Archive of Our Own ^beta

A Catastrophic Idea

Hizashi should have known that something was up the moment he saw the banknotes lying on his desk.

And his best friend, Oboro, looking between them and Hizashi with an expression full of pride.

Indeed, when Hizashi, abandoning his usual cheerful and enthusiastic greeting in favour of appropriate wariness, pulled his chair out and slipped into his seat, Oboro heartily pushed the bills closer to him.

“Here, Hizashi! For you!”

“Uh, thanks, bud.” Hizashi pocketed them, smiling, but even without seeing it he could tell that it likely looked incredibly fake. “What for?”

“I’m paying back what you lent me, of course! Sorry it has to be in instalments, but I swear I will pay back every single yen you ever gave me for sure!”

Well, that did make sense. It was true that, technically, Oboro owed Hizashi a ton of money.

Like any other generous kid, Hizashi had been warned again and again by his parents and well-meaning educators alike not to let himself be taken advantage of. He had to find himself in such a situation in the past before being able to identify what exactly that entailed and what to watch out for.

The thing was though… That experience had convinced him that trying to leech off of Hizashi and exploiting him was absolutely the furthest thing from Oboro’s mind. Hizashi was 100% sure of that. He didn’t even want to accept Hizashi’s loans most of the time, saying that it was his own fault if he didn’t have enough lunch money and that Hizashi shouldn’t be the one having to bear the consequences of that.

And, well, that was true. But—

Oboro had no intention whatsoever of taking advantage of anybody.

Oboro was simply really, really awful at budgeting.

What little amount of pocket money he had, he rather spent on different things, without sparing any thought to where his next lunches would then come from.

Hizashi didn’t fault his friend for his lack of talent in this area.

However, it did beget the question where his sudden riches – comparatively speaking, of course – came from.

As if sensing his confusion, Oboro supplied, “I’ve finally taken up a part-time job, so the back payment is guaranteed, no worries!” He gave him a thumbs-up.

Perhaps Hizashi’s first concern should have been about Oboro’s grades and how he planned to keep them from falling too much if he had to work part-time.

It wasn’t though.

“Wait. Oboro, my buddy, my pal, my dearest, closest friend, don’t tell me this part-time job of yours is in a certain cat-slash-maid café that a certain—“

Hizashi interrupted himself and turned around, checking that the desk next to him was still empty. As usual earlier than five minutes before the start of school, it was, and as usual there was a small, neatly wrapped parcel lying on the desk.

Considering that Oboro hadn’t bugged him about what next to get Aizawa during the last few days, Hizashi had no idea what was in there. And he wasn’t too sure whether he wanted to know. Oboro’s initial ideas were usually a bit… in need of gentle guidance.

For his friend’s benefit, he nevertheless lowered his voice so he wouldn’t be overheard before he continued,

“—raven-haired, perpetually tired-looking, elusive classmate of ours likes to visit.”

Oboro’s confident, ecstatic grin didn’t waver in the slightest. “Suit yourself, then I won’t tell you.”

Well.

On the one hand, that should mean no more stake-outs in front of the café trying to catch a glimpse or two of Aizawa.

On the other hand…

On the other hand Hizashi didn’t have enough fingers to list everything that was a problem about that.

Before he could tell Oboro of his objections though, the classroom door behind them opened and from the way Oboro’s eyes immediately flicked to the person that had entered, Hizashi knew that Aizawa had arrived.

He quickly launched into a tale about the programme he had planned for his next podcast in order to at least partially divert Oboro’s attention so the staring wouldn’t be too apparent.

As always, Oboro hoped to see how Aizawa unwrapped his present and whatever reaction he would subsequently show. Sadly he was never able to do so. Aizawa always slid the packages off his desk and hid them in his lap without showing any indication how he felt about them.

However, courtesy of being Aizawa’s seatmate, Hizashi was often a witness to the unwrapping.

Today, too, while they were actually supposed to focus on the modern literature lesson, he found himself sneaking glances at Aizawa’s hands covertly turning the package left and right in his lap and then slowly and nearly silently breaking the cellotape holding the wrapping paper in place.

When he uncovered it, a cat-themed writing set appeared. A notepad, ruler, pencil and rubber, all covered in or shaped like cats.

Something that a six-year-old girl that was excited to start school in a few weeks might beg to put in her mother’s shopping bag. Hizashi barely kept himself from facepalming.

Unfortunately, due to the curtain of black hair obscuring Aizawa’s face from the people around him, Hizashi was never able to see his expressions when he opened the presents.

Whoever had come up with the idea of combining the concept of a cat café with that of a maid café was a commercial genius in Hizashi’s opinion.

Doubling the target audience meant doubling the income, after all.

He wasn’t quite sure why Oboro thought this combination of features would result in only the overlap between those two interests wanting to visit the café as a result. But their conversation always ran in circles whenever he tried to bring up that misconception, so he didn’t anymore.

It wasn’t that essential.

Though it might be that essential if Aizawa belonged to the group of people “only there for the cats”, in contrast to the people “only there for the maids” and “there for the cats and the maids”.

For Oboro’s sake, Hizashi really, really hoped that this wasn’t the case.

“Are they supposed to fit this tightly?” Oboro asked, fiddling with the top of his stockings.

Hizashi peered at the spot in question before nodding. “Yup, I think so!”

“Okay then.” Oboro let the elastic band snap into place and then hopped onto the table with his rear to slip back into his shoes. “I still don’t understand why I have to wear these flats,” he pouted.

“Because wearing heels would make you faceplant and break your ankle faster than Aizawa could sneer at such a clumsy display,” Hizashi replied without batting an eye.

“He would never!”

“Not outwardly, yeah, but who knows what could go on in his head? Don’t worry though, if you don’t behave too stupidly and he’s into this sort of thing,” Hizashi gestured up and down, “I’m sure you will score with him. The pink dress colour really compliments your complexion and hair.”

Oboro beamed. “Thanks!” Then he was already ushered away by one of his new colleagues to get into position and serve his very first table.

Hizashi made himself comfortable at one of the tables near the entrance. With the occasional rain showers outside and guests bringing water and unpleasant gusts of wind into the room with them, the cats mostly kept to the tables further inside, and from his seat he had a good view of the door without being immediately noticeable himself.

There wasn’t anything he could do to help Oboro in practise, but he could at least provide emotional support. So that’s what he had decided to do.

At least Oboro didn’t seem to have any problems with his actual part-time job, so the only point of tension was how the eventual encounter between him and Aizawa would play out.

An hour of waiting later, the ringing of the bell above the door actually announced the arrival of their (or rather, Oboro’s) eagerly anticipated classmate.

Hizashi sat up from his slumped position and kept his eyes intently trained on Aizawa as he pulled out and showed his membership card to the employee at the reception desk. Simultaneously, he tried to subtly shoot Oboro a signal by waving his hand wildly back and forth behind his back.

He didn’t know how it worked, but he did actually manage to catch Oboro’s attention.

Glancing in the direction of the door, Oboro’s eyes widened in surprise, but then he was already striding towards the entrance with a blinding smile and full of confidence.

Hizashi decided to keep his focus on Aizawa while Oboro greeted him. Noting and analysing his reaction might reveal helpful clues that could then be used further down in the wooing-process.

As soon as Aizawa had tucked his membership card away and looked up again, his eyes fell on Oboro.

His expression wasn’t particularly hard to categorise.

The subtle widening of the eyes, followed by them fluttering close for a few seconds and the pinch around his mouth clearly spoke of someone attempting to establish a direct line to any god or deity in the universe to ask, ‘Why, why me? What have I ever done to deserve being subjected to this?!?’

Well, Hizashi concluded, seemed like they had a not-so-happy-listener at hand. Shit.

Oboro seemed to attract customers in droves. He was naturally charismatic and had a knack for getting people to feel comfortable around him. But apparently, he was also a natural when it came to working in the service industry.

Perhaps Hizashi was imagining it, the different perspective from being inside the café now messing with his perception, but he could have sworn that the café had only started getting absolutely packed in the last few weeks since Oboro had joined the staff.

“Can I sit here?”

Hizashi started up at Aizawa.

Aizawa stared back, his lips twisted as if in displeasure at having had to utter those words.

Hizashi regained his rhythm. He grinned widely and pat the cushion on the bench seat next to him while shuffling further into the corner to give him more space. “Sure, Aizawa, sure! Come on, come on, take a seat!”

With a sharp nod, Aizawa expressed his thanks and then took Hizashi up on the offer.

Hizashi would have been a fool not to recognise that this was a Big Chance. He could learn more about Aizawa, and by relaying that gained information to Oboro, his friend would have a better chance at wooing his crush!

“It’s crazy how full the café is, huh? You really can’t find a free table anywhere anymore, you awkwardly have to share a space with a random stranger!”

“Hm.”

“So it’s great we aren’t random strangers but classmates who already know very much about each other, right?” Hizashi tried to elbow Aizawa in the side but discovered that the distance between them was too big to be bridged by the range of its motion, so the gesture fell flat.

“Yeah. Like I knew about your and Shirakumo’s pronounced interest in cat cafés for example,” Aizawa replied, his voice devoid of any inflections.

Hizashi laughed awkwardly. “Ahahahahaha, yeah, I was pretty surprised when he suddenly told me about this job here, but, y’know, who am I to judge, right? Not my business what he does in his free time!”

Aizawa raised one of his delicate eyebrows. “And why are you here then?”

“Uh, as support of course! Emoooo—netary support! I buy things, like drinks and stuff, spending my money, ergo this café earns more money, ergo there’s more money to pay the staff with, ergo Oboro earns more money!”

Aizawa blinked. “I’m… pretty sure that waitstaff usually have a fixed rate of money they get, as agreed on in a contract.”

“Oh really?”

“I guess sitting in here is more comfortable than on the hard bench underneath the ginkgo tree outside though.” There was a small, imperceptible upturn of Aizawa’s lips accompanying that remark. Then it got obscured by his hair when he bent down to fetch something from his schoolbag.

Hizashi could feel his face heating up from the roots of his hair down to the start of his neck. It seemed like the hours-long sessions of Oboro fantasiz—inspecting the battlefield and yearn—no, coming up with a fool-proof winning strategy that Hizashi had accompanied him on had unfortunately not gone unnoticed.

Not that he could tell Aizawa that. He had to think, quickly! What other reasons could Oboro have had to scout out the café?

“Um, well, you see, Oboro’s just so in love with, uh, cats. Yeah! He totally loves cats! And this place has a bunch of them, as you might know. But, uh, he couldn’t come in and visit here because… he doesn’t have the money for it! Oh, and that’s also why he’s working here now! He didn’t have the money to visit the cats as often as he wanted to, so he took a part-time job here, because that means he saves money by not having to buy anything, earns money even, and is constantly surrounded by more cats than he could ever dream of, all ready to be cuddled whenever he wants!”

During Hizashi’s explanation, Aizawa had frozen in the motion of getting his school supplies out. He was staring vacantly at a spot on the table with wide eyes.

“That’s… actually very smart of him.”

(Hizashi did not think he would survive anyone speaking in high terms of Oboro’s intelligence ever again.)

“I wish I could do that, too. But between training and homework…” He left the sentence unfinished, its message clear.

(Hizashi was able to swallow down the reply that Oboro was only able to have his part-time job because he couldn’t care less about his homework, only doing it at the last moment.)

Apparently done with the conversation, Aizawa opened his notebook and pencil case instead.

From the latter, he retrieved a cat-patterned pencil and a cat-shaped rubber that looked quite exactly the same as the ones Oboro had gifted him a while ago.

While Hizashi was still trying to figure out whether that unmistakably meant that Oboro had – somehow, miraculously – earned brownie points with Aizawa – that could not be attributed to him, with the whole ‘anonymous gift-giving’ nonsense – his eyes were drawn to the words Aizawa was just aggressively erasing with the rubber.

“Hey, no, that was the correct answer!”

Surprised eyes looked up from the notebook page. “It was?” They briefly flickered back down to the page, then up again to meet Hizashi’s once more. “Are you… good at this?”

Hizashi nodded enthusiastically. “Yup, yup! Lemme give you some clues and pointers, yo!”

He scooted closer until their shoulders were brushing together so he could get an even better look. Aizawa’s hair was slightly damp, and the artificial scent of cheap shampoo emanated from it, likely because he came from training as he’d mentioned.

After Aizawa had completed the exercise he’d worked on, they went on to pore over another one of the homework problems they’d been assigned. The discussion flowed easily.

Easily enough in fact that Hizashi didn’t even notice Oboro approach to take their orders.

“Hey, welcome to the Kingdom of the Cats!” his cheery voice cut through their debate about correct mathematical computations. He seemed to be drying his hands on his uniform’s decorative apron, what was just a fantastic second impression for Aizawa to get of him in his job. “Sorry for the long wait, ‘m afraid we’re kinda a bit understaffed at the moment. Well, what can I get you two?”

Considering Hizashi spent two afternoons a week in the café to emotionally support his best friend, he already knew the menu and Oboro his go-to drinks by heart, so his answer came as no surprise.

Aizawa, meanwhile, did not even look up from his notes when he gave his own order from the drinks and also from the cat treats menu.

Oboro didn’t seem particularly upset by that. He blithely confirmed their orders and, with a swish of his skirt, headed off again, sidestepping one of the elderly cats with a bow and a “Have a save trip, Master!”, and then was swallowed by the general bustle of the café.

That second interaction between them definitely could have gone better. If Oboro’s presence wasn’t even acknowledged, then how could—

Hizashi eyed the approaching cat warily, hoping that it hadn’t set its sights on his and Aizawa’s table.

In order to distract himself, he turned his attention back to Aizawa and the problem that he hadn’t even glanced in Oboro’s direction once. He clearly had to step in here and provide some kind of stealthy support.

A plan came to him: For the moment, he’d just advertise some of Oboro’s impeccable qualities, catching Aizawa’s interest with them so that he would give Oboro a fleeting look next time at the very least.

He’d just have to mention some of Oboro’s good points.

That shouldn’t be too hard.

Oboro was his best bro!

He was hanging out with him nearly every day!

… As Oboro’s best bro in turn, of course he knew what Oboro’s best qualities were!

… The only difficulty was to mention them in a smooth and totally casual fashion so there was absolutely no chance Aizawa could figure out what he was trying to do!

“Hey, Aizawa, did you ever notice what a great butt Oboro has? The maid uniform really doesn’t do it justice.”

Hah, he’d nailed it.

Aizawa’s pencil fell onto the table with a loud clatter and continued rolling forward and falling onto the floor from there. Before Hizashi could get a glimpse of his expression though, Aizawa dove after it, nearly disappearing entirely underneath the table.

“No, I didn’t.” His muffled voice barely reached Hizashi’s ears. “I’m normally not… paying attention to that.”

“Well, then you should do it sometime! Your best bet for that would be the changing room, I guess, the U.A. uniform is a misshapen thing that’s hardly any better after all.”

“I see… I’ll—keep that in mind…”

Lamentably, Aizawa did not sound as enthusiastic as Hizashi had hoped. Before he could attempt to figure out whether he had went wrong somewhere though, the enormous, elderly cat that had stealthily approached their table jumped onto it with surprising agility and all of Hizashi’s thoughts and movements froze.

Please don’t come here, please don’t, go into the other direction, go to Aizawa, he prayed, but because the cat surely had some telepathic abilities and nefarious intentions, it did exactly the opposite, coming closer. Hizashi regained enough control over his limbs to hastily press himself further into the corner.

“What are you doing?”

Hizashi had never heard Aizawa’s voice baffled like this.

He had other, more pressing problems though. The cat yawned, sharp teeth on perfect display, and he whimpered, “Is it saying it wants to eat me now?”

A snort came from next to him. “Don’t be ridiculous.” Then Aizawa reached out his hand and held it before the cat’s nose. Its gaze swivelled towards it and the cat started sniffing at his fingers.

“Yo, I know there’s this whole hero-in-training thing we have, but if it bites you now it’s entirely your fault and I’m not saving you.”

“Eichi doesn’t bite, unless severely provoked of course.” Even though Hizashi’s eyes were still glued to the cat, he could see the eye roll Aizawa did in his mind. “Are you seriously sitting in a cat café despite being afraid of cats?”

Hizashi thought his uncharacteristic silence spoke for itself.

The cat had apparently finished sniffing at Aizawa’s hand and now bumped its head against it viciously. Aizawa scratched with his fingers through the fur on top of it.

“Come here.”

Hizashi startled when the warmth of Aizawa’s other hand suddenly enveloped his own and tugged it forward, decidedly within easy-biting-range of the cat. He tensed his muscles, but Aizawa kept his hold firm.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. Just let him pick up your scent so he knows who is approaching. Then he will most likely not have a problem with you petting him.”

“What if I have a problem with petting him?!”

The side-eye Aizawa gave him at that was so full of pity that Hizashi swallowed once, despite his mouth being as dry as a desert, and steeled himself.

“Alright. Okay. Yeah. I’ll do it.”

He relaxed his arm and allowed Aizawa to move his hand even further until it was almost touching the cat’s nose. The cat stared at it, unblinking. Hizashi could feel his hand trembling, and his instincts screamed at him to pull it back.

However, Aizawa’s grip was steady and secure and, admittedly, comforting in its immovability.

“We don’t want to disturb your peace, Master, but we hope you can assist us in a small matter on our minds.”

“W-Why are you talking to the cats like one of the café employees?”

“It’s only logical. This place is the only one I’m aware of that really knows how cats should be treated.”

“H-How can you say that with an entirely straight face—“

Just then, something slightly damp and cool – the cat’s nose – nudged against Hizashi’s hand and blew all of his concerns about Aizawa’s behaviour out of his mind.

Only with great difficulty did he manage to suppress a high-pitched squeak.

“See, he wants to be petted by you.” Aizawa adjusted the hold he had on his hand, shaking it slightly to loosen his fingers. Then he guided it forward even farther, let it rest on the top of the cat’s head for a brief moment and from there coaxed it into moving along the whole spine in one long stroke.

The cat didn’t react to it at all besides closing its eyes, so Aizawa had him repeat the motion a few more times. Whether it was due to the softness of the fur beneath his fingertips or the roughness of Aizawa’s palm on the back of his own hand, Hizashi couldn’t say, but his heartbeat started slowing down.

“Was there any reason to be afraid now?” Aizawa eventually asked him.

“Well, guess not with him,” Hizashi admitted, and before he knew it the words flowed out of him. “I just never really vibe with most animals, y’know? No idea why, it’s just how it is apparently. There are exceptions,” he nodded at Eichi with his chin, who had settled down on the table and was emitting slow, rumbling purrs by now, “but that’s how it generally is.”

A frown knitted Aizawa’s brow. “Why? I can see how you might scare away some animals if you were as loud as you are in hero training—“

“HEY—!“

“Shush. But aside from that, it’s not like I can see you doing anything to upset them.”

“Well, it may be a me-problem mostly, maybe? Like I just can’t really get a read on their body language at all? Which is probably stupid coming from someone learning several languages, and I guess you could make the argument that sign language is a language using the body as well, and I have no problems picking it up at all, but with animals I just can’t seem to do it for whatever reason.”

Hizashi breathed a sigh of relief. Now that the cat in front of him was very clearly expressing its relaxed nature, it wasn’t so bad anymore. Though he suspected that he would still flinch back if it made any sudden movements.

“The closer to humans they are, the more I can still get along with them to some degree, actually. Mammals? Yeah, not too much of a problem. Reptiles and amphibians? Well, they are mucous and all that, but also they’re still vertebrate, so there’s at least some resemblance still. Now all sorts of mollusc or insects or the like?” He had to supress the urge to gag and, embarrassed, tried to play it off with an awkward laugh and the remark, “Trust me, it’s probably better if you never have to see me around them.”

Aizawa glanced at him, then his gaze travelled upwards slightly. “So you’re saying it would be a bad thing to inform you of the spider that’s currently lowering itself into your hair?”

Whatever it was Hizashi did in his blind panic, he couldn’t remember it afterwards.

The first thing he became aware of again was having his face buried in Aizawa’s neck, clutching the other’s uniform so tightly his knuckles hurt, and hands stiffly rubbing up and down his back while stereotypical reassurances were mumbled into his ear.

It took a few moments for Hizashi to realise that Aizawa must have erased his quirk so nothing got destroyed, as he surely had screamed at the top of his lungs when the spider had been pointed out to him. He shuddered at the memory.

“I flicked the spider away, it’s okay,” Aizawa informed him.

Slowly, Hizashi extracted himself from his hold. “Thanks,” he said after clearing his throat.

“No problem.”

Hizashi wondered whether recommending Aizawa a different shampoo would be too encroaching. The artificial citrus scent didn’t suit him at all.

...

After closing time that day, Oboro heaved a deep sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Hizashi had stayed behind to keep his best buddy company during his clean-up duty. “You sick?”

Oboro sighed once more. “Lovesick, maybe. Tell me, how does it feel to be held in Aizawa’s strong arms?”

“If my whole attention hadn’t been focused on escaping a creepy-crawly spider, perhaps I could give you an assessment,” Hizashi replied snappily. And, trying to distract from the memory of his totally embarrassing behaviour, he changed the topic and continued, “By the way, I think Aizawa’s primary motivation for coming here are actually the cats.”

“Of course it is.” Oboro blinked at him as if surprised. “Who doesn’t come here for the cats?”

“But didn’t you still proclaim just a few weeks ago that it was either the cats or the maids that—“

A sudden meow from a tiny, mud-brown kitten that apparently hadn’t been herded into the back room yet interrupted his question. While he tried to subtly inch back a few steps, Oboro abandoned his cleaning duties without a second thought in favour of petting the kitten’s small head.

Well, Hizashi concluded, there was no use in dwelling on the past.

They had gained new information, now they had to find a way to use it to their advantage!

Aizawa liked cats, was also very good in dealing with them, and they were in a place full of cats.

How could they seamlessly fit these puzzle pieces together?

“Okay, but how about I buy one of these bottles of catnip spray and use it to cover him in catnip from top to bottom – stealthily, of course, which, uh… I’ll figure out somehow? – and then he will—“

“Oboro, no.”

In the end, Hizashi didn’t know whether they had managed to fit the puzzle pieces as seamlessly together as he had imagined, but the plan they had now was the best they had managed to come up with.

He didn’t particularly like it, but this wasn’t about him after all! It was about Oboro and how he would hopefully be able to capture their classmate’s heart so Hizashi was finally relieved from being subjected to his endless pining for hours and hours.

The next time Oboro had a shift at the café, it was crowded enough again that free tables were hard to come by. Hence – as Hizashi had predicted – when Aizawa entered, he turned towards Hizashi’s table in his search for a seat once more. And Oboro was somehow always able to persuade his co-workers to let him have the tables he wanted to serve anyway.

All pieces were in place to put their plan into practise.

Oboro approached their table to take their orders, as upbeat and cheerful as ever. Aizawa seemed completely absorbed in his school work yet again, mumbling his order into the heel of his hand without glancing up from his sheet even once. Hizashi mentally patted himself on the back for managing to place his order without stuttering, despite dreading what was to come.

In a time frame that was too short to truly brace himself for it, Oboro returned with their orders: In his left hand, he balanced a tray with a steaming cup, in his right arm, he cradled the mud-brown kitten from the other day. (That time, after apparently receiving enough pets from Oboro, it had crawled into his skirt that he’d bunched together into a make-shift pocket and let itself be carried around like that, and Hizashi was tremendously glad Oboro wasn’t doing this again.)

“Alright, sorry for the wait! Here I have a black coffee without any milk or sugar or cream for you,” he put the cup down in front of Aizawa, who continued staring at his homework, “and,” he grinned widely as he turned towards Hizashi, “a ‘Mocha’ for you.” He leaned closer, as if offering the kitten for him to take.

Hizashi forced a smile as he tried to get the next words of their script – informing Oboro that he ‘must have made a mistake’ and that he ‘would have to look for a different recipient’ – past his lips.

His efforts were interrupted however.

“That’s low.”

Both Hizashi and Oboro’s gazes snapped to Aizawa, who had finally chosen to lift his head and was now glaring at Oboro.

“Purposefully confronting someone with something that makes them uncomfortable is bullying,” Aizawa said with a completely straight face and in a voice one might use when addressing a kindergartner.

Oboro stared at Aizawa with wide eyes, shocked. Then Hizashi could virtually see how the gears started turning in his head.

He bit his lip and hoped that this would be an instance in which Oboro’s train of thought came to nothing. His friend could be painfully oblivious at times while being frighteningly perceptive at others.   

Hopefully this would be a case of the former. Please let it be a case of the former.

Oboro’s gaze flickered back to Hizashi, and the worried frown between his eyebrows as well as the unhappy tilt of his lips already told Hizashi that his hoping had been in vain.

“You’re afraid of cats?” Oboro asked, his voice so full of confused hurt that it felt like it stabbed Hizashi right through his chest.

“Ah, well, I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m afraid of them, it’s more like if I could choose whether to interact with a cat or not I’m not saying every interaction would be awful but in like ninety out of a hundred cases I would rather not—“

“Why didn’t you tell me? I made you come with me and sit here, in this café full of cats, all this time, despite your dislike of them! Shit, how stupid could I be not to notice?!”

“Woah, hey, you never made me do anything, that was all my own free will!”

Damnit, this conversation was taking an entirely wrong direction! It had been supposed to be a situation that would have allowed Oboro to use the kitten as an icebreaker to initiate flirting with Aizawa. Now, however, Oboro’s whole attention was focused on him, with Aizawa being completely forgotten.

Grabbing Oboro by the collar of his uniform dress, he pulled him close to whisper as much into his ear, so Aizawa could not be privy to his hissed remarks.

“Look, this shouldn’t even be the issue here, but if you insist on it, we can debate the topic more later—”

“’s not like there should be much to debate,“ Oboro pouted.

“—but for now you should focus on sweeping Aizawa off his feet with your charm!”

A quick glance over the other’s shoulder told Hizashi that Aizawa was watching them with a disapproving expression. If that chance hadn’t been swept down the drain already.

Still pouting, Oboro opened his mouth, likely still wanting to protest, but before he had the chance to do so, something soft and fluffy grazed Hizashi’s arm. Looking down, Hizashi found himself staring into two round, curious kitten eyes. Its fluffy, curling tail wiped over his arm once again.

Hizashi hurriedly brought a few steps of distance between the two of them again.

If a storm cloud had formed over Oboro’s head, he wouldn’t have been surprised one bit, considering how upset he looked.

“Let me at least get you something as compensation,” he begged, then lunged for the menu. “What’s the most expensive thing we offer again? Ah, here, I’ll get you a ‘Fuwafuwa-Star-Mofumofu-Star-Extra-Yummy-Star-Bonne-Bouche’!”

That acquiescence was at least better than him stubbornly insisting on discussing the issue right then and there, Hizashi thought.

However—

“I’m… pretty sure that is a treat for the cats,” he objected weakly.

“Oh.” Oboro scanned the menu once more. “Then I’ll get you an ice cream with strawberries and cream, alright?”

Most of Hizashi’s attention was taken up by the kitten and the thought of what he’d do if it tried to jump on him, but he had also resigned himself to his fate already. “Yeah…”

“Okay! Then I’ll be right back!”

With that, Oboro left the table – thankfully with the kitten still cradled on his arm – and its occupants in silence.

Awkward silence, on Hizashi’s part at least.

He frantically racked his brain trying to come up with a way to salvage the situation.

Aizawa, still with a displeased expression on his face, turned towards him and asked, “Are you alright?”

Taken by surprise, it took a few seconds for Hizashi to answer. “Huh? Oh, yeah, totally! Please, I wouldn’t be much of a hero if a small, fluffy kitten could get the best of me!”

“You’re allowed to be scared of things.” Aizawa shook his head. “Even if it’s illogical.”

Now that statement had Hizashi awkwardly trapped between feeling insulted and amused. And most of all like any handle he could have on the situation was retreating further and further from his grasp.

Meanwhile, Aizawa was looking in the direction Oboro had disappeared into and glowering. “He even forgot about the coffee that you had originally ordered. You should make sure to complain about that.” And then, after glancing back at Hizashi for a moment, he tapped his exercise book with his pencil, drawing Hizashi’s attention, and added, “Here, can you help me with that problem? I don’t think I quite got it.”

A dazed “Sure thing” slipped out of Hizashi’s mouth before he even knew what he was saying. 

Which led to him being trapped in explaining the exercise for the next few minutes with no chance to go back and further try to remedy the encounter with Oboro without increasing the awkwardness tenfold.

Eventually, Oboro returned. He carried an ice-cream sundae whose size already made Hizashi’s stomach cramp in protest and, inexplicably, also still the kitten.

“Here.” The sundae was placed down in front of Hizashi. “I intentionally didn’t get you the largest option we have because I knew you would complain about not being able to finish it.”

He’s meaning well, Hizashi reminded himself. Still, that didn’t change the fact that the largest part of his torso was filled with his lungs, not with his stomach.

Really not keen on causing any further trouble for his best friend at this point, Hizashi resigned himself to his fate and picked up the spoon.

However, for some reason Aizawa seemed to be particularly prickly that day. He had resumed glaring at Oboro when he had come back to their table, and now while Oboro was observing Hizashi starting to shovel the sundae into his mouth, he chose to speak up,

“Isn’t it against this café’s policies to force the cats to go anywhere?”

He pointedly fixated the kitten in Oboro’s arm for a few moments before lifting his eyes to Oboro’s face again.

Evidently caught off-guard by the question, Oboro blinked at him dumbly. Then, however, a large, dazzling smile appeared on his face.

“Oh, I’m not forcing her to go anywhere! This little princess here is incredibly shy, actually, but for some reason she seems to really like me. She’s always meowing at me when I leave the backroom to get on with my work, but is never brave enough to follow after.” He laughed softly. “Although…”

He looked at Mocha, who had turned onto her side in his arm and had started pawing at the air between him and Aizawa.

“Her Highness seems to have taken a liking to you, too, huh?” Oboro chuckled once more. And then, in a burst of unparalleled smoothness, the display of which Hizashi was sure he would remember for decades to come, he shuffled the kitten in his arms and suggested, with his charm turned up to the highest level, “Here, why don’t you hold her?”

A heartbeat later, a baffled, slack-jawed Aizawa was cradling the tiny kitten in his arms.

Reverently, his hand that was supporting her body in his hold wrapped around her enough to reach the top of her head and pet it softly.

Mocha gave a squeaky meow and snuggled further against the hand.

It was, objectively, the cutest sight Hizashi had seen in a long time.

He didn’t know what brilliancy or instinct or deity had compelled Oboro to act this smoothly, but he was going to thank the stars for it. This was definitely a successful step in the plan of Wooing-Aizawa-Shouta!

Now if Oboro could stop staring at his left hand like a braindead idiot, things would be even more perfect.

Fortunately for him, Aizawa’s focus was entirely on the kitten, so he didn’t notice that strange behaviour of his.

Hizashi decided to snap his friend out of it with a well-aimed kick to the shin.

“Ouch!” Oboro yelped.

Aizawa lifted his eyes to him. “Are you alright?”

“Great, I’m feeling great!” Oboro dismissed his concern, but Hizashi’s intervention had worked to draw his focus back to where it was supposed to be.  Absentmindedly, he parked his backside on the closest side of the table (crumping his skirt underneath him with the motion which, urgh, nobody had ever taught him that one didn’t do apparently) and leaned forward to scratch Mocha under her chin. “Well, Princess? Are you comfortable? Are you held all snugly and securely? Yes, you are, right?”

Despite the address, this baby talk was most certainly not how the café’s employees were supposed to speak to the cats, and Hizashi was wondering whether that was leaving a nasty taste in Aizawa’s mouth, because he was looking at Oboro with wide, shocked eyes and definitely leaning backwards and away from him.

Unfortunately, before the situation could develop further and Hizashi could find out what was up with that, one of the other staff members caught Oboro’s attention out of the corners of his eyes, and the wild gesturing that followed likely scolded him for not attending to his duties.

That seemed to be how Oboro interpreted it as well at least, because he ran his fingers through his hair and said, “Oops, guess it’s time that I go back to doing my job, too.”

He gracefully straightened up and brushed off dirt from his dress.

“Don’t worry about the coffee and the ice cream, you two, it’s on me. And you,” his vibrant blue eyes made Hizashi feel pinned in place, “will not make yourself uncomfortable just for my sake like this ever again, you hear? Anyway, bye you two, see you later!”

And with that, he was off. Hizashi listened to the clacking of his shoes’ small platforms against the floor until it got lost in the café’s overall background noise.

Scooping up a bit of the ice cream, he tried to evaluate the situation.

All in all, things could have gone better. But at least Oboro had somewhat managed to turn the situation around again with the kitten-transfer. It was a pity that they couldn’t carry their plan forward even more, but there was nothing to be done about that now.

However, what Hizashi could do now was to use this opportunity to further clarify that Oboro had had nothing to do with his decision to regularly visit the café despite his lack of fondness for cats.

So that’s what he did.

Swallowing another spoonful of the sundae and turning his body towards Aizawa, he made sure to look the other in the eye as he said, “Oboro’s really not at fault or anything. I purposefully hid this,” he gestured towards the kitten still snuggled into Aizawa’s arms, “from him. He had no idea.”

Aizawa’s eyes dropped back down to Mocha and a small sigh escaped his lips. “I know it was stupid of me to think he would want to terrorise someone like that. Shirakumo’s loyal above all else, really. And, I mean, with the way he often acts in our practical lessons, recklessly throwing himself between one of his classmates and a dangerous situation that just unfolded, I really doubt that he’d even be capable of wishing pain upon people he cares about.”

Hizashi couldn’t help perking up at Aizawa’s words, unconsciously leaning closer. Were his ears playing tricks on him or was Aizawa… actually complimenting Oboro?

Oh, this was good! This was huge, too!

If Aizawa already recognised some positive qualities in Oboro, then it should be much easier to subtly hint to him that those qualities actually made him a great dating candidate. And – poof – they could get together, and love, peace and harmony would be all around!

“He’s basically a giant puppy, if you think about it,” Aizawa mused.

And just like that, Hizashi’s euphoria puffed out again.

Comparing someone to a puppy should have been a positive thing, right? Puppies were cute and loveable after all.

However, hearing such a comparison out of the mouth of Aizawa Shouta, Cat Lover Extraordinaire… That was probably the worst thing Aizawa could have said.

“Yeah, haha… True,” he agreed desultorily, then promptly tried to drown his disappointment in the ice cream.

If Aizawa noticed the dejected tone in his voice, he at least didn’t comment on it. Instead, he suddenly asked, “He has to be really important to you, doesn’t he?” When Hizashi looked at him quizzically, he added, “For you to do this for him.”

“Well, yeah.” Hizashi didn’t know what exactly Aizawa was referring to, but it was correct that, despite only knowing each other for a short time technically, Oboro had swiftly snagged the place of Best Friend in his heart. “It’s crazy to think that we only met, uh… three months ago. But I guess we just… clicked and are totally on the same wavelength.” He shrugged.

“I guess.”

For some reason, Aizawa’s shoulders sagged, and his gaze returned to his schoolwork as he picked his pencil back up.

For lack of anything to reply, Hizashi stuck another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. Truthfully, he was already feeling full despite having only managed to ingest half of the monstrous ice cream tub.

There was no way he would be able to reach the bottom of it.

In his plight, he turned towards Aizawa, offering him an ice cream filled spoon. “Hey, you wanna help me eliminate this treat?”

Aizawa’s eyes flickered briefly between Hizashi’s and the spoon, but then he shrugged and reached out his hand, taking the offered handle and tucking in. “Okay, sure.”

Apparently, the gleam of the spoon or just the motion of something going into his mouth attracted Mocha’s attention, because she stretched and tried to swipe it out of Aizawa’s hand with her paw. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Hizashi quickly took the spoon back for safekeeping while Aizawa struggled to switch the way he held onto her.

Absently shovelling another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth – despite the fullness of his stomach, habit was taking over – and watching his unsuccessful endeavours, Hizashi eventually suggested, “Here, why don’t you let me? That way you can get kitten snuggles and ice cream at the same time.”

Too preoccupied with trying to calm Mocha, who had started squirming unhappily now, down again, Aizawa only gave a nod and opened his mouth, but that was all the prompting Hizashi needed to carefully stick another spoonful into it.

One upside of eating ice cream beyond one’s feeling of satiety was that the sugar definitely helped Hizashi’s mood lifting again and his drive returning. Aizawa seemed to like the ice cream, so maybe he should think about how he could set up an ice cream date for Oboro and him?

...

After his shift that day, Oboro continued staring stupidly at his left hand with an expression akin to awe on his face.

Eventually, Hizashi was fed up with it. He kicked his shin one more time.

“I can still feel the warmth radiating from his wrist where I accidentally touched him when handing over Mocha,” he babbled with an annoyingly high-pitched voice. “Hizashi, is that normal?”

“Well, if his body wasn’t warm, there’d be some concerning questions to consider regarding his aliveness status and so on,” Hizashi replied diplomatically.

“Do you think I’ll ever have the chance to feel the smoothness of his skin ever again in my life?”

“Why you’re freaking out like this now about touching his wrist but were completely unfazed when you landed on top of Aizawa during hero training is not something I have to understand, do I—“

Oboro stared at him owlishly. “When I what?”

“Uh, when you landed on top of Aizawa? In hero training last week, you remember? You were zooming over him on your cloud but misjudged the sharp turn around a corner you had to take, so you ended up knocking him over and landing on top of him.”

Oboro continued to stare at him in bewilderment for a few more seconds. Then a gleam of recognition entered his eyes, followed by pure horror.

“Yeah, I did… I remember… I was on top of him but I didn’t think… I was only thinking about the training exercise and just pulled him back onto his feet again and didn’t think at all about how I…” He buried his head in his hands. “I’m such an idiot, Hizashi! Why?!”

“A fault confessed is a fault half redressed, as the saying goes,” Hizashi supplied. “Now go and do your clean-up job, I don’t wanna sit here until the middle of the night.”

After he had managed to shoo Oboro back to his work, he slumped back in his seat, settling in to wait.

However, his curiosity was piqued when his foot lost its hold due to some round object on the floor.

Leaning down and picking it up, he realised that it was the pencil with cat faces printed all over it that Aizawa had started using for his schoolwork. It had probably been kicked off the table by Mocha when the kitten had made a dramatic exit after Aizawa had to set her down eventually in preparation for leaving.

The next morning, Aizawa slunk into the classroom only after the bell had already rung and just barely before their teacher entered. Instead of listening to roll call, he put his arms on his desk and buried his face in them, as if wanting to wall himself off from the world around him.

Needless to say, Hizashi couldn’t help the concern bubbling in his chest. Aizawa often radiated tiredness, but not such heaviness of spirit.

Well, it was probably a good thing that their first lesson was English.

That way, it wouldn’t be too bad that he was going to spend his time and focus on trying to devise a plan how Oboro might be able to cheer him up again.

First though, the cat-patterned pencil slowly dirtying the inside of his pocket reminded him of what he had to do beforehand.

In the brief transition period while their teachers switched, he leaned over to Aizawa’s desk and let the pencil clack against it loud enough that it was sure to catch his attention.

Aizawa’s eyes lifted to him from the cover of his arms, then dropped to the pencil.

“Here, this is yours, right? I picked it up on the café’s floor yesterday. It must’ve fallen down at some point.”

Aizawa’s hand darted out and clenched around the pencil tightly.

Then, a small, heartfelt smile spread on his face.

He ducked his head back into the enclosure of his arms, but not before Hizashi hadn’t seen it.

“Thank you, Yamada,” he said.

“No problem!” Hizashi replied.

After their lesson was over, Oboro was next to Hizashi’s seat in the blink of an eye and pulled him closer.

“Dude, what did you say to him that he… that he smiled like that?!”

It took Hizashi a few moments to comprehend what Oboro meant and why he was so agitated. Then again, he realised after a moment of reflection, he couldn’t recall the last time he had seen Aizawa smile either.

“Whatever it was, do it again!”

Not that returning a pencil was an easily repeatable action, if Aizawa didn’t suddenly develop the tendency to leave them scattered everywhere.

“I bet it could cure cancer and help creating world peace better than All Might’s smile ever could.”

Okay, now Oboro seemed to be entering the Manic, Delusional Pining Phase (not that Hizashi knew whether that was a universally accepted existing Pining Phase, but he would bet on it). That definitely called for quick action to be taken to alleviate his affliction.

Hizashi really had to come up with a plan. Fast.

In the end, Hizashi didn’t manage to find the inspiration for a brilliant master plan like he had hoped. But an external circumstance played right into his (and Oboro’s) hands.

The summer holidays arrived, and the café was even busier than before. Due to that, Oboro had been asked to take on more hours. Or perhaps Oboro had been asked to take on more hours and the café was much busier than before as a result.

Whatever it was, Hizashi found himself subsequently spending nearly every day at the café from morning to evening.

Together with Aizawa.

Somehow, unspokenly, the three of them had formed an odd dynamic, with Aizawa and him sitting at a table together and Oboro coming over to chat with them whenever there was even so much of a second of breathing room in his hectic schedule.

Between the two of them, their summer homework was completed in the course of just a few days, and Aizawa seemed to have set his sight on getting Hizashi acquainted with and comfortable around every single cat the café housed.

Making new cat friends was certainly better than being convinced to befriend the hairy spider that had not been deterred from creating its web in the café’s corner adjacent to their table (Hizashi had chosen to take his seat as far away as possible from it from that point on and ignore it under all circumstances.). However, his whole attention being occupied by cats didn’t help him with the wall regarding the whole “help-Oboro-confess-his-feelings-to-Aizawa-and-hopefully-get-them-together-that-way” plan that he’d hit.

He was stuck in place and desperately searched for a way to move forward before time ran out and the unforeseen golden opportunity the summer holidays provided slipped through their fingers.

And then time had run out even sooner than expected when Aizawa did not show up at the cat café at the beginning of the third week.

Neither Hizashi nor Oboro had any ideas why he had stopped coming, and their worry and confusion only grew when the next few days passed by with no signs of Aizawa in the café as well. Hizashi cursed the fact that he had never brought up exchanging phone numbers.

Then Friday arrived and, like a miracle, Aizawa joined them again, taking his usual seat next to Hizashi as if nothing strange had ever happened.

Which wasn’t an opinion shared by the other two.

“Why weren’t you here this week?” Oboro asked, without even any greeting, twisting and crinkling his skirt with his free hand. “Not that you have to account for everything you do,” he quickly backtracked, “but I thought, because of the last two weeks… Well, we were worried about you!”

Hizashi nodded emphatically.

Aizawa evaded both of their gazes, instead focusing on some cat playing with a young girl a few feet away. “Sorry about that.” His right hand massaged the back of his neck. “It’s just that… I had already increased the frequency of my visits from once a week to twice a week before the holidays and noticed the impact of that in my wallet. But visiting five times a week… It’s, um, not something I can afford in the long run, honestly.”

A quick glance passed between Hizashi and Oboro at that explanation. Hizashi chewed on his bottom lip. They had been really dumb not to factor in how much money he and Aizawa were actually spending with their current setup. It definitely wasn’t a sustainable arrangement. And while Oboro was technically earning money with his shifts, he still spent said money almost immediately on buying Aizawa some (more often than not cat-themed nowadays) trinkets.

Really, he should rather save that money and use it to finally take Aizawa on an actual date. It was just that Hizashi had not been able to advance even one step when it came to how to convince Oboro to finally—

“Also I figured that I should probably stop third-wheeling you two like this all the time.”

—get out of his—

Wait.

“WHAT?”

A cat in the vicinity hissed, but fortunately Hizashi had just shouted with his normal voice, not his quirk-enhanced voice, so the café stayed intact.

“You figured you should stop third-whee—No, wait, hold on a minute, what?!”

The startled expression on Aizawa’s face was almost comical. “Well, when I first started joining you at your table, I had planned it to just be temporary, and it wasn’t my intention to disrupt your dates, but—“

“Aizawa, back up a little, no, what the he—?!”

An ache in his jaw alerted Hizashi that he had been pressing his teeth together tightly, and he had to consciously relax his muscles. It also made him aware of the fact that his hands were clenched into fists and shook uncontrollably.

Here he was, working his butt off for months trying to help those two get together, and either Aizawa was incredibly dense, or Hizashi himself had done something colossally wrong if that was the conclusion Aizawa had been led to!

Oboro looked similarly startled as Aizawa. “Hizashi and I aren’t dating,” he said, much calmer than Hizashi felt. “Not because I don’t think he isn’t amazing and who gets to date him is really lucky to do so but—“

Hizashi’s subconsciousness’ Crisis Intervention Programme booted up.

He had not had much experience with it to that day, and in retrospect he was not totally happy with how it did things.

But it got results, that was for sure.

“Aizawa. Please.” Propping his arm up on the table and resting his cheek on top of his hand, he crossed his legs over each other and angled himself so he was able to maintain direct eye contact with Aizawa, who started looking even more like a deer in the headlights. “A date where one half of it has to be working constantly? So only small exchanges of words can take place, a real conversation developing is well-nigh impossible? That’s the worst, most foolish plan one could ever have. Who’d want a date like this?”

“You know,” Oboro murmured under his breath with a pout, “you don’t have to drag me that har—“

“The only thing even more foolish is to refer to a courting method of leaving anonymous presents on someone’s desk – which, okay, fine as a first step, maybe, but – without the intention of ever revealing one’s identity. How stupid can one be?!”

“You’re killing me here, Hi—“

“C’mon, Aizawa, back me up. You also think that being confessed to upfront is way better, don’t you?”

“Hiza—“

Hizashi stared at Aizawa, unblinking, willing him with every fibre of his body to please not be a dumbass and freaking get it.

Aizawa’s face had adopted a colour quite similar to the strawberry-cream-sundae, a blotchy mix between deep, dark red and chalky-white.

And then Hizashi had to keep himself from jumping up and cheering, because he did get it.

“The presents were from you?” he asked, peering at Oboro from underneath his fringe.

Oboro shot Hizashi a look out of the corners of his eyes that seemed to question why Hizashi had needed to kill his whole family and a bunch of puppies on top of it (which, damn, hurt, but Hizashi believed in the righteousness of his intentions even if his approach could have been a tad better), but then whatever Crisis Intervention Programme he possessed stepped in and he turned his full attention on Aizawa, a smile on his face.

“Yup!” he confirmed. “They were. You wouldn’t really answer my questions about what you like or dislike when I asked you, remember?”

“I assumed you were just attempting to make unnecessary small talk,” Aizawa muttered.

“Nope, I meant it! So I thought I could find out about your interests by giving you lots of different presents, but that it would be creepy to suddenly get so many presents from someone. Though, now I’m wondering if getting presents from someone anonymously might actually be even creepier…? Also, despite what Hizashi here claimed, I did want to eventually tell you all about it. Eventually.”

Hizashi bit his tongue to hold back the comment that he’d just said that last word twice.

“Guess the cat’s fully outta the bag now, huh?”

“Cats aren’t meant to be stuffed into bags in the first place. How could anything good ever come out of that? Not to mention that whoever does it is an exceptional fool.”

“Ouch,” Oboro said, but it was accompanied by soft chuckles. And on Aizawa’s face, Hizashi could detect the ghost of a smile that usually only appeared when Mocha allowed him to pet her front paws.

So, even though his heart was still beating loudly in his chest, it was starting to slow down again, because, he concluded, things were probably going to work out just fine.

“I like you,” Oboro continued boldly, “and I want to get to know you even better. So… would you go on a date with me sometime?”

It was probably being subjected to the full force of Oboro’s blinding, hopeful smile, but Aizawa’s gaze dropped to his hands that were gripping the edge of the table. The sharp intake of breath he did was audible to the other two.

Then he nodded. “Sure,” he said. “Y-Yeah, okay.”

Even though it should have been impossible by all rational means, Oboro’s smile seemed to get even brighter. “Alright! Let’s do that! Then, um, we should probably find a day and time we both—“

“No.”

Both Aizawa and Oboro’s heads turned towards Hizashi in confusion.

Perhaps he should have had more trust in them, but after how painful the endeavour to get them both to this point had been, all that buzzed around in Hizashi’s head were nightmarish thoughts of how any plan they made could be foiled, ranging from one of them chickening out last minute to natural disasters occurring.

“No,” he repeated firmly while already getting up from his seat. “You are going to have your date right here and right now.”

“But, uh, I have work?”

“I can substitute for you.” Due to how perplexed Oboro was, it was easy to pull his tray out of his arms and give him an adamant push into the direction of the empty seat he’d just vacated. “Trust me, I won’t damage your reputation or anything, so you just focus on giving Aizawa here a good time.” Whoops, that word choice might have been a bit unfortunate, but nothing to be done about it now.

With his free hand, Hizashi pushed once more, this time down on Oboro’s shoulder to coax him into sinking down on the bench next to Aizawa. Fortunately, Oboro finally seemed to shake himself out of his stupor, and after one quick, uncommonly shy glance in Aizawa’s direction, who was blushing and looking down at the table but not protesting in any way, he plopped down at long last.

“Good. Now have fun. That’s a threat.”

He had only managed to walk a few steps into the direction of the staffroom to hopefully get an okay for his purposes as smoothly as possible when he was called back.

“Hey, Hizashi!” Turning around, he saw that Oboro was on his feet again, his hands fiddling with something at the back of his neck. “You need a uniform! Wait a moment, I— Urgh, this damn thing! Aizawa, can you give me a hand real quick and pull the zipper over here down?”

Was there a maximum amount of blood that could gather in one’s head before it reached clinically dangerous levels? Because Aizawa’s blazingly red face as he unstuck and then tugged down the zipper did not look healthy at all.

Whatever, not my problem, Hizashi thought as Oboro, at a speed that came with a lot of practise in doing something, shoved his dress onto the floor, jumped out of it and balled it up to toss it over.

If Aizawa did faint, like it looked like he was about to do, then hopefully some Rescue Romance elements would spur on their budding relationship even further.

He caught the dress in his right hand and followed its momentum into turning around again and continuing towards his goal.

Now should he be concerned about having such thoughts while being a pro hero candidate?

...

Hizashi hadn’t needed much of an explanation. It turned out the other staff members had been done with having to witness Oboro very obviously carrying a torch for a regular and wholly welcomed Hizashi’s plan. Who was surprised about that? Hizashi could have said he was but then he’d have been lying.

For the rest of Oboro’s shift, he steered clear of the table with him and Aizawa, leaving them in peace. He was busy enough that he didn’t even need an excuse to do so. Fortunately, his temporary colleagues (and fellow sufferers of Oboro’s pining, though that was hopefully a thing of the past now) were helpful and efficient in giving him the necessary pointers, so he was able to quickly adapt to his tasks.

Also, Eichi had perched himself on one of the waist-high room dividers nearly in the middle of the café, and running a hand over his body once while hurrying from one direction into the other was indeed a constant boost of calmness. Not that Hizashi would have ever admitted that.

When closing time was fast approaching and the café started emptying steadily, Hizashi finally crept closer to the table with the other two. From afar, he could already see that Aizawa was currently resting his head on Oboro’s shoulder.

Then, as he came even closer, he was able to witness how Oboro gently nudged at Aizawa’s hand splayed on top of Mocha, who had curled up in his lap at some point. In response, Aizawa turned his hand palm-up, inviting him to take it, which Oboro promptly did, interlacing their fingers.

“They seem to be getting along well, huh, Master?” Hizashi muttered to Eichi, who looked up at him with an expression that seemed to say ‘do you think I’m blind’.

He turned around, made one round through the café, seeing even more people off, and then eventually started another approach.

The sound of his footsteps alerted the lovebirds to his presence. Aizawa’s eyes shot open and he immediately lifted his head from its cushion. Their hands stayed intertwined though.

“Soooo,” Hizashi began, “you two made any progress by now?”

Aizawa ducked his head – likely to hide a flushed face – but nodded. Oboro, in contrast, beamed and started babbling,  

“Yeah! I’m so happy I feel like I might burst! I love you so much, Hizashi, thank you for literally everything, I don’t know where I’d be without you but probably not here!”

Hizashi considered it his greatest feat that he managed to refrain from repeatedly bashing his head against the wall at that.

(“Wait, what do you mean you spent the whole last week with you working at the café and Aizawa visiting the entire time?!”

“Well, instead of buying him random presents, it’s even better to buy him things he surely likes, right? So, cats. Or rather time spent with cats, a cat’s still too expensive. I’m saving up for it though! But also I just gave my money to him directly so he could afford to come every day, and we could spent some time together, and were supporting the café! It’s the natural cycle of money!”

“No, Oboro, that’s—“

“Plus with me helping with the clean-up and getting the cats into the backroom and everything, we were able to sneak some extra cuddles—Oops, sorry, I interrupted you, didn’t I, what was it you wanted to say?”

“… You know what? Nevermind. Nevermind…”)