Archive of Our Own

The good people of the Japanese public were not aware of most of their heroes’ civilian identities. It was a safety precaution. It kept villains and rabid fans away from off duty heroes and their families. Even UA, with its acclaimed Sports Festival, kept the safety of its young heroes in mind.

In the first year’s sports festival, all students are announced by name. Partly it’s to keep things fair between departments as transfers, though rare, might still happen at this stage. Mostly it’s because the hero students don’t have hero names yet. It’s bad practice to let the students get locked into a name and a brand before they even know what kind of hero they want to be.

By their second and third years, most of the hero students are announced by their hero names, especially those that have built reputations for themselves. Reputations from being veterans of a devastating war for example. So, it was by no means surprising when all the hero students of the former classes 1A and 1B, now 2A and 2B, were announced under their hero names during their second year sports festival. One of the only second year classes in UA’s history to be announced as such.

But, that festival was unique for other reasons too. The war had changed them - their drive, their fighting styles, their quirks, their bodies - all so much. Even though half of them were still nursing injuries, some to the point of sitting out entirely (Earphone Jack, Dynamight, Uravity, Deku), they had all leveled up well beyond their years in a way only life or death situations could push a person to evolve. They were practically unrecognizable from who they’d been just one year prior. That year the competition was fierce, but it also came with a levity because it was fighting for fun, not for their lives. Tentacole, Shemage, Ingenium and Shoto took the podium.

Their third year sports fest saw the return of all the hero students, and after Dynamight hedged out a win over Shoto in the finals, both of them fighting at full strength, the man, the hero, that stepped up to receive his first-place medal couldn’t even be compared to the raging boy from two years prior.

It is by design, and a collective preoccupation with more important things, that the civilian names of the hero students are all but erased from public consciousness by the time they graduate.

Three years later, the only people who know their names know them personally.

Excluding Shoto.

But he doesn’t count.

Dynamight and Red Riot, despite being top 5 nationally ranked heroes, are effectively different people entirely from Katsuki Bakugou and Eijirou Kirishima as far as the public is concerned.

Katsuki likes it that way.

Katsuki didn’t know as a kid, when he dreamed of being a hero, how much of themselves heroes end up giving away to the public. He didn’t once think about it until he watched All Might lose the last embers of his quirk fighting All For One in Kamino. He didn’t realize it until he watched Mirko tear off her only remaining arm fighting Shigaraki. He didn’t understand it until he died to save everyone during the war.

Amidst all this sacrifice, everything that a hero gave of themselves to the public, it was comforting to be able to keep their names for themselves.

That’s not to say they couldn’t be recognized when out in public.

Their faces didn’t change that much out of costume. Eijirou especially tended to be recognized for his striking features; his bright, red hair, and his bright, sharp-toothed smile, and the height he gained after the war that lets him tower over damn near everyone (All Might and Fat Gum still have him beat though). Actually, Eijirou was a bit of a nightmare to try and hide in a crowd long term, but in the short term an oversized hoodie, a face mask and some slouching generally did the trick to hide him and Katsuki alike from unwanted attention. With a little pre planning Katsuki, Eijirou, and the rest of their graduating class from UA, could go out in public and remain relatively anonymous in their everyday lives.

So what, they had to wear baggy clothes and slouch a little in public? Katsuki did that anyway.

So what, they couldn’t go out to a bar with their friends without at least one of them eventually being asked for an autograph or a picture or what the fuck ever? It had become a game at this point. How long could they all go without being recognized, or if they were feeling sociable, who could get asked to sign the most autographs that night?

So what, they had to rent private rooms in the back of restaurants if they went out for date nights? Katsuki wouldn’t complain about it. If he’d known about private rooms as a kid, he never would have let his parents take him to a restaurant without one.

As heroes, their lives weren’t without the drapings of fame and the demands of the public, they couldn’t be, but Katsuki could use his legal name for his mail without receiving bombs or love declarations.

Katsuki could use his legal name on his credit card at the grocery store and not make the cashier damn near have an aneurysm.

Katsuki’s parents could run their fashion business without it being linked to him, dependent wholly on his successes and failures. Or even worse, without him getting asked about it by every fucking vulture reporter scum that has the balls to talk to him.

The anonymity wasn’t perfect, but it was there. It was more than anyone had expected after the war to be honest.

It was enough.

—-----------------

Let it not be said that Katsuki isn’t a prideful son of a bitch. He would be the first to admit that he’s a showoff. He prides himself on being the best, and of course he’s going to show that off. He doesn’t risk his life every fucking day just for shits and giggles. He does it because he wants to help people, sure, but he also does it because his quirk is the best, he’s worked damn hard to make it that way, and other people should know that.

 Let it also not be said that Katsuki likes reporters. He doesn’t. He has a job to do and most of the time they get in the way of that. Yes, the news channels televise his fights so that the extras can see how badass he is, but he doesn’t want a microphone shoved in his face afterwards. They can fuck right off with that shit. What the fuck do they need him to comment on anyway? They watched his fucking fight. What the fuck is there left to talk about?

Eijirou on the other hand is not a showoff. Katsuki has told him time and time again what a strong, badass motherfucker he is, and while the shithead is finally starting to believe him, he’s still ridiculously humble.

Eijirou also has no problems making nice with the vultures. They can ask him the most asinine question on the entire fucking planet and the fucking sunshine incarnate that is Katsuki’s boyfriend will just answer it, like it’s not a load of flaming garbage steeped in horse shit.

They balanced each other out.

Fat Gum and Best Jeanist had respectively offered Red Riot and Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight spots at their agencies after graduation, but the pair had decided to open a joint agency instead. It had started off just the two of them, but once they got their legs under them, and a solid year under their belts, some of their other friends had decided to join them too. Eijirou was ecstatic to have Dunce Face, Soy Sauce, and Racoon Eyes around all the time. Katsuki would never admit it to their faces, but he liked it too.

Because they co-ran an agency, were hero partners, and were literal boyfriends, GEMG Dynamight and Red Riot frequently fought together. It was honestly more likely to see them fighting together than apart, and they had that shit down to a science.

A science that they frequently mixed up and added new moves to so that they wouldn’t become predictable… but a science nonetheless.

They were just finishing a big fight downtown when it happened.

Katsuki may be a private person who doesn’t like PDA until he’s two sakes in at trivia night (He’s such a nerd!) but Dynamight, high on post-fight endorphins, does not have the same inhibitions.

When Dynamight looks over at Red Riot talking to reporters about the fight, while he finishes handing the villains off and debriefing with the police (another thing they have down to a science), only to see at least three of the reports drooling over Red and a fourth actively hitting on him, well… what happened next is only a natural reaction.

“Hey Red,” Dynamight calls out, quickly walking towards his partner.

Red Riot turns to him, “Yeah Dynamight?”

Dynamight doesn’t answer. Instead, as he reaches Riot’s side, he grabs a hold of the strap that crosses his partner’s chest and pulls him down into a fierce kiss.

Understandably, Eijirou is shocked by this turn of events. This has never happened before, nor is it something that he expected to happen ever given Katsuki’s private nature. The shock does not prevent him from eagerly returning the kiss with passion and a practiced ease that speaks of experience. Lots and lots of experience.

The effect on the reporters is instant. The hungry, incessant stream of questions is immediately quieted. Neither hero has ever made even a passing comment about their love lives despite significant interest from the public, and numerous attempts from reporters to get the story. Many people assume that they are just young and want to stay focused on their hero careers - how else would they manage to run their own agency and both be ranked in the top 5 only three years after graduation - but both heroes have been the center of many dating rumors since their debuts.

Both men have been speculated to be dating Pinky, Chargebolt, Shoto and Deku most frequently with guest appearances from the rest of their UA peers. One of the most notable instances was about a year ago when the public was convinced for a month that Dynamight and Uravity were dating when they had been photographed together at a bar. Ironically, the photo had been taken at Ochako’s engagement party.

Working at the same agency as Pinky and Chargebolt they spent a lot of time together which fueled the rumors. Despite being the fifth member of the more public part of their agency Cellophane was hardly ever speculated to be anyone’s possible boyfriend. He liked to joke that his asexuality was just that potent. Deku and Shoto being in the top 5 with Dynamight and Red Riot meant they teamed up for fights or PR work nearly as much as they did with the heroes at their respective agencies, also fuelling the rumors. The fact that it had gotten out Dynamight and Deku had known each other since they were kids didn’t help. Despite the pair publicly stating multiple times that they were basically brothers, the portion of their respective fans that had their heads up the ass of the childhood friends to lovers trope wouldn’t let it go. It would be funny if it wasn’t so disturbing to think about.

Amongst all the rumors and speculations, the smartest fans knew that Dynamight and Red Riot were an unstoppable partnership in every conceivable way. A few were convinced the pair had been in love since UA, but were unwilling to risk their professional partnership and confess, doomed to a life of endless pining for the good of society. But the majority of fans have speculated that the two have been in a relationship for years. It was so widely speculated in fact that it hardly made news anymore unlike their other dating rumors.

This would certainly change that.

The reporters snapped out of their shock fairly quickly and had absolutely no qualms about taking pictures and video of the duo as they kissed. The internet would be in an uproar in the matter of hours. Minutes if any of the reporters were still live.

By the time Dynamight pulls away, grinning like a mad man, Red Riot is breathless, unsteady, and more than a little turned on.

Shouts of “Dynamight?! Dynamight?!” and “Red Riot a statement please?!” ring through the crowd, but Katsuki is too high on endorphins, and smug pride to care, and that kiss obliterated Eijirou’s ability to focus on absolutely anything other than his boyfriend.

Katsuki makes a subtle tipping gesture with his head, asking Eijirou if he’s ready to get the fuck out of there. He is, he really is, so with no fanfare whatsoever in the wake of the bomb they just dropped, Dynamight and Red Riot, turn and walk away from the crowd of reporters and head back to their agency.

—-----------------

Two weeks later, Mina is sitting at a table in the break room reading a magazine from one of the more gossipy news outlets. Plastered across the front cover is a picture of Dynamight and Red Riot, mid-make out, with evidence of a fight littering the background. In big bold letters across the bottom of the page is the only thing that Katsuki has commented to the media about the whole thing, “He’s mine fuckers!”

“Did you know that you and Eijirou met when you were 6 and have been best friends since?” Mina asked Katsuki as he walked into the breakroom towards the fridge.

“Fucking… Those fuckers are still on about that? It’s been weeks! And no the fuck we haven’t. If I’d known Ei for that long I’d be a much nicer person or he’d be less of a fucking saint,” Katsuki complained, as he reached into the fridge for his lunch.

“I don’t know?” Mina hummed in the way that Katsuki knew meant that she was going to say something stupid. “You and Eiji tend to go into your own little bubble when you’re together. Maybe it really has been that long and you’ve been so wrapped up in each other that you didn’t realize the time passing. I’ll have to ask Midoriya and see what he says. He’d remember right?”

“Do not bring Izuku into this!” Katsuki snapped, turning to Mina and closing the fridge. “That nerd will spend hours researching and somehow find out that Eijirou and I where at the same park for five fucking minutes when we were three years old and used the same swing set or some shit. I do not need him knowing more about my life than he already fucking does.”

“Then who does?” Eijirou asked, coming into the lounge. He was covered in dirt and dust from spending the last few hours cleaning up a sinkhole. Due to the volatile nature of the area, Pinky and Dynamight’s quirks were deemed too unpredictable to be of use. Eijirou walked right up to Katsuki, leaned their foreheads together and deflated.

“Welcome back,” Katsuki said in the teasing way that he exclusively used with Eijirou. The teasing that was flirty and endearing with absolutely no heat behind it. Entirely separate from the sarcastic, playfully mocking wit that he used with everyone else.

“Hmm,” Eijirou grunted, and leaned into Katsuki more, causing his chin to dip down, and their mouths to come closer together.

Katsuki laughed. “Oh, what’s this? Do you want something Red?”

“Mmuhh,” Eijirou’s face pinched. “’Suki, stop being mean,” he whined. “I’ve been holding up sinkhole pieces for hours.”

Katsuki laughed again as his boyfriend brought their lips closer still. At Ei’s third grunt, he finally relented and kissed him. The tired hero absolutely melted.

“Ahem,” Mina said after an awkward amount of time waiting for them to be done.

The men pulled away from each other slowly. Eijirou looked like it was harder to pull away from Katsuki than to hold up all the rubble he’d been supporting today combined, and Katsuki moved away with a purposeful hesitation that emphasized each of his fingers unwinding from where he’d buried them in red hair.

Mina rolled her eyes. “You two are insufferable, you know that?” she complained. “It’s a wonder that the press didn’t get ahold of how absolutely whipped you both are sooner.”

“Fuck off,” Katsuki told her, letting Eijirou rest his head on his shoulder and hearing a gentle sigh.

“Where are Denki and Hanta?” Mina asked Eijirou.

“They’re still at the site,” Eijirou explained. Mina watched in bafflement as somehow her friend managed to keep his head on Katsuki’s shoulder even as the shorter man moved to the table and sat down to start eating his lunch. “They said that all the big pieces were secure enough that they didn’t need me anymore, but they kept Hanta for some of the smaller pieces and Denki because the sinkhole knocked out some power lines, and he was helping fuel parts of the area until they could get them fixed.”

“Yikes,” Mina sympathized. Eijirou hummed in tired agreement.

“Alright you big baby,” Katsuki said. “Why don’t you stand up and get your food out of the fridge. You need to refuel after working so hard today, and the sooner you eat, the sooner you can shower.”

Eijirou grunted in a way that made the sound seem deeply pained, before letting out the world’s most dramatic sign as he stood, removing his head from his partner’s shoulder.

“Insufferable,” Mina mumbled under her breath as she sat back down, and started reading her magazine again.

—-----------------

After Eijirou had eaten and cleaned up from the sinkhole, he felt a lot better. He felt a little worse when he saw the state that Denki and Hanta were in as they walked through the agency doors.

Both heroes were covered in rubble dust. Hanta’s forearms were scraped up and bloody, some loose tape hanging from an elbow. That only happened when he was really spent. Denki didn’t look a whole lot better. His eyes were dazed like he was nearing or just coming back from shorting out, and his hair was sticking up with a mixture of static and debris dust.

“Welcome back guys. How’d the rest of the cleanup go?” he asked as they walked in.

Denki must have been more out of it than Eijirou had initially thought because he only grunted. Usually he’d start a play by play of what happened, or at the very least respond with something sarcastic. Hanta just chuckled in a way that perfectly conveyed, “Don’t ask.”

The two disappeared around the corner towards the locker rooms just as Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight was coming from the other direction dressed for patrol. Red Riot, fortunately, was done for the day, and able to go home, but Dynamight’s patrol route started in the direction of their apartment so Eiji had waited a few minutes so that they could walk together for a bit.

The second they walked out the door Eijirou was grateful that he’d put on his hoodie. It wasn’t cold, and even if it were he tended to run hot, but there was just enough chill in the air to be uncomfortable when he was tired and sore. He flipped his hood up to try and preserve just a little more warmth.

Dynamight frowned. “I’ll have to switch to my winter suit soon,” he mused.

Eijirou bit his bottom lip to keep in his chuckle. It was cute how much Katsuki hated the cold. Eijirou wasn’t about to complain though since it also made his boyfriend cuddly, especially in the winter.

They walked side by side, not saying much, and keeping a professional distance since Dynamight was on patrol. Even still there was a quiet sort of intimacy to the action. The simple fact that they were together.

When they got to the corner where they would have to part ways Eijirou did a quick scan. There were maybe fifteen people total on the surrounding sidewalks and none of them seemed to be paying Dynamight any attention. They must be locals then, used to seeing him patrol the area.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Eijirou gave in to the desire of his tired brain and leaned down giving his boyfriend a quick peck on the cheek.

He knew that it was a bit of a risk, but Dynamight had surprised him with a kiss so it only seemed fair that Eijirou could do the same. It’s not like he’d done it in front of a bunch of reporters either.

After pulling away, Eijirou lingered just long enough to smirk at his boyfriend and take in the light blush spreading across Dynamight’s cheeks before he walked off.

—-----------------

“You asshole!” Katsuki shouted storming into their apartment. “Eijirou Kirishima you fucking asshole!”

Eijirou lifted his head from where he was watching TV on the couch. “What’s up Kats? Something wrong?”

“Don’t you play dumb with me you bastard! Thanks to your little stunt I was distracted on patrol!”

“Your definition of distracted or mine?”

“Huh! What’s that supposed to mean?” Eijirou gave him a flat look. Katsuki glared back. Katsuki looked away first. “You’re lucky it was a slow day fucker. What would have happened if a villain were to have shown up huh?”

“Then you would have taken care of it like you always do.”

Katsuki’s scowl morphed into a pout. He was weak to Eijirou’s flattery, especially when it was the truth, and he wasn’t actually mad, just annoyed that he hadn’t been able to kiss Eijirou back yet. His competitive nature spilled over into kissing too, and he wouldn’t let Eijirou give him more kisses than Katsuki gave. It had taken Eijirou a few months into dating to realize it, but now it was his favorite game. He loved trying to see how many kisses he could get in throughout the day without letting Katsuki kiss him in return or try and get him worked up enough that he lost track during sex.

“Come here,” Eijirou offered, sitting up properly and opening his arms to Katsuki.

Katsuki immediately did, walking to Eijirou’s spot on the couch and taking a seat straddling his boyfriend’s lap. He twisted his fingers into long red hair, yanking slightly on the strands to make his boyfriend look up at him. “You're the worst,” Katsuki complained, which in Katsukese translated to, “I love you so much and I couldn’t stop thinking about you all patrol.”

“I know,” Eijirou responded, kissing the underside of Katsuki’s jaw before he could stop him.

Katsuki growled, tightening his grip in the strands and pulling even harder. Eijirou groaned. Kats lowered his head and pressed a long firm kiss into his boyfriend's throat, right where he was most sensitive. When he finally moved his mouth away he placed a much gentler kiss on Eijirou’s forehead.

Ei felt his already closed eyes flutter. He must have done something good, because Katsuki was being especially sweet with him.

“You’re lucky that I fucking love you,” Katsuki said against his lips before kissing him again.

Eijirou smiled into it, turning his head to get a better angle and nodding subtly enough to not break the kiss. Yeah. Yeah I am.

—-----------------

It took two days for the story to drop.

The hero duo found out when Mina marched into their shared office and threw the tabloid at Katsuki’s head. “What the fuck!”

Katsuki turned to Mina, scowling at her and holding his hand to the back of his head. It hadn’t really hurt, but it was the principle of the thing. “What the fuck yourself Racoon Eyes!”

Mina picked the magazine back up and held it in Katsuki’s face, so close he had to go cross eyed to make out the words on the cover.

Dynamight Seen Kissing Fan on Patrol!

As soon as the words registered Katsuki snatched the paper from her hands and stared at the cover. The accompanying picture was taken from behind, Dynamight’s back taking up most of the frame, but even from that angle his costume was distinctive. Between Dynamight’s body and the person’s baggy hoodie, it was hard to tell anything about who the pro hero was kissing except that they were broad and slightly taller than Dynamight. From the angle it was impossible to see either party’s face and it looked like they were kissing directly on the mouth. Honestly, for a photo no doubt taken with only a split second of reaction time, or captured as the unlikely background of another focus, it was impressive how perfectly constructed it was for misinterpretation.

“What the fuck?” Katsuki mumbled under his breath, before the indignation flared and he threw the magazine at Eijirou. “This is your fucking fault asshole!”

Mina shrieked in outrage. “How dare you blame him! How could you! You…”

She was cut off by Eijirou, “It is Mina! It’s me in the photo!”

That seemed to knock the wind out of her sails. “What?”

Katsuki sighed, pressing his fingers into the bridge of his nose and trying to calm down as Eijirou explained. “I kissed Katsuki’s cheek a couple days ago when he walked me towards home. I thought the area was clear. There were maybe fifteen people tops around there and no one was paying any attention. It was only for like a second too. I’m a little impressed that anyone managed to get a photo.” He mumbled that last bit.

“Well someone did,” Katsuki complained, “And if not even one of our best fucking friends can tell that it’s you in that picture what do you think that the public’s going to think. Fuck.”

“We could just tell them the truth,” Eijirou offered.

“And risk the security of our home? If anyone starts asking questions it wouldn’t take much to figure out where we were coming from and where you headed afterwards. We’d have reporters staking out the neighborhood, and would end up needing to move within the week.”

“Well we can’t just say nothing. If they try to dig into who I am, we run into the same problem.”

They all stood there in silence. After a solid thirty seconds of no one doing anything, Katsuki grabbed his phone with a growl and opened his Twitter page. He doesn’t use it often. It gets the most use when the hero rankings are posted and when he’s trying to dispel dating rumors. Like now.

I didn’t kiss a random extra on patrol!

He typed the message out quickly, adding three explosion emojis for emphasis, and hit post.

“There,” he said confidently, showing the others the message. “That should handle it.”

—-----------------

That did not handle it. If anything, Dynamight’s comment made the whole thing worse. Over the next few weeks there was constant speculation online about who the stranger could be.

The “obvious” assumption was that Dynamight was cheating on Red Riot. While the initial photo might have been able to be brushed off as an overeager fan or some one off occurrence, Dynamight specifying that it wasn’t a “random extra”, led to many people assuming whoever this person was was someone that the pro hero had been seeing for a while.

Some people tried to give Dynamight the benefit of the doubt, and speculated that the pair were polyamorous or swingers. They cited the heroes’ historic secrecy about their relationship as evidence and argued that this might have been a “soft launch” of the idea to the public.

Though Eijirou appreciated that there were people willing to give Dynamight the benefit of the doubt, he was not appreciative of the fact that so few people were willing to believe that it could possibly be him in the picture. The few that did and gave voice to it on social media were immediately shot down with what could practically be called dissertations on why Eijirou couldn’t possibly be himself.

The primary evidence, his height.

Though references were made to other features, they admitted it was nearly impossible to tell much with the sweatshirt and quality of the image. What “scholars” seemed to agree on though was that hoodies didn’t make you nearly twenty centimeters shorter.

Eijirou had never hated a piece of clothing more in his life.

It wasn’t just the sweatshirt’s fault of course. In fact, it was mainly the fault of the camera angle. Unfortunately, the camera angle in addition to the loose fit of the sweatshirt fabric disguised the bend in his torso and made him look like he was standing perfectly upright. Since Red Riot hadn’t been that close to Dynamight’s height since late their second year of UA, the disbelief was not unfounded, just really annoying.

Of course Katsuki refused to say anything else about it to the public, which did not help. Their friends couldn’t say anything either without being accused of making excuses for him and dragging themselves into this shit show, more than the occasional interview question already had. Eijirou himself might be able to clear things up, but at this point he’d waited so long that it would probably just look suspicious and would just add fuel to the rumor mill. They’d just have to be patient. The public would lose interest and this would all blow over eventually.

—-----------------

Three months after the photo had come out it seemed that they were finally in the clear. After no one was able to dig up information on the mystery fan those first two weeks, interest waned significantly. Dynamight and Red Riot’s continued flawless teamwork, and their combined radio silence about the whole event also helped to diminish public speculations. It was hard to think that the heroes were breaking up when they still acted like they were extensions of each other.

The polyamory theory got more popular as time went on, and an additional theory sprung up that, given the atrocious camera angle, it’s possible that the pair were just talking, and standing too close together.

Life returned to normal, and though the heroes occasionally got asked about it, by extremely gossipy reporters or nosy fans, the whole instance was largely forgotten.

This of course means that it was time for the universe to fuck with them again.

Katsuki was running errands on his day off, walking through the canned food aisle of the grocery store, when it happened. One moment Katsuki was walking normally and the next it was like he was drunk off his ass. If it weren’t for the swaying overhead lights and some cans falling off the shelves, he might think that he was being targeted by villains. As it was, the surrounding environment clued him in that this was an earthquake.

Katsuki immediately knelt down, setting his grocery basket on the ground before covering his head with his arms. He might be a pro hero but that didn’t mean that he could fight the literal movement of the earth, and he followed the same earthquake procedures now that he used as a kid. The only difference was that now he also knew more about what to do and look for in the aftermath.

When the shaking finally stopped he got up from his crouched position, and took stock of the area around him. Nothing looked visibly damaged and all the lights seemed to be working. He hadn’t heard any loud crashes anywhere and couldn’t smell anything that suggested a gas leak. More extensive checks would have to be done later, but for the moment there didn’t seem to be any immediate dangers that needed addressing.

The only things amiss seemed to be a large collection of cans on the floor, and a mother at the other end of the aisle trying to comfort her crying child. The mother looked young and definitely overwhelmed, whether from the child, the quake or something else. Maybe it was a mixture of all three. Katsuki might not be the best with kids, or people in general, but he remembers when he was about the kid's age, maybe four or five, and experienced his first strong earthquake. He wasn’t too proud to admit that he cried. He wasn’t sure what he could do, especially since he didn’t really want to expose himself as a pro hero, but he started making his way to the pair anyway. 

Katsuki was only a few steps away when he saw, almost in slow motion, a can knocked loose in the quake finally roll from its precarious spot on a shelf above the crying child. It fell straight down and hit the child perfectly on the head. Then the world went white.

—-----------------

“What’s the situation?” Red Riot asked as he and Pinky arrived on scene.

“We’re not quite sure,” the officer responded. “The evacuees that have still been conscious say that the building was fine during the quake, but less than two minutes later there was a massive energy wave that brought the building down.”

Sounds like a quirk then. “Do we think it’s a villain attack?” Pinky asked.

The officer shook his head. “Doubtful. There’s been no indication of additional blasts or a villainous presence in the area. Our guess is that it was accidental. A scared civilian or a quirk awakening most likely.”

“Understood,” Riot responded. “Where do you want us?”

“If you could both start clearing away the rubble that would help the most. From what we’ve gathered the store wasn’t very full, but there were definitely more people in it than have come out.”

Both heroes agreed quickly and got to work. They diligently worked alongside the emergency responders to clear the large chunks of debris from the area and pull trapped, injured or unconscious civilians from the store. The blast’s epicenter seemed to come from the middle of the store, so while the four exterior walls were largely bowed outwards or undamaged, the entire ceiling seems to have come down on the place. The lucky civilians who had been close to the exterior walls to begin with had mostly all evacuated without assistance, and as they searched they found that there were also a lucky few who had still been sheltering after the quake under tables and the like, keeping them safe from the falling debris, even if they were still trapped.

Nearly an hour and a half in, and about seventy percent of the damaged area had been cleared. Though the arrival of heroes Red Riot and Pinky had already increased the clean ups efficiency exponentially, their progress had sped up even more when a few newly debuted sidekicks showed up to help too. Red Riot was getting close to what they assumed was the initial blast zone, and he really hoped that all the red he was seeing on the ground came from smashed tomato soup cans instead of blood.

He heaved a large chuck of ceiling away from a collapsed shelf, revealing a young woman. She was on her stomach with one arm pinned under the shelf. Riot immediately crouched to check her pulse, and was more than a little surprised when he realised the woman was conscious and crying.

“Can you hear me? Where are you hurt? I’ll call over…”

He was cut off by the woman’s panicky voice, “My son!” she said. “Find my son!”

Red Riot tried his best to smile reassuringly and speak calmly “I promise you I’ll find your son, but I need to help you first.”

“No,” the woman shook her head violently. “No. I’m fine! I have a shock absorption quirk. I’m just stuck. Find my son!”

Eijirou wanted to argue, his hero training telling him to prioritize this woman, since she was alive and breathing, and he knew where she was. But he’d also been taught to trust his judgement as a hero, and he knew that not knowing where her son is was only going to cause her more distress. He examined her carefully one more time. She didn’t appear to have any lethal wounds, but her arm was definitely stuck in the debris. He’d need Pinky or someone else to get her out of there safely. He didn’t trust that he could move the debris without making it worse.

“Okay,” the hero relented. “Okay. Where did you last see your son?”

The relief in the woman’s eyes was palpable. She pointed with her one free hand. “Over there. I was right next to him, trying to calm him down after that earthquake when suddenly I was hit with a wave of energy and pushed over here. I… I think it’s his quirk. We… we didn’t think it was this strong. He’s only let out little bursts of energy before… I… oh Kami!” She started crying again, harder now, and Red Riot cursed. So the officer had been right. It was a scared civilian. A kid no less. Shit!

“Don’t worry. I’ll find him,” the hero promised, beginning to search the area the woman had described. If this really was a traumatic activation of the kid’s quirk, and to do something of this scale, he was likely suffering from quirk exhaustion. While not usually lethal, he was also likely unconscious, and with all the falling debris…

Red Riot quickly got to work moving the large chunks of debris out of the way and into a stack where he knew that it was clear, before sifting through the smaller rumble. Not even five minutes later he found the little boy passed out covered in ceiling dust and small bits of debris, but looking mostly unharmed. Riot checked his vitals and both seemed strong. It seems that the blast originating from himself also shielded him from most of the fall out.

He carried the still unconscious little boy, no older than six, over to his mother, who wept with relief at the sight. Riot called over to Pinky who came to help release the woman’s arm from the shelving unit, before beginning to work her way through the uncleared areas of the aisle. Red Riot called for the EMTs, and stayed with the mother and son, making sure the woman didn’t go into shock now that there was nothing to distract her. When the EMTs got to them, the woman and the little boy were loaded onto stretchers. Before the pair could be carried away to the ambulances though the woman asked, “Did you find the man that was in the aisle with us?”

Riot’s eyebrows furrowed, “Not yet, but we haven’t finished clearing the whole area. We’ll keep looking.”

The woman nodded but the movement was slow, the adrenaline was leaving her body and taking most of her energy with it. “Good. It looked like he was coming to help us, before the blast. I’d hate for him to be hurt.”

Red Riot deliberately did not tell this traumatized woman that if the man was as close to them as she claimed, it was nearly impossible for him to not be hurt. In fact, if the man was that close, Riot wouldn’t be surprised if they found a dead body. Honestly, the fact that there hadn’t been one already was a miracle.

“Riot!” Pinky shouted, getting his attention immediately. 

“I have to go,” he told the woman, and she just smiled as she and her son were taken away.

“Eijirou!” Pinky shouted again, and his heart stopped. Something was wrong! They never used their civilian names in the field.

Red Riot sprinted over to Pinky, who was kneeling on the ground next to what Riot was willing to assume was the body of the man the woman was talking about. The hero was only a couple steps away when his heart fell out of his body.

No, no, no, no…

The only word he could hear was the denial in his head.

No, no, no. Not Katsuki. It’s not Katsuki!

But of course it was. Even covered in rubble dust and blood - that was definitely blood - Eijirou would have to be blind to not recognize him instantly. He knew that face better than his own.

Eijirou dropped to his knees next to Mina, immediately feeling for Katsuki’s pulse. He almost couldn’t feel it over the blood racing through his own body, but there! It was there! He was still alive!

Eijirou didn’t think. If he was able to right now he would remember not to move him, to let the EMTs come with a stretcher and take Katsuki to the hospital. But all Eijirou could do right now was see the bleeding unconscious body of his partner, the love of his life, lying on the ground and probably dying! So he moved.

Eijirou picked Katsuki up as gently as he could, cradling his body against his chest and he sprinted! He ran as fast as he could on the unstable terrain towards the ambulances waiting outside. Coming out of the building, it was like entering another world with the chaotic rush of lights and noise; a far cry from the systematic purpose of the rescue workers inside. The shock temporarily dislodged the panic from Eijirou’s brain, and he was able to call out for an ambulance. The shock on the EMTs’ faces was quickly dispelled as they rushed into action.

Eijirou watched them start to pull a gurney from a waiting ambulance, and something in him slowed just slightly. “It’s okay Katsuki,” he mumbled into his love’s hair. “You're going to be okay.” He kissed his forehead, continuing to mumble reassurances, though he wasn’t sure who they were for.

As he laid Katsuki down on the gurney, he felt Mina come up behind him. He turned his eyes to look at her but his body was still facing Katsuki, ready to move the second something changed.

“Go with him,” she told him.

Eijirou glanced past her to the wreckage.

“Go with him,” Mina repeated. “We’re almost done here anyway, and you won’t be of any use worried about him. Don’t be a hero right now. Go!”

Eijirou didn’t complain. He didn’t think that he could leave Katsuki alone if he tried, and if Pinky was telling him that he didn’t need to, than he wasn’t even going to make the effort. He followed the EMTs into the ambulance, and held Katsuki’s hand the entire way to the hospital.

—-----------------

When Katsuki opened his eyes, the world was white.

The first sensation that he could focus on was that his nose itched. When he went to move his arm to scratch it he was greeted with the second sensation, his ribs fucking hurt! The groan that he let out vibrated through his body, definitely not helping his ribs, and letting him know that his head was also pounding.

“Katsuki!” Eijirou’s worried voice came from beside him.

Katsuki turned his head, and looked up into the worried eyes of his boyfriend. “Ei,” he smiled, and it came out scratchy and hoarse, but there was so much dopey affection in it that despite the pain he could still feel, Katsuki knew he must be on some good meds. “What happened?”

“A quirk accident, after the earthquake. The building collapsed.”

Katsuki grunted trying to remember what happened just before he woke up here. He was at the grocery store, getting food to meal prep for the week, and… oh that’s right. The building was shaking, and when he got up, the little boy was crying and then a can fell on his head… “The kid?” Katsuki asked.

Eijirou huffed, but he smiled. “The kid is alright. It was his quirk that caused the collapse. Fortunately everyone survived. Your injuries were some of the worst.”

“What…”

Katsuki didn’t even need to form the rest of the sentence before his partner was answering. “Five broken ribs, another couple bruised, a concussion and some stress fractures in your left wrist. Must have landed on it when the blast knocked you backwards.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Eijirou said, but his voice was so full of relief it wasn’t very convincing.

They were silent for a bit before Ei finally spoke, “I was so scared Katsuki.” Katsuki stayed quiet, he could tell that his boyfriend had more to say. “When I saw you laying in the rubble,” Katsuki sucked in a breath, “Kats… I’ve never been so scared in my life. I thought… I thought I’d lost you again.” Quiet tears started rolling down Eijirou’s face.

Katsuki stared at his boyfriend as he cried quietly. Clearly it was not the first time that he’d done so. His heart ached, thinking of what could have happened. It ached even more knowing that Eijirou had to find him like that. It was one thing to be called to the hospital after something like that. They’d both felt it more than once, the suffocating weight of the unknown. The awfulness of not being able to see for themselves that their partner was alive and breathing. But as awful as that unknown is, they only see the aftermath. The cleaned up sterilized version of the condition their living heart had been in. To be at the scene… Katsuki can practically hear the worried, self deprecating thoughts from here.

“You were fast enough,” Katsuki says, startling Eijirou’s tears into stopping, if only momentarily.

“What..?”

“You were fast enough,” he repeats. “You were strong enough. You were diligent, and it was the right call. You saved so many lives, and no matter how long it took, you found me, and I’m alive because of you.” Eijirou resumed crying, harder than before, as Katsuki kept talking. “There is nothing you could have done to prevent the accident. It was an accident. There was nothing you could have done to protect me or anyone else from what happened. You don’t control the tectonic plates. You can’t prevent every child from getting scared. All you could have done is exactly what you did. You were a hero. You helped the people in need, all the people in need. You did not fail me by helping them. I wouldn’t be so damn proud to love you if you were someone who could’ve ignored everyone else there that needed your help.

“There is nothing that could keep me from returning to your side Kirishima Eijirou. Not a mission or a villain or an earthquake or death itself. I told you before that death is a weak ass motherfucker and I meant it. I beat it once, and don’t think I won’t do it again to get back to you. No matter what, it’s you and me, forever. Got that?”

Eijirou was full on sobbing now. Fat, ugly tears that were the furthest thing from attractive, and yet Katsuki still found him beautiful anyway. “I love you Katsuki,” he blubbered out between sobs. “I love you so much!”

“Is that a yes then?” Katsuki asked.

Eijirou gasped a few times, trying to rein his tears in enough to respond. “A yes - hic - A yes to what?”

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He thought it was pretty obvious. “Will you marry me, you big baby?”

Eijirou laughed while the tears continued streaming down his face in rivers. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

—-----------------

It took nearly a half hour for Eijirou to collect himself after the proposal. Once he did, both men promptly realized that they should probably have called for a nurse when Katsuki woke up. 

After the nurse had checked him over, Eijirou carefully climbed onto Katsuki's bed, straddling his waist and making sure he wasn't applying pressure to any of Katsuki's injuries. Then Eijirou kissed his fiancé breathless.

When they finally pulled apart, Eijirou laid himself down on the bed so he could - carefully - cuddle his fiancé! Neither man could keep the smile off their face.

“You know Kats,” Eijirou started, “Only you could manage to make someone cry from compliments only to insult them in the same proposal.”

“Huh. I didn't insult you.”

“You called me a big baby.”

“That wasn't an insult, it was an observation of fact. You were blubbering.”

“Yeah, because you'd just systematically assaulted me with compliments.”

“Complain about it some more and see if I ever compliment you again, Asshole.”

Eijirou just laughed, and though it shook Katsuki's injuries a little he wasn't about to tell him that. The sound of his laugh was better medicine than anything the doctors could ever give him.

The pair laid in silence for a while, just feeling each other’s heartbeats and listening to each other’s breaths. Taking in the proof that they were alive and together. Eijirou needed to know he wasn’t too late, and Katsuki needed to know it wasn’t some horrible trick of the afterlife.

“I should probably tell our friends you woke up. Mina found you first, and I’m sure they’re all worried sick.”

Katsuki grumbled, he’d been half asleep and though he agreed, that didn’t mean that he had to like it.

“Will you be okay if they come visit? You know they’ll want to.”

Katsuki sighed, regretted it immediately, before grunting his approval along with a small nodd.

“I’m going to need some words Love. I’m not going to text them that you’re awake just to have you fall back to sleep on me.”

Katsuki could, reluctantly, see the logic in that statement. “What time is it?”

“Twenty-one:twelve.”

“Tell the idiots that they can visit in the morning. I’m tired.”

Eijirou chuckled. “Fair, I didn’t realize that it was already past your bedtime.”

“Fuck you.”

“Not with your injuries Sweetheart.”

Katsuki choked on his tongue. Eijirou laughed some more. Katsuki attempted to hit him with his pillow, but as they were both laying on it, it didn’t work very well.

“All right, all right. I’ll let you get some sleep, you’ll need it to heal.” Eijirou then had the absolute audacity to try and get up.

Katsuki grabbed him and pulled him back down. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m gonna go home, Kats.”

Katsuki grunted his disapproval and grabbed onto his boyfriend harder. “Stay?” It sounded like a question but Eijirou knew that it was a plea.

Eijirou took in the borrowed scrubs he was wearing, at least a size too small. He thought about how the staff member who gave them to him insisted that he shower. He thought about how he was only in said shower for about three minutes before coming back to Katsuki’s side. He thought about the rubble dust no doubt still hidden in his hair and the divots of his body. He really should go home and clean himself up.

But then Eijirou thinks about seeing Katsuki in that rubble. He thinks about the ambulance ride. He thinks about how agonizing those three minutes were when he wasn’t by his side. He thinks about the proposal, and how much he loves this man in front of him. He thinks about the quiet, gentle pleading in his love's voice.

The decision is easy really.

“Okay.” And Eijirou lays back down.

—-----------------

Their friends arrive in the morning, and they come with news.

As if Katsuki nearly dying in a collapsed building wasn’t enough, a reporter got pictures of Red Riot carrying him out of the building, the forehead kiss, and Red Riot getting into the ambulance.

When Katsuki sees the photos he immediately has two thoughts: one, that fucker tried to one up me in our kiss count while I was unconscious, and two, shit I look bad.

The angle is, once again, absolutely shit, and you can’t make heads or tails of Katsuki’s features. The rubble dust does not help, and Katsuki isn’t even surprised that the press is once again having a field day speculating the end of the duo’s relationship.

Katsuki says as much. “I get that I look like shit, but my fiancé is literally carrying me out of a trashed building in that photo and the press still has the audacity to question our relationship?!”

“Fiancé!” Mina and Denki shout in unison. Hanta just laughs. Katsuki has about point five seconds to regret every choice that led him to having friends before he and Eijirou are bombarded with questions.

Thank Kami that the other man is much more indulgent than Katsuki is. He has no problem answering the 99,000 questions that the others ask, and regaling them with the story of how Katsuki proposed after making him cry yesterday. He does not have the decency to skip over the fact Katsuki called him a “big baby” and despite his protests Katsuki is out voted four to one that he insulted his fiancé while proposing.

“But like in a cute way,” Denki says. Katsuki genuinely isn’t sure who that comment was supposed to be for. It’s not like Katsuki needs reassurance. Eijirou said yes, didn't he?

When finally it seems that the group is done gossiping, Katsuki tries to get their attention back on more pressing matters. “Enough about the proposal. We got another issue.”

The others looked at him confused.

Katsuki rolled his eyes. He’d learned his lesson about sighing yesterday. “What are we going to do about the stupid press thinking that Red Riot isn’t mine anymore?”

Mina cooed, and a wicked smirk crossed Denki’s face. Hanta laughed some more and Eijirou’s face lit up crimson.

“Are you jealous?” Mina teased.

“You didn’t seem to have a problem with it when they thought you were cheating on Riot here,” Denki added.

Katsuki tsked. “Of course I had a problem with it, but that was different.”

“How?” Mina asked. Eijirou perked up at that too.

“Because,” Katsuki drew out the word like he didn’t understand why he should have to explain something so obvious, “they didn’t know jack shit about what was going on in that picture, and regardless of what they might have thought they still knew that Red is mine. I’m not about to let them forget it just because they can’t recognize me without my eyeliner.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s more to it than you not wearing eyeliner,” Denki tries to point out. Katsuki ignores him. Eijirou is once again blushing. It will never not be hot when his boyfriend gets possessive and proud to call him his!

“If the paparazzi would have taken those same pictures under normal circumstances…” Katsuki trailed off, the glint in his eyes suddenly calculating instead of annoyed. “Do you think Round Cheeks still has the number for that wedding photographer she used?”

—-----------------

The whole thing was a nightmare to arrange, and if Katsuki never heard the word ‘schedule’ again it would be too soon. Fortunately, he’d had nearly two months worth of medical leave to use to arrange it. As he and Eijirou walked into the TV studio he could feel the combined excitement of a plan coming together, and this shit show nearly being over.

“You sure about this Kats?” Ei asked.

Katsuki nodded before pausing. He turned to his partner, concern clear in his voice, “Are you?”

A smile lit up his face, “Definitely.”

Katsuki’s answering smile was all teeth and victorious, laced with that little bit of possessiveness that Eijirou would never admit to loving so much.

They both arrived at the studio wearing the dress shirts and slacks that they would wear for the actual interview. It was standard practice to be out of costume for studio interviews, part of the reason that Katsuki despite them, but tonight it was actually beneficial to the plan. They were swiftly sent through hair and makeup and Katsuki hated every moment of that too. The process was too similar to his days modeling his parents' children's clothing line.

After being fitted with mics, it was hardly any time at all before they were ushered on stage. The host welcomed them, using only their hero names, and asked them a few standard questions about some of their recent fights, and how they predicted the hero billboards might look next month. Their answers were short and to the point. It was all pleasantry and filler. No one there actually cared about these questions: not the host asking, not the heroes answering and certainly not the audience.

Finally the host asked the question that everyone was waiting for. The reason that Katsuki had set this whole thing up in the first place.

“So Red Riot, Dynamight, there has been a lot of speculation about the nature of your relationship these last few months. First you kiss in front of a group of reporters and leave before giving any sort of comment, and then later we see images of the both of you kissing who we can only assume are different people. Was that first kiss just the heat of the moment? Is there trouble in paradise? I must admit I’ve always been amongst the fans who assumed that you were dating and just keeping it to yourselves. I know I, and other fans like me, would love to hear the whole story straight from the source.”

Katsuki tsked, but it was hard to keep the grin off his face. This is what they came here for after all.

In contrast, Eijirou laughed good naturedly and smiled at the interviewer, “It’s a funny story actually. Dynamight and I have been dating since our second year at UA.”

“That long?!” the interviewer exclaimed.

“Yep! I’d had a crush on him since like the USJ incident. But I was definitely in love with him by Kamino. I ended up asking him out after the war, it made me realize that life’s short you know. Sometimes you just have to take the risk. Chances are it’s worth it.” Red Riot smiled at Dynamight so utterly fond. Dynamight rolled his eyes, but he offered his own small smile in return.

The interviewer smiled at them too, not that they were paying attention. “That’s beautiful. If you’ve been in a relationship for so long though, why have you been keeping it a secret?”

The heroes turned away from each other, and this time Dynamight answered, “We haven’t been.” When the interviewer just stared at him blankly and Red nudged him with his leg, Dynamight explained further. “We haven’t been keeping it a secret. Our family and friends all know as well as most of our old schoolmates and teachers. A few other pros too and the few civilian staff members at our agency. Hell, even if we never announced it, half the public was smart enough to figure it out on their own. You said so yourself that you were amongst the fans who thought we were dating. It was so obvious that rumors of us dating became boring and most magazines stopped running them.”

The interview was quiet for a moment, processing his statement. “I suppose you have a point. But if you weren’t keeping it a secret, why did you never announce anything? It would have put the dating rumors to bed years ago.”

Red Riot shrugged and answered, “It never felt important. We know we’re together and the people closest to us do too. Our priority as heroes has never been to be famous, it’s to help others. People speculating about our love lives never got in the way of that, and it’s not very professional to just be making out all the time when we’re supposed to be helping people, you know?”

“That’s a commendable take on heroism.” Their voice was praising but their face said otherwise. Clearly, the notion that anyone wouldn’t want to be famous offended their journalistic sensibilities. “Why did you decide to announce it now then? And in such a dramatic way.”

Red Riot laughed and scratched the back of his neck. Dynamight refolded his arms across his chest, looking mildly uncomfortable, but answered. “That wasn’t planned. I was still riding the post fight adrenaline and saw a group of reporters drooling over Red. I got a little… carried away and acted without thinking.”

The interviewer immediately lit back up. “Oh? You’re possessive are you? Any particular reason why?” It wasn’t even subtle the way that they were fishing for information on the cheating rumours. Honestly, Katsuki could do a better job in his sleep.

Riot just laughed. “We both are actually. Usually I’m much worse. Get a few beers in me and I’m glued to GEM’s side.” Riot knocked their shoulders together affectionately.

Katsuki’s vicious smile returned. Time for the main event. “It’s hard not to be possessive when your fiancé is getting hit on by everyone just walking down the street. Can’t blame them though. Red is hot as hell.”

The second the word fiancé came out of his mouth, the interviewer's jaw dropped all the way to the floor. “F-f-fiancé?!” they manage to stutter out.

“Yeah. Fiancé,” Dynamight repeated before kissing Red Riot right there on live TV.

The room erupts with noise and the interviewer was unable to collect themselves, much less the audience, enough to continue the interview. They were almost out of time anyway. The two pros walked off stage, handed their microphones back to a stunned tech person, and left the building. The chaos they caused still echoing in their wake.

—-----------------

That night, two photo collages went up on every single one of Red Riot and Dynamight’s official social media pages.

From top left to bottom right, the first collage was of:

• The two heroes’ kiss in front of the reporters
• Dynamight kissing the unknown person on patrol
• Red Riot giving a forehead kiss to the injured civilian in his arms
• The two pros kissing on the talk show couch

The second collage shows four photos with exactly the same poses. The backgrounds are slightly different, but that’s not important. What is important is what the men are wearing.

In the first photo, instead of the two pro heroes kissing in their hero costumes, they are in the same dress shirts and slacks that they wore on the talk show. In the second, Dynamight in that same civilian outfit has his back turned to the camera kissing Red Riot in his hero costume. In the third photo, Red Riot is in his civilian outfit, holding Dynamight in his hero costume. The final photo is of the two pros sitting on a couch at their agency, both in full hero gear, kissing in just the same way that they had on the show.

The caption that accompanies this photo drop is simple:

It’s always been him. ❤️🧡