A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next FIVE chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
No psyche deep dives today~
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No. It wasn't worth the risk and Izuku knew that. Letting out a sigh, he sits back in the expensive office chair and moves his hands away from the keyboard. The computer and its password-protected secrets would wait. Hell, if he just waited until morning, Mei would probably have a better idea of what to do regarding the security.
Rushing in was just… foolish at this point. Especially when he'd already had one experience with the consequences of acting recklessly tonight. He was just being impatient at the end of the day, something he would need to work on in the coming days given that he no longer needed to act with quite so much swiftness and speed.
It was unfortunate that All For One didn't have some sort of technopathy Quirk that Izuku could just use to interface with the computer directly and bypass the need for a password altogether though. He had access to all sorts of other Quirks, from telekinesis to extrasensory capabilities to even the ability to disrupt radio waves with his mind.
But apparently All For One never prioritized being able to interface with technology directly. And seeing as this room and computer had never been used before now, Izuku couldn't even utilize the enhanced senses given by his Quirks to try and detect what keys All For One might have pressed most on the keyboard or something like that.
… It was fine. He didn't need the secrets contained within the computer right this moment. In fact, deep down Izuku knew that he should probably just head to bed at this point. Unfortunately, he was too wired for that… and while his Quirks might not give him the ability to hack computer systems, they definitely gave him the ability to skip a single night of sleep without any actual side effects.
Rising to his feet and moving away from the desk, Izuku instead goes to the first of the many cabinets lining the study's walls. Pulling open the glass doors, he stares at the files within for a moment… before grabbing one at random and opening it up to begin reading its contents.
If he wasn't going to sleep, he might as well be productive after all.
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It takes a moment for Mei to remember where she is when she wakes up the next morning naked, alone, and cocooned in extremely comfy silk sheets and soft blankets. Blinking owlishly at the sun coming through a nearby window, Mei yawns and stretches before slowly sitting up in the unfamiliar bed.
Then, it all starts to properly come back to her, hitting her like a one-two punch that makes her choke on her own spit. Holy shit, they'd actually done it hadn't they? And yes, that was a fucking double entendre. Last night… they'd actually managed to complete Izuku's mission and avenge All Might.
And then they'd fucked like rabbits for good measure.
Mei blushes a bit at that thought… as well as remembering the rather lewd thoughts she'd had before passing out from exhaustion last night as well. In the light of day with far more clarity, she turns those thoughts over in her head, considering them properly.
Was she actually serious about the idea of needing to find other women who can handle Izuku's insatiable stamina? Or was that just a delirious fantasy brought upon by a frankly ludicrous amount of exhaustion?
… Maybe a little bit of both? Huffing at her own perverse thoughts, Mei shakes her head and climbs out of the bed, grabbing at her clothes and putting them on quickly. She does her best to ignore the admittedly satisfying soreness in certain parts of her body as she gets dressed and makes for the door.
Leaving the Master Bedroom, Mei looks around the unfamiliar hallway of the manor and begins to wonder if maybe she shouldn't have rushed Izuku into having sex with her last night after all. Maybe they SHOULD have looked around a bit more first and gotten the lay of the land so to speak… because right now, Mei is hopelessly lost.
"Good morning."
Letting out a shriek, Mei whips around to find the weird purple mist dude from yesterday standing a few feet behind her. Placing a hand on his chest, he bows low. Mei watches him carefully and cautiously… what was it Izuku had called him the night before? Kurogiri?
"I am given to understand that you have not strayed from the Young Master's side for many, many years. As well, he seems to be quite taken with you and considers you someone of value. As such, I will consider you my Mistress until told otherwise. If you need anything at all, you need merely ask."
Mei swallows thickly. From the sound of things, this Kurogiri fella knew more about her than she would have liked. Then again, if Izuku was right and All For One had known about him all along, it stood to reason that All Might's killer had known about her too. So… it kind of made sense.
"Where… where is Izuku? Escort me to him please, don't teleport me."
After all, she was never going to learn the layout of this place if she was just getting portaled everywhere. Fortunately Kurogiri doesn't seem to take any offense to being told not to use his Quirk. Bowing again, the heteromorph simply gestures past her, walking forward and leading her down the hall.
"The Master is in the study where he has been all night long, Mistress. Right this way."
All night long? Mei scowls a little at that, eyes narrowing as she glances out a nearby window. Judging by the position of the sun in the sky…
"What time is it right now, exactly?"
"9:34 AM, Mistress."
Ignoring how precise that answer was, Mei focuses on what really matters.
"Izuku hasn't eaten breakfast yet, has he?"
"He has not, Mistress."
Okay that was already getting tiresome. As they come to a stop outside of a pair of double doors that Mei assumes will lead her to Izuku, she looks to Kurogiri.
"You don't have to call me Mistress all the time. It's fine so long as you know Izuku and I care about each other, got it?"
Kurogiri is still for a moment before wordlessly inclining his head. Mei resists the urge to roll her eyes.
"Just… can you go make us some breakfast or something? Nothing too extravagant. Make… breakfast sandwiches please."
For a moment she half expects the butler-type man to get offended by the very idea of 'breakfast sandwiches'. After all, not the kind of thing that those of 'high class' would partake in… or something. But instead, Kurogiri barely reacts.
"It will be done. Shall I bring them to the study or simply alert you when they're ready?"
Mei considers that for a moment. On the one hand, Izuku would probably prefer to continue his work while they're eating, something they'd done together countless nights while burning the candle at both ends. On the other hand, he'd already been working all night long and Mei was starting to think she might have to be the voice of reason in whatever this new relationship of theirs was supposed to become.
"… Alert us when they're ready, we'll take our breakfast in the dining room, wherever that is."
"Understood. The Master is right through these doors."
Mei had guessed as much but she still opens her mouth to thank Kurogiri, only for the heteromorph to disappear into a portal before she can do more than open her mouth. Huffing again, she shakes her head and pushes the double doors open, stepping into the study beyond.
Immediately, she stops dead in her tracks and just… stares. There are open files on every surface in the room, including some parts of the floor. The cabinets lining the walls have almost all been thrown open and while its clear they once held files, most have been more than half-emptied out.
Amidst this insane amount of paperwork is one Izuku Midoriya. Neither sitting behind the desk nor on one of the couches, he's instead on the floor on his hands and knees, perusing a specific file while surrounded by ten more.
Mei wishes she could say the sight is more startling than it is… but truth be told, this isn't even in the top five weirdest things she's walked in on Midoriya doing. Letting out an exasperated but also fond sigh that alerts Izuku to her presence, Mei steps forward just as his head snaps up.
For a moment, Izuku goes red… no doubt remembering their passionate sex from the night before. Mei starts to redden too, but before the embarrassment between them can properly thicken, he's already moving on.
"Mei! Good, you're here. Can you take a look at that computer and see what you think regarding its security and the possibility of breaking into its contents? I know you're not a hacker, but I figured waiting for a second opinion was better than making a mess of things myself."
Blinking, Mei looks to the computer monitor Izuku is gesturing to. It sits almost innocuously on a file-covered desk, seemingly forgotten in the frenzy of Izuku's consumption of information. Huh, no wonder he'd gone crazy with All For One's paper files if he couldn't get into the computer.
As she carefully steps over the files on the floor and makes her way to the desk, Mei glances to Izuku.
"Kurogiri is making us breakfast sandwiches right now. When he's done he'll come get us and we'll go eat in the dining room."
As expected, Izuku instinctively starts to scowl at that.
"Wha- but I'm-!"
"He already told me you were in here all night long, Izuku. You haven't slept, have you?"
It wasn't like Mei was a stranger to all-nighters to be fair. But… well, one of them had to be responsible and apparently it was going to be her.
"I have Quirks that make sleep extraneous, Mei. Missing one night won't even hurt me, I'll be fine."
"I don't care."
That gets his attention, causing him to look at her in surprise. Mei just frowns.
"Izuku, last night you almost got possessed by a man who has been around since the dawn of Quirks themselves. And then, shortly after that, we… hooked up for the first time. THEN, after that, you spent the entire night consuming a metric fuck ton of information. So once breakfast is ready, you and I are going to go eat and you're going to take a moment to process everything you've learned in the last several hours, got it?"
Izuku stares for a moment longer before slowly nodding… and even smiling a bit.
"Yeah. Got it."
Mei feels a bit of relief that he didn't try to fight her harder… because the truth is, she knows full well she has no real authority here. Or rather, the only authority that Mei has is the authority that Izuku allows her. If he wants to get rid of her, he can at any point and there's nothing she could do except beg him to keep her around.
Not that she thinks he would kick her to the curb just for speaking her mind, else she wouldn't have risked doing it. Still, it's very much a presence in the back of her head even as she sits down at the computer and turns it on.
She gets a few minutes of familiarizing herself with the system and checking to see if there's any easy ways around the password that Izuku might have missed before Kurogiri arrives just inside the doors of the study and bows at the waist.
"Master, Mistress, your morning meal is ready for you in the dining room."
Rising to her feet, Mei is pleased when Izuku doesn't raise any sort of fuss. He DOES come up to his feet with a file in his hands, but when he simply tucks it under his arm, she doesn't say a word about it… baby steps and all that.
"Great. Lead us there on foot please, still need to learn the lay of the land so to speak."
Mei's smile grows a little when Izuku unknowingly speaks her own thoughts from earlier. She and he follow Kurogiri out of the study, down another hall, down some stairs (they were on the second floor this entire time?!) and to a dining room with lovely floor-to-ceiling windows that allow for a lot of natural sunlight to flow through them.
The breakfast sandwiches Mei had told Kurogiri to prepare look amazing and even still have steam coming off of them. As soon as she and Izuku sit down, he brings his to his mouth and takes a bit, groaning in delight. When she does the same, Mei can't help but let out a moan of pleasure of her own.
They both chew through the hand-food in no time at all, eating like a pair of starving hyenas. Look, well made, homecooked meals with quality ingredients are hard to come by so… fuck it, they indulge. And if Kurogiri is always going to be this good at preparing food, Mei will advocate that Izuku keep the heteromorph around for a long time to come, regardless of his previous affiliations.
As they clean their plates however, Izuku swallows down his last bite… and then pushes the file he brought from the study across the table, speaking in a low, serious tone.
"I think I'm going to have to break into Tartarus, Mei."
… Fucking hell, Izuku. Mei resists the urge to groan or facepalm or anything like that. Instead, she carefully finishes chewing and swallowing her own last bite before pulling the file the rest of the way over. Pushing her plate out of the way, she opens the file and starts to read… and read… and read.
About fifteen minutes later and Mei Hatsume has completely consumed the story of one Kaina Tsutsumi… aka Lady Nagant. By the time she's done reading the whole sordid tale along with All For One's plans for the incarcerated woman, Mei can't help but feel a sting in her eyes as tears threaten to fall down her cheeks. More than a little choked up, Mei slowly nods as she closes the file.
"… Is this sort of thing what you think you need to do?"
Izuku tilts his head to the side and stares off into nothing for a moment as he considers that question. Then, he nods.
"Yeah. I think this is a good place to start. And I think… I think it might be the first step down a new path. One I'm just starting to formalize in my head."
Well. She'd already told him that she would be with him every step of the way, no matter what. And so far… she hadn't seen a single thing that made her feel otherwise.
"Alright then. I'll work on the computer while you're gone."
Izuku smiles at her… and Mei knows no matter what happens next that she's going to be with him to the end of the line. Although…
"You aren't planning on going there as Vigil are you?"
Izuku tilts his head to the side as he considers that briefly before shaking his head.
"No, I shouldn't burn that identity so quickly. It might have better uses… I'll need a new look if I'm going to do this. Help me out?"
Mei brightens at that request. She wasn't some sort of fashion designer or anything like that, but she would always be an inventor and a problem solver and this… this was a problem to be solved.
"Sure! I'm sure there's something we can cook up from the stuff around here…"
Izuku just chuckles as she hops from her seat and all but bounces out of the dining room. Time to see what sort of toys All For One might have inadvertently left for them and if she could make a baby or two out of it!
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The Vote:
[ ] Switch to Izuku's POV - 12%
[X] Switch to ???'s POV - 88%
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Also my newest long-form fic, which will update weekly every Wednesday going forward, just launched! Check it out for me if you have the time!
Somewhere to Belong (DC/Multi)
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