At 10 am, Bakugou got to the cafe. His hands were clammy as he approached it, which was unfortunate as Kirishima had refused to stop blocking the exit of their apartment until Bakugou had put bandaids on the now-scabbed wounds in his palm. At least he hadn't mentioned the whole Kacchan thing to Bakugou, which he was thankful for as he really wasn't sure if he could explain why he'd randomly tap on things and say his own childhood nickname. Even just thinking about it made him stop and tap on his left wrist with his right thumb, saying "Kacchan" as quietly as he could. He hated doing it, but any attempt to keep himself from carrying the action out once he'd gotten the urge was entirely futile. He'd just panic until he lost himself in hyperventilation and did it anyway.
He hadn't received any texts from Deku since the night before, but he knew he was on the schedule that day. He really wasn't sure how to handle seeing him so soon- or at all. Was Deku right and they needed each other to heal? Or was she right and Bakugou was cursed in a way that would only get the other boy hurt again?
He ran out of time to mull it over, however, when he saw that Deku was already there.
"Good morning, Kacchan," he said shyly.
"Mornin," Bakugou grunted in reply, distracted by a flashback of Deku spitting the words fuck you at him. The other boy was back to normal now, a flush on his cheeks accompanied by that stupid dopey smile he almost always had. At least, he'd almost always had it back when they were kids.
"Good morning, Bakugou! Let's tackle today with motivation and enthusiasm!"
"Yeah, ok Iida." Bakugou waved his over-enthusiastic coworker away and clocked in. He was trying very hard not to notice Deku's extreme nervous energy in his peripheral vision as the kid almost sloshed steaming coffee all over a customer when he handed her drink to her with far too much enthusiasm. His apology was so intense and profuse, she actually took a step back before telling him it was okay and leaving.
It was stressful, but at the same time it had Bakugou's mind running at top speed. After all this time, if what he had done was so terrible. . . why would Deku be this nervous about Bakugou? Assuming that was it. It was hard to think it wasn't, however, when Deku stopped to stare at him in between tasks, flushing bright red whenever Bakugou looked back at him or when Yaoyorozu asked him if there was something on Bakugou's face.
At 11 am, Kaminari showed up for his shift. Things only got more intense from there as he couldn't seem to stop staring at Bakugou either. He was feeling more and more awkward by the minute, tapping on things and fighting the urge to say Kacchan each time because he knew Kaminari was just waiting to hear it. He could never fight the urge for long, however, and was unable to do anything but breathe a sigh of relief when Kaminari heard it and looked thoughtful but didn't make a comment. Now that Bakugou thought about it, most of his coworkers had heard him do his tapping thing, and they were also bound to hear Deku call him "Kacchan" at some point, which was...just fan-fucking-tastic. But when he considered asking Deku to call him Bakugou, or at least Katsuki, it felt wrong and he couldn't bring himself to do it. He really was a special kind of stupid.
At 12 pm, Shinsou's floaty purple head with bored eyes and dark circles popped up over the register to give Bakugou that unsettling smile of his.
"How willing would you be to help a friend out?" he asked conspiratorially.
"I'm not giving you free coffee," Bakugou said.
"It's a matter of the heart," Shinsou protested.
"I'm not giving you free coffee," Bakugou repeated. "Your total is $3.27."
