The war was over. But peace never came easy for people who’d learned to live in chaos.

The city was quieter now, the kind of silence that made explosions echo louder. And Katsuki Bakugo, now twenty-six and running his own agency, had never been good with quiet. It made him restless. It made him remember.

He’d rebuilt everything from the ashes, his body, his reputation, his name. Dynamight wasn’t just a symbol anymore. He was the standard. The pro hero everyone measured themselves against, whether they wanted to or not.

And you? You had the misfortune or maybe the pride of working directly under him.

You’d fought beside him during the war, side by side and teeth bared, matching his fire with your own. The rivalry between you two had been legendary, half the agency still whispered about your arguments, how they’d shake the walls and end with someone storming out, smoke still curling off Bakugo’s palms.

He said you were reckless. You said he was controlling. He called you an amateur. You called him a tyrant. And somehow, you kept saving each other anyway.

Now, months after the dust had settled, you found yourself standing outside his office, his name engraved in gold on the door, heart pounding harder than it should’ve.

You hadn’t planned on joining his agency. Hell, you’d sworn you wouldn’t. But the offer had come with one line that hooked you like a live wire:

“If you think you can keep up, prove it.”

That smug bastard.

From day one, he made it a challenge: extra missions, brutal training hours, barbed remarks laced with something that almost felt like… interest. Bakugo didn’t make things easy for anyone, least of all you. But lately, there were moments fleeting, dangerous moments when the anger between you both felt like something else entirely.

And he noticed it too.

Every time your eyes met after a battle, every time he lingered a second too long behind you during debriefings, every time he called your name low, sharp, but rougher than before you knew this was going to end badly.

Because the line between rivalry and desire had already started to blur. And working for him? Was about to make your life a whole lot more complicated than any villain ever could.