Work Text:
God. The creator, the giver of life, the higher being that controls our daily actions and judges us on our sins. Truly to be feared and worshipped—
“Oh my god, shut up! You’re saying that stupid mantra only cause you see him coming into the room! He can’t fucking hear us, you dumb fuck.” The puffer glared angrily at the clownfish swimming back into his anemone, his annoyance showing as his body puffed slightly.
Izuku fluttered his tail in the anemone a couple times to get his anxiety down before swimming back to the surface near Katsuki, the anemone’s slime giving him an easy defense just in case the other mer decides to bite him. Again.
“But he is technically god, Kacchan. I mean, look! He’s feeding the land seal!” Izuku points to a german shepherd dog barking happily at being let out of his cage and waiting for a full bowl of kibble. “Once he feeds him we’re next!”
Katsuki, ever impatient, swims up and down the tank glass, trying to get the attention of his owner. his creamy belly and puffer tail turn cloudy and gray with his added frustration of being ignored as Izuku just swims back down to the carpet anemone, cleaning up the micro algae around his little area to look neater. He knows his home is too deep for his owner to easily get to without having to get on a stair set and taking his shirt off, so he tries his best to help.
Their owner leaves the room and Katsuki cusses under his breath, threatening to squirt water when their owner opens the glass lid later. All the commotion kept him distracted enough to not notice the snail getting dropped into the tank just for him.
“Snail!” Izuku yelled out, watching the shell make its way down to the bottom. A blur of yellow and black dived to catch the meal and Katsuki took it to the back of the tank to enjoy it.
As Izuku made his way to the surface of the tank, he noticed his other tank mates coming out and waiting for their food as well. Shoto, the newest addition to their tank, was a sleek neon dottyback, a bit aloof and confrontational. Izuku had met dotties back while in the pet store tanks and had learned they're a bit aggressive. He was still determined to make friends with the two-toned merman. Ochako was inching closer to the main coral of the tank, hoping to find any leftovers from any previous meals.
“Mornin’ Ocha-kun!”
Ochako didn’t look up from where she was focused on—a slight cave in between rocks—but hummed in acknowledgment towards the clownfish. Her chubby frame scooted across the sand before making her way to lean on the glass wall watching the human on the other side thaw a cube of bloodworms and mysis shrimp.
“Izu-kun, you know what time it is? It looks like we’re getting worms today too! What’s the special occasion?” Ochako glanced up towards the glass lids of the tank and waiting as patient as she can to be fed via a pipette.
He did notice the worms and hoped he’ll be able to catch some for his anemone to eat as well before Kacchan or Shoto steal some. He always needed to make sure his partner is always well for him to continue having protection!
Speaking of the other fish not being accounted for, Shoto’s bi-colored body made a mad dash towards the surface, making sure he’d be the first to grab his meal. By now, the snail was gone and Katsuki had made his way to the surface as well, belly creamy and a pleased tummy full of snail flesh and shell to start him off. He snipped towards Shoto’s pretty fins a couple times as a warning to back off, but the other fish rolled his eyes and ignored him instead.
The whole tank watched with hungry eyes as the human’s calloused hands moved with ease around the tank’s small shelf and top lids, grabbing some shrimp pellets and marine sticks for all the animals in the tank. He dropped in some coral vitamins and phytoplankton for the coral and anemone to enjoy and dropped a veggie round in the corner for the cleaner shrimp that comes out every once in a while. The frozen cubes were completely thawed and ready to be dropped and their owner quickly separated two pipettes worth of blood worms for Ochako before dumping the rest inside.
Katsuki and Shoto made quick work grabbing what they could and swimming off to their respective corners to munch away as Izuku went for a couple worms to give to the anemone, a marine stick for himself, and some extra mysis shrimp for Ochako later. She was more focused on trying to bite the food out of the pipette, latching onto the plastic and grabbing worms out of its entrance as their owner tried to shake her off. He shot the other pipette in her general direction to get her distracted—it worked.
Soon enough his gruff hands were dried off with an old towel and running through his long, black bed head of hair. He huffed for his dog to come over, took a seat on his desk chair conveniently placed in front of the tank, and watched as his tank frenzied about for their morning meal.