#gggaaaaaahhhhh im embarrassed

[undinefin]

Prey - BNHA/MHA

fufewhufi more L does writing in order to redeem herself. uhh mobile still makes this stuff look ugly as hell so i apologize (tumblr keeps fucking with my formatting oh my god). i might make this into a series??? we'll see. somewhat inspired by @writing-prompt-s so y'know

Genre: fantasy Ships: kirishima x bakugou  Word count: 2948 Author: @undinefin

Next | Latest

Bakugou had been raised by the wild. He had never known of a roof over his head, and while he was largely aware of civilization, he preferred not mixing with them. Bakugou’s first few years were miraculous, he didn’t know when he had been lost in the wild– because surely, surely his parents wouldn’t have simply left him there – but the fact that he had survived until he could walk by himself was nothing short of magic.

That was, until he did discover there was magic. Bakugou had first seen it when he was about six years old, when he didn’t truly know any languages, he had only picked up smatterings of different tongues from groups that had passed, or towns he had briefly visited. Bakugou had grasped many survival skills at that age, though the natural sense of wonder within him did deter from survival sometimes. As such, the strange ball of light that tickled his ear sent him into chase. It disappeared into the night, leaving Bakugou to merely contemplate what the light was.

By twelve, Bakugou had realized many things, the first being that perhaps the black engraving that was on his shoulder may have been the blessing his parents had left him with to survive. The second was that gold in their world was vital for survival.

“You’re so young,” his customers would always say. Bakugou never responded, sometimes because he didn’t speak their language, sometimes because he didn’t care to tell them anything about himself. 

At that age, he provided a simple service of escorting people through the wild to a different town. He’d use the money to buy things like better weapons than the ones he’d made out of stone, and some actual pants so people would take him seriously.

Some of the customers could use magic. Those were the ones that Bakugou preferred. They were more interesting, and less annoying than others. He’d ask them to teach him magic, and anything else they knew instead of paying the regular fee.

“You see, magic is something that every being possesses, the air, the trees, you, and me. Some beings naturally possess more magic than others. It’s something that cycles, never running out,” one mage explained. “Humans and other creatures have learned how to absorb and store magic, then they learned how to release it in a way that benefits them.”

Bakugou watched in wonder as the mage began forming objects or elements into the palm of his hand, before willing them away.

“Not every human has an aptitude for magic, some can only control a little, while others can control next to none. If you work hard enough at it, sometimes your aptitude can grow, but it would take years to see significant difference.”

It was that night Bakugou learned he had very little aptitude for magic. He could just barely absorb it, and hardly created more than a spark before feeling as though he sprinted for a minute. The mage had ruffled his hair and told him that his fighting and instincts were better than any royal guard he had seen. Bakugou took pride in that.

As he continued to grow, Bakugou soon began strong enough to make and defend what people might have called a “home.” It wasn’t the shoddily stuck together sticks that made it home, it was the territory that the animals knew was his, it was the river that he could always follow the current to find the same glade. What made him come back was the same birds that would faithfully wake him up in the morning, the boars and crows that bode to his will so long as he spared them some food. It was the pack of wolves that came around two seasons a year that he’d tussle with, and the fresh berries that naturally grew just behind his house.

Though despite his growing age, and increasing territory, Bakugou still held a love for magic. Perhaps it was because it felt like the one thing out of his reach, or maybe it was all the beautiful creatures he’d seen. Nymphs and fae were quite common, fluttering and playing tricks on people. Occasionally, he’d catch a goblin wandering around at night, or sirens at the mouth of the river.

Bakugou had only ever seen a dragon once in his life. When he was fourteen he’d been lacing the claw he’d won from a mild tussle he had with a werecat onto the necklace he was making. Bakugou had carefully polished the appendage, and carefully drilled a hole through the thickest part of the claw with the help of the tiny amounts of heat he could create.

The shadow flew by so fast, it was only by chance that he had looked up. It was hard to tell without the sun’s light, but the hide looked purple. The fabulous wings were pulled tight against the body, and the entire glade shook with force. Dragons were said to be the most magical of creatures, blessed with long enough lives to build up their aptitude for it. Bakugou wanted a dragon.

Bakugou had not seen another dragon since, that was, until now. Bakugou had decided his “birthday” would simply just be the nicest day of the spring each year. He’d been out after hunting for a feast and buying himself a nice cape since his old one had been destroyed in the harsh winter. As he walked back to the glade, he had spotted the glowing orange orb. At first, he thought it was another traveler who was simply starting a fire to cook, he’d seen some green-haired scrub around lately.

The odd white flash of the orb, and the red leather that seemed to surround it made Bakugou curious. He inched towards the figure, drawing his sword. He got about a meter away before the creature quite literally roared to life, it’s wings flapping once, sending shockwaves through the forest. The teeth were a shiny white, sharp enough that even if just grazed, they would surely hurt. The teeth stood out against its maroon hide, the scales burned into a fiery orange when the sunlight hit them.

The dragon turned to face Bakugou, its breath restyling his untamed hair. Bakugou stood unfazed by the creature, letting his sword fall loose in his hand.

“Your breath smells like shit,” he finally said. “You breathe fire?”

The dragon looked taken aback for a moment, before slowly breaking into a very toothy grin. It raised a giant hand and placed it just a few feet in front of Bakugou and began tapping its claws. Out of its mouth came a low rumble, which seemed to be a laugh.

The dragon’s eyes twinkled, “Of course I breathe fire!” The voice was surprisingly energetic, and not as rough as Bakugou anticipated it would be, it was low, the dragon seemed to be a male. To show off, the dragon let out puffs of fire that quickly dissipated before catching onto the nearby leaves.

Bakugou didn’t hesitate, “Wanna eat something?”

“Are you...offering yourself or...?” If the dragon had eyebrows, he’d be raising them.

“Course not you idiot, I’ll make you something, it’s my birthday.” The dragon smiled again, and slowly got himself out of the sitting position he was in. His wings stretched slightly and he gave a small nod to Bakugou, who was still watching the massive beast.

The two walked in moderate silence, the dragon occasionally breaking a branch, or rock. Bakugou would study the dragon as he walked, looking at the pattern of the scales, or the strength that he put into a single step, he’d never say anything though.

The dragon coughed, “So, what’s your name?”

“Why do I have to tell you.”

“Well,” he curled his tail in slight annoyance. “It would be nice if I knew the name of my host.” The dragon continued to eye Bakugou, who’s attention was not on the conversation, but the talons on his feet.

The human let out a huff, “It’s Bakugou, and you? Do dragons even have names?”

“Oh! Yeah it’s-” the dragon let out a mixture of snarls and a slight growl, before finishing with a snap. Bakugou looked at him unimpressed. “Well I guess something like...Kirishima...would work for you.” They walked back to the glade in silence, Bakugou picking and choosing which questions of the very talkative dragon he’d answer.

When they reached the opening, Bakugou dashed to his hut to grab the meat he’d hunted. He walked back outside dragging a prepared deer, and Tengu. He began setting up pieces of wood to cook the meat – Bakugou learned harshly at a young age that eating raw meat wasn’t for him – and readied his magic to light the fire. This was always the hardest part, because it would take nearly all of his stamina just to support a flame for a brief moment.

After a few failed tries, Bakugou turned to see the dragon playing around with one of the baby wolves, letting it run up and down his arm. “Oi, get your scaly ass over here,” he demanded. The dragon pushed aside the baby wolf with one of his claws and took two large steps towards Bakugou and the pile of wood. “Light this on fire so we can eat. You can do it, right?”

Kirishima laughed a little, “You’re a tough guy huh. I’ve heard about you from some nymphs around here.” He lit the pile of wood on fire, it blazed wildly for just a moment before dying down.

Bakugou spread the meat atop a raised stone structure that held next to the fire. “Hm, what they say?”

“That’s the thing, it changes from nymph to nymph. A few say that you’re some terrifying guy who wants everyone to just die. Y’know the first time I saw ya I thought you’d come at me with your sword and just scream ‘die die die!’ but you didn’t even do anything.”

“Lookin’ for a fight? I could totally obliterate ya.”

Kirishima let out a laugh, causing the meat to rattle on the stone, and the fire to blow to the side. “But then some of the nymphs, like the Anthousai are convinced you’re some great guy ‘cuz ya made some travelers stop picking their flowers.”

Bakugou didn’t respond. He left most of the meat on the platform, motioning for Kirishima to eat it. Their conversation didn’t carry much further. Instead, Bakugou continued to examine the dragon, part of him wanting to see the beast in action. Would he be powerful?

“Uh,” Kirishima coughed. “Somehow your stare seems even more intense than mine...”

Bakugou studied Kirishima’s eyes. They were small compared to the rest of his face, but about the size of Bakugou’s hand. The yellow glow seemed faded in the sunlight, merely swimming around a deep red pupil. Truthfully, he could only study one eye. From his position, the other eye was behind a large nose on the other side of his face.

Realization hit him. “Are you...prey?” Bakugou stated.

“What?”

Bakugou looked at the dragon like he was an idiot, “Most prey have key features to help them protect themselves, spraying things out their ass when they run away, spikey skin, eyes and ears at the side of their face to get bigger scopes of the area in case they need to run away. Your eyes are clearly on the side of your face, what the hell would you need to run away from?”

Kirishima swallowed the Tengue whole, “Eye placement, uh, isn’t that big of a deal when you can spew fire?”

Bakugou stopped mid-bite, “Right, you’re just a giant lizard, that’s how it is with reptiles. Never mind then.”

“Good,” Kirishima swallowed awkwardly.

“...Is there an actual answer to that question?” Bakugou continued to study the now slightly-panicked dragon.

“Of course not!” The dragon’s tail was lightly swaying from side to side.

“Kirishima.”

The dragon hung his head, “I suppose I could, perhaps...”

“Tell me.”

“Yes.”

Bakugou blew onto the embers of the wood to keep the fire going. He sat on the ground and adjusted his new cape, which had genuine griffin fur on it.

Kirishima let his head fall onto the ground as well. “I’ve heard this story from my grandmother countless times. I’m sure that you’ve heard stories, cool ones that say stuff like ‘dragons are the ultimate predator’ and ‘only a dragon can defeat a dragon.’”

“I bet I could,” Bakugou cut in.

A glint appeared in Kirishima’s eye, ��That sounds fun. Well, one of the things is true, dragons are blessed with a long life. How old do you think I am?”

“Dunno, if you’re an old dragon who can’t do shit then that won’t be exciting,” he didn’t say it out loud, but if he wanted a dragon he’d want it to be cool.

“I guess I’m pretty old, but maybe not in human standards. What makes a dragon’s life so long is its early years. We don’t start out looking like this, being able to breathe fire or even fly. Most of our life, maybe first three hundred years, are spent on development I’d say. Dragons start out looking like lizards, or geckos, and even when we reach bigger sizes most of us take a while, maybe another hundred or so years, before we can start the whole fire thing.”

“So, your eyes are on the side of your head ‘cuz you were a lizard three hundred years ago?” Bakugou began doubting the explanation.

Kirishima shook his large head, “Nah, even back then our eyes were supposedly on the front of our heads. Like, they would face foreword more I guess. What really sparked the change was when humans found out that dragons started in such a weak state. At that time, long ago, there were maybe more dragons in the world than humans, and many of them were developed, so humans were naturally afraid of them.

“A handful of curious humans went out to try and fight a dragon. They stumbled across one that wasn’t developed, the dragon was big but they couldn’t fly yet, and they easily went down. People began using dragon scales and blood in their armor, or meals to make them stronger, and defeat even more dragons. Before we knew it, the dragons were the ones being hunted.”

“You became prey to the humans,” Bakugou stated. “That’s why there’s so few of you now huh, you all died off.”

Nodding, the dragon continued, “In desperation to save the future generations, the dragons began naturally being born with eyes and ears on the side of our heads, and tougher scales.”

“Your scales weren’t always as hard?”

“According to my grandmother, our scales were more like a shark’s skin? We were predators, our scales didn’t have to be super hard like a turtle or somethin’. So now we all kind of try to avoid humans as much as possible, what if they still know about that? We might die off completely,” his voice seemed to shake.

Bakugou figured he’d seen something, maybe the massacre of his own race. If Kirishima was really some three to four hundred years old then perhaps he would have been a young lizard (that was funny to think about, Bakugou had to hold in teasing and laughter) when he’d witnessed something terrible. He never thought he’d see a dragon scared before.

“Then how come you didn’t run away from me?” Bakugou raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t know really,” the dragon responded simply. “Maybe it was ‘cuz I’d heard a lot about you, or 'cuz you were approaching me so cautiously.”

“You wanna fight?”

Kirishima laughed again. His laugh was deep and boisterous, filling the entire glade with a warm feeling, perhaps from his breath. “Well!” his mood switched entirely. “Thanks for the meal, I’ll, uh...go now.” Kirishima raised his entire body, pushing onto all fours. 

Bakugou expected the dragon to fly off, leaving a strong gust of wind to circle the glade. Instead, he merely began walking, causing the ground to shake with each step.

He watched the dragon leave flightless, his eyes drawn to the wings that currently served no purpose. The dragon stretched them slightly, perhaps to air them out, allowing Bakugou to catch a glimpse of them.

The right wing was torn. It looked like it had suffered an explosion, circular tears in the fibers made up much of the bottom of the wing. Bakugou ran to catch up to the dragon, thankful that Kirishima was going slowly.

“Oi you asshole, don’t lie!” he shouted. Bakugou had hopped up onto the dragon’s tail and began running up the back.

Kirishima began twitching at the feeling of someone running up his bakc, “What are you...”

Bakugou reached the head and placed a hand onto one of the dragon’s two horns. “You didn’t run away from me ‘cuz you couldn’t, your wing is hurt. You can stay here y’know, the glade is big enough to fit your giant dragon ass. I’ll feed you or whatever, since you’re helpless like this.”

“If you’re trying to tame me this is a terrible way to go about it,” Kirishima laughed. He had stopped walking.

“I’m just offering to keep you alive, so we can fight later. I’ll beat you y’know,” Bakugou mumbled. He wasn’t necessarily lying, he did want to try and fight a dragon.

Kirishima’s eyes focused upwards, “You really don’t mind?”

“Are you an idiot?” Bakugou clicked his tongue, “I wouldn’t be offering if I didn’t mean it.” Kirishima grinned, his sharp teeth falling out of his mouth. He walked the both of them to the center of the glade, his entire body humming.

ahhh thank you for reading!!!!! if ya want it to continue i guess?? leave a like or smt??? 

Next | Latest