Chapter Text
Katsuki stood proudly at the wheel of the little ship, watching as Izuku tossed the last of the old crew overboard. The sharks were going to eat nicely tonight. Katsuki grinned as he took in the salty ocean air, and looked out across the horizon. He had finally taken the first step. He had his own ship now, and even a crewmate. A weird ass Fae of a crewmate, but a crewmate nonetheless.
The old hag could go suck a dick right now. He was gonna show her, he was gonna show the world that he was going to be the best pirate ever. He was going to take the title of Pirate King and then nobody would doubt his ability to be strong.
He was so glad to have gotten out of the tiny little coastal town where he was born. Nobody there but his dad ever believed in him when he told them he was going to be a pirate just like his mom. It didn’t help that his mother was always away, only visiting once, maybe twice a year. Sometimes not even that. Katsuki wasn’t deaf to the whispers that followed him and his dad everywhere they went. Everyone pitied his dad for having a “Bastard son” and a wife who loved the sea more than her man. The whispers only got worse as Katsuki started to show some of his more... barbaric tendencies. He had ended up being more like his mother than the people in the village liked.
At least they weren’t aunty Inko, she had been badly ostracized after a rumor broke out that her deceased son had been magicless. Katsuki figured it was probably a good thing that the kid was dead, cause the village would have made their life a living hell if they were alive. Magicless people were seen as ill omens and death sentences for towns, and had been for generations.
Katsuki shook his head to clear his thoughts of the past. He wasn’t back there anymore, and there was absolutely no fucking reason he should be thinking about that shit. It was done, it was gone, he was finally on the ocean in his own ship with his own crew. He was moving forwards in life.
Katsuki looked over at Izuku, who was now leaning over the railing to look at the water below. Katsuki had the desire to give his crewmate a nickname, it felt weird calling a fae by something that sounded close to a given name. It didn’t help that Izuku didn’t use his name, just called him by that ridiculous nickname.
He pondered for a moment, he had to give the fae the best nickname, something that really described the fae. So far, Katsuki had only seen the other boy be useless at fighting. He at least did a good job of making sure the enemy pirates couldn’t fight back, but without any plant life on the ship, Izuku had been absolutely useless. Kinda like those wooden dolls the village used to give aunty.
Katsuki grinned, he had the perfect nickname.
“Hey Deku!” Katsuki called out, “you know what direction the goddamned shore is?”
Deku whipped around to stare at him, wide eyed, “you gave me a name?” The fae spoke in a language that sounded close to his mother’s native language but... more complex. It sounded like an entire fucking forest spilled out of Deku’s mouth, instead of the rough animalistic noises that Katsuki learned from his mother.
Katsuki quite liked hearing Deku's voice, not that he’d ever tell the fae.
He rolled his eyes, “yeah, idiot, I gave you a nickname. You gave me one so it was only fuckin fair.”
Katsuki didn’t know what to expect as a response to that. Probably something normal, like a bright smile, or a thank you, or even a squeal. What he didn’t expect was to be suddenly body slammed by an excited Fae and knocked to the deck, winded. He groaned, “can’t you be normal for once?” And only got breathy giggles that sounded like leaves rustling in the a soft summer wind.
Katsuki let Deku sit on him for a little bit longer, before pushing him off and standing up, “Alright you weirdo, find us some land. What direction is it in?”
Deku grinned at him before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Katsuki watched as the air around Deku started to shimmer.... and then everything stopped. Both the sails on the ship went lax as the wind died down, and the sound of the ocean waves beating against the ship was silenced. It felt like even the sun was dimming in response to whatever the fuck Deku was doing.
Katsuki resisted the urge to swear in... a feeling he didn’t want to talk about. It wasn’t fear. It definitely wasn’t fear. He wasn’t afraid of Deku, the weird ass fae who had to rely on Katsuki in order to take out some pitiful pirates.
He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t.
Just as fast as the stillness came in, it left and the world returned to motion. The waves crashing was deafening after the silence, the sunshine was blinding in Katsuki’s eyes. The wind gave a mighty gust and the ship lurched into motion as Deku cheerily chirped, “land is east!”
Katsuki could only nod, “okay. Okay! Let’s fucking do this!” He said, drawing up his bravery in order to mask how unnerved he was, “let’s see how hard it is to steer this damn thing, everyone makes it look so fucking easy.”
~•~•~
Katsuki was thankful that the ship had been stocked with enough supplies to last 20men multiple weeks, because steering a ship was not as easy as everyone he had ever watched made it look. It took him and Deku two whole days to figure out how to use the wind to get them places, and another two days to get going in the right direction without being pushed off course. After finally getting the ship and the sea to cooperate with him, it took another week just to reach the forested island Deku had steered his towards.
Katsuki had never been so grateful to see land again in his life. As much as his soul cried out for the sea, spending the last two weeks or so fighting the ocean had made him sick of the endless blue, at least temporarily.
Besides, reaching land meant he got to witness Deku’s reaction to seeing a forest for the first time in... apparently a really long time. Long enough that Deku didn’t remember exactly how long. Which was kinda sad and made Katsuki wish he had made those damn pirates suffer more than they had.
Katsuki watched with an amused smirk as Deku ran in circles around him on the beach, just frolicking in the sand and generally being a ball of energy. At some point he had subtly shifted from a human form to one... less so. Katsuki was a little surprised, cause Deku didn’t look like any of the fae in the story books. Those fae looked more like humanoid bugs, with smooth, sleek ‘skin’ and transparent wings that shimmered in the light.
Deku looked more human but also part forest, part animal. His face and general features were still human looking, but Katsuki could faintly see a pair of small antler nubs sticking out of the weirdo’s fluffy hair. Deku had what looked like leaves cloaking him, through most were brown and dried up, like the neglected plants Katsuki had seen in the past. Every so often the leaf cloak would twitch, and Katsuki presumed that the leaves were actually deku’s wings.
Katsuki hoped that, now that Deku was back in the forest, his wings would recover and heal. It would be cool to see Deku flying around freely, assuming Deku even could fly.
The last bit of non-humanness Deku had was a tail, the same shade of dried up brown as his wings. The end was a tuft of curly green... hair? Katsuki blinked, and looked at deku’s tail again. It was indeed tufted with curly locks the same shade and visual texture as deku’s hair.
Weird.
Katsuki walked along the beach as he watched Deku finally get tired of the sand and careened towards the edge of the forest. He couldn’t hide a snicker at Deku’s antics as the fae climbed up the closest tree and hung upside down from the lowest branch, "Congrats, it's it's fucking tree, Deku" Katsuki called out.
“It’s home Kacchan!” Deku called back, swinging up so he could sit on the tree branch properly.
Katsuki rolled his eyes, “Yeah yeah. Have fun, weirdo.”
“You want to join? The Forest likes you.”
Katsuki froze at that, he hadn’t been expecting that. He had been expecting to be barred from the forest, to be wary and cautious around every group of trees. It was a well known legend that anyone who dealt with the fae made an enemy of the very forests of their earth.
Katsuki wasnt expecting to be liked by the forest, but Deku just gave him a smile, “you saved me!” The fae explained, “so the forest likes you. You’re a friend.”
Katsuki refused to cry at the sheer relief at hearing those words. He had been stubbornly ignoring the pressing worry and fear that he would be forever bound to the cities and the sea, never allowed to step foot in a forest lest he wanted to disappear.
Katsuki was so focused on holding back his tears that he didn’t notice Deku turning his head towards a sound deeper in the forest, nor did he notice when Deku jumped off the tree branch and followed the noise.
He did however notice a few minutes later when the fae returned.... holding a tiny, black, dragon.
“Deku... what the fuck.”
