A Silent Kind of Strength

Chapter 29

When they walked in with a new friend Mia was overjoyed, flouncing over to introduce herself as Izuku went to clock in. "Hi! You're new. My name is Hatsume Mia. Welcome to my shop!" The blonde boy responded to her enthusiasm with his own naturally bubbly personality. "Hatsume? Oh you must be Hatsume-chan's older sister!" He said with a joking wink.

The woman cackled. "Oh! We have a funny one! Just what their little group needs! Come on in…"

"Ah sorry. I'm Kaminari Denki. It's nice to meet you!" The woman smiled warmly. "Kaminari-kun. The only rules are don't touch anything if you don't know what it does and give Mei's babies a wide berth until they're out of the testing phase." He glanced over nervously at the other teens as they waved him over to the large work surface they were gathered around, taking note of all of the parts and gizmos scattered everywhere. "OK don't touch anything. Got it."

She laughed at the slight fear in his voice. "Don't worry kiddo. If you hang around long enough I'm sure those two support prodigies will bore some sort of science into your skull." Denki laughed, scratching at the back of his head. "I probably need that if I'm honest. Science isn't my strongest subject." Mia gently ushered him towards the others, immediately turning to Izuku when they reached them. "Hey kiddo. It's a slow day, we only have two orders. If you want to pull one I'll pull the other and then you can chill and listen for the front?"

The small teen nodded amicably and snagged the print out of the order form she handed him. Turning towards the newcomer he smiled. "I'll be right back. Why don't you get out your books and stuff so we can get to work when I'm done?"

Kaminari pulled his pin studded messenger back up onto the table before him with a nod. With the signal of assent Izuku hurried off into the maze of shelves. "So uh… Midoriya works here?"

Shinso hummed in affirmation. "Yeah. His mom's stipulation for going to high-school was him keeping his job here part time. Hatsume-san is really good about not working him too hard though. And insists on all of us keeping up with our studies."

The blonde tilted his head in confusion. "His mom didn't want him to go to high-school?" Shinso made a so-so gesture with one hand. "It's more she didn't want to lose the extra income I think? From what he says finances are kind of tight."

"Oh." Pale fingers pass a spark back and forth in thought. "Doesn't UA have scholarships and programs for that?" Mei groaned at the reminder. "Believe me Kami-kun. Mom tried everything to convince that woman to chill. But she doesn't want charity, and she's stubborn as hell."

Kaminari hummed as he dug out a few well chewed pencils from his bag. "That's kind of sad. Midoriya-kun deserves to go to school and have down time if he wants." The other two nodded in solemn agreement as the group faded into an easy silence. It took about 15 minutes for Izuku to finish up the order and make his way back over, rubbing some grease from his hands onto the coveralls he had changed into. "Alright you three. Are you ready to learn about exponents and variables?"

Shinso groaned, and Kaminari started to, before getting distracted by how skin tight the black undershirt the greenette was wearing was. The sleeves of the coveralls were tied at his waist and hid nothing of the lithe muscles that were being hugged by dark sports spandex. Mei just settled in to make her way through the homework as yet another boy truly started to simp for her friend.

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The next few days were much of the same, go to school, have classes, work on hero course design corrections and ideas while building his own babies, then the four of them head to the shop for study time. Kaminari had to head home by dinner time, but every other day Shinso was allowed to stay. Aizawa and Yamada trusting Hatsume-san and understanding that his friendships were important. After dinner they would start to close up shop and hang out for a while longer before everyone would go their separate ways.