Chapter Text
Katsuki didn’t believe in the soulmate shit. True and fated love - not only romantic, love in total - was a media made lie. There wasn’t something such as people perfect for each and guaranteed happiness. All these happy faces were lies. Behind closed doors, were tears and fights, screaming and yelling and a lot of pain.
But the society was pressuring people into playing along, pretending to be happy and in love, to have a seemingly perfect life. Afraid of being pushed aside as ungrateful or damaged. Everyone had a soulmate, if it didn’t work out for you, it was your fault.
But one could only live together in an unhappy relationship for so long without letting out the anger one way or another. Or without moving to another country under the disguise of work business to never call home once.
It was an ugly time full of pretend and lies and Katsuki hated it since he was little. The first time he mentioned that his parents didn’t get along very well in kindergarten was a day he never would forget. The caretakers would laugh and say that a couple had some quarrels now and then. But he insisted. He wanted someone to understand that it wasn’t good at home, that these two shouldn’t be together. The smiles on the caretakers’ faces faded away slowly beginning to wonder if the boy maybe had a point and if he was a descendant of irregulars.
When his mother came to pick him up that day she would talk to the caretakers in hushed voices, laughing a strained laugh and pat Katsuki’s head fiercly saying something about kids being overly dramatic in that age.
The way back was awfully silent.
When they got home that changed. He would never forget that day.
So when these stupid words appeared at his upper arm in this messy handwriting he felt nauseous. He grabbed the first sharp thing he found and made it disappear. But still, he never would forget the silly words standing there. No matter how much he tried to. Nevermind I am not hungry.
He never wanted to hear those words. No way in hell.
So when, many years later, it came down to finding a job to afford his expenses while going to college he avoided every store, restaurant or cafè that sold food. Even though cooking was one of his passions and it wouldn’t have sucked to get money for doing it. He didn’t want an idiot following him around trying to talk him into this soulmate shit, maybe even proposing to him on spot. He wasn’t afraid of telling someone to fuck off. Had done it numerous times. But it was just exhausting and with the pressure of society, it could end his career before it even began. It was hard enough to get hired with that scar on his forearm. He didn’t exactly hide it. He refused to play along in that silly game. Maybe he wouldn’t ever be able to realize his dreams but at least he was able to look into the mirror at the end of the day without feeling like gagging.
So he started working at a shitty coffee shop. It was the exact opposite of modern but hadn’t enough charm to be retro. The atmosphere was a bit gloomy and the customers were mostly grumpy businessmen that wanted to stare down their dark, disgusting coffee and questioning their life choices.
But they sold no food and no one expected from him to play nice. So he didn’t hate it.
At least usually. Recently the number of customers around Katsuki’s age skyrocketed. The old building at the end of the street had been renovated over the last months and now was renting rooms to the local university. The institute seemed to be really desperate since it would take half build rooms in a shitty location like this. The train did only stop every half an hour and the streets broken and not maintained in a long time.
The students that trickling in never looked amused, would complain about Katsuki’s attitude the menú - what the fuck did they expect in a coffee shop when not coffee? - and the taste of said black liquid.
“Do you serve anything else than coffee?” A black-haired girl asked in an annoyingly high pitched voice. Everything about her was screaming fake! Fake hair, fake nails, fake smile and fake attitude. Just looking at her was triggering Katsuki’s gag reflex.
“No, bitch. ‘cause this is a friggin coffee shop. It’s for getting coffee, nothing else. This is no café or restaurant or motherfucking Starbucks, for crying out loud. Just a shitty old coffee shop. If you want to order your stupid sugar-loaded hipster shit, go to someone who cares. And now you better order coffee or get out of my hair!”
The girl looked at him like he had just revealed to be a slug under her shoe. Then arrogance set in. Another fake face. Trying to show dominance.
“Let me talk to your manager!”
“Tch. ‘m not gonna stoppin’ you. Talk to him if you find him. Oh and tell him to swing his sorry ass over here. I have one or the other word for him too.”
Finished with the conversation Katsuki just gave his attention to the next customer, while seeing in the side of the eye black-haired bitch and her lackeys stomping out. It was a guy all red hair and red eyes his gaze swimming mid-air obviously daydreaming. He didn’t seem to realize he was the next in line. Wonderful! Deep down Katsuki counted to three to not pour steaming hot coffee into his face to get his attention.
“Hey, shitty hair! You’re up! Make your fucking order or piss off?”
The guy jumped, now looking into Katsuki’s general direction but for sure not his face. It fed the beast in Katsuki’s breast with even more anger. He opened his mouth to send the bastard to tell, when…
“N-nevermind, I am not hungry.” shitty hair said, grimacing strangely and turned around, hitting his elbow on the counter and was led to the tables by a dog.
The angry blond was frozen in the middle of taking a breath. Forgotten what he had wanted to say or what exactly he had been angry about in the first place. His whole mind was just blank, erased by these words he never had wanted to hear. He had thought he would be saved from them here, that it would be impossible to meet his soulmate here. All the choices in his life had been influenced by his need to avoid this meeting. How much he had held himself back. Suddenly it dawned him how pathetic and even a bit hilarious that had been. Life really liked to play bad jokes on him.
“Bakugou-kun, ya alright?” His co-worker had approached him, ending his stupor. With a loud click, he snapped his jaw shut and looked at the short man in his thirties, that was supposed to take over the register in an hour or so. But that was the last thing Katsuki cared about right now.
He forced his mind to clear a bit, maybe form some words. The whole shop was staring at him, many of them giggling behind raised hands. Anger welled up but still dulled by the shock.
“I’m getting the fuck outta this shithole!” he said already undoing his apron and throwing it at his coworker, stomping to the back where his locker would hold his belongings. He leaned his head against the metal with a soft clink and took a deep breath or maybe two.
What the fuck was he supposed to do?
He should just get out of here, quitting this damn job and maybe doing something that was even a little bit of fun, never seeing the red-haired jerk again, that most likely was processing that his soulmate was a foulmouthed barista. Okay, most likely he had known about the foulmouthed part before. Since that sentence would have been written on his arm before. What exactly had he said again? Had he may teached a ten-year-old some bad words?
He cackled at that thought. He didn’t know what exactly he did say, but thinking about a poor fucker with some insults about himself on his arm was hilarious.
Katsuki shook his head aggravated. Damn, he shouldn’t be thinking about this. Meeting his so-called destined lover didn’t change anything for him. He didn’t want that. He didn’t believe in love. There hadn’t been any sparks or butterflies when he had seen the redhead or heard his voice. The only thing he had felt was annoyance. About that asshole, not looking at him, being a wimpy bastard. Some weakling like that never could’ve put up with him. He was just like Katuki’s father. Being paired with a way to strong-willed mate. And Katsuki wouldn’t do hell to repeat history like that.
His gaze went down to his arm, covered by a long sleeve, today. He knew of the scar beneath that, could almost feel it. It wasn’t like a magic bond it was nothing, just a typical scar obscuring letters which were supposed to dictate his life. He had freed himself from that a long time ago and he wouldn’t go back now.
Taking in another deep breath he pushed himself from his locker and ripped it open, grabbed all of his stuff out and left the key there. Shouldering his bag he went to the front with long confident steps, not looking left or right he left the coffeeshop, already expecting to be followed by a stupid redhead bubbling about soulmate stuff.
But… No one followed him. No one called out to him. No one stopped him. and somehow something in his chest tightened. Anger flared up and he felt like he was a kid again. Hating this stupid behaviour he sped up his steps, certainly not feeling rejected by a stupid mate. He was happy about that. Yes happy that he didn’t have to bother turning that fucker down and getting rid of him, happy that this stupid asshole didn’t even want to talk to him and seemed to have understood that soulmates are a stupid constructs. And no certainly there were no tears in the corner of his eyes and he didn’t bit his lip, breaking skin out of frustration.
So happy about how this shit went.
“Dude! What the hell did you say to that guy?” Kaminari was laughing while Eijirou felt around for a chair, grabbing it while Riot moved out of the way with ease. He loved her for that. Of course, she had been trained not to be in his way and help him but it was still a huge help not to feel like a total burden on anyone around him.
He grimaced at his friend. “I just was spurting embarrassing nonsense because I panicked. Gosh, that guy really is something else.”
Kaminari laughed more like before, doubling over or at least Eijirou thought he did, there was a shift in the shape of what he thought was his friend. He flopped down on his chair. “Now you go and order something. Really thought it was a good idea to let me make the order, while you grab a seat?” Yes, he had said to him that he should treat him like any other person and he did exactly that.
Sadly it made him realize that being disabled wasn’t something to overcome so easily. He couldn’t balance some drinks to a table or read the menú. He couldn’t tell if someone was looking at him.
“Yeah sorry, my bad. Hadn’t really thought ahead. But it was so worth it. When you said that he went all rigid and silent and just froze like you had plugged out his power cable. And then when his coworker approached him he just fled to the ba-. Oh there he is agai- and out!” Another loud laughter followed, now hitting the table making something metallic on it clink.
Eiirou managed a sheepish laugh too. “Seems strange, right?” His hands grabbed for the hem of his shirt. It was his favorite shirt. He could feel it’s bright yellow fibers, knowing they would feel different if they had any other colors. It was a great gift to be able to do that. Not many blind people would be able to and many thought he was lying. He only had ever heard of one woman somewhere in Europe having that skill. But he didn’t know if that hadn’t been staged and he knew next to no one had ever believed her.
Kaminari hadn’t stopped laughing yet. He still was wheezing and Eijirou couldn’t do anything but wait for it to go over. His hand wandered from his shirt to the side where he knew Riot was sitting, petting her head, scratching behind her ears, feeling her nuzzling into his hand. It eased his anxiety and made him feel a bit grounded. He hated conflicts like that and was embarrassed about having talked such utter nonsense. But he knew best was to let Kaminari have his laugh or he wouldn’t let it go.
Eijirou knew he didn’t laugh about him, just thinking about the situation as funny. But it still kinda hurt. So he decided to may distract his friend a bit. “I want a latte, maybe something with a sweet flavor.”
That made the other giggle more again. “Didn’t you hear mister angry gremlin? They serve coffee nothing else. No hipster drinks.” He giggled again. “But I see what I can get from the other guy.”
The redhead nodded, a bit tired of this situation, leaning back in his chair and taking a deep breath trying to tune out the loud chatter around him. The people walking by, brushing him sometimes. It didn’t startle him anymore when he felt someone touching him in a crowded place, but it still was far from comfortable.
He tried to do what he learned in therapy. To focus on the things he could control right now, on the information he had instead of yearning for what was out of reach. And it was not like being blind made him helpless. He got by pretty good. Even without Riot’s help, he would be able to manage daily life. But it showed in the details. When people showed around photos, texting in class, playing mindless games on the phone, reading comics. Nothing necessary to life but enough to sometimes feel left out.
It had been an issue in school a lot more than it was now. He didn’t have to keep up with all those teenagers anymore, that didn’t know how to treat him if to have pitty or wanting to ditch him cause they wanted to have fun. University was different. He was in for half a month now but already loved it. The freedom, the people, not having to take classes he didn’t get, like math, but earning some respect in return. And he had met Kaminari there. And even though they still needed to find a way to work out it was nice having someone that really just treated him like a normal friend.
Sometimes they even managed to forget that one of them was disabled. It felt like finally surfacing after almost drowning. Like he finally started living for real.