Rejected Stones

Alone Together

"We could help, Mrs. Hatusme," Izuku offered tentatively.

She smiled at him, shaking her head. "No, not you Izuku. Take Mei somewhere and...and do something normal, for once. You two don't do anything but build things and study. It isn't right. You kids should have fun once in a while. Here. I was going to spend this on dinner tonight, but, well, I think maybe it's best if you two disappear until your father calms down, Mei. It's only 10,000 yen, but I'm sure you can do something fun with it."

"Yes ma'am!" Mei said eagerly, snatching the money away. "Come on Izuku, you heard her! We'll keep ourselves busy for a few hours!"

They hadn't gone far before Mei started giggling maniacally, holding out the money before her. "This is enough money to get all kinds of stuff! We could get some more coils of tungsten wire, ooo, or a few large resistors or-"

"Not this time." Izuku reached out and snatched the money out of Mei's hand.

"What!? Izuku, what are you doing! Give that back ! We need more stuff for our babies!" Mei squawked, drawing the attention of several passers by.

"It's not what it looks like-"

"Damn deadbeat dads. Kids these days, no respect," one of the pedestrians muttered, a woman with a head like a parrot.

Izuku sighed as Mei continued to try to take the money back. Izuku frowned and held it away from her. "Mei! Look, we, we should take a day off. Let's...let's do something fun, like your mom said. We did just graduate from Junior High! We could go see a movie, or get something nice to eat."

Mei eyed Izuku. "Hmm. But we'll use the rest of the money for things for our babies?"

Izuku sighed. "Yeah, OK. I do really want to make some new stuff before the semester starts. Maybe if I show Power Loader what I can do with the new gear, I could-"

"Right, then let's go do something fun!" Mei declared, grabbing Izuku's arm and hurrying forward. She paused after a few seconds, frowning and looking back at him. "Um, what's something fun we can do?"

"Er, we could see a movie?" Izuku suggested.

"Ok. What movie?" Mei demanded.

"Um..." Izuku scratched his head. It had been a long time since he'd had enough free time to keep up with new movie releases. "I think...I think a new All Might Movie came out? But...but I don't really want to see that..."

"Eh, that sounds boring anyway," Mei said dismissively. Then she brightened. "I know! Those comic books you're always reading are kinda fun! They have some neat ideas in them! We could go get more of those! I bet they're even cheap!"

"Yeah, sure," Izuku agreed hastily. Now that he thought about it, what was something fun he wanted to do? He'd never been much of one for amusement parks or arcades. And he really didn't want to see a movie with All Might in it right at this moment. His former idol had dramatically fallen from grace in his esteem. These days, he'd no longer had much All Might memorabilia, having sold most of it for money to buy new materials to use with Mei, or for training weights and gear.

Come to think of it, Izuku really only did a few things these days. He went to school, he studied with Mei, he worked on inventions with Mei, he tested inventions with Mei, and he trained using The Hero workout program. At first his mother had been worried he'd been spending too much time away from home, but ever since Power Loader had personally called her to congratulate her on his acceptance to UA via recommendation, those worries had melted away.

"I'm so happy that you've found a new dream to pursue, Izuku!" his mother had said, hugging him tightly. "You'll be an amazing Support! You've always been talented, and a hard worker, and now you have something you can really do to channel all that into!"