Work Text:
Art by AnotherMayo on Twitter! https://x.com/mayosalad98/status/2058267771302236217?s=46
"Close your eyes, Katsuki."
He closes them very tight and smiles a little. Then he smiles a lot. "A pesent? I have a pesent, daddy?"
"Yes, a present! Hold out your hands."
He growls and screams and laughs and taps his boots on the ground. Then stops his feet and puts his hands out and stretches them open very good.
A long thing lands in them. A big, flat thing. Like a stick. He squeezes it.
"You can open them now."
He opens them.
"A sowwd! It is a sowwd, daddy!"
"You're right, it is a sword! Do you like it?"
"YES!" He swings it a lot.
"Whoa, whoa, hey, now, Katsu-bean. Let's not hit all of our stuff. Why don't we go outside?"
"YES!!!"
He runs through the tent flap first because he is always faster than daddy and it makes his cape fly behind him. Daddy is slow.
Oh! The rock! The rock by his house-tent! He can STAB it. A LOT. "I - am - stwang - the - stwangest - waryer -"
The sword gets stuck in the air. "Katsuki!"
He gets scared. He looks at the ground. That is mama.
"Where did you get this?"
He gets more scared, but daddy comes outside. Now she can yell at daddy. That is good.
"Mitsuki, it's fine. I gave it to him."
"It's fine? His birthday isn't until next week!"
"He was about to scale the tent again! I thought having it now would help!"
"So you take him outside, Masaru! Play! Train! Whatever! Not spoil his present!"
His arm is hurting. He wants his sword. He is brave and strong and the best warrior of the whole tribe, so he looks at mama and starts pulling. "My pesent, mama! Mine! Daddy needs a dam sleep!"
Mama's eyes get big.
"You need a damn sleep?"
"Are you surprised your son is exhausting?"
Mama's eyes get really big. She points at the tent. "Inside."
Daddy goes into the tent. He wants to be more scared, but he really, really wants his sword.
"My pesent, mama!"
"It's called a present, Katsuki."
"Pesent!"
"Katsuki! Present! Say the whole word!"
He pulls very hard. "Pu - Pwesent! It is my pwesent, mama! My sowwd! I am - the stwangest - waryer!"
She breathes very loud. Then she bends down. He stops pulling. "I am going to talk to dad. If I give you your sword, will you be good and play right here?"
"Yes." He nods a lot.
Mama looks at him a lot. "Right here. Stay in front of the tent."
"Yes."
She looks at him more. Nods. "Okay. I'll be right back."
"Okay."
Mama walks into the tent. She talks to daddy. Daddy talks back. Mama yells.
Katsuki runs into the trees with his sword.
He is laughing. He is so fast. He runs some more. Climbs over the tree that likes to sleep like daddy, runs by the rocks he likes to throw. But today is not a throwing day. It is a run away from mama day because he has a BIRTHDAY SWORD and he has it before his birthday where he will turn four and maybe THAT means he gets two presents!!! And he will because he can show daddy THAT FACE (daddy always says "don't look at me with THAT FACE") and that always works! He is so strong and amazing and good!
There are ants in a line on that tree. He points his sword at them.
"Hahaha! You ants are stupid! You are so dumb, where are you climbing?! That is a twee! I am stwang and smaht, the best waryer! I defeat you!"
He swings his sword, but he stops because he remembers. Daddy says don't hurt things that are alive. He says that all the time.
Ants are alive. So are trees. But dirt is dead.
"Now you are twapped! Twapped on the twee! You have to live there all the time, fo-evaaaaah! Die, guound! You are dead! Hahahaha!"
What else is dead? Rocks are dead. And that one over there is BIG. He runs again.
"You wock! Wocks are stupid and not stwang, so I am betteh than you! I kill you with my sowwd, you are dead! Diiiiie!!!"
He hits it so many times. It doesn't move because it is dead. He killed it.
He looks for more things that are dead when he hears a noise. Noises are not from dead things. But this noise is new. It is soft.
He moves slow because noises in the trees can be scary. Daddy says that. They can be scary and make you hurt, so you move slow. He is better at fast, but he is very good at slow.
The noise is soft. But it is also sad. Like when he is sad. Maybe it is a sad wolf baby, it sounds like a wolf . . . pup. Not a baby, daddy says. It sounds like a pup, like it is whining. He has never seen a pup before, but pups are like babies. Maybe he can make it feel better. He can pet it and say it's okay.
He moves more slow to the sad wolf pup and peeks from behind a tree.
It is not a wolf pup. It is . . . a thing. There are wings that are red, and hair that is black, and a tail that is also red.
Maybe it is a MONSTER.
He can kill a monster, he has a sword!!!
He jumps from behind the tree and points his sword at the monster. "Who are you? Answer yourself!"
The monster turns. It is not a monster. It is a kid with big eyes and little horns that is crying. He doesn't want to kill an alive crying kid-thing.
"Are you a lizard?"
He steps closer. The kid is holding their knees, but now holds them tighter and looks at his sword. Katsuki stops moving. He puts his sword on the ground very nice.
"Are you okay?"
The kid-lizard looks at him, sniffs with their nose. Wipes at their nose and eyes and blinks at him. Smiles a little bit.
Katsuki smiles back. "You are okay! I am Bakugou Katsuki, the stwangest fighteh in the whole twibe! What is your twibe?"
Lizard-kid looks at him, smiling a little bit more. Their teeth are very pointy. And then they make a noise like a bird.
"You make bird sounds? My dad can make bird sounds, but I make them the best. Wahba-wahba-wahba!" And then he growls because it is strong.
The bird-lizard kid is scared again. Oh. Growling is too strong.
"What is your name, lizard-bird-baby? I am Bakugou Katsuki!"
Baby-kid-bird says nothing. But they turn a bit towards Katsuki, smiling again. Makes more noises and moves their head.
"Names are not a sound! They are names, like Katsuki! Bakugou! Katsuki! Your naaaaaame!!!"
Bird-lizard-kid-baby makes a laughing noise.
"Aaaaagh! Fine! You say my name." He sits down on the ground, crossing his legs and looking very serious. "Say Bakugou. Ba. Ku. Gou."
The kid-thing is still smiling. They cross their legs, too. Start moving their mouth, but looking confused. Their eyebrows scrunch up. Their eyebrows are really tiny.
Katsuki puts his hands on his knees like daddy. "Ba! Ku! Gou!"
Kid-thing puts their hands on their knees, too. Moves their mouth a lot. "Ba."
"See! You can say words! Bakugou!"
"Ba!"
"Nooooooo." He takes his hands and slides them down his face like mama. "Maybe Bakugou is too hawd. Say Katsuki."
Kid-thing moves their head and makes a bird noise.
"No! Not noises! Ka! Tsu! Ki!"
"Ka!"
"Yes! That is not a noise! Say Tsu."
"Baka!"
"I am NOT! STUPID!" Katsuki punches kid-thing on his naked chest.
Kid-thing starts crying a LOT.
He is still angry because kid-thing called him stupid. But kid-thing is scooting away from him and crying, making a lot of sounds. Like how wolf pups make sounds. Maybe they are a wolf-lizard-bird?
But those are animals. Wolfs make sounds. Lizards make nothing. Birds make sounds. Oh.
"You make sounds? You don't make words?"
Kid-thing is still crying, still scared.
Katsuki goes back to sitting. Puts his hands on his knees very nice this time. And makes sounds back. Sounds that he is sorry.
Kid-thing stops moving. Watches him for a lot of minutes, maybe even three. But they stop making noises, listening to his.
He keeps making them as he stands up very slow. Tries to put his sorry in his face, too. Kid-thing doesn't move. He takes little steps forward. Kid-thing doesn't move.
He takes little steps until he is right next to them. Holds out his hand, like when animals like to sniff stuff first. And kid-thing does. They lean over and smell his hand. They are like a wolf!
Katsuki smiles. "You're not alone. It's okay." And he pets kid-thing's hair.
They start purring. Oh, they are definitely a wolf-lizard-bird.
He kneels down, still petting their hair. Feels a stick in their hair and pulls it out, throwing it on the ground. "Do you not have a name?"
Kid-thing rubs their head against his hand. He scritches their head, too. They purr louder.
"I think you don't have a name. I am going to name you."
He thinks of his favorite people in his tribe.
"You are a boy, wight? I think you are a boy, so you are. Your name is Eijirou. He is the best stowytelleh in the whole twibe, but he is very old. So when he dies, there will still be an Eijirou in the twibe. Okay?"
Eijirou looks at him. Then he rubs his head against Katsuki's hand so strong he falls over. He laughs. "Okay, okay, I am petting!"
Katsuki pets Eijirou for so many minutes he has to make it stop. "You are a selfish wolf-bird. Here. We should go back to my twibe. They have food, okay?" He stands up all the way and holds his hand out.
Eijirou looks at his hand. Starts to move his hand up.
Katsuki leans over and grabs it. Nicely. Pulls him a bit to make him stand up. "Come with me, okay?"
Eijirou stands up the rest of the way. Squeezes Katsuki's hand. Then squeezes his eyes tight and shakes his whole body, even his wings and tail. Leaves and twigs fly off of him.
Katsuki smiles really big. "You are my second beuthday pwesent. That will make daddy happy."
Eijirou smiles big, too.
Katsuki picks up his sword. Slides it into the loop on his pants that he used to put sticks in. A hand on each present, he leads them back home.