Work Text:
Ten Million
Mei did you have breakfast today?
Mei
Of course I did
Why do you keep asking every day?
Ten Million
Because every time I don’t remember to check in, you conveniently forget
Mei
Well you won’t have to ask any longer
I built a brand new baby that makes me breakfast every morning
And let me tell you, this thing cooks faster than Lunch Rush
Ten Million
Don’t let him hear you saying that, otherwise he’ll challenge it to a high stakes cook off
Mei
And pass up some free publicity? No way!
I’m telling him about my baby first thing during lunch today!
Ten Million
If you say so
Just try not to have your robot blow up in his face
Mei
No promises
See you then!
———————————————
When it seemed like her conversation was coming to a close, Mei put her phone aside and focused on the sandbox of infinite possibilities that was her workbench, where the most exciting and innovative technology of her generation would soon come to fruition.
And for some unexplained reason, she had the urge to build some brand-new babies for Izuku. Sure, he might have said he didn’t need any more support equipment and that his current hero costume was more than fine, but if there was one thing Mei learned during her life as an inventor, it was that there was always room for improvement!
Without a moment to lose, Mei pulled out a stack of blank blueprints and started sketching up whatever ideas came to mind. Based on all the footage she’d seen, she knew Izuku’s main problem with his Quirk was his inability to use too much power without breaking himself, so Mei decided to make like a bull and face that problem head-on!
Mentally, she disregarded a certain hack scientist from I-Island who built a gauntlet that could theoretically withstand All Might’s punches. According to what Izuku told her, that thing broke in less than a day. Mei preferred something with a bit more longevity.
Now with an idea in mind, she very quickly got into the zone. The rest of the world might as well have been dead to her as her mind fixated on the art of creation and nothing else (well, besides the look on Ten Million’s face when she saw his new support item, but that was all part of the process). Moving with machine-like efficiency, Mei zipped around from task to task as she hammered, sawed, coded, welded, tightened, drilled, painted and-
“HATSUME!” Her groove was suddenly thrown off by Power Loader’s shrill yell.
“Huh? Did you say something?” She turned off her mental autopilot right as she was in the middle of laser-etching a drawing of a bird into a sheet of metal. She forgot why exactly she was doing that, but she knew to trust her own creative process.
“Hatsume, what have you been doing for the past few hours?” Power Loader asked exasperatedly.
At his question, Mei spared a glance at her watch, where she realized it was nearly lunchtime. As always, time really flies when you’re making babies. “I was building a new piece of equipment for Ten Million!” She answered, oblivious to her teacher’s tone as she showed off her progress so far. “He’s always breaking his bones, so I made him the Bone Enforcer that makes him ten times tougher by wrapping his skeleton!”
“His skeleton? Like, on the inside? How exactly would he put that on?”
“Very simple! All he’d have to do is…” She trailed off when she realized she didn’t have an answer. Sure, maybe he could undergo some kind of surgery to get it installed, but that wasn’t as efficient as Mei would have liked.
Believe it or not, this wasn’t the first time her brain moved too fast for her to see a gaping design flaw in her invention, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. “Oh well, maybe the next prototype will be better.” She threw the device over her shoulder, where it promptly exploded as soon as it hit the ground.
“Hold on!” Before she could get back to inventing, Power Loader pulled her away from her workbench. “I came here to ask why you haven’t been working on the other students’ support requests.”
Mei tilted her head to the side. “Other requests? What other requests?”
“The ones that have been sitting on your workbench for the past three days!” He angrily gestured to the bench in question, where a small stack of papers sat on the upper-right corner, gathering dust.
“Oh, those requests! Yeah, I usually don’t interact with stuff from that corner of the workbench.”
“Uuuuugh…” Power Loader ran an exhausted hand down his face… er, helmet. “Hatsume, you know there are other hero students besides Midoriya, right? Why are you so fixated on that one kid in particular?”
“Because he’s my number one client, obviously,” Mei scoffed as if it were obvious.
“Really?” Power Loader’s mouth shifted into a teasing grin. “Because the way you’re always looking for excuses to build stuff for him has me thinkin’ you’ve developed a bit of a crush.”
“Pshhhh, I don’t even know the meaning of that word,” Mei immediately brushed off the accusation. “No, seriously, what do you mean by ‘crush’? Are we talking about flattening him or something?”
“Okay, so it looks like we’re gonna be having one of those conversations.” He quickly resigned himself to the situation as he and Mei sat down at her workbench. “Hatsume, tell me, what do you like about Midoriya?”
“Oh, what don’t I like about him?” Her face lit up at the mere mention of his name. “There’s a reason he’s my number one client, you know; not only is he always giving me the most detailed feedback on his equipment, but he also goes out of his way to help me with other clients.”
“Yeah, I know.” Power Loader flashed back to all the times Izuku would come into the support lab so he and Mei could gush about the Quirks of the other hero students, as well as what kind of support equipment could improve their performance. “What else?”
“He’s always looking out for me. Normally, it’s a support engineer’s job to help the client, not the other way ‘round. But Ten Million’s always checking up on me to make sure I’m not skipping meals or staying up too late. At first, I found it annoying, but that was before I saw how it improved my work!”
Huh. Now that was new for Power Loader. He thought Mei’s sudden change in work ethic was just a coincidence, but he’d definitely have to send Izuku a thank you card sometime after this. “And where do you see yourself with him in five years?”
Mei started wistfully staring off into fantasy land as she absently twirled one of her locks. “Well, we’ll have graduated by then, and I still want to keep supporting his hero career. The best case scenario would have us working side-by-side, with Hatsume Industries placed right next to his hero agency, then we could see each other all the time.”
“Okay…” He decided to ask one more question to seal the deal. “And how would you feel if Midoriya moved to I-Island and lived next to that Melissa girl instead?”
Mei’s posture immediately became stiff as a board, her expression unreadable as her crosshair pupils rapidly zoomed in and out. “I have the sudden urge to build a death ray.”
Power Loader snorted out a laugh as he banged on the surface of Mei’s workbench. “Yup, that definitely sounds like a crush alright.”
Frustration made itself evident on Mei’s face, and not just because her teacher was touching her desk. “You still haven’t told me what a crush is and what all this stuff has to do with Ten Million.”
“It means you wanna go on a date with him. I don’t have to explain what a date is to you, do I?”
“A date?” Mei’s expression became blank as her vision grew unfocused. Her mind drifted into speculation mode, performing thousands of calculations a second in order to break down her feelings on a scientific level. After a few moments, an imaginary lightbulb flickered to life above her head, and she came to a conclusion. “Oh, I get it! I want to make those kinds of babies with Ten Million!”
“I wouldn’t put it like that, but yeah.” With his job now done, Power Loader got up from his seat and walked off, offering his student an encouraging pat on the back on his way out. “I hope you know what to do with those feelings, because I sure as hell ain’t no love guru.”
“Don’t worry, I can handle things from here.” Now that her heart feelings had been properly sorted out, Mei cracked her knuckles as she got back to work. But she wasn’t just gonna be building any old baby, this one would be a labor of love in more ways than one. Her feelings for Izuku were obvious in hindsight, so she was gonna make them known in the most blunt, obvious, and unavoidable way possible.
And she opted to do it sooner rather than later, not wanting to risk any I-Island inventors coming in and swooping him up from right under her nose.
———————————————
As soon as the lunch bell rang, all of Class 1-A got out of their seats and practically bolted to the door. When they opened it up, however, there was an unexpected visitor greeting them on the other side.
“Oh, hi Mei,” Izuku smiled, only a little surprised to see the inventor girl waiting for him, “Are you ready to challenge Lunch Rush to that cook-off?”
“Oh, that? Who cares about that?” She waved her arm dismissively, the plan having been completely absent from her mind for the past several hours. “Right now, there’s something really important I wanna ask you.”
“Oh,” Izuku perked up, “Is this the kinda thing you wanna ask me in private?”
“Nah, it’s fine. I’ll be quick.”
“It better be!” Katsuki yelled out from the end of the group of students huddled near the door, “You’re blocking the exit, and lunch ain’t gonna last forever!”
“Fine, I’ll cut to the chase.” Mei rolled her eyes before intently focusing her vision on Izuku. “Ten Million, I think you’re really great, and I like working with you, and I like spending time with you, and you’re easily the best client I ever had.”
“R-Really?” Izuku’s eyes slowly widened, his mind already filling in the blanks on what she was about to say next.
“What I’m trying to say is…” She then got down on one knee, reached into her pocket, and presented Izuku with a brilliant diamond ring. “Will you marry me?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“Ten Million?”
“…” He said nothing, as did the rest of the class as they all stared at Mei in complete and utter shock.
“Ten Million? You there?”
But Ten Million was not there, as he had just passed out, his limp body falling backwards into his class rep’s arms.
This prompted everyone else to collectively lose their shit, scrambling around the room and freaking out like a group of chickens with their heads cut off.
“Oh my god. Oh my god. I can’t believe this is happening so soon!” Mina squealed in elation, “I thought this development would take at least half a decade!”
“It’s not fair!” Mineta sobbed, blood violently pouring from his eyes, “Why does Midoriya of all people get a hot wife? Is this the universe’s way of giving me the finger?”
“Shit. Guess Midoriya undeniably has the most game out of all of us,” Kaminari assumed, moving Izuku’s picture from B to S on the tier list.
“Is there going to be a wedding? I’ll have to buy a gift.” Todoroki pulled out his phone and ordered the biggest All Might-related item he could find.
“Great job out there Hatsume, confessing your feelings like that is just so MANLY!” Kirishima congratulated her, even though part of him wondered if proposing right on the spot was a bit too manly.
“Ribbit, called it,” Tsuyu calmly stated.
“How the fuck did shitty Deku get a wife before me?!” Katsuki ranted, balling his fists as he paced back and forth. “I’ll show him. I can get a wife too. And she’ll be a hundred times better than cross-eyes.”
“Aren’t you gay?” Jiro assumed. Based on the stuff coming from his room that her Quirk forced her to overhear, she thought it was a pretty solid assumption.
“I hate Deku more than I like men!”
“Hatsume, this is unbecoming behavior of a UA student!” Iida scolded, his arms a blur as he chopped in every known direction, “If you’re going to propose to Midoriya, you shouldn’t do so completely unannounced!” Without another word spoken, he picked up his unconscious friend and started carrying him to the nurse’s office.
“Hey, wait, come back!” Mei ran after him. “I still don’t know if he said yes yet!”
———————————————
At this point, waking up in the nurse’s office wasn’t anything new for Izuku, as sad as that may be. This time was particularly weird, however, as he didn’t feel any of the unusual pains that would have landed him here in the first place, nor was any part of his body wrapped up in bandages or casts.
“Hey there, Ten Million,” Greeted a familiar voice that Izuku would never get tired of hearing.
“Oh, hey Mei,” He yawned, doing his best to rub the tired blurriness out of his eyes. “Do you know how I ended up here?”
“You fainted in the middle of class.”
“I did…? Weird.” Strangely, that factoid didn’t take up too much space in his mind, as he was currently focused on a different issue. “Man, I just had the weirdest dream.” He rubbed his head, doing his best to recall the specifics.
“What was it about?” Mei leaned over, resting her elbows on the foot of the bed as her head sat in her hands.
“It was… a little weird.” A light coating of red dusted his cheeks as he hesitated to continue. “But I think someone was proposing to me or something.”
“Oh, you mean like this?” Without warning, Mei got down on one knee and repeated the same gesture as before.
It was then Izuku realized he hadn’t been dreaming.
Needless to say, it took every single ounce of willpower to not pass out a second time. “M-M-M-M-Mei… what are you doing?”
“Exactly what it looks like, I’m proposing to you,” She answered like this was a completely normal occurrence, complete with a large, beaming grin.
Through the endless tornado of scattered thoughts and questions that was Izuku’s mind, only one word managed to escape and make its way out of his mouth, “WHY?!”
“Because I like you. That’s what people do when they like each other, they get married! Well, assuming you like me back, that is.” She leaned a bit closer to Izuku, expecting a response from him.
While she technically did a response, it came in the form of several unintelligible squeaks and sputters that could almost be compared to a broken-down car. “I - You - Why - Er - Wha - Blah.” Thankfully, Mei was very patient as she waited for Izuku to get his thoughts together, which he did after about five minutes. “D-Don’t you think we’re skipping a few steps here?”
“Well duh! But why bother with all that when we can get right to the important part? That’s called efficiency, and efficiency is what support engineers like me always strive for.”
Izuku finally began to calm down as he was clued in on the root cause of this issue. Delicately, he made sure to phrase his next words in a matter Mei could more easily comprehend. “Mei, I think you’re misunderstanding something. You see, a relationship is a lot like one of your babies.”
“It is?” She leaned in closer, raising a curious eyebrow.
“Yeah, and much like how you perform tests to make sure your baby doesn’t explode while out on the field, a couple will go on dates to make sure their marriage will last a long time and not end in separation. Do you understand?”
Mei stared at him blankly for a moment as her mind slowly put the two pieces together. “Ooooooooooohhhh. That makes more sense.”
“Right. Glad that’s all settled,” Izuku nodded appreciatively.
“In that case, let’s go on a date!”
Despite everything that just happened over the past several minutes, Izuku still found himself caught off guard by Mei’s proposition. “What? Really?! Uhhh… okay! Do you, uh, wanna go see a movie or something?”
“Sounds good! Let’s go right now!” Always one to strive for efficiency, she pulled Izuku out of his hospital bed and practically dragged him across the hall, intent on taking him to the nearest movie theater.
“Wait, Mei, we still have classes!” Izuku tried to pry his arm from her titanium grip, only to forget how strong carrying around all that heavy machinery made her.
It took a while, but he eventually convinced Mei to push back the date to sometime after school, reminding her that she couldn’t miss out on valuable lab time.
———————————————
Later That Night…
“So, what did you think?” Izuku asked as he and Mei walked out of the theater for the new Transformers movie.
“It was completely inaccurate!” Mei angrily ranted. “I did the calculations in my head, and those things should not have been able to move as fast as they did! Trust me, I tried to make robots that big before, and they’re usually slow as hell!”
“I guess so,” Izuku hummed, remembering the slow yet menacing tank treads of the Zero-Pointer from UA’s entrance exam. “But you have to admit, the action was pretty cool.”
“Okay, fine, the action was super awesome,” She muttered defeatedly, “But still, I bet I could make a way better, more scientifically accurate movie. Just give me a few years and a couple billion yen.”
“I’m sure it would be a blast,” Izuku chuckled lightly, “So, is there anything else you want to do while we’re out here?”
“Well, there is one more thing.” Mei’s smile grew a bit wider, piquing Izuku’s curiosity.
“Oh, really? What do you want to-”
Before he could finish his sentence, Mei got down on one knee and presented him with the diamond ring again. “Izuku Midoriya, will you marry me?”
Thankfully, Izuku’s reaction wasn’t as extreme this time around, though not by much, “Osjwsokwqiodnei - Mei, we only went on one date!”
“Yeah, and nothing blew up, so the test was a success and we’re ready to get married! That’s how it works, right?”
“No! You don’t get married after one date, you go on a bunch of dates for several years before you’re ready to tie the knot!”
“Several years?!” Mei gave a confused look as another curveball was thrown her way. “Well clearly I don't know a thing about this dating crap, so here.” She opened up his palm and handed him the ring. “You can be the one to propose.”
“O-Okay…” He stuffed the ring in his pocket as he quickly resigned himself to his fate. That thing would probably stay at the bottom of his drawer for the next several years, but as he saw the smile on Mei’s face as she entrusted him with her creation without a moment’s hesitation, part of him couldn’t wait to present it to her when the time eventually came around.