~ M H A • O N E S H O T S ~

🧡🧡BakuDeku💚💚

DOES CONTAIN SELF-HARM SO BE WARNED

Katsuki tromped through the woods, idly
kicking at downed logs and branches. Sometimes he kicked at streaks of sunlight crossing the foliage in bold stripes, just because he could. The birds pretended not to see him even as squirrels chattered at him, but he ignored them all in turn. Today, he was on the hunt... sort of. Katsuki didn't care about being found out; he was the toughest thing around. Rather, he was following a scent that caught his nose in the early morning hours—something different, delicious... delicate and savory all at once. He wanted to know what it was, and Bakugou Katsuki almost always got what he wanted.

Brushing his cloak irritably out of his way, he jumped up on a downed tree. It leaned against its neighbors, held up by the silvery trees with sturdy branches just made for climbing, and Katsuki ran up its length with sure-footed ease. He jumped from the fallen tree to one of those supporting it. From there, he grabbed hold of a branch above his head and swung himself up, repeating until he was as high as the tree would support.

The view up here was incredible, with the forest stretching out as far as the eye could see. Birds and butterflies fluttered about in the warmth of the sun blanketing the world, and a breeze pushed gentle fingers through his hair, working to temper the heat. It was nice... but Katsuki couldn't see any sign of whatever tantalized his sensitive nose.

He was about to jump down to a lower branch when a loud animal cry rent the air, sending flocks of birds into flight and nearly sending him to the ground on his ass. Swearing, he barely grabbed hold of the branch with one hand. Another screech echoed through the forest, followed by an agonized cry.

"What the hell?" Dropping to a lower branch, then to the ground, Katsuki wasted no time heading in the direction of the sound. Leaves and underbrush crunched under his feet as he ran, but all he could hear was the pain that pulled at his heart. The picturesque day was lost to him, and all he could see was the blur of trees flying past. Then the world opened up around him into a large clearing, and he skidded to a stop. In his chest, his heart skipped a beat. There, kneeling next to a bubbling brook, was quite possibly the most beautiful person he'd ever seen.

Graceful antlers sprouted from the wild green curls that topped the head of a male shifter who looked to be about his age. Glistening emerald scales ran down his bare back, curving sinuously over his musculature and merging into a long, scaled tail. What Katsuki's eyes really caught on, though, were the tears wetting verdant eyes and staining freckled cheeks, and the blood that dripped from delicate black claws. Even as he watched, the shifter reached back and tore half a dozen scales from his back in one go. He threw his head back in agony, biting his lip hard enough to pierce the skin as blood spattered against the grass..

Katsuki moved before he thought, striding across the clearing. "Stop!" he cried. "What are you doing? Stop!"

The shifter dropped the scales and scrambled backward, grabbing a slender, elegantly curved sword from the grass next to him and bringing it up between them.

"Go away," he hissed, baring blood-streaked fangs. More blood dripped down his chin to land on his chest. "You have no business here."

"My business is what I choose it to be," Katsuki argued. Nevertheless, he stepped back and held up his hands.

"Go away!" the shifter shouted, rising to his feet only to fall back to his knees. Wounds on his calves and ankles bled sluggishly into a puddle on the ground beneath him.

"The hell..." Katsuki breathed, horrified. Reaching into his belt pouch, he dug around frantically for his soulstone. "I can heal you," he said. "Just hold—"

"Go away. I don't want to be healed! I don't need some do-gooder running in here to 'save me' at the last minute! I don't need you! Leave!" The sword sang through the air between them in a vicious swipe.