Cold Case

Half Bad

BAKUGO'S POV

"It's not the worst punishment in the world, Bakugo." Kirishima laughed on the other end of the phone. He wasn't stuck in this basement with me, so he had no clue how bad it was. Cold Cases royally sucked and working with Midoriya sucked even more.

"Only three hundred and sixty-four days left." I groaned. "How's everything going back at the office?" It was weird not to be with my team. I was told I couldn't ask them about specific cases, but I was allowed to check-in.

"It's only been one day. Everything is going alright. We got assigned a new case today, but I was told I can't tell you anything about it." He sighed.

"I wasn't going to ask about the case. I'm more curious about how you guys are deciding who is doing what." I hate that Yamada and Aizawa told them the same thing they told Midoriya and me.

"It depends. We all have our strengths, so we've been focusing on that right now. I know you want us to focus on our weaknesses, but we're taking everything one step at a time." He explained. Their strengths are the areas I usually keep them in. If they didn't know the strengths that I've drilled into their head, would they know what to do?

"If you guys need help or pointed in the right direction, call me." I sighed.

"I do have a question, actually." He said nervously. "Who would you send to question a kid?"

"Kaminari." I scoffed. "He's an adult child."

"Hey, we're all good to go," Midoriya said as he walked back into the room. He froze when he saw the phone against my ear. "Sorry, I didn't know you were on the phone." He said quietly.

"It's fine." I scoffed. "Call me if you need anything else," I said to Kirishima before pulling the phone away from my ear and ending the call.

"Sorry." He said again.

"One apology was enough." I pushed myself from the couch. I saw his badge and gun attached to him, which meant we got the all-clear to head out. "Is my stuff still upstairs?" I asked.

"Yeah, I couldn't sign your stuff out. We'll have to grab it before we go." He explained as he grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair. "I have to stop by my old office on the way."

"You're allowed to do that?" I asked while we made our way out the door. I'm not even allowed to step foot in my building, but he can go up to his old office?

"I'm not supposed to, but my new holster is up there. It arrived this morning, so the boss said I could run and grab it since Uraraka has it locked in her desk." He shrugged. "You're not supposed to go back to your team either?" He asked.

"I can talk to them, but we can't discuss any cases. I'm not allowed in the building at all." I scoffed. I would kill to go make a decent cup of coffee in my office right now. The stuff here sucks.

"So we essentially have the same rule." He sighed as we stepped into the elevator. "Obviously, I'm allowed in my building, but I'm not supposed to go upstairs to my old office."

"Is your team falling apart?" I asked. I didn't necessarily think mine was falling apart based on the five-minute conversation I had with Kirishima, but they did sound a little lost.

"Not that I know of." He shrugged. "They're off on a case right now, so I assume they're fine. They know what needs to be done. They may struggle with doing tasks they don't want to do, but they won't avoid doing something because they don't want to."

"Are you sure about that?" I scoffed. He shook his head as the doors slid open. I hadn't seen this area before, so I assumed that this floor was where his office was.

"Are we doing this again?" He groaned as I followed him off the elevator. "There are some tasks that my team would rather do, but they know how to do every task. They know how to do their job efficiently and safely, which is always my main concern. They're versatile and well-trained, even if they don't always act like it." I scoffed at the well-trained part. Most of them seemed okay, but that girl was a different story. She seemed bratty and unprofessional. If anybody on my team behaved the way she did, they wouldn't be on my team anymore.

"We still have issues, and there are definitely areas that everyone can improve on, but we'll work on it. I'm taking this time to think about how to improve my team and myself. So if you have any more remarks, please keep them to yourself." He lectured. I didn't say anything else since I didn't want to start another argument. After yesterday, I learned that I had to play nice with him. He wasn't as much of a pushover as I thought he was. I also learned that I'm not the boss here. I can't order him around, which is something that I'm not used to. I've never had someone I worked with that I considered my equal. The fact that it was this idiot pisses me off even more.

We walked down a long hallway before entering a room that looked like a shared office. There were six cubicles in the center of the room. Four of them had pictures and junk sitting everywhere, but the other two remained empty. Midoriya walked to the cubical that I assumed was Uraraka's since everything was pink. The only thing that wasn't pink was a small white picture frame with a picture of her and Iida kissing.

"You have a team that's dating each other too?" I asked with an amused smile.

"Unfortunately." He replied as he opened one of the drawers and grabbed a package. "I assume you do too?"

"Unfortunately." I sighed. I loved my team, but Sero and Kirishima got on my nerves too many times to count. It was hard to pair them together because they constantly got distracted. That was one of their biggest weaknesses that I was hoping to work on. I couldn't have a team that didn't flow perfectly. Of course, I can't do that for a whole fucking year since I landed myself in this position.

"Have you found a way to pair them up and keep them focused?" He asked while replacing his holster. "I'm having one hell of a time."

"I wish." I groaned. "They can work together just fine, but they get distracted when we're not doing something overly exciting." Our work was hardly overly exciting, if I'm being honest. We were private investigators, we weren't running around the city all day pursuing dangerous criminals. Well, not usually, anyway.

"Well, maybe that's something we can figure out together within the next year." He smiled. I hated that damn smile. It made him look so innocent, so full of life. I wanted to wipe it off his face every damn time.

"Maybe." I shrugged. Although his smile was annoying, and I had a personal grudge against him for landing us here, he wasn't half bad. My first impression of him wasn't exactly wrong, but it wasn't completely right either. I'm sure I still had a lot to learn about him, but he wasn't half bad.