Chapter Text
Kaminari grins before taking off running, over the bridge and down the path towards Fukai’s main Southern entrance. Mina and Sero laugh and sprint after him, closely followed by Shouto and Uraraka, with Momo and Tenya jogging slower behind them and Izuku at the rear.
“Why would the army be here now?” Katsuki hears Izuku say, mostly to himself. “It’s too early to be checking for the golem, we only just sent that message…”
Eijirou and Katsuki trail a little behind the others, as Katsuki has to stop a few times to catch his breath, so by the time they make it down to the platform, Momo and Tenya are already addressing the soldier at the head.
The group of soldiers is fairly small - Katsuki counts about twenty of them in total – but they’re riding with full Royal flags and colours, all on warhorses.
“Commander Togata Mirio! Kingsguard Yaoyorozu and Iida, at your service!” They both shout at once, bowing low in perfect unison towards the tall, muscular blonde man on his impressive white horse.
Flashy… Katsuki shoots at Eijirou derisively.
-Oh, like you’re any better, mister dramatic red cape-
Shut it, lizard.
Eijirou snickers behind his hand as Katsuki pokes him in the arm.
The Commander smiles at Tenya and Momo, but then booms, “Two soldiers that were reported to be deserters! Please explain yourselves!”
“Sir!” Tenya shouts. “We followed our Prince, sir!” He gestures to Shouto, who’s standing behind them a few steps.
Shouto doesn’t look very bothered about being identified – he just waves in the Commander’s direction, his face impassive.
Togata blinks in surprise. “Ah, that disguise is uncanny! You look just like him!”
“Wait, disguise? What are you talking about?” Izuku says, obvious confusion furrowing his brow.
“Some weeks ago, a messenger arrived at the castle, stating that they’d seen an imposter disguised as our Prince travelling through Deika City. He used his rank of office to get through a restricted access area in the Cathedral Library. The attending clerk was sharp enough to send an inquiry to the palace. Impersonating the Prince is a serious crime, after all.”
Izuku immediately blushes a brilliant red, and exchanges a significant glance with Shouto, who just shrugs in return.
“So,” Togata finishes, “We’ve been following the trail ever since, and it finally led us here.”
“Wait…but…” Izuku mumbles, “That would mean…the…Prince…is still back at the castle?”
“Sure is!” Togata says with a hearty laugh, “Or at least, he was when we left the Capital!”
“But…but this is the real Prince Shouto!” Izuku says urgently, backed with vigorous nods from Tenya and Momo and a slightly more subdued one from Shouto himself.
“We saw his magic for ourselves, it’s him,” Tenya says firmly.
Togata looks troubled for a moment, and then brightens up again. “Well, I suppose the only way to be sure is to take you back to the Capital with us!”
“I won’t return with you yet, I’m sorry,” Shouto says stubbornly, his voice firm and unwavering as he shakes his head. “There’s still something I need to do.”
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, boy.” A hook-nosed man steps his horse up from behind Togata, smoothing back his receding hair from his forehead with his hands. “We now have an incident on our hands.” He’s smiling, just slightly, and obviously not a soldier; dressed in fine clothing, wearing very minimal armour, he looks more like a nobleman.
Togata turns to look at the man, his brow furrowed. “Are you sure, Rikiya, sir? I don’t think they’re harming anyone…”
“The King sent me with you as a trusted advisor, and that’s what I’m doing. I’m advising you to arrest them. They can’t be allowed to march about the country freely, performing this farce-”
“No, wait, you have it all wrong, this is Prince Shouto, and I’m All Might’s-”
“Just arrest them all, and we’ll sort them out back at the castle.” The man – Rikiya – gestures sharply to a group of soldiers behind him, who rush forward to grab Tenya, Momo, Shouto, and Izuku.
Momo and Tenya look shell-shocked, and Shouto looks distinctly irritated as their hands are forced behind their backs. Izuku’s gaze finds Katsuki’s in the crowd, and he quickly mouths “Run”, his eyes wide and intense.
Katsuki readies his magic and prepares to do the exact opposite of what Deku wants him to do, but Eijirou grabs onto his cape from behind and tugs him urgently backwards into the crowd.
-Don’t, there’s too many to fight when you’re still recovering-
Katsuki fires back a stream of wordless frustration, to which Eijirou answers calmly, -Also, I’m fairly sure attacking a soldier of the Royal Army is a pretty serious crime-
He’s still unhappy about it, but Katsuki relents against Eijirou’s sound logic and stays where he is.
“Wait- you can’t do this!” Uraraka cries, but they just grab her along with the others.
Katsuki flicks his eyes around at the rest of the group – Kaminari apparently held onto his fear of men in uniforms, because he’s already well behind Katsuki, melting away into the crowd followed closely by Mina and Sero.
Katsuki turns back towards the others, where the soldiers are quickly finishing clapping large metal cuffs onto Izuku and the others. The magic-nulling ones again…
Suddenly, Rikiya’s head swivels towards where Eijirou and Katsuki are standing in the crowd. “Hey! You there- with the red hair! Come over here a moment!”
-Okay, screw this, we’re running- Eijirou thinks firmly at Katsuki, grabbing him tightly by the hand and taking off at a sprint, shouldering his way roughly through the crowd. -We’ll do them no good if we get taken too-
He gestures sharply at Mina, Sero, and Kaminari, and soon all five of them are running at a flat-out sprint along the path they came down on.
“After them!” Katsuki hears Rikiya shout, but the crowd is too thick for them to get their horses into it fast enough to catch up.
“This way!” Mina hisses, snatching Kaminari by his shirt and ducking into a small, non-descript side tunnel. They follow her in, Sero first with Katsuki shoving Eijirou in front of him and bringing up the rear.
The tunnel twists and turns, branching at times, sometimes heading straight up with ladders, other times into spiralling drops, and by the time Mina finally stops, Katsuki has no fucking idea where they are. He’s completely out of breath again, his still-healing muscles burning with fatigue, and it takes him a second to get his bearings enough to look around. They’re deep enough into the caves that there are blue-glowing mushrooms for light, but that’s about all he can tell.
“Okay…I don’t think they’ll be able to follow us in here for now…” Mina pants, still a little out of breath herself.
“Where the hell are we…?” Kaminari pushes a hand through his sweaty hair, his face scrunched up with concern.
Mina winks. “Secret tunnel.”
“You have way too much time on your hands…” Sero shakes his head in disbelief.
“What? I like exploring!”
“Guess all that explains why no one thought it was weird that their Prince just went missing…” Kaminari mumbles, mostly to himself.
“Okay, but…” Eijirou interrupts, “What does this mean now?”
They all meet eyes with each other, sweaty and grim in the dim light of the mushrooms, huddled on the floor of the small, low-ceiling cavern.
“Commander Blondie said they were sent here to check out the Prince impersonator rumours, but I don’t think that’s all. They were pretty quick with that arrest.”
“True…but if they really think the real Shouto is back at the castle, you’d think they have a right to be suspicious, don’t you?”
Eijirou makes a humming sound. “But…what did he want with me…? Why single me out?”
“Baldy was with the guys who captured Kirishima in the first place,” Katsuki says.
“What!? What makes you think that?” Kaminari exclaims. Eijirou looks surprised too.
“The cuffs they used, and he recognized Kirishima’s red hair. He had no other reason to focus on him specifically.”
“But what about me?” Mina says, “My hair is pretty obvious too, and they’d be looking for me too, wouldn’t they?”
Katsuki shrugs. “Probably, but you were pretty far away by the time he saw Kirishima.”
“Okay, but…maybe he just wanted him for…I dunno…” Kaminari trails off, looking unsure. “We’re wanted in Kaigan, now, so…”
“But if it was that, he’d want me too, asshole!” Katsuki gestures between himself and Eijirou, “We were standing right beside each other! Plus, the hell does the Tokaran Army care if we’re wanted in a self-governed Free City anyway.”
“Alright, alright, good point…”
Mina takes up in Kaminari’s place. “But then, if it is them, how are they with the Royal Army?”
Katsuki shrugs. “Maybe they’re not, could be a disguise. Although Captain Golden Boy looked pretty earnest for a criminal…”
“Well…that means…we have to get them out of there.”
“Attack the Royal Army?” Kaminari squeaks. “That is a crime!”
“You’re already a wanted criminal, you moron, what’s one more country?” Katsuki snorts.
Kaminari gasps. “That was not my fault-!”
Katsuki puts on a harsh mocking tone. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. We can just leave you at the inn, safe and sound-”
“Kacchan, I am offended you would even suggest-!”
Katsuki readies another retort, but Eijirou interrupts him before he can say it. “Regardless, we can’t just leave Midoriya and the others with them if they have those dangerous kidnappers in their ranks!”
“Especially not Shouto, since he’s the actual Prince…” Kaminari mumbles, then trails off a little, “…he…is the real Prince, right?”
“Yes, dumbass, I saw his fuckin’ ice magic, no one can fake shit like that.”
“So you say-”
“Kaminari, shut up,” Sero hisses at him, elbowing him in the ribs hard enough to make him grunt.
“Just because you weren’t there doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!” Mina snipes at him.
-You sure about joining us?- Eijirou thinks at Katsuki, his brows deeply furrowed and his worry echoing down the bond. -I can handle this with the others, you can sit it out…-
Katsuki waves his hand dismissively back at him. Stop it, I’m fine, I’m all healed up, remember?
Eijirou huffs unhappily and leans back with his arms crossed to sulk. -I get why you need to do this, but I’m not gonna be happy about it…-
“Alright, that is creepy as hell, what just happened there?” Kaminari says, pointing between Eijirou and Katsuki with narrowed eyes.
“Uhh…” Eijirou suddenly looks sheepish. -You wanna tell them?-
But Mina beats them to the punch, and answers impatiently, “They can hear each other’s thoughts, with the Soul Bond.”
Kaminari gapes at them. “What!? Seriously!? Like- hold on- how does that-”
Katsuki feels his burning embarrassment mixing with Eijirou’s through the bond, and they both flush red and turn away from each other. Katsuki starts to feel restless, too big for his skin, too hot-
“That’s pretty useful,” Sero says calmly. “How far does it go? Can you be miles apart and have it still work?”
Katsuki’s anxiety screeches to a halt as he considers Sero’s practical question.
“Uhh…” Eijirou hums, “I’m not sure, we haven’t really…had time to test it, y’know?”
“We should test it out!” Kaminari says with an excited smile.
“Later,” Mina says, “Right now, we have a more urgent problem.”
“Right…” Eijirou says with a nod, “We need a plan, to get them out of there.”
All their eyes suddenly float back to Katsuki. It makes something strangely warm and increasingly familiar bubble up inside his heart, and he’s fairly sure Eijirou can feel it through their bond, because his mouth quirks up into a little smile.
“Why the hell are you all lookin’ at me, then?”
Mina grins. “’Cause you have a plan!”
-Yeah, Katsuki, I know you have something rolling around in that big brain of yours already-, Eijirou thinks at him, shooting him a grin that does nothing to help Katsuki’s flustered emotions.
Trust…
Katsuki crosses his arms and huffs, then rolls his eyes. “Yes, alright, fine, I have an idea…”