Work Text:
Katsuki hears the muffled crying just as he's locking up the coffee shop for the night.
He holds his keys steady to try and focus on the sound, partially believing that his mind was just on the edge of detonating after covering for Denki turned into a fourteen hour shift.
He looks around, throwing his hood of his jacket over his head when he has to duck out from beneath the awning of the building. He's about to give up, blaming it on his own exhaustion when a trash can in the alleyway rattles against the brick wall.
He slams a fist down on a trash can against the opposing wall.
"Hey! I'm too fucking tired for this shit! Get lost and I don't call the cops or beat your ass!" He growls.
Then, he's positive the crying is for real, because it's followed by shaky breathing.
Katsuki figures that someone waiting to rob the shop after he closes probably wouldn't be crying in the alleyway, so he takes slow, soft steps toward the sound.
He stoops down to look around the bin, and he's met with tearful red eyes that match his own. It's a tiny girl with long white hair, no older than five or six.
She's dressed in a white collar shirt and a clean, red overall dress, so Katsuki deduces that she must be taken care of. Which means, more likely than not, that she's missing.
"Hey, kid. I'm Katsuki." Katsuki starts, keeping his voice low. "Sorry for yelling back there, gotta put on the 'mean guy' front sometimes, ya know?" It's very much not a front in any other circumstance, but Katsuki tries to focus on the matter at hand.
The girl stares at him nervously, hands twisting her skirt.
"What brings you to this alleyway?" Katsuki asks, moving from his crouching stance to sit on the concrete. His pants are covered in flour and coffee grounds anyway. He makes a point to keep enough space between him and the kid.
"I g-got separated from my Daddy at the market. Someone tried to grab me so I just kept r-running."
Katsuki frowns and tries not to seethe, lest he lose his temper again. It's late enough in the Summer that it's not totally dark at 7pm, but this kid definitely shouldn't be by herself.
"What's your name?"
"E-Eri."
"Do you know your Daddy's phone number, Eri?" Katsuki asks, unlocking his phone and sliding it over to the girl.
Eri nods and spouts off her father's name, number and their address with precise quickness, but her hands are too small to hold Katsuki's phone and push the buttons at the same time so she shyly hands it back to him.
As he's typing the number, he hears hurried footsteps approaching them and shifts his body to put Eri behind him. A shorter man rounds the corner so quickly he almost topples over, head full of green, messy curls indicating that he likely ran all the way here.
"ERI!"
"Daddy!" Eri yells, jumping up and running into the mans arms. Well, guess that rules out Katsuki having to identify the guy.
He squishes her against his chest, handing coming up to hold the back of her head.
"Daddy was so scared, pumpkin. I thought I had lost you." He presses a kiss to her head, then opens his eyes to see Katsuki, who raises his hands up in surrender.
"I know what this looks like." Katsuki turns his phone screen to show Izuku's half-typed in phone number. "She said she had lost you. I was trying to get her home."
"Um, t-thank you. It's my fault, we were in a b-b-bad area and I should've kept a better watch on her. It's my fault."
"This is Katsuki, Daddy. He lives at the coffee shop."
Katsuki smiles, "I don't live at the coffee shop, Eri, thank god. I just work here. You know how adults have to go to work?"
"Yeah. It sounds yucky." Eri says, genuinely. Katsuki isn't usually one for kids, but he has to admit that their blatant honesty never fails to he hilarious even when they aren't trying.
"You don't know the half of it, kid." He looks from Eri up to Izuku. "Hope you weren't planning on walking all the way home. It's getting dark, I'll call a cab."
"No, that's okay! We don't live that far!" Izuku says.
Katsuki pulls his keys out of his pocket, making his way to the door of the coffee shop.
"Yes, you do." He says matter-of-factly, winking down at a smiling Eri before turning back to unlock the door. "Brat knows her stuff.”
***
The next day, Katsuki has unsuccessfully tried to forget the pretty green eyes and soft freckles from the night before. He had snuck a blueberry muffin to Eri, listening to Izuku talk about his work at a library and how he had adopted Eri when she was only two from an orphanage he would come and do story time with.
Anytime he talks about the white-haired girl, Izuku smile gets impossibly brighter. Like she managed to save him even when she was too young to pronounce their last name.
It’s a smile Katsuki wants to see more of.
The problem of course is that Katsuki’s head is permanently stuck up his own ass, and he realizes he never even asked for Izuku’s number by the time he’s dragging himself into his apartment.
He’s tired and cranky, neither of which are particularly knew, when he manages to drop an entire bag of sugar into the floor of the kitchen.
“Fuck!” He screams, definitely loud enough that customers could potentially hear. He’ll deal with his boss later if it comes up.
Eijirou sticks his head around the corner, and Katsuki is very much in no mood.
“What the fuck do you want, shitty hair?!”
“Hey dude, you uh- got a visitor?” Eijirou says, and Katsuki sees the head of green curls pop up around him.
“Izuku, hey.“ Katsuki wipes his hands on his jeans and Eijirou raises an eyebrow at how his usually irate friend has visibly softened at his guest.
Katsuki tears his eyes away from Izuku to see the shit-eating grin on Eijirou’s face.
“You gonna take a fucking picture?!”
There’s the Katsuki that Eijirou knows and loves. He smiles and winks at Izuku before leaving the two in the kitchen.
“So, what’s up?” Katsuki asks, leaning back against the refrigerator in a way he hopes is relaxed.
“I just wanted to think you again. Um, you really saved the day. I don’t know what I would have done if I lost Eri.”
“Don’t mention it. Brat’s a good kid. She’s lucky to have you.” Did Katsuki really fucking say that? Stupid Izuku making his stupid brain go stupid. Stupid.
“I-I-I don’t know about that.” Izuku blushes, looking down to the floor.
Katsuki doesn’t like that, but he decides not to dwell on it at the moment.
“I was wondering if… if maybe you’d let me thank you? Maybe we could um… get coffee or something?”
Katsuki smirks, finding enough of his usual smart ass-ness to take a look around the kitchen. “Coffee, huh?”
“That’s dumb, right? God, that’s so dumb. You spend all your time in a coffee shop, I don’t know what I was thinking why would you want to go on a date with me I’m-“ Izuku is going a mile a minute and Katsuki can’t watch this anymore
“Izuku, slow down, okay? No, I don’t really wanna spend more time in a fucking coffee shop than I have to, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t wanna go on a date with your nerdy ass.”
“Did.. D-d-did I say date?” Izuku stutters. Katsuki’s gonna have to work on that.
“Sure did!” Eijirou yells from the other side of the kitchen door and Katsuki rolls his eyes. Izuku looks like a strawberry with his freckles and green hair and how red his face has flushed.
Katsuki beckons Izuku forward, and he takes a shaky step to close the space between them.
Katsuki brings his lips to Izuku’s ear.
“Wouldn’t want to make me think you didn’t like me, huh?” He whispers, smirking when Izuku quickly shakes his head no. “Then I’ll pick you up tomorrow night.”