Making coffee was an art form.
It was a long process, consisting of many steps, each varying in difficulty or skills required. Sure, you could just get some from a coffee machine beside the school, but it was only after being made aware of all the steps that got you your small cup of bitter goodness that you could truly appreciate coffee for what it was.
Sadly, it was an art form few got to experience in their lifetime. There weren't many coffee enthusiasts out there, after all. But you see, preparing to begin work at a cafe really opened your eyes about all this.
And about one more thing.
That you really sucked at brewing coffee.
"You really can't do the simplest of things properly, can you?" Bakugo sighed from where he was leaning on the counter beside you. He looked tired (who could blame him – he must have slept maybe 4 hours total, what with everything that had happened the previous night), as he was carefully eyeing your pitiful attempts at making coffee. Two cups were discarded to the side. Those had been the products of your first two tries, though Bakugo had given each a single sip, before declaring it a fail.
You had to give it to him – he was a lot nicer than he could have been. After all, the first one had nearly made you gag.
Having finished preparing your third cup for the day (and it was only early morning too), you also sighed and stepped back, silently praying to the heavens this one would be passable. Crossing your arms, you turned to look at Bakugo.
"Well, excuse me, Mr. I've-been-doing-this-for-years, but may I remind you that I've never had to brew coffee until today?" You pouted. Bakugo pushed himself off the counter and moved to pour the two cups of "poisonous" (as he had called it) coffee in the sink. Your heart sank at the sight of your hard work disappearing down the drain.
There go two hours of my life, I guess.
"And I've never had to train an ungrateful human girl, so I guess we're even."
"Aw, come on, Bakugo-kun, don't be so harsh on her. She's still a novice at this whole thing," a cheerful voice interrupted, before you could retort anything back yourself. The two of you turned to see a girl with short brown hair and very rosy cheeks smiling back at you, as she was tying her apron behind her back. You gave a grateful sigh.
"Thank you, Uraraka. Glad someone here's got my back." The girl waved her hand dismissively.
"Don't mention it. We've been needing the help anyway. I will admit – the circumstances are... unexpected. But you're a nice girl, after all."
You'd met a few more of Yuuei's employees shortly after waking up in the morning and going through a short check-up with Midoriya. You were surprised to find that most of them were students like yourself, and, most of all, had welcomed you with open arms (or at the very least – understanding nods).
Uraraka was one of them. She was the only other girl you had met so far and worked here as a waitress. Since she was two years younger than you, she was still a high-school student and as such, was a bit more lacking when it came to free-time. Though from what Midoriya had told you, she was always working here on the weekends. You found her to be very pleasant. The easiest to get along with too. You wouldn't have minded if it had been her showing you the ropes.
"Alright, enough wasting of perfectly good coffee beans. I hope you're better at the table waiting thing," Bakugo sighed again, pushing you aside to take your place in brewing coffee. His push ended up a little careless, as your shoulders rubbed.
You know – his perfectly good shoulder and your very much still injured shoulder.
You flinched a little, not quite muffling the small sound that escaped your lips. For a moment, Bakugo cocked a brow at you, but when his eyes darted to the bandages peeking beneath the t-shirt you wore, he seemed to remember.
"Uh, my bad..." he mumbled awkwardly, choosing to train his eyes somewhere on the counter instead. You giggled.
"Oh, don't worry, it's fine." Bakugo didn't seem convinced but motioned to the other side of the counter with his head anyway.
"Go to half-'n-half. He'll put some cups on a tray and you try to carry those. See if... your shoulder's gonna bother you..." You nodded and thanked him. Instead of leaving though, you got distracted watching the blond as he worked away. Despite the way he spoke and acted, his touch and movements as he poured the water seemed so gentle and precise. Only now did you realize how much you still had to learn. Your distraction was interrupted when he noticed your eyes were still on him and looked up from his handiwork. "What're you waiting for? You know we're opening soon, right?"
You jumped and furiously waved your hands.
"O-oops, my bad, haha. I'm going!"
Finally tearing your eyes away from him, you found the "half-'n-half" in question quietly washing some cups and glasses at the sink. You weren't sure why Bakugo insisted on calling him that though. Was it his hair that was dyed half-red and half-white? Perhaps. Quite the rebellious stage he must have had, you'd give him that.
There was also this painful-looking scar on his left eye, though you doubted even Bakugo would sink this low. He didn't seem to care much about appearances anyway.
You'd learned his name was Todoroki – he had been one of the people who'd peacefully acknowledged you with an expressionless nod. Then again, he seemed to be a little stone-faced in general, so perhaps this was to be expected. He'd made no hostile comments or given you a reason to suspect he disagreed, so you decided this was probably his way of welcoming you to Yuuei.
You wondered what had happened to him to leave him as he was (though you'd heard he went to a prestigious university despite it all), not to mention the unpleasant scar, but you decided not to question it or ask around – everybody had their circumstances, and you could only assume ghouls' were more complicated than the rest. Hell – you were a human working in a cafe full of ghouls. And you... surprisingly didn't see any of them complaining left and right. At least not yet.
When you approached him, Todoroki gave a silent nod, and pulled a tray up on the counter, filling cups and glasses with all sorts of different drinks.
"What do you plan to do with school now, [L/N]-kun?" a voice asked from somewhere behind you. You turned to find a boy with neatly trimmed dark hair and a pair of glasses cleaning all the tables. Even if Bakugo hadn't made fun of the fact earlier, you would have probably still managed to deduce that he attended a private college, just by how he looked.
"Just [F/N]'s fine, Ida-kun," you brushed off his polite tone. "Midoriya-kun said my shoulder should heal soon, so I guess I'll just call in sick in the meanwhile. Don't want some of the more nasty professors marking me absent for no reason..." You could almost hear Bakugo grit his teeth behind you – you shared a class with a certain very uptight teacher with him, and you knew he hated his guts.
"Won't it be suspicious if you and the person you were out on a date with disappear all of a sudden?" Todoroki asked, making you hum in thought for a second.
"Well, you're not wrong. I guess there will be some rumors. I'll just have to... brush them off, I guess?" you shrugged. "I've always had particularly thick skin so I'll be fine!!"
You smiled, though that smile fell a little when you remembered how last time you just 'brushed things off' you were almost killed on a first date. You really had to take note of that stuff more.
"Alright everyone," Aizawa called upon emerging from one of the back rooms. You'd heard something about him and Midoriya talking with somebody over the phone, though you assumed you weren't supposed to know of any further details, so you refrained from asking. "We're opening now, so stop wasting time and being irrational. [F/N]," he looked at you. "You're to sit back and observe for today. You should get the hang of this by tomorrow."
You nodded and moved to sit on one of the bar stools, noting how everyone went back to business. Ida turned the sign to say 'open' and went to adjust the tables on the outside. Todoroki disappeared to fetch more coffee from one of the back rooms. Uraraka and Bakugo sat back and waited for the first customers to start coming in.
You noted that Midoriya was still nowhere in sight, but you assumed he was finally getting some rest, after staying up all night because of you. You'd have to thank him and apologize when he woke up. Aizawa seemingly stayed up with him as well, thought he didn't have the luxury of resting during the day. That explained the bags under his eyes. Good thing they were serving coffee.
The cafe was soon filled with people of all kinds – from children with their parents, students with their books and laptops, even through to an elderly couple or two. Although you wondered – how many of them really were people? You'd never felt such uncertainty before.
But you smiled at the scene unfolding before your eyes.
This had been one of the warmest welcomes of your life. Despite having been at Yuuei for only a handful of hours (a majority of which you'd spend unconscious or simply asleep), you felt like this was just the place for you.
And honestly? You could not believe it.
***
Like Aizawa had promised, the following day was your first day on the field. It was Sunday morning anyway, so there weren't many people up and about quite yet.
Of course, Aizawa had no plans of busying himself any further. Despite having presumably slept all night for once, like a normal human being, he still looked like he hadn't gotten even a blink of rest. You were beginning to suspect he just looked like this all the time.
"I'm suddenly regretting everything," Bakugo muttered, rubbing at his temple. You had been appointed to him. Again. It wasn't like he even had to teach you anything. 'Just make sure she doesn't screw up, because then you're both responsible,' Aizawa had said.
Truth be told, you were a little scared of your new manager, so you had no intention of making him mad. And there was this whole thing that you felt like you had a debt to repay so you couldn't let yourself be a burden too. But the fear was greater...
It had been about half an hour since opening, and Bakugo had instructed you to just sit back and watch everybody else for now. He had taken to pointing out which customers were human, and which were ghouls. The weirdest part? He wasn't even looking up from whatever he was doing, be it brewing coffee, washing cups, or making sandwiches. As soon as the bell chimed to signal someone had walked in, he'd quietly tell you. You racked your brain a little, but soon remembered why this could be.
"Say, Bakugo-kun?" He hummed to acknowledge that you have been heard. "My parents had told me that some ghouls have an especially developed sense of smell, which can easily tell a human apart from a ghoul." He tensed, though you weren't sure why. Had you been speaking too loudly? Was he afraid someone might hear you? He shook this behavior off though, and answered.
"Yeah. That's right. It's not very common but there are those of us who have it." You nodded along.
"So you knew Monoma-kun was a ghoul right away then?" Bakugo stopped suddenly, and finally looked up at you.
"Yeah. What – you're gonna get mad I didn't warn you? I hope you realize how stupid that would have been."
"Oh no, no. I'm just curious is all." You smiled, while Bakugo returned to cutting a small tomato. Soon enough, he was back to pointing out what every new customer was. You were surprised to say the least – you'd expected there to not be many clueless humans, but you noted that it was in fact the ghouls that were few and far between.
"Well, someone's being awfully quiet."
You jumped at the sudden call-out. When you turned to look at Bakugo, you noticed a small smirk on his lips.
"You surprised they look so similar?" he asked. You looked away, a little ashamed to admit he was right. He was a ghoul so he had probably been looked down upon time and time again by other humans. You didn't have the heart to tell him you expected the difference between your two kinds to be greater, more easily noticed, but he'd seen through your silence regardless.
"I... I guess... Everyone here looks so... so normal," you muttered, though you quickly caught yourself. "N-not that you aren't normal but- but... I... Oh, forget it, I can't make this not sound bad..." You pouted. Bakugo hummed, as he once again tore his eyes away from you.
"You act as if everyone else doesn't make it sound worse. I can't really relate a lot to what you're feeling right now since I've always been able to tell the two apart. But if you asked anyone else here, you'd be surprised to hear your experiences are a little more universal than you think." He suddenly stopped mid-movement and lowered his voice, eyebrows furrowing. "If you really think about it, humans and ghouls are practically indistinguishable from one another. Not until they show their true colors..."
Both of you went silent. You stared at Bakugo intently, wondering if he had even meant to tell you this in the first place. He looked troubled, as if this was something that bothered him personally. And everyone knew there weren't many things that bothered him personally.
I guess everyone's general mistreatment of ghouls does get to him every once in a while...
"Bakugo-kun...?" you quietly called out. This seemed to snap him out of his daze and he shook his head, returning to his duty.
"Anyway, most of the ghouls here are regulars. Though you don't have to rack your brain to remember all of them – they come often enough, so you'll have them memorized in no time." The door chimed once again, and this time Bakugo looked up. "See the old lady that just walked in?" Your eyes followed a short old woman with gray hair pulled up in a tight bun. She found a small table beside the window and sat down. You turned to look at Bakugo.
"Yeah?"
"Her name's Shuzenji Chiyo. She's a ghoul too. And she also has a keen sense of smell. She'll be able to tell you're human."
"Okay. So?"
"So!? Go take her order, dumbass."
"Eh?"
"That's what you're supposed to be doing, remember?"
"I, well... yeah, that's right! Alright then!" You stood up and took a few deep breaths. "Yeah – I'm going!" Bakugo looked at you oddly, though you didn't notice. He must have thought you were going crazy.
You took the notepad and pen on the counter beside you and headed to the old woman's table, Uraraka giving you a big grin and a wink, as she passed you by on the way to relay an order of her own.
"Good morning, ma'am – may I take your order?" you smiled at the woman. Your heart briefly sank when her eyes widened and she looked back to the counter. Following her line of sight, you noticed she was looking at Bakugo, who nodded back at her. The lady finally relaxed and smiled at you too.
"I'm sorry, dear – you seem to be new here and I didn't quite recognize your face."
"Please don't be concerned – I haven't gotten used to this place yet either. And I understand why you would be alarmed." The woman looked at you for a quiet moment, probably wondering if you knew about her and the other ghouls here, though she couldn't exactly ask you that. She must have been satisfied with your confident smile though.
"A short black coffee, please," she ordered and took to looking out the window. You quickly noted in your notepad (not that you needed to – it was pretty simple to remember, after all) and thanked her, returning to the counter.
Upon returning however, You found that Bakugo had abandoned his duty and was instead glaring daggers at Midoriya, who had come beside him and was giving you a big thumbs-up.
"A short black coffee..." you relayed as soon as you approached the two.
"Coming right away!" Midoriya exclaimed. "Congratulations on your first client, [F/N]-san!" he said, as he turned around to prepare the order. You blushed a little.
"Th-thank you... Not that it was a difficult job, haha..."
From that point on, Bakugo would point out a friendly ghoul or clueless human for you to wait on every once in a while. You were getting the hang of things, not that there was much to get the hang of, especially with how supportive and friendly everyone was being. You noticed the occasional customers shooting you some surprised looks, likely not having expected a newcomer. Those must have been the regulars that Bakugo had mentioned.
There were a handful that looked... a little less nice. You noticed their eyes trailing you, and you didn't like their stares one bit. They felt almost like those of a creepy stalker or a cat caller, except somehow more malicious. You didn't need a keen sense of smell to tell they were not human, though you were grateful to Bakugo, who didn't send you out for any orders while they were in the cafe. Or a few minutes after, for that matter.
He really seemed to care more than he let out.
Before you knew it, it was closing time for Yuuei.
Though it seemed like Aizawa had other plans for you. Yeah, sure, you could have been resting, letting your wounds heal quicker, even studying for when you would eventually have to begin attending classes once again.
Instead, you were stuck taking out the trash.
'Don't mind the manager – he always makes the rookie take out the trash,' Uraraka had told you. She looked strangely relieved though. You couldn't help but assume she had been said 'rookie' until you came around.
Well, I did say I would do anything to repay them... I guess I only have myself to blame...
Fortunately, it wasn't a very difficult task. All you had to do was take out the trash bags and bring them outside through the back door, where the dumpsters were.
How convenient.
The bags smelled mostly of coffee which, considering the nature of your new workplace, was to be expected. You briefly wondered if they kept any... food (the kind that wasn't exactly meant for humans) somewhere in the back rooms, but you decided it'd be better just to ask. Bakugo probably wouldn't have hesitated to tell you anyway.
Throwing away the final black bag, you wiped the sweat off your forehead (those things were heavier than they looked), and turned to open the door and get away from the unpleasant smell of the dumpsters.
Unfortunately, your luck seemed to be non-existent these days.
An arm slammed against the door from behind you, preventing you from opening it. Suddenly you were very aware of the shadows looming over you.
Turning around slowly, you found two men keeping you trapped between themselves and the door. One had chin-length blond hair and big eyes that looked a little less than sane to you. The other sported long black hair and seemed drunk off his mind. This wasn't looking good.
You wondered if anyone inside would hear you if you were to scream.
Creepy ghouls wanting to eat me, and now some drunk guys trapping me in an alley. This can't be good. How do I keep getting myself in these situations!?
You were suddenly thankful for the self-defense skills your parents had taught you. Sure, it wasn't much, but they made sure that if you were ever cornered by creeps like these, you'd be capable enough to escape them and run off to the nearest place with other people buzzing about.
"Hmm, who knew Yuuei had such a little gem hidden away," the blond man grinned, leaning in closer. The other only nodded along – he seemed too out of it to even speak. You, on the other hand, inched back. "If the taste matches the scent, you'll be quite the exotic treat."
Before you could remark why everything seemed to revolve around smell today, you sucked in a breath as it dawned on you.
Treat...?
No way. Not again.
A mere second later, the man's eyes turned black and red, as his grin widened.
"Let's test that out, shall we?"
...
[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION]
Protocol K78152112
Subject #17
Real Name: N/A
Background: Taken from a CCG-funded orphanage.
Results: Mutations; change of skin color to an unnatural and sickly hue.
Signs of success were present; subject survived for multiple days, though had to be restrained; died due to complications stemming from the increased Rc count.
(scribbled in pen) Huh, seems to work better with younger subjects...
...
Author's Note: Bam – cliffhanger! I would like to say I'm generally not one to leave you hanging every week, but this story's doing weird things to me, it seems like.
Thank you guys so, so much for all the support on last week's launch of this story by the way! It makes me incredibly happy to know you're all enjoying it and I'm so excited to continue with it too! Here's a quick recap of some easter eggs from this chapter – the old woman Bakugo sent Reader-chan to was actually Recovery Girl (I just used her real name instead); the two guys that have her trapped in that alleyway are actually two of Overhaul's men – Setsuno Toya and Sakaki Deidoro (though the concept of the Eight Precepts of Death/Shie Hassaikai probably doesn't exist here)! Just a fun little nod to canon!
Anyway, I had tonnes of fun writing the peaceful bonding time with Bakugo, and I hope you enjoyed it too! Thank you so much for reading, please drop a comment to let me know what you thought, and I'll see you again next Wednesday! Bye~