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It's been a little over a year, and Shouto still comes to that same coffee shop, and that same Barista is still there. During the fall months, the barista- who Shouto now knew as Bakugou Katsuki- knew that Shouto ordered PSLs mostly. During the summer months, he would usually do frappes or smoothies. During the winter, he would always get cocoa, sometimes with a shot. Shouto was a creature of habit, and he didn't like change.
~1~
It was a nice, warm, cliche Summer day, and Shouto was at Starbucks, working on his paper that was due that Friday. He chewed on the straw that was in his smoothie as he scrolled down his docs draft, checking for typos in what he'd written so far. He was focused, so when someone else's beverage slammed down on the table, he noticabley flinched, looking up in alarm.
"Hey." Katsuki said as he plopped down in the seat opposite Shouto, throwing his hat on the seat beside him.
Shouto released the straw from his lips, licked them, then set his smoothie down. "... Hi."
They didn't really know each other per say, so this was somewhat odd, to Shouto.
"It's slow, so my manager let me off early." Katsuki said casually, then took a drink from his cup, which looked to have just had regular coffee in it.
"Cool.. What's up?"
"I've literally been working all morning. You know what's up. You've been here as long as I have, you idiot."
True.
"You know," Shouto said thoughtfully, tilting his head a bit. "You should consider being slightly nicer to your customers."
Katsuki tilted his head back a bit, squinting at the man across from him. "... Do you think I'd still be working here if I was a dick to customers?"
That was a good point...
"Has your dumbass ever thought about the fact that I may just like being a dick to you?"
That may have come out wrong..
Shouto rose a brow.
"The first day you came in, I literally called you a dumbass. I called a complete stranger a dumbass, and you laughed, for some stupid-ass reason. Maybe you were high, I don't know."
"I was not high." Shouto scowled, grabbing his smoothie again.
"Whatever." Katsuki shrugged a shoulder. "Point is, I don't have to be stupidly nice to you, like I have to do with every other damn person."
In some weird way, that's oddly.. Sweet.
"Do you want me to st-?"
"No," Shouto interrupted, setting down his cup. He swiped his thumb across the bit of strawberry smoothie that he could feel on the corner of his mouth, then licked his thumb clean. Katsuki totally didn't find that attractive. "No, I don't mind. It's sorta nice to have someone not fake a smile for you, you know?"
Bakugou stared at him, squinting slightly. "... Mhm."
Shouto just stared back.
".. So what're you doing?" Katsuki asked after a moment, slouching forward a little and resting his forearms on the table, both hands holding his cup. "Did I interrupt something important?"
"Oh, no, it's just a paper that's due this Friday." Shouto looked back to his screen, which now had the bubble screensaver going across it. He looked back up at the blonde. "I was just checking for typos. I'm pretty much done."
Katsuki nodded slightly in acknowledgement. "Where do you go?"
"What?"
"What college are you going to?" Katsuki said, enunciating every syllable. "Is it this one?"
Shouto gave the other a deadpan look, before answering sarcastically, "No, I go to a different school but I come here for coffee every morning, and do my homework here, just to go back to my campus later." Even though Shouto wouldn't admit it, he would come even if he did go somewhere else. He liked Katsuki.
"Sasshole." Katsuki scowled. "If you don't go here, maybe the campus you do go to doesn't have a Starbucks, or their coffee just sucks ass- I don't know your damn life."
"..." Shouto cracked a small smile, leaning back. "Fair enough. I go here. Do you?"
The blonde tried- and succeeded- to keep from smiling. He liked this guy's spunk. "Sort of."
"Sort of?"
"It's this school, but I do their shitty online program. I got tired of being on campus."
"Ah. Well- Wait," Shouto paused, then scowled at Katsuki. "Did you call me a 'sasshole'?"
"I did." It was actually an accident, but Katsuki wouldn't admit that. "It's a mixture of-"
"Sassy and asshole, no, I got it. Clever."
"Watch the attitude, Scar Face."
Shouto smirked a bit. "And if I don't?"
"Then I'd have to do this," He gave Shouto's shin a swift kick under the table, making the former jump a bit and jostle the table.
"Ow, you fuckin' asshole!"
It was Katsuki's turn to smirk. "Watch your language. This is a family establishment."
Shouto glared, reaching down to rub his shin. "I should-"
Katsuki licked his bottom lip, still smirking. "Say fuck again."
"No- Wait, why?"
"Your lips look provocative when you do."
Shouto just stared at the other for a moment, before rolling his eyes subtly and grabbing his smoothie once more. He took a long sip.
Katsuki tilted his head a bit, leaning back and spreading his arms across the back of the booth. "If you're trying to do that sexy sucking on straw bit, it's not working."
This made Shouto roll his eyes again, though this time more obvious as he pulled off of the straw. He licked his lips, closing his computer with one hand. "I was just taking a drink. Is that alright with you?"
"Nope. You're not allowed to drink the smoothie you paid for, in this public establishment, just because your barista was judging you."
Shouto laughed softly, taking another drink, before setting his cup down again. "My barista, huh?" He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "I like the sound of that."
"You only come to me, even when the other register is open." Katsuki said with a shrug. "Which is fuckin' stupid, but whatever."
"Maybe I just like your people skills." There was only a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "Your nicknames always get me. My favorite is now sasshole."
"Smartass."
"That one's a good one too."
Katsuki rolled his eyes and grabbed his cup again to take another drink, looking about briefly. He noted the amount of people beginning to thin out, and he figured it was getting close to the end of most people's study hours.
"I've got a question." Shouto said, regaining Katsuki's attention.
"Ask it."
"So what are we?" He asked, making Katsuki raise a brow. "I mean, we see each other a lot- obviously- and we've sorta known each other over a year, right?" The blonde nodded. "Well, I just- Are we friends, or what?"
Katsuki rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, looking around at nothing in particular.
"... It's not a hard question." Shouto muttered after a moment. "Yes or no."
"Calm down, half'n'half." Katsuki snorted softly. "Yeah, we're fuckin' friends."
"Then what took you so long to answer?"
Katsuki looked back to the red and white haired man, smirking as rubbed his jaw again; an unconscious action he did when he was thinking, Shouto noticed. "I was just contemplating giving you my number, or making you work for it."
"Work for it?"
"Mhm."
Shouto gave the man across from him a deadpan look, resting his elbow on the table and resting his chin atop his fist. "And how would I have to 'work for it', huh?"
"... Hm. I can think of one thing."
Oh fuck no.
Shouto scowled. "I'm not gonna suck your-"
"What the- No! That's not-" Katsuki glared in response. "That is not what I was gonna fuckin' say."
"Sure it wasn't." Shouto said with a teasing lilt, though it irked Katsuki all the same.
"Just drink your damn smoothie. I just wanted to see your hair down for once. You always have it up."
"..You wanna see my hair down?" Shouto asked, ever so slightly confused. "Seriously? That's it?"
Katsuki nodded.
"..."
"..."
"... Okay." Shouto finally said. "You're a weirdo."
"Says the one that thought I wanted him to suck my dick just to get my number."
"Okay, you know what- just shut up." He used both hands and carefully removed the hair tie from his bun, then the hair tie from his ponytail. He ran his hands through his two-toned locks, and mussed it up a bit, then kinda flopped it to one side. "Happy?"
Gorgeous.
"I am." Katsuki said with a definite nod, smiling a bit. "I like it down."
"Thank you.. It gets in the way sometimes though, so I just put it up."
"Why not just cut it then?"
Shouto shrugged a bit, pulling some into his line of sight. It was long, but not overly so. "I just.. Haven't. It somewhat helped with my anxiety when I was younger," Judging by the blonde's expression, Shouto decided he should probably explain. "I had really bad anxiety, among other things, when I was a child, and it helped to have something to do with my hands, so I'd just.. Run my fingers through it. It's weird, but it helped." He paused, then added with a shrug, "Plus, my nieces like to braid it."
Katsuki nodded in understanding. "I get it. You have siblings, then?"
"Mhm." Shouto smiled, pulling his hair back up into a ponytail. "I have two brothers, and a sister. I'm the youngest."
"Who has the daughters?"
"My sister and my second oldest brother. Fuyumi- my sister- has twin girls and a boy, and Natsuo- my brother- has one daughter."
"Sounds nice." Katsuki smiled slightly. "How old are they?"
"The twin girls are six, and the other is four."
"Nice."
They both nodded, just staying silent for a moment.
"Sorry, you don't-"
"Anyway, so-"
They both stared, then laughed a bit. Shouto pulled his ponytail tighter, and Katsuki ran a hand through his hair.
"Sorry." The latter apologized. "What were you gonna say?"
"I was just apologizing for talking so much about my family."
"Don't apologize for that. I asked you about them."
"I guess so.. Anyway, what were you gonna say?"
"I was gonna finally give you my number, then get outta here."
"Oh.. Okay." Shouto said. "Here," He slid his phone across the table, fully trusting the man across from him to catch it before it fell off.
Thankfully, the latter did.
"Awful trusting, aren't we." He teased, turning on the phone. He smiled slightly at the lock screen. It was Shouto with four kids, all of whom he assumed to be the aforementioned nieces and nephew. "They're cute."
"Hm?"
"Your nieces and nephew- or that's who I assume are on your lockscreen."
Shouto smiled fondly, nodding. "Yeah, that's them."
Katsuki hummed a soft response, before going back to the task at hand. "You should have a password on here, you know."
"And why's that?"
"So assholes like me can't get into your phone."
"Noted for future reference." Shouto smiled wryly, grabbing his cup again and leaning back in his seat as he drank.
"Good. And stop trying to do the sexy straw thing."
"I'm just drinking!"
"That much tongue is not necessary for drinking!"
"It's not- I'm just trying to drink my smoothie!"
Katsuki gave him a deadpan look, before looking back down to navigate the other's phone.
"Believe me, if I was trying to do the 'sexy straw thing', you'd fuckin' know it, and you'd love it."
"Oooh, you said fuck again."
"What is with you liking me saying that?"
"Told you earlier."
"... I feel like you're flirting with me."
Katsuki looked up, smirking, as he powered off the cell and slid it back over. "Believe me, if I was trying to flirt, you'd fuckin' know it, and you'd love it."
Shouto rolled his eyes subtly, though it was obvious he was trying not to smile. "Hm. Those words sound oddly familiar."
"Do they? How strange." Katsuki said with a soft hum, still smirking slightly, before sliding out of the booth. "I'm out. See you tomorrow, half'n'half." He snatched his hat from the bench and stuffed it in his bag. "Work hard on your paper." On his way by he tugged Todoroki's ponytail gently.
Shouto chuckled softly. "Bye."
Bakugou raised a hand, though didn't turn around as he left.
After the blonde left from his sight, Shouto grabbed his phone from the table. He turned it on and opened to the home screen, laughing at what he saw. The blonde had taken (what should have been an unflattering, but was just cute as Hell) picture of himself and set it as the background. He shook his head, smiling still, as he went to his contacts.
He choked on his smoothie at what the contact name was.
'That Barista That Does NOT Want You to Suck His Dick.', accompanied by a middle finger emoji.