#and my whole sleep scheduled is fucked from pulling so many all nighters this quarter

[waugh-bao]

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[vannahfanfics]

Tea for Two

Word Count: 2550

Fluff, Romance, Quirkless AU, Coffee Shop AU, College AU

Summary: College student Ochako is suffering from insomnia. She takes a recommendation to visit a local coffee shop in search of herbal tea, but she ends up with much more...

Here’s my story for the @bnhabigbang2022! Be sure to check out the adorable art done by my partner @ceenimations​! 

Damn whoever invented compact mirrors. They are only a tool for obliterating women’s self-esteem, Ochako grumped as she stared at herself in the tiny circular mirror. More specifically, she was staring at the dark, pudgy bags hanging under her weary eyes like ten-ton weights. She’d tried everything she could think of to hide them, even raiding Mina’s expensive skincare and make-up set in her desperation, but nothing could hide them from the world. They hung like black curtains from the bottom of her eyelids, an unrelenting reminder that Ochako had probably slept a grand total of four hours in the last three days. 

Ochako had been prepared to sacrifice the finer things in life, such as sleep, when she decided that she wanted to go to university. Hell, pulling at least one all-nighter was practically a rite of passage, and Ochako had been eager to cement herself as a bonafide university student. But what they failed to mention was how absolutely grueling it was, and that there was no such thing as one all-nighter. Once you started, you couldn’t stop because things piled up on you like the professors were trying to bury you alive. Ochako had somehow clawed her way out of the mountain of work suffocating her to emerge victorious and at the top of the class for the quarter, but it mattered not. 

Ochako’s sleep schedule was completely and utterly fucked. She’d finally caught up on all her assignments and was ready to abandon the adrenaline- and coffee-fueled existence as a regular student and embrace the distinction as a good noodle. But when the time came, sleep didn’t come. Ochako could only waste away the hours staring at her ceiling and cursing every second of her miserable existence. 

She was ready to just accept her fate of permanent sleep deprivation until hope came in the form of the gracious, the compassionate, the indelible Momo Yaoyorozu. 

“Oh, I know exactly what you need!” she gushed to Ochako as the girl tried to maintain her sanity through a double shot of pure espresso. “There’s a café down the road that boasts an excellent selection of teas. You should go there on Wednesday when Hitoshi Shinso is working. He’s helped loads of people with sleeping problems, anxiety, and so much more. He’ll fix you up with exactly what you need!” 

Ochako was willing to try drugs to get herself to sleep at this point, but some nice relaxing tea sounded pretty nice, too. So, after class on Wednesday, she trudged down the street to the quaint little café in search of the supposed miracle worker, Hitoshi Shinso. Ochako honestly didn’t expect much, despite the many, many testimonies she’d heard over the last twenty-four hours. But hey, at least she would get a nice cup of tea out of it. 

Except she’d caught sight of the man in question through the window, and he was so disgustingly dreamy that she was now lamenting her choice to go with “comfort casual” and really play up the whole sleep-deprived gremlin look. Ochako snapped her compact closed with a heavy sigh and looked once more through the window at the man standing idly behind the counter. Lavender locks that looked silk to the touch, amethyst eyes that glimmered with mirth, a lazy smile on his lips as he listened to his blond-haired coworker chatter about something—ugh, what a hottie! She didn’t know if it was better that she had good vision and read his nametag from the sidewalk, or if she would have rather gone in and made the crushing realization that she looked like trash in front of the person she needed to talk to when it was already too late. If Ochako wasn’t desperate, she would race home and at least doll herself up before going in. 

But Ochako was desperate, and so despite the lousy hand that fate had dealt her that day, she walked into the café. Whatever intentions she had of mentally preparing herself for the encounter were dashed by the bell attached to the door, which chimed pleasantly above her head. She froze in the entryway, the door swinging behind her and closing with a soft clunk. 

“Welcome,” Hitoshi called. Oh, Ochako had read about voices being as smooth as honey in romance novels, but this was the first time that the metaphor ever had merit in her eyes. The word literally dripped from his tongue, so rich and sticky that it had her rooted to the spot. Hitoshi smiled pleasantly at her. He might as well have shot her in the heart, the devil, because she nearly collapsed right then and there. But her body knew what it needed, and so it propelled her to the counter even while her brain was laying in a puddle of goop at the door from having melted out through her ears. 

“How can I help you?” 

Hug me. Kiss me. Love me. Ochako knew that it was just the exhaustion-induced delirium talking, but she still had enough sense to blush. She tried to hide it with her hands while still seeming nonchalant, but all she succeeded in doing was fluttering her hands awkwardly around her face. Oh, and now he was smirking, a lavender eyebrow arching playfully. 

“I, um, I heard that you know what tea is good for insomnia,” she mumbled finally. 

“Ah. Momo’s singing my praises again, is she?” Hitoshi chuckled. She already knew that the two were familiar with one another, but a spark of jealousy shot through her body anyway. Oh, what did she have to be jealous of? She’d just met the guy! 

She must have looked downright pathetic because Hitoshi smiled sympathetically at her. 

“Wait right here. I’ll get somethin’ fixed up for ya,” he winked and slapped his palm against the counter. 

Ochako just melted against the counter with a dreamy, “Okay~” Oh, she was shamelessly staring now. She couldn’t help it. Hitoshi moved with the grace and fluidity of an angel—unharried, but with a sense of quiet confidence that had electricity zinging up and down Ochako’s spine. How was it that a man could make something as mundane as picking out teabags seem so utterly magical? She didn’t know what to look at—the profile of his serene face as his lavender eyes scanned the boxes, his lithe and dextrous fingers as they skimmed the cardboard, his wavy pale purple locks as they caught the light of the fluorescents. Everything about him was just stunningly handsome, and her poor baggy eyes just didn’t know what to focus on. 

So she flagrantly gawked at as much as him as she could. 

“All right then.” When Hitoshi suddenly spoke, Ochako scrambled to stand up and act like she hadn’t just been drooling all over the counter. Her arms flailed out, and she could only watch in dismay as the floppy sleeve of her oversized sweater caught on a piece of metal sticking out from the woven metal pencil container. Both she and Hitoshi watched with wide eyes as the cup lurched with the motion of her arm, tipping to the side and spilling the writing utensils all over the counter. She blinked, watching a pencil roll slowly over the counter. She then slowly raised her head to gape at Hitoshi. 

“Erm… Sorry.” 

“No problem,” he chuckled and walked back up to the counter. He flipped the cup back over and replaced the pencils and pens into it, one by one. Ochako was a little bit grateful for her screw-up; now she could watch just a few more of those elegant movements. She found herself slumping a little, eyes growing lidded with heady contentment. “Now then—your tea.” 

“R-right,” she stammered, jerking into a non-slouching position again. Hitoshi’s smile twitched a little further across his face, which made Ochako’s heart thump against her chest. Did that mean something? No, she was just reading too much into it! She was totally out of it! The tea, she should focus on the tea… and not his totally gorgeous smile… 

“This is a blend of chamomile, lavender, and passionflower. Totally great for alleviating anxiety and helping you sleep,” he explained as he set a bag of mixed dried herbs and petals in front of her. “Our café doesn’t use bags because there’s recent research that they can leach microplastics. Do you have a tea steeper?” 

Ochako shook her head, and Hitoshi reached under the counter to procure a small silver piece of metal with what looked like a little fine-woven metal strainer on the end. 

“All right, it’s real easy. You just scoop up a little bit of the tea leaves into this and place it in the hot water. This blend should steep for about ten minutes.” 

God. She would let him talk tea to her all damn day, his voice was so mind-numbingly sexy. 

“Any questions?” 

“O-oh, no,” she replied with a quick shake of her head. He gave her that little smile-smirk that made her heart pitter-patter in her chest, then turned to the side to type some of the keys on the old-fashioned register. 

“Okay. That’s going to be six hundred yen.” 

Ochako fished the bills out of her wallet. As she passed them over and picked the tea bag up off the counter, she found herself feeling a little sad. Such a fleeting interaction in the great abyss that was time, and yet she was mourning that it had come to an end… 

Yeah, then she got home and took a swig of that tea. Not much mourning followed that. Just a whoooooooole bunch of watching the back of her eyelids. She woke up the next morning not sure what year it was, drool caked on the side of her face and hair in disarray—and oh, my, did it feel fabulous. She’d never slept so amazingly in her life. There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it—she was gonna need more of that tea. 

And the fact that she would also get more Hitoshi in the process? Well… she would just call that a bonus. 

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite regular,” Hitoshi purred as Ochako sauntered into the café. She smiled bashfully and tucked a swathe of her brunette hair behind her ear. Though she definitely wasn’t strutting around looking like she was dying anymore, she still found herself growing nervous each time she came in to see Hitoshi. It didn’t matter how flawless her make-up looked that day, or whether she had searched her closest for the cutest outfit—all he had to do was bat those pretty, sleepy eyes at her, and that was it. Ochako was rendered utterly helpless. 

Well, not utterly. Now that she was sleeping like a normal human being, her brain actually worked. Somewhat, anyway. 

“Tell that to all the girls who come here once a week?” Ochako teased as she approached the counter. 

Hitoshi quirked an eyebrow, then quipped back, “Only the pretty ones.” 

Ochako giggled. She couldn’t help but exaggerate it a little and daintily hold a hand over her mouth. Maybe a bit much as far as flirting tactics went, but Ochako couldn’t help it. Hitoshi was just so dreamy; her mind was rendered cotton within seconds, and she kinda needed her critical thinking skills to access her good flirting capabilities. 

“You flatter me, Hitoshi,” she cooed with a bat of her eyelashes. Hitoshi’s smirk widened at that. Ah, look at her! She made him smirk! Point one for Ochako. 

“Come on, now, do I look like the type to resort to flattery?” Hitoshi chuckled while he turned to begin preparing her tea. “I speak the truth and only the truth, love.” 

Love love love, the pet name echoed in her head. He had been calling her that for a while now, but it still made her heart thump all over her ribcage. 

Any and every snarky quip she could respond with instantly buried itself six feet under in her brain, so she just giggled girlishly again. 

Agh, what am I doing? Come on, Ochako! You told yourself when you got up this morning that you would ask him out today! So stop being a simp and get on with it already! 

“H-hey, Hitoshi?” Ochako piped up before she could second-guess herself. Her momentary confidence immediately wavered when he turned around to flash those curious, pretty lavender eyes at her. 

“What’s up, Ochako?” he asked, carrying the little baggie of tea leaves up to the counter. “Thinking about changing things up today?” 

“A-actually, yes,” she said quickly. Looks like the universe was being kind enough to give her back her mojo. She still hesitated a moment, chewing on her lip while slowly swinging her shoulders from side to side. “I, um… I was thinking about maybe… g-getting your number?” 

There. It was out in the open. No matter how much Ochako may want to, she couldn’t suck the words back into her mouth. She bit down on her bottom lip while she just stared nervously at him. He was just staring owlishly back, giving no hint to what was going on in his head. Oh, that was the worst! She would at least like a little hint as to what he was thinking. Even a momentary flicker of utter disgust would be better than the sheer nothing on Hitoshi’s face. 

And then he gave her the sauciest smirk that she had ever seen on his stupidly pretty face. 

“Sorry,” he chuckled. His expression grew a little bashful, and he swept his fingers through his tousled lavender locks. “I have to admit, you threw me for a loop there. I thought I was going to be the one to ask you out.” 

“Y-you wanted to ask me out?” Ochako smiled coyly. Oh, what a development this was. 

“Yeah,” Hitoshi admitted. It didn’t take him long to get his confidence back, because then he was leaning against the counter with that sexy smirk dancing over his lips. “How does that make you feel, love?” 

“How does me asking you out make you feel?” she countered, playfully sticking the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. 

“Makes me feel like going out with you,” he answered matter-of-factly. Ugh, Ochako simply couldn’t compete with him! She ducked her head to hide her bright pink face and covered her mouth with her hands to smother her high-pitched giggle. “This is the part where you ask me what time I get off, beautiful.” 

“O-okay. What time do you get off?” 

“Six. I’ll be waiting,” he winked before sliding the tea across the counter to her. “And this one’s on me. Consider it thanks for coming by every week to show me that pretty face of yours.” 

“O-okay,” Ochako giggled bashfully, still hiding her face while she took the tea bag. She didn’t want to deprive him of one last look at her “pretty face,” though, so she meekly lifted her head to peer at him through her bangs. “I’ll, um, see you then.” 

She was keenly aware of him watching her as she left, but she was so damn giddy that she couldn’t resist doing a little happy dance. He’d already agreed to go out with her, so what did she have to lose? 

Definitely not sleep!