The Tinker

Chapter 1 - New Girl

"Are we getting a new chick in 3-A?" Denki shouted, bursting through the classroom door.

Jirou buried her face in her desk. "God, it's too early for this, man."

"It's just a rumor, Kaminari. UA doesn't accept additions to classes this late into the year," Momo said calmly, flipping through the pages of her book without looking up.

The other students in 3-A perked up. "A new student? Where did you hear that?"

"I saw Aizawa with some girl who looked our age," Denki said, thumb pointing behind him towards the hall.

It was enough to intrigue a few of them. They rushed towards the hall, craning their necks to see if they could glimpse who Denki had been talking about.

"Just because it's a girl you don't know doesn't mean it's someone joining 3-A. There are plenty of girls here who don't want to know you, Kami," Jirou said. "There's, like, a ton of different departments here." Denki stuck his tongue out at her.

"Will you assholes calm down? You're getting in the damn way," Bakugou snapped, trying to enter the classroom. "The hell is going on?"

"A new student, Kacchan!" Midoriya gushed.

Bakugou ignored him, sitting down at his desk. He crossed his arms with a frown.

"Shit, Aizawa's coming. Scram!" Sero yelped. The class quickly returned to their seats to look composed.

Aizawa walked in, looking even more drained than usual. An awkward silence filled the room as everyone tried to figure out what to say. 

It wasn't long until Iida spoke with his hand shooting straight up. "Excuse me sir! Will 3-A be receiving a new student?!"

Aizawa closed his eyes, clearly exhausted. "Where did you hear about this?"

"There was a girl with you in the hall. Is she joining the class?" Mina asked.

"Clearly nothing remains hidden from you kids," he mumbled, and let out a sigh. "Yes, miss Y/N is going to be joining us for the rest of the semester. She isn't technically a student here though. She's going to be 3-A's engineer, at least until the situation in America lets up."

It was the first time that Aizawa, or any teacher for that matter, had brought up the news of America. It was taboo at this point.  Hearing it spoken about by Aizawa made the situation seem much scarier.

"What's her quirk?" Midoriya asked excitedly, popping out of his seat.

"You'll have to ask her yourself. She's going to join us in a few days." In hearing this, the class launched into discussion with each other. Eraserhead had clocked out of the conversation and was sitting at his laptop, distracted.

"You think she's cute?" Sero asked Kaminari, sitting on his desk. "You're the one who saw her."

"What does it matter? Won't make a damn difference to you," Bakugou grumbled. Being seated next to Kaminari today meant he was forced into the conversation.

"C'mon, Bakubro! Wouldn't it be cool to expand the circle?" Kirishima asked, putting his arm around him.

"Fuck off. I don't need a circle."

"Keep telling yourself that," Eijirou said. "I, at least, am gonna go say hi later. You up for it Mina?"

"Duh," she replied, cleaning out her nails. "But you boys better not be hoping for a new girlfriend. The girls are gonna fill her in on all of your gross shit."

"Mr. Aizawa! Where will she be staying?" Iida asked.

"In the dorms with you lot. Don't scare her too much."

Kaminari cackled. "Oh my god, I'm so gonna get laid," he snickered to the rest of the boys.

Bakugou rolled his eyes.

~~~

The workshop was an absolute mess.

Aizawa had sent Y/N to her new workspace almost immediately, but seeing it made her want to off herself. It looked like it hadn't been touched in years, and that could very well be true considering the gear Y/N saw while walking into the building.

She set down her bag and tried to step over some of the rubble on the ground. It was supposed to be an engineering workshop, but it was so cluttered it was difficult to tell. Y/N could barely make out a worktable in the center of the room covered with boxes, scraps, and discarded gear.

"This is going to take fucking ages," Y/N sighed to herself.

Better now than never.

Pushing through the jet lag, Y/N spent the next several hours doing her best to sort the chaos of the room. If this was going to be her new workspace for the next year, she was going to have to put some sweat and tears into it. Engineering was a grueling enough profession, especially with her size; she didn't need to add to her own workload by suffering through a messy space.

Y/N was able to use the discarded boxes to organize, sorting through usable scraps and garbage. Already her mind was firing away at new ideas she could build, but she tried not to get ahead of herself. Sleep was pushing at her eyes, but she shook it off. Getting used to Japan time was kicking her ass. Moving away from her country because of terrorists was, too, but she didn't let herself think about that. Instead she let her muscles ache as she lifted around boxes and cleaned off dusty machinery to distract herself.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but she snapped out of her groove when she heard the door burst open. She whipped around to see a clutter of students her age shoving their way in.

"Aizawa said you'd be—" The first girl inside launched into a coughing fit. Her entire body was an alarming pink. "Girl, what the hell, it's so musty in here. How are you breathing?" Without saying hello she marched over to the window and threw it open. "Mmm, that's better." She turned to finally face Y/N with a big grin on her face. "I'm Mina! This is Kirishima, Denki, and Sero. I gotta be honest, I can't wait to have another girl here."

"I'm Y/N," Y/N said, wiping some of the sweat from her brow and trying to rub some of the exhaustion from her eyes. Eyebags didn't make the best first impression. "Do you need something made?"

"Babe, no, we're not here to make you work more. We wanna take you out! You've been cooped up in here for literally 8 hours," Mina said.

Y/N groaned. "Fuck, what time is it? God, I got carried away again—" she hurried to pulled out her phone to check the time. 5:45 PM. She had been working since 9:00 AM that morning. Her body finally seemed to catch up and her stomach growled. "Dammit, I hate when I do this. Do you guys know where I can get some food?"

"You haven't eaten yet? Let us take you out!" Kirishima said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Our treat since you'll be helping us out this semester." He took the chunk of metal she had been holding and set it down to draw her away from her work.

"You sure?"

"No stress!" Kiri beamed at her and wiped some of the metal dust from her shoulder.

Mina linked arms with Y/N and lead her out of the room. The boys followed behind her. "I feel like I'm gonna pass out," Y/N groaned.

"Well duh, you haven't eaten and you've been working all day. You cool with sushi?" Hearing sushi mentioned made Y/N's stomach growl even louder as they walked down the hall. Mina laughed. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Bakugou! Wanna come with us? We're gonna get sushi!" Kirishima said as they passed a grumpy looking blonde. 

Without looking up, he flipped them off. 

Kirishima shrugged. "His loss."

"Why's that guy got a stick up his ass?" Y/N grumbled.

"Don't mind Bakugou, he's always like that. Let's stop by the classroom and pick up the rest of the gang."