Chapter Text
Katsuki was born a prince to the Bakugou empire, a superior race of extraterrestrials that were capable of manipulating fire and lava. Their home planet was littered with volcanoes and brimstone. As he was growing into a suitable heir for the throne, his only desire was to travel among the stars that surrounded their system. However, anytime that he would express these feelings to his mother, Queen Mitsuki, she would immediately shut down any talk of leaving the planet. Katsuki was told that all of the galaxies in the universe were harsh and bloodthirsty. Queen Mitsuki told Katsuki that if he left the planet, he would not have their protection, their guards or their armies to keep him safe. If he left, he would surely be killed… or worse.
Katsuki had been less than 100 years old when he started asking the guards around the castle what the other galaxies were actually like. He got mixed answers from everyone. Some who, like the Queen, only knew of the cruelty of the other worlds, but occasionally, one or two of them would tell him about mystical planets where giant gods of creation had walked since the start of time, where boulders were warriors and the thunderous lightning had a form that ran across the stratosphere. Those were the places that he wanted to go to. He wanted to see everything that the universe had to show him.
Unfortunately, that is not what the future had in store for him.
It was around when Katsuki had been approaching his 200th birthday, a war began and the Hyperthermophile race was drafted to protect their planet. Prince Katsuki was taken underground by their most elite guards in an attempt to protect him from the war, except when they reached the cavern meant to hide him, there was a group of strange warriors waiting for them. They were dressed in armor meant to protect themselves from the extreme temperatures of the planet and they held strange blue glowing spears.
The guards surrounded the Prince and Katsuki was at a loss of what to do. He was never informed of what to do in this kind of situation. He didn’t know how to fight. The only thing his mother or father told him was if he was in danger, run. If he was ever caught, ignite the fire within himself and burn all who dared to touch him.
The strange warriors advanced towards their group and, for the first time in his life, Katsuki was frightened. Four of the guards blocked the entrance to the cavern while the final one grabbed the Prince and began running from the fight. Katsuki did his best to keep up with the guard, but ended up having to be carried in order for them to get further away from the danger. The spear wielders had a different plan. The guard carrying Katsuki rounded the corner, relieved that they had made it to the entrance to the cave system they had entered, but froze when he was struck from behind. Literally.
The guard dropped Prince Katsuki as the glowing spear began spreading that same blue rock-like substance over the elite guard. Katsuki’s eyes widened as the fire slowly disappeared from the guards eyes, leaving a husk of smoldering statue. Tears of magma began running from the Prince’s eyes as he realized that the same thing would soon happen to him.
The warrior who attacked the elite removed their spear from the statue and walked around to face Katsuki. His heart burned within him from the fear of these strange creatures and the rage of not knowing what to do to protect himself or his people. The warrior prepared their spear, aiming it at the Prince.
The last thing Katsuki remembered was the quiet gasp that escaped his lips as the spear barely grazed his leg and the heat that ran through his body abandoned him.
When Katsuki awoke, he was in a black cell and he was… cold. His arms, usually glowing bright orange and yellow with his magma, were black now. He shuddered, rubbing his hands along his arms in an attempt to warm himself back up. He looked around the cell, finding nothing but a blanket that he wrapped around himself in another weak attempt to keep himself warm. The Hyperthermophile race were used to extremely hot temperatures and if he remained too cold for too long, he would get sick and very quickly die.
He glanced at the cell door and attempted to open it, to no avail. He shuddered again, feeling the fight within him slowly start to deplete. He lowered himself into a corner and wrapped the blanket around him, trying his hardest to keep warm and bring up his temperature. He wasn’t going to die like this.
Katsuki’s eyes slowly began to shut as exhaustion began to hit him. Whenever he woke up, he would try to find a way out, but now, he needed to conserve his energy.
BOOM!
Katsuki jolted awake as alarms began to scream down the hallway. The cell he was in shuddered. Then, it started rotating. Katsuki gasped quietly as he found himself sliding along the floor towards the cell door. He dropped on the door with a bit of force and hissed at the pain that erupted from his shoulder. However, he noticed that he had dented the bars.
An idea came to him as he stood on shaky legs and began stomping on the bars, slowly but surely bending them. Then, the door gave way and Katsuki fell through the door and onto the other wall that was beneath him. He groaned as he slowly stood up and examined his surroundings. Wherever he was, the building was now on its side and something was happening.
BOOM!
Katsuki quickly got to the ground as another explosion rattled the building. He found himself trying to calm down and slow his breathing down. He closed his eyes for a moment. He was smart. He could figure his way out of here and find his way home. After calming himself, he opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. He needed to escape. He picked a direction and began making his way along the wall. He couldn’t hear anything except for the alarms that were going off in all of the hallways.
He made his way through a few hallways before…
BOOM!
Another explosion, this one seemed closer. Katsuki could feel it. He could feel the heat from the flames that the explosion had brought. That’s where he decided to go. He needed to get to the fire. He needed to warm up. He was freezing. His movements were getting more and more stiff by the minute. He could hear yelling coming from down the hall that the heat was coming from. He came up to the corner before carefully looking around it to see if anyone was there. He saw the flames were closest to him and on the other side of them, there were people yelling and scrambling.
He got down low enough that he couldn’t see the people through the flames, assuming that they wouldn’t be able to see him either and he carefully crawled his way to the fire. The closer he got, the better he felt. Once he actually was within touching distance of the inferno, he reached out and immediately could feel his body heating up, storing the torridity within himself. He grinned madly as he felt more like himself.
Once fully satisfied, he rose up within the flames and looked at the people running around. One individual in particular, a being with spotted skin and green locks, looked at him in awe. Katsuki glared at the being and growled.
That caught the attention of the others that were rushing around. One of them, dressed in silver armor, leaned down to the green one. Katsuki didn’t know what was going on but suddenly, the green one erupted into motion.
“Don’t hurt him! Remember the briefing? This ship transports individuals to be sold on underground markets all around the galaxy. Why would a Hyperthermophile be out in the middle of space with no access to heat? He’s most likely a prisoner, taken from his own planet.” Katsuki could feel himself growing cold at what the green one said.
Middle… of… Space?
Katsuki blinked to attention, looking at the strange group before he turned around and began back tracking, hoping that what the green one said was incorrect and that he was still just in a building that was on its side. He could hear shouting from behind him. He could hear their footsteps bounding towards him.
Katsuki began taking corners at random, hoping one of them would answer his question of where he was. He could see a light coming from a door at the end of the hall. He ran for it, but what he saw in there nearly froze his heart again.
Windows spread along the entirety of the ginormous ceiling (the wall above him that is) and all there was to see was black. He was… actually in space. He felt his legs collapse under him and he knelt on the wall beneath him. He could hear whispering coming from the door he entered, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. His magma tears began welling in his eyes as the fear of never returning home began settling in his mind.
The cold began to return to him and he wrapped his arm around himself. He closed his eyes and curled up against himself, letting out a quiet sob. He began rocking himself back and forth, similar to what his mother would do whenever he was upset as a youngling. He was trying to calm himself down, when he felt something being draped over him. He looked up and saw the green one again.
“Don’t worry.” The green one whispered to him. “We will get you home.” Katsuki blinked at him, taking in a shaky breath.
“Whe–” Katsuki stopped, swallowing the burning bile rising in his throat. “Where am I?”
The green one smiled sadly. Katsuki hated the look of pity in his eyes. “This is a slave traders ship. We stopped it before it reached the outer worlds. We are about 3 parsecs away from the planet Yuuei, that’s where I’m from.” Katsuki tried to remember what he had learned from his years of studying. Where were the outer worlds, where was Yuuei, and how far was he away from home?
“I… I need to get home.” Katsuki looked into the green one’s eyes. “I need to get to Chthonia.”
The green one’s eyes widened. “C-Chthonia?”
The armored one came in through the door. “The Chthonian system is months away from here. How did they manage to get their ship this far that quickly?” The armored one began talking to the others behind the door as the green one leaned in closer to Katsuki.
“What… What is your name?” The green one asked hesitantly, as if he feared the answer.
Katsuki straightened himself up before taking in a deep breath. “I am Prince Katsuki of the Bakugou Empire.” Those few words silenced the room. The green one's eyes widened as he swallowed.
“P-P-P-Prince?” Katsuki glared at the stuttering one.
“And what do they call you?” Katsuki asked, getting a little impatient. The fear that had been eating away at him was now fading and instead being engulfed in the anger of being taken from his home.
“Oh! My name is Izuku.” He held out his hand, seemingly an act of acknowledgement of each other’s title. Katsuki squinted his eyes at the gre- Izuku before he took his hand in his own. It was only for a moment, but Izuku immediately yelped and took his hand away. Katsuki jumped back, confused at the loud noise. “S-Sorry! I ugh… didn’t realize that you would be that hot- I mean, your temperature is very, very high and mine, I’m not used to handling conditions that warm. S-Sorry! It is nice to meet you though, ugh, y–your highness.” He bowed his head slightly.
Katsuki scoffed. This far from home and already he’s being treated like royalty again. “You don’t have to call me that, stupid Deku! I’m fine with being called Katsuki.”
Izuku flushed at the name given to him. “Oh, of course. How about-? Well… On our planet, we typically don’t call people by their given name, but instead we give them a title to make it sound less formal and more friendly so… Would Kacchan be alright?”
Katsuki sneered his nose at the name, immediately hating it. “If you must.” He grumbled.
Izuku smiled brightly. “Well then, Kacchan, may we escort you to our ship? We can help you get back to your system once we’ve stopped and reported this incident at our base on Yuuei.” Katsuki nodded in agreement as he stood on still shaky legs. He followed the group through a maze of hallways before he found himself in front of their ship. It looked like a blackened brick.
Izuku helped him into the ship and sat him down in a specific seat. He told Katsuki that the seat was for another Hyperthermophile. It had heaters to keep his temperature up without melting anything or causing other passengers to overheat. Katsuki turned the heat on and immediately relaxed into the heat. Izuku smiled shyly at Katsuki before he left to pilot the ship with the armored one.
A voice came over the speaker system. “Prepare for liftoff.” The shuttle roared to life then Katsuki could feel the ship turning and he immediately felt sick. He was not used to interplanetary travel and it was very much showing. The voice came over the system once again. “Prepare for hyperjump.” Katsuki closed his eyes and tried slowing his breathing down. He could faintly hear a countdown before he felt a weight on his chest and suddenly couldn’t breathe. The force pressing down on his chest made him panic, he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t feel his limbs. He couldn’t hear anything. He couldn’t see.
He made a final attempt to take in a breath that only ended in failure and resulted in Katsuki losing consciousness.
When he woke up, he found himself lying in a bed. It was all white. It reminded him of the medical clinic on his own planet. He sat up slowly and looked around. There were wires attached to him and the blanket on top of him seemed to be plugged into a wall. The blanket warmed him up considerably as he grabbed it and tucked his arms into it.
Quietly, a door opened and a small old lady walked in. She smiled at Katsuki as she walked to his bed and picked up the folder hanging in a container at the end. “Feeling better?” She asked quietly. Katsuki shrugged. He still felt a little cold, a little nauseous, and his head kind of hurt. He told her just as much. She nodded, taking some notes. “Well, the nausea and the headache will go away with time. It happens with first time spacers. Your body isn’t used to the gravitational force being pressed against you. The cold we can fix. We can bring you down to the furnace if you would like to rest in there for a little bit. Your body isn’t used to this climate so we need to get you an outfit that will assist in retaining and regulating your temperature.”
Katsuki nodded. “I would appreciate that.” He said quietly.