hear those bells ring: chapter 10 (a bakugo x reader fic)
Summary: Aftermath of Bakugo and Reader's kiss with a touch of angst. (And a little more Bakusquad shenanigans bc I love them).
Pairings: Katsuki Bakugo/Reader; Katsuki Bakugo/You
Rating: M(ature)
Warnings: Adult language. Violence?
A/N: hey y'all, sorry about the delay. i got sick, then my keyboard died, then my country declared war on my uterus, so you know. it's been a month lmao. also, fun fact, this story garnered me my first hate message. apparently, as a millennial, i'm too old to be writing fanfic. :( so, sorry guys, i gotta pack it in and never consume or enjoy media again
anyway lol hope you enjoy this chap, and I already have the next one finished, just gotta edit. so that will be up sometime later this week. :)
~*~*~ No spoilers or anything. This is just a self-indulgent AU fic with aged up characters. Everyone’s in their mid-20s. Fic title is from a song called “Achilles Come Down.”
Ao3 Link: Here
Ch 1 Tumblr Link: Here
Ch 9 Tumblr Link: Here
“You’re making a mistake, Stitches.”
Bakugo was close enough that his voice rumbled through you like a thunderstorm, and the space between the two of you was so charged with electricity you felt like you’d been struck by lightning, every hair on your body standing on end.
Then, before you could really process his words-- his warning-- he leaned down, slanted his mouth across you own, and stole all the breath from your lungs.
Your brain short-circuited for a moment, and all you could think of was how warm yet soft the blond’s lips felt against yours. Then your now sober mind started distantly screaming that this was not a good idea, but your thoughts all turned to static when Bakugo’s hot tongue traced the seam of your mouth. You gasped, and he seized the opportunity, that lithe muscle darting past your teeth and bringing with it the taste of sake and whisky and something else, something that you just knew was distinctly Bakugo.
The space between your ears was little better than cotton now, and your eyes fluttered shut as one strong hand threaded through your hair while the other latched onto your waist. Bakugo kissed with the same intensity he did everything else, and your body bent to his every command. The skin around his mouth was a little rough with stubble, and a whimper rattled in the back of your throat because it burned so good.
Your involuntarily noise seemed to spur the blond on because he tilted your head back for better access, his tongue doing its best to memorize every tooth and corner of your mouth. The hand on your waist tightened even further, enough to possibly leave bruises, and the thought made the apex of your thighs throb.
The lack of oxygen was beginning to make your head spin, but you couldn’t even find it in yourself to care as you fisted your hands in the material of his shirt, twining your tongue along his. You could feel his heart pounding beneath his ribcage, a frantic pattern to match your own, and you were just beginning to think you might faint when Bakugo ripped his mouth away.
“Fuck,” he panted, and you opened your eyes to find his red ones staring down at you from inches away. The red irises burned with desire in the low light of the patio, and his fingers flexed around your waist again, like he was having to restrain himself from pulling you back in.
You licked your lips, finding them wet and swollen, and Bakugo’s gaze tracked the movement like a predator stalking its prey. The intensity of his stare made your core throb again, and you opened your mouth— to say what, you didn’t know— but then the sound of a door opening went off like a gunshot, and Bakugo was propelling himself away from you like you were on fire.
You stumbled since you’d been leaning all your weight into the blond, and you were just about to ask what the hell when another voice cut across the patio.
“There you are, Stitch— oh, hey, Kats, you’re still here?” Mina asked as she came to a stop a few feet from the door and cocked her pink head.
Your mouth dropped open as blood rushed into your cheeks, and for a moment, you just gaped silently, your eyes flicking from Mina, to Bakugo, and back again. A million thoughts tumbled through your head like rocks in a dryer, clunky and loud, but before you could string even a few of them together, Bakugo scoffed beside you. The sound was sharp, abrasive, and it made you shrink into yourself.
“I told you to stop calling me that, Raccoon Eyes,” he snapped. “And I was just fuckin’ leaving.”
Then, before you could say a word, the blond stomped away from you and shouldered past his friend. He didn’t look back.
“Wait, wha—” Mina started to ask as she turned, but Bakugo slammed the door behind him and cut her off.
You stared after the explosive hero with wide eyes, and one by one, the neurons started firing in your head again.
Oh, fuck. What did you just do? And how much had Mina seen?
“Well, goodbye to you, too,” the pink-skinned hero muttered, and she rolled her eyes as she faced you again. “Sorry about him. I would say his mother should have taught him better, but if you met his mother, a lot of things would start to make sense.”
“O-Oh, no, it’s fine,” you said, your voice coming out more high-pitched than you wanted it to. You plastered on a smile, hoping to mask the freakout building up inside you like an impending volcanic eruption, but then you started wondering if Mina could tell your lips were swollen. Did they look red? Shit, what about your hair?
You recalled thick fingers twining through the strands at the back of your head, and your whole body flushed with heat.
No, bad, stop thinking about that. Be normal. Act normal.
“Uh-huh…” Mina said as she narrowed her two-tone eyes at you. “Sooooo, what were you guys doing out here anyway? The whole table’s been worried about you. We tried texting you, but then Kiri and I started searching the bar.”
“Shi— I’m so sorry,” you blurted out and fished your phone from your pocket, wincing at the several missed calls and text messages. “My phone was on silent. I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you guys. I was coming back to the table, I swear, but then…”
You trailed off as you realized you couldn’t tell her what really happened. It was just a drunken, spur-of-the-moment decision to come outside.
Weren’t drunk when you kissed him, though, you made sure of that, a nasty voice whispered in the back of your head, and you suppressed a wince.
That may be true, but it was still a mistake, considering the way Bakugo all but ran away. He obviously regretted it— maybe he’d just be humoring sad, pathetic you— so he definitely wouldn’t want you blabbing about his error in judgment to his actual friends.
A painful ache began to throb in the center of your chest, the base of your throat, but you pushed it down and away.
“But thennnn…” Mina suddenly drawled and yanked you out of your thoughts, and you looked up to see her raising an eyebrow at you.
You didn’t have time to craft an elaborate lie, so a partial truth would have to suffice.
“But then I saw Bakugo through the door, and I wanted to make sure he was alright,” you said. “I’ve gotten the impression that he doesn’t really l-like me, so I just wanted to apologize for crashing this night with his friends. O-Or at least that was the plan, but, um, some guys were smoking out here, and they started bothering me until Bakugo told them off.”
“Oh.” Mina frowned and looked a tad less suspicious. “Are you okay? Do we need to find those guys?”
“No, no,” you said as you waved your hands. “It’s fine, really. They were just drunk and trying to hit on me, but one look at Pro Hero Dynamight sent them running.”
You laughed nervously and tried not to fidget. You needed to be the picture of innocence, like someone who had not almost been caught making out with the Number Two hero in Japan.
Don’t think about it, don’t think about it.
“I see,” Mina hummed, but then her black-and-gold eyes flicked up and down your figure again. “Soo… when did Kats give you his jacket?”
Heat flooded your cheeks once more, and you suddenly became hyper aware of the warm weight on your shoulders, smelling of smoke and sugar.
“O-Oh, uh, t-that was—” Stop stuttering, stop stuttering. You cleared your throat. “That was right after those guys went back inside again. I was shivering, and Bakugo berated me for not dressing warmer. Something about not getting sick while I’m under their agency’s care or something. He flung it over me a few seconds before you walked outside.”
Mina’s gaze narrowed on you, like she was trying to find your weaknesses, find the cracks in your story, your resolve, but you just forced your cheeks up into another semblance of a smile and tried not to think of the sweat sliding down your spine despite the cool night air.
A beat of silence passed, then two, before Mina let out a sigh.
“That sounds like Kats, being a dick while doing a nice thing.” She shook her head, the string lights above glinting off the silver glitter on her horns and skin. “Try not to hold it against him too much. He’s actually a good guy under his sharp and unpleasant exterior.”
“Of course.” You nodded and did your best to push the blond from your mind. Then you took a deep breath and gestured to the doors. “Well, should we get back inside? I don’t want to worry Kirishima more than necessary.”
“Oh, shit, yeah,” Mina laughed. “Five bucks says he’s trying to get the bar owner to turn on all the lights while Sero’s trying to stop him, and Denki is crying at our table.”
“Do you really think they’re that worried?” you asked as your eyes widened.
“Well, yeah.” Mina laughed again and linked her arm through yours. “We like you, girl. Some of us maybe a little more than others, too, so don’t think you ‘crashed’ tonight. Katsuki just doesn’t like going out in public, so he’s always moody when we get drinks, that had nothing to do with you. Now, come on. We can probably do one more round of shots before Denki faceplants into the table.”
Your smile was a little less forced as the acidic hero led you inside, and you outright laughed when you discovered she’d been right. Kirishima was trying to get the lights turned on, but Sero was trying to stop both him and Kaminari, who was going up to the DJ on the dancefloor side of the bar and loudly attempting to take the mic and make an announcement.
Thankfully, Mina was able to drag the drunk blond back to the table, and Kirishima came willingly when he saw you wave at him across the bar. Back in your private section, the guys bombarded you with questions, asking if you were alright, where you went, if you were hurt. You quickly assuaged their fears and apologized for worrying them— while deftly avoiding any mention of a certain ash-blond hero— and you offered to buy the next round to make up for it.
That idea was immediately shot down, but they did agree to another round, so Mina flagged down a waiter while the guys herded you into the booth, with Sero and Kaminari on either side of you. The blond drunkenly leaned his head against your shoulder and begged you not to disappear again because it was his birthday, and you promised not to move as you awkwardly patted his head.
Kirishima shook his head from across the table, but then he caught your eye and mouthed, “Are you okay?”
You nodded and smiled, trying to look like you were having fun. And a part of you did. The drinks arrived shortly, and the table was loud with laughter as the heroes retold more tales of their youth and heroic exploits gone awry. You laughed and smiled along with them, even if you only sipped at your drink while they downed theirs and ordered more sake. They asked more questions about your past and America, Sero and Kaminari especially, and you did your best to make your boring life sound even a little bit exciting.
You must have succeeded because each of the heroes listened intently when you spoke, interjecting appropriate questions and tidbits here and there. You relaxed a little more with each story told and question answered, but you couldn’t stop your eyes from wandering past the wooden partition around the table.
Bakugo was gone, though, you knew it deep down even as you searched for a flash of ash-blond hair. You tried to push him out of your mind, tried not to think about the incident out on the patio, but as the night wore down and the talking petered out, your thoughts became consumed with how badly you fucked up.
What were you thinking, kissing a pro hero? You wished you could say you weren’t thinking, that you were drunk, but you stole that excuse from yourself the moment you used your quirk.
For a moment, the realization that Bakugo hadn’t been drunk either filled you with an emotion you refused to name, and you recalled the desire in his scarlet eyes as he clutched you against him.
But then you reminded yourself of how fast he pushed you away, how fast he’d fled the patio and didn’t look back, and you told yourself you had imagined the look on his face when he pulled away from your lips. It had to have been a pity kiss. Poor, homeless Stitches, who had no friends and couldn’t stand up for herself, who always need saving, who had failed the hero entrance exam twice and then fled America when she also failed to find a job in her degree field. Poor Stitches, whose greatest achievement in the last year was fixing an old lady’s fractured hip.
Pity. There was no other reason Pro Hero Dynamight would stoop so low as to kiss you. It was probably the same reason the rest of the heroes seemed so interested in you tonight. Part of it might have been novelty— an American civilian who worked a menial job— but the rest of it had to be pity. Maybe Kirishima had texted them all before you guys arrived and told them to just treat you nicely for the night.
This knowledge tied your guts up in knots, bile rising to the back of your throat. You were trying to center yourself by counting the fading bubbles in your warm, untouched beer when a large hand flashed in front of your face.
“What?” You snapped your head up to find everyone staring at you, Kirishima still stretched halfway across the table as he withdrew his hand.
“I was asking if you’re ready to go,” the redhead said with a soft smile before he jerked his chin at your side. “Denks just passed out, and that’s usually when we call it a night.”
You turned your head slightly to find the blond electric hero slumped in the booth beside you, his head tipped back as snores echoed from his slack mouth.
“O-Oh, yeah,” you murmured. “Sorry, yeah, I’m ready.”
“Cool, this way,” Sero said as he slid out of the opposite side of the booth and held a hand out to help you.
“Thank you.” You took his hand and gracelessly scooted out of the booth, blushing when you realized Bakugo’s bomber jacket was still draped over your shoulders.
Thankfully, Sero didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t comment, but his hand lingered around yours for a moment before he pulled away and turned to Kirishima.
“Alright, dude,” he said as he balled one hand up and held it on top of the opposite palm. “You know the drill.”
“I need to take Stitches back to the agency,” Kirishima argued with a frown. “You’ll have to get him tonight, but I’ll get him next time.”
“Uh-uh, don’t try and weasel out now, Riot,” Sero teased, and his mouth settled in an expression somewhere between a smirk and a grin. “It’s tradition. Besides, I know where your agency is. I’m pretty sure I could get Stitches back there just fine.”
He threw you a wink as he said that last sentence, and you flushed under his attention.
It’s fake, you reminded yourself. Pity.
“U-Um, what’s going on?” you asked, to which Mina giggled and looped her arm through yours.
“Just watch,” she whispered, and you turned back to the men to see Kirishima rolling his eyes.
“Fine,” he said and then held his hands out identical to Sero’s.
Wait, were they going to—
“Jan, ken, pon!” the two heroes chanted as they moved their hands in unison.
Yup, they were playing rock, paper, scissors.
“Ha-ha!” Kirishima cheered as his scissors cut Sero’s paper. “I win.”
“Shit,” Sero sighed, but another easygoing grin spread across his mouth a moment later. “You’re learning, dude.”
“Mina pointed out last time that I always start with rock, so I decided to change it up,” the redhead laughed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Oh, come on, Pinks,” the dark-haired hero groaned as he turned on Mina. “You threw off my winning streak.”
“I just evened the playing field.” She stuck her tongue out at him, but her two-toned eyes twinkled with mirth. “Don’t be a sore loser, Han.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Sero sighed, but you could tell he was fighting back a smile as he rounded the table and came up to the opposite side of the booth. “Come on, Denks, up you go.”
The tall and lanky hero bent down and tossed Kaminari’s limp arm over his shoulder, coaxing the half-conscious blond to his feet.
“Are we… getting another round?” Kaminari slurred as he slumped against Sero, and his yellow eyes were struggling to flutter open.
“No,” Sero snorted and wrapped an arm around the blond’s waist. “We’re getting you home. Can you walk, or do I gotta tape ya?”
“I can walkkkk,” Kaminari whined and then immediately stumbled over his own feet, half careening into the table and rattling the dishes.
“Tape it is,” Sero muttered, and you watched as what looked like a white bandage slithered out of his elbow.
“Noooooo,” Kaminari half-protested, but he didn’t even fight it as the tape started at his feet and wound around his body, encasing him in a white cocoon. The adhesive strip came to a stop just under his neck so he could still breathe, and the blond pouted blearily at his friends. “I hate you all.”
“Love ya too, buddy,” Sero snickered before he turned to you, Mina, and Kirishima. “You guys ready?”
“Yup!” Mina chirped and tugged on your elbow to spin you around. “Onward!”
“Uhhhh, is Kaminari gonna be okay?” you asked as you were dragged toward the entrance, glancing over your shoulder to see Sero squatting down, picking up the cocooned electric hero, and throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Yeah, this isn’t the first time he’s been taped, he’ll be fine,” Mina giggled and then shot you a wink. “He might be embarrassed in the morning when he learns you saw him get taped, but he’ll survive.”
“O-Oh, okay,” you said, because what else could you say? This was obviously a normal end of the night for the heroes, so who were you to judge?
Mina expertly guided you out of the bar without drawing any attention from the lingering drunks, and when you glanced at the old clock above the front door, you saw it was long past midnight.
How did it get so late?
The cold night air hit you like a slap to the face as you stepped out of the bar, and you shivered, ducking a little bit into you jacket until you got a whiff of burnt sugar off the collar and remembered it wasn’t your jacket. Embarrassment crawled through your veins like ants, but you were thankfully distracted from the sensation by a commotion behind you.
“Damn it, Denki, stop struggling,” Sero huffed as he clomped down the stairs with a wriggling Kaminari still thrown over his shoulder. The pair came to a stop on the sidewalk beside you and Mina, and the dark-haired hero grunted as he shifted the blond’s weight. “Ugh, where’s Ochako when I need her?”
“If I’m so heavy, then put me down,” Kaminari said and continued wiggling. “I can walk.”
“Remember the last time you said that, Denks, and you ended up going to the hospital because you knocked out two teeth faceplanting into a curb?” Kirishima chuckled as he came down the stairs last.
“That was one time!” the blond whined, and he arched like a worm writhing on a hook. “And it’s my birthday! I shouldn’t be taped on my birthday!”
“Denki, if you don’t stop, I’m dragging you all the way home,” Sero warned, and he must have been serious, because Kaminari immediately stopped struggling.
“Fine,” he pouted. “I’m going to sleep, then. Take that.”
Sero rolled his dark eyes before they came to settle on you, and then a small smile tugged at his lips.
“It was nice to meet you,” he said. “I hope our shenanigans haven’t completely chased you off.”
“No, no,” you assured him quickly, and your own smile was only a little forced. “Tonight was… fun. More fun than I’ve had in a while. So, thank you for having me.”
Thank you for pretending, you didn’t say.
“Aw, you’re so cute and polite,” Mina cooed before she leaned over and smacked a kiss against your cheek, causing you to blush as red as Kirishima’s hair. But you told yourself that the pink-skinned hero just seemed affectionate with everyone, that was all.
“W-Wait, is that Stitches?” Kaminari suddenly gasped and renewed his struggling. “She’s still here? Sero, put me down! I need to say goodbye.”
“Oops, that’s our cue.” Sero smirked and glanced at Mina. “You coming, or making your own way home?”
“Someone’s gotta make sure you both end up home in one piece,” the pink-haired hero giggled and then held up the hand that wasn’t looped through yours, flashing the phone she held. “I already ordered us a car. They’re like a minute away and are meeting us at the corner down there.”
She gestured past Sero, and he glanced over his right shoulder with Kaminari still wiggling on the left one.
“Alright, let’s go,” he said before he flashed you one last wink. “Have a good night, Stitches. Hope to see you soon.”
“Y-Yeah, you, too.” You smiled faintly, fighting back you blush. He was just being nice, polite, he didn’t mean it. “Get home safe.”
“I’ll text you with my schedule this week so we can plan a girl’s day,” Mina said as she disentangled her arm from yours and pressed another kiss to your cheek. “Bye!”
“B-Bye,” you stuttered, waving weakly as the pink-skinned hero skipped over to Sero’s side, and then the two turned and started walking down the street in the opposite direction.
“Uh, bye, guys,” Kirishima called out after his friends as he stepped up next to you.
“Oh, yeah, bye, Kiri!” Mina blew a kiss over her shoulder while Sero half-heartedly lifted his hand but didn’t turn.
“Wait! Stitchessssss!” Kaminari managed to crane his head up just enough to catch a glimpse of you, and then he bucked right off Sero’s shoulder, tumbling to the ground.
“Oh!” you gasped, covering your mouth and glancing at Kirishima. “Is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” the redhead laughed, and he jerked his chin toward his friends. “See?”
You looked up in time to see Sero shake his head down at Kaminari, who had flipped over onto his stomach and was trying to inch worm his way down the sidewalk back in your direction. Sero muttered something to the blond that you couldn’t hear, but Kaminari kept crawling, so the dark-haired hero shrugged and started walking forward again.
“Noooooo,” Kaminari wailed as he was dragged backwards by the tape encasing his body, and he called out your nickname several times before the tape slithered up his neck and over his mouth, muffling his screams.
“I could have said goodbye to him, if it meant so much,” you said with a furrowed brow.
“We would have been here for another hour,” Kirishima chuckled and shook his head. “On his last birthday, Denki started crying about how much he loved everyone, and he wrapped himself around Bakugo’s legs, refusing to let go and causing a major scene. Which Bakubro escalated by blasting him off, but… yeah. This was as quick and painless as it gets.”
“If you say so,” you murmured, suppressing a wince when you saw Kaminari get dragged over the curb on the corner while Sero and Mina approached a waiting car.
“Sero won’t hurt him too much, just enough to hopefully knock some sense into him so they don’t get kicked out of the car.” The redhead smiled down at you reassuringly before he extended his elbow. “We should be on our way, too. It’s later than I intended, sorry about that.”
“It’s fine, really.” You smiled back and tentatively took his elbow. “I wasn’t lying before. I had fun. I just hope I didn’t embarrass myself too much or bore anyone with my American stories.”
“Are you kidding?” Kirishima scoffed as the pair of you started walking down the street in the direction of his agency. “Everyone loved you. And I thought your American stories were so cool! Especially the college ones. Bakugo and I just started climbing the hero ranks straight out of U.A., so the fact that you got a degree is really impressive to me.”
“Getting a piece of paper is definitely not as impressive as becoming the Number Three Hero by your mid-twenties,” you snorted.
“Nah, I mainly just rode Bakugo’s coat tails up the ladder.” The hardening hero shrugged, and you could see a faint blush stain his cheeks, but then he was looking down at you with a frown. “You talk down on yourself a lot, you know.”
“W-What?” Your feet stuttered along with your mouth, and you slipped off the curb and would have twisted your ankle if Kirishima hadn’t held you up.
“Whoops, careful,” he said as he literally picked you up with one arm— with you still clutching to the curve of his elbow like a kid hanging off the monkey bars— and set you back down on your feet. “You okay?”
“Y-Yup.” You cleared your throat and tried to fight back your embarrassed flush. Then you took a deep breath and watched your feet closely as the two of you started walking again. “Sorry, I’m just… stupidly clumsy.”
“There you go again,” Kirishima said and bumped his shoulder into yours, except your head was level with his shoulder, so he nearly shoved you off the curb again. “Oops, my bad. But seriously, Stitches, you shouldn’t talk down on yourself so much. Or apologize so much. I swear I’ve heard you apologize for breathing before. But you’re a genuinely cool person. You’re obviously smart, what with the knowing multiple languages, the degree, and you even own your own business! That’s so awesome!”
“I’m just a seamstress,” you muttered, and you swore your face was on fire now. You were anticipating actual flames any second now. You kept trying to tell yourself he was just being nice, but he sounded so genuine, so earnest, and you didn’t know what to do with that.
“You provide an important service to the public,” the redhead corrected, bumping you with his shoulder again, but much softer this time. Then he smiled down at you, and you couldn’t help but smile faintly back. “A-ha! There it is. Knew I could get you to smile. Seriously, though, you’ve accomplished a lot, so you really shouldn’t talk bad about my friend like that.”
“Your… friend?” you echoed in disbelief.
“Well, yeah,” Kirishima said as he looked down at you, and his red eyes were serious and sincere. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but… I consider you a friend. Hell, you’ve already made dinner for me more times than Denki, so you might be a better friend than he is.”
The hardening hero grinned to show he was joking, but all you could do was blink up at him in shock. He… thought of you as a friend? You’d considered yourself an acquaintance at best, but more likely a burden and obligation. But you knew Kirishima wouldn’t just outright lie to you. He was too… good for that, too honest and straightforward.
So… maybe everyone hadn’t just been pretending tonight. Maybe they didn’t pity you. Maybe they actually… liked you.
The thought had hope and happiness rising in your chest like birds taking flight, but then the image of Bakugo marching away from you flashed through your mind, and the birds were shot out of the sky.
Well, obviously not everyone liked you.
“Uh, Stitches?” Kirishima’s voice drew you from your thoughts, and you shook your head before looking up at him.
“Sorry,” you said, manipulating your stiff lips into a small smile. “I was just… surprised you think of me that way.”
“You don’t think of us as friends?” He frowned, and there was a note of hurt in his voice.
“N-No, I just… I didn’t want to presume anything,” you muttered and averted your gaze to watch a car drive by. It was easier to gather your thoughts when you weren’t looking at the imposing redhead, so you took a deep breath before you continued. “I’ve really enjoyed my time at the agency so far. The sidekicks always ask me about my day when I go downstairs, and sometimes we talk about the latest TV shows while standing around the coffee machine in the breakroom. I’ve liked learning and buying their favorite snacks, and the few times you and I ate dinner were fun. It’s been… nice. Really nice. I’ve never really had a lot of friends. I was always the weird Asian girl who had an accent until the second grade, and even when I lost it, I was still one of a few ‘ethnic’ people in a mostly white area. And when I moved here, even though I speak the language, sometimes people can tell I’m American and just… treat me differently.”
“That sucks,” Kirishima muttered as his frown deepened in your peripherals. “I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is.” You shrugged and tried to seem unbothered even though your ‘otherness’ had eaten away at you all your life. “But what I’m trying to say is, it’s not that I didn’t want to think of you all as friends. It’s just… you’re all really important heroes, and I know that the only reason I even came to the agency was because you had to pay for the repairs on my shop. So I just thought…”
“That we were only being nice because we had to?” Kirishima finished.
“Well… yeah,” you murmured and blushed, because now that you said it out loud, it sounded like you thought the redhead and the rest of the sidekicks were all shallow and two-faced, which wasn’t fair to them.
“And do you still think that?” he asked, but there wasn’t any judgement in his voice. It was an honest question.
You glanced at the hardening hero out of the corner of your eye, and you found him staring down at you patiently. You recalled how excited he had been to invite you tonight, to introduce you to his friends, how he had searched for you when he thought you were missing. None of that felt like obligation to you, and you realized that your own insecurities made you form some unfair assumptions about him and the other heroes that you’d encountered in the last week.
“No,” you finally said, and it didn’t taste like a lie. “No, I don’t.”
“Good.” Kirishima grinned down at you. “Because the last time I invited someone to hang out with my friends out of obligation, I was like… five, and my mom said I had to invite my whole class to my birthday party, even the mean kid who liked to push everyone down at recess. And you’re definitely much more fun to hang out with than that butthead Shin Okamura.”
You giggled at that, and the sound made Kirishima’s grin widen.
“Alright, fine,” you huffed and rolled your eyes, but your smile only grew. “I’ll… stop being so self-deprecating.”
“Good,” Kirishima repeated as he continued leading you to his agency, but when he looked down at you again, he was suddenly serious. “Just remember. You don’t have to be a hero to make a difference in the world.”
You’d heard the same platitudes from your parents, from your college professors, and you sighed.
“I know—”
“You could be a back alley healer, for example.”
You gasped and stumbled again, glancing around for anyone who might have overheard, but the street was empty and quiet save the two of you. Still, your heart was tap dancing off rhythm beneath your sternum, and you squeezed Kirishima’s arm from where you still had your hand tucked into his elbow.
“Ow! Okay, sorry, sorry!” Kirishima burst out laughing and pretended to cower away from you, but the effect was ruined by the grin breaking his face in half.
And you couldn’t quite hide your own smile, either.
The pair of you dissolved into silence for a minute as you continued walking down the street, and when you turned the next corner, you could see the agency looming up into the night sky at the end of the block.
“Hey, Stitches, can I ask you something, friend to friend?” Kirishima finally broke the silence, and something about his phrasing immediately set you on edge, your good mood evaporating like smoke.
“Uhh, sure,” you said and hoped you wouldn’t regret it.
“Did something happen between you and Bakugo? Back at the bar?” His red eyes cut to yours, so similar to another pair of red eyes that you were trying not to think about, and your mouth immediately went dry. Your mind flailed for a response, but the redhead barreled on. “It’s just… I noticed you came back wearing his jacket after you disappeared, and you seemed a little upset?”
“I did?” The words fell from your mouth unbidden, and you winced. You had thought you got your mask up in time.
“I mean, you were smiling and stuff, but your eyes looked kind of sad,” Kirishima said, frowning down at you. “I just wanted to make sure Bakubro didn’t upset you somehow.”
“N-No, no,” you blurted out, even though your heart was screaming yes. “He… I ran into him coming back from the bathroom. He was outside on the patio. I went to join him— t-to ask if he was coming back to the table— but some guys who were out there smoking started giving me a hard time. But Bakugo chased them off and gave me his jacket since I was cold. H-He said he didn’t want me getting sick and giving the agency a bad rep or something.”
You hoped the reasoning you gave for Bakugo handing over his jacket made sense. It was the only logical explanation you could come up with.
“Oh.” Kirishima blinked and seemed to process your words for a moment. “Well, I’m sorry some assholes were bothering you. You should have said something.”
“It really wasn’t a big deal,” you said dismissively, trying to forget the way your heart had jumped into your throat when those three men surrounded you. “And Bakugo handled it.”
“I’m sure he did,” the redhead muttered, and when you looked up at him, he was smirking.
“What do you mean?” you asked.
“Ahhh, nothing.” Kirishima cleared his throat. “Oh, look! We’re here.”
The agency suddenly loomed above you, and Kirishima stopped just in front of the doors. You could see a few sidekicks through the glass doors, the poor bastards who’d pulled the short straw and gotten the night shift on a Saturday, but they were mainly just yawning at their desks or walking back and forth to the coffee machine in the break room.
“Do you want me to walk you up?” Kirishima asked as he moved to open the door.
“No,” you refused, stopping him. “It’s late, and you’re off the clock ‘till Monday. Go home, Red Riot. I can make it up the elevator on my own.”
“Alright, alright.” The hardening hero smiled and held up his hands. “I’ll get going. But… thanks for coming out tonight.”
“I think I’m the one who should be thanking you,” you chuckled, but then a gust of wind wafted the scent of burnt sugar into your nose, and your smiled faded as you cleared your throat and slowly shrugged off the jacket draped over your shoulders. “Actually, could you, um, extend my gratitude to Bakugo as well and give this back to him when you see him next?”
You extended the jacket out to the redhead, but Kirishima just stared at it for a second before shaking his head.
“You’ll probably see him before I do, so keep it for now,” he said. “Bakugo has a shift tomorrow evening, so you can just come downstairs and return it to him then. Or I’m sure he’d be fine with you leaving it in his office.”
The thought of even seeing the blond right now made your stomach flip and your body break out in a cold sweat, but you covered it up with a smile as you clutched the jacket to your chest.
“Oh, okay,” you said, praying your voice wasn’t as shaky as you thought it was. “I’ll just… do that then.”
“Cool.” Kirishima shot you a smile. “Well, I better get going. I can feel the whisky making my eyelids heavy.”
“Do you need to order a car or something?” you asked with a concerned frown.
“Nah, I only live a couple blocks away, I’ll be fine,” he said as he waved you off, and then he jerked his chin at the agency doors. “You should get inside first, though, or I’ll worry that you got snatched the moment I turned my back.”
“I definitely don’t want to get snatched,” you laughed and reached for the door. “Have a good night, Kirishima. Get home safe.”
“Will do.” He grinned, flashing his pointed teeth. “Night, Stitches.”
“Night.” You smiled over your shoulder as you opened the door, and true to his word, the hardening hero waited until you were safe inside the agency lobby before he put two fingers to his forehead in a salute, turned, and walked out of sight.
The moment he was gone, you felt the smile slowly slide off your face. It was hard to be upset in the redhead’s presence, he just exuded so much warmth and happiness, but now that you were alone, clutching Bakugo’s jacket to your chest, all of the thoughts you’d been suppressing came bubbling back up to the surface.
You tried to keep your face composed as your turned and made your way to the elevator. The few dozing sidekicks in the bullpen greeted you halfheartedly, and you waved weakly in return. Then your eyes trailed past them to the darkened, glass walled office that you knew belonged to Bakugo. You considered dropping off the jacket on his desk or chair like Kirishima suggested, just to get it away from you, but then you thought of the sidekicks watching you walk to the office, wondering what you were doing, speculating as to why you had their boss’ jacket, and you abandoned the idea as you jammed your finger into the elevator button.
It was only after the elevator doors closed behind you, only when you were standing alone staring at your fuzzy reflection, that you let the tears come. They quickly blurred your vision, burned in the back of your throat, but you managed to hit the button for your floor and stumbled into your room before you truly started crying. You didn’t know if there were any sidekicks sleeping on this floor, so you forced yourself to be quiet, pressing your lips together and only gasping when you needed air.
You immediately threw the jacket over the back of your desk chair, desperate to get away from the caramelized scent, but you realized it still clung to your dress, your hair. So, with tears streaming down your face, you stripped down to your panties, dropping everything onto the floor, tearing your jewelry off and tossing it onto your desk. You only had enough energy to pull on a hoodie before you collapsed into the bed, and you shivered, still crying, as you tugged the covers up over your head.
Fuck, how could you have been so stupid? You’d done a lot of stupid things in your life, but kissing Dynamight took the cake. The blond had only brought you to the agency for two reasons: insurance purposes and your quirk. He needed a healer, someone to fix his ears so he could keep fighting the good fight. And you were convenient. You needed to stay at the agency anyway while your shop was repaired, so you were supposed to use your quirk in the interim to help him with his problem.
Except now, you were pretty sure you ruined that. Because Bakugo didn’t want you like you wanted him. He made that pretty obvious. So he probably wouldn’t want your help anymore, because who wanted to receive medical care from someone lusting after them inappropriately?
And what if he kicked you out of the agency entirely? You didn’t necessarily have to stay here, the agency just had to pay for your lodgings until your apartment was fixed, so Bakugo could just send you to a hotel first thing in the morning, get you out of his hair for the last week or two.
You knew you couldn’t stay at the agency forever, but you had been telling Kirishima the truth earlier. You liked it here. You liked seeing the sidekicks on a regular basis, liked it when Kirishima poked his head into the kitchen to see what you were cooking. You didn’t want to leave just yet.
So… you would just have to apologize.
Bakugo had a shift tomorrow night, which meant you had over twelve hours to figure out what you were going to say. Then you’d go downstairs, find the blond, return his jacket, and bow your head to the floor to apologize for being so forward and inappropriate and… pitiful.
Hopefully, he would accept it.
You fell asleep sniffling, with your eyes swollen from tears. And because the universe was cruel, you dreamed of ash-blood hair and crimson eyes. Of warm hands around your waist and even warmer lips against your own. In one part of the dream, you were back on that patio, Bakugo looming over you, wrapped around you. His kiss burned like fire, like an iron brand pulled straight from the flames, and you felt the heat consume you. In this dream, neither of you needed to part for air, and Mina didn’t come outside. You both were just suspended in time— lips and tongues and hands— and Bakugo devoured you one biting kiss at a time.
You awoke with your mouth tingling, with the smell of burning sugar in your nose, before reality came crashing back down and pinned you to the bed. The weight on your chest kept you submerged beneath the blankets most of the day, only slightly letting up in the afternoon when your bladder was on the verge of bursting. You dragged yourself to your feet and to the bathroom down the hall, but after relieving yourself, you just shuffled right back to bed. When you checked your phone, you saw it was almost four o’clock, and your stomach rumbled, begging for more than the finger foods you’d had at the bar last night. But you still hadn’t gone grocery shopping, so if you wanted anything more than snacks, you would have to go out, and the thought of potentially running into Bakugo downstairs turned your blood to ice.
You knew you still needed to apologize, but you just… couldn’t bring yourself to do it, so instead you burrowed back under the blankets and turned to face the wall.
You would allow yourself one day to wallow. Then, tomorrow, Monday, you’d shove all your feelings back into a box where they belonged, do the adult thing, and apologize.
Unfortunately, as you should have already learned, things don’t always go to plan.
True to your word, you did get up at dawn the next morning, showered, ate, dressed like a functional human being. You even ran errands, stopping by the shop to see how construction was coming along, picking up some small projects from your clients, doing the grocery run you’d been putting off for so long.
When you returned to the agency around midday, you stopped by the first floor breakroom to fill the fridge with snacks, and the sidekicks immediately flocked to the goodies. Even Kirishima stuck his head into the room to say hi, dressed in his full Red Riot gear. He said he was about to go out on patrol, and the two of you made quick, casual conversation before movement beyond the redhead caught your attention.
Bakugo had stopped a few feet beyond the threshold of the breakroom, also decked out in all his hero gear. You only had a moment to take in the full, imposing figure he cut in his suit before your eyes found his, and the moment they did, the blond’s face hardened into stone. You saw the muscle in his jaw tick as he ground his teeth, but then he spun away and stomped off, even when Kirishima called out after him.
The redhead had rolled his eyes and said the blond was in a mood day, but you knew it was more than that.
He was avoiding you, didn’t want to even see you. And he continued to avoid you for the rest of that day and the following. Whenever you stepped off the elevator, if he was in eyesight, he immediately disappeared, stalking off to the locker or training rooms or darkening the glass walls surrounding his office. He obviously didn’t want to talk to you, and every time he met your eyes and instantly retreated in the opposite direction, your heart squeezed in your chest.
But he hadn’t kicked you out of the agency, so that was something at least.
Mina also helped keep you from spiraling. The pink-haired hero texted you multiple times a day, sometimes just sending a funny picture or meme, other times telling you about a crazy thing that happened on her patrol. She had in fact also added you to a group chat with Kirishima, Sero, and Denki, so you received some messages from them every now and again. Bakugo was technically in the group chat, too— or at least you thought he was, since there was another number listed in the chat, but the number never replied to anything, so you couldn’t be sure. Still, it was nice to get messages from people other than your parents and your elderly customers who struggled with technology. It helped balance out the weight that had grown heavier in your chest with each passing hour.
By Tuesday night, you came to the realization that Bakugo would probably continue ignoring you until you left the agency. You tried to convince yourself that you were fine with this. Soon, your shop would be fixed, and everything would go back to normal. You’d go back to being a seamstress with a slightly illegal side hustle, and it would be like you never met the blond. It wasn’t like you’d been particularly close, anyway. Sure, you were attracted to him physically, but who wouldn’t be? And okay, you admired his tenacity as a pro hero, his bravery and relentlessness in the face of adversity and danger, but so did a lot of other people. It was just… a celebrity crush. You would get over it.
You had to.
“Shit,” you cursed for the umpteenth time in the last half hour, frowning down at the bead of blood crowning your fingertip.
Your quirk washed away the minute pain almost immediately, but you just sighed and set down your needle and thread. You’d been trying to mend a hole in Mr. Fujita’s slacks, but you were too distracted, and if you continued like this, you were going to return the pants with blood stains.
You stretched your back and decided to get up from the little desk you’d been hunched over for the past few hours. Picking your phone up, you realized it was almost eight pm, and your stomach snarled as if to reprimand you. A quick dinner would probably be best, maybe some of the instant ramen you picked up at the store yesterday.
You glanced at the door and then sighed when you realized you would actually have to walk down the hall to make the dinner yourself. The kitchen seemed so far away when you thought about it, so you decided to take a ten minute break on your bed. The hunger would probably be enough to motivate you by then.
Collapsing onto the bed, you picked a social media app at random and then just started scrolling. It kept your interest for a minute or two, but then— because of some of your recent searches— a video of a deaf baby getting a cochlear implant popped up on your feed, and your eyes immediately trailed to the shadow of Bakugo’s jacket hanging from a hook on the inside of your door. From this angle, you could see the sheaf of papers you’d rolled up and stuffed into the inside pocket, and you once again considered just walking downstairs and leaving the jacket in his office. The interns might gossip, but you would probably be gone in a week. You could survive the whispers and looks for that long.
You stared at the jacket for a long moment before you sighed and flicked your eyes back to your phone.
“Coward,” you muttered to yourself and angrily started scrolling again.
You weren’t even paying attention to the posts and videos you scrolled past, but you sure as hell noticed when a loud boom suddenly rattled your windows right before the building trembled slightly around you.
You inhaled sharply as your eyes snapped to the darkened window beside your bed. Your heartrate increased, skipping beats, because that sounded familiar, felt familiar. You slowly went to put your phone down on the bed, but your finger twitched across the screen, swiping to the next video, which happened to be a live news feed.
“— here downtown! Three villains have robbed a nearby bank, and they seem to be giving Dynamight some trouble!”
“Dynamight?” you gasped as you scrambled to pick up your phone.
The camera footage was shaky and cloudy, like there was smoke or dust in the air, and it seemed like the news team was peeking out around the corner of a building. You couldn’t see much through the haze, but then an explosion of light crossed the screen, followed by a boom that you heard through the phone’s speakers and through the glass of your window.
“No,” you breathed as your wide eyes drifted toward the window. Then you propelled yourself to your feet and stood on your tiptoes to look outside. Your room was on one of the higher floors of the agency, and the agency itself was one of the tallest buildings on the block, so you could see at least a block or two from your vantage point.
You craned your neck, holding your breath as you waited for the next explosion, which came a moment later. It was accompanied by another flash of light in your peripherals, and you could just barely see a cloud of dust in the very corner of the window. It seemed like the battle was happening a couple blocks to the right of the agency, and you frantically turned back to the phone in your hand as the newscaster started talking again.
“From what we’re witnessing, one villain seems to have an offensive electric quirk, another turns anything they touch into a sticky sludge, and the third is able to produce bubbles that seem to capture and incapacitate. Dynamight is battling them singlehandedly, after several other heroes— possibly sidekicks from his agency— were trapped by the bubble villain’s quirk.”
The camera quickly panned over a destroyed road that looked like your street had just a week ago. Rubble and pockets of black goo covered the broken pavement, and through the haze of dust or smoke, you could just make out several dome-like shapes with human figures inside them, like a perverse kind of toy from one of those coin machines. The trapped heroes were hammering at the walls surrounding them, but whatever the bubble was made of must have been strong, because the heroes were making no headway.
You snapped your gaze from the phone, to the window, and back again, praying to catch a glimpse of Dynamight’s bright orange suit, but the cameraman was ducking for cover again as another explosion rocked the street, and your heart climbed into your throat.
“Come on, come on,” you muttered as you clutched your phone in sweaty palms. You knew Bakugo was strong, he wouldn’t be Number Two otherwise, but you knew every explosion diminished his hearing, and the booms were starting to become rapid fire.
“Oh my— what is that?” the newscaster suddenly gasped, and a hand cut across the camera, pointing at something off screen. “Is that… is that a child?!”
The footage zoomed in too quickly and took a moment to focus, but then the cloudy outline of a child materialized into being. By size, you would guess he was around six years old, and you could just barely hear him crying over the newscaster’s heavy breathing and the staccato explosions. Then a more high-pitched screaming started, and the camera panned to a mother running out of a nearby alley, trying to reach her baby in the chaos.
What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion.
The camera zoomed out to take in more of the street, and a villain careened onto the screen. He seemed to have been thrown, or maybe he leapt, but he landed on his feet a few yards away from the wailing child, just as the screaming mother threw her arms around him. The villain’s upper lip seemed to curl up in disgust, and then he aimed one of his palms at the mother and son.
A bubble shot out of his hand like a bullet, expanding as it went, but just before it swallowed the wailing duo, an explosion of light and orange color shoved them out of the way.
“No!” you gasped, but it was too late, and you watched helplessly as Bakugo was swallowed by the bubble.
The blond rolled in his round cage until he slammed up against an overturned car, and you saw him shake his head as he climbed back onto his feet. He smacked one of his palms against the bubble, but the wall barely even rippled. Bakugo tried again, his hand glowing slightly orange, but still nothing happened.
“Oh god, Dynamight’s been captured!” the reporter cried out.
Meanwhile, the mother and son were still cowering in the middle of the street, frozen in fear and maybe pain, and the bubble villain was standing over them, smirking in triumph.
He raised his palm again, but your eyes were glued to Bakugo, because he was now standing in the middle of his bubble prison, with both of his own hands extended out in front of him. His mouth was twisted into a snarl, and his palms were wreathed in an orange glow that quickly turned white-hot, right before he reached for the pin on one of his gauntlets.
You suddenly realized what he was going to do.
“Bakugo, no!” you shouted like he could hear you, but it was futile.
The bubble he was trapped in suddenly lit up like the Fourth of July, becoming almost too bright to look at, before it exploded so loudly that the sound from the camera completely cut out.
The footage was nothing but dust and frantic movement for almost thirty seconds, but when it finally cleared, the street was empty. The camera jumped around then, trying to find the villains, Bakugo, but it suddenly settled on the mother and son again.
They were safe and somehow unharmed, half a block down from where they were just a moment ago. Confusion overtook your terror for a moment, but then you saw a flash of red, just before the camera focused on Kirishima, who was standing protectively in front of the mother and son.
Suddenly, the audio returned on the video.
“—Riot! I repeat, Red Riot is now on scene, accompanied by two sidekicks!”
Kirishima looked nothing like the smiling teddy bear that walked around the agency. His face was set in an intimidating scowl, and his massive body seemed even bigger as he glared at the villains off screen. His silhouette was jagged, his muscles— that you knew were harder than steel— sticking out at sharp angles. His bare chest was streaked with dust, but he seemed unharmed, and you felt a brief flash of relief.
But it quickly turned to dread the longer Bakugo was off screen.
Where was he? Had he hurt himself in the explosion?
Before the bile could eat through the base of your throat, a body suddenly flew past the camera, and the cameraman followed it as quickly as he could. The footage settled just as the bubble villain skidded to a stop on the broken asphalt, and then the camera jumped to Bakugo, who was standing in the middle of the road with his teeth bared.
You let out a breath you hadn’t realized you’d been holding. The blond was alive. He was alive.
“Dynamight seems to be back in action!” the reporter announced. “With Red Riot now on scene, the legendary duo should make quick work of these villains.”
You wanted to believe the reporter, but as the camera zoomed in on Bakugo, you saw the blood dripping from his ears, saw the way he swayed on his feet. Using his quirk to blast out of the bubble had most likely obliterated his eardrums, and you knew that disrupting the fluid in the inner ear resulted in balance problems. The explosive hero was probably fighting terrible vertigo just to stay on his feet.
Would he be able to stay upright long enough to subdue the villains?
You stared at the phone in your hand for one second, two, before you were spinning on your heel. You were in a casual pair of sweats, and you shoved your sockless feet into your sneakers as you grabbed Bakugo’s jacket off the hook, wrenched open your door, and sprinted down the hallway to the stairs.
You just hoped you could get there in time.
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