Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You didn't usually walk this way, or rather, you didn't usually walk at all when running errands. Usually you and your closest friend would get your grocery shopping done together, making it convenient for you to hitch a ride guilt free. But they had been extremely busy all week and you were getting desperate to restock your dwindling kitchen selection.

You were excited to dig into your food haul. Canvas bags full with meats and vegetables waiting to be cooked up with your favorite sauces and spices that you had at home. It would be a nice change from the pre-packaged dinners you had been subjected to recently after running out of fresh food. There was also a box of ice cream bars you bought to treat yourself to later.

The bags aren't too heavy but the rough fabric is beginning to leave marks on your fingers and palms as they weigh down in your hands. Determined to get home you moved at a steady pace, paying attention to where you were walking. Unfortunately, there was a man hurriedly leaving a building to your immediate right who wasn't watching where he was going, crashing right into you, catching you both off guard. Your bags slip to hit the ground, one of them spilling its contents.

“Ah! I'm so sor-” He stops short when he looks up to see your face, and he blushes slightly, only able to continue his sentence after quickly darting his eyes away to the side. “S-s-sorry. That was stupid of me. L-let me help you pick everything up.”

“It's okay,” you assure him, not feeling okay about this at all. But it was just an accident so you're trying not to be too upset. You both reach down to pick up the dropped items, and you notice that your belongings are now buried under things that he must have dropped as well. Your fresh and frozen veggies are scattered under some green and pink items, each donning the face of the same cat-girl smiling and posing. She looks familiar, an idol? You don't pay any attention to those sorts of things but you have seen her briefly before on TV spots and CD covers. He blushes a deeper hue in embarrassment now, rushing to gather up all the idol merchandise. With his stuff out of the way you reach for a bag of green beans at the same time he reaches for it to help. Both of your hands jerk away at the same time too.

“G-g... go ahead!” he squeaks, motioning for you to continue for the green beans, nervously reaching for a different bag once your hand is safely out of the way. You take turns picking items up and soon enough all your food is back in your bags and you're eager to get away from this clumsy, nervous wreck.

“Thanks for helping,” you say out of politeness.

“It was my fault that happened to begin with,” he replies, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand, idol merchandise clutched tightly in his other trembling hand. Good god, even the bag holding his items has the cat-girls face on it. He's obviously still on edge but at least he has calmed down enough that he isn't stumbling on his words anymore.

“Either way, I still appreciate the help. I have to get going now though, before my ice cream can melt any further.” You exchange awkward good-byes, but that awkwardness isn't relieved as you start walking towards home. He's heading in the same direction. You pick up your pace but he is either a fast walker with no other speed setting or isn't picking up on the hint that you're uncomfortable with how he's now trailing behind you. Every step you take you hear echoed by his steps, until the tension becomes unbearable and you turn quickly to face him. He must startle easily because he makes a tiny jump onto his toes before settling down again, looking equal parts confused and scared. “If we're heading the same way anyways I'd rather we just kept talking then having you constantly behind my heels in silence.” It comes out a bit angrier than you intended but he's a tad more relaxed now as opposed to the small panic he was in just a second ago. However it still takes him a moment to mull over what you've said and prepare a response.

“Choromatsu,” he says, holding out his hand for you to shake, looking pointedly at anything but you or the hand you're meant to grab. You give it a quick, weak shake, telling him your name in return.

And so you continue together, him walking carefully at the edge of the sidewalk away from you. It's obvious he's painfully shy, or maybe just in this awful situation, but at least the small talk goes smoothly. He actually leads the conversation rather well, asking you a few bland get-to-know-you questions like whether you're going to school or working, but he avoids the topic when you ask him those same questions in kind. The exchange has you talking in equal parts and it's nice, until you ask about what he was out buying and Choromatsu's face lights up. You learn all about his favorite idol, and it almost seems like he knows more about her than he knows about himself. Even if you tried you wouldn't be able to get a word in anymore as he's talking excitedly, not even pausing to breathe.

In his excitement he's let his nervous guard down, no longer keeping himself as far away from you as possible while you walk, and the change in character is sort of endearing. You don't even mind that he's neglecting to let you join the conversation, although you stop paying attention to the boring topic he's on about in favor of enjoying how genuinely happy he is to be talking about it. But you do have to cut him short soon enough. You stop walking promptly but he doesn't even notice.

“Choromatsu?” you call, and he whips around to see he's a few steps ahead of you and blushes once again. “This is my stop.” you finish, as you begin to dig around in one of your grocery bags.

“Okay.” He drags on the word, eyeing your house. “I guess I'll be going then, it was nice meeting you.” As he's finishing his sentence you manage to pry open the corner of one of the boxes in your bag. Taking an item from the box you step forward to hand him one of your ice cream bars, which he takes hesitantly.

“Nice meeting you too. Maybe I'll see you around again sometime,” you say and give him a warm smile, which he gladly returns. You exchange good-byes, again, this time sure that you meant it. At least for the time being.

Chapter Text

The barista calls out your name and sets down your drink, which you accept with a polite thank you and smile. You're out the door and a few steps towards your next stop when you freeze in your tracks. You recognize the man sitting at the cafe bar that faces out the large window, small eyes looking serious under a dark brown bowl cut and a rather angular frown pressing his lips downward. The sight is puzzling, him tapping his fingers away at a laptop and tablet crudely fashioned from cardboard and tape, topped off with messy marker lines indicating a high-end brand. There's a matching cardboard cell phone held to his ear. His outfit, in contrast, is very well put together. A dark green suit, the color of which fits him perfectly, and a simple pair of square, black glasses. The combination of homemade office supplies with genuine office attire is jarring.

You weigh the pros and cons of continuing your journey against going in to say hi, and the curiosity of what Choromatsu is doing get's the best of you. And when you left off your last encounter with him you had mentioned maybe seeing him again, but you would never admit you were hopeful and looking forward to bumping into him. You re-enter the glass door which you had just gone out moments ago and settle yourself down at the window bar in the seat next to Choromatsu. He quickly glances at you and back to his 'laptop', and your mouth is open to speak but not a syllable escapes before Choromatsu is holding up a single finger on his hand towards you. Is he really shushing you for a conversation on a cardboard phone with a non-existent cardboard person? He's spouting computer jargon but it's all simple key commands that his shushing hand goes down to mimic. The keyboard is drawn on crookedly, the keys aren't quite square, and even from a quick glance you can tell it's missing several rows of would-be buttons. Some of the button combinations he's suggesting out loud wouldn't even do anything, or at least not in any computer program you know of.

Hopeful that he'll wrap up the call soon you pull out your own phone and open whatever app you think will distract you for just a couple minutes. But it's not long before you've exhausted the entertainment that app provides and you're left to open yet another. All the while you watch the minutes on the clock pass by, about 6 times the number has changed. By now you're not sure this is the same shy, blushing boy you had run into before. This businessman is too rude and willing to ignore you. But there's a small phone charm resembling his favorite cat-girl idol, the jack of which has been roughly shoved between the corrugated folds of the cardboard. It's a dead giveaway that you're sitting next to exactly who you think you are. Or who you were sitting next to, your patience having run thin enough for you to abandon him here. There's a loud slam as his phone is slapped down onto the counter and Choromatsu turns toward you, arm extending to try and reach you where you've walked a brisk step away.

“No! Wait, WAIT!” he shouts and you're vaguely aware of the other cafe patrons whose heads have turned towards the commotion. You've turned back towards Choromatsu so all they'll see of you is the back of your head, but he's the real show anyways. He's sporting an impossibly large pout thats shaking uncontrollably. If you weren't so irked that it took this long for him to acknowledge you then you might have taken pity on him. Against better judgment you let out a puff of air and seat yourself next to him again, figuring now he might be willing to have the nice, friendly conversation that you'd wanted from the beginning.

“What are you doing?” you ask with some frustration, but hopefully it comes off playful enough to be teasing as well. Now he has the reaction you were originally expecting, looking away, blushing softly, stuttering slightly when he talks.

“Working.” he replies but it sounds like a question.

“Really?” You look purposefully at the fake laptop and back at him, eyebrows raised in palpable suspicion.

“Uhhhm, pretending to work so no one will think I'm a useless, jobless, NEET.” You trust this time he's being truthful but he still makes it sound like a question.

“You're too transparent.” you inform him, and he looks confused so you elaborate for him, carefully and slowly choosing the right words. “You're over-compensating by having all the fake stuff. It's too obviously... fake. Just the suit would suffice.” He looks over his outfit, blurts out a little “Thanks!” and tosses his props across the room towards the garbage. The light material doesn't propel itself very far though, merely floating away a couple feet before settling on the ground, and Choro is left to awkwardly shuffle about to clean up. When he returns he's noticeably embarrassed but replaces that look quickly with one beaming with pride.

“Like this?” he asks and it's stupid but he's cute.

“No one would even question whether or not you have a job if you just dressed casually.” you suggest but he shrugs it off. The conversation goes pleasantly from there. He finally tells you some details about his personal life, and it clicks in your head why he dodged so many of your questions previously. There's a steady back and forth between the two of you talking and by the time you finish your drink you've learnt about his lack of girlfriends or dating experience, lack of job, and abundance of identical brothers. You even indulge him a bit by pretending to be a co-worker in his imaginary business, talking about how stressed you are about deadlines and how unnecessarily strict your boss is.

The exchange winds down but before running off you have one last question for him. “You don't have a real phone, do you?”

“Not really, just my families home phone. Why?” he responds. You consider this and there's a pause before you pull out the receipt from your drink, and grab one of the pens left out for patrons to do the daily newspaper crossword and sudoku. You rip the receipt in half, jotting down your phone number on one piece and handing him the other to do the same.

“Just in case we want to stay in contact or see each other again, yeah?” you tell him.

“Y-yeah!” He smiles brightly and writes something down. You exchange papers and good-byes before you leave. You've barely made it a building away in opposite directions before you hear an enthusiastic, overjoyed cheer coming from somewhere behind you.