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Chapter 13

"Nate is a fucking idiot," Bakugo bit out as they raced down the street toward the meeting location indicated on the map.

Ochako had a hard time disagreeing with him at the moment. Why hadn't Nate woken them? Why hadn't he told them what was happening? Just yesterday he'd said he had confidence in them to do their job. Now, he'd run off and not trusted that they would be able to help him. She was hurt and angry but she was also terrified that this might be the end of both her and Bakugo's careers as heroes if anything happened to Nate.

"I'll murder him myself when we find him," Bakugo snarled again for what must've been the fifth time since she'd run out to him in a panic.

He'd jumped up from his chair the moment he'd seen her face, immediately knowing something was horribly wrong.

When she'd shown him the messages, he'd slammed a fist on the table in rage and that had been the first time he'd voiced his intention to kill the prince.

Now only fifteen minutes had passed since she'd first found Nate's room empty and they were hoping against hope that going to the location indicated on the map would be fruitful. The time the message was sent had been around 7 am, only about two hours earlier than the current time, but that meant that, if Nate had made it to the location within 20 minutes like they said, they had well over an hour's head start on doing whatever it was they wanted him for.

As they had traveled down the elevator, Ochako had called Mt. Lady and informed her of the situation. She'd been nervous in doing so and had even considered not telling her at all for a second there. But she also knew that, presumably, the King and Queen of Croatia's lives could possibly be in danger and making sure they were secure was more important than her and Bakugo saving face.

Mt. Lady had responded swiftly and succinctly. She assured Ochako that she would report the occurrence to the Croatian royal family and make sure they were safe. Ochako apologized profusely and damn near broke into tears again right there.

"Just get him back, Uravity," Mt. Lady said firmly with authority, "It's not your fault he chose to sneak away from you on his own. It will be your fault if you can't save him. That is our job as heroes and I'm still entrusting this one to you."

That had snapped her out of her pity party and given her a new confidence to do what she needed.

Bakugo had listened to the whole exchange and had said nothing, instead staring out over the city and the bright blue sky. She wondered if he worried at all about his position as a hero being endangered by this situation but kept her curiosity to herself.

Coming up to the address indicated in the message, they looked to be in an alleyway between an apartment building and some older storefronts.

Looking around initially, Ochako couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. A few of the businesses were already open and the alley itself was relatively empty. No one was milling about or looking suspicious. There was a back door to the apartment building nearby but it was locked from the inside.

"If you want to look around out here, I'll go ask the business owners in the shops if they've seen anything," she suggested.

Bakugo nodded curtly and turned away to scour their surroundings.

She was mildly surprised that he'd followed her lead on this. He didn't just like being in charge all the time, he insisted on it. No one he didn't see as an authority figure (and not even then sometimes) could tell him what to do. She took it as a testament of how important this mission really was to him that he acknowledged her suggestion as being a good one, even if it hadn't been any big thing.