Hot-Headed (Now also a podfic on spotify!)

Chapter 14

"Uravity! I was wondering when you'd be showing up!" Mt. Lady called from her office seeing Ochako come through the door.

She motioned for her to join her and Ochako sat on one of the plush couches in her office.

"Wow, so that mission was way more eventful than anticipated," she laughed, seating herself on the sofa across from Ochako. "But you didn't disappoint me. You protected the client and what impressed me most was that you called me when things went wrong and you needed help. You weren't too proud to admit you were in over your head and that's something even pro heroes have a hard time admitting."

Ochako blushed, feeling humbled by all of the praise being heaped on her.

"I trust Bakugo Katsuki wasn't too difficult to work with?" Mt. Lady asked, quirking a brow in interest.

Ochako shrugged, "Well there were a few bumps in the beginning,"—the understatement of the year— "but it turned out okay and by the end, I feel like we actually worked well together."

"Great!" Mt. Lady grinned, " I knew you'd make a great team and you seemed to have experience handling him. I'm glad to see my instincts were right... And you got on fine with the prince?"

Ochako beamed at the thought of him, "We got on great! He turned out to be a really kind person. We ended up being really good friends. He actually gave me his phone number to-"

"Uravity!" My. Lady squealed, "You fox! The number of a prince? And one so handsome! I underestimated you..."

Rubbing the back of her neck, she laughed nervously, "Oh no, it's not like that! We're really just friends!"

"Okay," Mt. Lady conceded, not pushing her but clearly not believing her either, "You can keep your secrets."

Ochako knew that alleviating the pressure on her about this by revealing his preference for men probably wasn't the right move. He seemed open and honest about it but she also didn't feel it was right for her to expose him like that when people could still be judgemental about it sometimes. And her being teased about her connection to him for a few minutes was much easier to bear than him possibly losing his reputation.

"So," Mt. Lady said, cutting off her reverie, "Are you ready to get to work on more missions Monday?"

Ochako's eyes widened in excitement, her body vibrating in anticipation, "Yes! Of course! Let's do it!"

"That's the right attitude!" Mt. Lady laughed.

—

This scenario felt familiar.

Ochako found herself once again sitting on Mt. Lady's plush office couch across from Edgeshot and, of course, Bakugo.

A few extra people sat in the room with them this time, though. Kamui Woods was one along with a few other heroes and sidekicks to explain what they were all meeting for.

"We're going to be going on more patrols than ever, covering more distance than ever," he explained, "We've gotten multiple calls that crime has picked up in the city so we need more eyes on the streets and more hands on deck."

"It's our hope that just our presence will lower the crime rate," Edgeshot added, "but if you have to stop any villainy in action, you are sanctioned to take any measure you feel you need to." He said this while looking specifically over to her and then to Bakugo.

Their little rescue mission had given them a bit of a reputation amongst the heroes who knew about it (which were mostly those working for Mt. Lady and Edgeshot). They were trusted now. People had confidence in them that they hadn't before.