Behind the Seams [Chapter 2]

“You know, Katsuki, we could really use your help out there,” Masaru said softly. “When I said you couldn’t be involved, I just meant...

“You know, Katsuki, we could really use your help out there,” Masaru said softly. “When I said you couldn’t be involved, I just meant with the photoshoot, not the whole process.”

Katsuki looked up with tired eyes, and Masaru’s brow furrowed.

“Are you sick?” he asked, closing the door behind him. “What’s wrong?”

“M’fine,” Katsuki shrugged. “It’s whatever.”

“Talk to me. Is this because you were left out? Because I’m sorry, son, but you know it was the right thing to do, right?”

“S’not that.”

“Talk to me, then.”

Katsuki squirmed a little, but he knew his dad wouldn’t leave until he got an answer, and he was too tired to yell and argue and try to fight his way out.

“I didn’t sleep much,” he confessed. “Was... looking for something. Something important.”

“Is it anything I can help with?”

“No.”

“Can I ask what it is?”

Katsuki squirmed again, and cursed himself for not being annoyed by the concern in his father’s face. He wanted to complain about it, wanted to tell him to quit pitying him, but he’d always had a soft spot for his dad.

“Tickets,” he mumbled.

“Tickets?” Masaru clarified. “For the tour? Haven’t you had those sorted for months already?”

“New show,” he grumbled. “Impromptu local one.”

“Another one? Well, I guess their popularity has been soaring lately, they may as well build on it! Good for them!”

“Mm-hm.”

“But you missed out on tickets? That’s not like you.”

“Site glitched on me. No resellers, not even scalpers. Well, there was one, it was going for ten times the price and I lost the auction. Yes, I tried, don’t start with me.”

“I guess you’ve never missed one before,” Masaru lamented, patting his back lightly. “I’m sorry, that must be really hard for you.”

He did his best to be comforting, but Katsuki barely even heard it. It felt like he was underwater, exhausted and sinking ever deeper, despite the madness going on just outside his office doors – all hands were on deck for production, trying to keep up with the sudden increase in demand, and normally Katsuki would have lived for it, but it was just... not the right day for it.

“Go home,” Masaru said finally. “You work so hard, you deserve a break anyway, and you clearly need the sleep right now. Take the day off, we’ll survive without you for one day.”

“M’fine.”

“I’m serious, Katsuki. Go get some sleep. I’ll keep an eye out for listings – don’t look at me like that, I’ll get Ashido to help me figure it out – and tonight we can do a huge search to see if we can hunt any down, maybe they’ll pop up once some time has passed. But right now, you need to get some rest.”

Katsuki grumbled a bit, but finally conceded, shoving his favourite sketchbook into his bag and grabbing his lanyard from the desk. He usually walked home, or took public transport, but Masaru put him straight into a taxi when they got out the door, and for once, Katsuki didn’t object.

As soon as the car was out of sight, Masaru reached for his phone, pulling up his contacts list and staring at it for a moment, contemplating.

─

“Aizawa speaking.”

Izuku glanced over, watching Aizawa’s face for any hint of what might be going on, but his expression gave away nothing. He nodded along as he listened to the other end, occasionally humming in a way that seemed agreeable, but it didn’t feel entirely sincere.

“I know there have been issues with the site,” he said finally, and Izuku rose to his feet, sidling up beside him to listen. “It’s definitely regrettable, they weren’t equipped for the volume of sales that all came in at once, and we’re working on it for future sales. Unfortunately I don’t think there are any spares, even for us to call on.”

The voice on the other end spoke again, clearly disappointed even though Izuku couldn’t make out the words, and his heart ached at the thought. For someone to phone Aizawa’s direct line to ask, it must have been important. He felt bad enough already, seeing the complaints from upset fans about missing out, but knowing it affected someone that close to them? It was heartbreaking.

“No, it’s quite alright, Mr Bakugou,” Aizawa continued. “I’ll see if there’s anything we can do, of course, but-”

Izuku snatched the phone.

He wasn’t sure what had gotten into him, to act that way, but the Bakugous and their staff had been so nice to him, had made him feel so comfortable, and honestly the photos had turned out so good. There was one shot in particular of him back-to-back with Denki that he had actually printed out to put on his wall at home, because it had been such a sweet one of the two of them, and he’d seen endless compliments online about their outfits. He knew the company had been swamped with orders, too, from the general updates Aizawa had already given them, and Aizawa had just set up an impromptu event to capitalise on their own rapidly-growing fanbase, so he really wanted to keep the relationship between their groups healthy.

“Mr Bakugou?” he asked, holding the phone to his ear. “So sorry to interrupt, it’s Izuku here, how are you?”

“Oh! I’m very well, thank you! How are you?”

“I’m good too! Those photos turned out amazing, you guys did such a good job! My mother bought like six copies of the magazine to give to all her friends, and I even printed off one of the pictures from the online spread for myself!”

“The one with Denki?” Masaru asked knowingly, clearly smiling to himself. “We weren’t sure at first about using the shots that weren’t the whole group, but it was just such a great picture, we couldn’t help it.”

“I’m so glad you did! I never like photos of myself, but there were so many good ones in there. I asked our social media people if I can change all my profile pictures to those shots!”

“I’m so glad you liked them,” Masaru laughed. “I hope we can do more in the future, we’d love to continue working with you all, like we discussed at the shoot.”

“We want to as well!” Izuku assured him, grateful that Aizawa had already told him the same thing, and therefore he was allowed to say it. “But is there something we can help you with, at the moment?”

“Oh,” Masaru said softly. “Well, it was a long shot, I knew it probably wasn’t possible, but I just thought it was worth asking, you know?”

“About tickets?” Izuku prompted. “I heard something about the website glitches, I know they were awful this time around, I feel so guilty! I wanted to get a bigger venue and add more tickets, but we couldn’t get one on such short notice, it’s such a shame.”

“I can imagine! And it must be hard dealing with all those upset fans! My son is a huge fan and I’ve seen how distraught he is to have missed out, so I can’t imagine how many people you must be seeing and hearing from in that same situation!”

“It’s very hard,” Izuku agreed. “Your son?”

“Oh yes, he’s been to all of your concerts, this’ll actually be the first one he misses.”

“Really? That’s amazing! That he’s been to so many, I mean.”

“He’s very dedicated. He was up all night trying to find a ticket, he even bid on an auction that was going for ten times the ticket price! He missed out though, I’ve honestly never seen him so upset in his life.” Masaru paused, and Izuku waited patiently. “You know, sometimes he jumps on a last minute flight to get to one of your concerts and just works remotely while he’s gone. He’s an incredibly valuable asset to our company so we’d give him the time off anyway, but he always wants to be working on something. He actually designed the pieces you wore for that shoot! I think Ashido picked them out deliberately, he would have gotten a kick out of seeing you in his clothes.”

“I wish I’d met him!”

Gears whirred in Izuku’s brain, and he glanced over at Aizawa, getting a resigned nod of permission that he knew was mostly because Izuku would have done it anyway, regardless.

“What about a backstage pass?” he offered, hearing Masaru gasp on the other end of the line. “You and Mrs Bakugou should come too, then you can see what we’re all about! If we want to keep working together, you should know what we do, too, right?”

“I couldn’t possibly ask that of you! I was just calling to ask if maybe some more tickets were going to come out, or you knew of another place where we could buy him one, to cheer him up. I promise I’m not asking for a handout!”

“You’re not asking, I’m offering!” Izuku grinned to himself. “I’d love to meet him, and I’d love for you both to come see us in action, too!”

“I’d hate to abuse this great relationship we have going for us!”

“It would be my pleasure to host you, honestly!”

“W-Well,” Masaru stuttered. “That’s so kind of you. Are you sure it wouldn’t be a bother?”

“Not at all, I’m excited for it already! And who knows, maybe it’ll inspire you all, right? For some future designs and photoshoots and things?”

“I’m sure it will,” Masaru agreed, painfully sincere. “It’ll be a perfect research opportunity, especially being so local. Maybe we can meet with you all after the show, too, and hash out some details for our next projects.”

“That sounds amazing. I’ll give you back to Aizawa, he can sort out meeting info with you, but I’ll personally make sure your names are on the list for the show! I’ll see you there!”

“Thank you very much, Izuku, it means a lot to us.”

Izuku handed the phone back triumphantly, and Aizawa gave him a surprisingly fond look as he accepted, lifting it to his ear.

“This is why I call him our problem child,” he joked. “But I would have offered you the same, had he not snatched the phone out of my hand before I had a chance. I’ll get some passes sent to you by urgent courier, they’ll be with you by the end of the day, and we’ll make sure the security guards know we’re expecting you.”

He stepped outside to make further plans, and Izuku beamed as he fell back onto the couch, getting a curious look from Tenya across the cushions.

“The Bakugous are coming to our show!” he explained, apparently surprising them all enough that Denki even paused the video game he and Kyouka had been playing. “Apparently their son is a huge fan of ours and missed out on tickets. You guys will help me make them feel welcome, right?”

“Of course!” Tsuyu agreed. “How old is he?”

“Oh. Uh, I’m not sure? He works at the company, so an adult!”

“Was he at the photoshoot?”

“It didn’t sound like it! But apparently he made my outfit!”

“Including your jacket?”

Izuku looked down at himself, at the white fabric still wrapped around him like a warm cloud, and paused for a moment.

“I guess so?” he said finally. “I didn’t think to ask. That would make sense, though, right? If he’s a fan, it makes more sense that Ashido gave it to me to wear, even though it’s an older design!”

“It’s not an older design,” Ochako giggled, reaching over to pat his knee fondly. “They don’t sell it.”

“What?”

“They don’t sell that design, Momo told me!”

“Momo?”

“The stylist we were talking to! Apparently the Bakugou guy designed it for fun, it was never meant to be sold, it was just for you!”

“For... me...?”

Izuku stared at his little bunny cuffs silently. He was sure he’d seen his biggest fan wearing the same one, but maybe it had just been a similar style? The buckle and the reflective material had convinced him so quickly, but maybe those were just trendy at the moment? It wasn’t like Izuku knew that much about fashion, after all.

“I’d better thank him, then,” he said finally. “I love it a lot!”

“I’m sure he’ll be glad to hear it.”