#I miss going to the diner down the street from where I lived at 10pm to get some breakfast

[vitiateoriginator]

God I would kill for a late night snall diner breakfast rn

[arcticdementor]

I love NYC. When I first moved to NYC it was a dream come true. Every corner was like a theater production happening right in front of me. So much personality, so many stories.

Every subculture I loved was in NYC. I could play chess all day and night. I could go to comedy clubs. I could start any type of business. I could meet people. I had family, friends, opportunities. No matter what happened to me, NYC was a net I could fall back on and bounce back up.

Now it's completely dead. "But NYC always always bounces back." No. Not this time. "But NYC is the center of the financial universe. Opportunities will flourish here again." Not this time.

"NYC has experienced worse". No it hasn't.

…

Three of the most important reasons to move to NYC:

- business opportunities

- culture

- food

…

Midtown Manhattan, the center of business in NYC, is empty. Even though people can go back to work, famous office buildings like the Time Life skyscraper is still 90% empty. Businesses realized that they don't need their employees at the office.

In fact, they realize they are even more productive without everyone back to the office. The Time Life building can handle 8,000 workers. Now it maybe has 500 workers back.

…

"What do you mean?" a friend of mine said to me when I told him 'Midtown should be called 'Ghost Town', "I'm in my office right now!"

"What are you doing there?"

"Packing up," he said and laughed, "I'm shutting it down." He works in the entertainment business.

Another friend of mine works at a major investment bank as a managing director. Before the pandemic he was at the office every day, sometimes working from 6am to 10pm.

Now he lives in Phoenix, Arizona. "As of June," he told me, "I had never even been to Phoenix." And then he moved there. He does all his meetings on Zoom.

I was talking to a book editor who has been out of the city since early March. "We've been all working fine. I'm not sure why we would need to go back to the office."

One friend of mine, Derek Halpern, was convinced he'd stay. He put up a Facebook post the other day saying he might be changing his mind.

…

People say, "NYC has been through worse" or "NYC has always come back."

No and no.

First, when has NYC been through worse?

Even in the 1970s, and through the 80s, when NYC was going bankrupt, and even when it was the crime capital of the US or close to it, it was still the capital of the business world (meaning: it was the primary place young people would go to build wealth and find opportunity), it was culturally on top of its game - home to artists, theater, media, advertising, publishing, and it was probably the food capital of the US.

…

In early March, many people (not me), left NYC when they felt it would provide safety from the virus and they no longer needed to go to work and all the restaurants were closed. People figured, "I'll get out for a month or two and then come back."

They are all still gone.

And then in June, during rioting and looting a second wave of NYC-ers (this time me) left. I have kids. Nothing was wrong with the protests but I was a little nervous when I saw videos of rioters after curfew trying to break into my building.

…

…

Summary: Businesses are remote and they aren't returning to the office. And it's a death spiral: the longer offices remain empty, the longer they will remain empty.

In 2005, a hedge fund manager was visiting my office and said, "In Manhattan you practically trip over opportunities in the street."

Now the streets are empty.

…

I co-own a comedy club, Standup NY, on 78th and Broadway. I'm very very proud of the club and grateful to my fellow owners Dani Zoldan and Gabe Waldman and our manager Jon Boreamayo. It's a great club. It's been around since 1986 and before that it was a theater.

One time, Henry Winkler stopped by to come on my podcast. He was the one who told me it had been a theater.

He said, "I grew up two doors down from here and used to perform in here as a kid. Then I went out to LA to be the Fonz and now I'm back here, full circle, to be on your podcast. This place has history." Things like that happen in NYC.

…

I love the club. Before the pandemic I would perform there throughout the week in addition to many other clubs around the city and in the past few months, clubs in: Chicago, Denver, San Jose, LA, Cincinnati, all over the Netherlands, and other places.

I miss it.

…

That said, we have no idea when we will open. Nobody has any idea. And the longer we close, the less chance we will ever reopen profitably.

Broadway is closed until at least the Spring. Lincoln Center is closed. All the museums are closed.

Forget about the tens of thousands of jobs lost in these cultural centers. Forget even about the millions of dollars of tourist and tourist-generated revenues lost by the closing of these centers.

There are thousands of performers, producers, artists, and the entire ecosystem of art, theater, production, curation, that surrounds these cultural centers. People who have worked all of their lives for the right to be able to perform even once on Broadway whose lives and careers have been put on hold.

I get it. There was a pandemic.

But the question now is: what happens next? And, given the uncertainty (since there is no known answer), and given the fact that people, cities, economies, loathe uncertainty, we simply don't know the answer and that's a bad thing for New York City.

…

My favorite restaurant is closed for good. Ok, let's go to my second favorite. Closed for good. Third favorite, closed for good.

I thought the PPP was supposed to help. No? What about emergency relief? No. Stimulus checks? Unemployment? No and no. Ok, my fourth favorite, or what about that place I always ordered delivery from? No and no.

Around Late May I took walks and saw that many places were boarded up. Ok, I thought, because the protesting was leading to looting and the restaurants were protecting themselves. They'll be ok.

Looking closer I'd see the signs. For Lease. For Rent. For whatever.

Before the pandemic, the average restaurant had only 16 days of cash on hand. Some had more (McDonalds), and some had less (the local mom-and-pop Greek diner).

Yelp estimates that 60% of restaurants around the United States have closed.

My guess is more than 60% will be closed in New York City but who knows.

Someone said to me, "Well, people will want to come in now and start their own restaurants! There is less competition."

I don't think you understand how restaurants work.

…

If the restaurants are no longer clustered, fewer people go out to eat (they are on the fence about where so they elect to stay home). Restaurants breed more restaurants.

And again, what happens to all the employees who work at these restaurants? They are gone. They left New York City. Where did they go? I know a lot of people who went to Maine, Vermont, Tennessee, upstate, Indiana, etc - back to live with their parents or live with friends or live cheaper. They are gone and gone for good.

And what person wakes up today and says, "I can't wait to set up a pizza place in the location where 100,000 other pizza places just closed down." People are going to wait awhile and see. They want to make sure the virus is gone, or there's a vaccine, or there's a profitable business model.

Or...even worse.

…

If building owners and landlords lose their prime tenants (the store fronts on the bottom floor, the offices on the middle floors, the well-to-do on the top floors, etc) then they go out of business.

And what happens when they go out of business?

Nothing actually. And that's the bad news.

People who would have rented or bought say, "Hmmm, everyone is saying NYC is heading back to the 1970s, so even though prices might be 50% lower than they were a year ago, I think I will wait a bit more. Better safe than sorry!"

And then with everyone waiting... prices go down. So people see prices go down and they say, "Good thing I waited. But what happens if I wait even more!" And they wait and then prices go down more.

This is called a deflationary spiral. People wait. Prices go down. Nobody really wins. Because the landlords or owners go broke. Less money gets spent on the city. Nobody moves in so there is no motion in the markets. And people already owning in the area and can afford to hang on, have to wait longer for a return of restaurants, services, etc that they were used to.

Well, will prices go down low enough everyone buys?

Answer: Maybe. Maybe not. Some people can afford to hang on but not afford to sell. So they wait. Other people will go bankrupt and there will be litigation, which creates other problems for real estate in the area. And the big borrowers and lenders may need a bailout of some sort or face mass bankruptcy. Who knows what will happen?

…

I lived three blocks from Ground Zero on 9/11. Downtown, where I lived, was destroyed, but it came roaring back within two years. Such sadness and hardship and then quickly that area became the most attractive area in New York.

And in 2008/2009, much suffering during the Great Recession, again much hardship, but things came roaring back.

But...this time it's different. You're never supposed to say that but this time it's true. If you believe this time is no different, that NYC is resilient, etc I hope you're right.

I don't benefit from saying any of this. I love NYC. I was born there. I've lived there forever. I STILL live there. I love everything about NYC. I want 2019 back.

But this time it's different.

One reason: bandwidth.

In 2008, average bandwidth speeds were 3 megabits per second. That's not enough for a Zoom meeting with reliable video quality. Now, it's over 20 megabits per second. That's more than enough for high quality video.

There's a before and after. BEFORE: no remote work. AFTER: everyone can remote work.

…

Everyone has spent the past five months adapting to a new lifestyle. Nobody wants to fly across the country for a two hour meeting when you can do it just as well on Zoom. I can go see "live comedy" on Zoom. I can take classes from the best teachers in the world for almost free online as opposed to paying $70,000 a year for a limited number of teachers who may or may not be good.

Everyone has choices now. You can live in the music capital of Nashville, you can live in the "next Silicon Valley" of Austin. You can live in your hometown in the middle of wherever. And you can be just as productive, make the same salary, have higher quality of life with a cheaper cost to live.

…

Wait for events and conferences and even meetings and maybe even office spaces to start happening in virtual realities once everyone is spread out from midtown Manhattan to all over the country.

The quality of restaurants will start to go up in all the second and then third tier cities as talent and skill flow to the places that can quickly make use of them.

Ditto for cultural events.

And then people will ask, "wait a second - I was paying over 16% in state and city taxes and these other states and cities have little to no taxes? And I don't have to deal with all the other headaches of NYC?"

Because there are headaches in NYC. Lots of them. It's just we sweep them under the table because so much else has been good there.

NYC has a $9 billion deficit. A billion more than the Mayor thought they were going to have. How does a city pay back its debts? The main way is aid from the state. But the state deficit just went bonkers. Then is taxes. But if 900,000 estimated jobs are lost in NYC and tens of thousands of businesses, then that means less taxes unless taxes are raised.

…

What reason will people have to go back to NYC? 

[armadil-lo]

if when he sees me (2/6)

CHAPTER ONE: http://armadil-lo.tumblr.com/post/181213297051/if-when-he-sees-me-16

Chapter Summary: “It’s a dating app, Bakugou, and you just admitted I was right about you being bored and lonely. Are you saying you’re not getting to know him so you can go on a few dates and have a fun little summer fling?”

My Notes: if you're surprised at how quick this update came out, trust me, i am too. again though, no promises on when the next chapter will be, sorry :') this chapter was going to be longer, but i decided to split it instead because there were still like three scenes left and i'd prefer to keep the chapters similar in length i think heh. (oh and, the flowers i was thinking of in the scene towards the end are poinsettias - no idea when and where they typically live, but let's just pretend it's possible ^.^)

Words: 3195

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17038661/chapters/40373681

Zero Gravity Diner - open from 10AM to 10PM Monday to Friday, and an earlier closing time of 8PM on weekends - is an anomaly in the suburbs just outside the central city. It’s not in the shopping district for people to spend more money on between their retail purchases; it’s not in the middle of the business district for people to get coffee for their bosses or spend their lunch breaks; it’s nowhere near the university for stressed Yuuei students to study at or take a breather between classes. No, the Uraraka’s opened their small, cosy diner nestled between family houses on a street with little to no regular foot traffic.

The business obviously earns enough to keep the family afloat; now mostly run by Uraraka, who dropped out of Yuuei at the end of her first semester to help out when another waitress moved away, and her father, who is the head chef behind their tasty menu. Her mother has a job elsewhere in the city, but usually takes over closing up the restaurant from her daughter once she’s gotten home, eaten, and relaxed for an hour or so.

The majority of their customers hear about the place through word-of-mouth, or Kaminari’s instagram. There are a decent amount of regulars - elderly who come in for a cup of tea, young couples who stop in for breakfast while walking their dogs, and families with small children who come in for meals. If Katsuki had to guess, he’d say that all of their frequent customers probably just live nearby. But regardless, it would most certainly be safe to say that because of its location, Zero Gravity Diner is a relatively quiet business.

Especially on a summer weekday when it’s too hot to even function properly and Katsuki has sweat on his upper lip and in his palms from the short walk there.

Still, Katsuki curses all the gods that might exist for the fact that the diner is empty when he arrives for his shift the next morning, despite expecting just that.

“Good morning, Bakugou, you absolute jerk.”

Empty apart from Uraraka, of course.

“Fuck off, Round Face,” he hisses with a glare. “It’s too early to deal with your bullshit.”

“Oh no you don’t, mister.” She has her hands on her hips again, expression like she’s scolding a misbehaving child. “You put on that damn apron and get back out here so we can talk like I said we were going to.”

He brushes past her with an eye roll and a grumble. In the kitchen, he nods as he walks by Satou, diligently baking away to fill up their cabinet for the next couple days. He tries to take his time in the staffroom and flicks a message to Kirishima once he’s got his uniform on.

Bakugou (9:57): Thank fuck we have air conditioning at work.

Kirishima (9:58): lucky D: i’m dyinggggg ugh

Bakugou (9:58): Shame. Buy a fucking fan or something.

He pockets the phone and walks back out front with a heavy sigh. Uraraka corners him again by the time he’s clocking in.

“What,” he demands, but it comes out flat. He knows what.

“You know what,” she echoes his thoughts. She pauses until he makes eye contact with her and he frowns at the expectant grin on her face now. “Tell me about Kirishima!”

“There’s nothing to tell,” he states, walking over to the coffee machine to set his grind for the day. It usually takes him a couple tries; Kaminari’s is too damn fine. Either that or the dunce face just doesn’t tamp very hard, because either way it usually takes him a few shots every morning to get the coffee extracting the way it’s meant to.

“You can’t avoid this conversation, Bakugou,” she persists, following close behind him. He can feel her eyes watching him as he gets to work setting his grind, and hears her perch herself on the counter somewhere behind him.

A patient silence falls over them as Katsuki moves the grinder ring a couple notches over to start with and runs a trial shot through the machine. He counts the seconds it takes for it to pour into the cup and then uses a teaspoon to give it a taste. The black coffee is disgusting on its own, as it always is, but he pays attention to where on his tongue the bitterness lingers, and goes back to twist the ring another notch towards coarse.

Katsuki knows he can’t avoid talking to Uraraka about Kirishima forever. She’s the one who downloaded the app onto his phone and decided that hair-for-brains would be a good option for him, so she already knows more than he’d like her to. And honestly Katsuki would prefer she get answers from him than from Deku.

This time, the shot starts extracting exactly when it should, and Katsuki hands off the perfect espresso to Uraraka.

“You got in my head,” he mumbles as he gives her the cup.

She merely raises an eyebrow and takes a sip. “How so?”

“Saying that I was fucking bored and shit.” Katsuki crosses his arms and leans back against the counter. “I was going to delete it and then he messaged me so I decided, fuck it. What else was I going to do with my time?”

“So you’re going to pursue a summer romance with him?!” Uraraka asks, giddy.

Katsuki scowls. “What the fuck? No! Where the fuck did you get that idea from?”

Her smile turns confused. “Is that… not what you’re doing?”

She huffs when he only fixes her with a frustrated glare in reply.

“It’s a dating app, Bakugou, and you just admitted I was right about you being bored and lonely. Are you saying you’re not getting to know him so you can go on a few dates and have a fun little summer fling?”

Katsuki tries valiantly to ignore the fact that he can feel his face heating up again, and this time it’s got nothing to do with the weather outside.

“No!” he cries, strangled.

“Why not?” She’s frowning now.

“Why not? Fucking- I’m only talking to him to pass the time! I don’t want to fucking meet him, let alone date him!”

“But what better way to pass the time than with him?” she insists, waggling her eyebrows. Katsuki splutters.

“I don’t fucking know him! Do you know how stupid and dangerous it is to meet people you’ve only talked to online, Angelface? It’s a shitty fucking idea. I’m just talking to him because I have nothing else to do, but I don’t want to meet him and soon enough he’ll move on to wooing the next guy he fucking matches with on this godforsaken app and forget all about me anyway.”

Uraraka squints at him over the rim of her coffee, taking a long sip. Katsuki crosses his arms and holds his chin up. He recognises that expression on her face - he’s seen her wear it many times since they first started talking properly in their second year of high school. She thinks he’s being stubborn and difficult for no reason. And sure, maybe in high school Katsuki was stubborn and difficult for no reason about a lot of things, but he does have reasons now and he stands by them.

“I’m sorry but, to be frank,” she says after a long moment, “that all sounds like bullshit to me.”

Katsuki rolls his eyes and growls, “Did you miss the part where I said we don’t know each other?”

“But that’s exactly what you’re doing, Bakugou,” she states as if it’s the simplest thing in the world. “You’re getting to know each other. Just do that for a while longer if it makes it easier to meet him in person.”

He sighs heavily and drags a hand down his face in frustration. “You don’t get it. I’m not fucking meeting Shitty Hair, end of story.”

A sly grin slowly spreads across Uraraka’s face now. “What was that? Shitty Hair?”

Katsuki is momentarily saved from the conversation by a customer walking into the diner, making the bell above the door ring. It’s the chick with the ponytail, who seems far too fancy to be slumming it in Zero Gravity Diner for her morning coffee, but Katsuki gets to work on her usual order before she even says anything. He blocks out hers and Uraraka’s idle chatter (mostly about Ponytail’s girlfriend, who is a friend of Dunce Face), breathing deeply in an attempt to calm himself down as he makes the coffee. He feels shaky for some reason.

“Good morning, Bakugou-san,” Ponytail greets him as he hands her the coffee. He bites back the rude response on the tip of his tongue and forces a close-mouthed smile onto his face in return.

When Ponytail leaves, Uraraka waves and calls out a goodbye to her before she turns her attention to Katsuki once more. She looks less mischievous now than she had before Yaomomo walked in.

“Bakugou,” she starts, tone almost artificially light and airy, “do you know what your nickname system is?”

“My what?” he deadpans. This already sounds like a bunch of crap.

“Your nickname system,” Uraraka repeats. “Or do you think you just choose the nicknames you give people at random?”

“Of course I fucking do,” he snaps. “They just fucking come to me, I don’t sit and waste my time meticulously planning what names I’m going to call you idiots.”

Uraraka nods. “Well, I can tell you what your system is.”

“I just fucking said I don’t have one!” he yells incredulously, throwing his hands up.

“But you do,” she insists through laughter at his outburst. Katsuki seethes as she takes a moment to collect herself. “Look, you might not think so, but I think I’ve figured it out. If it’s not a general comment about our face, then it’s what you consider to be our most striking feature.”

It… actually sounds plausible, but it strikes Katsuki as wrong almost immediately because-

“Deku.”

She waves that off. “Deku-kun is the exception. You gave that nickname to him when you guys were, like, six. And you were a massive jerk to him back then.” She pauses. “Although, you’re still a jerk now, so…”

“You were saying?” he monotones.

“Right! So you’ve got me, who’s usually Round Face or Angelface. You also used to call me Pink Cheeks sometimes in high school because I wore too much blush, remember? Then there’s Dunce Face or Sparky, because of the bolt in Kaminari-kun’s hair, as well as Soy Sauce Face for his boyfriend and Frog Face for Tsuyu-chan.” She lists off the names, counting on her fingers as she goes. “But then there’s Todoroki, and you call him IcyHot or half-and-half something.” Uraraka looks up and smiles at him now. “That’s because of Todoroki-kun’s heterochromia, right?”

“And his whole fucking candy cane aesthetic,” Katsuki grumbles. And okay, he has to admit she seems to have a point. Apparently he needs to get more creative.

“Exactly! And now you’ve given Kirishima the nickname Shitty Hair,” she continues. “So I think that means you might actually like Kirishima’s hair.” She pokes him in the side as she says it and he swats her hand away.

Katsuki scoffs with a displeased, “Tch.” The conversation has gone on long enough as far as he’s concerned, so he turns away to grab some cleaning supplies out of the cupboard.

“Was that a yes?” Round Face prods, sounding far too pleased with herself.

“It’s bright fucking red,” Katsuki bites out, grabbing the spray and a cloth. “And he’s got so much gel in it that it literally sticks straight up on his fucking head.”

“I didn’t hear you deny it yet, Bakugou,” she sing-songs.

“Fuck off,” he says as he shoulders past her to actually get some work done.

“Hi Uraraka! Hey Kacchan,” Kaminari thinks he can get away with proclaiming as he walks into the diner for his shift later that afternoon.

“Call me that one more time, Sparky, and I’ll wipe that fucking smirk off your face,” Katsuki snarls, untying the apron from around his waist. Dunce Face only laughs.

God, he is more than ready to get out of this place today. Uraraka has been pestering him non-stop with questions, even when he resorted to only giving her grunts and one-worded answers. There’s nowhere to escape from her in a diner void of customers and he’s been itching to get away from her prying eyes all day. He hasn’t even messaged Kirishima once, though he’s felt his phone buzz in his pocket a few times.

He’s out of the door as soon as he can be, not even bothering to say goodbye to the others as he stalks out of the restaurant and far down the street before he takes out his phone.

Kirishima has mostly just messaged him a few updates about the heat and his adventures in finding a gym to work out at. It appears none of the ones he’s been to so far have given off the right ‘vibe’ yet, whatever that fucking means.

Bakugou (4:06): Have you been to Riot Recreation Center?

The reply is instant, as if Kirishima has been waiting all day for Katsuki’s response.

Kirishima (4:07): hey!! how was work? and no i haven’t, is it any good? :o

Bakugou (4:07): Boring and annoying. The RRC is the best place to go in town if you want to work out.

In truth, he hasn’t been to the gym there since before he knuckled down to study for finals towards the end of last semester. But he knows it offers an impressive amount of facilities.

Kirishima (4:08): i’ll look it up now!! :D

Katsuki pockets the phone as Kirishima does so. It’s cooled down quite a bit since this morning, though the sky is still cloudless. He stops in front of the entrance to a park he knows bridges the difference between suburbs and city. It’s the long way home and would add on about another twenty minutes to his walk, but instead of sticking to the roads, he decides to turn into the park today anyway.

There’s a decent crowd in the park making the most of the weather too. Plenty of people with their dogs, children laughing on the swings, picnic blankets littering the grass. Katsuki takes it in, people watching and admiring the flowers blooming along the path that winds through the gardens.

He feels his phone vibrate and pulls it out of his pocket, interested in what Kirishima thinks of the Riot Rec Center.

But it’s not a message from Kirishima.

You have a new match waiting for you! the notification on his screen declares.

Katsuki scowls and unlocks his phone, glaring at the photo that pops up on his screen of some guy with black hair and the fakest smile he thinks he’s ever seen in his life.

The message comes instantaneously.

Shindou (4:12): Hey there beautiful ;)

“Oh, fuck no,” Katsuki mutters, rushing to block the guy immediately. There’s no fucking way he’s falling for that; the guy already seems like an asshole in disguise. He must have been someone else Uraraka swiped on when she set him up on this godforsaken app, because lord knows Katsuki hasn’t used it for anything other than messaging Shitty Hair.

As he deletes the guy, Kirishima finally replies.

Kirishima (4:13): ooo, riot rec center looks really cool! it even has a rock climbing wall, that’s so manly! ^.^

Bakugou (4:14): Firstly, what the hell is your obsession with manliness all about? And secondly, Jesus fucking Christ this app sucks, some smarmy bastard just tried to weasel his way into my messages like a goddamn creep.

Kirishima (4:15): well, that is kind of what the app is for, you know? xD messaging and meeting new people... though i guess there are some creepy people on this too sadly :(

Katsuki doesn’t deem this worthy of a response and waits as Kirishima takes his time replying to his other question. He almost bumps into someone else heading in the opposite direction on the path, muttering a vague insult over his shoulder as he stares down at his phone.

Kirishima (4:19): as for your other question, well. it’s not so much ‘manliness’ that i like, but the virtues i believe manliness stands for. bravery, selflessness, integrity, dependability. a life led without regret. i used to be kind of a coward when i was younger, and i didn’t really like myself that much if i’m honest. but one day i decided that that’s not who i am in my heart. and so i try my best everyday to work towards becoming the man i want to be! i hope that makes sense :’)

It might be the stupidest thing Katsuki has heard in a long time. And yet, something tugs at his lips until they’re pulled upwards into a smile. He chuckles and shakes his head, unable to deny the feeling of fondness that swells in his chest.

Another text makes his phone buzz in his hand.

Kirishima (4:19): speaking of having no regrets! since you seem to hate the app so much, why don’t we exchange numbers? :3

It’s followed by Kirishima’s own phone number, which makes Katsuki scoff. There’s no way he’s giving out his damn number to the guy.

Bakugou (4:20): You’re an idiot, and no, you can’t have my phone number. But your ridiculous speech about the virtues of manliness did somehow make sense, Shitty Hair.

The two continue to talk as Katsuki makes his way through the park. Out of the corner of his eye, something bright catches his attention while he’s chatting with Kirishima. It’s a small flower bush with blooming red petals that almost look like leaves. It’s rather vibrant, and the way they stick out at all angles instantly reminds Katsuki of Kirishima’s hair in his profile picture.

Without even thinking, he takes a photo of the flowers and sends them to the other boy.

Bakugou (4:25): They’re red and spiky like your stupid hair.

Kirishima (4:25): aww, you are just a secret romantic, aren’t you katsuki! taking pictures of flowers that remind you of me :’D i’m flattered!

Katsuki rolls his eyes and calls him an idiot again, then changes the subject. He just thought the flowers looked nice.

He stops by the grocery store and buys himself some actual food on the way home, messaging Shitty Hair periodically as he does so. The same strange part of him that made him take the long way home through the park today feels motivated enough to cook dinner for himself tonight as well. Katsuki hasn’t felt like doing either of those things in weeks, but he’s not going to question it now.

Kirishima (4:39): okay but, you weren’t there, he was like a REALLY BIG octopus, i swear! >.<

Just like he’s not going to question the fact that a stranger he’s only been texting for four days can make him smile with the most ridiculous things.