Kirishima x Reader // "Sometimes I'm Alone in a Crowd"

Chapter 1

It was around 9, same time as yesterday, when Kirishima looked up to see the same woman come in again. Her hair was the same, her makeup was the same – was it? he didn't know a lot about makeup but it looked about the same...- and the wore the same business casual style outfit as the day before. She didn't bother looking at the display this time, and instead walked right up to the counter.

"Hey, can I get the same thing I had yesterday? I think it was.."

"You had a ham croissant and a medium roast coffee...right? I think that's right." Kirishima rubbed the back of his head as the woman looked at him with surprise.

"Um...yeah, actually, I think that's right. You remembered what I ordered?"

"Ah, well we have a lot of regular customers who get exactly the same thing everyday, so I've gotten really good at remembering faces and attaching them to orders. Wow that sounded kinda weird ah-"
She smiled at him, it didn't looked quite as tired as yesterday.

"No no, I think that's pretty good customer service honestly if you can remember someone's order like that just after one day. Or am I just that memorable?"

The last line struck Kirishima into a mute state, trying as hard as he could not to lose his shit and turn into a confessing mess.

"We ah try our best here to take care of our customers after all!" Ok good good he managed to swing around that statement. "Speaking of memorable, I haven't seen you in here before. Are you new in town?" Yes good keep it going keep it going...

She pulled out a debit card rather than cash this time and handed it over to him. "Not really, my office moved into a new space last week that's a couple blocks away. We used to be all the way across town so I was never over in this area much. Also, we have free coffee at work, but it tastes like garbage honestly so I'm willing to pay for my caffeine fix. What I had yesterday was pretty good, so I decided to come back." She smiled at him as he slid her card in the machine and handed it back with a receipt.

"Oh that's cool. We'll have your order up in a minute." He flashed a bright, toothy smile in her direction. It was going better than expected!

"Ok...mmm..Kirishima?" She was looking down at his scuffed name tag and he was nervously avoiding eye contact. "Thanks." She waved him off and walked to the receiving side of the counter and sat down in the same chair as yesterday. Since Bakugou wasn't there yet, some teenager with arms too long for his body was making her order. Kirishima was too busy trying to breathe correctly, processing that the conversation went way better than expected.

1. She isn't here on a business trip so SUCK ON THAT BAKUGOU!

2. He didn't make a complete ass of himself, and she made it a point to know his name.

This was a good start, better than any of the matches he'd had on dating apps where half the time he was stood up and the other half were just...well we don't think about those anymore.

Once she had her food and coffee, she made it a point to wave bye to him on the way out, disappearing down the same street as yesterday.

After a while Bakugou showed up a minute before his shift start. He was always close to being late, but was never actually late. Once he put on his apron and name tag, he eyed Kirishima with suspicion. He was normally energetic, but this giddiness was new.

"What's up your ass, shitty-hair?"

"You were wrong! That lady came back today and we had a nice conversation consisting of like, two sentences each!" Kirishima threw that in the blonde's face as if it was indisputable fact that he had already won.

"Wh...oh yeah, the chick from yesterday. So you didn't scare her off permanently then?" Bakugou shoved the teenager out of the way, knowing that he was the best at making the coffee and he wasn't going to let some kid fuck it all up.

"Nope, she works at an office down the street that recently relocated, so I bet she'll be coming in tomorrow too."

"Yeah yeah we'll see, if you manage to score a proper date I'll be fucking surprised. Do you even know if she's single?" Bakugou eyed him suspiciously, Kirishima failing to hide the dawning realization regarding a question he hadn't asked himself.

"Uh...I mean...no? I didn't see a ring though so she's not married. Don't ruin the mood, if she's not oh well at least I'll have tried." Kirishima held up an optimistic thumbs up, while Bakugou made some fake barfing sound and turned back to making some lunch items before the rush started in a few hours.

"You're such a fucking sap. What's the schedule for tomorrow, you're off work right?"

"Yeah, I get to sleep in for a while. Don't burn the place down without me, ok?" For that comment he got a stale pastry with a bite out of it thrown at his face.

During his lunch break, Kirishima decided to make a small list of topics that didn't sound creepy or weird coming from a stranger, something he could talk about that would seem relatively reserved and normal.

1. Where is your office?
"No, that makes me look like a stalker creep...scratch that one." He took his pen and scribbled out the first entry.
2. What do you do for work?
"Ok, getting there, it's a start."
3. What kind of music do you like? The music here is pretty boring so I'm sorry. Unless you like it, then you have eh taste in music.
4. Are you single?

"You are really fucking bad at this." Bakugou stood over Kirishima's shoulder, reading his list without permission, making the red head jump just a bit.

"If you would help me, it wouldn't be a problem."

"Idiot we made a bet I'm not going to help you WIN." Bakugou continued walking past with a pack of napkins, leaving Kirishima to his pitiful list.

What if she doesn't even like guys? Maybe she likes women...maybe she likes both? All genders?! Ok cool cool let's be inclusive here and I'll have a small chance.