Author's Note: ChurchGrim/Hauntedgrim requested this fic from me as a Mythical March Silver's Vault Discord Event prize. I wrote a story to go with the winning art (featured at the end of the fic because of spoilers.) This AU is based off an obscure fairy tale Prince Lindworm. You don't need to know anything about the source material going into this story. Except that a lindworm is a giant serpent generally seen as a type of dragon. Too bad, because All for One deserves to be a tiny worm.
Once upon a time, a widowed queen wept alone in the forest because her husband had died, leaving her without children. (A cynical person might suspect she was crying because without a rightful heir, her claim on the throne was tenuous.) The scent of drama attracted a passing witch. The witch told the queen to leave two onions under a two-handled cup in the garden. The next morning, she should eat the green onion if she wanted a foolish but virtuous child or the red onion if she wanted a capable but wicked child. To be clear, she was very strictly instructed to only eat one onion. Magic always has a price, and trying to avoid the consequences only makes it worse.
Although the queen didn't expect it to work, she left two ordinary white onions in the garden overnight. To her surprise, they turned green and red. At this point, the queen started to believe, so she took her choice seriously.
A naïvely good heir might run her kingdom to the ground. But a cruel king would also be a huge problem. The queen dithered for a bit, then ate both onions in hopes of getting a more balanced child. (How greedy! As expected from All for One's mother. Oops, spoilers.)
The queen became pregnant, and the succession was secured. Nine months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy with beautiful soft white hair and green eyes…and a lindworm.
Moral of the story: never ignore a witch's very clear instructions.
Like quite a few royals from other stories, the queen doted on the pretty son and locked the embarrassing ugly one away in a tower. Royals: no family values. The oldest son started out as a tiny worm. But lindworms are legendary serpents, a variant of dragons. Soon the monstrous prince grew into a majestic white snake so large he strained against the tower walls, with adamantine claws, a mouthful of sharp teeth, and a jaw large enough to swallow a man whole.
The queen died in a carriage accident. (Fairy tale mothers never last long.) Her son, the new king, found the tower with his brother inside. Being as kind and foolish as the witch had promised, he released his brother.
That was where the trouble started.
"Are you sure I can't eat any slaves?" All for One asked.
King Yoichi winced, as well he might when wrapped up in the coils of a giant and apparently hungry snake. Although Yoichi felt certain his brother would never actually hurt him. Yoichi also tried to convince himself that All for One was a good person (serpent?) with a dark sense of humor. With a slightly worried chuckle, Yoichi said, "We don't have slavery in our kingdom, brother."
"If you let me sack the neighboring kingdoms, then we could."
"What a unique sense of humor you have, my dear brother. Are you not getting enough food? I can bring more sheep."
"I've had plenty of sheep." All for One flipped his tail dismissively. "I want to try new types of meat. That consort of yours smells delicious, despite his foul mouth and unpleasant demeanor. The sass would melt right off him if he was burned crispy."
Desperately, Yoichi said, "If you only made friends, I'm sure you'd never think about eating them. Have you considered picking a less menacing name?"
"I like All for One. I thought of it myself."
Yoichi chose to surrender on this point. "Would you like to attend the feast tonight?"
"No. People other than you annoy me. And I don't like to see other people eating my food."
"Your food?"
"All food in this kingdom belongs to me. Or us, I suppose." All for One's tone made it clear he fancied himself very generous to include his smaller and weaker twin brother.
The gate opened. All for One lived in a larger tower now, with an unlocked door. Kaiji Kudou, the prince-consort, entered. The scowling man had spiky red hair and a scar across his face from a "misunderstanding" with his beloved's brother. Kudou was the reason why Yoichi could rule effectively as a king. Where Yoichi was soft, Kudou was tough and efficient. They balanced each other out.
"Love!" Yoichi tried to run over and give his beloved a kiss, but the serpent's coils held him fast.
Kudou said, "It's time to prepare for the banquet."
All for One tugged Yoichi closer and hissed.
Yoichi sweated. "I really must be going, brother. If you want to stay with me, you're invited to the banquet."
Both Kudou and All for One groaned.
All for One mumbled, "If only I was the older brother. I would ban all banquets and keep you by my side forever."
Kudou and Yoichi exchanged nervous glances. In truth, All for One was the older twin. They'd been lying to him about it. After All for One had declared he wanted to impose a tax saying that every citizen had to give him their left hand to eat, even Yoichi had realized his brother would be a disaster as a king.
Struggling against the coils, Yoichi said, "I promise you a tender lamb to eat tomorrow if you let go."
"Hmph," All for One grunted.
"Uncle All for One!" A small white-haired boy ran forward and hugged the snake. Hikage was Kudou and Yoichi's adopted son and heir. He adored his uncle, either in spite of or because of all his murderous talk.
"Aww, how's my favorite little boy?" All for One cooed, ruffling his nephew's hair with the tip of his tail. While the lindworm was distracted by his nephew, Yoichi escaped.
As they walked back to the castle, Kudou said, "You shouldn't have unlocked your brother's tower. He's dangerous."
"It was the right thing to do," Yoichi insisted. "My brother is poorly socialized due to a lifetime of cruel imprisonment. He just needs more love and affection. Then he'll blossom into a benevolent prince."
Kudou's raised eyebrow expressed his opinion of that. "I think it's time to acknowledge that although your brother was wronged horrifically as a child, he's also a jerk. Bad things can happen to bad people."
"People aren't as simple as being all good or evil. Dragons have layers, too," Yoichi insisted. "If you two got to know each other, then you'd see his good side." It did not help his case, but at the moment, he could not think of any specific good deeds as examples.
"He keeps threatening to eat people."
"It's a joke," Yoichi argued weakly. "Just like how he playfully talks about locking me up as a sign of his affection."
"He's monopolizing your time so much, I haven't gotten laid in weeks!"
"Well, perhaps we could spare a bit of time before the banquet…" Yoichi leaned into his lover and smiled coquettishly. It worked—Kudou was quite distracted from the topic of the lindworm problem.
All for One loved playing with his cute tiny nephew, the only person who he found tolerable besides Yoichi. When Hikage had to leave for the banquet, All for One bitterly resented it. If only he had his own son, then he'd have someone who would never leave his side.
Now there was an idea! All for One had no desire for a romantic partner. He found Kudou intensely annoying. But he longed for a parent-child bond and someone to keep him company while his brother was away. If Yoichi could adopt a child, why not All for One too? He'd find an even better boy. That would show up his brother's ugly consort.
With that thought, All for One slithered out of his tower and set off on a quest for the most adorable child in existence.
Izuku stumbled away until his back struck tree bark. He gulped. "Please, can't we talk about this?"
Tsubasa leered over Izuku, punching his fist into his palm. "Give me the shoes, Deku. Aren't we friends? Don't friends share?"
Izuku's red shoes were a family heirloom, enchanted to allow him to move at great speed. They were all that remained of his late father. He couldn't possibly let a bully have them. If Tsubasa "borrowed" his shoes, he knew he'd never see them again. He turned to run.
Unfortunately, Motu stood behind him. The second bully pulled out a knife between his long fingers. "Don't make us do this the hard way, Deku. A magical treasure is wasted on a squirt like you. We're going to become witch and dragon slaying heroes."
There was also no point in explaining to these two lunkheads that randomly murdering magical people without cause would be wrong. Izuku shifted from foot to foot, prepared to run sideways.
A giant white serpent crashed through the trees. "I smell children! Stand up in a line so I can assess if you are more adorable than my nephew (if that's even possible.) This is an order from your prince."
"W-we're not from this kingdom," Tsubasa stuttered, perhaps in shock. "We're visiting for the banquet."
"If you don't belong to my brother, then he shouldn't mind if I eat you." The lindworm swallowed Tsubasa in one bite. He spat out a helmet. "Ugh, rusty."
"A MONSTER!" Motu screamed.
"Rude." The lindworm gulped down Motu too, clothing and all. Then he turned a massive red eye on Izuku. Bending down, he sniffed the terrified boy. "A rather bland taste, both of them. Ah, but you smell delicious. I think I need to eat one more human to decide if I like the flavor."
With those words, Izuku snapped out of his shock. He turned and ran.
The lindworm thundered after him. Although Izuku's shoes had been enchanted by a long-ago fairy godmother, the lindworm was much larger and faster than him. Izuku veered into the deeper part of the forest, hoping to lose his pursuer where the trees got too close together for a large beast to fit through.
Behind him, the lindworm howled as if in pain. Izuku dared glance over his shoulder. As he'd hoped, the lindworm's skin had gotten stuck on the trees. But instead of trapping him, the skin peeled off. The creature kept coming, massive jaws snapping to reveal a terrifying red gullet. His gaze looked pissed. A bit of Tsubasa's shirt stuck to his tongue. Izuku ran faster.
The ground sloped downward, too fast. Izuku slipped and tumbled down the hill.
A branch caught the lindworm. With a shriek, he ripped free, leaving a massive trail of white scales as he skidded down the hill.
Both Izuku and the lindworm landed in the stream below. Except…the dragon had somehow become a lot smaller. A white-haired man with red eyes blinked at Izuku, dazed. For a moment, Izuku wondered where this second human had come from. Then he looked down and saw the man's lower half had a white tail.
Shrieking, Izuku kicked the half-lindworm away. Whether because the skin was already falling off, or because of the magic in the red shoes, the tail peeled away. A confused naked man fell backward. He cried out in pain as his back hit the ground, then sputtered as he swallowed water.
Izuku rose to run…then stopped. He'd heard stories before about innocent people transformed into monsters. Now the curse had been broken, this ordinary man was no threat to anyone.
Turning back around, Izuku extended a hand to help the man up. "Are you all right?"
A tight grip latched onto his hand. "Found you!" The naked man smiled with entirely too many teeth for a supposed human. "The most adorable boy in the world."
King Yoichi was enjoying his second cup of mead when a guard tapped him on the shoulder. "Your Majesty, a naked man is claiming to be your brother. He appears to have taken a child hostage, so we're afraid to approach him."
Dropping his cup, Yoichi ran.
A white-haired man who looked uncannily like Yoichi stood outside the palace gates. He had a boy slung over his shoulder. He waved cheerfully as Yoichi approached. "Brother! I've adopted a new son."
Yoichi would recognize that smug tone anywhere. "All for One! You've become human! This is marvelous. Oh, but you need to release that boy."
"He's my son," All for One insisted. He set the boy down on his feet, but latched onto his wrist. "He pulled off my skin and turned me into a human. I miss the claws a little, but now I can stay by your side all the time."
Fussing, Yoichi wrapped his cloak around his nude brother. "Maybe not all the time, but you'll have a child to keep you company too. Of course I'd be delighted to adopt your savior as a prince."
"I already have a mother," the boy said. He looked into two pairs of sad eyes, one red and one green. In a moment of weakness he would likely later regret, he added, "Uh, but my father passed away when I was very young. I guess I could have a new father figure. We could start by getting to know each other slowly."
"You've saved my brother by breaking his curse. You're part of the royal family," Yoichi insisted. He swept his brother and his new nephew into a group hug. "See, I knew dragons had layers."
OMAKE TIME!
Shigaraki Mother: The witch has left me with an impossible choice: a fool or a tyrant for an heir.
Kudou: Yoichi found good advisors, and as his consort, I balance out his idealism with practicality. The kingdom has prospered under his rule.
Shigaraki Mother: Well, now I feel embarrassed. This entire lindworm situation could have been avoided with an arranged marriage.
#
Yoichi: With the curse broken, my brother is now an ordinary human with human morals.
All for One: Actually, I'm still a jerk.
Yoichi: Shhhh. Let me have this moment.
#
Yoichi: To save my kingdom, I'm going to lie, fake evidence, and even gaslight that I'm the older brother.
All for One: The exact same thing that I do in other AUs, I'm a little proud.
#
All for One: It's a happy ending, for everyone except the boys I ate. But they were bullies, so it's fine.
Yoichi: It's not!
All for One: In that case, would you believe that a witch ate them?
Yoichi: The good news is that my brother will no longer try to eat people now that he's human.
All for One: I won't? Witches eat children in their gingerbread houses, and they look pretty human. Just saying.
#
All for One: My new son will stay by my side forever.
Izuku: Can we negotiate this point? I have a life, and even my severely anxious mother isn't so controlling.
All for One: Sure, here's another offer: you, Yoichi, and Hikage ALL stay with me forever.
#
Inko: Any dragon who steals my son will face my frying pan.
All for One: You're lovely, you can become my wife so we'll all be a family.
Inko: Doesn't a prince need to marry a princess, not a commoner?
Yoichi: No, we're desperate. I'm happy to give my brother to absolutely anyone who will take him.
Author's Note: Check out ChurchGrim/Hauntedgrim's lovely art of Lindworm for One. Delete the spaces to get the link:
tumblr.
com/
aimportantdragoncollector/746675559131758592/dragons-have-layers-too-katydid