Work Text:
Watching You
‘He’s a complete dork’, Katsuki thinks to himself as he watches Deku talking to the plants he’s supposed to be watering. Deku isn’t discreet at all; he wildly gesticulates with his hands as he tells some type of story to the potted foliage in the CEO’s office. Katsuki would call it the stupidest thing he’s ever seen — if Deku didn’t do that every few days when he has to water the plants. It’s the same thing every time and it’s one of Katsuki’s favorite things to watch.
Though it’d be more accurate to say Deku is Katsuki’s favorite thing to watch. He’s always doing all matter of stupid things when he thinks he’s alone in the room. When he thinks no one is looking at him.
The thing is, Deku doesn’t know Katsuki is always watching. Being the secretary of the CEO of a huge company, it’s quite often that Deku finds himself alone as his boss is busy with meetings and things like that. A good portion of Deku’s job is actually scheduling these meetings and making sure the CEO is aware of them, so it’s natural for him to think that he’s alone in the big top floor office.
And though he is alone, he’s never really out of sight as Katsuki is the head of security in their company and he’s the one watching the little monitors of CCTV the whole day. There are at least five cameras in the CEO’s office alone and Deku is always in focus in some of them.
Sure, alright, no need to beat around the bush. Katsuki knows it’s creepy. He’s well aware of the stalkerish nature of his obsession. How could he not? Katsuki is trained to spot freaks, creeps, and stalkers that can hurt the people working for the company. It’s quite literally his job. And even if it wasn’t, his friends made sure he knew how fucking weird his behavior is ever since they caught whiff of it.
That’s the problem with having friends who are also his co-workers and trained security — it didn’t take long for them to identify their boss’ obsession with the cute secretary. But they also know that Katsuki would never actually do anything to Deku. They say he’s too ‘emotionally constipated’ to make a move and too much of a doofus to do anything bad to the secretary.
Katsuki protests their accusations and sustains that he might be an asshole but he isn’t a dick.
In any case, he knows it’s wrong and knows he shouldn’t do it. And yet he can’t stop, because watching Deku is the only thing that brings him true happiness in this wretched world. Deku is a cute nerd who loves doing dorky things when he thinks he’s alone and Katsuki cherishes every single one of these stolen moments he watches through the cameras.
And, unlike what his friends think, he can’t actually go talk to Deku. It would ruin everything. Right now, Deku is only slightly aware of Katsuki’s existence in the sense that he must know their company has a head of security, and he saw Katsuki a couple of times in the rare occasions he had to go talk to the CEO. But if Katsuki tried talking to him, he’d find out Katsuki is an insufferable asshole and would hate his guts.
Because Katsuki is a rude fucker and very few people know how to put up with him. He’s well aware of that and this usually doesn’t bother him at all — fewer people to annoy him and a good security guard should be intimidating. But, when it comes to Deku, he doesn’t want him to know how much of an asshole he is; so he keeps their interactions strictly one-sided, through the CCTV.
“Oh, today is watering day!” Kirishima, Katsuki’s closest friend, exclaims when he enters the surveillance room for his break.
The company offers break rooms and a nice cafeteria where the security guards can be at leisure during their off-hours, but most of the guards prefer going to the surveillance room — also known as Katsuki’s office. They do it to talk to (and bully) Katsuki while eating their snacks.
And there isn’t even the point of denying the fact that Katsuki is, as always, watching Deku, so he just grumbles a low “Yeah” in acknowledgment.
“Wonder when he’ll find out they’re fakes,” Kirishima comments, pulling a sandwich from his lunch bag. “You’d think he’d realize the maintenance guys water every other plant in the building except the ones in the CEO room.”
And that’s why Midoriya Izuku received the nickname Deku. It’s a regular practice among the security guards to give little nicknames for everyone in the company — there’s Glasses in accounting, Round Face in product design, Ears in marketing — because it’s easier than to remember so many names. Deku became Deku because he’s known less for his physical traits and more for his personality ones; meaning Deku is as clumsy and dorky as the name implies.
“Mina said he thinks it’s too much work for the maintenance crew and he doesn’t mind doing it,” Katsuki explains with a chuckle. “And he’s proud of how well the plants are doing, very big and green.”
Ashido Mina is Kirishima’s girlfriend and the lobby secretary. She’s the only true connection Katsuki has with Deku; the two of them became friends since so often they have to talk about who is coming for meetings and things like that. Mina proudly states that she ‘ships’ Katsuki with Deku so she offers him small tokens of information about his crush in the hopes Katsuki will do something with them. He won’t, but he enjoys them anyway.
“You should invite him for the gang’s hangout this Saturday,” Kirishima pokes. “It may be easier if it isn’t just the two of you. We’d totally help you out.”
Katsuki doesn’t even care to dignify that with an answer. What kind of loser would ask someone on a date just to take them to one of their friend’s house to eat pizza and play Mario Kart? If Katsuki even managed to convince Deku to a date, that activity would for certain put an end to whatever relationship they might have.
“For real, Baku,” Kirishima insists. “We’re going along with your staking thing, but if you don’t plan on actually asking the guy out, it might be better to quit it. This isn’t healthy for you and it’s pretty creepy for him.”
“Fuck you,” Katsuki growls under his breath.
“I’m just saying,” Kirishima shrugs while packing his lunch bag back. “I’ve gotta go back to my station. So just think about it, ok?”
Kirishima and the other fuckers’ pressure for Katsuki to talk to Deku is increasing each day. He might have to start pretending he isn’t watching Deku when the idiots show up in the surveillance room. But, for now, Deku just dropped his watering can and is freaking out about cleaning the mess on the floor before the CEO is back from his meeting — it’s absolutely adorable and Katsuki can’t take his eyes off the screen.
***
A few days later, Katsuki had the chance of watching Deku do another one of his cute messes. He’s walking towards one of the break rooms to have his lunch; he has a skip in his step and a big smile on his face, clearly excited for whatever he has in his bento box. But that excitement is his downfall.
As he frolics down the hallway, Deku trips over his own feet and goes face-first to the ground. His bento falls too, the lid opening on impact, and all its contents spread around on the floor — rice, sauce, meat, making a huge mess on the pristine floors of the company.
Deku seems a bit disoriented when he manages to kneel up, but the moment he realizes what happened, his beautiful, bright smile is no more. With pain in his heart, Katsuki watches Deku clean away a few rogue tears that manage to go down his cheeks as he mourns his lost lunch.
When Deku manages to recompose himself, he gets up and goes to a janitor’s closet to grab a bucket and other cleaning supplies. Through the several CCTV cameras, Katsuki watches as Deku cleans up all the mess, throwing his beloved lunch away and making sure there is no leftover sauce anywhere. It takes a long time to clean everything and when Deku is done, he dejectedly walks back to his work desk.
By the looks of it, Deku lost his whole lunch hour cleaning the mess he made and now he’s organizing stacks of papers for a meeting. A quick look at the calendar by his desk tells Katsuki the rest of the story — today is the first Thursday of the month and the board of directors always meets up on this day to debate things about their company. The board of directors meetings always go for a long time, meaning that not only did Deku lose his lunch, he won’t be able to eat anything until the end of the workday.
Katsuki knows he shouldn’t get involved. Getting involved is a sure way for Deku to find out what a creepy stalker Katsuki is. However, the way Deku holds his stomach during the board meeting in which he should be taking notes is too much for Katsuki to ignore.
Trying not to overthink it, Katsuki goes to a chain coffee shop just next to the company’s building to buy Deku some lunch. People do that, right? There are good samaritans out there that would buy lunch for a coworker that lost theirs. It’s not something completely unheard of. Besides, any number of people could have seen Deku cleaning up that hallway, so there’s no way to pin it back to Katsuki.
So he buys Deku a sandwich and, after quick consideration, a cake pop. Deku loves sweet things; Katsuki has seen him buying candy in their building’s vending machines. And, since Deku is still stuck in that never-ending board meeting, it’s easy to leave the items on top of his desk without anyone seeing him.
Later, when the meeting is over, Katsuki enjoys watching Deku’s face lighting up when he finds the food on his desk. He also looks around, trying to find a note that could have fallen on the floor. But Katsuki made sure to not leave anything behind that can be traced back to him so Deku would have to accept the gift without knowing the giver.
***
Katsuki’s friends are even more intrusive than he is, and they don’t accept his reasoning for not talking to Deku. Which ends up with him getting a call from Mina, a couple of days later, “There’s some guy here at the entrance. I want you to come check it out.”
Naturally, as head of security, Katsuki thought there was someone stirring up trouble or at least looking suspicious. But no. When he gets there, the lobby is completely empty except for Deku, who is going over some papers with Mina.
“There he is!” Mina exclaims with a smile bigger and brighter than she has ever graced Katsuki with. “Our knight in shining armor! Or, actually, black suit. The suit does look great, Baku! Is it a new one?”
It isn’t. It’s one of the same suits Katsuki wears every day. He can’t help squinting at her suspiciously. “Yeah, whatever. Where’s the guy?”
“He’s gone! Must have heard me calling you and went away!” she lies without a hint of shame, then turns to Deku. “Baku has this effect on creepers, Midoriya! He’s a great security guard because of that! There was a weird dude roaming the door and just hearing Bakugou’s name was enough to send him packing!”
Deku offers an unsure, wobbly smile. “I- I’m sure Mr. Bakugou is great at his job. We never have any issues with security in the company.”
Katsuki knows Deku is probably just being polite, and still, he can’t help but preen at the praise.
Mina isn’t done with her attempts at setting them both up, though. “Well, all these muscles had to be good for something. Show him your biceps, Baku! Show him!” she prompts him to Katsuki’s complete mortification. When he doesn’t make a move, she grabs his arm and raises to Izuku’s eye level. “See? Strong, reliable arms!”
“I- I see,” Deku stutters, confused. “I- If you got everyone for tomorrow’s meeting, I think I’ll go finish the briefing documents for it. Thank you, Ashido!”
And with that, Deku runs away as fast as he can, leaving a furious Katsuki behind.
“What the fuck was that?” he barks the moment Deku is out of earshot.
“I was trying to help you out!” Mina argues. “You’d never talk to him yourself!”
“Because I didn’t want him to find out I’m an asshole! And now he thinks I’m a weirdo!”
“You’re a weirdo, though,” the woman says matter-of-factly.
“WHAT? I’m not- You know what?! Fuck you!” Katsuki growls before turning on his heels and leaving the lobby. If he stays any longer he might kill the secretary and that’s certainly not going to impress Deku.
***
Katsuki has been in a bad mood since Mina’s intervention to make him talk to Deku the previous day. He hates how awkward their interaction was and how he choked when Mina began grabbing his arm. However, all grumpiness leaves his body when he catches a glimpse of Deku’s latest display.
He’s alone in the big conference room, probably should be picking the papers that are scattered on the large table and organizing the chairs. However, instead of doing that, Deku has taken a moment to play around with the spinning chairs.
The chairs are big, made of black leather and shiny aluminum, really top of the line quality. And they spin marvelously. Deku is on top of one of them, his knees up to his chest so he can spin freely, and he looks like he’s having the time of his life. He laughs loudly and even seems to giggle. It’s the cutest fucking shit and Katsuki melts watching it.
This is one video he’ll have to save on his phone for later. The way Deku’s face looks bright and open with a huge smile is exactly the type of thing that katsuki will want to watch over and over again.
In one stronger push to keep on spinning, Deku’s foot gets caught in another chair and he comes crashing down on the floor. Katsuki almost jumps up to help, a “Careful!” warning on his lips. But Deku can’t hear him over the CCTV. Katsuki has to resign himself to watching how Deku rolls on the floor in pain, rubbing his ankle. It was a pretty hard hit, it’ll probably bruise.
After that, Deku gets up limping, and goes back to work. He organizes the room without setting his foot down and then slowly walks to his office trying to not worsen his injury.
Watching that, Katsuki makes a quick decision. He’ll leave his first aid kit on Deku’s desk. He’s sure Deku doesn’t have anything to treat his wound, and he won’t do anything until the workday is over. If Katsuki rushes he can get to Deku’s office before him.
Katsuki walks briskly through the hallways and goes up the stairs two steps at a time. It was going to be a close call, but when he gets to the CEO’s floor and Deku’s office is empty, he breathes in relief.
He quickly drops the kit on top of Deku’s desk and leaves the room without a second thought — just to run on Deku in the hallway.
“Oh! Hi, Mr. Bakugou!” Deku greets him with a bright smile, despite the fact he still can’t put his foot on the ground.
Katsuki’s blood pressure sky-rockets as he tries to quickly come up with any sort of explanation to what he’s doing here. Lucky for him, Deku unknowingly helps him out.
“Do you have a meeting with the CEO? Sorry, I can’t remember if I put that on his schedule,” Deku frowns.
“Not scheduled,” Katsuki grumbles. “Just some papers I had to give him. Security stuff.”
That seems to appease Deku. “Alright! Then I guess I should thank you for taking care of us all!”
“Just doing my job,” Katsuki dismisses it. He feels guilty for Izuku thanking him when Katsuki wastes so much of his working hours watching him on the cameras. “Is your foot alright?” he changes the subject.
“Oh, yeah,” Deku gives him an awkward smile. “Tripped over a chair. No big deal.”
“You should put a cold pack on that,” he grumbles. “It’ll help with the swelling. Now, go sit down before you make it any worse.”
“I will!” Deku promises. “Thanks for the tip! Goodbye, Mr. Bakugou!”
Katsuki just nods and walks away, heart beating faster than a hummingbird’s wings. He did it! He talked to Deku and he wasn’t an asshole! And he got away with leaving the first aid kit for him! Maybe Katsuki isn’t such a lost cause after all.
***
Surfing the high of his small victory, Katsuki got cocky. He liked knowing he had a small part in taking care of Deku — both when he gave him lunch and when he left the first aid kit. It was thrilling to be able to help Deku in any type of way, it made him feel closer to the cute nerd.
So Katsuki ignored the annoying little voice in his head that told him he was becoming even creepier and began leaving small gifts for Deku. A chocolate one day, a cup of tea on the other, more staples so Deku didn’t have to get them in the stock room, some cute colorful post-its with hearts on them. Yeah, Katsuki knows he’s trailing even deeper into ‘stalker territory’, but it’s worth it just to see Deku’s excited faces through the camera every time he finds a gift.
Still, Deku isn’t stupid and he realized he has a secret admirer — and Katsuki’s friends are very keen on helping Deku find out who it is.
“You fucking-” Katsuki curses under his breath, furious.
“It’s not that hard, Baku,” Sero says calmly. “One video for one hello.”
Now Katsuki is being blackmailed! When his friends found out about Katsuki’s crush (or, as they call it, obsession) with Deku, they were all too happy to feed his habit. When Katsuki is out of the surveillance room, doing his rounds and other work-related responsibilities, they are all too happy to save small clips of Deku doing stupid things so Katsuki could watch later.
These videos are all saved on Katsuki’s phone and they’re his favorite things to watch before bed to relax. It’s fucking humiliating that now Sero is making demands to give Katsuki the damn video he already has the file put aside anyway!
“Fuck you,” he grumbles. “I’m not doing shit.”
“It’s a good one,” Sero taunts him. “Izuku is playing with the action figures he has in his drawer.”
That does sound like a good one and for a second Katsuki almost gives in. The promise of watching Deku being a total dork with his nerdy toys is almost too good to resist. But then he remembers what would actually happen if he tried talking to Deku any more than the short sentences they’ve already exchanged and goes back to his resolution.
“Hell no. Get the fuck out of my office.”
“It’s not your office. Security guards don’t have offices,” Kaminari argues.
“It’s the security room and I’m the head of security, so it’s my fucking office!” he barks. “And what the hell are you doing here anyway? I’m pretty sure the IT department has its own break room!”
“Mina told me to come,” Kaminari shrugs. “She said Izuku is asking around for who is leaving stuff on his desk. She said you have to do something or else it’ll be even weirder than it already is.”
“I’m gonna make your fucking face weird,” Katsuki threatens.
“Come on, Baku! It’s not that hard! Just say hi to the guy. And in return you’ll get your video of Izuku playing with his dolls.”
Deku has a bunch of All Might action figures hidden away in one of his drawers. Sometimes, when there’s no one around and not much to do, he pulls them out and starts playing out scenes from the movies with them. It’d be the stupidest and cutest thing in the whole world even if Katsuki wasn’t the All Might aficionado that he is. He loves to try and guess which scene Deku is doing just from the images on the monitor.
The temptation is almost too great, so Katsuki just gets up and leaves the room to do some rounds before he caves in.
***
In the next few days, Katsuki does his best to avoid his friends. He rushed past the lobby when Mina was there, scheduled rounds for when Kirishima or Sero would be in the surveillance room, and made damn sure to not go close to the IT department so he wouldn’t cross by Kaminari.
Katsuki even cuts down his Deku-watching time to make sure he wouldn’t be caught unaware by his friends.
So he ends up being caught unaware by Deku himself.
Katsuki is enjoying his lunch in a random breakroom when he hears a sweet voice calling his name and promptly chokes on his food.
“Mr. Bakugou? Nice to see- Oh god! Are you alright?” Deku rushes to his side to pat him on the back to help with the choking.
“F- Fi- Fine,” Katsuki tries to be reassuring between coughing fits.
“I’m so sorry I startled you! Here, let me get you a cup of water!” Deku says, already grabbing a glass to fill on the fountain.
“Thank you,” Katsuki accepts the water with a rough voice.
“I’m so sorry, again,” Izuku pleads, taking a seat by his side. “I was so excited seeing you here, I didn’t think twice before barging in.”
“Excited?” Katsuki asks, confused. “What the fuck is there to be excited about?”
Deku giggles, “You’re a hard man to find. Elusive, some would say. Ashido tells me she hasn’t seen you the whole week.”
For a second Katsuki feels like bragging about being able to sneak in without her seeing him, but other more pressing issues come forward when he speaks.
“And why have you been looking for me?”
A little smirk pulls on the corner of Deku’s mouth that makes him look like a cat who just cornered a mouse. “You see, Mr. Bakugou, a funny thing has been happening with me lately. A thing that you as the head of security could help me with. I think I have a stalker.”
Dread pools in Katsuki’s stomach and cold sweat starts trickling down his spine.
“A- A stalker? Why the fuck would you think that?” he says, hoping his voice doesn’t sound as guilty as he feels.
“I’ve been receiving things, little gifts. It’s very sweet, but the timing for them is too perfect, you know? I always get things exactly when I need them. A hot tea when I forgot my scarf, a notebook when I just wrote on the last page of mine, even a pile of staples when I’m just about to run out of them. The gifts have such perfect timing that I can’t help but think someone is watching me.”
“That’s a very serious accusation,” Katsuki wheezes; the air knocked completely out of his lungs.
Deku tilts his head prettily in a pensive manner. “I suppose… In most cases, it’d be a serious accusation. Stalking is no laughing matter. But this particular stalker… I’m under the impression their heart is in the right place, even if their approach isn’t.”
“And what would be the right approach?” he can’t resist asking.
A bright smile takes Deku’s face. “I’m glad you asked! Firstly, they could look for me to talk during my break… Much like we’re doing now.”
“That sounds sensible,” Katsuki agrees with a screeching voice.
“And then they could ask me out. As in, go to the movie next Saturday to watch the new All Might documentary. I know they know about All Might since they gave me the new comic that came out last week.”
Katsuki can’t believe this is happening. He thought for sure Deku would throw a fit and threaten to go to HR to file an official complaint if he ever found out about Katsuki watching him. But no, Deku wants a date. It’s almost too good to be true.
“Next Saturday? That’s a good day,” he says, hope blooming on his chest.
“I’m glad you agree.” Deku smiles and Katsuki almost smiles back, but Deku’s phone interrupts them. “Oh, I guess my break is over. I should get going,” he says, getting up. “I trust that you’ll make sure that my good-hearted stalker knows that I’m waiting for him to talk to me?”
“Fuck yeah,” Katsuki agrees, a grin spreading on his face.
The next day, Deku finds two movie tickets waiting for him on top of his desk. He smiles brightly when he picks them up and even dares to look straight at the camera and wave. Katsuki made sure to save that video on his phone with the others.