Down the Rabbit Hole
Spilt Wine
Uraraka is barely awake when her cellphone screeches out its ringtone, demanding attention.
She reaches, fumbles, drops it, before tumbling out of her bed and onto the floor. She groans, swatting around on her nightstand before her fingers hit it, curl around it, and bring it to her face.
She swings at the screen without even looking, bringing it up and snarls, "Katsuki I swear if you're asking for a second-"
"What did Kacchan do." And the voice on the other end of the line has so much venom and bite to it she flinches back, taking a look at the unknown number before bringing it back up.
"Wh-Who is this?" She mutters.
"What did Kacchan do?" And it takes her a moment to put the voice and the face together to get her villain/vigilante Rabbit.
"N-Nothing." She stutters." Wh-" She swallows, composing herself before replying. "How did you get this number?"
Her personal cellphone was known by her sidekicks and her friends only. It wasn't advertised or available or connected to anything concerning her agency, and she couldn't think of anyway that Rabbit could have gotten it.
"Froppy." He replies. "Told her I wanted to take you on a date Friday. She asked to supervise."
Her mind definitely isn't awake enough to process any of those words conjoined together. "What?"
"Froppy gave me your number, said you needed time off. I told her I'd take you out on a date."
"And she let you!" Uraraka's screeching into the phone. "You're a villain! A murderer! A-" She fumbles for more, stalling as her mind scrambles to pull up anything else on him.
"Only killed three people, two of them deserved it. One of them really deserved it. I have ruined quite a few agencies though. They deserved it as well, embezzling money, coverups, briding officials." He hums on the other end of the line. "I'm not quite a villain, Uravity. I'm just not a hero either."
She closes her eyes and huffs. "Let me kill Ts-Froppy. And I'll get back to you on the date."
She can hear the phone being shifted, and a muted, but still loud, "YES!" before he's back on the line, "Uh-yeah-that'd-uh. That'd be great. Thank you!"
"Don't ever call me again at…" She trials off, blinking as she stares at her alarm clock. "4:30. Or I will float you into the sun."
"Can't be any hotter than you are." And the line goes dead as Uraraka's head slumps against the side of her bed.
What did her partner just sign her up for?
She signed her up for a dinner date with what she's going to thus refer to as a villainous vigilante, because anti-hero isn't quite right either.
To his credit.
Rabbit can definitely pick restaurants out, even if it's not her preferred place of choice, and if the fact he had the table waiting with a glass of red wine, and a glass of white on his side was any indication- then it might not be a total loss.
She approached the table, surprised to find him rising, easing the chair out for her.
"You look wonderful Miss Uravity." He informs primly, smiling as she takes a seat. "I'm quite glad I called."
"You don't clean up half badly yourself Rabbit." And she wishes that line was less genuine and more good manners, but it isn't.
Not when the white button up he wears is so filled out, arms flush against biceps, vest tight against a broad chest. He fills out the outfit well, and…
She huffs out the rest of the thought, pointedly picking up her glass.
"Thank you." He says, taking his own seat. "You didn't comment on it before at the coffee shop."
"I was working." She replies sharply, but that's a lie. She'd noticed his physique then too; she'd just ignored it in favor of examining his expression. "Where's Froppy?" She inquires, glancing through the restaurant.
"Back booth, has a date of her own I think. Might have just wanted an excuse to go out." He replies, gesturing behind him to a far table.
Through the haze of the chandeliers and over the shining white table clothes and through the flicking candlelight she can just barely spot her partner, leaning over her table talking to a man she can't quite identify. Uraraka huffs, rolling her eyes. Of course, there would be an ulterior motive.
Not that she can truly blame Tsu. It's been a while since either of them had any enjoyable time off. Either together for a good girl night, or separate on a decent date.
Katsuki Bakugo had not been a decent date. Impressive to look at, handsome and easy on the eyes, but not an enjoyable date. She glanced over the table at her current date, humming to herself as she examined him. In his combat suit, he'd seemed lithe and slim, the green bodysuit and mask hiding away all his features.
Now though, with his chest puffed out just a bit, his tie loosened just a hair and a satisfied smirk playing across his lips, he looked like all the confidence of Katsuki, and none of the violent fire. Speaking of which…
"So, you know Bakugo?" She asks, broaching the topic.
He frowns, eyebrows furrowing as he peers through the menu. "I'm familiar with Ground Zero, and all his wonderful faults." He informs. "We knew each other as kids."
"Not a good relationship?"
"He told me to jump off a roof and try for a better quirk in the next life." And that bomb cuts off the rest of the conversation as Rabbit sets the menu down, picking up his glass of wine. "What else would you like to know?"
She hesitates, frowning. "Is this date about you or me?"
He flashes her another smile, the light of the chandeliers dancing in his eyes as he sets the glass back down, smoothing out the wrinkles on the tablecloth. "You're the hero, I'm the villain. Your type usually likes asking the questions."
She narrows her eyes, gauging his reaction as their waiter comes by. He addresses Rabbit by a "Mr. Midoriya," and she files the name away in the back of her head to search for later. They order, and the waiter departs, and once again they are left alone with each other.
"Do you like the name Rabbit?"
He shrugs. "It's not the worst, and I suppose my costume does play into it. The grin is my own kick though."
"Off of?"
"Ah," he tsks his finger. "Play fair now. Question for a question." He smiles at her again and she glowers. "Why did you become a hero?"
"Money." She answers easily. Her answer had already been recorded, asked and detailed by magazine after magazine. "My parents aren't particularly well off, and I wanted a career where I could sustain them, and they didn't have to work so hard."
He nods, as if he isn't surprised. She wonders if that's the answer he was looking for. She presses on regardless. "Why did you become a villain?"
"Because I was told I could never be a hero." And the venom that he says that line with matches the snarl of "Kacchan" from this morning and it makes her flinch.
She soldiers through it, furthering that line of questioning. "But you seemed to handle yourself during the raid just fine. I think you'd make a pretty good combat hero."
He hums and shrugs, tugging at the sleeves of his shirt before showing her his hands. The palms are nicked with cuts and scars, some old looking, some newer and recently healed, the skin still silvery white. "There is a price to pay for having to learn your trade without any talent behind it." He informs sagely, like the line didn't belong in a fortune cookie.
She cocks an eyebrow at him, but he shoots a question at her. "What did Kacchan do?"
"We had a date, he was not on his best behavior. I declined his invitation back to his apartment."
"If your thought was that he changed from UA to here, then I think you're mistaken." Rabbit's tone had shifted from casual to icy, the emerald gleam of his eyes suddenly poisonous. The look fades as soon as it occurs, and he sighs. "Though I suppose he's getting better after recent events."
There's another lull as he sips his wine, taking the time to swirl it in his mouth. She does the same, humming softly at the dry flavor of the red. She preferred white, but she didn't think that was necessary information for him to know.
It was a good red, just not her favorite.
"How's business?" He asks, and it seems they've drifted to small talk instead of personal questions.
"Good, we've been busy since the raid, mostly doing patrols while we dig on another case. We're planning a joint strike with Red Riot on another group here in Mustafu."
"The Roughriders yes?" He inquires, tilting his glass back to examine the dregs of his white in the light of the chandelier. "I would look elsewhere. They're smalltime, good publicity, but not going to make too much of a difference in the long run. I'll deal with them if you want me to."
She considers it, eying him up and down. "Why?"
"Why wouldn't I help my favorite hero?"
She shakes her head. "No. I mean why would you help a hero?"
He smiles as their food arrives, and whatever conversation has to be dropped to avoid suspicion. The last thing she needs the media to find out is that she's on a dinner date with Rabbit. And the last thing she needs right now is to question whether or not he might be a good guy.
They eat in silence, which makes her uncomfortable. There are lulls where conversation might have belonged, but each time she looks at him, there's red on his face and he looks away or into his drink.
They finish, and desert arrives. A cheesecake slice that looks positively sinful.
"What do you think of me?" He asks softly, somewhere between her picking up a clean fork and him sliding his own dessert away.
She hesitates, and instead picks at the desert, watching the crust crumb under the prong of her fork.
"I think you're dangerous." She starts, and he snorts as if the idea was obvious. "But I think you're somewhere between a villain and a vigilante. Not quite either. You balance on both sides of the law. And I want to know why."
He hums at that, emerald eyes bouncing back and forth between her fork and her face. "I wanted to be a hero when I was a kid." He confesses. "But when you're like me…" he trails off suddenly, voice fading before he finds it again, "you have to look for other ways to influence the word when the obvious ones are closed off."
"You couldn't attend a hero school?"
He snorts and rolls his eyes. "I could have passed their exams, but believe me when I say I would have never been let in."
"Why is that?" She presses.
He looks at her, long and hard before digging through his wallet. He produces two things. A wad of bills, which he sets on the table nonchalantly, and a business card, which he extends to her. "Name and number. If you ever want to chat Miss Uravity."
She glances at it, noticing how the moniker 'Rabbit' has been scratched out and replaced with 'Midoriya Izuku'.
He stands, and she finds herself rushing to her feet after him. "Wait." She calls as he eases between tables to the exit. "Rabbit!" She hisses. "Wait!"
She catches him at the door, and he hums as her hand clasps his, her quirk ready at her fingertips. "Why wouldn't they accept you?"
He smiles, emerald eyes flashing with amusement as he leans down.
It surprises her that his lips are soft, despite his scarred hands and the hint of another at the collar of his shirt. It surprises her that the kiss is chaste and not daring and wanting like she'd suspect for a man of his character. It surprises her that it's gentle and soft, tentative at best, a brush of lips and an exhale at worst.
She's breathless, caught up in it as his lips pull away. Caught up in the muted heat of one of his hands holding her steady, gentle and restrained on the small of her back.
"Because I'm Quirkless." And if she wasn't breathless already, she would have been.
The doors slide open, a rush of cold night air billowing in, and she's too caught up in the fading heat on her lips, the soft warmth that his hand left on the small of her back, and the whirlwind of thoughts burning through her mind to give chase to the man.