Forget the nice flat platform in the sky. The entire tip of the mountain had been decimated.
"Guess you set off a chain reaction or something," said Izuku as he stared with eyebrows lost in his hair at the massive destruction.
They'd had to find the biggest rock to land on, and this time Katsuki had a fresh set of Toru-made clothes to keep warm in. They even had the added bonus of smelling like her house, and in turn her. She even lent him a winter scarf she'd knitted, and he was more than happy to keep his face ducked into it and ignore everything except snuggling close to Eijiro's warmth.
Eijiro hadn't said anything, but both barbarians knew he didn't want to come. He came out of manly principle to support his bros. Still, he shivered madly beneath Katsuki and Izuku, giving the sensation of being atop a giant vibrator.
"Eijiro," Izuku said sternly.
" I got it, I got it." Eijiro started huffing half-made fire over himself. A blast of steam just missed their legs by inches.
Katsuki didn't mind. Toru smelled like jasmine rice and something like peaches. And yes, he could remember what those smelled like because she treated him to some bottled peaches from the year before. Apparently, the ninja village had a little orchard of them.
I'm going to marry the fuck out of her, he kept thinking. We'll live half the year here and half the year back home. I'll bring back peaches. The tribe will sing my praises late into the night. It's going to be sick.
He didn't realize he was being talked to until Izuku tapped him on the head.
"What?" he growled through his scarf.
"If it gets too cold, you and Eijiro can go back."
"Why'd we freaking come? No way, if something comes back we got to be here to protect you, since Sensei's dragon's just a fluffball."
" A very useful fluffball!" said Shirakumo, because he felt no shame at being more or less useless when they'd been attacked. He was probably one of those rare souls that could talk down their guilt over things they couldn't control, like being born a flying mattress.
Aizawa grunted, having more or less vanished again into feathers.
"Is there anything we can do to get their attention?" asked Izuku.
" We sky dragons are sensitive to air currents. Just being here should have alerted them," said Shirakumo. "The very air you breathe and your warmth sends out a stream in the current. Think of it like a drop of food dye in some water. Oh, by the way, I heard you guy have a really talented blacksmith. Do you think he could make me, like some talons I could wear and chop stuff up with? Make this cloud a tad more deadly and all."
"Don't you have a blacksmith?" asked Izuku. "I mean, you have all those katanas and stuff."
"Sho was killed in the last attempt," said Aizawa. "His sons are among the hostages. His other apprentice just got started and knows diddily squat."
" And the human blacksmiths nearby won't even come out when we come around," said Shirakumo, long blue neck wilting. " It's not like I'm that scary, right?"
"I already told you, it's the emperor's fault, Ku."
"And I guess old man Antioch would be used to working with Eijiro," said Izuku. "Alright. If we get a moment we can drop by."
"It's a freaking week-long trip, Deku, you don't just ' drop by '" muttered Katsuki, not really caring if he was heard.
"Well, I would like a visit before we sell our souls to the devil, empty promise or not. I chipped my sword on that thing that had Eijiro. Like, what the hell, I thought whip-swords only existed in anime."
"The Emperor's weapons maker not only has incredible skill, but has dragon fire," said Aizawa.
Because of course the bad guy has all the good stuff. No UA with an infinite budget and support items out of a sci-fi film here.
Not like Katsuki needed any of that. He had mad skills and a ninja wife-to-be.
Thinking about her happy agreement to join him made him smile and nuzzle down into his scarf for more jasmine rice and peach peace.
The hairs on the back of his neck rose. Someone was mocking him.
Sure enough, the nerd was grinning at him in that way.
"Want to be punched?" he growled.
"What? It's cute how happy you are. Is that her scarf?"
"Eat shit."
"Gosh, so mean. Can't I just be happy with you? I'm your friend, aren't I?"
" Yeah, give us the deets, bro," chimed in the chattering Eijiro beneath them. " How far you got? You guys an item yet?"
"What, you trying to live vicariously through me because neither of you losers have game?"
He more felt than saw Izuku and Eijiro flinch.
"Hey, I danced with Lilly. And Ochako just…doesn't remember yet," said Izuku, looking elsewhere.
Eijiro had no such pride.
"I'm trying!" he wailed. " But all she sees me as is a big fat lizard! I didn't even know dragons could polymorph, so who would have taught me back home? My family didn't even care about the humans. It was all 'oh this rock taste good,' or 'this magma pit is just right' or gossip about who was mating with who."
" I can teach you how, " said Shirakumo.
A pause.
Then the warm comfy seat of fire dragon and spine backrest upheaved and Katsuki went flying.
" Really!? Really!?"
"OY!"
"You alright, Kaachan?"
He'd managed to land on a spot that was more gravel than stone, but it still hurt like hell.
He spent the next few minutes wrestling Eijiro's massive head to the ground with well-timed explosions and his weight around the base of his horns. Eijiro wailed like a child, even though it was the equivalent of a chihuahua wrestling a horse to the ground.
Izuku just got off and asked Aizawa if he could join him in the feather mass. So when Katsuki finally had Eijiro's sorry muzzle firmly beneath his boot, Izuku had also vanished.
Yes, he'd learned to appreciate Eijiro's strengths and not be jealous of the sky dragon, but damn that sounded nice. Even after a good wrestle and his fur cloak he still shivered. The chill up here where the air was thin and dry hit differently than the snowy plains back home.
He was just debating on whether his pride could manage asking if he could go in as well when a caw-like shriek split the air.
The clouds had moved. They'd risen, only for Katsuki to realize a moment later it wasn't the clouds, but the white and blue feathery form of a pair of dragons coming their way. He'd no sooner spotted them than they were upon them, the gusts of their wings dropping the temperature even more.
Shirakumo rose to meet them, keeping his warm clutch in his tightly folded wings.
Eijiro hunkered down even more, and try as he might, Katsuki found himself retreating into the huddle.
" Maybe a trip home isn't such a bad idea," came Eijiro's whimpery voice.
Yeah. A dip into some lava pits were starting to sound heavenly.
" Why have you brought a fire dragon, Shirakumo?" asked one of the dragon's, its voice chill and thin in Katsuki's heat. " It can't be good for him up here."
" His rider brought a tamer from the fire dragon lands with lightning magic. He's looking for his dragon."
There was a pause that made Katsuki peer up over the rim of Toru's scarf.
The two dragons landed gingerly, their long claws needing a minute to feel around for a rock that wouldn't roll loose under their weight before folding in their sky-eating wings.
" The only storm dragon was taken a month ago," said another thin, cold, and rather mournful voice. " By a great fire dragon and his tamer. He came in the night, while we were not looking."
" A child. Lost," cried the first, ducking its head low.
" That's why no one could come to greet you, Shiry. The whole tribe is spread out over the skies searching for the lost child."
"There was a storm dragon born?! Why didn't anyone tell me?" asked Shirakumo. " I would have brought gifts."
"His mother insisted since you are in contact with the humans," said the first. " And the human tyrant seeks for storm dragons most of all."
"We tried searching his castle."
"But we can't go inside."
"His mother has been inconsolable. She searches more frantically than us all."
"She tried to go in."
"Lost her feathers-she'll freeze to death if she's brought home. So we've had to find a new nest for her to grow them back."
"Wow," said Shirakumo. " You guys really were busy. So, you think he's in the emperor's castle?"
"Or somewhere similar."
"After all, the Emperor cannot command him without a tamer as leverage. The child was rather…"
The dragons paused, even looking at each other as though searching the other for words.
"He would not have bowed his head to any man," one finally said at length.
" A strange one, that one."
"Old before his time, and yet very carefree, like a hatchling."
Shirakumo's feathers parted and Izuku's curly head popped through.
"Can you tell him more about him?" he asked.
The dragons ducked their heads in to peer more closely at Izuku.
" Oh! Is this him?"
"He smells of fire."
"It must be, the fire dragon's tamer is over there, by the child."
"Poor child, you shouldn't have brought him up here, he's going to freeze!"
"Yeah, I'm him," said Izuku, even lifting a hand to show some sparks around his fingertips. "What does he look like? What's his name? Is he for sure in the castle?"
One of the dragons left Izuku to come and nestle its wings next to Eijiro, who leaned into them thankfully.
" I'll answer your questions, but Shirakumo, get over there first. Warm that child. You're parents would be ashamed, leaving a youngling to shiver like that."
"Eek! Sorry! I just…yeah, I'll just…"
Katsuki ducked his head with the rest of his body under Eijiro's wing as another fluffy mass joined on the otherside, covering all except Eijiro's head like a chick beneath a hen's feathers.
It got instantly warmer.
" His name is Toshinori-"
Katsuki exploded out of the feathers.
" DEKU!"
Izuku was ready-with the tip of his thumb on his nose, fingers wiggling to the sky, tongue out, and looking positively ecstatic.
"Neener neener-"
Katsuki AP shoot the bastard's face.
Of course the dweeb had to dodge so Katsuki didn't get the needed satisfaction of seeing all his curly-ass hair burnt off. But now he had a mission. Let's see Izuku woo anything looking like a q-tip stuck into a socket.
The new sky dragons watched wide-eyed as the fire dragon tamer, who'd been frozen in place from cold since they'd arrived, rocketed over the mountaintop after a sparking blitz of green lightning.
" They've been through a lot," said Shirakumo. " Had to go underground for healing. They knocked them out with mushrooms and everything."
The dragons went 'Ahh' and nodded their sleek heads as though that explained everything.
Eijiro's head drooped to the cold stones from within the feather mass.
"I want All Might to be my dragon," he muttered.
From within Shirakumo's feathers, Aizawa sighed.