Chapter Text
“Katsuki! You’re amazing!” his teacher said, leaning down and ruffling his hair. Katsuki smiled brightly up at her.
She said he was amazing, and it must be true. He’d bested everyone in his class. He stood on the platform for the first place winner, the place for the one who’d cast the best spell, who’d beat all his classmates in hand-to-hand combat, who’d won the race from the school to the city’s front gates where a crowd of people was waiting.
Including All Might. Katsuki’s hero. The person he’d most looked up for all seven years of his life. He approached Katsuki with his usual bright smile, his usual all-encompassing energy.
“Young Bakugou! You’ve made the best time of anyone else this year, even the older children!” All Might congratulated him on his victory.
Katsuki’s chest filled up with pride, and his eyes burned with tears that he just barely managed to hold back. He was not going to cry in front of his hero.
All Might held out a necklace made of red stone that Katsuki had never seen before. Katsuki was immediately enamoured with it, the red pigment lighting something up inside of him that hadn’t been present before.
“This is your prize. An artifact that was found on a monster I defeated three years ago. Cherish it,” All Might said, placing the necklace into Katsuki’s open palms.
The necklace was huge and heavy, barely fitting in Katsuki’s tiny hands. It was surprisingly warm, heating up his palms. But he gripped it tightly and held it close to his heart.
He didn’t think he would ever treasure something as much as he treasured this. A symbol of his victory, of his hero’s approval.
Cherishing it would be the easiest thing he’d ever have to do.
-
“Bakugou take this too,” Uraraka said, handing him a couple of vials with mysterious looking coloured liquid inside. He frowned as he swirled them around, watching the fluid bubble a little.
“Why do I need all this shit?” Katsuki whined. His head was starting to hurt from the smell of different fumes. Uraraka’s place always made him feel ill.
But she was the best healer in the whole city. If he didn’t go to her, especially now, he’d be an idiot.
“This one is poison antidote, this one will cure paralysis spells, and this one is regenerative,” she explained, tapping the glass of the vials.
“You know I’m going after a dragon right? I’m not gonna need poison and paralysis healing. You sound like you have no faith in me at all,” he accused. She grumbled something under her breath.
“I do! But it’s my job to do this. I’ve prepared all this stuff for you so you better at least take some of it. I’ve got a lot prepared for Deku as well, I don’t want any of it to go to waste,” she explained. Katsuki’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Deku’s going out too?” he asked. Suddenly his excitement plummeted.
“Yeah, not for a little while but still. He told me his mission was to capture some bandits in the area,” she said. Katsuki rolled his eyes.
Getting his first mission around the same time as Deku was humiliating to say the least. Even if Deku did have a kingdom hero vouching for him. And his mission was a lot more childish than Katsuki’s.
“Stop pouting. Is there anything else you want me to look at while you’re here?” Uraraka asked.
“No. Save this shit for someone who actually needs it. I’ll be fine with this regenerative stuff,” he said. She sighed, taking back the rejected potions.
“Fine. Take some bandages too. If you end up dead I’ll never forgive myself,” she pushed, shoving the bandages into Katsuki’s hands.
He slipped them into his bag reluctantly, along with the regenerative medicine and slung it over his shoulder.
“I have to go meet Aizawa. See ya,” he said, heading out the door.
“Bakugou!” she shouted. He turned around and waited for her to continue. “Be careful. Come back alive.”
He snorted, pushing the wooden door open.
She really was doubting him.
“Of course I will.”
-
“You should be happy about this. The prince seems to have a lot of faith in you,” Aizawa said, walking Katsuki to the outskirts of town.
Katsuki insisted that he didn’t need anyone to see him off, but Aizawa wasn’t one to take no for an answer. He probably wanted to lecture Katsuki about the possible risks on the way, as if he didn’t already know.
“I’m not upset. I just wish my first time would have been with something bigger. This one hasn’t even been killing people. Seems weak,” Katsuki complained.
When Katsuki had been chosen to finally go out and slay a threat to the city, he’d been hoping for something terrifying and exhilarating.
A dragon. It sounds promising. But Katsuki knew this one hadn’t been very big in size, or overly dangerous. Even simple travellers had gotten around it with their lives.
For his first time, he’d wanted adrenaline. Not some lax monster who couldn’t even take one life.
“You should count yourself lucky, Bakugou. You should know by now that a lot of first timers don’t make it out with their lives,” Aizawa said, but the words had no positive impact on Katsuki.
He’d been training his whole life, eighteen years, to finally be able to be a strong protector of his kingdom. Not just a strong protector, the strongest protector. When he was seven years old, and the kingdom’s greatest hero, All Might, gifted him a necklace he had taken from a beast he’d killed, Katsuki knew he wanted to be the best.
He knew everyone had to start at the bottom and work up, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. And it definitely didn’t mean he wasn’t going to complain. He’d complain every day if he felt like it.
“Heard Deku is going on his first mission next,” Katsuki grumbled, remembering Uraraka’s words from earlier.
“He has improved a lot since he started apprenticing with All Might,” Aizawa said. Katsuki scoffed.
He didn’t know how Deku of all people started working under the greatest hero this kingdom had ever seen. Not that Aizawa wasn’t a good teacher, but Katsuki had always admired All Might. When Deku was chosen by him as his apprentice, Katsuki had felt like a failure for the first time.
“He still couldn’t come before me even with All Might’s teaching. What kind of hero is that?” Katsuki said spitefully.
“Not everyone is born with your talent,” Aizawa said somewhat bitterly.
They had reached the forest’s edge, the trees starting to become dense and the sunlight dimmed.
Katsuki had been in these woods plenty of times. But never on his own, and never as a hero. If it were anyone else, they would have been nervous.
But Katsuki was itching to get out there, and defeat the waste of a monster that was somewhere in these woods.
“The dragon was seen west from here. I’ll be leaving you now. Remember, don’t get too carried away. We don’t need forest fires,” Aizawa warned. Katsuki clicked his tongue before walking out ahead.
He didn’t feel the need to say goodbye, or even wave. He’d been seeing Aizawa again soon enough. He wanted to get this whole thing over with as quickly as possible.
As he got deeper into the woods, and Aizawa disappeared behind him, the silence started to become eerie.
Being out here alone was completely different than coming with his class, or Aizawa. The only sounds were his footsteps, and the wind blowing branches around, a bird chirping occasionally.
He wasn’t scared, just unsettled. Any stealth training he went through seemed moot if there were no sounds around to drown out the thump of his feet hitting the earth.
“Bakugou should do fine, as long as he doesn’t damage the woods too much.”
Katsuki wanted to wring Todoroki’s throat for being so nonchalant and critical in the same breath. Just because he was the prince didn’t mean that Katsuki wouldn’t kick his ass.
He could feel magic prickling at his fingertips, ready to set off a blast the moment something crossed his path.
But hours passed and nothing did. A squirrel, some birds. But nothing remotely out of the ordinary. If there weren’t at least six different accounts of a dragon in the area, Katsuki would have thought it was a hoax.
The day dragged on, the forest got darker, but still nothing showed itself. There wasn’t even a sign of something larger than a deer around. No footprints in the dirt, no broken branches, no scratches in the tree trunks. Nothing at all.
He set up camp for the night, starting a small fire and laying next to it. He never expected his first task from the prince himself to be so boring.
He stared at the flame, the representative element of their country. It reminded him of Todoroki, and how he had been entrusted with this task. He couldn’t very well go home and tell him to give him a different one. At least not until this one was completed.
He put out the fire and tried to go to sleep.
Just as he was about to drift off, eyelids feeling heavy, he heard something. At first he thought it was just wind or a small animal, but he registered something like bipedal footsteps getting louder as they got closer.
They sounded human, but that didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. He stood up, readying himself. He could feel magic pooling in his palms as he prepared- hoped- for a fight.
It was dark, he could barely see anything, but he knew he could take just about anyone who would show up. His blood was pumping, finally something was happening.
The footsteps were loud now, he placed his arm out in front of him, just in case it was a bandit, or a rogue.
The first thing he saw was a pair of yellow eyes shining in the darkness. He sucked in a breath as he shot off an explosion immediately.
He’d never met a human with eyes like that.
His stomach dropped when a man his age dropped to the ground. Katsuki thought he might be dead, but he coughed and stood up on all fours. Katsuki registered blood pooling on the ground from the man’s left shoulder.
Katsuki groaned, emotionally defeated. He was certain he’d seen the yellow eyes of a dragon. His eyes were showing him what he wanted to see.
“The fuck are you doing out here? It’s dangerous,” he scolded. His tone of voice wasn’t appropriate for a hero, but he was pissed.
The man coughed some more, and Katsuki bent down next to him.
The tips of his red, pointed hair were singed, and Katsuki realized he hadn’t even hit the man with his explosion. The injury in his shoulder wasn’t from Katsuki at all.
“Who are you? Why are you out here?” Katsuki asked. He wasn’t going to help heal a man who would eventually cause harm to his kingdom. That would be counterproductive.
“I-” he started, but he was cut off by another coughing fit.
Katsuki took the opportunity to check out the wound. It was definitely a stab wound. It didn’t look like a claw or a tooth, so Katsuki sadly had to rule out the dragon as the offender.
Now he just had to determine if this man was the threat, or if his attackers were.
“Speak, or I’ll finish you off,” Katsuki warned, palm sparking.
“Just- just want to get to Yuuei,” the man choked out.
“For what? What business do you have there?” Katsuki asked, grabbing the fabric around his neck.
The man’s clothing was unusual. He’d never seen an outfit like this in his hometown. A striped scarf wrapped around his neck, a silver vest with matching pants, and a red cover.
Not many people in Yuuei had red hair like this either. Only the Todoroki family.
“Travelling. That’s all,” the man wheezed.
He looked up at Katsuki, eyes pleading for help. Shit, he looked so weak and pathetic.
“If I fix you up and you attack me, you’re dead. Got that?” Katsuki said sternly. The man just nodded.
Katsuki walked over to his bag on the forest floor and fished out the bandages and medicine that Uraraka had given to him before he left. The man had already slipped his arm out of his vest, so Katsuki could apply it.
He did so hesitantly. He didn’t bring much medicine, only the bare minimum that Uraraka would let him leave with. He hoped he wasn’t wasting it on this stranger.
“Who did this to you?” Katsuki asked, the man wincing from the stinging sensation of the medicine.
“Some guys thought I had money. I didn’t,” he said, breath still coming out heavy.
The wound was awfully deep. He probably would have bled out if he hadn’t run into Katsuki. Luckily, Uraraka’s regenerative medicines were good. The injury looked better already.
“Where are you from?” Katsuki continued his interrogation.
“Camino. On the other side of the mountain,” the man answered. Katsuki hummed, suspicious.
“That’s a long way to come with no money. The hell were you planning on doing when you got to Yuuei?” Katsuki asked. The man chuckled, and Katsuki wondered how someone could smile in such a situation.
“Didn’t think that far ahead,” he replied. Katsuki raised an eyebrow at him.
This dude definitely would have been dead if he didn’t run into Katsuki.
“Name,” Katsuki demanded.
“Kirishima Eijirou. What’s yours?”
“Bakugou Katsuki,” he answered. He regretted it instantly, wondering what possessed him to tell this complete stranger his full name.
“I already feel so much better. What is this stuff?” Kirishima asked, checking out his injury. He seemed a lot more peppy than he did a moment ago.
“Some herbal shit my friend put together,” he answered. Kirishima hummed in interest.
“I should buy some from her while I’m here!” he said enthusiastically.
“Thought you didn’t have money,” Katsuki said. Kirishima frowned.
“Oh, right,” he said, shoulders slumping.
Katsuki wondered how someone who seemed so dumb and incompetent could make it all the way here from Camino on his own.
He started bandaging up Kirishima’s shoulder the way Uraraka had taught him. Kirishima whined when he tightened it up and tied it so it would stay in place.
“Don’t you know how to fight?” Katsuki asked.
“Kind of. I have weapons but I have honestly never used them before. Those guys caught me by surprise, but I’m pretty decent when it comes to hand-to-hand combat. Was able to shake them pretty quickly,” he said, flexing his uninjured arm.
“I thought I killed you when you first showed up,” Katsuki said. He was honestly glad he missed.
“That was pretty cool what you did though! I probably would have been pretty messed up if I hadn’t tripped,” Kirishima said, more excited than relieved.
Something about Kirishima was making him feel uneasy. Maybe it was just the fact that this conversation really wasn’t uneasy at all that was putting him off. Katsuki usually hated interacting with others, always opting to work alone.
Kirishima felt warm. It was familiar, and comfortable.
He’d already said way too much to this random guy. But for some reason he still didn’t stop talking.
“I have a unique type of elemental magic. Explosions,” Katsuki explained. Kirishima stared at him with wide eyes.
“Wow! That’s really cool. I’ve never heard of someone with elemental magic like that before,” he said brightly.
Kirishima had the personality of a child. Everything seemed brand new to him.
“Yeah…” Katsuki replied, scratching the back of his head.
“What are you doing out here by yourself?” Kirishima asked.
“Looking for a dragon. I was assigned by the prince to get rid of it,” he answered, again unsure of why he was still answering this guy’s questions.
“Get rid of? Like… kill?” he asked, swallowing roughly.
“Obviously. It’s been harming people in the area,” Katsuki explained.
“Ah…” Kirishima responded. Something in the tone of his voice was off. It made Katsuki’s suspicions spike again.
“You didn’t see it, did you?” he asked.
“No! I don’t think I would have survived a dragon encounter,” Kirishima defended, laughing nervously.
Katsuki thought he was probably right about that.
“You must be pretty strong if you were assigned to kill a dragon. But you only look my age,” Kirishima said, leaning a little bit closer to Katsuki.
Warm.
“I am. Though this is my first time on a mission like this,” Katsuki admitted.
Why was he telling him this? That was basically admitting to Kirishima that he was inexperienced.
Nothing in Kirishima’s expression changed though. He seemed so unsuspecting, so oblivious to everything.
“Hey, is it okay if I stick with you for a little bit?” he asked.
“No. You’ll slow me down,” Katsuki answered. There was no way he was gonna let a deadweight tag along with him. He didn’t want to die, or have anyone else die on his watch.
“I won’t! I’m just worried I won’t make it to Yuuei on my own in this state. If I can’t fight properly I might die,” Kirishima said.
Katsuki groaned. Kirishima was right. He was already an idiot to begin with. An injured idiot would have a much harder time making it back to Yuuei on his own.
It took Katsuki all day to get where they were now. Kirishima wouldn’t be able to make it back on his own very quickly, and he might become something else’s prey.
He needed to get the dragon first before escorting him back.
“Whatever. If we run into trouble just don’t be a nuisance,” Katsuki said.
He laid back down on the ground where he was attempting to sleep before and closed his eyes. Shortly after, he heard Kirishima shift. He opened one eye to watch the other man lay down and stare up at the sky.
His expression wasn’t the one he’d been wearing for their conversation. There was no smile, no enthusiasm, no wonder. He looked melancholy, like he might start crying at any second.
Part of Katsuki wanted to ask him what was wrong. Instead he turned around and went to sleep.