kiribaku oneshots

lizard brain

Description: Bakugous stuff keeps going missing and he's going to find out who keeps stealing his shit
TW: nothing
Genre: fluff and a little angst (AU - Fantasy)
Author: Maplefudge

"Lizard-brains, did you take my ring!?"

Eijirou flinches. He looks up at Katsuki with a frown, sees the scowl on Katsuki's face as he stares with crossed arms. There's clear impatience on Katsuki's face and Eijirou can practically feel the annoyance simmer off of him.

They're in a clearing in the middle of the forest, the center of the open area holding the remnants of the previous night's fire; a pile of branches that have been reduced to ashes. The air's cold and fresh against their skin and the sun hasn't been up for very long. Their other companions – Izuku, Shouto, and Ochako – are getting up, too. Ochako yawns as she rummages through her belongings, searching for a waterskin; beside her, Izuku's handing a loaf of bread to Shouto.

"Well?" Katsuki asks. "Did you take it?"

"No," Eijirou lies, "why would I?"

Of course, Eijirou won't tell the truth... that he has it in his pocket. It's a silver ring, one that Katsuki wears during the day and takes off before sleeping. Eijirou had found it the evening before, simply resting on folded up clothes – and he had taken it. By the rules of his race, it was now his. He couldn't help it; his dragon instincts had taken over, had screamed at him to pocket it while Katsuki wasn't paying attention.

Katsuki raises an eyebrow, lips pursed in suspicion. Eijirou laughs and looks away, his dragon tail swishing nervously... it's a bad habit that he doesn't even know he has when he's agitated, and he has no idea that Katsuki's learned this by now. Eijirou doesn't realize that Katsuki can tell that something's not right.

The silence lingers between them, too long for Eijirou's comfort, and he can see their companions staring at them with confused looks.

Thankfully, Katsuki lets it go.

"If you say so," he grumbles.

Eijirou doesn't think Katsuki believes him, not really.

Dragons are supposed to be indebted when a human beats them in a duel – and he had somehow found himself losing to Katsuki, barely a season ago. Katsuki found him sleeping in a cave when he was in his full dragon form. A sword was pointed at him and there was a feral grin on Katsuki's face, one that piqued Eijirou's curiosity.

He didn't even realize Katsuki was challenging him, not really; for some reason, Eijirou thought that the blond and noisy human only wanted to play, maybe wrestle in the dirt, and that the sword was only a prop. It wasn't until Katsuki pinned his head to the ground and yelled in triumph that Eijirou realized that it was... well, a fight.

"You're indebted to me now, right?" Katsuki sneered. "That's how it works?"

Eijirou blinked at him, then decided to shift to his human form. It was easier to speak that way, after all. He wanted to tell Katsuki that he didn't realize they were fighting... but, well, he was bored and he wanted to see more of the human world. So he grinned at the human, cackling, and yelled, "Yeah!"

"What the fuck?" Katsuki was more than bewildered. "You can turn into a human!?"

And, that was how Eijirou had roped himself into travelling with this particular mortal group.

As some stories say, dragons take items which they deem as valuable. Eijirou heard some humans call it a dragon's hoard, which doesn't make sense to him at all — he takes items because they remind him of the person who owns it, and it comforts him. He has one of Ochako's handkerchiefs in his bag, liking the candy-sweet smell of it. Eijirou asked her for it, too, and Ochako found it interesting, asking a few questions and then handing it over to him with a huge smile.