A Hero's Villain

If A Tree Falls?

28...29...30.

Katsuki smacked his palm down on the chest-high desk, and the officer sitting with her back to him jumped. "I need to see Detective Corrigan. Now." he said as calmly as he could manage. He'd stared at the annoyingly perfect bun on the back of her head and waited for her to notice him for thirty whole seconds before letting his irritation take over. That was playing nice, right?

Mumbling something into the phone cradled between her ear and shoulder, she spun around, the chair creaking in protest. Her eyes met his, and the phone fell to her lap, the voice on the other end muffled by her khaki pants. "Mr. Dynamite, sir?"

It took way too much effort not to roll his eyes at her wide-eyed reverence. It wasn't surprising she recognized him, even without his hero suit. You couldn't walk more than two blocks in this damn city without seeing him on some advertisement the Agency PR team agreed to; or go more than a day without hearing his name on Hero News. But then reverence gave way to curiosity, and her eyes drifted to his right cheek.

Knowing it was coming didn't stop Katsuki's stomach from twisting, or his knees from wanting to buckle under the weight of her gaze.

An eternity of seconds passed while her eyes trailed down his neck, following the only scar he couldn't hide until it disappeared under the collar of his black T-shirt. With a slow breath in, he slid on a mask of practiced indifference and reminded himself this wasn't the first time and wouldn't be the last time someone looked at him like this; reminded himself it had been years since that hand – and all five fingers – had closed around his throat; reminded himself he was alive, he was strong, and he needed to get the hell over it.

Nearly everyone he met did this, even his own... realization slammed into him like an avalanche, burying him under the memory of blue and grey eyes and their unwavering focus on his own. He hadn't done it. He hadn't-

Forcing his spine straighter, Katsuki dug his way out of that thought before it could fester and cleared his throat. "Detective Corrigan. I need to see him." he repeated, drumming his fingers on the desk and shoving his sparks back down before they tore through the folder of evidence in his other hand.

"He's not in right now." she said, fumbling to hang the phone up. "He took a late lunch, sir."

"When will he be back?" he asked through clenched teeth. He needed to play nice, to not give them a reason to go to the board... but damnit he'd already waited the full twenty-four hours of his suspension, if he had to wait one more-

"Twenty minutes." Glancing at his hand still splayed wide over the papers littering her desk, she added, "you're welcome to wait," and gestured to a line of cheap chairs against the precinct windows.

"Fine." Katsuki dropped into the nearest chair, laid the envelope across his lap, and crossed his arms. "But the minute he's back you tell him to come get me."

He glanced at the clock above the officer, and then down to the off-white tile in desperate need of a mop. Twenty minutes, he could make it twenty minutes. He'd been on stakeouts longer than that, sat through lectures longer than that. He leaned back, his finger tapping his bicep in time with the clock, the afternoon sun hot on the back of his neck. Bus rides to training camps back at UA took longer than that, hell Dunce's wedding was longer than that. He could wait twenty minutes.

Three minutes in, he was ready to blow the precinct up.

From the corner of his eye, he could see officers gathering around the desk closest to the lobby, their hands gesturing in his direction, their heads bent together as they whispered loud enough for the sound to carry over to him but not the words. Did they really have nothing better to do than gawk at him like some sort of roadside attraction? If this was how they spent their afternoons, it was no wonder he was always doing their work for them. Swallowing the insults hot on his tongue, he tapped his finger faster. Burnt caramel and whisps of smoke filled the air around him.