Chapter Text
Iida stared up at the sign of the development studio with apprehension. It hadn’t been very many days since the near-tragedy everyone had since deemed “the pyro incident,” but the memories were still relatively fresh in his mind. He could sometimes still hear and feel the whimpers and twitches Hatsume’s exhausted body had made against his back whenever he zoned out. It had left him with a different kind of scar than the others on his body—one that persisted like a hallucination every time he closed his eyes.
By then however, it was Saturday afternoon. Though the memories hung close, Iida knew he couldn’t dwell on the past forever. He needed to move forward—and he knew that could only be done by seeing Hatsume again in-person, even if the idea made him nervous.
Iida squinted anxiously up at the words on the sign, Not to mention… I still haven’t talked to her about…
He couldn’t help the way his lower lip pursed at the memory. Besides the pyro incident, there was also something much more… unexpected, that he had yet to address. And that thing, was of course Hatsume’s potential feelings for him.
He scratched his head, Was it just something that she did in the heat of the moment? Or were there actually some r… “romantic feelings” involved…?
This was something he also hoped to answer, but not right away if need be. As curious as he was, Iida found himself feeling strangely hesitant to uncover the truth.
Still, after steeling himself, Iida managed to push open the studio door—heart already pulsing from some bout of jitteriness. Thankfully, it didn’t take more than a second for his eyes to find Hatsume in the back of the room, head craned over some new invention she was already tinkering away at. At the door creak, she looked up too.
“Oh, Iida!” she beamed, surprising him when she actually set down her wrench to acknowledge him, “It’s been a little while! I thought you’d forgotten about me, haha!”
“Oh don’t be ridiculous,” he huffed, “I’ve been busy lately, is all. The hero department has license exams coming up, so all of us have been working extra hard to develop our ultimate moves,” then in the back of his mind, he added silently: I couldn’t forget about you if I tried to.
Even more to his astoundment, she stood up from her crisscrossed position on the floor, and hurried over to him with engine grease still smudged on her jaw.
“How have you been holding up?” she asked first, as if she hadn’t just been the one who’d most recently been in mortal peril, “I’ve been worrying about how this maybe affected you, since you haven’t stopped by much.”
“Ironic you should ask that, given the circumstances, but I’m sleeping soundly again, if that’s what you mean…” a dreary look crossed his eyes that he hadn’t done well enough to hide, “It’s hard not thinking about how much worse things could’ve gone that day.”
She gave him a sympathetic look before he shook his head and met her gaze normally again.
“But enough about me, how about you?” he asked, eyebrows creasing worriedly, “That burn of yours wasn’t shallow, if I recall. You needed some heavier-duty treatment, isn’t that right?”
“Oh, this?” she remarked, making Iida flinch as she shrugged out of her jumpsuit and rolled up the left leg of her shorts, “You’re right—it was pretty nasty. Recovery Girl had to do surgery on it to remove the dead tissue, and it left this awesome mark! She offered to give it a second surgery when it’s all healed up—a skin graft, I think? For cosmetic purposes and whatnot, but I kinda prefer it this way! Maybe I’ll even name it, hehe.”
Iida flashed her an unamused look before observing the mark on her thigh. It was certainly a large injury—spanning an area around the size of a grapefruit. The edges of the burn were uneven, too—spindling around in a spiderweb pattern across her skin, with traces of that nearly-healed, pink, fleshy color still present. Iida didn’t quite find it as cool as Hatsume did though, instead feeling a pang of regret that he hadn’t been able to rescue her sooner.
“That’s certainly sizable,” he said, looking back up at her with concern etched across his face, “Are you certain you don’t want to get the extra surgery?”
Hatsume just shrugged, “It’s not like it’s in that visible of a location. And since it costs extra money, I’m not gonna burden my parents with the expense. They already have to deal with enough of my accident-prone injuries; I’m not gonna cause them more trouble.”
He noticed a particularly serious look behind her eyes as she said this, but after a frustrated huff, her expression vanished—once again replaced with her typical, cheerful grin.
“Anyways,” she grinned, “Did you come here to tell me somethin’? Or just to say hi like normal?”
“Ah—right. I did come for something, but it’s a bit of a different request than usual…” he paused for a minute, trying to remember the details, but for whatever reason, couldn’t remember it. It made him let out an annoyed: “tsk,” before whipping out his phone to refresh his memory, “Sorry, I can’t remember exactly what I was going to ask. Give me one minute…”
She waited patiently for a few seconds, using the time to slip her jumpsuit back on, until she suddenly interrupted the silence with a question.
“Iida, question:” she began strangely, an unusual amount of hesitance in her voice.
“What is it?” he replied while glancing at her, only to find yet another peculiar expression on her face—something that was a mix of bashfulness, and regret.
“Do you… remember anything particular when you came to visit me in the nurse’s office?”
His finger froze on the Messages app, and he felt his heart thud in his gut like a sack of bricks. He didn’t even have to think to know what she was referring to.
The kiss.
Somehow though, Iida managed to retain his poker face. Without cracking a smile or letting his cheeks redden, Iida was able to answer in a way that was both steady, and unsuspicious.
“I don’t recall anything in particular,” he commented, raising an eyebrow as he continued to search through his texts, “Midoriya asked a similar question the other day too. Did something strange happen? There is a blank spot in my memories, and if I remember, I somehow wound up on the dorm couch…”
Too quickly, Hatsume shook her head at him, “Oh—naw, don’t worry about it! It’s not a big deal anyway, haha—just that, uh…. Kirishima and Todoroki were the ones to cart you away when you passed out, is all.”
He blinked doubtfully at her once, but ended the conversation with a simple: “I see…”
Right when Hatsume thought he’d taken his eyes off of her, Iida caught her letting out a sigh of relief. Another secret glance from over the ridge of his phone, told him she was clearly glad he’d forgotten. Her eyes, though cheerful as ever, seemed to have a shred of timidness behind them—the look of someone who had just managed to pull off a stressful deception. Yet, that sigh—the way she’d been so quick to fill with relief when she learned he’d forgotten everything, filled Iida with a painful, sagging sensation in his stomach.
Looking back down at his phone, he realized that feeling was disappointment.
Something’s wrong with me. Why do I feel like this?
Not a second later however, he found his conversation with his mom, and was able to reread the details he’d forgotten.
“So as I was saying,” he started again, slipping his phone back into his pocket, “I’m in need of somewhat of a favor. You aren’t in any pain from your injury still, correct?”
She nodded, “You saw me stride across the room, didn’t you? I’m fit for fighting!”
He gave somewhat of a funny grimace, “Well, I don’t exactly need you for that, but it involves lifting some heavy boxes.”
“Oh?” she raised an eyebrow, “What gives? Ya moving or something?”
“That’s exactly it,” he nodded, “You see, my family has decided to switch locations due to an… unanticipated mishap,” Iida’s eyes softened somewhat, “My brother, as you might’ve overheard, was left unable to walk after a malicious villain encounter, and has been undergoing some rigorous physical therapy. The issue was that the commute to the hospital was quite long—over an hour even by train—so we’ve decided to move closer to better support him,” Iida raised a hand sheepishly to the side of his head, “This won’t change anything of course, I’ll still be attending UA like usual, but moving all of the hero equipment has been a bit of a hassle. And, though it would’ve been more ideal to bring Midoriya or Todoroki along, they’re just as busy as I am with training right now, so they can’t come…”
He glanced up at her, face still creased with worry, “Would you mind helping? Even if you can’t lift much, I’m sure it would be very helpful to have someone around to pack.”
Hatsume however, didn’t look bothered in the slightest by the request. On the contrary, she was beaming.
“ABSOLUTELY!” she shouted, gripping her fists as stars glittered in her eyes, “Are you kidding!? This is the PERFECT opportunity to test my newest baby—#349, the portable forklift!”
Before he could stop her, she bolted across the room towards one of her many inventions, and sat herself down on the seat cushion.
“W-wait, Hatsume—that’s not necessary! I’m not asking for you to lift anything that heavy—”
“Oh nonsense!” she butted in, twisting the key to start the engine, “This one’s completely safe—I promise! And besides, it could use a test run!”
As if on cue, she raised the tiny skewers of the miniature forklift up into the air, only for them to almost immediately pop off the top and clatter to the floor with a loud: “CLAKAKAKA!” Maijima promptly chastised her from the distance, with a scornful reminder to stop breaking things.
“Oops…” she chuckled, receiving an eyeroll from Iida in response, “So uh… when do you need me?”
“Tomorrow, if you’re free. There’s no school, so unless you have a project to do—”
“Nope, I’m all free!” she grinned, sliding off of her seat to skip back over to him, “I’ll be aaall yours tomorrow, engine boy! Ya better keep me entertained!”
He gave her another grimace, but felt a smile tug at his face the moment he realized her grin was genuine.
“Thank you then,” he nodded, turning to leave with a bubble of suppressed joy brewing in his stomach, “I’ll meet with you at 2pm in front of the fountain, does that sound good?”
Before he pushed out of the doors, her eyes softened into a sweet smile that seemed to mean something much more than just her usual look.
“It sounds perfect.”
Iida shifted back and forth uncomfortably on his feet. It was 1:55pm—five minutes earlier than they’d agreed on, but out of habit, Iida had arrived as punctual as always. He was nervous too, for whatever reason. His palms felt somewhat clammy at his sides, and his resting heartbeat was quicker than usual. He still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this feeling—whether it was because he was shy about showing her his house, or because this whole meet-up was slowly starting to feel like a date. Either way, his timid anticipation showed little signs of letting up.
Admittedly, he hadn’t really thought this through. When his mother had messaged him the other day, it was simply to request for his help in packing things. He had been the one to insist on bringing someone—after all, with Tensei unable to help, they would need more hands. Hatsume was high on Iida’s list of friends, so it was only natural that he’d ask her. But even though Iida enjoyed spending time with her, their relationship was still a bit… unclear, at times.
And knowing that he was going to take her to his home that day, only made his anxiousness even worse.
Eventually though, after a few more minutes ticked away, Iida heard footsteps. Blinking away his daze, he brought his eyes away from the ground to finally fall on Hatsume—who at the moment, was skipping toward him with such excitement on her face, it made his heart squeeze.
“HEYAAA!” she yelled to him, vigorous as ever as she threw her arm up and waved.
As she got closer however, his heart jolted. Hatsume wasn’t wearing her jumpsuit for once. Instead, she had on a pair of lightly torn jeans, and a thin-strapped, pink, halter top that matched her hair. Curiously enough, the gizmo she always had on her head was missing too—leaving nothing but her high ponytail jostling as she leapt the rest of the distance towards him. Well… nothing on her head, jostling, that was…
Iida blinked away from her before his mind could get any deeper in the gutter. When she was finally in front of him, most of the red in his cheeks was gone, but he wasn’t sure if he was hiding his embarrassment as well as he thought he was.
“G… good afternoon, Hatsume,” he finally peeped, chancing another look at her without letting his eyes dwell too long on any of her curves, “I see you’ve decided to come and help?”
“Yup!” she grinned toothily, “I’ve been waiting for this all morning! Kinda excited, to be honest! (After all, there’s a chance I can look at some real-deal hero support items today, hehe.)”
“Well, I’m glad you’re energetic. Better save that for later when we’re lifting things…”
Once again, Iida observed her attire, noticing the thin, abundant folds that outlined the waist of her shirt. At this point, he couldn’t help it. With her standing next to him like this, it was too easy to steal glances—too tempting. He didn’t understand it, but it was as if a magnet were pulling his pupils back onto her every time he tried to stare elsewhere. Looking at her face was even harder than it usually was, too, because it was too easy to just look… down.
She unfortunately seemed to notice after a couple seconds of his quiet staring.
“Hey,” she cut in, bending over slightly in hopes to make eye contact with him, “is there something wrong? Are we gonna leave, or not?”
At last seized by self-awareness, Iida jerked his chin back up to look at her in the eyes, and quickly shook his head, “Y-yes, I apologize! I was just, well, wondering if you were genuinely coming in, well—that outfit, I guess. B-because—pardon me for asking—it just seems a bit tight. Are you sure you won’t find it restrictive?”
“Huuuh?” she immediately retorted, raising an eyebrow, “I wear tanks aaall the time when I’m working, engine head! Heck, this top’s even thinner than usual! I can move my arms in any direction I want, see?”
Iida nearly shrieked when she demonstrated by crossing her arms in front of her—unintentionally defining her cleavage. Very quickly, he grabbed both of her wrists and gently pulled them to her sides.
“Don’t do that. Please…”
She continued to stare confusedly at him for a moment, before finally drawing out an: “Oooooh~ I gotcha.”
When he’d let go of her wrists, she gave him a playful nudge with her shoulder, “Did I fluster you, race legs? Hehehe, my bad!”
Covering his face with one hand, he glared embarrassedly off at the horizon, Don’t even pretend to be sorry, I know you were messing with me.
“But hey—you aren’t all that dressed for moving things either, yanno. Are you really one to talk?”
He raised an eyebrow confusedly before looking down to realize that she actually had somewhat of a point. Sure, he had on looser jeans than Hatsume, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that his polo/cardigan combo wasn’t exactly practical, either. He’d even combed his hair, now that he thought about it. At a glance, the two of them really did look like they were on a date.
“Th-this…” he eventually mumbled, “this is just what I always wear outside of school. I can always change into a t-shirt when we get to my house…”
Rather than comment on this, Hatsume just smirked at him until they arrived at the entrance to the front gate.
From there, the two began their long trip to Iida’s house. About fifteen minutes later, they were boarding a train to go across town. Seated closest to the window, Hatsume watched as the sights of the cramped city streets opened up into wider roads and newer buildings—a place that by the minute, seemed to increase in lavishness. She sent Iida several eyebrow raises, but every time he glanced up from his phone to look at her, he didn’t seem particularly concerned.
By the time they were out of the crammed station, Iida led Hatsume down the road to a street that eventually opened into a large residential area—one with significantly more space, despite being located in Tokyo. It made her gawk for a moment—completely dumbstruck as Iida proceeded down the sidewalk, still unfazed despite the obvious difference between this neighborhood and the entire rest of their trip.
“It’s probably been a while since you’ve been home, right?” Hatsume piped up anxiously, skipping to catch up with Iida as he marched onwards, “Are you sure this is the right street?”
He quirked an eyebrow at her perplexedly, “I’m quite certain, actually. We’ve lived here as a family for as long as I can remember—there’s no question.”
At that moment, they passed an older woman outside watering her garden, who waved hello at Iida the moment they walked by. He gave her a nod and a polite wave in return, before continuing on his way as if that were an everyday occurrence. Which… in and of itself, waving to an old woman wasn’t anything unique. Rather, it was the fact that in the backdrop behind her, was a traditional-style Japanese manor that took up nearly three entire blocks worth of space.
Now Hatsume was more than anxious—she was distraught. Already, she felt so out of place, coming from a rather ordinary apartment in the suburbs, herself. So many things were already spinning through her head. Was she dressed too casually? Should she fix her posture? Was she supposed to wave to all these rich folk too, or was Iida the exception because he personally knew them? There was no way to know unless she asked, but for some reason her mouth wouldn’t open.
As Iida’s house came into view at last, he finally realized that Hatsume was quieter than before. Before crossing the street, he turned to look at her, and found that her expression was knitted with worry.
“Are you alright, Hatsume?”
“Eh?” she straightened up almost immediately when he addressed her, “Oh—I’m okay, haha! Just not used to this side of town, I guess…”
At that moment, Iida realized with a blink of surprise what the issue was. Rather abashedly, he eyed the expensive houses in his peripheral, and grimaced.
“Oh… right, I never mentioned—” he turned back to Hatsume with an apologetic expression, “I’m sorry, I should’ve mentioned this sooner. I’m that Iida—son of the pro hero Ingenium. I-I come from a family line of heroes, so as you can imagine, we’ve accumulated a bit of wealth…”
“No, I knew that, actually,” Hatsume chuckled awkwardly, waving a hand, “Tensei is your older brother. I made the connection when I heard what your hero name was, too. And of course, you told me yesterday that he was a hero, so it just made sense…”
“Ah…” Iida scratched the back of his head embarrassedly, “but even still, I’m sorry if being here makes you uncomfortable. This is why I don’t typically have friends over…”
At this point though, Hatsume shook her head, “It’s okay, Iida! It really is, I promise! I was the one who volunteered to come, after all, and I mean—I was bound to learn about this eventually. Especially since you can’t really help someone move without going to their house, haha.”
“That’s fair,” he sighed, “With that out of the way then, let’s go inside.”
Hatsume nodded, and the two of them crossed the road and approached Iida’s front gate. Once in front of it, Iida pressed the button to the intercom system and announced: “Mom, it’s me, Tenya. I’m coming in.” before pressing his thumb on the fingerprint scanner next to it, and opening the gate with an electronic “click”. As he held the gate open for her, she couldn’t help but glance at the device with a vague feeling of envy.
In comparison to the view of his house though, the gate was practically nothing.
Large enough for a family of eight, with modern, slanted roofs, and windows you could fit a semitruck through, Iida’s house wasn’t any sort of humble abode—it was a genuine mansion. Granted, it didn’t take up three blocks, but the crisp, modern style made it feel so much bigger and more luxurious than it had any right to be. It was certainly a top percentile home—and even though Hatsume knew better than to comment on it, she couldn’t help it.
“D*mn, Iida…”
When he glanced over his shoulder at her, his face was already bright red, “A-again, I’m sorry…”
“No, don’t be—there’s nothing wrong with being wealthy,” she shrugged, blinking away the dazed stars in her eyes, “If anything, your family deserves it for protecting Japan through so many generations, haha.”
“You think so?”
She noticed an adorably hopeful look in his eyes when he asked this, and realized that she’d said the right thing for once. It allowed her to grin at him normally again, replying with a sound: “Definitely!”
Thankfully, both of them felt less nervous approaching the front door after that. Walking up the steps to the front porch, Iida pressed his thumb on yet another scanning pad, and opened the door without any further difficulties.
“Mom, Dad, I’m home!” he called out, sliding his shoes off.
His voice echoed in the vast, pristine entryway for a moment before a distant muffled: “Oh! Tenya! I’ll be right there, sweetie!” replied back.
As Hatsume kicked off her shoes behind him, her eyes immediately scanned the floor beneath her feet. Hardwood, she realized, then stared even wider when she spotted the ornate, chiseled patterns on the white walls, and the three-tiered, geometric chandelier hanging over their heads. A stairwell to the second floor sat on their left, accompanied with more gorgeous wood flooring, and on the right, Hatsume could see a large sitting room that was currently loaded up with cardboard boxes rather than furniture.
They could buy my entire house with just their front hallway… Hatsume thought enviously.
Luckily, she didn’t have much time to relish in her jealousy however, because the next moment, Mrs. Iida hurried into their view from the end of the hall with her arms wide.
“Tenya! Oh, it’s so good to see you!” she gushed immediately, throwing her arms around him as best as she could despite how much he already towered over her. Tenya responded equally as quickly, pulling his mom even closer with a smile already beaming across his face.
“I’m glad to be home again,” he sighed happily, then loosened the hug after a couple more seconds.
“And we’re glad to have you, hon. We’ve missed you so much since you’ve moved out.”
Mrs. Iida made sure to give him one last peck on the cheek before pulling away to finally observe Hatsume in the doorway.
“Oh! You brought a visitor?”
Iida jumped slightly, “Right, yes! Did I not mention it?”
“I don’t think so, but if she’s a friend, then she’s welcome here. What’s your name, dear?”
“A-ah, right,” Hatsume stuttered.
Before answering, she gave Mrs. Iida a quick once-over. Indeed, she had the Iida family genetics written all over her—with short, dark hair cut just below her jawline, and a pair of round glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. If Hatsume looked closely, she could also vaguely see the pipes of those familiar engines Tenya had inherited—only hers were smaller, and located closer to her ankles.
Yup, she’s definitely Iida’s mom, Hatsume thought to herself, Though I guess the right wording would be Tenya’s mom. Huh. That’s definitely not gonna get confusing…
“Uhhh, I’m Hatsume Mei. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Iida,” Hatsume finally said, bowing somewhat sheepishly, “I’m a friend of Iida—erm… Tenya’s. He asked me to come and help you guys move today.”
“Ah, did he?” she made somewhat of a meddlesome smile before stepping over to welcome Hatsume more fully, “Well that’s just lovely. We can certainly use the extra hands, since Tensei—”
She sort of froze mid-step, but Tenya noticed it quicker than Mrs. Iida seemed to.
“Mom! Why don’t we head to the kitchen?” Tenya piped up quickly, “It took a while to get here—before we get started, how about we visit for a bit and have something to eat? Is Dad around, too?”
“Oh, right,” she nodded quickly, smiling again as she faced the hallway she’d initially come from, “Your father’s in the living room dismantling the electronics. If you two would like, I can make you tea, and something to snack on before you get into things.”
A look of relief washed over Tenya’s eyes, “That sounds great.”
Hatsume filed into the hallway behind the two Iidas, and followed until the ceiling opened up into another spacious, but slightly more ordinary room. On the right, Hatsume saw the kitchen—adorned with blue shelving and an aqua colored fridge that somehow made sense for this family to own. In the dining room, the furniture had already been moved out, so other than a houseplant or two, all that filled the space, were three seat cushions stacked up against the wall. On the left was the living room, which had a sunken floor made with the first tatami she’d seen in the entire house, and had a green sofa alongside one of the inner edges.
Eventually, she also spotted a man, who she assumed to be Mr. Iida, stooped down on his knees with his head poking around inside of the cabinet. He indeed appeared to be disconnecting cables, just as Mrs. Iida had earlier explained.
“Honey, stop what you’re doing and come over for a moment! Your son is home!”
“Ah, Tenya’s here? Give me just another second.”
A strange pause filled the air, and Hatsume could see a flash of suppressed annoyance on Mrs. Iida’s soft face.
“Sweetie, we have a guest, too. Please come and greet them—you don’t want to be impolite.”
“Is it that Midoriya kid? Or Todoroki’s son?” he answered instead, still not looking at them, “We’ve already met before, they can wait. I just have a few more to untangle back here until—”
“He’s brought a girl home,” she finally huffed.
Tenya immediately shot her a red-faced expression, “Mom!”
At that, Mr. Iida jolted hard enough to bonk his head on the inside of the cabinet. Cursing quietly from the pain, he scurried out in a sudden rush of movement, and sat up as quickly as he could. When his eyes finally found Hatsume, they widened, and he let out a surprised: “Oooh!”
“Tenya never told us he was bringing a girl over!” he laughed, brushing dust off of his pants as he came to his feet, “My apologies, I don’t believe we’ve met before! What’s your name, young lady?”
“I’m Hatsume Mei. Nice to meet you,” she greeted again, feeling strangely more at ease by his casual disposition, “I’m just one of Iida’s school friends, haha.”
“I see,” he grinned, seeming to nonchalantly scrutinize her for a moment before nodding in approval, “I think I’ve heard your name before. Isn’t she that engineering gal you always talk about, Tenya?”
Once again, his cheeks turned pink, “I-I don’t always talk about her. And yes, but she’s an inventor, not an engineer.”
“Ah, same thing,” he chuckled, resting his hands against his back, “Now, did I overhear something about taking a break for tea? Or was that just a suggestion?”
“Yes, I was about to get that started,” Mrs. Iida said, moving into the kitchen, “You three sit down, I’ll get everything ready, okay?”
“Thank you, Mom,” Tenya smiled thankfully, grabbing two of the seat cushions for himself and Hatsume, “We really appreciate it.”
A few minutes passed by as the electric kettle boiled, allowing Hatsume another moment to observe Mr. Iida as well. Again, just like the rest of the Iidas, he had short hair styled in that same undercut—only the color was a shade or two darker than his sons’. He was also broad-shouldered and tall, built like a brick, yet at a glance, she couldn’t tell what his quirk was. It made Hatsume wonder if Mrs. Iida was in fact the previous Ingenium before Tensei and Tenya inherited the name.
The only other difference Hatsume could take note of was Mr. Iida’s eyes, which were curiously slim and had a remarkable auburn-red color. It made her wonder what Mrs. Iida’s eyes looked like, but she couldn’t tell because of the thick glasses she wore.
“So,” Ms. Iida finally piped up, back turned to them as she started to peel apple slices, “Mei, dear—can I call you Mei?”
Hatsume replied yes, to which Mrs. Iida happily continued.
“Mei, are you from one of Tenya’s classes, or is there something else you do?”
Hatsume felt her shoulders relax at the easy question. Admittedly, being in such a gorgeous home had made it difficult for her to act naturally until now, but the more she saw of Tenya’s parents, the clearer it was becoming that they were practical and ordinary people—not much different from her own.
“I’m in the support department,” she explained, shifting her weight onto her palms behind her, “While Iida does all the hero work, I stay cooped up in the studio making improvements to his costume and whatnot. But I mainly make support items. It was only recently when Iida started letting me mess with his costume, haha.”
“Ah, so you’re like his personal costume-maintenance-person,” Mr. Iida commented, shooting Tenya somewhat of a sly grin, “And how did this come about, son? After all, you two couldn’t have met during your classes.”
Tenya grunted and leered bashfully at the edge of the room, “It’s complicated,” he eventually conceded, “But regardless, Hatsume and I have formed sort of a… symbiotic relationship. In payment for fixing my costumes, she uses me as somewhat of a test subject for her crazy inventions.”
“Just call it as it is, engine head! We’re friends—you’re stuck with me and you know it.”
He gave her a bothered glare, “Maybe I’d say so more freely if you didn’t constantly abuse the title by making me do strange things.”
To each of their surprise, Mr. Iida began to laugh next to them.
“‘Engine head’, huh? I see you two get along like oil and water,” he grinned, “It’s almost hard to believe you willingly meet up every day, huh Tenya?”
“N-not every day!”
Mr. Iida ignored him though, instead sending a glance to Hatsume, “By the way, you can call him Tenya here. It’s just gonna get confusing otherwise.”
“Oh, can I?” she beamed, immediately turning to find that Tenya was still adorably red in the face, “Tenya it is then! Just got your dad’s blessing!”
“That’s NOT what that means!” Tenya shrieked back.
As Mr. Iida and Hatsume continued to laugh, Mrs. Iida eventually strode across the room with a tray of cups in her hands. They could smell the tea even from where they sat, and it had a delightfully sweet scent that made the three of them sigh happily.
“Here you go,” Mrs. Iida said kindly, one by one handing off the cups, “It’s kukicha tea, with some added cream. I figured the sugar would help motivate you all before getting to work.”
“Thank you, hon,” Mr. Iida nodded, taking one of the cups into his large palms, “It smells delicious.”
Indeed it was. The moment the warm liquid spilled over Hatsume’s tongue, a sweetly nutty flavor rippled throughout her tastebuds.
I think I’m starting to like rich people, hehe… she thought cheekily, licking her teeth between sips.
Another minute later, and Mrs. Iida returned with a plate of bunny eared apple slices. From there, she moved to kneel down on the bare floor, but Mr. Iida was quicker in lending her his cushion to use. She gave him a concerned glance at first, but he was already well situated on the hardwood before she could mouth a word of complaint.
“I’m surprised you didn’t bring any of your other friends this time, Tenya,” Mrs. Iida eventually said, rotating an apple slice between her fingers, “Midoriya and that Todoroki boy are such nice kids, by the way you describe them. Were they perhaps too busy?”
Tenya just shrugged, “I told you, his first name is Shoto, Mom. But that’s the gist of it. In class, we’re working on our ultimate moves right now, so they didn’t have the time to come. That, and they seem a bit—well, Todoroki, anyway, seems a bit preoccupied at the moment with other matters…”
“Oh?”
Tenya’s mouth quirked into an odd frown as he said this, before mumbling a low, “Yes. He and Uraraka spontaneously started dating, so lately approaching them has been a bit difficult…”
“Oh?” Mrs. Iida covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers, “I see, so that’s why. You all are at that age, aren’t you?”
“Which brings up another question,” Mr. Iida continued, shooting Tenya a rather implicative glance, “are you going to date anyone soon, Tenya? You are in high school, after all.”
Tenya was quick to shoot down the comment though, with a stern: “I have no need for that, right now, so probably not.”
Mr. and Mrs. Iida almost looked disappointed, when a strange rattling noise from the kitchen suddenly snapped them both to attention. When they all turned, they noticed the remainder of the tea was boiling over onto the countertop and dripping down the cabinets.
“Oh no, not again! Aaah—” Mrs. Iida shouted immediately, scampering away from the group to unplug the electronic, “I forgot this thing can be so temperamental at times…”
“All these years and you still haven’t purchased a new one,” Tenya commented dryly, shaking his head as he got up to aid in cleaning the mess.
“It still works, we don’t need to waste it!”
“If it does this all the time, then it doesn’t work, Mom…”
Rather confused, Hatsume glanced at each one of the Iidas with a look of consternation etched across her face.
“Sorry, I think I’m missing something here—what happened?”
“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Mr. Iida sighed, taking another sip of tea, “Our old tea maker has a problem where the heat doesn’t like to turn off unless you unplug it. It was working fine for a while though, so it’s a bit strange for it to act up now…”
“Hmm…”
Hatsume sat curiously in her seat for a spare moment or two, mulling over her thoughts until she eventually chugged the rest of her tea, and stood up.
“Mind if I tinker with it for a bit?” she suggested suddenly, one hand outstretched, “I betcha I can figure out what’s wrong with it.”
Mrs. Iida seemed a bit skeptical, but Hatsume filled with pride when she noticed Tenya’s face light up at the idea.
“Ah, right! Hatsume is incredibly talented with this sort of thing, I bet she could fix it.”
“You think so?” Mrs. Iida hummed for a moment, as if considering whether the life of her precious tea maker was really safe in chaotic Hatsume’s hands, “Well, I suppose it’s alright. If you’re really confident, I’ll let you take a look.”
“Perfect!” Hatsume pumped her fists, “This is what I was born for, haha! Is there a place I can get some tools to open it up?”
“There’s a workbench in the garage with plenty of tools, though it belongs to my husband…”
Mr. Iida shrugged, “It’s fine, she can use it as long as she puts everything back where it was. In fact, it’s about time we all get started with things anyway—how about we all split up and get to work?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Tenya nodded, moving back into the dining room to restack the seat cushions, “Do you want me to help in the family room, Dad?”
“If you could, that would be perfect.”
Shortly after that, Hatsume and Mrs. Iida went to the garage to look for tools, while Tenya and Mr. Iida began to pack up the family room.