Chapter Text
Eijirou wakes Izuku up with an obnoxious shove, accompanied by a laugh at his reaction as his arms scramble for purchase, and it's the beginning of a long sequence of things going horribly wrong for the King-to-be.
Panicked thinking something was wrong, Izuku bolts up, looking shocked like he’d just been doused with ice water instead of a playful push, and Eijirou only doubles over, laughing harder until the Prince understands that there’s no danger and he huffs a loud sigh. “Don’t scare me like that!” He chides. “Where’s the fire?”
“Within us all,” Eijirou says solemnly, one fist over his heart and his eyes closed, mouth in a serious line before he breaks character and is laughing again, but only for a moment before he calms for real and fixes Izuku with a nervous frown. “No, but, uhh, bad news. You know how there was all that talk about your betrothal and stuff? Well, it, er, wasn’t just talk.” Izuku’s face falls the more Eijirou talks, and he feels awful for being the one to bring misery to his Prince, but there’s more. “And, um, he’s coming. Here. In three days.” At every addition of information, Izuku’s eyebrows shoot up even further, and before Ei can continue, he’s speaking himself.
“What, and my parents didn’t think to tell me until three days before he arrives? When is the wedding meant to be?”
“Well, see, they didn’t want to tell you until closer to his arrival because of who it was,” Ei says carefully, fidgeting. He only fidgets and chooses his words when awful news is coming, and Izuku braces for it, then nods quietly. “Are you familiar with the kingdom of Dynamight?”
“KACCHAN?!” Izuku squawks, and Eijirou is a little taken aback by the volume, cringing at the sound. “Sorry,” he says immediately after as his manservant nods. Izuku continues to stare in shock as he processes the information. Then, again, “When’s the wedding?”
“Oh! Right. Uhh, not right away thankfully. He’s coming to spend a few months here getting used to the place before everything is settled.” Eijirou gives a cheeky smile. “I assume you’ve met before?”
Izuku has many memories involving Katsuki Bakugou, the only Prince of Dynamight. Most involve Izuku being trapped in a headlock.
“Wait, isn’t he an Alpha?” Izuku’s confused frown deepens, and he lifts his blanket up finally to sit at the edge of the bed, upon which Eijirou moves to begin dressing the Prince. “Why am I engaged to another Alpha?”
“Uhh… Hmm. Good question,” Eijirou nods. Izuku stands as Ei picks his clothes from the wardrobe. “I had no idea he was an Alpha. Seems like a strange choice.”
“Maybe my parents picked him because I already kind of know him?” Izuku offers weakly, brow still furrowed in thought even as Eijirou dresses him. “But it’s been years since I’ve even seen him – we haven’t seen each other since before we presented.”
“I’m sure The King and Queen have your best interest at heart.”
“I’m sure they do. I’m also sure they’ve forgotten how much of a bully Kacchan was to me. But definitely not how attached I was to him as a child.” He sighs. He’d never talked about Katsuki to Eijirou before. He’d never come up until the day he found out he was engaged to the man. “He was the only friend I had growing up, because our Mothers were such good friends we would see each other all the time.
“But then we stopped going on the trips with our parents because we were too old for it, and all of a sudden it’s been years. I wonder if he’s changed.”
“Have you?” Eijirou asks, and Izuku considers that for a long moment before laughing lightly.
“I suppose I have,” he nods, a smile spreading across his face.
---------------
At breakfast, Izuku isn’t as angry as he thought he’d be when he heard the news initially. He fixes both his parents with a gaze, but it’s not particularly hostile.
“Ah,” Inko starts, looking a tad nervous regardless. “Eijirou told you?”
“He tells me everything,” Izuku answers. “That’s his job.”
“I suppose so,” she gives a small sigh, and gestures to his empty seat. Only when Izuku is seated does Eijirou take the seat on his right hand side, settling in quietly. “We wanted to tell you ourselves,” Inko continues.
“Once we got confirmation,” Toshinori adds, fingers laced together and chin resting atop his linked hands.
“I can understand that,” Izuku allows, “but another Alpha? What possessed you to set me up with Kacchan of all people?”
“Oh, so you do remember him!” Toshinori exclaims with a smile at the same time Inko says,
“Sweetie, Katsuki’s not an Alpha,” and breakfast stops.
The whole world stops.
Ringing in Izuku’s ears are taunts from Katsuki about the green haired boy growing up to be a weak Omega, and how Katsuki comes from a long line of superior Alpha, that he was going to be the best Alpha there was and conquer the world.
Well, he supposed Yuuei was still under All Might’s rule.
“… Beta?” Izuku asks, and Inko shakes her head slowly.
Izuku and Eijirou both stare at her with varying levels of shock, and she takes notice, because she laughs nervously and waves at them. “Oh gosh, has it really been that long since you saw each other?”
Gobsmacked, all Izuku can say is, “Wha- how?! Kacchan, the kid who got me in a headlock and chased me all around the palace whenever he got the chance, and told me how he was going to conquer the world all by himself with his Alpha strength – is an Omega?!”
Toshinori watches the incredulous rant with an air of awe, and Inko with an awkward smile.
“Funny how life turns out, isn’t it?” She laughs lightly, and Izuku thinks this might be too much information for one morning, so he slumps back in his chair and he can already hear echoes of Inko chiding him for doing so as a child, but she doesn’t say anything now. It’s a lot to take in. “I’m sure Eijirou told you that he’s coming here to visit as well?”
“Yes – wait, Ei said three days. That must mean he’s already on his way if he’s that close.”
Inko looks embarrassed, and Toshinori answers for her with a nod. “That’s right. Don’t worry, you’ll have time to get to know each other again. That’s why he’s visiting us before the wedding.”
--------
Izuku’s not happy about the development.
Being betrothed to some random Omega was already an awful enough thought when he first realised he was not exempt from political marriages just because his Mother was kind and his Father was Yuuei’s champion, but for that Omega to be Kacchan?
He couldn’t picture the man as anything but the spitfire kid that, last time they met, his power has just come in and he’d burned off Izuku’s eyebrows. Then he’d chased Izuku all around the greenhouse until he’d found a spot secluded enough to hide in without being discovered before Katsuki was called. Izuku didn’t leave that spot even after Katsuki left, bundled up and toying with the plants around him.
After breakfast, Izuku has had enough talking, and he has energy to burn. Once out of the breakfast hall, he turns to Eijirou. “Want to spar?” He asks, but he doesn’t have the usual challenging grin he wears when he asks. Instead, he looks grumpy, and it visibly throws Eijirou, but then he flashes a grin and nods.
They change and head to the training grounds, and from there they fall into a rhythm. They’ve done this a million times, and sometimes they do genuinely try, but it’s turned into more of a dance between them – a routine that they know all the steps to. Something to fall into when something else feels uncertain.
And boy is Izuku uncertain.
Punch. Dodge. Kick. Spin. Roundhouse. Dodge. Duck.
Izuku takes down his servant by pivoting low to the ground and taking out the man’s legs from under him, then pinning him. Eijirou taps the ground beneath him as a signal he gives, and Izuku stands to give him a hand up.
“Feel better?” Ei asks with a small smile, and Izuku doesn’t, but he matches the smile and nods just the same.
“Again,” Izuku demands, hopping in place with his fists raised and ready.
-------
Those three days seem to pass in the blink of an eye.
Around the palace, nothing changes about his routine. Every other day he’s tutored by Aizawa, the King’s most trusted adviser. In between, he attends meals with his family and spends time with Toshinori, learning how to rule. He’s gone through the motions hundreds of times with them both, But Izuku doesn’t dare complain. There is always something to be learned – no one person can know everything and that is more than apparent in the way that he has taught the King a few things himself – mostly about the biology involving their dynamics and medicines designed to suppress that side of them.
Izuku is one of many Alpha that use suppressants – his ruts are like clockwork, controlled perfectly by medication, and he’s got a perfect record for an Alpha. Of course, in his eyes, this is expected of any Alpha. Anyone who cannot control themselves is not worth much, and how can he one day call himself King knowing he hurt someone?
Eijirou is lucky. Beta are lucky. To be all but scent-blind and only have the occasional heat.
Izuku is jealous of that.
Jealous of the way neutrality comes so easily to Eijirou, how his presentation never affected his stance in life and gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted.
And yet, Eijirou chose time and time again to work for Izuku.
The thought gives him confidence as he stops for a moment outside the greeting hall he knows Katsuki is in, meeting Eijirou’s eyes.
With a confused smile, he asks, “What?”
Izuku deliberates for a long moment on what he actually wants to say, and eventually settles on, “I’ll meet you at the waterfall if this goes poorly,” to which Eijirou gives a laugh and nods.
“You’ll be fine,” Eijirou encourages. “I’ll be right by your side,” he promises, and he’d known that, but it still soothes the urge to fidget.
“Thank you,” Izuku says, and presses their foreheads together, one hand on the back of the redhead’s neck.
When he holds it a moment too long, Eijirou clears his throat. Izuku releases him, and the former nods towards the door, taking a step back to allow his Prince to go first.
Everything in Izuku’s life has led to this moment. Ever since he was old enough to be aware of his position and understand that some day he may have his mate chosen for him, he’d known this day would come. It doesn’t make him any happier about it, but he can fake it to make nice with his mate-to-be.
He pushes the two ornately decorated, heavy doors open. They creak as they swing slowly open to his will, and Izuku straightens, beaming. “So sorry to keep you waiting,” he apologises as Ei closes the doors behind them. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you properly, Kacchan.” He politely offers a hand in greeting, which Katsuki does not take.
The man is almost nothing like the kid he remembered. He last saw him when they were about twelve. Katsuki had been taller than him then, just beginning to build up some muscle, bragging about how his fangs had come in before Izuku’s. His hair hasn’t changed. It’s still that gorgeous creamy blonde that makes him think of bread in the oven, but he smells like burnt caramel, and that’s new.
Both their Mothers are here too, already chatting away and steering each other to one of the balconies overlooking their extensive garden, leaving the two Princes and Eijirou alone.
“You forgotten me already?” Katsuki asks, and his voice is full of venom, his eyebrows settled into a frown Izuku is sure he’s been wearing for the last twelve years.
“I haven’t forgotten you, Kacchan,” Izuku defended, though he said it calmly. His hand closed into a fist as he took it back.
“You’re late,” he bites, shoving his hands unceremoniously into the pockets of his trousers, which appears not to be buttoned properly. Izuku maintains eye contact and tactfully does not draw attention to it. “Can’t even show up on time to meet your goddamn mate.”
Katsuki’s bitter.
That much is obvious.
Now it’s up to Izuku to… Sweeten him up, he supposes.
“I apologise for being late. I have no excuse.” He has a feeling no excuse would satisfy Katsuki even if he arrived within an inch of his life, an arrow in his chest, and a missing limb. "I thought it proper to meet you again now that we are to be mated. If I've misstepped in thinking that, I apologise."
Katsuki sneers. “Don’t call me that. We aren’t mates until you lay your perverted little claim on me.” He stepped closer, and Izuku braces, but doesn’t move as the other Prince stepped into his personal space, now face to face. “And I’d rip your throat out before you got close enough to mark me.”
Izuku notes that Katuski’s breath isn’t awful, and his skin is perfect and smooth up close. His jaw has grown sharp, and the slight muscle he’d put on as a pre-teen had grown into a considerable bulk. Even knowing the truth, Izuku hardly saw this man as an Omega, and he wondered briefly how cruel the world must have treated him to result in such hostility.
Though… Katsuki has always been this way.
“You misunderstand,” Izuku starts, and nearly flinches when Katsuki scoffs. “I have not made myself clear, then. If you’re under the impression that I’m pleased with this arrangement, then you are indeed mistaken. I was only informed about it days ago.” Katsuki holds a steady gaze, and Izuku takes note of his height. Izuku is taller now – by a noticeable amount.
Katsuki, like everyone else, is unhappy about it.
“Oh, like you’re the one who’s had his life ruined by this ‘arrangement’,” Katsuki spits, and Izuku’s carefully neutral expression melts into a frown.
“Ruined? I hardly think there’s a need to be so dramatic, you’re in good hands in Yuuei.”
Wrong thing to say.
Katsuki swipes, and Izuku dodges, taking a good step back. Eijirou steps in between them. He’s hardly a bodyguard, but he serves as a buffer at least.
“Oh shut up,” Katsuki hisses over Eijirou’s shoulder, then steps back to glare at the servant. “And what’s this?” He sniffs him, and screws up his nose in disgust. “You gonna hide behind your Beta bodyguard? Are you still that goddamn weak? Can’t even fight an Omega? You’re an embarrassment. You haven’t grown at all, Deku.”
“If you want to fight me,” Izuku’s voice is firm – much firmer than Eijirou’s ever heard him, and it makes him nervous momentarily, compounded by Izuku pulling him back and stepping forward to take his place directly in front of Katsuki. “We have training grounds. You’re welcome to spar with me any time.” His brow is settled in an unfamiliar frown, and before Katsuki can retort, he turns and heads back towards the large double doors to make his exit.
He's already slipped up by being late and greeting him properly. He'd not make the mistake of showing further hospitality or kindness.
Eijirou scrambles after him, confused, but doesn’t dare say anything for fear of rocking the boat further.
--------
“Well that wasn’t ideal,” Izuku snorts as he and Eijirou saddle their horses for riding.
“I’ve seen better introductions,” Eijirou agrees with the same lilt to his voice, and they snicker to themselves because what can they do except laugh?
Eijirou strokes Riot’s mane, Izuku feeds an apple to Might, then they mount and set out to ride. The ride itself is routine similar to their spars. The adornments might change, but the terrain does not move. Trees grow outward and branches scrape the boys’ faces as they gallop through the forest, but it does not quell the rush that riding brings them, or the whoop that Izuku lets out when they stick the landing jumping over the gorge. It gets wider every year.
It started out as a fracture in the ground, they say. Just a line in the dirt. But over time, with the help of weather and foot traffic, it widened into a gap that is still small enough for Might to jump, but too wide for Izuku.
Izuku thinks how life is like that – how something so small can become something so big, so irreparable.
Perhaps he’s just a sap, but Eijirou has said as much one time after they jumped the gorge, so he knows he’s not alone in the sentiment.
They ride for what feels like mere minutes – Izuku swears the journey to the waterfall gets shorter every time – before they tie up their horses by the running water and throw their boots off to dip their feet in. Their trousers are rolled up to their thighs, fitting snugly around taut muscle as they kick water at each other. Only when they’ve exhausted themselves do they collapse on their backs at the riverbank, arms spread and feet still in the water, and Izuku’s hand finds Eijirou’s neck, slipping his fingers between the soft flesh and hard rock, and Eijirou mirrors the touch.
They sit in silence, the sun on their face, moss on their backs, and the roar of the waterfall accompanied by the soft song of nature lulling them into a sunset sleepiness that has them drowsy in no time, and trotting back home slowly after the sun begins to fall below the horizon.
-----------------
Meeting in private was a luxury Izuku’s parents afforded the couple-to-be, but then there was the issue of the entire palace knowing Katsuki was there, and now having to make a show of the fact that the new Omega in the halls was not free reign. Not that they employed anyone of that type, but precautions like that needed to be taken, and Queen Mitsuki had demanded it, citing that her son was too reckless and combative for how crippled he was by his heats.
Izuku pretended he hadn’t heard that last part, and agreed to collar the man.
He should have asked more questions when agreeing, though, because he hadn’t realised it would be so… public.
It was a small gathering all things considered, but there were staff and commoners alike (he could spot Eijirou’s friends in the crowd, waving to the servant. Eijirou offered them a tiny wave and smile, then went back to his serious face. He was working, after all. They’d drag him out of the palace sooner or later).
Everyone was milling about, snacking, talking, until Toshinori cleared his throat. It was a great booming sound across the high-ceilinged room, and everyone’s attention fell on the King immediately.
“I want to thank you all for coming here today to celebrate my son,” he begins, and the crowd gives a rumble of encouragement. “And his mate to be. We’ve had wonderful relations with Dynamight over the years, but we hope that a marriage between the two kingdoms will make us even stronger.” Toshinori talks, and talks, and Izuku tunes it all out as he waits for his cue.
Once the speech is over, he’s to collar his new mate in front of everyone, and that thought sits uncomfortably in his stomach, just as it must in Katsuki’s, because he hasn’t seen the man with a relaxed expression since he got here days ago.
Not at breakfast, and not anywhere else, because Katsuki either holes up in his guest bedroom all day or avoids Izuku like the plague. It’s the first time he’s spent more than a minute within the man’s line of sight, and he can feel the heat from his gaze boring into his left arm as he fidgets with the collar in his hands.
When the time comes and the King presents them, Izuku doesn’t smile. Katsuki doesn’t stop seething even as he allows Izuku to place the piece around his neck and thread it through, making it sit snugly. “Is it too tight?” He asked lowly as the crowd cheered, and he thinks something like genuine surprise flashes across Katsuki’s features before it dies and he huffs,
“It’s fine.”
Izuku isn’t quite sure what to make of that, and he doesn’t get time to mull it over, because then Katsuki is stalking off to talk with someone that isn’t his betrothed, and Izuku can’t exactly blame him.
He’s not happy about this, either.
But it won’t magically become easier on either of them by being combative. They can get along despite their differences, right?
---------
Katsuki is full of surprises.
First learning he’d presented as an Omega was already shock enough, but to see him fall into that role was something else entirely.
He’d gone into the kitchen to place his breakfast order one morning, nearly a week into Katsuki’s stay, and found the man cooking. In their kitchen. Amongst their staff, chatting away. He wasn’t smiling, but he was damn near close.
Relaxed.
All of that vanished when he noticed Izuku’s presence, however.
He stopped talking, his expression visibly hardening, as well as his shoulders tensing.
It was… Actually kind of insulting.
Still, he braves the sour attitude and cheerily greets Katsuki. “Good morning, Kacchan!”
Katsuki ignores him and says something to one of their new hires, a young girl that was just beginning her career and jumped at the chance to work for royalty. She was visibly skittish with Izuku present, and he felt bad as Katsuki instructed her. He demonstrates something with the pan and an egg, then turns back to Izuku and Eijirou.
“How do you like your eggs?” He finally addresses them, and Izuku can’t help the swoop his heart does at the thought of an Omega- his Omega, cooking for him and he answers with far too much enthusiasm for the morning hour,
“Sunny side up, with toast.” He looks to Eijirou and gives a small nod, allowing him to speak. It was just something they were used to, to keep up appearances. Eijirou hadn’t always been so restricted, but people talk and he’s said many times how he’d rather not make a fuss.
“Over medium,” Eijirou answers with less cheer, but a pleasant smile. Izuku knows how difficult it is to toe the line between pleasant and annoying, and by now Eijirou knows it, too. But they might both be out of luck, because Katsuki seems like the kind of man now who finds everyone and everything bothersome. He’s cooking his own food.
Or maybe that’s a comfort thing? An Omega thing? Do Omega feel more comfortable cooking their own food? Maybe he can ask once they’re on better terms.
Once Izuku looks back to the blonde, Katsuki has fixed him with a death glare and he grits, “I wasn’t asking you,” with such animosity that again, Izuku doubts his nose and what he’s been told and thinks there’s no way Katsuki cannot be an Alpha like him. It’s hard to fight the urge to bare his teeth in response, but Izuku is nothing if not in control of his instincts.
Instead, as much as it sounds like it won’t help, he focuses on the hurt of being rejected so callously. He holds onto the feeling as Katsuki confirms Eijirou’s order, and there’s a palpable awkwardness in the air that everyone can feel but Katsuki is blatantly ignoring, and Izuku almost admires the ability to pretend it’s not there.
Eijirou is very poor at hiding his emotions.
He fidgets and glances around nervously as he talks to Katsuki, and a plan hatches in Izuku’s mind. Half-baked and impulsive, but a plan.
“I will make your breakfast for you, your Highness,” the new hire volunteers.
Izuku thanks her, and exits the kitchen. Eijirou follows close behind, no doubt grateful for the excuse to leave. The Prince with forest green curls does not lead them to the breakfast hall, but to the drawing room adjacent to it. Eijirou is about to voice his concern, but Izuku turns quickly to face him and blurts, “What if you do it?”
Eijirou balks in confusion. “I’m sorry, my Prince?”
“What if you get on Kacchan’s good side? You’re not to be his mate, and he obviously doesn’t hate you if he offered to make you breakfast. I don’t want him to be miserable here, but there’s only so much I can do when he wishes me dead.”
Eijirou follows, but his brow creases in doubt.
“You instructed me not to speak to him unless spoken to, and he surely must have realised that by now. If I began approaching him now, that would be a little suspicious, don’t you think?”
“Then don’t approach him,” Izuku gushes, his plan solidifying.
Eijirou follows. He knows Izuku deeply, having worked for him closely for nearly six years, and he knows where he’s going with this.
“If he approaches me again, I’ll do my best,” Eijirou promises, and Izuku grins, placing a hand on the back of his neck and bringing their foreheads together.
“Thank you.”