Chapter Text
Just two more hours. You got this.
You stare at the clock taunting you by the register, willing it to count the seconds faster. It doesn't. The sound of a bell ringing pulls you from your attempts at discovering your latent time-manipulation quirk that you don't have.
You immediately dive into your typical script. "Welcome to—"
Oh. It's just your boss. Your very elderly boss who also seems to be delusional about quirks, given how much paint he's attempting to lift with his feeble noodle arms. If his wheezing is any indication, he's been at this for a while.
This guy really needs to retire…
"Um… Boss? Need any help?"
His voice comes out in a tired, yet stubborn rasp. "Hell no! I've been doing this job for longer than you've been alive, kid." Muttering something about youths to himself, he loads a few buckets onto a cart.
Once he catches his breath, he continues. "Besides, this might be the most important order of the week. Gotta make sure everything's done well for Might Tower. One good review from them'll have business boomin'." He slowly pushes the cart towards the back door. As your eyes follow him, you see 30 more gallons of mixed paint sitting in the stockroom.
Surely he doesn't plan on loading all that into the van himself… does he?
Without really thinking about it, you say, "I can deliver them, Boss. Really! Besides, I've never gotten to visit Might Tower before!" A noble statement, but a lie. You went on way too many Might Tower field trips as a kid.
Your boss pauses and thinks to himself for a moment before sighing, "Fine. As long as you get there without incident, and get back before the store closes, alright?"
You nod and get to work. It absolutely sucks to lift all those buckets to load the van, but you feel good about saving the old man the trouble… until you remember that you were going to leave work early today; your favorite show airs in ten minutes.
Fuck! Curse my bleeding heart!
Nevertheless, you load the truck and drive all 30 minutes to Might Tower. After around five extra minutes of looking for a parking spot, you find one a block away from the building: not ideal for delivering 45 gallons of paint with your tiny mobile dolly.
"I'm missing Love is Blind: Quirkless Romance for this," you mutter as you walk into the building. Before you can deliver the paint, you have to know where to put it and hopefully find someone willing to help you bring it inside. The first person you see is a sickly old blond man: kind of like your boss, but way taller and sadder.
"Excuse me sir," you say as you walk up to him. "I'm delivering paint here. Do you know where I can drop it off, and who needs to sign for it?" Typically when you ask this question, people get confused but know vaguely where to point you. This guy, however, perks up and answers with confidence.
"I do! I'm technically in charge of ordering supplies for renovations, so I can sign, and you can leave the paint right by the front door." He smiles down at you, and you feel a familiar comfort wash over you.
Despite that, you stand there in silence as you remember how far away your cargo is.
"Can you send someone to help me, too?" Once again, he perks up.
"I can help!" he says. "Is it far?"
He's gonna break his entire back if I let him help.
You shake your head. "Sir, I can't let you help. It's a heavy load."
"I'll have you know," he scoffs with a playful tilt to his smile, "that I can lift quite a bit for my age."
Just like Boss…
"Very well… just please don't sue if you're wrong." You turn and walk out the doors, towards your van. He follows, his dress shoes clacking against the pavement along the way. When you get to the van and open the back door, the man doesn't wait for you to get the dolly out, and he picks up two huge buckets with ease.
Holy shit!
"See? Easy stuff." He's practically beaming as he walks to the building, leaving you to load buckets onto your cart like a wimp. By the time you're halfway to the building, the man is already on his way to grab more buckets, and once you unload the cart by the front door, he's back with his second round. And unlike you, he hasn't even broken a sweat.
He gestures for you to sit down. "There's only two buckets left, so just sit for a second. You deserve a break." And just like that, he was gone again.
He must have a strength quirk. I can't possibly be THAT unfit… right?
He delivers the last of the paint, and runs inside for a moment. When he comes back out, he's carrying a water bottle that he promptly hands to you. With how hot out it is, you take it.
After a few seconds of silence and drinking water, you ask, "So… what are you guys painting?"
"We're doing major renovations, and we'll have to repaint a few floors. We've also considered repainting most of the building, but our accounting department can be a bit stingy about these things…" He looks a bit frustrated but doesn't dive into detail with you. Makes sense.
"Well, my boss would probably give you guys a discount if you asked. You didn't hear it from me, though." You wink at him and he chuckles.
"Noted."
You both sit there for a few minutes, just pleasantly watching the street while you drink your water. It wasn't until you saw someone's LIB:QR shirt that you remembered what you were missing out on.
You jumped up and whipped out the paint invoice and a pen. "Oh shit, I gotta go actually. Could you sign for this?" He seems a bit surprised at the urgency, but signs quickly. The signature looks familiar and you stop for a moment, but ultimately you pocket the invoice and begin running away.
You wave back to the man. "See you next time, maybe!"
He stands up and waves back. "Alright! Uh… drive safe!"
And with that, you haul ass to the van and drive back to work. The interaction with the old man was nice, and you're still impressed with his strength. Then again, maybe it makes sense for someone working at Might Tower. When you rush into your job to drop off the invoice and clock out, your boss is counting the till.
He smiles at you as you hand him the paper. "Did ya make a good impression?"
You smile back and say, "I think so, actually."
Your boss does a quick (and cute) victory dance in his chair before continuing his closing duties. Your tasks done for the day, you clock out and book it, hoping to catch up on your show before online spoilers get you.
Meanwhile, Toshinori Yagi is thinking about you, and his interaction with you. A snap in his direction pulls his attention.
Uh oh. The renovation team lead.
"Yagi, why did you help them? They're paid to do that crap and you wasted our company time helping them?! Do you have nothing better to do as All Might's secretary?"
Yagi just tuned out the rest of the lecture he was getting. It never led to anything anyway. Instead, he thought to himself.
Maybe All Might should interfere, and up the budget for the remodel…