Chapter Text
If Shouta threw his phone on the bed, scaring his own cat, when Yamada texted him about the coffee date, then it’s none of anyone’s business but his. Except for Orange, his three legged cat that he almost hit with his phone. He quickly apologises to Orange and hurriedly gets ready to leave.
Aizawa comes to the coffee shop, barely in time, stopping to breathe out and tucking his hair behind his ear. He barely manages to stop himself from jumping when someone lays a hand on his shoulder.
“Oh, sorry. Hey.” Yamada stands next to him, smiling and looking like his usual unfairly pretty self. The man’s hair is in a tight braid with a small star clip. Yamada has a simple dark red t-shirt on with ripped black jeans, that looks casual and easy, bringing Shouta to shame. He didn’t have enough time, so Aizawa just put on black suit pants and white shirt, thankfully leaving out a tie and a jacket. But still. Yamada’s gaze goes down his body and stoops on his shoes. Shouta tries not to curl into himself under bright green eyes.
“You look good. Are those cat socks?” Yamada looks at his ankles and giggles, receiving a nod of confirmation, which distracts him from the fact that he is a grown ass man wearing cat socks to a date with a very attractive man. Anyway, men in their 30s should not be allowed to have a cute little giggle, to be honest, that’s what Shouta thinks. “Come on, I will treat you!” Yamada holds the door for him and Shouta feels his ears heat up at the small gesture, ducking his head and going inside.
It’s a cute small coffee shop, he must admit. The light is not hard on his always irritated eyes and there is no queue. Yamada stands next to him by the menu and smiles.
“Tell me if you need recommendations.” He says, leaning in close so Aizawa can hear him over the background noise of the cafe.
“I will just take a cappuccino, I think. What are you getting?”
“I will get an affogato with a triple shot of espresso. Need it to keep me going today. It’s so damn delicious! You want to get a dessert?”
“Which one is your favourite? Not a fan of sweet treats.”
“Panna cotta, for sure. You wanna share one? I just ate and I will order you one more, if you will like it.” Yamada takes out his wallet to pay and Aizawa puts his hands in his pockets and nods, looking at the tables.
“I will go pick us a table.”
“Okay!” Yamada goes to order and Shouta finds one of the tables next to the window. He looks back to see Yamada chatting with the barista and putting a tip in a jar. He figures that since Yamada frequents this cafe often, he must be quite familiar with the baristas here. Or he is incredible at small talk, going off of the way the barista at the counter is laughing at every comment he makes. Aizawa must really be gone, if he finds that cute.
He was not expecting it from himself, to be that interested in someone or try so hard to get this date. But he really wants to get closer to the man. Yamada’s nice. He’s funny, in a dorky way, his smile is bright and his personality is even brighter. Yamada is also exceptionally smart, maybe smarter than Shouta, which, he is not gonna lie, was kinda hot. They had a couple of meaningful conversations through those couple of days and Yamada never stopped surprising him with new information.
Especially since dating wasn’t something Shouta was actively looking for. Obviously, Kayama was trying to push him out there, because, apparently, being a thirty year old virgin was not acceptable. Aizawa just wasn’t the man for one-night hookups and he never really had time or desire to find himself a date. Before Yamada, that is, who was making Shouta act more than irrational.
“Here we go!” While he was deep in thoughts, Yamada came over with a tray, putting two cups and one plate with two spoons on a table. So they were eating from one plate. “Hope you don’t mind one plate.” Shouta looked up, wondering if Yamada secretly has superpowers to read his thoughts. “I am not reading your mind. You just have a very expressive stare. Hitoshi’s mom had the same and I fear Hitoshi will have it too when he goes into the emo-teenage era.” That was another thing right there. Yamada had a small sad smile on his face and Shouta didn’t really like it. He wasn’t sure if he should ask about it, but if it was a date, maybe he should clear that up. Right? It was logical.
“I don’t mind one plate, sit down. Can I ask you a couple questions?”
“Sure, go ahead. Something wrong?” Yamada sat down, nervously poking his ice cream with a spoon and looking at Shouta.
“No, not really. Just a couple of clarifications to calm my mind. To start, is this a date?” Aizawa felt his palms sweat a little, saying to himself to not be disappointed if it’s not a date.
“Yes. Well, I intend it to be a date. But if you are not interested, I understand. Uh.. My friend looked into your messages to me and told me that you were flirting with me and I am a blind idiot.” Yamada huffs an awkward laugh, fixing his glasses and meeting Shouta’s eyes. Damn, his eyes were so gorgeous.
“Yes. I mean, I was flirting with you. And, maybe, yes, you are a blind idiot. But I am also not that great of a flirt, which is not surprising. I’ve never dated anyone.”
“Really? Me neither!” Aizawa blinked at that, trying to understand the maths of this all.
“Which brings me to my next question. Feel free to ignore it, if it’s too personal. What happened with Hitoshi’s mom?” Ah, it was definitely too personal. Yamada tried to hide it, but Shouta saw the slight change in his face and how his smile became unnatural.
“Oh! No, it makes sense that you will ask me about that, especially after what I said. It’s not something that I hide and I don’t mind talking about her.” Yamada sighed and looked down at his coffee, stirring the ice cream in it. “We weren’t together, it was just a one night thing. But she got pregnant and she let me know. We were planning to raise Hitoshi together, but not as a couple, you know? We became pretty close friends while she was pregnant– and we even planned to live together at the house that I own now. But, well, she died.”
That makes more sense. But Yamada’s face is making his heart ache.
“I am sorry for your loss, Yamada. It must’ve been hard.” Shouta hesitates for a second, looking at one of the man's hands on the table, wondering if taking it into his own would be too much for now.
Yamada shrugs with that small, sad smile still on his face as he talks, “My friend and my moms helped me a lot with Hitoshi, so it was not that bad.”
“I didn’t mean raising your son by yourself.” Aizawa makes a bold decision and reaches over to gently take Yamada’s hand into his own. His hand is much warmer than Aizawa’s and long fingers with purple nail polish flinch in surprise, but stay in Shouta’s hold. “I was talking about losing your friend and the mother of your child. It must have been hard.”
Yamada’s smile slowly disappears and he blinks a couple of times, like he is fighting tears, even if his eyes are dry. Shouta doesn’t let go of his hand. Yamada licks his lips and silently nods, hiding his mouth behind his free palm.
“Yeah.” Aizawa can hear a very quiet answer, muffled by the palm but raw with emotion.
They stay like this for a couple of minutes and Shouta draws circles with his thumb on Yamada’s knuckles. The silence doesn’t bother him, but he is afraid that their dessert is slowly melting. Aizawa takes the spoon and gets a piece of the dessert, lifting it up in front of Yamada, who looks at him surprised.
“Eat. That’s what people do on dates. Or so I heard.” Shouta feels his ears heat up in embarrassment, but it seems to cheer Yamada up, because he leans in and eats from the spoon with a soft smile.
“Are you also on the dessert menu?” Yamada says, licking some ice cream off the corner of his lips.
Aizawa’s heart flutters, “Huh?”
“Because you are so sweet.”
Aizawa smacks the other man’s cheek with a spoon and groans, hiding his face and smiling behind his palm. Their date goes easy from there. They hold hands the entire time.
They finish their dessert and their drinks and eventually decide to leave the cafe. Shouta accompanies Yamada to his studio and they stop in front of the building. They are still holding hands.
“I would invite you in, but I know how well you treasure your sleep and I doubt you can sleep at the radio station.”
“First of all, I can sleep anywhere. Second, I think people usually invite their dates to their house, not their workplace.”
“Well, my house has a toddler in it, so no funny business there!”
“But “funny business” at your workplace? Don’t you have colleagues? And, like, work to do?”
“Yeah, yeah, okay, buzzkill! I was just joking! I am not the first date - funny business kinda guy.”
There is a pause.
“...Wasn’t Hitoshi made at 'one night thing'?”
“Let me rephrase it. I am not a first date - funny business kinda guy anymore. I don’t want this to be a one night thing.” Yamada squeezes his hand and makes a serious face, pouting a little bit. He is so cute, Aizawa really needs to kiss him. So he does.
Shouta puts his free hand on Yamada’s cheek, moving closer and gently covering the man's lips with his own. He feels Yamada’s breath hitch, stupid blonde moustache tickling his lips, before Yamada tilts his head, kissing him back. It’s a closed mouth kiss that probably lasted a few seconds, but it still leaves Aizawa feeling lightheaded. He licks his lips as they pull apart, tasting the watermelon chapstick from Yamada’s lips in his own mouth, all while looking into those green eyes.
“Text me, when you get home, okay?” Yamada breaks silence quietly, stroking Shouta’s cheek with his thumb and smiling softly. Aizawa hates what that smile does to his heart, but he nods anyway. “I will plan the next date, okay? Then text you, to Aizawa-prove it.”
“Shouta.”
“Hizashi, then.”
“I can plan a date too. And you need to let me go, if you want to start your show in time, Hizashi.”
Yamada laughs at him and leaves a short sweet kiss on his lips before letting go.
“Okay, okay. We will see about the next date later.” Hizashi starts going to the building, walking backwards. “I will see you later, Shouta! Good night!” Aizawa just waves at him and smiles to himself when Hizashi has disappeared into the building.
Maybe he can allow himself to be irrational once in a while.