Behind the Seams [Chapter 3]

Katsuki couldn’t keep his eyes off the familiar face as they walked, everything Aizawa said to them going in one ear and straight back out the other one, with no stops in between. If they were warnings or requests about behaviour and no-entry zones, the old hag would remind him a thousand times anyway, so it wasn’t like it really mattered.

Deku was sitting at a little table, only metres away from him, with a line of giggling girls and embarrassed dudes waiting patiently for their turn. The rest of the group had cleared out their lines already, had disappeared to start getting ready, but Deku was always the popular one, and always the people-pleaser to boot. His line was always a mile long when the events started, and he took his time with each person, making sure to chat and take photos and sign everything neatly, to make sure they had a good experience.

His line was dwindling, thankfully – he’d be done in time for the show to start – but he was engrossed in conversation with one of the attendees, with an enthusiasm Katsuki recognised all too well from the two signings he’d snagged for himself, over the year and a half Deku had been performing so far. He still had vivid memories of standing there listening to the nerd ramble on about something he found particularly exciting – honestly Katsuki had lost ninety percent of the words themselves, he’d been too busy watching the faces Deku made, memorising the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, and resisting the urge to just grab those chubby cheeks and squeeze them, or bite the damn adorable freckles off of them. Everything about the guy was just sunshine personified, and Katsuki couldn’t get enough of it.

He balled his hands into fists to keep from reaching out, clenching his jaw as Aizawa ushered them past, down a well-guarded corridor to the backstage area. He watched over his shoulder as they rounded a corner, staring forlornly at the bright smile and hearing the melodic laugh that rang out with it start to fade, and awkwardly shared a few waves with regulars who recognised him from other events, stunned by the sight of him walking with the manager of Plus Ultra, of all people.

Before long, Katsuki’s wistfulness was broken by hurried footsteps, that familiar smile a little more sheepish this time as he bounded through the heavy doors.

“Sorry!” he sang to the room, already heading for a row of lockers before anyone could direct him to get ready. “I got caught up talking about comics with someone and lost track of time! But I’m here!”

He paused in his hurrying just long enough to pump his fist with the words, mimicking the man who had inspired him to become an idol in the first place, according to every interview ever. Katsuki stifled a laugh, despite his nerves, and Deku turned to look, his face lighting up when he saw the little group watching.

“It’s you!” he said brightly, hurrying over and slinging his arms around Katsuki, hugging him tightly despite the way he immediately froze under the touch. “Kacchan, right? I should have known it was you Mr Bakugou was talking about. Oh, right, hello Mr Bakugou! Hello Mrs Bakugou! Thank you so much for coming!”

Katsuki couldn’t find any words to respond, but it didn’t seem to matter – Deku spoke more than enough for both of them.

“And the jacket!” Deku grinned, flapping his arms lightly when he met Katsuki’s eyes. “I recognised it, when she handed it to me, but I didn’t connect the dots! I love it, though! I don’t think I’ve taken it off since! The little stars, and the bunnies, and all the shiny bits, it’s just so cute and yet so cool at the same time, I’ve never owned anything so cool!”

“You’re welcome,” Katsuki choked out, his throat painfully dry. “It uh, looks good... on you.”

“Aw, thank you! All of your work is so amazing, I’m so glad I got a chance to wear it!”

“I was going to take the Bakugous on a little tour before the show starts,” Aizawa cut in. “While you get ready, and all.”

“Oh! Of course! Please don’t let me keep you, you know what I’m like, always getting carried away with chatting! Enjoy the tour, Mr and Mrs Bakugou, I hope you get inspired!”

Aizawa started to gesture to the next door, to usher them away, but then Deku was shaking his head, reaching out to grab Katsuki’s sleeve.

“Kacchan is staying with me, silly!” he insisted. “He’s my biggest fan, I’m not gonna send him on your boring adult tour!”

“Izuku,” Aizawa sighed, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “You need to get ready. And you are an adult.”

“But not, like, an adulty adult,” Deku objected. “Kacchan can help me get ready, right Kacchan?”

Katsuki nodded dumbly, lost for words again, but Deku seemed to take that as enough, grinning triumphantly as he started to drag Katsuki the other direction without waiting for permission.

“Problem Child,” Aizawa muttered behind them. “He always gets his own way, no matter how much I try to put my foot down.”

“Izuku will be ready,” Tenya assured them, sidling up to Aizawa with a clipboard full of papers. “I have our itinerary all planned out, Sir, so we can get through all the important areas to show the team before the show starts!”

“Alright,” Aizawa sighed again. “Lead the way, Iida.”

“Gladly, Sir.”

“Come meet the group,” Deku insisted, tightening his grip on Katsuki’s sleeve when he hesitated. “They’ll love you! They already know all about you, of course – they see you at every performance and meet-up! I’m so glad you didn’t end up missing this one, what a weird coincidence!”

“Or fate,” Ochako suggested, holding the dressing room door open for the pair of them to come in. “Heard you coming a mile away. It’s nice to meet you, Bakugou.”

“Bakugou?” Deku laughed. “He’s Kacchan!”

“Katsuki,” Katsuki corrected him quietly. “Uh, it’s nice to meet you too.”

“Kacchan?” Denki couldn’t help but ask, grinning. “It’s not like you to give people cutesy nicknames, Izuku!”

“The first time we met, he called me Deku,” Deku giggled. “He misread my name, so he was in the crowd cheering Deku and he got so embarrassed when someone corrected him!”

“Deku is more fitting,” Katsuki grumbled.

“So I told him if he was gonna call me Deku, I was gonna call him Kacchan!” Deku finished. “It’s cute, so it fits him!”

A familiar outfit hung on the wall near an empty dressing table, and Katsuki found his eyes roaming to it, grimacing when Shouto caught him out immediately – though he didn’t say a word, thankfully, just gave him a knowing look.

It made Katsuki’s heart flutter, thinking about Izuku being up on stage in front of a thousand people – and thousands more via the livestream they’d set up as an apology for the ticket issues – wearing his designs. It felt like Katsuki was putting some kind of weird brand on him, marking him as his own property; he may as well have been wearing one of Katsuki’s baggy t-shirts, picked up off the bedroom floor in a dazed, half-asleep state, after a night together at his house, or something.

Okay, maybe that was a bit far, but he still liked the idea. A lot.

When Shouto tilted his head pointedly, Katsuki quickly realised all of them were holding designs from his family’s lines. Tsuyu was already dressed in one of Mina’s new pieces, a black long-sleeved crop top with a zip down the front and no shoulders on it. She’d spent a week figuring out how to make sure the thing would stay both up and down in the relevant places, and had finally settled on two buckles in place of shoulder straps, and Katsuki had to admit it had turned out pretty cool. Ochako was in a grey skirt made by his mother, of all people – all sharp pleats with straps and clips hanging loosely from the waistband. It was a little too long on Ochako, in all honesty, but Katsuki resisted the urge to go hike it up a little higher on her waist to make up for it.

“All Might!” Deku beamed, waving excitedly at the door. “You made it!”

“I wouldn’t miss it, my boy.”

Katsuki turned to see an incredibly tall figure standing in the doorway, and for a moment all he could do was stare, even as Deku bounded over in the cutest way imaginable.

“This is Kacchan,” Deku introduced him. “Kacchan, this is All Might! He’s retired now, but he still finds the time to show up and give me advice, he’s amazing!”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Katsuki choked out. “I’m Katsuki.”

“He’s my biggest fan!” Deku explained, making Katsuki blush. “His parents own the label we did the shoot with, and he designed all my cool new clothes himself! Isn’t he amazing?”

“That’s quite a feat,” All Might agreed, smiling warmly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, young Katsuki. Now Izuku, should you be getting ready for the show?”

“Yup!” he laughed, hurrying back to his little station and grabbing his clothes from the hangers to change. “I’ll be ready! Just need to change!”

He stripped off his shirt right in front of everyone, pulling on a plain black t-shirt before he re-donned his white jacket, making Katsuki smile to himself at the sight. He needed to add something to the back, maybe some little silver stars, or Deku in that holographic black material he’d picked up for it. He loved that stuff.

“Izuku has worn that jacket every day since the shoot,” All Might informed him. “He loves the thing, you must have done a good job on it.”

“It’s so cozy!” Deku explained. “And it makes me feel cool, which is a nice bonus. I still like my comfy sweaters and stuff at home, but this one is nice for going out in!”

“I’m uh, glad he likes it so much,” Katsuki said sheepishly. “It looks good on him, I’m glad it worked out so well.”

“Oh no!” Deku whined, and Katsuki spun around to look. “They must have gotten caught in my zip!”

“You need to replace that bag,” Ochako sighed. “You’re borderline famous, now, you can afford a decent bag!”

Deku was ninety percent of the way into a pair of dark pants that Katsuki was intimately familiar with, the ones with straps that wrapped around the knees loosely. He’d spent a long time figuring out how to make them hang just right, with a couple of subtle loops on the back where the bagginess of the design hid them, and a triangular bracket on the outside that attached them to the pants in a cool, aesthetic way. What Deku was focussed on, though, was a small hole in one thigh. Honestly, it was small enough that it probably wouldn’t even have been noticed on stage, but Deku was clearly distraught about the tiny hint of pale flesh peeking through, and Katsuki was reaching into his little teal bunny bag before he even thought twice about it.

“Should I fetch one of the Bakugous?” All Might offered.

Deku didn’t bother to answer, he’d already seen Katsuki moving, threading a needle without even looking at it. He knelt down in front of Deku, reaching for him wordlessly, and in a matter of seconds the hole was all patched up, with a shiny silver bunny stitched over top.

“Wow, Kacchan!”

Katsuki realised far too late exactly how close he’d gotten to Deku, with his nose practically touching Deku’s crotch, but thankfully the shiny-eyed dork didn’t seem to have noticed. He stepped back in a hurry, putting some space between them, only for Deku to throw his arms around Katsuki’s neck and hug him tightly.

“You’re amazing,” he praised. “Thank you!”

“No big deal,” Katsuki assured him, awkwardly patting him on the back – he needed to learn how to hug, if this was going to keep happening. “Sorry they ripped.”

“It’s not your fault! My bag likes to eat things.”

“I’ll get you a new one.”

“Don’t be silly, I wouldn’t ask you to do that for me!”

“It’s fine. That one there?”

He nodded toward the bright yellow duffle bag sitting at Deku’s station, and Ochako nodded before Deku could say anything.

“That thing is a nightmare,” she explained. “But he refuses to let it go.”

“Something the same size?”

“A wider opening would be good, he’s always shoving things through the narrow opening and wrinkling them up.”

“Ochako, stop!” Deku huffed. “I’m not asking my biggest fan to buy me a bag!”

“I think he was going to make you a bag,” Ochako explained, when Katsuki didn’t speak right away. “Since you liked his clothing designs so much. Am I right?”

Katsuki nodded awkwardly, and Deku’s eyes widened, staring into Katsuki’s like he might be able to see into his soul.

“Were you really?”

“Yeah,” he croaked. “I mean, unless you specifically want a yellow one, I don’t think I could handle that fabric without... puking on it, or something.”

“It was the cheapest!” Deku laughed. “Well, I’d never say no to something made by Kacchan, but you don’t have to, okay? That’s a lot of work.”

“Bags are easy,” Katsuki shrugged. “Gimme like a day and a half.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Thank you! That’s super sweet of you, Kacchan!”

Katsuki shrugged it off, just in time to almost jump out of his skin when a short, sharp, bing rang through the room.

“That’s our five minute warning,” Kyouka explained, while Deku hurried to put his bright red shoes on – those damn things never left his feet. “We’ve gotta head out to the stage.”

“We’d better meet up with your parents!” Deku added, lacing his shoes quickly and heading for the hallway. “Come on, Kacchan!”

“Oh. Yeah. It was uh, nice to meet you all.”

“You too!” the group chorused, Denki tacking on a quick “come back soon!” as they hurried out the door.

Deku slowed his pace as they got further from the room, eventually pausing before the next door, glancing back at Katsuki with a soft smile on his face.

“Thanks for coming, Kacchan,” he said quietly. “I always look for you in the audience, it makes my night seeing you out there, waving your lightsticks and cheering my name. It’s always nice knowing I have a fan out there, it makes me feel more confident on stage.”

“I’m glad it helps,” Katsuki said awkwardly. “I feel like an idiot sometimes, but I just kind of... get into it, I guess.”

“I’m glad you can let go and have some fun, with us.”

Katsuki blushed, but before he could say anything more, Tenya was slamming the door open, ushering them through to where Aizawa and the Bakugous stood in wait.

“There you are, brat,” Mitsuki sighed. “I hope you’re not holding them up, they have to go on soon!”

“I didn’t do shit!” Katsuki scowled.

“He helped!” Deku cut in quickly, grinning. “He stitched me up!”

He turned his leg slightly, showing off his little silver bunny patch, and Masaru smiled knowingly.

“We’re gonna watch from the side of the stage,” Mitsuki informed them. “Aizawa said it would be okay.”

“That sounds great!” Deku nodded excitedly. “A good view without all the crowds! I hope you enjoy it!”

“Is there any way I could...?” Katsuki trailed off, glancing over at Deku, who nodded immediately.

“Security will take you out there!” he agreed. “Aizawa, can you call one of them?”

“Of course.”

Deku was off again immediately, this time with the other members of the group right behind him, and in a whirlwind of motion and noisy fans, Katsuki found himself escorted to the audience. He squeezed in near the front, digging his old lightsticks out of his bunny bag, and turned them on just in time for the group to walk out onto the stage, the crowd erupting with cheers and screams.

He raised one of his sticks, a little more timid than usual as he waved it at the stage, just one small part of an ocean of coloured lights, but Deku’s eyes found him immediately, shooting him a grin and a little wave as the music began.

Katsuki could have been trampled to death by the crowd, right then and there, and he knew he’d have died happy.