CHAPTER 3
Bakugo's brain was confused.
One second he'd been in the middle of shoving Kirishima out of the way of a knife wielding villain and his quirk, and the next he was pinned underneath his friend as said friend did something positively obscene to his neck. Sharp teeth worried into his skin, leaving trails of fire that burned through his body. Shit, it was nice.
He opened his mouth to demand to know just what the actual fuck was going on, but Kirishima chose that exact moment to plaster their lips together and all that came out was a groan as his brain short circuited.
It was better than he'd ever dreamed.
Kirishima's lips were soft and supple, which was a mild surprise considering his quirk, but even if they'd been chapped Bakugo would've given exactly no fucks because Kirishima's taste more than made up for it. Hot and spicy, like his favorite kind of food, and instantly addictive. Bakugo reacted on instinct and pulled his friend closer. Because if this was some kind of wild fever dream he was absolutely not going to pass up on a second of this.
He'd only been dreaming about it since high school.
He shivered as Kirishima chuckled darkly into their kiss, the sound going straight to his dick, and rubbed his hands along his sides. Gods, such a simple gesture and he was already fucking losing it.
However, it also broke the spell between them as he hissed as soon as Kirishima's fingers hit the place he'd been sliced by the villain. In the heat of the moment he'd forgotten all about it, and it came rushing back with a force that was jarringly painful.
"Fucking damnit!" He swore as he shoved Kirishima off and rolled to get the wound away so he could inspect it. That was when it registered that the wound was still bleeding, and more importantly he was out in the woods.
"What the-?" He asked, his shock and confusion mounting as he looked around only to gape as his eyes landed on Kirishima himself.
His friend was sitting there, looking concerned and as confused as he felt, but that wasn't the surprise. The surprise was the scattering of red scales over his mostly naked body, and the pair of actual horns twisting up in front of his hair.
Just what the hell was going on here?!
"Katsuki?" The scaly Kirishima asked with a frown of confusion, "Why are you suddenly dressed like that?"
Bakugo's mind ground to a halt at that, unable to process what he was seeing and hearing, as it dawned on him that he might be even more fucked than he'd thought he would be when he met the villain's eyes.
Bakugo didn't respond to Kirishima, turning away from him because seeing that much bare skin from his partner was not helping the clarity of his brain.
Was he dreaming? This felt an awful lot like a dream. Except he was bleeding and it hurt like an absolute bitch, so he couldn't be dreaming could he?
He felt a warm, large presence join him from behind. Bakugo whipped around to see Kirishima invading his personal space in the most direct way possible. Did the bastard not know what pants were? He knew he struggled with the basic concept of shirts, but what about the rest of his clothes?
"Katsuki?" Kirishima asked, this time his voice dropping lower in timbre. His warm, clawed hands fell against Bakugo's shoulders and out of reflex he shrugged them off.
"Fuck off, you aren't Kirishima," Bakugo spat back at the man, whose expression seemed to freeze. His eyes seemed to grow dark with worry and he held up his hands in a placating way that was so like Kirishima it made Bakugo want to explode.
"Katsuki, what's going on?" He asked warily, his scarlet eyes trailing down to his chest where the long gash the villain gave him bled sluggishly, "It's me, Eijirou. You know me."
"Is this a side effect from the witch you fought earlier? You said the battle went well but you're acting strangely," Kirishima spoke cautiously, taking a slow step forward as if Bakugo were a wild animal that was easy to spook. He bared his teeth in a heated snarl, hating to see Kirishima's face all twisted with worry.
"Witch, this has nothing to do with some goddamn hag," Bakugo snapped back at the man. He clenched his hand, an explosion rocketing from his curled fingers, "Back off."
That made Kirishima freeze, his eyes locked on Bakugo's hand. He straightened up, his concern still present but his mouth dropping open.
"Your magic, it's not-"
"You're not my Katsuki," Kirishima spoke up in shock, "you smell like him, act like him, but my Katsuki conjures fire. His magic doesn't explode."
Kirishima rubbed the back of his head and gave Bakugo a deeply distressed look, "oh man you must be so confused, huh Katsuki?"
"No shitty hair, I've got a couple of ideas on what could be going on right now," Bakugo fired back.
"Shitty Hair?" Eijirou echoed in amusement, "I guess some things don't change after all." He settled down, "Alright. What are your ideas then?"
Bakugo blinked a little at the easy acceptance, though he probably should've been expecting it if this really was some kind of version of Kirishima. Though he absolutely could've gone without realizing the smug bastard was sitting there, still mostly naked and hard as a rock, looking perfectly attentive.
He felt his face heat and the other Kirishima blinked slowly before glancing down. Understanding dawned and a positively wicked grin that was all teeth and not at all Kirishima like appeared. It completely fucked with Bakugo's ability to breathe.
"Yeah, I would apologize for that, but my version of Katsuki and I were playing before you appeared." The bastard replied without an ounce of shame, though there was more than a touch of regret, and dragged some article of clothing over his lap to cover it, "Better?"
"Much." Bakugo managed, sounding only slightly strangled thank you very much.
He took a moment to remind himself how to breathe and shook his head, completely unable to dispel the images that were etched permanently into his brain now, "Right... so either I'm fucking dreaming, I'm fucking insane, or that bastard villain's quirk fucked me up more than we thought it would."
"Okay." Eijirou replied slowly, "So you were in a fight in your world and the one you were fighting somehow made you switch places with my Katsuki?"
Bakugo scowled at the summary, irrationally annoyed that this Kirishima understood him as well as his own did, that was something reserved for his Kirishima alone dammit, but nodded anyway.
"That's powerful magic." Eijirou hummed thoughtfully, "I have to wonder why it brought you to right here and now with such a perfect replacement for my Katsuki though?" Bakugo cocked his head slightly and Eijirou shrugged, "Transferal magic is difficult and imprecise."
He replied to the unspoken question and continued, "At best usually all you can do is target an area no smaller than twenty feet around. By rights there should've been no way to shift you the way you were. My Katsuki should've vanished from under me and you should've appeared somewhere else in this clearing."
Bakugo raised a slow eyebrow at that, his respect for the new Kirishima rising, "What else could've happened then?"
Eijirou shrugged, "I'm not sure." He confessed and then frowned thoughtfully, "I wonder..." He cocked his head slightly, "But surely such a thing is impossible...?"
"Spit it out already!" Bakugo snapped impatiently, "What are you thinking rocks for brains?"
"First, I'm a dragon not a rock spirit." Eijirou snorted, sounding offended at the very idea he was being compared to a rock spirit, whatever the fuck that was, "And second... lemme check something..."
Both of Bakugo's eyebrows rose to his hairline as Eijirou prowled forward in a way that had starred in his wet dreams for years, and pressed his hand over his heart, "Soul of my soul and heart of my heart."
Bakugo scowled, his mouth opening to ask what the fuck the idiot was talking about now when a shock traveled through him. It was like a pulse that rocked his soul, harder than one of Jirou's sonic attacks, and it left him breathless and feeling as though his very being was electrified. A gasp tore involuntarily from him as he stared up at Eijirou with wide eyes.
He slapped the dragon's hand off him, harder than intended and took a few jerking steps backwards. He bared his teeth, crackles popping from his fingers as his brain tried to figure out what in the actual hell that had been all about.
"What did you just do to me you scaled freak?" He hissed, resisting the urge to ball his fist over his heart and savor the tingling sensation that soared through his body. Kirishima didn't seem to mind, instead a dumb, glowing look seemed to light his eyes.
"You are my Katsuki," he breathed out, awed and happy.
"No I'm not," Bakugo snarled back at him, doing his best not to get caught in the warm furnace of Kirishima's eyes, "answer my question or I swear I will blast you sky high."
He raised a hand to show he wasn't joking, but the infuriating dragon only seemed amused by his threats.
Boldly, the dragon closed the distance between then and cradled a hand into his cheek, "You're my soulmate Katsuki." A blushed worked high over his cheeks, and if Bakugo wasn't so flabbergasted he might even have found it endearing.
"You're the reincarnation of my Katsuki, I guess you got thrown into the past," Kirishima smiled, his teeth sharp but not even the slightest bit threatening.
It took Bakugo exactly three seconds to process that theory, understand it's reasoning, and then accept it for truth. Aside from the ringing in his own heart that seemed to fucking sting like an annoying pack of thumb tacks stabbing him in the arteries, based on what little he knew of the villains quirk, it seemed possible.
The hero Kirishima had fought had been reduced to the mindset of a toddler. Todoroki had apparently been inconsolable, but Bakugo admittedly did not know how well that turned out.
Other heroes Bakugo had run into when he had been separated from Kirishima were in similar states of infantilization.
"Fuck," he said in realization.
"Doubtful," Kirishima said wistfully, but with just enough sass that Bakugo nearly bit through his own damn tongue.
He hadn't been reduced to an infant because he had a past life. Which meant...
"You switched places with my Katsuki," the dragon huffed, his thumb trailing over Bakugo's cheek and causing a traitorous shudder to run down his spine and collect in his gut.
A motion that reminded him vividly that he had a sizeable gash on him as it flared sharply with pain. And though it wasn't exactly deep it had been bleeding this whole time. He hissed and knocked Eijirou's hand away.
"Cut that shit out." He snarled, "I've got more important shit to worry about." He tugged one of his gloves off with his teeth, "Like the fact I'm fucking bleeding all over the fucking place when there's a fucking villain out there that could hit my fucking Kirishima any damned second and I'm not there to watch his goddamn back!"
"But you are there idiot." Eijirou chuckled fondly, causing Bakugo's attention to snap back to him, "Or do you really think any version of you would let any version of me come to harm?"
Well... shit. The dumbass had a point. He'd developed enough self-awareness over his last few years of, sometimes painful, therapy to know he would explode any asshole that threatened Kirishima without hesitation.
That realization didn't help his nerves much though. Whoever the fuck he was in this time there was no doubt he was going to cause more problems than he solved. At least until he got the story straight. Then his other self might be helpful, but not until then.
Therefore the simplest solution was he needed to get back there as quickly as possible before his very obviously not-hero self completely wrecked everything he'd worked so hard for.
He tightened his bite on his glove as his wound complained again, the pain fast becoming unbearable only to jerk in surprise when a pale green stone was pressed to his side. He looked down in shock as it glowed a vivid forest green that trailed up and down the gash with a tingle that sort of reminded him of Recovery Girl's healing. In seconds it receded and the injury was no more.
Huh, that was actually really helpful.
He looked up as Eijirou slipped the little stone back into a pocket and started pulling his clothes back on.
"I can't blame you for being worried." The dragon explained, and flashed him a warm grin that made Bakugo's insides turn to mush, "I probably would be too if I didn't know my Katsuki so well. So let's get home and we'll start looking for a way to get you home."
"Wait, Kirishima-" Bakugo grunted and tapped his hand along the healed over injury. He was going to have to grab himself some of those damn glow sticks for his agency when he got a second.
The dragon paused and his lips curled up, "Just call me Eijirou, I can tell it's freaking you out to talk about two different Kirishima's."
Bakugo didn't know how he liked calling this dragon by his first name. It was so intimate, but he raised a good point. It was frustrating to know how he was able to read him so well. Bakugo was usually the one who could pick up on all of Kirishima's tells.
But it felt disorienting for things to be on the other foot.
"Fine, Eijirou," Bakugo spat his name trying to make it sound as abrasive as humanly possible. The dragon only smiled happily and it made his stomach wrench with feeling. Gross.
"You were camping out here in the middle of the woods, what were you doing?" Bakugo demanded, watching Eijirou cross his arms over his broad chest. His eyebrows rose up towards his horns and a sly smile drew over his face.
"Oh I would have thought that was obvious Katsuki," the smile he flashed Bakugo was all dark promise and wicked intentions. And shit if that didn't just wreck Bakugo's sense of control.
"Bakugo. Call me Bakugo, I'm not your Katsuki," he growled, deciding to draw the line in the sand right then and there. He was stronger than the temptation of this dragon. Eijirou was just like his Kirishima, but instead somehow had the poor taste to saddle himself with someone like Bakugo.
And as annoying as it was, he wasn't going to steal kisses from someone who didn't belong to him. He hadn't reached that level of pathetic yet.
Without waiting for Eijirou to comment on the name, he glared back at the dragon, "Your mission in the forest. You didn't just come out here to fuck on the pinecones did you?"
Eijirou frowned at him, for the first time since all this began looking worried.
"Well no," Eijirou shrugged, "We've been fighting an ongoing war with him for several years now. Katsuki and I were going to provide aid to Prince Shouto and Izuku. King Endeavors army was marching in from the south and they sent out a distress letter for air support."
"Ugh, Deku is here too?" Bakugo grunted in disgust. Because of course that nerd would somehow be here in this world too. He was probably just as annoying too. Even in a past life he couldn't be rid of him.
Eijirou looked amused by his reaction and nodded, "We were going to aid them. If their kingdom falls, then Katsuki knows that Endeavor will set his sights to the East. Our kingdom."
Bakugo sighed at that, his teeth grinding together in annoyance. Endeavor was of course an eternal thorn in their side, no matter which universe he landed in it seemed. So the Katsuki here had built himself a kingdom with a dragon for a partner. That made sense, and Bakugo wasn't the type to let something like that crumple on his watch.
He didn't want to owe Eijirou anything either.
"Then let's take care of that shit first. If those morons are anything like mine, then they won't be able to handle anything without it all going to shit," Bakugo growled.
Eijirou smiled, but Bakugo could tell he was trying very hard not to.
"What about your Kirishima?" He asked, his eyes sweeping up and down Bakugo.
The scowl that Bakugo shot at Kirishima was hot enough to peel the bark off a tree.
"Did you lie about your Katsuki? Don't tell me he's actually fucking useless and can't cover Kirishima's back," Bakugo growled at him, "because I'll be pissed. Besides, unless you have a witch or something that can send me back to my time, then there's no damn point in backtracking."
"No witches unfortunately, this is magic out of my realm of expertise." Eijirou snorted, "And I would never lie about Katsuki, my future self couldn't ask for anyone better to watch his back." His lips twitched in amusement, "Though I make no promises on his virtue."
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?!" Bakugo raged, genuine anger hitting him for the first time since this very surreal situation had developed.
"Isn't it obvious?" Eijirou asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The fuck it is!" Bakugo snapped, his palms reflexively crackling.
Eijirou sighed and shook his head, "I told you." He replied slowly, "We're soulmates. Katsuki and I bonded our hearts and souls together over ten years ago. We wanted to ensure there was no way anything, not even death or time, could separate us." He stepped up to Bakugo, and for the first time Bakugo realized that Eijirou was actually several years his senior.
He was almost the same height and build as his Kirishima. He was a little taller, a little broader, but there was an experience in his gait, a confidence, that hadn't entirely developed in Kirishima. It was a little like watching the way Aizawa, Best Jeanist, or some of the older pros moved. A predator always alert for attack and always deadly. Even when they were being friendly.
Eijirou had seen battle. Lots of it. And he bore the scars to prove it. There was something in his gaze that spoke of a man who had seen the best and worst of humanity, and though neither he nor Kirishima had many illusions, he was absolutely certain they couldn't match the experience in Eijirou's eyes.
"We were the one really good thing either of us had back then." Eijirou continued softly, "The only thing that made us happy. We couldn't bear the thought of losing that." And fuck if that didn't sound like a story he could relate to, "So we chose to bond ourselves."
He met Bakugo's eyes intently, "Across all lifetimes Bakugo. For all eternity. No matter which version of you I see, you're still mine. And I'm his. Yours. Do you understand?"
Bakugo felt like he was burning beneath the weight, the truth of those words. Eijirou seemed so certain of it, but Bakugo didn't know how he could match that steadfast belief.
Twisted together and tightly bound, Bakugo had accepted the fact he had fallen for his dumb partner long ago. Across all lifetimes.
It sounded like a fairy tale.
"Whatever," he grunted instead. He couldn't scoff at the sheer depth of the statement Eijirou made even if it sounded like something out of one of the Hallmark movies Ururaka seemed to enjoy.
It was dumb. It was ridiculous.
It was goddamn romantic, and the intensity Eijirou spoke with - that confidence. It was attractive.
And for a moment Bakugo almost believed it.
