The Prince's Protector

*~chapter one: daily routine~*

It was a fairly warm morning, the sun just beginning to rise over the grassy hills of Musutafu Kingdom. All was calm and peaceful, as it usually was these mornings.

Sunlight streamed in through the windows of the royal stable, blanketing over the face of a spiky haired blonde curled up in a pile of hay. The male stirred as the light hit his eyes, and emitted a groggy groan as he was drawn from his slumber.

Soon, after some tossing and turning, the man’s ruby red eyes flickered open, fixating hazily on the wooden ceiling above him as he forced himself to wake up. He took a deep breath, and kicked off his thin blanket, pushing himself to sit up. Shaking bits of straw out of his hair and dusting strands off of his plain clothing, he heaved a sigh, allowing himself to then stretch out.

“Well, shit. Still alive,” he grumbled sarcastically to nobody in particular, before slowly standing to his feet. Not that anyone would be listening anyways, besides the horses he shared the barn with.

There wasn’t anything special about Katsuki Bakugou.

Sure, he was great with the royal horses, but that’s all he had going for him. His clothes were plain, his personality was standoffish, and his temper was inexplicably short.

And that’s how he liked it.

He was really nothing special, however. Just another slave to the bidding of King Enji, just another dirt-poor peasant who relied on shoveling horse shit to provide for himself. His parents were dead, as far as he knew, and he didn’t have any friends or family to fall back on. But, he liked it that way. This meant he only had himself to worry about.

The fair haired man stretched once more once he was on his feet, arching his back and rolling his shoulders. He was sore, but he had learned to expect soreness every morning. His makeshift bed of hay was flat with his weight now, and hadn’t offered much support throughout the night.

Once he stretched to his content, the blonde mulled over the morning chores. He had to get Oji out of her stable, brush her, and take her out to the pasture to eat. He repeated the mini list in his head, running it over and over as he shoved open the door to the tack room.

Oji was the princes' royal horse. And practically Bakugou's therapist. Since the blonde didn't trust any person with his life, he would dump all his worries out on the white mare.

Oji heard him approach from her stable, which was a few doors down from the tack room. A white head poked out from the stable door, and Bakugou was greeted with a cheerful whinny from the mare. Bakugou paused, and turned from the tack room to make his way down to the mare.

“Mornin’, Oji,” Bakugou muttered, his hand moving up to stroke her nose. She snorted contentedly, and bobbed her head amiably at the affection. The blonde stifled an amused chuckle, before turning once more, tracing back to the tack room to fetch a lead rope.

Bakugou enjoyed talking to the animals. They listened much better than any person would. Plus, they couldn't talk, or tell him he was wrong, or piss him off any. This is why most of his friends had four legs.

He made a beeline for a hook on the wall of the room, which had several different leads wrapped over it. He snatched a random one, then turned on his heels to exit the room.

He returned to the horse, opening her stall and taking a firm hold on her bridle. Almost instantly, Bakugou was hit with a gruesome stench, which made his lip curl.

“Are you fucking serious-” he hissed, grimacing at the odor. “You must really hate me, huh?”

The mare nickered, tossing her mane, as if she was laughing. Bakugou pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes at the horse.

“Touche, asshole. Touche.”

He clipped the lead onto her bridle and tugged gently, leading her out of the stable, and to the barn door.

Right when he opened the door, he was greeted by a gentle breeze of air. The weather was nice- not too hot, not too cold. Perfect day to have an outside job.

But today, he was going to be doing a lot of things inside the castle.

“Today’s gonna be a shit day, Oji,” he informed the mare with an irate sigh as he led her through the pasture gate, shutting it behind him after entrance. He unclipped her from the lead, and watched as she turned to trot off, making her way through the tall grass of the fenced in area.

Bakugou tossed down the lead, and let himself fall back into the grass with a sigh. He had about 20 minutes to relax out here, before he would have to be cooped up inside the castle for the rest of the day.

Today was an important day for their kingdom. There was going to be a royal wedding.

For quite some time now, King Enji had been negotiating with the neighboring kingdom of Hosu, in an attempt to form an alliance via heir marriage. The king would offer his son, the prince, as a fiance to the Hosu king’s daughter.

Bakugou didn’t know much about the girl. He hadn’t seen much of her, but upon their visiting arrival, all of the servants had to line up outside the castle gates to welcome her.

Once she had stepped out of the carriage, Bakugou came to the realization that he did not like her.

She had pale blonde hair, similar to his own, tied up in two messy buns on her head. Her smile was disturbing, to say the least. She walked proudly and gracefully, but snootilly ignored the welcomes from the servants as she and her father made their way into the castle.

It took everything in Bakugou to refrain from sticking his foot out to trip her.

He had wanted to so badly.

As the blonde laid there in the grass, getting lost in his thoughts and chuckling over his reminiscing, his eyes drifted from the sky above him to the castle ahead.

His gaze landed on the balcony of the prince’s room.

He wondered if the guy was up or not.

___________

-knock knock-

“Master Todoroki? Hello?”

Shoto sighed shakily as he lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling blankly as his hand ran slowly through his hair.

“Yes, Momo?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were awake! Your father sent me to tell you that he wants you to come down and eat breakfast whenever you get ready.”

Shoto could sense the excited nerves in the girls’ voice. Just hearing it made him feel tired.

“Alright. Tell him I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Yes, your highness!” the sound of the servant girls’ footsteps faded as she made her way down the hall, and away from his door.

He curled his nose. He hated being called that.

Shoto forced himself to sit up, his body swaying a bit once he was upright. He wanted to curl back up and go to sleep. He didn’t want to get up and get ready, and he certainly didn’t want to go and eat breakfast with his father.

But he didn’t have much of a choice. He was the prince, he told himself. And princes didn’t get to decide these things.

He hadn’t slept at all, this being obvious once he stood and looked in the mirror at the bags under his eyes. His eyes were bloodshot, and his skin was blanched from the lack of sleep. But he wasn’t too bothered by the sight. In fact he felt a twinge of rebellious pride.

“Prince’s must always look their best,” he mocked his father’s words under his breath as he got himself dressed. "Princes' must always get a full nights sleep, so you can't leave the castle at night to have fun, like any normal human being-"

Shoto stopped himself before he got carried away into a full on self rant. Of course, he had nobody else to tell these things to. If his father heard him doing this, he would have his ass.

Normally, he would have servants bustling into his room to aide him in getting dressed, but he would always shoo them out, telling them he was capable of dressing himself. Of course, his father would still send them in every day, despite his protests.

He assumed that the king had them busy with preparations for the wedding today.

Shoto snorted disdainfully as he buttoned up his tunic.

The wedding.

Just thinking about marrying a woman he didn’t know made Shoto feel sick with dread. He couldn’t imagine any worse way to live his life, stuck with a woman he barely knew.

Forever.

Shoto quickly willed away the chilling thought as he finished getting dressed, tugging on his boots whilst leaning against the balcony door.

Once he was ready, he decided he wouldn’t head downstairs straightaway.

Shoto turned, and pushed open the balcony doors, immediately being met with a cool breeze. It filled his stuffy room, and earned a content sigh from the man.

He moved forwards to prop his elbows against the railing, his dual eyes scanning across the fields in front of him.

This was like a morning routine for Shoto, every morning he would retreat to the balcony, enjoy the fresh air, and, sometimes, if luck would have it, he would get to greet a certain fair haired servant.

Shoto liked Bakugou. He was quite different from the rest of the servants, which is probably why the prince found him so interesting.

They had known each other for quite some time now. Bakugou had been hired as a servant and stable hand at the age of 14, and the two had met when Shoto, who was of the same age, had snuck out of the castle after one of his fathers’ mini meltdowns.

Now, with both being in their early twenties, Shoto considered him a friend. His only friend, at that.

He didn’t know if the ash blonde returned the idea of friendship, but that didn’t really matter to Shoto. As long as he got to talk to him, it didn’t bother him any.

His eyes scanned earnestly across the fields, until a head of blonde hair finally caught his eye. The man was laying in the grass of the pasture, staring up at the sky.

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing something productive?” the dual user called out with a raised eyebrow.

This seemed to pull the other out of his daydream, and it brought his attention to the prince on his balcony.

Glare…

Bakugou’s ruby eyes narrowed at the other.

And snarl.

His lip curled, and he bared his teeth. Shoto bit back an amused chuckle, he could read the blonde like a book.

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing something other than bothering me, your highness?” Bakugou sneered, slowly moving to sit up so he could have better glaring access to the dual user.

Shoto cringed at the title, his eye twitching.

“I told you not to call me that.”

“I’ll call you whatever the fuck I want,” the blonde snapped back, his head whipping around to look away from the other. Shoto rolled his eyes. How moody.

Bakugou heaved an exasperated sigh, still feeling the princes’ eyes on him. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for your wedding or something?”

“Mmh... Yeah, but I don’t feel like it.”

“Well, I don’t feel like shoveling horse shit. Namely, your horse’s shit,” he retorted, pushing himself up to his feet. “But I still do it.”

Shoto hummed in thought at this remark. “Mh. Good point. But shoveling horse manure isn’t something that could end up radically changing your life.” The man stood upright, his fingers drumming against the railing as he observed the blonde from above.

Bakugou’s lips curved into a smirk.

“Tch. Yeah, if ya smell enough of it,” he snickered, dusting dirt and grass seed off of his clothes as he stood.

Shoto rolled his eyes. Of course the other wouldn’t understand his anxiety over this whole marriage thing. It’s not like he was planning on getting married to a stranger anytime soon.

“Nevermind,” the prince sighed quietly, taking a step back from the railing. “You better get to work, before my father catches you lying around.”

Bakugou waved a dismissive hand at the other, snatching the horse lead up from off the ground. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, princey,” he grunted. Shoto narrowed his eyes at the other- this nickname was new, but he didn’t like this one either.

“When are you going to start calling me by my name?” he queried, stopping at the door back to his room to turn back and glance at the other.

“Whenever you give me a reason to,” Bakugou shot back curtly, before jogging off to go and retrieve Oji.

Shoto tilted his head as he processed the others’ words. That didn’t make any sense. He had given Bakugou plenty of opportunities o

But he decided not to dwell on it too much, and re-entered his room, shutting the balcony doors behind him.

He turned to make his way to the door, his thoughts settling as the days plans ran through his head.

Today he was going to get married. Yes, there was no doubt about it.

But he was unsure what to do about it.

Should he accept it? Should he say no at the ceremony?

Should he run away?

He considered these thoughts as he made his way to the door, his gaze fixated on the floor.

But the prince was quickly pulled from his thoughts at the sound of a voice in his doorway.

“Shoto. You were late to breakfast.”

His father’s voice was low and cold, and it made Shoto stop in his tracks.

He gulped, keeping his head down to avoid his father’s piercing glare as it bored into him.

Shoto made sure his reply had zero sincerity.

“Good morning, father.”

(hheahhehaheaah yeaas for those of you wondering, the princess IS Toga-

and the King of Hosu? yeah that's All For One- oop.

Someone told me that shigaraki should be the princess, and i was so close to actually doing that- but I decided against it, lmao-)