Yaoyorozu nodded her thanks to Lunch Rush, picked up her tray, and stepped out of the line. She scanned the cafeteria for her friends, looking forward to a chat about their most recent test. She smiled when she saw her friend Jiro waving at her, and started to walk over to her table, only to hesitate when she noticed someone else also trying to get her attention. Only instead of a friendly wave, the person was standing on a table, a massive grin on her face, and waving both arms above her head. It was Hatsume.
Yaoyorozu blinked in surprise. It had been about a week since she initially spoke with Hatsume about getting a new hero suit made, and she hadn't heard anything from the engineer in all that time. She smiled excitedly. Hatsume must have finished her initial test swatch! She turned back to Jiro, held up a hand in apology, before she walked over to join Hatsume for lunch.
Somehow Hatsume's grin widened as she saw Yaoyorozu approach. She hopped down from the table and took her seat, gesturing to the place across from her. "Hiya!" she chirped. "I was hoping to run into you here!"
Yaoyorozu took the proffered seat. "Well, it is lunch time," she said with a chuckle.
Hatsume shrugged. "I don't usually come down here for lunch myself. Most days I'm elbow deep inside a project until 'whoops! It's 21:30 and I haven't eaten since breakfast!' I wasn't sure if you would be in the library or the gym or something."
Yaoyorozu shook her head, and gestured to her tray which was piled high with food. "I need to eat a lot in order for my quirk to work properly. If I skip meals, I can't even make a chopstick."
Hatsume leaned forward, propping her elbow on the table and resting her chin in her hand. "That is so fascinating," she said. "Maybe I should put some kind of auto feeder into your suit?"
Yaoyorozu chuckled. "No, but pockets for snacks would be nice." She took a bite of her lunch, waiting for Hatsume to say something about why she was here, but the other girl was just watching her. She swallowed. "Umm, is there something you wanted to show me?"
Hatsume jumped in her seat. "Oh! Right!" She started digging in her blazer pockets for a moment, before she pulled out a square of scarlett cloth ten centimeters on a side. "Ta da!" she said, handing it over with a flourish.
Yaoyorozu grinned widely, and started to squirm excitedly in her seat. "Ah! You've done it?" She took the proffered cloth, feeling the texture in her hands. It was soft and pliable, but when she tugged on it, she could tell it was strong as well. "Oh, it feels great! I'd never know this was made from hair."
Hatsume smirked proudly. "Yeah, the process I used is mostly the same thing that Maijima-sensei used for your classmate, but I made improvements. It's fifteen percent stronger, and thirty percent softer!" She gestured wildly with her hands. "Well, go on! Try to create something through it!"
Yaoyorozu nodded, laying the cloth flat on her hand, palm up. She concentrated for a second, before a pen started to form in her hand, point up. It moved up through the cloth without causing even the smallest waver, before falling over into her hand.
Yaoyorozu exclaimed as she caught the pen. "It worked! Oh my gosh, this is amazing Hatsume! Thank you!" She started to create more items in her hand, smiling harder every time it phased through the cloth.
Hatsume grinned. "I'm happy you like it! And please, call me Mei."
Yaoyorozu turned her smile on the other girl. "Of course! And please call me Momo, Mei."
The blush on Hatsume's cheeks darkened, but her smile remained on her face, and her eyes sparkled.
"Hey, Yaomomo. What's up?"
Hatsume's expression darkened slightly at the interruption, the corner of her smile twitching slightly.
Yaoyorozu looked up to see Jiro standing there, holding her lunch tray. She giggled excitedly, and showed her friend her hand. "Look! Look what Mei has made for me!" Another pen was created through the cloth, leaving it undisturbed in her hand.
Jiro's eyes widened in surprise, then she set her tray down on the table, leaned over, and hugged Yaoyorozu. "Ah! I'm so happy for you! You're not going to be cold any more!"
A low, almost quiet, grinding noise caught Jiro's attention. She looked up to see Hatsume's jaw clenched, her face strained. "Oh! Um. Introduce me to your friend, Momo," she said as she sat down in the chair next to Yaoyorozu.
Yaoyorozu gasped, covering her mouth. "Oh! I am so sorry! How very rude of me. Kyoka, this is Hatsume Mei of the Support Course. She's the one in charge of designing and building my new hero suit. Mei, this is my best friend Jiro Kyoka."
Jiro nodded her head politely to Hatsume. "Nice to finally meet you, Hatsume. I've heard about your talents from Midoriya singing your praises for a long time now."
Hatsume seemed to relax a little. "Yeah, Ten Million is one of my best clients. I've redesigned most of his hero suit by now."
Jiro giggled a little. When Yaoyorozu looked at her questioningly, she gently bumped shoulders with the taller girl. "Oh, you remember; Midoriya had that ten million point headband at the sports festival in first year." She snapped her fingers. "Now I remember! You were on his team for the cavalry battle, weren't you? Your tech was amazing. My team couldn't catch you!"
Hatsume's smile was genuine now, and she reached back behind her head sheepishly. "Thanks! I was really proud of them."
Yaoyorozu smiled happily. It was nice to see her two friends getting along so well.
"So does that mean you're going to do something like that for Momo?" asked Jiro.
"Well…" Hatsume reached down by her feet, and dug in her bag. She came up again with a stack of papers, and started to lay them out on the table. "I've sketched a few ideas, and thought Momo and I could go over them together while we ate."
Yaoyorozu gasped as page after page of options were laid before her. "Oh wow Mei! I had no idea you were such a good artist!"
Jiro looked at the pages. They were serviceable sketches; the heads were faceless, but the hair and body shapes obviously belonged to the woman sitting next to her. She was about to comment herself, when she looked up at Hatsume and saw her blushing like mad as Yaoyorozu rattled on, praising each individual idea on its merits.
Oh!
They'd just spent the morning studying English idioms in class, and the one Jiro was having the most trouble with was "third wheel". Yeah, bicycles had only two, but a tricycle was more stable! Surely being a third wheel was a good thing, right?
She got it now.
She was about to stand from her seat, when Yaoyorozu held up a few pages for her. "Kyoka, what do you think? I honestly cannot decide between these three."
Jiro took the pages, looking between them. One image had the model covered from throat to toes, with long sleeves, pockets galore, a utility belt, and a white stripy design for flair. The second was more like a bustier, which covered her chest much more than her current suit, but left her arms and shoulders bare while showing off a lot of cleavage. The third covered nearly as much as the first one, but it featured a large round opening in the chest area, reminiscent of some kind of American superhero from before the Glowing Baby.
Jiro looked at the pictures for a moment, then held up the first one. "This one would be the warmest. You should go with it."
Yaoyorozu frowned at the picture, considering. "That's true…" she said, hesitatingly.
Hatsume shook her head. "I think you should go with one of the other two."
"Oh? Why?"
"Well, you need to be noticed, right?" she asked, gesturing at the pictures. "You get paid more if you're higher up the rankings, and those are voted on by the general public. Remember what I said about your old suit? How you were sure to catch attention wearing it? Covering up all the way will hinder that."
Yaoyorozu stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Kayama-sensei always did say that we should 'Flaunt it if we've got it…'"
Jiro rolled her eyes. She missed their teacher every day, but sometimes the lessons that Kayama-sensei had passed on weren't exactly appropriate, nor was she able to take advantage.
"Plus, you can keep wearing your cloak in the winter to keep your arms warm," added Hatsume. "And I've got some ideas for an electric warming system sewn into the lining."
"Ooo! That's a great idea!" exclaimed Yaoyorozu. She dug into her bag, pulling out a pencil. "In that case why don't we…"
As Yaoyorozu and Hatsume leaned over the drawing making edits, Jiro took the opportunity to take her leave. She smiled at her friend, happy that she was getting that new hero suit that Jiro had honestly felt she'd needed ever since she first saw the old one… Geeze, was that really only a year and a half ago? It was also nice that Yaoyorozu had made a new friend.
Hatsume briefly looked up when Jiro stood up. Her eyes flashed, her lips pursed, and her cheeks bulged, before she quickly looked back down at the page.
Jiro grinned nervously, before scurrying away. Ok, so more than just a friend, if Hatsume had anything to say about it…
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