Chapter Text
“Deku come on, it’ll be fun.”
Or so she had said, Izuku thinks, rolling his eyes to himself. He swings his nearly empty gym bag into the locker, and winces as it clatters against the mahogany wood. He doesn’t even know why he takes it to the gym, the only thing he takes with him are his lifting straps and protein powder. Something about this gym just made him want to come prepared.
The new gym is nice. Sparkly.
Back in Colorado, the gym wasn’t anything fancy. It was basically a glorified box with no AC and rusty barbells. He knew all the regulars and helped out with training from time to time. Sure, it was smelly and sweaty and damn hot in the summer, but it was also home.
In comparison, this ritzy LA commercial gym is more comparable to a country club, sans golf.
While Izuku’s sure there are gyms in LA that are more like the one back home, his best friend from UC Boulder works at this one, and she has only ever had good things to say about it. He also figures it would be a good opportunity to reconnect with her.
Ochako moved here after college, and when he said he’d be moving with his mom and new stepdad, she had been so excited to show him all of her favorite LA spots. Including her new gym and place of employment, UA Fitness.
After his first tour of the place, it became apparent that it wasn’t just a commercial gym, it was a really big commercial gym. There were so many (in his opinion) unnecessary amenities. It had quickly become apparent why a membership cost about half of his car payment.
Three pools. Two hot tubs. A sauna in each locker room and a co-ed one on the indoor pool deck. A full service cafe and bistro (where Ochako works). Childcare and kid’s activities. A full service salon and spa. There was even a gymnasium that had not one, but TWO courts.
By the time they made it to the gym floor part of his tour, his head was spinning and he’d almost forgotten what he was doing here in the first place.
You won’t catch him complaining about the eucalyptus steam room though.
“You made it!”
He looks up to see Ochako running up to meet him as he approaches the workout floor. She’s wearing a matching pink set from some assumedly popular athlete brand. Izuku looks down at his ratty shirt and workout shirts, and grimaces.
“Uh, am I underdressed?” he asks lightly, gesturing to her obviously thought-out gym fit.
She laughs, a little too loudly for six in the morning. “Don’t be silly! It’s just like any other gym!”
Looking over her shoulder at the large assortment of state of the art workout equipment, Izuku begs to differ.
“Ochako!”
Behind him, a small girl with dark green hair and large eyes jogs up to them, modestly dressed in her running shorts and t-shirt. Ochako waves her over.
“Tsu! This is my best friend from college, Izuku. He just moved here from Colorado and got a membership here,” the brunette says cheerily. “Deku, this is my friend Tsuyu, she works in aquatics as a swim teacher and lifeguard!”
Tsuyu looks up at him with wide, puzzled eyes. “You go by Deku?” she asks curiously.
Izuku’s face reddens, Ochako is quick to backpedal. “Oh no, that's just sort of an inside joke,” she says as she forces a giggle.
Cool, that wall looks nice. Maybe his head would agree when it gets bashed into it.
Izuku coughs awkwardly and agrees, way too embarrassed to retell the story about the time he was having drunk sex with a guy who accidentally moaned out Deku instead of his actual name.
“Okay, well I’m sorry I can’t stay and chat Deku, but Tsu and I signed up for the spin class today. Catch you for a smoothie after?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Izuku isn’t used to having an air-conditioned gym, but he will admit it’s pretty nice in the Los Angeles heat. (He tried going for a jog his second day here, and just about passed out on the sidewalk.)
The equipment is also a little fancier than what he’s used to. So after feeling very awkwardly exposed on the hamstring curl, he decides he’d much rather stick to his barbell and dumbbells.
Izuku’s looking forward to seeing Ochako at the gym more, since both of their work schedules tend to be a little on the hectic side. He’s spending the summer interning at an engineering firm with early mornings and late evenings, so he isn't really able to come work out with her more than once a week.
Which is fine, because he likes working out alone more often these days. He hasn’t met anyone here in LA who’s able to lift what he can, and yes, that’s a humble brag.
On his third consecutive day of coming in at five-thirty in the morning, he’s gearing up at the squat rack when he’s approached by a redhead with a black and white checkered sweatband, and way too much energy for a time when the sun isn’t even up.
“Dude!! Are you gonna squat that with no spot?”
The redhead looks like his tail would be wagging if he had one. Izuku just shrugs.
“Yeah? It’s not that heavy.”
The redhead gapes like a fish as he eyes up the number of plates on the bar. “You’re sure? Looks pretty heavy to me dude. Are you a new member? I think I would’ve seen a strong guy like you here before.”
Usually not one for conversations during his workouts, Izuku just awkwardly grins and pulls his noise-canceling headphones down to his neck and undoes his lifting belt.. He has a good amount of pre-workout in him, so he can probably handle an early morning conversation, even if it is with someone who looks like he operates on a different clock.
He turns and smiles at the other man.
“Yeah, I’m Izuku Midoriya, nice to meet you. I just switched to this gym about a week ago,” he says, offering his hand to shake.
The redhead smacks his palm into his for a very firm handshake. Geez. “Name’s Eijirou! I’m a trainer here, both personal and small-group.” He grins, and eyes up the weights on the rack again, mentally counting, “Are you training for something? You gotta be competing if you’re repping that kinda weight.”
Izuku finally notices the fitness club’s logo embroidered on the upper right of a fitted, athletic long sleeve that did nothing to hide the absolute boulders this guy had for delts. Holy shit.
“Uhh, not really. I mean I’ve done a couple of powerlifting meets back in Colorado, but nothing like, professional.”
He’s not really one to brag about powerlifting, or how much weight he can toss around, but Eijirou looks like he just won the lottery.
“Dude, that’s so sick! I don’t think we have any powerlifters at this location, at least not any that I’ve met! There’s definitely better gyms suited to it,” he says enthusiastically.
Which is true. There’s no shortage of powerlifting gyms here in LA, but he finds himself here because it’s near his house and Ochako works here.
Izuku just shrugs. “The last gym I was at was the size and shape of a shipping container with no AC. I’m not complaining.”
“Well damn, sweating it out in a box? That’s so manly, dude. You should talk to Shouto, he comes from the CrossFit world — he knows all about box gyms!”
Izuku doesn’t know who Shouto is, nor does he know anything about Crossfit. He takes a look at his watch. Shit, he’s only got an hour left. Damn, he wanted to do some cardio.
“Oh, sorry bro I didn’t mean to hold you up. Just wanted to meet someone new. I’m kinda like that, heheh,” Eijirou claps his hand over Izuku’s shoulder once as a farwell.
Confused and a little overwhelmed, Izuku turns back to his rack, clipping his belt once more and placing his headphones back over his ears, preparing for a good 10 sets of squats.
~~~
“Dude, you have to come see him.”
Katsuki grunts into his phone as he paces his hotel room, throwing various clothes and tanning lotions and medals into his suitcase. He’s not usually so unorganized, but he may have gone a little overboard in his indulging after the show was over. His post-carb nap was supposed to be only thirty minutes but he ended up falling asleep for a few hours.
“What the fuck is so special about him anyways? There’s tons of ripped guys at the gym.”
He’s tired, he’s grumpy, and he’s got a plane to catch in — checks watch— two hours. And he’s not finished packing.
Katsuki’s not even sure why he answered the damn phone. It’s not like his best friend ever called him for anything important. (Except for scoping out hot gay guys.)
“I don’t actually know if he’s ripped, he keeps his shirt on—“
“Pfft.”
“But he’s jacked to hell, dude. Was squatting over 150 without a spot !”
Katsuki snorted. “Pounds? Try again, Ei. Pinky can fucking squat that.”
“ Kilos , dude. Kilos. And he was repping them.”
Katsuki stopped. Did some math. Holy shit , nah that couldn’t be right. No one just goes and reps over 300 pounds without any sort of spot. “A powerlifter?”
“Yup! He’s even competed a few times. I wonder if he’s ranked…”
Katsuki feels a grin split his face.
Almost as if he can read Katsuki’s thoughts, Eijirou backtracks.
“No, no, I know what you’re thinking, Kats. Don’t make this into something it’s not,” Eijirou says, sounding exasperated.
Don’t care , he thinks, already daydreaming about a new rival.
Since starting his fitness career in Los Angeles, Katsuki has outlifted (read: bullied) all of the so-called “powerlifters” out of the gym he frequents. He sees other bodybuilders and CrossFit athletes and the works, but no one pulls weight like him. Even Eijirou, who is among the strongest of the staff, can’t beat his PRs. The exception was a strongman who goes by FatGum, who beat him but ended up switching gyms anyway when he moved to the OC.
And Katsuki’s beat out all of the powerlifters that came in through those doors. Posers, all of them.
No one was a better powerlifter than him.
Katsuki fell in love with lifting when he was in middle school and made a competition out of everything (he still does). He was once challenged to a bench press contest and of course he won but after that he decided he only wanted to be stronger, to lift heavier. His dream was to be a real strongman.
Well it was. Until he found All Might and bodybuilding.
Some might say it’s vain, but there’s power in bodybuilding. Taking complete control of what muscles to build, cutting your body fat, and building yourself into the best shape. It was a long and tedious process, not for the faint of heart. It requires long hours at the gym, and meticulous dieting. Katsuki can admit that eating plain, low calorie foods during his competition prep is the worst part of the year, but the payoff is unmatched.
So are the after-show indulgences.
When he was seventeen, he was perusing the athletics section of a bookstore when he came across an autobiography for a man named Toshinori Yagi — aka All Might. One of the biggest and best bodybuilders of all time. He won the Arnold eight years in a row, and was so big you could probably see him if he was on the goddamn moon.
In his book, he talked about bodybuilding as both a mental and physical challenge. Because, yeah, with enough lifting anyone could get strong but to get strong and have single digit body fat percentage? That took grit. Katsuki wanted all of it. He wants to be the strongest, but he also wants to look the strongest.
“—ski? KATSUKI!”
He winces, pulling the phone away from his ear. “What?”
“Look, you don’t gotta go make a rival outta this guy, alright? He’s really nice, and he’s hot as fuck! Don’t make him hate you,.” Eijirou chastises, meaning don’t make him hate us . “Anyways, I got a client coming in ten minutes, so I gotta go.”
Katsuki snorts into the receiver, amused. “An eight p.m. client? Who did you piss off today?”
“…Aizawa’s coffee was cold.”
Of course Eijirou would go and piss off the GM. Katsuki laughs in his face loudly before hanging up, promising to update when he was back in town.
Katsuki doesn’t work at the gym, but he is enough of a regular that it’s essentially his second home. And the friends that he’s made there, trainers and fellow gym-goers alike, are like family. He is probably one of three in their group that actually pays gym dues. The rest of them have jobs there, either part-time like Pink Cheeks and Frog Girl (it’s not mean, she loves frogs), or are full time employed like Eijirou or Mina who’s the membership coordinator.
It’s a nice setup. He’d probably like it a little more if some of the idiots would let him workout in peace instead of bothering him. He’d be reluctant to say it out loud, but he can’t say he he doesn’t like having people who around who understand him and are at times tolerable to hang out with.
~~~
“Soooo did you see him?”
“Ugh, not yet. Shouto looked freakin’ starstruck earlier though, so I know he’s here.”
“He’s here? Today?!”
Operations crew members Hanta and Denki crowd around the front desk, looking at the most recent log of members. Mina points at the screen, which displays an ID photo of a new member.
“Read it and weep, boys. Ya girl signed up All Might to our very own UA Fitness location!”
“Whaaaat? That doesn’t look like All Might!”
“It’s him! I saw his driver’s license and everything!”
“Something about this conversation reeks of member confidentiality breaches.”
All three whip their heads around to face their General Manager, Shota Aizawa, who stands facing the desk from behind Denki and Hanta. “You two, get back to work. Mina, if I see this again you’re getting demoted to the kids area for the day.”
Denki and Hanta wince in sympathy before grabbing their cleaning carts and head to their spaces. There was nothing worth kids duty.
“Sorry boss, we just got too excited,” Mina pouts. She pulls out her best I didn’t know better face, and inwardly cheers when Aizawa just pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.
“Save it. Check this guy in and fill that call log.” And with that, he grabs his extra hot black coffee and retreats back to his office, where a suspicious sleeping bag is draped over the desk.
Mina beams up at the member checking in. “Hey Izuku! You’re a little later than usual. Checking out a class today?”
Izuku smiles, and she inwardly sighs. He’s just so handsome, and always in a good mood. Mature, too. He is just her type. Juuuust her type.
He is also, unfortunately, very gay.
“Not today, I’m here to train with my dad. He just got here a little earlier than me.” Izuku says,, pulling out his key tag to scan. The computer flashes briefly with his face and information.
“Oh, is your dad a new member? I don’t think I’ve seen any other Midoriya’s today.”
Part of her wants to know, but most of her just wants to keep the cute boy around for some small talk. Maybe he has cute friends, okay? Maybe his dad is hot. Either way, she wasn’t expecting the answer that she got.
“Yeah he just signed up today, but his name is Yagi, not Midoriya. That’s my mom’s name.”
Yagi? As in… Toshinori Yagi? Mina stares wide-eyed at the boy before her. But before she can form any kind of response, his phone beeps in his pocket.
“Oh, sorry Mina, but my dad is waiting. I’ll see you later!”
Stunned, she can only watch as he makes his way to the men’s locker rooms. Had she not been preoccupied with the fact that the green haired man was All Might's son , she might have taken the opportunity to appreciate that toned ass.
“Oi, pinky.”
Mina turns around to face the blonde man in front of her. One of her closest, most very best friends (he would argue this), Katsuki Bakugou. He stands with his usual overstuffed gym bag and white Adidas hoodie, membership key tag in hand.
“Uh, h-hey Blasty,” she stutters, still awestruck. Katsuki frowns as he holds up his tag for her to scan.
“What’s up your ass this morning? You’re gonna lose members making scary-ass faces like that.”
Mina gulps and mentally debates telling him about All Might being here or not. On one hand, it might be a nice surprise for Katsuki to come in and meet his idol. On the other hand, he may need some time to prepare, or maybe he doesn’t want to be caught off guard. A lightbulb goes off in her head— bling .
Katsuki doesn’t like surprises!
“Hey, sooooooo…” she draws it out, somehow nervous of his reaction.
“Spit it out.”
She takes a deeeeep breath. “All Might is here!!”
~~~
Katsuki blinks slowly . Did he hear her right? Pinky had just said that All Might , bodybuilder legend, was working out here ?! At UA Fitness?!
He can barely hear Mina getting berated and punished by Aizawa for spilling the beans, too focused on the idea that he would get to meet his motherfucking idol here at UA!
“—duty, for the rest of the day! I’ll have Momo come and take over the front desk!”
He tuned back into the conversation just in time to watch Mina slouch and make her way to the kids area. He winces. Harsh, Aizawa, he thinks as he turns and sets off for the locker room.
“Bakugou.”
He stops and looks back at the fatigued manager, who is nursing a cup of what could only be microwaved coffee. Aizawa always had that very authoritative air to him that made people want to listen. He’s good as a boss that way, but Katsuki hates it sometimes. No one tells him what to do.
“Leave him be. That man is just here to workout with his son.”
Katsuki scoffs and continues on his way to the locker room. He’s not so pathetic as to make a fool out of himself just because he’s working out at the same gym as All Might .
Holy shit, though.
He’s almost unable to contain his excitement. Katsuki Bakugou is going to witness his idol in the flesh and probably get to watch him bench like three hundred pounds or something. He’d be content just ogling him from afar.
All Might has been retired for almost ten years now, so he isn’t expecting to see the giant, bulging muscles that he used to see in magazines or online viewing the shows. In the last photo Katsuki saw him in, from around five years ago, the man had lost a bit of weight. But losing physical muscle didn’t necessarily equate to losing strength, as the man had written in his book. Losing weight was part of the process, same as any cut and gaining weight was part of the process, same as any bulk.
But when Katsuki makes his way upstairs, he can't help but feel his jaw drop at the sight before him.
He expected All Might to be, well, smaller. But he wasn’t expecting skinny . He looks damn near emaciated. His face is sunken in and his skin is pale. He’s seated on a bench next to a squat rack, next to…
Next to…
“DEKU?!”
It’s a good thing the poor green-haired kid has already racked his barbell, because he startles so badly, he almost drops the (quite impressive) weight.
“Ehhhh?!”
The familiar freckled man quickly unclips his belt and whips around to face him. Sure enough, it’s Deku, that dipshit (read: fantastic) hookup from his trip to Colorado that had him fucked up for days after he left. He tried finding him on social media, but he could only remember the dumb name he said accidentally when he was bouncing on his cock like an energetic bunny in heat.
But shit, he doesn’t remember the guy looking that stacked .
The Deku he knew from almost three years ago had been all lean muscle, not a whole lot of body fat but not shredded like Katsuki is. This Deku still had that boyish face with no facial hair and a super sexy smattering of freckles, was still a good half a head shorter than him, but that cute face was now paired with thick, thick tree-trunk thighs, a broad chest and back much like Katsuki’s own, and biceps bigger than Eijirou’s (not his, definitely not Katsuki’s, but yeah bigger than his friend’s).
Katsuki doesn’t even have the vocabulary necessary to praise the man’s ass.
He carries some weight to him, not quite the bodybuilder physique but more like… a powerlifter.
A powerlifter . Holy shit. This is who Ei was blabbing about over the phone. The super hot powerlifter who was repping three-hundred pounds as part of a workout split?! It was DEKU?
“It’s-It’s you!” Deku stutters, throwing his belt off to the side and walking up to him.
Katsuki really tries to keep his cool. He really does. “Why are you with All Might?”
Somehow, his mouth doesn’t get the message.
Deku looks more than a little stunned to see him, and Katsuki could see him really trying not to look offended. But eventually he answers,, “Um, he is my stepdad, and also my coach.”
Deku looks over his shoulder and waves the blonde man over, “Dad, come say hi.”
All Might, er, Deku’s dad, gets up slowly from his bench and makes his way over to Katsuki. The man smiles, face gaunt, and Katsuki can’t believe this was the same man who won the biggest bodybuilding competition in the world.
“Hello, it is nice to meet you. I must ask that you refrain from distracting my son when he’s working with the weights, he can be a bit clumsy,” Mr. Yagi said kindly, pulling Deku in close to his side. Deku flashes a nervous smile, but is noticeably uncomfortable with whatever is currently going on.
“Uh, sure,” Katsuki replies awkwardly. Shit, he just got here and he already pissed off All Might. Fuck him and his big ass mouth.
Still, he tries to save a little face. “I’m Katsuki Bakugou, I’m a IFBB two-time Men’s Physique champion.”
He may have said that too confidently, but All Might just raises his eyebrows. “Ah, I recognize you.I still follow the IFBB rankings from time to time. I’ve seen your name before. Very impressive.”
Katsuki is keeping a tight lid on his cool, so he tries not to let his excitement show. He turned his gaze to Deku, who’s looking at him with raised eyebrows, giving him an obvious once over. Katsuki refrains from flexing a bit to show off.
“You’re a bodybuilder too?”
“Yeah,” he says, a sneer sneaking its way in there. He meant not to be rude, but damn, if his default doesn’t get the best of him sometimes.
“Oh, yeah of course. You, um, look like that, after all.” Deku says awkwardly, just as his phone dings with a notification. He checks it, then turns to All Might. “Dad, I’m gonna finish these last two sets and start my cool down stretches. Mom wants to meet us at one for lunch.”
Deku turns and begins his sets, and damn, he really is pushing weight. It takes monumental effort for Katsuki not to stare as he watches the man lift. Mentally, he’s slapping himself in the face for being so stupid. Being rude was not the way to impress the hot guy or his bodybuilding legend of a dad.
~~~
“So, you know this Bakugou guy from where? ”
Izuku groans into his chicken breast. He was not expecting to see the ghost-of-college escapades-past in his gym, and for him to be a professional bodybuilder. One that was a fan of his dad .
In the back of his mind, he had known that Toshinori would be recognized eventually. Especially somewhere like Los Angeles, where there were fitness freaks around every damn corner, someone was bound to notice him and who he was.
All Might is retired. He lost about over half of his body weight in eight years due to his treatment for lung cancer. He’s currently three years into his remission, but he wasn’t able to put all of the weight back on, and due to his age, he was still pretty slow and weak. Despite this, the doctors all said he was healthy -- and that’s about all that Izuku could ask for.
“We met once when I was in school, up in Boulder,” he replies, not looking at his stepdad. Toshinori snickers into his fist, and exchanges wry glances with the woman sitting next to him.
“Mmm, interesting. I remember you calling me drunk one night, sobbing that you’ll never get to see that ‘ stupidly hot blonde’ again because he was flying back home to California the next day,” his mom giggles, elbowing her new husband in the arm.
“ Mo-om!”
“So, is it the same boy?”
His face flushes red, because of course it’s the same guy! There weren’t any others that caught his interest in college. He likes muscular guys, so sue him. And the fitness community in Boulder was mediocre, at best. A lot of them were fit in the rock-climbing, mountain biking sort of way. So when a hot, shredded blonde hit on him at a bar -- what could he do but accept the drink and let the night take them?
Ugh, and he goes to the same gym . That means Izuku has a higher chance of seeing him more often, if their schedules are lined up. He can’t decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing. One one hand, there’s a possibility that they could become friends (or maybe more). But on the other hand, he doesn’t want it to be awkward, like it was today.
But… Katsuki came to the gym today at ten in the morning, probably because he’s a pro and is able to have a lenient workout schedule. But Izuku usually is only able to hit the gym at undesirable hours, so maybe they wouldn’t see each other so often.
Right?
~~~
“Gimme his number.”
Mina blinks owlishly at the blonde who stood in front of the membership desk, demanding something that he’s never asked of her before. “Who?”
“Deku, who else?”
Katsuki looks serious, so Mina cocks her head to the side. “Again, I repeat, who ?”
Katsuki growls, leaning over the front desk and into her space. “The green dude, pinky. The green one!” he whispered furiously, face red. “You have his phone number in that computer, don’t you?”
Mina wracks her brain for whoever he may be talking about. There’s a couple of people at the gym who have green hair. That one girl who prays a lot, and the swim teacher. But they’re girls, and he had said dude. That narrows it down quite a bit.
After a few moments of playing a mental game of Guess Who, a look of understanding dawns on her, before turning regretful. “Sorry, I can’t tell you. Aizawa got suuuper pissed about me sharing member info yesterday, remember? I don’t want kid-duty again!”
“Also, his name is Izuku,” she says, correcting him as an afterthought. Then, her regretful smile turns wry. “I assume you’ve met him then.”
Katsuki rolls his eyes, “Yeah, we actually met a few years ago, when I went to visit my cousin in Colorado.”
“Oh!” Mina’s eyes light up in recognition, “He did mention he was from there! Wow, so how did you meet? No offense Blasty, but you’re not the type to just make friends.”
“We’re not friends.”
“Oh?”
Katsuki groans. He hates telling this story, it was embarrassing enough he had to tell Shitty Hair. “We met at a gay club and hooked up. We were drunk as fuck, but it was good. Really good.”
“Ohmygodddd! Okay, I ship it,” or whatever the fuck that means. “I can’t give you his number, but he has a super specific workout schedule during the week.”
He’ll take what he can get. “What is it? Is he one of those like demon-hour guys? I don’t want to go to the gym in the middle of the night.”
The pink-haired girl grins, “He always checks in at like five-thirty in the morning, but Ei says he does his cardio in the mornings, either swimming or running, so that’s probably not the best time.”
Katsuki groans in defeat, but Mina continues on before he can give up entirely. “ But he trains in the evening, and I mean late evenings, past peak time. Ei usually sees him as he’s clocking out for the day.”
“Why are you guys keeping so many tabs on him, anyways? That’s creepy as fuck.”
“Says the guy who asked for his schedule and is basically stalking him~”
Well… fair point.
~~~
It’s been a crazy week at the firm, and while Izuku likes his boss Mei Hatsume, she’s so energetic and excited about her new projects that it’s sucking the life out of him. It’s also sort of weird working under some crazy engineering protege that’s his age. She’s been employed at Iida Industries for over two years, and has a ton of awards, and she’s only twenty-four!
Izuku’s happy to be learning so much from her, but the youthful energy combined with her insane drive and complete disregard for personal health made for some long and exhausting days.
He doesn’t really drink energy drinks, but he stops by the cafe in the gym to get himself a pick-me-up. He’s also happy to stop and talk with Ochako for a bit, since she consistently works Thursday evenings.
“Hey Deku! Getting ready to work out?” she calls cheerily over the sound of a blender. A customer stands rudely close to the counter, watching as she makes his drink.
Izukun shouts his affirmative and grabs an energy drink with the lowest sugar he can find and brings it up to the counter, standing just close enough that the rude guy gets the message and steps away. Ochako shoots him a grateful look as she hands the drink over.
“Mei has been on a rampage about a project deadline coming up this week. I like her as a friend, she’s cool. But she’s a little over-the-top as a boss, not to mention scatterbrained.” he says after handing over his card.
“You’re at Iida Industries, right?”
“Yeah. I’m happy for the internship, I know it’s super competitive. I’m just tired, I guess.”
He sips off the top of the can, waiting for his energy to kick in before he can bring himself to go upstairs and throw heavy weights around.
Ochako looks thoughtful, “I think there’s an Iida that comes and works out here. He always orders his protein shakes through the app and--”
“Oi, freckles.”
Izuku looks over his shoulder, miffed about his conversation getting interrupted, before stopping short. Ochako huffs from behind him. “Katsuki, it’s rude to interrupt,” she says.
The blonde actually looks slightly apologetic. He stalks over and picks up an energy drink, the same one as Izuku’s, and places it on the counter. “Sorry,” he says quietly.
He sees the can Izuku is drinking out of, and points to it. “You can throw that on my tab.”
Izuku blushes, but laughs lightly. He supposes this is the other’s way of apologizing for the way they reunited the other day.
“Uh, thanks, but I already paid for it.”
Ochako giggles and rings up the drink before saying she has to go do some closing things and heads to the back. Katsuki isn’t looking at him, but Izuku can see the tops of his ears turn red in embarrassment. Cute , he thinks to himself. He wouldn’t mind if he offered to buy him one tomorrow, though.
“I don’t usually train on Fridays, it’s my rest day.”
Izuku looks up to see carmine eyes staring him down, face still slightly pink. “Oh, um, okay,” he stutters out. Crap, did he actually say that outloud.
Katsuki chuckled at his expense, nodding his head. “You mutter a lot, ya know that?”
“He does, and it’s cute. Been like that ever since I’ve known him, right Deku?” Ochako rounds the corner and teases. Izuku feels heat rise to his face as Katsuki registers the nickname.
The blonde slowly turns to him, eyebrow raised in question. The look says, you told her, didn’t you?
“Ahhh, sorta, haha,” Izuku can feel his face about to sizzle off, because Ochako doesn’t know it's him . “She uh-”
Ochako bursts into a fit of laughter, as she normally does whenever she has the chance to tell her this story. “He told me when we were in college that he slept with this guy who called him by the wrong name! And I thought it was cute, so it caught on.”
“I wish it hadn’t.” he mumbled, staring only at his red shoes. Oh god, he can’t look. He absolutely cannot watch this trainwreck.
He shoots a pleading look at Katsuki, who whirls on him, scoffing in total offense.
“ That’s what you told her? You didn’t mention the part where you also said my name wrong - on purpose, mind you!” he shouts, pointing in accusation.
“W-What?”
Ochako blinks between them for a terrible moment. Izuku can tell the second she puts the pieces together.
“I’m sorry, but Kats are you implying that you were the ‘hot blonde beefcake’ that Izuku hooked up with that night in Colorado .”
Katsuki reels back, momentarily forgetting who he was talking to and the chance that she actually didn’t know about their college sexcapade. “That’s uh-”
“OKAY I GOTTA LIFT BEFORE THE SUN COMES UP SEE YOU LATER ‘CHAKO!”
Izuku races out of the cafe and up the stairs to the main gym floor before either of them could follow. He pants as he set up at a squat rack. Crap, he even left his energy drink downstairs. He could still really use it.
“Did you still want this?”
In the mirror, he saw that Katsuki is standing behind him with two opened energy drinks in his hand, one held out to him.
He turns, face still furiously red. “Uhm, yes please,” he said, taking it. He turns away before he can embarrass himself again.
He quickly chugs half of it, wincing at the gross sugar-free cherry flavor before turning back to the bar, loading up two forty five pound plates on each side. It is late, and he doesn’t want to be exhausted at work tomorrow, so he figures he’d do some light legwork.
“Sorry, by the way. I thought she knew the whole story. Didn’t mean to accidentally out myself,” Katsuki says suddenly, setting his gym bag down at the rack next to him. The blonde also loads up two plates on each side.
Izuku sighs, ducking his head under the bar and lining his feet up. “Don’t worry about it. She’ll just be extra pushy about it for a couple days, nothing I can’t handle.”
They both do a set of ten, pushing through the weight with minimal grunting.
“You weren’t a powerlifter last time I saw you.”
It occurred to Izuku too late that neither of them bothered to put headphones on when they started. Normally, Izuku likes to work out by himself or just with his dad. It’s hard for him to focus when he has a workout partner, so he doesn’t prefer it.
But this doesn’t seem so bad for some reason.
Answering Katsuki’s question, he shakes his head. “I was just starting my training actually. My dad was a bodybuilder, so when he first offered up training in high school I said no. I didn’t want to be pressured into bodybuilding, especially not when I have All Might as my coach. So in college, I joined the powerlifting team. My dad didn’t pick up my training until about a year after I started.”
He takes a swig of his water and steps back up to the bar. Katsuki remains seated and silent.
“Hey… I hate to ask this, but I’ve been wondering…” the blonde trails off, looking to the side awkwardly. Izuku pauses in his setup, listening intently.
Internally, Izuku debates telling him. It’s not like a secret, or anything. Thankfully the media has kept their noses out of it, since All Might retired before everything happened and moved to Colorado, where he met his mom. Things would probably change soon, here in LA. People would recognize him, like Katsuki had, and begin asking questions.
Izuku eventually meets his eyes in the mirror. “It’s cancer. Or I mean, it was . He’s been in remission for a while, and we’re hoping it stays that way.”
“Shit, man. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
Izuku shakes his head, smiling softly. His dad wouldn’t mind, not for a true fan like Katsuki.
“It’s fine, just don’t broadcast it to everyone. Most people in my life know by now.”
He finishes up his second set of ten. It’s probably a little too light, but that just might be the caffeine working in his system. He’ll have to hit the treadmill to burn some of the excess energy away.
Reracking his barbell, he wipes his brow with the back of his hand, wincing a bit when some sweat gets in his eye. Should really start bringing a sweat towel , he thinks to himself.
“So does that mean I’m in your life now?
Surprised, because Katuski hasn’t said anything for the past minute or two, he snaps his head around to look at the bodybuilder, only momentarily distracted by the shoulders now visible to him. At some point, Katsuki had removed his hoodie.
“Huh?”
The blonde shuffles to his own barbell, repping out his ten before responding. “You told me, so that means I’m in your life now.”
Izuku thinks back to that night in Colorado, after one too many tequila shots and a sinful tongue between his legs. Rough, on the couch of his blessedly empty shared apartment. The lazy kisses and handjobs in the morning before he had to leave. Spending the entire afternoon debating whether to follow him on Instagram or not, and eventually deciding it wasn’t worth it since he would never see him again.
He thinks about how he wants it to be different.
“Yeah, sure. There’s room for one more.” He says back with a dimpled smile.