Work Text:
This can't be that bad, Izuku tries to reason with themselves, foot tapping an anxious rhythm into the floor. Surely they'll get someone nice for their partner.
With a pointed glance over their shoulder at a familiar head of blond hair, they wince; some poor support course student is going to have to get used to the smell of singed cotton and caramelized linen, because that's all they're going to have for the next week.
Footsteps cascade in the hallway outside of their classroom, and Izuku can feel their pulse jump where they're clutching their wrist. Please god, they pray. Send me an angel.
Pink hair bursts open the door with a manic laugh and the stench of tangy scrap metal, as she points right where they're sitting.
"You! Ten million!" the girl crows, and Izuku freezes in place. "You're coming with me!"
Their brain doesn't short-circuit at all; they'd very vehemently deny it if anyone were to ask.
But that still doesn't stop the squeak that manages to escape from their lips as they sink into their seat.
"H-Huh?!"
Honestly, if they weren't already used to being "jumped" as Mei so lovingly called it, they would be more surprised at this circumstance. Mei sits across from them, her goggles smeared with some sort of grease and propped onto her coiled hair, which is tied back with scrap wire.
"What're ya thinking?" she hums after a moment, eyes glancing up to catch Izuku's. The yellow glint of cross-hair pupils is a comforting sight, and they easily relax as they internally sort the support course student's quirk out. "Wha's the prompt again?"
Izuku blinks, leaning to the side and grabbing their laptop. Once the old thing finally boots up, they have their answer - a short, concise email, with just the words, "Transport. Make sure it can be used for heroics," on their screen.
"Seems relatively simple," the girl sighs as she adjusts her gloves. "I mean, I can make anything, and you can test anything-"
"But I'd like to help," Izuku interjects, a frown building over their lips as they wave their hands around. "It's not that I don't trust you, as I truly do, but... I want to work on this with you, instead of just being your glorified showpony, you know? I know how to put things together, just... give me a blueprint."
Mei studies them for a long, hard moment, eyes latching onto something within them for long enough that Izuku starts to squirm before she finally grins. "Y'know what? Fuck it," she shrugs, popping up into a wide stance that almost strikes Izuku as faintly reminiscent of Power Loader. "Business partners it is! C'mon greenie, I wanna see what you know."
"...Greenie?"
Mei ignores them.
Instead, she brings them to the corner of her shop. It's a mess, wire and sheet metal and bolts strung everywhere, but the cacophony is so disarranged that it's clearly intentional. They try to watch what she's doing, but with her back turned to them, they don't want to intrude.
"Aha!" Mei chirps, whipping around with a bundle of drills and spare parts in her hands. "You said that all you need is a blueprint, right? Can I trust you with the structure?"
It's a smart point; while she could see much smaller, more intricate details like they'd need in the propeller and shift gears, Izuku was much heftier, and overall strong - although they didn't want to make any assumptions.
"Leave it to me," they nod, flashing the first smile of their project. "I won't let you down!"
"Good, though I didn't think you would..."
"Ah, sorry..."
Izuku gets more confident with their hands as time goes on. Mei finds them a set of gloves, and they take them easily, shifting beams and straps of heavy steel around like it's nothing as Mei instructs them. "More to the right!" she calls, and they follow her lead until she gives them a thumbs-up, putting it down.
"That should be the last of it," Izuku huffs, dragging a hand across their forehead and propping the other on their hip. "Do you need me to throw anything else around? I don't want you to get hurt, and I'm already wired to go."
"Nope!" Mei grins, her locks bouncing as she jumps around the area, leaving her signature touch - chaos - around the once neatly-sorted area. "Just get to work screwin' them beams together, yeah? And don't forget to ask questions!"
"I won't need to," Izuku blinks, but they shrug anyways as Mei just walks away.
She's peculiar, but she does her job well. Izuku could probably trust her with their life.
The day goes quickly, clouds passing overhead as they work. The tarp thrown over the ground has slowly caught their trash, and Izuku helps her clean it up as the pair look at their handiwork.
It may only be day one, but hey - a frame is a frame.
"Are we laying bases tomorrow?" they ask Mei with a tilted head and a confused smile.
Honestly, she hasn't given much about her plans away. Izuku can respect privacy, and can respect Mei as a whole, but it makes them a bit nervous to have to drive a plane that they don't know everything about.
"Yep!" Mei grins, smacking Izuku on the back with so much force they jolt, barely managing to avoid jumping away. "You'll handle that, Greenie, and I'll handle the gears!"
So just like today.
Izuku nods to themselves. They can get behind this, following a simple blueprint. It's therapeutic, almost, the amount of screws they've drilled and metal they've cut. It makes them wonder what they would've been like if they'd continued with their original dream of being a support hero; would they even have met Mei?
"What're ya thinking about?" the other probes with wide eyes, tugging at her hair with an absent hand. "You've got that look on your face. I don't want you distracting while we're making babies."
If Izuku was anyone else, they would've caught the entendre - but, thankfully, they were oblivious to it. "No, no, it's nothing," the hero brushes off, rubbing the back of their neck. "I'm just thinking about what it would've been like if I was in support, y'know?"
"No," she answers bluntly, and Izuku almost laughs at the short honesty. "Can't say I do. What do you assume it would be like?"
"I probably wouldn't have met any of my friends..."
"Yes, I'd suppose not."
"And I'd also be less confident."
That takes Mei off-guard, just a bit. It's not noticeable to anyone who hasn't worked with her.
"Why is that?" she tilts her head.
Izuku hums.
They've never really had to vocalize it before, the sudden change that came with the thrumming power beneath their fingertips. While they'd never use it for wrong, never abuse it, it still changed them; power always did.
"I..." they start, then trail off. "Can't explain it. Rain check?"
Mei glances up at the sky, and then back at them with a deadpan expression. "Not a cloud. Why?"
Izuku just snorts.
Building just seems to go faster each day.
With the framework already set and solid, layering over it is easy. Mei wires and Izuku bolts, stapling fabric into the cockpit where the lining should be.
"Pass," Mei calls, and Izuku catches the new pack of staples without even looking, tearing open the cardboard with their teeth.
"Thwanks!"
"Sure."
Slowly, surely, over the next week, Izuku begins to call Mei an acquaintance, then a business partner, then a friend.
They're, if they're being honest, afraid of what comes next.
What happens when the project is over, when Izuku has flown above the clouds and then back down to earth? What happens when they can no longer see each other for hours at a time?
It takes forever for Izuku to voice this concern, but when they do, Mei just shrugs.
"I don't think us spending less time together means anything," she admits after a beat passes. "I just think that it means we're different people, with different lives. It doesn't mean we stop being friends."
"Oh," Izuku says intelligently, blinking. "I guess... that I hadn't really thought about it like that."
Mei waves them off with a greasy hand, turning back to their work. "Yeah, yeah, think later, work now. We can flight test it later."
Oh god, flight testing.
The very thought of soaring across the sky makes them sick, but Izuku steels themself as they step into the cockpit, tightening their helmet. Aizawa is watching from close behind, his hand clenched tightly around his scarf with a grip that shows the true anxiety behind this moment.
Sure, Izuku had been broken many times; but could they handle being broken by a fall like this?
The shuddering breath they take is a resounding no.
They shove it down anyways, and turn the key in the ignition.
With the plane roaring to life beneath them, Izuku slowly turns up the throttle, heart lurching into their throat as their palms race.
"Please..." they whisper to the wind. "Please don't let me fall."
Even though Mei's not there, Izuku swears they can feel the searing heat of her palm on their shoulder, pressing against their spine and trailing back up.
"You'll be okay," she'd told them with so much confidence that they simply couldn't object. "We worked on this together. Nothing with our combined brainpower could fail."
Izuku, for the first time, flies without powers - and if there are tears streaking down their face afterwards, everyone gracefully pretends they're from the altitude.
"I think I'll miss you," Izuku declares suddenly as they close the final box.
The workshop is nearly emptied of their belongings, and suddenly, it looks like it's lost its life.
No more is it bright, and filled to the brim with energy; instead, the dull white and red of the cracked cement walls just seems to take even more space than before.
"We'll miss you too," Mei sighs, patting the top of a nearby baby with a pout that nearly rivalled Izuku's own. "Whatever am I gonna do without my favorite dart board?"
"I don't know," Izuku drawls dryly, making the other snicker into her hands. "Maybe something called not bodily harm?"
"There's no fun in that!"
"There's no fun in being stabbed!"
Mei lets out another loud, dramatic sigh, draping herself across Izuku's shoulders - which does not, in fact, send a vivid blush racing across their cheeks. No, it doesn't do so at all.
"And here I was, thinking you loved me..."
Their heart doesn't drop.
Izuku scoffs.
"Yeah, right!"
And just like that, the fear of flying was easily overwhelmed by the fear of saying "I love you."