Chapter Text
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“Yo, Dynamight! Are you good down here?”
“‘m fine. Is there any more of ‘em?” Bakugou huffed.
“Nah, they’re all in police custody already. Let’s take your guy to them so we can finally go home.”
Kaminari marched over beside Bakugou and helped him keep the criminal detained. The area had been abandoned—for at least a few years—It looked like shit. The cracked concrete all throughout, shattered glass near every broken window, it was awful. The ceiling above seemed to have collapsed—not naturally, but probably by the group of villains inhabiting the facility.
“…Did you knock them out?”
“They did that to themself.”
Bakugou caught a concerned look from the other's face before they started standing the detained villain up. He acted as if he didn’t see it.
“Uh, so, what’s this one’s quirk? —Something to do with tracking, if I remember correctly,” The empty, vacant halls echoed Kaminari’s voice as they started making their way out of the building. Some police officers began to move inside past the three, as they were beginning their investigation.
Bakugou exhaled, “Yeah. A quirk like that is useless if you don’t learn how to hold your own, though,” he grumbled lowly. The other let out a very forced and awkward chuckle.
“Haha, y-yeah, that’s true.” They both turned a corner, now walking up a flight of stairs. The silence between them was very uncomfortable. To Katsuki, it was irritating. They both felt the tension of the unspoken words in the air–ones neither of them would dare voice.
Kaminari let go of the villain briefly to take a step forward and push the entrance door open, hoping the glass wouldn’t shatter with the gentle prod. He continued to follow Katsuki outside.
There had been a detective leaning on the hood of a police cruiser parked along side a few others. He was observing the officers on the scene up until he noticed the two heroes approaching.
“Last guy?”
“Yes sir!”
Just like that, the idiot’s personality came back full force. It was a strange feeling to know his ‘friend’ was uncomfortable around him. Uncomfortable to a serious, awkward level. It hadn’t even been that bad at U.A.
“Nice work you guys. Sorry in advance to put this onto you two when you’re about to clock out, but I’m going to need you both to write statements.” The detective grabbed a clipboard out from his cruiser before shooting a remorseful grin at the pair.
Katsuki felt eyes sticking onto him upon being asked the request. Everyone who worked with him knew how much he fuckin’ despised all the extra responsibilities that came alongside hero work.
Bakugou wanted to help people. He wanted to make sure people were safe and that no selfish dumbasses ruined others lives for their own personal gain. He wanted to beat the villains asses and look awesome while doing so.
“Sure,”
Kaminari’s gaze stayed put. He blinked once, twice. Clearly confused by the placid response.
“Great, thanks a bunch.”
The officer walked to the other pros at the scene, probably to ask them for their own written statements. Bakugou’s eyes flickered over toward where the detective exited, seeing a familiar green-haired, nerd talking gleefully to the police. Katsuki rolled his eyes.
God, seeing Izuku pissed him off for no reason.
No, this wasn’t anger, he wasn’t upset with Deku in particular. It was something more. But, what exactly?
“Um, hey, Kacc–” Kaminari’s eyebrows furrow together, his eyes dropping down as if thinking of his words before continuing, “--Bakugou,” he corrected himself, “I’ll see you later? Or–when we end up on patrol together again…uh,”
Katsuki didn’t bother turning his head to meet the other, he simply nodded with a; “mmhm” in response. He was so fucking exhausted and didn’t want to speak another word.
He blinked as he recognized the sound of footsteps taking off into softer steps then nothing.
Kaminari left.
—
Bakugou finished the police statement along with some other unnecessary, optional things the detectives appreciated for their investigations or whatever the shit. He then walked the long way toward the Dynamight agency to discard his hero suit and get changed into his casual clothing. The locker room’s had been empty. Something that Katsuki would normally be grateful for.
Before he goes home, he should probably make sure the agency is good. Search for messes, check emails, talk to staff, stuff like that… Maybe it was unwarranted, but Katsuki felt the sudden urge to triple check everything.
It’s not like he was a messy person, or anyone else who worked for him—they know they’d get blasted to next week if they dare leave messes in his agency. It’s a hypothetical scenario but it never hurts to check.
He even asked his manager about her day. Which was normal. That’s something people-including Katsuki–do and certainly something that didn’t catch her off guard at all!
He checked up on his social media accounts too. The ones that only are as active as they are due to his staff running them, but it’s not fucking weird to have a change of heart, alright? Having interactions with people who looked up to him was nice, weird at times–really weird at times, he felt the need to correct–but maybe he just wanted to read the comments under his posts for once, fuck.
“Sir, you’re pacing.”
Katsuki was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts, ones he didn’t even realize he was drowning inside till now. He shut his phone off and set it face down on to his desk. What the hell was he doing?
He stood leaning his lower back against his office desk, while staring at his personal cell, while in his casual clothes.
Real professional.
“Shimizu,” His voice came out in a scruff, as if it were her fault he was acting like a moron, “I wasn’t pacing.”
Shimizu clicked her tongue and gave a slow nod.
Fuck.
She’s so goddamn annoying.
Sure, maybe the exact reason Katsuki hired her as his manager was because she wasn’t afraid to challenge him, but…
“You should go home, Dynamight. It’s been three hours since your shift ended.” She gave an administrative glare, a hint of concern behind her emerald eyes. It was clear to Katsuki that she had something she wanted to say but knew he wouldn’t humor her. And she was right.
It was 9:13pm. He bit his bottom lip, tapping back at his lockscreen when the screen went black. When did he flip it back over?
“Yeah, I’ll head out in a bit.” He swiped up and scrolled through his instagram. He heard his manager sigh quietly before nodding and walking away.
Bakugou rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest while continuing to scroll his posts. He clicked on one of the few he had up. He only posted these pictures of himself because his team told him it’d be a good thing to do. He didn’t really care about any of it though. How much good could a photo of himself do with the fact his hero rank plummeted every other week?
Bullshit.
While swiping through the comments, he paused. More like; he froze.
Manlyriot ☑️ You ended up using this photo afterall! :)
The comment was under a picture of Bakugou.
A picture of Bakugou forcing a half-baked smile at the camera with mountains in the background.
A picture Eijirou took on their hiking trip a year prior.
They’d go hiking all the time back in high school, before life got crazy. Kirishima insisted they go again for old time sake and Katsuki didn’t complain.
Well, he did end up complaining about his PR team bugging him about posting on social media—It was way worse back then. He just wasn’t the type to take many pictures of himself. It felt unnatural. He would take photos of the scenery, rarely sure, but never people.
That’s when Kirishima propped him up someplace the mountains and sunset would be captured behind Katsuki and quickly snapped a photo. The red head was so stupidly giddy about that picture. Said it was his best work.
Despite Bakugou’s reluctance at first, he ended up posting the damn photo, clearly. Since it wasn’t just himself in the photo, it felt less strange to look at…
…and because Eijirou took the damn photo, okay!?
He remembered the laughter that emerged from the other as he tried to force a “comfortable” smile.
A crease formed between Bakugou’s eyebrows. His eyes shift up.
9:34pm.
He felt a heavy weight on his shoulders. It was so goddamn embarrassing. Avoiding his problems like this as a full grown adult.
A hand came up to his head and he ran his fingers through the spikes, he scoffed.
He needed to go home and speak with Eijirou.
—