CH5

Given how quickly Estelle blew up my phone, I knew he ratted me out before I had even finished eating my food. Hell, it was probably before I had taken my first sip of coffee. Damn traitor. I was grumbling the whole way back to my private office, I barely made eye contact with anyone who would have the awful luck of running into me.

I typed a quick text back to Estelle so she wouldn't think I was annoyed at her for spamming me with so many messages, promising her we would get together to talk about what happened in great detail. I followed that up with a new photo that was circulating around my agency home page I knew she hadn't seen yet. That would cheer her up.

I sighed as I let myself in the door, it wasn't me avoiding Estelle it was me avoiding the conversation about Bakugo and what was going on between us. While I was no superfan like my best friend was for a Mr. Hawks, I did keep up with a few forums on Dynamite and from this I knew that him offering help like that was out of character.

With that out of character behavior, led to a whole bushel of new questions. None of which I had answers to, that in turn was frustrating. I was used to having the answers and this was infuriating that I didn't. I shrugged my coat off and placed it on the coat rack by the door and flopped into my desk chair. My desk was organized chaos with so many papers to be reviewed and signed. I was looking forward to my next week off where I could focus on my agency work and not the menagerie of patients that filled my caseload.

I booted up the desktop and while I was thinking about it, signed into my agency email to distract me from all this mess from the past few days. I filtered through the regular spam, the invites to meetings that should just be an email, and upcoming events. One email in particular caught my attention, it was titled inter agency co-op.

I clicked on it and opened it to full screen. With each word that I read my heart dropped. This was just the icing on the fucking proverbial cake, wasn't it? My agency has teamed up with none other than Dynamite's agency for a long-term co-op where they would be looking into some of the black-market dealings of selling individuals for their quirks.

I wanted to bang my head against the desk, wondering just how much blunt force trauma I could take without actually brain damaging myself. I had almost hoped that I would not see Katsuki Bakugo again, but fate seems to just have different plans. And like a cherry on top of this metaphorical cake, of course he would be relocating to my agency for the duration of this operation. I groaned with resignation and tried to think of all the ways I could potentially avoid running into him. It was hardly likely to run into Bakugo here at the hospital, so I could try to focus all my time here.

That would work, sure I would be dog tired, but I wouldn't be as embarrassed. I shook my head and immediately threw that idea away, there was just too much to do for my agency work as well. I couldn't just ignore it for months on end. I had research projects that were nearing the end of their trials and four years of data couldn't be thrown away because I feared whatever this was with Bakugo.

Not to mention the lecture I would receive from Estelle about throwing away my chance to interact with my own hero I happened to follow online and like. I was probably over thinking everything anyway. I pushed everything else out of my head for the rest of my shift, focusing solely on my patients. It wasn't hard as it seemed every patient of mine needed me to come in to see them.

I was dead tired as I walked out of the hospital and towards my car. My earbuds were in, and I walked in time to whatever rock sock was playing on my shuffle. I fumbled the keys out of my pocket and unlocked the car, tossing in my small bang and jacket on the passenger's side without caring where they landed. I didn't notice the footsteps behind me. I started to get in the car when someone tapped my shoulder.

The ungodly shriek that came out of me could be heard on the other side of the hospital. I spun to face whoever it was with a hail mary fist fueled by whatever adrenaline I had left. My wrist was caught by a strong hand, rough and calloused by hard work. My eyes quickly met Bakugo's as my whole body sagged in relief as I recognized him.

"You can't sneak up on me like that." I will admit my tone was a little breathless as my heart was jumping out of my chest. I reached up and took out one earbud. I jumped slightly as he raised his hand and took the other one out of my ear.

"You couldn't hear me cause of these in your ears." He frowned at me. The skin between his brows crinkled as they pulled together, "You're just waiting for something to happen, aren't you? There is no way you would be able to react in time with these things in." he scowled as he put the other one into my hand.

"I-" There wasn't anything to argue with him about, it was sketchy to walk around this late at night. Even if it was just to the hospital parking lot, I had forgotten everything that I was thinking about because of the co-op. "You're right. I should have been more careful." I told him with a resigned sigh. I stuffed the earbuds into my pants pocket and then looked back up at him. "What are you doing here? Everything alright?"

"I'm here to see you actually." He says causally, resting his weight on one leg, putting his hands into his pockets. He never broke eye contact; from the way he was dressed he looked like he was ready to go to the gym. It was nice to see him in normal clothes. All the other times we have interacted, it's been at the hospital or for hero work.

"Wait," It had taken a second for his words to catch up to me. "You came to see me? What for?" I was surprised to say the least.

"Did you forget already? I said I would train you, you wimp." He gruffly replied, he seemed mad that I had forgotten. His brows were knit together, and the edges of his mouth pulled down a little bit more. He pulled his hands out of his pockets and boxed me in, placing his hand on the car door and the frame of the car behind me. "You are not going to get out of this."

He was standing too close, and it was almost too much for me. I could smell the soft scent of his soap, I sat down, choosing to put a little space between us. "I need to go home and change." I muttered, hoping he would back off for a moment.

He waited a second and then stepped back. He said nothing as he walked to the other side of the car, I watched with my mouth agape as he opened the passenger door and sat down. He carefully held my bag and jacket in his lap. He reached up and grabbed the seat belt and clicked into place. Bakugo looked over at me and frowned again. "Let's go. I have extra clothes at the gym. You need to put in as much time as possible, going by the puny arms."

I simply blinked at him in surprise, "We are going now?"

He let out a frustrated groan and rolled his eyes, "That's what I said. Now close your mouth and your door and let's go."

My mouth snapped shut, I hadn't realized it was still open. I slid my legs into the car and closed the door. I pulled my seatbelt on too, and asked out loud, "Is this a fever dream?"

"Shut up and drive, extra."

I didn't look at him, but it sounded like there was a smile in his voice. My brain was on auto pilot, listening to his directions to the gym, going inside together, I held the door for him of course, and then the ran to the male locker room to go get his extra clothes for me to wear. He didn't say anything, shoving the clothes into my hands and walking out to the equipment to what I could guess was wait for me.

I hesitantly walked to the women's locker room and quickly found an empty locker to put my clothes in. I looked at the clothes he gave me, a large black T-shirt and red basketball shorts. They both were a size too big, but I was able to tighten the shorts enough that I didn't think they would fall off my hips. I shook my head to clear it of the thoughts that rattled around it.

He was waiting by the entrance when I emerged. His arms were crossed, and he had taken off his jacket and was just in a tank and red shorts that matched mine. "We stretch before you try to do anything, got it?"

"Understood." I nodded and spent the rest of the evening following his directions on the various exercises and machines. I dropped him off at the agency, and he smirked and told me to get some rest. I didn't remember how I managed to get my ass in my apartment and into bed.

It was the aching of my muscles that woke me the next morning I could feel them screaming at me for the abuse I put them through yesterday. I reached for the painkillers I kept on the nightstand next to my bed and took them with the bottle of water I also kept there. I dozed off for a while before waking up to my phone ringing. My voice was raspy and thick from sleep. "Hello?"

The voice on the other end of the phone was also gruff. "Hurry up and get down here for training. Ya got five minutes."

"What?!" I squeaked and I threw the blankets off me and stumbled to the window. I pulled the curtain back and looked down at him waving back up at me. "I thought you were joking!"

"Hurry up, you only got four minutes left." He hung up the phone, cutting off any response I might have had, and walked towards the entrance of the building.

I put my phone away and ran around trying to get dressed. Estelle watched from the Kitchen with her coffee in hand, laughing outright at me. After I put on my tennis shoes, I stole her cup and took a big sip. "Pray to all the gods for me." I said, my face stoney. She nodded and put her hands into a prayer position. I handed the cup back to her and went down to meet my doom for the day.

Bakugo worked me, but never too hard. We ran laps around the neighborhood, stopping at the park to use the outdoor exercise equipment. My muscles were nice and warmed up by the time he had to leave for his patrols and for me to go into the office to work on paperwork and plan some meetings about the co-op. I stayed in my jogging clothes and headed to work, deciding since I had already ran today that the 15 min walk to work wouldn't kill me.

I was only slightly out of breath when I walked through the front doors of the agency, which made me happy. Maybe I wasn't as out of shape as I thought. I smiled at the receptionist and started towards the elevator when she stopped me.

"Dr. Honda!" She called out and waved to me to come to the desk.

I stopped and walked over, admiring the flowers on the counter. "Good morning, Tiffany, what can I help you with? Is your son alright?" I asked with concern, I had taken care of her little boy once when he been admitted to my hospital.

"No, he's doing great! Thank you so much for thinking of him!" She beamed at me and slid the flowers toward me, "Actually these came for you first thing this morning." Her smile turned sly, "The card just says it's from a secret admirer." She chuckled at me, I knew my cheeks turned pink.

"Oh, wow...I've never been sent flowers before." I smiled and sniffed the arrangement. I picked it up and tucked it into my elbow. "Thank you! I will put this on my desk to look at today." I waved bye to Tiffany and made my way to my office where I put the flowers on the empty corner of my desk. As I got lost in my work I would glance up and look at the flowers, and I couldn't help myself from thinking.

Just who could my secret admirer be?

Here we go another week another update! Thank you for sticking with this story!

Please let me know what you think in the comments!

TTFN~

Ta Ta For Now~
xoxo

Marina Rose