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Hitoshi has no goddamn idea how this mission went so catastrophically wrong but he figures it's a little bit late to lament his fate now.
He's being thrown into a cell, one that's barely big enough for him and the other person already inside of it and the sneer of "Do us all a favour and explode him first, will you?" makes more sense when Hitoshi comes face to face with crimson eyes.
Of course it's Bakugou.
Of fucking course it has to be him and now the scale on which this mission failed makes more sense because of course Bakugou doesn’t do anything by halves, not even ruining missions.
It's unfair, too, because the magnitude of this is hardly Bakugou's fault, but he's a convenient target right now, seeing as he's the only other target asides from Hitoshi himself and he already holds himself accountable for this anyway.
"The fuck are you doing here?" Bakugou growls out and Hitoshi briefly takes a moment to close his eyes and center himself and push all the pain of his injuries to the side.
"This is my gig," he finally gives back and checks Bakugou from head to toe. "The fuck are you doing here?" he then gives back and Bakugou bares his teeth at him.
"No fucking clue. I was on patrol when I was snatched."
Great, so Bakugou isn't actually the reason everything went to shit and Hitoshi's plan just fell apart all on it's own, that's just wonderful.
He knew blaming himself would be the way to go.
"Well, shit," Hitoshi mutters and rubs a hand over his face only to hiss when he aggravates the cut on his brow.
"You dumb or some shit?" Bakugou snaps as he yanks Hitoshi's hand away from the injury.
"Probably," Hitoshi mutters, because he must be if he miscalculated this badly and it doesn't help that one of the brightest heroes of their time is with him in the room to witness his idiocy. "You got a tracker?"
"They dug it out," Bakugou says and points towards a place on his thigh.
If they really cut it straight out of his flesh then there must be an injury there, one Hitoshi failed to see during his first assessment and even the baggy black pants that are part of Bakugou's costume are no excuse for that.
Hitoshi is trained better than that and maybe that hit he took to the head really made him stupid all around.
"Any other injuries?" Hitoshi makes himself ask, because clearly he can't trust his own judgement anymore and Bakugou glares at him.
"No. Do you have any others, besides that?" he asks and points at Hitoshi's face and the resounding answer to that is yes, because there's the stab wound in his side to consider and his messed up knee, not to mention the beating he took but—
"No. I'm fine. We have to get out of here."
"No shit," Bakugou mutters and walks over to the door, stretching on top of his toes to look outside the barred little window at the top of it, and Hitoshi takes a moment to wonder just how long he had been made for if they have a room like this ready for him.
Or maybe it's just all strange coincident and he isn't actually as bad at his job as this fuck-up makes it seem, but it's unlikely Hitoshi is going to figure it out any time soon.
Or at all, really, because who knows if they are going to make it out of here.
"What are you doing here?" Bakugou asks him, still trying to peer outside and Hitoshi leans against the wall, trying to take some of his weight off his knee without making it too obvious that that’s what he’s doing.
"Infiltrating."
Bakugou's gaze slides over to him.
"Infiltrating or working undercover?" he asks for clarification as if that makes a difference with their current situation and Hitoshi huffs.
"Infiltrating. They are too careful for undercover work, I wouldn't have made it past the first grunt before they made me. I've staked this place out for weeks now."
"Backup?" Bakugou wants to know as if underground heroes like Hitoshi have that kind of thing and so he shrugs. "Fucking hell, are you goddamn stupid? Does anyone even know you're here?"
Well—not really. He had told Creeper that he was checking out this new crime ring they have heard a few things about on the streets, but when they had offered more support, Hitoshi had shot them down, because it's dangerous.
The crime ring might be new but it's already so dangerous and they lost more than one good hero who crossed their path already and Hitoshi really didn't see the sense in putting more people at risk.
"Great, so it's just us then," Bakugou mutters and steps away from the door. "Any idea where we are?"
Yeah, actually, because Hitoshi has this goddamn place memorised down to the cupboards and so he nods. He shortly, precisely lays out the quickest way out of this building, fucking vents included, and Bakugou takes it all in.
"That doesn't sound like something we can do undetected," he finally says and, goddamit, Hitoshi forgot that he's smart.
"It just needs the right distraction," Hitoshi gives back, vague as anything, because in all honesty, there's no way they are both going to make it out of here.
Sure, no one knows Hitoshi's quirk—yet—so they have the edge, at least for a little while, but Hitoshi cannot reliably hold more than ten people at once, and after that shit's going to hit the fan.
And they need Bakugou to make it out of here alive, so the only other option is for Hitoshi to stay behind and create that distraction.
Most likely at the cost of his own life, but as long as Bakugou makes it out of here, that's fine.
It's not as if the world needs Hitoshi anyway.
"Don't you dare," Bakugou says after a moment of silence and right, smart cookie, how the fuck did Hitoshi think he could slip that part of the plan past him. "Don't you fucking dare," Bakugou hisses again, now with even more vitriol in his voice and he steps right up to Hitoshi, makes him back up into the wall further, even as he grabs Hitoshi's jaw with his hand.
The pressure is almost uncomfortable but at least it guarantees that Hitoshi can't turn his head away and pretend that he doesn't know what Bakugou is talking about.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hitoshi still tries to say, because he’s stupid like that, but his voice comes out muffled and his words are barely understandable and it only serves to make Bakugou's eyes blaze with anger, before he roughly pushes himself away from Hitoshi.
"You don't get to go down the self-sacrificing route like a goddamn fucking idiot," he hisses and squats down, clearly waiting for Hitoshi to get on his level so they can brainstorm.
Hitoshi bites back a sigh and gingerly lets himself slide down the wall and Bakugou very accurately pin-points his right knee as the weak spot and then glares even harder at Hitoshi.
"A list of your injuries, now," he barks out and Hitoshi is tired and the blood loss and concussion are possibly making him even stupider than he normally is, because he simply rattles them all off and then gets a very gentle forehead flick for his trouble.
"You are the worst person I know," Bakugou says and then packs it all away and it's just Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight and Nighthide, brainstorming to make sure both of them make it out alive.
Hitoshi is almost disappointed when Bakugou's plan works.
~*~*~
When Hitoshi is called in for a meeting with Creeper, he did not expect Bakugou to be there as well.
They already did the mission-debrief right after their daring escape—and right after Hitoshi was submitted to several healing quirks, so his concussion wouldn't interfere with the debrief—and so he's at a loss as to why Bakugou would be here again.
"Sit," Creeper orders and Hitoshi immediately sits down, because you do not want to anger the head of his agency, Hitoshi learned that the hard way shortly after he started here.
"What is this about?" he asks and his eyes briefly stray over to Bakugou, who is staring very intently at him.
"We have gathered here today because it has been brought to my attention that you're a self-sacrificing idiot, who doesn't know how to take care of yourself," Creeper says and Hitoshi doesn't even need their quotation marks to know that they are citing Bakugou's words back at him.
"Rude, and also not true," Hitoshi gives back and glares at Bakugou.
"So you're sleeping more than the mandatory four hours a night?" Creeper asks and looks down at a sheet in front of them. "You're eating at least one warm and hearty meal a day? You're not pulling reckless stunts left and right and then lie about your injuries? You're not taking on missions back-to-back without the recommended time off? You're not blowing off your therapist left and right? You did not," and here they finally look back up to him, "make a plan that would ensure Dynamight's safety but not your own?"
"Fuck you," Hitoshi says to Bakugou, because what does he care about any of that.
Hitoshi's plan would have worked out; sure, at the cost of his own life most likely, or at the very least ending in very painful torture, but Bakugou would have made it out safe and sound and, really, the world doesn't need another hero creeping around in the shadows.
The world needs Dynamight, blazing and bright, and Hitoshi at least understands that.
"Now, I'll take that as a confession."
"Those are hardly crimes," Hitoshi argues and Creeper sighs.
"No. Those are just stupid, idiotic, reckless stunts that will make sure you bite the dust in a few weeks and we cannot lose you. You're on mandatory leave until someone who is reliable informs us that you're back on track."
"I—I am on track!" Hitoshi hotly gives back and Bakugou snorts.
"Yeah, on track to an early grave, you moron."
"Oh, and you're so invested in this, huh? You're going to make sure that I sleep and eat? You're going to hold my hand until you think I have enough self-worth to not throw myself into oncoming traffic?"
"Your self-worth was never a topic here, but good to know," Creeper says as they make a few notes on the sheet and at the same time Bakugou says "Yes, actually."
Hitoshi blinks.
"Wait, what?"
“You’re a danger to yourself,” Bakugou says and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “And there are too many people out there who care for you, so I'm not going yo let you do this to yourself.”
"It's a pilot project," Creeper oh so helpfully chimes in, "to re-integrate underground heroes into society after undercover missions. Or just too much time spent doing underground work. We're pairing you all off with a spotlight hero. Congratulations, you're staying with Dynamight."
"’Staying with’ as in—what happened to my apartment?"
Creeper levels him with a look that makes Hitoshi sink back into his chair.
"You mean the shoebox you pretend to live in? The apartment that barely has enough space to hold one futon, which is coincidentally all you seem to own? Right, that one. We cancelled your lease. Dynamight has a room ready for you."
"You can't just—that is a grave invasion of privacy," Hitoshi finally stutters out and Creeper outright laughs into his face.
"Take it up with someone who cares. You are to schedule regular appointments with your therapist and you won't be back on the roster until Dynamight and the therapist clear you for it. Now get the hell out of my face."
Bakugou laughs at that and gets up, marching straight out of the room but Hitoshi feels frozen on his chair.
"You can't do that," he whispers because they can't.
He needs to be out there, he needs to prove that Aizawa didn't waste his time on him, that he deserved that spot in UA, that he deserves his spot here and now—
"Nighthide," Creeper says and suddenly their voice is soft and more understanding than Hitoshi would like them to be. "Shinsou, you're an asset. You're a great hero; you're quick on your feet, both literally and figuratively, and we need you. But we can't send you out there if we have to worry about your safety."
Hitoshi wants to argue, wants to tell them that being a hero means not being safe, but Creeper cuts him off.
"And I don't mean the work. But with what Dynamight has brought to our attention, it would seem that you don't care all that much about your own safety and until that changes, we can't send you out. We don't want you hurt. We want you to be the very best you can be, and that—as annoying as it might be for you—includes your mental health as much as your physical. I know you ace those evals, but the same can't be said about the mental eval. Because you never take those. It was an oversight on my part to let it slide for as long as I did, because I agree with you on the fact that you're doing your best work out there, but—not if it could be at the cost of you. You’re not expendable, and you’re not replaceable and until that gets into your head, you're staying with Dynamight."
Hitoshi has no clue what to say to any of that, because his head is empty and at the same time his mind is overflowing with thoughts and Creeper seems to know because they give him a smile.
"You should be thankful that you have a protective friend like him. The project was his idea, too, and he was adamant he'd be assigned as your hero partner. He'll take good care of you."
More like, he'll make Hitoshi’s life a living hell, and hammer the self-worth back into him, and Hitoshi really can't say he's looking forward to it.
"I see," is what finally makes it out of his mouth and he gets up without another look, without giving Creeper another chance to say something and to his horror, Bakugou is still there, waiting right there in the hallway for him.
"Let’s go home," he says, almost gently and Hitoshi still feels shell-shocked so his only response to that is a resounding "Fuck you".
It only makes Bakugou laugh, even as he drags Hitoshi after him towards what apparently is now their home and Hitoshi wonders how long Bakugou is going to put up with him until he's fed up and simply kicks Hitoshi to the curb.
He's pretty certain his own stubbornness outlasts Bakugou’s, after all.
(Hitoshi was wrong about that. He was so dead wrong about it. Because Bakugou has no patience to speak of, but he has a clear goal in mind and no screaming match, no fight, no deliberate attempt to get him to blow Hitoshi's face off can distract him from that.
And that goal—as scary as it is—is to make sure Hitoshi is a stable individual, who values himself and who knows about his own self-worth and doesn't just trade his own life for the fun of it.
It takes time—much more than probably even Bakugou anticipated—but eventually Hitoshi begins to realise that there is nothing left for him to do but allow Bakugou to drag him forwards.
And when he finally returns to work, and stacks up one successful mission after the other, he can't even be mad at the smug bastard.)