Chapter 1: Duty and Destiny Combined
Chapter Text
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✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦Duty𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧
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Throughout history, children had always been taught that there were two colors representing the living and breathing visions of life itself.
Green signified the vitality and vibrantly flourishing beauty of the land itself, her splendor unmatched and signifying the favor of the gods and the blessing of the gods that made the world.
The other color was red, the glossy, silken color red that represented the flowing rivers of life through the living and breathing beings living on the land, flowing through the hearts of the living.
Blood in it's vibrancy was always moving and flowing beneath the surface to signify the living and breathing, the all encompassing definition of life itself, and yet, throughout history, the color became the plaguing stain across the green lands. It spilled in its still pools, gathering and slowly saturating and besmirching the once unwalked lands, the lives that once lived by that blood, having been snatched away by greed, cruelty and war.
The bloody stains became nothing more than permanently etched reminders of the last embers of life being snuffed out. The dried crusty remnants on worn and shiny steel wielded by selfish hands were a permanent vision over the fields of battle, just like the voices of anguish that haunted his dreams…
For as long as Midoriya Izuku could remember, his world had always been one color.
RED.
As a child he had run through fields of red, not green, leaving bloody red tread marks in his wake of seeing the devastation brought upon the world by one man, his father. Long gone was the beauty of the world told in fairy tales of the All Mighty Lands, said to have been filled with flourishing fields of green and all assorted colors of blooms and animal life. The peace, love and kindness Izuku had once been told about were nothing more than fairy tales and hokum, a delusion on grandeur that he had long since let go,
All that existed now was the path of destruction and death that was left by the forever marching army of Shigaraki.
All that was left of the word was ash and snow, blackened lands with the bones of those who dared defy the overlord who claimed their lands. The pools of still blood vibrant in color yet doing nothing to liven or color the decaying reflection staring back at him when he stared at the destruction done in his father’s name. The longer he stared at his reflection, the longer his will to keep on living ceased to exist.
Even as a crown prince, presently the oldest living son of Overlord, Shigaraki Zen or Hizashi as his mother had once called him, life was filled with no humanity. Known as All for One, a name given to his father by the usurpers, the defiant spirits who’d rather die with honor than surrender and offer their subservience that his father craved, even if that submission and acceptance of his father's rule was never free, Freedom never came without cost and if you had no value, even offering your servitude never guaranteed your safety.
Izuku had seen many fall victim to the swiftness of their end because their worth was not good enough. Those who were lucky were offered a Trojan horse disguised as a prize, a child of the overlord to marry, a gift they believed but in truth it was only the beginning of the end.
The children of Shigaraki had one purpose, and one purpose alone.
Marry the leader of the kingdom or village and act as fodder, breeding stock to further the Shigaraki bloodline and when with child, smite their partner and rule the land in the image of Overlord Shigaraki. Whilst most of Izuku's half siblings were simply fodder in his father’s eyes, only two children were spared from this fate. Izuku was nothing special, only serving as a reminder of his uncle Yoichi, the omega mate to the previous king of Wadfow, now known as the land of the wailing fields where only horror existed, and yet somehow, an Angel of Life had been reborn in Izuku.
Just because the world was engrossed by cruelty, did not mean Izuku was.
“My young Izuku, your mind seems elsewhere.” A deep distorted voice brought Izuku out of his thoughts as he remembered where he was.
He was in his tent that had been assembled by the people of Payrius in preparation for the most understated yet grandest event ever hosted in the city. It was a cause for celebration, as it was the uniting of two superpowers in the land.
The union of the omega son of the cruelest, all conquering overlord and the king of the freest land left unconquered, and the only known land in history to stand and win against the army of Shigaraki.
“Forgive me father, I was just thinking of mother and how beautiful she must have looked on your wedding day.” Izuku said quickly to hide his complicated emotions and that his thoughts were on the king of Jadever and how they had met on the battlefield that day, even though it was at a distance. “I find myself missing her after you were kind enough to give me her necklace, veil and headpiece from your wedding day, on this day of celebration.” His hand reached up to touch the pendant, a red stone pulsing with magic, as it reciprocated to his touch with a warm hum.
His eyes wandered over to where the delicate lace of the veil with beautifully embroidered details, crystals and pearls lining the patterns on the material. It looked magical and beautiful and Izuku almost felt inferior as he picked up the tiara shaped headpiece, simple but beautifully delicate as he set it in his curls along with putting the veil in place, in awe of his appearance. He had only ever seen one image of his mother on her wedding day and for a moment, as he stared at the mirror before him, he realized if his hair was longer, he would be a perfect mirror of his mother since his entire outfit was inspired by her wedding dress and attire.
The only difference was the colors… Izuku look cold and devoid of warmth, vibrancy and color, the only color that exuded life was his hair, as everything else he wore was icy blue, to replicate the coldness of his father’s cause, and his father’s hate for life itself, which Izuku was the embodiment of in the eyes of the kingdoms. He was the embodiment of wealth and royalty, draped in sapphires, diamonds and silver embroidery on the material but the soft pastel coloring of the flower designs lined with pearls and warmer color jewels were Izuku’s act of defiance at his father’s blatant choice in color palette.
Izuku may look as cold as ice, as frigid as the consuming wind that was his father’s army, but when you looked closer, he was the warmth beneath the wintery world his father was creating.
“Yes… it was indeed most generous of me to give you those meaningless trinkets.” Izuku could hear and feel the disgust towards Izuku’s humanity in appreciating a gift. “It is merely a long-standing custom of the lands and contractually, according to the treaty, we are to abide by their traditions, even if some of them are archaic and lacking development in the intellectual department.” His father spoke as though disgusted and personally offended by them.
“I think it is important to recognize their traditions, even if unconventional and outdated it may seem.” Izuku said as he glanced at his new, rather unorthodox animal companion that had been gifted to him by the king of Jadever upon his arrival. “Besides, he is kind of cute.” Izuku said with a softening smile spreading on his face as he looked off to the side at the large woolen, black mountain ram, coat thick, fluffy and well kept, his horns lard and threatening for such a seemingly docile creature.
“If what I read in the archives here is true, gifting a ram is a tradition of the royal families, that traditionally the Alphaen royals gift a mountain ram, the most revered one to gift is a black ram, and it is said that this tradition was done to honor their god and his fated mate.” Izuku explained as he continued touching the necklace, feeling the humming of the magic his mother had in the stone, as if she were giving him a hug, “Their deity was described as a wolf wielding an axe, and his mate was like a ram, soft and warm to embrace, but fierce, sturdy, resilient and strong.” Izuku explained, unaware of the approaching figure of his father as Izuku knelt down before the ram, who was exuding an air of indifference but did not react when Izuku approached.
“Watch your tone with me, Izuku.” His father said menacingly as Izuku froze, feeling the all too familiar drowning sensations of fear spreading through his blood. His omegaen instincts flared, his defensive prime nature threatening to come out but he forced it down, holding on to the vulnerable fear as he cowered at the vicious alphaen authority that came from his father.
“My humblest apologies father.” He said as he hung his head in a display of submission to placate his father. The wounds he still wore on his body screamed beneath his layers of clothing, as he felt the all too familiar cold, cruel touch of his father’s hand slithered around his neck. His father’s large, cruel hand wrapped around his throat, the fingers laying over each on the back of his neck, it sent black spots and pain searing down his back as they fit around his neck with practiced ease, tightly gripping his neck.
“You grow bolder and continue to forget your place. The second you put these things on I thought you were your mother and wanted to torture you where you stood. I should do it, destroy you right now Inko, Izuku, fuck…” Izuku trembled at the venom and hate in his father’s voice, clearly feeling the malice of his father saying his mother’s name like it was the thing he hated most in the world. “It would be wise that you remember you are nothing more than fodder to the grand scheme that is my destiny. If you weren’t of use to me I would have killed you already, pathetic, useless, omegaen son of mine.” His father’s voice was cruel, vicious and implicitly honest as Izuku let out a gasp as the air was cut away from his lungs. His vision went hazy almost instantly as it felt like electricity was shooting down his veins as he fought everything in him not to reach up and grab his father’s hand.
He had to trust and believe that his father still saw him as useful, that he wouldn’t snuff out the smoking ember that was Izuku.
His ears were filled with the sound of his own blood rushing away from his brain leaving him lightheaded when suddenly he heard a loud bleating sound drowned the sound out. Suddenly he was able to greedily suck in the air into his lungs as his throat was released and Izuku fell forward, and found himself cushioned by black fur as a continuing sound of hate left the ram as it seemingly shielded Izuku from his father.
Izuku got his bearings together as he lifted his head and saw his father’s hand clutching at his side, blood spilling over his hand, almost looking black rather than red as he glared at the Ram standing threatening and defiant towards his father.
“Are you alright father?” He found himself asking out of habit, out of the youthful concern he still held, flinching at the vicious, animalistic and murderous snarl that left his father’s lips.
“I should fucking gut and roast that thing for the feast.” His father fumed, rage etched into his features before he took in a harsh breath, Izuku watching as his father channeled his magic into his hand and healed the wound on his side in an instant as he calmed down, “But as you stated, we have to abide by their ridiculous traditions and killed that beast would only ruin the plan. You are still useful to me until you’ve earned your place in their council, curried their favor and earned their misplaced trust.”
Izuku nodded in understanding, head bowed as he took in his fathers words. Good. He was still useful, he could still make it out of this alive. “Your words are wise as always father, and I will follow them dutifully till we accomplish your mission. The winds are in your favor, and your victory is certain. I will ensure it is so.” Izuku promised, hating the words on his tongue but knowing if he didn’t say them, pain and injury would follow.
The only safety he had was to play his father’s game, lie and manipulate to keep favor, so he could survive.
“I guess you do still have some common sense and usefulness left, my son.” He said with a deep timbre as he moved out of Izuku’s space, allowing Izuku to let out shuddering, breath as his limbs trembled. “Clean yourself up. You are needed for your wedding.”
“As you command, father.” Izuku said he slumped against the woolen, sturdy of his ram, letting out a stuttering breath as he mentally prepared for what he was going to have to do, left in silence in the tent against the surprisingly tender beast. The gentle, comforting sound the Ram made had Izuku’s mind finding a little comfort as he closed his eyes and listened to the comforting croons of his omega calling out to him.
He had no idea what he had done in his past life to deserve this life, but he kept moving forward because he had no choice in this life. He had no idea why he was born as such a different human being in this life compared to his family but here he was, the complete opposite of his entire family, serving a purpose, not living his life.
Like every man, woman and living being that served his father, Izuku had a duty as the crown prince, and yet his duty never distorted the purity of his vision in the eyes of the conquered. Where the army of Shigaraki laid waste to the lands, destroying and ruining lives, Izuku’s light, respectful feet walked with dignity and kindness. Where the army laid waste to the people who chose to defy, who chose to rather die than serve beneath a man who enjoyed spilling blood, Izuku knelt next to those defiant fighters and offered comfort, gentleness, and compassion.
He did what no one else did, showed a sliver of humanity and respect to the prisoners of war, even those who spat at him and verbally abused him, all Izuku did was smile and offer kindness, humming softly to himself as he tended to their wounds. Word spread through the lands of the kindest soul dressed in his royal robes kneeling down, uncaring of the dirt and grime as he closed the eyes of the deceased, held the hands of the anguished and dying, carried their last wishes in his heart and wept for their pain, and their loss.
He gave them their last moments of respect and word got round and it earned him favor and respect. He had been a beta all his life, nothing really special or of value, but it gave him the chance to pursue many skills. Not only did he train as a skilled respected soldier but he also dived deeper into his historical and diplomatic studies that came with being a prince. He was well rounded, even adding alchemy, chemistry, herbology and healing studies to his repertoire on top of that, and with his growing name, he was desired by many as a bargaining chip for their treaties, but it never was a possibility…
Not until Izuku presented as an omega, and later, in secret unearthed his prime status so he could figure out how to hide it.
Why, simple really.
In history, at the beginning of his father’s warpath, the heard of the story of an omega princess from a now conquered nation, that went feral and killed a hundred, maybe more than two hundred of his father’s soldiers in her grief at the loss of her mate and child. Izuku remembered how he was haunted by the contorting and inhumane cries as he witnessed his father tear her body apart after they’d finally killed her and made her a Nomu, the demons that only had one goal in mind… destroy… and to this day, no one killed the Nomu… until the king of Jadever finally did so and set her soul free.
Izuku remembered seeing the tears in the monster's eyes as she came to herself and finally found peace by Izuku’s kind touch, her status recognizing his own as she crooned, killing two of the soldiers that threatened Izuku. He remembered her broken voice as she died, “My sweet prime omegaen prince… please… don’t succumb to the same fate as I… end us all… please…”
Izuku knew there was truth to her words… because all Primes would meet the same fate… becoming monsters in his father’s army.
Izuku would be no different, so he hid it, to protect himself because he had no other weapon. He needed to keep it close to himself, and now he would finally have a chance to escape this life… even if it meant marrying a man he didn’t even know.
~.~.~✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦❄𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧~.~.~
Burning wood, a sweet roasting scent like caramel or burning sugar mixed with a musk and spice, smoky burning wood, maybe oak or pine…
These were the three scents that invaded Izuku’s nose as he approached the altar, constructed for the ceremony, the King of Jadever having insisted on an outdoor ceremony for their wedding vows. Izuku was riding atop the back of sheep that was draped in red and green silks, gold bands on the horns as the great ram walked with a regal strut that Izuku hadn’t anticipated for an animal of this nature.
Izuku could feel the chill of the air of Payrius floating over his frame, grateful for the long sleeves of his tradition outfit of Wadfow, the intricately embroidered gold and silver detailing of his wedding garb, feeling the way the beautiful material moved with his frame as he dismounted the ram. He could hear the awe of the audience at his beauty, he knew he was something to be coveted and it was because of his mother’s beauty, but he paid no mind to everything around him.
His eyes were focused on the King of Jadever who sat astride a large black wolf at the altar, those familiar, captivating blood red eyes taking in Izuku, analyzing him, absorbing in his appearance as Izuku slipped his arm through his father and brother’s. “Remember brother, don’t fuck this up.”
Izuku gulped, nodding as he felt the way his brother’s voice was like a knife cutting into his resolve as he looked forward, hearing the threatening hum of his father’s magic as he spoke, “Do not think of being foolish.”
“I will not father. I will do my duty and represent the house of Shigaraki Zen with honor, loyalty and devotion.” Izuku promised as he reigned in his instincts, the fight rather than flight instincts and made sure to test the limits of his resolve.
“Good.” His father said as they proceeded to the altar with music playing, beautifully encapsulating the aura of a magical moment but all Izuku felt was the dread of reality.
He was marrying a man he did not know, did not fall for, did not love, did not want to marry. He was simply a shell doing the bidding of a cruel, greedy man… and yet the moment he looked at the man he was decreed to marry, his breath stilled just like on the battlefield.
Bakugou Katsuki, The King of the Vigolfr or Battling Wandering Wolf tribe, was the vestige of a man and a God in human form. He carried himself with authority and power, a far cry from the fabled archaic, lesser being, more barbaric and less logical than modern man. His red eyes were almost glowing with the power of his magic that Izuku remembered seeing sweep over the fields of Turo in the decisive final battle.
His blonde hair was striking in its mirroring of an explosion in a way, striking, his arms and body pristine and clear of scars, a testament to his raw strength and combative skills from all the stories Izuku had heard about the untouchable king. His battle prowess was comparable to his fathers own, indomitable and all conquering, achieving victory and only victory. From the servants that had helped him get ready, Izuku heard the title that the King of Jadever had earned for his strength and continued victory…
The Sigewulf, or the Victory Wolf.
It was clear that he was given how pristine his body was as he was draped in red, and dressed in black, a large sword on his hip as he fixated on Izuku and remained unmoving as he took in Izuku in his entirety.
“I present to you, King Katsuki, my son, Prince Shigaraki-Midoriya Izuku, better known as the Angel of Life.” His father said as he took Izuku’s hand and offered it out to Katsuki who extended his hand out, an acceptance, though he did not speak. His eyes were fixed on Izuku’s, flashing gold as Izuku felt his flash silver, a quiet gasp leaving his lips as his omega called out to the alpha. It was not something that had ever happened before with Izuku since his prime surfaced, the mutual acceptance of a potential mate.
The words that echoed in his brain were the words, ‘Mate,’ ‘Alpha,’ and ‘Our perfect mate.’
“Greetings, Sigewulf, King of the Jadever tribe, the Indomitable and unwavering King of the freest lands.” Izuku said as he bowed, lowering his head but his gaze never leaving Katsuki’s as the king effortlessly dismounted the large wolf that moved to stand behind the witnesses to the wedding, as if a witness itself.
Izuku watched breathlessly as the king approached him, a hand offered out towards Izuku as he felt his father and brothers arms leave him. Izuku was so taken by those eyes and by the words echoing in his brain as he placed his hand in Katsuki’s and felt as though he had been struck by lightning, his entire body trembling at the sensation of the charged chemistry between the two of them.
Izuku felt it more than he heard it, the rumbling of a deep purr from the Alpha King’s chest as Izuku righted himself and followed the Alpha’s guiding hand to stand on the platform, their eyes still locked with one another as they stood before the officiant.
It was as if they simply could not let their eyes fall away from one another. Izuku could feel the silvery flash of his green eyes, of his omega calling to the alpha and watched the flare of gold as the Alpha reciprocated the call, the gold so striking, Izuku had never seen an Alpha’s eyes go gold before.
Izuku honestly heard none of the words being said, the propaganda and political jargon preaching a peaceful cohabitation formed by this union glossing over Izuku like water washing over a duck’s back, because all Izuku could focus on, was Bakugou Katsuki, and it seemed mutual.
It was as if he was staring into Izuku’s soul, as if seeing the deepest parts of Izuku’s shame, vulnerability, as if he could see all the pain of Izuku’s scars beneath his layers of clothing as the early wintery wind chilled Izuku through his clothes. Izuku was not built for the cool conditions, not like the people of Jadever, Payrius and Turo, seeing as how much of the soldiers and accompanying the party to the King of Jadever were bare from the chest to waist, looking like proud warriors baring their scars of successful battles.
Izuku could smell it, the pride of the Alphas and Omegas from the army of the Jadever, could see each of the omegas watching with pride, wearing the wounds of battle and the scars of war like they were an honor. All his life Izuku had always been around the world where omegas were breeding fodder, meant to be beautiful and pristine, not marred by the markings these incredible omegas were wearing. Izuku admired how he had seen the omegas treated with respect by the alphas in Jadever, even by the King who allowed them to be warriors not just breeding slaves.
And now, Izuku was joining a place where he might be able to get the same level of respect…
“Now, as per the traditions of the lands of Jadever and her neighboring lands, we will perform the traditional marital ceremony performed in these lands. Prince Midoriya-Shigaraki Izuku, if you may kneel before the king.” The officiant spoke, drawing Izuku out of his thoughts as his servant helped him fix his dress so he could kneel before the Katsuki, hearing the soft rumbling of the alpha before him, “Prince Izuku, do you offer yourself in all your compliance, subservience and promise your loyalty, devotion and submission to your future alpha, your future husband, your future king.”
Izuku bowed his head and nodded as he slowly let his scent leech out, offering his submission to the Alpha before him, his hands pressed palm to palm, turning his neck in submission. It was going against his own instincts, his own need to submit and serve, and yet for the first time, his omega purred in contentment, as if it had accepted and chosen Katsuki’s alpha as his mate which surprised Izuku.
“I prince Izuku pledge myself to the alpha before me, and offer myself in all facilities to him. I offer my heart, my body, my titles, my experience, my intellect, my subservience and loyalty to him, in all that I am, as all that I am,” Izuku said as he bowed, lowering himself before the man till his head was almost touching the floor. In the lands of Turo and Jadever, Izuku had learned through the texts here that the lower you lowered yourself to your alpha, the more respect you showed, and that was a big thing, in the fact that the crown prince and royal son of the most cruel and all conquering warlord, was bowing deeply to another king in acknowledgement.
“I accept your pledge and your loyalty, but not your subservience and submission.” Katsuki spoke and Izuku felt his breath hitch at the deep baritone of the man’s voice, feeling the way his scent flowed in acceptance, mingling with the king’s own and creating a beautifully unified scent that almost left Izuku dizzy. His soft scent of cherry blossoms, bergamot and amber, the subtle sweet notes blending with his own earthy scent mingling with the notes of smoke, spice, caramel and wood coming from Katsuki, the reciprocation leaving Izuku breathless as the acceptance, as he raised his head and took in the way the man was looking at him with a conviction that left Izuku overwhelmed.
“You do not accept my subservience?” Izuku asked, breathless and confused as he stared up into the deep red eyes that seemed to be looking deeply into Izuku’s soul. He was confused, afraid as he could smell the pungency of his father’s souring scent but the King of Jadevver continued to speak.
“I do not, because in the lands of my kingdom, Omegas are not servants, not submissive breeding fodder, not servants.” There was a gasp from the gathering, mainly from the people on Izuku’s side as witnesses as Izuku felt something brewing in his chest, something akin to hope as the supporters of Jadever cheered in agreement with their king. “In Jadever, the lands are free and filled with omegas that are warriors, fighters, strong individuals, not just stock to grow the bloodlines. They are the gift and blessing given to grow our future, but they are not obligated to do so.” Katsuki said as he offered his hand out to Izuku who raised himself upright, staring at the hand reaching out to him. “I was promised an omega, a partner, a husband, but I expect an equal, not a slave, so if you pledge to be my equal, not my slave, then I accept you, Midoriya Izuku.”
At the sound of his name, his mother’s maiden name, Izuku could feel the tears in his eyes as his lips parted in awe as a tear rolled down his face. For a moment, it was as if the clouds had parted and the sun shined out at the pledge and promise of equality, neutrality, and Izuku was witnessing a miracle being born, as if he was being given a sign that the future was going to be brighter now.
Izuku found his omega approving as his hand reached up, placing it firmly in Katsuki’s who did not hesitate to remove the gloves he’d been wearing to cover up the scarring, Izuku’s breath hitching at the touch. Katsuki’s entire hand encapsulated Izuku’s own, the Alpha purring in a deep, rumbling content manner as his thumb soothed the heaving scaring, damaged hands Izuku had been hiding in his long sleeves gloves. “These are the hands of a fighter, a warrior, an omega I and my Alpha both accept, so rise, Crown Prince Midoriya Izuku and accept my offer should you wish to accept it.”
Izuku did so, not because he was told to, but because he wanted to. For the first time in his life, Izuku had been given a choice, had been given the option to accept, to choose and want for himself, and Izuku accepted it.
It was effortless, the way Izuku rose with his head high rather than bowing it down like he had been told to do all his life. “We will now perform the union ceremony.” The officiant said as Izuku continued to keep his focus trained on Katsuki who looked pleased. “Witnesses to the union, please surround the stage and bear witness to a union of equalness, of unity between two kingdoms, of a marriage between a king and a future king.”
Izuku let the world around him bleed up, but saw two people stand behind Katsuki, a man and a woman, his parents, their scents filled with pride and warmth, the woman’s omega scent wrapping around her alpha husband’s scent as he beamed with pride, the scent sweet and soft it made Izuku feel more warm about his own scent.
Izuku knew his father and brother stood behind him, but his focus was on Katsuki as he moved to lay their hands palm to palm, Katsuki’s hand seemingly carrying the weight of Izuku’s own, an intimate tradition to represent the Alpha carrying the weight and burdens of his partner but mirroring the strength of their partner by having their hands palm to palm.
The officiant came with a beautiful red, silk woken rope, tying it in a way that was encapsulating around Izuku’s wrist, almost like the ownership of him was being given away, but it didn’t matter, “Do you Shigaraki-Midoriya Izuku, offer yourself in all capacity to this union, to protect, uphold and respect your Alpha Husband in all capacity. Do you give yourself wholly and completely in every regard.”
“I do.” Izuku said with a small bow of his head but his eyes remained trained on Katsuki as the officiant moved to loosely wrap the rope around Katsuki’s wrist, as if giving him a chance to decline the union. “King of Jadever, our Vigolfr Bakugou Katsuki, do you swear to carry the burden of this union, to share the weight of this relationship with strength and honor.”
It was silent as rather than answer, Katsuki moved and lifted their hands up, moving to lace his fingers with Izuku, to show a unity that had Izuku’s breath stuttering and heart racing as he moved to lace his fingers through Katsuki’s as well. “I do.” He said simply as the audience clapped and cheered as Izuku felt like his entire life was just about to change.
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✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦Destiny𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧
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After the wedding and hand ceremony of their union had been completed, all the guests and gathered folk had been invited to the grand hall of Payrius where all the elite often had their events. The great hall gleamed with gold and polished marble, but Izuku felt none of its warmth. His now husband was walking through the scene, meeting all the gathered diplomats from the lands who had come in support for their Overlord.
“You were wise to give in to his demands brother.” Tenko spoke as he appeared next to Izuku who had been standing off to the side, watching the surrounding scene with thinly veiled interest. The ram had remained by Izuku’s side, a new weird and unlikely companion as Izuku gently petted its head. “Such a weird bunch of people, giving animals as gifts instead of gold and jewelry and slaves.”
“It is their custom, centuries old.” Izuku said simply as he kept his hands covered by the gloves, trying to keep the aura of beauty that had been described about him before the people.
“Custom or not, you should still know your place, brother.” Tenko hissed viciously, eyes flashing their haunting glow as an intimidation tactic that had Izuku forcing himself to play the fragile omega card, exposing his neck in submission.
“Forgive me brother.” Izuku said simply, subdued, lacking emotion that had Tenko growling venomously.
“Fucking mean it you ungrateful little, magicless, bastard of a traitor.” Tenko hissed as Izuku felt a small fire growing in him as he whipped his head to face Tenko and let out a quiet growl.
“Curse me out all you want but you will not speak of my mother that way. She and father were married so never say. Say what you wish of me but never speak of her that way.” Izuku knew he should have not spoken in defense but he couldn’t help himself, couldn’t help the slight intensity of the earthy notes of the bergamot and amber.
Before Izuku could blink, he felt it. The frigid chill in the air, the alpha scent of death and destruction that came from his father as he choked on the sour taste as the world around them stilled as Izuku looked up to see his father before him, eyes black, posture rigid, face twisted in disgust and hatred that he didn’t bother to hide.
“You dare defy an alpha!” His voice boomed as Izuku winced, feeling the way his omega was threatening to surface in defiance for an alpha daring to make him submit. “You have fucking overstepped for the last time!” His father yelled as his hand grabbed Izuku by the scruff, nails digging harshly into the wounds still on his neck and dragging him to the center of the room, Izuku hearing the uproar of cheers and unhappiness intermingling as he was thrown to the ground.
As Izuku lay in a heap on the floor, he could hear his father’s cruelty as he spat venomously, “This—” he spat, gesturing sharply at Izuku as if pointing at dirt “—is the embarrassment I have been forced to present to the world. This is the poorest example of an Omega I have ever seen in my life.”
Izuku’s stomach twisted, but he kept his head bowed, hands hidden under the long sleeves of his icy blue wedding attire, wincing as he tried to keep his composure. He’d learned long ago not to cry. His father only grew crueler when he smelled weakness but Izuku couldn’t help but feel the shame brewing in his chest as he let out a stuttering breath.
“Strip.” Lord Midoriya ordered, making Izuku’s eyes widened in horror, no no no, this couldn’t be happening. He’d kept all the shame concealed, he had done as promised and hid the imperfections to not tarnish his father’s name and now he didn’t care.
Izuku flinched. “F-father, please—”
“Take. Them. Off.”
When Izuku hesitated for even a heartbeat, his father’s boot slammed into his side—not hard enough to break anything, but hard enough that the sound echoed through the hall. Gasps fluttered. No one moved to help as a black fire formed on the clothes, burning them away and revealing the bruises and scars beneath as he was left exposed from waist up, whimpering in shame as he trembled.
“You worthless omega, you didn’t fucking know your place. You have been nothing but disobedient ” Lord Midoriya hissed, leaning in close enough for Izuku to smell the wine on his breath. “Show them exactly why no Alpha wants you. Show them the hands ruined by your pathetic training and failed ambitions and pathetic, weak heart.”
Izuku’s hands shook as he slowly pushed himself upright as he showed his wounds, showing the bruises and scars of his disobedience and shame. Snickers and pitying whispers crept through the crowd… but there was an uproar in the background but it was drowned out by the haziness and fog in his brain as he looked up at his father with glassy eyes as his omega snarled and threatened to surface but he kept it at bay.
His father sneered, malice growing as he pulled out a cane, jagged and almost seemingly covered in thorns as Izuku winced. “Look at him. A prince who is nothing but ruined and damaged goods because of his defiance. I have held back from disciplining him, but now I will publicly shame him and discipline him.” His hand lifted—intent clear in his eyes. He was going to strike Izuku. Not a symbolic blow.
A real one before the eyes of witnesses. Izuku didn’t raise his arms to block it. He knew better. It would only make it worse.
But the strike never came, no, only heat did along with a vicious, almost animalistic, wet sounding snarl from childhood nightmares as Izuku looked up to see his father’s hand suspended in the air, A hand—strong, fast, unyielding, unwavering had caught his father’s wrist in mid-air with such force the impact cracked like a whip, and silenced the room.
Before Izuku was Bakugou Katsuki, broad-shouldered. Sharp-eyed. Radiating an aura that made every Alpha present instinctively straighten and every Omega shiver, including Izuku, although his omega was preening at the thought of his mate, their mate protecting him
The foreign envoy no one knew well enough to approach and too many feared on instinct alone was like a guardian angel, his snarl, challenging in nature had many backing away from the scene, even Tenko who was stunned silent. Katsuki’s hand squeezed his father’s wrist until the older man’s face contorted in pain.
“You lay a hand on him again,” Katsuki said, voice low and lethal, “and I break it off.”
His father snarled, trying to wrench free, bearing his fangs and snarling back in kind to Katsuki who refused. “How dare you interfere in matters that are not yours? This pathetic creature is my son, my responsibility, and I’ll discipline him as I see fit! How dare you lay your hands on me!” Izuku could feel it, the release of the pheromones of a prime alpha being released, potent and suffocating as the crowd backed away, some sick from the disgusting scent of death radiating off his father, the forcing aura of submission pulsating like a palpable heartbeat.
Izuku could feel his own omega recoil in disgust at the scent from his father, the repetition of submit, submit, submit echoing in his brain as he knew he had to save face, but suddenly the scent of fire and smoke, spice, caramel and wood coming from Katsuki, only this was dominating, but instead of being forced to submit, Izuku felt as though he was being comforted and protected by a scent more powerful, more authoritative than his fathers own. How the fuck is this possible.
Katsuki released his father, shoving him back a good few feet away and not gently in any way—and Katsuki stepped forward, blocking Izuku completely with his body. He didn’t look at Izuku yet.
He didn’t need to.
Izuku felt the protection like a wall of heat and electricity as the snarl deepened and the almost protective wall of Katsuki’s scent surrounded him as Katsuki’s voice boomed out loudly as his lip curled in an open mawed snarl. “You don’t discipline. You humiliate and harm for your own selfish delight. There’s a difference.”
Izuku saw the shock on his father’s face before it twisted with rage and hatred as he stood tall and defiant once again. “You speak as if you understand this worthless boy. He is weak, defective, incapable of any obedience! As his father and Alpha, I own him and have the right to fix his defects how I-”
“Defective?” Katsuki snapped, turning fully now, voice booming through the hall as his scent exploded, making everyone back away as fire formed in Katsuki’s palms, catching the sleeves of his attire on fire and burning it away, revealing unmarred skin beneath the clothes, as if shedding a mask he had been wearing to save face. “I watched him kneel without breaking at the altar. I watched him take blow after blow without protesting. And I watched every one of you stand and do nothing.”
The nobles stiffened as the authority of Katsuki’s voice reached deep inside their as Katsuki’s fire moved to race along the floors, as if dancing before igniting in a fiery ring around Izuku, Katsuki and Izuku’s father, Izuku could feel the power exuding from Katsuki as his scent challenged his father’s own, in fact, it dominated it.
“Tell me,” Katsuki continued, “who looks weak now?”
His father’s face went red with rage as his own magic flaring but it seems so fragile in its aura compared to the explosive fire of Katsuki’s own. “You have no authority. I am Overlord Shigaraki Zen, the conquering lord of the lands. I am a Prime Alpha, and this worthless worm’s Sire. No one has authority—”
“His Alpha? Authority?” Katsuki laughed—a harsh, feral sound that had Izuku gasping at the absurdity in Katsuki’s laugh, as if he could not believe what he was hearing. “You think authority is what’s stopping me from tearing this hall apart? You have no claim to him anymore when he is now tied to me. Your claim over him means nothing anymore and your authority is outruled, by me.”
Something shifted in the air.
A pulse of pressure rolled outward from his body—thick, crushing, ancient. Nobles fell to their knees. Alphas choked on their own breaths. Omegas whimpered and his father backed away… Izuku’s father, the most monstrous and powerful man in history, took a single step back as the fire around them grew in intensity, so hot it was melting the walls of the grand hall. But Izuku felt safe, felt warm and comforted in the embrace of the flames.
Izuku gasped, the sensation sweeping through him like heat and thunder—but instead of fear, he felt something impossible.
Recognition. Understanding. Awe… Divinity.
Katsuki closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them—and his pupils split into glowing, molten slits, the burning golden glow as the roar-like sound he let out could have moved mountains in a single breath. Chaos erupted. People scrambled back, others bowed and the people that accompanied Katsuki marched forward with pure conviction and stood near the flames of the fire and bowed to their king with admiration, unity and respect.
The horror on his father’s face was something Izuku had never seen before and it left Izuku breathless as he watched the hesitation in his father’s frame. “No—Impossible—”
Katsuki spoke with a voice that didn’t belong to any normal Alpha, no it was a voice that rivaled a god, a voice more powerful than that of a prime… it was something more fearful, something more commanding, something that shouldn’t exist but did in this moment.
“I am no alpha, not even a prime. I am above mere man and your voice holds no power over me, not when I, Bakugou Katsuki, My symbol Sigewulf, the wolf of victory, the reincarnation and embodiment of our deity,Bardawulf, a Cuthwolf, famous in all the lands for my perfect victories and unmarred skin. I am no mere man, nor mortal. I am an Enigma and I kneel to no one.” he declared, the word rumbling like the growl of a storm, the sound seemingly shaking the foundations of the building, the chandeliers trembling violently as Izuku remembered the history.
He remembered the tales and stories of how the existence of Primes was uncommon, unheard of, none having existed since the rise of his father, but enigmas were fables comparable to the existence of gods, their existence rivalled to deities of the highest order, as being greater than a human, some even greater than mere gods.
Izuku felt the words leaving him as he spoke, “With the strength of thousand of alphas in their hands and bodies, the protective instincts of a million omega, and the blood of something older than even the oldest gods that answers to no kingdom… and no king… and a voice powerful enough to have shaped the world itself… Gods walking the face of the earth…”
A chandelier overhead shuddered, crystals chiming like frightened bells as some shattered from the rising head and fell around them but it was as if the aura of the being before Izuku was protecting them. Katsuki was unharmed by his own flames as the fire parted and through the flames walked the large black wolf, and Izuku’s ram, and for a moment Izuku had thought he was dreaming.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw it, saw something that made Izuku’s breath catch as the shadows moved along the floors—two colossal shapes materializing behind the ram and wolf as they walked. It was as if no one else saw it… saw a massive wolf with fur the color of a starless sky, or the ram with horns curling like ancient silver crescent moons.
They bowed, not to the king, not to the nobles.
To Katsuki.
Mirroring the bow of the wolf and the ram to Katsuki who simply stood, exuding his pulsating power as if it were as easy as breathing.
“Heed my words, Overlord Shigaraki Zen. You have no power over me, my lands, her people. You never have and you never will.” He said with an echoing rumble as the fire roared in threat, “You do not command or control me. No one can. With this marriage, you have no power, ownership or claim over your son anymore. You are lucky I am forgiving and not enacting vengeance upon you like my customs allow by smiting you where you stand.”
Lord Midoriya’s voice quivered. “You—You can’t take him—”
For the first time, their eyes met.
And Katsuki’s expression softened—so subtly Izuku almost missed it as Katsuki spoke, “By the treaty agreement, I can.” He looked back to face Shigaraki Zen as he spoke with firmness and leaving no room to argue. “We will do as promised with this alliance, you will receive your first shipment on the eve of the howling moon. My people and I will be departing with haste.You and your army will not follow. Is that understood?”
Izuku could see the way his father wanted to retaliate but the authority of an enigma overpowering his father’s own prime alpha status left him no le to stand on. “Very well.”
Izuku let out the breath he was holding as Izuku felt his heart thundering in his normally hollow feeling chest. His eyes followed the hand that had comforted him at the altar that was reaching out to Izuku, following the arm all the way to Katsuki’s face, seeing the thrumming, pulsating gold glow revealing the red beneath as he spoke with a tenderness Izuku didn’t even remember knowing from anyone else other than his mother.“You don’t have to kneel anymore,” he murmured. “Not to him. Not to me. Not to anyone.”
Izuku’s vision blurred with the tears he’d held back for years. Izuku reached out, hesitating—only to gasp when Katsuki took his scarred hand gently within the safety net that was his own, as if seeing them with reverence not disgust, as if they were priceless relics instead of shameful imperfections.
“These,” Katsuki said quietly, lifting Izuku to his feet, helping him game his balance and steadiness once more, “are the hands of someone who fought to survive in a home that never protected him. These are the hands of a warrior who fought all their life for hope, for survival. There is no shame in that. These scars are more beautiful than the perfect skin of a royal of the most lush lands.”
Izuku gulped as he watched the fires die down as the people of Jadever rose, two individuals rushing forwards, a cloak in hand and a winter coat. The red haired man with sharp teeth and red eyes was gentle in his approach as he gave the clothes to Katsuki, the other with purple hair and a scarf covering his mouth was gentle in guiding the ram to where Izuku was as it knelt down low enough for Izuku to mount.
Izuku gasped as the warmth of the winter coat was wrapped around him, shielding and protecting him from the eyes of judgemental people, but not from Katsuki’s eyes as he helped Izuku fasten it in place, covering his sensitive hands with the gloves, as if knowing the winter wind made them ache. “By my honor and my name, I won’t let you be hurt again.”
Before anyone could stop them, Katsuki moved forward and rested his hands above Izuku’s hips, nothing but trust and a sheen of fear layering Izuku’s gaze as Katsuki gave Izuku a moment to push him away, to reject the touch, the help. No one in years had offered him kindness, gentleness, respect and compassion and all Izuku could do was chose not to reject the kindness, his hands coming to rest on Katsuki’s arms and took a breath as he felt the electrical current racing down his spine at the gentle way those warm hands were placed on his hips as he was lifted onto the back of the ram.
Once he was certain Izuku was secure, he took the thick, black fur lined, red cloak and swung it around Izuku’s frame and fastened it in black before whistling loudly, the sound sharp and making everyone wince as a might gust blew open the doors. The room was invaded in moments by a smorgasbord of wolves and rams alike, none the size of Katsuki’s wolf and Izuku’s ram. The way they entered without disturbing a single table or plate was admirable as all the riders mounted their beasts and left the room, Katsuki the
Katsuki glared at the hall one last time.
“Try to take him back, try to invade my lands, try to harm my people, try and test my patience one more time,” he snarled, Izuku felt his omega purring in his brain at the protective, authoritative threat that left the Enigma’s lips as the ram walked ahead, Izuku’s gaze remaining focused on the man before him as he witnessed greatness before him, “and find out what an Enigma truly is and just how fucking powerful of a King I really am.”
No one moved.
No one dared.
They were all too scared, too impressed, struck dumb as Katsuki’s hand ignited with swirling fire and he sent a blast of it at the closed doors that exploded open Izuku’s eyes widening in awe as Katsuki let out a yell. The wolf and ram charged into sunlight, wind whipping around them, Izuku clutching tightly onto the bridle as for the first time, the sun peaked out through clouds, as if lighting the way towards the mountain where the people of Jadever were running too.
For the first time in his life, Izuku felt safe… felt new hope brewing in his chest as he held
~.~.~✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦❄𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧~.~.~
The descent down the Ecco Mountains was slow, the winding path cut from ancient dark stone and slick with the mist that perpetually clung to the peaks. Izuku rode ahead on the black ram, wrapped in Katsuki’s cloak, warmth still lingering in the fabric like an echo of the hands that had lifted him. The silence between them wasn’t tense—not like earlier. It was heavy, contemplative, thick with things unsaid.
It had felt like they were riding for hours before climbing the treacherous paths to what Izuku realized was a path seemingly impassable by foot, that only experience, intuition and the trained animals of Jadever could pass through this non-existent path.
Katsuki’s wolf, King, padded alongside the Ram with long, deliberate strides, black fur rippling like a shadow given life. Katsuki walked beside his beast, his bare hand brushing King’s shoulder now and then, grounding himself. He hadn’t spoken since they’d left Payrius’ hall blazing behind them.
Only when they reached a wider stretch of stone—where the clouds pulled away enough to reveal the valley below, glittering with lanterns from the fleeing Jadever people—did Izuku finally speak.
“Katsuki…” His voice was soft, nearly lost to the wind. “How did you… how could you stand up to him so willingly? My father. All of them. Like it was easy.”
Katsuki huffed, a low, rough sound. “It wasn’t easy given the newly forged contract between out kingdoms, but it was necessary.”
“But still,” Izuku insisted, fingers tightening on the bridle. “You didn’t even hesitate. You protected me like—like it wasn’t even a choice. Why?”
Katsuki slowed, giving King a small gesture to pause as the ram followed suit and stopped. The great wolf sat, breath steaming from his jaws, golden eyes reflecting torchlight from the valley far below.
“That answer,” Katsuki said, stepping closer to Izuku, “starts long before you enter my lands.”
Izuku blinked, green eyes wide, waiting.
“I was sixteen,” Katsuki began. “You know the Trials of the Next King… in our lands it's called the Trials of Hildwulf, our god and ancestor?”
Izuku nodded; every kingdom knew the fabled stories of the archaic selection of the next kings of these lands. It was long since unheard of, still being practiced. When Izuku was in the library at Payrius, he remembered reading about the noted history and how the trials were said to be brutal—meant for warriors who fought like wolves themselves.
“I didn’t just enter those trials,” Katsuki continued. “I swept them. Every round. Every challenge. Every warrior—older, stronger, trained since birth—went down. I didn’t win because I wanted a crown. I won because I refused to let anyone else decide what I was capable of, that my name wasn’t simple favor, that I earned it, that I was the embodiment of the Eeriuffi, the definition of the one who fights like a wolf, the fiercest recognized warriors in Jadever.”
Izuku stared. “You were sixteen…”
“I was actually fifteen but was sixteen when it ended,” Katsuki said with a humorless grin. “Youngest in Jadever’s history. My uncle had no heirs, no mate, no concubines. My mother—Bakugou Mitsuki—was his sister. The Beowulf, the council pack, were the final judges. Old bastards,” he added under his breath, “but fair ones. They chose me as Hildwulf. They bore witness to all the trials and in the end, they chose me as the future King.”
Izuku’s breath caught. “That’s remarkable… for you to be so young yet be prepared to carry such a title and power… were you even presented?.”
“No reason to brag… and no, I presented after the trials and it only solidified in the eyes of our traditions that I was the right choice.” Katsuki shrugged as he looked towards the horizon, Izuku admired his unmarred skin, remembering how the name of the unscarred king came to fruition in the history books. “I’m king because I earned it. Same reason I protect my people. Same reason I protected you.”
Izuku swallowed, the mountain air suddenly too thin. “But I’m not your people, Katsuki.”
Katsuki’s eyes snapped to him—sharp, burning, unwavering.
“You are… you and I are wed… the second I pledged my loyalty and accepted your pledge, you became a member of Jadever, you became one of my people and by proxy are protected by the contract where it says no harm shall come to the people of Jadever,” he said simply as Izuku sat on the back of the ram, stunned and confused and overwhelmed.
Izuku’s chest tightened as he processed the words but still didn’t quite feel like he believed them. “But you barely knew me. You risked war… you risked everything even if you were protected by a contract… you risked your people for a stranger...”
“Because you were alone,” Katsuki said. “Because you were afraid. Because someone should have protected you a long damn time ago. And because the tradition of our kingdom isn’t just a pretty story.” He rested a hand on King’s thick fur. “In Jadever, omegas have ruled. Kings, queens—gender never mattered. Power comes from the person, not the sub-gender. Our royal line is symbolized by the black ram and black wolf—mated pairs, ruling pairs. Protecting each other. Balance and strength.”
Izuku’s heartbeat stumbled as he stared at Katsuki with an emotion akin to profound awakening, as if the words he had heard finally resonated inside of him.
Katsuki continued, voice quieter now. “Your father wanted to treat you like property. Like a weakness. In my land, that’s treason against everything we are… We shame those who disrespect the beliefs we have.”
Izuku stared down at his hands. “So you protected me because… it’s your duty?”
Katsuki stepped closer to the ram, eyes softening in a way Izuku rarely saw from anyone as Izuku felt the heat of Katsuki’s presence and proximity making his omega purr and the gentleness of katsuki’s comforting scent hitting layer after layer of Izuku’s hardened walls and bringing them down gently, crack by crack but Katsuki’s next words demolished them completely.
“No,” he said. “I protected you because you deserve someone who doesn’t flinch at your strength. Someone who knows your independence isn’t rebellion but survival. Someone who sees the way you carry yourself even after everything you’ve been through.”
Izuku’s breath hitched. “And… you think that someone is you and your people?”
Katsuki didn’t look away. “I know it is.”
A quiet fell over them then—not heavy with fear, but warm with understanding. King exhaled softly, almost approving, and the ram beneath Izuku shifted its weight.
Izuku drew in a shaky breath, voice barely more than a whisper. “I don’t understand why you’d choose me of all people to risk everything for, but know I am grateful nonetheless.”
Katsuki’s expression gentled, the fire in his eyes dimming to something far more dangerous: sincerity.
“You will,” he said. “In time. But for now? Just know this—your father could threaten you all he wanted. But he can’t touch you. Not anymore. Not while I’m here.”
The wind swept through Izuku’s hair, lifting the edges of Katsuki’s cloak around him like wings.
And for the second time that day, Izuku felt safe.
Truly, undeniably safe.
The journey to Jadever was not instantaneous, it took a week of travel to arrive at the settlement castle where the people lived and Izuku couldn’t help but stare in awe because these people still thought to be archaic and primitive in their reality were infact advanced and developed. The erect structures were stone and well supported and the wall was rather impressive.
The gates of Jadever rose from the mist like obsidian carved from mountain bone when the sight of the city broke over the horizon. Izuku had instantly been in awe as they drew nearer to the citadel. The towering archway glowed with runes of old flame, reacting to the return of their king—flaring gold as Katsuki approached, then softening into a steady ember-red as if greeting him like an old friend.
Katsuki was astride his wolf, watching his people enter ahead of him as Izuku had been riding closer to the back. The black ram Izuku rode slowed, sensing the shift in magic and territory. King padded ahead, tail low but alert, his fur crackling faintly with the magical energy at the gate, as if protecting it from intruders and testing the pure intentions of each and every heart that entered her walls. Izuku kept his gaze wide, absorbing the new world around him: the stone structures were sharp and elegant, built into the cliffsides themselves; bridges of dark wood stretched between peaks; wolves and rams lounged along the terraces like guardians.
People bowed as Katsuki passed.
Some out of respect.
Some out of awe.
But none out of fear.
Izuku felt all of it—every pair of eyes that flicked to him wrapped in Katsuki’s cloak, every whisper. He didn’t feel exposed… just overwhelmed as they took in the site of Izuku on the black ram, the crowd cheering for the return of their leader..
Katsuki didn’t slow.
He walked beside the King until they reached the courtyard of the citadel—where three figures waited beneath the great jade banner of the royal family.
The Beowulf Council.
Izuku’s breath hitched.
Leading them was a tall, impossibly quiet man with long black hair, red eyes that glowed faintly with omega fire, and a white scarf looped around his shoulders like a living creature. His expression was unreadable, save for the faint downward tilt of his brows. A scar traced across just one of his red eyes.
Izuku could taste the scent of roasted coffee and sweet whiskey in the background, could feel the reciprocal pull of an omega calling out to their fellow omega.
An omega exuding power and authority, the man standing proud and tall before a king, not kneeling down in submission.
Aizawa Shouta, Izuku realized, having remembered the stories Katsuki told him between their moments of rest on their journey. Izuku remembered the tales Katsuki told of his mentor, and subsequent leader of the council to the king of Jadever..
Beside him obviously stood his mate: a long blonde-haired alpha man with vibrant green eyes and sunshine practically radiating from his skin. His clothes were loud. His smile was louder. Hizashi Yamada.
And perched just slightly in front of both of them was a small beta man—white hair sleeked back, beady black eyes too intelligent, too sharp. His posture had the quiet confidence of a general despite his stature. A scar mirrored Aizawa’s along one eye.
Nedzu.
The council pack.
The Beowulf.
Katsuki stopped before them.
“Look who finally roused from his slumber” he said casually, which made Hizashi snort, Aizawa sigh, and Nedzu grin like a fox in a henhouse.
Aizawa’s voice was slow, tired. “You left the capital after a call for aid, sent word of a diplomatic visit and impending marriage contract and returned with smoke trails behind you and an omega astride the back of your Ram… to word of a fiery display being showcased... Again.”
Katsuki shrugged. “They pissed me off.”
“I assumed,” Aizawa muttered dryly.
Nedzu stepped forward first, examining Izuku with the intense curiosity of someone dissecting a puzzle. “May I?” he asked politely as Katsuki glanced back at Izuku who realized that he was still in the safe place that was the Ram’s back.
Izuku stiffened. “May you… what?” He asked softly, confused and feeling awkward from his seat as the Ram seemingly sensed his hesitation and remained righted instead of lowering himself down.
“Smell you,” Nedzu replied with the bluntness of a scholar who forgot social rules existed.
Hizashi laughed so loud the birds on the roofs scattered. “Nedzu, babe, maybe warm up a little! People in the cities are not accustomed to our free and open manner.”
Aizawa tugged his scarf tighter, uninterested. “Let the kid breathe. This is probably a massive cultural shock to him.”
Nedzu hummed but remained not phased as he walked closer to the Ram as he smiled comfortingly and gently as he offered out his hand, the scent of hay and was that a slight air of dairy, maybe cheese surrounded Izuku as he smiled back at Katsuki “It’s fine, I just wanted to say hello and welcome him to Jadever’s capital, known as the Defiant Fortress where no one has ever penetrated the walls and kept her people safe for centuries.” Katsuki huffed, letting out a grunting sound as Nedzu turned his head and looked at Izuku with a small, reassuring smile. “You’re safe here. Even if you don’t trust that yet…”
Izuku blinked before summoning up his courage and moving to carefully dismount the ram, leaning against his frame as he smiled shyly as he bowed. “I… thank you. I’m trying to reconcile it, given my upbringing and stark contrast to who my family is since it seems like my name has spread far and wide.”
Hizashi stepped forward next, expression soft, tail of blonde hair blowing in the wind, bare torso on full display as he smiled with a sunny disposition that was jarring to Izuku could he had never seen anyone so genuine and warm before “You are famous indeed, and it is a big thing since you came in with Katsuki’s cloak. That’s not something he gives lightly.” He winked. “Means you’re under our protection.”
Izuku swallowed, emotion rising unexpectedly. “I—I’ve never had that before.”
Aizawa finally spoke again, eyes narrowing—not unkindly, just perceptive given he had probably received letters from Katsuki about what transpired. “You’ve been through a life akin to hell given how quickly word traveled about the moments you and your family were in the eyes of the public.”
Izuku froze, his hands clasped tightly around the cloak as if to try to shield and hide the weight of his trauma, his wounds,not to play a victim but just to hide his fragility and shame because it was a weakness.
Aizawa’s voice softened and so did his gaze as he noticed the clear sign of Izuku’s sheltering, of the way he caved in on himself, even if only subtle, it was visible when it came to omega. “We’re not your enemy, Izuku, we may not know each other yet, but we care and will protect and help you, and it’s okay to need it. You won’t be punished or shamed here. You have my word. If you need anything… you ask me first.”
Izuku’s mouth fell open a little as he stared in surprise, unable to comprehend. No one—no council elder— not even his own family other than his mother and a servant or two had ever offered him anything like compassion in the years of his life he had been alive.
Katsuki stepped forward with a grunt. “He’s with me. I’ll get him settled.”
Aizawa raised a brow. “King as well?”
The wolf padded round, not to Katsuki’s side, but Izuku’s as he rounded the green haired man protectively giving a slow, deliberate nod—as if he, too, acknowledged something silently, something akin to surprise crossing all the faces of the elders as they witness the Wolf stand somewhat protectively on one side of Izuku whilst the Ram remained on the other.
Aizawa’s expression sharpened. “Interesting.”
Nedzu hummed thoughtfully. Hizashi clapped his hands like he’d discovered a festival.
Izuku had no idea what any of that meant.
But the council seemed pleased, almost giddy with delight as Izuku was shielded by two of the largest animals Izuku had seen, and Katsuki seemed to have a look of thoughtful reflection on his face before he spoke. “Come, we should get you settled and get those wounds treated.” Katsuki said as Izuku nodded, knowing that he needed the check up but hated the idea of them being seen.
He wasn’t used to adults—wolves—looking at him without disdain.
The way they regarded him now… like he belonged…
It made his throat tight, rocked his foundations, flooded his core with a warmth and fondness he hadn’t expected to feel. He had never felt this way about anyone in his homeland, and now he recognized his omega's growing fire to nurture, to bond… to connect and he had no idea what was going to happen, all he knew was that things were going to be different now.
The corridors of the castle of the Defiant Citadel of Jadeverl were lit with warm flames held in carved wolf-head sconces, night having caught up with them as they had ventured to the castle.. The air smelled of pine, stone, and clean mountain wind, of a peaceful tranquility that Izuku never imagined existed when all the lands he'd tread upon were nothing but skeletons of the luscious beauty they had once been known for. Katsuki walked ahead of Izuku, his steps steady and sure, exuding his natural aura, greeted with respect by all that passed, King at his heel, moving effortlessly with his master.
Izuku followed quietly, fingers brushing the walls as if grounding himself in something real whilst the other held onto the Ram's horn, letting it lead him and offer comfort to Izuku as he held his breath.
The castle was vast and well constructed, standing mightier than other castles Izuku had seen and it didn't take long before they reacted to a high wooden door carved with spirals of wolves and rams.
Katsuki stopped, hand resting on the door hand as he turned to face Izuku, noticing the man's nervousness as Izuku took a deep breath.
“This is your room,” Katsuki said kindly, voice strangely gentle as the softer scent of calm and warming spices washed over Izuku in a warm blanket. “It’s near mine. Not… right next to it. Didn’t wanna crowd you but it was customary during the early days to share a room, but given your history, I doubt you often had a private space to call your own.”
Izuku appreciated the thought more than he could say and nodded, remaining silent as he offered an awkward smile that gave Katsuki the go ahead to open the door and ushered Izuku to go in first.
Izuku stepped inside, counting each step and breath like they may be his last before he stilled and stared in awe..
The room was beautiful—soft furs layered over stone floors, a bed large enough for a whole pack, a window overlooking the valley with drifting clouds glowing orange in sunset as the palette of moonlight kissed skies mingled in a delicate artwork that was simply breathtaking. A fireplace crackled quietly, already lit and a shelf of books and writing materials adorned the far wall where a reading couch lay, lush red cushioning and in the far corner was a building space, a sort of sleeping pen for the ram that didn't hesitate to go too.
The biggest thing that shocked Izuku was the warmth… fuck the walls were made of stone and yet somehow, it was so impossibly warm. Many nights izuku lay on the cold floors before a fire that he had to stoke but never dealt anything other that frigid isolation and a numbing iciness to his limbs. He was lucky to have never lost a limb due to the frigid temperatures.
Izuku exhaled shakily, feeling how each of his aching muscles and wounds ceased in their assault and were soothed by the heat. “It’s… warm… so warm.”
“Yeah,” Katsuki muttered, rubbing the back of his neck, suddenly awkward. “Figured you’d want comfort. You look like you’ve slept on cold floors too often… like the cold was painful not just cold.”
Izuku flinched—and Katsuki’s jaw tightened in anger at whoever had caused that reaction but they both knew who had. But before Izuku and Izuku could respond or say something to one another, a low rumble filled the room, completely drawing their attention as a large body entered.
They both turned and watched with curious eyes as King walked past Katsuki, ignoring him completely, and turned his head to Izuku and gave what almost appeared to be a bow in Izuku's direction before entering the room. Both individuals watched with their full attention as King walked towards the foot of the bed before he moved and circled twice, no thrice before laying down directly at the foot ofIzuku’s bed. Not guarding. Not lounging.
Claiming.
Settling.
Choosing.
Protecting.
Izuku froze as he stared at the wolf that hadn't done much acknowledgement of Izuku, and yet here he was getting comfortable in front of Izuku's bed. “Um… is he supposed to do that?”
Katsuki stared, genuinely baffled, equal parts mystified and confused which Izuku felt when he heard Katsuki's simple. “No.”
King huffed softly and placed his giant head on his paws, golden eyes watching Izuku with patient curiosity as Izuku stared in awe and confusion as Katsuki approached the wolf slowly, his voice stern as he spoke. “King. Bed. My room.”
King flicked an ear and pointedly did not move, choosing to get more comfortable on the carpeted floor.
Katsuki blinked. “Are you serious right now?”
Izuku covered his mouth to hide a tiny laugh.
Katsuki frowned harder as he spoke somewhat quietly to himself compared to directly speaking to Izuku “He doesn’t even sleep in anyone’s room but mine. Hell, he barely lets the council touch him… like the fucking ram. He’s never been polite and welcoming or warm up to anyone like this.”
Izuku stepped closer, nervous but drawn to the wolf’s presence as he stood next to Katsuki who stood before King, as if trying to comprehend what was actually going on as Izuku said softly, almost in awe as he reached his hand out in an attempt to let King acclimate to Izuku's scent. Katsuki kept his hand out in warning but froze when King lifted his head, nudging his nose gently into Izuku’s palm before letting out a rumbling purr as he rubbed his head into Izuku’s palm.
Izuku found himself staring deeply into King’s eyes as he saw something in those eyes, almost so deeply emotive and human-like as they softened as they looked at Izuku who gasped at the way it almost seemed like King was smiling. Izuku detected a scent, so rich with warmth and power and it was coming from King as his tail thumped in greeting.
Katsuki saw it was staring opened mouthed as he let out a confused tone, “What the fuck… that’s…” he started, voice hoarse. “.... fuck this is not normal behavior.”
Izuku looked up at him. “Is it… bad?” Izuku asked as King remained content under Izuku’s hand that scratched behind King’s ear.
“No,” Katsuki said immediately. Too quickly. “It’s not bad. It’s just— ”
He stared at King like the wolf had just rewritten every rule Katsuki knew… as if he was staring at a completely different animal and not one he had come to know so deeply, so intimately, so personally.
“Wolves only choose beds when they feel a bond forming,” Katsuki muttered. “A deep one. A pack bond. Usually takes months. Sometimes years… but King has never done it with anyone, not even my family. The only person he ever gravitated towards was me. He lived in the rolling hills like a fable, and when I presented, he came through the gates like he always belonged, scared everyone as this big and massive wolf walked straight up to me and sneezed in my face… you’re the first one he’s ever let touch him like this, other than me…”
Izuku’s heart thundered, staring at how much awe and confusion was filling Katsuki’s gaze as he continued to watch the massive wolf be content with Izuku. “But we’ve only known each other—”
“I know… and we barely know each other.” Katsuki finished as King was satisfied with Izuku pets and lay his head down by Izuku’s feet as the two of them stood there, suspended in time, both equally confused, equally drawn, equally shaken by something neither of them could name yet…
King exhaled softly, as if comforting them both settling into a peaceful slumber as Izuku moved to crouch down to observe the wolf as he hesitated, “Do you… want me to make him leave?”
Katsuki stared at him for a long, grounding moment.
“…No,” he said quietly. “If he chose you, there’s a reason. Even if we don’t get it yet and to be honest, King is wiser than we can comprehend… the question is whether or not you want him to stay.”
Izuku nodded, shy but warmed as he looked at the comfortable sleep the wolf had settled in too, deep, rumbling breaths as Izuku felt so vulnerable and welcomed and accepted… “Then… he can stay.”
Katsuki swallowed.
Hard.
“Good,” he murmured. “That’s… good.”
For the first time since meeting the king, Izuku watched Katsuki’s expression soften into something unguarded.
Hope.
Confusion.
Possibility.
Profound understanding…
Two strangers sharing a room lit by quiet firelight, a massive wolf at their feet, and a bond—fragile but forming—that neither quite knew how to name… all they knew was that the possibility of Destiny playing her hand on their futures was a possibility.
~.~.~✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦❄𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧~.~.~
Chapter 2: Devotion and Desire Intertwined
Notes:
here we are with part two and I hope everyone here enjoys this story and remembers to give the amazing Axumi some love on their artwork because this story wouldn't have been possible without their vision. Thanks my love, hope you loved the story as much as I loved creating it.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦Desire𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
It had been a half moon cycle since Izuku had arrived in Jadever, and a full one since he first met and encountered the King of Jadever on the fields of Turo. Izuku still remembered the first time he saw him, ablaze on the battlefield, standing on his wolf back, signaling the arrival of Jadever to the battle.
The courtyard of what Izuku learned was called the Keep of the Eeriuffi pulsed with the heavy rhythm of bodies colliding, boots grinding against dust, and warriors shouting encouragement across sun-warmed stone. Here Izuku had wandered around freely in the company of his ram and the man named Aizawa who had taken time to be Izuku’s guide, a beautiful white haired little girl named Eri wrapped securely in a carry around the man’s chest. She was few months old and so beautiful that Izuku felt his entire being fill with longing because of his omegaen instincts as he held the baby that slept peacefully in his arms.
Aizawa was the head mentor and decided today he would show the training grounds to Izuku where kings were made and it was overwhelming. The air was thick with heat—sweat, magic residue, and something wilder beneath it all: the scent of alphas and omegas alike testing one another. Bare chested, scarred, men and women alike, the scene something out of a fairy tale.
Katsuki stood at the center of it, moving like wildfire in human form, uncontained and vast in his authority and strength.
Every swing of his arm sent shock waves through the ground; every pivot of his feet cracked the dust beneath him; every alpha waiting in line to spar with him bore fresh bruises or split lips, but the burning desire of betterment and the will to grow and improve. Some limped away grinning, cheering in delight that they were standing with their heads still screwed on. Some staggered but carried giddy smiles. Others had to be supported but were still awake.
All looked proud as they watched each competitor step up to their king and lose yet somehow appear to have won at life.
On the far side of the field was King, Katsuki’s massive wolf, paced alongside the outer ring like a second shadow, his eyes mirroring and witnessing the exemplary fighting of his master. Red-eyed, slate-furred, scar-etched. His presence commanded silence whenever he passed and none approached him, none dared, and after hearing stories about the beast, Izuku understood why.
Izuku had intended only to watch, to observe with longing since even with the care of the oldest healer in Jadever he still found himself keeping up the fragile mask of a damaged and frail omega who had had the defiance beaten out of him....
Until King looked at him.
The wolf's gaze was fixed on him as the wolf stilled, silencing those around him as he rose to full height, head lifted drawing the attention of everyone as they followed his gaze. All fell over themselves to clear a path as King growled, moving in Izuku's direction as he crossed the field, slowly, deliberately—walking toward Izuku with a singular mission in mind, gaze focused on Izuku as the warriors scrambled to make way for the great wolf. The warriors whispered like startled birds, panicked as they watched the scene unfold before them.
“Is he going after him—?”
“Is the princeling about to faint?”
“A city omega? Here? He’ll get eaten—”
Izuku didn’t move.
He couldn’t.
He simply remained un-swayed, un-moving as he watched King approach him, Izuku feeling Aizawa reaching out to him cautiously but Izuku was unafraid.
King stopped inches from him. The wolf loomed, breath warm on Izuku’s freckled face, eyes gleaming with something sentient, something so familiar. Even if it wasn’t their first encounter, Izuku’s heartbeat hammered against his ribs like a trapped animal.
Then, softly, impossibly…
King leaned forward and nudged his forehead firmly into Izuku’s sternum, making Izuku let out a grunt and chuckle as his fingers threaded their way through the wolf’s fur as Izuku moved his hand the way he had learned that King liked and was delighted by the wolf’s response. A low, approving rumble vibrated through the air as the wolf all but melted under Izuku’s ministrations. Gasps rippled through the courtyard like wind through tall grass, mouths open in shock and awe as they watched the way Izuku giggled as King grew more demanding in his need for affection.
And Katsuki saw it.
For the first time in a long time, Izuku saw it, unlike that first day, Katsuki always had a mask around Izuku, and Izuku couldn't blame him, but felt something warm unfurl in his chest when he saw the genuine surprise crack through the usually proud, stoic mask Katsuki wore around Izuku. His whole body was still, scarlet eyes widening just a fraction as the scent only detectable to Izuku because of his prime status, had Izuku preening.
The warmed spices of pleasure, of earthy desire that was not detectable to the normal sub-genders was like a drug and it stirred something inside Izuku as he watched the way Katsuki was watching him with a longing Izuku had felt before… the first time he saw Katsuki on the battlefield.
Something hot and bright surged inside Izuku’s chest.
He stepped forward, King following at his heel, step for step as Izuku stood before the glory that was Katsuki Bakugou, the pristine fighter, the unmarred, the unconquered, the undefeated King. He had fought so many battles, yet had barely broken a sweat as he stared Izuku down as he approached, and when Izuku was near, Katsuki turned fully toward him. Warriors froze at Izuku’s brazen approach but watched with rapt interest as dust settled mid-air, as if waiting to hear what was to be said.
Izuku’s throat tightened—but he didn’t back down as he took a deep breath.
“I challenge you,” he said, voice cutting clean through the courtyard. “To a fight.”
Murmurs erupted like flames, spreading and growing in its loudness and sheer number.
Katsuki wiped blood from his knocks, not his own, eyes narrowing sharply. “You want to fight me?”
“Yes.”
Katsuki walked towards him, each step heavy with controlled violence, until he stopped barely a breath away. His enigma aura surged in a punishing wave—designed to make alphas and omegas drop to their knees and prostrate themselves in submission.
Izuku did not bow. Izuku knew it was nothing but a tactical display built in to the genetics and blood of alphas’ and enigmas but it was just natural to Katsuki as he looked intrigued.
Katsuki’s lip curled clearly impressed as he spoke, not afraid of being a little more roguish in the way he spoke to Izuku. “You’re either brave or stupid… prince Midoriya.”
“I don’t need to win,” Izuku said, fists curling. “I just need to stand… I need to prove I can still stand…”
A slow, predatory grin spread across Katsuki’s face.
Before he could speak, a voice boomed from behind him.
“You've got to fight me first, Midoriya!”
A familiar face ran forward, Kirishima Eijirou, red hair blazing in the sun, sharp canines flashing in a grin that could warm the dead. He was huge—broad and sculpted with the kind of strength that came from both training and good humor. His presence lit the courtyard like a bonfire and all watched him with awe and respect as they all backed away, Katsuki included as King followed, giving Izuku a look that instilled confidence in Izuku… for it was a look of knowing what was to come.
Izuku had learned early what the Rule of Jadever was: no one fought the King without proving themselves worthy along the chain… not without climbing the ranks or being acknowledged by the council, especially if you were an outsider.
Izuku shifted as he reached up and removed the clasp of the winter coat he was wearing, Aizawa moving into his vision as he looked at Izuku with a profound understanding that warmed Izuku’s heart. “I accept.”
“The challenge has been made, and accepted.” Aizawa’s voice boomed as Izuku’s coat was taken by the older omega, Izuku wearing a simple button up under his coat, thankful that they had clothes he was more accustomed to wearing as he moved into a stance, watching as the Alpha got into position.
Izuku remembered him clearly, how Kirishima and the purple haired Alpha named Shinso Hitoshi had stood on top of a dying Nomu beast named Machia. Izuku had been there, comforting the dying beast who had been influenced by the purple haired alpha's vocal magic that paralyzed him before Katsuki's flames cremated him on the spot and Kirishima delivered the final blow to the beast. It was clear the beast was in pain and all Izuku could do was sooth Machia with a gentle touch as he saw the human lingering in his broke gaze.
Izuku had smelt their scents, their magic as the two Alpha's stood on Machia and Izuku had felt so angry he growled at them and the two had been impressed by Izuku’s threatening display as he hissed at them to get off and have respect for the dying and eventually dead beast that had once been a human…
It was likely because of that moment that Izuku was here now.
“Hey, no hard feelings if you wanna back down, ok? Katsuki’s scary, but I’m—”
Izuku moved.
The spar started with a blur. Kirishima blocked his first strike—surprised at the quick reaction of Izuku as Kirishima stared in shock as the world around them stilled, “I may be from the cities of wealth but I learned a long time ago, but even I had to learn how to fight.” Izuku moved to strike again, Kirishima blocked, this time more aware, more determined as he swung his counter strike.
Izuku dodged his counter—barely given how quickly Kirishima had been, Izuku recognized early that Kirishima had the speed to match his strength.
The red-haired alpha laughed in delight. “Oh, you’re quick!”
But Izuku was more than quick. He flowed, tapping in to all the skills he'd honed. All failed to remember that before he presented as a beta and he had been able to learn to fight and he had to, because unlike everyone else is his lineage, his family, Izuku was born with no magic. Izuku trained in combat for years, in public and in private after his presentation.
He went years of surviving without magic and focusing on honing his craft and that in turn made his movements efficient, razor-sharp. He weaved like a skilled seamstress, each movement calculated and precise as he woke up all his limbs, allowed them to remember the beautiful dance that was fighting freely. Izuku could hear the silence their movements were tracked, neither landing a clean strike… not until Izuku slipped under Kirishima’s arm, twisted past his shoulder, at the precise moment and hooked his foot—and swept him clean off balance.
Gasps. Laughter. Shouts. Shock.
Kirishima landed with a thud that echoed.
He blinked up, stunned.
Then grinned wider. “HELL YEAH! DO IT AGAIN!” He yelled in excitement as his eyes glowed red in an excited challenge as Izuku let out a breathless laugh seeing the delight and feeling the excited aura radiating off the Alpha, not hate or disgust at being toppled by an Omega. Aizawa pointed at Izuku, signaling his first point as Kirishima rose to his feet and with the drop of Aizawa’s hand, Kirishima and Izuku rushed each other, their auras radiating excitement and competitiveness.
They clashed again. Harder. Faster. Slightly more driven and competitively as the crowd roared.
Izuku ducked a punch. Slid past a grab. Landed a strike to Kirishima’s ribs—clean and decisive. Kirishima’s elbow landed heavily in Izuku's ribs, a kick to his chest, a parry to throw Izuku to the ground. Their movements were quick and growing in their volatility and it wasn't because of it being a grudge match. No it was simply enjoyment and competitive excitement to win.
Izuku grunted as he twisted out of Kirishima’s headlock, narrowly avoiding being scuffed before he aimed with a sharp jab and got Kirishima in the already forming bruise where there was likely a fracture. The alpha dropped to one knee, breath knocked out of him as Izuku scrambled and threw himself around Kirishima, contorting him in a way that was seemingly inescapable for someone who had lost their breath.
Silence.
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Then—
“Winner: Izuku!” called Aizawa when he assessed that Kirishima had truly been bested as half the audience cheered, the other half stunned silent in disbelief. Kirishima threw his head back and laughed through the ache, clearly delighted and excited as he rose to his feet and clapped Izuku on the back much to the chagrin of Izuku who laughed awkwardly. “Damn, you’re GOOD! Katsuki’s gonna love this. He wins my vote of approval. Hope you’re ready though Midoriya, he’s no slouch.” Kirishima glanced back over to Katsuki, Izuku following as he watched the enigma king over the cheering of the crowd.
Katsuki’s aura was palpable though, Izuku could taste the heady desire of Katsuki’s well masked scent, the way he looked at Izuku with a curious hunger, as if he had been waiting for a new challenge, and it had finally arrived.
The world around Izuku was static, nothing but the almost quiet sound of charged chemistry between the two captivating Izuku as he watched the way Katsuki rolled his shoulders, clicked his neck and stalked toward Izuku like a storm given flesh, yet Izuku was the only one who could really see it. The audience around them grew in size yet their silence rivaled a mouse in the pantry, quiet and curious, waiting to see the fight as anticipation bubbled under Izuku’s skin.
“I don’t just fight anyone, Prince Midoriya, especially those I don’t believe are worth my time.” He said in a deep, rumbling resonance as he rubbed his thumb into his wrist, eyes completely focused on Izuku as Izuku gulped quietly. “I sensed a strength in you that I didn’t know was possible given how many worthless omegas were offered from the outside to be my mate, but even as you took the knee at the altar, I sensed it, your strength, and now I want to see it all and taste every drop of it.” Katsuki said with a growing smile on his face as he grew more and more curious.
Izuku felt his omega grow even more delighted at the fact that the alpha was giving him respect, clearly not underestimating the omega and his will to fight, to prove something by standing up to an enigma. “I won’t hold back, so I hope you don't… Kacchan.” Izuku said teasingly as Katsuki’s grin grew feral as he chuckled, clearly amused as he flexed his muscles.
“I wouldn’t dream of holding back. It’s not in my nature.” Katsuki said as he licked his lips as Izuku reached up and pulled his shirt over his head, the material was ruined anyway, and Izuku felt no shame now in showing his scars, for they weren’t shameful anymore. Around him there were countless omegas covered in scars, wearing them and carrying them with pride, so beautiful and so powerful in the same notion, so Izuku didn’t feel afraid as the cold air blew around them, rousing the dust as the world waited in anticipation.
Izuku knew the earthy notes of his own excited scent were leaching out, Katsuki’s eyes dilating as his own scent responded to Izuku’s own the cherry blossoms, bergamot and amber blending with the notes of smoke, spice, caramel and wood coming from Katsuki, the sweetness indicating the burning desire growing between the two of them, but the desire for what, Izuku had not found the answer yet.
When Aizawa’s hand fell and the wind stilled, and the dust settled, everyone blinked, one moment Izuku and Katsuki were circling one another, and the next their bodies collided with a force that sent a cloud of dust spiraling upward, the sound almost rivaling the crack of lightning. The sound of snarls leaving the two’s lips was vicious, as if it was their baser instincts had been released. Rather than a co-ordinated masterclass, Izuku and Katsuki tapped into something deeper, something more earthy unhinged to the human standard, something more animalistic, something-
-Primal.
Katsuki fought like a beast freed from its chains—raw, wild, almost feral yet so controlled it had a level of mastery over his instincts that Izuku had never seen in anyone other than his father. The snarls and pulsating scent from the enigma had Izuku’s baser omega instincts screaming to submit, to fold beneath the onslaught, to surrender to the overwhelming enigma fury.
But something deeper surged inside him.
Beneath, lurked those instincts of his prime omega flaring, rearing its head as defiance grew within Izuku’s heart. For the first time since the days of his early presentation, the chains keeping those instincts at bay broke, shattered as his true nature finally surfaces.
Unbroken.
Unafraid.
Unyielding.
Driven by pure instinct.
Izuku roared—an instinctive, guttural sound—and struck back as hard as Katsuki did, his scent pulsating as his veins pulsed beneath his skin, his strength unlike the fight with Kirishima. The last time he had ever tapped into the primal rawness of his sub-gender, it was shortly after he presented and had his first heat and two alphas tried to enter his quarters to force him to submit and his soul refused to let them take what was left of his soul.
That said all Izuku remembered was blood, hatred and the putrid, acrid scent he let go to force the alphas to submit to him before he tore their throats out with his teeth and tore through them with his claws till you couldn't recognize them. Izuku had blacked out but he saw the remnants of his awakening as a prime, and he had spent years protecting this secret, and now, a part of Izuku realized he was finally able to let himself go, let his nature run wild and free.
The courtyard froze at what happened next, the way Izuku weaved effortlessly around Katsuki who hadn’t expected the burst of speed that left fractures in the ground from the force of his steps, but Katsuki, the ever seasoned fighter responded quick enough to it, but didn’t expect the swerve of a move.
Izuku had swung his leg in a crisp, deadly arch, the impact of his leg colliding with Katsuki’s arm rattled the Enigma’s stance, the ground collapsing on itself at the force of the kick, but Katsuki didn’t have enough time to react as Izuku spun in the opposite direct, his clenched, fist connected squarely with Katsuki’s nose, feeling the bones cracking beneath the impact, feeling the wetness in an instant.
Blood sprayed and Katsuki staggered, stepping back away from Izuku before stopping and looking down to the ground as blood spilled from his nose. For the first time in his life, Katsuki Bakugou looked shocked… as did everyone watching, even his parents who watched in surprise. Even Aizawa froze, eyes wide at the sight of what Izuku had just managed to do.
Izuku knew what he had just done.
It was something no one else had done. No enemy, no friend or ally. Not even a mentor. As Katsuki tasted his blood for the first time, Izuku saw the flaring of his obviously broken nose before his grin became bloody and delighted as his eyes zeroed in on Izuku. Izuku felt his heart racing in excitement as his deranged and excited grin mirrored Katsuki's own as Katsuki’s gaze became unhinged—thrilled— even more bloodthirsty and delighted as his eyes flashed gold and the true Enigma instincts surface as the gold remained.
The scent of the enigma molding and conforming to the shape that was Katsuki called out to Izuku as delight spread like a wildfire through Izuku's body and soul.
Katsuki grinned at Izuku. Izuku’s heart skipped a beat because for the first time Izuku saw Katsuki, not just King Bakugou, no, he saw Katsuki, saw the man whose second nature was calling out to his own, the enigma calling out to his prime omega, something deep pulling Izuku towards Katsuki, like gravity keeping him grounded.
Katsuki’s grin was sharp enough to cut bone but the depth of those red and gold swirling eyes as they looked at him like he was seeing Izuku’s worth, his vulnerability and accepting them, as if he was telling Izuku he saw everything, wholly and completely.
“Oh, you’re DEAD,” Katsuki growled, eyes wild and excited, no malice in them, only excitement as those gold irised drowned out the red and remained rather than flashing in between them and Katsuki crouched down into the ground. The position was reminding Izuku of the predatory stalking of a wolf as Izuku did the same, giving in to the animal inside him, hand aching from the punch but fuck did the feeling make his heart race in excitement.
The fight became something ancient, primal. Snarls. Claws of instinct. Bodies slamming into stone and earth, destroying it with a single hit. Dust rising and being violently displaced by their fighting. Warriors watching with wide eyes, Aizawa unable to really react or award points because this was a fight of pure instincts, pure animal instincts. The people had always known that Katsuki held back his strength until the battlefield, but to witness someone challenge it was like watching history being re-written, and instead of immediate subservience, Izuku held his ground.
Teeth and elongated claws seemingly felt like they grew from Izuku tapping in to his most deepest instincts, spit falling from his mouth as he fought like his life depended on. He himself was covered in bruises, blood, scratches and bites, and for the first time, Katsuki had wounds on his skin, wounds that would heal yet he looked delighted every time Izuku bit and clawed him and met every kick, punch and hit with equal strength and violence and devastation.
They were like the waves of a tsunami crashing through reality, devastating the understanding of reality that the world they had as Izuku fought with his entire being and Katsuki didn’t let him breathe, let him think, pushed him to his limit. Izuku took a nasty hit to his side, Katsuki’s mouth wide and gripping the back of his neck in a scruffing motion that had Izuku snarling and hissing, clawing as he twisted in those arms, fighting to escape. His nails scratched Katsuki as he swung his body and flipped Katsuki over him, but the Engmia's vice-like grip was strong as he took Izuku down with him, twisting to pin Izuku to the ground.
Izuku bucked violently, refusing to yield even when Katsuki’s aura crushed down like a mountain. The heat of Katsuki’s sweat and blood covered body pressing Izuku’s into the ground, the feel of the Enigma's arousal brushing up against him made Izuku realize that he too felt it. The burning desire and chemistry between the two of them as Izuku growled, head pressing into the ground as Katsuki growled against the bite mark he’d left on Izuku’s shoulder, daring Izuku to challenge.
The onlookers felt it—
Something shifting.
Something breaking.
Something new forming.
Izuku—small, magicless, omega—refused to bow even as he was pinned to the ground, he did not submit, he remained defiant, did not fall into the submissive state after drowning in Katsuki’s scent as he bucked wildly before realizing that he could not escape, that the enigma’s weight was too much to fight. Izuku was lucky he had lasted this long, that he had held his ground so fiercely and left wounds of battle on the pristine enigma… and he could be proud of that.
Katsuki finally forced his shoulders to the ground, panting on top of him, breath hot as Izuku felt the cloudiness of his prime preening at the warmth of Katsuki pressing his cheek against the exposed scent gland of Izuku. Izuku’s scent was coming out potently, gentle yet filled with so much pride and happiness it had Katsuki letting out a deeply gentle, vulnerable rumbling croon as Izuku responded with a purr, their sub-genders intertwining their existences with each other as Izuku panted.
Izuku knew what it meant but he wasn't sure if he was ready to acknowledge it, and to be honest he wasn't sure if Katsuki was ready to acknowledge the forming bond that had just formed between the two of them.
“You lost,” Katsuki rasped, voice roughened by his exhaustion, his delight, the overuse of his vocal cords from growling and snarling. “Yet you never relented in your defiance.”
Izuku panted, defiant even beneath him but content even if he'd lost. He knew what he had managed to prove and accepted it. “Because I always promised myself I would never stop fighting, even if it was clear I lost… because I always swore I would remain standing… unyielding, unwavering in my convictions.” Izuku turned his head to look at Katsuki’s face and noticed the warmth and awe on the enigma’s features.
Katsuki’s eyes softened—barely, but enough for Izuku’s omega to preen in warmth as Katsuki’s chest rumbled with reciprocated warmth. “Yeah,” he breathed. “You did.” Katsuki said as he released his hold on Izuku and moved to offer his hand to Izuku who took it and let the King of Jadever help him to his feet.
King howled in jubilation, starting a chain reaction throughout the courtyard. Kirishima cheered first—loud, proud, beaming. Then the warriors of Jadever followed, chanting Izuku’s name, the air scented with so many scents of pride it had Izuku feeling overwhelmed.
Izuku.
Not omega.
Not princeling.
Just—Izuku.
They were cheering for Izuku.
Aizawa stepped forward from the shadows, arms folded, expression unreadable until it softened in rare approval.
“Well done,” he said. “You really surpassed all our expectations. We are proud of you cause no one has ever stood this well against Katsuki. Well done.”
Izuku’s throat tightened, the applause crashing over him like a wave.
For the first time in his life—
He wasn’t overlooked.
He wasn’t dismissed.
He wasn’t less.
He was seen.
He mattered.
And Jadever knew it.
“I give a proclamation!” Katsuki’s voice echoed through the courtyard as Izuku looked at Katsuki with wide eyes as Katsuki approached and offered his hand out to Izuku, open palmed and eyes warm as he spoke, “Today, we welcome a new warrior to our ranks, a new name to be recognized for his valor and strength… the name of a man whose spirit is indomitable in his pursuit for achieving the impossible, for being able to do it, bend the knee and welcome Dekiru, the symbol of hope.”
Izuku had remembered how Aizawa told him how important a title was in the village, how to achieve one was a way of basically saying you were one of the people, family, and izuku could only watch as the audience all bowed, even Katsuki who looked up at Izuku with a vulnerability that Izuku hadn’t realized he would see and all he could do was accept and realize that this was his new world, his new reality,
~.~.~✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦❄𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧~.~.~
Izuku closed the door to his room with a trembling hand. He had just finished being treated at the healer’s wing and Aizawa had been kind enough to escort him back to the room, King unsurprisingly followed Izuku into the room as he closed the door behind him and let out a heavy breath.
The cheering from the courtyard still echoed faintly in the hallways—muffled, distant, as though it belonged to some other world entirely but it resonated deeply in his soul. His body ached in deep, pulsing waves, but none of that compared to the tidal wave of emotion rolling through him as his hand rested against his chest as he stumbled towards the bed.
His knees gave out beside the bed.
He didn’t fall hard—King was already there, as if waiting for him, supporting Izuku as he slid down to the floor, slumped heavily against the wolf. The black wolf lifted his head gently bumping against Izuku’s side comfortingly, molten red eyes softening the moment Izuku collapsed into a sitting position. Izuku felt the fur brush his cheek before he even realized he’d leaned into King’s shoulder.
A shuddering breath escaped him.
Not quite a sob.
But close in its vulnerability and fragility.
King shifted closer, pressing his flank against Izuku’s side with deliberate, grounding weight. His warmth seeped through Izuku’s thin shirt, his heartbeat steady where Izuku’s felt like frantic wings trapped inside a cage.
Izuku scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m okay,” he whispered automatically but to be honest he was telling it more to himself than King, not that the wolf believed him.
King huffed—a low, unimpressed exhale—as if saying wrong.
Izuku let out a tiny, watery laugh. It broke something loose in his chest, rattling it in his chest as he turned his face into King’s fur and breathed in the scent of pine, snow, and wolf—something wild, something steady, something safe… something he had grown accustomed to being present in his room.
“Okay,” he admitted quietly, voice cracking. “Maybe not… completely.”
The room was dim, lit only by the fading blue of late afternoon slipping through the tall window. Dust motes drifted lazily in the beams. Everything smelled faintly of old wood and lavender sachets the healers tucked into the linens.
Izuku lifted his head.
The window drew him like a magnet.
He stood slowly, fingers trailing along King’s back until he reached the stone window sill. He pressed both palms against the cool frame and looked out over Jadever.
The training courtyard was nearly empty now—just a few warriors gathering equipment, the scuffed earth marked with footprints and scars from too many fights to count. The wind carried faint laughter from somewhere below, the scent of food, the rustle of banners in the breeze.
Warmth.
Community.
Life.
Izuku’s throat tightened painfully.
They cheered for me.
Not because of what he was made to be. Not because of who his father demanded he become. Not because of fear. They cheered because he fought. Because he stood. Because he didn’t break.
Because they wanted too…
“They looked proud,” Izuku whispered into the windowpane. His own reflection stared back at him—hair mussed, face smudged with dust and sweat, eyes still wide with the shock of it, the silver of his irises of his prime omega flashing in his reflection, rumbling with pride inside his chest. “No one… no one has ever looked proud of me.”
His father’s face rose unbidden in his mind—cold eyes, cold voice, cold hands tightening around his wrist whenever he faltered, squeezing from the life from his throat, stealing the air from his lungs, words reverberating in his mind as he let out a shaky, trembling breath.
Weak.
Useless.
Omega filth.
Son of a traitor.
Worthless.
Izuku felt the old instinct flare—run, hide, disappear, don’t be seen, don’t provoke, don’t hope.
Hope was the most dangerous of all… yet here, he was named for his hope, his perseverance, his will to keep on moving and keep on fighting.
“Every time I thought about escaping,” Izuku murmured, fingers tightening against the stone, “I imagined getting far enough away to never be found. I thought… I thought once I got out, I’d keep running forever till they caught me… till they chased me down and finally killed me… till they tortured me to death with delight on their face.”
The late sunlight hit the rooftops, turning the stone golden. It was beautiful.
Too beautiful, maybe, to trust.
King stood and padded to his side, pressing his heavy head under Izuku’s hand with steady insistence. Izuku let his fingers sink into the wolf’s thick fur, stroking slowly. The ram that Izuku had come to affectionately call Mighty joined him, bumping his head into Izuku’s side too, the omega prince chuckling softly as he petted both the animal companions with him in the room.
“They aren’t afraid of me here, they accept me here… like you two who I’ve been told never accepted anyone until me… what’s so special about me.” Izuku said softly. The words felt strange—fragile, testing the air. “They don’t look at me like I’m cursed, or broken, or dangerous because of him. They don’t see his blood in me, they see me… Izuku, not the son of Overlord Shigaraki Zen, just plain little Midoriya Izuku.”
They didn’t flinch when King approached him… they were afraid for his safety and were subsequently blessed with the sight of Izuku being accepted by King.
They didn’t whisper about his father’s shadow or worry about him being a spy or an infiltrator to destroy them and their home and peaceful existence.
They didn’t edge away from him in the hallways… they smiled at him and spoke to him with warmth and welcoming greetings.
Kirishima had laughed with genuine joy after losing to him and beamed with pride, an Alpha losing to an omega and being happy… that was something unheard of.
Aizawa had complimented him without hesitation unlike any family Izuku had had, not even his mentors had done that when he had bested all the other candidates before and after he presented.
The warriors had chanted his name, not his status and acknowledged him by title and his name and the realization was heavy and daunting as he hung his head heavily as the realization hit him as he swallowed thickly.
“It feels safe,” he whispered. “Safer than anywhere I’ve ever been.”
A tear slipped down his cheek. He didn’t wipe it away because for the first time, he could cry without repercussions, without being harmed for being emotional.
The quiet of the room held him gently.He let his forehead rest against the window, eyes closing as King and Mighty’s presence soothed the heaviness in his heart as the confession left him flayed raw and hung out to dry.
“I want to stay,” Izuku breathed, the confession trembling as the raw acceptance of what he wanted to say left him broken and desperate. “I want to stay so badly it scares me.. And I want it more than I ever wanted to escape my past.”
Because staying meant believing he was allowed to.
Staying meant trusting that warmth was real.
Staying meant risking heartbreak—and hope.
King nudged his hip, a soft, reassuring thrum.
Izuku opened his eyes again, staring out over Jadever, at the place that felt… possible.
Not perfect.
Not safe forever.
Not without danger or fear.
But possible.
The thought came softly, tentatively—
Maybe I don’t have to run anymore.
Izuku pressed both hands over his heart, feeling it beat—alive, steady, choosing. For the first time, he let the hope grow instead of crushing it before it could hurt him and King, steadfast and warm beside him, kept watch as Izuku dared to imagine a future where he wasn’t merely surviving—
—but living.
A quiet knock interrupted his thoughts as he looked up and called for whoever was at the door to come in, revealing Katsuki carrying a tray of food and an awkward look on his face, his wounds treated and nose still black and blue and healing and Izuku felt warmth unfurling like a blooming flower in his chest as he smiled softly at Katsuki.
Yeah… Izuku desired life, desired more, desired Katsuki because of the way his heart skipped beats and his omega called out to the enigma desperately, and watched as Katsuki’s eyes filled with a complex emotion as he smiled at Katsuki, fragile and warm as he said, “Hi Kacchan.”
“Hey Deku… I brought dinner for you.” Katsuki said, almost shy and awkward, Izuku’s heart stuttering at the gentle, intimate names they now shared as Katsuki entered the room to place the tray on the table and made to leave… but Izuku knew he couldn’t let him leave… that he didn’t want him to leave…
“Will you stay?” Izuku asked and Katsuki looked relieved that Izuku asked before he smiled and nodded, accepting the invite and feeling so filled with warmth and want, with a desire to have the enigma with him and slowly but sure, Izuku was realizing why, and it was because his omega longed for the enigma, and Izuku’s own human heart longed for Bakugou Katsuki.
Desire was powerful and Izuku had never desired a potential future he never imagined being possible for him until now.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦Devotion𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Days moved along, the moon waxing and waning in her lapses in the real world, time welcomed his presence in Jadever as if he was a natural resident for his entire life. Everyone seemed to grow friendly, more welcoming and attentive when they met in public and they didn’t hesitate to take Izuku into the world of Jadever as one of their own.
Days blended into beautiful moments and growth.
Izuku trained in the courtyard with alphas and omegas and more sparing matches with Katsuki, less animalistic and more subdued, controlled and for self enjoyment, not to prove something. Aizawa and his alpha, Hizashi along with Nedzu who had grown on Izuku taught Izuku about the rich history, lifestyle and culture of Jadever, of the world around him and Izuku listened with eagerness.
And then he helped.
He didn’t mean too but his natural call to navigate disputes flourished and found himself naturally picking up his alchemy, herbology and healer instincts again. He found himself smiling as he tended injuries, shared his potions and remedies and even taught a few junior healers a few things he had learned over this. He sparred until his knuckles bled. Warriors and city folk bowed to him like he was royalty and it was jarring to be respected so completely.
And Katsuki… that bond was something else, that mutually recognized but unaddressed connection and chemistry between the two of them grew so much that Izuku had started having dinner with Katsuki in his room, and that Izuku had to recognize that they were in fact in this limbo state of courting and bonding as friends, maybe something more.
Their bond was still unformed—but something unspoken simmered between them.
Acceptance. Possibility.
A budding curiosity neither dared break first for fear of destabilizing the balance between them, disturbing the fragile threads of a bond between them, hoping, growing, intertwining their beings in a knot of destiny.
Izuku was still afraid of some things though… especially this bond he was forming with the King of Jadever, whom Izuku was constantly reminded was in fact his husband and by proxy his mate and Enigma and Izuku’s omega was fucking happy about it every time it was mentioned. There was no malice from the people from it, even if they were protective of Katsuki, they saw the same thing Izuku saw was there… and it made him vulnerable, and forgetful.
After years of suppressing his prime omega instincts, he became more and more present, and the urge to nest and hoard belongings of the people he cared about most, but the urge for scenting now was becoming a problem. It felt like something beyond the parameters he was allowed to ask of the Enigma, until he fell asleep in Katsuki’s bed after a long day whilst the king went to get dinner, and he woke up with Katsuki wrapped protectively around him, and Izuku was gone.
Since the subsequent revelation and acceptance that he wanted Katsuki in more ways than he could comprehend, everything felt new, different and amazing. The mountain winds tasted clearer here. The halls and rooms felt warmer. People smiled at him like he was allowed to exist.
But the moment he arrived in his room, getting ready for the lunar festival that Katsuki asked Izuku to attend with him, he smelt it, the scent of death and decay and blood and saw it, resting on the desk, stained by the black tar of his father’s teleporting magic.
An envelope that filled him with nausea and dread. He was grateful that King was out and about with Katsuki and Mighty was going in for a fur trim with the rise of the summer season. He could taste the potency of his father’s magic as he picked up the envelope and opened it, feeling all of that warmth draining away from him as he sat down on the couch on the balcony.
This place he had once associated with peace was warm and inviting, the view stretched endlessly: cliffs carved by time, forests rippling under the morning gale, the Bakugou banners snapping like wolf jaws in the wind. Warriors trained below in rhythmic unison—the steady heartbeat of the stronghold.
Yet Izuku felt frozen in his seat.
He felt suspended—caught above something sharp and waiting to pierce him.
His fingers brushed the seal—broken wax, the crest of his birth family pressed deep into the blood-red surface, the scents of blood overwhelming as Izuku exhaled shakily and unfolded the thick parchment.
The handwriting hit him first, his father’s unique brand of script spilled across the parchment in angled strokes—thin, elegant, and vicious. Claw marks pretending to be script. His father’s script—always elegant, always cruel, etched in his skin in lingering memories of haunted nights.
And then the words sank their fangs in, ensnaring him in its trap as his hands trembled at the sight of the words on the paper he had been trying to forget.
To my dear, disappointing son.
Your absence has brought relief yet the lack of moments we spent together in the dungeons is missed. How fond a time they were, your brother agrees. Your presence in Jadever buys me time—time without your weakness tainting this household, time spared from your voice and your trembling hands… whilst knowing you are integrating yourself deeply into the ranks, how brilliant to consider yourself one of the people, though the time you have taken vexes me so, dear, sweet, Izuku.
Izuku’s breath caught. His chest tightened painfully, instincts prickling like needles under his skin. Fear crawled up the back of his neck—old, familiar, suffocating, instinctual terror waking like a long-dormant beast.
Even after all this time, a single paragraph from him could still unravel Izuku’s lungs. Even after all the peace he found, the words still haunted him like a nightmare lingering in the dark spaces of his mind as he remembered those times, not with fondness but terror and desperation to just live and survive the night.
Do not delude yourself into believing the Bakugou Enigma keeps you for worth, but it is nice to know you are growing closer, that you do have some talent for working your way to the bed of an alpha but remember this. He keeps you the way one keeps a broken blade—out of curiosity, and only until it cuts the wrong way. You and I both know my son, that his loyalty will never be to you, but to the people and he will betray you the moment he learns you are to betray him.
Izuku swallowed hard.
His pulse pounded in his ears.
His fingers trembled around the parchment. His vision thinned at the edges as he tried to catch his breath, limbs trembling as he tried to keep himself together but he couldn’t help how he was feeling. The balcony suddenly felt too small, too exposed, whilst the sky too wide and the world felt inescapable.
He continued, taking in the words as his stomach twisted violently as he felt the tears forming in his eyes as he let out a fragile, disturbed and panicked sound.
Whilst you bide your time playing house, acting like you are one of the people, do not mistake silence for mercy. I assure you, Izuku, my silence is simply calculation. Should you disgrace us further… I will act… I know where my letters lay and how you avoid the reality and I hope you remember that actions will have consequences. It is the quiet of a hunter watching prey stumble into a trap. You have disgraced your bloodline by remaining in Jadever. Should you compound that disgrace…
I will act.
And you know well how I act.
Izuku knew this tone as he let out a silent keen as his prime traveled to the surface, trying to comfort Izuku but all Izuku could hear was that voice. The voice his father used before punishments. The haunting, careful, practiced softness that was worse than shouting and malice. It was used on those nights before the dark rooms with no warmth. Before the days without food, without voice, without dignity. Before the bruises shaped like lessons and the taken and missing limbs before torn apart and reformed to force conformity, to force obedience.
Izuku knew the truth and knew it well. Silence was never safe. Silence meant the storm was gathering. Silence meant his father was ready to strike after planning in the shadows.
Izuku kept reading even as instinct screamed—pleaded—for him to stop.. But he couldn’t.
Remain in Jadever. Do not try to leave and abandon your duty, your fealty to your king. A dog beaten once knows better than to wander home or disobey his master’s orders. Within the vial on the table is the poison to strike, place it in his goblet and seduce him like a temptress in the night and cut his throat when the last of his rut finally takes, when you’ve taken his seed and will bear his child.
I will know when it is done and I know where your loyalty lies, my obedient little omegaen son. And remember this, Izuku: No matter where you run, you are mine to judge. Mine to shame. Mine to unmake. Choose wisely for if you choose not to abide by your fealty to your family, know that when I decide the time is right, I will reclaim what I created—whether Jadever burns around you or not.
Izuku felt his omega instincts recoil violently—panic flaring at the base of his spine, a primal tremor that urged him to hide, to curl into a ball, to disappear whilst his prime instincts flared in defiance at the clear threat to the people that his prime had chosen to love, devote themselves to, and protect.
He’d forgotten this sensation. His throat closed as his body trembled, heart raced as his thoughts raced like a torrent of overwhelming, cacophonous waves of memories and nightmares intermingling into one.
He had forgotten how this felt— no. He had lived without it long enough that he could finally name the feeling instead of drowning in it.
He folded the letter carefully, deliberately, as if closing a blade and sheathing it. His breaths came thin and uneven in the mountain air. One trembling hand pressed to his sternum as he tried to sooth himself in the presence of silence, of loneliness.
He’s not here, he told himself. He can’t reach you. He can’t hurt you here. He can’t—
A shout echoed from the training fields below—sharp, alive, unmistakably Katsuki’s. It cut through the fog in his mind like a flare, guiding him like a beacon in the storm you couldn’t see anything in..
Izuku sank against the stone railing, dragging air into his lungs, grounding himself in the scents of pine, steel, wolves—and belonging.
Katsuki hadn’t chosen him. Not officially. But Katsuki hadn’t rejected him either. He hadn’t turned cold. Hadn’t punished Izuku for wanting. He had simply waited—with patience or caution, Izuku didn’t know… but it was like he was afraid to let Izuku in, but he had… and in turn Jadever had welcomed him. Its halls, streets and people had made room for him, carved a space for him in their world. The wolves and other animals had accepted his scent, his presence much to the surprise of man, yet still greeted him as though he were allowed to stay.
Izuku looked out over Jadever, the wind whipping his hair, carrying the scent of pine and steel and something like belonging, something like the beginning stages of defiance brewing and steeping like a pot of tea as he looked down and saw the tender sight of Aizawa sitting on the back of his wolf, patrolling the streets of the city scape with Eri asleep in his arms. Next to him was his Alpha Hizashi, laughing boisterously in between the soft melody Izuku could hear him singing if he really focused and shut out all the sounds.
On the training grounds were the new friends he had made, Alpha Shouto Todoroki, the surviving prince of Tolsen who had fled before his father Endeavor fell and the entire city was erased from history. Along with him was his courting partner, Alpha Sero Hanta, laughing and smiling as he tucked a strand of Shouto’s long hair behind his ear as the two toned alpha blushed under the minstrations…
The longer he looked, the more Izuku realized just how intimately he knew the city, how far beyond simply entering the ranks he had gone because he had let his heart into the story. How could he risk them, now that he had intertwined himself so deeply into the beauty of Jadever. Something inside him cracked— not from breaking, but from breaking free.
He rose as he looked out definitely, feeling his now slightly longer hair blowing in the wind as if the gods were uplifting him, supporting him and his discovered conviction as he looked at all the people and realized he couldn’t let them fall to ruin, not when he finally had the power to finally do something. He had felt powerless for so long, but for the first time, he had the power to keep standing. He needed to do something.
Long had he needed to act instead of simply being too afraid to. He knew he had to chose, that he needed to choose because there was no more options left now, because for the first time Izuku had something he wanted to protect.
If Izuku wanted to protect his future, the future he longed for and wanted so desperately to have now— the one where Katsuki’s arms meant safety instead of surprise— the one where Jadever wasn’t temporary— the one where his father’s voice no longer dictated the shape of his world—
That future demanded that he stop running.
It demanded he stay.
It demanded Izuku stand up and fucking fight.
With a new conviction in his soul, Izuku glanced at the poisonous letter where it lay and realized that his first act of defiance was choosing something for himself. He was choosing to fight, to live. He was going to keep the promise he made to Katsuki on their wedding day and tonight, he was going to tell Katsuki everything. He grabbed the vial in his hand and moved towards the fire of the fireplace in his room and threw it in, and watched it burn, his choice cemented by his actions as he hoped he had enough time to protect and prepare the people.
~.~.~✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦❄𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧~.~.~
The night of the Lunar Festival was a breathtaking thing—
Handmade lanterns hanging like suspended moons, silver banners fluttering on high stone archways, drums thrumming like a giant heartbeat echoing through Jadever’s lofty stronghold, civilians dancing and partying in the street. Music curled through the air with the scent of cherries mirroring Izuku's soft scent, wine and roasted meats of all varieties over an open flame.
Families lined the wide terrace overlooking the valley, children wearing painted constellation masks, soldiers in ceremonial armor patrolling with easy smiles with their wolves and rams and animals of all varieties. Izuku walked among them, a ghost wearing borrowed warmth watching as the crowd cheered in delight at the procession of the royal family, Izuku riding his ram beside Katsuki on his wolf.
For hours, the weight of the letter had burned its way into his thoughts like a brand against his flesh. His father’s handwriting had never been kind, but the warning was clear, the silence was worse than a blade to his heart.
Every instinct in him said: tell Katsuki.
Every scar in him whispered: he will look at you like your father always did. A weapon. A thing. A mistake.
Tonight he had sworn he would find the right moment.
It hadn’t taken them long before they dismounted their beasts and were walking through the streets, delighting in the gifts from the people, Izuku getting jarred mentally by the numerous flowers gifted to him by the children that walked up and hugged him and told him he was pretty. Izuku’s omega preened and purred at every compliment and the way Katsuki seemingly puffed out his chest with pride that the people, his people accepted Izuku who had finally grown comfortable enough to dress like one of the people.
Katsuki walked beside him, shoulders broad beneath his traditional, midnight ceremonial furs, his wolf King padding loyally behind Izuku with the ram. The gold paint on his skin glowing in the moonlight, Izuku recognizing the peoples script for Enigma painted at the hollow of Katsuki's throat. It glowed faintly gold, reacting to the moon’s peak due to the paint catching its light. It was breathtaking, he was breathing.
His bare and unmarked skin was like a beacon for the moonlight, capturing his etherealness and beauty as Izuku walked beside him in green garbs, the traditional winter pants black in color, a green wrap around his hips, beads, bangles of gold and silver climbing up his arms as black leather straps were wrapped around his chest to secure the mantle he had been given. Its lush green fabric was warm and lined with black fur that had come from his own ram and it felt like it held so much meaning. Izuku’s long hair was down, a small number of traditional braids done in his hair, tied with gold and silver beads and clinked as he moved.
Izuku had never felt so free of the reigns of his past and so welcomed to the world, and by Katsuki’s side no less. He looked less like the enigma king bred to be a warrior, no he looked… open.
Unarmored. Vulnerable.
And that scared Izuku more than any battlefield.
The longer they walked, the more uneasy Izuku became as they settled on a pergola in the main square, watching the festivities unfold around them as Izuku waited with an anxious, bated breath.
They stood at the railing, watching as fireworks blossomed overhead, listened as the sapce was filled with laughter, music and dancing all around them as Izuku found himself looking at Katsuki with a stuttering heartbeat. The glow turned Katsuki’s red eyes molten with the color and intensity of them. Izuku tried to steady himself, fingers brushing unconsciously over the hidden letter beneath his tunic as he leaned against the railing, the tension palpable between them.
Katsuki exhaled, the sound raw and vulnerable as for a moment, it seemed like the right time to speak up. He he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Katsuki speaking with a vulnerability Izuku hadn’t expected.“…I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell you are to me.”
Izuku’s heart lurched as he looked at the man with worry and confusion as Katsuki continued, voice rough-hewn but honest .
“You’re ironically an enigma I should’ve solved months ago. Instead I keep—” his jaw flexed, “—I keep being pulled in by you. Like you’re a storm and I’m too damn stupid to get out of the rain… my instincts are pulling me towards you yet my brain is telling me to still be cautious.” Katsuki said as he turned his head to look at Izuku with an intensity that had Izuku’s breath hitching as he watched the man.
Katsuki turned fully toward him, expression uncharacteristically vulnerable and raw like his scent as his hands clenched at his side as his gaze was desperate and soft. “I think I can finally let you in, Izuku.”
The world tilted on its axis as it was the moment Izuku had dreaded—and wanted…He opened his mouth to speak, to confess about the letter, the threat, the shadow of his father—
He never got the chance because of the sudden explosion of the scent of tar and death flooded the courtyard as before his eyes, the air split with a wet, rattling roar that didn’t belong to anything natural.
People screamed and fled in a panic. Soldiers staggered as an oppressive force rolled over the courtyard— an alpha prime pheromone blast so potent it sent lesser alphas to their knees and made omegas clutch at their throats, gasping and choking. Katsuki’s spine snapped straight as the snarling, roar that left his throat as his Enigma surfaced, his scent challenging the command of the scent as his hands broke the railings of the pergola.
Izuku tasted iron and dread as he bit the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood as he knew what was coming from through that portal.
Something lumbered out of the smoke—
a Nomu taller than the gate of the castle tower, its skin black and rotting, leathered and stitched, its chest cavity pulsing with exposed sinews, it’s brain on display as well as drool fell from his mouth. The stench of it—rotting dominance, concentrated malice—made King snarl, hackles rigid.
The creature let out a distorted howl that warped the very air, that disturbed the night as his gaze settled on Katsuki and Izuku and marched forward, zeroed in on Katsuki like a predator hunting it's prey.
“It’s targeting the king! We have to protect out king!” A soldier cried, writhing under its alpha prime command aura as Katsuki’s hands burst into fire, kicking the railings out the way as he leapt down onto the paved pathways, crouched like a predator hungry for dominance. The Nomu roared, his scent flaring in challenge at Katsuki’s scent as it exploded. Katsuki roared back, his powerful scent spreading like a protective shield, by sheer force of will as a command fueled his voice. “GET PEOPLE BACK! MOVE!”
Katsuki launched forward—explosive power cracking the stone under his boots, the heaviness of his feet fracturing the stone tiles as Izuku reached out, calling Katsuki’s name as watched with bated breath as Katsuki collided with the Nomu, the force of the collision throwing Izuku off the pergola and to the ground, screams erupting through the space.
“We need help over here!” Someone yelled, drawing Izuku’s attention as he finally got himself together and looked around him. People were falling, bleeding, screaming as the world around him shook. A child sobbed beneath a collapsed stall, a woman clutching a broken leg. Izuku’s body moved before thought, not even noticing as his hands glowing faint green as he stabilized a wound—
Builds were falling from the sheer force of Katsuki battling the Nomu, fire exploding each time Katsuki’s roar echoed through the courtyard. Izuku could smell it, the blood of both the Nomu and Katsuki, and Izuku tried to figure out how the Nomu got past the magical barrier that forbade any malicious magic entering the city but he couldn’t take his gaze off the person he was treating, unaware of the malice of the person that was behind him.
Izuku felt the flare of the scent of determination and death as Izuku turned violent and looked at the figure nearing Katsuki who was standing in defiance against Nomu that was rising after Izuku had collapsed a building on the beast.
“KATSUKI!” Izuku screamed his body reacting when he smelt the scent of metal and death.
He jumped, a dagger—thin, jagged, dripping with a strange violet-black sheen—buried itself deep into Izuku’s abdomen instead of Katsuki’s back, the Enigma hearing Izuku’s shout as Katsuki's gaze met Izuku’s own, before zeroing in on the dagger in his abdomen.
The dagger meant for an enigma.
The dagger that was meant for Katsuki.
Pain exploded white-hot, stealing breath and reason. Izuku’s knees buckled as he let out a wail as it spread like fire over his flesh, pure terror contorting on Katsuki’s face. “IZUKU!” The Nomu slammed into Katsuki before he could reach him, hurling him through three stone pillars and into a building with a thunderous crash.
“KATSUKI!” Izuku choked, clawing at the ground as agony flared, his blood spilling onto the stones below, blood turning black and seemingly almost fizzling as Izuku groaned in pain, the man standing above him long gone as Izuku choked on his breath. He saw it, saw the Nomu approaching a young boy—Kota— who was frozen in place, clinging desperately to his unconscious aunt’s arm.
Close behind him, Aizawa dragged his body, a blood trail behind him, a belt wrapped tightly around his leg where a deep cut in the mangled limb was present, one arm clutching a crying baby Eri that he was holding desperately to his chest, the other dragging his injured leg. He was calling to Kota, desperately trying to reach the boy, to get them out of their way, tears streaming down his face as he held on to his daughter.
Izuku’s vision blurred at the sight, the pain in his face evident as the wail that left him was primal and throat tearing. Everything in him screamed MOVE. Prime instincts tore to life like fire through a dry field, violent and uncontained and all consuming as he lost his sense of self, as the Prime broke free from the reins and took control.
His breath growled out of him, deep and feral as it felt like everything was tearing through him. His back exploded in pain as he felt the strength pulsing through his limbs as the roar that left him rivalled the power of Katsuki’s own. Black tendrils of magic cracked from his skin like living whips.
Izuku surged forward, sweeping Kota into his arms and flipping over the child as a chunk of debris smashed the ground where they’d stood. Izuku reached out, a black tendril materializing from his finger tips that reached out to Aizawa and wrapped around the man’s waist, yanking him and Eri out of harm’s way.
Izuku screamed in pain as the knife in his body ground against bone—poison spilling like molten ice, making blood spill from his nose as he choked on the blood climbing out his throat. But the pain was more than the pain of the toxin, it was an all too familiar pain that hit him like a tidal wave, violent and sudden, scent spiking, destabilized by the toxin.
Izuku screamed as the world flickered silver, the call of yearning drowning out the sound of Aizawa screaming at Katsuki’s prone body as the Nomu drew nearer to the king. Izuku screamed at the sensation of the blood of his spreading heat consumed him and his prime took all sense of self and awareness from Izuku.
The Nomu lumbered toward the fallen Katsuki. Izuku’s brain was hazing and distorting in pain as the roar of his prime omega screamed at the threat towards his mate… his mate. Izuku felt for the first time that he was connected with his prime as he spoke with a merged voice, “No,” Izuku snarled, but it wasn’t a human sound.
It was the voice of a prime, a voice that was fabled to have gods trembling and the sky’s rewriting their existence as the command challenged the Nomu’s own, making it freeze in place as Izuku let out a scream so violent and shaking it shattered windows and shook the buildings.
Black tendrils lashed out, violent and seemingly destructive but no harm came to any people around him, the tendrils heading towards the Nomu, wrapping the Nomu’s limbs in tight chains, burning slightly against mutated flesh. Izuku lunged—an emerald blur— the blood spilling violent from his wound but Izuku didn’t care. He had no kindness for this monster for trying to destroy the only place he had ever felt he could call home. He snarled and ascended up the Nomu’s back, open mouthed and sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight as he sank his teeth into its throat, tearing out a mass of glowing tissue.
The creature shrieked, thrashing, screaming in horror at the violent destruction of it’s scent gland, flailing as it stumbled towards Aizawa as if to break Izuku’s concentration as the protective instincts inside him burned, and Izuku’s magic erupted—
Whips of green tinged obsidian light impaled the Nomu through its core… repeatedly as Izuku bit into the back of its neck, nails gouging out chunks of flesh as Izuku tore into it like an unhinged animal, running on pure instinct to protect, to kill. The nomu's flailing body collided with buildings, broke wooden stalls but Izuku continued, unwavering as he tore through muscle, sinew and bone with his raw hands and his newly unearthed magic.
All it took was one violent snarl and wrapping his teeth around the bone in its neck and ripped its portion of spine out as his magic erupted through it’s head, and the Nomu let out a wail of death as it slumped against the wall, convulsing and gargling on its own blood as it fell to the ground. Izuku breathed heavily, the bone still between his teeth, waiting to see if it dared move again before the adrenaline wore off and the pain came.
Izuku collapsed beside it, trembling violently, heat ripping him apart from the inside as the pain in his limbs screamed, almost as if fissures were tearing their way across his limbs as blood spilled from his lips. The dagger hilt stuck out grotesquely from his abdomen, poison flooding his bloodstream, his heat violently calling out for someone, no not just someone, for katsuki…
Izuku let out a hoarse keep as Aizawa reached him, eyes widen in horror, his voice distorted as his hands pressed into Izuku’s stomach from where the blade had fallen and lay on the floor, as if trying to stop the bleeding, Katsuki’s name falling from Aizawa’s lips as he felt like he was being separated from his body.
Izuku could tell Aizawa was talking desperately to him, Eri crying in the wrap tied against Kota’s chest as he sobbed violently, calling Izuku’s name like his life depended on it. Katsuki reached him at last—bloody, panting, eyes blazing in terror.
“No—no, no, no—Izuku—stay with me—” Katsuki gathered him into his lap, hands shaking as his saw the way the dagger laying there, the way Azawa’s hand pressed against the wound, trying to stop the unstoppable as the what should be red blood, spilled around his fingers, seemingly turning black as Izuku choked on the blood pooling in his throat.
Izuku’s scent was chaotic—heat, blood, poison, fear—and it terrified Katsuki like nothing ever had… he could see it in the usually composed enigma’s eyes.
“Katsuki…” Izuku rasped, between gurgling sounds as his body felt colder even through the impossible heat burning through him. “The poison… wasn’t meant for me.”
Katsuki froze as his gaze settled on Izuku’s face, begging for answers.
“It was meant… to kill an enigma. Trigger your cycle. Make you weak… easy to assassinate.” Izuku croaked out as he let out a wail as Aizawa pressed harder against the wound, making Izuku cry out in pain as blood spilled from his nose and lips, much to Katsuki's horror as the man's breath turned sharp, murderous as the reality set in.
“Who did this?” He asked, but Izuku knew that the man already knew the answer as Izuku swallowed, tears leaking down his face as he looked at Katsuki with regret and sorrow.
“My father… sent a letter.” He coughed, blood bubbling at his lips. “I was supposed to put the poison in your goblet, make you fall into your cycle… bed you and kill you… bring you to your knees and bear and heir. Sabotage you, your people, break Jadever from within.”
Katsuki’s entire body went cold and frigid as his hand gripped Izuku’s tightly, “Why didn’t you tell me—?!”
“I tried,” Izuku whispered, voice fraying. “But then you… you said you wanted to let me in.”
Katsuki’s hands clenched, desperate.
“I still do—Izuku, I still—”
Izuku shook his head weakly.
“He knew I chose you, chose Jadever… so he was trying to destroy everything. He gave me the choice to save myself and be a loyal soldier, but Katsuki… I couldn’t let you fall. Someone has to end him. Someone stronger than me.” Izuku whimpered, his breathing hitched as his vulnerability poured out of him. “All I wanted was to be free, even if it meant dying, but thanks to you, I finally found a place I wanted to stay. With your people. With you.”
Katsuki’s vision blurred, rage and grief mixing… his scent smelt of raw pain even though Izuku felt that the scent was comforting in a way as Katsuki’s eyes flashed gold, Izuku’s own prime responding weakly to the crooning call leaving the Enigma’s lips. “Don’t say it like you’re leaving. Don’t you dare—”
Izuku’s eyes softened as he heaved, coughing up blood as Katsuki scrambled to clean Izuku’s face as he saw the desperation in those eyes, the words left unsaid that Izuku needed to say. “I think… no I know I started to feel something for you.”
Katsuki’s throat closed, eyes wide and vulnerable as Izuku let out a soft sob behind his pained smile, tears rolling down his face.
“Izuku—”
“I’m sorry,” Izuku breathed. “I wish I had… more time… time to confess the words I left unsaid, to tell you all the things I wish I could have said.” His lashes flutter as he saw the way Aizawa was sobbing, begging, pleading for help to come sooner, Katsuki yelling loudly for someone, for anyone to come…
But even if someone did, they wouldn’t make it in time… for it was already too late.
“I’m glad… I belonged here. Even for a little while.” Izuku said with a bloody smile as he felt the world darkening around him, felt the hands holding on to him turn as he whispered, “I wish I could stay…” before his body went slack.
The world seemed to stop as silence echoed over the courtyard as Izuku’s hand fell to the ground, open palmed to the sky as a howl tore through the courtyard from King. Katsuki’s own anguished roar tore through the city, shaking stone, sky, and soul.
As the clouds that seemed to have appeared from nowhere opened with rain, lanterns flickered out as all of Jadever fell silent at the sight of their king mourning the loss of the mate he had yet had the chance to even let into his heart.
~.~.~✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦❄𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧~.~.~
Izuku believed he was in a state of existence, soul detached from his body but moving anywhere further to heaven or hell, just straying any further, just existing in limbo. He knew he was in a room in the castle, or at least his body was and he was simply in a void, but he heard the voices.
“It’s a miracle he has survived Katsuki.” Wow, that sounded like Aizawa, his voice fragile and dripping with tentativeness, hesitation and concern. “His body suffered greatly due to the poison but it turns out the heat of a Prime Omega is a miracle in itself.”
“So it’s confirmed he is a prime omega.” Katsuki’s voice, it was raw and heavy, making his brain croon desperately to the enigma.
“Yes. It was the only way he was able to kill that monster. He had been suppressing it with ointments and medicine we found in his room. His skill in herbology, medicine and alchemy far exceeds what we saw and knew. We know the history of what happened to any primes, and he had seen it… so he was protecting himself by suppressing his instincts.” Aizawa explained as Izuku thought he could that he could detect Aizawa’s soothing coffee scent. “By our investigation when he first fought with you, he unlocked the chains holding his instincts back, and by proxy his magic and it all unleashed in response to a threat to me and Kota, the people, to you.”
“So his fucking magic and instincts were suppressed for decades and is now protecting him?” Katsuki asked in a curious tone, the spice of his scent warm and comforting.
“Whilst the poison was made to kill an enigma, it wasn’t compatible with his body, so he was expelling it out of his body, hence the black blood. His heat is essentially acting as an expelling technique by raising his body temperature and burning it from within, but it's painful because it seems he hasn’t had a natural heat in years.”
“So that’s why we’re here… because his instincts call to us.”
“Yes and thankfully we were able to break down the composition of the poison on the blade so we could make an antidote to help him but… wait shit! CHIYO HE’S BLEEDING AGAIN!”
“FUCK IZUKU!”
The rest of the conversation faded away as he heard them panic as pain tore through him…
~.~.~✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦❄𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧~.~.~
The world was blinding when Izuku woke days later, bandaged, weak, but alive but still deeply buried in the throws of his head, sweat pouring down his chest and face as his abdomen clenched from pain, from the desire and from the residual of the poison that was expelling from his body.
He let out a shuddering breath as he turned his head and was blessed with the sight of Katsuki sitting beside the bed, his scent filling the space. He looked thinner, more worn, eyes haunted. An expression carved in tension that gave way to relief at the sight of Izuku finally awake and trying to get his bearings.
“Fucking finally, I thought you were never going to wake up.” Katsuki whispered as he moved to grab a cloth from the bowl of water and moved to wipe Izuku’s forehead, Izuku trembling at the cool feeling of the cloth against his skin.
Izuku blinked, delirious and drunk on the feeling as his gaze remained focused on the man that was caring for him with a gentleness Izuku had only seen when he interacted with the kids in the city square, “Katsuki… how long was I out?”
“Two weeks…” Katsuki exhaled shakily as he dipped the cloth back in the bowl, moving to gently wipe over Izuku’s scent glands, Izuku hissing and whining at the sensitivity of his scent glands as Katsuki ghosted his hand against the gland. “Fuck I thought you were gone.”
Izuku swallowed, opening his mouth to speak but lets out a dry heaving like sound, coughing because of his throat being so dry. Katsuki was quick to react as he out the cloth down and the next moment, Katsuki brought a bowl of water to Izuku's lips, allowing the man to take tentative sips before clearing his throat before speaking, "I'm sorry.” He really meant it.
“Don’t be,” Katsuki said. “The last thing you should do is apologize to anyone after what you did for me, for my people.”
Silence settled over the room like snowfall—quiet, suffocating, deceptively gentle. Izuku sat in the comfort of the bed surrounded by the familiar scents of the people he had come to know, come to love and stared as Katsuki moved to stand by the window, instinctively looking out over his people like a guardian. Izuku let out a trembling breath as his arms wrapped around himself instinctively, his heat simmering under his skin like a fever he was too afraid to acknowledge.
The silence stretched between them as Katsuki remained near the window, broad shoulders rigid, jaw clenched so tightly it trembled. The cool light moonlight cut across him like a blade, outlining the sharp lines of a man wound too tight, emotions strangling him from the inside as he struggled to keep himself silent when it was clear he wanted to say so many things.
Izuku’s voice was barely a whisper when he spoke, jaw clenched as he hugged his abdomen, pain spreading through it as he let out a trembling breath, “I… I owe you the truth. All of it. Even the parts I wish I could cut out of myself.”
Katsuki didn’t move, but the air shifted—listening, as if he was grateful that Izuku was initiating this conversation. Izuku’s gaze settled on the box of letters he knew was amongst the notes on his desk and whimpered as he reached into the bedside drawer with shaking fingers. Katsuki was quick to rush over and help him open the draw as Izuku dug inside and pulled them out.
The stench of death permeated the room from the confines of the now open box, the letters were worn around the edges, some creased so deeply they looked mauled, the others stained with blood and anguish. He held them like injuries that had never healed, like wounds that were festering and rotting, never leaving, permanently marring his soul both mentally and physically.
“My father wrote these,” Izuku murmured, eyes downcast as he held them with clear sorrow and disgust on his face. “They show everything. What he planned, what he expected of me… what he wanted me to become... What he wanted me to do to you and Jadever.” His breath quivered as his entire being trembled from the depth of his soul, “What he thought of me.”
He held the letters out, even though doing so made his throat close with instinctive fear. Katsuki moved to sit down on the bed, his eyes never leaving Izuku as he moved slowly—carefully—like approaching a wounded creature that might bolt, hand outstretched as he took the letters from Izuku’s hand with a gentleness that Izuku hadn’t expected.
Izuku’s breath hitched. He wasn’t used to that—gentleness toward anything associated with him. Katsuki didn’t open them yet. He just stared, knuckles whitening as the weight settled on him. “Izuku…” His voice was rough. Thick. Heavy with things he’d never said aloud.
“You saw how he treated me in public, in private it was worse, it was hell, death seemed kinder than living and I was so afraid to trust, to tell anyone but when the last letter came, and he told me he wanted me to put the poison in your glass, I couldn’t because I let myself get too close.” Izuku said as a tear rolled down his face, guilt weighing heavily on his heart as he let out a sob as he hugged himself tighter, “I wish I had been honest because maybe, maybe you could have gotten rid of me sooner, protected your people sooner…”
The silence stretched, vast and seemingly never-ending, Izuku trying to reign in his scent but being so deep in his heat state, the possibility of a drop was higher, but he was shocked when the air was warmed around him by the comforting scent from Katsuki as the Enigma’s voice broke the silence, his words fracturing something in Izuku.
“I owe you honesty too.”
He shifted on the bed, nearing Izuku, not touching him, but close enough that Izuku felt his heat, the weight of his aura, the pull of an Enigma trying desperately not to reach for what was his… Izuku could tell by the longing and fear present in the man’s scent. Izuku watched as Katsuki’s hands flexed around on another between his knees, a nervous tick that Izuku had never seen on the man before and it made him look up to see Katsuki’s vulnerability in those red eyes.
“I didn’t trust the marriage contract. I didn’t trust your father. I didn’t trust you… because I knew his history, I knew what he did to the kingdoms he allied with, but I still chose to pursue it anyway… but I swore I’d kill you the second I believed you were a threat to my home and my people.”
Izuku winced—but he didn’t look away, understanding Katsuki’s perspective as he spoke.
Katsuki continued on, heavy but seemingly having a weight lifted off he spoke. “The idea of a stranger being tied to me—to my people—felt like walking into a trap. Everything in me screamed to hold you at arm’s length.” His breath shuddered. “I thought if I cared, if I let you near, it would be used against us. Against Jadever.”
Izuku’s heart clenched painfully. He swallowed, pressing his palms into the sheets to steady himself.
Katsuki dragged a hand through his hair, frustrated. “But then you had to fucking bond with that bastard of a ram and my bastard of a wolf whose instincts about people are never fucking wrong, and then you challenged me to a fight, showed the real you and I couldn’t fucking look away.” Katsuki said with a laugh in disbelief as he shook his head, “You became so loved by my people and no matter how fucking hard I swore to myself you were a snack in the grace, you called to me, like a beacon in the night, like home was finally a complete concept for me because you had become one of us and I couldn’t do anything to stop myself from seeing you.”
Izuku was shattered and subsequently pieced back together hearing those words, the reality that somehow he had broken through Katsuki’s shields, had carved his way through those icy walls and settled in his heart, just like Katsuki and the people of Jadever had done for him.
“I could barely comprehend it, and finally, I felt safe enough to accept you, to finally let you in and then the attack happened…” Katsuki’s jaw was clenched as his limbs shook. You could have saved yourself from your father’s rage, let me die, and instead, you took that hit—it should’ve been mine—and you didn’t hesitate and took a dagger meant for me.” His voice cracked. “And your scent changed. Your nature—”
He stopped, shaking his head as if he still struggled to understand it.
“You’re a Prime Omega,” he whispered, still trying to comprehend the reality of the words he was saying, “You went feral, awakened your magic and fucking killed a nomu, saved my people, saved me… and I had stood there moments before, trying to comprehend the anguish that exploded in my being when you took that blow… and the reality that came after who you really were… of what you really were… and what that meant to me.”
Izuku closed his eyes. A tremor rippled through him—instinctive, involuntary. His heat pulsed underneath his skin, aching, responding to the truth spoken aloud at the acceptance in Katsuki’s scent, the longing call of their souls reaching out to one another. Izuku’s scent responding to izuku’s own as they finally acknowledged what was between them, what they had known in their souls.
Katsuki inhaled sharply.
As if sensing it.
As if feeling it.
As if fighting it.
Soulmates were rare, so rare that records were scarce. Most couples and mates often said their mates were their soulmates but the truth is no one knew how to describe it, but Izuku did… because it was like a tether pulling their souls together, even when they tried to oppose it, tried to deny it, the truth was there.
“You feel it too… you always have, haven’t you? You’ve always know, haven’t you?”
Izuku ‘s lips trembled as he nodded, so fragile and afraid to say it but he had to, “I did.”
Katsuki inhaled sharply before letting his limbs tremble as he tried not to let out a distressed, anguished sound, one filled with yearning, the same kind izuku felt. “Izuku… my Enigma wants you like a dying man wants water,” Katsuki admitted, voice low and raw as he acknowledged the intensity of the connection between them. “The pull is—gods—it’s violent. It’s every instinct screaming to take, to claim, to protect.” His breath shook, like his hands and his entire world had the moment he acknowledged this pull between them. “But I’m torn. Between what I want, and what I fear.”
Izuku looked up at him then—green eyes shimmering with pain, with confusion, with longing he didn’t dare name.
“What do you fear?” Izuku whispered.
Katsuki’s jaw clenched as he fought all his feelings to finally confess the weight of his feelings, of what everything meant now. “That I’m seeing what I want to see. That you’re perfect for this place—perfect for us—because I want you to be. Because I’ve imagined a future where you fit too easily, too seamlessly, and that scares the hell out of me… that I am being blinded by this connection between us and letting you play me, that you knew you’d survive, that this was all a plan from your father to finally make me vulnerable and trust you only to have you betray me the moment I let you in completely.”
Izuku’s breath hitched as he felt the weight of the words settingly inside him, almost feeling betrayed but when he thought about it, he knew it was a valid reaction as he let out a shaky breath. “You have every right… you didn’t know me, wholly and completely, so its only nature that you’d be afraid that I’ll betray you.”
Katsuki exhaled sharply, shoulders tensing. “I don’t want to be… I’m supposed to be unwavering, strong, unyielding, but you broke through me and you’ve done nothing to earn that mistrust—but I’ve seen what your father is capable of.” He swallowed. “And I know what happens to alphas blinded by a bond. They drag their people down with them.”
Izuku’s eyes stung as he felt the weight of how fractured everything was, how much yearning echoed through to his being as Izuku whispered, pained and vulnerable as his broken voice confessed something he didn’t know he had been holding on to for so long, “I didn’t hide what I was because I wanted to deceive you,” he said, voice cracking. “I hid it because I didn’t want to die.. Because for the first time in my life I wanted a future after wishing for death for so long.”
Katsuki froze as the weight of Izuku’s words hit him.Izuku continued, words spilling like poison finally purged.
“If my father had known I was a Prime Omega… he would have slaughtered me. Or used me. Or sold me. Or bred me into something I couldn’t survive being… or worse, turned me in to a mindless creature and there were so many times I thought of taking my own life because living was so painful.” Izuku’s hands twisted in the sheets as his body shook. “I was terrified to live. Terrified to die. But somehow I’m still here and—”
His voice broke.
“I still want to live.”
Katsuki inhaled sharply, the sound almost pained.
“Coming to Jadever changed everything.” Izuku whispered, raw and broken as the tears rollwed down his face. “I found respect, I found peace, I found happiness, safety, trust. I felt so safe I started releasing my nature, letting the real me be seen, and then the attack happened and it came free. I went feral and killed the nomu, took a blow for you and now, my father knows. He won’t stop until I’m either dead or dragged back and broken and made into a monster to do his bidding.”
He lifted his trembling gaze.
“Izuku-”
“And I don’t know what that means for us. I don’t know how you see me. I don’t know what you want to do with me… and I can’t blame you if the thought of getting rid of me is what you decide because your people come first,” Izuku let out a sob as Katsuki’s breath hitched, Izuku’s voice dropping to a fragile confession. “I don’t even know if you want me near you while I’m… like this… I don’t want you to feel obligated, to feel like I am going to manipulate or deceive you but fuck I want you so badly it hurts but I am so afraid of wanting for me.”
Izuku let out a weak groan as he fell back into the pillows, his heat throbbed under his skin, shame and desire intertwining painfully as he let out a keen, Katsuki reaching out to touch him as Katsuki’s breath left him in a harsh, shuddering exhale. HIs hand hovered Izuku who desperately wanted to help his mate but hesitated because he was still fucking afraid.
“Izuku,” he said softly—softly, like the word itself was precious. “I don’t know what the future is supposed to look like. I don’t know if I’m ready to bond. I don’t know how to protect everything and still let you close.” He reached, fingers brushing Izuku’s cheek with a gentleness so careful it almost hurt as Izuku felt only a small piece of relief at the contact, purring as he leaned into the touch as he looked at Katsuki with a hooded gaze, still desperately to keep his composure.“But I do know the truth of it.”
Izuku swallowed, eyes wide as Katsuki’s thumb traced the corner of his jaw. “You are my match. My equal. My mate.” A beat skipped between them as Katsuki leaned closer, his forehead leaning in so close as they breathed in each other. “And I’m terrified of what that means.”
Izuku’s breath trembled. “Me too.”
Katsuki leaned forward until their foreheads touched—careful but desperate, restraint trembling in every muscle as the yearning between them was desperate, palpable, raw and unfiltered as Katsuki cradled Izuku’s cheek gentle, caressed it like he was something beautiful, something fragile and something he wanted to protect. “Where do we go from here, Kacchan.” Izuku whispered, fractured and raw as he searched Katsuki’s gaze for any malice, any dishonesty, but there was none, just raw want, honesty and genuine fear for the reality that they had no idea what the future held for them
“We’ll figure it out,” Katsuki murmured, voice rough yet so gentle as he spoke. “Not because fate says so. Not because the bond demands it.” His voice thickened like the longing in his scent as Izuku let out a whine, desperate for him to fucking finish what he was saying “But because I want to… because you want to, not because of the bond but because you and I, Izuku and Katsuki want to.”
Izuku exhaled, shaky and hopeful and terrified all at once.
Katsuki’s hand slid into his.
Their fingers intertwined.
And for the first time, the unknown wasn’t a cliff’s edge—it was a path.
Uncertain.
Dangerous.
But theirs.
Together.
“Kachan…”
“Deku…”
Their eyes met and their lips met with the longing they finally had confessed, the rawness claiming them as Izuku let out a relieved sound as currents ran through his spine, his being encompassed by Katsuki’s body. Izuku felt the warmth and protection of Katsuki’s entire being encapsulating his own. The enigma’s scent was heavy and warm, all encompassing and consuming and desperate as Izuku let himself be carried away by the feelings burning bright in his chest.
Izuku could taste the spice of desire on Katsuki’s scent, tasted the sweetness of his confession and the burning woodiness of his fear, and Izuku took it all, consumed it all and reciprocated it like it was all he had longed for all his life… and maybe he had.
He felt like Katsuki was devouring him, finally taking something they had both denied, had both longed for, desired without even knowing if it was what they both wanted but now that they had it, Izuku realized he couldn’t live without it now. He knew his heat was spiking, he knew the desire was burning, he knew he longed for more from Katsuki but he didn’t dare ask, but it seemed Katsuki knew what Izuku wanted.
Katsuki broke the deep kiss, much to Izuku’s chagrin as he whined but moaned softly as Katsuki buried his face in Izuku’s scent gland, breathing in the desire filled scent of Izuku’s heat like it was drug he was being addicted to, savoring the taste as he nuzzled his cheek into Izuku’s skin, letting out a rumbling that showed his want, his desire, “God I love your scent, and I am struggling to hold myself back because fuck I just want to give in to my instincts.”
Katsuki’s breath trembled where it pressed against Izuku’s neck, heat and restraint warring in every exhale. His fingers curled into the back of Izuku’s shirt, knuckles whitening as if the single layer of fabric was the last barrier separating him from something he had wanted—hungered for—long before either of them admitted it.
“Izuku…” Katsuki’s voice cracked, low and rough. “If I go any further, I won’t be able to pretend I don’t want you… I won’t be able to hold back. I won’t be able to keep this distance anymore… I won’t be able to deny what I want, what my enigma wants… what we need and that's you.”
Izuku’s pulse stuttered. His heat throbbed through him like a second heartbeat, pulling him forward, pulling him into Katsuki—into safety, into fire, into everything he had convinced himself he didn’t deserve but longed for, starved for since realizing he could want it.
His hands trembled where they rose to Katsuki’s jaw, cupping it softly, hot panting breaths escaping him as he fought off the natural decline of succumbing to his long suppressed instincts, his heart racing as he searched Katsuki’s gaze and saw the desire naturally reflected in those red orbs, “You don’t have to pretend,” Izuku whispered. “Not with me. Not anymore.”
Katsuki leaned into the touch as if starved for it, eyes half-lidded, golden and burning. They were encapsulating, consuming and Izuku’s own pulsed with the silver of heated lust and love that had been interspersed and were now so deeply intertwined it had him letting everything free. He wanted Katsuki, beyond his heat, he wanted the man, not just the enigma.
“I shouldn’t…” Katsuki murmured, and Izuku could feel the conflict, he felt it too—the king, the chief, the skeptic, the dutiful protector—warring against the mate who had finally, painfully realized the truth. “I was afraid of what you were,” Katsuki admitted, mouth brushing Izuku’s cheek. “Afraid of what choosing you meant. Afraid of what it would cost me… and my people.” His voice dropped to a raw whisper. “But the moment you took that blade for me, that moment you closed your eyes in my arms and seemingly died in them, reality hit me, that yes I was afraid, but the truth is I was more afraid of losing you.”
Izuku’s breath hitched, his instincts rising up—pleading, desperate, aching.
“Katsuki… I’m not fragile,” he breathed. “Not anymore. And I’m not running. Not from this. Not from you… not even my father will make me run away, not anymore. The only one that can make me leave is you...” It was the truth, the whole truth and Izuku could see how it connected all the dots in Katsuki’s mind
Katsuki’s hands slid to Izuku’s abdomen, hands ghosting over the edge of the bandage where the stab wound lay, where the weight of his choice rested, Katsuki’s had stopped as Izuku's stomach flexed beneath the touch as he panted—Katsuki’s had not moving, not assuming—just asking, reflecting, accepting the reality as \izuku’s eyes fluttered as Katsuki moved with purpose and gentleness.
Katsuki’s hand moved along his skin with a reverence that made Izuku’s vision blur. Each inch of exposed skin was met with a hush of breath, a brush of fingers, a soft curse of awe and anger as scar after scar was assessed, as each weight of the traumatizing moments of his life were seen, truly seen. “Izuku…” Katsuki’s voice broke. “They hurt you beyond comprehension…”
Izuku swallowed. “Yes they did, and I survived.”
Katsuki bent down and pressed his forehead to one of the longer scars, breath warm and shaking from the trembling of his limbs as Izuku tipped his head back and trembled at the vulnerability and intimacy before Katsuki ruined him with his next words, “I meant it when I said that your scars of a warrior who fought all their life for hope, for survival. There is no shame in that. These scars are more beautiful than the perfect skin of a royal of the most lush lands.”
Izuku remembered those words on the day of their wedding, how deeply they cleaved through him and re-wrote his entire being, tears spilling down from his green eyes that reflected all the longing and love he was feeling.
“You’re fucking beautiful,” Katsuki murmured—fierce, reverent, angry on Izuku’s behalf. “Every part of you. Every mark you carried alone.”
Izuku had been touched before—examined, prodded, judged—but never like this. Never like he was something precious. Never like he was something wanted.Heat flickered through him, instinct curling low and deep. “Katsuki… please,” Izuku whispered, voice trembling with want and fear. “I… I want you close. I want this. Even if I’m scared. Even if everything is uncertain… even if you just hold me, I need you near, I want you near.”
Katsuki lifted his head, eyes wide with something raw and unguarded. “Say it again,” he breathed.
Izuku leaned closer, the heat of their skin burning bright between their bodies that were nearly touching from chest to knee, heat rolling off him in waves he could no longer hide as Izuku leaned in and claimed another kiss, heated and filled with desire, no more hesitation, only certainty.
“I want you,” he whispered against Katsuki’s lips. “I want us. Whatever this becomes.. Whether we live or die by my father’s hand, whether you snuff mine out with your own, I don’t care, I just want you.”
A shudder tore through Katsuki’s body—instinct buckling at the confession, at the plea, restraint unraveling inch by inch. “Izuku…” Katsuki growled softly, almost a plea. “If I let go, if I stop denying what my Enigma wants, what I want, I won’t be able to stop needing you, I won’t be able to stop wanting you.”
Izuku leaned in, scent soft and open, offering trust he had never been allowed to give anyone. “Then don’t stop,” he whispered.
Izuku longed for more, begged for more, the longing of feeling the way that every scar Katsuki uncovered felt like a confession. That every shaky breath Katsuki released felt like trust Izuku didn’t deserve. Every time Izuku leaned closer, instinct pressing him forward, both he and Katsuki felt something inside him kneel and yield to all the emotions burning inside the,
He’s mine. Was the thought shared mutually between them. The thought rose, unbidden, primal, terrifying… because it was in that breath, that moment, they both realized a fact shared between the two of them. They had chosen each other the day they met, Katsuki’s Enigma and Izuku’s prime omega had chosen each other from the very beginning, and there was no denying the strength of that connection, it fueled them rather than made them hesitate.
They were both done hesitating. They were both done starving themselves of one another when time was a factor, when they had no idea how much time they would have left given the uncertainty of the future. Izuku trembled beneath Katsuki’s touch—not from fear, but from want—and Izuku realized that he was trembling too.
Izuku had been afraid of this bond. Afraid it would cost him everything. Katsuki was afraid Izuku would shatter his people’s trust. Was afraid that if he finally let Izuku in that ultimately he would break his heart. But now—pressing his forehead to Izuku’s, feeling their breaths tangle—Katsuki understood the truth… they both did
The danger wasn’t Izuku. The danger wasn’t Izuku’s father. The danger wasn’t the future. No, the danger was how much they both already cherished one another, and how they could no longer sit idly by and deny what they felt inside of them.
Katsuki kissed him—slow, deep, grounding—as though sealing a vow neither of them fully understood but both desperately needed. The heat between them swelled, instincts aligning like two halves of a bond finally meeting. And with Izuku’s hands in his hair and Katsuki’s breath trembling against his skin, they let go of the last of their fear and stepped into the gravity of each other—
—the rest unfolding in a closeness the world would never see, but one they would never forget.
They had somehow navigated the lines of Duty, Devotion, Destiny and Desire, but at the end of it all, they had chosen each other, regardless of whether at the end of this war they would live or die, they chose each other.
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✩₊˚.⋆☾𓃦The End...𓃦☽⋆⁺₊✧
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Notes:
Thanks for joining me on this epic journey. Hope you enjoyed it and well... what another part to find out what happens in the future, let me know <3. And don't forget to give some love to Axumi's artwork.. Love you all.
Link to Artwork:
Twitter/ X: https://x.com/_Axuni_/status/1999010706335912068?s=20