Chapter Text
Shouto likes getting his make-up done.
He doesn't exactly like getting up at ass o'clock for the whole process to even get going. But once he gets to lean back in his chair and simply doze off, having someone style his hair while someone else gently strokes his face with various brushes it's an entire different story. Calming. Comforting. And definitely worth getting up at ungodly hours for. Occasionally, at least.
Hair hidden by a beanie and half of his face covered by a mask he's currently greeting the staff that will be taking care of him as well as the other models today.
It's not necessarily that he can't go outside without being recognized. He does get recognized sometimes, people coming up to him asking for a signature or pictures. His die-hard fans mostly, people who would most definitely realize its him regardless of how much he covers his hair or face. But it doesn't happen often.
However, today his job is to actually represent a designer's new clothing line on the runway at a fashion show so there are a lot more people in front of the venue trying to snap a picture or two than on his usual jobs – which mostly consist of having his photos taken for fashion magazines. Shouto recognizes one particular journalist he's trying to avoid every time he sees him because of how intrusive this guy is.
He has done a couple of runway shows before but for some reason they still are a lot more nerve wrecking than photo shoots. Something about the possibility of tripping over his own feet being shown on live television maybe.
His gaze lands on purple hair and his step quickens slightly when he recognizes who will be doing his hair today.
“Shinsou!“
Shinsou had been in charge of styling Shouto's hair so often already, at this point the other was far more than just a stylist. The heterochromatic might even consider them something like friends, although he isn't entirely sure the feeling is mutual. It's hard to tell with Shinsou. And extra hard with Shouto's lack of social skills.
The purple haired is easy to get along with. He doesn't talk a lot which Shouto appreciates because he's not much of a talker either, especially not first thing in the morning. However, when they do talk they usually bond over cats. Always exchanging pictures of their respective cats, recommending cat cafés or showing off strays they have fed or rescued – they are both incredibly passionate about cats which means it's basically impossible for them to not get along.
“Hey,“ the other greets with something close to a smile before indicating for Shouto to follow him to where he will be getting his hair and make-up done. “I'm getting us the usual, anything else you want?“
Somehow this became their thing; inviting each other to overpriced coffee before Shinsou even begins working on Shouto's hair. They are both perpetually tired and addicted to caffeine so this works just fine the two of them. They also both look constantly tired but Shouto gets paid for getting his eye bags got covered by concealer. A whole lot of it. Shinsou seems to just accept his fate of constantly having dark circles under his eyes.
Shouto shakes his head while taking a seat, then reconsiders his answer and says, “The strawberry mochi you brought last time, if they have them.“
Shinsou just nods before addressing someone Shouto hasn't met before
“You want something, Bakugou?“
“I want you to do your fucking job, not go on coffee errands because the coffee here is not good enough for His Highness.“
Angry crimson eyes look from Shinsou to Shouto but Shinsou just shrugs so Shouto supposes the angry Pomeranian looking man is more bark than bite.They do seem to be acquainted with each other at least, considering he's the only other person Shinsou asked about coffee.
“Can't do my job when I can barely keep me eyes open“ Shinsou says, trying and failing to suppress a yawn. “Also, need you to start doing your job so I can do mine. You want something or not?“
The blond just grunts and apparently that's answer enough for Shinsou because he just leaves without saying anything else, leaving Shouto and Bakugou just staring at each other before Bakugou grabs a bag that could easily fit a couple of cats but instead of cats there's only a lot of make-up and whatever is needed to apply said make-up. Shouto is only slightly disappointed.
“You're not Mina.“
Mina is a cheerful and chatty pink-haired make-up artist who has been in charge of doing Shouto's make-up for every runway show he has been part of so far. She talks a lot but doesn't seem to mind when Shouto zones out.
“No shit I'm not. You taking off your mask so I can get this shit started?“
“Oh. Yeah.. Sure,“ he nods, taking off his mask as well as the beanie, holding them in his hand awkwardly. “I'm Shouto, and you are...?“
Shouto likes being on friendly terms with the staff. Not that he needs to get along with everyone as good as he does with Shinsou but he likes to at least know their names. His father thinks it's stupid and a waste of time. Shouto thinks his father is stupid and generally cares very little about his opinion.
“I know who you are,“ the other says, rolling his eyes slightly.
Mina had once explained that a lot of models never even exchanged a single word with her, so he assumes Bakugou must have thought the same about Shouto.
“Bakugou,“ he then says. “Katsuki,“ he adds like an afterthought while neatly arranging his make-up brushes.
The model hums in response and closes his eyes.
“Okay. You don't mind if I –“ Shouto yawns.“Wake me up if I start drooling..“
The other huffs and Shouto's brain also provides hum with the image of Katsuki rolling his eyes at him. He seems like he'd do that when he's annoyed.
Nonetheless he starts carefully rubbing.. something on Shouto's face a moment later. Moisturizer. Or primer. Or whatever else they always put on his face at first. Shouto doesn't really know much about make-up, only that it feels nice on his skin and gives him a confidence boost every time he sees the result of the make-up artist's hard work.
“You smell nice, Katsuki,“ Shouto mutters after a while. Hes feeling imcredibly relaxed despite the chair he's currently sitting in not being exactly comfortable but the smooth feeling of the brushes against his skin and Katsuki's smell make up for it.
“Ha?“
Shouto winces when the other drops his make-up brush and opens his eyes to look at him. Katsuki's ears are tinged slightly red and Shouto realizes it might be weird telling someone they smell nice out of nowhere when you barely know them. Scratch that, when you don't know them at all.
“I'm sorry,“ he apologizes for his lack of brain to mouth filter. “I just meant– you smell nice.“
The blond barks out a laugh at that and Shouto offers an unsure smile in return.
“You're an airhead, you know that, candy cane?“
“I've been told before,“ Shouto admits and feels his cheeks heat up at the use of the nickname he assumes is referring to the colour of his hair.
“By me, specifically,“ Shinsou interrupt them, impeccable timing as always. The other seems to have a kack for materializing out of thin air whenever he thinks a conversation he is not part of is especially interesting.
He places a brown paper bag on the chair next to Shouto before taking out their drinks and the mochi Shouto asked for. He hands them their drinks, a purple reusable straw in each of them which Shouto immediately recognizes as the ones he gave Shinsou a couple of months ago because he automatically associates purple with Shinsou – well, and because he doesn't want their straws to land in the ocean!
“Thank you, Shinsou,“ he says happily, already sipping on his drink and grabbing for one of the strawberry mochi.
Shinsou just nods and Katsuki makes a noise that Shouto decides means something close to Thank you for the effort of walking all the way to the café in this awful heat and treating us to this deliciousness, it is very much appreciated.
“What the actual fuck??“ Katsuki looks at his drink like it personally offended him, then at Shinsou and Shouto follows his gaze to see what's wrong with his drink. It looks exactly like his own. “Are you trying to fucking kill me?“
“I didn't know what you wanted,“ Shinsou shrugs. “So i got you two the same thing.“
The blond turns his face towards Shouto who silently sips on his drink.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?“
Shouto blinks slowly.
“I don't think you wanna go there,“ he says, honestly. Katsuki probably doesn't get paid enough to listen to Shouto's sob story 20 minutes after meeting him. Or ever. Heck, even his therapist might not be getting enough money to make up for the shit she has to listen to in their sessions and she's getting paid very generously.
“That was– are you fucking serious?“
Shouto sees him glancing at Shinsou who just shrugs in response as he takes one more sip of his drink – coffee, black – before he starts working on Shouto's hair.
Shouto sighs softly and closes his eyes, enjoying getting his hair played with. Which isn't exactly what Shinsou is doing but it does feel like it, it leaves his scalp tingling.
“Don't fucking ignore me, liquid diabetes drinking asshole,“ Katsuki mutters which the dual haired interprets as Katsuki not liking his favourite drink – iced strawberry espresso with extra condensed milk because why the fuck not, sue him. It's one of the few treats Shouto allows himself. Not as often as he'd like to if he's being completely honest but that's just a thing that comes with the job – and with his father being Todoroki Enji.
Shouto stares at him. “You don't like it?“
“It's fucking disgusting!“
“I'm sorry the drink is not to your liking, Mr. Ramsay.“
Katsuki stares at him in utter disbelief.
“You– Fuck you. And now close your fucking eyes again so I can finish my fucking job.“
Shouto does as he's told and despite the blond obviously being pissed at either Shouto or the drink – probably both – the way he applies the make-up feels nice and calming. Maybe Shouto should offer doing Katsuki's make-up in return, as an apology and as a way to relax. He definitely wouldn't do a good job at applying make-up but he's sure it would feel nice regardless.
When Katsuki's fingers reach his scar Shouto notices him hesitating a moment. They always do.
It takes everything in Shouto not to apologize.
He realizes he is holding his breath, waiting for– something. But Katsuki doesn't say anything, simply he resumes his work a moment later and Shouto feels himself relax once again, his breathing evening out until he dozes off.
Shouto isn't entirely sure whether he actually fell asleep or not but maybe he did because when he opens his eyes both his make-up and his hair seem to be done and his liquid diabetes has been placed on the table behind Katsuki, most likely to prevent Shouto from dropping it in case he fell asleep. Which, yeah, okay.
Katsuki reaches for the drink and hands it to Shouto who wordlessly takes it before looking at the mirror.
"Oh.“ Mismatched eyes stare at their reflection, taking in his appearance. Shinsou fluffed up his hair, making it all wavy and soft-looking, his make-up really makes his eye colours pop but what really gets him is–
“They usually cover my scar,“ Shouto mutters and even to himself his voice sounds incredibly small. Insecure.
“Yeah, fuck that,“ the blond simply says, adding lip gloss to Shouto's lips. “I ain't doing that.“
“Can he do that?“ Shouto looks at Shinsou through the mirror, the other simply shrugging while sipping on his coffee like this doesn't concern him. Shouto's eyes lock with crimson ones through the mirror then. “Can you do that?“
“I'm doing it,“ Katsuki grins. “The hag's gonna fucking love it.“
Shouto's not exactly sure what that's supposed to mean but the blond sounds very sure of himself and that's all it takes for Shouto to believe him that the hag's gonna fucking love it.
He himself isn't sure what to think about his current look. If he's being honest he doesn't have that much of an opinion on his scar, necessarily hate it. Not the way it looks at least – the memories he associates with it are an entirely different story though. Turns out having boiling water poured over your face when is really fucking painful and traumatizing.
The scar itself doesn't bother him, though despite getting itchy and tight sometimes but he has creams for that, massaged the skin around his eye pretty much daily. To him the scar simply is there and there's not much he can to about it. But he knows it bothers others, especially the people hiring him. So he lets it get covered and smoothed out for shoots. It's just always been like that.
Not that that ever had been his decision.
His father had made sure from the very beginning that his scar got covered and had tried to hide it from the public for as long as possible because of how unsightly and ugly it was – his father's choice of words but there's only so many times you can have words repeatedly said about you before you start believing them yourself. Apparently it ruined Shouto's perfect appearance – also his father's words – but Todoroki Enji is and always has been a very powerful man and apparently that includes making people believe Shouto's scar has always been there, since birth and is not just the result of childhood trauma presenting itself on his face.
Shouto follows one of the staff and is greeted by a blonde woman who looks a whole lot like Katsuki and is equally loud as him, if not louder.
“Shouto-kun! You look incredible! Come here, put this on first!“
He takes the clothes she eagerly hands him; a black suit with a red flower pattern inside that – once he wears the outfit – will only be visible when he opens the suit jacket and presents it to the crowd. It looks nice and Shouto's somewhat excited to try it on because a lot of the time the clothes he wears on runways aren't exactly something he would actually wear outside of work. A lot of the outfits generally don't seem like they could be worn in any setting that's not a runway show.
“What do you think about heels?“
“I– um,“ Shouto pauses, thinks for a moment, then offers helpfully, “I don't know? I don't think I have an opinion on heels, sorry.“ Some look nice, some don't, some have pretty colours, others look boring, some look like actual weapons – what is he supposed to say here, they are shoes.
“Can you walk in them?“
Shouto nods and the woman gets excited.
“Katsuki! Get red lipstick, now! Same shade as the flowers!“
Katsuki rudely flips her off.
“Don't tell me what to fucking do,“ he shouts back before walking away while Shouto is ushered towards the dressing room to get changed.
Katsuki is back with three different shades of red lipstick when Shouto is done changing into the full outfit – heels and all, trying very hard not to ruin the make-up or his hair-do. He's studying the inside of Shouto's jacket for a moment, comparing the red flower pattern to each of the lipsticks before nodding to himself.
Katsuki gestures for him to come closer so he can remove the gloss he put on earlier and put lipstick on his lips instead.
“Fuck, you're tall,“ he grunts.
Shouto doesn't reply so as to not disrupt Katsuki's job.
The dual-haired is standing awkwardly in front of him, his knees slightly bent and legs spread widely so Katsuki can comfortably reach his lips.
The blond then takes a step back, taking in Shouto's entire appearance and Shouto suddenly feels more exposed than that one time he did a photo shoot for an underwear advertisement – he does not like to think back to that.
He watches Katsuki swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly and unconsciously mirrors the action.
“Fuck,“ the blond says and Shouto silently agrees.