Chapter Text
Mikoto stares at the sign in front of him for a few moments, it takes a bit too long for his tired brain to even process the words. When he does, he groans and shoves his hands in his pockets, kicking his foot against the pavement.
Of course his usual café is closed today. It's not like he only got 4 hours of sleep last night or anything. Maybe he should invest in a coffee machine. Or he would if he could stop making random purchases he doesn't even remember doing. Sighing, he pulls his phone out to make a note to himself.
Pulling his notes up, he raises an eyebrow at some notes he must've taken in his sleep deprived haze last night, he has no memory of making them. But oh well. Until he invests in a coffee machine he'll just go to a new café. Mappi keeps telling him about this nice one she's recently started visiting. He supposes now is a good time to at least check it out. Stifling a yawn, he looks the café up on his phone and hopes it's within walking distance. Which it is. A bit longer of a walk than he'd like, but it's fine.
The walk feels both insanely long and incredibly short at the same time. He nearly tripped at least 3 times. How come God’s bravest soldier (him) is stuck with the worst punishment (having to walk 10 minutes sleep deprived) imaginable? He chuckles out loud at his own joke, no one batting an eye at him. But he finally makes it to this café, it’s got a trendy sort of feel to it. And to his surprise and delight, the line is relatively short. He takes this time to look at the menu.
“What are all of these names? Weird.” “Do you think if we try to order a normal black coffee that the barista will tell us to kill ourselves?” “I don’t even like black coffee.”
As normal, he completely disregards the conversation happening right at the back of his brain. Everyone has those, right? Whatever. While waiting, he decides to look around the café. Not too interesting, but his eyes catch on some bright red hair. That's an unusual color to have. He can’t really get a good look at that person though, as it’s his turn.
“What can I get for you?” The lady asks, and he answers without thinking.
“Black coffee.” He says. He doesn’t even like black coffee. Just as she’s about to put it in he panics. Should he change the order? Maybe not, she already has a line to deal with.
“Is that it?”
No.
“Yeah.”
He wants to smack himself. She just smiles and rings him up, unaware of his internal struggle. He pays silently, resigning himself to his self made bitter coffee hell. Sighing, he turns away from the counter, scanning to find a spot to sit. As he’s walking, he catches sight of that bright red hair again, finally seeing the face it belongs to.
In his brain he hears that cartoonish car screeching sound effect (crashing noise included), and that's kinda how he felt. Now, Mikoto is a walking, breathing bisexual disaster who can hardly function, so it’s not exactly new for him to suddenly lose all brain function when he sees a cute guy and or girl. But it’s been a while since that has happened. As if sensing his stare, the other guy looks up at him, seeming a bit angry- but maybe that’s just his face. He hasn’t looked away, and the redhead raises an eyebrow, glancing around, before looking back at him.
Mikoto, having no idea what to do, starts to raise his hand to wave….
… And then trips and face plants into the floor.
“Oh my God. Kill us now. We’ll never fucking recover from this.”
He hears mostly people asking if he’s okay, with the exception of a girl trying very hard to contain her laughter, which is pretty fair honestly. He kinda just wants to become one with the Earth right now, but he chances a look up, seeing that cute guy holding a hand over his mouth. Before he can even think about doing something incredibly stupid and embarrassing again, a barista helps him sit up.
“Are you okay? Did you get hurt?” She asks. He gives her a smile like he didn’t just eat shit in front of an entire café.
“My dignity and pride are bruised but I’m fine. Also probably my forehead.” He chuckles, rubbing his neck awkwardly. If he wasn’t running off of 4 hours of sleep he’d probably be a lot more embarrassed. Probably. Actually he’s only kinda embarrassed because he ate the floor in front of someone cute. But other than that he’s alright. Or maybe later he’ll be banging his head against the shower wall. Eh.
“Black coffee for a….. Mikoto?”
He jumps off of the floor, as if he’s excited to drink a fucking black coffee of all things.
“That’s me!”
The barista behind the counter stares at him for a moment, before handing it over and slowly turning away to go back to work. He just smiles, glancing back over at the guy that distracted him in the first place, smile falling only a little bit when he sees a girl with him. She’s actually staring right at him, while her friend (Boyfriend? Maybe brother? They don’t look like siblings though.) is looking at his phone. Mikoto quickly looks away, mentally debating if he should never visit this fucking shop again or if he should become a regular just to have a chance to redeem himself and not make a fool out of himself in front of cute boys again.
But, he has already come this far, he ignores the pain in his forehead and his very bruised ego and the few looks he gets from other customers and goes to a seat near the very back. Sitting down, he stares at his bitter black coffee, not really wanting to taste it but he already walked all the way here and he already paid for it and he knows he will die if he doesn’t have it to fuel him today so he sighs, taking a sip and feeling his soul leave his body at the bitterness. Gross.
He pulls his phone out to see a text from Mappi.
[Mappi!!!!] checking in!!! 😊👀❣️😄⭐
[Mikoto] i went to that cafe u talk about
[Mappi!!!!] OMG!!😆do you like it?!??!?!?!! ❣️what did you get??? ☕
[Mikoto] a black coffee
[Mappi!!!!] 😟😵💫😓?? I thought you hated black coffee☕?
[Mikoto] i do
[Mappi!!!!] why did you orfer it then?😮
[Mappi!!!!] *order lol 😅
[Mikoto] idk. more importantly. i made a fool out of myself.
[Mappi!!!!] awww 😟 i’m sure thats not true! 💔
[Mikoto] i saw a cute guy and tripped in front of the whole cafe but more importantlyin front of that cute guy
[Mappi!!!!] OMG 😆🥰😍❤️💖💘💕😻❣️❣️❣️
[Mappi!!!!] YOU HAVE TO GIVE ME DETAILS!!!!!! 🤩👀💅🙏🙏
[Mikoto] what of me falling on my face and eating dirt??
[Mappi!!!!] 📣📢THE BOY!!!! 👨❤️👨👀💖💗❣️❣️🥰🎊🎉🗯️🗯️‼️‼️‼️
[Mikoto] ohhh ok
[Mikoto] red hair. cute face. might be shorter than me. he’s got eyes. kinda always looks angry tho.
[Mappi!!!!] that tells me nothing❣️😄
[Mappi!!!!] but!!!! 🤭i might have seen 👀 him before. 👀
[Mappi!!!!] you should take a picture 📸😝
[Mikoto] u want me to take a pic of a stranger?
[Mappi!!!!] 😅🤐🥺😇🙈👀👀🔍📷
[Mikoto] ok 👍
He sighs, smiling despite himself. Mahiru always gets so excited about these things. He glances around for that bright red hair, finding it rather quickly. Maybe he should feel more weird about taking a picture of a stranger, but it’s not like he can really even see his face from where he’s sitting. Just his red hair. It’s good enough, he assumes. He takes a quick picture, sending it to his friend and taking another sip of his drink, forgetting its bitterness and nearly spitting it out. When she doesn’t reply in over a minute, he glances, seeing that she read it but didn’t say anything. Odd. She’s not usually the type to do that. But whatever, he can only hope she’s not trying to track this guy down or something. Not that she really has the technical know-how to do that sort of thing. Whatever.
Staring at his coffee, he hasn’t even gotten through a quarter of it. This is a hell he brought upon himself. He forces more of the bitter drink down his throat.
“Bleh…” He grimaces, checking his phone again to still not see a message from his friend. Okay. Now he’s actually worrying she’s trying to go into spy mode when she barely knows anything about this stuff. Just as he’s about to start typing again, he hears her burst in and give a cheery hello to everyone. He blinks, beginning to raise his hand to wave her over but she makes a subtle gesture and a wink.
Not really knowing what that means, he just resigns himself to watching. Mahiru goes to order, though he can’t really tell what they’re saying. But after she orders, she feigns looking around, before going over to the table with the red-head. He’s able to hear her a bit better now.
“Hey! Sorry if I’m bothering you at all! I’m looking for a friend of mine.” She explains, rocking on her heels. “Umm, he’s got brown hair with sort of blonde tips? An undercut?”
An interesting play. He sees the redhead turn to him and he quickly pretends to be looking at his phone, though he notices out of the corner of his eye that he’s being pointed to.
“Oh thank you so much!” She claps. “Before I go, have I seen you here before? What’s your name?”
The redhead raises an eyebrow at her, but before he can either say anything or deny, his friend who might be his girlfriend leans over him, cheerfully saying something. Mahiru only giggles.
“Oh, no, I’m not interested. But thank you again! Maybe I’ll see you here another time.” She then waves, walking over to Mikoto with a smirk that’s probably supposed to be smug, but smugness doesn’t really fit Mappi’s vibe.
She sits down across from him, twirling her hair.
“His name is Fuuta.” She proudly crosses her arms over his chest. He stares at her, shocked.
“Thank you so much, Miss Mission Impossible. What do I owe you?”
“Hmmm….” She puts a finger to her chin, thinking. “There’s this bracelet I’ve been looking at….”
“Ok, deal.” He puts his hand out and she laughs before shaking it. “The contract has been made.”
They share a laugh. “Make it a bracelet and some earrings.”
At that, he raises an eyebrow, frowning at her.
“Okay, I’m glad you got me that cute guy’s name, but I don’t think it’s worth 2 presents, Mappi.” He chuckles, tracing his finger along the rim of his coffee cup.
“Oh, no, not for that-”
“A latte and caramel frappé for… Mahiru?” As if on cue, the barista says that and she cheerfully gets up, thanking the girl and grabbing the drinks, casually sliding the frappé over to Mikoto. He stares at it for a few moments, before looking back up at her.
“I’ll buy you those earrings AND a matching necklace. Thank you for saving me from my bitter coffee hell.” He clasps his hands together, as if praying to her and she giggles, taking a sip from her drink.
“Just the earrings are fine, but I’ll keep that in mind for next time~.” She teases, and he happily indulges in his drink. His shoulders visibly relax from the drink, washing away the bitter taste in his mouth.
“Maybe this caramel frappé will give me the strength to not collapse today.” He half jokes, pushing his black coffee away from him. He’s about to say something else, when he notices the red head and the girl looking over at him, or maybe just in this general direction. But they quickly look away, both of them standing up to leave. He sighs, tapping his nails on the table.
“At least I got his name, but I’ve got no clue if I’ll even see him here again. He might not even be a regular…” He sighs again. “And I’m sure there’s alot of people named Fuuta… But it’s fine, there’s alot of cute people in the world-”
He gets cut off by Mahiru flicking him very lightly on the forehead.
“You give up too easily! If you’re interested in gaining his love, you can’t just stand by and do nothing! You have to pursue it!” She speaks with a passion, pouting at him.
“Well I wouldn’t say I’m… looking to gain love … He could be really shitty for all I know. Like, maybe a single conversation and then I can decide from there.” Shrugging, he takes a sip of his drink.
“He did seem pretty moody. But we know he has at least one friend!”
“How do we know that’s not his girlfriend?”
“She said that if I want to date Fuuta I have to put in an application.” She laughs a little. “I think she meant it as a joke, but she probably wouldn’t say that if they were dating each other. I think. Unless it’s an open relationship… But he looked really annoyed by her. Or is that just his face? Hmm…”
She rambles a little, before sipping her latte.
“So we have, like… Two pieces of information to go off of.”
“Better than zero!”
“That’s true.”
Mahiru laughs a little, humming happily as she sips on her latte. She seems to be in a pretty good mood- though that’s not really a rare occurrence. She always looks on the bright side no matter the situation. Mikoto wouldn’t say he’s pessimistic, but he’s not like Mappi. A fair middleground, perhaps.
“Ahh!” Her sudden squeal pulls him out of his thoughts, startling him. She’s bouncing in her seat and he blinks at her a few times.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah!!!” She excitedly taps her feet, smiling brightly at him. “I’ve been waiting for so long to be your wing-woman! It’s been, like… Forever! It’s been forever since you’ve been interested in another person!”
“Well, there’s no telling if I’ll still like him if I talk to him.”
“I know, I know… But still! I want to help you as much as I can! You know I love love! I love love in any form it comes in!” She's radiating excitement, and he can’t help giving her a big smile.
“Are you sure you’re not just doing this to get a matching necklace for your earrings?” He teases and she laughs.
“No, no, no, I’m serious! I’m super super serious! I want to help you as much as I can!” She leans forward, grabbing his hands. “I want you to be happy! I want you to have someone to love! And, okay, maybe I’d like a necklace too but that’s not my main goal!”
Mikoto snorts at that, pulling his hands away and smiling at her. It was nice seeing her get so excited for him. It made him feel good.
"She always thinks about our love life first, huh?" "Well considering how her first relationship went, it makes sense." "Maybe we could help her too? But I don't know if it's too soon to try setting her up with someone."
Again, he mostly ignores the conversation he hears, almost immediately forgetting the words anyways. But it only just occurred to him that she's been rambling about something, only hearing the very last part of whatever it was she was saying.
"-So now what do we do?" She asks, looking at him expectantly. He blinks, staring at her as he tries to piece together and recall what she said, but he was too lost in his own brain.
"..... Can you repeat what you said?" He asks with a sheepish smile, rubbing his neck. She huffs, her cheeks puffing as she pouts at him, though it's short lived.
"I'm not going to repeat all of that, so I'll just summarize it." She sits back up, looking as professional as she can, like she's at a job interview or something. "I was saying… Now that we have at least his first name, we should make a plan. How will you run into him again, find a way to have a natural conversation without seeming like a weirdo, and how to secure at least a phone number! He might be a tough nut to crack- don't laugh at that- but I'm sure you can break him out of his shell!"
Sitting back in his seat, he taps his chin, considering what she said. It's true, it would probably be weird to just walk up to him and start a conversation. He'd look like a weirdo at best and a stalker at worst. So he should try to find a way to talk to him without just… randomly approaching him and talking to him like they've been friends for a while.
The only thing is… How does he start a conversation with him naturally that isn't weird? He frowns, trying to come up with something. But he can't really think of too much. He could start with just passing comments maybe? Tell him he has cool hair and then wait a week before saying another thing about him is cool. But does he really want to dedicate the long game to a guy he might not even end up liking? He frowns more, and startles when Mahiru leans over the table, pressing her thumb into his eyebrow crease.
"I can physically feel you overthinking." She jokes, patting his head before sitting back down. He chuckles, a little bit of tension leaving him. "We'll come up with something, relax! I can start by asking the barista if he's a regular."
Is that too stalkery? Maybe. He doesn't find it too weird though, agreeing to that plan with only 2 seconds of hesitation. It's not that weird. Probably.
"Okay, that sounds good to me…. But what do we do if he's not a regular?" He asks, tilting his head. At that, she pauses, before shrugging.
"Dunno! We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." She smiles, and he only nods, brain feeling incredibly full right now.
"Well then. It's a plan!" He sticks his hand out and she grabs it, shaking it in a very professional manner.
He's got this. Probably.