Ch. 13 Confrontation

"I said, what are you doing here?" Bakugo asked, staying in the door way, watching you. 

"Um, putting away my jacket and purse," you said. "Todoroki was just giving me a tour and - "

"That's not what I meant and you know it. So you're best friends with the half and half bastard now?"

"No, we ran into each other today and he invited me here."

"What a coincidence."

"I wasn't aware that I needed your permission to be his friend," you replied. 

"You don't. You just don't have to be so obvious about trying to make me jealous."

You scrunched up your face. "Make you jealous? What are you even talking about?" 

You both went silent as a server walked by the room with a tray full of food.

"Whatever," he said as soon as it was just the two of you again. "After yesterday, you have some explaining to do."

Yesterday? Did he know about what happened last night? There was no way he could know. You wracked your brain trying to think of how he could possibly know what had happened with the fire and Shigaraki. It was impossible. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," you said carefully. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

You tried to walk out of the room past him, but he put an arm across the doorway to stop you.

"Maybe you don't remember since you were half dead in the yard of a known villain hangout."

"I was... Wait... you were there, last night?"

"Of course I was fucking there." He looked down the hall to where the server had gone. You could both hear people talking and laughing in the main room. " We can't talk about this in the hallway. Get in here."

He took his arm down and moved the two of you into the room, shutting the door behind him so that no one would hear you.

"When they're trying to catch someone that big, they send the best," he said. "So tell me how you go from coughing your lungs up at a villain hide out to showing up here acting like everything is fine. Start talking."

"I thought this was a dinner party, not an interrogation. I'm going to go find Shoto."

"No," he said, catching you by the arm. "Not until you tell me why you were there last night."

"Am I under arrest?" you said sharply. His grip on your arm was not soft. "This is ridiculous. Look, I didn't know what I was walking into. My boyfriend... ex-boyfriend... he.."

"Ex?" he asked, loosening his grip on your arm.

"Yeah, that's over. I had no idea what that was last night. I got out of there as soon as I could after that fire. Can you let me go now?"

He dropped your arm but stayed right in front of you. Some of the anger seemed to be gone and in its place was something like concern. 

"Y/n, when I saw you, you could barely breathe. At first I thought.... I didn't know what to think. You wouldn't stop coughing."

"I know, each time I went in I got more and more smoke in my lungs."

"Each time you... y/n, you went back into a burning building after you got out?" His eyes were wide with shock. "Why the fuck would you do that?"

Was he dense? "To get people out," you said, "why else? I managed to get five, but I'm pretty sure there were --"

He interrupted your sentence by abruptly pulling you close, his lips roughly pressing against your own.

At first you were shocked. One minute you felt like you were being interrogated and now he was kissing you?

After the shock wore off, you realized how good this felt, how exciting it was. Without thinking, you wrapped your arms around his neck and brought him closer, pressing your body against his. He was so incredibly warm and it was as if your body was screaming for his touch.

But then your brain took over and little alarm bells started to sound.

You'd dated a hero before. You'd been in love with a hero before, and he had turned out to be a complete liar. And heroes had both set a house on fire and lied on your record, you had just found out last night. There was no reason why this hero would be any different.

You knew that the last time you'd felt like this, it had ended so, so badly.

And on top of all of that, what would Bakugo think if he found out you were now apparently working for a villain? 

"I can't... we can't... " you said, pulling back from the kiss.

"Why not?" he mumbled, his hand in your hair. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to do that."

"Bakugo, you were there," you said quietly. "The heroes that set the fire to the house, that injured people, that may have killed people... you were part of that."

"That's not what happened," he said, "Why would you think that?" 

"I was there. I saw it."

His other hand reached up and touched your face gently, but then his soft eyes suddenly narrowed and his whole expression changed.

"What the hell happened to your face?"

At first you were confused but then you closed your eyes and sighed. The bruise.

Damn it. Your make up must have come off when you kissed.

"Is that a bruise? Who did this to you?" he demanded.

"No one," you said, pulling away and looking for your purse so you could touch up your make up. There was no way you could tell him about Shigaraki and all that had happened last night.

"No one did. I fell."

"Like hell you did." He grabbed your arm to make you face him. "Who did this to you, y/n?"

"Let go of me."

"You're dumber than I thought if you're letting someone hit you."

"Dumber than you thought? What the hell?"

"You'd have to be either dumb or weak to let someone hit you and then not want to do anything about it."

"I didn't let someone hit me, for your information. And I'm not dumb or weak."

"Then act like it."

"I don't know what I was thinking," you said, feeling tears coming to the surface. "You were an ass when I worked for you and you're still an ass now."

"I wouldn't have to be an ass if you weren't so annoying and trying to hide something."

"You don't know anything," you shouted at him. There were definitely tears on your cheeks now, but you didn't make any move to wipe them away. "And you're hurting me."

Right then the door opened and Shoto started to come into the room.

"Is everything okay – oh. I..." Shoto seemed at a loss for words as he stared at the two of you. You had tears running down your face as Bakugo still held on to your arm. "What's going on here?"

"Absolutely nothing," you said, wrenching away from Bakugo. "Thank you for the invitation, Shoto, but I need to leave."

Trying to wipe your tears, you rushed past the two of them and out the door, down the hall, and out the front door. You hoped that his other friends didn't see you as you hurried past the main room, but you couldn't bear the idea of facing them right now.

Who the hell did he think he was? As if he knew anything. Bakugo had apparently been part of that group of heroes and police that had set the building on fire to smoke out the villains. People could have died. Maybe some did. What kind of person did something like that? 

He had no idea what had happened to you after and there was no way someone like him could ever understand. You felt like such a fool to think that maybe he was different.

Todoroki ran after you down the hall to the elevator, catching up with you before you got there.

"Y/n? What happened? Are you okay?"

You pressed the down arrow for the elevator and prayed that it came before you had to explain anything.

"I'm sorry," Shoto said once he was next to you. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sorry for whatever he said."

"No, no, please don't apologize for him. I knew tonight was a bad idea."

"Y/n, I'm so sorry. I feel responsible. Can we try this again?"

You sniffed and wiped away some of the tears. "Again? What do you mean?"

"I mean just the two of us."

"Like a date?" You were literally crying in his hallway and he was asking you on a date? Was he crazy? 

"If you would do me the honor, yes."

"Shoto... I...." You hesitated for just a moment. This was a bad idea. It wasn't Shoto that you wanted to kiss, or feel against you again, or touch your hair like that. 

Those alarm bells were going off in your head again, reminding you that this was not a good decision. 

But then you saw Bakugo standing at the other end of the hallway, watching the two of you. You sniffed back your tears and straightened up. 

"Okay. Yes. Sure. A date."

"Great. Let me at least have my driver take you home."

"No. Thank you, but no. I can get myself home."