Death Paradox 💥BAKUDEKU💥

Chapter 29

The Emperor

✧༺✦✮✦༻✧

Chapter 29

Katsuki stirred, the first pricks of consciousness crawling sluggishly back into his body. His head throbbed with a dull, relentless ache, like someone had been banging a drum inside his skull for hours. His mouth was dry, his limbs heavy, but none of it mattered as his senses slowly began to register his surroundings.

Where the hell was he?

He blinked against the dim light filtering through a partially shuttered window, his vision still swimming. The ceiling above him was wooden, beams worn smooth with age. It wasn't the jagged ice and relentless cold he'd grown used to. It was... warm. Soft. Katsuki shifted slightly, feeling the weight of thick, woolen blankets draped over him. The faint scent of something herbal—lavender, maybe, or chamomile—lingered in the air, mingling with the faint crackle of a hearth nearby.

His eyes scanned the room, slow and methodical, noting the sturdy wooden furniture, the faint glow of lantern light casting shadows across the walls. It was a far cry from the unforgiving frozen wastelands they'd fought through. For a moment, he wondered if he had died, and this was a new parallel, but the tattoo on his wrist and the throbbing in his head quickly put that thought to rest.

Then his nose caught it—a faint, familiar scent. Jasmine.

Katsuki turned his head slightly, his breath hitching as his gaze fell on the figure slumped beside the bed. Sitting in a wooden chair, his upper body draped over the edge of the mattress, was Izuku. His wild green curls fell over his face, his chest rising and falling in the steady rhythm of sleep. One hand rested loosely near Katsuki's arm, the other tucked beneath his head like a makeshift pillow.

He was alive.

Katsuki's heart did something stupid and soft in his chest, like it'd skipped a beat before settling back into its usual stubborn rhythm. Izuku was safe. Here. Breathing. Not lost in that frozen hellscape, not torn apart by the Leviathan, not killed by the Maw or the Demon after them but right here within arm's reach.

Without thinking, his hand moved. Slowly, hesitantly, like he wasn't sure if this was real or if he'd just imagined it all in his head. His fingers brushed against Izuku's cheek, and he froze for a moment, half expecting the nerd to wake up and start babbling a mile a minute. But Izuku didn't stir.

Katsuki's thumb traced the faint line of his cheekbone, the skin warm under his calloused fingers. His touch lingered, his hand cradling Izuku's face as if grounding himself in the reality of this moment. The dark circles under his eyes stood out even more up close, and Katsuki's jaw tightened.

What the hell had Izuku been doing while he was out? Worrying himself sick?

As if in answer to Katsuki's unspoken question, a familiar presence brushed against the corner of his mind, warm and steady. A voice, deep and tinged with overwhelming relief, spoke down the bond.

Master, you're awake.

Katsuki let out a soft, ragged sigh, the tension he hadn't even realized he was holding melting away at the sound of Kirishima's voice. The bond hummed faintly, carrying not just words but emotions—relief, warmth, and an undeniable undercurrent of protectiveness that seeped into Katsuki's chest.

"Tch," Katsuki muttered under his breath, his fingers twitching against Izuku's cheek before he let his hand fall to his side. Took you long enough to check in, Shitty Scales.

Kirishima's voice came through the bond again, but this time it was quieter, tinged with something Katsuki wasn't used to hearing from his dragon: pain.