Work Text:
Izuku hates working at Mighty Mornings.
He loves it, don’t get him wrong, but he hates it. Example: he just had to kick someone out for yelling at Yaoyorozu.
Which isn’t to say that he resents defending her. He just wishes that it didn’t happen so damn often . Something about coffee really brought out the worst in people, and she was just trying to help. So what if she’s a little slow, she’s still new, and this is her first job, five more minutes without caffeine won’t kill a person-
“Ah, Midoriya,” Yaoyorozu says hesitantly, getting ready to take over with kitchen work like Izuku suggested. “I appreciate it, I really do, but you’re mumbling again.”
Izuku closes his mouth with a clack of his teeth, and promptly flushes scarlet. “O-oh, sorry, Yaoyorozu,”
“I said you can call me Momo,”
“Sorry, Yaomomo,”
She smiles at him from the other side of the counter.
Overall, Izuku does like working at Mighty Mornings coffee shop. Yagi is heroically flexible when Izuku needs to drop a shift for classwork, lets him study when it’s quiet, and calls him ‘my boy’. His coworkers are all great to work with, being a band of tired college students all in the same boat. He also gets a fascinating glimpse into his teacher’s lives that he tries (and fails) not to look too hard into (like how Aizawa-sensei ordered his black coffee with Yamada-sensei’s uniquely horrible order a few times).
He also likes the hot mysterious stranger that’s come in a couple days in a row.
See, Izuku has a great memory for things that don’t matter. Like how this stranger has come at one-thirty-two and three-fifty-six exactly, the two times he’s come in. And that he ordered a large flat white the first time, and a regular hazelnut mocha the second.
He also remembers in excruciating detail how he tripped over his tongue the both times he talked to the guy. And Mirio’s eyebrow waggling. And how he shoved him slightly too hard in retaliation and sent him sprawling over a table.
(He’s suave.)
Now, this tall dark and handsome guy has come in for a third time, at exactly two-forty-seven, and it’s finally busy enough to warrant asking for his name for his order (a caramel macchiato).
“Todoroki Shouto.” is what he gets.
Which, cool. That’s a win, and one that Mirio’s eyebrows can’t take from him.
He gets to call out, “Medium Caramel Macchiato for Todoroki Shouto!” and make eye contact with the guy, and hear his deep, smooth voice say thank you before he turns to find a place to sit-
Yeah, okay, maybe Mirio has a point. Sue him.
Izuku returns to the register to take more orders for their unusually busy afternoon, and half-stares, half-desperately-avoids-staring-at Todoroki Shouto as he sits at his table in the corner and sips carefully at his drink.
He rings up more orders and bids his upperclassmen a nice day as he switches out with an exhausted-looking Jirou, as the man finishes his drink, sits twiddling his thumbs, and then picks up his coat to leave. He really has to resist the urge to yell see you tomorrow! as the guy walks out the door, and still ends up smiling after him like a fool, to which he gets an elbow in the abdomen and a pointed look at the line of customers from Jirou. “Pick it up, loverboy.”
Izuku groans. “Is everybody on my case about this?” He asks, turning back to the woman at the front of the line, who’s smiling at him not unkindly.
“You give us so little choice,” Jirou says, turning back to making a customer’s drink.
After he’s written down this woman’s order, he turns to hand it to her. “You can’t talk to me like that. I literally gave you a girlfriend.”
“You didn’t give me a girlfriend .” she grabs the receipt out of his hand and glances down at it. “You brought a cute girl to work here and I snatched her, quick like.”
“Yeah, like I said, handed on a silver platter,”
Izuku turns to the next customer, eager to let that be the last word of the argument, when Yaomomo pops her head around the corner from the kitchen. “I have to agree with him, Kyouka,”
“Wha- babe!”
Izuku tries to catch his snort behind his hand, trying to give his attention back to the tired student next in line.
Shouto thinks there’s something wrong with him.
This is the fourth day in a row he’s gone to Mighty Mornings, the coffee house a few blocks from campus.
And he doesn’t really know why .
Well, okay, he knows why he’s going to coffee houses. He needs somewhere to meet Fuyumi for coffee, since that’s what she suggested when she asked if she could pop down to visit for a day, but he doesn’t know why he keeps coming to this one. It’ll be fine to meet Fuyumi there tomorrow. He knows the place, by now, and it’s fine. Nice, even.
He walks through the door and up to the register, and is hit by the reason he keeps coming back.
Yeah, it’s the cashier.
He’s got mossy green hair and a shit ton of freckles and really big arms . He’s also short, or maybe Shouto’s just too tall. Either way, Shouto can’t stop looking at him.
The thing is, he makes it really hard to stare at him. Because he’s always looking at Shouto. So it’s a fight not to make eye contact (he also doesn’t know why the guy looks at him so much. Is he doing this whole coffee thing wrong?).
Today he walks in at twelve, during his gym break, the hand god has dealt him today, being friday. He’s less put together than he has been, the past few times he’s come in. He’s just wearing a loose shirt and bike shorts, his hair is tied back, his coat is at home, and he feels weirdly… underdressed?
Then he glances over and sees a student in a Scooby Doo onesie, and feels slightly better.
The cashier is here today, too, and he’s looking significantly redder than usual. Shouto hopes he’s not ill, but it is verging on winter now. The coffee shop is, if anything, a delightful reprieve from the cold.
“H-hey, what can I get- what can I getcha?” The cashier says, and it looks like he’s shaking?
“Oh! Um,” Shouto looks up above his head to the boards on the wall. He looks to the one that says Heroic Beans For Heroic Teens which he had deciphered on a previous visit means coffee, and picks something random off the list. “An- americano? Please,”
“Okay!” The cashier says, and turns around abruptly.
Shouto goes to stand against the wall, to wait for his drink.
He turns to hear laughter, and sees his cashier an even brighter red than before, and a spluttering woman with short, messy pink hair patting on the shoulder between bouts of laughter. He’s lamenting the word Mina quite loudly, which Shouto guesses must be her name.
He catches her say- “You brought this on yourself! We’ve all noticed your picking up of extra shifts, Mido.”
Mido? Is that his name?
He tunes out again, and soon he hears “Americano for Todoroki Shouto!” he turns and sees the pink haired barista holding his drink out to him. Seeing her face on, he notices that her sclera is tattooed black in both eyes. It’s unsettling, but after a second his brain registers it as pretty cool.
She gives him a wink as she hands him the drink, which is weird.
Saturday meets Izuku with the absolute regret of picking up a shift today. He’s telling himself he’s doing it for the extra money. Christmas is coming up, so it’s not a terrible excuse.
He’s not picking up extra shifts for Todoroki Shouto, no matter what Mina says.
His shift starts at nine AM, and finishes at four PM. Certainly not the longest day he’s worked, but he’s still seething with sleepy resentment as he sees how busy the shop is through the window, and turns to go through the back door.
It looks like Mirio’s in a similar boat, and as like recognises like, both of their smiles are equally strained - and Mirio has already been here for three hours, god bless him.
“Late night?” Mirio asks, leaning over to give his head a pat and hair a slightly too violent ruffle.
“ I don’t even know how many papers I have due.” Is the response Izuku gives, the last part muffled as he puts his head in his hands.
Mirio can only offer him a sympathetic look, and a cup of coffee.
He’d never thought he’d say it, but he’s really starting to get sick of coffee. Or maybe it’s just the customer service , he thinks, taking the cup as gratefully as possible and turning his customer service face to the person waiting.
There may be a lot of people to serve, but time moves like molasses. Izuku spends an eternity in purgatory watching the clock on the door opposite him, and every time Mirio catches him looking at it, he slaps a hand over his eyes with a “Stop torturing yourself.”
Izuku groans and lets his head fall on his folded arms on the counter. He sighs and looks up when the bell dings, only to look into the face of Todoroki Shouto, and a woman that looks significantly like him. Her hair is white with red streaks, instead of split down the middle. Huh, Izuku thinks, family colour scheme.
“Oh! Hey, what can I get you?” He finds his first genuine smile of the day, which Mirio notices, based on the snort he hears. He swiftly kicks his leg aside to catch the guy’s shin, causing a melodramatic yelp.
“Well, I'll have a cappuccino, please.” the woman speaks first, then turns to her companion. “Shouto, what do you want?”
“Oh, um, I’ll have a… small latte.”
Izuku writes it down. “Sure, anything else?”
The woman peers down the display of baked goods for a moment, then says “I’m okay,” and looks expectantly at Shouto, who shakes his head. Izuku smiles and turns to hand the drink order to Mirio.
They walk away to find a booth, and Mirio shakes his head disbelievingly as he watches Izuku smile after them. “I literally cannot believe how whipped you are for a customer you’ve talked to five times .”
“Sh-shut up! Like you’re any better with Tamaki, you asshole,”
Mirio raises his eyebrows at him. “Tamaki is literally my boyfriend . I’ll repeat, customer you’ve talked to five times .” He points to where Shouto sits.
Izuku’s movement can only be described as a leap as he rushes to slam Mirio’s arm down. “Stop that! What if he sees you?”
“Then he might actually talk to you instead of just coming in every day to see you?”
“What?” Izuku stares at him.
Mirio stares back.
Izuku breaks eye contact first to look at Shouto.
“Point proven.” is all Mirio says before turning away, smacking Izuku in the face as he goes.
“Ochako, help me .” are the first words Izuku speaks as he opens the door to her and Tsuyu’s tiny apartment.
“Uh oh, we’ve got a pining boy on our hands, babe.” Ochako says from the couch, putting her phone down.
He hears a croak of laughter from the kitchen.
“How’d you know I was pining?” He asks, flopping down on the couch.
Ochako hums and puts a hand to her chin. She turns to him and squints, putting her face close to his. “It’s because you’re talking and moving like that .” She pushes him with a sock clad foot.
“Oh? And what would that be?” Izuku asks, already knowing the answer, but smiling despite himself.
“Like a goddamn moron. Same as how you acted when you got that crush on Hitoshi for a few weeks and thought the world was gonna en-” She’s cut off as Izuku shoves his hand over her mouth.
“ Please ,” he starts, “Stop talking. You’re not making me feel better.”
Ochako licks his palm, forcing him to release her. “Ew!”
“Like you weren’t expecting that,” She retaliates, throwing an arm around his shoulders and pulling herself upright again. “So, who’s got you acting like this?”
“Hot guy at work, right?” Tsuyu guesses, appearing in the door frame to the kitchen.
Izuku furrows his brows. “How’d you guess?”
“I’m a witch,” She wiggles her long fingers at him. “Kyouka texted me complaining about it.”
“Must be bad then. Kyouka never complains about anything. Just how insufferable are you being?”
Izuku huffs. “Jirou complains about everything , I don't know where you’re getting your facts from. And I’m not insufferable! It’s not that bad!”
Ochako and Tsu share a long moment of eye contact.
“He’s whipped.”
“I’m NOT!”
The start of Tuesday’s shift finds Izuku in a precarious situation.
“Hide me- oh my god, please-” He barrels into the shop in his work uniform, pushing the door open so hard the bell flies into the ceiling, sprints past a familiar figure and slides into a lying position on the other side of the counter.
Seconds later, the door opens with a bang, and Bakugou Katsuki charges in, shoving past the person waiting in line, and up to the counter. “Raccoon eyes. Where’s the nerd.”
Mina is trying very hard not to laugh, and it shows. “Who?”
Bakugou sighs very hard, places his hands calmly on the counter, and then hoists himself onto it.
Mina breaks, amusement spilling from her shaky voice as she says “Dude, you can’t do that, get down-”
Bakugou leans over and makes eye contact with Izuku. “Deku.”
Izuku has the audacity to give him a little wave. “Hi, Kacchan!”
“I,” Bakugou starts calm, “am going to FUCKING KILL YOU!” and ends less so.
Izuku yelps when he dives for him, scrambling back around the counter and towards the door. “Mina cover for me fifteen minutes max!” He yells in a rush as he yanks open the door, losing precious moments by not choosing the open window, and disappears from view, a screaming Bakugou hot on his heels.
“Mon dieu!” A blonde, sparkly man at a table near the front counter says, hand delicately covering his smile.
“You said it, Yuuga.” Mina says, wheezing.
At this point, she has her hands on her knees. It takes several seconds of silence after the two leave for her to pull herself together, to which she lets out a long, shaky breath.
“So, what can I get you?”
Shouto no longer knows the answer.
On wednesday, Shouto comes back to Mighty Mornings.
Just like he came back Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, even though his afternoon with Fuyumi was over and he didn’t need to keep going to coffee shops.
Sunday and Monday, the green-haired cashier wasn’t working, and Shouto tried and failed not to feel disappointed. The guy can’t work every day, after all, and he looks like he’s a student, so he must be busy.
Then that happens on Tuesday, and despite being very much bewildered, Shouto finds himself eagerly coming back the next day.
He steps in to find a familiar smile.
“Hey there! What can I get you?” He asks, as always.
“Uh, I’ll have a latte, please.” Shouto says, noticing just how green this guy’s eyes are (he’s noticed this before, almost every day they’ve met).
“What size?” The cashier asks, interested, balancing his hand on his chin.
“Oh! Uh, I don't know, you decide.”
He facepalms mentally. Shouto is a shining star in the field of regular coffee shop interactions.
The guy grins, slightly confused, but turns around to relay the order to his coworker anyway, the one with purple shiny hair and a lot of eyeliner.
Shouto waits barely any time at all before she’s handing him his drink, a medium latte, whilst looking him up and down boredly.
“It’s the best value for money!” the cashier leans over to say. The woman with purple hair shoves him back.
Shouto’s not about to argue with him.
“I meant to ask,” Shouto starts, walking over to talk to the cashier again in a brazen move, in his opinion. “Are you okay, after yesterday? Bakugou chased you out of the shop.”
“Oh, Kacchan? Yeah, it’s fine, he’s harmless.”
If there was one word Shouto would use to describe Bakugou Katsuki, it most certainly wouldn’t be harmless . This must show on his face, because the cashier laughs. “We’ve known each other since we were kids. For all he yells ‘die’ at me, he’s had plenty of time to make good on threats. Hell, I live with his boyfriend. He could smother me in my sleep literally whenever he wants, but he doesn’t. Isn’t he sweet?”
He can’t keep a straight face for long before he bursts out laughing, prompting Shouto to join with a chuckle of his own. “But yeah, he’s fine. Looks scary when he’s chasing you down though, trust me, I have plenty of experience. How do you know him?”
“He spent a semester in my higher math class, and I see him around with the red haired guy at the gym.”
“Oh yeah, that’s his boyfriend Kirishima. He’s a real sweetheart. I have no idea how they ended up together.”
Shouto smiles. He seems to be doing a lot of that, recently.
When he leaves, the man waves him goodbye, which sets his heart on fire. No he’s not being dramatic .
He waves back, and just before the door closes, he hears the purple haired girl passionately say. “I swear to god, Midoriya.”
Midoriya, huh?
On Thursday, Izuku feels like crying.
He’s got his laptop out and on the counter in front of him, and he’s skim reading over his essay for advanced biology. Why the fuck did he decide to do a minor in advanced fucking biology?
His eyes may be moving, but he’s not taking in any words at all. He’s gone over this too many times. His brain doesn’t work anymore. He’s probably going to fail and his mom’s gonna cry and he’s gonna cry too, and it’ll affect his other grades-
“Dude, I get you’re spiralling, and I respect that, but your boy’s here.” Jirou nudges him.
He looks up and sees a blurry Todoroki Shouto, brows pinched.
“Oh!” He wipes his eyes and closes his laptop. “Hey! Want another latte?”
Shouto opens his mouth, pauses, then asks, “Are you alright?”
Izuku sniffs and fumbles, both physically and verbally. “Oh, oh no I'm- I'm okay! Just class stress, you know how it is.”
Shouto smiles, still looking concerned. “I do,”
Izuku stands up straighter and smooths out his apron. He hears Jirou groan, but decidedly ignores her. “So, what’ll it be?”
“Why don’t you choose?”
Izuku blinks, and tilts his head. “Huh?”
“Well, yesterday, you chose for me the best value for money, ” Shouto says, smiling. “So what drink should I get?”
Izuku perks up and smiles conspiratorially. He flashes Shouto a wink, and spins around. His face immediately flushes red and he silently screams at Jirou, careful to keep his back to Shouto moving across the cafe to hide his mess of a face.
“Jesus christ,” She says neutrally, taking a long sip from her latte. “Give me a drink to make and go on break, you absolute disaster of a boy.”
“ Thank you,” Izuku feels like all the air’s being let out of him.
He gets ready to take a break, and steps into the kitchen. He hears Jirou tell Shouto that “It’s an off-menu drink that he invented, so don’t be surprised if it sucks.”
“I resent that!” He yells, slipping out the back door for some air.
When he returns, Shouto is still sitting in the corner. He’s got a laptop in front of him, and looks pained. Izuku glances at his own laptop, now tucked on the shelf under the counter.
“Go to him, gayboy.” Jirou pats him on the shoulder.
“Thanks,” he says, taking his laptop from her hand.
He makes eye contact with Shouto and waves his laptop, silently asking permission to sit with him. Shouto tips his head to the seat opposite.
“Am I the only one getting their ass kicked by advanced bio?” He asks after opening his laptop to his paper.
“Yes. I’m getting my ass kicked by advanced physics.” Shouto responds, both smiling at him and looking so apathetic that the world could end and he’d only be able to offer a ‘ that sucks’.
“Oof.” Izuku responds, dropping his head to his folded arm. “My brain literally can’t process this anymore.”
“Wanna swap?” Shouto asks, offering his laptop with what looks like a fully written essay complete with diagrams. “I feel like my sensei is going to kneecap me.”
Izuku laughs and aquiesces, passing his computer over at the same time. The paper is mostly undecipherable to him, but he understands more in there than he thought he would, so that says something. He notices some grammar mistakes that he highlights red, but other than that doesn’t really have anything to note.
Shouto passes his laptop back with a “Looks pretty perfect,” and their hands brush as he takes it back. He does, in his opinion, a miraculous job of not being reduced to a paste.
Izuku has to leave not much after when customers pick up a bit more, but his smile is slightly more genuine from then on.
Midoriya isn’t working on Thursday when Shouto comes in, which is a shame, but he is working on Friday. Shouto tells him to surprise him again.
“Are you sure?” Midoriya asks, brow quirked but grinning.
Shouto nods and goes to stand to wait for his drink, pulling out his phone. Midoriya talks with the person making drinks, the girl with the pink hair and black eyes, Mina, if Shouto remembers right.
The cup he’s handed is cold, instead of hot, and the name of the drink she called out immediately left his head once he heard it.
He watches the cashier, Midoriya, lean over to watch him try it.
“You said you came up with these yourself. Are you using me as a guinea pig?”
“Absolutely not!” Midoriya rebuffs with a face that says he absolutely is.
Shouto smiles and takes a sip of his terrible drink, trying to keep the taste from showing on his face.
“That bad, huh?”
“Not at all,” Shouto lies, lips curling into a grimace despite himself. Midoriya laughs.
“Can’t win them all, I guess. I’m gonna go on break.” The second sentence is directed to Mina, who gives him a thumbs up as he takes off his apron. Shouto goes to sit down with his god awful drink.
“Okay he’s gone. I literally can’t take this anymore, Mina. He’s insufferable.” He hears the purple haired woman’s voice as she leans on the doorway from the kitchen.
“Literally. Please, Kyouka, fix this gay mess. You’re the only one who can, and I don't want to see Mirio try.” Mina responds, shooting a glance at Shouto that he definitely catches.
“Yeah, fine, whatever, I'm unappreciated in my time.” The purple haired girl says, marching over to… him?
She stops short of his table, and crosses her arms, eyeing him.
“Hello.”
“Todoroki Shouto,” She starts, her eyes narrowing.
“Yes?” He says, trying not to sound timid to this five-foot-nothing punk lesbian staring him down.
“Can you please fucking get your head out of your ass?”
Shouto is vaguely stunned. He was definitely not expecting her to say that . “Excuse me?”
“Please,” She says, sliding into the chair on the opposite side of his table. “You’re not subtle. Literally the only person that hasn’t noticed your longing glances at Midoriya is Midoriya himself.”
Shouto splutters on nothing, since he is absolutely not going to take another sip of his drink.
“He’s fucking obsessed with you, dude. He’s picked up double his usual amount of shifts because you come in every day. He stares at you the whole time you’re here. He keeps mumbling about how you never order the same drink twice.”
“...he does?” This is very much news to Shouto, despite the amount of times Fuyumi had told him the ‘hot guy behind the counter that you have a crush on’ was looking at him, when they met last week.
“It’s excruciating. Please, you have to end our suffering. Ask him out, give him your number, fucking propose for all I care. Just do something.” And with that, she stands up and stomps back into the kitchen. Mina, behind the counter, is cheering.
“Bravo, Jirou Kyouka! Finest speaker of our age! Eloquence incarnate!”
Shouto, on his end, has barely even processed that his mouth is hanging open.
He pulls out a pen.
Izuku comes back from his break, and smiles to see that Shouto is still sitting at his table, with his drink still almost completely full.
“You know, you don’t have to just sit there with my monstrosity of a child. You can get rid of it.” He says, walking up to him.
“Yeah, you couldn’t pay me to drink any more of it-”
“Hey! Harsh!” Izuku puts a hand on his chest as if wounded.
“You should probably take it back.” Shouto finishes, pushing the cup into his hand and quickly gathering his stuff to leave. “Have a good day, Midoriya.”
Izuku pauses and looks at the cup deposited in his hands. Shouto had been holding it oddly, covering a part of the cardboard slip carefully. He hears the doorbell ding, signifying Shouto’s departure, as he looks at the paper and sees a phone number . Underneath, it says ‘maybe we could go get a nicer coffee together sometime. -Todoroki Shouto (in case you forgot)’
Izuku starts yelling.
“Jesus! Kyouka, fix it!” Mina says, clamping her hands over her ears but smiling wide.
“What? No! I’ve done my part, that’s your job!” Jirou yells from the kitchen.
“Mido, the customers!”
UNKNOWN NUMBER - adshjkdjh hi !!
UNKNOWN NUMBER- i’m Midoriya Izuku, from the coffee shop?
MIDORIYA IZUKU - realising i never told you my name, so, yeah, it’s Midoriya Izuku
MIDORIYA IZUKU - i already said that
YOU- Hello, Midoriya.
YOU- Did you want to go for that coffee?
MIDORIYA IZUKU - YES.
They’re sat down at a different coffee shop (Izuku’s recommendation), hidden away in a booth in the corner with their drinks.
Shouto is eyeing his cup.
“I have a confession to make,” he says, not making eye contact.
“Oh?” Izuku prompts with a smile.
“I don’t like coffee.”
“You- you don’t like coffee?”
“I don’t like coffee. I’ve never liked coffee. The smell is okay but the taste is just weird and usually too bitter and if it’s not too bitter then it’s too sweet, and the caffeine just isn’t worth it-”
Izuku is trying to hide his growing grin behind his hand. “Todoroki,” He says, and Shouto is two seconds away from actually putting his foot in his mouth, if it would stop him from doing that again. “Why do you keep going to coffee shops if you hate coffee?”
“Well-” Shouto sighs, and struggles to think of a way to phrase it without sounding stupid. It's too late for that. “I needed somewhere to meet my sister, and she suggested we get a coffee. And- and i didn’t know any coffee places? So I went to two and didn’t like them, then I went to yours, and it’s nice there. But I didn't know what to order, so I came a few times to try different things, but I didn't like any of it, so I just invited her there and dealt with it.”
Izuku is currently using both his hands to cover the bottom half of his face, he’s smiling so wide. He can’t help it. He’s so cute .
Shouto hesitates for a moment, then reaches over to pull his hands away, exposing his smile. That’s better .
“Todoroki, you do know you don’t have to drink coffee when you meet someone for coffee, right?” Izuku carries on after desperately telling his heart to calm down when Shouto moved his hands.
“But it’s a coffee shop? And you meet for coffee?” Shouto says, utterly confused.
“We sell other drinks. You could get tea, hot chocolate, juice- you could just get water, if you wanted.”
Izuku watches this concept arrive in Shouto’s brain and then be processed. “You can- you don’t have to drink coffee?”
Izuku doesn’t manage to catch his snort. “No! You don’t! You don’t have to drink anything!”
“Oh.” Shouto says, and Izuku’s shoulders shake with laughter.
“Is this why you always order a different drink? Todoroki, how much money have you spent on coffee that you hate, over the past couple weeks?”
He has to pause to think. “... quite a lot of money.” he settles on.
Izuku throws his head back with a cackle.
“Stop laughing at me,” Shouto says, a small grin on his face as he watches him choke on his mirth.
“I’m not laughing at you,” Izuku refuses, trying to calm himself down. He fails. “Okay, maybe I'm laughing at you.”
Shouto pouts.
“It’s not my fault! You’re too cute!” Izuku continues, dropping his head to his arm resting on the table to look up at the boy opposite him sideways. He’s blushing up a storm, but his smile is about as genuine as they get.
Shouto goes silent for a beat too long, and Izuku starts to think he’s said something wrong. Before he can check, however, Shouto asks, “You think I’m cute?” with a small smile.
“Todoroki, we’re on a date. That usually means I think you’re cute.”
“Oh.” Is Shouto’s response. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, it is.” Izuku says, and Shouto’s instinct is to say that Izuku is far more than cute. He’s beautiful, radiant, completely breathtaking. He then thinks these might not be things people say on a first date, so he keeps quiet. Maybe he’ll say it later.
“Wait, why did you ask me out for coffee if you hate it?”