Chapter Text
The day breaks much like any other and Izuku wakes to find Katsuki already up and dressed in travel clothes. The sorcerer stands by the tower window, looking out in the distance, a small crease on his brow.
Izuku would have admired the pleasing picture Katsuki presented, despite the early morning frown, but he is distracted by the well-worn clothes, boots, and small rucksack at Katsuki’s feet. It isn’t unusual for Katsuki to go off on some transaction or another, or perhaps to gather ingredients for his potions, but Izuku had not been aware that Katsuki has plans to leave that day.
“Good morning, Kacchan,” Izuku says, even as he approaches and leans in for his morning kiss. There was an awkward pause as Katsuki turns his face away and a confused Izuku kisses Katsuki’s cheek instead, just beneath the cheekbone. It’s usually Katsuki’s lips that presses upon Izuku’s brow, hand gentle against his green hair.
“Good morning, Deku.”
“You didn’t sleep well?” Izuku asks, eyeing the dark smudges under Katsuki’s eyes. There is an obvious strain on Katsuki’s brows, along the line of his jaw.
“I had things on my mind,” Katsuki replies.
Izuku opened his mouth to ask about Katsuki’s plans for the day but fell silent, halted by the weight in Katsuki’s gaze.
“Kacchan?”
“You have been with me a long time, Deku,” Katsuki says.
Izuku lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “I suppose so. Thirteen? Maybe fourteen years?”
“So fast.”
The words are spoken so softly Izuku knows it wasn’t meant for him. His teeth begin to worry his lower lip, wondering at Katsuki’s odd behavior.
“What’s wrong, Kacchan?”
Izuku steps closer, leans in, palm spread against Katsuki’s chest. There is familiarity in his movements, concern and affection in his touch. Katsuki places an arm around him as much as from habit as well as to keep their balance. Izuku had grown during his stay in the tower but Katsuki is still taller by a handspan, and now that Izuku is past his growing years, will remain so.
“What’s upset you?” he repeats, bright green eyes peering up at Katsuki.
Izuku feels Katsuki’s breath hitch, sees the apple in his throat bob as he swallows and his red gaze skitters away from Izuku’s like startled fauna.
“I need to leave,” Katsuki says, looking somewhere above and to the right of Izuku’s right ear.
“I noticed that. How long will you be away?”
“As long as I need to,” Katsuki says grimly.
Izuku thinks of the abruptness of Katsuki’s leaving, the oddness of his behavior. He knows Katsuki is powerful but sorcerers have many enemies, and even the most powerful can be hurt. He has patched up Katsuki’s wounds many a time over the years.
“Will you be in danger? Should I go with you?”
“No!”
Izuku blinks, surprised at the abrupt rejection.
“No, Deku,” Katsuki repeats, in calm, measured tones this time. “Stay here. I won’t come to harm. I just need to be away for a while.”
“Alright. But you haven’t said when you’re coming back.”
“I don’t know. I need to think and I can’t think while I am here.”
“That’s not a good answer.”
“It’s the only answer I have,” Katsuki says testily, his calm cracking. “Stop pushing, Deku. You don’t have to wait for me.”
“Kacchan,” Izuku says, voice soft with reproach, unbothered in the face of an angry sorcerer. His fingers gently smooth over Katsuki’s shoulder, the base of his throat, tracing the hard ridge of his collar bone under the fabric of his clothes.
“You know I will wait for you,” he says. “I always do. I only ask because I worry when you are away. And I want to know when my worry becomes valid and not just another part of my day.
“Also, when you are away… Kacchan, when you are away, I ache. Here.” Izuku’s hand goes from Katsuki’s chest to his own, palm pressing over his heart. “And it doesn’t ease until you return to me safe.”
Katsuki’s closes his eyes, his arm around Izuku tightens, bringing him closer. Izuku nestles his forehead to the crook of Katsuki’s jaw, his nose brushing the hollow at his throat. Izuku feels Katsuki’s lips ghost across his temple and he feels warm inside at finally getting the kiss he had been wanting.
“Three days, Deku,” Katsuki says with a sigh. “I shall return in three days, if not before.”
“Alright. Are you leaving now? Will you break fast with me first?”
Katsuki shakes his head. “I was only waiting for you to wake up.”
Katsuki steps away and picks up the rucksack.
“Come, Deku. Lend me your hair and I shall leave.”
Izuku leans in again for his goodbye kiss and like before Katsuki turns his face away.
Izuku’s mind runs through the previous day’s comings and goings.
“Are you angry with me, Kacchan?”
Katsuki’s head snaps up, red eyes wide with surprise. “I’m not.”
Katsuki sighs for the second time in the span of a few minutes and pulls Izuku in, kissing his temple. “I’m not angry with you,” he repeats.
“Good.” Izuku says it against Katsuki’s collarbone, his breath ghosting the warm skin. “Kirishima-kun says it’s not manly to leave while angry.”
Katsuki snorts.
“Shitty Hair is an idiot and you shouldn’t listen to him about manly ways. He’s a demon for fuck’s sake.”
“Perhaps I can ask him to teach me some demonly ways.”
Izuku grins at the choking noise Katsuki makes.
“Enough teasing, brat.” Katsuki says, pushing Izuku away. “You’ve had your goodbye, I must go.”
Izuku reluctantly pulls away.
“I’m not a brat, you know. Not anymore.”
Katsuki flicks him with a glance but says nothing.
Izuku smiles and stands with his back to the window, catching his long braid on a hook before draping the ends down the side of the tower.
With practiced ease, Katsuki holds on to the braid and steps out of the window. Izuku’s braid, usually just at hip height, lengthens and lengthens until it reaches the ground, bearing Katsuki with it.
After a final wave, Katsuki walks off, under the thick cover of the woods.
Izuku stands there for a long time, puzzling at Katsuki’s odd behavior. He had been irritable of late, more so than usual. And while the irritability is common, the reticence is not. Katsuki is never one to hold back his thoughts; more likely to blast you with them than not, no matter how rude or unwelcome his sentiments.
Izuku’s musings is interrupted by a light tug at his braid.
He pulls on his braid but instead of a pale-haired sorcerer, Izuku comes face to face with a young man in spectacles.
The stranger is tall, of large build but seems harmless enough, considering Izuku’s daily exposure to fangs, wings and talons.
Izuku steps away from the window and tugs his braid from the stranger’s grasp, leaving it to return to its usual length. The young man lets it go without protest, stepping down off the window ledge.
“I do apologize for barging into your home unexpectedly like this, but I myself am quite surprised by it,” the stranger says, settling his spectacles on his face. “I was walking, wondering about this tower, when I saw the green rope - which i originally took to be a very fat vine what with its color and thickness - but when i touched it, it lifted me. And I found myself here.”
Izuku blinks at all the information but remains silent.
“My apologies once again. I am Iida, I am a… traveller.”
Iida bows and Izuku returns it.
“We don't get much travellers here. Not from that window at least,” Izuku says.
“I am not surprised, the place is overrun by brush and thorns.”
“There used to be a garden there, but it was relocated elsewhere.”
“I must say, and I do not mean to be nosy, or rude for that matter, but this tower looks much larger inside than it is on the outside. As an example, I did not expect it to have a length of hallway running through it. With rooms on either side, I would wager.”
Izuku shrugs. The tower's secrets are not his to tell.
“And again, not to be rude but may I know your name? Only so that I know who I’m addressing, of course. Nothing forward or sinister about it.” Iida punctuates this with a chopping motion.
Izuku flushes.
“It’s my turn to apologize. I'm not used to introducing myself. You can call me ‘Midoriya’.”
“Midoriya,” he repeats. “The name suits you. It is very good to make your acquaintance, Midoriya-kun. I am Iida, a traveller. Just a common traveller. Not a prince at all.”
“Yes, you have said so before,” Izuku says with a smile, taking in the drab but obviously new clothing and the good quality leather belt, boots, and satchel. The sword strapped to his back is covered with oilcloth but the handle of the dagger at his waist clearly bears the mark of the Royal House of Ingenium.
A blush creeps up Iida’s neck, up his straight jawline and finely hewn cheeks.
“You are the first person I’ve seen come up from this window, other than Kacchan, of course,” Izuku says, not unkindly, feeling contrite at having flustered the young traveller-who-is-not-a-prince.
“Who is ‘Kacchan’?” Iida asks.
“Kacchan is Kacchan. He lives here with me, but he’s away at the moment. That’s why my braid was outside, he had just left.”
“I see. Or rather I do not see. Why does he not use the door?”
“It’s locked. And guarded by demons.”
Iida raised his eyebrows.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Only that it’s locked and can only be opened with a key, which I don’t possess. I suppose if you try to use it and don’t have the key, the demons will have a very good day.”
“That is very strange. Has it been locked long?”
“It’s been locked my entire stay here.”
“And how long has that been?”
“Closer to fifteen years than ten.”
“A long time indeed. How do you get out then? Through the window?”
“Oh, no. I have never gone out that window.”
Iida looks around and could see no other possible form of exit.
“Do you mean to say you have been here for over a decade and have not gone out that window even once??”
Izuku nods, confused at Iida’s obvious agitation.
“This ‘Kacchan’, is he your father perhaps?”
Izuku laughs, the bright sound momentarily distracting iida from his indignation.
“No, no. Kacchan is not my father, goodness. He found me when I was young. He brought me here and took care of me. I have been with him since.”
Iida purses his lips.
“And where did this ‘Kacchan’ get you?”
Izuku shakes his head. “I don't remember that. I was quite young.”
“And you have not been through that door or out that window since.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Have you not been lonely?”
“Lonely? But I have Kacchan,” Izuku says as if it explained everything.
Izuku smiles. Iida grimaces.
“Midoriya-kun, I hate to be the one to bring this up but your situation is highly irregular. I have a suspicion of what has happened to you. Towers, of course, are traditional for these kinds of things. But I must admit to being thrown by your gender.”
“My gender?”
“Yes, these things generally happen to girls. Not that I have anything against boys being included! We must support equal opportunity and all. And of course, not that you are any less pretty than a girl would be.”
Iida finishes his impassioned speech with a blush. Then does another chopping motion as if the air in front of him displeased him.
“That aside, you say that this ‘Kacchan’ is away?”
Izuku nods.
“How long before he gets back?”
“He will be gone for 3 days,” Izuku says, sounding wistful.
“Then we have time. I shall go to town and make inquiries about this tower. I shall be back tomorrow. You can count on me, Midoriya-kun.”
Iida bows and marches back to the window. Then sheepishly turns back.
“Midoriya-kun, if you please, your hair?”
Izuku laughs and lets Iida down.
What a strange man.
Izuku spends the next hours studying until Kaminari comes and distracts him.
The lightning elemental persuades Izuku to call on Kirishima and the trio spends an enjoyable afternoon together, Izuku’s books forgotten for the moment.
Izuku likewise forgets all about Iida and his strange visit until the next day when he hears someone shouting from below his window.
“Midoriya-kun! Midoriya-kun! Let down your verdant hair!”
Izuku peers down. Iida is back.
With a shrug, Izuku lets his hair down to the ground.
“Hello again, Iida-kun.”
“Midoriya-kun, I made inquiries and my suspicions proved entirely correct. You are being held here by a powerful sorcerer!”
Izuku inclines his head. “Yes, that would be Kacchan.”
“But.. but don’t you see? He stole you from your parents and kept you here at his tower for his own nefarious interests!”
“Okay, hold on there. Kacchan didn’t steal me, he's keeping me safe. And I don’t know about any nefarious interests. Kacchan has been nothing but kind to me. Well, that’s not entirely true. He's usually mean and grumpy but he's taken care of me all this time regardless.”
“He is a sorcerer, Midoriya-kun!”
“I know.”
“Then you must also know that sorcerers are evil!”
Izuku frowns, the expression far too fierce than anyone could have expected from a such a sweetly freckled face.
“Iida-kun, you seem like a well-intentioned traveller, but you have got to stop insulting my friends or I am punting you out that window.”
Izuku lifts his chin, a perfect replica of Katsuki’s irritated look.
“Sorcerer’s are not inherently evil. They deal with power. Everything they do are done with contracts. Contracts with humans who need their services, with demons and elementals who do services for them. That does not make them evil. Just because you have power doesn’t mean you have to abuse it.
“But they do not care about human lives, Midoriya-kun. As long as they get paid, they will do what they are hired to do.”
Izuku shrugs.
“That’s something else. That’s morals and ethics. And that’s something that’s not confined to sorcerers. They just have more power and can cause more harm. But that’s no different from a man being hired to steal or murder someone.
“In fact, you may want to look into the humans who hire sorcerers to do the dirty work for them. Which of them is more at fault? The one who coveted something that was not theirs? Or the one who was paid to procure the item?”
Iida gapes at Izuku.
“How can you defend them? You have been kidnapped and trapped here for years by one of them.”
Izuku frowns.
“I told you, Kacchan is keeping me safe. And I don’t know what kind of life you’re imagining I’ve led but I’ve been very happy here.”
“And what about your parents? What about the people who have been looking for you for years?”
“Kacchan said my parents know where to find me. He left a message. It’s why we have not moved from this tower, should they arrive.”
“Midoriya-kun --”
“Iida-kun, if you're just going to keep at this, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. All these accusations are unfair. Especially since Kacchan isn't here to defend himself. Not that I would ask him to defend himself. These are all lies.”
“Very well, Midoriya-kun. I can see that I have upset you. I shall gather more information and return tomorrow. I have already begun inquiries as to your parents’ whereabouts.”
“There is no need for that,” Izuku says, sighing. “I'm happy here.”
Iida nods curtly, more to signal the end of the discussion than in agreement.
“I shall take my leave. Midoriya-kun, your hair, if you please.”
Iida leaves and Izuku spends the rest of the day annoyed.
The nerve of some people.
To Izuku’s surprise and delight, Katsuki returns home that evening.
When Izuku comes forward for his welcome home kiss, Katsuki hesitates but pulls Izuku in and brushes his lips across Izuku’s temple.
“I wasn’t expecting you tonight, Kacchan,” Izuku says, voice warm with happiness.
“I hadn’t planned to come back so soon,” Katsuki admits reluctantly.
Izuku pulls away a little to look up at Katsuki, green eyes bright.
“But you came home anyway.”
“But I came home anyway.”
“Are you anywhere nearer to solving your problem?”
Katsuki brushes stray green locks away with gentle fingers.
“The problem is that I want to be near my problem, not run from it.”
“I’m sure you’ll find a solution, Kacchan. You’re amazing.”
Katsuki answering smile is wry, self-deprecating.
Izuku could see that whatever troubles Katsuki sought to resolve when he left, he brought back with him.
Katsuki is quiet all evening. But made no move to retire to his rooms. Nor did he tell Izuku to keep quiet, as he would have had he been thinking on a work problem. Instead, he allows Izuku’s cheerful prattle to wash over them, listening without contributing, .
“Oh! I almost forgot, Kacchan,” Izuku says, as they are seated by the fireside, long after dinner has been put away. “There's someone who came here through the window. Not one of your friends. He’s come over twice now.”
Katsuki frowns. His usual ‘they’re not my friends’ forgotten at the news that some stranger has intruded in his domain.
“He seemed like a nice enough man in the beginning but ended up to be quite annoying. He kept saying sorcerers are evil. As if anything can be inherently good or evil, even demons, considering the broad spectrum of ethics and morality which --”
“Deku, the man,” Katsuki interrupts. “What did he want?”
“I don’t really know. He said he was a traveller, name of Iida.”
“Iida,” Katsuki says, frown deepening.
Izuku nods then tilts his head as he considers.
“He asked a lot of questions. But he also said a lot of stupid things. Like how I’m imprisoned here and how you stole me from my parents and --”
Katsuki stands up abruptly.
“Kacchan?” Izuku says, startled at the sudden movement.
“What did he want, Deku?”
Izuku is surprised at the anger he can see rolling off Katsuki. Small explosions are coming out of his clenched fists and anyone else would have been cowed at the fierce scowl on his face.
“I - I don’t know. He said he wants to help me? That he’s trying to find my parents? He thinks you’re evil and wants to set me free or something.”
Izuku yelps as Katsuki suddenly grabs him by the arm, pulling him up to his feet, the explosions burning his skin.
“Oww! Kacchan! What are you doing?”
But Katsuki seems possessed by fierce emotions, his red eyes blazing with anger.
“And what did you fucking say? Did you tell him you’d leave me? That you’re sick and tired of living with a blackhearted sorcerer? A murderer a thousand times over? Hah? Deku??”
“No, Kacchan!! Stop that! You know I won’t say that, you know this. Why are acting like this?” Izuku asks, almost pleading. “Why are you really angry, Kacchan? Why won’t you just talk to me?” Izuku says, his confusion halfway turning to frustrated anger.
Izuku’s green eyes fill with tears, pained and angry, and this more than anything brought Katsuki back from whatever hellish mindscape he was in.
He drops Izuku’s arm, and only then notices the burns.
“Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Fuck! Fuck!”
He stares at the angry, red marks on Izuku’s arms in growing horror, as if he was the one who sustained the burns.
“Hey, it’s okay, Kacchan,” Izuku says gently, getting over his own anger as quickly as it erupted.
Izuku places a palm against Katsuki’s cheek, trying to catch the red eyes that are now filling with despair, replacing the violent anger from before.
“Kacchan, I’m okay. Hey, look at me. This is nothing. What’s wrong, Kacchan?”
“I hurt you.”
The look in those red eyes wounds Izuku far, far more than the burns on his skin.
“Oh, Kacchan. It’s superficial. Nothing we can’t heal easily. I’m okay. Really. I’m more worried about you.”
Katsuki pulls Izuku into his arms burying his face against Izuku’s soft curls. Izuku could feel the pounding of Katsuki’s heart, his desperation.
“Kacchan, please talk to me. You’re scaring me.”
Katsuki suddenly stiffens and pushes him away.
“You’re scared of me?”
Katsuki had gone pale.
“No!! That’s not what I meant!”
Katsuki closes his eyes, holds up one hand.
“Deku, stop.”
Katsuki takes a deep, calming breath. Izuku opens his mouth to argue but bites his lip instead.
“Let’s see to your burns.”
Katsuki begins the healing chant, holding his palm over Izuku’s reddened skin. As Izuku said, the burn marks are easy enough to fix. He’s had worse while tending the cauldron.
When the light dissipates, Katsuki’s red eyes are calm. Too calm.
“Kacchan?”
“Deku, when your man Iida next comes, go leave with him.”
Izuku feels himself grow cold.
“What are you saying?”
Katsuki grips Izuku’s long braid and with a slash of his palm, cuts it off at the nape.
“Kacchan!”
“Leave, Deku. You don’t belong here. This is all I need.”
Katsuki walks to his room and shuts the door before Izuku can even move to follow. The sound rings out in the silence of the tower with a finality that leaves him feeling cold.