Chapter Text
They had been excited, the two of them, on their first project as the leads of a major film.
That was until they’d met at the first read-through and realized… this plot was trash.
Ochako had wanted to drop the project the moment she’d gotten to certain plot points but alas, she’d signed a contract and her manager had convinced her that no actor’s fame is a hundred percent built on absolute perfection.
Katsuki was a little more forthcoming as he was convinced he could make the best out of any crappy situation, specifically the one they’d jumped head on.
If he wasn’t going to get the best roles from the best projects as an up and coming actor, then he was going to make every project he was a part of feel like absolute blockbusters just by gracing the project with his very presence.
His confidence wavered an approximate amount of ten times when they’d met at the read-through and he realized that he wasn’t the only one that thought this wasn’t going to be mentally stimulating in the least.
The story was about two lovers going through a few typical bumps in a typical relationship with a bland-ass ending.
“The only thing exciting about this is possibly the fact that we get to pretend we’re telekinetic.” He’d heard her say, he agreed, but was he going to vocalize that? No.
In the end she’d been right about the only exciting thing being that they were filming a project within the genre of ‘Rom-Com Fantasy Steampunk’.
*
Uraraka Ochako was an unfamiliar name, if only because Bakugou Katsuki himself was generally bad at remembering them, but he’d seen her face before, she’d been the actress in an infamous commercial about space, probably something to do with soft-ass round cotton balls being out of this world.
Because to him, that was what she was.
Soft, round, and maybe, when he would be acting opposite her and she’d turn on the feral hidden barely beneath the surface of cute.
Out of this world.
Only sometimes though, maybe.
Like now.
It was the first intimate scene between their two characters, immeasurably in love, covered in soot and dust, and he’d be lying if he didn’t appreciate the visuals the director had given the film.
He had been crouched over her crumpled body, in this scene his character, a young man named ‘Kristen’ had found Uraraka’s character, a young woman named ‘Hannah’s body under a mountain of rubble he’d been the cause of.
Kristen and Hannah had been arguing, being telekinetic they were emotional and their emotions were easily imprinted in their surroundings.
Katsuki would be the king of all liars if he didn’t think that the romantic framing of a man holding the woman he loved surrounded by the destruction he’d created didn’t move him even just a bit.
Because he’d been holding her in his arms, blood covered, fake soot everywhere, the cameras panning every which way, and her round beautiful cheeks caked on with pale powder.
She had such beautiful rosy cheeks, so insistent to reveal she was warm, alive, and filled with blood that the makeup artists had to spend way too much time and product to make her look blood-drained.
“Wow.”
“CUT!”
“Shit.”
“Katsuki, that was perfect-” the director yelled, she grinned before she opened her eyes, then she closed her mouth in a thin smile before she sat up straight, and his nose was automatically in her hair “as far as I can remember ‘Wow’ isn’t on the script but we can just drown that one out, it was perfect! Ochako! Great job, you are a goddess.”
She was so humble, and the director was as spot on with that title as he’d ever been.
*
Ochako swiped the sweat that had pooled over her upper-lip.
Being a child actress for so long and pouring the amount of passion she had been all these years meant she’d had to focus more than the appropriate amount of personal time she had left over bonding with her parents over the years.
Also known as Ochako trying to remember the excuse she was going to make the moment Bakugou Katsuki with the handsome evil-grin and hot-ass-splodey hair finds out that she’d never been kissed before.
Uraraka Ochako had never played a character that had a kissing scene of any kind before, and this role came with a few of them.
Well, the first one, the well-known ‘almost-kiss’ trope so many rom-coms milk to death was coming up, and the sweat on her face and forehead were testaments to her anxious disposition over them.
She breathed in and out and mimicked her exercises before every scene.
Her breath shivered it was going to be fine, she wasn’t a great actress per se, but she knew what she was doing.
She sighed a high-pitched resigned sound to herself, hopefully she would be able to fake the amount of sexual tension she’d never really experienced before for this scene.
The actors took their place and she looked down from where Hannah had been standing and to where Kristen had been sitting, and straight into the red eyes of Bakugoud Katsuki.
Neither of them ended up having to fake anything at all in those few seconds of pure sexual tension.
And they weren’t fooling anybody when they’d jumped away from each other as fast as they had, cast and crew left with brows raised, they sauntered away, proud of their superior skills of absolute self-denial.
*
It was only a few days later when the actual kissing scene had come.
And here we begin.
“Bakugou-kun!” Katsuki winced at the cute call of his name, he really didn’t need to be overwhelmed and confused so early in the morning. He turned and levelled the tiny girl in front of him with a look of a man who had been on call for almost 48 hours.
“What.”
“I wanted to talk to you about the next scene we’re about to film.” She grinned, and she laughed, then she closed in on herself as her voice started to shake the way it did when she was unsure of herself.
He liked only one of those traits, the tone of her soft voice, but the lack of decisiveness? He resented that in people.
Didn’t like it when they wasted his time.
“You mean the kissing scene?”
“Yes!” she looked at him in earnest now “I-ah. I have never really kissed on screen before.” She laughed, he could only roll his eyes.
“Just follow my lead, you’ll be fine.” He shrugged and was about to turn away when her small hand, a hand so small it couldn’t wrap around his bicep.
“I actually, um, I wanted to maybe p-practice or get used to it first before we go on and do it on screen.” She breathed in.
And though she shook, Uraraka Ochako straightened her spine.
“I want to do it right.”
Ochako had never once in her life actually thought of ever being kissed before, she was too busy to daydream of things like that, and if she ever thought of it she only thought of it when she considered playing certain roles.
And here was one, you see, she definitely wouldn’t mind having Bakugou Katsuki on her lips.
A definite no on that aspect.
Up until.
“Are you telling me you’ve never been kissed before?”
And as you may know, Bakugou Katsuki has quite the loud voice, especially when he’s making fun of people.
There was no preparation for a kiss that day, and Ochako had had her first kiss on screen, drowning in humiliation.
And she doesn’t do so bad, no, in fact, with the young woman red faced and the crew alongside her, he f*cks up.
Over, and over, and over again.
*
They had been two months into filming Kristen and Hannah’s love story in this quirky big world the writers had made up, straight right through with no hiatus whatsoever the two of them had spent almost every day together, all over the country to film battle scenes, cuddling scenes, crying, laughing, and kissing scenes.
Kristen and Hannah had quite literally lived their entire lives in two months and the lead actors had been evidently there with them the entire time, peeling just the right amount of their own souls off to give, to offer to their work.
“I’m impressed, incredibly impressed.” The director had invited them to lunch once, and he spoke animatedly to the two of them “This might have been the most surreal chemistry I have ever truly experienced in all my years of filmmaking.”
A good thing for Hannah and Kristen, truly.
But for two up and coming actors that had sworn to focus solely on their careers?
Well, if it wasn’t a thick helping of ‘I’m so confused I don’t know what to do or how to act’ and just the tiniest dash of ‘We’re never going to see each other after all this is over’
*
It was the last day on set.
Katsuki had hated a lot of what had transpired throughout the filming process, but then again, he admitted to himself, he’d brought on a ton of that hatred himself.
He had to be honest of the actual passion between the creative writers and directors, it was a trashy rom-com to him, but to them it was an epic adventure with love as a focal point, and though he could never relate he played Kristen like he’d never breathed a sniff of love in his life, he’d loved Hannah like he’d never known what life would be after her, and what life had been before her.
He’d played Kristen and kept him deep within his own heart, and he was going to keep him there for as long as he could.
Now She, oh… She.
Uraraka, that goddess, she acted like it was the most natural thing in the world, like she’d loved and been loved, and that love had flown through her very veins with every second of every day.
She’d spoken the passionate words they would be leaving the last filming day with a raspy voice filled with emotion in massive contrast to her usual adorable pitch.
No, today she acted like she’d never be able to act again.
She embodied Hannah, a young woman in love and out to save the world as if she was Uraraka Ochako, a young woman in love and out to save the universe.
A goddess out to save the existence that she had breathed her very own life into.
And he wasn’t anything but made up of awe that day.
Slowly the two actors had thawed the thick icey sheet of indifference between the first day, the almost-kiss day and the actual kissing scene day.
And Uraraka had been so busy remembering to give everyone a kiss and goodbye that the last time she’d ever seen Kristen was with Hannah’s blood all over his face and Bakugou Katsuki’s legs walking away from her.
Uraraka sighed, she’d hoped they would find the time of day to actually speak like human beings. This entire experience had been so confusing, she wanted to do her best for Hannah and she had.
But why did being around him always conjure the feeling of absolute confusion within her?
A question she had not known he’d asked himself every day after he’d met her.
*
The Premiere.
Katsuki had never been the leading actor to a role before, and he’s never been able to afford one of his own father’s designs before either.
He’d never allowed his parents to sponsor his clothing, he wanted to be able to afford them before he could feel like he had the honor to accept his father’s work.
Today was the day.
He’d worn Kristen’s colours.
Rust and copper, he wore a suit and he made sure to do his hair the way Kristen had, he’d even made sure to borrow the goggles from set, a top his mess of blonde hair, and he’d hoped they would let him keep them, he’d gotten himself attached to the cliché piece of useless accessories.
He grinned, and he knew with his wolf teeth the reason for the screams from fans of the highly anticipated film was for him.
Until somebody screeched like they had been hacked by an axe, he laughed, no need to be so-
Oh.
Uraraka Ochako walked on the red carpet like she owned it.
She wore a spunky dress covered in the same rust and copper Hannah had worn in the film, and she’d gotten her goggles out as well, with the corset she’d worn during the first half of the film.
And though he hadn’t been the one wearing the corset Katsuki felt the air escape his lungs anyway.
And all of a sudden he felt like running.
He’d never felt this raw and vulnerable in a place with so many people in his life before.
And he’d had to get half naked in this movie and previous projects before.
No. No. No. No. No.
“Bakugou-kun!” she grinned and held her hand out, he smiled, so scared and unsure.
And he hated himself in that moment.
“I see you felt the same about the goggles.” She laughed and tilted her head to look at him.
It would be years, and years, upon years when people would think back to the day that the lead actors and actress of Hannah and Kristen’s love story had had only one picture, about three feet apart from one another with their hands on each other’s waist during the films premiere.
All because the male lead had opted to give the female-lead the solo stage a few seconds too early.
There is one, oh maybe a few snaps of the actress, a bewildered look on her face, abandoned on the carpet that night.
The last time they’d ever ‘seen’ each other in ten years.