Chapter Text
The sounds of the dock workers woke them just after dawn.
Voices skilled at carrying sound across the bows of airships and being heard over roaring engines echoed through the warehouse. Neither of them stirred right away, used to the ruckus. It wasn’t until the chattering steam whistles and screeching of metal on metal, telltale signs of the cranes starting up, that Izuku’s head emerged from their makeshift nest. He yawned widely, arching his back and stretching all the way down to his toes in a languid roll of his body.
“Good morning, Kacchan.” His companion grunted in acknowledgment, running a hand over his face. Izuku smiled and leaned down, capturing his lips in a sweet brush of lips as soon as they reappeared. Katsuki grumbled, but wrapped his arms around Izuku’s shoulders, pulling him down once more, pressed against his sleep-warmed chest. They lay embraced like that for a while, mouths and hands moving lazily, the sun gradually rising past the horizon and sneaking through the walls and roof to bask them in filtered morning light. Dust motes danced in it, plenty to be found in this building. They had discretely repaired parts of it, brought in crates and blankets and a small radio to make it more comfortable, but neither of them found much motivation to clean when they came here. Not when there were sweeter past times.
Their kissing ended when Izuku’s stomach growled. He smiled sheepishly at Katsuki who rolled his eyes, but dutifully freed himself of their nest and stalked over to their satchels in nothing but his linen drawers. He fetched what was left of their food stores - some doughnuts with cheese inside, cucumbers, and a can of sardines. What remained of the bottle of wine from the night before was replaced with water from the rain barrel they had built. Izuku fluffed and propped their pillows up so they could recline in comfort. They ate their breakfast languidly, Izuku humming along to a work song the dock workers were belting.
“Must be a big shipment coming in,” Izuku said, taking a sip of water. “They’re very lively.”
“Or payday.” Izuku nodded. They listened and ate and Izuku hummed along, leaning back against their pillows, pressed together from him to knee. The sun rose higher, but the shaded warehouse, surrounded by so many other buildings, was slow to rise to the summer heat. Izuku eventually reached for his book, curling against Katsuki’s side as he opened it.
“Do you want me to read out loud?”
“Is it one of your textbooks?”
“Well, not exactly, it’s supplemental theory on-“
“I’ll pass, thanks.” Izuku stuck his tongue out childishly, and Katsuki kissed his forehead. “I like the sound of the docks, anyway.”
Izuku rolled his eyes but settled in to read, hooking his leg over Katsuki’s, drawing them closer. Katsuki let his mind wander, hand rubbing gently up and down Izuku’s calf as he pondered, not for the first or even fiftieth time, about the airship that was presumably the reason someone had built this warehouse. It had long since been abandoned, or at least neglected, and fallen into disrepair.
The canvas for the balloon was in awful shape, having gone without oil for years before Izuku and Katsuki had found this place. It was brittle, broken into pieces that drooped and dangled from the steel cage that reinforced it. The body of the ship was in pretty good shape, and beautifully carved, but the guts of the ship were hopelessly out of date. Steam-powered, clunky, and rusted. Its major saving grace was that the navigation sails had been carefully wrapped and preserved. With a little oil, they would still spread easily, though the canvas between the finger bones made of weathering steel fared similarly to the balloon. These sails, which spread from the sides of the ship like bat wings, were critical for travel over oceans and could help a ship catch swells to fly over storms without burning through too much fuel. These wings also were beautiful in their design, the metals still gleaming brightly when they had peeked beneath the protective covering.
When they were children, they had spoken often of running away to explore through the transdimensional portals which were newly created at the time - an accident of science and magic that had produced portals between their world and others. It had been a fantasy only, with Katsuki’s craving for respectability and Izuku’s obligation to his family, but it had been endlessly entertaining to imagine together. Even when Katsuki had been struggling with his attraction to Izuku and mistreated him, his heart swelled with nostalgia every time he saw one of the small, tough, speedy vessels intended for exploration.
“Oi,” he said, to which Izuku replied with a distracted noise of curiosity. “Where does your Mom think you are this time?”
“A boarding house for single men.”
“That’s clever, but who does she think is paying? She’ll notice no bills are going back to the estate.”
“You.” Katsuki’s head whipped around at that.
“She knows you’re visiting me?”
“What do you mean? I’ve always told her I was coming to the city to see you.” Katsuki’s heart raced.
“You don’t think she’ll catch on?”
Izuku turned onto his side, reaching up to cup Katsuki’s face.
“We’ve never spoken of it, but my mother’s known I’ve loved you since I was three, Kacchan.” Katsuki’s eyes flicked between Izuku’s, looking for even a kernel of the trepidation that filled his own gut at the thought of people knowing about their relationship.
“Isn’t she concerned?” He didn’t say the words, but Izuku would know what he meant. Concerned about her son’s purity being questioned, his very moral character, for cavorting with someone who was such an unsuitable marriage prospect for a Duke’s adopted son.
“Only that we’ll hurt each other, like all mothers are when their child has a romance. She loves you, too, Kacchan.”
Katsuki closed his eyes, feeling vulnerable and wanting to process it in a veiled semblance of privacy. He drew Izuku close, who settled his head comfortably on his shoulder, fingers trailing gently over the skin covering his ribs while he waited. The fear and shame of being a threat to Izuku and his family didn’t abate, necessarily, but he felt the lock and chains he had long ago wrapped around hopes and fantasies and dreams regarding his and Izuku’s future come undone and fall away. A warm excitement spread through him, growing more urgent.
When he opened his eyes, he was looking straight at the airship.
Nowadays, all the portals had been explored to some extent, to varying degrees of success. There was still a lot of opportunity to be had in the slowly establishing trade routes and in the worlds where the other side of the rift opened far from civilization.
“With your fancy engineering academy skills, you’d be able to fix this ship up no problem.” Izuku raised his head, turning to look at the vessel that took up three quarters of the warehouse’s relatively modest interior.
“Certainly, but we don’t even know who it belongs to, and my mother has asked for no more projects until I finish at least one of them.”
“It could belong to me.”
“Kacchan! That’d be stealing!” Katsuki shrugged, grinning.
“The owner hasn’t been to this place in years and years. Even if they did figure out the ship had disappeared, by then I can have made my fortune and pay them off when they come around complaining.” He turned to Izuku, who was studying him with a complicated mix of emotions in his eyes.
“Of course I’ll help you, Kacchan. You’d make an amazing Adviator.” Katsuki rolled his eyes at the popular term that had spread for the sailors on independent ships that went through the Rifts - a portmanteau of Adventure and Aviator.
“Why do you sound sad?”
“Well, I’ll miss you, of course. But at least in the meantime I can spend a lot more time here in Emberfall with you until it’s all fixed up.” He was smiling, but Katsuki could see the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.
“You could come with me, you know.” Izuku blinked several times, shock painted across his face.
“But there’s only four bunks outside the captain’s quarters - I wouldn’t want to take the place of any of your crew members.” He didn’t know why it surprised him Izuku remembered his dreams so clearly. He had always imagined his idiot squad sailing with him. Having only just now admitted out loud what his heart truly wanted, he’d never asked them, but had no concerns that they would decline.
“There’s plenty of room in the captain’s quarters.” Izuku’s look of confusion slowly morphed into a beautiful pink blush.
“T-together?”
“I’m sure as shit not spooning Denki in a single berth.”
“Are- Kacchan, are you asking me to- to live with you?” His face suffused with heat, but he pulled Izuku so their foreheads were resting against one another, Izuku’s wide emerald eyes his only focus.
“Guess I am.” Izuku answered by throwing his arms around him, pulling them both down with Katsuki on top of him.
“And we’ll go through the Rifts?”
“We’re not about to be a fucking farm shuttle in an airship this small.” Izuku laughed, so bright and beautiful that Katsuki had to kiss him, deep and heated and sweet. The joy and urgency he’d kept locked away filled his body, making his scalp tingle and his fingers flex in an urge to seize. He ran his hands down Izuku’s sides, fingers digging into the meat of his hips as an excited grin split his face. “Where’s my yes, bookworm?”
“Of course! Yes, I’d love to.” He pulled Katsuki back down for more kisses and Katsuki’s heart was pounding as they pressed close together, mouths moving too quickly to be sensual, but enticing all the same. His hands had slid around to cup Izuku’s rear in an illicit invitation when Izuku pulled away, talking excitedly.
“Oh! I have an idea, but I’ll need to test the complete composition of the balloon frame and the wings to be sure it’ll work.” Katsuki nodded amicably, going in for another kiss, but Izuku squirmed out from underneath him, walking over to the body of the airship. “And at first I assumed all the steam piping would need to be removed, but I think I might have an alternative purpose for some of it…” He trailed off into familiar muttering. Katsuki fell back against their nest, hands over his face, grinning behind his palms. He wouldn’t have Izuku any other way.