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“Are you sure it’s okay if I wait out here, Kacchan? I don’t even know if I’m allowed in the building, I can just go back to the car and wait.”
“You’re fine, nerd. The conference is downstairs and it’s already late enough that no one else should be here. What are they gonna do? Tell pro hero Deku he’s not allowed to sit in their lobby?” Katsuki reminded Izuku for the third time since they arrived at the conference hall.
Izuku fidgeted with the hem of the sweatshirt he was wearing and glanced toward the direction where muffled voices and laughter were coming from the hall down the stairs. He still felt a little nervous knowing he wasn’t technically allowed in the building, and once Katsuki left he’d be without an alibi.
“Plus,” Katsuki continued, breaking Izuku from his thoughts. “I don’t want you to have to walk all the way back to the car in the rain,” he added on to his answer from before, this time with a softer edge to his tone. “If there’s really a problem, tell them you came here with Dynamight and if they have a problem with that they can take it up with me.”
The idea of that made Izuku giggle and break into a grin. Katsuki reciprocated it with a content smirk of his own.
“Okay get going so you aren’t late, and have a good time. I’ll be here when you’re done,” Izuku said with a smile.
Katsuki leaned in quickly and planted a quick peck on Izuku’s lips that left Izuku only slightly chasing after them.
“See you later, baby,” he responded before turning to head down the stairs leaving Izuku alone in the lobby.
He found a big plush chair and settled into it knowing he’d have at least an hour or so until Katsuki was done. Normally when big conferences like this happened both of them were invited to the event and could attend together. Tonight however was an exception in the sense that this one wasn’t a hero conference Katsuki was attending. Rather it was a fashion industry talk for local designers and businesses to discuss and learn about the changing markets and trends. The actual invitees of the event had been Katsuki’s parents, due to the work the two of them did in the industry, but since they were away on business and Katsuki didn’t have patrol that night he had elected to go in their stead. How that resulted in Izuku waiting out in the lobby for him, well he didn’t have patrol that night either and Katsuki needed a ride.
Izuku hardly minded having to drive Katsuki to the conference though, even if he did have to wait outside for him. With the rise in villain attacks lately and how busy the both of their patrol shifts had gotten, it was hard for the two of them to find any time to spend just the two of them anymore. Izuku was thankful for any time he got to have Katsuki just for himself.
With that thought on his mind he found himself absentmindedly smiling as he made himself comfortable in the chair and took his phone out to resume the book he was currently reading. He quickly absorbed himself in his reading, but not even five minutes passed before he heard,
“Deku,” a voice whispered to his left, startling him more than he was proud to admit. It was Katsuki back again.
“Kacchan? What-?”
“Come down with me. They aren’t checking people in and the hag’s old buyer friend said you could just slip in,” Katsuki interrupted, gesturing for Izuku to follow him. Hesitantly Izuku rose from his seat and walked towards Katsuki.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude, I don’t even know anything about fashion!” Izuku countered.
“It’s not like this is a class, Deku,” Katsuki countered with a roll of his eyes. “It’s just a bunch of old geezers rambling on about their collections. They’re way more interested in what they have to say about fabric dyeing processes and market trends than a pro hero attending their event with his boyfriend.”
The addition of the word boyfriend made Izuku’s cheeks heat ever so slightly and spread warmth through his chest, as always happened whenever Katsuki referred to them being together out loud or to anyone else. It made him feel stupidly giddy and Katsuki knew it, a fact he could tell from the sly smirk his boyfriend was now wearing.
“Okay, okay, I mean I am kind of interested in what they have to say,” Izuku admitted through a smile, making his way to the top of the stairs.
“Of course you are,” Katsuki mumbled, though it lacked any heat of annoyance, instead coming out much more fondly. He took Izuku’s hand and began leading him down.
“Wait Kacchan!” Izuku stopped suddenly, pulling Katsuki to a halt two steps down from himself. “I- I’m not dressed for this! You- you look so much more-.”
He cut himself off regarding Katsuki’s chosen outfit for the night. Black slacks with a teal dress shirt unbuttoned at the top with sleeves rolled to his elbows that made his forearms look amazing. Then he looked down at himself and noted his gray sweatpants and oversized All Might hoodie hidden underneath his denim jacket.
Katsuki took this into consideration as he looked Izuku up and down, making Izuku squirm under his intense gaze.
“You look pretty hot to me.”
The compliment made Izuku blush even harder than before.
“Kacchan!” he whined.
Katsuki laughed and reached back for his hand pulling him down the stairs with him.
“Come on nerd, it’ll be fun.”
With a sigh and a smile Izuku followed Katsuki down into the conference hall. Katsuki was right about one thing, everyone there was pretty old and they seemed to be so invested in their own circles of colleagues and eating from the buffet that the presence of the two off-duty pro heroes did nothing to pull their attention. Izuku felt himself exhale a nervous breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and relaxed into the environment. As uneasy as he had been at first, he was actually kind of excited to hear the speakers at the event talk. Maybe he could even learn something he could apply to redesigns of his own hero costume.
“Takami!” Katsuki called, beckoning a tall man maybe in his early sixties over to them. The man, Takami, approached the two of them with a rather bored expression like he was already tired of being there. “This is my boyfriend Izuku. Izuku, this is Takami Deo, he was the buyer my parents worked with when they launched their first collection years ago.”
“Hello sir it’s very nice to meet you, thank you so much for letting me attend the talk tonight!” Izuku greeted bowing his head in thanks. Takami regarded him casually before taking another bite of the takoyaki on his plate.
“Yeah sure, not that I really have any say who comes to these things. Good to meet you too. Are you in the hero business with Katsuki too?” Takami remarked nonchalantly with his mouth full.
“Oh um,” Izuku chuckled lightly, glancing over at Katsuki who was stifling his laugh with his hand. He had gotten used to everyone recognizing him these days, not that he expected that everyone should. Though after being ranked the number one pro hero in Japan the last three years in a row since he graduated UA, he tended to get recognized in public settings often, along with Katsuki, even when they weren’t in their costumes. He figured this man didn’t pay much attention to the hero news. He decided not to get into it all with Takami. “Yeah I do some work here and there.”
“Good for you. Well enjoy the conference you two, there’s a buffet if you want anything before we start,” Takami responded in kind. He spoke with Katsuki for another minute or so before excusing himself to join another table’s discussion.
“You hungry?” Katsuki asked.
Izuku glanced over to the buffet and his stomach rumbled on cue. He might as well take advantage of free food. “I could eat.”
They grabbed plates and made their way through the line before finding some chairs off to the side to eat. As they ate and waited for the conference hall to open to all of the attendees they talked and laughed together about dumb things, trading stories from patrols and making comments about the people around them, guessing what quirks they thought each of them had.
At one point a girl probably around their age or a little older started up a conversation with Katsuki about something to do with the fashion industry and Izuku found himself smiling as he listened. Even though Katsuki had never pursued a career in fashion, he was still very knowledgeable about it and held a certain passion and interest for it, probably why he had actually agreed to attend the conference tonight for his parents without fuss. So getting to hear Katsuki talk about an interest of his like this made Izuku happy and excited for him.
Once the girl left, Katsuki turned back to face Izuku and found Izuku still staring at him with what was probably the dumbest love-struck grin.
“What are you staring at, nerd?”
Izuku snapped out of his reverence to find Katsuki scowling at him with the slightest dusting of pink scattering his cheeks. “Oh! Nothing! Just listening,” He supplied.
Katsuki opened his mouth to say something back when he was cut off by someone speaking at the table next to them.
“Here are some name tags for the table,” a woman carrying a clipboard informed the group she had approached. She turned to the man to her left and pulled out a pen. “What’s your name for the sign in, sir?”
Simultaneously Izuku and Katsuki’s attention snapped back to each other and they locked eyes. A sudden flood of panic rushed through Izuku. A sign in sheet? Were they taking attendance? Were they going to figure out he wasn’t supposed to be here? Izuku could feel his palms start to sweat as the woman turned to Katsuki and himself.
“Your name for the sign in?” She turned to Izuku first. For a beat he felt himself freeze up, contemplating whether giving a fake name carried any benefit in this situation. Though it’s not like the fake name would be on the attendance list either.
“Oh- um it- it’s Midoriya Izuku,” he stammered, watching with tense anticipation as the woman jotted his name down.
“And you, sir?” she asked Katsuki.
“Bakugo Katsuki,” he provided cooly. After taking note of both of them she passed out their name tags for them to fill out and continued making her rounds to the other guests.
“Kacchan?” Izuku hissed in a whisper, hesitant to fill out the name tag.
“It’ll be fine,” Katsuki hissed back. “It’s not like I signed up for this in advance either. I doubt they have a formal record of who is supposed to be here, and if they do you can just say you were a late sign up.” Katsuki finished filling out his name tag and placed it over his left pec.
Izuku fumbled with the sharpie as he wrote out his own name tag. How did he end up so deep into this so quickly, maybe it wasn’t too late for him to go back up to the lobby. Then again, he was already having such a nice night with Katsuki, why let this little hiccup get in the way. Katsuki was probably right, they probably wouldn’t be checking the sign in sheet that closely. Right?
“I… I’ll just pretend I’m supposed to be here,” he mumbled, trying to soothe his nerves. “Say I work in, um work in…?”
“Say you work in technical design and distribution with a focus in activewear,” Katsuki supplied. Izuku looked back up at him and the blond shrugged. “My parents' latest collection was an activewear line, we’ll pretend you worked under them.”
“Technical design,” Izuku repeated.
“With a focus in activewear,” Katsuki finished.
Izuku gulped and stuck his nametag to the breast pocket of his jacket. It was only then that he caught Katsuki pressing his lips together as if he was stifling his laughter.
“Don’t laugh at me! This is serious!” Izuku exclaimed. His outburst seemed to loosen Katsuki’s restraint and a small chuckle escaped him.
“Come on Deku, you’ve gotta admit this is pretty fucking hilarious,” Katsuki teased. Izuku sighed, wiping his palms on his sweatpants.
“Designer in techwear, technical designer in techwear,” he repeated his alibi to himself like a mantra.
“Technical designer in activewear dumbass,” Katsuki corrected. He looked across at Katsuki and at seeing the teasing look on his face, he felt his own smile cracking through as well. Izuku broke into nervous laughter and Katsuki just sighed and rolled his eyes before standing and ruffling Izuku’s hair. “It looks like they’re letting people into the conference room now, let’s go grab a seat before all the ones in the back fill up.”
At that, Izuku followed Katsuki from the table into the conference room letting him guide him through a small crowd of people before bringing them to two seats in the middle on the right side of the aisle next to Takami. Once they were settled in their seats Izuku watched the other attendees file in and fill the room with booming laughter and loud conversations. It was only a few minutes before the first speaker came up to the podium and the audience of guests, probably about 30 of them in total, fell into a hushed quiet.
“Welcome everyone! We are so glad to have you all here tonight for our presentation on some industry and market trends for the upcoming season we…”
Izuku listened as the woman at the podium introduced the speakers for the evening and went over some housekeeping items in her notes, making announcements for future events and highlighting important dates coming up.
“We’ll also get our raffle going soon!” she announced, earning a cheer from the audience. Izuku’s heart dropped again, as if it was possible for it to sink even further at this point, and he glanced over at Katsuki who had an eyebrow raised at the woman in curiosity. He had a very bad feeling about this. “I guess we can just use the sign up sheet and pick a random name off of the list!”
Izuku whipped his head to look at Katsuki in disbelief. Even the blond had wide eyes at this. Izuku’s face of panic met Katsuki’s look of shock.
“I actually can’t believe this right now,” Katsuki mumbled. His admission paired with Izuku’s fraying nerves led to a laugh starting to bubble up in his chest. He couldn’t believe the ridiculous luck he was having tonight and had to fight down breaking out into a laughing fit that this was actually happening right now. With how this night was going so far, Izuku knew that if a name was picked for the raffle it was going to be his name. Seeing Izuku struggling not to laugh must have led Katsuki to feel the same way and soon he too was biting his lip to stop a smile, while hissing at Izuku to keep it down.
“We’ll do that at the end though! Let’s get to the good stuff…” the woman continued.
___
The conference presentation ended up being way more interesting than Izuku had thought it was going to be. Sure his interest had been piqued a little when Katsuki had told him about it, but as he listened to a man well into his fifties with a mop of unkempt salt and pepper hair talk on about trends for the next spring and the color palettes that designers were pulling from, Izuku found himself giving his undivided attention.
At one point in the lecture when the man brought up a slide on the latest styles from high fashion lines that were trickling down into the ready to wear market, Izuku pulled out his phone and started taking down some notes. Was he a fashion designer or even remotely close to working in the industry? No, but this was interesting information, why not jot it down in case it could come in handy for the future…
“Are you fucking taking notes?” Katsuki hissed incredulously to his right, knocking his knee with Izuku’s.
Izuku looked over to find Katsuki with a look somewhere between disbelief and admiration.
“It’s interesting Kacchan!” Izuku whispered back. “What if I need it for costume redesigns? You know Hatsume may make a lot of great support items but when it comes to colors well…” Izuku thought about the last time Hatsume had tried to get him to wear her new mark 3 version of his air force supports on his gloves and how she had decided that neon pink would make the best impression. “ … Well she sometimes misses the mark.”
“So what you’re gonna show up to the next hero rankings with,” Katsuki paused for a moment as he leaned into Izuku’s space to quote the notes off his phone. “Denim on denim trending with pastel purple and seafoam green?”
“It’s actually lilac, Kacchan,” Izuku teased, now taking his turn to lean into Katsuki’s space.
Years ago teasing and provoking like this might have earned Izuku a scowl, a grunt, and an escalated argument about the color wheel, now though all Izuku received in return was an eye roll and a lighthearted huff that made way for a crooked grin.
“You’re impossible,” Katsuki teased back. He leaned back in his seat and brought his hand to rest on Izuku’s thigh, giving it a firm squeeze before Izuku returned to his note taking.
They settled into the lecture after that and both paid attention more or less very intently, save for a few exchanges whispered here and there. It wasn’t until ten or so minutes later that Izuku must have fully relaxed into the environment, must have forgotten the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be there and he was a hero not fashion designer, must have forgotten all of the panic he had felt initially and forgotten where the hell he even was, because without thinking he raised his hand to ask a question.
“Yes you in the middle back there,” the speaker addressed him.
“I was just wondering,” Izuku didn’t even hesitate. “When it comes to sportswear, do professions like hero work and the costuming that goes into it tend to have a similar trickle down effect in the market?”
To his right he could see Katsuki’s jaw drop out of the corner of his eye.
“Excellent question! And an excellent point as well!” Izuku beamed at the praise. “We do see quite a lot of influence in sportswear coming from the most popular heroes, especially the top ten. This past spring season after the emergence of the winter hero rankings, our sportswear color forecast changed substantially in reaction to the new rankings. The palettes that were initially predicted…”
The speaker continued to answer Izuku’s question and he drank in every single moment of it, taking notes and nodding enthusiastically. The discussion went on for another five minutes talking about how his classmates and fellow heroes had influenced the fashion markets even noting that the rise of heroes Deku and Dynamight led to a booming of teal and orange in the market. It was surreal.
Once Izuku’s question had been answered in full and the lecture moved on to answer the next person’s, only then did Izuku finally look over at Katsuki. He wasn’t sure if he had ever seen the blond at such a loss for words, his mouth slightly agape and his eyes almost shining. It looked almost like reverence.
“Was… was that okay?” Izuku whispered, his embarrassment now catching up to him as he realized what he had just done.
Katsuki didn’t answer right away. He seemed to try to find a response, but then shut his mouth. His eyes moved to scan every feature of Izuku’s face and Izuku found himself blushing at the sudden tension between them. A moment later Katsuki blinked a few times seemingly snapping himself out of the spell he had fallen under and a light dusting of pink bloomed on his cheeks.
“Yeah nerd, just… just listening,” Katsuki remarked, parroting Izuku’s word choice from earlier. At this Izuku knew he was bright red, but he smiled freely and reached down to hold the hand that Katsuki still had resting on his thigh. Katsuki shook his head a little with a small huff and a grin and turned back to face the front, but not before giving Izuku’s hand a tight squeeze.
___
“Thank you all so much for your attendance and your participation in tonight’s conference!” The original presenter began wrapping up after about an hour. She went over some last minute closing remarks while a shuffling began as the attendees all gathered their things. “And as promised, let’s do our raffle to see who wins this gift basket assembled by our team and the opportunity to present at our next conference!”
“That’s our queue,” Katsuki hissed, practically tugging Izuku from his chair so the two of them could make a break for the exit. Izuku could hardly complain. They maneuvered out of their row without so much as a goodbye to Takami and were halfway to the door when Izuku was stopped cold in his tracks.
“Midoriya Izuku! Our winner for the night is Midoriya Izuku, where are you?” What Izuku should have done was continue letting Katsuki pull him to the door, but the mention of his name had him instinctively turning his head toward the voice. It was enough for the speaker to notice. “There you are! Come on up here!”
Several things then happened at once, Izuku’s heart fell into his stomach, the audience broke into an applause of encouragement and Katsuki began to laugh wickedly, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head like he couldn’t believe this was actually happening to them.
Izuku didn’t really have a choice, did he.
With hesitant steps and his eyes down he made his way up to the podium where the presenter shook his hand and offered him his gift basket prize with a smile, one that Izuku tried to return as enthusiastically but only managed a very awkward wobbly one.
“Midoriya, as part of your raffle win, our next conference will feature a presentation led by you discussing your work with us all! Tell us, what can we expect to hear from you at our next event?”
Izuku looked out over the sea of faces he knew he would never lay eyes on again and thought desperately for something to say that would get him out of this situation as fast as possible. Eventually his eyes landed on Katsuki who was waiting by the door giving him the most shit-eating grin imaginable. He couldn’t help but laugh.
“Next time I’ll be going over the fashion behind the hero industry with a focus on trends and forecasting based on predictions for next year's hero rankings and their effect on the market,” Izuku announced, confidence finding its way into his voice. He knew he would never be at an event like this again or ever have to worry about giving a presentation to these people, but something in this moment and something about the look of pride Katsuki was giving him made him almost wish he could.
The audience offered up one last round of applause for the secret hero and Izuku bolted for the door and for Katsuki, the door slamming behind them as they left and the queue for the two of them to break into unrestrained laughter.
___
Unfortunately the rain hadn’t stopped during the conference and they had to run to Izuku’s car while getting drenched accompanied by Katsuki bickering with his mom on the phone who called to hear about how everything went.
“I said it was all fine, they barely covered that stuff, you didn’t miss anything… Yeah he had a great time if you want to know so badly he took notes and everything… Shut up I did not!...” Katsuki barked into the phone as they got into Izuku’s car and turned the heat full blast to dry themselves off. “Stop! I’m hanging up now… Yeah yeah next week… okay, okay!... ugh i love you too, bye.”
Izuku couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at the way Katsuki continued to talk to his mom that way after all these years.
“Well that was insane,” Katsuki sighed. Sinking into the passenger seat fully and running a hand through his hair. “You can’t make this shit up can you.”
“I guess we’re gonna have to crash the next one now that I have a presentation to give,” Izuku chuckled, earning him a snort from Katsuki.
“With our luck the next time we go they’ll promote you to club president or some shit.”
Izuku laughed hard at that, the anxiety from the night finally melting out of him in full. Katsuki joined in and after a few seconds they fell into silence.
“Thank you for taking me tonight Kacchan. I had a lot of fun with you,” Izuku said sincerely. Katsuki glanced over at him and then leaned over the middle console so his face was inches away from Izuku’s.
“Only you could find something like a boring fashion conference fun… nerd,” Katsuki teased in a low tone.
“If it’s with you, it doesn't matter what it is,” Izuku remarked, matching the lower volume. Katsuki huffed, leaning in even closer.
“Sap.”
Before Izuku could come up with a witty response, Katsuki had captured his lips in his own with a deep kiss. Izuku felt himself melt into the kiss and his eyes flutter shut, the feeling of Katsuki’s kiss as intoxicating as it always was. A few moments passed before they both separated naturally, but still close enough that they were breathing the same air.
“That was so hot when you asked that question,” Katsuki confessed.
“Kacchan!” Izuku giggled, bringing his hand up to wrap behind Katsuki’s head and scratch into the nape of his neck. “What happened to me being a nerd?”
“You still are.” Katsuki leaned in again and this time Izuku met him halfway.