Chapter Text
Stutter
Hitoshi cleaned all the tables of the night Café "Midnight sun" he worked at as cleaning staff.
The Boy with the wild, purple hair took his job very seriously, he was very thorough with all the things he cleaned. He wanted to do at least one thing right.
He had much luck with this Job at the midnight Café, the owner, a loud blond named Hizashi Yamada, had taken pity on him and had allowed him to only do the cleaning, and avoid contact with the customers.
And Hitoshi was eternally grateful for that.
Talking… wasn't easy for Hitoshi. And that was an understatement. Truth was, he hated talking, he avoided it whenever he could.
Whenever he opened his mouth he got laughed at, got hateful, disgusted and annoyed looks. People looked at him impatiently, urged him to say whatever he wanted to say so they could go on with their lives because they had no time waiting for him until he was done talking. Because it took him forever to speak out one single, easy sentence.
Hitoshi hated those looks, they made him even more nervous and that blocked him even more, made the words stuck deeper down in his throat so they never came out. And he had to fight his own Body under those impatient, mocking stares until he gave up and tears of shame and self hate welled up in his eyes. He couldn't even do the most simple thing right.
He really was a good for nothing, like his foster parents told him all those years ago. And nothing had changed.
It was 11pm, it was late, Hitoshi's shift ended in an hour and he could go home.
The only other staff member was the grumpy blond barista Bakugou, Hitoshi honestly was a little bit afraid of. He did his best not to come in his way and avoided being near him like he was the black plague. He made him nervous to no end.
Right now the only customer in the small late night Café was a dark haired man whose grumpiness matched the one of Bakugou.
The dark haired man, Hitoshi guessed he was in his late twenties or early thirties, snapped and grunted annoyed into his phone.
He was beautiful on the outside, Hitoshi must say. He liked his dark, raven hair that cascaded just barely over his shoulders, his matching black, obsidian eyes and his sharp jaw with a little black scruff on his lower face.
He was tall, Hitoshi guessed even a little taller than he himself. Since the first time Hitoshi had seen him, he had a little crush on him. Always peeked over to him then and now, but of course nothing more. He would never dare to come close to him.
He didn't seem to be in a good mood today and his work was making problems, from what Hitoshi could tell in his position on the other end of the Café.
Right now he was cleaning the glassy front door from the fatty finger tip stains that were plastered all over it.
Hitoshi had seen the dark haired Guy often within the last weeks. He always came with his laptop and ordered a big black coffee, and then yelled at people over the phone and aggressively tapped on his Keyboard.
Bakugou once had tried to throw him out, Hitoshi had seen him walking over to him with loud, annoyed steps, but then had walked back even more annoyed, with his fists balled at his sides until his knuckles turned white.
The dark haired guy seemed to not be afraid of Bakugou and managed it somehow to stay where he was, not changing his behavior.
"Move, Boy. You are in my way."
A rough voice came from behind Hitoshi, and Hitoshi froze for a second. That was he, wasn't it?
No one else was in the Café at the moment.
It must be him.
"Boy! Move or I will move you. I have no time to waste."
It was like every other time people talked to him. Hitoshi was used to it by now.
The purple haired Boy ducked his head and scrambled a few steps to the side, almost knocking over his water bucket.
"Fucking Finally." The tall, dark haired man grunted and brushed past him, pushing the wet door open with his hand and left his finger prints on it again.
"S-... So-... Sorry…"
Hitoshi stuttered, but the man was long gone.
"Hitoshi, you stupid fuck. Couldn't you have been a little faster with your dumb cleaning ?! You are wiping the door for hours now."
Bakugou harshed at him and Hitoshi ducked his head even further down, squeezing his eyes shut and biting on his lower lip.
Damnit. Now he had angered not even his customer, he was a failure for his collegue too.
He really was bad at everything.
"I-.. I'm.. so… sor…sorry, B-..."
Hitoshi wanted to apologize, but Katsuki waived him off in annoyance.
"Save it. I don't have time to wait for you. Just don't stand in a customer's way again and be quicker. Your Job is the easiest one here. "
He scoffed and went to the back and left Hitoshi standing in the Café alone.
Hitoshi's hands clenched around the cloth he wiped the front door with, trying to keep it in. He couldn't cry right now, he was at work. He had to keep his cool and end his shift. He wanted to be good for Yamada, he wanted him to be satisfied with him so he could keep working here. He needed the Money to finally move out from his foster home.
Hitoshi bit his wobbling lower lip to keep himself from crying, turned around and wiped away the finger prints from the dark haired man.
After his shift, Hitoshi went back to his foster parents Home, he refused to call it his Home. Because he didn't feel like home there. It was just the only place he could sleep at. Until he had saved up enough money from his work at the Café, he would rent his first own Home. As fast as possible.
"Where have you been so long, brat? It's past Midnight!"
His foster father yelled at him as Hitoshi opened the door. He was drunk as almost always, watching TV in the living room.
"I… apolo… apologize, S-.... Sir. I… w-wa… was…"
Hitoshi tried to answer, but his foster father rolled his eyes and shook his head, looking back at the TV again.
"Yeah, yeah. Forget it. I don't care either way."
Hitoshi bit again down hard on his lower lips, feeling heat rushing through his Body, his vision going blurry.
He needed to go into his room, quickly, or this guy would see him cry. And he really didn't need to get made fun of even more today. This day was a total catastrophe anyways.
So the purple haired boy ran up the stairs and closed his door behind him, turning the Key in the lock, leaned against the locked wooden door, threw his bag in the corner and let it all go.
Slowly he sunk down, his knees giving in and he landed with his butt on the dirty floor, back still pressed against the wooden frame for support.
Big, colorless tears streamed down his face, dropped from his chin down Shirt and soaked it wet.
Hitoshi hadn't cried like this in weeks. Actually the last couple of days and few weeks had been okay.
Of course he still met people that weren't nice to him and looked at him like he was a waste of time when he opened his mouth, but he was used to that. He never knew any different.
But today was really shit. Nobody wanted to listen to him, nobody wanted to give him a few more moments of their time. Even If it would mean the word to him If someone would let him finish speaking. But he never met someone like this, save for Mr. Yamada who had given him this Job. He was a really kind and good man. He had given Hitoshi the time he needed and didn't rush him or make him feel like shit when he stuck on a word and didn't get it out and had to rephrase his sentence.
Everybody else did. Even his foster parents, the people who should do everything they could to support him. In fact, they were some of the worst people Hitoshi had ever met.
The purple haired Boy slowly stood up and dried his face with an old Shirt that laid on the floor.
He needed to sleep, he was tired. Tomorrow will hopefully be better.
Denki had shift tomorrow when Hitoshi arrived later to clean up, he was way nicer than Bakugou.
Hitoshi still kept his distance from him, but at least he didn't have to be afraid of him.
Hitoshi changed into his pajamas and tried to think about something else, something neutral that didn't have anything to do with his stuttering. The stuttering already destroyed all of his dreams and things he wanted to achieve in his life. Hitoshi deserved at least a few moments of his day where it didn't make everything harder than it needed to be.
The next day Hitoshi made himself ready for work and took the train half an hour into the City where the Café was, his mood was a little bit better.
The thought of Denki being there instead of Bakugou comforted him.
His cleaning shift started at 8 pm where the Café was still a little crowded and Hitoshi had to be careful where he started to wipe the windows or the tables clean because he didn't want to come in anybody's way and risked angering someone with his presence.
There had been times where someone yelled at him because he accidentally knocked their drink off and wasn't able to apologize because he didn't get a word out. On top of that it had been Bakugou's shift then and he wasn't any help, he just got angry at Hitoshi too and supported the customer in scolding Hitoshi about his mistake.
Since this time, Hitoshi had become very careful about cleaning while more than five tables were still occupied.
The Café wasn't really big, fifteen tables were inside and during the summer there was a small outside area too with four tables in front of the Café.
Since it was a late night Café, the business hours were when every other Café was already closed and the night owls came out and wanted to have a late night snack, but had no hunger for the typical fast food. Most customers were regulars, people who had to work late or young adults who wanted to enjoy the night.
Hitoshi loved the concept since he was a night owl himself.
And sometimes when there were leftovers, they were allowed to take them Home.
"Hey, Hitoshi. Good evening. Nice to see you again."
Denki, an equal loud blond like his Boss Hizashi Yamada with a black lightning bolt coloured into his hair greeted him overly friendly.
Hitoshi nodded shyly and waved back to him as he came back from changing into his blue Overall in the small locker room.
"H-...Hello."
He couldn't pronounce Denkis name. The letter D was one of the worst letters for him, he always stumbled over it and couldn't get it out. He needed at least five attempts most of the time and so he just avoided it and tried to use other words if possible.
Thank God Denki never asked him why he didn't call him by his name.
The first hours of his shift he managed well and nothing happened. He carefully decided where he worked and kept his distance from Denki, but he was gladly busy anyways and didn't notice or try to talk to him.
Then, around 11 pm, the dark haired man came back again. He didn't look at Hitoshi, or Hitoshi didn't notice, ordered his big black coffee from Denki as always and sat himself in the back corner Hitoshi thankfully had already cleaned.
Every now and then, the purple haired Boy peeked from the corner of his eyes to the raven Beauty and listened to his rough voice.
"No, Toshinori, you don't understand! I need the numbers right now! I have to report back to the law firm as soon as possible or they have our asses! So hurry up!"
A shiver ran Hitoshi's spine. He never wanted to be addressed with his hard, stern voice. I made his knees weak just by listening to it.
"I don't care how late it is. I need it now! Or do you wanna pay the money when we get sued? Yeah, me neither!"
With that, he hung up and threw his phone across the table with such a loud noise Hitoshi was afraid the screen had cracked.
"Fucking morons! Every time I have to fix their messes!"
He groaned and took a sip from his coffee, only to notice that it was already empty. He threw the paper cup angrily onto the floor and looked at Hitoshi.
"You, come here."
Hitoshi winced and bit on his lower lip, but he didn't want the good looking, long haired man to cause a scene so he obeyed, slowly walking over to the table in the corner.
Hitoshi came to stand in front of him, not able to look him in the eyes.
It was obvious that Hitoshi wasn't a waiter, he didn't wear an apron and didn't have a notepad in his hand to take orders, so he wasn't sure why the man wanted to see him.
Because of yesterday? Because he stood in his way?
Just as he wanted to open his mouth to apologize, the man took the word.
"Bring me another coffee, black and the largest size."
Hitoshi listened to him, hearing what he said.
But he didn't know how to respond. Should he tell him he was only the cleaning staff, that he didn't serve customers?
But he had to talk for this. And he didn't trust his voice right now, less than anyways.
His Heart was beating fast and hard in his chest, sweat was covering his palms.
"Are you deaf? Bring me my coffee!"
The man almost yelled and Hitoshi nodded, hurrying away to do what he wanted.
Talking to him was absolutely no possibility, even without stuttering he would probably be afraid of him.
So Hitoshi went over to the counter where Denki worked, and hesitantly tipped him onto the shoulder as the blond rearranged the display with the food they selled.
Denki turned his head to see a very pale Hitoshi standing next to him.
"Hey man, what's up?"
The blond asked, a little worried, but still a kind smile on his face.
Hitoshi looked down, fidgeting with his hands before he found the courage to speak.
"Uh… I… I nee-need a bl-bla…black.. c-coff-....Coffee…in l-arge. P-Please."
Hitoshi stuttered, entwining his hands until his knuckles were white.
Denki just nodded, not commenting the way Hitoshi spoke.
"Okay. No problem. I'll make you one."
Denki smiled, turning around to the big coffee machine behind him.
"Are you feeling tired, Hitoshi? I have had three coffees myself already. Rough night, huh?"
Denki chatted after turning on the coffee machine.
Hitoshi shyly shook his head and pointed around the corner to where the dark haired man said.
"T-The m- man…. H-He asked me.. t-to b-bring h-him one."
Hitoshi tried to explain the situation as simply as possible without annoying Denki too much with his stuttering. Denki never commented about it, which Hitoshi was really grateful for and he didn't want that to change by taking too long talking and stumbling over his words.
"Ah, I understand. But you aren't a waiter. Did you tell him?"
The purple haired Boy shook his head.
The more simple he could make an answer, the better.
"It's just a simple thing so it's fine, I guess. But if he does it again, then tell me. I don't want you to do something you're uncomfortable with. And Mr. Yamada told us clearly that your job is only cleaning. And that we should have a look at it too. So please next time, come and get me If he wants to order something, okay? "
Hitoshi nodded and gave him a small smile, thankful for Denkis helpfulness.
Denki gave him the cup of coffee and Hitoshi carefully took it back to his customer.
The purple haired boy hesitantly approached the table with the grumpy man who aggressively typed something on his Laptop.
Instead of saying something, Hitoshi cleared his throat to get the man's attention so he wouldn't startle his customer.
"What?!"
The customer groaned as he heard Hitoshis noise and looked up from his Laptop.
Then he noticed the Boy, his hand with which he held the cup terribly shaking.
The raven haired man huffed annoyedly and practically ripped the cup from Hitoshi's hand, taking a sip of the brewing hot beverage as if to test if Hitoshi had done his order right.
Hitoshi's mouth fell open as he saw the man drinking the very hot coffee, about to scream a warning but then the man sat the coffee back onto the table, next to his Laptop.
"Yeah, it's black. Thanks. You can go."
The customer excused Hitoshi from being in his service and Hitoshi only nodded, relieved that this Nightmare had an end. He slightly bowed to the beautiful man and went on with cleaning the Café.
About an hour later, Hitoshi had cleaned the complete floor and all the remaining tables and chairs because they were close to closing, the man with the long, dark hair and the now more visible scruff left the Café.
This time Hitoshi thankfully didn't stood in his way, and he didn't even say goodbye or something before he left.
But because Hitoshi still liked him in some strange way he didn't understand himself, he noticed that he had forgotten his phone he so hardly smacked down onto the table before.
Hitoshi couldn't call Denki, that would take too long. He had to be quick If he wanted to catch him in the darkness of the night, so he blindly grabbed the phone in one Hand, in the other still his cleaning rag, and ran out of the Café.
There he was, only a few steps away from him.
Hitoshi could reach him, he could.
But he had to talk to him then, didn't he?
How should he do that ?
Fuck why was it so hard.
Hitoshi bit down on his lower lip again, grabbed the phone in his hand so hard his knuckles turned white and moved his feet.
He had no time to overthink right now.
As he was close enough to the man, he opened his mouth to speak and prayed it wouldn't be a total disaster.
"Uh…S-..Ssir, ph-.. please… w-wait."
Hitoshi stuttered and tried to raise his voice as much as he could. Normally his voice was very quiet, another protective mechanism of his to prevent people who might hear his stuttering to make fun of him for it.
But the man didn't turn around. God damnit.
Hitoshi needed to be louder, because he was afraid of tipping him on his shoulder. He would probably turn around and smack him If he dared to touch him.
So Hitoshi tried to minimize the distance as much as possible and tried to talk again, louder this time. He took a deep breath, fisted the rag in his other hand hard to ground himself, and took another attempt.
"S-Sir, stop p-please. Yo-Yo..Your phone."
And this time, it worked thankfully. The man stilled in his steps and turned around, Hitoshi almost bumping into him.
"Sssir."
Hitoshi gasped, surprised from the sudden halt, but glad he had heard him.
Hitoshi stretched out his arm and handed him his Phone.
The man looked down on him, down onto the phone in his hand.
He looked at it for a very long time, then checked all of his pockets. Like he wanted to confirm he really had forgotten his.
Then he took it out of Hitoshi's trembling hand and finally looked at the younger, purple haired boy who was panting nervously with a small smile.
"Thank you, boy. This is a very important device for my work. I would be pretty screwed If it got lost."
The man stuffed it into the inner pocket of his black leather jacket and made sure it was safe.
"N-nno problem."
Hitoshi said, now both hands clenching violently around the dirty rag in his hand. It was easier to talk when he had something to hold onto.
The man nodded, turning around again to be on his way with a wave of his hand.
"Thanks again. See you tomorrow I guess."
Hitoshi's eyes widened, surprised but somehow relieved too that he was walking away again.
Deep down, the lavender Boy had maybe hoped to get to know this man better, but probably he didn't want to talk to him. He always seemed like he had no time to wait for something that wasn't important, always busy and restless.
Surely Hitoshi was something like that too. Way too unimportant to wait for him until he had brought a whole sentence out.
Hitoshi bit on his lower lip, let the rag out of his death grip and walked back to the Café to grab his stuff, hanging his head.
"Hey, Toshi. There you are. Where have you been? You just stormed out like you saw a ghost, man."
Denki came up to him as he walked back inside, but he didn't have the nerve to talk to him right now.
But he didn't want to leave Denki standing there like this. He seemed to have worried about him.
Hitoshi sighed, pointed to the table where the man had sat and opened his mouth again.
"F-..fforgot h-his phone."
He just said, that should hopefully be enough for Denki to understand.
"Ah, yes. Grumpy old Aizawa there. Always yelling at people over his phone and then forgetting it. Suits him right. You could just have leaving it laying here until he notices and then come running back freaking the fuck out. I did it once. Hilarious as hell."
Denki started laughing so hard he held his tummy after a while, having a hard time coming down from it.
"A-Aizawa?"
Hitoshi asked, letting the name echo through his head, thinking of the beautiful raven haired man.
Yes, that name fitted him.
"Yeah.. one time the Boss was here and they talked. Maybe they know each other I don't know. And he addressed him with that name."
The purple haired boy nodded in understanding.
So now he knew his name. What a nice feeling, somehow he felt closer to him right now.
"G-good night."
Hitoshi excused himself and went to the back to grab his stuff. He wanted to go to bed, today had been an exciting day. But he had talked way more than he was used to, it was tiring for him, all the adrenalin and the nerves that went through with him when he needed to talk much. It was exhausting.
Even though his heart beat like crazy right now.