(FULL) SUMMARY:
Aspiring Fashion Designer Yaoyorozu Momo's lunch break consists of this: Exit the building, walk ten minutes, enter her favourite Coffee Shop for a drink and a muffin to go, exit, go back to the Hakamata Agency. It's been like this for a long time now, and she has her very own reasons for always walking twenty minutes in total instead of just simply ordering at the Café across the street. That reason is the young purple-haired Barista at Beyond Coffee, who never fails to brighten her day.
For twenty-four-year-old Jirou Kyouka, a certain young woman's daily visits are the highlight of her workday - And no, dear colleagues, it's not because she's got a crush! But despite Mina's outrageous misconceptions, she always prepares a muffin and medium Matcha Latte in advance. One day, her very much favourite customers order changes.
DISCLAIMER:
Yeah I wrote this, but BNHA isn't my brainchild, otherwise, the current Manga events would have gone down differently. But alas, ...
Now, this was written for the first day of MomoJirou Week 2021 (Prompt: white day, valentine's day, fantasy au, coffee shop) over on Archive of our Own, and is, therefore, a belated cross-post for FFN. This is my brainchild, so shhh, I'm not stealing anything. My username on Ao3 is icashi, you can find my account via archiveofourown users /icashi, if you remove the spaces.
I don't know shit about coffee shops or coffee in general (it's just not it for me), the only thing I researched about it was how to make a basic Matcha Latte. Periodt. I also have no clue about how fashion or the industry over there works, so let's please just pretend it goes like this.
The second the clock strikes twelve, Kyouka switches with trainee Mina and ignores all work in favour of making a medium-sized Matcha Latte.
Gathering the matcha, oat milk, and maple syrup with almost absentminded ease, she proceeds to dilute the matcha powder with easily-accessed warm milk and whisks for thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine- forty seconds. Looking over her work with a critical eye, she stirs twice more for good measure and deems it okay. The remaining milk is frothed to perfection and transferred into a medium-sized cup along with the maple syrup. After stirring, the matcha mixture joins the fray and she stirs one last time.
"Mina, pen!" Without taking a break from explaining a red-haired customer the difference between a Macchiato and an Americano, Mina grabs for the cup-pen and throws it in her general direction. Accustomed to her lower-than-average tosses, Kyouka grabs it out of the air and writes a careful Momo :) with a deceptively steady hand. It's the first time she's added anything after her name and she is very nervous. Steady hands are a must in this business since you don't want a filled-to-the-brim cup to spill, so her penmanship is as reliable as always.
"Aren't you, like, on break right now?", new-hire Camie asks with a confused pout, looking up from capping a small Rooibos Espresso under the watchful eyes of their boss. Handing the pen over, Kyouka deigns not to respond to that. She needn't have bothered to try to quell her curiosity, because Katsuki smirks and whispers something in her ear. Camie squeals loudly, eyes shining.
Throwing her boss a resigned glare, she turns around and grabs a blueberry muffin, carefully packaging it in a paper bag emblazoned with stylized Explosion. Striding over to the register, Mina greets her with a knowing smile. Narrowing her eyes, she takes over for Mina again, who takes the time to stretch her arms and centre herself for the impending lunch rush.
Two minutes later and fifteen minutes past twelve on the proverbial dot, the door chime announces Momo's arrival. The fashionable young woman smiles softly when their eyes meet and moves in line with a confident stride. One Toffee Frappé, two triple-chocolate Muffins and an Asiago Bagel later, it's finally Momo's turn.
"Hello, Kyouka! How are you today?", she greets, already handing over her card.
"Hi, Momo! I'm doing great. What about you?" Putting the correct information into the cash register, she chances a smile at the pretty woman.
"Oh, you know- The usual. My agency is hassling me a bit because they worry I won't make the deadline, but since I've always managed before, I'm rather confident in myself." Kyouka notices that she's never asked where Momo works, she only knows it's in the fashion industry. Maybe she'll ask tomorrow. "But never mind that. Which Muffin is it today?" Maybe, in time, she'll transcend if her eyes continue to sparkle like that.
Grinning herself, because the put-together woman looks very much like an excited child right now, she puts the packaged Muffin and Latte on the counter, returning with them Momo's card. "One Blueberry Muffin and Matcha Latte for Momo", she says. Maybe it's her imagination but she thinks she hears Camie and Mina gossiping under Katsuki's watchful gaze. Traitors, all of them.
"Ooh, blueberry! When I was a child, I've always liked those." Momo's smile is payment enough for the roughly twenty minutes of her lunch break she loses every day.
"That's great," Kyouka says evenly, totally not affected by her adorable childish glee. "See you tomorrow?" It's not that she wants her gone, it's more so that the group of four coming in right now aren't regulars, and neither is the father-daughter duo directly behind Momo.
Momo straightens a little at that, utters a slightly less cheery "See you tomorrow," takes her order, and leaves the Shop with a smile on her lips. Watching her leave for a few heartbeats, she has to refocus on the cute duo behind the counter.
"Hello and welcome to Beyond Coffee, what can I get you two?" She smiles and knows it's less genuine than the one Momo got. Despite her best efforts to counteract the development of a Service Smile (as Tamaki and Izuku call it), she didn't succeed. Customer Service is life-draining, unfortunately.
After an encouraging nudge from her presumed father, the young white-haired girl orders a large Hazlenut Mocha, medium Golden Latte and two Butter Croissants to-go. After billing them, Kyouka directs them to wait and switches with Mina one last time, quickly preparing their drinks. Labelling the cups with Eri 3 and Eri's Dad, because humour isn't dead yet, she makes for the patiently waiting duo, bagged Croissants in one hand and cups in the other.
"Here you go, one medium Golden Latte for Eri," she hands the girl her cup, "and a large Hazlenut Mocha for her father. And, of course, your Croissants." She gives her father his cup and Eri the bag. "Have a great day," Kyouka says, and starts retreating to the break room. She's stopped by a small hand tugging on her sleeve and as she turns around it's revealed to be Eri's.
Crouching, and wincing at her protesting joints (she's barely twenty-four, can they just shut up-), she looks the girl over. The order isn't wrong, or else it wouldn't be Eri but instead her father now catching her attention. He looks like a man that's serious about his coffee and variations thereof, and rightfully so.
"Do you need help in the Shop?", the girl asks shyly and Kyouka can only assume it's not about Eri at all.
"Well, when you're a bit older, maybe we can talk about it." She half-expects the following headshake.
"No, Miss, it's about my brother. He's looking for work and he likes coffee and you all seem very nice, so I thought-" Kyouka thinks distantly that she can kiss her lunch break goodbye. But the bean in front of her is so adorable it's almost okay with her. Though, Kyouka has to frown a bit. Do they need more manpower? Katsuki is the boss and a Barista, Kyouka herself has been a certified Barista for up to two years now, Tamaki bakes, and they have Mina and Camie on the road to Barista...
Expression smoothing out, she pats Eri's head once, twice. "Well, I'll have to talk with my Boss about it, but if your brother is serious about this and comes in, say, tomorrow? Or the day after, to bring around his portfolio, I promise we'll consider hiring him." Eri smiles and it's as if a tiny baby sun is illuminating the world.
"Thank you, Miss!" Waving off the girl's heartfelt thanks, she eventually really collapses on the bench in their break room.
All too soon, it's back to work again...
Months pass like they always do.
Shinsou Hitoshi - Eri's older brother - starts working at Beyond Coffee, and much to the delight of Kyouka and even Katsuki, they don't have to teach him much. He knows all about coffee, or so it seems when they wrap up the job interview. After the final test (passing the inspection of Tamaki, who is an incredibly good judge of character), he's hired instantly.
Eventually, Mina leaves them as a freshly-baked Barista when she has to move across the country for her spot at a science-related university. The employee's of the shop wave her good-bye when she settles into her car on the final day. She promises to be back soon and drives off into the sunset after receiving a bracelet with their favourite drinks as charms, to remember them by.
Between one blink and the next, Camie graduates the trainee phase and Tamaki's boyfriend takes up the role.
Pumpkin Spice Latte enters - to Katsuki's eternal disgust - and leaves their menu.
One day, Momo's boss - Hakamata Tsunagu, renowned Fashion Designer - enters the Shop with her and stares uncomfortably long at Kyouka when she greets Momo with enthusiasm and her order already finished and ready-to-go. He keeps staring at her through placing his order and she wonders what sin he can see with his soul-deep stare.
Hitoshi sometimes brings his little sister along for the ride, and one memorable occasion has her trying a brief sip of first black coffee, then a Caramel Frappé - Kyouka's personal favourite.
Months later, Eri still looks in disgust at everything even remotely coffee-related to the amusement of just about anyone but is allowed to package pastries and sometimes help Tamaki in the kitchen in exchange for a raise in pocket money. Her and Hitoshi's fathers quickly become regulars at Beyond Coffee - they're teachers at a local High School, they need caffeine as much as they need air to breathe.
Momo's first solitary fashion line enters the light of day and it's a grand success - soon, she has to exit her agency through the back door and can only walk the streets with a beanie and a face hidden in her scarf.
With rising success of their little Coffee Shop (only contributed to by Paparazzi photos of The Yaoyorozu Momo and The Hakamata Tsunagu in their shop), talks of expansions start. Somewhere along the line, Mina becomes Manager of the branch-Shop opened in her University's area. It feels nostalgic to Kyouka, who can clearly remember an unsure Mina in wake of her first-ever lunch rush.
When their Coffee Shop becomes an Instagram-worthy attraction and all the Instagram-girls trudge in asking for a Pumpkin Spice Latte, Katsuki takes to tapeing their order's receive in front of their stylized explosions with extreme prejudice.
People come and go.
Yet despite all the changes, one thing remains constant. - Momo and her absolute trust in Kyouka's decision of her lunch pastry.
Lunch rush comes and goes, but Momo is nowhere in sight. Kyouka is a little worried but not overly so, because she knows Momo is working on her next line of clothes - she's making wedding gowns and suits and mash-ups of both this time - and forgets to take breaks when she's caught up in her little bubble of fabrics and stitches.
One hour past her usual time, Momo enters Beyond Coffee with an apologetic smile and has to wait briefly for her order - for the first time in what feels like forever. It's also been a long time since anybody watched Kyouka quite this closely while making a drink. It feels weird, somehow, to write Momo's name on the medium-sized cup when the woman herself is only about seven steps away. Nonetheless, she adds a simple smiley behind her name, as she always does.
"Sorry that you had to wait," Kyouka says while Eri tapes the paper bag containing a white chocolate and raspberry muffin closed.
"No, I am sorry that you had to wait," Momo says firmly with a strained smile. She doesn't quite think that this is simply about not getting off for lunch break at the usual time.
Eri hands the bag over and Kyouka types the order into the cash register. "Don't apologize, I know that you're ridiculously busy right now. Anyway, a medium Matcha Latte and a white chocolate and raspberry muffin. I hope you enjoy them." As she always does, she reaches out a hand to take the other woman's card, only it's not there. Withdrawing her hand, she frowns and searches Momo's face. "Something wrong? If you forgot your money I can pay for it?"
Seemingly becoming aware of her location once more, Momo chuckles embarrassedly, a light blush dusting her cheeks. She could swear she can hear Eri give an exasperated sigh.
"Actually, there's something missing," Momo says and Kyouka blinks, confused. She looks at the cup and bag on the counter, at the register and then at Momo. Then repeats the process. Faintly, she can hear Katsuki mutter a forlorn "God, why are they like this?" and blinks again, before remembering that she can't spend an eternity just staring at the woman (even though Kyouka wouldn't mind).
She clears her throat. "And what's that?" Momo fidgets and it looks adorable how she's playing with her fingers. (It keeps happening, that she's staring at Momo for long periods of time. When she asked Camie if she's ever had these spontaneous bounds of selective situational awareness, she got laughed at and earned a groan from nearby Katsuki, who face-planted into his amused husband's shoulder.)
"I'm thinking- A medium Caramel Frappé." Kyouka frowns for a few seconds. While she approves of the choice, Momo's never wanted anything but her Matcha Latta and whatever muffin they offered her. Maybe it's for Tsunagu, the man nowadays buried under fabric and patterns ninety percent of the time. But she thinks she can remember how he once mentioned how much he hated Frappés? It's official, Kyouka has no clue what's even going on anymore.
She shakes herself out of her reverie with a wonderfully eloquent: "... Uh, sure? Anything else?"
"Mhh," Momo hums uncertainly, dark eyes darting through the room, flush reaching her ears now. She'd never known that was a thing Momo did, but it's ridiculously cute, very much endearing and absolutely distracting. She then straightens and her blush deepens in colour, not doing anything for Kyouka's poor heart. "A date with you would be nice."
Kyouka blinks- and stares. Momo stares back, eyes hopeful.
A capped medium-sized Caramel Frappé enters her field of vision seconds later and she recognizes the wedding band on the hand holding it as Katsukis. "It's on the house," he says with a smug smile.
She looks between the cup and Momo, taking it with deceptively steady hands. She smiles shyly, nods at Momo whose smile is rivalling the sun.
Years pass by as they always do.
People come and go, as does Pumpkin Spice Latte Season™.
Momo never leaves, though, and one day in spring they fortify their bonds under the watchful eyes of their colleagues, friends and family.
END NOTE:
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. If you have something to say, be it criticism or something else altogether, feel free to leave a comment.
You can find more of my work on my profile (I'd prefer my Ao3 profile, tbh), and my Social Media via my carrd: icarus-jpg. carrd. co (remove the spaces, as usual).
I hope you have a great day!