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1.
When you and Bakugou Katsuki first got together, it took a long time for the public to figure it out. You didn’t know why. It wasn’t like you weren’t part of the most highly-documented class to graduate from UA, on account of being literal war heroes, nor did you and the blonde go out of your way to hide your affection for one another, beyond the occasional misinformation fed to the media for shits and giggles. But other than that, you thought you were pretty obvious about your relationship with the explosive hero.
Well, maybe you could concede that you weren’t lovey dovey like most couples were. You weren’t like Kirishima and Mina, who were constantly trending on social media for being ‘couple goals’ and inspiring entire fan clubs dedicated to their relationship. Nor were you like Kaminari and Jirou, who couldn’t have made their relationship more obvious by setting up their agency buildings right next to each other. In contrast, Katsuki was never a fan of public displays of affection, and you weren’t exactly the mushy type. But you figured everyone showed their love in different ways, right? What made the two of you so different?
Take right now, for example. You were showing your love for your partner by having a highly spirited competition in the middle of a battlefield. Like lovers do, naturally.
“One,” you shouted the number into your comms, barely able to make out your own voice over the surrounding battle, but you knew you were coming in loud and clear to the one person you wanted to reach. You heard a series of loud explosions sound out from the other end of the street, and you could practically hear the smirk in his voice as he replied.
“Hustle, baby. I’m at three.”
You swore under your breath, launching your arm out to take out two villains at once with your quirk, knocking out another with a roundhouse kick to the face. Ouch, that was a guaranteed trip to the hospital, and that brought your count up to—
“Four!”
“Five,” Katsuki called out almost instantly, right as you dodged a villain who was trying to charge at you from behind, reversing your positions and landing a suckerpunch that sent him flying, knocking into another villain on the way down.
“Six,” you called out, already surveying the street for the next villain to meet your fists, when you heard a loud boom come through the comms, a faint column of smoke rising in the distance.
“Ten,” the blonde cackled.
You began to curse your boyfriend out with a few choice words, when another voice interrupted your conversation. “The two of you are insufferable, you know that?” Sero groaned.
Your cheeks flushed in an instant, almost letting the villain in front of you slip away before you launched out your quirk to disable them. You tried to fiddle with your comms to swap channels, but you could never figure out how these stupid things worked. “Sorry, thought we were on private comms!”
“They’re just fucking jealous,” Katsuki replied with a grunt. A huge explosion rang out in the distance, your eyes widening as a giant villain launched up into the air, cracking a crater into the concrete where he landed.
“That still counts as one,” you protested.
“Like fuck it does!”
“Still on the public channel,” Tsuyu piped up. The froggy heroine and cellophane tape hero had been called in to clean up after your collective paths of destruction. “Cellophane, let’s round up the stragglers for the police.”
“Sure, just let them make the rest of us feel single,” Sero muttered bitterly, before zipping off to do his job. You almost felt sorry for the guy, but you had a record to beat.
“Sorry, guys— Shit, are those reinforcements?” you shouted, running towards the commotion, as the telltale scent of smoke and gunpowder followed quickly on your heels. Katsuki bared his teeth in a grin as he blasted past you, his eyes lighting up as you joined him in the fray.
“Don’t forget that I’m still winning,” he hollered back at you.
“Not if I can help it,” you retorted loudly.
But as it turned out, you could help it. Today would be Dynamight’s victory at twenty-five villains defeated to your measly nineteen. An indisputable victory, just the way that he liked it.
As you handed over the last of the villains to the police, you steered clear of the swarming members of the press, each one hoping to get an exclusive statement from one of the heroes onsite. Luckily, Sero and Tsuyu were more than happy to entertain the media, leaving you to find the grumpy blonde hiding out in a secluded corner of the battlefield. His eyes lit up as you approached him.
“So, where’s my prize?” he smirked as you rolled your eyes. “It better be good— mmph!”
You dragged him into an alleyway away from the cameras, planting a big fat kiss on his lips that seemed to take him by surprise. But Katsuki was nothing if not an improviser, instantly pulling you closer as he kissed you back in earnest, hands grabbing hungrily at your ass as you moaned into his touch. You were getting dangerously heated for such a public space, until the signal over your comms crackled and a pair of familiar voices came over the line.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” Sero accused, exasperated.
“Wrong comms again,” Tsuyu peeped.
“Shit— sorry, Tsu!” you squeaked, your cheeks blushing a bright crimson. Katsuki wasn’t faring any better, his entire face flushed from either anger or embarrassment, or both. Unfortunately for the two of you, this might not have been the first time you’d gotten caught.
“Jeez, two of the top heroes from our class and you can’t even figure out how to work the goddamn comms,” Sero muttered.
“Then get the fuck off comms already!” Katsuki exploded.
A startled yelp came from down the alleyway, a random passerby seemingly frozen mid-step, eyes glued to your compromising position. You and the blonde scrambled apart from each other immediately, giving each other an awkward glance before finally turning off comms and walking away in separate directions. But the damage had already been done.
The anonymous citizen posted it online, of course. Not that they could prove it. Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight being involved with someone romantically? What more, with his infamous high school rival? The same Dynamight who seemed to hate everybody and everything? The thought was preposterous, but after some intense online debate, not entirely impossible.
All the internet needed was some solid evidence.
2.
You didn’t understand the sudden spike in your social media followers. You mainly created the account to follow your friends and family, but you never posted anything yourself. It was a little sad, now that you were thinking about it. Your account only had your profile photo and a simple bio, without a single post to your name. And yet, the numbers continued to climb at an astonishing rate.
Mina couldn’t stop fuming about it the last time you met up for dinner, the pink-toned heroine sporting a disbelieving stare as she watched your follower count increase, despite the fact that you were apparently ‘breaking every single social media rule known to man’. By the end of the night, and a few too many drinks later, she managed to successfully convince you to do something with your newfound influence. Maybe, just maybe, it was finally time to start having an ‘online presence’.
You started with stories. You liked their impermanence. You could post anything you wanted and it would be gone in 24 hours, and your followers still ate it up. You started posting pictures of your meals, your recent reads, and even your weekend activities, even though it seldom involved moving from your couch. Meanwhile, Katsuki found it hard to understand your sudden obsession with social media, the blonde even more chronically offline than you were. But as you were beginning to realise, your boyfriend might have played a bigger role in your meteoric rise to fame than you initially thought.
It began with an innocent selfie taken from your couch, a simple picture that you posted without even thinking twice. But within seconds, your phone was erupting with a worrying number of notifications. When you finally managed to stop the wall of endless spam, you began to notice a pattern. They were all comments on your latest story, and they were all about Dynamight. You took another look at the photo you posted, only realising then that your partner had been visible in the background. Not only that, he was dripping wet and completely naked except for the towel draped around his waist.
You immediately whipped your head around to the kitchen in your studio apartment, where the Adonis in question was walking towards you with two drinks in hand. “What is it?” Katsuki murmured, leaving droplets of water over your clothes as he leaned down to peck your lips.
“Uh, I might have fucked up?” you winced, watching another string of notifications take over your phone screen. “Or maybe not? I’m not really sure. These comments seem positive at least.”
You pointed your phone at him, his eyebrows furrowing cutely as he tried to scroll through the comments, each one more feral and unhinged than the last. “What the fuck?” he muttered under his breath. “These people are just fucking horny.”
“I mean, yeah,” you mumbled, eyes traveling down his chest to the tiny towel around his waist, snapping up to his face with a blush as he began to chuckle at your expression. “But I think they’re freaking out because we’re in the same room. And you’re practically naked.”
“Because I fucking live here?”
“I don’t think these people know that,” you replied, frowning as even more stray droplets landed on your phone screen and clothes. “Go dry off already, you’re getting me wet,” you pouted.
“Oh, I could get you really wet if you like,” he grinned, grabbing you by the waist and throwing your phone aside, both the picture and the torrent of comments forgotten for the rest of the day.
But the internet didn’t forget. Screenshots of your story circulated social media until you couldn’t go a day without seeing pixelated images of your boyfriend’s torso. Not that it came anywhere close to the real thing, or that any of these thirsty fans could ever come close to the real thing. Not that it bothered you. Why would it bother you? You were the one dating Dynamight, not them. You were the one on the receiving end of his kisses and waking up next to him in bed. You were the one who had been dating him for literal years. What would they know about your Katsuki?
While you were fuming over the blonde’s new thirst trap status, your partner found extreme delight in your sudden jealous streak. He seemed to get off on the green demon in your head, acting even more teasing and insufferable than usual, trying to make you lose your cool. But the moment the doors closed to your shared apartment, he made up for it by showering you with copious amounts of attention and affection, reminding you with every spare moment of his time that he belonged to you. You figured it wasn’t the worst trade-off in the world.
But good and bad things both come to an end eventually, and your brief stint as an internet celebrity came to its eventual conclusion on a completely average weekend. You and Katsuki were on the way to brunch with some old classmates when you were ambushed by the media on the streets. Before your partner could explode their expensive camera into pieces, you kicked him hard in the shin, silently willing him to behave for once. Thankfully, the interviewer seemed like a fairly legitimate member of the press and not one of those viral video farmers that kept popping up recently.
“Congratulations on the recent promotion to top 20, Dynamight,” the journalist reported into the mic, and you smiled as the blonde puffed his chest in pride. “We’ve been keeping a close eye on the charts, and there were a few close calls there. You had to beat out many strong heroes to get where you are today.”
You caught the journalist sneak a glance at you, a barely perceivable glint of mischief in her eyes. “Who would you consider to be your biggest competition right now?”
“Myself, duh,” Katsuki answered before the entire question left her mouth, taking the journalist by surprise. What a typical Bakugou Katsuki answer. You struggled to stifle a laugh, almost missing it when the mic pointed in your direction instead. You leaned forward, an amused smile dancing on your lips. “Well, if Mr. Big Ego here can choose himself, then I vote for myself too.”
“I believe you were known to be rivals back when you were studying at UA,” she enunciated the word ‘rivals’ with her entire mouth, clearly trying to bait for a better answer from the two of you.
“So? I’m still the better hero,” Katsuki ignored the camera crew, raising his eyebrows at you challengingly. “Where did you place, rank 24?”
The journalist seemed taken aback by his aggressive answer, and even more taken aback by your response. “Shut up,” you snapped back, punching him squarely in the arm. Instead of wincing at your hit, you didn’t miss the heated glance he sent your way. “I climbed two spots last week.” The poor woman seemed at a loss when it came to dealing with your dynamic, coughing slightly before moving onto the next question on the list.
“Is there any truth to the rumours that you’re going to start a joint agency together?”
“No,” the two of you answered instantly.
“Where the fuck did you hear that?” Katsuki followed up with a pointed question.
“Kat— Dynamight, no swearing,” you warned with a sigh, before turning back to the journalist with your best media-facing smile. “With this guy? Not a chance. But I hope to be starting my own agency soon. I’m extremely grateful to Best Jeanist for guiding me so far, but I think I’m ready to strike out on my own.”
“Ditto,” he grumbled, biting his tongue to hold back another curse word, as the conversation petered out awkwardly. You thought about salvaging the situation, but the journalist didn’t need to know that the two of you would rather die than run an agency together. Not because you hated working together, but because you would never be able to decide on who would be the sidekick. The two of you preferred competing with each other anyway. It made the sex hotter.
The journalist shared a bewildered glance with her camera crew. This was clearly not how they hoped the interview would go. After a couple of quick parting words with the two of you, the press team excused themselves, even more perplexed as you continued to bicker loudly with the blonde about your hero rankings as they moved out of earshot. They left the scene so quickly that they didn’t even notice as Katsuki smacked your ass, chuckling at your indignant expression before muttering a few words into your ear that made you blush.
When the footage of the street interview was posted online the next day, your old classmates had doubled over in laughter, joking about how your dynamic hadn’t changed one bit since high school.
More importantly, the video seemed to cause a great rift between the founding members of your shipping fan club. Whatever theories they had about your romance seemed to get even more misconstrued. Most of them believed you were just good friends, although they hoped that romance would blossom eventually. Some of them were deadly convinced that you were in a relationship, no matter how strangely competitive you seemed with one another. And Katsuki had a big problem with the ones who thought you were just friends with benefits.
But without any proof, and your social media account growing inactive again, the conversation surrounding the two of you started to go quiet. At least, for now.
3.
You and Katsuki had decided to leave Best Jeanist’s agency at the same time, immediately propelling yourselves into what felt like the busiest period of your lives. The two of you were deadset on setting up your own agencies, but the process was longer and more arduous than either of you could have ever imagined. Besides a quick peck on the cheek before leaving the apartment, or a sleepy cuddle before falling asleep for the night, you had barely seen the blonde for the past two weeks, much less do anything more.
So when Katsuki brought up the news that he agreed to do a magazine cover shoot, you had stared daggers at him, wondering if your boyfriend had been replaced by an alien without you realising it. But after he grumbled something about his PR agent’s recommendations to promote the new agency, you shrugged off the silly thought, planting a big kiss on his cheek as you wished him good luck.
The thought didn’t even cross your mind again until it was staring you in the face. Young rising hero Dynamight in all his half-naked glory, his toned arms outstretched above his spiky blonde locks as he smirked in that infuriatingly sexy way, while his sharp red eyes were fixed on something in the distance. The sight you were used to enjoying around your apartment was suddenly out in the open for everyone to see, and you were crashing out.
No, you quite literally crashed into an electricity pole mid-run, your newest intern from UA racing to your side to check if you were alright. Shit, you were a fucking embarrassment.
As you rubbed the sore spot on your arm that was bound to develop into a bruise, your eyes snapped back to the billboard. Because you were supporting your long-time friend, rival, and romantic partner of several years. Not because you needed to take a better look. Nothing like that.
Yet, you couldn’t help the way your throat ran dry as your eyes devoured the poster in front of you. You realised he was wearing his hero costume, but the top half had been removed, dangling dangerously low on his hips. You gulped as your gaze traveled down the planes of toned muscle, years worth of battle scars on full display. You always thought his scars were fucking hot, but this was definitely the wrong thought to be having in the middle of the street in broad daylight. It took you every ounce of willpower to drag your eyes away and pull out your phone, rapidly typing out an angry message.
I am going to kill you , you texted him.
Almost immediately, your phone dinged as he sent back a series of question marks. You bit your lip, taking a sneaky picture of the billboard and sending it to him. You almost dropped your phone when it started ringing, his profile photo taking over your entire screen.
“I… I need to take this call,” you muttered the lame excuse to your confused-looking intern, dipping into an empty alleyway to gain some semblance of privacy.
“Surprise,” he drawled, making you grit your teeth in frustration. This smug motherfucker. Sometimes you wanted to kill him, if only you didn’t love him so much. “Did you like it?”
“I mean, I liked it— But when— You— I just— Fuck!” you swore loudly, your body and brain still scrambled in a million directions after seeing the poster. You clapped your hand over your mouth as you noticed your intern looking down the alleyway curiously. On the other side of the line, Katsuki let out a deep chuckle.
“This almost makes going for that stupid photoshoot worth it,” he remarked in a low voice, clearly trying to hide his own conversation from the others around him. You wished that didn’t make this situation even hotter. “They oiled me up so much, I had to take two fucking showers to get it all out.”
You groaned, leaning heavy against the brick wall as you tried to reign in your wild imagination. At this point, there was only one foreseeable solution for this. “When does your shift end?” you asked, trying to make the phone call sound as professional as possible. It wasn’t working.
“Why?” he smirked.
“Because I’m going to fuck you, and then I’m going to kill you,” you gritted out quietly, hoping that no one could hear you over the busy street. You waved a hand signal at your intern, trying to communicate that you only needed three more minutes. Katsuki let out a groan that rippled throughout your body, his voice heavy with arousal.
“I was going to pull an all-nighter to get some paperwork done,” he started, your heart dropping to your stomach. “But I’m starting to think I need to pull a different kind of all-nighter now.”
“Fuck you, Katsuki,” you huffed, both annoyed and pleased at his antics.
“Oh, you will. Soon,” he laughed. “See you at 8PM.”
“See you at home,” you replied quietly, before the line went dead. You quickly checked the clock, counted five hours to go, then attempted to take a few calming breaths before rejoining your intern on the curbside. You tried to continue on your patrol route in a normal fashion, but the young student’s curious eyes bored into you from the side.
“Was that your boyfriend?” they finally piped up, the question catching you completely off guard.
“Yeah,” you answered, hoping you sounded way more normal than you were feeling. But you couldn’t have expected your intern to let out a loud squeal in lieu of a reply, the excited expression on their face sending immediate danger signals to your brain.
“Who are they? How long have you been together? Wait no, what do you like the most about them?” they asked each one in rapid succession, not even giving you any time to respond. After they ran through all their questions, they waited on your reply with bated breath, like a puppy waiting for a treat.
You averted your eyes awkwardly, avoiding the first and most obvious question. “We’ve been together for almost five years, and uh, I like that they understand me. They challenge me. Nobody knows me better,” you replied, a smile creeping onto your lips as you thought back to the past few years. You and Katsuki had really come a long way.
“A high school sweetheart! That is so sweet! I want to have a relationship like yours and Dy— I mean, your boyfriend some day,” they smiled dreamily, practically swooning as they clasped their hands together. You didn’t even notice the slip up, more relieved that your reply seemed to satiate them for the rest of the patrol.
But the ensuing silence was a double edged sword, your mind drifting away to the after-image of your shirtless partner and the tantalising promise that awaited you at home.
God, you were definitely not going to get anything else done today.
4.
The whispers were hard to ignore when the two of you walked into the old 1-A classroom, or maybe you should say, Deku-sensei’s classroom. You and Katsuki had been invited back as guest teachers for the day, and as much as you loved the opportunity to guide the next generation, it was even more fun to be back where everything began. Still, the room seemed so much smaller than you remembered, or maybe you grew up more than you thought.
As you made your way to the front of the room, twenty odd students with bright, curious eyes looked up at the pair of you in reverence. But judging by the dreamy looks on some of the students’ faces, you had a sneaking suspicion that some of them were looking at Katsuki for different reasons.
Although you had long forgiven him for springing the billboard reveal on you like that, and after he had more than made it up to you in ways that wouldn’t be safe to mention in a classroom, you had to admit that his PR stunt worked. Dynamight’s popularity skyrocketed almost overnight, placing him on the verge of breaking into the top 10 ranks, with you trailing a few ranks behind. Maybe you needed to steal his PR agent.
“Thanks for having us, Midoriya,” you smiled brightly at the cheery green-haired man. It was still strange to see your old classmate in a suit and tie, what more as a teacher.
“No, thank you and Kacchan for making the time! My students are really going to learn a lot today,” he beamed, the enthusiasm on his face almost blinding. It was such a stark contrast to the perma-frown you saw at home that it made you wonder how the two even grew up together.
You grinned in response, landing a light punch against Katsuki’s chest. “As long as Kacchan here is on his best behaviour, I’m sure everything will turn out fine, right?” You placed extra emphasis on the last word, making sure he nodded before you turned your attention back to Midoriya. The two of you had a long talk the night before about swearing in front of the students, or more simply put, you threatened to withhold any night time activities if he uttered even a single curse word in front of the kids. The blonde, as expected, was quick to agree.
“Alright, class!” Midoriya clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Get suited up, because we’ll be doing sparring practice this afternoon, beginning with a special demonstration by our special guests.”
A hand shot up from the back, the sight reminding you of a certain straight-laced class president. “Deku-sensei, isn’t it unfair to have a man fight a woman?”
After hearing the question, a playful grin crossed Midoriya’s face. “Well, I don’t know. Is it unfair to have a man fight a woman?” he redirected the question to his childhood friend, raising his eyebrows. A hushed silence fell over the classroom. Everyone was aware of the sports festival battle between Katsuki and Ochako all those years ago.
“Strength is strength, kid,” he grunted, his eyes meeting yours with a challenging stare. “She doesn’t need my help to beat anyone.”
“I definitely don’t,” you grinned proudly, hands on your hips. “Now, let’s get to the training grounds!”
The training hall was just like you remembered, down to the fresh concrete floors that always squeaked against your shoes, but the atmosphere felt charged with anticipation. You giggled as you heard the students betting their lunches against your victory or loss. They were certainly carefree. Off to the side, your green-haired friend stood with a timer and whistle in hand.
When you and Katsuki nodded at him, the shrill sound of the whistle rang out throughout the hall, but neither of you jumped immediately into battle. It had been awhile since you sparred on opposite sides, the tension was practically electric. “Don’t hold back, Kats,” you warned, the air around you feeling comfortably heavy as you activated your quirk.
“I never do,” he winced, already tensing his muscles to account for the added gravity.
Your audience went silent in concentration as you launched the opening attack, trying to aim for his center as you used your quirk to hold him in place. But you miscalculated the blonde’s strength now, as he used a series of stronger explosions to dodge your attack just in time. You immediately countered with blow after blow, trying to corner him into submission before he could widen the gap between you.
Katsuki grunted as one of your kicks hit him square in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards, or so he wanted it to seem. As you moved in to close the distance, he countered with a hard blow to your jaw, the force enough to send you flying if not for your quirk grounding you. You spat on the ground, the tiniest bit of blood splattering on grey concrete. You grinned up at him with revenge in your eyes. “You’ve hit me harder than that, Katsuki,” you taunted. “You going soft on me now?”
“Not even close,” he panted, taking the opportunity to widen the gap and release a series of long-ranged attacks. The students below scattered as you leapt around the training grounds, deftly dodging explosion after explosion, launching out your quirk each time to drag him down to eye level. One of your attacks finally connected, sending the blonde crashing helplessly to the ground. Even as he released an explosion to slow his descent, there were few things a person could do against the power of gravity, and he soon found himself pinned under you as the dust cleared.
You had made mistakes when restraining him in the past, but this time your hold on him was absolute. The blonde’s arms and legs were pinned flat to the ground by your quirk, your forearm pushing up against his chin, the other pressing down on his chest. He experimented with a few small explosions, but they were all suppressed by your quirk. He raised his eyebrows at you, an expression crossing his face that you rarely had the pleasure of seeing. Bakugou Katsuki was impressed.
“Sorry, what was that?” you smirked. “Did you say you placed #12 in the hero rankings?”
“Keep fighting like that and I won’t be,” Katsuki complimented you in earnest, and you felt your breath catch in your throat. You were suddenly hyperaware of the fact that your faces were inches apart, his gaze pinning you to the spot despite being the one physically held against the ground. Then came the whispers.
“Should we… stop them?”
“Wait, they’re about to kiss!”
“That’s obviously not going to happen!”
“Weren’t they enemies or something?”
You felt a violent blush take over your cheeks, when a shrill whistle pierced through the hall once again, Midoriya clutching the save on what could have been a potentially embarrassing scenario. “We have a winner!” he announced loudly, mouthing a ‘thank you’ to the two of you before silently pointing you towards the healer on standby for a quick touch-up.
Thankfully, the rest of the class seemed to proceed smoothly even without your active involvement. Midoriya was a natural teacher and it was a delight to watch him right in his element. It had been awhile since you were last in school, but you found yourself absorbed in his class, admiring the way he paired the tactics from your sparring session to match his students’ strengths and weaknesses. You had to remind yourself to ask him for a personal quirk analysis after class was over.
That was when Katsuki nudged your side gently, his grin infectious as he nudged his head towards the door. You eyed him curiously as you followed him out of the training grounds and around the corner, your mind quickly connecting the dots as you realised where he was taking you.
Where your memory contained graduation gowns and blossoming sakura trees, it was still far too early in the year for flowers. But you couldn’t suppress the wide smile as Katsuki leaned against a familiar tree, hands wrapping gently around your waist as you approached him. “Remember this?” he asked quietly, tucking a stray strand of hair behind your ear. You smiled fondly, your mind bringing you back to awkward confessions and first kisses.
“You big sap,” you teased, eyes fluttering shut as he leaned down to kiss you, the tension and excitement from earlier melting into a sweet, slow promise. You and Katsuki were rarely gentle, your entire lives a turbulent rollercoaster of excitement and challenge, but it was these quiet moments that reminded you of where it all began. Even after all these years, his touch still managed to make your heart flutter in the exact same way.
The world around you seemed to disappear as you melted into each other. Perhaps that’s why you didn’t notice the telltale sound of a camera clicking and footsteps scuttling away from the scene.
5.
You landed the final blow on the big villain of the week, knocking him out cold to torrential applause from the surrounding citizens. Camera flashes and cheers filled the air, even the dark clouds seemed to clear after the preceding chaos. It was a picture perfect victory after a painfully drawn out battle. Most heroes would thrive in this attention, probably pose for a photo and an interview while handing the villain to the police. But you couldn’t give a flying fuck right now.
You ignored the media calling for your attention, eyes scanning the scene until your eyes landed on a stubborn, grumpy blonde sitting by the curbside. Unfortunately for you, he was also your stubborn, grumpy blonde. Katsuki let out a small grunt as you approached him, quickly replaced with a hiss of pain as he clutched his tightly bandaged arm.
“What’s his situation?” you asked the medic on site, nudging your head towards the man.
“Broken arm, minor bleeding. I managed to splint his arm, but I would still recommend staying overnight at the hospital to make sure there’s no complications with his quirk.”
You nodded solemnly. “No head damage?”
The medic smiled at that. “No, Dynamight was very lucky— Wait, what are you doing?!” she gasped, watching helplessly as you delivered a tight slap to his right cheek, the sound loud enough to make the surrounding medics look over. Katsuki rubbed his sore cheek while frowning, but the usually rowdy hero stayed unnaturally silent against your outburst.
“You fucking idiot,” you snapped at him.
“What the fuck was I supposed to do?” he muttered stubbornly. “He was coming at you.”
“I don’t know, let me handle it? I’m a pro hero too, Katsuki,” you retorted, the anger dissipating from your tone as you sat down next to him, burying your frustrated expression in your hands. “What if something happened to your quirk? You’ve already injured your arms before—”
“I’m fine. My quirk is fine,” he gritted out.
“You can’t keep doing this. When are you going to realise I don’t need saving?”
There was a terse silence, before he replied plainly and clearly. “Never,” he said, your pointed glare melting at his serious expression. “I’m always going to want to save you.”
You heard the medic behind you gasp, quickly turning away as you shot them a withering glance, sharply contrasting the way your heart fluttered in your chest. “That’s unfair,” you pouted, leaning your head against his shoulder in defeat. “God, you don’t know how fucking worried I was.”
Katsuki didn’t reply, instead gently leaning his head against yours as the post-battle chorus sang its final refrain, batches of police cars and ambulances already carrying the incarcerated and the wounded to their next destinations. You caught the eye of a shy-looking medic, who seemed entirely unsure of how to approach your particular pair. You nodded at her, saving her from an awkward conversation, as you helped move the blonde into the nearest ambulance.
All the way from the battlefield to the hospital, you never left his side even once. Even as the doctors poked and prodded at his arm, your eyes threatening to close with each second that passed, you stayed stubbornly by his side until he was done with his examinations. By the time he finally got assigned to his own room, your remaining energy had all but expired as you collapsed on the edge of his bed in exhaustion.
When the nurse came in to check on Dynamight’s condition later that night, they almost had to do a double take if they were in the right room. Curled up in a single bed that was far too small for two people was one heroine, seemingly deep in sleep, and one stern-looking blonde hero. A chill ran down their spine as he shot them a deathly glare, one hand resting firmly on top of your head.
“Get the fuck out,” Katsuki enunciated clearly and quietly. The nurse scrambled to leave the room, but not silently enough. You awoke with a quiet groan as the door clattered shut, head still buried in his chest and unmoving.
“How long have I been asleep?” you asked groggily.
“Three hours,” he grunted, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. There was lingering dirt in your hair, the smell of the battle only mildly tempered by the bad hospital shower you took earlier, but he couldn’t give a shit. You rolled your head to the side so you could see his face, your eyes half-lidded and sleepy, and he thought you’d never looked more adorable.
“I’m still angry at you,” you pouted.
“I know,” he replied simply, his hand moving to stroke your hair as you hummed into his touch. His heart was beating at a steady rhythm, calmed by your presence. “Rest first, you can kill me later.”
There was a brief silence, punctuated by a deep sigh as you buried your face in his chest. “Sorry for slapping you,” you mumbled sheepishly, but he only chuckled in response.
“What, you going soft on me now?” he murmured, echoing your own words from a few weeks ago.
You shot him an incredulous look before the two of you shared a quiet laugh, eventually falling into a comfortable silence as you slipped into a deep slumber in each other’s arms. Little did either of you know, outside the four walls of his hospital room, the internet was erupting into complete chaos.
On the largest hero forum in the world, a blurry video of your battle was going viral. Not because of the fight itself, but because of what happened after. The main video that was being circulated saw you defeating the villain with a triumphant final blow, only to completely disappear off the battlefield despite the camera’s best attempts to locate you. The video then cuts to even more blurry footage of you slapping Dynamight, who you were heavily rumoured to be dating, and the two of you having a heated argument.
The video time skipped again, this time capturing the moment when your defenses seemed to fall and you leaned against his shoulder, neither of you making a move to detach from each other until the ambulance arrived. This particular moment became the highlight of debates for weeks, fans going back and forth on whether a shoulder lean was considered a romantic gesture, or whether it could still be passed off as friendship. And what about that slap? Didn’t it seem charged with tension? But what kind?
The discourse droned on for weeks on end, becoming a viral topic on gossip channels and fan fiction sites alike. This was only further fueled by the fact that neither of you were interested in making a media statement about this quote-unquote ‘fucking ridiculous’ issue. And much to your fans’ exasperation, the two of you continued to act the way you always did. Hot and cold, neither here nor there, and any clear moments of affection was never backed up with proper evidence.
Then, anonymous people started stepping out of the woodwork. A medic who heard you calling Katsuki by his first name instead of his hero name, another one who caught the two of you sleeping in the same hospital bed, a young teacher who caught you making out under the sakura trees, another student who could confirm you were dating but didn’t want to disclose their source, and the list grew.
Without your knowledge, a small but mighty community of shippers had formed one of the strangest information networks in the hero industry. To their credit, they tried to keep the entire thing as secretive as possible, but something like this couldn’t have stayed under the wraps forever.
+1
After countless months of debates surrounding your relationship, you tried not to let it bother you anymore. After all, you and Katsuki had long agreed that the public had no room in your relationship, and for the most part, that line of thinking worked. You could get used to your names trending on social media every other week, and you could put up with occasionally getting hounded by the media. All that mattered was that it worked for the two of you, and everyone else could fuck right off.
But there was a teensy, tiny part of you that wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Maybe then you wouldn’t have to deal with invasive gossip columns and weird interview questions. No more tuning into the television to hear newscasters discuss your alleged relationship, or fan blogs hyperanalysing the groceries you decided to buy that week. Even though it did help with your popularity rankings on the charts, the public’s invasion of your privacy crossed the line a long time ago, and you were this close to snapping. Still, you weren’t expecting it to come crashing down like this.
You had just returned from a magical week away with Katsuki, only to be confronted with the banal mundanity of convenience store queues. You tapped your foot impatiently, the line at the store growing longer by the minute as the cashier fiddled with a technical error at the front.
You had good reason to be antsy, not only because your partner was waiting in the car outside, but also because you were gripping a handful of unmentionables that you would rather stuff in your bag sooner rather than later. Birth control pills, lube, condoms, and all other manner of items. Probably the most unsexy part of an extremely sexy activity, and definitely the kind of thing you wouldn’t want to be spotted with as a pro hero with a magnet for the press.
So far you thought you were doing a pretty good job of avoiding contact, wearing a mask and keeping your eyes glued to your phone, when a fan ambushed you from behind. “I-is it true?” she shrilled, causing you to wince slightly at the high pitch. For a moment, you looked around the front of the store, only to realise she was looking straight at you. You pointed at yourself hesitantly, as she nodded.
“Uh, what is true?”
“That you and Dynamight are dating!” she squealed.
You instinctively moved to raise your hands, trying to quiet her down, when you remembered what you were actually holding in them. You quickly hid them behind your back instead, backing away warily as the overenthusiastic fan doubled down on her advances. “I mean, I saw it on the forum and I didn’t believe it— I mean, I always hoped, but nobody could confirm—”
You narrowed your eyes at her, interrupting her manic train of thought. “Wait, what forum?”
“Oh no,” her face paled instantly. “Oh no, oh no, oh no. I wasn’t supposed to mention that— Please ignore what I just said!” she squeaked. You didn’t think it was possible for her voice to get even higher pitched than it already was.
“Calm down,” you said slowly. “You can’t just tell me something then expect me to ignore it.”
That seemed to send the fan into a full-on spiral, muttering something about community guidelines or moderator rules or whatever, when she dropped her phone in the middle of the panic. You immediately reached down to pick up the device, your hero reflexes reaching the ground a little faster than the civilian, when you realised her screen was open to the forum in question.
Countless pictures and videos of you and Katsuki, all blurry and taken in secret, archived in an online space. You recognised some of these moments from the locations you visited over the past few months. There were pictures from UA, from crime scenes, even from running errands over the weekend. Each picture was accompanied by a tiny thread discussing your relationship, each member sharing their own interpretations and theories about your personalities and dynamics. This would be incredibly impressive documentation, if only it weren’t incredibly creepy.
Peering closer at the screen, you recognised the webpage as the popular hero forum, but the design looked a little different from what you were used to. It took you a while to realise this must be a private forum, albeit an extremely large one, judging by the number of views and comments on each post. And oh god, was that the number of people that were online right now?
Your intense analysis was interrupted as the door to the convenience store rang open, a familiar grumble reaching your ears. “What the fuck is taking so long?”
Even while wearing a mask and plain clothes, the entire convenience store seemed to cower at his presence, his blonde hair and red eyes unmistakable to anyone who lived in the city. You looked up at Katsuki with a confused frown, not even sure how to begin explaining what you had just discovered. Luckily, you didn’t have to.
“O-oh my god, I’m going to freak out,” the fan gushed. You watched as she tried her best to make eye contact with the hero, but ultimately failed. It was kind of cute, actually. “Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, I am such a h-huge fan! I have been supporting you ever since you made your hero debut with Best Jeanist’s a-agency, and I think n-nobody deserves to be n-number #1 more than you!”
You stifled a giggle as you watched his back straighten in pride. If there was any surefire method to appeal to the temperamental blonde, it would definitely be through his ego. He made a noise of approval towards the fan, before turning his attention your way, reaching over your shoulder to pluck the phone from your grasp. One quick look was enough to have him fuming.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered under his breath. “What the fuck is this? Explain.”
The fan seemed on the verge of fainting as he turned his judgemental stare on her, although you could no longer tell whether it was out of fear or excitement. “It’s a secret forum for your f-fans! For the both of you!” she squeaked. “We d-don’t care if you’re friends or dating! We just love h-how much you support each other!”
“Well, stop it. It’s fucking creepy,” Katsuki interrupted bluntly, and you watched as her face turned five shades paler. The convenience store turned deadly quiet as the young fan blinked away shocked tears. You swore under your breath, bracing yourself mentally as you stepped in to diffuse the situation.
“Sorry, this guy is really bad at words,” you explained, shooting him a chilling glare as you placed your free hand on her shoulder in an attempt at comfort. She looked up at you with glistening, hopeful eyes. “What he meant to say is, we appreciate your support. Just, maybe, not like this.”
“It is kind of creepy,” you added with a wince, watching her face fall again. Katsuki was looking away awkwardly, and you stomped hard on his foot for an assist.
“Can I— Fuck, I don’t know. Can I sign something?” he grumbled.
The young girl instantly brightened up, tittering excitedly as she pulled out various markers and notebooks for the both of you to sign. Thankfully, that seemed to be enough for the icy tension to dissipate, and the rest of the customers and staff seemed to return to business as usual. Even the line started moving again. Crisis averted, or so you thought.
As you picked out a gold marker to scrawl your hero name in her notebook, the girl gasped loudly, her finger trembling as it pointed at the ring on your finger. Your eyes darted at Katsuki in a panic. You had completely forgotten.
“Are you engaged?!” she squealed, any semblance of sadness in her voice replaced with an unhinged level of excitement, far more than either of you were willing to deal with today, or ever. As she launched into a high-pitched mix of fangirling and information farming, Katsuki seemed to hit the absolute limit of his patience. He reached down to grab your hand, leading you out of the store as you scrambled to abandon your embarrassingly large collection of contraceptives on a random countertop.
“Ah, wait, Kats!” you protested. “We haven’t bought—”
“Don’t fucking need any of it,” he grumbled, the door dinging as it opened to the crisp winter air. “Looks like I’m going to have to put a fucking baby in you for these people to get it through their thick skulls.”
The fan practically faints with glee.
Later on the drive home, your phone buzzed non-stop with notifications about your engagement. You knew the news would travel fast, but you never expected that it would be this fast. “Well, I guess the secret’s out,” you sighed. “Although I suppose we weren’t even hiding it to begin with.”
Katsuki’s hand crept between your thighs like it always did when he was driving on long stretches of empty road, sending a tingle down your spine. “Fucking idiots,” he rolled his eyes. “You’d think they’d figure it out after seeing us go back to the same apartment every day.”