Inspired by My Hero Academia
By Tomasina Reynoso
“Aren’t you nervous? This is kind of a big step, you know.”
Kirishima stretches while he talks, one arm pulled across his chest as he balances precariously at the very edge of the mountain cliff they’re standing on. The sun hasn’t fully risen yet, nothing more than a strip of orange on the horizon behind him.
Bakugou, a few feet back with both of their packs slung over his shoulders, rolls his eyes.
“Why would I be nervous? All I have to do is sit.”
He’s nervous, but Kirishima doesn’t have to know that. They’ve been exploring the region together for a few months now, but this is the first time they’ve planned to travel far enough that this particular method of transportation seemed the most logical.
Kirishima’s arm drops to his side and he pauses for a moment, looking at Bakugou the same way he always does. For a second, Bakugou thinks he’s going to say something serious, but then his big stupid grin reappears and he moves on to stretch the other arm.
“What if I drop you, though?”
“Then you should be nervous,” Bakugou says darkly, kicking a pebble in Kirishima’s general direction and watching it skitter over the edge into oblivion. “Are we going, or what?”
Kirishima finishes stretching his other arm, touches his toes a few times for good measure, and then finally straightens up to look at Bakugou.
“Okay,” he says “I’m ready.”
Bakugou expects him to step closer, move onto more solid ground so that the cliff’s edge doesn’t crumble beneath his weight once he finally transforms.
Instead, Kirishima takes a deep breath and steps backwards off the edge.
Bakugou is so startled he almost drops all of their supplies to the ground. Even though he knows, logically, that Kirishima is being a show-off and deserves to be told off for it later, he can’t stop himself from rushing to the edge.
The sun hasn’t crawled far enough up the horizon to burn off the thick layer of fog obscuring the terrain beneath, and the few moments Bakugou spends peering down into it seem to last an eternity.
He’s annoyed by how relieved he feels at the sound of powerful wing beats and the now-familiar roar that heralds Kirishima’s arrival. The predawn light catches his scales in a way that makes him so bright he’s hard to look at, but Bakugou forces himself to do it anyway.
Gusts of wind blow past his face as Kirishima hovers in front of the cliff’s edge, not daring to make a landing attempt. Bakugou can see now that even on more stable ground it would be dangerous—in the short time they’ve spent together Kirishima has already grown bigger, more impressive, so that Bakugou can only imagine how formidable they’ll look together a few years down the line.
“Idiot,” he says as he moves closer, voice lost in the churning air. They hadn’t discussed this part in advance, and there doesn’t seem to be any particularly safe or easy way for him to climb on; luckily, that’s not necessary.
Holding both palms parallel to the ground, Bakugou releases a chain of explosions that send him up level with Kirishima’s head. The wind makes it more difficult than it should be, but after a few unsuccessful attempts Bakugou manages to grab hold of one of his horns.
He hooks an elbow around it to steady himself, bracing one knee against Kirishima’s thick neck for extra stability and making sure their packs aren’t in immediate danger of falling off his shoulders.
It isn’t the most comfortable position he’s ever been in, but something about it feels right. Kirishima is so alive underneath him, almost uncomfortably warm when Bakugou presses a bare hand against his scales. Bakugou is used to warm, though, thrives on it, and it’s a welcome respite from the chilly mountain air.
Still hovering, Kirishima glances up to where Bakugou is perched, as if to check whether he’s alright. This close, Bakugou can just make out the almost-invisible scar over one eyelid, much less prominent than in his human form.
“Get going, already!” Bakugou yells at the top of his lungs, not because they’re in any particular hurry but because he knows it’ll spur Kirishima on.
Just as he’d suspected, that’s all the encouragement Kirishima needs to push off from the cliff face in a shower of rubble, sending them off together into the rising sun.
Fiendish Fan Fiction 