The Two Types of Wingmen [Bakawks] - Part 16

[Click for Ch15]

“Dude, I’m not even afraid to say it: you look hot.”

Katsuki blushed despite his best efforts, and his friends grinned as he swiped at them, easily stepping away to avoid his strikes.

“I’m serious!” Kaminari doubled down, because apparently he wanted to die. “That black shirt? Dude. Like, seriously.”

“I fuckin’ know I’m hot, you don’t need to go on about it.”

“What ever happened with that guy you were talking to? The one that kept making you smile at your phone. I mean, I assume it was a guy, I’ve always figured you were gay as hell. Did that go anywhere? Because if not, I’m totally gonna start hitting on you.”

Katsuki froze. He hadn’t realised Kaminari was… actually kind of observant, sometimes. Fuck.

“Sorry, is that a sore spot?”

“No,” Katsuki answered quickly, ignoring the smirks that Mina and Eijirou exchanged. “I uh, didn’t know you knew about that.”

“That you were gay? You’re not exactly subtle.”

“About my boyfriend.”

“Oh! So it did go somewhere! When do we get to meet him?”

“Fuck off.”

“He’s a secret boyfriend,” Mina explained.

“He’s not,” Katsuki grumbled. “I mean… Not for long.”

“Seriously?!” she grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him lightly. “Since when?!”

“Fuck off,” he said again, feeling his face burn once more. “Wait and see, asshole.”

“Kacchan! Look!”

Katsuki barely held back a groan when Deku came rushing in the front door, triumphantly brandishing a handful of magazines over his head. Of course the nerd hadn’t been willing to settle for one copy.

“Do you have one yet?” he asked, practically vibrating with his excitement as he set them down reverently on the coffee table. “The online ones were great, of course, but seeing them in print! Oh my gosh! You’re famous now!”

Katsuki grumbled a little, but he didn’t protest when Deku flipped a copy open, straight to the spread of Katsuki’s photos. He had to admit, the photographers had done a pretty good job, considering how shit he’d been at most of it.

“I think this is my favourite one,” Deku said, pointing at a shot of Katsuki in his favourite hoodie, back to the camera to show off the little wings, but looking back over his shoulder so it could catch his face. “It’s so simple, but you look really handsome, and it shows off the wings so well!”

“Don’t call me handsome, nerd.”

“What, a guy isn’t allowed to compliment his childhood friend all of a sudden?” Deku pouted. “This set is great too, the way they made it look like it’s all one shot, but you change shirts each time? I love that.”

The set in question ran across two-thirds of the spread, and Katsuki hadn’t even noticed the connection – the online version had split it into two sets, to fit a screen better, but Deku was right, all six images looked like he’d just taken a single step or shifted an arm in between shots, despite the unique t-shirts in each one. It was a nice touch.

Deku turned the page excitedly, giving Katsuki a knowing look, and Katsuki had never been more embarrassed than he was the moment his eyes landed on it. The entire damn page was taken up by a single photo, the exact one he’d known was going to cause him problems, with Keigo’s arm reaching for him and Katsuki’s stupid goofy smile aimed back at him for it.

“Oh my god,” Mina said. “Blasty, you’re so cute.”

“Fuckin’ knew I should have made them delete that one.”

“Look at the hoodie!” Deku said gleefully.

“At the- Holy shit,” Kirishima said, hands slamming on the table as he leaned in to get a good look.

“The internet is going feral for it,” Deku told them. “I mean, about how good you both look, too, but mostly demanding to know when and where they can buy it.”

“Tomorrow, I think,” Katsuki mumbled, unsurprised when Deku’s face lit up – of course the nerd was gonna buy one. “Shit, I should text him.”

“It kind of gives things away, huh?” Deku asked, smiling sympathetically. “Have you talked about… that?”

“Yeah,” Katsuki said, reaching for his phone. “S’fine.”

Kaminari finally seemed to catch on, a dawning look emerging on his face, and Kirishima and Mina just grinned knowingly.

“Dude,” Kaminari said quietly. “I can’t compete with that.”

“Damn right.”

Keigo just replied with a bunch of laughing faces when Katsuki asked if he’d seen the magazine, and Katsuki huffed quietly, using every ounce of his patience to wait for the man to dignify him with a proper answer.

Can I come see you?

Hell yeah he could, like Katsuki would ever say no to that.

Only if you wear the hoodie.

He got another laughing face, but no response this time, so he put his phone back in his pocket to wait. Idiot was probably already flying their direction. He wondered if he should go put his own one on, just to make a point, but he supposed Keigo had already seen him in it enough times.

What he didn’t expect was to hear a knock on their door, and to hear the entire class start squealing in response. He glanced back, barely even interested when he saw Tokoyami heading to answer it, until he heard that damn voice.

“There’s our famous model,” it teased, when Tokoyami showed him in.

“The fuck are you doing here?” Katsuki demanded, well aware that his face had turned pink all over again. “You just messaged me.”

“I was in the area!” Keigo said with a grin, taking a step closer. “You trust your classmates?”

“With what?” Katsuki asked, narrowing his eyes.

Keigo just raised an eyebrow, and Katsuki froze for a moment, eyes wandering over the little crowd that was quickly gathering around them.

“I guess,” he admitted – it was only one more day anyway, it wasn’t like they had to keep it a secret for long.

“Thank god.”

Keigo stepped in, wrapping an arm around Katsuki’s waist, and Katsuki responded by turning to face him, letting their lips meet for the briefest off moments and set off another round of squeals from the room.

“They turned out so good, right?” Keigo praised, when he saw the magazine open on the table. “I could have gotten you a bunch, you know, you didn’t need to go and buy the store out.”

“That was me,” Deku admitted sheepishly. “I was worried they’d sell out before any of us could get one! It’s only three.”

“I have one for his parents, so don’t worry about them at least.”

“Great! They’ll appreciate that!”

Katsuki twisted his fingers into dark fabric, unable to clear the warmth from his face. He couldn’t believe Keigo had actually worn it. Worst of all, there was no way he’d had time to stop and put it on, which meant he’d already been wearing it even before Katsuki demanded it.

“I got the photos from them,” Keigo explained, gesturing at the laptop bag hanging from his shoulder. “Thought we could go through them together and pick out the ones we want to use?”

“That sounds good,” Katsuki agreed. “Want to go up to my room?”

“Unfortunately, the one condition Eraser Head gave me about coming here was that we stay in public spaces,” Keigo laughed. “I swear he has no faith in me.”

“He’s probably right,” Shouto said, stepping forward to see what all the commotion was about. “Oh, are you finally telling everyone?”

“Tomorrow,” Keigo explained, laughing again when the class gasped and squeaked around him. “The people close to us already know, of course, but this will be our public announcement.”

“That’s cool,” Shouto said, and surprisingly, seemed to mean it. “My father will be pissed off.”

“Why?” Katsuki asked, when Keigo just cackled.

“He’s getting that quarterly award for most villain captures,” Shouto said, shrugging. “The ceremony is tomorrow night, he wants me to go.”

“Should we wait until Monday?” Katsuki asked, glancing over at Keigo. The two of them were friends, after all, or at least something close to it.

“Nah, it’s fine,” Keigo assured him. “It’s not like the public cares about the award anyway.”

“I feel kind of bad,” Katsuki admitted. “He’s always been pretty good to me, even if he was a shitbag to, like, everyone else.”

“Awww,” Keigo teased, squeezing Katsuki tighter – Katsuki hadn’t even realised the arm was still around him, he’d gotten so used to it. “Okay, we can wait. We’ll drop the solos tomorrow, let people speculate but give him his attention, and officially confirm on Monday, when I can be in office to take calls.”

Shouto huffed a little, but Katsuki nodded, and Keigo flashed a grin at them both.

“Don’t worry, Shouto, the speculation will still overshadow it,” Keigo assured him. “But he can’t claim we did it on purpose, this way.”

“Fine,” Shouto sighed. “But I’m making an account just to lead the rumours.”

“Deal.”

Keigo sat down on the couch, making himself at home and dragging Katsuki with him, but when he flipped open his laptop, Katsuki noticed he didn’t navigate to the pictures right away, letting it sit on a bland , generic folder for a bit first.

“You okay with people here?” Keigo asked. “Nothing too weird, just smiles.”

“That is weird,” Deku teased, leaning over the back of the couch to watch. “Let me help pick again!”

“He can stay,” Katsuki confirmed, narrowing his eyes at his hovering ‘squad’. “They can if they keep their mouths shut.”

“Deal!” Kirishima promised.

Satisfied, Keigo opened up the folder of images, and Katsuki marvelled at the sheer size of it. He’d expected maybe a couple of shots in each pose, but there were hundreds, and he wasn’t sure how they were supposed to even look at them all, let alone weigh the merits.

“These ones turned out so good,” Keigo said, scrolling straight down to a collection of much darker images. “I’m in love with them.”

Katsuki leaned in to see, and from behind them, Deku let out a low whistle.

“I’ve never seen it with a proper camera,” he said, leaning in a little closer. “The lighting is so much better than anything we ever made.”

“Please tell me you still have a copy,” Keigo said, catching on immediately. “I need them.”

Katsuki glared at them both, but Deku just grinned, shaking his head.

“Nope, definitely not!” he said, completely unconvincingly. “I definitely can’t email them to you on Sunday when I’m at home.”

“Damn, I’m so disappointed,” Keigo said, grinning back. “I’ll look forward to not receiving them.”

Katsuki reached out to click through the images, eyeing the tiny differences in light and shadow and colour between the shots. He looked so gleeful in them all, and a small part of him kind of hated that, but the rest of him was surprisingly pleased. If they were going to use the photos as a lead-up to their going public, it seemed kind of nice to show the world how happy he was about it.

“That one is my favourite,” Keigo said, when the Katsuki in the photo looked away from the camera slightly, shooting a surprisingly bright smile off-camera. “Look how proud of yourself you are.”

“I won,” Katsuki pointed out. “Mister Show-me-your-wings.”

Keigo just laughed, leaning over to press his cheek to Katsuki’s in a stupid little show of affection. Sickening.

“Oh!” Deku said softly, when Keigo clicked through a couple more in the series. “The eyes!”

Sure enough, when Keigo shifted back a step, they all fell silent. The light from Katsuki’s explosive wings hit his irises like it was made for them, colouring him with fiery tones, the wings perfectly shaped and spread wide for just a brief moment in time.

“Perfect,” Keigo said, already copying it to another folder. “I have such a hot boyfriend.”

Katsuki snorted, but the rest of the group cooed and awwed, and he leaned his head on his hand to pre-emptively cover another blush.

“Your turn,” Katsuki demanded, snatching the laptop away the moment Keigo let his guard down. “I want to see them.”

He scrolled until he found the right set, grinning as he pulled up the first of many, and his friends all laughed when they saw the feathery explosions in Keigo’s hands.

“That’s actually pretty cool,” Kaminari said, squeezing in to look closer. “The motion blur actually looks kind of smoky.”

“Took a little practice,” Keigo said. “But I was pretty pleased with it!”

Katsuki tapped through a couple more, until he reached one in particular that caught his eye. Keigo wore a lop-sided little smirk in it, peering up at the camera in a way that looked… well, sexy. He didn’t really have another word for it.

“That’s a good one,” Deku said. “It’s hot, which his fans always like, but it also has a little bit of you in it, with that smirk. Like he’s playing the part instead of just making the quirk happen.”

“Hot as fuck,” Katsuki agreed, unashamed this time when everyone laughed at him. “You’re gonna send me all these, right?”

“Absolutely,” Keigo assured him. “But you can look through them all properly later, right now we just need to sort out the morning’s post.”

“This one,” Katsuki said firmly, shoving the laptop back toward him for him to copy the image over. “It can’t get any better than that.”

“There are still a few more, if you want to make sure.”

“Oh I’m sure as hell gonna look, but I’m still gonna pick that one.”

Katsuki was getting used to the snickers that came from his classmates with every other sentence. Somehow, with Keigo beside him, he didn’t even care. What a damn sap he’d become.

Keigo squeezed an arm between Katsuki’s back and the couch cushions, to wrap it around his waist and drag him closer, and Katsuki just allowed it. And by allowed it he meant that he draped his own arm around Keigo’s shoulder, leaning into his side, his thumb drifting absent-mindedly over a warm cheek just slightly marred by stubble.

“You’ve made your point,” Keigo teased, making Katsuki blush all over again as he quickly tore his hand away. “Never again.”

“Shut up,” he huffed, stubbornly smacking the keyboard to scroll to the next set of pictures.

“Oh!” Deku gasped, leaning in closer to get a good look, apparently undeterred by the cuddling going on. “I love that one!”

It was a moment Katsuki remembered vividly, with Keigo’s arm reaching for him and his wing following right along, as if the two were one limb. Katsuki was stepping into his touch, a look of admiration on his face that he’d always assumed wasn’t actually visible, damn it. One thing was for sure: It certainly wouldn’t just be speculation if they posted that one.

Keigo right-clicked on it, and Katsuki groaned when he clicked set as background. If he was a sap, his boyfriend was the whole damn tree.

Despite having to stop on every other photo for someone to gush about it – usually Keigo or Deku – they finally managed to pick out the collection they wanted. The two quirk-imitations came first, since every photo of them interacting was way too obvious, and they’d agreed the individual ones were the only way to keep it even a tiny bit subtle for the weekend. They tacked a picture of the magazines on the end for marketing’s sake, carefully snapped by a delighted Deku on Keigo’s fancy-ass phone, using the copies he’d bought as his models, and insisting ‘see, Kacchan, I told you I needed them!’ as he worked.

They scheduled the posts for the next morning, Keigo captioning his with a simple, classic, ‘amazing new merch model, did you catch the spread that came out today?” while Katsuki went with a much more interesting ‘I got paid in Hawks merch for this’ on his end.

With that sorted, they turned to Monday’s post, queueing up some of the much more cheesy shots – the pair of them back-to-back, heads turned to grin at each other, hands brushing together in between; Katsuki leaning all his weight on Keigo, and the stupid fondness on Keigo’s face that came from it; Keigo with Katsuki in a headlock, getting a silly little pout out of Katsuki as he tried to pull the arm away, though he was pretty sure that was the moment where he hadn’t actually been trying; and Katsuki’s favourite of all of them, Keigo playing with one of the wings on Katsuki’s hoodie, his head tilted a little to speak quietly right by Katsuki’s ear, while Katsuki’s hand clutched at Keigo’s own hoodie, fingers twisted into the material lightly, tugging him closer. It was the cheesiest shit in the world, and somehow, Katsuki fucking loved it.

“Hey,” Keigo said quietly, when Katsuki had been staring at that photo for just a little too long to seem casual. “Thank you.”

“For modelling for you?” Katsuki snorted.

“For dating me.”

Katsuki was ready to brush it off, to sneer at him or make some teasing joke rather than deal with the actual emotion of it all, but Keigo just looked too genuine about it, and he couldn’t seem to find the words.

“Yeah,” he said instead, voice strangely soft. “I’m not going anywhere.”