Both diet and exercise proved to be a bit slow to start, breaking snack and meal habits as well as starting the process of building muscle on Izuku's twig-like form. His stamina however proved a delightful surprise to Yu, being above most middle schooler's not involved in a sport. He may barely be able to do twenty push ups without his arms giving up, but he can follow that with about the same in sit-ups, lunges, curls and just about every other light strength building exercise and still have the energy to do a 10k run while slowly dripping in sweat. A sight she very much enjoys whenever her work doesn't cross with his workout hours.
On the other side, his dive into support gear, and the heroes that use them has proven both enlightening and shocking for the boy. Making even simple gear requires a wide mix of skills and knowledge, from Material Sciences and Mechanical Engineering to Biology and his personal favourite, Quirk Analysis. On the other hand, watching and rewatching hero fights while looking at support gear specifically revealed a shocking lack of protective gear in most heroes, and almost no-one using non-quirk relevant support gear.
Some make sense, Mirko's hard and fast fighting style would be dragged down by armour in most cases, or Kamui Woods or Best Jeanist where their quirks provide defense themselves. Others... Izuku almost had a panic attack when he realized Gunhead, a Pro specializing in both using and fighting weapons, goes around in an open vest. Not even a bullet proof vest, just a normal, everyday vest.
Nightmares of All Might, Katsuki and his new sensei horribly injured and bleeding out plagued him for several days after this revelation, leaving him both drained and motivated in their wake. Tired eyes studied armour, materials and technology in every moment not filled by other obligations, all tied to the question, 'How can I keep them... how can I keep her safe?'.
Days turn into weeks and slow progress is made on all fronts. Strength and muscles begin to develop, but more importantly, he finishes his initial designs. Notebook clutched tightly in one hand, he dials one of the few numbers on his phone. His heartbeat jumps with each ring before there's a pause, and her voice comes through.
"Hey Midoriya, what's up?" Yu asks, the sound of the streets audible behind her, "I'm not quite done my patrol, so if it's not important it's gonna have to wait."
"Oh, uh, I just finished the designs, but I didn't know you were on patrol. Sorry." He replies, bowing despite being alone in his room, "When should I call again?"
"Meet me at the coffee shop down the road from my Agency at 5, we'll talk then. Bye."
"B-bye" he manages to stutter out before the call ends abruptly and he releases a breath he didn't know he was holding. 'Five is... in about two hours. Two hours... plenty of time to get cleaned up, get dressed and make my way over there... Oh All Might, is this a date?!' The notebook falls from his hand, the sound of it hitting the ground snapping from his momentary freeze. "It's a work meeting," He mutters as he shakes his head clear, "We're talking business, not... whatever you talk about on dates." Tossing his phone onto his bed, Izuku opens his closet and stares at the clothes inside.
Gently stirring her drink, Yu's purple eyes watching the door of the café as the clock ticks closer and closer to five. Fresh out of her post-patrol shower, the fruity scent of her shampoo lingers just barely perceptible beneath the smell of the peach tea. The green bush of hair that belongs to her student pops into view out the window, and her smile grows, tongue ever so briefly licking her lips. Nothing like a visit from her favourite boy after a great patrol. As she watches, he pulls out his phone before looking up at the address and name of the business, puffs up his chest, squares his shoulders and walks inside.
The greeting from the cashier seems to squeeze his anxiety out again, but as he scans the room and sets his eyes on her, they alight. With the same energy she saw when she first saw him, he hurries over, sliding his bag off and giving her a small bow. "Good evening, Yu-sensei, I hope your patrol went well."
Waving him down lazily with a hand, she rests her chin on the back of her other hand, saying, "It was a pretty boring one. Only a couple rookie villains to stop, and the cameras would not stop following me the whole time." Pausing to take a sip, her eyes wander over him as he sits, his shoulders squeezing forward a bit, gaze seemingly locked on the middle of the table and both hands hidden on his lap. "So, you've got the designs? I'll admit, I've been curious as to what that adorable little mind of yours came up with."
He nods quickly, anxiety seemingly vanishing into the air as he reaches into his backpack, pulling out a newer looking notebook. "It wasn't hard to decide What I wanted to design, the bigger issue was the How." he says, flipping through pages, "From what I've read, Transformation quirks are the hardest to make reliable support gear for, since its a physical change, unlike emitter or mutant quirks. Yours was even harder, despite being such a simple change." As he lays it down, she can see an anatomically accurate drawing of her in her hero costume, pairs of numbers listed all around it. "It wasn't easy to get all the measurements at both sizes, but I watched all the videos and..." Catching her sly smile, the gears in his brain crash to a halt as blood is brought to his face faster than Villains are brought to justice by All Might.
"I'm sure you must have been able to see all my good sides then," Yu says with a purr, "But you know, if you had asked, I would have let you measure me personally." Letting him stew in his embarrassment for just a moment later, she lets out a soft laugh. "Sorry, sorry, it's just you're so innocent and cute I can't help but want to tease you. If you needed my measurements though, I would have given them if you asked."
"Sorry," he says, head low, "I just didn't want to bother you. You've already done so much for me and I've given basically nothing back..."
A flick to his forehead snaps him out, and she lets out a huff, breath visible through the steam of her tea. "You've done plenty already, and you've been working on more. Besides, we'd have a terrible relationship if we only did things because one of us owed the other." Pulling over the notebook, she looks over herself in all her pen and paper glory. "You really caught my good side here."
"You don't have any bad sides," he mutters, just barely audible before he shakes his head clear, "Sorry, I keep distracting you." Flipping to the next page, a couple sketches of armour catch her eye amid the clouds of words and math. "I did a lot of looking into support gear and costumes, and I found a lot don't do protection. Most heroes that don't make it to the top 50 or so tend to get put out of the career by a crippling injury or death within ten years. I couldn't... I can't..." He pauses to wipe tears from his eyes before looking up at her, determination burning behind his emerald eyes. "I'm not going to let that happen to you."
A jolt shoots through her, heart quickening at his passionate declaration. "So what's the plan? There isn't any armour that would grow with me."
Green hair bobs in a nod, as he turns the page again, "You don't need as much protection when gigantic, so I focused on a way to protect you before then." Pointing to an image, he says, "I didn't want to ruin your look, so I designed the chest piece to match your outfit, with a simple defensive skirt to protect your waist and thighs without impeding movement. Bedliner coated steel backed by Kevlar padding should make it incredibly resistant or immune to most street level weapons, as well as good protection from a lot of quirks and general wear and tear. The real problem was figuring out how to have it not get in the way when you grow."
"Some of it was easy. Anything not holding the armour up could just be held by mid strength magnets. They won't just fall apart with general movement, but will easily pop free when stressed by your growth. Putting it back on, they just click into place easily too. For the shoulders and hips, I, uh, ended up looking at pet collars." he says, suddenly blushing at the implications of his words.
"A little kinky there, Green Bean, don't you think?" Yu asks with a sly smile, watching as he grows redder and redder.
"N-not like that, I meant cat and dog collars," he exclaims while fighting the urge to cover his face, "Outdoor cat's especially need special collars that won't accidentally hang the cat if they get snagged while jumping, so they're designed to pop open easily enough. At human size, they should be strong enough to hold up the armour, but still give when you start growing. I'm a little worried about the shoulders though since they would pop around your neck most likely, and I don't want it to accidentally choke you."
Nodding, Yu looks at the designs, before closing the book gently. "You've got the plans. Now, do you think you could build this yourself?"
"I..." he starts with a pause, "I probably could, but it would take too long. I don't have any of the tools or skills, but blacksmithing is a well known and well documented skill, so learning it wouldn't take too long. The bedliner is easy enough, though styling it colour-wise might take a little finesse." A second notebook suddenly comes out of his bag and he begins writing as his tone drops to a mutter. "If I buy the breastplate, chain skirt and kevlar vest, that would cut most of the time, though it wouldn't be cheap, maybe 130,000 yen? I'd have to redo the fittings, which would be cheap enough but time consuming..."
His phone is pulled out, and as she watches, numbers and websites get written down. Times, costs, locations for everything from metalworkers and postal services to cosplay supply stores. "If I somehow manage to not screw anything up, It would take..." His phone swaps to a calculator app, and with a few pen strokes, he speaks out loud again. "I could probably have it done in about a month."
"Sounds good to me," Yu says before taking a sip of tea. "I'll get you an Agency credit card after this so you can get started."
He suddenly jolts as if a live wire zapped him, shaking his head vigorously before saying, "I couldn't. You really don't... Wouldn't it be better if you had professionals make it?"
"You're the one training for the Support course right now. Getting your gear on a pro is a great way to get your foot in the door." She says, leaning back and stretching just enough her shirt lifts a little, exposing the lowest of her soft abs to him. "After all, didn't you say you were gonna make sure that I wouldn't get taken out by an injury?"
"I did but..."
Reaching across the table, she sinks her hand into his hair before saying, "If it turns out you can't do it, we'll send on the blueprints to a professional company and have them figure it out, okay?" As he looks up, she gives him a smile and a tousle before asking, "So, how are other things going? Is your friend still doing alright?"
"Kacchan is fine. He's really strong so something like this won't bother him." he replies with a smile, "He's really amazing. I mean, you saw his quirk before, he's going to make a great hero." The smile fades quickly though, as he looks down at his own hands, "He'll be a better hero than I could..."
"Maybe he will be, maybe he won't be." Yu shrugs, "I think you're gonna become a great hero regardless. And besides, he's not the one getting to spend time with a hot new heroine, is he?"
"I guess..." he says while scratching his head.
"You guess? Am I not attractive enough?" She pouts while squeezing her arms together to push out her bust. "Or do you not like spending time with me?"
"It's not that, you're very pretty, it's just... there are so many better hero hopefuls you could be helping instead of me."
Downing the last of her tea, Yu rises to her feet, frowning down at Izuku. "What am I gonna do with you...?" He curls under her gaze, but her eyes wander to the notebook. An idea forms, and with it a smug smile. "Grab your notebook and follow me, Midoriya, I've got an idea that will help you." Waltzing out of the shop, he hurriedly snatches up his book before chasing after her, pausing long enough to bow and thank the barista.
Leading him back to her agency, she takes him back up to the same meeting room as before and sits him down. "Just wait here a sec, I've got to grab something." Entering her private office, she grabs a few sheets of paper from the printer, some writing utensils as well as one of the Agency credit cards. Izuku's already wringing his hands nervously as she returns, causing her to huff. Setting the items in front of him, she says, "This is one of my Agency's credit cards, I want you to use it to pay for what you need to make my support gear."
His hands immediately recoil from the card as he shakes his head vigorously, "I can't that's too much. I can just sell some of my merchandise and..."
Grabbing his hand in her own, she drags it to the card, saying, "Midoriya. Izuku, I trust you not to abuse this. This is going to be my support gear, it's only fair I pay for it." As she releases his hand, he takes the card and clutches it to his chest, nodding. "Good. Now, for the second thing. I want you to draw me."
"Huh?"
"You're good at drawing, and I want you to make one for me. I'll even model for you so you can get it perfect." Pink starts to creep up his cheeks, and she steps back, lifting a foot onto the table to pose and let her skirt ride up her shapely thighs, "I can stay dressed like this, or maybe you'd like me in my Hero costume? How about in a swimsuit? Maybe just my underwear, or perhaps... nothing at all?"
Metaphorical steam starts spewing from his ears as his face goes red as a strawberry. "Y-your Hero costume please, and uh... if it's okay, could we maybe do it in the gym? I kinda have an idea, but it needs the mirror wall to help."
"Sounds good to me, give me a moment to change." Stepping towards her changing room, she pauses just outside the door to look back at him before winking, "Just make sure you don't peek." If it was possible for him to get any redder, he did, leaving her with a smile as she starts changing. For a minute, she heavily considers not putting her lineless Hero suit underwear on, just to give the poor boy a little show, but common sense prevails enough that she suits up like normal.
His eyes sparkle in admiration and awe as she returns, similar to his stare when she debuted. Walking with him back to the elevator, his hands clutch the art supplies with only a slight nervous energy. It almost feels like a waste taking it down only one floor, but as it opens to the fully stocked gym, Izuku immediately starts looking around. Going from bench to bench, he seems to mentally measure them but is never quite satisfied. Eventually, he settles on grabbing 20kg plates, moving them one at a time to stack up near the mirror wall.
Nodding to himself, he grabs one of the chairs from the wall and moves it over, setting it a distance from the weights, facing both them and the mirror wall. "Okay, Umm... Yu-sensei, could you stand over next to those weights with your right foot on them?"
Following his request, she moves over, taking the pose and asking, "Alright, what else?"
"Can you put your left hand on your hip, and hmnn..." Tilting his head, a small frown marks his face as he looks things over.
"Don't be afraid to get a little handsy if you need to change up my pose. You're the director here, I'm just your model."
"You're not just my model, you're my Sensei. It would be disrespectful."
Letting out a huff and putting her other hand on her hips, she replies, "Well then as your Sensei, I'm not just giving you permission to adjust my pose, but I'm ordering you to do it so you can do your best on the drawing."
His nod is a bit meek, but he approaches, looking over her with a scrutinizing gaze. Up close, she realizes he's actually just a little taller than her. Only an inch or so, but surprising nonetheless. His hands grab her right hand, guiding it up to her face, before he shows her a two fingered V pose with a hand, which she copies. Stepping back a moment, he checks the angle, before adjusting it's position a little, so her index finger sits just below her eye, and her middle goes over it like some sort of magical girl.
Her hips are suddenly grabbed, and she can't fight the blush that starts creeping up on her, but apparently, neither can he. Still, he remains professional enough, shifting her balance and stance just a little before stepping back to check over things again. Nodding, a small smile comes out before he asks, "Could you show me your pretty smile?" The unintentional compliment does it's job, drawing a natural, shining smile from her that lights up his own. "Perfect, just stay like that!" Almost hopping back to the chair, he sits down, frowns briefly before shifting the chair a few feet. Seemingly satisfied with the spot, he sets the paper on a notebook and grabs a pencil.
Never let it be said that Yu Takeyama won't suffer for someone else, because not even twenty minutes in and she can feel her leg cramping up and her arm growing tired. 'Maybe I should join Izuku for some exercise every once in a while,' she thinks to herself, watching him scribble and scratch away at the page. In a moment he's seemingly focused on the page, she lets her arm drop and shake out a bit, before lifting it back up, the tired ache only slightly faded.
"I-if you're getting tired, I can just take a picture with my phone and use that as a reference," he says, concern etched on his face.
Her smile relaxes under his doe eyed gaze, and she quickly shakes her head. "It's fine. I signed up for this, and I wanna see you to do your best work. I can handle a bit of soreness if that's all it will take." A certain degree of urgency enters his movements, though the energy in his eyes remains determined.
Fifteen minutes later and a small part of her is wishing she took him up on his offer. Both legs have started locking up, her smile is starting to cramp and her raised arm has started to go numb, but sweet relief comes when Izuku announces, "I've got you done. You don't have to stay there anymore."
Collapsing without a care for how she looks, Yu lays out on the mat, almost as sore as after a busy patrol. "Thank fuck," she groans, using her still functional arm to start massaging her numb one, "That was way harder than I thought. How's it looking, Midoriya?"
"Good, but... are you okay?" He asks, setting his drawing aside. A shaky arm tries to give him a thumbs up, but falls halfway and he's at her side in an instant. "If it was that bad, you should have told me," he says, hands hovering near her, unsure of what to do.
"It's fine, nothing a hot shower and a little massaging won't fix."
"I could help with that," he offers, and as she raises an eyebrow, he quickly amends, "T-the massaging, I mean. I've helped my mom with it a little after she has a hard shift at work, so I'm okay at it."
Rolling onto her chest, she stretches out her arms and says, "Since you're offering, my legs are all cramped up, you mind working some magic?" Behind her, he shimmies and shuffles a bit, before his hands tentatively touch her ankle. The touches are soft and gentle, but as she opens her mouth to tell him to go harder, they suddenly dig in, pressing into knots. A low groan comes from her lips as his hands work up her calf, before switching to the other leg.
Once up to her knee on that leg too, he shimmies up, straddling her calves as his hands get to work on her muscular but soft thighs. The cramps are slowly but firmly worked out, her satisfaction coming in the form of quiet moans and groans. Reaching the top of her thighs, he suddenly stops, leaning to get off her legs. "You're not finished yet, are you? I trust you not to do anything weird," Yu says, leaning a bit to look back over her shoulder, "Besides, how often are you gonna get permission to touch a heroine's butt?"
His blush is sharp, but he sits back down, his weight gently pressing down on her soothed thighs. Featherlight at first, she can barely feel his touch through her suit, but he eventually builds up the courage to dig in. She has to bite back a loud moan as his hands sink into her ass, digging deep into her glutes to knead and relax her muscles. Inside her mind, a little meter labeled "Boyfriend material" rises up as she holds back another lewd sound as his ministrations incidentally spread her cheeks.
In what feels like far too short a time, he's finished with her hips and butt, and shifts off her properly this time. "Feel any better?" he asks, hands held nervously in front of him.
"Way better, yeah. Thanks for that Midoriya." She says, slowly pushing herself up, "I'm gonna grab a shower, you're still not finished the drawing, right?"
"A little more drawing, then I want to ink the lines so it can't be erased." he replies, pointedly looking away as she stretches and flexes her legs right in front of him.
"Sounds good. I'll be quick and handle tidy up here, feel free to go back up to the office if you want to." With more sway in her step than needed, she disappears into the changing room, leaving Izuku to gather up the art supplies and hop into the elevator. The coffee table is too low to use with the couch, so Izuku just sits on the floor, pulling out his phone for some photo references. There weren't many of the villain from her debut, but enough he can draw something that would pass as being close enough without being that villain. Thankfully, from the top down, they don't need many details, though drawing dreadlocks ate up time.
Flicking out her damp hair as she exits the elevator, Yu slowly walks over to the bush of green hair, barely visible past the sofa. Peeking over him at the drawing, her breath is stolen but she's left with a wide smile instead. In the pose she took in the gym, she stands full sized, foot on the villain from her debut as he's downed on the ground. Behind her, a skyscraper reflects her form in it's windows, giving a generous but not too detailed look at her backside.
"Izuku, this looks amazing!" she exclaims, wrapping around his shoulders, "You totally caught me in that drawing, it's so cool!"
"'s not that good," he mumbles as his face turns pink, unable to handle the praise or contact.
"It might not be as good as a professional, no, but you put a lot of effort into it and it shows." Squeezing him some more, Yu finds herself subtly feeling up his chest, the barest hint of muscles there. "And besides, I have plans for this, and no I'm not gonna sell it as merch or anything, this is something you made just for me." She says, pre-empting his objections as he almost jumps in her grip. He slowly relaxes in her embrace but before long she lets him go, standing with a sigh. "Well, I'll leave you to finish this, I've got some paperwork to do in the meantime, so just find me when you're done."
"Yes Sensei."
Walking into her office, the dread of the day's paperwork sets in, only somewhat muffled by the promise of Izuku's art. With just a single disappointed groan, she settles onto her chair and pulls out a pen.