A knock sounded from his hotel room door.
"One second." He called, finally pushing himself out of bed. He wasn't really sure when or even if he had actually gone to sleep last night. But, it was morning now, and five messages waiting for him on his phone. Four were from Melissa and one was from Mei. He could check them after he woke up and dealt with his guest.
With a deep yawn he popped his neck and rolled his shoulders, at this point it was habit more than anything. So much for hitting the gym early in the morning. Still, maybe there's some super high tech gym he could convince someone to let him test or something.
"Hello," He opened the door and saw Melissa standing with her hands folded in front of her while she gripped her phone. She was wearing a blue short sleeved blouse with the top two buttons undone and a set of orange pants. Overall, she looked like she was ready for an adventure. "Good morning Melissa what's up?"
Besides the fact that she also had romantic feelings for him.
Her blue eyes went wide and she brought her hands up to her mouth as she looked him up and down. Her face growing redder by the second. "Oh my."
"Huh?" He looked down. He had underwear on. They weren't even that small, they were practically shorts. "Should I go get dressed?"
She nodded still not taking her eyes off of him.
"Do you want to wait for me inside?" He backed away leaving the door open and made his way over to his bag and grabbing his phone. It felt pretty good knowing that she was attracted to him bad enough that him being shirtless made her brain turned off. Maybe this was one of those weird cases where he had more experience in relationships than she did.
Wait wasn't that true for both girls?
How would Mei react to seeing him shirtless? She'd probably be excited about it. Or not, it was hard to tell what Mei was thinking.
"I honestly thought Mei would be in here." Melissa said softly as she sat down on the couch, she wasn't looking right at him anymore but the blush remained. "I'm a little relieved to be honest."
"Yea," probably shouldn't mention that she invited him to stay at her place and that he was really tempted. "I'm going to get dressed in the bathroom."
She nodded and he ducked into the bathroom.
Checking his phone, he saw several messages from Melissa, one asking him what happened, another where he was, another was good morning followed by one that she was heading to his hotel.
And then there was Mei's message.
It was a photo of her. In her underwear. Her plain, boring, practical underwear. She was standing in front of a mirror, her face was scrunched up in confusion. The text that came along with the photo almost made him laugh.
"Am I doing this right?"
"Yes," He texted back, still staring at her figure. "But, why did you send me that?"
He sat his phone down and focused on getting dressed. Hopefully there were no surprise formal dates again, he was already running out of clothes to wear, especially with his hero suit in disrepair. By the time his shirt was on his phone buzzed again.
A message from Mei.
"I read on the internet, it was a good idea. Did you like it?"
How could someone so smart be so innocent - and sexy - at the same time? "You shouldn't trust everything the internet tells you."
A bit hypocritical considering how "How to date" was his most searched term for a year after he got in his first relationship.
"And yes, I did like it. Thank you." He felt his face heat up as he admitted that. The temptation to save it was strong. But that might be creepy.
His pants were on and he was about to head out the door when his phone buzzed again.
"Great! I'll send more later! It's exciting."
He stuffed his phone into his pocket before he could think to much about that comment. Despite the fact that it was probably going to be swimming around in his mind whenever he stopped thinking about something. He could talk to Mei later, Melissa was here for him now.
"And I still need to figure all this out." He sighed and walked out into his hotel room. Melissa was still sitting there hands folded in front of her in that unsure awkward position that he had taken many times before. "So, what's up Melissa?"
"Oh!" She jumped in surprise despite having held eye contact with him since he left the bathroom. She rubbed her hands together and took a breath. "Well, I just wanted to know exactly where things stand. I mean, last night wasn't how I thought things would happen and I had wanted to take things slower. But when she said what she did, I... I didn't want my chance to vanish."
He should have figured that's what she wanted. It was what he wanted too. "I wish I had an answer for you."
The couch sunk down lower than he thought it would when he sat down next to Melissa. There was a lot of space between them. It was filled with uncertainty, just far enough so nobody would think anything of it, but close enough that no one could sit between them. It didn't make much sense in private. But it was where they stood.
More than friends, and close to something more.
"I don't even know what to do when one girl tells me she likes me let alone two at the same time." He leaned back staring up at the ceiling. "I know being indecisive isn't fair to you or Mei. And I have been thinking about this. Like a lot. I know that Mei likes me a lot, and that she basically told me why she likes me. But, I don't know how or when you started liking me, or how much."
"I'm not sure either. At least for how much I like you. I know that I've always thought you were cute, and that if you had asked me out on a date even back when we first met I would have said yes." She laughed placing a hand in the forbidden zone between them. "Or at least, I would have been happy but I probably would have done something embarrassing. But, I know what made me realize it."
"When we beat Wolfram?" That sounded kind of romantic, her falling in love with him after he saved her father.
"Nope, I actually realized it during All Might's funeral. Seeing you just made me feel a sense of hope I didn't know I was missing. I was happy seeing you. And, it stung when I found out you were taken." she shook her head and sighed. "That makes me sound like I was jealous. And I might have been. But I was happy for you. And as bad as it sounds I was even happier when I found out you two broke up."
She turned to look at him and tucked some of her short blond hair back behind her ear. "So, I guess my answer is a while and kind of a lot."
Was it wrong that hearing all that made him really happy? But was that more than the happiness that Mei's confession made him feel?Was there even a right choice? The only wrong choice was not making a choice.
"Thanks for telling me all that Melissa. Truth is I thought you were the most beautiful girl I've ever seen when we first met. It made me really nervous. But I found it easy to talk to you." The problem is that he can talk to Mei just as easy. "I don't want to lead you on. But, just give me a bit of time to figure this out?"
"That's fine Izuku, I waited years for this chance, I can wait a bit longer for your answer." She scooted closer, their hips all but touching as she looked him in the eyes. Pure deep blue, like a perfectly still ocean pierced into him and hooked his soul, dragging it out to the surface. "But, can I ask for a kiss? It doesn't have to mean anything. But, I want to know if I'll feel anything."
He nodded. "Sure."
She moved slowly and he moved to meet her. Their lips met and he felt that familiar jolt of kissing a girl he liked. The spark traveled to his fingers and sent his hands forward to grab her shoulders and kiss her more. For the few glorious seconds that it lasted his mind was clear.
Then his phone vibrated and he was brought back to reality.
His breath was short and he stared at Melissa. Trying to figure out what he was supposed to say to her after that. Trying to compare the kiss to Mei's trying to not feel guilty. It wasn't cheating. But it still felt wrong.
"Well, unfortunately for you, I felt something in that kiss." Melissa sat back down next to him, her face was a soft shade of red that only added to her beauty. "Did you?"
He nodded before placing his head in his hands. "Yeah."
"And you kissed Mei last night didn't you?" Her voice was soft.
"Yeah."
"And I guess you felt something then too?"
"Yeah."
"Sorry for putting you through this Izuku. This really isn't how I pictured this week going." She sighed, placing her hand on his back and rubbing softly. It was almost like she was petting him. "Ideally we would have kissed after a date or something. This whole thing has my head spinning and I feel like I'm racing against a maniac."
"Mei's really not that bad. She comes off as rough around the edges, because she is. But once you take the time to understand her, I think you'd actually like her." He doubted it would help him make his choices if the two were friends. But, he didn't want either one to end up alone. Sure they could both get by just fine on their own, but Mei needed someone to check on her, and Melissa probably needed someone to add some variation to her life.
Melissa huffed. "Are you really asking me to be friends with my current love rival? Not to mention she's just so wild."
"I know, I know, but, just give her a chance. I think you two could be great friends. And as good as you two are at support I just know that you two would be even more amazing together." He smiled at her before standing. He needed to do something. Something that could clear his mind. "I'm going to find a good gym to work out at and think. But I'll meet up with you later alright?"
"Sure, do you think we can meet up for dinner? Without Mei?" She stood with him, straightening her clothes.
"Ha, we'll see, but for some reason I feel like it's my responsibility to make sure she remembers to eat. But I would like to eat with you tonight."
"You're lucky you being so sweet and caring is part of the reason why I like you so much."
XXXX
What on earth was she doing here? She should have just followed Izuku and joined him at the gym. But then she'd be staring at him shirtless and he'd know that she didn't really work out at all! What if he wasn't attracted to her body? She shook her head and slapped her cheeks. No, Izuku wasn't the kind of person to worry about that.
But what if it was the deciding factor between her and Mei?
No! Bad brain!
Izuku probably needed a bit of time alone right now. She'd probably need it if she was in his shoes. Having two close friends confess their feelings at the same time had to be rough.
Which was why she was here at Mei's development lab. It was a plain, ordinary building, just like any of the other labs in the area save for the covered box filled with gadgets being guarded by one of Mei's robots. It really made her feel pathetic.
Mei wasn't just prolific, it felt like everything she made was useful to someone or made something else obsolete. Amazing revolutionary tech, just sitting there in a collection box so people wouldn't bug her when she was working.
Melissa let her shoulder's slump as she stared at the box. She hadn't made anything of note in months. It was like she reached a standstill in what she could do on her own outside of improving her father's tech. Maybe she could figure out how Mei did it.
Squaring her shoulders she walked into the workshop. There were even more projects and designs littering the initial entry way. She couldn't guess what half of them were or how they worked. This must be how people that weren't from the island felt when they came for the first time.
She entered the main room of the workshop. It was cleaner than she thought it would be, with several blueprints making up the walls, and a few projects halfway assembled. A hammock was tied in the corner, along with a miniature fridge - it had arms and legs - and something that was currently humming like a washing machine. A drone flew by snapping pictures of something.
It was Mei.
An almost entirely naked Mei awkwardly striking a post with one hand behind her head, the other just hung there. First she had seen Izuku shirtless and had been reassured that she found muscular men very attractive. Now she was staring at Mei with the same curiosity she felt in the highschool locker rooms.
How were they so big? And perky! With her waist that thin?
More importantly what on earth was she doing?
"Mei?" She asked wincing as she walked forward, trying to take her eyes off of the shorter woman. "What are you doing?"
"Huh?" Mei looked over to her and blinked, she didn't even bother to try and cover herself. "I'm taking pictures for Izuku while I work on a project. Hey can you tell me if these look good? I'm not sure if Izuku is just being nice."
Mei made a gesture and the drone flew over to Melissa stopping a few feet in front of her face. It shifted and a monitor appeared on the drone displaying pictures of Mei posing. Some of them were hot, some were goofy, but most were just plain awkward.
"How many are you going to send him?" She pushed the drone away and walked over to Mei. She wasn't affected by the other woman's near nakedness anymore. Wait, no, she was. Dammit. Why was she even here?
Mei shrugged, her chest bouncing with the motion before she spun and walked over to her bench to work on some project and not to get dressed. "I've sent him three so far. He said he liked them. And it's fun. But why are you here?"
That's what she wanted to know.
"Izuku suggested that I get to know you." She joined Mei at the work station, it wasn't anything like she had seen before, instead of something physical, it almost looked like she was working with some kind of a dust next to a computer. "What are you working on?"
"I've been working on this baby for years!" Mei's smile was as close to mad scientist as she could get without being completely unhinged. She tapped a few buttons on the computer and the dust moved, turning into a simple shirt as it shifted colors and design. "Or should I say Babies! It's an adaptive programmable fabric that I'm going to use to make Izuku's costume."
Melissa felt her mouth drop. She was just going to use standard material and focus on the design elements of the costume. Mei, as she did with all things was going above and beyond. A fabric like this could not only help Izuku a great deal, but also revolutionize the way hero costumes were designed. "That's amazing Mei, you could even add features to it such as tightening around an arm to set a bone or stop bleeding."
"That's part of the plan, I'm going to include a system that will allow my healing spray to be automatically applied." Mei tapped on the computer once again, the crosshairs of her eyes shifting as she used her quirk. "The problem having it know where to send the spray and how much."
"We could give it a central brain. Something that Izuku can control." She pulled out a portable holo board and began to draw the design with her finger. "If you put it around the hip he'll be able to change settings like it's items on a utility belt additionally, I've been working on reducing my bio scanner to something about this size, that'll give the system the knowledge it needs to be reactive to injuries."
"Oh!" Mei flailed her arms and darted over to another section of the lab and grabbed a pair of glasses, they were large and circular. "We can also feed the info into a sleeker version of these, these babies create an unobtrusive display that can show pretty much anything. That way Izuku can know when he breaks his arm!"
"If we're going that route, why not see if we can add infrared and night vision to them? Do you think the cloth could be rearranged into a gas mask?"
"Oh! Good idea! Let's get to work!"
"Shouldn't you put clothes on first?"
"What? Oh. Nah, I'm comfortable like this. Besides, getting dressed is a waste of time when there are babies to be made!"
She did have a point.
AN: This fic is not going to "Plan." It was supposed to be another "Long" fic liked Fist to Fist was, but at this point I don't think I'll be able to get to 20k. Oh well, I'd rather have a good short fic than a crappy long one!
I hope you all have a wonderful day! And please review!
