Cherry| 6 | Blossoms
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Y/N still felt like she had to be on her toes even after she'd guided Shouto and Midoriya towards a booth. Midoriya had made it more than obvious that he wanted to sit in the area she was working in, which meant she would have to be their waitress. Y/N would be a monster to say no to those seaweed green eyes that reminded her of a baby seal. She gave them the best seat she could find.
Surprisingly, Shouto hadn't spared her a glance. She'd thought he'd walk out or at least put up a fight over where he and Midoriya would sit. Maybe he had trouble being immune to Midoriya's puppy eyes too, Y/N knew she hadn't been. He'd politely given her his order when she'd come back with their water.
"Thank you," Midoriya said as she brought over their orders to their table. Midoriya has ordered a latte with extra cream and a slice of cheesecake, while Shouto had ordered an iced coffee and one of their tomato's panini sandwiches.
Midoriya had also told her he was ordering for one of their friends that was going to meet up with them—he'd asked for an americano and one of their strawberry parfaits— which only made Y/N wonder who'd it belong to.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Y/N smiled politely at both of them, even though she tried keeping her eyes more on the freckled boy than Shouto.
"This looks great, Y/N. We're good, thank you!" Midoriya's eyes shifted over to her hands that were clutching on to the black tray where she'd carried their order. His eyes shifted to the red bracelets on either side of her wrists that read Spider-Man. "Nice bracelets! I take it that you like Spider-Man?"
Y/N inadvertently clutched her right wrist with her left hand without thinking. Her left wrist was mostly healed, but her right one was still visibly bruised since her last encounter with Chisaki. She'd bought a packet of Marvel bracelets the night before simply to hide the purple marks until they dissipated.
"Oh, yes." Y/N gave a shaky laugh as she hid her wrists behind the black tray. "I thought they looked cool, so I bought them."
The simple sentence seemed to light Midoriya up, because his eyes grew wide and there was a twinkle in them.
"Really?" He asked her. "I'm a big fan of Captain America! There's no other hero like him."
Y/N's eyes widened for a second at his enthusiasm and energetic passion for the superhero, but then she smiled warmly at him. For a second, her bruises didn't seem as prominent as she'd thought. Remembering she had shoved an extra bracelet in her apron earlier in the morning, she dug in the front pocket and took it out. It was a simple red bracelet with Marvel written on it in white block letters.
She handed it to Midoriya. "Here, I have an extra."
"Really?" Midoriya was looking at it like it was gold itself. Y/N simply nodded at him. He was such a pure soul. "Thank you! That's so nice of you! Take a look, Todoroki-kun!"
Y/N couldn't help but feel her lips twinge upwards as she watched Midoriya gush over the bracelet, but they faltered when she noticed Shouto staring at her. His eyes were on her wrists she'd unconsciously unhidden when she'd dug into her apron to take out the bracelet. Y/N quickly hid them again.
Shouto looked at her, but she glanced away. His gaze made her unsteady, especially if he was looking at her wrists. That side of her life—she never wanted anyone to find out about it. Especially Shouto. He was the breath of fresh air she was trying to reach, and if he saw the bruises, it would mean her life at home and outside of Chisaki would clash together and she simply couldn't allow that.
"Hey, guys! Sorry, I didn't mean to make you wait that long! My lessons got delayed a bit."
Y/N almost sighed in relief when a girl with brown hair called out to Shouto and Midoriya. Taking a closer look at her as she took a seat, Y/N realized she'd seen her around UA campus before. She was always bright and happy and if Y/N had heard right, she was part of the Taekwondo club.
"Uraraka," Midoriya greeted as he scooted over for her to take a seat. "This is Y/N. She's a friend of Todoroki-Kun's."
Y/N didn't even have to look at Shouto to know he wasn't happy about Midoriya's comment, but alas he didn't say anything—thankfully for Y/N. She wouldn't be able to live down the embarrassment if he told him what really happened and how they knew each other.
"Hi," Uraraka greeted with a small wave of her hand. She was wearing a pair of work out pants and a long blue T-shirt. "I'm Ochako Uraraka."
Y/N smiled at her. "I'm Y/N. It's nice to meet you."
"I think I've seen you around before. Do you happen to go to UA?"
"Oh, yes." Y/N said, but glancing over at Shouto, she could tell he was waiting for her to leave. She needed to make her exit fast.
"Y/N!"
She almost cried out in relief when she turned to find Kaminari walking towards her. He was smiling, but by the slight twitch on his brow, she could tell he'd just had a tough customer.
"Kaminari," Y/N called out as the blonde approached her. "Is something wrong?"
"Sorry, Y/N." he said apologetically. "I didn't mean to leave you all by yourself."
"Oh, no." she told him. "I was just finishing up here."
"Ah, I see." Kaminari then stopped and looked over at the booth. "Midoriya! Uraraka-san, and Todoroki!"
"I didn't know you worked here, Kaminari-kun!" Midoriya answered back happily.
Oh, no. Y/N thought to herself. Glancing over at Shouto, she could tell by the way his eyes widened slightly, that he hadn't known either. His eyes moved to Y/N. Was he questioning why she worked with one of his friends? She hadn't even known! She broke eye contact first.
"It's only part time to help pay for classes," Kaminari shrugged his right shoulder and tucked his tray under his left arm. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We were trying to gather up and talk about a project we got grouped in together in one of our classes," Uraraka explained. "We all have Hizashi."
"We were trying to get Iida to join us too," Shouto added in, which really surprised Y/N. He hadn't spoken much since they'd gotten there. "But he had to go help his brother at his firm."
"We're gonna email him the information later," Midoriya continued.
"Hizashi can give some hard projects." Kaminari cringed visibly. "Especially the ones where you have to compose a random piece of music out of nowhere. It can be hard if you don't know anything about composing."
"I heard he's a DJ at some club at night," Uraka shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe that's why he assigns us random music projects when he's supposed to be teaching us history."
Y/N watched as they continued conversing with one another; even Shouto added into the conversation every once in a while. It was like Y/N wasn't even there, which really didn't bother her. Scratch that. She willingly made it so she wasn't added into the conversation. She could feel Shouto's perspicacious eyes on her every few seconds. She knew he was becoming impatient with her. Maybe he could understand that she was his waitress, but he wasn't about to let her be part of his friend group.
As soon as she could, Y/N made an excuse to head out and slip away from the conversation. It wasn't hard, the café was packed and before she knew it she was back to filling empty water cups and picking up discarded plates. It didn't take long before Kaminari joined her as well. They were working. They couldn't spend their whole time chatting with their customers.
It was a few minutes before closing time before she was able to take a breather. She'd gone to the restroom to wash her face and fix her hair. It had gone frizzy and her eyes reflected how tired she was. Still, all she had to do when she got home was pass out. It was almost ten at night, which meant Chisaki was probably already passed out in that disgusting couch of his.
Opening the door of the bathroom to head out, Y/N noticed one of her bracelets had turned inside out. Cursing herself mentally, she fixed it, but it caused her to lose focus and bump into someone.
"Oh, I'm sorry..." Her eyes widened when she saw who she'd run into. His stoic expression and gorgeous eyes were oh too familiar now to her. Even in a simple blue shirt and jeans, Shouto looked handsome.
"Just watch where you're walking," was all he said, but of course Y/N couldn't stop herself from speaking up.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I know you said to stay away but I couldn't tell Midoryia-kun no..." she trailed off as Shouto sighed.
"Look," he started. "It's not like you purposely got a job here because you knew I'd come to meet up with my friends. Unless you did?"
Y/N shook her head 'no' so fast she almost got whiplashed.
"It was inevitable," Shouto continued bristly. "That's all it is. A coincidence. Just stay out of my way from now on."
Y/N watched as he walked away: back to his friends. She wondered if she'd ever be the one Shouto walked to.
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