The concept of time was irritating when you had so many things to do. His schedule was a busy one; training was necessary to ensure he was in top shape for the entrance exam and what came after. Studying was a time-consuming task, and keeping up with every subject U.A. could throw at him wasn't easy. He still had a bit over three months left, so he could take the time to breathe, but he still had to teach himself the material at a faster pace than he was comfortable with. So far, he had yet to pass the fifty-point mark on one of U.A.'s mock tests, but he was hopeful he would reach the minimum to pass. The practical exam was where his hope of joining the Hero course would materialize. If he failed, he would have to hunt down the future League of Villains himself, and he genuinely didn't want to do that. It would mean spending even more time away from Mei, a thought he hated with a passion.

His girlfriend was enjoying her newfound friendship with Midoriya like a junkie discovering crack. She spent every second she wasn't with him or making babies on her phone. She loved talking heroes with Midoriya, nearly as much as she loved giving a play-by-play of their exchanges to Takuma. Of course, he always agreed with her because he had no clue who Thunder Tigress was or many other Hero. After Mei had gone on a rant about some up-jumped Hero who didn't deserve the name, he was too afraid to ask. Mei could be scary, which was somehow hot, as long as she wasn't angry at him.

Thinking of his adorable girlfriend, he realized he might have messed up a bit this week. Feeling guilty about making her waste time with him, he'd made sure to give her every opportunity to return to her craft. She had been reticent at first, but before long, she was back in the swing of things, finally hammering down the last few hours of work needed on the Fiery Boots. She also did a lot of work on his costume. Cutting the steel she got from Tinker was hard work, and he felt no small amount of guilt at not being able to help. He could haul and act as a tool holder as much as he wanted, but half of what Mei did looked and sounded like magic to him. It didn't help that her explanations began clearly before turning into a stream of consciousness he couldn't follow. By Wednesday, she was exhausted, and by Friday, she arrived home, walked to the couch, and fell on it.

Her head landed on his lap, and she was out like a light a second later. He maybe should have done a better job of keeping her from overworking herself; his own guilt had blinded him to that fact longer than he was proud to admit.

Snuggling closer to him, she grabbed his arm and hugged it in her sleep. Shaking his head with a fond smile, he grabbed the blanket that rested on the back of the couch and laid it on her with practiced ease. Then he put the book and sheets he was using for his study session on the coffee table. No learning would be done with Mei giving him sleepy cuddles.

Takuma made himself comfortable, slowly inching his way to a position where Mei was resting her head on his chest rather than his lap. She would be more comfortable that way, and he certainly could use a decent nap too. He moved her as gently as he could before hugging her back with his one free arm, laying a kiss on her forehead as he closed his eyes. His other arm had been requisitioned and was now hidden between the valley of her breasts. This sudden thought surprised him, and he quickly tried to think of how to extricate himself without waking her up. Then he stopped. He wasn't the one who had put it there; sleepy Mei had taken her due, and things had ended up that way. It wasn't ideal, but he didn't think she would mind, if she hadn't done it on purpose, that is. He wouldn't put it past his little minx of a girlfriend to want to experiment before promptly going to sleep.

This part of their relationship still felt strange to him—the intimate part, past the kissing and cuddling. He was used to sex, he was used to it being a required part of living off someone's goodwill. Not all of them, of course, but freebies were rare. With Mei, there was no pressure, which somehow made it worse. She liked him, she liked how he looked, she liked being close to him, she liked touching him and being touched. Yet she was still okay with waiting. Some of the women he had been with hadn't even waited for him to stop bleeding to start riding him. Maybe he was being stupid again, but he had a hard time getting used to the idea that Mei was okay with not having sex. She was horny and nervously excited at the prospect. Yet she still hadn't even brushed the subject. Even during or after a searing kiss, she took the time to cool herself down before moving on. It was strange, comfortingly so, even if for reasons he didn't understand, it left him a bit scared every time. He was doing all the things to her he always made sure not to do around anyone else. He was teasing himself like a whore. Wearing only a shirt when he could have worn a hoodie, starting his strength training when she was still there, and so many other things that he knew would bring the wrong kind of attention to him. With Mei, it was different. He wanted it, yet he still felt like shit after.

His research into Mei's intent to kiss was going well. He could now more or less predict when his girlfriend wanted to be intimate, with kisses and cuddles aplenty, yet nothing else. All the theory in the world wouldn't help much when Takuma was confronted with the fact that he needed more data, more data than a kiss or a hug could provide. If he wanted to develop his understanding of Mei's wants, he was going to have to push their intimacy further than he was ready to. In the past, he didn't use to have this much of a hard time having sex. It was a quick, disgusting thing to do before moving on, in the morning if he was lucky. His loss of control when he was getting measured for his Hero costume wasn't something he could afford to do again. He couldn't just start shaking like a leaf when something bad happened; it was going to get him killed. So he needed more data, and the only way to get this data didn't appeal to him in any way. Sure, Mei was ready to wait, but he didn't know if he would ever be ready. He couldn't just ask her to wait until she was old and gray. He also didn't want to risk losing her because he wasn't ready to provide this part of him. So now he only had to find the right moment to push their relationship further. Hopefully, he would find a way to bypass his issues that way. Maybe he could find a way to fix himself.

Now that he had made up his mind about showing his girlfriend a good time, he only needed to think about how to go about it. The women he slept with had all been a decade or two older than him. They had experience and knew how to get what they wanted. A warm place, a hot meal, and a shower for sex wasn't a fair trade for him, but he had taken what he was given.

Mei was inexperienced. They may have learned how to kiss together, but it didn't change the fact he had experience and she didn't. And Takuma would rather fight All For One with a toothpick than teach his girlfriend unsafe sex. So he needed to think of ways to show her the things he wished he had in the past. The choice to say no, to stop when it hurt, or take a break if she just wasn't into it. This and more. She already trusted him enough to follow his lead. He would have to prove her trust wasn't unfounded.

The phone rang. Mei jumped in her sleep, and he had to tighten his grip around her waist to stop her from falling. She drowsily pawed for her phone from her school clothes and picked up the phone. "'Lo."

He could hear Midoriya's voice coming from the phone.

"M'yes."

"'Kay."

"Bye."

She let her phone fall on the couch as she wrapped her arm around him and gave him a good squeeze. "Sleepy."

He chuckled as he kissed her forehead. She was too adorable when she was like that. "I can see that," he said as he sat up on the couch, allowing her to lay her head back down on his lap. His right arm was now free from its soft, enticing trap.

"Midoriya wants to hang out tomorrow," she informed him before yawning. "Do you want to?"

"You already said yes," he reminded her, unsurprised she had missed this little detail from her sleepy conversation.

"Oh," she said with a hint of guilt peeking through her thoughts. "Sorry?"

He shook his head, brushing a hair from her face with his thumb. "Don't be. Midoriya seems alright from what I've seen."

He couldn't bring up the fact he knew. The bean was an alright dude; he was maybe too good for his own good, but he'll have to see with time.

"Hard day today?"

She hummed an agreement as he started to trace the contour of her lips. A cute giggle escaped her as she faked an attempt at biting his finger.

"Careful, I can bite too," he jokingly warned her.

"I don't believe you," she shot back with a mischievous smile.

"In that case," was all he said before he locked lips with her.

It wasn't as deep and passionate as she was used to; it was quick and hungry for more. He broke the kiss for a second to nibble at her lips before kissing her deeply again. It took her by surprise, and he felt her wanting more. This time he was ready to push a little, and he did. He broke the kiss and pulled her against him. She was blushing madly as her mind conjured a hundred reasons why he had strayed away from their playful kiss to something she hadn't seen coming. "I think this will prove my point," he said.

He laid a barrage of kisses on her cheeks and lips, making her giggle nicely against his chest. He kept going for a while, and this time he laid a hand directly on her abdomen, under her shirt, which had been lifted slightly due to movement. She inhaled sharply, a surprised but welcome reaction. She returned the kiss with more passion as his hand started to gently caress her skin. It lit a fire inside her, and she moaned from the surprisingly nice and intense feeling. Takuma felt dizzy, and his heart beat harder in his chest.

He didn't stop focusing on her intent. She yearned for more; she liked how good his hand felt. She felt good and wanted more. Takuma broke the kiss, allowing them both to breathe again.

"So, how's my favorite gremlin feeling?" he asked. Just because she had been more than happy to receive his affection so far didn't mean anything else would happen today. A clear line of communication was needed for these kinds of things.

Mei's eyes grew wide at the sudden shift. "Good?"

"Is that a question or something you want to feel more of?" he asked cheekily as he moved the hand that was rubbing her skin toward her belly, which made her breath heavier.

"Yes?" she said in a breathy voice. She was getting used to the feeling, slowly sinking into the sensation as she welcomed his hand under her clothes. "I didn't expect you to do that, didn't expect this to feel this good either."

"Neither did I," he told her honestly. He didn't expect such a reaction and realized he would have to tone down his Quirk more than he thought he needed to. If she reacted so strongly to a more intimate touch, he was scared to think how she would react to having her every need met due to his Quirk. He had never dealt with a woman who didn't want the full experience an Empathy Quirk provided, so he would have to be extra careful. Too much of a good thing and all that. "Can't say I dislike the moan."

Embarrassment filled her thoughts, and he was quick to kiss her to stop her from feeling that way. "Don't feel bad. How else are you going to show me I'm doing a good job?"

"I—it's not...doesn't your Quirk tell you what I feel?"

He nodded. "It does, but just because I can tell what you feel, it hardly tells me what you want," he said, picking up on the fact that his statement confused her more than anything. "I can feel what you feel: the good, the bad—"

"And the ugly?" she cut him off with a cheeky smile he was quick to kiss.

"It allows me to understand what you want," he said, raising his hand higher under her shirt, threatening to reach right under her breast, which felt right as his hand moved under her clothes.

He waited for her eyes to meet his own. "But my Quirk is only right ninety percent of the time, and even if it's just a single percent, I need to act to make sure that the one percent of the time I mess up, nobody gets hurt."

"I trust you," she was quick to tell him.

"Trust has nothing to do with it," he denied, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. "I need to be sure you will tell me if at any point you are uncomfortable, hurt, or even just tired. I don't want to hurt you, even by mistake, and the only way to do that is by making sure you will tell me if anything goes wrong."

He knew he got his point across when he saw her serious expression, one she rarely bothered with. "Are you going to do the same?" she asked.

He really should have seen that one coming. He had spent too much time around people who didn't care about him, so much so that her simple question threw him for a loop. "I will."

And he didn't know if it was a lie or not.