The Tinker

Chapter 73 - Lover's Quarrel

Bakugou was exhausted.

It was rare that he reached his limit. He spent hours and hours in training to prevent himself from ever reaching it, but today was rough. He'd just gotten off of a 30 hour shift. 

It had started as a usual patrol with him and an annoyingly friendly newbie from Endeavor's agency, but it quickly devolved into chaos when they came across a train accident caused by an unknown villain. After a lengthy chase that resulted in some heavy damage to the surrounding city, the suspect had gotten away and Bakugou was left to deal with the repercussions.

That was the part of hero work that he hated: The aftermath. After nearly a full day of dealing with city and civilian damages (on top of his 8 hour patrol), he was ready to go home. His muscles ached for him to rest. He missed his bed... and he missed seeing Y/N.

He checked his phone on his way into the dorms. It was odd that she hadn't texted him-- she had a stressful interview that morning and told him she would let him know how it went. It should've finished an hour ago. 

BAKUGOU: Fill me in loser, how'd it go?

Bakugou shoved his phone in his pocket and pushed through the front doors. Many of his friends were sitting on the common room couches playing some shitty video game. 

"There he is! Where you been, man? That shift must've been nuts!" Kirishima called, not looking away from the screen.

"'M fuckin' tired," Bakugou grunted. "Need dinner."

"We made some ramen earlier. Have at it dude," Denki said. He was staring intently at something on his phone; probably that stupid clans game he usually played.

Bakugou shrugged off his gloves and boots and threw open the door to the fridge, taking a small taste of the ramen and grimacing. "No fucking flavor." 

He pulled it out and rummaged through the spice cabinet grabbing curry powder, red chili flakes and soy sauce. After dumping in an unhealthy amount of each, he nuked it in the microwave and slumped back to the counter. He struggled keeping his eyes open as he ate.

Kirishima, Sero, and Denki all strutted over to join him at the dining table. He normally would've been annoyed, but seeing familiar faces instead of the dozens of random first responders after the disaster was a nice change of pace. 

"Saw the chase live. It was epic," Denki said. "You were on fire, man."

Bakugou grunted in dissatisfaction. "Doesn't matter. The motherfucker got away. We don't have any footage on him either, so we haven't got shit to work with."

Kirishima sighed. "That sucks, bro. I'm sorry you went through all that for nothing."

"It's how it is sometimes," Katsuki grumbled. "Just tired now. Where's Y/N at?"

"Hmm... she should've been back by now. Shoot her a text," Sero suggested, keeping his eyes fixed on his Nintendo switch. Kirishima watched him over his shoulder.

"I did. No response."

"Maybe she died then."

Bakugou rolled his eyes and gulped down the rest of his ramen before cleaning out his bowl. "Where the hell did you watch the chase anyway? Press wasn't allowed in the area."

Denki jumped to his feet with excitement and Sero groaned. It seemed he knew what rant was coming.

"There's this dude I follow, he's like an undercover paparazzi, but he always gets the most insane footage. He got, like, the whole disaster. He's anonymous so he gets away with it, but he's got thousands of viewers."

Bakugou sighed. He hated those fucking influencers.

"Here, I'll show you!" Denki cheered, dashing to Bakugou's side and whipping his phone out. Bakugou ignored him and continued washing his dish. "Like right now he's got one going. Looks like... woah, wait a second, is that Y/N?"

Sero put down his switch and Bakugou's dish clattered in the sink. Kirishima gasped. All three of them raced to Kaminari's phone to see what was happening.

"The fuck... lover's quarrel?" Bakugou spat, reading the title. "What is this shit?"

"Dunno, I can't get a good look..."

"Hold on, isn't that Inasa?" Kirishima demanded. "That's his hat. I know it is."

Bakugou snatched the phone out of Kaminari's hand and stared intently at the screen. "This is live?" 

Denki nodded in earnest.

On the screen, Y/N and Inasa were locked in a heated conversation. Y/N was pointing an angry finger and yelling at Inasa as he desperately tried to calm her down. He kept glancing back and forth, seemingly worried about being seen. 

"Damn, she's really railing into him," Sero cackled. "Good for her."

Bakugou's heart raced as he watched Y/N on the screen. This was wrong. He should be there with her-- it felt so wrong to just watch. "Why can't we hear them?" He snapped.

"I'm sure he's zoomed in from a distance. Doesn't wanna get caught," Denki sighed. "His videos are usually pretty quiet."

"Hold on, it's getting serious," Kirishima muttered.

The four of them watched through Denki's phone as wind startled to swirl around Y/N and Inasa. It looked to be coming from Y/N. Her hair was whipping around her and a small torrent of wind was starting to create a tornado around the two of them. The cameraman had to brace himself a bit and passerby's were beginning to stare. 

"Jesus," Sero breathed. "This isn't good."

Bakugou's blood started pumping. What was this? Anger? No, it wasn't anger. It was worry. What if she gets hurt? 

"Oh my god," Kirishima gasped. On the screen, Inasa lunged forward and grabbed Y/N by the throat before wrapping his other arm around her, trapping her, and launching the both of them into the sky with his quirk.

The four of them stared at the phone in complete shock and panic for a few seconds before Bakugou snapped.  

His exhaustion was gone in an instant-- it was now replaced with pure unbridled rage. He walked to the front door with sparks shooting out of his fingertips and a dangerously dark look in his eye. 

"Shit-- Kat, where are you going?" Kirishima demanded. "That's all the way across town."

After Bakugou threw open the door he turned to Eijirou with an expression of unrelenting anger. Chills ran up their spines at the sight. Kirishima had only seem Bakugou this angry on a few occasions and it never failed to strike the fear of God into him.

"I'm going to kill Inasa," Katsuki seethed before slamming the door as he exited.

"Oh my god. Oh my god, it's happening. We gotta go after them or he's actually going to commit murder," Kirishima muttered, grabbing Denki and Sero as they scrambled to find their shoes and gear.

"You're not serious," Denki said, his voice laced with worry.

Kirishima gave him a dangerous look. "Does it look like I'm joking? I know him. He's not fucking around. We need to go now."