"Hey, is that?"

"Woah, it is!"

"I can't believe he's here."

"What? why? The Expo is next week, of course, he'd be here!"

"I thought he'd be taller."

There was little Izuku could do but laugh as they stepped out of I-Island's airport terminal. He had arrived a week early at the request of Melissa, and even a few other scientists and researchers that wanted his attention. Maybe this was what All Might felt like when he first showed up back in the day.

Shaking his head he moved forward, waving at those that noticed him while he walked through the crowds. And it was only going to get busier as the expo closed in. "I wonder who else will be here? Shoto probably, Momo for sure, maybe Kacchan? Depends on if they want to deal with the potential property damage. Again."

Still, the island looked great, all the repairs had been finished years ago but this was the first year that they were doing the Expo, no doubt there were going to be even more amazing gadgets here this year. Maybe he could even get a few more for himself. His supply was running low ever since Mei all but vanished off the face of the earth.

It wasn't even in a fireball, which meant that he had lost that bet with Ochako.

Humming he kept his smile on his face and nodded at another researcher that had recognized him. "Best not to think about my ex."

It had only been a year and a half and the sting was still there, just not as painful. Probably because he hadn't really tried to date anyone since they had tried and failed to make things work. And he was thinking about it again. Dammit. He really needed a distraction or something.

"Deku!"

He looked up and what he saw put a smile on his face. It was her. Melissa Shield. She was riding in on what looked like a red hoverboard that was attached to her feet. Somehow despite looking like a grown woman when he had first met her all those years ago, she had grown even more beautiful. Her once long blonde hair was now short, barely reaching past her shoulders and just made her look that much more mature.

She was beautiful, and he was lonely.

Shaking his head Izuku smiled and opened up one arm for her. "Melissa!"

Without hesitation, she took the invitation landing on her feet as she retracted her hoverboard into a wrist band and gave him a hug. She was soft and her hair smelled absolutely wonderful. After a moment she pulled away.

"Deku! It's been way too long," She placed a hand on his chest and smiled at him. They hadn't spoken since All Might's funeral. At least not in person. But the bond was still there. "How've you been? Aside from being in the top five for two years in a row?"

"I've been good, really good, how about yourself? You look like you've been busy." He gestured towards her wrist band. "And I-Island looks great."

"Yea! It's been going pretty good! I have my own lab now and I can't wait to show you some of the new-" Melissa was all but bouncing with excitement as she pointed to the other side of the island where her lab was. But she was interrupted by an explosion that nearly shook the whole Island.

Seriously were they under attack? He just got here! And the Island had just reopened! Some villains better not have gotten any ideas about attacking the Island, not while he was here.

"Not again," Melissa sighed.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." He dropped his bag next to her. "I'll be back in a second."

"Huh?" She asked looking at his bag. "Wait what-"

He launched forward, he'd apologize to Melissa later, but he wasn't a hero to wait for someone else to save the day. The streets of I-Island were wide but he was still able to use the terrain to his advantage as he leaped from building to building trying to find the source of the explosion, most of the buildings were more industrial as he headed towards the explosion.

In all likelihood, it wasn't some malicious assault, but an accident that had caused the explosion. Placing on his breathing mask he leaped in front of the building, several engineers were scrambling out of the warehouse-like building with fire spewing out of it. Most of them looked alright, so it probably wasn't chemical in nature.

"Are you a hero?" A man with large insect-like wings asked, his work uniform was damaged by the smoke. He pointed towards the building. "Please, the Chief is still in there you need to save her."

"Leave it to me!"

Fire rescues were not really his strong suit, mostly because he couldn't punch away the fires without causing more damage. That wasn't to say he wasn't going to run in there and save the person and then punch his way out. Okay, maybe he wouldn't really punch anything.

Ducking past the flames, he found that the building was largely hollow, with much of the fire coming from a central contraption that was quite large and almost looked like a giant robot or something. And scrambling around the base was a pink-haired woman wearing goggles.

Despite the emergency, Izuku found himself stopping to watch the short woman flail effortlessly at her machine. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard her cry about her baby. Well, he found where Mei had been all this time. On the one hand, he wasn't surprised. On the other hand he was surprised that they were willing to accept the walking safety violation on I-Island.

"So this was what Melissa meant by again." With a sigh, he walked over to Mei. Then the machine began to spasm. It was going to explode again, wasn't it? Knowing Mei? Yes.

"Mei!" He ran over towards her and pulled her into his chest, just in time for the robot to explode, the shock wave sending them both flying. The force was too great and he stumbled to keep his feet on the ground. With some luck, he managed to maneuver so that the shockwave would knock them out of the large garage doors.

He landed on his back, sliding a few feet until he crashed into a wall. Mei safe in his arms.

"Well this is familiar." He heard Mei's ever so slightly crazy voice - in both an 'oh no' and a 'that's kinda hot' way - as she leaned up to look at him. She flipped up her goggles and smiled at him like he hadn't just saved her from a fiery death. But Mei had probably built up a tolerance to explosions at this point.

"Hi there Izuku, how are my babies treating you? You want something new? I have a lot of new babies that'll suit you! Oh, looks like you might actually be needing a new suit!" Mei cackled as she began to touch him before actually getting off of him. Her laugh was sweet but mixed in with just a bit of mad scientist.

"What are you-" He moved to see what she was talking about. But a sharp pain ran through his right side. Oh, he'd been mildly impaled by some shrapnel, and that was a lot of blood. He blinked at the wound and sighed. "Ouch."

"Give me a second." Mei sat on his lap in a position that should have been very inappropriate. Pulled at his costume, tearing it more and produced a spray can. When she shook it he couldn't help but picture a can of bug spray or something. "Hold still."

The usual mania in her voice was gone, and she had a serious look on her face. That was perhaps the only reason why he didn't try to stop her. The spray was pink and smelled kind of like strawberries and medicine, it worked almost instantly.

"What is that stuff?" He asked, straining to look at the wound.

"I got tired of going to see a doctor if I hurt myself." Mei looked around her and setting the can down to the side before tearing more of his costume to use as a cloth, it stung less than he thought it would. "So I made a spray-on healing compound. It tastes like strawberries, it's not supposed to but it does."

"You made something that doesn't explode?"

"No, it does, don't stand near an open flame, and don't exercise for a few hours." She patted his now all but vanished wound and smiled. "Also don't eat spicy food."

"What happens if I do?"

"Since when did you start questioning me?" Mei pushed on his chest to stand up and proceeded to dust herself off. Now that he looked at her Mei had changed in ways he never thought she would change, she was actually beautiful now. Under that layer of oil that covered that is. Was there something about I-Island that just made people more attractive or something? "Most of the time when I say don't do something it'll explode they don't ask why."

She tilted her head to the side smiling and offered her hand to him. "It's really handy when I want to be left alone I can tell people 'Don't talk to me you'll explode!'" She helped him up and smiled. "Thanks for saving me! Now let's go to my workshop we can start talking about a new design for your costume!"

"What but I-"

"Deku!" Melissa panted as she ran up straining to carry his bag. He had meant for her to just watch it. Or leave it, it was just clothes. "Are you okay? What happened to your costume? What happened here and-"

Melissa's mouth stopped moving when she looked at Mei, who was still looking at him her mind no doubt coming up with hundreds of designs. A hard frown formed on Melissa's face for a second.

"Well, I guess that explains what happened here." Melissa sighed setting his bag down. "Still it's good that you saved Mei."

"Oh, you know her?" That saved him the introductions.

"Everybody on the Island knows her." Melissa gestured towards Mei who still wasn't paying attention to their conversation. Where did she get the notepad? "She's notorious for causing explosions, and the officials have to raid her lab weekly for new gear to patent, otherwise she just throws them in the corner."

"They don't take up space there." Mei shrugged, apparently, she had been listening. But she didn't appear to be phased. "Hey, what rank hero are you now anyway? I know you're up there last I checked."

"Uhh, I'm rank number two at the moment but it's really close between all of us in the top five." Losing to Mirio didn't sting that much, but seeing Kacchan get knocked down to fifth, that was just so great.

"Perfect!" Mei pocketed her notebook. And grabbed him by the arm. She might be a small petite woman, but he'd seen her swing a two hundred pound monkey wrench around like it was nothing several times. "Come to my workshop! We need to start working on a design for your new hero costume! I already have a few ideas we can go over and a few gadgets you might even be able to use! I'll also upgrade all of your gadgets too! You're going to be equipped solely by me and become the best advertisement I can get!"

"Isn't your workshop on fire?"

Mei looked behind her blinked twice and waved her hand at it. "Nah, that's my garage, that's for the big stuff like my robots, the Europa rover, and, like a satellite. You know, passion projects! I keep the good stuff at my workshop! Now come on. Actually, let's get food first, we can brainstorm over a meal!"

"Uh sure, but I was-" He placed a hand over that large tear in his suit, it had been a few years since he got a new look, maybe it was time for an upgrade.

"Excuse me!" Melissa said loudly, her face was red and she pushed up her glasses. Marched in front of Mei with one hand over her chest. "I invited Deku out here so that I could help him get a new costume, he's my friend after all."

Mei snorted. "So? I've known Izuku since we were fifteen, he's been one of my best customers for like." Mei paused, holding up a hand and counted. "Eight years! Now it's time to return on those investments and getting my gear on one of the top heroes."

"You have?" Melissa took a step back, her face growing a shade darker. "I wasn't aware you and Mei had known each other."

"We went to U.A. together, she pretty much supplied me with all my support items for a while." Apparently, he was one of the few people crazy enough to talk to her, let alone ask her for items.

"Oh, I see," Melissa mumbled holding her chin. "Does that mean that she designed your previous hero costumes?"

"Mostly yeah," He gestured at his current suit with his free hand. "She designed this one."

"Then don't you think it's time for someone else to have a chance?"

"Nonsense!" Mei shouted and tugged on his arm. "The bond between hero and support is not something that you can easily sever! I'm going to be Izuku's exclusive support item provider. Besides, I have more experience with his needs."

Was this what it was like having girls fight over him? Why didn't this happen in U.A.?

"Hey, I have an idea." Both girls stopped glaring at each other just long enough to look at him. "Why don't you two work together to make my costume? I'm sure the two of you would be able to make something great."

Mei's smile grew wider as she folded her arms over her chest and glared up at Melissa. "I have a better idea, we both make blueprints, then Izuku chooses the one he likes best. How does that sound… whatever your name is."

"It's Melissa Shield." She put her shoulders back and extended a hand towards Mei. "Challenge accepted."

"Good." Mei grabbed her hand, her oil-covered glove leaving fingerprints on Melissa's arm. "I work best when I have competition."

For his part, Izuku could only really laugh. This was not an encounter he ever saw coming.

AN: New story to replace Fist to Fist once I finish it. I've been chopping at the bits to start this for a long time. So I hope you all enjoy!