Crossing Fates : Special Story 3 - The Bean Starts School (BakuDeku)

4 - Then And Now

Katsuki was in his office, sitting at his desk and conducting a meeting via the secure telecom system he'd had installed.

After days of fierce concentration as he had tried to think of what the other Katsuki- the Katsuki before his accident- would have done, he had finally managed to recreate the password on his computer.

As Izuku heard the voices, he recognized two of his sentinels, Eijiro and Tokoyami.

That was how Katsuki approached anything to do with his injury and subsequent memory loss. He treated it like a battle and brought all of his formidable attention and tactical skills to the field with the intent to win.

Izuku found it both exhilarating and exhausting to watch.

Reluctant to interrupt, he hovered in the doorway, but as soon as his husband caught sight of him, Katsuki said to his screen, "We'll have to talk more later. I've got to go now."

"Sure thing," Tokoyami's voice sounded clearly over the speakers.

Eijiro said, "Text me when you're ready to pick this up again."

Then Katsuki strode around the corner of his desk, wearing a look of concern on his cold features. He frowned. "You've been crying."

Izuku gave him a twisted smile. "Yeah, I got emotional after I watched Iori go into the building. He didn't want me to come with him, and he ran in without a backward glance, and I was so glad that he was strong and secure enough to do that... Then I cried like a baby all the way home."

Katsuki pulled him into his arms, and he went gladly, soaking in the feeling of his fierce energy as it wrapped around him protectively.

Izuku found his favorite spot, the slight hollow of breastbone in the middle of Katsuki's chest where he could rest his cheek.

They stood like that for a moment and then he said, "I don't want to be a helicopter parent, but you know, if he keeps growing like this, he's going to be... What, like a twenty-eight-year-old when he's actually two? That bends my head, and it makes me worry."

He felt Katsuki shaking his head. "Tough as it is to adjust your thinking, we're never going to be able to judge him by normal standards. He's too much of a prodigy."

"I know, but my own past was so human, I don't understand how he knows the things he knows."

Katsuki's fingers threaded through Izuku's hair.

"The first-generation of the Archaic Races were all fully formed when they came into being at the birth of the world. Magic has long since settled into balance, but in the beginning, it was nowhere near as defined. It ran hot and wild, and crazy things happened. It's possible the only reason Iori is having any kind of childhood experience at all is because he was conceived, and he didn't form spontaneously as the first generation did."

Izuku thought back to his shock when he first found out he was pregnant. He muttered, "His conception seemed kind of spontaneous to me."

He could hear the smile in Katsuki's voice as the man spoke again, "He's also the product of two very rare and magical parents, and the combined Power he has inherited from each of us is quite unique. If he had been conceived at the beginning of the world, he might have sprung into existence fully formed too. As it is, he has to contend with the laws of nature as they are now."

As he listened to him, he calmed.

Katsuki was always so much warmer than him. Izuku reveled in his body warmth, in the hard strength of his arms resting around him, in all the sensual evidence of his presence.

"I love listening to stories about how things were in the beginning. It sounds fascinating."

"It was a dangerous and unpredictable time," Katsuki told him. "And, yes, it was fascinating too." He rested his cheek on top of Izuku's head. "At any rate, all this talk about Iori is pure speculation, as we have virtually nothing else to compare him to."

"We'll just have to accept whatever the future brings us, and it's okay," Izuku murmured. "I'll adjust. The main thing is that he's healthy and happy," tilting back his head, he gave his husband a wry smile. "One thing's for sure- it's never dull around here, is it?"

Katsuki's sexy mouth widened. "No, it never is."

"Anyway, I'm sorry I interrupted your meeting."

Katsuki cupped the back of Izuku's head in one hand. "You should always interrupt me. If I'm in the middle of something urgent that can't be put on hold, I'll let you know."

His gaze slid over to one corner of his office. Crates and stacks of books dominated that area of the room. The large round conference table was piled high with even more books, and there were more crates waiting his attention in the library.

Since July, Katsuki had spent a virtual fortune on a variety of books on history and politics, both human and Archaic Races, and the subject of each cluster of books focused on the gaps he had discovered in his memory.

Along with reading obsessively late into the night, he spent long hours talking to each of the sentinels, while major corporate decisions had been put on hold. His businesses, along with the Nyr Domain itself, were treading water but not making any forward strides.

Thankfully, they had the most active time of the political season behind them for the year.

Katsuki's assistants, especially Rikido, were dedicated to the point of obsession, and with the sentinels' help, Katsuki could afford to take time to concentrate on his own healing.

He asked, "How is it going?"

"Nothing new," Katsuki growled, "I'm learning a lot."

The frustration was evident in his voice. During the first few weeks of his recovery, he'd had several strong episodes of spontaneous memory retrieval.

Now he recalled almost everything from the last few years, but since then, he had discovered that he'd lost entire centuries, and it had been at least ten days since he'd had his last breakthrough.

And as he was quick to point out, so much of what had really happened in history had never made it into any book.

Most of Katsuki's life, in fact, including any number of private wars, feuds, pacts, and betrayals.

Closing his eyes, Izuku rubbed his husband's muscled back. "I'm so sorry."

And he was. He was terribly sorry about Katsuki's frustration, and he understood how the whole experience contributed to him looking at the world through even more distrustful eyes.

The dragon believed that they were more vulnerable now, and what he didn't know could possibly hurt them one day.

But in a way, Izuku couldn't relate.

He didn't care about what had happened that far in the past.

All that really mattered to him was that Katsuki was his again, that his husband remembered him, that he had regained his physical health and the man loved and needed him as much as he ever had.

The Nyr Domain was strong. They had all kinds of help and protection, and they could rebuild anything else.

He asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Katsuki buried his nose in Izuku's hair, took a deep breath and sighed.

"You help just by being here."

"Well, that bit is easy," he told him with a smile. "Because I wouldn't be anywhere else," after a pause, he added more gently, "I do get concerned sometimes at how hard you're working. It's only been a month since you got hurt, so you might very well have more memories return. But I hope you can come to terms with the fact that you might not, either."

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," Katsuki said. The tone of his voice had turned dark and edged. "But I'm not there yet, and in the meantime, I won't let go of a single moment of my life without a fight."

That ferocity of his was one of the very things that had drawn Izuku to him in the first place. He wouldn't let go of anything of his without a fight.

And Katsuki was the meanest, nastiest fighter he knew.

Drawing comfort from that now, Izuku lifted his head, and Katsuki responded readily, cupping his chin and covering his mouth with his.

Until everything else fell away in the brightness of the fire they created together.