FIC - "It's Only a Flesh Wound"

BKDKBK | fae x hunter AU | established relationship

A small moment between a monster hunter and his fey boyfriend.

Written for The Sunday Conspiracy prompt:
"Rage/Protectiveness - Urban Fantasy AU - “Who did this to you?”"

==

IT'S ONLY A FLESH WOUND

Katsuki had just turned on the shower when a knock came from his front door.

"Fuck," he mumbled, eyes closed wearily. He was naked, sore, and streaked with blood—not all of it his own.

There was another knock, more insistent, along with a familiar voice, loud even through the wood. "Open this door, Kacchan!"

Groaning, Katsuki reached for his towel. Gingerly wrapping it around his hips, he left the running water to heat up as he made his way through his apartment.

When yet another knock came, making the hinges groan, Katsuki scowled and barked, "Izuku, I will fucking stake you if you break my door."

A moment later, he was confronted by a glowering boy with an unruly mop of green curls. He had one hand braced against the frame, the other poised to knock again.

“Stakes are for vampires,” Izuku said. Eyes that were a tad too big to be human looked him up and down, his pupils like pin pricks of light within vibrant green irises.

“Not if they’re made of iron,” Katsuki said flatly, before grudgingly stepping aside to allow Izuku to come in.

Even a Seelie Prince couldn’t enter where he wasn’t first invited—a similarity with vampires that the other boy hated to be reminded of. Katsuki had given him blanket permission to come and go as he pleased, but Izuku never took his welcome for granted.

“What happened?” Izuku demanded as Katsuki strode—limped, really—back to the bathroom.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

The water had heated up, spewing steam into the hallway. Unmindful of the fey prince watching him, he turned his back and removed his towel. They’d seen each other naked too many times to count.

There was a sharp gasp, and then a hissed, “Kacchan! Who did this to you?!”

Cool fingers, a pleasant contrast to the heat from the shower, traced his hip and then along the bloody gash that curved down his thigh. Katsuki had stitched it up as best he could.

In the bathroom mirror, he could see the way Izuku’s anger transformed his face, irises and sclera both darkening to a solid black as his features grew sharper, longer. Black veins spread beneath his skin like an oil spill. It was only in moments like this when Izuku truly looked like what he was—a contrast of shadows and gossamer, a creature that was neither human nor animal but far more primal.

Even the dumb, oversized tee that read “people shirt” couldn’t detract from the wild beauty that was Izuku.

“I told you,” Katsuki said, his breaths quickening as their eyes met in the reflection, “I handled it.”

Izuku’s hand rose to his waist, gripping tight, more bruises to add to his collection. “You should have asked me to join you,” he whispered against the shell of Katsuki’s ear. “I like watching you work.”

Katsuki snorted. “You woulda interfered. You can never help yourself.”

“Not true,” Izuku protested, sounding petulant. “I only intervene when you need help.”

“Well, I didn’t need it. So knock it off.”

Huffing a sigh, Izuku muttered, “At least let me heal this. The only scars your body should carry should be from me.”

Katsuki leaned back against Izuku’s chest, his own rising and falling with each embarrassingly shallow breath. But as much as he wanted Izuku, as deeply as the Seelie Prince may have wedged his way into Katsuki’s life, Katsuki was still a hunter. Izuku was his lover, not his caretaker. 

“Tough shit,” Katsuki said with a small smirk. “Now get out so I can wash this blood off of me.”

The black receded from his skin, his eyes, until he was once again just Izuku, passably human-looking if no one studied him too long. Whenever he left his mother’s court, he exchanged the fine silks and golden crown of his position for baggy shorts and ugly red sneakers. Supposedly, it helped him blend in. Unlike other fey, Izuku couldn’t perform magic, not even a simple glamour to disguise himself.

“Or I could join you?” Izuku didn’t wait for a response as he tugged up the hem of his tee.

What was there to do except ogle shamelessly at the broad expanse of tanned skin and rippling muscles?

“Fine,” Katsuki said, feigning annoyance.

Closing his eyes, he stepped beneath the hot spray. He hissed as the water hit his skin, making known every cut and abrasion with stinging attention. He should have covered up his stitches.

He hadn’t, though, because despite his assertions about Izuku not being his caretaker, a part of him had known the fey prince would come regardless. He could always tell when Katsuki had been injured in a hunt. Something about the scent of his blood or the saccharine taste of his sweat. Regardless, by the time the night was through, the gash would be little more than a pale scar.

Arms wrapped around him from behind, tugging him into a loose hug. “Kacchan,” he murmured.

“Mm?” Katsuki said, relaxing into the embrace.

“Did you kill the person who did this to you?”

“Oh for—yes. Their whole fucking coven. Who do you think I am?”

His lips pressed to Katsuki’s wet skin, Izuku replied, “Mine.”

Even Katsuki couldn’t argue with that.

~fin