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“And this one is called the cap-purr-chino,” Hizashi exclaimed, pointing to the coffee cup that had a Pusheen cat design in the foam.
Shinso looked bored but Shouta could see the excitement in his eyes as Hizashi continued to talk and show him the specialty desserts and coffees that the local cat café, Paw-Paw Weekend, were offering to their customers in order to prepare for International Cat Day a month from now.
Coming to the cat café once every week (or whenever they had the free time) had become a sort of tradition that Shouta and Hizashi started back when the two had become friends after Shouta transferred into the Heroes Course. One Shouta had brought Hizashi to the café, he couldn’t make him leave. And now 15 years later, they were the top two regular customers to come to the café, good friends with the café owner, Katoru-san.
So when Shouta had become Shinso’s unofficial mentor, the visits to the cat café had died down to one visit every three or so weeks. To say that Katuro-san was concerned about the sudden drop in visitations from his favourite customers and friends was an understatement. When Shouta had explained the situation that no, he wasn’t dying or in some undercover mission, he was taking care of a teenager. Katoru-san had laughed and said that looking after teenagers was more draining than any underground hero mission. Considering his current homeroom of 1-A, Shouta had to agree.
So it was during a training session with Shinso that Shouta had discovered that Shinso was just a big cat fan as much as Shouta was when a small stray had entered the gym. It had completely ignored Shouta, and instead went straight to Shinso, playing with his fingers as he did push-ups.
When Shouta asked if Shinso had plans that night, Shinso said no, Shouta took him to the cat café, with the small cat whose name was apparently Streaks. Katoru-san had just looked at him and laughed, saying it was looking back into the past when Shouta had first come to his café, with a small kitten he had named Beans.
Shouta blushed and Shinso was all for hearing stories about his mentor’s youth and the antics he had gotten into with Hizashi. So after, whenever time allowed Shouta would take Shinso to the cat café after training and the two of them would relax. Shouta would often talk with Katoru-san but it had taken time for Shinso to actually say more than one or two words, no doubt an ingrained behaviour mechanism due to the stigma from his quirk. But when Katoru-san had shown that he wasn’t afraid of Shinso’s Brainwashing and was even able to counter it with his own quirk, Reversal, Shinso warmed right up to him right away to the point where Shinso would come to the café every day.
Katoru-san had joked once when Shouta came by after his early morning patrol one Sunday that Shinso was trying to dethrone his position of favourite customer. And of course, once Hizashi found out, he began joining them whenever his schedules allowed.
Katoru-san smiled as he brought them around round of coffee, congratulating Shinso on his progress in his training to try and enter the Heroes Course. Shino blushed and muttered that it wasn’t much but Katoru-san waved it off, saying that hard work was to be rewarded and milestones celebrated. Shouta silently agreed, and tried to not to look too much into why Shinso would brush off his hard work so easily (he could guess as to why, but that wouldn’t be logical. And that was a problem for another day).
“And this one has blueberries in it, isn’t it cute?” Hizashi squealed as he showed a muffin that Katoru-san had somehow managed to make the top half in the shape of a cat. The voice made Shouta wince and Katoru-san gave Hizashi an annoyed glare who gave a sheepish grin in return. Hizashi had developed excellent control of his quirk since UA but nonetheless, he could be incredibly loud without his quirk.
But of course, one couldn’t forget the time Hizashi had accidentally shattered the front windows of the café when a calico had dropped a large water bug into Hizashi’s lap after finals in their second year.
Katoru-san had placed a summer-long ban on the both of them and Hizashi had felt awful for getting Shouta kicked out of his favourite café. But Katoru-san had been kind to end the ban once new shatter-proof windows came in for the café, curtsey of UA and the Principle Nezu.
Shinso grinned as he took the muffin from Hizashi, looked him right in the eye, and torn off the cats face with his teeth. Hizashi let out a gasp of shock, as he tried to take the muffin back.
Shouta snorted as he watched the two of them squabble, drinking his strong black coffee as a Maine Coon sauntered her way into his lap. Hopefully, the two of them didn’t break the table like last time so that they could come back tomorrow; Katoru-san was planning to surprise Shinso with a cat theme birthday cake since today was his birthday and he had found out last minute.
And that was something to celebrate for sure. The birthday of a future hero, whose future looked so much brighter now than it did some months ago.