Chapter 23

Both Katsuki and Izuku stood by the sidelines to watch the children with the building activities. The bird houses had gone smoothly till the end when Thomas' fireworks went off. He ended up in a different wing waiting for his recovery.

Jet Black and Henry had returned though with new bandages. Izuku even saw Aizawa and the girl sitting on the other end of the room just watching.

The sight that really made his insides flutter was watching Rin work with Tokoyami and Henry. He should have guessed that the woman with a child like personality would get along with children. He also noticed how close she was to his old high school classmate.

Probably teasing and flirting with the hero.

Katsuki also noticed her goofing off with the bird boy.

"Your friend doesn't seem to know personal boundaries." Bakugou was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. This of course didn't bother him about a month ago. But he needed to see what his friends intentions were with the woman. Earlier he had thought they were just friends. The same type of friendship that Izuku had with Ochaco.

He was more then willing to make an intimate connection and prevent one from happening. But if his friend was already seeing the ex stripper then he would let it go. The closeness of the two was very apparent to him in the room earlier.

Midoriya wasn't too surprised for Kacchan to bring up Rin, "Yeah, I've had to talk to her about it."

Bakugou nodded, "I'm assuming she knows who Deku is?"

Izuku in turn nodding, "Yep. I will also assume that she knows who Ground Zero is. She seemed friendly with you." He made sure to keep his face straight.

The ball was dropped and Katsuki had to figure out which route to take. He could take the high road and admit everything to his friend. That's what the counselors at the retreat would want him to do.

But they weren't at the retreat anymore. This was the real world away from sweat houses, bonfires and sharing a tent.

And in the real world he had really wanted to have Rin. It was sexual but when he thought of how he felt watching her with his mini me it was nice. He wouldn't jump ahead but it could go there.

He was going to park on the side and see which way he should take.

"Nah, but I could maybe take her home later and give her a private tour of the ins and outs of my costume. I'm sure by the end she'll figure out who I am."

Deku shifted. He wasn't with Rin and she could sleep with whoever she wanted. Didn't mean he liked it.

"Telling her who you are is your decision. Maybe you shouldn't sleep with her though. You shouldn't sleep with someone you don't have feelings for."

Bakugou snorted, "Is that why you're holding back?"

"What?!" Izuku gave his friend his full attention.

"Look I'm not a fucking moron. It's obvious something happened between you two. I've known you since we were kids. I know when you want something. You wanted the Limited Edition All Might Platinum Figure that you got for my 6th birthday. Rather then having it for yourself you bought it for me. And every time you were at the fucking house you'd stare at it. Like staring at it would make it magically pop up in your room one day." Bakugou locked eyes with his friend and point at Rin. "She's the Limited Edition figure you selfishly want. But instead of taking it you're watching it and teasing yourself by being so close and so far."

"It's not like that. I've actually already told Rin how I feel." Midoriya blushed.

Taken back, "You really told her you want to have sex with her but are holding back." Katsuki raised a brow.

When Izuku didn't respond.

'You got to be fucking kidding me.'

"You did?"

Groaning at the embarrassment, "I did and I don't want to talk any further about it. We'd already set boundaries."

"Boundaries?"

'Funny how fucking useless Deku was. He could punch a man through a building but when it came to a woman he couldn't even pound her.'

"Yes. So that way I don't ruin our friendship."

Bakugou wasn't going to push the situation any further but he had decided to take the low road. That's for sure.

"Okay. Now that I know that nothing's going on between you two. I have nothing to lose." He couldn't hold back the smirk. "Maybe I'll get to reenact those photos I saw later."

Izuku couldn't let that one slide though, "I'd actually appreciated it if you didn't sleep with my friend just as I told her that I didn't want her to sleep with you."

Anger started to sprout through him. "You told her what?"

"When she found out about her neighbor being my friend I told her that I'd like for her to not sleep with you. I'm politely asking you not to sleep with her too."

Midoriya saw the crimson eyes ignite. "I won't make any promises."

During the race portion both Deku and Ground Zero were nowhere to be seen and All Might was not happy to say the least.

He had expected the competitive duo to over do the race. But instead he had a feeling that a certain young lady was interfering with the friendship. Now he was standing next to the Izuku at the dessert table serving pudding.

Young Midoriya was his usual smile. Selflessly ignoring all internal problems while Bakugou was at the other end of the line butchering a chicken with his frustration.

"Do you want to explain why you're moping around?" He asked the hero.

Izuku should have expected his mentor to see through the smile.

"I'm- Well- Not really." He subbled over his words as he served the food.

All Might wasn't going to let it go. "Is your Mighty Might satisfied with the decision you made?"

He knew he discovered the issue from the blood flow spreading across his face.

"I take that as a no. It seems like another variable has been add from the way Ground Zero has been behaving. His anger management counselor wouldn't be too pleased."

The mentor looked down at him and saw his eyes gloss over. Putting the lid over the pudding he pulled Izuku to the side.

"I think Kacchan wants to be with Rin." All Might heard the words whisper out of the young mans mouth.

"And you don't like it." Toshinori sighed and pulled Midoriya's chin so that he could look into his eyes, "You've made the decision to back down. With that decision you have to accept all of the repercussions. If it wasn't Bakugou it would be someone else."

"You're right. I need to respect my friends choices." Deku was about to go back to serving.

All Might stopped him, "No Izuku." Looking at the boy he had mentored for so many years, "You need to respect the choices YOU make."

Meanwhile, Rin had just sat down at a table with a few heroes.

"Hello Lady Zero. It's a pleasure to meet you again." Chargebolt did a small head bow.

"Seems that you all know each other well." She motioned around the table.

"We all went to school together before the hero life. Did you figure out the alias?" Red Riot was sitting to her left.

She huffed and looked from him to Chargebolt sitting in front of him. "Yes. Damn Deku." The smile on her face showed that she wasn't mad. "Does that mean he went to school with you guys too?"

"We are the people he was stuck with during his awkward years." Chargebolt piped in.

"I wouldn't call them awkward years. They were years of growth for all of us." Jet Black spoke who was sitting directly across of her.

Bakugou put a plate on the table and sat next to Jet Black. "What are you goons talking about?" He just barely glanced at Rin.

"Hey It's my twin! Did you go to school with these guys too?"

Ground Zero snorted. "Unfortunately I know everyone under their mask."

The next person to sit down next to her was Deku.

"Jealous. You all have your inside secrets." She smiled to herself a bit. Knowing that she had her inside secrets too.

"It's an interesting way to put it." Jet Black.

"But we're not all a secret. You know Deku." Red Riot.

"How do you know each other? I find that its hard to meet people outside of hero work." Jet Black.

She couldn't help the wicked smile. She nudged Midoriya in the side. "How would you say we met again?"

Izuku started to fumble over his words and Rin chuckled. Turning to Jet Black, "We actually worked together during his time off of field work. And as the small world has it we live in the same apartment building too." She lightly bumped him to show just enough affection. "You guys are really lucky to have such a great friend."

Rubbing the back of his head. "You didn't have to say that."

Now that she's messed with Izuku a bit it's time to move on.

"I wanted to. If you're all good friends then maybe you know my neighbor too."

Bakugou looked up from his plate of food. 'This Bitch.'

Everyone turned to her attention.

"If he's Deku's friend does that mean Bakugou went to school with you guys too?"

This was definitely a confirmation that Rin didn't know that his friend and Ground Zero were the same person. Unless she was pulling strings and that wasn't too far off of something she'd do.

"Did you say Bakugou?" Chargebolt snickered.

"Yes. Unless I'm reading the nameplate wrong."

Eijiro was watching Katsuki from across the table. He was there when he saw that the neighbor had left him his glove. That had obvious natural female lubricant on it. Why was she pretending to not know that Ground Zero and Bakugou were one in the same.

Kirishima observed the game being played between the too.

Katsuki's slanted grin on his face, "Yeah. We all know him. But if you're really wanting to know your neighbor I could introduce you to him on a more personal level. We've stayed close since high school."

Everyone at the table heard the flirt and watched for her reaction.

"That's very sweet of you Ground Zero. But I think that if I really wanted to know him I could just walk over."

Kirishima still didn't understand why they wouldn't just come clean. Then the reason became apparent. Midoriya jolted up and took Rin's hand.

"We need to prepare for the ending speeches. You're the one with the linguistics quirk so we need you." Izuku didn't even wait for a response and just dragged the woman away.