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“What do you think?” Tetsutetsu asked, resting an elbow on Eijirou’s shoulder despite how he had to angle his arm awkwardly up to accomplish it.
“About what?” Eijirou frowned, looking at the self-proclaimed scout-in-training.
“Blasty’s chances.” Tetsutetsu gestured to where Aizawa was telling Bakugo and Mina the rules of their sparring match.
“He’s gonna win.” Eijirou frowned, wondering what Tetsutetsu meant. “Bakugo always wins.”
“Ohhhh, you’ve never seen Mina fight, have you?” Shinsou asked, hair falling even more into his eyes as he leaned around Tetsutetsu.
“It doesn’t matter if I have or not, Bakugo’s got the strongest magic I’ve ever seen. He’s gonna win.” Eijirou crossed his arms, and the two local boys exchanged a look he couldn’t read before Tetsutetsu turned back to him with a grin.
“How about we bet on it? Winner gets the loser’s dessert for a week.”
“What even is dessert around here?” Eijirou asked, rocking idly from heel to toe.
“Whatever the cooks feel like making.” Tetsutetsu shrugged.
“Good.” Shinsou answered a beat later, and Tetsutetsu sniggered.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good.”
“Sure, why not.” Kirishima stuck out his hand, and Tetsutetsu gripped it firmly to shake once, like grown-ups did when they made a deal.
“Alright. Everyone watching, make sure you’re paying attention. I’m not going to stop stray magic from hitting you in the face.”
“Got it!” Shinsou called back, and Kirishima leaned forward slightly as Aizawa stepped up next to where Bakugo and Ashido stood facing each other. Aizawa made a gesture with his hand, and Bakugo lunged with all his typical ferocity, letting out a roar fitting of a dragon’s companion as magic pooled in his palms, tiny popping explosions lighting his curled fingers from within.
“Die, bitch!” he screamed, and Ashido moved almost faster than even Eijirou’s draconic vision could track, something shiny falling from her hands as she ducked and spun out of the way.
“Get his ass, Mina!” Tetsutetsu shouted, and Eijirou scowled at him. Two could play at that game.
“You got this, Bakugo!” he shouted, easily matching Tetsutetsu’s volume, and Bakugo didn’t look but the smile that spread across his face was plenty enough for Eijirou.
“Are you even trying?” Ashido taunted, and Eijirou winced. There was no better way to throw Bakugo into a blind rage than to insult his skill, and it looked like Ashido had already pegged his friend good in that regard. “Tag, you’re it!” she laughed, planting her hand between Bakugo’s shoulderblades and shoving hard enough he stumbled forward a couple steps.
“First round goes to Mina.” Aizawa said drily, and Tetsutetsu and Shinsou high-fived next to him.
“Hey, Bakugo’s still got two more rounds to kick her ass.” Eijirou protested, and Shinsou snorted.
“I wouldn’t count on it. Mina is very good at not getting hit.”
“And Bakugo’s good at hitting a moving target.” Kirishima crossed his arms and lifted his chin, glad for the first time of the little mini-growth spurt he’d had on the road whih put him a notable inch or few above the other boys. “Now that he’s seen how she fights, he’ll win.”
Bakugo did not, in fact win. The second round was over faster than the first, Ashido outright mocking Bakugo as she danced circles around him, the ground turning to slippery mud where she passed and making it all the easier for her to outmaneuver him. Eijirou gritted his teeth and swallowed a growl, fingertips aching as his claws threatened to extend to full length.
“Did you assholes trick the new kid into betting against Mina?” another boy asked, and Eijirou turned to see one of the boys with a bird head who he’d met at the bonfire but not really spoken to since.
“Toko-bro, right?” Eijirou guessed, and the shifter shrugged.
“One of them. You can call me Fumi.”
“Fumi.” Eijirou tried the name out on his tongue, then nodded. “Yeah, Fumi, they tricked a week’s worth of desserts out of me.”
“You’re the one who took the bet.” Tetsutetsu teased, and Eijirou swatted away the hand which poked his cheek.
“Fuck off.” he muttered darkly, and was surprised to see what looked like a strangely jointed wing snap out to strike at the back of Tetsutetsu’s head.
“Consider yourself lucky I don’t tell on people.” Fumi warned. “Aizawa would be thrilled to know that all his efforts were for naught.”
“Geez, it’s just desserts.” Tetsutetsu huffed, and Eijirou crossed his arms.
“Desserts you made a point of telling me were really good.”
“C’mon, you’re not gonna win an argument when he gets like this.” Fumi said, ushering Eijirou away from where Bakygo was raging. “Wanna go flying instead?”
Eijirou glanced back at Bakugo, whose hands were tied down over his mouth now by Aizawa’s skinny scarf. “Without Bakugo?”
“Yeah, unless you wanna sit around and wait for Aizawa to finish telling him what he needs to work on.”
Eijirou weighed the options momentarily, then shrugged. It wasn’t like he was leaving Bakugo alone, or in any kind of danger. Well, maybe danger to his pride, but that barely counted. “Sure, let’s go.” he followed Fumi to the edge of camp, where his twin was waiting already in bird form, and abruptly remembered the single biggest downside to his shifting.
“Uhh, one minute.” he said quickly, and looked around for something to hide behind while he stripped and shifted.
“I can just turn my back.” Fumi pointed out, and Eijirou blushed.
“Right, right.” he chuckled, and turned his back to the mimicrow shifter as well. Shifting felt good, or as good as the pain of his body changing into that of a dragon ever did. The hurt was familiar at this point, and settling onto four legs felt like stretching and getting that one spot just right. As he turned back to the Tokoyami brothers though, he realized a slight problem. “Uh, what do I do with my clothes?” he asked Fumi, who held a bundle of fabric in his beak.
Fumi jerked his head in a clear ‘follow me’ and Eijirou did his best to gather up his own clothing without biting clean through it or soaking it in spit. Bakugo could dry it right off, but he’s be pissy about it. Fumi deposited his bundle between two tents, and Eijirou dropped his clothes in the same spot. They’d be dirty when he put them back on, but at least they’d still be there.
“So, where are we flying?” he asked, and Fumi did an impressive imitation of a shrug considering birds weren’t really built to shrug.
“Wherever the winds take us.”
“Fair enough.” Eijirou grinned, and eyed the distance to the trees. He could make a running start in that space, he was pretty sure. Fumi launched himself skyward with a few mighty beats of his wings, and Eijirou threw himself into a run, wings out to catch the wind under them until he launched himself up and beat once, twice, clearing the trees and beginning to gain altitude. One of the Tokoyami brothers swooped close in front of him, the other coming in to glide just above his back, and Eijirou laughed.
“You guys are so agile!” he twisted into an easy turn, banking wide around the camp until he faced into the wind.
“You should see Hawk when he’s actually shifted.” one of them said, settling just over his right wing. “He can knock us clean out of the sky.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Eijirou agreed, recalling how the scout had almost literally flown circles around him in just his human form.
“But Hawk isn’t here right now.” the Tokoyami gliding above his back pointed out. “So, wanna race?”
“Race?” Eijirou craned his head to try and get a good view of the bird over his back. “How do you race in the sky?”
“Easy.” the one over his wing darted forward and banked to lose altitude, settling in just below Eijirou’s head, feathers so close to the underside of his jaw he swore he could feel them tickling there. “We pick a point and race to land there.”
“Or we race there, turn around, and see who gets back to camp first.” the Tokoyami still gliding over his back suggested. Eijirou glanced behind them at the mention of the camp, and almost gasped at the sight. It looked so small from up here, like a little city for fae.
“I like the one where we land back at camp.” Eijirou said when he realized the Tokoyamis were waiting for his input. “I’m not good at landing in tight spaces.”
“Ah, your wingspan would make that a problem, wouldn’t it.”
“A little.” he chuckled, and the Tokoyami next to his head slid off to the side, until he flew right around the tip of Eijirou’s wing.
“Where should we race to?” he asked, and Eijirou scanned over the forest which stretched out before them.
“That big dead tree.” the Tokoyami over his back said, just as he spotted the same thing.
“Yeah, it’s tall enough I can bank around it without wrecking my wing on the canopy.”
“Big dead tree it is. ReadySetGo!” Tokoyami blurted the last and was off like a shot, and Eijirou’s offended sound was matched in volume by the offended squawk of the bird over his back.
“Cheater!” Tokoyami shouted, peeling away from Eijirou to shoot off after his brother. Beating his wings fast enough to speed up was harder than he’d expected, but Eijirou gritted his teeth and pushed. He wasn’t about to lose to a pair of mimicrows.
The forest blurred by beneath him, and Eijirou kept his focus on the slowly closing distance between himself and the Tokoyami twins, and the more rapidly closing distance between the three of them and the big dead tree. It was bigger than he’d thought at first, and closer, and as he approached Eijirou pulled himself into the tightest turn he could muster, the spines on his back scraping dead wood as he twisted fully sideways and came out facing the opposite direction.
“Is that all you got?” he called as he passed the Tokoyamis, levelling out and continuing to beat his wings for gaining speed. Landing was going to hurt, but unless the twins had another trick up their wings he was gonna win. At least one of them was going to show up the locals today. He roared in triumph as the forest ended and the camp reappeared, and angled down to glide in for landing. He hit the ground hard as ever, the impact reverberating up through his bones, and furled his wings tight to his back as he sprinted to where they’d left their clothes, laughing all the way.
The twins dove in not half a minute after he reached it, and Eijirou noted how they braked with their wings just before touching the ground. His wingspan was easily as much as both of theirs put together, but maybe the technique would work just the same. He’d have to test it out sometime.
“You’re fast once you get going!” one of the Tokoyamis exclaimed, and Eijirou chuckled.
“Never tried going that fast before. I woulda blown Bakugo right off my back.”
“Oooh!” Tokoyami perked up, turning to his brother. “We gotta try races with partners.”
“We should.” the other Tokoyami bobbed his head. “Me on Fuan against Bakugo on you.” ah, so that one was Fumi.
“That sounds like fun.” he grinned, and looked down at his clothes on the ground. “But uh, could one of you grab my clothes for me? I don’t wanna bite them full of holes.”
“Of course.” Fuan agreed, and Eijirou moved aside to let the shifter pick up the bundle of fabric. “Hold out your wing.” he mumbled, muffled by Eijirou’s clothes, and Eijirou did as he was asked. His clothes fell into the space between his wing and flank, and he pulled his wing in tight to keep them there.
“Good idea, Fuan.” he grinned, and the mimicrow fluffed up happily. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Take your time.” Fumi waved a wing dismissively, and Eijirou looked around for a spot where he could shift back and get re-dressed without being seen. There, where three tents had been set up right near each other. He gritted his teeth around a sound of pain as he shrank down between them, shivering on his hands and knees as the transformation back finished. Being a dragon would be so much more awesome if shifting didn’t hurt, but at least the pain didn’t linger.
He dressed quickly, smoothed his shirt down a few times to be sure everything was and would stay in place, and ran a hand through his hair as he walked back to where he’d left Bakugo and the others. Sure enough the Tokoyamis were already there, Fuan still in his avian form but he’d gathered that was the usual with him, and Ashido and Tetsutetsu were laughing at-
“I’m a dumb townie.” Bakugo intoned flatly, and Eijirou growled deep in his chest, the sound coming out fully draconic.
“What did you do?” he snarled, storming over to where Shinsou, Ashido, and Tetsutetsu stood around an eerily blank-faced Bakugo.
“Relax, Kirishima.” Ashido laughed, waving a hand dismissively. “He’s not hurt.”
“Yeah, and he did kinda ask for this.” Tetsutetsu added.
“Bakugo would never ask to be controlled.” Eijirou snapped.
“He said Hitoshi couldn’t beat him in a fight. So Hitoshi demonstrated just how much he really can.” Tetsutetsu grinned, and Eijirou rounded on the purple-haired boy who’d been suspiciously quiet this whole time. His eyes were half open, fixed on Bakugo with the sort of intensity Eijirou had seen a charisma-user friend of his back home show when convincing an adult to do what she wanted.
“Well you made your point, so knock it off!” he demanded, shoving Shinsou in the chest hard enough he staggered backwards and fell on his ass. The breaking of the spell was a tangible thing, a snap he felt more than heard and a lifting of pressure.
“Dude, what’s your problem?” Ashido frowned at him. “Hitoshi does that to everyone.”
“He’s new.” Fumi said, and Ashido and Tetsutetsu turned to look at him. “Hitoshi, I think you should explain.”
“Oh, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do alright.” Bakugo snarled, and Eijirou stopped him with an arm across the chest before he could hurt any of their new peers.
“Talk fast.” he said, pushing a bit of draconic rumble into his voice.
“My magic is too strong for me.” Shinsou said, looking utterly unworried. “If I don’t use it often enough it starts leaking out, so Uncle Aizawa gave me permission to use it on the other scout and warrior trainees so long as I don’t make them do anything dangerous.”
“How can magic leak out?” Eijirou asked, moving his arm to better restrain Bakugo, who was trying in earnest now to get in and probably strangle Shinsou.
“It randomly puts weight on my words, turning them into orders.”
“There were some close calls in the past, before Shuzenji figured out what was wrong.” Fumi added, and Kirishima frowned.
“I still don’t like it.”
“Neither do I!” Bakugo yelled, detonating an explosion against the side of Eijirou’s head. “Now let me go beat them up, you shitty dragon!”
“Bakugo, no.” Eijirou sighed.
“Oh he’s welcome to try.” Ashido laughed.
“I’ll fucking bury you!” Bakugo howled, and twisted so Eijirou had to either release him or sprain his wrist.
“Bakugo!” he lunged after his friend, who was now chasing a cackling Ashido and giggling Shinsou, only to be stopped by Tetsutetsu.
“They’ll be fine.” Tetsutetsu assured him. “Mina’s best against brawlers like him, and Hitoshi can stop any punch before it lands so long as his attacker hears and responds to him.”
“He’s gonna get in trouble, though.” Eijirou groaned.
“A scolding, at most.” Fumi snorted. “You should see what happens when Tetsu and Mezo play cards.”
“He’s a Seer, he cheats.” Tetsutetsu spat with a surprising amount of venom. “But nevermind that, I wanna know if Bakugo hurt you with that explosion.”
“Uh, no?” Eijirou frowned. Bakugo would never hurt him, just like he’d never hurt Bakugo, that was part of being best friends. Also Bakugo couldn’t hurt him unless he went for Eijirou’s eyes, more or less. Fire magic wasn’t terribly effective on a fire-breather like him.
“So you’ve got your dragon-toughness even when you’re human?” Fumi’s head tilted, and Eijirou nodded.
“Some of it. I’m a lot easier to stab without my scales, but most magic still slides right off.” he grinned, and Tetsutetsu mirrored it.
“That’s so cool!” he pumped his fists, eyes shining. “I need to use some crazy strong wards to get that level of deflection, and they don’t even work half the time yet.”
“Why not?” Eijirou asked, leaning forwards slightly. He’d not known any ward weavers back home well enough to ask them this sort of stuff, and Tetsutetsu’s enthusiasm was contagious.
“Well, wards take magic to put on and to maintain.” Tetsutetsu explained, drawing a quick symbol in the air made of magical light. “The fancier the wards, the more magic they take.”
“Ooohhhhhh.” Eijirou nodded. “So you can’t do the cool stuff until you’re grown up?”
“Yep.” Tetsutetsu nodded. “But I can probably keep some fancy wards on me long enough to see if they’re tougher than your dragon-ness!”
“How would that work?”
“Easy, I ward up and we get the Toko-bros to divebomb us.”
Eijirou blinked, rocking back on his heels. “That doesn’t sound safe.”
“Eh, last time I didn’t even fracture anything bad enough for Shuzenji to heal it up.” Tetsutetsu waved a hand dismissively.
“I’m in.” Fumi grinned, an unsettling sight given the fact that it showed off the human teeth in his very much not human beak.
“Alright. You wanna test it and see?” Tetsutetsu turned to him, and after a moment Eijirou grinned.
“Only if we’ve got an audience.” he turned to where Ashido was dodging circles around Bakugo, who looked like he’d eaten turf at least once during the chase, and also fallen on his ass in mud, though where the mud had come from Eijirou couldn’t begin to guess. “Oi, Bakugo!” he shouted, and his friend turned towards him. Eijirou waved him over, and Bakugo flipped Ashido off before stalking back across the field towards them.
“What is it?” he snapped, and Eijirou beamed at him.
“Tetsutetsu an’ me are gonna test who’s stronger. Wanna watch?”
“Watch you kick his ass?” Bakugo grinned wickedly. “Absolutely.”
“Who’s kicking whose ass?” Ashido asked, dragging a still-giggling Shinsou with her across the field towards them.
“The Toko-bros are gonna dive-bomb us to see if my wards match up to Kirishima’s dragon-ness.” Tetsutetsu explained, and Bakugo rolled his eyes.
“Kirishima’s tougher.” he said flatly.
“Idunno, Tetsutetsu’s got some pretty strong wards now.” Mina mused.
“I’ll bet you my dessert for a week that Tetsu wins.” Shinsou said, and Bakugo barked out a single loud laugh.
“You’re on, Babyzawa.”
Eijirou chuckled, and Tetsutetsu guided him out to the middle of the field as he wove wards around himself, the arcane symbols cleaving to his skin and shimmering there like the brightest silver. “Come at me!” he yelled up at the sky, crossing his arms in front of himself, and Eijirou copied his pose. If anything broke it was gonna be an arm, and supposedly the tribe’s healer was good enough to make that a non-issue. One of the Tokoyamis hit him full force, and Eijirou grunted as he was driven back, heels digging into the dirt. Tetsutetsu yelped, and when Eijirou looked over he saw the ward weaver on his ass, cradling one arm which was rapidly swelling.
“Oh shit, Tetsu!” Ashido cried out, rushing over to him as the Tokoyami who’d struck him nudged gently at his clearly broken arm.
Eijirou hurried over to where Tetsutetsu was sitting up now, and dropped to his knees at the other boy’s side. “How bad is it?”
“Broken, definitely.” Tetsutetsu grimaced. “And you’re not even phased.”
“Of course not, he’s a fucking dragon.” Bakugo scoffed. “Hey, wait, does this mean I get Babyzawa’s dessert for a week?”
“Not now, Bakugo.” Shinsou snapped, pushing past him. “Can you stand?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ve had worse.” Tetsutetsu chuckled. “Shuzenji’s gonna be piiiissed.”
“Oh yeah.” Ashido nodded. “But like, nothing’s broken the skin, so it’ll be a quick healing.”
“Small blessings.” Sinsou muttered, and the other kids began herding Tetsutetsu towards the healer’s tent.
“I can’t believe he was dumb enough to try beating a dragon in a durability contest.” Bakugo scoffed.
“I can’t believe how nonchalant he was about it.” Eijirou added, watching the knot of their peers move away.
“But hey, I won that purple bastard’s desserts from him, for whatever that’s worth.” Bakugo grinned, smug as ever, and Eijirou chuckled.
“Share them with me, I lost mine to Tetsutetsu betting on your sparring match with Ashido.”
“Dork.” Bakugo snorted, and elbowed him in the side.
“Hey, I was betting on you!”
“Still a dork.”
Eijirou caught Bakugo around the neck with one arm and pull him in for a noogie. “You’re the dork!” he declared, and laughed as Bakugo flailed himself free. Today had been a great day already, and it wasn’t even lunch time yet.