UPROAR

Summary: Just because you're a Pro doesn't mean you're immune to the shit life throws your way. But that's part of the fun, right? Right…? Ugh, All Might made it all look so easy. Aged-up. Rated T for now. Connected drabble series.

A/N: Who's ready to see what our beloved Bakugo has been up to since graduation? I know I am! This one takes place a few weeks before the present day, but it also jumps around to Bakugo's experience after the Hinata interview, before coming back again. That's the whiplash-inducing fun of a drabble series, I guess! ^^; Enjoy!

Chapter 5: A PR Nightmare

A Few Weeks Ago

Bakugo dropped his gym bag onto the floor and kicked off his sneakers. He collapsed facedown onto his sofa and felt around the cushions for the TV remote. Face still buried, he half-listened to the news when it came on, while the other half wondered what he should make for dinner. He had some leftover gyuudon that he could reheat with a soft-boiled egg or whatever greens he had in the fridge. Then if anything remained, he could always make some quick onigiri out of the rice to keep for lunch tomorrow. That sounded like a solid plan…

But first he needed to throw his clothes in the wash and hop in the shower. Laying there like a bump on a log for a few minutes more, he finally forced himself back to his feet after realizing he couldn't stand listening to reporters recap last night's Helping Hands episode. It had been two years and three PR agents later, and Bakugo was finally back on track from his own disastrous interview with that pushy Hinata Teodasu.

As soon as the interview wrapped, his former Pro, Mirko, had called him to congratulate him on ruining his career before it even began. She informed him that she had taken the liberty of sending his contact information to their former agency's PR executive, so Bakugo would have to report to the office the very next day after the interview. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. So, he had to skip out on dinner with his old classmates that night in order to catch up on some much-needed sleep.

However, the very next morning, he'd received a call saying that the PR guy wanted nothing to do with Bakugo's plight, Mirko's former sidekick or not. Not only had Bakugo completely botched that interview, but the first results that appeared when searching his name was the disaster at the warm-water port he'd inadvertently destroyed five years ago. The man had wished him well and forwarded his case to a friend of his in the hopes that he would have the stomach for the job instead, because he certainly did not. But, of course, Bakugo had no such luck with that next guy, either.

Sick of her protégé's reputation dragging her through the mud as well, Mirko all but scruffed him by the collar and forced him into the office of her own PR manager. Forcing his forehead to the floor alongside hers, they both wound up winning the woman over enough to take his case.

And for the next year, Bakugo had been forced to live by Noriko-san's rules whether he liked it or not. He couldn't recall ever being under someone's thumb so tightly before, including his own mother and Mirko for that matter. He'd been forced to relinquish all of his social media passwords, only allowed to keep one for his own personal use while the rest would be controlled by Noriko and her team. But even then, his personal profile had to be kept on private-mode, and only under his civilian identity, and every friend or follow request had to first be approved by Noriko herself before he could accept it. He barely even bothered with the damn thing anymore.

Another caveat under Noriko's tutelage was the official recognition of his updated Hero name: Ground Zero. His fans responded better to that over Kacchan, which was common enough to sound like a regular nickname, and it was easier for her to market a hero when his name packed a punch. In this way, Noriko's strategy wasn't so much a rebranding of Bakugo's personality as it was an acceptance of it. And it worked. Much like Mirko's ferocity had grown to precede her, Noriko would go on to make Bakugo's behavior something for his fellow rebels to rally behind.

Naturally, the first six months under Noriko's eye were the toughest simply because of the changes to his lifestyle. An immensely private person by nature, Bakugo had suddenly been forced to share everything about his life with all forms of media – from his workout regimen to his favorite clothing store, even down to the video games he liked to play on his day off. As time went on, it never really got any easier to accept, but he'd managed to tune it out as best he could. Lest it start driving him mad, otherwise.

Things had finally taken a sharp turn for the better once the infamous photoshoot that Noriko had tricked him into participating in was published. Searching his name on the internet now brought the masses to these photos instead of the ones of him that night at the warm-water port. He wasn't sure how she managed to achieve such a feat, but he'd come to learn it was easier to just roll with the punches. The less he questioned of her frightening genius, the better off he typically was. It was just easier to imagine her quirk was something akin to Shinso's Brainwash with all the strings she managed to conveniently pull. Even though he knew in reality that Noriko's quirk was actually something akin to the late hero Sir Nighteye's Foresight. After touching their body, Noriko was able to glimpse 7 seconds into their future together. It was most certainly the reason she was such a great negotiator and seemingly always got her way in the end, ethics of the practice be damned. All she had to do was shake your hand, and you were hers. So, the day Bakugo received a private message from his former mentor Mirko, he should have known something was up.

She'd invited him to a rooftop pool party at some swank hotel to rub elbows with her fellow Top Heroes in the hopes that it would help smooth out some of his rougher edges. And it was so obviously a trap that Bakugo couldn't resist going. Out of sheer curiosity, if nothing else.

He'd pulled the clothes Noriko had approved for him to wear on his off-days (for their sponsors' sakes in case he'd happened to be photographed wearing them) from the back of his closet and put on the least obnoxious outfit. The walk to the hotel was uneventful, but he could feel a few teenagers staring at him on the subway, trying to be subtle about stealing snapshots of him with their phones. But he wasn't really in the mood to play along that day, so he'd simply ignored them by pretending to take a nap instead. However, in hindsight, they were probably more aware of Bakugo's fate than he was. He hardly ever checked his social media back when he was still in control of it, so he didn't see the point in doing so when it wasn't even his to use anymore. But had he done so, the day surely would have gone much differently in his favor.

Upon arriving, the doorman of the hotel pulled the door open wide for Bakugo and the front desk receptionist excitedly met him halfway into the lobby. The girl eagerly offered him a glass of sparkling water with a lime wedge and escorted him to an elevator that went straight to the roof. He'd guzzled the drink down to the clinking ice cubes before even realizing it was actually a gin and tonic. That would have been the second red flag that day if he'd bothered to notice. But by the time the doors parted again and unleashed a bass-heavy chart topper upon them, he was all too eager to exit the lift and escape the chatty concierge. Bakugo forked over his empty glass and breezed out into the sunshine again, removing his sunglasses to shove his hands into his pockets with a scowl. He glared at each and every person that had frozen in fear at his arrival, since he'd made sure to get there 30 minutes early to catch them in the act, until he finally recognized the source of his fouling mood. Mirko sat at the bar with an unmistakable figure beside her, strong red wings betraying any anonymity he could ever hope to achieve.

"Oi, Rabbit-Ears!" Bakugo barked as he stomped across the lounge, already feeling the rapidly imbibed gin swishing around his empty stomach.

"Shit." With an irritated smile, Mirko had turned to greet him. "Sparky Boom Boom! You're early, kiddo!"

"Just what the hell is going on here?" He demanded, completely ignoring the #2 Top Hero standing right next to them. "I knew this was some kind of trap before I got here, but a photoshoot? The hell kinda boy-band crap is this?"

Mirko shrugged, eyeing her companion. "Sparky, I'd like you to meet my dear, dear friend and your partner for the day – the #2 Winged Hero: Hawks!"

"Yeah, yeah." He grumbled, sticking out his jaw petulantly as he eyeballed the other man. "I know who you are. You're shorter than I expected."

"Funny." Hawks chuckled. "You're falling short of my expectations, as well."

In the end, Bakugo was forced to participate in the photoshoot despite his many loud complaints throughout the day. Between Mirko's brute strength downright coercing him into poses and Noriko's ability to see his moves before he even made them, he didn't stand a chance. Afterwards, they were at least kind enough to feed him and buy him more drinks in an attempt to win him over again, before leaving him alone with Hawks at the bar. Stubborn as he was, Bakugo wasn't dumb enough to ignore the advice of a Top Hero, especially the only one who had made it there without help from U.A.

Hawks had explained he usually didn't waste his time lecturing snot-nose brats who don't want to hear it, but he had agreed to talk to Bakugo as a favor to both his friend Mirko and his protégé Tokoyami. Even his old classmate Todoroki had expressed some surprise in Bakugo's sudden rise in popularity. Outraged by the idea of his classmates looking down on him, Bakugo wound up blowing up his own beer glass. Unimpressed, Hawks was barely phased, seeing through Bakugo's scare tactics. In fact, he was more concerned about the designer clothes Bakugo had ruined than the shattered glass that he casually dusted away like they were merely crumbs.

Bakugo wound up learning a lot from his talk with Hawks, whether he wanted to admit it or not. The winged hero explained that popular approval said more about a hero than their official rank did, so their public image was their most important asset. It was also their greatest liability, as Bakugo and his shitty attitude both knew too well. Obviously, Hawks had watched the infamous Helping Hands interview because his protégé had also been featured. But as much as it may betray his loyalties, he found Bakugo to be the most dynamic panelist on the show.

Of course, he was proud of Tokoyami's composure in front of the camera, and his answers were all worthy of a pro's status; but for some reason, he just hadn't been as interesting to watch as Bakugo had been. Hawks didn't remember who the third panelist was (much to Bakugo's hilarity) but once Bakugo opened his mouth, it didn't matter who else was there. At first, he thought that his obnoxious bravado stemmed from him overcompensating for being nervous on camera, but after meeting him in person, he'd understood that just wasn't the case.

Hawks admitted that he was beginning to see the same thing that Mirko and Noriko must have seen in him. Underneath that piss-poor attitude that was clearly a defense-mechanism for whatever insecurities he was trying to cover up, lay the overwhelming tenacity that every great hero needed. But before he could go getting a big head about it, Hawks warned him not to take it as a compliment. Not many more people would be willing to wade through all his bullshit to see that side of him, so if he wanted to march with the big boys, he needed to shape up quick. Fans would come and go as fast as he could put out content to please them, so it was imperative to keep them happy.

And this was all in addition to his regular hero work, of course – y'know, fighting bad guys, keeping people safe – the usual. With All-Might out of the picture, they all had to work together now in order to maintain his former mantle. And if Bakugo didn't make it work, they would find someone else who could – that was the ultimate truth about this business.

Bakugo had gone home in a stupor that night. Hawks had complimented him with insults and insulted him with compliments so many times that day that he didn't remember which way was up anymore. He'd navigated his way back to his apartment on autopilot and crashed without charging his phone.

And everything had changed that next morning. After finally plugging in his phone, it took a full four minutes for all of his notifications to run their course. In the mean time, he'd been able to brew a fresh cup of coffee and set up shop in the living room. Not only had the U.A. group chat been going off since the night before, but he had missed calls from both known and unknown numbers, his voicemail had been filled to capacity, and he had so many emails with disconcerting subject lines that he didn't want to even bother sorting through them all. He elected to check his messaging app first, since his friends tended to stick to the short and sweet of an event, even if they did tend to ramble off-topic halfway through a discussion. He sipped his steaming black coffee and scrolled through the nonsense he had thankfully missed yesterday, until coming upon the most recent ones from this morning.

"Who else is watching the AM news rn?!" Mina Ashido tended to be the catalyst for many of their discussions. She would message them at any hour of the day or night with any thought that happened to cross her ditzy mind. Out of every one of the girls he went to school with, she probably had the busiest social media out there. Jirou had the most followers because of the quality of her posts, but Ashido had her beat in sheer quantity on a daily basis.

"Why? What happened?" Sero had answered. Bakugo was surprised he was up before 9 A.M. on a Sunday.

"It's Bakugo-kun!" Ashido exclaimed with heart-eyes emojis. "He did a photoshoot with Hawks and some of the photos got leaked early! They just showed them on tv! I didn't know he knew Hawks!"

"Or that he modeled…" replied Mineta. "But I guess you gotta get money where you can when your hero work isn't enough to pay the bills." His string of laughing emojis enraged Bakugo more than his actual comment.

"You are ASKING for it, grape juice!" Ashido exclaimed. "Idk if your tiny brain keeps forgetting or if you just don't care, but EVERYONE is in this group chat, dummy!"

Several minutes passed before the next response and Bakugo rolled his eyes upon reading it. It was almost enough to sour the next sip from his mug.

"Resorting to gravure?" Of course, Todoroki had to put his two-cents in. Bakugo could just imagine his stupid little smirk through the text and damned him to hot soba noodles for life.

"Do you think he'll sign it for me if I buy the magazine?" His eyes widened when he learned that message was from Ochako Uraraka. It had been a while since he'd last seen her, but he remembered her occasionally being funny sometimes in the past.

"I wonder if this is some kind of ploy to appeal to the ladies?" There was Kaminari, probably just getting up after the incessant notifications forced him to wake up. "I can imagine the majority of his fanbase are angry teenage boys…" He followed up his words with several laughing emojis intent on mocking him.

By that point, Bakugo had elected to turn on the news to see the broadcast for himself. Sunday morning talk shows usually just regurgitated everything the actual news had already covered, just at a later time for those lazy-asses who slept in. He avoided a rerun of Helping Hands and had to settle for a celebrity gossip show instead. After sitting through a few cycles of chatter about other celebrities and heroes, they finally got around to mentioning the shoot with Hawks.

Apparently, two of the photos had been leaked before the rest of the shots could make it to print in the actual magazine, and Bakugo smelled Noriko's hand in all of it. Honestly, out of the entire spread, why would someone sell only two photos to the press? Especially considering that Hawks wasn't even in one of them. It couldn't have possibly been anyone but her. His palms started sparking as he watched the gossip columnists conjecture all about him.

"So, this guy here is Ground Zero, the explosive hero from S Agency in the city. He's the former sidekick of the #5 Hero Mirko and just went Pro on his own about a year ago." One woman explained, holding up the two photos from the shoot in question. "So, he's not a Top Hero, which is why it's so strange for him to be featured with Hawks."

"But if you dig a little deeper into his past – and boy, does this kid have a past – things become a little clearer. This guy isn't just some random Hawks-fanboy like we all assumed." Another guy clarified, holding up the infamous Sports Festival photo. "We all know this is the Half-Cold Half-Hot Hero: Shouto, son of #1 Hero: Endeavor. But this guy over here is the Jet-Black Hero: Tsukuyomi, who just so happens to be Hawks' current sidekick."

Bakugo's eyebrow twitched in irritation. He hated that bullshit medal ceremony.

"Ah…" The first woman nodded her head in understanding. "So that explains the connection. This kid sure has some famous friends. How nice U.A. must be!"

"So, Hana-chan, I have to ask you now…" Her companion had a devious twinkle in his eyes. "Putting your journalistic integrity aside, as a woman what do you think of these photos? Do these muscles tickle your fancy? Does that brooding glare pierce your heart?"

"Christ…" Bakugo breathed.

Hana-chan blushed and held her hands to her flaming cheeks. "Don't be rude, Ueno-kun!"

"What?" He laughed. "I can just read the comments that other women have left, if you're too shy."

"Then do that instead!"

He chuckled as he turned to face the prompt attached to the camera. "Herogirl007 says 'Between Hawks and Ground Zero, I will be staging my own kidnapping tonight…'."

Bakugo rolled his eyes.

"Rockerchick420 wants to know if she can be the creamy filling in their bicep sandwich."

That one actually elicited a little chuckle out of him just on the basis of how cheesy it was.

"ShadowLass666 says: 'My lil goth heart would melt if my bf ever looked at me like that'." Ueno seemed to find a twisted humor in that one. "And – oof, I don't know if I can actually read this one on air, everyone…" But his smirk said he would anyway. "Thirsty3 is wondering, to put it in terms we can say on TV, if Ground Zero's reputation as the explosion hero applies to the bedroom, as well."

Bakugo choked on that sip of coffee, wondering if his cheeks were heating up from embarrassment for her or himself. He'd heard about some fans taking their admiration a bit too far – just look at all that fanboy crap Deku did – but he never thought it would have ever actually applied to him! He rushed into the kitchen to grab paper towels and clean himself up as the guy on TV continued to read the comments.

And ever since that time, his life had never been the same. Following Hawks' suggestion to focus on his fans, Bakugo had been able to soar through the ranks within the span of a year to break into the top 30 of the Official Hero Ranks. And just like he'd been warned, the closer to the top he went, the less freedoms he actually had. But as #28, Bakugo seemed to have found a comfortable middle ground between fame and anonymity. Around his neighborhood, he was well-known and often recognized by local fans. But the farther away he traveled, the more he regained his beloved privacy. It had come to the point where he was forced to wear a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a face mask to go grocery shopping. So instead, he took a 20-minute train ride to the next two towns over to do his shopping on Wednesday nights, when things were less busy.

His stomach growled again and he decided to forgo his shower until after dinner. Hell, maybe he'd take a long soak in the tub after all. He was off tomorrow so he didn't actually need to be in bed early tonight, it was just that he was so tired that he actually wanted to be. But first, dinner. He was running low on shichimi, so he wrote it on his grocery list for this coming Wednesday. But as he was replacing the pen, his phone began to ring.

He fished it out of his back pocket, scowling at the caller ID before placing it to his ear.

"What?"

"Where the hell is my photo, Bakugo-kun?"

"I forgot." He sighed at Noriko's demanding tone. "I just got home, gimme a sec to walk through the door, would ya?"

"There's already photos of you at the gym taken by random fans, so the rest of them are waiting for an official one." She lectured, like he didn't hear the same story each time he was late in sending over an update. "It's too late to post one of you 'at' the gym, so send me one of your after-workout protein shake instead."

He rolled his eyes. "Do I have to be in it?"

"Yes, you have to be in it." She didn't bother to sugarcoat anything. "And make sure the whole label is visible this time. Last time, you left out a letter and I had to take some moron out to dinner to keep their sponsorship."

Bakugo genuinely had no response to something so stupid, but better Noriko than him! He fished the container of powder from his cabinet and set the matching tumbler out on his countertop.

"And use the selfie-stick I got you so we can tag them also!" Noriko added as a sudden afterthought.

He paused in shoveling the powder into the tumbler and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "Anything else, dear?"

She chuckled. In spite of his hairpin-trigger temper, Bakugo had a surprisingly quick wit. "Just be glad I'm not forcing you to drink this stuff again."

She had a point. The product tasted terrible and he'd done so poorly in masking his repulsion in one of the videos he'd shot that Noriko insisted on a photo-only policy from then on. He was too honest for his own good.

"And send it in the next ten minutes – we're trying to get out of here on time tonight."

"Alright." He hung up and turned on the faucet to fill up the tumbler. It came with a built-in mixer and he wasn't embarrassed to admit that his favorite part of the whole process was shaking the ever-loving hell out of it. The drink looked disgusting, but nobody would be able to tell he'd just mixed it with water instead of actually making a real smoothie. If he wasn't going to be drinking it, he'd be damned if he wasted a single drop of milk on it, after all.

In truth he'd lost the selfie stick Noriko had given him one night when he and Kirishima had had a bit too much to drink. The red-headed moron had climbed over the railing of the Rainbow Bridge walkway in order to impress some girls with a shot of the Tokyo skyline…and dropped both his phone and Bakugo's selfie stick directly into the Bay. Since then, Bakugo either put his phone on a timer or used his smartwatch (a gift from yet another sponsor) to take the photo, and even Noriko couldn't tell the difference. Either that or she just couldn't be bothered to care.

Bakugo tugged off his black tank top and slipped his gray sweatpants down a bit, so they hung temptingly low on his hips. As much as he couldn't stand feeding into the fangirl – and fanboy, he didn't discriminate – mentality, he was fully aware that they were one of his biggest tickets to the #1 spot. And if this was just one more thing he had to do outside of busting up the bad guys, he'd do it as thoroughly as he could.

Once the photo had been snapped, he sent it to Noriko and dumped the tumbler down the sink. Finally alone for the night, he happily headed over to the fridge to fetch his leftovers. His stomach was so empty it practically felt concave, so he decided to forgo remaking the food into anything else and just eat it as was. He spooned the meat and rice into a single bowl and tossed it into the microwave to reheat.

His phone rang a second time while he waited, and he answered it with a snarl.

"I'm not taking off my damn pants!" He barked, certain he'd managed to catch the label on the waistband of his designer underwear.

There was a long moment of silence on the other line in which his stomach dropped down to the soles of his feet.

"Ah! U-um…Ka-Kacchan?"

Fuck.

"Deku…?" He peeled the phone from his heated face and despaired at the caller ID. "What the hell do you want, you goddamn nerd?!"

"Sorry!" He squeaked. "If this is a bad time, I can call back."

The microwave beeped and he glared at his hot meal. "No. Just spit it out already." He commanded.

"Alright, well…" Deku sounded hesitant. "I need your help with something."

He cocked a blonde brow curiously, but remained silent.

"Well, the thing is…" Deku paused. "I've been invited back to I-Island for the Expo and I…can't decide if I should go or not."

Bakugo frowned. "Are you an idiot or what?!"

A/N: Ahhhh! Sorry! It was just getting too long for my liking and I had to stop it there! I could have probably broken this thing up into two chapters, but I just think it flows better as one…even though it jumps around the timeline a bit. I hope it wasn't too confusing to follow! I think this one is the longest one of the series so far but Bakugo's my fave and once I get going, I just can't stop! But don't worry I'll be sure to get the next chapter out lickity split for you all! I promise! Also, I was watching TMZ one day, I can't remember for what story, but the format of what they do on that show is basically what I based the show that Bakugo winds up catching. It's supposed to be pretty cringe, so I just tried to come up with the most ridiculous thirst-tweets that I could imagine! Hopefully it worked! See you next update!