What's up readers, writers, viewers/visitors and others, it's CharlesWatch220 and I'm here with another shipping fic. This time it's an Izuku x Mei coupling. Taking the advice of a review that was dropped on my last fic Jack and Her Green Muse, I will not be deviating from the ship because I'm trying my hand at an honest and innocent cinnamon roll and not a SINnamon roll, if you get what I mean.

As Mei would put it, this is baby #02 of the shipping fic family of BNHA.

I own nothing except this here fic.


"Hmmmf….." Mei Hatsume grumbled as she tossed a faulty piece of wiring in a box of scraps after detaching it from her modified jetpack. While the countermeasures against high voltage attacks like the one she suffered during the UA Sports Festival had been resolved, there was still something to be desired in terms of its weight. Although in her case the hover soles more or less took care of this problem, but both of them are tied down by a single problem: finite amounts of fuel or at least an energy source of some kind. Since the perpetual motion machine that would supply infinite amounts of energy without a fuel source has been proved that it thoroughly violates the rules of thermodynamics, she is forced to focus on other areas for improvement.

"Guess I'll work on that when something comes." After all, ingenuity does not work like a faucet all the time. Every now and then it's like a landmine. You just never know when you'll stumble upon one. Setting the jetpack and its parts aside, she moved onto another one of her inventions: the capture gun.

"Now, let's see….for you….." Mei unfolded several pieces of paper that were stapled together and taped to the capture gun. They were several concept arts as well as some schematics as to how they could be improved, all of them drawn up and designed by none other than Izuku Midoriya. "Decisions, decisions."

There were several combinations of improvements mashed into each other. The first one focused on reliability, speed and durability while another focused on range, greater capacity in ammunition and stronger material for the capture nets. Each one looked more interesting than the last, and there were about half a dozen to choose from. And while Izuku was a student in the Heroics Department, he did seem to have some amount of knowledge about tinkering himself. Though it was still elementary in the eyes of anyone in the Support Department, it was more than enough to impress her. The illustrated diagrams were not only artistic but easy to understand and gave her a basic idea of what to try out for certain parts.

The green-haired shy boy was a kind of genius in his own right, though he refuses to admit that while thanking others profusely should they ever do anything for him in the same breath. She could still remember him swinging his head back and forth, thanking him for the amazing upgrades to his footwear to complement his fighting style. While most certainly a comical sight to behold, Mei could smell the genuineness of his wholehearted gratitude off him, making him a kind of unofficial favorite of hers. Plus, when someone volunteers to test out your own inventions when they don't know what could happen to them, it was kind of a big deal to anyone who even dabbles in tinkering.

Hours ticked by as she tinkered the night away until the light of day slowly crept up through the horizon. Packing up the gadgets she decided to bring home to tinker with for the day, Mei skipped across the hall to grab some fruit, milk, a protein bar, hit the showers and get ready for another exciting day of modifying babies at the studio as well as giving birth to more brainchildren.


Izuku Midoriya sighed as he stared hard at a notebook that he titled Support Items For The Future #1 on his way to class in black marker after his routine run with breakfast in tow: some cold cut turkey, chives and cream cheese sandwiched in a whole wheat bagel. It was rather early with plenty of time before home room began with Aizawa merely being two steps behind the door making every one of his colleagues in class 1-A shut up and sit up straight at attention.

But that was exactly what he needed right now.

A recently met friend of his by the name of Melissa Shield had designed a gauntlets for him dubbed the Full Gauntlets in honor of his Full Cowling were no more, destroyed in the battle of I-Island against Wolfram. While Shoot Style had pulled Izuku out of the spiral of trying to become All Might rather than becoming a hero like him, there still was a tendency to use his hands in combat every so often instead of his feet.

After all, he wasn't like that retired peg-leg Chef Hero who could blow out fires with a single kick like candles, or his chivalrous yet slightly lecherous protégé who insisted on fighting with nothing but kick moves and actually wins.

As such, he was drafting ideas of viable support items to use that would replace the Full Gauntlets, at least temporarily (hopefully) that would allow him to use his arms as well as his legs. Izuku did have Melissa's contact information, but didn't want to bother her on account of this year being her final year at the I-Island Academy and he didn't want to hinder her from finishing strong.

That wasn't the only problem he had though. Another major problem in the forefront is the utter lack of any sort of formal training in martial arts unlike the tailed Mashirao Ojiro or the recently initiated and "awakened" practitioner of Gunhead Martial Arts, Ochako Uraraka. As such, his attacks aside from the long range Delaware Smash were all easy to deal with because he telegraphs it with overtly large windups. He had been watching videos of Pro Heroes like Gunhead to see what he can adopt and adapt into his style, and he practiced whatever he could manage without a sparring partner, but it wasn't enough. He had to address that as soon as possible too.

While it technically is his own fault, Izuku was on his own. Obviously UA had amazing facilities, but in terms of developing support items and gadgets, it was a far cry from the resources that I-Island had to offer as far as he could see. "Kevlar panels…..triweave titanium fiber? Mmmm…..ugh…this is annoying. Oh, wait….kinetic dampening gel, maybe?" Being so absorbed in his thoughts, he very nearly rammed into someone as he turned a corner. "Crap…I'm so sorry, I was….Hatsume?"

"Oh, hey Midoriya! Whatcha doin' here so early?"

"Just some thinking. A-are you….are you okay?"

"Yeah, of course! Oh by the way, those designs for improving my babies were absolutely mega-cute! I totally loved them!"

"Okaythanks….." Izuku squeaked with a red face as he suddenly found the immaculate linoleum floor and his reflection in it far more interesting than the pink-haired girl who absolutely insisted on violating his personal space, her face barely five inches from his own.

"Is this…..something you're thinking of needing?"

"Huh?" Izuku realized that she had picked up his notebook, looking at the very page that he was on. "Oh, no, wai-tho-those um…tho-those are uh, just….ideas."

"Super awesome ideas!" Mei exclaimed as her usually wide smile widened even more along with her eyes that were shining like the sun at the diagrams and scribbles on the pages. "What the heck are these? Gauntlets? Shields? Something in between? And these margin notes! Para-aramid fibers, titanium dipped tri-weave fiber mesh, nano-engineered polymer plating, and….magnetorheological fluid?! Holy chub mackerel in the deep blue sea, you've done some serious research! This is what people in my department study for, when'd you even learn this sorta lingo?" Mei pressed on and on, literally backing Izuku into a wall as he looked ready to pass out from absolutely not breathing at all. "Too close….."

"But anyways! Glad I ran into you so early, I need you to drop by the design studio after classes, 'kay? Okay, byyyeeeee my babies need meeeee!"

"Wai-I….Oh, great…there go my plans for after school." Finally remembering to breathe, Izuku heaved a sigh and took a bite out of the thoroughly crushed bagel sandwich, munching on it at his desk and continued to scribble and mumble the minutes away, wracking his brain before his compatriots trickled in.

But it didn't seem like a bad idea to flex his brain muscles instead of his calves and quads in the school weight room for leg day. Besides, two heads were always better than one when it came to innovation, especially if one head was a little crazy. Although his hopes were most likely futile, Izuku prayed that Mei would dial the craziness back at least a little, ten percent at the most.

"Deku, you had your face all scrunched up a lot for most of the day. You alright?" Uraraka asked, concerned at her friend clearly in distress.

"Yeah, I'm….I-I'm okay. I'm okay. It's just uh…..Quirk and costume-related stuff."

"Why, what's the matter? You don't seem like you broke anything this time around…."

"Well, focusing on using kicks, throws and whatever else more than hand strikes is my main focus to avoid further damage to my arms, but I know there's going to be a time when I have to use them because they're faster and more versatile than kicks."

"Uh-huh." Uraraka nodded in agreement at her friend's logic.

"But…..you remember what happened at I-Island, right? I had Melissa's gadget, the Full Gauntlet that let me go full power several times without risk before it broke. I need…..well, a replacement. A-a-although that's kinda asking for the impossible, but I need something, however temporary that may be. Just until I can be more flexible with kicks and footwork like Iida and Ojiro. And you, o-of-of course."

"Wha, I'm uh….I'm…." Uraraka blushed at the mention of this praise, but she shook her head furiously, her brown locks swinging from side to side, her Kansai dialect slipping out slightly. "No, I'm…I'm still a-a novice! Ya kiddin' me?"

"Riiight….a novice KO-ing Kirishima in a practice bout….riiiight." Izuku distinctly remembered his friend humbling Red Riot by taking away his gravitational force and hitting him with the full force of a well-executed hip throw and joint lock.

"You two. Unless you got business with me, clear out the classroom." A sullen voice issued from a large yellow caterpillar with the face of a tired man with unkempt black hair near the blackboard. It was Shouta Aizawa, aka Eraserhead, their ever-pragmatic and logic-driven homeroom teacher. The bags under his eyes looked larger and his face sunken a little more than usual, making his glare that much more menacing.

"R-right! Sorry sir!" Grabbing their bags, the two exited the classroom post haste to let Aizawa take his nap in whatever little precious time he had.

"So, did you have any plans after this? And I mean aside from physical conditioning."

"Not really….oh, wait. Sorry I lied. Yes, I-I actually….do. It was rather sudden, but something did come up. J-j-just this morning…."

"Really?" Uraraka sounded crestfallen. "I wanted to ask your opinion on a couple of things about what we went over in class, but….."

"I'll answer any question you have, whatever it is, but after I get back to the dorms."

"Promise?"

"Promise!"

"Fine," Uraraka pouted, but held up her pinky as she acquiesced. "Pinky swear then. Your word is your bond, and if you don't keep it, I'll fling ya inta the stratosphere!"

"Please don't…that's actually genuinely frightening." Izuku held his pinky out as well, tentatively curling it around his brunette friend's and rapidly warming both of their cheeks.

"Alright, see you soon!" Uraraka ran off in a hurry, almost tripping over air.

"Yeah….see you….." Silently praying that he would make it back to the dorms in one piece, Izuku slowly made his way to the design studio, a doorway made of reinforced industrial steel in the name of safety. Taking a couple of deep breaths to steady himself, he put a hand on the door handle, turned it, and opened the heavy door.

And he was greeted face first with multiple searing surges of pain shooting across his face, followed almost immediately by an explosion that blasted him off his feet into the wall behind him.


Izuku came to on a bed with fresh sheets that smelled like disinfectant, looking up at a very familiar ceiling of the infirmary, but his left eye was covered with something along with his cheek. As he pulled the covers off, he winced at the throbbing pain. His left ear was giving off an annoying hum like he had tinnitus.

A hand threw the curtains back, revealing the skinny and short Higari Majima, aka Power Loader, a faculty of UA High School in charge of the Support Department wearing his signature helmet that resembled a mechanical dinosaur. A very guilty and sunken expression could be seen on the pale face of a student on his right, a certain someone with pink hair, gripping her pants turning her knuckles sheet-white.

"Oh…..what uh….what happened, Mr. Power Loader?"

"Another one of Hatsume's display of fireworks up close and personal, except it sent parts flying everywhere, including into your face. But thank heavens you're awake. Recovery Girl's out doing her rounds at hospitals today so I patched you up as much as I can. I don't know heart surgery, but I know how to do sutures. You alright?"

Izuku nodded, wincing every time his muscles moved to utter words. "For the most part. My left ear is ringing like crazy though. I…I don't have tinnitus or anything like that, do I? And…..do I still have both my eyes?"

"No, you don't have tinnitus. That hum in the drum's temporary. And yes, you have both eyes in pristine condition. I just have gauze on top because you had a cut above your eye. It's skin deep and stopped by now so you can go ahead and take it off at your convenience. Consider yourself lucky though. If that cog and shards of carbon fiber had hit your face another half an inch higher, your left eye would be….permanently useless. You also have a slight concussion from what I gathered and some bruising on your back, but nothing serious. You can wait until Recovery Girl comes back so she can actually fix you up without leaving any possibility for facial scars."

"It's….it's fine, I'm used to getting scars. At least it wasn't my arms. Am I….allowed to go if I want to?"

"Yeah, but….if that's the case, I'm going to have to insist that this idiot go with you just to be safe, since you do have a concussion and I don't wanna take the chance." Power Loader jerked a thumb over to Mei, who winced like she got jabbed with a thick needle.

"Um, that's….that's really not necessary――"

"I beg to differ," Power Loader cut him off with a cold growl. His dull blue eyes behind the helmet flared up in anger. "I've let the explosions and her antics in the studio slide because nobody else except her and me get caught in it. She screws up, she owns up to it and cleans up, so I may chew her out and reprimand her, but nothing more than that. Even if others are caught in it, the damage is minimal, fixable with a band-aid. Not so in this case. You could have lost a freaking eye! It's as bad as losing a limb, if you ask me, so she needs to own up to that. You may forgive her Midoriya, and you're free to do so, but I'm not that forgiving of mishaps, particularly ones like this. Hatsume, starting tomorrow, you're banned from the studio for a month. If you so much as lay a finger on the door, I'll add on another month, do you understand me?"

"Yes sir….." Mei whispered, unable to meet either one of their gazes.

"Make sure Midoriya gets back to the dorms safely. It's the least you can do right now." Handing Izuku antibiotic ointments as well as Vaseline, Power Loader shooed the two out so he can get his own work done.

"Well…that ended with a bang didn't it?" Izuku joked in order to alleviate the long sullen silence that enveloped Mei like a dark storm cloud, but mentally kicked himself for the poor taste in the joke. "Sorry, that was….that was in bad taste. I'm sorry. But really, don't feel too bad about it. Accidents happen." Plus, this wasn't the first explosion she'd caused that he's been caught in and it undoubtedly will not be the last.

"Not like this. I almost….That explosion could've taken your eye out. I could have killed you! There's…..there's nothing more to say." Mei trembled. The mere thought that she'd never entertained graphically materializing in her mind. The explosion, Izuku lying in a puddle of his own blood that was spreading fast as he clutched at his eye, screaming in pain. Her chest felt constricted, her breathing lapsed and short.

"Hey, Hatsume? Hatsume, deep breaths. Take a deep breath." Just as much as she wanted to get the image of the worst case scenario out of his head, Izuku wanted to avoid the worst case scenario of having to carry an unconscious Mei back to her dorm when she was supposed to be escorting him. God knows what a truly irate Power Loader would look like, and Izuku was not in any hurry to find out any time soon. "In for three, out for three. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Follow my count."

"Um….th-thanks, Midoriya…..I…..let's g-go now….." They walked in silence, with Izuku about three paces ahead of Mei as she kept her head down, staring at the road and her feet as they walked.

"What exactly caused the explosion?"

"I….I don't know. I was working on my electro shoes to make them lighter and more energy efficient and…."

"Ah, those. Electromagnetic induction allows you to clear buildings, right?"

"Yeah…."

"Did you perhaps invert the emitter matrix of the electromagnets? That usually would cause――"

Mei's eyes flew open, smacking herself in the forehead. "――the power grid to backfire and…..shit." Mei swore. It was an amateur mistake. Amateur. Only an idiot would make that kind of mistake and fail to notice. An idiot…..that hadn't had decent amounts of sleep for the last month or so due to the fervor of inventing overtaking and overriding such needs. "Midoriya, I'm so sorry….I never meant to hurt you. Or anyone else. I just…..it…."

As someone who had inherited One For All, as well as the will and spirit of his permanently retired predecessor and teacher to save people, it hurt Izuku to see Mei cry. He had to save people not only from criminals, accidents and other disasters but from the darkness within themselves, keep it at bay before it swallowed them whole. Just like All Might did for him. Hearing her voice break, he dug a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it out for her. "Like I told Mr. Power Loader, I-I forgive you. It's not like you were trying to kill me, which I'm a hundred percent confident in that regard. Plus, I know the feeling. I've come close to…..losing people around me because I didn't have my head on straight. I wasn't thinking….not clearly as I thought I was, at least. So trust me when I say that I understand what you're going through."

"Do you though? Really?" Mei accepted the handkerchief and sobbed into it, her yellow eyes with crosshairs in the irises now red and puffy.

"Well….maybe not entirely because I'm not in the Support Course. I've only ever used a screwdriver to change the batteries in my alarm clock and stuff like that at the most, but that's beside the point. The point is….I know guilt. More than you could ever imagine."

――You're….next.

Two simple words but with the effect of a million United States of SMASH combined into one, still freshly ringing in his ears. His muscle form more or less undone, body with no stomach and half a respiratory system shattered further beyond repair, yet refusing to take a knee. His raised fist that brought All For One to his knees said it all: have no fear, for I am here. Justice shall prevail.

A message to citizens, aspiring heroes, villains, and to his successor. The ninth holder of One For All. To Izuku. While it was All Might and his choice to pass on and accept his Quirk as his own, it still did not change the fact that it was his fault. He had ultimately brought about the end of the Symbol of Peace. "All of the…..the wouldas, couldas, and shouldas after you make the decision or mistake just…slowly crushing the air out of your lungs and making you back down from….everything. It makes you scared, and you get frustrated by the very fact you're scared. And it….it sucks, it really does. Even if others say they forgive you, that they won't hold it against you for doing what you did, forgiving yourself. So I'll say it as many times as you want: I forgive you."

They walked slowly in silence again, and Izuku smiled and waved to Mei goodbye as he made his way back inside the dormitory.


Dodging the storm of questions for having stitches on his face was easy for Izuku, waving it off as a vague accident at the studio where he had some business to attend to. While most of them didn't press for details, Iida, Uraraka and Todoroki weren't letting it slide.

"Just to be sure," Todoroki said with a clenched fist, light flames dancing across his left half of his face, "it wasn't an explosion caused by Bakugou or shrapnel from something he blew up?"

"No. It wasn't Kacchan. Lucky it wasn't my hand, so your curse of the hand-crusher is invalid. Like I said before, what happened was just an accident――"

"――That nearly cost you your eye!" Uraraka shouted as he looked at the bandages applied on his face. "Do you have any idea how serious this is?!"

"Uraraka is right, Midoriya!" Iida nodded, the anger clear in his behind his glasses, "the velocity of debris pieces vary on its size and strength of the blast, but had whatever cut your face hit your eye, it could have pierced your brain! You could have died! Intentional or not, that's more than enough grounds for at least a suspension!"

"NO! No, don't….don't do that Iida. Okay? Please? I've….I'm going to work this out. I appreciate that all of you are concerned for me. I really am. But j-just…..just let me do this, okay? Let me, Mr. Power Loader and Hatsume talk this out since we're the ones that were actually there and know what happened."

"…..Fine," Todoroki relented as his voice softened, the flames dissipating as his fist loosened. "But let me know if you need me for…whatever."

"I will, thanks. Iida, I know that you and Hatsume aren't exactly on the best of terms…..but please don't do anything that'll further compromise her position. She's….distraught, and pushing her into a corner won't do anyone any good."

"…I see your point," Iida admitted after a long pause though he made no attempt to hide the fact he was not liking it. "And I will do no such thing, not without consulting you first. Upon my honor as class representative. You have my word."

"Thank you."

"You sure you're okay? Sometimes I think you have the luck of the Devil himself on your side, but this…..this is too close a call."

"Yes, I'm sure and I'm not disagreeing with that assessment. I'm not sure if you're on friendly or unfriendly terms with Hatsume, but please don't think any less of her because I got hurt. She's the reason I can actually use Shoot Style effectively in the first place. Besides, Mr. Power Loader banned her from the Design Studio for the next month, so there won't be anything like this happening any time soon."

"Well….that's good, I guess….."

"Yeah…." He already had enough explosions to deal with as it is, thanks to a certain spiky blonde haired childhood friend with an ego that made the gigantic Mt. Lady seem like an ant. "So….what did you want my opinion about?"


Classes are starting up again so my update speed may drop compared to my first shipping fic, but here goes nothing. If you haven't read Jack and Her Green Muse yet, please check it out.