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Katsuki sat fuming at the head of the table where he was meeting with his PR team after the disaster that was his most recent interview.
“Bakugo-san, we have to do something to change your image. The media is hounding you for being too aggressive, so we need to do something to show you have a softer side,” his head PR agent, Ito, said calmly. “I propose we have you start fake dating another hero-”
“No fucking way in hell,” Katsuki denied immediately. “I can’t just date some random extra.”
“It wouldn’t be someone random, we have a hero in mind that you have a connection with from when you went to U.A.” Ito said, pulling out a manila folder. “Jiro Kyoka, Pro Hero Earphone Jack.”
“Nope. No way.” Katsuki denied, still not liking the idea of fake dating someone for approval ratings.
“She already agreed to help,” Ito replied, sliding the file over to the belligerent hero to look over.
Katsuki opened the file despite his denials of the agreement. It listed information about Jiro, like her age, affiliations and current employment. He flipped to the next, listing her likes and dislikes, hobbies and the likes.
“Memorize this. You have an interview next week to announce your relationship.” Ito said, his tone a finality that Katsuki had learned not to argue with years ago.
Katsuki sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Fucking… fine!”
“I’m glad you agree, Bakugo-san,” Ito said, then tapped the folder. “Everything you’ll need to know is in here, the rest you can learn on the fly.”
The blonde nodded, picking up the folder and standing from his seat, signalling the end of the meeting as he stormed out of the room. He immediately texted the woman in question, needing more information than he was currently given, like why she even agreed in the first place.
“Jiro-san, can we chat for a few moments?” Akira, her agent, called just as she finished changing out of her costume.
“Yeah, what’s up?” The hero answered, following her to a meeting room before they actually chatted. Kyoka sat down in one of the chairs, setting her bag on the floor next to her.
“Bakugo-san and his team have decided to go forward with the agreement.” The woman said, sliding a folder across the table. “This is everything you need to know about Bakugo-san, likes, dislikes, etc. You have an interview scheduled next week to announce your relationship.”
Kyoka’s eyes widened in surprise, when she agreed to do this she never thought that Bakugo of all people would agree to it as well. She assumed nothing would come of it, given his attitude on most things.
“Alright,” the hero said warily, just as her phone went off with a text, followed immediately by a phone call.
She fished it out of her bag to find Bakugo himself was calling her. “Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Kyoka muttered, waving Akira out of the room since they were done.
“Jiro speaking,” she answered, holding the phone away from her ear by pure reflex as Bakugo shouted into the phone.
“Why did you agree to this fake dating bullshit, Ears?” Bakugo asked her, getting straight to the point as always.
“Well for one, your reputation is in the gutter right now after the incident with the reporters.” Kyoka deadpanned, “And two, the exposure would do good for my career. It’s mutually beneficial.”
After a beat of silence, she heard a ‘tch’ from the man over the line and knew that she won this one.
“How do you want to go about this?” Kyoka asked after a few moments of silence between them. “Like boundaries and stuff.”
“If we’re gonna fucking do this, we’re doing it all the way, Ears,” Bakugo said. “Camera or no because we never know when we’re being filmed, we have to act like a couple.”
Kyoka frowned, “I’ll… try, but you know I’m not touchy feely or anything like that.” She said, “Also, you gotta stop calling me Ears. We’re supposed to be dating, call me Kyoka.”
“... Katsuki then.” Bakugo grumbled.
“Got it,” she replied. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s all I needed to fuckin’ know for now.” Bakugo said, then sighed. “Talk to you later, I guess.”
“Bye.” Kyoka said, hanging up without waiting for a response.
…Just what did she get herself into?
The week leading up to the interview was relatively normal, the two heroes just texting each other more often than they had since graduation. It was a nice change, in Kyoka’s opinion. Katsuki wasn’t much of a texter to begin with, so actually hearing from her high school friend more often was nice.
They also started hanging out, since their patrol routes intersected in a couple places. Kyoka thought it was smart, starting to get people buzzed about them being seen together and the fans will do what they do best– start speculating on if they were dating or not, and man did they not disappoint.
“Kami, it’s like Todoroki’s conspiracy board all over again.” Kyoka snorted, showing Katsuki the post she stumbled across while they were having lunch.
Katsuki huffed a short laugh, looking it over. “You’re not fuckin’ wrong,” he muttered, stabbing at his food again. “They even have their own cork board and everything, with red yarn for the lines. The fuck is that?”
Kyoka looked at what he was seeing, zooming in on a particular part of the picture. “Yo, that’s a picture from when we fought in our third year sports festival. They’re linking it because you apparently gave me ‘moon eyes’, whatever that means.”
That got a snort out of Katsuki, which made Kyoka give a small smile. It fell though as she thought about what the next day would bring.
“I’m… nervous about the interview.” She confessed, sliding her phone back in her pocket to focus on her food. “I keep running the ‘what-ifs’ through my head, and it’s not very helpful.”
“Well fuckin’ stop then,” Katsuki said with a shrug. “We got the material we needed memorized, came up with a cover story, and then memorized that bullshit. We got this.”
“Yeah, I guess.” She sighed, “I’m sure it's just the nerves. We’ve done a million and one interviews over the years, it’s not any different.”
“Exactly,” Katsuki said, then they lapsed into silence as they finished their food, getting back to work as soon as they were done.
The interview, for better or for worse, went as expected. The interviewer asked the expected questions, and they went through the motions of how new couples do. Kyoka blushing at some of the things Katsuki said, and the man giving her soft smiles when they ‘thought’ the cameras weren’t on them. Overall it went well with both of their fanbases, and overnight they saw the changes. Katsuki’s ratings were slowly climbing back up to where they were and beyond, and Kyoka’s music was charting.
It went exactly as they had planned, which is why when the old class group chat from U.A. blew up, Kyoka was expecting it.
Gossip Girl: WHO. WHAT. WHEN. WHERE. WHY.
Gossip Girl: KYOKA I SEE YOU ONLINE, ANSWER !!!
Green Bean: She’s probably watching the chat fly with everyone coming online from this news.
Sparkles: Oui! The news is pretty big, Kyoka and Katsuki dating???
Gossip Girl: That’s what I’m saying!! And none of us knew???
Kyoka sighed, watching a few more replies fly through. Of course Mina would blow up the chat the minute she saw the interview. Izuku and Yuga coming out of the woodworks was a surprise though, they and Katsuki were known to not interact with the chat unless directly spoken to. Well, Izuku was less of a surprise since he was Katsuki’s best friend.
Ears: Yes, the interview is true. Katsuki and I are dating, it’s new.
Kyoka winced as the chat exploded once more from her response, the chat flying by faster than she could really keep up with so she just muted the chat, shut the screen off, and let it go. If something important was talked about, she’d read it later.
For now, she had to get ready for her and Katsuki’s first public ‘date’. They were going to see a movie. Apparently there was a reboot of a silver age All Might movie so they both decided this was the perfect time to show their relationship to the public since the interview.
She wore something casual, since it was the movie theater, and threw on her sneakers when her phone rang to let her know Katsuki was downstairs. She knew it was him because she programmed his ringtone to be something different than everyone else in her phone, since apparently that’s what couples do.
Locking her apartment door behind her, she made her way downstairs to meet up with Katsuki. He also was wearing casual clothes, and Kyoka had to admit he looked attractive in casual clothes.
She blinked, mulling over that passing thought before letting it go. Kyoka would think about the implications of that later; right now, she had a part to play.
“Hey, Kats,” she greeted.
“Kyoka,” Katsuki said in turn, holding the door open for her.
“Such a gentleman,” Kyoka teased lightly, walking out the door and waiting for him on the sidewalk, to which he followed suit.
Katsuki just rolled his eyes at her teasing. “We’re taking my car since the theater isn’t within walking distance.”
Kyoka nodded and followed Katsuki to where he parked his car, electing not to tease him again for opening the door for her as to not push his buttons. She knew where and when not to tease, she could read a room.
The drive to the theater took about thirty minutes, the two of them chatting about mundane things on the way like their similar taste in music, and what was going on in the class chat. Apparently, Katsuki went off on them for blowing up his phone so much only to be bombarded with more questions from them himself. Kyoka told him that’s why she muted the chat. Momo and Denki had reached out personally with congratulations on her end, Izuku and Eijiro on his.
When they got to the theater, Katsuki told her to wait as he got out and opened the door for her again, and then she took the hand offered to her, intertwined their fingers, and kissed his cheek in thanks with a small smile. She faintly heard his heart rate change when she did that, which had her confused, but she brushed it off. Maybe he was just being awkward?
They played the perfect couple, playfully bickering over what snacks to get, sharing popcorn, and Katsuki putting his arm around her shoulder in their seats.
She had to admit, when the night was over, that while the date was fake, it was one of the best “first dates” she’d been on. Katsuki was more of a gentleman than she thought he would be given his normal disposition, and even though he was still himself, it was softer, more open.
It had her hoping that maybe, one day, she could have something like this that was real. Katsuki himself, or not.
She was quiet on the way back to her place, though she had answered Katsuki normally when he prompted her. The other also wasn’t quite talkative, most likely due to the hour, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
When he dropped her off, he kissed the corner of her mouth in a way that made it look like they were actually kissing to the paparazzi they knew were hiding nearby. He stayed outside of her apartment building as she walked inside, just until the door to the lobby closed behind her, and then he was off.
Kyoka’s heart hammered in her ears, pink dusting her cheeks at even the slight contact. She made her way back into her apartment, closing the door behind her and leaning against it before covering her face with a groan.
“I’m so fucked,” she mumbled out into the void.
They had a few more public dates before Kyoka really put together that something in their dynamic had changed. Their actions were less forced, more genuine, at least from Kyoka’s perspective. The cherry on top though, to her speculation, was Katsuki’s heart beat. It changed, every time she got close. Rapid flutters, like he felt nervous or something with her in proximity.
She was getting nowhere with subtle hints though, Kyoka came to find out, so she decided to ask him outright one evening when they were just hanging out in his apartment.
“Kats, do you like me?” She asked bluntly, “I’ve noticed changes that would point in the positive, but I could be reading it wrong.”
Katsuki was silent for a solid minute, seemingly mulling over his words. “You’re not… reading it wrong,” he finally muttered, turning his head away to not look her in the eye. “I don’t know when it fuckin’ changed, but I feel genuine feelings or whatever for you.”
Kyoka’s eyes widened slightly, picking up on that flutter again and noticing as he wiped his palms against his jeans as if he was sweating too much as well.
“I like you too, idiot,” Kyoka said, leaning forward to flick his forehead and get his attention. That drew a ‘hey!’ from him and his attention. He quieted down seeing her embarrassed expression though.
“Do you wanna try this for real then?” Katsuki asked, drawing a smile from the purple-haired girl.
“Yeah, I think I’d like that,” she replied, grabbing his hand gently and intertwining their fingers. Katsuki just silently stared at their hands for a moment before cracking a small, soft smile himself.