You glanced at the cat-shaped clock hanging on the wall as you refilled the cats' bowls, the little furballs abandoning your customers for a while as they circled your feet, waiting for their snack. Two hours until closing time. Today you were particularly exhausted and just wanted to go home. You loved your job and your café, but sometimes it was just a lot of work. Just an hour ago you had an angry mother yelling at you, because you had the audacity to tell her spawns not to handle the cats so roughly. You sighed and stood up, the sound of content purrs filling the air from the food bowls. 

Just as you were heading towards the counter the bell let out a chime, signaling that  a new customer entered. You turned your head towards the door and mustered your friendliest smile, saying your usual welcome speech. Then you noticed the man standing in the doorway, your eyes widening in surprise. You recognised him from TV. 

The homeroom teacher of the famous UA class 1-A, Aizawa Shota. Granted, he looked more disheveled than on TV, but it was undoubtedly him. His hair wasn't put up in a ponytail, but it hung down loosely, framing his face and tired eyes. A simple black T-shirt, worn out deep blue jeans and scuffed shoes  completed his borderline-homeless look. Yet, even when he looked like he hadn't slept since he was born, he still had a certain charm about him that you couldn't ignore.

You quickened up your pace and stood behind the counter, greeting him with an another, now less forced, smile.

"Welcome to Paw café, what can I get you?"

"Hello," he responded, his voice low, husky and tired. He sounded exactly how you expected - like he had just spent his entire day yelling at unruly children. Which he had. "I'd like one latté. Lots of sugar." 

That was... unexpected. You thought for a second that you misheard his order, but decided not to question it, even though you had previously assumed he would order a plain black coffee. From your years if café experience, he just hit you like that kind of guy. Well, whatever.  You began preparing his drink. You noticed, while you were preparing the milk, that he decided to sit on one of the barstools right next to the counter. You guessed that he didn't want to be seen, in case anybody else happened to recognise him. He was a pro hero after all. 

The cats, the always-hungry fiends that they were, already finished their food and spread across the establishment once again. Your cats were allowed to go anywhere they wanted, except near the coffee machines as to not get hurt, but you made sure to teach every one of them that. You looked up from the coffee machine just in time to see a certain young black cat hop up on the counter and make a straight bee line towards Aizawa. You heard him mutter a quiet "Oh, hello there" as he reached forward to pet him, the cat immediately leaning into the pro hero's warm palm. You could swear you saw him smile a little as he ruffled the cat's fur.

By this time his order was done and you placed the warm cup in front of him.

"Here you go," you said with a smile, leaning your elbows on your side of the counter, "You know, Nero over here is our newest cat. He's still quite shy, so I'm quite pleasantly surpised he warmed up towards you so quickly."

Aizawa shot you a quick glance, before his never-blinking eyes fixated in the cat again.

"Really? Guess I just have a gift when it comes to cats," he said, his voice low and tired as usual, however you could detect a hint of amusement in it. You smiled and reached forward, scritching Nero under the chin. Suddenly Aizawa turned to you and asked, quite bluntly:

"You recognise me, don't you?"

You raised your eyebrows at turned your attention from Nero to him. 

"Uhhh, yeah," you said slowly, "how could you tell?"

He let out a quiet, gruff chuckle.

"I guess I have a gift of reading faces too. Important skill when you're a hero." He paused, then he continued, "Thank you, though."

You furrowed your brows, not understanding what he meant.

"For what?"

"Not making it into a big deal. How often do you see pro heroes swarmed with people demanding their attention? I kept myself away from the  media for that exact reason, but now that my class is famous, I am too." He sighed, "It's tiring being stopped on the street by someone everytime I go outside."

You nodded.

"I get that. Well, maybe I can't relate entirely because I'm not famous, but I get it. You know," you begun, looking at the tiny cat currently preoccupied with gently grooming Aizawa's fingers, "when I was younger I was being pushed into being a hero. I guess I do have an appropriate quirk for that, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go ahead with it. I thought I wouldn't be able to handle the immense pressure, you know?" He looked at you and nodded, sipping on his, in your opinion, too sweet drink. " So I decided to open up this place instead. And honestly? I think I made the right choice."

A comfortable silence surrounded you two, Nero contently purring in Aizawa's hands. Then  a thought occured to you.

"I was honestly quite surprised when I saw you walk in. This place is quite a ways from UA. But I guess that's exactly why you came, right? So you wouldn't accidentaly run into your students or some journalist waiting behind a corner?"

He laughed shortly.

"Yeah, you got me. Can you imagine one of my students finding out I go to cat cafés? I would never hear the end of it."

You giggled. You had to admit, he was quite cute when he laughed or showed that cheeky totoro-like grin. You talked some more about your respective jobs and the challenges that met you throughout the work week, the two of you sharing laughs more and more frequently. Then it occured to you that the two hours passed already and it was time for you to close up the shop.

"I'm sorry, but there's so much work I have to do after closing," you aplogised as he was getting up, but he just shook his head.

"It's alright, I still have some tests I need to grade anyway. It's uh... been nice talking to you. I'll make sure to come back soon," he said with a smile. You smiled right back at him and nodded. "I enjoyed it too."

You waved goodbye to him as he walked to the door, reaching down to pet Nero, who followed right behind him, one last time. When he left, Nero trotted back to the counter and jumped up, meowing at you. Except his meow was a bit muffled. You noticed he was carrying a folded up piece of paper.

"Where did you get this?" you muttered as you took it from his mouth. You unfolded it and gasped. It was a crudely scrawled number with an equally poorly drawn smiley and the initials A.S. You guessed he quickly wrote it down when you were occupied by another customer paying. 

You blushed a deep red and with a huge smile spread across your face you flipped your café's sign over to closed.