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It had been a hard night. One situation after another and the underground hero Eraserhead was tired.
First, a lead on the drug case he had been working on with the local police precinct turned out to be a bust. Then while recovering from that trap, he had to stop a pair of men from starting a drunken brawl in the street. And just to top it all off with a lovely cherry, a warehouse just down the street from the bar blew up, and set ablaze two of the surrounding warehouses.
Thankfully, for at least the latest problem, Eraserhead had not been alone. He looked around at the few heroes who had made it out in time to help with both extinguishing the flames and cleaning up the mess left behind. Most were no names, or a few underground heroes like himself; the only exception stood out like a sore thumb.
The number 2 hero, Endeavor, was standing slightly away from the crowd of almost redundant firefighters, glowing ominously in the dark, flames highlighting the sharpness of his gaze. Even Eraserhead had to begrudgingly admit, this scene would have gone significantly worse if the flame hero hadn’t shown up and smote the flames out of existence, both effectively and safely.
Once Eraserhead was sure that the authorities needed no further details from him immediately, and had learnt where he needed to deliver his reports for this incident, he slowly and cautiously approached the flame masked hero.
“Thanks for the help,” he grunted, and hunched slightly as he felt the man’s icy gaze switch to his person.
Endeavor seemed to appraise the dark-haired man. “...I was just doing my job.”
“Even so, without you here it would have been significantly harder to stop the flames before they did some real damage.” Eraserhead shrugged, he knew a few heroes who would not get up at 1am in the morning to deal with a fire, especially as Endeavor’s office building was on the other end of the city.
Endeavor tilted his head, taking in the appearance of the burnt out warehouse.
“Well… you are welcome, I suppose,” the taller man acquiesced, inclining his head slightly in thanks.
Eraserhead hid his small smile in the mass of his filthy scarf at the small win of Endeavor accepting his thanks.
“Don’t get too full of yourself! Just because I accepted it once, doesn’t mean I’ll accept it again!” the flame hero said, before turning away and walking off into the night, leaving Eraserhead confused as he watched the redheaded man leave.
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It had been a few weeks since the warehouse incident, and Aizawa was tired. His new batch of students has been rowdy and wouldn’t listen until he had threatened detention, and then his best friends Presentable Microwave and 1am were being too noisy for him to have a nap. All in all, not the greatest day he could have had.
Almost as if somebody had said “things could be worse”, his day took a bad turn. The walk back from the store where he buys cat food, goes around the dingy part of his town, and although he is an underground hero, he is usually left alone; mostly because he looks so unkempt people assume he is homeless. Today however, Aizawa was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He was walking down one of the back streets when he noticed a group of large men huddled near the end of the street. Being the suspicious person that he is, Aizawa wandered closer, trying to figure out what they were up to.
“And I’m saying if we go this way and just blew up the fucking wall, they won’t even see it coming.”
“What good is surprise when they will just hit the panic button. No, Suzuki is right: if we go through the front door while Takahashi takes out the electronics, the money is ours.”
Aizawa sighed; of course the random group of people he encountered would be talking about premeditated theft. Why couldn’t they be talking about something legal, like cats? He placed the bag full of cat-related items down on the ground.
“Gentleman,” He said, clearing his throat as the attention of the 5 men turned towards him, “if you would like to come with me to the police station, I’m sure they will sort out this misunderstanding.” His hands tangling in his scarf.
The men looked at each other before one of them scoffed.
“Who is going to make us, you?” another sneered.
“You asked for this.” Aizawa sighed as his hair and scarf started to rise.
A few of the guys laughed as one threw a right hook at Aizawa, who dodged it and used the momentum to pull him over his shoulder, crashing him to the ground. After giving the man a quick look to make sure he wouldn’t be getting up again quickly, Aizawa turned back to the rest of the group with a smirk on his face.
As perhaps, one might expect, even the incredibly skilled fighter that Aizawa was, did not fair well in a 4 on 1 close-quarters brawl. In fact, while Aizawa was sprawled on the ground staring up at the guys who had thrown him flat on his back, he had to admit he had lost this round. He had managed to put 2 of them out of commision, but the remaining 3 were too strong.
When the man closest to Aizawa lifted his foot, in preparation to kick the downed hero, he closed his eyes and waited for the pain to come.
It didn’t come, instead he heard the sounds of skin hitting skin before a wave of heat flew over him. Aizawa opened his eyes and took in the form of Endeavor, standing triumphantly over the bodies of the other 3 men Aizawa had tried to take down.
Endeavor looked down at him, brow furrowed slightly as he reached out and offered his hand to the downed hero.
“You’re that hero from the docks aren’t you?”
“Yeah, thanks again; I would have been in a lot more trouble if you hadn’t stepped in” Aizawa said sheepishly as he took Endeavor’s hand and gingerly stood up, taking note of which parts of his body hurt the most.
“Hmph. What were you doing anyway, 5 on one isn’t a good idea for anyone.” Endeavor shook his head at the stupidity of the idea.
“I was handling myself just fine!” Aizawa exclaimed, puffing up slightly in indignation. “Besides, I couldn’t just let them continue, innocent people would have been hurt and I will always do everything in my power to stop that from happening!” Endeavor looked a little taken aback by his spiel.
“Ah, you have the spirit of a true hero. I’m impressed.” He smiled, looking amused.
Aizawa sighed, relaxing the muscles he’d used to puff his chest out and ran a hand gingerly over his hair, checking for any bumps or bruises.
“Well, can I atleast get you a coffee or something, as this is the second time you’ve helped me out?” Aizawa asked, expecting rejection.
Endeavor paused, before nodding.
“I have an hour to kill before I have to be on patrol, coffee will help keep me awake. Is there anywhere close by?” He questioned, looking around the dingy street.
“I know of one place nearby, but I have to ask: are you allergic to cats?”
“No, I am not allergic.” Endeavor’s eyebrow piqued in confusion.
“Purfect, I will lead the way” Aizawa grinned and, as soon as the police were called to deal with the wannabe criminals, they set off on their way.
Two blocks passed with menial small talk until Aizawa indicated that they had arrived at their destination: A small, run down looking cat cafe.
As they entered, the woman behind the counter welcomed Aizawa like an old friend, and as he pulled out his rewards card and got two stamps he smiled softly: two points closer to his free hour with the cats.
He lead an extinguished Endeavor over two the comfiest armchairs in the place, so that they were facing each other after they had sat down.
“This is… quaint,” Endeavor hestitatedly stated as he looked around at the interior. Aizawa followed his gaze, it was more done up on the inside than the outside but not quite enough to make it cute.
“Thankfully both the menu items and the cats are enough to make up for the lack of beauty inside” He shrugged, smiling as the large grey tabby cat called Momo jumped up onto his lap.
The woman who was behind the counter earlier came up to them after Endeavor had finished looking at the menu and took their orders. For Endeavor, straight black coffee and a cinnamon bun side, and Aizawa ordered the hazelnut latte with a cat shaped coconut mochi on the side.
During the time it took for her to get them the items, they were slowly surrounded by more cats. A few of the braver ones even climbed onto Endeavor, much to Aizawa’s surprise.
“They seem to like you a lot. Are you sure you have never been here before?”
“I’m positive, I tend to run a little warmer than most people due to my quirk, and cats love heat sources” Endeavor replied, smiling slightly as he ran his hands over a ginger maine coon.
“His name is EIjiro” Aizawa supplied at Endeavor’s questioning glance.
The lady arrived with their drinks and snacks before Endeavor could respond, and they thanked her, before she pottered off back to the counter.
Aizawa blew on his drink before taking a slow drink, eyes closing in pleasure as he heartily enjoyed the flavours entering his mouth. When he opened his eyes he noticed Endeavor giving him an odd look.
“Endeavor? What’s wrong?” He asked. The red head seemed to jerk slighty, mildly irritating Eijiro, before he shook his head.
“It’s nothing, and if you would like, you can call me Enji, Enji Todoroki” He said, a light flush covering his cheeks. Aizawa cocked his head before nodding.
“Alright, you can call me Shouta, Shouta Aizawa” He responded before awkwardly holding his cat free hand out to shake.
Enji’s lips twitched into a smile before he shook Shouta’s hand.
“A pleasure,” he stated, seemingly more charming than he had been before. It was Shouta’s turn to blush and he nodded, still partially hidden in his scarf.
“The pleasure’s all mine.” He mumbled, and Enji grinned.
As Enji’s free hour drew to a close, the two heroes became closer to each other. Shouta paid for both their items, claiming it while Enji only mildly sulked.
“You can pay for our next meet up okay?” Shouta said to placate him. Enji sighed but nodded, acquiescing to the brunet’s decision.
Once Shouta finished paying, and after the pair had pet a few more cats, they were on their way out of the door.
“Where is your patrol?” Shouta asked, as they walked side by side along the street.
“Just along the main street in the downtown area, is where I need to start. Near the new Soba place” Enji replied. Shouta nodded, he’d heard about that place from Presentable Microwave, who helped out with the grand opening for it.
“I could walk with you there, I don’t have to do anything until later today.” He offered, looking up at Enji.
“I’d like that.” The red head smiled down at the brunet, as they continued their walk.
“Here-” Shouta said, scribbling his number on a piece of crumpled paper he had in his pocket, as the Soba place was in sight. “-This is my number, you can reach me here almost any day of the week, unless I’m on patrol, and we can set up our next meeting okay?”
Enji nodded, taking the paper and putting it in his pocket by his phone.
“I’ll input it soon, and then we can see when our schedules coincide,” he replied with a small smile.
Shouta smiled back and started to turn away, before Enji caught his arm and lightly twirled him back so that they were face to face.
“What are you up to?” Shouta asked, as the taller man moved closer.
“Giving you a proper goodbye.” Enji smiled softly and leaned down till his lips were about an inch away from Shouta’s.
The brunet blushed and leaned into the taller man, gently brushing their lips together as they both closed their eyes.
Shouta slowly pulled back and grinned at the flush on Enji’s face.
“Have a good patrol, and don’t forget to text me,” he said turning away from the older man.
“You will hear from me soon!” Enji called, and Shouta could hear the smile in his voice.
Maybe this wasn’t such a bad day after all.