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Izuku wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was unbearably hot in the shack. He’d drawn the curtains to keep the sun out, but the stove was radiating intense heat. He was brewing three different potions in three pots, all of them bubbling and smelling of different spices and flowers. But the most important one was right in front of him, spitting hot droplets all around; if they landed on any fabric, they could turn it all to ash. He breathed a satisfied sigh. He’d been working on this concoction for four days! He had dark circles under his eyes, and his stomach was growling uncomfortably.
“Hey, you mangy potion-maker!” The door burst open. It slammed against the wall, knocking two baskets of dried herbs off it.
“Close it! Close it!” Izuku yelled at him, grabbed Katsuki by the elbow, and dragged him into the room so he could quickly shut the door. He pressed his back against the door, and before Ka Before Tsuki could protest, he snapped, “Not a single ray of sunlight can get in here!”
Katsuki sniffed and grimaced. He hated the smell of potions. “It stinks like a dead animal in here.”
Izuku ignored him and quickly checked all the pots. He breathed a satisfied sigh when he found that none of them had been damaged. He picked up another ingredient and slowly added more herbs and crushed red beetles to one of the pots.
Katsuki stood next to him, looked over his shoulder, and nudged the pot slightly until a bit of the mixture dripped onto the stove and began to melt. “Kacchan!” he shouted irritably and nudged his friend slightly to make him step back. But Katsuki was stronger than him and immediately pushed him back, nearly sending Izuku tumbling to the floor. He frowned. “What do you want?” He sounded annoyed. He needed a break, but he was on the path to discovering a groundbreaking potion for battle. He couldn’t give up now! But Katsuki was holding him back on his journey of discovery.
Katsuki ignored his tone. Tied to his side with a leather strap was a thin, small book. He opened it near the end and pointed to a word he had marked with his own blood. “What is this?” Izuku moved closer to the book. The writing was small, slightly smudged. The book was several centuries old; the pages were heavily yellowed, and the edges were fraying. Moreover, it was written in a difficult dragon language.
“Let me see,” he said, carefully taking the book from him and gesturing for him to sit down. Katsuki did so, put his feet up on the table, and took some fresh fruit from the basket—fruit Izuku had picked from the fruit trees growing in his orchard. “Hmm, it’s a very difficult word,” he muttered to himself, set the book down next to Katsuki’s feet, and looked into the bookshelf. He scanned the titles for a moment before finding the one he was looking for. He placed the book next to the one on the table and began flipping through the pages. “Got it,” he said with a smile, “the word is ‘mating,’ Kacchan.”
Katsuki chewed another cherry and spat the pit onto the floor. “Mating,” Katsuki repeated after him, and Izuku nodded contentedly. He was proud that he’d managed to figure out the dragon language so well. Only a few people could do that, mostly the upper class or old wizards. Katsuki knew more, but Izuku attributed that to the fact that, unlike him, he’d been traveling the world for over two years with a faithful dragon by his side. He’d heard Eijirou speak his native language from time to time, and it seemed Katsuki understood most of what he said. “Mating,” he repeated once more and reached for an apricot, “so, that red-haired guy wants to hook up with some red-haired dragoness?”
Izuku raised an eyebrow. “How did you come up with that?” Katsuki picked up the large, heavy bag he’d been carrying on his back when he arrived. Izuku hadn’t even noticed it. He opened it and dumped the contents onto the floor. Several heavy stones of various sizes and shapes fell onto them, ranging from tiny pebbles to boulders nearly as large as a human skull. “Rocks?”
“Fucking rocks,” Katsuki added, taking his feet off the table, placing them on the floor, and resting his elbows on his knees. “That fucking lizard’s been hauling them to camp for almost a month now. We can’t even leave them there. We’re still lugging them around. It’s a burden as heavy as fuck. We need to travel light, but no—apparently this—” He pointed to one of the larger stones, which didn’t look like anything special, “—is essential gear,” he tried to imitate Eijirou’s whiny voice when he wanted to leave the boulder at their last campsite.
Izuku knelt down on the ground and began sorting through the rocks. “These aren’t ordinary stones, Kacchan.” He picked one up and examined it from all angles. Yes, it was gray and unpolished. Completely useless to a human. But when he tossed it into the air a few times, he was sure he saw flashes of silver and gold. “Coarse-grained granite with a gemstone inside.”
Katsuki snatched the stone from his hand. “Why doesn’t that lizard smash it if it’s inside?” He began examining the stone from all angles, but after a moment, he just shook his head and tossed it on the ground with the others. “So, he’s building a nest?”
“I don’t think so. Dragon nests are full of gold, precious fabrics, and rare stones.” Izuku took the book into his lap and began reading the complex words. He started reading: “Summer is the mating season for dragons. During this time, they court their chosen partner and bring them gifts to show their affection. Dragon courtship is divided into several stages.” He frowned. He couldn’t read the next word.
Katsuki snatched the book from his hand. He took a bite of the apple and began flipping through the pages with his hands.
Izuku swallowed hard. “So—Kacchan, Eijirou-kun—”
“Shut up,” the older boy growled at him, but he couldn’t hide how adorably the tips of his ears and cheeks were turning pink. Izuku smiled but obeyed him anyway. “Okay, so he’s—courting,” he repeated. He closed the book. It seemed he’d found information in it that he didn’t like. His red cheeks were a pretty good indication of that. “What am I supposed to do about it? Should I find him some vixen, or will he find one himself? Does that mean I should just leave him alone for a while?”
Izuku shrugged. “You’re a professional dragon rider, Kacchan.” Katsuki spat and looked away. He covered his face with his hand so no one could see him blushing. Izuku smiled. He knew how that sounded. He’d said it on purpose. “I think we both know what that means. He’s chosen who to court.”
“He’s annoying,” Katsuki said without looking at Izuku. “He’s spending more and more time in his dragon form, constantly sniffing and licking me. He wraps his tail around my legs at the most stupid moments—I’ve fallen three times already. At night he’s as hot as a stove and breathes out smoke. And he carries those damn rocks. He acts like he’s bringing me a wild boar. We haven’t had meat in three days. And he’s wasting his time with rocks.”
“Maybe some kind of dragon ritual we don’t understand. Let me—” Izuku reached for the book, but Katsuki slapped his hand away. Izuku immediately pulled it back and frowned. He didn’t like being denied the chance to learn something new.
“So what am I supposed to do now? Is he useless until he gets laid?”
“Who knows,” Izuku said honestly and stood up. He added two dried salamanders to another pot. The pot bubbled and turned a dark green. It looked dangerous. “Maybe,” he finally assessed, “or maybe he’s just waiting for someone to return his trying of showing his love.” Katsuki looked at Izuku, who had his back to him, but he knew all the same that he had that mischievous, sly smile on his face that he hated so much. “If he wants to return his feelings.”
There was a moment of silence. When he finished stirring the pot and turned to ask Katsuki if he intended to return Eijirou’s affection, no one was there anymore. He didn’t know how the young prince of the Barbarian Clan had managed to gather up all the stones and the book, but the room was empty. The door was closed, the scattered herbs back in their place. He smiled.
A few meters away, Katsuki was walking back to their camp. Over his shoulder was a heavy sack of stones, though it didn’t weigh him down as much as the book he held in his hands. He was trying to read everything written in it, but some of the words were too complicated. Izuku would surely help him. But he didn’t want him to find out everything that was happening with his dragon. He needed to figure out for himself first what everything Eijirou had been doing over the past few months meant. He didn’t need to think about Izuku’s smug expression and sly remarks, which would only make him want to kill him.
“Courting… Partner… Gift,” he repeated the words that gave him the most trouble. He stopped when he noticed something shiny that momentarily blinded him. He looked to the side. Something was glinting in the ferns right next to the lake where ducks were swimming. His stomach growled. He needed to eat. He looked back at the book and was about to leave, but as he took a step, the light blinded him again. His curiosity was bigger.
He reached the lake, knelt down by the rocks, and began pulling up ferns until he reached the object that was glistening so brightly in the sunlight. It was a stone. But it was different from the one Eijirou carried. This one was light-colored, almost white. It contained several different kinds of stones that sparkled and looked like diamonds. Besides that, with a little imagination, it was heart-shaped. “The gods are messing with me,” he growled as he examined the stone with interest. Was it a sign, perhaps? A duck swam right up to him and pecked his hand with its beak. It wanted the stone for itself. Katsuki quickly hid the stone in his palm and, with one well-aimed blow—while none of the animals around him noticed he’d reached for his knife—killed the duck. Dinner was secured. It was enough for him, but Eijirou certainly wouldn’t be satisfied. He needed to eat at least a herd of horses. Especially since he was exhausting himself so much with his transformations.
He tucked the stone into the pouch at his side and set off. Soon he arrived at their campsite. Just as he’d expected, Eijirou was lying by the unlit fire in his dragon form. He was enormous, his scales shiny, red with black edging. His eyes were yellow and huge, and now seemed a little sadder than when he’d left. “Hey, I’m here!” Eijirou immediately straightened up and leaped contentedly onto his massive legs. “Slow down, slow down!” he shouted at him as the dragon approached, and immediately, as if he were just an oversized dog, it licked his face and body. It was disgusting. Katsuki felt as if he’d fallen into a sticky swamp that stank of dead skunks. “Ugh, you’re disgusting,” he said reproachfully and began brushing the saliva off himself. Eijirou didn’t look the least bit sorry. On the contrary—he let out a satisfied sound that Katsuki likened to thunder. Probably a strange dragon equivalent of purring.
Eijirou bumped his nose against the sack on his back. Katsuki took it off his back. “Your gifts,” he said as he set the sack down and poured all the stones onto the ground. Eijirou hopped twice. The ground trembled slightly. Katsuki was looking forward to this being over so he could chat with his half-human friend again. “What should we do with them?” Eijirou began pushing the stones toward the edge of their camp with a sharp claw. It looked as if he were building a wall. But there weren’t enough stones yet. Katsuki looked around and fell deep in thought. Did that mean the circle wouldn’t be complete until they’d built the entire ring? That would take at least another two weeks. He sighed.
After finishing his work, the dragon lay down on his belly, his legs tucked beneath him, his neck stretched out. His head was turned toward his friend. Katsuki couldn’t resist and scratched him under the chin. Eijirou closed his eyes contentedly and purred again. His scales were hot and dry. If he didn’t have magical palms, he would surely have burned himself on them right away. “Hey,” Katsuki said suddenly, pulling a stone out of his bag, “here.”
Eijirou sniffed the stone in his hands. He licked it a few times before carefully taking it between his sharp teeth. The rumbling in his chest was deep and loud. “Happy?” Katsuki asked, unable to identify the sound he’d made. Eijirou nodded, set the stone on the ground, and lay his head on it. He closed his eyes contentedly. His scales lightened. He began to give off more heat than before. He touched Katsuki with his wing and began pulling him toward him. “Wait,” he said, pointing to the duck still strapped to the belt around his shoulders. Eijirou didn’t care. He pulled Katsuki onto his hot body and didn’t let go. Katsuki wanted to resist for a moment, but the pleasant warmth from his massive body calmed him. For a moment, he forgot his hunger and his inner fear about whether his friend was all right, and he laid his whole body against Eijirou’s. He closed his eyes contentedly. “Just for a moment,” he whispered wearily.
Eijiro kept purring contentedly.