Work Text:
#1: Observation
In all her years (which, relative to quite a few people in her life, admittedly wasn’t all that many), Hatsume Mei had historically never found herself too interested in the machinations of other people’s minds. At least, not when it came to most other people of her time. Her contemporaries, if you would.
Of course, she very much respected the works of her peers, her underclassmen from high school, and even her upperclassmen in the university. Not to mention the fact that U.A. granted her opportunities to collaborate with some of the greatest minds of the generation when it came to creating!
What she really meant was that she wasn’t too interested in what…well, what other people her age were normally interested in.
While she had never personally done it before, she could more closely relate to the trainers of professional athletes or the crew behind a theatre production more than the athletes or actors themselves. And, of course, it wasn’t as though there weren’t people in this day and age who were interested in that stuff! Even with quirks, sports still thrived, and productions evolved alongside the rise of quirks.
However…for whatever reason, it appeared to Hatsume that the sort of ‘attention’ that had recently come about in order to praise the supporting roles hadn’t quite reached the heroics industry.
Let it be known, however, that that wasn’t something she viewed as a problem. Quite the opposite, in fact! At least, for her. See, she knew that it was a little bit of a problem for the heroics industry that there simply wasn’t enough people to create all the support gear that the ever-increasing number of heroes needed. Yadda yadda yadda, supply and demand, all that econ silliness that she really couldn’t care less about. Until it came to making a name for herself or whatever. But hey! That’s what the business students were for!
However…
Hatsume was determined. For her, the whole issue of all those industry politics weren’t for her. That just was not what she gave a damn about. She was Hatsume Mei, damn it!
She was Necessity!
Necessity, the mother of invention!
It didn’t matter how much of a gap between the supply and demand there was for heroes who demanded support gear and creators who supplied that gear. She would make up that gap, and she swore it!
Now, surrrrrrre, was it feasible for her to do that? Nah.
Did that stop her?
NAH!
Anyways! Back to minds!
So, yeah, she historically found herself not very interested in the machinations of others’ minds unless they were explicitly inventors like her. It wasn’t that she disregarded their opinions, per se, but…
The phrase “The customer is always right” was not right. The customer was, at best, partially okay at what they needed to do. For her purposes, it was to help collaborate on what exactly they needed in order to excel best.
Of course, she wasn’t so ignorant nor close-minded to believe that she didn’t have a part in that, too. She also wasn’t so naive to believe that, when she had her own company, she would be able to personally oversee the details of every single client that it might have taken on. She knew that, logically, there would probably be at least a few people that she would be able to have enough trust in as inventors to have their own projects. Even more than that, she knew that, in order to keep the world of invention growing, she would likely end up taking on a few apprentices, and taking over their own projects would only hinder their growth! She couldn’t have that!
However, for the clients she did have so far?
She did her due diligence, damn it!
Now, she brought up her clients because of somebody in particular that started this whole damn thought process!
Midoriya Izuku.
She couldn’t believe it, but she’d spent enough time around the damn man to know his actual name! She could barely remember her own professor’s name, and she practically worked under the man as his main student! His headliner, basically!
God, the surprise on Power Loader’s face when she referred to the green-haired man who was starting to become well-known throughout U.A. for his heroics by his name instead of a nickname? Now that was something to treasure.
See, the whole thing about minds applied to most people. For whatever reason, Midoriya Izuku was not most people.
Now, she wasn’t going to give him some absurd credit like, “Huh, he was one of the best inventors the world had ever seen!” or something like that. Really, she knew full well from him asking questions that he was still at the very basics. She couldn’t blame him, though. He most likely had the aptitude to learn how to create things quite well, but simply hadn’t put in the time. Again, no issue to her. There were plenty of things she could have invested her time but didn’t in favor of learning how to create. He most likely just did the same, but with heroics instead.
The credit she was going to give him was that he always had ideas. Sometimes, they weren’t exactly the best ideas, but that was even better. It was clear that he wasn’t going to be stopped by just a few rotten stinkers. She thought it was necessary, even, that you take the bad with the good when it came to growth. Not all experiments yield the results you hope for, but that doesn’t mean you stop trying!
Now, some of his ideas were pure gold. She wasn’t going to point out any specific example (she wasn’t letting this gold mine of hers reach anyone else!), but what was really important was that he always did his best to develop whatever idea he did have at the time. Something she would admit she admired about him was that he was never one to throw an idea away before trying to tinker with it.
If anything, he was at least one of the best mental tinkerers she knew, which was probably one of the most important parts, in her opinion!
Which was exactly the issue at hand. See, he was an amazing ideator. Sure, he needed to work on crossing out some pathways early on because of practicality, but some part of Hatsume enjoyed the fact that he was willing to think about the impractical. In her eyes, with enough hard work and innovation, anything that was impractical could become practical for all.
And she knew he loved heroes. Well, duh. Of course she did. Even if she didn’t know his name, or what he looked like, or even what he did, it really wouldn’t matter, because she’d still find out somehow that he loved heroes.
And she knew he had a whole ton of notebooks about them.
Therefore, an observation was simple.
Midoriya Izuku is addicted to writing in his notebooks!
Boom! First part of the scientific method (that she remembered) was done!
What? She wasn’t going to try remembering all of it precisely. You never made groundbreaking discoveries by following the same path as everybody else!
#2: Question
That said, there was some part of the scientific method that did have some merit. See, here, at least she knew she wasn’t trying to make something completely insane, something so bonkers that it would shatter the world of inventing as she knew it.
No, it was something much more simple than that.
What sorts of ideas does he have in that notebook?
She was aware of quite a few things, honestly, when it came to Midoriya. For one, he had been scribbling in those hero notebooks for years, now. From what she’d seen, the one he had started working on was #13, though she couldn’t figure out for the life of her why it had been so bruised and battered.
Now, don’t get her wrong. She fully understood the notion that signs of wear and tear were only signs that something was properly loved. Hell, ever since she expressed an interest in inventing, she had kept the exact same toolbox her whole journey! Sure, the tools that had been in there had been cycled in and out, with new entries, heartfelt farewells, and the like. Yet the toolbox, with numerous stickers, drawings, lists, markings, signs of explosions, and more stayed with her throughout the process.
Yet, she couldn’t understand why Midoriya would have followed such a process when the notebooks themselves were admittedly temporary. From what she knew about him so far, she didn’t take him for the type of person who would let those notebooks be so incredibly damaged. She knew the types of damage, too. Water and extreme heat. Duh. She wasn’t an imbecile.
Well, she supposed that was for another time to think about.
What actually mattered was what those notebooks contained, and, if it was feasible, how she could use that information to apply to her own creations and grow as a support-gear master.
Now, contrary to popular belief, although Hatsume wasn’t somebody who put a whole lot of effort into maintaining regular relations with her clients, she very much did understand the value of privacy, and especially when it came to personal ideas. Copyright was a very serious thing, you know!
In most circumstances. Well, whatever.
So she knew very well that just stealing his notebook and taking a peek in there would be very frowned upon by Midoriya. She knew very well that, should somebody do the same with her own notebook of ideas, she would also be incredibly upset.
Now, even on Midoriya’s side, she especially knew that he wouldn’t want somebody snooping around in those notebooks. Apparently, he didn’t even let some of his other super close friends in there! Not Iida, not Todoroki, not Tsu (who he’d even called his big sister on accident a few times!), and not even Uraraka, who she was pretty sure was his best friend!
Wait.
Huh. She didn’t know she considered herself one of his super close friends. That was a little unexpected. Though, she supposed maybe it was accidental, given the fact that she considered him one of her super close friends.
Huh. Wonder when that happened.
Anyways, she also knew that the others were aware of his notebooks’ existence, but didn’t necessarily have as strong of an interest in them as she did. Therefore, it was plausible to assume that it might be a matter of effort, where people simply didn’t try to get him to show their notebooks.
So, the real task was to figure out how to get him to show her his notebooks.
#3: Hypothesis
This was one of the more important parts to think about for her. She knew that she could form a more complex one, but for now, the “If, then” mentality would work just fine, she believed. After all, it was fine if the first try failed. She just had to keep going!
She supposed that just being friends with him was a prerequisite, because, well, duh, but it wouldn’t get her access to the notebooks themselves.
Therefore, it likely had something to do with how that friendship blossomed. She was already friends with Midoriya on a regular note, as well as on an inventor-client note. If being friends with him just on a regular note didn’t do it for the others, perhaps she could focus more on the inventor side of things?
That could probably do it! Because the notebooks had to contain stuff that was for inventors, then, in a sense! If it had to do with heroes in general, she could use that as an in!
In other words, if she cultivated her inventor-ideator appeal with Midoriya, then he would show her his notebooks!
That said, it was a little more…personal than that, she felt. It wasn’t like she didn’t show her inventor side to everyone. Anyone who knew her knew that she was an inventing addict.
But it was a little different cultivating a friendship through it. It felt like it was, in a sense, baring herself open to somebody, letting somebody in in a different way than she was used to. It was as though she was fully buying into showing who she was to Midoriya.
Was she willing to do that?
…
She thought she was. It was basically selling her soul to the devil of inventions, and that was something that she could take.
Hopefully.
Hmm.
Hold on for a moment.
Could she get herself to actually feel comfortable exploring her relationship with Midoriya, her friendship with him, in this manner?
…
She thought she could. For some reason, she didn’t know whether or not she could do it with some other people she knew, but it felt a little different with him.
She knew that the others were doing their best to be respectful, to be as kind as they could, but she knew it was intentional. Again, she knew that it was a good thing that they were choosing to be kind. It could most definitely be worse.
But it was something they usually put effort in to, they were working to get used to, something they were adapting to.
She was something they were adapting to.
Not Midoriya, though.
With him, it felt like he never needed to adapt. It never felt like he was acting. Sure, she could definitely tell from his first actual interaction with her that he was a little shocked, but she never got the impression that he was put off by her behavior.
It felt like, whenever he talked to her, he felt like he was just talking to another friend of his, somebody else that he knew pretty well. It felt natural, like she wasn’t necessarily ‘that one support girl.’
Hmm.
Isn’t that the opposite of what she wanted?
Wait, yeah, it was! The whole point was that she wanted to get him closer to her, or her closer to him, really, as an inventor, this time around!
But would he then stop seeing me as a regular friend and more of an inventor friend…?
…
Nah, he wouldn’t do something like that!
She had faith in him. And she felt comfortable with him.
So it was time to actually get this show on the road!
#4: Experiment
Huh. Now that she thought about it, how would she get closer to him specifically from the perspective of an inventor? How did people really do that?
She wanted to build up a relationship with him based on the premise that she was going to be the best the world had ever seen, yeah, but she normally thought about relationships like that to really be contractor-client in nature, rather than friendship-based.
At the same time, she also didn’t exactly see the other people in her class make friendships focused on that aspect of them as a person. It was more as though they were friends, and, oh, they were also in the support course! It was less than, oh, you’re making friends with me as somebody in the support course.
So, logically, it had to be the case that she would definitely be able to interact regularly with him outside of the support course area, but when he was there, it was all up to her! It was all up to being fully unique and yet authentic in her interactions, and when it came to that, she was absolutely going for it!
It all started with her simply calling up Midoriya and asking if he’d be willing to help her out with a few prototypes. It wasn’t anything that she hadn’t done with him before, really. Honestly, she thought that she was actually already one step ahead of what she needed to do, because he was the only person who she’d ever ask for help with actually testing her gadgets!
Sure, sure, part of it might have ended up just being to do with the fact that Power Loader wouldn’t allow her to get test subjects through what he apparently deemed “less than legal or ethical” means, but that was also besides the point! Either way, she couldn’t imagine actually asking anybody else, because there was nobody else who could be as good of a test subject as Midoriya! She couldn’t imagine asking anybody but Midoriya to help her with her babies, either, because he put so much care into holding them well, into making sure that, if they were damaged, it was never from him but only from the actual experiment, and even then, he did his best to prevent damage!
(Yes, yes, that technically may have altered the results of an experiment or two, but it was the thought that counted!)
(...No, Hatsume would not elaborate on what made Midoriya’s alterations okay, but not for other people, or why on Earth he specifically gets special treatment for things like that.)
Well, anyways, yes, it was time for Midoriya to help her with a few experiments!
As he walked into the support room, Hatsume smiled brightly at the sight of him, feeling a bit lighter, “Ten Million!”
“Hi, Hatsume-chan!” Midoriya greeted with a wave. “What did you want me to try out?”
“Ooh, yeah, it’s this!” She held out what looked like a coat, one that was definitely not sleek nor fashionable, but this wasn’t the goddamn fashion show, she didn’t need to think about aesthetics right now! Function over form!
“It’s supposed to be for heroes that don’t have flight capabilities,” she explained, flipping the coat around to show the back. “It’s supposed to activate only if the hero is falling fast enough, because otherwise, it’ll probably end up seeming clunky and get in the way of their other equipment. It’s made with a few sensors at a few points to track their velocity, and right now, what I’m trying to figure out is how to set it up best to be more autonomous and independent, so that entirely functions within the coat without being way too huge. But that’s more on my end of things! What we’re trying to do is make sure that it activates in the first place!” Of course, there were definitely other ways to address this problem, even some that’d already been done before, but she was trying to figure out if she could end up making it both easily portable and cost-efficient. Besides, she could always use the experience and apply what she learned from this to her future work!
Midoriya nodded, having taken in everything she’d said, and hummed, “Is that why you wanted me to test it out? Because I have a good way to get out of falling to my doom in case it doesn’t work?”
“Ehhh, kind of!” She answered, remembering that what she was hoping for was his notebook. “I know you can stay safe, yeah, but I’m pretty sure that this’ll work! I’m just trying to figure out if there are unintended consequences of the activation sequence.”
She didn’t understand why, but it looked like he was hooked on every word she said, a pleased look on his face just as he was listening to her.
…She had to admit, it made her feel special for him to only look at her like that instead of how he’d looked at his other friends. Was that normal?
Either way, he nodded and started to put on the coat, suggesting, “Are we going outside to test this out?”
She nodded, because she’d already gotten approval to head over to Gym Gamma for the open space it had, and already had a backpack with what she really needed in terms of data.
As the two were walking, they were making a little bit of small talk, mainly Midoriya asking about how Hatsume’s day had been, things of that nature. She found it funny how he’d always managed to work up some worry here or there about her, and to be honest, part of her felt like actually giving in to some of the requests just to alleviate those worries.
But at the same time, it was also fun to just watch him work with those worries, and it was even more enjoyable to be fretted about like that. So there was a balance she wanted to strike with it, she had concluded.
Though, she did want to get a few words in on that front.
“It’s not like you’re one to talk, Ten Million,” she joked when he had mentioned her potentially overworking herself in the lab. “Don’t think I don’t hear about all those times you end up in Recovery Girl’s office.”
“The last time I broke my bones was two weeks ago!” He defended.
“And that’s a great basis to work off. When have I ever broken my bones working in the lab?” She asked.
Silence.
“Exactly. Oh, by the way! That reminds me!” She snapped her fingers. “Take it easy this time, mmkay?”
“...Easy?” He repeated, not expecting those words from Hatsume Mei of all people.
“Yeah! I know you’re all about going all in with these things, but I can’t have my main partner breaking ‘cause of my own stuff,” Hatsume shrugged casually, though she’d thought about the best way to show him he mattered with this stuff quite a bit last night. She’d decided to focus on what was probably the most dubious practice of hers yet: the explosions.
“So, here’s what I want you to do: If you think that the gear’s going to explode, I want you to…not blow up. Get it off you, hell, throw it away from you if you have to,” Hatsume explained, and knew that he’d probably find it suspicious, so she had something else to ease those concerns. “Because it’s also important to test how well it can handle external stress.” That was technically true, but frankly speaking, she actually didn’t need Midoriya there in order to test it, so it wasn’t something that she’d been concerned about before when he was present. Subject the thing to a good, strong hammer attack, toss it in ice-cold water, drop it from a large height, things like that!
“Uhh…how does that involve me breaking?” Midoriya interrupted, and Hatsume genuinely had to look at him with a deadpan expression. She knew that he was really good at disregarding how much something could hurt him in the long-term, but it truly was impressive just how far it could go sometimes.
She simply quirked an eyebrow at him, before sighing, “I’m going to disregard that. Long story short, I don’t want you getting hurt.” Beating around the bush was never her strong suit, and it was becoming more and more clear to her right now. Thus, it was simply necessary to go ahead and be as clear as possible with him.
Then, and only then, did he break out into a bright smile that had Hatsume’s shoulders tense up from a new, unfamiliar feeling, and he went, “Ohh, that’s kind of you, Hatsume-chan! But it’s okay, I don’t mind if it’s for you!”
That unfamiliar feeling was only amplified at his words, though, yet again, she couldn’t quite place why. He was her client! He was her partner! He was her partner-client-friend who also meant a lot to her! It only made sense that she meant a lot to him, right? Yeah, that’s gotta be it!
But, AGAIN, she just couldn’t let that slide, “But I don’t want you getting hurt. Even if it’s for me, whatever it is, I don’t think you should be getting hurt just to make me happy. I…”
She paused for a moment, trying to figure out the words that she wanted to say.
Wait, no. That wasn’t her style!
She threw that towel away, going all in and saying what felt right, “I care about you, Ten Million. That’s why I don’t want you getting hurt and that’s why I want you to watch out for if the gear feels like it’s going to explode.”
His reaction to what she said seemed to be split into two parts. For one, it was clear that he was unusually suspicious about the fact that she didn’t want him to explode and, not only that, she was actively trying to avoid explosions if it meant that his well-being was prioritized.
However, the even more obvious reaction was that he was trying to hide the fact that he was greatly pleased by her words. Whether it was the fact that she said that she cared about him or that he was just generally receiving better treatment, she wasn’t quite sure.
The silly smile that he put a hand over to cover up until he could calm down may have eluded most people, but her quirk was literally vision-based. Of course she’d be able to notice something as bright as that, no matter how fast it was concealed.
It was fun, making him smile like that, to be honest.
“...If you say so, I’ll…see what I can do,” Midoriya answered, a new lightness in his tone.
She hoped that her words would really get through to him, and that Midoriya Izuku would finally make the choice to be more safe.
They did not.
“Whoa, Ten Million, you can stop!” She shouted at him, because she’d started to see plumes of smoke start to emit from the coat mid-air.
Unfortunately, she only received a determined “No, it’s fine, we need to test the limits of this!” as he continued plummeting, his arms already outstretched in case he needed to activate Blackwhip in the end to get himself out of a pickle.
Beep! Beep!
KABOOM!
The coat blasted him further downwards at a speedy velocity, and Hatsume could only watch as he calmly responded (a calmness she did not enjoy that he had in retrospect, despite its convenience in saving him) by quickly shooting out those black tendrils and swinging before his body could have a heavy impact against the ground, instead using his left shoe (she had seen his right one fly off to the side somewhere) to help him skid to a stop relatively unharmed, though it was clear his back wasn’t exactly in the best condition.
“Crap, crap, crap,” she muttered as she walked up to him. “What happened to following my instructions?!” She could only watch, continuing to walk closer to him as he stretched, going until he let out a satisfied sigh of relief.
Midoriya laughed, though walked over awkwardly to where one of his shoes had flown, and Hatsume followed him out of concern. This was absolutely not what she was hoping would happen here! She wanted to show that she really, really, really did care for his safety, because of course she did at the end of it all!
“Shit, shit, shit,” she whispered under her breath as he grabbed his shoe and got on one knee to put it on. “Are you okay, Midoriya?!”
“Huh?” He asked, still apparently a little bit dazed, and Mei’s worry grew a bit more, because he probably knew she only said his name whenever something was important (probably…). “Oh, yeah, don’t worry about it! I knew it was going to happen, so I was pretty well-prepared for–”
“I thought I asked you to stop if you thought it was going to approach exploding!” She interrupted, hands on her hips. “I don’t want my babies to hurt you!”
He only laughed it off, and Mei frowned yet again in concern as he shrugged, “Eh, it’s okay. Besides, it’s for you and it’s helping you make progress, right? You’re doing amazing work, and I believe the all the things you’re doing, even your process, is helping people.”
He said it so casually, but the blatant and open support for her, all of her, out in the air felt a little more…comforting than if somebody else were to say it. For some reason, it felt like she was being validated for something she wasn’t worried about not being the case.
“It shouldn’t be sacrificing you to do it, though,” she pointed out, feeling a bit of hypocrisy at the fact that she’d previously been doing it without much concern, and all of a sudden she seemed concerned for his well-being. She knew that, if it were somebody else who didn’t care about her as much as Midoriya did (which…she was a little pleased to have that sort of faith that he cared for her like that), they might not have been so generous on that front.
This is for the notebook, this is for the notebook, she repeated in her head, but this time, it was definitely more to convince herself that that was the reason instead of something else regarding Midoriya, something she wasn’t quite fully aware of right now.
“Mei-san, I promise,” Midoriya assured her. “I don’t mind supporting you even if there are explosions in the mix. Besides, I have enough faith in your babies to know that, even if they do explode, I won’t be hurt in the long run. Probably a short-term thing at most.”
Mei scowled, because he was still disregarding himself, but he opened his mouth again to interrupt her, simply asking, “...Are you asking all this stuff because you’re worried I’m going to stop being your main tester?”
He looked concerned for her, and Hatsume realized how much she’d taken him for granted, because yes, he could in theory just up and find somebody else to help out, and she’d never thought about that possibility.
“That’s not it!” Mei denied, but Midoriya had mistaken her passion for trying to hide what she actually meant, when that wasn’t the case. Really, he should’ve realized by now that she wasn’t the type to hide her own feelings.
(Or she should’ve realized that she wasn’t necessarily hiding them, but wasn’t even aware of them.)
In response to her, he only shot her a comforting look, thinking through how he wanted to convey his feelings. It was something that she’d seen him do sometimes when he really wanted to consider what emotions he felt he needed to get across, and it was something she’d recognized as a moment of “Oh, I should listen up for a bit because he feels what he’s saying is important and I should respect that.”
“Mei-san,” he gently assured her, and her shoulders tensed up, feeling the sensation of lightness course through her again at his tone.
Yet, she still wasn’t ready for what flowed through her when he did speak up.
Still on one knee, he looked up at Mei with a soft smile and gentleness in his eyes as he easy stated, “There’s nobody else in the world I could ever dream of giving all my support and ideas to.”
Suddenly, time seemed to stop for her, and she did something she never thought she would in the support course area.
She froze up. She started feeling hot all over, a new tightness in her jaw as his words rewound themselves and repeated in her head.
However, before she was able to take action, the door to Gym Gamma opened with a loud slam, and a disgruntled groan followed, “Hatsume, what happened to being back in a few?! The period’s almost over!”
Midoriya lightly chuckled, waving at Power Loader and trying to diffuse him, “Oh, sorry, Power Loader-sensei! We’re just finishing up with this trial!” He held his arm to his nose, sniffing, and was surprised (though he really shouldn’t have been) to have smelled the scent of smoke. Hmm. He might need to clean that one off soon.
Yet, before he could do much more, Hatsume bolted past him, grabbing the greatly damaged coat in the process, and squeaked out, “I-I’ll g-get back to you about the t-test results and w-when the next trial run’s going to be, okay, Midoriya?!”
She was gone before he could properly respond, almost running Power Loader over in the process if he didn’t properly avoid it.
“Whoa, whoa!” He exclaimed as he dodged, before turning towards Midoriya after a few seconds. “Huh. Must’ve been a really crazy test run, right, kid?”
He didn’t wait for a response, sighing before turning out of Gym Gamma to follow Hatsume back to the support course’s area.
…
Huh.
#5: Analysis
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone! Why did he react like that?! Why did I react like THAT?!
After having fled the scene, Mei was simply standing by herself in her own dorm room once classes ended, decorated with what else but more notes and design ideas, but despite all of those thoughts plastered on the walls, she couldn’t pay attention to anything but the ones in her head.
She was not expecting Midoriya to have said that to her. And she was NOT expecting to have that reaction to his words!
They rung in her mind again and again, over and over. The way he said it, his voice and the way it raised and lowered, the smile on his face, the gentleness in his eyes, everything about what he had said to her.
There’s nobody else in the world who I could ever dream of giving all my support and ideas to.
Why did those words make her feel this way?! Why did she feel so happy about that?!
Well, sure, it was clear that it made her happy that he was willing to give her his support! Duh! It was also making her happy that he was willing to say that he would give her his ideas, too! Honestly, wasn’t that what she wanted? That meant that she’d be able to get access to his notebook one day, right?!
But, then, why wasn’t that the thing that was making her the most happy?! Really, she couldn’t care less about the goddamn notebook right now! Why was it the fact that it was only her that he could have those sentiments for?!
She tried to imagine somebody else saying that to her, like maybe one of his friends.
…No, that wasn’t doing anything to her.
Maybe somebody else that she interacted with often in the support course?
…Still, no.
So why would it be Midoriya?! What made him so special?!
She ran through her memories of him, all their interactions, trying to figure out just why she would possibly have this sort of reaction to him, this reaction which was so foreign to her entirely.
…
#6: Conclusion
“Oh.”
Omake: Got Through to Her
As Midoriya watched Mei take her exit, her cheeks still bright red and clearly frazzled, a sight he honestly never really expected to get to see from her (note: he said get to see because it was an absolute privilege to; it wasn’t often you saw the Hatsume Mei acting like that), he simply stayed there for a second, properly processing what had just gone on.
Then, he let out a soft, fond sigh as he stood up, stretched one more time, and cracked a smile.
He would have to really thank Tsu for setting him straight and actually making him do something.
…Though he really wished it didn’t have to come at the cost of being threatened with his own prized All Might figurines.
He reminisced back on the conversation they’d had literally two days ago…
“Midoriya-chan, kero,” Tsu had put her foot down on the matter. “I know you think that Hatsume-chan doesn’t like you back. But even Iida-kun’s saying it’s super obvious, and from what I’ve seen, yeah, it IS that obvious. She’s head-over-heels for you, and neither of you are doing anything about it, and it’s becoming a really corny situationship that neither of you even know you’re in.”
“S-S-Situationship?!” Midoriya squeaked out, and Tsu only nodded.
“I seriously mean it when I say this: She doesn’t know she likes you in the first place,” Tsu determined, her voice steady and confident, even for her. “So either you do something about it, or I confiscate one of your figurines.”
“Y-You can’t do that!” Midoriya argued, and the look Tsu had on her face let him know that she could, in fact, do that, so he switched gears. “...Which one?”
“...That’s a secret for now,” she smirked with a teasing tone, and it was a horrible shame that the two of them were so close, because she knew damn well that that would be the best way to light a fire under him. That uncertainty of what she would take with the certainty that she would take something was the absolute WORST thing to ever happen to him.
“...”
Eventually, he sighed, the tension leaving his shoulders, “...Fine. I’ll try doing something.”
“Good.”
…Yeah, he really owed Tsu for all of this, for pushing him to be more assertive and actually figure out for himself how Hatsume felt, for convincing him that even if he were super direct with his feelings, she wouldn’t be able to decipher them so easily.
…
“Maybe I’ll ask her out on a date next time I see her,” Midoriya hummed. “Though…I might need to be even more direct about how I do it, based on how this one went.”
…
Midoriya’s mind couldn’t help but go back to her words.
“I care about you, Ten Million.”
He sighed blissfully, his knees going weak at the thought of her saying that to him again.