Behind the Seams [Chapter 4]

Izuku sneaked a look around the lobby as they entered, scanning all the faces, but his eyes never landed on that familiar little frown and those piercing red eyes. He tried his best not to let his disappointment show, but considering how much effort he had put into just convincing Aizawa to take him along, he couldn’t help but feel it. Tenya was there too, of course, always ready with the paperwork or to fetch Aizawa whatever he needed, so at least it was a chance to spend some time with his best friend – it was pretty rare to find an opportunity to hang out together without the rest of the group around, even if they still had Aizawa along for the ride.

“You always claim I’m the main face of the group,” Izuku reminded them, when Aizawa gave him an exhausted look in the doorway. “If I’m gonna be the main face, you have to let me be in the meetings sometimes!”

“That’s admirable of you,” Tenya nodded firmly.

“Yes, admirable.” Aizawa shook his head faintly. “I’m sure that’s what it is.”

Tenya looked a little confused, but Izuku just shrugged when he looked over, brushing it off – Aizawa was always saying weird, cryptic things like that, he’d gotten used to it.

“Mr Aizawa!” Masaru called, voice full of excitement. “It’s so good to see you again!”

“You too, Mr Bakugou,” Aizawa answered easily. “I hope you had a good time the other night.”

“It was an incredible experience,” Masaru nodded emphatically. “Thank you again for having us, it was an amazing night. Iida, you ran a very tight ship out there, I was very impressed.”

“Thank you Sir, I do my best to kept them all in line.”

“And Izuku, it’s good to see you,” Masaru smiled warmly. “Katsuki hasn’t stopped talking about the concert, thank you for making my boy so happy. You were wonderful on stage, I can see why he likes to be there so much.”

“It was my pleasure! I loved having him there!”

He showed them through to an office, where Mitsuki was waiting with a stack of papers close at hand, speaking on her cellphone quietly. It took everything in Izuku’s power to not blurt out his news right then and there, but he clamped his mouth shut, pretending not to notice the warning look Tenya shot him as they all sat down.

“Sorry about that!” Mitsuki set her phone down, flashing them a smile. “Demand has been crazy since the promo shoot came out, we’re firing on all cylinders to keep up! We actually just hired four new employees to help out, gotta keep this momentum rolling!”

“I’m glad it’s been such a success for you,” Aizawa said sincerely. “I hope it’s not too much trouble.”

“Oh, no, absolutely not! We live for this, being run off our feet with success, it’s a blast!”

Izuku grinned at that. He could see where Katsuki got his explosive personality from.

“Izuku, you sweetheart, you made my brat’s life the other night. Thank you for taking him around with you so patiently, you’re a saint!”

“It was fun!” Izuku assured her. “He’s such a nice guy, I love hanging out with him!”

Aizawa snorted quietly, but no one said a word about it, and Izuku just shrugged it off.

“So, you said you wanted to chat about our next project?” Mitsuki prompted, already picking up a stack of pages. “These are some sketches of our next line, but they’re still in early production, we don’t even have any prototypes made yet, unfortunately.”

Aizawa and Tenya shared a look, and Izuku found himself buzzing again, itching to say the words.

“We had a... slightly different proposition for you,” Aizawa started slowly. “But it would likely be a lot more work, so if you’re already too busy, we wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Oh, now I’m intrigued!” Mitsuki grinned, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the desk. “We’re all ears!”

“As you may know, we have a big summer tour coming up that we’ve been working on for months. We’ve just added four new shows to the line up we had planned, and we’ve even changed some venues to accommodate more ticket sales, after recent events.”

“That makes a total of nine, spread across Japan” Tenya added quickly. “It’s our biggest tour so far, and it could lead into an international tour later in the year! It’s all quite exciting!”

“We’ve heard,” Masaru smiled softly. “Katsuki has booked all his tickets, and he’s been planning his time off and his remote work schedule for weeks.”

Izuku’s eyes darted to Aizawa, but Aizawa pointedly ignored the look.

“Then you already know that the tour starts next month.”

“It must be a little daunting, being so soon!”

“It’s super exciting!” Izuku burst finally, air rushing back to his lungs. “I’m so thrilled to have the opportunity, and hearing that Kacchan will be there in the crowd makes me even more excited!”

“Izuku,” Tenya warned. “Breathe.”

“Sorry!”

“Go ahead,” Aizawa sighed, shaking his head at Izuku. “Say it.”

“We want you to make our tour outfits!”

The room fell silent, and for a moment Izuku wondered if he’d been speaking another language, or something – he had been working on learning some basic vocabulary for the day he got to take an international tour.

“Say that again?” Masaru requested, staring at him with wide eyes.

“We’d like you to design the tour outfits for the group,” Aizawa clarified, a lot slower. “A couple for on stage, a few for meet-and-greets and fan signings, even a few for interviews, if at all possible.”

“How many events is it, again?” Mitsuki asked, reaching for a notepad. “Nine full productions?”

“Nine shows,” Tenya nodded. “Six meet ups, four signings, two interviews along the way, plus one before we leave and one when we get back.”

“So we’d need nine flashy stage outfits per person, maybe a back up each just in case anything gets damaged or doesn’t work out; ten each of a more casual level, maybe we can mix and match some pieces between them; and four more professional ones, for the interviews. So about twenty-four variations per person, for five people.”

“We wouldn’t need different ones for every event!” Tenya insisted, shaking his head. “I know we said big, but we didn’t mean that.”

“No, you do,” Masaru said calmly, as if there was no way anyone could possibly disagree. “The stage ones will need to be entirely different each time, but the casual ones could borrow from each other. And you leave next month.”

Izuku could feel the gears whirring in their brains, and he only hoped they were whirring toward the same conclusion his own had come to. He was nervous that he might have been too hopeful when the idea came to mind, but it was looking more and more like he might get his wishes.

Mitsuki reached across to her intercom, silently switching the channel, and holding down the big blue button.

“I have some of Plus Ultra here with me,” she began. “We’re going to be designing their tour outfits.”

No reply came through the machine, but within seconds Izuku heard heavy footsteps rushing toward them, the office door slamming open, notebooks spilling out of two muscular arms and landing straight on the desk in front of him. Two large hands thumped down on the wood right behind the books, and Izuku could only stare as Katsuki locked eyes with his parents, throwing books open without even looking at the pages he was turning to.

“Sorry,” he said, with a strange amount of calm considering his motions. “It took me a second to unlock my cabinet.”

Izuku couldn’t help it. He let out a laugh, clapping a hand over his mouth to stifle it, but the row of silver bunnies in his face only made him laugh even harder, unable to stop himself. Katsuki was so cool, all tall and handsome and talented, but he was so adorable with the way he got so eager and excited over something as small as working with Izuku and his friends! He felt so lucky to have met the guy, to have him constantly standing in the audience, cheering his name – well, almost his name – and getting so involved in everything.

Mitsuki looked a little doubtful still, so Katsuki turned to Masaru instead, giving him a look that was so collected, so controlled, so sure of himself, that it made Izuku jealous all over again – was there anything he wouldn’t give to be more like Katsuki? To have those arms, to be that tall, to be so self-assured and confident?

“I’ve got this,” Katsuki said softly. “You know I do, Dad.”

“We trust you,” Masaru nodded. “I wasn’t sure at first, but you were right. Who knows them better and can make them look better than you can?”

“No one can,” Katsuki flashed him a sharp smile. “This job was made for me.”

“It’s all yours, Katsuki,” Mitsuki smiled fondly. “Whatever and whoever you need, just let us know. All our resources are at your disposal.”

“Damn right they are.”

He finally turned around, meeting Izuku’s beaming smile with one of his own, and Katsuki nudged a pile of the notebooks toward him lightly.

“What do you say, Nerd? Want to pick out some new shit to wear on stage?”

“Let’s get coffee,” he suggested, before he could think twice. “You can run me through all your ideas while the adults talk about the boring stuff.”

“I know the perfect place.”

─

Katsuki smiled to himself as Deku sat down across the table from him, hood pulled up to cover his distinctive hair, though he threw it back once they were settled in their little booth, tucked away in a corner. It was their third time in the place, a regular event over the past week and a bit, and Katsuki was eager to show Deku all the progress he’d made since the last time.

“It’s good to see you, Kacchan!” Deku beamed. “I was happy to hear from you again!”

“Same,” Katsuki grunted, trying his best to keep his blush at bay. “I’ve narrowed it all down since last time-”

“What, you mean I don’t have to go through sixteen thousand sketches this time?” Deku teased. “How will we possibly occupy our time?”

“I’ve narrowed it down,” Katsuki repeated with a huff, failing to keep his cheeks from burning this time. “But I want you to pick your favourites. You should... You know, feel comfortable up there, and stuff. I want you to feel cool, not just look it to the rest of us.”

“What if I choose badly?”

“Then I’ll veto your decision and do whatever the fuck I want.”

“Okay,” Deku giggled, reaching for the book Katsuki offered him. “Sounds like a plan.”

On the first page of the book, to Deku’s surprise, was a familiar poster. It had all their tour dates listed on it, and the venues where they’d be performing, with one of the photos from their shoot at the bottom of the page. He remembered that photo so well, one of the set they’d taken after he’d been roped into singing, and when he’d first seen it he hadn’t been convinced, but it had... grown on him, he supposed. In black marker, though, in surprisingly pretty handwriting, notes were scrawled all over it, with arrows pointing at different dates, hotel addresses scribbled in the margins, and every free inch of paper covered except for Deku’s face.

“Wow,” he said softly, quickly turning to laughter again when Katsuki tried to force him to the next page. “You’ve done so much planning, I’m so impressed!”

“I cancelled my tickets and my hotels, like you demanded,” Katsuki explained. “We have retailers near some of the venues who we can ship stuff to, so we don’t have to have all six of the early outfits manufactured in the next two weeks, my parents can send them on when they’re ready and they’ll meet us at the hotels. Urgent courier services will get them to us in three days, maximum, so they can work steadily back here and get them to us as they’re ready. If anything gets damaged or needs altering and shit, we should have plenty of time for me to fix stuff on the spot, which saves drama with trying stuff on before we leave.”

“That sounds perfect!”

“I’m gonna bring some shit with me, too, so I can do some work on your shitty tour bus trip. Do you know how much more damn sense it would make for me to just fly ahead and meet you at the hotels?”

“But then you’d miss all the events along the way!”

“Shut up,” Katsuki huffed, knowing Deku wouldn’t take it to heart – it wasn’t the first time they’d had that same debate. “The extras from work will come out for a couple of photoshoots and shit on our downtime days, so they can take the old shit back, so we’re not carting old outfits around everywhere with us.”

“I still get to keep them, though, right?”

“If you want. I thought maybe you could auction them off or something, donate some of the proceeds to a charity. Would look good for the brand, and it seems like the cheesy shit you’d like.”

“Oh! That’s such a cool idea!”

“My folks will take them back to Mina, and she’s gonna use the final products to inform her production line on ‘inspired’ outfits for the label – they won’t be identical, a bit less flashy and shit, more wearable. She’ll have some basic patterns drafted up anyway, based on the designs I make for your versions, but getting the pieces to physically look over will help finalise things for them. Then she’ll keep them safe for whatever we want to do with them when we get back.”

“You’ve put a lot of work into this.”

“Shut up.”

Katsuki paused, but Deku nodded encouragingly, so with a little huff he continued.

“You told me that you didn’t realise I’d made your jacket, at first.”

“Yeah!” Deku agreed. “I thought you must have bought it from the same brand, I didn’t know it was yours, let alone one of a kind!”

“All these stage outfits are gonna be like that, too. They’ll be one of a kind, and I’m gonna make them myself.”

“Didn’t you just say-”

“My parents are gonna pick people to make them for the other extras,” Katsuki clarified. “And they’ll all be unique. But yours are gonna be made by me. I’m gonna make you fuckin’ shine up there, like you deserve.”

It was also the closest Katsuki would ever get to seeing Deku in his personal clothes, but that was beside the point.

“That’s really sweet of you, Kacchan,” Deku smiled softly. “Don’t ruin your health just for me, though, okay?”

“I won’t.”

“If you can’t get them all done-”

“I’m bringing materials with me to work on the road,” Katsuki explained. “I have it all planned out. I can do all the hand-stitching on the bus during our downtime, and I can set up a sewing machine in the hotels when we have them. I’m gonna get the first two done before we leave, and hopefully get the basic structure done on the other four, then I can do all the detailing on the road.”

“You’re amazing.”

“So are you. You deserve to be seen.”

Deku smiled, and Katsuki blushed again, quickly dropping his gaze to cover it up.

“This one is my favourite,” he offered, finally flipping past all the notes to the design he’d spent so long copying out of an old book and perfecting all over again. “I think it would be a good one for your first show.”

“It’s amazing!” Deku gushed, leaning in to look a little closer. “I like all the dark zips, the whole black-and-white theme that ties the group together is always cool!”

“You look better in white,” Katsuki shrugged. “But it’s still gotta match.”

“I do?”

“You do.”

“Good to know,” Deku smiled to himself. “Are these stripes gonna be the shiny material?”

“Yeah.”

“I love that stuff!”

“Me too. I’m debating if I can make a whole jacket out of it and still have it be flexible enough to wear on stage.”

“I bet it’d be cool regardless!”

They flipped through a few more pages, and ordered a few more coffees, and by the time Deku began to apologetically excuse himself, they’d settled on their nine designs for the stage outfits. It might have been the least disappointed Katsuki had ever been to say goodbye to Deku, purely because he was so eager to get back to the office and start creating. Despite Deku’s warnings, he knew he’d be pulling a few sleepless nights to get everything done in time – he just couldn’t bring himself to let anyone else help, though. They could dress the extras as much as they wanted, but Deku was his model.

“Hey, Deku?” Katsuki spoke up, as they began to part ways at the door, Deku heading for the dark car that had come to pick him up, while Katsuki headed for the office just two blocks away.

“What’s up, Kacchan?”

“The jacket was made for you, for the record,” he said awkwardly. “I know you thought it was mine, or whatever, but I made it for you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The old hag wouldn’t let me give it to you at that signing, kept ranting about merch deals and exclusivity rights and paying for promotion and all that shit. I wanted to give it to you, but I couldn’t, so I had to just wear it instead, so you could at least see it.”

“That shouldn’t be an issue anymore,” Deku laughed brightly. “Now you can give me whatever you want!”

“Don’t tempt me, Nerd.”

Deku just grinned at him, waving slightly as he opened his car door, and Katsuki’s heart fluttered, both at the cuteness of the gesture and at the idea of making whatever the hell he wanted and convincing Deku to wear it. There were definitely ideas floating around his brain, even though he knew he could never act on those specific impulses.

He had to keep it professional. Had to prove to his parents, and everyone else, that they’d made the right decision by letting him get involved. He knew it was right, and Deku knew it was right, but until the old farts retired, he still had to show them it was right, too.

But when they did retire, boy, Katsuki was going to have a field day.