In Your Shadow [Chapter 25]

[Chapter 24]



Katsuki hovered at his desk as the class headed out, slowly packing his books into his bag, despite a concerned glance from Mina as she headed out – hesitating, but ultimately giving him his space.

“Bakugou,” Aizawa said, when the room was almost empty. “Don’t you have a train to catch?”

“I’m gonna take the next one,” he said, glancing at his classmates’ backs as they finally cleared the room. “I was hoping I could, uh, talk to you about something.”

“Of course. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Katsuki answered quickly, grimacing. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s... nothing like that, I’m fine.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Katsuki paused, sighing as he tried to work up the courage to say the words – he’d already been getting all sorts of little sideways glances from Aizawa in the past few weeks, and he knew he was about to push those limits, about to sacrifice the quiet questioning for something much, much louder.

“I wanted some advice,” he explained, not missing the way Aizawa’s eyes widened. “And you’re… the person I trust the most, with that kind of thing. I know you’ll be honest with me.”

“I will,” Aizawa agreed. “What can I help you with?”

“You probably already know, but there’s some stuff going on with villain movements, and it’s got Deku and all his top heroes ridiculously busy at the moment. Deku warned me that people won’t be around as much, that people might not want to take me on patrols when they’re already short-staffed. I don’t want to get in the way, or make people stay longer hours to spar with me, and if I ask them, they might feel obligated to say yes. I guess I just wondered what you think I should do with my time, whether you think I should stay here and keep out of their way, or something.”

Aizawa leaned back in his chair, sighing faintly, but for once, Katsuki didn’t feel guilty hearing it – when other people sighed, he always felt bad for exhausting or exasperating them, but Aizawa never made him feel that way.

“I suppose the real question is what you can do to help them, isn’t it?”

Katsuki stayed silent. He’d asked Deku that just a few days ago and only been told to not make anyone’s lives harder.

“You seem to have formed some sort of a relationship with the employees there, haven’t you?” Aizawa asked. “There must be at least one person there who will be honest with you, like I will. They would know much better than you or I about what you can do to help out and make the most of your time. Even if it just ends up being that you hang around the agency doing your schoolwork, so if an emergency happens, you can help out.”

“That’s true, I guess if something really bad happens while they’re short of heroes, they’re not exactly going to tell me to go away.”

“I would certainly hope not. Or it might be some smaller, tedious tasks that you can take off their plates, so they can go home a little early.”

“Yeah. Maybe I can help out with the paperwork or something.”

“I’m sure they’d appreciate that.”

Katsuki nodded, hitching his bag up on his shoulder before he glanced toward the door.

“Alright, I’ll talk to them. Um, thanks. I’d better go.”

Aizawa just nodded, and Katsuki showed himself out, surprised to find Mina still waiting for him in the hallway. She gave him a little smile, and Katsuki shoved her lightly, cracking one of his own.

“I’m good,” he assured her. “Heading over now, gotta do my weekly way-too-late-at-night patrol.”

“Everything’s okay?”

“Everything’s good.”

She walked with him to the station, mostly in silence, and when they reached the entryway he gave another another light shove.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said with a grin. “I’m good too. Have a blast, Blasty.”

“Shut up.”

He scanned his card at the gates, and Mina waved one last time as she headed back toward the dorms, leaving Katsuki to hurry to his platform alone.

When he walked into the agency lobby, Trax was already sitting in her usual spot, and Katsuki froze for a moment, before he quickly checked his watch.

“Relax,” Trax laughed. “I need to chat with Borealis before we start patrol, you’ve got time.”

“I’ll be right back,” Katsuki promised. “I just have to go change.”

“Don’t sweat it, we’ll be here.”

Despite her reassurances, he practically ran to his apartment, relieved to find his new costume hanging in the little cupboard beside his door. He’d been reluctant when the cleaners had offered to drop it off for him, but they’d practically insisted; they did it all the time, apparently. He hadn’t even known what that tiny door was meant for, until then – had assumed it was access to utilities or something, but no, apparently it was purely for costume and package deliveries. They really had thought of everything, it seemed.

Along with his new costume pieces, he found a note asking him to come visit the costume department whenever it was convenient to him – presumably about the new gauntlets. He was still a little hesitant about that, after he’d gotten so comfortable and familiar with his current ones over the years, but he trusted Deku and his staff, so he knew it was only fair to give them a shot. Besides, the engineers at the agency were likely far more experienced and well-equipped than the school ones, so it was a little exciting to think about what they might have created, just for him.

Regardless, he didn’t have time to go right away – he was just going to have to find time in the morning, after he’d gotten some sleep.

He changed quickly, worming into his close-fitting new shirt, checking three times that he hadn’t accidentally put the armoured setting on before he’d started. Sure enough, though, it was already the relaxed version, and he just had to suffer through it, holding his breath and squeezing on in.

When he made it back to the lobby, a loud wolf-whistle made him nearly jump out of his own skin, whirling around to see Maelstrom and Bleak heading toward him, wearing matching grins.

“Look at Dynamight with his fancy new fit,” Maelstrom teased. “Who’d you have to blow to get that made for you?”

Katsuki felt his face fill with heat, gritting his teeth to keep from yelling at him in front of everyone, especially since they were all watching on with interest already.

“Damn boy, lookin’ good,” Bleak jumped in. “Trying to show off for someone?”

“Shut the hell up,” Katsuki snapped. “The fuck are you on about?”

The pair just laughed, clapping Katsuki on the back lightly and dragging him toward where Trax and Borealis waited, chuckling to themselves.

“It’s good to be back on a patrol with you,” Bleak said fondly. “Feels like you were gone forever.”

“Yeah, it’s good to be back,” Katsuki echoed. “Doesn’t get you off the hook for your shitty comments, though.”

“What’s so shitty about telling your bro he looks good in his costume?” Bleak asked. “I thought it was nice to compliment people!”

“This is exactly why I didn’t expect you two to get along,” Maelstrom laughed. “I knew Bleak would drive you insane, Dynamight.”

“He reminds me of my idiot classmates, I’m used to it.”

Trax and Borealis stood up when the trio reached them, and thankfully Bleak and Maelstrom closed their mouths, letting Katsuki relax a little. Trax had a tired look in her eyes that Katsuki had never seen before, making the once-vibrant blue look faded and dull.

“Borealis is going to be running patrol tonight,” Trax informed them, when they’d all gathered together. “I won’t be on nights for the next week or so, Borealis will be taking over for me, so tonight is our last opportunity for damage control while I’m here as back-up.”

“Yeah, I heard we’re gonna be insanely understaffed,” Maelstrom said, folding his arms. “On the bright side, we get a chance to prove ourselves. Maybe we’ll get promoted from ‘ords early or something.”

“Oh, dude, that’d be awesome,” Bleak agreed. “How good would it look on my job applications if I could say I was promoted in less than a year?”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Trax laughed. “He’s about to promote the five who have been here for a year, I doubt he’s gonna do more any time soon.”

“Yeah but what if we’re really good?” Maelstrom asked, laughing.

“Yeah!” Bleak grinned. “Maybe he just won’t be able to resist the allure of a couple of awesome young sidekicks!”

“He loves you and Igneo, after all, so he might want a couple of aspiring young people to jump up and train as Leads!”

“Bleak is older than me,” Trax pointed out, watching Bleak deflate immediately. “You both started here too late, I got lucky being accepted straight out of high school.”

“Lucky?” Borealis snorted. “Agencies were fighting to have you.”

“Hardly,” Trax said, shaking her head. “I don’t have the flashiest quirk, telling people ‘hey I’m Trax and my quirk is Wall’ isn’t exactly the most exciting introduction.”

“Tell me about it,” Maelstrom laughed. “I’m Maelstrom and my quirk is Water.”

“Light,” Borealis said simply. “We’re the shitty-quirk-name crew.”

“Petition for Dynamight to change his quirk name to Boom.”

“It pretty much is already,” Katsuki shrugged. “Boom, Explosion, what’s the difference?”

“Bleak got the long straw with ‘Dark Thoughts’ for sure,” Maelstrom said with a sigh. “I envy the people with mutated quirks who get to name them themselves, they always get way cooler names.”

“I named mine,” Katsuki pointed out. “Well, I guess my quirk counsellors did technically, but I’m pretty sure we’d been calling it that long before it was registered officially. Letting a four-year-old name their quirk probably isn’t the best move.”

“And Deku named his one super power,” Bleak added. “Not the most creative of names.”

“You’re not wrong,” Borealis said with a wry smile. “Alright, you all ready to head out?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Bleak snapped to attention, raising one hand in a salute. “Whatever you say, Boss!”

“This is gonna be a long patrol.”

———

Katsuki raised his hand in a wave when Mirio arrived at the gym, finishing off his shoelace before he rose to greet him properly. Mirio had a bright smile on his face, but there was a weariness in his expression that Katsuki rarely saw.

“I wasn’t sure you’d make it,” Katsuki said. “With how things have been, lately.”

“I still want to be here!” Mirio assured him. “I’ll still be at the agency, though I’ll be a lot busier than usual. I still want to gym with you, otherwise I’ll end up getting zero exercise until it’s over.”

“Sounds good,” Katsuki said, smiling slightly. “If I can help with anything, you know where I am.”

“Of course! I’ll definitely give you a call when I need a hand, thank you!”

They settled into a familiar rhythm, spotting each other on their various exercises and chatting as they went, and all the way through, Katsuki couldn’t help but be tempted to blurt it all out – he’d spent all night coming up with a plan, had finally worked out exactly what he wanted to do and how he might be able to do it. He wanted to tell Mirio all about it, wanted to get some kind of confirmation that he was doing the right thing, that he wasn’t just being an idiot. A small part of him, though, was afraid that Mirio would be the voice of reason, would tell him his heart was in the right place and all that crap, but to cut it out. He couldn’t face that rejection.

So instead, he kept his mouth shut. He still made conversation, shared thoughts about the workout routine they’d developed together so far, but he didn’t say the words that were itching to escape.

“The place is eerily empty, huh?” Mirio asked, wiping sweat off his face with a towel. “The gym is bad enough, but the whole building is just so quiet.”

“It’s weird,” Katsuki agreed. “I’m used to having to dodge people in the halls.”

“Yeah!” Mirio laughed. “Now I can just take a leisurely stroll without incident.”

When they’d wrapped up and stretched out, Mirio glanced at his watch, and Katsuki just nodded knowingly.

“Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Katsuki said. “Thanks for coming. You around on Saturday?”

“Absolutely! See you then, if not before.”

“Good luck.”

Mirio smiled faintly, giving Katsuki one last nod as he headed off, and Katsuki sighed to himself as he shouldered his sweat towel. If he was lucky, he’d have just enough time to shower, eat breakfast, and change into his costume before meeting up with Razor – or whoever was taking her place – for a morning patrol.

It seemed all the Patrol Leaders had cleared out in the past few days, leaving only a collection of overworked sidekicks holding down the fort. That meant, when Katsuki made it to the lobby, there were two sidekicks he didn’t recognise sitting there – a short man, even shorter than Katsuki despite what was probably a ten year age gap between them, and a younger guy, much closer to Katsuki’s age, who raised an eyebrow at him when he approached.

“Hi,” Katsuki said awkwardly. “I’m Bakugou Katsuki – Dynamight – and I was wondering if I could join you on patrol today.”

“You a new ‘ord?” the shorter man asked. “Haven’t seen you around.”

“I’m here on Work Studies, I’m a U.A. student,” Katsuki explained. “I have my provisional license and I’ve been shadowing a bunch of patrols, I thought I could jump in to… to help out. Since you’re missing some people.”

The pair glanced at each other, then the younger man held out a hand, smiling.

“Sagami Musei – call me Mu. Plain Sight, if we’re at a formal event.”

“Mezaki Tooshi. Orus. I’m leading patrol today, we’d be happy to have you.”

“Can I ask what your quirks are?” Katsuki requested. “Just so I know how to help if anything goes wrong, I mean.”

“I can see other places, either zoom out and watch from above or kind of cast my vision to another location. I mostly do surveillance, generally, so my combat abilities are limited to martial arts.”

Katsuki nodded. It was a useful quirk, for sure, but not exactly the best for taking down an attacking villain. He could work with that, though.

He turned to Mu next, who just grinned at him, lifting a hand. From his fingers dangled Katsuki’s fancy smart watch, and Katsuki looked down at his wrist, lost for words.

“Sleight of hand,” Mu explained, tossing the watch back to him. “So eighteen years old, you’re coming up on graduation then?”

Katsuki frowned, and Mu held up a familiar plastic card, laughing when Katsuki fumbled for his pocket. Sure enough, his wallet was still there, but when he opened it up, his hero license was missing.

“Sorry, he always does this,” Orus said with a wry smile. “The rest of us are used to it.”

“Better to show than tell, right?”

“Can I have my stuff back, please?” Katsuki asked, trying his best to look bored of it, and not give away that he was actually pretty fucking impressed. “My phone would be nice.”

Mu grinned again, handing back his license first, then presenting Katsuki’s phone from his sleeve with a flourish.

“You’ve made your point,” Katsuki said, tucking his belongings away into his pockets and making sure to zip them closed. “You don’t need to do any more demos.”

“Noted. How about you? Would be a great time to tell us you’re a combat specialist.”

“I am,” Katsuki confirmed. “I make explosions, won’t bore you with the details.”

“Hell yeah, we’ve got our own personal bodyguard today.”

“You’re in charge of beating people up, then,” Orus said, laughing when Katsuki grinned. “I’ll be keeping an eye out for anything weird, Mu will be helping us avoid confrontation as much as possible, but if it all goes to shit, you can blast the hell out of them.”

“Can I patrol with you every day?”

“By all means.”

The pair turned out to be surprisingly friendly, Katsuki quickly discovered. They chatted with him the whole way through, asking him questions about school, about himself, about his quirk, and even his classmates. In turn, they shared information about themselves, to match – Katsuki learned that Orus was in his third year as a sidekick, after transferring from an agency up in Hokkaido, and usually patrolled with Razor or Spelling Bee. Mu, on the other hand, was one of Spelling Bee’s subordinates, freshly graduated from high school. The pair worked together regularly, and were meant to have had someone named Sai with them too, only they’d come down insanely sick the night prior. It really was the perfect chance for Katsuki to help out, and he only hoped things would go smoothly, so they could report back to Deku on his behalf.

It was almost the end of the patrol route before they saw anything weird going on, and Orus was, of course, the first to spot it. He stopped in the middle of the footpath, a glazed look in his eyes that said his gaze was clearly elsewhere, and Mu stopped knowingly, waiting. Katsuki’s eyes darted back and forth between groups of people and dark alleyways, anywhere that Orus might have spotted something problematic, that Katsuki might have to defend him from.

“Two blocks over,” Orus said, marching off again like nothing had happened. “They haven’t tried anything yet, but a group of armed dudes are congregating near a bar, might be planning to prey on some drunk people.”

“Sounds like a job for us,” Mu said with a grin. “Reckon I just disarm ‘em and we keep walking?”

“Ideally, if you can get close enough.”

“I’ll distract them,” Katsuki offered. “Ask if they’ve seen anything shady going on, or something.”

To his relief, neither of them shut him down, and when Orus pointed out the group in question, Katsuki stood up straight, trying to make himself look imposing.

“Tell them we’re looking for someone in this area,” Orus suggested. “A young woman, so they don’t think you mean them.”

“Got it.”

He walked over to the group, swallowing his brief bout of nervousness and forcing himself to remain calm and in control, when they all turned to look his way.

“Hey, you guys been out here long?” he asked, trying his best to sound casual. “Got a missing person in the area, hoping someone’s seen her. Teenager. Dark eyes, short purple hair, about one-fifty?”

Two of them narrowed their eyes at him, but the third just shook his head.

“Ain’t notice anything.”

“Damn. I’ll keep asking around, I guess. She wanted to come see the band here, parents said no and then she disappeared, so we’re assuming she sneaked out. If you see her, give the cops a call for me, yeah?”

He surprised himself a little with how smoothly the lies came out, considering how much he hated to do it.

“Yeah,” one of the men agreed. “We’ll call.”

“Cool, thanks. Have a good night, stay safe.”

He turned to walk away, but a murmur behind him made him freeze, and he turned around just in time to catch a punch that rocketed his way, launched off the end of a man’s hand and leaving him cut off at the wrist. He blocked the strike and threw the hand aside, exploding it without even looking its way as he glared the group down. One of them reached for a pocket, finding it empty, and it took all Katsuki’s willpower to not let out a relieved sigh when he saw the action.

“I’m gonna assume that was an accident,” he said flatly. “Don’t make me regret that decision.”

The severed hand lay limp on the road, charred black and unmoving, and Katsuki spared it one brief, disdainful glance.

“I’m gonna be in this area all night,” he continued, voice low. “And I will remember your faces.”

As he walked away, Orus slipped back to his side, smiling faintly when he saw the scowl on Katsuki’s face.

“You want to arrest him for the attempt?”

“Nah,” Katsuki said, shaking his head. “It wouldn’t stick.”

“You reckon?”

“He could just claim he was drunk and his quirk misfired, or whatever.”

“That’s true,” Orus agreed. “Well, they won’t be doing anything tonight, not without their weapons, so hopefully they’ll just fuck off.”

“Mu got everything?”

“You want guns? Knives? Batons? I got ‘em all,” Mu said, making Katsuki jump when he appeared out of nowhere. “I’ll give you a good deal, half price for new customers.”

“Shut up,” Orus said, despite Katsuki cracking a smile. “Come on, our shift is over, let’s go fill out this dumb paperwork and get to bed.”

“Oh, do you want me to do it?” Katsuki offered. “I’ve been doing a bunch under supervision to practice, so I could use the experience doing it without someone breathing down my neck.”

“Really?” Orus asked, raising an eyebrow. “Everyone hates patrol reports.”

“Don’t get me wrong, they suck,” Katsuki said with a snort. “But I need to learn and all that shit. Plus let’s be real, you’re way fuckin’ busier than I am, you could use the rest.”

“Let the kid do it,” Mu said with a laugh. “Don’t look a gift house in the morse.”

“Did you really just say that out loud and think ‘yes, that sounds right’?”

“Close enough.”

Despite another eye roll, Orus smiled this time, clapping Katsuki on the back as they headed into the quiet lobby.

“If you don’t mind,” he conceded. “I could use the sleep.”

“Happy to help.”

With a couple of fist bumps and last nods, the pair disappeared to drop their costumes off at the laundry, and Katsuki headed into a meeting room to pick up a stack of papers.

———

“You’re back early,” Aizawa said, when he pulled open the door.

“Yeah,” Katsuki smiled faintly. “I wanted to come see you, sorry to bug you at night.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Do you have a minute?”

Aizawa stepped aside, waving him in, and Katsuki paused to take his shoes off in the entryway, letting Aizawa lead him into a little living room littered with Eri’s toys and books. Aizawa opened his mouth like he was going to apologise for the mess, but when he met Katsuki’s eyes, he closed it again without a word.

“I know I’m asking too much,” Katsuki prefaced himself. “I know the chances of you saying yes are ridiculously low, but I have to take the chance.”

“Have a seat.”

Katsuki sat down on a soft couch, lacing his fingers together to keep from twitching too much or biting his nails down to stubs. He’d been doing a lot better at that, had gotten pretty decent at calming himself down or talking himself through things, but trying to choke those words out to Aizawa was pushing him right to his limits.

“So you remember we talked about Deku and the heroes being super busy right now?” he asked.

“I remember.”

“You told me to ask people what I could do to help. So I have been. And people just keep telling me they’re short-staffed, that they probably won’t be able to let me shadow their shifts because they can’t take care of me and teach me. And I keep thinking they just want me to not come, that they want me to stay out of the way.”

“I’m sure they don’t want that, they likely just want you to be prepared.”

“That’s the thing, it was the Patrol Leaders who kept saying it, and Deku, and Mirio to some extent. But now the Sidekicks are leading the patrols, and they’re all so lacking in people, and I started thinking… I’m graduating soon. I have a provisional license. I’ve done years of internships and work studies. And I’ve done so many patrols at Deku’s agency specifically, I know my way around. So why can’t I fill one of those spots? Instead of them worrying about teaching me, I can help them.”

Aizawa just waited, watching and listening patiently, and Katsuki took a long, deep breath before he continued.

“This is my chance to give something back to them, to help them out instead of always taking. Their time, their knowledge, their energy, they’ve given me so much already, and I just want to give back what I can, while I have the chance to be useful to them. So I was hoping… I know you already give me so much time away from class, but I was hoping you could give me a little more. Whatever you can give me, even if it’s just a few more hours, I’ll take it.”

Aizawa still didn’t speak, just staring at him in silence, but this time Katsuki didn’t continue. He’d said his piece, and all he could do now was wait, except for…

“Please.”

“Okay,” Aizawa said softly. “Go grab any extra clothes and things you need, and go back to the station. You should still be able to get a train back tonight.”

“Really?”

“You can stay until Sunday night, and come back then for the new week, like you usually do.”

Katsuki felt his grin stretch wider than he thought it ever had before, and he knew Aizawa had noticed too.

“You’ll have to catch up on everything you’re missing in your classes this week, so don’t get complacent. You’ll be working harder than you ever have in your life.”

“I can handle that. I’ll take my textbooks with me and do work whenever possible. I won’t fall behind, I promise.”

“I know,” Aizawa said easily. “Get some rest, Bakugou. I know you’ll catch up later.”

“I’ll do my best.”

With everything arranged, he hurried to the dorms, throwing a bunch of extra clothes in his bag to take back with him – he wasn’t planning to do a lot of laundry, if he was already gonna be flat out with everything else. From the communal freezer he grabbed his batch of pre-prepared meals, halting when he turned around to find Iida watching him curiously.

“Oh. Hey,” he said, tucking his containers into a plastic bag to carry easier. “I was gonna contact you later, actually.”

“You were?” Iida asked, disbelieving. “What for?”

“I’m staying at the agency a bit longer,” he explained, ignoring the tone that made him bristle. “I was hoping you could send me your class notes. I know you take extensive ones, and my friends are idiots, so.”

“Does Aizawa know about this?”

“About me not being here? Yeah, he said it’s okay. The heroes are super busy so I have some opportunities to help out a lot more.”

Despite the concern in his expression, Iida nodded.

“It sounds like a good opportunity,” he said. “But I hope you’ll do everything in your power to stay safe, to not get carried away or anything.”

“I will, I’ve got it under control.”

“Then I’d be happy to help. I’ll send you my notes every night, and let you know which textbook chapters we covered wherever relevant.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

Iida blinked at him, and Katsuki felt himself turning red – he’d gotten so fucking used to it at the agency that the pleases and thank yous had started slipping out to his classmates too, ugh.

“If you tell anyone I said that, I’m gonna kill you,” he added quickly, face flaming. “I mean it.”

“I know you do,” Iida humoured him. “Take care, Bakugou.”

“Yeah. Uh, you too.”

He shouldered his bag again and headed back out, surprised to find the common room empty – apparently all his classmates had things to do, for once, other than hold him up. So he hurried back to the station, bag thumping against his hip as he walked, halting when he spotted a shock of spiky red hair in the group heading the opposite direction.

“Hey, bro!” Kirishima greeted him, jogging over to meet up. “I’m just heading back from work studies, you heading to the dorms too?”

“The other way, actually,” Katsuki said, waving toward the station. “Aizawa gave me permission to take a couple of days off, help out with some shit at the agency.”

“That’s so cool! Deku seems to really like having you there, that must be reassuring! I feel like I never see you anymore, though!”

“I don’t work with Deku much,” Katsuki admitted. “But the other heroes are cool, and they like having my help, especially when things are busy. One of the dudes reminds me way too much of you, though. S’like I can’t get a break from you.”

Kirishima laughed brightly, and Katsuki cracked a smile. He could always count on Kirishima to understand his particular brand of humour, to not be offended by his shitty comments and nicknames.

“I got a new costume, too,” Katsuki added. “Deku had his engineers make it for me. It doesn’t look much different, but it’s fucking next-level skin-tight. When I try to get that shit on it feels like I’m a snake trying to wriggle back into an old skin or something. Cool as fuck tech but I dunno how I’m gonna handle doing that every day.”

“You’ll have to send me photos of it!” Kirishima beamed, always ready to be excited for him at a moment’s notice. “It must be so epic, I can’t wait to see.”

“I’ll send some tomorrow,” Katsuki promised. “I’d better go.”

“Yeah! Go kick some butt, Bakubro, we’re counting on you to keep the world safe!”

Katsuki snorted, but didn’t bother to object, just waving as he jogged off into the station, heading for the platform he’d become intimately familiar with, in the past few weeks. He headed for the far end, to where the last car’s doors would open, and stood there as the little jingle chimed overhead, announcing the train’s arrival. He’d be able to get off right beside his station exit, at the other end, and waste no time getting back to his apartment to settle in for the next few days, to get a good night’s sleep.

Who was he kidding, he was absolutely going to run off on another patrol.

[Chapter 26]