Katsuki wasn't one to hand out respect and favors, wasn't the sort to go out of his way to solve problems for people (apart from the 'hero' sort in any case). He was someone with only a small selection of people he would be willing to personally apply actual effort to solving issues for.

Uraraka Ochako was one of those people. Had been since their second year in UA, though she'd worked her way up his estimation ever since that match in their first Sports Festival.

He didn't hand out his personal address to just anyone, or any personal information really.

So his heart skipped a beat when he heard the frantic knocking on his door, and opened it to find Ochako standing in front of it, her eyes a bit wild, hair windblown, and a desperate twist to her lips.

"What happened?" Katsuki's voice was steady, even as he mentally prepared himself for some kind of natural disaster, or the news one of his friends had managed to get themselves into the hospital again.

Ochako breathed for a moment, visibly calming herself down, before she met his eyes. "I need you to be my date."

And Katsuki...stopped.

His mind, previously flying though battle strategies, back up plans, a list of on call sidekicks, and random things from the weather, to construction plans in the area he needed to be aware of, and various miscellaneous information heroes needed to track…froze.

His face shifted automatically, blanking out as his brain basically crashed and restarted.

"I'm sorry, what?"

Ochako shifted from foot to foot nervously before she started speaking quickly, as if spitting the information out faster would make things make more sense.

"I...need a date for the Hero Gala coming up. There's a sidekick in my agency who...isn't understanding that I don't want to date him, and I figured having a boyfriend would be clearer, but I don't have one, and I told him I did, and now I need a date, or he's gonna keep bugging me, and you're the only one I trust to do this who isn't already in a committed public relationship, Katsuki please."

Katsuki opened his mouth, shut it, opened it again, and then squinted at her suspiciously.

"You...want me to pretend to be your boyfriend...because some dick won't back off? Why don't you just kick his ass, round face?"

Ochako frowned heavily at the slip back to her old nickname. Katsuki still used it of course, but they had long given each other leave you use their given names, and it was rare for him to do so.

She bit her lip.

"Part of it is political hang ups. Kicking his ass would cause some problems for the agency and myself, no matter how much it would be easier. The other part is he...doesn't really mean to be an asshole? He's just...determined and very driven. He isn't touching me or anything, but he's just...he keeps coming back. And this would make him stop without me needing to kick his ass and cause myself problems. Please Katsuki? We'd have to pretend for a bit even beyond the Gala, but if we have a 'really dramatic break up' at some point afterwards, I can use that to refuse him too, being 'hurt' and 'not ready for another relationship so soon'."

Katsuki remained frozen in his doorway, staring her down, before he sighed.

"I can't fucking believe you, Ochako. I can't fucking believe I'm actually going to fucking do this shit. What the actual fuck. Get the fuck in here. If we're going to the gala together, we're going to fucking match."

LINEBREAK

Katsuki kind of, sort of, hated himself, a little bit.

He'd said yes, of fucking course he had, Ochako had needed someone to cover her ass. But...he'd said yes, because he'd been thinking about asking her out for months, and the idea of her pretending with anyone had made him want to blow shit up.

But he hadn't fucking thought that shit through.

He actually wanted to date her, and he'd volunteered his own ass to pretend to date her, as well as 'have a dramatic break up'.

He'd set his own ass up to fail, and he didn't fucking appreciate it.

Ochako was under the impression that he didn't actually want to date her. That he was doing this for her, and Katsuki...wasn't.

Not entirely at any rate.

Which left him trying to figure out how to tell her that he wanted to actually date her, and not break up, that it wasn't a joke, and he wasn't just doing it now because she'd asked him to fake it.

That he'd been trying to figure out how to date her for months before this clusterfuck.

Great.

And sitting here, waiting for her to walk down his stairs, getting ready to take her on this 'not-date' Katsuki kind of wanted to throw himself out the window.

His breath caught, and he stopped breathing as Ochako stepped out of the room she'd been using to get dressed. He'd helped her get ready with her hair, twisting it into an elegant bun and letting some strands frame her face. He'd placed a silver metallic rose in the center of the bun, and the stand that trailed from near the front of her face had a matching thin vine piece that wrapped around it.

She hadn't let him see the dress through, only told him what colors matched when he asked her.

Seeing her now, Katsuki can't breathe.

She's in a rose-red dress, that's short in the front, reaching her knees, while the back trails the floor. There are subtle silver leaves sewn into the hem, with matching vines trailing across the body of the dress itself, through the silvery thread is almost invisible until light hits it just right. Her bodice has an ombre effect, the bottom going from the rose red of the skirt closer to black as it worked it's way up towards her chest.

Katsuki only remembers to breathe when he starts feeling light headed, offering Ochako his arm as she steps off the stairs, and then trying not to choke on his own tongue when he realizes the dress is backless.

Fuck.

Fuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkkk.

FUCK.

He needed to make this whole 'fake dating' thing history like four months ago.