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“Have you ever heard the legend… of the black water horse?”
Ochaco looks around at her friends' faces, her own expression wide-eyed and serious. The effect might have been spooky behind the orange glow of a fire, but in the bright sunshine that streaks down through the gaps of the canopy, it’s just comical.
“Black water horse?” Tsu repeats, testing the words on her tongue.
They’ve been swapping stories all morning, trying to scare each other with the best retelling of a local legend. So far, Shouto’s description of will o’ wisps fell flat, and Izuku’s story about dullahans had been more educational than scary. Tsu’s story - a horrifying tale involving a creature called a nuckelavee - was the only one that really managed to put them on edge. Now it’s Ochaco’s turn.
Izuku suddenly snaps his fingers. “You mean the kelpie? I hear it lives in the lake.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Horses can’t breathe underwater,” Tenya immediately protests.
"This one can. The kelpie has gills.” She points at the side of her own neck for reference. “It helps him breathe underwater while he’s dragging people down to the bottom of the lake.”
Tenya looks horrified - though Ochaco thinks he’s more distressed at the thought of a horse with gills than a creature that drowns men. Izuku looks similarly frightened, lower lip trembling despite the intrigue shining keen in his eyes. Tsu’s got her knees drawn up to her chest. She and Shouto hang on to Ochaco’s every word with interest.
“Pa says it happened years ago in a village down river to ours. A family went out in the woods every Sunday for a picnic. They would stay all day, enjoying the bounty of the forest along with their own freshly made foods. The parents would sing songs while the children danced across the fields.
Then one day, a strange beast wandered its way over to them. It was a horse, black as coal with lake weeds tangled in its mane. Water dripped down its giant back. Curious, the children wandered closer.”
Ochaco pauses here, taking another slow, deliberate glance about the group. The dramatic timing works. Something rustles in the trees overhead and Izuku jumps.
“Don’t worry, kelpies can’t climb trees,” Tsu assures him. Another rustle. Her arms tighten around her knees.
“No, but something else might be able to,” Shouto says. His eyes are fixed on the trees.
Their storyteller draws their attention back. “Anyway, the children wandered closer. Their parents set down their instruments and tried calling them back, but it’s like the kids couldn’t even hear them. They just kept walking as if in a trance. The creature knelt to let them climb on and started walking towards the lake. The parents ran after them, but when they tried to pull the kids away they just… couldn’t. The kids were stuck. And now in their efforts, the parents were also trapped, forced to hold on while the horse picked up the pace, running towards the water-”
“Boo!”
All five of them scream when a furry face pops out from the trees. The creature hangs upside down, grinning with all its teeth.
“What is that?!”
“A monkey!”
“It’s a monster!”
The creature swings up onto a branch, laying on his stomach. He stretches out, tail swishing languidly. “Children these days," he tuts, affecting the air of a grumpy old man and not… whatever strange creature he happens to be. "Monster, indeed! I have a name.”
Even terrified, Tenya never neglects his manners. He straightens his back, adjusting his glasses and saying in a clear voice, “What is your name? My name is Tenya Iida and-”
“Don’t give out your name so easily,” Ochaco hisses, smacking his arm. “What if it’s an evil fae-”
He hesitates. “But it would be rude to demand a name and not introduce ourselves.”
“Who are you?” Tsuyu asks.
“What are you?” Shouto demands next.
The creature laughs with its entire body - tail swishing and tall, rabbit-like ears twitching in his amusement. He doesn't bother to hide his sharp fangs, but it's his tongue they should be worried about.
“So many questions! Such harsh demands! It seems we have a dilemma on our hands.”
Izuku steps forward. “What do you mean?”
“You want some answers, but so do I. What say you: will you give my riddles a try?”
The group tenses, glancing between each other while the creature lounges on his perch. For all his casual slouching, there’s a shrewdness to his eyes that the children are wise to distrust.
It's Tenya who ends up asking, “If we solve your riddle, you’ll answer our questions?”
Izuku has his hand to his chin, brows furrowed like he’s thinking hard about something, but whatever that is, he keeps it to himself for now.
“A question for a question, an answer for a question,” the furry creature hoots.
Shoto's thinning patience snaps. “What are you?"
“What am I? What has four limbs, big ears and a tail, and the cutest face this side of the forest?” Ever restless, he moves, hopping nimbly from tree branch to tree branch. The kids turn to watch him as he circles around them.
“What walks the way he speaks?” he throws down at them. “What speaks the way he talks? What’s cute as a rabbit and clever as a fox?”
“He’s messing with us,” Tsu tells the others, her big eyes studying the monster carefully. “He won’t give us any real hints.”
“A clever girl, but not as clever as me! What lives in the forest and sleeps in a tree?”
“Phooka.”
He nearly misses his landing in shock, but he catches himself with a fanciful twirl before dropping onto the grass. He flashes a toothy smile. “Oh?”
Izuku clenches his fists, head held high despite the way his hands are shaking. “You’re a phooka, right? I’ve read about you before.”
“Oh, really?" A slow smile unfurls over that furry face, stretching wider and wider until it looks positively unhinged. "And what did your books tell you about me, boy?”
“Th-that you’re a shapeshifter. A trickster. You like to play mean tricks on unsuspecting humans-”
The phooka giggles. The sound is shrill, grating. Unlike with his previous chuckles, he doesn't move an inch now; he doesn't even blink.
“Maybe we should go,” Ochaco suggests nervously, tugging on her friend’s sleeve.
The resulting cackle is loud enough to make them all flinch. “That one is wise. You should listen to her.”
Four out of the five start backing away.
“Deku,” she warns. The others all seem ready to bolt, calling out to the boy in low, urgent voices.
“Come on, let’s go.”
“This isn’t safe.”
“We need to leave.”
“Deku, come on-”
All it takes is a fake pounce in their direction for the children to all go running, screaming as they hurry back to the safety that awaits them just outside the treeline. The phooka doesn’t give chase. This is what he had wanted, after all. There are worse threats out there than him and the forest is no place for kids.
- * - * - * -
“...and then they ran for the hills! Oh, Shouta, you should have seen the look on their faces!”
Shouta shakes his head while his lover laughs. “You probably scared them out of their wits.” He sighs and adds with all the disgruntled disappointment of a parent, “Though clearly they don’t have much to begin with if they’re playing around in the forest on their own.”
“Aww, Shouta, cut them some slack. For what it’s worth, they seemed like a pretty smart bunch. Stuck together, didn’t wander in too far-”
“Didn’t fall for your silly games,” he finishes.
“Hey!” Hizashi cries, indignant. “You love my ‘silly games.’”
“Do I? I wonder.”
“You do, you really do! In fact, I’ve got one now for you,” he sings while Shouta mulls over the merits of disappearing into the depths of the lake for a swim. He decides it isn’t worth making his lover cross with him so early in the day and stays where he is.
“What is something I always carry, but only you have?”
“Hizashi,” Shouta sighs, bubbles floating up from his lips.
“Wrong!” The phooka tosses his head back and laughs as he swings over to a closer tree. This one is his favorite, an old cottonwood with thick branches that hang out over the water. He dangles over one now to smile down at his beloved.
The kelpie swims closer. He rises partway to try and steal a kiss, but Hizashi twists out of reach, laughter spilling from his lips.
“Ah ah ah,” he tuts, playfully wagging a finger in Shouta’s direction. “No kisses until you guess!”
Shouta scowls. “Why must you subject me to your riddles? There’s only you and I here.”
“But Shouta, my love, don’t you want to know the answer?” Hizashi blinks, making his eyes wide with feigned innocence. Shouta doesn’t fall for it for a moment. “What it is that I carry but you have?”
“I want you to speak plainly or I’m going back to sleep.”
Hizashi pouts. He swings himself upright with barely any effort, making an entire loop around the branch before releasing at the next peak of the arc. He shifts form mid-air. There’s a splash as Shouta stands to catch him.
He lands, mostly human, in his beloved’s arms. He pecks Shouta's cheek.
“Why, my sweet, the answer is my heart.”
"You're nonsense," Shouta replies. There's nothing but fondness in his eyes and he dips his head down to finally claim his kiss. Caught, Hizashi lets him, closing his eyes with a soft sigh that dances playfully between their lips. Shouta exhales, a soft huff that mingles with Hizashi’s own breath.
He wades to the bank and sets Hizashi down on the grass, then flops down next to him to bask in the sun. Too much of it dries out his skin, but the afternoon sun is mild today. Shouta's content to listen to Hizashi chatter and even sing while he rests his eyes, but eventually he loses himself to his thoughts. It becomes painfully clear where his head is when he requests in a quiet voice,
"Tell me more about the kids from earlier."
Hizashi pauses, ramblings cut short by the interruption. After a moment's hesitation, he complies, describing everything he had noticed about the kids to Shouta and repeating some of the dramatic tales he had overheard before interrupting. He purposefully left out the brown haired girl's story, but Shouta was too sharp for that.
"And what about the one you interrupted? What was her scary story about?"
Another 'blink and you miss it' moment of hesitance, but Shouta has always been keen.
"Oh, you know," Hizashi says with a casual air. "Just…"
"Just kelpies," Shouta finishes for him. "It was- it was that story, wasn't it? It had to be, if they’re swapping tales about monsters."
Hizashi sits up, frowning. "Hey now, that wasn't your fault."
"I should have known. I should have intervened."
"Shouta, you couldn't have known there would be children-"
Shouta sucks in a sharp breath and rolls onto his side, squeezing his eyes shut. Hizashi knows that that means the conversation is over, but it doesn’t stop him from scooting in close to spoon him. Really, it’s the main reason either of them even bother with these gangly human forms. It makes it so easy for Hizashi to slot up against Shouta’s back, to wrap an arm around his waist and hold him close, to murmur soothingly in his ear while they cuddle.
He waits until Shouta’s shuddering breaths have mellowed before saying, “You aren’t a monster, Shouta. The kelpie I fell in love with is strong and kind and thoughtful.”
Shouta manages a snort. “I ignored you for two months after we met.”
Hizashi grins. “I mean, I don’t think I made the best first impression diving headfirst into your lake screaming.”
Another snort, though this one more amused than self-deprecating. Hizashi counts it as progress. “You certainly didn’t. Sitting up on that tree talking to yourself everyday didn’t help either.”
Hizashi’s laugh is probably a little too loud given how close he is to Shouta’s ears, but the kelpie doesn’t even flinch; he welcomes the sound.
“Oh, please! You know I was trying to talk to you-”
“Trying to wear me down.”
"Succeeding in wearing you down, actually,” Hizashi corrects, entirely too pleased with himself, “because you eventually came out to talk to me."
“Unfortunately,” Shouta says, but there’s fondness in his voice. He can’t even fathom how much lonelier, drearier, his life would be had it not been for Hizashi’s persistence. Even now, as the pain in his chest dulls to a faint throb, he knows it’s only because of Hizashi. Some of the remaining tension bleeds out of him, and he yawns.
“Sleepy, my love?” Hizashi asks, pressing his lips to the back of Shouta’s neck.
“I’m normally napping at this time,” Shouta reminds, eyes crinkling as he’s hit with another big yawn.
“I’m sorry for disturbing your beauty sleep,” Hizashi tells him. He kisses the shell of Shouta’s ear, then his cheek. “Rest, my heart. I’ll be here.”
Shouta closes his eyes and does just that. His breathing slows until he’s finally claimed by sleep. Hizashi just holds him for a while until he too is overcome by drowsiness. He settles in for a much needed nap, arm wrapped tight around his beloved’s waist.
- * - * - * -
Hizashi awakens first from their late afternoon nap, though he doesn’t move out of fear of jostling Shouta. He lays in the warm, but shaded patch of grass they’ve claimed for their rest and runs his fingers through Shouta’s hair. It’s far too tangled for his fingers to make it very far, but he just starts over from the top.
“I wish you would let me groom you. Your hair would look so lovely and smooth.”
Without opening his eyes, Shouta answers, “We both know it would tangle again in the water.”
Laughter bubbles out of the phooka. “So you are awake, beloved. How sneaky! What if I had been saying something embarrassing, thinking you were asleep?”
“You make a fool of yourself plenty when we’re awake. I don’t see how me being asleep would be any different.”
Hizashi pushes him off his lap with an indignant huff, which makes Shouta snort. He sits up, another snarky comment on his lips when Hizashi’s ears twitch. The phooka turns, eyes wide as he stares into the distance.
“What is it?”
“Humans,” Hizashi replies, brow furrowing as he strains his ears to listen. “Bandits. They’ve made camp in the woods.”
Shouta frowns. “How many?”
“Hard to say. Maybe three?” He pauses, lips pressing into a thin line as the bandits go on about their plan. “They’re attacking the village tonight. They’re going to set a few of the farmhouses on fire and rob the rest while everyone is distracted.”
Hizashi thinks to the kids from earlier. One of the girls had been dressed much more plainly than the rest - stains on her pants and straw stuck to the manure on her boots. What if it was her farm that got targeted tonight?
“Shouta,” he begins, finally looking over at his lover. Shouta’s eyes are hard, glazed over in a way that tells Hizashi he’s not here or now, but rather somewhere south of here, some eight years ago.
The girl’s story hadn’t been wrong, exactly. It had just missed one very important detail.
It wasn’t a single kelpie that haunted the area. It was a whole pack of them, one that Shouta had been part of until that very day when he woke up from his nap to the sight of an innocent family’s waterlogged corpses; he turned away then and never looked back. He sought a life of isolation, and for a time, he had found it-- at least, until Hizashi came along.
He cups Shouta’s cheeks now, forcing him back into the present. “Shouta, my heart, look at me. We’ll take care of this. I have a plan.”
“Okay,” he says with quiet resolve. “Okay, let’s do this.”
- * - * - * -
"Sleep now, boys, 'cause when you wake up, we're gonna go out an’ make ourselves rich!”
Raucous laughter fills the air. Their bedrolls are arranged in a circle around the meager lump of belongings that consists mostly of weapons - tools to be used against the townspeople that night should anyone try to confront them.
“Did’ja set up the kerosene?” one asks gruffly. He’s been slowly chewing on a wad of tobacco instead of bothering with dinner, so Hizashi’s mentally dubbed him Tobacco.
The youngest of the three - Freckles - is busy patting down a sack of clothes that doubles as his pillow. “‘Course I did! It’s hidden in that old broken down cart a little ways down from Uraraka’s farm. We’ll hit the old man first then keep moving west.”
Tobacco spits into the bushes. The trees rustle with indignation, but he continues on unawares.
“Good. By the time we loop around to that rich bastard Todoroki’s place, the farms should be burnin’ nice an’ hot.”
More laughter, harsh and grating. From the depths of the trees, the phooka grinds his teeth. While the men ready for their naps, Hizashi snatches up the largest pinecone he can find and chucks it at Tobacco.
“Who threw that?” he quickly demands, sitting up to glare at the others. The third - Hizashi calls him Acorn for his oddly shaped head - doesn’t even look his way, but Freckles shrugs.
“Wasn’t me.”
He squints at them for a few seconds longer before apparently deciding to let it go. With a grumble, he flicks away the pinecone and lays back down. He closes his eyes.
Then the whispers start.
At first they’re soft- quieter than the sound of mice scurrying through the underbrush, quieter even than a thought. They crawl into the men’s heads through their ears like ants, gathering until they’re loud enough to drown out the pound of their very hearts in their chests.
“Get out.”
The men shoot up from their beds. The slant of the sun’s descent bathes them in warm light, though none of them had ever seen quite such a crimson twilight before.
“Who said that?!”
His voice echoes, a chorus of his own demand thrown back at him from every direction. But the cacophony grows louder. Angrier.
The trio backs up, stumbling into each other as they stare wide-eyed at the trees.
“Get out, get out, get out!”
Freckles trips over himself in his haste. He gathers his things into his arms, but some of it slips from his grip before he can take two steps.
“What are you - hey, where are you going?” Acorn demands, grabbing onto his wrist. A giggle ripples through the woods, giving them both pause.
“To hell with this! I’m getting out of here!” Freckles shouts. He drops most of the weapons save for a dagger that he clutches in a trembling white fist. His clothes too lay abandoned on the ground.
“But the job-”
“Do you hear that? You’re crazy if you think I’m gonna stick around here and wait for whatever pissed off spirit is fucking with us!”
Tobacco comes over, clasping a strong hand over Freckles’s bicep. “You ain’t leaving til we get our money.”
“But-”
“No buts. We’ll set camp elsewhere,” he says, eyes shifting uneasily as branches sway, “but this job gets done tonight.”
A piercing shriek cuts through the air, sending the men to their knees.
“What is that?!” Acorn cries, hands clamped over his ears but to no avail. The sound slices through flesh, replacing the very marrow in their bones with that horrible, stomach-churning screech.
Then, all at once, it stops, leaving them standing there, dazed.
Freckles is the one to break the silence. “W-We need to leave,” he stammers. He can barely hear himself through the ringing in his ears following the deafening silence. The other two nod.
“...R-Right, um, yeah, let’s just-”
A face pops out from the darkness, and all they can really get a glimpse of is glowing green eyes before the creature howls, fangs bared. They run, Hizashi’s hysterical cackling chasing after them.
“What the fuck is that thing?!”
“Just go!”
“I-Is it gaining on us?!”
“Can’t tell-”
“I don’t wanna die!”
They dare not slow long enough to look behind them, so they run as hard and fast as their legs can carry them. Hizashi’s quick though. He zips through the forest, herding them along with an ominous chatter that strikes fear in them like a wolf nipping at their ankles.
“Up ahead! The horse!”
“A horse?”
Sure enough, there’s a dark horse grazing just beyond the break in the trees. Tobacco wastes no time swinging onto its back. Surprisingly, it doesn’t spook. In fact, it seems to wait patiently while Acorn clambers on as well.
Freckles slows as he approaches. “Wait, this is sorta-”
“Hurry up or we’re leaving your sorry ass behind!”
Something is wrong. His gut instinct is screaming at him, but it’s impossible to make out what it’s saying beneath the shouts of his companions and the unholy screeching still pushing at his back. He can’t even think. He places a hand on the horse, trying to make sense of his jumbled thoughts with what precious little time they have.
It should be grounding, having something solid beneath his fingers. And yet, all he can process is a cold sliminess beneath his palm.
“What the-”
The horse rears up on its hind legs with a whinny. Freckles recoils, but when he tries to pull his hand away he finds it stuck. He pales, letting out a cry when the horse takes off - and drags him along with it.
“Stop - I said stop, you stupid beast!”
Tobacco digs his fingers into Shouta’s mane and yanks, trying to force him in another direction. Hizashi snarls at the rough treatment; he has half a mind to fling a rock at him, but he doesn’t want to risk hitting his beloved.
Shouta just shakes his head and picks up speed, taking all three men back towards the lake. Freckles is forced to follow; he can’t keep up with the kelpie’s pace though and it isn’t long before he’s being dragged, twigs and branches tearing at his clothes to scratch at bare skin.
“Just let go!”
“I-I can’t! I’m stuck!”
The shoreline is visible now, the placid surface of the lake dark and lifeless. A cold, wet grave, if they don’t jump off soon.
Acorn turns, trying to pry Freckles’s hand off. When he tries to twist further than his initial awkward angle, he finds that he too is stuck. He lets out a shout, squirming as he tries to free himself.
From his favorite cottonwood tree, Hizashi laughs.
Shouta huffs and charges in headfirst. The water that laps at his calves is welcome, though the screams just behind his ears are not. He pacifies himself with the knowledge that soon all will be safe and quiet.
The water is at his haunches; the screams are cracking, throats going hoarse in the peak of their panic.
By the time it reaches his ears, Shouta is serene - so much so that he doesn’t notice the weight on his back lessen at first. It isn’t until the thrashing stops and the last bubble floats up to the surface that he shifts forms to inspect the damage and finds a disembodied hand that he realizes: there are only two bodies.
He shifts back and breaches the surface. There’s blood soiling the grassy lakeside, and if he squints, he can make out the steadily shrinking figure in the distance.
“You let him go?” he asks his partner with a frown.
“Now, now, don’t look so disapproving! He isn’t going to do anything. Well, he is going to do something but not the bad thing. Letting him go gets us a good thing.”
“Hizashi.”
“He’s going to tell everyone about what he saw. And the fact that he’s missing a hand will lend some credibility to his story, ya know?”
Shouta’s expression is stormy. He still doesn’t understand why that’s good. Hizashi drops from the tree onto his back and nuzzles the tip of his nose into Shouta’s soaked mane.
“And what that means, my heart, is that the townspeople will be too scared to come bother us for a very, very long time.”
Some of the tension drains out of Shouta - enough for him to begin the slow walk back to shore. “I wouldn’t be so certain of that. Humans are naturally curious.”
“They are. But still, we both know the stories will keep them away for at least a little while.” Hizashi kisses the top of his head, sliding off his back once Shouta’s hooves touch wet soil. “Doesn’t that sound nice? We can take all the naps on the grass that we want. Enjoy all the kisses by the water. You can swim around without any pests coming to disturb you.”
Reluctantly, Shouta tips his head. “That… does sound peaceful.”
In a glow of warm light, Hizashi shifts forms so he can wrap his arms around Shouta’s neck in a loving embrace. Seconds later, Shouta follows suit. The two stand there hugging each other, the moon illuminating their pale figures like ghosts by the water.
And if anyone were to see them in that moment, and in the moments that follow when the kelpie shifts back to sink into the water and the phooka scampers back up his tree, they might just think it a trick of the night.