Blending In

From here on is where there are mentions of swearing. I won't write any actual swear words, but you'll get the idea.

Considering the damage the building's destruction caused, it was a miracle there were no deaths.

She was sure when they noticed there was someone in the basement that they would have been killed. It certainly was a miracle that he had managed to survive with only a caught leg that came out with a few bruises. How did that even happen? He should have been crushed by debris! It was a five story building and he was in the basement! Well, whatever. Ochaco wasn't about to go questioning miracles.

After she'd managed to bring the man- Bakugou Katsuki- out of the wreckage and to one of the ambulances, she went searching for Shinso and thirteen to find out what the status report was. Luckily they'd managed to get their quickly, and for the time there were no immediate worries. Ochaco had forgotten it was a long weekend, so a lot of people had left to visit family. And considering it was an old building anyway, not many people lived there. They were still working on numbers and clearing debris to make sure, but so far there were no missing people and the worst injury were some broken bones. One person had a collapsed lung, but the medics seemed assured they would be able to fix him up quickly.

From what she could see, it looked more like it would cost a lot for the owners to deal with than a matter of lives lost. But Ochaco felt some sympathy for the situation. Of course being hurt and scared like that would be traumatizing. But losing their home? Uraraka didn't want to imagine how hard that would be. If anything happened to the farmhouse…

Uraraka made sure to wait till everyone was cleared before even considering taking a break. Only after thirteen assured her there was no one else left in the wreckage did she go check on the injured. Most with immediate injuries had been brought back right away, while others waited on the sidewalk. The police had wanted everyone to be transported to the hospital whether their injuries appeared serious or not. The cover story was that they wanted to make sure there were no internal injuries. Secretly Ochaco wondered if they wanted a secure place to question people.

After taking a quick swig of water, Ochaco noticed one man sitting at the sidewalk. Well, not really noticed. She had known he was there the entire time she had been working. However, the man had been staring at her with such intensity she could feel it even when she wasn't looking at him. Even when he shouldn't be able to see her! The thought sent shivers down her spine. Cautiously she turned her head slightly to meet his eyes. Just like she thought, he was staring straight into her eyes. She jumped a bit before collecting herself. If she'd been paying closer attention she would have noticed the smirk when he saw that.

Her first initial thought was that he was in shock. But while he showed all the signs, there was no actual…shock. He wasn't speaking, wasn't reacting much, acted defensive and reminded her of a robot. But when the doctors checked his heartrate, they said it was fine. There was no fear or disturbance in his eyes. He just seemed to survey the area as if taking it all in for the first time. Even when he glared at Ochaco, it looked more like he was studying her than afraid of the situation around her. He certainly was a scary looking guy. But hey. Uraraka wasn't going to let that bother her! She'd dealt with a lot of scary looking guys who turned out to be big softies!

Placing the water down, she went over to the stranger's side. He immediately tensed up when she got closer and she had to hide a giggle. He wasn't afraid of her, was he? Well, given the situation, she decided she wouldn't push the idea. She tried to put on a happy appearance as she plopped down next to her. "Hey! How are you holding up?" The man said nothing. He tilted his head to her, his spiky blond hair shifting in the breeze as he did. Such a nice day for such destruction.

Bakugou Katsuki was…attractive. If Ochaco were a 15 year old again she would have blushed and stuttered her words at first. It's a good thing she'd become more (at least a little bit more) mature in her firefighter training. The man had spiky blonde hair that could seriously use a comb in Uraraka's opinion. It might have been because of the explosion. He was fairly tall, at least 6 foot. He had to be taller than Midoriya, maybe even Iida. He looked strong, though his muscles weren't toned. Either way, he definitely worked out. Uraraka seemed to have a thing for strong people. Who knows, maybe he could make that list of friends as well. Despite the scary expression, he had a handsome face. She wasn't sure how she found such a scary looking guy attractive, but she did. Maybe it was something with her work that made dangerous people seem less worrisome.

Even if he was a model (Which he wasn't) that wasn't her job. She needed to make sure he was alright. "You told the medics where it hurts, right? Were they able to fix up your leg?" Again, Bakugou said nothing. Beyond the name she hadn't been able to get much out of him. The thought worried her. His throat hadn't been damaged, had it? "Can you speak? Does your throat hurt?" She didn't want to touch him without permission, so she tried pointing at her own throat. He scrunched his nose in annoyance and looked at her like she was insane. What? Did he not understand-

"Oh? Do you speak English?" Again, he said nothing. It appeared he registered what she was saying, but didn't respond. It could have been a combination of not completely understanding the language and the shock that stopped him from responding. "Ah, that's okay! I'm sure they have translators back at the hospital." She gave him a pat on the back as reassurance, making him flinch. "Once the shock wears off, you'll be fine."

"Uraraka!" The pair looked up to see Jiro calling to her from the truck. "We're heading over to the hospital to get a quick medical check while the others fix the rest up here. Are you good to go?" Shifting back to Fire-fighter mode instead of concerned citizen, Uraraka jumped to attention.

"Of course!" jumping to her feet, she turned back to a startled Bakugou. "I'll meet you back at the hospital, okay? Don't worry!" he just blinked at her, still silent. Uraraka sighed, but decided not to dwell on it.

Jiro waited for Ochaco to reach her side before leaning closer to her. "Who was that?" She whispered, sending furtive glances back at the man who continued to stare at Uraraka as she left. Uraraka held back a giggle. Of course Jiro would also notice the guy. They were both professional, but that didn't mean they couldn't notice a cute guy. And Jiro happened to get even more nervous and flustered than Uraraka did!

"His name is Bakugou Katsuki," Ochaco started to explain, preparing to tell the story of how he miraculously survived the basement level, but when she double checked Jiro's expression it wasn't the flushed face she had expected. There wasn't the layer of fear that other hand, since Jiro seemed to fear nothing except for flirting and the sexual education class they'd needed to take during the basic health classes. But she did have an expression of caution. And what looked like…confusion? A little bit uncomfortable? As If Bakugou had done something to weird her out. Well, the staring and scary expression was weird but…Confused, Uraraka gently nudged her shoulder to catch her attention. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing! I'm not judging!" Judging? Ochaco raised her eyebrow while Jiro hesitated. "It's just…" she leaned closer, as if to share a secret. "That costume…that's pretty realistic looking, right? Kind of weird too…" Costume?

Only when Jiro pointed it out did Ochaco pay closer attention. She hadn't realized just how…odd the man she had saved looked. She'd been so focused on making sure there were no lasting injuries and the fact that he had survived being in the basement that she hadn't paid closer attention. His sharp eyes were outlined with a large, thick layer of what must have been black makeup. It looked almost like a mask. There were these large, green tube things shaped like grenades on his arms. Cardboard? Metal? Then his hands were covered by what had to be oddly-shaped gloves. He wasn't wearing a shirt, which revealed a small procession of fake spikes that went down his back. They looked almost reptilian. He must have used a lot of makeup and clay for that. His mouth was set in a frown, but his lips were so wide that it HAD to be makeup. Behind his ears he had some flappy things that made his ears look sharp. Then there was a…a tail? Wow, and it looked sharp! She wondered what he'd made that out of. His boots were very big, with metal spikes. For his sake, she hoped they weren't real. The police wouldn't be happy. Actually, when she looked at the eyes that were staring at her, she realized with a start that they were…red? How…huh.

That explained why everyone was keeping their distance. She'd assumed at first it was because of the dark expression on his face. Was he into cosplay? If he was, his skills were very good. Even the tail, which had to be fake, it looked so real she could almost see it move. How he'd managed to keep it all on through the explosion was a mystery. When she came out of her trance she realized that Jiro was looking at her expectantly. "I'm not sure," She answered. "I think he's in shock right now. We can ask him later." Jiro frowned, but nodded.

As they were preparing to take the truck back to the hospital with Shinso, they were interrupted. "Excuse me, may I ask you three some questions?" the three firefighters turned to find two people behind them. One was a police officer, a detective probably. He wore a long dark coat above a suit and had black, spiky hair. The badge on his jacket said 'Detective Tokoyami.' The second person…Monomo? Uraraka felt her heart skip a beat. What was he doing there? Was he trying to terrify her into giving up the house? The officer didn't seem to notice the cocky smirk on Monomo's face when he saw Uraraka's fear. "We wanted to know if you three had noticed anything while moving the debris. Some evidence of an explosion or a gas leak…" Why would that have gotten Monomo…?

Oh right. Monomo was a big time property contractor. He owned a number of properties, not just her house. Well, he wouldn't own that one for long!

"Our job was to make sure everyone was alright and get all the people out alive," Jiro answered. "We weren't really paying attention to something like that." Monomo frowned, but Tokoyami nodded.

"Of course. I just wanted to hear if you'd noticed anything."

"We just want to know what happened," Monomo questioned, earning a glare from officer Tokoyami. Uraraka glared to. The police probably wanted to make sure there was no foul play and that it really was an accident. Monomo probably wanted to know for insurance cases. He didn't want to have to pay for it.

She sincerely hoped that it was an accident, so that none of the poor tenants would have to pay for it all. Monomo's company could probably pay for it easily.

"We don't know anything as of yet," Shinso told him, his tone holding a sense of finality. "There was nothing there that showed evidence of foul play. But we couldn't find the source of the explosion either." With a quick nod, he pulled himself behind the driver's seat. "If you have any more questions, you can contact our chief. For now, we need to go." Monomo frowned, but the officer nodded.

"Alright. Thank you for your service." The three firefighters nodded. After the two stepped back Shinsou drove away without looking back. Uraraka on the other hand watched them both as they drove away. She hadn't realized there was no evidence of foul play or source of an explosion. They should have found at least something to point to one or the other. What else could have caused a building to collapse?

The room they'd forced Bakugou into was absolutely filthy.

When the human-Uraraka, had left, Bakugou had been brought to a chemical smelling metal building that was filled with the stench of death, blood and terror.

So it smelled like home.

They'd placed him in a small room by himself. At first it looked like they were going to put their needles and knives into him. Luckily Bakugou was spared the effort of fighting back when someone told them that it was just his leg, and they were too busy with others to worry about him. So instead they'd shoved him into a small room with a little screen, a bed and some random shelves before rushing away.

What had happened to that weird human? He'd lost sight of her when they'd dragged him into a metal piece of human transport. Which was VERY slow by the way. He needed to find her if he was going to get more information on the world he was currently stuck in. Once he learned all he needed to know, it was time to attack. He'd attack any resistance or human soldiers that they had. He'd find out who was in charge of this planet. When he was finally running the planet, he would…Shoot. What did he know about human politics again? Was it that easy? How did their culture work? That was the kind of stuff he needed to know before he could take over. But he needed that human in order to do that. Where did she go?

Either way, Bakugou didn't plan on twiddling his tail around waiting for her. He needed information. While doing that, he needed to avoid catching anyone's eye. Moving over to the window, he watched the humans move around in their small, insignificant ways. He paid close attention to those who were being operated on. Specifically the males. Two legs. Two arms. A head. Torso. Eyes. Ears. But no tail, ear enhancers, spikes, dark shadows or weaponized arms. If he was going to blend in, he was going to need to avoid standing out.

Now that he had male subjects to be sure, (he did not want to accidentally model himself on a female subject) he made sure to block off all the windows and doors. Taking a deep breath, he focused on his design. Thankfully Overhaul hadn't been so stupid to not give Bakugou the ability to shapeshift at least some parts of his body in order to blend in. Concentrating, he was able to make the tubes around his arms shrink until they disappeared into his arms, leaving only a black design of the square pattern. Unfortunately that would not go away, so it would have to do. The ear enhancers blended with his ears so that his ears became slightly pointed in three different places. The metal boots he simply took off, though the pants would hopefully not catch too much attention. The dark shadows around his eyes dissipated, but the red in his eyes remained. His spikes also shrank so that only black dots in their places remained. His mouth was smoothed out so it wasn't as wide, but his fangs had to remain pointed. The tail wouldn't go away, but he was able to swing it around and make it look like a belt as that general had done. After double checking himself he was satisfied that he looked at least a satisfactory amount human. Any more and it wouldn't matter what the humans thought. He himself would throw up at the idea of having to change himself to look like those weaklings anymore.

With that settled, he had to deal with communication. It seemed like his source of information, Uraraka, liked to speak a lot. That was fine, but she seemed to have a lot of questions for him. He didn't care to answer any of them, but he doubted it would be as easy to get information from her if she became suspicious of him. Even as she had walked away, that other female had sent him a number of odd glances. He needed Uraraka for information. He couldn't risk the other humans stopping him out of their own suspicion.

But how? Again, he made a space in the window so he could see the humans interacting. Unfortunately he could not hear them from where he was. But off in the distance, he noticed a small group of them watching a screen. In the screen was another human, acting out strange scenes and pictures. If it really was like a connector screen Bakugou thought it was, then he should be able to learn their language through that. He turned back to the screen that was in his own room. It took him only a few seconds to figure out how to turn it on, and when it did he was greeted with the sight of one human punching another. Bakugou blinked, watching as two humans chased down another who used a weapon to shoot rocks at them, calling 'you'll never take me alive, coppers!'

A human shooting another? Well, despite the primitive technology, Bakugou could at least easily get information from that.

It must have been hours later until his human finally resurfaced. He was startled at the sound of knocking on his door before turning from the show called 'criminal minds' to see Uraraka in the door. She waved cheerfully before letting herself in. "At least you got the TV working," She stated, sounding happy as Bakugou watched her movements with interest. "When they said they'd left you here for so long, I was worried you'd get bored." He wasn't sure why she seemed so concerned with the idea of him being bored. Could humans get sick merely from boredom? How pathetic.

"…Of course I figured it out," Bakugou growled. "Your primitive human technology was barely a challenge." Uraraka spun around to stare at him, to shocked to really register what he had said.

"You know English!" she appeared excited. Over just the ability of speech? Gosh, he'd found quite the idiot as his guide.

"Yes. Of course I f#$%g do." Uraraka blinked. Bakugou wasn't sure what he'd said wrong, but she almost looked offended. Truthfully his voice sounded rough, even to him. He'd never bothered speaking before because he'd never wanted to. But now that he did, it seemed more like a pain then a necessity. He'd have to get used to it.

Uraraka hesitated, caught off-guard. Maybe her initial idea that he was attractive had been given to quickly. "Right…well, uh…Oh! You got rid of the costume? Where did you put it?" She started searching the room for a non-existent costume and coming up empty. "Oh…Uh, not important. How are you feeling?"

How was he feeling? "Annoyed as f$*k." Uraraka was surprised. She would have expected afraid, or nervous or even exhausted. But…Annoyed? Bakugou debated raging further, but his experience with the 'television' showed that he still had a lot to learn about their culture. He decided to keep as much about himself a secret as he could.

"I…I see." Quickly getting back on her feet Uraraka continued. "Well, the doctors said that you're free to go. Officer Tokoyami might want to talk to you later, but he looked really busy last I saw him. You'll probably just need to stay in town. Do you…" She hesitated. "I'm…I'm really sorry about your home. That must have been really hard losing…Do you have anyone you can call? Relatives or friends or…" His home? A light lit in Bakugou's head. She assumed he had lived in that building. Inwardly he raged at the idea that he had ever lived in such a small, insignificant little place.

When he didn't answer, Ochaco assumed he was still struggling to come to terms with losing his apartment. Had all his belongings been in that house? Hesitantly, she placed a comforting hand on Bakugou's shoulder. His head spun around to look at her, shock clear on his face. She offered a warm smile. "Don't worry. It will be okay. You'll figure something out. I'm sure the insurance company will find you a place soon."

Bakugou didn't understand. What would be okay? Why was she smiling at him? She must have been an oddity. The humans in the screen had certainly not been as…odd as she was.

"In the meantime," Uraraka jumped back, her cheeks turning bright red with joy. "You can come stay at my place! It's really big, and it's pretty far away so you can have some privacy if you need time. You'll probably only need to stay there for a few weeks, a month at the most. That is, unless you have someone you can call?" Honestly Uraraka was very hesitant to bring a stranger into her home. Into her parents' home. But he had just lost his apartment…and judging from his reaction, he didn't have anyone he could call or anyone he could go to. If she'd lost her home, she'd be absolutely devastated. Her parents would have done the same thing, she was sure.

Bakugou shook his head, lifting Uraraka's spirits as she did. "Great! I'll just go make sure everything's fine with the doctor and my boss, then I'll come get you! Okay?" After Bakugou nodded, she rushed off to find thirteen, a smile on her face as she did. At least she could do something to help in this tragedy.

When she was gone however, Bakugou's smirk promised deviance. Puny human. In a few days he would be running that world and she would be down at his feet begging for mercy.