Archive of Our Own ^beta

It's not that they didn't expect some social media weirdness. They were literally taught to expect it. They just didn't really expect this.

It was their third year at UA, so class 3-A was pretty accustomed to their notoriety at this point. They'd all gotten their debuts early, after all, especially the "demolition squad"—Midoriya, Bakugou, Torodoki, Kirishima, Kaminari, Ashido, and Yaoyorozu.

With that publicity came an almost uncomfortable amount of news coverage, and with news coverage came bad press. It just came with the territory, and they knew it.

There was even a class devoted to public relations and social media. Nobody needed it more than Deku and Dynamight.

Their tumultuous relationship coupled with their flawless teamwork raised questions and theories about their relationship, and plenty of speculation about their potential future partnerships.

They were used to it and had rehearsed their answers.

But with their third year came bigger responsibilities—with their internships taking off, they were involved in larger battles and were more prevalent on the pro hero scene.

And with that came hero analysis.

At first, it was mostly complimentary. For fledgling heroes, they were pretty darn spectacular! The way they'd broken onto the scene had been explosive and everyone in the country had talked about it for months.

When the narrative turned negative, it was a shock to the system.

They were even more surprised that it was for Izuku. Provisional Hero Deku was the most friendly, happy cinnamon roll they'd seen out of UA since FatGum, and people tended to excuse his destruction because he was so good at negating casualties and he was so darn cute.

"Midoriya!" Kaminari called across the common room. Izuku looked over at him. "You gotta see this dude, you just got slammed on HeroStar!"

He frowned. Slammed? Why?

He tottered over, still a little sleepy and generally concerned. "Why would they slam me?"

The only thing he'd done recently that was noteworthy was the Varino robbery spree—where a few villains with gigantification quirks had broken bank buildings literally in half to empty vaults.

He'd taken care of them pretty quickly once he'd caught up to them, though.

"A hero analyst did a write-up of your major fights on his blog, then he got it boosted to HeroStar when it blew up," Kaminari explained as Izuku leaned over the back of the sofa to stare at Kaminari's phone over his shoulder.

It was...bad.

Damn, that analyst had ripped him a new one. "Disregard for civilians on par with Gigantomachia?" he yelped as he read through the utter slander.

"That's wack," Jirou muttered, scrolling through the article on her own phone.

"And totally untrue," Ashido huffed.

"Yeah, dude, it's clearly bullshit and Fat's PR team will totally cover you with the clap back," Kaminari assured him.

"Oh shit," someone muttered. All eyes turned to Hagakure's floating dress. She rarely swore, so whatever had caught her eye couldn't be good.

"What's up?" Izuku asked hesitantly, not liking the way that Hagakure jolted and angled her phone away from him.

"Uh...well," she giggled anxiously. "It looks like more news sites are picking up that analysis for their articles. Nat Chron just picked it up."

Oh, fuck.

"DEKU!" An enraged bellow echoed through the common room.

"Oh, fuck," Izuku sighed.

"What the fuck is this?" Katsuki demanded, yeeting his phone directly into Izuku's face as soon as he turned around.

"Ow."

"My fucking phone is blowing up with shitty takes, how fucking dare you?"

Izuku looked at him like he'd grown another head. "I didn't write it!"

"If people think your work is shitty, they'll think my work is shitty, fucker!"

"I have literally no control here."

"Do you have his name on alert, Kacchan?" Kaminari teased. Izuku tensed as Katsuki leveled him with a glare that could melt an entire planet.

"Half the fucking country treats this asshole like he's my hero partner. I have my name on alert. Did you even fucking read it?"

"Well I hadn't finished it, I just got to the part about him having a reckless need to destroy everything in his path," Kaminari frowned, eyes flicking back down to his phone to read back through the remainder. "Oh, projected hero partner Dynamight is a human grenade and still manages to cause less destruction than this simpleton with an OP power-up quirk. Dang, dude, they came for your throat," Kaminari uttered.

"The fuck are you gonna do about this, dumbass?" Katsuki snapped, snatching Izuku's ear in a vice grip.

Izuku whined as Katsuki attempted to pull his ear off. "I'm gonna talk to FatGum and see if he can help! It won't help if I respond!"

Katsuki dropped him like he'd been burned. "You're just gonna let those braindead extras talk shit about you?" he hissed.

"I don't wanna make it worse!" Izuku cried. "I'm awkward and bad at defending myself—"

Katsuki cut him off with a feral snarl, stomping to pick up his phone from where it had landed after bouncing off of Izuku's face and then storming away from them in a rage.

They stared after him, confused. "Dude," Kaminari muttered. "What crawled up his ass and died sideways?"

Izuku snorted. "Mean," he scolded halfheartedly. "It's nice that he's worried, right?"

"So nice," Ashido agreed immediately, smiling wide and shooting Kaminari an indiscernible look. Izuku glanced between them suspiciously, but they both adopted innocent visages with super-sus speed.

"O...kay. I gotta go call FatGum, can you guys email me the major articles?" he asked, still feeling like he was missing something important.

"Sure thing, Green Bean!" Ashido grinned.

"I've already sent you a couple," Hagakure piped up. He shot a smile in the general direction of her face.

"Later guys," he waved as he headed to his room.

Things only got wacker from there.

Before he'd even gotten off the phone with FatGum, something else had happened. Of course, he was on the phone, so he didn't notice until FatGum himself started laughing.

"You—ha, you gotta ahahahHA!" he belly laughed, and while it would usually make Izuku smile, this was supposed to be a serious conversation!

"Sir?"

"You kids are something else," he wheezed. "I think our PR team can work with this, but you should hop on Twitter and take a look for yourself, Deku." He was giggling with utter glee at whatever he was seeing.

He hung up a second later before Izuku could even ask him what was going on. With a healthy amount of trepidation, he opened his Twitter account.

He was met with two thousand notifications, and that was just from his mentions.

"What—" he squeaked, panicking.

A quick gander at the discovery page made everything worse. '#LetDekuSmash' was trending, and that was not the narrative he was trying to achieve.

"I don't even smash buildings that much!" he uttered, looking for the source of the tag.

Then he understood the tag. "Oh, no."

He needed Kaminari. Or Hagakure. He needed them now. He ran from the room, opting to jump to the bottom floor through the gap in the stairwell to save time.

"GUYS!" he screeched, bursting into the common room. "What's happening, someone tell me what's happening—"

"Dude," Kaminari beckoned him over, still on the couch but now surrounded by classmates. "Someone posted a thread about why the article was full of shit—" he couldn't even finish the sentence because he started cackling halfway through.

Izuku snatched the phone out of his hand, eyes affixing to the fuckery on the screen.

Ten Reasons Hero Star and that Awful Analyst Don't Know Shit, A Thread.

He opened the thread, because what had prompted 2000 thirst tweets?

The answer? A thirst thread.

Twitter User "@/FuckMeUpDeku" had apparently gone viral. The thread?

#1, This Face. [A photo of Izuku grinning at a reporter]

#2, This Ass. [A photo of Izuku squatting as he prepared to jump]

#3, Them thighs. [A photo of Izuku at the sports festival with his thighs locked around Sero's head]

#4, He strong [A photo of Izuku picking up a whole car]

That one was concerning. No civilian had seen him do that, right? It had been on campus. A training accident had knocked a teacher's car into a wall, and Izuku had picked it up after class. Only someone who had been on campus at the time could have seen it. Although, that still wasn't a very small group of people. It had been at the end of the day when students were returning to the dorms. He turned his attention back to the thread.

#5, THESE ABS?! HOW [A collection of photos, two post-battle where his costume had ripped and exposed his torso and one on a shirtless run.]

#6, look at this adorable dork [A picture of Izuku squeezing a giant All Might plushie like his life depended on it]

The All Might plushie pic was almost concerning until he remembered that it had been posted on Ashido's Instagram, and as a member of the Demolition Squad, she was almost as notorious as he was.

So this person really liked him. Enough to follow his friends about it.

#7, so smart, how is he so smart and so hot [A video clip of Izuku rambling about quirk theory to a reporter who did not ask for this]

#8, so kind, so soft [A picture of Izuku kneeling next to two kids, throwing up a peace sign with a brilliant grin]

#9, friendly af, can't relate, v admirable [A photo of Deku and Dynamight—Deku smiling and chatting calmly while Dynamight looked ready to commit murder while screaming]

He frowned at that one. He really didn't like it when people juxtaposed him and Katsuki to make Katsuki look bad. It was one of the few things that made him spitting mad outside of actual villainy.

He looked down at the tenth tweet in the thread, frowning when he saw that it linked to another thread.

He clicked through and was pleasantly surprised to find a completely serious and detailed analysis of his fighting style, including his stats on civilian saves, urban destruction ratios, and villains detained.

At the end of that thread, he blushed at the final tweet.

It read: "In conclusion, we should trust Deku to smash whatever or whoever he wants because he is capable as fuck and hot as hell. #LetDekuSmash"

This was not how he anticipated trending for the first time.

"How did this go viral in under an hour?" Izuku uttered.

Ashido looked up at him guiltily. "That's my fault. I retweeted it," she admitted.

"How did you even find it? This dude has like five followers," Izuku cried.

"The account linked that thread in a reply to HeroStar," she explained. "I was looking through replies to kinda get an idea of what people were saying, you know? But when I saw that I had to retweet."

And Ashido had over 300k followers. He suddenly totally understood how it had gone viral. "Well what do I do?" he demanded.

"Slide into their DMs!" Kaminari cackled. "Let them clap those cheeks!"

"Ignore him," Ashido rolled her eyes, amused despite herself. "You should QRT and say thanks for the compliments and the dope analysis, the support means a lot."

"Or," Ochako giggled. "You could totally slide into their DMs. Fulfill their dreams and choke them out with your thighs," she grinned.

"I'm not sliding into an internet stranger's DMs," Izuku groaned, blushing hotly. "I'm a hero, we're supposed to discourage unsafe behavior—"

"Okay, but have you seen this person's tweets?" Ochako demanded. She pulled out her phone (which was already open to the profile) and cleared her throat. Apparently, this was gonna be a dramatic reading.

He hated this already.

"Ahem. 'Deku could choke me to death with his thighs and I would haunt them. Best afterlife ever.'"

"Oh, god," Izuku uttered, mortified.

"Oh my god he lifted a truck. He lifted a truck. I'm so fucking gay, what the hell is this?"

"Hey, it's a guy!" Kaminari cheered. "We have more information!"

"Why do we need more information?" Deku uttered.

"So we can determine whether you should slide into his DMs, obviously!" Kaminari scoffed.

"I want Deku's jawline to cut me in half fuck fuck fuck," Ochako continued loudly. "This guy's super into you," she giggled. "This account is like a solid 50/50 on thirst tweets to hero analysis."

Deku perked up. "What'd he say about my hero work?"

"Of course that's what he cares about," Ashido sighed. "Not the fact that someone wants him to bend them over, just hero work. Are you human? Or are you like some superhero cyborg—"

"I wanna know what they think! I don't want to interact if they have bad takes on heroes!"

"You're gonna interact with him?" Hagakure squealed.

"I mean you just told me to retweet him," Izuku sighed. "Am I not supposed to do that?"

"Oh, damn. I thought you were actually considering getting laid," Ochako grumbled.

Nope. He was saving himself for his hero partner who didn't even want him. Such was the joy of unrequited full-body adoration.

"No. I'd like to thank them for defending me, but if there's something I disagree with—"

"You can thank them for looking out for you without endorsing everything they say," Ashido assured him. "He went to bat for you in that last thread. You could actually just retweet that thread if the other stuff makes you uncomfortable. But I think retweeting the whole thing would make you feel fun and approachable."

"I concur!" Hagakure piped up.

Izuku pondered it for a moment. "Yeah, I guess that's fine."  He fished his phone out of his pocket and pulled up @/FuckMeUpDeku's account.

He'd pinned the damn thread to the top of his profile. What the hell was going on? Was today even real?

He typed out his reply, the presented it to the 'council' for approval.

'Thanks for the support and all the compliments! Your analysis was amazing, and you really came to my rescue. You're my hero! 🤩'

"Adorable and wholesome, but also kinda flirty," Ashido said approvingly.

"I wasn't going for flirty," Izuku said, pulling his phone back to edit it.

"No! Leave it! It's humanizing!" Kaminari yelped before Izuku could go anywhere near the delete button.

“Seriously dude, you’re just showing appreciation for a fan,” Sero chimed in. “Don’t sweat it. That was a good response.”

Izuku bit his lip, still a little anxious about the whole thing, but posted the tweet.

“You should read the rest of the #LetDekuSmash

tweets now,” Ashido grinned. “Oh wait no, we should have you do a thirst tweet reading!”

“Nope!” Izuku declined. “I would like to be able to look the general public in the eye someday, thanks.”

As if by divine intervention, Katsuki stormed into the room. “Can’t stay out of trouble for five fuckin’ minutes,” he snarled. “C’mon, dork, we’re training.”

“I thought we were gonna train after lunch,” he said, complacently letting himself be dragged by the back of his hoodie.

“Yeah, well now I gotta keep your nerd ass of Twitter,” he explained angrily. “You just had to respond to it, didn’t you?”

“I appreciated the analysis!”

“Yeah, and the other shit didn’t even compute? Bullshit.”

“I mean that stuff was nice, but it’s kinda weird. The analysis was super thoughtful and—"

He cut off abruptly, noting how Katsuki was steadily getting redder. Usually an indicator of extreme irritation, if not outright rage. 10/10, would get him blown up. “It was just nice to see that someone didn’t think I was a fuck up,” he muttered.

"Hey idiot," Katsuki snapped, releasing his hoodie and rounding on him. "If I thought you were a fuck up, would I waste my time on you?"

Izuku's eyes widened dramatically—mouth dropping open. "Uh...n-no?"

"Fuckin' right. Don't listen to shitheads who don't even bother to research hero stats without considering category variation. That shitty analysis had you lumped in with fuckin' rural rescue heroes, of course you had higher property damage stats. Fuckin' ridiculous," he barked.

Izuku burst into tears.

"Thanks, K-Kacchan," he blubbered. Katsuki groaned.

"Such a goddamn crybaby, what the hell," he hissed, scrubbing his hand over his face in exasperation. "The entire fuckin' class things you shit sunshine. You're one of the Big Three, of course you're not a fuck up. You're still an idiot, but don't let some useless nobody—who's probably bitter they never did anything useful with their lives—shit on you. Stand up for yourself, fucker. There won't always be someone to do it for you."

"Got it," Izuku sniveled, trying to stem his tears. He knew Katsuki hated it when he cried.

"Whatever. Let's fuckin' go. You need time away from the internet. I don't think you know what kind of hell you raised by retweeting that shit," Katsuki snapped.

Izuku followed him, wiping his face as he went.

The next week was completely inundated by social media. On the bright side, FatGum and the PR team were pretty happy with his response.

On the flip side, that response had triggered a brand new wave of attention. Apparently, knowing that Izuku would low-key flirt back was like taking a match to gasoline. His notifications were 99.6% thirst tweets, and he was overwhelmed.

Apparently, he had a great ass. While that was nice to know, it didn't make looking people in the eye any easier. He had social anxiety, goddammit.

He'd looked through @/FuckMeUpDeku's account after Katsuki had basically beaten him into the ground. While the account was very thirsty for him, it also had some incredible and valuable insight into his battle style.

It had also gone from 259 followers to 23k in a day.

He actually felt kinda bad. This guy, whoever he was, clearly hadn't known that his thirst tweets would blow up like this. He'd been quiet since the thread went out, and a glance through his profile showed that he hadn't gone quiet for more than two days in over two years.

That same 'glance' had been a very flattering look into Izuku's career.

This guy had covered fights where Izuku had second-guessed his decisions or had less than ideal outcomes, outlining why what he'd done was perfect for the situation. But he wasn't blindly complimentary.

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'He got everyone out safely, but he jumped in front of a giant fckin rock to shield a kid. Brave or wtver, but he could have used his wind blast thing to knock it outta the way. I need this sexy mf to take care of himself gdi'

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'pretty hot that he can use a whole telephone pole as a fckn baseball bat, super cool improv move. but also...could have blasted that villain into another neighborhood with that hit, would have been bad & v destructive.'

Izuku had read every single thing he'd posted. Then he'd put his tweets on alert.

He kinda regretted that, because the next time the dude tweeted, he got so flustered that he tripped and faceplanted in the middle of the cafeteria.

There were two new tweets.

The first said, 'I'm glad you're all finally opening your goddamn eyes about how fuckin stacked my man is. Notice I said 'my man'. I'll fight u for him, and I *will* win.'

He'd just blushed at that, freckles fading under heated cheeks. It sounded weirdly familiar.

The second was a shirtless picture of Izuku. He was grinning at someone out of frame, bright and happy.

The caption read: 'See here's the fckin thing, do I want him to fuck *me*? Or do I wanna fuck *him*?? Like smash me daddy but also come here bb boy'

So yeah, he dropped his phone, fumbled to grab it, tripped on his own feet, and ended up face down on the ground.

"Oh my god, Deku, are you okay?" Ochako cried, moving to help him up. He shoved his phone into her hand once she was standing. "You put his tweets on alert?"

"He analyzes my fights, and had some really good points," he uttered, still blushing violently.

"He also wants you to bend him in half," she laughed. "You knew what you were getting into."

"I never know what I'm getting into, that's my whole brand. Startled and awkward."

"And hot," Ochako teased. "Startled, awkward, and hot."

"Shut uuuuuuup," he whined. His phone pinged with another notification, still clutched in Ochako's hand.

"Deku, if you're reading this, sorry for making your ass go viral. Also, you're perfect thx for making me gay." Ochako read the tweet aloud, giggling wildly.

Then Izuku heard a phone camera go off. He turned just slightly to find Kaminari with his phone held aloft, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Why."

"You'll see."

"No, tell me."

"...No."

They stared at each other for a long moment, then Kaminari stood from the table and sprinted away. "Kiri stop him!" he shrieked over his shoulder as he bolted for the cafeteria doors.

Right when Izuku went to sprint after him, Kirishima stepped into his path.

"You too, Kiri?"

"Sorry, bro."

Izuku's phone pinged again.

Ochako howled with laughter, handing the phone back to Izuku so he could read whatever nonsense had just taken place for himself.

Kaminari had QRTed @/FuckMeUpDeku's latest tweet with a picture of Izuku's bright red, blushing side profile.

Kaminari's caption said, 'Look at that blush. Pretty sure he's not mad abt it 😏'

Ah. So today was the day that he was going to kill Kaminari. What a twist!

@/FuckMeUpDeku QRTed the photo half a second later. 'Adorable fuck how is he this fucking cute I hate everything. I want to kiss him in the moonlight.'

"God has forsaken me," Izuku murmured, taking Kaminari's empty seat. He would have gone to sit with the rest of his friends, but the urge to drown himself in his soup was too strong.

Katsuki yanked him back by the collar of his shirt before he could face-plant in the bowl.

He hadn't even looked at Izuku as he pulled him back, and he couldn't help but appreciate that the blonde knew him well enough to predict his moves.

Katsuki was staring at his phone when Izuku glanced over. "Just let me drown, Kacchan."

"Don't be dramatic, nerd. You don't see me trying to blow myself up when people say they want to suffocate in my pecs. That's way worse."

Izuku blushed even harder, suddenly struck by the mental image of drowning in Katsuki's chest instead of his soup. What a way to go.

"At least those people have taste," Izuku replied without thinking.

Katsuki sputtered, dropping his phone. "Fuckin' what?" he demanded, blushing as Ochako and Kirishima howled with laughter.

Izuku froze and wondered if God had actually forsaken him.

Izuku was glad he wasn't on patrol with Katsuki today, because even though he'd skillfully wormed his way out of his brain-to-mouth filter failure, he still had the thought of suffocating in Katsuki's pecs firmly imprinted in his skull. It was a nice thought, okay?

He didn't need those pecs right in front of him. That would just be distracting.

Of course, patrol was its own issue, because like 92% of the population was now acutely aware of his ass. And his destructive tendencies, sure, but mostly his ass.

"Looking good Deku!" a civilian cried as he strolled.

"Damn, that dude was right, the man is thicc," he heard another comment to their friend as he leaped up the side of a building so that he wouldn't get mobbed.

"What that ass do!"

"There are CHILDREN here!"

He was strongly considering posting something along the lines of "Hey, thanks for the compliments but my ass and I have to work right now!" but he had a feeling that would just make things worse.

Or better if, by some slim chance, it made Katsuki realize that he was attractive.

He shook that thought away quickly. Not only was it unlikely, but it would almost certainly cause more problems than solutions.

He was pondering how to do his job while avoiding civilians when the answer presented itself.

There was a scuffle a couple of blocks over that he wouldn't have noticed if he were on the ground. So maybe this was...really weird divine intervention.

He sailed overhead, eyeing the situation carefully. It looked like a police chase, and the villain was somehow pulling objects into the path of his pursuers. He watched carefully as the villain ran—watching for a pattern that could reveal his quirk.

That's what his thirsty-ass fan had said right? That he threw himself into situations without thinking and put himself needlessly in harm's way?

After a moment, he realized it—the villain's quirk acted like the wake of a ship—pulling some objects into the center while pushing other objects out.

He pulled a roll of bandages out of his utility belt and lobbed it toward the villain watching for the height at which the roll was pushed away by the quirk.

Once he'd determined that an object had to be touching the ground to be affected, he leaped forward, firing himself forward with Air Force and Float.

Then he noticed a car being pushed away from the curb, directly toward a mother and her two kids. He jumped in front of it and slammed the car back at 7%, satisfied when it rolled back into the street.

His agency would have to pay for the car, but it was better than kids being crushed right in front of him.

He turned to them and knelt. "You two okay?" he asked. They nodded, starry-eyed. Their mother was clutching her chest, eyes wide. She'd just seen her life flash before her eyes. "Ma'am, what about you? Do you need medical attention?"

She shook her head slowly. "We're okay."

"I'm glad," he smiled at them, bright and comforting. "You should stay here until the villain is contained. I'll come back to check on you once he is," he assured them.

"Thank you, Deku," she replied, kneeling herself to clutch at her kids.

He gave them another once-over before taking off after the villain.

Keeping the civilians on the sidewalk safe while pursuing him took a lot more time than he would have liked. Luckily, he'd actually remembered to radio in the situation this time, panting as he explained the quirk and the potential damage over his comm set.

It was just sheer dumb luck that Mirio had been patrolling at the same time—popping up right in the villain's path as Izuku smashed a sidewalk mailbox away from an old lady buying flowers.

"That was ridiculous," Izuku muttered as he snapped quirk-restraint cuffs on the guy. Mirio had knocked him out with one hit but had insisted on giving Izuku the credit for the collar.

"You did great, though. Like, I haven't seen any major damage along your pursuit route, Mido. And nice job figuring out his quirk!"

Izuku could always count on Mirio to cheer him on. He was almost sad that he hadn't decided to do his work-study with him and Centipeder.

Izuku smiled, a little tired and ruffled but pleased that someone like Mirio thought he'd done well.

"Thanks," he replied.

"And you looked damn good doing it," he teased.

Izuku threw his head back and groaned. "Not you, too!"

"I've been saying that your ass don't quit for *years*! Not my fault you didn't listen to me!" Mirio laughed.

"You're all terrible," Izuku whined. "I'm gonna turn this guy in. Then I'm gonna go back and check on the civilians. Also, I'm never talking to you again."

"Thick thighs save lives, Deku!" Mirio called after him as he stalked away, villain thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"SttoooooOOOOP!" Izuku wailed. He could hear civilians laughing, and part of him was grateful that they were at ease.

The other part was flustered as fuck.

He nearly dropped the villain when he heard someone in the environs yell: "HE STRONG! Throw me over your shoulder too, Deku!"

"Please take him away from me so that I can hide in the nearest dumpster," he uttered, blushing brilliantly.

The officer in charge was stifling his laughter (poorly) as he took over. "Come on, isn't the attention nice?" he cajoled.

Izuku fixed him with a flat stare that was ineffective because his face was so red. "I've been hearing about my ass for four hours," he replied.

The officer patted him on the shoulder. "It'll die down, kid. I'm just glad that people aren't taking that article seriously. You did an awesome job today!"

He smiled, still blushing but pleased. "Thanks! I still gotta check on civilians. You need anything from me?"

Once the officer had him sign off on the villain handoff, Izuku traipsed back down his pursuit route, checking civilians for injury and shock.

Then he finally made it back to the mom and her kids. "Hey!" he waved at them, jogging over. "How are you guys doing?"

"We're still fine," the mother assured him. "It was a scare, but you were right there when we needed you. Thank you, Deku."

"Just doing my job," he grinned. "I'm glad you're all right!"

"I think these two have something to ask you, though," she said, ruffling the kids' hair.

He knelt in front of them. "What's up?" he asked, tilting his head with a friendly smile.

"Can we get a picture with you, Deku?" the girl asked. They were a brother and sister, no older than seven, and Izuku's heart melted.

"Of course!" he agreed, looking up at their mom. "As long as your mom is okay with it," he amended. She smiled widely, digging her phone out of her pocket.

He turned them around and threw his arms over their shoulders, throwing up peace signs on both hands and grinning wide.

"Say cheese!" she instructed, snapping a photo as her kids complied. "Thank you so much! They're gonna want to get it framed. You're their favorite," she admitted. "My oldest is a big fan of your partner, though."

Izuku smiled, flattered.

"Mom! You're so embarrassing!" the little girl hissed.

"No, that's so nice to hear!" he assured them. "It's nice to know my work is appreciated. But my partner—are you talking about Dynamight?"

She laughed. "Do you have another partner?"

"Ah, well we're not officially partners. We just work really well together," he admitted. "But yeah, he's amazing. He's been my personal hero for ages."

"Oh, really? I thought it was official. My mistake," she replied.

"It's fine! Honestly, I'm just flattered you think I'm in his league," he chuckled and averting his gaze. He missed the incredulous look she gave him. "I have to run, but if you need to file any damage claims, you can file one through Fat Gum Agency's website."

"Thank you! And uh," she blushed. "That Twitter thread was right about you."

Izuku turned bright red in half a second. "Uh, thanks!" he squeaked before turning on his heel and running the fuck away. I mean, she could have meant the things that were not about his body, right? RIGHT?

Five minutes later, he was back on his patrol route (still from the safety of the rooftops, thank you very much) when his phone pinged.

@/FuckMeUpDeku was at it again.

The notification was a QRTed picture of the kids. He had to admit, it was an adorable picture. The caption read: 'I suddenly understand what cis women mean when they say their ovaries exploded. I wish to continue his bloodline.'

Izuku blushed furiously. How had he even found it that fast?

A quick investigation showed that one of the mom's very few followers had tagged @/FuckMeUpDeku because apparently, that was a thing now. The world would provide this account with ammo forever.

He knew he was probably kicking the beehive, but he kinda had to respond.

'Not sure that's possible but thx for your support! Your analysis helped a lot today (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ' he tweeted in reply.

@/FuckMeUpDeku reacted with astonishing speed.

He watched in resigned despair as his notifications blew up. He couldn't complain, he knew this would happen.

When his mystery admirer's QRT popped up, he pulled his hood over his face in sheer embarrassment.

It read: 'okay listen i am in LOVE with this adorable dweeb.'

He was supposed to be patrolling. He was supposed to be patrolling. He shoved his phone in his pocket and launched himself over the tops of the building, keeping his eye out and trying very hard not to think about the shit show he'd just invited.

By the time he got back to Fat's agency, his phone had racked up an excessive number of notifications, even with the notification filters he'd set up after the first wave of nonsense.

After he'd changed out of his costume, he finally decided to take another look.

His jaw dropped in betrayal.

The most retweeted reply to @/FuckMeUpDeku's love declaration was from Mina. It was a GIF of Izuku fumbling his phone and face planting on the floor of the cafeteria. 'If it makes you feel any better, this happened today!'

@/FuckMeUpDeku had replied: 'It does not, it makes me want to wrap him in bubble wrap and protect him 5ever'

Izuku couldn't let the betrayal lie and quickly responded. 'Pinky you gosh darn TRAITOR! See if I make u hot chocolate ever again 😤'

An immediate reply came back. '😱😱😱😱 NOT MY HOT CHOCOLATE! You can't take this from me PLS'

He could practically hear her histrionic wailing. 'No chocolate for u or anyone else who has betrayed me  😣'

Like magic he was tagged in tweets from other classmates.

'Hey @/DekuCanDoIt look! @/Chargebolt betrayed you too!' @/SparkPlugPrincess tweeted.

He clicked over to it and found a picture of him at a bench press rack while a crowd watched him in the distance. 'You've got competition, buddy.' It had already been QRTed.

'CHARGEBOLT! NO XBOX FOR U!' Izuku typed furiously before clicking over to the QRT.

'First of all, I'll fight all of them any time. Second, look at him!! HE CAN LIFT SO FUCKING MUCH!! I want him so bad my dick might as well be a jump rope.'

What did that even mean?!

Todoroki had even tweeted. It was a picture of him doing the splits. God dammit.

'Shouto, how *could* you 😭' he tweeted.

'I thought we were all showing your fan photos of you to make them feel better. Was I wrong?' he tweeted back with perfect grammar.

'Who told u that?'

'@/Uravity said your fan was having a crisis,' he replied.

Ochako.

'THIS JUST IN! @/PinkyTheeAlien and @/Uravity are banned from hot chocolate privileges for embarrassing me and corrupting Shouto.' He tweeted.

Then he went back to Shouto's picture of him.

Sure enough, it had been QRTed.

@/FuckMeUpDeku:'it's literally impossible to make me gayer but this picture is certainly trying'

Izuku slammed his head into his locker.

"Hey, kid!" Izuku spun around to face Fat Gum as he entered the locker room.

"Hi, Fat," he greeted his mentor.

Fat Gum looked way too amused. "I notice your admirer is at it again, with the help of your friends. Want to take the agency car back to your dorm? Avoid the public?"

Izuku sagged in relief. "If it's not too much trouble, hell yes, sir."

"That reply was cute, by the way," Fat teased. "Flirting with your fans? Didn't expect that from you, Midoriya."

Izuku flushed. "I wasn't! I just—I used his analysis during my pursuit today, and it really helped! I wanted to thank him."

"It looked like your reply made his day," he laughed. "But you're not wrong. We looked at his analysis when that thread came out, and we were impressed. Most of that was going in your review—minus the inappropriate parts, obviously. But he beat us to it."

He glanced back down at his phone when it pinged again. Ochako had tweeted.

@/Uravity: 'Don't u dare, @/DekuCanDoIt! You take my hot chocolate, I release my blackmail!'

He frowned. 'U have nothing' he replied.

Her reply was a photo of him in a fluffy purple dinosaur onesie. 'O rly?'

@/FuckMeUpDeku got to it before him, QRTing immediately. 'who gave him the right. WHO GAVE HIM THE FUCKING RIGHT!?'

@/Uravity: 'I did. I bought it for him. Consider this ur reward for defending his honor, internet stranger'

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'give me more, pls i beg'

@/Uravity: 'no'

Izuku looked up at FatGum, who was silently watching in amusement. "Is the car available now? Because I need to get home to disown my friends."

FatGum snorted. "Yeah, kid. Good luck with that."

When Izuku got back to the dorm, he ran into Katsuki. He looked like he was on his way to the gym but as soon as he saw Izuku, he stopped and smirked.

"So. I'm your hero and you want to suffocate in my pecs. Anything else you wanna tell me, nerd?"

Izuku flushed violently. "Yeah, you suck."

His smirk fell. "Rude. I was gonna tell you what I thought of your fight today, but fuck you," he barked, resuming his walk to the gym.

"Noooo, Kacchan tell me!" Izuku whined, catching up to him and tugging on his sleeve.

"No."

"Please?" he asked, running in front of him to pout up at him. Katsuki looked directly up, refusing to look him in the eye.

Izuku had a trump card. Thank you, Nana Shimura.

He floated up into Katsuki's eye line so that his puppy-dog eyes were in plain view.

Katsuki retaliated by looking down. "No! Fuck you."

Izuku sighed exaggeratedly, shrugging. "I understand if you don't want to. It's okay Kacchan, I ran into Mirio and he gave me some pointers—"

"That fuckin' streaker doesn't know shit about your fighting style!" he growled.

"But you do?" Izuku teased, still floating. "I dunno Kacchan, kinda sounds like you don't wanna admit that you don't have anything to say."

"You are such a little shit," Katsuki snarled up at him. "Get down here, dickhead!"

"Will you tell me?"

"Nah."

They went back and forth through Katsuki's entire walk to the gym but for maybe the first time. Izuku's phone pinged just shy of the door, and he took it out with a healthy amount of trepidation.

"One of your new fans?" Katsuki sneered.

Izuku rolled his eyes. "It's just because of that one account," he muttered. "It blew up. It was all anyone could talk about on the street."

"Hm. Well nice job staying on top of it, nerd. I especially like that you didn't throw yourself in the middle of things without thinking."

Izuku dropped his phone, head whipping up. "Oh my god tell me, tell me what you thought!"

Katsuki smirked. "Just did," he said, turning to walk into the gym. "Go take a shower nerd, you smell like ass."

Izuku blanched, giving his shirt a quick sniff. "Do not!"

He went back to the dorm and showered anyway, giving pointed glares to Ochako, Ashido and Kaminari as he went.

When he got out of the shower, he was met by a new notification from @/FuckMeUpDeku. This one was way more up his alley—an analysis of Izuku's work that day with some questionably acquired photos. Had this guy been crawling social media for pics of the fight since it had gone down?

Still, the acknowledgment of his improvement and his ability to calm and comfort civilians was nice to hear.

But then he got to the end of the thread.

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'Now that the serious shit is done with, let's talk about this:'

The tweet was followed by a picture of him leaping between buildings. It had been a little moment of fun, where he'd backflipped in the air, grinning wide.

That last was followed by a pointed 'this man owns my ass *and* my heart', which had garnered almost 7k retweets.

"How did he even GET THAT?" he shrieked into the relative silence of his room. Mineta thumped on the wall. "FUCK YOU MINETA!"

Then another tweet popped up in @/FuckUpMeDeku's feed, and Izuku shot up. How the fuck?

It was a picture of him, less than half an hour ago, glaring at Kaminari as he stalked toward the elevator.

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'Is it just me or is my mans kinda hot when he mad?'

HOW? Was he in Class A?

He pushed out of his chair and sprinted to the common room again.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU IS IT!" he bellowed into the common room, startling literally everyone present. Yaomomo knocked over her tea and scowled over at him.

"Which one of us is who?" she snapped, mopping up her spill. "And why are you yelling?"

"Someone here is FuckMeUpDeku!" he insisted. That got everyone's attention. "There's no way he could have gotten this pic otherwise—"

"Ah, sorry Mido," Hagakure interrupted. "I posted that. He must have grabbed it."

He frowned, pulling up Hagakure's profile on his phone. Sure enough, there was the picture, captioned 'angy broccolini'.

He deflated.

"If you wanna know who he is, slide into his DMs," Ochako giggled.

He flashed her another glare. "It's not that! I just wanna go ten full minutes without hearing random people comment on my ass!"

"But today's flavor was your flexibility!" she protested.

"Because of you! You lied to Shouto!"

"I...finessed the truth for the greater good."

"And the greater good is?"

"Getting someone to understand that you're—"

"No. Nope, shut it," he hissed. "We are in public."

Silence fell. "Do you...have a crush on someone?" Hagakure asked, sounding utterly predatory.

"Nope." Being hopelessly in love was massively different from having a crush. He eyed Ochako. "I made the right decision when I revoked your hot chocolate privileges. Suffer."

"Deku!"

Katsuki came back then, and everyone in the room turned to look at him. "The fuck?"

Izuku frowned. "You're back early."

"Forgot my brace. It's creepy that you know my schedule."

"What do you think, Kat? Should he slide into his fan's DMs?" Ashido teased.

Katsuki exploded.

He held out against Ochako and Ashido for two days. That's all he could manage before he caved. Curse his need to please people at almost any cost.

In those two days, actual evidence that his super-fan was a UA student continued to surface. He'd started posting original photos and random observations, seemingly growing bolder as he gathered encouragement.

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'Watching Deku trying to get from point A to point B is often like watching a baby dear learn how to run' was posted during a passing period.

It was followed up with a picture of the back of Izuku's head, with a leaf stuck in his hair.

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'I wish my hand were that leaf. I'm so fucking jealous of that shitty little leaf.'

Honestly, the more this guy tweeted, the more familiar he sounded.

On Thursday, he, Katsuki, and Yaomomo were scheduled to speak to Class 1B in their capacity as the Big Three. They took over Field Beta for the day.

Katsuki spoke to them about learning to read your surroundings to get the upper hand. He had them practice on each other with quirkless sparring.

Yaomomo talked about improvising in battle and learning to trust your instincts—a skill she had struggled with—and had the students practice against each other two-on-two, pointing out where they faltered or second-guessed themselves as they worked.

Izuku spoke to them about using analysis against an opponent—showing them that using knowledge in a fight was just as important as instinct. He demonstrated by taking each of them on one-by-one, just like Mirio had, but without the nudity.

When they were finally done for the day (the first years a little worse for wear but generally inspired), Izuku trudged to the locker room in step with Katsuki, Yaomomo in front of them as she chattered with a first-year.

As soon as he got to his locker, he peeled off his uniform. There was a metallic bang and a loud curse. "Kacchan! Are you okay?"

"Tripped, nerd, fuck off," he hissed, gripping his knee. Izuku eyed him in concern.

"Are you sure?"

"Fuckin' obviously!"

Izuku's stare grew skeptical, but as he took in the way Katsuki's eyes were averted and his ears had flushed pink, he figured the blonde was just embarrassed. He turned back to his locker and picked up his phone.

"Okay! I'm gonna take a shower and I—"

"And what, Deku?" Katsuki snapped. "Don't go space-nerd mid-conversation, dork!"

"Sorry, I'll meet you at the dorm," he uttered, opening a new Twitter notification.

@/FuckMeUpDeku: 'I just saw Deku throw an entire first year out of the training stadium, *over* the bleachers. Throw *me* Deku. Throw me. Lemme have it.'

"Definitely a student," he muttered. "Or a super inappropriate teacher, I guess, but Midnight just started dating Ectoplasm—"

"Deku what the fuck are you talking about?"

"That stan account is someone at the school. They saw me throw that first year with the thorn quirk out of the stadium," he explained absently. "I mean, it could have been one of the first years but that side of Field Beta is visible from outside the Beta Lockers and the top three floors of the southwest side of main campus. That's a lot of people."

"You're an idiot," Katsuki grumbled. "Take the fucking shower, stupid. I'm not letting you in my kitchen if you smell like the sweat and tears of incompetent fourteen-year-old extras."

"Yeah, okay," he murmured, still thinking. Then his head snapped up. "What do you mean your kitchen?"

Katsuki glowered. "It's mine."

"It's a communal kitchen."

"Mine."

Things came to a head on Friday. The day that Ochako and Ashido managed to pout and sulk their way back into Hot Chocolate privileges.

They posted two pictures: The first was a picture of two mugs full of Izuku's cinnamon hot chocolate, artistically posed on the kitchen counter.

The second was a picture of them cuddled together under a giant fluffy blanket with whipped cream mustaches and wide grins.

@/PinkyTheeAlien: 'Success! We knew he wouldn't deprive us of his magic hot chocolate for long  🥰'

Izuku was still in the kitchen, setting out drinks for the rest of the class when his phone pinged.

@/FuckMeUpDeku reposted the picture of the hot chocolate. 'I would pay money for him to make me hot chocolate and let me spoon him.'

Kaminari QRTed a moment later. 'Would you be the big spoon or the little spoon? 😏😏'

Izuku scoffed. Kaminari was practically incapable of not escalating shit. He knew that. It was fine.

He was distracted when he heard Katsuki's quirk go off in the common room.

He rushed out just in time to see Katsuki lunge for Kaminari, while the latter cackled wildly and evaded. "What's going on?"

Kirishima jumped, so focused on watching the scuffle that he hadn't heard Izuku walk up to him. "Uhhhh, nothing dude."

"Kacchan is trying to blow up Kaminari," Izuku replied. "That hasn't happened in a while."

"Denks got antsy and played a prank," Kirishima explained. "We've been periodically changing his phone language, just for fun. He probably just set it to Russian or something."

Izuku caught sight of Katsuki's phone where it had been flung, just a few feet away. "Oh," he shrugged, moving toward it. "I'll just change it back for him," he said as he picked it up.

"Dude, wait!"

"FUCK NO! I'LL DO IT MYSELF, NERD!" Katsuki bellowed.

But the damage was done.

The phone screen lit up as he turned it over, and he was met with a picture of his own face, grinning so widely that you could barely see his eyes. Since when was he Katsuki's phone background? Why was he Katsuki's phone background?

Then the notifications started back up—all from Twitter. He stared uncomprehendingly as he saw:

@/PinkyTheeAlien quoted your tweet: I feel you dude. He probably gives the softest warmest cuddles. And he definitely makes the best hot chocolate.

@/Uravity replied to a tweet you were mentioned in: 'Well Deku is almost certainly the little spoon, sooooooo 👀'

@/SeeMeYouCant and 99 others liked your Tweet: "I would pay money for him to make me hot chocolate and let me spoon him."

Izuku stared blankly at the phone, trying to compute exactly what was happening.

First of all, he was Katsuki's background. That hadn't been true last month, right? He'd borrowed his phone to call his mother, and it had been a picture of Mitsuki after she'd slipped in mud.

This was a pretty recent photo, too. Like...within the last two weeks.

Second of all, there were tweets. Last year during their PR classes, Katsuki had said that social media was the 'dumbest shit to ever happen to humanity' and that if he had to, he'd make someone else manage it. When had he decided that Twitter was a thing he wanted?

That was the third thing. The big thing. That last notification had said, "99 people liked your tweet". As in, the tweet about spooning had come from this phone. This phone that was Katsuki's. Katsuki's phone.

Did that mean...the account was Katsuki's?

No, because that would mean that Katsuki liked him. Like, liked him. Which was ridiculous, because it was Katsuki. Kacchan. Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight.

Maybe it was a prank? A PR stunt? He couldn't tear his eyes away from the notifications rolling in.

His pulse was through the roof, to the point where it sounded like there was a whole-ass river in between his ears. "Kacchan?" he uttered. "What—"

"Fuck, Deku, don't freak out—" Katsuki barked, clearly panicking.

Izuku looked up at him, squinting as he searched Katsuki's face like it was a particularly troubling game of Where's Waldo. "I can't," he admitted. "I don't know what's going on."

Kirishima, who had been holding out an appeasing hand in Katsuki's direction, froze. Then his hand dropped and he turned to face Izuku completely. "You don't? Seriously?"

"What's going on?" Ochako asked from the couch, still 100% in Ashido's personal space.

Ashido herself was glancing between Katsuki and Izuku like she was watching a tennis match, eyebrows pinched in concern.

"I don't know," he repeated.

"Dude, I swear to god," Kaminari whined. "You're the smartest guy in class, you can't be this—"

"Shut up, Zapdos," Katsuki snapped, elbowing him sharply. "Deku?"

Izuku tilted his head. "Are you?"

Katsuki swallowed. "Yeah."

"You're FuckMeUpDeku."

"Yeah," Katsuki agreed amidst dramatic gasps from the rest of the class.

"You're what?" Mina shrieked. They ignored her.

"Okay. Why?" he asked.

Katsuki frowned. "The fuck do you mean, why?"

Izuku raised his eyebrows. "The analysis I get, but why pretend to be into me?"

"Dude," Kirishima groaned.

"The fuck do you mean pretend?" Katsuki snapped.

Izuku flinched back at the look on Katsuki's face. It was weirdly determined and super intense and only kinda angry. What? "I mean...you don't—you can't?" Izuku babbled, failing to comprehend what was happening.

"How are you so fucking stupid," he hissed. "Fuck this. Hey Cheeks!" he rounded on Ochako, who startled so hard that she spilled some of her chocolate. She wasn't used to her soap operas talking to her. "Cards on the fuckin' table. Does he like me?"

Izuku's eyes widened in panic. Oh no. Katsuki would be pissed if he found out how Izuku felt. Right? That's what the assumption had been thus far.

"Uhhhh," she stalled poorly.

"Yes or no, Floaty!"

She thought for a second. "No. That's too mild a word. He...worships you."

He rolled his eyes, even as Izuku squeaked in horror. "Old news. I meant romantically."

"Yeah, he romantically worships you," she confirmed.

"Ochako!" he yelled.

"It's not my fault you're dense!" she yelled right back.

He was so busy smarting from Ochako's betrayal that he didn't notice Katsuki moving toward him like greased lightning on a rainy day.

Until, of course, there were two hot hands on either side of his face, angling his face up as a pair of foul-mouth lips descended to devour his own.

What was happening? There was a lot of noise. Someone was screaming, but also there was a whole Katsuki attached to his face.

Katsuki was kissing him. Katsuki was kissing him? HIM? Katsuki Bakugou was kissing Izuku Midoriya.

Then he pulled back. "If you don't kiss me back in the next ten seconds, I'm never kissing you again, motherfucker," Katsuki snarled.

Ah, look! Motivation.

Izuku actually responded the next time Katsuki leaned in—meeting him halfway and winding his arms around his waist to grip at the back of his shirt. Katsuki was kissing him. And clearly he wanted Izuku to kiss back. What the fuck.

When Katsuki pulled back again, Izuku's eyes were glazed and his cheeks were flushed and his brain was broken. "You good nerd?"

"You like me?" Izuku asked dazedly. "Me?"

"Yes, you, you idiotic broccoli bitch boy. It's like talking to a rock, I swear," Katsuki grumbled.

"A very hot rock," Ashido piped up.

"A hot rock who you love!" Ochako squealed. "You said it like fifty times! No take-backs!"

"Why the fuck would I take it back?" he snapped.

"Well you said that you liked that he was smart," she said. "But he's acting kinda dumb."

He glanced down at Izuku, who was just watching him in shock. "Uh...you good, Deku?" he asked, shaking his shoulder lightly.

"You love me?!"

"I don't understand the fuckin' surprise," Katsuki sighed.

"But I love love!" he cried.

Katsuki looked lost. "I'm not seeing the problem here, nerd."

"I'm not in your league, Kacchan!"

Kirishima flinched. "Dude, that was the wrong thing to say—"

"The fuck you aren't, asshole! If you weren't in my league would I waste my time with you?" He snapped, taking Izuku by the shoulders and shaking him so hard that he thought he felt his brain rattle.

The words rang a bell, though—unless his ears were just ringing from the brand new brain trauma. Katsuki had asked him the same thing a week ago. "No," Izuku breathed.

"Would I make a fucking Twitter account to panic about how gay for you I am if I didn't want you?"

"Probably not," Izuku agreed, finally starting to comprehend.

"Right! So if I spend time with you on purpose and I make a dumbass Twitter account that's mostly about how perfect your face is and how much I want to touch your ass?"

Izuku blinked. "Oh my god, you love me."

"Fuckin' finally," Katsuki groaned, leaning in to kiss him again, weaving his hands into his hair this time. Izuku's brain rolled to the tweet about the leaf in his hair. That had been Katsuki.

He pulled back. "You tried to bribe Ochako for photos of me."

"He's a simp!" Kaminari crowed, delighted at the turn the evening had taken.

"That's okay. I am too. I made you a gingersnap latte instead of hot chocolate," he admitted.

"You're the fuckin' best. Fuck," Katsuki replied, a little overwhelmed now that he wasn't exasperated.

"You gonna keep gazing into each other's eyes right in front of my hot chocolate?" Ashido jeered.

"This is literally your fault," Katsuki replied, not looking away. "Can't complain now."

"Shut the fuck up, Kacchan loves me. Don't ruin it," Izuku insisted at the same time.

"At least come over here and let the poor man spoon you, Deku," Ochako coaxed. "He's been pining for literal years."

"I've been pining for like two years longer than he has," Izuku reminded her.

"Not a flex, dude," Kirishima sighed.

They made their way over to the couch and gently—like he was holding something precious that he couldn't believe he was allowed to handle—Katsuki folded Izuku into his arms and sank both of their bodies into the cushions.

This was so awesome. What the fuck.

"Hey," Katsuki murmured, pressing a kiss behind his ear. Izuku grinned. Cool.

"Yeah?" he whispered back. Katsuki's arms were around his waist, and he was holding his hand. Holy fuck.

"I'm gonna keep thirst tweeting."

Izuku shot up. "Kacchan, no!"