Work Text:
Black Cat
In his life, Shouta has been known as one thing. A penny pincher. The only reason he goes out on the weekends? To check for deals on vitamin packs…. And scarves. He has a weakness for scarves okay?
And this weakness has led him to an unexpected encounter.
…
That morning had been a bust so far. It was Sunday afternoon, which meant all the sales for the week just rolled over and nothing had sold out that was on major sale yet. Unfortunately for him, the sales this week were for items he didn’t really need or want, a mild disappointment. So Shouta went to the mall. Sometimes he found some really nice scarves there, and let’s just say that it’s a comforting mechanism when he was out of uniform.
The shop he normally purchased scarves from didn’t have any new ones in stock, so he pretended to browse the rest of their wares out of politeness that didn’t fool himself or the employees and left.
Because he was already out and about, he decided to stroll the mall. Why not try and use the opportunity while it presented itself, right?
And that’s when the sign caught his eye.
The seasonal Halloween store open just across the hall from his scarf shop. They had a magnificently huge advertisement in the window that screamed: ‘Still need a costume? ALL ADULT COSTUMES 50% off.’
How could he resist? Half-off was a great deal. So he went inside. He found the discounted merchandise and immediately saw why it was labeled as such. It was only three days before Halloween and most of it had been picked over and plucked apart until most couldn’t be gathered into a costume at all anymore.
Shouta thought himself lucky to find one still in its packaging.
Inside was a headband with black ears, a fake nose, a tail pin, and a grease pencil. A cat costume. It was simple, not the most embarrassing thing he could think of, but still mildly embarrassing, and he liked cats, so why not?
But, because he didn’t trust people to sort children vs. adult sizes, he was determined to try it on. He had just finished popping the fake nose on his face and drawing on whiskers when a familiar face caught his eyes through the window.
It was his coworker, Toshinori Yagi, slowly lifting up his phone with the most surprised look on his face, and an audible click two seconds later.
Shouta had never shed clothing faster, and if he hadn’t been mistaken, he could have sworn that it floated after him, he left so fast. He had to catch Toshinori and delete that photo. The man was surprisingly fast and it took several store lengths for him to catch up.
He caught Toshinori by the back of his shirt, and caught his breath for a moment. When he stood up straight he held out his hand, and was about to ask for his phone when he caught sight of the shirt in the man’s arms.
“Give—wait, what the fuck is that?” Shouta asked, pointing at something pink in the blond’s arms.
“It’s nothing!” the man insisted, “J-just an EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT TO MYSELF.”
The guy immediately pulled on the shirt and Shouta knew he was lying.
How?
One: The shirt was too small, and only really reached his belly button.
Two: It boldly stated I <3 Cats on the front.
Now either that shirt was for someone else, or he had definitely picked up the wrong size.
“I-I think you go the wrong size.”
Neither of them paid enough attention to their surroundings that moment, as they sized each other up, a mild blush on both their faces, Mirai Sasaki was leaving the mall’s Staples chain. He had ran out of batteries for…. Well you don’t need to know, but what mattered was that he checked off the batteries from his shopping list and saw the two at the end of the hall.
As he already had the phone on, he clicked the power button twice to open the camera and snapped 17 photos.
Somehow he walked past them without catching either of their attentions.
The Next Day
“Why didn’t you guys tell me you were going shopping for Halloween?” Hizashi targeted both Shouta and Toshinori in the teacher’s lounge Monday morning.
They didn’t know what he was talking about, and Shouta was suspicious.
“What are you talking about Mic?”
He excitedly pulled out his phone and flicked through to a specific social media post.
‘ALL MIGHT AND ERASERHEAD-NEXT LEVEL HALLOWEEN FASHION’.
Just below the bold words were a picture of both of them, looking admittedly like they were on some sort of bad shopping date.
“Oh my god, how do we delete it.”
“You don’t, Shouta! It’s so cute! Plus the fans love it!”
“Of course they do.”
Who could have taken that picture? Anyone in the mall there with us, truthfully….
He sighed and went back to his work.
At least no one knew he and Toshi had actually gone back and bought that costume. They didn’t need to know anything more than they already assumed.