Katsuki's dad hadn't wanted to let him go. Katsuki could see it in his eyes. But he didn't say anything when Katsuki started packing the moment he and Izuku got the okay from Auntie Inko. He stood nearby as Katsuki and Izuku loaded up saddle bags on the enormous Eijiro.

" He looks really sad," Eijiro had murmured.

"It's a sad occasion, dipshit, stop making it worse," Katsuki grumbled back.

"We can come back as soon as I find my dragon," said Izuku from the other side of the mount of red scales and wings.

" They'll be okay without us, right?"

"We killed everyone who attacked us, that should be message enough to anyone to leave the tribe the hell alone," grouched Katsuki, well and done with this conversation, which kept cropping up. Ejirio already knew their staying didn't promise anything, but being the biggest powerhouse around the dragon couldn't help but feel responsible, though Katsuki argued the 'biggest powerhouse' part. Big he may be, but Katsuki could arm wrestle the dragon's head to the ground most days with just a well-timed explosion and yank on the ear.

And if someone attacked while they were gone, well, all the more reason to find Izuku's dragon. The following force would likely be bigger. Katsuki had also talked in depth with his father about joining with a neighboring tribe for protection, using their well established canyon-home as negotiation, especially now that their population had been halved.

They'd done all they could here.

The rest of the tribe wandered out at some point. By the time Izuku and Katsuki had situated themselves on the saddle ("Back off, nerd, you're gay close." "Kacchan, are you homophobic?"), they were watched on by a crowd of pale, quiet tribe members. Even the children seemed to sense the seriousness of the moment.

"Welp," said Katsuki. "Guess this is goodbye. Don't die, folks, or I'll kill you myself."

A few chuckles broke the quiet, edged by Auntie Inko's bawling.

His father didn't cry. But the hard way he stared at Katsuki suggested he was trying to engrave this scene into his mind.

"See you, old man. I'll be back."

Izuku waved from behind him. "I love you, Mom!"

"I love you too, baby!"

Katsuki rolled his eyes, already sensing the tear works starting behind him.

" This is so heartbreaking!" cried Eijiro in their minds.

Katsuki kicked him. Hard.

"Move, lizard."

Eijiro answered with a heartbroken wail and a pump of his tent-like wings.

And then they were up in the late spring sky…and freezing. Instantly Izuku, who was closer to the back where the saddle bags and blankets were rolled up, got to work pulling out their winter furs. Katsuki cursed himself for not getting them on sooner. He blamed his previous habits of avoiding whatever made him sweat when he wasn't out to kill extras, even though it seemed now his sweat had nothing to do with his explosions.

Once Katsuki steered Eijiro in the right direction there was nothing left to do but to practice speaking telepathically. Though Eijiro spoke into their minds as easy as breathing, Katsuki and Izuku had found speaking to Eijiro's mind, and in turn each other, had been like thinking really loud into a dark room and wondering if anyone heard it (more often than not they didn't). With it being so difficult to hear each other over the wind, they now had nothing else they could do but practice pushing thoughts through a mental rubber wall. Eijiro did his best to coach them through it and let them know if they succeeded.

The plains vanished beneath them. When night came they had reached the Spine Mountains, which separated the much fertile continent from the barren northern lands of the dragon tribes. They landed in the first place that looked like it would shelter a dragon from the constant mountain winds. Unfortunately, they weren't able to avoid the snow, but were able to find a thin enough patch for Eijiro to evaporate.

Their first night away from home was spent tucked against Eijiro's side, encompassed about by heated wings.

Eijiro was shivering madly when they woke up.

"Holy crap, are your teeth chattering?" Katsuki instinctively started rubbing Eijiro's side, lighting off some magic in his hands to help.

"I didn't know dragon's teeth could chatter," said Izuku. "You've spent several winters with us, why didn't they chatter then?"

" Because I never fucking stayed out all night in the snow! " Eijiro all but screeched in their minds. " Can we just get out of here? Like, now? I'm gonna diiiiiiiiieee ."

"You're not going to die," Katsuki growled, but rubbed harder.

Izuku quickly rolled up their blankets and tied them on while Katsuki worked himself from Eijiro's side to his wings. Then he tugged on Katsuki's arm and they loaded back up into the saddle.

The air above the mountains had somehow gotten worse from the evening before. The air stung and forced Bakugou and Izuku to duck their faces into their clothes, trusting Eijiro to find his way over the mountains.

The moment Eijiro saw green, he dove.

" Liiiiiiife! Warmth! "

"Fucking dragon! Warn us before you do that!"

Even so, once Eijiro had found sufficient clearing in the forest to land, they were all on the ground, rubbing their faces and shivering and swearing up and down to never stay in the mountains again.

" What do you guys have to complain about? I kept you warm all night! "

"What about you? Can't you just use your fire or whatever? You're a fire dragon, aren't you?"

" Yeah, FIRE! I can swim in magma just fine, cold is awful! "

Ignoring Katsuki and Eijiro's squabbling, Izuku muttered, "A hot spring would be a dream right now."

Instead, they settled for a really big fire pit, big enough for a teenage dragon to curl itself around. They all agreed that a day of warming up and rest wouldn't hurt them in the long run.

Besides, they were now facing more green than they'd seen since Japan, and even Katsuki had to quietly admit he'd missed how intrinsically soul-feeding the beauty was. The trees were proper tree-sized, tall and expansive, with moss and ferns and all manner of grasses filling in the undergrowth around them.

"You know, I'd always argue where we lived wasn't all that bad," said Izuku at some point after they'd shed their winter wear and were just laying around the clearing. "But…"

"Our land is shit," said Katsuki.

"Yeah. Just this clearing would feed my mom's goat for weeks. All those hours I spent digging up roots and grass seem like a total waste now."

"Living for the past fifteen years feels like shit compared to our old life."

Eijiro groaned from where he was curled, as much into the fire pit as he could get his huge body, which was basically just his toes. " Stop, I don't want to think about it. Being a fire dragon sucks balls, man. I miss thumbs. I miss sweaters. I miss Mina. "

Izuku huffed. "Now you've started it, Kacchan."

"Ain't my fault he's a loser with no game. He had over a decade."

" A girl in my arms would be the perfect way to warm up right now, " Eijiro continued, letting out an audible croon. " Mina's skin was always so soft, especially her hands. Something about her acid stopped dead skins cells from gathering or something. One time I got this burn on my chest and it hurt to bandage myself so she helped me out and hhrrrrnnngggghh."

Katsuki gagged. " Never. Make that sound again."

"Yeah, that was a little," Izuku's face had gone a little pink.

" So sooooooffffttt ."

"Zuku, I swear to god if you don't start some nerd ramble right now you're not going to be the only one without a dragon."

"I can't just start those things on demand!"

"Why the hell not?"

" And so waaaaaaaaaaarm, I'm so cold ."

"Because I'm tired and sore and-I never even got to be touched by a girl like that."

"Oh shit, not you too."

"Do you think Uraraka's hands would have been soft?"

" Nah, not with all that working with her wires and stuff, she was a tough girl."

"Yeah. But she was sweet. She would have helped me. She dried my hair once when I came in from the rain, and she smelled really good."

"Kill me now."

"Are you sure you aren't gay, Kacchan?"

" He never told me about any girl he liked."

"Shut up, assholes."

"No, really, haven't you ever even had a crush?"

" I've smelt him get hot and bothered a few times-"

Katsuki put a hard stop there by throwing a log at Eijiro. It bounced off his scaled nose, cutting him off short.

"First off, eww. Eww. Second, puberty does shit. Third, I'm not FUCKING GAY!"

"He just likes himself too much," said Izuku, flinging his arms around him in a tight, self-hug. "Oh, why do I have to be so hot and awesome?" He started rocking from side to side and moaning lewdly. "It's just my beautiful self among all these ugly extras, I can't let myself go-"

Since Izuku was right next to him, Katsuki settled for a hard punch in the side. Izuku chortled madly even as he yelped in pain and curled up.

" Are you in love with yourself?" asked Eijrio, all too seriously. " Like, sexually."

"NO! That fucking sexuality isn't even real, this is why I wanted a different dragon from the start-STOP LAUGHING, DEKU!"

"Nooooooo," Izuku wheezed.

Katsuki tugged at his hair, threw a handful of grass at the cackling, breathless nerd, and threw himself to his feet. He swore a stream of profanities as he commanded Ejiro to bring his back down so he could reach the saddle bags without having to climb. He wasn't all that inclined to touching Eijrio at the moment.

"Wha-what are you doing?" Izuku managed to gasp.

"Going hunt'n. Since you dweebs can't do anything productive but giggle about boobs and shit, someone has to be the adult."

"We didn't-"

" Oh! Boobs!"

Katsuki threw another log at Ejiro's head.

The dragon just laughed at him.

"Are you-ha ha-are you sure that's okay? You don't know what's out-heh-there."

"If it tries to kill me I'll blow it up."

"But-" but Izuku ended up rolling onto his stomach to try and catch his breath.

Katsuki curled his lips in disgust. Pathetic.

He left them like that, several bits of twine and his bow and quiver slung over his shoulder.

The dragon's guffaws followed him into the sunlit speckled forest. Soon the birds took Eijiro and Izuku place. The air just seemed to be more oxygenated, and technically, it was, but there was also something thicker in how it filled his lungs. Katsuki felt like he could run for hours.

As he went he left slashes on the trees with his hunting knife so as to not lose his way. He wasn't that stupid to think hunting in this forest would be the same as back home. As he did so, he also kept his eyes peeled for droppings and other signs of game. When he found a tree with nuts, he kicked some down and made his first snare trap at the foot of it. Hopefully, rabbits ate this sort of thing. If not-he put down a pocket full of dried berries next to it. That should do it. Worked for the hares back home so it should work for these Bugs Bunnies.

Three snares later, he found what could only be deer droppings. Again, they didn't look that much different from home, but all the green gave the impression of an entirely other world-which made him laugh. It was another world. Just one he's been in for fifteen years.

A tuft of deer hair and antler scratchings on the trees told him he was heading in the right direction. He let himself bare his teeth in a happy grin to have found a trail so obvious as this one. But just as he thought he saw hoofprints in the soil up ahead the sound of something moving over twigs and leaves-something heavy-made him drop behind a tree.

He needn't have bothered. No sooner did his back hit the tree than a long, venomous green monster struck out of nowhere. A great turret of scales built around him, snapping his arms to his sides before he could so much as start an explosion.

"A dragon kin, hssssssss. Been a long time sssince I've seen your kind in my foresssst."

The giant snake coils both turned and squeezed Katsuki till he faced the head of the thing-or rather, where the head should be. Instead there was the scaly, dark green torso of a man with long black hair braided down his back. Bright red, slit-pupiled eyes stared into Katsuki's own.

Katsuki's muscles seize up. For a horrifying second, the barbarian prince thought the gaze of this snake had the power of Medusa or something like unto it and he was about to die.

But the snake-man-thing's gaze just continued along, eyeing whatever bit of Katsuki wasn't covered in coils.

Katsuki opened his mouth to yell, probably call it something nasty, but all that came out was the last bit of air in his lungs.

"But where is your dragon?" murmured the monster.

The thing lifted its head to look around, as though Eijiro might magically appear from the bushes. But even as Katsuki wished it and cried out in his head, nothing appeared.

His head began to spin. His lungs burned for air.

The snake monster brought its eerily human head back down to sniff at Katsuki, far too close for comfort.

"Fire," it hissed. "No. No, thisss won't do. If you had been anything elssse I could let you live, but fire…"

"Stahp," Katsuki tried. Black dots popped in front of his eyes.

Wonderful. First real day of the adventure and he was going to get killed off by a man-snake.

What little of Katsuki's vision was left was filled with the snake thing's face, drawing closer until all he could see were red eyes and a mouth filled with fangs.

In a last ditch attempt to live, fueled by a thrill of adrenaline and horror, Katsuki let his magic go.

Firecrackers went off. Heat rushed up his sides. An explosive hiss. The pressure lifted, oxygen rushing in-

Katsuki gasped for breath, even as he let off more magic, not caring that he was burning his clothes in the process.

The naga-as his suddenly lightning fast mind supplied-arched back from the pain, only to dive back down, teeth wide-

Katsuki flung a hand free and let loose just as its face hit.

An explosion rocked the forest. Birds erupted from their hiding places. Trees shivered.

The naga screamed, hands to its face.

Katsuki kept firing. Scales, arms, face, anything he could reach. His tunic and cape had been left in tatters, but at least his pants had escaped undamaged. He didn't have to return to camp in humiliation with his junk swinging out.

For what could have been an eternity or just seconds, Katsuki saw red and heard nothing over the ringing of his ears. His hands quickly went numb as he unleashed more explosions than he ever had since they came in.

Then it was over and he was sitting on the headless corpse of a mother-effing mythical snake creature.

He took a moment to make sure its head wouldn't grow back like a freaking hydra, because anything could happen at this rate. He thought dragons and wizards were enough, but oh no, this world had to blindside him with judgemental nagas. What was next, fairies?

Oh god, let him not have jinxed himself.

He did.

A bright pink sparkle-puff, about the size of his clenched fist and mostly wings, flew out of the bush.

" You killed the guardian of the forest!" it shrieked in a voice that was probably used for an Alvin and the Chipmunks album.

" Murderer! " shrieked another-a blue sparkle-puff this time.

" Killer of the forest! " A purple one.

"Oh, fuck," Katsuki spat.

And started running. Like hell was he going to stick around to see what pissed off fairies could do to him.

Their shrieks followed him, like demon-chipmunks from hell.

"Killer!"

"Fire monster!"

"Trash! You're trash!"

"Dragon bastard!"

"BAD BOY!"

"I was defending myself!" he screeched, blearily searching for his tree marks and jumping logs.

" You should have stayed where you belonged! "

" Yeah! Fire dragons are in the northlands for a REASON! "

"BAD BOY!"

Okay, that last one kept repeating itself. Katsuki sensed it was the brainless lackey of the lot. He was familiar with the mentality, having had a fair share of his own lackeys.

"Leave me the fuck alone!" he roared.

A cacophony of helium-high "NO!"s answered back.

Eijiro and Izuku were already on their feet and crouched for a fight when Katsuki burst onto the scene.

At the same time, he felt an unmistakable nip on his bare shoulder.

Cussing, he skidded about and fired, only for the pink lightbulb to dodge.

" Murderer!"

" What the hell-" started Eijiro.

Izuku, the saint, didn't stop to ask stupid questions. He launched himself into the fray of christmas lights, lighting up like a tropical storm.

The fairies screamed in the face of the sparks and shot off towards the branches, their voices for once too high for Katsuki to make out the words.

"Yeah, you better run!" he yelled.

He and Izuku stood their ground, staring into the canopy long enough to make sure the little bastards weren't going to fly out, before Izuku turned to give Katsuki a pointed look.

"Kacchan," and god damn it if the nerd wasn't fighting a smile. "What happened to your clothes?"

He only got half-way through his story (which had been a terrifying experience no one should have to go through), when Eijiro had to bury his snout beneath his belly to muffle his mirth.

Katsuki whirled on him. "I NEARLY DIED!"

Izuku's cheeks were spasming madly now. "Then the fairies came for you?"

"SHUT UP, NERD!"

All he'd wanted was some peaceful hunting. He wasn't going to go overboard with it, just a buck, maybe a few rabbits, and head on his merry way, but nooooo. The forest ended up having to be freaking magical and have a vendetta against him over something he couldn't even control. He hadn't even used any of his damn explosions, what gave them the right to come after his ass like that?

He didn't realize he had said all that out loud until a giggle finally escaped Izuku.

Izuku slapped both hands over his mouth.

The heat from his mad dash had yet to leave his face. If anything, it grew hotter. His chest got a sting he did not want to put a name to.

Izuku sobered up quick at the look on his face. "Kacchan."

"No, by all means, keep laughing. If I'm such a fat joke to you, go find your dragon on your own, see if I care." He hadn't wanted to leave his dad anyway.

" Bro, that's not it ." Eijiro had pulled his face out from beneath him. " Sorry, it's just-it's the situation we're laughing at, not you. "

But Katsuki was already walking to the farthest side of the clearing, his back to them. He was stopped from stomping off into the forest and into the growing evening by the sight of a pink light in the bushes.

Cussing up a storm, he sat his butt down and glared at it, daring it to move. Maybe he had a bottle somewhere he could stuff it in like that fucking Zelda game or whatever. Show that little shit who was boss.

"Kacchan, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh-Kacchan, I'm glad you're okay."

" I was just about to come looking for you, bro, I thought I heard you. Come on, don't be like that. "

But Katsuki ignored them, giving the coldest shoulder known to man. He didn't care if it was pathetic or like a picky housewife.

Because his face wouldn't stop burning.

Eventually, when night came and it got chilly for Katsuki who only had his boots and pants, he begrudgingly drew near to the fire and accepted the dried beef jerky stew that Izuku handed him. Both the nerd and the dragon didn't say anything about his hours long pout glaring at a fairy, they just asked him where the naga body was (Eijiro was hungry and, well, best not to let food go to waste). Katsuki was more than happy to direct him to his knife marks on the trees. He prayed to whatever god watched over this world that there was a something nasty and a giant-ass mama fairy to chase after Eijiro. Would show him right.

Eijiro went off, surprisingly quiet for his size and shouldn't have been able to squeeze through the trees as well as he did. Izuku and Katsuki finished their meal and spent a few minutes staring into the fire before Izuku got up to dig around their saddlebags, which he had untied off Eijiro before he went off. He came back with some saddle blankets, one of which he gently put over Katsuki's shoulders. He also had Auntie Inko's medicine kit.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

Katsuki considered ignoring him. But he did feel bruised and his wrists and hands hurt like shit from overusing his magic.

So, he begrudgingly held his arms out and let Izuku slather burn cream over his hands and wrists and bandage them up. While Izuku gently poked at his bruised ribs for any breaks, Katsuki remembered when little Izuku had led him into a stink hole in the rock to be reassured that Eijiro wouldn't take his place as best friend.

"You were an asshole," he said.

"Yeah," said Izuku.

"...I guess it was kind of funny."

"No, you're right, it wasn't, you were scared."

"Like fuck I was scared."

"It's okay to be scared."

"Tch."

"I'm sorry."

"...Thanks." He watched as Izuku dug out an ointment for bruising and lifted up his arms so he could slather that on too. "I can do this myself."

"But would you?"

"...Probably not."

Izuku hummed.

Katsuki looked off into the forest, where occasionally a blip of colored light broke the darkness, like a satellite across the night sky. He suddenly felt a little bad for hoping Eijiro ran into worse trouble than him.

"Eijiro's still not my best friend," he said, swallowing quickly in hopes of sucking the words back down. He hadn't really meant to say them or knew why he did.

Izuku looked up at him with a confused pout, which then turned to a small smile.

"Thanks, Kacchan."

"Don't make it gay."

"And there you go again. I'm sorry for ever accepting Lilly's invitation to dance."

"Who?"

"Lilly, the blond girl at the bonfire? The one who fit your type to a tee?"

"Oh, yeah. You shit."

Izuku snorted. "Maybe the reason you never got a girlfriend was because you could never remember anyone's names."

"I'm bad with names, shoot me. I still beat your ass most days."

"Sure." Izuku clapped Katsuki's bruised ribs, making Katsuki flinch and scowl. "Get some sleep. I'll keep an eye out for Eijiro. The fairies seem to be afraid of me."

And Katsuki wanted to curse Izuku for that, because they sure weren't afraid of Katsuki.

As they went on to prove when he finally fell asleep after Eijiro returned with nightmares of his mom dying, over and over again. He knew it was them, because he would wake up every time to find one of the fucking Christmas lights fluttering over his head and cackling.

And Izuku got up every time to scare them away.