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Midoriya Izuku was a quirkless barista who worked in the coffee shop his mother owned. They catered to everyone; no quirk discrimination was allowed here. Izuku was the primary face of the shop, since his mom worked as a quirk discrimination lawyer.
He gave up his dream of being a hero after the slime villain incident in middle school. Izuku proved to himself with that incident that he could be a hero without a quirk, but All Might telling him he couldn’t was still a steady wound that still hurts to this day.
Izuku had still gone to U.A., but he continued his education in the business course. He learned how to run a business while getting his general high school education credits. With that knowledge, once he graduated, he took over as the main manager at his mom"s café so she could go back to doing her lawyer work full time. Inko was good at what she did, and Izuku wanted her to continue the amazing work she was doing for the people with ‘weak’ and ‘villainous’ quirks and the quirkless.
That was actually how Izuku met his best friend, Hitoshi. Inko took on his case probono when she heard about how his schools before U.A. treated him. She sued the shit out of them for quirk discrimination, and the people who put their hands on Hitoshi to put the muzzle on him were arrested and sentenced to jail time. Hitoshi kept coming around the café then, and the two boys became inseparable.
Now a days, Izuku doesn’t get to see his friend that often as Hitoshi’s career as the underground hero Psyren took off, but as often as he could manage, the purple-haired boy stopped in as soon as the café opened for a coffee and a hello to show Izuku he was still alive.
Hitoshi was also the only one who knew what Izuku did at night. The boy had taken his hobby from childhood and turned it into a career where he had a vast network to help solve crime. He was a professional analyst under the moniker his childhood bully gave him, just with a positive twist.
Dekiru was a renowned quirk and fighting-style analyst that was sought out by mostly unders but got the occasional daylighter as well. Hitoshi was his point of contact with anyone, and Izuku never met anyone in person himself. He had started this when he was a first-year student at U.A.; somehow he even garnered the respect of the Eraserhead, which he learned later from Hitoshi, was the heroics teacher at U.A. too.
His nightly activities are actually how he met Pro Hero Shoto, too. That was an experience in and of itself since the hero frequented his café during the day, though it was usually another barista that helped him since he came later in the afternoon when Izuku was working on paperwork in the office.
Izuku didn’t meet the pro-hero himself for some time after they started email correspondence about a case, and dear god was it hard to not immediately start talking about the case to the heroes face. He hadn’t had this happen before at that time, when he met a hero he was actively working with in person.
Surprisingly, Shoto was extremely persistent about meeting him in person. Those emails had him contemplating. It would be nice to actually talk in person about a case, or maybe even get a new friend. Hitoshi was really his only friend, and it also didn’t help in the decision-making that Izuku found the duel-colored hero attractive.
Izuku ended up roping Hitoshi into the in-person meeting since the purple-haired boy was friends with Shoto. They had been classmates once Hitoshi transferred from General Education to the Hero Course in his second year after winning the first-year sports festival, much like his mentor.
The plan was for Hitoshi to ask Shoto to meet up at the café to catch up, and Izuku would basically crash that. Hitoshi agreed, not without being promised free coffee for a week, and set up the meeting.
“Hey, boss man, Shinsou-kun and his friend are here,” said one of his employees.
“Thanks! I’ll be there in a moment.” Izuku called back without looking up. It took him a moment to finish his paperwork before getting up and making his way to the front.
Peeking out around the corner, he confirmed that yes, Hitoshi and Shoto were both here, chatting in the back corner of the café with snacks and drinks.
Izuku took a deep breath to steady himself and made his way over.
“Move over, insomniac,” Izuku said, scooching into Hitoshi’s side of the booth.
“like I need to move much, short stack.” Hitoshi quipped back, but obliged anyway.
Shoto looked at the newcomer, confusion evident in the furrow of his brow.
“You’re quite persistent, Shoto-san,” Izuku stated. “Dekiru at your service.”
“The analyst? but you"re our age.” Shoto stated.
“Yes?” Izuku said, now confused himself. “How old did you think I was?”
Shoto shrugged. “I don"t really know, but it was definitely older. Especially since I’ve been hearing about your analysis since I was in my third year.”
Izuku hummed in understanding. “Why did you want to meet me anyway?”
“Well, when you spend the better part of a decade, as my friends would say, dunking on Endeavour, a kid would want to meet their hero.” Shoto stated like it was obvious.
Hitoshi groaned. “I still hate that Ashido taught you to meme.”
“Hero?” Izuku squeaked.
“Yes, it was hilarious to watch him basically implode whenever you sent in an analysis about him and the statistics about the damages he caused.” Shoto confirmed.
Izuku chuckled at the mental image. "Well, you"ve met me,” the man said. “Call me Midoriya here, though.”
“or green bean.” Hitoshi butted in with a cheeky grin.
Izuku pouted and crossed his arms. “You’re never letting that go, are you?”
“Never.” The undergrounder replied immediately.
Shoto tilted his head. “Are you two dating?”
Hitoshi groaned while Izuku sputtered.
“Don’t start your conspiracy bullshit, Sho-kun; no, we’re not dating,” the purple-haired boy said, running his hand down his face in an exasperated manner, like he dealt with this on a regular basis.
Shoto quirked an eyebrow at Izuku, who said, “No, he’s like a brother to me. Also, not my type.”
“Offended!” Hitoshi teased, to which he got an elbow to the ribs from Izuku.
“Izu-kun! Could we get some help at the counter?” The green-haired boy heard, calling him over.
“Coming!” The boy in question shouted back. “Sorry to cut this short; the grind never stops. You can get my number from Toshi if you want it.”
The green-haired boy then jogged back over to the counter, fitting seamlessly into the line of people making drinks and food.
Shoto did, in fact, get his phone number from Hitoshi. Izuku ended his shift for the day with a couple of introductory messages from the man, basically saying who it was and how he got his number. The two of them chatted back and forth a little bit, but the messages were a little awkward.
The awkwardness eased with time, and soon the duo talked more than even Hitoshi and Izuku did. Shoto started stopping in the café in the morning when Izuku was manning the front to say hello and chat for a bit before going off to work. A Pro Heroes job never ends, which Izuku knew full well with the number of email requests he got for analysis.
One morning, though, Izuku got a surprise.
Shoto came into the café with another top-ten hero, Creati. They were chatting idly about a case that they were working on as Izuku got Shoto’s usual ready and got the herbal green tea that Creati ordered started as well.
“Izu-kun, this is Yaomomo. Yaomomo, Midoriya Izuku.” Shoto introduced.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Midoriya-kun! I’ve heard a lot about you!” The woman greeted cordially.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Creati-san! I saw your takedown with Earphone Jack recently; your teamwork with her is incredible!” Izuku gushed, letting his hero worship take over for a moment. Izuku flushed red when Shoto hid a small smile behind his hand at Izuku’s antics.
“You really know your stuff, don’t you?” Yaomomo said with an amused smile. “I’m going to have a seat for a moment; just holler for me once you get the drinks, Sho-kun!”
Izuku was still red as the woman took a seat by the window and turned his attention to Shoto with a sharp look.
“A little warning that you were bringing Creati with you would have been nice.” Izuku hissed with no real heat. “You said you wanted to introduce me to your best friend, not another top-ten hero.”
“All of my friends are heroes.” Shoto said, obviously amused, which caused Izuku to huff softly. “She’s also here more as moral support for me today.”
”Moral support?” Izuku asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. He had finished the duo’s drinks, setting them on the counter in front of the dual-colored hero.
A light blush made its way onto Shoto’s face, and the hero scratched the back of his neck. Izuku easily pinpointed that he was anxious or nervous about something.
“I want to take you on a date.” Shoto said quietly, low enough that Izuku thought he heard wrong.
“Huh?” Izuku asked, still confused, because why would a top-ten hero want to take him on a date?
“I want to take you on a date.” Shoto confirmed. “I came to the conclusion recently that I have romantic feelings for you, so if you feel the same, I’d like to take you on a date.”
“I would very much like that, Sho-kun.” Izuku told him earnestly, a wide smile gracing his face.