"Is it just me or did you get more muscular?".
Izuku's face flushed bright red as Yuji pinched his bicep, which admittedly didn't move much because of the muscle.
"I mean, I've seen pictures from when you were smaller, and you were cute as hell then too but damn. Hero training really does pack on the muscle huh?" Yuji said, his smile subtly twisting into a smirk.
"And princess, did you do something different with your hair? It looks softer and less spiky than normal.". Yuji emphasized the concept by running his fingers through Katsuki's hair, leaving them there for a moment before pulling back. "It suits you.".
The couple, who were sitting on either side of Yuji made frantic eye contact. They hadn't planned for this!
Just a week ago after Yuji defeated those weird three villains Midoriya and Bakugou had finally had the 'do we want a third person (Yuji) in this relationship' talk.
Izuku had been pretty head over heels for Yuji since he smiled at him that day on the train and Katsuki's crush on Ghost had been subtly building since he ended up on top of the guy in Kamino. Of course at the time he had thought Ghost was some random adult but now that everything was cleared up, the feelings were still there.
So they had pretty much decided that yeah, they want Yuji.
But getting him...that was another story.
They were awkward. Lets not sugarcoat it. Two childhood friends with anger issues and hero complex's bigger than All Might's biceps weren't exactly the most attractive romantic partners on the face of the earth.
Especially if you were Namura Yuji, had navy blue hair, big golden eyes and a mouth that went a mile a minute and made everyone laugh so hard their sides hurt. How could they hope to snag with mr. perfect, top of every teenager in Masutafu's list?!
Seriously, random teenagers would just approach them in malls or public spaces to ask for his number.
And the worst part of all of this was that Yuji would say yes and a week later they were best friends and going to see the newest blockbuster together! Then he was bringing them chicken soup to help with a cold!
He was everywhere with everyone all the time!
Honestly it was a miracle they had managed to hold him down as a friend this long.
"You two broken or something?" Yuji asked, tilting his head to the side, "You're not responding.".
"Oh um right." Izuku stuttered.
"What the loser is failing to say is we asked you to come here for a reason and not just to mess up my hair." Katsuki grumbled.
"But of course, princess. What can I do for you, my liege?" Yuji said dramatically.
"We have special training against 1-B coming up soon." Izuku explained, "And a couple people in 1-A, us included, were wondering if you could make us some new support items.".
"Me?" Yuji asked confused.
"Of course you!" Izuku gushed, "All of your gadgets are amazing and super reliable.".
Yuji blushed slightly. "Alright then. What do you guys have in mind?".
------------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ------------ ------------ -----------
And that's how Yuji, Izuku, Katsuki and several more 1-A students that wanted to get the jump on 1-B ended up trying to break into the support class's labs to steal some material.
Well, it was wasn't stealing really. All students had access to them as per Power Loader's rules. He encouraged everyone to try making little gadgets.
They were just going to be making a bit more than a wind up flash light.
"How much time do I have to do all of this again?" Yuji asked, already feeling tired from all nighters he hadn't even pulled yet.
"Three weeks? At most." Ashido said apologetically. Yuji rolled his head back and groaned a little before he reached for the door handle.
"Its locked." He announced.
"Oh yeah, I'll get a teacher to give us a key. Hold on a sec." Kaminari said.
"Ah, no need." Yuji said, pulling a bobby pin out of his hair and a strange looking piece of metal out of his pocket.
"You can pick locks?" Izuku asked, curious.
"Well, you know my part time job?" Yuji smiled, trying to simultaneously tease Izuku and not reveal anything to their friends. Izuku's eyes went wide. "Well I don't ever want to be locked in a car again, so I decided to pick it up.".
He jammed the bobby pin in the lock, messed around for a bit and then inserted the metal tool. He jammed it upwards. The law clicked and Yuji tried the door again, this time it opened.
He put the pin back in his hair and the took back in his pocket. "There!" He smiled, satisfied.
The group hurried inside. 1-A students started grabbing cool looking parts, googling what they did and asking if they had something that could work for their quirk.
Yuji on the other hand grabbed a disk from his pocket and clicked the button. Out of it expanded a cloth bag and he started gathering the bare minimum he would need. No need to take extra things for himself, no matter how appealing some of the springs and motors looked. He could really further improve his suit with stuff like that.
But he wasn't raised to take things for granted or be greedy, so he grabbed the stuff for the projects and ushered them all out of the room.
He stayed up pretty late that night designing small sweat storing canisters Bakugou could use as grenades, non-soluble spray bottles made with some strange stretchy metal for Ashido and a variation of his own taser disks for Kaminari. But he didn't start any of those just yet.
It was Izuku's that he got carried away with and started on the spot. He knew how much the boy's quirk could hurt him, so he built a classic finger pressure based heart monitor and put it into the boy's gloves. He then used his keen ear to listen to heart rhythms from videos online, pinpointing exactly what patterns indicated extreme pain.
When it was well past 6 am the next morning, he installed the final piece of equipment. The quirk suppressing cuffs Aizawa gave him. The on switch was wired to the heart monitor, to automatically disable Izuku's quirk for a grace period of 5 seconds. It would enable to boy to gather his bearing or stop using his quirk entirely should he need to.
However Yuji fell asleep at his desk, his comfiest pair of noise cancelling ear muffs on his head as the morning sunlight shone outside his blackout curtains.
------------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ------------ ------------ -----------
"Someone has to put a stop to this.".
The man, who's face was painted a pale white, smiled, stretching blood red lips. "I'm glad that you and I can come to an agreement on something.".
The other man shifted uncomfortably, lowering his hat to further hide his identity. But nothing could hide the police badge on his shoulder.
"Remember, this ceasefire is temporary and will hold only until we can succeed." The officer warned. The man with the painted face chuckled.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" He laughed, "I know we can't coexist past this, but I'm glad we have common ground now.".
"Only until the mission is over." The officer warned. He seemed unnaturally tense, but the nature of the task set in front of him was naturally unnerving.
The man smiled and reached out a hand for the officer to shake.
"Yes, yes, I get it.".
"Only until you've captured Ghost.".
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OOOH what an ominous ending note!
Yuji's abilities in weapon and gadget making really are second to none. He's the best in the business, and he's not even technically in the business.
The police are after him, but honestly what's new? Its their method of getting to him that's going to be a new challenge.
Sorry for the still messed up update schedule! I'm still trying to sort everything out. I think I'll end up putting the updates for Off The Rails on their own day, and then put Watch Closely and Just Us on the same day. These will be interspersed with updates for other fics that are on a looser update schedule like The Agency, Stars, Attempt and Winter.
Also some Because chapters should be coming soon. I just need a moment to sit down and write them 😅
And I'm looking into writing my first female oc fic soon!!!
This week is going to be probably my busiest yet, so please be patient!
Stay Tuned!