"Hey, uh," Ai knocked on Izuku's door and he peered at her from behind the pile of books on his desk. He was hiding there because the store was still swamped with fans trying to find out what Katsuki was like in bed and Izuku didn't know, plus, this was silly. "Things got really busy yesterday, boss, and some guy called."

It was busy, Izuku knew it was. And he had missed the phone ringing when he tried and failed to stave off the reporters and fans in the store by trying to relieve Ai and Daisuke. He knew he wouldn't be in trouble, per se. He was the store's manager, but the owner, Koishi was a hardass. She liked order, and she believed in fair distribution of work to keep morale up. Not that she was ever there; she owned more than just this bookstore.

"Some guy? You mean Kacchan?" Izuku saw Ai's eyes flicker as she tried to understand who he meant. He fought a blush and corrected, "Katsuki. Dynamight." Her eyes grew wider as she understood.

"No, um. I guess? He didn't say he was, but it was some agency?" Ai explained, still half awkwardly bending into the room from the doorway, like she was afraid to encroach his space.

"Oh, Endeavour's Hero Agency?" Izuku pretended his pulse wasn't making him sweat with excitement. Ai nodded but hesitantly.

"Sorry, it was just so busy, and I should have taken a note but I didn't hear him right." Ai explained, bouncing on the balls of her feet and pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

"It's fine. I'll call him. Thanks, Ai." Izuku smiled at her and her mouth half grimaced, half smiled in relief as she closed the door and disappeared. He said he would call him, like if he had Katsuki's number. He rolled his eyes at himself.

Izuku took a breath, because he realised his chest was heaving and if he were to call Katsuki right this second- well, not Katsuki, but the agency- it would sound like he had run a mile, all out. When his heart had teetered to a steady rhythm, he searched the Agency's number and dialled.

He was greeted by the options menu, and pressed three to talk to the front desk. The woman on the other end sounded excited in the way that she was majorly bored and feigned it because she had to.

"Um, I'm calling for Dynamight?" Izuku was unsure what he was supposed to say. She responded in her monotone voice, answering him like he was one in a hundred.

"Yea, come to the Agency at 5." The line hummed in silence. Izuku waited for her to say more.

"That's it?" Izuku blinked at the empty room. He supposed he didn't expect this to be extremely romantic or anything. Katsuki was doing this out of honorable obligation, the agency must have his number from the store too, because they didn't ask his name. The woman made a noncommittal throaty sound and Izuku smiled, not like she could see him. "Thanks. Do you need my name or anything for the front desk?"

The line went dead. Izuku looked at his phone to make sure the call had ended and his screen showed him the call lasted one minute and thirty nine seconds.

Bookmarked closed at four, and Izuku usually stayed until five to get the books in order before he simply climbed the staircase tucked away behind a locked door that led to his apartment atop the store. It was an open space, a tall roofed attic apartment fitted with things to make it a living space. Everything was just the right size and Izuku never really brought anyone up here because it was his and his alone. He didn't have time to date anyway.

This date with Katsuki was a one time thing… Not that he intended to bring Katsuki here.

Daisuke agreed to lock up and finish the books and Izuku gave him a bonus for the end of the month. He felt strange walking out of the store, his home really, with Daisuke still there. Ai hovered before Daisuke and Izuku forced her home.

The Endeavour Hero Agency was huge. The building towered over the others along the street and the glass shimmered like jewels in the setting sun. It was busy, but Izuku imagined it always was. He waited in a line that almost snaked out the front doors and when he smiled at the receptionist, she didn't look at him but pointed through a double door where everyone else was disappearing into.

Izuku had such an odd feeling about this. He pushed through the doors and the murmur of voices he had heard through the doors turned into a low rumble. People were shifting and sitting in rows and rows of chairs and Izuku blinked. There was a stage and a podium. Dynamight was splashed across the back and Izuku's stomach dropped. He looked at the man next to him who was wearing a Dynamight t-shirt and he stopped him.

"Hey, what is this?" Izuku asked, tilting his head to the stage and the room really.

"Dynamight's monthly press conference?" The man looked at Izuku like he was crazy. Izuku lowered himself numbly into one of the seats in the back of the auditorium and breathed. It was two minutes until five, and Izuku was invited here to a press conference. Not a date.

A woman Izuku recognised as Burnin' came to the mic and she introduced Katsuki. Izuku watched him as his eyes roved the crowd, he made eye contact with who was speaking, never once looking disinterested, but never once smiling either. Izuku grinned widely because he realised Katsuki, Dynamight, was unpersonable. He came to the conclusion through deduction that this painful press conference was probably thrust upon him for optics, and it was failing miserably. However, Izuku noticed that those who sat in the crowd were all definitely enraptured by the beautiful man.

Izuku squirmed. Was he supposed to leave? This wasn't a date. He had looked away to dig into his pockets for his phone, ready to leave his number with the front desk on his way out when he looked up and Katsuki was staring at him while a man, a biased reporter by the way he asked his question, continued on in accusatory tones.

It was then that Katsuki's mouth in one corner tugged up and Izuku blushed. He smiled. At Izuku. He found Izuku in the crowd. He couldn't leave now. With his eyes on Izuku, he answered the reporter's question. "I was not cheating on Ochako. She is an amazing woman, and I might remind you that my romantic life has nothing to do with my capabilities as a hero."

Izuku felt pairs of eyes start to follow Katsuki's gaze and heat rose up his neck and his palms became sweaty. He didn't think he was recognizable, but someone's eyebrows has shot up before he spun around to look at Katsuki, his hand waving to get his attention to get called on to ask his question.

"Okay, I think that's enough about that. See you all next month." Katsuki smiled, and Izuku noted it had gone to his eyes while Katsuki's red eyes remained trained on him.

Izuku wanted to rise from his seat and run. But he couldn't move. Instead, while the room of reporters and fans filed out through the double doors, all murmuring in either excitement or annoyance at the short time they had, doubled with curious and dangerously pointed glances at Izuku, Izuku found himself glued to his seat with his phone in his hands as he pretended to scroll through his social media.

"Mr Midoriya?" A voice called his attention. Izuku looked up and found a timid looking girl with a clipboard and hair that fell into her eyes peering at him.

"Yes?" A couple people along the aisle slowed to listen in and he waited two beats until they moved along before he smiled at her and gave her his undivided attention.

"Mr Bakugou has requested you come back stage?" Her sentence went up like a question at the end and Izuku rose from his chair and found he was only a few inches taller than her. He followed her and when he rounded the corner and found Katsuki smiling at him, actually smiling at him , Izuku laughed nervously.

"I was summoned by the Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight?" Izuku teased. Katsuki's grin widened to show his incisors and Izuku liked that very much.

"I didn't know you came to these things." Katsuki gestured behind Izuku to the emptying auditorium.

"I don't." Izuku shrugged. "This was my first."

Katsuki tilted his head and Izuku looked as his neck lengthened on one side. God, he was beautiful.

"You stalking your one time kiss?" Katsuki asked, his playfulness glinting in his eyes.

"I got a missed call from the agency." Izuku explained. "I thought it was you so I called back."

"Oh." Katsuki's cheeks went a little pink and blotchy and Izuku wanted to pinch them.

"I mean, of course, I thought I was going to see you. I thought I was coming here for a date." Izuku's hands were doing a weird dance while he explained and he immediately tucked them into his pockets.

"That was my intention, nerd." Katsuki was, to Izuku's complete surprise, stripping out of his clothes right there. Izuku felt his entire body flame in a blush and he turned away.

"What are you doing?" Izuku glanced back and saw Katsuki grin as he shimmied his pants from his hips.

"I showered before the stupid thing, and put on the costume for effect." Katsuki was now in his boxer briefs and Izuku was sure all the oxygen in the room had disappeared into that general area, because he couldn't breathe. "I'm changing so we can go on a date."

"Oh." Izuku's voice was small and lost and may as well not exist. He closed his eyes and he could feel the blush tightening his cheeks and his pants and he couldn't think. Thankfully, Katsuki kept talking, all the while noises of his pulling clothes onto his body filled Izuku's imagination.

"Though, I didn't think I'd hear from you seeing as I left that message two days ago."

Izuku opened his eyes to stare and immediately forgot what he was about to say. Abs. A long row of them adorned by the cut of muscle above his hips as they curved sharply downward. Izuku eyed the scar on his stomach and shoulder and gulped like a fish because, what was he going to say again?

"Nerd." Katsuki was half laughing and only when Izuku looked at his face did he pull his loose tank top over his head and his hair grabbed at the neck before bouncing springily back up.

"My co worker, she didn't take the message down. She just remembered today." Izuku forced his gaze to the floor.

"Hence this last minute thing. I was gonna take you to this restaurant, but they're all booked up tonight, I'm sure. Seein' as it's Friday and all that." Katsuki slipped into his combat boots and Izuku realised that the jeans Katsuki was wearing had fit snugly to every part of him.

"I-uh-" Izuku's mind spun like a Ferris wheel. A Ferris wheel! "Can we go to the carnival?" Izuku blurted. Katsuki narrowed his eyes as he thought and Izuku thought he looked a little angry, but that was just his default expression. His mouth stretched slowly as he realised he had begun to know the difference. After only seeing him three times since their teenage years. His stomach gave a weak flip before he swallowed dryly.

"Yea," Katsuki patted his pocket and his shoulders slumped. "That's a good idea nerd. You mind walkin' with me to mine? I gotta get my stupid wallet."

"No, it's okay! I can pay." Izuku said brightly, because in the end, this felt like it was getting super complicated and he didn't think he could decipher what his heart was weaving right now. The faster this date was over with, the better.

"Don't be an idiot. I said I would take ya out on a date, and that means I'm payin'." Katsuki looked around woefully at the pile of his uniform and sighed. "Fuckin' shit. I did forget my wallet. Come on, nerd." And he grabbed Izuku's hand like it was the most normal thing in the world and pulled him gently along.

Izuku was too swept up and disoriented by Katsuki being cute and kind to him to remember that they had in fact just left a press conference. So that meant that outside the building were remnants of photographers and reporters who all turned to them both as they exited and Izuku flushed while Katsuki stiffened, looked at him and closed his arms around him.

"Hold on tight, Izuku." And instinctively, Izuku did. He felt his fingertips slip against the soft surface of Katsuki's loose tank top, and the way Katsuki tensed under him as he pointed his palms to the floor and explosions erupted and filled his thoughts before hot air licked his feet but the ground was no longer beneath him.

He hadn't realised he had closed his eyes until Katsuki was laughing into his ear and the explosions had stopped.

"You can let go now." Katsuki whispered, gentle, caring, something Izuku didn't expect and thought it was a dream.

Izuku let go, and when he opened his eyes, he was atop the tallest building in the city, with Katsuki's arm around his waist.