Chapter Text
Preface:
Somewhere in the darkest time and darkest place of history a war broke out between the two children of the night. No one knew how it began or when it began but soon the werewolves and vampires were in the middle of a bloodthirsty war that was effecting all of magical creatures as they were used in favor of wining the battles. It had been going on for centuries and it seemed it had no end. There was no upper hand or ultimate winner just battles after battles. Fallen friends and families and heavy casualties on both sides. It was in that time that the vampire king played his hidden wild card… his masterpiece… his youngest son… the ultimate weapon. Todoroki Shouto was a pure blood vampire and the result of the marriage between two of the strongest pure blood families among royalties. His presence on the battlefield was alone meant absolute defeat to the enemy. His level of skills in both combat and battle strategies were god-tier and his power was beyond any vampire of any kind. Right when werewolves were about to retreat from the front lines and accept defeat a legend raised. A furious ash blond wolf tore the lines of vampires and slaughter them in an eye-blink. Leaving behind only a few injured ones before turning back to a wild grinning young man with tall and muscular body, all covered in blood.
He looked down on the low level vampires and growled loudly.
“Crawl to your master and tell that little prince of yours that his true match has arrived.”
…
Was it even possible for the dead blood in his veins to boil? Because that was what he felt when the huge ashen blond beast jumped on him and threw him off his horse. Pure rage over taking him, shattering his always calm and cold façade. He barely had blocked the wolf’s sharp teeth with his sword and saved himself from getting torn in to pieces. The lines of his soldiers were shaken apart by the wolf’s constant attacks and it seemed nothing worked on this monster that was ripping through the lines of knights and making his way toward his target… the prince’s head.
The worst part of all of these was the damn curse that came with the monster bite…he witnessed it first-handedly. As the wolf bit in to his soldiers’ flesh… they became incapable due to extreme pain shooting through them as they fell on the ground and rolled around crying out in agony. It was then that he found out what exactly the vicious creature in front of him was… so the tales were true after all. He was the cursed warrior of west! The only one who had been gone on the dragon blood quest and came back alive.
He pushed the wolf off of himself as he gets back to his feet and gets ready to attack the beast in front of him when his royal knights throw themselves in his way.
“My prince you got to get back to the castle. The sun is about to rise. We will hold the fiend back. Please retreat.”
He was about to protest against his right commander’s request but the man turned to his knights and declared his last order as he unleashed his sword and lunches toward the monstrous wolf.
“Guards! Secure a path for the prince. Take him back to the castle safe.”
He tries to resist but his guards’ pleas and cries altogether with the scene of his commander sacrifice makes him to surrender to his last request and order his remaining force to retreat back to the safety but as he is running off from the blood bath of a battlefield tearing through the enemies who dared to follow them with his sword or bare hands he turns back and sees the beast turns to an ash blond man that stands up in his brutal glory, grinning over the bodies of his fallen comrades, covered up in their blood.
He locks eyes with the prince, not attempting to give him a chase. Like he wouldn’t be worthy of his effort.
He couldn’t do anything at the moment as the sun’s first beams were enlightening the battlefield burning his fallen men - dead or barely alive - and leaving only their ashes behind.
The blond warrior stands victorious and holds the running prince’s furious stare while howling his victory aloud. His warriors soon follow him and fill the battlefield with loud howls.
He shoots the beast-man his coldest glare filled with hate and rage and receives a wide-mouth grin in return. He will make the blond warrior pay for this, for his fallen men, for his humiliation and for his first defeat. He swears to his honor as he retreats to the shadows of the forest before the sun could burn him and his remaining men as well.
The loud howling still echoing in his ears loudly. Reminding him of his very first defeat by the hands of the blond man.
…
King Endeavor wasn’t pleased at the news of this defeat.
So he went through the humiliation of his father scolding in front of the whole court and was assigned to get rid of the legendary beast at any cost by himself. Which he did accept without any complains since it was his intention as well. He just needs some preparation before facing that monster again.
So he locked himself in his room and started his research in his personal library.
By the third day he finally finds what he was looking for…
He is interrupted when he hears a knock on the door. With his permission the guard opens the door stepping inside with a little girl in his hands, unconscious.
“Your father has sent you this gift your highness.” The guard declares and put the little child on his bed.
He grips he edge of his desk feeling it crushing under his hold as he picks up the smell of blood from the young girl sleeping on the bed and it drowns on him that he hasn’t fed himself any proper meals for days.
He doesn’t let the frown to show up on his face as he internally curses his father and his own intense thirst.
“You can send my father my greatest gratitude. Now leave.”
“As you wish your highness.” The guard bows as he retreats out of the room.
He takes another glance at the child before slapping his book close and curses loudly.
“Bastard.”
He says as he gets ready to heads out. Taking the child with him to dump in a village on his way to the mountains. And also hunting a real meal for himself… a deer would do. Or a criminal in the nearby kingdom, imprisoned in the castle waiting for execution, since he needed some extra strength to carry out his plan.
The blond man will be on his knees in front of him soon enough.
…
The fire lights the sky as the warriors start dancing around its flames and sing the song of victory or drink as much as booze as they can get their hands on.
The hero of the war is surrounded by them as they take him up on their hands, bringing him their finest booze and freshly hunted meat.
The blond warrior spends some hours among them and watches them getting drunker with every shot they devour, slowly passing out around the big fire or some actually manage to get themselves back to their tents.
The crimson eye roams around the dark night surrounding their camp, he lazily takes another sip from his cup, glancing at the stars. When he decides he has shown his face enough for the warriors’ spirit to rise up he stands up to head back to his own tent.
The pack leaders were debating on crowning him as the youngest lord of the werewolves but he has already refused their proposal. He ain’t here for the throne… he is just here for the damn promise he made. He frowns at the reminder of the burden placed on his shoulders by those bastards of Gods.
He enters his tent taking off his red cape and throwing it on his bed before slightly peeking at the verging shadow from his back. He doesn’t pay it any mind and starts to flex some tension out of his bare shoulders.
He catches on with the movements behind him but keeps denying the intruder. By the time that the silver blade connects to his neck his only impulse is to hiss and grit his teeth together slightly.
“Did they send you to warm my bed in exchange of my mercy?”
The barely touch of the blade makes his skin melts away, drawing another hiss from his lips.
“No, I came to take your savage being with me to get chained up in the darkest dungeons where you will be tamed and pay for every one of my fallen men.” The cold voice speaks directly to his ear.
That draws a snore out of the blond. “You are awfully confident in your plans. Like you were in your victory. But here we are. I still get off on your pretty face when you were crawling away in defeat little princeling.”
He hears the gritting of prince’s teeth and lets out a smirk on his face.
The knife sinks deeper in his throat drawing out a deep growl from the wolf because of the melting flesh, but his super regeneration power made up for the loss of flesh in that area… silver wouldn’t be that effective against him, the little prince should have gone through some history research to find the dirty Wolfsbane’s plant trick and he was smart enough to put twice of the normal amount needed to knock out a typical werewolf but not him.
“Someone has done his homework.”
He didn’t get any reply from the vampire.
The Wolfsbane would weaken him… enough that the prince could put a Wolfsbane soaked cloth on his mouth with his other hand and keeps it there through his weakened struggle.
Soon he is out cold in the vampire prince’s arms. His body becomes limb as the prince keeps the cloth on his mouth for a few more minutes to make sure he is really out. This will keep the wolf out for the rest of the way to the castle’s prison.
It was too easy for his liking. He had expected the wolf to put up much more struggle that it did, but it wasn’t the time to overthink the savage’s actions since he was in the enemy’s head commander’s privet tent. He has to act fast if he wanted to get away before it all goes south due to legendary warrior’s sudden disappearance.
He knots the Wolfsbaned cloth around the blond man’s mouth and picks him up on his shoulder. He vanishes in the night like he was never there, taking the enemy’s wild card with him.
…
He opens his eyes to the sound of muffled chatter around him and a dim light illuminating his surroundings. The first thing greeting his sight is his chained limbs… Oh crap!
He rolls his eyes as the chains burn him slightly where they come in contact with his skin… Wolfsbane!
What a pleasant welcome!!!
Following the chains with his eyes, he finds them leading to a big stony throne and unsurprisingly when a throne is a king is also around… in this case the said douche is laying his ass on the throne resembling the biggest jerk in the universe perfectly… No. That title rightfully belongs to the bastard standing on the right side of the throne staring at him with those mismatched eyes. He averts his gaze away from the two assholes carelessly as he continues to invest the rest of the big throne hall.
“Ah… The infamous vampire court. I see.” He says regarding the ten masked men and women sitting behind the big stony tables at two sides of the throne.
He can smell the crowd of vampires standing in rows behind him without the need to turn around. He stands up without minding the chains digging into his flesh.
“May I ask to what I owe the honor of being summoned to the biggest asshole king’s presence so unexpectedly?”
The crowd gasps behind him and the king usual scowl deepens. Well that gets him some satisfaction.
The asshole king pulls on the other end of the chains connected to his throne to bring the ill-mannered man to his knees again but the wolf strength is proven to be on unimaginably different level as he doesn’t even budge at the harsh pull. This is when the asshole son of the king decides to take the matters in his own hand. So with his superior speed he appears behind the blond man and kicks him behind his knee… this added to the chains strong pull, finally brings the wolf down on his knees. The bastard retreat to daddy’s side after that accompanied with the blond man’s glare digging a hole behind his head.
“It seems the assholism runs in the family.” He throws after the prince and is met with a court member’s wrath. “Quiet beast. The legendary warrior or not you do not get to talk to royal families like that.”
He doesn’t take his killing glare off the prince as he denies the court member that just gave him a short speech. He does as he pleases. The stick up guy can go fuck himself.
He is continuing his staring competition with the prince when a loud voice echoes through the big hall, making everyone to finally shut up.
“Today we captured the famous legend of the werewolves, the one and only survivor of the dragon blood quest and a cursed warrior of the west. So without their champion among them our victorious days shall be back once again.”
The crowd starts to cheer after the king’s heated words but a loud and long laugh make them go quiet soon after.
When the wolf warrior senses every eyes in the hall on himself he slowly switches his laughter with subtle chuckles and huffs.
He tries to regain his normal breathing and find his voice back.
“Wow… I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. Thanks man. That really cheered me up.”
The laughter is gone but the grin remains as he continues.
“Let’s go through it together again… first of all who the hell said that I’m being captured? I just came along in peace cause your asshole of a son is hot as fuck.” He winks at the prince getting no reaction in respond so he moves on with his speech to clear out all of these misunderstandings. “Secondly I don’t think I’m really willing to let you flare back the war again.”
He stars up at the king as he declares the last part. The king glares back at him.
“You are not in a place to speak up to the king like that, Werewolf.”
The same guy from before interrupts again.
He puts up his smuggest expression and doesn’t break eye contact as he speaks again. “Why don’t you ask your dear king who exactly he had let into your safe fortress before trying to test my patience?”
The courts members’ eyes land on the king’s face as his eyebrows form a visible knit on his forehead. He takes a look at his son standing beside his throne. The prince doesn’t meet his eyes.
Well… well… well… what do we have here?!? A lot of uneducated people, apparently. He rolls his eyes as he groans in frustration.
“You guys are hopeless; but I feel kind of generous today so I will give out a free hint.” he smirks and locks eyes with the prince as he announces his hint. “The name is Bakugou Katsuki.”
The loud gasps fill the hall as the name flows off the blond’s man tongue.
“It’s not possible. The guy lived ages ago. You can’t be him.”
The same court member runs his mouth again and Bakugou restrain himself from bitting his head off this time.
He fixes his gaze on the now so quiet prince as he speaks again.
“It’s up to you to believe it or not… I don’t give a damn about it anyway. However, I’m sure some of you have already figured it out. The curse isn’t that common through the history after all.”
The last part finally gets to the prince and his burning glare find the crimson eyes of the werewolf warrior. His voice reaches out of his lips at last.
“What is the cure?”
He couldn’t stay silent anymore. The lives of his men were at stake as they were wasting time on some stupid old legend about the werewolves and vampire ancestors.
The wolf grins wider.
“You tell me, little prince. You were the one digging in history looking for my weaknesses. You should have come across a few other useful tips as well in between your studies.”
The prince clenches his jaw.
“Drinking them your blood didn’t work.”
The wolf hums in approval.
“Fair enough I guess. The little details always get lost throughout the generations.”
The prince tightens his hand in to fists. “What detail?”
The blond’s grin returns with full force.
“Oh nothing really special just a small permission on my side.” He pauses to deliver a pure evil smirk. “Gaining it though wouldn’t be an easy task to achieve.”
The prince holds the wolf’s gaze.
“Father” he calls out. “May I?”
The king stands up to state his last word before leaving the throne hall.
“You have seven days. We hold the execution on the seventh day nightfall.”
And he walks out not giving a chance for any protest.
…
He walks through the castle’s underground corridors, passing by the very old cells. He stops in front of one of them and opens the heavy door as he enters the cell closing it behind him.
He could smell the prisoner before he even lays his eyes on him.
The wolf was chained to the wall with the wolfsbaned silver chains. He glowls when he rises head to see his visitor… It is, without a surprise, the vampire prince himself… AGAIN!
“If this is your way of getting my approvement; I should honestly say that your method sucks.”
Starving and torturing him wouldn’t help at all. He was the only one who went on the dragon blood quest journey and came back alive and in one piece. The tortures wouldn’t do more than tickling his body and the starving was nothing compared to what he had gone through in the past and the vampire asshole knew this too.
The tow toned haired man gets closer to the spikey haired one, holding his throat in an iron grip. “You will save my soldiers.”
The wolf grins despite the pain. “Why should I?”
The grip tightens up around his neck.
“Because if you don’t, they will kill you.”
The blond male forces a huff pass his lips.
“Let them do it and your men will die…” The prince grits his teeth harder as the werewolf finishes his sentence. “… you won’t let that happen.”
The grip becomes impossibly tight but still not enough to snaps his neck.
The blond pushes out his final words.
“Thought so.”
That’s when a silver knife lands in the wolf chest and forces a pained growl out of him.
It doesn’t take that long for the werewolf to recover and runs his mouth again.
“You missed the heart again, little prince. Like I said, you don’t have it in you to let the people who rely on you down.”
The knife slides out of his chest carefully as the wound on the wolf’s chest begins to heal and he slowly catches his breath back. Apparently those few minutes were enough time for the rude blond man to recover his cocky attitude again.
“What happened vampire? Your strength wasn’t even half of the time you stabbed me for the first time.”
He stares down at the prince’s hand holding the knife and the dark purplish veins slightly peeking out of his long sleeve.
“You don’t have that much time left. It must hurt like hell. You should take a lick of that knife. You ain’t going to last like that.”
The prince holds the knife’s handle tighter.
“As you had mentioned, I can’t let my men down. They are more in need of this blood than I am.” The vampire says as he covers the bite mark on his arms by pulling down his sleeve.
He heads out of the cell carrying the bloody knife in his hand, trying to keep his face straight while the pain was pulsing through his body from the mark. These few drops of blood were all he would get out of the asshole werewolf to save at least one of his men every time.
He denies the sharp pain shooting through his whole arm, only letting out the smallest growl as he closes the cell’s door after his exit.
“You really are out of your mind half ‘n half. I give you that.”
He doesn’t retort, in fear of his calm façade falling apart in respond to the intense pain.
“I would like to see how much longer you can keep it up, little prince.”
He walks away jaw slightly clenching and a little frown finding its place on his face. He isn’t going to play along in the little game that the blond man was trying to start with him.
His time will be up soon, that part is true, but he will save as many men as he can before his end arrives.
…
He grasps his arm in his hand, his breath comes out in short painful huffs, the cold sweat slowly covering his body, his vision blurring up as he tries to read a page of the ancient book in front of him.
He can’t concentrate between the spasmodic pain and the subtle trembling of his body.
He opens up the first two buttons on his shirt and wets his dry lips.
He hears his door get knocked on in between his dozing offs.
“Prince Todoroki, It’s time for your…” he recognizes his royal guard’s voice, Yaoyorozu Momo. She becomes quiet the moment she lays her eyes on the trembling form of the prince still sitting behind his desk.
“My prince!” she calls out as she rushes to his side. “What happened?”
He couldn’t concentrate enough to form a complete sentence in respond. Everything was in a cloud of smoke in his head and it felt like his brain was melting.
“This looks bad.” She slowly puts her hand on his shoulder and asks “When was the last time you feed?”
He wets his lips again and pushes out his raspy voice out of his raw throat at last.
“Last night.”
She stares at him with her scolding face.
“When was the last time you feed on proper blood? Not some random animal or a lonely criminal abandoned in a cell for god knows how long or a few drops of your stored up victual under your bed, a proper COMPLETE meal?”
He doesn’t give an answer to that.
Her voice becomes softer. “You can’t keep it up like this. You need to drink real blood, from a vein, if you wish to last longer and save your men. I can understand your rejection of children blood that your father sends to you and I will gladly help you cover up their escapes but I don’t get your reasoning behind the intense starvation you are giving yourself. It’s just going to weaken you further. I can bring you an adult human if…”
“Yaoyorozu!” he interrupts before she can complete her offer. “Let it go… you of all people should know better where that conversation is going. I won’t drink the blood of the innocents and that’s it.”
“But my prince…” she tries again.
“Stop IT…” he pauses. “Please.” He adds quietly, gripping the edge of the table, barely having enough force to break it. The damn curse was fast.
She sighs wearily in defeat and lower her tone as well. “At least rest for a while. You look like you are about to faint in any moment.”
Rest can wait. Today was the due date of his investigation and the blond werewolf will be executed if he doesn’t do or find something until the nightfall. He has to get up and stops his father from executing the blond and hundreds of his best men alongside him. Yes, rest can indeed wait.
“I can’t. I need to go and stop my father before he does something irreversible.”
His loyal friend and guard keeps her concerned gaze on him. She opens her mouth to say something when they get interrupted again by another knock on the door.
“Prince Todoroki! The king has asked for your immediate presence in the court.” The knight informs him without entering the room.
He stands up ignoring his body’s painful protest and falls back to his unaffected façade before readjusting his appearance.
“Inform him I will be there.”
“Prince Todoroki…” Yaoyorozu calls but she is stopped by a hand on her shoulder and a very rare display of a smile on the prince’s face.
“I will be fine. There is no need to worry.”
He squeezes her shoulder and walks out of the room, leaving his concerned friend behind.
…
The throne room is quiet as he enters. The execution must be held at night it is still too early to do so. What possibly could have happened? Well… Considering the wolf’s foul mouth, a lot of things!
The crowd gathered in the hall was less than before, limited to the royal families and the king’s most talented royal guards. It means Yaoyorozu will be in here soon.
He walks up to his father’s throne and stands down the stairs connected to the throne.
“You gave me until the nightfall. It isn’t still the time for the execution father.”
His father’s gaze is fixed on the prisoner that is chained to the flour again and which Shouto is trying to ignore his gaze upon his back.
“I know it isn’t.” The king finally answers and Shouto frowns at that.
“So what is the meaning of this?” he points at the small crowd behind them and the wolf on the ground. This time is his father’s turn to frown.
“It was the beast’s request.”
Well that gets him off-guard. He turns around and stares at the wolf smirking on the ground.
“You asked for your execution?”
“Not technically.” The blond answers with a huff.
“What do you mean not technically? Cause you are gonna die, very technically.”
The smirk spreads on the blond’s face.
“Not if I win.”
The frown returns on the prince’s face.
“Win what?”
The king stands up from his throne in that moment.
“The wolf has requested a duel with you.” He announces.
Shouto turns to look at his father still confused from the whole unexpected situation and the adding throbbing pain in his body.
“And why did he?” He asks shutting down the pain signals from his head.
“You wanted to save your men, didn’t you?”
His gaze returns to the talking blond once again.
“What does that supposed to do with this duel?” He asks.
“He will give his permission and his blood if you accept his challenge.”
He doesn’t turn around to his father this time. He keeps his gaze fixed on the crimson orbs. Inspecting them. Looking for a lie.
The hall falls to a deafening silence as everyone’s eyes fall on the prince.
His mouth opens but no words make it out of there. He wouldn’t hesitate in any other time. But considering the current situation and his weakened body he has little chance against the blond.
He clenches his jaw and fists his hand in frustration. The chance to save his men was in front of him but he couldn’t take it.
“Oh… by the way, if you lose, your bastard father has to make a truce with werewolves. In return I will give you guys my blood to save your soldiers before the duel. You know… an act to display my good intention.”
The blond’s words deepen the frown on the king’s face before he completes the blond’s statement himself.
“And if he loses, he has to surrender completely and serve the vampire army for the rest of his life and obeying our every command without any question.”
He hears the silent whisper of the werewolf about his father being a demanding bitch since birth and he couldn’t agree more, but he keeps his mouth shut.
The duel was a big risk even in his full heath state. His father is up to something and the look on the blond’s face says the same thing. He is just a pawn in the game between the king and the werewolf warrior. A pawn who is going to die in few days anyway. With or without the last fight. So why not give his last droplets of his remaining life force to save his men and pay his depth to them. Doing something meaningful with his remaining life. as short as it is, it’s all he has got. The lives of his men in exchange of his and the possible promise of the peace between werewolves and vampire was a good enough end for him.
He holds his head high as he stares at the chained blond warrior, denying the worried look on now present Yaoyorozu’s face.
“I accept your challenge.”
…