Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Spinner needed revenge, he craved it, for the blood to fall upon his freshly sharpened sword. As he marched into the camp alongside Shigaraki he laughed. While this so-called “League of Villains” had its own lofty ideals, Spinner wanted nothing to do with them. He had but one goal and one alone to free Stain.

Stain was justice. Stain was peace. Stain was righteousness and a world free of the corruption of heroes. A world where heteromorphs wouldn’t have to hide, where children wouldn’t have to listen to the screams, to have their faces slashed open in the streets. And this boy, this horrifying, selfish four-eyed brat had destroyed all that Stain stood for.

Ever since that fateful night in Hosu, Spinner had obsessed over this boy, this “Iida Tenya”. UA High, Class 1-A, Quirk: engine, Homeroom teacher: Aizawa Shouta. Spinner had learned everything he needed to know, that the twisted little brat had attempted murder in the name of petty revenge. Murder against Stain, the great redeemer, and yet he still dared to call himself a hero.

Spinner wasn’t about to allow this filth to permeate Stain’s society. And now as he walked into the UA training camp he would have his revenge.

It had been all too easy to convince Shigaraki to allow him to join the Vanguard Squad, starved for members as it was. And while he had no desire for young Bakugou, the Iida boy was here for him to take.

Chapter Text

“Hatsume!”
Mei startled, dropping her newest creation, the adorable baby #274, onto the grimy support studio floor. Mei cursed under her breath as she reached for her trusty fire extinguisher( she used it quite often and was thinking of naming it ) the device continuing to emit a foul black smoke. Swiping her dreadlocks back with an oil stained hand, Mei turned.
“Yes, Power Loader-Sensei?”
“I told you that I will not be tolerating any more of your dangerous behavior in my lab! My office now!”
Begrudgingly Mei followed him. Power Loader’s office was kept in the back of the lab behind an incredibly dented bronze door. Inside the desk and chairs were swamped with instruction manuals, wrenches, a disturbingly green and fuzzy onigiri, and one left shoe, of all things. Pushing aside one of the piles, Mei plopped dejectedly into a chair.
“I know, I know, I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t have dropped my baby if you hadn’t startled me”
“ You and I both know that this isn’t just about one incident, Hatsume.”
“W-W-whatever could you mean Sensei?” Mei replied, batting her eyelashes in an attempt to appear innocent.
Power Loader sighed as he rubbed at the impressively dark circles under his eyes. “Tell me Hatsume, why is my office door dented?”
“Baby #143”
“And what destroyed Tanimoto-kun’s project for the final exam?”
“ Why that was baby #251, of course. Oh he was so cute with his itty-bitty lasers and adorable little flame-thrower!”Mei cooed
“ And what of Nishimura-san’s eyebrows?The back cabinets, even the coffee machine, for God’s sake! Need I go on? Not two days ago we had to evacuate from the toxic gas spewing out of your latest creation!”
“Hey now baby #273, is going to be oh-so helpful in catching villains one day!”
“You’re too reckless Hatsume-san!” Power Loader spat, cutting her off. “Your intense devotion to your inventions or babies as you call them, has continued to endanger your peers in the support course since the day you arrived! When will you learn not to create at the expense of hurting others!”
“S-sorry Sensei” Mei glanced down at her gasoline soaked shoes, she’d never seen her teacher so angry before.

“Starting tomorrow, you will be relieved of your duties in the support course.”

Mei gasped, tears coming to her eyes, “B-but Sensei!”

“Instead you will be working alongside Recovery Girl, as she requires the expertise of a support course student for one of the patients she is healing. While I am quite disappointed in you,I cannot ignore your talent and inventiveness. I hope that through this you will realize the effect that your work in the Support Course truly has on others, and not just yourself. Now run along and pack a bag, you move into the 1-A dorms tomorrow.”

“1-A?” Mei wondered, as she swallowed her pride and stepped outside.

—-
Mei didn’t sleep that night, which wasn’t exactly unusual. But rather than her babies keeping her awake, instead it was her thoughts, pounding away at her skull like a hammer. Working in Support was her life, and she longed to have her own company once she graduated. And now Mei was being dragged away from that, from her babies, and her future. It was all her fault too, and that was what made it so much worse. So she lay awake, in her grease stained bed, dorm floor covered with spare parts. Despite her own anger at being separated from her greatest passions, Mei wondered what she could possibly be needed for in the 1-A dorms, and with Recovery Girl no less. Mei fixed machines, not people. Machines were easy, they didn’t have immense expectations and judge you for your poor social skills. Sometimes, Mei felt more like a machine than a person, like her insides were filled with circuitry and wires, rather than blood and bone. She’d never quite been able to understand how other people worked, what made them tick. The other students in the support course never seemed to be as focused as Mei was. They had other interests too, and rarely stayed up all night working. They also didn’t talk about their support work constantly, like Mei did. Instead she was viewed as the class “nutjob” the “mad scientist of Class 1-H”, she tried her best to drown out the whispers. She was happier anyway here, with her inventions, her babies, that always seemed to understand her, at least that was what she forced herself to believe.

—-
Mei groaned at the sound of her alarm clock, her mind fogged from barely two hours of sleep. Bolting out of bed, she grabbed her tool box and a hastily packed bag that contained more gadgets than clothes. As she ambled down the stairs, she ignored the mocking gazes of her classmates.

“Aww did the mad scientist finally get kicked out? Such a shame.” Tanimoto simpered mockingly, his red eyes blown wide with contempt. Around him the rest of Class 1-F laughed and Mei jolted to avoid the wrench that had just been thrown at her.

“Oops,” said Nishimura, as she twirled a lock of her long purple hair, “my bad.”

Mei’s cheeks burned red and she clenched her hands into fists.

“Aww look Nishimura-san the robot has feelings after all” Tanimoto jeered as Mei grabbed her bags and sprang out the door.

How Mei longed to finally punch Tanimoto in his smug little mouth, but she knew that she couldn’t afford more trouble. Think of the future, one day you’ll be the head of Japan’s support market and they’ll be begging at your feet. Mei reminded herself.

—
Mei refused to let herself pause in front of the 1-A door. Best to get it over with, she thought. As she stepped inside, she was stunned by how somber Class 1-A seemed to be. The lights were dim, and the shades were still drawn, dust had begun to collect amongst the furniture and the dishes were stacked in wobbly and soap-drenched piles. Someone’s broken coffee mug still littered the floor. She had expected the so-called “elite class” to be more pristine. The students, too, were haggard shadows of themselves . They were slouched upon couches, their eyes hollow and staring off into the distance. A large hole had been punched into the wall of the living area, one that she assumed to do with the blood on Bakugou’s knuckles. What happened here? She wondered, it seemed as though no one had noticed her yet. Even that one pervy grape kid, what was his name, Menuda?, wasn’t bothering her. Mei winced as her toolbox smacked into the wall, this at last, seemed to rouse the other students. The ponytail girl, Yayoruzu, Mei thought her name was, leapt to her feet.

“Ah Hatsume-San, what are you doing here?” she asked breathlessly

“Recovery Girl sent me, she said that she needed my help.” Mei replied.
At that the students began to whisper.

“Like she can do anything” Bakugou muttered aggressively

“Maybe she can help him Kacchan, I remember her inventions from the Sports Festival, something like that might work.” Midoriya hurriedly responded.

“We all saw how she fucking treated Four-Eyes, people are just toys to her!” Bakugou yelled back.

“I’m not sure if he can be fixed anymore regardless.” Todoroki interjected sullenly.

“Stop that!” Uraraka yelled, startling the boys, “We’re not giving up on Tenya!, Not when we’ve just gotten him back!”

Wide-eyed Mei interrupted, “W-What’s wrong with Iida?”

“I think it’s best that you go upstairs and find out,” replied Kirishima in a faraway tone, his normally vibrant, perfectly styled hair, limp and dim.

Chapter Text

Mei dashed up the stairs, heart racing. She didn’t know why, it wasn’t like she really knew Iida. But she had felt guilty for how she had used him in the Sports Festival. He was so honest, so trusting, that the thought that something had happened to him made her falter. Mei stepped off the stairs and into the hallway of the third floor. She wasn’t sure which door was Iida’s though.

“Recovery Girl, it’s Hatsume, you said you needed my help?” She called out

The third door down the corridor stood open and Recovery Girl popped out.
“Ah, glad you’re here, my dear” she responded cheerily, though her eyes looked sad and tired. “I called you for-well I suppose it's best that you just see for yourself.”

Recovery Girl gently pushed open the door, careful not to make a sound. As she stepped inside, Mei gasped. A hospital bed took up most of the room, with the furniture all removed or pushed to the sides, to make room for the softly beeping machines. The machines that she realized were hooked up to Iida, lying so pale and still in that bed. And oh God, the damage was worse than anything she could ever have imagined.

Iida’s left eye was horribly swollen, almost black, his lip split, fevered cheeks hollowed by hunger. His arms and thighs were covered in burns, bruises, slashes, and needle marks, even a few human-sized bite marks. His chest and back were wrapped in bloodied bandages, and Mei could only guess at the horrors hidden beneath them. But no the worst part, by far, was what had been done to his legs. His calves had been viciously mutilated, broken in several places with bones jutting out around smashed, sawn through and dented engine mufflers. Accompanying this were several horrible gaping holes, oozing blood where the mufflers had been viciously yanked free. Mei nearly gagged when she realized that some of the openings had been crudely burned shut.

In short, he looked nothing like that strong, confident boy she'd battled in the Sports Festival which now seemed as though it were centuries away.

“W-who did this to him?”

“Endeavor and a team of heroes found him a few days ago in a recently closed down psychiatric hospital not far from here. Of course, he’d been missing for almost two months by then.”

“Two months? But no one heard about this?”

“Listen dear, what I’m telling you is highly confidential, and I need you to keep it secret from everyone outside of 1-A. Do you understand?”

Mei nodded numbly.

“Months ago the Hero Killer: Stain murdered Tenya’s older brother, the hero Ingenium. During his internship Tenya pursued Stain for revenge, and was instrumental in getting him captured. This was covered up the chief of police, due to Tenya’s noble, but illegal actions. The arrest of Stain spurred outrage among the villain community and somehow one of these villains, a man with a lizard quirk going by the alias Spinner, learned of Tenya’s involvement. Spinner then infiltrated the League of Villains and participated in a raid on the 1-A and 1-B summer training camp, where he captured Tenya, while working alongside another League of Villains member, Toga Himiko. The two of them tortured Tenya out of revenge for Stain, while also attempting to use him as ransom for Stain’s release. Several ransom videos were sent, but despite the pleas of the UA staff, the Commission refused to investigate. Thankfully, Aizawa was able to decipher the location where Tenya was being held and a team of heroes was sent to find him, which brings us to where we are now, that poor boy” Recovery Girl sighed.

Mei couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She’d never paid much attention to the Commission or hero politics before, beyond their support licensing requirements. But to think that the Commission would allow Iida to be tortured for months without intervention made her blood boil and her hands shake. And now that he was back, shattered and lifeless in that bed, they weren’t so much as lifting a finger to help him, or sending a doctor or specialists. Instead, they wanted her, an obsessive, grease-stained, accident-prone, mess of an inventor to fix him when he was already so, so broken.

“W-why me?” Mei stammered, shell-shocked,”There’s gotta be a support specialist who can help him, while keeping it secret right?”

“The Commission refuses to take the risk”, Recovery Girl sighed sadly, though her eyes were hardened and angry, “They believe that if anyone learns about Tenya, we could have an army of Stain supporters at our gates.”

“Why do you keep calling him that, Tenya?” Mei wondered aloud suddenly in realization.

Recovery Girl’s hardened stare turned fiery, wrinkled hand clenching at her cane. “Shortly after learning of his capture, the Iida family disowned their son.”

“What?”

“They claim it is to quote: “protect their agency and family name from the shame of vigilantism and personal weakness.”

Furious, Mei wanted to yell back, but she was silenced by a choked, pained whimper, so quiet she had to strain to hear, yet loud enough to permeate her heart. Muttering softly, Recovery Girl walked over to the side of the bed and adjusted some of the tubes connected to Tenya’s arm.
“Shh, it’s all right my dear” she murmured softly as she reached out to wipe a tear that had dripped from his tightly clenched eyelids.
Mei’s gaze was frozen on Tenya, on his disheveled and overgrown navy blue hair that hung across his forehead in matted clumps, on his pale and fevered skin, that was pushed in at the cheeks as though he was made of paper, flimsy and easily destroyed. Above all else though there was the scar, a thick jagged line running from the bridge of his nose to the bottom of the right side of the face in a twisted diagonal. Tenya’s skin stretched and puckered around the wound, it looked as though he had been carved open by flame. Her stomach roiled, and Mei viciously tamped the nausea down. If the commission wasn’t going to send anyone to help Tenya, then she would have to be strong, for him and herself, until he could be again.

“Has he woken up yet?” she asked

“Not yet,” Recovery Girl sighed,”but he should soon, once he’s ready. I have to attend to other patients now, it seems there’s no shortage of injuries at UA”, she chuckled sadly.

“ As he’s too weak for my Quirk just yet, I’ve set his injuries for treatment with the exception of his legs. I’ll need you to look at those and assess treatment.” She paused,

“I’m so sorry we’re putting this burden on you, darling.” Recovery Girl patted Mei on the shoulder and walked out the door.

So there Mei was, alone in the room with Iida, no Tenya now she reminded herself. And didn’t that make her angry. The sheer weight of what she had been told rattled about in her skull. Sure, she and Tenya didn’t know each other very well, but he had always seemed to uphold himself to a higher standard than the rest of the hero course. Yet he had attempted murder, for revenge, as though he were no more than a vigilante. Sure, Mei wasn’t exactly one to talk in the legal department, what with some of the more questionable incidents she had caused. But Tenya wasn’t like that, he stuck to his moral code as though it had been etched into his very soul. He seemed to work harder than anyone else in the moments she had seen him, and he presided over his class with empathy, respect, and above all caring.

Perhaps that was the issue then, Tenya cared too much, believed and acted too fiercely. Even Mei knew how much Tenya looked up to his brother. That much was obvious by his costume design alone. And now Ingenium was dead. Mei remembered hearing of the killing on the decrepit radio Power Loader kept in the support studio. She should have put her hammer down and made sure that Tenya was okay, she knew him well enough, and had even admired him from afar. But, no she had trusted that his classmates and his family would be there for him. Who even was she anyway? Instead, he had run off alone in pursuit of a revenge that could have gotten him killed, and instead left him in a position where that might have been a mercy.

Mei cautiously tread over to Tenya, unsure of what she was supposed to do. The fact that it even had to be her in the first place was enough to make her furious. His parents, the ones trusted to protect him, had abandoned Tenya here, to the hands of a wildly unpredictable, mad scientist of an inventor like herself. She wasn’t ready for this, to have his Quirk and wellbeing in her grease-stained hands. But she had to be, because no one else was going to be there for him. Not the Commission, not the police, not the heroes, and certainly not his parents. Instead, Tenya had Mei, and wasn’t that a scary thought!

As Mei looked down at Tenya’s brutalized calves she shuddered, before quickly steeling herself. Think like he’s one of your babies she thought a living, bleeding, breathing, baby. Stop it Mei!, you can fix him, it's not so different from before, you're an inventor, and even if you think you can’t do it, you have to.

His legs seemed to consist of fairly basic car mufflers, if you accounted for their size and the fact that there were supposed to be twelve of them. Mei counted around seven remaining, it was hard to tell with how smashed into his legs they were. Crushed, torn, sawed, burnt and broken into him were the very things that were supposed to have given him freedom. For that was what terrified Mei, if she failed in helping him, he would never use his Quirk again. She felt certain that if that were to happen, if he lost the only thing enabling him to follow in Ingenium’s footsteps, Tenya wouldn’t survive it.

All of the remaining mufflers would need to be removed, Mei realized. There was no saving them, and trying to hammer them back into shape would be excruciating. Recovery Girl had braced his legs, in order to realign the numerous broken bones. His skin was stretched, tight and papery around the blocks of metal and bone that made up his calves. Malnourishment had made the swelling of his engines ghastly, as though they would carve their way out from the thin, stretched flesh.

Mei hauled her toolbox up to the foot of the bed, all of the tools having been sterilized per Recovery Girl’s reminder. The holes in his legs where the missing mufflers used to be were burned shut in some places, while gaping wide in others. Mei winced knowing she’d most likely have to cut the burns open once the mufflers began regrowing, assuming they even did at all. With a shaking hand, Mei grabbed for the thick, industrial tweezers, blinked the tears from her eyes and readied herself to pull.

Chapter Text

Mei couldn’t believe she was about to do this, as she prayed that Tenya wouldn’t wake. They had to come out, there was no saving them, to leave them would only continue to cause him pain, she rationalized. She decided to start with the left leg first,beginning with a pipe that had been nearly flattened, its shiny metal dulled by blood. Zeroing in, Mei activated her Quirk for a closer look. The skin around each of the mufflers was puckered and red, split open in some areas. A few of the pipes even wobbled due to the extent of the damage, she hoped that at least would make them easier to remove. With a grimace, Mei yanked, tugging the first muffler loose as it fell onto the mattress with a wet squelch, blood splattering onto the sheets. Mei did her best not to gag at the bits of flesh and tendon that clung to the removed bit of engine. One down, six to go.

Out went another, which was quickly followed by a third. Pushing her dreadlocks back, Mei scowled and surveyed the remaining four mufflers. They weren’t as loose as the others, and the flesh was taut where dried blood had sealed it to the metal. Taking a deep breath, she grasped the tweezers once again and hooked them around the top of the leftmost pipe, wincing as the tugging was met with pressure and the tearing of skin. To her horror, as she was pulling out the last few inches of the pipe, Tenya moaned, his voice a breathy agony from the bruises encircling his throat.
“I-it’s okay, Tenya. It’s almost out, go back to sleep” Mei whispered in a panic. These pipes had to come out of him now so that they could regrow before infection set in. The rest of the muffler freed itself from his calf at last, and another tiny whimper escaped Tenya’s cracked lips.

“There’s only three left now, it’ll be okay, I promise” Mei desperately tried to soothe, “I’ll do it as quick as I can, all right?”

When the next pipe had been a third of the way removed, tears had begun to run down Tenya’s cheeks, his eyes still clenched firmly shut. Mei fought the urge to cry tears of her own as well, she felt as if she were torturing him, much like those who had done this to him in the first place, even though she was just trying to help him. She had to get this over with and soon. The rest of the pipe came out with thankfully not too much resistance. The next was not so fortunate however, it caught against his skin tearing the flesh with a sickening sound that would surely haunt Mei’s dreams that night. At that, Tenya gasped, his eyelids fluttering.

Oh please, not now Mei pleaded internally, as she now knew that she had to proceed quickly. There was only one muffler remaining and Mei grasped it as tight as she could in the hopes that it could be removed in one go. With a singular steadfast yank, the muffler jerked itself free, blood spraying outwards. That was when Tenya’s eyes finally opened, the bright red of his irises clouded by fear and pain, as he released a horrible heart wrenching wail that quickly devolved into sobs.

“S-s-stop please, Spinner, I-I-I’m sorry, d-don’t hurt me, Tensei please help me, I-I’m scared”, Tenya begged his gaze fixed on a space to the left of Mei with no recognition of her presence, before his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed back into unconsciousness.

At that, Mei’s heart shattered, he sounded so broken, when he used to be the most stubborn and fierce person she knew. He had looked right through her, as though she were his tormentor, and she might as well have been. She had driven him to the point of tears, as he begged his dead brother to save him.

She swept the mufflers into her tool box to study before she moved back to disinfect and wrap Tenya’s legs, struggling to loop the bandages around his swollen calves. Once his legs were sufficiently cleaned, she gently pulled the tarp out from under him, and covered him with the blankets again.Then she reached up and with a shaking hand, wiped the tears from his eyes, resting her hand on his cheek.

“I swear Tenya, I’m going to help you, y-you’ll be running out of here in no time, I promise. You might just be the toughest baby I’ve ever had to fix, but it’s okay, I’ve been asking Power Loader for a more challenging assignment for weeks. I-I just wish this wasn’t how I got it. Now you get some rest now, and I’ll have you speeding along before you know it, o-okay?” Mei spoke softly yet with an air of desperation as she swatted a solitary tear back from her face, and walked out the door to find Recovery Girl.

Instead she was met by the fiery stare of one Bakugou Katsuki, his fists clenched at his sides.

“Oi Gears!, Is Shitty Glasses alive in there?” He demanded, scarlet eyes alight with fury.

“W-what?” Mei stammered in shock.

“We all heard the screaming and now fucking Deku and everyone else are panicking, and I just want some goddamned peace and quiet already, damned nerds!, So let me know if he’s fucking alive or not okay?” Bakugou yelled, his voice shaking the floor.

Mei was startled by the outright display of aggression, but she saw through it for what it really was. He was afraid for his classmate, but just too headstrong to show it.

“Be quiet!,” Mei whisper-scolded “You’ll wake him! I had to remove his engine mufflers before they got infected. He woke up in the middle of it and that’s why you heard the screaming. I-I-I’m not going to lie to you, it’s, it’s really bad” Mei silently cursed her terrible bedside manner, “But I’m going to try my hardest to make sure he recovers!” she added.

“You fucking better, Gears, I’m watching you.” Bakugou declared sternly, though he was careful not to yell as he slunk back downstairs.

Mei rolled her eyes, and collapsed, exhausted against the door as she waited for Recovery Girl, her gaze fixed on the blood that still stained her hands.

Chapter Text

Mei woke to the sound of sobbing. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep in the hallway, but there she was, covered in a blanket someone must have thrown on her in the night. And it was night already, the dorm dark and deathly silent, but for that sound which shook her into alertion. Quiet, choked whimpers rang out through the hallway, echoing across the empty halls. Wincing, Mei rose up on stiff legs to open the door,

“Tenya?,” she whispered.
He was curled up into a ball, shaking, crimson eyes fixed on the white walls surrounding him.

“G--go away, Toga, please”
Mei entered the room and held her hands out in front of her, she wasn't sure who Toga was, maybe one of the villains who captured him? Resolving to ask Recovery Girl later, she tried her best to stay calm.

“It’s okay Tenya, it’s me, Hatsume Mei, from the Sports Festival, remember?”
That had clearly been the wrong thing to say, Tenya had somehow managed to back himself further into the corner of the bed, one of his legs beginning to bleed again. He barely winced and Mei shuddered at the implications of that pain tolerance.

“N-not real, it’s not real, you’re not her.”

“It is me, I promise, you’re at UA, you’re safe.”

“No!” Tenya cried out fiercely, surprising Mei, “please just stop taking their blood, don’t hurt her, y-you, you can have me instead.” With a shaking hand he stretched out an arm that was covered in needle wounds and scabbing over bite marks.

Mei gasped in horror, tears welling in her eyes at the sight, as he sat there, begging her to hurt him.

“Please” his arm stretched out further,” stop hurting them, Toga.”

Mei wasn’t sure what to do, but she couldn’t just stand there and listen to Tenya suffer, he had to see that he was safe, that she was real.

“Do you remember, a couple weeks after the sports festival, when one of my babies got loose in the hall outside the support lab? It was #359, and it had these adorable little legs for running, and just the cutest rotating blades! You were running an errand for your class, when you saw me chasing after it as everyone started screaming. And you, well you just sped right over, picked #359 up by one of its still kicking legs, and brought my baby back to me. And do you remember what you said?” Mei laughed softly,” You said, y-you said that it was unbecoming for a UA robot to run in the hallways. And, when I said that you had been running too, you blushed so much that you looked like a traffic light when you walked back down the hallway.” Mei’s voice shook as she finished, anxiously waiting for Tenya’s response.

“H-Hatsume?” Tenya asked uncertainty, his voice tight with fear and pain.

“Yes!” Mei proclaimed, relieved, “It’s okay now, I’m right here.”

And that seemed to be the worst thing she could have possibly said. Tenya tried so hard to get away from her that she thought he would fall off the bed. Frantic, Mei dashed forward, hoping to stop him before he tore his stitches.

“N-no no no, not real,not real, y-you’re not her, please just stop!” Tenya muttered, his eyes as wide and panicked as a roiling storm.
One of his hands was fisted in his navy blue hair, the other flapping wildly at his side, the arm that was connected to the monitors Recovery Girl had set up. Well Shit!, Mei inwardly cursed, as a chorus of beeps rang out into the night.

Tenya wouldn’t look at her, he just curled further into himself, cries desperate and incomprehensible, his hands held tight over his ears as the machines continued to blare. Mei didn’t know how to turn them off, let alone reconnect them. Unsure how to respond, Mei activated her Quirk and searched for a call button. There it was, attached to the wall by Tenya’s bed, just within reach was a smooth apple-sized red button. Mei’s blood curdled when Tenya flinched away from her, as she slapped the button hard. A ring of yellow light surrounded the button, and Mei knew that Recovery Girl would arrive soon. She felt so ashamed, Tenya was afraid, terrified even, of her. What was Power Loader thinking? She wasn’t ready for this. People weren’t like machines, they were confusing, scary, complicated, and so, so, fragile. She couldn’t just slap a couple bandages or a fresh coat of paint on Tenya to fix him up, so why was she even here? She just felt so worthless, sitting here, with him crying like that, fearing that any word she said would only bring back painful reminders.

Mei didn’t have long to muse, however, when she heard a sharp knock on the door, one that sounded too strong to have come from an old woman.

“Recovery Girl?” Mei asked uncertainly.

“No," a young male voice answered,” it’s um, Kaminari, from next door, is everything okay in there?”

Mei opened the door, “No, she sighed, “It’s not, I think he’s afraid of me, he doesn’t know that he’s at UA, he still thinks he’s there, with the villains.”

Kaminari just stood there in the doorway, his blond hair disheveled like he had poked his finger in a light socket, his golden eyes wide with shock and confusion. Standing there, in his
Pikachu pajama pants, stained band tee, and bare feet, it was evident that he had immediately ran out of bed.
“He’s going to be okay right?” asked Kaminari nervously.

“I-I don’t know, but I’m not going to give up.”

Kaminari nodded fiercely at that, and then shifted on his feet, trying to peer past Mei to see Tenya. “Can I try and help?”

“Yeah,” Mei replied. Quite frankly, she’d run out of ideas, and she hated the thought of just sitting around and listening to Tenya cry out until Recovery Girl arrived.

Mei took Kaminari’s hand and led him into the room. Kaminari froze at the sight of Tenya, his eyes wide in surprise and uncharacteristic anger. His hands twitched at his sides, as though he wanted to punch whoever had been the true cause of this, whether it be Stain, this Toga person, or someone even worse. Yet with a resolve that unnerved Mei, Kaminari steeled himself, his face instantly melting into a carefree smile as he knelt down beside Tenya’s bed.

“Hey Pres, It’s Kami, remember?“ Kaminari called out softly. Tenya wasn’t responsive, his shaking hands still clasped over his ears. “Those machines are loud, huh. It’s okay though, they’re here to keep you safe, just like Hatsume, ok? You’re at UA now, wherever you think you are, you’re not there, not anymore”

“Not real, You’re not real, not real, not real” Tenya repeated as though it were a mantra he was well accustomed to.

“Of course, I’m real Pres, no one can impersonate this awesomeness, I mean, come on! Kaminari laughed good-naturedly, though it sounded forced to Mei’s ears. “I’ve been using those study tips you taught me, you know, and my grades are actually getting a little better, Bakugou still calls me Dunce Face though, at this point I think he would even if I was as smart as you.” Kaminari paused when he realized that Tenya’s eyes were darting from him to Mei who still lingered, uncertain, in the doorframe. There was something wild in his gaze, confusion, fear, and the tiniest thread of hope.

“Can’t be two,” Tenya murmured, somewhat deliriously.

“The villain couldn’t pretend to be two people? That’s great buddy, you’re so smart! Hatsume and I are both here, so you’re safe, I promise” Kaminari responded.

“S-safe?” Tenya asked as though the word was foreign to him, as though he’d never thought he’d have a reason to use it again.

“Yeah bro, safe, you’re safe here.”
“Oh,” Tenya replied softly, exhausted and with a hint of disbelief. Slowly, Tenya’s face relaxed and he slumped over, pained, and worn through onto the bed.
Kaminari, sighed sadly, and readjusted the blankets over Tenya, careful to avoid his damaged legs.

“How did you do that? Calm him down like that, I mean?” Mei asked, feeling more than a little useless.

“I didn’t do much,” Kaminari replied, with a haunted look in his eyes, “besides, we're all used to nightmares here.”

Chapter Text

Recovery Girl arrived within the next fifteen minutes her face flushed as she clutched her cane. “You can leave now dear, thank you so much for your help,” Recovery Girl motioned to Kaminari as he nodded and walked quietly back out into the hall.

“What happened, Hatsume-dear?”

“He had a nightmare, I think,” Mei replied in a hushed, yet panicked tone, “and then he, it was like he thought that he was somewhere else, that I was someone else. He kept talking about someone named Toga, and blood, and oh my gosh, his arms, something must have bit him, and then I tried to calm him down, and he just kept getting more scared, and I didn’t want him to tear his stitches, but then he disconnected the IV thingy, and everything started beeping, and then I called you, and Kaminari got here, and…”

“That’s enough, child, breathe, please, it’s okay now.”

Mei gasped and took in a breath, trying to rid herself of the panic still lodged in her lungs. Recovery Girl walked over to Tenya’s bed and continued, “I’m sorry, Hatsume, I thought that it would be too hard for you to hear the details of what happened to young Tenya, and by doing that I made it incredibly difficult for you to help.” Recovery Girl paused and reconnected the IVs into Tenya’s arm, before examining his torn stitches. “I’m afraid I’ll be much too busy tonight to explain things to you fully, but I do still have access to some videos that the League sent us during Tenya’s capture. Now, I should warn you they shouldn’t be watched on a full stomach,” she laughed bitterly.

Mei thought for a moment, she had promised to help Tenya, but how could she when she didn’t understand why he was so afraid of her? “I-I’d like to see them,”Mei’s voice wavered for a second, “If it will help him get better than I have too.” she added with a touch more resolve.

Recovery Girl’s eyes filled with sadness as she nodded, “I’ll leave them for you in the morning, now please, child, go to bed now, I’ll be right here.”

------ 

Sure enough, when Mei woke after a restless sleep in the undecorated room next to Tenya’s, a stack of video tapes sat on the nightstand accompanied by a note.

Hatsume-dear, I appreciate your bravery for choosing to watch these videos, and I will forever regret that you had to do so. Please feel free to stop at any time, and refrain from sharing these with the rest of 1-A, for Tenya’s sake. -RG

Mei frowned at the note for a second, she couldn’t deny that she was scared of what she’d see when she slid the tapes into the TV, but she had to watch. She couldn’t let what had happened last night happen again, she didn’t want Tenya to be afraid of her anymore. With a somewhat shaky hand, Mei picked up the first tape and inserted it into the TV, watching the screen flicker to life.

A man’s face instantly filled the screen, his skin green and scaly like that of a lizard. He wore a mask around his eyes and carried swords reminiscent of one truly feared man, the Hero Killer, Stain. His stare was fierce, angry, as he spoke “Hello, false heroes, my name is Spinner” he sneered, “I have something of yours, something pathetic.”

A strangled moan rose up as Spinner raised his hand towards the camera, yanking Tenya’s head by the hair as he did so. Tenya was only half-conscious, glasses nowhere to be seen. His skin was pale, and covered with sweat, one of his eyes was swollen shut and the other could only barely remain open as he stared vacantly off into the distance. “ Come on and say hello, little Ingenium,” Spinner mocked. “Tell them what you did!”Spinner's eyes were wide with madness and unrestrained glee.

Slowly, deliberately, Tenya opened his mouth and spat in Spinner’s face. “Little shit!, you’d make this so much easier on yourself if you just did what I said.” He pulled out a knife and held it to Tenya’s neck, pressing hard enough that crimson blood began to bubble up around the weapon. “TELL THEM WHAT YOU DID!” Spinner shouted in Tenya’s face, “C’mon engine boy, just like we practiced.” he continued mockingly.

Taking a shaky breath, Tenya’s cracked lips parted as he wheezed out a response. “ M-my name is Iida Tenya, I’m the president of class 1-A at UA High, and I am a pathetic, false hero, I-I-I deserve to be killed.” Tears sparked at the corners of Tenya’s eyes as he spoke.

“SPIT IT OUT BOY!,” the knife dug in a little deeper as Tenya gasped.

“M-my brother Iida Tensei, Ingenium was a h-horrible excuse for a hero. He-he deserved to die, he needed to be purified by Stain. But I dared to question Stain, a-and in Hosu, just over a month ago, I tried to murder Stain, I-I got in the way of Stain’s holy mission, and now he is wrongfully imprisoned. I-I have been rightfully captured to repent upon my sins against the just execution of false heroes. W-while I am undeserving of life, Stain is merciful. If you wish me to live, free Stain.” Tenya’s head fell back ,as Spinner removed the knife, blood continuing to weep from his shallow wound. Still there was something hardened in the gaze of his singular open eye.

“Gooood boy!” Spinner purred sickeningly, “now let’s show our friends at UA one more thing.” Reaching off camera, Spinner retrieved a small and cylindrical weapon, a miniature blow torch. Tenya’s eye widened with fear, as he struggled to back away from Spinner, but he must have been chained to the floor. With a maniac glint in his eyes, Spinner grinned at the camera, showing off a mouthful of sharp teeth beneath scaly lips. Gleefully, he clicked the torch on and pressed the flame to Tenya’s face laughing as his screams cut off into blackness.

Mei ran to the wastebasket, her body trembling as she emptied her stomach. And this was only the first tape. She had to keep going. She had to do this. Shaky hands inserted the next tape into the machine.

This time, the room was fully visible. Windowless white walls melted into a white tiled floor, blurring the area together into a perfect cube. Yet this was marred by the blood that ran across every service, spattered on the walls, trickling between the tiles. Crimson handprints and scratch marks ran their desperate way across the space. A rusted cart filled with sharpened needles and half-filled blood bags stood towards the front of the screen’s view. In the midst of all this blood and misery was a girl. Her blond hair had been pulled into two buns that only seemed to stay up by sheer force of will, the girl’s hair spiking outward in every direction. She wore a sailor-style high school uniform that was stained with red at the neck and sleeves, yet she didn’t appear to have any wounds. Her wide, carnivorous yellow eyes leaned in towards the camera, fangs spread wide in a sickening grin.

“Hi heroes, I’ve been so excited for you to meet me, I just couldn’t wait any longer!” she squealed manically. “My name’s Toga, Toga Himiko and I just loooove you all so much! Oooh I just know you’re going to love my new necklace, isn’t it cute?” Toga grasped at her collar and unearthed a chain. It was a children’s charm necklace, all glittery hearts and Hello Kitty, yet in the middle hung a single engine muffler, its edges stained with blood, bits of flesh and tendon still hanging on to the metal.

"It’s like we’re best friends!” Toga squealed as she hugged the sickening jewelry to her chest, before turning deadly serious, eyes peering directly at the audience. “And when I see something I love, I want to watch it bleed, isn’t that right Ten-chan?”

The camera panned out into the corner of the room where the bloodstains were the biggest. There crumpled atop a horrifically stained and torn mattress, was Tenya. He was stripped down to his underwear, trembling, ribs visible beneath nearly translucent skin. The burn on his face had nearly finished healing puckering at the edges, suggesting that weeks had passed since the last video was made. Blood streamed from his arms, legs, and chest, he was absolutely covered in slashes, punctures and bruises. Gaping holes decorated his calves where engine mufflers had been removed. He was unconscious, breath stuttering, face slick with sweat. Toga sauntered over towards the mattress pushing the medical cart alongside her, the wheels squeaking and groaning.

“Rise and Shine, Ten-chan,” Toga sang as she reached for one of the blood bags on the table and stuck the tube into her mouth. Eyes closed,Toga sighed and took a long drink, blood staining the corners of her lips. Suddenly, her features seemed to blur together, melting off her face into a pile of brown goop onto the floor as she changed, hair turning green, features becoming younger, softer. Tenya stirred weakly, swollen eyelids parting to reveal panicked crimson irises, dulled by pain.

“M-Midoriya-kun?” Tenya croaked, voice tinged with the faintest bit of hope.

“Iida-kun, it’s okay now, I’m right here, I’m going to get you out.” Toga replied in Midoriya’s voice, tinged with false caring and concern. “Take my hand,” Toga reached out and helped Tenya to his unsteady feet, his eyes sprouting tears of relief.

“Oh no, don’t cry, Ten-chan,” Toga cackled, flinging Tenya to the ground, as her face began to melt back into her true self.

Tenya fell to the ground with a terrible thud, hope instantly extinguished.

“Uh Uh Uh, you’ve been bad, remember? You took Mr. Stainy away from me!” Toga pouted, sticking out her bottom lip as she pulled a knife off the cart and stuck it into Tenya’s back. “You don’t deserve to be free, but it’s okay, I’ll still be here,” she chuckled, sticking the knife in deeper as Tenya whimpered before going still. “Silly UA,” Toga giggled, “You shouldn’t have had that blood drive last week, I’m going to have so much fun now!”

“Hurry it up!” Spinner’s voice grumbled off camera in the background.

“Igu-chan, you’re no fun!” Toga teased before facing the camera, her foot resting on Tenya’s bloody back.

“If you still want my Ten-chan, free Mr. Stainy, and do it soon,” she peered down at Tenya, “afterall, he looks so much prettier in red.”

More videos, more and more and more. Tenya being stabbed, burnt, flesh peeled open by knives, and gouged with needles. Tenya cursing at the camera, glaring defiantly at his captors. Tenya managing to punch Spinner in the face, and being rewarded with a broken arm as payback. Tenya struggling to stay awake, eyelids fluttering, as pained whimpers escaped his lips. Tenya crying as Toga imitated his classmates, the light of hope continuing to diminish from his eyes. Tenya red-faced and delirious pleading for his dead brother to save him. It was too much, it was all too much, he was nothing. He was a boy composed of tears, blood, and anguish, his soul scattered in pieces on the floor. Through it all they laughed, sickening howls and cackles filling the tapes, accompanying every scream. Mei wanted to vomit again, her stomach roiled at the very thought of Tenya’s pain, the echoes of his screams that permeated her heart. That anyone had done this was almost impossible to comprehend, sheer villainy, plain and simple, no matter what the motive had been. Tears rolled down Mei’s cheeks, she hadn’t realized she was crying. With a steely resolve, Mei wiped her face, there was still one tape left.

Tenya looked dead, matted hair covering his eyes, body sprawled out on the blood soaked tile floor, his limbs hanging limply at odd angles. Blood and pus poured from the infected engine ports on his calves. Spinner and Toga were nowhere to be seen, yet a voice crackled over from behind the camera.

“Well, heroes,” Spinner laughed dryly, “looks like you finally caught up to us, we can’t have that of course so we’ll be on our way. Can’t see why you would, but if you still want this pathetic false hero trash, he’s yours, what’s left of him that is.” His foot shot out from behind the camera and kicked Tenya in the stomach, hard. He didn’t move, didn’t so much as flinch, as his body was thrown backwards by the blow.

“I have AWAKENED now!” Spinner roared, the camera turning to face him. His eyes were wide as dinner plates, bloodshot with rage and determination, spittle flew from his mouth as he yelled.

“and I see that Stain is not the answer to our problems, Stain was WEAK! He allowed himself to be captured, and we will fight for his freedom NO LONGER! I AM THE NEW STAIN! And I leave you this boy as a reminder of my wrath. No longer will false , degenerate “heroes” be tolerated in this society, no longer will heteromorphs live in fear, no longer will we sit back and let YOU decide OUR fate! Repent, join me, join our mission, or you shall be PURGED! “

The tape cut out with a hiss, static filling the screen, as Mei trembled, Spinner’s maniac oath still echoing in her brain.

Chapter Text

Mei couldn’t believe what she had seen, the horrors Tenya had experienced now laid bare. That she had watched his torment, the sick entertainment his captors had created made her violently ill, but Mei choked the last of the bile down. Her trash can was full already. More tears had escaped her eyes without her realizing and she reached up to wipe them numbly. Tenya had been through so much, more than she would have thought possible. He was strong, so incredibly strong, the strongest person she had ever met.

The boy who devoted himself to putting others before himself, who never hesitated to lend a hand to anyone, hero or villain, civilian or classmate. Who stayed awake long into the night, just to make sure his classmates passed their exams, or had someone to talk to. The boy who still smiled at her even after she had tricked him, who trusted everyone, even her. Who always greeted her or anyone else with a smile in the halls, who never rushed her on his costume repairs despite the urgency. Who ran at full speed down the hallways of UA and across the forest for her lost inventions, without so much of a complaint That boy could not be gone, no matter how broken Spinner had made him. Mei didn’t want to live in a world without his smile, without his light. She wouldn’t and she wouldn’t let anyone else either.

Mei had to see Tenya, now. It didn’t matter what time it was or what horrors she had just seen. She had to be there, even if it was just to stop his screams from echoing in her head. He was safe now, Mei had to remind herself, but was he really? He wasn’t safe from the darkness in his own mind, and Spinner, Spinner was still out there, him and Toga both, waiting to attack once more. She wouldn’t be able to do anything, but hope and pray for the pro-heroes to catch them in time.

If there was one thing Mei hated above all else it was feeling useless, like a pile of scrap metal left out in the rain. That was what she felt like useless, and rusted, and angry, so undeniably angry. A fire burned behind Mei’s eyes at the thought of Spinner, of how he was still out there, hiding, laughing, maybe even torturing someone else and nothing was being done. Suddenly, Tenya’s attack on Stain didn’t seem so wrong or foolish anymore, not when the heroes were too corrupted and fixated on their rank or image to actually help anyone anymore. Shivering, Mei unclenched her fist, disturbed by the sheer force of her thoughts. All she could think of now was seeing Tenya, of being there for him after all she’d seen.

—
Tenya was asleep again, Recovery Girl had probably drugged him before she left. All the tubes were reconnected into his arms, and his legs were rebandaged, the blanket secure over his pale form. Above all, what Mei noticed was the room itself. How white the walls and ceiling were, it was a strange thing to focus on, but something about the room eerily reminded her of the blood-stained cell Tenya had suffered in for the past two months.

The anger returned to Mei’s heart, her blood pumping fiery-hot in her veins. Tenya was back home, back at UA, but in a sick way it was as if he had never left. Here he was still beaten and pale in a bed, still hooked up to countless tubes and wires, with needles tucked into his abused forearms, still stuck in a white room without access to the outside. How many times had Tenya woken up in the place that was meant to protect him, only to believe that he had never left his torment? That he was still there in that room, as Toga taunted him with visions of his past. Mei’s gaze hardened, her jaw set, she had an idea.

—
It hadn’t been hard to break into the supply closet of the art room, one jab of lock-picking baby #148 had done the trick, nice and simple! Then she had to lug the tubs of paint and brushes up the steps to the third floor, huffing and puffing, thanking her lucky stars that the rest of 1-A was in class right now. Once she got up the final set of stairs, she cursed. She didn’t have a ladder. So, she’d used good old baby #148 on the downstairs janitor closet, and marched the heavy steel ladder up the stairs, sweat dripping down her neck as her arms strained. All in all, Mei was left gasping, slumped up against Tenya’s door, heart pumping with determination, as she tied back her dreadlocks, cranked open the ladder, and got to work.

Mei dipped her paintbrush in the bucket and started to swipe, madly, covering as much of the ceiling as possible. She wasn’t much of an artist, and for once she didn’t care about perfection. Her only goal was to get rid of that white, that sickening, insipid reminder of what had once been. Every inch of it on the ceiling seemed to taunt her, as though the walls had grown teeth that hissed over and over. "You can’t save him, foolish girl, not while I’m still here." In her mind the walls had Spinner’s yell and Toga’s laugh, the boy in the bed still held captive by their torment. They had tortured him, split open his skin, and fractured his mind. Mei’s anger was indescribable. Yet as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t fight Spinner, or Toga. But she could damn well fight this ceiling,this infuriating, insufferable, blindingly white ceiling.

Swipe after swipe after swipe, Mei covered the ceiling in haphazard streaks of deep blue, the color of Tenya’s hair. It was messy, hectic and patchy in spots but it was effective, even though Mei’s face and arms had become splattered with blue, her dreadlocks dripping paint onto the floor, the walls, the medical equipment, and even on Tenya’s bedsheets. In hindsight, she probably should have been more careful, but she was only halfway done, she’d deal with the mess later.

Mei climbed off the ladder and dipped a sponge into the tub of cream colored paint, just dark
enough to not be white. With intense speed, and almost no precision, Mei started sponging fluffy, cream-colored clouds onto the now dark blue ceiling, with absolutely no rhyme or reason to where she placed each one. How long had it been?, she wondered, since Tenya had seen the sun, the clouds, the sky? She would have to bring the outside to him, she resolved, so his mind wouldn’t be imprisoned any more.

After she sponged the last cloud, Mei stepped off the ladder and inspected her handiwork, and laughed, breathless. While she certainly wasn’t going to be invited to any galleries anytime soon, it would be enough, the white was gone, and with it, her anger had faded for the time being.

“H-Hatsume?” a soft and uncertain voice rang out behind her.
Startled, Mei turned and there was Tenya, his wide crimson eyes fixed on the mess that was the ceiling.

Chapter Text

Blood, everything was dripping blood. The walls, the ceiling, the spaces between the tiles on the floor. Blood squelched from his ruined mattress like a sick, fleshy sponge. Even worse, the blood was in her eyes,darkening the yellow irises with rage, the red ran down her face, dripping in crimson rivulets from her forehead to her chin, streams parting down her neck and staining her collar.

“You taste so good Ten-Ten!, I could just eat you up!,” Toga giggled as she ran a knife in a deep slash across his chest, as the scene faded away.

The alleyway was dark and framed in shadow, at least it was supposed to be. Now, thick rivers of blood spilled from the alley walls, sloshing into a scarlet lake on the filthy ground. In the center of this lake was a young man with navy blue hair and engines in his arms, Tensei. His limbs were broken, bones sticking out of the skin at odd angles, his flesh torn. Half of his face had been torn away, his skull shining beneath rotted, peeling flesh. Maggots poured from his empty eye socket, while his remaining eye shone with rage, as he crawled painstakingly through the sea of blood.

“YOU DID THIS!” Tensei hissed with Spinner’s voice,green scales covering his face “ WORTHLESS, FALSE HERO!”

Tenya startled awake, gasping, as he tried to take in where he was. The tubes still stuck out of his arms, likely to harvest more blood for Toga, he thought bitterly. She loved to torture him while wearing his own face,over and over, until he began to hate himself as much as her. As he became more awake, he noticed that something was wrong with the ceiling above him. Where the crisp white of the abandoned hospital had been was a deep dark blue, covered in mishaped cream-colored blobs. Clouds, he thought, as tears threatened to come to his eyes. He hadn’t seen the sky in so long, though he had dreamed of it often, of the warmth of the sun against his skin, the way the wind would blow against his back when he ran. Of sitting under the big tree at the park when he was younger, as Tensei read to him. He missed Tensei so much, with more force and pain than all of his wounds combined.

Tenya wondered where the clouds had come from, it wasn’t anything like what Spinner or Toga would do. In fact, nothing lately had seemed like what Spinner and Toga would do. At first, he had thought that he was hallucinating or that Toga had simply acquired more blood to impersonate his classmates. But he had seen Kaminari and Hatsume at the same time, something that had previously been impossible. Hatsume, his eyesight was fuzzy at long distances without his glasses, but he thought he could make out a pink blob on a ladder across the room.

“Hatsume?” Tenya asked warily, still doubting whether she was really there. She must have been, the walls were splattered with paint, not blood. Was it really possible that he could be free, that he was at UA again? Tears threatened to come to his eyes, as he dared to finally hope, for the first time in a long, long while. But no matter how much he had longed to return to UA, to his friends, teachers, and future heroics career, he knew that he did not deserve it. Spinner was right, he was a false hero, he had gone after Stain for his own revenge, rejecting heroism. He was selfish, he was weak, he was disgusting, he was horrible. He was not worthy of being the Class Representative of 1-A, anymore than he was of being free. The force of Tenya’s thoughts churned inside his mind, but was cut off my Hatsume’s breathless response.

“Yes, it’s me, Tenya, it’s Mei, I promise, it’s me” She answered hurriedly, eyes bright, cheeks flushed pink.

But how could it be her? Could he really be free after all this time? The idea seemed too fantastical to believe, just another daydream from a boy slowly bleeding out on the floor. She had called him Tenya, and the strangeness of her using his given name barely registered. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been called by his name. Failure, Worthless, Pathetic, False Hero, Disappointment, Rotten, Dog, Filth, Worm, Disgusting, Rat, Traitor, Freak, that is what he had learned to respond to alongside Toga’s sickening nicknames. He had long since stopped seeing himself as a person, as anything beyond a thing, an it to be cut, drained, and kicked. And now here she was, face and hair splattered with paint, smiling at him in a way that was laid bare with openness and honesty, so unlike anything he had seen in so long. Tears spilled down Tenya’s cheeks as he gazed up at her, finally, hoping, daring, to believe that she was real.

“P-promise?” Tenya rasped, crimson eyes fixed upon her.

Hatsume’s eyes brightened as crept closer to his bedside, still cautious. “Yes,” she breathed out softly, “I promise.”

But there was still one more thing he had to ask, “How long?” How long had he been gone, trapped not just in that place, but in his mind as well.

Hatsume paused for a second, brow furrowing as if unsure what to reply, “ A little over two months.”

A choked, hysteric laugh escaped from between Tenya’s cracked lips. That was all? Two months may have seemed like a long time and some far away part of him idly wondered how much schoolwork he had missed, but a lifetime had passed in that white tiled room. A lifetime of fear, hunger, shame, and pain. The amount of agony that had been done to him could not possibly fit into such a small range of time, and yet it had.

Hatsume’s eyes widened in concern, “What’s wrong?” she asked, taking his mangled hand into both of hers.

“Nothing” Tenya wheezed in between laughs. Because wasn’t that the truth of it, despite the horrors that still plagued his mind and body, in this delirious moment nothing was the matter at all. He had survived, he was safe, even if just for this moment, he was home, here at UA, with Hatsume hovering over him. She seemed so real, with her hair mussed, face streaked with paint, her skin smelling of gasoline and cinnamon. He felt safe with her imperfections, (Toga had never appeared in a form anything less than flawless). So the sight of Hatsume in all her scatteredness, beneath a ceiling haphazardly spattered with clouds, allowed Tenya to finally feel like himself, like a person once more, even if just for a fleeting moment.

Chapter Text

Mei was so relieved that Tenya had seen her, finally after all this time. A distant part of her had feared that he might never escape the prison of his own memories, and she knew that he was far from healed. But it was a start, he was fighting back against the shadow of himself he had been made into, and hope started to bloom in Mei’s chest. It had been three days since Tenya had recognized her and Mei had tried her best to be with him every step of the way. After informing Recovery Girl of her breakthrough, Mei dedicated herself to helping Tenya feel more at home at UA. He was still incredibly wary of other people, particularly Midoriya and Uraraka, as Toga had a large supply of both of their blood. But Tenya was able to visit with some of his classmates for short moments. Ever since Kaminari had found out that Tenya was awake, the rest of Class 1-A had been bombarding Mei for information, but they had kept their distance from Tenya’s room, knowing all too well what trauma the League of Villains could cause.
Tenya had also, in typical fashion, become concerned about all of the schoolwork he had missed over the last two months. So in an effort to stop him from overworking himself,
Mei read to him from a different textbook every afternoon, insisting that she needed to stay caught up as well, so he wouldn’t worry about troubling her. All in all, he seemed to finally be coming back to himself, albeit with far too many flashbacks for Mei’s comfort.

The day before Mei had walked down the hallway with a thick book in her arms. Decisively, Mei knocked on Tenya’s door, (three times so he knew it was her).

“Tenya?” she called. “I brought The History of Heroics for today, can I come in?”
No response came. At first Mei assumed Tenya was sleeping, but as she listened closely she realized she could hear panicked breathing from behind the door.

Worried, Mei grabbed the doorknob, “Tenya, I’m coming in.”

Tenya was curled up into a ball in the corner of the room, bloody smears on the floor where he must have dragged himself away. His red eyes were wide and bright with fear, as he trembled, muttering to himself. He looked so impossibly small in that moment, that Mei froze for a moment before she dashed over to his side, careful to remain at least an arm’s distance away.

“T-Tenya? It’s Mei, what’s wrong? You can tell me.” she stated as calmly as she could, vivid green eyes meeting his.

“T-Toga she’s here,I saw her, she’s here and she’s- Hatsu-Mei you have to get out of here, run, she’s going to hurt you, and I-I-I can’t protect you, I-I’m not strong enough. Please, M-Mei you need to go, run!” Tenya yelled frantically, face flushed with fear as he gasped for breath.

Mei’s heart shattered in her chest. “Tenya, she’s not here, I promise, you’re safe here, remember?”
“N-no, Mei she’s here, I saw her, you need to run, you need to run now, before she gets you too!”

“She’s not going to get me.” Mei responded firmly, “and she’s not going to get you either.” Mei reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the inventions she had been working on. “You see this? I’m calling it baby #315, identity detector, or ID-315 for short. When a person breathes into it, it detects whether they’ve ingested any blood in the past 24 hours. I'm having Principal Nezu add it to the UA security protocol. She won’t get in, I promise, I won’t let her.”

Tenya relaxed slightly, leaning against Mei’s shoulder as she continued to explain the workings of her device, until he eventually allowed Mei to lead him back to his bed, where he quickly fell asleep.

It was only then that Mei began to look around the room for what could have made Tenya think he saw Toga, and that was when she saw it. The plain, glass mirror that hung in the back corner of the room. Mei’s blood boiled, that villain, that bitch had caused him to flinch away from his own reflection.

Mei couldn’t recall an instance in her life where she had ever felt more angry than she did that day. For the first time, she wanted to kill, to watch the light drain from those villains' eyes, and it frightened her deeply. Mei shook her head and did her best to wrest the dark thoughts from her brain as she walked down the hall to Tenya’s door.

As Mei reached for the doorknob, she paused, because through it she could hear a woman yelling, a sound that stopped her heart cold.
—-
Tenya hadn’t gotten much sleep that night, his brain conjuring images of Toga or Spinner in every corner. Ever since that incident with the mirror, he didn’t trust himself, he was ashamed, he shouldn’t let himself be so affected by this, how pathetic, how weak, how false. His engines, or what was left of them ached fiercely, the bits of severed metal scraping against raw skin. But something else was there too, even with his eyes closed he could sense with a dread long-learned that someone was standing over him.

It was probably just Mei, Tenya tried to reason with himself, but something felt wrong in a way that he had foolishly hoped it never would again. What if Toga or even worse, Spinner was here? They would take him away, send him back to that dark place he never wanted to go to again, that place where he thought he would die alone and bleeding, with silent tears streaming down his cheeks. They would hurt his classmates, his friends, they would hurt Mei, and with sharp knives and cruel words they would drain that beautiful maniacal glow from her eyes, crush her spirit, leave his mechanic shattered in irreparable pieces upon the floor. Tenya opened his eyes with a gasp, he couldn’t let that happen, not to her, not to anyone else, he was supposed to be a hero, and what a poor excuse of one he had been. Not anymore. Breathlessly, and with great effort Tenya heaved himself up and grabbed the nearest weapon he could find, a vase, and swung it above his head, flowers spewing across the room. Flowers that Mei had picked, just so he could be in the company of something bright and alive. Tenya’s hands shook as he prepared to swing the vase, before a flash of straight blue hair stopped him in his tracks.

“M-Mother?”

“Tenya, honestly, sleeping in the middle of the day? And then swinging a vase around, like some villain thug. I know I raised you better than that. “ Iida Mariko scowled, as she hovered over the bed, round glasses perched on the end of her nose, her business suit pressed and tailored to perfection.

You didn’t raise me at all, Tensei did, Tenya thought angrily. He couldn’t believe that she was here, even if Toga would have had the means to acquire any of her blood, she never would have known what Iida Mariko, wife of Iida Tenshin, founder of Iidaten, really felt about her youngest son.

“For heaven’s sake Tenya, look at me when I'm speaking to you!” his mother demanded, making Tenya flinch, the vase falling to the floor and shattering. “Look at what you’ve done” she sighed, “you never learn, do you? You just had to go and let yourself get taken by villains, like some pathetic amateur. After your brother died from his weakness, we expected you to do better, not to follow in his wretched footsteps!” Mariko spat, spittle flying from her thin lips.
-
Tenya’s blood burned with rage, that she would refer to Tensei in that way, Tensei who had always been the favored son, the perfect brother, the ideal image for him to follow. Tensei who never would have died if he hadn’t pursued heroism at their father’s insistence. Tensei who had wanted to be a doctor, to save people in an entirely different way, but their father had pushed him insisting that he take full advantage of his Quirk and the Iida family name, and now he was dead.

“How dare you speak of him in that way, after all he’s done!” Tenya wanted to scream, to shout at his mother for what she had said, but he couldn’t, it was as though his lips had fused together, his hands shook, he felt so impossibly small, like a child, but without Tensei’s arm to hide behind when his parents yelled.

“I said look at me Tenya! Since you’re not going to so much as apologize for your actions, I might as well continue. You have brought so much shame to the Iida family name ,squandering your honor and prestige on pointless revenge, your father has become sick with rage, and has asked me to inform you that you shall carry our name no longer.” The woman who was no longer his mother declared sternly, and with no emotion in her cold red eyes.

Tenya’s own eyes hardened, filled with a renewed sadness and rage. He could never be perfect enough for her or his father, no matter what he had done rather it had been becoming class representative, studying until his vision went blurry, or ripping out his own engines in the night, screams muffled by a rag, as he broke himself over and over to be strong enough for them. They had never been his family, Tensei had, Tensei had been the one to teach him how to use his quirk, to read to him at night, to hold him as he cried, not his parents. They may as well have been strangers to him, but still his heart twisted at the thought that he would lose his name, the last thing that truly tied him to his brother. For without Tensei, without Ingenium, who was he?”

Chapter Text

Mei wasn’t sure what to expect when she swung the door open, wrench clutched to her side, as she prepared to fend off any villains. How had someone gotten in there? She had been working tirelessly to improve the security of UA and she knew the faculty had been as well, ever since the incident at the summer training camp there had been guards at every part of the school and at every hour. Mei wanted to believe that it was nothing, that Spinner or Toga hadn’t found a way into her school. She wanted so desperately to believe that they were safe, that Tenya could finally be safe from the villains that hurt him. But what scared her most during the split-second where she prepared to open the door, was whether she would be safe from her thoughts, the ones that urged Mei to spill the blood of those who had hurt him.

Yet when Mei opened the door, there weren’t any villains there. Instead, there was a tall, imposing woman in an impeccable gray business suit. She seemed incredibly angry as she stood stiffly, yelling at Tenya, about how useless and weak he was. That alone made Mei want to intervene, but there was something that made her pause. The woman’s perfectly cropped bob was navy blue, and her furious eyes were crimson red behind a pair of small glasses. This woman looked just like Tenya, Tenya who was folded in on himself in the farthest corner of the bed, the faraway look in his eyes, showing the reflection of a young boy, one who had long become used to his mother’s cruel words.

His mother, the fact that Tenya’s own Mom could be so vicious, shook Mei to her core. He had been kidnapped, tortured for two whole months, and this was how his family welcomed him back? Mei had had enough. Marching towards the unobservant woman, Mei grabbed her shoulder and turned her around to face her.

The woman’s eyes were wide with shock and fury, as she spat at Mei, “I don’t know who you think you are! I never…”

“Get out!” Mei cut her off sternly, careful to not actually yell as she pushed the woman out the door as hard as she could, locking it behind her with a thud.

Mei’s cheeks burned bright with fury as the woman sputtered in indignation outside the door. She couldn’t believe she had reacted that way, had just attacked Tenya’s mother without any explanation. For years, Mei had dedicated herself to not letting her impulsiveness get the best of her, to ask questions before jumping to conclusions. But it was like some switch inside of her had flipped, shutting off all logic and reasoning. Instead all that remained in her mind was Tenya’s eyes, hollow and distant, like all the light inside them had been sucked out through cruel words and an empty heart.Mei’s hand shook as she clenched it into a fist by her side, struggling to contain her anger and tear her eyes away from the door.

“M-Mei,” Tenya gasped, and that one call of her name was enough to stop her in her tracks. His face was flushed pink with fear and overexertion, the tremble of his hands mirroring hers.

“Who was that?” Mei asked, though she was pretty sure she already knew.

“My mother,” Tenya replied dryly, voice ringing with defeat, “though, I can’t exactly call her that anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that she disowned me, Mei!” Tenya snapped, an uncharacteristic fury in his words, “no matter what I do, or how much I achieve, whether its top marks, or class rep, or saving lives, nothing is good enough for my family! I spent nearly two months in that-that place, and she doesn’t even care that I’m alive, because I’m not perfect enough for her! I’m no Iida, and I will never be good enough, I’m just Tenya, pathetic, uptight, weak, reckless Tenya, and the only person who didn’t care about that was Tensei, and he’s dead. He’s dead!, and he died before I could ever truly show him how much I appreciated him. He was the real Ingenium, and I’m just fake. Spinner was right I’m false, and maybe I should have died there, instead of wasting everybody’s time. So yeah, that’s what I mean! Are you happy?”

Mei took a step backwards in shock at the anger in Tenya’s voice. She had never heard him sound like that before, had never known, had always assumed that his goals were his own. While she had found it funny how hard Tenya threw himself into his schoolwork, it made her sick now to realize exactly why that was. Mei didn’t know what she was supposed to say in the face of such rage, rage so raw, unfiltered, and broken.

“Mei”, Tenya called out softly, crimson eyes heavy with regret “ I’m sorry, you don’t deserve that. You shouldn’t have had to hear any of this, I should be better, I-I need to do better,..”

“Damn right I should have!” Mei cut Tenya off before he could no doubt berate himself farther. “If you think I haven’t felt like that before, you’re wrong! And I know, you’re not going to tell anyone else about this, just keep how you feel bottled up until the pressure makes you explode. I know what that’s like and I have had enough with performing for other people, trying to build the best again and again until I’m sweating and shaking from lack of sleep and I feel like I’ll never be able to wash the grease from my hands. Can’t we just be done with that?” she sighed, “just Tenya and just Mei, would that be enough?”

“Yes” Tenya breathed, and that was when Mei found herself leaning forward to kiss him.

Tenya’s lips were rough, worn through with cuts and nervous biting but Mei didn’t care, it wasn’t like her own were any better. The kiss wasn’t graceful, it was rough, laced with franticness and sweat. For a moment Mei pulled back, ashamed of herself, but Tenya pulled her back, bandaged hand tangling in her hair, making her gasp. He tasted like freedom, of engine grease and oranges. She felt that she was waking up in his arms, herself in a way that she had never had been before. Breathlessly, Mei leaned in closer, savoring the moment. He was Tenya, she was Mei, and together they were enough, at least for now.

Chapter Text

Tenya couldn’t believe what had just happened, had never believed that someone as strong and caring as Mei would want to kiss someone like him, and the moment she had it was as though all the darkness in his mind had been pulled away, leaving only the closest thing he had felt to happiness in a long, long time.

When they finally pulled away from each other, Tenya found himself smiling at her, his first genuine smile in months, in spite of everything that had just happened.
She smiled back, her beauty took his breath away, the way her bright green eyes sparkled, and her cheeks flushed pink to match her hair.
“I’ve got an idea!” Mei declared in the excited tone she usually reserved for talking about her support-item “babies”. In what felt like no time at all, Mei had persuaded Tenya into a wheelchair and was pushing him out the door, ignoring his startled protests.

“Where are we going?” He asked, bewildered, by the sudden shift in her attitude.

Mei leaned over the wheelchair and smiled down at him, “We are going on an adventure, don’t ask questions,” she winked, mischief evident in her gaze.

Tenya blushed but allowed Mei to lead him where she wanted to go. He tried to guess where Mei was taking him as she jogged excitedly, jostling the wheelchair a bit too much for his comfort. He winced as Mei managed to run over a large rock in the middle of the path causing his wounded body to jerk forward in the seat.

“Sorry!” Mei yelped, “Guess I got too excited!”

“It’s all right,” Tenya laughed dryly, “Never thought anything would be too fast for Ingenium, but here we are.” He looked down at his bandaged legs, that still ached despite the numerous medications he was on. How he longed to run like the wind again, to go so fast it felt like he was flying, but now his engines were gone, he couldn’t even walk. How pathetic, how weak.”

Tenya fought to suppress a flinch when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, none of that” Mei chastised him, “whatever you’re thinking about stop, we’re almost there!”

Tenya blinked in an attempt to pull himself from his thoughts to focus on where Mei was taking him. They passed through several winding roads and into the UA woods, a spot Tenya knew they weren’t supposed to be in without a teacher.

“Mei, the rules…” He tried to protest, already knowing it was in vain.

“The rules will still be here tomorrow, Tenya”
‘
“That type of reasoning makes no sense!”

“Of course it does! Ooh look, we’re here!”

And that was when Tenya finally saw where Mei had taken him. There nestled in a corner of the woods was a small, forgotten garden. Moss covered stone benches circled a small stone fountain that was covered with cobwebs and had no water. Wild roses had grown everywhere, pinks and yellows and reds all tangled together in an unkempt wall-like mass. It shouldn’t have been but there was something beautiful in its chaos, a raw, wild beauty that reminded him so much of Mei. The sight nearly overwhelmed him, it had been so long since he had last been outside, and tears threatened to pour from his eyes as he basked in the heat of the sun.

“This is my thinking spot!” Mei exclaimed, “All my best babies come from here! (Tenya tried his best not to blush at her wording)

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Mei sighed as she guided Tenya over by the fountain and sat on one of the benches facing him.

“Yes it is” in a way that he could never hope to describe, all words erased by the image of her against those roses.

“Well, I know it's silly, but I thought that since this is my thinking spot it would be better to come here and talk than anywhere else.”

“I don’t think that’s silly at all”

“Good!, because I really think we need to, to talk about it I mean, what just happened. And I-I don’t just mean kissing you because that was great and..” Mei flushed terribly as she stammered, “but um, everything that happened before I got there…yeah!”

Tenya blushed as well at Mei’s awkward words, but he dreaded the conversation that was to come. “You shouldn’t have to worry about it, I’ve put too much on you already.”

“Yes, I should, I thought we talked about this already, remember? No more keeping things bottled up, and,” she breathed deeply, “that goes for me too, okay? No more holding it all in until we both explode, I’m done with that. So let’s just lay it out there, everything that’s scaring us or causing worry, and we’ll tackle it together, I’ll go first.”
Mei pulled a photo out from her jacket pocket, it was worn, creased and beaten from years of being carried. A young man with Mei’s green eyes and pink hair and a woman with glasses and a brown ponytail smiled in front of a support item workshop wearing grease stained overalls. A toddler version of Mei stood in front of them laughing and waving a wrench.

“My dad was killed by villains when I was five, so they could steal the new equipment he and my mom were developing. After that it's just been me and my mom, but she was never really there. After he died she just stopped, wouldn’t build anything anymore and started throwing herself into long days of work at an office job she never wanted, only to come home and stare at the wall for hours on end. She never talked about him, and tried to keep me away from the support business. She gave up on that by the time I was six and had dismantled every device in the house. That was around when she gave up on me too, my similarities to my dad were just too painful for her since he died. I guess I just kept building to fill the emptiness in the house, and that’s why I started calling my inventions my babies, so I had something to care about now that everything was gone. The thing is we were so happy before he died, and then it was all gone, that’s it, in an instant. And inventing is the only way I can still feel connected to how we were before, the only thing that truly makes me happy. So what if everyone at UA calls me crazy or a mad scientist? They don’t know me, not like I know myself. Now I know this isn’t anything close to what you’ve been through, but I don’t think your mom knew you either and those villains certainly didn’t. So I think it's about time we both stop believing what other people think, and start focusing on ourselves, okay?”

Tenya didn’t know what to say. He had never known, had assumed like everyone else had that Mei was happy, that she created out of joy, not loneliness.
“I-I’m so sorry Mei, I had no idea”
“It’s okay, I’m not trying to make you feel bad for me, i just figured that since we’re out here I might as well add some bread to the trauma sandwich”`
Tenya laughed, he laughed harder and more genuine than he had in months, even before he was taken. Tears sprang to his eyes as his body shook with the force of it. Mei was laughing too, her cheeks flushed cherry red as her eyes sparkled. Tenya wasn’t even sure why they were both so amused, it wasn’t that funny.

“Mei?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re both pretty fucked up huh?”

“Yeah, Tenya I guess we are.”

Chapter Text

When Mei lay awake that night, all she could think about was that day, and the kiss. The way Tenya’s lips had felt when pressed against hers. The way every thought and doubt had flown from her head as if they never existed. It had felt more powerful than any Quirk, and Mei couldn’t stop herself from smiling behind her pillow despite all that had occurred. She had never thought, had never even dreamed of telling someone what she really felt before, and now it felt like a weight had been lifted from her chest, like maybe she’d be able to create for herself and not for the ghosts inside her. For the first time in what felt like forever she was starting to feel hope and it made her feel as though anything was possible, at least for that night.

—
Mei startled awake in the middle of the night, hair flying across her face. The walls shook with screams, screams filled with pain and breathy whimpers, screams that stopped her heart. Breathless, she ran down the hallway, barefoot, heart racing. Only to crash into someone, standing there, in the middle of the hall.

“Todoroki?”
He was just standing there, hair messy, the white mixing in with the red. His different colored eyes seemed glazed over, haunted, as he listened to the screams coming down the hall. His hands were trembling too, Mei noticed.

“Todoroki” Mei turned to face him, trying to remain as calm as possible, “what happened, can you tell me?”

His eyes seemed to look right through her, “My mom, she, she won’t stop screaming, he’s going to hurt her again…” He muttered rapidly, voice breathy with fear.

Mei felt sick, she’d had some indication of what Endeavor may have been like behind closed doors with that fiery temper of his, but now, now the burn on Todoroki’s face seemed so much more menacing where it stood out an angry red amidst pale skin.

Mei reached out and took Todoroki’s hand in hers,

Your mom’s safe, he’s not going to hurt her anymore,” and God, Mei hoped that was true, “that’s not what the screaming is, ok? Tenya probably just had a bad dream, and I’m going to go check on him, everything’s ok” Mei tried to reassure, even though her own voice shook as the screaming continued, and it was a wonder no one else was out of their rooms yet.

Todoroki didn’t seem to be hearing her.

“Hey, can you go upstairs and find Midoriya for me?, it’s important.” Mei had seen how the two looked at each other, and she assumed that if there was anyone who could help Todoroki, it would be Midoriya.

“H-He can make the screaming stop?”

“Yeah,” Mei replied softly, “he’ll make it stop,” If only it were that easy.

After she managed to get Todoroki to go up the stairs, Mei walked over to Tenya’s door and jerked it open to find, Kaminari.

“Hatsume, oh, thank God!, I was going to come get you, I pushed the call button, ” Kaminari panted, his cheeks flushed.

“Wh-what happened?”

“I’m not sure,he won’t calm down, there’s just, there’s so much blood..”

At that, Mei roughly shoved past Kaminari. He was right, blood was everywhere staining the sheets in a pool of red that reminded her of Tenya’s eyes. And the screaming, oh God, the screaming, as Tenya thrashed about deliriously in the bed. His eyes were open, but glazed over, fever-bright against flushed cheeks. Whatever he was seeing at that moment, it wasn’t her. She couldn’t think, had to fit the urge to press her hands against her ears, he had to stop screaming, she needed him to stop screaming. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t think.

“Hatsume, breathe, c’mon I need you to breathe okay?” Kaminari said shakily.

She hadn’t realized she wasn’t, her body heaving with strangled gasps. She couldn’t do this, what was she thinking? She’d thought Tenya was finally getting better after that day in the garden, not healed, but better. Now, it was like they were back to square one, and she didn’t know what to do.

“You need to breathe, Hatsume, please. You can’t shut down right now, he needs you.”

That woke Mei up. She was inadequate, she was in over her head, she was a girl better suited to the scrap heap than the surgeon’s table, but she was the only one there, the only one who could help. Because UA was more afraid of bad publicity than the anguished screams of the mutilated boy in that bed. It made her blood boil, just to think of it, as she gasped, heaving herself back to alertness.

“That’s it Hatsume, just like that, you’ve got this.”

Well that was a lie, if she’d ever heard one, whatever this was, she certainly hadn’t got it. But she had to try.

“T-thanks”

“Don’t mention it,” Kaminari reassured her, “seriously.”

“Can you try and distract him while I check what’s wrong?” Mei asked.

Kaminari nodded, walking over to the side of the bed. He began telling some kind of funny story in a soft voice, as he tried in vain to help Tenya relax. The screams had died down by now, but Mei suspected that was only from the strain on his vocal cords from such prolonged pain, as anguished whimpers spilled from his lips.

“You would not believe what happened at lunch a couple days ago, Pres! So, me and Sero had this brilliant idea to use his tape to make this sort of food slingshot, I mean, genius, right?”

Mei pulled back the sheets around Tenya’s legs, wincing as they stuck to his skin with a sickening tearing sound.

“Yeah so we started off small, a couple pieces of fruit and such. The girls were so mad, Hagakure kept complaining that we got strawberry all over her face, so I told her nobody could see it anyway, and she threw her sushi at me, I got soy sauce all over my hair! Can you believe it?”

Tenya’s legs looked worse than Mei had ever seen them. Calves swollen to three times their normal size, and bright red. The skin tight and shiny around the engine ports, gaping, bloody holes spilling over onto the sheets. Mei grabbed some gauze from the medical kit beside the bed and pushed down hard on one of the holes, soaking up the pool of blood. Tenya moaned, and the sound of it made her want to take him into her arms and run somewhere where neither of them could get hurt ever again. But she wasn’t the one made for running, he was, or at least, she thought angrily, he had been.

“So then Sero flung an onigiri at Mina, and Tsu tried to deflect it with her tongue, but then ended up accidentally licking Midoriya in the face, dude blushed so hard, I think his blood combusted.”

There was metal beneath the blood,sharp glistening metal, cutting its way out of his flesh. Tenya’s engines were growing back, she realized, against all the odds, and in what was clearly excruciating pain. Mei rooted through the medical kit, in search of anything that could stop the pain with one hand, as she pressed down on the bleeding wounds with the other. There wasn’t much Tenya could have unfortunately, since he had a sickeningly high tolerance from what Spinner and Toga had put him through. Mei’s gaze locked with Kaminari’s as she plunged a syringe into the meat of Tenya’s thigh.

“So then I took a big ol’ plate of soba noodles and put it dead in the middle of the slingshot, thought maybe I’d get lucky and hit Mineta. And guess who I hit instead? Bakugou. He was completely covered in noodles! Sero started laughing and calling him the “Soba Monster,” and well he, just you know, exploded! I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Kacchan so mad. Now, it’s hard to take someone seriously when they’re wearing soba for a hat, but the way he was chasing Sero, it was like a bull on a rampage!”

Tenya had fallen limp, eyes glazed and half-open on a dose that should have knocked him out flat. God, he was still in pain, still whimpering, just softly enough that she barely heard. Mei wrapped the bleeding engine ports and paused, noticing something even more horrible now that the blood had been mopped away. The ports that had been burned shut were tearing, the raised, red skin splitting piece by piece, as though he was being peeled open from the inside out. There was only one thing Mei could do, and God, how she wished he would have lost consciousness by now.

“Now Sero ran as fast as he could, but then he slipped on some soup, and went flying! So Bakugou grabs him by the arm, and somehow manages to hang Sero from the ceiling. In his own tape! “

Mei brought the sterile knife down on Tenya’s leg, sawing through the burnt skin in an effort to make room for the engine muffler growing beneath it.

“I’m sorry,” she cried, “I’m so, so sorry”

Tears pooled from Tenya’s eyes as he gasped. Mei continued to saw, clearing one hole, then the next.

“So, there’s all this yelling, right? So Aizawa-Sensei runs in and sees Bakugou, still covered in noodles, blasting Sero around like a human pinata, and he just collapses, right there on the floor. Doesn’t even pull out his sleeping bag or anything. Nobody could get him up for hours. We missed two classes!”

Mei sighed in pure, anguished relief, as she cleared the last of the burnt flesh from Tenya’s legs, that was of course when the explosion sounded.

Chapter Text

BOOM!

It was as though the ceiling was about to collapse, the force of the boom was so loud. The walls shook and Mei found herself reflexively grabbing Tenya so he wouldn’t slide off the bed. Tenya, thankfully had passed out after the final muffler had been removed, his eyes closed in some semblance of peace. Yet this was only a testament to how bad the pain had really been, pain that she had had to cause. But there was no time for Mei to curse her own position, to dwell on the rage that boiled within her. Mei wiped away the tears from Tenya’s cheeks. After a second thought, she leaned over and kissed him gently on the forehead. Never mind what Kaminari thought.

Kaminari, for that matter, didn't even look startled at the explosion, just annoyed.
“It’s two in the morning, Blasty” he muttered, rolling his eyes.
As if in response, another

BOOM!
went off in the hallway, reverberating under their feet.

Mei’s own eyes were wide as she breathed heavily in shock, at not just the explosion but at Kaminari’s flippantness to the attack.

“Are we not in danger?” Mei asked

“No, “ Kaminari scoffed, “That’s just Bakugou being the loose cannon we all love and tolerate, Deku must have pissed him off again.”

Mei didn’t know what to think, all of this noise, and destruction, was because of a hero student’s temper?

BOOM! BOOM! KABOOM! BOOM!

“N-no stop, please, I’m sorry, Tensei..” Tenya whimpered, brow creasing in distress as he trembled in his sleep.

That did it. Mei unclenched her fist where her nails had been digging into her hand, leaving bloody crescents behind.

After motioning for Kaminari to stay, Mei stormed out of the room, barely able to contain her fury.

KABOOM! BOOM! BA-BOOM!

The explosions just kept going, louder and louder as she got closer and closer to the stairs. Mei couldn’t believe this, it was the middle of the night! And besides that, couldn’t Bakugou have at least had the decency to keep his fight separate from the screaming downstairs? God, how she wanted to grab that inconsiderate boy and slam him into the wall until he saw some sense.

She’d finally thought Tenya was starting to get better, that they could both get better together. But Spinner’s claws had sunk deep and Mei wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to pry them out. He was in so much pain, she had had to cut him open. The very thought of it made her sick, and for the first time, Mei found herself hating Quirks. Hating Tenya’s for destroying his body from the inside out, hated Toga’s for ruining his trust, hated Bakugou’s for booming down the stairwell at night and causing even more panic and fear. What were Quirks even good for? For saving people, she supposed, but if there were no Quirks there would be no villains either, at least not the kind she had come to know.

Mei pushed the thoughts aside as she reached the top of the stairs.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BA-BOOM!

Mei braced herself to charge, and then paused.

Almost the entirety of class 1-A was gathered at the stair landing, and in front of them was Bakugou. But he wasn’t fighting, he was just standing there letting off explosions as he blocked the way down the stairs.

“GET OUTTA HERE, YOU EXTRAS!” Bakugou yelled as he let off another blast.

“But he’s screaming, we need to do something, we’re hero students, come on!” Kirishima argued as the other students nodded and murmured in agreement, seeming angry but none of them daring to fight each other with Quirks.

“I SAID NO SHITTY HAIR!”

“Kacchan, I think we should go help,” Midoriya tried to interject. Mei didn’t see Todoroki in the crowd so she assumed he must have calmed him down.

“MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, DEKU!”

“BOOM!”

“STOP!” Mei yelled as she ran to the stair landing.

Bakugou startled “Hatsume”.

“What is going on here?” she asked.

“Is Tenya okay?” asked Uraraka, her face flushed with worry.

“His engines are growing back, he’s in a lot of pain and he’s scared, and these explosions are NOT helping” Mei looked pointedly at Bakugou.

The group murmured amongst themselves

"That sounds really bad!"

"At least they're growing back, that's good right?"

"Yeah he can be a hero again!"

"You can’t be a hero if you're dead, dumbass."

"Stop that!, Tenya’s not going to die. "

"Do you really think he’ll be okay?"

"Shouldn’t he be in a real hospital?"

"I bet his brain’s broken and he’s crazy!"

That one enraged Mei and she was about to attack, when Bakugou pulled a little purple guy, Minu-something, up by his neck.

“YOU WANT TO SAY THAT AGAIN, PERV!?”

“Oh, come on” Minuroo, Minuda, Menudo? Responded “We all know he’s pathetic, do you think I can be class rep when he finally dies already? First thing I’m doing is banning the girls from wearing uniforms” he drooled, eyes widening with disgusting lust, before he gasped, face turning purple, lungs constricting as he slowly choked to death, Bakugou’s hand firm against his throat.

“I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU MINETA!”

Mei was frozen, her heart pounding in time with her anger as she stood there and watched Bakugou squeeze the life out of Mineta as tears poured from his creepy little eyes. She should do something, she should move, she should.. but, some small part of her that kept growing louder urged her to let him die, he deserved it didn’t he? Mei felt herself smiling.

“Let him go Blasty!” Kirishima called out, running to Bakugou.

“YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY CARE ABOUT THIS TWERP!”

“No, but I care about you,” Kirishima sighed, “and you can’t be a hero if you murder him, no matter how much he deserves it.”

Bakugou nodded in resignation and unceremoniously dumped Mineta onto the floor where he collapsed to the ground, gasping.

Almost instantly, Sero used his tape to wrap Mineta, and threw the squirming bundle over his shoulder.
“I’ll get him to Aizawa, maybe he’ll finally be expelled now” Sero sighed as he walked out.

Mei jerked out of her stupor and shivered. She was willing to let someone die, what was wrong with her?

After taking a deep breath and clenching and unclenching his fists a few times, Bakugou looked at the now even more shell-shocked throng of students,”I said beat it, extras! If Hatsume says Shitty Glasses is fine, he’s fine, alright!?,” his voice wasn’t exactly quiet but he wasn’t shouting anymore either.

Kirishima nodded and led everyone else out of the room, but Bakugou didn’t leave. And Mei, Mei just stared still in shock from the panic that had just occurred.

Bakugou sighed as he turned to face Mei, “I’m sorry about the explosions, I was just trying to keep everyone away. I was kidnapped too, you know?” he laughed bitterly,”it’s fucking terrifying, the last thing he’s going to want right now is being around that much people. I-It’s just it’s fucking bullshit, can’t believe they rescued me before our goddamned good-two shoes class president. That hand bastard took me because he thought I’d be a good villain, maybe he’s right, hell I almost killed that little grape bitch,made All Might retire, it’s not right. I should be the one screaming.” Bakugou looked more subdued than Mei had ever seen him and she thought she could see tears beginning to form in his eyes.

“I-” Mei tried to respond before she was cut off.

“WHAT THE HELL YOU STARING AT ME FOR GEARS!? GET OUT AND DO YOUR JOB!”

So Mei left, it didn’t seem like the explosions would come back again, and after checking that Tenya was still unconscious, she went back to bed. But she couldn’t sleep, because everytime she drifted off she thought she could hear two voices screaming their repressions and torments down the hall.

Chapter Text

Tenya hadn’t woken for two more days, not fully anyway. Mei didn’t want to think about the way his crimson eyes managed to stare right through her, swimming with delirium and pain. It was as though he had never been so far away, even though he was right there in front of her.
The engines were growing back, slowly but surely, the skin tearing as they caught, again and again. Recovery Girl was all but useless, Mei felt bad for thinking that but it was true. Any attempts at healing would stop the growth, and UA’s nurse knew nothing of mechanics. Every day Mei found it harder and harder to quell her fury, that she was the only one here. That no one cared enough to help Tenya, not the school or his family either. Instead all anyone cared about was reputation, fickle though it was. God forbid, someone tarnish the oh-so perfect UA!, some heroes they were. Mei shook her head and tried to right herself, honestly, what was she thinking, she sounded like Stain, and wasn’t he the reason they were in this whole mess?

“No!, No, Tensei don’t please, no, no, no…”

That was why she was thinking what she was thinking. God, if she had to hear Tenya scream one more time for a brother who wasn’t even there anymore, her heart was going to burst right out of her chest. She shouldn’t have been the one who had to do this, she thought, as she checked Tenya’s swollen legs for the umpteenth time that day. The skin had split around his engines again, and Mei cursed as she mopped up the blood. All of this pain, and for what? There was no one here but her, no family, no teachers, no doctors, and it sickened Mei to the core to think that was only because of an assignment. An injured, deeply traumatized boy was not a school project, Tenya wasn’t some baby for her to fix on her way into the support industry. This was the kind of school U.A. was, so cutthroat as to put a learning experience above a life.

For the first time in her life, Mei wasn’t proud to be a U.A. student, not after all they had done. And they still dared to call themselves heroes, even when their capes were stained with blood.

“Stop, no, hurt me instead, I-I’m sorry” Tenya’s fevered mumbling worsened as Mei wiped the sweat off his brow with a clenched fist, trembling in rage as a knock at the door startled her.

“What?” she snapped.

“Oi, Gears, you in there?” Bakugou barked back.

Mei stopped leaning over Tenya and opened the door, “Oh Bakugou” she sighed breathlessly, “about what you said last night”.

“NEVER THE FUCK MIND WHAT I SAID LAST NIGHT!” Bakugou yelled with a pointed look.

It was only then that Mei noticed Midoriya peeking out from behind him, green eyes wide and cheeks flushed pink from nerves. Closing the door behind her, Mei took in a deep breath and unclenched her fists, again and again until the tension receded. “What do you need?”

“Hatsume, sorry, I, I know you’re busy but we” Midoriya rambled.

“No shit, I'm busy!” Mei growled, the fierceness of her own voice surprising her. “Do you want to know how much sleep I’ve gotten this week, Midoriya?! How many times I’ve been woken by screaming? I had to hold Tenya down and stitch him up while he screamed, begged for me not to hurt him. And how sick is that? That I have to hurt someone I care about for the sake of this school? I don’t know what I’m doing, he’s scared and alone and I don’t know what I’m fucking doing because I’m not a damn doctor, I don’t have a healing Quirk, I’d never even seen that much blood before. Or maybe you want to know about the tapes I had to watch, where he was burned and flayed open and broken, or how he gets so delirious that he calls out for his dead brother to save him? So yeah, I’m real busy, thanks.”

Midoriya froze, trembling slightly” Hatsume, I didn’t mean”

“I know, I’m sorry” Mei apologized and was shocked to realize she meant it, “ I-don’t know what came over me, I-It’s just so hard you know, and I don’t know how much more I can take.” She reached up to wipe tears she didn’t even know were there, hand shaking.

“Aw, put a sock in it,” Bakugou retorted sharply, though his eyes were soft and understanding, “besides nobody’s allowed to yell at Shitty Deku ‘cept me.” He took a deep breath and looked at her, “this is going to sound weird coming from me but, anger doesn’t help the situation, okay? You just gotta deal with it, and explode later.”

Mei looked at him oddly.

“What?,” Bakugou rolled his eyes, “Eij signed me up for anger management, I guess it’s working.”

“Eij?,” Mei questioned.

“SHUT UP!” Bakugou's cheeks were as red as flames.

“Uh-Kacchan?”

“Deku?”

“Shouldn’t we um- what we came for?”

“Oh right. Give it here!”

It was only as Midoriya pulled his hand from behind his back that Mei realized he had even been holding something. It was oddly shaped, white and floppy. Once she looked closely she realized that it was a doll, one that looked just like the late hero Ingenium.

“Yeah, uh, It’s a ‘My Friend Ingenium’, Deku found it on some vintage site, I guess.”

“Kacchan helped too, he sold his All Might cards!”

“Shut it!” Bakugou blushed, “anyway yeah, we know it’s not much but we thought maybe it might help.”

He handed her the doll, “Squeeze it.”

She squeezed the doll, and a voice came out, Tensei’s voice,

“You’re my favorite hero!”.

Mei’s eyes watered, she didn’t know what to say.

“Thank you, thank you so much.”

“Eh don’t mention it Gears,” Bakugou muttered as he pulled Deku down the stairs.

“That was very nice of you Kacchan!”

“Aw put a sock in it!”

Mei held the doll tightly and walked back inside. Tenya was still sleeping fitfully, his brow furrowed with pain.

“No Tensei, don’t please.”

Mei leaned over and stroked Tenya’s hair back from his face, her hand tangling in the deep blue strands.

“Shh, it’s ok Tenya, I promise. What did I tell you?,” she laughed sadly “I always fix my babies.”

Mei took the doll and placed it under Tenya’s bruised arm. He shifted, unconsciously hugging the doll to his chest.

“Let’s save the day!”

“T-Tensei,” Tenya sighed, falling back into sleep.

Mei could have sobbed with relief, as she tucked the blankets back around Tenya and watched him sleep peacefully for the first time in days.

Yet she couldn’t quite silence the lingering voice in the back of her head, the one that whispered that if there were no Quirks, Tenya would still have his brother instead of a doll. If there were no Quirks, Tenya wouldn’t have been hurt. If there were no Quirks, there wouldn’t be villains, no U.A., no fights, no destruction, no goddamned child soldiers. If there were no Quirks, nothing could hurt him at all, could it?

Chapter Text

Hi,
so sorry to anyone who was expecting a chapter. So excited that this story is at over a thousand hits! While I have a plan for this story, I unfortunately am going to have to go on a small break. I am a creative writing student, and currently I have too many other projects that I need to work on. I absolutely love working on "In the Shadow of Revenge" and I can promise that it will be completed. More suffering for Tenya and Mei in the future!!!

Thanks,
Connie :)

Chapter Text

 Tenya was running faster than he had ever had before. Thick plumes of steam billowed out from his engines, covering the U.A. track in all directions, the landscape nothing but blurs. He was the wind, he was free, he felt as though he could run around the whole world without ever stopping. Tenya smiled, laughing breathlessly, he was flying!, he was…

A scaly hand shot up from the dirt grabbing Tenya’s ankle. Spinner, his eyes wide as saucers, pupils swirling with his own fury.

“I WON’T LET YOU GET AWAY FROM ME, HERO SCUM!” he snarled, spittle flying from his mouth and burning on Tenya’s skin like acid. Spinner’s claws dug fiercely into his calf, blood streaming in thin crimson ribbons.

With a burst of his engines, Tenya kept running, despite the pain of Spinner dragging behind him, shouting his faults over and over.

It wasn’t long before he felt a pull on his other leg.

“Did you miss me, Ten-chan?, because I know I’ve missed you,” Toga giggled, fangs bared as she blushed.

Tenya tried his hardest not to tremble as he kept running, hobbled by the two villains he dragged along with him. He had to get away, he had to run, or they’d catch him again.

He fell.

A sharp pain shot through him as Toga bit down on his leg, greedily sucking the blood.

“Mmm” she sighed. “YOU’LL NEVER GET AWAY FROM US!,” Spinner cackled.

The ground started to tremble in front of where Tenya laid, and he braced himself for the next terrible thing to appear. It was Tensei, half his face rotted away and the other half streaked with tears, as he looked at Tenya in anguish. Tensei’s blackened lips peeled back as he opened his mouth and cried, “ real heroes eat their vegetables!”

Tenya jolted awake in an equal mix of fear and confusion. As he struggled to get his breathing under control, he noticed something soft under his arm. Oh, that’s what that was. He remembered when Tensei had to record for this. He had just gotten his first toy deal and had little to no say over what phrases he was allowed to use. He had been embarrassed beyond belief. While Mother argued that any deal was important for the family, six-year old Tenya had thrown carrots at his brother for weeks, while yelling that same phrase, never failing to make him laugh.

Tenya found himself smiling, he hadn’t had a memory like that in so long. It reminded him that he was safe, and he wondered where it had come from. Mei, it had to be, Mei who was always there, Mei who had painstakingly covered the ceiling with hand painted clouds. Mei who was currently slumped over in a chair, fast asleep.

Tenya couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed her before. For the first time, she looked peaceful, her dreadlocks falling across one side of her face as she snored. Of course, Mei snored, because that was her, loud and boisterous even in sleep. She was so beautiful, cheeks flushed pink, and knuckles stained with grease. Watching her, Tenya couldn’t help feeling guilty, if there was any reason Mei hadn’t been sleeping it was him. It shouldn’t have been her responsibility to help him, but he was so glad she was here. Tenya didn’t know how he would have survived without her, sure that he would have succumbed to the injuries whether it be the ones on his body or mind. She was the glue that held his broken pieces together, and he loved her so, so much.

He wished there was something more he could do for her. For the exhaustion she suffered on his behalf, for the darkening shadows of resentment behind her eyes. For the anger he wished she wouldn’t have to carry for him. Mei may have thought he didn’t notice, but Tenya could sense the sudden hardness about her, as though she were locking up her emotions deep inside, ready to explode. And he was scared, so scared that she would fall just like he did, onto the path of revenge. He ached to hold her in his arms, to protect her from his mistakes. But for now, as the engines in his legs burned from beneath his skin, and his eyes grew heavy with pain and fatigue, all he could do was sleep, his brother’s doll clutched tightly in his arms.

—

Mei felt like she was losing her mind. Couldn’t escape the thoughts, the desires, the craving for revenge. From the moment she’d woken up, back stiff from the chair she’d collapsed in, it was all she could think about. Seeing him lying there, unconscious and in pain, was enough to make her want to run outside and skin a lizard. Any lizard would do really, maybe that rock-faced kid with the animal quirk would have one. Stop that Mei. She shook away the images of her peeling Spinner’s scaly skin off with the sharpest thing she could find in her tool box. She was starting to feel like she actually was “the mad scientist” her class always said she was, her mind so consumed with revenge, eating away at her heart.

There was something about Tenya, his face still bruised, hugging that imitation of his brother’s voice. He must have had a nightmare, the blankets askew on the floor as though they had been kicked off in fear. Mei sighed sadly and checked Tenya’s legs for bleeding, (thankfully there wasn’t any but the engines seemed to be pushing up painfully, the skin taut and crimson red), before pulling the blankets back over him, while making sure the doll didn’t fall from his hand.

His face was blank, cheeks flushed bright with fever, hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. He looked so young and vulnerable it made her heart ache with a mixture of love and sadness as her blood pounded with fury. Nothing would ever hurt Tenya again. Not if Mei had anything to say about it.

She couldn’t deal with this right now, couldn’t keep looking at him, not like this. Not when all he could do was lay there when only a day or so ago they had been laughing and kissing in her thinking spot. A place where she had told him things she had never told anyone else before. She couldn’t take it, being so vulnerable with someone who was so close one moment and so far away the next.

Mei kissed Tenya’s cracked lips softly as she stroked back his sweat drenched hair. “I’ll be right back, get some good rest so those engines can grow, okay?” She whispered before walking out the door.

Mei felt terrible for leaving him but she needed air. She felt like she couldn’t breathe in that room, even with the clouds on the ceiling. Her lungs heaved in her chest as she struggled to catch her breath in the hallway as her mind swam with images and sounds. Tenya’s mangled legs. Spinner’s animalistic laugh. Walls covered in blood. Toga’s sickening smile. Her father, green eyes wide in fear as a villain held razor sharp talons to his throat.

Mei gasped, tears springing to her eyes as she doubled over from the sheer exertion of breathing. Yet as she struggled to catch her breath, someone crashed into her.

The girl’s arms were full of books that quickly toppled to the floor as her black ponytail swung back and forth in a frenzy.

“Hatsume, I-I’m so sorry, I should have been looking where I was going” the girl, Mei thought her name was Yao-something muttered rapidly.

“It’s fine.” Mei said hurriedly as she bent down to help pick up the books. She couldn’t help but glance at the titles: Leadership for Beginners, A Guide to Helping A Friend with Trauma, An Educator’s Tips for Empowering Your Classroom..

“Is this for a class?”

“U-um no it’s for actually well, I’ve been filling in as Class Rep while Tenya’s been gone, and I just can’t do it! I mean I ran for office of course, but I can’t do it like he could and I don’t know what I’m doing, and all of 1-A’s counting on me and I just figured I need a plan!” she stammered while hastily picking up the books and walking away.

Mei still just stood there for a moment, thinking. She was exactly right, she needed a plan too, one that would make sure nothing could ever go after her or Tenya again. One that ended with a dead lizard.