Chapter Text
Todoroki Shouto
Wherever you went, you heard the name. It was on advertisements, photos of him on red carpets taking over the internet, his name plastered on billboards lining every major road. He was everywhere. Honestly, it even annoyed him sometimes—never being able to go anywhere without someone recognizing him. People would probably be more confused by the fact that you didn’t know who he was than if you did.
He wasn’t just anybody. He was Todoroki Shouto, a rising actor with a natural talent that everyone in the industry seemed to notice.
He didn’t love fame, but he didn’t hate it either. Fame was simply… there. Realistically, he was destined for it. Being the son of a CEO, the brother of one of the country’s most renowned doctors, and his oldest brother who played guitar for a wildly popular rock band…yeah, fame and fortune were kind of unavoidable.
And sure, it sucked knowing others had to work harder to get where he was now. But the truth? He earned this. And if his father pulled a few strings here and there, so what? Who cares? He deserved it. This is show business; nothing is handed to you for free. And to say Shouto hasn’t had his fair share of sacrifice dealing with his father would just be dishonest.
But that’s beside the point.
Right now, he needs to focus on the task at hand: meeting his new co-stars for his upcoming movie. He’s playing the male lead, who is supposed to be in love with the protagonist—the female lead. Or at least, that’s what he thought when he accepted the role. But apparently the director decided to switch things up, turning the female love interest into a male one. Something about “appealing to audiences.”
Not that Shouto can’t handle it.
So here he is, standing in the middle of a welcoming party, ready to meet the people he’ll be working with for the next several months to a year.
Being such a wealthy guy at only 20 years old is enough to have everyone’s eyes on you no matter what you do. So, he’s always begrudgingly taken advice from his father not to drink in public spaces. He absolutely can not hold his liquor. And to be fair, he doesn’t know his co-stars that well to be doing that in the first place.
So as he makes his way over to the table with the drinks, he makes sure not to grab one, but goes past it and straight over to the table with food and desserts. When he reaches to grab a plate he hears a voice boom to his left.
“Can’t hold your liquor, huh?” The man takes a sip from his glass.
Bakugou Katsuki
A well-known model. He’s been in every fancy magazine you could probably name. He started modeling at a young age and was in no way an amateur at his job. He didn’t necessarily come from money like Shouto did, but it's not like he didn't have a good start with his father being in the fashion industry either. One day he was scouted when he was at his father’s workplace as a child. The rest is history.
But Shouto had no idea why he was here now. This was a welcoming party for the co-stars. Maybe just maybe if he wasn’t so hungry, he would have probably been able to put two and two together. But since he was practically starving, he just stared in awe at the man.
“You like what you see or something?”
See that was the difference between old money and new money—no manners. Being so blunt never gets you anywhere even if it is the truth, at least that's what Fuyumi tells him from time to time. He was attractive, yes, but that serves no purpose for the conversation at hand. He looked back down at his plate and started grabbing food.
“Why are you here?” Shouto isn’t looking up at the man and this paired with the question must have irritated the model cause when he does look, he can see the furrowed brows painted on the blond’s face. He just stared in disbelief at the male, like Shouto’s words had confused him. Then, he hears another voice coming from his right, but this time cheerful.
“Katsuki, dude, I've been looking all over for you!” Another male had appeared, but this one had quite a cheerful air about him. He had red hair that looked as if it was being held up by a generous amount of hair gel and this weird smile on his face. The male turns towards Shouto and begins.
“Nice to meet you dude, you’re Shouto right?” He holds out his hand as if he wanted something to put in it.
“My name is Shouto Todoroki, yes.” He says, handing him a plate and fork.
The redheaded man laughs, a little chuckle, but Shouto doesn’t think anything is funny. All he did was what he thought the guy wanted. He isn’t embarrassed, but is more confused. Standing around the food table, what else would he be here for?
“What’s so funny?” He asks genuinely curious.
“Nothing man, I'm Kirishima Eijirou, a friend of Katsuki here” He smiles and Shouto believes that it’s probably contagious because a small smile tugs at the blond’s upper lips for a split second as well. Shouto would’ve thought he imagined it if he wasn’t already looking in his general direction before.
But Shouto isn’t smiling, not because he’s angry or anything, but because people keep coming and interrupting his meal. He’s finally put the food on his plate and still can’t eat. This is one of the many reasons why he hates these events, but he will get through this.
The main reason for him being here is because of the fact that the director, Yamada Hizashi, decided not to reveal just who the male love interest was. If Shouto was in charge, he would have probably just emailed the cast list to everyone and called it a day. They could decide if they wanted to contact the other cast members themselves, but Shouto could just sit and relax in his penthouse and eat whenever he wanted with no interruptions.
And yet, he isn’t the director and here he is at the party. The director was gonna be here soon and Shouto hopes, sooner than later because all this food at the party isn’t being eaten and Shouto thinks that should be a crime in itself.
Someone must have heard his prayers because one of the males in the duo utters a “Yamada-san is going on stage”—Shouto’s guess is “Kirishima” and they head towards it.
Shouto walks towards it as well, but is not in a rush as he is finally eating his well deserved filet mignon. Which isn’t cold soba, but the director already told him it wasn’t possible to serve that kind of food at a party like this. To which Shouto disagreed, but his argument didn’t seem to change his mind.
When he finally gets to the stage, however, he sees that it isn’t the entire cast on stage. It’s just Bakugo Katsuki. And the words that come out of Yamada’s mouth doesn’t change the expression on Shouto’s face, but it does shock him.
“This is Bakugo Katsuki and he will be playing the new male love interest in our upcoming movie.” The said Bakugo Katsuki smirks at the round of applause in the audience and it seems as if he is boring eyes into Shouto’s head.
Shouto doesn’t think too hard on it as he should because he is more interested in the food in front of him than this “little” situation, but in the future he will come to regret his ignorance.
II.
“So who’s your manager, I don’t think I’ve been able to meet them yet?” Shouto was attempting to make small talk with his newly founded co-star, Bakugo Katsuki, since he finally was able to eat and wasn’t in such a cranky mood anymore. He would leave now that the person who is playing the role had been announced, but he didn’t wanna hear Yamada’s mouth about being social and what not. If he wanted an earful he would go to his dad’s house and get one from him instead. Besides, it’s not like he can’t get to know everyone else and it’s not like anyone besides him has their eyes on the food. He can stay awhile.
“Why the fuck would I have a manager when I can manage myself?” The blond spits the sentence out like venom, but Shouto doesn’t pay it any mind; he just continues chewing as if there was no response. Old money vs. New Money he keeps reminding himself.
“I thought-” Shouto starts but he’s interrupted by another blond male coming their way. He appears to know who the two of them are since he heads towards them like he’s a man on a mission and won’t stop until he completes it.
Once he’s finally there, he beams with a smile. A smile that Shouto likes. It doesn’t seem too friendly or unfriendly either, it's just a smile that’s normal . He wouldn’t be able to explain it if someone asked him about either. And then he opens his mouth and Shouto is pretty sure his expression shows his own utter confusion.
“What’s happening, pretty boys?”
Bakugo must haven’t liked it either because if he was irritated earlier he must not have been showing it on his face before because Shouto didn’t think it was possible to furrow your brows this much.
“Do I know you?” Shouto asks, breaking the silence.
“Dude, we went to high school together!” Bakugo’s irritation seemed to grow even further and Shouto didn’t know why.
“No offense, but I don’t think we did; I went to a private school and I don’t think you would have been able to afford to go.” Shouto looked him up and down. This entire conversation didn’t make sense to him at all. He didn’t even go to high school here, didn’t even know the guy’s name, and everything that he and Shouto did seemed to piss off Bakugo more.
“Wow, um thanks I guess… I was trying to make a joke, but I guess it didn’t work?” He turns to Bakugo and whispers something to him, which lightens his expression up, and then leaves them as quickly as he came to them, heading towards someone Shouto is familiar with.
Yaoyorozu Momo— an old high school classmate of Shouto’s. Not only did they go to the same school, but they recently broke off their engagements together. It was a mutual thing; the two of them were not in love, it was an arranged marriage by their parents, and they had no say in it. It was soon broken off because Shouto was not attracted to her at all and Yaoyorozu was in love with another person, but that wasn’t Shouto’s story to tell.
She was famous for recently becoming the CEO of her family’s company. Some tech brand if he remembers correctly. This was an amazing achievement for someone her age and it only egged on Shouto’s father to hound him more for letting her go. Such a young entrepreneur had just recently become the CEO as well as broken off her engagement and as sad as it was, men were flocking to her like flies to fruit in order to gain her favor at this welcoming party. The man from earlier is no different.
Now, the blond is heading towards her.
The nameless male goes to one knee, reaches out for Yaoyorozu’s hand, and places a kiss upon the top of it. “Nice to meet you Momo, my name is Kaminari Denki.”
“...Hello?, do um... I know you?” She starts. “You called me by my first name and I don’t believe we’ve met before now.”
“I called you by your first name because it wouldn’t make sense to call you Kaminari, would it?” Denki winks at the woman.
Shouto doesn’t think Yaoyorozu is amused at all by his demeanor. By the way she looks at the male, she seems genuinely confused and disgusted at the same time. BAkugo on the other hand looks as if he is trying to hold back his laughter. If those two are friends, why is he leaving him in dust like this?
Yaoyorozu doesn’t say anything and instead puts her other hand over her mouth. Shouto couldn’t hear what was being said but it looked as if she was giggling. Then again his right eye might have been playing tricks on him. This so-called “Kaminari” lets go of her hand and rises back to his feet. He walks away to head back towards Shouto and Bakugo, but not before winking once again at Yaoyorozu.
“Now that’s how you lighten up the mood!” Bakugo goes into high five Katsuki, but he leaves him hanging.
Shouto finally chuckles himself. He had the realization that Kaminari was trying to quote “lighten the mood” and there was some noticeable tension in the room.
“I got two of the richest people here to laugh? I’m just scoring all around today.” He elbows Bakugo, but continues. Though, Shouto isn’t laughing anymore. It’s not a bad thing to talk about, but he would rather it not be brought especially at this party though it's probably unavoidable, with his ex-fiance here, with his upcoming co-stars here, with the paparazzi that could possibly leak everything that happens at the party to the public here. Nothing else could make Shouto more uneasy.
“Fuck is wrong with you?” Bakugo looks genuinely worried for a second, but Shouto’s eye has been playing tricks on him all evening. Shouto hasn’t drank anything yet, but he feels like he might need a drink pretty soon.
“I’m fine, I’m fine, I just need to find my manager...” Shouto grabs his head and begins to walk away.
“He’s talking to Yamada-san right? Do I need to walk you over—” Denki starts, but isn’t able to finish because he’s stopped by the sound of staggering footsteps. Shouto almost falls, but is caught by someone.
“If someone offers you help maybe you should take it or do you have to have a stick up your ass eternally?” Shouto could do without the backlash honestly, the sooner he leaves this party the better. This can’t even be blamed from just Kaminari alone; he hasn’t been feeling this entire party the whole time, his social battery has just about run out, and the whole Kaminari conversation was probably the tip of the breaking point.
“I don’t need your help.” Shouto wants to shove Bakugo off of him, but he settles to just calm down and allow him to help him across the room in the most natural way possible. Causing a scene at this party wouldn’t necessarily end his career, but struggling would cause room for a big misunderstanding and could potentially be bad for the movie and that is something he doesn’t want to subject his co-stars to too soon .
“You’re saying one thing and doing another, dumbass.” Shouto doesn’t need to be told that he is obviously aware of his own actions. Bakugo isn’t reading him like an open book because Shouto is just vocalizing his thoughts. And it feels like the other side of the room is a fucking ocean and is impossible to reach. Like he’s in a desert and he’s trying to find water in it. It’s incredibly annoying.
It’s irritating Shouto and Bakugo as well to move through a sea of people on the floor, but when they finally fucking finally get to the other side of the room Bakugo can let go of Shouto and both males breathe a sigh of relief. Shouto’s manager rushes towards him, still holding his drink, but not before politely excusing himself in front of Yamada.
“Shouto-san, are you okay? I didn’t see you for a few hours here and now that I’ve finally seen you, you don’t look so good.” The expression and voice of concern from him seems to somewhat ease Shouto. His manager has always had a happy go-lucky personality. It seemed somewhat in contrast to Shouto’s character, but he thought it would be a good change of pace in everyday life.
“I’m fine, I just needed a break from this so I wanted to tell you I was gonna go out for some fresh air.”
His manager peeks to look at Bakugo for a moment and decides to introduce himself.
“Hi, I’m Midoriya Izuku as well as Shouto-san’s manager. I don’t think we’ve met before” He holds out his hand to Bakugo with a smile as bright as all their futures combined, but the said male doesn’t lean to shake it, matter of fact, he doesn’t shake it at all.
“I’m Bakugo Katsuki.” He doesn’t seem as if he cares one bit about the matter at hand. Even if the situation had been solved, shouldn’t he at least pretend to show some more concern?
“I know who you are, I’m a huge fan of your work myself.” The male smiles that bright smile again and Katsuki doesn’t really seem to like it if his facial expression is showing how he feels. His manager hadn’t done anything to really offend him so what was with this attitude he had with him? Then again, from what he had heard, Bakugo was a difficult person to work with.
Famous designers were not happy with his attitude, he only wanted the best of the best; whether that was the type of clothes he was modeling, who he was with, was up to him. He even gave one of the nicest designers in the industry, Sero Hanta, a hard time. Though, apparently over time these two became friends and formed a friend group, possibly collecting Kaminari along the way.
“Okay.” Bakugo seems uninterested and Izuku seems to notice as well.
“Well, I don’t want to hold you up or anything. Congratulations on getting the role by the way! Can’t wait to see the movie when you all are done filming.” Izuku keeps trying to make small talk and Bakugo doesn’t seem to get the hint. On the other hand it doesn’t seem like Izuku is getting the hint that Bakugo isn’t interested either.
“Ya thanks, make sure the eye-candy gets his rest; wouldn't want to have our movie without our male lead, you know. We wouldn’t really get our ratings up and get casted again.” Shouto can’t believe how insensitive he sounds right now and maybe the rumors were true. However, thinking about it for a bit makes it seem as if there is truth to his words.
The ratings go down and that’s pretty much everyone’s career down in the drain. Obviously not Yaoyorozu, Shouto’s, or maybe even Bakugo’s, but it’s gonna hinder their ability to get hired again. A quick call from a few parents could fix that, but not always.
And eye candy?
Shouto mutters a small “thanks” and Bakugo walks away uninterested once more.
“That was a pretty uneventful meeting, huh?” Izuku sounds disappointed and Shouto can’t blame him. It’s not like that’s his idol, but it sucks not being noticed by someone you're interested in even when they're right in front of you.
Towards the end of the party, the rest of the cast exchange numbers, but Shouto isn’t around for that. He lets Izuku attend in his stead because he really can’t do any more social activity at this party before he loses his mind. He’s tired and exhausted and those two shouldn’t be synonyms because he feels like he’s gonna pass out.
He calls a cab and when he’s finally home he loosens his tie and collapses on his bed. One of the perks of being rich and having that generous income is being able to just come home and sit in your bed without any outside input. Even if your clothes are still sweaty and even if you smell like literal alcohol and perfume that you didn’t even fucking drink or wear .
Shouto thinks to himself that he deserves at least this after that hellish party. He can finally relax.
Shouto’s phone rings. That ringtone is obnoxious and he promises himself that he’s gonna change that shit in the morning, but for now he thinks that he’s going to ignore it and go to sleep; if he tries his absolute hardest, he might be able to.
It rings and rings and rings.
So Shouto finally answers.
“What?”
“This is Izuku, I’m just reminding you that filming for your first scene is tomorrow at 4:00 p.m.”
“Okay, you couldn’t have waited to tell me tomorrow?” Shouto tried to sound as nice as he could, but all the irritation from earlier at the party is coming back to him and logically speaking, Izuku shouldn’t be doing this now, but he’s guessing that Izuku must have met lots of actors and is still probably excited from the adrenaline.
“I just felt that I needed to tell you sooner, I’m sorry if I woke you up. Rest well we have that scene tomorrow!” Izuku hangs up and Shouto doesn’t even plug up his phone before silencing it and throwing it across the room.
He’ll buy another one in the morning if it’s broken, he just needs to sleep.