The boy smiled widely as he chattered; not just with his mouth, but with his arms. With every word, his hands twitched and moved around, as if he was painting his story with an invisible brush. He looked so happy that Toru had to stop herself from smiling as well.
Not that it mattered much for an invisible girl.
She walked into the small café with slow steps, trying not to stand out even as the bell above the door betrayed her. She received the usual double-take welcome from a butler that stood at the door.
"Welcome back, Mistress," the butler at the reception greeted her with a courteous bow. "Let me show you to a table."
She blinked. She wasn't really planning on staying here once she found out what was going on, but the sound of the greeting caused both the boy and Bakugou to turn around, catching sight of her. If she wasn't in the U.A. uniform, she would have loved to pretend she was some other invisible girl.
Bakugou's glare was quite scary, especially when put into contrast with his smile.
The butler's eyes lit up. "Ah, you're a friend of Izuku's! Please, follow me."
She did almost automatically, finding herself seated next to Bakugou at the table.
She wasn't sure what she expected when she followed Bakugou on his usual mad dash that she had begun to observe every Wednesday. She wasn't sure why she had decided to do so, it was idle curiosity, one of the many things that she could never quite get rid of. Whenever she observed something that seemed strange and out of character for someone, she wanted to know what caused it.
And Bakugou just didn't seem like a person who would ever rush to a place on a specific day of the week unless it was a juicy secret.
'Katsuki Bakugou visits a butler café in Shibuya every Wednesday' was not quite where she thought this was going.
She certainly didn't mind it, though. It was an attractive sight. The boy who was sitting with Bakugou, chatting excitedly, looked quite good in the uniform. The ambience was a bit too Renaissance France for her, but it made her feel inadequate to come here in a uniform.
"Hello, Hagakure," Bakugou said, trying his hardest to pretend this was a normal conversation. "What are you doing here?"
"I was nearby and noticed you come in here," she lied with a poker face that would make a pro jealous. His glare increased in intensity. She turned to the boy, Izuku if she understood correctly. "Sorry, I'm Toru Hagakure."
His eyes trailed off her like most people did, the way the light reflected around her body that made it impossible to actually see her. His smile, still bright and shining, infected her. She smiled back.
"Of course, he told me about you," Izuku said. His voice was soothing, and so smooth compared to Bakugou's rough rasp. Toru blinked.
"He did?" she asked. Izuku nodded.
"He tells me all about U.A.," Izuku said, closing his eyes as if reminiscing. "Is it true that your teacher threatened to expel you on your first day?"
"He did a stupid test and pretended it was a prank afterwards," Toru said, crossing her arms. "It was stupid, and I'm still angry about it."
Izuku laughed softly. "I imagine that couldn't be fun. Still, it's an honor meeting another U.A. student."
The way he said it. Something felt off about it, and the way Bakugou twitched in his chair made her wonder what more there was to this. "You're… friends, then?"
"Childhood friends," Bakugou corrected, leaning over the half eaten piece of chocolate cake on the table. "We grew up together."
"That's… cool?" Toru tried. She wasn't sure Bakugou was capable of having friends. Even his friendly rivalry with Kirishima felt a lot more like some comic equivalent of a mutual competition rather than actual friendship. "So you know all about his embarrassing past, right?"
Bakugou growled. "Don't you dare."
"Of course," Izuku said, nodding. Bakugou's growl grew louder. "But to be honest with you, Kacchan's not that different. Loud, a bit of a temper, and really good at anything he puts his mind to."
"Kacchan, huh?" Toru's shoulders sagged. "I guess people don't change that much, huh?"
"I guess not," Izuku said, laughing again. Bakugou resigned himself to not being able to throw her out of the conversation, keeping her alive for a few precious minutes longer. "His voice used to be a lot higher, though. It was very funny when it first broke."
"Yeah, and what about you?" Bakugou returned. "Your balls barely dropped, you sound like you're still a middle schooler."
Izuku laughed, louder than before. "I guess we can fix that if I smoke more of those fumes your quirk produces."
Bakugou laughed.
It was… a strange sound, to Toru. Bakugou didn't laugh. He jeered, or cackled, or grinned in a way that could be equivalent to a laugh, but he didn't just laugh.
It was such a strange sound that she found herself cleaning her ear just to make sure she heard right.
"Ah! Where are my manners," Izuku said, looking around. "I should get you something to eat. We have cakes every Wednesday, which do you prefer? Strawberry short, chocolate, lemon-"
"I'll take your recommendation," Toru said, realizing that the boy was about to recite the entire menu. Considering the amount of different cakes she had seen on various tables, this was going to be a long list.
"Ah, chocolate it is," he said. Toru blinked, noticing something off under his jacket.
His shirt was buttoned up wrong. She opened her mouth, and Bakugou's hand came down on it with a slap as if he was reading her mind. She was about to give him a piece of her mind for the action, but found herself staring back at almost pleading eyes.
"Don't."
Bakugou's voice was harsh enough for her to feel a shiver run down her spine. She stopped, the words dying in her throat, and when he felt she would not say it, he let go. His oily quirk left a bad aftertaste on her mouth, forcing her to wipe it away.
The boy stood up, walking around the table and taking a stick, walking back into a door towards the kitchen where staff greeted him with a smile.
It was almost embarrassing just how long it took her to notice. For someone who prided herself on not missing the details in the bigger picture, as someone who was so easily overlooked, she had completely missed his most obvious trait.
He was blind.
If anything, it was almost surprising just how real his eyes looked, and even then the scars around them were faded to a point that she could only pick them up in the right light.
"He hates it if people point something like that out," Bakugou said, his voice low. Toru frowned. "So please, don't."
The way he said it just caused her to nod. Despite not seeing the motion, he focused on the cake instead, visibly calming himself.
"You're a lot nicer than you show yourself at school," Toru said. Bakugou frowned.
"I'm not," Bakugou said. He sounded resigned. "Now shut up, eat your cake and kindly fuck off."
"That's not very nice, Kacchan."
"You call me that again and they'll never find your body," Bakugou warned. She held herself back from repeating the nickname, uncertain just how serious he was. "Don't fuck this up. Just smile and leave."
She wasn't sure why, but his hands were shaking slightly. She knew it was not just embarrassment over the nickname or being caught here. "Are you alright?"
"I need to be twice the hero I am now," Bakugou said, his voice cracking as he clenched his fist. A small spark came from between his fingers, causing Toru to jump. "I need to be twice the hero All Might is."
Toru wasn't sure why, but she felt she could not tell anyone about today.
Despite herself, and despite knowing it would piss off Bakugou, she found herself going to the café again. This time it was on a Friday, however, and it looked a lot more busy. The man in the front greeted her, before recognizing her.
"Izuku's on an errand," the man said. "If you want you can wait for him to come back at the usual table."
Toru agreed with a thumbs up. The gloves she was wearing helped a lot with gestures like these. He led her to the table, asking what she wanted to drink, and left when she ordered.
It was ten minutes, and about fifty percent of her sugar with coffee later, that Izuku walked in. He was holding his… cane, not stick, though he did not use it once he walked in, instead counting the steps with voiceless words as he stepped forward and put the bag he was carrying onto a table.
The butler who greeted everyone walked up to him, leaning in to whisper into his ear.
A second later he turned towards her and smiled.
Toru was certain that she was red in the face. The way he smiled caused her blood pressure to rise.
"Welcome back, Hagakure-san," Izuku greeted. "I guess you really liked your first visit."
"I did," Toru said, blinking. "I… wanted to talk to you?"
"I thought so," Izuku said. He chuckled. "I suppose it's not that easy to talk with Kacchan nearby."
"That's not it!" she said, perhaps a bit too fast. "I wanted to… talk to you?"
He blinked in return, tilting his head slightly. His cheeks flushed slightly. "I suppose I shouldn't say no to the invitation of a beautiful girl."
"How do you know I'm beautiful?" Toru asked. Her teeth clicked together with a loud snap. Great, foot in mouth disease this early. "I-I'm invisible."
"People's personality reflects in their voice and behavior," he said without missing a beat. "And you have a very beautiful voice. Let me just grab something to drink and I can sit down."
He walked away, back towards the kitchen where she had seen him go two days ago. The people inside greeted him with smiles and cheers, but she was solely focused on his back. In spite of his own bashfulness, he had scored a critical hit.
She hid her face behind her hands, thankful that nobody else could see just how hot her face had gotten.
It was two weeks later when she finally met Izuku outside of the café.
It was on a Monday, and he was wearing what looked like a school uniform. Around his arm was an armband with a common symbol for blindness.
In the middle of the streets of Shibuya, where she was walking around and observing people after school, he stood there with his cane and let people pass him by. They took one look at him and walked a massive circle around him, as if he wasn't there.
He looked positively miserable, which caused her to stop in her tracks. She had never seen him like this before, which wasn't saying much considering they hadn't met that often before. Maybe he was putting on a face at work?
That wasn't it, no.
He looked too genuine at all times. That meant something else was up.
She walked up to him, trying to keep a smile in her voice as well as she spoke up. "Midoriya-kun."
His eyes moved up, and he blinked for a moment before responding. "Hagakure-san. Hello."
"I don't want to step on your feet here, so, errr," Toru began, stumbling over her own words. "You look unwell, do you… want to talk about it?"
He looked like he was thinking about it. It was after half a minute of silence (Toru counted the seconds!) that he responded, a small and sad smile on his lips as he nodded.
"I think we should sit down somewhere for this," Izuku said. She nodded, walking with him and essentially leading him to a bench where they sat down. More silence besides the chatter of the passing people, more quiet as the boy clenched and unclenched his hands over the cane.
"School was a bit harsh today," Izuku said. "One of the teachers was making some… comments, about my part-time job. It's not fun being singled out."
"I can't imagine it is," Toru said, nodding. "Have you reported the incident?"
"There's no real use," Izuku shrugged. "It's not the kind of school where reports do much, I guess you could call it the opposite of U.A. in some aspects. It doesn't feel like a nurturing alma mater."
She frowned at the wording. "Are you going to quit, then? You look happy there."
"I am happy there," Izuku said, stressing the word. "But some of the things she said, they're not wrong. It feels less like I'm working sometimes and more like I'm being taken care of. Everyone treats me like normal, and yet I'm a burden. I'm-"
Toru's own fist clenched over her lap. "Did a teacher call you a burden? Seriously?"
"Not in those words," Izuku said, sighing. "I'm sorry."
"What for?" Toru asked, her voice slightly heated. "There's nothing to be sorry about."
"I'm not sure why," Izuku said. "We're basically strangers and I'm oversharing."
"Maybe that's why," Toru said. "It's easier to talk to someone you don't know."
"Maybe, yes," Izuku said, wiping at his eyes. "You're a good listener, that's for sure."
"It's one of my one-hundred-and-eight skills," Toru said, giggling. A laugh bubbled up Izuku's throat, coming out slightly choked. "I guess things aren't always great at school."
"The school I'm going to, it's not really much of one," Izuku admitted. "It's more like an asylum for people who don't fit into society properly. We're treated with velvet gloves and told how we can do all the things that everyone else who is normal can, but that's not true. Some teachers don't even bother pretending it is."
"That can't be legal."
"Laws against discrimination aren't a fix," Izuku said, sounding bitter. "They're not for us. They're for people who don't need them, so that they may feel like they've gone out of their way to help. Mutation quirks like yours are a good example."
"They are?" she asked, blinking.
"Maybe not quite yours, but someone who looks dangerous," Izuku began, "by law they're not allowed to be passed up for jobs just because of their mutation, but in practice that just means they're not hired for other reasons, even at better qualifications. A law can't fix society. I wish I could say heroes could, but in the end only society can change itself."
She frowned.
Of course, even if nobody said it, she could tell it was the truth. Their people especially were very focused on public perception. In the end, the only company that could easily work with mutation quirk owners was Detrenat.
"Screw them," Toru said. Izuku looked at her with wide eyes. "Anyone who would tell you not to have fun can stuff it. You are fine just how you are."
"That's easy to say," Izuku said, laughing softly. "It just doesn't feel like it. I haven't seen myself in a mirror for so long that I don't even know what I look like anymore."
"You're cute," Toru said. Izuku chuckled, before realizing she was serious, flushing slightly. "Your hair is wild, but that's just as charming. You have freckles, and you smile like there's no tomorrow. It's beautiful."
"Ah, I, err-" he said, biting his tongue. "Sssank you?"
"You don't need to thank me for that," Toru said. "You're a good person, the smiles that people give you when you walk into the room are genuine, and I know you can tell just from the sound of their voices."
Izuku nodded slowly.
"My quirk manifested at birth," Toru said. "I can't see myself in the mirror. Some days, it feels like the body I'm in isn't mine. Like I'm not even real. I can feel it, I can see the clothes I wrap around it, but it just doesn't feel proper. It's a feeling I have to live with, and I do it because I know there's people out there who will love me no matter what I look like."
Izuku nodded again. "You're strong."
"No," Toru said, finding a smile creep up her lips. "I'm very, very weak. Compared to you, I'm a mosquito and you're an elephant."
Izuku laughed. His smile reached his eyes again. It was after a few more minutes of silence that he spoke up, his hands fidgeting with the cane.
"May… may I touch you?" Izuku asked. Toru tilted her head. "Your face, I mean."
"Yes," Toru said, without hesitation. His hands reached out, and though she agreed rather fast, she found herself embarrassed at the warmth of his fingers as they brushed near her face. His hands cupped her cheeks, and then worked their way up to her ears and eyebrows. His thumbs came down, brushing once over her eyelids and then her cheekbones.
She was certain that she was furiously blushing, but she could not tell the difference between her own body heat and his.
And then he smiled.
One of those smiles that he had given her before.
"You look exactly how I imagined you to look," he said, causing her heart to skip a beat. "You're beautiful, Hagakure-san."
"Toru," she said, reaching back and cupping his face in return. He didn't seem to mind. "Call me Toru."
AN: I was considering making this a short story of 5 parts, but realize just how little the length of this mattered to the story I wanted to tell. It's a character beat after character beat kind of one-shot, and I think it works quite well as something like this. If the inspiration ever grips me to make this an actual fic, I will be certain to post it on my profile.