(づ。◕‿‿◕。)づ
Word Count: 4109
Enjoy~
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"Bakugou."
Climbing off of his horse, the heterochromatic male approached you, his gaze never leaving your form despite being hidden behind Bakugou. His intimidating eyes demanded your attention and even if you did try to break away from the deadly stare, your body wouldn't let you. You were rooted to the spot. Your body was refusing to move an inch.
How could a pair of eyes have such a force? Was this what it felt like to be an animal at the bottom of the food chain?
"I'm afraid you missed me when you were introducing your Omai to the tribe heads." His voice was deep and calculated. There was no note of emotion to his words, giving you no idea of what was running through his head.
Bakugou harrumphed, his chest puffing out, "Or, maybe I didn't think that you deserved to meet her."
"I believe I have the right to meet my next chieftess," The lionfish striped man challenged, "I would like to know who will be leading me in the future."
Shifting, there was a pull on your bicep forcing you to stumble forward next to your Abi, or rather Rumi. You did not fail to notice how those eyes scanned your body up and down. Bakugou also didn't fail to notice either as he hesitated in releasing your arm. Standing in front of the red and white male, it became clear to you that he a decent height advantage on the blond and the other males present with the expectation of Sero.
"This is (L/N) (Y/N)." Bakugou hissed possession coating his words, "my Omai."
Scooping up your hand the unknown man bent down pressing the front of your hand to his forehead in one fluid movement before standing tall again. You had become accustomed to this movement as it was an introduction custom in this new tribe, but he did not release you from his grip like the others did, "I am Todoroki Shoto, head of the clan's defense."
Instantly you noticed that his hand was much different from Bakugou's. It was freezing--so cold that it even put the chilliest of water from the ocean to shame. They were much smoother than Bakugou's rough calloused hands and seemed to lack any imperfections. In fact, this man seemed to lack any flaws except for the scar that blessed a good portion left side of his face.
"T-Todoroki, huh...does that mean you're related to Shaman Todoroki?" You asked as the name was familiar to you. Your attempt to connect to your predator had severely backfired.
His jaw tightened along with the grip on your hand making you hold in a whimper.
Narrowing his eyes, the large red stamp of a scar puckered, "Yes, he's my father I'm afraid."
You lost your ability to speak so you nodded your head instead. Todoroki had made it more than clear that his father was a subject that he did not want to talk about.
"There ya met her, now get the fuck out to the hunting. That goes for all of you dumbasses," Bakugou ordered butting in between the two of you breaking the cold hold Todoroki had on your hand.
Before you knew it, you were lifted and thrown onto the back of Zero with Bakugou climbing up behind you. While adjusting yourself to the best uncomfortable position on the large beast, a pair of arms emerged from behind and grabbed the reins, caging you in the process. Leaning back into Bakugou's firm chest, you prepared yourself for whatever pace he had in mind to start this journey.
However a new hand took hold of the reins as well, halting Zero, "You're going hunting as well aren't you, Bakugou?"
"So what if I am Icy-Hot?" An irritated brow jumped up on Bakugou's face.
"Then you should come to us. It would be better for your safety as well as (L/N) since you are injured." Todoroki reasoned.
Garnet orbs flashed with annoyance as Bakugou glared down at his male peer. Ripping the reins out of the other's grasp, the untameable blond loomed over the other with his newly added height from being on horseback, "We'll be fine."
For the first time, Todoroki moved his attention from you to the male behind you. His stone face also made the first suggestion of emotion as his lips curled down ever so slightly, "Please be logical of this Bakugou. You're hurt and it's not just you anymore. Think about this, you know better than most that there are more than just animals in the-"
"Ya sayin' I don't know how to protect my woman?" Bakugou gnarred.
A slim brow now twitched. Todoroki's calm demeanor was being tested, little did you know that was one of Bakugou's unknown past times, "That is not what I am saying, Bakugou. I am just-"
"Bakugou and I will be fine." You hastily cut into the argument before it could escalate any further. You just wanted to get out of here and the only way to do that was to confirm your faith in Bakugou even if he was injured, "Your people value a person's word the most correct? If that's true, then you should trust Bakugou's."
Incongruous eyes jumped back to you, taken aback that you had suddenly spoken up in the midst of a dispute that many would let go on for hours. While one was stunned by your outburst, the other became smug his mouth turning into a twisted smile that showcased his sharp canines, "Looks like my Omai knows our ways better than you, Todoroki."
Slowly, Todoroki back away from the two of you before turning away harshly in favor of returning to his white steed. Giving the reins a snap, Todoroki sped past you making sure to leave you with a glaring send-off.
"Fucking match thrower," Bakugou growled under his breath, "always running away."
Riding up next to you Kaminari gave a nervous laugh in an attempt to break some of the tension in the air, "Don't worry about that (L/N), those two fight like wolves and bobcats some days. It also doesn't help that Todoroki isn't exactly the most socially aware person."
Your mouth opened to further question the blond to obtain some new information on this issue but your efforts were in vain as you suddenly lurched forward by your own horse taking off. Whipping your head forward, you took hold of the saddle gripping it with all your might as you traveled over a much more jagged terrain than your last ride. Previously, you were on rolling hills and mostly flat land, now you were on uneven ground and descending into a valley. There was another harsh snap on the leather straps next to you making Zero pick up the pace.
Going this fast, you knew that it was a bad idea. Even if you were a skilled rider to go this speed on such a twisting and turning path with other factors at play spelled disaster. Your body was jerked in every which way a person's body could before Bakugou took a sharp left veering you off of the worn-in path that his ancestors must have spent years creating.
Venturing into the dense woods, Bakugou was forced to slow down but that did not mean he was going at a slow pace. By being pressed against him, you could feel his upper body contour for a moment before going back to its original position.
"Extras won't find us out here." He sighed out finally pulling Zero's reins back to make him go into a decent trot.
Taking a breath you counted your blessing that you had made it safely. Loosing your hold on the saddle, you gave your knuckles a much deserved break. Rubbing over them you looked around at the strange foliage of the land. The smell of their dirt was sickly earthy and the sun had to fight its way through the thick canopy of the trees. Roots of these great life-giving plants weaved through the ground without care making some areas bumpier than others.
Then there was a flash of color. These streaks of vibrant hues in the sky automatically caught your attention.
A string of different melodies filled the air as the streaks moved around sporadically chasing one another. The mysterious streaks landed on a tree limb making you squint for a moment before flaring open at the realization of what was moving through the sky. They were birds.
A faint smile crept onto your face listening to the strange melody. For the first time, this was something you preferred in his land compared to yours.
The song of the birds at your land was nowhere as pretty as this. You used to an eerie echo of a wild chorus that had little harmony. As a child, you found that the occasional wild banshee screech that came from your tropical forest nightmarish. Then there was also the horrid squall of the seagulls that were more like a curse than a blessing to the ears.
All your life you weren't exactly a fan of the avian species until now. The singing and chirping of these winged creatures were sweet and harmonious despite there being many several different species rolling around in the sky. Each new call was a new layer in the song they were belting out, a new soloist taking the lead but not overpowering the supporting singers.
Listening to their poem, your body relaxed unconsciously leaning back into the strong chest behind you as you continued to watch the dazzling stripes of colors run through trees and sky. You continued to watch these small creatures going about their day for a few more moments before Zero came to a stop. A large rough hand pushing against your back making you leave the comfort of the chest you were resting on.
Sliding down from Zero with care to not put too much pressure on his injured foot, Bakugou helped you climb down as well. Silently, the oddly quiet blond suited you up with a bow and arrow before rounding around Zero.
Closely tucked behind you, his arm shot out pointing at a small brown mammal with large ears nibbling on a patch of lush grass. Not wanting to give away your location you nodded as a response pulling back the weapon taking aim. Heavy hands overlapped yours, quickly adjusting your form and hold on the bow. His body gluing itself to yours as he leaned in causing for blond tresses to tickle your neck. Steady, strong, breathes escaped him, his breath hotly grazing your neck.
Unwisely, your eyes left the small furball to his stern face. His carmine orbs were sharp and narrowed on the small mammal with his pupils dilated keenly observing every fidget of the animal. Unabashedly, you stared at him. Even though this look at first glance was terrifying, even rivaling Todoroki, the longer you soaked in the sight the horror of Bakugou washed away.
No, he wasn't like Todoroki at all.
Bakugou's eyes burned with a passion as he looked down the long mended stick. Strong brows locked in a state of determination and lips pulled into a straight line from the amount of focus he was exerting. It was the face of a man ready to kill. This look should petrify you. This look filled with resolve should frighten you more than a static face of Todoroki. And if others were to peer into the scene, they would agree with you. The face Bakugou was making was much worse than the one Todoroki had given you.
So why...why weren't you trembling as you did in the past?
Your body was still stiff upon seeing it, that had remained the same. Your heart was still pumping at a rate that would concern Recovery Girl, but that stroke of fear that you had felt before was gone.
Your trained eyes watched as his sharp jaw went slack as a large exhaled left him along with his touch.
The arrow exploded out of the bow, zipping through the air with ferocity.
Shocked, your head whipped forward, you had unknowingly released the sharp projectile. A loud thump echoed in the forest followed by a series of leaves being crushed by scampering small feet.
"Damn," Bakugou whispered heading toward the arrow that was embedded into the tree trunk that was way off course of your target.
Retrieving the arrow, Bakugou's long strides made his return to your side faster than most, "I thought you'd have better aim than that considering you almost impaled my head the first night I met you."
Playing with the taut string you looked towards the treetops, embarrassed. You didn't take any aim when you took that shot, how could you let yourself become that distracted? And by him of all things.
"Well, I did say my people didn't hunt often." You defended, secretly thankful that you had past reasoning for your failure.
"Or you were distracted."
Your cavorting with the weapon came to a standstill. You could feel the vibrations of the string running through your body at your abrupt stop of plucking. Frozen, you continued to look away from him, fighting the heat that wanted to lay claim to the apples of your cheeks. Your lack of a response was enough of an answer for both of you.
"You like the birds, huh?" An awkwardly gentle tone ushered your attention.
It was odd to hear Bakugou's usually brash voice in such an innocent tone. Looking to your side you could see that his eyes were on the sky as well watching the random blips of color, "I saw you watching them when we were riding in."
Your heart jumped a beat. He thought you were distracted by something else then, "I've never seen birds like this before."
Giving your words a thought, Bakugou went under one of the impressive trees. Tugging open one of the pouches on his belt he chucked out a handful of grain making the small pellets decorate the ground. Splaying open his rouge cloak, Bakugou sat down settling on the fabric, "The rabbit when into his hole so we can wait for a while to see if he comes out."
Ambling your way to him you took off the quiver and bow, resting it next to him, "Alright."
Leaning back onto the rough bark, Bakugou's legs spread open before he gave a tap the new space, "Come."
Taking a breath, you slotted yourself in the spot. Reaching over you, you were pulled in tight into his embrace, his warmth encapsulating you along with his unexplainable sweet smell. Watching the earth in front of you, what you originally thought was meant for tempting the rabbit out of the ground had taken a new meaning.
Small wings flapped down as small beaks tapped at the ground pecking away at the forgotten grains.
Blinking, you took sat up bumping back into the blond.
More and more birds descended from the sky coming to enjoy the treat that had been given to them. Smiling, you took in the up-close sight of the birds for all their worth. Instead of having multiple vibrant hues on their barbs as you were used to seeing on the winged creatures they only had one to three colors on them. Their beaks were much shorter and they were smaller than the typical tropical bird. These birds were much better than any annoying seagull.
Taking your hand, Bakugou flipped it over, filling it with the strange grains. Cupping your palm you brought your other hand up to make sure that none of the small beads spilled out. Taking a hefty pinch from the small pile in your hands he tossed it forward with some of the pills landing on his long cape.
"Hold your hands out more," His gruff voice mused into your ear as his hands coming to envelop themselves around your waist.
Following his order, you pushed your arms out more towards the growing flock of birds. A heavy weight came down on your shoulder followed by a warm pump of air alerted you that Bakugou had rested his head on it.
Glancing down at him his eyes were jumping between the birds and the area where the rabbit had once been. His nose grazing your shoulder as he hid the bottom of half of his face in your shoulder. And if a strong enough breeze came through to ruffle his hair, you would have been able to see a dusting of pink on the tips of his ears.
He looks so relaxed...innocent even.
A pair of talons pricking your skin made your attention return to the food pile in your hand. Your eyes swelled wide open as the small bird jumped around picking out the food that it desired. Naturally, your lips crept upwards studying the bird.
The vibrant scarlet feathers shined despite the lack of direct sun. The beak was thick and somewhat round and was a blood orange color just a few shades off from the bird's feather color. The top of his head sported a damped mohawk that would flare up occasionally while it dined. The most interesting characteristic about the bird was the unique pitch-black mask that surrounded his beak and eyes. Its throat bobbed up and down releasing a slurred whistle before speeding up into a trill.
"A cardinal," Bakugou spoke up his voice raised a few pitches higher than usual. The weight of his head lifted from your shoulder to bend forward so he could study the brave bird fumbling about in your hands.
Raising a brow you brought your hands closer, but not too close to make your new small friend fly away, "Are they rare?"
"No they're pretty common, they just have a lot of meaning in our tribe that's all." He responded lackadaisically in an attempt to brush over the excitement that overcame his voice a few seconds ago.
Your head tilted to the side. In all of the papers that you had read about their tribe and their symbolism, you didn't read anything about birds, let alone a cardinal.
"Well, what do they mean?" You asked, your curiosity peeked.
Bakugou's head became buried into your shoulder again causing a shake in your arm making your bird friend flutter away, "It's not important."
"If it wasn't important, then why does it have so much meaning?"
A heavy groan dropped out his lips reverberating off your skin, "They mean, well...fuck. Why the hell do I have to be..." a deep sigh stopped him from fighting with himself any longer and brought him back to his mission of telling you the meaning behind the bird, "When cardinals mate, they mate for life. Typically once they are mated, they only sing during mating and troubling times. In my tribe, they represent the ideal relationship because of their devotion to one another."
Seconds later your little red friend was back but in tow with a tawny companion. This pale brown songbird had red tinges on its wings, tail, and crest that mirrored the brilliant vermillion cardinal. The two cooed a similar melody to one another before pecking at the different patches of grain in your hand which was now dwindling.
"That's the female." His voice now muffled as he watched the additional bird in your hands.
Looking down at the bird couple you watched them prance around picking up the last bits of grain in your (S/C) palms, "Well...I think that the meaning is sweet."
Your words were honest. All of the previous things that you had read about the tribe had been mostly about hunting and battle symbols or patterns. It was refreshing to know that they also had more to them than just war. That these people did have a soft side.
Hearing of your approval, you could feel Bakugou shift again, "I guess it's not terrible."
Soon the bird couple took flight again ascending back to the treetops of the robust forest. Rubbing your hands against one another to rid them of the last stray grains you noticed that the fellow birds were long gone.
But a new attraction was revealed to you instead.
Reaching to your side, you pulled one of the long arrows from the quiver that had been forgotten about along with the bow. Sitting up carefully, you did your best to recreate the pose that Bakugou had put your body into position from earlier.
Shutting an eye, you took aim pulling the string back, your fingers strategically placed to make sure not to crush the feathers at the end of the stick. Letting go of the arrow, you were met with success as a high pitched squeal echoed out. Quickly, you reached down rearming yourself to send a new projectile into the poor animal giving it the quickest death that you could grant it.
Picking yourself up, you steadily approached the now-dead animal with a certain male close behind.
Picking up the rabbit by the foot, Bakugou inspected the small mammal that was still twitching, "You got it in the heart the second time, good job."
Ripping the arrows out of the long ear animal, Bakugou rubbed the bloody ends clean against his pants before handing them to you. Going to Zero, he tied the rabbit up on the side of the saddle, "Come on, let's try for a few more."
With that, you were back on the dark stallion stopping occasionally on the way to kill whatever Bakugou told you to aim at. Most of them were more rabbits and an occasional other small game. With the sun on its path to setting, the blond became satisfied with the hunt when you knocked down a collective of four rabbits, two squirrels, and a pheasant.
Stopping Bakugou dismounted from Zero untying the bounty you had managed to collect over the hours, "Stay here, I'm going to gut them out over there, it shouldn't take long."
Hooking Zero's reins to a tree limb, the blond disappeared into the thick foliage leaving you to your own devices.
Ducking behind a few different trees Bakugou decided that this was far enough that it wouldn't attract any large carnivorous animal to you. Cutting into the pheasant, Bakugou went to work getting your catches prepared for salting for winter rations. Looking over rewards from your first time properly hunting, Bakugou was somewhat impressed. Sure, you missed some shot that should have been child's play or took one too many shots to take down an animal but you kept going never getting frustrated.
Discarding the last of the unwanted pieces of the range of animals Bakugou strung the animals back together. Standing up, Bakugou came back out from his hiding spot following the path he took to get out there. Taking the route a disturbing scent suddenly hit him. Stopping in his tracks, his observant orbs looked around the area to find the source of the putrid aroma.
Looking up the back of the trees his lips tugged into a deep frown. Bastards were coming too close to comfort. There was no way that he could have passed such a smell on the way to gutting, They were in the area and they had just so happened to miss each other. Ripping down the item with easy, Bakugou emptied the rest of his pouch that was filled with bait. Shoving the unsightly treasure into the pouch he tied it tightly before returning it to his side.
You didn't need to know about this issue. Not yet.
Seeing Bakugou push his way back out of the verdure, you noticed that Bakugou wasn't as bright as he when he had left. Securing the now gutted collection of animals to the saddle Bakugou jumped up behind you. Reaching down, he leaned into you while he shook the reins free and back into his power.
Usually, you didn't mind this necessary closeness, but this strange stench that you never associated with Bakugou wafted into your nose. This was far from his sweet scent. This scent was vile. As a hopeless attempt, you brought your hand up to cover your nose, "Bakugou, what's that smell?"
Glancing down at you his gaze was hard, "A gland burst."
Not wanting you to dive deeper into his answer he made Zero break back into a fast pace. This time he wasn't doing it because he was pissed off. He was doing it to get the hell out of there. It made him sick to his stomach that you could even smell the rotting hand tucked away at his side.