Chapter Text
Dusk was rolling in as Izuku stood in front of his cabin. The breeze brought the scent of fresh nature, with a hint of the salty sea and the sweetness of the strawberry fields that lay not far away from the cabin grounds. Izuku gazed at the cabin that stood on the other side of the central green. There were 24 cabins in total that formed a rectangular Ω at the cabin grounds: two at the very end, five each on two sides, and 12 formed the feet of the shape of which each foot stood six cabins. Each cabin has a large number above the door, among which cabins with odd numbers were on the left and the ones with even numbers were on the right. Izuku was at cabin six, and he was gazing at cabin five, which was straight across from his cabin.
It was not yet curfew, so most cabins still had their lights on. Through the windows of cabin five, Izuku spotted the familiar blonde that was yelling at others in the cabin. He could even hear the voices from where he was standing, but he could barely decipher the words. He was probably yelling at the others to get their butts into their beds, Izuku thought.
The blonde had apparently felt the piercing gaze as he whipped his head towards the window that Izuku was gazing through. Izuku quickly pulled his gaze away, pretending that he had been looking at something else, but his effort was to no avail as he could clearly see the scowled face of the blonde glaring back at him while Izuku slowly turned his gaze back. It wasn’t the first time that Izuku was caught gazing at the teen, and the litigant didn’t seem to care too much for being gazed at. He was probably already used to the gaze.
Their eyes met. It felt like hours to Izuku, but it only took three seconds before both of them pulled away simultaneously from the eye contact, not knowing the other had looked away as well.
Izuku could feel that faint jumpy feeling rising to his chest again—it happened every time when their eyes met—as he set his feet back to his cabin. The yelling blonde at cabin five was Katsuki Bakugou, and they had been knowing each other for years.
In general, as Izuku had analyzed by himself, there could be a whole lot of different meanings behind the phrase “knowing each other for years.” They could be acquaintances that had known each other’s existence for years, or unfamiliar friends that had known some years of information about each other, or really close friends for years that had actually known nearly all details of each other. Given answers from above, if the question of what the relationship was between Katsuki and Izuku was asked, it would be quite difficult to answer, since they were quite… none of the above.
Sure, they had known almost years of every single detail of information about each other, but they were like unfamiliar friends under circumstances that made them forced to talk to each other, and were even like acquaintances that completely ignored each other’s existence while no interactions were required.
Izuku didn’t know exactly when and how their relationship ended up that weird.
---
Living in the same neighborhood, Izuku and Katsuki ended up being childhood friends ever since they met at kindergarten, and they even became close family friends for having the same nationality (It is very common for Asians to form their own cliques). They weren’t amazed by the fact that they went to same schools up until high school since they lived in the same area, but always being in the same classes and even going to the same summer camp during long breaks were surprising enough.
They both arrived Camp Half-Blood at around age seven, being escorted together.
It was actually an accident. The protector was sent to escort Katsuki to camp, but when the protector arrived at the Bakugous’ resident, he found Katsuki being with another child who also had the scent of a half-blood.
This whole thing started at the last day of the school year, and Mrs. Bakugou, Mitsuki, was asked if she could pick up the other child. Inko, Izuku’s mother, couldn’t go pick her son up because she had to run an errand. Mitsuki generously accepted her request, as it wasn’t the first time that the families had done each other such simple favors.
Mitsuki took her keys and headed off to the school, thinking about upcoming family trips and arrangements they’d made with the Midoriyas on her way. When she parked at the school’s parking lot, she was a bit anxious to see a couple of cyclopes walking by, but she didn’t think too much, hoping that her son’s scent wasn’t strong enough to attract these monsters.
The school bell rang and students started to pile out of the school. She got off the car, trying to look for Katsuki and Izuku amongst the crowd. She quickly greeted the kids when she saw them running towards her, and told them that Izuku would be tagging along since Inko was busy. Katsuki didn’t seem too enthusiastic about the news, but there’s nothing else he could do to change the situation.
Right after she picked them up, Mitsuki casually asked if anything happened before she had arrived. Before Katsuki could answer, Izuku straight up told her that some weird guy tried to grab them when they left the school building. Mitsuki was startled when Izuku used the word “us,” but she was interrupted by her son before she could ask anything.
“Didn’t I say not to tell my mom about this? What are you thinking, stupid Deku!”
Mitsuki immediately got flared up by Katski’s reaction and forgot what she was about to ask. “Damn it, Katsuki! Watch your mouth!”
Izuku wasn’t too scared of Katsuki as long as Mitsuki was around, since the parent would always try her best to “educate” her son.
“But Kacchan, I… I think it’s important,” Izuku said in a small voice. “Didn’t your mom say that you should tell her everything strange at school?” He quickly turned back to Mitsuki. “There’s another weird thing the day before yesterday—”
“I said shut up! Deku!”
“I SAID WATCH YOUR MOUTH! KATSUKI!!”
Izuku wasn’t discouraged by Katsuki’s remarks. Instead, he continued to describe how there was a weird guest touring around the school with a couple of teachers, and how the guest kept a serious stare at Katsuki while the latter headed off to the restroom during class.
“That guy didn’t even follow me, so it’s not that important!”
“But-but it’s scary. I saw his eyes glowing…”
“You’re hallucinating,” Katsuki huffed. “That’s all!”
“I SAID CUT IT! KATSUKI!”
If her hands weren’t on the steering wheel, Mitsuki would’ve given Katsuki a nice smack on his spiky head.
Mitsuki became very concerned about what Izuku told her. Although summer vacation had already started, it would still be dangerous for the kid being unprotected even though they didn’t need to go to school. Mitsuki knew that the cyclopes she saw earlier might trace the scent of her son, and under this rate, he’ll be attacked sooner or later. Knowing what to do would be the best move, she called Camp Half-Blood.
The parent didn’t know Izuku was a demigod as well, so she didn’t know that Izuku and Katsuki being close resulted in having a stronger scent than a regular demigod, thus made it earlier for Katsuki to be noticed by monsters.
After an hour of waiting, a satyr arrived. Satyrs tend to be protectors of the demigods—also called half-bloods—as satyrs usually were sent to pick up demigods and escort them to Camp Half-Blood, where magical boundaries were at work to protect whoever is within the vicinity. Phillips the satyr was greeted by Mitsuki as he entered the front door. He looked around the house and saw two kids: The blonde kid must’ve been her son, and the kid with dark hair obviously didn’t fit into the family picture.
Apparently the satyr wasn’t expecting another demigod. Phillips was extremely confused: He was summoned to escort a half-blood, whose parent had called camp for help. He even double checked the information he received from camp, and it said one half-blood, not two, so who’s the other kid? The parent didn’t seem like she knew the other kid was a demigod as well. He asked the parent who the other kid was, and Mitsuki replied that the kid was a family friend, and just a regular mortal.
Nevertheless, a satyr’s job was to protect half-bloods, no matter how many of them there are, so Phillips decided to bring both of them back to camp. He first called back to camp, stating that he had found and would return with demigods. The satyr then informed Mitsuki about the other kid being a half-blood as well, and told her about his decision on taking that kid along. Mitsuki was shocked by the news. She had no idea that Izuku was also a half-blood, as she only knew that her child was. She’d never talked about these Greek mythical stuffs with anyone else since she had never expected another half-blood living in the same neighborhood. Without hesitation, Mitsuki agreed to let the satyr take both of them away, as she knew the dangers of leaving a young half-blood alone. She said she’ll inform the parent of the other kid later on.
“Izuku, you’ll go with Katsuki,” Mitsuki told Izuku as she packed an extra pack for Izuku. “I’ll tell your mother about this later on. Stay close to Katsuki and Phillips, okay? He’ll explain everything.”
Gladly, it wasn’t the last time they see the woman, but it was kind of the start of something that changed between the two kids.
===
Izuku lay in his bed, listening to little noises coming from other bunks before calling lights out. He was now 15 years old, head counselor of cabin six. He received the position at age 13 when their former head counselor stepped down from her position and left; now she would only occasionally come back as one of the instructors and the architect when there were new architectures needed to be built at the camp fields. Another senior camper, who was the second oldest camper in this cabin, would've taken the spot since that senior camper was the second-in-command of the ex-counselor, but that guy left for college at the same year that the ex-counselor stepped down, so the position was taken by Izuku, who had stayed at camp longer than the rest of the cabin, despite being younger than some of them.
“It’s about time now,” Izuku called out to his cabinmates. “Lights out.”
The lights in the cabin went out, and people started to gradually fall asleep. Izuku, on the other hand, had trouble sleeping. Another game of capture-the-flag was coming up next-next Friday, and he had to find another strategy to go against Katsuki. The other team, led by Katsuki’s cabin, had been winning six times in a row so far (counting from last year), and they were probably aiming for breaking the record by continuing on winning.
Izuku turned in his blanket and looked out the window. It was probably New Moon, so it was a night off for the moon goddess as he couldn’t see the moon from the sky, but he could still see some silvery glow coming from the goddess’s empty cabin nextdoor.
Camp hadn’t officially started yet for the summer, but Izuku and Katsuki’s school ended early this year due to reasons that students need not to worry about, so they both came to camp earlier than usual. Their parents sent them off together—they do that every year—so there was no choice but to travel along with Katsuki. Izuku could feel the awkwardness of being alone with Katsuki on their way here. Katsuki would just look out the window while listening to his earphones, and Izuku would just study his notes or write into his own notebooks.
---
Things weren’t like that in the past, though.
Izuku thought back on their first trip to camp. He and Katsuki were being escorted by Phillips, and the satyr didn’t wear any disguise, so his furry goat legs were exposed to the public.
“You’re a half… goat?” Katsuki questioned Phillips when they were on the train. “Half-man, half-goat… So you’re a satyr?”
"You’re well informed,” Phillips replied. “Did your mom teach you about these stuffs?”
“Isn't this basic stuffs? Why wouldn’t anyone know about this?” Katsuki said cockily. He was a smart kid. He couldn’t quite remember where he learned the information from, but he just knew more stuffs than other kids around him. He’s also more talented as he learned things faster than others, which was one of the traits that Izuku admired about Katsuki since they were kids. The boy was so confident and awesome, so gifted yet talented, it seemed like there were nothing else that was brighter than the boy in front of him. The cocky boy may not have good attitude sometimes, but still… Izuku still looked up to him a lot.
“So why don’t anyone else see your legs? Can’t they see it?” Izuku asked analytically. “Or is there something not letting people see it? Like the glowing eyes I saw in class, but no one else saw it…There was something not letting them see it?”
“Well, you’re kind of right,” Phillips paused for it bit, thinking on how to explain things in an easier way. “There’s this thing call the Mist. It’s some kind of magic that can change what most people can see. It prevents most people from seeing monsters and other stuffs.” He looked at Katsuki. "Your mom, and you guys are kind of different. When you can see through the magic that can fool most people, we call it seeing through the Mist. Most people can’t see through the Mist. Got it?”
“So…” Izuku thought for a moment. “There’s the Mist, so most people, other than us, can’t see your… goat legs, right?”
“Well, I prefer to call them hooves, but you’re right.”
“So you’re not a monster?” Katsuki asked.
“Nope. Satyrs are protectors.” Phillips replied. “We protect kids like you.”
“So satyrs and monsters… They’re real?” Izuku asked in a scared voice.
“Well, I am one in front of your eyes, and you saw the glowing eyes earlier.” Phillips shrugged. “Unless you don’t believe what you’re seeing, but yeah, we’re all real.”
They let the information sank in for a moment. "So why do we have to leave the house? Why do you have to protect us?” Katsuki asked in a skeptical tone.
The satyr didn’t explain much more because it was dangerous to know things too early. “I’ll explain the rest when we arrive. It’s safer that way,” he stated when they got off the train.
Phillips fell a bit silent after that, not letting the boys asking more questions, so the two boys chatted about school and new hero comics along the way. Izuku remembered that the interactions were very friendly and cheerful since they shared the same environment and so many interests; they even admired the same hero in the hero comic series. They were also clever enough not to bring up whatever happened after they left the school.
It was very late, but they arrived at camp without anything chasing them, which was extremely rare in regular standards since usually newcomers tend to be chased by monsters while they ran all the way to the camp borders. They climbed over a big hill with a pine tree standing at the hilltop. There was a golden sheet of something hanging on the lowest branch of the pine, and a huge dragon curled around the base of the tree. A huge statue of a Greek goddess stood near the distinct pine tree. Phillips told them the statue was the Athena Parthenos, and the statue, along with the pine tree and the Golden Fleece hanging on its branch, protected the borders of the camp. The dragon, Peleus, was trained to protect the Golden Fleece.
Izuku’s brain started to wire up the moment he saw the mythical objects and beings. He had felt something the moment he looked at the statue, but he was too focused on everything in front of his eyes that he let the strange feeling pass on. There were dragons, magical trees, magical fleece, and magical statue of a goddess, who was the goddess of wisdom that was often heard of in various stories. Young Izuku felt a bit overwhelmed as he silently counted, but he knew there would be more to come.
They went straight to the camp headquarters called the Big House—a four-story huge building painted in sky blue—to meet with a man in wheelchair. The man in the wheelchair is called Chiron, who was the camp activities director. He greeted and welcomed them, made a brief self-intro, and stated that they would be put into cabin eleven before they were claimed.
“I’ll let Phillips lead you.” The man in the wheelchair looked out at the dark night sky. “It is nearly curfew. I will let you two settle down first for tonight. Camp tour can wait for tomorrow. Phillips, would you bring them to cabin eleven? I’ll inform Alice, and you can turn them over to her.”
It felt like being tossed around by different adults. First Katsuki’s mother, then Phillips, then now this Chiron guy. Katsuki grew a bit furious for being tossed around, so he threw out his rage on Phillips once they stepped outside of the Big House. “So what is going on? Where is this place? When can we leave here? Who are you people? Why do we have to be here? I won’t obey until you explain everything to us.” Izuku was a bit awed by how Katsuki pinned down all the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, and why) that were needed to know the whole situation without pausing. He himself was a bit too wired-up and overwhelmed to think much, let alone asking questions.
“Well..." Phillips said cautiously. “How much do you know about Greek myths?”
They didn’t get to move to cabin eleven until Katsuki got all his questions answered. Although his attitude wasn’t good, Katsuki wasn’t that unreasonable, Izuku thought, since he did also think they deserved some sort of explanation before moving on. Phillips explained to them that the Olympian gods that the Greeks worshipped still existed since they were a powerful part of the Western Civilization. They moved from country to country as the center of the power shifted, like moving from Greece to Rome, and now the center of the civilization is at America. Also, since the Olympian gods were still around, their old habits lived as well—which was having children with mortals, resulting in half-bloods like them. They were the children of the Olympian gods.
As to the reason why they had to leave their home and stay at camp, it was because they would be under attack by monsters. Phillips couldn't explain too much beforehand since the more they knew that they were demigods, the stronger their scent would be, and monsters would be attracted by the scent of half-bloods.
Izuku chuckled when he remembered how he and Katsuki tried to smell themselves while Phillips explained, but the satyr told them this "scent" thing was only sensed by monsters and satyrs, which was why Phillips knew Izuku was a demigod as well when they met.
"Mrs. Bakugou had only called for help for Katsuki, but she didn't know that Izuku was a half-blood as well," Phillips explained. "But I think the reason that both of you attracted monsters so early was because you two were too close. Usually a single half-blood start to attract monsters at eleven or twelve, but the more half-bloods gather, the stronger the scent becomes, so more monsters would be attracted."
Katsuki frowned at the news, and scowled at Izuku as if it was his fault. Izuku looked back warily, not sure how to react. It wasn't his fault that they lived in the same neighborhood.
"Now, don't look at each other like this," Phillips tried to calm them down. "It was the Fates that had brought you guys together. You guys weren't the first campers to come here young, there were a few others that came even younger than you guys. No need to get personal.”
“Fates?" Izuku asked in curiosity. “Why fates instead of fate? Fate should be more than one?”
“Stupid Deku, the Fates are the three beings that control people’s destiny,” Katsuki said in annoyance.
“Oh…” Izuku looked down at his feet in embarrassment. He had no idea how Katsuki had known these information, but he felt a bit stupid for not knowing. It was that exact moment that made Izuku determined to learn as much information about Greek mythology as he could. Katsuki looked cool for knowing lots of things, and Izuku didn’t want to be too far off from his friend. He would have to stock up some notebooks in the first place, though.
Phillips glanced between them and continued. “You see the cabins down there?” Phillips pointed at the cabins at the commons area that was not too far away from the Big House. “Those cabins, one represents each Olympian god. You’ll have to live in the cabin that represents your godly parent. Until we know who your godly parent is, you’ll be in cabin eleven.”
“Cabin… eleven?” Izuku asked.
“It’s the cabin of Hermes. God of messengers, doctors, merchants, and a lot more. As also being the god of travellers, he’ll accept newcomers like you. Anymore questions?”
It took a lot to process and sink in. Myths were not myths. Ancient stories were real histories. Not only did monsters and satyrs exist, but also powerful beings such as gods. They were only half-humans. One of their parents weren’t their real parents.
“One more…” Katsuki swallowed. “So when will we be… claimed?”
“It depends. If you’re lucky enough, then you’ll get claimed earlier. If not, then it’ll take… quite a while. Anything else?”
Katsuki and Izuku glanced at each other in silence. Phillips took that as a no. “If not, then let’s head over. Alice will be waiting.”
On that happy note, they were led to cabin eleven.
They walked towards the cabin in silence as they curiously looked about their surroundings. Although it was nighttime, the visibility wasn’t that poor under the moonlight. The whole place was in a huge valley surrounded by hills. Strawberry fields lay flat near the Big House, and an empty volleyball court stood nearby as well. Greek architectures scattered throughout the place, and they could see dark waves touching the beach at the far end ahead of them. There was a huge forest spreaded to their left, from which they could hear suspicious noises that didn’t sound like regular animals. They passed by a building that looked like it was stacked with dangerous objects. The amphitheater was lit by the bonfire in the center, and there were quite a lot of people sitting on the seats. They could hear someone playing the guitar, followed by people singing along the tune. Although it was late and Phillips seemed too tired to give a camp tour at the moment, the camp looked like a pleasant place.
They then arrived at the cabins area. Not many campers were around, since most of them were gathered at the campfire. And although it was nighttime, they could still see 20 completely different cabins forming a big Ω shape facing the central space that was about the size of a soccer field (yes, there were 20 cabins when Izuku and Katsuki first arrived, but new ones were added later on). Every one of them looked completely different from one another, and the most noticeable one amongst them was glowing silver in the moonlight. They didn’t know back then, but later on they learned that it was the cabin of the moon goddess, Artemis.
They arrived at the most worn out cabin amongst the 20, and Alice, head counselor of the Hermes cabin, greeted them in front of the cabin. "So you’re the new campers?” she eyed both of them. “What are you names?”
Katsuki didn’t seem like in the mood to respond, so Izuku did the job for him. “I’m Izuku Midoriya, and this is Katsuki Bakugou. Ni-nice to meet you!”
Alice turned a bit delighted when she heard their names. Izuku suspected it was probably driven by the cordial feeling of having the same nationality. “I’m Alice Miyazawa. Welcome to cabin eleven.”
===
Izuku sighed as he thought back to what seemed like eons ago. He could still remember how he and Kacchan cuddled up to each other the first night they settled down in the Hermes cabin. It was a completely new place, and they felt insecure. It was indeed true that they felt like they only had each other at that moment, and they were even lucky enough to have each other from the start. There were a lot of kids that ran away from home by themselves. A lot of them successfully made it to camp in peace, but there were some that never made it.
Izuku closed his eyes as he tried to get some sleep while sounds of snoring came from other bunks.
---
There was an official camp tour for them the next morning of their arrival, and they finally saw things that weren’t too significant under the night sky, and they also entered the buildings that they didn’t get to see much the previous night. They didn't get to enter the woods though, since they were told they had to be armed to do so. It was dangerous to wander around in the woods.
The camp offered a lot of dangerous activities, such as letting campers practice and have access to a great amount of dangerous weapons, like they had javelin range, archery range, combat arena, and great amount of blades like swords, spears, knives, and they even had shotguns and grenades in the armory. Some campers were making their own weapons in the forges. Another dangerous activity is the climbing wall, which spilled lava from the sides while campers tried to climb to the top. Lighter activities included horse riding—or rather, pegasus riding since instead of regular horses, the camp offered winged horses (which were called pegasi in plural).
The most normal activity was probably arts and crafts, just like regular summer camp activities unless you ignore the non-human instructors such as satyrs or dryads (a.k.a. tree nymphs). In a nutshell, activities at camp were like regular summer camp activities—well, that is if you overlook the use of real blades for lessons, dangerous landmark such as lava-spilling climbing wall, flying pegasi for horse-rising, or non-human instructors such as satyrs or dryads (a.k.a. tree nymphs) for some of the activities.
There weren’t any signs of claiming during their first year, so they were settled in the Hermes cabin for that summer. That year was yet the most peaceful days Izuku had ever had during his days at camp. He thought...he thought they had grown closer during those days. They were close enough for a start, being family friends and all that, and being in a new environment made Izuku glued to Katsuki like a little tail wherever Katsuki went. Izuku knew he might’ve been a bit annoying, but he couldn’t help but follow Katsuki around. Following Katsuki around seemed to be like his personal habit ever since early childhood. And yet, although Katsuki seemed slightly annoyed, he seemed kind of used to it, and even though he usually teased Izuku for being a weakling and kind of bossed him around, he still treated Izuku nicer than how he was doing right now. He didn’t even refuse to let Izuku tag along.
Throughout most camp activities, Katsuki was pretty impressive even as a young kid. He did well on nearly all activities (although not as outstanding as those demigods who were born to master certain skills), and was particularly good in sparring. On the other hand, although Izuku didn’t screw things up too badly, he pretty much did a poor job on most subjects. The one thing that he didn’t do too bad on was sparring, like Katsuki, but only to some extent. He was pretty good at practicing alone, but he was too afraid to spar during one-on-one that he couldn’t stop himself from trembling. Izuku wasn’t sure if he was just too scared of Kacchan though, since they were always somehow paired together.
“You’re gonna get yourself killed one day if you continue to act like a coward, Deku.” Bakugou told him more than once after sword-fighting sessions. Izuku did know that his life would depend on these training lessons if he want to go home after the summer, or he would be too weak to survive outside of camp. But the problem he had was he never thought he would win against the never-losing Kacchan that he had known for years. The boy was like the embodiment of victory for never losing.
Izuku looked down at his feet. If he wanted to surpass Kacchan, he thought to himself, he would need to come up with strategies. He wasn’t sure how to start with those ideas, but he would have to—
“Come on, Deku! We should get going now.”
===
Izuku woke up with a start. He could still hear Katsuki’s last word in his dream still ringing in his ears. He had fallen asleep without himself realizing, and he had woken up way too early. As far as he could tell, the sun hadn’t risen yet.
Demigods usually had weird dreams. When he was younger, he’d heard from senior campers describing how they dreamed about other people’s past, or dreamed about watching events from other places that were happening on live. Some dreams even had them stalking at other people’s side. There were experienced campers who even claimed to have stalked on the enemies’ base during warfare while they dreamed. Most dreams were just random, and they couldn’t choose what to dream.
None of those were Izuku’s case, though. He had been dreaming about his past way too frequently these days, which made him rethink about his past even during daytime, and looking upon the past made him dream more about his past. A weird vicious cycle, he would say.
Izuku scientifically analyzed that it was probably too peaceful these days as he continued to dream about his own past; either that, or his past had something to do with something that was about to come up. He hoped it was the former since no one wanted weird things to happen during peacetime.
In fact, both of his assumptions were quite right, but Izuku had been overthinking and worrying too much about some sort of bloodthirsty event that was going to interrupt the peace, which wasn’t really his case. Couldn’t blame Izuku for worrying too much since usually demigods learn the hard way that their lives won’t be in peace for long.
It wasn’t until all of the drama ended that he realized what his dreams really meant.