Chapter Text
Katsuki wakes to the sounds of hushed tones, deep in conversation. He had half a mind to believe he was hallucinating, but the other, more logical half screamed at him that there were strangers in his home. At that, his eyes shot wide open, only to quickly shut again from not having time to adjust to daylight. But, eyeballs be damned, he had to see what was going on. He rolls off his bed and pushes himself up to blindly stumble forward while his eyes take too long to adjust. He squints his eyes open and looks at the group.
They’re all sitting hunched over with their backs twisted to look back at him. Greenie and the witch girl both look mortified to see him, while the tall one and Half-Half look angry. They all stay there looking at each other, and it suddenly hits Katsuki that they’ve never had guests at the cave. The thought makes him feel kind of awkward, but he masks it with a scowl. Tall Guy breaks the silence.
“What are we doing here?” The question is dark, like he’s trying to sound intimidating. He stands to fully face Katsuki, who rolls his eyes.
“Sit the fuck down, dipshit,” he says. Seriously, why did he let Eijirou guilt him into letting these fuckers stay the night? “I’m not gonna kill you.”
“Last night proves otherwise.” This guy has got some balls, huh?
“Hey, asshole, who do you think dressed your fuckin’ wounds, ah? A magic fairy?” Katsuki steps into his space. They should have just left them in the forest. It probably would’ve made some vulture’s day to get an easy meal.
Now Witchy stands. “Do you expect a thank you?” Her hands ball up at her sides. “You could have killed us!”
“But I didn’t, right?” Katsuki yells. He walks up to her and shoves Tall Guy away when he tries to step between them. Scared, she takes a step back. “If you can stand on your own and act like some tough shit, then that means your ribs healed. And look at Greenie! His arm is back to normal right?”
He gestures to Greenie, who leaps out his skin. “G— Greenie?”
Before Katsuki could get to saying how they should be on their knees thanking him, he hears the loud sound of wings flapping. He hadn’t even realized Eijirou was gone. He transforms outside of their line of vision and enters the cave dragging a heavy-looking deer by the legs. When he sees the group, he groans in disappointment.
“Aw, man. I wanted to be back before you all woke up,” he sighs. “Katsuki, mind helping?”
“Look, they’re healed,” he says, ignoring the request. “Let’s kick them out.”
“What? No!” Eijirou drops the dead deer’s legs and walks over to Katsuki, stepping around the group. “Who am I supposed to feed this big-ass deer to?”
“To me,” Katsuki says. He turns to the group. “Now get out.”
“Don’t listen to him.” Eijirou offers a smile that would probably comfort them if not for the jagged dragon teeth lining his mouth.
“I’m not feeding these assholes! We healed them, and they have the nerve to talk shit!” Katsuki waves his hand in their direction, glaring at Eijirou. He gives him a hard look, determined.
The group watches the exchange, looking at them back and forth like children.
“I don’t want these dickheads eating my food, and that’s that!”
Witchy leans over to talk to tall guy. They had all slowly moved out of Katsuki and Eijirou’s way.
“He knows we can hear him, right?” She whispers.
Katsuki whips his head to face her. “Shut the fuck up, bitch!”
Eijirou shoves him. “Don’t talk to a girl like that! What raised you?”
“I raised my own damn self!” He screams, blood boiling.
Greenie takes a bold step forward, looking worried. “Um, we appreciate you healing us, and all. But— uh, I think we’d rather get going.”
Eijirou turns to him. “Look, what happened last night was a mistake. I’m really sorry about it. We both are, even if he won’t admit it.”
“Watch it,” Katsuki warns. Eijirou ignores him completely.
“I know you guys probably feel threatened, and I’m sorry about that too. Just let us feed you and you can wash up before you go,” Eijirou drops down to his knees and bows like the dramatic ass he is. Katsuki watches in pure disgust. “Please let us make it up to you!”
Katsuki sneaks a glance at the group who still look to be on the fence. Katsuki looks down, slightly embarrassed at what he’s about to say, but it needs to be done. He’ll never hear the end of it if he doesn’t.
“Just let us cook for you, dammit.” His palms are sweaty, and they start quietly crackling. He closes his fists at his sides to silence them. He looks at the group and Greenie is giving him a weird kind of look. He quints at him, trying to read it but drawing a blank.
Grennie looks back to the rest of the group. Eijirou is still bowing, and it’s making the atmosphere way more awkward than it needs to be.
“We’ll help you with the meal,” Greenie says. Eijirou looks up and smiles. He stands quickly and extends a hand.
“I'm Eijirou Kirishima!”
Greenie takes it and gives it a shake. He smiles. “I’m Izuku Midoriya. These are my friends Tenya Iida, Shouto Todoroki, and Ochako Uraraka.”
Half-Half’s name sounds stupidly familiar, but he’s sure he hasn’t met him before. He’d remember the scar covering his eye.
“Nice to meet you all,” Eijirou is smiling a little too wide. “This is Katsuki Bakugou. He’s a lot nicer once you get to know him.”
“No, I’m not.” Katsuki tugs at his slipping pants. Once they get money, this time for sure he’ll buy a belt. Eijirou hardens his fist with scales and punches the ever-loving fuck out of Katsuki, who yells out and tries to explode his head off. Before he could set off another attack, Eijirou claps his hands, still smiling wide.
“Let’s get started, then!”
Katsuki, as usual, butchers the meat by himself, off to the side of the cave. Half-Half asks how they preserve their meat, to which Eijirou explains that they rub it with salt and wrap it in cloth. Half-Half hums for a second and offers to freeze it for them so that they don’t waste salt.
“You can do that?” Eijirou no doubt has a dumbly impressed expression.
“My left side controls fire, and my right side controls ice,” he answers.
Greenie’s voice pops in. “Won’t the ice melt? We don’t have any place to keep it cool.”
There’s silence for a minute. How had that idiot not think of that before offering?
Witchy joins in too. “Todoroki, don’t you have that one friend who can make things out of her body, or something? Maybe we could get her to make an ice box.”
“She does owe me a favor. But, her shop is all the way in downtown. Kirishima, would you be willing to fly us over there?” Half-Half says.
Katsuki can practically see the flattered look on his face. “I could, but you guys really don’t have to!” Honestly, an ice box does sound nice.
The rest of the group insists, and Katsuki silently hopes Eijirou would just shut up and accept the offer.
“Katsuki!” Eijirou calls. “Do you want an ice box?”
His answer comes quickly. “Fuck yeah!”
“Guess that settles it,” Eijirou says. “You coming?”
“There’s still shit to do,” he yells back. Eijirou says something back, but he tunes it out in order to focus on cutting up the meats after nearly slicing his own finger off.
He doesn’t listen to the sounds of his transformation. Honestly, watching him do that is kind of gross, so Katsuki chooses to ignore that too. The deer’s head lay off to the side, along with most of its organs and clumps of fat. After so many years of butchering animals for food, he’s gotten used to the sight and smell of blood. His focus is broken at the sound of a loud huff. He looks up to see everyone on Eijirou’s back, except one.
“Where’s Greenie?”
The tall fucker answers. “He decided to stay so he could watch the rice. Is that alright?”
Katsuki looks back down to the meat, continuing his work.
Eijirou takes off without another huff. Sure hope they know how to fly, Katsuki thinks.
He finishes up about ten minutes later. He stands and stretches his arms over his head, his back reprimanding him for staying hunched over for so long. He walks back in the cave, careful to not let his stained hands touch his pants. Greenie is sat against the wall in front of the fire pit, where he’s got a pot of rice boiling. He doesn’t seem to have noticed Katsuki, too engrossed in whatever book he’s reading. He looks down at his hands, then to the large vase containing water next to the cabinets.
“Yo,” Katsuki says, but it goes unnoticed. Is this guy deaf? “Hey, Greenie. ”
That gets his attention. “Y— Yeah? Is everything alrigh— What happened?”
“Goddamn, would you quit screaming?” The guy scared the fuck out of him. “It’s deer blood, you fucking psycho!”
Greenie sighs, relieved. He looks like an old lady with his hand at his chest like that. “Right. Of course. What do you need?”
Katsuki cocks his head to the vase. Greenie folds the corner of the page he’s on and sets the book down. He walks up to the vase and looks into it.
“Water?”
“Pour it on my hands.” Katsuki extends his arms out in front of him.
“Um, alright.” He carefully walks up and pours the water out slowly. Once Katsuki’s done, he grabs the vase and chugs down the rest of its contents. It’s seriously hot as fuck outside. He hands it back to Greenie, who’s currently looking pointedly at the ground, with a sigh. He grunts something like a thank you and walks past him to get the cloths they use for meat. He won’t rub salt on them today, since the others are coming back with an ice box.
“Would you like some help?” Greenie wrings his hands together. Man, is he always so nervous?
“No,” Katsuki walks out of the cave. He really doesn’t want to talk to anyone.
After wrapping up the deer’s legs, Katsuki is joined by Greenie. He seems to have gotten over his previous embarrassment.
“Those are really well cut,” He says, crouching down with his hands on his knees. “They look like something you’d see at the market!”
Katsuki scoffs, wrapping the next section. “Duh, I’m the one who cut them.”
“Who taught you?” He’s started rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, looking up at Katsuki with a smile.
“My old man taught me,” he says quickly. He finishes this section and starts on the last.
“That’s a pretty cool skill to have.”
This surprises Katsuki, though he doesn’t show it. He’d never really thought of it as cool— it had always been a necessity since he’d started living in the woods, and before that it was just a job.
“Whatever you say, Greenie.”
“You know that’s not my name, right?” He deadpans.
Katsuki cocks an eyebrow at him. “What?”
“Greenie,” he says. “It’s not my name.”
“What is it then?” It may have seemed like Katsuki was messing with him, but he really wasn’t paying all that much attention during the introductions.
“ Izuku? Izuku Midoriya? I told you, like, an hour ago?” His voice is sarcastic, condescending. He’ll be damned before he let’s a wimp like this look down on him.
“What’s that?” He asks. “Deku?”
“ Izuku .”
“Deku?”
“ Izuku! ”
“ Deku? ”
“I know you understand me, Bakugou.”
“Sorry, Deku, can’t hear you. Must be the wind.” Katsuki shrugs, standing up right and holding two sections against his hips.
“What does Deku even mean?” He asks, following Katsuki into the cave. He unceremoniously drops them on the floor next to the cabinets where the vase was.
“Fuck if I know, but it sounds stupid, so it fits.” He turns to get the last section, only to be greeted with Deku holding it out for him. He snatches it out his hands and tosses it with the others.
“Okay, then in that case—”
Katsuki knows damn well where this is going. “God, don’t tell me—”
“I’ll give you a nickname too!”
Fucker.
Deku pops out a hip and holds his chin in contemplation. He looks Katsuki up and down before his face lights up.
“Kacchan!”
“What the fuck — what am I, four?” He yells. The little shit has the nerve and audacity to laugh.
“You don’t like it? I think it’s cute!” Deku continues laughing at him.
Katsuki’s face heats up and his hands crackle with sparks. “I’m not fucking cute!”
Deku tries to control his laughter. “I know, that’s the point. You wanted to give me a nickname you thought fit well, so I gave you one that didn’t.”
Katsuki snaps and launches himself off the ground with one hand and an explosion ready to go off with the other. He only barely misses Deku’s face after he dodges with a scream. He runs around like a chicken with no head, and Katsuki chases him. He continues trying to land blows on the still-laughing asshole.
“Wait!” Deku pleads, gasping. “You’re gonna destroy the cave!”
“I don’t care as long as I kill you in the process!” Another explosion. It almost hits Deku in the shoulder. They continue running around for a few minutes, yelling at each other.
He’s taken by surprise when Deku turns around and plants his feet into the ground. His ready hand falters for a second, and he’s suddenly being tackled to the ground. Deku lands halfway on top of him, and they’re both left panting on the dirt. Katsuki groans, shoving him off to cradle his side. Of course that dumbass’ elbow would dig right into his side.
Deku lays next to him, face red with exertion and covered in a thin sheet of sweat. And yet, he’s still got a stupid smile on.
“Sorry, Kacchan,” he has half a mind to kill him right now. “But you left me no choice.”
“Fuck you,” he answers, still on his back. He looks away from Deku’s fugly face and stares at the ceiling.
Deku rolls on his back and takes a few deep breaths. He holds out a fist to Katsuki. “Truce.”
Katsuki slaps it away. “Whatever.”