Ch. 28 Spies

"Bakugo?" the police chief asked, obviously confused. "Is there something you need?"

He blinked, realizing that he was standing up at his table and everyone was staring at him, including the winged hero who suddenly looked very interested in the meeting.

"No," Bakugo muttered, sitting down again. "No, there's not."

What he needed was to be out of this room. Right now. He needed to find you, talk to you, anything to get rid of the sinking feeling in his gut.

That couldn't be you in the pictures. There had to be someone else with a similar quirk.

Had to be.

Bakugo practically bolted out of the briefing room the second the meeting ended, and he'd almost made it when he heard a voice behind him.

"Bakugo."

This bastard would choose right now of all times to want to talk to him? Weren't these meetings enough? The very last thing he felt like doing was sticking around to socialize, especially with a leader who couldn't even be bothered to show up on time.

Bakugo took a deep breath and slowly turned around to face his newly appointed leader.

"What?"

"Stick around for a minute, would you?" Hawks asked.

"I have one minute."

From what Hawks had heard of the young hero from the hiring agency you'd used, Hawks was not at all surprised that this was how it was going to be.

When he'd received the initial reports and saw the blurry pictures, he'd had his suspicions. That's why he volunteered to lead the investigation.

Everything that had happened between the two of you still kept him up at night. You never forget your first, right? Sure there'd been a string of girls over the past two years, but it was like he was always flying after something that was just out of reach and no matter who was in his bed, he was imagining someone else.

"How's your agency doing?" Hawks asked.

"Fine."

"Glad to hear it. Business is good?"

"It's fine."

"Good enough to hire people?"

"Can you hurry this up? I have something I need to do."

Hawks glanced around, making sure that everyone else had already left so that the two of them could be alone.

"Sit down for a second. I want to talk."

"I'd rather stand."

"Suit yourself." Hawks popped up to sit on top of one of the tables, trying to decide how to start this conversation. He needed to feel out how much Bakugo knew, but he also didn't want to give away too much if it wasn't necessary.

It hadn't been too difficult to locate the agency you'd used in town. That agency had told Hawks that you had a job but had been fired after a week. So that's all he knew. They wouldn't give out your address, and the phone number the agency had for you was disconnected.

He'd spent all this time trying to find you, and now that he finally had your number, it was disconnected? Such a disappointment.

"You had an assistant for a while, right?"

"Yeah."

"Y/n?"

"You know her?"

"Kind of."

"What about her?"

Hawks studied him for a minute. Did Bakugo even know what your quirk was or had you kept it a secret? It wouldn't have surprised him to find out that you were hiding your quirk or pretending to be quirkless.

No matter what they said, you always had been good at keeping secrets.

"Do you keep in touch?" Hawks asked.

"Why? How do you even know her?"

"I don't. At least not anymore. I heard she'd moved here."

"So you're a stalker. Anything else?"

"Have you stayed friends since she worked for you?"

"Sort of."

"How good of friends?"

"I don't know."

"So you're saying she's single?"

"Enough questions. What is the point of this?"

"Just making conversation."

"Your minute is up."

Bakugo started to walk away, but Hawks swiftly hopped off the table and darted right in front of him, his smiling face suddenly serious. On a hunch, he decided that it was time to show his cards a little.

"You have to know that it would be better for us to investigate her than the police."

Hawks paid close attention to how tense Bakugo's body language was, his face staring straight ahead, hands clenched at his sides. It seemed that the hunch was right.

"So she has told you about her quirk," Hawks nodded. "Interesting. I wondered if you knew. But you didn't bring it up in the meeting. Why is that?"

"Other people could have similar quirks."

"I suppose that's true. I'm sort of impressed. Do you have any idea how long it took for her to open up to me back then? I wonder if she was as up front with the villains."

Without warning, Bakugo grabbed Hawks by the throat and pushed him against the wall.

"She's not a fucking villain."

Hawks could have gotten away if he wanted to, but he took the moment to study Bakugo's eyes. His red eyes were all rage and anger, and maybe hurt?  His hunch had definitely been right. 

"Damn, dude, I never said she was."

Bakugo held him there for just a second longer, the two of them locked in a staring contest, before releasing his grip and letting go.

This was something altogether different than what Hawks had expected. He had hoped that maybe Bakugo had some information about where you lived or your habits, but this... this raw emotion, these obvious feelings towards you...

This changed everything.

"I'll forget the fact that you just tried to choke your boss," Hawks said, rubbing his neck, "but I need you to remember that you still have to follow orders."

"Then what are your fucking orders? Out with it."

"You seem smart, even if you're violent, so I know you see the possibility that she's involved in this. Look, maybe it's a case of pretty girl in a big city, taken in by the wrong crowd. Could happen to anyone. What I need to know right now is where she is and what she's doing."

"Then find out yourself."

"Bakugo, I'm not asking."

A long silence passed between the two of them.

"As far as I know," Hawks said, "the two of us are the only people who know about her ability. All I want to do is watch her movements for now. Let's keep track of where she goes and who she talks to. I'd do it myself, but I'm pretty much the last person she'd want to see. It seems like you're... closer. Am I right?"

Bakugo didn't answer.

"I thought so."

Bakugo considered what was being asked of him. It wouldn't be hard to follow her, and if this meant clearing her name and removing suspicion from her, then so be it.

And Hawks was right, he would rather keep this between the two of them than let the whole team investigate.

"Can I go now?"

"Sure," Hawks said, stepping aside. "Stay in touch."

But before he'd made it out of the room, he heard Hawks again.

"One more thing. This probably goes without saying, Bakugo, but you know you can't say anything about this meeting or what we're doing, right? To anyone, heroes included."

"I'm not an amateur."

"I didn't think so. Oh and Bakugo.."

"What?"

"She's a good person. I hope I'm wrong about all of this, but if I'm right... then she needs us to save her."

"We're heroes, dumbass," Bakugo scoffed. "Saving people is what we do."