Ch. 25 New Apartment

"Those are... for me?"

"Well, they're not for Bakugo."

Your eyes darted from the roses to Shoto's face and back again. He'd brought you a dozen gorgeous red roses. Brought them to Bakugo's apartment. But, like, why?

Shoto must have noticed your confused expression.

"You don't like them?" he asked.

"No! No, I mean yes, yes of course I like them." Shoto held the bouquet out and you took it from him, hesitating just a little. 

"Thank you... But what is this for?"

He leaned in to give you a hug and kissed your cheek. "I saw them and thought of you."

"They're beautiful, Shoto."

"Like you."

"Okay, that was cheesy."

"But true."

"Anyway," you said, conscious of the two silent people in the other room. Too silent. "Come on in. We're pretty much done, actually."

"So don't make yourself comfortable!" Bakugo shouted from the other room while the two of you walked in to join them. "But if you want food, there's a little left, I guess."

Before you even had a chance to sit down, Bakugo stood up and yanked the flowers out of your hand.

"Hey!" you started to protest as he stomped toward the kitchen with them.

"I'm just putting them in some water, calm down."

"Oh. That's... nice. Thanks."

"What's up, Todoroki?" Kirishima smiled and immediately handed Shoto the laptop. "Can you look at this?"

You heard noises coming from the kitchen so as soon as you were confident that they wouldn't notice, you quietly left the room. You turned the corner into the kitchen where you saw Bakugo slamming things around on the countertop. The roses were lying on the table, no sign of water for them anywhere.

"What are you doing?" you asked, wrinkling your face.

But he didn't stop, and he didn't turn around. As you got closer to him, you realized that he was gathering up more of the snacks. "When someone visits your house, you at least give them something to eat."

Standing behind him, you slipped your arms around his waist and leaned your head against his back. "Ah yes, so glad I have you to teach me proper manners."

Bakugo stopped slamming things around for a second before twisting around.

"Is this some kind of game to you?" he asked, narrowing his red eyes at you.

"What?"

"Having your boyfriend parade in with flowers, to my apartment, what the hell is that about?"

He pushed off your hands and turned back around to the counter.

"Hey. Hey!" you said a little louder to get him to look at you. "He's not my boyfriend and I didn't know he was bringing me flowers. He asked if he could stop by and you didn't tell me to say no. I'm not playing any kind of game here. I thought you guys were friends."

Bakugo scoffed.

"There's definitely a game going on," he muttered.

You put your hand on the side of his face, turning it and forcing him to look at you. "There's no game. I'm not into the jealous guy thing," you told him. You already had enough of that with Dabi. You didn't need to add any more crazy to your life than what you already had. "So if that's what this is, cut it out."

You heard a low growl forming in his chest.

"Fine. Get some wrap from over there," he said, nodding toward the cabinet behind you. "We can at least wrap the stems to keep the flowers from dripping all over the floor. Damn amateur didn't even know how to do that right."

When the two of you walked back into the main room, Todoroki and Kirishima were once again discussing the best tactics against Dabi.

"You guys still talking about the damn villain with a fire quirk?" Bakugo asked.

"Yeah," Kirishima admitted. "I thought it would be good to have some ideas before I do this presentation."

"When is it again?" you asked.

"Friday at the police station downtown. The chief is getting everyone together. I'm so nervous."

"Don't be!" you said to reassure him. "You'll be great."

"And the winged bastard will probably be there, too," Bakugo added.

Your ears perked up at that.

"Well, he is in charge," Todoroki said. 

"He's kind of like you, y/n," Kirishima chimed in. "I've heard Hawks talk about understanding a villain's background, their childhood, their motivations. Sort of what you were saying earlier."

"Who cares about any of that?" Bakugo asked with disdain. "A villain is a villain."

"That doesn't mean that they're not still a person though," you insisted. "Instead of saying they're a villain, you could say that they're a person who has done villainous things."

"Too wordy. It's the same thing. They're a villain, end of story."

"But they're also still human. They have things they care about, people they care about."

"I agree with y/n," Todoroki said.

"Of course you do," Bakugo said, rolling his eyes.

"As heroes, it's up to us to protect everyone." Todoroki put a hand on your thigh as he emphasized that last word. You smiled at him weakly and picked up his hand to move it, which he took to mean that you wanted to hold his hand, which is exactly what he did, not letting yours go.

Since he was insisting on holding your hand, you stood up. 

"It's getting late," you told the guys, "so I'm going to head out."

"To your apartment?" Shoto asked. "By yourself?"

"Yep."

"I had my driver wait out front, just in case. I'll take you."

You looked to Bakugo, unsure what to do. He shrugged his shoulders, and you knew he was trying hard to not appear jealous. 

It was just going to be a ride home, you told yourself, nothing more.

"Let me go get the flowers."

"Have you ever thought about moving?" Shoto asked once you were seated in his car.

To a place where Dabi couldn't find me, yeah.

"Sometimes," you told him. "Recently especially."

"My family owns several apartments in my building. Let me set up some tours for you."

"Shoto, that's very sweet, but there's no way I could ever afford to live in your building."

"It's worth it, I promise. There's a doorman, and security cameras, and I hear there's a hero who would only be a few floors away if you ever needed him."

"You do make it sound tempting."

"Let's go right now."

"Right now? Isn't it sort of late to be apartment hunting?"

Apparently, it wasn't.

When the building manager handed over a set of keys to Shoto, you realized then that when Shoto said his family owned several apartments in the building, he really meant that there were several empty apartments in an entire building his family owned.

So that's how you ended up standing in a dark, empty apartment holding a dozen roses.

The lights weren't working yet, but thankfully the large windows let in enough of the city lights to keep you from stumbling around in the dark. You set the flowers down on the wood floor and went to look out the window.

"Do you like it?" you heard Shoto ask behind you.

"The view alone is amazing. It's a far cry from the elegant view of the building dumpster at my place."

"And the racoons."

"Can't forget them," you nodded. "Honestly they're the least harmful thing around there."

There was something comforting about the dull noise from the city below you, as if the noises from cars and people were the world's way of letting you know that you weren't alone. Some people might love the quiet and solitude of the countryside, but you loved the hustle and bustle, the yellow street lights, the store fronts, all of it. Even the occasional police siren or car horn made it seem that much more alive. You chuckled to yourself; Bakugo would hate -

"Y/n."

"Hm?"

"Y/n."

"What?" You turned around and saw Shoto holding up a key. "What's that?"

Shoto smiled and came closer. "This? This is yours."

"I don't understand. What is?"

"Hold out your hand," he said, so you did. He placed the key in your hand and folded your fingers over it. "This apartment. It's yours."

"Huh?"

"There are others we could look at, if you don't like this one. But I had a feeling that the view would be reason enough to pick this one."

"I am so confused. You are serious right now?"

"Yes."

You tried handing the key back to him, but Shoto took a step back. "I can't afford to live here, Shoto. You know there's no way I can pay rent here."

"That's okay. No one is paying rent here right now anyway. This one has been empty for months. Whatever you can pay is better than what the place is bringing in right now."

"I already have an apartment. And a lease. I can't just --"

"Use that one as storage then," he interrupted. "Or not. I don't care. I'm sorry if this sounds pretentious but I can't stand the idea of you living in that building. It's crawling with criminals. It's only a matter of time before something happened to you there, and I couldn't live with myself if something bad did happen when I could do something about it."

"Shoto. You're not listening. I can't afford this."

"Good thing you'll have a very patient and understanding landlord."

Again, you tried giving him back the key and again he refused to take it.

"You can't just give someone an apartment. That isn't the kind of thing you do for someone you just started talking to."

"No, but this is the kind of thing I would do for my girlfriend." He ran his fingers down your cheek gently. "Be mine," he whispered.

The warm pads of his fingers tapped down your chin to your neck. It would be so easy, so easy, to lean into his hand, to lean into him, to let him undress you right there in the empty apartment with only the moonlight on your skin.

Instead you caught his hand in yours.

Fuck, you didn't want to say this, but it needed to be said.

"Shoto, I don't think this will work."

"What?"

"I like you, I do, but...you, me, all of this," you gestured around the room, "this world isn't me. I don't think we make sense together."

Shoto was silent but kept your hand in his as he turned to stare out the window down at the street below.

"It's Bakugo, isn't it?"

Yes, it's him. It's also that this is all too much. It's also that I'm a villain who goes on nightly missions because my villain boss makes me. It's also my crazy ex-boyfriend who will probably murder me at some point in the not so distant future.

"It's a lot of things."

Shoto squeezed your hand and finally looked back at you. "I can make you happy, y/n. I know you don't think you deserve all of this," he said, this time Shoto gestured around the room, "but that's where you're wrong. I can give you everything in the world."

"I don't need anything, that's not –"

"I will give you everything."

"But, Shoto, I don't—"

"Just..." he sighed. "Can you do me one favor?"

The look on his face let you know that you owed him at least this. "Sure."

"Think about it. Okay?"

"Shoto..."

"That's all that I ask. Give it a few days and think about it. We can be happy, y/n."

You didn't know if he was right or not. You went to leave, but you heard Shoto say your name. 

"You forgot these," he said, handing you the bouquet of roses that you had left on the floor.

"Oh, Sorry." 

"Y/n. Please. Move out of that apartment. It doesn't have to be here. Can you at least do that? I'll pay for your movers."

"This means that much to you?"

"Your safety? Yes. If this is too big, I have plenty of room in my penthouse." Before you could interrupt him, Shoto held up a hand. "I know what you're going to say, but you would have your own room. You can have almost your own wing. Think about it. Even if it's temporary. Okay?"

"Okay."