Summary: Iida knows that Mei spends most, if not all, of her time in Power Loader's workshop at school. Since he's got nothing to do for the day, as well as for the rest of the week, he decides to pay her a visit to bring her lunch. He knows she hasn't eaten yet, and what kind of boyfriend would he be if he didn't help her out?
Tenya Iida could have found a couple of things to do with his time. For instance, he was painfully aware of a few of his classmates who had not finished their work for the week off, as well as a few who hadn't even started it. Alongside Yaoyorozu, he could have held an impromptu study session to make sure everyone understood the material and he could have personally gone around to help out and also to make sure that everyone was actually finishing their work.
He could have done that. He also could have gone off to train for the day. It was perfectly possible for him to try and reach higher max speeds when running regularly, as well as when using his Recipro Burst. Tenya could also try to work on lengthening how long he could use Recipro Burst, or he could work on decreasing the amount of time he needed for his engines to be usable again after that.
Iida could definitely have found some other things to do. Instead, though, he was walking back into UA's main building, a bag over his shoulder, and his phone in hand. Tenya wasn't the type to constantly be on his phone. In reality, he barely used it. Nowadays, it was only to keep up with his family when he was at school or to keep in touch with his friends, no matter where he was. The present situation was no different.
As he entered the front doors of the building, his phone pinged in his hand. It was Mei, which caused a smile to slip over his face. She texted fast, though surprisingly with little to no errors like other people he knew. Sometimes she'd use emojis, but it wasn't all the time. Really only when she was extremely excited about something.
Mei: 'I'm still in Power Loader-sensei's workshop! I'll probably be here for the next few hours.'
Tenya pocketed his phone for a moment just to jog his memory on where to go. Once he did so, he smiled and continued to walk, pulling his phone out once again to respond.
Tenya: 'I assumed as much. I'm on my way already.'
He wasn't one to frequent the workshop as much as others, like Izuku, do, but he usually enjoyed the experience. It was loud, though that was to be expected. It was a workshop after all. Recently, though, he'd been visiting much more often, and the reason was obvious. If Mei spent most of her time there, then it'd make sense for him to want to be there more. She was his girlfriend, after all.
Mei: 'Okay! I'll try to clean a little before you get here since it gets so messy! See you, darling!'
Despite being trained in the ancient arts of stoicism, Tenya couldn't stop the inevitable blush that spread across his cheeks. Mei was affectionate and she definitely wasn't secretive about that. She would call him pet names, like 'darling', around everyone, much to his dismay. Still, he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy them as well.
He could hear the sounds of metalworking from miles down the hall. It wasn't too late-Close to about five in the afternoon-but Tenya wouldn't be surprised if Mei was the only one remaining in the workshop again. She took her work seriously enough to see it as more of a responsibility or civic duty than schoolwork, like most other students. It was admirable, to Iida anyway. The fact that she would work so hard now, even though her actual career wouldn't begin for many years later was enough to bring a tear to his eye.
The two of them had had a rocky start after their match at the Sports Festival. Afterward, though, when Iida was thinking of getting some upgrades to his hero costume, he was surprised to find that Mei was incredibly reliable when it came to upgrades and her work. She would bounce ideas off of him, some of which were outright ridiculous, but some others that were surprisingly great. After that, they found themselves closer and closer to each other until Iida might have accidentally asked her on a date. Things escalated from there.
It was an accident, sure, but it was a happy accident. Now, Tenya could barely think back to when he wasn't with her.
Finally reaching the door to the workshop, Iida pushed it open and stepped inside. As usual, the room was devoid of any movement that didn't have a head of pink hair. From where he was standing at the door, he could see Mei leaning over a worktable a bit away from him. Her goggles were pushed down over her eyes and she seemed to have a blowtorch in hand. The black tank top she wore was clinging to her skin and Iida could see the sweat running down her arms.
He knew about her project, the one she'd been working on for the past month, but didn't know exactly what it was. Mei only really talked about her 'babies' after they were finished, to some degree. Since this one had been in the works for such a long time, Tenya hadn't really asked about it. She'd tell him whenever she wanted to, and that's when he'd find out.
The door fell shut behind him and Mei's head perked up slightly. The torch was turned off and she turned around quickly, lifting her goggles up off of her eyes. Once she saw him, she smiled wide and set the torch down before turning and skipping slightly in his direction. As usual, she stopped close enough for Iida to feel the heat coming off of her, though he didn't mind as much as he used to.
"Hey! You got here a little earlier than I thought you would," Mei admitted, looking up at him with wide eyes. "I was hoping I could put some things away before you got to me."
Iida smiled down at her, rubbing the back of his neck. "I remembered the way here a lot easier than before. There's also nothing to say I simply didn't walk a little faster, either."
She smiled up at him, practically shooting butterflies directly into his stomach, before she turned around, gesturing toward her work.
"I was hoping to get to a good point to stop before you got here," She said, walking back toward the table. Iida followed her, looking around the workshop as he did. "But I may have gotten carried away, so now I'm a point where I can't stop!" She looked excited until she turned around again to look at him. Her eyes were downcast. "Sorry, darling."
Tenya waved his hand dismissively. "You don't have to apologize. Getting so into your work is admirable, after all!" He smiled and gestured toward the rest of the workshop. "Besides. You've gotten a lot done already. I don't fault you for wanting to stick around and see it through. However, I know that you often look past yourself in order to do your work to the fullest, Mei."
She smiled in response, though embarrassment was clear on her face. Bashfully, she rubbed the back of her neck, though Tenya continued.
"So, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't help you out where I could and support you as well?" He slipped his bag off of his shoulder and pulled out the small bento he'd brought with him. "It's safe to think that you haven't gotten a chance to eat yet, correct? I figured I could save you the trouble of having to leave the workshop so that you don't have to lose any time on your work."
Eyes full of wonderment, Mei took the bento from his hands and Tenya folded her fingers over it, smiling down at her happily.
"I think I've taken up enough of your time, Mei," He said casually, stepping back. Immediately, he missed the warmth of being close to her, but he was strong-willed. He'd survive without it. "I'll sit by the door and leave you to your things, okay?"
Spinning around to place the bento on a table, Mei turned back to him and smiled, sending butterflies into his stomach like it was nothing.
"Okay! I'll try to wrap up for today so we can head out for a bit, darling," She responded. As Tenya turned and walked over to the chair, she followed and excitedly threw her arms around him, hugging him from behind. He was much taller than her, so it was a bit awkward, but it was full of love. Surely Iida could feel it. "And thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you," She told him. "Or my babies! But mostly you."
Laughing, he patted her pink locks and let himself be hugged.
"I'm sure you'd do fine, Mei," Smiling still, he untangled himself out from her arms and turned to face her once more. "But if I'm here, then we don't need to think about that at all, now do we?"
Smiling as wide as humanly possible, Mei leaned forward, looking up at him.
"Nope!" She exclaimed, popping the 'p' sound as she said it. "And I won't think about it, because you are here, Iida," Standing up on the tips of her toes, Mei managed to just kiss Iida on the cheek. She smiled, falling back to her feet happily. "I love you."
Despite his stony demeanor, Iida's cheeks turned pleasantly red. He smiled down at her and pulled her into a tight hug which she eagerly returned.
"I love you too, Mei," He whispered in her ear, making her giggle and squirm in his grasp. Placing her hands on his chest, Mei pushed herself away, though Iida kept her close with a hand around her back. Her face matched his in redness, which only got worse once she leaned up again and pecked him on the lips. Stony demeanor or not, Iida couldn't stop himself from clasping a hand against his mouth, immediately looking around the workshop as if someone had seen them. No one was there, thankfully, but it didn't do much to calm his nerves. In his arms, Mei laughed at him quietly, a hand over her mouth even though it didn't stop the sound from coming out anyway.
"Mei!" He called, half-whispering half-scolding. She had long since gotten used to his outbursts, though, and simply laughed louder, letting her hand fall away to do so in full. Though he was embarrassed to a certain degree, Iida couldn't help but smile. He simply loved seeing Mei happy too much to be upset with her.
It took a handful of minutes for Mei to get back to work-most of which comprised of Iida of trying to get the girl off of him. He loved her, sure, but she was extremely affectionate. It wasn't that Tenya wasn't used to it at this point; He just figured it'd be better for her to get back to work soon so they'd have more time together afterward.
Just before she went back to work, she popped open the bento and took a deep whiff, smiling back at Tenya once she did. He smiled back, his cheeks turning slightly pink at the innocent act. He didn't think the bento-simple white rice and pork cutlet-was anything special, but seeing Mei gleefully eat a bit of it before rushing to her worktable was enough to make him think otherwise, if only a little.
Tenya sat down in a chair against the wall, just a bit away from where Mei worked. He was easily out of the work area, but close enough to hear and respond to her if he needed to. From his bag, he procured a book that he'd borrowed from Midoriya-The History of Quirks-and cracked it open about halfway through, where he'd left his bookmark the day before. Immediately, he delved into his reading diligently. While the noise of Mei working behind him was enough to remind him where he was, it wasn't enough to break his attention quite yet.
Admittedly, the book wasn't very interesting, but Tenya felt it was important to understand his roots as a wannabe-Hero. In order to do that, he had to familiarize himself with Quirks-How they originated, which is a story that everyone had to know, how they'd been used, and how society had elevated to the point where they were at now. Truly, if he became acquainted with knowledge like that, his path to becoming a Hero would be much more clear!
With determination practically flooding from each and every one of his pores, Tenya eagerly dug into his reading, committing each word, sentence, and paragraph to memory. Determination was key! With the will to do it, Tenya could read through, finish completely, and recite without a problem any and every section of this book! Yes! As long as he could...keep his...mind focused! And...his eyes...open...
The book slipping off of his lap and crashing to the floor was enough to jolt Tenya back into the real world. He had, disappointingly, fallen asleep. Normally he wouldn't even allow himself the liberty of an excuse but...who was he kidding, the book was pretty boring. Truthfully, he admired Midoriya for having read the entire thing at least twice, but he couldn't see how the kid did it. Out of all of Class 1-A, no one would even hope to argue against Midoriya being the most driven one in their class. The progress he'd made over the course of their time together was impressive and it truly a sight to behold. Tenya was proud to be his friend, honestly.
Normally he wouldn't even think of doing it, but Tenya gave up on the book. He slipped it back into his bag and stretched his arms, standing in order to stretch his legs as well. Mei was still hard at work over in her section of the workshop and Tenya took notice that the lunch he'd made for her was halfway gone already. The fact that she'd taken enough time out of her work to eat at all was enough to please him, making him smile as he left his bag at the chair and made his way closer to where Mei worked.
Just like before, she had her goggles on over her eyes and a large blowtorch of some kind in her hands. The heat had seemingly gotten to her if all the sweat on her form was anything to go by. She'd tossed away her jacket and had rolled the legs of her pants up to her knees-anything to give her some kind of solace against the heat around her. The thing she seemed to be working on was large, almost as big as her body, but it seemed hollow, from what Tenya could see. It looked like it could be a brace of some kind, but it looked too long to be a chest or a back brace. A tail brace, then? Tenya had seen Mashirao come into the workshop a couple of times before-It could have been for him. Something told him it wasn't, though, and Tenya decided to listen to whatever that something was.
Not wanting to get too close to her, for fear of both getting in her way and of getting himself hurt somehow, Tenya simply leaned against the table where she'd place her lunch and watched her. Her familiarity with the workshop rang true as Tenya watched her, zipping across the tables around her to grab different tools without looking and jumping back to her work as if she hadn't moved in the first place. It was like Mei was in her natural habitat; Here, she was so strong, nothing could best her.
Without warning, Tenya blushed and covered his mouth, afraid he'd make a noise and distract her. He had no clue why he'd suddenly gotten flustered and cursed himself inwardly for letting it get past him. How foolish! He thought, still clasping a hand over his mouth. This is her goal! I should be ashamed for even getting close to interrupting her. Some boyfriend I am...,
So caught up in his own thoughts, Tenya didn't hear the sound of the blowtorch shutting off and didn't see Mei walking toward him until she was already in front of him.
"Tenya? Is something wrong?" She asked, leaning in and looking up at him with wide eyes. Practically forced now to notice her presence, Tenya jumped, his back slamming into the table behind him. Mei put her hands up as if moving to steady him when he straightened his back and stood back up.
"Ah! No, no. Nothing is...nothing is wrong, Mei, I simply..," He started, looking toward the worktable she was at. The brace she was making looked to be whole, but Tenya wouldn't know exactly. "I simply wished that I could help you in some way."
The pink-haired girl tilted her head, looking up at him with skeptical eyes. Whenever she did that, Tenya felt as if she was staring into his soul. With her Quirk, who knew if it was possible or not.
After a tense moment, Mei leaned back and smiled.
"You help me just by being here, Tenya," She whispered, though just loud enough for him to hear. Tenya smiled, but something felt off. He had a weird feeling..."Buuuut, if you really wanna help..." That's what it was. A 'but'.
Tenya sighed, exasperated. Despite that, he couldn't help the smile that grew on his face anyway. Reaching down, he took her hands in his.
"Whatever you need of me, Mei. I'm ready to help however I can."