Fanfic / Love, doubt and super cute babies!

Dealing with a downward spiral of self-doubt after the Sports Festival and her faulty internship, Momo Yaoyorozu isn't sure if she's cut out to be a hero. To regain her footing, she reaches out to the top First Years of the support course: Hatsume Mei and Midoriya Izuku.

Love, doubt and super cute babies! by HackWriter is an ongoing My Hero Academia AU story about the growing friendship (and later romance) between Momo, Mei, and Izuku: the latter of whom never received One for All, but is still attending U.A. as a Support student in hopes to becoming a Hero through other means.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Obviously Izuku, Momo, and Mei are close friends here and have met each other's families as well.
  • In canon, Aizawa is Izuku's teacher, with mutual respect between them. Here Aizawa's ruthless destruction of Izuku's dream left him traumatized. Instead, it is Power Loader who is Izuku's teacher, who openly praises his accomplishments.
  • Ashido's assurances from her friend Kirishima, left her believing that Bakugo was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, only for his horrid behavior in the cafeteria to reveal the truth of the matter. She later goes to Izuku for help with support gear, and gets a better sense of his relationship with Momo; see Shipper on Deck below.
  • By the time the exams roll around, even Kirishima regards Bakugo as nothing more than a bully.
  • 1-A is a lot less respectful and trusting towards Aizawa as his 'rational deceptions' build up. A key catalyst includes that Bakugo deafened Kyouka (see Token Evil Teammate below) and yet he is still kept around, which undermines their faith in his concern for them as a whole. Their lack of trust also means that when Camie learnt the truth of summer camp earlier, they were hardly surprised, and very unamused when he tried to spring it on them in class. His treatment of Izuku and Mei also means Momo is not blindly following his words, and standing up to him on things.
  • Since Izuku is not his successor, All Might has chosen one of the Big Three, and feels close to his protégé.
• All for Nothing: How the Sports Festival felt to Izuku. While he made it to the third task, his equipment exploded, scarring his arm, and he was still unable to transfer to the Hero Course for being Quirkless, making him so depressed in the weeks afterward that even Mei is able to pick up on it.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: How Momo views her parents, especially her mom, for prying into her personal life and testing her friends. Deconstructed though, as her mom is genuinely worried about her daughter's more naïve nature being taken advantage of.
• Amazon Chaser: Momo is attracted to the muscles on Mei's arms, and despairs at her own Flexing Those Non-Biceps. Later she also expresses private appreciation for Izuku's own muscles.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted overall, as to be expected of a story emphasizing support gear.
  • Momo's gauntlets are built to protect her from even people with strength Quirks if they grab them. When Aizawa hits Momo's hand with a brick during her final exam, while the strike still hurts her, the gauntlets withstand the hit and prevent any serious damage.
  • Momo cautions Kirishima that he should get some for his own support gear, as despite how fearsome his own defenses are, his fighting style relying so much upon enduring enemy blows means another layer of protection would probably be helpful.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Izuku's specialty; not only in terms of Quirk analysis but also identifying any crucial details. Because of this, while he lacks Mei's raw innovation skills, his ability to quickly analyze problems and execute on an idea allows him to stand right alongside her as one of the best Support students at U.A.
• Batman Gambit: All For One pulls this against All Might. While Shigaraki goes to terrorize the Kiyashi Mall, his mentor launches a Nomu attack near where the Big Three are, who he suspects one to be All Might's successor. When All Might rushes across Japan to rescue them, this is confirmed. Given the timing involved and that it was 1-A at the mall, regardless of how Shigaraki's plan was going (poorly), All Might's arrival would end it. Except by then AFO was there already waiting for All Might having gotten the information he needed, leading to a stand-off until he forces All Might into a deal where they fight away from where they currently are (and the ensuing casualties) in return for the release of Shigaraki (while making sure his student knows the names of All Might's likely successors), and then goes to fight the very climactic battle he wishes to happen.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: By I-Island, Momo is finding herself falling hard on both Mei and Izuku, but in-between trying to treat it like just a crush, also thinking solely in terms of only romancing one or the other.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Nezu freely admits that human modesty and sexuality is a bit of a blind spot for him when it's pointed out that Hagakure running around naked and Momo running around in her canon outfit are unacceptable for the "Minors running around wearing next to nothing" reasons, to give nothing of the other reasons.
• Brain/Computer Interface: What Mei introduces Jirou to, demonstrating how she can use her ear jacks to control special computers, and eventually drones.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Mei may be a bit scatterbrained, and she may have some skewed priorities, No Sense of Personal Space, extremely self-absorbed, and frankly is readily mistaken for a Mad Scientist, but there is no denying that she is a brilliant inventor. That said, being with Izuku, and later Momo, are helping mitigate her worst traits, and she is a good friend once you become close to her.
• Can't Catch Up: Given her comparatively poor performance at the Sports Festival, and utterly useless internship, this is what Momo fears; including that the only ways she all stood out at the Sports Festival were by "jumping around with pompoms and a miniskirt for a moment." Instead of letting it pull her down deeper though, she brings herself to the Support Course hoping to learn something from Izuku given his own performance.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: A role Izuku fulfills a lot for Mei, mitigating her more impulsive traits and making sure she exercises proper self-care. He's also the one trusted with the keys to the support lab, so she can't spend all her time there blowing things up. This is even discussed in-universe, with her taking offense at the extent others assume their friendship consists of Izuku merely acting as her babysitter. As their relationship unfolds, Momo also helps address Mei's social awkwardness, and presenting matters in ways she can properly understand.
• Cleans Up Nicely:
  • As per the principal's orders, Aizawa starts taking care of his personal grooming more. So, when Mei meets him for the first time, she deems him ruggedly handsome.
  • When Mei wears a dress for the I-Island Gala, both Izuku and Momo are left red as they take in her beauty.
• Crazy-Prepared: Mei has a veritable treasure trove of inventions just lying around the support lab to accommodate nearly any kind of situation. Therefore, when Momo and her classmates start showing up for help, she has a lot of potential babies lying around waiting to be used.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: All Might versus Muscular. Muscular attempts to attack All Might. All Might sucker punches Muscular in the throat. Muscular collapses.
• Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Thanks to her engineering knowledge and Creation Quirk, Momo is not only able to be directly involved with the development and design of her support gear (rather than leave absolutely everything to Mei and Izuku), but is also capable of recreating the gauntlets on the fly if she needs to. This is in contrast to her peers, who simply give the specifics of what they need while leaving all the technical details to the Support students. Although as of Kiyashi Mall it still takes some considerable concentration and effort to pull off, and not perfect replicas.
• Designer Babies: What Mei keeps asserting Momo has to be, as well as her mom, as there is no way someone could actually be born so attractive, intelligent, and (in Momo's case) with such an incredible Quirk without artificial aid. Izuku begrudgingly admits the odds are so slim that he honestly can't fault her thought process.
• Detrimental Determination: During the finals, Bakugo's utter inability to accept he's not the top dog and work together with Camie in the fight with All Might leads to him failing the test, because he's so stubborn he keeps trying to defeat All Might in a straight-up fight.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Native is killed by Stain instead of dying in the Paranormal Liberation War Arc.
• Enemy Civil War: Bakugo accidentally causes one when he challenges Shigaraki as part of his Batman Gambit at Kiyashi Mall - when Shigaraki rejects the challenge and moves to have all of 1-A murdered by the Nomus, Muscular becomes angry that he won't be getting the fight he wanted and attacks Shigaraki.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Mei is introduced as being concerned about Izuku's mental health, while also getting sidetracked by her desire to invent things to the point she has to repeatedly remind herself that her best friend's well-being takes priority, highlighting her one-track mind.
  • Izuku technically gets two: from the perspective of the reader, who is introduced to him as being deep in a depressive funk; and from the perspective of Momo, whose first impression of him was from the Sports Festival, where he fought with ferocity and skill which impressed her, even if she was worried he was like another Bakugo.
• Evil Versus Evil: Without the presence of the Class 1-A members at Hosu, the Nomu directly interfered with Stain's work, leading him to publicly swear vengeance upon the League of Villains. This cuts into Shigaraki's recruitment attempts.
• Flexing Those Non-Biceps: Averted for Momo. Despite being highly athletic, due to her unusual, high-efficiency fat cells, she's unable to develop any visible muscle tone.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: When Momo suggests that Bakugo's Inferiority Superiority Complex might have originated from when Izuku called him out for his behavior when they were kids, Izuku ponders if that would make it his fault. Mei and Momo firmly make it clear that the only person to blame would still be Bakugo, for doubling down on his actions.
• Gadgeteer Genius: The roles Izuku and Mei fulfill here for sure. Best exemplified by the quality of the gauntlets they provide Momo for the final exams, which both Power Loader and Eraserhead consider superb craftmanship far above their grade level.
• Generation Xerox: Momo looks so much like a younger version of her mom that people are always being surprised at just how close the resemblance is. This is actually a cause for concern for her because that means her breasts will continue to grow, along with the subsequent back pain her mom suffers.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • Deconstructed with the League of Villains, as Momo considers them only a bunch of malcontents, and nothing particularly dangerous to the stability of Japan in comparison to other villains out there. However, she is viewing this from the perspective of a student, unaware of the information Nedzu and All Might are working with.
  • Trying to investigate Bakugo's background leads Aizawa to uncover leads hinting at a far greater, and insidious conspiracy.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Bakugo attends UA expecting to be at the top of his class as ever, dominating the rest with his brilliance, unstoppable Quirk, and obvious destiny to be the next #1 Hero. Instead, his entire class comes to outright despise him as the semester goes on, he is not the top of his class, and his team was the only one to get a failing grade in the final exams (largely because of him). It comes to a head at Kiyashi Mall when he refuses to risk his career by lying to cover for Izuku, to which Camie threatens that if he does not cooperate the others will lie about Bakugo in order to get him expelled. Faced with the prospect nobody would believe his attempts to defend himself, he is forced to capitulate.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • This tends to be Aizawa in a nutshell, due to being a Stern Teacher.
    • Aizawa's resistance towards Momo trying to take her final exam with new support gear that she's only received mere hours before the test in question. On one hand, he has the valid concern that changing your entire fighting style right before an important event is generally a bad idea, and that should she still manage to win, might fall prey to becoming too dependent upon her support gear/weaponry over her other abilities, making her a worse combatant overall. However, the way he chooses to express this makes him come off as abrasive, condescending, and insulting to Momo, Izuku, and Mei (which isn't helped by Izuku's past history with Aizawa rejecting Izuku's entrance into the Hero Course, meaning Momo has even more reason to dig her heels in), and he underestimates how aware Momo already is about the risk of using her gear as a crutch. After the exam, which Momo decisively wins using said support gear, while he does compliment Izuku and Mei on making fantastic tech, he still expresses worry about Momo possibly developing bad habits regardless.
    • During the post-final exams debrief, Aizawa raises again his belief that Izuku's Quirklessness leaves him too vulnerable to be a hero even in the extremely unlikely chance that the HPSC would be okay with it, viewing himself as being Cruel to Be Kind so the kid doesn't get killed pointlessly, since he's seen plenty of people die despite having huge combat advantages that Izuku would sorely be lacking. When Momo labels that as bigotry, he also states that his other major concern was that Izuku was being far too reckless with his life during the Sports Festival, and he can't in good conscience give his support to a student who doesn't value his own well-being. Something that Izuku reluctantly concedes as having been a fair assessment of his behavior during the event after leaving the room. Aizawa also points out how challenging fighting the status quo will be, and while he wishes them luck, idealism can only take them so far and they need to be fully aware just how much they're risking their futures if they choose to continue down this path. Something that comes up literally hours later, when Momo is placed in the unfortunate scenario of having to cover up Izuku and Mei's vigilante involvement in the Mall incident.
    • Aizawa expresses concerns that Izuku's desire to help people like a hero, recklessly rushing in to help people, would lead to him committing vigilantism, an accusation which highly offends Momo. Sure enough though, Izuku in short order starts doing exactly that.
  • Nedzu's decision to keep Bakugo within the Hero Course with only minimal punishment for his actions in the cafeteria was highly unpopular with his classmates. However, he privately noted that while these feelings were valid, he was more concerned with the possibility of the League of Villains recruiting Bakugo, which was more likely if he was expelled. Therefore he concluded that keeping the unruly student around outweighed how Class 1-A felt. Sure enough, Shigaraki did indeed attempt that with Bakugo.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Part of Momo's frustration at Nedzu over how he handles things like Izuku being denied the Hero Course, or Bakugo only being suspended, is she is unaware of the full extent to which he is concerned about the League of Villains, and knows nothing about the recent discovery of a secret organization by Aizawa with disturbing influence. For him, she is a sheltered student and a young teenager (which in fairness she is), and thus does not need to know the greater scope of things, while she is upset at her concerns being overruled and her friend suffering unfairly.
    • Even afterwards the battle at the mall and All Might's retirement, Class 1-A only knows about roughly as much as the public.
  • Melissa and David Shield are this with All Might's condition, and we particularly see Melissa's reaction as she learns more from Izuku about her surrogate uncle. For her, All Might's decline was sudden and shocking, and she is angry and appalled to learn he had been hiding how bad it had been for years.
• Mama Bear: Momo's mom definitely fulfills this role in how protective she is of her daughter. This is fueled by her own childhood, where she was at one point kidnapped and held hostage for several days as a teenager, an incident that has made her hyper-aware of the dangers her family faces due to their wealth.
• Manipulative Bastard: During the final exams as they are being pulled in by Thirteen's gravity, Aoyama intentionally implies that Ochako has feelings for Bakugo, leading her to lose her grip on the railing as she loses control and tries "to shake the stupid out of him." While this won them the match, since it forced Thirteen cut off the gravity so as to not kill her student, allowing Ochako to cuff her, the stunt nevertheless cost them a lot of points. In retaliation, Ochako rubs dirt into his hair, which her classmates joke about being a punishment worse than death for someone so obsessed with his looks.
• Mundane Object Amazement: Jirou raises a concern about how loud noises hurt her after Bakugo unintentionally deafens her, wondering if Mei can invent earplugs that only activate upon certain sound thresholds. Mei just grabs some spare ones off her workbench, and Jirou is absolutely amazed that she had something that so perfectly addresses her problem on hand. Mei, confused, explains that the type of earplugs that she asked for aren't only simply to make, but are standard lab safety gear that is in heavy supply for all Support students due to the nature of their work.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Nezu admits in Chapter 15 that he has failed Izuku, much like all his previous teachers have failed him.
  • Bakugo privately notes that when the school called his mom to explain what's been going on, instead of angrily reprimanding him like usual, she uncharacteristically started crying from grief and has been stuck in a depressive state ever since, something that he reluctantly admits worries him.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Ochako and Aoyama defeat Thirteen when Aoyama tricks Ochako into letting go a handrail so she can grapple with the teacher. The only differences are that Aoyama implies Ochako might be interested in Bakugo and that Ochako lets go because she wants to wallop him.
  • Bakugo gets kidnapped by the League of Villains when they attempt to recruit him.
• The Needs of the Many: An appalled Momo learns this was the deeper motivation behind denying Izuku a transfer to the hero course. The HPSC would oppose any change to the status quo, and due to previous tensions between them and Nedzu, lead to bureaucratic and legal fighting between them. This is especially concerning, as he sees Japan is on the brink of serious conflicts that could engulf the nation, at the very same time All Might is on the verge of retirement, so the heroes and their allies need to present a solid front. Measured against this, he feels crushing Izuku's dreams to be an unfortunate, but acceptable price.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Mei all the way. This includes impulsive hugs, landing atop individuals, or grabbing potential clients and dragging them to her babies.
• Not in My Contract: When Momo's parents learn about what their daughter did on her internship, their reaction is to contact the family lawyers to see if they can sue Uwabami for making her do work outside the contract - Momo had signed up to be an intern at a hero agency, not a model in a shampoo commercial.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Prim and proper Momo comes up with the plan to lie to the authorities to protect Izuku and Mei from vigilante charges, and makes sure the rest of 1-A follows through on this criminal act.
• Polyamory: Given the shipping tags, the story will eventually end on Momo, Izuku, and Mei all entering into a relationship together. Assuming Izuku's head does not explode from the very thought of it.
• Pride Before a Fall: Momo drops the original quote ("Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall") when talking about Bakugo failing the practical test.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Defied. Personally, Aizawa considers himself to be a Stern Teacher, especially given his emphasis on making sure his students will graduate into a dangerous occupation and survive. However, his attempts at also being a Trickster Mentor often breeds resentment and annoyance from his students, and his abrasive attitude means his genuine good intentions are misconstrued by his class. Indeed, Momo even fears he is Quirkist.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
  • Played with for Momo, as she generally does not like to take advantage of her privileged background. That said, she will use it to help her friends, by working to help Mei and Izuku get the Support Course equivalent of work studies with one of her family's companies. And told the threat the HPSC can pose to Izuku's desired career path, she argues that she plans to take full advantage of her family's legal teams if the organization does try anything.
  • In direct contrast, Momo's parents despise the very notion of nepotism, and make it very clear to Izuku and Mei that while they may have this coming summer internship, if they wish to be rehired, they have to prove their worth on their own merit; being friends of Momo will get them nowhere.
  • What actually leads to the first hints of the MLA being uncovered. Aldera Middle School is actually a place of theirs to help groom future recruits. However, it is supposed to be subtle, which is everything but what is happening there, with the cell leader there taking his own initiative, secure in the belief that his family connections will protect him.
• Shipper on Deck: Mina for Izuku/Momo, noting signs of how they are falling for each other, and wanting to delicately help. Especially since "Shy boy meeting pretty girl, boy and girl spending lots of time together, boy coming out of his shell for girl," is the basis for many of her favorite love stories.
• Shout-Out: Izuku's support gear (and by extension, Momo's) are basically Iron Man's repulsor boots and gauntlets.
• Skilled, but Naive: Momo starts out as this in the beginning, being too trusting of others and the system. As the story continues, thanks to the influence of other characters, she becomes more aware of the shades of grey that surround that happenings around her and her friends and the need to Take the Third Option if she wants to stick by her idealistic principles.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Bakugo's public outburst towards Izuku, and assaulting other students, in the cafeteria lead Nedzu to dig deeper into them both, and in the process uncover a conspiracy involved with their middle school.
  • Camie could have passed the test by using her Master of Illusion trick to cover her... if All Might hadn't casually kicked a can right in her general direction instead of just picking it up.
• Spider-Sense: Mei presents Momo with sensors that warn her of an imminent attack via alerts on her new visor. This helps her in the fight with Aizawa, as she manages to avoid an ambush using them.
• Statuesque Stunner: Momo is tall and well-endowed for her age. The fact that her mom is even larger in both perspectives, and that her dad is even taller, means it is expected Momo still has a good way to grow.
• The Stations of the Canon:
  • The League of Villains attacked the Unforeseen Simulation Joint while 1-A was doing rescue training.
  • Izuku's arms end up badly scarred from his fight with Shouto, although in this case, it was from his gauntlets overheating and exploding while he was wearing them.
  • Stain attacked Native just as Shigaraki sent the Nomus to attack Hosu.
  • Shigaraki causes a ruckus at the mall.
• Technology Marches On:invoked Heavily averted, to Mei's utter disgust. Thanks to the revelation of Quirks, the scientific development and technological advances that mankind had been making prior to the 21st century has since stagnated; most, if not all, further development in scientific fields have been directly related to support gear.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • Deconstructed with Bakugo, who already wasn't generally appreciated by his classmates for his horrible personality, which has Momo and Kirishima doing damage control to keep the entirety of 1-B from believing they are the same, and have concerns about how the rest of the school sees them. This only worsens after he publicly attacks Izuku in the cafeteria, with even Kirishima coming to regard Bakugo as nothing more than a bully, and everyone hating that his only visible punishment was getting suspended (unaware of Nedzu's concerns about the League of Villains killing him, or worse, recruiting him and the subsequent consequences). This becomes a problem during the Final Exams, where the teachers want to test how Bakugo can handle his teamwork... but even before the match begins, his classmates have already concluded that he will not cooperate, and that however is unlucky enough to have him as a partner is probably better off abandoning him while he does a Leeroy Jenkins.
    • It finally starts to come to a head at the mall, where Bakugo finds himself abducted by the League of Villains to not only be recruited, but to prove himself by killing his helpless classmates. This, combined with everything else — the forced lectures from Nedzu, his mother's uncharacteristic depression, etc. — finally causes a Jerkass Realization that Izuku has always been right about him acting more like a villain than a hero. While afterwards his classmates genuinely believe he was never interested in joining the League of Villains, they still call him out for acting so villainous at the Sports Festival that he appeared the perfect recruit.
  • After her meeting with Nedzu where he lays out that he crushed Izuku's dream to keep the HPSC an ally for the oncoming conflicts he foresees, Momo realizes that most of the concerns and unsavory rumors about the organization are most likely true, making her question why he would want such unreliable allies in the first place.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • The entirety of Aizawa's final exam against Momo (and Shouto). He was expecting to fight an insecure teenager who is in danger of becoming too dependent upon a new piece of inferior support gear as a crutch. Not only does his attempt to destroy the gauntlets with a brick fail to significantly damage them, due to underestimating just how talented Izuku and Mei are, but Momo herself was able force a confrontation, keep up with him in direct combat (albeit with him having weights on), and delivered the decisive blow which knocked him unconscious for an hour, in contrast to all the other teachers who got out of their fights unscathed.
  All the underground Hero could do was stand there and watch in horror as Momo pulled off the impressive feat of punching him square in the stomach mid-flight with her right hand as she triggered a focused blast from her gauntlet.
  • Bakugo underestimates how powerful All Might is, and where he is himself in comparison, to the point it is less amusing and more outright pitiful.
• What If?: Izuku being in the Support Course instead of Hero Course has caused a few waves.
  • As Izuku was not in Hosu, Stain managed to murder Native and escape.
    • Since he was still free, Stain was able to publish his own version of the events, preventing the League of Villains from capitalizing on the "coordinated" attack. This leads to the League losing out on several people who joined the League in canon because of Stain, recruiting only Muscular, Mustard, and Moonfish.
  • Izuku does not have One For All, and one of the Big Three has it.
  • The Kiyashi Mall event changes to a full-assault with Muscular, Mustard, and several Nomu, which the students manage to push off, before All Might arrives to capture Shigaraki and All for One challenges All Might.
• What Is This Feeling?: When Melissa offers to show Izuku around her lab, Mei is mystified as to why she feels so jealous of it.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Harshly averted for Shigaraki during the assault on the mall. His inability to accept the slightest deviation from his envisioned scenario means he loses a (false) attempt to recruit Bakugo, and then has Muscular turn against him because Shigaraki refuses to let the other villain kill the members of 1-A instead of the Nomu. This inability to adapt making things quickly turn against him.

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