The next day found Bakugou at the coffee shop down the street from the agency. He stood there staring at the board trying to figure out what kind of coffee to get Kia. She had brought him coffee a couple times now and for some reason he felt like returning the favor but he had no idea what she liked.

“Would you like your usual?” the barista asked with a purr.

“I’m looking,” Bakugou snapped back. He was getting more annoyed the longer he stared.

“You aren’t trying to pick out something for that girl who gets coffee for you are you?” she asked with a pout.

“Why?” Bakugou replied glaring at the girl.

“Because, if you are you, should order a Grande white chocolate and vanilla bean with a double shot.” said a voice behind him.

Bakugou turned around to find Kia standing there smiling at him. “Good morning B! I can’t believe you were going to get me coffee,” Kia said.

“Like hell!” Bakugou yelled turning back to the counter. “I will get my usual,” he told the barista.

The barista hurried to get Bakugou his coffee, bringing it back to the counter she sneered at Kia before pulling out a black marker and writing her number on the cup. “Here you are, Ground Zero. You can call me if you ever need anything,” the barista said with a wink.

“Why the hell would I do that?” Bakugou growled before grabbing his cup and putting money down on the counter. “Get hers too,” he commanded, pointing a thumb at Kia.

The barista walked off in a huff to make Kia’s coffee. Bringing the cup back to the counter she shoved it at Kia who then reached into her pocket to get out some cash but Bakugou tossed more money on the counter, paying for the drink.

“Let’s get to work already,” Bakugou said, storming towards the door. Shrugging Kia picked up her drink and followed him out the door. The agency wasn’t far from the coffee shop as the two heroes walked together down the street. Looking over at him Kia took a sip of her coffee.

“Thanks for the coffee,” she said to her grouchy partner.

Bakugou merely grunted in response, stopping as they came to a crosswalk. The streets were crowded with people on their way to work and Kia found herself stepping closer to Bakugou as they made their way across the street.

Bakugou could feel her presence next to him like an open flame. He quickened his pace as they made their way to the agency. He couldn’t believe how embarrassed he was at getting caught trying to buy her coffee.

Arriving at their office they both moved to their desks, getting ready for the day. As usual paperwork seemed to be a never ending plague. They had just sat down when Kia’s phone rang. Taking her phone out she was delighted to see the name on the caller ID.

“Hey, I’m surprised to get a call from you!” she answered.

Bakugou looked up when he heard Kia speaking English. He was surprised at how fluently she spoke Japanese and without much of an accent. As he listened he wondered if she had a light accent when she spoke English. Her voice took on a different tone while she was talking to the person on the other line.

“My partner?” Kia said looking over at Bakugou and he met her gaze. “He is a total hot head with bad mouth and he’s a huge pain in the ass,” Kia replied, smiling at Bakugou.

Bakugou wasn’t fluent in English but he had learned enough to know what Kia was saying. He could feel his temper rising as he turned back to his computer and tried to ignore her.

“Yep and he has a big ego. I don’t know why, I didn’t have much trouble beating him in our first sparing match,” Kia laughed.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY?” Bakugou roared, standing up from his seat.

“Yep, that was him. I was seeing exactly how much English he knew,” Kia said to the other person on the end of the line.

She is messing with me! Bakugou thought. Sitting back down and grumbling as he turned back to his work again tuning out Kia’s conversation. He heard a click and looked back up to see Kia snapping a picture of him. “What do you think you are doing?” he asked.

“Taking a picture, my friends want to know what you look like,” Kia replied sending the photo.

“Tch, you could have asked,” Bakugou grumbled.

“Don’t worry B, I got your good side,” Kia teased.

Bakugou rolled his eyes as he tried to get back to work when Kia’s phone rang again. Looking confused she swiped her finger across the screen.

“He is hot! We want to talk to him!” a feminine voice said over the phone.

“He can hear you,” Kia warned her friend. “Do you mind B?” she asked walking over to his desk.

“I’m trying to work,” he growled.

“Oh my, his voice is hot too!” another feminine voice came from the phone.

Feeling annoyed Bakugou turned away trying to ignore Kia and her stupid phone but she walked around his desk leaning over his shoulder and holding her phone out in front of them.

“Everyone, may I introduce, Ground Zero!” Kia said dramatically.

Bakugou looked at the phone to see three women crowded together on the screen. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, he realized he wasn’t going to get out of this. “Hello,” he growled in English.

“Hi, my name is Sara,” the one on the left said.

“I’m Kris,” the middle one introduced herself.

“MY… NAME… IS… GRACIE!” the third said speaking loudly and slowly, over pronouncing the words.

“Gracie he’s not stupid,” Kia said shaking her head.

“Do you speak a lot of English?” Kris asked.

“Enough,” Bakugou grunted.

“A man of few words,” Sara said to Kia.

“Just wait until he gets mad then he could make a sailor blush,” Kia replied.

“What does that mean?” Bakugou asked in Japanese while looking at Kia out of the corner of his eye. She was too close to turn his head to face her.

“Basically you have a foul mouth,” Kia replied.

“No fair, we don’t know Japanese!” Gracie pouted.

“You hardly know English,” Kris said pushing Gracie off screen.

Bakugou found himself at the center of too many damn questions for the next twenty minutes. Kia had put her arm on the back of his chair and was leaning with her head right next to his. He could smell her shampoo and it was doing weird things with his head. He found it hard to concentrate with her so close.

“Well you better take good care of our girl, Ground Zero,” Sara warned.

“We miss you Kia,” Kris added.

“Call us sometime, ok,” Gracie added as the three said their goodbyes.

Ending the call Kia stood up. “Thanks for that B,” she said as she made her way back to her desk.

“Just don’t make a habit out of it,” Bakugou replied returning to his work.

“No promises,” Kia laughed, as the phone on her desk started to ring. “Wildside,” she answered “Right away sir,” she said before hanging up the phone.

“What is it?” Bakugou asked standing up from his desk.

“Jeanist said the district to the east is having problems with rampaging villains,” Kia replied heading for the door.

The two heroes headed to the locker rooms taking a couple minutes to put on their costumes. Kia met Bakugou coming out of the men’s locker room. “How do you want to get there?” Kia asked.

“We will take my bike,” Bakugou said. Turning down the hallway he led her to the parking garage. They past all kinds of vehicles before making their way to a sleek looking motorcycle near the far door. Bakugou stopped and grabbed an extra helmet, throwing it to Kia. “You ever ride before?” he asked as he grabbed his own helmet and straddled the bike.

“Hell yeah! I’ve got one back home,” Kia said. Putting on the helmet she hopped on behind Bakugou, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Hitting a button on the handle Bakugou started up the motorcycle as the garage door started to open. “Hold on,” he said as he pulled out of the garage. Turning down the street the two headed to help with the villains.

Bakugou wove in and out of traffic smoothly as they arrived in the next district. It wasn’t hard to find where the villains were as police officers diverted traffic and evacuated civilians. Turning the next corner they saw a couple heroes squaring off with three villains and the heroes were not doing so well. Bakugou felt Kia’s weight shift as she braced her hands on his shoulders and moved to stand on the seat.

Picking up on what Kia was thinking, Bakugou gunned it, heading straight down the street towards the villains. Coming up on them Kia dove off the motorcycle, tackling one of the villains to the ground as Bakugou blasted another and brought the bike to a stop once he had rode past.

When she tackled the villain Kia tucked and rolled pulling him away from his cohorts. Kia smiled, she had successfully separated him from his pals. Removing her helmet, she took a defensive position while the villain gathered himself off of the ground. The villain came at her, throwing a punch that was encased in water. Kia met his with a flaming punch of her own.

Steam rose, surrounding the battling heroine and villain as they exchanged blows. Ducking and rolling out of his reach Kia transformed, unfurling her wings she flapped them a couple times to clear away the steam that was accumulating around them.

The villain seeing Kia’s wings and scales began to coat himself in water creating a massive swirling suit as he came at Kia once again. She met him blasting away at the water trying to get in a good hit. The water was to strong and Kia’s attack just created more steam. She didn’t want to risk a massive blast since they were so close to the buildings. That left Kia with one option. Taking a deep breath she took a solid stance and closed her eyes to focus.

“How dare you close your eyes when fighting me! It will be your last mistake,” the villain howled as he came at Kia.

Just as the villain reached her Kia caught his fist in her hand. Water turned to ice as the villain watch his defense turned into a prison. Reaching a clawed hand up Kia melted enough ice so that the villain could still breathe. Leaving him frozen in his own armor she turned around to see how her partner was fairing.

Bakugou was fighting the two remaining villains, one of which had a fire quirk and the other an earth quirk who was throwing boulders he brought up from the destroyed street. Kia ran to go help Bakugo and watched as he delivered a blast that sent the fire user flying into the side of a building knocking him out. Reaching Bakugou’s side they turned together to face the remaining villain.

“Your pathetic blasts can’t break through my rock hard defense,” the villain cackled as he brought more and more rock to himself, compressing it into a harder and denser shield.

Bakugou sent a concentrated blast at the shield using his AP shot to try and blast through it. The blast only took a small chunk out of it.

The two heroes took turns trying to blast their way through the villain’s defense as he created a cocoon around himself. The fight was dragging on as they relentlessly tried to reach the villain.

“This is taking forever,” Kia snarled in frustration.

“We have got to find a way to break through,” Bakugou said as he landed next to her.

“I have an idea,” Kia replied turning to her partner. “I know we have never tried it before but do you remember how I said I can bolster another person’s attacks?”

“I hear ya,” Bakugou said grinning as Kia moved to his right side.

“The trick is to keep the components even so we can control the blast radius and minimize any damage to the buildings,” Kia told him.

“Got it,” Bakugou replied moving into position.

“I will follow you,” Kia said getting ready.

Bakugou blasted forward with Kia right next to him as he concentrated on a powerful pinpoint blast with his right hand. Kia moved in sync with him as she brought her left hand to meet Bakugou’s, mixing her own accelerant with his blast.

The resulting explosion blasted a massive hole in the villain’s defense giving the two heroes and opening to take him out. When the dust settled they stood over the unconscious villain. The blast took out a couple of light poles but the buildings remained intact.

“That was intense!” Kia said turning to her partner she held up a fist for him to bump knuckles.

Bakugou smirked bring his own fist up to hers. Kia knocked her knuckles against his, “Boom,” she said still grinning.

“Really?” Bakugou asked in a mocking tone.

“What, you to cool for a fist bump?” Kia asked.

Rolling his eyes Bakugou picked up the villain to take him to the police who were waiting with an iron maiden.