Crossing Fates : Book 1 - Escape (BakuDeku)

19 - Tale Of Past Actions

Izuku kept his gaze focused on Katsuki's crossed forearms against the white silk shirt.

On another man, it would be too much. On Katsuki, those muscles armored a body long enough to carry them with power and grace.

"Neito blackmailed me into stealing something from you," Izuku said. "It didn't matter what it was. He owed some people a lot of money."

"Gambling debts," Katsuki said.

Izuku lifted his head. Katsuki had settled into a hunter's patience.

"You got that far already?"

"We found his bookie. Also dead."

Icy fingers slid down his spine. He pulled the hoodie closer around his torso. "I dated Neito for a few months. For a little while I thought- it doesn't matter what I thought."

Katsuki tilted his head. "You thought what?"

"You're not interested in all that," color tinged Izuku's cheeks.

"Don't make assumptions about what I am interested in or what I will think or what I will do. You have no idea what interests me," Katsuki told him. The man settled back against the edge of the dining room table and crossed one ankle over the other. "We clear?"

Izuku nodded, his color deepening. He went on, "We've already established I was an idiot. Neito came along when I was feeling low, and I fell for his charm. I was... I told him a lot of things about me. I should have known better, and I screwed up," his throat closed.

"You said you had broken things off," Katsuki prompted when he fell silent.

He nodded. "I had, a while ago. Then last week, he showed up. He was full of this scheme that was going to pay off all his debts and make him rich. Of course by then, my rose-colored glasses were gone. I didn't want to have anything to do with it, or him. Then he... made me."

"Blackmail, you said. Over your secrets."

Katsuki spoke in a neutral tone. He had throttled the aggression down. Izuku covered his own throat with one hand as Katsuki dissected his expression.

"Can we please not talk about that?" he tried to steady his voice. "Please?"

Katsuki's lids dropped down, hooding his gaze. "Go on with your story."

"There's what I KNOW," he stressed the last word. "There's what I think, and then there's what I've guessed. Neito was all about his 'associates'. People he met through his bookie that he was going to do business with. He was somehow a bigger man in all his stories than he was in real life, know what I mean?"

Katsuki nodded, keeping silent.

"Well, I think he was half desperate, half boasting and all-the-way manipulated. He started promising those contacts of his anything he could. His loans had come due. He said he told them he could get them anything they wanted," he swallowed hard. "And they said, how about something from Bakugo. Then they gave him a charm that would locate your lair, and Neito came to me."

"Did they, now," Katsuki hadn't moved, but he had tensed all over.

What radiated off him had Izuku's heart pounding.

He licked his lips that had gone dry and whispered, "I think Neito told them something about me, but not much. He would have wanted to keep me a secret because he wanted to be the big player, and he thought he could control me. He was hoping to set up a repeat business. But I think someone very nasty and Powerful was manipulating him, and now, thanks to me, they've got something of yours."

"They do indeed," Katsuki bared his teeth in that machete smile. "I'll have to thank you later for that one."

He whispered, "That charm scared the shit out of me. If I didn't do what he wanted, I knew Neito would sing like a canary. Would he give me up? Definitely, in a heartbeat. If it would save his own ass. Then they would come after me. So I was in that damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't, place."

"Where's the charm now?" Katsuki's eyes had gone pure gold, all dragon.

"It disintegrated when I used it."

Katsuki's eyes narrowed. "I would have felt my spells fail if it had nullified them, but they were all still in place when I went to investigate."

Izuku cupped his ear with one hand and rubbed his neck- a stressed, defensive gesture as he remembered the pain from using the charm.

Katsuki moved closer as that pitiless dragon gaze dissected his face.

Izuku whispered, "The charm didn't nullify anything. Between it and your spells, I felt like I was being ripped apart."

"Yet you still got through them."

He didn't bother to reply. Instead, he searched the man's face.

Katsuki's expression was savage, catapulting Izuku's thoughts forward to consequences that were more far-reaching than just his own future.

Izuku's lips felt numb. "A charm that powerful could find anything hidden, couldn't it?"

"Depending upon the strength of the user, yes."

Anything hidden.

There were things in the world that should never be found, dangerous things, or fragile, and precious creatures whose lives depended upon secrecy.

A finding charm as strong as the one Izuku had used could slice like a knife through someone's every defense.

Izuku shivered and huddled into himself.

Despite his fears and preoccupation for his own safety, this had never been about him.