"What's going on?" came a voice from the doorway, startling Akumu and Aku.
Izuku stood there, frozen, recognizing the dress to be the one his mother wore on her wedding day, when she got married to Aku.
"Getting this dress ready to be given to you," Aku replied quickly, "I figured, since it was your mothers, you deserve to have it."
Izuku nodded hesitantly, allowing Aku to continue, "Especially since your mother intended for it to go to your future bride to wear, so it could stay in the family."
The excuse sounded fake, and Izuku was skeptical of his step fathers true intentions, but didn't question him, not wanting to risk upsetting Aku.
"I suppose you can look for a bride at the masked ball the King and queen are hosting," the Baron added, noticing Izuku's uncertainty.
Akumu scoffed, but stayed silent.
"You want me to go to the masked ball with you?" Izuku asked, taken aback by this sudden proposition.
Aku nodded, forcing a smile, "of course, it makes me sad that you don't consider yourself to be part of the family."
~
Katsuki stood on the river bank, watching Mina set up a strange contraption.
"Do you really think there is only one perfect mate?" he asked, continuing their conversation about soul mates.
Ashido nodded, "as a matter of fact, I do."
"Well then how can you be certain to find them?" Katsuki puzzled, "And if you do find them, are they really the one for you, or do you only think they are? And what happens if the person you're supposed to be with never appears, or they do, but you're too distracted to notice?"
Mina looked at him with confusion, trying to follow his rambling with little luck.
"You learn to pay attention," she shrugged.
"Then, let's say two people find each other, but one of them dies. What then? Is that it?" He paused, pacing back and forth, "or purchase you meet someone new and marry all over again? Is that the person you're supposed to be with or was it the first? And if so, when the two of them were walking side by side, were they both the one for you and you just happened to meet the first one first?"
At this point, even Katsuki was confusing himself.
He stopped, trying to make sense of his thoughts.
Mina appeared at his side, an amused smile on her lips, "you cannot leave everything to fate. She's got a lot to do, sometimes you must give her a hand."
She placed what looked like a pair of wooden shoes on the sand, and Katsuki chuckled, "what's this project?"
"Would you care to see if they work?"
They both laughed, Katsuki picking up a stone and skipping it a couple times across the water.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, Izuku set down the basket of berries, glancing down at his dirty hands with a frown. The day was getting hotter and a layer of sweat had appeared on his body.
He walked towards the water, letting the waves wash away the dirt.
He walked until he was able to lay on his back and swim.
It was peaceful here, far away from the chaos of the kingdom. Izuku closed his eyes, allowing the current to do most of the work.
"It looks like rain," came a voice from above him, and Izuku's eyes snapped open as he let out a yelp of surprise.
The woman, who had appeared to be walking on water, fell backwards, hitting the water with a splash.
"Signora Ashido," came a concerned voice from the shore on the other side of the river, "are you alright?"
"I should leave walking on water to the son of God," the woman, Signora Ashido, joked, "fortunately I tripped over an angel."
Izuku finally got a good look at the two people and felt himself still at the sight of the prince.
"Your highness," Izuku squeaked, instinctively going to kneel and momentarily forgetting he was still in the river, until Izuku's hand hit the water.
The greenette felt hit cheeks go red with embarrassment, "Oh, uh, careful, it's really slippery right there," Izuku floundered, standing up quickly.
"Here, please, allow me," Katsuki took off his cape, draping it around Izuku without a second thought.
"Thank you," Izuku smiled, suddenly having a strange feeling, almost like butterflies.
T.B.C
I made the mistake of completely turning off my computer while I was camping without saving like half of this chapter so I had to rewrite most of it...
Luckily our campgrounds has a building that provides WiFi so since I wrote the first part of the chapter while I was on WiFi, not all of it was deleted...
Anyways, as usual, please lmk if you see any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'll be back next week with another one...
~A
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Ever After (BakuDeku)
Fanfiction~Rags to riches~ Katsuki is a prince who'd rather be anywhere else than at the palace, forced to fit his parents expectations. When his mother announces he must find someone to marry before their upcoming masked ball or be forced into an arranged ma...
