The Two Types of Wingmen [Bakawks] - Part 11

[Click for Ch10] 


“Turn to your left a little more.”

“Like this?”

“Perfect!”

He waited for the telltale clicks of the camera before he looked back again, getting a thumbs-up from Deku.

“That one is really good!” he called. “What did Endeavour’s person say about these?”

“They said it sounds inoffensive,” Katsuki shrugged. “And to call them any time if I have something I want to post, so we can talk it over.”

“You should listen to them.”

“Don’t lecture me, nerd, I know. They want to see the photos before I post them, so they better be damn good!”

“I’m doing my best with a stubborn model!”

“Ass.”

Deku grinned, and Katsuki couldn’t help but chuckle along, shaking his head fondly. He felt the little wings on his hoodie flap as he moved, waving a little in the breeze, and he couldn’t help but think of Hawks’s hand playing with them fondly.

The camera clicked, and Katsuki jolted, eyes widening at Deku’s sheepish smile.

“Sorry,” Deku laughed nervously. “You got all lost in thought, and I just… Thought Hawks would like to see that smile.”

“You cheesy fuck.”

“How about one last photo, but in the air using your quirk? Do that spiralling thing you do, I’ll snap a bunch of pictures and hopefully we’ll get a cool one.”

“Alright, get ready then.”

He flexed his fingers a little, preparing himself, and Deku lay down in the grass to get a good angle. Katsuki knew he’d picked the right person as his cameraman – the nerd was always ready to go the extra mile, plus he had significantly more knowledge of merch photoshoots than anyone else he knew. If he hadn’t gone and gotten himself a quirk, he could easily have made it in the heromarketing business.

“Ready when you are!”

With a few small blasts to get warmed up, Katsuki quickly launched himself into the air, aiming his hands just right to get some angular momentum in the mix. Smoke trailed behind him as he spiralled into the air, and when he got high enough that he didn’t expect any more good photos, he gently let himself back down into the grass.

“Oh! This one is great!” Deku grinned, swiping through his options. “Kacchan, come look at this!”

He sidled over to take a look over Deku’s shoulder, humming faintly when Deku showed him a few of the shots.

“I like that last one,” he said, when Deku paused.

“Me too! You couldn’t have made that smoke trail more perfect if you tried.”

The wisps of grey that followed his explosions were perfectly swirled around his rotating form, practically underlining the back of Katsuki’s new hoodie – Deku was right, between that and the background lit up by sunset, it almost looked fake.

“I think these two as well,” he suggested, swiping down to a few of the earlier shots. “You should send them to your new PR person and see what they think, I’m sure they’ll love them!”

“I will. Um, thanks.”

“I’m always happy to help, Kacchan!” Deku beamed. “You seem really happy with him, I’m glad.”

“I am,” Katsuki confirmed, despite the blush that rose in his cheeks. “I uh, hope he is too.”

“I’m sure he is! He always wants to hang out with you, after all.”

“Fingers crossed.”

“You’re too hard on yourself,” Deku laughed. “You deserve to be happy, Kacchan. I know you’re really hard on yourself for everything in the past, but you need to let go! Let yourself be happy!”

“Cut it out with the sappy shit.”

“Okay, okay! But really, send those photos. I’ve gotta go, I’m meant to be meeting All Might for dinner. Make sure you send the cute one to Hawks!”

“Ugh. Thanks for your help.”

“Any time, Kacchan! Like I said, I’m glad to see you happy!”

Deku took off before Katsuki could complain at him any more, leaving him to stare at a grid of photos of himself. The nerd had done a good job, as expected, and he had no qualms about sending them through to his new PR agent for approval. As he deleted some of the blurry ones, he came across the photo Deku must have been talking about: Himself, all soft-faced and doe-eyed, lost in thought about his boyfriend.

God, and he’d called Deku a sap.

There was no way he was going to send it to Hawks, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to delete it, either. It was still so weird to see himself smile like that, after years of scowls and glares. Most of his friends probably wouldn’t even recognise him – hell, his parents might not recognise him.

His phone buzzed in his hand, and he shook himself out of his daze, switching over to his messages to take a look. A little chicken emoji popped up at the top of the screen, and for a moment he almost smiled, until he saw the most recent message “he” had sent.

“God damn it, Deku!” he hissed, squeezing his phone extra tight. “I swear to God, the next time I see you…”

What a cute boyfriend I have!! ♥

Katsuki gritted his teeth, tapping out an angry response.

I didn’t send that!! Shitty nerd is never touching my phone again!!

He hit “send” angrily, silently fuming, and Hawks got back to him almost immediately.

Tell Midoriya thanks for me!

As he walked back to his dorm, he got a message from a different contact, and he blinked at it in surprise. He hadn’t expected a reply nearly so soon.

All looks good, Mr Bakugou. Feel free to post them at your leisure.

Endeavour’s people worked fast, apparently. Good to know.

He waited until he was back in the dorms before he bothered to open the app, swiping away another thousand followers and a bunch of creepy private messages. He added the three pictures first, then sat back on the sofa, debating what to type.

A better look at my new hoodie

Well that was boring. He erased it quickly.

I believe I can fly

Nope, not even close, gone.

“Oi, Raccoon Eyes,” he called, watching her pop up immediately from her little study group in the corner. “Write something for me.”

“Who are you and what have you done with our Blasty?”

“For that social media shit,” he clarified. “Nothing intellectual, I’m not that stupid.”

“There he is.”

She joined him on the couch, thumping down heavily and making his cushion bounce, then leaned over to take a look.

“Wow! That’s a really cool shot, how did you manage that?”

“Deku took it, he knows his merch.”

“Did you just compliment Midoriya?”

“Shut up. What should I write? How do I do the whole tagging thing?”

She hummed to herself, contemplating, and Katsuki waited with a surprising amount of patience.

“It’s not released yet, right? It’s something new?”

“Yeah, they’re still sorting out approvals and manufacturing and all that crap.”

“Maybe something short and sweet, like ‘Hawks was kind enough to give me a gift from his upcoming line’?”

“How do you say that in less prissy words?”

Mina laughed at him, but she got that little contemplative look in her eyes again all the same, brain working overtime on his behalf.

“Hung out with Hawks, now I have a kick-ass hoodie?”

“Much better,” he grinned, elbowing her lightly. “Knew you could do it.”

He typed it out, and she snatched his phone the moment he was done, adding a bunch of tags about heroes and merch and God knows what else. He did notice a “#ComingSoon” in there that would hopefully help Hawks out in the advertising department – not that he needed Katsuki’s help with that, but at least he could feel like he did something.

“Thanks,” he grunted, when she hit the post button and handed it back.

“Remember me when you’re a famous merch model.”

“Yeah right,” he snorted, shoving her lightly. “Get back to your homework, I have shit to do.”

“I’ll call you when we get stuck!”

“Fine.”

He moved to the kitchen, setting his phone down to start making himself some dinner, quickly losing himself in the steady rhythm of chopping and frying. It wasn’t until he’d escaped to his bedroom with his finished bowl that he realised he hadn’t checked his messages again in a while, hadn’t looked for another text from Hawks, let alone any likes or comments on his post.

He went to Hawks first, frowning when he saw call me when you can! waiting for him – Hawks was at work late on Mondays; he barely had time to text, let alone talk.

God he hoped everything was okay.

He hit the call button, holding his phone too tightly as he raised it to his ear, but Hawks picked up on the second ring with his usual chipper tone.

“I hear you’ve joined the viral media game,” he teased. “Welcome.”

“What are you on about?”

“You posted photos an hour ago and they already have like, ten thousand interactions. That’s on my level, and I’ve been at this for years!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You haven’t looked at your post?”

Katsuki hesitated, his grip loosening a little on the device.

“I was gonna check it after my texts, but then you said to call.”

“You’re officially the new hot hero in town,” Hawks laughed. “You met with Endeavour’s PR agent, right? You’re gonna need it.”

“That bad?”

“That good. I got a call from my agency, too. They’ve put a rush on the hoodie, with this new popularity. Something about up-and-coming heroes being good advertising for us old-timers. They actually asked if you will model for it.”

“They what?”

“You heard me! You look so good that they want to make it official! I told them you probably wouldn’t want to, but they insisted I ask.”

“Are they gonna pay me?”

“Well yeah, of course, but if you need money-”

“I need money to take my dumb hatoful boyfriend out to dinner occasionally,” Katsuki cut him off. “So he can stop paying for shit all the time.”

“You know I have no problem with paying for that! I like buying you dinner!”

“And if the stubborn pigeon refuses, for some stupid reason, I can always use it to buy ridiculously expensive hero figures.”

Hawks laughed brightly, and Katsuki couldn’t help but smile at it – the sound made him feel so warm.

“Tell them to talk to my PR person,” he said, a little softer. “If they think it’s a good idea, I’ll do it.”

“Really?”

“But I expect first dibs on all your new merch as it comes out. I want to be that guy who has all of it before anyone else has even heard rumours.”

“I’ll make sure it’s in your list of demands. You know you don’t need to do it just for me, right?”

“Like I’d be that selfless,” Katsuki snorted. “I’ll be a Pro next year, if I can start out with even a small following then I may as well use it to get ahead, right?”

“That’s very true,” Hawks admitted. “And you’ll need set up costs, for wherever you end up. Unless you plan on working near your parents.”

“I don’t,” Katsuki grimaced.

“If you feel like you need a change of scenery, I’d be happy to send you to my old office in Kyushu. It was pretty relaxed down there, most of the time. Or you know you’re welcome as a sidekick at my place up here, if you want that.”

“If I don’t get a big enough following to start my own agency, you mean.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Hawks laughed. “You know, back-up options.”

“Who knows, maybe the modelling thing’ll work out and I won’t need a hero career at all.”

“Yeah, that’s gonna happen,” Hawks snorted. “You? Give up being a hero? Yeah right.”

He’d never admit it, but Katsuki’s heart swelled at that – Hawks really did understand him.

“So I’ll tell them to contact your PR people,” Hawks confirmed. “You coming by the gym tonight?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I always like to see your face,” Hawks chuckled. “But only if you want to use the gear, don’t come out here just for me.”

“I probably shouldn’t, I have a couple of assignments to catch up on. Tomorrow?”

“Sounds good! I’m pretty sure you still owe me a home-cooked dinner, too. Didn’t you say you’d do that on a Tuesday?”

“I did,” Katsuki agreed. “Tomorrow, after the gym.”

“Sounds perfect. We can go shopping on the way home, to get anything you need, and then I’ll show you my place! I can’t wait!”

“And now you should get back to work,” Katsuki smiled faintly. “It was nice talking to you, though.”

“And you! I always like to hear your voice. Alright, I’d better go kick some butts, and you’d better get back to your homework. I’ll text you when I get home!”

“Sounds good. Be careful, don’t get yourself hurt again.”

“I promise.”

He hung up the phone, and Katsuki sat back with a long sigh, closing his eyes for a moment. He still felt like he might wake up and find out it was all a weird dream (and maybe his sheets needed washing), but even if it was, he’d still make the most of it while it lasted.

Unfortunately, though, he really did need to do his homework.


[Click for Ch12]