a/n: times are changing. hopefully i won't have to put any of my other bnha fics down.

Real world ch. Three bc now they really are thinking more in terms of the real world. They're back to earth

Here they meet kmjr towards the start of the chapter and they get added to the party.

They probably end up with some kind of buddy system becoming visible. Like, they stop at an inn or something and like idk

But you know what might be fun if there was an inn scene in like every chapter that just kinda tied the reader back into "hey look these characters are growing and changing their relationships yaaay"

At some point, they get so close to krbk that deku starts getting headaches probably and they have to cease the spell and rely fully on their own tracking ability bc they're probably gonna pick up a few things and so bc krbk is obviously. A living moving unit they split up to cover more ground (how would they signal to one another that they were found tho? Idk maybe just bring krbk back to some rendesvous point)

And then it would be kind of funny if what ended up happening was just that like. *tdmm scouring around* *weird suspicous sounds-like-we're-being-hunted noise* "princess nooo" *dramatic save scene wherein they actually find krbk were the ones making the weird suspicious noise* and they first meet kiri in a dragon form but then he transforms and they get to calm down

Then they go on to find krbk, and they have a discussion about dragons

Falling backwards chapter four. Title taken from sleeping at last and esp that one line "one day i had enough of this exercise of trust / i leaned in an let it hurt, let my body feel the dirt" because momo had trusted todo and the information he'd given her, and when that turned out to be wrong, she let it hurt, but that also allowed herself to see the world as it was, to see the realities of her kingdom. And tbh? She found there was beauty even in the dirt if she went looking for it.

YEEEEEE

All this time, todo just continues to call momo basically just strictly "princess" bc i guess that's just what feels right to him but then she figures out his identity and then have a rough patch bc she's all Unsure™ and Betrayed for whatever reason by the truth and she just kind of doesn't say anything

Man you know what would be neat if todo still had that glass flower and contemplated what's happening as he stared at it and maybe how he views the princess and their relationship hmm

And then when she finally starts talking to him again there's not really an apology bc that just doesn't feel necessary to either of them? Todo understands that she needed her space to process what happened, but since they couldn't have any physical space, just the silence and emotional space was what had to suffice. And also it feels natural to start talking again and wow look todo's actually able to start calling her momo and neither of them even realize that that's a thing that's happening

Meanwhile, while The Silence is happening, they finally get to the town with the dragon. God knows how long it's been since the start of the story but they probably got to this town hella lot faster than they found krbk bc kiri… is dragon thing. Can turn into dragon and just frikke them to.. Near the town. That sounds better bc townsfolk and dragon oh boy. And so then anyway they get some info on the dragon and go out and meet it i guess

And then baku probably does his dragonlord magic or w/e and everyone's like "that was so anticlimactic wtf" maybe?

Yeah should probably have some scenes that help hype baku's side ability of dragons between meeting krbk

My dream within a dream as chapter five. Supposed to portray that good kind of dreamy haze you get when you get that Real Life Literary Payoff and your dreams come true

This is when momo actually probably really starts talking to todo again i guess. Pillow talk to parallel that first chapter maybe? She finally gets to unlock todo's Tragic Backstory here yeah. Maybe they realize too late that they did the same thing as tetsu did that got him turned into a dragon and they're like "oh crap we need to get out fast" or something and heeeey here's the climaaax as they're trying to get out of that place maybe?

Anyway momo gets to have her dramatic save scene where she saves todo to make 'em even after he saved her when meeting krbk

Or maybe the climax isn't their actual escape, but their dismantling of the magic place. Which happens at night probably bc that's what feels right

This is probably why they need so many people in the end. Ochako is the mage, so she can cast the spell to actually put the magic curse place to sleep or whatever, but then you need people to fight off whatever dangers are rising up, and also since it's a massive spell, she'd probably have to draw strength and magic from outside of herself (*insert deku as a support character who has to stay near her and basically guard her personally as she leeches off some of his magic power*), and you know what might be neat? One of those moments where the characters are no longer sure if they'll make it out of their mess alive and so therefore they confess their love to each other just so that they don't die never saying it (probably kmjr bc tdmm would make more sense after the fact, when they're all alone again bc they're probably too focused on survival in the moment)

And then anyway the cool battle ends with the break of dawn and you know what it's gonna be the vernal equinox for no discernable reason bc six months seems a pretty reasonable time for all this travelling to happen. Extra magic on the equinox i guess whoo

Cool battle ends everyone is relieved whoopee time to go home i guess

Cool climactic battle might be still part of chapter four? Honestly depends on how much time they actually take meeting krbk and having a fireside chat and Stuff

Anyway it takes them like half the time to get back to the capitol bc there's no more wandering around kinda lost and w/o knowing what to do yay so now it's summer and everyone gets p a id and obviously along the way tdmm gets to talk abt their feelings

Anyway they return and at first momo's parents are surprised at her relationship w/todo bc she left specifically bc she didn't want to get married, but then she gets to clarify that she did both, actually, slay the dragon and find someone to marry. She went out, proved herself, and also came back with a man. But she's not marrying bc of obligation or bc she feels she wouldn't be able to rule correctly w/o him, but because she found him to be a valuable friend and companion with whom she didn't want to part for the rest of her life.

I mean if this chapter gets too long and can't have parts crammed into chapter four, then there can be a part six epilogue titled home as cliché as that title is. Good thing abt a part six: get to close up everyone else's arcs too probably bc that's more epilogue-ish to be able to do. Probably get to cover momo's coronation or smth as the setting of this epilogue aw man am i just gonna have an epilogue regardless ah dang it maybe

Uraraka's initial tracking spell puts them on a rough path retracing bakugou's steps (so obvs extremely inefficient) and this happens to let them stumble across aizawa's uh. Hermit outpost? Training camp maybe? Whom'st knows

Basically anyway they find aizawa, who is a swordmaster

Anyway they find aizawa whilst looking for baku. Aizawa shows them just how far they have to go in their skillz bc for whatever reason they need to best him in one-on-one combat? Or maybe he's just renowed throughout the land for being really cool and really good at what he does (nah not really only like deku would know that bc deku's a nerd and aizawa is super covert abt stuff he does why else would he have his outpost literally in the middle of fuck-all nowhere)

Anyway aizawa shows them Just How Far they have to go, criticizes the inefficiency of the tracking spell (which probs kills uraraka and momo's self-esteems, makes deku embarrassed that he couldn't help, and tbh todo's just nervously shifting around bc aizawa Recognizes him but doesn't say jack shiet)

However, aizawa guides them to midnight, who is actually able to help them refine the spell so that they can get an actual handle on where tf baku is, but the catch here is that you need someone who knows the target pretty well. The better the caster knows the target, the more accurate it is

Seeing that uraraka has like, never met bakugou, ,this is a pretty serious caveat

Bakugou and deku's knight under whom they serve was all might

Background lore to deku is obviously that he was a peasant boy whom all might chose to be his page for reasons that don't actually matter tbh. He and baku were actually proper rivals and therefore have a diff dynamic and improved relationship compared to canon, s when deku asks them to help out, baku mostly just "tch"s and says that unfortunately, he can't control dragons, only comm with them

Uses kiri as an example

Kiri is actually technically under a curse? Maybe? I mean clearly he's a shifter btwn dragon n boy (n stays like halfway btwn usually bc that's what's Cool™) but maybe he was stuck in his dragon form until baku came along and saved him/broke his curse? Was that baku's first assignment quest? Maybe. I'm not too into the saviour of the beast/tamed-then-lover plotline tho

Deku's in his final days of squirehood.

Baku comes from a line of dragonlords, and being lords, he obviously is also a knight

Baku being slightly older, was sired into knighthood earlier than deku, so now he's on his own little quest going god-knows-where

He picked up kiri at some point along the way, so now they're a boxed set not sold separately. Kiri's a dragon shifter

Uraraka can do a tracking spell, but can only cast it on a target she knows well enough. However, she can cast the spell on deku and let him channel the magic and basically act as the tracking device

Unfortunately, the spell doesn't work forever, and not quite so well when not used as intended, so deku's sense of direction gets kinda out of whack, and they need to settle in a little town for a while to let him recover. Momo again makes an executive decision for the Health of the Party Members to take a rest stop in the next town they find, and this is how kmjr enters the party! They're a duo of professional trackers (jirou does the tracking and gets most of the credit; kaminari stays on board bc he's good comic relief and has had enough competent moments that jirou's gotten attached), and they help keep the party alive (via hunting or w/e) when they're on the road, and they pick up on the more subtle signs of life as they approach baku

Aizawa does recognize shoto, but he doesn't actually say anything, but momo notices that zawa regards shoto slightly differently than the rest of them

God I love fireside chats let's have another one wherein todo lets out a little bit of why he ran away from home, allowing for momo to figure out who he is

- This takes place probably closer to the start of chapter four, really soon after krbk joins the party. Momo wakes up at three in the morning just at random (maybe bc getting used to night shifts), and shoto's just having one of those nights, so he's been poking at the fire for hours now, never mind the fact that he could technically just make some of his own. Momo doesn't say anything, just sits down beside him and he's just like, "hey."

Then during the reveal, all the pieces just fall into place for momo and she's just like, "you're shoto todoroki."

And for some reason, it feels like a betrayal of her trust. Because for all this time, it had never occurred to her that he was from such a highly-statused family. She was still naïve when she first set out and met him on that day, so while his appearance and behavior had its refinery just ingrained into him, that was still her normal, and as time went on, she'd already become blind to that normal and that assumption by the time she had learned to know better.

But at the same time, it really was a betrayal of her trust; it just wasn't shoto who broke it but rather, the upper classes as a whole. She'd been raised to assume that they were all good people because of course the good people are rewarded in life and all, but while there had been moments and people who had begun to wear away at this idea (like uraraka coming from ridiculous poverty), but this really was the straw that broke the camel's back. But now she's come to see the world in shades of grey, but like, in a good way.

But yeah so now she's falling backwards, ready to just hit the dirt from this apparently-failed trust fall, and it does hurt-

Izch actually totally blatantly like one another, and both separately compare their situation to shoto's- which he still doesn't really see. Uraraka sees it from the [perceived in tdmm's case] class disparity; deku sees it from "she's too good for me"

Wh

What if tetsutetsu was the dragon

And then rather than slaying the dragon, they must smuggle him out into the countryside or some swan lake thing to break a curse that was clearly laid upon him

Okay but like seriously who the hell is cursing all these people to become dragons? (does it matter tbh?) hmmm

Or maybe he isn't cursed to be a dragon but rather did something that made him lose his sanity or whatever or honestly the idea of "swan lake circumstances" (wherein he's only a dragon part of the time and if he goes back to some place then he can be a human again) sounds pretty good to me. It happens to him bc he's just messing with some fae crap or whatever he just kinda accidentally does smth to himself (don't take the shiny things, they always say in fairy tales anyway) and whoop now it's no one's fault yay

Ohhhhh man but if this is a thing this makes kiri n baku even more important characters bc then kiri could have undergone something similar and therefore would be able to recognize the symptoms of whatever the heck it is tetsu's under first and bc they're experienced in breaking it, they can help take over the whatever it is that needs to be done

a/n: i have a complicated relationship to this fic, but i think it's for the better that i just declare it dead now.