Miu works at a flower shop. Or at least, the closest thing the immediate area has to a flower shop that isn't a grocery store.
It's run by a family and the only other people who work there are members of that family. The unofficial boss is an older woman, th matriarch, who knew Miu's father before everything had gone to hell. Miu is grateful she gave her a chance to earn a living after he had caused her so much trouble.
"Miu, I want you to water the potato plants before you start on the sale signs."
"Okay."
Miu stops her labeling and goes to hook up the one hundred foot hose to the tap running out of the side of the old house. She doesn't waste time talking on the job unless it's to ask questions or confirm something; she doesn't want to blow this job and she wants to show Ume she is a hard worker. She wants to distance herself as far from her father's reputation as she can.
Ume lives alone, but her sister and her sister's daughters all work for her, at least part time. It's actually been many years since Ume has held down a full time job, but she makes extra money on the side by keeping this little business running out of her own tiny house the spacious yard of her home, located smack dab among a few other run down homes and across from a strip mall and a few other establishments. Ume is one of the last residents able to afford her property, partially due to her own investments and the fact no one in the neighborhood wants to see their own little farm shut down.
The whole of Ume's property is grass, plots of vegetables, a couple of fruit trees, and a decent sized flower garden, but people mainly purchase her flowers. Miu remembers walking past the garden so many times in her youth and always finding some peace staring at whatever flowers were in bloom or the ripe red apples hanging off their branches. Miu spent a lot of her childhood wandering the same streets; she didn't want to be home, but there was nowhere else to go.
Miu can't count how many days she had passed by the small, cozy home and wished for the impossible. She can't tell Ume how grateful she is to be working for her; the pay itself isn't a lot, but Miu makes enough to survive and that's all she can really stand to do right now.
"I wonder if he feels that way?"
Miu smiles. Bon definitely had a point; wouldn't a wiser person not give it another thought? She had always been this way, naturally empathetic and wanting to be of help, even to strangers. Miu has been complimented on it by most people who know her, but truth be told, it's only recently that she's found it a trait to be proud of. Her mother had been that way.
"Yeah. Looks like the apple doesn't fall too far from the pushover tree."
Miu shook of her slight guilt at what felt like a traitorous thought as she unwound the hose, straightening out any tight curls so the water could travel through freely. It was an especially hot day outside, and Miu knows she'll have to spend half of the morning making sure the gardens and trees get enough water to their roots. The plants wouldn't grow properly without plenty of care.
Her mother had tried so hard, but in the end even she wasn't immune to making mistakes. The only consolation was that everything she did had been with the intention of taking care of her family. Miu always thought their family motto might as well have been, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'.
"And look at me. There's a fine line between being selfless and just not giving a crap about yourself. I can't forget that. No hard feelings for Dabi, but I won't slip back into bad habits."
Miu hopes Dabi is faring better than her; she believes him when he said he wanted to do better, be better. It's just a shame he didn't mean anything by confiding in her. Miu's smile falls as she reminds herself she would have been another notch in his belt. Whatever he had said, it was not done in an attempt to reach out and build an emotional connection.
"Still, that was pretty hilarious. I mean, 'little girl'? I'm bigger than he is, or at least I'm wider."
Thinking of it still gave Miu the chuckles; reminding herself she has work to do, she puts one of her earbuds in snug so she can still hear Ume if she has any other tasks for her that might come up. Miu thinks of Dabi, of his circumstances, and thinks it's still too bad they couldn't have spoken honestly with each other.
"It could have been nice to just talk to someone who understands. But look at us. All we have in common is coming from broken homes; it wouldn't work out."
The water is gushing out of the hose and the soil and the budding potato plants are going to be shooting up from the ground before Miu knows it.
"Let's see…" Miu hums in thought, hand on her hip as the other holds the hose steady to get to the base of the plants. The sun is blazing and her skin is a ruddy tan and her cheeks are sun scorched; but she wants to take care of the task at hand before putting on another coat of sunscreen.
"Potatoes, carrots, cabbages look a bit wilted….then I should get on those hydrangeas and tulips soon before I finish the sale labels. I wonder if Ume wants me to check on the plum trees?"
It's still relatively early in the morning anyway; Miu can't help grin, thinking of another productive day. She'd like herself yet.
"Okay, so no more moping like a baby."
Miu makes her cheeks form a bracing grin; her MP3 player changes to one of her favorite songs and she sways her hips to the beat while sweeping the hose over the plot, feeling like she just had two cups of espresso.
"Everything's going to be okay. Just do your best."
This time, Miu only feels a little sad that there's no one around to say it to her; at least no one can say she isn't a good self motivator.
Dabi notes that Miu looks almost unrecognizable in her shabby, dirty stained work clothes, but he only catches a few glimpses. It's his job to set up the shop before they open, and there's already a couple of appointments due for half an hour after that. It's his job to make sure the stations are tidy, the lights are turned on, the air conditioning is running to combat the sweltering heat outside, open up the register, and listen for the phone and the door for customers.
Once that's done, Dabi makes sure to cover up all the tools that his coworkers will be using and the clients will be coming into contact to with disposable plastic wraps. After Dabi makes certain the artists stations are ready for use, he tends to stick to the front desk depending on how busy they are and whether his assistance is needed by one of this coworkers. When he's not busy with that, Dabi handles walk ins and phone calls and payments, not to mention attending to the people making future appointments.
Dabi thinks whoever said being a receptionist was just taking calls and making coffee can go shove that opinion where the sun doesn't shine. Still, he's learning a lot on the job, and his co workers say most of them started out with the same basic position before getting to work on clients directly. Dabi will just have to keep learning and work his way up; they couldn't just let anyone off the street start at a chair after all and Dabi can't really put his experience inking his cell mates as a work reference, as his parole officer told him. If anyone else had made such a crack, Dabi would have punched them in the throat, but he and Aizawa have known each other long enough to go back and forth that way.
This is Dabi's first honest job, paycheck, insurance, all the fixings; he even gets dental. Aizawa was the one who put in a good word for him and Dabi knows he'd be a fool to screw this up. Still, Dabi can't help hunch down and hope anyone across the street can't see him too well through the shop's display windows that almost make up the whole wall. That morning he goes about his duties feeling eyes on his back, even though he knows it's highly unlikely Miu can even see him. Or that she'd even look his way if she knew he was working at the strip mall across the road.
"Dabi, phone's ringing."
Dabi snaps to and picks up the receiver, using his best 'I-actually-give-a-shit-voice' to schedule an afternoon appointment tomorrow. Shinsou gives him a exasperated look but continues to go through his equipment, making sure everything is to his liking; he prefers no one messes with his things since he knows where it all his by his own organization skills. Dabi personally wouldn't ask Shinsou to organize a spice rack, but he supposes if the guy can be so detailed in his work despite looking like a living zombie, maybe there's something to his system after all.
"Alright...yeah, of course...alright, 3:00 it is. Have a good one."
"Dabi, is there anyway you could get your head out of your ass?"
"Sorry, didn't mean to get distracted." Dabi doesn't mean to sound insincere; he really does appreciate the opportunity he's been given, but it grates him that he's basically taking orders from someone younger. It reminds him a bit of his brothers, always so assured he's in the wrong, like they've never made any mistakes; but then, they didn't land their asses in a cell for two years, so maybe they have a right to look down on him. They never gave up and actually made something of themselves instead of making the situation worse.
He knows he's not being fair. He knows that, but being bitter has always been a lot easier than admitting he's at fault. It sounds familiar and Dabi feels a stab of self loathing thinking that the apple doesn't fall too far from the asshole tree.
Dabi keeps his poker face as he sweeps the corners of the floor and Shinsou leaves him to it as he checks his schedule for the day. He only knows Dabi's background, but not his history, and Dabi wants to keep it that way. Dabi's embarrassed himself enough by letting his mouth run, he only does when he drinks and smokes, but even then, it's barely a change from his usual conversational skills.
There's a lull once Dabi is finished with his chores and he gives himself a five minute break to finish his coffee and grab a cruller from the box of donuts Toga has brought in. He sits at his desk and stares out the window, scanning the area and trying to forget Miu's choked up laughter. If she had been drinking, it would have squirted out of her nose, she was cackling so hard.
H didn't know Miu could laugh like that; the past month he's seen her at the bar, she tends to keep to herself, only speaking when spoken to, and often staring off with a vague sort of look. Maybe it's being wasted or maybe it's from sadness or boredom, but whatever it was, Dabi had felt drunk enough that night to approach her.
"Eh, who cares?" Dabi sips his coffee lightly, dunking a piece of donut in the hot liquid. "Like she had any reason to turn up her nose at me. Look at her, she spends everyday getting caked in dirt and getting sunburned working for some old lady and then she gets drunk on dollar beers and cheap whiskey to get over her daddy issues."
Dabi takes the sugar shaker and begins to pour; Shinsou makes the most bitter stuff and drinks it with maybe a packet of sweetner. He can't stand things that are too sweet, but hey, more donuts for the rest of them. After this, Dabi can focus on work; that's all that really matters, keeping his mind clear and on the tasks at hand. He won't let the day go to waste thinking about nothing.
"And that crap about stars and my piercings. Now who's saying ridiculous shit? I should laugh in her face, but it's more sad than anything."
"Uh Dabi...would you like some coffee with your sugar."
Dabi blinks and looks down. The eight ounce cup of coffee has a mound of sugar peeking up over the surface of the drink, like a hills surrounded by murky water.
"Hey, think you can stop being a creep long enough to drink coffee like a human being?" Shinsou asks as he brings Dabi a new cup of coffee and a container of sugar to refill the shaker.
"I'm just a bit tired."
"Oh, you mean from following that Miu girl who works at Ume's?"
Dabi starts but keeps his tone level and his eyes on fixing his new cup. "How do you know Miu?"
"It's a small town. We were in the same grade, but I never talked to her personally." Shinsou sips his plain black drink. "But then, no one else did either. It's funny though, last time I saw her at the store, she actually waved at me. I guess she's doing better now that her old man got busted."
"Her old man?" Dabi frowns; Miu told him she had never talked about her father in detail to anyone else before.
"Yeah, he's a piece of work. He was working here for a bit part time before I started, but he stole some of the equipment to sell. Pretty much all the businesses here knew not to hire him." Shinsou snorted. "Knowing that, it wasn't such a surprise Miu kept to herself; probably embarrassed that nearly everyone in the neighborhood knew her dad was trash. She always seemed okay though."
"So he's in jail?"
"Prison. My mom and her friends were saying how he finally got busted red handed, wasn't anyway to get out of it and no one to cover him. It goes without saying no one who knows him is sad to see he's locked up. I saw him once when I was a kid, and he was…" Shinsou swirls his coffee to mix up his lone sweetener packet to add just a touch of flavor to the bitterness. "Well, I'm just glad I only met him once."
"Sounds like a piece of work."
"Gotta say, I feel bad for her. And now she had a stalker."
"That bar is the only one nearby where I don't have to buy a ride. It has nothing to do with her."
"Just don't come into work drunk and try not to get put 'stalking' on your rap sheet."
"Ha ha." Dabi let's his technical supervisor make his quips; the dryness reminds him of Aizawa and he knows if he makes a big deal out of the comments, Shinsou will think something's getting to him. "So what do you need me to do next?"
Shinsou checks the clock. "Client should be here soon. Finish up and go to Toga's station, she needs help with sterilizing."
"Sure thing."
Dabi tries to drink his coffee as quickly as he can without burning his tongue; he doesn't want anyone to say he isn't a hard worker and he honestly wants to focus on his job. He's a quick learner and plans to prove he can do anything Shinsou throws at him. He'll have a new reputation as someone who can be counted on, someone who isn't a loser. Not like his old man; no matter what the public or anyone else says, Dabi knows the truth, knows his father is little more than scum where it counts. Dabi's determined not to fall into the trap of letting that fact steer him down the wrong path again.
As he aids Toga's search and reminds her to not mess up her station looking through it, Dabi can't help his wandering mind.
He wonders if Miu ever questions how much of her is made up of her folks and how much is just who she is as an individual. It must be hard, since everyone in town seems to be aware of her father.
The first client comes in and Toga tells Dabi to man the phone and be ready for her to need something, just in case. Dabi sits back and signs in the client as his gaze seems to drift out the window.
The sun is high in the sky and most of the grass around is patchy and yellow, but the house across the street has a green lawn and is bursting with color from the flower plots. There's a few people there, coming to the selling stand placed just in front of the old building; the old woman is there taking orders and he can see Miu running back and forth to fetch whatever is being requested in between watering and trimming the fruit trees branches. Even from this distance Dabi can see Miu is sparing no effort.
He wouldn't be surprised if Miu works so hard because she's worried of being seen as a deadbeat too. Not that Dabi really cares that much; his thoughts are in passing and he knows that's the way things should stay.
After all, him and Miu are very different people and it's unlikely they have anything else in common aside from being raised in less than happy homes.
