Chapter Text
Prince Shoto Todoroki always knew he was a tool to achieve his father’s goals. The perfect pawn, nothing more, nothing less. The one that would ascend to something greater someday, but for the time being was to follow every order, fulfill every request. So, he thought nothing of it when his father told him and all three of his siblings to come with him on a diplomatic mission to the nearby kingdom of Delrona.
Delrona only had one heir, Prince Izuku. Shoto had met him a few times, mostly at events hosted by Queen Inko. Since Delrona was known as the peacekeeping kingdom, they did things like that. Helped the royals and nobility of all the kingdoms get to know each other.
From what Shoto knew, Prince Izuku had a calm, kind temperament. Good for diplomacy, but Delrona’s army was all knights, the most formidable army in the land, led by All Might himself.
Shoto was aware that his father wanted that power. He wanted control over the entire continent. With Delrona’s power and resources, that could be possible.
Shoto wondered if under the innocent, naïve Prince Izuku had it in him to be as ruthless as his mother leading that army.
This visit to Delrona was different. Endeavor was… excited? He was acting like something good was going to happen soon. And he was bringing all of his children with him. A rare occurrence. Usually Natsuo was traveling to learn about far away places, Fuyumi was tending the castle, and Touya was off commanding Izran’s army, which was formidable itself. Shoto was being trained to take the throne. It was nice to see them, even if he only really talked to Touya.
The journey took ten days by carriage. Izran was a very large kingdom, and the capital city was right in the center, so even though they bordered Delrona it was still a while. Shoto had his own carriage, which was at least something to be grateful for. He didn’t have to worry about being stuck with his father.
It was late when the Todorokis reached the gates of Musutafu, Delrona’s capital. Shoto and everyone else were guided to rooms in the guest wing of the castle.
As Shoto was settling down, he thought he heard a shuffling and scraping noise, so he hurried to check outside the window. He looked around, but saw nothing. After a few moments of making sure nothing strange was happening, Shoto went back inside and just went to sleep. He would need rest for the following day. Whatever Endeavor had planned, it was sure to be big.
Ok. Rewind. It’s been five years since Izuku passed the entrance exam, joined the Adventurer’s Guild, and absolutely failed his first quest. He managed to defeat the giant troll, Nomu, but he broke both of his arms and promptly passed out. He was taken back to the palace with the help of Uravity, Froppy, and Eraserhead. Kacchan and Kiri were there for some of it, Kiri actually carried them all on his back, but Mother hadn’t let them take Izuku any further than the Guild. Apparently they were too rough around the edges for her or something.
At least that meant they didn’t know who he really was. He was still just Deku to them. Ochaco and Tsu, however, we’re a different story. They knew. They knew as soon as Mother ordered them to bring him to his room and the royal doctor, Recovery Girl, came to help and even called him Prince Izuku. They were still friendly, for sure. In fact, they’d taken jobs in the castle as Royal Alchemists and since Izuku had managed to convince Mother to let him ‘fill’ the position of Prince’s manservant with the fictional ‘Deku’ to explain where he’d gone and why he did things like write letters on the Prince’s stationary, Ochaco and Tsu tended to fill in the duties associated with that role if they weren’t done by Izuku himself. Still, he’d lied to them and now they were his subordinates. It made things weird sometimes, but they were close enough.
Oh, and Izuku was banned from the Guild. Two broken arms could be argued to be a minor injury. He was also not allowed to even touch One For All ever again. Sir Might would need a new successor.
It wasn’t all bad though. Mother had loosened up and started to allow more tutors to teach Izuku, including Eraserhead! And he even got to debut socially and start meeting the nobles of his kingdoms and others, as well as those kingdoms’ royals. It was fun! He got to go to fancy parties from balls and other dances to the tea variety.
It turns out that Creati, who watched his epic fail, was actually the long lost princess of Andochester, so they had something in common, both joining the Guild as undercover royals. Though, she actually wasn’t hiding it too much, just not talking about it unless it came up. She was still an active member.
All in all, Izuku did miss his adventuring dream, but he didn’t give it up as much as Mother thought. He was still in regular contact with Kiri and Kacchan, who he’d meet up with when he could.
Izuku had tutors for math, science, literature, history, politics, even manners. But, after his stint in adventuring, he’d managed to convince Mother that he couldn’t be completely defenseless. So he had training in combat, stealth, and as much of adventuring as he could without actively joining quests. For those, his teacher was Eraserhead.
Over the years, by learning to protect himself from things like assassins, Izuku gained similar skills. And he could sneak out of the castle undetected. He used that to do things like minor quests or nights at taverns with his friends.
It was nice being away from the castle, especially at night. That’s when the dreams came. Dreams of One For All. Vestiges. Dark, scary shapes.
The dreams lessened greatly when Sir Might was away, with him the sword. Even then, avoiding Mother was another thing Izuku would do when he could. She continued to treat him like a defenseless, fragile child. It didn’t matter that he was the strongest he’d ever been. It didn’t matter if his footsteps were almost silent. It didn’t matter that he’d actually managed to get himself out of more than a few dangerous situations. All she saw was her useless, magicless son, at the same time keeping him from the only source of that power he’d ever had a chance at.
Izuku knew what the arrival of the Todoroki’s meant. He probably would have even if he didn’t overhear Mother dictating her letter to King Endeavor. Izuku was to be married off to one of his children. The only choice he had was which one, but he was sure each parent had their ideas. The only one his age was Prince Shoto, but Izuku had barely ever spoken to him. He seemed aloof and serious, like he thought everyone else was below him.
What all that really meant though was that Izuku was about to lose every shred of freedom he’d fought for over the years. King Endeavor was a power hungry tyrant and Izuku didn’t have high hopes for his children to be different, especially not Prince Shoto.
So, Izuku sent a message to Kiri and Kacchan. He didn’t need their help getting out of the castle, but he would need to get away from the castle fast once he did get out. The message wasn’t marked urgent because Izuku was sure he had at least a few weeks to act, and this message was really more of a heads up that Izuku would be sending them an urgent summons soon.
He smiled as he tucked the scroll into the canister on the back of his loyal homing bird, Cat, named such because she was the closest Izuku could have to a pet and at the time he named her, he really wanted a cat.
Izuku was tempted to sneak out that night, but as he started, his foot scuffed the walls and one of the new guests - whose window was near Izuku’s even though it took traversing many corridors to get from door to door - popped his head out and Izuku barely got back inside in time to avoid detection. That was definitely something he’d have to consider when he did plan his next excursion. He might not do one until Kacchan and Kiri picked him up because they were apparently on some top secret mission that they refused to tell Izuku about. However, Izuku was almost definitely going to get claustrophobic stuck in the castle with all the guests. Sir Might was nearby as well, so the One For All dreams were pretty bad. If only Izuku could actually get words out when he tried to ask about them. Instead, his throat seemed to close up and he’d just end up saying something innane, if he said anything at all.
Izuku sighed. Sleep wasn’t going to be pleasant, but neither would being sleep deprived the next morning. He stretched and climbed into bed, hoping maybe, just maybe, he would be allowed to rest like a normal person this time.
Of course, that was too much to ask. Soon enough, Izuku was hearing whispers.
Danger. Danger. Harm. Harm to the kingdom. Harm to all those you hold dear.
As the whispers got louder and more chaotic in their overlapping, Izuku was pulled up by grasping ghosts.
Do something, Nine! You must do something!
“What?” Izuku asked the voices. “What is the danger and what am I supposed to do?”
But it was always the same. No matter what, Izuku never got his answers. All he got were whispers, cryptic messages, and exhaustion.
Izuku woke up to loud knocking at his door.
“Come in!” he said, burying himself further under his covers. He knew who it was. That didn’t mean he wanted to get out bed, though. Soon enough, as expected, his covers were snatched away.
“Time to get up, Deku,” Tsu said, her tongue withdrawing back into her mouth after being used to expose Izuku to the cold air. She and Ochaco, who was starting to look through his wardrobe still called him Deku when they were alone, which he appreciated.
“I suppose I’ll have to acknowledge that eventually, but must it be so quickly?” Izuku asked. He ran his hands through his messy hair. He’d let it get long since left the Guild. He’d heard that hair holds memories and although his time there was short, he wanted to do whatever he could to keep that time with him. He’d cut it when he got back to that life, but not yet.
“The Queen wants you to look ‘especially nice’ today,” Ochaco said, picking out a longish toga that was the same color as his eyes and hair. “So we have to get right to it.”
Izuku huffed and swung his feet off the bed. “I suppose I am supposed to be shown off today. Let’s get this over with.”
“That’s the spirit!” Ochaco said, smiling and holding the toga up for him to take and change into. And thus started the process.
Tsu helped him with his hair (which took at least half an hour to brush properly on a good day with how curly it was, so doing anything more to it was also a process) and Ochaco helped him pick accessories and assisted him with his makeup.
He could fit about seven earrings in each ear, since they’d grown to be long and pointy in recent years, so picking those was it’s own thing. He had some that he always wore, but they only filled five places. There was a pair he’d gotten from his mother that had been passed down to the crown royal of Delrona for many generations. They were dangly emerald that Izuku liked to wear as the second pair from the top of his ers because they could be displayed well but still be comfortable there. In his lobes, and therefore closest to him was a pair that Kacchan had brought for him from one of his adventures. They were a fiery red-orange that seemed to glow in the sun and they always reminded Izuku of his friends. The last was unpaired and it was another one that dangled. From afar, it looked like it might have been quartz or maybe ivory wrapped in wire and attached to a chain which was then attacked to a basic earring stud. Maybe ivory wasn’t far off, because in reality, it was part of one of the teeth of Nomu. Eraserhead had brought him a whole tooth during Izuku’s recovery. After all, he’d dealt the killing blow and it wasn’t uncommon for adventurer’s to take trophies. Izuku wanted to figure out a way to keep the thing, because Mother would be horrified if she found out, so he’d had Mei make it into an earring and given the rest of the thing to Ochaco and Tsu to see if they could make any alchemical use of it.
“I think you should balance the tooth with this gold hoop,” Ochaco said. “They both hand a bit so it’s more symmetrical than a stud.”
“Alright,” Izuku said, taking the hoop and putting it in the left piercing that would be the highest if his ears weren’t pointy. He liked that one for the tooth, which wa sin the matching one on the right, because it was his heaviest earring and while it was displayed well there, it was also comfortable. “Any other recommendations?”
“Izran’s colors are primarily orange and blue, with red and black being their main accents, so maybe those?”
“I suppose. It’s not a terrible color scheme and it would be a small gesture to show how willing and ready I am to be pawned off on them.”
Tsu tugged a bit of his hair in a way that could have just been part of the process of pulling it into whatever elaborate style she was doing, but was definitely more of a way to pull his attention. “It’s just marriage talks. You mother already went through them with Yaomomo’s family and that didn’t result in anything.”
“Yeah, that’s because Momo’s parents actually listen to her and her wants. I don’t think either Mother or Endeavor seem particularly interested in if their children want to be married or not. I appreciate your attempts to console me, though.”
“Maybe it won’t be that bad,” Ochaco said. “Maybe it’ll be a long engagement type situation and you won’t have to get married until you’re both ready or something.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to just become some figurehead while one of the power hungry Todoroki’s rules my kingdom for me.”
Izuku knew that at least one of them was probably thinking that maybe the kid wouldn't be as bad as their father, which Izuku had considered, but they also weren’t holding out hope. Endeavor was a tyrant and also a stubborn bastard that probably wouldn’t give the kingdom over by stepping down or by dying until he knew both of those legacies were going to be fulfilled.
“Well, maybe we can make it so whichever one ends up being your spouse is so stunned by you that they let you do whatever,” Ochaco said, “and that starts with you looking super hot, so work with me here and let me deck you out in sparkly things that draw attention to all the right places.”
Izuku chuckled. Ochaco was good at making him feel better. “Let’s do it.”
After much more primping and general fussing over every bit of Izuku’s appearance, Tsu and Ochaco had decided they were satisfied.
Izuku looked at himself in the mirror. The toga hung somewhat loose and was only draped over one shoulder, exposing a good chunk of his chest but still covered everything important. The nearly golden rope that functioned as a belt of sorts cinched everything at his waist perfectly. His muscular arms were on full display, as were the lower parts of his legs, since it went to his knees. Most of his accent pieces were gold, or at least appeared that way including the sandals that laced up just above his ankles, the filigree cuffs that went about halfway up his forearms and were enchanted to act as a subtle form of armor, and the metal of the prince’s crown, otherwise laid with green jewels. Gold and green were Delrona’s main colors, after all. He did, however, decide that some red and blue earrings were acceptable, especially because they matched some of his rings. Another ‘accessory’ that he had that was more hidden was the knife strapped to his thigh that he could access through a convenient but basically invisible hole in his toga. He didn’t know if he’d need it, but he’d gotten used to carrying it after Eraserhead insisted he wore it at least to big events and it gave him some comfort to know it was there.
The makeup was more subtle, but it was also definitely there. Contour, highlighter, blush, all that and most of it lightly sparkly. His lips had some pink added, and there was some mascara and light eyeliner and shadow, all to make his eyes really pop. Tsu had managed to get his hair into a high ponytail and had managed to get his curls into a sort of pattern that actually looked tame, for once. He looked good. While Ochaco’s comment about his future spouse being stunned enough to let him do what he wanted was unlikely, he did think he had a good chance of stunning at least temporarily. He hoped, at least.
“Thank you both, really. Looking this good gives me at least one thing I can be confident about.”
“Of course, Deku. That’s why we’re here!” Ochaco said. “Now, go forth and be the badass we all know you are!”
“Yup,” Tsu agreed. “And refuse to take Endeavor’s shit in the most diplomatic way possible.”
Izuku laughed despite his rising anxiety. “Yeah. Yeah, this is fine. I’m fine.”
“Yeah you are!” Ochaco exclaimed.
Izuku gave his friends one last smile and headed to the Great Hall to greet his prescribed future.