to him, he didn't press further and instead asked, "So, uh, could you point me to a well or stream or something? I feel disgusting."

"I dunno, all those gleaming sweaty muscles in the sun are a great way to start a morning," she said, doing a once over of his still bare chest.

Heat rushed to his skin so fast, Katsuki just knew he'd turned red as a strawberry from his nipples to his scalp. It took every bit of his strength not to try and hide behind his arms like a bashful maiden.

Mina and Eijiro cat-called, and Izuku grinned like the menace he was.

"We've been having a hard time finding him a shirt," said Izuku, because no one had asked. "We're a bit larger than most folk, and that's proving to be a problem."

"Oh, why didn't you just say? I can fix that." She swiveled around with a swish of her curly red ponytail and her damn lovely hips. "This way, I'll take you to the well. There should be some soap in the place we let you sleep in, too. While you wash up, I'll whip you up a shirt forthwith."

"You can sew?" asked Bakugou stupidly.

She gave him a raised strawberry-blond eyebrow. "You can't?"

He gestured to his pants, " I made these, didn't I?" then realized his mistake a fraction of a second later. "Not that I didn't assume you couldn't?"

Her look was flat. "You just did."

"He means you're just so talented with the sword already that he can't imagine you having time to work on any other skills," rushed Izuku because Katsuki didn't give him enough credit.

She laughed, and boy, did it make the hair on Katsuki's arms prickle.

"Nice save."

Mina followed after them along with Eijrio, though he didn't get far because there was no way he would be able to fit in the narrow roads of the ninja town. As Katsuki and Izuku walked away from the small crowd gathering to stare at the flustered dragon, Izuku slid closer to Katsuki like a shifty slug and opened his mouth--

"Not a word," Katsuki growled.

Izuku closed his mouth but gave a very wide, sh*t-eating grin.

"I will punch you," said Katsuki. "And that's a threat you know I'll back up."

"You're being unfair."

"Damn right."

"Maybe you should keep the shirt off. Let your chest gleam a bit more."

"Last warning."

"Maybe ask if she can cook too, just to dig yourself a little deeper into that hole--"

Katsuki punched him.

Seriously, what the hell had happened in the past fifteen years to make the stuttering mess of a nerd such an obnoxious brat? Now he was giving reasons for Katsuki to turn back to his old bullying ways of making sure he was beaten into the ground.

Just as Katsuki was scolding himself for even thinking about doing that, Izuku trotted back up from where he'd stumbled from Katsuki's punch and said, "When she smirked after stabbing you, I thought you'd pass out."

...Beaten into the ground it was, then.