Chapter Text
Midoriya usually didn’t have much time to stop smell the flowers, what with being so close to completing his degree in criminology, helping Tsukauchi in his firm, volunteering at the local soup shelter and trying to help his mom move to a bigger house ever since she met Toshinori (There was something odd about him, but Midoriya couldn’t quite put his finger on it); with all of these things combined, he really had little time to appreciate the finer details in life.
But today he was tired. Okay, more tired than usual. Mina had had a party at his flat, much to his chagrin, and had invited her noisy mob of friends. While he doesn’t dislike them necessarily (They were very intelligent and open-minded people, in fact) they did disrupt his usual study-eat-sleep schedule. So he woke up crankier than usual, the flat was covered in trash, and he basically said “Fuck it,” and left to get a coffee at the campus bar.
He tried to avoid going there as much as possible. After all, Bakugo worked there part-time, and Midoriya had too much on his plate already without memorizing his old friend’s work hours to spare him a burst ego. But today he couldn’t care less what Bakugo thought. He needed his coffee.
He got outside and noticed that the bar was less crowded than he’d expect on a Saturday morning. He sat down next to the window, got out his laptop and started checking emails and writing to Tsukauchi about his most recent case (A murder. Midoriya didn’t get to see the corpse but from the description alone it sounded awful.) He also checked his calendar and realized he needed to call Inko about a reasonably big house on the outskirts of Musutafu.
Someone cleared their throat next to him, somewhat insistently, and he looked up. An avian headed young man stood close by and was holding a notepad and a pen.
“What can I get you?” he asked, his voice deep.
“Black with two sugars please,” Midoriya replied, giving the waiter a small smile. The waiter nodded and walked off. Midoriya returned to his work, planning and scheduling for the next week or so. His coffee arrived shortly after and he absentmindedly gave his thanks. He almost downed the coffee in one sip, drinking fast as to get a bigger kick out of it (he would crash so hard later, but that would be for older him to deal with). He saved his files, packed his laptop into his bag, and turned to get up, only to stop when he saw the waiter from before staring at him.
“Uhh,” he said, eloquently.
The waiter shook his head as if to clear it before chuckling to himself. “I have never seen someone drink a black coffee that fast before,” he answered the unasked question. “You have a good day now sir.”
“Um, thanks,” Midoriya replied. “You too!”
He paid and went on his way back to his flat, hoping that Mina was up by now and had realized that he wasn’t going to help her clean up the flat this time.
Midoriya sat by the window, looking at the assignment he was due to deliver tomorrow. He had gone over it once, twice, three times, making sure it was perfect. Despite the fact he was a Grade-A student, he still got paranoid that he was going to get something wrong. It never did him any good in the end, except to weed out any and all doubts that his paper got the point across. He sighed and shut his laptop, leaning back on the chair.
He looked around the Café, realizing it was already late. Most of the regulars who came here were leaving, and those who remained were likely to stay there overnight (or as late as the owners would let them). Midoriya got up and was about to go and pay when he suddenly heard a crash, followed swiftly by a quiet curse. He turned and saw the avian headed waiter on his knees, picking up pieces of china from the floor and back onto the tray he was carrying them on.
Midoriya didn’t think twice and knelt down and started helping him. The waiter hesitated before resuming his task. They both managed to get the worst of the shards and stood up, looking at each other for a short moment.
“…Thank you,” the waiter said, looking down. “I’m sorry that you had to do that.”
Midoriya looked at him, confused. “Oh, no problem, I wanted to help! Is that… okay?”
“Oh! Um, yes, I guess…”
Midoriya frowned a little, before sticking out his hand.
“My name is-,”
“DEKU!”
He shuddered and slowly turned to face a fuming blonde-ball. Who somehow was holding both a tray of coffee and a spiked baseball bat.
“NOT ONLY ARE YOU HERE WHEN I SAID DON’T BE, BUT YOU ALSO BREAK MY SHIT?!”
“Um,” Midoriya replies.
Bakugo growls and starts to approach when suddenly an arm appeared in front of him. The waiter was there, looking at Bakugo levelly.
“Bakugo-san, please, don’t yell at the customer. I was the one who dropped the mugs.”
He looked back at Midoriya and bows.
“I’m sorry for inconveniencing you. Your drink is on the house.”
“Like hell it is!” Bakugo growled, before getting a glare from the waiter again. He huffs and starts to walk off, leaving with a “Fine! But it’s coming out of your paycheck, Bird-face!”
Midoriya watched the exchange silently, mouth slightly open. Good-sense came a-knocking and he rushed to run damage control.
“No, no! It’s fine, I can pay, you don’t need-,”
“Please, sir,” the waiter said, bowing again. “You needn’t bother, thank you very much for your help.”
He started to walk away, but Midoriya refused to give up.
“At least let me repay you? Can I get you something to eat, or something to drink- uh, Mr…?”
The waiter was looking at him weirdly, but not in a bad weirdly, just, weirdly. He suddenly lets out a small, short laugh. Midoriya is struck by how wonderful it was.
“You may call me Tokoyami,” he said, smiling.
“Okay, Tokoyami!” Midoriya smiled, hand outstretched once again.
“My name is Midoriya, nice to meet you!”