Chapter Text
The beach was nice.
Well, as nice as it could be with piles of trash several metres tall almost entirely covering it. Izuku found that it was a place where he could just stop and think, make sense of the noise in his head, and hide from bullies if he needed to.
After the first few times going there, he figured out a safe path through the trash to the shoreline. He would sit there, often for hours, just thinking as he watched the waves.
He didn’t expect anyone else to come there though, given it’s state, which was why the shout of “YESSSSSS!” echoing from somewhere on the beach was so startling.
Jumping up, he raced through the path he’d memorised over the months, to turn the corner and find someone with pink hair crouching over a washing machine?
“U-um, excuse me…”
“Oh!” They jumped up and turned around, “Hi! Are you here for materials to make babies too? This place is a goldmine!”
What.
“What do you mean by babies?”
“My inventions! They’re my babies! This place has a lot of really good spare parts and scrap metal so it’s the perfect place to find what I want to make them!”
“Oh, o-ok. What sort of stuff do you invent!”
“Lot’s of things! I really want to be make support gear so I’m experimenting at the moment but last week I finished making these boots that have jets in them so the user can jump really high though I really should find some materials to improve the cushioning at some point so that the landing especially doesn’t jar the ankle joints or hurt the soles of the feet to much. Anyway! What are you doing here then, Mystery-kun?”
“Mystery-kun?”
“Well, I don’t know your name yet, so I have to call you something in my head, don’t I?”
“Yeah, that makes sense. Oh! I’m Midoriya Izuku, he/him pronouns. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Hatsume Mei, they/she pronouns, future CEO of Hatsume Industries, same to you! So, unless you’re here for parts, what brings you here, Midori-kun?”
Did they just give me a nickname? So soon!
“I just come here to look at the view sometimes, there’s a really nice place down at the shoreline, it’s a good spot to think.” Now would be a good time to tell her so I don’t get a bad reaction further on. “A-anyway, Hatsume-san-”
“Just call me Mei, Midori-kun, saves time, doesn’t it?”
Well, alright then
“Ok, well, Mei-san, there’s something you should know before you decide if you wanna be friends with me or not. I- I’m Quirkless.”
Mei tilted her head. “And what’s that got to do with anything?”
“You- what? You don’t hate me for it?”
“Why would I? It’s not like you can do anything about it, so why should I care? Quirks are just one of many parts of a person. And besides! That means you’re a complete blank slate! You’d be able to use any standard support item with little to no modification, perfect for testing my babies, and if you wanna get a job somewhere, they know it’s because you worked hard and did it without a Quirk, which is really impressive!”
He could feel the tears forming in his eyes as they continued. “Thank you, Mei-san. No one’s ever told me that before.”
“Really? Well that’s stupid. What is it with people and judging someone on one tiny factor? Anyway, Midori-kun, could you maybe help me with this?” Mei gestured to the washing machine. “It’s heavier than I was expecting, and it’s really bulky.”
“Sure! I’m not very strong though, so don’t hold your breath.”
“Thanks!” They moved to one end of the washing machine and crouched down, hooking her fingers underneath the old appliance. “If you could lift from the other end and help me navigate through here, then that would be a great help!”
Izuku moved to do the same on the other end, and on Mei’s count, lifted with her. Holy shit this is heavy. I need to get my strength up.
They navigated through the piles of trash quite well, went up the stairs (that was hard) and soon they had it back on the concrete of the sidewalk.
“Thanks for that, Midori-kun! Man, that woulda taken all night if you hadn’t helped!” They said, barely out of breath.
“No, no problem, Mei-san.” Izuku managed to get out between gulps of air. He stood for a minute to catch his breath. “Also, if I can call you Mei, you can call me Izuku, if you want, that is. I’m so sorry if I assumed anything youreallydon’thavetoifyoudon’twanttoit’sfineifyoudon’treally-“
“It’s all good, Izu-kun! No problem!” Mei somehow managed to say “:D” out loud.
“O-oh, ok then! Well, I was wondering, if you want to that is, you totally don’t have to, it’s completely your choice, uhh, wouldyouliketobefriends?”
“Of course! I thought decided that back there in the little clearing with the washing machine! You wanna trade phone numbers?” She pulled out her phone at what seemed like the speed of light and held it out to him.
“Sure thing! Here’s mine.”
After getting his phone back, his eyes widened. “I really need to go! I didn’t realise it had gotten this late! Mum’s gonna kill me!” Or completely ignore me, I can never tell with her, really. He gave a quick bow to Mei. “It was so nice to meet you! We should catch up sometime!”
“Sure thing! Bye, Izu-kun!” They waved.
“See ya!” He took off running, hopefully if he was fast enough, he could make it home before mum did. Well, I guess all that running away from Kacchan was good for something. He thought grimly.
He managed to get home just in time, flopping on his bed before pulling out his phone and smiling.
It finally had a new number in it, after all.
Now, what nickname to put for their contact…
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End Notes
Next update should hopefully be this weekend if I have time