“They say dragons grow into trees when they die, you know.”

Eijirou sounds thoughtful as he says this out of the blue one morning when he and Katsuki are out relaxing by the pond. They are lying on their backs, drying off under the warmth of the sun after a swim. For the past twenty minutes, Eijirou has been pointing out different cloud shapes in the sky. (He teases that it’s because Katsuki lacks an imagination, but Katsuki can’t see any of the shapes as the things Eijirou claims them to be.)

Apparently the “dragon” Eijirou first spotted up there has shifted enough to take on a stronger resemblance to a tree. It looks a lot like a plain fluffy cloud to Katsuki, who rolls his eyes and shoves his shoulder into Eijirou’s.

“Yeah?” Katsuki asks. “Who is ‘they’?”

Eijirou shrugs. “I don’t know, that’s just the legend around here. You must have heard about it when you came searching for a dragon to beat.” The side of his mouth twitches like he’s suppressing a smile (or perhaps the urge to tease Katsuki yet again for the day he marched into the woods to defeat a dragon and instead stumbled upon the shifter bathing as a human in this very pond). “That’s the reason no one will disturb this mountain range. So many of these trees are supposedly what’s left of centuries of dragons before we became scarce. It’s not just the trees either. The moss and the boulders, too. These mountains are rumored to be made of dragons. It’s believed to be a place of powerful magic.”

Katsuki looks around at the massive trees that make up the forest along the mountainside. There are many giants among them, towering high above the height of Eijirou’s dragon form, but he’s never given much thought to them before now. Some grow up from wide bases of thick roots, though. Katsuki tries to imagine them sprouting from the collapsed body of a massive dragon, how those roots may have formed from the legs and the wide trunk may have sprouted from it’s back, reaching high toward the sky.

He turns his head to look at his lover. Eijirou wears a frown, his bottom lip jutting out in a pout as he glares up at the cloud like it’s offended him. “Well, is it true?” Katsuki asks.

Eijirou shrugs. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve always been alone here as long as I can remember. I’ve never met another live dragon, let alone seen one die.” Sighing, he turns his head to meet Katsuki’s gaze. “Sometimes I think I feel them here, though. Maybe that’s why I never wanted to leave the mountain, even if it was always just wishful thinking to stop it feeling so lonely.”

Katsuki brushes the tips of their noses together. “You’re not lonely anymore.”

Eijirou kisses him and grins. “Nope. Not lonely anymore.”

He rolls onto his side to rest his head on Katsuki’s chest. After a moment he sighs again and weaves his fingers between Katsuki’s. “It wouldn’t be so bad, though. To be a part of this forest someday if that’s the way it goes. Maybe right here by our pond.”

“Fuck that,” Katsuki says. “You and I are going to be by each other’s side forever. No dying.”

Eijirou doesn’t say anything about Katsuki’s mortality being so much more fragile than is own, so neither does Katsuki.

~~~

“Please be safe, Katsuki.”

Eijirou speaks softly, eyes closed and breath ghosting over Katsuki’s lips as they press their foreheads together. They’ve managed to step away from the rest of their group for a moment to say goodbye before they separate for their different missions.

A day earlier, Deku and his merry band of nerds had shown up seeking help to fight off a great threat to the kingdom of Musutafu: the evil sorcerer All for One preparing to conjure an army of demons against them. After much discussion, it was decided that Katsuki and Deku will head off with All Might, the only sorcerer who ever rivaled him in the hope of vanquishing the evil. Eijirou and their other allies will remain in Musutafu to defend it.

They’re standing near the edge of the pond. Eijirou holds him tight with his fists balled up in the back of Katsuki’s jacket. Katsuki has one hand settled on Eijirou’s waist, rubbing his thumb over his hip bone, and the other cupping the side of his neck.

“Don’t worry about me,” Katsuki tells him. “I’m going to go kick this bastard’s ass and make him sorry he ever fucked with us. Still wish you were coming along instead of Deku, though.” He tilts Eijirou’s chin up and presses their lips together, lingering there for an indulgent moment until he hears his name being called in the distance.

Growling, Katsuki opens his eyes. “I think it’s time for me to get going.”

But Eijirou grabs him by the face and forces their mouths back together. He invites Katsuki with a nip at his bottom lip, breathes him in when Katsuki responds by deepening the kiss and pressing their bodies closer together.

Kissing Eijirou has a similar weightless feeling to flight perched on the dragon’s back, high in the sky above everything but the clouds. It’s intoxicating and addictive, and hell, Katsuki does not want to go anywhere without him. He’s looking at days — maybe weeks — of travel with just Deku and that dumb giant gecko, but no spiky red hair tickling his ear during an embrace, no rough hands running over his arms to warm him at night, no kisses that taste like woodfire smoke.

And there’s this undeniable feeling Katsuki doesn’t dare to admit that any danger they face apart is greater than it would be if they tackled it together.

“Come back home, okay?” Eijirou says against his lips.

Katsuki smirks. “You just take care of things on your end. Make sure there is a home to come back to.”

He doesn’t tell Eijirou to stay safe, because he doesn’t think (or doesn’t want to, at least) that he needs to. If there’s one thing Katsuki believes in as much as himself, it’s that the man he loves — this incredible, fire-breathing dragon — is unbreakable.

~~~

“I’m sorry, Katsuki.”

Eijirou’s voice is weak as Katsuki drops to his knees beside him. His clammy skin looks so pale that it’s almost gray, and he takes in heavy, uneven breaths despite the fact that he’s hardly moved. Gone are his usual spikes of bright red as his hair is pushed messily away from his face, slick with sweat. He’s resting in a pile of blankets, probably made up by Ponytail, with one hand pulled out from his cocoon to reach for Katsuki.

Katsuki holds on as tightly as he can.

Arriving back to Musutafu from a successful quest, Katsuki had been greeted by that Half and Half prince, riding in on his white horse like he was on a mission. Eijirou was injured while protecting the kingdom, he told Katsuki. He was the only one who could have taken on one of All for One’s worst creatures, a massive rock-like beast, but the cost was grave. “Our healers said he’s beyond their help. He doesn’t have long.”

Of course this is the place Eijirou would ask to come. The pond. The stupid pond where they met, where they spent so many of their days, and where Eijirou talked about how dragons die. This stupid pond where they said goodbye before his quest, except it wasn’t meant to be goodbye…

This is how the Katsuki’s world falls apart. Not losing to the ultimate evil or with their entire home kingdom crushed under a hoard of beasts, but with the news Eijirou has only been hanging on for him. It’s ending in the same place it felt like it really began.

His eyes fill with tears, hot and angry like the rage he wishes he could let explode out of him. But if these are to be his final moments with Eijirou, he can’t let it be that.

“You better be, you big dumb asshole,” Katsuki growls, but the fingers he combs through Eijirou’s hair are soft and gentle. “What did you say about staying safe, huh? Why didn’t you listen to your own rule?”

“I made sure there was a home to come back to,” he jokes feebly.

Katsuki’s bottom lip wobbles, so he looks up at the sky to attempt to regain his composure. Sucking in a shaky breath, he settles his gaze on an oddly shaped cloud. He’s not one for cloud-watching, but it unmistakably has the shape of a dragon spreading its wings wide as it glides across the sky. He’s so taken aback by the sight that he forgets he’s supposed to be holding back tears until they’re already streaming down his face.

“Hey,” Eijirou says, tugging on his hand. “Katsuki, please…”

Katsuki runs his hand down his face and presses his fingers against his stinging eyes. “It sounds like you were fucking amazing, because of course you were. But…” Clenching his jaw tightly, he swallows down the sob that’s trying to fight its way out of his throat. “Damn it, Ei.”

The dragon shifter’s face scrunches as his composure fails, and Katsuki is a coward who folds over, resting his head against Eijirou’s shoulder rather than watch him cry.

“Forever, remember?” he says, grabbing a fistfull of the blanket over Eijirou’s chest. “No dying.”

“I’m sorry,” Eijirou whispers in his ear, but Katsuki shakes his head.

“Please don’t go,” he begs. “I love you so fucking much, Eijirou.”

There’s a painful hitch in Eijirou’s breathing, and his fingers loosen their hold in Katsuki’s hand. “I’ll love you forever.” His voice is so soft that Katsuki barely hears it. He’s fading.

Their last kiss isn’t deep or intense like many they’ve had over the years. Katsuki is so often greedy with his kisses, lips pushing hard, tongue seeking to tangle with Eijirou’s, mouth pressing and insistent until the moment they’re both past the point of needing more air. He takes them whenever he wants with a hunger that’s trying to absorb everything Eijirou is, and Eijirou responds just as hungrily. But today, Eijirou is fragile.

Katsuki just holds his face gently in his hands and lightly brushes their lips together. Salty tears mix where their lips meet, but even through them Katsuki can still taste woodfire in Eijirou’s last breath.

And then that’s it. Eijirou becomes still, and his eyes don’t open again.

“Eijirou?” he asks fearfully, but there’s not even the hint of a breath against his face. Katsuki is shaking as he gathers him up into his arms, and a cry tears itself from his throat, low and feral like a wounded animal. Eijirou’s entire body seems limp and boneless, and his head lolls to the side.

“Is he…” Sero doesn’t finish his question, but it sounds like maybe Ashido has started crying, too.

None of the friends standing behind Katsuki step forward to intrude on his mourning, so he doesn’t acknowledge them, doesn’t take his anguish out on them. But he feels raw, like his chest has been ripped open and his still beating heart held out on display for them to watch as it slows to a painful halt.

The interruption comes from an unexpected source, though, as bright light emits from Eijirou’s entire body, causing Katsuki to startle and back away.

“What’s happening?” Kaminari asks, but they’ve all seen this before.

It’s like every time Eijirou has ever shifted from one form to the other in a burst of white light. Sure enough, his shape changes, and a moment later they’re left with the body of a great red dragon, the magic keeping his human form having faded away. The dragon isn’t done changing, though, and it’s different than Katsuki imagined when Eijirou first pondered a dragon’s ending. Thick tree roots seem to grow over him instead of from him. They snake over and wind themselves around until he’s disappearing underneath.

It seems there’s truth to those old rumors about these mountains, because in minutes, in Eijirou’s place stands a tree with a massive trunk that twists and grows up toward the sky, leaning toward the pond before spreading wide into branches covered in tiny spring buds.

Katsuki stands at its base between two giant roots to stare up at it for a long time, while everyone else seems to remain stunned into silence. He hears Eijirou’s voice from his memory.

“It wouldn’t be so bad, though. To be a part of this forest someday if that’s the way it goes. Maybe right here by our pond.”

Katsuki snorts. “Eijirou, you asshole,” he says in disbelief.

He has to cover his mouth as the laughter starts to bubble out of him, but it manages to come out harder, shaking his entire body, nearly doubling him over as pain stabs at his ribs and makes him forget how to breathe. It feels empty and bitter and not at all the way Eijirou is supposed to make him laugh.

It brings tears with it too.

Maybe he’s lost all sense because throws a punch at the dumb tree that’s replaced the man he loves. “Give him back.”

A jab from his other hand hurts, but it seems to reignite the spark of anger in him. Anger is good. Anger he can work with. Anger throws another punch, harder this time, making his knuckles sting in a satisfying way. “ Give him back,” he snarls.

He strikes the tree over and over again and throws his friends off of him when they try to pull him away. His fists are bloody and hurt too much to open at the point that he finally runs out of steam. With his energy drained, he collapses against the tree, lowering to his knees and scraping his forehead on the rough tree bark in his descent.

...One day, when things have settled in their post-war kingdom, Katsuki will make his home here on the side of this pond. And on a day much further from that, it’ll be his resting place, too.

~~~

“Hey Bakugou, this looks like a great place to stop for a break! It’s gorgeous down there.”

Kirishima sounds excited as he looks down the path to a small pond.

It’s a oddly warm day in March during the break between first and second year at UA. They’ve been planning on this hike for more than a month, ever since the day Kirishima started nagging Katsuki about his spring break plans. It had been a long time since Katsuki got to unwind his favorite way, and if Kirishima hadn’t insisted they do this, he might have gone another full school year until he found himself hiking a mountainside.

Their first year in the Heroics Course at UA was a bit chaotic, to say the least: villain attacks, kidnappings, retired heroes, remedial courses, secret quirks that can move from one user to the next, and everything else in between. In his desire to push further and achieve higher, Katsuki almost forgot how good it could feel to hike out into the wilderness and forget all of that. Hiking has just always been one of the few things that could easily calm the storm that’s always brewing inside Katsuki’s head.

Kirishima is another of them.

“Alright,” Katsuki agrees, though he’s hardly even looked at the pond Kirishima found. He’s too distracted by bright eyes, a sharp smile, and the sun freckles forming on the bridge of his nose (because the idiot clearly thought a hike this early in the year would mean no need for sunscreen). The corners of Kirishima’s eyes scrunch adorably as he smiles wider before leading the way down the short path downhill.

They drop their bags at the bottom of a large tree, and Kirishima makes a scene of dramatically stretching his arms over his head with a big sigh. “Oh man, I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night,” he says, sounding too cheerful for someone complaining of exhaustion. “I’m totally beat.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes and sits down beside his bag to rummage through it for his bag of jerky. “Don’t tell me you already want to call it quits. You knew it was going to be an early morning.”

“Yeah, I know.” Kirishima smiles as he plops down beside him with his forearms resting on his knees. “But I was too excited to fall asleep.”

“Or to let me sleep,” Katsuki scolds around the strip of jerky he’s biting. He offers the bag to Kirishima, who greedily tears into the largest piece he can find.

“Sorry, man.”

He doesn’t really sound apologetic, and Katsuki doesn’t really mind. He did stay up talking through the night with Kirishima without any pressuring, after all, before letting the comfortable sound of Kirishima’s voice carry him off to sleep. Not so different from a typical Saturday night in the UA dormitories, if Katsuki’s honest. It’s worth shaving off a little bit of his sleeping time just to have more time around Kirishima. He likes talking late with him and drifting off to his voice.

He just likes Kirishima.

A little red-brown lizard scuttles over the tree root by Katsuki’s leg, and Katsuki cups his hands around it to pick it up. “Hey there, little guy,” he says with a grin as it crawls around his hand and up his arm. When Kirishima snorts, Katsuki shoots him a half-hearted glare and grabs the lizard from where it’s climbed onto his shoulder. “You laughing at me?”

“It’s just really cute,” Kirishima says fondly.

Face feeling hot, Katsuki scoffs and lifts his wiggly little companion up to the tree trunk to put it down. Both boys watch it scramble up the tree only to disappear up into the branches a moment later.

It’s the first time Katsuki really takes a good look at where they’ve set up for their break. The tree above them is one of the largest he’s seen during their hike. Its roots are so big that Kirishima and Katsuki are practically nested cozily between a pair of them like the sides of wide chair. Though it doesn’t reach particularly high in comparison to some, it has an immense trunk and a broad reach with its branches — still rather bare at this time of year, except for the small flower buds of early spring.

Kirishima stands and stares up into the tree branches, his eyes seeming to stop on a lower, thick bough. “You know, I don’t think I’ve actually climbed a tree since I was a kid.”

“Weren’t you the one just complaining that you’re tired?” Katsuki asks.

Kirishima ignores him and points to the bough. “Bet you can’t climb up as fast as I can,” he challenges.

Since Katsuki never has to be asked twice to a competition, he stands and dusts off the back of his pants with a smirk. “No quirks.”

They bump the sides of their fists against each other’s in agreement and waste no time to rush to the top. The tree’s bark is thick and rough, making for decent enough handholds for them both, especially considering the way the trunk leans to the side instead of growing straight up. Katsuki is a climbing enthusiast, though, and his shoes have much better traction than the sneakers Kirishima wore for their outing.

He beats him to the branch — barely — laughing victoriously as he sits with his legs dangling and offers Kirishima a hand up to sit beside him.

“Damn,” Kirishima complains, but his smile is as big as ever. He squeezes into the spot where the branch is widest, right between Katsuki and the trunk, and has to curl in his broad shoulders a bit to fit. Katsuki doesn’t bother to make more room for him — rather, he uses the pitch of the branch as an excuse to lean into him some more.

Kirishima seems comfortable enough this way. He swings his legs like a little kid and looks down into the pond that the branch extends over. “We better not fall from up here,” he says. “I don’t think either of us wants to hike back cold and wet.”

Katsuki hums in agreement but he has a different kind of falling in mind, anyway. The kind where you’re sitting perfectly still but your head feels like it’s spinning looking at a pair of too-pretty eyes and a smile that could rip right into you (and does, just not the way you’d expect). The kind where your skin tingles at every point of contact, and it makes your heart race like you’re leaping into an abyss.

The kind where you’re kissing your best friend. And he’s kissing you back. And it's new but somehow familiar and feels like the promise of forever.