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Izuku Midoriya hadn’t been this happy in…well, ever. He was attending a fantastic university, had plenty of great friends, a supportive and happy mother, and an amazing boyfriend that he loved dearly. And, even better, an amazing boyfriend who loved him back.
An amazing boyfriend who also happened to have been his childhood best friend and was currently a pro-hero. Not that he would love him any less if he weren’t a hero (Kacchan is amazing no matter what he decided to do), but c’mon how cool was that? It was the stuff he dreamed of as a kid (well maybe he dreamed he would be a hero beside Kacchan, but you can’t win them all).
Things were going pretty well for him.
He walked down the busy street away from the train he had just exited and towards his boyfriend’s (boyfriend!) apartment. That’s right, Kacchan’s very own apartment!
His life wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty close at the moment.
As he strolled down the street he couldn’t help but feel like he was being watched. This was ludicrous of course. Who would be watching skinny little quirkless Izuku Midoriya?
Nobody. He was probably just tired. He had spent the entire night before slaving over a law textbook studying for his hero-law exam that he had taken earlier that morning. The same exam he had absolutely nailed, and the reason for his voyage to Kacchan’s apartment where they would have dinner and celebrate.
Has he mentioned how awesome his life has been?
His steps grew faster as he got closer to Bakugou’s large apartment building until his ‘walking’ was pretty indistinguishable from running. He stormed up the stairs to Katsuki’s floor before whipping out his key (to he very own boyfriend’s very own apartment!) and opening the front door.
“Kacchan! I’m here!”
He heard a clatter come from the kitchen, as if he had startled someone, “Oi nerd! You almost made me drop the Katsudon dumbass!”
Izuku laughed, “I’m not dumb, Kacchan! That's what we’re celebrating, remember?”
He then rounded the corner to the kitchen and leaned on the door frame before smiling softly at Katsuki, “You made me Katsudon?”
Bakugou scoffed, offended, “What the hell! Of course I did, Nerd! It’s not a fucking celebration without your favorite food Smartass.”
“Aww thank you Kacchan!” Izuku walked over and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend before kissing his cheek and giving him his biggest smile, “I love you.”
Bakugou flushed, before turning his head and hiding his smile, “Ya, I love you too. Now go set the table before I burn this shit.”
“Sir, yes sir!” Izuku backed away and saluted then turned and ran from the hand Bakugou flung out to smack the back of his head, laughing.
Yeah. Life was pretty good.
~
Of course, good things can’t stay that way forever. Everything has a way equaling itself out. Things can’t always be bad, but neither can they always stay good.
This was Izuku’s equalizer.
It started with a comment on his latest instagram post from someone he had never seen before.
“Be for real dude, how much did you pay Sundial Daily to post that article? Sad.”
He read the comment a few times in his confusion before turning to Google.
Turns out it actually started with a news article. One tiny article on a small-time paper.
“Ground Zero With New Beau? Get the Scoop on the Latest Relationships Here!”
One article that featured a picture of him and Kacchan walking to the train station that he had left not more than a few hours ago. It was so innocuous that Izuku couldn’t even recall when exactly the picture was taken. Had it been a week ago? A month ago? He had no clue, an idea that was scary all by itself.
He sat on Katsuki’s couch, still recovering from the amazing Katsudon dinner, staring in confused disbelief at his phone.
“Hey nerd, what was it you wanted to watch again? That new All Might movie-...” He paused as he rounded the corner and finally got a look at his face, “Izuku, what’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing!” Katsuki continued to look at him in disbelief until Izuku eventually gave in, “Have you seen the new article Sundial Daily posted about you?”
“No…” Katsuki furrowed his brow, “Should I have?”
“Ummm, maybe? It’s about us.”
“Us?” he asked, even more confused before taking a few large strides to Izuku’s side and taking his phone, “Ew, the bastards. That’s creepy as fuck.” He threw it back to Izuku before sitting down and letting out a breath, “Was that all that’s bothering you? It’s just some weirdos who snapped a quick picture and wrote some words about since they apparently don’t have a hobby.”
Izuku looked at him in surprise, having been expecting more of a reaction from the usually explosive blonde, “You’re… really not upset?”
“Well, I can’t say I love that some creepy fucks are just filming us, but comes with the territory I guess.” He shrugged, before freezing and tensing a bit, “Should I be? You haven’t said you didn’t want people to know we were…”
“No! That’s not it at all! I don’t mind that people know. It’s just a little weird to see a random picture of us online I guess.” Bakugou leaned back again, relaxing now that his fear had been resolved.
“Don’t worry about it Deku. It’s probably just some lame nobody grasping at straws for a moment in the spotlight. You won’t have to worry about random people knowing you for a while yet. I’m badass, but not enough for people to actually care who I’m dating. Not yet anyway.”
Izuku leaned back, relaxing a bit and chuckling to himself, “You’re right Kacchan. I won’t worry about it!” He beamed towards Bakugou, who had wrapped his arm across Izuku’s shoulders, “Now what were you saying about the All Might movie?”
~
Izuku had lied. He couldn’t stop worrying about it. But not from his own lack of effort, from all of the people. It seemed like overnight his follow count had quadrupled on Instagram, and just about every one of his new followers were Ground Zero fans.
Specifically Ground Zero, not Izuku. And they made sure to make that very clear.
He wasn’t even sure how they had found him in the first place. He had read every word of that stupid Sundial Daily article (which had somehow become one of its most viewed articles on the page, of course) and his name was never mentioned once! How all these people had found him, he had no idea! (And okay, maybe he had pretty distinct hair and wore the same clothes pretty often, but still!)
He hadn’t realized how much of a following Katsuki had gained in his short stint as a hero so far until that moment. If only he could have realized in a positive way and not due to the hundreds of comments and DMs he had begun to acquire.
Hundreds of comments explaining to him exactly how hated he was by all of Katsuki’s fans.
“This has got to be some blackmail or something right? I mean look at this guy.”
“I mean he’s not ugly, but for real? Ground Zero could do better.”
“IDK, I thought Ground Zero would get with someone more like him. Less boring looking ig.”
And those weren’t even the worst. His least favorite were from the people who had found the public records declaring him quirkless.
“Ground Zero and some quirkless kid? Has to be fake.”
“Quirkless too! He’s gotta be killer in bed or something.”
“Maybe Ground Zero is starting some quirkless charity and this is promo?”
Those ones… ya those ones didn’t feel so great.
He had made his peace with being quirkless a long time ago. Sometimes he even went as far as being grateful for it. He may not be able to be a hero, but he’s found something he’s amazing at in researching hero law and is very passionate about his studies.
This is, unfortunately, not one of those days.
Over the last week he had tried to hide his morose mood from Katsuki. They didn’t have the chance to see each other much that week due to his study schedule and Katsuki’s hero work, so he thought he had managed pretty well.
At least until Katsuki showed up at his door at the break of dawn, seemingly freshly off a her =o patrol.
“What is wrong with you?!” he yelled, barging through the front door as Izuku just stared at him with large, sleep filled eyes.
“I-...Huh? What?” He rubbed his eyes, trying to dispel the weird image his mind had created.
Nope. The angry man in his entry-way was still there.
“You’re being fucking weird Deku!” Bakugou exploded, getting impatient.
“Kacchan? What are you doing here?”
“I’m here cause you’re being fucking weird!”
“I’m being weird?! You’re barging into my dorm at,” he checked the time on his phone, “FOUR! You’re here at four in the morning?!” Izuku threw up his hands in frustration. He loved Bakugou dearly, but he also loved sleep. Sleep that had been harder to come by this week due to the stress from all of the hate he had been getting. Sleep that had been interrupted by the very last person he wanted to see right now.
How do you tell someone that your relationship is hated by all of the people responsible for their success? How is that fair to him?
“Well I wouldn’t have to if you were just fucking honest with me! Why have you been so weird lately!
“I haven’t been!”
Bakugou scoffed loudly, “Are you fucking serious! You didn’t send a single emoji this whole week! You didn’t answer at least three of my calls! You didn’t even text me earlier when you knew I was going on patrol! How the fuck is that not weird!”
Okay maybe Izuku had been acting a little strange.
He deflated slightly, “Kacchan, I really don’t want to talk about this right now.”
Bakugou seemed to tense and took a step back, “Why? If you have something to say you should just fucking say it.”
“Because it’s four a.m.!” Izuku threw up his arms, “It’s four in the morning!”
“Four a.m. or four p.m. if you’re gonna break up with me just fucking do it Izuku!”
Izuku gasped and took a step back in shock. For the first time he took a good look at Katsuki. He looked… rough. Not like he had had a rough patrol, but like he had had a rough few days. A rough week.
Had he really thought…?
“Why… why would you think I’m going to break up with you?” Izuku asked through a scratchy throat, tears already filling his eyes.
“Well,” Bakugou began roughly, “aren’t you?”
“NO!” Izuku took a step forward, “No, of course not! I love you! I promise, breaking up with you has never crossed my mind!”
Bakugou took a relieved step forward, before tensing up further and looking at Izuku in confusion, “then what the hell has this past week been about? I thought you were… losing interest. Or something.” Izuku opened his mouth to argue, but was steamrolled by Bakugou, “If that’s not the case, then what’s going on?”
Izuku closed his mouth, and took a deep breath, debating what he should tell Katsuki. On one hand he would love to be able to finally talk to someone about what had been going on and he wanted to reassure Katsuki, but on the other he didn’t want to have to tell the man he loved that all of his supporters hated him.
But really, what choice did he have? Between losing Katsuki and exposing his own embarrassment and hurt, he knew what he would pick every single time.
“Have you checked your Instagram in the last week?” Izuku asked, eyes melting into the ground.
Katsuki stared at him intensely, “No, why the fuck does that matter?”
“You might want to check it.”
“Deku just use your big people words and tell me what the fuck is going on!”
Izuku’s head shot up, tears building to their breaking point in his eyes, “Just check it! Please! I… I don’t know how to say it. It’s easier if you just see.”
Bakugou looked at him in surprise, moving forward as if to comfort him before stopping and whipping out his phone. He scrolled for a few minutes, a tense silence building between them. For a minute Izuku was beginning to wonder if he had dreamed up all of the hateful words that had been circling his head for the last week. Until…
“What. The. Fuck” Bakugou lowered his phone and stared Izuku directly in the eyes, “What the fuck is this shit? Why are all of these random bitches saying stupid shit about you?!” His palms started popping with unintentional explosions.
“It… remember that article? The one we saw last time I was at your place? Well… It got a bit more popular than we thought it would. Somehow people found my account and ever since they’ve been kinda… mean.”
Katsuki moved forward and cupped his face with his (thankfully) no longer popping palms, “Mean? They’re being downright brutal! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I mean, what could you really do? They’re your fans, sure, but they’re still their own people. And I knew you would be concerned and feel bad, but there’s no reason to! None of this is your fault! I just… wanted to handle it on my own.”
“That’s bullshit.” Katsuki said, softly, “You’re the one always preaching about helping each other and caring about the other’s problems. That’s a two-way street, Izuku. You have to come to me with stuff like this. I want you to come to me.”
Izuku’s tears spilled over as he gazed into Katsuki’s sad eyes, “I’m sorry Kacchan. I thought I could handle it, but I’ll come to you in the future if the comments get too much!”
“Good, but that’s not going to be a problem because we’re putting your account on private and deleting all of these bitch.”
“But Kacchan! I-”
“Don’t tell me you want to see this shit!” Bakugou asked in disbelief.
“No, of course not! But… I mean they’re gonna say it whether it’s where I can see it or not. At least this way, I know what they’re saying. You know?”
“No, Izuku. This is non-negotiable. I know what you mean, but you seeing their meaningless comments isn’t going to change the content of them, only how much you’re hurt by it. You’re just hurting yourself more if you keep letting them say stuff on your profile.”
Izuku sniffled before looking down towards the ground once again, “Yeah, I guess you’re right. But can we do it later? I wasn’t kidding about being tired and… and I’d really love to just sleep and hold each other and deal with all of this in the morning.”
Katsuki smiled at him softly, before leading him down the hall towards Izuku’s bedroom. “Yeah, Nerd. We can deal with all of this tomorrow.”
~
Tomorrow Izuku woke up to two things: Katsuki warm and cuddling behind him and his phone blowing up. He leaned forward, Kacchan nuzzling behind him and groaning in annoyance from being jostled, and grabbed his phone hoping no one he held near and dear were on their deathbeds.
After unlocking the device and reading through some of the notifications, he determined that no one he held in high regard was passing away.
The same could not be said for many of Katsuki’s fans.
“Kacchan?” he groaned in response as Izuku turned around in his arms so they would be facing each other, “Did you take a selfie of us together last night after I fell asleep?” Another groan, “And did you happen to post it on my Instagram?”
Kacchan finally gave a response that wasn’t a groan by giving a wry smile, “Did you read my caption?”
“No! What… ‘F.A.N: Fucking Awful Nuisances. Find some hobbies and stop bugging us, you extras. You’re gonna need em after you get blocked in the morning!’ Kacchan!” Izuku gaped before laughing. He doubled over, his stomach hurting.
It felt nice to laugh like that again.
Katsuki smiled at him proudly. “I figured they could use the advice. And besides, did you really think I’d just let them say all that shit to you and not tell them how fucking much they suck? As if, Deku. Only one person gets to make fun of you, and that position is filled.” Izuku smiled at him fondly as Katsuki ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead. “Now, I think we have some blocking to do.”
“Yeah, I guess we do.”
Things can’t stay good forever, but maybe they could get back to it, right?
Yeah. Life was pretty good.