Crossing Fates : Book 1 - Escape (BakuDeku)

17 - The Talk

"You mean that?" Izuku searched his face.

Katsuki laughed, a husky, wicked chuckle. "No."

Fury flashed across Izuku's face and was dampened. "Fair enough," he said, voice flat.

The boy turned and strode toward the beach house.

Katsuki followed, frowning. Just like he didn't like the photo of Izuku walking away from the camera, he didn't like the boy's voice dull and flat or his expression shuttered.

The fear and stress in Izuku's scent jangled the addicting young wildness of his normal fragrance.

That flash of fury had been much more interesting. Fury also had a scent, like the crackle of a bonfire.

Katsuki watched Izuku's perfect ass and slender legs as he climbed the wooden stairs to a balcony and entered a beach house by sliding doors. As Katsuki entered, he closed and locked the door behind him.

Izuku went to the kitchen sink and focused on scrubbing the sand from the abrasions on his palms. Still in that flat, dull voice, he asked, "Are you hungry?"

Katsuki paused, surprised again by him. He leaned against a wall.

There was no telling what the lunatic in the boy's body would say next.

"What if I am?" he tested.

Izuku glanced at him, face tight. "If you are, I'll need to order delivery. I'm a vegetarian and you're rather famously not. Assuming I'm not on the menu for your dinner, I don't have anything to feed you that you'll like."

Izuku meant to feed him supper?

He had serious questions for this boy, his property to locate and an outrage and fury he had set aside, not banished. He had justice to mete out and vengeance to claim, but first he had to map out this unfamiliar territory he traveled in.

Katsuki realized something. For the first time in a long time, perhaps even centuries, he wasn't bored.

From the moment he picked up that scrap of paper in his lair, his thief had continued to surprise him.

Katsuki rubbed his jaw and prepared to be entertained. "Get something," he said.

Izuku began thumbing through a telephone directory on the kitchen counter. He flipped past the yellow pages and the red pages for business, to the green pages for Archaic businesses. His green head was ducked as he muttered under his breath.

Katsuki leaned forward, barely catching what Izuku said. "What?"

Izuku paused and looked at him, eyes wide. "What- what?" he asked.

"You whispered, 'Get something, please,'" Katsuki told him. "What is it you want me to get?"

*****

Despite the grimness of his situation, Izuku was surprised to find amusement bubbling up.

He kept a stern grip on it.

"It's normal," he told the dragon, "for people to say 'please' when they make a request. You said, 'Get something.' Most people would say, 'Get something, please.'"

"Ah," Katsuki folded his arms. "But I did not ask for anything. I ordered it."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "That you did."

His finger traveled down the green page and stopped at the number for an Archaic restaurant. Hands shaking, he punched in a number.

A youthful, musical voice answered the phone. Elven.

All too aware of the keen red gaze focused with relentless patience on his, Izuku said, "I'm calling from a beach house on Takoba Beach." He rattled off the address. "Will you service this area?"

"Of course we will," said the voice. "We know the address well."

"We would like a dozen porterhouse steaks," he said. He looked at his captor. "Bakugo, do you want them raw or cooked?"

"Just seared," Katsuki said.

The person on the other end of the connection drew in a swift breath. "We will be with you as soon as we can," he said. "It may take a little while. Delivery in about an hour."

"Soon as you can will be fine," Izuku said.

He deleted the number from the cell phone's memory, clicked the off button and placed it on the counter. He didn't think Katsuki had looked away once since they had entered the beach house.

It was just one more thing to add to a growing list of things that felt unreal.

Then he stood, staring at his hands.

An hour, he thought. Gosh, it felt like forever.

His shoulders sagged. He didn't think he had any more adrenaline left to pump into his system. "They'll be here soon. Now what?"

Katsuki pushed himself away from the wall. "Now," Katsuki said, "you tell me why you stole from me. And how. Most especially we will discuss how."

Izuku kept his gaze down. He touched one abraded palm with a finger. "My ex-boyfriend blackmailed me into doing it."

"Monoma Neito," Katsuki said.

Startled, Izuku's head jerked up. "You know who he is?"

The dragon's eyebrows rose. "I know a lot of things."

His sentinels had worked fast that morning before he left Musutafu. While the witch had cast the tracking spell for him, Kyoka and several others had run a background check on Izuku.

They winnowed through other possibilities until they found the right one. A team had been dispatched to search the boy's apartment and follow any leads they found.

Soon after the spell was in place and he had collected preliminary information, Katsuki had taken flight, arrowing south for his prey.

"Your boyfriend is dead," he told him.

Just like that, Izuku had had too much, his vision grayed and the world tilted.