Work Text:
Personal Guiding Star
The night is pitch black. It’s hard for Katsuki to even look for trouble in the shadows, since everything is shadows. Some would say there were better heroes for this job — heroes whose quirks lend themselves to the darkness, such as Tsukuyomi or Vantablack. But to them, Katsuki says a resonating ‘Fuck you’.
He’ll work when and where he wants to work. And the night brings the best opportunities to catch villains who are trying to be sneaky; the worst of the worst. Katsuki doesn’t want to run after purse-snatchers during busy business hours. He’ll go after the ones who prefer the veil of the moon to do their bidding. Besides, Dynamight isn’t afraid of the dark, for his explosions burn bright.
And when the night gets truly dark, Katsuki has his guiding star.
Since his patrol route is in a commercial district, there's a moment of the night where everyone has gone home. Around 1 am, there aren’t even janitors cleaning up the sky-high buildings that house the many suit-and-tie companies of their country. The district is a silent jungle of gigantic steel buildings. And once every salaryman has gone home and every light has been turned off, it becomes hard to even tell the buildings apart.
There's only one building in the district that Katsuki always recognises - the tall building of the National News Network, the biggest news conglomerate in the country. Katsuki always recognises that building, the one that houses his guiding star
On the 16th floor, the fifth window from the right, the lights are always on through the night. As Katsuki patrols the district, he can always tell where he is by the distance from that one spot of light that shines bright in the ever-present darkness.
And, on his breaks, that’s where Katsuki always goes.
With some very well-calculated explosions, Katsuki launches himself from the rooftop of a nearby building with just enough speed for him to land on the correct window sill. The window sill that finally grants him an up-close and personal view of his guiding star.
A soft ‘thump’ sounds through the small office room as he perches himself on the window like a weird, blond crow.
“Deku! Coffee!” he demands with the ease of someone who does that every night.
“Good night to you too, Kacchan,” Deku says without taking his eyes from the computer screen. “You know where the coffee is. I just made it for you.”
“Then why didn’t you serve it already?” he grumbles, jumping off the window to land inside the small, messy office.
There’s paper everywhere and of every kind — scraps of newspapers, company memos, scribbled notes. They pile up on every available surface, from Deku’s desk to the top of the coffeemaker Katsuki came for. His mug is already waiting for him, right beside the full pot. Deku really leaves everything ready for him; Katsuki is convinced he refuses to serve him just to make a point.
“I could leave you without your precious coffee. And then what would you do?” he taunts.
“I’d fucking bother you until you made some,” Katsuki answers truthfully, as he half-sits on Deku’s desk.
“You know, you could just change your schedule to daytime since you’re clearly not a night owl,” Deku says, finally taking his eyes off the screen and facing Katsuki.
“And miss all the action? Hell no. Have you seen the villain I caught two hours ago?” he asks cockily.
Deku chuckles, “Yes, I already got the report from the police. I’m working on it right now.”
“You better make me look cool, nerd,” he demands, even though he knows he doesn’t have to.
Izuku Midoriya is one of the most respected hero analysts in the country. He’s the one who breaks down every hero fight that happens for the next morning’s news. That’s why he’s the only one working in such ungodly hours — Deku makes a point of writing all his analyses at the end of the day so he doesn’t miss any battle that may occur out of business hours. And since he began working for NNN, none of his reports of Dynamight’s fights have been anything other than a stellar review of the hero’s work.
“Did you really grab the villain by the ankle and smash him against a building?” Deku asks, frowning at the police report on his computer screen.
“I sure as hell did,” Katsuki answers smugly.
“Doesn’t seem to be a good use of your quirk,” he ponders.
“Fuck quirk use! What about style points?”
“I don’t give out points, Dynamight,” Deku says, shaking his head.
“Maybe you should,” Katsuki shrugs. “Would show the fuckers who is the best hero in town despite what those shitty old farts at the Hero Commission think.”
“Still struggling with your rank because of your structural damages, I see,” Deku taunts.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” he grumbles, focusing back on his coffee.
It’s a badly hidden secret that Katsuki doesn’t rank higher because of his potty mouth that scares off most of the public and media, and because the Hero Commission hates dealing with the destructive after-effects of his quirk in private and public buildings. If the hero ranking worked based solely on villain apprehension and civilian rescue, Katsuki would have been warming the number one spot for a long time now.
“Well, considering you did manage to catch the villain without breaking any windows of the jewelry store he was trying to rob, I say it ended up being a great fight,” Deku says with a warm smile that never fails to make Katsuki feel like the best hero in the country. “Amazing as always, Dynamight!”
Warmth floods Katsuki’s body from Deku’s praise, but he doesn’t give back any more than a click of his tongue. And with one big gulp, Katsuki finishes his coffee.
“Gotta go back to work. With any luck, I’ll give you another good report for tomorrow night, panda.”
“I accept nerd-...”
“Clearly,” Katsuki teases, indicating the hero posters on the walls.
“...-but I’m not a panda!”
“As if. With the dumb hours you pull, no wonder you have the eyebags of a panda.”
“You work the same hours as me!” Deku protests, but Katsuki just chuckles at his objection.
“Night, Deku. See you tomorrow,” he says, already perching himself up on the window sill.
“One day I’ll pick a nickname for you!” Deku threatens before Katsuki jumps off, propelled by the power of his explosions.
***
Deku told him he’d be taking a day off. It was his mother’s birthday or some shit like that. But Katsuki didn’t expect the night to be so much darker without his personal guiding star.
The feeble public lightning is good for nothing when Katsuki sits on the parapet of a skyscraper. Even the stars seem to offer more illumination — but there, looking at the infinite expanse of black sky, dotted with stars, all Katsuki can think about are freckles. The constellation of black dots that decorates Deku’s face.
It’s weird how his little interactions with Deku became the brightest moment in Katsuki’s day. He looks forward to the time he swings by Deku’s office to steal coffee more than he does villain fights. Katsuki never expected that there would come a day he’d find more joy in anything than kicking villain ass, but here he was.
Now he finds himself bored halfway to death, even though he already caught one guy, using a quirk that made his fingers grow as long as he wanted, trying to steal cash from an ATM. After dropping the guy at the closest police station, all Katsuki could think of was how many inappropriate jokes he could tell Deku about the villain’s quirk.
Realizing that Deku wouldn’t be there for him to talk with took all the shine of Katsuki’s arrest away. Suddenly, catching the villain didn’t mean as much because there would be no one to talk to about it. Sure, he could text his friends, hang out in the agency’s breakroom to impress a sidekick. But none of this had the kind of appeal talking to Deku had.
Katsuki was grumpy the rest of the night as his shift slowly passed. He didn’t have coffee, he couldn’t talk to Deku — the night was completely dull.
Once his shift was over, Katsuki dragged his feet back to his apartment feeling gloomy. He hid in his room and closed his blackout curtains to make sure no pesky sun rays could get in, but in the end he didn’t get much sleep. No, instead, he spent most of his time in bed, wondering how to bring light back to his life.
***
Izuku loves working at night. He’s always been a night-dweller, so his job suits him perfectly. He finds it funny to take the train downtown when everyone is on the opposing platform, going home. There’s a certain peace in having the whole 30 storeys tall building all to himself, while during the day it’s bustling with people.
And, one of the best perks of all, his crazy work hours gave him the chance to become friends with Dynamight.
As a hero fanboy, Izuku has favorites in every generation of heroes — but Dynamight has occupied a special place in his podium since he saw Bakugou Katsuki winning his first Sports Festival at UA. The fiery passion he showed there and the perfect control of his quirk in his first year would forever be imprinted on Izuku’s mind, and he made a point of following the young hero’s career from then on.
When Izuku finished college and got hired as a hero analyst for NNN, he dreamed of someday becoming important enough to maybe interview Dynamight. What he certainly didn’t expect was that, in his first week on the job, the hero himself would blast through his window, demanding to know what was going on and why Izuku was there.
Apparently, having a light turned on was enough to warrant suspicion from Dynamight. Izuku’s surprise at seeing his favorite hero invade his office was just comparable to his surprise in the following days, when Dynamight continued to appear there. Dynamight had been pleased with Izuku’s review of his fight that hit the news and came to learn more about the journalist. Izuku took the chance to offer him coffee — and from then on, every night, Izuku’s office was invaded by the brightest star of the heroes in their country.
Dynamight is brash, demanding, has a potty mouth, and the biggest ego on their side of the pacific. And yet, Izuku is proud to say they’re friends. The nightly invasions never fail to brighten Izuku’s mood and make his lonely shift much less lonely. There’s warmth in Dynamight’s fiery red eyes in a way that makes up for his lack of a sunny personality.
In the end, Izuku got so used to their nightly meetings that, on his day off, he felt lonelier than when he’s on his own in the NNN building. So, it’s with renewed energy that he works tonight, counting the seconds until Dynamight appears to demand coffee.
When the clock draws close to midnight, the time Dynamight usually takes his break, Izuku makes a point of brewing some fresh coffee. Having a little coffeemaker is a perk the NNN awards him for working after business hours. Izuku loves it, even if it’d be nice to be able to buy something fancy from a coffee shop from time to time. A part of him wonders if Dynamight only shows up because there are no coffee shops open, but he tries not to dwell on it. He knows he and the hero are friends, and his brain should focus on that instead of ‘might be’s.
“Well, since you’re already there, you might serve me for once,” Dynamight’s voice takes Izuku out of his musing, his sudden appearance almost giving Izuku a heart attack.
“Oh my god!” he jumps, surprised, just to see the hero perched on the window sill as usual. “How can you be so quiet when you come up here using explosions?!”
Dynamight smirks cockily. “Gotta be quiet to sneak up on the villains. Always fun to see the scared look on their ugly mugs.”
“I’m not a villain, though,” he mumbles, annoyed.
“No, surprising you is a bonus,” the hero teases, jumping inside the office and taking the steaming mug from Izuku’s hands.
“What do you have there?” Izuku asks, frowning, as he sees the hero carrying some kind of foliage. “Did you run into a plant-quirk villain?”
“No,” Dynamight shakes his head. “This is for you. I’m always stealing your coffee, figured I owed you some snacks too.”
The hero hands him what Izuku then realizes is a bamboo shoot. Of course, because his eyebags make him a panda. Izuku rolls his eyes.
“Ha. Ha. So funny. But I don’t think one shoot is going to make up for all the coffee you’ve been drinking,” he says offhandedly, as he twists the little branch in his hand.
“So how about I take you out for food tomorrow?” the hero asks, surprising Izuku even more than when he shows up out of nowhere.
“What?”
“Tomorrow is Tanabata. We could grab some festival food before our shifts. Ain’t really dinner, but I figured you gotta eat some time, right?” Dynamight grumbles, hiding behind the coffee mug.
“Dinner? Festival food?” Izuku parrots, not believing what he just heard.
“Yeah. You know, takoyaki, yakitori. The fucking usual.”
“Food! Yeah! That sounds great!” he says enthusiastically. “I love food!”
“Good,” Dynamight smirks, putting his mug down. “We can even make a tanzaku wishing for more sleep for you.”
“And one wishing less structural damage for you,” Izuku retorts, smirking as well.
Dynamite squints at him, “I’ll show you structural damages in the next ranking, nerd. I’ll blow the competition away.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed, Dynamight.”
“Call me Katsuki,” he says, walking back to the window. “I’ll text you the time and place for tomorrow.”
“Sure! Ah-... Katsuki?”
“Hm?”
“Did you steal the bamboo from the festival decorations people were putting up today?”
The hero chuckles as he sits on the window sill, getting ready to jump away. “See you tomorrow, Deku.”
And in bright explosions, he’s gone. Izuku rushes to the window to watch the hero flying through the black sky and he can’t help but think Dynamight looks like a shooting star.