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Above the swamp, the will-o-wisp’s light
Follow it, and you’ll reach the graveyard.
It was a silly rhyme, but it worked for a small mantra to hold unto, as Izuku Midoriya tumbled through the path in the swamp, following the distant, faint light.
Time and time again, he did this walk, between their village and the graveyard, as one day, it was supposed to be his job one day to take over tending the graveyard.
Nobody ever showed him the road, though.
Izuku wondered, if they had wanted him to get lost there.
Probably.
Nobody liked to deal with a changeling.
-
The country was called cursed. Technically they were under the control of another nation for decades now, but nobody really tried to deal with it, people didn’t want to poke the nest of wasps.
Or the nest of all kind of monsters and beasts and different beings you should not mess with.
That country was the country of beasts, and everyone knew it. Maybe one day, people will be brave or bold enough to attack it and try to tame the lands, and destroy or enslave the beings, but the ancient magic protecting them, and surrounding them all was not likely to allow that to happen for a few more generations at least.
Humans, who lived in the country learnt to keep their heads down, and try not to offend the beasts who lived next to them.
They still didn’t like changelings, though. Fairy children, replacing their real ones.
Until Izuku’s mother (or the human woman who was raising her, the only mother Izuku had known) had been alive, nobody had done anything, but after she passed away…
Changelings’ human parents don’t live long.
Nobody had told him outright to stay away, but it was easier to stay in the swamp, and only go back, when he needed something.
He was still young, and it was one of his first trips, when he missed a step.
If you step off the safe path in the swamp, it was unforgiving, pulling Izuku deeper and deeper within, and no matter what he did, how he struggled…
Then there was a hand around his wrist.
“Do not struggle, you damn idiot. Do you want to die?”
The words that reached him were weird, and slurred, as Izuku felt someone pull his hand, and he was soon back on the path, trembling, looking at his savior.
He saw red eyes and wild blond hair, and red scales - and as soon as their eyes met, his savior turned around, and Izuku could only see his dark red tail disappear in the depths of the swamp.
-
“Hey, All Might, are there naga in the swamp?”
All Might was the main gravekeeper of the graveyard, and just like Izuku, he was a changeling, although it was impossible to tell his age.
Fairies didn’t obey the laws of time, after all.
“Ah… you had met him, I guess” All Might nodded. “No, they don’t, at least not this close to the village, they don’t much like humans after all. Their village is further off, but… yeah, this one seems to have taken nest nearby. Although I get why.”
All Might’s real name was not that - it was a name the townsfolk gave him to snicker about him, because he looked so scrawny and not mighty at all, and he took it up, as a joke, and got used to it.
“Yeah, I saw that he…”
“Yeah” All Might said solemnly. “But not sure anyone could help him, unless he figures it out himself on how to solve it.”
All Might also talked to him about what they were - what it meant to be a changeling.
“Fairies who live in the Courts usually know from birth what kind they are” All Might explained to him. “We are different. We live without really having any powers, unless we awaken.”
“What causes someone to awaken?”
“It depends on a lot of factors, and nobody knows. But one day, something will happen, that will make your true self awaken. But you will stay you - what you use your power will be up to you, and no one else. Never forget that.”
All Might had a faint glow to him.
There wasn’t just a will-o-wisp over the graveyard.
All Might was the will-o-wisp, but instead of luring travellers into danger, he used his light to guide them into safety, often travelling over the swamp.
-
When All Might was away, often all what Izuku had was the gravestones.
They were old, very old, but all the names and dates were still readable - All Might had taken good care of them, apparently, because, if even the names are forgotten, what does that say about people?
That said, neither of them actually knew anything about most people whose names they read.
So when Izuku was alone, he often made up stories in his head based on the names and dates, trying to figure out who knew whom, based on grave placements, thinking up elaborate backstories.
For a while, these gravestones were the only ones who kept him company those times when All Might had to go away.
Well… the gravestones, and...
-
“You can’t change back, can you?”
The naga hissed when Izuku asked him this one time - his upper body was of a human’s, but his teeth were sharp, and there were still some scales around his upper body too, but below the waist, he only had a snake’s tail.
“Your kind can shift between the form of a snake and of a human. Are you… are you stuck?”
“I’m not stuck” He hissed angrily, fire in his red eyes. “This is exactly how I want to look like, useless little changeling.”
“I have a name, you know.”
“Whatever, Deku.”
“...that’s not my name.”
“Kacchan isn’t my name either, but it doesn’t seem to stop you, does it?”
-
Katsuki was actually his name, and he kept saying he was fine alone, which Izuku seriously doubted, seeing how he kept inching closer and closer to the graveyard itself, especially when Izuku was there, but Izuku had even saw him chat with All Might a few times.
But All Might went off often, turning into a being made of light, going over the swamp, looking for stuck travellers.
The swamp was big, and huge, and he even went as far as the village of the nagas, for example. Sometimes he was gone for days, but always left Izuku with enough food, and a way to contact him if needed.
Sometimes he got humans there, humans whom Izuku helped, other times, other beings came too, but they never stayed long.
One time, though, he brought a fox with an unusual patterned fur.
It was half red, half white, eyes different colour too, and from the moment All Might set him down on the bed, Izuku could feel the power radiating off it.
It… he was a kitsune.
-
Like naga, kitsune were shapeshifters too, going between fox and human forms, and they had powers over the elements usually. Fire and lightning were the most common ones, and the older ones had multiple tails.
Once Izuku had seen a nine-tailed, dark one walk through the village, and saw how terrified everyone was. That one, that ancient, pitch-black one walked away from their village without incident. It was said that a pissed off kitsune could destroy anything you love, if you as much as look at it the wrong way.
In a way, people feared them more than they feared changelings or even the naga, with their vicious venom.
This one though, this mismatched one seemed young with his only tail curled up around him, and he looked at everyone with a wary look, not wanting to move.
Or maybe not daring to.
“You are safe here, you know.”
Izuku wasn’t sure why was he trying to talk to him, but he was in the small house, and All Might was off again.
“Really, the only ones who come here are All Might and me. And well, Katsuki, but as grumpy as he is, he has a bigger bark than a bite. Wait, he is a snake. Bigger hiss than a bite? Does that make sense? Point is, humans don’t come here, unless they got trapped in the swamp, and All Might saves them. Not even to the graves, really. These graves are very, very old. The villagers usually lets their dead sink in the swamp these times.”
“Then what are you?”
The soft voice made Izuku whip around, and look at the boy around his age.
Just like the fur of his fox form, his hair was half red, half white, a dark burnt mark covered part of his face, and his mismatched eyes got fixed on Izuku’s face.
“Good question” Izuku smiled. “I do not know exactly what yet.”
“Oh. Changeling.”
“Yup! My name is Izuku. What’s yours?”
The kitsune hesitated for a few moments.
“Shouto.”
-
Katsuki didn’t seem happy about the new person in their small safe haven.
“Foxes like to rob you blind” Katsuki grinned, but his cold eyes were fixed on Shouto. “I mean I guess there probably isn’t much in these graves now is there?”
“And snakes love to make you care for them only to bite you” Shouto replied, his tone not really betraying if he was annoyed or not. “I can talk about stereotypes as well.”
“And gravekeepers don’t like you two bickering this close to stepping on graves” Izuku muttered, and with a broom in his hand gestured Shouto to step away.
“You aren’t even gravekeeper yet, Deku.”
“I am as good as a gravekeeper as long as All Might isn’t here. Don’t drag mud on the grave Kacchan!”
-
Shouto stayed.
He wasn’t talking about the burn on his face, or why he ended up in the swamp, just like Katsuki didn’t talk about why was he living away from his village, or why was Izuku going back to the human village less and less.
Years were passing, and all of them were growing up, growing older, and Izuku still had no idea what he really was, Katsuki was still in his form of a half-being, and Shouto…
Well, Shouto.
“Would you fucking. Stop trying to freeze over the swamp?”
It shouldn’t have been this freezing cold, but Izuku was shivering, and in the middle of the island, there was Shouto, half of his body almost completely frozen, and he was kneeling down, and Katsuki himself had to pull himself out to the ground completely to avoid being completely frozen into the swamp.
“Shouto… Shouto, please stop.”
Izuku was stepping closer, one step at a time, putting his arms around his… friend.
They were friends, right?
He wasn’t sure how much did these two count as his friends, but if nothing else, they had each other, and seeing Shouto like that made his heart ache.
“Please, stop.”
He felt Shouto’s body shiver in his arms, and the cold from his body was spreading over Izuku’s, but he refused to let him go.
Then there was something long, and warm wrapped around the two of them, something having scales, and two more arms appeared in the picture.
“You two are idiots.”
He could hear Katsuki’s whisper in his ear, before things went dark.
-
To say that All Might wasn’t pleased with them would be an understatement.
They woke up, Shouto and Izuku still wrapped up with each other, but inside the house now, which meant that Katsuki couldn’t go inside, as his serpentine body was getting too big, so only his upper body was in the house, but at least the weather seemed like it calmed down finally, so the cold didn’t come in through the open door.
“You are suppressing your abilities” All Might pointed at Shouto. “If you do that, this will happen more often.”
Shouto didn’t look up at All Might, just looked down on his hands.
“I… my ice… and my fire…”
“You have fire too?” Katsuki snapped. “What if you had lost control over that?! You could have burnt everything down!”
Shouto was now shivering again, and Izuku put a hand on Katsuki’s shoulder, and he just glared back at him as if saying don’t fucking touch me, Deku, but took no actions to actually shake him off, as All Might stepped closer to Shouto, putting his hands on his shoulders.
“I do not know what happened with you, why did you end up here, why are you reluctant to use your powers” All Might said gently. “But what you have, and what you are, are two different things, but only if you learn how to control it. If you do not, then these powers within you will go haywire, and they will be what define you. I don’t think that’s what you want now, is it?”
-
For a few days after that, Shouto was walking around in a form of a fox, like he often did, when he wanted to be alone, when he needed to think things over.
After he came back, he raised a hand, and lit up the fireplace with a flame leaving his left palm.
In the light of the fireplace, Izuku looked at him silently, and he could have swore, that the shadows behind Shouto did also look vaguely fox-like.
-
Izuku only went in to the town now every month or so, buying things they needed - other times Shouto or Katsuki would go hunt deep in the swamp to look for fresh meat which were harder to find.
Izuku wondered sometimes how did people in other countries lived - in places not inhabited by creatures like Katsuki and Shouto, or at least not to this extent.
And as he looked out the window, and saw Shouto run around in fox form between the graves, and Katsuki sliding after him, as if trying to catch him, Izuku realised he would rather not know.
-
As for Katsuki, he was just as tight-lipped as ever, forever claiming he didn’t get stuck in this in-between form. He still disappeared from time to time in the swamp, but Izuku never thought he went home, to the village he ran from, when he was young.
He was growing bigger and bigger, his snake tail much longer now, and stronger, that sometimes Izuku wondered if he would even be able to walk if he were to turn back to human form after all these years.
He didn’t ask, though.
Just like he didn’t ask about the burn mark on Shouto’s face, or why he hated originally to use his powers either.
And just like the two of them did not ask Izuku either, why did he live here, in the middle of the swamp, in a graveyard.
-
“You look ridiculous.”
“Oh come on, don’t be like that, Kacchan. He looks cute and fluffy.”
Shouto was also getting bigger now, and sure, he wasn’t fitting in Izuku’s lap easily in fox form, but he was still resting his head and paws in Izuku’s lap, while Katsuki was lying down next to them, his tail curling all around the ground.
“He looks ridiculous. Half-half.”
“We are all a bit halfway here aren’t we, though? All three of us.”
Katsuki snorted.
“Stop your pretentious bullshit, Deku.”
“I know, it sounds like it, but… that is kinda true, don’t you think?”
The answer was just Katsuki rolling his eyes, and Shouto huffed a little in Izuku’s lap, licking his hand.
“Also, why are you complaining? Are you jealous?”
He was teasing, and Katsuki looked at him, glaring.
For a few moments neither of them moved - and then Katsuki did, pressing Izuku down to the ground, which caused Shouto to let out a yelp, and Izuku to gasp, and Katsuki took the chance to press his lips over Izuku’s lips.
His teeth were sharp, and his kiss was hard, but Izuku found his hands holding onto Katsuki’s shoulders, keeping him there firmly.
And then their lips were forcefully parted, as there was suddenly a third body pressed between them, his back pressed to Izuku, and his arms and legs either stuck between him and Katsuki, or having them wrapped around Katsuki’s body, it was hard to discern where did they start, and where they ended.
“You are flattening me” Shouto hissed, and Katsuki did not move, just grinned slowly.
“What’s wrong, IcyHot, feeling left out?”
Izuku laughed, and he turned away his head a bit, and pulled Shouto’s head backwards, only to be the one to kiss him, while Katsuki buried his face into the crane of Shouto’s neck. Shouto’s entire body trembled into the contact, and they did not let go, and Shouto kissed Izuku back.
-
People don’t usually come to the graveyard.
All the graves were old, and probably only still standing because All Might and later Izuku were taking care of them - people long forgotten, and while they all seen the names and dates on the gravestones, or even some lines written there long ago, they meant nothing to them.
Sometimes Izuku liked to make up stories about them, when he was younger, and then Shouto and Katsuki would join in - not like they had a lot of games there, in the middle of the swamp when they were kids.
These graves were there, as much a part of Izuku’s life, as the swamp itself, and Katsuki, the weird, stuck naga, and Shouto, the kitsune with two powers, and All Might, the protective will-o-wisp of the swamp.
One night though, when All Might was out as he often was, and when Katsuki and Shouto were both hunting, Izuku heard voices.
People did not come here.
So, obviously, Izuku sneaked out, as quietly as he could, as he saw the few men, all dressed in black, carrying shovels and other equipment.
“I’m telling you” One of them hissed to another. “These graves are super old. Probably there aren’t even any bodies left, only treasures they were buried with.”
Grave robbers.
The graves, who were there for him, even when he didn’t meet Shouto yet, Katsuki didn’t trust him yet, and All Might was away.
So Izuku stood up, and started to walk towards the grave robbers.
“Leave this place at once.”
The robbers jumped, and turned around to scare him off - but then they looked taken aback from whatever they had seen when they looked at Izuku.
He wasn’t sure what felt different, but something surely did - he felt wind rushing through his body, even when the swamp itself was still, he saw the darkness move around himself, and then he started to grow, there was black fur everywhere, and when he started to call out for the robbers, only a low growl escaped his throat.
Four legs reached the ground, and he had a tail, and he looked down on the robbers, who dropped all their equipment and started to run.
If they run aimlessly, the swamp will swallow them.
He couldn’t even finish the thought, when he saw something red move in the swamp, as Katsuki’s tail disappeared under it, as if scaring the robbers to the correct path, and Izuku couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw Katsuki to have a head of a snake now…
“Izuku.”
He looked down, and there was Shouto, standing in front of him, his mismatched eyes full with wonder, as he reached out his hand.
“Come on. You won’t fit in the house if you stay that big, you know.”
He felt the magic swirl around him again, and when he was standing on two legs again, he lost his balance, tipping forward, but Shouto caught him, pressing a kiss to his ear with a whisper.
“It’s all right now. Church grim.”
-
Church grim. A huge, black dog, terrifying to grave robbers, comforting to those, who respect the dead. Guardians of graveyards. It was fitting, All Might had said, when he came back, smile on his face, and Izuku could feel the pride radiating off from the will-o-wisp.
It was probably obvious, that just like All Might, Izuku would be a guardian of some sorts as well. All Might over the swamp itself, while Izuku had his small graveyard.
Izuku wondered if he was always intended to become a church grim, or he awakened as such because he got so attached to the graveyard, and met the grave robbers. So many things were nothing more than mysteries and theories about changelings and their awakenings, there was no way to know.
But there was one other issue to be left unanswered.
“I think you should talk with him.”
“Huh? Why me?”
“Because you knew him longer. And because he doesn’t listen to me, maybe he will listen if you will say the same.”
Problem was, ever since the night Izuku awakened, Katsuki managed to take up a full snake form.
And stayed in that.
He didn’t go away, no, he was still around, his snake body all slithering around in the graveyard, and refused to communicate, or turn back.
“Come on, Kacchan, you know it’s hard to talk with you like that.”
Glare, and Izuku sighed, sitting down next to Katsuki’s head, resting his hand on top of his head.
“Kacchan, please.”
A low hiss escaped his throat before actually changing form.
Into a full human.
He sat up, frowning, looking into the distance with a pensieve look, not looking at Izuku.
“I’m not sure I like this.”
“Like what?”
“This” Katsuki gestured at himself. “I know I should be super fucking delighted, that I’m… that I’m no longer…” He still couldn’t bear to say the word stuck. “But I’m not. Maybe I just got really used to being that halfway. But as IcyHot is actually using both his sides, you awakened and now you have a huge-ass dog form, congrats on that by the way, but now I’m the only one who likes his half-baked halfway status? That’s bullshit.”
“Well, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to” Izuku said simply. “I mean now you can switch, right? But you can still take up that halfway form, right?”
“So then what?”
“So then you can be in that form, if you want, but take up the other two if it comes to that. Human form has some positives too, you know.”
“Like what?”
Izuku raised his eyebrows.
“You can actually come inside the house for example, and not just sticking your upper body in. Speaking of which, you will actually have a human-ish lower body, and while yes, there’s fun to be had in your halfway body, but hmmppfff---”
He couldn’t finish it, because Katsuki shifted forms in the blink of light, and pressed him down, kissing him furiously, and Izuku felt his serpentine lower body weighing down on him.
“Fun to be had, huh?” Katsuki hissed, and he grinned, and Izuku couldn’t help but giggle.
“Shouto help meee!”
Shouto’s head peaked out from behind the graves, and he just shook his head.
“You two are unbelievable. I’ll be inside the house, and whether you’re coming or not, is up to you.”
And then he was gone, and Izuku and Katsuki exchanged a look.
“He’s a dick” Katsuki said simply.
“But you like him this way.”
“I absolutely don’t.”
“Sure” Izuku rolled his eyes. “Wanna go in and teach him a lesson, then?”
Katsuki grinned again, and then shifted back to human form.
“You need to ask?”
-
Somewhere within the cursed country, there was a huge swamp - around it, inside it, many creatures lived. If someone was lost, all they had to do was to follow the light of the will-o-wisp, and they would find the correct trail.
Sometimes they would even find the old graveyard, and the small house next to it and ask themselves who would even live here?
Well, not like they had to know did they?
As long as they didn’t want to take anything that wasn’t theirs, that is.