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The couple standing at the front of the line are the very cute sort of couple. A young man and woman, attractive and holding hands, standing so close to each other that their bodies are pressed against each other, leaning even further into each other to whisper into each others ears as they look at him, blushing. Actually, now that he thinks about it, they're behaving pretty inappropriately. And even worse, they're holding up the line.
"You're holding up the line," Iida informs them, adjusting his glasses. They blanch and straighten up, their red cheeks turning more pale, their hunched shoulders smoothing out into healthier posture. Iida approves of the latter, bad posture and back pain is a serious issue. "Have you decided on an order?"
"U-um!" the man stutters.
"A caramel mocha and a black coffee with a lot of sugar! Right, Deku?"
"R-right! That's right. Hey, it's not a lot of sugar..."
"It's a lot of sugar, Deku."
Iida's already making the caramel mocha while they hash out 'Deku's' order, as they seem to at least be certain about the mocha. They should've just decided their order before they came to the front of the line, that would have been far more efficient. Iida finished the mocha, and picks up his marker. "Your name, miss?"
"Uraraka," she answers him, distracted from the argument, if you could call it that. Iida quickly but neatly jots the name down on the paper sleeve of the cup and hands it over to him. Deku's already punching in the numbers of the card reader, which Iida appreciates. Efficient.
"Have you decided on the amount of sugar you want in your drink?"
"Yeah, uh, three of those little paper tubes, please."
"That's a lot of sugar," Iida says thoughtfully, which is highly inappropriate of him. They're clients and he's an employee, that was hardly professional of him.
"Right!?" Uraraka exclaims.
Deku starts muttering to himself as he puts his wallet back in his pocket. Iida hadn't meant to get in the middle of their argument. He decides that Uraraka's question had merely been rhetorical for convenience's sake and turns back to his coffee making. He's got a black cup of coffee with three paper tubes worth of sugar in it ready in under a minute, and hands it over to Deku. Their fingers graze during the transaction, and Iida idly notes the scars on his hand. He's got scars on his hand as well.
Someone pointedly clears their throat behind in the line, and the couple flusteredly makes their apologies and then their exit. Iida makes sure to bid them politely goodbye of course, as he does with all of the customers, but then he goes right back to making drinks correctly as fast as humanly possible without accidentally being rude to any of the customers. It's a long day, and no memories stick particularly out to him later as he collapses into bed.
Besides the couple, Uraraka and Deku. They really had been quite attractive.
"Hot barista coming up in three, two, one..." Uraraka whispers.
"Shut up, shut up...!" Deku hisses, blushing furiously.
"Excuse me?" Hot Barista says, although his name tag insists that his name is actually Iida.
"Um, nothing!" Deku squeaks.
"We'd like a--" Uraraka starts, remembering how miffed Iida had gotten at them yesterday for not giving him their order immediately, yesterday. They'd just been temporarily struck dumb by his handsomeness, was all! Not that Deku would be able to survive her telling him that, he'd probably combust before she got all of the words out. (To be perfectly honest, she wasn't sure she'd be able to survive telling him that either.)
Iida abruptly halted his movements, already half turned around towards the coffee machine. He looked back towards them. "You won't be having what you had yesterday?" he asks curiously.
Uraraka blinks at him dumbly.
"You remember what we had yesterday? You must get over a hundred customers a day!" Deku helpfully, and probably accidentally, covers up for her. She idly rubs a circle into his hand with her thumb in thanks.
Iida blushes, and she feels even more grateful. She wishes she could snap a photo of his face right now without looking weird and super rude.
"Ah, well, we had a conversation so it was easier to remember you two. So, will that be a caramel mocha and a black coffee with a lot of sugar in it again?"
"It's not a lot," Deku says automatically, but nods.
"You only say that because Bakugou refuses to consume anything that isn't at least fifty percent sugar. You can't use him as your basis for anything, honey, your view of the world will get totally warped!"
Uraraka notes with some alarm that Iida's already working on her drink. He's far too competent at his job, it's not fair! She and Deku will hardly get any time at all to flirt with him if things continue like this. "Actually, you know what?" she says as an absolutely brilliant idea blossoms in her mind. "While you're at it, would you make my caramel mocha venti, skim, extra shot, extra-hot, extra-whip, and sugar-free? And Deku's going to have a venti iced skinny hazelnut macchiato, sugar-free syrup, extra shot, light ice, and no whip."
The person behind them in the line groans and just flat out leaves the coffee shop. Uraraka refuses to be ashamed.
"... Sugar-free syrup?" Deku asks her plaintively.
"Don't want you becoming diabetic before you're thirty at the least, hon!" she says with forced cheer, and shoots him the look that hopefully conveys I know what I'm doing just play along. He hesitates for a moment before he mournfully nods. Bless him. Uraraka kisses on the cheek before she focuses on Iida again. He's working on her drink again, adjusted order and all.
"His I'll-work-hard-no-matter-what attitude is kind of hot, don't you think?" she whispers into Deku's ear, and he nods seriously in agreement.
Well. She's bought them some time. Now it's time to use it. That actually sounded much more daunting than it had only a minute ago when they didn't really have much longer than a minute to work with.
"So, have you worked here for long, Iida-kun?" she asks brightly, which is a very dull question, but she has to start somewhere, all right?
Iida doesn't seem to mind small talk as long as he gets to work while he's doing it. "Only for three months, miss. I want to get a starter position at Mei Tech, but they require at least a year's worth of work experience and they don't count internships."
"Ah, that's too bad," she says with as much sympathy as she could muster. She could muster quite a lot, actually. She hated when starter positions pulled that trick. What did they think start meant?
"Well, it's a very prestigious company," Deku muses, and Iida nods with great fervor.
"Members of my family tend to stay within the family business, but I want to branch out and create my own path! Not that the family business isn't highly honorable, of course."
"And what is the family business?" Uraraka asks, because it seems to be the natural next question, and she wants to keep the conversation going for as long as possible. They're doing great! Not super flirty yet, but she supposes Deku must appreciate all of the info he gets to work with, and Iida may have to be eased into things, and, well, her poor heart may need a little while to work itself up to the task as well. Her and Deku had only ever really slept with one person together as a couple before (that person being Bakugou, which had been a ONE TIME ONLY thing, everyone had super firmly agreed). And this time, if everything went well, it would be the first time they slept with someone that neither of them had known before hand, someone that they were getting to know specifically with sexy stuff in mind (that might just turn out to be more than one time only thing). With that in mind, maybe small talking some first until they were familiar with him instead of immediately diving into flirting would be a good idea.
Uraraka likes this cafe. She would like to be able to return without dying of embarrassment.
"Police work!" Iida answers her (nice in, she thinks victoriously and squeezes Deku's hand happily), oblivious of her thoughts and intentions, and finished her overly complicated drink with a flourish. Uraraka only hopes that it doesn't taste like total crap, no judgement on Iida of course, this was all on her.
The family business might not be so honorable any longer, Uraraka absolutely does not say out loud, because she's trying to get on Iida's good side here, and Deku's dad was a cop (not to mention Deku himself) until he became too injured to continue such strenuous work, and he's proud of it. Uraraka's proud of him too! She's just very conscious of the fact that the only way to remain a cop and also be honorable now a days may involve not paying too much attention to what you're told to do by your racist boss or partner and bending the laws every now and again while no one's looking, except not in a selfish way.
"I'm a construction worker," Uraraka tells him, unprompted. She recalls many bad dates that were spent listening to a guy go on and on about himself, but this isn't like that! Iida should learn something about them as well, if they're hoping for him to grow interested in them at all. "Which is the family business, actually. Which is fortunate, seeing as I take a lot of time off to work in disaster relief. Pretty much anytime there's a hurricane or a flood or something in the country."
"How worthy!" Iida praises, and Uraraka flushes and smiles embarrassedly at how cheesy yet genuine he sounded.
"Thanks," she says, and then nudges Deku helpfully.
Iida places her drink down on the counter and starts working on Deku's drink.
"Oh, um, my job!" Deku says, clearly feeling flustered. Small talk with a time limit is admittedly kind of stressful. "I'm, uh, actually a cop, funnily enough."
Iida actually turns away from his coffee making for a moment to beam at him. Uraraka's torn between admiring the smile, being happy for Deku, and worrying over whether or not he actually will combust. "That is wonderful! Do you work at the local station? Some of my family members do, they might know you."
Deku mumbles that yes, he does work at the local station, and yes, he thinks he does recall an officer or two by the name of Iida although he's not particularly close to any of them. Iida still beams at them as he slides over Deku's coffee and Uraraka pays.
Success, Uraraka thinks with deep satisfaction as they walk out of the store, hand in hand. And then they both unthinkingly take a long slurp of their drinks and Uraraka's looking with mourning down at the new stain on her shirt while Deku's in the process of coughing a lung up. Gross.
But worth it.
Iida raises his head from where's he's wiping down the counter and smiles when he sees that it's Uraraka and Deku again. He smiles wider when he realizes that they came later than usual, and there's no line behind them at all. He might find it in himself to take a little longer than usual while making drinks if there are no other customers waiting. They're just such refreshingly good company. Iida realized, the day after their remarkably long chat, that he hadn't actually taken the time to specifically spend with friends instead of work or studying or training in... a long time. A long enough time to not actually have friends any longer. Which was an amazingly sad and pathetic thought that he wasn't going to dwell on any longer.
"Greetings! What will it be today?" he asks.
"A tall non-fat latte with caramel drizzle for me, please," Uraraka says. She seems to really like caramel. Caramel drizzles are sort of hard, Iida thinks but doesn't say out loud. That would be rude, of course.
"And a nonfat frappuccino with extra whipped cream and chocolate sauce for me, please," Deku says firmly, which seems to be like ordering a diet coke with your extra large triple bacon burger to Iida, but who is he to judge? The customer is always right, after all! (Besides, his boss was very insistent on that he should stop trying to goad the customers into eating healthier.)
Iida nods and gets to work, perhaps a touch less frantically than usual. If Uraraka or Deku notice, then they don't comment.
"So," Deku says, and when Iida glances at him out of the corner of his eye he seems to have determinedly fixed his eye at some point over Iida' head, instead of looking at him directly. "Do you work out? You seem very... fit."
"Oh, thank you!" Iida replies. "Yes, I do. I greatly enjoy running in marathons, so I make sure to stay in shape. It's healthier than just training a few months in advance of the run."
"Marathons!" Uraraka says delightedly. "That's interesting. Have you ever won?"
Iida makes sure it's safe to remove one of his hands from the process for the time being, and then adjusts his glasses. "I've come in first place a total of two times, and have been in the top ten every time for the past five years."
A moment of silence behind him, and then: "Holy shit!" "That's amazing, Iida-kun!"
"Language!" he responds, but he can't deny that some part of him puffs up with pride at their praise.
He finishes Uraraka's drink earlier than he had intended, and gets started on Deku's, trying carefully to retain his slow pace this time.
"... Your hair looks very nice today, Iida-kun," Uraraka says, and Iida looks at her over his shoulders in surprise, because he hasn't done anything different today than usual and--
She's leaning on the counter, which is against policy, and he's going to have to wipe down the counter again, and, and at first he hadn't, he hadn't really noticed how low the cut of her shirt was today. Her crossed arms right underneath her... breasts certainly helps accentuate it for him.
Iida tries very hard not to cough in the direction of the coffee and mumbles a thank you, eyes very firmly averted.
"And, um, your coffee tastes very good!" Deku says. And then he continues in a lower voice that he probably wasn't meant to hear, "At least when we know what to order..."
"I said I was sorry!" Uraraka whispers to him.
"Thank you," Iida says again, and wonder if he should compliment them back. It would be the polite thing to do, wouldn't it? Iida briefly entertains the thought of complimenting Uraraka on her shirt, and then briefly entertains the thoughts that that would probably end with him fired and with a sexual harassment charge to his name. Definitely not the thing you want on your resume when you're trying to get into Mei Tech, and besides, he hates the idea of making Uraraka uncomfortable.
He glances back at them, searching for something he can point out that wouldn't be highly inappropriate or creepy. "I like your phone straps," he finally, gratefully settles on. They've both got their phones out in their hands, although they're looking at him instead of their screens at the moment. They have both have a pink strap with a red heart on the end on their phones. A matching set. The kind of cutesy thing an incredibly in love couple would do.
Iida is suddenly overcome with shame over the thoughts he's been having, and turns back to his coffee making. He returns to his usual effecient tempo.
"Thanks," Deku says, and Iida nods in respone, because ignoring a customer is very rude and unprofessional. They ask a few more questions that he assumes are meant to encourage conversation, but he doesn't help them. It's rude, but deniable. If they're looking for a friend, he really shouldn't be the person they choose.
He finishes making their orders quickly, and then looks eagerly towards the door when the bell rings, signalling that a new customer has entered.
Deku and Uraraka pay and leave.
"... Well, he didn't seem into the whole flirting thing." Deku finally says, halfway through his coffee. It doesn't taste too bad at all, but he still kind of misses his simple sweet black coffee.
"If you could call that flirting," Uraraka says glumly. "You seem fit, Iida-kun! Your hair looks nice, Iida-kun! Your coffee tastes good, Iida-kun! Boobs! That was just giving him compliments. And boobs."
"He seemed to like the boobs," Deku says consolingly. "And the compliments, actually. At least the one about him being fit."
"What did we do wrong?" Uraraka groans.
"Maybe he just noticed what we were doing and didn't like it? Except I'd think he would have blushed more if he'd realized that we were, you know, hitting on him, even if he did reject us."
"Maybe he's super not into poly stuff," Uraraka sighs, and takes another sip of her coffee.
"Hmm," Deku hums, his mind changing tracks. "Maybe... does he realize we're flirting with him? I mean, does he even realize we're poly?"
"I would've thought we made it pretty obvious."
"I know it would seem that way to us, but you've got to keep in mind that polyamory is still kind of a niche thing, Ochako. It might not even occur to him," Deku says, thoughts zipping by faster and faster in his mind.
"... Are you telling me communication is our fucking problem again --"
Deku takes her hand and turns them straight around, back towards the cafe.
"Definitely not just a one time thing," Uraraka sighs, an arm slung over Iida's bare chest. Deku hums in agreement, his arm slung over Iida's bare waist.
Iida stares blankly up at the ceiling and is greatly tempted to be unprofessional in his language, and around customers, no less.