Crossing Fates : Book 1 - Escape (BakuDeku)

38 - Pit Stop

"Whoa, there. I don't know what to say to you. You're like some stalker guy on steroids," Izuku threw back his hands and rolled his eyes. "You are aware, aren't you, that you can't have slaves any longer. You know, abolition. Big war. Happened a hundred and forty, forty-five years ago."

"Human history, human terms," Katsuki snarled. "They mean nothing to me."

Izuku had already known he shouldn't attribute human motives or emotions to Katsuki. Here was the reminder.

The dragon was very close to the surface. The Powerful body crouching over him was taut with menace. Every legend he had ever heard of a dragon's possessive, territorial nature came to mind.

Damn, it was enough to make him swallow hard but not, he realized, in fear.

Muscle by muscle, he relaxed. "Okay then, tough guy," he said, soft and easy. "You tell me what you mean."

"I don't know," that fierce, proud face was puzzled. "All I know is you're mine to keep and protect. You can't fade away, and you can't die. I won't let you."

Izuku thought it was not the time to point out that he was going to die at some point. He had too much human in him.

"So, I'm yours for how long?" he asked, curious now that he decided to explore this path. "Until you get tired of me, or you get bored again?"

"I don't know," Katsuki said again. "I haven't figured this out yet."

A sudden rush of affection surprised Izuku. Katsuki wasn't faking his perplexity. The man wasn't putting on an act.

"That makes two of us," Izuku said.

He thought of the Elven wayfarer bread, the hairbrush and the soap, and the man's thoughtfulness surprised him all over again. He reached up to run a finger down the dragon's throat.

"So, for the sake of argument, if I'm yours as you said, to keep and protect, that seems to me like you would want me to... be all right. To thrive?"

"Of course," Katsuki said.

Izuku looked down at his hand as he drew circles on the man's chest, and the menace he exuded turned darker, smokier.

"Bakugo," he murmured, "I don't thrive when someone bark orders at me all the time."

He peeked at Katsuki to see how he reacted to his logic. The man was frowning.

"It's how I talk to people," the Lord of the Nyr said.

"It's how you talk to your employees and servants, you mean?" Izuku replied.

Katsuki's frown deepened. Izuku bit his lips to keep back a smile.

How could he be so damn charmed by such a primitive thug?

He had to establish a different footing with Katsuki or be mowed under by the sheer force of the man's personality.

"See, here's the thing," he kept his voice gentle while he started to rub Katsuki's chest in soothing circles. "Someone barking orders at me makes me feel trapped and stifled. I understand you've gotten into a habit, but maybe," he suggested, "you could try not ordering me around sometimes. You know, just until you get bored and let me go."

Katsuki had grown heavy-lidded as Izuku stroked him, but at that, his narrowed gaze snapped up to his face.

Izuku smiled at him, nonthreatening and relaxed.

"What if I don't get bored?" Katsuki asked. "What if I don't let you go?"

Izuku was jolted by a sense of longing that swept over him. He lost his smile and looked away. "We don't even know what we're talking about anyway," he said.

Katsuki loosened his grip on Izuku's hair, shifted his weight onto one elbow and took his luminescent hand. The man tilted his arm and looked at it.

"You're remarkable. No, don't!" Katsuki said as Izuku remembered and began to dampen the glow. "Let me see you as you really are, for a while at least. Look at how fast you're healing."

He looked. The ugly black bruises that had mottled his skin had almost faded.

"I feel good," he confessed. "Different, somehow. Better. More. Hey, am I the Bionic Man?"

Katsuki smiled. "It sometimes happens with halflings when they come to a Margin Land," he told him. "The heightened magic can help them access abilities and traits that might otherwise have remained latent."

He tried to keep a tight grip on the hope that surged at Katsuki's words but questions still leaked into his thoughts.

Was this the explanation for everything he felt since they had crossed over?

If what Katsuki said was true about him, might he be able to shift?

What if he could end this sense of living a half life, the feeling of being caught between two incomplete identities, human and Nyr?

"I had no idea," he said. "My mother always refused to bring me over to a Margin place. I've never had enough Power to cross over by myself. I barely have enough for telepathy."

In the dream, his mother had said it was dangerous for him to be here. He glanced around the dim coal-lit clearing.

That meant they should leave soon. The thought lacked urgency.

"Ah yes, your mother," Katsuki replied, sounding distracted as he inspected his slender fingers, the graceful tilt of Izuku's wrist. "Very soon, we're going to have a talk about your mother, who she was and why that dumbass Elf adored her so much. We're also going to talk about why you're not right in the head and if you have any more IDs or stashes of cash hidden anywhere."

Izuku snatched his hand back and smacked Katsuki on the arm. "None of that is any of your business! And just because he liked me but he didn't like you doesn't mean he's a dumbass Elf!"

Katsuki gave him a lazy, predatory smile as he moved his torso over his. "You're not afraid of me at all anymore, are you?"

He sobered. Call him crazy, but he thought Katsuki would rather cut off his own hands than hurt him.

"So what if I'm not?" he muttered.

Katsuki's beautiful, cruel mouth pulled into a smile. "I think if you're not, it's a very good thing," he said.

Katsuki moved, and before Izuku realized what he intended, the man had Izuku's hands pinned over his head.

"It gives me all kinds of license to do bad things to you. With you. On you. In you."