Work Text:
High above the ground, just above the tops of the highest trees, Katsuki could see nothing but sky and forest for miles upon miles. The world looks smaller when he flies on top of Eijirou’s back, with the moon closer to him than the ground. Winter was fully upon them now, if the crisp night air had anything to say about it, and Katsuki knew they would need to land soon to make camp. But as he leaned back against the wind, closing his eyes and simply allowing himself to just listen to the breeze, he couldn’t help but wish they could just stay up here like this forever-
“ Katsuki .” The deep voice surrounds his mind and easily breaks Katsuki from his spell. With a deep sigh, he sits up right and leans closer to Eijirou’s face, as if that will cause his words to become clearer in his mind or something.
“What is it?” he says aloud, a little irritated that his illusion of peace had been broken so quickly. Instead of a reply, the crimson dragon dives down and carries them into a large clearing. Despite his confusion, Katsuki jumps down without complaint and waits for Eijirou to shift back into his human form. A quick look around the clearing they’re in gives Katsuki no answers as to why they had taken a break.
A few weeks prior, Katsuki and Eijirou were on a journey into the north mountains when they had received a message from Mina about a voyage that her and a few of the other idiots Eijirou liked to call their friends were preparing for. The village they were asked to join them at, Shinmoe Village, was just past the north mountains, and towards their next planned destination anyway, so the pair decided that it would be in their best interest to join up with the group for whatever the adventure may entail.
It was meant to only take two weeks to get to Shinmoe, but with the decrease in temperature and increase in snow fall, they hadn’t been able to get as far as they typically would. Of the two of them, Eijirou is clearly the most excited to get to the idiots, which is why Eijirou stopping early like this has Katsuki on high alert.
“What-”
“I saw something,” Eijirou says before Katsuki can repeat his question, walking over to him quickly as he pulls his remaining clothing on. Eijirou pops his left arm through the hole of his shirt, presses a quick kiss to Katsuki’s lips, and rushes off into the woods without another word, leaving Katsuki flushed and floundering for a response.
Their, uh, relationship, is still rather new, and even after several years of being in close proximity, and a year of kisses, the whole casual affection thing still manages to leave him a little flustered and floundering. After a moment to gain his composure, Katsuki quickly grabs at the bag of supplies Eijirou had abandoned before following after him. Somehow, the dragon had really managed to slip out of view of Katsuki, so it took him a little longer than he would’ve liked to figure out where to go.
“Ei, wait up!” he yells as he finally manages to catch up to the speeding dragon, “What do you mean you saw something ? What’d you see?”
“Him,” Eijirou huffs, taking the last few strides towards a large dark figure Katsuki is only just noticing for the first time. The sight causes Katsuki to stop in his tracks because, well, was that a dragon ?
“And do we know him ?” Katsuki asked, bewildered on what exactly was so important on the figure -- the dragon? -- before them. The shifter, however, ignores his question and continues towards the silhouette. Looking closer, Katsuki could swear he spots blood across the underside of the dragon, “Eijirou?”
“‘Tsuki, do we have any extra fabric we can use to patch him up?” Eijirou asks, rolling up the sleeves to his undershirt -- not having bothered with his full armor after transforming earlier. “And maybe a healing potion, one we got from Uraraka?”
“What? Why would we use one of those on him ? We don’t even know him, let alone if he’s a threat to us or not!”
“Katsuki,” Eijirou turned towards his boyfriend with a fierce expression, walking back over to take their bag of supplies from him, “this creature needs help, okay? Whether he’s a shifter or just a full fledged dragon, whether he’s a threat or not- which I honestly think if he were, he’d have at least attempted to attack by now -- we need to help. We have plenty of potions, and we can always get more when we get to Shinmoe. But for now, we help.”
Without waiting for a reply, Eijirou took the bag and dumped out the majority of their supplies. Katsuki couldn’t find a sound argument against what Eijirou had said because, really, the creature laying before them was clearly conscious enough that, if he really wanted to, he could attack the two of them rather easily. So, instead of saying more on the topic, Katsuki only watches as Eijirou takes the small box Uraraka had given them and removes a seemingly clear vial and some large bandages from it.
Soon enough, Eijirou was leaning close to the dragon, talking softly to him before pouring the vial across his wounds. Even in the dark of the night, Katsuki could tell that the dragon was only slightly larger than Eijirou’s dragon form, but whatever species he was, it was not the same as his Eijirou. Where Eijirou was broad and jeweled, this dragon was lean and lustrous. Where Eijirou was crimson and fierce, this dragon was charcoal and tame. The dragon's head was large, and his proportions were actually much like-
“He looks like an overgrown lizard with wings!” Katsuki couldn’t help but blurt out at the realization. Because honestly, yeah. That’s exactly what this dragon was shaped like: an overly large black lizard with shiny scales and raven-like wings. It was sort of ridiculous, in an amusing way.
“Katsuki, you’re not being helpful,” Eijirou huffs, but his eyes hold a poorly concealed mirth behind his determined expression.
“Perfect, exactly what I was going for.” Stepping forward, Katsuki begins cleaning up the supplies Eijirou had thrown everywhere, not really knowing how to help patch up an injured lizard-dragon guy. Especially when -- unlike Eijirou -- Katsuki did not, in fact, have night-vision.
Katsuki worked slowly at gathering all their things, allowing a moment of quiet to surround them. A moment that was only disturbed by a broken growl the stranger of a dragon let out. It wasn’t a mean growl, rather it was quite pathetic in its sound; more of a whine than a warning. Eijirou was just finishing up his pathwork, having presumably touched a sensitive area, and at the noise he himself let out a soothing hum and a soft apology.
“We need to get him somewhere safe,” Eijirou says a moment later, standing up and glancing over all the nearly already soaked bandages, “in case whoever did this shows up again.”
“And how do you expect us to do that?” With only a glance at the large beast, it was clear that moving him anywhere would prove difficult. They need to find a place to camp for the night, and they need a way to get this dragon there safely, in a way that won’t leave a trail and won’t take all night.
“I’ll carry him,” Eijirou says confidently, already preparing to convert back into his dragon form.
“And how are you going to do that without causing him further pain?” Eijirou pauses at that, his shirt already half past his head. It was rare for Katsuki to care about anyone’s comfort, but honestly he’s just had enough of half naked, concerned Eijirou for the night. “We might as well just make camp here for the night, and leave first thing in the morning. The vial you wasted on him should work by daybreak to completely heal his injuries, and we can part ways easily by then.”
“Huh.” The shifter glances curiously from his boyfriend to the charcoal dragon and back again slowly before pulling his under shirt back down and shrugging, “Yeah, I guess that would work best.”
“Of course it would,” Katsuki scoffs, throwing the thick sleeping blanket down on the cold ground. It hasn’t yet snowed this winter, thankfully, but the winter weather was well in tow and the forest floor was far too frigid to sleep against, “You sleep first. I’ll keep watch and wake you in a few hours to switch.”
Eijirou settles against the blanket without another word, just a quick nod in agreement before closing his eyes and attempting sleep. It took a good minute for his breathing to settle, all the while Katsuki kept his eyes on the wood around them and the dragon only a few feet away from them. Sensing the shift in mood, or maybe simply hearing their conversation, the dragon closed his own eyes as well, and before he knew it, Katsuki was surrounded by two sleeping dragons and an otherwise silent forest.
***
At some point in the night, Katsuki roused Eijirou from his slumber and switched places with him in order to get some sleep of his own. Before he knew it, however, it was morning once more and he himself was blinking away sleep to a still rather quiet morning. The only sound that surrounded him was of birds, and a soft murmuring from his left.
Which, the birds were normal, the murmurs -- not so much. Sitting up, Katsuki glanced over to see Eijirou sitting closely with a dark haired boy Katsuki had never seen before, speaking quietly with one another.
As confused as Katsuki was, the guy sitting next to Eijirou somehow felt familiar. In the blurriness of having just awoken, Katsuki slowly begins to recall the events of the night before, and squinting towards the slightly spiky hair of the guy next to his boyfriend, Katsuki could kind of see the resemblance between him and the dragon they had saved.
It took a moment to shake the remnants of sleep from his mind, and while doing so Katsuki slowly stood and walked over to the pair still talking with one another. His slow footsteps against the crisp grass were anything but quiet, and yet the two still somehow didn’t notice as Katsuki approached.
“Oi,” he spoke gruffly, clearing his throat as a pair of soft red eyes and wide dark eyes looked towards him, “who the fuck are you?”
“Katsuki, you’re up!” Eijirou says excitedly, ignoring the rude tone of his boyfriend. “This is Tamaki Amajiki, he’s the dragon, er shifter, we helped out yesterday!”
“Yes, uh…” the dark haired guy, Amajiki, spoke softly, “Thank you for the assistance last night.”
“Amajiki was ambushed by a bunch of dragon hunters, ‘Tsuki!” Eijirou cut back in, seemingly over excited by all the information Amajiki had presumably shared. “He told me that he was flying towards Shinmoe -- the same village we’re heading towards! And that they shot him with dissolvable arrows-”
“Dissolvable arrows?” Katsuki cut in, astonished by the idea of an arrow that could just disappear.
“Right!? That’s why we didn’t see any cause of injury last night! They just dissolve on impact, something about removing any trace of who killed who. Have you ever heard of a weapon like that? It’s insane!” Eijirou was getting more and more excited and amazed as he spoke, bouncing in his seat a little as Katsuki just watched. “Anyway, since Amajiki is heading towards the same village as us, I invited him to just tag along on our route!”
“What?” Stretching his arms over his head lazily as he stands above the two shifters, Katsuki glares down at his goof of a boyfriend. “Why would you do that?”
“Because!” Eijirou smiles, shrugging as if that’s enough explanation. “Anyway, now that you’re awake, we should really be heading out. We don’t want to run into the people who attacked Amajiki, in case they come looking for him or something.”
Without waiting for a response, Eijirou stands up, stretching his arms high over his head and successfully distracting Katsuki as he really takes in his appearance. Both of the shifters are dressed, and a bag Katsuki doesn’t recognize slung across Amajiki’s shoulder -- he assumes it was with him when they found him and he just hadn’t noticed, since the dark black and gold clothing he wears is not something Katsuki recognizes as from their own inventory of extra things.
But none of that is what has Katsuki distracted. No, no -- it’s his boyfriend who’s the distracting one, as always. Dressed in full armour now, unlike his half dress of last night- a promise that they’re walking the rest of the way to Shinmoe village. Partially shifted into his dragon form, Eijirou’s shiny horn covers gleam in the rising sun, matching his scattered plates of silver armor that covers his shoulders, his forearms, and a duller metal covering a good portion of his chest. He’s added a red scarf to his ensemble, likely from the decreasing temperature, and his fur is wrapped around his waist leading to his dark, skin tight pants.
None of this is quite as distracting as his hair, however. Lately, Eijirou has been growing it out quite a bit. As a result, many mornings, like today, the red tousled mane has been precariously thrown into a bun or ponytail. Today it’s a high ponytail that has Katsuki’s mouth going dry as he really takes the look in.
All that time Katsuki could have been- should have been looking for an excuse as to why this stranger should not be joining them on their journey, he wasted on checking out his boyfriend. This lapse of weakness does not go unnoticed by Eijirou, if his small smirk is anything to go by, which means that’ll definitely come back to bite him in the future. By the time Katsuki has gotten a hold of his bearings once more, they’re already off towards Shinmoe, Amajiki easily pulls into their party.
With a huff, Katsuki stomps forward to the lead, accepting this minor defeat quietly and without acknowledgement. It’s not like this extra will get in the way or anything. If he pulls them down in any way, Katsuki can just high blast him six miles south and call it a day. Considering who they’re about to meet up with, this quiet loner of a shifter is a minor annoyance if anything. A warm-up to the bigger annoyance they’re about to see.
What could possibly go wrong?
***
The journey from where they found Amajiki to Shinmoe village should take an estimated 16 hours on foot, if Katsuki’s memory and sense of direction is right. Which normally is, so he’s fairly confident it won’t take any longer than a full day of walking, maybe less but definitely not more.
Three hours into the journey, it already feels like three days have passed, Katsuki is so unbelievably bored out of his fucking mind. The two shifters trailing behind him are talking nonstop with one another and Katsuki has no desire to join their conversation, whatever it may be. Well, Eijirou is talking nonstop while Amajiki nods along nervously, looking as if he’d rather be anywhere else, yet not doing anything to get Eijirou to quiet down.
He’s answering any questions that Eijirou throws at him as well, albeit reluctantly. For the first hour Eijirou had tried to drag Katsuki into the conversation as well, but after a few grunts and huffs of air for answers, he seemed to give up on that endeavor. Which is fine; Katsuki doesn’t want to be a part of their dumb small talk anyway. Typically, their travels have minimal conversation , from Katsuki’s side, anyway. If there is any, it’s mainly from Eijirou’s side, just as it is now.
It’s nothing new, and yet it bothers Katsuki. Not that Eijirou is bothersome; Katsuki honestly enjoys listening to the shifter speak about anything and everything. It’s soothing, in a way that he will never willingly admit. But right now, when the conversation is directed at this near stranger who isn’t even engaging in the conversation at all, it’s causing something gross to settle in Katsuki’s stomach.
It’s a low burn of a feeling, nothing concerning really. He doesn’t spend too much time thinking about it, doesn’t let his mind settle on the feeling for more than a second. Instead, he puts all his focus on the fact that he is indisputably bored . He could really use a good fight right now, but the jumpy cat of a shifter talking with Eijirou doesn’t look to be much of a challenge, and Eijirou himself seems far too enthralled with his endless questioning of “So, where are you from?” , or “What do the colors on your clothes represent?” , or “What draws you to Shinmoe?” , or “What is this or that or blah blah blah?”
Shit. That burning feeling has returned with a vengeance, refusing to be ignored. How long has it been now? It has to be verging on the fourth hour now, if the growling of Katsuki’s stomach has anything to say about it.
“Oi, Eijirou,” Katsuki calls, turning around to confront his boyfriend head on and demand some kind of food from their supplies bag to tide him over for a little while. They hadn’t eaten since the night before, having skipped it before heading out in favor of getting away from the makeshift campsite before Amajiki’s ambushers had a chance of showing up; Eijirou was very paranoid on the subject, for good reason, even though Katsuki imagines that if they run into those douchebags, they’d take them down with ease.
Turning around, however, Katsuki is met with the sight of Eijirou laughing loudly at something Amajiki must’ve said. Katsuki had been unintentionally blocking out whatever they had been saying, and apparently missed a hilarious joke from a now blushing Amajiki. Now, it feels absurd for Katsuki to have missed even the beginning of Eijirou’s laugh, especially as it’s his unabashedly loud one, the one that has his head falling back in his glee. The two paused a few feet behind Katsuki- presumably for Eijirou to collect himself- and his arm is against Amajiki’s shoulder to hold himself up.
The sight brings an inferno to Katsuki’s chest. A fire that he hasn’t felt in a long time. It’s unlike the flames he’s used to; not a welcoming warmth similar to his magic, or the blazing heat of what he feels before a battle. These are azure embers of something that brings the familiar taste of bile to Katsuki’s mouth.
He’s no longer hungry. Whatever appetite he once had seemingly disappearing and making room for these flaring emotions that Katsuki refuses to name.
It seems that neither of them have heard Katsuki’s call, Eijirou just catching his breath as Amajiki watches on. That urge to fight is back full force, but Katsuki can’t promise he’d hold back in any way if he challenged Amajiki.
Taking a deep breath, Katsuki turns back around before the two notice his glaring. He marches forward, his steps falling heavier than they had before. Katsuki doesn’t bother checking to see if they’re following him now, as he assumes the two will eventually catch up if they aren’t. Despite having been left with his own thoughts this whole time, he feels he needs another long moment to think through this inferno in his chest.
He doesn’t really want to think about it. It’s not that bad, really. Amajiki just happens to be a jokester or some shit, and Eijirou just happens to think that’s hilarious . Not a big deal, really. His idiot of a boyfriend has laughed at plenty of dumb shit, his shitty sense of humour is not a new development.
A few deep breaths, and a couple repetitions of ‘ it’s not a problem, not a fucking issue at all, everything is fine, this is not a big deal, or any fucking deal at all’ playing in his mind later, Katsuki can finally start to feel his chest cool down.
Four hours down, however long until nightfall to go.
Katsuki can survive this, it’s not as bad as having had to deal with that lightning mage idiot alone on a barren island with no way to contact anyone else for a week like he did two summers ago. It’s fine, he’s fine.
The sound of laughter behind him that breaks through his thoughts screams otherwise but, well, Katsuki is going to go ahead and ignore that for now.
It’s fine.
***
It’s not fine. It’s never fucking fine when Katsuki wants it to be.
He manages to make it through another two hours of low simmering heat in his chest before the group stops for food. They eat in relative silence, resting under a tree as they do so, the two shifters not noticing, or more likely just ignoring, Katsuki’s slowly worsening mood. After a few minutes, they set off again; the sound of Eijirou asking millions of questions and sharing far too much of their own lives with Amajiki back in the air.
Eijirou still doesn’t bother even attempting to bring Katsuki into their conversations, which is fine and dandy as Katsuki’s mind is running in circles. All his stupid thoughts are bringing upon a stupid fucking headache but he doesn’t dwell on any one thought for too long. He’s doing his damn best to ignore any conversation happening behind him lest he say something he regrets. Some stupid thought is just on the tip of his tongue, he can feel it. One look at the two shifters may cause whatever those words may be to all come tumbling out in a more than embarrassing way, so--
No looking at the idiots, that’s fine.
It’s another few hours before anything of note happens. Katsuki doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary at first, so focused on ignoring all the noises of the two behind him. Staring hard at the ground, deeply concentrated on pushing his emotions away from his mind and settling his churning stomach, Katsuki doesn’t realize what’s happening until there’s an arrow flying directly past his ear and a loud shout is called just beyond the trees ahead of him.
“Attack!” the voice calls out, followed by a group of men falling out of the forest around them. Katsuki moves on reflex to dodge the two in front of him, the men wasting no time in charging straight into an attack. It surprises him that he even is able to dodge them, the fog of his mind still slowly clearing out as he takes in whatever the fuck is now happening.
An ambush, obviously. One that Katsuki should have easily heard coming had he not been so caught up in his stupid emotions. This group is sloppy, if their reveal of themselves with an arrow -- one that missed no less -- and yell of attack was anything to go by. Not to mention the clumsy attacks Katsuki is still managing to dodge as he collects himself.
A quick scan at their surroundings Katsuki counts six men on the ground surrounding them, seems that two are meant to be pitted against each of them, but a glance towards Eijirou shows four surrounding the two on one side as Eijirou growls and tries to hide a cowering Amajiki behind him.
Katsuki doesn’t have time to dwell on the pathetic sight before him, too busy checking for any other potential threats in the trees. It’s typically easy to spot an archer, at least for Katsuki, but one of the guys currently trying to throw a punch at Katsuki -- and missing, of course -- has a bow strapped to his back, as does one of the guys advancing at Eijirou; Katsuki can’t see anyone else in any trees surrounding them, means they dropped their entire horde of idiots on the enemy at one time. This should be an easy win for them, but Katsuki is still angry with himself for not sensing their presence sooner.
Now that he has all the information he needs gathered, he can begin to take these nitwits out. Katsuki focuses back in on the two men in front of him, just as one of them swings a dagger towards his face. The guy leaves himself completely open, and his stance is weak, amateuar at best, which allows for Katsuki to take a swift step forward and around him, bringing his already burning palm up to the back of the man’s neck before allowing his magic to flow out and blast him several feet forward and down.
Turning his attention to the other guy, Katsuki is met with an arrow pointed towards his nose and a man whose expression can only be described as one of fear. It kind of makes him want to laugh, being threatened and looked at as if he were the monster all at once.
The hesitation of the archer is easy for Katsuki to take advantage of. With a quick movement, Katsuki is squatting down below the archer’s bow, and with the movement comes the panicked release of the arrow. Katsuki is able to create another mild explosion with his magic that has the archer also flying off into unconsciousness, literally.
For whatever reason, Katsuki’s eye is drawn towards the fly away arrow, though. He watches it fly into a tree, a clean cut through the wood. But even as Katsuki’s stare is trained on the small arrow, the object itself seems to disappear from its place, leaving a hole where the arrow had punctured through the bark.
It dawns on Katsuki slowly but surely because that was a dissolvable arrow which means that these ambushers did not target them by mistake, but rather because of -
“Eijirou!” Katsuki turns around quickly to see Eijirou half shifted into his dragon form already, his wings spread wide and eyes near glowing as they meet Katsuki’s. Three of the four men he had originally seen surrounding Eijirou were already laying on the ground around the pair of shifters, but the fourth was nowhere to be seen, and for some reason the knowledge that they were dragon hunters had Katsuki alarmed at not knowing the whereabouts of the last one. “Ei, these are the same people who-”
In the middle of his anxious call, Katsuki hears the shift of the ground suddenly behind him, and before he can even think to move, he feels a sharp sting to the back of his head. It’s not a particularly hard blow, but whatever the guy hit him with has his body going numb almost immediately.
“Katsuki!” Eijirou calls out, but Katsuki can’t even find his voice to reply, only just barely able to keep his eyes on his boyfriend from his new position across the ground.
A look of pain crosses Eijirou’s eyes as their gazes connect, and in the next moment Eijirou too is keeling over, falling to the frozen ground with a harsh thud. Katsuki hadn’t even seen Eijirou get hit by anything, so either the man who struck at Katsuki was the second archer or-
“Well, would you look at that!” a voice above him calls, one that presumably belongs to the leader of the men who attacked him, considering it’s the same voice that had called out the command of ‘Attack’ earlier. “That was my last spell, and one I had thought would be mildly useless, but damn! Who’d have guessed.”
“What did you do to them!” Amajiki’s voice cuts through, and Katsuki can just barely make out his trembling figure off to the right of Eijirou.
“Ah! Well, if you must know, I hit blondie here with a spell I got from this dark witch, right? It’s supposed to render the person you hit, along with whoever they care about the most in the world, absolutely useless. I thought it’d be only slightly effective, but who’d have known the one he cares so much about is that shitty dragon there!”
Katsuki can hear that the guy has laughter in his voice, so pleased with himself for discovering such a weakness. Pure luck and absolute stupidity, that’s all this was but. Fuck, Katsuki shouldn’t have allowed this to happen, to pull Eijirou into this unwittingly. Now they’re both down and in front of a fucking dragon hunter no less.
Shit , okay, Katsuki just needed to think this through. There had to be a way out of this because if there wasn’t then Eijirou would be-
The spiraling thoughts of Katsuki’s mind are interrupted by a low growl, one that he has never heard before but for whatever reason feels familiar. From his limited line of sight Katsuki can kind of see Amajiki begins to stalk towards where he lies, and presumably where the leader of the idiots still stands above him.
“How dare you manipulate someone in such a way!” There’s the growl again, but Katsuki can clearly tell it’s from Amajiki now. For whatever reason, the way things have panned out have fucked with the seemingly docile shifter to the point of pure anger. Katsuki kind of wishes he was able to watch what was about to play out, because the sound of fear that breaks from the guy behind him is really something.
“What the fuc-” Katsuki can hear the gangs leader struggle and a few choice words escape him as Amajiki does, well something that Katsuki can’t see. It’s just a lot of noise behind him, sounds he’s accustomed to hearing in battle, but not when he’s frozen in place, unable to see, and there’s no other sounds filling the space to drown out the muffled cursing and- was that a crunch ?
“You disgust me,” Amajiki mumbles before a hard thud is heard- Katsuki can feel it just behind him. Then, Katsuki is being lifted and all he can see in the sky, still unable to control any part of his own body.
A few minutes of rustling later and Amajiki is maneuvering both Eijirou and Katsuki. The pair finds themselves set back against a nearby tree trunk, and from what Katsuki can see of their previous battlefield, all the men who attacked them are unconscious but breathing, which will please Eijirou.
Amajiki moves to his own bag, grabs something out of it before dropping it back in its place in the middle of the field and comes back to them with a small vile. He pulls a small amount of whatever substance he had pulled from his bag onto both Katsuki and Eijirou’s hands before pulling away and sitting only a few feet away from them.
With that, whatever the spell they were hit with seemed to be wearing off gradually now, considering he could begin to feel his face and palms again. After another minute or so, Katsuki has more or less control of his entire body once more, and the first thing he does is look at Amajiki in impressed surprise.
“I apologize for, uh, all of that,” Amajiki mumbles when he meets Katsuki’s gaze, most likely misinterpreting his expression. He’s sitting a good distance from the pair against the tree, shoulders hunched forward in nervousness. As if he hadn’t just marched over and kicked some guys ass for... what exactly? For drugging Katsuki and subsequently Eijirou as well with a weird form of love knockout magic?
Not that Katsuki really cares. He’s impressed by what happened, but not enough to say shit. Amajiki should have stepped in sooner, honestly. Or Katsuki should have fucking just noticed the ambush before it even happened and yet-
“No need for an apology, Amajiki!” Eijirou says, also having regained control of himself. “I’m glad you were able to step in and take that last guy down! I was real worried there for a moment.”
Despite his words, Eijirou is still able to laugh as he begins to stretch his arms out, unworried now that the fight is over.
“It was nothing, really,” Amajiki murmurs back, still as nervous as if that fight hadn’t even happened, “No one should take advantage of a person's heart like that.”
“Oh yeah, Katsuki!” Eijirou turns quickly to face him, a look of pure joy and excitement taking over his face. “You care for me more than anyone else?”
“What kind of stupid ass question is that?” Katsuki huffs. He can feel his cheeks heating up at the attention, and decides the frozen grass below him is actually a very interesting sight; far more interesting than the growing delight across Eijirou’s face at Katsuki’s embarrassment.
“Maybe it’d be best if I split off from you two,” Amajiki’s soft voice cuts through, easily catching Eijirou’s full attention.
“What? Why?” Eijirou is quick to question.
“I’m only causing you both trouble.” He gestures to the group of unconscious men and then back at the two of their still waking bodies, as if he were responsible for what had just happened, as if those men wouldn’t have attacked had he not been there.
If anything, had Amajiki not been added to their group, the two of them would have still been flying towards Shinmoe, and those bastards would have tried to shoot Eijirou down like they had Amajiki.
“You’re really not!” Eijirou speaks, scooting closer to where Amajiki was seated. “They’d have definitely attacked us regardless, and you were a huge help! If it weren’t for you, we’d definitely have been in some real trouble there!”
“Oh.” Katsuki glances over and notices how Amajiki’s face has turned bright red from Eijirou’s words. Did this dimwit really not understand just how much he helped them out just then? Fucking idiotic.
With all of that past them, and Katsuki’s legs starting to truly feel normal again, he decides to stand and stretch himself out. They might as well continue on their journey now and get away from any other possible danger as quickly as they can.
“Let’s go.” Katsuki goes over to their dropped supplies and picks both bags up from the debris of men. “Sooner we leave, the sooner we will be in Shinmoe.”
“You’re right!” Eijirou is the first to follow Katsuki’s lead, to which he throws their supply bag toward Eijirou to carry. He then holds Amajiki’s bag towards him, waiting until Amajiki stands to follow them before marching forward.
“Are you both sure-”
“We are absolutely certain, Amajiki! Come on!” Eijirou cuts his off, his overly excited, puppy energy at the prospect of getting back to chatting nonsense and heading towards their other friends. At that, Amajiki finally stands, grabs his bag from Katsuki with a small ‘Thank you’, and they’re off again.
Before the fight, Katsuki was so focused on ignoring the conversation behind him and ignoring his stupid fucking emotions, he had missed a bunch of amateurs ambushing them. So, the rest of the trip he plans to, fucking hell, confront these emotions.
A burning feeling at the thought of Eijirou talking with Amajiki. The feeling getting worse at every passing moment of Eijirou ignoring Katsuki in favor of the other shifter. The flames burning a deep blue, nearly green color- as if Katsuki has any reason to be envious or-
Wait... but he can’t possibly be. Katsuki isn’t the type to get-
At least he never really let himself before and now-
He doesn’t even want to think about the possibility but his throat is so tight with the feeling it just has to be.
Fuck, Katsuki is jealous.
What kind of actual bullshit? How is Katsuki jealous of someone like, well, Tamaki Amajiki?! The guy is a nervous wreck most of the time, a decent fighter rarely, and Katsuki heard his jokes- they suck. He’s not funny, Eijirou is just fucking crazy.
But, if Katsuki is honest- and he is an honest person, fuck you- then that’s probably why he feels, ugh, jealous of this idiot. It’s because Eijirou likes him, and has taken to him so easily, and this guy fucking saved them which is always a huge ‘manly thing’ in Eijirou’s eyes, fuck .
Katsuki really shouldn’t have allowed this guy to tag along. He shouldn’t have gotten distracted by Eijirou and how fucking pretty his boyfriend is, he should have told Eijirou no, we don’t know this guy before this journey even began.
If anything he should have agreed with Amajiki on parting ways only twenty minutes ago because now he’s back to being consumed by an inferno of heat he isn’t used to and it’s somehow twenty times worse than before he had gotten hit over the head with a love knockout potion.
And of course it’s started to snow around them. At least the village should only be another two or so hours away, provided they don’t run into any other unnecessary trouble. Now that the, uh, jealousy is acknowledged, Katsuki can move on and focus on their surroundings. He can scout any possible danger, continue to ignore the laughter and awe of Eijirou’s voice behind him, and can push away this petty jealousy with ease.
***
Okay, using the words ‘ with ease ’ may have been a stretch. Nothing with Katsuki is ever easy, even when it seems to be. They’re nearing the village now- it’s literally just over the fucking horizon, thank the Gods- with just a small field of flowers covered with snow separating them and Shinmoe’s entrance.
The thing is, Katsuki had done some mild studying with Uraraka this last summer. Well, more like she told him the meaning of every flower in her small shop as if he cared, and a few happened to stick. The field before him happens to be inhabited by one of said flowers that stuck with him, dying as they may be in the cold.
Oh, how the world loves to mock him.
“Katsuki!” The gleeful shout has him shifting his glare from the offensive flowers to a bubbly Eijirou, who is leaning over and softly brushing the snow from a petal of one of the few yellow flowers that are still struggling to survive against the cold. “Do you remember what kind of flower this is?”
Yes, I do. No, I don’t want to fucking tell you.
“Hyacinths,” he says instead, walking forward and through the flowers with little care. Katsuki just wants to be in that fucking village already, okay? It’s right there, and the snow has really started to fall, and just, fucking hell, Katsuki doesn’t want to hear any more of Eijirou’s gushing towards Amajiki.
“Ohh! I remember that name now! They come in tons of different colors right?” Katsuki can hear Eijirou stand and move to catch up with him, the first time since the start of their journey where his whole attention is on Katsuki. It’s nice, soothes the heat in his chest mildly, but the topic is reaching one he’d rather not breach. “I remember the red ones mean something like playfulness, and there’s purple ones, those are for apologies, right?”
“Hmm,” Katsuki grunts in approval, taking a deep breath in preparation for the inevitable.
“Do you remember what the yellow ones mean? I can’t quite think if Uraraka had any…” Oh, thank the Gods, he’s forgotten.
“No, I don’t fucking remember,” Katsuki grumbles out, slightly pleased that the conversation can just drop now.
“Wasn’t it aggravation?” Or not. Because nothing works that easily for Katsuki.
“Sure,” he humors, hoping that maybe that’ll please Eijirou.
“No, no. That doesn’t sound right…” Of course not. “Maybe sorrow?”
“Sounds right.” Katsuki’s voice has gotten rougher, nearly giving away how fucking on edge he is from this stupid conversation about stupid flowers with stupid meanings.
“A yellow hyacinth represents jealousy,” Amajiki’s voice cuts through the cold air, startling Katsuki slightly so that he actually ends up stumbling on his next step. Eijirou is quick to dart forward and grab his arm so that he doesn’t topple over, but the slip up has Katsuki’s face heating up and his irritation rising.
Of course Amajiki knows what the flower fucking means. Of fucking course!
“Ohh! That sounds right, now that I think about it,” Eijirou mumbles as he pats Katsuki’s arm after ensuring he’s stable once more. “And be more careful, ‘Tsuki. It’s getting slippery out here, huh? Good thing we’re nearly to the entrance!”
“Thank fuck for that,” Katsuki says to himself, pulls himself away from Eijirou with probably more force than necessary before stomping towards the entrance.
Yellow fucking hyacinth’s right at the entrance of the fucking village. Sure, there were other colors of the hyacinth’s poking through the snow as well, but the fact Eijirou focused in on the fucking yellow ones-
Gods, Katsuki’s mind is so messy right now, he just needs to be away from-
“What?” Eijirou’s laughter fills the air and Katsuki’s mind supplies a harsh ‘ That’ to finish his previous thought. Yes, he needs to get away from that as soon as he can.
Katsuki ignores the sounds of whatever is happening behind him and is literally three steps from the village when he is nearly run over by a rather large spikey haired man.
“Tamaki!” The man yells, running past Katsuki with a short apology, “I’m so glad you’re back!”
Turning around to witness whatever is happening, the barbarian spots the large man in similar colors to Amajiki engulf said shifter into a massive hug. The two spin around in glee, and with a shift of his sight Katsuki can spot Eijirou standing a respectful distance off to the left of the pair. The look on Eijirou’s face is a fond one, and has Katsuki’s throat tightening.
It feels as if the frozen yellow hyacinth’s around his feet are being shoved down his throat, and honestly, Katsuki fucking hates it.
Who even is this yellow haired man with, are those tears running down the man’s face as he sets Amajiki down. He continues to cling to him, though, arms wrapped tightly around the other man’s shoulders as he cries and murmurs nonsense.
It’s only nonsense because Katsuki can’t hear a lick of it, sure, but he’s also fairly positive that it’s just gibberish if the lack of response from Amajiki is anything to go by.
“Who are you?” Katsuki finally decides to bite the bullet and ask. His curiosity is eating at his already tender nerves, okay?
“Oh!” The man clinging to Amajiki cuts his mumbling off and slowly pulls his arms back, but not too far as a single arm just goes to loosely wrap around the smaller man’s waist. With his other hand, now free, he pushes at his own blotchy cheeks, weakly rubbing away his tears, “My name is Togato Mirio.”
“Ahh! It’s so good to meet you!” Eijirou steps forward, pushing a hand toward Togato with way too much enthusiasm. How does Eijirou know who this man is just by his name?
“And you-”
“But who are you?” Katsuki cuts off, shifting so his arms are crossed defensively across his chest. He doesn’t trust just anyone, even if this guy is crying rather pathetically and clearly knows Amajiki.
“I, uh...” That has Togato pausing for a moment, a deep rose covering his cheeks and his gaze shifts between Katsuki, then Eijirou, and finally landing on Amajiki. “Well, I’m Tamaki’s husband.”
Husband? Husband? These idiots are married? What the actual fuck?
“Weren’t you listening to anything Amajiki was telling us, Katsuki?” Eijirou asks, pausing for a moment before laughing softly and answering himself. “Nevermind, I’m not at all surprised you weren’t paying any attention to our conversation.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Katsuki bristles. He pays attention, he’s a great fucking listener! Well, when it comes to listening to Eijirou anyway.
“You don’t care about small talk, and never really have. Don’t act all defensive, I know you don’t care about gossip and things!”
“Yeah, well-”
“Sorry to cut you off,” Togato speaks, and as much as Katsuki hates being interrupted, he’s internally grateful because he honestly had no coherent response to that, “Tamaki and I are actually really late to an appointment, so we must be headed out. It was, uh, nice? To meet you both.”
“I’ll tell you about what happened,” Amajiki mumbles, grabbing at Togato’s hand and pulling him toward the village entrance, “Thank you both again.”
“No problem, Amajiki! I hope we all run into one another again some day!” Eijirou calls out, and the barbarian is too busy really thinking over everything that just occurred to add anything else.
And like that, Katsuki and Eijirou are alone, still just outside Shinmoe. Yet, neither of them moves from their place, just standing still, five feet from one another. Katsuki’s gaze is focused on one of the few yellow hyacinths again, thinking of how stupid he was to feel jealousy over someone like Amajiki. What a fucking embarassment, actually.
“Hey, Katsuki,” the soft call from Eijirou has the man in question slowly looking up into gleaming crimson eyes, full of something like mirth, “we’re here.”
“Y- Uh, yeah,” The look the shifter is giving him has Katsuki’s entire face quickly burning up. He fucking knows-
“So,” two steps forward and Eijirou is suddenly very close, “are we going to address the fact you were clearly jealous of Amajiki for the last, say, eight hours or so, or are we just going to brush past that?”
“Brush the fuck past it,” Katsuki says easily, moving to turn and go into the village without further argument. He doesn’t get very far, however, as Eijirou is quick to move his hands to either of the other’s shoulders to keep him in place.
“Oh, no you don’t. That wasn’t a real question, silly,” Eijirou laughs, pulling the other closer to him so that his arms fall over and around his shoulders instead. Katsuki’s arms remain crossed over his chest, a grumpy look no doubt covering his features.
“Why even fucking ask, then?” he grumbles, embarrassed more than anything.
“It was rhetorical, babe.” The barbarian could feel himself melting into the pull of Eijirou’s touch, even as he tried to stay stubbornly in place, “Why were you even jealous, ‘Tsuki?”
“Tsk,” Katsuki clicks his tongue, settling his stare at a tree over Eijirou’s shoulder, determined to not look at him lest he drop his guard. “Fuck if I know.”
“ Aww ” he cooed teasingly; a soft touch against Katsuki’s cheek had him regretfully making eye contact with soft crimson eyes. “You know you never need to be jealous of anyone with me, right? I’ve stuck by your side through hell and back, ‘Tsuki. I see no one the way I see you.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” Eijirou tilts his head, his soft smile growing as Katsuki huffs and finally brings his arms down and wraps them around the shifter's waist. “Because jealousy is a pretty big thing-”
“Yeah,” he breathes, glancing between red, red, red eyes and soft pink lips, “I know.”
“I love you, Katsuki.”
“I love you, Eijirou,” and with that, Eijirou pushes forward and closes the last bit of distance between them. Their lips press against one another softly at first, but Katsuki uses his grip on Eijirou’s waist to pull him impossibly closer and further deepen the kiss.
They stand like that for a while, just outside Shinmoe village, exchanging soft kisses as the snow falls around them. Katsuki can feel his chest settle, the only heat remaining is the familiar burn of his magic and a soft sizzle of his love for the boy in his arms.
Eventually, Katsuki is the one to pull back first. Not because he wants to, but because he’s actually getting very cold and also he could’ve sworn he heard his name.
“Bakugou! Is that you?” Ah, yes. A loud voice a good twenty feet behind them is calling, and turning to see who it is, Katsuki is met with wild electric blonde hair and a surprised look. “Oh, and Kirishima! I didn’t see you there, too- wait, were you two kissing ?”
“H-Hey, Kaminari,” Eijirou laughs, stepping away from their embrace, but not fully, as he slides a hand down Katsuki’s arm and grasps his hand. “How are you, man?”
“I’m good, I’m good.” Kaminari nods as he steps closer, now only a good five feet from the couple. “But you’re not getting out of my question, my guy, my favorite pair, you were just smackin’ lips, ri-”
“Kirishima!” an even louder voice calls out, redirecting their attention; a flash of pink knocking over Kaminari as Mina joins the slowly growing group. “And Lord Bakugou, of course! I’m so glad to see you both!”
“It’s good to see you as well!” Eijirou greeted happily; grumble is all that get from Katsuki, who is blushing up to his neck at what Kaminari had said. Who the fuck even says it like that? Smacking lips ? Disgusting.
“So, what’s the plan, Ashido?” the barbarian cuts through the mindless chatter, stepping forward. In his movement, he realizes that his hand is still captured by Eijirou’s, and his blush will never die down, will it?
“Ah, I’m glad you asked! So, your Majesty-”
“Don’t fucking call me that-”
“Too bad!”
The four continue their chatter, walking into the village and towards an inn to further their discussion. All the while, Katsuki’s hand is held tightly within Eijirou’s, and he has to fight back a smile.
He really can’t believe he was ever-
“Hey, guys,” Eijirou cuts in as they’re walking, “What if I told you Katsuki got jealous of some shifter we met on the way here?”
“Jealous?!”
“Oh, a shifter!”
Nevermind, Katsuki hates this dumb fucking dragon.