Chapter Text
Katsuki felt so cute. As he stroked his new floppy puppy ears, and turned to look at his fluffy tail in front of the mirror of his shared room, he couldn't help but get a fluttery feeling deep in his stomach. The kemonomimi gear he had purchased matched his hair color perfectly, blending in as if the appendages were his own instead of just accessories. It better be perfect after what I spent on it, he thought. He found the kemonomimi community online one night - about a month back. Tons of people with accessories and mannerisms of different animal types. He liked it. The style was aesthetically pleasing to him, and the community seemed so joyful and cute at times. It intrigued him in a way he hadn't been before.
While he kept checking himself out, he remembered a light jingling noise the package had made as he carried it into his apartment style dorm. That was the advantage of being a second year student at one of the best local universities; the students had the privacy of an apartment, but with a roommate or two. Katsuki dug through the packaging of his gear once again to find a black choker with small orange details on it, silver hardware, and a bone-shaped tag to top it all off. A dog collar? This might be too much, he thought, as he set the collar on his desk with a jingle.
Katsuki kept twisting and turning in front of the mirror of his shared bedroom to catch all the angles of his new look, but his eyes kept wandering to the collar sitting behind him on his desk through the mirror. It embarrassed him to think it, but the collar was enticing him to try it out - almost like it was calling out to him by name. He ignored it for about a minute, before the temptation was too strong and he caved.
He took the collar in his hands and only touched it at first, fighting with his embarrassment on whether he should ignore it or if he should put it on and complete his look. As he fidgeted with it, he noticed the soft fabric lining the inside of the collar. He also noticed that the hardware of the collar matched the metal of his piercings. Fuck it, he thought, no one's gonna see me anyway.
Slowly Katsuki put the collar up to his neck, as if it might explode once it touched him. Once he got it on, he just stared at himself in the mirror for a minute. He liked what he saw, although the slight embarrassment of the collar made a light blush warm his cheeks. He felt cool and strangely happy and cute as he looked at himself, the accessories elevated his outfit - black cargo pants and boots of the same color, along with a sage green shirt, and his snake bites and multiple ear piercings. A simple outfit by his standards, but he had only gotten dressed to try on the gear anyways.
Through his happiness, in the back of his head, Katsuki knew this had to stay between him and the mirror. This was one of the parts he wasn't willing to share with the world. Not because he was doing anything bad, and definitely not because he thought this was a sexual thing, but because he had a reputation to keep up damn it. Katsuki knew he wasn't in high school anymore, that people don't really care how you dress in college, but still. This was just too personal for him to share, and although he had seen people online in the kemonomimi community strut in public fully geared, he just wasn't up for that. He was happy with doing this in his privacy.
...
After getting comfortable in his gear, Katsuki started roaming the dorm a little to finish a couple of chores he and his roommate - and childhood friend Deku, or Izuku - shared. He was alone at the moment as Izuku had class at the time, so he felt safe enough to walk around in his gear, but still got a bit of a rush while doing so. He was being safely dangerous. His feeling of safety and comfort made him lose track of time for a bit.
That is until he heard it.
The familiar sound of Izuku's backpack echoed down the hallway as he made his way towards their dorm. The nerd had enough key-chains and junk attached to his bag that it was enough to alert his arrival all the way from the elevator, and over the sound of the sink as Katsuki finished up doing dishes. Izuku was getting closer to the door when Katsuki suddenly remembered what he was wearing and his stomach dropped. He couldn't let Izuku see him like this! Looking like a dog!
Once his realization hit, Katsuki booked it to the bedroom as Izuku reached the door and the sound of his keys made their way through it.
"Hey Kacchan! I'm back," greeted Izuku as he walked inside and removed his shoes.
Katsuki panicked a little, throwing his headband in the bottom of his dresser and fumbling when taking his tail off of his belt.
"Kacchan?" Izuku spoke again, making his way to their shared room.
"Wait!" responded Katsuki, "I'm changing!" Not technically a lie, he thought as he shoved his boots off and almost ripped the collar off of his neck, stuffing it into the dresser along with the rest of his gear.
Once he was done, he took a deep breath in an attempt to slow his racing heart and bring down the blush that had made its way up his cheeks from being startled. When he opened the door, Izuku was standing right in front of it with his backpack over his shoulder, his shoes in one hand, and a bag in another.
"Good afternoon Kaccha - are you okay?" Izuku asked when he looked up at Katsuki's face, with a hint of concern in his voice. "Your face is a little red."
"I'm fine nerd," said Katsuki. He felt his face heat up a bit more, embarrassed that the blush had been noticeable. Of course it had, Deku notices everything, he thought. "What's with the bag?" Katsuki asked as he moved over to let Izuku in.
"Oh! It's lunch!" Izuku answered happily, opening the bag to show Katsuki the containers of one of the campus favorite food trucks - Spuds Your Way.
"Get that out of here, you're gonna stink up the room!"
"Sorry!" Izuku said while smiling sheepishly.
And just like that, Katsuki managed to shift Izuku's attention away from him. Izuku may be a criminal analyst major, but boy was it easy to distract him from the crime.
Katsuki snatched the bag out of Izuku's hand, and with a small sigh of relief, made his way towards the kitchen. He set down the food and sat down to wait on Izuku to eat, while mentally scolding himself for being so distracted to the point of almost getting caught.