Standing at the front of the wooden one-room school, Katsuki pointed at the floor. "Sit!" he barked, as imperious as always.
The Acid-Spitter immediately dropped to its haunches. With green scales, an overly large head, and a horn on its snout, the dragon had been named (of course) for its acid breath. It was twice as tall as Katsuki and could have melted him with one breath, but the six-year-old boy showed no fear.
"Roll over," Katsuki commanded. The Acid-Spitter obeyed. "Good boy." Katsuki tossed a piece of beef jerky, which the dragon eagerly snapped up with its long tongue.
Izuku applauded with all the other students. He wondered why this came so easily to Katsuki. Was it because he had more confidence than Izuku? Adults said that dragons could sense anxiety. But it was hard to be confident after failing so many times.
The teacher said, "Izuku, it's your turn." Her voice contained a note of weariness. In the front row, Tsubasa snickered.
Grimly, Izuku trudged to the front of classroom. Confidence. Be confident. You can do this. He straightened himself to his full six-year-old height. "Sit!" he nearly screamed.
The Acid-Spitter shot backward. It spat out a green loggie, melting a hole in the wall, and galloped away across the snowy ground.
The teacher sighed. "You've destroyed my classroom yet again. Just like I knew would happen. I'll send the bill to your foster-father."
"Yes, ma'am," Izuku whispered. Tears filled his eyes. A rebellious voice asked, Why did you make me try when you knew this would happen, just like every other time?
Glaring, the teacher asked, "Have you done anything bad to our dragons? Teased them or hit them with sticks?"
"Of course not!" Izuku would never do any such thing, and a bad-tempered dragon like an Acid-Spitter would never tolerate it, either.
"Maybe it's something about your smell. Did you try changing your soap and shampoo?"
"Yes, ma'am." Izuku had changed to a dozen different scents, but nothing made dragons like him even a tiny bit more.
As Izuku trudged back to his seat, Katsuki hissed, "Give it up before you get hurt, Deku." His classmates laughed.
In Izuku's village, everyone tamed dragons. It was their vocation, their clan gift, and how they made a living. They sold dragon-related services and products around the world. A boy who was hated by dragons was useless.
Even if dragon-taming wasn't so critical to life in Musutafu, Izuku would still want to master the skill. He loved dragons. He loved their shimmering scales and their different shapes and their many types of breath. He'd filled notebooks with drawings of them. But dragons didn't like Izuku back. For some inexplicable reason, every dragon in the village despised him so much they couldn't stand to be in his presence.
After school, Izuku lingered by a snowy tree, sniffling. He didn't want to go home. Soon, his guardian, Old Man Yagi, would receive yet another bill for his destruction of the school. Toshinori Yagi had taken Izuku in after his mother had mysteriously vanished. Izuku feared being a burden to him. He knew his foster-father wouldn't blame him or scold him, but in some ways that kindness only made it more painful to continue being such a failure.
Overhead, a tiny Blue Icer wheeled and landed on the tree. The cobalt scales shimmered. Izuku's fingers itched to draw. But before he could get out his notebook, the dragon spotted Izuku. It screamed, then fell out of the tree, playing dead.
Izuku stomped his foot on the ground. "What did I ever do to you?" he asked the dragon and the world at large.
The Blue Icer skittered away from him on its back, whimpering.
Instead of going home, Izuku took a detour into the forest. He wanted some time alone. He pretended not to notice half a dozen more dragons fleeing from him.
In his distraction, Izuku almost didn't notice the whiteness before he walked into it. He stopped, rubbing his nose. A giant snow bank? But he'd felt something scaly and warm.
The snow rose off the ground and stood up to his full height. It was not snow, but a giant pure-white dragon. His snout alone was as tall as Izuku's whole body. Tusks stuck out of his mouth. Red eyes with slitted pupils burned like flames. Two ivory horns grew from his head. His scales shimmered like pearls.
"You're beautiful," Izuku whispered.
The dragon rumbled, almost like a purr. His finned ears flapped.
It took Izuku a moment to recognize this as a friendly gesture. No dragon had ever shown him one before, after all. Maybe he ought to run away. His teacher would have told him to. Even adults would hesitate to try and control a dragon this large. But Izuku loved dragons, and this was the closest one had ever allowed him to get.
Slowly, Izuku shuffled closer, stirring up snow. The tiny boy barely came up to the dragon's claw. The dragon lowered his snout to the ground so they could look each other in the eye. He smiled, baring many jagged teeth. He could have swallowed up Izuku in one gulp. Instead, he sniffed the air around the boy. The smell seemed to excite him, making him inhale so deeply that the trees bent toward him.
With a trembling hand, Izuku patted the dragon's snout.
The dragon's tail thumped against the ground, flattening a bush. He rubbed against the tiny hand. Then he wrenched a tree from the ground with his tail and laid it at Izuku's feet like an offering.
"You like me?" Izuku whispered.
The dragon purred and licked his face. It left the front of his shirt soaking wet. Most dragons could only understand one-word commands, but Izuku would swear this one had responded to his question. He'd never before heard of such an intelligent dragon.
Izuku stood up straighter and pointed at the ground. "Sit!"
The dragon arched an eyebrow. For a moment, Izuku feared he'd gone too far. Then the behemoth chuckled, an indulgent glint in his eyes. With a rumble that shook the trees, the massive dragon sat back on his haunches.
Izuku burst into happy tears. They mingled with the dragon saliva and froze to his face. White frost crusted his eyebrows and hair tips. He didn't care. He'd tamed his very first dragon.
Village Chief Shouta Aizawa had a relatively peaceful job. No one wanted to mess with a village full of dragon-tamers. These days, his main role was soothing the complaints of various people who had their property destroyed by dragons fleeing the presence of Izuku Midoriya, resident problem child.
When Aizawa heard a rumbling and people screaming, somehow he just knew the problem child was behind it.
Putting on his coat, Aizawa stepped out of his home. "All right, what's—"
His words dried up in his throat. A stampede of dragons in all shapes and sizes barreled down the street. They fled in a mad, mindless mass. Aizawa barely leapt back onto his doorstep before he got trampled. Little Izuku must be innocent for once. Only one thing could have scared the dragons this badly: the White Plague.
All for One, also known as the White Plague, was the only dragon unaffected by the villagers' natural taming gift. His species ate other dragons, and as a result he viewed their village as an all-he-could-eat buffet. After many failed attempts to drive him off, the villagers had come to view the dragons lost to his enormous appetite as the tax they paid for living in his forest. When All for One had vanished seven years ago, there had been much rejoicing.
Now, the plague had returned. Aizawa cursed his own carelessness in ceasing the watchers outside town and the emergency drills. As soon as the wave of dragons passed, he ran for the town flag, planning to raise it as a warning.
A shadow fell over him, so large it engulfed half the village. Swallowing, Aizawa looked up. The White Plague loomed over him, red eyes burning and jaw slathering.
Little Izuku ran forward, waving. "Hey, everyone! Guess what? I tamed my first dragon!"
"Gah," Aizawa said.
Aizawa threw open the door to Old Man Yagi's home. "Toshinori, control your son!"
Toshinori looked up from the wooden prosthetic he was whittling. He took on the role of looking after injured dragons in the village. One of his charges had recently lost a leg. "Is this about the school? I said that I would pay for the hole in the wall, but frankly, I don't think they should be letting Acid-Spitters around such young children."
Aizawa shrieked, "Izuku brought home the White Plague!"
"Oh, dear." Toshinori pinched his forehead. "I was afraid this day would come."
"You were?" Aizawa stared. "Why exactly did you think your son, the worst dragon-tamer in the village—no offense intended, he tries very hard, he just seems to lack the knack for it—would somehow tame the plague on our existence?"
Toshinori twiddled his thumbs. "I've always been very close to Inko. She…told me a few things about Izuku's father."
Aizawa shook his head. "The identity of Izuku's unknown father may be an exciting piece of gossip in our tiny village, but I don't care about that. I care about the Untamable All for One sitting in town square, munching on our flag! What if Izuku loses control of the beast? His track record taming dragons isn't great. Every other dragon despises him. This miracle might not last."
Toshinori sighed and set aside his whittling knife. "I don't think dragons dislike Izuku, precisely. I think they're scared of him."
"What does that have to do with the White Plague and Izuku's father…" Aizawa's voice trailed off as he made the connection.
Toshinori asked, "Have you heard the stories about the oldest, most powerful dragons? The ones who can take on human form?"
Aizawa said, "I need to be more drunk before we have this conversation." He stomped out of the cabin, pausing only to cry, "Tell the problem child that he can keep the White Plague in the forest! It's scaring the other dragons!"
Author's Note: Credit goes to Goofy_Boss for this prompt, and Miau_Uau for the adorable drawing that inspired this fic. Please delete the spaces to get the link:
miauuau.
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post/669752701525131264/prompt-from-tunas-discord-server-for-the-dragon
