Work Text:
The cracks ran down one side of the thick white cuffs that covered his wrists, extending even further on the left glove with tears in the green fabric that covered the palm of his hand.
Izuku couldn’t remember when exactly they’d appeared.
It might’ve been yesterday, when he’d used Shoot Style in a training battle against Tokoyami; or maybe the week before, when he’d broken a fall with his hands after Kacchan had blown up the structure they’d been standing on, the Air Force gloves absorbing most of the impact; or maybe even earlier, in one of the various training events he and his classmates habitually took part in.
Most likely, though, it had been a combination of various incidents to wear them down. Mei Hatsume’s work on them was top notch, but nothing, not even her handicraft, could withstand the repeated collisions and abuse Izuku regularly put himself, and by extension, his gear through.
He finally noticed the cracks one morning while on his way back from training with All Might.
The lines were thin, almost invisible really, but there was no telling how far deep into the mechanism of the gloves they extended. They had worked fine that morning with All Might, but maybe there was some underlying issue that needed to be solved?
Izuku handled them carefully, running his fingers along the cracks.
He felt bad about going to Hatsume again for help.
He knew she wouldn’t mind, the girl was constantly tinkering on one thing or the other, but he always felt awkward asking her to do things for him.
The first year Support Course students were having a fair just this weekend too, Izuku had helped a few of them put up fliers just this morning, so he knew they were busy. He’d accompanied Uraraka to the Development Studio the other day and they’d nearly been buried in the pile of inventions Hatsume had prepared in sight of the fair. It would be unfair to her to bother her now with this.
When he got back to his room, he tucked the gloves safely back into their bag and slid it under his bed so it was out of the way. Getting them checked out, and fixed, if needed, could wait.
The cracks had gotten worse.
In all honesty, Izuku had somewhat forgotten about them.
The Support Course fair had come and passed, but even afterwards, it kept slipping his mind to get his gloves checked out.
Whenever he remembered the cracks, normally when he was practicing with the gloves, he’d resolve to ask Hatsume to fix them as soon as possible, but by the time he actually had time to go to the Development Studio, his mind was usually preoccupied worrying about other things, like his schoolwork.
The cracks were more than visible now, and the band that wrapped around and protected his left wrist was chipped, a small section of it threatening to fall off.
He resolved to get it fixed as soon as possible.
But then, they had exams coming up, surely he couldn’t bother Hatsume now, could he?
He bought a roll of tape and did his best to cover the worst of the cracks with it. He wasn’t sure if it actually did anything to help, but it was the best he could do for now.
In the end, it took half of the band of his left glove breaking apart and a chance meeting with Mei Hatsume to do it.
She zeroed in on him immediately from a distance, jogging towards him with one of her gadgets tucked under one arm.
He didn’t know what Hatsume had been doing alone in the forests surrounding the school grounds this early in the morning and frankly he didn’t particularly want to. Even if he had wanted to, he wouldn’t have had a chance to ask anyway, as Hatsume started firing questions at him.
“Is that broken?” She asked.
“Uh, yea.” Izuku held up the broken piece awkwardly.
"Those gloves were made to withstand the strongest of pressures. So for them to have broken apart like this, it would have required a strong blast, way stronger than the ones you practice with.” Her eyes narrowed. “Which means they’ve been damaged for a while, haven’t they?”
“Yes?”
“Well why didn’t you come to me to get them fixed?” She very reasonably pointed out.
Izuku cringed. “I’m sorry? I just didn’t want to bother you. I felt bad about asking you for help again after all you’ve done for me.”
“Nonsense!” Hatsume yelled. “Do you know how bad it would look for Hatsume Industries if one of our creations broke on the job? I do not give out faulty gear, and if my babies break, everyone knows I have no problem repairing it. In fact, Hatsume Industries will have a policy that allows people to fix their broken equipment at a discount. Also, what kind of hero just lets his equipment break and does nothing about it?”
One who was too embarrassed to ask for help until it was too late, clearly.
She was right though, Izuku really should not have procrastinated getting the gloves fixed the way he had.
She snatched the broken glove, looking it over with an expert eye. “My poor baby.” She cooed. “Don’t you worry, I’ll get you right back up and working again as soon as I can.”
She grabbed the other glove from his hands too and bounded away with them.
“Thank you!” Izuku called after her.
Hatsume told Izuku he could come pick them up at the Development Studio that friday, but the final exams must’ve taken a took a toll on her too, as when Izuku showed up, Hatsume was sitting at one of the desks, fiddling with a small red box and looking like she hadn’t slept in a week.
“Oh hello! Cracked Gloves!” She waved at him.
“Hi Hatsume!” He greeted, closing the door and moving forward cautiously, careful not to step on any of the various papers and books that littered the floor. Hatsume’s intense devotion and care of her inventions apparently didn’t extend to her schoolbooks.
Izuku took pity on them and bent down to pick them up, sorting the mess of papers into a more acceptable looking pile.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t fixed your gloves yet.” Hatsume said as Izuku set her books onto the table. “The problem was worse than I thought it was, and I also want to reinforce them. Then some third years needed some urgent adjustments to their costumes for their work studies, and since I’m the one who did the original design, I was the one who was most suited to fix them.”
“That’s alright!” Izuku reassured. “You’re doing me a favour, anyway. There isn’t any rush!”
“Also, are you okay? You look really tired,” he added hesitantly.
Hatsume cackled, which was far from encouraging. “I’m fine, oooh since you’re here, come help me test out this baby.”
“Uhh, do I have a choice?”
Izuku would normally have been happy to help, but the last time Hatsume had roped him into trying her “babies”, she’d nearly turned him into a human pretzel, so nobody could fault him for being a little cautious this time.
“Well, since you’re always complaining about how you can never repay me for fixing your costume, this is how you can do it! It’s just one small piece of gear, and it hasn’t exploded in like, two whole days.”
“Alright.” Izuku said, a little reluctantly. “Just- I’m not going to die or anything right?”
“Of course not! Even if it’s still in development, it would be bad for business if one of my inventions killed the person using it.”
That was surprisingly reassuring.
The gear did not explode on him, miraculously.
Hatsume then got him to try another two gadgets before Power Loader came in and told them to scram because another class had booked the lab for the evening.
Izuku found that he truly didn’t mind the experience as much as he thought he would. After he’d gotten over his fear of dying at the ripe old age of sixteen, he had been fascinated by the workings of the things he was trying out, and resolved to take a closer look at how his gloves worked when he got them back.
Hatsume cornered him again after class a few days later, telling him she needed his hand measurements for an adjustment she was making to the gloves, then proceeded to take them right then and there in the hallway while other students gave them curious looks and a wide berth.
It was awkward as hell (at least for him, Hatsume didn’t seem to care), and Izuku struggled a little to find something to talk about while they were there, rather than just stand in silence. He eventually landed on a topic he knew she would like, which was discussing the 'babies' she’d had him test.
His obsession with heroes as a kid had extended to their costumes and equipment, and he knew well how a design and outfits could make or break a hero. He had a few questions he’d wanted to ask her about the gadgets that he hadn’t thought of in the heat of the moment when he’d been trying them, but had had a chance to reflect on while zoned out in class (he couldn’t help it, social studies was boring).
Hatsume answered his questions offhandedly in between mutterings about the diameter of his wrist, then left as soon as she’d appeared once she’d gotten everything she needed, telling him that if he wanted to talk more about her gadgets, he was free to come to the studio.
It was definitely a trap to get him to try more of her babies, but Izuku didn’t really care.
He walked away from the interaction with an increased amount of respect for Hatsume’s work and a newfound interest in screwdrivers.
He did take her up on her offer to discuss gadgets further one day, though it had ended quite disastrously in something people were already dubbing “the Motor Oil Disaster”. They’d had to clean the whole Development Studio afterwards, which was probably the reason why the lab was so orderly today, the floor freshly mopped and the tables tidied for the first time since Izuku had started school here.
It had been a learning experience for everyone.
Hatsume learned not to trust Izuku with motor oil, Izuku learned that motor oil was really hard to get out of his hair, and Power Loader learned that it was best not to leave the two of them unsupervised.
The disaster had totally been Izuku's fault, though Hatsume vehemently insisted that since he “didn’t know shit” about these things, he couldn’t be to blame, and that she should have warned him. Izuku didn't know whether to be offended or touched, especially after she got a fifteen minute dressing down from Power Loader for the incident (not that that bothered her).
He’d gotten the oil out of his hair eventually, but he still was having one hell of a time getting it out of his clothing, which was why he was here in the first place, to ask if Hatsume had any advice or product that would help him get out the stains.
The girl in question was currently chatting with some second year students who had come in looking for Power Loader, but Izuku was more than happy to wait while she finished talking.
Izuku wandered around the room, admiring the order and cleanliness and knowing it wasn’t going to last.
He stopped near the windows at the back, noticing for the first time the line of pots that sat along the windowsill.
“Hey Hatsume,” he called once she was free. “Whose plants are these?”
“Oh, those?” Hatsume said dismissively. “Power Loader likes to keep them. He says you need them to offset the amount of technology in here with some nature. I’m supposed to water them but they always die.”
Most of the plants were indeed wilting, the hot afternoon sun shining through the grates on the window beating down on them.
Izuku picked one of the pots up delicately. “They’re dehydrated. The sun is probably too much for them.”
He pulled out a chair to stand on and moved one of the pots to the top of a nearby closet, where it wouldn’t be subjected to such harsh lighting.
Hatsume came over and helped him move the other five too. It wasn’t the best of spots either, but it was out of the way and most importantly, out of the sun.
“Great, will they live now?” Hatsume said.
“Probably not? You need to water them. How often have you been watering them?”
Hatsume shrugged. “Not often. Plants aren’t my thing. Why would I spend time on them when I can devote it to all of my babies?”
“I can water them for you if you want?” Izuku offered. “I know you’re not a huge plant person, and I feel bad just letting them die. This way I can repay you for the gloves and everything too.”
Hatsume’s eyes lit up. “The plants live, Power Loader is happy and stops bugging me about it, you have yourself a deal.”
Izuku smiled. “Great! Oh by the way, please tell me it’s possible to get motor oil out of clothing. That was my favourite shirt.”
“It’s probably never going to be the same again.” Hatsume proclaimed cheerfully. “But you can get it out. Mostly.”
Izuku groaned.
The plants needed to be tended to often, so he now saw Hatsume on a near daily basis.
Sometimes he’d just pop by and water them, but more and more often he’d find himself talking to the girl or helping her out with whatever she was working on.
Hatsume was more than happy to have someone to bounce ideas off and test out her gadgets, and Izuku was more capable than mosts at keeping up with her rapid fire reasoning and observations and adding his own to the mix.
He didn’t mind testing out the creations either, though Izuku had asked her nicely to make sure they were completely safe before giving them to him, and she seemed more than happy to comply and sic the more unstable of her creations onto whichever poor soul came through the door (though Izuku made an effort to warn anyone coming in of the risk, and Power Loader had given her a stern talking to about it after a first year had complained.)
It took another week for Hatsume to finally fix and improve his gloves.
Izuku checked on his plants while she went to retrieve them from the storage room. They were doing much better under his careful care, and after further consideration, he’d deemed the top of the closet to be an okay place to keep them. He’d checked the weather forecast for the upcoming week, and the stifling heat and sun of before that had caused the plants to wilt was probably going to subside.
He might even move them back to the window sill. It didn’t really make a difference, but he disliked having to balance on a chair to get to them everytime, and he thought they would brighten up the room a little if placed somewhere people could actually see.
“Here are your gloves!” Hatsume sang.
Izuku took them from her, hugging them to his chest. “Thank you so much!”
They were sleeker and less bulky, but felt studier at the same time. The color scheme was the same, white with green palms, but she’d added a few extra highlights in black and red that hadn’t been present before.
“You better tell me if they’re broken next time.” Hatsume warned.
“I will! Thank you so much.”
Hatsume eyed the plants as he carefully put the gloves into his backpack.
“Power Loader is so happy the plants are alive he hasn’t gotten annoyed at me all day,” she announced cheerfully. “I think he discovered he secretly loves gardening but just doesn’t know how to do it. You’ll keep coming to take care of them, right?”
“Sure, I don't mind coming in. I like taking care of them.”
Izuku had been responsible for helping his mother tend to their houseplants before they’d moved to the dorms, and keeping an eye on these ones reminded him a little of home.
“Also, you’re the only person who can keep up with what I do and doesn’t mind testing out stuff so you better keep coming.” She added, half threateningly.
He grinned at her.
“Of course I will.”
His interest in the mechanics of support gear increased the more time he spent there, and every now and then he’d pitch an idea or two of his own too, which would sometimes even be welcomed and accepted by Hatsume.
Kacchan muttered that he might as well transfer to the support course with how much time he spent there, while the rest of his classmates were good natured about it, listening to and encouraging the suggestions that he’d hesitantly offer about how to improve their costumes once he started getting a knack for it.
Izuku was as dead set on being a hero as ever, but he started picking up basic skills of equipment maintenance, which he knew would come in handy in the future, and he thought knowing the flaws and workings of what he was working with would contribute to him becoming a more well rounded hero.
Once his classmates realized this, many of them starting going to him for quick fixes, or when things needed a more expert look, they’d ask him to go to the Development Studio for them, though only a handful of them would admit that the reason for it was the fact that they found Mei Hatsume scary.
Izuku found himself a little overwhelmed by it all, though his classmates backed down a little once they realized that, and would always buy him little drinks and snacks or help him out with homework to repay him.
He understood the sentiment regarding Hatsume, she could be a little...intense. But she was fun and Izuku had gotten somewhat used to being around people with fiery personalities, he’d grown up with Kacchan after all.
Eventually, even his aversion to testing out the more unstable inventions was overcome by the need to see what would happen if he did try them out, and he and Hatsume ended up in the infirmary once, much to Mr. Aizawa’s, Recovery Girl’s and Power Loader’s chagrin.
Power Loader had started giving Izuku the same suspicious look he reserved for Hatsume, which she assured him was a good sign. He didn’t know how to feel about it yet.
Izuku walked into the lab one day to find that his plants had doubled in number.
He blinked, doing a mental headcount (plant count?) of the pots, and nope, that was five more than yesterday.
“Hatsume?” He called. “There are more plants, right? I'm not imagining that, am I?”
“Power Loader was delighted that you’re keeping them alive and brought more in.” Hatsume replied from under a table where she was hunting for an errant screw.
Hatsume might have been onto something with the “Power Loader secretly wants to garden” theory. The man in question was standing in the corner of the room and helping his student by collecting the bolts scattered across a table from a box of them that someone had knocked over.
Izuku silently consulted Hatsume about what to do about the plant situation.
He wondered whether these plants were Power Loader’s, the school’s or someone else’s, and if they expected Izuku to take care of them. Not that he minded, but he needed to know.
Hatsume replied that they were for the bodysuit in the corner of the room.
Or at least, that was what Izuku had gathered from the fact that she was dragging said bodysuit towards him and giving him a questioning look.
So maybe this silent communication thing wasn’t working very well.
He decided to approach Power Loader directly about it.
“Oh, they’re nobody’s in particular,” Power Loader said when he asked. “Though you’ve been doing a good job with the other ones. I hope it’s not a bother for you. I can get someone else to water them.”
Izuku assured him it was no bother at all.
“I would take care of them, but I really don’t know much about plants.” Power Loader added. He gave the plants a wistful look. Or so Izuku thought. It was hard to tell with the excavator claw on his head.
Izuku concluded that Hatsume was correct about Power Loader’s not so secret love for plants.
“I don’t want to overstep or anything, but if you want, I could lend you a book on gardening?” Izuku said hesitantly. “It was really useful for me when I was just starting out, and helped clear up a lot of questions I had. I know there’s also the internet and everything but it’s a really good book and explains really well and-”
“That would be very nice of you Midoriya, thank you.”
Izuku straightened, thankful the teacher hadn’t taken offense. “It’s at home, so I’ll have to go pick it up next weekend when I visit, but I’ll be sure to bring it!”
Power Loader thanked him again, mumbled something about Izuku being the nicer one of the Headache Duo and walked off.
“Do you think he’s going to keep bringing in more plants?” Izuku wondered aloud afterwards.
“What?” Hatsume screeched. “Midoriya if you turn this place into a greenhouse-”
Izuku grinned. “Do you want to borrow the gardening book too? Or I can teach you directly. Since you’re always here, you’re going to be surrounded by plants soon. It would be good to learn about them.”
“No way.”
“What do you have against plants, Hatsume?”
“Not my thing,'' she said firmly.
“Oh right, that's fair.”
Izuku mulled that over. “But it could be! Have you considered making a baby that watered the plants for you?”
The part of him that wasn’t thinking up a plant watering robot was horrified at how casually he’d used the word “baby”.
Hatsume looked at him with interest. “Now that’s an idea. Keep talking.”
Mei’s plant watering robot was a stout little robot that had a section that could be filled with water, which it could then distribute to the various pots (Izuku helped program it so that each plant received the correct amount of water).
The robot was painted pink and Izuku had drawn a little smiley face on it with a black marker and named it Ren.
It sat on the windowsill next to the plants it watered and every morning it would activate and carefully give them water one by one, before returning to it’s original spot, where it would sit for the rest of the day until it was time to water again.
It worked beautifully.
Hatsume was already musing about how it could be improved, drawing up some plans that would allow it to go to the sink on it’s own and fill itself up with water when the tank was empty instead of requiring someone to refill it manually, but to Izuku, it was already perfect. He loved it.
Of course, taking care of the plants detailed more than just watering them, but Izuku took care of fertilizing them, pruning them and removing dying leaves, and checking them for insects or diseases. Hatsume had also mentioned either adjusting Ren to be able to do more things or build another robot to take care of those aspects eventually, though she told Izuku she’d need his help for that, as she wouldn’t know what the robot had to do and would need to be informed in order to design it properly.
Izuku was more than happy to comply.
(Hatsume was also learning about plants at the same time, though Izuku didn’t think she’d realized that yet).
The two of them usually saw each other in the Development Studio, but today Izuku was in the cafeteria when Hatsume called out to him.
“Hey Plant Whisperer! Want to come test out a baby with me tomorrow night?”
“What time? Izuku yelled back.
“Around eleven pm.”
“I have a curfew at ten thirty! Don’t you?”
“I got us both special permission to go out!”
Izuku felt a smile tugging at his lips. “Okay!”
“What was that about?” Uraraka asked afterwards, curious. “What are you guys going to test?”
“I have no idea.” Izuku said. “I guess I’ll find out tomorrow night.”
The gadget Hatsume and Izuku were testing out were a pair of goggles for a girl in class 2A. Their main function was night vision and infrared goggles, differing from standard ones one could find (somewhat) easily in a store both thanks to their quality and their design, which had been adapted to fit in with the rest of the girl’s costume. They were sleeker than the standard kind, Izuku would know, as he’d gotten a pair of night vision goggles a few years back when he’d gotten obsessed with underground heroes, who often used said goggles in their line of work.
They were more of a visor, really, made of a reflective purple material with a white and silver frame and design etched along the bottom.
The visor required darkness to be tested out, obviously, which was why they were out this late, though a dark room would have sufficed, so Izuku was surprised the teachers had allowed this excursion.
Hatsume wasn’t one to leave any of her babies to the basics of course, and had added a few extra features to it other than the standard ones.
Hatsume explained all of this to him as they trekked to the top of a hill just outside UA’s grounds.
UA was surrounded by a thicket of trees that extended for a bit in all directions, so apart from the lights coming from the school itself, they were as free as one could possibly be from light pollution. The stars were clear and visible above their heads.
The answer to Izuku’s musings about why they’d been allowed to do this in the first place lay in the extra features themselves, that required the night sky to work properly.
The first feature was a positioning system based on the stars. The user could use the position of the stars in the night sky to pinpoint their own location and orient themselves accordingly.
“I wanted to blindfold you, drop you somewhere with only the visor and see if you could make your way back to school but the teachers said I wasn't allowed to do that.” Hatsume said with a straight face.
“You wanted to do what?”
“Relax, it’s not like you would've been in real trouble or anything. Besides, the only way to test it out accurately is if the tester genuinely has no idea where they are.”
“That’s true.” Izuku conceded. “Are you sure they wouldn’t let you do that? Even if I agreed to it? That sounds kind of fun, like a challenge.”
“That’s what I told them,” Hatsume complained. “Killjoys, the lot of them.”
“Well, they did let us come here on our own.” Izuku pointed out. “I’m surprised you even got permission to do that. I know we’re still on campus technically, but they’ve been super tight with security with everything that’s been going on.”
“Oh, Power Loader didn’t want me to. But I told him you would only give him the plant book if he let us do this. Next thing I knew we got permission.”
Izuku blinked, perplexed. “First off, I’m surprised that worked. Secondly, I wouldn't have, though? Like, I would’ve been sad that we didn’t get to do this but I would have given him the book anyway.”
Hatsume shushed him. “He doesn't have to know that. And we’re here, aren't we? That’s what matters.”
Hatsume had made three pairs of the visor, one main one and two spares, so they didn’t have to share the same one once they’d reached the top of the hill. The visor was light and secure, and the night vision and infrared worked perfectly.
The positioning system took Izuku a little longer to get used to. It was a little tricky, though he could see the benefits it would bring, especially since Hatsume had told him the girl in question planned on working as a rescue hero in natural disasters in more remote areas.
“Oh, that’s not all it can do!” Hatsume said. “I haven’t shown you the other features yet, though I think this is better for you to see than for me to explain. Gimme your goggles.”
Izuku pulled them off and handed them to her. She fiddled with the buttons on the side for a second, and the visor flickered with purple light for a second or two, before falling dark again. Finally satisfied, she handed them back.
“Put them on and feast your eyes.”
Izuku slipped them on, looking around. The night vision aspect had been deactivated, so everything was dark again, and there didn’t seem to be any notable differences. He looked at Hatsume questioningly.
“Don’t look at me, look at the sky.” she said impatiently.
Izuku looked up and-
Oh.
Thin silver lines connected groups of stars to each other, forming various shapes. Overlaid over them were careful artworks in pale white. There was an unmoving woman with a solemn expression wearing a robe, a flying winged horse, the wings moving ever so slightly, two koi fish circling each other, a man holding a sword in one hand and a decapitated head in the other.
“Whoah,” Izuku breathed, craning his neck back and taking it all in.
More figures appeared as he scanned the night sky, covering it completely in ghostly drawings, highlighted by the stars themselves and the silver lines connecting them.
He knew it was the visor’s work, project the images and making it seem like they were actually up in the sky, but it felt so real, like they were actually up there, the whole sky becoming a giant canvas.
He focused on one of the drawings, the first one he’d spotten, the solemn woman. The word “Andromeda” appeared next to the woman’s face as he stared at her. Soon, more writing faded in too. The words “Alpheratz” popped up besides the brightest star, as did all the other stars’ names.
Next to Andromeda was the winged horse, and as Izuku stared at it, the writing around Andromeda disappeared and “Pegasus” appeared next to the horse. The fish were “Pisces”, and the man with the sword was “Perseus”, and oh, so many more of them, forming a delicate patchwork of images covering every inch of the sky.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Hatsume remarked. “This is my first time trying it out too, it came out better than I expected.” She sounded satisfied.
“What- How- Why-”
“This was the girl’s request. When I mentioned the star map tracking system, she asked if I could add something that would make constellations visible. It doesn’t have any practical purposes, it’s just nice to look at. I knew nothing about constellations, but I’m always up for a challenge. This was the result.”
Izuku struggled to find words. “Hatsume, this is incredible. You’re incredible.”
She grinned at him. “So, you think we can consider this prototype approved?”
“Absolutely, yes.”
Hatsume held her hand up and Izuku high fived it.
They stayed, watching the constellations for another while, before reluctantly walking back to the school. Power Loader had conceded them this, but they still had to be back in their rooms by one am, that was part of the agreement.
Before they parted ways to go back to their respective dorms, Hatsume handed Izuku a visor. It looked like the ones they’d just tried out, only in green and black instead of purple and white.
“I thought you might like the constellations, so I made you an extra one. It has the standard night vision and infrared too.”
Not for the first time that night, Izuku was speechless. “Hatsume this is- I can’t take this, this is-”
She shoved it into his hands. “Take it.”
“How can I ever repay you?” he asked weakly.
“Keep hanging out with me. Detention for blowing up the Development Studio is way more fun when you’re not the only person in it. Oh and hey speaking of things blowing up, I tested this visor less than the other ones so there is a tiny chance it’ll explode or something. Just so you know.”
Izuku laughed wetly, wiping his eyes. “Duly noted. Thank you.”
He didn’t get much sleep that night, staring out the window at the stars.