Work Text:
All Fridays, at exactly 5 in the afternoon, be it raining or windy, he was there. In that exact same chair next to the front window, always wearing a hoodie and jeans, with a notebook in his hands and his drink on the table. Todoroki knew exactly which one -a hot chocolate with marshmallows, which he would always let cool for a few minutes before drinking-, for the simple reason he was the one who made it.
The café he worked on was never busy on Friday evenings, which was no actual surprise. Most people, after all, would go to far better places in a Friday evening. But here he was, every week this same boy took out his notebook, and began doing something in it for the next three hours, when Todoroki’s shift ended and the café actually became busy with late night ladies who would come for a chat after work.
Todoroki wasn’t even sure why he took interest in this particular boy. Most of the times he would gloss across any customer. But maybe it had to do with the fact his seat was in the perfect position to be seen from the counter. So, with little to nothing better to see, Todoroki found himself just staring when no one came in.
By the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late. He had learnt the boy would always come in one of his three hoodies, each with a different superhero pattern; his favorite was the one with All Might’s symbol on the front. He also learnt that every notebook he carried had a number. By the time he arrived to the café, the number would change. At first it was twenty, by next week it was twenty one, and the next was twenty five. That one lasted long, he took it with him for at least the next three weeks, before shifting to a twenty four by the end of the month. Funny thing, he actually always carried around a notebook number thirteen that was so beat up it looked it was about to break.
And while, yeah, at first it was silly thing like that, Todoroki found himself noticing even more things when they boy started coming on Wednesdays and Mondays. Like, how he would always stare at the window before going back to his notebook. How he would always leave the marshmallow last, and how he bit the pencil when he was frustrated. How his nose would do that weird thing when he was super concentrated and his tongue would poke out when he worked for more than twenty minutes. And how-
“Okay, that’s it,” Yaoyorozu said, as she stood up next him. She was a good worker, always doing her best and serving the coffee in an almost perfect way. By the looks of her furrowed eyebrows and her hands on her hips, she was not pleased. “You,” she pointed at Todoroki, “go talk to him. Now.”
Todoroki stared at her for a solid minute, and then shook his head, trying to understand what was happening.
“Aren’t customer supposed to come when they need something?” Todoroki asked, genuinely confused with how his coworker was acting, to what Momo just sighed in desperation.
“You’ve been staring at that kid for-” Momo looked at the watch on her wrist, “-thirteen minutes now. That’s a record.” She turned to see him once again. “So I suggest you talk to him already.”
“I haven’t-,” Todoroki tried to defend himself, but knew it was kind of pointless. Momo was an incredibly perceptive girl. If she ever said something with conviction, it was because she was sure it was true. “…what do you suggest me to do?”
“Honestly?” she asked, “I would say just be yourself, but I wonder if you would actually talk to him by being yourself…”
“Great advice,” Todoroki said in a dry tone, to what Momo sighed, giving him a reassuring smile.
“Relax, just go talk to him,” she advised, patting his shoulder slightly, and going into the supplies room. “I’ll cover you in the counter as long as there’s few customers. So, go there and talk to him.”
Todoroki wasn’t sure if this was a good idea or not. He was happy just staring at the boy from afar, but he guessed that after going through everything to escape the hell site his house had been, and gotten a job just to pay bills of his apartment, talking to the cute boy by the window of the café was not the biggest deal.
He saw how the hot chocolate in the disposable cup was almost empty, and decided to prepare another one. This time though, he made it a bit colder.
With his nerves going overboard, he walked towards the window where the boy was staring at his cup.
Shoto placed the chocolate carefully in the table, startling the boy.
“Um,” he said, and suddenly Todoroki wished he had planned this better, as the boy was staring up and down at him, “I-I… I didn’t ask for another chocolate…”
“It’s on the house,” Todoroki wondered if he had said that a bit too fast.
They were left in an uncomfortable silence, both of them staring at the dreaded cup of coffee. This had been a bad idea, Todoroki thought to himself, as he almost saw how Yaoyorozu was facepalming in distress from the back of the counter.
This was it, the proof he was horrible at social interactions and his complete failure at trying to talk to this cute person. He was about to forget everything that had happened and run back to the coffee machine when-
“Wou-would you like to, you know, join me? Maybe?” the boy asked, his face completely red, and suddenly Todoroki felt too hot to be standing.
“Uh, I have work…” he managed to say out loud, mentally cursing to himself as he saw the boy’s face drop.
“Todoroki if you come back here I swear to-!” He heard Yaoyorozu from the other side of the counter pretty much scream.
“Come on, Momo,” their other coworker, a punk girl named Jiro, stepped in to calm her down, and taking her to the other side of the café. “Leave the love birds alone.”
Todoroki wasn’t sure if they had completely shut off the air conditioner or if it was just him, the reason why everything suddenly felt like burning.
“I think…they don’t want me back there…” Shoto said in a really awkward tone. The boy smiled.
“Well, I really want you here.” They both blushed even more, and the boy started excusing himself, “I mean! Only if you want to! You can, uhh, go back if you want, ah I mean. What a, ah, mess. Oh my god why won't I shut up?”
Todoroki felt like laughing, so he took the nearest chair, and sat in front of the boy.
“Todoroki Shoto,” he introduced himself, and the boy smiled so brightly that Todoroki wondered if he was the sun.
“Midoriya Izuku,” he said, and reached towards the chocolate, and instead of burning his tongue like always, he managed to sip a drink. “This is really good!”