Chapter Text
It was cold,
Dark,
Wet.
He could faintly register the sounds of a nearby pipe leaking, and the humidity in the frigid air was making it near impossible to breathe.
He went to pull his hands to his head, ignoring the searing hot pain in his left shoulder in favor of wondering when in the hell he had handcuffs thrown on him.
“The fuck?”
“Oh good. You’re awake.”
The voice was slimy, and had sent chills down his spine.
“Who the fuck are you? And where the fuck am I?” he spat, voice hoarse with disuse.
Gods how fuckin’ long had he been here?
“Oh, you know me well, Ground Zero. As to where you are? Well, you’ll be dead long before we answer that.”
Before he could spit out his retort, he felt a searing hot pain in his temple, turning his world to black.
One week prior…
Katsuki was having a good day.
This morning, he had received the news that he had finally broken into the Top Ten, currently sitting pretty at number 7. While that had meant he was still behind fucking Deku and his shitty boyfriend Icy Hot, he was still pretty damn proud of himself.
Besides, not many heroes are able to break into the Top Ten within three years of graduating.
And now, on top of the news and the fact that it had been a balmy summer day, he and his partner were currently preoccupied with kicking the ever-living shit out of some villain duos’ ass.
Ah yes, his partner.
When Ryukyu had originally told him he was going to be partnered up, he absolutely lost his shit.
Him? Need a partner?
Tch. Yeah fucking right.
But since he didn’t have a choice in the matter, he was at least grateful as to just who Ryukyu had chosen for him.
“Gods dammit Bakugo pay attention! I swear…” Uraraka appeared in a flash at his left, quickly activating her quirk on him in order to fling him out of the way of an oncoming attack.
“Oi! I fuckin’ had it!” – he didn’t – “No need to use that floaty shit on me.” He yelled at her as he righted himself from being hurled across the room.
“Sure you did. Let’s just wrap this up.” She waved him off, running back into the fray.
Was Uraraka a great partner? Sure.
Was she a complete pain in his fucking ass? Absolutely.
He rolled his eyes at her back before diving back into the fight.
They had received a distress call while on patrol nearly thirty minutes ago, and this was dragging on much longer than he had liked. The duo they were currently fighting seemed like a lot more than just your run of the mill bank robbers, that was for damn sure.
The bank robbery was originally reported forty-five minutes ago, and they were still waiting on back up.
Tch. Like they’d need it.
He watched Uraraka hurl the orange haired man across the room, effectively knocking him out. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the white haired girl trying to make a break for it.
Didn’t he already cuff her?
Whatever, fuck it.
“Not on my fuckin’ watch.”
He shot off like a rocket towards her, quickly catching up to her before she disappeared into a foggy mist.
“The fuck?”
The mist was thick, making it difficult to breathe. His eyes began watering and it felt like his throat was going to close up if he didn’t get out of there soon.
Is this the girl’s quirk?
To his annoyance, he had no idea what her quirk could be. She hadn’t used it for the entire duration of the fight, relying instead on quick evasive maneuvers that kept her just out of his reach.
Yeah, he was over this shit.
He went to call for Uraraka, but nothing had come out.
The fuck??
He looked over to her, watching as her lips moved while she sprinted towards him. The orange haired guy she was fighting earlier had apparently woken up, and was now emitting a faint neon glow from his eyes.
And now, he couldn’t hear anything.
Not her shouts, not her feet slamming against the floor, hell, he couldn’t even hear himself breathe.
He felt a hand grasp his shoulder, and heard the first thing he had in minutes.
“Ground Zero, the Daten-Shi sends their regards.” What? “We look forward to seeing the two of you again.” The woman’s voice echoed in his ear as sound was slowly returned to the room.
He hardly registered her sprinting over to Orangey as Uraraka had come up to his side. Mist Lady whispered something to Orangey and oh hell fuckin’ no they’re not making a break for it.
“Cheeks!” he grabbed her attention, extending a hand as she quickly grabbed it with her own. She activated her quirk and hurled him across the room at the pair.
Before he could reach them, however, a faint flash of a cold, blinding white suddenly filled the room.
“What the fuck?”
Another figure had appeared, shooting a smirk at the two pros before all three had disappeared in another flash.
Katsuki righted himself as he felt gravity return, staring blankly into the spot the three villains had just stood moments ago.
“Bakugo!” Uraraka had caught up to him now, standing only a few inches away as she inspected him for injuries.
“Dammit Cheeks I’m fine.” He said, swatting her hands away. “What are you, my mother?”
She gave him a quick pout before responding. “Well excuse me for checking on my partner. What’d that girl say to you anyways? You look pissed.” She said, crossing her arms and smirking before adding “And your mother adores me so shut it.”
“Yeah you’re both fuckin’ crazy that’s why. And of course I’m pissed! They got away! She said some weird shit though, we should talk to Ryukyu ‘bout it.” He trailed off, extending a hand as the reporters came crashing in.
“Nope, not yet. We have to talk to the police first.”
“Tch. Have fun with that shit.” He growled before taking off himself.
He didn’t need her quirk to fly, just made it easier sometimes.
And maybe he liked the feeling of her hand on his…
“Bakugo! Are you kidding me!” she yelled as he took off, and he cackled at her annoyance.
Eh, it’s better Cheeks deals with ‘em anyways…
For now, he had a few questions for Ryukyu…
Uraraka had walked into the office nearly an hour later, fresh from giving her report to Ryukyu, and it was safe to say she was pissed.
She stormed over to his desk; fire alight in her eyes as he shot her an overconfident smirk.
Leave it to Cheeks to be hot as hell when she’s angry.
However, before she had a chance to give him a piece of her mind (which he usually enjoyed far more than he was supposed to), Ryukyu had interrupted.
“Bakugo, Uraraka, my office.”
Great. What could she be pissed about?
He got up from his desk, walking up to meet Uraraka in the hall.
“You’re dead to me.” She grumbled, giving him a light shove into the wall.
“Oh come on Cheeks, you’re better at that shit than me anyways.”
It was true, the police and media couldn’t get enough of her. All she had to do was flash them her signature bright as sunshine smile and they’d do anything for her.
It was annoying as fuck, honestly.
“You can’t use that excuse forever. What are you gonna do when Ryukyu splits us up? Now that you’re number seven I’m sure I won’t stay your partner for much longer.”
Okay, yeah that hurt a bit more than he thought it would.
He liked having Uraraka as his partner.
Well, he liked her, but that’s not important.
“Eh, don’t think you’ll get rid of me that easy.” He smirked as he burst through Ryukyu’s office doors.
“Good afternoon you two,” she greeted with a smile, “please, take a seat.”
They did as she said as she continued.
“Although they got away, you two managed to stop the robbery with minimal damages and injuries. Well done.”
Huh? There was no way she brought us in here just to give us a pat on the back…
“Bakugo, Uraraka had mentioned in her report that the woman had said something to you.” He gave her a slight nod.
“Yeah, said the Daten-Shi will be back for us or whatever.”
Uraraka looked just as confused as he felt, but Ryukyu on the other hand, looked like it had been expected?
She let out a small sigh before explaining. “There have been plans to bring a select few onto this case in the past month, but it appears they’ve taken an interest in the two of you.” She produced two thick envelopes from a drawer her desk, handing one to the each of them before continuing. “The Daten-Shi, or Fallen Angels, is an organization that has been around for the past year or so. We’ve been getting reports of their name being thrown around by various minor villains, but I believe the two you faced today were part of the inner circle.”
He opened the folder, quickly flipping through its’ contents as Ryukyu spoke.
“What would they want with us?” Uraraka asked while he was wondering the same.
“Well, we’re not sure. We weren’t aware of it ourselves until Bakugo just confirmed it a minute ago.”
“You say ‘we’. Who’s all a part of this?” he asked, eye’s landing on the profile of Orangey.
“Endeavor, Hawks, myself, and now the two of you. We’ve been talking about bringing All Might in, purely for behind the scenes purposes, as well as a few others currently in the Top Ten.”
“So you said others have reported the mention of the Daten-Shi, why not keep us out of it?” Uraraka asked, flipping through her own file.
“Well, now that we know they’ve apparently taken an interest in the two of you, I feel as though you’d be better off knowing what you could be up against.”
Katsuki looked back at the dragon hero, noticing a tiredness that he hadn’t noticed before.
“What do you need us to do.”
Ryukyu’s smile widened just a fraction as she leaned forward onto her desk.
“Just was I was waiting for you to ask…”
Ryukyu had sent them home nearly two hours later, and Katsuki was a combination of exhausted, irritated, and slightly embarrassed.
He and Uraraka had been walking down the road for the past five minutes in complete silence, and it was killing him.
He needed her to say something, anything, to break the gods damned awkward tension settled between the two of them right now.
“So…” – oh thank the gods – “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”
Worried brown eyes were staring back at him, and he felt he could answer honestly.
“Yeah Cheeks, told you it was fine. ‘Sides, you heard Ryukyu, it’s not like we really get a choice.” He answered, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.
The moment Ryukyu had informed them that it was ‘best to stick together’, he didn’t imagine she’d mean it so literally.
So now, for the next two fucking months, Uraraka was going to be temporarily moving into his apartment…
For ‘safety reasons’…
Gods Kirishima was gonna give him so much shit for this.
But that’s a problem for another time, as he was currently walking into Uraraka’s apartment to help her pack a bag because she was fucking moving in with him!
He’s fine though.
Sure, he had a slight crush on the girl, but he worked by her side all day, what’s a few more hours?
Oh he’s so fucked.
He’d been dead wrong.
This was a gods damned disaster.
Everything had been just fine as they packed up her bag.
The walk to his place was filled with comfortable silence.
Hell, even eating dinner had been better than this.
Because Uraraka was now seated on his motherfucking couch in these tiny ass shorts and a baggy t-shirt.
Gods fucking dammit.
He was trying so hard to focus on the files in front of him, but there was no use. His eyes just kept sliding over to the left, watching the girl tuck a strand of hair behind her ear while nose deep into criminal profiles.
22-year-old Uraraka wasn’t much different than high school Uraraka. While her face had slimmed out, she still had those chubby cheeks that earned her her nickname. Her hair was a bit longer now, falling just past her shoulders, but these changes were nothing compared to the other changes.
The woman was a physical beast, her body toned to complete perfection if you’d ask him.
Some time during their second year, she had asked if she could train with him. He wasn’t sure why he agreed back then, but he was glad that he did.
Well, maybe he did know…according to Kirishima anyways…
She kept up with every work out, handling more weight than most of the others.
Not to mention he loved that she didn’t take his shit, on and off the battlefield.
Yeah, Uraraka was an absolute force, and he loved it.
He would never admit it, but when Ryukyu had named them partners a year ago; he had trouble keeping the stupid grin off of his face the entire first week.
“Bakugo? Something wrong?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. Fuckin’ cute.
Oh wait fu—
“Nah Cheeks just tired. Let’s pick this back up in the morning.” He grunted as he threw the stack of police reports into his folder.
She gave him a slight nod before standing with a light stretch, causing the hem of her t-shirt to ride up and exposing a sliver of her hardened abs.
Fuck how’s he gonna sleep now?
“Yeah, I’m pretty tired!” she started for the hall before turning back over her shoulder. “Goodnight Bakugo, and thanks for letting me stay here.”
The smile she gave him caused a strange flutter in his chest, and he barely managed a whispered ‘night’ back before she disappeared into her new room.
Oh, this is gonna be fuckin’ hell.