Chapter Text
It was just supposed to be a job to get money before his final year at college during the summer. That’s all. After determining he didn’t want to have to work at that absolutely appalling restaurant he did last summer ever again, his mom suggested he get a job here. Although he didn’t think much before complying since he didn’t know it would be so frazzling .
People say a lot of things about working in retail — normally that it sucks. And it does, but they don’t mention all of the people you get to meet which can sometimes be a really good thing or make having the job worth it at all. So when Midoriya got hired, he wasn’t really expecting.. well anything that happened.
It was his first real day (meaning he got past all the orientations and all of the grueling and repetitive video training) and Midoriya finally got to do his job in the toy department. That wasn’t bad, right? He could be in clothes or one of the cart pushers outside. Or even worse a cashier .
His supervisor Takara found him when he clocked in that morning, she smiled politely at him and said that she would show him where his department manager was and introduce the two of them. Midoriya was a little nervous, but he was excited to actually get to do something and get to actually meet one of the people he would be working with.
Although, he quickly learned that this manager was going to be a lot more to handle than he originally anticipated. “Hey Bakugou!” The polite and sweet Takara shouted and a blonde who was stacking toys on a shelf turned to the two of them, he stood away from his and glanced over the both of them, something cold lingering in his expression. “This is the new addition to toys! Midoriya this is Bakugou Katsuki, he’s the one who is in charge of the toy department and you’ll be working under him for the time being. Due to a.. situation, he also is the manager for the outdoors department.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” the blonde said but his expression said otherwise, it seemed like he was ripping Midoriya apart just with his eyes and all Midoriya could think to do was to nervously bow to him but it wasn’t reciprocated. “What does he know how to do? Anything?”
“First day on the floor,” the woman hummed as she pat on Midoriya’s shoulder.
“So nothing,” Bakugou sighed. “Alright, I’ve got it from here. Thanks Takara.”
Midoriya wanted to beg for her not to leave but unfortunately she did and that left the two of them to their own devices. Midoriya stood very obviously nervous but very still, after all, Bakugou seemed aggressive, very aggressive. That would be fine if Midoriya had any kind of backbone and no form of anxiety whatsoever, but no, in the face of Bakugou Katsuki, he was left a mess.
Bakugou spent longer than Midoriya was comfortable with looking him up and down, almost like he was sizing him up. “What’d she say your name was? Midoriya?”
He nodded. “Midoriya Izuku.”
“Okay,” Bakugou replied, although he had asked, it now seemed like he was uninterested in whatever Midoriya had to say, it was almost as though everything Bakugou said betrayed what he was actually thinking. “So obviously this is toys, recently the store expanded so we also moved video games from the electronics to the toy department. Which fucking sucks cause you need a key to open the case and for some damn reason me and the general managers are the only ones who has one so if you need to open it, you’ll have to get me. If I’m not in toys or outdoors, chances are I’m still around but I’m gonna be a lot harder to find. You’ll get assigned a radio, and I’ll teach you how to use it so you can call me over.”
“O-Okay.” Midoriya nodded, he couldn’t believe how many times in the first bit of conversation he had with Bakugou that he had sworn. Wasn’t that.. unprofessional? Did he seriously not care?
“Normally when I start the day, I start in outdoors, so thank goodness for you, you’ll get to watch every step of working in the toy department,” Bakugou continued on. “Walk around, pick up the shit that doesn’t go here, go to the back shove it in the bin to be sent to the place it does belong and pick up the shit that belongs to you that another department found. Put it on the shelves. Simple, easy. Even a moron could do it. That’s how you should start each shift and make sure you do it again after lunch. Got it?”
Midoriya nodded. Despite Bakugou being seeming very hostile, at least he seemed knowledgeable but he wouldn’t exactly say.. helpful. All of his explanations seemed to be just a pile up of code Midoriya would have to decipher. “Alright,” Bakugou said. “There’s gonna be shit that’s gonna confuse you. Some things teeter on being in one department or another. For instance, some bikes are considered outdoors and other bikes are considered toys. All sport related items are in outdoors as well.”
“And comes the worst part: people asking you where shit is.”
“Why is that the worst?” Midoriya asked.
“For me? It’s not, for you? It is. Because you don’t know where a single fucking thing is.” Bakugou chuckled in a way that made Midoriya shift nervously, it felt so condescending, so mean . “Try not to radio where it is too often, try and remember where things go and if you can’t find it ask someone else. Like any of us that are in your department, so me, or one of the other two losers.”
“Who are the other two?” Midoriya asked.
“Well there’s Ashido, and then there’s Kouda but chances are Ashido will be out back building the bikes and Kouda doesn’t talk much. So I guess I’m one of the few people you can ask.” Bakugou answered, and seemed to annoy himself with that thought. “However, if you really need you can ask the next door losers in outdoors. Kirishima and Satou. They’re kinda helpful, I guess. And if that doesn’t work, Uraraka is the other next door in health and beauty with Aoyama. Uraraka is the manager over there, she’s annoying but she knows enough to be helpful.”
Midoriya nodded, he felt like that was a lot of what he did here — nod, nod, nod.
“Any questions so far?” Bakugou asked and before Midoriya could even respond Bakugou continued talking. “Great, we have shit to do so let’s fucking get to it.”
Midoriya would be a liar if he said he didn’t feel weird about having his manager cuss so much especially since it was in a section where a lot of children could be running around. It was early enough in the day that maybe he could get away with it, but it made Midoriya a little hesitant nonetheless. In fact, everything about Bakugou seemed to make him a little hesitant.
What also seemed to surprise Midoriya was how young Bakugou looked. All of the people who were in charge weren’t old by any means, but none of them stood the testament to how young Bakugou seemed to be. Midoriya figured that he couldn’t be much older.
Either way, he walked through the aisles, grabbing things that didn’t belong and practically throwing them to Midoriya who sometimes caught them, sometimes didn’t. When they finished walking through, Bakugou led him to the back with both of their arms full to put the things away that didn’t belong to them. Bakugou didn’t explain much, muttered a little bit about how he would learn where things went and threw it into the bins himself.
Bakugou walked over to the one labeled ‘toys’ and pulled out a couple of things before handing them to Midoriya.
“Don’t forget this!” Midoriya turned his head to see a brunette smiling wide at the both of them, ringing the bell of the bicycle in her grips. “Found it near my soap!”
“The fuck is a bike doing with the soaps..” Bakugou grumbled as he grabbed a hold of the handle bars. “Fuck it, I’m riding it out.”
“It’s a children’s bike!”
“I’ll make it work,” Bakugou replied before remembering that Midoriya was beside him. “Oh shit, right. Uraraka this is Midoriya, Midoriya this is the manager of health and beauty, Uraraka.”
“Nice to meet you!” Uraraka smiled and waved. “Don’t forget to have him take his breaks, Bakugou, we nearly got our necks wrung when Ashido didn’t take hers for the first week!”
“Not my fault!” Bakugou huffed. “That girl just wants to keep fucking working all the damn time.”
“Oh like you’re one to talk,” Uraraka rolled her eyes before turning to Midoriya with a smile. “Ashido is great, you’ll like her. Aoyama is waiting for me though, so I’ll see you out there in the field!”
“So you’re gonna.. ride the bike?” Midoriya asked after watching Uraraka leave and was now beginning to wish he was placed in that department. How could one manager be so friendly and the other be so hostile?
“Yep.” Bakugou replied before sitting down on the white seat of the pink, sparkly, children’s bike and made his way through the nearby double doors, ringing the bell. Midoriya sighed as he rushed to keep up with him. At least this job would be interesting if anything. Or maybe Bakugou was hazing Midoriya, that was the only explanation in the nervous new employee’s mind. That this was all just some game, or maybe that was a hope so after some time things would be better.
Midoriya met Bakugou back at the bike rack and watched him push it up onto the top shelf of bikes before turning back to Midoriya, he removed the items from his grips and began to place them in their correct locations before bringing up their next task. “Alright, let’s go get stock.”
“Huh?” Midoriya mumbled.
“We bring new shit from the back to the front.”
“Oh.”
“So let’s fucking go.” Bakugou continued on and Midoriya followed alongside him. Bakugou didn’t walk super fast, but his strides were longer and he was taller than Midoriya, so it made Midoriya have to hustle a little to keep up with him.
People greeted Bakugou as they walked by, he gave a half-assed hello at them until they reached the back and Bakugou grabbed a cart before walking to a stack of boxes. “See this label?” Bakugou pointed at the purple label on the box. “This tells you what department it goes in, this color signifies it is for the toy department. The number is like uh.. sub department. So forty-seven is for board games. Grab a box and throw it on the cart, half pint.”
Midoriya didn’t respond although he wanted to grumble at the nickname, Instead, he only grabbed a box and helped Bakugou fill up the cart, when it was definitely past full, Bakugou offered something up. “Would you like to push it?”
Midoriya glanced at the cart and all of its boxes, he was worried it would topple over and he wouldn’t be able to see past the boxes but he wanted to prove that he was a go-getter. So he grabbed a hold of the cart and immediately when he pushed it forward he hit another box and stumbled forward as Bakugou reached out to keep things from tumbling off.
And of course, Bakugou laughed at him, making Midoriya’s face turn red as Bakugou pushed him back and grabbed onto the cart himself before he began to push it. They didn’t get very far though, not even out of the back rooms before they had to stop again.
“Hey Bakugou!” Midoriya watched as a shorter, purple haired girl rushed towards them. She seemed out of breath and nervous, and Bakugou stopped and watched her, but didn’t say anything until after she spoke again. “We-We could really use your help in electronics.”
“What fucking for?” Bakugou sighed.
“You have to see it.” She sighed. “Please? We could really use your help.”
“I have him,” Bakugou pointed his thumb to a nervous Midoriya. “And I don’t fucking know where Ashido is, so there’s no one there to help him. He’ll die out there on his own.”
“W-What?” Midoriya muttered but the two continued their conversation.
“Listen, the ink has exploded.”
“Fuck, not again.”
“On the televisions.”
Bakugou sighed. “I’m not cleaning it, Jirou.”
“Someone needs to be at the desk and Kaminari won’t be here for three more hours!” Jirou continued on, pleading with Bakugou and hoped he would be willing to help her out.
“Alright, fine, fuck,” Bakugou sighed. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you so much,” Jirou sighed before she hurried back out. Not wasting a breath talking to Midoriya.
Bakugou sighed deeply before he continued pushing on the cart. “Alright listen up,” Bakugou said and Midoriya watched nervously while they hurried back out to the toy department. “I’m going to go help out those losers, but I will show you how to do this before I go. I’ll radio to see if I can find Ashido, and I’ll let Kirishima know that you’re over here so he shouldn’t go far and maybe should go introduce himself like a polite employee.” Oh the irony .
“Okay,” Midoriya answered. He was trying to maintain calm despite the fact that he didn’t like this at all; it felt like he was going to be thrown to the dogs on his first day. He didn’t know what he was doing, and he doubted that one explanation from Bakugou was going to immediately make that happen, considering he knew that Bakugou wouldn’t wait to figure out if Midoriya actually understood anything.
“Also, side note, if anyone asks we do not have any fucking All Might Lego sets, mix up at the company who sends them to us, won’t have any for a couple of weeks.” Bakugou said. “Someone gives you a hard time about it, send them my way.”
“Okay,” Midoriya said for a second time.
So Bakugou dragged the cart to an area they could work from and pulled a box off of it. “You can have my shit cause you’ll probably have more use for it than I will.”
“Your.. what..?”
Bakugou huffed and handed him a box cutter and then some sort of rectangular electronic device. “Cut the boxes open with these, please don’t fucking cut yourself, use this to scan the items and see where they go, if there isn’t a spot for them, bring them back and put them over here and I’ll deal with it later. Got it?”
“S-Sure.” Midoriya nodded and Bakugou stood there for a minute looking at him.
“You don’t fucking get it, do you?” Bakugou sighed.
“I-I kinda get it..”
“Okay,” Bakugou huffed. “Take the magical device, press this button to scan the barcode on the item, it tells you where it goes, take it there, and put it there. It will tell you what aisle it goes on and the series of shelving it belongs to at the top. Okay?”
Midoriya nodded again. “Okay.”
“Good take this shit,” Bakugou pushed the things to Midoriya. “I will be back in a couple of hours, before I get back make sure to take one of your fifteen minute breaks. Go whenever you feel like, I don’t care.”
Midoriya went to answer him but he was already speeding off towards the electronics department. Midoriya let out a sigh as he looked down at his hands and back at the rather intimidating stack of boxes. He was already feeling pretty defeated and it was just the first day. It wasn’t really a great feeling to have.
He slid a box off the cart and opened it up, looked at the things inside and tried to do what Bakugou said; find where it went on the shelf. He glanced up and down and when he found it, he smiled and began to place it there.
He had done a couple of boxes, each one feeling like a victory, when another worker finally saw him. “Hey!” He shouted and Midoriya jumped, thinking he might be in trouble and turned his head to see someone with flaming red hair walking towards him. “You’re Bakugou’s newest victim, huh?”
“Vi-Victim!?”
“Just messin’ with you!” He laughed. “I’m Kirishima, I was told to come visit you. You seem nervous though, dude.”
Midoriya glanced around him and let out a sigh. “I guess it’s a little much.”
“Yeah, when Kaminari gets here, Bakugou will come back, he wouldn’t intentionally leave a newbie struggling over here by himself!” Kirishima smiled as he clapped Midoriya on he back. “If you need anything though, I’m just a hop over, in Bakugou’s other department.”
“Why is he the manager of two departments?” Midoriya asked. “Is it really that understaffed?”
“Well, something else happened with the last manager, and Bakugou just so happened to step in.” Kirishima shrugged. “Bakugou works harder than anyone else I know, he won’t admit it, but he does work incredibly hard. I can barely get him to hang out with us outside of work. However, there’s a really interesting legend in this store about him.”
Midoriya wanted to roll his eyes, but he was genuinely curious. “What is it?”
Kirishima looked around, as though he was serious and then leaned towards Midoriya before whispering. “Bakugou isn’t human. No one has ever seen him take a break or take lunch. I’ve never seen him eat and the only time I have ever seen him drink is when we go out on Fridays. On top of all of that, it feels like he’s always here. Like he’s here from opening until closing. He probably isn’t, but I don’t know. Sometimes when I come into outdoors, most of it is already done because Bakugou has been there.”
“What? That’s insane,” Midoriya shook his head. “There’s no way he’s allowed to work that much though, because shouldn’t he be making a lot of overtime?”
“I don’t know, I don’t do the numbers.” Kirishima answered. “He works hard though and he’s gonna work you hard.”
“Oh good..” Midoriya sighed. “How does he do it?”
“He’s not human dude,” Kirishima said again before bursting into a fit of laughter. “Ah your face! I’m just joking with you, Bakugou is definitely human.” Midoriya sighed in somewhat relief and also somewhat annoyance at Kirishima’s teasing, but before Kirishima could comfort him in any way, his radio began to go off.
“Kirishima come help me with the canoes.” The voice came out.
“Yep.” Kirishima responded into the device. “Well that’s my cue, let me know if you need anything else, Midoriya!”
“Okay,” Midoriya smiled nervously. When Kirishima was out of shot he let out another sigh and jumped when he felt a tap on his slumped shoulder. He turned around and saw someone standing behind him, smiling just as nervously as he was. “Oh.. Hi, are you Kouda?”
He nodded his head. He pointed at Midoriya with one hand and then gave a thumbs up with another, tilting his head to solidify the fact that he was asking a question. “Oh, am I doing okay?” Kouda nodded. “Yeah, I’m doing alright.” Midoriya answered as he looked around him. “It’s just.. a little overwhelming I guess, to be thrown right into the middle of everything. Bakugou had to go and help out electronics so it leaves just us here. And I suppose Ashido, people keep talking about her but I haven’t seen her at all. Do you know where she is?”
Kouda shook his head and pointed to the watch on his wrist. Midoriya tried to decipher it the best he could. “Time..” Midoriya mumbled. “Something about time?”
Kouda nodded once more, made an ‘x’ with two of his fingers and then settled them back onto the watch. “X time..” Midoriya mumbled. “No time.. Not time?” Kouda nodded his head. “Is it not time for her to be here?”
Kouda was all smiles, normally it took people a lot longer to understand him, but Midoriya seemed smart enough that it only took him a few moments and that was enough to make Kouda happy. “Do you know what time she gets here?”
Kouda thought about it, and then raised up all of his ten fingers. “Ten?” Kouda shrugged. “So you think that maybe she’ll be here at ten?” And he was answered with a nod.
“That’s in about forty-five minutes, so I guess she’ll be here before Bakugou gets back.” Midoriya hummed. “Well, I guess I better keep going then, I’m sure I can figure this all out. If not.. Well that’s okay too.”
Kouda smiled and waved goodbye to Midoriya before returning to another aisle. Despite being quiet, Midoriya found that Kouda was calming and he liked his presence overall. He was hoping he would like his other coworker just as much.
After about an hour passed, a pink haired girl made her way into the aisle where Midoriya was standing and she let out a gasp before running over. “Hey!” She shouted and it made Midoriya drop everything he was holding. “Oh shit, sorry dude!”
Midoriya watched as the girl helped him pick things up off the ground, and noticed how positive her energy seemed to be. “Didn’t mean to scare ya! You’re Midoriya right?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool, I’m Ashido! Looks like we’ll get to be working together!” Ashido smiled as she began to put the things in their proper space without having to think about it too much. “So Bakugou just ditched ya, huh?”
“I-I wouldn’t say that he ditched me ―”
“Nah I get it!” Ashido hummed. “I already talked to him, he told me you might need some help but it looks like you’re doing a really good job so far!”
Midoriya blinked a few times but smiled nonetheless, he was amazed that Ashido wasn’t in charge because her energy seemed so much more positive than Bakugou’s. It seemed like everything about her was so much more.. welcoming and lively and that made Midoriya feel at ease with the entire situation. On top of that, she sounded very encouraging which Midoriya honestly needed at this point.
“I have a killer amount of bikes to put together,” Ashido whined. “So when you finish bringing out the stuff you need to, if Bakugou isn’t back yet, come and see me out back! I’ll let you take one of my babies for a spin!”
“Okay,” Midoriya laughed a little and Ashido clapped him on the back before walking off. Too bad that she wouldn’t spend more time out here with him, between her and Kouda it could be a really good time, but unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be his reality.
Midoriya made sure he took his short break while Bakugou was away, he sat in the back room where there were a few tables, vending machines, a kitchenette and a television on the opposite wall that was currently playing a show that Midoriya didn’t know. He held a cold red can in his clammy hands and glanced down at it, frowning slightly as he took a deep breath.
“Hey! New guy,” Midoriya lifted his head up to see a couple of people situating themselves at the other side of the table. He stared at the two smiling at him for a mere moment. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Ojiro. This is Hagakure.”
“Hi, I’m Midoriya.” The green-haired boy smiled at the both of them and noted how polite and friendly they felt.
“It’s cool to meet you! What department are you in?” Hagakure asked.
“Toys.”
“Oh..” The two turned to each other with a rather solemn look on both of their faces before shifting them into nervous smiles that didn’t help Midoriya’s nerves at all.
“Well.. Good luck with Bakugou,” Ojiro laughed, it was clearly forced and Midoriya picked up on that, sinking lower into his seat. “He’s.. a little rough around the edges.”
“At least Ashido will be in your department, she’s cool!” Hagakure tried to lessen the tension of the situation. “Look Bakugou is fine, if you’re able to get on his good side. If he doesn’t like you though, you’ll know it. He doesn’t really hold anything back, some might say he’s a little explosive.”
“Amazing that he works in toys then,” Midoriya sighed. “Being around the little kids and all, it doesn’t sound like he has any patience.”
“Actually,” Ojiro began. “Bakugou is really good with the kids.”
Midoriya’s eyes widened and he was tempted to spit out the drink he poured into his mouth. He couldn’t believe someone with a face of stone and a tone that made you shiver like Bakugou Katsuki would be good with children.
“Parents leave compliments on the forms all the time about Bakugou,” Hagakure continued on. “They say he’s amazing with their kids and super helpful to get them what they need. However, he hates it when other employees see him, tells them to fuck off afterwards. In fact, I think we’ve been counting and Ashido is winning with the amount of ‘fuck off’s she has received.”
“Eighty-seven.” Ojiro nodded. “This week.”
“I-It’s only Tuesday!?”
“Yeah so in two days, he’s told her to fuck off eighty-seven times.” Hagakure laughed. “Who knows? Maybe Midoriya can beat the record.”
Midoriya sighed, and soon after this little ‘pep talk’ saw himself back to the toy department. Bakugou hadn’t returned yet, and Kouda wasn’t around either. He knew that Ashido was in the back fixing up bikes and sometimes she rode past him with a new bike she had just finished. Otherwise, he was by himself, stocking shelves.
Everything was going alright, customers didn’t bother Midoriya too much and when they asked him where things were, he thankfully knew where to direct them. However, it wasn’t until a woman walked up and asked him about the one thing Bakugou said they didn’t have.
Those damned All Might Lego sets.
“Oh,” Midoriya said. “We currently don’t have any.”
The woman looked at him for a minute, she was hesitant but she spoke again. “What do you mean, you don’t have them?”
“Exactly that,” Midoriya tried to smile politely through his nerves. “Unfortunately the company who normally sends them to us had a mix up, and so we don’t have in stock.”
“You have any in the back?”
“..No.”
“This is ridiculous,” the woman hissed. “You have a full aisle of Legos and not a single All Might Lego set.” Midoriya shook his head, and he tried to apologize but the woman blew up. “What an incompetent.. Ugh, where the hell is your manager!? Can’t believe this complete and utter bullshit!”
Midoriya’s face was a deep red, and he felt himself taking a step back despite how frozen he felt. He couldn’t believe that he was going to get yelled at just because something out of his control. He also couldn’t believe how quick she was to explode, what could she possibly need them for so badly?
“I.. I-It’s just me here..” Midoriya mumbled.
“Well find someone else who can actually help me!” She shouted. “I can’t believe that they would hire just anyone! I’ll get you fired for this, you idiotic boy.”
Midoriya was stunned, he didn’t do a single thing but for some reason he thought he might actually get fired, as though she wasn’t lying at all. However, it was at this point that Bakugou returned from the electronics department and noticed the tension between the woman yelling and Midoriya being backed up against a shelf. Thankfully, he was just in time to lend a hand.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Bakugou asked as he approached the two, his tone was calm but once again it didn’t match the expression on his face.
“I want to see a manager.”
“That’s what I am.” Bakugou replied. “What’s the issue?”
“Your idiotic employee said he can’t help me, he says that you’re all out of the All Might Lego sets and I have a hard time believing that with an entire aisle of those stupid toys that you have none! Seems like a lie to keep himself from doing extra work.” She glared at Midoriya who looked like he might break down at any point. He was glancing at the ground and he was fisting his pants while he tried to ignore what she was saying about him.
“He’s right,” Bakugou replied, clearly uninterested in this woman’s tone. “We had an issue with our supplier, and we don’t have any at the moment. If you want you can go to the service desk and they’ll call you when they get restocked but I really can’t help you as of right now. There’s no good reason to come and yell at our employees for a mistake no one in our facility made.”
The woman seemed a little speechless, definitely red with anger, but she scoffed, pushing past Midoriya and knocking him against the shelf as she walked away. Bakugou glared at the back of her, but didn’t give chase, he knew better than that.
Midoriya bumping into the shelf knocked a few things down and after a beat, Bakugou picked them up, setting them back down before glancing at Midoriya. “Are you gonna cry?” He asked.
“N-No.” Midoriya shook his head, he was obviously lying but he felt embarrassed for being upset just because someone he didn’t know was yelling at him, especially since he’d never see her again. Bakugou knew it too, he had seen Ashido cry and Kouda cry because an angry customer yelled at them, and he had seen it happen with other people too. So he let out a sigh as Midoriya began to sniffle and wipe at his eyes.
“Come on.” Bakugou groaned before he dug his hands inside his pockets and began to walk though the store. Many of the employees and customers stopped and looked when they saw Midoriya, he looked a mess, but Bakugou didn’t give any sign that they were interest in conversing about it and Midoriya thought it was best to keep his head down altogether to avoid the gazes he was receiving.
When they walked through the back doors, Bakugou lead him a little farther until he unlocked a door and opened it up before gesturing Midoriya to go inside. He walked in himself, flipped the sign around that labeled the office as being in use, and shut the door behind him.
There was a large desk in the tiny room, and a computer sat on the that very empty desk. There were four chairs in the room, one pressed against the far wall, two in front of the desk and then the one special chair behind it. In the corner was a tall blue filing cabinet and Midoriya watched as Bakugou settled himself behind the desk before gesturing Midoriya to sit.
“You have an office?” He sniffled.
“It’s a shared office among a few of the managers.” Bakugou answered as he leaned back in the chair. “Tell me what happened.”
“I-I just told her what you told me,” Midoriya said as he began to pull at his shirt despite the fact that he was untucking it from his pants. “And sh-she got really angry really fast, and she st-started yelling and..” Midoriya cut himself off when he felt the tears starting to slip out of his eyes and down his freckled cheeks. He was wiping them away to the best of his ability, and raised his eyes to see Bakugou’s face.
Bakugou looked unamused at best. His eyes were narrowed like he was disinterested, but the reality of the situation was that Midoriya just had no idea how to read any of his emotions.
“Am.. Am I going to get in trouble..?” Midoriya mumbled.
“Tch, trouble? For what?” Bakugou scoffed. “No, you won’t get in trouble, I brought you in here so you could cry without anyone saying anything to you. So get it out of your system. It’s where I bring all employees who start crying, only unfortunate part is that I have to stay here with you. I still feel like this is better than crying out there or in the break room though. That doesn’t mean I wanna sit here for fucking hours and watch you cry though.”
“Mhm.” Midoriya sniffled and began to let his tears flow more down his face but tried to keep his hiccuping to a minimum.
“It’s not your fault, she’s just a bitch,” Bakugou said and Midoriya raised his eyes to meet Bakugou’s. “You meet them sometimes, customers here can be fucking animals.”
It was only now, observing Bakugou’s expression and words, that Midoriya realized that Bakugou wasn’t angry with him, but rather he was angry with the fact that a customer had been so rude to Midoriya. It made the greenette feel a little better about the entirety of the situation, to think that Bakugou actually did have some common decency deep down to not blame Midoriya for this stupid mistake outside of anyone’s control.
They sat there for a few minutes before Bakugou’s radio began asking for him. He sighed as he pulled it away from his side and held it up. “What?”
“We could use your help in outdoors, please?”
“I can’t right now,” Bakugou answered. “I’m doing something important, what’s the issue Kirishima?”
“The canoes all fell and I don’t know where Satou went.” Kirishima answered.
“Go find Testutestu, he should be around.” Bakugou answered and set the radio down.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t ―”
“Stay here until you’re ready,” Bakugou instructed him. “Don’t rush it, I’m not worried about shitty hair not being able to get canoes on a rack by himself. He’ll figure it out one way or another.”
“O..Okay.” Midoriya mumbled.
For the next ten minutes that they were there, Bakugou was called on the radio twice more but didn’t bother to go and help anyone else. Midoriya finally felt ready to leave and Bakugou stood, opened the door for him and locked it on his way out. “Alright,” Bakugou sighed. “Let’s go get some work done. Gotta bad feeling like toys is gonna be a shit show.”
“Hey guys!” Ashido shouted from her position at the bike assembly. “Oh, Midoriya! Is everything okay?” He nodded his head and she smiled at him. “Do you wanna ride this bike out for me? I just gotta bolt the seat and it’ll be done! If you take it, it’ll save me time.”
“O-Okay.” Midoriya nodded.
“Sweet!” Ashido laughed before finishing up on the bike.
“So Ashido,” Bakugou said. “How much longer do you have?”
“Got four more bikes, Bakugou!” Ashido hummed. “After that, I’m gonna head out onto the floor, so you can help Kiri in outdoors at that point. Should only take me forty more minutes. Takes me about ten minutes per these kind of bikes.”
“Only ten minutes to put a bike together?” Midoriya asked, already sounding amazed.
“Well some take longer, depends on the brand and size and how they’re given to us.” Ashido answered. “I like to save the easy ones so I can just crank ‘em out at the end! Oh! I still have to catch my lunch though.”
“When you finish the bikes, come find me before going on lunch.” Bakugou instructed as she slid the bike to Midoriya. “Ride it on out, Midoriya.”
“Okay.” Midoriya replied before sitting on the bike that was oddly a good size for him despite being a girly blue-sparkly thing. He rode it through the store to the rack and realized very early on that he didn’t think he was going to be able to put it up on the second section. While he thought about how he was going to put it up there, Bakugou arrived at the rack and smirked.
“Too short or not strong enough?” He taunted as he took the bike from Midoriya and pushed it up onto the top rack. Midoriya didn’t answer, he didn’t need to, instead Bakugou walked through the aisle and Midoriya was following shortly behind.
“When Ashido shows up, I’m gonna have you take your lunch break with her so that you can have someone familiar while in the break room.” Bakugou said and watched Midoriya nod his head before turning to the shelves and rearranging the products on them. “Will you do the shelves behind me?”
“Sure.” Midoriya nodded and did just that.
He turned for a moment to turn look at Bakugou, notice how his appearance didn’t make him seem like the guy to willing put on those black work pants and the violently red polo, but the black pants made his figure look nice and the red even looked good on him unlike where it made Midoriya look like Christmas vomited on him.
Bakugou noticed Midoriya looking at him and turned to face him, said nothing for a moment and then threw a hand up. “Do you need something?” Bakugou walked over to the shelves that Midoriya was working on and took the thing out of his hand and placed it on the highest shelf. “You’re not that short, you can reach that shelf, just stand on your toes.” Midoriya nodded his head and watched Bakugou walk back but couldn’t help how badly he was blushing.
Ashido took Midoriya on lunch with her, per request, and the two sat across from each other and it was nice since Ashido was nothing but helpful and supportive smiles. “Oh hey! It’s Ashido and.. Oh I don’t know you.” A laugh was heard and the two turned to wave at the others entering the room.
“Sero! Todoroki!” Ashido smiled. “Come sit with us!”
“Okay,” the black haired man answered as he took the seat beside Ashido and the half-white half-red haired one placed himself next to Midoriya without saying a word.
“This is Midoriya, he’s in toys with me!” Ashido hummed happily. “Midoriya, this is Sero, he works in hardware and this is Todoroki, he’s the manager in home and furniture.”
“It’s great to meet you, so toys, huh? How’s that going for you?” Sero asked.
“He was crying earlier,” Ashido said and Midoriya’s eyes widened. “Sorry, your eyes were all red and it was obvious.”
“Did Bakugou make you cry already?” It was the first thing Todoroki said and his voice came gentle and deep.
“N-No..” Midoriya mumbled, he felt dumb for crying at all, but maybe having Bakugou as a manager would induce that. “A lady started yelling at me.”
“Is it because of those stupid Lego sets?” Ashido sighed. “Someone came in yesterday and started yelling at Kouda! I had to chase them off, and then I got yelled at for being disrespectful by Bakugou, but he told me he understood so I wouldn’t get in any trouble this time.”
“Ashido is going to get fired for physically fighting a customer.” Sero chuckled.
“And you know I’m gonna win!”
“If you didn’t then I’d be disappointed.”
As the two laughed back and forth, Todoroki slurped his soba before speaking to Midoriya. “You’ll do well being with Bakugou, don’t worry about what everyone else tells you.”
“H-Huh..?” Midoriya mumbled.
“He’s aggressive and probably a little intimidating, but he’s a good boss.” Todoroki answered. “I used to work in electronics with him. Don’t get on his bad side though, or you’re going to be requesting a department transfer early on. That’s what Mineta did.”
“Yeah but Mineta really pushed Bakugou’s buttons,” Ashido responded, tuning into the end of the conversation. “Foodstuffs is probably where he’s better off, safe from Bakugou knocking some sense into him. I doubt something like that will happen to Midoriya!”
Midoriya smiled to Ashido, he was really appreciative of how nice she was to him. It made him happy to think that at work he had an ally, and in his department was even better. After all, if all people would be as crazy as that other woman, then he would need the moral support Ashido would provide.
“So,” Midoriya turned to Todoroki. “What’s home and furniture like?”
“Makes me wanna sleep,” Todoroki answered. “The beds look comfy, sometimes I sit in the chairs and stuff when there’s not a whole lot of people in the store.” Midoriya smiled a little bit, he thought it would be a sight to see Todoroki sleeping in one of the short display beds laid on the floor.
“And hardware?” Midoriya turned to Sero.
“When Tetsutetsu isn’t messing up the paint mixer, it’s cool.” Sero chuckled. “I swear, the amount of messes I have cleaned up in the past two weeks. That damn new system they got, Tetsutetsu just can’t get a handle on it.”
“When Sero started working in hardware he knocked a bunch of paint cans off the shelf and they exploded all over the place.” Ashido laughed.
“Yeah, completely covered Iida. Boy, he was not happy.”
“Who’s Iida?” Midoriya asked.
“Iida works up front, he basically oversees the cashiers and helps them out, sometimes he helps out in customer service.” Todoroki answered. “You probably won’t see a whole lot of him.”
“He’s nice, intense though.” Ashido hummed.
“So.. Kinda like Bakugou?”
“I wouldn’t use nice to describe Bakugou,” Sero shook his head, laughing to himself.
“He’s a good boss,” Ashido rolled her eyes. “He’s a different kind of nice and intense than Bakugou is. So no, they’re not really similar at all.”
“Hm,” Midoriya hummed. Just another mystery to what kind of person Bakugou actually was since it was so hard to tell what his work style was representing in him morally.
Midoriya headed back to the toy department after his lunch was over and found himself searching for Bakugou when he saw him crouched at the eye level of a small boy. “This one is the best, I can guarantee it.” Bakugou pointed at the toy he was holding. “See? It makes all those cool noises and you’ll be able to show it off to all your friends!”
The small boy started laughing and looked back at it, reaching a small finger through the hole to push a button. “You know, besides this one we do have another one. I don’t know if you’ll find that one more cool, but it’s worth it to see it.”
“Okay mister!” The boy replied and Bakugou moved over, grabbed a toy from the very back of the shelf and held it out. “Whoa! This one is cool too!”
“Yeah and all of the noises are different, listen,” Bakugou replied and managed to get his finger through the hole to poke the red button on the other side. A different noise came out of it and the boy looked between the two of them. “It’s a tough choice, but I know that you can make it!”
“What do you think?” The child asked Bakugou who pursed his lips together in thought. “Which one is your favorite?”
“I like the one with the green, personally,” Bakugou answered. “They both can kick some serious bad-guy butt, though.” The child gasped at Bakugou’s usage of ‘butt’ and Midoriya was surprised that Bakugou could go without swearing for so long.
“I’ll get the green one then since that one is your favorite!” The child smiled. “Here, I’ll put this one back for you.”
“Oh thank you so much.” Bakugou smiled. “That just made my job so much easier.” Despite the fact that the child put it in the wrong spot, Bakugou didn’t point it out or even move to fix it.
“Thank you for your help!” The boy giggled as he held the toy close to his chest.
“Sure thing,” Bakugou hummed as he ruffled the kids hair and stood up, he met eyes with the parents who thanked him and he thanked them in return before bidding them farewell and noticed Midoriya was standing there, watching with a small smile across his face.
“The fuck are you looking at?” Bakugou growled and immediately resumed a very scary looking face that made the smile fade from Midoriya’s face and become a little more apprehensive.
“Y-You just seemed.. Really nice with that boy..” Midoriya mumbled and Bakugou scoffed before turning his blushing face away.
“Well come on, if you’re back we have some work to do.” Bakugou grumbled as he moved the toy back into the correct spot, practically slamming it down. “I have to go help shitty hair with something in outdoors, but Ashido and Kouda are both around so you shouldn’t need my help. I’m gonna need to take the shit I gave you earlier though.”
“Oh.. Sure.” Midoriya nodded.
“Do you work tomorrow?” Bakugou asked and Midoriya nodded. “Alright, I’ll set you up with your own shit when you come in. Make sure you find me somewhere in this damn building.”
Bakugou pushed past Midoriya without another word and it made Midoriya shake his head, confused at how fast Bakugou was able to switch from sweet to hostile and wondered which side of him was who he actually was. Everyone made him out to be such a bad guy, but at the same time, always mentioned how good he was as well.
It was confusing to say the least.
Ashido said hi to Midoriya whenever she passed him, asked him if he needed anything and Bakugou didn’t return for two hours. At that point, his pants were covered in dirt and he looked a little exhausted but he just went back to maintaining the shelves and restocking items as he went along barely giving Midoriya even a glance.
Midoriya would turn to see Bakugou every now and again, but just tried to go with it and do his own thing. Sometimes a customer or Ashido would interrupt Bakugou for a video game out of the locked case, and he would return a few minutes later. Sometimes people asked Midoriya where things were and even if they weren’t in the same space, Bakugou would drop in like he had some otherworldly senses that Midoriya was floundering but always gave him a few seconds to see if he knew on his own.
Eventually though, it was five, which mean that Midoriya could head home. He didn’t know how to go about it though, how to walk up to Bakugou and ask if he was allowed to leave but he figured he would, or rather, he needed to. “Hey Bakugou?”
“Hm?” Bakugou said without even turning to look at him.
“It’s five, can I leave?” Midoriya asked. Bakugou glanced at the smartwatch on his wrist.
“Yeah sure,” Bakugou answered. “See you tomorrow if you’ve decided you don’t want to quit by then.”
“Yeah, have a good night,” Midoriya smiled politely and Bakugou literally grunted in response before Midoriya left and clocked out. He really didn’t feel like driving home at this point, but he pushed out into the parking lot and felt relieved when he reached his car.
“Hey Midoriya!” The sound of the voice made Bakugou turn his head and recognize Uraraka from earlier that day. She was smiling to him from a few cars over and she walked over to where he was standing.
“So,” she began with a smile. “How was your first day?”
“It was alright.” Midoriya shrugged. “I guess it could have gone better, but it also could’ve been worse because I could always get fired so.”
“Well.. that’s one way to look at it.” Uraraka laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head. “Going home finally?” He nodded. “Cool! I’ll hopefully see you some more! Good luck!”
“Thanks,” Midoriya smiled weakly before Uraraka returned to her own car and Midoriya let out a sigh as he opened his car door and slid inside. Taking a deep breath as he started it and leaning his head back against the headrest. He felt so tired, so beyond exhausted, but he was thankful that his mom would probably have dinner ready for him when he got back, and then he could fall asleep and do everything over again tomorrow.
Despite being twenty-one, Midoriya lived at home with his mother when he wasn’t in school. It was a little less than glamorous in his opinion but also not really an option. It also meant that they got to enjoy one another’s company for the summer months and Midoriya got to enjoy all of her cooking.
He knew that his mother had a lineup of questions waiting for him when he got home, so he tried to prepare himself for them. That way, when exhaustion hit him he wouldn’t just groggily pass out.
Walking inside, he could smell his mother’s cooking before he was even through the door frame and smiled at her as she popped into the front room. “Hello honey!” She greeted with way too much energy that Midoriya couldn’t even help to mirror. “How are you? How was your first day? Do you like it? Did you make any friends? Is your boss nice? How is ㅡ”
“Mom, mom,” Midoriya cut her off with a laugh that filled the room. “One question at a time, I can’t answer all of those at once.”
“You’re right, I just got excited,” Inko smiled. “Come on, dinner is ready.” Midoriya followed his mother to the table where dinner was sitting with steam rising off of it. He sat down and prepared himself again for every question, only this time he would get the chance to answer them.
“So,” Inko began. “How was your day?”
“It was good,” Midoriya said. “It was a little hectic actually doing work today, but it was still good. I think I’ll feel better about it once I actually fully understand what I’m doing.”
“Mhm,” Inko hummed. “And your coworkers? Your boss?”
“The people who work there are really nice!” Midoriya smiled. “Everyone I’ve met so far has been nothing but helpful, which is nice. My manager is a little intense, but he’s.. nice too.” The last part was a stretch. Sure, Bakugou could be considered nice for what he did for Midoriya today, but he swore so much and was so aggressive about everything that it was kind of up in the air at this point.
“That’s good!” Inko replied. “It’s not too bad though, right? The work, I mean, I would hate to you to feel like you did last summer working at that restaurant.”
“Nothing can be worse than that was,” Midoriya shook his head. “That was, kinda awful.”
“Kind of? It was definitely a hundred percent awful,” Inko sighed and Midoriya shrugged in response, he really didn’t want his mother to worry about something if he could avoid that reality. So, he pushed the conversation forward.
“How was your day, mom?” Midoriya asked and watched as his mother thought before talking about the different things she did. He didn’t really focus too much on listening, he caught the major points but nothing more. He credited it to the fact that he was completely exhausted, but when he had finished eating, he wasn’t at all hesitant about dismissing himself to his room.
Throwing himself back down on his childhood bed, he glanced around the room. When at school, his dorm never looked like this, it was a little embarrassing for him to come back and see it this way. It looked like someone had vomited action figures and posters into the room, and despite the fact that it was a little embarrassing, he could never bring himself to take any of it down. It was, in a way, very calming to see how his life had changed.
Glancing at his phone, his eyes widened at the amount of notifications he had, but more importantly, all the friend requests he had. He opened them up and smiled at all the names that appeared.
Uraraka Ochako
Ashido Mina
Kirishima Eijirou
Kouda Kouji
Midoriya didn’t hesitate to accept each one of them, and it did make him smile quite a bit to know that he did have some friends forming at work. After all, he didn’t really make a whole lot when he was in school apart from his roommate. He spent so much time studying and doing other things, that the only person he hung out with was Shinsou, his roommate who never seemed to sleep. Which was fine by Midoriya, he was never annoying or anything and the two of them got along fairly well. In fact, Midoriya didn’t know it until they met their first year, but they lived in the same town. Which was even more of the reason to be his friend in the first place, wouldn’t he laugh at what Midoriya went through today though.