Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Begin in a well-lit room.

Light seven candles and turn off the lights. Place a mirror facing an east window. The mirror should be one of full length - not so small that the spirit will not appear, not big enough that you will be unable to control it. The full moon must be centred in its reflection. Drip candle wax down its surface. Draw a circle around yourself and the mirror with pure salt (it must be pure, preferably from the sea). Set up the candles behind you and be very quiet.

When you are prepared, take a knife of silver and with it carve into your palm the symbol of the spirit you wish to summon, then press it to the glass so that the symbol appears in blood, reversed. During this time no words must be spoken. You must wait until the spirit addresses you – only then may you engage it (with caution).

Beware the tricks of the otherworld. Do not give a demon your name or ask for one in return. Any contracts made are binding and cannot be broken by mortal means.

There is blood on Izuku’s jeans. He kneels in the middle of his bedroom surrounded by candlelight and salt, back to the window and gaze trained on the mirror he spent the last of his allowance to buy. The book lies open on the floor. It’s some ratty old thing he found at a garage sale, the last in a series of desperate purchases that had caught his eye with its plainness and weathered pages. The cover had been blank when he bought it. Now an hourglass is slowly creeping onto the front, embossed in gold ink so faint it can hardly be seen.

Izuku doesn’t question it. He doesn’t question anything anymore, too driven by morbid curiosity and the reckless determination to see through the old stories of magic. There are other worlds are out there, there’s no doubt about that. A race of somethings with the power to grant wishes, immortal and fickle but willing to humour the intrepid humans who manage to break through the divide – for a price. Something Izuku doesn’t mind paying right now and is willing to offer if the transaction goes through.

Clouds obscure the moon. Izuku clicks his tongue and hopes vaguely they won’t botch the summoning or he’ll have to wait a month to try again. The mist slowly grows darker. It blocks out the sky, somehow creeping through the window’s reflection and darkening the whole mirror.

Wait. He squints and leans closer. The sky outside, the real sky, is clear. Black smog floats across the mirror’s surface and solidifies into something vaguely bipedal. A cloud in the glass, then a murmur. A muttered voice that ruffles the curtains and sends little prickling goosebumps up the bare skin of Izuku’s arms.

Who are you, it seems to say. Izuku opens his mouth but remembers at the last minute not to tell the truth.

“Call me Deku,” he says instead, eyes wide. The mirror smoke is tightening into a figure, something tall and mostly human but oddly shaped and somehow sharp. “Are – are you there? Oh my god. I didn’t think this would actually work.”

“You summoned me but didn’t think I’d come?” replies the voice. It’s stronger, now, right next to his ear but tinny like he’s on a phone. It sounds like a man. Guttural and low but otherwise human. “Stupid child. I should kill you.”

“I wanted a favour,” Izuku blurts out. “Where are you? I can’t see you very well.”

The black cloud lightens. Slowly Izuku starts to see the shape of a man with wings and the tall, spiralled horns of a savannah deer. “Speak. I have places to be.”

“I want a boyfriend,” Izuku says and then winces at the shallowness of his own request. “I mean, I want to fall in love. I want to be assured that I’ll find someone someday who’ll love me the way I love them. Who isn’t grossed out by me. By the way I am.”

The man in the mirror is silent for a while. When he speaks he sounds blatantly disgusted. “You’d have me find you a lover.”

There’s a tone Izuku’s used to. “I won’t find one on my own. I’m, uhm. Kind of a loser.”

“Clearly. I really should kill you,” says the demon, stepping closer. “Do you even know who I am?”

“Uhm.”

“But you found me,” he says, clearly not listening. “As high-ranking as I am, your soul was strong enough to bypass the common djinn and reach me. You’re the first in nearly four hundred years.”

Izuku sweats despite the late winter chill. “Is that good?”

The demon snorts. “It’s impressive for a weak, useless little mortal like you.”

The reflection comes forward. Izuku watches long fingers slowly reach out of the glass, wrapping themselves around the mirror’s edge as the man steps into real life. It smells like sugar and smoke. The clouds follow him out as he bows his head to fit his deadly-looking horns through the frame, red tattoos glowing faintly all over his bare torso and half onto his leathery wings. He makes the rest of the room seem dimmer just by standing in it. Molten metal eyes bore into Izuku’s, paralysing him as he kneels on the floor in front of this beautiful, terrifying apparition.

Izuku’s throat feels like sandpaper. His palms sweat and leave little wet patches on his jeans. “So will you help me?”

“I don’t want to.” He looks younger than he sounds, maybe halfway through high school if he were a normal boy on earth. “But despite myself I’m intrigued. Will a demon lord do for you, Deku? I offer myself. Leave your petty human world and come back to hell with me.”

“With you?” Izuku repeats, voice hushed. His heart’s trying to beat right out of his chest. “I don’t – you’re very handsome but I don’t, I mean, I don’t want to be part of some, like, harem –”

“I do not take more than one partner,” says the demon, looking offended. “What’s the matter with you? Why would you assume that?”

“I don’t know! You said you were a lord, which makes me think you have, I dunno, a palace and concubines and butlers or something –”

“I have servants and a palace, yes,” he snaps. “Not the concubines. I offer you a place at my side. You want companionship? I give it in exchange for your soul.”

Izuku fiddles with the hem of his shirt. It’s a ratty old thing his mother gave him before she passed away, one of the few things his aunt let him keep. “I don’t just want companionship. I told you, I want love. Real, organic love. I don’t just want you to tolerate me, I want – there must be someone out there in the world who could love me, right? I was hoping you could help me meet them.”

“I’ll love you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“A contract is binding,” says the demon. “When I tell you I’ll love you in exchange for your soul, it will happen despite you being a sad, helpless human. And I always keep my word. With me you’ll want for nothing. The most romantic human lovers of lore will pale in comparison to how well I’ll treat you.”

Izuku feels his face go red. “Really?”

“Yes. And you, in return, will love me. Not that loving me would take any effort on your part. I’m the ideal partner. And we’d get to be together for eternity. Think about it, Deku. The perfect romance for the rest of our immortal lives.”

A cat yowls somewhere outside. Izuku takes a deep breath and meets Katsuki’s eyes. The books warned him about this. All of them said the same thing – deals are tricky. The ultimate price is always a soul, an eternity whisked away to whichever mysterious plane demons inhabit and the slow transformation into a demon yourself.

It’s better than being here. He stands, still only reaching up to the demon’s chin. “Fine. As long as you’re nice to me and I get to be your only one.”

The demon smiles. His canines are sharp, almost like fangs. “Deal. Tell me your real name. That’s the last thing I need before I take you home with me.”

“I-Izuku Midoriya.”

The demon kisses him. It’s searing hot, painful and quick, and when he pulls away Izuku feels him take something with him. He stumbles, gasping for breath. The demon holds him up like he weighs nothing. His skin feels like fire and Izuku’s head spins. “You may call me Katsuki.”

“So … so what now?”

“Now for your part of the bargain. You cannot come to hell as you are now.”

“What should I do?”

“It’s simple, little Deku,” Katsuki says and touches his face. “All you have to do for me is die.”

Skin’s surprisingly hard to cut through.

Izuku wakes up with a tingle in his neck and the phantom weight of a heavy kitchen knife in his hand. He’s lying on something luxuriously soft. It feels like a pelt, spread over a bed big enough for six people in the middle of a huge bedroom made of brick and stone. The walls are lined with paintings and huge bookshelves. There’s one big window showing a sunset-red sky, right next to a desk piled with papers and trinkets that don’t match the décor. It’s an odd mix of stuff. Half of it seems medieval but there’s an orange 70’s-looking lamp that’s not plugged into anything and a Rammstein poster advertising a new album. Someone’s put a slinky on the bedside table. They hadn’t seemed to know quite what to do with it so they’d stuck some incense in it that smells vaguely of flowers.

Slowly, Izuku sits up. His whole body feels wrong. Off-balance, like he’s forgotten how to use his limbs and has to figure out walking from scratch. It takes a couple tries to get out of bed. He keeps falling over, weighed down by something on his back that flaps madly without his permission. Someone’s taken off his shirt. He wobbles to the ornate wall mirror.

He has wings. Downy white wings, still small and underdeveloped, and a tail that pokes out above the waistband of his jeans and curls at the end like a question mark. “I look like him,” Izuku says reverently. “Like a demon. He really brought me with him.”

His stubby tail wiggles in excitement. His wings spread and try to lift him off the ground, making him topple sideways with a breathless laugh. It worked. It actually worked, his silly spell with second-hand equipment and dumb luck. He got away from the human world. There’s a whole new existence to explore, a paradigm shift from middle school and his mean aunt and the looming future as an unfulfilled salaryman living in a run-down one bedroom apartment. He did it. He’s free.

The door creaks open. Izuku yelps and stops trying to move the lamp with his mind. There’s another demon here to visit him, with pale grey wings and a nervous disposition, and he shuffles in with his head bowed and a tray full of food. “Hello, my lord. Did the transformation treat you well?”

Izuku shuffles around, feeling like an idiot. “Where am I?”

“Lord Bakugou’s mansion. He’s stepped out for a minute but the servants are to attend you in the meantime. Would you like something to eat?”

“I’m not really hungry.”

“You should eat,” he says anxiously. “Lord Bakugou has, uhm, very strongly suggested that you’re to be taken care of.”

Izuku allows himself to be plied with bread and spiced meat. He sits on the sofa by the window and nibbles a cube of cheese, flipping through books while the servant hovers awkwardly outside the door and tries to bring him refills. Most of the words are written in a language he can’t read. Some are in Japanese and some are even in English, classics with cracked spines and yellowed pages probably older than Izuku.

When Katsuki comes back Izuku’s halfway through Treasure Island. The bedroom door slams open. Katsuki dismisses the servant and looks Izuku up and down, mouth curled into a smirk as he stalks forward to tower over him on the couch. Izuku blinks up at him, intensely self-conscious. Katsuki’s gorgeous in the dim light. Young but commanding, perfectly at home surrounded by splendour and a heavy, fur-lined cloak.

He tilts Izuku’s chin up and looks into his eyes with no hint of shame. The red light of the sun glints off his horns and makes them look almost brown. “You slept for so long I wondered if you would ever wake up. I see you took to the change nicely. You make for a better demon than human.”

Izuku feels himself go pink. His tail twists into nervous loops without his permission and thumps against the sofa cushions. “I don’t look quite like you.”

“Not yet, but you’ll grow into it,” Katsuki hums. His hands are surprisingly gentle as he pats through Izuku’s wild hair to find the stumps growing just behind his temples. “The horns might give you a headache for the first few weeks. I’ll have the servants bring you something for it.”

His wings are huge and well-groomed. They’re a deep wine colour, and Izuku’s fingers twitch with the urge to touch a feather. “Katsuki, are you some kind of royalty?”

Katsuki snorts. “What makes you think that?”

“You said you were powerful. And your house is huge.”

“I’m not. I earned my rank through pure magical ability and strength.”

“Can I use magic too?”

“Unlikely. Human converts rarely develop much power, if ever.”

“Are there others? People who turned into demons?”

“Some, yes. They die and rematerialize here as low-ranking demons bound to serve.”

Izuku perks up. “Dead people come here? Can I find them?”

“Not all dead people. Only the ones who give up their souls in exchange for some deal or other. Most humans go elsewhere when they die. An afterlife, of sorts, where they repent for their misbehaviour under the Almighty.”

“Oh.” Izuku curls his legs under him. Katsuki sheds his cloak and wraps it around Izuku’s shoulders instead, seemingly unconcerned with his own bare torso as he pulls back the curtains to look outside. Izuku pulls it around himself to hide. It’s still warm and smells like the sugar-smoke stuff that came out of the mirror when Katsuki did. “Will I ever get to the afterlife?”

“Not without a soul. You’re bound to me. To hell.”

“What did you do with my soul?”

Katsuki grins. “I ate it. Souls are tasty and yours had a fair amount of pep to it. Not that I really needed the power but it made that little trip to the human world worth it.”

Izuku glances out the window. The landscape he can see is only barely familiar, with a moody sky and sandy, barren ground. It’s pretty dreary. The sun’s a dull red and the plants are so dark they’re almost black. “Where is the human world? In relation to here, I mean?”

“Another plane of existence. They’re somewhat connected to us but it takes a lot of power to get there. The lower-level demons can’t manage it unless they’re called upon by a human. I never go.”

“Why?”

“Why would I go outside to visit slugs, Deku?”

“You visited me.”

“I was called to you. That happens so rarely I got curious and decided to answer.”

“Even though I’m a slug?”

“You’re a comparatively powerful slug. A snail, perhaps.”

Izuku makes a face. Katsuki snorts and drops the curtain, hands on his hips as he surveys the room like he’s considering redecorating. “Come, Deku. If you’re to be mine you should have full knowledge of my estate. I’ll show you around the mansion and introduce you to the servants.”

“Mansion and servants,” Deku mumbles. “Are you sure you’re not a prince?”

“I’m not, sweet Deku,” Katsuki smiles crookedly. “But from now on you’ll be treated like one. I’ll make sure of it.”

Katsuki busies himself buying gifts.

Rare art, gourmet food and hand-lettered storybooks. Pretty trinkets made of precious silver and stones. His favourites are the clothes. Flowy linens and pretty lace shirts with holes cut out for Deku’s fledgling wings. All made to order, of course, designed to show off Deku’s soft features and compliment his interesting colours. This week it’s a coat. Unnecessary for the season right now but Katsuki’s nothing if not well-prepared.

“Arms up, please,” says Aoyama. Deku allows himself to be moved like a mannequin. He’s standing awkwardly in front of the mirror, squirming at mock-up being carefully pinned around his torso. “I’m thinking of making this one a deep blue.”

“He should wear pastels,” Katsuki says, arms crossed approvingly. He’s leaning against one of the dressers, eating a plate of fruit that he occasionally goes over to feed Deku. “Put a collar on it. Fur. And something soft on the inside so he’s comfortable.”

Deku scratches the back of his neck shyly. “I already have clothes. You don’t have to spend money on me.”

“You’ll need something warm for winter,” Katsuki says and pops an orange slice into his mouth. “Anyway, you’re poor and powerless. Who else is going to keep you clothed and fed?”

Izuku lifts his arm to make way for the measuring tape. “Nobody, I guess. I’m just saying you don’t have to bother. I’m fine with the basics.”

Katsuki frowns. “You don’t want the coat? Aoyama’s the best tailor I know.”

“Thank you,” says Aoyama.

“I know, just,” Izuku gestures vaguely. “You’ve given me some really nice stuff, don’t get me wrong, but I’d feel terrible if you wasted your money on me when you could be buying, I dunno, food. Or – or art. Important thing. Valuables.”

“Deku,” says Katsuki flatly. “You’re mine. You’re the most valuable thing here.”

“I mean, sure, but I can’t pull off fancy stuff like you can,” Izuku says helplessly at his own frazzled face in the mirror. “Pearls on a pig, you know? Dressing up is fun and all but it’s probably not gonna do a whole lot without, like, plastic surgery.”

“What?”

“I guess you wouldn’t have that here,” Izuku mumbles. “Sorry. Never mind. I appreciate it, I really do.”

Aoyama jots something down in his notebook. Katsuki crosses the room to shove a grape into Deku’s unresisting mouth. “Good. We’re bound to each other. I’m going to take care of you. There’s really no point resisting.”

“Thank you. But –”

“I can tell you like me, anyway,” Katsuki continues blithely. “Do you know your tail wags when you see me? It’s cute.”

Aoyama hides a laugh. Deku goes pink and grabs his wildly flapping tail with both hands. “I’m not doing it on purpose!”

“I’m aware. That’s how I know what you’re feeling,” he says. Deku pouts. He probably thinks he’s scowling, and Katsuki gives in to impulse and pinches his cheek. “Don’t worry. I’ll teach you to control it at some point.”

“Really?”

“No,” Katsuki says and ruffles Deku’s hair. “I like the honesty. Now go pick out a shirt you like. I’ll have Aoyama make you shoes to match.”

The days go by quickly. Katsuki writes to his gaggle of minions to forbid them from setting foot in the mansion, at least until Deku gets used to his new life and stops being afraid of the servants. It’s pitiful, really. He jumps every time someone addresses him. Katsuki’s going to have to spend years teaching Deku to stop bowing back when the servants pay their respects.

It’s to be expected, Katsuki supposes. The poor boy did grow up in filth and must not be used to finery. He won’t even let the attendants come in to pour more scented water into the bath. “I can do it myself,” he says, going bright red and backing into the bathroom. “And I can dress myself too so please don’t come in while I change.”

“I’ll do it,” Katsuki says, lounging on Deku’s bed because the rules clearly don’t apply to him. “Come on, Deku, drop the bathrobe.”

Deku scrunches his face. “No. I can do it myself. Why are you in my room?”

“It’s my room. This whole house is mine.”

“Katsuki.”

“I don’t even see why you need your own bed. You’re meant to be sleeping with me.”

“Katsuki.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes and stretches out on the blankets. “We’re supposed to be mates for eternity. When are you going to stop being a prude?”

“It’s completely normal not to want people to see me naked every day!”

“They’re just servants. They’re part of the furniture. Just pretend they’re not there.”

“They are there.”

“Fine,” Katsuki sighs, dismissing the maid. “Here’s your privacy, Deku. Are you happy now?”

Deku pokes his head out of the bathroom, clutching his bathrobe around him like he thinks Katsuki’s going to take it. “I – I’m not sure I want you seeing me naked either.”

“I’ve no such qualms. I’ll get in the bath with you if company’ll make you feel better.”

“No.”

“Boring.” Katsuki clicks his tongue. “Have it your way. I’ll take you on a walk in the garden tonight so wear something nice.”

Deku peers out of the crack in the door. “Are we doing something special?”

“Everything you do with me is special,” Katsuki snorts. “I told you, Deku. You’re mine now, so I fully intend to show you off.”

The attention is… a lot. Katsuki’s eyes on him would be intense even if Izuku weren’t used to fading into the background, and it doesn’t help that Katsuki gets handsy every chance he gets. It’s not creepy, or anything, but Katsuki isn’t happy unless he’s got a hand on Izuku’s arm or their knees are pressed together when they sit. Izuku’d worry about being turned into a sex slave if he were attractive. As it is he feels like a fancy new toy, something for Katsuki to poke and prod at until he figures out Izuku’s boring.

For now, though, it’s kind of nice. Katsuki doesn’t even bother making excuses to be around him. Every day now is spent fussing over Izuku and teaching him how to be a demon. “Just tell it to calm down,” Katsuki says, resting his chin on his hand. “It’s a limb just like the other ones.”

Izuku tries and fails to grab his tail. It’s developed a mind of its own lately. It flails around like an octopus tentacle and tries to knock things off shelves so Izuku has to stuff it down the leg of his pants. Katsuki seems to find this hilarious. He also seems to like Izuku’s rapidly growing horns, which are curled up and growing down towards his chin like they would on a sheep. Izuku hates them. He can’t sleep on his side and they keep getting caught when he pulls his clothes over his head to change. “What is the point of this thing?”

“You’ll appreciate it when you put those little wings to use,” Katsuki says and plucks a loose feather off Izuku’s back. His wings are almost full-sized now. They go from his shoulders to the small of his back, twice as long as his arms when he stretches them out fully. “They’re starting to look minty.”

“I thought they’d be greener,” Izuku pouts. Katsuki scoots closer to him on the bench. They’re out on the huge balcony today, overlooking the garden and soaking up the last of the sun. “I thought they’d match my eyes or something like yours do.”

“That’s not how they work,” Katsuki tuts. “The darker the colour, the stronger the owner. Yours are pale because you’re a weak human.”

Izuku makes a face. “I’m not a human anymore.”

“No, but you are weak,” Katsuki says fondly. Izuku huffs but allows his knee to be squeezed. “Have you seen any of the servants with wings as vivid as mine?”

“No, I guess not.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll have no use for magic with me here to take care of you.”

Izuku chews his lip. He’d been worried, at first, despite Katsuki’s assurances he didn’t have any kind of harem. But Katsuki seems to take this bond thing seriously. He seems hell-bent on being a good demon husband and it’s weirdly reassuring. “So what do I… do?”

“What do you mean?”

Izuku shrugs. The sky’s red. It’s always red, a perpetual sunset that’s sort of dreary now the novelty’s worn off. At least the weather’s nice; dry but summery. “Like, should I get a job? Study? Do, like, demon things?”

“Demon things.”                                               

“I’m just saying I don’t do much right now,” Izuku says and scratches the back of his neck self-consciously. “Mostly I sit around and read. I don’t even get groceries or anything so I’m pretty useless, right?”

Katsuki looks unimpressed. “Do you think you need to work?”

“Well-”

“Look at my estate. I have half the city at my beck and call, Deku. No spouse of mine will dirty their hands like a commoner.”

“I am a commoner. Or I was, anyway,” says Izuku. “I just don’t want to be a burden. I could – I could help with your job. What is your job, actually? You’re at home a lot.”

Katsuki ignores him. “A hundred of you couldn’t make a dent in my fortune. You insult me if you think I can’t take care of you like I should. Look at the town and its barren land, Deku. Do you see it?”

Izuku looks. Katsuki’s mansion is on a cliff so it overlooks the rest of the town. There’s barely any plant growth save some squat shrubs and spindly black trees. “I see it.”

“Now look at my garden,” Katsuki says and sweeps an arm out haughtily. “Trapped in a desert but surrounded by growth. I have fruit trees and flowers tended by the finest gardeners. Hedges in the shapes of animals! Fountains! A house just for birds! Is it not splendid? Elegant? Beautiful?”

Not really, honestly. It’s nothing like the soothing greens of earth. The plants here feel unfriendly and Izuku’d sniffed a flower that just smelled like sulphur. “It’s very nice. I’m just asking if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“I don’t need help. I’ll have no more talk of you working. You’ll enjoy yourself and that’s the end of it. Understand?”

Izuku smiles, half embarrassed and half endeared by Katsuki’s huffing and puffing. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, Katsuki.”

“I’m doing my duty. I don’t do anything by halves.”

“I know,” Izuku says half to himself. “Thank you, all the same.”

Aizawa’s office is cold.

Katsuki shivers and draws his cape closer. The whole building is small and sparsely decorated, built for utility and not much else. Nobody spares him a second glance. Busy demons brush past him, all of his rank or higher, hurrying off to do the mysterious tasks that keep Hell running. Katsuki bristles. Does his best not to be rude to the secretary as he tells them he has an appointment.

Aizawa’s at his desk as usual. His office is well-lit and spacious but Katsuki splays his wings reflexively, whole body going on defence when Aizawa’s tired eyes rest on him. He shakes it off and keeps his posture straight and self-confident. Aizawa blinks and goes back to his paperwork. “Can I help you?”

“I have a convert,” Katsuki says and draws a guest chair to sit. The jar in his pocket makes a soft clink when he sets it on the table. “Former human, Midoriya Izuku. He sold his soul to find love.”

Aizawa examines it with polite curiosity. The air around him is freezing despite him being completely relaxed. “And you gave it to him? Love?”

“I’m his husband now,” Katsuki says smugly. “He’ll want for nothing. His soul’s got bite, don’t you think?”

It floats idly in its glass prison. Aizawa’s inky black wings ruffle with interest. “Does he know?”

“What?”

“What you deprived him of.”

Katsuki keeps his face resolutely straight. “It wouldn’t have mattered. Whatever little relationship he had on Earth would have lasted a few decades at best.”

“He had a soulmate written into his future.”

“And now he has an eternity of luxury,” Katsuki retorts. “Look, I’ll be a good lover to him and he’ll be fine. Are you taking the soul or not?”

“It does have bite,” Aizawa hums. “And what do you want in return?”

“I want you to accept my application to the inner circle.”

Deku’s soul pulses in its glass prison. A wisp of a thing, underdeveloped but crackling with energy tinged vivid green. He would have been something special on earth eventually. An artist, maybe, or a famed storyteller. Someone loved. “I’ll consider it.”

“Consider it?” Katsuki remembers at the last minute not to shout. “Ai – sir. I’ve been overseeing useless, mediocre demons for centuries. Once a blue moon they come to me with petty problems and the rest of the time I waste away in a pretty marble prison. I can do more. I’m just as capable as any other demon under your employ. Why are you keeping me in middle management when I’m clearly smart and strong enough to help run things? How much more do I have to prove myself? How many more times do I have to apply?”

Aizawa tilts his head. The same way Deku does when he’s thinking about something, in fact, but the overwhelming magic always coming off Aizawa makes the gesture a lot less cute. “You’re not incapable, no. You’re just… young.”

“I’m four hundred.”

“I don’t make it a habit to hand out power for power’s sake,” Aizawa says mildly. The jar vanishes from his hand in a puff of smoke, soul spirited away to some secret location Katsuki’s hell-bent on discovering someday. “I give you my word I’ll reconsider your application. I’ll let you know once a decision has been reached. You’re dismissed.”

“But –”

“You’re dismissed,” Aizawa says again. Katsuki’s ears pop the way they always do when he hangs around Aizawa for too long. “Go keep your Izuku company. He’ll appreciate your kindness while he’s getting used to the place.”

“Yes sir,” Katsuki grumbles and bows out. The heavy oak doors swing shut behind him unaided. Nobody looks up as he leaves the administration building, hands deep in his pockets and shoulders tensed and high.

The weak sun is a comfort on his face after Aizawa’s unnatural chill. Sighing, Katsuki stretches his arms and soaks up the warmth. “My Izuku,” he says under his breath. “Of course he’s mine. I’m better than any stupid human soulmate, anyway. He’s lucky to be with me.”

Dust lifts in a red cloud. Katsuki beats his wings and launches himself off the ground, wind in his hair and still bristling from the sting of once again being told no. He was handsome, that aborted soulmate. Wealthy by human standards and clever. He would have helped Deku find his voice and nudged him into a long life of joy.

Long but still mortal. Not even a century and they’d die. The soulmate’s a lost cause but as far as Katsuki can tell he’s done little Deku a favour.

Looking tiny, the scenery rushes past below as Katsuki flies home. It doesn’t matter. Katsuki will enter the top rungs of hell and the question of what-ifs will fade. He’ll be a good partner, just like he’s good at everything, and Deku won’t miss being on earth.

He’ll rule by Katsuki’s side. And if he’s instrumental in getting Katsuki to where he belongs, well. Deku doesn't have to know.

Chapter Text

There’s a love note in his shoe locker.

Izuku stares at it, trying to figure out if someone left it here by mistake. He’s not the kind of person who gets positive attention. It’s addressed to him, though, with looping, cutesy handwriting and a little heart sticker on what’s clearly paper torn out of a notebook. He opens it gingerly. The only thing in it is a crude drawing.

He sighs and crumples it up. Another one for the trash. Behind him two boys are laughing to themselves. Izuku doesn’t bother turning around. “Aw, what? You don’t like our present?”

Izuku keeps his head down. It’s nothing he’s never heard before, and anyway the podcast he’s listening to is starting to get to the good part, the part where the heroes go off to fight a rogue god. Someone tugs his earbuds out of his ear. Izuku jumps, one shoe on and bag haphazardly slung onto one shoulder.

“I was talking to you,” says the taller one. Takashi, Izuku thinks. “It’s not like you’re getting any other confessions. You should be thanking me.”

“You’re not his type,” snorts the other. “He likes real manly men. And your note’s too girly, that’s not Deku’s speed.”

“Well sure. If girls hate you enough you’d give up on them, right? That’s kind of just what happens when you’re a loser.”

“Wishful thinking. As if the boys would tolerate him. Maybe if he were cute he could pass off as a girl.”

“He can barely pass off as a person,” Takashi laughs. “But it’s not your fault, yeah? Blame your dad for walking out on you.”

“Aw, c’mon,” says the other. “His mom walked out too.”

Izuku swallows. “She didn’t – she didn’t leave.”

“Sure she did,” says Takashi. “She just made it permanent. Sorta pre-emptive, don’t you think, Deku?”

Izuku picks a fruit off the ground. It’s vaguely shaped like an apple but its skin is a deep plum purple. Curious, he lifts it to his nose to sniff and then opens his mouth for a bite.

“Don’t eat that.”

Izuku jumps. He hides the fruit behind his back, guilty, but Katsuki’s already laughing at him. “Sorry. I should have asked permission before picking it.”

“You can pick whatever you like,” Katsuki says and reaches over to pluck it out of his hand. “This thing’s bitter as all hell. It’s no good for eating until you’ve boiled the absolute life out of it.”

“Oh.” It’s cloudy in the garden today. Izuku didn’t think hell could get much duller but it’s proudly proving him wrong. That could partly be because he’s been here a month and hasn’t left the mansion, of course. He’s already demolished half the library and none of the servants ever want to hang around and chat. “That makes sense, I guess. The flowers smelled kind of sour.”

“I’ll have the cooks make jam for you. Here, I got this delivered for you. Try it on.”

Izuku peers at it. It’s a hairclip-type thing with a baby pink crystal flower on it. “What? Katsuki, I’m not a girl.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Katsuki scoffs. Izuku shrinks back from the hand trying to smooth down his hair. “It’ll match your eyes. Stay still, I want to see how it looks on you – there. Huh. Pretty.”

“Yeah, right.”

“What?”

“I’m a lot of things but pretty isn’t one of them. Look, if this is a joke – ”

Katsuki frowns. Izuku keeps his eyes somewhere around Katsuki’s collarbone, willing his face not to go red with shame. “Why the hell would I give you something as a joke, Deku? Much less something finely-made like this?”

Izuku chews the inside of his cheek. A bird chirps somewhere above him. His stomach twists into uncomfortable knots as Katsuki stares him down. “I guess.”

“It looks good on you,” Katsuki says, sounding offended. “What’s gotten into you? You’re moody today.”

Slowly, Izuku breathes out. He’s being ridiculous. A couple of dreams here and there don’t mean he’s still stuck in the past; he sold his soul to get away from earth so there’s no sense getting snippy now. Katsuki’s been nothing but nice to him, anyway. It’s not fair to project his stupid hang-ups on the guy who got him out of that middle school mess. “Sorry. I – sorry.”

“Do you hate Hell? Is that it? Because it’s too late to back out. You and I are bonded and you’re no longer in possession of a soul so you’re not going back to being a human.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’ll be nicer.”

Katsuki puts his hands on his hips. Izuku glances up at him, vaguely embarrassed. “You’ve been indoors too long. I forgot your human world is bright and sunny. You must be missing the outside.”

“I am outside, though.”

“Outside outside,” Katsuki says and scoops Izuku up like a child. “Alright. I know what you need. It’s about time I showed you the best thing about hell besides me.”

It’s awful, at first.

Katsuki gives him no warning before launching himself into the air, huge wings flapping while Izuku clings to him and screams. His stomach feels like it falls out of his torso. It’s freezing up here even with Katsuki’s radiator body heat and the wind whistles in his ears loud enough to drown out everything but the horrified pounding of his own heart.

“Don’t be a baby,” Katsuki shouts over the noise. “You have those wings for a reason. One day I’ll teach you to fly and you’ll see how good this feels.”

Izuku begs to differ. When he dares open his eyes they start watering immediately so he has to squint as he hesitantly looks down. The landscape is dry and red. Short, square buildings are dotted all around town, some fairly new-looking and others almost in ruins. The ground stretches further than he can see. An endless, uncaring expanse that dwarfs him and Katsuki without trying. A fall from this height would break him but he’d barely leave a crack in the earth. He’d shatter to pieces but Hell wouldn’t even notice.

Katsuki jostles him, arms clamped protectively around Izuku’s back and legs. “What? Are you scared of heights?”

“No. I just… I feel small.”

“You are small.”

“I know,” Izuku says and buries his face in Katsuki’s neck. “I always have been. You don’t have to tell me.”

They touch down far from town, in some mountainous region with no plants or people. Izuku wobbles when Katsuki puts him down. His head spins and his skin prickles from the sudden temperature change. “Where are we?”

“The Badlands,” says Katsuki. He hasn’t even broken a sweat. Grinning, he points somewhere behind Izuku, through the gaps between jagged rocks at a pair of somethings flying towards the sun. “Hell’s ugly as sin but you can have fun if you know where to look.”

Izuku squints. Whatever it is Katsuki’s pointing at does a slow spin and bends its long neck. “What are those? Other demons? But they’re shaped funny.”

“Look closer,” Katsuki tells him, one hand on his shoulder as they hide behind an outcrop. The flying figures are big, too big to be humanoid, and their bodies are long and flexible with too-thick tails. He sees two wings, four legs, and a body with spikes all the way from head to tail. “They’re animals. You’ve probably read about them in your human mythology.”

Izuku’s eyes widen. One of the flying monsters swoops low to snap up some prey in its jaws. “No. You have dragons? Actual, honest to god dragons?”

Katsuki claps him on the back. “They avoid civilisation but you can usually find a clutch or two around here, out in the wild. Want to go check them out?”

They find a nest somewhere on the side of the mountain, easily identifiable by the sturdy branches and stones set up to close the cave off from anything without thumbs. Katsuki makes short work of the barrier while Izuku buzzes with slowly-growing excitement. The cave’s empty and dark. Stalactites and stalagmites make it hard to walk but Katsuki leads him in as they look for a nest. He finds it right at the back. Six eggs nestled carefully in a crevice, big enough to hold in two hands with speckled red shells.

Katsuki waves him over. Izuku peers over his shoulder, looking around at the moss and water dripping off the stalactites. “Is this really okay?” he stage whispers, stumbling over uneven ground. “Will their mom mind us being here?”

“Dragons leave the eggs alone right after they’re hatched. The young ones can take care of themselves well enough. Look, this one’s already cracking,” he says and picks up the biggest egg. It has a hairline fracture on top. “They’ll break out of their shells soon.”

Izuku’s breath catches. “Can we watch? Oh my god, I want to see baby dragons. I’ve never – they don’t exist on earth. This place is like a fairy tale.”

Katsuki snorts and puts the egg back down. “Alright. Go find a comfortable spot, this will take a while.”

They wait an hour. Izuku’s half-asleep against Katsuki’s shoulder before he’s being shaken awake, quiet scratching sounds coming from the nest and echoing around the cave. Katsuki holds a finger to his lips. The first of the eggs has a hole in it, its prisoner scrabbling wildly to get out.

Izuku almost cries. The escapee looks like a spiky red gecko that hisses and snaps when it notices they’re there. It’s about the size of Izuku’s hand. Its wings are small and translucent with visible veins when it stretches them for the first time. Izuku can’t help but want to touch them. “Hello!” he says, voice soft and awestruck. “My name is Izuku, it’s nice to meet you.”

It nips his finger and flaps off. The rest hatch relatively soon after, little claws making quick work of the hard shells. Izuku watches with rapt attention. Even Katsuki seems impressed, nodding with approval every time one shakes itself off and takes flight for the freedom of the desert. “They’ll stay together for a while,” he says in Izuku’s ear. Dragon number three wobbles to its feet. “Until they’re bigger. Then they fly away and build their own nests and the cycle continues.”

One by one they go free. All except the smallest egg that trembles but doesn’t open. Izuku can see the runt’s silhouette in the dim cave light, feet kicking but failing to make a crack. “What’s happening to that one?”

“Oh. That’s a dud,” Katsuki says. “It’s not strong enough to get free.”

“So what’ll it do?”

“It’ll die in there,” he sighs, sympathetic. “If can’t even break its shell, it likely won’t survive past infancy. It’s how nature favours the strong.”

Izuku’s heart clenches. “What? That’s awful. It’s not their fault they’re so small.”

“It’s a shame. But, well, it’s the way the world works. A weak little thing like that will get picked off by a predator – what are you doing?”

“I’m helping,” Izuku says because this is obvious. Carefully he cradles the egg in his palm and digs his nails into the biggest crack he can find. It peels away slowly. The tiny dragon struggles madly and pokes its snout out for air the second Izuku manages to break open a hole. “There you are! That must have been scary, huh, little guy?”

Katsuki’s blinking at him, wide eyed. “Deku. It’s going to die the moment you set it free.”

“I’ll bring him home, then,” Izuku shrugs and keeps clearing away bits of shell. The dragon crawls onto his hand, scales still soft and body barely longer than Izuku’s finger. “No predators in Katsuki’s house, right, buddy? You can fly around the garden and keep me company.”

“Right,” says Katsuki slowly. The dragon clings to Izuku’s thumb and squeaks. “I – I suppose that’s an idea.”

“Problem solved! Aren’t you lucky? Don’t worry. I’ll feed you lots and make sure you grow up big and strong.” It gums his finger. Izuku laughs and gently scratches its head, lifting it up to his face to get a better look. It’s got big beady eyes and ridges on its eyebrows that make it look like it’s frowning. “I should name you something. Katsuki will help me pick. Right, Katsuki?”

Katsuki nods. He’s looking between Izuku and his new pet, seeming puzzled. “Uh, sure. If you like.”

Izuku hugs his little dragon to his chest. “Well, then. I guess I finally found something smaller than me.”

“Why do you even hang around Yamazaki so often, Deku? You know you’re not friends or anything, right?”

“Hey, maybe he has a crush on him. Wouldn’t that be weird?”

Izuku keeps his eyes on his desk. His traitor face is blushing crimson, humiliated tears welling up even as he tries to force them back on. His classmates crowd around his seat, leaning on each other and eating snacks like this is just another way to pass the time. “Please leave me alone.”

“Dude, he’s blushing. Holy shit, he really does have a crush.”

“Oh, gross! Deku, what the hell kinda guy are you?”

Izuku winces. “I don’t –”

“That’s hilarious, I have to tell him – dude! Yamazaki! You’ll never guess who has a big gay crush on you, you’re gonna lose your shit. It’s the worst possible option.”

“Wait, wait, don’t tell him yet, I have to record this for the group chat!”

Izuku blinks himself awake earlier than he means to. His head hurts. The stupid horns again, and he sighs and rubs his temples in an attempt to get rid of some of the ache. He shuffles off to wash his face and brush his teeth. They’re still not as sharp as Katsuki’s but he thinks he might be getting a little pointy around the lower canines.

Someone brings him breakfast. “Lord Bakugou’s attending to something again today,” the butler says as Izuku chews through an orange. “He’ll return to have dinner with you as usual, but until then do feel free to explore the mansion if you wish.”

Izuku gets dressed and wanders outside to check out the garden while his new dragn naps indoors. Everything here is weird. The trees are huge and there’s a little blue plant trying to sprout between ferns. He kneels to inspect it, poking its leaves and admiring the way it curls at one end like a candy cane. A whisper catches his ear. Izuku looks up – a blond head ducks behind a fig tree with a muffled shit and a rustle of feathers.

Izuku shuffles around on his knees. “Hello?”

There’s a whispered argument. A girl clambers out of the foliage, dragging her blond friend with her. She’s completely pink. Her wings are also pink and her horns are a crinkly shape Izuku can’t even begin to identify. “Oh my god, he’s so cute!”

“I’m Kaminari!” says the boy. He has flashy yellow wings and crooked, skinny horns that stick out of his forehead like lightning bolts. “Holy shit, I thought he was kidding but Bakugou actually brought back a real live human.”

Izuku waves nervously. These two seem friendly enough, bouncing on the balls of their feet as they come closer to inspect him. They can’t be much older than Izuku. “I don’t think I’m a human anymore, exactly. I, uhm. My name’s Izuku.”

“Are you gardening?” He’s wearing a hoodie. An actual, honest-to-god black hoodie with a bright blue pac-man ghost on it. “I love humans. What was your life like? Were you famous? Did you like movies? Have you ever eaten a sushi?”

“I’m Ashido.” The girl elbows him aside and plops onto the dirt to look Izuku in the eye. She’s in jeans and a top from the 80’s. “What’s it like being bound to Bakugou? Is he nice to you? Have you made out?”

“No. And, uhm, I’m generally pretty boring, sorry,” Izuku says, bemused. He squirms as Kaminari circles him to poke at his wings. “You’re tickling me. Speaking of Katsuki, have you seen him?”

“Nope! We’re supposed to be avoiding him,” Kaminari chirps. “He says hates when we come into his house uninvited but we figured he’d have to leave you to go do the immigration paperwork at some point so we took our chances.”

“Immigration?”

“So you can be an official member of the demon species. The management’s surprisingly well-organised. Did you know it’s actually, like, really hard to summon a demon of Bakugou’s level?”

“He mentioned.”

The girl touches Izuku’s horns. “Bakugou owns the area. Don’t worry too much about it, though. He’s honestly not the worst once you get to know him.”

“We kind of moved in,” Kaminari says conspiratorially and flops half onto Ashido, who playfully shoves him. “He’s got, like, ten bedrooms he doesn’t look at so the squad and I hang out here most of the time. He complains but never actually tries to evict us. I think he secretly likes the company.”

“Except we never see him anymore,” says Ashido. “He sent us a letter to tell us to get lost because he was busy with his new human boyfriend so obviously we had to sneak over and see you.”

“He talked about me?”

“He’s always talking about you,” Kaminari says. “He sends letters bragging about how cute you are and how he’s gonna spoil you and everything because you grew up in squalor.”

“It’s wasn’t squalor,” Izuku says, going pink. “Did he really call me cute?”

“Yes, and he was right,” Ashido says. “Look at your little horns. Oh, I bet they’ll get all curly and stick out of his head like pigtails.”

“Or get huge like Hitoshi’s,” Kaminari agrees. “I see what Bakugou meant about the pretty freckles.”

Izuku squirms. “Pardon my asking, but why do you speak like a human?”

“Oh, most demons get summoned to the human world all the time,” Kaminari says flippantly. “People want favours and special powers and all that. Honestly sometimes Ashido and I visit just for fun.”

Ashido cackles. “Humans are squishy little things, fun to spook in dark alleyways. They can’t see or hear us if we’re not explicitly called upon so all you have to do is rake your nails down the walls and they freak out.”

“Ah, really? I didn’t think demons would visit for fun. Katsuki says it takes a lot of effort.”

“Yeah, it’s honestly pretty difficult,” Ashido hums. “But there’s not much else to do here so it’s worth spending the magic if you can handle it.”

“Ashido and I are a solid B-tier!” Kaminari says and gestures over his shoulder. His wings flutter, lemon yellow feathers rustling and puffing up like a proud bird. They’re a lot more potent than Izuku’s soft pastel. “I’m not omnipotent or anything but I’m not a weenie either, so human world trips aren’t too hard.”

“Bakugou never wants to come with us. He thinks humans are annoying, so you can imagine our surprise when he started praising you the second he got you,” says Ashido. “Although that’s definitely also because he’s proud to have his first boyfriend.”

Izuku pauses. He thinks of the marble floors and fleets of housekeepers and the way Katsuki had declared Izuku his with haughty confidence. “What, really?”

The other two share a mischievous look. Kaminari glances around and scoots closer in the grass to stage-whisper, smiling wide. “Did he not tell you? Bakugou’s been trying to hold a steady relationship for two hundred years. He’s never dated anyone longer than six months.”

Ashido leans closer. “Eternity is a long time, dude. Demons try to settle down the moment they’ve found ‘the one’, and then they stay with that person forever. We don’t really date just for fun.”

“But Bakugou’s never gotten to the serious stage,” continues Kaminari. “On account of nobody being able to handle him. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we love the guy, but spending millennia as his husband sounds like a lot.”

Ashido giggles. “It’s always been a sore spot. Most powerful demon in this city and he can’t get a second date. Now you’re here is life is finally perfect by his standards. He wrote a ten page letter all about you. Most of the time we can’t even get him to say hi.”

Izuku feels his ears go warm. Katsuki’s never had a boyfriend. All that swagger and poise and power and he’s really not that much different from Izuku. “I, uhm. I’ve never been in a relationship either.”

They coo. “Isn’t that sweet?” sighs Ashido. “You get to be each other’s first and everything.”

“Ah, young love,” Kaminari says and swoons onto Ashido’s shoulder. “I’m almost jealous. I wish me and Hitoshi could start all over.”

“The courtship!”

“The shy romance!”

“Figuring it all out together, you two against the world!”

“Except Bakugou’s skipped the hard part,” Kaminari snorts. “You missed the wooing and went straight to settling down. That’s just like him to not waste any time.”

Ashido grabs Izuku’s hands. “We’ll make him do it anyway. Let’s ask him to send roses to your room!”

Izuku laughs. “He’s already done a lot. Don’t worry, I think I get the message well enough.”

They scurry off the moment Katsuki gets home. Izuku feels it just a bit after they do – a sudden pressure in the air, not suffocating but enough to make the mansion feel different. He follows the trail curiously. It leads to Katsuki, who’s taking his cape off in the foyer and sending a maid off to get him some coffee. “Oh, it’s you,” Izuku says, absently touching the air. “Do you know you make the room feel heavier?”

“That’s just my aura of power,” Katsuki says smugly. He looks handsome, backlit by sunlight with his wings folded neatly behind him. “You never noticed it because you were always next to me.”

“Guess not.” Izuku hesitates. Katsuki’s never seemed shy about touching but Izuku’s never initiated contact. Slowly, he steps closer to rest his head on Katsuki’s shoulder, tail swishing nervously behind him as he gingerly settles in for a hug. Katsuki smells nice. Like smoke and something sweet, warm and reassuringly solid where Izuku presses against him. “Welcome home.”

Katsuki pauses. His arms come up curiously to wrap around Izuku’s waist. “Have you finally stopped being coy?”

His voice is deep and rumbles against Izuku’s ear. “I’m not being coy, it’s just, well. You know.”

“Silly human sensibilities.”

“They’re not silly. You just- well. Maybe it’s a little silly. You made me really nervous when we first met.”

Katsuki peers down at him. “Naturally. But now?”

“I dunno.” Izuku offers him a hesitant smile. “I think maybe you’re nicer than you look.”

“Sit.”

The dragon hatchling stares at Katsuki stupidly, tongue darting out to taste the living room air as though it hasn’t already been in the mansion a week. It’s being obtuse on purpose. The idiot thing listens to Deku just fine, obediently riding around on his shoulder everywhere he goes, even to sleep.

It’s gained some weight but is still pitifully small. Katsuki pokes its side. It chews his finger, which Katsuki grudgingly approves of even if its tiny teeth feel like nothing. “I guess you have some fight in you. You’ll probably never be all that impressive, though. I bet you’ll only ever get as tall as my knees.”

It climbs onto the back of his hand. Katsuki stares into its big marble eyes and only half-considers flinging it across the room. “You weigh nothing. You’d lose a fight with a pigeon. You’re lucky Deku took pity on you.”

Chrr, it says and wraps its tail around his wrist. Katsuki gingerly pats its head. “Hm. I suppose you’re cute enough. At least you haven’t started scratching up the furniture.”

There’s a stifled laugh from somewhere behind him. Katsuki turns to see Deku leaning against the doorframe, face soft and smiling hard enough to make his eyes crinkle up at the corners. “Hi.”

Katsuki surreptitiously hides the hatchling behind his back. “Do you need something?”

“No. I’m just happy you’re getting along with Toothless. He seems to like you.”

“It’s female.” Katsuki squints at him. “Deku. All dragons have teeth.”

“No, it’s from a movie. Or a book series, I guess,” Deku says and steps closer. The dragon flaps off Katsuki’s hand to land somewhere in Deku’s hair. “It’s called How to Train Your Dragon. I watched it, like, four times.”

“What is a movie?”

“It’s a story, a bit like watching theatre,” Deku gestures vaguely. “I don’t know how to explain it. You know like a drawing?”

“Yes?”

“It moves.”

Katsuki raises an eyebrow. “Unlikely. Humans don’t have the magic to make such a thing happen.”

“They use computers.”

“What?”

“Never mind,” Deku laughs. Katsuki considers being offended but decides he likes Deku being in a good mood. “It’s a silly reference. Wanna come help me teach Toothless some tricks?”

Katsuki asks about ‘movies’ the next time he sees Kirishima. He’s the only one out of Katsuki’s gaggle of idiots who hasn’t yet trespassed to get a look at Deku, so Katsuki rewards him with a visit to Kirishima’s little bungalow in the centre of town. Kirishima hugs him when he sees him. Katsuki tolerates this and accepts a seat on the worn out armchair with good grace.

“Oh, he likes movies?” Kirishima says, brightening as he pours out two coffees. “I think I might have that one on my tablet, actually. It’s the cartoon one, right?”

Katsuki eyeballs him. “I understood half of those words.”

“It’s a human contraption,” Kirishima says and sets the mugs on the rickety table he’s kept for decades even though Katsuki knows he can afford better. “I picked one up the last time I was there.”

“Why do you keep intercepting summoning spells? You’re too powerful to be letting humans hijack you and force you to earth.”

“They’re not forcing me, I have fun,” Kirishima shrugs and bounds off to look through the mess of things in his cupboards. “Besides, I can ask for cool stuff in return for their favours, since I don’t have any human currency – oh, here it is! Still got some battery. Yeah, I have the movie downloaded. Wanna see?”

He comes back and hands Katsuki a thin white slab of… something. Katsuki turns it over, unimpressed. “This is a movie?”

“No, that’s where the movie is stored.”

“Oh. An electrical thing?”

“Yeah! Kaminari’s figured out how to charge stuff with his magic. I bet your Deku must be missing stuff like that from home.”

“He’s entertaining himself well enough so far.”

“Still, it’s a big change,” Kirishima says and sips his coffee. He sits on Katsuki’s armrest instead of on the couch like a civilised person. Katsuki bats away the bright red, spiked tail that playfully pokes his leg. “How old is your Deku? Was he an older human who wanted immortality?”

“Just a youngling. Baby face and scrawny arms. He wanted affection, really. The immortality’s a side-effect. I asked if he’d like Hell and he said yes.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

Kirishima frowns. “Humans always want something. Life, power, brains, whatever. I mean, love isn’t that uncommon but it’s usually with another human or someone who won’t love them back.”

“So?”

“So, it’s unusual,” Kirishima shrugs. “Just a youngling but he wanted to leave Earth. I wonder what made him run away.”

Katsuki leans back in his chair, sipping his coffee nonchalantly. “Who can blame him? Humanity’s dull and weak. Given the option of becoming a demon I bet anyone would take it.”

“I suppose so,” Kirishima says but doesn’t sound convinced. “Anyway, you can borrow the tablet. Give it to Deku. He’ll know what to do.”

Katsuki takes the cursed thing home tucked under his arm. It’s oddly heavy for being so small, and he gives it to Deku with distaste because he spent the whole flight back trying and failing to turn it on. “Kirishima said something about the dragon movie. Here. I don’t know what the big deal is.”

Deku lights up, tapping the tablet with wide, excited eyes. “Oh my god, he has the trilogy. Katsuki, go get some snacks. I know what we’re doing today. You’re gonna love this.”

He’s right. Katsuki loves it. He stares unblinkingly at the screen while Deku eats peanuts and leans against his shoulder, watching colourful dragons and cartoon-humans play out their adventure. Deku spends most of the movies watching Katsuki. “This is impossible,” Katsuki says and jabs at the screen. “Humans make things like this? And you just go see them whenever you want?”

Deku giggles. “This is just one type of movie. There are others with even more effects.”

Katsuki grips the tablet with both hands. “Show me another.”

“Okay, let me check what Kirishima has.”

He scrolls through mysterious images while Katsuki appraises Deku’s Toothless against the movie version. “I think the dragons on the movie were better. This one can’t even hunt.”

“In the movie. Also, she’s just a baby. She’ll learn to hunt when she’s ready.”

“If humans can make things like movies and tablets why did you leave?”

Deku pauses. His finger hovers above the image of a shark called Jaws. “It’s a long story.”

He doesn’t look up. Katsuki studies his face, seeing the tense shoulders and deciding, for once, not to push. “Do you miss it? Earth.”

“Sometimes,” Deku says hesitantly. Toothless rubs against his leg and he smiles, soft and crooked, as he put the tablet down. “The books and movies were nice, and video games. The food was a little different too but I don’t really miss much else.”

“Do you,” Katsuki says slowly. “Like being here?”

Deku turns the smile on him. “It’s better than home. But one thing I really missed,” he says, pointing at the screen, “is old superhero cartoons. It’s time you met my first love, All Might.”

They watch cartoons for three days straight until the tablet runs out of juice. Katsuki decides he’ll ask Kaminari to charge it, making it a point to grumble even as he hurries out the door. Deku doesn’t even try not to smile. He says Katsuki’s like a child just discovering TV just because he insists on replaying the parts he really likes. It’s honestly vaguely insulting. Katsuki would be offended if it were anyone but Deku.

He ends up coming home with two other devices. “I demanded them,” he announces proudly as he drops his cape on a servant’s head. “Kaminari moved all Kirishima’s movies onto both of these so we can watch for longer.”

“Did you remember to thank him?” Izuku asks, moving aside on the couch. They’ve designated the east living room as their show-watching space. “Do you want to start a new season or do a recap of the last one?”

“New season. Also, here,” Katsuki says and digs around in his pocket. He unearths a keychain. It’s a little plastic All Might with worn out feet and a pristine, painted-on smile. “I saw it on Kaminari’s desk and thought you’d like it.”

Izuku cups it in both hands, clearly delighted. “Oh my god, it’s so cute. Where’d he get this? Is he really okay with me having it?”

“I told him I’d forgive him for trespassing two months ago,” Katsuki says and makes a face. The couch cushions dip as he flops into his usual spot. “He said it came from an egg machine, whatever that means. He had an Endeavour too but I didn’t think you’d want that one.”

Izuku shyly puts his arms around Katsuki’s neck. He’s warm and smells good when he buries his face in Katsuki’s shoulder. “I love it. I used to have one just like this, I collected all the merch I could afford before I came here. Thank you, Kacchan. Ooh, where should I put it? I don’t have any keys.”

Katsuki pats his hair. “I gave you ruby earrings and you weren’t this excited.”

“All Might’s my favourite in the world,” Izuku says sheepishly. “Not that I don’t appreciate the other gifts, I just – thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Katsuki says, pulling Izuku into his lap and ignoring his squeak. “Now play the episode, I don’t have all day.”

Katsuki glares at the doors of the administration building.

They swing shut behind him. Aizawa hadn’t even wanted to see him today. He’s been stopping by once in a while to check on his application status but the answer’s always the same – I said I’d think about it, Bakugou, the result will be ready when it’s ready. He probably hasn’t even looked at it. Katsuki should have just kept Deku’s soul, maybe absorbed it himself and given himself bigger wings or something.

It’s a long walk home but the chilly sky seems like too much trouble. He sticks his hands in his pockets and heads down the street. The market’s on the way, he remembers idly; he could stop by the jeweller and pick up something for Deku. A necklace, maybe, or a pretty circlet. Some shiny delicate thing to wear in his hair just above his little horns.

“Not that he’d ever use it,” Katsuki snorts to himself. Deku has a wardrobe of beautiful things but gravitates to the big comfy shirts Katsuki’d bought for pyjamas. He might like sweets instead. Or pair of socks since his feet are somehow always cold.

Or, Katsuki thinks and perks up. He pats his pockets for a piece of chalk. He doesn’t have any but some of the sidewalk pebbles are that weird red clay stuff that leaves dust on everything it touches. Nobody looks at him twice as he scoops one up. The alley behind the administration building is quiet so he hurries back there and draws a messy circle on the rocky ground.

“Journey, mortality, human,” he mutters and scratches symbols going clockwise. “Freedom of movement, uh, home? Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki… there.”

He steps through the portal. It takes barely any energy but his ears pop the way they did the last time he got dragged here. Deku’s little human bedroom is dark. Nobody’s here. He pokes his head out of the mirror to check, ears perked for sound as he phases into the human world for the second time this century.

The bedroom’s drab and empty. The wall hangings and figurines are gone – Katsuki vaguely remembers the place being a mess of knick-knacks but all he sees now are stacks of boxes.

Ah. Right. Deku’s technically dead. He’s never mentioned his old relatives but they must have packed away all his things. Katsuki picks up a box. Its contents rattle around as he tears open the top, squinting in the dim light to make out its contents.

Decorative mugs. Some of them are broken. They’re lying every which way, like they’ve just been carelessly tossed in. Frowning, Katsuki picks one up. It has Miruko on it but her face is chipped to show the white enamel underneath.

They’re all like that. One by one he goes through boxes and finds things haphazardly stacked without thought. Deku’s things weren’t packed away. They look like they’re halfway through being gathered so they can be thrown out.

“To hell with that,” Katsuki scoffs. “All this belongs to Deku and he’ll damn well have it back.”

“Deku!” Katsuki shouts from somewhere downstairs. “Deku! Come here! See what I have for you!”

Izuku jumps and drops Toothless’s sardine. He’s been trying to train her to roll over but it’s slow going so far. The fish goes splat on the floor. Toothless dives for it before Izuku can catch her and slurps it up with a horrible shclorp noise. Katsuki calls again. Izuku leaves the sardine tin and jogs off to see what he wants. There’s a crew of servants moving around the foyer, carrying cardboard boxes and arranging them in neat lines.

Uh-oh. Katsuki looks inordinately proud of himself with a cloth bundle held over his shoulder. “Did you, uh. Go shopping?”

“In a fashion,” Katsuki grins and drops what he’s carrying. “You, butler! Get me some lemonade, I’m boiling.”

Izuku squints at it, recognising the pattern but not quite believing what he’s seeing. “Are those my old bedsheets?”

Katsuki’s Cheshire smile widens. He’s dusty and his hair’s sweaty and sticking up in wild directions. “I made a stop after my errand. Go on, take a look.”

He’s tied the corners up haphazardly. Izuku undoes the knot and tugs the fabric aside, nonplussed. “Why’d you buy so much – oh my god. You brought me my hoodies. And my Spongebob socks and – did you go back to my room?”

“You said you had a merchandise collection,” Katsuki says, triumphant. He puts his hands on his hips as the last boxes come through, about a dozen in total of varying sizes and quality. “And it’s not as though I could by you any of that here so I thought the next best thing would be this. It was easy. All I had to do was follow your old summoning ritual backwards, then I saw your things half-collected already so I brought them back through the portal and – oof.”

Izuku’s in his arms in an instant. He laughs, high and breathless, hugging Katsuki so hard he probably can’t breathe. “Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! I never thought I’d see any of this again!”

Katsuki swings him around. Izuku shriek-laughs and clings, feet dangling high off the ground. “I couldn’t bring everything. I think your old family thre- took some of your things for keepsakes and I couldn’t find them. I brought whatever else was still there. You have a lot of stuff, Deku. I had to wait for the servants to come help me carry it back.”

Izuku has the sudden, wonderful mental image of Katsuki sitting on the sidewalk, surrounded by boxes and pouting to himself because he had to call for help. “Will you help me unpack them? We can go through it all and see if there’s anything you like.”

Gently, Katsuki puts him down. Izuku scuttles off to root around in the nearest box. “If I like? They’re your things, Deku.”

“But you like the Revengers as much as I do!” Izuku says and pulls out his vintage Miruko mug. “Aw, they chipped this one. I bet it was my aunt, she’s so clumsy, especially with my things. I have lots and lots of stuff, Katsuki, we can share! Look, I bet you’d like this Jeanist cap. Try it on!”

Katsuki blinks slowly, shuffling over to squat next to Izuku and allowing the cap to be balanced on his head. “You want to share it with me? I brought it for you.”

“You give me stuff all the time,” Izuku hums. “It’s about time I returned the favour, right? Okay, maybe you can’t wear the hat without making holes for your horns. I didn’t think this through.”

The butler comes back with lemonade. Katsuki takes it wordlessly, watching Izuku fiddle with a novelty keychain. “Are these things important to you?”

Izuku smiles. Feeling bold and happy, he leans forward to give Katsuki the softest kiss on the cheek. “Yeah, they are. But you’re important too. Now sit down and let me introduce you to the joy of shounen manga.”

“Do you think she likes being in the sky?” Izuku asks.

Katsuki looks up. They’re on the balcony of Izuku’s bedroom. Toothless is doing lazy loops in the air, chasing bugs with her wings barely flapping as she rides on the hot breeze. “Of course she does,” says Katsuki. “Flying’s just what dragons do.”

Izuku hums. He’s got both elbows on the balcony railing, chin resting in his palm. “Yeah, but does she like it?”

“What’s the difference?”

“Lots of things. I breathe because it’s instinct, that doesn’t mean it’s a hobby of mine or anything.”

“To fly is to be free,” Katsuki says. “The wind in your wings, the brisk cold, your body feeling weightless… the world becomes yours when you’re in the sky, Deku. Didn’t you feel that when I took you to the Badlands?”

Izuku hides a grimace. The pit in his stomach when his feet left the grass had stayed with him for days. “I don’t know. It was a little scary. There’s nowhere to fall when you’re on the ground. It’s solid. The wind won’t catch you.”

“Maybe you don’t understand because you’re human.” Katsuki’s tail snakes across the two-foot space between them to poke Izuku’s belly. “Anyway your wings aren’t strong enough yet to carry you.”

“Maybe, but I still don’t think I’ll get much use out of – get out of my shirt!”

The wayward tail tickles his ribs. Katsuki grins impishly but makes absolutely no move to stop feeling him up. “Don’t be demure, Deku. I think it likes you.”

Izuku grabs for it, red-faced and giggling. “You’re horrible. Don’t tease me like that, my heart can’t take it.”

“Who’s teasing? We’re basically married. I can flirt with you if I want.”

“Any – that tickles! – any more of this and I’ll think you have a crush on me.”

“A crush on my adorable husband? Scandalous.”

Izuku tries and fails to look serious. “Now you’re making fun of me. I’m nowhere close to adorable.”

Katsuki’s eyebrow goes so far up it disappears behind his bangs. “I know you own a mirror, I gave it to you.”

“So?”

“So, don’t be an idiot. Those big doe eyes and freckles of yours were hand-crafted by angels.”

Izuku’s face grows steadily pinker. Toothless zooms off to play in a tree. “I’m plain and boring. You’re the attractive one here.”

Katsuki’s tail drags him closer. Izuku allows himself to be pressed to Katsuki’s side, head fitting easily under his jaw. “I’m devastating. So are you.”

“Liar.”

“Deku,” Katsuki sighs and gently butts him with his chin. “I may be bound to you but you’ll recall our arrangement made no mention of lust.”

“Oh my god.”

“And yet,” Katsuki continues blithely. “I’ve been trying to get into your pants since we met. Would I be doing that if I didn’t find you at least a little bit attractive?”

Izuku groans and hides his face in his hands. Katsuki pries them off, tilting Izuku’s chin up so they’re forced to make eye contact. “Deku,” he says again. “I’ve held off on consummating this because you get squirmy. If you think there’s any other reason you’re being stupid.”

His eyes are intense and fire-red. Izuku squeezes his own eyes shut, certain he’s pink all the way to his toes. “You’re the worst.”

“You’re the cutest.”

Something soft presses against his mouth. Izuku’s eyes pop open as Katsuki pulls away, lips parted with shock and disbelief. “You kissed me.”

“I did,” says Katsuki smugly. “What are you going to do about it?”

Izuku runs off laughing. Katsuki chases him around the balcony, catching him around the middle to press noisy wet kisses all over his face. Izuku squeals and kicks his useless, dangling feet. “Stop! Ugh, you’re like my uncle’s slobbery old dog.”

Katsuki feigns offense. “If I were anything with four legs I’d be a wolf.”

“No you wouldn’t.”

“You’re right, I’d be a lion.”

“You’d be a Pomeranian.”

He blows a raspberry against Izuku’s cheek. Izuku screams but doesn’t try to break free. “I’ll eat you,” he threatens. “I’ll chop you up and make you into stew and you’ll be sorry you ever crossed me.”

Izuku kisses him. Katsuki kisses back immediately, hoarse laughter caught in his throat as he tilts Izuku backwards like they’re dancers in a movie. His mouth is warm and soft and insistent. Izuku’s heart wobbles in his chest, butterflies filling up his stomach and threatening to flutter up his throat. Katsuki kisses like he’s trying to devour him. Slow and searching with a little too much teeth, clumsy but the best thing Izuku’s ever felt. He tangles his fingers in Katsuki’s hair. Lets him slip his tongue in Izuku’s mouth with no resistance, sighing dreamily as he’s gently pushed back to rest against the balcony railing.

It feels like they go for hours. Katsuki’s lips are red by the time he leans back to breathe and Izuku’s a soft pile of goo covered in hickeys. “Deku,” he says, low in his throat. “I want you. Come to bed with me.”

Izuku shivers. He leans his face against Katsuki’s hand, feeling callouses rub the soft skin of his cheek. “I – I’ve never done this. It’s a lot. I’m sorry, I want to, it’s just…”

“Don’t worry.” Katsuki kisses him again, this time soft and undemanding. “I’m not going anywhere, Deku. We’ve got all of eternity to figure this out.”

Time goes slowly.

Katsuki leaves the house fairly often now. He’s usually in a bad mood when he comes back but Izuku learns it’s not hard to draw him out of it with the promise of cuddling and cartoons. Toothless’s stubborn affection helps. Katsuki complains endlessly but softens every time she rubs her scaly head under his jaw.

It’s not a bad way to live. Every day feels lazy but pleasant so, the kind of gentle boredom that comes from a long holiday somewhere quiet. He talks to the staff a lot. They’re warming up to him, he thinks. When Katsuki’s not looking they seem happy to chat, gossiping about demon city scandals and who’s courting who in high society. Izuku has no idea who they’re talking about but it’s nice to be included.

“All dragons have a bit of magic in them,” says Kouda as he peels a potato. Izuku’d badgered him into hanging out in the vegetable garden just outside the kitchens. Toothless is stealing potato skins and shredding them up into confetti. “Else they’d be too big to fly. The little ones don’t need it, though.”

Izuku picks another dandelion for his flower crown. He’d tried to make one for Toothless but she’d eaten it immediately. “I wondered about that. On earth birds have hollow bones so they’re light enough to fly.”

Kouda nods. “It’s the same here. We have big birds too but they can’t get off the ground.”

“It’s the same on earth. How do I look?”

His flower crown is slightly too big and falls over one ear. Kouda suppresses a smile and gives him a thumbs up. “Very dashing, young master. Yellow suits you well.”

“My mom taught me to make these when I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to make one with roses or something – oh, hi Katsuki.”

Kouda shoots up instantly. He’s bowing even before Katsuki can step into the garden, gathering his basket of potatoes and hurrying off with a faint good afternoon. Izuku pouts after him. Katsuki eyes Izuku’s head and does an odd, wobbly smile. “What is that?”

“It’s my flower crown.”

“Are you being cute on purpose?”

“What? No,” Izuku says, put out. “You scared away Kouda. He was telling me about dragons.”

Katsui sits on the bench next to him. He adjusts Izuku’s crown so it’s not so lopsided, allowing Toothless to clamber onto his leg. “I didn’t think he could talk.”

“He can, you just have to get him started on animals. He likes them. Where did you go?”

“Errands. Shall I get you a hobby? You must be bored if you’re talking to the servants.”

Izuku huffs. “You don’t need to be mean to them, Katsuki. They’re people too.”

“Befriended them, have you?”

“As a matter of fact I have,” he sniffs. “Sato’s nice and gives me snacks when I ask. And yesterday Ojiro and Hagakure let me come along to the farmer’s market and I got a free sample of wildflower honey.”

Katsuki raises an eyebrow. His tail curls around Izuku’s waist companionably but Izuku turns up his nose. “It’s hard to find you intimidating when you have flowers tangled in your hair. I’m not saying you can’t hang around them. It’s just silly.”

“It’s not. Anyway they’re not that different from me. I grew up in squalor too, remember?”

Toothless stretches her claws. Katsuki’s hand is warm on Izuku’s back over his thin cotton shirt. “Do all humans feel the need to befriend anything that breathes?”

He opens his mouth. There’s the briefest flash of a memory – scribbles on his desk in permanent marker, his shoes stolen, books held high over his head and tossed back and forth between laughing classmates. “No.”

Katsuki frowns. Izuku takes off his flowers to fiddle with a leaf. “You never told me why you left earth.”

Izuku keeps his gaze forward. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Katsuki lift a hand like he’s not sure if he should hug him. “I wasn’t popular,” Izuku says quietly. “Things just didn’t go very well.”

A cloud briefly passes over the sun. It’s a nice day out, light breaking through thick fruit trees to cast a patchwork of bright spots all over the garden. A bee buzzes through a patch of snow peas. They’re bigger and louder here than they are on earth, striped black and orange instead of yellow. “They weren’t good to you.”

“No.”

“Your family?”

“I just had my mother. She died a while ago. I lived with my aunt but she wasn’t – she had her own problems.”

Katsuki frowns. His tail curls even more protectively around Izuku’s torso, wrapping around his stomach and resting in his lap. “Your friends?”

“Didn’t have any. The people in school – I don’t know. Partly it was because they found out I liked other boys, that doesn’t always go well on earth. But also I think I just… wasn’t very good at being a human. Everything I said was wrong. Everything I did was wrong. The way I looked was wrong. I kept to myself a lot but people still – Deku’s actually an insult. It means useless.”

There’s a sharp intake of breath. Katsuki’s head turns sharply toward him, shoulders stiffening and wings folding into a tight cinch. “That’s how you introduced yourself to me.”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t mean to –”

“I know,” Izuku says kindly. A petal falls off his flower crown and floats away in the breeze. Izuku undoes a loose knot between his finger and thumb, feeling the stem slowly split apart and give way. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not there anymore, but I guess you can see why I wanted to get away.”

“Let’s go back. Point out all the humans you hate and we’ll make them pay.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone, Katsuki.”

“They’d deserve it. You wouldn’t have to kill them. Put the fear of Hell into them, I’ll help you.”

“Thanks, but that’s okay. Really. I’d rather just forget the whole thing. I left all that behind for a reason.”

“I suppose,” Katsuki echoes. Toothless curls up to sleep while Katsuki absently scratches the spot just under her wings. “Nobody will be unkind to you here. I’d never allow it.”

Izuku leans his head against Katsuki’s shoulder. “Yeah. Things are better. You got me out of there. And hey, at least I didn’t have to go through another sixty years of misery or whatever. I mean, if my life was any indication then the rest of it would have really sucked. I should never have been born a human,” he says bitterly. “That’s why I called you. I just wanted someone to like me so I wouldn’t end up being forty wondering if I should jump off a bridge.”

Katsuki’s face does something complicated. It flickers like he’s just realised something but the expression’s gone before Izuku can be sure anything’s the matter. The tail around him tightens almost to the point of being painful, trying to press them both together until Izuku becomes part of Katsuki’s skin. “You don’t know that for sure. You’re not difficult to love, De- Izuku.”

Izuku considers pointing out that Katsuki’s contractually obligated to be nice to him. He’s been enough of a drag, though, he supposes. Smiling, he looks up and pats Katsuki on the knee, feeling heavy but not destitute. “It’s okay, really. All that was in the past.”

“But-”

“It’s over,” Izuku says half to himself. “The important thing is now I‘m here with you.”

“Tell me something,” says Katsuki.

Kirishima looks up. Katsuki’s supposed to be checking up on his application today. Izuku’s gone somewhere with the servants so Katsuki took the opportunity to leave, except at the last minute the sight of Aizawa’s building annoyed him and he’d made a sharp turn to the residential district. “What’s up, bro?”

“I am not and have never been related to you,” Katsuki says without venom. “What are humans like?”

Kirishima hums. He’s sorting through paperwork at the dining table while Katsuki lounges on the couch. “They’re complex, I guess. It’s hard to generalise, there are a lot of them.”

“Are they kind?”

“Some of them, sure. Others not so much.”

“Then would you,” Katsuki hesitates. “If someone hurt you, and you had the chance to make them suffer, would you take it?”

Kirishima shrugs. “Depends, I guess. I think I’d get a lot more heated about someone pissing off my friends. I mean, I can shrug off most things.”

“If you couldn’t, though. If you were small and weak. Say they really had power over you for a time.”

“Hard to say. I’ve never been in that position so I have no idea how I’d react.”

Katsuki frowns at the ceiling. His coffee sits forgotten on the table, rapidly cooling under the breeze coming from the open window. Izuku’s lopsided flowers come to mind, bright, pretty yellow but fragile, slowly losing petals. “He’s stupid.”

“Huh?”

“It’s stupid,” Katsuki corrects himself. “Imagine getting burned and then continuing to seek out fire wherever you went. If you were a social outcast, if you were mistreated, why would you insist on trying to befriend every servant or animal that you meet?”

Kirishima tilts his head. He leans back in his chair, paperwork ignored, and smiles crookedly in Katsuki’s direction. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about but I don’t think making friends is stupid.”

“It is if it’s historically turned out badly for you. What would it take for you to learn?”

“Learn what, exactly?” Kirishima pushes his chair away from the table and ambles off for a refill of his mango juice. “To be bitter and closed off? I mean, sure, you could. It would probably stop you being hurt in the future.”

Katsuki squints at him. Kirishima’s bright red wings flutter contentedly as he takes his first sip. Grumbling, Katsuki sits up. “You’re about to do your mystic sage thing and tell me there’s a better way to deal with your feelings.”

Kirishima laughs. It’s loud and barking, just one of the many things that makes him seem like an overgrown, happy dog. “That’s taking the easy way out, man. It’s no way to live.”

“The easy way out.”

“It’s not hard to avoid getting hurt.” The chair scrapes again. Ice clinks in Kirishima’s glass, barely audible over the wind chimes jingling merrily in the window. “But it seems to me like that would be a lonely existence. We live a long time, demons. The whole reason we pair off is so we don’t have to spend eternity alone.”

“So, what? You’d risk cruelty just so you don’t have to be by yourself?”

“People aren’t stupid. If you’ve been hurt once I think you’d be aware there’s a chance of getting hurt again. But it’s not stupid to actively choose to be kind. In fact, I think it’s pretty brave. Knowing things could go south but trying your best to be nice anyway.”

“What’s the point?”

“Hope, I guess.” The papers try to flutter off the table. Kirishima catches a stray sheaf without looking, other hand swirling his drink idly in its glass. “That you’ll meet better people. It sounds idealistic, maybe, but I don’t think it’s easy to risk your heart even if you know it could be worth it. Life is long and bad things happen. It takes effort to pick yourself up and say, okay. I’m going to make myself happy. Even if the world is big and awful I’m going to go out and find someone I can love.”

Katsuki says nothing. Another breeze ruffles the curtains. Slowly, he reaches for his lukewarm coffee, sinking into the worn out cushions and making the springs creak. The coffee’s slightly too sweet. He barely notices, eyes looking somewhere near the ottoman and not focused on anything much.

“I think maybe your Deku’s friendly for good reason. Either way I’m glad you met him. He sounds nice.”

“His name’s Izuku,” Katsuki grumbles. “And I never said we were talking about him.”

“Of course not.” Kirishima rests his chin in his hand. His eyes twinkle in a way that’s somehow both annoying and pleasant, cheek creasing into that little dimple that’s always there just waiting for him to smile. “Either way, buddy, don’t sell him short. He might be tougher than he looks.”

“Katsuki.”

Sunset light plays off Izuku’s face. The red on his hair makes him look sepia and soft around the edges, messy and wild after rolling around in fallen leaves that the gardeners will struggle to clean up. Katsuki reclines on the picnic blanket. Kind of silly to be having a picnic in their own garden but Izuku had insisted. “What?”

“Why don’t you call me Deku anymore?”

Katsuki makes a face. Izuku tilts his head like he’s genuinely curious. “What are you talking about? You told me what it meant.”

“I liked when you said it.”

“What? Why?”

“It was like a nickname.” He’s all shy now. Pink and smiling like he gets when they tumble together into bed. Katsuki’s fingers itch to touch him. “You didn’t know what it meant so it just sounded cute.”

“You like me teasing you?”

“You’re always teasing me. And I know you don’t mean anything by it, you didn’t even know it was an insult.”

“Alright, I’ll call you Deku again if you want.”

“And what should I call you?”

“You already call me Katsuki. No others get that privilege.”

“No, I want to call you something cute.”

“I’m demon nobility.”

“Kacchan!”

Katsuki’s heart clenches. Izuku’s face creases as he smiles and Katsuki feels like the wind’s just been knocked out of his chest. “What?”

“Kacchan,” Izuku says again. Katsuki’s name in his voice sounds like laughter. “Yeah. I think that suits you.”

Katsuki pulls him closer for a kiss. “Alright. For you, Kacchan I shall be.”

Nobody sees him come in.

It’s the dead of night. The sky’s not that dark – the sun here never truly sets, always sending a soft sheen of red spilling over the horizon. Izuku’s asleep. He hadn’t stirred when Katsuki’d plucked single a hair from his head, cheek squashed against the pillow and eyelashes casting spindly shadows on his cheeks. Katsuki’d kissed him goodbye. His lips still tingle from the warmth of Deku’s forehead as he hurries down the administration building stairs, ignoring Aizawa’s office in favour of the Archives in the basement. The door creaks when he goes in. The custodian is hunched over his desk like always, glasses illuminated by lamplight as he pores over a scroll parchment that stretches off his desk and all the way into the abyss of books behind him.

Katsuki slows to a walk. He can hear his own breath just over his footsteps against the cold stone floor. Nighteye’s bookshelves stretch further than should be physically possible, some contortion of magic that fits every event, past and future, into this dark library. The whole place gives Katsuki the creeps. It’s magic even older than Aizawa, allegedly shared between Hell and Paradise even though Nighteye won’t give anyone a straight answer.

The quill doesn’t stop scratching as Katsuki steps up to the desk. Nighteye adjusts his glasses over his thin nose but doesn’t look up. “Yes, Bakugou? I see you so very rarely down here.”

Katsuki’s skin crawls. “I have a question. Please. I want to see a discarded future.”

The quill pauses. Nighteye takes his hand off it but it keeps writing without him. “Yours or someone elses?”

“Someone else’s.” He holds up the strand of hair. “Midoriya Izuku’s. I want to see what his life on earth would have been like if we’d never met.”

Delicately, Nighteye takes the hair from him and stands up from his desk. He towers over Katsuki, sleek and spindly with big hands that make Katsuki think of a praying mantis. “Very well. Come to the bowl with me, please.”

He’s led to a gold basin full of crystal clear water. Nighteye says something that makes Katsuki’s ears feel fuzzy and drops the hair into the centre. The water ripples, a series of perfect circles that shimmer across the surface without sound.

“Look,” Nighteye tells him. “It’ll show you the memories that would have stuck with him the most.”

Katsuki leans over. The water’s going opaque, images flitting across before settling into recognisable shapes. There’s a young Deku clinging to his mother’s skirts. A birthday. Him being bullied in school, having his books thrown into a fishpond after being set on fire. Graduation. An art class taken over the summer which bloomed into a love of markers and portraits.

And then him. The soulmate, a young man with odd red and white hair and a scar on his eye makes him no less handsome. They meet at a fan event for Deku’s first published manga. Deku spills coffee on him and he just laughs. They go out to dinner and kiss under the moonlight.

An apartment together. A surprise birthday party. Deku drafting stories in his little home office surrounded by a dozen huge, flowering plants. Two cats and a three-legged dog. A wedding. Children. Hundreds of fan letters. Magazine interviews. Picnics in a sunlit park. Arguments resolved with tears and kisses. A peaceful death two years after his soulmate, surrounded by children and grandchildren and flowers. A meetup in the afterlife. Deku finding the soul of his mother in Paradise where she’d been waiting to see him for years.

It’s perfect. He would have been happy. The ideal human life, short and sweet, wrapped in a neat little bow.

The images fade. The rippling water stills and Nighteye’s glasses glint unnaturally in the dim light. “Was that the answer you were looking for?”

Katsuki swallows around the lump in his throat. “It would have been perfect. He’d have everything he wanted without me. I trapped him here for nothing.”

The quill scratches away distantly. Nighteye’s face is impassive, lips turned into a mild frown as he regards Katsuki with polite curiosity. “So what will you do?”

Katsuki takes a deep breath. “Obviously there’s only one thing I can do. I have to send him back home.”

Chapter Text

“Tell me how to break a soul bond.”

Aizawa stares. Katsuki can’t blame him. He’d run past the secretary the second the administration building opened and slammed Aizawa’s office door open without so much as a knock. He’s sweaty and terrified. He’d spent all night pacing outside the building waiting for Aizawa to show up, too full of nerves and dread to go home to Deku.

The clock on the wall ticks. Aizawa takes a good look at Katsuki and quietly dismisses the other demon he’d been talking to you. “What’s gotten into you?” he asks as Katsuki parks himself in a chair. “Why do you want to break your contract with Midoriya?”

“It was stupid. I was stupid. Just tell me how to fix it.”

“Why –”

“It was a mistake,” Katsuki says and puts his head in his hands. “I tricked him into coming here for a stupid selfish reason and now he’s trapped forever. He could have had love. He could have seen his mother again someday in Paradise and I ruined it. His soulmate would have been perfect, he would have been a famous mangaka but now he’s stuck in this shithole and I don’t know how to set him free.”

Aizawa’s quiet for a long time. “So you upheld your end of the bargain, huh? He wanted true love.”

“Who cares about that? Just give me a way to void the contract.”

“I can’t,” Aizawa sighs. “No, listen. It’s not that I don’t want to. His soul’s been channelled back into Hell.” He points over his shoulder to the window behind him. The red sun’s just starting to rise, casting odd shadows over the street beyond. “Our world is inhospitable, Bakugou. Nothing would grow if it weren’t constantly being fed by magic and soul power.”

“It’s just one soul,” Katsuki pleads. “We’re not going to collapse if you give him his life back.”

“We would. It’s like weaving a blanket,” Aizawa says patiently. “His soul is fused with Hell, spread over eons of power. Even if I could extract his spirit alone, it would leave a hole in the blanket. Frayed ends will start to unravel and over time magic will leak through. I can’t make our framework unstable just because you regret lying to him.”

“But there has to be something I can do!”

“You could replace it, maybe. With something of equal value so I can plug up the fissure immediately.”

“Like what? Another soul?”

“Of equal or greater power, yes. If you can find one I may be able to do something.”

“Nobody’s ever been powerful enough to summon me,” Katsuki mutters, overworked mind working a mile a minute. “Nobody but Deku. I could hijack connections like Kirishima does. I’ll find one if I can keep searching.”

“Maybe.” In a rare moment of softness, Aizawa reaches across the table to pat Katsuki’s arm. “But I wouldn’t count on it. Short of exchanging your own magic I doubt you’ll be able to match Midoriya's."

Katsuki’s quiet for a long, uncomfortable moment. “I could unbind him if I gave you my magic.”

“I wouldn’t suggest you do that. You’d lose your rank and everything you own.”

“But it would work,” Katsuki insists. “I could get him out of this myself.”

“Theoretically, I suppose. Look, Katsuki, don’t kill yourself worrying about –”

“I’ll figure something out.” The chair scrapes as he stands up. His skin’s clammy and his stomach feels leaden with dread but he wills his posture to stay upright and proud. “The bottom line is it can be done, right?”

Aizawa sighs. “Yes. Yes, I think it can.”

“Then I’ll do it,” Katsuki says and swallows his fear. “Give me one last month with him and I’ll set him free.”

Kacchan gets jumpy.

He clings to Izuku’s side. Izuku doesn’t mind it, necessarily, but he won’t even let Izuku go to the bathroom without waiting outside like a puppy. “What’s gotten into you?” Izuku asks as he dries his hands. Kacchan hovers by the doorway. “I was gone five minutes, you can’t already miss me.”

Kacchan doesn’t answer. He doesn’t go out anymore either, and he won’t let his friends visit even though they ask every three days. He holds Izuku’s hand every minute of the day and barks at the staff when they dare stop to say hello.

Izuku sighs as Kouda goes scurrying out the door. “You can’t yell at them for bringing the food you asked them to get, Kacchan.”

“He hovered around you too long. We’re supposed to be alone.”

“He was just trying to say hi. I haven’t spoken to him in a week because you won’t let me.”

Kacchan scowls at the floor. Izuku sighs and leans over, lying half in Kacchan’s lap so they’re forced to look at each other. “What’s happening, Kacchan?” he tries, gentler this time. “You seem unhappy. Did I do something wrong?”

“You didn’t.”

“Then why’s it been days since I last saw you smile? You’ve always been grumpy but this is unprecedented.

Kacchan turns the frown on him. It would have scared him six months ago but now Izuku just feels exasperated. “Deku. I love you.”

Izuku blinks. “Oh.”

“I’ve never said it. But I do. Even if you ever grew to hate me I’d still love you. Even if the things I do don't seem like I love you, I do. I want you to know.”

Izuku’s stomach does something funny and wobbly in its cavity. He squirms, surprised but in no way unhappy, reaching up to gingerly touch Kacchan’s cheek. “Okay. I love you too.”

Kacchan’s expression stays serious, eyes boring into him like they’re trying to pull him apart. “Say it again.”

“I love you.”

“Again.”

“I love you. Kacchan, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Katsuki says but doesn’t smile. “I just... I don’t want to forget.”

He doesn’t sleep.

A few times Izuku wakes up to find Kacchan just looking at him, sitting up in bed and brooding. It’s perplexing, at first. Then it becomes worrying because Kacchan stares now like he’s searching for something Izuku can’t give.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Izuku asks, voice quiet in the cool night-time light. “Do you want to talk about it? You seem upset.”

A hand smooths his hair back. “I’m not upset. I’m admiring you, I suppose.”

Izuku yawns. “I mean, suit yourself, but you can do that when it’s not the middle of the night.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologise.” Blinking slowly, Izuku squeezes his hand and rolls over. “Now stop being silly, Kacchan. Come cuddle me, it’s time to sleep.”

“Kirishima sent a letter inviting us to a party.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Let’s go to the Badlands. We’ll look at more dragons.”

“But Kirishima –”

“Forget about Kirishima. We have better things to do than entertain him all day.”

Izuku frowns. Kacchan doesn’t even seem to realise he’s pacing, hair messy and sleep pants loose around his waist. His wings fidget irritably and his tail’s tightly kinked like a broken spring. “Are you mad at him?”

“What? No. I’d just rather spend alone time with you.”

“All our time is alone time, Kacchan. Maybe it would do you good to see your friends.”

Kacchan whirls around. He’s instantly offended, feathers puffed up like an angry bird. “Are you trying to get rid of me? Have you decided you hate me?”

“What are you talking about?”

Kacchan flounces on the sofa. He looks furious, although Izuku can’t even begin to guess what for. “Go without me if you must.”

“Okay?”

“You can’t be serious! You’d really leave me to see him?”

Izuku throws his hands up. “I have no idea what you want, Kacchan. Seriously, what’s with you? What’s got you so upset?”

Kacchan crosses his arms and refuses to answer. “Nothing. Watch All Might with me.”

“You’re acting like a toddler.”

Kacchan’s expression goes pinched. He looks like he’s at war with himself, but finally uncrosses his arms and keeps his voice level. “Sorry. I know you like the others. We can go if it’ll make you happy.”

He’s getting worse, Izuku realises with sinking dread.

He doesn’t eat. He doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t leave Izuku’s side and gets angry when lesser demons take up his time. He ignores the staff and won’t leave the house unless Izuku promises to go with him. He’s even jealous of Toothless. It’s like he’s possessed, snapping at everyone and everything that even dares to look at Izuku.

That in itself isn’t the worst part. Kacchan gets sadder as the days where on, smiling less and speaking in cryptic half-sentences that hint something’s about to go wrong. It annoys Izuku until it starts to get scary. Whatever’s bothering Kacchan is making him despondent. The flashes of anger aren’t all that surprising but the defeat is upsetting. It’s like seeing a jungle cat trapped in a zoo. A beast of power and fire imprisoned behind bars, pacing endlessly in a concrete prison until its pride seeps away and it forgets how to be wild. Forgets what hunting was like. Stops wanting to see the world outside and gives up, lying in a corner waiting to die.

Izuku tries to ask. He’s not equipped for this, has never been the person others turned to for help. But Kacchan’s hurting, he’d be blind not to see it, so he prods and tries to piece the problem together from nothing. Alternates between pleading and prying. Sits and worries while Kacchan stares into space, hand wrapped tightly around Izuku’s but now meeting his eye.

The last straw comes in week three. They’re in the room Izuku barely uses now, curled up in bed and not talking. Kacchan still won’t tell him what’s wrong. The fear and dread sparks genuine anger and Izuku sits bolt upright with a scowl.

“What is going on with you?” he cries, slipping out of bed to stomp for the door. “You’ve been moping for almost a month and it isn’t like you. You cling to me but won’t open your mouth and use your words.”

Kacchan follows him like he always does. “Where are you going? Don’t leave.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” He puts his hands on his hips. He’s not threatening, he knows he isn’t, but that doesn’t stop his wings puffing up like an angry cat’s tail. “I won’t hang out with you until you explain what’s bothering you so much. You’re like a whole other person.”

Kacchan makes a face. “It’s not – it doesn’t concern you. I’ll tell you when the month is over.”

“No you won’t. You’ll tell me right now,” Izuku demands. “Something’s off with you, Kacchan, and I’m not about to stand by and let you spiral into it alone. I just want you to talk to me. Even if I can’t do anything about it I can help make you feel a little better.”

“It’s not something I want to talk about.”

“Well I do!”

“Later.”

“No.” He gets right in Kacchan’s face. Stands right in front of him so Kacchan has no choice but to look at him, hands on Kacchan’s biceps and trapping him in place. “Talk to me,” he pleads. “Whatever’s wrong we can fix it. You’re so sad all the time and it’s breaking my heart.”

“I cannot have you hate me before my time is up.”

“Why are you talking like you’re dying?”

“I might,” Kacchan laughs hollowly. “Who knows. I’d already lose everything else.”

It’s like Izuku’s been doused in cold water. His stomach is heavy, filled with lead, but he holds Kacchan’s face with both hands and tries to tell him with his eyes what he’s feeling. “You’re scaring me, Kacchan. I don’t understand why you can’t just tell me the truth.”

“I will, Deku, just not right now.”

“Do I not get a say?”

“No,” Kacchan says and pulls away. “I’ll give you a moment to cool off. I don’t want to fight.”

“Oh, fuck that. You don’t get to do this to me, Bakugou Katsuki. You can’t say all this fatalistic crap and then tell me it’s none of my business.”

Kacchan looks stricken. “I didn’t – I wasn’t trying to upset you.”

“Well you did!” Izuku’s voice cracks. His vision’s going blurry at the corners; tears, he realises absently, but he doesn’t bother to wipe them away. “Are you kidding me? I’d lose everything but don’t worry about it? You think I’m just going to leave it alone after that? I’m not. I’m not letting you be sad any more. If you won’t tell me what’s going on with you I’ll find out myself. I’ll ask Kirishima. I’ll ask all your friends. I’ll stop everyone in town. I’ll go right to Aizawa and tell him to make you tell the truth.”

Kacchan’s eyes go wide. “Don’t talk to Aizawa.”

“Try and stop me! I’ll bite you! I’ll jump right out this window and fly all over the city until I find him!”

“You don’t know how to fly.”

“Well then I’ll walk. I’ll bring Toothless with me and you won’t see me again until I find out what’s going on with you and then I’ll – I’ll –”

“Please don’t cry,” Kacchan says helplessly. His hands are calloused but gentle as he tries to wipe tears off Izuku’s face but they keep coming. “Deku, please. This is exactly what I didn’t want. I can’t have you angry with me, not now.”

“Then tell me the truth.” He’s being petulant and emotional. He knows this but cries anyway, sniffling and red-faced like a child. “Please just – just be honest with me, Kacchan, please. I can’t stand you being so unhappy all the time.”

“You’ll hate me.”

“Don’t tell me how I’m going to feel.”

Kacchan takes a deep breath. His face is pinched with worry, nothing like the debonair confidence or brooding acceptance Izuku’s seen from him in the year since he came here. “I lied to you, Deku,” he says quietly. “You never had to summon me. You were going to find a soulmate yourself.”

Izuku sniffles. Kacchan’s face looks like blotches of colour through the haze of tears. “What are you talking about? You’re my soulmate.”

“I’m just a fraud. You called me and I already knew you didn’t need me.”

“Wh-”

“In that moment I saw some of your future,” says Kacchan. “Your life was going to get better. You would have become an artist and found yourself someone kind to marry. People would have looked up to you. Eventually you would have died and met your mother’s soul again in Paradise but I looked at you and saw your soul and I wanted it. For a stupid, selfish reason. I gave it to Aizawa. In exchange for an increase in rank here in Hell.”

The breeze blows. The curtains flutter softly, rustling silk just barely audible above the pounding of Izuku’s heart. “You lied to me?”

“I lied to you,” Kacchan whispers. Slowly, he sinks until he’s kneeling at Izuku’s feet. A proud lord of Hell looking desperate and young. “I’m sorry, Deku. It wasn’t worth it.”

Izuku says nothing. Feels nothing, world full of white noise and not much else. Kacchan reached up to take his hand but seems to think the better of it. He’s tearing up too although he seems to be fighting it. “I can make it better, Deku,” he says, voice thick. “I thought at first I could make you happy here but you deserve better than Hell. Than me. I found a way to break the contract. I can give you your soul back and send you home. You’ll have lost a year but the rest of it will go just like it’s supposed to.”

Izuku tries to focus. “You said our bond was eternal.”

“It is. It’s supposed to be but I spoke to Aizawa and I can make it void if I just do some things for Hell. Everything will go back to normal, Deku. I just wanted a little more time before I let you go but if – if you want to leave now that’s okay.”

“What do you have to do?”

“What?”

“You said you had to do something for Hell,” Izuku says haltingly. His insides feel like an exposed nerve, raw and buzzing with shock and hurt. A soulmate. All that time he spent on Earth believing he was unlovable but there was never really anything wrong with him. “Earlier you said you’d lose everything. What do you have to do to send me back, Kacchan?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Tell me.”

“I’d give up my magic,” Kacchan says and finally, finally looks down. He’s crumpled, washed-out and ashamed. “It’s the closest thing a demon has to a soul. I’d replace what I took from you, that’s all.”

Izuku’s face is wet. He wipes a tear off, barely feeling his own hand against his cheek. “Would it kill you?”

“No. It would just change things.”

“How?”

“I’d lose my rank. I suppose I’d become a servant and move into someone else’s estate.”

“Would I see you again?”

“No. I wouldn’t have enough power left over to get to earth even if you wanted me to.”

The air feels cold. Izuku’s head throbs the way it always does when he cries, and the late autumn sun casts pretty shadows on the expanse of the white marble floor. Kacchan stays at his feet. Head bowed and wings drooping like he’s waiting for an executioner, tiny salty tears dripping onto his hands in a halting, shameful stream.

Izuku swallows the lump in his throat. “I’m not going.”

Dust motes float in the air. The clock on the mantelpiece quietly says tick tock. Kacchan looks up but doesn’t meet Izuku’s eye, brows furrowed like he’s not sure what he heard. “What?”

Izuku scrubs at his face. “You keep deciding things for me. You tricked me here and now you’re telling me I have to go back. I don’t want to.”

“But – but your soulmate,” Kacchan says haltingly. His face is flushed and wet. “He’s waiting for you. You’ll have fame and riches and love, you just have to give it time.”

“No. No. I don’t care about money and anyway you’re richer than anyone has any right to be. Who cares about fame. And I’m – I’m sure whoever’s up there is nice enough but he’s not you.”

“Yes, Deku, that’s the point.” Swallowing, Kacchan shuffles closer on his knees. “Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you? We can put everything back the way it should be.”

Izuku shakes his head. He reaches out half on autopilot to put his hands in Kacchan’s hair, smoothing it away from his forehead and absently scratching behind his horns just the way he likes. Kacchan catches his hands and holds them to his chest like they’re something precious. “I should be with you, you jerk,” Izuku says quietly. “You can’t bring me here and pamper me and make me fall in love with you and show me dragons and magic and then tell me I have to go back to earth. I’m not doing it. You’ll have to drag me kicking and screaming because I’m not leaving you.”

Slowly, the sun sets. Kacchan wobbles to his feet, expression open and raw and uncomprehending but the tears start to slow. He sniffles once, still holding Izuku’s hands captive. “I lied to you. I trapped you.”

“Yes, and that was awful of you. But you were going to give up all your magic for me, weren’t you, Kacchan?”

“Yes, but –”

“You’ve done a lot for me,” Izuku says, still teary-eyed. “Your magic’s everything to you. I know it is. But you were just going to give it away for my sake and I – I don’t think I can be angry at you, Kacchan, even if you think I should. I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me you loved me this time last year but now I think I’d be stupid not to see it.”

“I’d die for you, Deku,” he murmurs. “In a heartbeat. If you only asked.”

“But I don’t want you to give up anything for me, Kacchan.  I don’t want to leave you. I like it here. I love you. I have friends and I have Toothless and do you know what it’s going to be like? To go back to where everyone hates me, to suffer through being alone for years until someone finds me? And even after he does, even if he’s kind and he loves me I’m still going to be thinking of you.”

“I –”

“And then I’ll die. I’ll die at eighty thinking this life was nice but I could have lived forever with you.”

Kacchan’s face crumples. Even his horns seem to droop. He looks so sad and confused that Izuku steps forward to hug him without even needing to think. “Deku, I – I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to. You just have to listen.” He hiccups. His chest hearts, full of hurt that wants to come out but he holds it back because he needs to be heard. He tucks his head under Kacchan’s chin. Breathes him in, relaxing only when cautious arms wrap around him and hold him tight. “I don’t care what you did. It worked out perfect, didn’t it? I just want to be with you, Kacchan, please. Don’t send me away. People always leave me. My mom left me. My dad, even before I was born. I was the last to be picked for anything in school, sometimes my aunt left me after class for hours because she’d forget I existed but you love me and I love you back and I just – I don’t want to be left behind anymore, Kacchan. Please don’t leave me too.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” Kacchan says hoarsely. “I don’t want to hurt you anymore. I’m not trying to. I’m just trying to make you happy.”

“Then listen to me. I already have what I want. Let me stay.”

Cicadas start their noise outside. The sky slowly goes dim; the sun won’t disappear but for now its light is gentle, a barely-there touch against dry soil that, against all odds, still holds life. Kacchan kisses him. Izuku feels his hands shake in Izuku’s. He squeezes once; a reassurance that he’s real and he’s not going anywhere just yet. Kacchan’s eyes are red-rimmed and swollen. Guilty and vulnerable but cautiously hopeful that the way things are now is okay.

The door rattles. It’s Toothless, back from her little hunt and chirping to be let in. Izuku smiles. Wipes a tear of Kacchan’s face and dredges up a smile just for him. “We probably have a lot to talk about,” he croaks. “But I think we’ve got time.”

Kacchan nods. Still crying but now alive and fiery. Full of the spirit Izuku loves. “We do,” he says, voice scratchy strong. “For as long as I live, Deku, I’m yours.”

“Thank you for seeing me.”

Aizawa sips his coffee. He’s even more tired than usual, hair unkempt and eye bags deep and purple. “Yes, you’re welcome. About you giving up your magic. It’s a big sacrifice so I thought maybe you’d like to hold off in case there’s another way to –”

“He’s not going.”

“What?”

Katsuki has the decency to look sheepish. “I told the truth. All of it. He forgave me and told me pretty clearly he doesn’t want to leave. He likes being here with me.”

Aizawa sighs. His heavy magic is suffocating but Katsuki doesn’t try to fight back. The big window backlights the office and makes it look warmer and nicer than he remembers. “That’s good. He’s happy to become one of us.”

“Yes. But, uhm. That’s not why I came.”

He fidgets. Aizawa tilts his head, antlers casting odd shadows on his desk. “What do you need?”

“I – before that. Can I ask a question? Why did you never want to promote me?”

“Shall I be frank?”

“Always.”

“You’re immature.” He takes another sip of coffee. It’s black as tar and smells strong enough to melt metal. “You’re strong and clever, yes, but you have no empathy. I didn’t want you to turn into a tyrant.”

Katsuki winces. Part of him wants to argue but he can, unfortunately, see what Aizawa means. “Okay, fair.”

“Or you had no empathy, I suppose. Maybe your Midoriya helped out with that.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter. I came here to withdraw my application.”

Aizawa hums. He leans back in his chair, hands steepled before him thoughtfully. “Why?”

“I thought of something else you can do for me. There’s one thing I took from Deku that he can’t get back. He can’t see his mother. I want to trade my favour in. Can you get him to Paradise?”

“Interesting.” The clock chimes. It doesn’t actually have hands, no doubt tracking something only Aizawa understands. “He can’t enter, not without his soul, but perhaps there’s a way to set up communication.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“I’ll work on it. It might require some magic from you, I don’t know yet how this’ll go.”

“I’ll do it,” Katsuki says without hesitation. “Take it permanently, I don’t care. As long as he can reach her.”

“Fine. I take this to mean you’re no longer interested in working for the upper strata of Hell?”

Katsuki shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. You can call me if you need me, but right now I think I have everything I need.”

“Say, what kind of magic do you think I’ll be able to do?”

Kacchan shrugs. He reaches out to touch Izuku’s wings, now soft forest green with the vaguest hints of brown. They’re not as dark as Kacchan’s but Izuku likes them. They remind him of deep summer and sunlit walks in the park, the kind of evergreen trees that stay the same rain or shine. The pastel’s all gone. A sign of impending power, Kacchan says, although they haven’t quite figured out what kind.

The breeze ruffles them. Izuku stretches his wings to their full length to catch the best of it. They chose a windy day to do this, bright red sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. The rooftop’s pleasantly hot. The garden looks smaller from up here, flowers pretty splotches against the dark grass.

“I think it’ll be lightning,” Izuku says decisively. A leaf floats past in the wind. “Or super strength. Or those black whippy things Venom has, just not as sticky.”

Toothless tries to climb up Kacchan’s ear. Kacchan suffers through this patiently, adjusting Izuku’s stance and gently nudging his ankles apart. “Whatever it I I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Maybe you’ll earn a rank yourself.”

Izuku hums. Demon politics are interesting but they seem a bit stuffier than he want to deal with. He’d much rather goof around and hang out with his friends and with Kacchan. He leans up for a kiss. Kacchan obliges immediately, pressing kisses all over his face until Izuku laughs and squirms away. “Am I ready?”

Kacchan takes a step back. “I dunno, Deku. You tell me. Is the air calling to you? Will you answer?”

Izuku looks up. The sky’s red and endless, bigger than anything he could possibly know. That’s okay, though. It just means there’s a lot to explore, and he has all the time in the world to learn. He’ll be fine. He has these wings for a reason and Kacchan’s waiting right here to catch him if he falls. He steps onto the ledge. The brick pushes back against the soles of his feet as if to say go on, you don’t need us.

He shuts his eyes. Feeling youthful and free, Izuku beats his wings and takes flight.