Rejected Stones

Fear Itself

This document beta'd by kylekatarn77 and Poliamida

24. Fear Itself

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."

― Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Come on Mei, it will be fun!" Ashido weedled, grinning as she hung upside down off the safety railing.

"Yeah, come on. Don't you want to see Midoriya squeal?" Jiro teased.

Mei frowned at that, pushing up her goggles to study the other two girls. "Why would I want Izuku to squeal? Besides, we're running our final diagnostics before the Power Suit is ready. We put in a lot of upgrades!"

"Because it's fun! Just imagine, you could protect him from the dangerous ghouls and scary ghosts that lurk in the woods!" Ashido said, putting her fingers around her eyes in the shape of a monster's face.

Despite himself, Izuku shuddered. Even the thought of something jumping out at him gave him the shivers.

"See? He's practically leaping into your arms already!" Jiro said, gesturing at Izuku. "Come on, it'll be fun! You can be the brave hero, protecting the blushing maiden!"

"Izuku wants to be the hero, I just want to make cute babies," Mei huffed.

That made Izuku flush. "She means-"

"Eh, it goes both ways," Jiro said with a shrug and a sly grin. "Come on, we're going to keep bothering you until you come out and play. Take a break, relax!"

"Plus, you can help us make some spooky pranks of our own when it's our classes turn to scare 1B," Ashido offered. "I bet you could make a wicked fog machine or freaky robots or something."

"I get to make super cute babies?" Mei asked, suddenly interested.

"As long as they're for scaring the pants off of 1B, yeah," Jiro agreed.

Mei grinned widely. But then she paused glancing at Izuku. "Only if Izuku wants to go. I'm not going if he's too scared."

"Come on Midoriya, don't be a chicken!" Ashido said, and she and Jiro immediately began making clucking noises.

"O-ok," Izuku said, smiling. "I guess it won't be so bad..."

"Alright! I know just what to bring to make the cutest, scariest babies ever! I used to make some to keep the brats out of my workshop until I accidentally set the house on fire again," Mei said, scrambling to gather up some materials.

Jiro blinked. "Did you really set your house on fire?"

"Not for months, Izuku's better at fire safety than I am, even if it's annoying sometimes," Mei said. She handed Izuku an armful of various parts and grabbed a few more. "Right, let's go!"

They met up with the rest of 1A near the edge of the forest, where Mandalay was going over the rules for the Test of Courage. Jiro ran over and whispered something to Mandalay, who nodded. When it came time to draw partners for going through the forest, Izuku saw that Mandalay just so happened to draw his and Mei's names together.

"Go on you two!" Ashido laughed. "Go have fun!"

"H-hey, where's Shinso?" Izuku asked, desperately stalling for time.

"He and Uraraka left a while ago to hunt down Bakugo. He's not getting out of this either," Jiro laughed. "Go on, show 1B what 1A is made of!"

"Probably mostly flesh. Except for Kirishima, he's made of rocks," Mei said. She smiled. "That was a joke!"