Another week passed with much improvement all around. His shoulder was healing nicely, and he was making great strides in cleaning the death pile. The pain had greatly receded, and he could now go most of the day without painkillers. He was finally able to carry the heavier stuff around, and his host was more than happy to tear down the wiring from the broken robot parts he brought her.
Mei also was doing better since he started reminding her to take her meds. Her sleeping schedule had improved drastically, and she was now less likely to forget what she was doing or lose things around the hangar. She was still at risk of hyper-focusing on something for hours on end, but it was now less of a problem since she started taking care of herself.
Food and sleep were silent killers that tended to write checks that would be cashed later down the line, specifically at the worst possible time in his experience.
His week had been a repeat of the same day for the past five days:
Wake up
Breakfast
Remind Mei to take her meds
Stretch
Work on the death pile
Lunch
Work on the death pile
Clean around the place
Remind Mei to take her meds
Dinner
Sleep
It was the closest thing to a vacation he had had since farther back than he cared to remember. Without anyone around to mess with his head, he felt rested like he probably never had since his Quirk had awakened. Even when Mei asked him to come with her to buy food and other miscellaneous stuff, the strain hadn't been enough to truly ruin his mood.
How that girl obtained her license while being an absolute terror on the road, he didn't know. But if he never had to do it again, it would be too soon. She had nearly made him throw up, and that was a feat few could boast about.
The only problem he could think of was that Mei still hadn't given him an inkling as to what she wanted. It was always there in the back of his mind; he was looking for anything that could give away the game she was playing. It was slowly driving him mad, and he was tempted to pry further into her mind to find the answer, but it clashed with his first rule, 'Be a decent human being', so he hadn't given in to the urge and probably wouldn't.
To turn his frustration into something useful, right after Mei left on Friday, he kept to his morning routine. Two weeks of good food had done wonders for his health, and he was ready to give his newfound strength a test run.
In the morning, he ate a small breakfast before going to work on the pile of scrap. He kept to the same pace he had the entire week. After a short lunch, however, he let out all the stops as he threw himself at the death pile like a man possessed.
Gear, so much gear. There must have been more than a hundred different gadgets in the pile, ranging from simple knick-knacks barely more than toys to experimental tech he could imagine in a hero loadout. Jumping boots, magnetic shoulder pads to deflect blades, grappling hooks with built-in smoke launchers for some reason. Mei didn't have a field of predilection like her parents; she built anything and everything that crossed her mind, and some of the ideas rode the line between genius and insane.
One of her gadgets actually turned on while he was trying to untangle a bunch of wires from the pile. He didn't know why she needed a buzzsaw on a drone, but honestly, he was too scared to ask. He took it down by throwing a bunch of scrap at it right after its first pass, which nearly took off his head. In the end, he threw it in the scrap pile, and it landed and broke apart like it was holding on with sheer spite until now.
The five-meter-tall pile of pretty much everything he could think of was now only one meter tall. Most of the heavy stuff was around it, but there was still a noticeable amount of heavy suits, some broken, some torn. He didn't know if Mei's parents had worked for the military, but some of their equipment looked like it had come back from a battlefield, with deep gouges and craters in the chestplate placed perfectly where the squishy and vital organs were supposed to be. It was a strange sight; one of the power suits seemed to be more recent, if still a decade old. It lacked the telltale mark of 'Hatsume Industry' he was used to seeing on the exoskeleton.
In the end, Takuma decided to haul it, not to the scrap pile but a bit to the side next to the gear. While not one of her babies, the inner workings of the suit seemed to be in good condition, and some of the tech looked to be in a better state than most of the things he found from the old company, even with a cannonball-sized hole in the abdomen.
He didn't have any other encounter with runaway inventions trying to cut his hair for him and could concentrate on hauling things around to his heart's content. He was sweaty, dirty, and exhausted, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. He felt good, like he rarely ever did.
Towards the end of his work, his shoulder joint started to make itself known again. This was definitely going to be a problem in the future, but after the amount of work he did, he would have been more surprised to not feel a bit of pain.
Takuma didn't feel like risking an injury so early in his recovery, so he decided to leave the rest of the pile for tomorrow. The shower he was about to take was going to be terrific.
A scratch behind him grabbed his attention, and he turned to realize Mei was back. He cursed himself for losing track of time. "Welcome back. Sorry I wasn't there to greet you; I kind of got lost in thought."
She was in her usual black tank top and coverall, so he knew she had been back for a while now. He had worked on his mental wall for close to two weeks now, and he had figured out the trick to keep her out of his head, for the most part. It was still a work in progress, but he wouldn't be at the mercy of a single person's emotions from now on, which was good since he didn't enjoy having his personality erased. He didn't do it himself, so he sometimes wished the people around would return the favor, not that he could talk about his Quirk with anyone without risking ending up on the shit list of some very bad people.
Now he just needed to figure out why his mental wall had decided to ignore the very much human being entering the range of his Quirk, and he was more or less set.
"More work. Yay." he muttered sarcastically.
"I'm nearly done. Another day of work and this mountain of scraps will be just a memory," he informed her of his progress. "There's a lot of stuff that I don't know the use of, and most of the gear that looks to be worth something is to the side. I've also found some weird suit that looked to be more recent than the rest of the scrap, so I put it against the wall."
He waved toward the power armor to make sure she knew what he was talking about. Mei didn't react in the slightest. Her mouth was hanging slightly open, and he could swear she was a bit red around the face.
"Is she sick?" he wondered, waiting for her to react.
He walked closer to her and waved a hand in front of her face. "Mei?"
"Ah!" she jolted as if shocked. "No, yes, muscles what?!"
Her eyes were going in and out of focus in a fury, and Takuma could admit he was absolutely lost as to what was going on right now.
'Wait, muscles?'
He looked down; he wasn't wearing a shirt.
'Oh, that's not good, that's not good at all.'
"Sure, gear, baby, scrap, things," she babbled while her eyes took in every curve of his chest, abs, and arms.
Mei was a flustered mess, and he quickly, but not too quickly, made his way to his discarded shirt. He put it on, disregarding how disgusting it made him feel. "I'm going to hit the shower; I'll call you when food is ready."
"S-Sounds good!" she squeaked as she more or less dived into the pile of gear out of embarrassment.
He more or less did the same thing as soon as he closed the door behind him. But what he felt wasn't even close to embarrassment.
"You stupid fuck," he cursed himself with a hiss.
He was losing his edges; there was no other explanation as to what the hell just happened. Getting comfortable was the easiest way for them to get him, and he'd just messed up in the worst way possible.
Takuma wasn't stupid; he knew he looked good. How couldn't he when he started receiving some looks since he was no older than thirteen, and women in their forties didn't mind offering him a place to sleep in exchange for some 'fun'. He had accepted more than one offer when the temperature dropped, and it was either warming some woman's bed or dying from the cold. And he had just made himself a target to the girl he was parasiting the life of.
Great, it wouldn't be the first time a kind soul decided to jump him in his sleep when she was horny. And Mei was turned on. He hadn't noticed her being overly sexual since he'd met her, but right now, she was going through so many emotions and thoughts he wondered if she remembered to breathe. People being horny wasn't new. Everyone was horny at some point, and he had the displeasure of being keenly aware of it at any time. In the street, he could hide it behind the constant buzz of emotions the city provided, but here, he was the unwilling spectator of Mei recalling every detail of his chest muscles.
It was violating; he shouldn't know something like that. It wasn't fair for either of them.
'If only the mutant had crushed my skull, at least I wouldn't have to deal with that bullshit anymore.'
Walking to the shower after grabbing a change of clothes, he made sure to lock himself in the bathroom before throwing his clothes on the floor and jumping in the shower.
The warm water wasn't as soothing as it usually was, and it took him longer to find the right level of scalding hot water to feel a hint of relief. After he did, the feeling of Mei trying to distract herself from what she just saw was less difficult to ignore. Looking himself over, he noticed how his chest and abs were slightly fuller. Most of his body was; his body had taken to three meals a day with gusto, and he now looked less like a malnourished refugee and more like a gymnast. Lean muscle and lack of mass, just what he needed to be quick and strong enough to break a jaw with a punch, but he wouldn't brawl with anyone anytime soon.
He didn't know what was so attractive about muscle; sure, he could appreciate the definition on Mei's biceps when she had flexed in front of him, but it wasn't enough to get that sort of reaction.
'Maybe it's just her thing,' he thought; there were worse things to have the hots for.
He would have to be more careful; walking around shirtless wouldn't do. He didn't want her to get the idea he was teasing her.
After a long shower that left his skin reddened from the heat, he stepped out and clothed himself with his spare set. It was unassuming; sweatpants and a loose dark-green hoodie to keep himself warm. It was a good combo for most days.
Checking on Mei, he learned she had thankfully calmed down and was now fully committed to tearing down the scrapped legs exoskeleton apart to pry anything valuable out of it. He was happy his host was the kind of person who felt things in bursts; a strong emotion that would slowly simmer to a more manageable level down the line. It was why she kept hammering at his mental wall, and he had more glimpses of her habits than he was used to with a more apathetic person.
After making sure he left the bathroom better than he found it—a good habit to have when living in someone's house—he went to the living room and then to the kitchen, where he started thinking about what food to make. Something light would have to do since he very much doubted Mei would stop her rampage on the scraps and rediscovering the gadgets she made sometimes. It wasn't the first time he would bring her food directly where she worked, preferably with a wet towel to clean her hands before eating. His host didn't care much for cleanliness when she was in the zone. She must have a stomach of iron if she did this on the regular.
Takuma started yawning halfway through making dinner, some fries and pork. He made sure to cover the plate for Mei since it would probably be a few hours before she came down from her creation-slash-destruction high. When he was done, he brought her the food, and as expected, he was completely ignored when he tried to call out to her. Usually, he would go up to her to grab her attention, but she was cutting down some piece of metal with her plasma cutter, and he knew better than to go anywhere near her when she had anything dangerous in hand. So he brought it to her workstation and laid it clearly in the middle; the next time she needed something, she wouldn't be able to miss the food, and hopefully, she would remember her meds. Just because she was medicated didn't mean she lost any of her Meiness; she was just less destructive about it.
He wolfed down his plate and washed it down with enough water to drown a fish before cleaning up after himself and laying down on the couch. His day had been a pretty good one by his standards, besides a small mishap he hoped wouldn't lead to anything. His head hit the pillow, and he was out like a light.
He was woken up by the sickening feeling of Lust.
It was small, pervasive, and closing in on him. His heart exploded in his chest as he fought to keep his breathing steady. Calling on his Quirk, he locked in on the origin of the emotion. Mei was standing a few feet away from him.
In a sense, he had his wish. He knew what the price was going to be. Going through the motion, he forced himself to relax and waited for her to make her move. He knew that when she pounced on him, he had to give her what she expected, make her think she was a gift, and call himself the luckiest guy in the world. Saying no wasn't in the cards; getting beat up or thrown out in the middle of the night wasn't worth the risk. He was lucky she didn't have a more deadly Quirk; he was less likely to be injured that way. With his mindset now set, he simply needed to wait, and the old song and dance would play anew.
Less than ten seconds passed before Mei made her way to the couch, stopping just short of being in reach of him. She crouched for a short moment before standing up with something in her hand. He couldn't pick apart what it was without diving into her mind. So he waited. And waited. And waited.
Something fell on him, and he failed to fight back a flinch. He was lucky to play it off as an itch to scratch without raising her suspicion. Something was over him, light and warm?
He followed Mei's light steps as she walked away from him. She was in the kitchen now; he heard the tap running as she served herself a glass of water. He heard her put the glass back on the counter. He followed her with his Quirk as she went into her room.
Takuma didn't dare lower his guard until he felt her fall asleep. Only then did he open his eyes, staring at the darkness around him. He realized at some point he had been crying as his cheeks were wet, so he quickly wiped away the tears. He palmed his chest, looking for what Mei had laid onto him. It was a blanket.
'It must have fallen during the night,' he realized as what had just happened failed to process in his head.
For a long time, what had just happened refused to make sense in his head. Mei had every opportunity to act; why didn't she do it? Takuma was homeless, barely a person in most people's minds. She wasn't violent, so she didn't use him as a punching bag. She didn't deal in drugs or in any criminal activity that needed muscle, so he was useless again. And if she didn't want to have sex with him when she had the perfect opportunity, then what was he good for?
'THEN WHY THE HELL IS SHE KEEPING ME AROUND!'
He had been living off her food, home, and generosity for two weeks now, and she had yet to give him any inkling of why she was doing it. He was half-tempted to march straight into her room and demand that she just get on with it. And he probably would have if he wasn't busy shaking like a leaf.
A part of him was relieved he didn't have to fuck on short notice; the other was at its wit's end as to what to do.
'Could Mei just be a good person?' the traitorous thought made its way to his mind, and he failed to stomp it out quickly enough to stop it from burying itself deeply enough that he wouldn't be able to ignore it.
In his life, he had met a few people who had gone above and beyond anything he would have ever dared ask of them. He could count them on the fingers of one hand.
The idea was terrifying; Mei scared him. He was used to being abused when he was vulnerable, and if she wasn't willing to do that, then what the hell was he supposed to expect from her? He couldn't go with just that. He wouldn't dare trust that she was doing so much for him just out of the goodness of her heart.
Takuma raised the blanket above his head and buried himself under it, perhaps with the childish hope that it would protect him from what was out there. One thing was for sure, however: tomorrow he would need to ask some questions.