Love as rich as chocolate ~TodoBaku~

Chapter 12: foundation

Akio Todoroki

...the air in the coffee shop was starting to get a little chilled. Night was falling I'd been here so long, shamefully asking Hiro if he minded staying late so I could talk to him a little more. He'd been more than happy to oblige, and so I was sat in the booth as he worked behind the counter, making us each a coffee to keep our brains going just a little longer.

...I found myself staring at the jovial boy as he worked. Sometimes when people help you, you start to notice things about them a little bit more - probably because you realise that they're good people, and we as humans strive to be more like people we see as good. After Hiro had done so much to help me, I was noticing plenty of things I hadn't before. He had very defined cheekbones, which gave him a wide smile. Short, well-styled hair that wasn't quite fuckboy-ish, but still looked good. The apron wasn't sexy at all, but I could see that it clung closely to his lean frame, his very skinny legs practically encased in his skinny jeans.

Of course, I only saw his legs when we emerged from behind the counter, which made it a little awkward when he came over holding our drinks and I just stared at them, but I gave him a grateful smile as he passed me the drink, taking note of the obvious flush on his face, and the lack of eye contact he gave me. As soon as he sat down, I felt his hand reposition itself on the back of mine, and just for a split second, I flinched at the contact, which had him immediately pull away.

"I-I'm sorry, I just-"

"Don't. You just caught me off guard, that's all. I don't mind"

"Right...then, can I...?"

"...Yeah"

"...ok"

He gingerly placed his hand over the back of mine again, absently circling a thumb over it in soothing notions as I started talking to him again. We were talking about uni now, and he was appalled to hear that I was studying maths.

"Seriously? Maths is cruel and unusual punishment, it should be illegal!"

"Isn't it rewarding when you figure something out though?"

"Yeah, but it's not worth the gazillion migraines you get from it first! Do you like...memorise a bunch of equations and stuff?"

"Yeah...we're doing partial fractions at the moment. Product rule, quotient rule...pretty basic stuff"

"I saw letters and numbers in the same question and I was OUT. X could never be equal to worth my while"

"For someone who hates maths, that was a pretty good pun. It could be a sin that you're cut out for it after all!"

"...I hate everything you just said"

"Wait till I teach you Gaussian elimination, young one~"

"Oh god. Spare me, o' wise gent!"

"Hmmm...perhaps I could negotiate something easier...how does matrix multiplication sound?"

"Like a rough hangover"

"Hey! This is the sort of stuff I thrive with!"

"I'm sorry, but if you're multiplying matrixes, please do it yourself!"

"...matrices" I corrected him, and he rolled his eyes with a sarcastic grin.

We hung around for a further fifteen minutes or so, finishing off our drinks. No disrespect, but I was itching to get home. I still had a lot of thinking to do. Despite Hiro's kindness, and my attempts at feigning ok-ness, I still wasn't exactly able to move on that quickly. It was an oppressive kind of emotion, and Hiro was like a fly trying to pick up a boulder. Admirable, and incredibly sweet, but not totally worth it.

"Hey...um...do you mind if...if I walk you home? I know it seems a bit weird, but I don't really wanna leave you on your own right now..."

"...yeah, that's fine. I'll give you my number too, saves me having to bother you at work all the time"

"Sounds good to me! Shall we then?"

He seemed to swing between being incredibly shy and incredibly confident in the space of a single sentence. It was endearing that he wanted to accompany me home though. It showed me that he wasn't just listening for listening' sake, and actually cared about whether I was ok or not. And I was totally genuine in my reasons for giving him my number...except for one thing I didn't expressly mention.

I wanted someone to talk to. I was in no mindset to go and hang out with Kei and Ryo as if nothing had ever happened, and other than them, I only really have Yui, so I wanted someone I could bounce off, and who I knew would try and help me in every possible way. Hiro seemed a pretty good option for that.

My house was a fair walk from the coffee shop, so as soon as Hiro had tucked away his apron in the back, we set off. I decided I should probably shift the conversation onto him, not really wanting to talk anymore about myself.

"So...tell me a bit about yourself. How'd you end up in a coffee shop?"

"Well...I only recently moved back to Japan, about 3 months ago maybe. I was living over in Canada with my Uncle, after...well, after some things happened, and that was the best place for me to be. But anyway, while I was over there, I started a culinary arts course, and I'm looking to get into somewhere to become a chef. The coffee shop just fits I guess."

"That sounds pretty good, it seems like you've got a pretty clear plan in place"

"Yeah...I wasn't really sure before, but this is definitely the plan now. It's all about biding my time until the right thing comes up I guess"

"It is...I hope I'm not taking you too far off your normal commute!"

"No no, don't worry. My apartment is...about ten minutes that way"

"Oh great, we'll probably get to mine first then. Turns out we're not too far from each other!"

"Yeah! Talk about coincidence! Can you do some probability on that, mr maths whizz~?"

"I'm a student, not a calculator!"
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I really like writing with OC's, it removes all the guilt about trying to stick to canon characteristics as much as possible.

Fact of the Day: In about 1 minute (as of writing this), I'm going to post the first chapter of this story!