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It starts with Once Upon A Time.
Or perhaps, it starts with a red-eyed demon with the power of fire, exploding everything in his path.
But destroy enough lives and they will come for you.
They sent a priest after him. And though the red-eyed demon was strong, the priest in his dark robes was stronger.
The priest erased the red-eyed demon’s power and bound him in ice. Bound his arms and his legs until he cannot move, cannot leave.
The red-eyed demon growled Aizawa, set me free or I will kill you, and gnashed his teeth and screamed his rage but he could not break free from the ice that bound him spread fast against the cave wall.
The priest in his dark robes was untouched and unimpressed.
Stay there. Think only of yourself and stay there for all eternity. We shall not meet again, Bakugou Katsuki.
And the priest walked away and left the red-eyed demon, with no heart, no tears, bound in ice forever.
Centuries pass and still the red-eyed demon is bound in ice. The cave beyond him is full of glittering gems but the cavern beneath his bound feet is littered with the bones of people who have dared approach.
Katsuki may be bound but he is still a demon. He has sent messages through the lands, whispering of riches, of jewels the size of man’s fist all for the taking, there in the cave where the demon with no heart and no tears dwells.
People come. People always come. Their greed overcoming the thoughts of danger.
They enter the cave. They see the demon bound in ice, unable to reach them across the ledge. They see the riches beyond him. They whisper, they talk among themselves, and then they come. They always come.
And when they are near enough, Katsuki’s long blond tresses, unbound and alive, reaches out across the ledge and catches them by their necks. They beg and struggle and wail and plead for their lives and Katsuki squeezes until all life leaves but they do not give him what he seeks.
He drops the mangled corpses and down the cavern they go, to add to the bones already lying there.
The years pass and less and less people come. Because no one has ever returned.
Katsuki had almost given in to despair, almost exhausted the rage that has burned in him for a millenia.
When he sees a figure at the mouth of his cave.
“Hello?” the figure calls out, voice low enough to be that of a man but high enough for it to be a youth.
The figure approaches and Katsuki is treated to the sight of a young man, slim build, soft green curls framing cheeks dotted with freckles. Idly he wonders why the young man would want his jewels when his green eyes sparkle far brighter than the dead stones ever could.
“So you are here,” the young man says. “I wasn’t sure. They said so, but tales are sometimes just that, tales.”
The young man appears to be delighted to find a demon with no heart and no tears.
“Have you come here for the jewels? Come nearer, you will see them better,” Katsuki smiles, less a smirk in challenge than one of relief. He has not seen anyone alive in a long, long time.
“Oh, no. I don’t want any jewels. I don’t need them,” the young man says, shaking his head. “I came to find you, demon with no heart and no tears. Hmm. That’s actually a mouthful. Do you have another name I can call you with?”
Katsuki smiles, a sight that would have struck fear in the hearts of most men but the young man seems unperturbed, his head still cocked in polite inquiry.
This boy’s death shall be exquisite.
“You come to my place and ask my name without giving yours?”
The young man looks around. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly call this your place. More like your prison.” He shrugs, ignoring Katsuki’s growl. “Still, I suppose it is yours more than any other since you’re the only one here.”
“My name is Izuku. And you?”
Izuku. A fine name.
“Bakugou Katsuki,” he says with another fierce smile.
Izuku nods. “Still a bit of a mouthful but quite a fitting name for a demon.”
“I say, I have travelled quite a long way and I am terribly tired and hungry. Would you mind if I eat for a bit?”
Katsuki hesitates. Conversation between him and humans usually consisted of ‘die!!’ and “please, no, don’t kill me!’
“Do as you wish,” Katsuki says as magnanimously as he could.
Izuku sits down, opens his satchel and pulls out some travel provisions.
He breaks off a piece and looks at Katsuki speculatively, “I don’t suppose you want any of this? It’s not very tasty, it’s just dried salted meat but it keeps and is filling.”
“I do not eat things that are already dead,” Katsuki says.
“Oh. Hmmm.” Izuku looks thoughtful as he eats his provisions. “I saw some berries right outside the cave. Would those do for you?”
Katsuki laughs. He has not felt this entertained in centuries.
“No little human, the berries would not do for me.”
“Are you sure? They’re technically not dead. Have you tried them?”
Katsuki stops laughing.
“What? No, I haven’t. I don’t need to.”
“That’s just silly. How would you know if you can eat berries if you don’t try? Here, wait, let me go get some.”
Izuku gets up, and leaves before Katsuki could say something.
Dammit! I let him go! I just let him go!
Katsuki fumes. He had not seen a human in years and the first one that comes, he lets go. He will never find what he needs and he will be stuck in this cave forever. Stupid, shitty priest!
“Here, try some.”
Katsuki’s raging is cut short at the sight of Izuku standing at the end of the ledge, holding out a branch of berries to him. He is close. Very close. Close enough to be grabbed by Katsuki’s hair.
“C’mon, just try one. Maybe you’d like it.”
“I am a demon. Berries do not work for me.”
“But you haven’t tried them,” Izuku insists earnestly.
Katsuki looks at the berries near his face, looks at the determined look in impossibly green eyes, looks at the berries again, and sighs. He reaches with his hair and almost daintily grabs one berry and pops it in his mouth.
“Oh, that’s useful! Well? Do you like them?” Izuku asks, beaming.
It is sweet. Not unlike the human in front of him.
“Enough with the berries, you useless human. Why are you here? You said you were looking for me.”
“Ah, yes. I heard about you, and I was curious. They say you grant wishes?”
Katsuki laughs. Harsh and unamused.
“If I could grant wishes do you think I would be bound here?” he says in a voice that thunders inside the cave.
“Sheesh, Kacchan. I was only asking. No need to be angry if the tales they tell is untrue.”
“‘Kacchan??’” Katsuki all but screeches.
“Yes, ‘Kacchan’. Bakugou Katsuki is a bit too formal. You might as well call yourself Lord Explosion Murder,” Izuku says, looking down at the ground, distracted.
Katsuki feels his left eyebrow twitch. “I’m sorry, am I boring you?”’ he says, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“No, really, you’re fine,” Izuku says, as if reassuring a child, “I’m just tired and looking for a good place to nap. I have traveled so very far to see you, Kacchan,” Izuku says with a yawn.
Katsuki watches as, with another yawn, Izuku lies down on the floor and immediately goes to sleep, using his satchel as a pillow.
Katsuki reaches out with a lock of his hair and touches the green curls. Yep, he can definitely reach the sleeping human from where he is.
Katsuki looks down at the pile of bones beneath his dangling feet.
I shall let him sleep. I can always kill him later.
“-- so then Todoroki-kun looks at Iida-kun’s arm in its cast, then looks at my arm all scarred up, and he says ‘I am cursed. I shall be called ‘Handcrusher’.’”
Peals of laughter echo in the cave, livelier than the sunlight Katsuki has not seen in ages.
Izuku slowly recovers himself, wiping tears from his eyes.
“You are fond of your friends,” Katsuki says.
Izuku nods. “Very much so.”
“And yet you travelled here alone to see me. Why is that?”
“I told you, I was curious,” Izuku says with a shrug. “Do you not want my company? You wish me to go?”
Katsuki feels his mouth go dry.
“You are free to come and go as you please,” he says carefully. “I am the one who is bound here.”
Izuku inclines his head. “How come you’re still bound anyway? Legends say your power is exploding fire. Why don’t you just explode yourself away?”
“Do you think I haven’t tried?” Katsuki says, but without heat. “My powers are erased. I cannot melt this ice.”
“Curses usually have a way to break them. Do you know what yours is?”
Katsuki considers but the freckled face only radiates open curiosity.
“A Tear Jewel. When someone is about die, if the fear in their heart and the longing for life is strong enough, they will cry a jewel. This jewel can grant wishes.”
“And you will use it to break the ice.”
“Yes.”
“But you haven’t found it yet.
“Not in a millennia of searching.”
Izuku looks sad. “I am sorry I cannot help you, Kacchan. I am not afraid to die.”
Katsuki frowns. “Everyone is afraid to die, Deku.”
Izuku shakes his head. “I am ready. I just wish I could help you.
Izuku suddenly brightens. “Maybe you can eat me? While I am still alive? Because you said you cannot eat things that are already dead.”
“Shut up, shitty Deku.”
Izuku enters the cave, almost dragging himself, and drops down by the ledge. His breathing is ragged, coming in short, wheezing gasps.
“You have been gone long this time.”
“I didn’t realize how far I had gone and almost didn’t have the strength to come back,” Izuku says through labored breaths. “But I didn’t want you to think I had abandoned you so I came back. I had to come back.”
Katsuki frowns. “You should rest.”
“Are you sure there is nothing I can do for you, Kacchan? I cannot cry for you, and you refuse to eat me, but maybe something else?
“Rest, Deku. You look pale.”
Izuku smiles. “You must be cold, trapped all this time in that ice.”
“I am a demon of exploding fire. I do not get cold.”
“Still, maybe I can help.”
Izuku stands up with difficulty. Katsuki reaches out with his locks of hair to steady him by instinct.
“Oh. So useful. Okay, so, here goes.”
Before Katsuki could comprehend what his intentions are, Izuku leaps across the divide and slams hard against Katsuki’s trapped form. He winds spindly arms around Katsuki’s neck. Katsuki’s blond tresses clutches at Izuku’s hips in panic, holding him up in the air.
“Stupid, useless, Deku! You could have fallen to your death!”
“I am not afraid to die,” Izuku says, face held fast against Katsuki’s neck.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you what warmth I have left.”
And Katsuki does feel it, each word a puff of warm air against his skin, Izuku’s warm body flush against his.
“I am not afraid to die,” Izuku repeats.
Katsuki begins to be afraid.
“I was looking for you because I heard those who go see you, do not return. I did not wish to return, have no one to return to.”
“You came here to die,” Katsuki says softly. So softly that he wants to scream.
Izuku nods against his neck. “I am sick. My heart…”
And Katsuki can feel Izuku’s heart thudding against his chest. Thumping hard. Erratic. Struggling.
“It hurts, Kacchan.”
Katsuki doesn't know what to do. His tresses touch Izuku, trying to soothe where he only knows how to destroy.
“It hurts. But I am very happy to have met you, Kacchan. Thank you.”
Katsuki feels Izuku’s heart stutter and stop. The thin limbs wrapped around his neck relax its hold and Katsuki feels Izuku’s body slipping, slipping, slipping down. Down to the cavern where a pile of white bones lie waiting.
Katsuki pulls and Explosion comes alive, burning the ice away. He leaps and catches Izuku. They land gently, gently, ever so gently back on the ledge.
Katsuki puts his ear to Izuku’s chest and hears nothing beating.
I am happy to have met you, Kacchan. Thank you.
The red-eyed demon with no heart and no tears begins to cry.
Katsuki is walking out in the open air for the first time in over a thousand years. He lifts his face to the sun, enjoying the heat on his skin.
“I don’t understand, Kacchan. I have no heartbeat,” Izuku says. More curious than agitated. “Am I dead?”
"You’re walking and talking and being annoying. How can you be dead?”
“Huh. This is very interesting. But it does bring up a problem.”
“What problem?”
“Well, you see, I came here to die. I sold off my house and all my possessions and gave the money away. I have nothing to return to and nowhere to go.”
Katsuki’s smile was sharp and his red eyes alive with fire.
“Silly Deku. You can just come with me.”