After he woke up on a futon for the first time in…well, forever, Katsuki just laid there, staring at the rafters and listening.
It was too quiet. Sure he could hear people murmuring to each other outside and the occasional crunch of gravel or dirt beneath feet, but it was practically silent compared the bustle of Jet-leg's Stinkville.
He glanced over to see Izuku doing much the same, staring and thinking, spread eagle on his own futon.
"Hey."
Izuku turned his head and met his eye. They communicated silently for a moment, all eyebrows, pointed stares, a shrugged shoulder or two.
"Breakfast and go?" Izuku finally said.
Katsuki nodded and leapt to his feet in one smooth motion. Gawd, he needed a workout. His muscles were twitching for it. All this freezing his ass and getting beaten up by the wind on a dragon did nothing for his skills.
Maybe he could find a ninja up to going a round or two…
When Izuku and him stepped out of the little hut they'd been allowed to sleep in, it was disturbing how many heads turned their way. Even if they all quickly looked back to their own business soon after, it creeped him the hell out.
"Where's Cheeks?" Katsuki asked.
"She should be just next door," said Izuku.
Katsuki squinted at the sky to measure the time. "Still pretty early. Here's a present: you can wake her up. I'll hunt down grub."
Izuku flushed. "But she-what if she's-"
"Then lucky you, perv."
A twinkle of ice and smoke came a blink before Todoroki appeared at Izuku's side, as solid as though he'd been there the whole time.
All the heads flicked around from their business again to stare at Todoroki, and stare hard.
Katsuki resisted the urge to growl. He hated noisy busybodies. Didn't they have better things to do than watch them like entertainment? Just how little went on in this town?
"I can check for you," said Mr. Flame-and-Frost-Toot.
"Shouto, elemental or not you can't just invade a girl's privacy."
Shouto blinked that slow, cat-like blink. "Why? It's not like she sleeps naked."
Izuku flushed. "You don't know that!"
Another cat-blink. "Humans sleep naked too?"
"And I'm out." Katsuki pivoted on his heel and got off that porch. He met the unabashed stare of one of the nosey plebs and grunted in satisfaction when they quickly looked away. He waited till he was several steps away from Izuku and his tagalong before saying, loudly, "Alright, which one of you ninja-fucks is up to trading for some food?"
He could feel more than hear Izuku's disapproval from behind him.
Several of the townsfolk flinched and proceeded to pretend that they didn't hear him, walking around houses or continuing their chores of sweeping porches, hanging daikon radishes and carrots, or conversing in low voices. One or two, however, exchanged glances and cautiously approached him.
"We're happy to feed our guests," said a man with several moles quietly.
"We're not so uncultured," said his female companion, a none-too-subtle 'unlike you,' in her tone.
"Tch, I accept no charity," said Katsuki. "I got a dragon you can pick off and a naga who doesn't have a choice. Naga venom's useful for some shit, right?" He'd heard that off Pinkie.
The couple's eyes widened. "That-that would be too much-"
"Well lucky you, that's what I got."
As the man floundered through aborted sentences and flapping hands, the woman's eyes went to Katsuki's arms.
"How about cutting some firewood?" she said. "You look like you could do quit a bit and our children are preoccupied."
"Hey, I'm still here," mumbled the man, pouting.
She ignored him, waiting on Katsuki's reply.
Katsuki gave his most cocky smirk. "You'll have enough firewood to build a second house."
She chuckled. "Then I'll have enough food to feed a small army. Your friends are invited."
"Nice," he jerked his chin over her shoulder. "Lead the way."
Sweet. Work out and a meal. He should have come here earlier.
He'd just hammered out enough wood to make a hill his size and break out a sweat when red entered his field of vision, wearing a skirt far shorter than what she'd previously worn.
Katsuki did his best to hide the way he froze up and stared. Best to look casual. It wasn't cool to look to interested.
He leaned back into his hips, throwing his bare shoulders back and flashing some teeth.
"We meet again," he said.
The sweet-ass ginger girl returned his grin. He tried to be covert with flicking his eyes up and down her figure. Her simple navy skirt nearly reached her knees, but she wore close fitting leggings underneath and a yakuta like top. Modest. It covered the important bits. That didn't mean Katsuki wasn't looking forward to when she'd turn around and walk away. But this view was nice too. She had her curly red hair tied into a high ponytail and bright, sky-blue eyes he hadn't noticed before, along with the peach-like smile her lips made.
A hot tingle ran up from his toes.
"I'm kind of surprised you came here," she said. "Do you often follow strange girls back to their village?"
Katsuki shrugged. "You made the effort to dress up and hunt me down, so I figured why not." He jerked his head behind him, where the crown-topped mountain loomed. "So, there really dragons up there or you just that into me?"
Her peachy smile widened, making the hot tingle strike out against his thighs.
"Oh, no, there's dragons up there. At least, according to the elder. You should really ask him rather than just depending on my word."
"Is there a reason why you're helping me? Besides, you know," he did a little pec dance, just for her.
She laughed and the sound warmed him more than the hot tingles.
"Oh gal, you really…" she cleared her throat, trying to gain a semblance of seriousness. "Well, I thought it would be obvious. I'm sure you've heard by now that the emperor of our country isn't the best. My village, as you so blatantly pointed out, is in fact a village of ninjas, though please keep that to yourself. It's a secret, along with the fact that we've served rulers of this continent for generations as their shadow. In return the leaders protect our way of life and listen to our requests above all others."
"Except this guy, apparently?" Katsuki threw out.
She nodded, blue eyes darkening beneath lowered, ginger lashes. "Ten years ago, before he claimed the throne, my village use to be full to the brim with people. Now it's grown quiet, ever since he kept demanding more and more of our people and sending our agents on missions they couldn't return from. He's ignored our council concerning other lands as well and our obligations have turned from serving the ruler to watching helplessly as our neighbors wither under his dictatorship."
And then a sudden thought occurred to Katsuki as to why the village had been so quiet. "Wait, where's all your kids?"
The girl's mouth thinned.
"You noticed," she said.
"Kind of hard not to, it's quiet as shit."
She looked down, clasping her hands together. "We…we tried to deny him when our agents kept dying. We, well, more or less went on strike, so he…"
Katsuki scowled. "Did he kill or kidnap them?"
"Hostages are far more useful," she said with a sad smile. "We may be skilled warriors, but we are few in number. He sent a whole army."
"Not really original of him."
"I know. He did the same to your tribe."
Katsuki nodded, not having to ask how she knew. She'd just said they were basically the informants for the kingdom. Pretty fortunate on their part ot have landed here.
"So what does that have to do with me?" he asked.
"Well-"
"I ain't fighting no emperor for you, if that's what you're asking."
He was offended that she looked so surprised.
"What?" he snarled. "Why'd you think I would in the first place?"
"Well, he killed so many of your people, including your mother-"
"Yeah, but getting involved won't bring them back. If anything it would just bring unwanted attention to the whoever's left and get them killed too," he snapped, all the deja vu of the Toaster coming back. "It'll just cause more trouble, and I've tried the whole 'hero' thing before. Newsflash, it isn't as awesome as it seems. You work your ass off to change the world only to realize the world isn't some clay lump you can mess with, it's just people, and people as a whole don't change. Save your damn self and send your own hero. You're ninjas, aren't you? Assassinate him from the shadows, or does he have a lackey or two ready to kill your kids as soon as you do?"
She looked down. "You got it."
Katsuki looked to the sky with a groan and a muttered cuss.
"The thunder dragons are actually a guarded secret in our village," she said quickly. "I thought, well, in return for leading you to your dragon-"
"-that we'd be all cooleo helping you out of the fuzzy goodness of our hearts."
She nodded, still looking down. He didn't like that look on her. She was prettier smiling with her belligerent red head thrown back, as though ready to cackle like a cheesy cartoon villain. It made something squirm unpleasantly in his chest to see her all wilted instead.
"Please," she said. "Your people are known to be master warriors, and as dragon tamers on top of that-and if you get rid of it perhaps you could even demand the return of the remaining dragon tamers to their homeland, or even a lifting of the banishment to the northern lands."
Katsuki growled and re-hefted the ax in his hand for another swing. "Why the hell does everyone think we aren't happy where we are?" He readied a block of wood on the stump. "Fucking extras haven't even bothered talking to us let alone visiting." He slammed the ax down, cutting the thick wood in two as easy as paper. "Not that we're complaining, we're up there cause we hate greedy asshole bastards in the first place. Serious perks to not being a tourist destination, you know."
She watched him quietly through half a dozen more swings of his ax, her expression unreadable.
"You're right," she said at length. "I apologize. I made assumptions without knowing anything."
"Damn right," but he didn't say it with as much strength as he wanted to. It was getting harder to look at her slumped shoulders and downturned eyes.
After adding another foot to his small mountain without her leaving, he rested the ax against his shoulder and used his free hand to scratch at his head vigorously.
"Fucking fine," he muttered. "I'll talk to my nerd and see what he wants to do."
She perked up, big blue eyes flashing at him like headlights.
"That doesn't mean I'm killing some bigshot for you," he snapped. " I already explained why that's a shit-ton mess I ain't touching, but maybe we could help you get your kids out or something. Maybe teach you a thing or two about living out of sight so you don't get these stupid problems with dictators."
She clasped her hands together, beaming. "That's better than nothing! I'll talk to to the elders. I've been working as their sort of go between if you haven't guessed already."
"I figured," he said grumpily. He hated being so nice. He could almost hear the nerd cheering for him in the background and it made him want to scream. "You don't strike me as the stupid type that would try to do all this shit on their own."
"Aww, well don't be like that, you're gonna make me blush."
"Shut up," he said half-heartedly, looking around for some more wood. "Leave me to my work. I got breakfast to earn."
"I think you more than did that." She eyed the giant wood pile next to him.
"You softy southerners all get surprised at how much us 'barbarians' can eat," said Katsuki, placing another wood chunk for splitting. "Better safe than sorry, and I need the work out. I can feel my muscles shrinking by the second I'm down here among you plebs."
"Then how about a spar later?"
He slammed the ax down, wood pieces gone flying. "What?"
She had that cat-got-the-gream peach smile again, and the hot tingles in his thighs returned with a vengeance.
"A spar," she almost purred. "With me."
He didn't even try to hide it this time when he gave her a once over, from her dainty feet, pass the skirt veiling that perky ass, to the top of her curly ginger head. She had good muscle tone, he could see that much. But she was easily half is size.
That doesn't mean he was stupid enough to judge by looks alone.
"Sure," he flashed his trademark smirk. "But I won't go easy on you. I meant it when I said I need a work out."
"Great!" she chirped, complete with a happy in hop in place that was quickly replaced with a haughty swish of her head that made his smile grow. That was the stuff. Fucking cute, is what it was. "I'll come by and get you later, then. Enjoy your breakfast!"
She swiveled on the spot and trounced off. Sure enough, that little skirt showed off the bubbly butt far better than the bulky maid's uniform.
His heart picked up speed and the hot tingles rocketed all over his body.
Well damn. He might just be in trouble.
