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kewltie · 2 years

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"What is the emperor doing right now?" Izuku asks, holding his head still as Eiko pins a bira-bira kanzhaki into his hair. It dangles from the side of his head in several long-beaded strands.

"He should be dining with Grand Marshal Bakugou at the moment," Eiko informs him. “They always have break fast together if His Majesty’s schedule allows it.”

Izuku pauses, considering. "When do you think is a good time for me to see him today?" he asks.

"I have been told that he'll be busy meeting with the ministers for the rest of the day, but I'm sure His Majesty would be happy to make time for you this morning, Deku-sama," she insists.

Izuku frowns. "I wouldn't want to disturb the marshal's time with the emperor."

"I don't believe it’ll be issue since you are after all His Majesty's most favored concubine and Marshal Bakugou is your patron." Eiko's hand carefully tucks a stray lock of hair behind his ear and grins at him through the reflection of the mirror. "Oh, Deku-sama, you are just so lucky! The emperor only ever requested you to his chamber and even gifted you your own palace. I've never seen him so smitten," she gushes. "And the marshal would often make time to visit you even though in the past he'd avoided getting involve in the harem entirely."

Ever since the emperor had conferred the title of Hin to Izuku, the inner palace had been in an uproar over him. A person of unknown origin brought back by Marshal Bakugou in his conquest had swooped in and stolen the emperor's favor. It was absurd. Ludicrous. A fairy tale romance, they had whispered among themselves.

Izuku was carefully chosen by the marshal as a gift to the emperor. He was exotic and new to the imperial seat from a faraway land that most don’t even know the name of. The emperor had taken one look at him and as they say it, it was history. He was completely spellbound by Izuku even though Bakugou had lay claimed to him first. Two of the most powerful men in the empire completely bewitched by him.

Eiko, young and impressionable that she is, had thought it was a beautiful dream come true, but Izuku doesn't have the heart to break it to her that the truth is much more muted and bitter. "Yes, I'm quite fortunate," Izuku replies with a smile but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

She claps her hands excitedly. "Since you'll be visiting the emperor’s palace and the marshal will also be there, you're going to have look your best to make a good impression, Deku-sama."

"Is that so?" Izuku muses, cocking his head thoughtfully. "Is my appearance normally not good enough then?"

Eiko freezes as though it finally dawns on her what she just said. Her eyes widen as she frantically scrambles to take back her earlier words: "Uh, n-no, of course not! That isn't what I meant at all Deku-sama! You know, you're always perfect to me. My lord is the best," she insists.

Izuku heaves a tired sigh. "Do you really think so?" he asks, looking doubtful as he casts a glance at mirror in front of him.

She nods her head eagerly. "Yes! Your eyes are a shade of evergreen we don't usually see around here. It reminds me of jade actually. It's so pretty!"

Izuku's lip twitches. "Do tell me more."

"Y-your hair is just so wavy and perfect, it’s just the right shape and—" she starts, plying on more compliments as he suddenly breaks out in laughter, causing Eiko to stop once she finally caught on. "Oh jeez," she whines, "please don't tease me like that, Deku-sama!"

Collecting himself once more, he says, "I'm sorry, I promise I'll be good."

Eiko's cheeks puff up in a sulky pout. "You say that every time, you liar," she accuses.

Without a drop of shame, Izuku leans over and pinches her cheek. "It's because you're so fun to mess with."

Eiko's pout deepen as he draws his hand back with a placating smile. "Alright, alright, I'm at your mercy now. You may dress me up however you wish as compensation for it."

Whatever annoyance she felt earlier quickly dissipate as her eyes light up excitedly. "You mean it?"

At Izuku's nod, she immediately springs into action in a flurry of activities. "I think I just have perfect thing for you. Do you remember that turquoise robe you got earlier? Oh, it would go so well with your beautiful hair and eyes. You'll be so stunning, Deku-sama!"

Izuku looks on with amusement as Eiko riffles through the trunks of his wardrobe with a ferocity that is unmatched, murmuring under her breath about the specific shade she's looking for and how it should match with the texture of his hair as she goes along.

It's all very hectic and performative, but he doesn't hate it.

Ripped from his mother's arms as a child just to be sold to his second master, Izuku has little memory of what a family is let alone know what it like is to watch over a younger sibling. Maybe this is what it must feel like to have a sister: terribly exhausting, but endlessly fond.

In the entirety of Imperial City and with its 20,000 living souls, Izuku had always felt so alone and set adrift in his own company. A stranger in a strange land. He was an island onto himself, left deserted and barren, until he found Eiko. Or is it that Eiko had found him instead?

When all of this is said and done with and Izuku is but a footnote in the history books, he hopes to be able to settle somewhere far away from Imperial City with Eiko one day, where nobody will know their name or who they were previously, just that they exist and that they were once there.

It's a nice little dream.

But first he has to endure the many hidden knives pointing at him in this place. One wrong move and it won't be just his head on the line but also Eiko’s. Izuku's life means nothing to him but Eiko is innocent. She deserves to live long enough to see her future grandchildren grow up.

He'll make sure of it.

"What do you think, Deku-sama?" In Eiko's hands is a blue-green dressrobe made of the finest of silk with delicate gold stitching. It came in a procession of ornate gifts from the emperor when Izuku was given the title of Hin. Expensive and demonstrative.

Just like him.

Izuku reaches out and palms over the soft silk between his fingers. "It's lovely." But unlike him it's worth it weight in gold.

Eiko perks up. "I knew you would like it," she says with a grin. "But I bet it look better on you, so allow me, Deku-sama."

Izuku feels the corner of his lips tugging upward as he acquiesces, letting her to do as she pleases.

Eiko places the dressrobe aside before her quick hands goes to undo his inner robe from his person, untying it and dropping it into the seat of a chair with the rest of the pile.

Then she holds the new dressrobe up and he steps into it, one sleeve at a time till it fully wraps itself around his body. Eiko straightens the collar and folds the lapel over the other before tying it with a single white sash to bind it all in place and Izuku disappears into it.

"There," Eiko hums in approval, stepping back to give him room to look at himself in the mirror.

The young man reflected back is something else. A column of pale neck, red lips, and kohl eyes draped in the finest of materials and embellished gold and gems; he's sublime.

Slowly, but surely, he finds the image of the ugly, filthy slave boy is chipped away bit by bit, till whatever left of him is this foreign creature staring back at him in the mirror now. Izuku the slave gives away to Hin Deku, the emperor's most beloved concubine.

It's jarring.

It's a stranger face he's looking at. He's unrecognizable even to himself. A sham. A fabricated lie from his head to his toes even to his own identity. Izuku had ceased to exist the moment he met Marshal Bakugou, who'd offered him a chance to escape the chain of servitude but at a price. He lost his own identity in the process.

Deku. Deku.

Marshal Bakugou was the first to call him that, and now he lives and breathes by that name. The only people who know him as Izuku are either dead or there's an entire ocean separating them. On this entire continent the name Izuku only exists in his memory. Sometimes, he would lay awake alone in his bed and say his lost name out loud again and again into the night like a mantra to himself. A prayer for the departed, for the little boy he had to bury oversea in order to be here today. Izuku had to die so that Deku can live in this gilded cage.

"Does the robe not satisfy you, Deku-sama?" Eiko asks, worry obvious in her voice. "I could pick something else instead."

Izuku turns around and meet her eyes, "I love it," he says, offering up a consoling smile. "I was just surprise at how good you make me look."

Eiko shakes her head. "It's all you, Deku-sama," she maintains vehemently. "I didn't have to do anything really because of those beautiful green hair and eyes of yours. You're twice-blessed! No wonder you managed to enchant the marshal and captured the heart of the emperor."

Twice-blessed. Hair and eyes of the same color are rare enough on this continent that they are consider fortunate and the way his position had risen from obscurity to the position of the emperor's favorite concubine and also having the patronage of the marshal, he’s truly lucky indeed, but it doesn't feel like it when he thinks of the trappings he had made of himself, stuck in this palace for however long the emperor and the marshal needs him for their plan to bear fruit before Izuku can get a true taste of freedom, unchained by duty and obligation.

"Alright, enough flattery," Izuku says, rolling his eyes at her as she pouts. "Let's go before the sun set and it'll be too cold to even step outside."

"You're just not use to the winter here," Eiko argues, stepping aside to pull out a fur cloak for him and a pair of boots.

He patiently lets her help him put on the thick cloak and boots. It took some times for him to not feel out of place being treated like this as he's used to be on the other side of it, but Eiko'd insisted and loudly at that so Izuku eventually caved to her demands to serve him.

"If sometime I can't feel my legs when I'm outside then it's rightfully too cold," Izuku comments idly as he pulls the cloak closer to his body and raises the hood over his head.

"I'm sure you'll get used to it, Deku-sama!" she encourages. "It's always tough in a new home."

She heads toward the door and pushes it wide open. A gust of chilly wind immediately blasts into the room, leaving icy cold touches all over his exposed skin.

"New home, huh," he murmurs to himself, staring out into a bleak white scenery that matches the barrenness of his heart.

Eiko peers her head outside, frowning hard when she sees nothing but a sea of white. "Shinsou? Shinsou!" she yells into the courtyard. "Where did he even go?! Probably out flirting with some maids again. Ugh."

"It's fine, we can go alone."

"No," she huffs. "It's too risky."

"It's a twenty minutes walk," Izuku says instead.

"Absolutely not!" She put her hands on her hip and glares. "He's your guard, so he should do his job properly and escort you wherever you need to go. It's too dangerous otherwise!"

Izuku bites his lower lip, but doesn't refute.

He looks beyond the courtyard to the iron pillars encasing Imperial City; the iron fortress, they call it. An impenetrable barrier that keeps the unwanted out, but also locks its twenty thousand residents within its border.

Imperial City isn't even a city; it's the resident of the royal family and its side branches, and where they hold the court, but it's so massive and filled with thousands of souls, who keep the entire country running within its walls, that it might as well be a city onto itself. Such vast military and political power concentrate at this singular area that it becomes dangerous. Maybe it's more dangerous here then it is outside because machinations are always brewing within its wall and Izuku had seen enough blood drawn in the Imperial City to know peace is illusive here.

Eiko has all the reasons to be fearful. She grew up within its wall and had seen the passing of one emperor to the next. A quiet transfer of power was never an option for them. The current Emperor Shouto had to kill his father first before he was able to sit on the iron throne. That however is not new, it is a precedent of its bloody history.

"I'll go get him then," she declares, and before he can say anything more off she goes into the wind, leaving him alone with nothing but the biting chills as company.

Izuku sighs as he slowly steps outside of his chamber and into the cold, shutting the door close behind him. Deep snow crunches beneath his boots, step by step. Izuku breathes out a fog of warm and inhales nothing but brisk air in return that has him holding back a tremble. No matter how long he has been here the cold still takes him, settling in his body like ice running in his vein.

Under his fourth master, a salt merchant, Izuku had traverse across various terrains, so the concept of snow wasn't uncommon to him but to weather the often-harsh winter of this kingdom is something else entirely; its extreme elements a reflection of its uncompromising people.

He'd seen Eiko running round in deep snow and biting wind with nothing but a slip of a dress. Truly a tenacious bunch they are, Izuku muses reflexively.

"Deku-sama, I brought him!" Eiko shouts as he watches her tiny figure drag a tall lanky man in the imperial guard uniform over.

They halt right in front of him. "Your lordship, my apologies," Shinsou grumbles with a halfhearted bow as Eiko frowns at him. "I was caught up with...” he makes a face before settling on an answer, “something." At least an attempt of one.

Izuku thinks if he too was stuck babysitting the emperor's new exotic toy, he would also be apathetic about his job.

"You were playing with the kitchen staff," she snaps, like she could bite his head off right now. "Doing everything but your job! What happen if Deku-sama was attack and we need you but you aren’t there to help us?!"

"Hey, brat," Shinsou retorts, staring down at her with pinched look, "don't get snippy with me." He makes a pointed gesture toward Izuku. "Look, his lordship is perfectly fine right now! Not even a hair out of place, so stop worrying."

Eiko glowers. "You useless—"

"Eiko," Izuku interrupts, before the two rips into each other again with sharp words that cut each other mercilessly.

She crunches up her face like she's swallowing back her disgust before she finally relents. "We're going to the Imperial Quarter to see the emperor so hurry up and do your job and walk us there."

Shinsou draws back with an annoyed sigh. "Whatever, let's just go."

Izuku holds back a smile. Shinsou is not one of his people but he does his job when it's necessary. Izuku is fortunate enough to have Eiko by his side and dare not be too greedy with his want, after all he doesn't exactly inspired loyalty and devotion in others; Eiko is his sole exception.

He steps forward with Eiko right by his side and Shinsou trailing closely behind them. The three of them depart from the safety of Izuku's inner sanctum, striding beyond its familiar high walls and the peace and quiet it offers him and into the gaping jaw of Imperial City.

Imperial City is a sprawling labyrinth of interconnected courtyards, palaces, ceremonial halls, residential and commercial districts and scattered throughout are pockets of oasis—gardens and ponds and pavilions that offer refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. Izuku is often found in one of these places, spending hours and hours sitting on a bench as he watches a leave drift pass in the pond below. When he's not needed by the emperor or the marshal, Izuku has no other purpose and is usually listless and driftless with no direction or direction.

A quiet and mundane existent.

He isn't here to climb the rank of the harem; he has no ambition and no power or wealth can sway him more than what he has now. Izuku is only here to be call upon when he's needed be the beloved concubine of the emperor, otherwise sometimes he thinks he doesn't exist at all. His presence is so weak that Izuku thinks if he doesn't speak up nobody will ever know he's there. He's that insignificant and the only reason people will even take notice of him is because they were fool into believing he's important and valuable when he's really just nothing.

Nothing, nothing at all. It's not self-pity, it's the truth. He's content to stay in shadow if he's allowed because the more he stand out the more likely he'll draw the wrong kind of attention. He just needs to do his job and do it well enough to so they keep him around. Survive. Head down. Stay out of trouble and one day, maybe, he'll be free. He just needs to last till then. Izuku clenches his fist, his dream of a quiet future spurs him onward and across the Imperial City.

"Oh no," Eiko cries out, pulling their party to an abrupt stop midway. She frowns. "Your robe is all dirty now! I knew we should have taken a litter, Deku-sama."

Izuku glances down where her eyes had fallen to and sees the bottom skirt of his robe is marked by dirt and snow now. "It's fine." He shakes his head. "I wanted the walk anyway."

"But your perfectly nice robe—" the rest of her sentence is suddenly cut off as they hear a commotion off in the distance drawing closer to them by the second. They turn around and look back to see an entourage of guards and servants carrying a sedan chair heading their way.

Izuku steps back with Eiko to clear a path for them, drawing his cloak closer to himself as though he can disappear into it. He lowers his head and reaches over to squeeze Eiko to do the same. The amount of fuss kicked up surrounding the litter speaks of someone of high rank.

Eiko huffs and reluctantly complies to let the entourage about to quietly pass them by, but then it abruptly halts right in front of them. Izuku's heart races as he hears a familiar voice drift from the enclosed litter.

"Hin Deku, what a surprise to see you out of your hiding hole."

With the exception of special events, Izuku's avoidance of others has made him a notorious figure in the harem for declining invitation to soiree from the other concubines. He's so elusive that there are rumors that the emperor is too possessive of him to let him out of his sight. Consequently, it made his reputation even more prominent in the city for being so well-loved even though it's a lie. This false narrative has managed to draw the ire and jealousy of the entire harem. And in one person in particular, leaving Izuku open to attack on all sides.

"I'm seeking a moment of fresh air," he answers, lifting his head up just in time to see a pale hand peeking out of the curtains.

A servant hurriedly helps the occupant step down from the litter as a small figure with a delicate, round face and large dark eyes reveal herself. She composes herself before him in a swirl of blue and gold; regal, lovely, and every bit an imperial concubine. "Is your education so lacking, Hin Deku," she says, voice light but her words are cutting, "that you suddenly forgot your manners and who's standing before you now?"

Izuku freezes and immediately drops his gaze to the floor once more. "This one apologizes for forgetting to greet you and seek forgiveness from Hin Akemi," he beseeches, hands cupped out in front of him.

He dares not to look up to see what kind of face she's making at him now. Though Izuku and Akemi shares the same rank, her seniority in the harem and the backing of her family makes her title carries more weight than him. He can't afford to offend her even with the emperor's favor, after all the petty squabble of the harem is not His Majesty's problem. Neither is it the marshal. They can promise Izuku all the support that he may needs and that they'll keep him safe, but here in this place, where Izuku has no one at his back and he's terribly outnumbered, he is alone and alone he must face his opponent in this treacherous water.

She sniffs haughtily. "How do I know your intention is sincere?"

"If there's anything I can do to appease you, please let me know," he says, as though he's offering his bare neck up to her.

He holds his breath for a moment before she says with a biting clarity, "Then kneel."

Izuku jerks his head up, eyes wide and lips parting in surprise. Akemi is right in front of him now as though she'd had floated to him while he wasn’t even aware of how she managed to get this close to him. He can even see the beauty mark below her left eye as she stares expectantly at him.

Izuku looks pass Akemi and sees the solemn and blank faces of the servants behind her. They say nothing, offer him nothing. And that's all it needs to be said, because in the end it's just Izuku with Eiko bristling with contempt at his side and Shinsou feign indifference behind him.

In another world, unbent and unbowed, there is an Izuku who'll stand tall with Akemi and won't lower his head for her. For anyone. Brave and strong, in that world, he does not wait for assistance to be handed to him by others but seizes it for himself, but this is not that world. And Izuku is neither particularly brave nor strong in this case.

He has been lucky, willfully fortunate to get where he is now, but none of his achievements are remarkable in any way that he feels a sense of accomplishment and pride over his position as the emperor's favorite. After all, he finds that pride is a luxury he can't afford. Not then and certainly not now either. He'd learned early on his life that pride won't put food in his stomach, a roof over his head, or keep his masters from beating him bloody and blue when he’d stepped out of line.

It's simple to speak of pride when you got no collar around your neck and your life is not held in the hands of those in power so Izuku, whose life has never been his own, knows what he should do in the face Akemi's disdain.

The answer is easy. It's always been easy for him.

He starts to lower himself to the floor, but a hand forcibly holds him back before his knees can hit the snowy ground. "No!" Eiko shouts, so furious on his behalf that she's trembling in it. "Deku-sama isn't a servant, so don't treat him like one. He is your equal, remember that!"

Bristling for a fight, Eiko refuses to let Izuku succumb to Akemi's demand even though she may buckle under the consequence of her action later. Foolish. Absolutely foolish, his little defender. Always ready to fight the world for him even when there is no way for her to win.

Just like that day when he'd met her for the first time. He was asked to pick out his personal attendant among the available servants and Eiko was there, but she wasn't even an option. She'd belonged to someone else but she was the only one to look at him in the eyes and smiled. So he’d chosen her. It was the first time in a very long time that he was given a choice at all and he'd chose her. Out of everyone he could have had at his side, he chose her. And though he does not rightfully deserve her, she is his. His responsibility and his to care for.

Akemi curl the hands at her side, her long pointed nails dig into her flesh as her knuckles run pale. "You insolent little wretch," she hisses at Eiko, spewing venom with every word that is spat from her mouth. Her beautiful face rages and twisted into something far uglier. "How dare you?! Know your place, leech."

Eiko snorts. "Then you should know, my lady, who has the emperor's favor now," she says with a sneer.

Flushed with indignation and her fist unclenched, Akemi steps forward toward Eiko with her hand raise and the promise of violence.

In that horrifying moment it's not courage that moves him, but the icy cold grip of fear wrapped around his heart. Fear of losing the only person that ever matters to him now, he pushes Eiko out of the way and takes the hit in her place. Akemi's nails dig into his flesh as it grazes across his cheek.

The sting of the slap hurts, but it doesn't hurt as much as the thought of it striking his Eiko.

"Deku-sama!" he hears Eiko's horrified cry, but it’s background noise against the violent drumming of his heart. Her hands frantically reach for his face but he gently brushes her off.

He breathes. In. Out. Touches where his skin burns and could feel the initial mark of a wound on it. Ignores it and faces Akemi with a lethal, icy smile. "Are you done?" he asks her, voice sharp and severe enough that it could whittle down the hardest of steel.

It's surprising the words that came out of him managed stay firm at all even as his heart is about to fall out of his chest and he has to forced his hands to remain steady, so it doesn't give away the smallest indication of a tremor; let it not be said that fear cannot be a great motivator. But the picture he paints for everyone else must have been jarring because their eyes are wide as though taken back and there's a stillness in the air that is thick and heavy, enough to drown them all in its hush.

"What did you say?" Akemi demands with a biting incredulous. She looks angry, but also strangely shock by him.

Izuku tuck his hands behind his back, clenching and unclenching them so tightly that his nails dig into his palm in an exercise of futility; it won't give him courage, but the pain will distract him from his fraying nerves. It's just enough for him to widen his smile, showing too many teeth and the sharp edge of something fierce. "I asked if you're done messing with me," Izuku answers, stepping forward and right into her space, "because are you ready to bear the consequences of your action now?"

For a moment, Akemi's blue eyes flash with a fleeting hint of alarm before she shuts it down completely and firmly holds her ground. "Do you think you can challenge me?" she seethes, cool and unflappable even against the threat hovering over her head like the swing of a sword.

She stands there before him so assured and confident in herself that he can almost see the chrysanthemum crown on top of her head. In another world she could have been an empress—so beautiful, fiery, and capable that anyone standing before her can see how bright she shines. But even with all the blessings bestowed upon her, Izuku's arrival had stolen everything that should have been rightly hers. So she targets him, strikes where it hurts the most, making him feel so small and lacking in her presence that he wants to retreat within himself.

It's easy to hate her, he thinks, she makes it is so easy but he knows in his heart that he doesn't. Not even for her obvious contempt of him and those lower than her. He finds it deplorable, but in the end, he doesn't hate her because they're more alike than he cares to admit. They're two fish trapped in a glass bowl, forced to swim in the same circle day in and day out as the world outside pass them by because that's the fate of all the omegas in the harem. It's a gilded cage. Akemi does what she needs to survive here and he can't wholly begrudge her for it.

How can he when they're basically all prisoners here. Even if the bars are dressed differently, the foods are much nicer, their clothes are made of the finest materials from faraway lands, and they're spoiled by wealth and privilege of their status, but a cage is still a cage. Omegas are the only one who Izuku know can easily enter Imperial City, but it is near impossible for them to leave. The exits that exist is either death or a dismissal, otherwise their fate is bound to live and die by the emperor's whims within this grand and opulent prison.

The only way for them to truly survive here is to attain the coveted empress title but to do that they must seize the emperor's heart for themselves. There is solely one empress in the entire dynasty and one emperor to rule them all, but a hundred of omegas ready to fight for it.

They're all fighting to be the one to carry the next heir to the throne thus cementing their place in history and elevating their status, not knowing that the man they have drawn each other's blood for will never look their way; he's too busy looking at the alpha by his side.

Izuku thinks it's ironic that for all this country pride itself on the fair treatment of omegas above the rest, here their worth is still measure by the seed of the alpha that they carry. The responsibility to bring forth the new emperor rests on their delicate shoulders. This turns the harem into a war game that belong solely to the most cunning and accomplished of omegas, where they trade swords for barb tongue and strength for wits but they all cut and bleed the same. Only the best can thrive here in this beautiful garden full of thorny flowers.

Akemi, for all her pride and arrogance, is exceptional at this. The daughter of fifth rank minister, she'd managed to reach the rank of Hin within a year but she doesn't stop there. Ambitious and unwilling to ever settle, her eyes never straying far from the empress' crown. She knows what she wants and is willing to trample on others to get it. Izuku doesn't agree with her callous methods in the end, but admires her drive and tenacity, something he finds himself poorly lacking. To have something worth dying for, he wonders what that feels like.

If Akemi wants the empress' crown that badly, he'll gladly step aside for her but he won't let her hurt his people on her path to the throne.

"I wouldn't dare," Izuku shakes his head ruefully, because isn't that the truth, "but will you be able to answer to His Majesty for it then?"

He has no real connections, no backing, and no influence here, but she doesn't know that and neither does the entire court, and that's his greatest weapon. The lies he has managed to weave will be his sword and shield and hopefully to keep him alive long enough.

Akemi freezes in her place as her shoulders go taut and the hands at her side clenched up, but her face remains placid, giving away nothing as the startled expression on the face of the people behind her shows the exact opposite. "The emperor, you say?" she asks coolly.

Izuku nods. "He'd invited me to join him and the marshal for a morning meal, and who am I to deny his offer," he lies as effortlessly as he breathes. These falsities are becoming easier the more he says it. "But I wonder what he'll say when he sees this mark you left on me, hm?"

His hand slowly traces where her nails had cut through his flesh meaningfully, in full light of everyone there.

"His Majesty sent for you?" she asks, narrowing her eyes in skepticism.

"Yes, is it that surprising?" Izuku cocks his head thoughtfully and smiles in challenge.

His tongue feels loose and easy as though he had practiced these words a hundred times before to sell his story so convincingly. "I'd enjoyed several meals with the emperor before and this is no different. I'm sure you spent enough time with him to know what that's like by now." It's common knowledge that the emperor takes painful steps to avoid interacting with his harem, but to admit that Izuku is special enough to garner exclusive access to the emperor and his most trusted advisor is—Izuku’s smile sharpens.

Cornered, she grits out, "Of course."

Her pride wins out as he expected, because for a person like Akemi, who was born into privilege and power, she couldn't let herself admit that someone with barely known origin and is practically scum beneath her boots had won the emperor's favor over her. It was simply not so.

But Akemi isn't done yet: "That's interesting though because I just passed the emperor's palace on my way here," she informs him, lips thinning, "and the eunuch there informed me that His Majesty had just woken up and had yet to see or sent for anyone beside the marshal."

Izuku keeps the smile plastered on his face, not letting her see any weakness in his fabricated story. "He had just sent out the missive to me, so you must have missed it."

"Oh? But how did the message get to you so fast when I was there earlier," she counters, eyes narrowed.

Breathes in. Out. Gaze steady and voice firm as he explains, "It's a private meal with His Majesty and the marshal. It isn't meant to be spread around for gossip." The corner of his lip twitches. "I thought such idle talk is beneath someone of your standing, Akemi-sama."

There's an indignant scoff. "You talked a lot of smoke for someone who couldn't look me in the eyes earlier," she muses dryly. "Where have you been hiding your backbone?"

Eiko stiffens beside him as she sneakily tucks her hand in his and squeezes it as though to reassure him.

He glances at Eiko and gives a brief, sincere smile that had meant more than any words they could have said to each other. It's okay, I'm fine. We'll get through this. All unspoken but the message carries. Eiko reluctantly nods and withdraws her hand, but she remains close. Even if nobody could see through his perfectly placed smile and steady voice, she knows of the anxiety often plaguing his heart where it takes root and grow to unmanageable height, but this time when his heart race it's for an entirely different reason. It's not fear that he feels.

He turns back to Akemi. "I dare not lie," he says, letting her jabs slide off him as easily as how unprepared he was for wet snow for the first time. Except this time his dignity will be left in tack. "His Majesty asked for me and as his faithful servant I can only answer.” He adopts a sullen expression as though it wasn't her cowardice comment that hurt him, but the suggestion that he would use His Majesty as an excuse to get his way.

Akemi sneers. "Am I supposed to just take your words for it?" she asks, not biting on any of his hanging lies.

Izuku consider her words, chewing them over carefully but before he can decide his next course, he hears a voice that had remained quiet through this entire altercation finally speaks up: "His Majesty had sent me to escort Hin Deku to his palace," Shinsou says, surprising everyone in the vicinity.

While Izuku had a choice in choosing his attendant, Shinsou was assigned to guard him; neither was each other's first choice and that has shaped their entire relationship. As long as Izuku is alive and breathing that's all that matter, he doesn't get involved in anything else. Shinsou carefully maintain distance left much wanting, but Izuku can't blame him for it in the end. If Shinsou can't drum up any loyalty and trust in Izuku then the fault lies in him rather than Shinsou. He's the one who's lacking the qualities that would make Shinsou choose him.

So, it took all his effort to keep his face perfectly neutral, not giving away anything that could say otherwise, that Shinsou words also shocked him as much as them.

"Is that so?" Akemi asks, slowly and dubiously.

Shinsou shrugs. "Yes," he says with a vague disinterest that he couldn’t bother to clarified.

The tone he used had sound like he couldn't be bother if she'd believe him or not; he'd said his piece and that's it. Sometimes it makes Izuku wish he can be that callously indifferent to everything, not think of the consequence of his actions and not caring what others may think. But Izuku does care, he cares too much and he suffers for it. He's used to it though. Fortitude has always been one of his better qualities. It may not be as flashy or notable of a trait as bravery but it's what has managed to keep him alive up until now; it's him surviving.

It's what Izuku does best, finding exits where there are none. "If you still have any doubt, we can meet with His Majesty together and have him confirm my words for you," he suggests, throwing everything on the line for this one bluff.

Akemi's brows furrow, her lips pinched at the corner in thought. There's a speculative look in her eyes that makes Izuku's chest go tight, wondering if she will call him out his bluff. She hadn't believed him any of his words earlier and had challenged him step by step. Even with Shinsou support, she won't be easily move. This is Izuku's last resort, placing himself right into her hands—whether she believe he would ever dare step right up to the knife edge of her blade and cut himself on it to prove a point. It's a gamble and he's risking it all.

A blanket of silence settles in place as she considers her options, then at last she lets out a long, heavy sigh. "I think we're done here," she says, rolling her eyes. "I wouldn't want to intrude in your mealtime with His Majesty and the marshal."

A concession finally.

She looks at him, peeved at having to concede on her side but there's a hint of smile from her and then it's gone in a flash as though it was just a figment of his imagination. In that moment he thought she look almost impress by him, that he even could be that stupid and brave.

Strangely, he finds that all very comforting.

"Your consideration is much too kind, Akemi-sama." He lowers his head in deference. "I wish you a wonderful day then," he says to the ground.

Akemi exhales loudly. "You're particularly annoying," she says with a huff. With a wave of her long sleeve, flaring dramatically in the wind, she steps into her litter and corrals her entourage away with a severe order out just like the way she'd came in—abrupt, disrupted, and a whirlwind of contempt, leaving them all gasping for something to hold on to.

As soon as Akemi and her people are gone, a speck of blurry dot in the distance, Eiko turns toward him with a handkerchief in hands and checks over his injured cheek carefully. "Oh, you shouldn't have jump in for me like that. I'm used to it," she insists. "I would have been fine."

He stares where their hands are connected and sees the slightest of tremors that vibrate from his hand. He hadn't even noticed.

"Look you're trembling," she says worriedly, holding his hands tightly in hers as though that would calm him down, but Izuku just shakes his head. “I’m glad at least she didn’t leave any noticeable bruise on your cheek.”

Somewhere between then and now, the anxiety that had wrecked him earlier had morphed and mutated into something unfamiliar. It's not fear that he feels at this moment. It's the thrill of being cornered and barely making it out alive; it's dancing on the edge of an open flame.

More than anything, Izuku is keenly intimate with fear; it sleeps in his bed and wrapped itself around him like an old familiar blanket. He knows its name. Knows the curve and stroke of each letter like he knows his own. It pervades his thoughts and dreams, and weighs his actions. He knows fear, but he doesn't know this. Whatever this is that had made him flushed with provocation, and the desire to face Akemi down with nothing but his overblown lies and a thin layer of bravado to carry him through. It was recklessness. Insane. And he did it. It doesn't seem like him. Not the smooth carefully delivered lines, not the steady gaze that had held Akemi's own, and certainly not the foolish bravery that made her eventually capitulated. He doesn't know this version of Deku, and yet—it leaves him shaking with excitement.

"I'm fine," he tries to assure her. He couldn't even begin to explain the strange, complicated feeling that had taken root within his heart.

Eiko doesn't look convince, but he doesn't budge either so she just gives up. "Deku-sama, you were amazing earlier," she gushes instead. "You really put Hin Akemi in her place!"

That wasn't true, but Eiko's earnestness is hard to dissuade so he lets it slide. "Silly girl," Izuku flicks her forehead, "I wouldn't have to go that far if you didn't so recklessly mouth off to her," he scolds, but it holds no bite.

Eiko pouts at first before casting a cheeky grin at him. "I only speak of the truth. This honorable tongue can tell no lies," she declares, rubbing the red spot where he’d strike her in an exaggerated hurt.

He glances behind her, taking a step back and with a sincere smile, he dips his head, bending at the waist in regard. "Thank you," he says to Shinsou as easily as he breathes. “I'm in debt to you."

Shinsou’s expression remains aloof and distance like he’s an untouched island. "She'd talked too much," he says dismissively, and that was that. He’d said it in such a casual way as though that was a reason enough for him to put his head on the line for Izuku. Truly a puzzling man with curious intent, but he is nonetheless grateful to Shinsou anyway. Kindness without the weight of ulterior motive is a rare and special breed.

After that, without any further delay, they depart once more on their merry way, only slowing down a few times for Eiko to read the placards off of the buildings that they'd passed for him and Izuku quietly noting each stroke and angle of that made up each word to himself.

Then, finally, they arrive at the emperor's residence. As soon as they step into the enormous archway leading into the outer courtyard, an eunuch catches sight of them right away and rushes toward them.

"Hin Deku," he greets with a bow. "How can I be of service to you today?"

Steady, breath in and out, the boy named Izuku retreats in order for Hin Deku take his place once more. Refined, demure, and well-manners, Deku returns his greeting with an acknowledged bow. "I wish to see the Emperor," he tells the eunuch coolly, revealing none of his cards.

The eunuch jerks up in surprise, giving him considering look at him, then, he says, "His Majesty is partaking his morning meal with the Grand Marshal right now and doesn't like to disturb during this time, but I'll speak with His Majesty and see what he’ll say to your request."

"My gratitude to you," Izuku replies with a dip of his head.

The eunuch leaves them alone with several servants standing by, drawing a few curious glances their way that Izuku refuses to acknowledge. He stands tall and resolute as though he has every right to be here.

It isn't long before the eunuch comes back, but waiting in the courtyard with so many eyes on them is jarring. Their gaze pricked at every one of his exposed nerves, and it's only when the eunuch says, "His Majesty will see you now," that Izuku lets out his long-held breath.

The eunuch pushes through a large double door in front of them then moves back quickly and gestures for only him to go through. Eiko deftly touches his wrist for encouragement before stepping back with Shinsou, leaving him to face his greatest hurdle yet before him in that room.

Izuku breathes as he steps forward and the door closes behind him, feeling the burden of his action with every sluggish step he takes into the tiger's den. It isn't long before he feels the pressure of two alphas locked in a room with him as he notices the figures in front of him. The oppressive air presses down on him. It's nigh uncomfortable, heavy like he's being dragged under water but Izuku lets none of it show. He bears the weight of it like a rock jutting out the surface of a stormy sea.

Unwilling to show any of the pressure o him, he drops down to his knees with a practiced ease. With hands cupped forward, he lowers his head in almost to the floor in deference. "This lowly servant greets Your Majesty and his lordship, the Grand Marshal," he says solemnly.

A beat, then, "rise," Emperor Shouto commands as dry and coarse as a desert, giving away nothing.

Izuku gets up and raises his head, staring right into the eyes of the men in front of him, whom he owes his new, lavish lifestyle to but also the very men who trapped him in this glass bowl in order to safeguard their secret. They're both his savior and jailer, he won't forget it.

Their presence dominates the entire room, permeating every crevice and corner as though the simple fact that they're here it takes up all the space in it. These are two of the most powerful men in the entire empire and Izuku stands before them defenseless and within their grasp.

Bakugou Katsuki rests his cheek on his knuckles, eyeing Izuku carefully from where he casually lounges next to the emperor like he’s meant to be there. "What you want?" the Grand Marshal demands harshly, appearing deceitfully young, but fierce and ruthless enough to cut a bloody swat across the continent.

Izuku had been a front row witness to his brutality. He barely manages to hold back a flinch as Todoroki turns to Bakugou with a frown. "Behave," he scolds, but it sounds endlessly fond, speaking of years familiarity between bred them.

Izuku doesn't know how anyone can't see it.

Bakuogu tsks in annoyance. "Our meal is disrupted," he snaps, sitting up properly now but there's a carelessness to it that speak of the ease he has with Todoroki, "so this had better be fucking important."

"I'm sure Deku-san has his reasons," Todoroki responds coolly.

Even though there's a visible distance between them, the level of intimacy and comfort can't be denied, hidden and tucked between their courtly role as an emperor and his most loyal general. It's in the way they look and speak to each other; terribly affectionate and indulgence.

It's so obvious to Izuku yet Bakugou and Todoroki managed to have the entire world fooled that they’re nothing but close confidants. The thing is alpha and alpha’s pairing are view as against nature as opposite sex attracts and same sex repulses. It's the order of things, but Izuku is starting to believe less and less of it every day.

"Forgive me for the intrusion, Your Majesty," Izuku apologizes. He resists fidgeting with his hands in front of them. A show of nerves that would not alleviate the heaviness in his chest right now. Looking up at them high in their seats like gods among men, he holds his ground. "But I came to beg a favor from you."

Bakugou snorts, pursing his lips in displeasure. "What, all the treasures we gave you is not enough?"

Choosing to ignore Bakugou’s comment, Todoroki gives Izuku an encouraging smile. "What is it you need, Deku-san?"

But the smile does nothing to calm Izuku's already fray nerves. While Todoroki appears discipline and pleasant against Bakugou's rough waters, beneath that calm placidity hides a shrewd intelligence who masterminded the plan to use Izuku as a shield for their secret affair.

He doesn't trust either of them. Not with his life or his heart.

Izuku drops his gaze to the floor. He lets out shaky exhale and then, looks up once more. "I wish to have a teacher, if you would allow it," he confesses. "Someone who can teach me literature and history of this kingdom."

Todoroki's smile goes cold. "Why are you suddenly interest in learning?" He looks upon Izuku with suspicion.

"Are you that bored sitting on your ass all day that you you think this would be far more entertaining?" Bakugou demands, unamused.

"If you're that curious then we have several libraries that can be open to you," Todoroki offers instead. "We have many books you can read from and you don't need a teacher necessary for that."

Izuku shakes his head. "But there are things an Imperial Tutor can teach me that a book cannot."

Todoroki frowns. "What is that you're trying to learn that can't be taught through books?"

Izuku flushes. At his side, his hand clenches and unclenches the fabric of his skirt. "It's nothing of importance."

"Then why do you do you specifically need a tutor since it isn't important enough to warrant an answer from you in the first place?" Bakugou retorts in a huff.

"I just want a teacher, why are you making this so difficult?" Izuku murmurs under his breath, aggrieved. It isn't like he's asking them for the moon, so why did this suddenly turn into an interrogation?

"Speak up!" Bakugou narrows his eyes. "If you want something say it!"

Indignant tersely rises up his chest, bubbling forth and breaking through. "How can I use books to learn when I can't even read and write my own name?!" Izuku snaps. Once the words escaped him, he gasps and quickly covers his mouth as two shocked faces stare back at him incredulously.

Heart in his throat, he hurriedly drops to his hands and knees and begs for mercy. "F-forgive me for speaking out of turn," he pleads to the floor, trembling with fear. For a moment he forgot who stood before him and the power they easily wield over him, but the damage is done.

He holds his breath as he waits for the fallout of his foolishness, but then, "You're... illiterate?" Todoroki finally says instead, surprise coloring his voice.

Izuku bites his lower lip and slowly raises his head. "Yes," he confesses. It was never necessary for him to learn. None of his previous masters felt the need to educate him as it is a privilege for the few. Tools are to be use and not taught.

"That's rather unexpected because education, at least up to grade school, is compulsory for all citizens here even among our vassal states," Todoroki explains, staring at him curiously.

"Well, I am not a citizen," Izuku coldly reminds him, touching his neck as though he can still feel the heavy presence of a collar there. "Or have you forgotten how you found me?" He stops, winces, and immediately backtracks. "N-not that it matters anyway as it isn't your fault."

If he could sew his mouth shut and walk back out of this room this instance, he so would.

"I apologize," Todoroki says with wry twist of his lips, and it even sounds somewhat sincere. "It's just easy for us to forget what you and others have suffered because slavery is forbidden in our kingdom."

The concession is there, but infuriatingly his words only inflames Izuku even more to irate. It’s a touchy subject that always manage to set him off. "Yet it still passes through your borders unchecked," he says scathingly, recalling the chained men and women he’d saw brought to heel at the entry gate of one of the garrison towns, "and you do nothing about it—" Eyes wide as he catches himself in time and bites down the rest of his biting criticism. He groans, defeated by his furiously loose tongue at this moment. "Punish me already, please," he begs resignedly, before he could say anything else to worsen his situation.

"No, this is far too entertaining," Bakugou says, smirking and crooking his finger for Izuku to continue, "Please keep telling us how we should run our own kingdom."

Izuku shakes his head. “I wouldn’t dare to.”

Bakugou snorts. "I thought the comfort of the harem spoiled you and the person who'd held a dagger to my throat that first night had disappeared under all that silk and gold,” he muses dryly. "So, you have been hiding your fangs this entire time."

Izuku stiffens, but wisely holds his tongue this time.

When Izuku does not rise to his obvious bait, Bakugou leans forward and peers at him curiously. "Though I'm more interest in your need for secrecy."

Izuku sucks in a deep breath before meeting his gaze. "Would have you taken me in if you knew of my inadequacy?" he challenges.

Bakugou glances at Todoroki, who purses his lips and doesn't say anything. Neither mouths move but their eyes say as much to each other before Bakugou leans back in his seat, looking annoyed. The deafening silence that follows from both of them is an answer enough for Izuku.

In the Imperial Harem, they provide the best environment to cultivate the most beautiful and talented flowers for the emperor, but they often came to the garden already in bloom while Izuku is a weed sown on coarse soils, pretending to be something he's not in order to survive. He knows his worth and what's he lacking. If any of his shortcomings are exposed, it can be exploited and used against him. This harem will eat him alive if they find even a crack in his walls. He's a weakness that neither of them can afford.

"I thought so," Izuku says gravely.

They have their reasons for doing what they do, but so does Izuku.

"It would be a lie to say you still would have been our first choice," Todoroki admits, "but we would have found a way to work with you. You didn't have to—" But the rest of his sentence gets cut off by Bakugou.

"Fuck that, what I want to know is how you managed to fool us all this long?! I spent two months with you on the road and not once did give you an indication of illiteracy." Bakugou grins menacingly, baring his teeth as though he can sink them in Izuku. "What other secrets are you hiding, hm?"

Todoroki glances at Bakugou and frowns, but even he too appears intrigue. "I heard you attended the Empress Dowager's poetry reading party two weeks ago with the other concubines and Princess Fuyumi even mentioned she found you to be surprisingly well-read. She was impressed."

Izuku presses his lips together, hesitant.

"If you tell us the truth, I'll grant your wish," Todoroki promises, trying to break his resolve. "I'll even introduce you to our teacher, Aizawa Shota, who has taught many of the best minds in our kingdom. You can learn a lot from him."

It's a tempting offer indeed.

"So, what fucking trick did you use?" Bakugou presses impatiently.

Finally, Izuku breaks his silence. "There's no trick. It's all in here." He points a finger to his head. "Language can be simplified into pattern and pattern can be memorized."

The words themselves doesn't hold any particular meaning to him. They're just a bunch of characters meshed together in a line, but each stroke and curve when combine can symbolized something. And it is in this of arrangement of characters that he can attach a purpose to.

Bakugou's eyes narrows at him, but Izuku plows on anyway: "As you know, the Empress Dowager's favorite hobby is reading poetry, so she likes to share it with the concubines. She gave each of us a poem and have us read it out loud, adding our own interpretation to it afterward. Five days before this, I had my maid read to me every poem in the book the Empress Dowager was going to test us on," Izuku explains. "Then I memorized the first line of each poem, because that was how I would use the identifiable markers of which poem to pull from memory."

Repetition. Constant repetition. Eiko read it to him then he recited it back to her. Again and again and again till it ingrained in his head and the words itself sunk under his skin and he even dreamed of it in his sleep. All twenty-six poems in five days. He memorized it all.

So when the day of the Empress Dowager's party arrived, no matter which poem he was given and even when the words itself were unfathomable to him, the first sequence of words uniquely aligned together on the paper was enough for him to recall exactly what poem he had in his hands.

"You memorized an entire book just through someone else reading it to you?" Todoroki asks. His eyes are dark and inscrutable.

Izuku swallows. "Yes," he answers warily.

"And in five fucking days?!" Bakugou looks at him dubiously.

Annoyed now, he huffs. "What, like it's hard?"

Izuku isn't particularly smart or talented, but he's dogged enough to crawl his way to safe harbor if need be. His past hadn't always been kind to him but each layer of pain and suffering had been a lesson, honing his survival skills enough that it made him the person he is today.

His third master was a scholar and she'd loved reading out loud to him in particular, so whenever she was annoyed with him for whatever reason she would make him recite the text back to her word for word without missing a beat. If he gets it wrong, she would whip him as punishment. He got more wronged then right, but he had learned from it. He learned how to visualized the content and the constant repetition of it till his voice had nearly grown hoarse, then he silently recited it in his head instead. It wasn't necessary difficult task, but he had to worked hard to succeed.

"Memorization was the easier part," he says as an afterthought.

Todoroki raises a brow. "Do tell."

Izuku frowns, face blank and impassive.

"You'll also be granted access to the higher-level texts in our library," Todoroki adds in as encouragement while Bakugou looks vexed.

And just like that, Izuku's tongue has loosens up. "I didn't know which book the Empress Dowager would have us read," he says. "So, I had my maid looked into her last poetry reading and she found that all the poems that were selected previously were by the same poet: Seki Yuka." He sent Eiko out to dig information on the empress dowager’s palace and she had brought back plenty for him to digest. "Seki Yuka wrote a variety of many poems and they were collected into seven books. I just have to narrowed down which book Her Majesty would choose for our readings."

"The odds were stacked against you," Todoroki murmurs. "One in seven. How did you know which one to pick?"

Izuku shakes his head. "I didn't know, but I made a guess just from what I know of Her Majesty and the information my maid had gathered for me.”

"You guessed?!" Bakugou shouts.

"It was an educated guess based on reason and deduction." He barely manages to contain his eye roll. "Of the seven books she could have chosen, I immediately excluded one of them from the start because it was used in the last reading as Her Majesty was unlikely to pick it again, so that had left me with six books," he further expands. His process of elimination was as thorough and clinical as he could get. "From what I’ve heard," he may have work hard, but Eiko worked harder, "Her Majesty is a thoughtful person. She would choose a poetry collection with great care, considering the current mood of the palace. I'm a newcomer and I believe she would want that reflect in our reading." Basically, he’d assumed she wanted to test him. "I only kept the books that have some elements of change and new arrival to fit the theme of Her Majesty's reading, which gave me four texts left. Four was still quite a lot," Izuku admits. His method always been methodical and practical, up to a certain point anyway.

"But I took into consideration that the late emperor's anniversary is coming up and Her Majesty's relationship with him had been contentious while he was alive, so she would not be partial to the romantic woes of love poem," he concludes, ignoring the way Todoroki has stiffen up. "I removed two more in that case, so I was left with my two final choices, the books Dream and Wind. Dream has the more obscure poems in its collection and requires a higher level of comprehension, while Wind's poems are short and simpler to understand," he recalls from what Eiko had told him. Wind was something even Eiko was familiar with. "My assumption of her led me to believe that Her Majesty would choose Dream over Wind because she thinks I am favored by the emperor, so she would want to know if I am able to prove myself to be of worth to her son," he explains, looking directly at Torodoki. "A mother's love."

Bakugou sneers. "But you were fucking wrong though. The book that was chosen in the end was Wind."

"That's true.” Izuku's eyes flutter shuts momentarily. "My reasoning were sound but people's actions aren't always based solely on logic; they can be capricious and emotional." The human's heart is an unpredictable thing. "I was confident with my choice at first but then—" he bites his lower lip.

"Then, what?" Todoroki presses, almost urgently.

"Then I met the Empress Dowager," he continues. "She had called me to her palace to have tea with her."

Since the day Izuku had stepped a foot on the pavement of Imperial City, he had never talked to the Empress Dowager alone, so the invitation that came was completely unexpected. What Izuku knew of her was through Eiko's very thoroughly information gathering, but it was still just the surface level.

He knows that before she was the Empress Dowager, she was simply Himura Rei, the daughter of a powerful minister, and her tumultuous relationship with the late emperor defined her reign, costing the life of her first-born son and despair that later confined her to her palace for many years. But it didn't prepare him for how soft spoken and cordial she was to him; gentle and reserved like a cold night.

In that room with just the two of them, they spoke about nothing and everything all at once. Idle conversations that led to nowhere yet it revealed bits and pieces of who they are to each other. A former slave and a lady of noble birth, they're nothing alike but she stared at Izuku with a distant and haunted look in her eyes as though she was seeing her past in him. Both trapped behind the iron walls of Imperial City and made used of by powerful men and their whims. Omegas placed on pedestal by their alpha and jealously admire and hated by many, but unable to feel the comfort and peace that come with such high position.

"You met my mother," Todoroki states, and there's a cold edge to his words that sends a chill down Izuku's spine.

He drops his gaze. "Yes," he says, "and she was kind to me the entire time. I think she felt a bit of compassion for me and that made me revised my earlier choice."

Throughout their entire conversation, the poetry reading was never brought up by either of them. Neither Wind or Dream was ever mention, yet Izuku left the Empress Dowager's palace with a new certainty that was even more unshakeable than all the accumulation of his rationales.

"So, you changed your mind simply because you met her?" Bakugou inquires dryly. "You worked it down to the smallest of details but you threw it all aside because of your gut instinct."

"After having met Her Majesty, my intuition said she would pick Wind instead," he presumes. It was everything that she didn't say that he'd picked up. The subtle undercurrent of her words, the lingering looks, and the way she talked of Todoroki like a distant, fond memory; the child that she knows but not the man he has become and fear that he's just like his father. Izuku didn't tell either of them that. Somehow in the back of his mind he feels Todoroki would not like that comparison at all. "I know it wasn't my best decision, but I was willing to bet everything on Her Majesty's pity on me."

Bakugou huffs. "Risky." Pauses. "Fucking foolish." It almost sounds like grudging admiration, tucked between callous words.

"But it worked out in the end," Izuku defends.

Bakugou glares at him. "And what would happen if you'd failed instead? You'll take me down with you."

The consequence of his failure would be catastrophic.

Bakugou is his sponsor, the one brought him into Imperial City and gifted him to the emperor, so any embarrassment that befall him would be a reflection on the marshal. He wasn't just gambling with his own reputation but also Bakugou's. It's a dangerous game he was playing.

"My apology," he concedes, but no more than that. He doesn't regret his decision even in hindsight as he stubbornly stares Bakugou down. The tension between them is thick and chocking to the point he thinks Bakugou going to storm down from his perch to fisticuffs him.

"Alright." Todoroki sighs, like they're tiring him out with their childish strife. "Peace, please."

"Have you realized since Deku stepped a foot in here, his tongue has gotten more and more brazen that he forgot who's siting before him?" Bakugou drawls darkly, eyes narrowing.

Izuku blinks, opens his mouth, and then he quickly snaps it shut again as Bakugou's words finally hit him. His hands drop to the floor and his head quickly follows. "Have mercy, my lord, for I have spoken out of turn," he says to the floor, fear momentarily taking hold of him.

Somewhere along the way, Izuku had let down his guard, forgetting the chasm that divide their social standing. They are not his peers. He is their subject.

"Katsuki," Todoroki chastises, and he can hear the frown in his tone. "Please, raise your head Deku-san. All is forgiven."

Izuku slowly lifts his gaze, sitting back up on his numb knees once more.

"No," Bakugou snaps, face twisted in anger. "This isn't the first time you had taken unnecessary risks. When will you realize that you're not fucking alone in this?! Your life isn't yours to endanger!"

Beside him, Todoroki looks completely stunned like he wasn't expecting these words to slip pass Bakugou's tirade. It's a revelation. One that leaves Izuku feeling cold and haunted of memories of his time with Bakugou before they'd arrived here, before he'd found out the truth.

Izuku quickly quelled the disturbance in his heart and the rattling of his walls. He thinks if he was the same person as the one who had spent all those months on the road with Bakugou back then, his heart would be move.

Bakugou was unlike any of Izuku's previous masters.

The first time they met, Bakugou had cut the collar around his neck. "Your life is mine now," he declared, and Izuku believed him.

He made Izuku a part of his troops. Another face in the crowd that had to earn his place beside them. He wasn't special. He was simply just Deku to him. While Bakugou was mean and coarse, he was never unnecessary cruel. He was sharp with his words and treated Izuku as he was just another soldier in his army, not a pet and certainly not a bed partner. He was either useful or not like a practical tool in Bakugou’s rough hands, and Izuku had liked that.

As long as Izuku has demonstrated his use and every time he'd succeeded in a task Bakugou had given him, he’d looked upon Izuku with recognition. He didn't give a second thought about Izuku's slave status and whenever he proved himself knowledgeable, Bakugou would seek his opinion. It was thrilling. He was transparent with his expectations of Izuku and there was never a doubt where Izuku stood with him, so for the first time in a long time he felt he was worthy of something, of someone, that he could work his way into remaining by Bakugou's side if not his affection one day.

But when Bakugou brought him to Imperial City and had given him away just like that, Izuku wondered what did he do wrong then he met Todoroki and realized he was not even a second choice. He wasn't an option at all when Todoroki was right there and Bakugou looked at him like he's his whole world.

The betrayal nearly crippled him.

So Izuku rebuilt the walls around his heart one by one, brick by brick, fortified it with the anger and hurt in the fallout of Bakugou's deception. Never again became his mantra, his resolution. Izuku's battered heart won't be move by anyone.

Just like that icy water washes over him, his mind is clear for the first time and he speaks with a calmness that he doesn't quite feel. "We have a deal. My freedom for being your shield. I am my own person now. I don't belong to anyone," Izuku says. "So, my life is mine to risk."

It's cold kind of anger that had long settled under his skin, tempered by the months Izuku had kept a careful distance between himself and Bakugou as though it could numb the pain in his heart, but now its raised its ugly head up and clawing at Izuku's chest to come out. Old wound stills hurt. Still bleed if given enough pressure.

He sucks in a deep breath and buried all his resentment once more. "But I recognize that stipulation of our deal requires me to be alive for it to happen, so I will be careful next time," he capitulates. It hurts, it hurts, but he won’t be unmade today.

Bakogou's face is torn, ripped to shred by the aloofness in Izuku's words. While Todoroki retains his cool, the weight of his gaze on Izuku is heavy, troublesome thing as though he's still trying to figure him out. "Thank you for taking our thoughts into consideration," he says instead, ever sensible and cordial. "I'll have Aizawa-sensei meet with you as promise for your cooperation."

At least through this ordeal, Izuku got more than he wanted out of it. He'd given up some of his secrets, but in the end, it was worth the trade.

Finally, after much sitting on his knees, he carefully rises to his feet but his legs that been long dead nearly crumbles, forcing him to take a sudden stumble forward. Izuku quickly steadies himself, having used to spending a long time on his knees by now, but strangely he sees both Bakugou and Todoroki had already shot out of their seat as though they can reach out and catch him in time if he were to fall over.

Like this they look like two youngsters caught in the act of something embarrassing, not at all like high-born alphas sitting in the highest positions in the land.

Bakugou grimaces, falling back into his seat as Todoroki clears his throat sheepishly before retreating with him.

Izuku doesn't deign a respond to the odd spectacle before him. "If you would excuse me then, Your Majesty and lordship," he says, gathering himself up once more. "I'll be taking my leave now." He lowers his head, giving a perfunctory bow before attempting to make a quick exit out of here.

"Deku-san," Todoroki calls out, making Izuku stops in his track, "if you ever encounter any sort of issue like that in the future, know that you can call upon us for assistance. We're in this together after all. You don't have to bear everything alone."

It's a gentle reminder. One Izuku doesn’t care for though. "I hope you have a good rest of the day," he says instead, neither accepting or rejecting the support extended to him.

Todoroki sighs, conceding to Izuku’s stubborn but just as Izuku about to head for the door he hears, as clear as day, from behind him: "So fucking infuriating," Bakugou spits out.

Involuntarily, a small smile slips pass Izuku's lips, but thankfully no one was there to see it. He immediately schools his expression to a more subdue one when he meets up with the eunuch waiting outside for him, who is there to escort him back to where he’d first started.

When he arrives at the front courtyard, Eiko is right where he'd left her earlier and Shinsou is far off in the distant, looking bored. Immediately, Eiko perks up upon seeing him and rushes over to greet him just as he gives thanks to the eunuch before he heads back into the emperor's palace.

"Deku-sama!" She grins. "You're back."

Izuku hums in agreement and ruffles Eiko's hair. "Did you wait long?" he asks.

She shakes her head. "No," she says, leading Izuku far away from the emperor’s palace. "This one can wait however long is needed for Deku-sama even till her last breath."

Feeling his heart lighten just by being around her, Izuku laughs. "My little flatterer," he says fondly.

Eiko preens happily. "Did you manage to accomplish what you wanted to do in there?"

"Hm," he considers for a moment, "perhaps so. We'll see in the upcoming weeks if my beginning of my plan would prove fruitful."

Taking the first step toward anything is always the hardest.

Izuku doesn't wish to get involved in the politics and fights of the inner palace, but he knows he can't stay quiet and under the vague protection of Todoroki and Bakugou's for the rest of his stay here. He might not even live that long for them to deliver their promise with him. The garden of the inner palace is filled with unknown treacheries and various fractions, so if Izuku wants to keep his head he'll have to prepare for the upcoming fights. Knowledge and allies will be his best assets and he's going to have to break his bubble of solitude for it.

In order to protect his future and Eiko's, he must survive.

He takes one last look at the sheer size of the emperor's palace. It looms over him easily even with the considerable distance between them now; it’s the highest seat of power in Imperial City, where this place is one big deadly trap that could easily swallow him whole. The power and weight of it all is immeasurable, and it’s easy to be crush by it if one is not careful.

It's also the place that cultivate the most gifted and talented of minds despite its brutal climate. The soil here offers the best environment to grow and flourished if one manages to survive long enough here, but Izuku is a weed planted in the midst of all that. A stubborn little weed. Tenacity in adversary; a weed can bloom even in the harshest of condition. That resiliency is what make them so dangerous in the end because they're opportunistic and persistent, given the chance easily taking over the entire garden and squashing all the other competing flowers.

But Izuku doesn’t want that for himself. What he seeks is enough resources to defend himself and the people dearest to him, so let the others fight for the right to sit next to the emperor while he sits and waits. Izuku doesn't have to be bold and beautiful like all the other flowers in the emperor's garden, he just needs to seize every opportunity that come his way and maybe, maybe, it’ll be enough to make it out alive and he and Eiko will finally be able to escape from this golden cage.

#bakudeku #tododeku #todobaku #tododekubaku #fic snippet #ot3 a/b/o kingdom au #or how a (former) slave brought an entire kingdom to its knees

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