Work Text:
“Do you guys think we should have a leftover full bundle as a giveaway post?”
Eijirou waits patiently for someone to answer him over voice call, double checking his list of graphics that he’s been having to post for the past month to ensure that people on every social media account are up to speed on what’s going on. It takes a few moments for someone’s voice to come through the Discord call; living in different timezones make people sleepy, of course.
“It definitely wouldn’t hurt!” Deku’s voice sounds cheerful as always, no sign of sleepiness in his tone. “Riot, can you make a giveaway post and queue it up with all the links? I can send you my own list or you can pull them from someone else’s post if you want, I don’t mind!”
“That’d be great, Deku!” Eijirou smiles. Having a Writer Mod with experience definitely helps when making zines in this economy, especially since you’ve got to work twice as hard just to rise above the other zines that could potentially be coming out. They’ve been going nonstop since Eijirou’s—and by extension, everyone else’s—favorite comic series started coming out with a TV adaptation, and so far, it’s going great!
Thus, the rise for fandom content began, and this particular team of moderators snatched it up as fast as they could with eye-popping graphics and active engagement. Eijirou honestly can’t believe how far they’ve come; with over 500 applications to comb through, and a team of contributors that have brought their all to create their masterpieces, this particular zine has gone over 200 pages with quite a number of sales.
Eijirou doesn’t even want to know what the spreadsheet on Dynamight’s computer looks like, but judging by the irritated sigh on the other end of the line, they’re in for an earful.
“Oi,” Dynamight snaps out. “I know one of you assholes lives close to me; there’s gonna be a bunch of shipping supplies delivered tomorrow and I ain’t packing all these books by themselves. I’ll house one of you for a week and feed you if you come over and deal with them.”
Eijirou knows for a fact that Deku lives closer; they’ve mentioned living in the same city before, especially since it sounded pretty personal, but Deku doesn’t chip in as fast as he normally does. “Sorry!” Uravity apologizes from her end. “Ingenium’s coming in and I have to pick him up from the airport! We’re spending the week together since it’ll be Valentine’s Day!”
“My apologies as well, Dynamight!” Ingenium says loudly, making Eijirou wince and turn him down briefly. “I would have loved to help, but I do indeed have plans with Uravity. We have plans made in advance, and I’m quite excited for them. Surely Deku would be able to assist since he’s closer?”
“No can do, sorry Kacchan.” Deku replies. “Entropy’s coming over and we’re gonna go do a bunch of lovey-dovey stuff for several days. What about y’all, Riot and Chargebolt?”
Eijirou opens his mouth but gets cut off by Dynamight grumbling, “I’m not asking Chargebolt. Pretty sure he’s asleep on this call anyways, and he’d just fuck up my packing process. Riot! I know damn well you can bench press close to my numbers and you’re not the worst at following directions. How far are you from me?”
He has to scrunch up his face to think of it, trying to remember the places everyone had mentioned they were living in, and replies, “I think about six hours away? If I leave early in the morning, I’d be able to make it by early afternoon! I’ll pack a bag tonight and get ready to head out.”
“Good,” Dynamight says. “I’ll have Deku send you my address, I have shit to do. See you.”
He leaves the voice call immediately, and Eijirou blinks at the trip he just signed himself up for. “Alright then! I guess I’ll go pack my toiletries in my bag.”
“Make sure you bring your laptop so you can respond to all those idiots who will message you over and over about when their zines are being shipped out even when Dynamight hasn’t even gotten to them yet,” Deku adds, giggling to himself.
“Remember to send us the stupid ones so we can all laugh at them,” Uravity chortles, and even Ingenium huffs out a laugh. “Do you think they know he’s not a warehouse full of workers?”
“I know Dynamight’s got another job outside of this too,” Eijirou trails off, shaking his head. “Do people really not read anymore? I swear, even with the number of emails I’m already responding to and having to answer people on all our social medias, no one listens! It’s fine. This is fine. I'll draft a post that I’m on my way to Dynamight’s place and then put another tweet that’s begging buyers in a professional tone to not message me about packages while I’m there.”
“You’re still gonna get emails about them,” Deku says sympathetically, and everyone else makes noises of agreement. “It actually might help if you start drafting the PDF emails you’ll have to send out too while you’re there. You have everything you need?”
“Yep! And I know Dynamight’s got all the numbers in case I forget.” Eijirou salutes his camera, remembering that they can’t see him at the last second. “I’ll get to packing, but thanks guys!”
He says goodbye and hangs up, ready to grab a bag and make the drive tomorrow to see a zine mod.
Deku had sent the address early in the morning, along with several “good luck!” messages. The drive itself isn’t too tedious, honestly, and he spends the time singing to several playlists and eating snacks. He eventually finds himself in a city that takes him close to the suburbs, where an apartment complex sits as the middle ground between the two areas. The sky’s a soft shade of gray due to the winter season as Eijirou parks and nervously messages Dynamight, I’m outside, I think!
Barely any seconds later, a door on the first floor flings open and out stomps the most gorgeous man Eijirou’s ever seen. He has spiky blond hair and a confident demeanor. When he sweeps the parking lot and spots Eijirou’s car, he marches over and puts his hand on his hip as the other moderator gets out of his car. “You’re Riot, yeah?”
“Red Riot, that’s me!” Eijirou gives him finger guns out of instinct. “Social Media Mod, answerer of dumbass emails, and keeping the people updated!”
Dynamight—because yeah, of course this handsome guy would be him—huffs out a laugh. Eijirou’s frazzled brain whispers that his eyes look like rubies. “Yeah, you’re Riot. Get your shit and come on in; the sooner we get started, the better.”
After Eijirou grabs his bags, the walk to the apartment door is thankfully right there as the two make some small talk as Eijirou recalls the road trip over. “I grabbed some snacks for us, but I remembered you don’t really do fatty foods so I made sure they had protein and other healthy things! Oh, man, I can’t believe I’m actually here after we were talking about it.”
“I’d say mind the mess, but you knew what you were signing up for.” Dynamight rolls his eyes, shoving open his apartment door. “Over on the right in the corner is merch only, on the dining room table is zine only, and the not-finished part over there taking up half my couch is full bundles and limited edition. We’ll be sharing a bathroom but I’ve got a spare bedroom that I keep for all my other shit. I moved it outta the way for you.”
Eijirou walks in, and reels back in legitimate shock.
He’s—he’s heard the tales of Shipping Mods and their woes of packing, making sure every order has the correct merchandise, and having to put them together in the same shipment so the post office can yell at them, but this is absolutely insane.
Stacks of boxes line the walls, practically spilling out of their contained areas. If Dynamight wasn’t so meticulous about clearly keeping his space clear, Eijirou fears they would’ve been buried in all the shipping materials. “Holy shit,” he whispers, turning to Dynamight with his eyes wide. “You were gonna do this all by YOURSELF?”
Dynamight’s lip curls. “I usually do most of this shit by myself for other zines, but this one got a shitload more orders than I thought it would. Your dumbass social media posts got us a lot of attention, Riot. We were already doing really fucking well before applications even opened. Guess we’re dealing with the consequences now.”
He leads Eijirou through the box towers, but Eijirou blurts out, “Kirishima Eijirou, by the way! That’s my name! I’m sure it’s already in your system since we had to send our names for shipping, but I wanted to tell you myself. Especially since you’re housing me for however long this’ll take. I really appreciate it, in case I forgot to tell you—”
Dynamight waves him off and takes Eijirou’s bags from him, kicking open a side door and slinging the duffle bag inside to land on a bed. Eijirou notes that it looks incredibly clean and the bed (with four pillows) has the sheets pressed and arranged beautifully. “Izuku’s busy with his dumbass boyfriend as it is, or else I’d be forcing him to do this while I’m off at work. But you’re a guest, not my childhood friend, so I called off for a few days. I’ve got enough money for rent this month anyways.”
Eijirou’s jaw drops. “I can still pay for both of us on some things! I didn’t expect you to pay for me every single day, Dynamight. We’re here together, which means we can do shit together! We don’t have to be stuck doing boxes the entire time I’m here.”
There’s a pause, and then Dynamight sighs and says, “Bakugou Katsuki. Figured you’d need to call me something other than my zine name. It’s weird hearing it from someone that isn’t Izuku and Entropy. Fine. There’s a food challenge I want to go try this week anyways, and those two assholes refuse to do it with me. You’re coming with; I want to see how much spice you can handle before you give in.”
Eijirou’s grin grows wider. “You’re on! It’ll be good to take a break anyways, so sign me up! Speaking of, what do you wanna start with?”
Katsuki looks genuinely delighted that he’s found someone to take on this spicy challenge, but he shakes it off to gesture around the room. “We’re starting with zine only first, so grab a water and let’s get this shit started. I’ve got all the merch in a certain corner so we can keep packing as we go. Paper merch first, 3D merch second, then we’ll build our way up to the full bundles and then limited edition.”
Eijirou doesn’t know the exact numbers, since that’s a privilege reserved for the Finance Mod (who’s luckily standing in front of him), but he knows they cleared over three thousand sales. A feat that’s practically unheard of for zines, but still fucking insane.
Katsuki leads him over to the table, where thousands of books are piled high. Not wasting a single second, Eijirou sits down and starts packing with him. “Do you have any insane zine stories while we do this?” Eijirou asks hopefully. “I’m a little newer than all of you, so I think it’d be cool to get some lore while I’m here! Not a lot of mods are that open about gossip—which makes sense—but sometimes I hear some comments and I want to know so badly about them.”
The blond screws his face up as he recalls a few events off the top of his head. “You talkin’ about the mods that ghost their own zines and take everyone’s money? Or approving people’s pitches before everyone’s even in the server? Or the racist Head Mod? Not sure if you mean the one where a zine told all their contributors to shut the fuck up if it wasn’t about the zine itself? Did you get any emails about people begging you to let them join the zine even though they had a month to apply and applications had just closed?”
Eijirou opens his mouth and then closes it again. He stares down at the zine in his hands, trying to think of any other scenarios that come to mind. “The…one where the main mod refused to do anything for writers, I think? I heard Deku bitching about it over call a few nights ago.”
Katsuki snorts. “Oh yeah, Deku was pissed about that one. He was Writer Mod for that one too, and everyone in his team didn’t want to deal with writers and their word counts, so they left everything to him. Applications, judging, check ins, and then they tried to give him an insanely low word count to shut him up, but that moron’s done too many zines to shut the fuck up, so he politely ripped them a new one and got to raise the count. It was hilarious to listen to.”
Thinking of a new question, Eijirou asks, “Have you ever had to yell at someone about zine etiquette?”
Katsuki barks out a laugh, an angry grin curving his mouth. “All the damn time. People don’t read information documents or social media posts. You think they’ll actually take the time to learn how to talk to others? Don’t get me started on my fucking screen name; it’s DynaMIGHT, not DynaMITE. Everyone addresses me by the wrong goddamn name! It isn’t fucking HARD, it’s right there on the screen in front of you! If I wanted Dynamite, I would’ve spelled it that way!”
“Oh my god,” Eijirou says reverently. “You really are always ready to yell at someone. The rumors were true. One of the most efficient moderators this fandom has ever seen, but also one of the meanest. No wonder your projects are masterpieces.”
They pack for a few more minutes before Katsuki lets out a huff. “Not all of ‘em. We were about to be in production for one of them when our Head Mod, who was also Finance, vanished without a trace. We messaged them for a while, and when they didn’t answer texts, we resorted to calling and leaving voicemails. Turns out they got too freaked out by all the responsibilities they were having to do, and figured ghosting would be easier than just fucking communicating that they needed assistance. We got the PDF, but had to refund everyone. Sucked ass.”
‘I’m sorry,’ Eijirou says, and Katsuki rolls his eyes. “Was it your fault? No? Then shut the hell up. You always gotta be careful when doing this kind of project. You run the risk of running into people who don’t know how to act right. Speaking of, when we get finished with zine only, I’m moving onto merch only. I’ll need you to go through my spreadsheet and check off on how many orders that is while I pack.”
“Roger that!” Eijirou salutes, and they get to work in the midst of a box tsunami. After a few more hours, and Katsuki’s successfully knocked out most of the smaller bundles, Eijirou finds himself at Katsuki’s dining room table while staring at the zine’s email account on his laptop.
“This is ridiculous,” he grumbles, sorting through the emails that have actual questions versus the ones that keep asking for shipping updates. “We already put out a second message that we’re together right now and—oh, a shipping address change—packing as fast as we can! What more do they want from us?”
“If we get one more email about where someone’s zine is,” Katsuki says clearly, “I’m going to go fucking insane. I’ll doxx their IP address and send their family their shitty email and see if they can teach their dumbass kid patience. You wanna be the one to pack these? Keep track of finances and shipping addresses, plus the idiots who send their address changes at the last minute? You can eat my WHOLE ass you piece of shit—”
“I'll just say we’re working on them as fast as we can,” Eijirou says, typing out the email with practiced media literacy and the infinite patience of an experienced zine mod.
Under his breath, Katsuki grumbles, “I’m putting their package at the bottom of the goddamn stack.”
Eijirou quietly laughs as he responds and sends it, eyeing down the DMs he has left to answer to. “You guys weren’t kidding about people borderline harassing us for updates when we’re still trying to pack and ship. I thought everyone knew this would take a while, especially since the holidays and other personal stuff tends to come up.”
“Such is the life of a zine mod,” Katsuki says sarcastically. “This is the best we’re gonna do tonight. Close the laptop and go to bed, since we’re going to that spicy food challenge tomorrow. If you’re staying here with me, you’re gonna eat right.”
Eijirou dutifully closes his laptop, feeling more productive than he has in the past few days. The two trudge off to the bathroom together, chatting about mundane topics and their hobbies. “I’m just saying,” Eijirou says around his mouthful of toothpaste, “hiking in the winter is way more fun than the summer!”
“I can’t believe you have awful opinions like this,” Katsuki says. “EVERYONE knows that hiking is objectively fun in the summer; you can feel the sun on your back and it’s warm and you don’t have to bundle up!”
“I don’t wanna sweat all the water outta my body!” Eijirou retorts, and Katsuki snaps back, “Then maybe drink some more water! You ever thought about that, idiot?”
They stare at each other in the mirror and then burst out laughing, doing their best to not choke on their toothbrushes. Eijirou feels lighter than he has in pretty much weeks, comfortable around someone he’s only known for a few months.
The legend of zine mod Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight (shortened, of course, to Dynamight when he really needed it) was known around this fandom and how he tended to stick in social circles that consisted of certain mods. It was easier to trust a respected crew of people that knew what they were doing, and Eijirou still has no idea how he managed to weasel himself into this group.
Where Dynamight went, Deku and Ingenium weren’t too far behind. If Chargebolt and Uravity weren’t overworked, they were probably there too, and if no one could make it, Entropy would step in with his own brand of modding. Knowing that Red Riot—himself!!!—was now considered part of Dynamight’s group…
Well. It meant for far more successful projects, and for Eijirou knowing that he could put his faith in having a polished book and merchandise in his hands at the end of the day.
Ready for bed, Katsuki spits into the sink and gestures towards the guest bedroom when they walk out of the bathroom together. “Get some sleep. I’m planning on burning off your tastebuds tomorrow, so you better be ready by lunchtime. After that, I’m showing you around my dumbass city for a few hours until we come back here to pack more. You good with that?”
“I can handle whatever you throw at me,” Eijirou promises, and Katsuki’s face goes a funny shade of pink before he rolls his eyes and shoots him a quick middle finger. “Goodnight, Katsuki!”
“Night, Eijirou.” Katsuki shakes his head, and closes his bedroom door behind him with a soft click. Eijirou stares at the space where he vanished before he grins softly to himself and heads to bed, excited for the week ahead.
The next few days pass in a blur. Eijirou indeed does the spicy food challenge and eats his words, yelping and fanning his mouth while Katsuki cackles around a mouthful of spicy wings. He demands a rematch, but Katsuki waves him off and takes his free food with a proud smile.
They walk around tourist spots, but also hole in the wall places, things that only locals would know. Katsuki reveals more of his city to Eijirou in loud, attention-grabbing ways, and Eijirou can read between the lines of how much Katsuki loves his home.
The zine bundles take up a good chunk of their time too, where Katsuki will spill more stories only if Eijirou asks nicely enough about them. Some of them overlap with bits of Katsuki’s personal life; the times where he had to step back due to personal issues such as his physical health or dealing with his family or even awful roommates, where his mental health suffered so badly that he had to ask his team for help to take over.
“That’s one of the only times I’ve ever broken into Izuku’s place,” Katsuki wryly smiles when they’ve moved onto full bundles. “He’s usually the one breaking in here, but I had to abandon my place and go to his so he could get my shit together and make sure I didn’t burn out. I got real lucky, Eijirou. I wasn’t close to any other mod yet but I got lucky because Izuku and I grew up together, so he knew how I was. I tried being a little nicer to mods after that, if it’s even noticeable.”
Eijirou knows without a doubt that if he ran into trouble, he could safely go to Dynamight with no fear of judgement. “It’s noticeable,” he says, double-checking that the box below him is packaged properly before he slides it over to Katsuki. “Considering I know a few people who have met you, and they say you’re really helpful! Before I knew Entropy and Deku were dating, Entropy had mentioned that you were a fascinating person who was always down to help someone. He came through here on a road trip and you literally fixed part of his car.”
“He was here to see Izuku and forgot about the concept of an oil change,” Katsuki bites out. “Any competent adult would’ve known you needed to change your oil every 5,000 miles or something else depending on your car. Moron.”
As they get closer towards the end, Eijirou finds himself helping Katsuki pack the contributor copies and realizes they’re almost done when they reach the mod team. He looks down at Chargebolt’s copy and decides to write a little note, grinning when he closes the box and moves it over.
“Here’s your copy,” Katsuki calls out, sliding over a completed and packaged box. Eijirou reels back for a moment, staring down at the neatly wrapped zine bundle. Right. He’s a mod for the zine; of course he’d be getting a package, because he actively helped work on it and helped it be successful. That’s what being a part of Dynamight’s mod team means.
To Red Riot, the sharp handwriting says. Someone who inspires me to keep working hard in what I love.
Eijirou doesn’t even notice his tears until Katsuki presses a few tissues into his hand. “Quit crying,” Katsuki murmurs, turning away. “You knew this was coming, idiot. We broke even on the first day.”
“It’s not that,” Eijirou laughs, wiping some tears away. “I just can’t believe everyone’s hard work made this possible. It feels like a dream come true, and you’re here like a miracle delivery worker who does this for free. This is a passion project and everyone devotes so much time and effort and love into this, and we’re sending these OUT to the world!”
Katsuki huffs out a laugh, and goes to start packing all of them in his car. “Yeah, you get it. C’mon, help me get this final batch to the post office and then we can finally fucking relax for once in our lives. Use those goddamn biceps you worked so hard for, Riot.”
The car ride to the post office has Eijirou blubbering about zines and all the excited buyers that tell him they’re eagerly awaiting their packages, several others who already received theirs gushing about how incredible the zine is. It’s enough to make Katsuki grin at him, looking a little too lovestruck to keep up his usual mean expression.
The people at the front desk don’t look too happy seeing the two moderators, but Katsuki assures them this’ll be the last batch for a while. They sign off on the packages, say some good luck, and drop off the zine bundles as best they can.
“Thank you for being here,” Katsuki admits when they walk outside into the chilly air. Eijirou can’t believe their hard work is being sent out; with the last of the contributor and moderator bundles leaving their hands, they’re free to take a breather. There’s leftovers, of course, and double-checking that packages weren’t lost in transit overseas and throughout various continents, but for the most part, they’re done for now. “This would’ve taken me so fucking long to get through them, but I appreciate you uprooting your shit so you could come help.”
“I’d do it again,” Eijirou says without hesitation. “It’s been so much fun being here with you, Katsuki. I kinda wish we had some more packages so I could stay a bit, ha—wait, that’s a bit much. Hold on. That’s really weird, I’m so sorry I said that! I wouldn’t wish more zine packages on anyone, but I’ve had a great time being here, and I wish I could stay longer.”
The corner of Katsuki’s mouth ticks upwards. “You can still see me without all the zine packages,” he drawls, trying not to grin when Eijirou buries his face in his hands. “I heard Valentine’s Day was tomorrow, judging by the wall of texts I’m getting from Izuku. If you want, we could go do something for the holiday. Up to you.”
Eijirou feels his heart beat a little faster as he grins and looks up, a slow smile crawling over his face. “Are you asking me on a date, Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight?” He teases, not bothering to hide how bright his smile probably is.
Katsuki squints against it anyway. “Yeah, I guess I fucking am, Red Riot. So if you’re wanting to go on a date with me, you gotta tell me right now so I can go reserve a nice restaurant for us.”
“I think I want to challenge you to the spicy food challenge again, actually.” Eijirou declares, standing in the parking lot of the post office. “I’d argue that you went easy on me because you didn’t want to scare me off, but I know my limits now! And how spicy it actually is! So now when we go back, I can challenge you at my absolute best, just as you deserve for as long as you’ll have me!”
Someone catches their breath; it’s Katsuki, judging by how pink his ears have gotten. He looks genuinely shocked, eyes widening, but regains his composure relatively quickly. “That’s a pretty confident thing to say,” he says, clenching his fist at his side. “You don’t even know my life story yet, and you wanna be here forever?”
Eijirou sucks in the sharp inhale that threatens to burst from his lungs. For as long as you’ll have me; forever. “I want to learn as much as I can,” he says firmly. “It’s my choice to stay, Katsuki. Will you let me? Can I figure you out and learn about both Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight and Bakugou Katsuki?”
“If you want to, I won’t stop you.” Katsuki admits. “I don’t want to stop you. I want to know who Kirishima Eijirou is just as much as I want to know Red Riot. Shit, wait, hold on a sec.”
Bemused, Eijirou watches as Katsuki hustles to his car and opens the door, rummaging around for a sec. He emerges with Eijirou’s zine copy in hand, neck and ears flushed pink, and holds it out to him. Without breaking eye-contact, Katsuki bites out, “Ask me to sign your zine, and I’ll give you my phone number, my address, everything you need so you can come back to me.”
Eijirou’s at a loss for words. The amount of trust that’s being given is jaw-dropping. He might’ve gotten to know Dynamight more and more throughout the months they worked together, but Katsuki’s offering up everything personal about himself that only a very small amount of people know.
Everything seems a bit more crystal clear to him. Tomorrow, they’ll go on a date, and Eijirou will actually beat the spicy food challenge to Katsuki’s pride and joy. He’ll have to go back home, but keep in contact with each other, and it will eventually end up to the next chapter of their lives right by each other’s side. Who knows! Maybe they'll still be doing zines together when they get older.
But for now…
“Can I have your autograph?” Eijirou teases, and Katsuki rolls his eyes and answers, “As long as I can have yours too.”