Chapter Text
When he wakes up the next day, it’s to a grumbling stomach and the sun only an hour away from its zenith. He changes into a clean set of clothes and slips into the hallway barefoot, automatically avoiding most of the louder boards.
He cracks open his mom’s door to check if she’s awake yet. Unsurprisingly, the bed is empty. She isn't the one who pulled an all-nighter the day before, after all, and she usually gets up early - she likes to water the garden before the sun fully rises.
He shuts the door quietly and heads down the stairs, which creak slightly underfoot. He can hear something simmering in the kettle over the fire, but it’s debatable whether it’s food or a medicine of some sort.
Reaching the bottom, he glances around the uncharacteristically empty-looking space that functions both as a shop and a living room. Normally they would have dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, but they used them all up preparing for the festival. Most of the usual stores of salve are depleted, too. A row of empty jars sit drying on the counter, and his mother sits in front of the kettle, adding some distinctly medicinal herbs to the pot. So, not food, then.
His mom turns to face him as she hears him come down the stairs. There are bags under her eyes, but she still musters up a smile. “Ah, Izuku! Finally awake, then?”
Another glance around the room and he can see that all of the supplies from the cart have been brought in already. A small spike of guilt lances through him at the thought that he’d left his mom to bring them in alone after they got back, even if she’d told him to. His stomach rumbles before he can apologize, and he flushes.
His mom just chuckles warmly, albeit tiredly. “There's some stew over on the table, dear.” She inclines her head towards the small table where they usually eat their meals. He nods with a wobbly smile and heads over, sitting in his usual creaky old chair and picking up the well-worn spoon. The stew is cold, but still tastes good, likely thanks to the spices his mom also grows in their garden and experiments with in her free time.
While he’s washing his dishes afterwards, his mom speaks up. “What did you talk about with Yagi-san after I left?”
He tilts his head. “A bit about magic, mostly.” That’s technically true, even if he is omitting the whole 'why did you try to fight a rogue dragon' bit and the whole 'implying he's All Might' bit - the first because he's still trying to avoid the subject, and the second because no . “Why do you ask?”
His mom frowns as if missing something, but shakes her head. “Nevermind, just curious.” She turns back towards the kettle with a smile.
Izuku finishes washing his dishes and then heads outside to check on the new herb sprouts.
He pauses at the door to watch the massive amount of people heading out of town (having slept off their hangovers, presumably), and the volunteers working to clear away the decorations from the previous day’s festival. After a moment, he makes his way to the back of the house. While it’s not strictly necessary to tend the herbs quite so carefully when his mother could use a spell to grow them to full size easily, his mom claims they work better when left to grow naturally.
(An experiment he did when he was nine didn’t reveal any meaningful difference in their effectiveness, but he’s not about to call her out on not wanting to use up too much magic. It’s not like he could cast the spell for her, after all.)
When he finishes checking on them (he had to pull out a few weed sprouts, and relocate some stray earthworms back into the soil), he heads back out front to drag the cart back beside the house and tie it up properly. While it isn’t much of a deterrent for real thieves, the rope has an alarm spell attached to it that, unless disabled, would alert the guards that their cart was stolen if it were untied or cut.
While he’s tying up the cart, he hears someone knock on the front door. For a moment he considers ignoring the knock, but eventually decides that that might be rude (if nothing else, his mother shouldn’t have to deal with any visitors alone) and starts heading towards the front of the house again.
As he rounds the corner he hears the squeal of the front door and his mother's voice. “Yagi-san! What a pleasant surprise. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Ah, I was wondering if your son could help me collect some of the plants around here? You both mentioned that the flowers here a little later in the season are beautiful, but I fear I won’t be able to come see them then.”
Izuku raises his hand in greeting as he rounds the corner. “I can certainly help with that Yagi-san. Did you want them potted so you can take them back with you? There should be a few that can survive outside of the forest."
Yagi starts a little, surprised by Izuku’s sudden presence. “Ah, yes, that would be greatly appreciated.” Somehow, Izuku gets the feeling that it wasn’t actually the flowers he was after, but he nods anyway and heads back into the garden to get a shovel. When he comes back around the corner, he sees Yagi waiting for him with a small terracotta pot held in his hands. Izuku turns toward the woods and gestures for him to follow.
“Right, let's go. It's already late enough in the day and we don’t want to be out past nightfall by accident.” Yagi nods, and follows.
-------
Once they’re in the trees, Izuku relaxes a bit. He knows this part of the woods like the back of his hand, and if worst comes to worst, it would be easy to flee. Even if this man is All Might, which, by the way, he still doesn’t entirely believe because what , the trees would make it difficult for him to follow him.
After a few minutes of walking, Yagi speaks. “So, Young Midoriya, what do you know about magic?”
He pauses, but eventually can’t help himself. It’s a rare moment when someone asks him about magic, and he’s not going to pass up a chance to talk about his favorite subject. “I-I know a lot, but most of it is just theory since I can’t practice it myself without help. In order to cast it, as I'm sure you know, there needs to be a command, either written in runes, spoken aloud, or thought with purpose. Most people can speak spells, but those who can cast them unspoken are usually masters at magic. However, dragons usually have one or two spells they can cast nonverbally, and it's usually an adaptation of a spell passed down through the family, almost like an heirloom. It's really interesting! And then there's spells that have prerequisites, stuff to facilitate or hold the spell, like the healing spells my mom puts in her medicines and salves-” Izuku cuts himself off. He’s rambling again, almost none of that was even anything to do with magic and spells, it was all just-
Yagi snickers, though not unkindly. “Young Midoriya, feel free to continue. It is not often I get to hear someone so interested in magic beyond its common uses. Tell me, how do you think the dragon’s shifting spell works?”
Izuku blinks, then tries and fails to stop a small smile from reaching his face. “The dragon’s shifting spell is really cool! Dragons are mostly made up of magic, which is why the shifting spell works at all, but is also why it only lasts for a month. It works with several layered sets of runes, usually set up in a circle to help focus on the dragon the spell is being cast on. It also needs a human to be there, which I'm pretty sure they don't actually need because the blueprint could just be done by adding the proper set of runes, but they continue requiring because it means that if a human isn’t willing to stay for the shifting that the dragon won't be able to do it, preventing anyone from sneaking into cities and wreaking havoc. I have a theoretical version that wouldn’t need a human present for the spell but I haven't actually gotten to test it yet, which is probably for the best. What I thought was odd is actually that the spell-” Whoops.
It would have been bad if he let that slip. He's pretty sure that most people don’t know that the shifting spell seems to have been modified from another spell. Izuku had spent too long trying to figure out what it could have been, (he’d figured it out weeks ago and had been- no.) and it appears the spell had been something that, during the war, would have left humans decimated, and definitely shouldn’t be something that Endeavor can get his claws on. A spell that requires human blood, and gives a dragon the ability to…
Izuku almost trips.
The ability to shift back and forth between human and dragon at will and oh powers above he really is talking to All Might-
Yagi is All Might, this is All Might, the Dragon King, he is going to die he just rambled about magic to All Might, and he is so stupid, of course the king used the spell he derived the shifting spell from, how else would he have had known that it worked, he's the one who gave the rest of the dragons the shifting spell that came from that modified spell, god he is so stupid-
Yagi- no, All Might, laughs. Izuku stares, before closing his mouth with a very audible click, no festival to muffle it this time.
“Well, it seems that you certainly are clever. In 500 years of peace, no one else has noticed that.” Shit. Welp, time to accept his death, there's no way he's getting out of this alive knowing what is probably one of the most well-guarded secrets of the Dragon King-
“Calm down, Young Midoriya, it's fine. In fact, it gives me all the more confidence for this next question.” All Might looks him dead in the eyes, blue pupils piercing and questioning, but with a small smile on his face.
“Have you been able to make a spell that works in reverse?”
Izuku has to stop and process for a moment. Because of course he has, it was almost too easy with the original version of the shifting spell laid out before him (but still took so long that he only finished it the other night because there were so many layers to it-), but it’s all theory. He doesn’t have enough magic, and he’s certain that any dragon with enough magic to activate and supply the spell for the duration of casting it would either kill him for figuring it out, or think he’s insane-
“So, how would it work?” Izuku startles out of his thoughts, and apparently, his muttering as well. He really did think he’d kicked that habit, but, to be fair, his muttering isn’t usually loud or enunciated enough to be understandable. But then again, this is the Dragon King. He could probably hear a mouse squeak from a mile away if he wanted to. Izuku isn’t ruling anything out.
(All Might huffs a laugh, and Izuku forcibly pulls his thoughts back on track.)
“Uh- it’d be similar in format to the original ver-version of the shifting spell, the one I worked backwards to get to, but since humans aren’t really made of m-magic the way dragons are, it's more complicated. Humans d-don’t have enough magic, so there’d need to be a dragon with a large enough amount of m-magic to supply b-basically an entirely new dragon until the human c-could create and supply enough to k-keep up. I-I think. It's a-all theory, and while I'm f-fairly sure the spell would w-work I’m not s-sure if there’d b-be, uh, side effects.”
Izuku looks back up at All Might as he finishes. All Might has a hand up to his chin in thought and ‘hmm’s for a moment, eyes half closed.
“Right!” Izuku startles. All Might snaps his fingers, his eyes bright and expression delighted, like he’s just come to a pleasing decision. “Young Midoriya! How would you like to test this spell of yours?”
Izuku stops for a moment, disbelieving, and then yelps, “W-WHAT?!”
------
Izuku and All Might (All Might!!!) are walking back to his house, a small soon-to-be flowering plant potted and being carried by All Might (He’d insisted, otherwise Izuku would be carrying it for him). They’d just gotten back onto the well-trodden path, after going on a much longer walk to discuss exactly what All Might meant by ‘testing out’ his spell. Apparently it includes Izuku accompanying him back to the Dragon Capital, where All Might’s home is, because All Might isn’t staying long enough for them to set up and cast the spell. And also staying there for an extended period of time to see if there are any side effects.
He also said that if the spell works like Izuku thinks it will, he would consider taking him on as his personal apprentice, which is entirely unprecedented. All Might is one of THE most knowledgeable people in the world on the subject of spells and magic, but he’d never taken on an apprentice or an heir to pass the knowledge down to in the entirety of his considerable life.
It would be entirely accurate and easy to say that Izuku is freaking out.
It would also be an understatement, because holy shit.
All Might explained that he’d already brought up the idea of taking him on as an apprentice to his mother, who’d insisted on All Might asking him directly. Of course, she’s under the impression that All Might is just a mage, not the King of Dragons, but it’s a cover that provides an explanation for why he’s interested in taking Izuku on as an apprentice.
At least he didn’t have to explain his lack of magic. Kacchan had done that when All Might saved them.
They finally arrive back at the Midoriya residence. The conversation-slash-walk discussing the details had taken a while, and then Izuku'd had to scramble to find a flowering plant to put in the pot so as to not raise suspicion, so the sun is already halfway down the sky as Izuku opens the door. He calls an ‘I’m back!’ to his mother, who is sitting at the table crushing some herbs. Different ones than earlier; she must’ve started a batch of something else.
“Ah! Welcome home Izuku!”
His mom must see All Might enter behind him then because she stands, following her greeting with an ‘Oh! Yagi-san!’ and a meaningful glance at Izuku.
All Might smiles and nods at the unspoken question. “Yes, he accepted the offer to come with me and take the test for apprenticeship.”
Izuku’s mom lights up and she clears their living room in a few steps to sweep the freckled boy into a hug.
“Oh, Izuku! I’m so proud! My little boy is going off and becoming an apprentice mage already!” Izuku flushes, but doesn’t hesitate to hug his mom back as tears well up in both their eyes. The Midoriya family is notorious for crying profusely, after all.
-----
After a round of apologies to Yagi (ALL! MIGHT!!) for the tearful display, his mom sends him to go pack his things while she and All Might discuss the exact terms of the apprenticeship. He rushes up to his room and hastily shoves his journals into his bag before rushing back downstairs, past his mom and All Might, who are sitting at the table with tea, and out the door, rounding the corner and sprinting down the small stone path that leads to his small, heavily charred shed of magic supplies.
He’d set up his shed a few years back, when he’d stopped being able to walk through his own room without tripping over things. In the years that followed, it’d been almost set on fire several times (for… various reasons. Usually Kacchan and his friends playing pranks, but once or twice Izuku had nearly blown it up with his research) before he managed to set up an effective fire ward, and even then it’s been difficult to keep it intact.
There’s a reason he keeps his journals in his room instead of the shed, and it’s not (only) so he can access them in the middle of the night when he’d rather research than sleep.
Izuku pauses before he opens the door to check for any spells that aren’t his fire-warding. The moment’s pause is worth it, because there’s a spark spell set up to activate when he opens the door.
He quickly uses his thumbnail to scratch out the key runes that would activate it, and opens the door.
A glance around tells him that all his supplies are intact, and he starts shoving everything he’ll need for the experimental spell into his bag.
(He's spent so long working on it he could recite the components in his sleep.)
He makes sure to pack more than enough of every ingredient in case the first attempt fails and he needs to try again. Or in case he loses some, or prepares them wrong, or drops them, or- yeah. Just, extra.
He triple-checks everything then hefts the bag over his shoulder and heads back towards the house. The sun apparently set while he was packing his supplies. Which makes sense, there was a lot to pack - his bag can only hold it all in the first place because it has a minor size increase spell stitched into it, and even then it’s full to bursting.
He opens the door to see his mother by herself, stirring the stew - All Might must’ve left at some point while he was packing. She turns to face him with a small, pleased smile on her face.
“Izuku! Welcome back. I'm assuming you finished packing everything you needed out of your magic supplies?” Her smile turns amused, and he flushes as he nods. “Did you remember to leave space for clothes and food?”
Izuku feels the urge to facepalm, and there's no reason not to, so he does. Of course, he’d forgotten entirely to leave space to pack those. In his defense, his world just got turned upside-down in the space of an afternoon - he’s entitled to being a little preoccupied, he’s pretty sure. Plus, where else would he put his backup-backup-components? He’ll need those, probably!
His mom just shakes her head with a little laugh. “Well, I suppose you can use the other bag. It's not like it’ll be getting any use from me anytime soon.”
Her smile turns bittersweet as she turns back toward the stew and resumes stirring. Izuku is suddenly struck by the realization that he’ll be leaving his mother here, alone, while he goes off and potentially enjoys a dream apprenticeship. He feels guilt bubble up full force in his chest.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay here alone? I know you managed just fine when I was an unhelpful little kid but-”
“Izuku.” She turns to face him again. “It's fine, dear.” She’s still smiling, but it's watery and her eyes are on the verge of tears.
“Go, and reach for your dreams.”
All Izuku can do is steel himself against his own tears and nod.
-----
Izuku finishes packing that night, and leaves his bags sitting by the front door for whenever All Might returns. He’d taken his mother’s small bag and filled it with two sets of clothes, a day's worth of food, and a bedroll, which brought the small bag to capacity. He spends the rest of the evening with his mother, and helps her make another batch of medicine before she shoos him off to bed.
Late the next morning, after Izuku has finished his chores, All Might arrives, a smile on his skeletal face (why does he look so skeletal in this form, anyway- nope, not the time).
“Good morning, Young Midoriya! Are you ready to depart?”
Izuku hugs his mom tightly one last time before hefting his bags onto his shoulder. He turns to All Might with a bright smile on his face and a “Yes, sir!”
-----
Rather than going into the town square like he expects, All Might heads towards the forest.
Izuku hefts his bag back over his shoulder from where it was sliding. Maybe All Might wants to shift back before they head towards town? There is a large clearing a ways into the forest in the direction they’re heading. Though it would be more than a little weird to have a human accompany the Dragon King back, and the rumors- oh. They’re going to be leaving directly from the clearing so no one sees Izuku. Obviously.
It makes sense. All Might has enough enemies that if one of them sees him and thinks that he might be an easy target, it’d be a death sentence.
All Might’s quiet chuckle breaks him out of his thoughts. “Well, I see there's no need to explain why we're leaving from the middle of the woods.”
Izuku flushes and looks away. “U-uh, sorry, I’ll try my best not to mumble.”
All Might laughs lightly. “Do not worry about it, Young Midoriya. It’s nice to hear what's going on in someone else’s head for once. Most people won’t say a word around me for fear of offense.” Despite the laughter in his tone, it sounds almost sad.
(Izuku is struck with the thought that, much like his mother will be soon, All Might had been mostly alone, for a long time. Probably since he took the throne, or even before that. What a sad life that must be, to be so powerful, but not able to share it with others for fear of them getting hurt.)
After a moment, Izuku manages to get out a stuttered “A-ah,” and leaves it at that.
-----
They arrive at the clearing, and All Might doesn’t hesitate to leave Izuku at the edge and shift. If Izuku had any doubt left in his mind that maybe Yagi isn’t All Might, it disappears in that instant, seeing the massive dragon that could only be the King of Dragons before him. He can't help but stare, All Might’s golden scales flashing and his wings settling against his back as he adjusts his position.
It takes a moment before Izuku realizes that All Might is probably waiting for him to follow him into the clearing (not that there's much space left in it to do so, even with All Might doing his best to make room). He steps forward and spends another moment just staring before All Might lets out one of his quiet chuckles, which, in this form, rings through the air and vibrates in the freckled boy’s chest for a moment.
“Well? Climb on.”
Izuku balks. “What?!”
“How else did you think we were arriving at the Capital? A teleportation spell would take too long to set up, and last I checked you don't have wings. Yet.” All Might has an expression on his face that Izuku recognizes as a slightly smug smile.
“Y-yes, but-” Izuku stutters. He firmly pushes away an earlier mental image of himself just being carried in All Might’s claws like a sheep the whole way. Riding on the king’s back just feels like it should be some kind of sacrilege, even with an express invitation.
“But nothing, Young Midoriya!” All Might says, though he’s smiling and his tone betrays his amusement. “It’s the simplest way for us to reach our destination.”
Izuku spends another second staring, before steeling himself and approaching All Might’s massive form. Even laying down, he still towers over him, and it’s more than a little nerve wracking. He doesn’t even come close to All Might's shoulder.
“Um.”
“Yes, Young Midoriya?”
“I don’t think I’m going to be able to ‘climb on’.”
All Might pauses and turns his head towards Izuku. “Hm, I suppose not,” he says, and then proceeds to bite the back of Izuku’s shirt, lift him up, and place him square between his wings, like a mama cat collecting an errant kitten. At some point during this process, Izuku’s bags fall off his shoulders, but All Might repeats the process to lift them up to where Izuku is sitting.
Izuku blinks dazedly. He’s sitting on All Might’s back. This feels incredibly disrespectful, and if it wasn't for the fact that he would probably break his legs if he tried to climb off All Might’s back himself, even while the dragon is laying down, he would be scrambling to get off and onto his knees in apology.
Izuku feels more than hears a huff of a laugh come from All Might, and it snaps him out of his panic just in time to feel All Might stand. He hastily grabs onto the straps of his bags with one hand, and onto All Might’s mane with the other (oh powers above he's touching All Might’s mane, he is sitting on the dragon king’s back-).
All Might’s “Ready?” is the only warning he gets before he's already spread his wings, and with one massive downward stroke, they're flying.
Izuku feels the wind slam into him like a wall, and it's only the hand fisted tightly in All Might’s mane that keeps him from flying right off. He’s screaming, but he can’t hear it over the thundering of the wind in his ears. He squeezes his eyes tight and hopes desperately that he’s going to be able to survive when he inevitably falls off, this was a horrible idea-
Suddenly, the wind stops, and Izuku falls without grace onto All Might’s back, his hand still clutching his mane like a lifeline, which it technically was just a moment ago. Maybe a spell stopped the wind?
After taking a moment to catch his breath and make sure he didn’t break his neck or drop his bags from the initial takeoff wind pressure, he lifts his head up and looks around.
He spots All Might’s wings first, absolutely massive up close when stretched out in flight.
He risks looking a little further up, towards the sliver of blue he can see at the edge of his vision.
And then he gasps, turning his whole face towards the view, his eyes going wide. All he can see, far into the distance, is the sky, the clouds, and the sun far above them even still. And it's vaster than he’d ever imagined it to be.
Izuku shuffles onto his knees, and adjusts his bags into his lap, but he doesn’t once tear his eyes away from the sky.