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“Midoriya.”
“Hmm?” Izuku tilted his head to hold the phone between his ear and shoulder, continuing to whisk the bowl he’d put down to pick the call up. “What’s up, Shouto?”
Todoroki cleared his throat on the other end. “Just. Turn Hero Weekly on. Bakugou’s segment got rescheduled, he’s going live in two minutes.”
Izuku gasped and set the bowl down in a hurry, abandoning it in favour of launching himself in front of his tv and jabbing at the remote.
“Thanks for telling me,” Izuku rushed out, flipping the channels and bidding Shouto goodbye. He’d punched in the Animal Planet number by mistake in his haste, but luckily their favourite hero interview program ran on a channel fairly close in number to it. This was likely Kacchan’s 20th interview, but Izuku always tuned in religiously, like he did for all his friends. Well, okay, perhaps a touch more devotedly than he did for his other hero peers.
He’d never rescheduled plans around one of Uravity’s interviews, or stayed up late (despite an early shift the next morning) for Ingenium’s. But Izuku insisted on watching all of Dynamight’s interviews live so that he could participate in the fan content during and afterwards. Once a fanboy, always a fanboy. Never say Izuku wasn’t committed to his Dynamight stan account.
So he appreciated Shouto, who had gone with Kacchan as company on set, for letting him know about the change in airing time. Especially since he was the only one who knew about Izuku’s obsession.
…Actually, he had an inkling his other friends also knew, but he was electing to ignore that.
“—ong you’ve been partners?” The program finally flipped on, the interviewer’s steady voice coming through.
“Nah,” came Izuku’s partner’s deep, glorious, confident rumble. Izuku suppressed a shudder. “It’s chill.”
Izuku has only caught the tail end of the question, so he had no idea what Katsuki meant. That was alright, though, since half of Izuku’s enjoyment of these consisted of simply listening to Kacchan’s voice unimpeded, no one around to watch him simper.
His deep baritone sounded only slightly staticky through the high-quality speakers he’d insisted on, which meant during these segments Izuku could wholeheartedly absorb it in all its glory.
“And what about recent rumors floating around the internet about Hero Deku’s proclivities?” The interviewer asked with a steadfastly cheery face.
Izuku blinked from his upright position on their comfortable old leather couch. What? The interviewer was bringing this up?
Katsuki squinted at her, relaxed in his rectangular guest chair. “Thought you lot were a respectable program.”
Izuku groaned. Kacchan could not keep antagonizing news channels.
And also… he was kind of curious what Kacchan’s reaction was to the current talk of their fans.
The interviewer, to her credit, didn’t blink. “Of course. We ask what the people want to know. Including the popular recent article with evidence implying Hero Deku has been harbouring some special feelings for his hero partner. Care to elaborate?”
The article was… thorough. Photographs capturing Izuku’s swooning gaze at Kacchan on the sidewalk, on the field, on their way home. Details the writer had picked up on, like how Izuku waits for Katsuki at the entrance to their agency before going in. Even evidence from their UA days, backdated photos of teenage Izuku looking at Katsuki with the exact same expression his current self apparently did. And data on how often they were teamed up, their success rate, what it implied about their training days. The whole thing was damning for Izuku, and he was only glad Katsuki never put much weight to those things, would almost certainly dunk on the tabloid and continue his ignorance of Izuku's two decades-old torch for him.
Katsuki grinned, his right arm laid across the back of his seat, body angled and oozing innate confidence. The black button-up and dress pants his stylist had stuffed him in emphasized the muscles bulging in his laid-back position, the long legs stretched out in front of him.
Katsuki smirked, a fitting crown to his arrogant self-presentation.
“Back then, I was surprised to see that a nerd like that was really into me.”
Izuku’s blood froze in his veins. Did he just say—
“So you’ve been aware this entire time of Hero Deku’s feelings?”
Katsuki snorted. “I’m aware it took you fuckers too long to notice. Shithead’s obvious as hell.”
The interviewer was clearly losing her mind, throwing out more questions to capitalize on the fresh story, but Izuku could hardly hear her, caught on the smug look on Katsuki’s face. It was at ease, proud. Almost… possessive.
Like Katsuki felt vindicated to announce to the world that he alone held Hero Deku’s attention. His eyes were glinting, expression steady. The picture of a bastard announcing he’d been winning all along.
It was doing things to Izuku’s stomach.
Katsuki’s eyes flicked toward the camera for a split second, as if sensing Izuku watching. The flash of red seemed to stare directly into Izuku’s soul, a single moment of I-See-You, and it sent a burst of warmth to pool in Izuku’s core, his blood on fire.
So Kacchan had been hiding the fact that he knew about their mutual attraction this entire time. Izuku shut his gaping jaw and leaned back on the couch, still trembling, now mostly from anticipatory excitement.
Just wait ‘til Kacchan came home. Izuku was going to show him exactly what he’d been missing out on.