Kia’s heart raced from the lingering feeling of Bakugou touching her scales. Even her wing felt all tingly from his touch. It was something Kia had never felt before and it left her feeling confused and a little scared, especially when she realized that she liked the way it felt.

Pushing the feeling aside she answered the three boys’ questions delighting in their excitement. She could feel Bakugou’s curious gaze behind her but pretended not to notice.

“You are so cool!” Kuro told her.

“Of course she is! She has to be if she is Ground Zero’s partner,” Haru said, crossing his arms. An older woman stepped out of one of the stores and called to the three boys.

“Thank you for speaking with us,” little Hiro said as they all gave a small bow.

“It was my pleasure, boys,” Kia replied.

The three turned and took off after the woman, waving back at the two heroes.

Kia returned to where Bakugou was waiting and they continued walking in silence. Kia could feel the unspoken question hanging in the air but she wasn’t quite ready to tell Bakugou everything. Their partnership was going well but she felt like they didn’t completely trust each other yet. Her past wasn’t something she shared with just anyone.

Bakugou could tell his partner did not want to talk, but he was irritated with the uneasiness between them. Maybe she didn’t trust him enough to tell him and that thought made him angry. Suddenly, Bakugou reached out and grabbed Kia by the arm to stop her. “You are always wearing long sleeves,” he stated as he took a step closer. Pulling her arm towards himself, he rolled back her sleeve. revealing her wrist. Without her scales, the scar looked worse; it was about two inches wide and wrapped all the way around her wrist. “You don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth?” he asked.

Kia jerked her arm out of Bakugou’s grasp. Looking him in the eyes, she asked. “Do you still want to work solo, or do you want me to be your partner?”

Bakugou scowled back at her. “I work alone…” he replied. Kia turned to walk away but Bakugou reached out again, catching her by her other arm, “…But knowing you have my back isn’t terrible,” he finished, looking away.

Kia stared at him, realizing that that was as close as he was going to get to admitting he wanted to be partners. Sighing, she replied, “I did some research on you before I came to Japan. You were once kidnapped by some villains for a couple of days when you were still in high school, right?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Bakugou asked.

“That is something we have in common,” Kia answered. Pulling her arm out of his grasp, she pulled back her sleeve revealing identical scars on both of her wrists. “Only I was prisoner for more than a couple days.”

Studying her scars, Bakugou realized what had caused them. “How long did they have you?” he asked.

“Seven years,” Kia replied, pulling her sleeves back down. Kia turned and started walking down the street towards the agency.

Bakugou stood in the middle of the sidewalk, watching his partner’s back. To be in restraints long enough to leave scars, he remembered what it was like when he was captured by villains, and he couldn’t imagine what seven years would be like. Shoving his hands in his pockets he followed behind Kia thinking about the new information she just gave him.

Walking through the front doors of the agency, Kia made her way to the elevator. Hitting the up button she stood there waiting for the elevator when Bakugou walked up beside her. The doors opened and they both stepped inside. Bakugou turned around and pushed the button for the floor of their office. Another hero came up to get on the elevator, but stopped when Bakugou glared at him.

“I will take the next one,” the hero said as the doors closed leaving Bakugou and Kia alone in the elevator.

“I won’t ask you about it anymore today,” Bakugou said without turning around.

“It is not something I like to talk about,” Kia stated.

They both stood there in silence before Bakugou continued. “If you ever need to, you can,” he said quietly, still facing front.

Kia smiled at his back. Bakugou was loud and gruff with his words not to mention proud to a fault, but he always surprised her with how kind hearted he could be. Offering to listen to her while being vague as possible… it was like he thought showing that side of him would make him seem weak.

“Thank you, B. I will keep that in mind,” Kia said as the elevator doors opened.

The air was still tense between them as they reach their office. Bakugou walked in first, holding the door open behind him for Kia.

“What is that?” he asked, pointing at her desk.

Kia looked up and saw a big brown box on her desk. She walked over to investigate and smiled when she read the return address on the package. “It’s from home,” she replied.

Curious, Bakugou moved over to sit on her desk as she started opening the box with a claw. Reaching in Kia pulled out a smaller box that was sealed airtight.

“From home?” Bakugou asked, trying not to look interested.

“It looks like my family sent a care package,” Kia said, setting the box down and pulling a letter out of the bigger box. Opening the letter, Kia’s smile got brighter, “I haven’t been gone a month and they are already sending me stuff.”

Bakugou peered into the box. On top was a picture in a frame. In the picture was a large man with black hair, brown eyes, and a big smile. There was a woman standing next to him with short lilac hair, blue eyes, and a kind smile. In front of the couple, a young a boy with blue hair had his arms around the shoulders of two older girls. The older of the two had the same kind smile as the older woman and black hair. The other one was Kia. She and the boy had identical smiles to their father. Bakugou reached in, picking up the photo to study it closer.

“That is my father, Kayne and my mother, Mia,” Kia said, pointing to the people in the photo. “That’s my older sister, Karen and my brother, Miles.”

“They sent you pictures?” Bakugou asked.

“They grabbed them from my place back home since I didn’t have time to go and get them. I left from where I was working in New York before I came here,” Kia replied. Reaching into the box, she pulled out a small package wrapped in a bandana. Kia opened it and pulled out two braided leather wristbands. They were made out of black, green, and purple leather cords with a smaller thread of red woven in the mix.

“Oh, Dad, thank you!” Kia said out loud in English.

Bakugou could speak and understand enough American English to know what Kia had said. “Your dad made these for you?” he asked.

“Yeah, Dad knows how I feel about my scars. He probably made these for me after I sent them a picture of my new costume,” Kia replied. Rolling up her sleeve she fastened the first one around her wrist with the small buckles on the ends. Putting on the other one she held up both arms to see how they fit. The wrist bands were wide enough to cover the scars even when she moved and pliable enough not to restrict movement.

Kia turned back to the care package her family had sent. Digging through it to see what pictures they had sent when she came across something her siblings had hidden in the bottom. Pulling out a large bundle of cloth that turned out to be a sweater, she unwrapped a glass bottle with amber colored liquid in it and a red cap. A note was stuck to the side of the bottle.

Pulling off the note Kia read out loud, “For those moments when you fucking had enough. Love Your Siblings. P.S. We had to sneak this past Mom!” Laughing, Kia wrapped the bottle back in the sweater and stuck it back in the box.

“What was that?” Bakugou asked, motioning at the box.

“A bottle of cinnamon whiskey, it is one of my favorite drinks. Maybe if you’re lucky I will share with you one day, but I think I will probably be drinking it because of you,” Kia laughed.

“Tch, what about this?” Bakugou asked, picking up the smaller sealed box.

“Ever had a pumpkin cookie?” Kia asked, grabbing the box from him.

“A pumpkin cookie?” Bakugou said.

“Trust me, you haven’t lived until you’ve eaten one of mom’s pumpkin cookies,” Kia said, opening the box to offer him one.