Chapter Text
Katsuki had a recurring dream that kept repeating for the past couple weeks, and he was sick of it. Some old geezer would smile at him with stupid weird fake look like he was one act away from giving Katsuki a lollipop. The background would be the playground where he usually hanged out with his friends after school. He knew it was his playground because it even had the large stone where he had blasted a large dent into with an explosion once.
(The old hag had berated him for what felt like hours for “defacing” the playground.)
The geezer would act all nice and kind, but Katsuki knew better. Old men like that who kept asking what he, a kid with an awesome quirk, wanted were suspicious. Even if they claimed it was a gift.
It was a common set up for the All Might cartoon show he watched every Saturday at 8 while eating his breakfast cereal. The man was either a pervert, a pedophile, or a quirk trafficker. Maybe even some insane guy off his bonkers.
That’s why Katsuki just started taking to carrying a knife around in his pocket. Just in case because he knew he was a catch.
(If the old hag knew, he bet she would scream his ears off again. But when wasn’t she screaming his ears off when she was home?)
So Katsuki knew better than to trust the old man. Especially one dressed so oddly in all white like some sort of escapee from a mental hospital even if said clothes sort of looked like a kimono. But the geezer wasn’t dressed in normal looking kimonos – and Katsuki would know what a proper kimono was supposed to look like, having watched the old hag parade about in many kimonos after coming back from this and that formal events.
But the geezer kept coming back in his dream every night, saying the same damn words like a broken record, “I offer you a gift, what would you like?”
Katsuki was determined to be a lot of things, but being patient wasn’t one of them. Neither was not having a short temper. And the geezer kept intruding into his dream. Katsuki was the boss of his dreams, okay?!
Thus, after two weeks – two very long weeks, that was 14 whole days – of being patient, Katsuki finally exploded.
“You motherfucker! Get the hell out!”
The geezer finally showed a reaction and paused before uttering a new sentence in his still monotonous tone. “I must grant a wish before I can depart.”
Yeah right.
“I’m going to be the number one hero!” Katsuki shoved a finger into the old man’s leg to emphasize just how dangerous he could be, even if he had to crane his neck just to see the old creep’s face.
The perv’s face twitched. “That is not a wish.”
“Duh.” No shit. Katsuki raised a brow. He was going to become the number 1 hero on his terms, on his own merits, no shortcuts, no cheats, or anything. That was a promise, not a wish.
Still not to be deterred, the wannabe genie repeated again. “What would you like?”
Fine then. He blasted the guy. No dice.
So, he finally answered a question with a near impossible answer, but something he wouldn’t mind. Besides, his parents were rich enough to keep one, and if not, it would be up to the old hag to figure it out. Payback for all the shit she gave him, yeah? “A dragon!”
Stupid wannabe wasn’t a very good genie, saying, "That's not realistic."
"Fine, I want a boyfriend then."
Bakugou might only be in elementary school, but even he knew what boyfriends were. They were supposed to do the boring stuff: carry the bags at the shopping mall, pick up food from restaurants, shower him in praises… Most importantly, they wouldn’t be useless like a girl squealing in terror about dirt being trekked into the house like the old hag.
What was the term the TV like to use in describing those boyfriends… Katsuki scrunched his brows for a moment. It was wife-something. Wife-servant? No, wife-slave.
Yeah, that’s right. Wife-slave. He wanted a wife-slave. They could do all the boring work for him, especially the paperwork associated with being a hero since they were already signing all those stacks of papers on the old hag’s drama shows, and he could handle knocking down all the villains and being the cool one. Even better, they didn’t talk a lot or get angry easily like the old hag did which meant that they would just go along with his orders.
But he was too young to get married, so he would settle for a boyfriend for now. Wasn’t that more realistic now, huh!?
Stupid old geezer’s face went through a series of expressions too quickly for Katsuki to identity one by one. And then the man disappeared instantly and Katsuki found himself falling out of bed, one foot still tangled in his blanket and subsequently bringing his blanket down onto the ground with him.
Damnit.
The early morning light was warm, painting the room in peaches and waning blues. Katsuki teetered between the edge of falling back asleep and waking up for the day. It was the weekend, so he could sleep some more, but first he wanted to investigate what pushed him out of bed.
And sure enough, as Katsuki clambered onto his feet and back into the warmth of his bed, he found a big and heavy book. The cover was thick and hardback while the letters were embossed with gold.
Katsuki’s eyes scanned over the title.
The fuck? He got a dragon care manual?
Katsuki immediately woke up, fully alert. He investigated every nook and cranny of his room, checking for intruders or any sign of intrusion. But there was none. Not even a inking of a footprint on the pristine floorboards.
The house was dead silent other then the sound of his own breathing and his thumping heartbeat. The hag and old man were out of the house for the weekend for some Fashion Week event in one or another city right now since it was September. Katsuki didn’t mind since that meant he was a big boy and only big boys got to stay at home by themselves.
The extras in class would be soooo jealous if they heard about it. But Katsuki didn’t plan on telling them because he didn’t need fucking extra’s validation to know that he was cool. He had a cool quirk, he had cool parents who let him swear, and he was going to be the next Number 1 hero.
It was a guarantee that he would just find other ways to be even cooler. No need to keep rubbing it in the extra’s faces ‘cause the suckers would find out on their own sooner or later with useless Deku finding out about everything in his life.
Katsuki checked the time. The clock said it was only 7 in the morning, still far earlier than he usually got out of bed, but he was too awake to keep sleeping. But the heavy book, still lying on his bed, remained oh his mind as he went through his morning routine and boiled some frozen dumplings in the freezer for breakfast.
And as he watched his morning cartoons, his mind wandered back to his dream, of wishing for a dragon and then a boyfriend.
Could it be…
Katsuki checked over the entire house again, even venturing into his parents’ bedroom and closets. But he found no dragon. Some weird see-through underwear in the old hag’s closet that he couldn’t make heads or tails of how to put on and sparkling jewelry he wanted to wear and keep if he knew it wouldn’t earn him another scolding, but no scaly beast in sight.
He checked the whole house again after lunch and after dinner for good measure. He read through the entire book a few times too, unable to understand what it said since he couldn’t recognize the majority of the kanji. He pulled up an online dictionary and looked up the characters one by one but still couldn’t make figure out.
If nothing else, he learned 15 new kanji that day, and that was at least 15 more than Deku. The next time they met up, he would have another thing to lord over, hah!
This particular Saturday passed by both agonizingly slow but also quickly like someone with a time quirk had sped up the time by three times. But eventually the day wounded to a close, and Katsuki dragged himself to bed, eyes half closed from sleepiness
*
“Who the fuck are you?”
Katsuki was glad to see the old geezer had scrammed. But he wasn’t impressed to find a new geezer in his dream.
First thing he noticed was that this guy was tall. Like All Might tall even. His teal-green hair might be even longer than Katsuki was tall. Katsuki ran closer to the man for a better look at his appearance.
Dashing forward, Katsuki noticed that other than the overwhelming tallness, the man had an icy blue, X-shaped mark extending across his face. He was dressed in a pale blue kimono and a scarf that looked to be made of ice? Ice covered much of the man’s limbs as well.
“Who dare summon me,” he roared. With a way of his hand, ice shot forth, painting a thick line in the ground with jagged icy spikes. Katsuki yelped as he scrambled out of the way of the ice which loomed above him.
The man turned around, catching sight of Katsuki. He rumbled in a deep voice, “A child has summoned me? But you are not my master.”
“I said,” Katsuki repeated impatiently, “who the fuck are you?”
“Children should not curse,” the stranger reprimanded, but his face didn’t show any expression close to the old hag’s when she chastised him. He was clearly a stoic guy, like that Sir Nighteye! He paused for a moment to look around Katsuki’s dream.
Katsuki wasn’t sure why, given that it was now September, but his dream showed the park in the midst of spring with all the trees in full bloom. The sky was a glorious azure blue dotted with the fluffiest white cotton candy clouds. A gentle breeze brushed through Katsuki’s hair, whipping it up even taller in height.
“Child, how did you bring me here.”
“What.” Katsuki frowned – although on the body of a 7-year-old, it looked more like a watery pout. “I didn’t. But who are you?”
Katsuki squared up, pumping his chest out in mock confidence as though it could hide his red eyes flickering with uncertainty and confusion. But he let that confusion and doubt fuel his growing anger. If the guy didn’t answer his question now, Katsuki was going to show that he was no pushover despite what his dreams kept trying to show him. The asshole had the audacity to break in his room and then fucking claim he was the one at fault? Hell no.
“Only my wielder may know of my name,” the teal-hair guy said cryptically and sat down on the lush grass. “You are not my wielder so you shall not learn my name.”
“Wielder?” Katsuki cocked his head, his anger dimming down in the face of his curiosity. Was this man a sentient quirk then? The man in front of him seemed to confirm so with a nod of his head.
“But why would ice be paired with a sentient quirk?” He wondered.
The man answered calmly, “I am a dragon, little one.”
Oh, a dragon with an ice quirk? Wait-
Dragon? Katsuki nearly bit the inside of his cheek in his shocking realization, pausing for a moment longer, before he mentally rewound his memories again to think of his interactions with the genie dressed in the weird all white not-exactly-a-kimono outfit the day prior.
“Dragon?’ Katsuki parroted, feeling faint. But it could also be a trick. He narrowed his eyes. “A real dragon? Show me!”
The stranger looked almost… amused? One corner of his lips twitched upwards, but he catered to Katsuki’s whims, turning into the largest thing Katsuki every saw in his life. The sharp wind whipped through Katsuki’s hair, no doubt tangling it into a birdnest of a mess. But he was a dragon! A super-duper large dragon covered in thick ice flapping his wings through the air.
“Woah,” Katsuki admired with wide-eyed reverence, his head tilted so far back that it was bent nearly 270 degrees. “So, the old geezer from last night really can grant wishes.”
The dragon blinked owlishly before he returned back into his human form. “Last night?”
“Yeah!” Katsuki bobbed his head up and down enthusiastically. “He said he could grant any wishes, so I asked for a dragon, but he said it was ‘unrealistic’ so then I asked for a boyfriend, but I got a dragon instead!” He pumped a fist into the air with victory.
A dragon was so much cooler than a boyfriend. No one could top this off.
“You are mistaken.” The dragon tapped Katsuki’s head with a sharp knuckle. “I am not yours.”
Katsuki wilted. Ah, right. The dragon was a sentient quirk, but not Katsuki’s quirk. Unless… “Is your wielder a boy?”
“Yes, little one.”
Katsuki’s eyes shined with excitement. “Wow, the genie granted both of my wishes!” He wasn’t going to apologize for thinking the geezer was a pervert or a pedophile, but maybe if the genie popped back into his dream again, he could be a little nicer next time. At the very least, he wouldn’t try to explode the man into a million pieces again.
“Hm? You think you are tied to my master by the red string of fate?” The man’s eyebrow raised up in a query. Katsuki didn’t know what a ‘red string of fate’ was, but he also didn’t want to look like a Deku, so he nodded and pretended to know what it was. “I see. Let’s see if you can hear my name then. I am Hyōrinmaru.”
“Hyōrinmaru? What’s so special about that that you have to keep it a secret?” Katsuki still didn’t get it. But, then again, Katsuki thought somewhat petulantly, adults like to keep stupid things secret even when it made no sense to keep it a secret.
Even when Hyōrinmaru tried to explain it, Katsuki still didn’t completely get it. But he supposed if he were a sentient quirk, he wouldn’t want to loan his powers to a loser or an extra to use, so maybe it made sense. But it was still a fucking stupid way to test if a wielder was good enough through listening. Though it did cement the fact that Katsuki was a damn good listener, just like how he was the best stupid of his year and the fastest kid at the park.
All too soon, Katsuki found himself awake, Hyōrinmaru and the park covered in pale pink blossoms disappearing from view. The disappointment that blanketed his mind from that revelation doesn’t dissipate until he meets Hyōrinmaru again until the following night. And the night after.