A/N Happy Birthday Tsuyu. So, for your birthday a chapter centered around you. Also, a bit early but also a chapter to donate a little bit to the Valentine's Day ambience.
Right next to the Musutafu forest, there was a town. This was the closest town to the forest, it was right next to the edge. Most people didn't want to live that close to the forest. They were too afraid of what horrors could come out of the forest, but namely the Dragon King and his people. They were afraid he would come through and ransack their village, slaughtering the townsfolk as they went. Only the bravest people live in this town, which made the town very small. The town was so small that there was only one healer. Even then, it was only because she knew the most out of everybody in the town about medicine. Really, she was only a lowly bar maid. She worked at a small bar, named the Aichi Bar. She was filling up the mead cup for one of the customers, when the doors burst open. Everybody gasped and looked at the shadow in the doorway. He had bright red eyes, spiky hair, and a red cape over his bare chest. Everybody knew that look well. This was the well known Dragon King.
"What the fuck are you looking at?" he growled. Everybody went and looked at something else, like their food or mead cup. When the bar maid turned around to hand the drink to the man who was currently sitting at the bar, the bar's unexpected guest took it instead. He chugged it down and set it down back on the counter.
"Good day to you, Katsuki. Would you like something to eat?" the bar maid asked him.
"No. The food here is shit," Katsuki said, looking away. Then, his red eyes set onto the bar maid.
"Besides, you know why I'm really here," he added, throwing a few coins onto the table.
"Fine," she said, sweeping the coins up into a pocket on her apron.
"I'm going to go on break!" the bar maid called into the back, to her boss.
"What? You can't just go on break like that!" her boss said, coming out from behind the back of the bar. He took one glance at the visitor and practically jumped out of his skin.
"Just joking with you. Go ahead and take your break. Take as long as you need," her boss said to her, nervously wiping his brow of sweat. The Dragon King had visited before because the bar maid was the closest healer to the Musutafu forest. He had come in with all sorts of wounds from poison to gashes to broken bones.
"Come into the back," the bar maid said. They went to the back of the bar and Katsuki sat in one of the chairs.
"What happened this time?" she asked. The Dragon King moved his cape to the side. There was a big bloody hole in his abdomen.
"Some bastard shoved a spear into my back," Katsuki explained.
"So, I pulled it out and shish-kabobbed him with it," he said the next part in a rather blood thirsty way. The bar maid, however, was used to his bloodthirsty tendencies.
"You shouldn't have done that. You lost a lot blood because of it," she said, starting to clean his wound with a cloth soaked in alcohol.
"However, this is still a fairly simple wound. You were extremely lucky it missed any vital organs. Couldn't you have it treated by one of your people?" the bar maid asked.
"Of course not. None of them are healers, bar wench," he responded.
"My names not bar wench. It's Tsuyu," the bar maid said. Katsuki ignored her.
"Yet, you are. What do you gain from working in such a shitty place like this, anyway?" he asked.
"I don't know," Tsuyu responded, not really bothering to think about it. She already knew the answer, she just didn't want to say it.
"You must gain something. Nobody with half a brain would work here if they could help it," he said. Tsuyu though for a moment.
"Maybe I just like the atmosphere," she retorted.
"What the hell kind of smart ass comment is that supposed to be?" he demanded. Tsuyu shrugged. Then, she realized something.
"Why was someone trying to kill you? Was it an attempt to dethrone you?" she asked.
"Those fuckers can try. But, I'll crush them all like little ants," he said. Ah, so there was a rebellion group or something. She supposed not everybody would be happy to follow behind a young man with anger issues.
"Maybe you should try to reason with them instead. See why they're rebelling," Tsuyu said. He looked at her.
"I don't reason with the enemies," he said, gruffly. Tsuyu was still amazed at how this boy became a king.
"They're not your enemies. They're your... people?" Tsuyu said. Katsuki wasn't technically a king, he had no real land, just the land he claimed as his own, but there were people who followed after him like he was their king.
"They're not my people, they're cowards. If they want to take my throne, they should face me head on in the ring, like most aggressors do. None of this sneaky shit," Katsuki said.
"What did you do to make them want to steal the throne?" Tsuyu asked.
"They don't like my expansion idea. They want to keep my kingdom small. Like those fuckers could share the throne anyway. They'd kill each other eventually in this dog eat dog world," Katsuki said, angrily laughing.
"Stop moving if you don't want me to mess this up," Tsuyu said, focusing on patching up his wound. He growled quietly, but stopped laughing. After a few minutes, Tsuyu got up and mixed a drink. She handed it to Katsuki.
"Here. Drink this. It's an herbal mix to make you heal faster," Tsuyu said. Katsuki sniffed it for a second, it smelled weird and unappetizing. However, if it was going to help him quicker, he would just have to suck it up and get it over with. So, he drank it all in one gulp.
"Come back with me to my kingdom. We need a healer and there's nothing here," he said, wiping his mouth.
"I can't. I have to stay here. And there is something here, two things actually and it's my job to protect them," Tsuyu said.
"Fine. Just don't move towns then. I'd have to get myself another healer," Katsuki said, walking out of the back and out of the bar. Tsuyu smiles as he left. She supposed that was his way of saying he needed her, even if he would never actually say it. She sighed, though. She couldn't just leave her brother and sister. After their parents had walked out on them, it had been her duty to watch over them. She went back out to the front of the bar.
"Tsuyu, the fee," her boss said.
"Yes sir," Tsuyu said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a few coins. She handed them to her boss.
"Such a great bar maid. I don't know what I'd do without you," he said, rubbing the coins together as he walked away. He always demanded a part of the money that Katsuki gave her when he needed healing. He called it a fee for allowing her to heal people in the back of his bar. Tsuyu sighed and went back to tending to the bar.