𝓥𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓻 | Katsuki Bakugou x Male reader

Chapter 7

"Likeable. He has a humorous approach naturally. Whereas when you open your mouth, you come across as sullen and hostile," he said.

"I do not!" He forgot just how good Katsuki was at acting, which made (M/N) feel inferior since Shota thought he couldn't do the same.

"Please. I don't know where you pulled that cheery, smiley boy on the chariot from, but I haven't seen him before or since."

"Oh, like you've given me so many reasons to be cheery," (M/N) countered.

"But you aren't pleasing me. I'm not the one sponsoring you, so pretend I'm the audience," Shota said. "Delight me."

"Fine!" (M/N) snarled. 

Shota took the role of an interviewer, and (M/N) did his best to answer his questions in an entertaining way. But he didn't do a good job, all he could think about was how stupid this whole thing was. Why did he have to hop around like a trained dog to please people he hated? The longer the interview went on, the more annoyed (M/N) became- to the point where he was spitting out answers at Shota.

"All right, enough," The black haired male said. "Not only are you hostile, I don't know anything about you. I've asked you 50 questions and I still have no sense of your life, your family, or what you care about. They want to know about you, (M/N)."

"Well I don't want them to know about me! They're literally taking away my future! And if I can't have that, then they can't have the things that mattered to me in the past!" (M/N) shouted.

"Then lie! Just make something up!" Shota retorted.

"I'm not good at lying," (M/N) mumbled.

Shota scoffed. "Well you better learn fast, you've got about as much charm as a dead rat."

"Well I don't know what else to do."

Shota seemed to think for a moment before speaking. "Try acting humble."

"Humble..."

"If you won't talk about yourself, compliment the audience. Talk about how nice the people are, how nice the Capitol is. That you can't believe how well you've done so far as a tribute from District 12. Talk about Keigo's clothes. Anything like that."

The next few hours were agonizing for (M/N). He tried every angle he can; cocky, witty, funny. None of them worked though. By the end of the session, (M/N) felt as if he'd made no progress at all. Shota had started drinking some time ago, showing that he was just about done with this 'training' as (M/N) was.

"I give up," Shota stated. "Just answer the questions and try not to show the audience how much you despise them."

~

The next morning, the prep team was all over (M/N). His lessons with Shota and Emi were over, and the day belonged to Keigo. He was (M/N)'s last hope, maybe he would be able to make (M/N) look so amazing, no one would care what came out of his mouth.

The team worked on him until late afternoon. Stenciling patterns around the side of his left eye, starting in dark blue then fading into black. His hair was styled and had patterns of blue and cyan weaved in, then they covered him in a powder that gave his body a slight shimmer of green dust, as if someone dotted him with tiny green diamonds.

Afterwards Keigo came in with what (M/N) assumed was his outfit. It was somewhat of a struggle trying to get it on, it felt so tight and hard to breathe in. Once all the stylists were done adjusting things, (M/N) turned around and looked into the full length mirror.

The person in front of him looked like they came from another world. A world where skin shimmers and eyes flash. (M/N) was convinced the Capitol made their clothes from jewels. From the puffy sleeves to the boots, everywhere was adorned with gold patterns. His outfit started out black and faded into a deep ocean blue, mixed with green swirls and lines that somehow looked like moving snakes, giving off the illusion of green fire. The boots situated on his feet were white, but the bottom was black, the two colours separated by more gold patterns.