synopsis: y/n is the designated grocery shopper in the y/n-tamaki-nejire apartment, and they do not mind one bit if it means seeing the cute costco worker every time they go and getting their favorite food every time.
content:costco worker mirio, swimmer mirio, college au, roomies nejire and tamaki, clueless y/n, y/n can drive yes they can!!, smiley mirio, me and my left up to interpretation endings
word count: 2.5k
a/n:this is entirely self indulgent and came to me in a grocery store parking lot as i was eating my costco chicken bake bc i get one almost every time i go to costco and im scared the cute worker will start to recognize me so here this is lsjfklasjdlkfjsdlkfj. is this a crack fic??? have i finally written one? who knows. this is so niche ong asdklfjsadlfss also this is my 100th post!!!!!
It’s been three months since Y/N accepted their role as the Costco card holder, and they had gone to said store a total of eight times. Eight.
Y/N blamed their roommates. Nejire has so much hair that she loves to take care of, and she sends Y/N on shampoo runs routinely. Tamaki likes the snacks they have, and Y/N finds it very hard to say no to him when he willingly does their share of the chores whenever Y/N goes on Costco runs.
And Nejire always makes breakfast for them, so Y/N feels obligated to do much of the shopping for the three of them. They don’t really mind—going on errands by themselves feels oddly therapeutic. They always go an hour before closing time, since that’s when their shift at the student center on campus ends.
Today’s trip is on a Friday, and Y/N feels almost embarrassed to push by people to get to the food court.
They’d ordered their usual chicken bake, plus ice creams for the kids (Nejire and Tamaki). They carefully glanced at each of the workers, fearing for the familiar friendly face that always seemed to be there whenever Y/N had a Costco run.
They didn’t know his name, because each time he wore a different one. They’d noticed all of the food court workers did that—interchanged name tags, sometimes right in front of customers. Y/N thought it was funny.
“Number 242! Number 242!”
Damn.
Y/N plastered a smile onto their face (completely genuine, despite their previous thoughts). Today the blond guy’s name was “Oliver.” He smiled as he handed Y/N their chicken bake and pushed forward the ice creams. “Have a nice day!”
“Thanks, you too!” Y/N hurried away back to their cart and began to speed walk toward the exit. It was ridiculous, really. A crush on someone they rarely saw. But every interaction left them with their heart fluttering. And they hadn’t had a crush in a while. It was nice to feel like that again.
“Back already!” Nejire cheered when Y/N knocked on the apartment door, taking her ice cream out of Y/N’s hands and giving them a very wet kiss on the cheek, which both Y/N and Tamaki cringe at. Nejire just laughs, going back to her spot on the couch, where she has set up her study station and has multiple papers strewn all over the coffee table in front of her. She carefully set down her ice cream before heading out the door to help unload the groceries. Tamaki thanked Y/N for his ice cream and followed Nejire out the door.
They lived on the first floor of the building, so grocery shopping is never followed by the dread of hauling everything upstairs. Nejire’s green car is also the perfect size for Costco runs, and Y/N loves driving it—another reason they are not so mad about being the designated errand-person.
After everything is sorted away, Y/N sat down with Tamaki at the small kitchen table to eat their chicken bake as he carefully ate his ice cream. Nejire remained on the couch at her study station, occasionally sighing loudly.
“He was there again,” Y/N said through a mouthful of their chicken bake. Nejire had gotten up to stretch and sauntered over to the table to join them, halfway through her ice cream. She brightens at Y/N’s statement, and Tamaki pauses in his ice cream eating for a second.
“Ooh was he as cute as ever?” Nejire teased. Y/N almost choked on their chicken bake, Tamaki reaching over to pat them on the back, although more in a sympathetic way.
“I regret telling you that I thought he was cute,” Y/N groaned.
“We can ask Mirio to poke around and find out who he is!” Nejire chirped, eating another spoonful of ice cream. “Pretty sure he works at a different Costco, but he could still find out somehow!”
Y/N shook their head. “It’s just a crush.”
And that was that until their next Costco run, a few weeks later.
This time he was named “Haru.” And he struck up a conversation, since Y/N was the only one at the food court.
They’d gone early that day, since it was a Saturday and they wanted to beat the rush of other shoppers. They’d been the first on in the store, and apparently everyone else was still shopping, because they were also the first food court order.
“Busy day?” He asked, leaning on the counter in front of him, leaning his chin into his hand. Ridiculously pretty smile on his face. God Y/N was whipped.
“Not much after this,” Y/N replied, fiddling with their receipt. He hummed in acknowledgement, straightening when their coworker started placing the finished food on the appropriate racks.
“Here you go!” He handed them their chicken bake. “No ice cream today?”
“No, not today,” Y/N said, setting their chicken bake carefully onto their cart. They felt like they shouldn’t walk away just yet.
“Well, see you,” he said after a pause. Y/N waved goodbye before walking away, hearing the other food court worker shout something at the guy, who quickly shushed her. Y/N glanced curiously back to see him looking at them, and then quickly duck below the counter. The other worker gave Y/N a little wave, which Y/N slowly returned before rushing out of the store.
They thought about it the entire ride home, naturally. They unloaded the groceries with Tamaki, who was the only one at the apartment since Nejire was working. Since he was so quiet they unloaded in silence, although he did look as though he wanted to ask if something was wrong. He settled for offering to make them a smoothie to eat with their chicken bake, and Y/N brightened considerably.
“Yo, Mirio!”
“Hey Nejire!”
He hopped into her car with ease, buckling up as she sped out of the Costco parking lots. She’d offered him a ride back to his dorm, since she had told him she was studying at a nearby Starbucks after she’d gotten off her own shift at her job.
“How’s work?” Nejire asked as she drove, reaching over to take a sip of her drink while steering with the other hand expertly. Mirio had long stopped worrying about Nejire’s driving habits. She’d gotten a perfect score on her driver’s exams, and had successfully avoided three car crashes. Plus her car was ridiculously cute and well kept, and Mirio knew she’d never dare the risk of wrecking it.
“It’s good,” Mirio replied, shifting in his seat.
“That’s good! Roomie Y/N went grocery shopping there today,” Nejire said. “They always see this cute dude working there, but they’re too shy to say anything, bless their adorable little heart.”
Y/N. Nejire and Tamai often speak of them, and despite having mutual friends, he’s never met them. He knows they’d like them, by what he’s heard. Every time he hangs out with Nejire and Tamaki, Y/N is always busy working or has extra curriculars. Which he understands all too well.
“And how’s swimming going, Mirio? Got yourself a date yet? I’ve heard people thirst over swimmers all the time, how are you not dating anyone? Is it your hair? I can cut it for you!”
They fell into an easy conversation after that. Nejire was always easy to talk to, and Mirio felt terrible that he didn’t hang out with her and Tamaki as much as he used to. It was bad enough that he couldn’t room with them, since he had to live with the other athletes on campus. But swim and work took up all of the free time he had. The rest was filled with homework and classes.
“Bye Mirio! Hand out with us soon, you still have to meet Y/N!” Mirio thanked her for the ride and climbed out of the car, noticing a stray receipt that fell to the ground as he shut the door. He picked it up and turned around to give it back to Nejire only to see she was already driving down the street and rounding the corner.
On his walk over he glanced at the receipt, curious.
It was a Costco receipt, which Mirio figured Y/N must’ve left in Nejire’s car by accident after their trip to the store. As he made his way into his own dorm room, he was about to drop the receipt onto his dresser when he noticed the address.
It was his Costco.
He almost screamed in shock but refrained from doing so, afraid he’d scare the new freshman who lived on the same floor as him.
There was no way. Right? Yeah. No way. Right?
He collapsed onto his bed, trying to remember everything he knew about Y/N from Nejire and Tamaki. They worked at the student center, were a great roommate, and had an odd oddication to Costco food court items.
Oh.OH.
He refrained from calling Nejire. It could all just be a coincidence. No one besides his coworker, Yuyu, knew about his crush on the frequent customer. Mirio had learned Y/N’s name after their third visit, when he’d sneaked a peak at their name on the receipt they presented him. Yuyu had teased him about it, and continued to do so—including today. He’d been so embarrassed when Y/N caught him staring that he dropped to the ground, and Yuyu had laughed at him the rest of the day.
With horror, Mirio realized Yuyu was literally Nejire’s best friend. But she’d kept true to her word and hadn’t told anyone about his crush. Otherwise Nejire would’ve been teasing Mirio about it, too.
He has practice the rest of the weekend, and his free time is spent getting ahead on assignments, so he has little time to dwell on it. But the time he has had he has spent analyzing his entire situation.
Y/N, Nejire and Tamaki’s beloved roommate, famous for their costco food court addiction. Never met Mirio. Nejire and Tamaki had never mentioned the Costco they frequented had been the one he worked at, and he had concluded that they simply didn’t know about that particular detail. The more he thought of it, the more he was convinced that they were the same person.
So on Monday, after his classes, he rushed to the student center. He did have an essay to print, so he wasn’t just going to find out if this was all an odd coincidence. He normally borrowed Tenya’s printer, since they lived on the same floor, but he decided to leave his underclassmen alone for the day and use the printers in the student center.
He made it to the computers, glancing around every which way. There were a few students sitting at the reception desks on the other side of the room, near the printers. But no Y/N.
“Hello, Mirio-senpai!”
“Oh, Izuku!”
His teammate settled down into the chair beside him, logging onto the computer. “Is Tenya out of ink?”
Izuku nodded, smiling to himself. “He was very upset about it. He ran straight to the store to buy some more, so I’m using the student center printers today.”
Mirio momentarily forgot about his original intent to be here and talked with Izuku about how he was liking college. The kid was super enthusiastic about it, rambling about how cool his classes were and how he loved swimming with everyone on the team. They both printed their essays and were about to leave when Mirio heard someone say something behind him.
“Have a good night, Y/N!”
“Thanks!”
He whirled around wildly, startling Izuku, who was about to reach to open the door. But no matter where Mirio looked, he didn’t see anyone. He ushered Izuku out the door, deciding he was in the mood for some off campus food.
“Dinner is on me, Izuku!”
“Really? Thanks so much!”
Y/N loved their job. It was relatively easy, and they had a lot of time to do their own homework while on the clock. Plus, free access to the printers and occasional snacks the student center offered sometimes.
They were getting ready to clock out when they noticed a blond guy walk into the center, and their heart stopped.
It was Costco-man.
Y/N went into a panic, sitting back down heard at the front desk and sliding down so their face was hidden. A little while later, they heard someone greet someone else, and Y/N was almost sure they heard the name “Mirio.”
It took them two seconds to connect the dots.
They packed up, mind whirling with speculations and then confirmations of their now greatest fear. Nejire and Tamaki must’ve not known, assuming Y/N went to a different Costco or that Mirio worked at a different one. Nejire was busy all the time, and Tamaki was too, so the miscommunication was understandable.
They said goodbye to their coworkers and slipped out the back, sighing in relief at their close call.
“Ah, Y/N-san!”
Y/N turned toward the familiar voice, a smile already on their face. Izuku was a part time worker at the student center, too, and they thought they’d heard him earlier. He was a sweet kid, and Y/N had been tasked with showing him the ropes of the job and had basically taken him in under their wing.
And just their luck, he was standing next to Mirio. Costco-man.
Izuku’s bright smile was not enough to blind Y/N from Mirio’s bewildered look, which quickly switched to a growing smile that Y/N hesitantly returned.
“Hi, Izuku,” Y/N greeted, stopping just in front of the pair. “How’s it going?”
Izuku had a glint in his eye Y/N had seen once before, when he had been tasked with reorganizing the filing system and had ended up making it much better than it had been before.
“Actually, I’m quite busy!” he chirped, making Mirio quickly turn his head to look at him in barely concealed surprise. Izuku ignored him. “I’ve got to run, enjoy your dinner, Mirio-senpai! See you tomorrow, Y/N!” And he sprinted away, as though afraid they’d chase after him.
“So,” Mirio smiled, his cheeks tinted pink. “Y/N.”
“Mirio,” Y/N smiled back. “Nice to know your real name.”
He laughed, falling into step beside them as they continued walking idly with no particular destination in mind, rushing back to the apartment long forgotten.
“I was heading to dinner off campus, want to come with?”
Y/N didn’t hesitate. “Sure.”
“Eh? What is this?” Nejire motioned between the two of them, eyebrows furrowed. Tamaki peaked from behind her curiously.
“What do you mean?” Y/N asked, turning towards their roommates. They’d just greeted Mirio with a hug after the other two had invited him to their apartment for a get together so that he could “finally” meet Y/N.
“You know each other?” Nejire asked.
“Well, you see—”
“OH MY GOD!” she gasped in sudden understanding, her eyes glancing between the two of them quickly. Mirio had just finished a shift at work and had brought them all ice creams, which Nejire wordlessly was now pointing at on the table in shock.
I’m a bit late for this one nghnhng but at least I finished!!! And yep, Tamaki ate a flower just to bring the butterflies to him. What a nerd (Mirio still loves him anyway).
