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There's a knock on Katsuki's door in the middle of the night. He whips it open before the knocking can even finish; he's been sitting by the door for an hour already. Not that Izuku is late - Katsuki just couldn’t focus on anything else. Nerves crawl under his skin like burrowing ants, a horrible conglomeration of excitement and fear.
Izuku is wearing a grin and his usual worn out vest. His work pants still have grease smears from whatever trinket he’d been working on today. His satchel is slung over one shoulder, and through the flap Katsuki can spot the corner of a scroll. He swallows hard.
Izuku isn’t deterred. “Are you ready, Kacchan?”
Katsuki huffs. “Course. I’ve been ready for nineteen fuckin’ years. Get in here.” He yanks Izuku in with a fist in his tunic.
He shoves him against the entry way, kicking out a leg to close the door. Izuku thunks against the wood of the wall and Katsuki kisses that stupid grin off his face. He runs his hands up Izuku’s arms, feeling the corded muscles through the sleeves. Katsuki likes to push Izuku around, but damn he’s strong. There’s a thrill to knowing that Izuku let’s him do it.
Izuku hums into his mouth. “As much as I would love to continue this” - he cuts off with a gasp as Katsuki kisses a line down his neck - “we’re on a bit of a time crunch here.”
“Yeah, yeah. Still had to give you a proper greeting, didn’t I?”
Izuku beams at him and Katsuki aches with it. They’ve only been doing this - whatever this is, kissing, hands under shirts - for a few months. Izuku’s been glowing like a damn furnace the whole time. It’s clear he’s happy.
Katsuki is -
Well.
He’s as happy as he can be. Things with Izuku are perfect; that’s not the problem. The problem is him. Specifically, his body. He’ll be a hell of a lot happier after tonight.
“You pack the hiking bag?”
Katsuki lifts the leather sack from its spot by the door. “Sure did. We’ll be good for one night, two in case of emergency. I can’t imagine it would take that long, though. Temple isn’t even halfway up the mountain. We should be back before tomorrow night.”
Izuku wraps his hand around Katsuki’s. “Let’s do this.”
The town center is unsurprisingly deserted. At this time of night, the only sounds are from the animals in the woods and the only light is from the moon. Izuku grips his hand tight and Katsuki savors it.
They make their way to the edge of town, where mountains shelter the village into a valley. Halfway up one of the mountains is a temple older than the village itself, a relic of civilizations long past. When Katsuki was young, the elders would still leave offerings at the foot of the temple - the healthiest livestock, the sweetest persimmons, the juiciest mandarins. They said it promised short winters, long summers, and bountiful harvests. The younger members of the village didn’t pray to the ancient gods of the temple. With the increase of technology and inventions, they didn’t feel the need to adhere to the old ways and newer traditions took their place.
Katsuki had never put much stock into any of it, but here he was, going to the temple to pray. To beg for his deepest wish.
Katsuki isn’t a woman. He’s known it his whole life, as long as he can remember. But that doesn’t change the body he was born with, and it certainly doesn’t change what the villagers think of him.
He’d been lucky enough to have loving, accepting parents. They never questioned how he knew he was a man or why it mattered, and raised him with affection and understanding. His family had been the village's blacksmiths for generations, and they taught him how to run the smithy all on his own. But they were long gone, wiped out from a plague that killed half the village a few years back.
Katsuki has been on his own since then, with Izuku as the only exception. Sure, he serviced the people of the village with his blacksmithing skills, but other than that, he was the village freak - a woman with short hair and dirty fingernails claiming to be a man.
Izuku was too good, and this night was just a continuation of that. Izuku knew how important this was to Katsuki, and he’d worked tirelessly with him to find some kind of cure. Not a cure to make him believe he's a woman - no, a cure to change his body. He didn’t mind most of his body, because it had carried him this far. Years of tough work in the forge gave him broader shoulders and thick muscles, but there were still his breasts - a mental and physical weight upon his chest, reminding him at every moment that he didn’t quite look the way he felt.
There were records of the old gods fulfilling all kinds of wishes. Body modification was just one of those. Usually it was in the context of curing some form of illness, but it was similar enough that they’d researched the original ritual and modified it according to Katsuki’s situation.
After the plague had ripped through the town, the villagers had lost faith in the old gods. They had prayed and prayed for a cure, since they had previously granted some in the past, but the gods had remained silent. Katsuki had added the old gods to the list of people he cursed, but at this point he was out of options, and he was reaching a breaking point. He was on the cusp of adulthood now, and he couldn’t stand to think of an entire life lived this way. So when Izuku claimed he could repurpose the ritual and get rid of Katsuki’s breasts, he couldn’t do anything but agree.
Leaves crunch under their boots as they climb to the temple. The hike will take a few hours, probably until sunrise. They’ll conduct the ritual and then start the climb back down. He brought enough supplies to last them a day or so, just in case they got caught in bad weather or some other issue came up. It’s always better to be overprepared. Similarly, they left in the middle of the night to avoid prying eyes. It wouldn’t be surprising for the town pariah to be going to the forgotten temple, but Katsuki prefers to keep extras out of his business.
Izuku keeps up a steady stream of chatter as they walk. He’s a comforting presence that eases Katsuki’s nerves. He’s the reassurance that this is all worth it - Katsuki has a life ahead of him with Izuku by his side, and he’s doing what’s necessary to ensure that looks exactly how he wants it to. He will live the life he’s envisioned for himself, no matter what.
When they reach the temple, the sun has just started to peak over the tree line. It lights the sea of forest below them into a shimmering gold. The temple is beautiful - a multi story masterpiece with red and brown peaked roofs. The neglect of the past few years is apparent; vines crawl up the side and piles of leaves cover the steps.
Izuku pushes the door open with a resounding creak. The red and brown theme continues into the temple with red painted pillars and stained wood floors. Izuku ushers Katsuki to the center of the room and grabs out bottles of ink and the scroll from his bag. The ink is thick on Izuku’s fingers as he smears it across the floor. “Stay there,” he says. “It’ll work better if I paint it around you.”
Katsuki snorts. “I don’t think it works like that.”
“Well, it can’t hurt.”
Katsuki watches Izuku methodically paint an intricate swirling circle around him. When he’s finished, he wipes the ink on his already soiled trousers. Katsuki would scold him if he didn’t already know it was a lost cause. The best he’s managed to do is convince Izuku to reserve some pants for non-work purposes, so he wasn’t always doomed to look like he crawled out of a sewer.
Izuku spreads the scroll out in front of the circle. “Ready?” He asks, one last time.
Katsuki’s usual quips fail him. He looks at Izuku, this beautiful man who has stood beside him in everything and who is willing to cross any line for him. He invented an entire ritual to summon an ancient god just to see Katsuki happy. He nods.
Izuku lips quirk in a small smile, and then he begins chanting. He must have memorized the words, because he paces as he speaks without needing to look at the scroll.
Katsuki’s heart hammers somewhere in his throat. At first, nothing happens. Izuku’s voice reverberates around the temple, and Katsuki imagines for a horrible split second that it won’t work. Then the scroll starts to smoke.
It catches flame, and in seconds, it’s ashes on the wooden floor. Izuku’s eyes widen but he doesn’t lose his rhythm. He keeps chanting until smoke billows, this time from the markings he painted into the floor. The smoke gets thicker and thicker until it’s pouring up from the floor, obscuring his vision entirely. He can still hear Izuku’s voice, but he can’t see him. Katsuki has to physically resist moving from the circle to reach for Izuku. He opens his mouth to call out for him, but the smoke pours in before he can speak. It chokes out his insides, crawling deep inside him with a searing burn. The smoke seeps into his every pore as he struggles to breathe.
He can feel something within him changing on a fundamental level, something righting itself. He would sob with relief but the black smoke is too thick in his lungs. In an instant, it’s gone, sucked from the room so hard his ears pop.
Katsuki takes in gasping breaths and clutches at his chest. His flat chest. He fumbles with his shirt, yanking it over his head. The bindings that he keeps wrapped around himself had fallen off, loose with nothing to cinch around. The flesh was gone. The flesh that he’d hated so vehemently, that he’d prayed and begged to disappear to the point that he almost cut it off himself, was gone.
Katsuki crows with elation, a happy sound he’s unused to hearing from himself. “Izuku! Izuku, it worked, it fucking worked -”
Silence answers him. The temple is empty. Katsuki is alone inside the circle. “Izuku?”
Nothing.
No. No.
Katsuki dashes through the temple, yelling for Izuku, but there’s no reply. He leaves the temple and searches the woods for hours. He keeps thinking that maybe if he just keeps looking, Izuku will pop out from behind a tree, calling his name, apologizing for scaring him so damn badly.
But Izuku isn’t there. Izuku isn’t anywhere, as if he never existed at all.
When the woods have grown dark and cold, Katsuki sinks to his knees. The mix of horror and exhaustion makes his limbs weak. Soft flakes of snow fall around him, sinking into the forest floor. Hot tears drip from his face, mixing with the snow. It’s only then, once he’s accepted that Izuku is somehow gone, not missing but gone, that he notices his still bare chest. He hadn’t even realized he’s been wandering the woods shirtless for hours.
Twin marks curl across his chest in the same way scars would, except these marks are jagged and a green so dark it’s almost black. He presses his fingers to where the marks cover his heart, the only proof Izuku had been there at all.
__________
Winter is in full force. Snow drifts blanket the walkways of the small town, blocking everyone into their homes. Livestock are sequestered into their barns or kept inside homes with the villagers in the hopes that at least some of them might make it until spring. Katsuki isn’t confident.
It’s been four years since Izuku disappeared, and since then, the village has gone back to the old ways. The first year brought the harshest winter in recent memory. The snow drifts nearly covered the houses and all but a few livestock died out. As a last ditch effort, they sent a scout to the ancient temple. It took him two days to get there and two more to return, but he came back with a message: the ancient gods required their strongest son. Each year, if they brought the strongest son of the village, the winters would be manageable.
So the chief’s son was sent to the temple in his best attire with his best sword. He disappeared just like Izuku had, but the blizzards ended. The snowdrifts began to melt. After several weeks, the chief’s son was found stumbling through the woods. He remembered nothing, but winter was over and the following summer brought the most plentiful harvest in years.
The cycle repeated itself for four years; a son was sacrificed and eventually returned with no memory, and a short winter followed. But this year, five sons have been sent to the temple, and the snow storms haven’t stopped. They didn’t disappear, so they must not have been deemed worthy, but they were running out of options to provide.
Katsuki begged to be the next son sent to the temple, but the village leaders refused. You’re no man, they told him. Those horrendous scars on your chest are just a curse. And you would be smart to keep them hidden.
Katsuki scowled and cursed at them for risking the destruction of the entire village rather than give up their pride and admit that he might be worthy. What did they care if he died anyway? But they still refused.
Katsuki is beyond giving a shit what they think. After Izuku went missing, he was ostracized even further from the rest of the village. Katsuki doesn’t need to be told he’s cursed; he understands that well enough on his own. He never got an explanation for what happened that day at the temple, but whatever they did clearly placed a curse on the whole village, not just himself.
Despite the long lonely years, Katsuki still can’t get himself to believe that Izuku is gone. He still talks to Izuku sometimes. It keeps him sane through long days alone in the forge, where he tirelessly works to support a village that doesn’t give a shit about him. He at least makes good money, and besides, he couldn’t abandon his parent’s life work so easily. What would he do with himself anyway, if he had left? The only traces of Izuku left in the world were here.
So, he talks to Izuku. Katsuki imagines him sitting on his work bench, his fingers working on a small piece of machinery as Katsuki hammers against the anvil. Sometimes Katsuki tells him about his day, or the project he’s working on. Sometimes Katsuki seethes with anger over the betrayal of Izuku leaving him. Sometimes Katsuki apologizes.
Those days are the worst, when he misses Izuku too much to be mad anymore. On those days, the vision of Izuku in his mind is clearest. Izuku’s green eyes, wide with concern, bore into him from every corner. He can smell his soap, traces of cedar and jasmine that make his hair stand on end. When Katsuki turns around, a part of him truly believes Izuku must be in the room with him, because how else could it feel so real?
Through it all, Katsuki doesn’t lose hope. He knows Izuku is out there somewhere. His faith in Izuku is a fire that refuses to burn out. He will see Izuku again, even if he has to drag him back to the world of the living himself.
Because Katsuki stays true to his word, and because he doesn’t want the village to perish despite how much he may detest them, he takes matters into his own hands. He packs his travel bag, dons his thickest furs, and begins the trek up the mountain.
It‘s slow going. The snow drifts on the mountain are shallower than the ones in the valley, but he still sinks down to his knees with each step. Harsh winds cake ice onto his face. He pushes onward, counting his steps. He takes twenty at a time and then leans against a tree until he catches his breath. Then, twenty more. He has to make it to the temple before nightfall because he’ll never survive a night out here on his own. He isn’t afraid to stay in the temple for shelter unlike the other villagers. They’re scared of what would happen to them if they stepped foot inside, but Katsuki has nothing to lose.
As he makes his way through the woods, the familiar path brings up old memories, ones that he’s tried his best to keep buried.
“Are you scared?” Izuku had asked when they crossed over this now frozen creek.
“Course not,” Katsuki had said. “I’m finally going to be the man I know I am. And all those extras won’t be able to say I’m crazy anymore. They’ll finally have to believe me.”
Izuku had smiled. “We’ll be the strongest men in all the village. When we grow up, we’ll be the new chiefs and no one will tell us who we are.”
Izuku had sounded just like his five year old self, spouting dreams of them leading the village together. It’s an old dream, something Katsuki can’t really care about now. He wants to save the village, but even more than that, he wants to see Izuku again.
Maybe, if the gods deem him worthy, they’ll give Izuku back. Even if I’m not worthy, Katsuki thinks, just take me to wherever he is.
He’s halfway there now, and the woods are growing dim in the late afternoon light. He needs to hurry. Thirty steps at a time now.
“Kacchan!”
Katsuki stops at his seventeenth step and whips his head around. There are only trees and blinding snow as far as he can see, which isn’t very far. He swears he heard Izuku’s voice, but it wasn’t like his memories or even his vision. It was real.
“Kacchan, come on! We’re almost there!” Izuku’s voice rings out clearer than he’s heard in four years, clearer than any of his fading memories. As far as Katsuki can tell, it’s coming from right in front of him. He plunges forward, no longer conserving his energy and counting his steps.
“Izuku! Izuku!” He yells until his voice is hoarse. Has Izuku been up here this whole time? That’s impossible, but if there’s any chance Katsuki can see him again, he has to take it. The snow has soaked through all his furs and he's lost feeling in his fingers and toes. He can feel the thin layer of ice crusted on the thin sliver of his exposed cheeks. Through the corner of his eye, he catches a flash of green hair.
He doubles his pace, practically stumbling now through the snow drifts. The temple finally comes into view. Despite the high snow drifts everywhere else, the temple is uncovered. It’s such a stark difference to how he and Izuku found it all those years ago, when it was so obviously abandoned and losing a battle against nature.
Katsuki stumbles up the steps and swings the door wide. The inside looks exactly the same, down to the painted circle still in the center of the floor. He walks into the circle and peels off each layer of furs and clothing until his chest is left bare, his luminous green scars on full display. He shivers, but he’s not sure if it’s the cold that makes all his hairs stand on end.
“Izuku,” He says, his voice echoing in the quiet room. “Izuku, I know you’re here. I know you never left, not really. You called me here. If you can hear me, please. Please let me know you’re still there. I’ll never stop looking for you. I’ll never stop believing you’ll come back.”
Silence. No smoke. No Izuku. Katsuki closes his eyes.
“You’ve grown up, Kacchan.”
Katsuki gasps, his eyes snapping open. He whirls around, but the temple is still empty. His breathing comes shallow and shaky, in fear that if he takes too big of a breath Izuku’s voice will dissipate just as the smoke had all those years ago. He closes his eyes again.
“I missed you.” Izuku’s voice whispers in his ear, so delicate it sends shivers down Katsuki’s spine. He feels phantom breath against the back of his bare neck, and then the stroke of a finger against his skin, barely there. Katsuki is frozen, a mixture of terror and elation mixed within him. Izuku is here, somehow, impossibly. The finger, warm to the touch, moves down his neck, along his arm until it reaches his fingertips. It starts again at his bare waist, except this time fingers trace along both sides, up his abdomen to those twin jagged, green marks he’s bared for six years. “These are beautiful. They suit you.”
Katsuki’s heart stutters in his chest. He doesn’t dare to open his eyes and chase away the voice. “Are you really here?”
Izuku hums softly against his neck. “Yes, and no. I can see you, and touch you, but you can’t see me. I haven’t been stuck here the whole time, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Katsuki swallows hard. “Then where were you? And why didn’t you tell me you were alive?”
“I didn’t tell you because I couldn’t. I can’t leave this temple, but I can ask for people to come to me.”
“The sacrifices,” Katsuki breathes.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. It’s been just a few years for you, it seems, but for me it’s been…different. Mere hours, sometimes. Hundreds of years, other times. I grew impatient.”
“What are you?”
“I’m your Izuku.”
The urge to open his eyes becomes almost unbearable. “You’re different. You’re something else. Why didn’t you accept the sacrifices this year?”
“I told you, I grew impatient. They kept sending me random men, not the best son in the village. I wanted you.” The palm of a hand presses flat against Katsuki’s abdomen, spanning from his waistband to his ribcage. Katsuki knows he should shove the hand away, run back into the snow and forget this ever happened. But he doesn’t move. He’s been so alone for so long. A desire courses under his skin, urging him to lean further into the comforting yet alien presence of his childhood friend.
“But that messenger seemed to have gotten things mixed up. I’ve been waiting for you all these years. I knew one day you’d be the best man in all the village and you’d be back here again.”
“I don’t get it. Why me? What were you waiting for?”
Izuku crowds against his back. There’s nowhere for Katsuki to go. He’s enveloped by this presence. It seems like a human body, but he can’t be sure with his eyes still held shut. Still, it’s Izuku. Katsuki knows this in his bones. This is the body and spirit of his longest friend, of the one person in the world that understands him, that truly cares for him. Katsuki would recognize him anywhere, even with his eyes closed, and even when Izuku was indescribably different.
“It’s always been you, Kacchan. When we…I couldn’t leave you behind. I knew the village wouldn’t understand. They wouldn’t understand your marks, or why I disappeared. I went someplace that you couldn’t follow, but I couldn’t abandon you. I was always going to come back for you, and give you the option to come with me.”
Katsuki can’t breathe. He’d thought something so similar on his trek up the mountain - that even if he wasn’t worthy as a sacrifice for his village, he might at least end up at the same place as Izuku.
Katsuki tries to shore up his resolve. He needs as much information as possible. “You didn’t answer me earlier. What are you?”
Izuku hesitates. He can feel it in every place they touch. “I didn’t lie. I am your Izuku.”
Katsuki waits, knowing that isn’t the full answer.
“But I’m not just Izuku. When we did that spell all those years ago, to summon one of the ancient gods…it bonded with me. I became its vessel, you could say.”
Unexpected anger bursts within Katsuki. “You mean a fuckin’ god came and stole my best friend? In seconds? Against his will?”
Izuku grips him harder, as if he’s scared Katsuki might try to get away. “It was the only way for the spell to work. A sacrifice had to be made. I knew you wanted it more than anything, Kacchan. To live as your true self. It seemed like a small price to pay.”
Of course. Of fucking course Izuku’s self sacrificial ass would serve himself up on a silver platter to an ancient god for Katsuki’s benefit, consequences be damned. In a horrible way, it’s comforting to know how much this is Izuku - not just his voice and his body, but his actions and thoughts as well.
“Did you ever think about how I felt? That if you completely fuckin’ disappeared I would be worried? That I would miss you?”
Silence answers him. Izuku’s voice is quiet and tentative when he says, “I didn’t know. I didn’t know I wouldn’t be able to see you again. I tried as best I could to bring you here. I’m sorry, Kacchan. I understand if you’ve waited too long and if you’ve moved on.”
Katsuki grits his teeth. Like he could ever move on from Izuku. A bond like theirs can’t be erased so easily. Izuku helped him through the worst hardship and grief he’d known. Every happy memory he has is either with Izuku or his parents. He’d accepted losing his family. Death is a part of life, and mortality waits for no one. But Izuku’s death was something he’d never been willing to accept, and clearly he’d had good reason. They always had a soul deep connection, for better or worse, which led to insane shit like Izuku bonding with a god to bring Katsuki’s dreams to life. Katsuki had no choice but to chase after him because what was life without Izuku anyway? What was his dream if he had no one to share it with?
“You’re so full of shit,” Katsuki sneers. “I came here for you and I meant what I said earlier. I never gave up on you. I never believed you were really gone. So you and your ancient god can do whatever the fuck you want to me. I’m sick of living a life in this cursed village without you.”
“So you’ll come with me?“ Izuku purrs in his ear. “Even though I can’t tell you what that means, or where we’re going?”
Fear prickles at the back of Katsuki’s mind. “Do you promise to keep the village safe? To end this winter?”
Katsuki hears the smile in Izuku’s voice when he says, “Always the hero. Of course. I got what I wanted anyway. They’re of no consequence to me anymore.”
Something swoops inside Katsuki. Izuku still wants me, he can’t help but think. He did all of this for me.
Izuku is still glued to his back, his voice tickling the hairs on his neck. Katsuki nods and Izuku smiles against his skin. “Okay, Kacchan. Keep your eyes closed until I tell you.”
Something staticky and thick that reminds him of the feeling right before a thunderstorm surrounds Katsuki. He tries to open his eyes to see what it is, but his eyelids are sealed shut. It cinches tight around him, pressing him flush against Izuku, and he falls through the floor.
At least, that’s what it feels like. Once as a child, Katsuki fell off a tree that connected two banks of a creek. He slipped and fell into the water below, but for a split second, he was weightless. He had enough time to think oh shit I’m falling, before his stomach went into his ears and he slammed into the water.
This is like that, except the stomach lurching sensation never ends. Every time Katsuki thinks surely, we’ll slam into the ground soon, it just keeps going. He never opens his eyes, and he never loses feeling of the thing wrapped tightly around him. He doesn’t know how long it lasts - it could have been seconds or hours. Katsuki distantly thinks that maybe he understands what Izuku meant by not knowing how long he’d been missing from the human world. In this void, it’s hard to tell.
Katsuki’s ears pop and he feels the sensation of being flipped - the blood rush to his head and the surge of nausea. And then, nothing. Silence.
“Open your eyes, Kacchan.”
He finds no resistance this time. When he opens his eyes, Izuku stands in front of him.
He still has the same jewel green hair and excited eyes. He’s no longer the boy on the cusp of adulthood from Katsuki’s memory. He’s a man - young, muscled, unwrinkled. Whenever Katsuki pictured their reunion, he always imagined Izuku the same as he had been. He could never perfect the image of an adult Izuku in his mind. But here he is, standing before him with a smile on his lips and his hands wrapped around Katsuki’s.
He is beautiful in the way that Katsuki always knew Izuku would grow to be when he was young and angry. It grated him for some reason that Izuku was destined to turn out gorgeous with his shining emerald appearance. Izuku thought himself plain. The truth is that he’s always been effortlessly masculine, the same way that Katsuki dreamed he could be one day. It had been a worm under his skin, how Izuku was the object of all his desires.
That was his childhood - anger, insecurity, and constantly getting caught somewhere between hating Izuku and admiring him. Then he fell in love with Izuku, and all his anger tilted on its axis into a burning passion. Katsuki got a few short months of getting to appreciate how gorgeous Izuku is, and then it was ripped away from him. To have it presented back at him is overwhelming to say the least. Katsuki feels suspended in this moment, unable to make the first move.
He glances away from Izuku, and then loses all hope of forming words. Wherever they are, it’s a place Katsuki’s mind can barely comprehend. They’re suspended in the night sky with clusters of stars all around. There’s no wind or snow or even sound, just the eerie stillness of stars and dust making up so many distant galaxies. If he looks just right, the vision breaks, like it’s being shown through countless different panels of glass.
It reminds Katsuki of something Izuku had made once - a kaleidoscope, he had called it. Katsuki remembers looking through the eyepiece to see the world around him shattered to pieces, distorted through bits of stained glass. This room of glass is like a kaleidoscope. Where it doesn’t show bits of the night sky, it shows Katsuki’s face.
He looks closer and finds that it's not his face, at least, not in all of them. Some panels show memories of his own life of Izuku and him together - working in his forge, sharing their first kiss under a field of stars.
Another panel shows the two of them walking down a wooded path together, except they each have large swords strapped to their waists. This Katsuki is shirtless with tattoos he’s never seen before coating his arms. He doesn’t even have his chest scars.
In another panel, Izuku pushes a hand through a ram’s fur as Katsuki watches on with fond eyes. In another, they fly between buildings as tall as mountains. Green lighting flickers up Izuku’s arms and Katsuki shoots fire from his palms. It goes on and on, a hundred different versions of the same faces, at different ages and in different lives.
“What is this?” His voice is small.
“It’s us,” Izuku says softly. “In countless universes. We always manage to find each other. I haven’t found a world yet where we aren’t glued to each other.”
Katsuki looks back at his Izuku. He looks almost…nervous. The confidence from earlier seems to have drained from him as he gauges Katsuki’s reaction to this place.
“Except our own,” he continues. “We were forced apart from each other, so I did everything I could to fix it.”
A wave of pure affection comes crashing down on Katsuki. He closes the distance between them and pulls Izuku into a crushing hug. Izuku exhales against him and Katsuki can feel how his ribcage deflates with the breath. Izuku is here. He’s in his arms, he’s fucking alive.
Katsuki presses kisses against all the skin he can reach. “Gods, you’re real, you’re here, what the fuck, am I even alive?”
Izuku laughs a small wet sound, his arms clutched tight around Katsuki's waist. “Oh, Kacchan. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to hold you again.”
“I didn’t think I was ever gonna see you again.”
Izuku smiles against his skin. “But you have seen me.”
Katsuki freezes. “What do you mean?”
“I was there the whole time. Whenever you felt my presence, it’s because I was there with you. I’m confined to a different dimension, but there’s places where the boundary is weaker. The temple is one of those places, which is why you could hear and feel me there. But even around the village, the veil was thin enough that I could just barely pass through." Izuku points over to a panel that’s currently displaying him and Izuku speaking to each other in this exact moment, like a mirror. “With these panels, I could pass through sometimes. I could listen to the one sided conversations you’d have with me. I tried to respond, but it would never go through.”
Katsuki’s throat is tight with impending tears. “All those times I felt like you were there, like you could hear me…I was right.”
Izuku’s grin is brighter than any star. “I told you. In every universe, it’s us. It’s always been us.”
Katsuki cradles Izuku’s face in his hands. “I want to be with you. Together. For the rest of our lives.”
“That won’t be a problem. We have all the time in the world, Kacchan.” Izuku pulls him into a kiss. It’s gentle at first, just a press of lips to punctuate his words, to prove that they’re real, but Katsuki needs more.
He presses closer, trying to deepen the kiss. His tongue caresses Izuku’s bottom lip, asking for permission. Izuku grips his jaw in one hand. It sends a bolt of heat through Katsuki. “I control the pace, Kacchan. You follow my lead.”
Katsuki nods. “Please.”
“So eager already.” Izuku’s smirk is conniving and so fucking sexy. The power of godhood looks good on him. Izuku holds his face still in one hand and licks a broad stripe across his mouth, his tongue dipping in to slide across his teeth. Katsuki opens his mouth, desperate for something, anything. The open mouth kiss Izuku rewards him with is wet and hot, their tongues sliding together. Izuku sucks Katsuki’s tongue into his mouth and Katsuki moans, loud and open mouthed.
Izuku grazes his other hand up Katsuki’s chest, tracing the dips and curves of his muscles until he reaches his stripes. “I meant it when I said these are beautiful. So, so gorgeous, Kacchan. I love seeing my mark on you.”
Oh. That had never occurred to him. Katsuki's voice is embarrassingly breathy when he says, “I never knew it was yours.”
Izuku backs away and Katsuki almost flips his shit at the sudden distance, except it’s just to demonstrate the thick bands of black and green electricity that swirl from his palms. “That’s what you held me with earlier?” Katsuki asks.
Izuku nods. “I started bonding with the god before the ritual even finished. I was part of it when it changed your body. I think the black smoke that we saw turned to this when I bonded with it - something about my influence over the god’s power. My intention was to protect you, and to grant your wish. My mark got left on you before I even realized what I was doing.”
Katsuki’s mouth is dry. “Thank you.” His voice is barely a whisper. He traces the mark with his finger. “Whenever I missed you, whenever I wanted to give up on seeing you again, I would touch these. And I knew you couldn’t be too far.”
Izuku smiles sadly. “I never was.”
Katsuki pulls him in again, needing to feel Izuku against him. Their kisses are deep and ravenous, like Izuku would crawl inside him if he could. His hands grip Katsuki with harsh purpose, holding their bodies flush together. Katsuki can feel the outline of Izuku’s hard cock through his trousers and he gasps. He needs it inside of him. Immediately.
He’s gone far too fucking long without touching Izuku. He needs to be as close as possible to him as soon as possible. All he’s able to get out is, “Izuku, please, please, more -”
Izuku chuckles into his mouth, the bastard. “What do you want, baby? Where do you want me?”
“Inside.”
“Where inside?”
“Anywhere. Everywhere.”
Something dark lights in Izuku’s eyes. “You sure?” Katsuki nods.
“Let me know if it’s too much, okay?”
Katsuki nods again, opens his mouth to spit just get on with it, but Izuku grabs Katsuki’s ass in both hands and grinds his cock against him. Katsuki isn’t proud of the sound he makes.
Izuku makes short work of his clothes, yanking off Katsuki’s pants in one smooth motion before reaching for his own shirt. Katsuki reaches for the waist of Izuku’s trousers, pulling them down to pull out his cock. It’s thick and flushed, already weeping, and Katsuki wants him so badly he could drown in it. They never got to do this before Izuku disappeared. It felt like too big of a step, like whatever fooling around they had been doing would become way too real if they went this far. There was also the risk of Katsuki getting pregnant, but he assumes with Izuku being a god and them literally being in another dimension, he probably doesn’t need to worry about it.
Katsuki wraps his hand around Izuku’s length, stroking and twisting. Izuku groans low in his ear, and Katsuki bares his neck to him, wanting Izuku to take whatever he wishes. Izuku sinks his teeth into the flesh, and Katsuki can feel the vibrations of Izuku’s moans against his skin. He tries to shift so he can align Izuku’s cock with his hole, but Izuku snatches his wrist. He twists Katsuki around so that they’re back to chest, and Izuku grips both of Katsuki’s wrists with one hand. When they were human, Katsuki would have challenged him. This is a position he could have gotten out of, but Izuku is simply too strong now. He's stuck.
“I already told you, I set the pace.”
Katsuki huffs. "Taking too long.”
Izuku tsks. “I haven’t even gotten a good look at you yet. I missed your body. I want to see it first.”
Katsuki flushes hot. He forgot how overwhelming this was with Izuku. Having his obsessive attention trained on him is almost too much. Izuku moves him so that he’s in front of a panel that shows their reflection. He almost doesn’t recognize himself. He’s naked, splayed out and red all the way down to his chest. Izuku hooks his head over his shoulder and takes in an eyeful, raking his gaze up and down slowly. Katsuki tries to squirm, but he can’t move. He feels like a bug pinned under a magnifying glass.
Izuku runs a hand down his body. He grips his hip and pushes his cock against Katsuki. It slides up his ass and against his back, slick with precum. “You’re so fucking beautiful,” Izuku murmurs. “Could look at you all day.”
He pulls at different parts of Katsuki’s skin, observing him closely in the mirror. “I get to keep you forever now. I’m gonna inspect every part of you. I’m going to write memoirs about your skin, your eyes. Your cunt.”
Katsuki gasps. He turns his face away, but Izuku forces it back to the mirror. “I mean it. I’ve been dreaming of getting to touch you for what seems like thousands of years. I need to know what you feel like around me. We were denied so much back then, ripped away from each other too soon. No one can keep you from me now.”
A moan rips from Katsuki. Fuck. “Yes, yes, fuck, I wanted you so bad. I still do. I need you inside me, please -”
“You don’t have to beg,” Izuku’s smile in the mirror is infuriating. “You’ll get what you want. I just want to play with you a bit first.”
Fear curls with arousal in Katsuki’s gut. Izuku feeds him two fingers and he sucks them obediently, earning a good boy whispered in his ear. “Sit down for me, baby.”
Katsuki obliges, sitting against the glass floor and leaning against Izuku where he sits behind him. Izuku nudges his thighs open until his cunt is on full display in the mirror. If I’m not dead yet, Katsuki thinks, this is gonna kill me.
Izuku spreads the lips of his cunt with his slick fingers. The slide against his dick has him twitching in Izuku’s hold. “Hold still, baby.”
Izuku watches in the mirror with rapt attention as he sinks a finger in. Katsuki can’t help but focus on Izuku, on how he looks at Katsuki with utter awe. A god is looking at him like that, like he’s the most beautiful thing in the universe. Izuku coaxes in a second finger, pumping in and out slowly. He rubs at Katsuki’s dick with his other hand and it’s too much. Katsuki’s knees snap together, but Izuku yanks them apart. “Still.”
Katsuki whines. “You need me to help?” Izuku asks.
He nods. Izuku wraps an arm around Katsuki’s left thigh, hiking his leg high in the air. Katsuki couldn’t move even if he wanted to. Izuku continues his ministrations, alternating between fingering him deep and rubbing his clit in slow circles. Katsuki feels the edges of an orgasm, but it’s not enough to get him there. He knows the look on Izuku’s face, though. It’s the same one he would wear when invested in a particularly interesting project, where he’d sit at his workbench for hours without pausing. There’s no point in rushing; like Izuku said, they have all the time in the world, so he lets Izuku have his fun and just rides the wave.
Katsuki doesn’t know how much time passes. Enough that his ass is sore and he buries his face in Izuku’s neck for reprieve. It’s too good. Too much of a good thing. He almost breaks down, opens his mouth again to say please one more time, but Izuku says, “You’ve been so good. You can come now, baby. Come for me."
Izuku rubs quick, tight circles against his dick. After so long of such slow stimulation, the sensation rips through Katsuki. He comes immediately, keening in Izuku’s arms like a bow. Izuku doesn’t stop. He keeps going until Katsuki is trembling, until he’s saying enough and then a second orgasm comes crashing down on him. Slick spills out, coating Izuku’s hand and even making it on the mirror. When Katsuki lets out a sob, Izuku finally lets him go. He runs both hands up and down Katsuki. “You did so well, you held out for me. You let me get my fill, I’m so proud of you.”
Katsuki falls limp under the praise, warmth coursing through his limbs. “Wanna take my cock now?”
“Mhmm.” Katsuki hums his assent. Izuku pulls him back into another kiss. He fucks his tongue into Katsuki’s mouth and despite having just come twice, Katsuki is pressing his thighs together for a taste of friction.
Izuku lifts him, carrying him through a doorway to a different room. Katsuki hadn’t given much thought to where they were, but he supposes it makes sense that this must be Izuku’s home. This room is surprisingly normal after the mindfuck that was the kaleidoscope room. The walls are wooden just like their houses in the village, and along one wall, a solid wood workbench is covered with bits of metal machinery.
“My workshop,” Izuku explains. He’s carrying Katsuki’s full weight way too casually and it’s doing things to him. He shifts Katsuki over to one arm and uses the other to swipe his workbench clear. Screws and bits of glass scatter across the floor. Izuku sets him down against the now open wood.
Katsuki catches Izuku in a kiss. “That was really hot.”
“It was in my way.”
Katsuki grins. Izuku’s so protective of all his projects. To see him lose control like that has shivers shooting up Katsuki’s spine.
He spots something over Izuku’s shoulder that makes him freeze in shock. “Is that a forge?” The furnace takes up most of the other wall, but there’s also an anvil and a whole rack of tools Katsuki never had in his own smithy.
Izuku glances back, as if he has to remind himself of something in his own house. “Oh. Yeah. When I added my workspace here, I made a forge for you. I knew that once you were here with me, you’d want to keep blacksmithing.” A blush dusts Izuku’s cheeks with a pretty pink.
“You’re insane,” Katsuki chokes out. “You’re fucking crazy. I love you.”
Izuku’s eyes are wide and shining with tears. “Really?” He asks, as if Katsuki hasn’t already followed him to another dimension and declared that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
“Yes. What the fuck did you think? Of course I love you.”
A tear slips down Izuku’s cheek. “Oh. I love you too, Kacchan.”
Katsuki grins wide. “I know you do. I can tell.”
Izuku smushes their faces together, rubbing his nose along Katsuki’s and breathing him in. It’s such a sweet gesture that Katsuki’s heart stutters unexpectedly in his chest. “Lay down for me,” Izuku murmurs.
He eases Katsuki down until he’s laid out on his back with his legs hooked around Izuku’s waist. Katsuki likes getting to see him like this, with all his bare skin and muscles on display. Izuku’s hard cock curves up to his stomach where a dark dusting of fine hair leads up to his belly button. Katsuki’s mouth waters. He needs Izuku’s dick in him now, but gods, there’s a thousand other things he wants Izuku to do to him. All the time in the world, he reminds himself.
Izuku runs his hands down the length of Katsuki’s body, stopping to push three fingers into his sore cunt. Izuku takes them back out just as quickly, then uses the slick he gathered to coat his own cock. Katsuki groans as he lines himself up and starts to push in slightly. Izuku works himself like that, in and out a few inches at a time.
“You’re such a fuckin’ tease, just do it already.”
Izuku’s eyes go dark. His voice is quiet, measured when he says, “If you want it so bad, then fine.”
His hips snap forward in one smooth motion, driving his cock in to the hilt. Katsuki gasps at the flash of pain, but it turns into a moan as Izuku starts to rock his hips in these deep thrusts. Izuku is inside me, Katsuki thinks through the haze. It feels so fucking right.
Izuku has both hands wrapped in a vice grip around Katsuki’s waist. He uses it as leverage to work Katsuki back and forth on his cock, making the thrusts that much more punishing. His lip is caught between his teeth and sweaty curls sway in time with his thrusts. He presses a palm down on Katsuki’s lower belly and it makes the pleasure so much more intense to feel it from both ends, to know that there’s only a few inches of flesh separating Izuku’s hand from where his cock is buried deep inside Katsuki. Katsuki squirms under the pressure, but Izuku doesn’t relent.
“This is what you wanted isn’t it, Kacchan?”
“Fuck. You,” Katsuki pants out.
Izuku wraps a hand around Katsuki’s throat. He pushes in just slightly with his thumb and forefinger, and the pressure has Katsuki’s eyes rolling back in his head. He can still breathe, but only barely, his air coming in tiny gasps.
“I don’t think so. You’re just too good at being the one to take it.” Izuku’s smirk is too self satisfied and knowing, the bastard. Katsuki opens his mouth to speak, so Izuku grants his throat a reprieve.
Katsuki takes in a gulping breath and says, “Give it to me, then. Don’t hold back.” Based on Izuku’s answering grin, Katsuki knows he’s in for a world of hurt.
Katsuki is raised off the workbench, but Izuku’s hands are back around his waist, holding him tight enough to bruise. That’s when Katsuki recognizes the tell-tale sensation of electricity crackling down his spine. Tendrils of green arc from Izuku and wrap around Katsuki, supporting him in a sitting position without Izuku having to move at all.
Izuku’s cock is still buried inside him, and at this angle Katsuki swears he can feel it push into his lungs. Izuku snaps his hips, and while he doesn’t go out very much, he pushes in so far Katsuki can’t breathe. Izuku’s arms wrap around him, a hand in his hair and a hand spanning his back. Between the warmth of his skin and the buzzing from the tendrils, Katsuki is completely enveloped in Izuku.
Izuku’s thrusts turn quick and desperate, and Katsuki is struck with the incredible realization that Izuku is close to coming. He threads his fingers through Izuku’s hair and holds him close. “Let go. I can tell you’re still holding back. Just fucking give it to me.”
Izuku growls against his mouth, and then kisses him tongue first. Katsuki fights back, tries to get his tongue in Izuku’s mouth but he grabs a fistful of his hair and yanks him back. The tendrils wrap around him and tighten, holding him in place as Izuku fucks him. Izuku finally starts to look undone - his eyes glazed over, his tongue lolling from his mouth. The tendrils crawl up Katsuki’s arms and along his neck until they dip into his mouth. Katsuki whines, and it’s so loud coming from his open mouth. He couldn’t even close it if he tried - the tendrils stroke along his teeth, his tongue, the roof of his mouth. They creep down the back of his throat and he looks at Izuku with wide eyes.
“You said you wanted me everywhere,” Izuku murmurs. “You can do it. You’re so perfect for me. Can take anything I give you.”
Katsuki shudders at the praise. Something about Izuku’s rapt attention, the way he looks at Katsuki with the perfect mixture of desire and admiration, has him relaxing. He lets a tendril down his throat. It fucks in and out just how Izuku is doing to him, and the sensation on both ends is so much. Tears prick in Katsuki’s eyes and slide down his cheeks, but Izuku licks them up before they can drip down.
Katsuki’s stomach tightens and without warning, his orgasm rushes through him, so white hot it almost hurts. He cries out through his full mouth, but the sound comes out garbled. Izuku groans as Katsuki flutters around him, sucking his cock as deep as it can go. Izuku buries his face in Katsuki’s neck, his arms wrapped around Katsuki so tight, a promise that he’ll never let go.
“You’re never leaving. You’re here with me forever. You’re mine. You’re mine.”
Katsuki nods, the only form of communication left to him. At his agreement, Izuku spills inside him. It floods Katsuki with warmth and the satisfaction that even after Izuku pulls out, a part of him is staying with Katsuki. Izuku fucks him through it until Katsuki falls limp with exhaustion. Izuku lays him down gently and pushes Katsuki’s hair from his face. He covers him with sweet kisses and asks, “Are you okay?”
“Hmm.” Words are still beyond him.
Izuku picks him up again, and after a short walk, he’s being put down on a soft blanket. He pulls himself from his floaty headspace to ask, “Is this a bed?”
“Yeah, it’s my bed. I don’t need to sleep, but it’s nice to have.”
“So you brought me to your workshop to fuck me and not your bed?"
Izuku’s laugh is bright. It sends a rush of familiarity through Katsuki. Izuku’s laugh is the sound of home, and he finally gets to hear it again. “It was the closest room. And I’ve been waiting so long to show it to you, I just couldn’t wait.”
Katsuki runs a hand through Izuku’s soft curls. “You built a whole life for us here.”
“I never lost faith that I’d see you again, Kacchan. I knew you would be here with me eventually. It was just a matter of when. I wanted it to be ready for you by the time you got here.”
Katsuki swallows around the lump in his throat. Izuku lays down beside him, propping his head up on his hands. It's such a boyish gesture that Katsuki is reminded that despite how much Izuku has been through, he’s still the same man that helped him through the worst times of his life and granted him the best times of his life. For the first time in years, Katsuki can see hope for the future. With Izuku by his side, he knows that happiness lies ahead.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to show you the rest of this place. You’ve seen hardly any of it. I got to build a lot while waiting for you.”
Katsuki grins. “I can’t wait to see.”
Izuku pulls him close and tangles their legs together. He mutters in his ear about all the additions Katsuki can make to the house by using the forge. Katsuki lets his mind drift, caught up in the picture that Izuku paints. He falls asleep like that, listening to Izuku’s voice lay out their dreams for the future, and accepting that he's finally home.