Chapter Text
How to live Happily Ever After
“I’m going to fucking kill that useless lizard! I’m gonna skin him alive and use his hide to make a purse!” Katsuki barks furiously.
“He’ll be here,” Sero tries calming him down. “He wouldn’t miss it.”
“Of course he’ll be here! If he misses this shit, I swear I’m gonna pull all of his teeth out with a pickax!” The young Viking rants frantically. “We can’t let those fuckers think they know shit about this! We’re the fucking best and I won’t have stupid Half n’Half winning this motherfucking competition!”
“Calm down! There he is!” Sero points to the sky where a little dark green dot is flying towards them.
Deku must be using his quirk since he’s approaching at an unbelievable speed. This only makes Katsuki even angrier because now it’s obvious that the dragon overslept and had to come rushing to not miss their turn.
The dragon glides over the top of the houses as he passes through the center of the village, people wave at him as he goes by. In seconds, he’s landing gracefully right in front of the two boys. The moment his paws hit the grass, Izuku blinks into his human form and rushes to Bakugou apologizing.
“I’m here! I’m here! Sorry, Kacchan!”
“You shitty lazy gecko! How fucking long did you sleep? Actually, how late did you go to sleep?” Katsuki yells grabbing Izuku’s ear harshly. “Did you spend the whole night awake with your goddamn nerd books?”
“Kacchan! It hurts!” Izuku whines trying to get his ear free. The Viking releases his hold still huffing. “I’m sorry I’m late, but I’m here now! No one will beat us! We’re the best!”
“Of course we are,” Katsuki agrees smugly. “Those other losers don’t stand a chance.”
“ NOW, THE NEXT DUO IS BAKUGOU KATSUKI AND IZUKU. PLEASE, APPROACH THE FIELD AND GET READY FOR YOUR ROUND.” Hisashi’s loud voice blares through the field even with the huge crowd gathered around, talking excitedly.
Everybody is enthusiastic to see the competition. It’s been debated for ages and every human-dragon duo has been working extremely hard to be on their top performance. The winner will have bragging rights forever since there will only be one First Cooperative Human & Dragon Sheep Herding Competition.
It was scheduled to celebrate the first anniversary of the friendship established between humans and dragons when Mitsuki talked to the Elders. These last couple of months had everyone’s nerves running high to organize a successful festival and to be ready to show who is the best in the competition.
Katsuki and Izuku would be going against six other duos — their biggest competition was Shitty Hair and Pinky, and Shouto and the blacksmith’s daughter, Yaoyorozu Momo. Half n’ Half and Ponytail were very strategic in their herding; they have several maneuvers prepared to deal with whatever the sheep throw at them. Shitty Hair and Pinky rely on Pinky’s massive size; she’s so big she occupies half the field and doesn’t give the sheep a lot of options where to run.
It’s a tough competition, but Katsuki and Deku are the best. They are faster, more agile, have more stamina and can practically read each other’s thoughts — and the sheep are still terrified of Deku more than any other dragon. So there was no reason for Katsuki to worry, except the fact that his stupid dragon is a goddamn nerd who spends whole fucking nights bending over his notebooks.
“I can’t believe you pulled this shit today,” Bakugou grumbles as they walk towards the field.
“I already said I’m sorry, Kacchan!” Deku argues. “And it’s not shit, I’m compiling information about dragons for the humans, and about humans for the dragons. It’s important work!”
“Not for today, it isn’t!”
Izuku grabs his hand to make Katsuki stop and kisses his cheek softly. The Viking instantly blushes a bright red, and his anger simmers down.
“It’s gonna be alright, we’re gonna win. Don’t worry.” The dragon smiles to him before letting go of his hand and shifting back to his natural form.
They pass through the wooden gate under applauses and cheers. The sheep shake in their legs, watching the menacingly green dragon stalk the field.
The course is very complicated. They need to take the herd through a series of obstacles like jumping through logs, zig-zagging over posts, going up and down a seesaw and, the most difficult one, skipping over the stones in a small make-shift pond. Really, they shouldn’t have traded Aizawa for Nezu as the competition organizer.
“ READY?” Hisashi asks, Bakugou and Izuku nod. “ THEN LET’S START THIS PARTY!”
With just one look, Deku is already trotting to the corner of the field to gather the herd together. Katsuki runs to triangulate their position with the sheep and make sure no lamb runs free. The first challenge is to just run the perimeter of the field until they can get in position for the jumps.
No sheep dare glance around when Deku is growling next to them. Katsuki keeps his scowl in place to make sure the wooly fuckers know he’s not here to play around either. When he sees a chubby one getting behind, he sprints towards it, yelling to get the sucker moving faster. The herd passes through their jumps and the zig-zag poles without a glitch.
In the seesaw, they get their first real challenge. The whole herd can’t go through it at the same time, so they need to organize the sheep in batches. There’s always one that wants to go up before their time, but Deku stays on the foot of the obstacle counting sheep by sheep that goes up there; while Katsuki keeps the fuckers who made to the other side in place.
The pond is what he was fearing the most because he knows the sheep are terrified of getting their fluffy white fleece dirty — they’re some finicky assholes. So, when they saw they were being taken towards the mud, the herd tried to scatter around. Izuku had to open up his wide wings and show his teeth growling to keep them focused, Katsuki stomped around on their side to keep them in line towards the pond.
Still, one sheep gets loose and makes a run towards the stands. With one sharp look of Bakugou’s eyes, Izuku is taking flight to catch the fugitive. Katsuki can’t really pay attention to what his dragon is doing, he needs to keep his eyes on the herd that’s now skipping through stones. But he knows Deku will probably grab the sheep with his mouth while keeping his teeth retracted and drop it at the end of the line of sheep that wait for their time to go through the obstacle.
When finally the last sheep enters the small enclosure that marks the end of the course, the audience breaks into cheers and yells. It was a perfect round, Katsuki is sure it was much better than what any of their competitors can do. The Viking hugs Izuku’s big neck in celebration as all of their friends clap for them.
“WE DID IT! SUCK ON THAT, HALF N’ HALF!” Bakugou screams happily to the red and white dragon that watches them from the corner of the field.
There were two more duos to go after them, but Katsuki didn’t even pay attention to them. He was a pile of nerves waiting for the competition but, now that they've made it, he’s feeling confident. There’s absolutely no way they’ll lose.
“What the fuck were you working on last night that kept you awake?” Katsuki asks as they sit down on a bench outside of the perimeter of the excited audience.
“A map!” Izuku says smiling brightly. “Tsuyu and I got together with the fishermen to talk about good fishing areas that we can all use now. So I decided to draw a map with the compiled information of dragon and human's fishing territories. Tsuyu and some other dragons will also work with the humans to develop cooperative fishing techniques.”
The dragon explains excitedly as he pulls a rolled paper from his pouch and opens it up for Katsuki. He picks up the paper to see Izuku’s drawing. Deku is really good at this nerd shit, he’s been writing books and making maps like crazy these last few months.
“Not bad, nerd,” he grumbles his approval.
“Kacchan! It’s upside down!” Izuku pulls the map from his hands and turns it.
“How the fuck is a map upside down, dweeb? There’s no up and down in a map!” Katsuki barks at him.
“Of course there is! Dragon's archipelago is up!”
“The fucking sky is up! Dragon’s archipelago is north!” The Viking argues.
“And dragons fly, so our territory is up!” Izuku retorts.
“You don’t even live in the Dragon’s archipelago anymore! You live on the continent!”
“On top of the mountain! So, still up,” the dragon says matter-of-factly.
“That doesn’t make any fucking sense! And it was a terrible idea! If you and your mom lived in the village, I could have woken you up at the right time,” Katsuki complains.
This is still a sore subject to him. He understands why the dragons who wanted to live close to humans decided to make their small community on top of the mountain — easier flying path to the archipelago, more space for their large bodies, and they were still not ready to live inside a human village. Bakugou doesn’t care if the Purple fucker, Pinky or any other loser lives almost two hours hiking away from Musutafu.
But he didn’t like that Deku and his mother were there too. Sure, Deku comes down every morning to spend the day with him; but it’s not the same. And Katsuki misses waking up to the heavy feeling of the dragon’s head on his chest.
“Hey,” Izuku softly bumps his shoulder on Bakugou’s. “It’s just for a year or two longer. In no time, we’ll be old enough to live together.”
“To get married, you mean,” Katsuki grumbles. “I still think we’re already old enough.”
“But our parents prefer for us to take our time courting. It’s understandable.” Izuku reminds him. “Besides, you still haven’t danced or lustered your scales, Kacchan. Tenya won’t accept our mating until you do.”
“I’m going to fucking luster that idiot’s ass with kicks!” Bakugou barks. “The fucker has no say in how we’re doing our shit!”
“The dance is not that hard, bro!” Kirishima’s voice startles the two boys. “I could help you out! Mina’s parents and sister were very impressed with my dance.”
“I’d rather nail my foot to the ground,” Katsuki says rolling his eyes as Shitty Hair and Pinky join them.
“Will you two just stay here the whole day?” Mina asks. “The pie competition will start soon! Shouto says he’s very hopeful about the acceptance of his whale pie.”
“That sounds disgusting,” Katsuki says earnestly.
“Whale is tasty, Kacchan,” Izuku interjects.
“I’m honestly more interested in Sero’s vegetarian pies. He’s been making great fillings with carrots and goat cheese.” Shitty Hair says thoughtfully.
“We should go see their pies, then!” Izuku jumps up from the bench. “And maybe get some Taiyaki if Gran Torino hasn’t eaten them all already!”
Their village is booming with life. It’s a mess of people from the nearby villages and dragons in their natural forms and in their human shifts (some not all that human). The pure chaos would have made Katsuki irked a couple of years ago — but now he actually enjoyed it a little. The turmoil means that Izuku and everyone he cares about is free to be themselves in his home and that brings more joy to Katsuki than he’ll ever admit.
Sure, it wasn’t an easy transition. Not every dragon was keen in having humans going around their territory; and several humans freaked out with the idea of dragons flying over their homes. But the old hag proved why she was a brilliant leader and got everyone to respect each other and to work in accepting this new way of life. The shitty Elders helped a little too. Even Endeavor spoke up in favor of humans because he may hate the new rules, but he hates people who don’t obey the rules even more.
In the midst of it all, Izuku and Katsuki become sort of ambassadors of the human-dragon friendship. Bakugou hates having to intervene in quarrels between dragons and humans all the time — it’s always ‘he ate my sheep!’ and ‘the sheep can speak for their own herd’ — but he supposes there’s no other way about it. He and Deku are clearly the best pair and they’re the best their communities have to offer; so obviously it’d fall on their shoulders to lead the process.
The other idiots who have been running after them, Vikings and dragons, also have been helping. Shouto is an Elder representative who lives in the continent and is also helping set up cooking classes for dragons. Mina and Kirishima became the leader of territory patrol near the coast to protect them from other villages who aren’t part of their alliance and from exiled dragons. Sero and Tsuyu are working together in animal protection and Vegetarian Awareness. Hitoshi and Denki are studying how dragon magic works on humans and trying to establish if the sheep are, in fact, magic.
Overall, life has been good — but extremely busy. That’s why Katsuki takes every second he can to stay alone with Deku. More often than not he needs to share his dragon’s company with other fuckers and that grinds on his nerves.
“Hey,” he whispers to Deku after each of them has a pie in their hands, traditional chicken for Bakugou and spinach with ricotta for Izuku (he wanted to support Sero’s stand). “Let’s bail.”
The Viking grabs Izuku’s hand and pulls him away from the crowds. It’s hard to find a calmer place to lay down and eat their pies since the village is so full of people and dragons, but they manage to find a spot near the goat’s enclosure.
“Everything all right, Kacchan?” Izuku asks worriedly as he sits by Katsuki’s side, their backs against the wooden wall that keeps the goats in place.
“It’s fine,” the Viking sighs. “I’m just fucking tired of having so many people around all the time.”
Izuku snuggles closer to Katsuki and drops his head on the boy’s shoulder.
“We worked a lot to put this festival together, hm.”
“Yeah, I feel like I’ve barely seen you these last weeks,” Katsuki admits annoyed, fighting the blush on his cheeks.
“Well, you’re the princess of the village, Kacchan. Your mother needed your help,” Izuku says petting Katsuki’s biceps softly.
“Damn old hag can’t do shit on her own. She calls my fucking name fifty times a day,” Bakugou agrees. “And you’re always busy with your shitty books.”
“Well, I was planning on talking with you about this some other time. After we were done with the festival, but since we’re already on the subject…” Izuku says, his voice full of mirth. “You know I’ve been drawing maps on the dragon’s and human’s territory.”
“Pretty hard not to notice,” Katsuki huffs.
“Well, I’ve been talking to Aizawa because he’s the human with the most extensive knowledge in geography, and we realized there’s a big area of the sea we never established who it belonged to. It was across the human’s territory, so the dragons never went there. But it’s also too far away for human boats to go.” Izuku starts explaining and that’s enough for Katsuki to perk up hopeful.
“And you want to go explore?” His voice sounds too eager to his own ears, but Bakugou doesn’t care about that right now.
“Yeah, I mean… The two of us… With my quirk, we can make the trip way faster than regular boats. And we could discover all kinds of amazing things this way! New islands! New plants! New animals!”
“Just the two of us,” Katsuki smile. “Count me in, nerd.”
Izuku giggles “I’m glad I could convince you.”
“When are we going?”
“Whenever we want. I thought that we could go when the village clears out from the people and dragons who only came for the festival.”
“I wish we could go right now….” Bakugou sighs, “but I suppose that’s good enough.”
What also helps to calm down Katsuki’s mood is the fact that Deku doesn’t bother him to go back to the festival when they finish their lunch. The two of them just stay there cuddling together and scenting (another new thing the dragons brought to the human’s life and that Katsuki got instantly fond of).
They only get up when the bell indicating the end of the day’s activities sounds in the distance. After the last events, the judges would announce the winner of the day’s competitions. The bell means it’s time to find out who won the sheep herding competition and for the festival-goers to get together for the dinner feast.
“Come on! Let’s get our prize!” Izuku says getting up and extending a hand to Katsuki.
The Viking doesn’t think twice before grabbing Deku’s hand and walking with the dragon towards the village’s center.
“Baku! Izu!” Mina waves at them from a spot in the middle of the crowd. Every human and dragon is around waiting for Mitsuki’s speech.
“You guys got here just in time!” Kirishima says excitedly. “Your mom is about to announce the winners!”
Katsuki clicks his tongue, “we’re the fucking winners, Shitty Hair. If we hadn’t arrived, she’d have to wait for us.”
“I don’t know, bro. The competition was fierce! Mina and I had a great round!”
“Everyone did their best, I’m excited to hear the winner,” Izuku smiles as if those losers stood a chance.
“Good evening, everyone!” Mitsuki’s voice sounds through the square and everyone quiets down. “First of all, I’d like us to celebrate the first year of Dragons and Humans' Friendship and one very successful festival!”
The crowd claps and cheers her words.
“And now! For what you’re all waiting for! Let’s congratulate our winners!” Mitsuki proceeds to call for the winners.
The Pie Making Competition had Sero and Tsuyu as winners with their vegetarian pies; in the Fishing Competition, Shouto and Momo dominated because the dragon froze the pond and killed the fish, so all the girl did was pass the net. And the Goat Headbutting Competition was where Kirishima and Mina dominated because the boy had so many years of practice.
“And the winner of the most anticipated Sheep Herding Competition — please give a round of applause for-” Katsuki grabs Deku’s hand ready to run to the stage. “Kaminari and Hitoshi!”
WHAT?
Dunce Face? The fucker who thought dressing up as sheep would make them collaborate with the herding shit?!
“ HOW?” Katsuki yells in complete disbelief.
“Hitoshi used his quirk on the sheep,” Mina says shrugging. “Really, there was nothing we could do to beat that.”
Bakugou has to watch incredulously as Kaminari goes up the stage waving to the cheering crowd and Hitoshi follows him with a stupid smile on his face. Anger bubbles in Katsuki’s stomach at the sheer unfairness of the whole thing.
“I’m gonna-! AH! Fucking dragon magic! We never agreed that-!”
“And we never agreed that we couldn’t use magic, Kacchan,” Izuku says petting his hand to calm him down. “It’s alright, it’s just a silly competition. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means Kaminari and Hitoshi are the best at herding sheep,” Kirishima interjects not-at-all helpfully.
“I’m gonna fucking-”
“And, finally,” Mitsuki starts talking again taking their attention. “I’d personally like to call a duo that showed us what is the true meaning of dragon-human partnership — to learn from one another, to grow together, to be open to new challenges and to understand different points of view. We wouldn’t be having this festival at all if it wasn’t for these two — so, Katsuki and Izuku, please come up here!”
“Let’s go, Kacchan,” Izuku calls him, pulling his hand towards the stage.
Katsuki is dumbfounded. He feels stunned watching everyone in his community clap and cheer for him and Izuku as they climb the little stage. He’s so confused he doesn’t even argue when his mother pulls him and Deku for a tight hug.
“I’m so proud of you two. My dear boys,” Mitsuki says, almost in tears. “None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for the two of you.”
After the woman released her hold on them, Izuku waved to the crowd and thanked them for putting so much trust in him and Katsuki.
“Kacchan and I are very happy to see all of our precious friends together!” Deku says smiling.
“Hell yeah! We’re the fucking best!” Katsuki says, smiling back to his dragon.
“And now, let’s feast!” Mitsuki orders and the band starts playing songs.
Food is passed around, several people come to congratulate Katsuki and Izuku, and all of their friends dance around like idiots.
That night will be forever branded in Bakugou’s brain as one of the happiest nights in his life. Decades in the future, he’ll not have forgotten how Izuku’s eyes shined bright in the light of the bonfire, how delicious the feast was, or how much fun he had with his friends. He’ll also never forget how he and Deku sneaked out in the middle of the night to lay together on the sheep field, looking at the full moon and sharing kisses until the sun came up.