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Kirishima Eijirou is what most people would refer to as a really nice guy.
Part of it is just his natural personality and part of it is by design. It’s manly to be kind after all, it said so front and center across the chest of evry one of his Crimson Riot sweatshirts.
From the very moment Eijirou had first laid eyes on his hero he’d known exactly what kind of hero, man, and person he wanted to be, and he’d set out to become that person accordingly.
All this to say that Kirishima Eijirou, aka pro hero Red Riot, is well known as a family friendly, kind, gentle, and totally trusted hero of a man.
And that’s the way it would have remained had it not been for one tiny little thing…
Monoma Neito aka pro hero Phantom Thief had signed on at the same hero agency as him.
The cameras flash as Kirishima Eijirou takes the podium.
“Hello,” he says, his voice clear and his smile bright as he leans over the microphone, hoping no one notices that he’s clenching the wooden stand hard enough to hurt. “Thank you all for coming.”
His PR Rep had prepared a script for him and he is fully prepared to stick to it now. Honestly he just hopes that his wide grin hides the way he’s actually seething with anger inside over the fact that he even has to do this.
“Red Riot!” a woman in the back shouts, practically leaping out of her seat as she holds a recording device in his direction. “Is it true you swore in full earshot of a group of children?”
Eijirou clenches the podium tighter and resists the urge to grind his teeth. “It was a lapse of judgment on my part,” he says finally. The memory of snapping at Phantom Thief to just fuck off already after the blond had crowed one too many times about saving more kids than him, swims before his eyes and Eijirou tries and fails to get the next words out.
It won’t happen again, his PR Rep wants him to say but Eijirou knows better. As long as Monoma fucking Neito gets to hang around him on patrol it will definitely happen again.
Eijirou might be rapidly losing his grip on his cool but there’s no way he’ll ever reach the point of even considering compromising on his honesty.
“Red Riot!” another reporter thankfully lets out before Eijirou can say anything else. “Is it true you punched a fellow hero in the face last week?”
Eijirou’s right eye twitches. The bastard had fucking deserved it, ordering some kind of obscene homunculous of a custom drink order for himself, and then purposely leaving it for Eijirou to drink by snatching the cup clearly labeled Red Riot for himself!
No real man ever messes with another man’s coffee.
Not without a well deserved punch to the face anyway.
A bead of sweat rolls down the back of his neck as the horde of reporters stare up at him. Somehow he doesn’t think another ‘momentary lapse in judgement’ is gonna cut it.
Before he can say anything else though, yet another reporter is getting to their feet.
“Is it true you shoved Phantom Thief so hard he fell down a set of stairs?”
Eijirou wrinkles his nose. That dramatic ass had fallen down the stairs on purpose! At least this one he can easily answer though.
“It was in the heat of battle,” he says, lowering his head like he’s feeling contrite and remorseful about it– which part of him technically is considering even the villains he’d been fighting at the time had stopped everything to gape at Monoma fucking Neito flailing like a dumbass on the edge of the stairs. The asshole had even yelled out a slow and dramatic, “As! You! Wish!” on his way down like he was the fucking main character from Princess Bride! And he’d had Eijirou’s quirk active the whole time the piece of shit!
Eijirou coughs once to dispel the memory and continues. “He startled me when he reached out to copy my quirk and I reacted reflexively thinking he was a villain. While he did indeed fall, he had successfully activated my hardening beforehand and was ultimately fine.”
“Red Riot!”
“Red Riot!”
More cameras flash as what feels like a million reporters all start shouting more questions at him and Eijirou has to knuckle the podium to keep himself standing upright.
Dammit this feels like he’s being attacked.
What’s the big deal about this anyway, it’s just Monoma.
Bakugou never has to hold a press conference for swearing at anybody, and he’ll curse at anyone that so much as breathes near him.
So what is it? Because Eijirou has worked hard to be manly and kind, suddenly he can’t even yell at an annoying fly that pisses him off without the entire hero news circuit losing their collective minds?
He’s supposed to just take it?
He’s supposed to just eat it?
Monoma’s the one that keeps acting the fool but Eijirou’s the one that has to apologize for calling him out on his shit?
“No, you know what?”
Eijirou steps out from behind the podium knowing full well the reporters can hear him regardless. “Phantom Thief and I go way back alright? This is just how we interact but we always get the job done in the end. I’m sorry that the way we talk to each other is apparently anathema to my image but so what. Who cares if I called him a James Bond wannabe with an ego the size of his big fat mouth? Who cares if I tell him to shut up before I throw him out the window and we get to find out if my quirk is enough to keep him in one piece? Who cares if I think he’s a pompous bastard with a stick so far up his own ass it’s a miracle he can even speak around it?”
“Hey!” an audibly insulted voice calls out from somewhere in the crowd. “You never said that one out loud before!”
“Well I’m saying it now!” Eijirou snaps back, immediately incensed that Monoma had the fucking gall to show up to this stupid, pointless, waste of time, totally his fault, press conference. “And I mean it too, you arrogant piece of shit!”
The murmuring from the crowd of reporters reaches a fever pitch and Eijirou decides he’s had enough.
He spreads his arms wide and delivers his final line. “I’m Red fucking Riot dammit, and sometimes being a man means putting an asshole in his place. End of statement.”
And with that, Kirishima Eijirou, pro hero Red Riot, turns and walks offstage.
There’s satisfaction curling in his core even as a low grade anxiety starts buzzing in his chest.
His PR Rep is going to kill him.