Running With The Wolves (Shoto Todoroki X Izuku Midoriya)

Chapter 23: The Bonds We Share

A sack full of bear traps was thrown off a high gorge. Standing close to the edge of the cliff, but not too close, both Shoto and Izuku watched as the sack grew smaller and smaller till they lost sight of it, plummeting all the way down to the very bottom.

"Now that's finally taken care of!" The wild boy happily exclaimed as he brushed his palms together to rid off the dirt that stuck to his skin. Grabbing ahold of the other boy's hand, startling him a bit in the process, Izuku then added "Come on, we still have enough time before the sun goes down!"

And with that, the wild boy proceeded to pull the hunter boy along with him as they walked away from the cliff and back into the forest. Letting go of the other's hand, Izuku began humming a familiar merry tune and happily skipped ahead of Shoto.

"So. Dulaman, huh?" The hunter boy curiously asked, recognizing and remembering the song the wild boy sung earlier. "What does it mean anyway?"

Taking a pause from his skipping, the wild boy simply replied "Oh, it's literally a seaweed!"

"Seaweed? What kind of seaweed exactly? Some magical seaweed or something?"

Hearing this made Izuku shoot Shoto a rather confused look.

"Townie, Dulaman is literally just a seaweed!"

"Wait, seriously?! It's just a seaweed?! Like actual seaweed?!"

Izuku simply responded with a hum and nod.

"Not even some sort of God of seaweed? How about a magical creature that looks like a seaweed!"

Simply watching Shoto getting confused all because of a song that just literally talks about channel wrack seaweed, Izuku of course couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Yup, it's just an ordinary seaweed!"

"Who makes a song all about seaweed?!"

"Who knows?! Whoever made that song was just probably hungry for some!"

"You're not the one who made it up?"

Izuku replied by shaking his head and humming no.

"I actually overheard three men singing that song. I think they were camping here in the woods for the night. I really liked the song, so I stayed hidden for awhile and listened to them sing. Right before the wolves and I decided to chase them away!"

"Of course you would!" Shoto sighed, feeling bad for the nameless men who were unfortunate enough to enter the domain of the wild boy and his pack of wild wolves.

"From what I heard, it's actually a folk song about the practice of gathering the seaweed. It wasn't our song, but no matter what song it is, Mama always loved the sound of music!"

And just like that, the mere mention of the wild boy's mother made the air between the two wolfwalkers suddenly grow cold and uneasy. The same goes for Izuku's expression as well as his aura, which suddenly turned sad and longing.

"She even told me she loved hearing me sing, it made her happy for some reason. I didn't know why, but it's not like I care. As long as it made her happy, why even bother knowing the reason?" He spoke with a low tone as he reminisced his most cherished memories between he and his mother, but somehow managed to smile in spite of the sad look in his eyes.

"So then, where is she? Do you think she got caught?"

"Shoto, how could you say that?!"

Confused, the hunter boy hummed before shooting the other that very same look. Then from out of nowhere, he suddenly felt something grab ahold of the front of his cloak. Eventually realizing that it was none other than the wild boy.