Chapter Text
As is customary for Japan in its autumnal months, the weather was perfect. A light breeze rustled the colorful leaves of the trees which lined the sides of the road. Shouto looked up at the small building in front of him, a sign above the door reading, “U.A. Cafe!”
Midoriya had told Shouto about his new job here well over a month ago, excited to be helping out his mentor's friend by taking it, but Shouto hadn’t had the time to drop by until now. Of course, he’d have preferred to make time sooner. He’d have preferred to show up the day after being told. Unfortunately, life and work seemed to have it out for him. Alas he had been forced to delay his visit by far longer than he’d wanted to. In fact, it’d been so long he was sure Midoriya thought he’d forgotten, and, if the text he’d received the night before of simply this location and a smiley face emoticon was anything to go off of, he was right. For the record, he hadn’t forgotten. Though, it was still nice to have a specific address. Shouto wasn’t sure he’d have found this hole-in-the-wall place if he didn’t. Maybe he could use that as his excuse for taking so long to stop by.
The bell above the door rang out happily as Shouto stepped inside. The smell of coffee and baked goods hit him like a wave crashing onto the shore, and he allowed his face to twitch into a contented smile. Though, the loud voice cutting through his thoughts startled him right back to a straight face.
“What d’ya want?” Someone shouted from the back.
“Kacchan!”
“You need to stop yelling at customers.”
“I’ll get it!”
Shouto glanced to his side, the confusion of that immediate barrage of noise stopping him in his tracks right in front of the door. He made accidental eye contact with a purple-haired girl with earbuds in sitting at a nearby table as she looked up at him. “Oh, you’re new. Don’t worry about that, they do it a lot. You get used to it eventually.”
Shouto nodded, watching as she turned back to scrolling on her phone and sipping at a cup of coffee. He began walking towards the front, confused by its unattended status. When he reached the counter, as if on cue, a person popped out from the backdoor and rushed over.
“Hey there! Sorry about the delay. We’re missing our baker today, so everyone's just trying to figure out the oven.” The barista chirped. He had a beaming smile on his face, which was framed by choppy golden-blonde hair with one bit of black that resembled a lightning bolt. Shouto couldn’t help but wonder how long it must’ve taken him to get it that neat, especially with how chaotic the rest of his hair was. “What can I get for you?”
“Just a black coffee is fine.” Shouto responded, watching the blonde’s smile get somehow wider.
“Tokoyami, I found another one of your kind!” He called back towards the door, and Shouto looked over to see a man with spiked-up hair weirdly reminiscent of a bird peek out.
The man leveled Shouto with a look. “Black coffee? Get the dark chocolate biscotti, too. They go well together.”
With that, he disappeared, and Shouto looked at the barista. “I…I guess I’ll have the biscotti, too?”
“You don’t have to get it just cause he said to.” The barista shrugged. “He’s just making a suggestion. Though, I trust Tokoyami on this one, he’s our resident black coffee enthusiast. Personally, I like my drinks sweeter. My favorite’s the caramel frappe.”
Shouto shook his head. “I think I’m fine with the black coffee and biscotti, thank you.”
“Whatever you say.” He grabbed a nearby cup, looking at Shouto expectantly. “Can I get a name for this?”
“Todoroki Shouto.”
“Todoroki, huh?” The barista said, scribbling the name onto the coffee cup. “I feel like I’ve heard that before, but I can’t remember where. Oh, well! You can go take a seat, I’ll get this to you in just a sec!”
Shouto stood there for a second, a little bit of tension releasing from his shoulders at how quickly the barista dropped the subject of his name. It wasn’t super often he just got to be him without his fathers legacy tacked on. For his own sake, he hoped the blonde never got reminded. Maybe then he’d be willing to come around here more often, given he had the time to.
He made his way over to a seat in the corner, making use of the wait time to survey his surroundings. The cafe was a comfy place, with plants all over the place and even a few couches placed around, decorated with artfully-mismatched pillows. He was one of only three people currently inside. Aside from the purple-haired girl—who he’d just realized had two cups of coffee at her table, implying she was either waiting for someone or was just that in need of caffeine—there was also a pink-haired girl with a laptop open in front of her. Though, she seemed much more interested in complaining about what she had to write to the barista than actually writing it.
As Shouto let his mind slip away from him, he almost missed the barista calling his name. He managed to just catch the end of it though, and was quick to get up and approach the counter.
“One chocolate biscotti,” The barista said, setting down a paper bag before pushing the coffee forward. “And one black coffee, almost as hot as you.”
Shouto’s brain barely even registered the compliment, blue screening as he grabbed his order and placed the money on the counter. “Thanks.”
“Shouto!” Midoriya’s voice suddenly called out, his friend swinging out of the backroom. “I knew you’d show up eventually! I’m sorry I almost missed you, I was making sure Kacchan didn’t blow up the oven.”
“Don’t worry about it, Izuku.”
Midoriya smiled. “I see you’ve met Kaminari.”
“Ah, so that’s your name.”
“Yep! Kaminari Denki.” He said, grinning. “I didn’t know you knew Midoriya, otherwise I totally would’ve let him serve you.”
“That’s alright, I didn’t mind our interaction.” Shouto said truthfully. As much as people as cheerful as this Kaminari guy usually put him at unease, he found that he didn’t have that same problem with him. He just seemed so…authentic, not using his happiness as a ploy to get something out of him, just genuinely cheerful. It was kind of refreshing.
“Oh, ah, sorry for delaying you, you should probably get going.” Midoriya reminded.
“Probably.” With how late he likely was from this detour, his father was going to have a field day chewing him out. Lucky him.
“Thanks for stopping by!” Kaminari smiled.
He turned around with a nod, making his way towards the door. As he walked by, he noticed another girl had joined the purple-haired one at her table, and though he couldn’t see her face from the way her back was towards him, the trademark ponytail of Yaoyorozu was hard not to recognize. He’d gotten to know her through the events his father was invited to, and they were usually the ones to keep each other sane as their parents talked business. He’d known for a while that she was bi, and that she had a loving girlfriend, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the purple-haired girl was the fabled Jirou she was always talking about. Unfortunately, one look at his phone let him know there wasn’t time to stop and chat, so the formal meeting would have to wait for another day.
Just as the door closed behind him with another ding of the bell, he heard Midoriya call out after him. “Come back soon!”
Almost as hot as you.
Yeah, maybe he would.