The rain fell in sheets, a torrential downpour that Sophia would come to accept came and went with a sort of regularity. It made for shit weather. Nothing could really be done outside the little cave she was hiding herself from the elements in, and there wasn't really anything to be done inside either. It wasn't very large, only going fifty feet back from the entrance before it narrowed so as to cut off any explorers who might try to plumb its hidden depths. It was mostly barren, too, a few dangling roots and a small pile of logs (Which may or may not dwindle before the rains subsided,) to feed the fire that kept most of the chill from her.

This left her restless, and though a restless Sophia Hess was not something anyone really wanted to stick around for, more than that it resulted in an awkward atmosphere, the kind of which was the dread of all teenagers, no matter how violent of a sociopath they might be. It didn't help that the blond boy who sat on the other side of her fire did nothing but glare at her.

Well, it was technically his fire. He'd been the one to gather the wood, dry it to where it would burn, light it, and when the pile invariably ran out he'd probably be the one to repeat the process over again. Sophia was technically both in his debt and his guest. She had only stumbled on the cave when she'd spotted the glow through the foliage of the surrounding jungle.

Sophia hated it. She hated that she was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no memory of how she got there, she hated how she had been met with failure at every turn trying the find shelter, and she hated that some random Asian kid seemed to be thriving even though it looked like he was in the same boat as her.

She hated feeling helpless.

So every chance she got, every gesture or movement that she could manage to justify, she threw insults and expletives his was. He responded in kind, his own temper matching if not exceeding her own. He spoke gibberish words though, so before long their shouting matches devolved into nonsense where one would try to impress the uselessness and stupidity of the other upon the other in a language that couldn't be understood.

So, after hours of fighting, though never coming to blows, and a sore throat later, they were left to glare at each other and squirm under that oppressive atmosphere akin to having just witnessed a fight between your best friend and their parents.

It sucked.

Bakugou didn't even realize he was wearing such an expression though. He was thinking, thinking harder than he ever thought he'd have to. He was by no means stupid, but when most of his problems growing up could be solved with a cocky grin or a demonstration of his quirk, he just didn't have as much practice as, say, Deku.

He'd been turning his brain in circles for the better part of an hour without any results, so he sighed and decided he'd start from the beginning and work his way forward.

Problem number one, that shithead Deku probably thought he'd won their fight. Entirely wrong, pulling a little stunt like blasting away the floor above them wouldn't be enough to win the exercise. Probably. Bakugou hadn't had the chance to see how Deku's stupid trick panned out. One second he was charging up a blast strong enough to make shitty Deku's shitty dad feel it, wherever he was, the next the blast goes off stronger than any explosion he'd ever made.

When the stars cleared from his eyes, he was standing in the middle of the mountains in pouring rain, surrounded by trees that made no goddamn sense.

Yeah. A blast like that not only blew Deku away, but his teammate a floor up too. No way he'd lost that fight. But, he realized, the unfortunate side effect of he himself being blasted to another region may give Deku the false notion that Bakugou had somehow lost. Ridiculous, but Deku was just the kind of little shit stain who'd believe it.

Not a lot he could do about that though until he got back to UA.

Which lead nicely into his second and third problem.

He needed to get back home, but he had no idea where he was, or how to act on the information even if he found out. As mentioned before, it looked like he was up in the mountains, but he didn't remember rain being quite so heavy, and the trees hadn't used to look like damn alien tentacle porn shit that Deku probably got off to, that sick fuck.

Maybe his already awesome quirk had grown so awesome that he could use it to blast his way to alien worlds? Bakugou thought about it for a second, but didn't take long to discard the idea. He'd heard of travel Quirks before, from running fast to sliding to teleporting. Quirks did one thing, and the best Bakugu could manage were a few tight maneuvers in air. As supremely impressive as that was, a clever application, really, that he doubted anyone would have come up with if they had his Quirk, it didn't really translate to dimensional travel.

Bakugou realized he'd just spent the last fifteen minutes on a pretty stupid tangent and growled in frustration. If fucking Deku was rubbing off on him, well, that was just another item to add to the list of reasons why Bakugou was going to punch his lights out when he got back.

His grunt was sharp enough to make the girl across from his jump.

Ah, right, problem number… five? Six? Bakugou had stopped keeping track. The point was that until he figured out a way home he was probably stuck with this yankee that had just shown up on his cave-step. Sure, he hadn't really got the impression she was the clingy/whiny type, like Deku, that piss sponge, but Bakugou had a strongly developed sixth sense, and he just knew these things.

He supposed he could have turned her away, foregone the entire issue, let her find her own place. But that wasn't what heroes did, and Bakugou was going to be the fucking best hero that surpassed even All Might. Can't let random teens go around dying of hypothermia while he was on the job. Off the job? Shit, were they going to count him truant for this?

Shit. Fucking Deku doing his best to ruin Bakugou's life yet again. Bakugou wasn't proud of many things, only how awesome he was, how awesome his quirk was, how clever he was about using it, how strong he was, how he could pretty much beat even most adults in a fight, and his class attendance. That last one was about to go bye bye, and it was more than likely Deku's fault.

Just another item to add to the list of reasons why Bakugou was going to punch his lights out when he got back.

He glanced back at the girl. She'd been drying out all afternoon, but since she'd refused to remove the many layers of black clothing she wore she probably wouldn't be completely dry until tonight at least. Stupid thing. Bakugou, confident paragon of masculinity, had no such qualms about shucking any soaked clothes. He sat cross legged in just his tank top and boxers. His own clothes had long since dried out, but he hadn't bothered to redress. The rain wasn't particularly cold and the fire was maybe just a little hotter than he'd expected when he first built it. He was comfortable like this, and if it seemed to bother the mysterious girl who enjoyed catching colds? A bonus.

And she was a mystery. He knew she was american, but not much beyond that. He hadn't paid the most attention during his english classes, and she kept using words that sounded wrong even for english. She wasn't afraid to speak whatever nonsense was on her mind either, which had called for several arguments over the course of the day which, ultimately, resulted in nothing more than flared tempers and a stinging reminder that he didn't have any cough drops. Hadn't shouted like that since before Deku had turned into an even bigger wimp than he used to be.

She sneezed. God fucking dammit, she was going to catch a cold. This was not something Bakugou needed to deal with when they didn't even have a proper shelter. He jumped to his feet and walked towards her. With a start, she jumped away, her hand reaching for something at her hip.

"I've had e-fucking-nough of this jack fuckary. You catch a fucking cold out here and you're fucking dead, and the awesomest, strongest hero to ever be born won't let that happen, so," He punched his fist into his other hand, a brief flash playing with the shadows in the cave.

"Strip."

Sophia's eyes widened, but not noticeably so. She was too calm and collected to slip like that. She was just surprised, is all. She couldn't think of any moron stupid enough to brandish their powers out in the open like that, without even the barest thought paid to hiding their identity. Like he was used to doing it.

Her eyes narrowed. She hadn't understood what he'd said, like all the other times, but if he was a parahuman and gearing up for a fight, than she was more than ready for him. She almost slipped into her breaker state to get the drop on him, but hesitated. She didn't have a mask on either. And while he might be ok with outing himself like that, she had too many enemies who'd love to know just who Shadow Stalker was underneath that mask.

She knew she'd be fine though. She still had her darts, even if the cross bow would out her, it's pretty hard to identify a slash to the thigh. All she had to do was avoid his hands, and if worse comes to worse, corpses keep secrets.

He gestured at her again, mumbling his garble. She crouched lower, and he growled, flexing his hands and setting off twin explosions, larger than the last one. He barked something, another curse? A threat? Regardless, all she had to do was wait for him to strike first. She knew the look of a cape who overcommitted to attacks.

He lunged and Sophia was ready. All it would take was a side step, an elbow to the spine, and he'd be down. It was a fool proof plan, except she had only just moved her foot and he was already behind her, propelled by a blast from his hands. She'd felt the barest hint of a tug as he passed, and her cloak had be snatched off her back.

She whorled around, readying herself for another attack, but he was already in the air.

WHOOSH, "Shit!"

WHOOSH, "Dammit!"

WHOOSH, "Mother of Fuck!"

All it had taken was thirty seconds and some tight maneuvers and the boy had managed to strip her down to her underwear. He'd even managed to snatch her utility belt. A small, irrational part of her felt a stab of irritation that he'd done it so quickly when on her best days it'd take her a good ten minutes to undress. The much larger, much more sarcastic part of her was impressed that she'd found the one cave in the world that belonged to some kind of Asian nudist with the most aggressive recruiting tactics.

He nodded to himself. He looked accomplished, that sick fuck. Bet he was proud of himself for stealing the clothes off a girl as sexy as her. She couldn't fault his taste, but if word got around then she'd probably be accosted at all hours by random chucklefucks trying to scope out her hot bod. Nope. There was only one recourse, Sophia decided. She'd have to kill him and bury the body, which ought to be a snap with her powers.

The boy tossed her clothes on a rack he'd made from the spare logs. They sat quite comfortably next to another outfit that mostly looked like some kind of dancer's outfit from a military themed strip club.

Oh. Okay. That, sorta made sense? He was drying them off, or something? Sophia was still pretty sure she could get away with murdering him if anyone asked, but she supposed she'd wait until her outfit was nice and toasty.

So, as bare as her counterpart, she sat by the fire.

Bakugou sat across from her with a whoomf.

It kept raining for some time, the sound drowning out the noises of the forest. Once or twice a wild animal would try to crawl inside, but it was driven easily away with a quick demonstration from Bakugou. Night fell, the rain persisted, and the light of the fire sent their shadows dancing to an absurd beat.