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Katsuki Bakugou was a great man, a great warrior, a great…

Katsuki, of the Bakugou clan, was a great–

Great?

“That’s not even a fucking word,” Katsuki grumbled to himself, scowl dropping his brows low as he contemplated the letters he’d written far too many times successively for them to make any sense. He dipped his quill again and started right beneath his last attempts.

The next sentences didn’t sound any better when he attempted them aloud, but he persevered through five more until a particularly large splatter of ink had him crushing the entire quill with a grunt of rage. It crunched and snapped, crumpling in his too-big hand, sending yet more inky black to page in forms he hadn’t wanted it to make.

He tossed it aside and ripped the paper from the small writing board set in his lap, scrunching that too to launch it away from himself. The board followed, cartwheeling through the air to stick in lush grass a distance away; three corners up to mock him.

Katsuki Bakugou was a writer, not.

Truth be told, he wasn’t sure what he was. An alpha, sure. A Hunter and warrior, obviously. A pawn for his mother’s grandiose plans? Now that was his real problem; the whole reason behind this, this foolish idea that becoming some sort of scribe could get him out of her next ill-thought scheme.

He hadn’t long returned from a months-long journey to another country to meet some princess, whom he found out at the castle, he was expected to marry. He’d never run from a battle or set commitment before in his life, but he had pelted from that castle, that entire kingdom, as though his life depended on it.

He’d been on a ship back before the sun had even set, threatening the entire crew’s lives if they so much as squeaked about him being on board. His tribe name and alpha-hood carried enough weight for that, at least.

Katsuki blew a long breath through his lips in a defeated ‘brrrrr’, closing his eyes to draw air back in through his nose and sigh it out more quietly. Calm. Calm.

Mitsuki Bakugou was a meddler unlike any he’d ever encountered before, and the unfortunate fact that she was his mother often meant his life was fair game for her schemes and plots. Katsuki had been shoved into play dates as a child with an unending stream of important, or possibly useful families. He hated every moment.

Well, maybe not every moment, but he’d never let the old hag think he’d ever made friends.

He didn’t need friends!

Well, other than maybe one person.

He scrubbed both hands over his face and became dead weight against the ground, arms flopping out at his sides. Maybe a nap would make him feel better? Or at least give him a break from wondering what aggravating thing his mother would attempt next.

It wasn’t to be, the flapping of leathery wings overhead alerting him to a particularly annoying alpha he’d been unable to escape since they were children.

Wait, that was probably a little harsh. Eijirou Kirishima wasn’t that bad.

“Katsuki!” Boomed from far above, but he kept his eyes shut, feigning sleep to see what the godling would do.

Kirishima had begun acting a little…off lately, especially since Katsuki’s return from the latest almost-marriage. He’d been watching from high up in a tree near the edge of the tent village as Katsuki was berated for turning tail to run from a beautiful omega princess his mother had so kindly picked for him.

Tch.

Kirishima didn’t shout again, clearly assuming he was asleep, and the flap of wings descended incrementally, until Katsuki felt a waft of air ruffle his hair and the fur atop his cape. Feet padded through grass, and he wondered if they were bare, or if Kirishima had opted for boots for once.

“Oh dear,” a light chuckle sounded, and knees thudded beside Katsuki. The rich, heady scent of strong alpha washed over him, and Katsuki gave an involuntary swallow that didn’t go unnoticed. A single finger skimmed up his throat over where the bump had moved, others joining it to cup around his jaw.

Scent gland shamelessly smeared all the way from ear to shoulder in the next moment, and a low, rumbling sound rattled out into the wide open field. That wrist took an immediate sweep down between his pecs, and Katsuki finally flicked his eyes open to scowl.

“Do you mind?” He growled, and Kirishima’s face split into a beaming smile.

“Katsuki!” He exclaimed, fingers spreading wide to pin him to the ground before he even attempted to move, and Katsuki curled his top lip back slightly in silent warning. “I bought you some food. Were you throwing things around again?” His head lowered swiftly, until their noses almost touched, and Katsuki tensed on instinct, “are you still upset about–?” The question cut off to hang in the air as Kirishima’s lips settled into a pout.

The hand pinning him gentled, and Kirishima not-so-sneakily scented between his pecs again as he waited for an answer.

“You’re too close, alpha,” Katsuki warned, but made no move to start anything. Kirishima had never been a threat to him. His scent was almost…nice, if he was being honest with himself, which he couldn’t be. If he was honest he’d have to admit that Kirishima’s scent actually soothed the anger that so often bubbled right beneath the surface of his skin.

Kirishima didn’t move immediately, he simply frowned down as though he didn’t appreciate being told off, until he slowly picked up Katsuki’s wrist and brought it to his face.

“Nobody ever touches me, Katsuki. They’re all too scared…” he implored, and Katsuki swallowed the rush of saliva beneath his tongue and gruffly cleared his throat. He didn’t pull his hand away as it was turned and his wrist rubbed over Kirishima’s scaled cheek, his ear, and even into the side of fire-red hair as a low purr started up.

He stared, gaze flicking over tanned skin and red opalescent scales until dark lashes lifted, and slitted lizard-like eyes stared right back down. Kirishima was big too, though probably not all that much bigger than Katsuki; it had always been his lineage that truly kept everyone at a distance, not his size.

Katsuki couldn’t find it in himself to make a snide comment or call Kirishima needy to keep some semblance of distance between them, so he waited just a little longer than a scenting should rightly last and tugged his hand away. Kirishima’s face pinched at the loss, but he leaned back without asking for more, the rumble of his contentment gone.

“Yes, I was throwing shit, and yes, I’m still pissed at the hag for sending me to yet another fucking omega in the hopes I’ll cave-in and give her grandchildren to meddle with,” Katsuki gave a low growl of annoyance, and Kirishima hummed, flopping down beside him.

“Did you like the omega this time?”

Katsuki tilted his head to growl directly at Kirishima without bothering to answer.

“You went with omegas when we were younger,” Kirishima pointed out, expression flat as he met Katsuki’s gaze without backing down. He never backed down.

“Went with,” he scoffed with a roll of his eyes, but didn’t deny it. He’d been courted by a few in his teens, even kissed and tried fooling around with a few, but the one time he’d…attempted one, everything had felt off.

They’d been too pushy, too eager to trap his knot with those, those spines inside their…

Katsuki shuddered to himself, expression pinching with displeasure at the memory. He hadn’t liked feeling as though he weren’t in control, and he’d prematurely ended the encounter like he did with them all, much to his chosen’s chagrin. They’d tried tempting him back a few times, but Katsuki had already lost all interest in mating with an omega.

The risk of siring had hit him like an arrow through the heart mid-sheathing, and he’d known he hadn’t wanted that back then. Now his avoidance was probably half-spite, half-fear of what his mother might make of his young.

But he wanted bairns…someday.

Kirishima lay beside him, apparently at ease with the silence that fell around them as Katsuki sulked and occasionally huffed and growled to himself. Kirishima never pushed unless Katsuki secretly wanted to be pushed; somehow he could simply tell.

Clouds rolled across the sky and Kirishima chuckled and pointed to the occasional one without a word, and Katsuki slowly found himself calming. He couldn’t hold in the snort that escaped him when Kirishima pointed again a while later and whispered, “dick and balls…” and snickered far more than he probably should have.

“Child,” Katsuki chided, but he lost the battle to a smile as Kirishima shifted to a scaled elbow and leaned over to grin at the side of his face, once again far too close for most, those sharp dragon-teeth of his glinting in the sunlight.

“Biiiig dick and balls,” he reiterated, and Katsuki snorted another involuntary laugh, placing a spread hand over Kirishima’s entire face to shove him away. It devolved quickly into a light scrap that left them both breathing heavily, flopped back in the grass once more.

Katsuki’s stomach growled, and Kirishima perked up, sitting to reach for a cloth-wrapped lump long since abandoned.

“Oh, food! Sorry, I forgot,” he smiled almost sheepishly as he handed over the small linen bundle, depositing it in Katsuki’s lap when he too, sat, “I thought you’d be hungry, with all the sulking, and you wouldn’t wanna go back for a while.”

“I wasn’t sulking,” Katsuki snapped defensively, but Kirishima raised a short brow and he grunted, “fine, maybe I was, but I was writing too.” He wiggled the knot loose and let the material flop open.

“How’d that go?” The teasing lilt to the words would have set him off had it come from anyone else, but Katsuki simply huffed and pursed his lips in a pout when their attentions flicked briefly around the thrown and broken writing implements and the board still sticking out of the ground nearby.

“Easy as hunting a boar bear-handed.”

Kirishima barked a loud laugh, “oh, I should become a scholar then!”

“You can’t kill a boar bear-handed either, ass!” Katsuki snapped, but glanced down at the food in his lap and the flash of annoyance faded. There were flatbreads, cheeses, and sliced cured meats from the village, and then an array of fruits, berries, and nuts clearly freshly procured. This wasn’t the first time recently that Kirishima had brought him food. It was…nice, if not a little strange for a friend to do. “You gonna help me eat all this?” He questioned, and Kirishima’s eyebrows shot up, a smile like sunlight cracking wide.

“Of course.” He reached forward and plucked a ripe blackberry up carefully between a clawed finger and thumb and lifted it to Katsuki’s lips.

Katsuki frowned, “that’s not what I meant, fool–” the berry popped into his mouth mid admonition, bursting between his tongue and upper palate deliciously. He chewed but narrowed his eyes, even as he watched Kirishima’s crinkle at the corners cheekily.

“Hmm? Oh, I’ll eat what you leave. But I should feed you. It’s…a dragon thing?”

Liar.

Kirishima barely recalled anything of his family and ancestors, how would he know what traditions the gods had?

Katsuki didn’t argue, but only let the godling place two more berries in his mouth, before grunting and stuffing his own face.

He left half of everything he’d been given, too.

It wasn’t right to take a whole blessing from one of the god’s children, and Katsuki already took more than his fair share of company from Kirishima. Whether he always wanted the ‘blessing’ of it or not.

“Katsuki! Oi brat!”

Katsuki darted behind a yurt, glancing briefly at a couple of kids playing nearby. They stopped to watch curiously, and he dropped to his haunches with a hiss.

“Distract the hag for me and I’ll steal you some sweets,” he whispered urgently, and they both perked right up. A glance and a nod was exchanged, before a couple of devious grins split chubby faces and they both bolted in the direction of his mother, yelling like tiny warriors.

He waited a few counts and took off again, flinching when her voice echoed out behind him telling him not to dare run from her. He did, obviously, until he found himself far past tents, almost halfway to the forest at the foot of the draig mountains.

A large cream yurt stood all alone between the village and the trees, and Katsuki glanced over his shoulder before heading straight for it. A succession of three whistles sounded from behind him, and he cursed.

That was definitely a warning from one of the bairns.

He darted to the door opening. “Kirishima?” He called urgently, and heard movement inside. He lifted the flap at the same time as it moved itself, and Kirishima frowned down at him, head cocked to one side in puzzlement.

“You never come here–”

Katsuki ducked straight past the shirtless alpha and into the tent. “Is my mother still following me?” He demanded over his confusion, and fabric dropped immediately back into place.

Kirishima didn’t check, he simply filled the space with his scent, attention now solely on Katsuki. “Hide in my nest,” he whispered, pointing to the back of the space, where a large stack of furs and blankets sprawled.

“But–”

“Get in my nest,” Kirishima insisted, lifting both hands to rub his wrists all over Katsuki without asking permission this time. The scent of possession was sudden and heady, and Katsuki found it difficult to swallow for a moment, until he was urged towards the bed. “Hide, I’ll deal with her.”

Katsuki dropped down into furs and blankets, pulling one over to cocoon himself in Kirishima’s bedding. He hadn’t meant for this, hadn’t meant to so thoroughly invade his truest friend’s space. His heart pounded like a drum in his chest, even as Kirishima tossed a couple of pillows on the lump he made in the nest.

“Godling Eijirou?” Katsuki tensed at the sound of his mother’s voice, then the rustle of canvas being lifted.

“Hmm? Need something, Chief?” Kirishima’s tone was casual, easy, and Katsuki held his breath. He didn’t know if his mother had entered the tent, or if Kirishima had her hovering near the doorway. He hoped for the latter, and he prayed to the great dragon gods that the scent of godling covered his own.

“Have you seen my son? Damned brat never wants to listen to me anymore…” she grumbled as she trailed off, and Katsuki heard a single huff of a laugh from Kirishima.

“No, I haven’t seen him since yesterday. We went spear fishing and he beat me,” he chuckled, and Katsuki found himself smiling beneath the bedding. He hadn’t won by that many fish, but he’d gloated plenty. “Why’d’ya need him?”

“I received a proposal this morning, I need–”

“Katsuki doesn’t like that, you know.” Kirishima’s tone was firm all of a sudden.

“It doesn’t matter whether he ‘likes it’ or not, he has a duty to either hand-tie, or sire before I end up in the ground. He has to take over as chieftain.” There was a growl, low and annoyed, and Katsuki’s mother drew in a sharp breath, “I know he’s your friend, Eijirou, but he still has to fulfill his duties.” She tried, her tone a little more reasonable after Kirishima’s show of annoyance.

Only she ever used his first name.

“I’d hate to see him with–” Kirishima cleared his throat, “I don’t want to see him miserable. And you realise what will happen if he asks me to take his side over the tribes, right?”

Mitsuki’s breath hitched. “You’d attack the village because my brat doesn’t want to make bairns?”

“If it came to it.”

“I found you as a pup! I raised and cared for you! I let you play with my only child. I love you like my own!”

“Do you put all your sons in tents half a mile from the village?” Kirishima challenged, voice still somehow even. Katsuki would have lost it long before now.

“That’s because you’re holy, Eijirou! You should be revered, looked upon with awe. You’re a child of the gods!”

Kirishima grunted his disbelief, and Mitsuki’s voice softened, taking on a tone Katsuki was sometimes hit with, when she was explaining how important it was for him to do something he didn’t want to do.

He understood the need for tradition, for worship and succession, he really did, but sometimes it all seemed so…arbitrary? At least when it came to bairns, or, or ostracising the only real friend he’d ever made in this world.

People revered dragon shifters, but they also kept them at arms length, and Kirishima was an alpha like any other when it came to scenting, to wanting touch and affection, and he only ever got it once a year at the dragon festival.

It didn’t seem…fair.

The conversation continued outside after a while, the rustle of the tent door signaling their exit. Katsuki didn’t dare move, lest he alert his mother to his presence and get them both in trouble. The bed was comfy, warm, and he found himself slowly drifting off, lungs full of Kirishima’s earthy scent.

He really shouldn’t take liberties like this from godlings, but everything was just…so comfortable…

“Katsuki?” Kirishima’s low timbre roused him from accidental slumber as the blanket over his face peeled away.

“Hmm?” Katsuki blinked and smacked his chops sleepily, before tensing up solid. “Shit, is she gone?” He demanded, eyes blown wide as Kirishima nodded reassuringly.

Oh he should not be in another alpha’s bed. It would take Kirishima so long to cover the scent with his own. He’d probably have to take all the furs and blankets outside and beat the smell out of them. Katsuki opened his mouth to apologise, something he rarely ever did, but a big hand stayed him when he made to rise.

“Is my nest…comfy?” Kirishima whispered, suddenly far too close, clawed fingers spread wide over Katsuki’s chest to pin him to the bed. He dipped to sniff at his neck, and Katsuki drew in a sharp breath, hands balling into fists he didn’t even consider throwing. “You look good in it, you know…”

“What’re you saying?” Katsuki hissed, eyes closing of their own accord as his stomach clenched. He didn’t shove the other alpha away, but he caught his bottom lip between his teeth to bite down on when lips skimmed ever so lightly across his skin. “My mother would faint if she saw this.” His admonition came out barely louder than a pant, and Kirishima snorted against his neck.

“Maybe we should scare her…” he suggested, low and rough, a thigh nudging Katsuki’s apart, “unless you’re worried about the wrath of ‘the gods’ too…”

“I ain’t scared of shit, f-fuck, that’s not scenting, Kirishima,” he warned when tongue slid once up his neck, and the alpha atop him grumbled, pulling back just enough to look down at him.

“That’s because I’m doing something else, Katsuki,” sharp teeth nibbled at his neck this time, and Katsuki’s eyes snapped wide, heat rising to bloom almost painfully in his face. He finally pushed Kirishima off and sat, chest rising and falling rapidly as he caught slitted red eyes and fought not to react. He suddenly had far too much energy simmering in his blood and he couldn’t let himself ponder on the why.

“I came to challenge you to…to a race? Before the hag caught sight of me, anyway,” he lied, and Kirishima cocked his head to the side, a small smile growing as Katsuki met his gaze as evenly as he could.

“You must really like losing to me,” he purred, and Katsuki scoffed.

“Tch, how many fish did you spear yesterday?” He rebutted, and Kirishima mock-pouted, rising to his haunches.

“Last one to the rune statue near the claw stinks!” He launched across the tent for the flap and Katsuki scrambled from beneath furs to give chase.

“That’s cheating!” He bellowed, following straight out into the late afternoon air as Kirishima laughed and snapped his wings from his back, “don’t you dare fly!” He warned, but burst out laughing when the godling simply cackled and launched into the air. “Fucker!”

“Do you ever think about carrying your own young?” Kirishima asked from beside him several days later, hunkered down behind bush and foliage, face smeared with hunting paint to almost match Katsuki’s own.

Katsuki huffed a snort of a laugh and shook his head, “that’s impossible, I’m an alpha, dumbass.” He cast Kirishima a purplexed glance before shifting slightly, peering around the trunk of an old oak. The village omegas would be collecting acorns from it soon to leach and process into flour for their emergency winter stores.

Kirishima hummed like he didn’t agree, and Katsuki found himself frowning. When the godling simply stared without lowering his gaze, Katsuki sucked his teeth and took the bow from his shoulder to notch an arrow and wait for their next meal to wander into range.

Silence stretched out around them while they waited, and waited, until Katsuki held his breath and slowly closed one eye as a buck lifted its head a distance away and sniffed at the air.

“I think you could get pregnant, if you really tried,” Kirishima whispered, and Katsuki tensed, arrow singing through the air as the huge buck bolted away.

“What?!” He snapped, standing to follow the deer he’d barely managed to hit. It was injured now, he had to put the thing out of its misery.

“Fertility rituals, herbs, a full rut kno–”

“Where is this coming from?” He demanded breathlessly, and Kirishima’s cheeks tinted pink like he hadn’t been expecting to be confronted about the strange suggestion.

“I– I was just…thinking,” the redhead looked away.

“Think quieter next time. Our dinner just got away!”

Kirishima huffed, both lips sticking out in a painted pout. “I’ll get it. We’ll call this one a joint effort.” He cracked his neck and closed his eyes, more scales appearing over tanned skin as he bared sharp teeth and his claws grew even longer. The horns on his head were ever the same, but they glistened like dark red mother of pearl in dappled sunlight.

He sped off deeper into the woods after the injured buck, and Katsuki took a moment to wonder what kind of accursed thoughts plagued the man for him to suggest something so bizarre out of nowhere.

He was still thinking about it when he and Kirishima shared the deer’s still warm liver in reverence to its sacrifice, and smeared two lines of blood down one another’s faces as hunting brethren. The thought stayed with him as the godling hefted the buck up and over his shoulders to carry it out of the woods, Katsuki trudging beside him until awed coos and words of praise echoed around them both from the tribe when they hit the village.

No one ever dared touch Kirishima outside of the ritual they held every year to give thanks to the gods, but they gathered around and looked on with awe as he lowered their next meal to the ground beside the fire they kept perpetually burning. Their butchers moved forth to work quickly, after reverent bows.

“Tch, I shot it first,” Katsuki huffed just to be contrarian, and Kirishima shot him a beaming grin and a wink, lips still bloodied from their shared liver.

Those teeth had been so close to his neck a few days ago…

He swallowed past an odd lump in his throat and promised himself he wouldn’t think about it again.

It was a promise he couldn’t keep, especially when his mother invited two omegas from neighbouring cities to meet him. He stood, annoyed but resigned to the meeting as he braided the long length of hair at his nape and secured it, tossing it once again back over his shoulder.

Katsuki appraised himself in the tall mirror his mother had had brought to his tent earlier, slowly lifting a hand to settle over his stomach. He turned a little, pushing out his abs until the definition disappeared, rounding out to look almost…

His cheeks flamed and he scowled at his reflection, even as his heart fluttered. He dropped his hand just as the flap to his tent lifted and Kirishima ducked in, a bundle of fabric under an arm. The godling stopped short, clearly feeling caught in an act, and Katsuki sucked his stomach back in, just as guiltily.

“What’re you doing in my den, alpha,” he growled, one absent hand lifting to hold his abs once again as though for protection.

Kirishima’s gaze dropped to his midriff and he stared far too long for Katsuki’s liking. He growled again in warning, and Kirishima’s attention flicked back up to his face.

“I bought material, for your nest.” He held up the bundle, but his gaze panned away guiltily.

“I don’t call mine a nest. And I didn’t ask for bedding,” his eyes narrowed as realisation struck, “you’ve been sneaking cloth in here for weeks now, haven’t you?” He demanded, and Kirishima’s eyebrows rose in a look of ‘uh-oh’, even as he refused to meet his gaze.

No wonder Katsuki’s bed had been so comfortable lately!

“Only a little!” Kirishima defended, gripping the material in both hands for a moment before holding it out like a gift. “This one is really warm. Felted from sheep’s wool and dyed with madder and weld–”

“You made it?”

“I dyed it! I had to ask for help making it, but the next one will be all me,” Kirishima smiled, and Katsuki’s heart did that fluttering thing again, “it was hard, learning how to weave when none of the villagers will come close enough. I did the wetting and felting with the dye,” Kirishima cleared his throat awkwardly, and Katsuki took the orange blanket, brushing a thumb over it.

It was soft, clearly finer wool than most of his bedding.

“Why?” He growled, before swallowing down his defensiveness, clutching felted wool tighter. The ‘why’ didn’t really matter in the face of a gift from a godling. From Kirishima. “Thank you,” he grunted.

The corner of Kirishima’s mouth curled up, but dropped down a moment later as he frowned. He took a step closer, lifting a pleading wrist to be scented. “Please don’t attempt those new omegas tonight.” He implored softly, and Katsuki found it suddenly hard to swallow.

“You ask like it’s something I might consider,” he admonished, lifting his own arm to press his wrist to the godling’s.

“I heard they’re both pretty.” Kirishima smeared his wrist all the way up Katsuki’s forearm to grip his bicep. He leaned in, cheek skimming cheek to bring his lips to Katsuki’s ear, “but I think you should carry your own young,” he breathed, and an involuntary shiver raced down Katsuki’s spine.

“I can’t, idiot,” he admonished, and Kirishima growled his disapproval, slowly pulling back.

They both swallowed, and Kirishima stepped away.

“I know there’s a way…” he grumbled as he walked out of the tent.

Katsuki’s hand found itself back on his stomach without his mind’s permission as he frowned at the door flap.

The omegas weren’t anything special, Katsuki thought as he took another long draw of blackberry wine and set his cup back on the ground beside himself. There was a man as well as a woman this time, and he had his suspicions that the pair were in cahoots. The woman had bobbed brown hair and big brown eyes, and the man, wild green locks and eyes just as vibrant. They were both city dwellers.

He wondered if his mother knew that these omegas were probably just looking for strong seed to run away with…

She probably didn’t even consider them a threat, on second thought. Their tribe would retrieve any young he sired, by force if necessary.

“So, Kacchan, can I call you Kacchan? The chief tells me you’ve taken up writing–”

“You can’t. And my mother is wrong.” Katsuki shut down yet another conversation attempt, glancing around the feasting area with the sourest expression he could muster. The woman tried next.

“You hunt, don’t you? Are the teeth on your necklace from wolves? Bears? So impressive!” She exclaimed, fingertips touching together as she clasped her hands before herself. “I’d love to hunt. There aren’t as many predators near my city, so the nearby woodland rabbit population is a little out of control, I caught one once!”

“You can’t eat carnivore liver, so I take the fangs–”

Kirishima strode through the mass of yurts at that moment, and Katsuki’s attention shifted immediately to him. A smile split his face even as his tribe all shifted to their knees and raised cups in reverence, Mitsuki rising to a stand from her wooden throne at the head of the gathering to bow even at this distance.

“You have a godling here?!” The male suitor gasped, and Katsuki’s smile cracked right into a grin.

His mother shot them all a smug glance before sitting, as Kirishima reached his own wooden throne at the other end of the feasting area.

“Truly a blessed village,” the female omega whispered, but Katsuki had already disregarded both of them, standing to make his way over.

Kirishima wore his ceremonial garb; trousers dyed vibrant teal with alum and indigo, an embroidered sash dyed with madder, and dark gauntlets and pauldrons held in place with leather belts that bisected his bare chest in a cross. Atop fire-red spiked hair sat the skull of one of his smaller ancestors, bedecked with feathers at the back to cascade over his shoulders, the tips of each dyed with madder to match his sash.

Why was he so dressed up? Because of the omegas?

Red eyes caught his and that sunlight smile lit Kirishima’s face, his head cocking to the side at Katsuki’s aproach. The evening lit with it, and suddenly he didn’t feel quite so isolated.

“You’re wearing your garb?” He questioned, and Kirishima’s gaze dropped to his hand as though he wanted to scent.

They never scented around the village, Katsuki would be gasped at for even daring to allow his scent on someone so holy.

“Do you like it?” Kirishima chuckled, hands lifting to gesture to himself, gaze flicking briefly to the chief before he smirked, “I thought I’d show your omegas what death looks like,” he said quietly enough that his voice wouldn’t carry.

“You look more like salvation to me,” Katsuki snickered back, “I’m sitting here,” he informed, and turned to face the feast, ready to sit right where he indicated.

“I think you should probably sit in my throne,” Kirishima countered, and Katsuki’s eyebrows shot up.

“I’m looking to be rude, not struck down.”

“What if I promise to protect you from the gods?” Kirishima winked, and Katsuki blew a breath through his nose, shaking his head.

“I wouldn’t believe you, dumbass. I know your thoughts.”

Kirishima shrugged one shoulder in leu of an argument. “I still think you’re going to sit though,” his grin turned challenging, “it’d be rude to refuse when I sit on the floor.”

“Don’t you dare-”

Kirishima sat down right where he stood beside his throne, and Katsuki gasped. He glanced to the side to find everyone watching, and his cheeks heated.

“I’m gonna kick your ass for this next time we’re alone,” he growled under his breath, but bowed as he should and took a seat.

The two omegas looked awed that a godling would give up it’s chair for a mortal, exchanging a glance even as Mitsuki visibly chewed the inside of her bottom lip at the fact Katsuki was now stuck so far away from them.

“You’re mine now,” Kirishima chuckled, and Katsuki hissed at him without any real heat, grateful despite his embarrassment, “wine, please!” The godling shouted, and Katsuki hid a smile behind his hand as he rubbed it over his mouth.

“You’re awful. Thank you,” he whispered, and the corner of Kirishima’s eyes crinkled as he smothered his own smile, accepting a pitcher of wine and two clay cups from an omega that looked both awed and terrified to have been given the task of bringing them over.

They drank too much.

Kirishima weighed on Katsuki’s shoulders as he walked them back to his tent, one arm slung right across them. There weren’t many of the tribe still awake to witness it, but those omegas certainly had. They’d been shocked to see two hulking alphas devolved into petty competition, playing children’s games with dice and sticks at the far end of the feasting area, but they’d both stayed away.

Katsuki had won, of course.

“Yours. I wanna sleep in your nest,” Kirishima whined, and Katsuki was inclined to agree. His place was so far away right then.

They stumbled into bed and Kirishima took the skull from his head to set to one side, laughing to himself when Katsuki growled and tugged his boots off, and then his own. He tossed them uncaringly across the tent and collapsed, snorting into his pillow as Kirishima rolled a little closer.

“My mother is gonna kill me for getting drunk,” he grumbled, and Kirishima laughed.

“You touched me in front of everyone,” he purred, lifting a wrist to rub over Katsuki’s arm.

“Ughhhh…I forgot about that! I'm gonna be called a blasphemer,” He lifted his head, grimacing, “you smelled kinda sad, when they– you didn’t smell enough like me,” he corrected, and Kirishima chuckled drunkenly, reaching to rub that wrist over his jaw.

“I never smell good, without you all over me,” he whispered, and promptly passed out.

Katsuki groaned at the loss and thudded his head down on a muscular shoulder. The world spun inside his head, so he cracked his eyelids back open. Kirishima’s hand lay limply on his side, and Katsuki took it, turning his back to pull it over himself, pressing it against his stomach.

He breathed out as far as he could, and Kirishima growled, pulling him closer unconsciously until they pressed together, fingers splayed wide until Katsuki had to relax his abs with his next breath. His heart ached in a way he wasn’t sure he could quantify.

Katsuki placed his own hand atop the godling’s and passed out himself.

They didn’t talk about it.

Or at least, they hadn’t talked about it for a week, and Katsuki was sure they simply wouldn’t.

Even the alphas of the village were tasked to forage for that week, gathering as many resources as possible for the coming winter. The harvest of their fields was approaching, but the Earth had so many fleeting bounties that couldn’t be passed up.

Kirishima brought him food every day, even as he too worked to fill the tribe's stores. He brought twice as much as Katsuki could eat, always watching him until he was full and nourished before eating himself.

Like a good alpha should.

He found himself wanting to reciprocate, but this strange new dynamic between them had him suppressing the urge. He was alpha, he was strong, but…

But it felt so nice to be fed and thought of, that…

He reminded himself constantly that Kirishima wasn’t an option for him, but the thought hurt every time he had it. At this point he was resigned to waiting for an Omega he didn’t hate the sight of, just to fulfil his successional need for bairns. He wouldn’t hand-tie, and he’d make it through a coupling long enough to plant his seed.

His mother wouldn’t leave him alone otherwise.

He stood beside Kirishima the next day, too close to be considered devout, but too far away for his own instincts. There was a man handing out tasks for the day from a list, and Katsuki swallowed as he stepped up.

They wouldn’t be hunting today, he knew that much. Soon would see him and all the alphas of the village hunting. But not today.

“Mushrooms,” said the man, and Katsuki scowled.

“I’ll come with you!” Kirishima exclaimed, and Katsuki scowled harder, “oh, fix your face. It’ll be fun!” He leaned in but stopped just short of his ear, “maybe we can kill something while we’re out there…” he teased, and Katsuki shivered at the whisper of breath in his ear.

“Don’t stand so close,” he warned, even as he gave the older omega a nod to tell him he knew his job. They moved away.

“I know a place where mushrooms grow abundant,” Kirishima teased, walking beside him, “you might not like it though. Fairy circles.”

Katsuki shuddered.

“If you pick them, I don’t care. I’m not going near that shit,” he growled.

“So sour. I’ll pick them. The fairies never favour me anyway,” Kirishima chuckled, and Katsuki fought a smile of his own. “It’s their own fault, really. Making circles out of food…”

“They’re never gonna like you, if you keep eating their hard work,” Katsuki admonished with a shake of his head.

“Mushrooms grow to be eaten, man.”

“They grow to spread spores, dumbass.”

“Eh, same thing. They’re floor snacks either way.”

Katsuki rolled his eyes, even as he fought a snicker at the stupid name.

They trudged for miles nearer the village to search for ceps and yellow foot mushrooms, before heading up the nearest mountain in the draig range. The trees changed the further up they went, growing closer together, the occasional patch of dappled sunlight filtering through on the partially overgrown path they walked.

“How far away is this place?” Katsuki grumbled, his own basket filled almost to the brim already. He shook it a little to distribute more spores, and Kirishima averted his gaze, cheeks tinting darker.

“It’s on the way to my rut-hide, but not all that close.”

Katsuki’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re taking me to your rut-hide?” He demanded, heart palpitating oddly in his chest, but the godling shook his head.

“No! Not– not all the way there! I could never take you there–”

Katsuki bristled, “fuck you, why not? You’re not rutting now,” he narrowed his eyes and Kirishima stopped dead, his own blown wide and surprised.

“Because–”

“Because?” He wasn’t even sure why he was suddenly so annoyed. Kirishima disappeared off into the woods for every rut since they’d started. There was a rut tent at the edge of the village, but he’d always insisted it was far too close.

“Because I’d fuck you into the ground, rut or not,” Kirishima growled right back, and this time Katsuki froze.

“Wh–”

“I started courting you months ago, but you left for that last marriage proposal, and when you came back you still didn’t reciprocate. I know you don’t like omegas, and I wouldn’t overstep if you chose to lay with one for bairns, but it fucking kills me that I can’t be the one to pup you.” Kirishima took a step forward and Katuski gripped the basket handle tighter instinctively, “if I see you where I rut, I’ll break. I’ll break and I’ll beg, I’ll grovel for you to let me claim you, and you’ll never look at me the same way, because you’ll see how pathetic you make me.” He took another step and Katsuki’s entire stomach twisted and fell back into his spine, the rolling sensation sending a shiver right through him.

“I can’t carry–”

“You can, if it’s me. I know it, I can feel it in my bones, my teeth. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. I can pup you, I will–” he growled possessively, catching himself when Katsuki’s breath hitched. He paled, “I would never force you, I–”

“My mother wouldn’t be able to use them, if they were godspawn…” he shook his head to clear the thought, “it doesn’t matter, I’m an alpha, It’ll never take.”

“You don’t know that. And even if it doesn’t take with you, I’d let you try with me. Skinwalkers are different, and even if I don’t believe I’m actually a god, I will make this happen for you.” He stopped again and groaned to himself, “I’m ruining everything. I shouldn’t have bought you anywhere near…it’s the only thing I’ve been thinking of since we started up this path. Let’s just turn back.” He made to turn around.

“How would we…do it?” Katsuki asked quietly, and Kirishima’s head whipped back so quickly the movement didn’t even look remotely human. His gaze dropped to Katsuki’s stomach and he swallowed audibly.

“Well, I know how, but I’ve never attempted anyone before. I’m…big too. We’d have to prep you well.”

“I meant the claiming, idiot, not, not that,” Katsuki growled, and Kirishima shivered at ‘claim’.

The godling crowded him against the nearest tree, dropping his head to graze his cheek along neck. “I’d bite you, right on the nape as I knotted you,” clawed fingers skimmed up to rest on Katsuki’s lower belly, “I’d pump you so full it’d scare you, make you swell and bloat and growl for more like a good alpha mate.” Lips parted for a lick and Katsuki’s head thudded back as a groan pulled from him. He dropped the basket to grip flexing biceps so hard his claw-sheaths slid from his nail beds. “You smell like you like that–”

Katsuki grabbed Kirishima by the head and slammed their mouths together in the most violent kiss he’d ever given, hot panting breaths mingling as Kirishima tossed his own basket and yanked their bodies together, never one to miss a beat.

The moan that burst from Katsuki at the feel of hot, desperate arousal against his own was nothing like anything he’d ever uttered before, and Kirishima ate it like the sound was his last meal as the kiss became a fight for who could press their faces together harder.

He was alive. He was truly alive for the first time in his fucking life.

Kirishima was hard and big, bulky in a way only an alpha could be, and the strength beneath Katsuki’s fingertips felt like he’d captured lightning. The primal, aggressive part of him reared its head and the inside of his skull pounded with it, the beat of his heart in his cock proving he really was alive, taking his first real breath right from Kirishima’s lungs like he was always meant to.

Claws longer and thicker than his own dug deep into his hips to pull them forward, Kirishima humping against him crudely as a choked sound of pleasure broke in his mouth like a crashing wave. He’d never heard anything like it, anything so powerful, and he returned the frantic energy until a hand shoved at his trousers, pushing, yanking.

“Please. Please!” Kirishima growled, teeth bared against lips before taking them again with another desperate grunt.

Katsuki fumbled immediately between them, half kissing, half biting at Kirishima’s face like the true blasphemer he was now. He didn’t care, he didn’t care–

He tasted blood and Kirishima growled like a beast twice his size, the sound spearing through Katsuki’s gut like a lance head. His fingers slipped through all the precome drooling from him when he finally got their trousers open, and the next sensation had his eyes rolling back and his jaw dropping slack.

Alpha cock rutting right against his own.

There was no rhythm, only frantic possession, the scent of blending arousal spreading thick and sticky through the trees. It quickly stank like sweat, alpha, and seed, and Katsuki shuddered with it, heat coiling so rapidly in his balls it was frightening.

He didn’t have time to warn, he simply covered descended fangs with his lips and clamped his mouth to Kirishima’s shoulder as he shook with the quickest, easiest release of his life. Desire pumped between them and Kirishima’s breath hitched, hips stuttering as Katsuki clutched at him like a lifeline tossed over a bough.

He found himself shoved back by the neck a moment later, pinned to the tree as Kirishima worked himself with his other hand, staring, staring at the mess he’d made so quickly. White hot lashed over Katsuki’s stomach, cock, and thighs within moments, the mark of it accompanied by a low groan of surrender, before Kirishima thumped his head straight to his shoulder to pant and shake, arms snaking to wrap around him and press them back together to mingle their scents.

They stayed like that, breathless and marked, until Katsuki’s eyes closed and his face pinched. “Shit…” his chest heaved as his cock softened out in the open air, but he couldn’t find it in himself to do anything but drop his head back to catch his breath, “we smell like a beacon fire,” he bemoaned, but Kirishima only laughed deliriously in response, nuzzling against his neck to smother disbelieving amusement.

“You kissed me first,” he chuckled, mouthing at Katsuki’s neck.

“Stop laughing, idiot, and think of a way to get us clean before one of the tribe catches a whiff when we get back,” Katsuki growled, pushing.

It became a scrap as it always did, and Kirishima ended up bare-ass on the path with Katsuki atop him, legs and belts tangled. And then it became another desperate kiss, hands wandering and teeth gnashing at skin and ears as they each chased another release.

Katsuki’s scarred cheek was sticky.

Actually, a…lot of him was sticky by the time he and Kirishima emerged from the woods a mile from the village, baskets filled to overflowing.

He gazed almost blankly at the mass of yurts in the distance, the light from the main fire and handheld lanterns bobbing and flickering around tiny silhouettes that moved about their business. Not one person there knew his life had changed irrevocably before dusk had even fallen today.

His mind and body buzzed like two separate bee colonies, each thrumming with different energies. On one hand, he’d very likely face his mother’s wrath for completely eschewing all omegas from that day forth, more than he ever had before.

On the other hand…

“The tub is still full from my bath yesterday. It won’t be the best, but–”

“Doesn’t matter, just light a fire under it. I’m not sharing anything with anyone yet, and if they smell us, they’ll know.” Katsuki instructed, glancing around the wide open field for somewhere to set the basket of mushrooms. He tutted at himself after far too long and walked to deposit it outside the door opening. Idiot.

“Did…you hate it?” Kirishima asked from behind canvas, and Katsuki marched around the back of the yurt to throw up a hand in a gesture of disbelief.

“Which of the four times do you think I didn’t like, Kirishima?” He growled, exasperated, “I don’t want anyone smelling us because I’m jealous, I’m possessive, and for once in my life, I’d like to enjoy something for me for a while.”

Kirishima hummed before canting his head in concession, “that’s fair. My instincts are just telling me to show off, that’s all.” He took a deep breath and leaned down beside the wooden tub he’d uncovered, breathing dragonfire into the metal cast box at its lower side, igniting twigs and lumps of wood alike without having to use kindling or trial and error.

Katsuki felt the corner of his lips curling up as he watched. Show off, indeed. “When is your next rut? You can preen all you like, when there’s a claim on our necks.”

Kirishima’s eyes glowed from the fire below as he looked up and over, and a low rumble echoed from his chest. “A few weeks, at most.”

“Then we’ll have to be on our best behaviour for a few weeks, understand?” Kirishima snorted his sudden disbelief and Katsuki whipped one of the belts from his trouser loops to lob at him, “hey! I can behave, too!” He shouted, already knowing exactly what the ass was implying, and Kirishima threw his head back to cackle instead. “Shut up,” he growled, shoving his trousers down unceremoniously after kicking off his boots.

“It’s not even warm yet!” Kirishima gasped when he walked up the couple of wooden steps on the other side and stepped in.

He hissed at the cold as he plunged right into the water, dunking his entire head before sitting bolt upright once more, hair slicked back and hands rubbing over the release left on his face and body to rid himself of it.

He’d be dithering in mere moments, but his instincts were also making a show-off of him right then. “Oh just get in, you baby, we’ll wash our clothes in the water afterwards. And I’m stealing a pair of trews,” Katsuki grabbed the washcloth and soap that was handed to him, already feeling the water nearest the heater warming.

“You mean borrowing?”

“I mean stealing,” he reiterated.

Kirishima's face cracked into a grin that lit the darkening evening better than any lantern could, shaking his head to himself as he walked away, waving a hand over his shoulder. “Of course, how foolish of me. I’ll go get us both a fresh pair.”

That night after they’d deposited their forage for drying, Katsuki had fallen into bed alone, closing his eyes as he pressed the pads of rough fingers against his lips, giving in to a smile he didn’t have to hide alone, before finally snuggling down to sleep with his new favourite madder and weld blanket. The following few days saw more foraging, annoyingly apart from Kirishima, and today…

“Get out of my sight before I gut you, omega,” Katsuki veritably hissed at the green haired suitor he couldn’t be bothered to remember the name of, that his mother had…invited again.

It wasn’t the man’s fault, Katsuki knew that, he was only looking for a strong mate, and Mitsuki had probably been full of charm and innocent insistence when she’d offered a ‘spare’ tent for him to stay in the night before.

Katsuki was always more abrasive in the face of her lies about his ‘charming personality’, but he rarely had to deal with suitors so early in the morning, so he was certain he couldn’t be blamed for his outburst either.

“That doesn’t sound like ‘behaving’, Katsuki!” Kirishima called from near the main fire he’d just rekindled with his breath, one hand cupped beside a teasing grin to carry his voice further.

“Fuck-” Katsuki turned to hide a grimace at being caught, before tossing a rude gesture across the common that Kirishima cackled even louder at. He fought not to let his face crack into a smile at the asshole.

The omega still standing nearby gasped at his blasphemy and Katsuki rolled his eyes, simply walking away to be assigned a job for the day.

“Did you cut your claws?” He asked with a frown late that afternoon, sitting with a basket of acorns between his legs, doing the initial sorting of them so any bad ones wouldn't affect the flour later.

Kirishima glanced at his hands and shrugged a shoulder, sorting through his own pile of foraged berries to be turned into jams and pickles the next day by the already busy omegas. Tasks like these in the evenings were simple, but made the tribe omega’s lives easier, so almost every alpha had their own space in trampled grass this time of year. Katsuki’s was, as always, far too close to the godling’s, but the tribe had long gotten used to their friendship, and he hadn’t been hissed at for getting too close since they were young.

The tribe obviously had no idea they’d begun scenting in secret back then, and recently done far more than that.

“Yeah, I cut them when I got back earlier. It’ll save time tomorrow,” Kirishima’s tongue licked the seam of his lips as he caught Katsuki’s gaze and held it, “I think we should–”

“Don’t say it here,” Katsuki rushed, swallowing thickly. He cast a glance around before nodding his understanding, and Kirishima gulped too, clearly fighting not to let the excitement show on his face.

Katsuki’s cloaked back thudded against tree bark as lips captured his, Kirishima groaning into his mouth like he’d never tasted anything as good as Katsuki’s tongue his whole life. It was early, earlier than most of the village would even be rising, but the chill before the coming dawn was mitigated by the heat they forged between them.

Hunters could finally be sent out again while the village omegas processed all of the remaining forage to be stored, and they’d both been the very first alpha’s tasked before they’d even left to forage yesterday.

Their weapons lay nearby craving blood, but all Katsuki craved right then was this.

He prayed not to finish before his trousers were even open, but Kirishima made such short work of them this time he needn’t have worried. A snort left him at the thought, that cut off into a short hiss at the feel of too-eager fingers between his legs.

“Oil, fool,” he admonished, and Kirishima instantly withdrew to pull a small vial from the pocket already halfway down his own thighs.

“Sorry I–”

“I know, fuck–” Katsuki clamped his legs together and snapped his teeth when the alpha instincts in the back of his skull found sudden offence at his hole being slicked. Kirishima paused again, but Katsuki simply grabbed his head to yank him into a kiss, “just one,” he instructed, taking lips with a growl.

He bit Kirishima’s lip so hard it earned a responding growl when a single finger breached him, but the moment more than the tip pushed in, it seemed to paralyse him. “Oh,” he gasped, claws digging into furred pauldrons donned for the chill of their pre-dawn escapade.

“Hurt?”

Katsuki shook his head even as he grunted, “I don’t know, don’t stop though.” When he wasn’t immediately obeyed, he shoved a hand down to grip thick wrist, urging perhaps a little too roughly. A curse left them both when that finger sheathed to the knuckle, and Kirishima thunked his forehead against Katsuki’s heavily, horns mussing his hair.

“You’re so hot inside,” he whispered, awed breaths fogging between them as he flexed the digit testingly. He skimmed their cheeks together to pant into Katsuki’s ear, withdrawing halfway to press in again. “You’re the only mate that’d ever be strong enough for me,” he purred.

Oil slicked the glide but it felt like nothing Katsuki could have imagined before that moment. It didn’t hurt, but it was strange, and the only thing keeping his thighs parted enough was the shiver of pride that raced through him at the praise.

Kirishima kissed him, deep and long, the movement of his delving finger slow and unhurried now it was home. Katsuki gradually relaxed, eyelids dipping almost closed, but flickering with every push and pull as arousal began to leak from his skin and scent glands once more.

Kirishima purred his encouragement until the moment he dropped to his knees, and Katsuki’s eyes snapped open. “What’re you doing?” He demanded, but warm wetness was already sliding over the tip of his cock, answering the silly question. His head snapped back as sharply as the breath that shot into his lungs at the sensation, before a low groan of pleasure pulled from him.

He buried a hand in shaggy red locks, claws digging into scalp as his face screwed up. An omega in the past had tried this on him, but he’d barely been able to get half-hard. This time he ached, throbbed, the finger in his ass forgotten until it moved again, and it was all too much.

“Alpha,” he gasped like a prayer to the dragon gods, to the god knelt in the dirt with his brain in his mouth. Kirishima growled and sheathed him deeper. “F-fuck, alpha.” A hand wrapped around the thick base of his cock where his knot filled a little, and Katsuki grabbed skull so hard he was vaguely surprised he didn’t crush it, horns digging into his stomach as he rolled his hips in encouragement.

Alpha’s knots had been getting smaller for generations now, omega’s spiny insides taking over most of the mating needs, but Katsuki could swear his bulged thicker than he’d ever coaxed it alone as the tip of his cock grazed the back of eager throat.

He came wetly, spit pooled under his tongue as he hunched forward from the tree, thighs tensed and suddenly aware of how his own insides milked the finger inside him.

Kirishima caught him when his legs turned traitor and they both thumped against the ground, one of Katsuki’s knees pressed up against soft, still full balls as he waited for his world to right itself.

“I could feel you twitching, inside.” Kirishima’s voice was rasped from the intrusion of swallowing down Katsuki’s soul, but he loved the sound of it breaking the quiet around them.

“Next time feel for spines, maybe we all have them, if it…twitches like that,” he pushed himself up and moved downward, and Kirishima’s breath hitched.

“You don’t have to do that, you just–” Kirishima quickly tucked his lips in when Katsuki snapped his teeth at him, clearly fighting a smile as he rose to an elbow to watch, “so stubborn,” he teased, but a moan punched from him when Katsuki swallowed his cock more violently than he’d obviously been expecting.

The next week saw them sneaking away almost daily to…practice, and Katsuki found it easier and easier to take that single finger, until it became two, and then almost three. The stretch of three was still too much, and the press of time began to weigh on them both.

Katsuki, because he would be taking that knot he’d already seen the almost threatening half-swell of, and Kirishima because, well…

“G-good morning Kacchan! I- your mother, sorry, the Chief, said I should break fast with y–”

Katsuki’s mouth was already open to cut the omega down again, when a low, rumbling growl sounded behind him.

“He’ll be breaking fast with me. We have something to discuss.”

Kirishima’s pre-rut had begun.

Katsuki swallowed the spit in his mouth and nodded with a gesture backwards. He turned to disregard the omega he’d actually begun to feel sorry for. He honestly wasn’t sure if his mother was keeping him hostage at this point, and he always looked so out of place in his city clothes and shoes unsuited to the terrain.

Still, he turned to follow the godling that already held a plate piled high with food, noting much more meat than usual. It had started the night before, the gruff shortness and stronger scent, and Katsuki could already see an extra opalescent scale on his shoulder that hadn’t been there yesterday.

Godlings heated and rutted differently to humans, but no one really knew the extent of those differences. Katsuki would be the only person he’d ever known that might find out.

“Eat,” Kirishima instructed, sitting on the floor and pointing to the plate.

Katsuki sat and reached for something that wasn’t meat first, watching himself being watched. They usually took whichever meals they were sharing elsewhere, and he was sure that omega was watching this time, along with at least a few of the confused tribe members.

Sharing food this way was a courting gesture most of the time, though he doubted anyone would assume that the very first time they witnessed it.

“I need a…word with you, about the traps and snares past the outer footprint.” Kirishima watched a torn piece of unleavened bread disappear into Katsuki’s mouth, before a purr was quickly smothered, “I won’t be here soon to collect from them, and a couple are in a bear’s territory now. I think we should move them.”

“Somewhere more accessible to the others? Agreed, I’ll help. You want to do it today?” Katsuki kept his tone even but gruff, as though he wasn’t secretly excited to have an excuse to be absent the whole day with Kirishima.

Once he’d finished half of the food on the plate, he stood to go retrieve a map, leaving Kirishima to eat the majority of the meat.

He would be a good mate, too.

They gathered their hunting tools and weapons and trudged away from the village, towards one of the far ‘claws’ of the dragon's footprint where the village sat, at the base of the draig mountain range.

It was an impression in the land where the forests around simply stopped, shaped distinctly like the foot of a dragon when seen from on high. Katsuki couldn’t imagine a creature big enough to make such an impression, but he’d never seen one of the gods that walked the earth in centuries past, let alone one of even their ancestors.

Not everyone believed the same as Katsuki’s and similar tribes, but he and his knew the sun had been lit by the most ancient of dragons, the creator-god, and their children once ruled the earth. The lost-gods bones could still be found around the world, some so far down it took minors or city and reservoir builders by surprise.

No one knew why the dragons disappeared, but historical texts and scrolls Katsuki had been privy to in his father’s city across the sea told of their return long ago. His father had read the stories and accounts to him when his mother sent him to be educated ‘as well as any gentleman’ when he was young. He’d even translated from languages Katsuki had never learnt, and it only solidified his awe in the gods.

Katsuki’s late great- grandmother had actually witnessed the reappearance of a dragon once too, when she was young, and in living memory of her time, godlings began to appear. No one knew why the gods had chosen to don human skin, but they sometimes wandered into towns and then when those grew, cities.

It wasn’t clear what they wanted, but most had a penchant for shiny gold coins, trinkets, and meat, like their full-sized kin. Most rural villages and tribes like Katsuki’s knew they were higher beings through stories told over generations, but some, in larger cities especially, bemoaned the dangers they could pose.

Godlings didn’t fully transform though, as far as anyone knew. They had features and traits of their ancestors, like wings and claws that could grow and shrink and outright appear, but Katsuki had never heard a single account of a ‘skinwalker’ shedding its human form to return to the gods.

His tribe believed that would happen after death, and many groups had grand funeral rites and pyres for godlings that graced them with their presence.

Kirishima held a hand up to halt Katsuki in his tracks after a few hours, and he stood stock-still, waiting as the godling sniffed at the air. They trudged on, right into that new bear’s territory, and Katsuki couldn’t smother a snicker when Kirishima pissed all around a tree and chuffed about it.

“Is it nearby?” He asked, and Kirishima shook his head, fastening his trousers.

“No, but it was here recently, there’s a few tracks down the bank I can see from here,” he pointed over a sheer drop in the wooded terrain, before stepping closer to safety, “this time of year they’re–”

“More dangerous, I know,” Katsuki agreed, “we’ll move the traps out of its territory, and then…”

Kirishima shot him a grin full of more fang than usual, and Katsuki felt it right in his gut.

They never saw the bear, but they took down all the traps in the area and marched back to reset them closer to the village. Wire was hard to craft, and expensive to buy, so it didn’t make sense to leave what they had where it could be a bother to wildlife they could no longer use for sustenance.

Katsuki always preferred to use his bow to hunt, and he was one of the bigger alphas always trusted to take down larger prey. But the smaller alphas, and omegas of the village could all equally empty traps and prep the catches right there in the woods, so it just made sense to use them.

Kirishima clipped the claws of one hand right there and then when they reached a point far enough away from both the village and the bears territory. He scraped his hand down a tree trunk to dull the sharp edges created by heavy metal clippers and turned to Katsuki, eyes just a little wilder than they usually were.

They crashed together as they always seemed to in a flurry of hungry kisses and groping, wandering hands, and Katsuki quickly found himself bared, one boot and half his trousers missing this time as Kirishima pressed him into the ground.

Hot breaths panted into his mouth as oil slicked fingers played over his hole, rubbing, pressing, and Katsuki allowed it all, willing his body to relax to take those first two seeking fingers as deep as they’d go. They didn’t have time for much more practice and prep, another scale appearing on tan skin even as he watched. He struggled to take the third even as he urged Kirishima on until all three were buried to the knuckle.

“Beautiful,” Kirishima praised roughly, and Katsuki’s spine tingled even through the grimace he knew sat on his face, “so warm,” he rumbled again, curling his fingers to rub at his insides. They hadn’t found any ‘spines’ that they could determine, but Kirishima was certain that the ones that would flush on his full-rut knot would be enough.

Katsuki wasn’t sure he cared at this point. He could be a bairn-less chieftain if it came to it, and he knew he could never go back now.

Not after tasting what it felt to be alive, to have a strong alpha beneath his hands, his tongue.

To have Kirishima like this.

Katsuki closed his eyes as he felt and played inside him, never particularly fond of being entered, but far more used to it now. It always got exponentially better when Kirishima milked his cock too. He adjusted in the first fall of leaves of the season, breathing, waiting, but tensed up when surprise pleasure shot through him.

What was that?!

“Hurt?” Kirishima paused.

Katsuki shook his head frantically, both hands reaching down to grip at wrist, clamping tight to prevent any retreat. “No, no. That, do that again,” he gasped, and Kirishima cocked his head to one side, moving his fingers, probing, pressing obediently until Katsuki’s heel dug into the ground and he tossed his head back.

“That?”

Katsuki could do nothing but nod, the back of his head digging into dirt and forest debris as that happened again. Suddenly three fingers didn’t feel like too much. They didn’t feel like anything but pleasure, white hot and insistent. It tightened his limbs and loins all the same, winding his spine like a spring-trap, and he found his claw-sheaths out and full of dirt as he dug his own fingers into the earth either side of himself for purchase.

He wasn’t sure if he was going to fall right off the world, but when he cracked his eyes back open, Kirishima’s heated stare pinned him to it, better than any stake could have.

The sensation built and built, and Katsuki’s cock twitched right up off his stomach with every growing thrust of greedy fingers, until one touch from a pressing forearm ignited him. Seed pumped from him before Kirishima had even wrapped a hand around, knot pulsing as he soaked himself all the way up to his neck in pulsing waves with a helpless yell, before crumpling like a puppet with cut strings.

His insides twitched, greedy for the fingers that stilled at the last pump, and a broken moan cracked from him as his eyes rolled back in his head.

“Too much,” he panted when those magical fingers didn’t immediately pull from him, and they slowly obliged. He heard a gulp and cracked his eyes open to see Kirishima looming over him, slitted eyes alight with dragonfire, and indents dug deep into his bottom lip.

The hand that had been in him set beside his head, and Kirishima dipped down to take his lips in a deep, possessive kiss, growling into his mouth.

Katsuki reached down to reciprocate, but Kirishima pulled back, shaking his head. He swallowed again, licking the taste of their kiss away. “I’m saving it now. We need all of it,” he explained gruffly, tone halfway between awed and pained to not allow himself that pleasure. He leaned in to shamelessly scent himself beneath Katsuki’s sticky jaw, a purr rumbling around them both. “I have to try that again. Later? Tomorrow? Please…” he licked at skin and Katsuki angled his head better for it, a breathless, tired smile taking his face.

“Of course, dummy,” his eyes settled closed with a sigh, “I might need…a nap…first…” he trailed away, but Kirishima tensed and pulled up.

“Oh no you don’t, not here. We have to get clean!”

He napped there.

Kirishima always left barely a couple of days into his pre-rut, but this time he stayed in the village, and the tribe began to whisper about godly omens, trying to determine if his presence foretold of something good, or bad.

Katsuki’s mother sent that omega away when Kirishima picked him up by the ankle to snarl at him for getting too close to Katsuki, and he finally learned his name as the poor man sat on the back of a wagon already heading into the nearest town, teary eyed and sure his future only held misfortune when the tribe got to whispering again.

Katsuki might find ‘Izuku Midoriya’ again when he was claimed, to apologise. He’d get a sane Kirishima to maybe gift him something too, so he’d be assured a godling hadn’t actually predicted a life full of misery with snapping teeth and flying spit.

Kirishima sat far away from the main fire, breathing huffily and glaring at the omega he’d never had a problem with before his pre-rut. It made Katsuki’s heart secretly swell with pride and he had to fight a smug grin the whole time his mother complained to him about not ‘setting’ Kirishima on his next suitor.

There would be no need to worry about any ‘next suitor’ soon.

The entire tribe paused in breaking their fast to stare when Katsuki cut a hunk of slow roasting boar that wasn’t meant for right then and carried it over to a scowling, sulking, godling, and sat right in front of him.

He heard the muttering of a hurried funeral rite prayer from someone off in the distance and rolled his eyes.

“Tomorrow?” He whispered, and Kirishima’s head cocked to one side as it so often did when he was thinking, slitted eyes flicking between Katsuki’s face and the meat he held out in offering.

He nodded, bottom lip sticking out in a pout as he absently scratched five grooves into the earth beside himself, claws sharp once again. “I didn’t mean to pick him up like that,” he grumbled, and Katsuki almost lost a fight to a snort, “he was just so light and small, he’d never be a good match for you,” he insisted, and the tribe took his word as law, the muttering changing to how they all knew that already.

Katsuki took a bite of meat when Kirishima refused to eat until he did, and watched the whole chunk disappear in moments, before getting back up to go fetch more. He’d sneak some when everyone had left for their duties, to accompany the dried venison and fatted dried ox in his tent.

Katsuki awoke in the pitch black and tensed to find a body looming over him, until his nose told him it was only Kirishima. Hot breaths washed over his face and he squinted, trying to see through the darkness.

“We have to leave, now,” Kirishima rumbled into the darkness of the tent, voice lower than it ever was, and Katsuki nodded even though he was sure the gesture couldn’t be seen. He waited for Kirishima to move but frowned when he didn’t, confused.

“You know I can’t get up with you sitting on me, right?” He admonished quietly, and Kirishima growled in the back of his throat, simply leaning down to lick along his jaw. Katsuki shivered when hot tongue lapped the shell of his ear, trying to suppress a shuddering moan.

“Your mother came to my tent…”

Katsuki scowled immediately.

“Why? You’re mine,” he snapped, and a breathless laugh broke in his ear. She was older than pheromone cycles now, but Kirishima was irresistible–

“I don’t think she wanted to fuck me, Katsuki,” another wet kiss, “I think she was worried about what I might do to the village…she bought warriors…” Kirishima’s tone didn’t imply he was worried about warriors or humans hurting him, but Katsuki huffed in annoyance on his behalf all the same.

“Rude hag didn’t even ask for my help? I’m the one of the biggest alpha here–”

Kirishima chuckled, but broke off into a low groan that shot straight through Katsuki’s loins, “if we don’t hurry up, I’ll take you right here,” he warned quietly, and Katsuki tensed.

“Then climb off me, fool, and grab the pack from by the weapons rack, it’s ready,” he rolled out of bed and reached for his cape quickly when Kirishima let him up. He nearly tripped over what he suspected was a tail, but ignored the rushed apology in favour of pulling on his boots. He couldn’t see shit inside, but that didn’t matter when they finally ducked out of the tent quietly, the moon casting silvery light over the sleeping village.

Well, the mostly sleeping village.

Katsuki dropped to his haunches the instant he saw a lantern bobbing in the distance, baring his teeth in annoyance. They probably should have left sooner, but it was too late now for hindsight.

“Oh, they definitely suspect something,” he whispered, lifting a hand to gesture Kirishima after himself as they rounded the back of the yurt.

“They’re just worried about me rutting,” Kirishima assured, just as quietly, but he dropped down to follow all the same.

“Then why didn’t the hag come get me? We shouldn’t have started sharing food in front of everyone.”

“You really think that’s all it took?”

Katsuki’s lips pursed in thought, “dunno, but shhh,” they moved behind another tent and he peered around. If they made it into the forest, no one here could catch up to them. Honestly, they probably wouldn’t even try if they assumed Kirishima had finally left for his rut-hide.

They wouldn’t discover Katsuki missing until much later, he was sure. He’d often sulk and hide the first day of the godling’s absence, though he’d never have admitted that before today. He didn’t even really understand why, until recently.

His mother would probably only check on him when he didn’t turn up to the main meal, by which time…

There was a holler in the distance, and Katsuki’s heart thundered in his chest. What if they knew? What if they’d guessed what he was planning? His hidden canines descended faster than he could even realise they did so, and he bared them into the night as he reached back and yanked Kirishima after himself around another tent.

No one was taking his soon to be mate from him.

He had a dagger at his hip that he really didn’t want to use on his brethren, but the base-most alpha part of him was horrifyingly willing in that moment.

Footsteps neared.

A breath sawed into Katsuki’s lungs as he tensed up, but Kirishima snaked an arm around his waist and clamped a hand over his mouth before he could make any kind of move.

They spun and Katsuki found himself dragged bodily until they were hidden behind the tall wooden shed used for smoking meats. The scent of smoke and flesh so ingrained in wood from years of use permeated between thick, heavily clawed fingers as Kirishima shushed quietly in his ear, holding them both still as statues until another call sounded and whichever warrior it was marched off elsewhere.

That scent had covered their own.

They were practically at the edge of the village.

Katsuki released a heavy sigh of relief, relaxing into the warm hold of alpha arms to collect himself for a moment, before stepping forward to break the contact.

He glanced back and felt his breath hitch. Kirishima was scaled all around his forehead now, the blend of red hair and crimson, pearlescent scales beneath silvery moonlight creating a kind of inky, shimmering contrast as he moved.

After every rut Katsuki received a scale as a gift that he’d weaved into a bracelet, and then an anklet, but he’d never seen them look so stunning.

So godlike.

Kirishima grabbed Katsuki’s forearm without a word, head canting in the direction he clearly meant for them to run, and they shared a nod, taking off into the night.

Morning had yet to fully break when they finally stopped to share the cooked meat Katsuki had stolen yesterday, both drinking deep from a bladder Kirishima produced. They set off again, back on the path to the rut-hide, and completely alone.

Kirishima’s scent only got thicker, headier, the higher they climbed, and the next time they stopped for a drink the entirety of his hands were covered in scales, and he struggled to remove the cork from the water bladder with claws longer than Katsuki had ever seen.

“Here,” he offered, setting the de-corked opening against lips and tipping up. “Your teeth are…longer,” he pointed out when Kirishima smeared a scaled forearm over his mouth.

Red slitted eyes met his and the godling swallowed, “are you scared?” His voice was gruff, graveled, and every breath that curled from him steamed from the heat that had begun to bank within him.

Katsuki scoffed.

“Like I’d ever be scared of my own mate. Come on.”

Kirishima didn’t move for a moment, a shiver visibly stealing through him at the word ‘mate’, but he followed obediently.

They passed several broken pillars and standing tablets covered in runes Katsuki couldn’t understand, and Kirishima smeared his wrist on every single one, gaze lingering on some, and moving right past others.

“Where did these things come from?” Katsuki asked as they passed another and Kirishima took a moment to pull some creeping vines off it, but didn’t really cast it a glance other than that. They looked similar to the big rune tablet they had in the village, used for worship and festivals.

“Ancient skinwalkers, I think? Every rut I set out early to look for them. I recognise some words, but I don’t know where I came from, so I don’t know how to learn more.” Kirishima stopped to grimace and shake his head with a groan.

“Gettin’ harder to talk?” Katsuki sympathised, and a whine sounded.

“Hard to think,” Kirishima grumbled.

Katsuki was glad he wasn’t due to rut too, so he could take Kirishima’s hand and urge him along, until they finally came to a set of wide steps, the edges crumbling after so long being abandoned. How old were they?

“Just past the platform, there’s a clearing through the trees.”

Katsuki’s neck cricked as he stared around, face up to the pillars around a faded mosaic floor, awe filling him to overflowing when he glanced at said floor to see dragons. Depictions of dragons and humans made of precious mineral coloured tiles spanned the whole floor, pillars inscribed with runes and entangled with vines framing it.

“This place is sacred,” he whispered, and Kirishima snorted.

“It’s just a place,” he stated, this time pulling Katsuki away, back through the trees that swallowed the steps down on the other side, even as he tried to memorise the details of everything.

Were the dragon-gods living among humans in the past? There seemed to be just as many of them as humans.

He didn’t understand the mosaic at all, but it vanished behind them as they took a short, winding path that veered downward for a short while, until they emerged into another, smaller clearing.

Kirishima released Katsuki and dumped his pack on the ground, immediately pulling out blankets. He took them to a wooden shed-like structure he must have built himself, opening a hinged door to prop it wide. He reached in and retrieved more blankets and furs, flipping them over wooden poles beside the hut to air.

Katsuki could still faintly smell old-rut, even as Kirishima took a wrapped bushel of fresh lavender from his pack and hung it from the ceiling inside. It wasn’t a particularly tall building, but its footprint was wide enough for the man to comfortably lay down, maybe even with his wings and tail out.

The old dried lavender was tossed aside, faded buds scattering away before Kirishima whined and thudded his forehead above the door.

“We came too late…can’t–”

Katsuki dumped his own pack and moved across the clearing immediately. “Sit, just tell me what to do and I’ll make your nest,” he instructed.

“Our nest.” The correction came in the form of a growl and a hot breath against Katsuki’s neck that made him shiver.

Laying out Kirishima’s beaten blankets along with the fresh ones took longer than the godling could stand, and he moved to throw himself against the base of a thick, mossy tree to close his eyes and pant.

The tether he had on his control had to last until Katsuki was prepped, and the claws he had now were far too thick for any iron clippers. Katsuki knew what that meant.

He’d never touched himself…there before, but he retrieved oil as midday sun tried its best to burn through to the forest floor, and red eyes snapped open to watch him approach. A hot, steaming breath curled up from scaled, parted lips, and Kirishima lifted both hands to beckon him over.

“Are you with me?” Katsuki asked as gently as he could, slowly opening his belts to toss aside.

“I belong only to you,” Kirishima growled, and Katsuki held back a snort, kicking off his boots.

He dropped his cloak next. “That’s not what I meant, dummy,” he teased, one leg bared by the time he dropped to straddle muscular hips. Kirishima’s tail snaked instantly to wrap around his clothed leg, sliding tough material further down to feel across his skin.

“You’re gon’ be mine, too,” Kirishima’s face nuzzled into the crook of neck and shoulder insistently, two scaled, clawed thumbs brushing Katsuki’s lower belly as he gripped his waist to pull him closer, “gonna get you pregnant, Katsuki,” he rumbled, and Katsuki shivered, head dropping back.

The sharp sting of a bite to the shoulder snapped Katsuki from his own enjoyment, and he quickly fumbled with one of the many small vials of oil they’d brought with them. He pinned Kirishima back against bark with a warning chuff after slicking his fingers, and teeth bared at him until his hand reached back.

Slitted eyes widened in realisation, and Kirishima’s attention flicked between Katsuki’s pinching expression and the elbow shifting with his movements. Claws dug in but didn’t pierce skin as Kirishima’s mouth dropped open in a heavy, awed pant.

“You…” he caught Katsuki’s gaze again, hips twitching up involuntarily. The tip of tongue curled out in a lick at nothing, Kirishima’s expression pained, “I want–”

“I know, hold on.” Katsuki forced in a third finger far too quickly, hissing in a sharp breath.

“I need–”

“I-I know–” he gripped a horn instinctively when Kirishima tried to move his head forward, halting the effort.

“I just want you,” Kirishima insisted, mouth open again like he was asking for something, but Katsuki was suddenly far too distracted by the way tongue split down the middle and grew pointed either side when he licked out again.

“You’re incredible,” he gasped, awed to be the only one allowed in such otherworldly presence, “my godling,” he praised, stroking the ridged, bumpy horn he still held.

“‘M jussst a man, Katssuki.”

The shudder that wracked Katsuki’s frame from hearing the godling hiss dropped him forward almost helplessly, hole clenched around his stretching fingers as he released horn to grip at shoulder. “Kirishima, I–”

“Eijirou, my mate, Eijirou.”

Kirishima, Eijirou, reached between them and a seam tearing sounded, before that hand was back in its rightful place at Katsuki’s waist, pulling him down. Hot wet cock slid between his asscheeks, bumping into his fingers as Eijirou humped up in short, testing thrusts, and Katsuki shook his head against a scaled shoulder, panting, hard, and aching to know what it would feel like inside.

“Need another finger, it’s too big,” he reasoned breathlessly, and Eijirou chuffed and nudged with both his chin and his length.

“Sstretch on my cock?” he offered, and it sounded like the best idea ever hissed.

Katsuki nodded without looking up, pulling his fingers free to fumble with Eijirou’s cock to guide the tip into place. He’d grab more oil in a–

They wouldn’t need more oil.

Eijirou’s tip leaked like nothing Katsuki had ever known, more than Katsuki himself, more than any omega; precome positively oozed, ever more dripping down his entire palm as he adjusted and pushed.

They both froze when the tip popped inside past the flared head, Katsuki screwing up his face in preparation for a thrust of far too much, but Eijirou simply whined, arms and tail coiling around him like a huge snake as he shivered with the effort of holding back.

The tip squished in and out, in and out, in and out, as they both rocked together slowly, Katsuki gradually relaxing until Eijirou’s head fell back, thudding against bark.

“Kisss.” His tongue flopped out of his mouth, the tips flicking with the hiss, and Katsuki didn’t hesitate to chase it back into his mouth with his own. He swallowed both the moan that followed and the cock that delved deeper a moment later, almost choking on forked tongue when he stretched wider.

It was a slow process, opening Katsuki to a point just above the swelling, spiny knot at the base of thick cock, but Eijirou took it until his entire body was shaking with the need for release. Spines grew along his tail, black and inky to contrast the precious Ruby and mother of Pearl sheen of the rest of his scales, and the scent of rut grew thicker, heavier.

Katsuki lifted his hips almost to the tip and slid all the way down until his cheeks touched against the beginning of knot a while later, but found himself suddenly squeezed around the middle so hard he froze.

Eijirou’s jaw hung with pleasure, eyes almost glassy for a moment until his brow pinched and his cock pulsed. Katsuki felt it deep inside him before wetness leaked from his hole to drip down waiting knot.

“Nearly,” Eijirou grunted, holding him stock-still as he clearly tried to keep a hold of himself.

“Nearly?” Katsuki demanded, sure for a moment he’d finished early, but the next thing he knew he was on his face in the dirt. His world had spun so fast he barely realised Eijirou’s cock missing until it rammed back into him, right to the knot in one.

He choked, the thrust forcing the air from his lungs so quickly it felt like it had been punched from him. Huge claws gripped his shoulders and pulled him back until his ass began to stretch once again to accommodate the frankly terrifying size of Eijirou’s knot.

Was it even fully swollen yet? It was bigger than Katsuki’s even now, and the first touch of spines had him gasping, reaching desperately for his cloak to tuck beneath himself. He muffled a loud cry when he found himself stuck halfway down, more stretched than any human had probably ever been, when he felt it.

He stopped tensing, lifting his head in confusion even as Eijirou purred and rumbled praise behind him. His stomach was being stretched out, from the inside. He could feel it, past the burning of his rim and the wetness of his thighs, he could feel it.

Katsuki reached beneath himself, eyes blown and hand shaking as he pushed against a distinct bulge in his lower belly. Eijirou moaned at the touch and Katsuki laughed shakily, pressing even harder. It felt like he was pinching his skin either side with two giant fingers, but the thought that his mate was big enough to be felt on the outside was heady.

“You’re so big, alpha,” he gasped, burying his face back in the fur of his cape to muffle his next responding moan when Eijirou’s cock twitched inside him again.

Huge claws were surprisingly gentle for a moment as Eijrou ran a hand over the top of Katsuki’s to feel the bump too, before a deep, rumbling growl echoed through the forest. Several birds flew away, warning squawks sounding overhead as they retreated.

And then Katsuki found himself stuffed.

He cried out, biceps bunching with how he gathered the cloak beneath him for support, and a moment later searing pain at the nape of his neck had him twitching, teeth deep in flesh as Eijirou’s knot sucked into him.

Katsuki’s hole clenched around the base as the knot inside him began to grow, pressing and throbbing against that, that thing inside Katsuki that lit him up before.

His eyes rolled up, eyelashes fluttering across his vision as teeth released and claws dug into his back to push him down more. He spread his knees, arching to press his ass back, seeking that again. Eijirou was so deep inside him, so fucking deep.

He was in his ass, his stomach, his lungs.

Thick rut filled the clearing and Katsuki all the same, until every breath he took was branded with the mark of dragonfire, earthy and smoky all at once. Katsuki’s cock weeped beneath them for the want of touch, drooling precome to his cloak and the ground alike as a short thrust had him hiccoughing, and a purposeful grind had his knees shaking.

It built and built, Eijirou far beyond reason or communication as he pounded into Katsuki, and Katsuki waiting, waiting for the pressure, the pleasure inside him to crest as he knew it would.

He didn’t touch his cock, he had faith his mate would make him come without him ever needing to.

“Breed.”

Eijirou’s voice was so deep, so dark and rumbling that it shook Katsuki to the core, and that heat in his loins spilled over far before he was expecting. His knot pulsed as he emptied himself between his own trembling knees, face buried in his arms as spit drooled out from parted lips.

Eijirou’s hips stuttered for a moment at the milking of Katsuki’s insides around his cock, before a low growl reverberated through the trees. And then he was hammering into him, chasing release greedily.

Katsuki felt one of Eijirou’s scaled, clawed hands grip his entire head and watched the other set down beside them. It looked more like a lizards’ than it did human now, and the godling sounded like what Katsuki could only dream one of the gods did.

“Mine.”

The cock inside Katsuki stilled, before the knot pulsed and liquid heat spread deep. They both groaned with it, Katsuki shifting in the dirt to rock when short, eager thrusts rutted right against his already tender walls, and that feeling in his guts began to build again.

Eijirou didn’t stop pouring everything he had into Katsuki, and he had no choice but to take it, take it, take it, until he spilled again between his legs, stomach stretched so full his skin stung with it. The scent of rut felt like it was permeating into him, fogging his mind even as he stroked a hand over a stomach already rounded enough to be full of bairns.

Could an alpha’s rut even start another’s?

The question became hazy and pointless as Katsuki felt his own scent glands begin to ache, Eijirou rumbling happily when their scents began to mingle in the air.

A low hiss of encouragement sounded as Eijirou dropped forward to cover him with his body, lapping at the bleeding claims on his neck as Katsuki chuffed and tried to shake the encroaching rut from his head, before giving in without a fight.

As soon as he was unstuck from the fat knot lodged inside him, the real fight would begin, anyway.

Katsuki awoke, stuck once again as seed began to leak around deflating knot, unsure how long had passed, but very sure he was starving to death. Eijirou whined and dragged him backwards through dirt, re-stuffing him even while spend ran down both of their thighs.

Actually-

Food didn’t matter.

Not when his mate was willing to pour another babe into him.

Darkness and light ebbed and flowed through Katsuki’s hazy mind, until he finally remembered he was alpha too, and he needed to claim his mate. Blood burst into his mouth and he drank it down, once again seed-plump belly squished between them both as Eijirou bounced him in his lap, moaning and rumbling at the sting of what might have…actually been a second claim, if he thought about it.

Katsuki awoke next to the sound of bones cracking and pain. He sat bolt upright in the previously serene clearing, turning to find his mate on all fours, drooling as he grew, scales spreading up from his hands and feet to engulf his shoulders, eating across his back and chest as he panted and then yelled out.

“K-Katsuki! What’s– happening?!” He looked scared, as scared as Katsuki felt as he made to rise, to help, but his legs crumpled beneath him after so long rutting and being taken.

There was scampering, scurrying, and the flap of hundreds of wings in all directions just before a roar burst from Eijirou’s throat and his face began to lengthen. His tail whipped out, thumping against a tree so hard the entire thing shook, and another roar echoed out.

“No, no! Don’t leave me!” Katsuki panicked, sure that Eijirou was shedding his human skin to return to the gods as he watched him grow and grow. It was beautiful, breathtaking, but he cursed the gods with everything he had as Eijirou reached the canopy above, head breaking through as he thrashed it from side to side and trees crashed outwards.

The rut-hide they’d barely used splintered beneath a huge foot, and Katsuki finally scrambled up and backwards, never taking his eyes off his mate. Eijirou didn’t squash him, even as he knocked another tree down and the ground shook with the crash, dirt flying up from ancient roots, even insects scurrying for their lives.

Red slitted eyes met Katsuki’s when Eijirou glanced down forlornly at the mess he was making, before he shot straight up through the canopy and into the sky.

“No! NO!” Katsuki staggered to his feet to grab for whichever of their trousers he laid a hand on first, and then his boots, still pulling one on as he took off, running after the next roar that sounded from high above. “EIJIROU?!”

He was not losing Eijirou this soon, he’d fight any fucking god that tried to take him!

He could see him as a shadow over the trees, making lapping circles overhead and crying out. He had to be confused; Katsuki was confused. He hadn’t vanished into the heavens, he simply roared and flew around.

Katsuki made it to the raised mosaic ruins, frowning up as he watched fire precede the shadow of Eijirou’s body overhead this time. Maybe he could climb a pillar to get a better vantage? He was so exhausted from rutting when he wasn’t supposed to be, and his legs still felt like pottage, but he’d make it work.

He was alpha, strong, and his mate needed him.

Katsuki bellowed his intent up through the opening in the canopy, and bolted to grab what he’d need. Before he’d gathered enough vines to twist into a makeshift rope though, Eijirou landed heavily between the pillars, shaking the ground so hard Katsuki almost fell. Bits of mosaic broke away from the platform, but the art mostly remained intact as Eijirou shook his head from side to side as though to clear it, and slowly began to shrink. Scales shed from him like glittering jewels, tinkling as they rolled and mixed with mosaic tiles until it became clear some were what was in the images.

Katsuki didn’t care.

He bolted up ancient steps, vine rope discarded without thought as he threw himself at a half-form Eijirou’s flank, palms burning as he knocked scales to the ground himself, terrified that if he let go he’d lose the man he loved forever.

Eijirou collapsed to his knees and hands, back heaving with desperate breaths as Katsuki followed, stroking, touching. His eyes were wide, pupils blown round as they never were until they finally snapped back into slits and closed as his strength left him completely. Katsuki gathered him right into his lap, rocking them as he growled up warningly at the sky that had almost taken his mate.

A while passed. How long, Katsuki wasn’t sure, but nothing else mattered when Eijirou groaned and finally lolled his head back to look up at him. A tired smile lit his face like the beams of sunlights streaming in through the tattered canopy above them, and a breathless chuckle sounded.

“I think you made me whole,” Eijirou closed his eyes again, and Katsuki gripped him tighter, the lump stuck in his throat finally easing.

“You didn’t leave me. You didn’t choose to be a god…” he felt a tear run down his cheek, and his scent must have changed, because Eijirou frowned and sat to pull him in too.

“Fool,” he admonished with a kiss to Katsuki’s head, and another, and another, “I’ve only ever been a man,” he stroked, and it was Katsuki’s turn to laugh deliriously against a scale free pec as he was pulled even closer. “I think we were always meant to change. To…shift between, but I never knew how. There was always something missing. I think it was just happiness.”

“That’s s-stupid.” Katsuki’s voice cracked with a sob, but he was also just happy to still have Eijirou.

Eijirou, who snorted his disbelief as he always did. “If the gods are real then, do you really think I’d choose that over you?” He compromised, and Katsuki slowly shook his head, unsure until that light-bright grin cracked Eijirou’s face.

Their next kiss tasted like tears and exhaustion, but it was probably Katsuki’s favourite so far.

“Do you have everything?” Eijirou asked from near the splintered, flattened rut-hide they’d have to rebuild before his next one, and Katsuki huffed, gazing around.

“We ate the jerky you didn’t trample into the dirt, and the only other thing intact is a couple of blankets and the clothes I’m wearing, so yeah.” He settled a hand on his dagger-less hip and chewed his lip. His favourite dagger was in his pack, the handle broken and the tang bent, but still fixable at least. “You’re not trekking all the way down the mountain naked, your feet are back to human now,” he pointed out, and an almost sheepish smile settled on Eijirou’s face.

“Well, I was actually thinking we might…fly?” He suggested, and Katsuki’s eyes blew wide. Eijirou was quick to hold up his hands, claws back to their usual size, “before you say no– think of your mother’s reaction when you ride a dragon home and then–”

“Yes. Deal,” Katsuki cut him off before he’d even finished his argument. He still completely believed Eijirou to be a child of his gods, his faith couldn’t be shaken so easily, but they were the only ones that knew a godling might be able to shed its human skin at will.

When Eijirou was ready to try again, they moved to the wide mosaic floor of the ruined platform, and Katsuki waited at the base of the steps. The transformation, the shift, was quicker this time, and far less terrifying for both of them.

Eijirou lowered his head as best he could so that Katsuki could climb up to sit between his shoulders, a huge spine behind and in front of him to grab on to, and a blanket from the rut-hide tossed beneath him for…comfort.

Eijirou had insisted, determined to protect a bairn that might not even exist, and Katsuki followed the instruction with a small smile on his face. It didn’t really matter if it had taken this time, they’d simply try until it did.

He…hoped it had though.

Katsuki yelled when they shot into the air, birds once again squawking warnings over the forest as they flew out in every direction. He gripped the spine between his legs hard, wind whipping at his face and hair, long braid and tattered cape flailing in the air as a rough, disbelieving laugh burst from him after the initial fear.

“YES EIJIROU!” He bellowed over the wind, followed by another yell as he threw his head back. He slapped a hand to Ruby red scales affectionately, and Eijirou gave a roar so loud Katsuki saw birds almost a mile away take flight.

They flew along the length of the Draig mountain range, and Katsuki realised he could see other openings in the canopy with glints of white peeking through. There were caves around the very top of the highest peak, the one that no one dared scale, and he wanted to know everything.

He was already making notes of the places they needed to see in his mind as Eijirou swept a turn and headed back towards the village. The sun was dipping towards the horizon, the sky a flash of fire as they dipped, Katsuki’s face and chest cold and his ears rushing like waves from the wind.

The entire village was out, watching their approach, and everyone dropped to their knees as Eijirou swept right over the tents to land past the large feasting area. They came running, awe on every single face as they beheld a god with their own eyes for the first time.

Several shouts echoed as they noticed the figure on its back, and even more when they realised it was Katsuki.

Katsuki knew he shouldn’t be prideful, but he couldn’t help the smug smirk that kicked his lips up when his mother broke through the line of warriors at the front and her eyes bulged.

“Katsuki?!” She demanded, breathless and relieved, a hand over her heart as the fur atop her rich purple cape shook with her realisation that he was alive, eyes brimming wet.

Katsuki had no idea how long they’d been gone, and his mother wasn’t evil, only misguided and driven by tradition, but he did revel, just a little, in worrying her.

He climbed down as far as he could and leapt the rest of the way to the ground, tossing his battered pack aside uncaringly as Eijirou moved, shrinking as he disappeared around the lone tent at the very edge of the feasting area, used for clay plates and roasting spits.

“Mother,” Katsuki failed to reign in another smirk as Mitsuki’s attention flicked between him and the now apparently vanished dragon he had rode in on, “let me re-introduce you to my mate.” His lifted a hand to several gasps as Eijirou walked casually from behind the tent, the blanket from his back wrapped around his waist to preserve his modesty.

Or rather, preserve the tribe’s eyes, because Katsuki wouldn’t hesitate to poke any out that wandered lustily over what was his.

Mitsuki gaped, fear, awe, and then pride flashing across her face like lightning strikes, until a single, disbelieving, “HA!” Burst from her, breaking the dam. She laughed, tipping her head back for a long moment before calming enough to speak. “Of course you had to win over a god.” She chuffed, just as Eijirou’s arm wrapped around Katsuki’s shoulders. She didn’t mention bairns, instead snapping over her shoulder for one of the nearest alpha’s to go fetch Eijirou’s garb so he could dress, but he shook his head.

“Actually, I’ll just steal a pair of Katsuki’s trews, please!” He called, and the man stopped long enough for confirmation, before he took off again, his task clear.

“Stealing?” Katsuki raised a brow, and Eijirou grinned down at him, one hand skimming his lower belly as the other pulled him in by the waist.

“Definitely stealing,” Eijirou purred, taking his lips in a show of possession that Katsuki wouldn’t dream of challenging.