A Mess of a Life (My Hero Academia)

A Problem Customer

-x- Four Years Later -x-

"Oh, hun, come to the back with me," Mikaela said, his boss at the coffee shop he worked in. he'd just gotten a whiff of a lot of blood through the drive through. He had jolted away and out of sight before she saw him. His muzzle was there, and he was breathing heavily in the back room where the storage was.

His kind, understanding and completely accepting boss rubbed his back, putting the strongest bag of coffee under his nose, which cleared his head with how pungent it was. Working at a coffee shop had been one of the smartest decisions of his life. His foster mother always drunk black coffee, and they noticed a while after he had joined his siblings, and they took advantage of that.

So working there, surrounded by coffee beans, things usually worked out. His instincts died down, and the muzzle automatically contracted back into his handy choker. It was more of a choker than a collar, really. "You okay?"

"Yeah. it wasn't that bad this time, it only looked that way," he said with a heavy sigh. "I wasn't going to attack them, I just was muzzled cause I panicked about being seen looking crazy." And it was true. He may get that physical reaction, his appearance and behavior giving something away that was odd, but he didn't attack anymore.

He hadn't in over a year. Coffee really helped, but his dream and time limit of him needing to be sane was ticking.

He trusted Mikaela to be kind and sincere with him, finding it was only teachers he didn't trust after he continued to have bad ones. Passive aggressive, disliking him even when he behaved just fine at school. He was always put in a class with no O negative students. It shouldn't be a big deal, but it was to all his teachers. It was annoying and hurtful.

It just made him more suspicious of people who were supposed to be good influences in his life. They just weren't. So he trusted his foster mother and his boss, along with All Might and Tsukauchi. He hadn't spoken to All Might in a while, who'd said he was busy with something important and had to focus on himself.

Shoto had been "friends" with him for years, so being cut off hurt a lot. He didn't need his advice anymore, so he assumed the help was over and he was forgotten. Or at least out of sight, out of mind. He felt it would be hard to forget him, but easy to move on, maybe.

After drinking some coffee with a blood powder packet inside, he went back to working, Mikaela trusting him to behave just fine. When he went out, though, he had the strongest, most delicious scent he'd ever smelt. He took deep breaths, hating that he was the waiter today. Glancing around, he easily found the source.

Shoto was fourteen right now, nearly fifteen, and got paid less than minimum wage, and worked only three hours a day because of school, which he was fine with. He didn't put in enough time to get much money. He didn't need it, as Misa was not poor. They were well off enough to afford one blood powder packet a week, which was fantastic and very useful for work.

He had no choice but to go to the table. He was breathing through his mouth, somehow not reacting to it. Maybe he would feel bad for it since it seemed to be somebody his own age, with his mother. "Welcome. How can I help you?" he asked in a strained voice. Even if he was comfortable, he didn't have good people skills. Always worried they'd turn on him, or realize what he was and try to hurt him.

It had happened before, so he was extra careful around strangers everywhere he went. No matter the age. The teen with green hair and freckles asked for a mocha. A boring drink but easy. The mom, he assumed, as they had the same color hair, asked for a vanilla bean Frappuccino. Shoto agreed and hurried back to the kitchen.

He made the drinks quickly, wanting him gone so he could go breathe outside like a weirdo. He finished quickly, but didn't slack on taste or quality. His break was almost there, thank god. He had a fifteen minute planned break. Not his freak outs. He brought both mugs to the table, and then headed out the back door.