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The sigh he let out temporarily fogged up his vision in the cold.
His body ached and the adrenaline had long worn off.
After the war, he was never really exposed to villains with fatal quirks, or rebels with the insane willpower to destroy like those he fought against that day. But there were still villains, and he was still a hero.
It was a given that he'd still get injured, which meant unavoidable trips to hospitals.
He hated the smell of hospitals. And even though knew his line of work will inevitably force the smell to be ingrained in his mind, it will never be familiar enough for him to ignore fully. He’s always more irritable in hospitals: something about being squinted at and having one body part after another checked.
And yet, without fail, he always leaves with a sense of relief.
He reached down into his left pocket, pulled his phone out, and searched for directions. He typed in the address for the 2-A heights alliance building, and silently groaned when he saw that it was a full hour walk away.
There weren't any available bus rides for the night—the transportation system still being reformed and all after the war—and as much as a taxi or something of the like would've been convenient, he’d prefer walking his aching body several miles than sit in the vicinity of a stranger forcing small talk upon him.
His phone provided him three optional detours, the last being the shortest route. He clicked on it and to his pleasure, found that the walk was shortened to only twenty-five minutes. The only downside was that he’d have to walk on the sandy shore for a good portion of the journey and the boots for his hero suit would have to be deep cleaned the following day.
The first five minutes were almost calm. If it hadn’t been for the bruises trailing up his legs or the ache in his neck, it would’ve maybe felt serene. He glanced at the sky and watched as his breath created the only cloud visible during the late hour. Few cars drove by and only a couple people walked unbothered on the sidewalks. Nearly every store was closed, with the exception of a couple 24 hour cafes and gas stations.
He thought back to his earlier fight. It was him against eight d-lister villains. The numbers were a disadvantage, sure, but it was easy. Must’ve been embarrassing for eight grown men to lose against a high schooler. A slight grin painted his face and he scoffed quietly to himself.
Some villains.
His train of thought was interrupted by the robotic voice from his phone telling him to take a left. Complying, the scenery changed, and a moment later he grimaced as he felt grains of sand push their way up into the crevices of the bottom of his boots.
The soothing sound of waves crashing onto each other only slightly mellowed him out. He quickly glanced at his phone.
Eighteen minutes left.
His eyes trailed back to the sand he walked on when heard a subtle splash in the distance. He spared it only a small glance before rearing his gaze back to his intended path.
Another splash: louder this time. His eyebrows formed a pit and his glance lasted a little longer. He caught only a millisecond of something slightly glowy breaking the barrier between the top of the water and the air.
Another splash, except this time he halted completely. He turned to the water and froze. A creature slowly crawled their way out, using their hands to propel them forward. The night sky allowed the creature to almost aluminate. It collapsed on its stomach.
Bakugou was very rarely at a loss for words, always biting back or speaking out of turn. But this just so happened to be one of those times. He very cautiously took a few steps towards it.
When it lifted its head slowly, he stopped.
He finally took in the shape of the creature. A near-human female body from the waist up, and–from what he can tell–a very long tail of blues and purples and pinks from the waist down.
Her cat-like slit pupils shrunk as the moonlight shone over her eyes, both lavender, but one darker than the other. Her hair wasn’t too far off either. Wet strands of dark and light purples.
She quickly pulled herself up, upper body resting on her palms and he jolted backwards in defense.
His eyes studied her for a moment and he quickly became aware of her breathing pattern: fast and hollow. The frequent twitches from her waist provided him only one possible conclusion. She was hurt.
He squinted; she tilted her head.
A small titter left her mouth, almost synonymous to that of a dolphin.
His gaze only narrowed further and he could only whisper in response. “What the fuck are you..?”
She blinked and confusion fogged her vision before it was quickly replaced with pain.
A quick squeak left her mouth and she was back on her stomach.
He paused for a moment.
Fuck, he’d seen his fair share of mutant quirks and heteromorphs—his classmate had a bird head for God sake—but nothing like this. Was this even a quirk or a different species altogether?
He shut his thoughts down when he noticed her breaths became more like gasps. A pool of something that wasn’t sea water, leaked from under her and despite the dark atmosphere, he could clearly identify it as blood.
“Shit, you’re bleeding.”
She tittered in distress as he sighed and crouched down. “Alright, I’ll try to patch ‘ya up. But don’t try any bullshit, got it?”
Her head rested on her arms and she made no attempt to push him away as he placed two hands on her waist and slowly rolled her over. His eyes trailed down at a cut near the transition between her waist and her tail. His eyebrows furrowed slightly. He wasn’t exactly sure of the anatomy of this..creature, but he could easily determine the cut was deeper than what would be considered safe in any living being.
He reached into his pocket and grabbed a couple bandages the hospital had given him for when he wanted to change his own. He unwrapped the bandages and focused on wrapping her wound, ignoring the very wary stare she offered him.
She hissed and jolted when he first made contact with the wound.
“Tch, I’m tryna help you dammit, stay still .” And although she didn't understand him, the sternness of his voice was enough for her to get the idea.
She twitched as he wrapped the tail tightly with whatever bandage he had. When he was done, he sat up and eyed her down. Had he really just made contact with a half fish half human thing?
He watched as she tilted her head at her now bandaged tail, looking at it like it was some kind of extraordinary discovery. She trailed her lavender gaze to his crimson one and blinked.
A short titter left her mouth and her throat bobbed. He ‘tsked and got the memo.
“Yeah, you're welcome. You owe me new bandages.” He scoffed.
She only blinked in confusion, another indecipherable sound leaving her.
He huffed.
She smiled in response and sat up, readying herself to swim back into the ocean. Moments before she could propel herself with her tail, he yelled and she froze.
“Hey!” He narrowed his gaze at her. “If you get in the ocean now, the bandage will come off. I am not helping you again. Don’t be a dumbass.”
She only tittered and tilted her head for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.
The language barrier was really not helping him.
He sighed and took out his phone. The words “continue straight” sat at the top of the screen for directions to the dorms, and right above it, the numbers “1:34 am.” He internally complained about having to wake up tomorrow at 5:40 am for school and his damn near perfect sleep schedule getting interrupted.
He pulled his gaze away from the phone and back to the creature. “I don’t have time for this.”
He rolled his eyes when she made that high pitched sound again.
“Just don’t be stupid.” He finally said.
She smiled just slightly, and although they couldn't communicate, there was an understanding in the air.
She flapped her tails softly against the water and he took that as his cue to leave. He let out a small scoff and began to walk away when she laid back down, this time, on her back.
Humans were a rare sight. Well not exactly rare, but definitely not common during this time of night.
It wasn't that her kind are afraid of humans, sure there have been a multitude of frightening experiences in the past between the two, and they don’t exactly live in harmony, but it wasn't all bad. Not to mention, there have been less encounters between them in the past couple decades.
She blinked at the stars that splattered across the sky like schools of fish. She wondered about the human she had just met. He spoke weirdly, she thought. She'd never seen a human up close, only heard about them through the older members of her pod, yet, she still thought he looked weird.
Not a bad weird, no, just different. He didn’t have scales trailing from his neck to his sideburns, or vertical pupils. He wore strange coverings. She was told humans wore coverings but nothing she heard described what he had on. She saw two intersecting lines on his chest, and this big pufferfish-like thing on one of his arms.
She breathed out slowly.
It was never fun to quarrel with a shark—those egotistical bastards—but for once, she was kind of happy she did, even if he won the fish food in the end.
Her stomach rumbled as she pictured the memory. Right, she never got to eat huh.
She glanced at the weird covering on her tail and remembered the warning-like sound that came out of the human when she was about to swim back into the ocean.
The wrapping was nearly soaked red; did that mean she was able to go back into the ocean?
Usually, she’d cover a wound up with seaweed, but for some reason she couldn't find any, just a bunch of weird clear circular things. She thought she would find some washed up on the shore, but luckily enough, that human helped her with his own seaweed thing.
Another grumble.
She figured the wound didn’t hurt as much anyway. She splashed her tail against the water and disappeared below it.
When he arrived at the dorm's entrance, his eyes met the frame of his teacher leaning on the wall, his visible eye, closed.
He walked up the concrete steps and Aizawa slowly raised an eyebrow.
His voice was low when he spoke. “Are your injuries fine?”
Bakugou narrowed his eyes for a moment.
“You-”
“Best Jeanist let me know about your battle. Eight villains taken down, limited injuries to yourself, and minor damage to the surrounding area. Good work.”
Bakugou doesn’t dare show the pride that flickered in his chest and instead opted for an obvious response. “They were weak. D-listers.”
“Still.” He said.
He just lightly scoffed in return. “Why are you out here anyway?”
“It’s my duty to make sure all of my students are doing fine, even if the injuries are minor.”
“Well I’m fine.”
“Sure. You’re still required to get a physical tomorrow morning before homeroom.” He replied.
“Yeah, yeah. I know.”
“Good. Now get some sleep; we have a joint class training exercise tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Exhaustion has never stopped him from beating his classmates’ asses anyway.
His next, unexpected, encounter with the fish-like human is weirdly similar to his first. He had just finished with a battle, except this time he didn’t have any injuries. This one was smaller than the last, and he was partnered up with this student from Shiketsu anyway. It was annoyingly easy. He walked irritatedly as he continued his daytime weekend patrol, thinking about the lack of a challenging assignment. How was he supposed to get better if there were never any strong villains in the area he was assigned in?
He glanced at his phone and found his shift had ended five minutes ago. He thought about going back to the dorms and doing something productive, except he couldn't
He’d already finished his homework for tomorrow and Monday, and he could go to the gym but it was afternoon and he hated when too many people were around, hogging all the good equipment.
He decided to return to Best Jeanist’s agency and change into regular clothes. His phone occasionally buzzed as he got messages from the class group chat, and left them all on delivered as he realized they were nearly all about a stupid argument between dunce face and raccoon eyes.
He left the agency with the intention to go nowhere in particular, as long as it was deserted and there weren't annoying ass civilians asking for a photo or an autograph.
As he walked on the sidewalk, he realized the familiarity of the route he was unconsciously taking.
He remembered his encounter with the creature and found himself walking on a sandy path.
He watched the waves crashed onto the shore and thought about her surreal appearance. Were there more of her? He wasn’t an idiot, he knew she was some kind of mermaid. The thought just hadn’t crossed his mind when he was sore and half asleep a week ago.
He remembered learning about them briefly in middle school—how they were rare and once hunted by humans, but now are unbothered. The topic only somewhat interested him before he long forgot about them, but after his weird encounter with one, he found himself thinking about them more. Do they have a separate society, quirks of their own, heroes and villains?
The beach was unsurprisingly empty, given the cold weather. He found a dock stretching far into the ocean and decided to walk till the edge, where he could sit down and maybe read the latest news articles about the top pro heroes.
While in the middle of a video analyzing the advantages of Hawk's speed, Bakugou heard a splash in the distance and instinctively looked up.
He found only ripples in the distance. He looked back down at his phone, until a smaller splash closer to him made his eyes slowly trail above the screen. A pair of eyes were peeking from the water.
He froze from the unexpected encounter and blinked at the eyes in front of him.
Lavender met his crimson and for a second they were unrecognizable. They were warmer now, the night sky absent, having no effect on their hue.
“You.”
She lifted her head higher, her neck above the water, and he studied her for a moment.
She laid on her back for a second and pulled her tail up, wiggling the part that had been previously injured, only a scar to show for it.
He eyed the scar and she pushed her tail back into the water.
A wide smile painted her face and she tittered almost giddily.
He scoffed. “So it’s healed.”
His speech remained indecipherable to her, but she decided to thank him. She was unsure how humans thanked other humans, but she wondered if it's similar to her kind.
She paused and puts a finger up. His eyes slightly widened at the gesture: it being one he could finally understand. She was telling him to wait.
He rolled his eyes as she descended into the water.
When she came up a couple moments later, she had a dead fish in between her sharp teeth. It twitched and bled in her mouth as she smiled.
Bakugou deadpanned. “What the fuck.”
She laid it down on the dock and gestured to it with her chin.
He glanced between the fish and her a couple times before scoffing. “I’m not eating a fucking raw fish.”
She tilted her head. She caught a catfish; they were pretty rare in that area and although the tail was rather tough and bland, the head was really tasty. Why wasn’t he eating it?
She pushed it closer to him with her nose.
“No.”
She tittered, seemingly finally understanding what he wanted. She smiled and grabbed the fish, biting the body off of its head.
His top lip curled at the sight, disgusted to see the fish sliced in half.
She let the body fall and placed the head on the dock, pushing it with her nose once more.
He sighed, irritated.
“No.” He repeated, crossing his arms.
This time, she pouted similar to a human. She was so confused. Was he not a fan of catfish?
She tried gesturing at the head one more, to which he finally threw it back at her. She caught the head with her mouth.
This time, he gestured with his chin towards her.
“You eat it.”
She gestured back at him.
He muttered under his breath. “For fucks sake.” He groaned. “You eat it. Not me.”
She squinted her eyes, as if to test his assurance, and slowly bit into the head.
“Finally.”
She gladly ate the catfish head, oblivious to his disgust every time she chewed.
She gazed up at him, wondering whether or not she should get him a different fish. And for the second time, she put a finger up.
Except now, he shut it down immediately.
“No. ” He said, stern.
Her finger faltered and she blinked at him.
Bakugou outwardly groaned as he realized just how annoying the language barrier had gotten. He gestured toward himself with his pointer finger.
He spoke almost slowly. “No.”
He switched the trajectory of his finger and pointed it towards her. “Yes.”
As she eyed him curiously, she decided to try something new in an attempt to communicate with him better. She lifted her own arm and mirrored his actions.
First to him. “...No.” And then to herself. “..Yes.”
His eyes widened.
“Shit, you can do that?”
She smiled at the human’s reaction. She still didn’t understand him, but surprise can be heard through any language barrier.
Right then and there, she made a decision: she’d learn how to communicate with the human.
Learning from the human, whom she learned was called “Katsuki Bakugou” (which she still hasn’t managed to pronounce properly) was getting increasingly difficult.
Their meetings were scarce. Only when Bakugou was assigned to work in that area could he use his free time to talk to the mermaid.
Every meeting between them, Bakugou had made seem like a chore, and despite only knowing him for a month, she could tell it wasn’t as annoying for him as he made it seem.
She had introduced herself as well, but he opted to call her “scales” once he learned her name was a bunch of titters he was sure a human was incapable of mimicking.
Now, he was splashing her in the face with his shoe every time she mispronounced his name. The water didn’t annoy her that much, the scolding, however, did.
“C’mon! It’s six syllables. How hard can it be?”
She pursed her lips. “Hard.”
He rolled his eyes. “Do it again.”
She huffed. “Kats-ooki Bak-uhgo.”
He deadpanned. “That was worse than the last.”
Her eyebrows furrowed and she tittered to herself.
“Hey! I know you’re cursing me out in your shitty language!”
She tittered louder in response, glaring at him.
He glared back and scoffed. “Whatever. Just start anew.”
Her gaze softened for a moment and she pointed to herself. “I’m..” She clicked her name.
“I’m seventeen old.” She paused. “Years old.” He slowly nodded.
“I’m a mermaid.”
She looked at him for approval and smiled widely when he nodded.
“So you’re not a complete lost cause.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
It’s not her fault; speaking was hard, besides, she could understand way better than she could speak.
She slyly smiled while he mocked her, a mischievous thought forming in her mind.
In the midst of his mockery, she grabbed one of his hands with both of her own and pulled him in. She could only hear a second of a yell before it was cut off from the water.
She watched him swim up and begin to tread water and laughed as he yelled.
“The fuck was that for!? I’ll kick your ass-”
She only laughed harder, basking in the sweet feeling of getting him back for mocking her struggles of pronunciation. Her laughs seemed both human and not human. Half of it had the same humane huffs of air and gasps, but the other half was more marine-like.
He stopped yelling and her laugh began to die down. She found him staring at her, no distinct emotion, just him looking at her.
She tilted her head. “Hm?”
He “tsked” and climbed the dock, sitting at the edge once more. His gaze traveled down his clothes and his eye twitched.
“I’ll kill you for getting me wet.” He growled lowly. “You’ll see.”
She blinked and followed his line of sight to his clothes.
Huh, the coverings are stuck to him.
She noticed them outline his torso, his arms, his legs. She brought her eyes back up to his face. She noticed he was already looking at her.
Suddenly, she felt the urge to descend into the water.
He squinted at her. “What are you looking at?”
She blinked and pointed at him. “Hair.”
She watched him run his hands through his hair. “Yeah, obviously it’s wet. You shoved me in the fucking water.”
His complaint earned him a chuckle from her and he scoffed in return.
The fucking gall.
Bakugou finally decided to get her back when she least expected it. He wasn’t one for pranks. He thought they were childish and stupid. In one case, and only one case, was it acceptable: in the event that he needed to get revenge on someone.
Which is why he was walking to the edge of the dock, holding a perfect replica of one of the most rare fish in the region made of plastic behind his back.
He didn’t question why the gas station he was getting water from had plastic replicas of fish, only that this was a perfect way to get that scaled bastard back.
When he reached the end of the dock, it took her only a few moments to reach the surface and greet him.
He slyly grinned as she tittered excitedly. He slowly revealed the fish from behind his back, and her eyes shined at the ‘gift.’
He teasingly waved it at her for a second before throwing it in the ocean. She caught it quickly and began to swim down. He scoffed at the water before he noticed her figure ascend back into the surface.
When she made it above the water once more, they made eye contact. Bakugou immediately cackled as he noticed her glare.
And her gaze just slightly softened. Her ears twitched as she listened to his laugh. It was entirely human, but similar in that it had the same huffs of air and gasps as mermen.
His laugh died down as he noticed her silent gaze on him.
She unconsciously tittered something, eyes widening at her own speech.
He raised an eyebrow and for once, she was grateful he couldn’t understand her.
“What does that mean?” He ‘tsked.
She shyly smiled and shook her head as if to say “never mind.” He only rolled his eyes in response.
They never established a specific day when they’d meet. It was always random days around the same couple hours. But it always happened at least twice a week.
Bakugou wasn’t one to get worried or concerned, especially when it didn’t concern himself or a select few people. But out of the four times that week he managed to finish his duties early and come to the dock, she hadn’t shown up to meet him.
For the first time he had actually wondered how she always knew he was there and why, suddenly, she had stopped showing up.
It’s not like he cared, no. Besides, if she abruptly decided it was dangerous to communicate with a species that had previously hunted her own, he couldn’t blame her.
Although, he’ll kill her if that’s the case ‘cause when did he ever pose a threat to her?
About to leave after having visited the dock for the fifth time that week, he halted when he heard a weak titter from the distance.
He squinted at the sea, attempting to determine if he actually heard that or if it was a phantom of a noise he had grown familiar with.
He almost flinched when she swam above the surface and quickly lifted herself up onto the dock.
Her wide eyes met his own and her scared gaze cut his scolding off before he could even begin.
“The fuck happened to you?”
Her breathing had been rapid but they slowed as she took deep breaths, switching from gills to lungs automatically.
“Humans scare me and family.” She stuttered slightly. “Gone now. We are safe.”
He squinted. “That shit still happens?”
She softly smiled. “Rare.”
“Hm.” His gaze trailed, eyeing her top to bottom.
She internally squirmed under his eyes.
He stopped when his eyes met her own.
They fell silent for a while. It wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable, more serene.
She sat up and he sat down next to her, cross-legged. She leaned back, holding her weight on her arms, lightly splashing the water in front of her with her tail.
The temperature had dropped and he began to shiver. He glanced to his side and noticed her indifference; how temperature resistant was she?
He sighed internally at his lack of a sweater and opted for the next easiest thing: his quirk. He just lightly activated his quirk, not enough for pops to go off, but enough to radiate warmth. He let his hands hover over his body.
She had noticed the light in her peripheral vision and turned to look at Bakugou.
Her eyes went wide and her lips parted slightly.
“You-” She gasped. “How!?”
She grabbed one of his wrists with both her hands and pulled it towards her.
“Hey! Let go-”
She laughed, astonished. “This-” She cut herself off. Her lack of vocabulary made it difficult to show her surprise, but her expression conveyed it just fine.
He huffed. “It’s just my quirk.”
She blinked, keeping her grip, and looked up at him. “Quirk?”
“Yeah.” He heated his palms a little more, a brighter orange hue illuminated and more heat radiated off.
She ogled at the new discovery, lips parting. “Woah.”
He snatched his hand back and continued heating himself up.
So she doesn’t have a quirk. I guess being half a fish counts.
He thought for a moment; he’d never actually asked her if she could do anything.
He turned to face her once more but stopped.
She was staring at him with so much astonishment, he was caught off guard. Surely his quirk wasn’t that revolutionary. She lived among humans before. Shouldn’t she already be aware that nearly all of them had some kind of ability?
He already knew the answer to that question as he realized her gaze wouldn't falter. She stared at his hands, eyes glowing brighter than his own palms.
A familiar crackle made him lose his train of thought.
He looked down at his palms.
Huh, when did his quirk begin to go off?