Archive of Our Own

“Welcome back to Gossip Hour, where we discuss the latest gossip everyone’s been eager to munch on!” the dark purple haired woman cheerfully exclaimed, bloody red lips in a wide smile. “I am your beloved host Midnight, but this time I’m not alone! A surprise guest will be joining me tonight just as promised. Give a round of applause to my favourite co-host, Loud Cloud!”

The man sitting next to her with wavy light blue hair that was styled to almost defy gravity and flow upwards above his head laughed brightly as claps and cheers broke out in the studio from the audience off camera. “I am always grateful to join you on nights like this Midnight-san, but with an introduction like that I feel like I’ve been under-appreciating you!” 

Loud Cloud’s face went all flushed and red when Midnight leaned closer to him almost purring when she provocatively thanked him for jumping onto the show on such a short notice. For the next couple seconds everything was frozen, Midnight’s and Loud Cloud’s face almost touching before she leaned back into her seat on the bright pink couch and continued like nothing had happened.

“Then let’s jump right into the hot topic, why don’t we?” Midnight pushed a strand of her hair back her shoulder, her smile widening even further with excitement. “We’re of course going to have to start off with the picture that basically took over the internet in the last few days: the popular singer Deku kissing a boy! Editor-san please pull up the picture for our viewers watching from home!”

“Oh, I’ve seen that!” Loud Cloud chimed in seemingly over his momentary panic as the picture appeared on the screen. It was slightly blurry as if someone took it in a hurry but Deku with his messy green hair was still clearly recognisable. He was kissing someone in the picture but due to the camera angle their face wasn’t visible. Fans have been guessing who could be the mystery person in the picture but they hadn’t had any luck with figuring it out yet. “But who hasn't at this point?”

“You’re spot on about that, it could’ve been basically impossible to avoid seeing the picture as it had dominated over all social media and most TV broadcasts since it was taken and then immediately posted on QuirkChat. The original picture has over one and a half million likes and it just keeps growing as we speak.”

“It is quite weird how there hadn’t been any response to it from Deku himself. I mean his social media is basically frozen. He hadn't made any posts since his return from his tour in Europe nor did he answer any comments. And there were a few thousands left for him on all of his platforms,” Loud Cloud added in his own observations as on the screen the mentioned social media profiles were shown for a couple quick seconds. 

“Yes, Deku hadn’t denied anything but he hadn’t affirmed the rumours were real either,” Midnight mused, a playful smile appearing on her face, “Not like he could really deny kissing that boy, but well.” 

“My guess is that he’d been trying to let it die down without interfering with it. I’ve read some of the comments that were sent to him and let me tell you, not everyone was nice about the situation,” the man lowered his voice slightly making it sound like he was sharing a confidential secret with the viewers. “Many fans expressed how hurt and betrayed they felt after Deku had been hiding he was gay from them for this long. There are people openly supporting him, but they are heavily outnumbered by the people that don’t and even go as far as to shame him for it.”

Recordings were pulled up on the screen momentarily cutting off the conversation. Rude comments were popping up on the screen as clips of protests and videos of people posting themself on social media badmouthing Deku and shaming him for his sexuality choices played in the background. They started to overlap as more and more appeared on the screen, all the voices blurring together into one single mass of noise before with some dramatic effects they exploded and the camera feed returned to the studio where Midnight and Loud Cloud were. 

The woman twirled a strand of her beautiful dark purple hair thoughtfully. “Do you know what I heard?” she looked at Loud Cloud with a mischievous smile, batting her eyelashes as she leaned forward in her seat. “I was lucky enough to talk to a journalist friend of mine from a famous news agency, the name of it I can’t say because I was sworn to keep it anonymous, but they said some… intriguing stuff.”

“What did they say?” Loud Cloud asked immediately. He was basically vibrating in his seat but the woman kept silent, seemingly entertained by the curiosity lacing every second that passed without an answer. “You can’t keep me hanging just like that Midnight-san! I’m on the edge of my seat!” 

When even that didn’t seem to do the trick he grabbed her forearm and shook it desperately. “Tell me Midnight-san! What do you know?”

“Alright, alright,” she laughed, pulling her hand gently out of his hold. “I’ll tell you.” For a quick second she paused, gathering her thoughts and fixing the two strands of hair that got messed up by the shaking then jumped into the gossip enthusiastically. 

“You know how we’ve been promised five or so interviews with Deku after his latest tour to hear about his experiences in Europe and what he planned on doing in the upcoming future. News agencies were fighting over who got to interview him first, everyone wanting to get the juiciest headlines, right? But there’s been some sayings going around that some of them were going to get cancelled.”

“Cancelled? Really?” Loud Cloud straightened in his seat and slightly tilted his head in surprise as the words left his mouth.

“Not everyone is comfortable working with gay people,” Midnight shrugged, not really fazed by the situation. She immediately continued wanting to share every little bit she got her hands on. “But I also heard that the interviews that didn’t get cancelled prior to them starting ended early because apparently Deku stood up and walked out of them.”

“What?” Judging by the noises coming from the audience, Loud Cloud wasn’t the only one caught totally off guard. With a shake of his head and a disbelieving huff of breath the man declared his accusations for Midnight. “You have to be kidding me. Like there is no way that Deku, the always polite, always super kind and sweet Deku walked out of interviews before they officially ended and all the jazz that comes with it.”

“I’m serious! From what I heard he stood up in the middle of a question and just booked it!” Midnight exclaimed. “No explanation, no justification later, nothing! He just… walked out and didn’t look back.”

Loud Cloud still looked appalled but now more sure this wasn’t just a big prank pulled on him. “That just feels so out of character for him, no? Especially since he did it multiple times if I’m understanding this right?” At the affirmative nod from Midnight he continued, “I mean we’ve known him as this always-”

Suddenly Loud Cloud’s voice cut off mid sentence and got replaced by the phone’s buzzing. The screen stayed frozen for a second longer leaving Loud Cloud with his mouth hanging open and Midnight with her eyes half closed, the phone struggling to load in whatever it was that disturbed the recording from playing. 

Izuku pushed himself up on his bed to a more upwards position with a long sigh. He pushed his weight onto his left elbow and let his blanket fall off his chest and curl around his lap instead. With one hand he reached up to rub at one of his eyes because his body forgot how important it was to blink and now his eyes felt as dry as the desert. 

When the phone finally loaded in the call that gave it so much trouble for some unknown reason Izuku dropped the device onto covers like suddenly turned flaming hot and was burning his hand. On the top of the screen in white letters it read ‘Kacchan’. 

Izuku stared at the phone but didn’t dare to touch it. He didn’t want to pick up the call. 

Realistically he knew he should’ve. He should’ve picked it up way before tonight. He should've just talked to Katsuki. But he didn’t. He didn’t, no matter how many times Katsuki called him, how many times he texted. He didn’t pick up the phone and he didn’t respond to messages. 

He was the reason Katsuki was even in this mess. He messed up, got too confident that no one could find them in a secluded trashy beach in the late afternoon but he was wrong. Terribly wrong. A fellow fan noticed them and immediately recognised him, because of course they did, he had green hair for crying out loud, took a photo and posted it on the internet. And whatever made it onto the internet was never going to disappear again.

They just wanted to go on a date after all the months Izuku spent in various European countries and they couldn’t see each other. Naturally they videocalled almost everyday but the time differences and the concerts made it impossible to have longer than ten minutes chats. And even in them at least one of them was tired if not both. After all, the jokes about Deku’s coffee consumption that originated by a concerned barista who saw Izuku pick up multiple to-go cups of coffee on all days that he spent in that city were based on real events.

He wanted to spend time with his boyfriend. For some reason he couldn’t settle for staying inside and watching a movie or something, no, they had to walk outside where everyone could see them. Both of them wore masks and Izuku had a hood pulled into his face so they shouldn’t have been recognised. But of course one thing led to another, masks were pulled down and his hood fell down. 

Izuku honestly believed they got away with it. The kiss(es) only lasted a couple minutes. They should’ve been fine. 

But of course they weren’t. That turned immediately crystal clear when Izuku turned on his phone after Katsuki walked him home. It wasn’t even an hour later that the original picture had been posted and yet it was already trending on all social media platforms that he checked in a rush of panic. He had hundreds upon hundreds messages from distraught fans.

He couldn’t deny it, the picture was too clear for them. While his fans and haters spent all their time trying to figure out who was the boy he kissed and badmouthing him he was panicking in his room walking back and forth. 

At first he hoped if he just ignored it everyone would forget about it and drop it. He should’ve realised after the first interview he had back in Japan that it wasn’t going to be that easy but he went on two more before cancelling every other he was scheduled to do in the upcoming future. Suddenly everyone’s focus from his latest tour was shifted to his love life and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t shift the conversation away from the topic and back to how nice the people in Europe treated him. He wasn’t proud of it but he did indeed walk out of all three of them just like Midnight said in the recording he was watching. Gossip Hour gained a lot of viewers that night, so much that it was posted onto HeroTube multiple times each with over fifty-thousand likes and more than double the view counts. 

The phone’s screen that went dark because of the lack of interaction light up again with another call jolting Izuku out of his thoughts. It seemed like Katsuki wasn’t giving up soon on trying to reach him. 

Izuku hesitantly picked up the phone from the bed. If he was a good boyfriend he would pick up the call and talk with Katsuki like the grownup he was and not hide away from his problems. He would talk with the person that he unintentionally dragged into the mess that was his life right now.

He wasn’t a good boyfriend. 

Izuku turned off his phone and set it down on his nightstand face down, not that it mattered much but just for his peace of mind. For a long moment he stared at his black and orange phone case before faceplanting into his pillow with a suffering sigh. This wasn’t what he agreed to when he became a singer. He just wanted to sing and share his songs with people that could resonate with them. Not have half the world meddling in his love life.

Deku’s sexuality confirmed!

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Deku Until Now

Deku’s lover exposed! This reveal will shock you!

What Deku Has Been Hiding From His Fans

Who is the Mystery Person Deku kissed? Top 10 theories explained!

All The Signs Deku Had Dropped In His Songs About His Sexuality Before! Did You Notice Them?

Deku’s hidden secret brought to light!

Izuku stared at the clearly clickbait headlines while suppressing a yawn. He scanned them again before deciding to click on the last one. In his calendar it said he was currently giving a concert in a park two cities over and yet he was sitting at home reading articles about himself. All of the places he was scheduled for cancelled on him because of the divergent opinions about him at the moment. They didn’t want to risk a fight breaking out and with how many people were threatening him for kissing a boy it didn’t seem possible to hold a concert without any violence. 

He didn’t blame them. It was fine. It was literally the same reason he hadn’t left the apartment in the last few days. He would be a hypocrite if he would fault them for cancelling. 

The article loaded in quickly, bombarding Izuku with all the stupidity that the journalist thought they knew just by seeing one blurry image. It was crazy just what people made up about him. 

Deku’s hidden secret brought to light!

Did you know about it?

Since Deku's debut as a singer two years ago he has published many songs, multiple of which have been love songs (click here for a playlist of them). Fans all around the world have been theorizing who could he be writing about so passionately but because in all Deku's songs, without fail, the lover that he sang about was a girl and had she/her pronouns, no one could've guessed he in reality was gay. 

In fact the ships UraDeku (Uravity x Deku) and FropDeku (Froppy x Deku), both girls from ‘Uravity and Froppy’ the popular singer duo (check out their music here !), have been thriving across all social platforms. Their popularity especially gained a sudden increase after the three were seen on the same stage, performing each other’s songs last May for a charity event where they raised money for an orphanage located in Tokyo.

But no matter how many edits of them were made or how many posts discovered more proof of the non-existent relationships as of now we know Deku has never been interested in either of the signer girls.

In Deku’s latest love song (listen here ), the chorus includes the fraction of a line ‘The sun in her hair’ which would indicate whoever he was writing about has blonde hair. If we look at the picture that was taken of Deku and his lover with that in mind we can realize that he was most likely writing about his boyfriend.

The blonde hair turns up in Deku’s earlier songs many times but with that there were times when ruby colored eyes were sneaked into the lyrics as well. Since we hadn’t seen Deku’s lover from the front yet we don’t know if his eyes are really as mesmerizing ruby colored as Deku says but we can most probably assume. 

Fans are out on the hunt to find the mystery person that kissed the popular singer, but they hadn’t had any luck yet. Under the hashtag #deku’s-secret-lover and #deku’s-boyfriend there were made thousands of posts over the course of just a few days, many comparing famous celebrities to the blurry picture we have of Deku’s boyfriend to see if anyone matches the characteristics, but there hadn’t been any proof of them being true. 

Izuku pressed his lips in a thin line as the text was broken up by a series of pictures showing the most popular theories and comparisons from across all social media. He had spent a lot of time in front of his laptop reading everything about himself he could get his hands on so he was familiar with most of them but there were newer and wilder coming up every single day. He was having a hard time keeping up with them even though he spent long hours watching his laptop’s screen absorbing every word he read, every hateful comment, every publication that claimed to know more about his love life than the one before. 

Izuku’s eyes suddenly snapped to the flicker of the tab with his QuirkMail left open. He was meant to close it but then he got distracted and never got around to actually do it. A notification popped up on the bottom left side of his screen proving he wasn’t imagining things in his exhaustion but he actually received a new message. 

After a moment of hesitation he gave into his curiosity and he clicked over to that tab. Ever since the apologetic messages of his cancelled concerts arrived his inbox had been empty and didn’t seem like it was ever going to be filled again since this address was specifically for professional stuff and not interacting with fans. And people weren’t exactly eager to book him for concerts or anything at the moment.

So who was trying to reach him at ten thirty at night? Why were they trying to reach him in the first place? His QuirkMail address wasn’t something he shared with everyone, if someone looked for it they could find it, but most people didn’t go through all that trouble just for it when he could be found on most social media. 

Dear Deku-san,

I hope this message finds you well. I sincerely apologise for sending it so late, I hope it doesn’t give you any trouble.

I am Iida Tenya, the Vice-President of Yuuei, an LGBTQ+ Club located in Musutafu. I’m writing to you to ask if you would consider joining us in one of our get-togethers to hold a surprise concert for our people. Many of our regular members are big fans of your work and would be over the moon if you did decide to come someday. On weekdays we meet up in the afternoons but on the weekends we have our doors open all day long so generally we can make any time you prefer work for us.

I understand that you likely have a busy schedule, but if you’re available anytime in the future we’d be more than happy to have you join us. Any time you’re comfortable to share with us we are grateful for, whether it’s just a single song or a longer performance. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, I’d be happy to provide more information.

Thank you very much for your time and I certainly hope to hear from you in the near future,

Iida Tenya (he/they)

Izuku stared at the screen rereading the polite message for probably more than a hundred times. His fingers were hovering over the touchpad ready to just close the whole tab and hide from interacting with people like he had been doing for almost a week now. Anyone that offered him a job only wanted to dig into his love life and ignore any boundaries that he tried to set up. Every interview proposal was politely but shortly refused so he could save himself from the embarrassment of walking out of them. 

But this was an opportunity to sing again. Out of the cover of his bedroom, not using the early hours of the day to hide his voice and music. For someone that had been playing the guitar for so long and loved playing it since day one he found himself staring at the instrument so many times just… scared to touch it. He knew all the mean comments were starting to get to his head, but he still read them. People were rude, petty and more confident with the anonymity that the internet provided to them. After they noticed he didn’t reply to anything about his sexuality they quickly turned to hating on his music and dragging it through the mud and dirt. Logically, he knew he should’ve ignored them, but they still felt like a dagger to his heart every time.

Izuku hesitantly dragged the cursor across the screen, but instead of closing the tab, he clicked on the reply button. He stared at the blank white page that opened up, feeling immediately the rush of regret that came over him. He still could close it and just forget about it. The drama that surrounded him was still too fresh for people to honestly only want to hear him sing and leave his private life alone. 

He didn’t listen to what his brain was telling him. He followed his heart's lead. Izuku wrote down the words as soon as they came to mind, not once rereading them, not even to check grammatical errors when he was done and immediately sent it before he could change his mind about it.

Until the confirmation that his email was successfully sent his actions didn’t quite catch up to his mind. Until that he sat still on his chair uncharacteristically calm, not really feeling any distinct emotions. 

When it did catch his gaze his eyes widened comically large, his mouth gaping like a fish. His fingers immediately twitched to delete the message but on the trashcan icon they stopped. It didn’t matter if he deleted it because it would only disappear from his sent emails, not from the receiver's inbox. It was too late for him to back out. He sent it and that was that.

With a forceful shove at his desk Izuku pushed his chair back to be out of reach of his laptop. There was nothing he could do to change the damage he had already done, it was honestly for the better if he didn’t give himself the opportunity to make it even worse by immediately sending a follow-up email saying ‘oh, wait, no, I changed my mind, haha, sorry, I don’t want to sing at your club because I’m a scaredy cat, so sorry’.

Even if that was the logical course of action it didn’t mean that Izuku suddenly lost the enormous amount of anxious energy buzzing under his skin, not letting him stay still. He jumped up from his seat accidentally pushing the chair even further back from the desk with the quick movement but he didn’t care. He walked around his room circling around the chair and trying not to trip up on any of the things he left around on the floor, hands folded closely around his chest, eyes not glancing away from the laptop for more than three seconds. 

He didn’t even know for sure if Iida would answer him tonight. Yeah, sure, he sent his email just five minutes before Izuku replied but maybe he assumed he wasn’t going to get an answer until the morning and closed out of his QuirkMail profile for the night. Maybe Izuku was panicking for nothing and he should’ve just went to sleep. Kami knows he didn’t get much of that in the last days. Yeah, he should’ve just-

The laptop’s screen flickered with a new notification. Izuku jumped to it immediately at lightning speed, clicking on the unread email, only halfmindedly reaching back for his chair to pull it under himself. His eyes flew over the words, not giving quite enough time for his mind to register every one of them, just hoping that he would still understand enough to complete the missing parts.

Iida thanked him for his fast response and his agreement to perform at their club doing so just as politely as he wrote in his first email. Right after Izuku finished reading it he began to write down the questions that came immediately to mind, this time not hesitating at the sight of the blank page. After he sent it he didn’t feel the rush of panic, just the calm that covered him like a blanket as he waited for a response.

Over the course of the next hour and emails sent back and forth they agreed on a time, not that that was hard since Izuku’s calendar was basically empty of concerts he was still invited to, and how long he would stay and his compensation. It was less than what he usually charged for short performances but he didn’t find himself caring. He didn’t agree for the money. 

After rereading Iida’s last email another time to make sure he didn’t forget the address he was supposed to be going to, Izuku turned off his laptop and closed its lid. With a sigh he leaned back in his chair letting his head dangle behind the backrest. A new wave of exhaustion washed over him. He really needed to go to sleep.

Especially since the next day he was going to hold a concert for all of Yuuei’s members. He needed all the energy he could get.

Izuku hated past Izuku with all his being at the moment. Why did he think this was ever a good idea? He was fine tucked away from the world and human interactions in his room. Why, just why did he have to agree to perform somewhere? 

With a suffering groan he leaned forward, his head hitting the steering wheel with a small thump. He was sitting in his car a few houses down from the address he practically memorised with how many times he checked his mails again for reassurance that he wasn’t heading to the wrong place. He got there in time. Maybe a little too in time because it was fifteen minutes before the time he agreed on with Iida and now he didn’t know what to do with himself. The urge to start back up the car and just go home was way too high. 

Stage fright was something constant in Izuku’s life; he was used to the rush of panic every time he was about to perform. It was a little ironic considering his dream job had always been being a singer and he became one completely voluntarily. But still, this was different from his usual buzzing anxiety. He wanted to run, to get away.

Izuku shook his head. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking about running away. He agreed to this, no one forced him to. But he still agreed and promised to show up today. He didn’t want to disappoint anyone. If he agreed to sing for them he was going to give them the best concert they could imagine. 

He pushed open the car door before he could change his mind, shoving the hood into his face and reaching up with one hand to adjust the mask covering the lower part of his face. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake again a week later and get recognised in public. The people could appreciate all the pictures that were taken of him with his permission from all the years that he had been a singer and could keep their boundary-crossing questions to themselves. 

After grabbing his guitar case from the passenger seat and putting it on his back Izuku locked the car, shoved the keys deep into his pockets and started walking on the pavement. Of course paranoia immediately snuck into his mind so he was looking intensely at the asphalt. He only looked up to glance at the house numbers to make sure he didn’t make an even bigger idiot out of himself and turned back after walking past the correct house. 

When he arrived at the address he approached the door very hesitantly. It looked like a normal family house. He was expecting a community centre with multiple stories and posters taped to the wall, not a house that could be just a home for a family that he was going to disrupt in the peace of their afternoon.

It really looked like he was at the wrong address. Or this whole thing was just a prank pulled on him by some person with way too much free time. But Iida was so sweet and polite in his emails and the amount of details that were in them, Izuku just couldn’t imagine someone putting that much effort into tricking him. Maybe it was just his bad sense of directions playing with him? It wouldn’t have been the first time he ended up in the wrong part of town because he took one wrong turn and didn’t realize it until it was too late. 

The house number seemed correct. Izuku almost turned back to walk around the neighbourhood a bit to see if maybe Iida mistyped the address and there was a community centre a couple houses down when he noticed the mail box a few steps away from him. The word ‘Yuuei’ was painted on him in big cursive letters surrounded by some rainbow and a bunch of other sexuality flag stickers. 

With a little smile he knocked on the door. Maybe he really was at the correct place and he was just overthinking it. That seemed really possible.

The door opened up after a little bit of waiting and some rustling coming from inside. The person that opened it had short dark blue hair and glasses with rectangular lenses. They were wearing a white button up shirt with a badge sewn to the little pocket colored to represent the demiboy flag. 

He reached up with one hand to readjust his glasses. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, yes!” Izuku quickly pulled down the mask from his face and smiled anxiously while stuffing it into his pockets. Hiding his distinguishing features so people couldn't recognise him also meant that those that he wanted to know it was him didn’t notice him either. “I’m Deku! I got sent this address for a concert,” he started, then he hesitantly added, “If I’m at the correct place that is.”

“Hai!” they nodded and did a chopping motion with their right hand. “This is where the people of Yuuei meet up, yes.” 

“I’m sorry for arriving so early, I know we agreed on a later time,” the apologetic words immediately started flowing out of Izuku’s mouth. When he was nervous he was either completely silent or couldn’t keep his mouth shut for the life of him. It looked like this time the latter won. “But I thought there was gonna be a lot of traffic on the way here but there wasn’t any traffic so now I’m here and I don't know what to do with myself. I can wait in my car if that’s better for you?” Izuku rambled, words speeding up and mushing together in the end. 

“It’s quite alright.”The door was pushed wider open and he was gestured inside. “You're more than welcome to come in.”

Izuku dipped his head in a small bow and stepped inside the house. The person closed the door behind them as he pushed down the hood so it wasn’t hanging into his face anymore. “Thank you, ah…” Izuku faltered when he realized he never got their name.

“Iida Tenya,” they introduced themself, “I use he/they pronouns. If you feel comfortable with sharing, may I ask what yours are?”

“Oh, I use he/him,” Izuku answered, the surprise fading from his face just as quickly it appeared. He came to an LGBTQ+ Club to perform, of course people here would ask about pronouns and not just assume someone’s gender as most of society did. He himself never really had problems with it, but he knew people in the entertainment industry that struggled with it on an every day basis. It was disappointing to see that society still couldn’t make the effort to change even after centuries of fighting.

“You’re the one I spoke to in email, right?”

“Yes, that is correct,” the hand chopping was back again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person, Deku-san.”

“You really don’t have to use such high honorifics Iida-kun,” a deep red colored blush made itself present on Izuku’s face. Of course in the emails they addressed himself as such as well but honestly it flew past his attention. He got used to people addressing him like they’ve known him all their life and not treating him with the respect one would treat someone they met for the first time. For instance, most of his fans called him Deku-chan if they ever got the chance to meet him in person. 

And while from ten year old kids it felt really cute to be called Deku-niichan, it always melted Izuku’s heart a little when that happened, the affectionate honorific coming from thirty year old women felt just wrong. 

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity to be here,” Izuku said as they walked down the hallway. The walls were all painted vibrant colors with artistic flowers everywhere and rainbows in all forms and sizes. He glanced in a door as they passed it to see a just as colorful kitchen as the rest of the house with bright green furniture and pastel pink tiles mixed in with white ones to form something reminding Izuku of a chess board on the floor.

Noticing he was falling a little behind Iida he quickened up his steps. “Thank you for having me.”

“It’s us who should be thanking you. Not everyone is comfortable coming to a club like ours and performing in a place that is not quite as open to the public as typical concerts are.” 

They came to a store in front of an ajar door which was covered in stickers from top to bottom. Plenty of them were sexuality flags but Izuku could see a bunch of random ones, everything from unicorns and dragons eating marshmallows next to a campfire to frogs in skirts. It looked chaotic but at the same time arranged in some kind of way Izuku couldn’t comprehend. 

“We can’t provide a professional stage that you’re most likely used to singing on, I profusely apologise for that. I have to admit,” Iida readjusted his glasses like he was embarrassed by what he was about to say, “I don’t know a lot about singing and instruments in general so I wasn't quite sure what you would need to perform. Please ask if you’re missing anything and we’ll try our hardest to accommodate your wish.”

“Thank you, I’ll make sure to keep that in mind,” an honest smile broke out on Izuku’s face. Most places he did gigs like this didn’t even offer him a chair and he had to improvise his whole performance. Someone admitting they didn’t know what he would need but being ready to jump at his words to help get him anything he would need was as rare as a blue moon. Meaning it happened once every two to three years. With how many performances he had over a year that was a horrible rate.

Iida returned the smile with his own, perhaps a little strained one. “We usually gather here,” they changed the topic and turned to the door. With a gentle push he fully opened it. 

The room was just as a swirl of colors as the rest of the house had been. Bright red curtains, green and white rugs overlapping each other, hundreds of posters taped to the wall with writings ranging from encouraging quotes like ‘You’re valid!’ and ‘You matter!’ to random stuff like ‘When life gives you melon, you’re dyslexic’ and the ‘This is fine’ meme with the dog in the burning house. It was pure chaos, but in a good way. It made some of Izuku’s anxiety evaporate and a more relaxed energy settle deep inside his bones.

When Izuku noticed a small movement in the corner of his eyes his head immediately snapped to it. There was a person with long blonde hair that was put into a bun at the base of their neck pushing a chair into the middle of the room, trying to place it in a way that all four of its legs were on the same level and it didn’t wobble. All the rugs made it quite a hard job.

“Hizashi-san,” Iida called out, making the person swirl around to stare at them.

Their expression brightened when they took notice of Iida and him standing in the doorway. “You’re already back! I couldn’t even hear you guys,” they gently shook their head, blonde strands of hair escaping the hold of the elastic and flying with the movement. “Maybe I really should listen to Shouta’s nagging and get new hearing aids.”

Sparkling lime green eyes met Izuku’s darker ones and he was hit with a strong sense of recognition. He couldn’t pinpoint why though, because as far as his memory stretched he didn’t know anyone with the name Hizashi. But still. Somewhere he must’ve met them before. Maybe after one of his concerts? Or after an interview? 

…Or in an interview?

“Present Mic?” his mouth was left hanging open, the words coming out an octave higher than he would’ve liked. 

An impressed whistle was what he got in response. “I told you Deku was a cool kid,” they turned to Iida before addressing him as well. “Not many recognise me without my orange glasses and leather jacket, you know, good job!” They winked at him while giving him a set of finger guns leaving Izuku a shade redder than he was before. 

“You, you don’t look that different, Present Mic-san, it wasn’t that hard to put two and two together,” Izuku managed to embarrassedly mumble. Why did his face have to immediately show when he was flustered for all the world to see?

Present Mic laughed. “No, you’re completely right, I don’t think I look that different either, but people tend to focus on the small details and not see the whole picture, you get me?” The smile that appeared on their face reached from one ear to another. “But it’s Hizashi here, not Present Mic, yeah? And I use they/them pronouns, as you might know already.”

“Hai! I remembered that Presen- umm, Hizashi-san,” Izuku gladly jumped onto the topic change even if he had to pause and correct himself in the middle of the sentence to make sure he used the right name. 

Almost a month prior to him leaving for his Europe Tour he had an interview in Put Your Hands Up Radio with Present Mic that’s where he learned the radio host preferred pronouns. 

While on air they mostly talked about the upcoming months he was about to spend abroad but they went off topic on multiple occasions and chatted about random stuff before swinging back to the main point. But when they weren’t on air that was a completely different thing. Izuku couldn’t stop the smile breaking out on his face just from remembering the song breaks he spent karaoking with Present Mic, shouting the lyrics from the bottom of his heart to anything and everything that was put on. (The only reason Izuku ever agreed to doing that was that their mics were muted and no one could hear them outside the soundproofed box). 

It was a really fun interview. He loved the atmosphere and the energy that was flowing through the whole radio station. He clicked with Present Mic the moment they introduced themselves with a wide smile to him. Sometimes the whole interview thing got shoved into the back of his mind, he spoke freely and didn’t overthink every one of his words which prior to it seemed impossible to ever happen to him. He was usually too aware that the media, like vultures, was always ready to strike down and twist his words for them to be what they wanted to hear and not what he meant to speak without restrictions.

In all honesty, it was probably his personal favourite interview he’d ever done in all his career. He didn’t feel the usual restrictions he got when talking to an interviewer and his anxiety quickly eased when he sat down on the comfortable couch that Present Mic had in his soundproof booth. 

Before the interview started Present Mc went over topics with him, let him set clear boundaries. They made a list of things Izuku wanted to make sure got said while they were on air and what under no circumstances he wanted the topic to change into, not even by accident. Never once had any of his boundaries had been overstepped but on the other hand the things he did want to talk about were ticked off the list one by one until there was nothing left.

Izuku wished more of his interviews could’ve been like that because after some of them he second-guessed himself if choosing this as his career was the right choice. Being a singer without interviews wasn’t set out to success unfortunately so he couldn’t skip them but how some people managed to make him feel as insecure as one could be just by asking ‘innocent’ questions always boggled his mind. 

But of course that was just a hopeless wish, because most reporters wanted the drama and excitement. Less about his singing career as a whole and more about his private life than he felt comfortable with sharing.

“I didn’t know Put Your Hands Up Radio was involved in a club like this,” Izuku gestured around absentmindedly. He didn’t word it quite as well as he could’ve if he would’ve given it a little bit more thought, but it seemed like both people understood what he meant. 

“Because it’s not.” The confusion probably showed on Izuku’s face because Hizashi started to explain in more detail. “While we raise money for a bunch of organizations at the radio, for example ones that support LGBTQ+ rights, and spread awareness about certain discriminations, Yuuei is not connected to Put Your Hands Up Radio at all. This is just me and my husband wanting to create a safe space for those who ‘don’t fit in’,” they airquoted the words with their fingers. “We wished we had something like this when we were younger, so we made it possible for others.”

For a long moment Izuku felt frozen, mouth hanging open and tears forming in his eyes unbeknownst to him. The second he noticed he snapped his gaze to the ground and tried to pull himself together, blinking rapidly to prevent the tears from streaming down his face and forcibly swallowing in an attempt to push down the lump that formed in his throat before he managed out a reply, “That is a really, really noble goal. It’s great to see people making the world more livable for people who don't fit the boxes society wants to force them in. I think this is really great.”

And he meant it. With all his heart. As someone who was part of the LGBTQ+ community since his early teenage years, he knew the struggle of growing up feeling like an outsider just because he was ‘different’. There weren't many people he could get assurance that there wasn’t anything wrong with him. If Kacchan didn’t confess to him as vigorously as he did when he did Izuku would’ve probably shoved every ounce of feelings ‘he wasn’t supposed to have’ deep down and would’ve ignored it for the rest of his life. 

He had to force himself to snap out of the stance that seemed to overtake him and move his eyes away from the giant rainbow flag hanging on the wall that at one point in between his words they wandered off to. He redirected his gaze to Iida and Hizashi, both of whom were looking at him with soft smiles on their faces.

Hizashi broke the silence that had fallen between them by clapping twice, their smile widening and their eyes shining with excitement. “This is gonna be awesome! I’m so pumped!” they cheered, “It’s gonna be so much fun seeing everyone’s shocked face when they see you!”

A small laugh left Izuku’s lips as Hizashi gave him finger guns again. “Are ya ready?!” they drew out every syllable like they were a commentator on a sports event hyping up the audience, voice louder than necessary and full of excitement. 

Izuku bobbed his head multiple times, his green curls jumping up and down with the movements, a wide and bright smile on his face. “Yeah!”

Izuku fiddled with his phone as he was leaning against the wall. After he packed down and tuned in his guitar he had run out of things to do. He offered Hizashi and Iida his help with setting up but they both waved him off saying ‘it was fine, he was the guest anyways’. He felt really awkward sitting on the chair in the middle of the room so he opted for standing around instead, clicking in and out of random apps he had on his phone to make it look like he had something to do and wasn’t just internally freaking out. 

He could feel eyes on him but he didn’t look up. They didn’t feel as pressuring as stares usually did, more like passing glances full of honest curiosity and interest. He overheard his stage name being mentioned a couple times but no one approached him yet. He still couldn’t decide no matter how much time had already passed if he was glad for the fact that they left him alone to panic in silence or if he would’ve liked it more if someone distracted him from his spiralling thoughts. 

When there was a loud knock on the door he involuntarily glanced up. In a mere passing of a second Iida was already there opening it and letting the person behind it enter after he greeted them. A tall, muscular person with short brown hair walked in, boxes stacked high in their hands. Iida assisted them like it was second nature and took some of the containers from the top, lowering the height of the stack down enough for Izuku to see the ‘SUGAR’ caption on their yellow T-shirt. 

As they started to open the boxes and set their contents on paper plates Izuku was hit with the strong smell of sweetness like he just walked into a pastry shop. A quick glance revealed the plates were being filled with all kinds of cookies and other home baked goods.

“Sorry for bringing so many,” Izuku heard them say to Iida as they opened up another box. “I was helping my grandma in the bakery and she got overexcited when I mentioned I was coming here.”

“We appreciate them very much, Rikidou-kun, as always,” Iida did the chopping motion with his right hand, almost knocking off the plate from his left one. “We are grateful for you and your grandmother for taking the time to make these for us. Please pass on my gratitude to your grandmother as well.”

Izuku saw the person, their name was Rikidou if he heard right, open their mouth to reply to what Iida said, but someone walked past in front of him cutting him off from seeing the both of them. Even if it was just a second and then they returned to being visible in his line of view it was long enough for the guilt to set in for basically eavesdropping. Yes, they were having the conversation where everyone could hear them so there shouldn’t have been any reason for Izuku to feel bad but he still did nevertheless. He quickly turned back to the phone in his hand, trying to block out all the noise as he clicked around on his homescreen. 

Somehow he ended up in his texting app swiping up and down in his small number of contacts before accidentally clicking on one of them. His fingers froze as the chat loaded in. They were Kacchan and his latest messages. 

It was really just Kacchan screaming at him over text to pick up the phone sandwiched between notifications of unanswered calls. There was one short message from him apologizing for not answering his calls but he didn’t talk about the elephant in the room. After that it seemed like Kacchan had calmed down, or at least wasn’t bombarding him with texts anymore, and asked a few times if they could talk. Izuku was ashamed to say he left every one of the messages on read. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to Kacchan, no. He wanted to, and logically, he knew he should’ve days ago. But something in his mind stopped him from calling the blonde boy and sending any text over, no matter how many times he had it written, ready to be sent, only a click away from reaching Kacchan. It was his fault that this whole thing happened; he didn't want to drag Kacchan further down the hole he dug with himself. 

Until people didn’t know Kacchan was the boy in the picture with him, he was safe. 

If keeping Kacchan safe meant being a bad boyfriend he was ready to do that. Kacchan deserved to live a peaceful life without reporters hanging off him every second he left the protection of the apartment he lived in.

“Alll-right,” Hizashi clapped twice and walked into the middle of the room catching everyone’s attention. “I think we are ready to start,” they put one hand on the back of the chair and looked around, getting nods from multiple people. Izuku muted and turned off his phone with a swift motion before putting it away. It seemed like they were starting.  

“Welcome or welcome back to Yuuei! I’m so happy for everyone that showed up today!” they greeted the people in the room before turning to the one that brought the boxes filled with baked goods and giving them a set of finger guns. “Special thanks to Rikido and his grandma for providing us with all the sweets, the meeting wouldn’t be the same without all the sugar we are definitely going to consume.”

As some people started shouting how thankful they were Hizashi turned to face Izuku. They didn’t make a big show out of it, just tilted their head slightly to the left and raised one eyebrow in a silent question. They didn’t say anything but Izuku heard it loud and clear, they were checking if he was ready to start. 

Izuku took a deep breath to gather all the strength he could find within himself and confidently nodded. This is why he was here. He was here to sing, to give a memory to all these people that they could treasure for as long as they wanted to. He could do this. 

Hizashi shot him a cheerful smile before turning back his focus to the crowd. “Well,” he started, not yelling but loud enough for everyone to stop talking and look at him. “As some of you must’ve noticed, we have a special guest today. So take a seat wherever you’d like and enjoy what we got to surprise you with!” they paused for dramatic effect, then gestured to him. “Everyone, please welcome Deku!”

Every pair of eyes snapped to him after Hizashi introduced him and he had to remind himself to take a breath and not let himself suffocate. As he shakily exhaled he pushed himself away from the wall and grabbed his guitar that was leant against the wall next to him. 

He looked up not wanting to make eye contact with anyone at all but accidentally meeting Hizashi's lime green gaze. Their smile wasn't as wide as before, but it was comforting and supportive. Not fake like the ones he usually got before concerts from staff that couldn't care less about how he did just wanted to get done with the job, but completely honest. It felt weird. But also filled in some cracks in Izuku's heart he didn't know existed. 

He straightened up in his stance and walked to the chair, sitting down and setting his guitar in his lap but not starting to strum the strings yet. He just let his hands curl around the instrument to stop it from tumbling to the ground but otherwise not having any other purpose.

“Hello everyone,” he tried to break the tension with his shy greeting but it didn’t really seem to work. No one said anything in return, the science felt deafening. Izuku swallowed. 

“Thank you for having me,” he bowed his head in the general direction of the people. Even though Hizashi told them they could sit down they all stood around staring at him with varying amounts of suspicion in their eyes. “I’m super grateful to be here and share this afternoon with all of you.”

Still no reply. Izuku glanced at Hizashi worriedly, unsure what he was doing wrong. They gave him a thumbs up and a smile, which while comforting, didn’t really help answer his question. 

“Umm,” he started, then laughed awkwardly. “I think I can safely say that, while that’s another completely terrifying experience, to have people speak around me in a foreign language and have no clue what’s happening but understand they are talking about me, I would still choose that over… this. Seriously, do you all have some kind of superpower to make anyone that comes in here this nervous or is it something in the air?”

His rambling came short when his brain finally caught on what he was doing and immediately shut it down. Talking and a panicked Izuku was never a great combination. He knew that. Still, he decided to talk like the idiot he was. He should’ve learned to shut his mind when he was nervous through all the way too embarrassing stories Kacchan still loved to tease him about from time to time. 

He was ready to stand up and just walk out (he did that quite the amount already in the past week, what was one more added to his list?), but then a chuckle broke out. Then someone joined in with muffled giggling. Then another person with rumbles of laughter. 

Izuku looked around the people, wide eyed and mouth slightly parted, his gaze not really locking onto anyone in particular but noticing the absence of the tense air suffocating him and the change in the atmosphere for the better nonetheless. Maybe trying to talk himself out of the situation wasn’t going as bad as he thought.

“It’s just me who feels it? Okay,” he huffed out a breath, the laughter slowly dying out around him but the smiles not leaving the faces. “I haven’t performed in small clubs like this in ages, it’s probably just that. Or someone among you really has superpowers, in that case your secret is safe with me.” He pinched his index finger and thumb together and pulled them across his mouth like he was sealing a lock then dropped the imaginary key by letting his fingers fall apart.

As another set of giggles set in, someone shouted in, “Dude, you should be a comedian!” The person was howling with laughter, their blond hair with a single black streak resembling a lighting bolt swishing as they tried to wipe away tears from the corner of their eyes. When they took away the hand from their face Izuku noticed the now a little smeared transgender flag painted on their face.

“Thank you for the offer, but I think I’ll stay as a singer for now. If it doesn’t work out though I’ll make sure to keep that in mind.” He couldn’t help the corner of his lip twitching upwards when he was met with so many smiles at his attempts to fool around. It really was a silly joke, with how quickly he was rising upwards in popularity rankings and all his concerts got sold he was pretty sure his dream job was working out for him quite well. 

“But for now it’s what I do, so I’m going to shut up and start singing instead because I’m pretty sure that’s why I was even invited here not to hold a Comedy Club,” his smile widened. “So, just as Hizashi-san said before, you’re all welcome to take a seat wherever you like. And don’t forget to have fun!”

For a minute or so he let everyone settle down, choose where they wanted to sit, stand, lie or whatever it was that they felt comfortable in. It was enough time for him to mentally scroll through every song he ever published before and pick out the one he’d like to start with. Sometimes he planned the songlist ahead of time, but even then it usually changed depending on the audience’s mood. Singing energetic songs to a tired crowd or melancholic and slow ones to a crowd buzzing with energy just felt counterproductive. Paying attention to his fans didn’t take that much of an effort from him but it made all the difference in the end for those who he wanted to have a good time. 

At first it felt really weird to sing just to a handful of people. He got back from Europe not even two weeks ago where he sang in front of large crowds. He felt exposed without all the wires connected to him, the missing weight of the tiny microphone taped to his face and the absence of the background music felt unusual too. Now it was only him and his guitar, nothing more, nothing less. 

After the first two songs he started to loosen up a little. Just as he started to strum the first chord of the third one he opened his eyes and let himself interact with the people around him. Acted out the lyrics where he could, which earned more giggles than not, played more with the timings, sounded more genuine, not just the playback anyone could find and listen to online. 

It was during that song that he noticed the sheer amount of people that were mouthing the lyrics right with him but didn't use their voice. Now that he was looking at them he saw that some were beating the rhythm with their legs or fingers while others heads were bopping along with the music.

He spoke up after letting the last chord of the song die. “I say we should play a game,” he started, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips when multiple people perked up at that and managed to express their interest without any words. “How about ‘feel free to sing the lyrics with me because someone forgot to turn off their superpowers and muscle memory won’t save me if I sing a newer song and I will definitely forget the words to my song that literally I was the one who wrote’.” Then he narrowed his eyes and mumbled, “I should probably come up with a better name for that. That is quite a mouthful.”

There were a few stray chuckles Izuku couldn’t pinpoint from where but no one said anything. They all stared at him uncertainly in silence. 

He smiled encouragingly as he strummed his guitar and started to play one of his most popular songs. For a couple seconds only his guitar was hearable but then the lyrics started. He tried to keep his body language very open and welcoming but still he was the only one who started to sing. He didn’t show how defeated he felt and kept up the act he was doing trying so hard to lure people into singing with no luck.

As the chorus was coming up Izuku was still singing alone. He was trying to convince himself into believing it was fine and some people just didn’t like to sing in front of others. Or in front of the one who wrote the song. Or both. It was fine, he could continue like this. 

But then with the chorus a voice joined him. His head snapped to the direction he heard the voice from, a grin appearing on his face and eyes shining with glee. His smile widened when he found the source of the singing. It was Hizashi standing next to the wall and dramatically waving their hands around to act out the lyrics as comically as they could. They winked at him and continued doing so without a worry in the world. It took everything for Izuku to not burst out laughing and keep singing like nothing was happening. 

Many struggled with holding their laughter and the song got a new instrument included: laughter. Izuku couldn’t even be mad; it somehow sounded better than any professionally recorded song he ever did. 

And in the end Hizashi’s tactic worked out. The next time the chorus came up more and more people joined in. At first it was just shy mumbles of the lyrics, but by the end everyone was singing their hearts out. Izuku’s voice was completely covered up and no one noticed when he slowly lowered his volume then eventually he stopped singing altogether. The last lines were entirely sung by the people of Yuuei; he only provided the background music by playing his guitars.

They all sounded so beautiful together. 

The ecstatic smile didn’t leave his face even after the song ended. Or the next one. Or the one after that.

He was having more fun singing with this handful of people than he ever did in giant crowds. This felt natural. This felt… this felt like home.

In the end Izuku played ten songs. That was what he agreed on with Iida over emails the night before. That was why he was invited over. He did his job. He did what he was supposed to do. 

He should’ve been happy it ended. He panicked over this whole silly little concert so much that he should’ve been glad it ended and he could finally go home.

He wasn’t though. No. Not at all. 

Izuku was disappointed it ended so quickly. He was having so much fun and didn’t want to leave yet.

He packed away his guitar as slowly as he physically could to try and stretch the time he spent there with the members of Yuuei to its fullest. The smile was wavering on his face as he listened to the excited chatter from behind him as he zipped up his guitar case. He didn’t have any more reason to be here and yet there he was trying to buy himself some more time.

“Deku-kun!” someone squealed behind him making him spin around and almost knock them off their feet accidentally. He was ready to profusely apologize but when they started giggling he froze up. “Aww, you’re just so cute when spooked!”

He tried to stutter out some kind of answer to that, but his attention was drawn to the clothing they were wearing. A white T-shirt with Uravity and Froppy’s logo printed on the front, a green planet with a ring around it and frog eyes on the top in a bright pink circle. There were also a couple pins added to it, one with the bisexual flag on it, another with the polyamory flag and the last one with the pronouns ‘she/her’ written on it in sparkling silver letters.

“Oooh, you like my T-shirt?” she asked, golden yellow eyes sparkling with joy. She twirled a blonde strand of hair that escaped from one of her messy buns. “I love Uravity and Froppy!” she giggled again like she just told an inside joke that Izuku didn’t understand.

“Yeah, umm, they’re pretty great,” Izuku awkwardly said. He liked the two girls, only platonically of course, even if the media had been trying to set him up with both of them for a while now. They were kind and he loved meeting with them anytime they got the chance. It was usually very far in between though, with all their concerts and interviews, sometimes on different continents, it was hard to schedule anything.

“I’m Toga Himiko!” the blonde girl standing in front of him proudly exclaimed, smiling like he passed a test. “You’ve got to meet the others!” 

That was all the warning Izuku got before his hand was snatched away from him and he was dragged into the centre of the crowd leaving his packed stuff next to the wall. Toga introduced him to a couple people before adamantly ditching him. Honestly he didn’t even notice it just a while later because he got engraved in a conversation with a few others. 

Time flew by quickly, but he wasn’t paying attention to that. He chatted with the Yuuei members, ate the baked goods he was offered and overall enjoyed his time. No one pointed out how he should’ve left hours ago, everyone just went along with him staying without a word. 

He met some awesome people there. Everyone treated him like he was one of them and didn’t act differently towards him just because he was a famous idol. He was asked a couple times for autographs but whoever asked was always so kind and sweet about it, not forcing him and always giving him the option to refuse.

To some people he even gave out his number so he could keep in contact with them. Usually his paranoia stopped him from doing that, because he didn’t want to risk someone posting his number to social media so only his family and a handful of other people had it. But now his contact list grew with a few more people. And he didn’t feel the panic rising in his chest because of fear that the media was about to gain a new way to bother him. He trusted the people he gave his number out to to keep it to themselves.

After a while people started to filter out. Izuku waved goodbye to the Tokoyami twins as they left as well. He had fun talking to Fumikage and her sister was good company too. To his embarrassment he didn’t manage to get her name all the time they were there because everyone just referred to her as Dark Shadow and nothing else. The explanation that Toga gave him after reappearing at his side, almost making him jump out of his skin yet again, was that if Fumikage was somewhere it was guaranteed that Dark Shadow was there as if she was his shadow that followed him everywhere. He supposed it was accurate.

There were only a few more people scattered around the room happily chattering when Izuku decided that it was probably the time for him to also make his leave. He overstayed his welcome already, it was better not to stretch it even more.

He grabbed his guitar case, happily noting that it was still where he left it hours earlier, and put it on his back like a backpack. Quickly he looked around to find Hizashi and Iida, the two people he wanted to say his gratitudes to before he left. With a smile he approached both of them as they were talking to each other.

“Deku!” Hizashi noticed him first out of the two and mirrored the smile Izuku himself had on his face. Their lime green eyes glanced at the guitar case on his backpack. “You’re leaving?”

“Yeah, I should’ve gotten out of your hair a while ago, sorry.” Izuku bowed. “Thank you for not kicking me out, I had a lot of fun.”

“What?!” Hizashi shrieked louder than necessary. Iida took an involuntary step back because of the volume of the shout, but it didn’t seem like the radio host noticed. “We’re glad you enjoyed your time here! Why would we make you leave?”

The answer got caught in Izuku’s throat because of the sheer emotion in Hizashi’s voice. He awkwardly looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean it like that, I was just- I didn’t-” he huffed out a breath, the words not coming easily to his mind to be able to properly express himself. Eventually he gave up and decided to just bring back the reason he made his way over to them into focus. “Thank you so, so much for inviting me here to join you guys. Seriously, I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed my time at a concert like today. So, thank you.”

“It was our pleasure Deku-kun,” Iida said as he bowed deeper than Izuku felt it was necessary for them to do. 

“Oh!” Hizashi suddenly exclaimed, fumbling around to reach for something from the table behind them. After they found it, an envelope covered in stickers was held out with both hands for Izuku to take. “Your compensation,” he explained. “I know it’s less than what you usually get, but-”

“No!” Izuku blushed deep in embarrassment for interrupting the radio host, but he needed to tell them what he wanted. “No, it’s- it doesn’t matter how much it is, I can't take it. I won’t take it. I genuinely enjoyed my time here and then you all let me stay here for so much longer, there is no way I’m gonna charge even a single yen for it.” He shook his head, cutting off any objection Hizashi or Iida was trying to say. “All of you treated me like a person before anything else and that’s more than most could tell about themselves. I’m not going to take any money from you no matter what you say. You cannot change my mind.

“Take it as my gift for creating such an awesome community if that’s something you’re more comfortable with,” he offered as an afterthought when he noticed the envelope still held out for him despite what he said. 

For a moment Hizashi contemplates his words before slowly retreating their hands and setting the envelope back onto the table. They looked back at him then chuckled. “Anyone that ever said you were all shy and couldn’t be convincing is a liar. You can be quite persuasive when you want to be.”

The red blush creeped back onto Izuku’s face as he waved his hands vigorously in front of himself and tried to deny the allegations but stumbled over his own words and failed to do so.

“If you won’t take money as payment, that’s fine. But! We can’t just let you leave empty handed,” Hizashi continued, not giving him the chance to interrupt. “Of course we can’t force anything onto you, I’m now pretty sure you could talk us out of anything at this point, but I’m sure there’s something that you wouldn’t mind bringing home.”

Before Izuku’s mind could fully comprehend the meaning of the sentence he was already pulled away by one of his hands forcing him to follow Hizashi to another table. The wood surface barely was visible, almost entirely covered up by colorful papers, fabrics, beads and other handicraft tools. It was like a workstation where they made… Izuku wasn’t quite sure what, but it seemed professional enough. 

Most of the people that hadn’t left yet were crowding around that specific table, just starting to pack away all the stuff into boxes as Hizashi and him joined their group. They were happily chatting amongst themselves but fell silent when they noticed them. 

“Hizashi-san? Deku-san?” one of them asked hesitantly. They had long black hair tied into a ponytail with one strand falling loose and settling aside the right side of their face. A pin with the writing ‘she/her’ was pinned to the pastel pink blouse she was wearing. Her earrings were the same colors as the lesbian flag, Izuku wasn’t sure if that was a coincidence or not. Personally he was leaning more towards no, but he didn’t want to assume anything. “Can we help with something?”

“This humble little guy,” Hizashi started, patting Izuku’s shoulder and ignoring the way his mouth parted immediately to say something in retort, because he knew he was short, but did they really have to call him out like that? “Won’t take money as payment, but we can’t have him leaving empty handed, now can we? Got something for him you think he’d like?”

Confident smiles broke out on multiple people's faces. He quickly lost track of who was shoving what into his hands but he ended up with a bunch of handmade stuff. Pins, sticker flags, bigger flags made out of fabric that he could sew onto anything he pleased, anything and everything that could be found on the table, all in the colors of the rainbow. After Iida remarked what his pronouns were, he was instantly given another pin, this one having ‘he/him’ written on it. 

Izuku finally had time to breathe after he supposed they ran out of things to give him, a small bag full of stuff which he got after one of them noticed the pile that they created in his hands was threatening to fall over. He wanted to express his gratitude but the long black haired girl stepped over to be properly facing him, clutching something in her grasp.

She anxiously outstretched her hands to reveal a pair of earrings made from beads, just like the one she was wearing, only this colored like the rainbow. “This was made for you Deku-san. I usually make it in the colors that represent the flag of one’s gender identity or sexual orientation, but I wasn’t sure what you identified as. I wanted to give you something nevertheless, so I thought this would be acceptable. I hope you like it.”

Izuku was too stunned to speak. He gently took the jewelry from the girl’s hand, eyes taking in every small detail of it. It was beautiful. Made with so much care and attention Izuku could only wish to ever spend on one of his songs. It had already jumped to the first place on the leaderboard of  his favourite earrings and he owned quite the amount since he got his ears pierced a couple years back.

“Thank you. Thank you so much. This is honestly so beautiful.” Izuku said after gaining back his ability to speak. “What is your name?”

“Momo. Yaoyorozu Momo,” the girl answered with a slight blush on her face probably because of the compliment Izuku gave to her work.

“Thank you so much Yaoyorozu-san,” he thanked her again, this time tilting his head in a bow as well. Izuku paused for a second after he straightened up, then the words came tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them, “And I’m, in fact, bisexual.”

Yaoyorozu’s eyes widened just like his own at the declaration, but he didn’t notice her breaking eye contact in order to turn back to the things laying on the surface of the table, too lost in his small crisis. He admitted that so easily. And that wasn’t a bad thing at all! But he always had such a hard time coming out to anyone before, even his mom only got to know after he was already dating Kacchan for months, and now he just… said it out loud without any worry. He wasn’t panicking over the fact that he came out to a handful of people, most of them who he only met today, but more of the fact that how easy it came to him and how natural it felt. The usual buzzing anxiety that he expected to make itself known and bombard him with a long list of why this was a bad idea was missing. He knew that no one would judge him, not here. 

“I could’ve sworn I made one with the bisexual flag on it before,” Yaoyorozu mumbled under her breath while carefully rummaging through a plastic box searching for one specific handmade jewelry. Something in her concentrated tone managed to snap Izuku out of his thoughts and refocus on the people around him. “Where could’ve I put it?”

“I believe this is the one you were looking for, ma chérie.” The person with almost shining blonde hair that stepped beside Yaoyorozu had a slight French accent that Izuku immediately picked up on. France was the country he spent the second most time in during his tour, it seemed like it wasn’t for nothing after all and something managed to stick to him out of the language. 

They leaned lightly over the table and picked something out from the depths of the mess that was now covering the wood surface after Yaoyorozu began to turn a little more frantic in her search and gracefully handed it to the girl.

“Thank you Yuuga-kun.” She sent a grateful smile to them before turning back to Izuku and outstretching her hands once more with a new pair of earrings in her palms. These ones matched the colors of the bisexual flags, the transparent beads shimmering as the light coming from the window hit them. “I made this one last week, Monday or Tuesday I think, but I suppose the exact date is not that vital to know. What matters is that I’d like to give this to you as well."

Izuku was regretting deciding so hastily that the rainbow colored earrings were his favourite, because they just got overridden by the blue-purple-pink ones. 

“I can’t thank you enough Yaoyorozu-san. These are just so beautiful, I will definitely wear them as much as I can.”

“That’s our Creati for you,” Hizashi swung their arm around Izuku’s shoulder, words dripping with pride on behalf of the girl. “She can make anything you can dream of. She’s just too shy to sell it to the public, so it’s only us that can enjoy her crafts at the moment. But we’ll get her confidence up one day, I swear on the Rat God!” they put their right palm over their heart when they said the promise and blinked up at the ceiling.

Everyone laughed at the dramatics, even Yaoyororzu who blushed deeply at the compliments and tried to brush them away. Hizashi obviously couldn’t let her do that and kept repeating the praises until she agreed to them with a small smile just to make them stop coming.

Izuku put away the two pairs of earrings in the bag he was given then helped the group pack away all the stuff from the table. They put everything in their pre-labeled boxes, then those were stacked into a black shoulder bag with blue fire painted on it like it was Dabi merch. 

When Izuku mentioned that, Yaoyorozu said she originally made it for someone named Kyouka (she later shyly explained that she was her girlfriend) who was a fan of the rapper, that let her borrow it since multiple seams tore on her own bag and she hadn’t had time to fix it yet. Izuku made sure to compliment it multiple times before he left. He saw Dabi merch first hand on many occasions, he was still sure he had a hoodie somewhere in the back of his closet with the same blue fire on the bottom of the fabric, and the bag very well could’ve passed as official merch. 

Walking out of the house there were multiple farewells and invites for him to show up whenever he liked shouted after him accompanied by vigorous waving. He couldn’t have wiped off the smile of his face even if he wanted to. Not that he was trying too hard to do so. 

After his guitar was set down onto the passenger seat Izuku got into the car as well. He leaned back in the driver’s seat slowly exhaling. The exhaustion washed over him like a giant wave on the shore. With how little he slept in the past week, Izuku supposed it was more than expected. Still, while he was inside the club and was having fun he didn’t notice just how much quickly his energy was draining.

He was all buckled up, ready to start the car when he remembered his phone still turned off in his pocket. He just wanted to check if anyone tried to contact him in the last few hours, but there weren’t any notifications on his screen. He almost pocketed his phone once again but when he accidentally clicked on one of his apps on his homescreen and opened it. 

Immediately, the list of the last calls he got appeared on the screen, almost all of them missed calls from the contact named ‘Kacchan’. 

Izuku stared frozen at his phone. His finger hovered over the callback icon with the red phone. He should've called Katsuki. He should've called him days ago. He deserved to get an explanation, not that Izuku could say anything to justify his actions at this point, and to not be ignored. 

They used to speak almost every day, but since Izuku barely responded to text let alone calls it has been nearly a week since he heard Katsuki’s voice. And honestly he missed it. He missed him. He missed Katsuki.

Izuku breathed in deeply. He made up his mind, he could do this. He just needed to click one stupid button, it couldn’t have been that difficult to do. He could do it.

Apparently it was a harder task than he thought. He hesitated to click the button. He didn’t want to drag him into the mess even more. Katsuki was better just watching the scenes unfold from the side lines. He didn’t need to be drawn into a situation he could stay out of. Izuku loved him with all his heart and wanted to do the best for him. 

If asked, he would’ve said the best was for Katsuki to stay as far away from the media and himself as he could, but if it would’ve been Katsuki asked he probably would’ve said something along the lines of that he didn’t care about stupid reporters, just about what Izuku wanted.

Izuku bit his lip. He closed his eyes and almost clicked on the callback button but then the device vibrated in his hands with an almost silent buzz. Blinking at the phone, a new notification popped up on the top of the screen. It was a message from his mom asking him if he was free to have dinner with her that night.

Quickly typing out a reply and starting the car the long overdue phone call was pushed back into the depths of his mind, forgotten and ignored.

Izuku spent a lovely dinner with his mom. They spent it tiptoeing around the elephant in the room, never addressing the fact that his mom heard more about him unintentionally from news broadcasts and other tv shows than from himself. They never wandered off to risky waters, sticking merely to the familiar waves and just enjoying each other's company like they would’ve any other time when Izuku visited her. 

After he got home he sat down at his desk and opened up his laptop just like he did every night for a week now. He typed in his stage name to the search field as soon as the browsers loaded in, then stared at the amount of new articles that were made in just a singular day, the ones he hadn’t read before. It was a ridiculous amount. A week later there were still people that published newer and newer articles about him, all repeating the same mantras, talking about him having a boyfriend like it was something shameful.

He stared at the even worse clickbait headlines than the ones he found the night before, but didn’t click on any of them. He shook his head. With a quick click he switched tabs and logged into his QuirkMail profile rather than reading any of the articles.

It didn’t take long for him to find the email he was looking for and copy the QuirkMail address that sent him the email a little over a month prior. That night it wasn't him who got an email, it was him who wrote it. 

Dear Present Mic-san,

I am so sorry for the late email, but I couldn't trust myself to have the same confidence in the morning like I have now and not to chicken out at the last second before sending you this email.

I know that on Friday mornings you usually keep your radio show pretty random and I don't know if you have anything scheduled, but I was wondering if...

"Hellooooo, listeners! And welcome back to another super-duper awesome show from me, Present Mic!" the words were almost screamed and while the listeners had the privilege of only hearing the muffled version of it, Izuku couldn’t call himself as lucky. Even with the headphones covering his ears he could hear the radio host’s voice way too loudly.

“As you might know I like to keep Friday morning shows surprises. Last week I talked with the quickly rising actor in popularity votes Takami Keigo, otherwise known as Hawks. This time I invited another guest to join me!” They glanced at Izuku from behind their orange glasses and sent an encouraging smile. Izuku returned it out of reflex even if he felt like it was warmer in the room than it was a second ago and his mouth was as dry as the Sahara desert. “Deku, say hi!”

“Hello everyone,” Izuku greeted the listeners, voice a little wavering. He licked his lips. “It’s a pleasure to be here again!”

He was scheduled for thirty minutes at the start of the day to have a little talk show with the radio host, not a minute more, because that was the longest time Hizashi could squeeze him into. They were immediately on the plan the moment they got Izuku’s email late at night and they did everything they could to give him a little time on the radio show right the next day, but they couldn’t make a full schedule suddenly become empty. Thirty minutes was the best they could do and Izuku was glad for even that, especially since he messaged them at the last minute.

“Thank you for having me here today, Present Mic-san,” he bowed his head, knowing the listeners couldn’t see it but wanting to let the radio host know how grateful he was nevertheless. 

“Don’t thank me listener, I should be the grateful one for having such an awesome singer sit inside my radio show again,” they smiled, then steered the topic back to what they agreed on. “I feel like we heard a lot about you in the past week, but never from you. How are you doing?" they asked him genuinely. 

“I still haven’t had the chance to properly make up for all the sleep I lost during my tour, but I’m certainly doing better now, thank you.”

Present Mic took the opportunity to ask about his tour and listened to Izuku talk about all the stupid random things he saw in European cities. It was like a small reminder to everyone that even though there were other gossips and rumours circulating in the air he just got back from a giant tour and this was the first time he talked about back in his homeland. Because everyone got so focused on his love life they forgot the original news they were so excited for.

“Well, it sounds like you definitely had fun in Europe,” Present Mic laughed after he spent almost five minutes ranting about a pigeon that kept following him in Italy and even attacked him in the middle of his concert. Izuku couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle as well because yeah, looking back at it, it was quite funny. He wouldn’t want to relive it though.

They glanced at the clock on the wall. “Oh, wow, time went by quickly, I didn’t even notice it! But we’re almost over, a longer song break is just around the corner and then comes our next surprise of today.” They paused for a second then continued, “Is there anything you’d like to say to our listeners before you have to go Deku?”

“Thank you everyone that tuned in today, I hope you enjoyed hearing me rant about the concerning amount of coffee I drank over the course of a few weeks and a pigeon for half an hour,” he stopped making the illusion that that was all he wanted to say. There was an awkwardly long moment of silence, but Present Mic didn’t break it. They agreed to Izuku’s plan after all, they weren’t going to ruin it.

“Oh, one more thing,” Izuku suddenly piped up, like it was totally an afterthought that just crossed his mind and weren’t the sentences he practiced that morning in front of the mirror. “Contrary to popular belief I’m not gay. I’m bisexual actually.”

“And with that I think this is our cue to listen to some music!” Present Mic professionally took over the lead from Izuku, not giving a second to the listeners to process what he said. “The first song in our break was requested by one of our fellow listeners: ‘This Is Me’ by Keala Settle!”

Izuku didn’t dare to move until the little light that signalled if they were muted or not went out. After that he pushed down the headphone like it was burning his head and hunched over himself. 

“Oh Kami,” the realization struck him like a train. He panickedly sucked in a breath, staring intently at the table in front of him, suddenly not feeling very well. “I said, I said that out loud for the whole world to hear. Kami, I just came out to everyone.”

A hand rubbed his back and Izuku glanced up to see Present Mic standing beside him with a comforting smile on their face, orange glasses pushed up onto his head almost entirely disappearing behind the blonde strands of hair. “You should be proud of yourself Deku!” They patted his back. “I’m certainly proud of you! You did something very brave today!”

“Don’t treat me like a toddler,” Izuku complained, then immediately buried his face into his palms and groaned. “I feel like I’m gonna die.”

Present Mic laughed beside him, their hand leaving his back. “You’ll be alright, I can promise you that. Cheer up! You’re over the worst part, the show ended.”

“And now I gotta live with the fact that basically every single person will know I’m bi in less than thirty seconds. Or less. I’m sure someone already posted it to QuirkChat or something.”

“Well,” Present Mic drawled out the last consonant as he sat back onto their chair, making it spin with the movement. “I can’t deny that.” Seeing Izuku’s pained expression they quickly added, “But! It will be fine! You were super duper confident, you killed it out there! And if someone has a problem with it, that’s on them. People should be happy you shared something this important to you with them, not be assholes and shame you for it. Or try to ‘change you’. That’s just stupid.”

A wide grin made its way to Izuku’s lips. “Are you even allowed to call people that while working?”

“Mmmm, no.” Present Mic winked at him. “So don’t tell my boss I did that.”

“I thought you were the boss of the whole radio stati- oh,” the furrowed brows quickly smoothed out when Izuku connected the dots and got the joke. Laughter bubbled out of his mouth.

The smile was still on his face even after he was ushered out of the room because the next person was coming. He thanked Present Mic one last time for helping him and getting him on the radio show so quickly, but since it got waved off just like every time before he brought a small box of his mom’s cookies he got the day before and asked one of the staff to leave it in Present Mic’s office with a short thank you note taped to the top of the box.

As Izuku was leaning against the wall of the elevator, waiting for it to go down to the ground floor, he glanced at the mirror next to him. The wild green curls were sitting as messily on top of his head as they did every single day without fail and he wasn’t wearing any make-up so the dark circles under his eyes were fully visible, but he looked more… calm, then he did in a long time. 

He felt calm too. The week before was a constant fight with anxiety and panic, but right now he couldn’t feel either of them at all. He was horrified that the media had found out something he wasn’t ready to share yet, but now, after coming out on his own terms and not because someone pressured him into doing it, he felt relaxed. (He wasn’t sure if that would still be the case when he got home and faced all the hate he was sure to get on social media, but for now he was fine not thinking about it.)

Yeah, maybe he set out his career to fail with that single sentence, but honestly he couldn’t care less. It wasn’t like he was invited to any concerts after the rumor started going viral. His calendar was basically wiped out. If being out to people meant he couldn’t perform in places he usually did before, he was fine with that. Sticking to small clubs that actually appreciated him for who he was and not just wanted a slice of his fame was alright with him. He had plenty of fun singing for just a handful of people in Yuuei.

He straightened up when a small ‘ding!’ sound played signalling he arrived at the ground floor. Izuku waited for the doors to open, ready to go home and maybe even call Katsuki. He owed him that phone call and if he could use the momentary calmness that overtook him maybe he wouldn’t chicken out at the last second like every time he tried before. That wouldn’t be-

Outside the building, smushed to the glass doors, there was a giant swarm of reporters all of them pointing their camera at him. Izuku took back everything he said about not feeling any anxiety. It found its way back to him.

Why did he forget that if he talked live on a radio show that would mean people knew where he was located at the exact moment they heard his voice? Of course the media would try to get pictures and videos of him. He hadn’t left his apartment in a week, there was no way they could get a hold of them. 

But now he’s given everyone, those that listened to Put Your Hands Up Radio at least, his whereabouts. And because he didn’t immediately leave but rather stayed inside the building for fifteen more minutes than the show with Present Mic lasted, every reporter in the area had time to get here. 

If Izuku had to choose a moment he regretted any of his ideas, this was it for sure.

The shouting just got louder outside when Izuku hesitantly stepped out of the elevator and beelined for the reception with a strained smile. The person that was sitting behind the desk was filling out some files, listening to music with half of an earphone, the other cable being twirled around the fingers of their hand that wasn't holding the pen. A small badge was pinned to their pinkish top with ‘Earphone Jack’ printed on the middle of it in big black letters, a smaller ‘she/her’ handwritten under it with a standard blue pen. 

She looked up when Izuku anxiously tapped his fingers on the edge of the table. “What can I help you with?”

“You don’t have a way I could avoid all the reporters outside, do you?”

Earphone Jack pursed her lips as she took a glance at the crowd standing outside. “No, sorry dude. I tried to send them away when there were only a few of them here, but they just keep coming back.” She leaned back in her chair. “I would say leave through the back entrance, but last I checked there were people even there. I could see if they left if you’d like, but don’t hold too much hope for it.”

Izuku shook his head in dismissal. “No, it’s fine. Thanks for the offer though.”

He took a deep breath before forcing a smile onto his face. The reporters were going to have a problem with him not answering any questions anyhow so it was better to not give them an even bigger reason to accuse him of having an attitude. Izuku started to walk out of the building, without any detours this time.

A shout came from behind the reception desk just as he pushed open the door. “Good luck out there Deku-kun!”

He started to turn around to send a pained smile to the girl and thank her, but one of the reporters reached in the ajar door and pulled him out of the building into the middle of the crowd before he could. The glass door slammed shut behind him, locking him out of the radio station.

An uncountable amount of microphones were pushed into his face right the second he regained his balance and straightened up properly. Every reporter in a five meter radius started shouting questions at him hoping to be the one that got his attention, but it only resulted in their voices completely overlapping and becoming incomprehensible. Other than his stage name Izuku couldn’t catch any other words that were spoken to him. 

The corner of Izuku’s smile wavered. People, while giving him a little room to breathe, were constantly reaching into his personal space and it was uncomfortably loud with all the shouting. He was having a hard time keeping the smile on his face not reflecting how uncomfortable he felt with his expression.

But he couldn’t leave. The reporters surrounded him completely from all three sides, not a single gap between them that he could use to slip out and make a run for his car. For now he was stuck and it didn’t look like he was going to be let out until he said what they wanted to hear.

Izuku raised his hands in mock surrender trying to stop the shouting. It didn’t quite manage to work, so he still had to speak in a raised voice in an attempt to be heard. “I profusely apologize to every one of you, but I’m not answering questions today. I am really sorry.” Because he couldn’t bow properly with all the people standing so close to him he only dipped his head into a small bow.

In an ideal world his words would make the whole crowd nod in understanding and they would all disperse. 

But Izuku wasn’t living in an ideal world so after the momentary silence that he spent holding onto the small flicker of hope that they would all just leave someone piped up from the front of the crowd shoving their microphone even closer to his face than before asking if he was going home to his boyfriend. That caused a chain reaction and everyone started shouting again, throwing questions at him even more fiercely now.

He was having trouble keeping the smile present on his face and not just collapsing onto the ground hoping it would swallow him. His ears were starting to ring because of the sheer volume of people and it didn’t matter how many times he tried to ask them to stop, it didn’t change anything. He was either straight up ignored or couldn’t even be heard over the shouting. There were hands waving at him from all directions and cameras were pushed into his face, everyone trying to get themselves to be the center of his attention not caring one bit that he expressed multiple times he wanted to leave. 

His gaze couldn’t settle for one moment, always jumping to the next sudden movement in his line of sight. He was growing tired of it and contemplated just closing his eyes for a moment of peace but then caught sight of a red car speeding into the street and abruptly stopping in the middle of the road like the driver had stepped on the brake. He saw one of the back doors swing open and someone jump out before a camera got pushed into his line of sight and covered up the car he was looking up. It didn’t change the situation though, more people were coming to bother him the longer he stood there.

A deep breath later he opened up his mouth to give one last try to making the reporters listen to him when the shouted questions started to turn into curses at the back of the crowd. They were the same volume but they weren’t intended for him. At least he hoped so.

He understood what all the commotion was about when a blonde person pushed their way to the front of the crowd. There was barely a fraction of a second for Izuku to get a look at their spiky blonde hair and those mesmerizing ruby eyes before he was firmly pressed against the person and pulled into a fierce kiss. Izuku’s eyes widened in shock, but after a moment his eyelids slipped shut and he leaned into the kiss.

At the back of his mind he registered that the reporters’ shouting had completely stopped and got replaced by clicks of cameras but he couldn’t care less. Katsuki, his amazing boyfriend, was standing beside him having a protective hold around his body. It didn’t matter to Izuku what was going on beside them because Katsuki was there. All the other things could wait.

Eventually they had to pull away from each other, both of them out of breath and faces flushed. Katsuki stared with those beautiful ruby eyes of his into own green ones.

An honest smile broke out on Izuku’s face, not even close to the strained ones he had been forcing onto his face just for the media. “Kacchan,” he greeted his boyfriend, a little still out of breath. 

“You can’t just text me ‘I’m going to do something stupid’ then not respond to any of my messages, you fucking idiot,” Katsuki flicked him on the forehead. 

Honestly Izuku forgot about that text entirely. It was a split second decision he made thirty seconds before the radio show started to give some kind of heads-up to his boyfriend about what he was planning to do but didn’t really have time to explain since he procrastinated until he barely had time to even send it. He overthinked what to write in his message but after he sent it no more thoughts about it crossed his mind.

A laugh bubbled out of Izuku’s mouth, “Gomen! Gomen!” He tried to wave his hands around but they just bumped into Katsuki’s chest. “I wanted to say something, but then the show started and I couldn’t use my phone, and I swear I was planning on calling you after I got home, but then-” His rambling got cut off with another kiss, a hand finding its way inside the mess of his curls at the back of his head.

“Shut up Deku,” Katsuki said, fake venom dripping from his words, after they pulled away from each other. Izuku’s smile widened and he leaned forward to rest his head against his boyfriend’s shoulder. 

At the sudden loud uproar of questions that were shouted at the both of them, Izuku got reminded with a slight flinch that they weren’t alone in the safety of one of their apartments but rather standing in the middle of a crowd of reporters. Microphones and cameras were shoved into their faces, too many voices shrieking at the same time asking them probably invasive questions, not that Izuku would know since there wasn’t a single question he understood out of the thousands shouted at him.

“Oh, for fuck’s-” Katsuki cursed under his breath. He met Izuku’s gaze, looked at him like he was searching for something in his eyes. After he seemingly found whatever he was looking for he grabbed Izuku’s hand and forcefully pushed himself between two reporters creating a path he could drag Izuku along. He sneered at everyone that tried to stop him, eventually getting them out of the most dense part of the crowd, reaching where he could finally pick up the pace and start running away, Izuku’s hand still in his grip. 

The reporters took a moment too long to catch on what they were doing, giving them just a big enough head start to be out of everyone’s arm’s reach. At the sudden feeling of freedom that rushed Izuku and the constant cursing of Katsuki as he berated the media he couldn’t help but break out in laughter. He was struggling to see straight with the relieved tears blurring his vision.

When the big blob of red he could see getting bigger as they approached it registered as the car he saw arrive while he was still in the middle of the swarm of reporters he was reminded of his own car, parked a street to the left from the radio station. He pulled on his boyfriend’s hand, trying to get his attention. “Kacchan, my car-”

“Shut up.”

“My car’s the other way around Kacchan!” Izuku cried out, but not even that made Katsuki falter.

“I don’t care, nerd.”

“But, Kacchan-”

“Suck it up or I’m leaving you to the hyenas.”

Izuku glanced back over his shoulder at the giant crowd of reporters chasing after them, tripping on each other's feet just to try to get to them faster. “You know what, I’m sure Present Mic won’t mind if it stays there a day longer. I’ll just come back for it tomorrow, it’ll be fine.”

“That’s what I thought.”

As soon as they reached the car Katsuki forcefully pulled the back door open with the hand not holding Izuku’s. He leaned into the car covering Izuku’s view from seeing who was sitting in the vehicle but not masking up his bitter voice as he addressed them. “Huddle up and make some space for us extras!”

A couple of complaints and objections came from inside the car but Izuku wasn’t given much time to dwell on them because Katsuki climbed into the vehicle harshly pulling Izuku with him. He landed half on his boyfriend’s lap, head almost crashing into the door window when a hand reached out beside him and shut the door closed hurriedly. Blinking rapidly Izuku found four strangers staring right at him, two of them turning back from the front seats, twisting their bodies around just to gape at them with open mouths and in a position that in no way was comfortable. 

“Dude, what the hell?” the driver, the person with red hair styled into spikes reminding Izuku of his boyfriend’s hairstyle, completely exasperated asked. They looked at Katsuki with furrowed brows only taking a brief glance at Izuku before turning right back to stare at the blonde boy.

“Get us out of here, Shitty Hair!” he ordered, meeting the driver’s gaze firmly and not backing down. Izuku recalled hearing that nickname in his boyfriend’s stories when he talked about his friends, but he never actually got to know his actual name alongside all the others in the car.

“Katsuki, you changed our route twice , then made me stop the car in the middle of the road and jumped out of the car without any explanation and now you expect me to just listen to you as you order me around? You can’t possibly think-”

“Look, Eijirou, I totally agree with you and want answers too, but I think we should go. Like now,” the person sitting in the passenger seat interrupted the rant with such urgency in their voice that everyone turned to them, but they were looking out of the window on the door next to them rather than any of them sitting in the car. They gestured outside, “I don’t know about you guys, but personally I don’t want to be overrun by a horde of people.”

Izuku listened to at least four different versions of ‘oh, shit’ being muttered once everyone looked out the windows before the driver stepped onto the gas and they sped away. The crowd of reporters dejectedly stopped running after them once they saw that happen, growing smaller in his vision before completely disappearing when the car took a turn to another street. 

“Oi, get off me!” Katsuki snarled and shoved the blonde person with a black streak in their hair off him who got smushed to him when they took a fast turn. 

“Hey!” they retorted immediately, matching Katsuki’s energy perfectly. “It’s not my fault there’s four of us sitting in here!” 

Just as his boyfriend opened his mouth to reply fuming with anger the red haired driver beat him to it, “If I’m getting a ticket, you’re paying it Katsuki!”

“If it comes to that, I can pay for it,” Izuku offered, voice turning uncertain when multiple turned to him as if they just realized he was also in the car with them. “I am the plus one after all. It’s uhh, my fault that the risk of you getting a ticket is even there so it would be only fair if I paid it?” In the end it turned into more like a question rather than a statement because of all the hesitance behind his words. 

The pink haired person sitting squashed to the other window in the back row squealed. “Awh, you’re so sweet Deku-kun! But don’t worry, if anyone’s, it’s Blasty’s fault! And this whole thing is just a hypothetical situation so we should just stop tempting fate!” They changed the subject immediately after saying that, not giving anyone the chance to argue with them, and addressed Katsuki. “I can’t believe you’re dating Deku and you haven’t even told me Blasty! It was already hard to believe you have a boyfriend, but Deku out of everyone?”

“What does that supposed mean Racoon Eyes?!” Katsuki exploded in response right away, but he got brushed off like he hadn’t even said anything. 

Izuku heard about the time one of his boyfriend’s friends bought the wrong kind of contact lenses for a cosplay that colored her sclerae black and her irises yellow. While those obviously weren’t the contact lenses she meant to buy, Katsuki said she still liked to wear them occasionally, hence the nickname. 

“I mean, you dating someone as sweet as Deku?” She redirected her gaze to look at Izuku and addressed him next, “How can you even stand him, Dekubabe?”

“Ah, he’s nice to me. Sometimes.” Laughter erupted in the car covering up the offended 'huh?!' coming from Katsuki as he snapped his head around to stare at the green haired boy. He ignored him with a smile. “But you can call me Izuku. You’re Kacchan’s friends after all.”

“So he does know we’re his friends and not just some ‘extras’ that hang around him because they have nothing better to do,” the black haired person muttered under their breath loud enough for everyone to hear in the passenger seat. 

Izuku’s smile widened. “Yeah, he calls you guys his friends to my face when he talks about you, he can’t deny it.” He paused for a moment then added, “At least I think he talks about you since the nicknames match, but Kacchan never told me your actual names?”

“Yeah, that sounds exactly like Katsuki,” the driver said as he stopped at a red light. He took a glance at the back row, making eye contact with Izuku. “I’m Eijirou, nice to meet you dude. I think it’s very manly-”

“Wait, wait, wait!” the blonde haired person sitting right beside Katsuki cut Eijirou off and waved their hand around vigorously. “Kacchan?”

“Don’t call me that, Dunce Face!” came the immediate reaction to the nickname.

“But he gets to call you that, so why can’t I?”

“I mean he’s his boyfriend , so of course he treats him nicely!” the pink haired girl butted into the banter. “I’m Mina, by the way! It’s super nice to finally meet Katsuki’s boyfriend! Oh,” she dramatically reached up to wipe away a fake tear from the corner of her eye, “They just grow up so fast!”

“Hah?! What the hell?!”

“And I’m Denki!” The blonde with the black streak in his hair resembling a lighting bolt pipes up offering him his name, totally ignoring Katsuki’s complaining. He had to admit that he himself hadn’t really paid much attention to it either in favour of taking a closer look at his face. There was something about him that bugged Izuku’s mind.

“You look really familiar Denki-kun, did we meet befo-” The picture of someone with a smeared trans flag painted onto their face as they laughed popped into his memory. “Oh, you were at Yuuei yesterday, right?”

“Yuuei?” the person in the passenger seat turned around to stare at Denki with a questioning look.

“The LGBTQ+ Club I’ve been trying to get all of you to come with me, but you always cancel at the last possible second!” he complained, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “And don’t tell me you haven’t done that Hanta, because you literally did that yesterday!”

As the conversation turned into a full on banter, not just between Denki and Hanta but all of them, even Katsuki joining them, Izuku leaned back against his boyfriend, an honest smile ever-present on his face. He laughed at their antics, which he only ever got to hear in stories before, but now got to finally experience in person. 

They were loud and way too energetic but Izuku didn’t mind. Even if they made his ears ring and his head bumped harshly at the window more times than he could count because Mina and Denki kept riling up Katsuki who then as a result tried to reach them and punch them but forgot that Izuku was basically sitting in his lap. 

They were the perfect friends Izuku could’ve wished for his boyfriend. 

“You okay?” a voice whispered into his ear a little later as two hands wrapped around his waist. With half an ear he could hear Mina and Denki begging Eijirou to take a detour and get them McDonald's for breakfast. 

Izuku’s smile softened at the words and he burrowed his nose into Katsuki’s neck. “Yeah,” he breathed out slowly, surprising even himself with the answer. 

His last week had been a complete mess, but now he felt content, calm. He knew that all his social medias were most definitely blowing up again because of his choice to come out to them as the proud bisexual he was, but he couldn’t find himself to care. He was happy like this. 

And if someone couldn’t accept him as he was then that was their problem and not Izuku’s. 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he looked up to meet those beautiful ruby eyes that he could get lost in at any time. Izuku reached up with one hand to gently caress Katsuki’s cheek just under his eyes with his thumb while not breaking eye contact. “Have I told you before that you have really pretty eyes?” 

“You did, yes,” his boyfriend snorted, “Wrote like three different songs about it too, you nerd.”

Izuku hummed with satisfaction, his eyes following the movement of his finger slowly descending on Katsuki’s face until it was just beside his lips. “I love you Kacchan,” he whispered softly, looking back up at the ruby eyes lovingly staring at him.

“Love you too, Izuku,” he muttered back curtly, a little more strained than his, but still holding the same amount of love in them.

Katsuki gave him a peck on the lips, before turning around and joining back in the banter like nothing happened at all, immediately shutting down the idea of all of them walking into McDonald’s because then Izuku would be recognised. He got four ‘ohhh’s in return before they all quickly agreed to rather order through the drive through.

Munching on a piece of chicken nugget he stole from Katsuki in the back row of a car with three people squishing him to the window at every quick turn as laughter erupted and fries soared through the air, hitting everything but the person they were aimed at, Izuku couldn’t have felt more happy. 

@Deku._.official just posted four photos

[ First image : It’s slightly blurry as if someone took it while being chased, but it’s clear enough to get a sense of what is going on. A moderate size group of people is standing around in a park, mostly teenagers and adults, but there are a few children running around as well. There are various LGBTQ+ flags decorating the nearby trees, being waved around and even used as capes by a few people. Deku is barely hanging into the frame talking with two people under the shadow of a tree, one with blonde hair and rainbow glasses perched on their nose, the other with black hair and in jeans and a long sleeved top, both of them in the same black color, despite the good weather, a little kid hanging from the latter’s back with long pale blue hair and wearing a red dress.]

[ Second image : Deku is sitting on a chair near a tree that has flags hanging down from its branches, guitar in hand, and mouth wide open as he seemingly sings. He’s wearing an oversized black T-shirt with a white skull on the front of it. There is a bisexual flag painted onto his right cheek, the upper left corner a bit smudged. His earrings that are shimmering in the light are also in the colors of the bisexual flag.]

[ Third image : It’s a group picture, all the people that were also in the previous pictures are there as well as new faces. They’re holding a large white sign that reads ‘Happy Pride!’ in big rainbow letters in the middle of it and ‘Yuuei’ at the bottom left corner. The printed signs are surrounded by much smaller writings made by colorful markers, undecipherable from the distance the picture was taken, but very similar to signatures as if everyone that was present signed it. Deku is holding the left end of the sign with a sweet smile on his face, now a flag on his left cheek as well, this one colored as the rainbow.]

[ Fourth image : It’s tilted unusually to the left and there are leaves sticking into the pictures like the person that took the picture was in a hurry and didn’t have time to properly position their camera while also hiding behind a bush or some other plant. A little off from the middle of the picture there is a green haired boy, clearly Deku, and a blond person wearing a red plaid shirt, whom fans now recognise as his boyfriend, passionately kissing. Deku is standing on his tiptoes, one hand reaching beside the blond’s head to slightly pull him down as hands hug around his waist and pull him closer. On the hand that Deku has on his boyfriend’s cheek on his ring finger there is some silvery sparkling as the light hits what’s most likely a ring.]

Thank you to Yuuei for inviting me to perform at the last day of their festival celebrating Pride Month for the fifth year in a row! I had a ton of fun as always and I hope everyone that attended did as well!

Happy Pride to everyone single one of you! Remember, you are loved, you are valid and you’re not alone. 

PS: For everyone that’s been wondering about my boyfriend, here you go. Although, he’s my fiancé now.