Katsuki could feel Izuku's eyes on him, waiting for him to look back so they could exchange 'a look,' but Katsuki was still hoping that if he played it cool enough, Jet-Legs would just magically blend into the background with the rest of the plebs and he could get back to his merry quest.

"Whaddya want?" he growled.

Iida looked taken aback, but just for a moment. He made a vague gesture and the three men who had escorted Katsuki and Izuku and they backed up.

At the sound of the large doors closing shut behind them, Katsuki's neck hairs stood on end.

"Before I ask my question, I would like to swear that we mean you no harm unless you provoke us to do otherwise-and only to defend ourselves."

"O-oh! Well, we're just passing through, so, eh heh, no provoking from us!"

Katsuki wanted to slap that stupid nerd. Way to go making them sound like pandering wimps from the get-go. To make up for it, Katsuki puffed up his chest, just a bit, so his well-rounded pecs and abs got front stage.

"Get on with it," he huffed.

"Well…" Iida scratched the back of his neck. "This…this is awkward to ask…but do you know what became of a large calvary that traveled north? Since I'm sure you just came from there. About sixty-four men, though they were traveling with others-though I suppose you wouldn't be able to tell ours apart from the rest."

Katsuki felt his blood chill. Beside him, Izuku went very still.

"When was this?" Izuku asked, and good thing, because Bakugou's mouth had gone dry and sour.

"Little over a fortnight, that's about two weeks, or more like three weeks, just if you didn't know-"

Bakugou choked, swallowed hard, then purposely leveled his eyes beneath his brows.

"You sent that calvary?" Izuku asked, rather quiet.

"Well, no, our king commanded us to supplement them. Our men were only a small portion of the calvary, but they were our best-"

"Do you have any idea what your king was sending them for?" asked Izuku, again, a kindness, as Bakugou was slowly turning from chill to rolling lava. It burned the back of his throat. His palms heated to blistering.

"We were told it was to escort a newly awakened dragon rider safely through the Forbidden Forest." Iida's mouth thinned and he adjusted his rudimentary spectacles. "Perchance…you didn't see them?"

Sharp pops erupted from Katsuki's palms. Izuku clamped a hand down on his shoulder hard.

"Kacchan-"

"Oh, we saw them all right," Bakugou lifted his chin, teeth bared. "Because they tried to wipe out our entire village!"

Iida's eyes popped. His jaw dropped.

"They-I didn't think-"

"That they'd try to take me by force?" Katsuki snarled. "Well ha, jokes on you, because we murdered them all!"

" Katsuki! " yelled Izuku.

A ringing silence fell between them, edged with Katsuki's heavy pants and the occasional popping from his hands, which had finally caught Iida's attention.

"Oh…" whispered Iida. He'd gone pale.

The two men who had backed off to give Iida space to speak with his guests reappeared at his side, drawing swords. Armor clinked behind them as the three at the door readied themselves.

"We really are just passing through," said Izuku weakly. "And it was self-defense, we didn't want to hurt anyone-"

"SHUT UP, DEKU!"

"NO! You need to calm down!"

"LIKE HELL I NEED TO-ack!" Izuku had pinched so hard Katsuki's shoulder had popped.

"He just said the king made them do it, not them! They were just soldiers following orders-"

"THEY KILLED MY MOM!"

Another horrible, ringing silence.

Iida stepped back against the table edge, as though his knees had gone weak. "Oh lord…"

Izuku's hand on Katsuki's shoulder turned claw-like and he took ahold of Katsuki's other shoulder to force him around. Katsuki hissed and clacked his teeth, but Izuku just shook him, forcing him to meet his grim gaze.

"Breathe and leave. Now."

"Don't fucking tell me-"

"You said I was your best friend, have I ever done anything to make you not trust me?"

Katsuki couldn't think straight enough to respond to that. But he knew the basic answer would be something about trusting Izuku, which of course he did, but his hands were blazing and his mouth tasted like bile.

"Go out. Leave town if you have to. Blow up shit. But whatever you do, don't hurt anyone. I swear once you've calmed down and had time to think you'll regret it."

Katsuki was having a hard time making out Izuku's face through his reddening vision. The pops in his hands had begun to drip brilliant yellow that hissed as they melted holes in the stone floors.

"Iida, do you have a back door?"

"Uh, yes, we have quite the scenic hunting grounds just through the back-"

Izuku's hands switched from Katsuki's shoulders to his wrists and they were half marching, half running towards the door in back of the great hall.

"S-straight then to your left!" Iida cried.

Katsuki was hardly aware of where they were going. He wasn't there anymore, but back on a burning prairie, blackening bodies falling left and right and horses screaming. Smoke filled his lungs, burning his throat, burning his eyes. He could hear screams and recognized them. They were his neighbors, his family, run through for nothing. Screaming for nothing. He should have gone, he should have just fucking gone.

Then he was abruptly coming to standing in a decimated clearing of blackened tree trunks and scorched earth. His hands hurt, his pants had been singed even further, and his precious fur-lined cloak had vanished somewhere.

Katsuki stared down at his charred hands blankly, his heart just beginning to slow and his ears ringing.

What…what had just happened to him?

Of course he'd been angry before. He'd even been mad enough to blank out for a moment once or twice, but only for a moment, and even then he'd been dimly aware of what and why he was doing something.

But this…this had been…like he hadn't even been him anymore, but a character in a movie, a movie made of his own memories back when their village had been attacked. He'd even seen his mother again, guts strewn on the ground like she wasn't the precious being who'd held him with soft arms and nursed his ungrateful ass. He'd seen trees as soldiers, smoke as horses, and his own fire as blood.

He didn't realize he was crying until he felt the wetness on his wrists. His hands had gone numb from his magic and hadn't felt the water.

"What the hell," he croaked, surprised to hear his voice had gone hoarse, as though he'd been roaring for the better part of an hour, and perhaps he had.

He rubbed his eyes hard in an attempt to stop their stupid leaking, then looked around.

"Izuku?" he rasped. "Eijiro?"

Nothing responded. Not even the birds, which would have fled. He couldn't see anything outside his wide ring of destruction but smoldering trees and underbrush.

He sniffed hard and rubbed at his eyes again. Damn stupid things wouldn't stop. His hands shook. He didn't like this. He didn't like this at all. What the hell happened to his fucking body? It was like he didn't even have control.

…Had he blown up someone? Oh god, had he hurt Izuku?

"Izuku?" he started moving, searching his destruction in earnest now. "Damnit, nerd, you better…you better not…"

No, Izuku would have just run like the birds for his own safety. He wouldn't be hurt. And dead, pfft, not even actual death had been able to butt Izuku out of his life. Fucking nosey nerd would crawl out of the ground with one arm like a zombie just to harass him about shit.

Even so, his voice still rose and broke like janky glass.

"IZUKU!"

"I'm here."

Katsuki whipped around. Izuku was picking his way through some smoldering bushes at the edge of the clearing, his own cloak gone somewhere, but otherwise untouched.

Katsuki hiccuped, smothered that damn girly noise along with another harsh rub of his eyes, and started his way towards Izuku. His legs shook too, and he growled at them for their rebellion. How dare they be tired when he hadn't even done shit.

Izuku had that expression Katsuki hated the most. It was the same one he'd had that fateful day back in their previous lives when they were 5 and Katsuki had fallen into a stream. The one with the soft eyes and the puckered eyebrows, all earnest concern and pity.

No. Katsuki knew better now. That wasn't pity. Izuku wouldn't pity him. He wasn't so cruel.

It still helped a bit when his tears blurred the sight of Izuku's face.

"I…I didn't mean to do that," he said.

"Yeah. It didn't seem right."

"I still want to fucking punch that Toaster."

"That flies….Kaachan."

Katsuki wiped his nose on his bare arm. "Fucking what?"

"I think you have PTSD."

"No shit." Oh. That made sense. But then, holy freak, did that mean he'd just had a flashback? Holy hell, more like a hallucination possession from hell-he'd just been angry…no, he hadn't been just angry, had he?

Screw this, he'd always sucked at picking apart his feelings. More importantly, "Where's you're fucking PTSD?"

Izuku gave him a sad smile, which he hated almost as much as the gooey 'are you okay?' look. "Not everyone's the same. I've had nightmares ever since then and…and I've been having a hard time eating."

"Aw jee, princess, don't try too hard to find symptoms just to make me feel better."

Izuku chuckled weakly. "It's…it's good to hear you sounding normal, at least." He quieted and that stupid soft look came back. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fucking fine." Katsuki pressed the numb-red heels of his hands to his eyes. "My eyeballs just got stung by the smoke. That's all."

"Right."

But Katsuki knew Izuku didn't believe him for a second.

"You should go back to Eijiro," Izuku said at length. "I'll talk things out with Iida so there's no problems."

"And the carrots. Big-ass carrots."

"Yeah, I won't forget the carrots."

Katsuki sniffed, still rubbing his eyes. "So you can shit right."

"Yeah, I'll be shitting orange. I snagged your cloak before you burned it."

"Thanks."

An awkward pause filled between them where Katsuki tried his damndest not to sniff or shake. But his whole body just wouldn't stop trembling. Could this be whiplash from using so much of his magic? Why was he even still standing here, he had a stupid dragon to find. Ugh, but the noisy pink one would be there and he just wanted some peace and quiet, and Eijiro was too much of a talker himself-screw that, he was going to find a hole somewhere instead to bury himself in-

Izuku's arms around his shoulders broke off his thoughts.

"Stop it," Katsuki protested.

But Izuku just tightened his hold.

And, somehow, the warmth and Izuku's quiet presence helped…if just a little. But Katsuki didn't do something mortifying like start wailing or hugging him back. He was a man. It wasn't the end of the world. He'd just burned some trees and got smoke in his eyes after Iida pissed him off. Stupid Toaster-Jet-Legs couldn't even ask why the king had wanted so many calvaries just to escort a dragon tamer who could fucking take care of their fucking selves in a fucking forest-and on that thought, Forbidden Forest? What kind of name was that? Was there a 'Black Forest' and 'Dark Forest' as well? Might as well throw in a 'Magic Forest' just to complete the cliche.

When Izuku finally let him go the sky looked a little softer and Katsuki's eyes had finally stopped leaking.

"Try calling Eijiro, like we practiced," said Izuku.

"I can fucking walk."

"I meant for direction's sake. I'm not even sure where we are in relation to him." Izuku didn't comment on how Katsuki's knees kept knocking against each other trying to hold him up.

"Whatever."

"You're cloak's hanging up just over there."

"Yeah."

"I'll try to bring back some dinner too-another reason to call Eijiro. Then I'll know where you are."

"Just fucking go away already."

"Alright."

Izuku still hesitated way too long for comfort before finally turning and leaving through the trees.

Katsuki took in a breath and cursed when it turned into a hiccup instead. Then, he let himself flop onto the scorched ground. After a few more breaths, he allowed himself to bow his head and properly wilt.

I miss you, Mom.