Chapter Text
There were many, many reasons for Bakugou Katsuki to dislike the PR department at his agency. Too many to list, but that didn’t stop the pro-hero from counting them inside his head as he seethed quietly in a musty boardroom waiting for the stupid meeting they’d arranged to take place.
Number one; there was no other word for it, they were just pushy. Not pushy in a good way where they break you down to build you up or anything, it was all “Bakugou-san, you can’t yell at reporters and tell them that their quirk is probably breathing stupidity and then throwing it back up” and “Bakugou-san, it’s not good for your image to throw explosions at someone just because they asked if you know Deku”. It’s like, give a guy some room to breathe.
Number two – they were the most opportunistic little shits. Forget the League of Villains, these conniving leeches were a dark, omnipotent force all on their own. They somehow knew absolutely everything about every hero in the agency, and if they saw money in it, they’d go through hell and high waters to convince you to whore it out to the public.
Bakugou still felt his hands start to spark up when he remembered the early stages of his and Uraraka’s (or as he fondly thought of her, Cheeks’) relationship and how badly they’d tried to milk it. They couldn’t count how many meetings, partnerships, and “PR opps” the couple was constantly being thrown before they in no unclear terms told them that they were not interested. (Read: Bakugou nearly exploded the PR department’s floor).
In hindsight, it was pretty naïve on their parts to think that those hounds wouldn’t sniff out that something was happening between the two, because a.) Cheeks was the only (and he truly means only, save maybe Kirishima) person in that entire office building who could get away with talking back to him with the amount of sass she did and not get a face full of nitroglycerin, and b.) She was unable to keep a secret about literally anything ever.
It didn’t even take a lot. One of the PR parasites wasn’t even onto them when she casually asked Uraraka what she did over the weekend in the breakroom, when the hero grew flushed and started screeching about “definitely DIDN’T go on a date with BAKUGOU” because that would be “SO RANDOM” and “was it really a date if we kicked each other around in a boxing ring” and “why did I say that” and “wow is it hot in here?” as the coffee she was pouring into her mug slowly filled all over her hands and onto the floor.
Bakugou smirked fondly. She was such a fucking idiot.
But there was one final reason that Bakugou really hated the PR bloodsuckers. It was their use of the word “emergency”. Now this, all the heroes could get behind. The PR bitches would send some piece of shit email around every goddamn Thursday about an “emergency” PR meeting to someone, only to gather them all in a room to tell them that wow, wasn’t Red Riot’s toothpaste partnership so impactful and can’t we be utilising brand partnerships much better than we are the with all the heroes at our agency? All the while, Kirishima would sit silently in the corner, shooting fellow pros apologetic looks for being the reason of the season.
Forgive him for not thinking this called for an emergency when he’d experienced being captured by a sludge villain and kidnapped via fucking compression marble all before he’d even figured out his hero name, but nothing grinded Dynamight’s gears more.
Which is why, when both he and Uraraka got the same “emergency PR meeting” email which requested a number of heroes’ presence, including their own, he suggested – nay, insisted - they skip it.
“Level with me Cheeks,” he reasoned while getting out the ingredients to make dinner in their shared flat, “how many times have you left one of those meetings with something of value to think about. They’re probably gonna tell you to change your hair or something equally dumb.”
Uraraka rolled her eyes smilingly as she tried to get started on chopping some vegetables before her boyfriend’s hand was quickly smacking hers away from anywhere near the food.
“Hey! Let me help,” she protested, but Bakugou wouldn’t budge on the issue. The kitchen was his castle. She – a peasant - was not allowed in. Not after last time. He shuddered at the very thought of it.
“Tch. Not a chance, Round Face. I’ve seen you with a knife. Stick to fighting bad guys.”
She sighed but backed away, sitting on top of their kitchen counter.
“Whatever, cranky pants. Either way, I do think we should go to the meeting.”
Before Bakugou could begin protesting again, Uraraka’s hand was up to stop him and like a bad-tempered dog hushed by his master, he narrowed his eyes and swallowed his protests silently, practically vibrating with a growl.
“Think about it. We’re not the only ones copied in the email – it’s all UA alumni from our class. And even some Class B people. Hell, I’m pretty sure I saw Aizawa-sensei’s name. If we don’t show up, we’re probably gonna be the only ones- “
“As I seem to recall you’re the only one who had a problem with that,” Bakugou cut in.
“Which means, you buffoon, that they’re gonna notice and totally hound after us! And we just got PR off our backs.” Uraraka finished, turning her body to his and doing her best intimidating scowl a la her boyfriend. She had the furrowed brows and jutted out lips down, but between her pink cheeks and doe-like kind brown eyes, she just looked – well, there was no other word for it – cute.
Bakugou felt his face rise several degrees in temperature as his heart skipped a beat. The hero coughed as he scratched his increasingly red neck, annoyed that three years into dating she could still catch him off guard with her stupid squishy face. And that she smelled so nice and herbal-y like soothing jasmine tea or something. And she also had a point.
Even though everyone basically salivated at the mouth for “Kacchako” when they first got together, the couple made a point of barely being linked at public appearances and always shutting reporters down with a strong and silent “no comment” whenever the topic was brought up. It took a while, but eventually they became all but downright boring to the media, and PR was left to finally leave them alone the third year into their relationship. It was all about “Kirimina” now, apparently – and Bakugou and Uraraka couldn’t be happier to be away from the spotlight.
Bakugou then realised something, which had him back at “Kacchan in Neutral”.
“Fucking Deku is on the email list isn’t he.”
Uraraka had the audacity to giggle which caused the explosion-wielder to furrow his brows even deeper as he watched her try to cover her laugh with her mouth.
“Sorry I just,” she choked out between laughs, “I still don’t get it. You guys are like, friends now. You hang out every Friday. He’s probably you’re closest friend other than Eijiro and you- “
She can’t even finish because she’s clutching at her stomach from laughter.
“And you still act like he’s the most irritating thing ever!”
It was true. A couple of them ended up at Gunhead’s then-growing, now-thriving agency after graduation but the most surprising duo to come join them was Deku and Bakugou.
Uraraka was the first, taken in as a sidekick, followed by Mina, Kirishima, Tokoyami and Momo. Deku and Bakugou, almost as if by fate (or as Bakugou liked to say, because Deku was “a fucking stalker”), would almost always end up at the same agency. They both started out at Endeavour’s agency for a year, before moving on to work with Hawks’ for another year, and then settling at Gunhead’s office for the past four years.
Despite their busy hero work hours, most of Class A was still in the city and kept in close touch. In-between Mina’s propensity to throw parties to celebrate the most minute milestones (“Me and Kiri have been together for nearly three months, and you’re all invited to celebrate with us!”) and Iida and Momo spotting updates in their classmates’ career-tracks with hawk-like observation before updating the group chat with clinical efficiency, Uraraka could stand to see a little less of her former classmates if she was being honest. But having gone through as much trauma as they all did and at such a young age made their bonds almost impossible to sever.
“Deku’s my rival, not my friend, get it right!” Bakugou corrected, huffing as he began chopping the vegetables and delivered a particularly aggressive slice to an unfortunate carrot.
“Stupid Deku,” he muttered, “you watch, he’ll call me any second and be all ‘Oh my god Kacchan’- “there’s a particularly acerbic tone Bakugou spits out as he delivers Deku’s childhood moniker for him, as he beheads another vegetable fallen victim to his wiles.
He then puts on a high-pitched voice (which granted, Deku grew out of after his second year at UA, but he still had the habit to speak a few octaves higher when around Bakugou, something to do with constantly fearing for his life around him) and begins doing what he thinks is an award-winning rendition of his nemesis.
“’Oh my god Kacchan! What’s this about the email we all just got!? You know, I get so totally freaked out by PR meetings! I’m useless at that stuff – I wish I was so much cooler, like you, Kacchan!”
Uraraka, un-impressed, has crossed her arms, ready to defend her best friend, when Bakugou’s phone starts ringing.
“It’s Deku, I’ll pick it up,” she says, sliding the accept call button and putting the hero on speaker.
“Oh my god Kacchan,” Deku begins over the phone before Uraraka gets a chance to greet him.
“What’s this about the email we all just got!? You know, I get so totally freaked out by PR meetings! I’m useless at that stuff – I wish I was so much cooler, like you, Kacchan!”
Uraraka blinks. There’s no way-
“Oh my god shut the fuck up Deku,” Bakugou roars into the phone, picking up some mushrooms and placing them on the chopping board. His next prey.
“It’s a stupid meeting about stupid PR people doing stupid shit!” he eloquently shouts down the line, slicing the bell peppers without even looking down.
Uraraka widens her eyes. Man, how does he do that!? He’s been impressing her with that trick since first year’s training camp.
She realises she’s zoned out when Deku’s said something in reply on the other line, and Bakugou looks like he may just have an aneurysm if the conversation continues for much longer.
“Hey Deku! I’m here too,” she calls down the line in a friendly tone, deciding to sweep in and spare Deku hearing the barrage of whatever obscenities were about to leave her boyfriend’s mouth.
“Oh, hey Ochako! It’s so good to hear your voice, it’s been ages!”
Deku’s tone is so sweet and loving and full of happiness that Uraraka can’t help the smile crawling immediately on her face.
Bakugou’s right eye twitches.
“I know right? I haven’t seen you in weeks now,” she gushes down the line, “we have to catch up soon. Bakugou gets you all to himself these days!”
There’s a distinct inhumane sounding squeak on Deku’s end as Bakugou chops the next bell pepper so hard, Uraraka’s unsure how the knife hasn’t cut through the board.
“OI! I DIDN’T ASK FOR SHITTY NERD TO- “
“Save it for your Friday night…rival or nemesis meeting or whatever,” Uraraka interrupts, desperately trying to calm him down with a look.
“Deku,” she begins down the phone, “don’t worry about tomorrow’s meeting. Bakugou’s probably right, it’s gonna be something silly like when they told Bakugou that he could probably get notoriety if he cheated on me or something.”
Bakugou looks like he may just explode (it’s what he did at that meeting) the next bell-pepper but decides that Deku’s muttering pisses him off more as he listens to the young hero try and make sense of Uraraka’s statement.
“I suppose you’re right,” he begins conspirationally, “but then, why invite all the UA alumni? And Aizawa-sensei? I might call Shoto and ask him if anything similar’s happening over with him and Denki and Kyouka and then oh god what if something’s wrong with All Might but wait, I spoke to him just earlier, so it won’t be that but what if- “
“Deku,” Bakugou says so quietly that Uraraka and the young hero on the phone may have missed it were it not for their finetuned sense to detect Baku-rage aura.
“You’re going to hang up the phone,” he begins slowly, “you’re going to show up to that shitty meeting tomorrow where you’ll realise that the only scary thing about it” – a pause as he licks his teeth in a something that could either be a scowl or a grin – “is being in the same room as me.”
By the end of his sentence Bakugou’s angry face has morphed into a feral grin as he pictures daunting Deku with his crimson stare. He’ll probably put one gauntlet on the table in front of him and point it at Deku just to intimidate him – make him sweat, you know? Heh. And then he’ll make sure his arm is just at the right angle to blast any-
Deku mutters something along the lines of “thank you kacchan sorry kacchan see you kacchan miss you ochako” to snap Bakugou out of his reprieve and he’s left with a laughing Uraraka who puts the phone down as she hops off the counter and hugs him from behind, demanding he hurry dinner up because she’s hungry.
For the shitstorm of anger PR meetings can enrage within him, he allows himself a small, soft smile, because this is what he gets to come home to. Her soft touch, warm hands, and decidedly herbal scent.
He wanted to feel that way forever. God, he could do it forever.
Tomorrow, he says to himself as he closes his eyes and leans back into her touch. He’ll ask her tomorrow.
xxx
Except it’s 5pm the next day, and he’s not smiling anymore. He’s the first one there at this shitty meeting, glowering at the three PR freaks sat across. One of them, a young blond man with glasses, looks just about ready to pass out from fear, whilst the pink-haired woman next to him shoots him a sympathetic look. The third one is a blonde woman with bright green eyes, who seems to be running the show. She’s stood up and is setting up her laptop to project the presentation she’s prepared onto the whiteboard in front of the office.
Slowly, the others file in. Tokoyami strolls in quietly next to Mina, the former clearly intending to have avoided this meeting at all costs were it not for a run-in with the pink alien-girl next to him, chatting excitedly.
Tokoyami takes a seat across Bakugou as Mina plops down on the chair next to him.
“Hello Bakubabe,” she chirps as he grunts in return.
The others roll in soon after. Kirishima bursts in with Momo in tow, the former apologising profusely for being late because he was out on a mission and making sure to introduce himself to every single one of the PR freaks even though he’s basically a household name. The pink haired girl blushes as the young hero compliments her hair.
“Pink’s a totally manly colour!” he excitedly gushes. “And you all know I totally love a lady in pink.”
He shoots a wolfish grin and wink over to Mina, who winks right back and blows him a kiss.
Kirishima’s eyes wander over to Bakugou and his toothy grin widens.
“BAKUBRO,” he yells excitedly, running up to him, “I can’t believe you showed up! I mean I saw your name on the invite list and I said to Mina ‘He’s not gonna show up’- right, babe?”
Mina nods sagely at this, putting a hand on Bakugou’s shoulder.
“And then you didn’t answer his texts,” she continues, “which you know always gets Kiri wound up.”
Bakuguo holds in a growl and has the decency to look slightly guilty as he looks up at Kirishima, although he may as well be staring up at a wounded puppy whose owner kicked him.
“Totally,” he says, eyes looking like they may at any moment spill a single tear, “I mean I was rolling in my bed for ages, I couldn’t sleep.”
“He really couldn’t,” Mina confirms, snaking her head around so she was facing Bakugou directly, the look in her eyes very much indicating that she blames him for the lack of sleep she got last night.
“Anyways, you’re here,” Kirishima finally says excitedly, “and we’re going to get drinks after this.”
Bakugou sighs.
“Shitty Hair- “he begins, but Kirishima cuts him off in with a sing-song “Eh!”
“You promised me you’d try,” the red-haired hero implores, his eyebrows going up to indicate he means business.
A silent beat. Mina takes a sharp inhale next to him.
“Eijiro,” Bakugou grounds out.
The red-haired hero looks like he may faint from excitement. Mina exhales.
“We get drinks every Tuesday,” Bakugou continues, “and Wednesday. And you come over for dinner nearly every Thursday.”
There’s a pause.
“I don’t get it,” Kirishima says, leaning back as if in shock. “Are you saying you don’t wanna hang?!”
Mina, while seeming positively elated at the fact that she may actually get a night with her boyfriend to herself, looks confused.
“This is bizarre – you never turn down Ei for drinks,” she says with suspicion, “unless…OH MY GOD ARE YOU DOING IT TONIGHT.”
Bakugou’s hand is over Mina’s mouth in a heartbeat as sparks begin to cackle in his hand.
“A little louder, I don’t think the whole of fucking Tokyo heard you,” he seethes.
The commotion has Tokoyami looking at the triad across the table suspiciously.
Bakugou shoots him a crimson-eyed stare and the jet-black hero sighs and clutches at his head. He just wants to go home.
Meanwhile, Kirishima has put two and two together and has instantly transformed from looking like an abandoned animal to being positively elated.
Bakugou doesn’t have a lot of regrets in his life, but telling Mina, Kirishima and Deku – who, wildly, he guesses are his…closest friends (?!) – about his plans to propose to Uraraka are up there.
As is almost always the case, it was all stupid Deku’s fault. They were at Friday night nemesis drinks when Shitty Hair and Alien Freak strolled in all “oh my god hey guys!” and invited themselves over to the table.
They all got Bakugou all good and liquored up just so they could get information on him, he was convinced of it. First, they left him no option but to drink by saying things like “don’t worry about it bro, you just drink however much you want” and “Kacchan, there’s no hidden agenda you literally don’t have to drink if you don’t want to” which was OBVIOUSLY a thinly veiled attempt at a challenge, so for every beer those shitheads drank, he made sure to get another for himself.
Then came the next part of their evil plan. They got him all vulnerable by saying “So how’s Ochako doing?” – an obvious bluff to see if he’d be man enough to tell them just how strongly he feels about her. Hell, he’d be willing to bet money on the fact that Shitty Hair was wearing a mic on him, sneaky bastard.
He doesn’t remember what he said, but according to Mina he spoke so beautifully about his love for his girlfriend that Kirishima teared up, Deku looked like he might have a heart attack from how vulnerable Bakugou was being, and Ashido cursed her stupid phone for running out of battery so she couldn’t record the whole thing. It was then that he let it slip out that he was planning to marry her.
“I’ve got a ring and I just wanna…I just wanna put it on her chubby finger so the whole world sees it and then I wanna have a badass wedding where we can float together and then make badass babies,” he slurred. Allegedly.
That was two months ago, and they hadn’t stopped pestering him about it since. Truthfully, other than the fact that their schedules had been busy as hell, Bakugou was also struggling to find the perfect moment to do it. Cheeks was a first-class hero and all around immaculate human being, and she deserved nothing less than the perfect proposal. He needed to make it right – and that meant the night had to feel perfect. And tonight did.
At that moment Uraraka walked in, also hastily shouting apologies as Deku limped in next to her. She was at the front of the room, explaining to the PR demons that they got held up with some villain who had a sort of eye laser quirk, but Bakugou was zoned out staring at just how fucking pretty she was. It was ridiculous, he decided, that she could be so sweaty and have dried up blood all over her suit and be painted all over with bruises and still look like the most beautiful woman – the most beautiful person – in the room. In every room.
He didn’t even realise Deku was trying to talk to him before he had to snap out of ogling at his girlfriend (how the might have fallen, he thought) and activate menacing mode to get Deku out of his hair.
Cheeks plopped down next to Tokoyami, who politely made conversation with her even though it was very clear that he wanted nothing more than to be alone in the darkness right about now.
She shot Bakugou a quick warm look and wink across the table as he flushed and sent a smirk back her way. PDA wasn’t their thing, but damn it, it was impossible to just ignore each other. They attracted each other like magnets no matter where they were.
The top PR bitch – maybe her name was something like Ririka, Uraraka once said – was now at the front of the room and asking everyone to be quiet. There was some shuffling as Bakugou realised he now had Deku on his left and Kirishima (who asked to switch with Mina) on his right and rolled his eyes. Now he couldn’t get his gauntlet out to intimidate Deku because Shitty Hair would give him a lecture. Stupid shitty nerd, always ruining his fun.
“Good evening everyone,” the blonde woman greeted, her voice saccharine and welcoming in that grindingly artificial way. “Thank you all for coming. We’re now ready to start the meeting.”
“My name is Ito Ichika,” she began, sauntering around the front of the room, “and I’m the head of PR here at Gunhead Agency. I’m sure you’re all used to speaking to colleagues Hina and Haruki, but today you’re all gathered for a very special announcement that’s going to be coordinated by multiple PR departments in an inter-agency collaboration.”
She looks positively giddy as she snaps her fingers and the lights turn off (“What a useless, shitty quirk,” Bakugou thinks) and the whiteboard before them begins projecting slides from her laptop.
“Yuei: The Wonder Year: The Movie,” flashes on the screen. Bakugou’s brain short circuits. What the fuck?
There’s a confused murmur in the room. Even Tokoyami has sat up straighter in his seat and looks like he’s paying attention. Deku’s eyes are narrowed in suspicion. Aizawa – who Bakugou has only now noticed in the corner of the room – even looks slightly less bored than he usually does.
Ichika flips her golden hair over the shoulder and clasps her hands excitedly in front of her.
“You’ve made it, guys,” she says, her voice going up in pitches, “they’re making a movie about your lives!”
x