Chapter Text
1. Honestly sometimes it wasn't his fault.
Katsuki was just so pretty and handsome and radiant that Izuku lost himself a little bit. When patrol was easy going and they were spending more time interacting with fans than anything else, he'd let himself get a little distracted as he admired the love of his life.
He had known that face since it was still rounded with babyfat. And now he got to appreciate it as a full grown adult with the mind of a horny teenager. Every flash of those strong arms when Katsuki was in his summer costume, or every glimpse of that strong jawline, seeing the sparkle in his ruby eyes when they won an encounter, hearing his relieved groan when he got out of costume after a long shift. It made Izuku feel weak in the knees.
There was no one that made him feel as out of control as Katsuki did.
Izuku loved him so much. Sometimes he just wanted to…
He snuck up behind Katsuki and yanked him backwards into a dip.
"What the fu-!"
Izuku silenced him with a searing kiss on the lips. He took a second before he pulled his boyfriend back up to offer Katsuki a dopey smile. "I love you," he murmured.
Then he continued forward, an extra spring in his step. All was right with the world.
Though there was a distinctive absence of his patrol partner. Izuku made a sound of confusion and turned on heel to seek out his missing companion.
Katsuki was stock still with his mouth agape, and it was clear that his cheeks were pink despite being half hidden under his mask.
”..Everything okay, Kacchan?” He asked in a soft tone. They had just been in combat, maybe his boyfriend had sustained some kind of minor injury he had overlooked? Or maybe it was a side effect of them having skipped lunch, maybe Katsuki was feeling a little faint.
"You can't just fuckin' do that and act like nothing happened!" His boyfriend screeched.
"Huh?"
"Don't you 'huh' me!! GET OVER HERE SHITNERD!"
Izuku immediately leapt away as Katsuki hurled himself over in a flurry of explosions. "Kacchan chill out! We're still on patrol!"
"Tell yourself that, dammit!"
Oh even the tips of his ears were pink. Cute. He smiled. "I just can't help myself, you're so pretty."
Pink bloomed into red as Katsuki's blush deepened. "SHUT UP! I'LL BLAST YOU TO BITS!"
Even as he was dodging half hearted attacks, he couldn't help but laugh. Izuku loved this man so much.
(Clips of that moment between them went viral and became one of their most sensationalized videos. It wasn't his fault, really.)
2. Sometimes he just did things without thinking about them, but that wasn't his fault either.
Izuku was just comfy around his boyfriend, he didn't stop to think of others that might be watching.
Like that time in second year, after a heated day of sparring alongside 2B, they had all come back to the dorms tired and elated from their victory. The whole dorm had been a mix of tired excitement with pizza on the way to celebrate.
Katsuki, freshly showered and dressed in his favorite shorts and a skull tank top, had looked so goddamn handsome that Izuku had felt saliva build in his mouth.
He has pushed his limits a bit during the joint exercise - something he hadn't done since the war had ended - and it had left him without a filter nor tact. He was exhausted but he was also very much in love.
Izuku made his way over to Katsuki, who had been mixing up some kind of fruit drink mixed with protein for the class, and slumped over his back.
"Oi, get your sweaty disgusting self off," his boyfriend had grumbled.
They both knew it was more for show than anything. He might actually be bothered by the sweat but he also didn't mind the affection when the buzz of victory was still thrumming through the both of them.
Izuku had hummed and kissed his neck. "Sorry, I'll go in a second." He just wanted to take this in for a moment, to breathe in the soft scent of Katsuki's body wash combined with his naturally occuring nitroglycerin smell. Izuku swore he could get high off the combined fragrance.
"Go now, you're gross."
Or not. "Mmkay, Kacchan." He had kissed Katsuki's neck again before pulling away. Before he moved off, he swatted Katsuki's ass with one hand. "Good work today, team captain."
Izuku had then proceeded to stumble off towards the elevator, blissfully unaware of the chaos he had left behind him.
As well as the boyfriend he had just left in a state of bluescreen from the ass smack.
"Dude, did he just spank you in front of everyone?!" Someone asked through laughter.
"Midoriya is a nasty bitch, I called it!" Someone else crowed.
"Shut the FUCK UP ALL OF YOU!!"
(Izuku had gotten a flustered lecture as soon as he stepped out of the shower but it had been worth it for the angry making out Katsuki had indulged in shortly after.)
3. Sometimes distance made it impossible for him to hold himself back.
As pro heroes, it wasn't out of the ordinary to be called in for a mission abroad somewhere. Especially seeing as he and Katsuki were both battling it out in the 2nd and 3rd hero ranking on the charts. Their heroic actions during the war had garnered a name for them, but it was their continued action that kept them in the spotlight. People liked seeing their ongoing rivalry, the fans loved their relationship, and the public loved watching them protect society from any threats that arose.
Though with that popularity, and pristine track record, came the expectation to go in aid of any country that requested their presence for a mission. Which wasn't all that bad? It was just hard because they hardly ever went together.
Izuku hated the distance more than anything. He had been around Katsuki for all of his life. It was hard to be in separate time zones, even if it was a temporary set up.
This particular mission had taken nearly two months. Katsuki had been drafted in to help excavate and capture an underground black market ring that had holed themselves up in a mountain range somewhere in Europe. The government had specifically requested him for both his explosion quirk and for his prowess in group raids.
Now, a very long 60 days later, he was back.
Izuku hadn't been able to keep himself in the car where their hired driver had been watching him with amusement clear in his eyes. The restless energy he felt knowing that Katsuki was making his way through the airport to him was too much to handle.
The gathered paparazzi had been taking a few pictures of him but he didn't even have the mind to care. The PR agents at his and Katsuki's agency could handle any bad pictures or press they tried to put out.
There were more important matters at hand right now.
A sudden rush of flashes and call outs caught his attention. And suddenly, there he was.
Izuku felt tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. His feet were moving before he could even think about it. He must have activated One For All at a small percentage too because the distance felt shorter than it should have.
"KACCHAN!" He cried, leaping at his boyfriend.
Katsuki didn't look at all surprised by the reaction, he just widened his stance in order to catch him.
Izuku wrapped himself around Katsuki's torso and buried his face into the man's neck. All of the pent up anxiety melted away in an instant.
Quirk warmed palms rubbed up and down his back. "Breathe, nerd," his boyfriend rumbled.
He pulled away and offered a tearful smile. "Okaeri, Kacchan."
The corner of Katsuki's mouth quirked up in a half smile. "Tadaima."
Izuku kissed him then, ignoring the flurry of photographs taken. It got a little deep as they relished in each other for the first time in awhile.
Katsuki pulled away after a bit more, pink dusting his cheeks. "Oi, chill the fuck out. The paparazzi doesn't deserve a show from us."
"Then take me home so we can make our own show," he mumbled.
"You're a fuckin' menace," Katsuki said with a laugh.
It was so good to have his boyfriend back.
(He went online and saved a few pictures of their reunion after he had got done welcoming Katsuki home. They were some of his favorites even if he hated the paparazzi.)
4. Sometimes a sense of desperation made it hard to control his urges.
After having faced down All For One and his many cronies during the war, big battles hardly made an impact on them. Izuku had been forced to see Katsuki's deceased body during the worst of it, not much could compare with the terror and heartbreak of that singular moment.
Not even when they got roughed up from a surprise villain. That was just your average combative patrol.
Izuku could admit he hadn't been at his best. He had been sick until a few days before the incident and it had clearly affected his ability to plan ahead. Because he had ended up eating quite a few hits that had him tumbling into debris and wondering if he had acquired yet another concussion.
He could tell that each hit he took pissed his boyfriend off even more. The anger wasn't solely directed at the villain either, a good half of it was at him for not having his shit together.
Which was fair. Izuku knew he was usually more on his A-game when engaged in combat, but his brain just wasn't working with him on that particular day.
By the time things were wrapped up, he could feel some rather nasty accrued injuries that Kacchan was sure to lay into him for.
But none of that mattered when the smoke cleared enough to him to lay eyes on a familiar head of blonde hair.
Katsuki was stalking towards him with a look of fury on his face. One of his gauntlets was broken off, half of his mask was destroyed, and there was blood weeping from his shoulder. He had been hurt too but clearly not as badly as Izuku had been.
"DEKU!!"
Well shit.
Katsuki snatched up the front of his uniform and shook him slightly. "What the fuck was that?!"
If he wasn't sure before that point, Izuku was certain that he had a concussion by that point. He felt oddly detached but also overwhelmed with relief. He had known his boyfriend would be fine but it was nice to see that be the case with his own eyes.
"You missed so many goddamn openings and got yourself wrecked! What the hell?! If you were still sick, you should've stayed home, moron!"
"Mm'not sick," he grumbled.
Katsuki shook his head, disappointment clear on his face. "Could've fooled me! Your strats were absolute ass today!"
Izuku felt warm despite the abrasive lecture. He knew it was extra harsh because he had scared Katsuki. He tuned out of the other things that were being spat at him and leaned in to tug his love in for a tight embrace.
"Glad you're okay, Kacchan," he whispered.
Katsuki scoffed but returned the gesture. "Fucking idiot. You're going right back to bed after this. I knew you weren't ready."
Oh yeah, he had definitely scared him. Oops.
"Sorry, babe."
"Whatever." The tight arm around his waist said everything such gruff words didn't allow.
Izuku sagged, just as tired as he had been during the height of his sickness. At least he had a ton of sick time to burn through.
(The newspapers all focused on the pictures taken of their embrace after the battle the next day. Izuku heard second hand that the lack of attention on the villain had pissed said villain off.)
5. Sometimes it actually was his fault.
Izuku knew how he was with Kacchan by this point in their lives. He knew how weak he was for his pretty boyfriend, and he knew his own urges to show affection without a care in the world. It always flustered Katsuki because he never saw it coming whenever they were in the public eye.
He also knew that if the time came and he felt the urge, he was gonna act on it. Because goddammit he was in love with Bakugou Katsuki. He deserved those little self indulgences, even if they sent his boyfriend into a mix of gay panic and utter shock.
Case in point: Katsuki was pissed at the pararazzi because they had snapped pictures of them while on a private date for their anniversary. It had been a blatant violation of their privacy and had led to a few lawsuits. But more than that, it had made Katsuki snap at almost every photographer they ran into on patrol.
Most of them had been following the situation and understood the added aggression. Others wrinkled their noses and shouted disrespectful shit back.
Izuku disliked pararazzi as a whole, but he also knew trying to escape them altogether was a fruitless venture. Especially while on public patrol. There was no sense in losing his cool when they were already in a public setting. Though he also understood the vitirol his boyfriend was slinging at the various photographers. It had been gross to see pictures of their private time plastered about. They had gone too far and crossed one too many boundaries this time.
The intrusion meant, though, that he was able to have a front row seat for Katsuki's righteous fury. And holy hell was it hot.
Things only got more intense when a reporter spawned out of nowhere and began grilling them on their thoughts about the breach of privacy.
Ohh, Katsuki went off.
He yanked back his mask to hold back his hair and rounded on the reporter with a veritable fire show of words. His hands crackled with absentminded sparks, his eyes were alight with anger, and his sharp brows were pulled down as he laid into the dude.
"How the fuck do you think we feel, jackass?! It fuckin' sucks and I hate that you fuckers think you have a right to our personal lives. It was our goddamn anniversary and I wanted to enjoy some time with my boyfriend and now the whole evening feels fuckin' gross because your grody ass hands were vying for a fuckin' story! You assholes had no right-!!"
Izuku only half listened. He knew their PR team would have Katsuki's head for this tirade later, but that was unimportant right now. No, he was more focused on the rising urge to make out with that perfect mouth.
Blackwhip emerged and dragged Katsuki backwards into his arms. Izuku took things into his own hands from there.
"Zu, what in the ever living fuck are you doing?" Katsuki growled, wriggling in his grasp.
"You'll be hearing from our agency," Izuku cheerfully reported to the gathered pararazzi and reporters. Then he kicked off from the ground and used float to get himself and Katuski out of the immediate area.
"OI! Put me down you fucker! I wasn't done with 'em yet!"
Izuku landed on the roof of a nearby skyscraper and pushed his boyfriend against the wall. "I really don't care right now." He didn't waste another second before pushing his lips into Katsuki's, licking over his lip until that mouth opened.
It was messy and so reminiscent of how they had resolved tension in their teenage years but Izuku was hungry for it.
Katsuki pushed him back after a moment, pupils blown and breath heaving a bit. "What the fuck was that?"
"You're so fucking hot and you drive me crazy," Izuku whined, trailing kisses down Katsuki's neck. "It's so fucking unfair. I'm just a humble gay, Kacchan. Have mercy."
"Y-You don't like mercy," his boyfriend muttered, tilting his head to give him more access.
Touche. "I think we're finishing shift early," Izuku whispered through frantic kisses. "I can't fucking focus when you're being like this."
"I fuckin' hate you. They're gonna be airing pictures of me being carried like some kinda princess."
"Pretty enough to be one," Izuku agreed.
"Shut the fuck up, I will throw you off this roof."
He leaned back and studied Katsuki's kiss swollen lips. "Mmm no, I think we're stuck up here for a minute."
Ruby eyes sparkled even as his boyfriend glared at him. "We're on patrol, damn Deku. We have shit to do."
"In a minute," he begged, swooping right back in for more heated kisses.
There were no more complaints after that.
(Izuku cracked up at the furious blush Katsuki wore in the pictures taken right before he had taken off. It was so adorable, even if he was put in timeout for his 'shenanigans'.)
+1 - But then sometimes, it was all Kacchan's fault!
If there was one lesson the press had been made to learn the hard way in their early days of hero work, it was how protective Katsuki was of Izuku.
Once the tides of their friendship/relationship had turned for the better, Kacchan had shifted into someone that was quick to be at his defense. He was outspoken against any naysayers, and was quick to take down anyone that tried to get a cheap shot in.
Izuku just accepted it as their version of normal. It went both ways, after all. Blackwhip always acted out when it came to Katsuki. At the behest of his heart, it would strike out and protect Katsuki in a way that only Izuku could. That effect had only intensified after the war. The blatant loss had hardened something within him and made him twice as determined to protect the love of his life.
Most of their former classmates had seen the bond take root and quickly got used to the status quo. Same with their former teachers.
The press, however, hadn't gotten the memo.
It had only been about a year into their post-high school careers when Izuku woke up to find slanderous claims plastered all over the media. They were calling him all sorts of terrible names and claiming he was a liar that had been in league with One For All to get the power he had. That he had been the reason for All Might's forced retirement. That he was actually a quirkless scumbag that deserved to be stripped of his license.
It was.. a lot to be confronted with first thing in the morning. Izuku had forced himself to put his phone down before he could spiral too bad.
Katsuki had been livid as soon as he realized what was going on.
Their agency had been reluctant to let them continue on their scheduled patrol because things were so haywire but the both of them had argued against cancelling. There had been a stir of villain activity as of late and there was no telling if they'd be needed out on the field.
Plus, for more selfish reasons, Izuku was desperate to have something take his mind off the disparaging claims. He had thought their media literacy classes in high school would have prepared him for a bad media story and the drama that came with. But he felt grossly unprepared and so terribly vulnerable.
If not for Katsuki's constant presence at his side, Izuku was sure he would have collapsed into tears more than a few times while making rounds. As it were, Katsuki was very attentive to his body language and always tugged him down an alleyway if he needed a breather from all the stares they were getting.
Despite all the pressure he was feeling, Izuku never once felt alone in the storm that had become his life.
At one point, they were unable to continue foot patrol due to a disapproving mob that had blocked their path.
"Is there some kind of emergency we're not aware of?" Katsuki ground out.
"Why is Deku out and about? We don't trust him." One of the civilians spat.
"He should get out of heroics! He doesn't deserve the title!"
"All Might would be ashamed of him!"
Izuku recoiled and curled in on himself. It felt like a direct mirror from when he been taken back to UA by his classmates and was faced with an angry mob. His heart felt just as heavy as it had back then. He hated the reminder.
"All of you get to shut the fuck up right now!" Katsuki called over their shouting. "If you really believe the garbage claims going around right now, then I can't help with your level of stupidity. I need you to take a good long fucking look at Deku, and tell me to my face that he looks like a danger to society!"
The silence that filled the air was stifling.
"He has saved your ungrateful asses more times than I could ever hope to count. So it's time to take a good long look at yourselves and get your fucking facts straight. Leave us out of your senseless bullshit y'hear me?!"
Izuku hiccupped, tears pouring down his face as he tried to get ahold of himself.
Katsuki whirled around and cupped either side of his head with his gloved hands. "Hey, look at me, shitnerd."
He blinked through the tears and made eye contact with burning ruby. "T-They're right, Kacchan," he cried. "I sh-shouldn't be out here right n-now."
"Midoriya fucking Izuku, you listen to me right now."
It was like the rest of the world had suddenly fallen out of his awareness as he looked up into that stern face. Izuku let out a few shaky breaths, trying to calm down.
"You are a good man, a great hero, and fantastic partner. I won't let you believe the bullshit they're spouting right now. You don't deserve a goddamn bit of it, okay?"
He nodded, even if he didn't quite feel himself deserving of such high praise.
Katsuki growled low in his throat and started planting kisses all over his face.
Some of the despair melted away as he was continuously kissed. The bizarre attempt at comfort was enough to distract him from the worst of it. "K-Kacchan," he tried to say.
"You are so fucking precious," Katsuki said between kisses. "I hate that they're trying to make you feel shit about yourself."
Izuku sniffled as he stared back at his boyfriend. "I love you."
Katsuki huffed and kissed him on the lips that time. "I love you too. Let's get outta here."
From there, they left, hand in hand, and ignoring the skeptical glances they were getting from the public.
The mess was cleared up by the end of the week. All that was left in its wake was a video taken by someone that had witnessed the 'vicious Dynamight attack' Katsuki had enacted. It went viral and had many fans of the duo expressing their admiration for their intense bond.
(Izuku saved the video and pulled it up whenever there was even a trace of media related drama swirling about. Even when Katsuki wrinkled his nose and told him it was silly to watch a video when he was right there to recreate the scene.)
(Izuku loved him so much.)