Izuku ducked, his hair blew gently as the Underminer's arm passed over him. Then he stepped to the right as a wooden staff wooshed past him before striking the ground. Izuku brought his wooden blade up to his left just in time for the staff to slam into it. He moved back to the left, raising his wooden blade up parallel to the ground to block a downward slash, then ducked again.

He'd fallen into the pattern of duck dodge block quickly, it was either do that or get hit. And while the Underminer wouldn't hit hard enough to actually injure him, that staff still stung when it did hit him. He'd been training for hours now, all his muscles ached, and the spots where the Underminer hit him had turned into large purplish blotches. But despite his exhaustion Izuku pushed through it. If he was going to be a hero, he needed to become stronger, faster, better.

As for why he was currently training with a wooden sword? Mei had already told him that she was making a laser sword, so he might as well learn how to fight with it. At the very least be able to use one without just wildly waving it around. But even then Izuku had his misgivings about even having one. No doubt it might come in handy one day, but probably not as a sword, instead as a tool to cut apart large objects to save people. But it never hurt to learn how to use it properly anyways.

He blocked another strike from the Underminer, then tried to duck under the next one, only for the wooden rod the robot held to smack against his shoulder. He hissed in pain but continued with the exercise.

After several more minutes, and a handful of new prospective bruises, he called it quits, he collapsed onto the ground, laying on his back and gulping down as much air as his lungs could handle. He was faintly aware of the robot stomping back to its starting point, either waiting for Izuku to continue or to power it down.

Izuku rested for several minutes, time blending together as he just laid in the soft grass, listening to the swish of the trees in the afternoon air caused by the warm spring breeze, sparse clouds overhead lazily panned across the sky, their shapes occasionally resembling something recognizable. He didn't know how long he stayed like that before he finally sat up.

He was alone in the Hatsume's backyard, Mei was probably in her workshop tinkering with something. He took a deep breath, then stood, his aching muscles protesting the sudden movement, but not quite as badly as before. He felt, good. Surprisingly good despite his many bruises. He felt like he could breathe deeper than he ever could, and even after training for most of the morning and well into the afternoon, he had a sort of energy he couldn't really describe.

As he stretched, he felt a slight twinge of pain in the beginning that soon turned into a comfortable warmth. Once he finished his stretches he felt much better, he didn't feel quite like he'd been thrown off a building, just more like he'd been rolled down a hill. Izuku hobbled over to the Underminer, then said, "I think that's enough for today."

"Command unknown. Please repeat." replied the Underminer in a low pitched tone.

Izuku paused, trying to remember the shutdown code, "Right, ummm, lets see. Oh! Training complete."

"Command acknowledged" replied the Underminer, "Moving to the maintenance bay."

Izuku nodded as the robot turned sharply, and with smooth precise movements it marched towards the shed. When it was inside, Izuku turned and hobbled towards the house, entering the backdoor and slipping his shoes off. He headed to the basement, where Mei most probably was, and as he got closer he heard, and felt, loud music reverberating from her workshop.

When he opened the hatch he was struck by a wall of heavy rock music, pounding baselines made his bones rattle as he descended the steps one at a time. Mei was hunched over her workbench, her massive goggles over her eyes as she poked and prodded at something inside the device she was working on. He recognized it as the drone mark 2, its flat body a dead giveaway.

He carefully navigated his way through the small mounds of random inventions Mei had discarded, and approached her workbench. She didn't even notice him as he approached, mumbling to herself about something although he doubted she could even hear herself over the egregiously loud music.

He tried tapping on her shoulder, but she was too far 'in the zone' to even be aware of him. She just kept working. Izuku sighed, then turned the music down to more tolerable levels. It was still loud, but at least his insides weren't shaking in time with the beat.

Izuku knew she hadn't had lunch yet, and he'd bet she didn't eat breakfast this morning either, she needed to eat something and by god he was going to make her. He tried gently shaking her shoulder, waving his hand in front of her face, even poking her cheek. He didn't even get a grunt of acknowledgement from her.

He sighed, plan B it is. He turned and trudged back upstairs, heading for the living room where he'd dropped off all his things before he started training. Inside was a couple of bento boxes full of food. He grabbed them, and made his way back downstairs. He nearly tripped over what looked like some sort of harness with spikes on it, when he finally made it back to Mei. She'd just continued working on the drone, mumbled about this or that under her breath.

He opened the bento, waving it under Mei's face. The result he got was what he'd expected. She'd paused working for a moment, as if finally noticing Izuku was there and had food. He knew what kind of battle was going on in her head, 'food or work.'

Apparently food won out because she leaned down, grabbing a carrot stick in her mouth, then munched on it as she resumed working. Izuku rolled his eyes, 'not even so much as a thank you.' He set her bento down and opened his own, grabbing a piece of fried chicken and eating it.

Mei finished her carrot stick, pausing her work to turn and look at her lunch box on the table next to her, she said something he couldn't hear over the blaring music. Izuku turned it down again and asked, "what?"

"Chicken me!" she opened her mouth wide. Izuku froze, was she asking him to feed her? He felt his cheeks burn at the thought of even doing that. Why was she asking him to do this instead of getting it herself? Mei grumbled, "Chicken! Mouth! Hurry!"

Izuku grabbed a piece of chicken from her lunchbox with his chopsticks, his fingers fumbling a little out of embarrassment, 'calm down Izuku. There's probably an explanation for this. Yeah, she's working on her project and can't or won't stop. She was just a friend, nothing more.'

As he held the chicken up to Mei he froze again, 'friend? Did he think of her as a friend?' Mei lunged for the chicken, snapping it up with a single bite, chewing as she refocused on her device. Izuku mentally shook himself, he could figure out his thoughts later and went to pick up a carrot stick. Before he brought it to his mouth he stopped again, realizing that without thinking he'd used his own chopsticks to give Mei that piece of chicken.

His chopsticks had touched her mouth.

And if he ate with them, that would be like having an indirect kiss.

He felt his face heat up very quickly, he dropped the carrot stick gingerly putting down the chopsticks on her bento. Then he realized he'd already eaten with them before he gave her the chicken.

Which means…..

Oh good lord!

He hoped she wouldn't notice.

She probably didn't.

Probably.

He picked up the other set he brought and ate with those, pointedly trying to forget his earlier thoughts. Which was hard when Mei loudly demanded for food to be held out to her. He honestly didn't know what he should think, his heart was racing and he had a nervous energy the whole time. He took deep breaths calming himself down, 'he was just making sure she was eating. That's all. There was nothing behind it. Not a thing.'

Once Mei had eaten the last bite of food, he took their bento's back upstairs, returning them to his bag. His face still flushed from essentially feeding Mei. "Stop it" Izuku slapped his cheeks, trying to force the flush away, "stop thinking about it dumbass!"

He stared up at the ceiling for a moment, trying to think of other things like homework he needed to do, or trying to come up with something to put in the first page of his sketchbook. He pulled his sketchbook out of his bag, heading back downstairs. He sat down in the seat next to Mei, flipping it open to the first, still blank page. He tapped his pencil against the page thinking of what he should draw, occasionally glancing to his left at Mei still dutifully focused on the drone, she was biting her lip as she touched a soldering iron to a circuit board.

He turned back to his sketchbook, tapping his pencil at it again in rhythm with the music. Perhaps he should just start sketching, and maybe whatever came out of it would be what the first page is. After all, forcing art was like forcing a fart.

So he started sketching, short strokes of his pencil turning into long lines. He let his mind wander as he sketched, 'what should his hero name be? Maybe Robot hero: something something insert clever name here?' The first part worked, but being called 'something something' wasn't going to fly.

Mecha?

No.

How about, the robotanist? That sounded cool right?

Maybe he should call himself, Techno-boy! Wait, that would be weird when he became an adult. So, boy is out the window! Techno-man? Maybe, but it didn't feel right. Robot-man? But he wasn't a robot, he just controlled robots. The Robot Hero: Technical?

Maybe.

The Robot Hero: Remote Control?

Hmmmm, possibly.

What should he eat for dinner? Hamburg steak sounds good. So does ramen. Does Mei like ramen? Surely she does, everyone likes ramen. Maybe he should make a ramen lunch one day and see if she likes it? How spicy should it be? He only likes mild stuff but does she like her's spicy? She seems like she likes spicy food.

Wait, her birthdays coming up right? She said the other day that her birthday is in May. But when in May? Would it be weird if he asked her? Would it be weird if he got her anything? They were friends, right? At the very least she was friendly with him? But would she be weirded out if he thought they were friends? Maybe? People had been in the past.

She was just his support tech after all, and she probably only saw him as a client. Not a friend. So if he was going to give her a gift, it should probably be small. But he couldn't really afford gifts. His parents barely made enough money to pay the bills, let alone for him to attend UA. So whatever he would give her would probably be very small and inexpensive. Least to say, those don't make very good gifts.

He paused sketching, tapping his pencil against the page, the sudden thoughts breaking him out of his drawing. He hadn't really been paying attention to what he was drawing, he'd been aware of some of it, drawing curves and fixing lines. But he evidently was mostly finished.

He blinked a couple times, trying to make sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, but no, it wasn't. This had been what he sketched out, on instinct. He felt the flush from earlier come back in full force, he'd drawn Mei hunched over her project. 'Oh my gosh! Why'd I draw that! This is so embarrassing!'

Fortunately Mei was still hard at work with the drone, a dreadlock had come loose from her messy bun and fallen in front of her face, she absentmindedly blew at it, to get it out of her line of sight. Then she evidently gave up, reaching up and tucking the stray dreadlock behind her ear before refocusing on her work.

Izuku didn't know why that single action made his heart flutter a little. It struck him then that Mei, despite the grease stains on her tank top, and the messiness of her hair, had a certain level of attractiveness. He wouldn't say he's attracted to her though, but he could most assuredly attest that Mei was pretty. Although in what ways he couldn't specify, nor was he going to dwell on it.

He looked back down at his drawing, subconsciously aware that she was sitting right next to him. He pulled it closer to himself, trying to hide it from her with his arm without drawing attention to it. He was loathed to get rid of it, it was, in all honesty, a good drawing, one of his best. But at the same time all he wanted to do was rip it from the sketchbook and stuff it away out of view from anyone and everyone. Izuku sighed as he silently agonized over what he should do with the drawing.

There was a rattling sound to his left, he looked up, the drone was starting to shake a little, sparks appearing from the internals. Mei paused working, her brow furrowed, "that shouldn't-" Izuku could guess what was about to happen. It had happened enough at the UA workshop that he could tell the telltale signs. Mei's device was about to explode. Hopefully not too violently, but enough that if she didn't move now she'd get hurt.

Moving on instinct Izuku launched himself off his stool, flinging his arm out and lifting Mei off her own stool causing her to let out an indignant squeak of surprise. Sparks shot out of the drone behind him as he managed to half carry, half tackle Mei out of the way. He tripped on something, sending the two of them tumbling to the floor. There was a muffled *KABOOM* behind them as the drone exploded. Shrapnel pinged against the concrete floor next to Izuku and Mei, just barely missing them.

Izuku looked back, seeing the drone on fire, "oh my gosh Mei! Are you ok-" he turned back to look at her and almost died of embarrassment. At some point, either when he tackled her out of the way or when they fell to the floor, his hand had found her chest. For a very brief moment Izuku could feel how soft it was in his hand. He could even feel the faint thumping of her heartbeat. Then Izuku launched himself back from her, raising his hands high in the air "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean- I swear- I was just-"

Mei for her part didn't seem all that perturbed, if Izuku was paying attention though he would have noticed the very light tinge of red on her cheeks. Mei sat up, readjusting her tank top and said, "I know that you didn't mean to grab my boob dumbass. And yeah, I'm fine. Thanks by the way." She stood up, approaching the workbench and grabbing a fire-extinguisher. Izuku stood up, awkwardly standing there as he tried to push thoughts of how soft her chest felt out of his mind. 'Nope, not going to think about it. Nope. Nope. Nope.'

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind and turned to face Mei and help her put out the fire. But she'd already done it, setting the spent extinguisher on the table top, but her gaze wasn't focused on the drone, no, it was focused on the open sketchbook, laying out in the open.

Izuku froze, his heart pounding faster as he felt a sudden dread at what she would say or do. She'd hit him won't she? Tell him to get out, for him to stop being such a creep and leave her alone. Mei slowly picked up the drawing, examining it closely. Several tense moments passed as Izuku prayed she'd just shrug and put it down.

A smirk slowly appeared on her face, her teeth gleaming brightly as she turned to face him, "Should I put a hold on fixing the drone and model for you like one of your french girls?" Mei's cackles only made him flush all the more as he buried his face in his hands.

The following day Izuku was back at Mei's house, she'd already told him that he was coming over every weekend to train with the Underminer and test out equipment she made. He'd been reluctant at first, feeling like he was just barging in on her privacy, but she dismissed his concerns by claiming "it's more efficient this way."

Not that he minded hanging out with Mei, despite her eccentricities, she was surprisingly funny at times, and fairly easy to hang out with. It helped that most of the time she was just working on inventions rather than forcing him to converse. And the few times they did have a conversation, it was usually about his gear and what he thought about this upgrade or if there were any problems she needed to fix.

And on the very rare occasion that their conversation turned to any mundane topic, Izuku found that it was much easier to talk with her than just about anyone else. He didn't know if it was because she was just naturally friendly or because she was just easy to talk to, but he found that he could somewhat relax around her. That he didn't need to guard his words as much.

Like yesterday he brought lunch with him, he didn't know if she had lunch, or if she even knew how to make herself anything edible. He suspected that she didn't, mostly because of the large pile of empty instant ramen packets and various convenience store food packages.

He walked up to the door, ringing the doorbell. He only had to wait a few moments for the door to open, and Mei, who was swaying slightly, beckoned him inside. He followed her, Mei stumbling slightly, "Sup nerd. What time is it?"

Izuku frowned, a little concerned at how tired she looked. "It's 8:30," replied Izuku. "Are you okay? Did you get enough sleep?"

Mei grinned, "bold of you to assume I slept." She shot a couple finger guns at him, chuckling lightly at her own joke.

Izuku shook his head and sighed, "you can't do that Mei. You need sleep."

"I don't need sleep, I need to make more babies!" Mei stumbled down the hall, heading towards her workshop. He's pretty sure in her state that another incident like yesterday was going to happen.

Izuku felt a flush on his neck, he hadn't gotten quite used to her referring to her inventions as 'babies' just yet. "Mei, I'm serious, please, get some sleep first. Your, babies, aren't going anywhere." Izuku argued.

"That's the problem!" Retorted Mei, "they should be going everywhere!"

"They will, but maybe if you get some rest, you'll have some ideas on how to improve them" suggested Izuku.

Mei paused, seemingly considering his suggestion, then nodded, "that's right! I need inspiration! Come on freckles! Time to get insperated!"

Izuku was momentarily confused for a moment, then when Mei grabbed his arm he became very confused. What did she mean by 'get insperated?' Did she mean, get inspired? And what did that entail?

He was so confused that he didn't realize that she'd drug him to the living room. "Alrighty!" Mei grabbed the remote, turning on the TV and expertly going through the setting and pulling up some channel called crunchypoll. It was some sort of anime streaming service. Mei hummed as she sat down on the couch, navigating the menus and pulling up a Mobile Suit Gundam show.

This is not what Izuku had suggested. She needed sleep, not anime. "Mei," started Izuku disapprovingly.

"Shhhhhuuuuu" Mei suddenly held out her hand, pushing her finger against his lips. "Time to get inspirated."

"How long has it been since you slept?" Asked Izuku sitting down next to Mei. Concern for her well being overrides his confusion.

"What day is it?" Asked Mei. Far too serious for liking.

"Mei. It's Sunday. When did you sleep last?" Asked Izuku.

Mei shrugged, "I remember waking up on Friday?" She hasn't slept in three days?! No wonder she's so out of it! Mei grinned and nodded, "yeah, since Thursday."

"Damn it Mei," muttered Izuku. "You need to sleep."

Mei blinked slowly, "nah. Don't feel like it."

Izuku rolled his eyes, this was like dealing with a toddler. Not that he had any experience, it's what he expects though. "Fine, you can watch one episode and then you're getting some rest."

Mei blinked owlishly, "nah dude, we're watching the whole damn season then we're gonna make some super cute babies."

It took all of Izuku's willpower not to facepalm as he just about gave up. Fine, she's old enough to take care of herself.

The episode started, Mei let out a quite terrifyingly large yawn, and less than a minute later she was out like a light. Izuku shot her an incredulous look as he grumbled "nah dude, don't feel like it' my ass."

He sighed, the anime's jingle playing in the background as he wondered what he was supposed to do now? He could try and carry her to her room? He almost immediately ruled that out. That could be easily misconstrued for something else. What if he found her a blanket and left her here on the couch? That could work, but where would he find a blanket? He only knew where her workshop was, and he wasn't about to just go hunting for her room without invitation. He looked around for anything that could be a suitable replacement.

As he was looking around he heard a *chack chack* and turned to face the noise. "Who in the hell are you?" Demanded the very tall, very burly man, wielding a very big gun.

Izuku's hands had never gone up faster in his life. The man had dreadlocks and what looked like camera lenses for eyes. He stuttered, "I'm Izuku Midoriya sir! Mei invited me over to train and test out equipment for my hero outfit."

The man paused, his gun dropping a little, but still trained on him, "what?"

Izuku took a breath, "I'm, Izuku Midoriya, I'm a hero student at UA."

The man raised an eyebrow, "a hero student at UA? What are you doing in my house?"

Was this Mei's dad? "Uhhh, Mei invited me over to test equipment and train with the Undertaker."

The man frowned, "Mei invited you over?" He glanced back at the couch where Mei was snoring, oblivious to their conversation. The man turned back to look at Izuku, lowering the gun to point to the floor, "I uhhh, sorry, I didn't realize Mei had invited her boyfriend over."

Izuku flushed red, "no, I'm, eh, I'm just a friend. Yeah, just a friend." Did Mei have a boyfriend? Maybe it was that Mirio guy?

The man just nodded, "ah, I see." He mumbled something and then said, "Well, in that case, mind telling me why Mei is crashed out on the couch and you look like you're trying to loot the place?"

"Oh, um, she was tired, apparently hadn't slept in three days. And she sat down to watch something for inspiration for her inventions and then just fell asleep. I was looking for a blanket for her, or something."

The man nodded, "ah" the man looked back and forth between Mei and him, "just a friend eh? Lord knows she needs one. Alright you can stay. Mikoriaka was it?"

"Uh, Midoriya sir," replied Izuku faintly.

"Right right," the man shifted his shotgun, cradling it in his arms, "put your hands down I'm not gonna shoot ya."

"Right…..er, thank you sir." Izuku slowly let his arms fall down to his side. Standing there awkwardly.

The man scratched the back of his head, "so, ah, you were here to train with the Underminer? I suppose Mei finally decided to get that old thing working again?"

"Uh, yes sir," nodded Izuku.

"Huh," grunted Mr. Hatsume, "ever since Teko passed, she never set foot in that shed." Teko? Was that Mei's mom? "I suppose that's progress at least." Commented Mr. Hatsume.

Izuku was unsure if he should say something, or if he should leave, or if it would be rude to leave. Why did he feel more awkward with her dad here? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

"Right, uhh, you were gonna go train some?" Mr. Hatsume asked.

"R-right. Uhhh, yeah I'll, uh, I'll go do that." Izuku quickly marched towards the backyard, desperate to get away from the awkward tension. He walked over to the shed, quickly unlocking it and slipping inside. He took a steadying breath, before turning on the Underminer.

Izuku winced as he stumbled back into the Hatsumes' house. Trudging into the living room where Mei was still snoring away on the couch, now with a blanket draped over her. Her dad was thankfully nowhere to be seen. His stomach grumbled and he quietly padded over to his backpack, trying to make as little noise as possible. He slowly unzipped his bag, glancing at Mei to make sure he didn't wake her up, thankfully she was still asleep.

He reached inside, pulling out a fresh change of clothes and padding towards the bathroom to change. When he returned he stuffed his workout clothes into his bag and pulled out his lunch. This time he brought a thermos, and unscrewed the lid. When the lid came off the smell of curry filled the room, Izuku unconsciously took in a deep breath, savoring the smell. Nothing beats a good curry after a workout.

He reached into his bag, pulling out a spoon, dipping it into the thermos and pulling out a large spoonful of curry, he raised it to his mouth, opened it, and froze.

Mei had sat bolt upright, her head snapping in his direction. "I smell CURRY!" She had a manic grin, her hair disheveled and sticking up in random directions, and then there were her eyes. They were dilated almost completely, then shrunk to the size of a pin, and slowly evened out. Neither moved for a few moments, Izuku wondering what the heck her quirk was for the thousandth time.

After a few moments Izuku finally unfroze, setting his thermos down on the coffee table, reaching into his bag and pulling out the spoon and thermos he'd brought for Mei. "Yeah, made it this morning, it should still be warm." He held it out to her.

Mei was just out of reach, her arms stretching but not quite making it. She made grasping motions, much like a child would, and whined, "it's too faaarrrrrr."

Izuku mentally sighed, "Then get up and get it."

"But I'm all snuggly and warm in my blanky," pouted Mei. If Izuku hadn't found the situation annoying, he might have thought it was cute. But he did find the situation annoying, and thus, did not find Mei's childlike behavior remotely cute.

He rolled his eyes, knowing all too well that if push came to shove she'd rather starve than admit defeat. So, he leaned forward more, pushing the thermos and spoon into her hand. Mei hummed happily as she opened the thermos, and dug into the curry with a gusto that many people would be appalled at.

Izuku ate his own meal, with considerably less gusto, and by the time he had put his thermos away Mei had leaned back against the arm of the sofa, sighing contentedly before belching. "Damn dude, that hit the spot."

Izuku leaned forward to retrieve Mei's thermos from the coffee table and stuff that into his bag. "Are you feeling less tired now?"

Mei nodded, "oh yeah, that nap was just what I needed." She stretched, raising her arms above her head, "Alright then! Back to making babies!" Mei threw off the blanket and stood up from the sofa. "I had a couple ideas. I should totally make you a beam pistol, that would be super badass. Like think about it, you can just *pew pew* the bad guys and save the day!"

Izuku considered it for a moment, having a ranged option that wasn't a one time use thing sounded like a good idea. But maybe not a beam pistol? That sounded a little too deadly for him to be comfortable with. "Won't that be a little too dangerous?"

"Pfffff" Mei waved her hand at him, "I'll make it so you can adjust the output. Don't worry bout it." Izuku was only a little worried about it. Mei was generally reliable to give him something that, mostly, did what she promised. "As for the mech itself, I got a grand idea. I was working on it all night long," grinned Mei.

Izuku hummed and nodded interestedly, "Oh yeah? What is it?" They had approached Mei's workshop, heading down into the cluttered mess that it was. Izuku spotted something that looked like a donut on her workbench. Izuku squinted, tilting his head to the side, as if that would tell him what the device was and what it did.

"What's the biggest problem that so many people have had when building mechs in the past?" asked Mei. Izuku recognized her tone, it was her sales pitch tone.

"No idea," replied Izuku. He hadn't even known people had tried to make mechs in the past.

"Power generation," replied Mei "Every time they've made a mech the normal power generators they could carry meant that any mech they made could only be like four meters tall before they couldn't generate enough power or have batteries big enough for a decent enough charge."

Izuku nodded, he understood the general problem. Big mech meant more power was needed. More power meant bigger batteries or bigger reactors. Which made the mech unstable and unusable. "Okay."

"That and the stuff I'm gonna be putting on this baby is gonna draw a stupid amount of power," she looked around the desk for a moment, then scrambled at a wall of papers, ripping one off that had a mess of equations on it. "I did the math last night too. To power a beam pistol the size of the mech, the reactor would have to output something like 40 million watts. Just to fire for a second." Then Mei flipped over the paper, showing another side of random equations Izuku couldn't even begin to fire, "The beam cannon? Oh mamma, that's easily almost a billion watts."

Izuku's head spun. He had no idea what a watt was, but a bullion of them seemed like a lot. "That's a lot right?"

"Dude, it would take most of the cities electric grid to power this thing," explained Mei. "So, I had to think of a solution or just scrap it and use a railgun. But railguns aren't nearly as cool. So I had a thought. If I had capacitors for the beam cannon and made a reactor powerful enough to generate at minimum, around 500 million watts, then it could be viable. It would just take time to charge up."

Izuku nodded, somewhat following her explanation, "Okay, and that's what this is?" asked Izuku, pointing to the donut-like device.

Mei threw back her head and laughed, "God no. This thing might power a four meter mech at most." She wiped away a tear, "nah, this little baby can only output a max of like, maybe 420 thousand watts."

That still sounded like a lot, "What is it?" asked Izuku.

"It's a nuclear fusion reactor," grinned Mei, "pretty cool huh?"

Izuku blinked, "A nuclear fusion reactor?"

"Yeah, a nuclear fusion reactor," nodded Mei.

"Is it," Izuku took a step back from it, "safe?" She hadn't put fuel in it yet, right? Surely she hadn't.

"Nah, don't have deuterium or tritium," Mei patted the nuclear fusion reactor, "bob here is just gonna have to sit idle until I can get some. Then we'll know if I built it right."

It was official. Mei was going to kill him one of these days.

Alright, chapter 8 is done. That's all there is unfortunately, I was planning on continuing it but well, when I write a chapter I try and pay attention to word length. I know better than most (damn you ADD) that some people only have a limited attention span so I should try to avoid writing uber long chapters. But at the same time I want to make sure that what I do write has enough meat that someone could conceivably read for ~8-10 minutes no problem. And with the scene following this last one, the chapter was going to be something like 10,000 words. And I'm not gonna make some of y'all slog through that just to finish the chapter. 5-7,000 words a chapter seems to be working anyways.

Other than that, this was definitely a Mei/Izuku centric chapter, and continuing it the way I had planned felt like it would cut into that. So the following section got kicked to chapter 9, which currently looks like it might just be one single scene. I'll try and make sure to keep it interesting though.

And for everyone's information, these chapters get posted biweekly on Friday, provided there's a chapter to post. So far there have been, but I honestly don't know how long this pace will last because I've been chewing through my pre-written chapters. If I do end up catching up, more likely when, I'll start posting every three weeks. I like to keep a schedule on posts mainly for y'alls benefit, but also so I actually write. Because if I know that there's a "due date" I'm more likely to get something done. Which has been the bane of my existence with studying. Hell, as I write this, it's finals week. And I have three finals left that I have to take, two of which are for classes that I may fail if I don't study, but for some ungodly reason my mind just goes "squirrel" when I sit down to review the, 161 silvicultural terms I have to memorize by 8am Tuesday morning.

College is painful.

Forestry is especially painful.

Still hella fun though.

Anyways, y'all have a good day now! Writers orders.

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