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Eijirou was pleasantly tipsy as he sat at dinner with his friends and—as of tonight—his coworkers. A little over a year since they'd graduated from UA, the hero commission had granted Katsuki permission to establish his own hero agency. It had been something they had all been working towards since graduation, or even before then.
Katsuki slouched at his side after finishing off his fourth drink that evening, his hand snaking its way over Eijirou's thigh. Eijirou leaned back and placed an arm around his boyfriend's shoulders.
“One more toast before we call it a night, hm?” Hanta called.
“Fine by me,” Katsuki sat up straight again, refusing to admit defeat. “But let me order another drink!”
Once another drink was brought out for Katsuki, the five of them toasted once more to the establishment of their hero agency. They all polished off their drinks as Eijirou settled the tab as a treat to everyone to celebrate their hard work.
The group left the restaurant, content with their successful celebration dinner out.
“C’mon, we can’t end the night there,” Denki whined as they started to make plans to head towards the train station. The restaurant they were at was just on the outskirts of a mall, and Denki pointed them in the shopping center’s direction. “Let’s just go walk around for a little bit, okay?” he suggested.
Katsuki was already leaning heavily on Eijirou, and Eijirou knew Katsuki wouldn’t last much longer trying to keep up with his friends who hadn’t had as much to drink. Ever the stubborn idiot, Katsuki agreed to go and followed behind as they headed towards the shops.
They walked down aisles of shops, talking about whatever came to mind in their post-dinner haze. Eventually, they stopped outside of one of the shops.
“D’you think we’d find any hero merch for one of us?” Hanta pointed at a store that usually carried hero apparel and other accessories, along with collectibles and toys.
“Other than Kacchan, though. We already know he has merchandise since he was signed as a Pro-Hero with Midoriya before we graduated,” Denki sighed.
“Yeah, but it’s not even good stuff. At least the stuff I’ve seen,” Katsuki brushed off Denki’s statement.
“Aw, I like some of the stuff, though,” Eijirou argued. “The hoodie I found last month is really soft and it looks cool!”
“I’ve told you before, it’s tacky,” Katsuki protested.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, it looks great with my cargo shorts and my crocs and my Ground Zero socks,” Eijirou smiled smugly at his boyfriend, knowing that he was riling him up.
“I’m going to take your entire wardrobe and burn it,” Katsuki groaned.
“Do they really not consult you on what kind of merch you have?” Mina interrupted them. “I have ideas for some of my stuff!”
“No, when we became pro we signed our lives to the hero commission. They do what they want, selling rights to our public image to the merchandise companies.” Katsuki rolled his eyes. “You can appeal for the rights to your own merch, but it’s a mess. I don’t want to bother with it. I still get a portion of the profit, so it’s whatever,” Katsuki grumbled as he leaned against Eijirou.
“You could ask Izuku about the process,” Eijirou suggested. “He applied for the rights to his own merch.”
“Of course he did,” Hanta snorted.
“Ooh, I’ll do that!” Mina said.
“I might eventually do it for my own stuff! I want my brand to resemble the aesthetic of Crimson Riot, but with my own spin!”
“Ah, that’d be cool!” Mina agreed. “Couldn’t you get Katsuki’s parents to help you? Y’know, with their connections in the fashion industry?”
“Oh, man! Yes!” Eijirou nodded enthusiastically.
“C’mon, let’s go see what we can find! Technically, we’ve all been official official Pros for a few months since the Hero Billboard rankings were posted. Maybe we all have merch now!”
“I don’t think they work that fast.” Hanta shook his head. “But let’s see if we can find Katsuki’s stuff. We can all celebrate the opening of the agency by buying our favorite tacky Ground Zero merch.”
“You’re all awful,” Katsuki scoffed, but followed alongside his friends into the shop. They all branched out as they entered, Katsuki sticking to Eijirou’s side, glancing at the merch disinterestedly. As they walked through the store, they saw more than a few pieces adorning Midoriya’s trademark colors.
“If I see one more piece of Deku merch—” Katsuki grumbled.
“Oh, look at this hat!” Eijirou interrupted him. He reached for a Ground Zero beanie with an orange pompom on top. “It’d look good with my hoodie and I could wear it on days I don’t want to style my hair…what do you think?” Eijirou asked as he showed Katsuki.
Katsuki hummed with a shrug.
“I’ll think about it.” Eijirou mirrored Katsuki’s shrug and put it down.
“Ugh, Eij, I’m tired,” Katsuki whined, pushing his forehead against Eijirou’s shoulder in an attempt to get him to stop looking at his merch. “Can we go home yet?”
“Yeah, we’ll head out soon. You shouldn’t have had so much to drink,” Eijirou said, leaning back against Katsuki.
“Er…celebrating,” Katsuki protested, staggering against Eijirou’s weight pushing against him.
“Yeah, I know, you deserve it,” Eijirou chuckled. “I’m gonna go tell the others you’re not feeling well if you want to go wait outside. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Don tell ‘em I’m not feeling well,” Katsuki pleaded. “Just say’m tired.”
“Okay,” Eijirou rolled his eyes with a smile as Katsuki removed himself from Eijirou’s side. Eijirou maneuvered around the store shelves to find his friends, who were gathered around some figures of the current top ten heroes.
“I kind of want Miruko…” Mina sighed as she admired the collectibles. “She even comes with a couple different variations of her prosthetics!”
“Hey guys, Katsuki’s starting to crash so we’re probably gonna head out,” Eijirou interrupted them.
“What? Is he really just gonna slip out without saying goodbye?” Denki asked.
“He’ll see you all at the office on Monday.” Eijirou shrugged.
“It’s not the same!” Denki exclaimed. “We’ll just go say goodbye real quick, okay?”
“Fine, fine,” Eijirou indulged his friends. They turned to head towards the front of the store, but they looked around and didn’t see Katsuki.
“Did he seriously leave without you?” Hanta frowned.
“Wait, he’s in here still, guys!” Mina called as she wandered back into the store. “Hey, Kats?”
Eijirou, Hanta and Denki followed after her and found Katsuki with his back to them, staring at a pile of plushies.
“Babe, did you find something?” Eijirou asked, peeking around to see what had caught Katsuki’s attention. Katsuki was holding a rounded red plushie in his hands. Mina gasped as she realized what Katsuki was holding.
“It’s Eijirou,” Katsuki confirmed.
“Oh!” Eijirou gasped as he noticed that the plushie shared his visage. “Wow! Is that really supposed to be me?”
“That’s crazy! It’s definitely you!” Hanta laughed.
Eijirou continued to stare at the plushie in his boyfriend’s hands. It was surreal to see after all the hard work he had put towards becoming a hero that he was finally being recognized as a Pro. It was only the beginning too… he could hardly imagine how their lives might change once their agency continued to gain fame.
“I didn’t actually expect to find anything in here that featured us! Do they have any of the rest of us?” Hanta asked when Katsuki hadn’t replied.
“It’s…it’s friend-shaped,” Katsuki murmured as he turned to face his friends. He continued to look down at the plushie, seemingly lost in thought.
“Friend-shaped?” Eijirou said in confusion as he furrowed his brows and gave Katsuki a small smile.
“Shaped like a friend,” Katsuki elaborated and he held the plushie up to show his friends. He looked like he was holding back tears.
“Wait, are you seriously about to cry?” Denki chuckled.
“Look at him!” Katsuki angrily pushed the Red Riot plushie closer to Denki to make his point and distract from the fact that he was getting choked up.
“Yeah, friend-shaped,” Hanta chuckled, glancing at Eijirou who was beginning to blush brightly at Katsuki’s reaction. “Are you going to buy it?”
“Of course,” Katsuki looked mildly offended that Hanta had even implied that he might not purchase the plushie.
“Okay, okay,” Eijirou gave a nervous chuckle. “I can see now why you’re embarrassed when I buy your stuff, but at least the stuff I buy is practical,” Eijirou’s face burned brightly. “This isn’t practical.”
“You mean to say you would actually walk away from the first piece of merchandise with your face on it?” Denki looked baffled at Eijirou.
“I mean, no, I guess not,” Eijirou muttered, glancing at the plushie in Katsuki’s hands. “It’s just embarrassing going up to pay for it when it’s you!” Eijirou nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
“Well, you’re not going up to pay for it,” Katsuki said, pushing his way past Eijirou towards the register.
“Oh, my god, babe.” Eijirou followed after him to make sure that he wouldn’t embarrass them in his inebriated state. As Katsuki placed the plushie on the counter, the clerk glanced at it as she began to ring it up.
“I see you found our new stock!” She smiled brightly as she brought the tag to the scanner and then looked up to properly face her customer. Her eyes glanced between Katsuki and Eijirou and the three others behind them. “Oh, my gosh, wow!” she gave an embarrassed smile as she clearly recognized them. “How exciting to sell some of our new merch directly to the Pro-Heroes themselves!”
“You know us?” Denki asked, pointing at himself.
“I…I try to keep up with all the heroes around here since it’s good to be knowledgeable working here, y’know?” she gave a nervous laugh.
“Will you be getting more stock soon? Will there be anything in for Pro-Hero Pinky?” Mina jumped in before Eijirou could feel too embarrassed.
“I-I’m not sure! I put out the last of the new shipment this afternoon…” She thought back to the items she’d seen.
“I guess Eijirou is higher on the billboard charts than we are…” Mina sighed. “It makes sense he gets the first merch outside of Katsuki.”
Katsuki finished his transaction, and they bid farewell to the cashier before the group returned outside.
“I guess that’s mission accomplished, then,” Denki said, putting his hands on his hips. “We gonna call it a night?”
“Yeah,” Hanta stretched. “I’m getting tired too. Let’s head for the train station.”
The crowds thinned out as they made their way to the train station that serviced the shopping area, and they all checked schedules for the trains they needed to take. They bid goodbye to each other as their group was split by the trains and Katsuki and Eijirou boarded their train.
They took a seat as the train shifted into motion, and Katsuki collapsed against Eijirou again, pulling his shopping bag into his lap. After a moment’s hesitation, Katsuki reached into the shopping bag and pulled out the plushie again, staring down at it in his grasp.
“You really like that plushie, huh?” Eijirou asked.
Katsuki hummed as he stroked the soft fabric that made up Eijirou’s trademark red hair.
“I’m…Yeah, it’s like a token of all your hard work. We’re actually Pro-Heroes now, and we have stuff like this…” Katsuki finally said. “It just makes it all feel real, and I guess…I just feel really proud of you and how far you’ve come.”
Eijirou felt his chest tighten pleasantly at Katsuki’s words. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of Katsuki’s head.
“All of my merchandise is scary…” Katsuki continued. “Well, not scary. Edgy, I guess. And it’s kind of cool…but the image of a terrifying hero continues to follow me and…I-I want to be scary, but only to villains. The way All Might was…and when my own merchandise looks like something a villain could wear…” Katsuki trailed off before stopping himself. “It’s stupid that I still have issues with how people perceive me. I try not to care, but—”
“It’s hard when people put so much importance on how the public sees you instead of the work we do,” Eijirou quickly assured him.
“Yeah, but it’s not just that. I just…I want it to be something kids might get excited over like we used to with All Might. Or I guess you and Crimson Riot…anyway, it just made me really happy that your first merchandise was something…” Katsuki searched for the words.
“Friend-shaped?” Eijirou supplied with a sad smile.
“Yeah,” Katsuki sighed.
“Hey,” Eijirou said. “If it bothers you, we can apply for control over your merch. Izuku would gladly help us maneuver through the red tape and paperwork.”
“I guess,” Katsuki muttered, tucking the plushie close to his body.
“We could even hire someone at the agency to help us with… I dunno. Brand control? Your parents could help too with their connections…like Mina suggested earlier. They could probably help us come up with some really fun concepts for lines of clothing based on our Hero personas!”
“Yeah,” Katsuki agreed. “Yeah, that might be nice.”
x
When they returned home that evening, Eijirou went to change out of his clothes and get ready for bed. When he returned to their room, Katsuki had already collapsed into bed and fallen asleep. Eijirou shook his head slightly as he came over and helped Katsuki under the covers and slid into bed beside him. After turning the bedside table lamp off, he turned and got adjusted beside Katsuki.
As he was pulling himself to cuddle up against his boyfriend, he felt something lodge between them. Eijirou frowned and reached down, his hands landing on the soft fabric of the plushie that Katsuki had bought that evening. Eijirou smiled to himself and readjusted the toy to sit more comfortably between them and drifted off to sleep.
x
Katsuki slowly blinked awake, his head pulsing slightly. He curled against Eijirou, willing his head to stop pounding. He’d only just woken up…why did he ache this badly? He hadn’t been in a battle the night before…
As he struggled to remember the night before, he reminded himself they had gone to dinner with their friends to celebrate his hero agency opening.
Shit, I’m not used to drinking that much, Katsuki told himself. They were celebrating, at least. That warranted a bit of indulging. Perhaps he’d gone a bit overboard because he had been so stressed and worked some long hours while in the final weeks before getting their agency approved. All the paperwork…making sure all the requirements were met…
He didn’t have to think about it right now, Katsuki reminded himself. It had all been approved, and they had the day off. He intended to spend it not thinking about work. Katsuki was about to drift off again when he felt something odd prod at his side. He reached down, and his hand grasped the soft shape that was causing him discomfort and lifted it to see what had made its way into their bed.
“What the fuck…” Katsuki asked flatly to himself as he found the plushie from the night before. Suddenly the rest of the night came back to him, their trip into the hero shop, and his insistence at buying the soft doll modeled after Eijirou. His confusion dissolved into a small smile as the pride for Eijirou flooded his chest once again.
That’s right, Katsuki brought the plushie back down and cradled it against his chest. My Unbreakable boyfriend is shaped like a friend and a protector.
Together they’d be an incredible hero team and be a symbol of light and hope for everyone.