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“So, since you’re a dragon, you should have an awesome dragon name.” Bakugo said imperiously. Eijirou gave him a skeptical look.
“What’s wrong with my name?” he frowned, most definitely not pouting because he wasn’t a little kid anymore, he was ten, and that meant he was supposed to be a big kid now. Big kids didn’t pout, and he was pretty sure dragons didn’t either, even when someone was insulting their carefully chosen name.
“It’s not awesome.” Bakugo scoffed. “You’re a dragon, you need an awesome name.”
“I’m not a dragon though, I’m a kid.” Eijirou frowned, curling his tail tighter around himself.
“Well you sure look like a dragon.” Bakugo’s eyes narrowed in a glare that made his round face look years older. Eijirou shifted nervously, wings flaring out slightly then drawing tight to his back. Was Bakugo upset with him? He always got weird after Eijirou insisted he was a human, like he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that being stuck in a giant, scaly body wasn’t all awesome.
“How about Red Fang?”
What? Eijirou blinked, eyes widening. Bakugou was staring at him expectantly, and he realized he was supposed to answer.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked blankly.
“For your dragon name?” Bakugo’s mouth pulled down at one corner, his expression clearly stating that he thought Eijirou was an idiot.
“Why do I even need a dragon name?” he complained, the tip of his tail flicking agitatedly under his chin.
“Because you’re a dragon!” Bakugo threw his hands up in the air. “Now quit being a moron and either take one of the names I come up with or pick your own.”
“Well, I don’t like Red Fang.” he said after a moment of silence. It was too... violent. Bloody.
“Hmmmm, Red Claw?”
Kirishima shook his head.
“Red River.” Bakugo smiled, the mean sort of smile he got sometimes when talking about a null boy from his hometown.
“That one sounds nice.” he said hesitantly. He wasn’t sure how that was meant to sound badass by Bakugo’s definition, but it was a lot less vicious than the first two.
“I know, right?” Bakugo’s smile brightened, losing the mean tilt to it. “Just imagine how many of the Great Evil’s minions you’d have to take down to fill a whole river with their blood!”
Eijirou recoiled slightly, shifting back away from Bakugo and their little campfire. “I don’t wanna kill that many people! I don’t wanna kill anyone!”
“The Great Evil’s minions aren’t people, they’re demons.” Bakugo rolled his eyes. “If you kill a person that’s bad, but if you kill a monster that’s good.”
“I don’t even like hunting.” Eijirou whined, lowering his head until his whole jaw rested on the ground.
“Oh come on!” Bakugo threw his hands up, little sparks flying from his fingertips. “You’re a goddamn dragon, you can’t be this big a coward!”
Eijirou felt a growl building in his throat, and swallowed quickly to kill it. “I’m not a coward.”
“Well you’re sure acting like one.” Bakugo crossed his arms with a huff.
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!” Eijirou dug his front claws into the dirt, pushing himself to his feet to tower over his new friend. Bakugo yelped, falling over backwards as he instinctively flinched away, and the flash of vicious satisfaction was quickly snuffed by a wave of cold, bad feelings too numerous to properly name. “Sorry.” he mumbled, lowering himself to lay on the ground again, tail wrapped tight around his folded legs and curled body.
Bakugo pushed himself upright, and it took Eijirou a second to process the fact that his friend was smiling. “That was awesome!” Bakugo cheered, leaping to his feet and punching a hand in the air. “Coolest dragon ever.”
Eijirou smiled despite himself, and Bakugo fell back down to sit where he’d been before. “How about Red Roar?” he suggested, and Eijirou resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“You’re not giving this up, are you?”
“Nope.” Bakugo grinned, absolutely unrepentant.
“Well, in that case...” he trailed off, thinking over Bakugo’s suggestions so far. Red Roar was definitely the best, but it made him think of fire, and he hadn’t actually tried to breathe fire yet. What if he couldn’t, and his dragon name wound up not making any sense? No, as admittedly cool as it was, he wasn’t going to set himself up for a fall like that. “How about Red Storm?” he lifted one of his wings, stretching it up to display the tough skin stretched between the bones.
“Huh.” Bakugo looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. “Cool enough.” he declared. “But I get to call you Red.”
“Alright.” Eijirou nodded. Some of the kids back home had called him Red too, ever since that one summer when he fell asleep just a bit too close to one of their little campfires and woke up burnt all down his back. “I think just about everyone is gonna call me that, though.” he gestured at his scales, the red of fire and blood and his favourite dress back home.
Bakugo pouted at that, and Eijirou resisted the urge to giggle. It looked like his friend wasn’t as grown-up as he tried to act.
“I guess.” he huffed. “But it’s mine first.”
“What’s yours, my name?” he couldn’t resist teasing Bakugo a little.
“Shut up.” Bakugo picked up a rock and flicked it at Eijirou’s shoulder, a little explosion going off behind it right as it left his hand to propel it fast enough it actually stung a little even through his tough scales.
“You’re just mad I came up with a better one than any of yours.” he laughed.
“Shut up!” Bakugo lobbed another rock at him, bouncing it off one of his horns this time, and Eijirou lifted a foreleg to shield his face.
“I’m riiight~”
“You’re stupid, you- you- you Red Idiot!”
Eijirou lowered his foreleg to give Bakugou an incredulous look, and the expression of sheer indignation on his friend’s face was enough to make him burst into full-on laughter.
“Fuck you!” Bakugo stomped his foot, and turned around to storm off into the woods. Eijirou considered getting up to follow him, then decided against it. Bakugo was kinda fun to rile up sometimes, but Eijirou didn’t want to make him actually properly mad. Grown-up dragons could only be killed with special weapons, but he wasn’t a grown-up yet, and Bakugo had been pretty clear on his opinion. Eijirou was a dragon to him, and dragons were monsters. If he pushed Bakugo too far, he didn’t doubt that the little blond fire mage would have no qualms about killing or maiming him.
---
“Hey, I think I see a town over there!”
“Really?” Katsuki looked up from his map, which had gotten kinda ruined and useless in a rainstorm a few days ago. Stupid weather.
“Well, not a town yet, but definitely farms.” his dragon friend clarified, lowering back down onto all fours.
“Awesome. We’ll head in and grab some more food.”
“We?” Kirishima raised a scaly eyebrow.
“Well, yeah.” Katsuki crossed his arms.
“I’m a dragon.” Kirishima gestured to himself, as if anyone could mistake him for something else.
“And?” Katsuki tilted his head, looking his friend up and down. He wasn’t hurt, so he was probably just being an idiot again. He was awesome, but also pretty stupid sometimes. Nowhere near as bad as Deku, though, even disregarding the fact that he was a dragon not a null.
“And they’ll try to kill me!” Kisihima gestured at his face more frantically. Katsuki sighed.
“No they won’t.” he promised his friend. “You’re gonna be walking in with me, and I’m awesome enough that even if they don’t know how cool dragons are they’re not gonna come after you.”
“Alright.” Kirishima frowned, and Katsuki nodded firmly.
“C’mon, we gotta get there quick enough the shops are still open.” he gestured for Kirishima to follow him, and the dragon plodded along behind him carefully as he forged ahead towards the road. Maybe there’d even be an inn they could stay at for the night. Camping was fun and all, but he did kinda miss sleeping in a real bed.
“For the record, I don’t like this.” Kirishima complained.
“Don’t ca~re.” Katsuki half sang, flicking his wrist over his head and releasing a small flurry of sparks with the motion. Kirishima was his friend, and that meant he was automatically more awesome than the plebs in this dumb little town. They might not like it, but they’d just have to deal with the reminder of how lame they were. Thankfully Kirishima shut up pretty quick, and settled for walking behind him. When Katsuki looked over his shoulder, though, he paused with a frown.
“What’s that face for?” he demanded.
“What face?” Kirishima frowned.
“That one.” he pointed. “How’s anyone supposed to take you seriously with your head down like that?” he stepped towards Kirishima and grabbed the underside of his jaw, straining to lift it with both hands. “You’re a dragon, you gotta-” he staggered backwards as Kirishima lifted his head, and smiled victoriously. “Yeah, like that.”
Kirishima gave him a tentative smile, and Katsuki moved closer to slug his friend in the- shin? forearm? He still wasn’t sure if those limbs counted as legs or arms. “Now c’mon, just keep up with me and we’ll show these yokels how awesome we are.”
If they didn’t make a good enough first impression the locals might start asking dumb questions like where his parents were, and grown-ups got so annoying about that kind of stuff. He was practically a grown-up himself, no matter what Kirishima said about them being kids. Lifting his chin, he turned on his heel and strode towards the worn dirt path. It was unnaturally smooth under his feet once he got up on it, the work of an elemental affinity no doubt, and he squared his shoulders as the first buildings came into view. He had the best elemental affinity ever, and a goddamn dragon following on his heels. He was better than anyone here, wouldn’t even be coming into this stupid town if he wasn’t getting sick of living on whatever berries and small game he and Kirishima could scrounge up while they walked.
He squared his shoulders as they drew near the edge of what looked like the town proper, doing his best to look important and badass. A pair of grown-ups chatting in the street paused as he approached, their eyes widening, and he smiled as they hurried away.
“I don’t like this.” Kirishima complained quietly.
“I mean, respect would be better, but at least they’re not asking us stupid questions.” Katsuki shrugged. It wasn’t hard to find the general store, and nobody stopped him as he strolled in. He started for the corner, but paused after a few steps. This place was laid out differently from the one in his hometown, and smaller and shittier to boot. Kirishima poked his head in the door with a curious sound, which was about as much of him as would fit, and Katsuki rolled his eyes. If there was an upside to this place being tiny, it was that finding what he was looking for was easy as hell. He grabbed a wheel of cheese, a few loaves of bread, and as much cured meat as he figured would fit in his bag.
“Hey, geezer, how much for all this?” he asked, setting his armful of provisions on the front counter. The man behind the counter looked from him to Kirishima, whose head was no longer inside the shop but still just outside the door.
“I, uh-”
“Hands where I can see them.” someone said from behind him, and Katsuki turned to see the sorriest excuse for a soldier he’d ever met. The man’s armour was barely worthy of the name, and the sword in his hands was shaking like crazy.
“Fuck off.” Katsuki scowled at him.
“I said hands where I can see them!” the soldier jabbed the sword at him, and Katsuki slapped it aside with an explosion. The geezer behind the counter yelped, and the soldier cried out as the sword snapped in two. The pointy end flew off sideways, embedding itself in the dirt under Kirishima’s nose, and the soldier himself staggered backwards into a display with a cry of pain. Fucking wimp.
“Bakugo!” the dragon exclaimed.
“He started it!” Katsuki pointed at the soldier.
“CHARGE!” someone yelled outside, and Kirishima’s head shot up out of view with a startled yelp. Another soldier in the same shitty uniform ran by the door, and Katsuki’s breath caught in his throat as he saw the gleam of magic spreading over their barely-armour and, more importantly, their sword. Dragons were almost impossible to kill, but Kirishima was a lot smaller than the dragons in stories, his heart would be easier to reach.
“Hey, leave him alone!” Bakugo shouted, magic already bleeding from his palms as he charged out of the shop. The magicked-up soldier spun to face him, eyes widening under their helmet, and he launched himself at their face with his best battle cry. A single explosion sent them sprawling, and his hands shook slightly as he was forced to duck under a sweeping club. This was wrong, why were they being attacked? He and Kirishima hadn’t done anything wrong.
His friend let out a howl of pain, and Katsuki’s eyes widened as Kirishima slammed his front legs down, dug his claws into the magically smoothed road, and spewed a tongue of fire easily nine metres long and wider than the street they were standing on. The soldiers scattered at that, some dragging their roasted comrades, and Katsuki rushed to Kirishima’s side. There was a spear stuck in his friend’s leg, blood oozing out around the shaft, and for a second he just stared. these people had hurt Kirishima, just for existing. Magic roiled around him, and Bakugo turned back the way they’d come as he bundled it all into his palms.
He let out a wordless scream of rage, and flung his magic as hard as he could, engulfing at least a storefront and a half in the resulting explosive fireball. “Fuck you!” he yelled at the empty street. “Fuck all of you!” spinning on his heel, he stomped over to the spear in Kirishima’s thigh and gripped it with both hands. “Hold still.” he told his friend, and planted a foot on the crimson scales. The spear came out with a good sharp tug, and Kirishima let out another howl of pain, accompanied by more fire.
Katsuki snapped the spear over his knee, and then blasted it with fire for good measure. Fuck them, fuck this whole stupid shitty town. “We’re leaving.” he said, his hands shaking even as he curled them into fists.
“Okay.” Kirishima sniffled, and Katsuki took a few steps past the door to the general store before he paused. “Bakugo?”
“One sec.” he said, and ducked back into the store under a fallen awning beam which was slowly catching flame. The man behind the counter was gone, but the cash box wasn’t, and he tucked it under one arm before quickly scanning for the biggest bag he could carry. He dropped the box inside, and swept as much food as he could into the bag. It was heavier than he’d expected, but not too heavy to handle. Perfect.
“Alright.” he grinned up at Kirishima as he ducked back out of the shop, doing his best to look confident. “Let’s blow this dump. They’re way too lame to handle us.”
Kirishima stared at him, then nodded, and if he kept one hand full of fire and walked a little faster than usual on their way out of town, well, a bit of caution never hurt.
---
Katsuki leaned back against Kirishima’s flank, picking under his nails with a knife he’d grabbed in their latest little raid. They were getting better at this, at travelling and fending for themselves. It had only been a few months, but looking back he already wanted to smack his past self. He and Kirishima were awesome, normal people weren’t on their level. Normal people would never look at his friend and see a powerful mage, they’d only ever see a mindless beast. And if they couldn’t see how powerful he and Kirishima were, they fucking deserved to get their shit stolen.
It wasn’t like the two of them ever took that much, either. Just a sack of food and maybe some trinkets; the cash box too, or contents of the till if it was convenient. Just as much as they needed to survive and keep heading towards the Great Evil, which was a much longer trip than Katsuki had thought at first. He pocketed his new knife, and shut his eyes as he got comfortable against his friend’s side. The weather was starting to cool, just slightly, and only at night, but it made sleeping next to his draconic friend a much more attractive option than curling up in his tent.
He was nearly asleep when the sensation of falling suddenly jolted him awake, arms flailing slightly as he sat bolt upright. His heart raced in his chest, and he looked around at the edge of their campfire’s light before shaking his head. Stupid brain, waking him up for no reason. He flopped back against Kirishima, and yelped as the dragon’s scaly hide wasn’t there. He hit it a second later, and twisted up onto his knees, staring at a dragon who was much smaller than the one he’d met in the woods just a few days from home.
Before his eyes, Kirishima kept shrinking, his scales shifting and limbs twisting until the huge, imposing dragon he’d known for months was gone, a sleeping child left in its place. Katsuki blinked, mouth falling open. The kid couldn’t’ve been older than he was, but his limbs were littered with scars. The one that drew his eyes most, though, was on one of the kid’s tanned thighs, a spot where the skin was twisted around a round divot of scar tissue maybe the width of his thumb.
The same place and size, proportionally, as the first scar Kirishima had gained in battle with him. If the transformation itself hadn’t been enough, that certainly erased any doubts he might’ve had about this being his friend. The fact that Kirishima’s hair was the same colour as his scales didn’t hurt either, nor did the horns which peeked up from just behind his hairline, much smaller than the ones he had as a dragon but still sorta the same shape. His face was rounder than Katsuki had expected though, soft and weirdly peaceful in his sleep.
Katsuki punched him in the gut.
Kirishima bolted upright with a yelp and a small spurt of fire from his mouth, and Katsuki found himself transfixed by his friend’s eyes. In a dragon’s face they looked perfectly normal, but framed by human lashes and sun-kissed skin the gold and red eyes were nothing short of striking.
“The hell, Bakugo?” Kirishima whined, and yeah that was definitely Kirishima.
“Your eyes are red.” he said dumbly. The coloured bit was so small, when Kirishima was a dragon, he’d never noticed before.
“Huh?” Kirishima lifted a hand to his face, then seemed to realize he had an actual hand again, albeit one with nails that looked more like claws than anything else, and his eyes fixed on his fingers as they slowly curled and uncurled. “I’m- I’m me again.” he breathed, a smile spreading across his face as his hands settled in loose fists. “Bakugo, I’m me again!” he beamed, and Katsuki realized his friend’s teeth were just as razor-sharp as they’d been in his dragon form.
“You’ve always been you, dumbass.” he deadpanned, picking up a rock and flicking it at Kirishima. It bounced off his friend’s forearm, and Kirishima laughed.
“I’m human again!” he crowed, leaping to his feet, and Katsuki squawked as he belatedly realized Kirishima was completely naked.
“Dude!” he whipped the blanket at his friend, looking away before he saw anything. “I don’t wanna see your weenie!”
Kirishima just laughed and wound the blanket around himself before sitting back down, his smile practically blinding in the firelight. “Man, I missed having proper hands.” he curled and uncurled his fingers, smiling at his hands like an idiot. Katsuki’s mouth threatened to pull up at the edges, and he rose to his feet instead, turning away from his friend.
“I’m gonna pitch my tent.” he said, walking over to where the bundle of poles and ropes and waxed canvas was lying with the rest of their stuff. The setup was easy enough he could practically do it in his sleep by now, and once the last stake had been blasted into the ground he crawled inside. His bedroll was still outside, but he’d been just on the edge of sleep before Kirishima went and stopped being a dragon and exhaustion was already tugging him back down. He flopped down on the softest bit of dirt available, one arm under his head as a shitty pillow, and was about to drift off completely when he heard the door flap open.
He groaned, and pressed his face into his bicep. He just wanted to sleep.
“Can I sleep in here too?” Kirishima asked, already lying down behind him. Katsuki grunted, and went back to trying to fall asleep. It was hard, though, with another body so close. He was used to falling asleep to his dragon friend’s breathing and heartbeat, but that familiarity didn’t seem to extend to Kirishima’s human form. He was hyper-aware of the presence behind him, radiating heat and making familiar little sleepy sounds, and no matter how many times he told himself it was just Kirishima he couldn’t force it to become background noise.
An arm landed heavily over his waist, and Katsuki stiffened as he realized Kirishima had scooted so close they were practically pressed together. He could feel sweat beading on his back under his tunic, and every hair on his neck stood up when Kirishima’s hot breath ghosted over his skin.
“Nope.” he sat up abruptly, throwing off Kirishima’s arm and grabbing his friend by the shoulders to pull him upright as well. “You’re sleeping outside.”
“Huh?” Kirishima blinked sleepily, but didn’t resist as Katsuki shoved him at the door flaps of the tent.
“Outside, shitty hair.” he snapped. “I’m not sleeping next to a fucking furnace.”
“Can I keep the blanket?” Kirishima blinked blearily at him, and Katsuki considered saying no. But that’d mean seeing his friend naked again, and that was just weird.
“Yeah, sure, fine.” he huffed, crossing his arms. “Just don’t set it on fire or anything.”
“Thanks, Bakugo.” Kirishima smiled. Katsuki shoved him, sending him toppling through the tent doors, and this time remembered to tie them shut securely. He flopped back down on the ground, and was out in seconds.
---
Eijirou woke to someone kicking him in the side. Or, no, not quite kicking him but nudging him with a foot. He grunted, peeling his eyes open, and found himself blinking up at Bakugo. “Mornin.” he mumbled, and got another prod from Bakugo’s foot. “‘M up, ‘m up.” he yawned, levering himself up with one hand. The blanket slid down his chest, puddling in his lap, and he grinned sleepily. He was human again, himself again, it hadn’t been some strange dream. He stretched, and wrapped the blanket around his waist as he got to his feet.
“What’s for breakfast?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. Usually he had to catch his own food, but he didn’t have a huge dragon stomach anymore, so now he could have some of their provisions.
“Food.” Bakugo shrugged. “Help yourself, I guess, just put this on first.” he held out a piece of cloth, which Eijirou took with one hand. It was a tunic. Bakugo’s tunic, probably, since Bakugo was currently topless. He pulled it on, and was surprised to find it tight in the chest and shoulders but long enough to be technically decent, as long as he didn’t do anything particularly athletic. He dragged the blanket up around his shoulders anyways, the end trailing on the ground behind him as he padded over to their supplies. It looked like a lot more stuff, now that he wasn’t a huge dragon.
Thankfully the food was easy enough to find, and as he carried his armful of smoked meat back to the campfire Bakugo was trying to ignite with a shower of sparks from his fingers. It really was cool, how fire moved around his friend, the flames bending to his will and flowing like water over whatever surface he chose. The sparks caught, and Eijirou seated himself across the fire from Bakugo with a smile.
“Is your face stuck like that or something?” Bakugo asked, and Eijirou blinked. “You keep doing that dumb smile.”
“Dude, I’m happy.” he scoffed, leaning back on one hand and popping some dried fruit in his mouth with the other. “I haven’t been human in months.”
“Yeah, what’s even with that?” Bakugo looked at him, red eyes sharp as the flames in the pit between them quickly grew to a merry little blaze. “I thought you couldn’t turn back.”
“I didn’t know how.” Eijirou corrected, then tilted his head slightly. “Still don’t, actually.” he took a bite of the cured meat, pointed teeth tearing through it with ease.
“So you don’t know how to turn into a dragon again either?” Bakugo frowned.
“Why would I want to?”
“Maybe because our packs are weighted for a dragon?”
“Oh, yeah.” Eijirou looked over at their pile of stuff. Most of it was food, he was pretty sure, with only one bag being devoted to trinkets Bakugo swiped when they hit settlements to resupply. “Well, now that I’ve shifted back once, at least we know I can change forms.” he pointed out. Being trapped in that body had been awful, terrifying, and at first he’d wanted nothing more than to change back and never shift again, but after a few months on the road with Bakugo he couldn’t deny that he’d started coming around to his friend’s point of view. His dragon form was damn near invincible, equipped with firepower that easily matched Bakugo’s in addition to razor-sharp teeth and claws just as tough as his scales.
As a dragon he was untouchable, awesome in the purest sense of the word, and now that he knew he could turn back to a human at any point, the idea of shifting again wasn’t as viscerally out of the question. He just had to figure out how it worked, first. Maybe talk to someone who had a more acceptable animal form and see how they did it?
“We gotta get you some pants.” Bakugo said a few minutes later, when Eijirou was nearly done with his breakfast and feeling more full than he had since his magic came in.
“From where?” he frowned.
“Pretty sure I saw another town over that way while we were in the air yesterday.” he pointed off into the woods.
“So, what, we drag our shit over to there and hope they haven’t heard about us?”
“Even if they have, they’re looking for a fire mage and a dragon.” Bakugo pointed out with a grin. “We’re just two adventurers who need some new clothes.”
He had a point there, though Eijirou doubted any adult would actually take them seriously as adventurers when neither of them was even a metre and a half yet. “Alright.” he agreed, stuffing the last of breakfast in his mouth and swallowing quickly. “Let’s get our shit packed.”
Bakugo grinned, sharp despite his normal human teeth, and rose to his feet after Eijirou. “Let’s.”
---
As it turned out, Eijirou hadn’t lost all of his draconic strength in shifting back. Their bags were still way too bulky for him to handle with ease, but at least they didn’t have to leave anything behind when they set out. Finding the town wasn’t as hard as he’d feared, the wheel-rutted road through the trees was harder to miss from the ground than it might’ve been from the air, though once they reached town things got complicated again. Not because the locals had been warned about them, or because there were an excess of soldiers around, but because Bakugo apparently didn’t know when to shut his goddamn mouth. He grabbed his friend, slapping a hand over Bakugo’s mouth and plastering on his best smile.
“Sorry about my friend, ma’am.” he apologised to the woman behind the counter. “He’s always had a vivid imagination.” Bakugo elbowed him sharply in the side, and quickly let out a muffled curse into Eijirou’s palm. “How quickly do you think you could make a pair of pants?”
“For you?” her eyes pointedly flicked down to his bare legs, and Eijirou flushed. “Give me fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” he bowed slightly, then dragged Bakugo over towards a wide tree stump which seemed to be where measurements were taken. Bakugo sat down next to him with a huff, and Eijirou removed his hand from over his friend’s mouth. “Sorry?” he offered with a sheepish smile when Bakugo just glared at him harder.
“The fuck was that?” his friend asked after a second.
“What was what?”
“That!” Bakugo gestured towards the doorway the woman had vanished through. “The hell do you mean, vivid imagination?”
“Do you really want to announce to people that we’re the ones who’ve been starting fires all over the place?” he asked pointedly. “Yeah, they kinda had it coming, trying to kill both of us just because I looked like a dragon, but do you really think they know that?” he waved an arm at the front of the shop, indicating the people outside.
“Fuck no, townies are morons.” Bakugo’s nose wrinkled.
“Morons who we can’t fight right now.” he gestured at himself, and Bakugo snorted.
“Right, you’re half naked.” he grinned, loose and casual, and slugged Eijirou in the shoulder. “Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut about how awesome we are, but only until someone asks.”
“Why are you like this.” Eijirou sighed, and Bakugo slung an arm around his shoulders.
“Because we’re the most awesome people in this stupid backwater, and these yokels are too thick to realize that unless we tell ‘em.”
Eijirou rolled his eyes, but honestly couldn’t say he was particularly surprised. Bakugo was just, like that when it came to other people. Always had to be the coolest around, and have everyone know it. Eijirou would never admit it, lest his friend get an even bigger head, but it was kinda nice to be someone Bakugo counted as part of his inner circle of awesomeness. When he’d been a dragon it helped him feel less like a monster, and now as a human again... he couldn’t fight in this form, his teeth and claws were more decorative than anything else and the biggest flame he’d been able to produce wasn’t even the length of his arm, but Bakugo still thought they were peers in awesomeness. It was nice, comforting, and he leaned on his friend’s shoulder as Bakugo poked fun at people passing by the shop.
“Here you go, dear.” the shop owner emerged after what felt like no time at all, and Eijirou ducked behind a mannequin displaying a long travelling cloak to pull the pants on. They fit so much better than the trousers he'd borrowed from his friends back home whenever his dresses got 'accidentally' messed up playing in the woods. He yanked Bakugo’s tunic off by the back of the collar, and when he got back up to the front found his friend pouring a surprising amount of money on the counter.
“All that for one pair of pants?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Rush order, deary.” the woman smiled at him, too sweet to be genuine.
“And she’s gonna make you a tunic, too.” Bakugo said, taking his own top back and tugging it on.
“Are you sure you don’t want some new clothes for yourself?” she frowned slightly, looking almost genuinely concerned.
“Nah.” Bakugo waved a hand dismissively, and held out a hand for change. Once it was tucked safely in the pouch at his belt, he grabbed Eijirou by the wrist and pulled him towards the door. “C’mon, shitty hair, we’ve gotta get you some shoes.”
“I don’t need shoes.” he whined, but didn’t fight as Bakugo pulled him down the street.
“Too bad, you’re getting them.” Bakugo grinned at him, and Eijirou couldn’t help but smile back. Even with his claws and teeth and weird eyes and newly red hair, right now he felt almost normal. He hadn’t realized how much he missed it.