More IzuMei!

(Disclaimer: I don't listen to Corpse's music, but the title of one of his tracks felt appropriate for the fic.)

Izuku had a couple of predictions regarding who was visiting when he heard somebody rapping their knuckles on his door.

Todoroki instantly came to mind, considering the boy messaged him a few hours prior to shill him a strange manga with something called a 'Felix', so there was a chance he decided to stop by and hand over the first few volumes.

There was also the fact that he promised Kacchan a spar, but that theory was thrown out the window when he realised the explosive teen would sooner kick the door off its hinges than knock on it.

Iida and Uraraka were also sparing at the moment, so those options were firmly off the table.

Todoroki it is.

Izuku hopped off his bed and opened the door, expecting to find himself faced with two-tone hair but instead being faced with a pair of pink cat ears.

"Took ya long enough!"

Izuku slowly traced his eyes down and realised that it was decidedly not Todoroki who chose to visit him.

Between the greasy clothes and cross-haired eyes, it was easy to deduce that it was Hatsume, but the cat ears and tail threw him for a bit of a loop.

Unfortunately for Izuku, he was never any good at keeping his thoughts in his head.

"…Catsume?" Izuku dumbly muttered, only noticing his slip up when he saw her easygoing smile split into a wide grin.

"Well obviously." She laughed, rotating slightly to the side. "You don't need my eyes to notice this."

Hatsume shook her posterior, and Izuku might've been flustered by the display if there wasn't a more pressing matter at hand.

The tail actually wagged.

"That's real?!" Izuku leaned forward in intrigue. "I'd be hard pressed to believe this was some sort of quirk evolution, but at the same time it wouldn't be too outlandish. Your boosted sight could've been the first part of your quirk to manifest, which makes sense since felines have a degree of enhanced vision—"

"Midoriya..?"

Izuku ceased his rant and flashed his eyes toward the hallway to catch sight of Todoroki standing a few metres away, his gaze flickering between Hatsume and him.

Todoroki ran a hand through his hair, and Izuku could swear he saw a tear building in the corner of his eye. "I invest thousands of yen into merch to show my devotion to Felix—"

Izuku really didn't think it was wise for his friend to have access to that much money to throw away.

"—and my dream has been pilfered by my closest friend." Todoroki sighed, tracing his hand back down his face.

Izuku simply stared at his friend in confusion, and the boys held eye contact for a solid few seconds until Todoroki turned on his heel in the opposite direction.

"Why are we still here? Just to suffer?" He mumbled, making his way down the hallway towards his dorm.

"Woah - you scared off iceman without saying a single word." Hatsume chuckled before pointing at her tail. "But if you keep that up, people are definitely gonna start getting ideas about us." She teased with a hint of mirth.

Izuku felt his blood freeze under his skin when he noticed he was absentmindedly fondling her tail ever since his mumbling episode began.

"S-sorry!" He squeaked, releasing the appendage as if it were searing iron. "I got carried away, and I—"

"Nope!" Hatsume snatched his arm by the wrist before his hand could fully retreat. "You ain't getting away with it that easily!"

Izuku simply sighed. After months around the girl and her maniacal workshop, he had a pretty clear image of what she had in store for him.

"Whatever." He relented, his exasperation evident in his tone. "What kind of CBT machine are you hooking me up to this time?"

Hatsume tilted her head. "CBT?"

Izuku was seriously beginning to question his mental sanity, because he actually found the sight of a pink-haired cat girl tilting her head while saying 'CBT' outrageously cute.

"It's nothing." He dismissed swiftly. He really didn't want to give Hatsume any ideas for her next contraption.

Luckily, she had the attention span of a goldfish, so it wasn't that difficult to redirect her focus.

"Well, I've got no projects to test today, but I wanna give these babi—my quirk evolution, a test run."

Had he been more vigilant, Izuku might've caught the slip up, but those chances were tossed out of the window the moment quirk analysis was brought up.

"Not a problem!" Izuku materialised his notebook and instantly began writing. "What should we test first? Physical alteration? Sensory enhancements?"

"Belly rubs."

"Yep - that's completely—" Izuku ceased his scribing and looked towards her. "…huh?"

"Belly rubs." She repeated as she gestured to her new features. "Cats like that stuff, so I'd like to see if my instincts have also adapted to fit my mutations."

"Can't you just…rub your own belly?"

Hatsume shot him a deadpan stare. "Have you ever seen a cat rub their own stomach?"

"…Yes?"

"…"

"Fine." Izuku cut his losses and stood to the side, inviting her into his room.

"Great!" Hatsume cheered, and didn't hesitate to set up camp on his bed and sprawl her legs out.

At the rate this was going, his heart was going to give out before the belly rubbing even began.

Izuku made his way to the foot of his bed, trying his damndest to ignore her skirt riding it's way up her legs.

He cleared his throat, successfully garnering her attention and causing her to lay on her back to face him.

"So, how are we gonna do…" he pointed vaguely towards her abdomen, "this?"

"Oh, that's easy." Hatsume sat up on her knees and reached for the hem of her shirt, only for Izuku to briskly grab her wrists before she could commit to the manoeuvre.

If Hatsume was going to kill him, his pride refused to let it be a result of his faint heart. Either he went out in an impressive explosion, or he didn't go out at all.

"Hatsume, no." He firmly stated.

"I've got a tank top underneath." She rolled her eyes. "You didn't expect me to go half naked, did you?"

"Wouldn't put it past you…" Izuku muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I said 'alright'." He reluctantly released her arms and took quick note of her cat ears. "Hold on, shouldn't you be able to hear my muttering with—"

"You can test my hearing later." She hastily brushed him off as she lifted her t-shirt over her head before laying down face up on his bed. "Well - here ya go!"

A few minutes earlier, Izuku didn't even consider how hard it'd be to actually go through with the belly rub, but when faced with the girl in his bed, his hesitance increased tenfold.

"C'mon - I'm running out of powe—time." Hatsume egged on.

Izuku breathed out in an attempt to settle his nerves before reaching out with a hand and pressing down on her stomach—

Holy shit - did she have steel plates under her tank top?

"Nope - they're just abs." Hatsume spoke up. "You should really fix that mumbling of yours."

Izuku internally cursed his habit as he continued softly rubbing Hatsume's abdomen. "I didn't think you'd be into fitness." He pointed out.

"Oh, I'm not." She replied simply. "I think it's a horrific waste of energy with no materialistic gain."

"But you've got these." He scratched at her abs a tad more thoroughly through her tank top, successfully drawing a low purr from Hatsume's throat.

"It's even more inefficient if I get tired while lugging around machinery all day." She conceded.

Izuku could help but chuckle. "It's really all business with you, isn't it?" He smiled lightly.

"Well, it's not all business." Hatsume mumbled, but Izuku dismissed it as an offhand comment.

"So how is it?"

"The business?" She questioned. "Ever since I stopped blowing as much stuff up, people aren't as scared to swing by for costume upgrades, and—"

"I meant the belly rub." Izuku clarified.

Hatsume blinked. "What about it?"

"Y'know, your quirk." He elaborated, increasing his speed slightly to enforce his point. "Do you feel any primal urges from this?"

"Mmm." Hatsume hummed in relief at the increased vigour. "There are definitely some primal urges acting up right now—"

Izuku tuned her out in favour of the footsteps he heard approaching his dorm room, and was shocked when he found that he left the door wide open.

"Midoriya, I apologise for overreacting earlier—" Todoroki arrived by the door and froze at the sight of Izuku with his hands on Hatsume's abdomen, with her shirt discarded on the floor.

"I'm going to ask Yaoyorozu for a noose." He said simply.

Before Izuku could clear up the misunderstanding with his friend, Hatsume spoke up. "Wait, iceman!"

Izuku exhaled in relief. Hatsume may have been a little odd, but he should've known he could count on her.

"Here - test out this baby." Hatsume fished out a black cord and held it out in his direction with a shrug. "Might as well get a test on the material's durability—"

"Nope - not happening Hatsume." Izuku snatched it out of her hand and tossed it nearby his pillow.

"Wait, Hatsume?" Todoroki squinted in their direction before his eyes widened. "As in, the insane support girl?"

"Eccentric." She corrected.

"So that isn't a boy cosplaying as Felix?"

Izuku groaned into his palm, effectively masking his expression of pure chagrin. "What the hell is a Felix?"

"Thank God." Todoroki breathed out. "My depression's cured." The boy simply retreated without another word.

The two occupants of Izuku's room remained in confused silence until Hatsume broke it a couple of seconds later.

"I think your friend is colourblind."

Izuku whipped his head down towards her. "Huh?"

"It's obvious." Hatsume sat up on her knees beside him on the bed. "Felix has flax hair, while mine is clearly pink." She explained.

Izuku whined. "Am I the only one who doesn't know what this Felix thing is?"

"Hey, I barely know him." Hatsume shrugged. "I just saw him on google when I needed a reference for the cat stuff."

"Uhh…right." Izuku chose to brush that off as her usual waffling. "So, next test?"

Hatsume instant perked up. "Right!" She reached over the bed and picked up the same black cable.

"I'm not hanging you." Izuku stated frantically.

"Relax, it's just a leash." She clarified, revealing the hoop at the end. "People sometimes take cats on walks, so I'm interested in testing if it'll elicit any response from my quirk."

Izuku wearily accepted the leash handed to him. "Won't that feel a bit…well—degrading?"

"I hope so." She muttered imperceptibly.

"Wait what?"

"I said I don't think so." She cleared up before rising to her feet out of the opposite end of the bed. "Well - let's get this party started!"

Hatsume took a step forward, only to trip over her own tail and tumble to the floor.

"Oh shit!" Izuku cursed, instantly getting to his feet and moving to the other side of his bed. "Are you alright—"

Izuku cut himself off when he saw her tail detached from the base of her spine. However, before he could begin panicking, he spotted a couple of sparks flying off of the end of the tail, with some wires visible behind the flashes.

'Running out of power'.

'Reference for the cat stuff'.

Suddenly her small slip ups were making a lot more sense.

"…Hatsume?"

"Hm?" She got up from the ground while focusing her attention on dusting off her knees.

"This doesn't look like a quirk." Hatsume raised her head to find Izuku grasping the detached tail.

"Oh." Hatsume blinked before bringing a hand up to her mouth in faux shock. "I mean—my tail!" She rested the back of her hand against her forehead. "Woe is me; I'll never recover—"

"So you managed to fool me into thinking you developed a mutation quirk, when in actuality the ears and tail were just some prosthetics?" Izuku inquired, inspecting the electric tail.

"…Yes." Hatsume admitted shamefully, dropping the facade and looking sheepishly at the ground. "Are you mad?"

"Mad?" Izuku could stop fighting down his smile and let his grin show. "That was amazing!"

Hatsume looked up at him in shock. "Eh?"

"The tail looked so authentic!" He gushed. "I genuinely thought there was actual muscle within this. Imagine the advances you could make in the field of robotics if you're able to make electronics move this realistically."

Hatsume chuckled sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. "Well, to be honest I only really developed this to sort of…impress you." She half mumbled the last part, but Izuku caught it easily.

"Well, colour me impressed." He gestured to the leash on the bed. "But what's that for? It doesn't seem all too electrically enhanced."

"Ah, that." Hatsume looked back down at the floor as red dusted her cheeks. "It was only for a bit of fun, I guess, and I sorta wanted to, well—"

Hatsume struggled forming her sentence for a couple more seconds, only for Izuku to wave her off. "Don't worry about it." He dismissed. "How about you tell me a little more about this over lunch?" He offered.

Hatsume sighed in relief, clearly thankful that she didn't have to continue her fruitless explanation. "Yeah, sure."

Izuku dug through his wardrobe for a hoodie while Hatsume put her shirt back on when he had an idea.

"So, want me to use the leash on the way to lunch?" He teased with a grin, receiving an embarrassed squeak in response.

Hope you enjoyed!