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Izuku would have liked to start this all out by saying it was not his fault, but that would have been a lie. It was most definitely his fault.
He was the one that took this job in the first place. He was the one that swore up and down to his mother that he would kill the prince or not come home at all. It was his given duty by Lord Might, the man which he worked under in order to keep his family’s land.
Even if his mother disliked him killing people and taking on this kind of mission, he knew he couldn’t really refuse. Refusing would mean his family going hungry or even losing their home; not that it was of any fault of Lord Might. There was only so much the man could do to support their family, especially given that Izuku’s father had run off to a rival kingdom when he was young.
It didn’t help that he didn’t have a quirk which may have been able to get him a job anywhere else.
Which then of course, all led him to be standing here, all dressed up in a silk coattail style robe borrowed from Lord Might and a frilly full face mask to hide his identity.
The gardens before the Kirishima palace were vast, almost to the point where they dwarfed the side of the actual castle in front of him and stunning in their own right even without factoring in the color of the granite castle, the orangish color of which sparkled in the moonlight.
He took a deep breath and straightened his spine, making his way confidently through the hordes to the entrance.
“Name?” the guard asked him.
The frill on the edge of the full coverage mask tickled his face and he resisted the urge to reach up and play with it, potentially giving away his youth.
“Rin Yagi,” Izuku replied confidently, trying to lower his voice so it sounded a little less squeaky.
Duke Yagi most certainly would not be attending tonight, he was on his deathbed these days, Lord Might had assured him. Besides, as long as he switched his jacket inside out to the red one once he was inside and changed his mask to black all would be well and he would be unrecognizable. He couldn’t let this come back and bite Lord Might in the butt later.
It was his job and his blame to take. While he’d done a lot of jobs before, mostly of rival dukes who competed in the lands surrounding Lord Might, he’d never done someone as high profile as a prince before.
He wasn’t actually quite sure why Lord Might wanted Prince Eijirou dead other than potentially the ability to take over the throne on the behalf of King Nedzu or the unfortunately regulatory policies that the kingdom fostered over exports and tariffs. None of that was the prince’s fault though and the queens were still of the age where they could have more children, so he didn’t see why but it didn’t really matter now.
It couldn’t matter.
The guard scanned the list in front of him, “You’re from the Ufren Alliance?”
“I am.”
Underneath the mask, he sweated, really hoping the guard wouldn’t see through him. While Duke Yagi was on the older side, he didn’t expect the average guard to know that, given that Lord Might had attempted to keep up the assumption that his father was young and in good health.
The guard nodded, “Head on in at your leisure.”
Izuku swiftly made his way inside without comment, unwilling to risk breaking for a moment until he could get inside and switch masks to actually be able to breathe.
The less suspicion put on him, in any of his disguises tonight, would be for the better.
Upon getting inside, he made his way through the crowds of people until he found the lavatory and locked himself inside, turning the coat inside out and switching out his mask for a half face one.
Two minutes later, he was back out and floating amongst the guests, scanning the guests for the prince.
He didn’t really think Prince Eijirou would be out yet, not this early in the night, regardless of the fact that it was his birthday party that all the guests were here for. It never hurt to be cautious, though. The sooner he could kill the prince and get out, the sooner he could go home and report a job well done.
It’d be hard to pick out the prince in the crowd, he knew that already. It was a masquerade ball after all and he had no doubt in his mind that the prince would be attending all dressed up in the finest of fabrics and costume apparel.
He had two things going for him though, the prince’s very distinctive red hair, the bright color a sign of nobility and would no doubt be on display tonight, and the quality of the prince’s apparel. The prince would be wearing only the finest, most extravagant apparel tonight if his mothers had anything to do about it. The queens were infamous for their love of fashion, afterall.
The ballroom in and of itself was beautiful, that was for sure. It was difficult to not just fall into the rhythm of people watching, each person dancing another object of beauty to analyze on the dance floor. Each one was their own floating island in the vast sea of dancers, all in sync to one another as they swayed yet completely independent and rarely touching.
From the edge of the room, he swayed gently to the music, occasionally making his way over the Hors d'oeuvres table to grab a few snacks.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to dance, more just that he didn’t have anyone to dance with nor did he want to dare risking stepping away from his assignment. It was a risk in and of itself to step away for long enough to potentially miss the prince, but then again he wouldn’t be coming out for a few hours anyways.
He bit his lip, looking over the crowd to see if anyone didn’t have a partner yet, only to see a tall man with spiky blonde hair and no noticeable mutations approaching him.
The man stopped a few feet from him. “Here alone too?” he asked in a light tone.
He unbit his lip quickly before responding in his best posh voice, “I am, why do you ask? Care for a dance?”
The man tilted his head with care, “I would, if you would be agreeable.”
Izuku nodded. “Sure. I’m Izuku,” he responded, not bothering with a last name.
The song playing behind them ended and the dancers stilled as one till the beginning of the next.
“Katsuki,” the man, now named, replied and offered out his hand.
Izuku took it, taking note of how sweaty Katsuki’s hand was. Katsuki’s other hand went to his waist without a moment’s hesitation. He put his own on Katsuki’s shoulder.
He let Katsuki lead the way onto the dance floor as the next song started up. It was a sweet melody, light and fast without a moment of rest but just as long as all the time in the world.
Despite his general incompetence at dancing, Katsuki led him through the movements of the dance and he didn’t step on anyone’s toes as he made his way through the steps he’d seen so many times before that same night.
“Sorry, I’m not the best at this,” he whispered quietly about halfway through the dance, around the time that Katsuki seemed to be catching on that he didn’t know what he was doing.
Katsuki just smiled, his eyes unseen by the mask he wore but mouth visible enough for his purposes, “Don’t worry about it, I’m not great either.”
And yet the pair still floated, just trying their best amongst those who’d been training their whole lives for this.
“If I may ask though,” Katsuki continued, “Why are you here tonight?”
“No reason in particular, really. I just wanted to see the prince,” Izuku responded as level as he could, trying his best to put on the persona mask he had prepared for today.
“Ah,” he responded, “I’m here for the same.”
They fell back into comfortable silence, neither pausing again to speak as they went through the motions.
“Another dance?” Katsuki asked when the song ended, and well, it wasn’t like he didn’t have the time.
“Might as well,” he responded and they continued on in silence.
Eventually, the music sped up, becoming more energetic and focused less on the steps and rhythm. They just continued to dance, song after song, exchanging polite conversations between and the occasional whispered joke about their own footwork between.
It was surprisingly nice, he didn’t really remember the last time he allowed himself to just dance and relax like this, even if he did have to stay in character. He had time and thus had no worries.
But as he relaxed, he flickered, losing precious time and moments to each beat of the song when he should have been searching for the prince. He couldn’t step away though, not now, not when he’d finally gotten a moment of peace.
The music eventually slowed again though, almost to a near end, as the majority of the dancers made their way to dinner. Katsuki, in the end, was the one to break off first. “I need to go. Thank you for the dance, Izuku,” he said, putting extra emphasis on Izuku’s name.
“I need to go as well, and thank you to you as well,” he responded almost a bit stiffly.
They went their separate ways, Izuku sliding into a sideroom with a quick glance to make sure no one was watching him. It was late now, he shouldn’t have dared to get distracted for that long.
He shook his head and made his way to dinner, resolving to at least eat something before he had had to find, corner, and kill the prince. By itself, it was a difficult task and he found himself wishing that he had just been allowed to sneak in under the cover of night where the prince may have had less attention on him.
Alas, the castle had always been too well guarded for that so cornering it was.
His footsteps clattered almost unnecessarily loudly in the halls as he tried to navigate his way through the castle to where he could find some food without being seen. Although his first persona of the night was technically invited, he was not and thus had no place at the table.
Following the sound of the people moving and talking in the parallel halls, he found the alternate entrance to the dining hall and started to make his way in a square around the halls to find the kitchen's access.
If he could just snag a plate coming out, he’d be fine for the night, more than that even.
That at least, was his plan, until he heard more footsteps coming straight towards him.
He stopped in place, he knew he wasn’t all the way around yet and the sound of those shoes were too clackedy to be the deerskin that many cooks wore. So who was in this random corridor so far from the action?
He carefully, one step at a time, made his way up to the corner, listening to each slow step made by the other.
He poked his head around the corner, only to see Katsuki coming towards him.
“Izuku?” the other man said.
“Katsuki? What are you doing here?”
Katsuki’s eyes flickered from side to side, “Nothing important, what are you doing?”
“About the same.”
Katsuki stopped walking and Izuku just took him in for a moment. Why had he been sneaking around? Was he similarly not invited? Or… just perhaps… he was here to do the same thing as Izuku. He certainly didn’t have the ease in the ballroom as someone who would have been invited and the Kirishima family’s land had been contested for decades due to its valuable trading ports being regulated by high tariffs. It wouldn’t be a surprise.
And yet, could he risk revealing himself?
If he made a bad call, he could end up dead or worse. But if Katsuki was also after the prince, they could team up. Afterall, he wasn’t getting paid to bring back the prince’s head or anything of the sort nor would they have to fight over money given that they were likely being paid from different kingdoms.
“Katsuki…” he started slowly, “by any chance,” he paused, “are you here to kill the prince?”
Katsuki flinched back as if he’d been hit, “I take it you’re here for the same?”
He glanced up and down the corridor before making eye contact and swiftly nodding.
Katsuki pursed his lips, face melting into a mask of indifference, “My pay isn’t affected by who actually kills him, if you’d like to team up.”
“Neither is mine, rather it quite sounds like a plan.”
Katsuki’s mask melted and was quickly replaced with a feral smile, “Then let’s get to it yeah?”
Izuku matched his smile, “Yeah.”