**

After her talk with Mina, it had taken Ochako a while to convince Eri to go home and let her deal with the mess.

Her intern had given up eventually but still... the moment her phone vibrated she knew she had forgotten about time again.

With a deep breath, she faced the chat

//He wasn't joking with calling backup...//

//Okay. Think. You know he'd do that... You need an excuse...//

"Well... it's a real excuse!" she muttered and took a picture of her desk.

Ochako sighed.

//Full blown lecture incoming...//

She laughed out loud. Shouto was /right/. In her book, Deku had been WORSE.

"THANK GOD, MY SAVIOR! Let's see if I can change topics fast enough!!" Ochako laughed but the texts kept flooding in.

Of course, he HAD to backstab her.

//Maybe it's not too late to draw their attention back to his undercover mission...//

"....... not that again..." Ochako snorted.

"What are they up to??" Ochako wondered out loud.

***

"For someone who's not interested in it, you're pretty focused on those questions."

Katsuki tilted his head with the speed of a turtle, enough to make sure Kyouka could see his eyes doing the most impressive eyeroll in the history of eyerolls.

Except, she wasn't looking. Nope, she was still studying the CD's booklet.

"Just because most people can do stuff half-assed doesn't mean I could do it even if I wanted to," he muttered, tapping away on the phone screen as fast as his fingers allowed.

Which was not fast at all.

But at least, his slow-mode covered up that he wasn't even sure what to answer. He had plenty of time to decide what to tap before his finger hit the screen. Fuck, he had plenty of time for everything today because the paperwork was

done and no one had shown up with new cases since yesterday evening.

"Dude, just relax, we got this. You closed all cases you were involved in, we're good," Eiji had told him in the morning, right after his best friend had helped him out of the shower.

Katsuki grit his teeth. No way they were able to deal with the flood of cases without his ass. Still, they didn't involve him. They wouldn't until his full recovery, he knew.

Oh he couldn't wait to pay for everything they would most definitely fuck up during his recovery.

/Fuck/, he was bored. He couldn't train. He couldn't prepare himself a meal. He couldn't do /shit/ without hurting himself or crashing to the floor every few minutes. He felt like a toddler who was learning how to walk.

It was only thanks to his own quirk and the sheer strength he needed to stand the recoils that he was able to crawl back to the damn couch.

He most definitely had to break into Tartarus and rip that fucker a second asshole.

Damn, he had almost forgotten how boredom felt like.

But here he was.

He was /so/ bored, he had decided to get it over with and logged into the stupid app with the even more stupid name to ease his mind. 

Not without ranting over that stupid name for half an hour first. Then, those questions popped up to kill his nerves before he

had even started testing it.

But he had to keep his side of the bargain and he had /nothing/ else to do.

Apparently he was so obviously bored, Kyouka had brought a stash of CDs and had changed from her hero costume into plain black leggings and an oversized white shirt to join

him on the couch. 

Not much had changed about her style over the years.
In fact, the whole scenario was a blast from the past.

Five questions in, the frown on his face intensified.

"What's up with… THIS… anyway?! Plus, looks shitty!" he groaned at his screen after a while.

"That quiz is supposed to check matching interests later. To help the app filter some suitable matches for you, according to Mina?" Kyouka answered and shifted slightly so his head dropped like a sandbag back to her shoulder.

"FUCK!"

"Oops. Sorry!" she snickered.

"Can you not?!"

"Then just get up?!"

"I WOULD IF I COULD!"

Kyouka burst into laughter.

"So you're telling me getting up to pee with crutches, what takes you about half an hour, is possible but you can't sit up after you-" she emphasized her next words,

a hint of humor accompanying them, "lost your balance and dropped your head on my shoulder. Like it's not an old habit of yours."

"Fuck you," he spat and tapped the 'Vacation? Never heard of her' answer, doing his best to ignore her remark and act like nothing happened.

The vibrations of her body shaking with suppressed laughter made that impossible, though.

His cheeks flared up. 

"OI!"

"How come you're still embarrassed about it? It's just you and me listening to good music on a couch, like in good old times!" Kyouka chuckled.

"Says the woman who transforms into a tomato whenever Thunderdork is around. 'Easily flustered' is your second name!"

Her shoulder disappeared again and this time, the landing was way more painful than before.

"Fucking hell," he groaned but his ex-roommate didn't give a damn about it. Her red face just proved him right anyway.

"You know, I liked you better when you couldn't open your trap because of that quirk some days ago. Hopefully, the effects will torture you a good while longer,

I won't be your delivery service forever. Good luck finding someone else," Kyouka muttered and turned the music louder.

That sulky move just spread the smug grin all over his face.

"Who's embarrassed now, huh?"

"Fuck /you/, Bakugou Katsuki. I have a key to your apartment, I wonder what would happen if I forgot it somewhere. At Hanta's place? Denki's office if he's present for once and not screwing his way through Japan? Oh they'd love to push you around as helpless as you are."

"You wouldn't," Katsuki stated cooly, "otherwise I might drop a hint to a certain oblivious man whore. Like your pining hasn't been painfully obvious enough for years, for everyone but that dumbfuck to notice."

His voice had a more serious tone to it as a rush of thoughts left his mouth without thinking twice, "For how long do you wanna watch him catching whatever STDs like other people catch a cold?"

Not that he cared about other people's business.

But he would love to lock them up in some storage room, like in a bad movie, so they'd sort their shit out once and for all. He felt like he'd been stuck in a freaking soap opera with those idiots since high school. Except Kyouka had forbidden all of them to interfere.

So he had kept his mouth shut. And would do so unless she told him to do or say something.

But he could still tease her. And he would. That was what she did. What everyone else did. Tease /him/. Now was his time to strike back.

Fuck, he really was /bored/.

Kyouka stared at him like she wanted to strangle him.

"Riiight. Says the guy who has a crush on his-enemy-turned-partner's-best-friend and will deny it in 3, 2, 1..," she hissed and as he dropped his phone, ears on fire, she added,

"To answer your question, I hope his dick falls off. Now /drop it/ or we'll discuss something you don't wanna hear."

Heavy guitar riffs cut through the silence before he spat a single sentence through his teeth.

"HAD, AS IN PAST TENSE."

Teenage him. 11 years ago. U.A., third year. Puberty's final spurt towards the finish line and one badass of a girl that had been occupying his head for far too long. /Forever/ ago though. As in, done and forgotten.

"Sure!" Kyouka commented with an arched eyebrow, so obviously not buying it, it hurt.

They glared at each other and it took Katsuki all his efforts to stop the upcoming thought train right in its tracks.

Before coffee colored eyes could pop up and wouldn't leave him for a while, like they had haunted him during that stupid wedding- after he had successfully managed to avoid her gaze most of the time by staring at a beer bottle. He had been talking with her like a grown up should!

Those freaking doe eyes, not matching the sin that was the rest of her body, shaped by endless fights and some serious amount of villain-butt-kicking. Especially that /perfect/ ass of hers. 

The walking contradiction that woman was, always had been. The thirst for a good fight

burning in those innocent doe eyes.

Fuck, why was he thinking about her now?! That hadn't happened for a long time. Why /now/?!

//11 years ago!!// he repeated in his head like a mantra. It had helped at the wedding, it would help now.

There was no need to think about the past. He was to 100% over his horny teenage bullshit. Fuck, he had too much time on his hands.

"That was /forever/ ago."

A sentence to close the topic for good. An order to his brain to shut the hell up.

Thankfully, Kyouka nodded.

"Same here. I'm done with him. Let's not kill each other. We can't survive the goddess of chaos and her three braincells' shenanigans alone."

"True that," he agreed, cleared his throat and fumbled for his phone,

"back to topic. I thought the app was supposed to get you laid. So what exactly does it do for the other to know that you like dogs? As if THAT'S the main criteria. Like, 'Oh my god, I like dogs, too, let's fuck!' or what."

Kyouka snorted so loud, she crashed into the backrest of the couch, causing him to drop into her lap in a free fall.

"KYO I SWEAR-"

"I'M SORRY," she was wheezing, her whole body shaking, "I'M SO SORRY BUT-"

Her voice faded as she gasped for air, tears smudging her smokey eyes.

"I fucking mean it, what's the point?!" he snorted along.

"I know. God, I know. That was so you, dammit, I should've seen it coming."

Damn right she should have. Especially after two years of sharing an apartment with him as a rookie.

Two years of sharing the same couch and analyzing the newest records after work, when they hadn't been able to sleep. Right before he had received the offer to go to Europe and left for a good while. To recharge, to get his focus straight, to train, to forget and move on.

… Years before he had come back to Japan to dethrone Deku…

Another question popped up. He stared at it.

…It had been years since those idiots had thrown him a huge 'welcome back' party, despite him hating parties. He had never been that drunk in his life before, not even at graduation. Fuck, Eijirou, Mina and Denki had been glued to his ass back then, totally

wasted and crying like babies. He had downed three whole tequila bottles with Hanta and Camie at 4 AM, had sang a freaking duet with Kyouka. He had lost his sneakers somewhere, had woken up beside fucking Todoroki of all people, or better, with his freaking head on his chest.

Todoroki, who had been drooling all over the marble floor of one of the fancy bathrooms in that freaking huge Yaoyorozu mansion. Of course the shitty nerd had shown the fucking video to the old hag and everyone else -

"About that jam session," Kyouka began and snapped him

out of his thoughts, "you have time now, right?"

"Can't move, can't do shit anyway," he muttered at the phone screen.

//What the hell, brain… What's up with the trip down memory lane?!//

He stared at the question again.

//Shit, right now, 'just gimme alcohol'.//

His friend shrugged, "You could sing with me?"

He paused as his phone threw another question at him, at the same time as Kyouka's hit him.

"Nah, you're good on your own," Katsuki yawned, his finger hovering over the screen.

"C'mon. I'll fetch the others, we'll check our schedules. Two guitars, two singers. That's enough. The other three won't get the chance to torture our ears, they can organise food and drinks.

God we used to do that as often as possible after going pro, huh? Felt like we were back in the dorms..."

"You know they won't keep their mouths shut."

Kyouka smiled down at him, the strands of her long bob falling into her face like a purple curtain.

"Where's the fun without Eiji's famous bum notes?"

"And Pikachu's over dramatic background vocals? You forgot Alien's shrill voice and tape face's rhythmic grunting."

"As if I could ever forget that," she sighed with a hint of amusement, wiggling her jacks at him to underline

her statement, "So… Are you in?"

"As if I could ever stop you guys from doing what you want," Katsuki shrugged, or, tried to shrug but his shoulders didn't move fast enough. So he was lying like a stiff puppet with his head in Kyouka's lap.

"By the way, what's taking you so long, the answer is obvious, right?" she asked and nudged towards his phone screen.

"Stop checking my answers, how about you act like a good delivery service and fetch me another curry bun?" he sneered at her.

She rolled her eyes hard.

"I should just drop your head and watch you struggle getting up for this," she spat, the laughter she was trying to suppress betraying her, "By the way, your answers aren't THAT hard to guess."

Kyouka leaned to her left towards the plastic bag she had brought with her,

more carefully this time but obviously lingering a tad too long over there to just fetch a bun. She also kept her eyes on her hands with great effort, a wide smirk on her face. Right when his finger tapped 'can't live without them' with a roll of his eyes matching hers.

////// next updates next week, weekend. Maybe Saturday/Sunday? Bear with me, they're gonna interact after the next update Thank you for reading, your comments crack me up every time xD