[spidaerman]

To all my black followers and friends, stay safe.

[dynameow]

LOVE IS A DISEASE - CHAPTER 1 ✶ FT. BAKUGOU KATSUKI

꒰ synopsis ꒱ ✶ between managing dynamight’s image and cleaning up his pr messes, you think you’re decent at keeping things under control. unless it comes to your feelings—you definitely can’t keep those under control or: you are bakugou katsuki’s perpetually nagging publicist, and he’s your most troublesome client. for some odd reason, that’s exactly why you both work

꒰ chapter word count ꒱ ✶ 16.6k words

꒰ before you read ꒱ ✶ female + publicist + quirkless reader ; pro hero bakugou ; bakugou and kirishima run an agency together ; workplace romance ; building tension ; references to social media and pop culture ; alcohol + drinking ; drunk sex ; hook ups ; bakugou carries reader ; dry humping ; p in v ; creampie

꒰ commentary ꒱ ✶ chapter one is here early!! please give it a chance, and if u read and happen to enjoy, please consider leaving comments/tags of your thoughts!

[ SERIES MASTERLIST ] PREVIOUS PART : NEXT PART

The video starts as follows: Get outta my face, you damn idiot! I’m not here for your entertainment—get lost.

You stare at Bakugou with an unimpressed expression as his voice booms from your phone. The video you play of his most recent hero stunt has been surfacing everywhere—literally everywhere. He only glares at you in return, stubborn as ever with arms crossed tight over his chest. When the voice of the reporter behind the camera stammers out an apology, he scoffs and looks away as if this whole ordeal is beneath him.

“Do you mind explaining why you’re calling reporters idiots?” you ask, leveling him with a pointed look. “Right into their cameras, no less?”

“Because they’re fucking idiots, why else?” He snaps, like that should be the end of the discussion. You think for him, it would be, if it weren’t for the fact that you’re just as stubborn as he is. 

“Oh, my god. This could have been a perfect opport—” you cut yourself off mid-sentence, pinching the bridge of your nose as a groan slips out in frustration. “See? This is exactly what I mean when I say you need to be more media-smart! This was the perfect opportunity to say, ‘Sir, please step away from the fire for your own safety—it’s dangerous. I’ll handle this. Everyone is safe now that I’m here.’And then you’d be praised for your save instead of scrutinized.”

“Why the fuck would I have to tell a grown-ass man to get away from a fire?” Bakugou shoots back immediately. “He’s grown as fuck. That idiot was in my way—and if he got himself hurt, then I’d have to waste my damn time saving his ass instead of focusing on the actual people in trouble.”

It’s exactly what you expected—for him to argue. Honestly, at this point, it would be more surprising if he didn’t argue. You’ve worked with him long enough to know that much. 

With an exasperated groan, you hiss, “Bakugou, do you even bother checking what people say about you? Look at this,” you turn your phone to him, reading the top comment on the video. “‘Why is he always so aggressive?’” You quote flatly. “Next—‘I know he chooses to save people, but why does he act like he hates being there? Oh, this one’s popular too—‘He’s scary as hell, I’d be more afraid of him than the fire.’”

His jaw ticks. You keep going anyway, uninterested in his clearly worsening mood.

“‘We should start calling him the symbol of anger issues,’” you read, then snort. “That comment’s got, like, eighty thousand hearts, by the way.”

“The fuck do they know?” he mutters, irritation bleeding into his voice as he practically sulks. “They weren’t even there.”

“Exactly,” you shoot back, “they weren’t there. This—” you wave your phone for emphasis, “—is what they see. This is all they have to go off of.”

He only huffs, glaring at your phone’s screen like it’s the culprit behind his mess, not his own self or his god-awful attitude. 

“Oh, and wait, my personal favorites aren’t even the comments,” you say dryly. “It’s the headlines.” You tap open another tab and clear your throat theatrically. “‘Dynamight’s Explosive Temper: Hero or Liability?’” You read, glancing up at him.

His eye twitches, but you don’t stop.

“‘Rising Hero Dynamight Under Fire for Hostile Behavior.’”

“That’s—” he starts, visibly bristling. But you cut him off with another headline. 

“And this one—oh, this one’s great,” you continue, voice theatrically sarcastic. “‘Is Strength Enough? Concerns Grow Over Dynamight’s Public Conduct.’”

“Alright, I get it,” he snaps, irritation flaring as he runs a hand through his hair. “A bunch of idiots with too much time on their hands are writing bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit if it’s shaping how people see you,” you counter immediately. “This is your reputation, for crying out loud! This is what brands see, what reporters see, what civilians see when they think about who they trust to save them.”

“I did save them,” he shoots back, glaring. “No one fuckin’ died—no one even got hurt. That’s what matters.”

“It matters, yes,” you agree, tiredly rubbing your temple. “But it’s not the only thing that matters.”

He clicks his tongue, looking away again, shoulders tense. “I was fuckin’ nice to the fire victims,” he grumbles out, “S’not enough for these people?”

“No. It’s not. And being stubborn is only making it harder for yourself,” you say, quieter now but no less firm. “You know it’s not enough. Reporters are annoying and get in the way a lot, I know—but they also get your name out there. You should be using that to your advantage.”

He doesn’t answer right away. Just stands there, scowling, jaw tight—like he’s chewing on your words even if he hates the taste of them. Like they’re acrid and bitter on his tongue. But, even if they are, he should take your words more seriously, you think. You’re hired to give him advice that does him favors, after all. 

You never saw yourself getting this far into your career in your mid-twenties.

Here you are, sitting comfortably in your lush, meticulously kept office at Riot Grenade Agency (your own office!) You have your own printer, your own coffee machine, and a window that spans nearly the entire wall, offering a view of the city that still feels a little unreal if you stare at it for too long. The floors are tiled in something undoubtedly expensive, cleaned professionally every week, and you still catch yourself hesitating at the threshold some mornings, like you might track something in and dull the shine. The pay is as good as you’d imagined it would be for an agency that has the names Bakugou Katsuki and Kirishima Eijirou plastered on it, and the paid time off and vacation hours are even more generous than most companies.

Life is good.

Or, at least, it would be—if one half of your clients weren’t so complicated to work with.

You’re not really sure how you managed to land the role of publicist for two of Japan’s most impressively rising heroes—or, perhaps, that’s not entirely true.

Eraserhead—Bakugou’s former teacher and, apparently, a long-suffering advocate for his public image—had all but forced the development, insisting that Bakugou needed a publicist, and fast. The result was a job opening at Riot Grenade Agency that almost seemed too good to be true. No crazy levels of experience required, no thorough list of qualifications to meet. You see the job listing and apply on a whim. You figure you won’t even hear back, if anything.

But, evidently, working under the PR team of someone as synonymous with flawless press as Uwabami has earned you a shiny badge of showing promise, and you get a call back for an interview almost instantly. Sharing an alma mater with the very heroes you’re applying to work for certainly doesn’t hurt your chances, either. UA, outside of its hero course, has the best business track in the country, too. 

Still, if you’re being honest, you think the real deciding factor comes down to something far less merit-based and far more circumstantial. You never expect your first senior-level role to be at an agency this large or this visible (one of the heroes running it is number four on the charts, for crying out loud). You always assume you’ll have to climb a little longer up the ladder, prove yourself a little more, before landing something like this.

But, luckily for you, most people don’t make it very far in the interview process once they meet one of your two bosses—specifically, Bakugou. In fact, most drop out of the process altogether and start looking elsewhere, even if putting Riot Grenade Agency on their résumé would be a shining addition. You’re one of the very few who actually stay long enough to receive an offer at all. At least, that’s what Kirishima tells you.

We’re honestly so lucky someone so capable accepted our job offer, he’d said while touring you around the agency, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Most people kinda ghost us once they meet Bakugou—or they ask for a salary that’s way out of our budget to make up for his…behavior. B-but he’s not so bad once you get to know him! Honest! He’s been my best friend for a long time, so please trust me when I say I know what I’m talking about.

As sweet and likable as Kirishima is, you almost wish you could tell him he’s a liar.

Because Bakugou is definitely just as bad a client to work with once you get to know him. A client that is not going to deter you, of course—but a bad client all the same. It’s month five of working here, and you don’t need to know him any better than you do right now to know that your job will never get any easier than it is. And that’s to say that it is seldom easy. 

But, if there is one thing you’ve learned while working here, it’s that pushing back and fighting Bakugou only makes him take you more seriously. It’s…an odd dynamic, you think—bickering and arguing with your boss of all people all the time. He always pushes your buttons just right—but you push them right back. It’s the only way you find you can get him to cooperate. And you will get him to cooperate—you are most qualified to do your job well.

“Alright,” he groans, still pissy and irritated (like always) as he looks at you with a resigned look, “what, you want me to apologize on Twitter or some shit?”

“Nope,” you shake your head, “we’re doing something else.”

He eyes you warily, like he already knows he’s not going to like it. “The hell do you mean we?”

“Well, you,” you correct, not missing a beat. “Actually, you and Kirishima. You’re going to do an Instagram live for your fans.”

He blinks. Once. Twice. A third time. Then, “…What.”

“Instagram live,” you repeat, like you’re explaining something painfully obvious to a young child. “At the gym, today. You’ll work out, talk a little to the camera—just keep it casual. I think we need to let people see you as a regular person outside of this disaster that Dynamight—” you lift your phone slightly and gesture at the paused video “—has caused. And if all else fails, your fangirls will see your muscles and at least thirst over you, so either way, we win.”

“Fuck no,” he says immediately. “I don’t want to be thirsted over.”

You don’t even blink. “Well, that’s too bad. It’s already scheduled.”

His eyes narrow into dangerous slits. “Like hell it is.”

“It is,” you retort calmly. “Kirishima’s already on board. He cleared his schedule for this, so you won’t be backing out.”

“Of course he did,” he mutters, dragging a hand down his face. “Fuckin’ Shitty-Hair would agree to anything.”

“Yes,” you nod in relief at the simple thought of Kirishima, “and thank god for that, because you are blessed to have him as your business partner. He’s going to do absolute wonders for your PR if you stop fighting me for five minutes and let me do my job.”

“I’m not doing some stupid shit on live so a bunch of extras can spam comments,” he snaps.

“You are,” you counter, just as agitated. He pauses at your own attitude. (Only Bakugou Katsuki would be a boss that you could speak to this way and get away with it—he needs it, if anything. It’s the only way things get through that thick skull of his.) “Because right now, those ‘extras’ are the ones deciding whether you’re a likable person or not. And at the moment…” You glance down at the paused screen of his angry face, “...It’s not looking great for you.”

He clicks his tongue, jaw tightening. “I don’t give a shit what they think.”

“You might not,” you say. “But your sponsors for your agency do. Your ranking does. And since it’s, like, quite literally my job to make sure you don’t tank all three of those things because you can’t stop calling people idiots on camera, you’re going live. And you’re going to give people a reason to find something likable in you on live. Unless you have a better idea, which then, I’d love to hear it—and no, a half-assed Twitter apology won’t cut it. An apology from you is hardly an apology at all, anyway.”

He glares at you as he opens his mouth to argue, but…for once, he can’t seem to come up with anything. You give him a semi-smug look for just a brief second.

“Just thirty minutes,” you reassure. “You don’t even have to be nice. Just…don’t be actively hostile, okay? Kirishima will handle the rest.”

“Fuck…fine,” he groans, then cuts himself off with a frustrated exhale. “This is so stupid.”

“Well,” you shrug. “You did this to yourself.”

He supplies you with a hard scowl, shoulders tense. “If this turns into some cringey shit, I’m gonna end it,” he rubs a hand over his face.

“No, you won’t,” you say firmly.

His head snaps back toward you as his hand drops. “Like hell I won’t—”

“You won’t,” you repeat, already turning back to your desk like the conversation is over, resuming reading through emails, “because I’ll be watching, and if you so much as hover your finger over the end button before the thirty minutes are up, I will personally make sure your next few brand deals and interviews are a living nightmare.”

“You’re the most annoying woman I’ve ever met,” he mutters. “A fuckin’ hellcat.”

“I know I am. And you’re going on live in two hours,” you respond instantly, not even looking at him as you start typing on your keyboard.

—

@ Dynamight is live.

When you get the notification that Bakugou is live, two hours later—exactly on time, to your surprise—you’re watching it from your office. Your phone is propped up against your computer in front of you, the live pulled up on your screen while you try to watch and do some work at the same time. The comments flood in fast enough that they blur if you look too long. 

You’d expected to be greeted by a grumpy, agitated Bakugou on the screen, causing more chaos. Instead, the screen opens on Kirishima’s face, too close to the camera, with a bright, charming grin as his sharp canines flash you.

“Okay, okay, it’s on!” he beams, pushing the phone back so it stays in place steadily. The gym comes into view behind him, the weights, mats, all of their equipment—and then the phone falls forward with a thud, and the screen goes black. “Oops,” comes Kirishima’s soft mumble. 

You giggle. If only Bakugou were naturally this easy to be fond of, it would make your life so much easier.

LMAOOOOO

omfg his little oops??? so adorable 

HE IS SOOOO CUTIE

Oh my god I love him

MY MANNNNNN CANNOT BE THIS ADORABLE

You read the comments as fast as you can while Kirishima adjusts the phone back in place again. As soon as he’s back in frame, you look off to the side—and there is Bakugou. Arms crossed in a black tank top, shaking his head at Kirishima. He looks like he’d rather die than participate in this voluntarily, but you don’t care as long as he dies after he does it.

Your eyes flick to the viewer count. Climbing fast. Good, you think, fantastic.

“What’s up, guys!” Kirishima waves at the camera like it’s a FaceTime call with friends. “I know we’ve never done something like this before, but I think this could be a fun new thing to do from time to time. Katsuki and I are just training today—nothing crazy. Thought we’d hop on for a bit.”

The comments immediately explode.

IS THIS REAL?? THEY’RE REALLY LIVE???

did he just call him katsuki? that is SO cute

KIRISHIMA HIIIIIII I WANNA BE UR GF

WHY IS DYNAMIGHT JUST STANDING THERE LIKE THAT

IS THIS GONNA BE A REGULAR THING???? PLEASE LORD SAY YES

You snort as you read the comments and lean back slightly, watching carefully as Kirishima turns the phone a little toward Bakugou. “Say hi, man!”

Bakugou just huffs. “They can fucking see me, can’t they?”

You close your eyes for a second. Here we go, you think tiredly. Bakugou is going to ruin this before it even begins. You’re going to have to think of a plan B. You’re running out of plans. But Kirishima just laughs, like it’s the easiest thing in the world when faced with Bakugou’s temperament. “That’s his way of saying hi.”

You open your eyes, relieved as you read the incoming comments.

LMAO NOT HIM TRANSLATING FOR DYNAMIGHT

red riot is so done with him i bet lollll

Dear god someone get me in that room with them now

I can take both of them. And not in a fight

“Alright,” Kirishima says, clapping his hands once. “Let’s work out! You always start a workout with warm-ups! Nothing intense, just get your body ready.” He sets the phone down at an angle that catches both of them. “Start simple,” he continues, doing a few forward lunges, “like this. It’s just waking your joints up.”

Bakugou clicks his tongue immediately, rolling his eyes as he brings his knees to his chest while he does his own stretches. “You’re making it sound like a damn kindergarten class. Gonna talk them through nap time too?”

OHHHH HE CAN TALK ME THROUGH IT ALRIGHT

by the time we’re done, a nap is what we’re gonna need >:)

OH MY GOD THOSE CALVES

Kirishima laughs good-naturedly. “Well, some people skip this step and then complain they’re sore. So just in case.”

“Tch.” But Bakugou steps forward anyway, to your surprise, before he says, “You idiots skipping warm-ups are just asking for injuries.”

Kirishima smiles at the camera with a wink. “That’s his version of asking you not to get injured over a simple mistake. He’s worried about you all.”

Bakugou glares at him. “Am not! And don’t narrate me.”

“How else will they understand you?” Kirishima snorts.

they’re actually so funny together 

HE’S WORRIED ABOUT ME GETTING INJURED <3

Yoooo why isn’t he yelling?? i was expecting yelling

Kirishima shifts them into something simple. “Okay, next—some push-ups. C’mon, show them how to do some push-ups, man.”

Bakugou stares at him for a short moment, sighing like he’s annoyed at the concept of doing push-ups—an exercise he does every single day, no less, you think with a scoff—before dropping down next to Kirishima to join him.

AHHH WE GET TO WATCH THEM DO PUSH UPSSSS

Those BICEPS

i bet those arms would look good holding our baby. let’s have a baby <3

“Don’t flare your elbows like an idiot,” Bakugou says flatly. “Keep them tight or your shoulders are gonna hate you later.”

Kirishima laughs mid-rep. “See? He cares.”

“I don’t care,” Bakugou snaps immediately.

“Aw, but you just gave them advice! So sweet!”

“I gave instructions, you moron.”

“Because you care!”

“Tch—would you shut up, you shitty-haired idiot?”

“C’mon, man, my hair is cool! Right, guys?”

It’s cute, you think—the bickering. You yourself don’t see this side of Bakugou, let alone his fans (that you’re still shocked even exist). In fact, you don’t see any side of him other than that grouchy one that hates to see you coming into his office with more news on what brand deals and photoshoots and interviews he needs to do for the week. The least irritated you’ve ever seen him is when he’s serious about something at the agency, and even then, he’s exactly that—serious and all business. 

You’ve…never actually seen Bakugou be casual, never seen him do something simple like work out in a tank top as he bickers with his best friend. Nor have you seen him crack a small smile as he snorts at something stupid Kirishima says. Nor have you seen him grunt as he switches from doing push-ups to hip thrusts in a gym while he sweats a little—

Stop, you hiss to yourself in your mind. This is your boss. You’re no better than those shameless fangirls. But—you will admit, you’re more than a little thrilled as he decides to do them for the sake of PR. The comments are, as you expected, just as ecstatic to watch him. 

CRUSH ME WITH THOSE THIGHS BABEEEE

oh my god look at the veins on his arms

FUCKKKKK SOMEONE TELL ME HOW MUCH WEIGHT HE’S DOING I NEED TO KNOW IF THAT’S HEAVIER THAN ME

Those weights should be ME bro

Before you know it, the thirty minutes are up, and Bakugou is grabbing the phone as his sweaty face comes into frame up close. You pretend not to notice the way his hair clings to his flushed face or the way he’s breathing a little labored as he says gruffly, “Kay. That’s it for now—we gotta finish up and get to patrol so—hey! Why the fuck are you weirdos talking about my veins?” he snaps. 

From the side, Kirishima calls, “Girls like that, bro!”

“I don’t give a—” he luckily catches himself mid-sentence, cuts himself off, and sighs, giving the screen a tired look. “You people need to stop being weird. Goodbye.”

Live Video Ended.

Bakugou is no longer on the screen, but you still stare at it for a second longer, sitting there as you remember the way his arms flexed and his hips moved while he thrusted those barbells. The image is still fresh in your mind. Then, as if waking up from a trance, you blink and shake your head, inhaling sharply.

“Okay,” you murmur to yourself. “This was good. That went well—better than expected.”

Suddenly, your phone lights up with a message. 

TODAY 5:34 PM

Bakugou: did you watch the whole thing 

You: Sure did. Had to make sure you didn’t slack off You: You did good though! I think you deserve to enjoy your weekend for this great work

Bakugou: wtv. i just did what u said Bakugou: i’m not doing that again btw. they keep saying weird shit in the comments

You: Well… You: They loved it so you’re gonna be doing more of this for your image I fear You: I’m sure you’ll get used to it :)

Bakugou: u really are so annoying holy fuck Bakugou: hellcat

You’re smiling at your phone. 

It takes you a second to realize it, but when you do, you notice in mortification that you’re fucking smiling at your phone like an idiot. Your boss is a few floors down, working out in the fancy little gym he’s made for himself in his fancy little building that he’s built off of his fancy little paychecks, and you’re smiling as you text him as if…as if what?

As if nothing, you tell yourself. You can smile at your phone when your boss is being pleasant. Pleasant people smile at each other when they talk—although you doubt Bakugou ever does any smiling ever when he texts you, but that’s more of a Bakugou-specific thing. He never smiles. 

This is nothing. It will always be nothing. Bakugou is rough and harsh and uninterested in everyone around him, and he’s leagues beyond you in a world you could never hope to be a part of. You’re quirkless, for crying out loud. He’d never take you seriously past the media advice you give him for the sake of a paycheck and the sake of his public image, and that’s about it. A few hip thrusts and one nice, pleasant thirty minutes of watching him be himself outside of the hero world is not going to change the fact that he is your hellish client who signs your checks. 

And then you pause—why are you thinking so heavily on this? Why are you even thinking about him like that? It’s not like one thirty-minute session of watching him be a little more carefree and a little less cranky could make you suddenly see him as anything other than that crabby blonde who can make things explode for a living—right? 

Right, you decide. You are immune to petty crushes because of shallow things like thighs and muscles, and you are especially immune to crushes on your boss. Especially when your boss is fucking Bakugou Katsuki, who yells at things whether they breathe or they don’t. 

You are immune, you tell yourself. Very, very immune.

────────────────────────

Despite your…conflicting feelings (that you’ve definitely shoved aside) about the workout live, it turns out to be one of your finer ideas. 

Bakugou continues to show up trending in the media quite often after that—and, to your prideful pleasure, it’s instead for positive things. Well…if you consider thirsty edits of him on the internet a positive thing, that is. Which, when compared to the other option of him chewing a reporter out, you do. In fact, you like to think that you are, in your humble opinion, maybe even deserving of a hefty raise and perhaps, if you’re lucky, a thank you.

But you’re realistic. You take the positive attention he’s getting as a win, and don’t concern yourself with hoping for the thank you that you know is not coming. He’s definitely aware that your idea was fabulous, though, and that satisfaction is enough to keep you at peace (and rather smug, too).

You spend the better half of your weekend surfing the web after typing his name into the search bar of Twitter and TikTok, and then another portion of it going down an unexpected rabbit hole of Bakugou x Reader fanfiction that his stans on Reddit swear left and right are the AO3 must-reads. (You’re not entirely sure how you stumbled across this rabbit hole, but you are not above admitting you’ve discovered that some people evidently produce the most gut-wrenching and life-altering literature for free, and it almost feels unfair to read it without compensating them. Never mind that it’s literature about your boss and his cock and how he uses it—that’s unimportant.)

By Monday morning, he’s in your office bright and early, begrudgingly starting his day by going over the events you have planned for the week so he can work his schedule around them—or rather, his assistant can. If there’s one person who must have a harder job than you in this agency, it must be his personal assistant.

“Your following went up a great amount after that live, by the way,” you tell him once you’re done going over everything.

“Like I care,” he grunts, “just means more spam in my comments.”

“You know, I have to say. It’s a miracle your fangirls like you so much,” you respond with a snort. “You’d think that with your attitude, people would find you unfuckable. But there’s actually a very impressive selection of x-reader fanfics for you.”

“Hah?” He looks at you, bewildered as he pauses from walking out of your door. “What the fuck is that?”

“Fan-written fiction?” You explain to him with a straight face, lifting a brow. “But the kind where it’s immersive for the reader, you know? So all the women—and men, too, honestly—who want to fuck you can read creative literature that vividly sets the scene for them.”

He looks horrified—scratch that, he looks absolutely disgusted. Your composure cracks at his face, your lips wobbling as they strain not to tug into a smile, and Bakugou…well, Bakugou is not flattered that people like to fantasize about his stroke game. Not even a little.

“The fuck sort of…you call that shit literature? Huh? Who the fuck is spending their free time writing that sort of bullshit? And it’s about me?”

“Yup,” you nod. Then, like the headache that you strive to be, you pull out your phone and scroll a bit. “Here—this one in particular is very popular. I was skimming through it.”

He does a double-take. “Wait—you read that…that fuckery?”

“I skimmed it—pay attention, I just went over that. And, it’s because I got curious when I came across a Reddit thread after I searched your name. Searching your name online is part of my job,” you snicker. “They were recommending which ones were worth reading in there. This was my personal favorite scene.”

“I don’t need to hear your fuckass favorite—”

You interrupt him as you give him a sickeningly smug look before clearing your throat and starting to read aloud: “Bakugou was generously endowed, and you could feel it. Pressed against your thigh, you could feel the sheer size of him. ‘Oh, Katsuki,’ you gasped, ‘you’re so big, baby.’ He responded with a low chuckle as he said, ‘Yeah, you feel that, princess? Feel how hard my—’”

“Will you shut the fuck up?” he hisses, stomping over and snatching your wrist as he tugs it away so you can no longer read from your phone. His ears are crimson, his face painted with a shade of pure shame you didn’t think was possible on Bakugou Katsuki of all people. But it’s there, and you take great pleasure in it—especially when his voice comes out strained as he says, “Is this even legal? Writing fuckin’—fuck, I don’t know—erotic-ass shit like that about a real person?”

“I assure you, it is,” you nod. “We didn’t even get to the really juicy part. There’s a scene where you and y/n—”

“Who is y/n?” he squints, pure confusion written all over his face.

“It’s like the placeholder name,” you say, waving your hand with a shrug as if that should explain everything. “It stands for ’your name.’ So whoever’s reading can just mentally insert themselves. It’s supposed to make it more immersive.”

Bakugou stares at you like you’ve just personally offended him—maybe even his entire lineage, if anything, with the way he seems so beyond appalled.  

“…That makes zero sense,” he scoffs. “They can’t just put in their fucking names? They type out dumb ass placeholders?”

“No, you’re missing the point,” you snort, not bothering to hide how much you’re enjoying yourself at his expense. “They’re writing it for others, not just themselves. You’re like…the fantasy. And everyone who reads it is the main character in their minds.”

“I’m not anybody’s fuckin’ fantasy,” he snaps immediately. 

“Oh, you absolutely are,” you grin. “There are thousands of people online who would disagree with you. Passionately.”

“Yeah? Well, they’re all fuckin’ weird,” he mutters, crossing his arms. Then, after a beat, he straightens up as he narrows two accusatory eyes at you. “And you. Why the hell were you reading that in the first place?”

“I told you, I was curious,” you shrug innocently. “I couldn’t really envision anybody wanting to romance you—Kiri, I understand. But you…made no sense, so I wanted to see what people were writing. Or rather, I wanted to see the appeal, if you will.”

You say that simply to be annoying—and it clearly works more than you’d bargained for, because he absolutely bristles at your words, glaring at you like you’re two seconds away from being fired where you sit. You like your job, you do—but this…well, this would almost be worth losing said job. This momentary rush of pure euphoria as you watch his jaw clench and his eyes blaze with thinly veiled agitation, is all you care about right now.

“That’s not romance, you dumbass,” he shoots back. “That’s—” he gestures vaguely, clearly at a loss for words, “—that’s some purely deranged shit.”

You hum, pretending to consider that. “I don’t know…some of it was pretty well-written. The plotlines can get pretty complex and—”

“Don’t finish that sentence.”

“I’m just saying,” you continue anyway, your grin turning devious, “my only critique would be that your characterization is a bit off in a lot of them. They make you way more of a smooth talker than you actually are.”

His eye actually twitches. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” you shoot him a cheeky, antagonizing look as you shrug innocently, “You would not be this much of a charmer in reality. I don’t even think you could say ’princess’ without sounding like you’re constipated.”

There’s a split second where he just stares at you, and you can see his thoughts written clearly on his face—first processing, then shocked, then offended, and then something else you can’t quite pin down. But you can’t take the time to dwell on it because it’s gone as fast as it came, and he’s giving you a challenging look that screams, you’re on.

“Keep talkin’ like that, Hellcat,” he mutters, grabbing your wrist and tugging you forward as he bends closer and looks you right in the eye, “and I’ll show you exactly how ’out of character’ I can be.”

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck—he is so…attractive when he grins like that. You are going to die on the spot, you think. 

To your absolute credit, you manage to blink up at him, your grin unfaltering. “Oh? Like a reenactment?”

He levels you with a small, determined smirk as he says, “If that’s what you wanna call it, princess.”

And oh, does he say that word so smoothly—like a low, sing-song purr that gut punches you for a fleeting moment. But you gather yourself impressively fast, just before he can really be sure his words had any effect on you as you hum, “Well, you’d better get to reading so you know the script.”

With that, he pulls away and strides out of your office, leaving you standing there as still as a statue while you will your heart rate to come down to a humanly normal speed. You try to ignore that weird, tingling feeling at your wrist where his fingertips dug in just a few moments ago, and that absolutely baffling lump in your throat as you swallow thickly. 

You’re immune to him, you tell yourself—you are.

—

Twitter: Katsuki Bakugou just made a post

Katsuki Bakugou @ DynamightOfficial · 20m who the hell is y/n and why are people writing weird ass stories about me. stop that shit immediately 🗨2.5K comments  ⇄40K retweets  ♡174K likes

top replies:

kacchan addict @ bakugouswife4ever · 10m HELP??? WHO SNITCHED FESS UP 😭😭😭 🗨128 comments  ⇄540 retweets  ♡8.2K likes

Katsuki’s Lover @ explosionkink · 8m “who the hell is y/n” IM CRYINGGGGGGG 🗨64 comments  ⇄1.2K retweets  ♡15.6K likes

Dynamight Daily @ greatexplosionmudergodupdates · 7m Waiting for the day he learns about the yaoi too 💀 🗨32 comments  ⇄890 retweets  ♡12.1K likes

WRITING COMMS OPEN @ katsukisbabie · 6m not you discovering x reader fanfiction im so frieddddd 🗨12 comments  ⇄210 retweets  ♡6.7K likes

STEPONMEDEKU @ izookoo · 5m WAIT CAN SOMEONE SHOW HIM AO3 LMAOOOO 🗨9 comments  ⇄480 retweets  ♡9.8K likes

ANGRY BLONDE LUVR @ angryblondeconnoisseur · 4m nah cuz he really said “stop that shit” like we were gonna listen to him 😭 🗨14 comments  ⇄650 retweets  ♡11.2K likes

Katsuki’s little lamb @ explosiondaddymight · 4m katsuki can i be your irl y/n please daddy 😍😍😍 🗨6 comments  ⇄390 retweets  ♡7.5K likes

–

Messages: 1 new unread message

TODAY 7:52 PM

Bakugou: wtf is a yaoi

You: Google is free you know

Bakugou: ya as if i trust this shit to be in my search history

You: Ever heard of incognito mode ?? 🫩 You: Also don’t forget you and Kiri have a photoshoot tomorrow morning You: Please don’t be late. I’m serious 

Bakugou: 👍

──────────────────────── 

Today is not the day for Bakugou’s nonsense, especially not so early into the day—so as soon as you find him, you’ll kill him. 

Today is your birthday—which, Kirishima so kindly remembered, greeting you with a cup of your go-to coffee order and a bouquet of flowers as soon as he sees you. He’s so sweet, you almost cry on the spot—you’ve never had such a thoughtful boss before. It lifts your spirits about working on your birthday as soon as you walk into the building, where he and Bakugou will be modeling for their ad. Some expensive athletic wear brand you don’t really care for, but a good opportunity to get their names out there more, all the same. An angel like Kirishima, giving you a tight hug and an affectionate head pat as he wishes you happy birthday, is almost enough to keep you in a good mood that distracts you from the fact that Bakugou is apparently still not out and ready for his photos. Almost. 

Unfortunately for you, you’re going to have to spend your birthday pissed and exhausted over Bakugou Katsuki. Which is like most other days, of course, but you wanted a break today of all days. 

He’s been changing for twenty minutes now—and you think that’s just absurd because he has to take off more clothes than he actually has to put on. The photo shoot scheduled for today is of athletic wear, and he’ll be shirtless for these basketball shorts he’s doing his ad for. It’s pretty fucking simple to put on. But no—he’s taking forever and a year, and the cameraman is getting antsy, and he has his afternoon patrol right after this, and you have a list of emails to answer that’s longer than Bakugou’s history of internet scandals. 

They task you to grab him. Kirishima gets too busy with his own shoot to go check, and Bakugou’s assistant stayed back to handle other matters in the office, so it’s just you. Fucking hell. 

To fucking hell with this shoot and to fucking hell with your job and above all, to fucking hell with Bakugou. You’ll quit after this stupid photo session. You’ll stay just long enough for your next paycheck, and then you’ll dip—you’ll get a nice, cushy remote job as a social media manager or something and tweet promotional content for a living from your bedroom. Sure, the pay might be cut a bit, but you’re content with being just comfortable; it’s not as though you’re dead set on living like a wealthy, privileged person. Just enough to have a decent apartment on the safe side of town is good enough. Just that much is fine. 

That’s right. This is all fine—you’ll make it through this shoot as soon as you find Bakugou (because where the fuck is he?) and then you’ll get yourself an easier job and life will be good. 

As soon as you find Bakugou. 

“Bakugou—” you go to jiggle the doorknob of his changing room—not with the intention to open it, but just to give it a quick shake and get his attention so he knows you’re on the other side. That’s all it was meant to be. Just a small twist, enough for the handle to rattle against the lock and announce your presence without you actually going in.

How were you supposed to know the door was unlocked? (Because, really, who the fuck goes to change and leaves the door unlocked?)

As soon as you twist the doorknob, expecting it to catch and stop after that tiny movement, it gives way completely instead—and the force of your unsuspecting twist sends it all the way down, the latch slipping free. The door swings open before you can stop it, and your own momentum propels you forward.

You stumble into the room where Bakugou is…half fucking naked.

Any part of him that’s…particularly explicit is covered, thank god—but he’s in nothing but skin-tight, black boxers. He’s shirtless, sockless, fucking everything-less apart from those boxers, bent forward as he’s pulling the basketball shorts he’s modeling over his ankles. He pauses, just as shocked as you, as you burst in.

He looks at you. You look at him. And then you’re looking at each other—and admittedly, your eyes are not really doing you any favors as they scan over his figure. Your eyes are working completely against you. Your eyes are autonomously going against your wishes and throwing you under the bus, and there’s nothing you can do to stop them.

At least, that’s what it feels like, because no amount of self-control seems to be enough to stop fucking staring at his abs. 

“O-oh my…” You trail off before turning your head forcefully to the side and looking away as you stutter, “I-I’m sorry I didn’t…you were…I was…a-and…who on Earth doesn’t lock the door when they’re changing?”

“Who the fuck just barges into someone’s changing room is the better question,” he counters gruffly, pulling the shorts easily over his hips as he straightens up. You still refuse to look at him even as you know he’s decent—well, as decent as he can get. His bare chest alone practically feels like you’re seeing him nude, if you’re being honest. 

And that should be enough—more than enough—to stop your spiraling mind. It should be.

Because this is your boss, and you should absolutely not have the hots for your boss simply because he’s semi-exposed. Your insufferable, foul-mouthed, temperamental boss who yells at reporters and snaps at fans and makes children cry and argues with you like it’s his full-time job to do all that instead of being a hero. This is not a situation where your brain should be short-circuiting over the fact that he looks—

Oh god. You feel nauseous as you realize he looks good. 

You swallow hard, still staring resolutely at the wall like it’s the most fascinating thing you’ve ever seen. It’s not even like you haven’t thought he was an attractive man before. You have. Obviously. You’re a functioning adult with eyes, and you can understand when someone is objectively good-looking. And because the universe is fond of jokes, they made Bakugou unfairly attractive—objectively so—while coupling him with that shoddy attitude of his. You’ve certainly acknowledged in your head that he’s rather easy on the eyes; it’s not like this is the first time. 

But this is…very different. Because now that you’ve seen him so…exposed, your brain refuses to unsee it. The broad cut of his shoulders. The way his muscles flexed when he straightened, shifting under his skin so tightly. The sharp lines of his torso, all lean strength and definition, like he was carved to be God’s favorite. Even just the brief glimpse of him bent forward, and the way everything moved…

You squeeze your eyes shut for half a second, as if that’ll help keep your mind from getting creative. (It doesn’t.) Now your imagination is filling in the gaps you didn’t let yourself look at. And that’s worse.

You clear your throat, trying to forcibly drag your thoughts back into something normal, something professional, something that doesn’t involve you mentally cataloguing the exact shape of your boss’s abs like you’re committing it to memory for later.

This is ridiculous. You’re ridiculous.

He’s just…he’s just a guy. A rather annoying, loud, obnoxious, and infuriating guy who, unfortunately, happens to look—

You bite the inside of your cheek.

Don’t finish that thought. 

Good—he looks very good. 

No! Stop thinking! Think about other things! Other things! Anything!

He looks so fucking hot.

Quit it!

Damn, does he even have to work out? His abs must be genetic.

Your mind is battling back and forth with itself, and distantly, you realize if you don’t say anything soon, you’ll only make things worse for yourself, so you force yourself to turn to him and talk.

“That was an accident,” you say genuinely, “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah?” He gives you a crooked grin, almost like he’s smug about the fact that you’re in this predicament. “You accidentally check people out often, Hellcat?”

Bakugou is not a dense person—that is the most irritating thing about him. You can’t fool him with anything, so you know that he’s caught on to the fact that you’ve stared at his body, and you know that he’s fully aware it’s had at least a small amount of influence on your current state of mind. 

Still, you’re stubborn. And you don’t like the idea of him hearing firsthand from you that yes, you took a moment to eye him, and yes, it was quite a satisfying eyeful, so you scoff and give him your best glare. It’s far more weak that you’d prefer.

“I was n-not checking you out,” comes your rather clumsy retort, “I was literally just…shocked and unprepared, and I froze while I was processing what…I was looking at…and…”

“Processing my physique after barging into my changing room,” he snorts. “Surprised we’d see someone without clothes in a changin’ room? You’re even more of an idiot than I thought.”

“I wasn’t trying to barge in,” you snap, and you know you sound too flustered to be taken too seriously. But what can you do? “They sent me to get you. Which, by the way, what’s taking you so fucking long?”

That seems to break him from his momentary fit of amusement as he realizes you’re here to collect him, practically against his will, to do the very thing he has adamantly been against doing since you brought it up. You don’t understand why Bakugou has to insist on making every little thing a difficult matter—standing in front of a camera is the easiest way for him to be likable. He doesn’t even have to talk. And yet, there is always some sort of pushback, no matter what you suggest.

“I have real shit that requires my attention,” he grumbles, “you know—a real fuckin’ job? A job that I don’t know…demands I be a hero instead of standing under hot lights to pose like a half-baked idiot.”

You shoot him a withering glare at his sarcasm. “So you just, what? Sat here for twenty minutes keeping everyone waiting? Wasting their time so you could stand around and think about your real job?”

“No, you damn moron,” he snaps, “I had a phone call! It was fucking important.”

“Oh,” you blink, pausing. “About hero stuff?”

He doesn’t really give you anything apart from an incoherent grunt, but you’ve learned to read him well enough that you understand this is him confirming your hunch. And avoiding it, too. Which only makes you press.

“What happened?” you tilt your head. 

Bakugou supplies you with an irritated scowl as he huffs, “As if it’s any of your business.”

“Well, it’s not like I don’t know almost everything about your hero stuff,” you argue, “I’m quite literally your publicist, so I have to make sure I know things so they get out there in a good light and—”

“This isn’t to do with my hero shit,” he groans. “Just keep your nose out of—”

“Did something happen to another hero?” you ask in concern. “Are they asking you for advice or something—oh my god, no. They, like…cannot go to you for advice,” you shake your head. “Is it a friend? What happened, a scandal? I’ll literally help them for free, just please don’t offer them a solution on what to do—you’re the last person anyone should ask for advice on—”

“Would you shut up?” he cuts you off, rubbing his forehead as though you give him a headache. (You think you probably do. And you’re fine with that.) He gives you a mildly betrayed look as he huffs, “And just because I have an attitude here and there doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. I know how to clean up messes—I just hate it when it’s me doing the cleaning shit.”

“Here and there? That’s quite an understatement,” you scoff. “So someone is in a mess? I’m serious, I’ll offer them a free solution this once. They must be in a real pickle if they’re coming to you, of all people.” 

“No!” he groans, pinching his nose in agitation, “holy fuck, you are so persistent—no one is in a mess! Okay? I’m getting fucking Deku a fucking support suit with his old quirk so he can be a hero and shit. And people are pitching in to pay for it, so I have to keep track of who’s giving what, and it’s a whole fuckin’ thing.”

You pause. 

You remember Deku—or rather, Midoriya is how you remember him. How could you not? It’s hard to think sometimes that Bakugou and his old classmates were in your year—that you roamed the same hallways at the same time as these war veterans before any of you could even so much as legally drink. It’s hard to think that a boy, so young and so promising, would so easily give up his powers for the sake of saving others. But then again, is it really? Is it really that hard to believe something like that? It’s not, is it?

These people—Bakugou, Midoriya, and their peers. They gave up their youth and their innocence so readily, didn’t they? It could have even been their lives and dreams, potentially. They went into it all knowing it was all on the line willingly, of course. You’re not sure why you still ponder on it, why you’re still shocked sometimes. It’s just who they are—why they are so good at their jobs and why things have changed to be the way they are now. 

“That’s…” you trail off, voice soft as you look at him carefully, “that’s actually so sweet.”

He gives you a sharp, yet uncomfortable glare. “Why are you acting all shocked like I can’t do nice shit—and don’t look at me like that. I’m just trying to beat that damn nerd so we can settle once and for all that I’m a better hero than him—losing his damn stupid power isn’t stopping me from winning.”

You smile a little at his outburst, shaking your head. Deep down, Bakugou is thoughtful—of course, he is. He’s got to be a pretty fucking thoughtful guy to go rushing into burning buildings and collapsing rubble to save people, that’s a given—but he can be thoughtful in other ways, too. Ways like this that speak so loudly that he cares. That people matter, and they matter to him. 

You wonder what it must be like to matter to him. And then you stop. No—you absolutely cannot think about things like that. They’re not for you to wonder. 

“Yeah, yeah,” you wave, shoving that weird feeling in your chest down again, “why don’t you prove you’re not a loser some other time? A time where you’re preferably not on the clock and keeping people waiting, maybe?”

He sighs, rolling his eyes before walking past you and leaving his changing room. You follow behind him because you have no other option but to lead him to his awaiting photoshoot. Then, just before he reaches where the photography team is exasperatedly relieved to see him, he turns over his shoulder and says gruffly, “You can take the rest of the day off—you’ll still be paid and stuff. S’just a buncha pictures. Ei and I will be fine. And, uh…happy birthday.”

He walks off, and you stand there in shock at his words…and is that your heart…that’s beating like that?

No, you think resolutely, it’s not. Because you’re immune to him—you’re sure of it.

—

The photoshoot does well. Bakugou and Kirishima are on the cover of a rather popular sports magazine that makes fans go crazy on the internet. There are endless posts on Twitter and Instagram of the same screenshot over and over again, everyone lusting over pro heroes Dynamight and Red Riot. 

Kirishima is as charming as ever, flustered in that cute, humble way that would of course be second nature to him as he says, “Wow, Uwabami was right! You really do know how to network your way into some crazy good opportunities! I’ve never had people go so crazy over any brand deal I’ve done! Or been on the cover of something that’s a big deal, either.”

It’s hard to imagine that, even despite having such big names for themselves so early before their careers even launched, Kirishima and Bakugou are still new enough that they are novices in the pro world. Still climbing their way to the same level as others, and still working through things like having big enough names of large-scale companies to advertise them.

“Don’t be fooled. She’s just tryna make us appealing to crazy fangirls who write weird shit about us erotically,” Bakugou snaps, glaring at his screen as he looks at himself. 

Kirishima looks at you, rightfully confused. You give him a tired, exasperated look that begs him to just drop it, so he graciously does. 

“Well, Bakugou,” you roll your eyes, “your social media engagement has gone up drastically, and you’ve gained a very good number of followers,” you finish, tapping your screen as you scroll through the analytics. “Engagement and brand inquiries are up—this is what I call a success.”

“Hah?” Bakugou scoffs, “A success ’cause a bunch of idiots won’t stop staring?”

“Yes,” you say flatly. “The staring they do is bringing your agency a nice hefty check.”

“That’s stupid.”

“It’s profitable,” you correct. “Most of Kirishima’s fan base are males who find appeal in the fact that his brand is manliness, so I figured we could use that brand to our advantage to appeal to more women, too—everyone loves a good, chivalrous, and handsome guy who will save them. And as for you…well, I guess if nothing else, a good body makes up for the lack of a stellar personality.”

Bakugou absolutely simmers in rage as you say that, about to open his mouth when his agency partner cuts in. Kirishima laughs, rubbing the back of his neck as he glances between the two of you. “I mean…look at the positives, man. People are talking about us everywhere.”

“They’re not talking about anything important like our fucking work,” Bakugou grumbles. “It’s all ‘oh my god look at his abs’—”

“—Which, for the record, are doing wonders for your brand,” you cut in smoothly.

He shoots you a look. “Don’t talk about my abs like they’re a damn marketing strategy.”

“They are a marketing strategy,” you deadpan. “A very effective one, apparently.”

“Oi!” comes his sharp reply, “You—”

“C’mon, Katsuki,” Kirishima grins, “the more good press we have, the more people might want to apply to be your sidekicks! You could really use a few, man. If you’re not going to stop yelling and scaring them off in the interviews, then this might be the only way.”

“I don’t think he understands the concept of good press being a benefit,” you cut in, “maybe we can draw him a diagram to explain it.” 

Kirishima stifles a chuckle as Bakugou sends you a warning glare.

“I’m not stupid,” the blonde snaps.

“That’s debatable,” you mutter under your breath. 

“Hah? I fuckin’ heard that.”

“Good.”

Kirishima lets out a laugh, stepping in before it escalates further. “Okay, okay—look at this way, we’re not losing anything, so we’re winning, right? That’s what matters. At this rate, we might jump a few places on the hero charts by the time second-semester rankings are out. As long as we stay in the lead ranks for a good while after our debuts and don’t fall too much, we can establish our agency better and get called for serious cases more often. That’s the end goal.” He turns and flashes you an easy grin before adding, “Which, if we reached it, would be thanks to you—you did great with this. You’re the best publicist we’ve ever had!”

“Hellcat is the only publicist we’ve ever had, hair-for-brains,” Bakugou grunts bluntly.

Kirishima asks dumbly, “Hellcat?”

You ignore Bakugou and wave Kirishima off lightly, though there’s a small flicker of satisfaction you don’t quite hide. “Just doing my job.”

“Yeah, but still,” Kirishima insists. “You made things improve for him.” He jerks a thumb toward Bakugou. “That’s not easy.”

Bakugou scowls. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

Kirishima snorts, giving Bakugou a look. “You know what it means.”

“Tch,” is all the angrier half of the two says. 

You shake your head, glancing back down at your phone as more notifications roll in. “Well, regardless, we’re in a decent place right now with Bakugou’s image. I’ve already got a few follow-up ideas lined up—nothing that requires too much effort from you, don’t worry,” you add quickly, glancing at Bakugou before he can protest. With a little luck on your side (and his cooperation, maybe), you think he can stay in the top twenty for the hero chart’s second-semester rankings.

“So I’ll be doing more annoying shit,” he mutters.

“Yes. For job security,” you correct.

“Job security for you, maybe. I don’t need this shit to be good at my job and keep it.”

“Actually, it is for you,” you shoot back, “considering my job only becomes more necessary the more people collectively decide you’re unbearable.”

He scoffs. “I don’t care what they decide. As long as I always win and come out on top, I’m doing my job and savin’ everyone—that’s what they should fuckin’ focus on.”

“Whatever.” You only sigh, giving up on reasoning with someone like Bakugou. As long as he does what you tell him to in the public eye, you can handle his private meltdowns. It’s bearable enough so long as your damage control actually works. Before you can walk off to your office, Kirishima suddenly straightens, like he’s just remembered something.

“Oh—hey,” he says, looking at you. “We’re grabbing drinks tonight with some of our old classmates! You should come along.”

You blink, caught a little off guard. “Oh, um…me?”

“Yeah,” he nods, so easy and warm and charming. You sometimes wonder how it is you haven’t fallen for someone like Kirishima yet. “It’s nothing big, just some of us hanging out to take a breather. You’ve been working with us nonstop—you deserve a break too, y’know? Drinks are on us! Plus, I think Mina really wants to meet you—I tell her about you a lot!”

You hesitate, glancing instinctively toward Bakugou like you might need his permission. You don’t know why. For some reason, it feels like it’s only not intruding if he doesn’t seem to think so. He’s already looking at you as soon as your eyes wander over to him.

“Don’t look at me,” he mutters immediately. “Do whatever the hell you want.”

Kirishima laughs. “Don’t worry about him! Katsuki doesn’t mind. You should come,” he insists with a grin. “It’ll be fun.”

You huff a quiet breath, shaking your head just slightly—but there’s a small, reluctant smile tugging at your lips. “…Okay,” you nod. “But if this turns into me managing your behavior off the clock—”

“It won’t!” Kirishima promises quickly.

Bakugou snorts. “No promises, Hellcat,” he says, almost like a challenge. And for the first time today, he looks just the slightest bit enthused, as if making your life hard is the one thing he has to look forward to.

You sigh. “Fantastic.”

And yet, despite it all, you’re already a little excited. But not because of him, or because you’ll get to see him off the clock. You’re immune to being excited about silly things like that. Very much so.

────────────────────────

Drinks with Bakugou and Kirishima and some of Class A from the Hero Course is…well, it’s something.

These people were in your year. They attended the same school as you and roamed the same halls that you did. You’ve seen them in passing between classes, or during lunch, or at school events. Yet somehow, it still doesn’t feel quite right sitting at a table with them. You’re sitting with Hero Course alumni, after all—and not just any Hero Course alumni, either. Alumni who fought in a war and survived it. And you, despite attending the same institution, despite being the same age, are merely a quirkless woman who graduated from Class I of the Department of Management.

A simple business student who twiddled her thumbs while these people trained to become the next generation of heroes.

It’s pathetic, in a way—they laugh and exchange absurd, outlandish stories about their jobs and the rescues they carry out, brushing them off with so much ease, it makes your head spin. And you listen, swallowing down your shock behind sips of alcohol and trying to hide your awe. 

It’s normal to them, you tell yourself. It’s normal in the world they live in, one entirely different from yours.

Even being a publicist for heroes and witnessing aspects of what they deal with firsthand is not enough to prepare you for the sheer casualness with which they discuss their experiences. You listen as they reduce things that sound life-altering to you into mere small talk.

To you, the things you hear from Bakugou and Kirishima are extraordinary—they are unique aspects of your job that feel surreal no matter how many times you hear them. To them, it’s just simply their everyday reality. Another day. Another incident. Another thing to move on from once it’s over. They don’t sit and dwell on the magnitude of these events the way that you do. They don’t linger on the weight of them. They simply live through it all and continue forward as though it is the most natural thing in the world.

And here you are, sitting across from these people, sharing a drink as though you have a place among them at this table. 

“Oh my god, by the way,” Pinky—or rather, Mina, as she’s reminded you many times to call her instead—turns to you as she exclaims, “I totally saw that magazine ad you had the boys do. You’re, like, a total networking babe, aren’t you? Ugh, it’s seriously so hard getting big brands to do deals with newer heroes like us. Even if we debut high, we’re just not popular enough yet to pull the numbers and sales they want.”

“Oh, well,” you smile bashfully, “it’s not really much credit I can take, honestly. I worked with Uwabami, and she’s really big in the media sphere, so…I just had a few contacts willing to work with me again because they knew me through her. B-but I really didn’t do much. I think they mostly did it to stay in her good graces more than anything else—”

“Oh, hush,” Mina waves her hand dismissively. “That’s exactly what I mean—you’ve got all the good connections. You should come work for me instead of those two lame little no-goods.”

“Hah?” Bakugou glares. “No-goods? Shut your trap, Raccoon-Eyes, ’cause the only no-good little—”

“C’mon now,” Kirishima laughs, placing a hand on the blonde’s stiff shoulder. “Mina can’t afford our darling publicist anyway. Miss Number Thirty surely can’t match the pay grade of Number Four and Number Sixteen,” he says with a charming sort of smugness. You wonder how he does it—how he manages to sound so proud while still being such a good sport about it. There’s no real bite behind the taunt, and Mina clearly takes it for exactly what it is: friendly banter.

She only giggles, looking just as smug as she counters, “Well, let’s see how high those rankings stay with Blasty over here being a huge grump everywhere he goes. He’s gonna explode his career before he explodes any more villains.”

“I’ll kill you, you pink-faced freak,” Bakugou snaps.

“Well, anyway,” she turns to you earnestly, “if you ever expand into managing multiple clients, you should totally take me in. I might not pay exactly the same as these two losers, but I’m way less damage control and a way better time. Give it some thought, m’kay?”

“Sure,” you nod shyly. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

“You can’t have Hellcat,” Bakugou hisses. “You think I’m gonna let you get your slimy fingers on my agency’s employees? I’m not losin’ to you, Pink-Face.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” Mina huffs dramatically, looking at you with playful concern. “He must already work you right to the bone, but he calls you insults, too? A sweet little babe like you deserves way better than our angry little Blasty-Boy calling you a hellcat,” she sings with a grin thrown in Bakugou’s direction.

Bakugou practically simmers with irritation—and for the first time that night, you let out a genuinely carefree laugh.

“Well,” you chuckle, “he definitely doesn’t give me any free hours of downtime at the office, that’s for sure.”

“We treat her well!” Kirishima insists. “We’re totally awesome clients, aren’t we?”

He flashes you a bright, toothy grin. Kirishima is so charming. You can’t help but think the same thing over and over and over every time you talk to him. And you talk to him a lot. Every day, for that matter. Sometimes, you wonder if you try to convince yourself that he’s perfect and sweet and exactly the sort of man you should want so that…

…Your eyes drift naturally toward Bakugou.

They always seem to do that. Whenever you think about Kirishima, your mind somehow circles right back to Bakugou instead. You can’t pinpoint why. Why it almost feels subconscious, instinctive—as though thinking about Kirishima is some traitorous act that must immediately be corrected by redirecting your attention back to Bakugou.

And he’s already looking at you. Almost as if he’d been waiting for you to turn toward him. Almost as if he’d been staring the entire time and never looked anywhere else. His dark red eyes narrow slightly, expectant as he waits for your answer to Kirishima’s question.

“Yes,” you breathe, looking directly at Bakugou. Look away, your mind screams. Your body remains perfectly still as you murmur, “I love the agency. It’s not always easy, but…it’s worth the effort.”

Bakugou downs the rest of his drink in one smooth motion, the second the words leave your mouth. And by the time you finally manage to tear your gaze away from him, forcing yourself to focus on anything—anyone—else, you’re met with an even more dangerous look.

Mina is staring at you with something predatory. Devious. Almost too knowing, as if she knows something not even you do.

“Fine, fine,” she exhales theatrically, throwing her hands up. “Have it your way. Your little…partnership is safe from me—but only for now.” Her grin sharpens as she points between Kirishima and Bakugou. “But make sure you treat her right…or you never know. Someone else might come along and show her a good time.”

—

By the time drinks are over, most of the Class A heroes you spent the night with are at least somewhat tipsy.

Kirishima, ever the good-natured guy, is still sober enough to herd Mina and Kaminari into the back of the Uber he called, taking on the (quite difficult-looking, if you’re honest) task of escorting them both home. Sero is particularly wasted, but his assistant is already waiting outside in a car to pick him up.

Which leaves only you and Bakugou.

It’s awkward standing there alone with one of the two men you work under, the cool night’s breeze brushing against your face as you fumble through your purse for your phone. And then—

“Oi,” he huffs, the slightest slur clinging to his words. “You gettin’ an Uber?”

“Y-yeah,” you mumble, looking up at him in mild surprise the moment he speaks.

“We can share one,” he grunts, already pulling his phone out and typing something into it.

“B-but—”

“Jus’ be fuckin’ quiet,” he mutters.

Bakugou’s apartment building isn’t far from yours. You only know that because, in the past, you’ve had to have original copies of contracts mailed directly to his address over weekends so he could physically sign them and send them to sponsors. And admittedly…you’re nosy. You searched up the building afterward out of curiosity. You couldn’t help but wonder what kind of place a hero who debuted at number four almost immediately, and became successful enough to open his own agency with his best friend so early into his career, even lives in. 

If that makes you a creep, then so be it. 

Your curiosity had won out, and well…you come to find that he lives in a very nice building. Exactly the sort of building you’d expect someone like him to live in. It’s on the way to yours, too. And although your own apartment building is far from unimpressive, it certainly doesn’t compare to his, so somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re quietly grateful that his stop will come first.

The Uber arrives shortly, and despite Bakugou always being a seemingly violent and abrasive man, he is, as you have always undeniably known, a good person. His parents have instilled in him the ethics of chivalry because he holds the door open for you, and helps you in with surprisingly gentle hands on your wrist and the small of your back as you struggle to climb into the back of the car. He is still himself, of course, so he doesn’t do it without scoffing a little at your drunken hobbling about, but it hardly holds any real bite.

The car ride is painfully quiet at first.

Not peaceful—never peaceful because the universe would never grant you peace when you are with Bakugou, so the entirety of the beginning of the car ride is charged. Charged with some weird, invisible force that never existed before, but it’s undeniably there. It makes the air feel suffocating for you, almost like you’ll choke on the tension. You try to distract yourself with the city lights that smear across the windows in long streaks of gold and white, but Bakugou sits beside you in the back of this cramped, ridiculously tiny two-back-seater car, and he almost takes up more space than he physically should.

Even slouched slightly back, even half-drunk, he is a presence that is impossible to ignore.

You keep your hands folded in your lap. He keeps one elbow resting near the window, phone in his other hand, as his screen dimly lights his face while he scrolls. The driver hums softly to the radio up in the front. Neither of you says anything, and the car ride is painfully, agonizingly silent.

It could be normal. It could feel like just a regular ride home after a long night out with a coworker. These things happen—these things are normal, everyday occurrences for people. You shouldn’t be an exception. 

But you are.

It feels not even the slightest bit normal every time the car takes a turn, and your shoulder brushes his. It feels not even the slightest bit normal when he shifts around and tries to get comfortable with his long legs in the cramped back seat, and his knee grazes yours. It feels not even the slightest bit normal when heat is radiating off of him, and you can smell the lingering scent of his cologne mixed with a distinctly sweet smell that’s uniquely his.

You dare to sneak a glance at him eventually—and he’s already looking at you. Your eyes widen in shock when you see him, equal parts because he’s undoubtedly caught you sneaking a look over at him, and equal parts because he’s not even trying to hide the fact that he’s looking at you.

“You’re breathin’ too loud,” he mutters finally. A rather weak excuse.

“I am not breathing loud,” you whisper back automatically, giving him a small glare.

He’s quiet for a moment—something he never is when you’re bickering with him. Then, almost softly, almost fondly, “Yeah, you are.”

Your breath catches a little at that. You’ve never heard his voice like that and…fuck. It’s doing something odd and beyond your control in your head. The chemistry of your brain feels like it’s being altered, and suddenly all you can think about is him, him, him. His voice. His arm brushing yours. His knee bumping into you. His smell. His warmth radiating off his body. 

Him, him, him—Bakugou, Bakugou, Bakugou.

The car hits a red light abruptly—one that the driver seems to be wholly unprepared for, and stops at rather sharply as he hits his brakes a little too late. Your face moves to smash into the seat in front of you, and your reflexes are too dulled by the lingering buzz of alcohol in your system to keep yourself from rushing forward. Bakugou exhales sharply through his nose, and his hands are already reaching forward to you so he can gently cradle your face and keep it from slamming forward. Even drunk, his reflexes seem as sharp as ever, and your brain chemistry seems to alter more.

Him, him, him—Bakugou, Bakugou, Bakugou.

“Oi,” he slurs, “watch it. You’ll break y’re nose, Hellcat.”

Your face turns to look at him, still in his hold. You see him. Him and his dark, hazy eyes. Him and his pink, flushed cheeks. Him and his slightly damp, sweaty hair. And your brain chemistry is altering as you take in the sight of him. All this time, he’s been haunting you with that brash, hardness that is somehow, to you, more charming than the sweet, caring gentleness of someone like Kirishima. All this time, when you see him be this way and that, you’ve shoved down that festering sense of attraction because you were immune.

But your brain has rewired, and your body is no longer the same. You’re not immune anymore. You’re fully out of your mind and body, yet fully in control when you lean forward—and he willingly meets you halfway as soon as he realizes your movement, his senses as lightning fast as ever. 

Your lips touch his, and then he kisses you. He’s kissing you, and you’re kissing him back. For a second, you don’t even move—then your hand is on his shirt, fisting the fabric and pulling it toward you with a force that isn’t familiar to your body. You never exert this sort of force for anything, but he somehow rewires your body.

The city outside keeps moving as if nothing has changed at all, but your body has been altered by the very fabric of its being, only registering one thing—him, him, him. Bakugou, Bakugou, Bakugou.

When you finally break apart, it’s only barely, and only because the car has slowed slightly, turning and shifting routes. Your eyes dart to the rear view mirror for a millisecond, meeting the gaze of the driver who is staring at you as you kiss the man beside you, and you fluster as soon as you do, moving to inch apart from Bakugou. But he growls quietly under his breath, hand moving to cup the back of your head and pull you back in, and your senses return to that weird, unfamiliar state that only registers him.

He kisses you, and you kiss him back. And it’s just him, him, him.

You only part a second time because you need to for air. He clicks his tongue, but he complies, watching you as you catch your breath. “Fuck,” he mutters.

Your heart drops for a moment as you wonder if he regrets it—but it doesn’t sound like regret, and you relax just as quickly. As soon as you do, the car slows again. You realize all too fast that this is his stop.

And just like that, it’s over. Him and his lips and his hands and his body against yours. It’s over as Bakugou opens his door before you can even properly process it, getting out of the car to leave and go home and leave you…and then he turns. To you. Looks back at you as he stares expectantly.

There’s a beat where everything stills. The driver doesn’t move, not saying anything. Bakugou doesn’t move, not leaving. The car doesn’t move, not creating distance between you and this man. And then—

“You comin’ or what?” he asks, impatient.

And your answer—lightning fast in a way you never knew was possible for your reflexes, especially so in this hazed form—never fully makes it into the form words. Instead, you’re easily stepping out of the car after him, like it’s that simple. He shuts the car door, barely glances back at the Uber as the car pulls away, and then starts walking without checking if you follow.

And you follow him, of course, you do. You follow him into his fancy building and into the fancy elevator, and the elevator doors barely even have time to close before it starts again almost immediately. Bakugou’s hand is on you first, roughly pulling you in like he hated that there was never any distance in the first place.

You go back to kissing him just as fast as he returns to kissing you.

Your back hits the elevator wall with a soft thud, and you barely register the cool presence of it through your shirt, or the way his warm mouth doesn’t leave yours. It’s messy. Kissing him is messy in a way that makes your head spin—breathless, slightly impatient, all hot breath and the occasional clack of teeth on teeth as you kiss each other with clumsy, drunken fervor. It’s as if neither of you can quite slow down enough to care about anything else, not when your minds are influenced by nothing but alcohol and want.

The elevator moves. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you think that you should stop.

You don’t, though. You don’t want to, not even a little.

When the elevator slows, he doesn’t pull away. When the doors open, neither do you. You should separate, but you don’t. Not fast enough, anyway, because the doors are shutting and Bakugou is cursing under his breath as his hand fumbles quickly and just barely manages to hit the button to open them again. He looks exasperated as he hastily walks towards his floor, grabbing your wrist and tugging you along. As soon as you step onto the floor, he has you pressed against the wall—you have just the quickest second to see that his door is the only door on this level. 

Go figure, you think. (What are the chances, you have to wonder, that you would be about to drunkenly fuck your boss in his literal penthouse? You might just consider buying yourself lottery tickets after tonight’s odd stroke of luck.)

But it’s a good thing, in any case—if anyone were to see you like this, there would be no pretending this wasn’t a shameful sight to be caught in. You’re kissing him roughly like you’re two desperate teenagers and not grown adults as you inch toward his door, still stumbling as every few steps turn into another collision, another continuation of stealing breath and swallowing spit and breaking whatever sense of professionalism used to exist between you.

Bakugou doesn’t let go of you once. His hands are roaming over your hips and your waist and gliding up your spine before settling for cupping your face, pressing you into the door at his entrance. You’re laughing against his mouth at one point after you bump into the doorknob and it digs into your back, earning an amused hum from him when you hiss in pain and smack his chest. 

Finally, he fishes his pockets for his keys and opens the door with clumsy, impatient movements. He gets the door unlocked without fully parting from your mouth, and even when it opens, neither of you properly stops. You stumble inside together, the door clicking shut behind you, and you are still kissing him when your back meets the wall of his apartment. 

You’re finally able to find your voice when his lips pull away from yours to attach to your neck as you whisper, “B-bakugou—”

“Tch,” he scoffs as soon as you say his surname. “Jus’ fuckin’ say Katsuki. S’weird when you use my last name.”

“But—”

“Do it,” he huffs.

Then his mouth is latching to your neck, sucking against a particularly sensitive spot that, of course, he finds easily, and you have no choice but to whimper, “Katsuki,” as your legs wobble. 

He likes the sound of that. You can tell as soon as he stills at the sound of his given name on your tongue that it drives him insane, and when he bites down on your neck a little harder in response to it, you think you’ll use his liking to your advantage. 

Kissing people and hooking up on occasion aren’t new experiences for you. What is a new experience for you, however, is doing them with your boss, who also happens to be a well-known public figure—an important, well-known public figure, in fact. Part of your mind is chanting over and over that this is not a good idea. That smart, wise people who value their self-preservation and their livelihood don’t do things like this. That if you had an ounce of sanity, you would realize that you’re setting your future, your stability, and possibly your heart, all up for failure. 

But the alcohol in your bloodstream is not listening to your brain. It’s picking and choosing the things it wants to listen to—it hears the racing thoughts of, he’s attractive, and chooses to focus on that, rather than the more reasonable thoughts of, he’s also your employer.

When Bakugou moves his lips to slot against yours again, and his hands creep down to your ass to pull you closer, your mind doesn’t think to put a stop to this before it’s too late. Instead, it thinks to send signals to every muscle in your body so that you jump and hook your legs around his waist. 

He catches your weight easily. You’d expect nothing less from Japan’s current number four hero. When he quickly strides over to his bedroom, tossing you onto his bed, all you can think about for a moment is the way people would kill to be where you are right now. That the people leaving those thirsty, desperate comments under his posts that you manage would do anything to swap places with you, but they can’t. They can’t because you are here, in his arms, under his body, and lying on his bed. 

Sober you would be crippled by the anxiety of trying to decipher whether or not you deserve to be where you are instead of someone else. Drunk you is deeply thrilled to be here, so your hands trail over to his hair, and in a fit of bravery, they tug on his messy, blonde strands. They are softer than they look—you’ve always wondered how they felt. You’re happy to satiate your curiosity. The feeling of you pulling at his hair earns a low, satisfied groan from him as soon as you do. 

“Fuck, do that again, Hellcat,” he mutters against your lips, words still a little slurred. 

You mumble back, “M’starting to think you’re a masochist. S’this why you always make problems for yourself in public?”

“Maybe I jus’ like makin’ problems for you,” he grins.

And then you tug at his hair again, and his eyes flutter shut as he lets out a quiet grunt, burying his head in the crook of your neck. His lips continue pressing small kisses to your skin—anywhere they can find purchase along your neck and the juncture where it meets your shoulder. You can feel the outline of his cock through his pants—hard, and heavy, and hot. Even through the fabric, you can feel the heat of him as he presses against your core.

Your mind is still a blurry haze, so you don’t know who starts moving first. Somewhere between your wandering fingers in his hair and the slow trail of his lips across your skin, your clothed cunt grinds against the erection in his pants, and suddenly you’re both moving in tandem against each other. The outline of his length drags against your clit, and the friction of him gliding that heat along your core over and over and over again makes your thoughts even less coherent.

All you can think is good, good, good—he feels so fucking good against you, rubbing his cock against you even while you’re both fully clothed.

“Fuck, that’s nice,” he breathes, the words broken apart by labored pants as he rolls his hips against you.

You whine. “M-more, Katsuki,” as you buck your own hips upward, trying to match his pace and feel him against you harder.

It’s a sloppy, desperate mess—him grinding against you while you do your best to move with him, chasing better friction, more pressure, more of everything. He’s big—you can tell even without seeing him. Just from the drag of his cock alone, you can tell the bulge in his pants is impressive. Just like everything else about him. Of course, you think. Of course, everything about him, right down to what’s in his pants, is impressive. You wonder if there’s anything about him that isn’t. But you can’t bring yourself to be too annoyed by it—not when your clit aches for him to press harder against you, to slide faster along your pussy as it drenches your panties and, likely, your dress pants along with them.

“You’re so fuckin’ wet,” he chuckles. “Can tell without even takin’ anything off. Want me that bad?”

“And you’re so fucking hard,” you shoot back, trying to fight the heat rising in your face as you huff, “I can feel that, too. You’re the one who wants me.”

“Yeah,” he hums, leaning in to press hot, wet, open-mouthed kisses along your jaw. He doesn’t even try to deny it, just says, “I do.” Then, his lips brush your skin once more. “Feel that?” He rolls his hips harder against you as he says it, and the heavy, thick heat of him presses into you. You clench around nothing, aching for something to fill the emptiness inside you. “Feel what you do to me?”

“Katsuki, please,” you breathe, panting as your bodies move with increasing desperation, both of you chasing the building pressure between your legs and the tightening coil in your stomachs. “N-need you. Please.”

“Damn it,” he hisses, closing his eyes at the sheer desperation in your voice.

And it’s because you’re so desperate that you fall apart before he does. The pleasure has been building and building and building, and all it takes is one final roll of his hips—one last drag of his cock over your clit—to send you over the edge.

No—to send you plummeting.

Your walls spasm around nothing, fluttering uselessly with nothing to clench around, no matter how badly they need it. The pressure snaps, and pleasure floods through every nerve in your body. You go still beneath it, overcome by the force of it as a broken whine of his name falls from your lips, entirely incoherent.

“That’s it,” he breathes shakily, slowing the rock of his hips so that it still works you through your pleasure, but slows down the orgasm that is creeping up on him, too. “That’s it—you’re so fuckin’ pretty when you cum. Say my name like that again, Hellcat.”

You breathe his name just like that. Katsuki, Katsuki—fuck, Katsuki.

Every ragged cry of it makes his pupils dilate, his gaze fixed on you with pure hunger as he drinks in the sight of your parted lips and glassy eyes while you come undone because of him. When you finally come down from your high, he stills his hips, breathing hard through a clenched jaw as he fights the urge to keep moving. His cock twitches in his pants, and you know—you can tell he was close.

“Why didn’t you—”

“I need to be in you. To fuck you,” he cuts you off, one hand hooking into the waistband of your pants as he looks at you almost pleadingly.

His eyes are wide—a darker shade of crimson than you’ve ever seen them, and yet, somehow filled with awe all at once. As though the sight of your blissed-out face has turned his world upside down in the span of a few fleeting moments.

You nod immediately, whispering, “Yes—please, fuck me.”

That’s all he needs to hear.

He’s stripping you bare before you can think twice—your pants and underwear first, then your shirt tugged over your arms. When only your bra remains, his hands shake ever so slightly as he cups your breasts through the fabric.

“So perfect,” he breathes.

Are you? Is that a line he says easily when he’s bedding someone? Something that slips off his tongue without a second thought? You might have dwelled on it longer if you were sober, but your mind is hopelessly scattered. Instead, it fixates on the fact that Bakugou has just called your tits perfect, and now he’s unclasping your bra to free them.

The second your breasts spill free, your bra is tossed somewhere onto the floor, forgotten.

One breast is instantly in his mouth. His lips latch onto it greedily, tongue circling your pebbled nipple while his teeth graze it just enough to make something tighten low in your stomach. His other hand—large and warm and rough, yet impossibly gentle all the same—cups your other breast, his thumb and forefinger rolling your nipple between them until a whimper slips from your throat.

“Oh,” you breathe, a sharp moan spilling from your lips.

He hums in satisfaction at the sound.

“That...do that again,” you plead.

A low chuckle rumbles out of him as he switches sides, leaving nothing neglected. From where he’s buried against your chest, he watches you with hungry, satisfied eyes, drinking in every flicker of pleasure that crosses your face.

“So fuckin’ pretty,” he grunts as he finally pulls away—but not before pressing a lingering kiss between your breasts. “You’re beautiful, y’know that?”

“And you’re still wearing too many clothes,” you deflect, cheeks burning as you reach for the hem of his shirt and tug.

His grin turns instantly smug. “Yeah? Then do somethin’ about it. Aren’t you always bossin’ me around anyway?” He raises a brow. “What? Too shy now?”

You shoot him the kind of glare you keep reserved exclusively for him before yanking the shirt over his head.

Despite running a large agency that only seems to grow in reputation and prestige with every passing month, Bakugou often shows up to the office in nothing more than a t-shirt and black pants if he’s not wearing his usual hero suit. In his casual attire, if his face weren’t instantly recognizable, you’re fairly certain most people wouldn’t even realize he’s one of the owners on any given day.

He lets you peel the shirt away, revealing the broad expanse of his torso. And those abs.

The sight drags you right back to that day of the magazine shoot—to the embarrassment and thrill that had twisted together in your chest when you’d first seen him so bare. Miles and miles of skin stretched taut over thick, sculpted muscle. That’s what he is: smooth, pale skin wrapped tightly around hard-earned muscle.

Only this time, you can touch him, and you wonder if this is the universe’s belated birthday present to you. As though being denied the chance to touch him on your birthday is somehow being made up for now.

You decide to savor it.

Even through your haze, your fingertips trail slowly and deliberately over his abdomen, watching the muscles flex beneath your touch as his breath catches. A shiver runs through him. For a moment, those dark, lust-heavy eyes follow the path of your fingers across his skin.

Then he decides he wants more than this. More than your hands. More than a few fleeting touches. He wants all of you, and when his tip lines up with your entrance, you know he intends to take it.

Your eyes flutter shut as he slowly inches past your folds, the blunt head of his cock stretching your soaking entrance open to accommodate the sheer girth of him. It’s a tight fit—you feel the faint burn of him splitting you open, but you take him easily enough, your walls slick and welcoming around him. He’s gracious enough to give you a moment to breathe once he’s fully bottomed out, panting above you with his jaw clenched tight as he waits for some sign that you’re ready.

“S’fuckin’ tight,” he rasps. “S’like this pussy was made just for me—fit right in, huh?” You flutter around him at the words, and he lets out a low, gravelly chuckle.

“Stop,” you protest weakly.

He grins, leaning down to press a kiss to your forehead as he murmurs in a husky voice, “Guess you’re not all that great at bossin’ me around, huh? Where’d all that feistiness go, huh, Hellcat?”

“Just move already, Baku—”

“Katsuki,” he corrects immediately.

You grab his cheeks and pull him into a long, messy kiss. He returns it instantly, melting into your mouth with a groan that vibrates against your lips. When you finally pull away, he huffs his displeasure, but you cut him off before he can complain.

“Katsuki,” you murmur, breathless. “Please move. I want you to fuck me already.”

And he’s gone.

The second the words leave your mouth, he’s cursing under his breath and grabbing your hands, pinning them above your head as he laces his fingers through yours. His hips draw back from where your bodies meet, his cock nearly pulling free of your heat before he snaps forward again, slamming his hips down and sinking deep into your walls.

The tip presses against a spot inside you that makes your vision go white. A sharp gasp tears from your throat, your back arching beneath him as pleasure crackles through your body. Above you, Katsuki groans—a rough, broken sound—and you can tell the sensation affects him just as much as it does you.

He sets a good pace, roughly rolling his hips and thrusting into you with precision—you’re painfully reminded how athletic he is just by watching the twitch and flex of his muscles as he exerts himself to bully his hard, aching length into your cunt without so much as stuttering his tempo. And you’re so full—so filled to the brim with him and his thick cock and the way the heat of him drags along every inch of your folds. He carves into you, molding your pussy into the shape of him, and you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to make anyone else fit like this. 

(You realize that the thought of anyone else in his position now makes you sour—a scary realization, too, so you shove the thought out of your head entirely.)

“God, you take me so well, Hellcat,” he groans, “m’gonna make this pretty cunt cum for me all over again—you can do that, right?”

“Yes,” you slur, “yes, fuck—wanna do it again.”

“That’s a good girl,” he hums, kissing your jaw. “See? You can be so sweet when you’re not tellin’ me what to do. Want you like this all the time.”

“You get off on being yelled at,” you say in between whines as the head of his cock brushes against your sensitive spot over and over, drilling into you and fitting right into the spot you need him to fit. “You like it when I tell you what to do, liar.”

He grins—lets out a dazed, amused little smirk that looks better than any smile you’ve ever seen from him. Something about the flush on his cheeks and the sweat clinging to his forehead when he’s sunken into your cunt makes him all the more ethereal to look at. 

“Maybe I do,” he mumbles, “s’not like you’re ever gonna stop bein’ the fucking hellcat that you are. Might as well get used to your shit.”

Like this, when he is fucking into you, desperately chasing the friction of your tight walls clamping around him, you feel like it is possible to belong where he is. Like this, when he kisses you hard and presses his tongue against yours, you feel like it is possible to give him what he deserves, even despite your shortcomings. Like this, when you are under him, and he is looking at you like you are unearthly beautiful, you dare to let yourself believe that you, in this body, as you are, is enough. 

You are enough despite the blood in your veins and the codes in your DNA telling you that you have nothing to bring to the table. No flashy quirk, and no useful power that will make you an equal. You are enough just by the eyes that meet his and make the tips of his ears hot, and you are enough just by the fingers that glide along his back and bring goosebumps to his skin. You are enough because you are what he wants, and he does not weigh your worth by the power that does not exist in your bones. 

“Shit,” he curses, moaning low and breathy, pulling you out of your scattered thoughts, “shit, m’so fuckin’ close.”

“Me too—m’gonna cum. Cum with me, Katsuki, please.”

One thrust, then two, and then his thumb moves to roll over your clit in harsh circles, and you’re falling apart again. Your first orgasm, you toppled over the edge, falling and falling in a slow descent until you hit the ground. This one, you are crushed by the weight of force instead, feeling your body sink heavily into the mattress as your bones turn to lead. The feeling of euphoria fills every vein and makes your body still, unable to move as you do nothing but lie there and take it. 

And when you feel him twitch in your cunt as it flutters around him, you whisper, “N-no, inside—please, inside,” as you feel him about to pull out and leave you empty. 

“You sure?” he croaks. “Safe?”

“Yes,” you nod, barely able to move your head. It’s still heavy and incoherent. “Yes, yes—please.”

One more thrust—a sloppy and unrhythmic thrust, at that—and Bakugou is spilling into you. His seed is thick and hot and fills you up in short ropes that paint you white as he twitches inside of you. 

He breathes out your name. Not Hellcat. Not some insult he doesn’t mean when he’s annoyed like idiot, or moron. No, he sighs out your name as his body is lost to pleasure, and fuck—it is the most delicate you’ve ever heard your own name sound. He says it like it is a fragile, precious word, saying it like he ought to worship it.

When he comes down from the height of his pleasure, he slumps over your body, sweaty and heavy and yet, so comforting. Skin meets skin, and your heartbeat is pounding in rhythm to his own erratically pumping heart. 

“Fuck,” he whispers, kissing your collarbone, “you…you’re gonna fuckin’ kill me dead.”

“I think it’s the other way around,” you wrinkle your nose. “You’re heavy. M’gonna get crushed to death.”

“Shut up,” he snorts. 

He rolls off of you, though, and your mind can focus on little else besides the fact that he is warm. So, so warm, and he smells so, so sweet when sweat clings to his skin. You can’t help but drift closer to him the second he settles onto the empty side of the bed, curling against his chest and chasing that familiar warmth, that faint scent of burnt sugar, as you bury your face against his skin.

An arm wraps around you immediately, caging you in the heat that radiates off him. Somewhere between slow, heavy blinks and the fleeting moments before sleep finally claims you, you register sheets being pulled up around you. Soft lips press against your forehead.

“Don’ hog the blanket,” you mumble tiredly.

“Go the fuck to sleep,” he yawns.

You think you roll your eyes. You’re not entirely sure. The only thing you know is that you are sinking into sleep and into him, and you could not claw your way out even if you wanted to.

Chapter 2 will be uploaded on Friday next week!! If you’d like me to tag you please comment and let me know!! Just make sure you indicate you are over 18 somewhere on your account though

[sunee-syrup]

genius. [akaashi keiji] masterlist

>>You struggle to pay rent on your limited graduate student salary, and your worst enemy agrees to help you out.

or

You realize you need to find a partner for your faceless porn account, and Akaashi Keiji is the only man who meets all your requirements.<<

series status: complete. ✓

spotify playlist ⇝

the aesthetic ⇝

tags: "grad student by day, porn star by night" akaashi keiji, linguistics phd students akaashiyn, welcome to the one thing i know too much about :')), academic rivals to lovers, smut, fluff, angst, dom!akaashi keiji (DOM AKAASHI SUPREMACY), porn with feelings, akaashi gets yellow-carded in their color consent system but i swear it's not what it looks like, dom/sub dynamics, akaashi's a brat tamer, side pairing kurootsukki <3

a/n: welcome to the 'academic rivals to lovers dom!akaashi keiji' series that's been haunting me for weeks now :) hope you enjoy :)

✗ !!! minors do not interact !!! ✗

chapter 1. october 16th. ⊗ [wc: 17.5k]

chapter 2. ricochet. ⊗ [wc: 29.6k]

chapter 3. need. ⊗ [wc: 14.9k]

chapter 4. jealousy. ⊗ [wc: 15.6k]

[daashi]

all their writing is so good, pls go read 🙏

[tumultuosatempestate]

Come as you are, as you were

As I want you to be

As a friend, as a friend

As a known enemy

[freakoutgirl]

I'm like if a girl who didn't do much was still experiencing burnout

[peachfromcmbyn]

do we think chocolate guy is gay?

[senatortedcruz]

-Grandpa Joe muttering to Charlie in that factory

[classyrbf]

America is officially fucked. If any of you voted for that funky ass orange, bowling ball looking ass, racist ass, rapist ass, felon ass, misogynist ass, homophobic ass bitch, please unfollow and block me with all disrespect.

[piendish]

Reblong to give someone an ice cream sanditch.

[drugsorgasmsandcheese]

my blog is NOT a safe space for trump supporters by the way so if you voted trump or just lick his ass unfollow me thank you kindly

[skrunksthatwunk]

wasn't able to find any posts about him on here but

Atlanta activists demand action after unhoused man killed during encampment cleanup

Those gathered mourned his death and called for an end to what they described as dangerous and dehumanizing practices during encampment clea

[cinamun]

What a time to be alive.

Happy Black History Month to all and to all a good night ❤️🖤💚

[the-burning-goddess]

kendrick lamar the political storyteller you are. so sorry everyone will only focus on the drake of it all. i see u princess. your mind.

[parkchanwoohoo]

Love complimenting strangers' outfits. They always smile so hard. It's like, haha I got you, bitch. You've fallen for my manipulations of Making Your Day. Yeah walk away from me all happy. I got your ass

[gardenofnoah]

i pulled you from the sea to hear you howl

note: i wrote this as a love letter to myself, because things are hard and i needed something soft. i hope this silly little story is a warm hug to you, too. <3 wc: no idea, i wrote this in drafts. my guess is around 8k tags: bakugou x reader, soulmate au (mild fantasy? idk), no quirk (bkg is a firefighter/first responder, reader is a baker), fated strangers to lovers, mentions of drinking (not unhealthily), meddling friends (cute though), sappy romance, smut (mdni)

Once, when you were five, the wind slipped in through the crack of your bedroom window. It whispered through the linen fibers of the thin drapes, a friendly ghost taking shape under a sheet. There, by the sea, the nightly breeze was as expected as the rise of the sun each morning. But on this night, the cool, coastal air brushed over your body with a murmur of something different—a gentle beckoning toward an embrace both ancient and yet known to you somehow.

Pulled into the dreamland with the brine of the ocean on your lips, the air was a warm quilt over your shoulders, shimmering with the hum of crickets and tree frogs hidden by the dark of night. You found yourself in a clearing, illuminated by the shining face of the moon, larger than life and swelled to its peak above your head. So opposite was this dense wood—absent was the marshy swell of the sea, the crunch of saturated sand beneath your feet—but you felt no fear. You’d no reason to know this place and yet it was a welcoming back—not home but older than that, like the marrow in your bones from your greatest grandmother.

Each step forward was a whisper to the webs of roots and mycelium twisting deep into the dirt below you, each one echoed back to you in taps against the soles of your feet. It propelled you forward, your tiny feet stomping with gusto as a backtrack to the sounds of your giggles, this conversation with the earth that only you and She were privy to.

You reached the perimeter of the clearing and pushed forward still, thick brambles of the wood curving outward, welcoming you in and clearing a path of stardust, iridescent in the moonlight. Deeper into the forest you went, the pad of your footfalls against the soil growing louder and then louder still, like the rhythmic strike of palms against a goblet drum. By the time you reached the source of the sound you felt the beat under your skin, thundering through the networks of sinew and nerves that kept you upright and pushing forward. The path opened into another glade, this one smaller and hugged tight by a ring of willow trees.

There was no drum to be found, though—in fact, the only other apparition in the meadow was that of a wolf before you.

Five years old and only knowing a life of brackish water pounding against steep cliffs and secret, sandy coves, you'd no reason to be able to identify the beast before you, and yet you were certain. Coat of lustrous gold by the light of the moon, it merely blinked its bleary, crimson eyes as you approached, none too cautious as you should have been. All the sound around you—the drumming, the crickets, the tree frogs, the whispers of the wind—quieted with the presence of the wolf. All that remained was the gentle sigh of breath from your new companion, who you knew, somehow, was just that.

But as you finally were close enough to feel the puff of heat with each breath from the wolf’s snout, you found it to be no wolf at all; you sunk your fingers into the thick, silky fur only to watch as feathered, inky wings unfurled to a great height from either side of the creature’s spine. The darkness cradled you then—downy feathers curling into a shield above your head as you settled between the maw and the chest of the wild thing, tame as a house cat in your presence.

You felt the beat of a heart and a rumbling against your back as you curled into its warmth. Your eyes grew heavy again, lulled by the chuff of the wolf that deepened with every stroke of your fingers through its coat. You whimpered, fighting against the pull of the inevitable day and wanting to stay here, if only a little longer.

“Not yet,” you heard, unsure even now if the beast had spoken the words or imparted them onto you, raspy and deep, “but soon.”

.

..

…

The absence of light in the sky and the knowledge that it was a Saturday meant little to you as you dragged yourself from the warmth of your sheets. Truthfully, you rarely needed an alarm clock these days—not when the smell of baking sourdough dutifully wafted up through your apartment each morning.

You slid your feet into your slippers, jamming them a little further inside on each trudging step to the bathroom. Toes curling into the fleece lining, you surveyed the damage you'd done in your sleep—hair in varying states of matted disarray around your head, and deep, darkened indents on one side of your face. You'd slept like the dead—dreams muted and indistinct, as they always had been. All except for that one.

No amount of taming could fix the rat's nest atop your head, but you tried anyway—ignoring the snag of knots as you forced every strand you could into some semblance of order, tight and secure on the crown of your head. You brushed your teeth and washed your face on autopilot, your mind already downstairs and 12 steps ahead.

Still in your slippers, each wooden step creaked its loving good morning to you until you reached the landing, shoving at the heavy wooden door with both hands, instantly warming at the sight revealed to you behind it.

Aiya stood at the great brick oven, more inside of it than not as she poked and prodded at the smoldering logs toward its opposite end. The smell of yeast and heat hit you like a wave as it permeated its way into every fiber of your being. It didn't matter that it was 5:30 in the morning—no one was as lucky as you in this moment.

"You'll get stuck one of these days."

Aiya swore, backing carefully out of the mouth of the oven to face you fully, her dark eyes already narrowed into a glare.

"You scared the hell out of me. Walk heavier."

You grinned, nudging her with your shoulder as you moved past her, deeper into the kitchen. Butcher's block already floured, thanks to your counterpart.

"We don't have any delivery orders today, yeah?"

"Nope," Aiya called, still fighting with the flames inside its brick container, "just a regular ol' baking day."

You hummed, scanning over the recipe cards pinned to the drywall in front of you—all recipes you'd sourced from years of harassing the community grandmothers and scouring local thrift stores. You settled on one of your favorites: a simple rye loaf, earthy and malty and beautifully sour. It was a best seller for a reason.

"I didn't hear you get up this morning," you murmured, grabbing the light rye flour off the wooden shelf above your head.

Aiya snorted, resting the metal poker against the brick of the oven and making her way toward you. "I don't know how you could've. I could've jumped on you from the top rope and you'd have slept through it."

She bumped her hip into yours, a silent request to shift so she could open the cooler below you, under the counter top. You did this dance every morning—the small size of the kitchen inconsequential to the knowledge of being so in synch with each other.

Despite feeling as if you'd known her in another life, Aiya had only entered this one in its second half, with you serendipitously knocking her clean off her feet at an early morning farmers' market, not quite awake and distracted by the merchant grinding flour in a portable mill. She'd been focused on the same thing, and your shared love of baking started a friendship that quickly became inseparable.

The decision to open a bakery came from an evening of drunken idealism—giggling and plotting the rest of your lives together, sighing over a possibility that felt too far fetched, even with the wine.

"I mean," you'd started, sitting back into the threadbare cushions of the couch you'd hauled in off the sidewalk a few years before, back when you'd moved her into your spare bedroom, deciding you needed it filled with her light. "We could just. Do it?"

Aiya snorted into her glass, whining when red splashed back in her face. "Damn. Right in the eye."

"I mean, why not?" you pressed, feeling emboldened, "the space downstairs is open. And our credit is...good enough? For a loan?"

Aiya ran a sleeve covered hand over her face, blinking bleary eyes at you in the dim of your living room. "I'm with you. I probably shouldn't be? But I am."

The rest were pages in your history—some less fondly remembered than others, but ultimately, you opened your bakery, right below your shared apartment overlooking the sea. It was dreamy, a thing you never could've imagined would turn into your reality. But here you were.

So you spent your mornings like this—waking up to the smell of rising bread, covered in flour and sweat before the sun came up. Over the years you'd become something of a staple in the community, and you were grateful for the assurance that your regulars would show up dutifully every time you flipped the little sign to 'open'.

Three hours later, you had a tray full of warm, oval shaped loaves to put on their wooden display shelves—all lined up like books in a library behind the serving counter. You placed them on their racks just as the morning sun streamed in through the front windows—your favorite part of the morning.

"Hana coming in this morning?" you called over your shoulder, making your way toward the front door to flip the sign and open for the day.

"Think so," Aiya made her way out to the front to join you, untying her apron and hanging it on the hook next to yours. The saloon style doors clanged shut behind her—a sound you never got tired of hearing. It reminded you of your great grandmother's kitchen.

Hana was Aiya's kid sister—she'd gotten into some trouble in the last few months, and you'd offered her a part-time job manning the counter to keep her on the straight and narrow. To your surprise, she was really good at it. Her grades came up shortly after she'd started, and although you'd given her the option, she kept coming back.

You returned behind the counter, adjusting and readjusting the wall of breads while Aiya filled the pastry cooler. The bell of the door rang out, signaling the start of the day.

"Good morning!" you called over your shoulder, pulling the metal cooking racks out from under your now-cooled rye loaves. "How are y—"

Turning around to face your first customer, your grip went slack—your racks clattering to the floor. You'd barely registered the pain of one bouncing off your slipper-clad toes, because in your doorway was your wolf—looking just as astounded to see you.

"What the—you good?"

Aiya bent down to pick up the racks, returning them to your still outstretched hands. She looked from you, to your visitor, who was a—man. A man, standing there before you, his definitely human hands shoved inside jean pockets that human people with human limbs wore. But—you knew.

It was his eyes, first—such an unusual shade of carmine that somehow felt like the most natural thing in the world to you. But then you noticed the hair—shooting out in all directions in the most familiar shade of gold—the exact shade of your wolf. It was him—it had to be—

You shook your head—this was insane.

"Sorry about that," you chuckled, fighting to shake off the momentary lapse in reality that you had to have just experienced, "I, um—yeah. What can I get you?"

The man in front of you blinked—wide, achingly familiar eyes still displaying the shell-shock that you felt.

"Just a—uh. Rye."

You fought through the second blow to your nerves, fingers stabbing at the register screen too hard, because—his voice. It was the voice, the one you'd carried inside your heart for the last 23 years.

You rang him up on autopilot, wrapping the loaf in its crinkly brown paper, your mind screaming at you not to drop it as you handed it over the counter. You sucked in a breath through your teeth as his fingertips brushed yours—it was all you could do not to wrench your hand back like you'd been burned. You forced a smile, though you didn't have to see your face to know it wasn't convincing.

"Thank you," you compelled yourself to say, "have a good one."

He nodded, turning swiftly on his heels. The bell chimed as the door swung shut behind him—giving you permission to slump against the counter, forehead to the wood as you fought for control over your own heart rate.

"What," Aiya drawled, peeking out from behind the kitchen doors, "was that all about?"

.

..

...

You sighed, flipping the door sign to 'closed'. You felt no satisfaction in hearing the lock click—not after this morning.

You'd never told Aiya about the dream—because why would you have? Kids had weird dreams—that was like, the cornerstone of being a kid, probably. It was weird that you had fixated on it, all these years. You were pretty sure you shouldn't have been able to remember it at all, with what stage of development your brain had been in, much less with such aching clarity.

Trudging back up the stairs to your apartment, you only half-heard the gist of Aiya's chittering—undeterred by your refusal to tell her what had affected you so suddenly this morning, and unconvinced by your half-true excuse of "I thought I knew him from somewhere". Only when you'd gone nonverbal did she drop it, but you had a hunch that her silence was strategic—it would come up again, undoubtedly.

You crawled into bed far earlier than appropriate, but you were wiped—you'd wracked your brain longer today than you ever had, trying to identify the meaning in all of this. The back and forth of okay but that was totally the wolf—bird—thing that visited me in my sleep when I was five, to at what point should I start considering psychiatric help was exhausting and giving you a bit of whiplash. Maybe there was no meaning—maybe your budding subconscious had leant into its creativity when you were small, and now the universe had just randomly dropped the human embodiment of the thing that had stuck with you for the last two decades at your doorstep.

You didn't believe that, though—not if you were really honest with yourself. You had—for better or worse—not been hardened by the state of being a human trying to forge a life in an unforgiving world, and you still believed that things happened for a reason. Which did not actually feel like a good quality to possess in this moment, because normal, jaded people would probably not sit up in bed and fixate on if their customer was actually a mystical creature. But here you were.

You reached for your nightstand—relying on muscle memory more than sight to seek out the thing that had always served to calm your racing mind. Tattered from over the years and embarrassingly obvious now, your hand curls around the belly of your stuffed dog—it's matted fur dulled to a dusty beige. It had been your first stuffed animal when you were born, and posed a striking resemblance to your wolf, though you supposed you could see him in anything if you tried hard enough, with your serendipity-loving mush brain.

Window open, the ocean breeze brought in a salty draft that flirted with your curtains and tickled your face. Tugging on a pointed ear, your eyes drifted closed as you drew in breath after deep breath, settling deeper into your bed. Crushed velvet under the pad of your thumb, you thought of the sound of the forest again—and what it would feel like to step onto that mossy ground now.

.

..

...

You were no more desensitized to his presence when he came back.

In the kitchen, you heard the bell clink off the door as it swung open.

You stiffened, like instead of the outside breeze something like knowing curled at your skin and raised goosebumps.

"Well hi there, stranger." You could hear the shit-eating grin on Aiya's face even behind the wall. "What'll it be today?"

Despite all of your brain's attempts to keep your feet firmly planted where they were, they carried you out to the register anyway, feeling nothing but especially foolish at the way you had no real reason to be out there.

"Good morning," you told him, voice quiet and smile still a little wobbly, but mostly recovered this time.

He nodded at you, a clipped thing that should've felt rude but only served to flip your stomach.

Aiya made no attempt to disguised the way she openly gawked at you both, curiosity morphing into something plotting as she plopped another rye loaf into a bag, dropped it on the counter, and walked back into the kitchen without a word. Leaving you and your stranger in silence.

It was only a minute before it felt oppressive. "I haven't seen you in before this week," a carefully worded half-truth, "you new to the area?"

He let out a grunt that you took as an affirmative. "New to the coast."

You hummed, trying to feign nonchalance, typing nonsense numbers into the screen in front of you just to have a reason not to look at him.

"Well," you smiled with what you were certain was too much teeth, sliding the bag toward him, "welcome to town."

"This your place?" he asked, careful to wait until your hands were off of it to reach for it this time.

Your smile was genuine this time. "Yeah. Mine and Aiya's, for a few years now." You told him your name, and only the important points of the shop's back story. "It's my baby. I'm always grateful when new folks find it."

You weren't sure if the drop in his shoulders was a trick of the light. "S'good," he muttered, nodding to the bag in front of him. The small praise curled around your heart.

"I appreciate that. What's your name?"

Florid eyes met your own, then, and their hardness should've been off-putting. Should've been.

"Katsuki," he said softly, breaking your gaze to reach into his pocket and drop a few bills into your tip jar.

"Well thanks, Katsuki," you suddenly felt a little bashful about having the jar at all, "I'll see you soon?"

He was nearly turned around by the time you saw him nod, here and then gone like he'd been the time before.

The saloon door creaked behind you - and you knew your best friend had been pressed against it for the entirety of that conversation.

"Okay," she started, huddling next to you, head titled toward yours conspiratorially, "you have got to tell me what's going on with him."

You sighed, looking around the shop. Empty for now, but there was no way to tell her any of what you were feeling without sounding insane, so there was no such thing as too little privacy.

"C'mon," you muttered, towing her by the elbow into the kitchen, all the way to the back wall.

"Out with it," she grinned, leaning against the counter and not worried at all about the flour now coating the underside of her sleeve.

So you told her. All of the details about the original dream from so long ago — the wolf, it's brilliant coat and inky feathers. The voice you heard, the eyes you now saw peering back at you each time Katsuki made an appearance. There was no stopping the heat that crawled up your neck as you explained your suspicions.

"I feel nuts," you groaned, leaning back against the counter, face in your hands. "This is nuts, right?"

Aiya was oddly silent as she considered it. A minute passed — and another before you started to squirm.

"I mean..." she mumbled, clearly still sliding pieces together in her mind. Her eyes snapped back to yours, bright. "It is. Definitely. But I'm inclined to believe you."

"I am not at all surprised by that."

"Hey," she chided, reaching over to shove at you, "I'm just saying. Stranger things have happened. Not to me. Or anyone I know. But I'm sure they have."

Her rambling made you laugh. She had such a way of telling you you were insane and affirming your insanity all at once.

"He's handsome, though," she grinned at you, far too knowing, "eh?"

"Don't you have something to do?" Groaning, you turned away from her, cheeks burning and unnecessarily grabbing stray pieces of parchment paper off the counter. She snorted, reaching out to squeeze your hip before walking back out to the register.

You let out a breath, sagging against the butcher block. Handsome, yes — unnervingly so.

"Dude!" Aiya screeched, startling you out of your commiserating, "He left like—" a pause, "thirty dollars in here!"

.

..

...

Katsuki returned with some regularity, after that. It was a good two months before you stopped sweating just watching him walk through the door. Longer still to stop the incessant hammer of your heart when you spoke to him.

Even through your nerves, you learned about him. He'd grown up around the deciduous forests inland (a tidbit of information that hit your stomach like a bomb), playing in streams and catching tree frogs. He'd grown up and been trained as a firefighter—eight months ago, he'd come to the coast to complete an emergency medicine certificate, and had decided to stick around.

"So like," you sipped at your tea, letting the warmth settle the lingering shakiness you'd felt since you (very bravely) joined him at his table during a lull between customers, "ambulance rides, IVs, all that?"

He'd taken to ordering something other than rye bread over the last few weeks. It could've had something to do with the way Aiya had started not-so-politely pestering him to order from the brunch menu on Saturday mornings. Until a couple months ago, you did not have a brunch menu.

He shook his head, leaning back in his seat. You felt your gaze slipping to the strain of his black t-shirt against his chest, but the mortification at getting caught kept it trained on his face. Not a bad alternative.

"S'what happens before the ambulance gets there. The idea is to station us at checkpoints in national parks, protected forest areas — places where help ain't as fast to get there. Some asshole ashes a cigarette and starts a forest fire — we go haul his ass outta there and treat the life-threatening stuff so that he's stabilized enough to be transported."

It was the most you'd ever heard him speak in one go, and the most animated you'd seen him to boot. To imagine him out there saving lives sent a wicked little thrill up your spine that you fought hard to ignore.

You brushed the pad of your finger over the rim of your mug, considering it. "So why fire?"

He shrugged, turning his gaze from you to something out the window, squinting toward the coast in the distance. The silence stretched on long enough that you started to fear you'd struck a nerve.

"My old man," he said finally, quieter than before. You watched as he pushed his hands into his pockets, shoulders raised slightly, like he meant to protect himself from a threat that hadn't materialized yet. "Our house caught fire when I was a kid. Electrical. By the time the smoke detector went off, the whole place was burning. Got me and mom out, but," he drew in a breath, held it. You found yourself mirroring him. "Yeah. No good."

You let out the breath and with it went all of the air in the room. You followed his gaze out, down to the ocean, pressing your palm to the ache in your chest.

"You must be proud," you told him, because it felt marginally better than something so meaningless as an apology for such a painful burden to carry.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw him puff up a little at that. He hummed, a low, clipped thing. Cleared his throat.

"It's cool that you have a path that's so meaningful to you," you offered, trying to take away some of the strain of the last few minutes. "I always thought I'd be a librarian."

You watched him deflate, watched the wall come down just a hair, as he turned back to you. "What happened?"

You shrugged, taking another sip from your mug. "I hated the research part. Which turns out, is like...the whole part."

That earned you a rare and incredibly disarming hint of a smirk. It felt like Christmas.

"I just like to read. I like storytelling." You tilted your head toward the direction of the street outside. "There was a bookstore I worked in before we bought this place. This little old lady owned it, and when she died, I asked her husband if I could continue to run it." You smiled, drawn into the memory. "She'd told him under no circumstances was he to let me run the store."

Katsuki's eyebrows knitted together, and it was almost boyish enough to feel like a sucker punch to the gut. "Why?"

"She'd heard me talk about baking. She knew that was where my heart was." You rubbed a watermark off the side of your mug with your thumb — your turn to feel a little too vulnerable. "I would've been content there, but she wanted me to have more. No sense in settling for contentment when all I really needed was a kick in the ass to have what I actually wanted."

"I miss her," you said, nearly a whisper, "She taught me a lot. I didn't have someone like that until I met her."

Katsuki was quiet again, his default setting, watching you fiddle with your tea and considering what you'd said.

"Husband still around?"

"Yeah, actually," you grinned at him, relieved to be back in less unguarded territory, "he lives down the street. Hana takes him dinner rolls every Monday." You nodded toward the girl stationed at the counter, who was very obviously trying to eavesdrop unnoticed.

"He calls me every few days. He says he's lonely," you chuckled, shaking your head, "he's not. He's a busybody and he wants to gossip about the neighbors' yappy dog that pees in his yard."

Katsuki let out a surprised little laugh at that — a soft, raspy thing that hit your ears with such devastating sweetness that you weren't sure you could look at him. Blessedly, he looked down at his phone and cursed.

"Thanks for chatting with me," you told him, watching him wrap up the remaining half of whatever egg sandwich Aiya had forced on him this morning and stand from his seat.

He nodded, turning to leave, but paused halfway to the first step. Turning back to you, he said, "Nonfiction or fiction."

Smiling, you tilted your head to the side, confused and amused and assuming his statement to be a question. "Fiction. Not even close."

Nodding again, as serious as if you'd told him an answer far more grave than you had. Without a word, he left — the clang of the door behind him landing a little more melancholy on your heart than you thought it should. You watched him walk across the street — all roping muscle and broad, sure strides — until he was out of sight.

You shook your head in a feeble attempt to dislodge that last part, tipping back to drain the last of your tea before getting up to check on today's sandwich bread — a loaf that was notoriously difficult to bake to the correct rise and texture.

"I would say you're down bad," Hana drawled, leaning over the counter with her chin in her hand, "but that would pale in comparison to what I just watched."

"Shut it," you tried to be stern, but to suppress the flush was impossible. "Go get a bag ready for your deliveries."

She rolled her eyes, clearly not taking you seriously. You shook your head, unable to stop the smile pulling at the corners of your mouth as you walked back into the kitchen.

"Down atrocious, maybe," you heard her mutter behind you, "Dreadful? No. Down abominable."

"Oh my god, goodbye Hana," you groaned, grinning still at the sound of her answering cackle.

Down abominable, indeed.

.

..

...

A week later, you’d trudged down the steps in your slippers to pull the mail from the box, starting when your fingertips met something harder than you were expecting. Inside a careful wrapping of brown paper was a hard copy of a book you hadn’t read, but been eyeing in the shop down the road. A story about a baker and the mystical creature she befriends, that leads her on the journey of a lifetime. You shook your head, tucking the book under your arm and trudging back up the steps, a feeling blooming in your chest, expanding with every step.

.

..

…

You warmed at the sight of the caller ID on the phone, too near to closing to answer had it been anyone else.

"Well hello, little bear. How are you?"

You smiled at the nickname — you'd no idea how the couple had landed on it, but it'd stuck.

"I'm good, Jiji. How are you? You still having trouble with that little guy across the street?"

"Oh, he's just a nightmare. But that's not why I'm calling you."

You grinned, already anticipating this week's gossip. "Oh?"

"Now why did that little girl come down here and tell me you had a boyfriend before you did?"

Hana. That nosy little witch.

"I don't know why she would've done that, Ji," landline caught between your cheek and your shoulder, you were already drafting a sternly-worded text to Hana, "because I don't have a boyfriend."

"You might as well have a husband with how much he seems to be up in that shop with you."

You sighed, abandoning your ranting message for the moment only to pinch at the bridge of your nose. "You sure seem to know a lot about him."

His gravelly chuckle made you smile. "You like him, honey?"

"I do, Jiji," you said earnestly, warmed by the old man's concern. "He's good people."

"Well you'd better not settle for anything less than the best, you hear me?"

You swallowed, made difficult by the sudden onslaught of emotion. "Yes, sir."

"You know, when Kimina and I were dating, I got her one hundred roses and took her out on a canoe ride during sunset. That's where we fell in love."

"Is that so?" You choked back a snicker, remembering a very different version of events told by Kimina that ended in several bee stings and a capsized canoe.

"Oh yes, I was quite the Casanova. Anyway, did I tell you about the squirrel that keeps breaking into my bird feeder?"

You let Jiji drone on about his squirrel, thinking only about this feeling in your chest that seemed to grow with each passing day. The weight of it was astonishing and yet you knew you could — wanted to — carry it.

Was it such a bad thing? You couldn’t believe it was. You’d never shied away from a challenge, but this didn’t feel like that. It felt inevitable, like all you had to do was stand still and let it happen.

Like the sea, you'd let it swell up, spill over. There was no fear now — only the inevitable push and pull between you and this man that had both walked right into your life and been there the whole time.

.

..

...

The ring of the front door bell caught your attention — surprised that it was unlocked, and not at all surprised at who was standing underneath of it.

"Good morning, Katsuki."

He grunted his own greeting, setting down a to-go cup on the counter in front of you, only marked with your first initial, like it'd been too much for him to tell the barista your full name. This man.

You murmured your thanks and watched him linger, absolutely thrilled by the space he took up in your little bakery. "I'm actually going to close today," you told him between sips, "Aiya has to take Hana to get a physical, so it'll just be me, and I figured I'd take advantage of an off day."

He blinked, processing, and then his eyebrows pinched together something terrible. "You just leave your shit unlocked?" You watched him bristle, clearly embarrassed that he'd strolled in without knowing you were closed.

"You'd have to talk to Aiya about that," you told him, amused and not at all rising to the bait.

You let him flounder for a little bit — clearly fighting the urge to bolt. It was fascinating to watch him be ruffled by you, of all people.

"Actually," you offered, finally taking pity on him, "I thought I might go down to the beach today. Nice as it is out. Would you like to join me?"

His begrudging acceptance was not nearly as biting as it would've been had his face not mirrored the color of his irises.

You leave the bakery behind you (after locking up, at the not-so-polite request of Katsuki) and start the trek down the roadway to the beach, loose stones crunching and rolling under your feet. Late spring brought with it a cool breeze to dim the heat of the sun — your favorite time of year to throw on a big knit and sneak down to poke around in tide pools during slower days. You'd brought a blanket and some sandwiches for lunch — both of which Katsuki promptly snatched away from you and insisted on carrying, even though it was only a ten minute walk to the shore.

Which was convenient, because the second you stepped onto the softer silt that gave way to the ocean, you were off like a shot — cackling like a lunatic at the 'what in the fuck—" behind you under you couldn't hear it anymore, sweater torn off and discarded somewhere behind you. You ran toward the water until it caught you — wrapping around your shins, your thighs, and finally swallowing you whole as you dove in.

The sea was cold enough to steal the breath from your lungs and lock up your muscles, but you were used to it. Each swell picked you up and set you back down gently, almost enough to be lulled into some catatonic state of security had you not lived here all of your life and known acutely of the violence the ocean was capable of. But there were no grudges to be held. The ocean could never be expected to be anything but herself.

"Don't ever be foolish enough to settle for someone who believes you can be tamed," Kimina had told you, arm in arm as you walked down the beach all of those years ago.

"Jiji hasn't tamed you?" you'd asked, not quite knowing if she was being serious.

"God, no. That man couldn't tame a chihuahua, much less a woman. Listen to me," she'd pulled you to a stop then — surprisingly strong for how brittle she was — and looked you straight in the face, "There is something wild inside of you. You don't give that to anyone — it is yours. When a man tries to take from that wild — and he will — you let it out. It will keep you safe until the right someone comes along and can live in harmony with it."

You'd blinked — not wholly surprised by the impromptu lecture, because Kiminia was prone to those, but they weren't usually as...on the nose. Her usual disquisitions were a little harder to interpret — this one was not.

She'd looked at you expectantly. "Okay," you'd said, still a little bewildered, "I understand."

Satisfied, she'd gone on like she hadn't said a word, chattering instead about that year's prediction of the best vegetables to plant in raised gardens. You'd half-listened, mostly focused on the push and pull of the water along the shore. Heeding Kimina's warning — learning more than you thought you would when you'd agreed to walk with her that day.

You let the ocean hold you in it's embrace until the cold reached your bones and became less than tolerable. You paddled back, wringing your shorts and tank top out as best you could once you could stand and walk back in.

Katsuki stood at the water's edge, expression entirely unreadable but waiting for you nonetheless. You walked until your chest was only a few inches from his. He squinted at you, mouth twisted in some sort of scowl. Your smile was slow to spread, but once it started, you couldn't stop it.

He clicked his tongue, clearly trying to decide what in the world was wrong with you. "You gotta death wish?"

"Mhm-mhm," your cheeks ached with the grin that wouldn't go away for anything.

"You gonna walk around like a wet cat for the rest of the day?"

"There's a towel rolled up in the blanket."

"Course there is."

You followed him back to where he'd dropped your stuff — surprisingly orderly for having just watched you dive into the freezing ocean on a whim. You filed that one away for later.

While Katsuki stooped down to rummage through your bag, you worked on wringing your hair out — curls coated in brine and sand, a problem for later tonight. You twisted it tight enough to squeeze the water out let it fall back down over your shoulders.

Then it was dark — your towel thrown over your head. You squawked, caught of guard, and tried to bat it away; but your protests died out the second you felt a new pressure.

Separated by the towel, you felt his hands ghost over your shoulders, down the length of your arms, in between your fingers. You'd never been so aware of your body before that moment — and only what he'd touched. A floating torso in the middle of the beach.

You let him preen you, careful not to breathe for fear that you'd scare him off. Only when he stopped and stepped back did you snap out of it enough to pop your head out from under the towel.

He was quiet for a moment, studying you, and then —

"You look crazy."

You whipped the towel at him then, screeching something absurd at him if only to get him to laugh. But you were warm. Despite the bone-chilling water and the breeze, everything was warm.

Pulling your sweater back over your head, you settled in next to him on a flat rock, heated by the setting sun. You pulled your knees to your chest, resting your chin on the flat of them while you watched the tide come in.

The silence was an amicable one, punctuated only by the static current you felt between your bodies, and the way you fought the urge to scoot closer to him.

Until the right someone comes along and can live in harmony with it.

And there it was again — that searing, unignorable feeling that you'd been here before. Not the beach, but the closeness. The silent safety.

"Can I share something with you?" You asked as the sun began to dip below the horizon, bathing everything in a deep coral.

He hummed — your long-learned interpretation of his permission. He didn't look at you, but you knew he was listening.

You took a deep breath. "When I was a kid, I had this dream. It was the strangest thing — I was walking through this forest, and I'd never seen it before, but it was like I knew where I was going. I walked on for a while until I walked into this sort of clearing. And there was this giant wolf. It was the most striking thing with these really intense eyes."

You could've sworn you felt Katsuki tense beside you. "And again, strange, because I just walked right up to the thing. And like, plopped down in its...whatever the equivalent to a lap is on a wolf."

"And I didn't want to leave," you murmured, "it was so devastating. I felt myself start to wake up and just. Fought the hell out of it. But wolf tried to calm me down. It said, 'not yet, but soon.' And that was the end of it. I never had that dream again, but I never forgot about it."

"This is the part that's really, really weird," you warned him, forcing out a little laugh to dispel your nerves. "You walked into the shop for the first time, and it was the most jarring thing because you looked exactly like the wolf. Same eyes, same hair color. Freaky, but like, coincidences are a thing."

"But then you spoke. And it was the same voice I'd heard in the dream. And I just...haven't been able to figure that one out."

Immediately the silence was crushing, the regret of mentioning it at all pressing, pressing, pressing, until you had to say something to get it to dissipate.

"It was just a weird thing, I think—"

"You were a rabbit."

You balked, not quite believing your ears. "What did you say?"

"In my dream," if you hadn't been as focused as you were on every word out of his mouth, you might not have even heard him, "you were a rabbit."

There was not a thought you could possibly voice as a follow up to that.

"...huh," is what you settled on, wholly unable to get your brain to catch up.

"It was a beach. Never’d even seen a beach, and there I was," he was incredibly matter-of-fact about it, like it wasn't shredding your insides to know that you'd both carried this thing the entire time.

"The first time I heard ya talk I thought someone was playing some sick joke on me," he murmured. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw him turn his head to look down at you. "I cancelled my train ticket back home that day."

You nearly snapped your neck with the force you whipped around to look at him with. "You did what?"

"I know," he said, with a smile that gored you straight through the heart. "I called mom 'cause I thought I was losing it. But she knew about the dream. She just said 'dad sent you there."

Hand over your heart to keep it where it was, the other reaching out to tether you to something, the tears came hard and fast — blurring the image of the man beside you. Your tether was him — the strength rippling through his forearm under your fingertips, but the only thing you could feel was the warmth. His skin, the calloused palm he settled over your own.

"I watched you run into that freezing fuckin' ocean like a psychopath and that was it. I knew exactly who y'were to me," you felt him shrug with a nonchalance you weren't sure you'd ever feel again. "There was nothing I could do."

"Oh," you choked, snotty and gross and suddenly indignant, "you pick right now to say the most romantic thing I've ever heard anyone say in my life?"

His head fell back with a laugh that burned through you. He didn't give you any room to think too hard about it — he just pulled you under his arm, into his chest. Your temple rested over his heartbeat like you'd been here lifetimes before.

"This is crazy," you whispered, quiet in the dark, held by the ache in your heart suddenly soothed by him.

"Yeah."

You fell back into the silence easily — thoughts fragmented and dull, except for one. You sat up, seeking his outline in the fleeting light.

"Where have you been staying?"

He looked away from you, choosing now to suddenly get sheepish. "Hotel."

"Wha — you've been living in a hotel for this long?"

His silence was more than telling.

"Jesus Christ, Katsuki," shaking your head, you gathered your things, balled up bigger than you in your arms and glaring at him. "C'mon then."

He followed you without a word, his amusement a tangible thing. You muttered to yourself the entire way home, absolutely incredulous.

You shoved your key into the lock, pausing to turn over your shoulder, pushing the door open.

"And what would you have done if I hadn't just spilled my guts to you like that? Live in that room permanently? That is so —"

"Ahem."

You froze, turning slowly to meet Aiya's gaze at the top of the steps. Her and her unbearable grin.

"Were you right?"

You looked at her, over your shoulder to Katsuki, and back again. "I was."

She hummed, her smile growing as she started down the steps. You moved to let her pass, but she stopped on the last step, opening her mouth and—

"Say goodbye to your balls, Katsuki."

Your jaw dropped, all indignancy stolen quickly by the sound of Katsuki's howl behind you. The sight of him nearly doubled over doused your fire immediately.

"Yeah, yeah," you rolled your eyes, shoving into Aiya with half-hearted strength, sending her into the wall with your shoulder. "Bye, whatever, love you, bye."

The door clicking behind her cut off her giggling and draped you in quiet. From your spot on the step, you stood eye to eye with him, and the nerves came back like a freight train.

"Alright, let's—"

He caught you before you could turn away — his fingers warm as they circled your elbow. It happened in slow motion — the drag of his fingertips up to your shoulder, his approach, the slide of his palm up the side of your neck, grip tangled and gentle in your curls, the breath you fought to drag into your lungs, the brush of his nose against your own —

"Please," he murmured, lips nearly brushing yours. It was all you could do not to unhinge your jaw and swallow him whole.

You settled for this — both hands fisted in his t-shirt, dragging him the extra centimeter to you, swallowing such achingly beautiful sounds he made. The glide of his lips over yours felt holy, felt like a firecracker detonating under your skin, felt more necessary than air —

He held you to him by the back of your neck and something about it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

This is what we are, you thought, tugging his bottom lip between your teeth just to hear the rumbling groan he'd give you in return, this is what we were always going to be.

It was soft until it wasn't, and then it was something entirely animal. His kiss was bruising, and you could only take — more of his affection, more of this feeling, more of him —

"Upstairs," you whispered against his mouth, breathy and pleading —

In another reality with far less urgency he probably would've let you at least walk up the steps yourself, but you couldn't find it in your heart to mind too much when he hauled you into his arms and up them himself, choosing to occupy yourself instead by using the new angle to your advantage — fingers hooked under his jaw, dragging his mouth back up to you, him going willingly.

Somehow he found his footing on the landing and promptly sought out the nearest soft-ish surface. When he found the couch, you braced yourself to be deposited on the cushions — to have him over you, to be contorted to his whims, already the panic singed up your spine —

It didn’t happen.

His back hit the couch and his hands never left you, looking up at you all flushed and breathing heavy and adoring, like you’d never done a wrong thing in your life —

Oh. Oh.

The realization took the wind from your sails and replaced it with a sort of molten pleasure, like a marionette pushing and pulling you toward him, chest to chest, fingertips prying and searching, needing to be so much closer than you physically could’ve been.

His hands were gentle dragging up your back, under your shirt. His lips ghosted across your jaw and down your throat, kisses syrupy and disarmingly affectionate.

But there was something wild in you, after all. And it called to him louder than you’d ever heard of it.

“I want to touch you,” you told him, slurred against the onslaught of his mouth, “I don’t want to be gentle.”

The thrill you felt at the shiver that pulled from him was unimaginable. More still at the whimpered “please” against your lips. Like a crackling whip, it set something free in you — and it was all the permission you needed to tear into him like you needed to.

His hair tickled your palm as the dulled ends brushed against it. You curled your fingers into it, grabbing a fistful and pulling back hard until he could only stare up at you, eyes hooded in unbridled want. Your unoccupied fingers set to explore, trailing up from his throat, to his jaw, to his bottom lip.

Like you’d asked him to, his lips parted. Heat lit up the space between your hips as you slipped two fingers inside, groaning at the feeling and at the shameless work of his tongue around you. Still held in place by your grip, he had to wait for you to move — and once you did, you understood the appeal.

His eyelids fluttered with every push forward and back drag of your fingers on his tongue. Swollen lips wrapped around you, only reluctant to let you go. The soft scrape of his teeth against your knuckles, the deep breaths through his nose, his low, little whines — the curl of his hips underneath you, all of that hardness seeking out any sort of soft relief. All of it was more captivating than you could’ve thought possible.

You let him go eventually, painting his skin with wetness and replacing your fingertips with your tongue. The poor thing — panting and so eager to wrap his lips around whatever you put between them.

Your fingers fell to the curve of his throat, thumb and pointer finger finding both sides of the delicate skin below the cut of his jaw and pressing down. That ripped something loud and broken from him — you let go of your grip on his hair just to watch him writhe underneath you, his powerful, assured posture given way to this blind, desperate search for friction, for more.

It felt like a god — to do so little and have this wall of a man shattered beneath you. You’d have done it forever, had you not been soaking through your panties and reaching a boiling point yourself.

You pushed back and off of him, no limit to the swelling in your chest at his whining protests.

“Take your clothes off, Katsuki.”

You blinked and it was done, and he was so wickedly beautiful you’d have looked away if you’d had any ability to do so. Flushed down his chest, head tilted back over the back of the couch, eyes nearly closed in his overwhelm but still glued to you. You took the liberty of a thorough inspection, eyes drifting down the length of his body, unable to part with the sight of the seemingly involuntary thrust of his hips, his cock angry and heavy and leaking against his stomach.

You pulled your sweater over your head, and then parted with your tank top and shorts, still damp and the only coolant for your fevered skin. Every layer removed pulled an almost inaudible whine from the back of Katsuki’s throat, like every second under this fog of sensation pulled him closer to animal and further away from man.

You stood just out of his reach, reveling a little in this picture of him and also considering something.

After a moment of thought, it came to you with such a wave of arousal that you nearly buckled under the feeling.

You took a step to him and leaned in, hands coming to rest on his thighs, pressing down to hold yourself up. His head followed your own, mouth seeking yours like a moth to a flame, like the most inevitable thing in the world.

“Mm,” you left yourself lay it on thick, the moan low in your throat and genuine, just to feel him shudder into your kiss, “you want to eat my pussy baby?”

He pulled away with a whimper, eyebrows knit together and those beautiful red eyes hopelessly unfocused but wanting, nodding fiercely, needing you to know that there was not a thing he wanted more than that.

“Get on the floor.”

He was there in an instant, body seemingly turned liquid to slip underneath you and settle there, head tilted back over the cushion, mouth already gaping, panting and searching —

You settled on either side of his face, knees pressing into the cushion, feet draped over his chest. Both of his hands wrapped around your heels, whether to keep you there or to attempt to tether himself to something, you didn’t know.

His tachycardic inhales were more gasping than anything else, like he could get a taste of you just by sucking in hard enough. You let him want it for a little while, hovering over his face just out of his reach, swollen and aching and nearly dripping —

He was patient until he wasn’t, and then he was on you — hands coming up to paw at your hips, to slot you firmly over his face, mouth open and tongue lolled out to catch you.

You pitched forward, body collapsing into the back of the couch with a strangled sort of cry, immediately overwhelmed. You pressed your forehead to the padding in front of you until you hit the resistance of wood, all of your limbs suddenly deadweight and numb, only feeling the drag of his tongue.

He worshipped you, taking the liberty to pull you forward and down and pushing you back, your swollen clit catching on the wet meat of his tongue, his mouth like a vacuum seal over the entire thing, swollen and open and made to please you —

You took to moving your hips yourself, the vibration of his groan rattling up your spine as you fucked his face, taking, taking, taking — using the entirety of it to your satisfaction, the cut of his jaw and the curve of his nose sending delicious little pangs of pleasure up your spine with every quick catch of your clit on them.

“Fuck me,” Katsuki rasped, gasping and needing, “fuck me, fuck me—”

His grip on your ass was bruising, pulling you down and spreading you open. The feeling of his tongue spearing into you, soft and dexterous and searching along your walls, pulled something like a wail from you, your body taking over, pushing you up and dropping you back own on it, needing more of the gentle stretch, his wet exploration —

“Oh, I’m gonna cum—” your voice sounded pitiful, pitched up and muffled in the crook of your elbow in a feeble attempt just to hold on. You reached to find your clit and pressed tight, quick circles into it, hard and hot and achingly sensitive under your fingertips — “Fuck, you’re gonna make me cum—”

And you did — hard and fast and nearly painful, your pussy squeezing tight around his tongue, every other muscle seemingly contracting in solidarity. Eyes shut tight against the onslaught of feeling, your body curled into itself, bucking into his mouth, trying to get more of it, trying to get away from it — static filled your ears and drown out the sound of your broken cries —

And then it was over — the pleasure turning molten and pooling outward, down into your limbs, and dissipating. You trembled in its wake, still for a minute until you remembered you were probably suffocating the man underneath you. You popped up quick — a little too quick, apparently. Your vision swam and you grabbed for the couch back — the feeling of hands at your thighs to steady you and the murmured “easy” hitting your senses like you were underwater.

Your movements were slow, nearly liquid as you made your way down to him, thighs split over his own to settle there, immediately noticing —

“You came,” you murmured, earning a soft snort from Katsuki, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. You pressed forward into him, trapping his soft cock and the mess he’d made between your stomachs, leaning into his chest and feeling his arms cage you in like you’d done this all your life.

The press of your cheek against the dusting of blond hair was a soothing thing, rubbing against him like a satisfied cat. His head tipped down to hold you there, his jaw still slick with you as it came into your view, silently beckoning for you to meet him halfway —

His kiss was a balm to your frayed nerves — warm and wet and solid against your mouth, for no other reason but to kiss you. It cut the rest of your strings — you felt the clench of your stomach release and sagged boneless into his hold. This time, there was nothing particularly erotic about it — no residual arousal pooling in your gut, no tingle up your spine. It just felt good, like warm water over cooled skin.

Satisfied, he pulled away from you with a sigh, dropping his head back to the cushions. You pressed a kiss to his jaw and settled underneath it, fighting the urge to let your eyes close.

“We need to shower,” you croaked, lips brushing his skin and making him shiver, “we’re gross.”

Katsuki hummed, his palm smoothing up the path of your spine. Making no attempt to move. You switched tactics.

“You know, Aiya usually brings a guy home with her after she goes out —”

“Yep, got it,” he said, suddenly full of life as he dragged you both off the floor, heeding your directions down the hall and to the bathroom through your giggling.

He took his time with you in there — washing the sand and salt from your hair, your hands pressed to the tile as he covered every inch of your back, with his hands and then his mouth, moving down, moving slow, under the curve of your ass to where you were burning again. You pulled back to turn, your back meeting the slick wall, to watch him swallow you whole — more captivated by the stroke of his fist along the satiny skin of his cock, tugging hard in time with flicks of his tongue against your clit —

You stood there, shaking and collapsed against each other under the steady stream of the shower. Trading sweet presses of his lips to your temple for murmured, affectionate nonsense until you were pruny and exhausted. You let him dry you off — something he appeared to gleam real satisfaction from, and who were you to stand in the way of that, really — and towed him down to your room, the warm embrace of your mattress nearly enough to bring you to tears.

He slotted in behind you like the most perfect puzzle piece, every inch of him molded to your backside like it was the way you’d been shaped from the start. Pillowed by the crook of his elbow, you sighed at the decadence of it all — settling in to him, nearly purring at the brush of hair away from your neck, replaced by the airbrush press of his mouth.

“We’ll talk tomorrow?” your voice was quiet in the dark.

He hummed, and the rumbling against your back was like a sedative — pulling you with gentle grasp into sleep. You had a fleeting thought that you might just see your wolf again after all, now that you had the real thing wrapped around you like this.

Tomorrow, then.

note: thanks for reading, love u <3

[transpocsuggestion]

what a beautiful day to remember that trans people of color exist and deserve better

[sassystarlightcollection-deacti]

trans people of color exist and deserve better!!!!

[thewolfofthestars]

Hey it’s Black History Month!

TRANS PEOPLE OF COLOR EXIST AND DESERVE BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

[t-s-n-deactivated20250205]

me getting silly in the pussy if im being honest ?

[pococurantina]

could you lie

[tired-biscuit]