Ch. 19 Kiss and Tell

"He was lucky. Kirishima only had a short hospital stay, just long enough for them to make sure he was okay."

"I'm so glad to hear that," you told Todoroki over lunch. You'd picked the place this time, and you were able to pronounce every single item on the menu this time. "I know you guys were worried about him. Maybe the League isn't as bad as people think."

"They're still villains, and they've done terrible things to people." 

"But they let Kirishima go unharmed. Doesn't that count for something?" 

"No. One good deed, if we can even call it that, does not make up for all of the bad." 

"I guess." 

A few days had passed, the little flame on your shoulder had slowly healed, and you were doing your best to balance being a normal person during the day and a criminal at night. Now that the League trusted you more, Shigaraki sent you on a few more missions, mostly as an observer, and it seemed like your life only happened in the dark.

"I can't say much else," Todoroki said, "but I think in some ways it will end up being a good thing that he was kidnapped."

"What? How could being kidnapped be a good thing?"

"He was able to report back on a lot of things we didn't know before about the League's members. I can't really talk about it, but his experience is going to be helpful."

Kirishima's kidnapping and release had been kept out of the press, so you'd had to play dumb when you asked Todoroki about it during one of the lunches you had together.

Lunches with Todoroki were pretty much your only connection to normal life during the day at this point. This was your second one this week, and you knew it was only a matter of time before he started asking about a real date.

Aside from some general awkwardness between the two of you, you'd been hesitant at first because he was a hero. But as you got to know him, your hesitation came from the opposite reason. He was a hero, yes, a strong and kind hero, but you...

Were you now a villain?

After lunch, Todoroki waited with you for your taxi outside the restaurant. From the way he kept shifting side to side and looking around, you knew he wanted to say something, and you had a feeling you knew what it was.

"Before you go," Todoroki finally said, "there's something I need to ask you. It's okay to say no."

Oh god. Here we go.

"Okay," you said.

"Would it be okay if I shared your cell number with Bakugo?"

"Wait, what?"

"He needs to ask you about some files on his computer that he needs."

"Oh."

Of course that was all it was. You should have known.

"Yeah, sure, whatever. You mean he's not going to just show up at my apartment like you did?"

You saw a hint of pink on Todoroki's cheeks. "I.... I didn't know how else to talk to you."

"Shoto, it was fine." You reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Thank you for lunch."

Just then the taxi pulled up by the two of you, and it was time to go.

"Wait," he said, holding your hand for just a second longer before you got in the car. "Y/n, there's something else, too. I.... y/n, I like you."

"I like you, too," you told him. You tried to pull away slightly, but he didn't let your hand go. "I've really liked these lunches with you. The taxi is waiting though..."

"What if we did dinner instead one night? My place."

"Shoto...I don't know. You know that I work a lot of nights now."

"So you said. Just tell me when you have a night free."

"I don't have a lot of those."

"Y/n."

"I need to go. The taxi..."

"I don't care about the taxi," he said, and without another word he pulled you to him. He cupped your face gently in his other hand, his voice low. "Before you go... can I kiss you?"

You hardly even had time to nod before his lips touched yours. He still held your hand tightly, pulling it behind your back to bring you even closer to him.

You were surprised by his sudden boldness, but not upset. Even though you were in his firm hold, Todoroki's other hand lightly danced on your cheek and down to your neck, where he held the base of your head securely in his hand as you kissed. 

It was a good kiss, a sweet kiss, a steady kiss that was almost exactly what you expected it to be. Maybe because it was a first kiss, the first time the two of you had been this close physically other than an occasional hug, but it felt like something was missing. It was as if everything about it was perfect, but that was it. Just perfect. 

The harsh honking of the taxi brought you both back to reality and the kiss ended.

While you stared at him in surprised silence, he smiled slightly and let your hand go. Todoroki opened the car door for you and held it open as you got in.

You weren't sure what to say, but it felt like you should say something. A minute ago you had been sure that you didn't want anything other than casual daytime meet ups with him, but that kiss... Maybe there was more there. You weren't completely sure, but it could be worth exploring. 

"Text me some dates," you said. He nodded and then shut the door. 

-------

"Uh, hi, how are you? How about you start with that before you start yelling commands at me like I'm your dog?" You had answered the call from the unknown number, but before you could even say hello, the voice on the other end was already shouting at you.

"Huh?"

"Say it all again slowly with less yelling," you told Bakugo. "I wasn't ready last time."

"I said that since I'm not patrolling, this new bastard in charge want me to do a dumb presentation for everyone at the commission."

"And?"

"He wants me to make a PowerPoint."

"And?"

"Can you just get over here and do it? I don't have time for this shit."

"Oh, I see. You want me to do your work for you. Sounds like something an employee would do. I know this will come as a shock, but that's exactly what I am not. And you can't make this presentation yourself because...?"

"It's my arm. Because of the stitches, the stupid doctors want me to not use it for a couple days. And... " you heard him mumble something but couldn't quite tell what it was. 

"What was that?" you asked.

"I said PowerPoint fucking hates me. I don't get it. When are you coming?" 

"Can't you get your new assistant to do it?"

"I don't fucking have one."

"I hate that for you."

"I'm sending you my address."

You checked the time on your phone. You were supposed to be at the League meet up spot in two hours. You could make it. You didn't even have time to tell him yes before he'd already hung up. Typical. 

When he opened the door for you at his apartment, all he said was, "It's in there," and pointed the way toward his bedroom. Without another word, he started walking that way, obviously expecting you to follow him.

"Wow," you said when you saw the ancient laptop open on his bed. Seriously it had to be a hundred years old. "Did your grandma loan you that?"

"Shut up."

"Hm," you pretended to contemplate as you sat down on his bed, "should I have brought a floppy disk to save our work on? I think they still make those..."

"You're not funny. Can you make it work?"

"Uh... Does this laptop even work? You sure we don't need to crank the battery or something?"

"Oh my god, y/n, enough. I get it. It's old."

"Fine, fine. Your tech goddess has arrived. How much have you already done?" you asked. When you looked through the documents, it was all still pretty much blank. "Nothing? You've done nothing?"

"I have 100 ideas in my head. At least 100."

"That's great and all, but it doesn't do us any good if they're just in your head. So... talk it through with me and I'll try to write down the highlights."

He started to pace the room, talking out loud in angry spurts, but for some reason as you watched him, you found it difficult to concentrate and even more difficult to type anything. Maybe it was the fact that this was so different from last time; the last time you'd been here it had been in the middle of the night, both of you exhausted and sweaty from the fire at the warehouse.

No – you hadn't been here before. You'd been in the living room where you'd both fallen asleep on the couch to some dumb tv show. You hadn't been here. In his bedroom. On his bed. This was something entirely different. 

You had to stifle a laugh as you watched him stomp around the room shouting to himself.

"Stop," you finally said. "Just stop."

You had an idea. It was probably a terrible one, but you were going to do it all the same.

"Sit down and close your eyes," you told him.

"The fuck?"

"You heard me. Sit down and close your eyes."

Reluctantly, Bakugo sat next to you on the bed and closed his eyes.

"I need you to relax," you told him. 

"I am relaxed!"

"The fact that you're yelling says otherwise."

"This was a mistake," he grumbled.

"Relaxing was obviously too much to ask. Let's try this. Lie down and just... be quiet." With a grunt he laid back on the bed and covered his face with his pillow.

"There you go! Block everything out and try to relax. I want you to imagine yourself giving the presentation and all of the points you want to make."

"Is this some kind of hippy meditation bullshit?" you heard his muffled voice say from under the pillow.

"No, but that would probably be helpful right now. Anyway, shut up and think. Let your mind take over and do the work for you."

He threw the pillow across the room but otherwise he stayed still on the bed, his eyes closed. That was probably about as good as you were going to get. Grabbing the laptop, you found the document he had started and opened it up.

"All right. Start by thinking about the main points you want to make," you told him. "Maybe make a list of the top four or five in your head."

"This is stupid."

"Just do it."

You let your body relax and opened your mind to his thoughts. As you listened, you tried to type as fast as you could, hoping that he didn't open his eyes and see what you were writing. It was tough to keep up with his mind though, and even more difficult to listen and type at the same time.

His thoughts were like a furious tornado; it was actually kind of amazing that he was able to think and make connections this quickly.

"Have I relaxed enough yet?" he muttered.

"That's exactly what a person says who doesn't know how to relax."

"This is pointless," he said, sitting up. "What are you typing?"

"Ideas I have. Look, do you want my help or not?"

With one hand you pushed him, and he flopped back down on the bed with a sigh.

"Now I want you to think about specific examples that would be good to share, maybe things you've experienced, things you know about first-hand, things that other people might find interesting. Stuff like that."

Damn, his mind worked fast. Again, your fingers flew across the laptop's keyboard as you tried to keep up with him.

Your plan was for him to have ideas of his own and then you could use these notes to help him work it out for himself. Just in case he saw what you'd written, though, you made your notes appear general enough that it wasn't obvious that you had taken them directly from his thoughts.

"You're doing great," you told him. "I'm mean... I'm sure you're doing great."

"Don't patronize me."

"I wasn't! I actually meant that," you said, not even looking up as you typed. He went back to thinking of old missions, training he'd done in the past, a couple team ups he'd been part of. Opening up a new, separate document, you started making a bulleted list of these specific stories so you could refer to them later and help him narrow it down. You made a mental note to delete this one before you left.

You chuckled as he thought about some funny missions that had happened while they were still in training. You weren't sure if he thought they were funny, but you did. Kirishima was a large part of a lot of these memories, as were Midoriya and Todoroki.

He was giving you plenty of examples, so you didn't need to listen in anymore. Instead you took the time to go back and highlight a few ideas you thought could work.

In fact, you were so into your work that you didn't even realize it when Bakugo sat up and looked over your shoulder.

Shit.

You slammed the laptop screen down and pushed if off your lap like it was a hot potato.

"Y/n."

"Yeah?"

Had you broken the laptop? You sort of hoped so.

"What the hell was all that?"

"What was what? You know what, I should go," you practically leapt off the bed, but he grabbed your hand and pulled you back.

"Everything you were typing...."

You hung your head, knowing that he was putting it all together. Why did he have to be so smart? You couldn't even bring yourself to make eye contact with him. Now that he knew, you knew exactly how this was going to go.

"Did you research me or something?"

"What?" you asked, looking up at him now, your face confused as well. "No. Sorry but I'm not at home googling you in my spare time."

You reached for the laptop. "Let me take this home, I'll come up with some stuff, and then we can discuss on the phone or something."

"You're not taking that."

"Yes, I am."

"No, you're not." He grabbed the other side of the laptop and pulled back. So you pulled back harder. You heard him start to growl, and you knew you weren't going to win this. "Leave grandma's laptop alone!"

You surprised even yourself when suddenly you let go and laughed. You couldn't help it; it just came out. A loud, genuine laugh. It was so absurd, the two of you playing tug of war on his bed with an old computer.

"What's so funny?" he demanded.

"All of this. I'm still leaving, but..."

You looked over at him and had to smile; his hair was kind of messy from lying down, his face still permanently scowling. This top hero who couldn't make a PowerPoint. You already knew that he  was going to be suspicious the moment he opened the laptop, so it might as well come from you.

"I guess it's finally time for me to tell you. Actually it's probably easier to show you than explain. Come here."

After just a second of hesitation, he leaned toward you on the bed at the exact same moment that you stood up.

"What are you doing?" you asked, noticing that he was still sitting on the bed looking confused. "Come with me to the other room."

You motioned for him to follow you out of his bedroom and into the main room where his bookcases were.

"Is reading something you enjoy doing?" you asked him as you both stood in front of his bookcase.

"What, you thought I was illiterate?"

"No. I think it's pretty cool that you have so many books. I'm checking to make sure this is an activity where you can actually relax for a second."

"Oh. Okay yeah."

"Have you read...." You searched the bookshelves for one to pick out. "Have read this one?" you asked, handing him the one you chose.

"Yeah, have you?"

"Nope. Read it to yourself for a second, any page will do, but don't say anything."

Well, look at that. It worked. Once he was engrossed in the pages of the book, it was incredibly easy to slip into his mind. It was so easy that you could do it almost without even trying. His mind was warm and open, surprisingly willing and welcoming.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked.

You smiled. "That's one of your favorite chapters, huh? But it makes you sad, too. I had no idea you had such a soft spot for romance, Katsuki Bakugo."

"What the hell?"

"The first time you read that book, you read the whole thing in one sitting."

"What are you doing?"

You felt your cheeks heating up and you knew you were blushing. "I'm listening to your thoughts." You spoke quickly as you watched his expression and tried to gauge how he was taking this news. "Some call it 'mind-reading,' but I think of it more as listening. It's less threatening that way."

"My thoughts... " he mumbled as he processed this information. "What I was thinking... you knew it." His eyes lit up, and he tossed the book on the couch. "That's your quirk! That's why you were such a good assistant. You could read my mind. Oh, no, you read my mind..."

"Uh, wrong. I never did that at work. I was just awesome because I was awesome."

"That's...amazing."

"You mean creepy?"

"Did I fucking say that? No. I said amazing. Do you know how useful that could be?"

"Well.... I've been told that before. It's probably time for me to go now."

"Go? What are you talking about?"

"Once people know, the usually want to be as far away from me as possible. It freaks them out to think that I can read their minds, as if I wanted to do that all the time."

"Could you?"

"I guess. But it would be boring. People mostly think about how they look, what they're going to eat next, what they think people are saying about them, super mundane stuff like that."

"And you can do this to anyone?"

"Sort of? It works better if I'm one on one with someone. The more willing they are to let me walk around in their brain a little, the easier it is. Some people are tough, like they put up a block against me. It's easier if a person is tired, or drunk, or... relaxed."

"I bet my mind is like a fucking fortress."

"No," you shook your head. "Actually, your mind is...well, it's different."

"How so?"

"It's... " you weren't sure exactly what to say. "It's complex but also straightforward. Totally intense and wild but also focused. Like a rollercoaster where you know where it's going but you're still a little scared of the chaos along the way."

He wasn't saying anything and everything felt awkward so you kept rambling.

"It's surprisingly easy for me to listen to you. You mind doesn't shut me out. When I hear your thoughts it's like I have a hot blanket wrapped around me. Not so hot that it's smothering me but more warm-out-of-the-dryer in a comfy way... I guess you could say it feels like... It feels like...."

You stopped yourself. You had almost said that it felt like home.

"Anyway, you're not... freaked out?" you asked, sort of scared to know the answer.

"By you?"

"Yeah."

"Hell no. What color am I thinking of?"

"Red."

"What word am I thinking of?"

"Die."

"What do I want for breakfast?"

"I don't even know what to call it, but damn, you can cook stuff like that?"

"Holy shit." But then his eyes went wide, and you could have sworn you saw his face turn slightly pink. "So... uh," he mumbled. "Have you been 'listening' to my thoughts all night?"

"No. Just when we were working on the presentation."

You noticed him visibly relax.

"See – that's what I meant when I said that I make people uncomfortable. I always have."

"Then those people were idiots. You have this badass ability, and you keep it a secret? If I could do that, I'd be shouting it at everyone I knew."

"Well, yeah, that's you. Not me." You grabbed your phone and purse and started heading to the door. 

"Own who you are and what you can do, y/n, and stop apologizing for it."

"Easier said than done," you said, shaking your head. "You don't get it, I'm not like you." 

"No, what I don't get is how someone so smart and beautiful thinks so badly about herself." 

"What?" you stared at him in stunned silence. 

"You heard me." 

For a moment you both simply looked at each other. You, from where you stood by the door; him, still standing by his bookcase. A heavy silence hung over you both as you processed what he had just said. 

"Read my mind," he said as he quickly walked toward you. "Right now." 

"I...."  Your own mind was too confused to even think about reading his. 

"No," he said. "I'll go ahead and tell you what I'm thinking. I'm thinking about how I'm about to kiss you." 

And then he was there, right in front of you. No more words were needed and you definitely didn't need to read his mind to know what was about to happen. 

He took your face in his hands and brought your lips to his gently, too gently. A gentle kiss wasn't what you wanted. Not now. Not from him. Your fingers reached up and tangled in his hair, pulling him to you, practically begging him to take more. As soon as he realized what you wanted, he kissed you again, and again, and again, each kiss slightly hungrier than the one before it.  Time basically stopped and all you knew was him and his body and his mouth and his hands.

But all things end, and soon you were both breathing heavily, you in his arms, your head against his chest. Reluctantly, he let you go. Neither of you spoke of the kiss, almost like it was a magic spell that would be broken if one of you dared to say what had just happened. 

You started to say something, but he held up a hand to stop you. "I know you're leaving," he said. "but you needed to know that you're important, to me. Fuck everyone else, I don't care what they think about your quirk, I didn't even know you had one and I still wanted to feel you against me and touch you and kiss you. I'll do it again if you'll let me."

Everything that came to mind to say sounded wrong and stupid. You decided to keep it simple.

"Okay."

Now that he knew what you wanted, he wasted no time in holding you, kissing you, making sure you knew exactly how badly he wanted you, right here, right now. The hand of his good arm explored your body while you did some exploring of your own. His body again reminded you of that hot, cozy blanket that covered you and kept you warm in the winter, the one you didn't want to crawl out from under because after it, everything else just seemed cold. 

A little later, when you finally did leave, you heard Bakugo behind you. "Next week they want another one of these presentations about the League of Villains."

You froze.

"Oh yeah?" you asked, trying to keep your voice level. "What about them?"

"Those losers are causing trouble again. We've heard that they're taking on new members which they haven't done that in awhile. Kirishima and I are working on it together so he can share what he found out, and then we can make this flying piece of trash they put in charge of us happy."

"Oh," you said simply. You knew that the less you said right now, the better. 

"He's a great fighter but his brain can be sort of empty, so if you had time next weekend..."

"Next weekend?"

"Not to help me," he said quickly, "because I could totally do this on my own if I didn't have this hurt arm. All I know is that if you are here, it will all go faster."

"You want me to... come here... next weekend."

"If you don't have time just say so."

"As if you ever cared about that before." 

"Whatever," he huffed. "Can you come, yes or no." 

After that kiss, you knew exactly how you were going to answer. 

"Yes."