Nico leaned on the counter as she watched Bakugo move around the kitchen, she had left Nina to hold court with the others in the common area. She figured that he hadn't noticed her yet because he was so focused since they got back. I wonder what's going through his head, if I had to take a guess he's freaking out because of auntie.
Bakugo could feel the cat girl's eyes on him, but hadn't said anything. Why the hell isn't she saying anything, anyone else would have made some kind of sound by now. He snuck a peek over his shoulder at her, Maybe she blames me too. That has to be it, Nina must have told her it was my fault and that's why she's not talking.
"Hey Katsuki." Nico said when she saw him look her way. "Do you need a hand with anything?"
"No." he didn't mean for his answer to be as harsh as it sounded, "I've got it under control, why don't you go back to the queen and see if she needs anything."
"I wanted to say something first." she went over and put head head on his back, "Don't turn around alright. I just wanted to say I was sorry for the madness last night, auntie explained why it happened and I know now how to control it." she tried to blink away the tears that she had been fighting back, but she wasn't able to keep together anymore.
Crap now she's crying, what do I do? Bakugo panicked and turned around, "Hey why you crying, it's not like you did any real damage." he pulled her close into his chest. "And it was just Deku anyways, he's done worse to himself with his own quirk."
"That's not the point, I let the animal within me take control and put all of you at risk." she sniffled a little. "I thought I said don't turn around, I didn't want you to see me like this."
"I don't want you to hide anything from me, so if you want to cry go for it, I won't let the others see you." He held her closer, burying his face in between her ears. "I'll always be here for you when you need me."
"Thank you." she whispered, "but right now maybe you should be focusing on dinner, it's about to burn." Nico pointed to the stove as Bakugo's attention snapped back to what he had been doing.
"God dammit house cat, why'd you have distract me now?" he snapped as Nico stepped away laughing as he tried to save the food. "I'm going to make you pay for this later."
"Why don't I help out now, it'll go faster with both of us working together." Nico smiled when he went to protest, "I thought you wanted to impress auntie Nina." was all she needed to say to shut him down.
"What was low," Bakugo grumbled as picked up where he had left off with the vegetables, "I think you distracted me on purpose."
"You can keep thinking that, firecracker, whatever helps you sleep at night." Nico caught a little flash of blush on his cheeks.
"Yeah whatever, call me that again and see what happens." he could see she was planning something. "You're more trouble than your worth house cat."
They managed to get dinner served without any problems, while the pair watched Nina waiting for her to pass judgement on Bakugo's cooking. "If you two are done being creepy, Nicole come walk me out, there is something I need to talk to you about." Nina once Nico picked up their dishes.
Nina didn't have a chance to move before Aizawa came in making her falter a step. "Shota, good to see you're still breathing." she greeted him, but Nico could tell that it was different from how she would talk to anyone else.
"Nina. I had heard that another Gatta was visiting, I just thought it was Nicolas." Now Nico knew something was off, "I take it you're here because of the orders from on high?"
"What's he talking about auntie? We've been together almost all day and you hadn't said a thing." Nico could feel the others starting to gather around them. "What's going on?"
Nina looked at the gathering crowd, "You couldn't have let me get out the door, could you Shota." she grabbed Nico's attention, "Something has come up and the restrictions on you licence have been lifted for now."
Nico knew that it meant that she was going to get complicated, "When do we leave?" was all she asked, already trying to figure out how much of her gear she was going to need.
"First thing tomorrow, I was supposed to bring you back with me today but with everything…" Nina dropped off and Nico nodded. "I thought you'd be able to focus better if we dealt with this before leaving."
"I'll get my gear and we can go now. We both know better to keep grandfather waiting." she turned on her heel and rushed to collect her things as quickly as possible. She could feel Bakugo and Izuku following close behind her. "I'm sorry, I wish today hadn't been a bust. When I get back we'll do something."
"Don't worry about it, but what did your aunt mean when she said the restrictions on your licence have been lifted?" Izuku asked as they caught up with her, "Most of us only have a provisional one at best, so what makes yours so different?"
"Because it's a full one. I'll explain when I get back to everyone I promise." She kept moving, grabbing a duffle bag from the closet and started loading it. "Izu, can you give us a few minutes."
Taking the hint, Izuku went and made himself busy elsewhere. "You really going to go with her tonight?" Bakugo caught her hand.
Nico let him pull her to a stop, "I don't want to but like I said every Gatta has to come when called." she maneuvered her hand so the could thread her fingers through his. "I'd rather be here with you, but grandfather could pull me from school if he wanted so I want to keep on his good side."
"It's just not fair, you having to drop everything and go running when he calls."
"I like less than you, I would prefer to make up for the lost week but duty calls." Nico said putting her free hand on his cheek. "I'll keep in as much contact as I can and I'll do everything in my power to come home sooner."
"I'll be keeping an eye on the news too, I don't want to miss anything awesome." He promised as Nico shook her head.
"If it's Gatta business then the news won't hear about it. And I don't want you to drive yourself crazy worrying about me, do I have to make Izu look after you for me while I'm gone?" she laughed at the face he made at her suggestion.
"I notice that loser anywhere near me, I'll blow him into next year." he snapped, "Just come back in one piece, alright." he brought his lips down on hers, pulling her in close by the waist. "I don't know how I would be able to handle it if I wasn't there to protect you."
"I'm going to be just fine, I probably won't see any of the action anyways." she gave him a half smile. "I'll be back in no time, you'll see and then you can take me to meet your parents like you promised."
"Yeah, well you better be back soon then. I was going to go visit in a couple weeks, so if you want to come with me you better be back before then." he weakly smiled back, "I'll be waiting." he let go of her hand so she could finish packing.
-Two weeks later-
Izuku and Kirishima watched as Bakugo wore a hole into the floor as he paced the length of the common area. "Think we should try to get him to relax a little?" Kirishima asked as the blonde made another pass.
"I think it might be safer for everyone if we don't. We haven't heard from Nico in three days, so he's a lot on edge." Izuku said as Bakugo came to a stop in front of him.
"I'll relax when I know she's fine. She promised nothing would happen to her." he said as the sound of a car pulling up caught their attention. Without wasting a second, Bakugo launched himself at the door with the other close behind him.
"Nick will you stop fussing, I can get out of the car on my own." They heard Nico snap, "Just take my key and open the door, I can take it from here."
"You know that boyfriend of yours is going to kill me when he sees you." Nick said, unlocking the door before the guys got to it. "It was my job to look after you and now look at you."
Bakugo ripped the door open to see a stunned beat up Nick, "Where. Is. She?" was all he growled out as Nick moved out of his way. "What the fuck happened to you?" He took stock of the bandages on her face and right hand, the brace on her left arm and the wrap on her right foot. "You said they would let you fight."
"This what happens when the fighting comes to you." Nico took a careful step forward, "So I'm a little beat you, you should see the other guy." she tried to laugh but ended up groaning in pain.
"You're more than a little beat up," he scooped her up, "Deku get the gear and Kiri make sure there's a couch free." they jumped into action, mostly scared of what would happen if he had to repeat himself.
"Katsuki Bakugo, you will put me down this instant." Nico tried fighting against his grip, "I can walk just fine on my own, I don't need to be treated like this."
"You've been out of communication for three days and then you came back like this, it's clear that you can't look after yourself." Bakugo snapped. While he was relieved to see Nico had come back, her condition made him worry that there was more wrong that she showed.
"Three days!" Nico wiggled around to see Nick, "You only said it was one." she couldn't believe that she had been out for that long.
"No, what I said was that I had been with you for a day." Nick corrected her, "If I had known it had been so long I would have called them so they wouldn't worry." he followed them in and helped get Nico comfortable.
"Just what the hell happened?" Bakugo asked, sitting on the arm of the couch. "If you weren't supposed to be in the fight, just how the hell did you two end up like this."
"Their group was bigger than we thought and a small faction managed to get the drop on us." Nick said as he pulled a chair closer, "This idiot managed to pick a fight with someone that could turn themselves into diamond. While she held her own just fine for the most part, the brute got this licks in."
"Are you out of your mind? No wonder you came back broken." Nico flinched a little at Bakugo's harsh tone.
"I didn't break anything, just a sprained wrist and ankle and a couple of bruised ribs." she corrected him, "I know it wasn't a good idea to go up against him, but I didn't have a choice. I was the only one between him and the kid and I wasn't about to let our employer get hurt waiting for backup."
They just looked at her in a stunned silence for a moment, "I think you must have been hit in the head too, because you're clearly out of your mind. Just because you didn't end up actually breaking doesn't make it any less stupid." Bakugo did his best to keep from blowing up at her, but Nico was making it really hard.
"Listen here you hot head, you would have done the exact same thing had you been there. We had a job to do and I made sure it got done." she swung her legs off of the couch, "I thought of everyone, you would understand that. But if you're having a hard with it then I might have picked the wrong partner." she got up with all of her usual grace and limped off to the stairs, grabbing her bag from Izuku on the way.
Bakugo went to follow her but Nick stopped him with a shake of his head, "There's one thing you need to know about Gatta women, they need to work their anger out on their own. It would be foolish for you to follow after her now." he warned. "Just like my sisters, you're going to need to let her come back to you when she's ready." Nick patted the boy on the shoulder as he got to his feet. "You guys have my number if these two start swinging at each other."
Izuku closed the door after Nick, "Kacchan, maybe you overreacted just a little." he watched Bakugo staring down at his hands.
"I think the pretty kitty broke him." Kirishima said joining Izuku, "What do you think we should do about this?"
"Not sure, maybe we shouldn't do anything for now." they both knew better than to press Bakugo just in case his fuse was already at its end.
It took Nico three day to recover enough to take the brace and wrap off, while she still had a little limp it didn't bother her much. "Izu can I borrow your notes from all the classes I missed?" she asked one morning.
"You sure you want mine? Why don't you ask Kacchan, he's got a better view of the board than I do." Izuku lied, trying to get her to talk to Bakugo.
"I'll just ask someone else then." she turned away from him, "If he doesn't want to come and apologize for being as ass, I can always find someone else to help me catch up."
"Kacchan was just so worried about you and when he saw you all beaten up like that made him scared for you." Izuku could see that she wanted to make up with Bakugo but she was too proud to make the first move. "If you just try talking to him, you see that he cares about your safety."
"My safety isn't something for him to get worked up over. I had a job that needed to get done and I made sure it was done." Nico ended the conversation and went to go get ready for the day.
"Hey," she heard Bakugo as she came around the corner, "can we talk?" Nico had been giving him a cold shoulder unless it was absolutely necessary. When she didn't answer he continued. "I know I was overreacting but we hadn't heard from you in days and you looked like hell."
"So you took it upon yourself to treat me like I was able to take care of myself." she snapped, "If you had asked I would have told you that I was mostly healed." she went and leaned on her door with her arms crossed. "You should know by now that I don't like being treated like I'm weak, especially in front of anyone."
"I knew you'd be a stubborn ass and refuse help when you needed it." Bakugo shot back, "I was really worried when I saw you like that because I really care about you." he muttered the last part into his hand.
"I'm sorry I think I missed that, mind repeating that a little louder." Nico had heard him just fine, she just wanted to make him say it again.
"You heard me, I said I cared for you." he snapped as she closed the gap between them.
"That's all you had to say, I've missed having you close." she bounced up on her toes to kiss his cheek, "But you needed to learn a lesson. You going to overreact in the future?"
Wrapping an arm around her, "Every time I can't be with you, so learn to deal with it." he held her close, savoring her weight against him. "And we're going to see my folk this weekend, so let's hope you're ready."