Coming for the Crown

Six

Izuku was bored.

And tired.

But mostly bored.

Bored of walking in complete silence for hours. He could hear his friends talking behind him, but they never asked him anything, and Izuku wasn't the type to butt in on a conversation. So he did the next best thing.

"So, Kacchan, how have you been?"

Bakugo scowled as Izuku walked up to him, a small bounce in his step. The green haired boy was smiling, partially because it was polite, but mostly because he knew it would piss the blonde off. 

"What do you want, Deku?"

Izuku feigned a hurt expression. "Am I not allowed to ask how my old friend is doing?"

Bakugo turned away, watching the small dragon hop around on his other side. 

"We're not friends."

Izuku felt like the words had slapped him, but he tried not to let it show, smiling brighter instead.

"Awwww, that's not very nice, Kacchan."

Now Izuku was watching the little red dragon as it hopped around. It was quite entertaining, watching it climb up gnarled trees before promptly falling out of them. Every time this happened, it would look up at the tree as if the branch that the little guy had fallen from had personally offended them. 

Izuku couldn't help but be curious about the creature. He had never seen a dragon before today, but the green haired boy had heard stories. They had always sounded like large, majestic, wise creatures, not small, ditsy puppies. 

"What's their name?" Izuku could't stop the question from spilling out. He was fully prepared for Bakugo to ignore him, or to even throw something at him. He was not prepared for the blonde to answer. 

"Eijiro."

Izuku frowned. "That sounds like a person's name. Why would you name it that?"

"I named them after a... friend." Bakugo almost spat out the word 'friend' as if it tasted bad in his mouth. Izuku just stared at the blonde in shock.

"Kacchan has friends?" 

Bakugo scoffed, not looking at Izuku.

"Of course I have friends. How else would I get the things I need to survive? Do you think I know how to make clothing? The only reason I tolerate those idiots is because they get stuff for me."

Izuku nodded, putting on a serious expression. "Of course. Because no one would ever want to be friends with you anyway."

Bakugo smacked him on the arm before walking ahead. Clearly, the conversation was now over. Despite everything, Izuku found himself smiling at the blonde. It was true that Bakugo wasn't a people person. But if he was really making friends, despite whatever terrible excuses he was giving, then maybe he really had changed. 

........................................................................................................

(A/N) I have a kitten in my lap :)