Nightfall (quirkless vigilante deku + dadzawa)

Ch5- the new barista

[word count (including this + authors note):1381]

3rd person POV

On the day that Natalie hired Izuku, he had to come up with a believable backstory to tell the woman. If he were to tell her the truth, the police would've been called within seconds. Izuku hated such hassles, there'd be interrogations, investigations and arrests to be made and he'd more than likely end up in the foster care system with a therapist to boot. Izuku believed he didn't need these things, other people need them more and he'd just be taking up their valuable time. Thankfully, Izuku is quite good at lying, everything needs an explanation every mark on his body, every expression. Many people had asked him about his scars before when he was still living on the street so he had an entire backstory pre made for moments like this.

In short, his story was that he had been in a villain attack that killed both of his parents last year when he was 12. He had lived alone on the streets surviving on scraps and that he missed his parents dearly.

The story often left some in tears, those were the times Izuku would have strangers buy him fresh food, those were the highlights of his life then.

Natalie was told the same story and that he didn't want to go into the foster care system. Natalie understood this, she had seen the reports online about the number of abuse cases in the foster care system, with 90% of quirkless children in the system being victims of it. She felt horrible for the boy, he shouldn't have to be scared of the system that was made to help kids like him which is why she ended up setting him up in the apartment above the cafe despite his protests. She had been planning to rent it out to someone but considering the area she likely wouldn't have gotten any tenants anyway plus what kind of employer would she be if she let her employees live out on the streets?

Izuku had also requested for her to call him by 'izuni' while he was working in the shop, saying he didn't want anyone to recognise him form the police reports. It seemed reasonable to Natalie agreed, just hoping to herself that she wouldn't slip up at any point.

Izuku's first day on the job

Izuku stood in the back of the shop twiddling his thumbs together anxiously as he waited for Natalie to arrive, having woken up and got himself ready and set up the kitchen in the back an hour earlier than his shift started. He wasn't exactly a people person and preferred to work in the back rather than on the counter, I mean making coffee was what he was hired to do right? Not to interact with people. However Natalie had insisted the day before he be on the counter while she was on break for today's shift. She believed it would be good for the boy to slowly get used to interacting with other people and it'd allow her to take a break in her shift for the first time in a longggggg time.

Natalie came in through the front door waving wildly at Izuku "Morning Izuku!" She called out to him. He raised his hand in response to her with a nervous grin. Natalie went and changed into her uniform before they opened up the shop, Izuku stayed in the back for the first hour and a half, making coffee after coffee non-stop. Unknowingly, he was creating somewhat of a fan base for himself as everyone raved about his coffee from the main room. Even a certain grumpy, homeless looking regular had a small grin on his face as he took a sip.

Natalie POV

After letting Izuku know I was going on break so he could take over the register, I quickly whipped myself up an iced coffee and sat myself down at Shouta's table. Shouta has been coming here ever since we first opened, since it was quite quiet over here and our coffee was as he said 'Not bad' which from him is a compliment. "Hey Natalie," Shouta mumbled sleepily as he sipped his coffee " Hey Shouta, you look as tired as ever," I replied with a giggle however he looked a little bit more irritated than usual. "Are you ok Sho?" I asked " You seem kinda out of it." He gave a small nod before replying "Yeah I'm fine, just some trouble at work With this new vigilante that's going round at night."

"We don't have any information on them yet other than that they showed up about 3 months ago. We don't even have a gender as all of the criminals and victims they saved never saw them, just a black blur." He continued. "That must suck." I replied sympathetically, he nodded " Yep and apparently because they tend to show up most during the time I patrol, I have to try and catch them while I'm out." Shota groaned and rested his head in the table. My poor sleep deprived friend.

"On a lighter note though, the coffee tastes better than usual." Shouta mentioned with a smug grin, " Oh yeah! We've got a new hire he's actually over there on the register, he's actually my nephew." I said as I pointed over at Izuku, taking in how flustered he looked as he put orders into the register. Maybe putting him up there on his first day wasn't the best idea, his hand was shaking as he put in orders and then went to prep them. "Sorry Sho, I've got to go I think he's struggling a bit so I'm going to let him go back to working in the back instead," I told Shouta as I walked over to Izuku before taking him into the back.

I reassured him that it was ok and it was my fault for putting him on the register so soon before taking over myself.

Shouta was intrigued by this magical barista, watching as Natalie lead him into the back of the shop, noticing him flinch slightly as she lightly grabbed his wrist. When Shouta had said his coffee tasted better he meant it was literal magic. What was the boy's secret? How was the coffee he made so amazing? He had to know, he had to find out what this magical barista did to make the coffee so spectacular. He definitely just wanted to know out of pure curiosity. Not so he could try to recreate it at home. Not so he could beg the boy to become his teacher and teach him these magical skills. Definitely not...

He was however at the same time pondering over the small flinch from earlier, most people wouldn't have even noticed it, let alone thought about it for this long. But as a pro hero, alarm bells were going off in his head and he could sense that something was off about this boy. But what was it? Shouta pondered over this as he finished off his coffee *cough* that contained absolutely nothing other than the coffee beans and water since he's an absolute sleep deprived menace *cough*...and how in the heck is his coffee so amazing?!

A/N: Another chapter finished!

Sorry this one's a bit shorter than usual, future chapters will all stick around the at least 1,500 ish word count or higher, I just wanted to get this part out of the way so we can move onto my favourite dadzawa action in the cafe and as a vigilante. I may end up rewriting chapters that are badly written like this in the future though.

Anyway, here's our chapterly? Reminder that none of my chapters are proof read yet and probably won't be until a later date so if you spot any mistakes feel free to point them out.

If anyone has any ideas for Izuku's vigilante name, I would be grateful if you shared them, I'm not very good with names. More information about him as a vigilante should come up in the next chapter (unless I for some reason decide to change it :)

Thank you to everyone who has been reading and I'll see you on the next update.

Until next time <3