Kia and Bakugou found themselves at the center of the media’s attention. The two of them had apprehended villains that were wanted throughout Japan. It took them the better part of an hour to answer all the media's questions.

They returned to the garage and Bakugou parked his motorcycle. Kia removed her arms from his waist and got off.

“Sweet ride!” Kia said, stepping down to admire the motorcycle. The bike reflected the design of his costume with the tank patterned like his grenade gauntlets. “I wonder if I could get mine brought over here.”

“You will have to get permits for the bike and go through tests to get your driver’s license.” Bakugou informed her.

“Yeah, I know, it will probably be too much of a hassle and a lot of paperwork,” Kia groaned. Turning to her partner, she gave him a mischievous smile. “Maybe you will let me drive sometime?”

“Keep dreaming,” Bakugou smirked.

“It was worth a shot. It will be easier to stay together if I ride with you anyway,” Kia thought out loud.

“Sure,” Bakugou replied, turning to leave the garage. Kia put her helmet back on the shelf before following her partner back to their office.

They had just reached the second floor when Best Jeanist came walking down the hallway towards them. “Good job today you two. You handled the situation well,” he said as they met.

“Thank you,” Kia replied. Bakugou merely stood there waiting for Jeanist to finish.

“I’ve been contacted by the editor of a magazine called Hero Today, they want to do an article on the two of you,” Best Jeanist told them.

“Really? When?” Kia asked.

“I’ve arranged for you to go over to their offices tomorrow morning. You will need to be in costume,” Jeanist informed them. “They want to do an interview and take some photos, so you will probably be gone all morning. I will have Nina email you the address.”

“Cool, B, our first interview as a team!” Kia said turning to her partner.

“Great,” Bakugou said with a huff.

“What is your problem? Interviews are a good way to get noticed by the public. It is one part of becoming the number one hero,” Kia said.

“The problem is Bakugou doesn’t have a very good reputation with interviews,” Jeanist replied, giving said hero the stare down.

“I can see that,” Kia said. “You won’t have to worry about it now though.”

“Really? How come?” Bakugou asked skeptically.

“Because you have me,” Kia said with a smile. “Let’s get to the office and I will give you some pointers.”

“I don’t need any help,” Bakugou growled as he stomped off towards their office.

“Sure you don’t, tough guy,” Kia said, following after him.

Jeanist watched the two heroes walk away arguing. Looks like she can put up with his attitude, hopefully she can help him with the interview, he thought as he headed back to his own office.

%

Entering their office, Bakugou sat down at his desk to get started on the paperwork for the day. Kia sat down on the front of his desk.

“So what problems do you have with interviews exactly? I can’t see you as someone who doesn’t like being in the spotlight and you are too smart for reporters to take advantage of you.” Kia asked.

Bakugou sighed and turned to face her, “You aren’t going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope, this doesn’t just affect your reputation, but mine as well. If you want to be a top hero, you have to be able to have successful interviews,” Kia reasoned.

“It isn’t that I don’t like interviews. Reporters tick me off and they often twist what I say or ask too many dumb questions,” Bakugou said.

“Sounds like they have figured out how to push your buttons and make you lose your temper,” Kia said. Turning towards Bakugou, she continued, “Well one thing I’m guessing you need to work on is how you say things. Make sure you don’t use inappropriate or vulgar language.”

“You want me to smile at the camera and act all bubbly?” Bakugou said sarcastically.

Kia snorted in laughter before she replied, “Although it would be hilarious to watch, no… you need to be yourself while keeping up appearances. You are a total badass and that will be one of your selling points as a number one hero.”

Surprised at his partner’s words, Bakugou smirked, “You think I’m a badass?”

“Yeah, yeah… don’t let it get to your head,” Kia replied, rolling her eyes. “Your ego is big enough. We don’t need it to get any bigger, or your head will explode.”

Bakugou chuckled. “Can’t help it if I’m the best, Sunshine,” he said, standing up to look Kia in the eyes.

“The best at what? Scaring little children?” Kia countered.

“Ouch, and they say I’m the harsh one,” Bakugou challenged.

“Nope, you are the loud, angry one.” Kia grinned back. Looking up at the clock, she realized her appointment with the building manager was soon. “I have to get going, but we can talk more about it when I get back. I’m going to YouTube some of your past interviews so I can see what I’m working with,” Kia said as she made her way to the door.

“What about all this damn paperwork?” Bakugou glared as he watched his partner leave.

“I will do my part when I get back, just email me what you get done or leave the forms on my desk. I will see ya later!” Kia said as she left.

Grumbling to himself, Bakugou sat back down, pulling a new incident report out of his desk. “So she thinks I’m a badass,” he said with a small smile.

%

Kia arrived at the apartment complex 10 minutes early. The building wasn’t very far from the agency and Kia would be able to run to work in the mornings. It was a large relatively new looking building that was eight stories tall and each apartment had its own balcony.

Walking into the lobby, she could see mailboxes at the back of the building with elevators on either side. Two people stood at the front desk. One was a young man in a uniform and the other an older woman in a suit. The woman turned to see Kia walking over towards them.

“Hello, you must be Kia Hales. I’m Yoko Hiroyumi the building manager,” the woman introduced herself with a bow.

“Thank you for taking time to meet with me,” Kia bowed back.

“Why don’t we get started? The apartment is on the top floor,” Hiroyumi said, gesturing towards the elevators.

Kia made her way over to the elevators as Manager Hiroyumi told her about the building’s main floor. “The mailboxes are in the back of the building and it is usually delivered by 12:30 pm every day.” Pushing the button for the elevator Hiroyumi continued. “The building’s layout is pretty simple. The bottom two floors have mostly single bedroom apartments and the next four floors have multi-bedroom apartments for families. The top two floors have two bedroom apartments that we usually rent out to local heroes. There is a special elevator for those two floors to accommodate heroes that are on call.”

The elevator doors opened as it reached the top floor. Kia stepped out into the quiet hallway. “It is at the end of the hall on the right,” Hiroyumi said leading the way. “We don’t place name plates on these floors for the privacy of the heroes that live here,” the manager said, pulling a key from her pocket and opening the door. “We also do our best to keep the media out of the building.”

Kia stepped through the door and into the hallway which led into a living room. The apartment had an open floor plan with the living room extending into a small dining room and decent sized kitchen. Another hallway led from the kitchen to a laundry room, bathroom, and two bedrooms.

“It seems a little big for just me,” Kia said looking around the bedrooms.

“Some like to use the second room as an office or spare room in case friends or family visit. The whole apartment is also sound proofed for your convince,” Manager Hiroyumi informed her.

Kia headed out on the balcony next. The view was nice. Looking around, Kia realized that it was connected to the balcony next door, with the two being separated by a gate.

“The young man next door keeps to himself and he works late a lot, so we rarely see him,” Hiroyumi said, noticing Kia looking at the gate. “Which is too bad… he is really quite handsome,” she finished, fanning herself.

“The whole place is really amazing,” Kia smiled “I’ll take it. When can I move in?”

%

Bakugou glanced at the time. Kia had been gone for almost two hours. When the hell is she going to get back? he thought. Turning back to his computer, he opened his email to send Kia copies of the report he filled out. Searching through the agency’s address book, he found her company email and sent the report.

Leaning back in his chair, Bakugou stretched looking at the clock once more. Where did she say she was going again? he wondered when a message popped up in his inbox. Sitting up he opened the message to see a reply from Kia.

Thanks B, I will be back to the agency around 3:00 pm. I’m just finishing up a couple things.

-Sunshine

Bakugou chuckled at her use of his nickname for her. Closing the mail, he checked the time again. She said she would be back around three, so that gave him about an hour. He could head out on patrol without her or wait for her to get back, but what would he do while he waited? All the paperwork was done except for Kia’s half of the reports. He decided that maybe he should look into his partner more.

Opening a browser window, Bakugou typed Kia’s hero name into the search engine. A YouTube link popped up and he clicked on it. The video title said the clip was from a concert in America that quite a few heroes participated in to raise money for a bunch of charities.

As the clip started playing it showed Kia in a purple version of her costume except it was sleeveless with black wristbands and black heels. Her hair was let down and curled with black clips holding it out of her face. Judging from the date on the clip she must have been in her final year of high school. She had an electric guitar in her hands and a mic headset on. Four other young women stood on stage with her, each one with a different instrument except the one in the middle. They all started playing as the one in the lead began to sing. Kia and the girl playing the bass walked forward and began signing back up and dancing with the lead singer. They were pretty good and the crowd cheered. They sang the cover of a song called “Every Time We Touch” by Cascada.

Bakugou couldn’t help but notice Kia wasn’t really into the song even though she never missed a chord or step. The smile on her face didn’t reach her eyes. When the song ended, the bassist step forward to sing lead and then the keyboardist and the drummer sang lead to other songs after that. All of them where cheesy love songs that made Bakugou want to pop in his ear buds and crank his playlist up. He had expected Kia to step up and sing one of the offending songs but the curtains closed and the clip ended.

The title of the next clip, Wildside Kills It at Charity Concert, caught Bakugou’s eye so he clicked on it. This time Kia was front and center on the stage with a different set of heroes playing instruments. The drummer gave off a count to start before he started playing the song. The other heroes started playing rock music as Kia stepped up to the mic and started singing, “When Legends Rise” by Godsmack.

Bakugou found himself liking the music and Kia put on a good show that left the audience screaming for an encore. The clip continued to show the encore when there was a knock at the door. Pausing the video, Bakugou called out, “Who the hell is it?”

“Yo, Bakugou,” Kirishima greeted him as he walked through the door. He was in his hero costume so Bakugou figured he was here on official business.

“What do you want?” Bakugou asked his friend.

“I was running some stuff over for Fatgum and figured I would stop by,” Kirishima said, looking over to Kia’s desk. “You didn’t run her off already, did you?”

“No, dumb shit, she is out for a while,” Bakugou growled.

“Aww, when will she get back?” Kirishima asked.

“Around three,” Bakugou answered.

“Damn I have to be back to the agency at three,” Kirishima sighed after looking at the clock, “Oh well, I will have to catch her another time. What are you working on?” he asked, walking around Bakugou’s desk. “Doing some research on your partner, huh?” Kirishima said after seeing what was in the browser.

“Looks like I’m stuck with her, so might as well,” Bakugou replied.

Kirishima couldn’t help but notice his friend didn’t seem disappointed in the least. “Well, if you are researching her, check this out,” he said, reaching over to open another window. Kirishima typed Wildside and model into the search engine. He clicked on one of the websites and the home page of a modeling agency came on the screen. Clicking on the models tab he found exactly what he was looking for and clicked on Kia’s name. A portfolio of images came on screen. She modeled a lot of sportswear and everyday clothes.

“Hold on a second,” Kirishima said as he searched through the images until he came to one of Kia in an evening dress.

It was a red and black low cut halter-top that hugged her every curve with jewels sewn in to draw a person’s gaze to all the right places. One long leg was exposed by a slit that went clear up to her hip, showing off the matching red and black heels. Her hair was done up in ringlets while dark eyeshadow and bright red lipstick completed the look. She was beautiful.

“She is a total ten, yeah?” Kirishima asked smirking at the look on his friend’s face.

“Who is a ten?” Best Jeanist asked from the door.

Startled, Kirishima and Bakugou both jumped at Jeanist’s sudden question.

“Uh, we were just looking at some modeling pictures of Wildside,” Kirishima said sheepishly.

“She isn’t here?” Jeanist asked.

“No, she said she had something to do today and will be back around three,” Bakugou said, still in a daze.

Moving around to join the two younger men, Jeanist looked at the pictures they had on screen. “Spotlight told me he had convinced her to do some modeling. I was actually hoping she would do some for our agency as well. Now I see what he means about her lacking confidence,” Jeanist said studying the image.

“What do you mean?” Kirishima asked confused.

“She looks very beautiful, but her expression is off. It is more than just good looks and pretty clothes that make a good model,” Jeanist replied.

“I still don’t get it,” Kirishima said, more confused.

“She isn’t comfortable in that getup. Her smile is forced and she feels uneasy,” Bakugou interrupted, “She doesn’t usually show much skin. It looks like it might be photo shopped too.” Kirishima and Jeanist looked at Bakugou surprised. They were not expecting the hero to interject like that.

“Exactly,” Jeanist said. “How do you know it is photo shopped?”

“Her wrists aren’t covered,” Bakugou replied like that was supposed to explain everything.

“The scars,” Jeanist realized clicking the next image which was a view of the dress from the back, “I see what you mean. In this image she looks even tenser. It would make sense why her expression is off. Spotlight told me she didn’t do well with backless apparel.”

“Backless?” Bakugou said then he realized. “You mean she has scars on her back?”