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Bartender Katsuki — who works primarily weekday evenings and occasionally a Saturday night here and there. He's the owner, so it doesn’t really matter. He can pop in whenever he wants—but he prefers a proper routine and schedule.
There’s a guy with green hair that’s covered in freckles that frequents the bar most Friday evenings, but he usually only has a fruity margarita or two and then heads home.
Katsuki hasn’t served him—not until one Friday night when the guy plops down on a stool at his end of the bar. He has another bartender, Eijirou, that works the other end of the bar and covers the whole bar when Katsuki has stocking/business matters to attend to.
Katsuki always assumed that the freckled dude just had an eye for obnoxious redheads.
So, colour him surprised when he looks up from mixing a drink for someone a few stools down to get a view full of green, wild curls and the prettiest green doe eyes he’s ever seen.
Katsuki’s interest is instantly piqued when the guy stutters out a sheepish “h-hi.”
His green eyes look at Katsuki like they’ve lived a thousand lives together—and Katsuki doesn’t have the time to try and figure out what the fuck that means right now.
“Hi. What can I get for you, freckles?” he asks, finishing up the other drink and sliding it down the bar top.
The green eyed beauty smiles shyly and squeaks out, “one watermelon margarita, please.”
Katsuki nods, then sets his body in motion to make his drink. The man doesn’t say anything else, just looks around the bar while Katsuki makes his drink. Once he brings it back, he places a coaster down and then sets the glass on top of it.
“Here ya go. One sugary ass cavity bomb,” he says with a small smirk. Freckles just laughs an airy, genuine laugh and bows his head slightly in thanks.
“Thank you….” he trails his gratitude off as if he were waiting for Katsuki to give him his name, his eyes looking at him with interest as he takes a small sip.
“Katsuki,” he says, leaning his right hip against the bar, facing the other man.
The other hums and closes his eyes as he sips his drink, then opens them once he places the glass back down.
“Katsuki,” he repeats, a small grin on his lips as he props his elbow up on the bar, then places his cheek against his knuckles. “Pretty name for a pretty boy,” he practically coos.
Katsuki’s cheeks flush, heat spreading along the back of his neck at the compliments. He’s been hit on at the bar before, that’s nothing new. what’s new is the way it just made him feel.
He knows he’s blushing like an idiot. His heartbeat is quickening in his chest. His palms are getting all sweaty—fuck.
Did this guy flirt with Kiri like this? Is he just a flirty dude or something?
Well, Katsuki isn’t one to back down from such a provocation. Especially not from someone as pretty as this guy.
“Yeah? And what’s your name, angel face?” He asks with a challenging smirk.
The man giggles, then uses his free hand to bring the margarita up to his lips and quickly sips it before placing it down.
“Izuku,” he says, a bit of a nervous glint in his eyes.
“Izuku,” Katsuki repeats, feeling the way his name rolls off of his tongue. It felt right.
“I think you just might be cuter than your name,” Katsuki grins, tilting his head slightly as he looks at the man. His cheeks flush a bright pink, and his smile is so bright it almost momentarily blinds Katsuki.
“Coming from someone as attractive as you…” he says, tilting his own head. “Luck must be on my side tonight,” he grins.
“Luck’s got nothin’ to do with it,” Katsuki scoffs, shaking his head. “You’re hella fine. I’d literally be lying if I were to say you weren’t,” he shrugs.
Izuku’s eyes light up at his words, and they end up chatting for hours.
Katsuki’s shift ends at 12am, and Izuku stayed seated at his end of the bar all night long; aside from the occasional pee break.
The man had 3 margaritas, yet he wasn’t even close to being sauced. If he was, he was the most sober-acting drunk person Katsuki had ever seen.
By the end of his shift, they’d chatted about anything and everything. Katsuki learned that Izuku is a professor at the college in town and he’s extremely overworked and underpaid (in Katsuki’s opinion) and is in need of a much deserved vacation.
He also learned that he hadn’t had a relationship in over 10 years. He even apologized for his ‘terrible flirting’ throughout the night—explaining that it’s just because he’s not very good at it and he just likes to say what he feels in the moment.
And Katsuki respects the hell out of that.
He told Katsuki a hundred times tonight how much fun he was having, how much he enjoyed their conversation—how pretty he thought Katsuki was and how he was so elated that Katsuki was indulging him in his silly flirtatious behaviour. He even told Katsuki to tell him to ‘bug off’ if it was making him feel any type of way other than good.
Well, he didn’t need to do that, because Katsuki was absolutely LOVING the attention.
Izuku flirted him up like he was the hottest item on the market… and it made him feel good.
Izuku was gorgeous. so handsome and strong looking—even covered by the white button up. And Katsuki truly enjoyed their conversation tonight. It was nice to finally feel like he connected with someone on a certain level.
Izuku slid off his stool once Katsuki was done closing everything up—Katsuki had told him he could stay and keep chatting as he closed up. Izuku had giggled and nodded, continuing to sip his drink and yap away.
Everyone else had already gone home, leaving the two of them to be the only ones walking out the front door around 12:45am.
Katsuki locked up as they talked, laughing at a story Izuku was telling about his class from earlier in the week. They walked over towards the last two cars in the parking lot, and Katsuki kinda felt bummed that they were going to have to part ways for the night.
“What’s wrong, Kacchan?” Izuku asked, tilting his head as he stepped in front of Katsuki.
Oh, yeah—he started calling him ‘Kacchan’. Katsuki didn’t care, he thought it was cute as fuck, actually.
Izuku reached a hand up and pinched Katsuki’s cheek. “You’re pouting, Kacchan.”
Katsuki didn’t realize he was, and he scrunched his nose. “Would it be alright if I gave you my number?” He asked, looking at the other man, searching green eyes for any sense of discomfort.
Thankfully, Izuku’s smile is toothy and so fucking adorable as he pulls out his phone.
“Oh my god—of course! I was just going to ask for it,” he says, his eyes practically full of sparkling hearts.
He passes his phone to Katsuki, and Katsuki grins as he types his phone number in and then passes the phone back to Izuku.
Izuku taps his screen a few times, his smile wide as he taps away. Katsuki's phone vibrates in his pocket, and his chest warms at the fact that Izuku already sent a message so that he could have his number as well.
“I guess this is goodnight?” Katsuki says with a small smile, the back of his neck feeling hot.
Izuku puts his phone back in his pocket and nods, but gives Katsuki a hopeful smile as he takes a half a step closer.
They’re so close—Katsuki can literally see the shapes of his freckles on his cheeks properly.
“I’m beat from the week… but since you said you’re off tomorrow, would you want to maybe go to dinner? Or we can order in—whatever you’re comfortable with!” He says, a nervous lilt to his voice.
“I’d love that. I know of a really good ramen place that does take out… we could watch a movie?” Katsuki says with a grin, admiring all the freckles that dotted Izuku's flushed cheeks.
“I’m so down!” Izuku beams, his smile impossibly wider. “That sounds like so much fun, Kacchan. Text me when you get home, and we’ll sort it all out, okay?”
Katsuki nods, his own smile betraying his typical nonchalant attitude. “Sounds good, freckles. I’ll text you.”
With a deep breath, Izuku leaned forward, into Katsuki's space as a hand came up and cupped one of Katsuki's cheeks. Then, smooth lips pressed against his other cheek, and butterflies erupted in his gut.
Izuku lingered for a moment—a moment that had Katsuki's knees weakening and his head beginning to feel floaty. Then, he pulled back, and gave Katsuki the most gorgeous smile he’d ever seen. His cheeks were flushed a deep crimson as he parted his lips to speak.
“I look forward to your message, Kacchan!” And then, he turned on his heel and scrambled into his car.
The car turned on, and Izuku damn near peeled out of the parking lot. Katsuki stood there, feet cemented to the ground, and waved. He saw Izuku giggling in his car as he drove away, and all Katsuki could do was bring his own hand up to the cheek that Izuku kissed.
His fingertips grazed the spot lightly, and his other hand came up to cover his mouth as he smiled like a fucking idiot.
He’s definitely gonna send Kiri a message about this once he gets home, after he texts Izuku—already preparing himself to have to spill his guts to his best friend’s pink haired menace of a wife.