The runway was a disaster.

For one, the lighting was terrible. She needed bright lights to properly compliment her skin. Without enough light the pigments in her skin wouldn't be properly highlighted and accentuated, she wouldn't shine, wouldn't stand out. The nighttime lighting already made her skin appear darker, but the spacing of lights along the walkway would hardly help, and the gaudy camera flashes would just make things look sporadic and uneven. She wasn't the only one on the runaway, and he knew that, but how could this setup flatter anyone?

He had a bone to pick with wardrobe, too. They put her in a plain black dress, low neck and high split (just as she liked it), but the dark colors would only make the lighting situation worse! Not to mention the white fur boa they had wrapped around her shoulders, which would steal the focus and lighting from the scene.

"Would you shut the fuck up and do your job, shitty Deku!" Bakugo's grumpy command pulled Izuku out of his trance.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry!" He said, jumping to attention. In his panic, he took three hurried steps away before reality caught up to him and he remembered that he wasn't actually working today. He turned a heartbroken, watery gaze on his friend. "Kacchan," He whined.

Bakugo smirked in return. "What? I was tired of hearing your stupid mumbles. I figured if you were gonna act like you were on the job, you might as well just do it."

"It was still mean, Kacchan." He sniffled.

"Yeah, yeah," Bakugo waved him off. "Just stop obsessing and have some actual fun." He scolded before walking off.

Izuku turned his head back to the walkway. The Queen had stopped to answer some questions, standing directly under one of their terrible lights and letting the boa drop down from directly around her shoulders. It was the best lighting she could get though, the best possible pose, especially with the lowering of the light stealing boa, which meant that she would get the best possible pictures.

At least someone seemed to have some sense in this production, even if it wasn't any of the people that were paid to do so.

Under proper lighting there were a lot of subtle touches that could be seen. The purple stain on her lips, the red beads that were wrapped around one of her horns and the matching anklet on the opposite side that peeked out of the split on her dress. He could and had taken much better picture of her than the shots they were getting, he would bet on it.

Izuku had worked as a cameraman for Mina Ashido for three years now. Well, not exclusively for her, of course, but she had been involved with all his latest projects. Arguably, she'd been the star of all his latest projects. She was a very popular and famous actress. She'd been popular before she'd been famous, which was how she'd gotten nicknamed The Queen. Ashido could utterly own any scene or movie that she was in and she was a delight to work with.

Izuku had always been terribly picky about the little details when he worked, more than some people thought necessary. Not only for people with mutant type quirks, but for everyone. Anyone. There were a thousand tricks to get lighting and setting just right for all parties involved in a scene, regardless of how you wanted that scene staged, and sometimes Izuku felt that he was the only one that knew that. That was one of the things that made his work so good. He was good at his job, which was how he found himself so consistently invited to work on projects with big stars like Ashido.

"What's the matter, Izuku?" He jumped at the sound of Ashido's voice in his ear, nearly falling as he flailed wildly in his attempt to spin around and face her. She giggled at his display. "Did my performance not live up to your expectations?"

He sighed at himself. He hadn't expected to get so caught up in his thoughts that she'd be able to sneak up on him. He should have, since that had recently become one of her favorite pastimes. That and giving him embarrassing nicknames. He tried to ignore the fact that this time she'd elected to call him by his first name, but the blush was already on his cheeks.

"I'm not disappointed by your performance," He told her, avoiding her eyes. Something about the smile she was giving him, the attentive look in her eyes, was making his face heat up terribly. "It's just not the best set up for you."

"Yeah, the lighting is terrible," She agreed. "I could almost hear your grumbling about it in my head as soon as I saw it."

That caused him to blush brighter. He could be a little zealous about his work and his habit of mumbling was a bad one that he'd yet to train himself out of.

"And can you believe this?" She went on, gesturing to herself. "Captain Iida insisted that we all wear black and white, but this is just terrible."

Izuku chuckled. She had a habit of referring to their director as everything but his actual title, something he reacted vehemently to every time. "The director just wants to give a good impression. This is his first really big picture."

She huffed. "Yeah, well, I'm gonna make a break for it and change," She whispered to him.

"What? How?" He asked.

"I asked Yamomo to make us different outfits."

That action on it's own didn't surprise him very much. Despite how dutiful Yaoyarozu seemed, she enjoyed little bits of mischief like this. It took a second for Ashido's sentence to fully sink in to his brain.

"Wait! Us?" He squeaked.

Ashido nodded at him with a serious expression on her face. "Are you in or out?"

"O-out!" He exclaimed.

"Shh!" She shushed him loudly, moving closer to him and reaching up to place a hand over his mouth. "Not so loud!" She was no where near as quiet or covert as she seemed to believe herself to be. In a moment her expression morphed from serious to pleading. "It'll be fun Midoriya. Please?" She smiled prettily. She averted her gaze as she added, "Plus, it's Valentine's Day, so I thought..." A light blush stained her cheeks and she removed her hand from his mouth so that she could toy with her fingers. "I thought it could be like a date."

Now he was back to blushing. "A d-date?"

"Yeah. I mean, I did ask you to be my plus one."

"I-I thought that was a joke!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah, I realized that afterwards," She said. "It's not a joke, though. I want you to be my date, Izuku. And maybe, if you're up for it on top of everything else, my partner in crime?" She stuck out her tongue as she added that last part and he had to look away from her before thoughts of her cuteness or catching her tongue made him do something rash.

"O-okay," He agreed. "I'll be your date... and your partner in crime."

Ashido's eyes lit up with her excitement and happiness. She jumped up and down a few times before launching herself at him for a hug. "Oh, Izu! I'm so happy!"

He caught her without thinking.

"I-Izu?" He repeated in embarrassment.

"This'll be great! We'll wear matching colors. I already told Yamomo your measurements."

"H-how do you know those?" He asked.

Ashido made herself comfortable in his arms, bringing his attention to the fact that he was holding her bridal style (how did that happen!), as she nuzzled his chest. "I've been wanting to ask you out for ages. I made preparations, of course."

He had no idea what that could possibly mean, except that he was most assuredly in over his head.