Chapter Text
Bullshit. This was total bullshit.
The smell of burnt coffee mixed with caramel syrup filled the air of the dimly lit café in a sickeningly bitter-sweet way, small tables and paper menus tinted in a yellowish hue gifted from the lightbulbs that are in desperate need of a change. Stale pastries and decorative cake slices filled the glass display connected to the counter, behind the register stood a slouched figure, half propped up with his arms lazily draped over on countertop in a manner that screamed ‘he would rather be anywhere else then here’.
Jazz music played softly in the background of the café, a drastic contrast from the harsh pounding of rain that could only be comparable to thousands of tiny bullets hitting the windows at the front of the store. The storm darkened everything in its path, making the world outside seem as though it were just a void of nothingness. However, the nothingness of the storm is on par with the equal amount of emptiness inside the cozy coffee shop.
Apart from the soft playing music and overwhelming smells, the shop was completely barren aside from the single barista at the front who wore a polished black apron decorated with a neatly placed name tag that wrote ‘Bakugou’ in handwriting that could only be described as angry, it was matching his current expression. Pale eyebrows scrunched together, and mouth formed into a grimace as he stared aggressively at the loudly ticking clock above the door that read 11:47pm.
He was so tired, studying for midterms on top of work has been insanely stressful and he hasn’t been able to sleep properly in weeks, the darkness under his eyes paired with shaky hands are the consequence of that. At this moment he’d give up literally anything to get to go home and catch up on all the sleep he’s been missing but his shift doesn’t end till 1, that being said the idea of taking a quick nap sounded really tempting. After a moment of contemplation, he comes to a decision.
“Ah fuck it. It’s not like anyone's gonna be out in this weather anyway.” Bakugou reasoned with himself mentally, pulling up a chair to the counter as he crossed his arms and rested his head in between the cushioning of them, almost immediately giving into the comfortable darkness.
Abruptly, in an almost mocking way, the door swings open not even 5 minutes into Bakugou’s nap hitting him with the harsh November wind. Snapping his eyes open, Bakugou bolts his head up too suddenly and tips the chair in the process, sending him tumbling to the wooden floor with a yelp.
“Oh god I'm so sorry!!” The stranger cried as he rushed to the blond's aid, all but forgetting to close the front door in the process which is still currently sending in waves of wind and rain.
Bakugou managed to stand himself up and brush off his apron before the customer was able to make it to the counter when he noticed the grave error the stranger had made.
“You moron! Close the fucking door first you’re letting in all the rain and mud!!” Bakugou shouted, lecturing this person for their poor choices. He has every right to be mad, he has to clean this place again after this idiot leaves!
“RIGHT! Sorry!!” The stranger turns his heel in a panic, scattering across the wet floor to shut the now fully opened door only to end up slipping cartoonishly to the soaked floor making a noise that sounded similar to a dog's yelp.
“Dumbass! What the hell-” Bakugou started.
“I got it! I got it!“ The stranger reassured as he rushed to get up and finally close the door shut properly in a dramatic display of over exaggerated pushing, however the damage had already been done, the café now had a large trail of water and mud at the entrance along with some of the menus scattered about which was caused by the wind.
At this point Bakugou was fuming, his hands curled into fists and patience gone after being so abruptly woken from his nap.
“You- you complete and utter moron! What the fuck is your problem huh? Are you stupid? It’s fucking pouring outside who the fuck is outside during a storm like this?!” Bakugou accused, but he wasn’t done with his lecture yet.
Storming around the counter he stomps up to the hooded figure looking ready to kill, along the way he was shouting insults along the lines of “Idiot, dumb-fuck, asshole-” however as he quickly approached this person, he soon realized just how insanely bigger he was than himself. Not just in height, but in muscle stature as well.
“What the fuck! This guy is a brick shit-house!” Bakugou cursed mentally. Even with this man's large hoodie he could tell he was extremely well-built underneath.
Now Bakugou was no small man. Sure, he was only 5’8 but he worked out regularly and was very clearly a lean person who could bench his weight. But this guy was insane, he stood at a good 6’4 or even 6’5 and was made up of pure muscle. If Bakugou wasn’t so pissed right now he’d consider asking this man for his gym routine since even though he’s an asshole he can appreciate the effort he clearly makes toward his physic.
But now was not the time for that. No, now was the time to give the man in question shit for fucking up his evening even more than it already was and for giving him extra work to do. Just as he strained his neck to look at this guy in the face and start chewing him out the man bended a full ass 70 degrees into a bow and Bakugou was taken aback by the abruptness.
“I am so sorry for everything!! The wind must’ve pushed open the door when I went to go help you when you fell! That’s not an excuse for messing up your store but I want you to know that I did not mean to do it!! I am so sorry!” It came out as a rush of words, some mashing together in the process because of the speed this man was speaking. His voice was filled with sincerity, something rare when it came to apologies now a day, it wavered in some areas and sounded raw like he was guilty of murder.
“Oi, Shit for brains, raise your head already.” Bakugou gritted out. He was unsure of how to respond in this situation, obviously he’s still pissed but this man clearly feels like shit about this, and his brain is beginning to fog again from his tiredness so it could very well be clouding his judgment, but Bakugou really doesn’t want to fight this guy right now.
Slowly the man lifted his head but still is slouching in order to, what Bakugou assumes, make himself look smaller. Even though the bottom half of his face is covered by a black medical mask and the rest of his face shadowed by his hoodie Bakugou can tell this man's eyes are glued to the ground by how his head is positioned.
“I really am sorry...” The man continued, guilt ripping through his voice in rivers sounded as though he were going to cry.
‘Oh for fuck sakes.’
“It’s- it’s fine dumbass. Just, fucking, get out of my way so I can clean this shit up. Okay? Don’t fucking cry or whatever, go find a seat and dry off you look like a sad-ass sponge.” Bakugou sighed, aggression replaced with exhaustion.
“NO!” The man shouted, once again startling Bakugou.
“Fucking- no?! What the fuck do you mean no?!!” It’s like this man was trying to piss Bakugou off.
“Let me clean! I made the mess! I can clean it; I promise I'll do it properly so please-” The man pleaded as though this were the most important thing in the world.
“What the fuck, why?” This shit confused him even more, what was this guy trying to prove.
“I already said why! Because I did this so let me help!” The stranger exclaimed, making an exaggerated gesture towards the mess they were currently standing on top of.
“No. This is my job; I'm not allowed to make a customer clean-” Bakugou was cut off by the most obnoxious whining followed by a drawing out ‘pleaaasseee-’.
“You know what, fucking knock yourself out I don’t give a shit anymore just shut up and don’t go around saying shit like I forced you to do this.” Bakugou huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as he went to grab the mop from behind the counter.
This seemed to make the stranger happy as his whining was pulled to a pause as he snapped his head up to watch the barista grab the cleaning supplies. As Bakugou handed off the stuff to the man the depressing atmosphere in the room quickly dissolved into something much more palatable.
“Aw thanks bro! I’ll have this all cleaned up in 20 minutes flat, you can go back to sleeping if you want!” The man beamed brightly at Bakugou, bending down slightly in a more excited and even energetic way then he was previously when he was slouching forward. This made Bakugou lean back a bit to create more space between himself and the man's face.
“S-Fucking sleeping?! I wasn’t, fuck, sleeping; I was deep in fucking thought you fuckwad!” Bakugou barked out, defenses up again. This only made the man chuckle as he took the items from Bakugou’s hands which he forgot he was even holding.
“You sure cuss a lot dude! Never heard someone use the f word so many times in one sentence! That’s gotta be a world record!” The man teased as he began to mop up the mess that he made.
“The ‘f word’? What are you, 7? “Bakugou bit back but lacked any bitterness in his tone. It was almost like he was teasing the stranger back for his childish behavior, in his own way of course.
“A little older than that man, but hey, close guess! Also swearing isn’t very manly in my opinion, but to each their own.” The man chirped happily, that bastard. ‘One minute he’s on the verge of tears and the next he’s being a smartass, should’ve kicked him ass when he was down’ Bakugou grumbled mentally.
“Yeah bastard whatever, you can’t be much older than me anyway.” he huffed, but was honestly unsure on how old this man was actually because he can’t see his face besides his eyes.
“Oh really? How old are you dude!? I’d say around the same age as well but I'm not good at guessing!” The man asked enthusiastically.
“...22.” Bakugou mumbled out, it wouldn’t kill him for the stranger to know his age, plus he was equally as curious as to how old the other was now that the topic was brought up.
“WOAH! Same here! That’s awesome man, when's your birthday!” the man asked now practically bouncing in his place.
“None of your fucking business.” He gritted out and swiftly turned around to leave the man to clean when he noticed the guy visibly deflate in disappointment. Curse this man. Curse this goddamn man.
“Did you want to order anything moron or did you just come here to fuck shit up.” Bakugou reluctantly grunted out as he begun to walk back to his work area.
“Oh! Yes please actually! Can I get a medium hot chocolate!” Shouted the man who just momentarily stopped his mission of mopping to give Bakugou his order.
After muttering “whatever, that’ll be $1.85”, Bakugou made his way behind his work area and towards the back to make the man his drink, once he was finished he placed it on edge of counter as he returned to sitting in his chair, elbows propped up against the top by the register, but this time rested his chin against his open palm as he silently glared at the man who was currently whistling whilst he mopped.
As the minutes dragged on Bakugou’s eyes grew heavier, the peaceful atmosphere was once again lulling his to sleep. And slowly but surely, he stopped fighting to stay awake and was once again entering dream land, growing unconscious to the soft familiar lullaby the man was whistling. ‘bastard.’ his last thought was before being consumed by darkness.
It wasn’t until 40 minutes later that Bakugou once again began to wake, eyelashes slowly fluttering, and he regained consciousness. After about a minute of just lying there he was fully awake and aware of his surroundings, hearing the quiet yet still noticeable sounds of someone drinking. He began to raise his head from the counter and search for the source of the noise, however it didn’t take long it find it. Turing slightly to the left he spotted the man from before sitting at one of the tables that was much too small for him to sit comfortably, silently sipping at his hot chocolate as he watched the rain pounding against the window.
The man's hood was now down as well as his mask and Bakugou had to admit, the man was extremely cute for being such a big guy. Sure, he has an extremely masculine aura around him that makes him seem tough but when you look closely at his face, that manly aura is replaced by childhood innocence. Wide eyes, slightly chubby cheeks and an expression that is a mixture of curiosity and joy. Again, incredibly cute.
Then Bakugou’s eyes shifted slightly and suddenly they were glued to his head, specifically his hair.
“Holy fuck you’re red.” Bakugou said in a rough voice that was the result of just waking up.
Red’s head snapped toward Bakugou; eyes wide as he looked back at him startled. Suddenly to Bakugou’s confusion, panic overtook the redheads features as his entire body became rigged, shoulders up to his ears and he did the thing from before where he tried to make himself smaller.
“Ah, yeah, I'm Red. You really weren’t supposed to notice, I thought you were still sleeping so I thought that was a good time to take off my mask and hood, please don’t take this the wrong way it’s not that I'm not happy to meet you but I just really needed a moment to myself and away from the attention and all that stuff ya know? I was actually gonna drink this when I got home but it’s pouring out there and figured it’d be easier to just drink when you were asleep. Please don’t be offended, I understand it was selfish, but this was really the only way to-” the man rambled in a rush, he sounded stress. This wasn’t how he sounded when he previously, it was a lot more panicky then before.
“Red. What the fuck are you on about.” Bakugou cut the man off before he dug himself any deeper into the hole he knew he was digging as he began walking towards the redhead.
“...huh?” The man was staring at Bakugou like he was the crazy one.
“I said what the fuck are you on about. Why are you stressed over some random barista seeing your hair. It’s shitty but who the fuck cares, it’s not a big deal.” Bakugou grumbled out the last part.
“My...my hair?” okay, what the fuck was this man's problem.
“Fucking! -YES, you absolute moron! Did that dye job seep into your brain as well? I said who cares if you have shitty red hair, Shitty hair.” Bakugou’s patience was wearing thin at this point, he’s experiencing emotional whiplash from this stranger too many times in the last hour.
“MY HAIR! Yeah, my hair that’s what I'm talking about!” The man stood up abruptly smiling, pausing for a moment to ask “wait, do you know who I am?”
“Okay fucking calm down Jesus fuck. And no, I don’t. And frankly I don’t give a shit who you are Shitty hair.” Bakugou scoffed.
“Woah bro, you think it's shitty? I thought it looked super manly!” The man, more like psycho, groans.
Rolling his eyes Bakugou adds “Of course it looks shitty, it looks dead as fuck. I’ve seen cemeteries more alive than your hair.” Which earned Bakugou a series of whines from the redhead.
“Oh! Check it out dude, I think the rain stopped!” Red cut off his whines to enthusiastically whip his head to look out the window. And sure enough the man was right, the bullets of water had calmed down significantly to complete silence, and he too was sure that the rain had stopped. Turning his head towards the clock Bakugou took into account what time it was.
“Perfect, 6 minutes till 1, just in time for me to close up. Pack your shit Red time to go home, no more loitering around this café.” Bakugou nagged as he turned his heal once more to grab his phone from the counter and his coat from the back.
“Ah dang, and just when I was having fun talking to you too.” Another playful whine came out of the redhead, ‘fuck is his favorite pass time making sound effects?’
“Oh hardy har-har, get the fuck out of my store.” Bakugou huffed but lacked any seriousness in his words despite the demand.
“I’m going, I'm going! Jeez it’s not a very good business tragedy to kick out your customers dude!” Red teased as he begun to put back on his mask and hood. Bakugou doesn’t necessarily understand why someone as attractive as Red would want to cover his face, but he’d rather run across hot coals bare foot before asking him that question.
“Oh shut up and go home Shitty hair!” Bakugou shouted, feeling slightly embarrassed by the constant teasing from the man.
“Aye Aye Captain!” The redhead gave a tiny little salute as he opened the shops front door and begun to walk out, sticking half of his body inside he added “See ya later Bakugou!” then just like that, Red disappeared into the night evening darkness back to whatever cage he crawled out of. Just as Bakugou began to grab his stuff he realized something,
“Wait a fucking minute,” Bakugou started out slowly. How did that bastard know his name. Then it clicked, his name tag. Of course, the man must have looked at his name tag at some point and remembered his man.
Bakugou resumed walking towards his coat but stopped again once something snapped.
‘BASTARD. He forgot to pay for his shitty ass drink!’