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~~~Age 7~~~
The cries of a young girl are drowned out by the torrential downpour. “Mama? Papa?” Her aristocratic dress is left in ruins, the fabric having not been made to counter the elements.
Dozens of strangers walk past her, not sparing the lost little girl a second glance. They’re all focused on getting out of the rain. The sea of people suddenly crowd in too close to her, legs trapping her from swimming past.
Yaoyorozu panics as she tries to push past to the inner side of the sidewalk but ends up tripping. She braces her arms in front of her and creates a pillow to soften her fall. Though it was a good idea and quick thinking, she overestimated how many of her body’s lipids she should use.
Now the young girl is lost, freezing, drenched, and dizzy from hunger. Yaoyorozu cries as she crawls closer to the nearest brick wall, hugging the new pillow close to her. She watches so many people just go about their day as she hides in the shadows. At least now, she’s not entirely in the rain; but as the winds howl, they nip at her skin, digging their fangs in deep and causing her to shiver. Yaoyorozu whines as she pushes her face into her pillow. She’s absolutely miserable.
“Hello? Are you okay?”
Yaoyorozu looks over to see a larger boy with brown hair. She sniffles as she wipes tears from her eyes. “Not really…”
The boy looks around, trying to see if he can spot her parents before turning back to her. He appears to be around her age. “You can come inside to warm up if you want. We have a phone, too.” The boy with the kind eyes smiles as he holds a hand out to help her up.
Yaoyorozu places her hand in his. He helps her up and takes his coat off to wrap around her until they walk inside. He wears a plain apron covered in flour.
“What's your name?”
The boy gives her a smile. “Rikido Satou. And yours?”
“Rikido…” She pulls the coat closer and gets a whiff of different sweets and baked goods, a feeling of warmth seeping into her skin. “Momo Yaoyorozu.”
~~~Age 12~~~
Satou tugs at the collar of the dress shirt he's wearing, almost loosening the bowtie until his older sibling swats at his hand.
“Bro, Dad spent ten minutes trying to make that look right.” His sibling pushes a lock of his hair back into place. “Wait a lil longer than two minutes into this event before you undo it.”
“But I can't breathe in this thing,” Satou pouts up to the older baker.
They just smile at Satou and shake their head. “Breathe shallowly.” They look around before nodding to one area of the elegant ballroom. “You can go over there to serve those macarons.”
Satou brings the tray over to his other hand to hold with both while he stares at the pastel coloured pastries. “I thought they were macaroons.”
“No. Well,” they look over to their brother, “French macaroons. Also called ‘macarons’ by the Brits. But different from ‘macaroons’. These,” Satou's sibling picks up a yellow macaron, “are french macaroons, while just 'macaroon' is a soft type of cookie.”
Satou stares blankly at the little pastry. “I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to remember this all.”
His sibling giggles. “Don't worry Lil Bro, you'll get it in time.” They glance around to see if anyone is looking their way before turning back to Satou. They hold the pastry to his mouth, “Open.”
Satou beams and quickly does as told. His sibling pops the pastry into his mouth before fixing that lock of hair once more. “Now go have fun, Bro.”
As he walks over to the area his sibling was talking about, he chews slowly on the pastry before he swallows.
When a girl around his age in a very fancy dress looks at him as he does so, he almost chokes, thinking he was caught. But then her eyes light up, as if she's excited to see him. He looks over his shoulder to see if there's anyone behind him, but… Maybe she just really likes macarons?
She gracefully steps towards him before speaking in a soft manner. “I'm delighted you were able to make it.”
She seems familiar…
“I almost didn't recognize you like this, Rikido.”
Momo? Satou smiles back as the realization dawns on him. “Momo!”
Satou's face glows when he realizes how loud he just spoke and looks down, hoping no one noticed.
Yaoyorozu giggles before taking a green macaron off the tray. She looks around for a moment, watching as everyone goes on with their business during the event. “Don't worry Rikido, I don't think anyone's paying attention.”
She looks around once more as she tears the small pastry in half. She holds one half out to Satou for him to eat. He smiles as he does so.
“I've been insisting to my parents for years to commission your family's bakery for all of their events.”
Satou swallows the half of the pastry and focuses on keeping his voice quiet as he speaks. “Oh yeah, I remember now-” Satou smiles. “The Yaoyorozu orders. You guys make several orders each season and then one giant order at the end of each quarter. My older sibling loves working these events.”
Yaoyorozu smiles as she finishes her half of the pastry and nods. She clears her throat to speak. “Yeah, I've been too nervous to talk to your family so I always just walk around, hoping I'll see you.” The girl laughs nervously as she looks away.
“Oof, sorry Momo. Our parents tell us we have to be twelve before we can serve at events.” Satou gives her a reassuring smile. “Your family's our best customers. That's what my mom says anyway.” Satou looks around, his previous boredom gone, but a new feeling of wanting to do something settles in. “When you're not walking around, what do you usually do at these events?”
Yaoyorozu looks towards all the people mingling and small-talking around the floor. “Near the beginning of each event, I'm with my parents greeting every guest. After that, I usually design outfits in a sketchbook inspired off of the ones I see.”
“You design?”
Yaoyorozu nods happily. “I usually fill an entire sketch book for each event. I've been getting faster the past couple of years.” Yaoyorozu tugs on one lock of hair that fell out of place from her styled look. “All of the sketch books are in my art room though.” A light pink tints her face before she stumbles over her words. “But I do more than design outfits. I also draw and paint scenery. Or heroes.”
Satou smiles brightly. “That's so cool.” He almost raised his voice again. This type of event really isn't his thing. “My oldest brother is an artist. Is that what you want to do when you're older?”
Yaoyorozu smiles nervously before tugging at her hair more. “I… I want to, but I also wanna be a pro-hero.” She waves her sentence off, almost embarrassed. “But it's probably…” She can't seem to find the words for a moment, but Satou takes his chance to encourage her.
“Not at all Momo, I think that's amazing!” Satou winces at his volume. “I think that's pretty awesome… I also want to be a hero.”
Mom's eyes light up within seconds. “Really?”
Satou nods meekly.
Yaoyorozu looks around before taking the tray with one hand, balancing it perfectly, and taking his large hand in her other one. “Let's go out to the gardens.” She beams at him. “That way we can talk more.”
Satou excitedly nods as he lets her lead him outside.
~~~Age 17~~~
Yaoyorozu hums as she pulls her hair up into a ponytail before turning to her full length mirror, trying to decide whether the top of her paint splattered overalls should be up or down.
Before she can make a decision, there's a soft knock at her door that causes her to jump. She crawls over her bed and happily opens the dorm door.
“Rikido!” She chimes happily at the other.
Satou huffs out a breath of laughter before playfully doffing a non-existent hat to her. “Milady. You ready or do you want a lil more time?”
Yaoyorozu shakes her head as she reaches for her bag. “I'm ready.”
The two teens chat for a while as they walk to the Satou bakery.
“Denki has been obsessed with Mashirao's tail fluff since first year. I think it's a habit between them though.”
Satou laughs as Yaoyorozu goes on. “Now that's just cute.”
“Isn't it? So when Mashirao came to me nervous about how he should confess, I got so excited and asked if it was okay to call in help from the girls. We designated a sleepover night at my parent's vacation house. I also asked Sero and Tokoyami to come too.”
“Damn, I always thought that Denki would have confessed first.” Satou is probably going to lose his bet with Katsuki. Oh well.
“I'm just delighted that I was the first person he thought of to ask. I got a little nervous too.” Yaoyorozu smiles softly. “So I'm relieved that he was okay with having a group of friends give bits of advice. Speaking of which, would you like to come too? Even if it's just for moral support?”
“Sounds fun. I'm in.”
Yaoyorozu cheers and begins brewing the perfect plan.
She's gotten so confident over the years. Satou was a little worried when her self confidence dipped during their first year, but…
Satou smiles as he opens the door for the other, the bakery's bell chiming.
“Lil Bro! Yaoyorozu!” Satou's older sibling greets them. “It's wonderful to see you two.”
“Hey. How's ma and pa?”
“Their trip up in America is fantastic, also someone else is back in town from his European trip.” Satou's older sibling places a basket on the counter.
“Big Bro's in town?” Satou picks the basket up as he talks. “For how long?”
“Three months. You two should come visit him when he's here. Yaoyorozu, he'd love to show you the main piece he painted in the fields of Italy.”
Yaoyorozu nods excitedly. “Definitely! I'll bring my sketch books and we can do a critique swap.” Yaoyorozu holds the door open for Satou and waves to his sibling. “We'll see you later!”
Satou waves to his sibling as well before the two continue out the door.
The crisp air of the early morning nips at the two once more as they leave the bakery and the city.
Far from the noise of the busy city and the stress of the school, the two lay on a blanket over at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean.
Yaoyorozu reads an encyclopedia as she mindlessly pops colourful sweets into Satou's mouth while his head is cushioned on her thighs.
The pastry chef hero studies her face as she reads. Elegant and poise as she's always been, but also relaxed and content. Most of her hair is up in her usual ponytail as her eyes move from side to side, taking in as much knowledge as she can. The blue shades of the sky and the soft clouds make her seem more tranquil. An ocean breeze rustles her hair, a smile touching her lips at the feeling of the wind caressing her skin.
Everything about her just feels so… serene.
Yaoyorozu's eyes flicker over to Satou and she grins at the blush that dusts over his cheeks. She places her book down to run her fingers through his hair, giving him gentle scratches to his scalp.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
Satou smiles as he holds a pastel green macaron to Yaoyorozu's lips. She happily takes the sweet pastry, pressing a kiss to one of his fingers as she does.
His mind goes blank every time she does that, but his thoughts focused onto something else. “I never got the chance to ask you, Momo. Why do you want to be a hero?”
After she swallows, she clears her throat before speaking. “Hmm. I have a few reasons. It's something I love as much as reading and my art. It makes my parents proud of me. And,” a radiant smile graces her lips, “I knew it's what I wanted to do from the moment a boy lent me his coat when I was seven.”
Her words take a moment to compute, but when they do, the biggest smile spreads across his face as he tries to hide himself behind his hands.
“Nuh-uh,” joy highlights Yaoyorozu's voice as she playful pulls at Satou's wrists, “I wanna see it!”
“Nooooo.” Satou's on the brink of laughing.
“Yes! Let me see your smile!” Yaoyorozu's smile grows as Satou lets her move his hands while he weakly fights her grasp. She presses a kiss to his lips.
“Handsome baker.”
“Beautiful artist.”
The two sit in their soothing silence as the breeze runs through them.
Sweet and serene.