Chapter Text
Shouta stood at the counter, and when the barista saw him, she nodded. It would seem he was a regular now if he didn’t have to give his order anymore, and Shouta was fine with that. Dark roast coffee with a ton of sugar wasn’t that hard of an order to remember anyway.
Shouta felt eyes on him, and as he looked over the dining area, he saw a man approaching him. He was very tall, so tall in fact that Shouta assumed he had to always be mindful to duck when going through doorways. He was also very thin, his height most likely accentuating his slight frame even more.
In the age of quirks, varying body types weren’t anything out of the ordinary, but this man stood out. Maybe it was the determined expression on his gaunt face and the vigor in his step that belied his wisp-like appearance as he approached Shouta and then bowed quickly before speaking. “Eraserhead, may I speak with you a moment?” the stranger asked, his voice surprisingly deep.
Shouta raised an eyebrow at him, a bit surprised this random guy knew who he was.
The stranger must have taken Shouta’s expression as a green light to speak to him. Shouta would give him thirty seconds.
“I’m Yagi Toshinori, All Might’s assistant.”
“You got 10 seconds,” Shouta said, amending his patience. He had very little of it for celebrity heroes.
Yagi’s eyes went wide, and he spoke quickly. “All Might would like to offer his sincere apology for barreling into the yakuza ring yesterday. He was embarrassed to find out after the fact that you and your colleagues were undercover.”
Shouta just stared at him. He really didn’t want to think about the disaster that had played out. It had not been entirely All Might’s fault, more that their agencies were not sharing intel like they should.
That being said, Shouta was still pretty annoyed at All Might.
But Yagi’s smile exuded a warmth, however, and his overly apologetic and polite demeanor seemed to chip away at even Shouta’s icy disposition. Apparently, All Might seemed to have the wherewithal to hire people who were down to earth and not so wrapped up in flashy displays and flattery like himself. Maybe All Might wasn’t as unbearable as Shouta thought.
Before Shouta could give Yagi a wry reply to relay to his superior, Yagi raised a bag toward him that he’d been holding.
“Please take this as a token of All Might’s sincerest apologies,” Yagi said as he lowered his head in respect, looking at the floor in front of him. Most people, this bowing of the head would have hidden their face, but since Yagi was so tall, it gave Shouta an even better look at his features. Deeply shadowed eyes glistened the brightest blue, giving Yagi a youthful quality even though he looked like he was middle-aged due to the wrinkles around the edges of his eyes and the lines that accentuated either side of his wide mouth.
An offered gift? That seemed a bit much, Shouta thought to himself.
Shouta took it with great reluctance. In most situations, he would have just wordlessly walked away from a proffered gift from someone he had just met, especially someone working as a proxy for someone else. I mean, if All Might really felt that bad about the whole thing, he would be talking to Shouta directly, he thought to himself with much annoyance.
The gift bag was red with yellow stripes, and it was filled with a single piece of yellow tissue. Shouta moved the tissue out of the way and pulled out what looked like a ceramic mug.
On closer inspection, the mug was half red, half blue, and in yellow letters lined in a broad white border, it proclaimed, ‘#1 Hero.’ The color scheme screamed All Might; the hues came directly from his current hero costume. A mischievous grin slowly spread on Shouta’s face. It felt strange to him, he had not smiled that wide in weeks.
His gaze flicked up to meet Yagi’s face. “Who would have thought All Might was a regifter, or worse, a gifter of his own merch?” Shouta asked, his normally monotone voice lilting a tiny bit with his own amusement.
Yagi spluttered on the spot with embarrassment, his gaunt face turning the same hue as the shiny red handle of the mug Shouta had in his hand.
“I…um…” Yagi answered, and Shouta could only keep grinning at his obvious discomfort with the whole situation.
Shouta was pretty sure All Might’s assistant just gave him the gift on a whim. It seemed more likely this ‘gift’ was actually from a fan of All Might for Yagi to give to the current ‘#1 Hero.’ He found the whole thing quite amusing, and very few things amused Shouta.
“Tell All Might next time he can just fund me a coffee instead.” Shouta’s monotone was already back, the smile already slipping from his features.
“Next time…” Yagi said, his words finally returning to him. “There won’t be a next time, I…he is already working with his management team to ensure it won’t happen again.” His features shifted from bafflement to fervent seriousness.
Shouta placed the mug into the gift bag and couldn’t help but think Yagi reminded him of someone in that moment.
Shouta gave Yagi a slight nod in farewell and promptly left the cafe. When he got to his apartment, he placed his new coffee mug in his cupboard, doubting he would ever use it since he never made coffee or tea at home, instead buying it while he was out patrolling.
Maybe an opportunity would arise where he could regift it back to All Might. The thought made Shouta smile despite himself.