The coffee shop was fairly busy, just like it was every weekday morning as people filtered in to grab something warm for breakfast before starting the workday routine. It was a small shop on the corner of a larger building surrounded by offices and stores in the middle of the city. They didn't sell a large variety of things, but what they did offer was well-made and fresh.

A man with bright red hair gelled into spikes and and a contagious smile stood behind the register, and had a surprising amount of energy for it being 8 in the morning. He always greeted customers cheerfully, which was probably why he was rarely the one off to the side making customer orders with as little social interaction as possible. That job was reserved for the man with spiky blonde hair and bad attitude.

"Hey, Bakugou, two more cheese croissants and a cafe late."

"Yeah yeah I heard you, shitty-hair."

Bakugou stood with his back to the customers in front of the counter, the look on his face making it seem like heating up pastries was his literal worst enemy.

"Bro, my hair is super cool and you know it."

"You know what would be 'super cool?' Not getting hair dye all over the fucking bathroom again. You still owe me a new towel." Bakugou's crimson eyes glared at Kirishima as he set the warm pastries down on the counter and hit the bell a little too hard, signaling the customers that it was ready. Kirishima avoided his coworkers glare with a sheepish smile.

"Heh…I said I was sorry, I promise I'll go this weekend and get you a new one."

The bell over the shop door opened to signal another customer. Kirishima turned around to greet them as he always did, but his tongue caught in his throat.

The woman that just walked in the door was someone he hadn't seen before, and he was pretty familiar with the regular stuffy office crowd that came in this early in the morning. She had dark red hair, in the sun it almost looked a bit purple, and he could immediately tell that wasn't her natural color from his own experiences in hair dye but it suited her well. It was short, above her shoulders, and framed her strong jaw-line. In dark business casual attire she stood in front of the pastry display, reading through the small signs with a tired smile, like she was still trying to wake up.

Kirishima thought she was pretty, hopefully it didn't show on his face.

"Hi there! What can we get for you today?" Kirishima leaned over the counter slightly to look around the display at the woman. She turned to him with that tired smile and dark sparkling eyes that were highlighted with winged eyeliner and just a hint of eyeshadow.

"Hi, good morning. Um, yeah, can I get a ham croissant and a medium roast coffee, no cream or sugar please." She dug through her small purse to fish out her wallet.

"Sure thing, coming right up!" Kirishimia took the cash handed to him and carefully counted out change. "Your order will be ready in a few minutes, you can pick it up down at the other end of the counter."

She took the change, and said a small "thanks" glancing up at him one more time before walking over to take a seat near the other side of the shop.

Why were Kirishima's hands sweaty, wasn't that a Bakugou problem? He wiped them on his apron before chancing a glance from behind the counter at the woman again. He hadn't even noticed Bakugou looking between himself and the new customer and piecing together the cause of the dumb look on the red-head's face while he made her order.

Kirishima snapped back to attention to take care of another customer – a regular this time – while Bakugou rang that annoying bell and set the pastry and unsweetened coffee on the counter. He glanced over to get a proper look at her when she grabbed her breakfast. She looked up at him with the same tired smile and thanked him as well before walking out the door and around the corner.

Ok, so Kirishima didn't have horrible taste in women. She wasn't exactly a model but Bakugou thought she wasn't half bad looking. And few people actually thanked HIM, the guy who made the food and shit, so that was new. Even so, something small bubbled up in the pit of his stomach, but he forced it back down like he always did. It was nothing, after all.

Kirishima and Bakugou turned to each other at nearly the same time, the blonde with a smirk and the red head with a timid smile.

"I haven't seen her before…maybe she'll become a regular?"

"Tch, fat chance. I bet she's here on a business trip or somethin' and will be gone in a day or two with your dating luck."

"Don't jinx it! And it wasn't that bad…ok it's been a while since I've been on a date but so what? You're one to talk about dating advice."

Bakugou bristled like a provoked dog, but managed not to yell at his roommate behind the register. Kirishima knew at this point that the blonde was 70% bark and about 30% bite, and even then he wouldn't throw at fit at their job at the risk of being fired. Again.

"Ok idiot, if she comes back, you better have her fucking phone number by the end of next week. If not, she'll have mine." Bakugou smirked at Kirishima's alarmed and blushing face. Did he give a shit about a date? No, but he enjoyed making things into competitions way too much to pass up the opportunity to win at something. Besides, he knew Kirishima sometimes had self-esteem issues that he rarely talked about, maybe this would force him out of his shell a bit. He was a jerk, not a complete asshole after all. Bakugou turned back around to face the counter, his expression neutral.

Kirishima pointed a strong finger at his coworker in acceptance of the challenge. "Fine! A real man doesn't back down from a challenge and I accept." Kirishima flashed a toothy smile, feigning confidence…but inside he was saying ohshitohshitohshitohshit….

The rest of the day was uneventful, the woman didn't come back, and eventually it was time to leave the shop to go home. Kirishima and Bakugou shared an apartment on the other side of town; it took three train stops to get there since neither of them had a car. Usually it was Kirishima that opened the shop since he was more of a morning person so he would end up getting off before Bakugou, who usually came in a few hours later and left when the shop closed in the late afternoon.

They had met in highschool, transferred in from different middle schools but both were good students who made it into special programs. Bakugou was problematic, often lashing out at anyone who he saw as a threat to his future successes and goals. He was excessively driven and consistently got top grades, but his social skills were severely lacking. Kirishima on the other hand was a social butterfly, but only managed to stay above water with grades and advanced classes. They managed to have a lot of overlapping classes, and one thing led to another when Kirishima begged the blonde to tutor him in the more challenging subjects. Bakugou eventually let his walled up superiority complex come down just a bit with Kirishima's natural charisma and empathy. They graduated together and went to different colleges, but still weren't far from one another. Kirishima was almost always the one to initiate hanging out and catching up, and Bakugou – as stubborn as he was – obliged about half the time, which was a pretty good turnout considering his sour attitude towards reliance on friendship. A series of events after graduation landed them here, working in the same town, at the same coffee shop, neither of which had been in their future adult plans; But sometimes things don't work out the way you anticipate.

The next day, Kirishima was at the coffee shop and setting up the usual necessities before normal working hours. Bakugou wasn't in yet, his shift started around 10. The red head had taken a few extra minutes to make sure his hair looked nice that day – even if his roommate and coworker always called him "shitty-hair" he was stubborn and refused to change it much between spiking it up, and putting it back in a casual headband. He was determined to get a proper introduction in today with woman…if she showed up that is. Their customer base was so boring, with the same pudgy office men coming in and giving off an air of false importance. Bakugou wasn't exactly the type to socialize much outside of work, and his other friends were already in relationships so he was mostly on his own when looking for anyone interesting. He had tried dating apps, but those were mostly used for casual hookups rather than looking for long-term monogamous relationships. Kirishima was a sappy romantic at heart and wanted someone to watch movies with cuddled on the couch, while also having picnics at the park in the middle of the city and eating cheap ramen at places only his friends knew about. Sometimes he thought he was being too picky, or he had bad luck, or he wasn't manly and charming enough. He was 24 and still single, so any chance he had at talking with a pretty girl at the coffee shop was an opportunity he wasn't going to miss.

It was around 8, same time as yesterday, when Kirishima looked up to see the same woman come in again. Her hair was the same, her makeup was the same – was it? he didn't know a lot about makeup but it looked about the same…- and the wore the same business casual style outfit as the day before. She didn't bother looking at the display this time, and instead walked right up to the counter.

"Hey, can I get the same thing I had yesterday? I think it was.."

"You had a ham croissant and a medium roast coffee…right? I think that's right." Kirishima rubbed the back of his head as the woman looked at him with surprise.

"Um…yeah, actually, I think that's right. You remembered what I ordered?"

"Ah, well we have a lot of regular customers who get exactly the same thing everyday, so I've gotten really good at remembering faces and attaching them to orders. Wow that sounded kinda weird ah-"
She smiled at him, it didn't looked quite as tired as yesterday.

"No no, I think that's pretty good customer service honestly if you can remember someone's order like that just after one day. Or am I just that memorable?"

The last line struck Kirishima into a mute state, trying as hard as he could not to lose his shit and turn into a confessing mess.

"We ah try our best here to take care of our customers after all!" Ok good good he managed to swing around that statement. "Speaking of memorable, I haven't seen you in here before. Are you new in town?" Yes good keep it going keep it going…

She pulled out a debit card rather than cash this time and handed it over to him. "Not really, my office moved into a new space last week that's a couple blocks away. We used to be all the way across town so I was never over in this area much. Also, we have free coffee at work, but it tastes like garbage honestly so I'm willing to pay for my caffeine fix. What I had yesterday was pretty good, so I decided to come back." She smiled at him as he slid her card in the machine and handed it back with a receipt.

"Oh that's cool. We'll have your order up in a minute." He flashed a bright, toothy smile in her direction. It was going better than expected!

"Ok…mmm..Kirishima?" She was looking down at his scuffed name tag and he was nervously avoiding eye contact. "Thanks." She waved him off and walked to the receiving side of the counter and sat down in the same chair as yesterday. Since Bakugou wasn't there yet some teenager with arms too long for his body was making her order. Kirishima was too busy trying to breathe correctly, processing that the conversation went way better than expected.

1. She isn't here on a business trip so SUCK ON THAT BAKUGOU!

2. He didn't make a complete ass of himself, and she made it a point to know his name.

This was a good start, better than any of the matches he'd had on dating apps where half the time he was stood up and the other half were just…well we don't think about those anymore.

Once she had her food and coffee, she made it a point to wave bye to him on the way out, disappearing down the same street as yesterday.

After a while Bakugou showed up a minute before his shift start. He was always close to being late, but was never actually late. Once he put on his apron and name tag, he eyed Kirishima with suspicion. He was normally energetic, but this giddiness was new.

"What's up your ass, shitty-hair?"

"You were wrong! That lady came back today and we had a nice conversation consisting of like, two sentences each!" Kirishima threw that in the blonde's face as if it was indisputable fact that he had already won.

"Wh…oh yeah, the chick from yesterday. So you didn't scare her off permanently then?" Bakugou shoved the teenager out of the way, knowing that he was the best at making the coffee and he wasn't going to let some kid fuck it all up.

"Nope, she works at an office down the street that recently relocated, so I bet she'll be coming in tomorrow too."

"Yeah yeah we'll see, if you manage to score a proper date I'll be fucking surprised. Do you even know if she's single?" Bakugou eyed him suspiciously, Kirishima failing to hide the dawning realization regarding a question he hadn't asked himself.

"Uh…I mean…no? I didn't see a ring though so she's not married. Don't ruin the mood, if she's not oh well at least I'll have tried." Kirishima held up an optimistic thumbs up, while Bakugou made some fake barfing sound and turned back to making some lunch items before the rush started in a few hours.

"You're such a fucking sap. What's the schedule for tomorrow, you're off work right?"

"Yeah, I get to sleep in for a while. Don't burn the place down without me, ok?" For that comment he got a stale pastry with a bite out of it thrown at his face.

During his lunch break Kirishima decided to make a small list of topics that didn't sound creepy or weird coming from a stranger, something he could talk about that would seem relatively reserved and normal.

1. Where is your office?
"No, that makes me look like a stalker creep…scratch that one." He took his pen and scribbled out the first entry.
2. What do you do for work?
"Ok, getting there, it's a start."
3. What kind of music do you like? The music here is pretty boring so I'm sorry. Unless you like it, then you have eh taste in music.
4. Are you single?

"You are really fucking bad at this." Bakugou stood over Kirishima's shoulder, reading his list without permission, making the red head jump just a bit.

"If you would help me, it wouldn't be a problem."

"Idiot we made a bet I'm not going to help you WIN." Bakugou continued walking past with a pack of napkins, leaving Kirishima to his pitiful list.

What if she doesn't even like guys? Maybe she likes women…maybe she likes both? All genders?! Ok cool cool let's be inclusive here and I'll have a small chance.