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Izuku was about ten minutes late to his meeting with the dragon sanctuary's owner.
In his defense, he'd been traveling for two days more than the three he'd originally planned for—mainly because it seemed like there was no treasure in the world that would convince Mighty to fly again, not even for a few minutes. Izuku'd almost had to push her for the last part of their journey.
That was over now, though. Izuku could see the large stone gate marking the entrance to the sanctuary. If he squinted, he could even make out some cracks that had been filled in with molten rock, the smooth surface reflecting tangerine light. They definitely had some fire-blowers here. Strong ones, if they'd managed to melt granite.
Izuku wondered if the owner would be kind enough to allow him to investigate their exact mechanism for creating fire. He'd studied dragons whose saliva could ignite, but somehow their tracheae always tended to get problems down the line. It was better when they produced liquid fire, despite what that paper from two years ago—
He needed to focus. Make a good impression, so he could live here for a month with no problems.
He tapped Mighty's ankle and did his best to ignore the pleading look she gave him in return. "Almost there."
The gate creaked open as soon as they arrived in front of it. Izuku cringed.
Everything he'd heard about the man set to expect him there had been terrifying. He was prone to yelling, cursing at people, and not trusting the advice he was given unless you could prove it to him. He didn't play friends. He signed everything with just his initials, BK, and his exact address was on a need-to-know basis.
He was competent, careful, and the only person who could help once the lab's trusted vets failed. They'd be lost without him. Izuku got the idea that he knew and liked that.
He wasn't sure what to think of how the next ten minutes would go, but a part of him was excited despite his better judgement.
The gate's movement stopped and a blond man in plain, dark coloured clothes stepped out. The soles of his feet crunched against the gravel path. He ignored Izuku entirely and bowed, holding out a hand above his head with an elegance fitting for a dancer.
Mighty made a low, content sound and stepped forward, hiding him from Izuku's view. She craned her neck down, presumably to respond to the bow by touching his hand.
"Hello!" Izuku said. "Be patient with her, please, she's tired—that's why we had to—" Izuku stepped around Mighty's feet to be able to address him directly.
He gasped.
He'd recognize that face anywhere—the unforgiving, shockingly beautiful features that had captivated him once before. The memory itself was hazy, but he was hopelessly burned into Izuku's brain.
He was unusually still now, only stroking Mighty's jaw with his held-out hand. The crease of his forehead betrayed his annoyance.
"Kacchan?" Izuku asked, incredulous.
He'd been too loud. Too much, too happy, he could almost feel his eyes shine. Despite the glare currently aimed in his direction, he barely stopped himself from running up to the other man and hugging him.
"You're la—" Kacchan opened his eyes, then his head turned in Izuku's direction. "Deku?"
"I can't believe it's you!" He still couldn't keep his smile off his face. "You own this place? You really are amazing!"
"The hell are you of all people doing here?"
Izuku stepped closer and Kacchan's hand stilled on Mighty's head for a fraction of a second. She opened a sapphire eye the size of his head, giving him a look that would've softened anyone's heart. Kacchan sighed. He started scratching the scales at the edge of her jaw.
"I, um—I'm sure you got the letter—"
Kacchan gave Mighty a quick once-over. "Her crests aren't standing straight. She looks lethargic, but who the hell knows where you took her on the way. You said she can't make ice anymore." His expression softened as he looked at her again. "Fine, I'll take her. You got her here, fucking congrats. Get out of my face."
"What?"
Kacchan made a dismissive gesture with his other hand. "I'll tell you when to take her back. Get out!"
There was an irrational need in Izuku to agree, just to make him happy. He stomped down on it. "Kacchan, I'm staying. I'm sorry to impose, but I let you know from the beginning that someone from the lab needed to stay with her."
"You cannot be fucking serious. I thought you'd go away if I told you!" His lips quirked up into a sarcastic smile. "Guess that's why they sent you."
"I brought the concentrate for the tincture she has to take!"
Kacchan held out his free hand. "So give it here!"
Reflexively, Izuku wrapped an arm around his travel bag. "I can't do that. You don't even know how to administer—"
"You come to my sanctuary and you have the gall to look down on me like that?" Kacchan yelled. Mighty swished her tail in annoyance, nearly uprooting a nearby tree.
Izuku breathed in. "I raised her since she was a cub! We rescued her from poachers— I'm not leaving. I'll sleep on your porch if you don't let me in, but I'm staying."
"What are the chances I can write to the lab to have them send someone else?"
"By the time your letter would arrive and be addressed it'd be four days, three if you mark it as urgent, but with some of the delays in some local post offices it might be more than that—then you'd have to get a response, and to write back to—"
"Quit it with your damn muttering!" Kacchan closed his eyes. He opened them slowly, like he was being tormented. "I have a spare room. I'm not cleaning you off my porch when the vampire dragons eat you overnight."
"Thank you so much, Kacchan!"
"Shut up." He finally took his hand off Mighty and pointed to a gate further inside the sanctuary, taking care that she was following his gestures. "I'm gonna set her up in the isolated enclosure until I know she's not gonna get anyone sick." He started walking in that direction and Izuku followed.
In some sense, it felt like home. It had been years since he'd followed after Kacchan like that, and looking at his body as he walked away filled Izuku with bittersweet nostalgia.
The cabin Kacchan lived in was small. As in, small enough that it had his bedroom, the living room, and a spare room, plus a kitchen and a bathroom. The walls were stone, shimmering with magic—Izuku assumed it was a protection charm, because when he'd asked Kacchan had just yelled at him that they weren't there to play house and he should keep his questions to his damn self. It made sense, though, for a place where the creatures living in the back yard could work with the elements.
They got to the door of the spare room in silence.
"Bed's made," Kacchan said. "Don't bother me." He turned on his heels and walked down the hallway to his own room.
Izuku opened the door.
The room was cozy, with a dull flowery scent in the air from a bunch of fresh geraniums on the windowsill. There was a pile of blankets on the indeed well-made bed, in different thicknesses. Kacchan had been ready for a guest, as much as he'd denied it.
Izuku pulled one of the blankets from the pile and sighed.
Maybe if he hadn't been offered that scholarship to the academy right when he'd turned fourteen he and Kacchan would've still been friends. Or maybe if he'd denied, against all reason. Realistically, it wouldn't have mattered—Kacchan had made fun of how he'd always said he wanted to move and become a scholar. Him, who'd had to learn a dead language just to take the entrance exam to the academy.
Before sleep took him, he was hit by an image of Kacchan by his side as his classmate, and he smiled into his pillow.
As soon as he finished breakfast the next morning, Kacchan stood up and said, "I'm gonna go check on your dragon."
"Mighty," Izuku filled in.
"After—"
"The legend of All Might."
The corners of Kacchan's mouth twitched up before he visibly remembered himself and stopped.
He must've remembered too, from when they were kids and they'd play in the woods that started right behind their village. Kacchan had sculpted himself a sword, at some point, made to look like it did in the legend. Izuku had gotten one of his early attempts as a gift.
Kacchan turned to leave, and Izuku scrambled to follow him. He had to stop to grab his supplies, so by the time they got to Mighty's enclosure he was jogging to catch up.
Ignoring Izuku, Kacchan bowed in hello to the dragon and pulled out a few tools from the bag he was carrying, setting them up on a large smooth rock nearby. She cocked her head curiously, but she returned the gesture. Despite growing up on human land, she hadn't been taught to fear anything medical, and Izuku was eternally grateful for that.
Kacchan picked up his air-sack-listening tool.
Izuku decided he wasn't going to let his attitude ruin what they were there to do. He walked up to Kacchan and took out a few flasks from his own bag. "Here, we should—"
"We aren't doing anything!" Kacchan slid the tool onto his head and positioned one of the receptors. "And I'm not giving her anything before I know what's wrong."
"She's been on them for a few weeks."
"Did I ask?" Kacchan climbed up Mighty's leg to her chest, then listened to her lungs for a few breaths. When he jumped back down, his expression was calculating. "Sounds fuckin' fine to me."
"Well, it's really not," Izuku said.
"Stop patronizing me! You think you're better than me because you left and you had all that training—"
"I don't think anything! I'm just saying that she was on this for a while—"
"And did it help?"
"No, but—"
Kacchan didn't listen to him, holding his hand up to Mighty. Of course the dragon loved him, so she listened without question.
He looked into her mouth, pressing his hands to the ends of her sharpest teeth. "Didn't think it was gonna be an issue, but I had to check—"
"You didn't even check her back teeth," Izuku mumbled.
"And I'm not gonna. It's useless."
"Kacchan! We have to work together if we want any of this to make sense!"
"You came here because you needed my help, and now you're telling me what I can and can't—"
A deafening roar split the air, followed by a dull crackling sound. They were muffled, like they were on the other side of the rock wall.
"Shit," Kacchan said.
That sounded about right.
They let go of Mighty and jumped into action, working together in a sync that should've been impossible for how they'd just been talking. They put all the tools they'd used back in their place. Kacchan tossed Izuku a packet of clothes and yelled at him to put them on before he even thought of following, then he opened the other gate. As he ran, he covered his own body in a thick layer of charmed leather.
Thirty minutes later, Izuku and Kacchan came back from the main enclosure.
The fireproof clothes had done their job, but some of Izuku's curls had still escaped the hat and gotten singed. He ran a hand through his hair self-consciously.
"Leave it alone," Kacchan said. He wiped a palm over his face to clear the soot from his cheeks.
"It looks weird."
"Tough shit. It looks like you actually did something useful." He threw his overcoat back on the rack. "We're gonna have to figure out what's wrong with her too, or half this place is gonna burn by next week."
Izuku followed suit. He blinked through the whiplash Kacchan's words raised in him. He could've called Izuku whatever number of mean names, but he hadn't. He never made fun of how he looked.
It wasn't like it mattered. Izuku took his own coat off and started thinking. "She could have the same problem as Mighty, but I don't think that's right, she's displaying heightened agression when we've never observed that—"
"You've got mail," Kacchan said. He threw an envelope at Izuku's face with enough force that it probably could've actually hurt him. "From Musutafu."
Luckily for the integrity of his skull, Izuku caught it. He opened the seal and pulled out the paper inside.
Kacchan had sat down across from him at the table.
He could've left the room right after he'd given him the envelope. He was sitting at the table drinking from his glass of water because he wanted to be there. That made no sense. Why would he—
"I can read it out loud," Izuku offered.
"Like I need to know your goddamn business." Kacchan stayed where he was.
Izuku bit down on a smile—he was so cute, trying not to let it be known he was curious. "It's about a scroll I found a while ago. We found out the lineage of elemental dragons wasn't exactly what we'd assumed—"
"It intersects the sun and moon breeds."
"You read about that?" Izuku leaned forward, smiling.
"What, you think I'm some kinda ignorant idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about?"
"I never said—"
"I've had enough of your judgement!" Kacchan sneered.
"I'd never judge you!"
"Then why do you—"
"Kacchan!" Izuku stood up at the table, his hands clenched against the wooden edge. "I always admired you! You were always strong, and determined, and you always knew yourself— and I had all these ideas I didn't know how to handle—"
"Looks like you handled them just fine! It was so easy for you, wasn't it, when you got everything handed to you with that—" Kacchan's face was an odd mix of emotions, not entirely covered by his frown. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his trousers.
"It wasn't easy!" Izuku raised his voice back before he could stop himself. "I had none of what I needed to know to be a student there! I could barely tell a medicinal herb from poison! If it wasn't for my mentor giving me a second chance I would've been expelled!"
There was a moment of silence.
Izuku's body felt like lead. He'd done it, he'd compromised their capacity to work together beyond any repair. He'd have to leave and send someone else instead anyway, no matter how much precious time that would waste, and he'd have to tell Yagi-san that he'd failed. Not because of technical problems, but because Izuku compulsively needed to speak when Kacchan didn't know something about him.
He tried to think of a way to fix this, but nothing made sense.
"How is he?" Kacchan asked. His face was almost relaxed, in a way it hadn't been since Izuku had shown up. "Your mentor."
"He's—old. He's trying to learn how to teach, he has a book on it. He's the kindest person."
"You met in a class?"
Izuku hesitated. Kacchan looked at him now not with disdain, not with the expectation for him to follow, but with open curiosity. It made his stomach feel warm, more than it always did when he was around Kacchan. Almost like he'd just met a second, equally easy to love person, tucked in the body of his childhood friend. He was terribly equipped to handle this.
He sat back down at the table. "Yeah."
Izuku woke up early for next morning's breakfast.
So early in fact that Kacchan was still asleep. He'd let him cook so far, wary of being in his way, but—maybe he should do something. Make a peace offering.
He was halfway through what he considered a simple but good breakfast. He'd boiled eggs and he'd left them to marinate in a sauce, and he'd gotten started on a broth that needed some time to develop a good flavor. He hummed as he cut some garnish.
The door to the kitchen opened. Kacchan stepped in, wearing his day clothes but not looking entirely awake. His hair was softer than usual, standing up in more unruly spikes. Izuku barely held back his hand from reaching out to touch.
"What're you doing?" Kacchan asked. He muffled a yawn as he stepped inside fully.
"Making food."
"Since when?"
"It's not that hard." Izuku pointed to the green onions on his cutting board, then to the bubbling liquid on the fire. "I'm almost done."
Kacchan pulled a sharp knife from the wooden post by the cleaning basin. He twirled it between his fingers, then pushed Izuku to the side to grab the remaining stalk.
"Bet I can cut those things better than you can," he said. He looked intimidating at a first glance, a wide grin splitting his face, but his happiness reached his eyes.
Competitiveness flared up in Izuku's chest. "Not a chance."
Izuku and Kacchan formed what could've been an easy friendship if you looked at it sideways and didn't think too much.
They worked together on Kacchan's sanctuary work and they visited Mighty every day. They read to each other, now that Kacchan had opened his library to Izuku. They spent quiet time around the fire in the evenings.
Kacchan had even introduced him to a red dragon who didn't mind being ridden, and they had shared the cramped space on a saddle meant for one as Izuku had found out that yes, one could get seasick from movement that wasn't the sea.
It was evening right now, and they were by each other's side again.
They were indoors, it was raining outside, and Kacchan had brought out a liquid that someone named Denki called fermented cherry juice. Izuku got the impression that they shouldn't have drank it as fast as they had, but it was sweet and it coated the inside of his mouth pleasantly.
He took another sip and unbuttoned the weird star-shaped top button of his shirt.
"Should it make me feel warm?" Izuku asked.
"Think so," Kacchan said. He'd been smiling a little since the first cups they'd had. "I always do. Plus you have that weird thing on." He gestured with a hand to Izuku.
"It's a nice shirt!" Izuku protested. "I got it from a friend at the academy. Uraraka-san."
Kacchan's eyes lingered on the shirt, traced the curve of Izuku's neck, then drifted away to look into nothing. He was quiet for a few moments too long.
"You know, I didn't want you to leave," he said after. The words sent a soft wave of shock down Izuku's spine.
"Kacchan?"
Did he mean—all the way back then?
"It's stupid. Not like you could've done anything about it."
Izuku threw his head back. He…couldn't have. If he'd known, maybe it would've played out differently, but he'd always have wanted to live. "You wanted to stay back home," he said softly. "What changed?"
"Went on a few adventures," Kacchan said. The far-gone look in his eyes dissipated as he remembered. "I had nothing better to do, figured I'd come back when they were done. Made some friends, two of them Dragonborn. We rescued a baby dragon one time and I just—none of us knew how to keep her, so I promised I'd learn."
"Do you still have her?"
"She's the fire-breather."
Izuku exhaled, eyes widening. "I'm so—"
"Can it." Kacchan took another sip of his drink. "Wasn't your fault. Plus, you were fuckin' right, the symptoms aren't the same. We'll figure it out."
"We?" Izuku asked, too fast.
Kacchan leaned closer, eyes pinned to his face, dancing in hues of ruby and topaz.
His breath was warm on Izuku's face, smelling like spiced cherries. "I could use some help."
"A-are you saying—"
"I'm saying I wouldn't mind you here, Izuku."
Izuku.
Kacchan hadn't called him that since they were so young they hadn't even learned how to read.
A shiver went down Izuku's spine. Emotions swelled inside him, too many to ever be able to speak them. When he was with Kacchan, words never felt quite right—they were either too much or too little and they never seemed to make things click into place between them like they should.
Izuku's hands moved without his agreement.
He lifted them up to Kacchan's face and cupped his cheeks, stroking his thumbs over highest ponts that were starting to bloom pink. Then he leaned in. He didn't close his eyes until way too late. Not because he didn't know he had to, but because he didn't want to miss all of Kacchan's little tells. The way his eyelashes fluttered shut when Izuku's lips were just a breath away. The way he pushed his lips out in a barely noticeable pout.
The kiss was soft, but firm in a way he couldn't help once he realized that Kacchan tasted as sweet as he smelled.
"Can't believe you'd want me with you," Izuku panted.
"You're such an idiot."
Kacchan kissed him back like they were fighting. When he pulled away, he licked his lips to break the string of spit that connected them. "All I've ever wanted was you with me. Even when I didn't know how to fucking say it." He kissed Izuku's cheek, right over the most prominent freckles. "When I was a kid I though I wanted you behind me, but what I wanted was to have you somewhere I can see. I knew if I looked back you'd be there and that was what mattered to me. I was stupid."
Izuku's vision blurred. He didn't get to kiss Kacchan before the first tear rolled down his cheek.
This time when they kissed, it tasted salty.
"Let me do it right," Izuku said between kisses. He pulled Kacchan in by the nape of his neck, dragging him into his lap entirely. "Let me stay."
Kacchan nodded, breathless.
It took no time at all to take their clothes off with clumsy, over-eager hands, needing to do something before they lost the courage to touch each other at all.
Izuku ran his palms over Kacchan's body, slowly, trying to commit everything to memory.
He was desperate. They both were, yet what they needed was to be close together above all else.
Izuku wrapped a hand around both of them, shuddering at the feeling of Kacchan pulsing against him.
He groaned. A dribble of wetness formed at the tip of his cock, spreading over both of them at his next movement.
"Can we—" Kacchan's voice cracked.
"How—"
Kacchan reached up to his bookshelf and grabbed a half-empty flask, then pushed it into Izuku's hand.
He opened the lid and Kacchan tipped a thick liquid into his palm, giving him a look that was half challenging and half heated.
Oh.
Izuku shuddered. His skin felt like it was too tight around his body.
He spread the moisture on three fingers, then circled one of them around Kacchan's entrance and sank it in as far as it went easily. It wasn't a lot. He was tight, warm, too much, exactly like Izuku would've thought Kacchan would be.
The movement brought a shuddering gasp out of him.
"You're sensitive," Izuku whispered. He could hear the reverence in his own voice, and Kacchan must've heard it too, because he clenched around Izuku's finger at the words.
" 'm not—oh, fuck—" Kacchan's entire body arched forward. Izuku sank his finger in to the knuckle, slowly moving it along the slick velvet walls.
"It's okay, Kacchan. I wanna hear you."
It made it all feel more real. Closer. Like Izuku could actually have Kacchan and not just bite down on his thoughts of him.
He dug his fingers into the skin of Kacchan's hip, holding him upright properly.
"Can I—one more?" His voice cracked on the words.
Kacchan trembled. Rocked himself against him. "Think I can't take you?"
"You can do anything," Izuku whispered, and somehow it was the right thing to say.
He kissed Kacchan through taking another finger, then three, then stretched his entrance on a fourth just to see if he'd been right.
He had. The knowledge made something burn inside him, and suddenly he found that he couldn't wait any longer. Judging by the pretty flush going down Kacchan's chest, he couldn't either.
He lined himself up and, before he could even react, Kacchan wrapped his legs around his hips to pull him in to the hilt, letting out a content little sigh when their hips touched.
Kacchan dug his nails into Izuku's shoulders impatiently. It sent tiny sears of pain sparking down his overwhelmed nerves, pulling a moan from Izuku.
A smug smile.
Something flared white-hot in Izuku's stomach, and he began to move in earnest, too fast for his own oversensitive skin but not caring about anything but Kacchan's reaction.
It was worth it, just for that. The smile on Kacchan's face melted into a blissed-out expression, his mouth dropping open. His lips were wet.
Izuku took Kacchan's hips in his hands and used them to move him down, meeting every thrust with his body. He went pliant in Izuku's hands, letting himself be lead, clenching and unclenching his hands from Izuku's neck and shoulders.
"Please, Izuku, please, I can't—"
"So tight around me," he moaned. "You feel so good, Kacchan, it's like you were made for me, you're so soft—" Izuku cut himself off when Kacchan's cock pulsed between them. He moaned loudly, then his body went rigid and he came in messy spurts over Izuku's chest, smearing his own stomach white.
Izuku stroked his fingers over a rope of cum, then he took them into his mouth. It tasted salty. It tasted like Kacchan, and that was all that mattered.
"Are you—" Kacchan sounded shocked.
Izuku responded with a grunt, all that he could manage with his mouth full. He couldn't handle it. He was surrounded by Kacchan, by his scent and the taste of his release and the softness of his skin. He groaned and felt his cock throb.
He only lasted a few more thrusts. Kacchan was drowsy now, well-spent, and he couldn't move unless Izuku used his free hand to pull him up and down, and something about seeing him so far gone was driving Izuku insane.
He came as soon as Kacchan kissed him again, slightly uncoordinated and just on the left of too wet. It felt like too much. Tears sprang from Izuku's eyes as he came in wave after wave, pulling Kacchan closer so he could push it in as far as it would go.
When it was done, he was panting like he'd run against a griffin. The bedsheets around them were messed up and wet, even torn in places where one of them had gripped them. There was no way he was letting Kacchan sleep in that mess.
Izuku pushed away from Kacchan and started to pull out. That earned him a small choked-out sound. Kacchan's nails dug into his shoulders, dragging him closer. "Don't."
"We have to clean up—"
"Don't have to do shit." Kacchan pulled harder, until Izuku's hip bone knocked the soft curve of his ass. "Stay."
Izuku moaned softly, rocking into him half-hard as he was. He wasn't trying to go again, not really, just to stay close. To feel him there.
His eyes drifted shut with Kacchan held tightly in his arms.
The next day things were weird between them again. Kacchan's cheeks bloomed bright red when he sat down at breakfast, and he yelled something about how they needed to move so they could get to their work for the day.
Izuku opened his mouth, then promptly shut it and nodded.
Last night hadn't felt just physical. Izuku wasn't sure that either of them would be capable of just that with each other. He could feel the phantom warmth of Kacchan's hands wrapped around his neck, branded into him like an iron.
He didn't know what to do about it. He wanted to confess, to promise it would all work out, but how could he say that?
"I'll be back," he said over his shoulder, ignoring the indignant response he got.
Izuku sat down on the grass next to Mighty, whose head rested on her front legs. She looked not unlike a gigantic cat, especially with the nearly lethargic air she had to her.
"You aren't sick," Izuku said. "I don't know what you have, but it's not contagious."
Mighty blinked her sapphire eyes at him. For a second, Izuku felt like she understood him, then he shook off the odd prickle of awareness.
"We're gonna leave soon." He toyed with a blade of grass between his fingers, breaking it up into tiny pieces. "I want you to know what it's like to be free."
It wasn't like she was going to fly off.
She hadn't done that in—Izuku didn't want to think about it. Three months and a week, give or take.
Izuku pulled the lever that activated the main, dragon-sized gate. The human one he'd come through had a simple metal handle, but Mighty would've barely been able to fit two of her claws through it.
She raised her head as the gate cleared, sniffing the air.
Suddenly, none of her ever-present tiredness was there anymore. She sprang under the gate, scratching the rock with the sharp spikes on her back as she made a crooning sound. Her black claws dug into the fresh soil on the other side, as if to pull her out of the enclosure faster.
"Mighty!" Izuku yelled, running after her as fast as he could.
It wasn't fast enough.
Not even the most trained human had any chance of catching up to a determined dragon mid-flight. Izuku was hundreds of stick-throws behind her, watching her as she sped out through the sky and spread her light blue wings, then headed to the lake where a group of others were bathing.
Ice crystals spread over the water's surface. She had her powers back.
They melted right away, then it began to bubble hot. A dragon from the group broke away, pushing into the air to greet her.
The fire-breather they'd had trouble with, the one that Kacchan had saved first. She let out a controlled flame that was met with a roar and a flurry of ice, their very own miniature blizzard. The shards melted and fell into the lake as rain, and the two dragons touched their noses hesitantly. They rubbed their cheeks into each other.
Then their tails intertwined. Izuku gasped.
Everything snapped into place.
"Kacchan—"
He panted, bracing his hands on his knees after how fast he'd ran inside. He didn't feel like he could draw in enough air at once.
Kacchan looked him up and down, then his expression grew even more guarded than usual, as if Izuku was watching him build his emotional walls in real time.
"You know what's wrong with her." His voice had an element of finality to it.
"I do." Izuku stepped up to him and took Kacchan's hands in his. "Elemental dragons mate for life." Kacchan sucked in a breath, but he didn't interrupt. "When I let her free she didn't just go to the rest of the flock. She and this other dragon—the orange fire-breathing one—"
"Explosion Murder Goddess."
Izuku laughed before he could stop himself. "Really?"
"Fuck off!"
"Wait, no, Kacchan—what I'm trying to say is that she found her mate again! They were separated for years, and it was starting to kill both of them. They needed each other. As soon as they touched it all came back to normal! You should see them, they're completely happy now."
"Izuku—" Kacchan's eyes shone. "What are you saying?"
He looked like he was right on the edge of letting go. Izuku's heart squeezed painfully, accompanying what it knew he felt without thinking twice.
"I'll leave soon." When Kacchan tensed further, he hurried to continue. "I'll go to the lab and explain the situation. I can't take her back now. You can come with me, or if you want you can wait and I can—I can work out an arrangement."
"You don't have to say that shit to placate me," Kacchan snapped. "I can make it through you having a life."
"I mean it! I don't—I don't want to leave you. Not now. Not ever. If it doesn't work, I'd rather have you."
Finally, something in Kacchan's eyes relaxed. "What, are we bonded for life?"
"For life," Izuku responded, completely serious.