Ch. 23 Villain Girl

You hadn't seen Bakugo all week, and now here you were, back at his apartment, sucking face in his kitchen.

There were worse ways to spend a Friday night.

There had been a little small talk in the beginning, The conversation when you'd first walked in felt like an absurd one act play, both of you unsure of your roles and unpracticed at your lines.

What have you been up to? was followed by Not much and Staying busy which led to Same here.

He asked where you worked, again, but it had been easier to answer with kisses than words.

Your clumsy dialogue in no way resembled the physical chemistry between the two of you. Your bodies knew what to do with each other, knew how to fit against each other. His hands were like a magnet drawn to your skin and you let them clamp down wherever they wanted.

Of course, somewhere in the back of your mind you were acutely aware that all of this was a terrible idea. You'd been down this road before, and it had ended in heartbreak.

The irony wasn't lost on you that after swearing off heroes altogether, you were tasting this hero's skin with your tongue, licking up his sweat, and letting him do the same.

Bakugo's hands held yours, but then he let go and caressed your arms, playing with your bracelet and then rubbing up your arms, each finger feeling like fire against your skin. The hot touches traveled to your shoulder, and you didn't even realize that he had pulled your shirt down a little until you felt him pull back from the kiss.

"What's this?" he asked, his thumb rubbing over the bandage covering Dabi's brand.

"Oh that?" Your mind worked quickly to try to think of a lie that wouldn't sound too suspicious. The last thing you needed right now was for him to see the tiny flame burned into your skin.

"I burned myself on accident," you told him. "Doing my hair. No big thing, just me being clumsy."

"Let me look at it. I've had my share of burn wounds," he said, starting to peel the bandage off.

"No! No," you said, swatting his hand away. "It's fine. Really."

Your hands went around his neck to pull him in for a kiss, hoping it was enough to distract him. You weren't confident that he believed you, but he stopped talking once your mouth was on his.

He broke away long enough to lift you up under your arms, setting you on the counter and pushing in between your legs to get as close to you as possible.

"Are you listening to my thoughts right now?" he whispered in your ear.

As if you needed to. Listening to his breathing, feeling his chest against yours, his body straining to get closer, it was enough. "No."

"Maybe you should."

He tapped the bottom of your chin, telling you to look at him without needing to use any words. It was easy to indulge yourself and allow yourself to take a small peak into his mind. So you put your toe in the water of his thoughts, nothing more, because if you waded in too deep, you'd probably...

Oh.

Oh wow.

....that could be fun.

You instantly blushed and looked away.

He chuckled softly and brought your face back to look at him. "It's not fair that you get to know what's going on in my head," he said, "and I have to guess what's going on in yours."

"I can tell you that my thoughts are maybe not quite as.... X-rated?"

"Oh yeah?"

"Maybe only a little x-rated."

"That's better."

"But I promise I am not listening to your thoughts normally. I only did it just now because you said I should and I saw more than enough from that quick visit to your mind."

"And you liked what you saw?"

"I....did."

He smirked and leaned in to kiss you again, but before it went much further, you were interrupted by the sound of the apartment door opening.

"Anybody home?" you heard Kirishima call from the other room.

With a groan, Bakugo captured your lips quickly and then left to go intercept his friend, with you following behind.

You hadn't seen Kirishima since he had been a prisoner at the League hideout. You were pretty sure that he hadn't recognized you then and your voice had been muffled behind the mask you'd worn. Your only real worry was that he might connect your voice to the voice of the person he'd talked to that night, but almost two weeks had passed and you hoped he had mostly forgotten how you'd sounded.

"Y/n!" Kiri shouted when he saw you. "You're already here. You are truly a lifesaver."

His kind words were embarrassing. You didn't deserve his kindness, and you knew it. After all, you were working with the people who'd kidnapped him, held him hostage, and then interrogated him. And here he was, calling you a lifesaver? Hardly.

"Thank you so much for helping out tonight, y/n. You really are the best." Kirishima clapped his hand down on your shoulder, right where Dabi's brand was, and you couldn't help but wince from the pain.

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you? I didn't mean to!" he started apologizing.

"I'm okay," you told him.

"Sorry! But really, thanks. I'm sure you had a lot of other things you would rather be doing on a Friday night."

Bakugo's eyes met yours as he walked past you back into the kitchen.

"I'm happy to help," was all you said.

"Still. Let me know what I can do to repay you."

You put your hand up to stop him from saying anything else. "No payment necessary," you told him.

"Why don't you ever say that to me?" Bakugo shouted from the kitchen.

"Because Kirishima is actually nice about it!" you shouted back. "If you're not going to be nice when you ask me to do something, you should at least pay me."

"Do you want me to pay you?" Kirishima asked you, obviously confused.

"No, I'm not talking about you," you smiled and opened the computer in your lap. "Let's get started or we'll end up being here all night."

Bakugo came out of the kitchen with a tray of snacks and drinks and then sat down on the couch next to you. The last time the two of you had sat on this couch, you'd fallen asleep next to each other.

"First, food," he said, "Eat. I know I'm fucking starving."

"Food is the best part of coming here!" Kirishima said happily, making a plate.

"Not Bakugo's excellent conversation skills?" you laughed.

"Ha! He's boring as hell. No wonder he goes to bed so early, all those books he reads probably bore him to sleep. They would me, at least!"

"Don't brag about not reading," Bakugo said.

"Let's get started. They've asked you to present what you learned about the League, right?" You opened the laptop, ready to type and looked at Kirishima expectantly.

"Yep," he said.

"And you're sure you're okay talking about it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"It's just... You don't seem very... upset. Or scared? After going through something like that, I'm a little surprised."

"That's because they weren't very scary. "

"We're talking about murderers, idiot," Bakugo said. "You don't have to pretend like it didn't bother you."

"Well, maybe not all of them are murderers," you offered.

"Yeah, right," Bakugo scoffed. "Even if they're not, they're complicit in it. When you join something like that, you know exactly what you're signing up for."

"But what if they didn't know what they were signing up for?" you asked.

"What do you mean?" Bakugo looked at you like you were crazy. "Their freaking name is 'League of Villains.' They knew."

"What if they didn't sign up at all but were forced to be part of the League?"

"So? What's the difference? There's no time to stop and ask for their sad back story in the middle of a fight. That's not our job. We have to assume that every member of the League is deadly or else we put ourselves at risk by letting our guard down."

"I get what you're saying," you agreed. "And I definitely don't think they should get a free pass. But I have to wonder how circumstances created some of these monsters."

"A villain is a villain," Bakugo said. "If a guy associates with scum like them, for whatever reason, he's no better than the rest of the villain trash."

Your heart sank at his words, and you looked down at the blank screen of the laptop.

"You're so sweet to try to see all of the sides of this, y/n," Kirishima said, smiling at you. His expression was soft and kind, as if he were comforting you, only making you feel more embarrassed. "But sometimes there just isn't a gray area. In this case, it's pretty black and white.

"For example," Kirishima continued, "there was this one girl villain, when they were interrogating me... "