Notes: And now we finally get Bakugou's POV on the matter, although I feel like he's stuffing his emotions down so deep that he's hiding them from himself. So this chapter kind of came about randomly. I happened to be ahead on my fic "Karma in Retrograde" and I updated "heroes of the dark," so I was trying to figure out what to write for besides my nano and, well, this popped into my head. I already knew what I wanted this chapter to be, so it made it easier. Is it really a fic of mine if my boy isn't involved?

Taking Uraraka to Kirishima's shop had been a foolish idea - for more than one reason, considering her kidnappers had probably used the outing as a means to figure out if she meant anything to him. He'd only done it because he knew Kirishima was moving his shop within the week. Even if she told her Suit compatriots about the arms dealer, he would be long gone by the time they attempted a raid. It was why the dealer hadn't even blinked when he'd realized Uraraka was a fed.

Bakugou didn't make the same mistake twice, but apparently he was the type of hitman that took a fed to his arms dealer's shop. He didn't bother with any formalities as he shoved the front door open and stormed to the back with Midoriya on his tail. The Suit was like an annoying itch on his back that he couldn't scratch, never completely leaving and appearing when he least wanted him to. Luckily, he didn't complain or say anything when they left the safehouse and Bakugou led them here.

It was already sparse, nearing the end of the move. All Bakugou could hope was that there were still a few things left. They were going to need a lot more than three handguns to get Uraraka back.

"Oi! Shitty hair!" Bakugou shouted as he zeroed in on the back counter and made his way there.

Kirishima poked his head out from the door. "Bakugou? What are you doing here?"

"We've got a situation," Bakugou said upon reaching the counter. "You got anything left?"

"I might…" Kirishima's eyes flickered to Midoriya coming from behind. "Where's the cute Suit?"

"That's the situation," Bakugou replied grimly.

Now, Kirishima wasn't known to be the brightest bulb in the box, but he'd never been caught by the ATF or flagged by the FBI, so he had to have a bit of intelligence in there a good look at the grim expressions on both Bakugou's and Midoriya's faces, he was able to come up with an answer quick enough. Immediately dismay fell over his face and he shook his head. "Aw, no, I liked her. She seemed good for you."

Bakugou's lips twisted into grimace. "That's what they thought too."

"Do you know who did it?" Kirishima asked.

"I've got an idea," Bakugou replied.

Midoriya cleared his throat. "Any particular reason you dragged me here or did you just need to chat with a friend?"

He was so goddamn polite, no matter what Bakugou said to him, that it was beginning to drive him crazy. Then again, maybe it wasn't his fault. Midoriya wasn't a bad guy. Kind of bland, if he was being honest, but nice. He hated nice in law enforcement. It seemed so false. He'd seen Midoriya's sharp, biting side before though and had come to the disgusting realization that he was just nice, like Uraraka. No wonder the two of them worked well together.

(She would've been happier with someone like Midoriya. Why wasn't she with him? Why was she gone?)

"I don't care what you have," Bakugou told him. "I'll take it."

Kirishima frowned. "I shipped out my best stuff already." He tapped the top of the counter, glancing at Midoriya one more time and then back to him. "Are you sure about this? I mean, are you really doing this?"

"You don't know what I'm doing," Bakugou snapped.

"Your girl gets kidnapped so you go chasing after her guns blazing?" Kirishima guessed. It wasn't much of a guess when there was little else that could be happening right now. Besides, out of everyone in the world, besides a former colleague and maybe the man that had trained him, no one knew him better than Kirishima. Hell, he should probably add Midoriya to the list since it had been his profile that had helped everyone with the case. The guy was creepy good at figuring people out.

(Then he should've known about the mole on his team. He should've figured something out.)

A muscle next to Bakugou's eye twitched. "She's not my girl."

"Not outside of your dreams, at least," Kirishima shot back. Midoriya had the nerve to snort.

"You gonna help me or not?" Bakugou demanded.

Kirishima held up his hands. "I'm gonna help you the best I can. Don't worry about that. You know we're always good and I want to help. I wasn't joking when I said I liked her. You gotta keep all the good Feds you can get."

Bakugou didn't respond to that. He hadn't known there was such a thing until he met Uraraka and even then it made his stomach twist thinking about her. His gaze swept over to Midoriya, who was wearing an openly worried look. The little shit really did care about her. Maybe he wasn't so bad either, just mildly bad in comparison to the rest.

Turning back around to the door that led to the backroom, Kirishima said, "Let me check what I've got left-"

"I'll take it," Bakugou cut in.

"Dude." Kirishima huffed and glanced at him. "You don't even know what I have. It could be a bazooka. It could be a piddly nine mil. You want me to stick you with a government issued glock?" He smiled brightly at Deku, who had the audacity to actually blush. "Not that there's anything wrong with them. They're solid weapons in the right hands."

"Would you stop?" Bakugou griped.

"Alright, alright." Kirishima held up his hands in front of him in surrender. The last thing Bakugou had time for was Kirishima's shenanigans, even though he knew that he acted up like this the most when he was anxious. He must have caught on to Bakugou's pushy attitude and let it affect him. He was so sensitive like that. "Just come on back and see for yourself. Take what you want."

Bakugou grabbed a pen and wrote down some information on the back of a receipt. "Here, take the payment out of this account."

Kirishima was clearly taken aback when Bakugou shoved the paper against his chest, staring at him like he'd either seen a ghost or was just now seeing him for the first time. "Katsuki…"

Bakugou winced at the use of his first name before he jumped over the counter and shoved his way into the back room. He didn't have time for this. No, he'd never given anyone information like that before - shit that could be traced back to him, shit that was personal and only for him - but it didn't matter. He either ended this tied down to the Feds, dead, or captured and sent off to be tortured for information in some hellhole no one could find him in. Privacy and secrecy didn't matter as much.

Midoriya didn't make as much of a scene, lifting up the space that opened up to behind the counter. After giving Kirishima an annoyingly apologetic smile, he followed Bakugou into the room and promptly halted as he choked on his own tongue. If this was startling him, Bakugou would've paid to see how he would've reacted to Kirishima's usual stash of weapons. He'd been kind of lying to Uraraka when he'd said he had the paperwork for everything. In the middle of a move, his more hidden stuff was out in the open being boxed and ready for shipping.

"So are you looking for anything in particular?" Kirishima asked from behind them.

"Were you kidding about that bazooka?" Bakugou responded.

Seemingly faint, Midoriya put a hand to his head. "We're really doing this."

"I hope you weren't too attached to your job," Bakugou said as he began to search one of the crates. Nope, not this one. He didn't need anymore handguns. Maybe Midoriya did though. Whatever Kirishima said, a government issued glock was not a good gun.

After twenty minutes of rifling through containers, Bakugou (and eventually Midoriya after getting over his initial reluctance and muttering about how Uraraka was going to kill him) came up with a decent-sized cache of weapons that would serve them well. Kirishima watched them work together with a guarded gaze, arms folded across his chest as Bakugou picked through his life's work with cold precision. Just as no one had ever been privy to Bakugou's actual Camens Island bank account information, Kirishima had never let customers personally go through his stuff. He asked what a person wanted or liked and he picked out things for them to examine.

This was an unusual day for everyone. Bakugou had known Kirishima since even before he'd more or less cut ties with the CIA, although he was unaware of that fact. He thought that the gun runner was suspicious about his history and believed he'd been government-trained, but he'd never outright asked. Likewise, Bakugou had never asked how Kirishima had fallen into the family business of running guns or how it had become a family business in the first place. In their lines of work, it was better to remain ignorant for the most part.

"Are you good?" Bakugou asked Midoriya, who was wearing a look that was a cross between consternation and bewildered. He probably wasn't sure how he'd gotten here, working alongside a hitman and standing inside an arms dealer's warehouse without the intention of arresting him. There was no way he was going to get out of this smelling of roses. At the best, he'd be suspended - at the worst, killed. The only good that could come out of this was if they saved Uraraka.

And they would save her. He would. He'd dragged her into his shit and he'd drag her right back out into the light where she belonged. Whoever had done this was going to suffer. He would make them pay in spades.

Midoriya scratched his head. "I… I'm not quite sure, to be honest." He pulled his attention away from the bag of weapons sitting on the ground at his feet and looked up at him. "This wasn't what I had in mind for my night when I got up this morning."

"Sorry to interrupt your boring ass life," Bakugou shot back.

"I just wasn't expecting to fall into vigilantism," Midoriya said. He was so honest about it. He could've backed out now and Bakugou wouldn't have fought him over it. He would've mocked him, harassed him, and sneered at him, but he wouldn't have forced him to come. Midoriya could walk out the door with his job and life intact. He took a deep breath and a determined aura came over him. "I'm ready."

Even though he certainly wasn't going along with them, Kirishima hesitated in the back, arms folded across his chest now. "Are you sure about this? It's obviously a trap."

"Yup," Bakugou said as he held up an automatic to check out the sight.

"And they want you to come so they can capture you alive," Kirishima added.

Bakugou added the gun to his stockpile. "Wouldn't be worth as much dead."

"You don't even know if she's still alive," Kirishima pointed out. Midoriya chewed his bottom lip anxiously. "There's a high chance they killed her-"

"She's alive."

Kirishima sighed. "You don't-"

"She's alive!" Bakugou shouted, rounding on his heels and storming over to snatch Kirishima by the front of his ugly ass Hawaiian shirt. "Don't you dare fucking say shit like that, got it?"

"Someone's got to if you're willing to throw yourself directly into the fire," Kirishima retorted. He was concerned. It made Bakugou sneer. He didn't like it. They were friends of sorts, but he didn't know what to do when it looked like someone actually cared about him. That was part of why Uraraka had thrown him so much for a loop. It wasn't just that she was a badass and intuitive; she was genuinely a good person and she'd cared. He didn't like it at all. "You're playing right into their hands and, even worse, you know it and don't care."

Bakugou let go of his shirt and stepped back. "I have to take care of this. It's my responsibility."

"You really gonna throw your life away for a Fed?" Kirishima asked. He glanced at Midoriya behind him. "No offense to you all, but uh, you're a Suit, although you could do with fixing your tie."

"She's more than that," Bakugou grumbled under his breath.

Kirishima eyed him, a sympathetic look crossing his face. "Oh man, you really did it, didn't you?" He shook his head, practically mournful. It pissed Bakugou the fuck off. Why did he have to be so empathetic? It reminded him of Uraraka in a way, which irritated him all the more. "If you're gonna do this - and drag who seems like an actually very nice Suit with a bright career ahead of him into this shit - you know you can't do it with just the two of you."

"We don't have much of a choice," Midoriya sighed, a deep frown on his face. He didn't like what they were doing either. For a Suit though, he had some guts. Bakugou hated to admit that, but Midoriya wouldn't be standing next to a bag of guns and flashbang grenades if he didn't. "I'd call for backup if I could, but I'm worried about a leak. There might not be one, but if there is, they'll find out and then Uraraka really will be killed."

Bakugou most definitely avoided the knowing look that Kirishima gave him and did not respond when he said, "Bro."

Midoriya caught on to the change in his demeanor immediately, furrowing his brow in confusion as he looked from Kirishima to Bakugou. "What?"

"Come on," Kirishima prompted, "you can't do this alone."

"I can," Bakugou ground out, "and I will."

"You can't," Kirishima shot back. "You wanna save her? Put your pride on the back burner and call him. He'll help. You know he will."

Bakugou shook his head. "I told him I'd kill him the next time I saw him. I was pretty clear on that."

Kirishima rolled his eyes. "Get your head out of your ass. If you want to come out of this alive, you're going to need a least one more person and no one knows you better than him. No one works with you better than him, even if you two do fight like an old married couple."

"Who are you talking about?" Midoriya questioned, totally lost.

"I'm not calling him," Bakugou insisted stubbornly.

"Just do it," Kirishima told him. "For Uraraka."

A growl worked its way up the back of Bakugou's throat. He didn't want to do it and he didn't want to admit that he couldn't do this with just Midoriya, but Kirishima was right. If the government really did have a hand in kidnapping Uraraka to lure him out, they would need more than just a few bags of weapons and the two of them. He had a lot of tricks up his sleeve and he had to hope Midoriya was more than just a baby-faced Suit, but there was more than a high chance that wouldn't be enough.

Huffing, absolutely fed up with everything, Bakugou held out a hand and Kirishima handed over his phone. It had been almost a year since he'd last spoken with him, but he would never forget the number. He couldn't forget his face or the press of a ice pick at his neck either. They'd parted on particularly bad terms with Bakugou threatening to shoot him in his face should they ever cross paths again. Still, he dialed the number and placed the call.

"Who the hell are you calling?" Midoriya demanded.

Bakugou put the phone against his ear and turned back around to him. "You remember when I told you how I was trained?" Midoriya nodded. "I wasn't alone."

It would've been better if he had been. He had always preferred to work alone, finding it much more peaceful (all things considered in his line of work), but admittedly some of his strongest and best work had been in a team. In a partnership. Just because he didn't like working with others didn't mean he wasn't capable of it. With the right partner, he was indomindable.

The call was answered and an impassive voice asked, "Who is this?"

"It's me, dipshit," Bakugou responded.

There was a pause on the other end that made him think he was about to get hung up on until the caller finally spoke again. "What are you calling for?"

Bakugou put a hand over his face, took a deep breath, and ground out, "I need your help."

It was almost impossible to tell over the phone (not that it would've been much easier in person), but it sounded like there was a hint of amusement in his voice when he drawled, "I thought you were going to kill me if you saw me."

"You botched one of my jobs, Todoroki," Bakugou snapped. "You're damn right I wanted to kill you."

"I told you: the job wasn't a good one," Todoroki replied in his frustratingly flat tone. It never ceased to piss him the fuck off and it especially did now when he was under so much stress. "You wouldn't have been happy about it after the fact."

"Then you come to me and give me the details," Bakugou snarled. "You don't blow my cover and fuck up my shit!"

They might've been talking over the phone, but he could see Todoroki idly shrugging his shoulders. "It was the quickest solution - and you're not always the easiest person to level with."

Bakugou wanted to argue with him, but it would only prove him further right. If there was anyone that knew his ins and outs, it was Todoroki. They two of them had trained together under the CIA before being sent to opposite ends of the world. No one matched his records but him, sometimes even topping them, although Bakugou was loathed to admit such things. He had the perfect impassiveness for an assassin, but it turned out that he was much better suited as a spy. While he was much more proficient with a sniper rifle than Bakugou, he didn't like killing much.

They'd made an excellent team until Bakugou had gone off on his own. It wasn't long after that when Todoroki simply vanished. The whole thing had made him wary. If the CIA got fed up with his private contracting, it was very likely that the person they would send after him was Todoroki. Indeed, when he showed up a year later on Bakugou's doorstep of his safehouse in Budapest, he'd thought that was exactly what was happening, but no, he'd only been there to offer him a job. He'd left the CIA as well and gone underground.

Maybe he fancied himself as some sort of international vigilante, but Bakugou knew a killer when he saw one. No, Todoroki didn't like it - and neither did Bakugou - but he was good at it. He was made for it. There had been no mistaking it when Todoroki had held that sat over top of him and stared him down in the eyes with the coldest look he'd ever seen, holding an ice pick at his jugular.

"Listen, I don't give a shit about that anymore, okay? I'm willing to let bygones be bygones." Swallowing his pride was a lot more painful than it looked, especially when it came to Todoroki, but it had to be done if they were going to save Uraraka. Every second she was held captive made him tick closer to exploding. Who knew what kind of torture they were resorting to if they were? He didn't want to think about it, but every time he got a moment to breathe, his mind went in that dark direction. "Are you willing to help me or not?"

"That depends," Todoroki replied. "I heard you were in bed with the Feds."

"I am," Bakugou said. Not in the way he'd like to be, but he couldn't even think of that now.

"So how do I know this isn't a trap to get a lighter sentence?" Todoroki asked.

It was a valid question, one he would be asking if the tables were turned. "Because I'd rather hunt you down and kill you myself then hand you over to the people that made us."

"Now that is something I can believe." Todoroki didn't even sound upset. It was the truth. Neither one of them wanted to go back to the CIA. They'd done their time and they'd escaped to live their own lives. They hadn't been pretty and they hadn't been kind. They were both stained with blood and likely would keep doing so. If the night went according to plan, there would probably be a lot of blood on his hands. He didn't care. "What do you need?"

That was it. That was all he needed. In a messed up way, Todoroki kind of reminded him of Midoriya. Even though it went against everything in him, despite the fact that it was Bakugou, someone he hated, here he was, ready to jump in to help. For a spy, he was kind of a good person, which made the kills under his belt all the more fucked up. He'd heard Todoroki had left the CIA after a job had disillusioned him. It made sense. He'd always been a little more prickly about things.

"Looks like my past is finally catching up with me," Bakugou admitted. "Someone kidnapped someone very important to me in order to get me out in the open again and I intend to get them back."

"Someone very important to you?" Now Todoroki was interested. "Have you gone soft, Bakugou?"

"Not soft enough that I won't kill everyone who had a hand in this," Bakugou said without any hesitation. "She matters, okay? And she's innocent. She got pulled into this because of me and I… I can't just sit back and let something bad happen to her when I'm the one that fucked up. I think the old Powers that Be are behind this and I intend to end it right here. So are you in or out?"

Todoroki took far too long to consider, although Bakugou knew this was a heavy decision. The two of them didn't get along one bit, no, and they had threatened to kill each other, but they'd also saved each other countless of times. It pained him to admit it, but he wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for Todoroki and there was a chance Uraraka would not make it through the day if he didn't help.

"Give me the details," Todoroki finally said.

Bakugou did not sigh in relief. He wouldn't be relieved until Uraraka was safe in his arms and everyone that had tried to harm her was dead. "First, how close are you to the warehouse from the German diplomat job? You're useless to me if you're out of the country. We're on a clock."

"Close enough to be of use."

"Good, then listen up." Bakugou told him everything he knew, which, to be honest, wasn't much. For his part, Todoroki didn't interrupt him or ask questions until the very end. He'd always been good about that. Their superior officers had loved him while they labeled him a troublemaker. It was why they'd been paired up so much - in hopes that Todoroki's unattached demeanor would calm Bakugou down - but instead it had created a bond that had survived past death threats, disappearances, botched hits, and more.

By the time he finished, he could tell that Todoroki was already set up to leave. It was honestly amazing how quick he had been to help him after their last meeting. Then again, deep down, Bakugou knew Todoroki was a good person. Who knew what kind of person he would've been if his childhood hadn't chewed him up and spit him out into the perfect person for the CIA to scoop up and mold into what they wanted? Having come from a loving home, Bakugou didn't have that excuse. He didn't know what made him tick this way.

Todoroki hid it well, but no one was as good as he was without being a little fucked up. It just was what it was. People from bad homes were less likely to want to go back. He could pick up and leave without even packing a bag. There was nothing tying him down. The government should've expected him to leave eventually to do his own thing. It had taken him longer to leave than Bakugou had expected, but it had always been so hard to get a read on him.

Still Bakugou knew him at least a little. Of course he would step up to help him in this. The people that once tugged on their leashes kidnapping someone innocent to get back at him? That was right up Todoroki's alley of moral injustice and abuse of power.

"Bakugou?" Todoroki's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"What?" he barked in return.

"It sucks, doesn't it?"

"What sucks?"

Todoroki let out a breath that almost sounded like a soft chuckle. "Having a heart."

"Fuck you," Bakugou snapped.

"I'll meet you the rendezvous point. You just make sure you have everything together - and keep an eye on that Fed. Who's the say he isn't in on it guiding you to do this?"

Bakugou's gaze flickered to Midoriya, who was watching them intensely. His freckled baby face did make him look pretty innocent, but no, there wasn't a conniving bone in his body. He was a good person. "We're good."

"If you say so," Todoroki sighed. "I trust your judgement."

He hung out without another word of disagreement. Bakugou's stomach twisted and he was scowling as he tossed the phone back to Kirishima, but… They needed this. He knew his worth and his skills and he also knew it didn't amount of much if he was doing this on his own. Midoriya was in over his head and probably knew that too, but he wasn't saying anything either.

They were both stupid for doing this and they were very likely to get themselves killed even with Todoroki's help.

"If we do manage to save her and get out alive," Midoriya said, "Uraraka is going to kill us."

He honestly hoped Uraraka would be capable of beating him over the head with the butt of her glock. He would take it over never seeing her again. He'd been so foolish. Neither Todoroki nor Kirishima would let him live this down if he did make it out alive. Bakugou didn't just care about people. He didn't.

But holy fuck did the idea of Uraraka being in an enemy's hand send his heart racing into overdrive. He couldn't take it. He wanted her back - he needed her back - and he was going to get her, one way or another.