Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Dormouse Cafe and Tearoom was by no means a popular establishment, but hey, that was part of its charm. A cozy little cafe furnished entirely with thrift store finds, lit by fairy lights and lanterns and the bay window at the front, and practically overflowing with succulents and knicknacks. Sure, it was a little cliché in its aesthetic, but Sero Hanta loved it.

He’d first discovered the little hole in the wall cafe a year and a half ago, but by now, he and the rest of the staff were a very close knit group of friends. He’d even go as far as to consider them his family, in a way. Found family, if you would.

He, Kaminari, and Mina had hit off immediately, and had quickly discovered they already knew each other by association. They had been dubbed the trouble makers of the staff, always up to something, whether it be racing to see who could make a latte the fastest (look, it wasn’t Sero’s fault that he jammed the coffee machine, the thing just couldn’t keep up with him!), or having a competition to make the ‘best’ hot chocolate (Mina just had a way with the syrups that no one else did), or deliberately butchering even the simplest of names on orders. They knew they gave their manager Yaoyorozu—or, as she would rather be called, Yaomomo—a fair deal of headaches, but she was yet to punish them in any way more severe than keeping them back to help man the closing shift.

Uraraka was often on the sidelines of their shenanigans, whether it be the judge of the hot chocolate competition, or covering for Mina and Kaminari when they hid Sero’s keys in one of the hanging planters, but she wasn’t quite as …chaotic as their little group. As such, she’d been dubbed Yaomomo’s favourite long ago, but she still had a wicked gleam about her.

Contrary to the rambunctious baristas, Dormouse Cafe and Tearoom itself was far, far calmer. There were a handful of regulars—Kirishima and his boyfriend Bakugou (the couple were how Sero, Mina, and Kaminari realised they already sort of knew each other; Mina was childhood friends with Kirishima, who was also Sero’s friend, and Kaminari had apparently been bothering Bakugou since high school. Sero wondered how he was still alive at this point), Uraraka’s friend Midoriya who practically worked for free given how much he helped out (it wasn’t free, Yaomomo always gave him drinks for no charge), Intelli, a pretty purple haired girl who drank an inordinate amount of tea, and Todoroki. 

No one seemed to know much about Todoroki—where he came from, what he did, who he was—but there was one thing they could all agree on. He was beautiful.

Split dye hair wasn’t a look many people could pull off, but Todoroki made it look effortless with his half red, half white hair, more often than not all mixing together in a messy bun atop his head. His eyes matched, Sero had discovered once when he’d taken his order (and promptly memorised it). One grey, one a startling blue, and although it was ringed by what was quite definitely a scar, the marring didn’t detract from his appearance in the slightest. Sero thought it even added to his charm, gave him an air of mystery, drew the eye.

But unfortunately, Sero wasn’t the only one with a crush on the guy, though he suspected he was the only one in the staff with an actual, proper, real crush on the guy. Kaminari fell for anyone and everyone who smiled near him, and Mina was more into girls than guys, though that hadn’t stopped her from dramatically swooning whenever Todoroki did, well, anything really. Sero would always bat her to get her to stop, because more often than not, she’d drape herself over the counter, fanning herself with her hand, proclaiming loudly, and that only drew Todoroki’s attention.

And fuck, the first time it’d happened, Sero had gone bright red in the face and almost dropped the plate of brownie he was supposed to be taking to table 5. Todoroki had been tying his hair up (Sero now knew how dangerous of an activity that was, and always made sure to put down whatever he was holding when he saw the other doing so), and had turned around with his hair tie in his mouth and the most innocent of expressions, and Sero was a gone man.

But he was also a rational man. He knew the only reason Todoroki knew his name was because it was on his name badge, he knew the only reason he knew who he was was because he supplied him with coffee on a near daily basis. He knew Todoroki probably wasn’t interested in men, let alone him, so he didn’t say anything. He didn’t make any moves, he didn’t smoothly write his number on his cup (because writing on cups wasn’t a thing the tearoom did, and that would only make it weird), he just pined from afar, and got teased ruthlessly for it.

“Oh man,” Mina would often begin. “Todoroki-kun cut his hair!” 

Sero would predictably whip around at whatever Mina had said, eyes searching the cafe for the very distinctive colouring, but as soon as Kaminari started snorting, he would know that nothing had happened, and they were just messing with him. Spiked drinks became a speciality of his in retaliation.

But just because Todoroki existed in the general vicinity didn’t mean Sero didn’t have to do his job.

It was closing shift, just him, Yaomomo, and Kaminari in the empty store. Kaminari was washing the dishes, Yaomomo was putting away the cabinet food and doing her official manager things, and Sero was tidying up the seating area and watering the bajillion plants that were absolutely everywhere. 

“Don’t pull the chair along the floorboard!” Yaomomo called, not even looking up from where she was fiddling with the coffee machine, obviously having heard the screech of said chair along said floorboards as Sero indeed pulled it from beneath one cluster of hanging baskets to the next.

“Sorry!” he called back, lifting it and carrying it all of two steps.

“Yeah geez, Cellophane!” came Kaminari’s voice from the kitchen. “You should know better, dude!”

“Like you wouldn’t do the same thing!” Sero yelled back, pushing a handful of vines out of his face to inspect the tiny flower buds that were beginning to grow. Spring was always a beautiful time, though hell for any customers with hayfever. 

“Well,” Yaomomo deadpanned, standing up straight and brushing her hair from her eyes. “If either of you scratch the very expensive floor, it’s coming out of your paychecks.”

Sero couldn’t be sure of how serious she was, so he decided to err on the side of caution and made himself a mental note to not drag chairs along the floor again.

After watering all the plants that needed watering (not the succulents, there was a reason Kaminari was banned from touching them, and Sero didn’t want to relive that experience himself), Sero stowed the watering can (otherwise known as a milk carton with holes poked in the lid) back in the cupboard under the games shelves, and passed his eye over said shelves. 

There was a mishmash of things covering the shelves, from a sort of unofficial book exchange corner, to a stack of board games that may or may not be missing various pieces, packs of cards worn yellow with time, and three chess sets. Well, three and a half. The half was just used for spare pieces when others went missing. 

People didn’t often use the chess sets, so they mostly just sat gathering dust (or they would do, were they not dusted down every week), and were occasionally pulled out by inquisitive kids who didn’t really know the rules of the game. 

Sero was collecting up pieces that had rolled away from their kingdoms when he noticed the set on the top most shelf. It was perfectly set up, the dark wood of the ‘black’ pieces all standing to attention facing the much lighter ‘white’ pieces, who had sent out a single pawn into the battlefield. 

Chuckling to himself, Sero picked up a black pawn and moved it forwards, setting the rest of the game into play. What harm could it do? It would probably be jostled by someone tomorrow and the whole game—if it could even be called that at this point—would be forgotten. It was just a bit of fun, for him and for whoever had moved the white pawn, if that was even deliberate in the first place.

“Oi, Sero! Get your ass over here, I need someone to dry up!”

“He’s supposed to be wiping down tables,” Yaomomo replied to Kaminari, shooting a look at Sero, who was conclusively not wiping down tables. “Give me a moment and I’ll come help.”

Just like that, the chess board was pushed from Sero’s mind.

Or, it was until the next day. Sero had his arms stacked with dirty dishes for the kitchen after their lunchtime rush, and in his weaving about the tables, he’d passed the game shelves, and his eye had caught on the chessboard. He only saw it for a brief window of time, but someone had moved another white pawn. 

Which one and to where he didn’t yet know, but as soon as the plates were down and a quick hello said to Midoriya as he had bubbles up to his elbows (“Seriously dude, you’re not an employee, you don’t need to wash the dishes,” was what Sero had said), Sero rushed back out to the body of the store to see.

Of course, chess games weren’t all that exciting until the back row of pieces started moving, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that someone had responded to his acceptance of the declaration of war in tiny, wooden figure mode.

Eying up the board, Sero wiggled his fingers over his pieces, trying to decide which to move. Yeah, he knew it didn’t really matter too much at this point in time unless the other player was like some sort of chess grandmaster (though he thought that was unlikely), but he liked being dramatic, okay? 

He moved his piece, and, satisfied with it all, made another convoluted round for dirty dishes and once more wove his way back to behind the countertop to deliver more orders.

“Large black coffee for Aizawa!” Kaminari read from the receipt, handing the man his order. “Damn, you look like you need it,” he commented upon seeing the customer’s eyebags and hair that Sero thought looked like he’d just rolled out of bed.

“Bro!” Sero hissed, elbowing Kaminari. “Don’t say that! He’s a customer!”

“It’s fine,” the man—Aizawa—said. “I do need it.” And then he promptly began to chug from the takeaway cup, mostly just to show off, Sero thought.

“Dude,” Kaminari was wide eyed and open mouthed. 

Aizawa chuckled, walking away. “Good coffee, though!”

“What?” Kaminari whined at Sero’s expression. “You were thinking it too! I know you were!”

“Yeah but I didn’t blurt it out like a dunce!”

“Hey, that’s mean!” Kaminari pouted.

“You know I love you.”

“What are we talking about?” Mina leaned over, all the one for gossip. 

“About how Sero’s a dick,” Kaminari supplied, taking the next order from Uraraka and glancing over the receipt. “What does this say?”

“Blueberry milkshake for Nejire. What about Sero’s dick? Do tell.” Mina turned away from the conversation for a moment to fish out a savoury muffin from the cabinet and put it in the microwave.

“Mina! What the fuck!” Sero yelped.

“Blueberry milkshake for Nejire!” Kaminari called, this time making no comment bar “Enjoy your drink!” when she came to collect her order. “No I said that Sero was a dick, not about his dick.”

Mina pouted. “Aw, disappointing. And yeah, we been knew. Anything more interesting happen or is that it?”

“Nah, not really,” Sero said, shooting her the finger as he tried to balance what was probably too many things in his arms at once to take to various tables. Hey, he hadn’t dropped anything yet, and it was efficient. Mostly.

“Mm I think you’ll find you’re wrong,” Mina said watching Sero in the dull reflection of the microwave.

“Whaddya mean?” Sero edged around the counter, careful not to slop any of the cups of various drinks into their saucers. He didn’t want to ruin any of Uraraka’s foam art.

“Yeah Mins, what do you mean?” Kaminari was equally confused.

“I’ll tell you when the loverboy gets back from his rounds.”

Oh, so it was a Todoroki thing, then. Mina only ever pulled out that name when he was around or involved somehow. Sero almost didn’t want to come back to the conversation.

But he did. Hiding away was stupid, especially when he had a job to do and his shift had only really just started for the day. 

After dumping another load for Midoriya (“Dude. Just go order something, sit down and chill like a normal customer for once.”), Sero braced himself for whatever it was that was inevitably coming his way. 

“Took you long enough!” Kaminari complained. “I wanna know what the tea is!”

“Golden Tips Imperial, apparently,” Sero read off a packet.

“Oh ha ha, you know what I meant.” Kaminari rolled his eyes and elbowed him. “So c’mon Mina, spill!”

Mina cocked her head, pursing her lips as she thought. “It’s kinda not as funny anymore. Dammit.”

“I still wanna know!” Kaminari whined.

“I do not. There’s no need to share,” Sero reassured, though he knew it was futile.

“Oh, you’re not escaping that easily, loverboy,” Mina warned, grinning. 

“Stop calling me that!”

“It’s true!”

“Just tell me the tea!”

“I already said, Kaminari, it’s Golden Tips Imperial! Must be Intelli’s order.”

“That stopped being funny the first time you said it,” Kaminari complained.

“Okay both of you shut up and let me speak.” 

“How about no,” Sero replied, grabbing a handful of teaspoons to populate the waiting saucers with.

“How about yes,” Mina pressed on, showing no signs of stopping. “I find it awfully out of character that a certain someone didn’t rush to man the till when a certain someone else came through the door,” she said, smirking.

“What?” Sero, predictably, whipped his head around to look throughout the store. He couldn’t see Todoroki’s stand out hair, and he was 99% certain that he hadn’t delivered anything to his table. That could only mean one thing.

“Fuuuck,” he groaned, bumping his head on the counter and leaving it there. “I missed him, didn’t I?”

“Yup,” Mina said, popping the p. “Can’t believe you did, you usually have eyes like a hawk, but you were so focused on something in the corner you just breezed right past him.

“Gale force wind-ed right past him, I think you mean,” corrected Kaminari, leaning back against the counter. There was a lull in customers at the current point in time, a line of only two and no one waiting for takeaways. 

“Yeah, you were moving like you were on fire or something? What were you even doing?” Mina asked.

“Oh, uh, nothing really.” If they teased him about Todoroki, they’d definitely tease him about this. Hell, he and Mina had teased Kaminari about still playing Pokémon Go for a month, they’d never let him live this down. Chess was way older than Pokémon Go, after all.

“Suure,” Mina drawled, hoisting herself up to sit on the back counter, even though they all knew Yaomomo would scold her if she caught sight of it. 

“What?”

“Ooo, he’s getting defensive! It’s gotta be something juicy!” Kaminari chipped in grinning like a hyena.

“It really isn’t,” Sero said, shaking his head and looking around for some menial task to occupy himself with so he could escape the conversation, now that he’d currently delivered all the waiting orders that needed to be delivered.

“Well it’s gotta be, if it made you completely miss Todoroki ordering so you could go do whatever you were doing,” Mina said.

“I can’t believe I missed himmm,” Sero whined again, adding in a couple of breath hitches for dramatic effect and shaking his shoulders as if he were crying. 

“Yeah, and it looked like he was looking for you in the back, too.”

“Kaminari! Don’t rub it in, I get it, I’m a dumbass.” 

“The biggest,” Mina agreed, crossing her ankles and swinging her legs.

“So you gonna tell us what it was?” 

“No.”

“Fuck you.” Kaminari stuck his tongue out with a sneer.

“Fuck you,” Sero countered, waving as Kirishima walked in, Bakugou in tow. The perfect diversion. “Yo, Kirishima!” 

“Kacchan!” Kaminari immediately perked up, ready to heckle Bakugou, who already looked pissed at the nickname. Apparently it was something Midoriya had called him back when they were kids and lived down the road from each other, and Kaminari had picked up on it and never let him live it down.

As for Midoriya, it seemed to Sero that he and Bakugou had drifted a little. Sure, they still argued like siblings, but they operated in different circles now.

“Eiji! I haven’t seen you in ages !” Mina hopped off the countertop, leaning over the till to try to hug her friend. 

“That’s not my fault! I invited you over to hang literally two days ago, you’re the one who declined.” Kirishima hugged her back, rolling his eyes to Sero.

“Yeah, ‘cuz I had plans with Uraraka! Girl’s night is a very austere event,” she said, pressing a hand to her chest. “I can’t just cancel with no notice! Hoes before bros, you wouldn’t understand.”

At some point during the previous conversation, Uraraka had retreated to the kitchen to help Midoriya with the dishes, but she reappeared, drying her hands with a tea towel. 

“Did you just call me a ho?” she asked, smirking.

“You know it.” Mina winked. “But like, platonically.”

“Are you gonna take our order or not?” Bakugou grumbled, taking Kirishima’s hand in his own in a very un-subtle way.

“Okay maybe you would understand,” Mina conceded as Kirishima leaned over and gave Bakugou’s pout a peck. “But yes, what would you two fine gentlemen like on this fine day?”

“Just the usual for me, Mins.”

“And you, Bakugou?”

“Large caramel hot chocolate, and a savoury muffin.”

“Ooo, good idea.” Kirishima eyed the cabinet. “I’ll grab a brownie slice as well, if that’s okay!” 

“No, it’s not okay, you’re supposed to look at the food, not eat it.” Mina deadpanned. “Of course it’s okay, moron. D’you want it heated?”

“Yes please!”

“Bakugou, do you want yours heated too?” Sero asked while he still had the cabinet open from putting Kirishima’s slice in the microwave.

“Sure.”

“Butter?”

“Whatever.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” Sero put the plate with the muffin down beside the microwave while Mina rang up the order, handing them a number and telling them to go sit down at one of the tables. 

They never did get to finish the conversation about what Sero was doing to cause him to miss Todoroki completely.

Chapter Text

It took until Sero’s fourth move for someone to mess up the board.

He’d come in, excited, only to find the board had been dislodged and the pieces scattered across the shelf. For a moment, he just stared. It was such a stupid thing to be worried about, such a stupid thing to be upset about, but nonetheless, his mind decided to turn on him and shock was the only valid feeling for those few seconds.

But then he came to his senses and set about rebuilding the game. He had, after all, spent all night thinking about it, planning his next move, wondering who he was playing against and what they would do. 

Sure, it had certainly crossed his mind that perhaps he wasn’t playing against one person, but multiple. Perhaps the white pieces were being moved by someone new every day, perhaps he was making it all up and perhaps Mina or Kaminari were doing it to mess with him. He was aware of those possibilities, but in the kindest way possible, he told them to fuck off. He was happy in his little bubble, playing a game against a mysterious stranger, one who was sophisticated and charming and devilishly beautiful. At least, that was his mental image of his opponent. He’d never caught anyone deliberating over the pieces, let alone moving any of them.

Speaking of, he really should set the board back up and play. 

It didn’t feel perfect, but Sero had tried his best, and it was looking at the board and keeping an eye on an enthusiastic child hanging off their mother and begging for a cupcake that gave him an idea.

“Hey, Yaomomo,” he began, leaning against the wall of her office corner. “You know how you’re the bestest boss in the whole country?”

“What have you three done this time?” Yaomomo sighed, though there was definitely a glimmer of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

“What? Oh, no, Mina and Kami have nothing to do with this, we haven’t done anything. Not recently, at least.” Sero shrugged. “I was just gonna ask if I could borrow some sticky notes? Some kids have been making a mess of the games shelves and I don’t want anything to go missing or anything.”

At least it wasn’t entirely a lie.

“Oh, of course!” Yaomomo rooted about in her desk drawers for a moment, producing a pitiful stack of yellow paper squares and a black biro. “I’m sorry there aren’t any more, I really should go restock. Take them all, I’ll grab more on my way home tonight. And you can keep the pen, I have plenty.”

“Thank you Yaomomo!” Sero took them with a grin. “You’re the best boss in the world.”

“Just get back to work, and we’ll pretend that that’s true,” Yaomomo replied with a chuckle.

Back at the shelves, Sero scribbled a note in all capitals that read ‘PLEASE LEAVE THE GAMES IN A TIDY MANNER’ and stuck it to the center of the shelves, before moving onto the chessboard he’d been so interested in the past week. 

He stuck another note to the shelf, this one saying ‘Please don’t touch this chess board, there is a game in progress’, and a third note he stuck to the wall behind the white pieces. This one was just for his opponent.

‘heya! some kids knocked over the pieces, I tried to put them back how they were, sorry if I got anything wrong!! thanks for the game btw’ with a smile in the corner. Better to be safe than sorry.

With a business-like nod, Sero pocketed the stationary in his apron, and resumed his actual job.

The following day, it wasn’t just a new move that was awaiting him. Under the black pawn that had been successfully taken (Sero may or may not have sworn when he saw what his opponent had done), there was a folded yellow square.

Picking it up, Sero unfolded the sticky note, curious. He had to tug a bit at where the glue had stuck to itself, but he got it apart without ripping the paper. The handwriting that met him was incredible, smooth and refined, only proving to reinforce his impression of his opponent as charming and enigmatic.

‘That’s perfectly alright, I noticed nothing out of place. And it should really be me thanking you for this game, after all, you were the one who took me up on the offer. So thank you, I’m really enjoying this.’

After reading the note over three more times and marvelling at the handwriting for a little longer, Sero pulled out his small pad of sticky notes and his pen.

‘yes,’ he began, ‘but you were the one who put the offer out in the first place. we wouldn’t be playing if it weren’t for you, and I rarely get the opportunity to play an actual game of chess with someone who knows what they’re doing. congrats on the pawn btw. totally didn’t see that coming.’

His words may or may not have become very cramped towards the end, and he may or may not have had to flip the note over. He doodled a dead cartoon pawn to make up for it, though.

This went on for many more days. Sero would leave a note, and he’d find one in return. Sometimes it was written on the back of the one he’d left, sometimes on another scrap of paper, once even on a napkin. Unused, thankfully. He kept every one.

They started out as idle conversation, small talk about chess. With no context, that sounded incredibly boring. Like, really, really dull. Kaminari certainly agreed, and even Mina was skeptical, upon their discovery.

“Dude. Dude , ” Kaminari insisted, eyes scanning a handful of notes he’d snatched from Sero’s apron before Sero’s shift. “Get yourself a life, goddamn.”

“Hey! Give those back!”

“‘You are certainly a formidable opponent, I can’t seem to predict your moves with any sort of accuracy’ ,” Kaminari quoted, putting on a faux posh accent. A terrible one. “Jesus christ, how droll can you get? Chess!”

“Wait, Sero said that?” Mina leaned over, grabbing a few of the sticky notes and reading them just as fast.

“Nah, the other person did. They’ve got hella neat handwriting.”

“Ooo, they do!” Mina said, flipping over a particularly long note Sero had received in response to how nice it was to have something to look forward to in his work day. “I wish I had handwriting like that, then maybe someone would date me.” She pouted, flipping the note back over. “Where’s the one before this? I wanna know what Sero said to get an essay about monotony and simplicity in return.”

“They’re not dated, you’ll have to try ‘n work it out manually.”

“I said give them back!” Sero made a wild grab for the paper, but Kaminari’s reflexes were far too quick, and he jerked them out of the way before Sero even came close.

“Nuh uh, this is way too much fun,” he said, smirking.

“I thought you just said I was boring,” Sero countered, wrinkling his nose.

“Yeah, I did. You are boring, but you’re also really easy to annoy. It balances out,” Kaminari explained with a shrug.

Sero flipped Kaminari off. “Fuck you, I get enough of this at home.” 

Indeed he did. While he no longer lived with the rest of his family, Sero had grown up as one of four, and while he wasn’t the oldest, his younger brother and one of his elder sisters loved nothing more than to get under his skin. They treated rilling him up as some sort of hobby or pass time, frequently saying how much fun it was. Sero couldn’t disagree more, and lived in fear of the day they teamed up with Kaminari.

“Oh but you’re not at home, are you Sero dearest?” Mina pointed out, batting her eyelids. “And thus we have taken upon ourselves the monumental task of making sure you feel safe and comfortable and welcomed into this family, and to make you feel as if you never left home in the first place. You’re welcome.”

“Just give the notes back or I’m telling Uraraka you eat the marshmallows when she’s not looking.”

“You wouldn’t!” Mina gasped.

“I would. Now give.”

“Spoilsport.” She handed them over, though reluctantly, sticking her tongue out. 

“You too.” Sero eyed Kaminari, raising a brow.

Kaminari raised his chin, as if that made him look intimidating despite the good fifteen centimeters between his height and Sero’s. “I fear nothing.”

“Not even me showing Yaomomo the snapchats you sent me when you started working here?” Sero replied without missing a beat.

“I fear one thing,” Kaminari replied, repeating the movement with his chin.

“Exactly.” Sero made grabbing motions with his hand. “Now give.”

“It’s the notes or the man, loverboy, you can’t get both.”

“What?” Sero looked at him in confusion, shaking his head. 

“Your man’s behind you, at the till. There’s only so long Mina can stall before she has to serve him. You’re lucky Uraraka’s not here else he’d already be gone.” Kaminari shrugged innocently.

“Oh ha ha, I’m not falling for that.”

“Dude, I’m not kidding.” The tone in Kaminari’s voice almost made Sero turn around to double check, but he was strong. He wasn’t going to fall for it. 

“Just like you weren’t kidding the other hundred times?”

“Okay, it’s funny though, you gotta admit that.”

“Not for me!”

“Hey Sero!” Mina called from the till. “Someone’s asking for you!”

Sero whipped around, cursing himself as he did it, because he knew they were ganging up on him and trying to get him to stumble. He’d tried so hard to resist, but ultimately he’d given in.

“Shut up, st- oh.”

“Yeah, oh. I told you I wasn’t lying.” Kaminari shoved the notes back at Sero and deftly removed himself from the situation before any wrath could be brought upon them for arguing out front. The little minx, with his stupid smirk and adorable baby face that got him out of all trouble.

“Uh, hey. Sorry about them.” Sero stuffed the notes into his apron pocket quickly, noticing Todoroki frowning at them. “What can I do for you?”

“Are you okay?” was all Todoroki said, looking at Sero with genuine concern. 

“I- what?” Sero chuckled, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“You sounded like you were… in distress. I thought maybe they were being… they were harassing you, or causing you trouble. I wanted to see if you were okay.” The sincerity in his words was almost overwhelming Sero.

“What, Mina and Kaminari? Nah, man, it’s chill.” Sero chuckled again, this time less nervous and more easygoing. “They cause me trouble every day, but then again, we all cause Yaomomo trouble, and I certainly cause them enough trouble in return.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Sero reassured. “You don’t need to worry. I appreciate it, though. Not many customers would do what you did.” But then again, Todoroki wasn’t like many customers. 

“Oh…” Todoroki’s brow furrowed, and he looked down. “Was I intruding?”

“What? No! No, no, not at all!” Sero shook his head. “I meant that, like, most customers wouldn’t care about the staff, let alone come see if I was alright.”

“You’re human too,” Todoroki huffed, eyeing the body of the cafe.

Shrugging, Sero leaned up against the till, since there was currently no one else waiting to order anything. “Yeah, but some people seem to forget that sometimes. It sucks, but hey, that’s the food industry for you.”

“I won’t forget.”

And god did that make Sero’s heart do all sorts of things. 

“S-Sero?”

Yup. More things. Lots more things.

“You’re really red, are you okay?”

Todoroki was leaning in to be closer, and Sero felt like his heart was about to undergo nuclear fission—or at least it would if Todoroki got any closer—so he quickly straightened up, coughed, and tried to excuse himself from the situation without looking like a complete asshole.

“Uh, yeah- I’m- I’m fine, I’m fine. Just-” He cleared his throat. “Just a hot flush. Might… uh, go grab some water. Yeah. S-see you.”

Because that was totally normal and completely not a disaster at all.

It wasn’t long until spring seeped its way into the little tearoom.

Flowers all but exploded into life and colour in the cafe, blanketing the nooks and crannies with soft pink petals, larger red ones, purple buds that the kids liked to flick at each other, yellow daisy-like things that Uraraka stuck behind her ear and Mina in her curls like two horns. It was Sero’s favourite time of year, seeing the cafe like this. 

And of course, the game of chess was still going strong. With two pawns apiece, a rook taken by Sero and a bishop and extra pawn by his opponent, things were certainly getting interesting. Not least to mention the notes.

They’d moved past small talk by now, onto discussing deeper topics like their families, their pasts, their hopes for the future. And no, Kaminari, they were not talking about taxes. Find a more creative boring thing to mention.

The notes had long since evolved past singular sticky notes. Sero may or may not have snaffled a spare roll of receipt paper to hide in the corner of the shelf, and both he and his opponent took as much as they needed for their respective notes (were they even notes any more? Or were they letters?) which were then usually tucked under a corner of the board, or, if circumstances allowed, under a felled piece.

Today’s continued the conversation they were having about where they’d learned chess. Sero’s eldest sister had been in a chess club for a few years at school, and she’d taught him the basics. His grandfather had taught him the rest of what he knew (albeit not all too much more) on the old ivory set he had at his house.

Apparently, his opponent had learned from his mother, but hadn’t played in a while. Sero had asked why.

‘My mother… has not been around for a while.’ The note read in the same elegant script as always. ‘My father sent her to a hospital when I was very young, and I am never with her for more than a day. My siblings never cared for the game, and my father never cared for frivolities, and there’s only so many games you can play against your phone until you miss the pieces themselves. Playing this game with you has been bittersweet, in a way. Reminding me of her, of what I’ve missed, but also reminding me of her warmth. She may have loved the winter, but her heart was just as kind as yours.’

Pressing a hand to his mouth, Sero glanced around, as if anyone was watching him closely enough to see his blush and the grin he couldn’t contain. He read the note over twice more, heart both breaking at the insight into his opponent’s life he was given, and growing from their words to him. 

He pulled his pen out, fishing around for the paper and considering what to write for a moment.

‘man, that sounds awful. sorry, that probably reads as really insincere. I’ve never been all that good at putting my reassurance to words, I’m better at hugs. If I could include a hug in this note I would. but yeah, that sounds crap, and I’m sorry you had to go through all that. but I’m at least a little happy that I can remind you of your mother, she sounds amazing. of course she is, if she’s your mother, she must be at least as amazing as you are.’ There were never any rules saying Sero couldn’t flirt back, and besides, all his words were true. ‘like sure I’ve never met you (that I’m aware of), but we’ve talked a bunch like this, so I kinda feel like I know you. hope that isn’t overstepping any boundaries or anything. and just for the record—I’m always up for a game, though at this rate, I think you’re gonna be winning all the time’

With the pen between his teeth, Sero ripped his note off from the roll, folding it in half and in half again and tucking it under his opponent’s side of the board. That gave him a thought—he had no idea what to refer to the other as, let alone their pronouns. So he reached again for the paper, and wrote another quick note after moving his piece (just his rook forwards a couple of spaces, part of a longer term plan that would hopefully draw out one of his opponent’s bishops into the striking range).

‘oh! also, idk what to call you. my friends ask about you a bunch, and I’ve just kinda been referring to you as the person I’m playing chess against, with they/them pronouns, but that might be wrong. at least, I’m pretty sure that’s not your name lmao. you don’t have to tell me your given name or anything, it can just be a nickname. like I’m cellophane, he/him pronouns’

He slid that note under his first and decided to call it a day.

Well, a day playing chess. There were still the last few customers of the day to serve, and the cleanup to be done. 

“Oi, Uraraka!” he called, jogging back over to the till. “That was gonna be my sandwich!”

“First come first served!” she called back, taking an overly large bite of the filled roll and wrinkling her nose at him.

Sho. Sero couldn’t tell if that was a nickname or not. Still, it was perfect. Every goddamn thing about him was perfect, it wasn’t fair. He wanted to be called Sho, and he used he/him pronouns, though he’d admitted that they/them were beginning to grow on him. 

‘May I ask why Cellophane? It’s an unusual nickname, I suspect it has a story to go with it.’

It did indeed. A story that involved (to no one’s surprise) Kaminari and Mina, and even Kirishima and Bakugou made guest appearances in the memory.

Sero couldn’t remember the reason it’d happened, but then again, he had been slightly tipsy, Mina had been slightly tipsy, Kaminari had been very tipsy, and the one brain cell in the group was fast asleep on his boyfriend’s shoulder, and Kirishima didn’t look far behind, so maybe there hadn’t even been a reason in the first place.

However, what there had been was copious amounts of packing tape (Kaminari was moving, it was a ‘house colding’ party, if he remembered correctly. Saying good riddance to the crappy apartment he’d been living in and celebrating with alcohol), a movie with a mummy in it (they had the tv on, but it wasn’t like anyone was watching it. A mummy appeared at some point and that was all Sero could remember), and, well. It had seemed a good idea at the time.

It took two rolls to cover Sero, and that was excluding his head. Two rolls, a lot of laughter, and a complete loss of mobility besides inching around the barren apartment floor like a caterpillar. 

No regrets. Not even when he lost almost all the hair on his legs after they pulled the tape off (Kirishima was the only one trusted with the scissors to cut Sero free, and he could only cut so much), not even when the pizza guy looked like he was going to call the cops to report a soon to be murder, and not even when it earned Sero the nickname Cellophane man. Hence, Cellophane. It was still a regularly used nickname, especially by Bakugou, even though he hadn’t been awake for ninety percent of the event. 

‘you suspected right, there is a story. It’s a dumb one tho, so I’ll try summarise. me n a bunch of friends got kinda drunk one night a year or two ago, and we decided to wrap me in packing tape because one of the friends was moving and had a heap of it left over. hurt like a bitch to get it all off, but it was funny. see, I told you it’d be dumb.’

He scanned the rest of Sho’s note, reading over his reply.

‘Don’t worry, no boundaries have been overstepped. At least, none that I didn’t want you to step over. Thank you for caring, and you’re not the only one who feels they know the other because of this. Though I must say, I think you’re thinking far too highly of me, I’m not as incredible as you’re making out.

‘– Sho’

Sero rolled his eyes and put his pen back to paper, reassurance spilling out in what looked to be barely more than chicken scratch compared to Sho’s words. 

‘nah, you’re not as incredible as I said, you got that right. you’re more incredible. like, so amazing I can’t actually put it to words. as we both said, we’ve never really met each other, that we’re aware of, but what is meeting for other than to get to know the other, which we’re doing perfectly fine like this. so I’m gonna try to put it to words. It’s gonna be shit, because I can’t write, but I’m still gonna try.’  

Man, this was going to be a long note.

‘you’re so sincere. the way you write conveys such emotion, such truth, it’s… it’s amazing. and for the past however long’ (Sero had lost track of how long they’d been playing. A month at least) ‘you’ve given me something to look forward to every day. like sure, I love my job, but talking to you, playing this game, reading your words, it’s my favourite part of the day. and you’re so open to everything. you’re actually talking to me, actually reading this, actually replying with your own thoughts and feelings. we may not have met each other, but I still feel close to you. geez, sappy much, huh?’

Chapter Text

“FUCK! My knight!”

More than a few heads turned in the tearoom—including Kaminari and Mina—as Sero whacked his head against the doorframe to the kitchen, groaning.

“What?” Kaminari had his arms laden with plates of food to deliver as he brushed past, shaking his head.

“Is this about that chess game you’ve been playing for months?” Mina had a tea towel in her hand, drying off clean mugs and stacking them neatly by the coffee machine.

“No Mina, I mean the actual knight with the full suit of armour and sword and horse that I have at home.” Sero deadpanned, head still against the doorframe. “Of course it’s the chess game.”

“Good lord, how long does a single game of chess last?” 

“They’re not short, Mins. There’s a lot of strategising and shit.”

“They’re not exactly long, either,” Mina countered.

“Perhaps when you play them.” Sero peeled his forehead from the wood and slumped against the counter. “But actual chess players don’t give up halfway through or make new rules for the pieces because they’re bored.”

“Ooo, look at you, Mr fancy ‘Actual Chess Player’,” Mina teased, ducking into the kitchen to grab another mug.

“Shut up.”

“You must be almost done, though. Right?”

“Eh.” Sero shrugged his shoulders. “I mean, yeah, there’s only so long a game can go on for, but I kinda get the feeling neither of us wants to stop playing, so we’re not always doing the most productive of moves.”

“So you’re still passing notes, right?”

“Yup. And no, you can’t read them.”

“Damn it. You’re like a naughty junior school kid or something, being all sneaky and covert.”

“So what about this knight?” Kaminari reappeared, putting the wooden order numbers he’d collected on his rounds back onto the stack by the till. 

“Ah, nothing really.” Sero shook his head, dismissing it. “Just made a stupid move and completely forgot about Sho’s bishop. Fuuck, that’s gonna put him in a good position to get my queen as well. Nooo…” He buried his face in his hands.

“Just go move it. Re-do whatever you did but better.” Kaminari suggested, looking a little confused.

Sero peeked at him from between his fingers. “What? No!” 

“Why not? It’s not like he’s gonna know or anything,” Kaminari said with a shrug of his own.

“But that’s- that’s dishonest!” In complete honesty, the thought of doing such a thing hadn’t even crossed Sero’s mind the entire game.

“How do you know he hasn’t been doing it this whole time?” Mina chipped in, a soft clink punctuating her words as she put yet another mug down. Such was the aftermath of the midday rush.

“I…” Sero blinked. “I don’t-”

“Exactly! Just go re-do your turn!” Kaminari said, as if it were that simple.

“Dude, let me finish talking. I don’t know that Sho hasn’t been doing that, but I trust him. No- don’t laugh, please.” He sighed in exasperation.

Kaminari did not heed Sero’s request. “Bro, it’s literally just a game of chess. It doesn’t matter.” 

“It matters to me, and I’m sure it matters to Sho,” he harrumphed, crossing his arms.

“Fine, don’t change it then.” Mina stared down at her cup, brows raised.

“I won’t,” Sero said.

“Good.”

The silence that followed was certainly not the most comfortable silence Sero had found himself in before, but at least it wasn’t as bad as that one time he walked in on Kirishima and Bakugou before they’d told anyone about their relationship statuses. 

“So, uh, anyone gonna take that kind gentleman’s order?” Kaminari said, busying himself with the cabinet food once more

“Oh, shit, yeah,” Sero pushed past Mina (who still had her hands full) to man the till. “Sorry for the wait! How may I help you today?”

The first thing Sero noticed when he went to check the chessboard several days later was that there was something that was conclusively not a chess piece sitting in the center. Sure, the usual note was tucked under a fallen pawn (the knight was long out of the game by now), but there was what seemed to be a small bunch of flowers between the pieces.

Bemused, he picked the bundle up, turning it over in his hands. Sho had obviously snaffled the flowers from around the cafe, because Sero recognised all of them. But still. There were pale yellow buds and white bursts of petals, a few pinker blossoms, some greenery to fill in the gaps, all tied up with a piece of twine that Sero suspected also technically belonged to Yaomomo. Not like she’d notice or care that much about it.

It really wasn’t much, in the grand scheme of things. Just a few flowers and some string, but oh, it was so much more.

Putting the flowers back down (gently, so as not to crush them. He’d put some water in a jar when he got home so try keep them a little longer, or maybe he’d press them. Or perhaps both), Sero picked up the note.

‘I suppose I’m not all that dissimilar to you, in that regard. I too have come across somewhat of an impasse regarding my future. I don’t know where I want to go or how to get there, so I’ve been… floating. I have qualifications, but I’m unsure what to do with them. I’ve recently been toying with the idea of a bookstore, but to do so alone would be difficult, and I have no experience working with customers.’ They’d been talking about what they wanted to do in life, and just like Sho, Sero had no fucking clue. Though he’d worded it a lot less gracefully than Sho had, more along the lines of yes, literally no fucking clue.

But a bookshop… that got him thinking. Working in a quaint little store like Dormouse Cafe and Tearoom was one thing, but owning one? That was another. And it certainly wasn’t a bad thing.

Owning one with Sho, though… Okay, he was probably getting a little too ahead of himself there. But… having an apartment above the shop, downstairs filled with a maze of old bookshelves, maybe even a cat that lay around in the sun. Waking up to the smell of old pages, playing chess in real time… 

So about that getting a little too ahead of himself.

Sero shook his head to clear his mind and continued reading.

‘If it were to happen, I’d want someone by my side. Not least because I’ve been told I’m not the best at social interaction.You’re going to try disagree, I feel, but there is a reason I talk to you through these notes, Cellophane, and have not sought you out to speak face to face. I am far more confident as a pen on paper, however unforgiving this slowly diminishing roll is to the ink. And because I am far more confident here, I thought perhaps I should return a favour you gave me weeks ago, when you tried to tell me how incredible I was. I, too, find that words are too restricting to convey such a fact, so hopefully my gift will suffice. I hope you can forgive me for stealing the plants, as well.

‘Yours, Sho’

Oh.

Oh.

“Guys?” Sero was running a hand through his hair, tugging at it once he reached the nape of his neck, looking down at the flowers and note in his free hand. “I have… a problem.”

“Wasn’t my fault!” Kaminari said 

“Punch it,” Mina replied at the same time.

“What, no, guys. I’m being serious.”

“Yeah, so was I.” Kaminari turned around, cloth and surface cleaner in hand.

“I still think you should punch it,” Mina replied, once again stacking mugs and teacups.

“Can you guys be serious for literally one moment?” Sero dragged a hand down his face, groaning.

Kaminari moved to a different table. “Probably not, but we can try.”

“If you want serious, Yaomomo’s out back doing some shit with money and stuff, and I think she’s trying to put Midoriya on the payroll.” Mina chuckled. “Good luck to her, he’ll probably just tip all the money back. We’re gonna need a bigger tip jar.”

“Ignore her. Spill. I got your back, man.”

“Thank you, Kaminari,” Sero sighed.

“I’m listening too. We’re here for you, Cellophane, even if we do like winding you up.” Mina came over and nudged him gently with her elbow, smiling.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“So what’s this problem, and does it have anything to do with the flowers in your hand? They’re very pretty, by the way. Did Todoroki-kun give them to you?”

Sero just shot Mina a glare from the corners of his eyes.

“Sorry, sorry. Serious time, got it. Henceforth, there shalt but be no tomfoolery.”

“Nice interpretation of ‘serious time’, Mina,” Sero quipped, but it still brought the hint of a smile to his face. “But yeah, it does have to do with the flowers. And with Todoroki.”

“Sero, you good? You sound really down. If I got flowers I wouldn’t shut up about them.” Kaminari looked up from the table he was wiping to meet Sero’s eyes.

“I know, I know.” Sero tapped the back of his fist against his empty hand repeatedly, looking off to the games shelves in the corner. 

“Ooh, it’s a Sho thing,” Mina worked out, following his gaze.

“Yeah. Sho gave me these flowers, and…” Sero sighed again, looking at his feet. “It’s stupid, it’s so stupid, I know. I haven’t even met the guy! But… he’s so sweet. So kind, and so caring, and so interesting, I just- I can’t help it.”

Mina and Kaminari shared a glance. Sero didn’t care enough to try to work out what it meant.

“You know,” Mina began, putting down the teacup in her hand and making her way over to stand by Sero and offer him support both mentally and physically. “You don’t always have to meet someone to have feelings for them. Tinder exists. And before you say something about how Tinder is dumb—because it is—that was just an example. People make friends over things like Twitter or Discord all the time, and that’s text based. People meet partners, and sure, sometimes it doesn’t work, but sometimes it does. Just because you’ve never met Sho face to face doesn’t mean you can’t know him, can’t care for him. It’s valid.”

“I met Shinsou through Tumblr,” Kaminari said. “Like sure, it’s Tumblr, but we’re still best friends. I didn’t even know what he looked like for a good couple of years, and you know the first time I met him in real life was last year. You were there when we went to the airport. Just because we met by talking to each other via the written word doesn’t mean I don’t care for him any less.”

“In a way,” Mina continued, “it kinda makes the feelings more… more real. More genuine. You don’t like Sho because he’s hot, or cute, or pretty, you don’t like him because of how he looks. You like him because he’s… Sho. You like him for who he is as a person, not what he looks like as one.”

“Thanks. Both of you. But that’s… that’s the problem. I like Sho, but I also like Todoroki.” Sero tilted his head back, staring at the ceiling. “God, why do I always have to fall for the unattainable guys?”

“I think the bouquet in your hand would beg to disagree,” Kaminari pointed out, finished with the tables and moving onto the countertop. 

“If it’s Sho not liking you that you’re worried about, I don’t think you need to worry. A bouquet like that isn’t all that platonic,” Mina reassured.

“But that’s the problem ,” Sero insisted. “Sho, or Todoroki? I don’t- I don’t want to hurt Sho’s feelings, and I like him, I really, really like him, but Todoroki’s just… Todoroki. He’s pretty and he’s caring, and seeing him smile always makes me smile. I can’t- I don’t- what do I do?”

Mina took a deep breath, thinking. Kaminari was silent as well. A rare commodity.

“I… I think…” Mina both looked and sounded like she was piecing together her sentence as it exited her mouth. “I think you need to take the time to yourself and… and work out A, if you want to pursue either of them, and B, which one you’d rather pursue. I… I’m not the best person to ask.”

“Yeah, I don’t really know either,” Kaminari said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Relationships are complicated, man. Kudos to you for even thinking about it.”

“Aren’t you the one always complaining that you’re single?” Mina said, smirking at Kaminari.

“Yeah but I don’t wanna have all the stress! I just want the smooches and the cuddles.”

“Attention whore.”

“You know it.”

Well, at least they were taking his mind off the problem at hand.

Chapter Text

Sero had left his own collection of flowers, but they were gone by the time his next shift had begun. There had been no blooms in return for his bundle of pink, yellow, and that one blue vine-like plant that was trying to grow up the wall. A note, yes, but no flowers. 

He was okay with that, it made the bouquet he’d received all the more special. He’d replied, moved his piece (taking Sho’s other rook, finally), and started work, still with his problem afresh in his mind.

It didn’t really go away for days. Seeing Todoroki only made it worse, especially since he’d started talking to Sero a lot more when he took his order. Nothing much, just checking in, asking how he was, offering a friendly face and a soft smile.

God, Sero was only digging himself into a deeper hole at this point. But then again, maybe Todoroki didn’t like him like that. Maybe he was making stuff up, and he had no chances with the guy, and that would fix it all for him.

But that relied on him saying something to Todoroki about his own feelings, and currently, that was so far out of the question it didn’t know there was a question. 

His only release came when Kirishima approached him on his break one day, sitting beside him on the steps out back by the delivery drop off. 

“Hey man. ‘Nari said you were having like, relationship problems, or something? He didn’t say what, but he told me ‘n Kats, ‘cuz he said it really sounded like you wanted a hand, and neither he or Mins could help much.”

“Hey. Yeah.” For the umpteenth time that week, Sero sighed. “I… What do you do when you fall for someone? How do you know it’s the real thing?”

“Oh, man, asking the hard questions.” Kirishima leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to dump it all on you.”

“Nah, it’s fine. It’s manly to talk about feelings, and besides, it’s not like I’m not expecting it. I basically asked you to dump it all on me.”

“Still.” Sero shrugged.

“I guess… it’s a gradual thing, but, like, sudden at the same time. At least, that’s how it was with Katsuki. It takes time, getting to know them, who they are, what they like, what they’re all about. And I guess the really confusing bit about it is that you don’t really realise until it’s happened. It can be months of you falling, but you don’t realise until you hit the bottom. It’s- it’s like boiling a frog.”

“Kirishima, I love you, but what the fuck.” Sero laughed, turning to look at his friend.

“Okay, yeah, I admit that sounds hella whack.” Kirishima laughed too, shaking his head. “But bear with.

“You know the old, like, saying or whatever? The ‘how to boil a frog’ thing. If you put a frog into boiling water, it’s gonna jump right out, but if you put a frog in cold water and slowly heat it up, it’s not gonna realise until it’s too late, and tada, you have a boiled frog. My point is that you don’t always notice the process, but you realise once it’s done. Once you’ve fallen. And that can mess with you, making it seem all sudden and shit, like you don’t actually care. But you do. I did. I still do. I didn’t realise I liked Katsuki as much as I did until… until I realised I was basically in love with him. And I know that’s not gonna happen for everyone, some people aren’t that lucky, but that’s how it happened for me, and I’m pretty sure something similar happened for Kats.”

Sero was silent, processing his words.

“Fuck, I didn’t even answer your question. I’m useless, I’m so sorry.”

“No, no, it’s okay. You answered a question I was too afraid to ask, so that’s gotta count for something,” Sero said.

“Still, crap move on my behalf. You asked what to do when you fall for someone, and I started rambling about the actual falling, not the consequences. D’you still wanna hear my take on the consequences?” Kirishima turned to look at Sero.

“If you have the time.”

“I have literally all day, it’s you who’s on a schedule here. But anyway, what to do once you’ve fallen for someone…” Kirishima trailed off, obviously thinking.

“First off, I’d recommend working out if you even have a chance. Like, are they even into guys. Not just you, but guys in general. Don’t try ask out a lesbian or a straight guy, that’s not gonna go well.”

“Oh, I know,” Sero raised his eyebrows and nodded his head towards the ground.

“Right, yeah, I forgot about that. She forgave you, right?” 

“Duh, she was laughing seconds after my confession. We still chat.”

“That’s cool to hear. But yeah, work out if they’re into guys, and then… work out if they’re into you . I assume you’re already close to them, since this seems to be way too serious of a talk for someone hot you saw in the supermarket last week.”

“Uh, yeah, relatively close. We’re… friends.”

“You hesitated.”

“It’s complicated. Not just the friendship, the whole thing.” Sero waved his hand in the air vaguely.

“Care to elaborate?” Kirishima looked over at him again, but Sero didn’t meet his gaze.

“Not really? At least, not yet.”

“You keep your secrets, then, mystery man. It’s chill. So yeah. You’re close, if you’ve figured out they like guys, try figure out if they like you. And then just… ask them out.”

Sero stared Kirishima in the eye with the most deadpan expression he could manage.

“…Yeah that’s not good advice.”

“No shit,” Sero scoffed. “It is, though. It’s just…”

“Hard.”

“Yeah.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the breeze tumble about the blossoms it’d stolen from the trees that lined the road. 

“I know it’s hard.” Kirishima bumped Sero with his shoulder. “It’s really hard. Fuckin’ terrifying. But I hope it’s worth it. And there’s really only one way to find out.”

“But what if there’s two?” Sero mumbled, barely audible to himself, let alone Kirishima.

“Hm?”

“What if there’s two?”

“Two what?” Kirishima looked confused. Sero left him to figure it out himself. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Sero nodded, biting his lip.

“Fuck, man. That’s tough.”

“Yeah,” Sero repeated. “And I- I don’t know what to do. I like them both, but I know them in different ways, if that makes any sense. It’s like-” he sighed. “I know the first from one angle, and the second from a different angle. And I like them both. Sometimes I think I should just stop being stupid and confess to the second guy because I know I like him, and I know I like him for all the right reasons. But then I think about losing the first guy and I just- I don’t want to lose him. I don’t want to lose either of them, but I want more than what we have.”

“You’re not polyamourous, are you?” Kirishima asked. “Sorry if that’s a little …forward.”

“‘S fine. And I don’t really know. Pan, yeah, but poly? I haven’t thought I was, but that thought’s been crossing my mind a lot recently. But I don’t- it doesn’t feel right. Nothing against poly people in the slightest, I just don’t think I’m one of them.”

“Understandable.” Kirishima nodded. “If I may ask, though, what exactly do you mean you like him ‘for all the right reasons’?” 

“It’s like… it’s like I know I like him because he’s him, y’know? I can be sure I don’t just like him because he’s cute, or because he’s beautiful, or because he always smiles at me. I’m attracted to who he is as a person, not what he looks like,” Sero explained.

Kirishima frowned. “Liking someone because they look good is just as valid, bro. There’s no right or wrong reason for being attracted to someone, each is just as important as the other. If someone has a great personality but looks the complete opposite of your type, you’re not gonna wanna date them. Hell, I wouldn’t be with Katsuki if it weren't for his aesthetic appeal. You’re allowed to like someone hot just because they’re hot. And with what you’re telling me, you seem to know at least a little of the cute guy’s personality, too.” He elbowed Sero gently, smiling.

At the contact, Sero continued the motion with his body, thinking about what Kirishima had said and turning his words over in his mind. Deep down, he knew he was right, and a little less deep down, he was wondering why he was even worrying about this in the first place. 

He supposed it was because paining his attraction to Sho as the ‘right’ type of attraction made the choice easier. Made it clearer. Convinced his heart that it would stay in one piece. He clung to the idea because it offered him comfort, but sometimes, comfort wasn’t what was good for you.

“Yeah,” he sighed after figuring himself out. “It’s… you’re right. About all of it. It’s just hard and confusing and doing my head in.”

“Man, you really meant it when you said it was complicated, huh?”

“And this isn’t even the half of it.”

“God, I pity your heart,” Kirishima said. “I was probably completely useless, but I hope I could help in any way at all. Even if it was just to have someone to vent to. This stuff’s hard, and it’ll keep being hard. Relationships are complicated and messy, but that’s what makes them wonderful. I believe in you, dude. You’re an amazing guy, anyone would be lucky to have you.”

Sero smiled at that, giving Kirishima a soft punch in the shoulder, making him tilt sideways at the contact. “Nah, I’m just me. Nothin’ all that special.”

“Well, I think there would certainly be people that disagree with that, Sero. Have a little confidence in yourself, you’d be surprised.”

“Heh, thanks.”

“Go get your mans. Literally. By the sound of it there’s two of them.”

Though it hadn’t solved his problem, Sero’s talk with Kirishima had certainly helped settle his mind, and, to some extent, his heart. He didn’t feel quite as torn as he had done before. Not to say he’d made a decision, but more that he was letting things happen as they happened, not trying to force one thing or another. 

Was he doing so because of Kirishima’s advice, or because he was utterly terrified at the idea of confessing to either Sho or Todoroki? Who knew. He certainly didn’t.

The chess game was nearing its inevitable end, even Sero could tell that. Sure, he still had his queen, a bishop, and a couple of all but useless pawns, but he never got the chance to move any of them.

Every day he’d check the board to find both a note, and a slip of paper that read ‘check’, as Sho backed his king into what would surely become a checkmate. It was a slow process, but one Sero didn’t mind. It just meant more notes.

‘I almost don’t want this to end,’ he wrote one day, looking over at the board. ‘because if it ends, that might mean I don’t get to talk to you anymore, and I don’t want that. you’re going to win, I know you are, and I’m fine with that, I’m just less fine with this all being over. I’ll miss you, I’ll miss this.’

The reply was just as bittersweet, if not more. 

‘Neither. I have realised I care not for the game itself, but for my opponent. The game is a temporary thing, doomed to reach a conclusion any which way, but I don’t want that conclusion to be our conclusion. And hopefully, it won’t be. Perhaps you won’t have to miss me, you won’t have to miss this. I certainly hope neither of us miss the other, for that would mean we are still together, however so that togetherness is.’

But Sero knew they were both just being hopeful. Being romantic, being fantastical. Unless one of them worked up the courage to leave contact information, they were doomed to fall apart. Yes, they could continue to pass notes without the game, but… it felt wrong. To Sero, at least. He got the impression it felt wrong to Sho as well.

At least Kaminari and Mina had somewhat stopped teasing him about it all, and had started trying to sympathise for him.

“You sound like you’re living out some sort of cheesy romance novel or something,” Kaminari said when Sero voiced his fears. 

Somewhat stopped teasing him.

“But gayer,” Mina corrected. “Most romance novels are painfully straight, and this definitely isn’t.”

“No duh, I’m pansexual, literally no relationship I’ve been in or ever will be in can be straight,” Sero said.

“That’s besides the point.” Kaminari waved the thought off. “Your love life is hella interesting and actually exists, mine’s boring.”

“Interesting for you, maybe. Not for me.” Sero wrinkled his nose. “You try living out the ‘plot of a romance novel’, it’s not fun.”

“Yeah, but you always get the guy in the end,” Kaminari countered. “I want the guy. Or girl, I’m not picky.”

“Hey, here’s a wild idea,” Mina said. “You could, I dunno, ask someone out? If you want a partner so badly.”

“But what if they refuse me! I don’t wanna be rejected! At least Sero’s got a backup plan!”

Sero may or may not have whacked Kaminari around the head for that. Gently, though. Just enough to make him duck.

“Neither Sho nor Todoroki are backup plans!” he hissed. “That’s mean, going to one just because the other turned me down.”

“‘S not like you wouldn’t, though,” Kaminari mumbled.

“Dude, even I think that’s a bit harsh.” Mina, thankfully, was backing Sero up.

“Sorry! Sorry, I was joking, but it obviously didn’t come out like that.”

“No kidding.”

“D’you know what you’re gonna do once one of you wins?” Mina asked, deftly changing the conversation topic.

“Not really. I mean, Sho’s gonna win, there’s not much I can do at this point to stop him unless he walks himself into a trap, but given he’s really smart and I currently have no traps, that’s unlikely,” Sero said, grateful to be switching topics at least a little.

“So are you gonna leave him your number?” Kaminari joined in as well.

“Ehhh… not sure.” Sero ran a hand through his hair. “Like obviously, I should, but it’s… it’s weird. He’s like- Sho’s like this… person, this entity who’s kinda otherworldly. Talking on paper is different, texts are… they don’t feel like they’re from the heart as much.”

“Leave him your address then,” Mina suggested. “That way he can send you a letter.”

“What, are we living in the sixteen hundreds now?” Kaminari chuckled a little.

“I get the feeling that that could go horribly wrong, Mins.”

“Oh shit, you’re right. Maybe just stick to the number, then.”

Sero huffed, coming to a conclusion. He knew he’d reach it anyways, despite his grumbling and all his hum-ing and hah-ing. “Yeah, I will. Even if it’s not like that, I still wanna be able to talk to him.”

“That’s the spirit. And hey, maybe you can get Todoroki’s number too! You’ll get all the cute guys,” Kaminari winked. “Ew, why did I do that.”

“I dunno, you’re the one that did it.”

“Gah!” Sero smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand a couple of times.

“Bro, you okay?” Kaminari looked up at him, concerned.

“Yeah, fine. Just peachy. Trying not to stress out too much and over think it all. Todoroki probably isn’t even into me or anything.”

Mina gave him a hug, wrapping her arms around Sero and resting her forehead behind his shoulder. “You just need to stop thinking.”

“Tell that to my brain.” Sero couldn’t exactly hug her back, so he just put his arms over hers and squeezed slightly.

“Do you want a Mina speciality hot chocolate to take your mind off it all?”

“How many shots of espresso can one of them fit?” Sero asked, only half joking.

“Oh ha ha.” Mina unwound her arms from around him. “Here, lemme make you one. All costs on me. That is, if we get charged for it.” Yaomomo was usually pretty lenient with the staff making themselves drinks, so long as they didn’t do it every five minutes. She’d turn a blind eye towards the costs so long as they were reasonable.

“Hey,” Kaminari elbowed Sero. “After all this, you can play me at chess. I promise I won’t flip the board again. But only if you’ve got a boyfriend by then.”

“Thanks, guys. Really. It’s such a dumb thing to get worked up over, you guys are too nice about it.”

“We’re your friends, Cellophane, it’s our job to care,” Kaminari said as he wiped down the back counter from a previous spillage that none of them had bothered to properly clean up. It was only water, so it didn’t go sticky or anything, and thus it hadn’t made it onto the list of ‘things that have to be done now’ at the time.

“Besides, weren’t you the one who baked cookies for me when I had a bad breakup? Surely that’s just as stupid as this.” Mina shrugged as she put a mug under the coffee machine, not even watching to check if the dark liquid was going to go into it (it did, thankfully) before she was off to grab more unnecessary ingredients.

“You have a point,” Sero said, leaning up against the till. The cafe was quiet at this time in the afternoon, just the three of them, and a smattering of customers, regulars and strangers alike. 

It was one of the customers that cleared their throat from behind Sero, obviously wanting to get his attention, but not wanting to be rude about it.

Somewhat startled, Sero turned, smiling and averting his eyes for a moment when he saw who it was. “Todoroki, hi.”

“Hello, Sero.” Todoroki’s smile was small but undeniable. He wasn’t one for grinning.

“I thought you’d already ordered. Do you want a refill?” 

“No, that’s okay. I did already order. Thank you for the tea, it’s as good as ever.” Sero got the feeling he was stalling something. What, he had no clue, but it was making his heart flutter and he may or may not have tried to subtly brace himself against the countertop.

“Oh, uh, thanks. Um… if you’re not here to order, may I ask w- why you’re here?”

Todoroki’s tongue darted out to wet his lips and he looked away for a moment. Definitely stalling. “I came to tell you something.”

Sero’s heart almost stopped.

“I- uh-”

“Checkmate.”

Scrap that, Sero’s heart did stop.

If he was speechless before, that was nothing compared to now. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out, and he just ended up looking at his feet and trying not to fall over.

“Sho?” he finally managed to breathe.

Todoroki was pink, and Sero suspected he was bright red. He certainly felt it.

“Y-yeah.” Todoroki’s hand went up to scratch at the back of his head, beneath his bun. 

“Oh my god. Oh my god!” Sero brought a hand up to his mouth. “Oh my god. Holy fuck.”

Todoroki looked up at him, eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly. “I’m sorry, I-”

“No no no no no, don’t be sorry, don’t be sorry. I’m just- surprised. Really surprised.”

“But you’re not…”

“No, no. Good surprised. Really fucking good surprised. Todo- Sho- I… fuck, can I kiss you?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back in, or that the floor would open up and swallow him whole, please and thank you. At least Mina and Kaminari seemed to be keeping their distances. 

“Jesus christ Hanta, what are you saying! Sorry, I am so sorry, that was dumb-”

“Yes.” Todoroki—Sho?—interrupted him. “I mean, the counter is kind of in the way, but- yes. You can… kiss me.”

Sero held up a finger. “Gimme one moment, I’ll be right back.” Then he dropped to a crouch below the counter and fucking squealed into his hands, because what the fuck.

Turns out letting the universe do what it wanted to was the perfect plan, because now he didn’t have to decide between Sho or Todoroki, because they were the same fucking person. Honestly now he knew, he should’ve seen it coming a mile away. Todoroki was the only regular who reliably visited every day, he spoke in a very similar manner to how he wrote, and of course he knew how to play fucking chess, he was Todoroki, he was literally perfect.

After that was all over and done with, Sero took a breath to steady himself and stood up again abruptly, hands slicing through the air in front of him almost like he was pulling open curtains.

“I’m back.”

“Are you… okay?” Todoroki looked confused, but he was still smiling. Still blushing. Still beautiful, and Sero still wanted to kiss him.

“I am… amazing. I think I may have gone mad from the stress or something but hey, I’m not exactly complaining.”

Todoroki laughed, and goddamn, Sero fell in love all over again. 

“Fuck. That’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.” Sero stared at him in disbelief. “I need to kiss you. I’m going to combust if I don’t kiss you.”

“Then kiss me.” As to the point as ever. Sero expected nothing less from him.

“Bet.”

It took Sero far, far too long in his opinion to get around the counter and to the same side as Todoroki. And yes, he was running.

Running so much that he practically threw himself at the other, colliding and immediately grabbing his face with both hands to kiss him.

And it was… perfect. Just like the rest of Todoroki.

Sure, neither of them could hold the kiss for longer than a couple of seconds for how much they were smiling, sure, it landed a little off center, sure, Sero’s elbows were getting completely squished between him and Todoroki, but it was perfect.

Todoroki’s lips were soft and warm and tasted like cinnamon tea or something along those lines, and he’d put his hands on Sero’s waist, and they were warm as well, and solid and real and holding him, pulling him in for another kiss, not anyone else.

Todoroki. Sero was kissing Todoroki, who was also Sho. His Sho. The one that gave him flowers and spilled his past and reassured him, the one that came to ask if he was okay after arguing with his friends, the one that smiled at him across the cafe, the one he was kissing in the middle of said cafe.

“Holy fuck,” Sero whispered as they finally parted, both still smiling, both still holding the other, resting their foreheads together. “You’re Sho.”

“It’s Shouto , actually. But yeah. I’m Sho. And you’re Cellophane.”

“You knew, didn’t you?” Not that Sero cared that much anymore. He felt quite safe in saying it had all worked out pretty darn well.

“Yeah. I did. But I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Well, I think you did pretty well as it was. I mean sure, I got a bit of a heart attack, but I also got to kiss you, so really, who am I to complain?”

Todoroki—Shouto—laughed again, a soft, breathy chuckle that Sero couldn’t help but join in on. 

“God, you’re so… amazing,” he said, shaking his head against Todoroki’s, and letting his hands fall onto his shoulders. “I can’t believe this.”

“I’m not the only amazing one. Not when you’re beside me.” Todoroki reached one of his own hands up, tilting Sero’s chin so they were looking into each other's eyes. Sero could stare at those eyes all day.

And then they were kissing again, longer this time. Sero couldn’t say he didn’t expect it. 

People were probably staring, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t care, not at this point. The men of his dreams turned out to be the man of his dreams, and a really fucking good kisser, as well. 

“Get a roooom!” Came an all too familiar voice, while Kaminari wolf whistled. At least they’d held off for that long. 

“So,” Sero said, once they’d split apart again, taking Todoroki’s hands in his own. “About that bookstore?”