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Pro Hero Dynamight shifted in his seat impatiently. He sat in not the second, not the third, but the /fourth/ meeting today about the supposed PR fiasco he’d caused yesterday evening. The “fiasco” where he may or may not have just barely singed some hair off of beloved Pro Hero Uravity’s head. The public reaction, not to mention the reaction from his agency, was completely overblown, and only escalating as each new meeting was scheduled. They all seemed to think that HE owed HER an apology. When she’s the one that got in the way of his AP Shot in the middle of a battle! Un - fucking - believable. Katsuki tuned in to the conversation around him just in time to hear one of the Suits propose another meeting /after/ lunch, this time with Uravity’s manager and maybe even a lawyer??
“However, if Dynamight could find it in his heart to just make a public apology…” his direct manager gave Katsuki a pointed look, “then this can all go away a lot faster…”
He did his best to avoid her gaze, and the additional frustrated looks from around the room. /He/ knew this was fucking ridiculous and he hadn’t done anything wrong, but the press and the public had already been pushing this image of him as some unmanageable asshole, and he knew that wasn’t the best look. “Rough around the edges” or “Explosive but gets the job done” were very different from “Difficult to work with.” He weighed his options a final time before giving in with a huff.
“Fuck. Just - fine!” he spat out. Briefly, it looked as though the meeting room of downtrodden staff might cry with happiness or erupt in cheers at his admission.
“I’m NOT doing a public apology for doing my fucking job,” instantly the celebratory mood was sucked out of the room, “but I will apologize to Miss Perfect Hero Uravity personally if it means her agency gets off our back about it. I’ll even go talk to her in person!” A downright generous offer, in his opinion.
There was some trepidation among the Suits, but this was the only concession he’d made since the incident last night, and probably the only they were going to get. His manager promised to set up a meeting with just the two heroes, no cameras, and sent him off with a warning to be extra polite.
During his brief lunch break Katsuki finally dared to open his phone, and was immediately greeted by the type of headline he thought his team had been exaggerating about.
“No. 8 Rescue Hero Uravity ‘Heartbroken’ About Her New Image. Dynamight Once Again Declines Comment.” Brutal. Not only that, but the accompanying images were less than flattering. The battle had been widely televised, and from the angle of the helicopter shot it did sort of look like he blasted her in the face with an explosion… Katsuki shook away any genuine guilt that might bubble up at that thought. He’d been assured several times over that the only thing he’d damaged was her hair. And according to this article, her heart? He almost rolled his eyes. The full context of her responding social media post quote was much of the same. Something about how she was heartbroken to have to change her image, but happy it was for the greater good, blah blah. Laying it on pretty thick, Katsuki thought. Glancing at the time, he readied himself to meet with the damsel of the hour, who - per the strict instructions of his agency - he was definitely NOT going to piss off.
~~~
Judging by the look on her face, Uraraka was well past “pissed off” already. She leaned against a brick wall on the secluded roof they’d decided on for their meeting spot, her arms crossed tightly in front of her and her hip popped out with clear agitation. Upon landing at the chosen location, Katsuki made himself blink a few extra times to force his eyes away from her shape. At the same time he realized vaguely that while they came across each other in the field fairly often, he hadn’t actually spoken to Uraraka since high school. He definitely hadn’t had a good look at her either… If not for the recent incident and the abundance of images online he probably wouldn’t have realized that her hair was long enough to brush past her hips. Borderline impractical for hero work in his opinion. /Had been/ that long until last night, that is. At present, her hair was tucked into the half-helmet she wore with her hero costume, so he couldn’t accurately assess the damage.
In record time, Katsuki forgot his determination not to check her out like some kind of creep. He allowed himself a few glances as he removed his heavy gauntlets and pulled his face mask up to his forehead. She was much more muscular than he remembered, and if he thought the soft roundness of her thighs was hot in high school, they had nothing on the way the toned outline of her leg muscles showed through her hero costume today… Fully distracted at this point, he wondered if she was seeing anybody. Was there an…Australian Pro Hero she was dating a while back? Or did they break up? Before he could let the ill-advised question pass his lips, his eyes were drawn back up to the murderous expression on her face, and he abruptly remembered the reason for their meeting.
Right. Uravity was mad that she needed a haircut or something. Maybe if he was lucky she’d try to kick his ass and they’d resolve this the easy way.
“Are you going to stand there and ogle me all day, or do you have something to say?” she half shouted at him from the place he had landed about ten feet away. He opened his mouth to respond just as she cut him off.
“-Something along the lines of ‘I’m sorry Uraraka for my severe lapse of judgment in battle, for aiming my obnoxious explosion right at your face during your rescue operation? I deeply apologize for all disrespect that I’ve shown you over the course of /multiple/ joint operations over the years? I will happily compensate you for the haircut you had to get in the middle of the night and for any lost profits that result from the damage to your public image??’" she finally took a breath, "I JUST had new merchandise rolled out last month with me and my /now signature/ long hair!!” during her tirade she had started pacing, but now faced him squarely and re-crossed her arms.
Katsuki could feel his blood boil instantly. He hardly knew where to start with this bullshit. “MY lapse of judgment?? You ran in front of me while I was shooting at a villain! Does that seem like a smart ‘Pro Hero' thing to do??”
If Uraraka was a little red in the face before, she rivaled Kirishima’s color scheme now. “You drew the villain toward my active rescue operation!”
“I drew him toward the best spot to shoot an explosion at him!”
“You ALWAYS find a way to draw the battle towards me!
“Because you always get out of the way in time!”
“I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO get out of the way all the time!” her screeching reached an inhuman pitch and instead of matching her energy, Katsuki shut his mouth and took a moment to collect his thoughts.
Just like his therapist and his agent and his mother had recommended on separate occasions, he took a lap - a literal lap - around the roof, closed his eyes and thought about what the other person was trying to communicate. At some point someone (probably his mother) had told him ‘it’s definitely rude to ignore people, but not nearly as rude as some of the shit that usually comes out of your mouth.’
So. Uraraka was upset. She felt that the hair incident from last night was part of a larger issue. She felt that he allowed his battle operations to interfere with her rescue operations often enough that it was a problem.
“Uhh, Bakugo?” he tuned her out as he paced slowly and continued thinking.
But he /did/ do battle with villains closer to her area than other rescue heroes he came across. Obviously because she was more capable. He could let loose a little more because she was always paying attention - like he was - and when she finished rescue she would sometimes join in and finish the fight like the badass she was. Did she think that he was just being careless?? Does she not know what a badass she is? He finally stopped walking and faced his opponent. She was looking at him with a deeply puzzled expression, but at least looked less angry than before.
Stay on mission, he thought. The mission being to apologize and get Uravity’s agency off his case and out of the news cycle.
“Listen,” he tried his best to check his aggressive tone but his voice came out gravelly and strained instead, “I…am…/sorry/. About burning your hair.” He reached his arms out toward her in an awkward kind of half-shrug, willing her to accept. His pacing had brought him a lot closer, only a few feet away from her and her ridiculous pink costume.
“Oh,” this close to her face he could tell she was more confused than ever, her small brows bunching together under the pink tint of her helmet’s visor. He could see the gears turning in her head, and felt almost guilty at the way he’d managed to derail her rage as she bit her bottom lip. Her brown eyes met his, finally softening before the expression reformed into her best attempt at smugness.
“Well I guess you should have said that in the first place! I accept,” she shot back at him with a scrunch of her nose, and he quickly turned away scowling. What was it about staring at her that was pissing him off so much? Still, Katsuki steeled himself, not quite finished addressing her yet.
“But /obviously/ when we’re put on joint missions I’m gonna direct the battle toward you. It’s just common sense.” he turned his back to her, making his way toward the gauntlets and other odds and ends he had set down in a neat pile.
“Common - Common sense???” She yelled from behind him. What the hell was her problem now? He glanced back to see her expression much the same as before, but kept his pace steady. He’d accomplished the mission after all, and she was definitely such a Goody Two Shoes that she would never take back her ‘I accept’ even to spite him.
Just to be nice, he replied to her protest, “Yeah, common sense. You went to UA, you kick ass in combat when you want to, and you can keep up with me. I don’t know what got into you last night, but you’re usually less of a total airhead.” he started gathering his things, pretty satisfied that he had explained his feelings well.
“I - You,” Uraraka marched toward him with a speed and fervor he was not prepared for, and he almost dropped a grenade with how quickly she caught up to him.
“Airhead?!” she clenched her hands at her sides, and Katsuki tried not to imagine a kid having a temper tantrum or else he might laugh. “You - I’m making you pay for my haircut you…asshole!” she let out the swear with more determination than Katsuki was prepared for, and he did laugh a little this time.
“Asshole? Okay Cheeks, whatever. Don’t act like a moron in combat and you won’t have to get a trim next time.” he continued gathering his things, unbothered for the most part. Though there was still a little part of his brain nagging at him to ask if she had a phone number? If she wanted to get lunch or something? Stupid thoughts that he willed to float away. Not to mention probably the wrong time.
“A /trim/?” she finally shot back at him, frantically grabbing at the latch on the back of her helmet.
“Yeah,” he responded, “it’s pretty obvious that you’re blowing this out of proportion to get an apology out of me, and it’s not like you even had to get rid of that…much.” She yanked the helmet off her head with unnecessary force, but Katsuki’s eyes were glued to the top of her head as the hard pink material clattered to the ground.
He…didn’t know what he was expecting. He thought the rest of her hair was in a ponytail? A bun maybe? However girls normally put their helmets on for hero work. Not now, though. Uravity’s hair was truly and significantly different than before, the strands close to her head in tight curls and looking darker than he remembered. The length was only a couple inches off her head all around, the sides pressed down flatter than the rest. It would have been fashionable, maybe even edgy if it were styled right.
The matted down little bits of helmet hair he noticed gave Katsuki an uncomfortable squeeze in his chest. Fuck. Uraraka with ultra-short ringlets was painfully cute. Also kind of sexy. Shit.
Only a moment had passed, and he finally dared to look back down at her face, her cheeks still red - breaths short and panting with her rage. She took another step toward him and he made an effort not to take a step back in response, the look in her eyes overwhelming his brain.
“Does this LOOK LIKE just a TRIM to you??” She was absolutely wild. He didn't know what to do. He was frozen in place, eyes darting between her burning eyes to her red flushed cheeks, her stupid hero costume that outlined her curves, the way her hair made a halo around her head. His mouth was moving and he couldn’t control it.
“You look /way/ better than before.” he breathed out with sincerity.
He just barely caught the complete shock on her face before she punched his lights out.
~~~
Pro Hero Dynamight shifted uncomfortably and felt the crinkle of paper and the burning of a bright light against his eyelids. Was he in a hospital? He couldn’t remember any battle. All too familiar with workplace injuries, he quickly wiggled his fingers and toes and took a few deep breaths before daring to move. Nothing felt wrong with him but that was definitely the soft beep of medical machinery in the distance. All he could feel was a painful pressure in his jaw -
That. BITCH.
Katsuki opened his eyes and shot upright in the slightly reclined hospital seat. He had almost succeeded in ripping off the thin blanket covering him before he caught a flash of brown and pink in the corner of his vision, sitting directly next to his bed.
“YOU,” he lunged toward her clumsily, still tangled in blankets and feeling a cool compress slide off his face. She let out a small shriek as she stood, her chair tipping over backward with her shock.
“You sucker punched me!” he growled out, noticing with some relief that he was still wearing the base of his hero costume instead of a hospital gown.
“It was an accident!” she yelled meekly back, eyes shut tight as she waved her arms in defense. When he was finally about to stand upright to yell at her properly an open palm met his chest in a weak slap, her quirk instantly sending him floating toward the ceiling.
“Fucking UNBELIEVEABLE!”
“That was an accident too!!” she insisted, eyes now wide open. “Uhh, release!”
Katsuki’s body crumpled to the floor, falling only about four feet but still enough to hurt his dignity. He looked up at his attacker, standing on one foot and cringing away from him to brace for his next round of cursing.
His eyes snapped to the top of her brown curls and he felt deeply annoyed all over again.
“Can you put on a hat or something?” he blurted out without thinking.
Her eyes shifted between amusement, a flicker of hurt as a hand reached up to pat at the length, and finally back around to her own renewed annoyance. She scanned the room quickly, biting at her bottom lip like she had on the roof. Making his gut clench uncomfortably again. With annoyance, Katsuki thought. Not with fondness.
Finally she marched to one corner of the room where he could hear her folding and scrunching paper together. She turned around, wearing the same frown and furrowed eyebrows as before, but this time with the addition of a silly old-fashioned nurse’s hat, clearly meant for child patients and visitors to play with rather than serious use.
Katsuki turned slightly toward her, still sitting on the floor, and crossed his legs at the same time she placed her hands on her hips with some impatience, as if waiting for his opinion on the ensemble. The silly paper hat with a red cross on it clashed with her pink and black jumpsuit. It occurred to him for a split second that the costume had the potential to be sexy if he pondered long enough - and with that very thought the complete absurdity of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks.
“Nope,” he stood up and headed toward the door. “I’m out.”
He strode toward the door as fast as he could without sprinting, but the room was small and his pursuer was determined.
“Wait wait wait!” she managed to grab his wrist and he let himself get whipped around to face her again, which was at least a little more bearable now that he had his height advantage back.
Finally his brain caught up to reality and he shook his head to clear it further.
“Let me say sorry!” she whined at him, but all he really noticed was that her second hand joined the first to hold his wrist as she went on.
“Did you seriously punch me hard enough to land me in the /hospital/??” he was pissed off, sure, but he definitely wasn’t hiding how impressed he was either.
“Not exactly?” She was looking everywhere in the room to avoid meeting his gaze. “Um, so basically I hit you pretty hard and like you said you weren’t really expecting it or you would have taken it better. Like I’ve seen you in combat so even I was a little worried I knocked you out so I called for medics right away just in case you hit your head on the concrete when you fell, but it turns out you were totally fine except for the giant bruise on your jaw - Oh, I guess you haven’t seen it yet, it’s pretty bad - But anyway you woke up after a couple of minutes so they said you didn’t have a head injury or anything but then you were unconscious again? And I was telling them that you’ve been working really long nights between patrols and recent crime so you were probably just tired and um we sort of let you sleep for a bit longer.”
He stared at each plane and feature of her face as she rambled on, her apologetic gaze only meeting his intent stare at the very end of her story. His brain told him to yell at her for thinking he was weak, for telling others that he might need some sleep. A deeper and less familiar part of him was touched and surprised that she knew how many days in a row he’d worked this week, and how many were overnights. He felt some unknown force urge his body forward, just a few centimeters, and just as quickly he pulled himself back and shut his eyes tight with concentration. What the hell was he doing?
Katsuki wasn’t sure if she’d noticed his odd movement, but she went on at a slightly higher pitch. “Um! The press might have already heard about our little fight between the hospital check-in and the part where we were screaming at each other in broad daylight, but honestly I think that might help this whole thing die down faster from a PR standpoint…”
Katsuki nodded in agreement. As far as Pro Hero news went, Uravity knocking Dynamight flat on his ass was sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Not to mention the internet might lay off him if they knew their favorite rescue hero got some revenge.
“So anyway I accepted your apology for burning my hair and then I said sorry for punching you in the face… So, we’re even?” she held her hands together like a small prayer and smiled up at him. As a matter of self defense Katsuki took a half step away from her and crossed his arms with a grimace, trying to shield himself from her overwhelming presence.
“Absolutely not,” he glared down at her, and waited patiently for her to process his refusal. As expected, her jaw dropped in disbelief.
“Absol- no?? What is your /problem/?” she pleaded. “Why does everything have to be difficult with you!” she gave him a weak shove, clearly unwilling to work herself up again. Katsuki noted with relief that he was much more comfortable with this kind of interaction than the previous, more genuine one.
“Simple. I didn’t accept your apology. I don’t do those,” he finally located his gear which had been placed in the corner of the room, and moved away from her to begin re-assembling his gauntlets, shoulder caps, belt, and the other million things he kept attached to his costume.
“Well…but,” Uraraka was clearly at a loss, looking around the room again like there would be an answer written on the wall.
She tried again, “How can I make you accept my apology so this can be over with?”
Katsuki didn’t bother asking her why it mattered if they were ‘even,’ or what kind of logic required not only an apology for bad behavior, but an acceptance of each apology. His mind was wandering in a different direction. A more inward-reflection direction. He stood in contemplation for another moment, finally getting the last pieces of his gear attached, and pulling on his eye mask just to push it up and hold his hair back. He took a steadying breath before looking at her again, this time prepared for the effect her disappointed expression would have on his psyche. He had made a dumb decision just now, but still felt pretty good about it. Once he was facing her again, drawn up to his full height and only a step away, he braced for impact.
“How about dinner?” he ground out, willing his voice to sound clear and confident.
She blinked up at him with further confusion, and he briefly worried that her face might get stuck that way.
“In exchange for punching you?? That doesn’t really seem fair…” she bit her bottom lip again for just a second and he wondered if his presence had even a fraction of the same effect on her, because he was just about losing it.
“Is there some fancy place that you like? I could get you a gift card or write a check maybe? I won’t even make my agency pay for it!” he tried not to cringe at the assumption that he was withholding an apology just for her money. He was in too deep to change his mind anyway, and as she turned to start looking for her wallet his hand dropped down to grab her shoulder lightly, a little heavier than he intended due to the weight of his gauntlets.
“No,” he said quietly but insistently. He caught her eyes again and took the plunge. “I meant how about dinner…with me.” It came out more as a statement than a question.
Katsuki expected more overly dramatic surprise at the very least, or another ridiculous misunderstanding as she tried to process his words. What he got was in some ways much worse.
Her mouth did drop open again, but more in wonder than in shock, he thought. He gave her a few long moments to think and realized he hadn’t taken his arm from her shoulder, though for now she didn’t seem to mind.
Uraraka’s deep brown eyes fluttered between his face, his costume, the bruise on his jaw, the oversized gauntlet weighing down his wrist as his hand remained on her. She looked back and forth more slowly with each passing second and he could swear there was a blush rising in her cheeks very different from her anger before on the roof. She wouldn’t meet his gaze yet, but he kept his eyes trained on hers. He was no mind reader, but he got the sense that she was re-evaluating their conversation, their fight earlier, their interactions in the past months and years since school. He grit his teeth and really hoped she didn’t hate what she found. It took all his might to stay in place during her assessment and wait for her judgment, even as it occurred to him a dozen times that he could backtrack, leave, deflect.
She seemed to notice his growing discomfort. When she met his eyes she looked vaguely startled again and smiled in apology. Was this woman shocked by everything?
She straightened her back, removing his arm from her shoulder in a smooth and not unkind motion. Her expression turned into one of amusement and Katsuki got nervous all over again, worried that he’d just exposed himself to her ridicule with his half-confession. Though he couldn’t feel it through the thick material of his quirk-enhancing gloves, it was then that he noticed she kept hold of his hand.
“So,” she sounded much more upbeat than before, “in exchange for me knocking you on your ass, I take you out to dinner?” his face twisted into a cringe as hers formed back into a smile.
“Uh, yeah.” he cleared his throat and looked toward a wall. Her brightness was too much for him to handle.
“Hm, still doesn’t really seem fair…” there was a teasing tone to her voice that gave him some kind of rush. There was no way he could meet her eyes again now.
“Hey, it’s my damn apology and I’ll decide what’s fair-” his words caught in his throat as he felt her pull down the arm she was holding with a quick and firm motion. He lost his balance slightly and whipped his head to look at her again with annoyance, only to see her face very very close to him.
He held his breath and as she yanked him down to her height she placed a kiss on his bruised jaw - gentle, firm, very brief but not rushed.
It felt like fireworks lit up the inside of his brain. Finally that itch that had been plaguing him all day, getting worse with each word they spoke to each other, soothed a little. He couldn’t think, wouldn’t think about anything but the fact that his tensions weren’t just imagined, and that maybe she was feeling things today too. Although her lips had retreated, their faces remained distractingly close. His body leaned down toward her awkwardly as she still held his gloved hand in hers. He really wished he hadn’t put his gloves back on so soon. His hunched over position wasn’t comfortable, and honestly the kiss had just reminded him of the soreness of his jaw, but he couldn’t bring himself to move, and instead met her eyes desperately.
“That seems more fair, right?” she looked up at him with her big brown eyes, a small smirk playing at her lips. Unbelievable.
“Not fair at all,” he breathed back, surprised he could form words at all.
Katsuki felt he couldn’t really be held responsible for his next action, as he hurriedly pulled his gauntlets and gloves off again, one hand finding her hair and the other grabbing her waist as he leaned down to kiss her properly.
She let out a small gasp, and just before their lips met he paused, the muscles in his body remaining perfectly still. She had only kissed him on the cheek, that didn’t mean everything he had been thinking was true. It didn’t necessarily mean anything. If he’d misinterpreted that meant he was completely making a fool of himself now. Doubt speared through his body like an electric shock and he went to pull away from her before embarrassing himself further. His fingers slid through the short curls on her head easily as he started to release her.
Katsuki had just barely noticed the look of irritated impatience on her face when he felt her hand wrap around the back of his neck and pull him down roughly to meet her lips. His brain shut off for the dozenth time today, banishing his doubts as well as any other thoughts he might have had. He instinctively gripped her more tightly than before and their mouths moved together with the memory of their earlier arguments alongside years of triumphs and defeats and an overwhelming sense of knowing each other.
She was soft but unyielding, the way he had always seen her, and with his hands free he couldn’t stop running his fingers through her short brown curls over and over. Before either of them thought to deepen the kiss they broke apart with a gasp, still gripping each other, eyes searching each other wildly. The kiss had been innocent enough, but the annoying nagging feeling from earlier was now replaced with a deeper kind of want that neither of them were prepared to address quite yet.
Arms holding each other more loosely, Uraraka let out a sort of nervous giggle at the same time he cleared his throat. Slowly, as if unsure the other person would really allow the moment to end, each of them took a step back and without speaking began to gather their things to leave. The woozy feeling in Katsuki’s head and the clenching of his gut were persistent. He felt slightly embarrassed at the number of times he glanced over at her to gauge her reaction, only to notice she was doing the same thing.
They met back at the door to the private hospital room, both of them facing it with the knowledge that their bubble of tension and new emotions might burst once they stepped out. Pro Hero Uravity gathered herself first, a smile lighting up her face as she reached for the handle and yanked the door open.
She looked over her shoulder at him with a teasing smile, “Don’t worry Dynamight, I’ll still take you out to dinner.”