A Boy and His Dragon.

ⅩⅫⅠ

Peeking over the clouds filling the night sky, the sun started to rise, painting the sky with warm oranges, pinks, and purples. Soft light filtered through windows on U.A. campus; Katsuki and many other waking teens groaned and curled their arms around their faces, trying to block out the rising sun. Izuku, next to Katsuki, was dead asleep, snoozing away, chest rising and falling. Katsuki peered over, turning onto his side, watching Izuku's chest inflate and deflate, small snores passing through Izuku's nostrils.

Katsuki was always mildly paranoid from when Izuku was poisoned that the traitors would sneak in and finish the job. Katsuki morning panic subsided, watching Izuku huff and curl closer to him, eyes sliding open and staring at him. Izuku trilled, throat bobbing with the vibrations as he leaned up, gently putting their foreheads together, warm air expelling from his nostrils.

Katsuki closed his eyes in the peaceful moment, laying his head onto his pillow, Izuku following suit, a large, leathered wing curling around his body. Izuku's tail twisted around his ankle, grounding him from the unknown panic that continued to build even after seeing Izuku alive and asleep. Izuku trilled and chirped, the happy sounds echoing through the quiet room, the warm yellow light splashing across the wood floor through the window.

Izuku's paws kneaded Katsuki's stomach, Katsuki's abs flexing and relaxing as Izuku purred. Katsuki's arms slid under Izuku's armpits as they both sat up, Izuku's wings curling on his back, tail unwrapping and cinching around Katsuki's waist as they both headed to the bathroom in their room.

Katsuki flicked the warm yellow lights on; the bathroom lit up a soft, warm yellow. Katsuki carefully set Izuku down on the counter, grabbing a toothbrush, placing pet-safe toothpaste on it before wetting it. Katsuki turned as Izuku opened his mouth, teeth still glittering and a pearly white, save for some yellow spots on his canines. Katsuki started to brush Izuku's sharp teeth, watching the toothpaste foam up.

He carefully manhandled Izuku's lips, pushing them up to gain access to Izuku's sharp teeth. Katsuki continued to brush Izuku's scales and fur, taking off the rest of Izuku's old winter fur and shedding scales, allowing the fur under to fluff up after brushing through the slightly damp, untangled fur. Izuku's newly brushed summer coat was deep forest green; some of the unruly curls were a tar-black.

Katsuki ran his hands through the warm curls of Izuku's new summer coat, feeling the onyx scales bump under his hands. Katsuki turns, sweeping up all the fur and putting the washed scales in a box. He often sold Izuku's old scales (with Izuku's permission, after he asked the dragon who gave an excited nod in return) to people who did jewelry to use, seeing Izuku was covered with thousand of scales and shed twice a year, Katsuki made a good profit and always got the prototype jewelry in return along with twenty percent of the profits, seeing Izuku's scales were always clean and in good shape.

It takes a lot of brute force to break Izuku's scales or direct pressure on the middle to cave the scale in. But with Izuku's tough scales, his skin below is softer than normal. He bleeds more if you break his scales and tear the skin. It's a blessing, due to Izuku being clumsy and running into things and being the self-sacrificial idiot he is, and a curse due to Izuku's scales often cracking with certain situations, causing Izuku more pain.

Thankfully, the last time Izuku's scales cracked was with the finals, with Izuku VS Kirishima at the sports festival. Katsuki scratched Izuku's scales, knowing the new scales would be quite itchy. Izuku's jaw opened, eyelids closing as his tongue lolled out, panting like a happy dog as his tail wagged and thwacked the cabinets, right back foot thumping against the counter like a bunny. Katsuki snickered as he used his other hand to scratch the itchiest parts between Izuku's hip bones and his chest.

On his chest, where quite a bit of fur sat, Izuku had trouble scratching. His claws would get tangled in the unruly chest puff of fur and would have to do a three-legged hobble over to Katsuki, who would untangle Izuku's claws. Izuku's hip bones were where the new scales often rubbed together and got irritated while they were hardening, so they got quite itchy, and Izuku's claws would tear them while they were still setting and still had a sort of firm but squishy consistency. They hopefully would be set by the end of the week, and Izuku wouldn't be itchy.