only the best for the best

by pyrrhicwildfire

Summary:

When Bakugou Katsuki—heir apparent to his chieftain mother—gets to know Yaoyorozu Momo in the great war, he decides immediately that he wants her as his wife.

※DO NOT REPOST / HOST MY WORK ON OTHER APPS OR SITES

When Bakugou Katsuki—heir apparent to his chieftain mother—gets to know Yaoyorozu Momo in the great war, he decides immediately that he wants her as his wife.

Knight Commander to her order of knights, with the tactical and physical prowess to substantiate the legitimacy of her ranking. A mage with above-average power, even with the physical skill she already possesses. Someone who does not fear his dragon, as she does look upon the looming beast with all the wonder of a natural, eager learner.

Though they had gotten off on the wrong foot at the start, given her strict preference for etiquette and politeness in opposition to his rough, crude language, they had eventually found their way into being comrades due to the war against the great beast and his shitty minions. Katsuki had respected and acknowledged her from the get-go too; this undoubtedly made the shift in their relationship swifter and smoother than it would've been had he disliked her since the beginning.

But that was by no means a sign that she would welcome his courtship, should he choose to ask for her hand in marriage.

So he chose to be patient. He asked for her friendship before anything else, as he knew that a marriage with no sense of comfort or familiarity was not a marriage that would last—he believed as much, especially given how he disliked the idea of having a relationship like his parents.

(Don't get him wrong; he loves his old man and old hag, and he gets that they're happily in love. That doesn't mean it's his shtick to go the same route his old hag did by being persistent with his old man until he married her just because the old man was exactly her type.

Should Yaoyorozu choose to marry him, it'll be because she decided it was her choice, too—not because he basically convinced her into it.)

In earning her friendship, eventually, he'd find a way to earn her affection. He hadn't played vague about the full truth of his intentions either; even before he offered a hand of friendship to her, he'd already been clear that he likes her enough to want to be her partner in the romantic sense.

She'd been shocked at first. Flustered. Her face had gotten flushed pink, pupils shaking as she sought more clarification on his intentions.

(He still thinks it’s interesting, how someone so calm and unruffled in war could act so demurely in the next second.)

"But we don't know each other that well..?" she said, hand clenched to her chest in apparent shock. "This is...rather unexpected, Bakugou-san. I hadn't even thought you'd feel something like this towards me…"

"I don't see why I wouldn't," he said bluntly. And it was true, for him; given everything she is, who wouldn’t want to court her? So he explained, "You're capable, intelligent, and a leader. Obviously, you're beautiful," here, he noticed the gradual flush of pink in her cheeks, but didn't mind it; he only spoke the truth, after all. "But I've liked you since before the war, when I saw you taking the lead with the others. I’d like to get to know you better with those intentions in mind."

She looked…

Not as grateful, or happy with the praise as he’d hoped she would be. Instead, she looked  apologetic—with her lips pressed together in a firm line, gaze turned away from him, her right hand gripping at her left elbow. She said, after a moment’s pause, “I apologize, but I don't feel the same way towards you, Bakugou-san. It’s nothing against you, but...with the war, and everything else...”

He nodded.

Though it stung to hear, it was understandable; there was no time for her to have developed similar feelings for him when she was occupied during the war. He was just ( as with everything else ) an overachiever who chose to feel things even with the danger that seemed to constantly loom over their heads in the past months.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t known that he’d make it out alive anyway, so.

He said, "S'fine. I'm not asking you to reciprocate my feelings now, or ever. I just wanna get to know you better—and if you ever like me back over that time, then great. If not, I ain't forcin' it. I'm not a beast."

She looked contrite when he said as much.

"I'm sorry, for having been so prejudiced towards you at the start," she said, voice soft. Though she didn’t specify what she did that was so prejudiced towards him, Katsuki knew; he’d heard and seen her cautiousness around him in the beginning, believing him to be too wild a card for going against the great beast. She went on, "You didn't deserve such judgment from me when I didn't even know you all that well, Bakugou-san."

He shrugged. Though having certain prejudices spoke of some narrow-mindedness, that didn’t mean she didn’t change her mind about him eventually. He said, "You had your reasons, and it's not like I made shit easy for you."

"Still…"

"You changed your mind over time," he'd said. "That's all that matters to me."

"...then, alright."

He got a good look of the change in her expression then, her previous hesitation turning into a kind of determination that settled in her sharp gaze, her taut jaw. It was the same look that he loved seeing on her in battle—

It was a gaze that said she would be, as she’s always been, the victor.

She told him, "Let's get to know each other better, Bakugou-san.” Then she paused, and asked with an unsure smile, “Would we be sending letters..? Given the distance and all."

"Letters, or I'll visit," he said, clamping down on the relief and excitement that threatened to spill into his voice. Though she accepted his offer of friendship, it was just the start; he couldn't— and wouldn't —be too hasty. "Seein’ as I have a dragon anyway."

She smiled at him, giggling a little. "I could try teleporting too, Bakugou-san. You shouldn't have to bear the burden of communicating alone."

"I don't have to, but I want to. Besides," he ignored the way his dragon impatiently nudged at his back, "I'm the one who likes you. I oughta make an effort if I wanna show you my feelings."

She became quiet at that, cheeks blooming pink once more.

( Cute. )

It was a good start, or so he'd believed at that time. Even if the promise of friendship was no guarantee to a romantic relationship, or marriage, he could at least say that he did things the right way.

Those were his thoughts then.

---

Weeks later.

 

“Come on.”

Yaoyorozu— Momo , now, ever since she gave him explicit permission to use her given name as he had allowed her his own—blinks at him with wide eyes.

“Your dragon...he’s okay with it?” she asks.

“He can’t say shit,” Katsuki says, then rolls his eyes when his dragon harrumphs at him. “Shut up, you big lizard.”

Said big lizard growls at him, before turning to Momo and nuzzling its stupid snout against her outstretched hand.

Dumbass.

“You oughta get used to riding him at some point,” he says, resting his chin on his overlapping hands as they rest on his dragon’s saddle. He sends a grin Momo’s way, and she smiles back—it’s an easy, instinctive smile, which tells him that he’s succeeding in making her feel comfortable around him. He adds, “It’s not that different from a horse, besides the girth.”

“Well, if you’re sure...”

His grin widens when she takes the initiative to hop on instead of waiting on him to take her up onto his dragon’s back. See? Piece of cake. “‘Course I’m sure,” he says, looking over his shoulder at her, “I’ve never half-assed anything in my life. That includes you.”

Momo presses her lips together at that, looking almost shy about it. “That’s...I’m still not...”

He shakes his head, grin unwavering even as he turns his gaze away from her. As he looks forward to the sky, hands on the reins, he says, “I never asked for you to fall in love with me instantly. I’m the one who has to work for it, not you, so don’t feel pressured. It ain’t your fault if you don’t love me back yet.”

Even if she doesn’t end up loving him back, and even if all his efforts to express his feelings for her don’t result in her accepting his feelings, he’ll at least know that it wasn’t his fault for being half-assed, or for not showing his heart enough.

Then—

Warm limbs wrap around his waist without warning and he blinks, looking down to find fair-skinned arms contrasting against his own sun-kissed skin.

How can her skin be so fair despite how much she trains under the raging sun?

She says eventually, snapping him out of his thoughts,

“I’ll work hard too to understand your feelings, Katsuki-san. I promise.”

A smile plays at the corners of his lips. Though those words aren’t an assurance that she’ll reciprocate…

“Do what you want,” he says.

...he can still be satisfied knowing that she’s taking him seriously.

---

 

Months later .

 

“Katsuki-san!”

Katsuki’s already catching Momo before she can completely fall into him, his arms winding their way around her waist as she wraps her own arms around his shoulders.

(It was easy, falling into physical affection with her. It had begun when she reflexively hugged him in her excitement over successfully navigating a fledgling dragon on her own, her whole weight falling into him as she jumped off the baby dragon’s back to leap into his arms.

He was no newbie to physical affection either, for all that he disliked receiving it from his parents—so he’d accepted the affection for what it was, seeing as she didn’t express any regrets or embarrassment for it after. It was a friendly gesture, he knew, and he didn’t mind that she trusted him enough to share such a thing with him.

He didn’t say anything either, when she did it again, and again, and again in the weeks that followed.

Who was he to complain? Even if it was unexpected, he did like it.)

“Hey,” he says, grinning as she pulls back a bit—without unwrapping her arms, just her head moving away from the crook of his neck—to look at him. “Your baby knights passed?”

“They did!” she exclaims, wide eyes practically sparkling as she looks down at him from her height. “Has word gotten around already? Oh, I’m so proud of them! They worked so hard for it, I’m so glad..!”

“I guessed, since that’s one thing for you to be excited enough about,” he drawls, smile taking on an amused tone when her sparkly-eyed gaze doesn’t waver one bit. “You worked hard too, training them. You did well.”

She blinks, then dons a wide smile just for him. "Thank you," she says happily—a far cry from the Momo of the earlier months who would've turned shy at the sudden compliment from him. "You worked hard too in giving me your support. I'm really glad I had you by my side, Katsuki-san."

He doesn't clarify if she means it in the sense of friendship, or something beyond that.

(He doesn't have to. He's sure of his feelings—he doesn't need her to love him back to the same degree to be satisfied that he's done his best to stand by her.)

"That much is a given, seein' as you're the person I like," he says. His lips pull into a smirk when he sees her smile reaching up to her eyes, making those sharp lines soften into happy crescents.

Gradually, she's gotten more comfortable in receiving his love instead of treating it as something she doesn't know what to do with.

He can wait for her. He has all the time in the world to.

She tells him, "I like you too, Katsuki-san."

Then she grins, not allowing him the seconds he needs to process those words and their full meaning when she adds,

"You make it very hard not to."

He huffs out a laugh at her cheekiness.

He says,

"Damn right I do."

---

Now.

 

"You got a proposal," his old hag says.

He doesn't bat an eye even when she waves the open envelope—presumably from a royal family or something, going by the unnecessarily fancy paper and wax seal—at him. He puts down his satchel, his sword, his quarries, and says, "Reject it."

"You might wanna rethink that decision, kid."

He pauses at those words. This seems to be the reaction his old hag's looking for going by the smug smirk on her face, and he scowls. He scoffs, "I ain't marryin' some princess I don't know, old hag."

"Watch your mouth, brat!" she snaps at him. Given his age and the amount of practice he’s had, he manages to easily dodge the smack she tries to send his way. Despite the obvious failure, she goes on in a rant, "This one specifically asked for you, so you might wanna read before you regret anything. You might’ve had your fair share of suitors in the past, but this one takes the cake on guts and confidence. I kinda like her already!"

"I told you—"

"Name's," his old hag says, squinting down at the paper, "Yaoyorozu Momo, sole princess of the royal family in the East."

Katsuki's already snatching the letter out of his old hag's hand before she can read more out loud, ignoring her squawking yells regarding his rudeness and the subsequent smack she sends his way.

Princess?

Of the Eastern Royal Family?!

"The damn gall," he laughs, eyes darting to and fro as he reads through the long-ass letter.

In essence, it reads,

Bakugou Katsuki, would you marry me?

"I asked first, and now she does this shit," he huffs, before folding the paper in his hands, then tucking it in his satchel that he picks back up from where it had been dropped.

While part of him feels like he should be offended that she’d kept such a big secret from him for so long (how the hell would he even guess that she’s a princess when she only ever introduced herself as a Knight Commander? Even her strict abidance on etiquette could be attributed to her noble standing; it didn’t necessarily mean she was royalty!), a bigger part of him is thrilled down to the core, because—

She chose to accept my feelings .

“Oh?”

He determinedly doesn’t look his mother’s way as he places the belt holding his sword and scabbard back around his hips.

Still, she persists and says, “So this is the girl you’ve been trying to woo all this time?”

He huffs out a breath. “So what if she is.”

“Then she’s a keeper, so you better take care of her,” she says, sharp eyes going even sharper, narrowing their sights down on him.

Unfortunately for her, he’s grown up around her long enough to not feel any trepidation despite the number of teeth lined up around her neck, showing off strength and will that proves her standing as chieftain. The number on his own necklace has fast outgrown hers, anyway, enough that he could just as well replace her as chieftain already—

Though, that brings up the issue of what will happen once he marries into Momo’s family, instead of the other way around. There's no way he's letting her lower her rank for him, not when the role of future Queen is higher than being the partner of a chieftain.

“That much is a given,” he says with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m off.”

“Take care on your way!”

"Nn!"

"I want a lot of grandchildren!"

His face heats at those words, and he snaps,

"Shut it, that's something for us to decide!"

"Brat!"

" Old hag !"

 

---

It’s not that hard to find Momo when he visits the Eastern Royal Family’s castle, not when she’s so obviously waiting for something (or, rather, someone) on the training grounds he’d so often find her training her knights at.

“Oi, Princess!” he yells.

Momo’s already grinning when she raises her head to look at him, her tied-up hair flying wildly with the wind as his dragon flaps his wings for their descent. Though his thoughts race— how could he not have seen it before, when she’d always come across as so regal? Why did she choose to carry so much of her life out as a knight, and why did she choose to reveal herself as a princess now? —and his heart pounds at the reality of something so monumental being hidden from him for so long, what he ends up saying once he’s on solid ground is,

“You got guts stealin’ my chance at a proper proposal!”

She laughs, already jogging over to meet him halfway before capturing him in a tight squeeze of a hug—tight enough to move him from the ground a little, reminding him once more of her strength born from arduous training. “I couldn’t let you make all that effort alone, Katsuki-san,” she says, her joy so warm and audible in her voice even when he can’t see her face from the angle she’s at. “And,” here, she pauses to pull back, a guilty smile on her face, “I wanted you to know what you’d be getting into in marrying me. I apologize if it’s so abrupt, but...I knew you’d come if I sent that letter.”

His lower lip juts out, as it often does when he’s considering something seriously. “Why now?”

“It felt like the right time,” she says, removing her arms from his shoulders to clasp her hands together, keeping them close to her chest. “I realized I liked the thought of spending the rest of my life with you, and, well...I thought it would only be prudent to let you know immediately.”

“Via letter,” he deadpans.

She presses her lips together, brows knitting upward as she blinks big eyes at him and asks, “Are you angry with me?”

He thinks about it for a bit.

Then, he shakes his head. “You’re not an idiot, you must’ve had your reasons,” he says, watching her shoulders relax from their earlier tension. “Especially considerin’ you’re a Knight Commander of all things—the risks are too high if you revealed that kinda information to just anyone.”

“...thank you, for being so understanding,” she says softly, lowering her head. Maybe it’s an attempt to hide her face from his view, but it doesn’t work out so well considering her taller height against his own.

He sighs. While part of him is understandably betrayed at having been deceived this whole time, and he knows she’s perceptive enough to get that, it’s not like he can change shit. And it’s not as bad as it had been once he got the chance to mull over his thoughts on the way to her castle; he’s quick on the uptake, he knows that she wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t necessary in the first place.

He says, “I’m your soon-to-be husband. I oughta be understanding, or else I’d be a useless spouse.”

She blinks at him.

He raises an eyebrow in response, somewhat bemused at her own seeming confusion. “What?" he asks. "Did you expect I’d say no, when I’m the one who’s been courtin’ you all this time?”

“No, of course not,” she says, wide eyes turning glossy with what seem to be tears as she brings both hands up to cover the lower half of her face. Voice somewhat muffled, she says, “Of course not, Katsuki-san, but...are you sure? Marrying me, that would mean you’d become Prince Consort, and—”

“I’m aware.”

The corners of her eyes wrinkle with her smiling eyes, and he lets out a breath with his laugh. Reaching out to cup her cheek and wiping away the brimming tears in the corner of her eye with his thumb, he says, “D’you think I’m the type to make decisions like some wishy-washy bastard? Even if I didn’t know you were a princess before, I already figured shit out on the way here—it changes nothing about my feelings for you." Then he smirks, pleased at the smile he gets for his words. "When you sent me that proposal, you already confirmed that you’re mine, and there’s no way I’m passin’ that up.”

“You too, Katsuki-san,” she says, smiling widely as she lowers her hands from her face, using one hand to press down on the hand he’s using to cup her cheek. Confidently, proudly, she says, “You’re mine forever, since you’ve accepted my proposal.”

His smirk widens into a grin.

“Obviously," he declares. "Now you’ll have to accept my people as yours too, seein’ as I’ll be marrying into your family instead of the other way around.”

She laughs at those words, the sound so light and sweet—so clearly telling of her joy.

“Of course, Katsuki-san,” she tells him. “Your people—your family—are mine now too. I wouldn’t have accepted anything less.”

He’s the one who laughs this time, proud as he is at her unabashed confidence. Though she’s always been capable, always been strong, he knows just as well as he knows himself that she’s had her own moments of weakness, of feeling like she’s not good enough yet .

They’re similar in that way, for all that other people might think that they’re incompatible and too different. Though they have their contrasting personalities, they match where it matters—

In stubbornness, perseverance, and in unshakable will to be the best in whatever they choose to do and be.

“Careful,” he teases, pinching her lightly on the cheek. “You’re sounding a lil’ too greedy there, Princess.”

She grins back at him.

“Only as much as I should be, future Prince of mine.”

Damn fuckin’ right.

---

 

Needless to say, their wedding turns out to be the wedding of the century.

This isn't only because of Momo’s (and her people’s) efforts to ensure that everything goes smoothly, what with her being the next Queen and all, but also because of the sheer grandeur of having his tribe’s dragons attend as guardians to the whole ceremony.

No way was he letting them miss out on the whole thing, when they’d been witness to the development in his relationship with Momo to what it is now.

Though people are wary of them, it doesn't take long for most of the others to understand that they're there to guard, and not to harm. Some brave kids even dare to come up to them, asking to pet their scales—his dragons, attention-seeking bastards that they are, were more than happy to acquiesce and bow their heads for the brats. "It's a little like how I got to like you better the more I knew you," Momo dares to say, a thoughtful smile on her face as she watches this all happen. It's how she misses Katsuki raising an eyebrow at her, amused as he is at the comparison. Sure, he'd been compared to his dragons before as being just as much a beast—but it's new, to be considered similar in the sense of being likable after some familiarity.

Figures. He wouldn't have liked anyone average, and certainly not someone who couldn't learn to love his dragons.

Kaminari tells him later, face slightly flushed from the alcohol he’d drunk, “You guys had to beat all of us even when it comes to having the best wedding, huh?” He raises a half-empty glass to them in a toast when he says as much, receiving boisterous cheers as everyone else raises their own glass in agreement.

Though his tone is teasing, Katsuki has enough awareness to know that he’s genuinely happy for them, just as much as the others are with their wide grins and shiny eyes. He rolls his eyes at the overwhelming sentimentality for something that's just starting—though the wedding might've been half-over with, their relationship isn't even close to being at its peak, not even an inch close to being done just because they've already shared a kiss, and exchanged rings.

They'll only get happier from here on, and he's gonna make damn sure of that.

He shares a look with Momo with that thought in mind. Though he doesn't really do anything to express those same thoughts to her, his expression remaining as unfazed as ever, she seems to understand him anyway going by the the laughter she lets loose in the same moment he does.

She says, glancing over at Kaminari,

“Of course, Kaminari-san.”

Then she grins, squeezing Katsuki’s hand where it rests clasped around her own.

“Neither of us would’ve settled for anything less.”

Notes:

Later, Katsuki will find out that Momo hasn't quite been as free with physical affection as he'd always assumed her to be—he'd just assumed on his own that she was, given how open she was with holding his arm, or his hand, or even in hugging him.

"Yaomomo's almost always held back, even with us," Ashido tells him, an annoyingly gleeful grin on her face when she forces her face into his line of sight. His scowl doesn't deter her when she adds, "I'm surprised you didn't just assume she was into you whenever she hugged you, Bakugou! You have some surprising amount of restraint after all!"

"Shut it, Raccoon Eyes!"

"It's Ashido!"