Over the course of the few weeks, Rui and Katsuki continued to butt heads but did as they were instructed to and do paperwork together, spar and train together, go on patrols together, and when it came time for battle, Katsuki more often than not would take off to dive headfirst into battle, instead of acting as a bodyguard of sorts for Rui and any civilians she was getting to safety. By the time she was able to get to him, she would be fuming nearly as much as his quirk was and it led to more arguments between them.
On one particular occasion, Katsuki had charged in and left Rui to take care of the last of the civilians- barrelling into the fray. The villain they were dealing with was one that they had dealt with before: Seibā, who had escaped from prison and was back out on a rampage. Katsuki figured he would be looking to settle the score and was happy to give him the fight he came for.
Just as before, Rui searched every street that she could, rushing in to help wherever she found someone trapped or injured. She'd ferry them out to the evac point where she had dropped the children off or she would summon her water to surround her hands as she healed the wounds as best as she could before getting the people to safety. Once everyone was safe, Rui made her way to where the combative heroes were and began healing the ones who were hurt. When another explosion sounded, she threw up a barrier to protect them from the falling debris, but some of the pieces were too strong and she couldn't harden or thicken the barrier quickly enough to stop it or even slow it down. Luckily, though, some of the other heroes were able to either catch the pieces or break them apart into smaller ones.
As Rui thanked the other heroes, Katsuki came barrelling in, shouting, "Get out of my way!"
"You idiot, wait!" she called out, but it was no use as Katsuki started pounding his fists into Seibā, setting off a set of mini-explosions to throw him off balance as he taunted him. Then, like deja vu, Rui watched as Katsuki was sent flying straight towards them. "Watch out!" She summoned her barrier, surrounding Katsuki to provide a cushion.
"What the-" Katsuki looked at the water surrounding him in confusion before spotting Rui down below. He glared at her for a moment, watching as she glared right back before propelling back towards Seibā. He landed one final punch on the villain- finally knocking him out cold. He stood victorious over the unconscious body of Seibā, but he was still riled up. While the Police came to collect Seibā, Katsuki started making his way over to Rui- fully intending to give her a piece of his mind for interfering with his fight- but he stopped short of himself when he saw one of the civilians come up to her and start flirting.
'What the hell does he think he's doing?' he wondered angrily to himself.
As he watched them, he couldn't tell if he was angrier that it was another man looking at her or if it was because Rui seemed oblivious to the fact that he was flirting. The closer he got to them, the more he glared at the man, and by the time he had reached where they were standing, he was practically throwing daggers at the poor guy until he ran away in a panic.
"Um, bye?" Rui said, confused for a moment until she turned around and jumped a bit when she saw Katsuki looming there. "What the hell is your problem?"
Katsuki glared at her. "What the hell is yours? There's work to do and you're standing here flirting with some random guy."
Rui raised a brow at that comment. "I wasn't flirting and if you hadn't noticed already through that jealous rage of yours, I have been working. Working on saving civilians from the fires or debris, working on healing the wounded," she poked him in the chest, standing her ground, " and working on saving your sorry ass from seriously hurting yourself."
Katsuki was caught off guard by the ferocity in her retort, as well as how hot she looked when she was really angry. He didn't know what to say, so he stuck with his usual, "Whatever," and stormed off.
Rui sighed heavily and returned her attention back to Death Arms, who had broken some of the fingers on his left hand. "Sorry about that, where were we?"
Death Arms watched as she finished healing his broken fingers, thanking her as she stepped back and returned the healing water to its container. "Thanks, Sirona."
"Any time," Rui replied, offering him a smile. "If you don't need any more help here, I need to report into Gunhead."
"We should be good here," he said, glancing around. "Thanks to you, a lot of the damage was minimized. The fire crew can handle the rest from here."
"Alright, take care then," Rui excused herself and started making her way back through the rubble- irritated that it seemed to have doubled after Seibā's return to the city. "Geez, we've barely had time to recover from his last rampage..." she muttered to herself, looking around at the mess.
As she neared the evac point, checking in with Thirteen and the others before heading back to headquarters, Rui thought back on how Katsuki was acting. 'What the hell was that all about anyway? Why was he so upset? Why was he even jealous? It's not like he has any feelings for me...'
Not far ahead of her, Katsuki was trying to settle himself down. He had found a nice, quiet spot to calm down and was grateful for a moment alone after what happened earlier.
'Was I jealous? Is that why it bothered me seeing her with another guy like that?'
He leaned back, his head tapping against the wall of the building he was resting against.
'Damn it...'