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“I am so fucking tired,” said Katsuki, “of putting up with your bullshit excuses. Get out of my sight.”
His three stalkers stared at him. Assholes. Big eyes and wobbly jaws. As if they hadn’t just burned down Katsuki’s tent. Fucking lucky he’d gotten out before it toppled down with him inside it.
“Dude,” whined Denki. Asshole with biggest wobbly eyes. “I was just trying to make breakfast.”
“I was just helping,” said Mina. Her gossamer wings fluttered but she looked nonchalantly off into the distance like she wasn’t nervous about the fire billowing around Katsuki’s hands. Faeries could bluff like no one else.
“Ow,” said Hanta, licking the hand he’d burned over the campfire that had spread to engulf Katsuki’s tent. Dumbass selkie. Katsuki was going to toss his sealskin into the damn fire.
A loud crunching noise came from the other side of the clearing and Eijirou crashed into sight, massive dragon ass wagging as he thrashed his tail like an oversized dog. Katsuki had never really liked dogs. Now he was stuck with a bigger, more annoying version of one.
“I got breakfast!” Eijirou spat out an entire deer. It splattered sickeningly on the pine needles that scattered the clearing.
“I hate all of you,” said Katsuki, and stomped off into the forest.
They followed him. Of course they did.
It wasn’t a surprise. Katsuki could hear their loud voices and Eijirou’s dragon stomps a half-mile away.
“I rescued the tent,” Hanta said proudly once they caught up to him. He hoisted the still-smoking remains of Katsuki’s tent.
Katsuki was going to steal one of theirs tonight. Probably Denki’s. It was likely that idiot who had started the fire with his bullshit excuse for lightning magic.
“Fuck off,” he told them and continued stomping onward.
“Aww, don’t be like that, boo,” said Mina. She was somewhere a dozen or so meters above him. “We were just tryin’ to make you some food. You always make ours.”
“Yeah!” Denki chimed in. “Payback, y’know?”
Katsuki did not have time to deal with this bullshit. One more week. One more week of travelling and he’d get to the stupid renowned witch that he’d been hunting down for the past few months.
Hanta yowled as part of the tent burned him. “Shit! Babe, carry this.”
“No!” Denki protested, but Hanta piled it in his arms anyway. “Ouch! Why’d you bring it anyway!”
“I can fix it once it stops burning,” Hanta said proudly.
Like hell, he could. Hanta didn’t have any sort of magic unless being able to shrug in and out of animal skin to turn into a goddamn seal counted.
Eijirou had been suspiciously quiet. Not walking quietly. His feet crushed all sorts of plants and sapling trees. Nymphs poked heads out of their trees and shook their fists at him as he tramped through the sparse forest. But he still hadn’t said anything.
“The fuck’s up with you?” Katsuki asked, and the dragon eyed him carefully.
“Nothing.”
Liar. “Nothing, huh?”
Eijirou looked casually to the sky. Then tripped and fell face-first to the forest floor. The entire ground shook. Eijirou whined mournfully and shifted into his human form, buck ass naked and sprawled in the pine needles.
“Get up,” Katsuki growled as he stomped to Eijirou. Big red eyes stared up at him and cute ass pointy smile. He helped him up and immediately regretted it when Eijirou leapt on him, pressing too many naked bits to Katsuki’s thick leggings and cotton shirt.
Katsuki shoved Eijirou’s face off when he licked at Katsuki’s neck. “Gross. Fuck you want, bein’ all nuzzly?”
Eijirou looked sheepish. “I might’ve…been the one that started the fire. I didn’t spread it, though!” he added hastily.
“I’m dumping you,” Katsuki decided.
“Aww, babe, no!” Eijirou followed him, hands snagging the back of Katsuki’s cape. Katsuki didn’t bother shaking him off.
Denki and Hanta snickered.
The only reason Katsuki hadn’t left all of them behind by now was that it was too much effort. Certainly not because he liked any of them at all.
“Get dressed,” Katsuki told Eijirou.
The dragon whined. “But clothes are so tight! They restrict my movements. And I tear them every time I shift into my other form.”
“Fuck do I care for? There’s a town in a few miles. Change or you’re staying behind.”
“Aww,” said Eijirou, but complied. He hated missing out.
Towns could put up with Mina’s pink skin and glossy dragonfly wings, Denki’s golden eyes and sparks, Hanta’s sleek features and pointy ears, and even Eijirou’s drooping scaled wings and twining horns in his human form, but none of them so far allowed nudity. Not that Eijirou hadn’t tested it. Tossed on his bare ass out of over ten towns so far for public indecency.
“If any of you fuckers cause trouble,” said Katsuki, “I’m not bailing you out.”
Yeah, he would. And they all knew it.
“Love you too,” Mina cooed, lost in the treetops, voice floating down to them.
Katsuki sent a flare of fire at her. She giggled and avoided it. A nymph howled when it hit its tree branches and it popped out to bang ineffectual fists at Katsuki.
Katsuki flipped it off and tromped on, idiot squad in tow.
“The fuck you mean, she’s a mile outside of town?” Katsuki demanded.
The shop owner stared back at him. “I mean, she’s a mile outside of town,” he said mildly.
Katsuki glared him up and down. Gross outfit. Shitty hair. Who the fuck had half-and-half hair anyway? Must be a fuckin’ fae. “Where?”
Denki and Mina’s howls of laughter drifted from one of the aisles of the shop. Katsuki half-hoped they’d trip over each other and break something.
“Fish!” exclaimed Hanta at the far side of the shop.
“A mile outside of town,” said the shop owner again. What a shithead. If Katsuki didn’t need information from him, he would’ve lit his hair on fire. It’d be an improvement.
“Listen up, asshole,” Katsuki started.
The owner picked up a piece of jerky and chewed on it. “Why do you want to know anyway?” He pointed at his own face, which sported an impressive splotched scar. “To fix the gash across your face? I’m sure you know she does body modifications.”
“Hasn't fixed yours,” sneered Katsuki. He ran fingers over the slash that travelled his own face, from forehead diagonally across one eye, down his nose, and deep into the cut of his jaw. “And nah, this shit makes me look badass. Got it while beating a fuckin’ dragon.”
His first fight with Eijirou, the only real fight, before Katsuki had beat his ass and Eijirou had sworn to be his companion. Maybe three years ago now. And two years before Eijirou had clambered into his tent one night like he always did but, unlike he always did, decided to press him into the tent floor and kiss him until neither of them could breathe.
The shop owner didn’t look as impressed as he should have been. He yawned instead. Fucker. “Yeah, okay. Mile outside of town. Follow the main road ’til you hit the river and go downstream until you see a cottage.”
Hanta appeared, fish between his teeth and more gripped in his grubby hands. “Fshgfme,” he said.
“I ain’t payin’ for that,” said Katsuki.
Eijirou, who had been kicked out of the store because he’d knocked over a total of four displays and one entire shelf with his wings, poked his head inside the door. “Can I have a bone?” he asked hopefully.
Fuckin’ dog, Katsuki swore to the gods. Sighed. Got him a bone.
“Good news!” Mina cheered as they all trudged down the main road out of town, loaded with a few new supplies and a bone and the fish Denki had finally bought for Hanta to tear into as they walked.
Katsuki huffed. His shirt felt too tight. He got Eijirou’s complaints about clothes. The shirts, at least.
“Is it good news?” asked Eijirou. Distracted, chewing happily on his bone. His teeth glinted, little sharp nubs flashing between his lips. Fuckin’ terrifying. Katsuki didn’t know why it had ever gotten him hot and bothered. Still did.
“Yeah!” said Mina. “We thought the witch was like another week away, but she’s just down this road.”
Maybe. If that shop owner hadn’t lied to them.
“Aren’t you excited?” Denki asked Katsuki. His legs pumped as he strained to keep up with Katsuki’s fast pace, which Katsuki thought was funny so he walked faster. Denki whined in protest.
“Eh,” said Katsuki. “’S too soon. Was expecting more time to, dunno, get ready.”
“It’ll be okay,” Eijirou said earnestly. Clapped Katsuki on the back and almost sent him sprawling into the dusty road. Wasn’t all that reassuring with bone shards between his teeth. “We’ll be there with you!”
“Makes it worse,” Katsuki grumped.
Hanta gurgled something as he swallowed a fish head whole. Fuckin’ gross selkie. Probably trying to be reassuring too.
“There’s the river!” said Mina. She darted into the air, wings buzzing.
The quartet followed. Eijirou dropped his bone and keened, scuffling after it. Knocked over Denki. Denki howled and zapped Eijirou. They started roughhousing, Hanta cheering both of them on with allegiance to both or neither.
Katsuki stepped over Eijirou’s tail slapping the ground and off the road, following the river downstream. Brambles pulled at his boots and leggings. Shop owner better not have told Katsuki wrong or he’d go back and feed him a fistful of fire.
Mina zipped back a minute later. “It’s there!” she hollered. Too close to Katsuki’s ear.
“Fuck off!” he told her but followed her further down the river. The three idiots were close behind, Eijirou and Denki still exchanging knuckles in hair and yanking on clothing. Eijirou had lost his shirt at some point. Was to be expected by now; Katsuki was just surprised he hadn’t pulled it off when they were still in town.
The cottage came into view and Katsuki stopped. Felt hot, rank breath on the back of his neck as Hanta jolted back just before running into him.
“Take your stank ass breath somewhere else,” Katsuki ordered him.
Hanta didn’t move. No respect. No more fucking respect in this group for Katsuki. They used to do what he said, once upon a time. A year back when they’d started following Katsuki around for “adventure” and “fun.” Just because Katsuki and Eijirou beat the shit out of bandits and raiders on occasion.
“Garden!” Eijirou said in delight. Gaze trained to the rows of herbs and vegetables lined up outside the cute little cottage.
“No,” Denki told him. Spouting some goddamn wisdom for once. “Don’t dig in the garden.”
Eijirou flexed his fingers. Little pinpricks of claws at the tips. “But. Digging.”
“No,” Denki said firmly. Maybe because the first time he had met Katsuki and Eijirou, it had been because Eijirou had eaten and shredded most of his garden.
Katsuki shook himself. Couldn’t be a damn coward. He’d been planning on doing this ever since he was a kid. Just hadn’t started looking for a witch to do it until a few weeks ago. He’d do it now.
He stormed toward the cottage. Idiots close behind. They’d follow him into anything.
A few bangs on the door and it swung open. The witch raised an eyebrow. Round eyes and rounder cheeks. Yeah, that was her.
“Bakugou, I presume?” she said, and Katsuki glared.
“How the fuck’d you know?”
“I’m a witch,” she said mysteriously, and then giggled. “No, Izuku told me you were coming.”
Fuckin’ Deku. Saw him a month back in a town across the country. The one who’d told him about the witch and what she could do. Had a thing going with her at some point apparently, before running off with a half-baked prince Katsuki had never met. Deku probably lived in that town they’d just left, actually. Glad they’d missed him.
“Whatever,” said Katsuki. “You know what I want, then?”
“Yes, yes! Come inside, please!”
He smirked and squeezed past her. The others piled in behind him. The witch squeaked in distress, sounding much like Deku, when Eijirou’s wings shuffled into a few delicate-looking bottles. Didn’t knock them over, much to Katsuki’s relief. Would’ve been funny but Katsuki was here to get his spell, not to antagonise the witch.
“Um, hi!” chirped the witch to the other four. “I’m Uraraka! And you all are?”
“They’re fucking annoying,” Katsuki interrupted. “Not here to chat.” He tossed her a bag of coins. “Just get on with it.”
Mina fluttered her wings, eyeing the witch up and down. “Ashido,” she purred. “Call me Mina.”
The witch blushed and turned away, pocketing the coins. “You just have to take this potion,” she called over her shoulder. “I had to wait to finish it up after you got here.” She grabbed some weird-ass ladle and doubled back, plucking a hair from Katsuki’s head before he could react.
“The fuck - !” he started, but she had already dropped it into the bubbling cauldron in the middle of her cottage. Denki was staring at it with undisguised interest.
It churned ominously and the witch did some incantations over it, half of which Katsuki was pretty sure was bullshit and just for dramatic effect or to impress Mina, who had moved closer, eyes gleaming.
Took the witch a few more minutes, and Hanta had finished chewing through the rest of his fish before she finished it up. Eijirou had lost his bone at some point, probably during his scuffle earlier with Denki, and shuffled closer and closer to Katsuki until his head was barely centimetres from Katsuki’s shoulder, breath damp on his shirt.
“Wow,” Eijirou murmured, eyes wide as the witch spooned a generous portion of the muddy gloop into a small bottle. She capped it and handed it to Katsuki.
“Drink it under the moonlight,” she told him, beaming wide enough to split her own face. “And that’s it! Simple!”
Katsuki eyed the innocuous little bottle. “That’s it? No paybacks or shit?”
The witch glanced at his friends as though she was uncertain whether to announce out loud what the potion actually did. “Nope,” she finally said, cheerful. Maybe because Mina looked impressed. “It’s meant to set things right, put them the way they were supposed to be. It’s one of the few magical potions or spells without long-term consequences.” She looked worried for a moment. “Other than the…the physical changing part of it. Izuku told you about it?”
“Yeah,” Katsuki said shortly. “He told me.”
Katsuki had studied this specific potion in every book and tome he could get his hands on for the past few years, but that didn’t make him any less suspicious. He stared down at the potion, the one thing that would finally fix what had been fucked up his whole life ’til this point, and he tucked it into his pocket.
“Alright, shitheads, let’s go,” he announced. They piled out the door ahead of him, but he paused at the door and glanced back at the witch, whose gaze was trained on the sway of Mina’s hips as she sauntered down the steps. “Thanks,” he said. “’N tell Deku too.”
The witch beamed. It almost hurt to look at her. Radiating joy from every little crinkle. “Of course! I will!”
“Ugh,” said Katsuki, and slammed the door behind him as he left. Couldn’t be too grateful or people’d start thinking he owed ‘em or some shit. He’d kill for this witch now, though. And maybe wouldn’t kill Deku.
“Let’s camp down the road,” Mina suggested. Not at all because she was probably going to sneak back to the witch’s place that night. “It’s almost nightfall anyway!”
Eijirou spotted his bone on the side of the river as they neared the road again and he lit up, bounding ahead. He picked it up, dirt and all, and began chewing happily on it again. Gross. See if Katsuki’d kiss him at all for an entire week. Ugh. He probably would.
“I got another tent when we were in town,” Denki told Katsuki, as if that won him points back for burning Katsuki’s that morning.
“Idiot,” said Katsuki. “I’m the one that bought it.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Katsuki glared at the moonlight peeking over the top of the hill beside them. Hanta and Denki had half-heartedly pitched a single tent before vanishing somewhere in the forest. Katsuki’d probably have to fix the fucking tent later. He wasn’t sure if Hanta and Denki left in an attempt to give him privacy with Eijirou, or if they just wanted privacy of their own to fuck around by the riverbank. Wouldn’t think a lightning magic user and a selkie who half-lived in water would hook up, but they made it work.
As he’d suspected, Mina had disappeared too, giggling to herself as she’d flown back the way they had come.
Eijirou had lost his bone again. Didn’t seem too disappointed about it now, shuffling closer and closer to Katsuki, gaze mournful until Katsuki rolled his eyes and gestured sharply. Eijirou’s eyes lit up and he bounded closer, tucking himself against Katsuki’s back, chin on his shoulder, arms around his waist, wings drooping around them.
“Gonna take it now?” Eijirou asked. Voice low as a purr in his ear. Might get Katsuki going if nerves weren’t so tight in his chest.
“Might as well,” muttered Katsuki. Always thought he’d down the potion like a fucking champ once he got it. All his confidence, but this terrified him.
Eijirou’s hair was obnoxiously spiky against the side of Katsuki’s head. “Want me to go?” he asked, like a fucking idiot.
“Fuck no,” said Katsuki. Hands gripped Eijirou’s at his waist. “Don’t you dare.”
“Alright,” said Eijirou.
Katsuki pulled out the bottle, let it slosh as he tilted it in his hands. Remembered Deku’s warnings when he told him about the witch’s version of the potion, its permanent effects but the excruciating way to get there.
“Don’t let me scream,” he told Eijirou, and uncapped it. Tasted like fucking bile when he poured it down his throat.
“Yeah,” said Eijirou. Steady like a fucking rock against his back. Voice didn’t quiver even though Katsuki was shaking against him.
And oh, it hurt. Fucking tore him apart at the seams. Bones twisted and joints groaned, teeth gritted and head thrown back against Eijirou’s shoulder. Worse than dragon fire, and Katsuki had been burned by that before.
He screamed anyway, and Eijirou’s tears fell scalding against his neck.
Sunlight burned hot on Katsuki’s shoulder, but the more impressive heat was curled against his other side, hot breath snuffling into his skin.
He woke with a start, jolting upright and staring around the clearing. No one in sight, unless the half-dragon snoring on the blanket beside him counted.
A bird chirped. Katsuki stared at it. Everything seemed…fucking normal.
He blinked, and the bird fluttered to another branch, and he remembered. Waves of agony ripping him apart, breathless with its unending persistence, fingers clawing at his skin to make it stop.
Eijirou’s hands closing over his, wings enclosing him tight, broad chest sturdy as Katsuki writhed against the pain.
The sudden, blissful relief when it faded away. Eijirou catching him as his knees gave out, darkness taking over the edges of his vision.
Waking up for half a second in the night, Eijirou burning like a furnace at his back and whining low cries into the back of Katsuki’s neck like he had been the one that hurt. His goddamn bleeding heart.
Katsuki remembered it all, and he closed his eyes, pulling in a quick breath. He reached a cautious hand to his chest, shreds of his shirt still remaining. He pulled them loose, fingers splayed across the muscle of his chest. Different. It was noticeably different. He felt his face, just in case, and felt pressure ease off his chest when he felt the scar still decorating his face. Didn’t want to lose that.
His limbs felt different too. A strange weight to them that hadn’t been there before.
His fingers crept lower, dipping past the waistband of his pants, and then jolted to a stop. Well. Alright.
Face split in a grin, so wide it almost hurt.
A few shakes brought Eijirou awake, eyes rimmed red and wings flapping in alarm at the suddenness.
“It worked! It fucking worked!” crowed Katsuki, straddling his incredible fucking gorgeous dragon. Eijirou blinked blearily up at him, less startled now that he heard Katsuki’s voice, but his gaze cleared slowly as he realised what Katsuki said.
Tears brimmed in Eijirou’s eyes. Grinning like mad, sharp nails catching at Katsuki’s trouser legs. “Fuck yeah it did. You did it!”
Katsuki kissed him fiercely, teeth biting and grin wide against Eijirou’s lips. Wanted to cry himself, almost. Kinda got why Deku did it so often if he felt like this all the time.
His whole fucking life he’d been working toward this. Fighting to be seen as a man without it. Fuck ‘em all. He was outside what he was inside now.
“Fuck,” said Katsuki, leaning back for half a second to catch his breath. Stared down at his dragon, felt the confidence in his bare chest and power in his legs as he leaned over Eijirou. Couldn’t imagine himself putting a shirt on ever again. “Fuck,” he said again. “I did it.”
“Yeah.” Eijirou beamed up at him, sharp teeth and adoring eyes. “I’m so proud of you, Katsuki.”
Katsuki eyed the haphazard tent Hanta and Denki had put up last night. Never returned to visit. Eijirou hadn’t bothered trying to fit into it, just rolled himself up with Katsuki on a blanket in the middle of the clearing and used his own draconic body heat to keep them warm. Bold enough to know that no one would dare approach a sleeping dragon and his mate.
The tent looked dangerous, but it was better than doing anything out here with this rumpled blanket and Eijirou’s wings sprawled out across the ground. They’d done worse, anyway.
Katsuki hauled Eijirou toward the tent and they toppled inside. Wandering fingers and breathless laughs. Felt so fucking different and exactly the same as every other time.
Katsuki didn’t forget the pain of last night, but he’d felt a different version of that for his entire life before this potion, and it was only now that he could feel it ebbing from him like a wound sucked of poison.
It felt like freedom.
Katsuki eyed the trio that had finally returned to the half-set-up campsite with its one crumpled tent. In worse condition than when Hanta and Denki had thrown it together.
All five of them looked well-fucked, flushed cheeks and bitten-back grins, clear eyes. Gross. He didn’t want to think about any of those three getting some.
Mina tilted an eyebrow at Katsuki. “You good?”
“How’d it…uh, go?” Denki hazarded. Hopped a few steps closer.
Katsuki did not wipe at his nose. Fuck. Maybe it was nice that they cared. Eijirou sniffled loudly behind him. Katsuki never had to cry if he could just use Eijirou as his proxy. Cry-by-proxy. That could be a thing.
“Yeah, it went well,” he finally said. Gruff. “It worked.”
“Hell yeah!” cheered Denki and Hanta in unison. Hanta’s shirt on backwards. Denki wearing Hanta’s selkie pelt like a cape slung around his shoulders. Grinning like idiots.
Mina beamed and clapped Katsuki on the shoulder harder than was actually necessary. “Good fucking job, Katsuki.”
Ugh. Sob fest. Besides the fact that no one’s eyes were welling up beside his. Maybe Eijirou. But he was behind Katsuki.
Katsuki swiped at his eyes. Whatever. Crying was fucking manly, as Eijirou liked to say. “Alright, idiots,” he tried. Cleared his throat. “Fuck. Okay.”
They gazed at him, trust evident in their eyes. Ready to take on the world if Katsuki asked them. Mina’s shimmering wings spread out beside her. Hanta’s long legs and sleek skin. Denki’s lightning crackling at his fingertips. Eijirou’s fire-hot breath at his back. Katsuki might not deserve them, but he had them one way or another.
“Alright,” Katsuki said again. Drew in a deep breath. His fur cape soft against his back and necklaces falling over his bare chest. It felt right.
They’d start small. Katsuki grinned. “Let’s go find some bandits and kick their asses!”
They cheered, jostling shoulders and grins wide. Followed Katsuki as he stood tall and strode back toward the road.
Yeah. They could take on the world.