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Galaxy Cafe was the best one of the best cafes in town. Ochako Uraraka had been a barista at the cafe for the better part of 4 years while she was in college for Astronomy. She loved her job. She got to see new people and make friends, or at least acquaintances, with regulars. Her personal calling card for if she made the cup of coffee is a smiley face or a star at the end of the customer's name. It made customers smile and it didn't take long to do, so she was happy to do it.
That wasn’t the case for one of their regulars, his name was Bakugou or at least that was the name he gave when he ordered. It was always the same coffee order each time, a caramel macchiato. He was easily one of the most attractive men who came into the establishment, he had messy blonde hair that looked almost spikey and unnaturally striking red eyes. The first few times he came in and ordered he would make a face at the doodle. Eventually, She asked him if he’d rather she not draw on his cup.
“I don’t give a shit if you do or not,” Bakugou stated bluntly to her while she made his coffee. “Just if you’re gonna do it, make it worth my time.”
“Make it worth your time?” She asked, his statement took her by surprise with his sheer boldness.
“I think you can do better than copping out the same thing that you do with everybody else.” He answered.
“Well,” She spoke softly while making his drink. “If you don’t like the doodle you can either not come or I can have someone else make your drink.”
Bakugou stared at her as she worked, his eyes narrowing slightly until she hands him his cup. “I’m going to keep coming until you can give me a cup-drawing that is worth my time.” His eyes offering up a challenge that was asked to be taken up.
A small smirk spread across her face. “You’re on, Blondy.”
This began a competition between the two. Ochako started by doodling lots of little stars or planets on his cup, but it wasn’t enough. Bakugou would hit her with a ‘Is this the best you could do?’ or ‘Come on, I’ve seen better doodles in the notebook of the dumbass I tutor.’ His words strangely didn’t anger or discourage her. She didn’t really do it to seek his approval either, it was just fun for her to try to figure out different things to do each time.
It was subtle but Ochako noticed that his order somewhere along the way switched from his caramel macchiato to a black coffee or an americano. She supposed it was because he was trying to cut back on his dairy. Lots of people make the switch, but she always got the idea that he preferred consistency. Well, she wasn’t one to judge, but she still found it kind of odd.
One day, Ochako decided to get a headstart on Bakugou by starting on his cup earlier in the day. She’d open up the cafe and begin on his cup while she waited for customers to come in. She started by drawing stars and coloring them in with her pen. The stars were followed by assorted planets and lines eventually ended up connecting some of the stars to create constellations. She giggled to herself as she drew a tiny explosion in the extra space next to his name which was written neatly. Satisfied with her work she set the cup aside until the persistent customer showed up for his daily coffee fix.
A few hours passed before Bakugou’s usual coffee break. He normally stopped for coffee after his morning class and before he had to tutor the dunce heads that called themselves his friends. He wasn’t even sure how he ended up with the idiots as friends. During his freshman year of college, Bakugou had a man by the name of Kirishima ambush him with friendship and since then he hasn’t been able to shake the shitty-haired Kirishima or his crew of friends. The Galaxy Cafe was his place of solace away from his ‘friends’.
He entered the cafe right on schedule, though instead of the cafe being calm with minor conversations creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere, it was quiet, save for a woman raising her voice at the round-faced brunette who he had challenged just weeks before.
From what Bakugou gathered from asking another customer was the woman didn’t like the coffee she ordered and when Round Face offered to make her something new or refund her for the drink, the woman refused, claiming this is what she gets everywhere else and claims it should taste the same despite them being from two drastically different establishments.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” Round Face responded in a very calm manner. She seemed to be genuinely apologetic despite the lack of blame to be placed on her. “But you’re disturbing the other patrons, so if you don’t quiet down I’m going to have to ask you kindly to leave.”
“How dare you?!” The woman screeches at Round Face. “Have you ever heard of the ‘customer is always right’?! I just want you to make this coffee like the place I told you.”
“Ma’am,” Round Face responded, remaining calm. “Like I’ve told you that’s not possible if you can’t tell me how they make it. Would you like a refund or something else?”
“Are you stupid or something?” The woman continued to shout at her. “It’s not that difficult so you should know.”
Bakugou approached the woman. “Hey, you hag, if you're not gonna order something at least get out of the way so other people can order their shit.” He pushes past the woman and looks down Round Face’s name tag. Ochako. He holds back a smile at the irony that a girl with a name meaning tea child works at a coffee shop. “Are you ready to take my order yet?”
Ochako seemed surprised by his outburst but nodded and looked to her co-worker behind her. “Mina, can you help her?”
Pink hair bobbed in agreement from the coworker who seemed to be eagerly waiting by to intervene. “Of course, love.” Mina waved the woman over to the pickup counter to help her and the woman reluctantly followed.
Ochako sighed softly, before turning back to Bakugou with a smile plastered on her face. “What can I get for you today, Bakugou?”
“An Americano. Same Size as usual.” He grunts at her in his usual fashion. “And you better have brought your A-game with the cup.”
Ochako’s smile widens to a more genuine one. “I think you’ll be surprised.” She turned and began making his drink leaving him to ponder over what she meant.
Bakugou waited patiently for his drink, had his ‘friends’ been there they would have commented this was the most patient he’s ever been. He growled at the thought of those assholes. To think he had to spend the next hour with those bumbling idiots. He is broken from his thoughts by her presenting him with a cup covered in stars, planets, and constellations he didn’t know the name of.
He frankly wasn’t prepared for the cup to be as decorated as it. Even the tiny explosion at the end of his name caused something in his chest to tighten. “Wow…” he whispered out before he can stop himself, his cheeks tint and he speaks to where she can hear. “You left me speechless, Round Face. Good job.”
Ochako’s smile widened so much that her eyes closed, “Have a good day, Bakugou!”
Bakugou waved at her as he exited the cafe and made his way to meet with the dumbasses.
It took another hour after Bakugou left for the cafe to become settled enough for Ochako to turn to Mina. “Thank you for taking care of that woman earlier, Mina.” Ochako praised. The woman from before had been on her case for nearly fifteen minutes before Bakugou intervened.
“Of course! I just had to let you talk to your crush.” Mina hummed, as she leaned against the counter, watching Ochako fumble with refilling the cups next to the cash register.
“Wha-What are you talking about?” Ochako sputtered as she nearly dropped the cups she was holding on the floor. “I-I don’t have a crush on anyone.”
Mina looked at her with a sympathetic glint in her eye. “Hon, you put in an extra effort with your little doodles on Blondy’s cup, because of a challenge he gave you. A challenge you would never have taken from anyone else.”
“I can be competitive!” Ochako protested. That wasn’t necessarily something to brag about, but at the moment it seemed like the thing that would get Mina to drop the subject, But alas it wasn’t.
“With who? Midoriya?” Mina pressed. “Iida? Shinsou? Because I’ve yet to see you challenge them to anything more than a board game.”
“That’s not true! I’m plenty competitive with them!” Ochako huffed in frustration and began wiping down the counter.
Mina patted Ochako on the shoulder, “Sorry, hun, I don’t believe you, but I know even if that was the case it hasn’t been to this extent.” She waved between Ochako and the door as if the blonde man was standing just outside. “Makes me glad I gave you two a push.”
Ochako stops, frozen in place. Gave you two a push? She turned to face Mina slowly. “Mina…. What are you talking about?”
Mina hesitated for a moment. “Well, I may have written your phone number on the bottom of his cup. But it’s for your own good! You’ve been bummed since you got turned down by the guy you were crushing on in your department.”
“Mina!” Ochako chastised. “Why would you do that?! You could have lost us a customer.” Ochako was worried that Bakugou wouldn’t come back. It may have just been their banter back and forth but, she enjoyed his presence in the shop. His presence pushed him to do better, not even just with the doodles. She found that his voice saying, ‘You can do better ’ rang in her ears even while in class and working on her projects. Some of the other regulars thought he was rude, but she felt that she knew better.
“Chako…” Mina softly explained. “You seem happy when you talk to the blondy. Worst case you two can be friends. Also, he might not see the number because it’s on the bottom of the cup.”
Ochako sighed almost in relief. “Yeah, you’re right.”
Bakugou entered the bathroom to get a break from the idiots in their study session and rinse out his coffee cup. He would never admit it when asked but once Ochako started personalizing the drawings on his cups, he kept them. He opted to collect them in case one day she got tired of their little game and just stopped playing along. He even switched from his usual favorite of a caramel macchiato to a black coffee or an americano so he wouldn’t have to worry too much about rushing to rinse out the cup to keep the milk from spoiling.
His efforts didn’t go unnoticed by his group of ‘friends’. Kaminari began commenting on the cups that Bakugou would get from the coffee shop. He would get teasings from the bone heads trying to make a big deal out of nothing.
The cup she gave today, actually blew him away. It wasn’t an amazing intricate drawing but the number of cohesive doodles showed the amount of effort put into it. He was sure to be careful as he filled up the cup with water and poured it back into the sink. Upon turning the cup upside down to pour out the water he noticed a message on the bottom of the paper cup.
Text me! ;)
(xxx) xxx-xxx
Bakugou’s eyes widened, setting the cup upside down on the counter, so he could look at the message. She left her number… Bakugou pulled out his phone and saved her number. He couldn’t bring himself to message yet, opting to wait until he’s back in his dorm later to decide what to do. He dried off his cup and dropped it in his bag and headed back to the study group with Ochako weighing on the back of his mind.
Ochako had been off work for a few hours and was already settled for the night, working on schoolwork while she was waiting for take out to arrive. She looked over and checked her phone to read a text from Midoriya about the class that they shared. She quickly typed out a response and hesitated before closing out of the messaging app on her phone.
I guess he either never saw or just ignored it. She set down her phone as the doorbell rang which signaled that her dinner had arrived. When she came back to her phone it was lit up with a message from an unknown number.
From Unknown: (20:30)
Is this Round Face?
Ochako found herself smiling at the message because she knew instantly who it was and went ahead and saved the number.
To Blondy: (20:35)
Hey Bakugou! c:
From Blondy: (20:36)
Good, it’s you. I would have been pissed if you gave me the wrong number.
To Blondy: (20:37)
Actually… I didn’t write my number on the cup, Mina did. I was annoyed at first and then I got over it.
From Blondy: (20:39)
….
Well, I’m sorry I bothered you then…
To Blondy: (20:39)
No! Wait!
From Blondy: (20:40)
Yes?
Ochako rolled her eyes at his text.
To Blondy: (20:40)
Don't be an ass that's not what I meant.
From Blondy: (20:40)
Oh, such an attitude.
To Blondy: (20:41)
You texted me first! So what made you wanna text me?
Ochako leaned back in her chair as she ate her food waiting for Bakugou to text her back. It takes him a couple of minutes to send his response. A little message bubble with rolling dots signifying that he was typing.
From Blondy: (20:43)
Go on a date with me.
Friday after you get off work.
Ochako’s face heats up at the message and doesn't put much thought into the response.
To Blondy: (20:43)
Okay
It’s a date.