Chapter Text
Round, pine green eyes stared curiously at a round, plump-looking seal bouncing its way across the ground, heading for the water right in front of the glass window.
They watched the Harbor seal stop, then slid headfirst right into the water, making a small splash before it proceeded to dive down below (looking much more graceful than earlier, where it was bouncing funnily in the way only seals can). The little boy made a noise of amazement as he watched the seal nimbly dive down, meeting their eyes for a moment and watching them curiously before continuing on its way when its curiosity was sated.
“I think we’ll get to see them swim around underwater when we get to the floor below,” Shouta told the boy as he crouched down to Izuku’s level and watched the seal dive until it disappeared from their sight.
The two of them were at the aquarium today, which was very exciting to Izuku, who almost couldn’t contain his excitement the whole morning.
This morning Shouta had to stop an amused laugh from slipping out of his mouth as he watched Izuku squirming in place in the genkan, trying to contain his excitement as he waited for Shouta to put his shoes on. His boy had given an excited bounce when he was finished, clicking eagerly at him as they walked out the door. He was excited the whole drive to the aquarium too and trilled happily when they reached the aquarium’s parking lot.
At the moment, they were captivated by the seals and had decided to watch them for a while.
A few seals swam in the water playfully, spinning and dodging each other, showing off their skills. Izuku surprisingly hadn’t made any noise of amazement, so Shouta gave a quick glance down to see his boy was watching something in the enclosure intently. Shouta followed his gaze to see another seal bouncing its way towards the water.
“He looks kind of cute bouncing around, doesn’t he?” Shouta asked, getting a click and a nod from Izuku who continued to watch the seal intently.
Based on how Izuku reacted to seals and fishes moving in water on TV, there were three theories Shouta came to: Izuku didn’t have predator instinct, Izuku had it but was great at suppressing it, or he wasn’t hungry enough to try and chase them most of the time but had the instinct to chase prey.
He had seen his son watch aquatic prey animals on TV intently but showed no outward signs of wanting to chase them or eat them. It was close to lunch time then and his boy was definitely hungry from the occasional growling from his stomach, so Shouta ruled out the theory of Izuku not being hungry enough to try and chase prey animals being a factor in the lack of predatory instinct he had seen from the boy.
He still watched out for any signs that Izuku would think of any animals as ‘prey’ and chase them though, just in case.
“What are you thinking about, Little Shark?” he asked, watching curiously as his son continue to stare at one of the seals.
“Glick, gib,” Izuku clicked as he pointed to the seals and waved his arms in front of him.
Shouta blinked, turning to look at the bouncing seals then back to Izuku in confusion before realizing what his son meant.
“You’re thinking about how they’re only using their front flippers to move?”
“Gib,” Izuku clicked and nodded in answer.
‘…He doesn’t think of the seals as food even if they’re moving around right in front of him,’ Shouta noted to himself as he watched the boy turned back to study the seals, ‘Izuku either got a real good control on his predator instincts if he has the urge to chase them around, or he just doesn’t have that instinct.’
Shouta would have thought that it was highly likely Izuku didn’t have that instinct, if he didn’t witness the way his son chased the ball when they played sometimes.
They spent a few more minutes watching the seals before Izuku urged him to read the little information board on the seals’ habitat and diet in front of the enclosure. After the Harbor seals, they went on to look at the Ringed seals. The seals had ring patterns on their body, which Shouta guessed was how their name came about.
They were watching the Ringed seals go about their day peacefully, when one of the seals that were lying near the water leaned towards it a little and rolled right into it. It made a little splash and continued to spin in the water for a moment elegantly before diving down.
Izuku giggled brightly beside him, while Shouta let out a huff of laughter at the seal’s antics.
The next enclosure they looked at was the river otters’, and they were an energetic bunch, in Shouta’s opinion.
The scene they arrived to when they reached the enclosure was of several otters swimming around in the water, splashing water everywhere, while some were on the ground, chasing each other’s tail. There was also a lot of chirping. A lot. Shouta had to ask Izuku to make sure the noises weren’t bothering his ears. Izuku was apparently fine with it and continued to watch the otters curiously.
After the river otters, they went to look at the sea otters.
They were a lot fluffier and bigger than the river otters. Some of them were floating on their backs, looking quite calm and peaceful. Shouta even thought they were kind of cute (he wouldn’t ever admit it out loud though).
Izuku also seemed intrigued by the way the otters were floating on their backs, since the boy was staring at one of the otters that was just floating by with bright eyes.
They continued to watch the otters for a moment before Shouta felt a small hand tugging on the hem of his jacket. He looked down to see Izuku staring up at him with wide, curious eyes, so he crouched down to his son’s eye level.
“Yes, Little Shark?”
“Glick, gib, gic, glick,” Izuku clicked, pointing at a sea otter that was floating on its back then to himself as he leaned back a little and hold his hands together in front of his chest, imitating what the otter was doing.
“Are you…asking me if you’re like the otter?” Shouta asked slowly, not quite sure if he interpreted that right.
“Gib,” Izuku clicked and shook his head, before pointing at the otter then imitate the way it was floating on its back again.
The boy paused, then signed ‘Me too’ and tilted his head, telling Shouta that it was a question.
“…Can you be like the otter?”
“Gic,” Izuku shook his head at the guess.
Shouta furrowed his brows for a moment, quickly gathering up all the clues together in his head.
‘He imitates the otter… But it’s not that he wants to be like it… And he signed ‘Me too’ when he imitates the way the otter was floating-‘
“Oh,” Shouta muttered out as his eyes widen in realization, “Are you asking if you can float on water like what the otter is doing too?”
“Gib,” Izuku clicked in confirmation and clapped his hands, sounding quite satisfied that his question got through.
“You would need to learn how, but I think that you should be able to,” Shouta answered, his mind imagining Izuku floating in the water on his back, looking as comfortable as the otters.
He must admit, it was a cute picture.
His son beamed happily at his answer, bouncing a little in place at the possibility of him floating like the otters do.
Once Shouta finished reading all the information boards, and Izuku was satisfied after watching the otters for a moment longer, they started moving to their next destination. Shouta glanced down at the mop of green hair of the little boy beside him, lips quirked up into a small smile as he let Izuku swing the hand he was holding gently while humming a little song. He watched Izuku take in all the new things he was seeing inside the aquarium. The decorations and the building layout were quite different from the grocery store and the supermarket they usually go to, so it seemed to interest Izuku quite a bit.
He had thought this since the zoo trip. He thought about it again as Izuku watched the animals and listened to the information Shouta read off the information board in amazement.
Shouta enjoyed going on these kinds of little adventures with his son and discovering new things together.
He liked it. He liked spending time with Izuku discovering new things one or both of them never knew before. He liked watching Izuku’s eyes brighten in wonder at the things he discovered, curiosity of the world blooming slowly as his mind came up with questions upon questions.
He liked listening to Izuku’s comments about the things they discovered, listening to questions he may or may not know the answer to, and finding the answers together.
Like right now.
“Gib, gic, glick,” Izuku clicked as he pointed at the penguins, hug himself, then sign ‘cold’ and tilted his head.
“You wonder if the penguins are cold?”
“Glick,” Izuku clicked and nodded.
“Hmm… I think their feathers keep them warm…” Shouta answered uncertainly, “But I’m not sure. Maybe there’s an information board on that?”
Shouta led them on a walk to find an information board that would answer their question, finding interesting facts along the way about penguins. It took around three information boards to find what they were looking for.
“Penguins have feathers to keep them warm on land. What keeps them warm in the water are their fat layer, the blubber,” Shouta read, getting an intrigue click from his son beside him, “So they have blubber to keep them all warm when it’s cold along with their feathers.”
Izuku made a noise of understanding as he stared at a penguin that had swam close to the glass before diving down.
The boy looked at himself for a moment, tilting his head curiously, then stared up at Shouta.
“Gib, glick?” Izuku clicked, patting his sides then pointed at the penguins.
Shouta blinked in confusion for a moment, that gesture could be asking about a lot of things.
“…I’m going to need a little more information, I’m not sure what you just said, Little Shark,”
Izuku furrowed his brows and gave a little frown as he thought. He looked at the information board again, brows furrowing even more as he looked up at Shouta with round eyes.
"Are the words on the board? I can read the information again and you can tell me which word it is,”
“Glick,” Izuku nodded and clicked at the idea.
“Okay. Let’s see…” Shouta started, skimming over the text quickly with his eyes, “Penguins have feathers to keep them warm on land. What keeps them warm in the water are their fat layer, the blubber-“
“Gib!” Izuku clicked and tugged at Shouta’s sleeve to tell him to stop.
“Is it ‘blubber’? Is that the word?”
“Gic,”
“Are there any more words on here that might be in your question?” Shouta asked, getting a head shake in return, “Alright. So, you were saying?”
“Gib, gic,” Izuku clicked as he taps his sides, then point at the penguin, and then at Shouta’s mouth to signal that he’s using the word ‘blubber’.
‘He tapped his sides and then pointed at the penguin. And it involves ‘blubber’…’
“…Are you asking if we have blubber too?” Shouta guessed.
“Gic,” Izuku gave him a nod with a bright smile.
“Hm… I’m pretty sure that we don’t have blubber… Unless a Quirk give you one,” Shouta answered, “I think that blubber is a bit different from our fat layer.”
Izuku made a noise of understanding, seeming to file the information away as he turned to watch a penguin jump into the water, making very small splashes.
His son made an impressed noise, admiring the way the penguin managed to make such a small splash when it jumped into the water. Shouta could feel a small smile making its way to his face as he gave Izuku’s curls a soft ruffle.
Their next destination was a hall lined with several giant tanks of colorful fishes and corals, where Izuku took in the scene with wide eyes and opened mouth in amazement.
“Which ones do you want to look at first?” Shouta asked as he glanced around for anything suspicious out of habit, then glanced back to look at his boy, a little smile on his lips at the sparkles in the round eyes.
“Glick,” Izuku clicked, pointing to the first giant tank on their left eagerly.
“Alright. Let’s go look at the fishes and corals in that one then,” Shouta agreed with a chuckle, feeling the eager tug from the small hand that was holding his and started walking towards the tank.
When they arrived, Izuku trilled happily as he looked up at all the fish in the tank with bright eyes before turning to Shouta. The boy raised his hands up, all the while looking up at Shouta eagerly.
“Gic,” Izuku clicked, squirming a little in excitement.
“Want ups?” Shouta asked as he crouched down, getting a quick nod before he scooped the boy up.
Izuku made a noise of amazement when a school of bright colored fishes swam by. His eyes tracked the school as they made a quick turn around a coral with impressive speed, disappearing behind a line of corals and sea anemones before reappearing again on another side of the tank.
“They’re very fast,”
“Gib,”
As they watched the fishes go about their day, Izuku’s attention was caught by the fishes hanging out at the bottom of the tank and curiously asked questions about them. So, they went on a hunt for the information board on what seemed to be bottom feeders along the tanks.
They took their time at each tank, reading the information boards on both fishes and corals and trying to find where they all were in the tank. Izuku had fun listening to Shouta reading off all the information and finding the animals together, based on the way he bounced in Shouta’s arms occasionally in excitement.
Shouta remembered learning a bit about coral reefs in science class when he was in school, but they didn’t go that deep on the different coral species. The most that were mentioned was about the coral’s roles in the ecosystem and their importance, as well as the threats they faced.
“So, the coral reefs are a lot of fishes’ houses and where they find their food. They raised their kids in coral reefs too,” Shouta summarized the information on one of the boards as Izuku inspect the picture on it curiously, “Coral reefs faced natural threats, like diseases and predators, and threats from humans, like pollution and climate change. These threats stress corals and can lead to coral bleaching and may lead to their death.”
Izuku made a concerned noise, a little concern frown on his face as round eyes stare at the corals in worry.
“But there had been a lot of efforts to help the corals for quite a while now, so the corals are not in as much danger as before. They still need help though,” Shouta told the boy gently, brushing a few strands of curls away from his eyes, “There are a lot of ongoing efforts to help the corals thrive again, I think I heard not too long ago that they just found another solution to the pollution in the sea that might work.”
“Glick!” Izuku clicked, sounded hopeful as he signed ‘Good’ and then pointed at the corals.
“That’s right, it’s good for the corals, it seems like we might be able to help them out a bit more,” Shouta agreed with a nod, “Good for other animals in the sea and us too, actually. Better environment for all of them and more fishes will thrives, so a bit more fish we can catch, responsibly.”
They stayed in the hall a bit longer to watch a more in-depth video on corals, their effects on ecosystems, threats to the corals, and what they could do to help keep them thriving before moving on. Overall, Izuku was slightly confused here and there at some new words, so Shouta explained what they meant softly to the boy, but his son had fun discovering more new things and learning about corals.
They walked past another hall that displayed giant tanks on both sides of the wall on their way to find a good place to stop and look at the map of the aquarium. Shouta’s feet came to a stop when he heard Izuku gasped in excitement at a stingray that swam by, gliding so gracefully it reminded him of birds of prey.
“That’s a stingray,” Shouta commented as they watched the fish swim, looking almost like it was flying underwater, “I think we’ll get to see more of these tanks as we go up the floor and down, it looks like they’re two tall tanks.”
He pulled out the map of the aquarium from his pocket, then brought Izuku to an area where they wouldn’t be in the way, next to a tank. Shouta skimmed over the big map quickly. His experiences as a hero came in handy as he looked at all the different floor maps and the overall map of the aquarium.
“Hm, so this big tank goes up to the top floor and the first floor. The ground floor that we’re in is a third floor, by the way,” Shouta told Izuku as he let the boy squeezed in, so he could stand between the man and the map, curls tickling Shouta’s neck, “There’s one top floor with a tank tunnel, connecting these two giant tanks together. They also have little information centers and a few other tanks on other sea animals as well. There are two floors down below. The second floor, the one right below this one, focus on sharks.”
Izuku gasped, his curly hair bounced and tickled the area under Shouta’s chin as his boy perked up.
“The floor below that is the first floor and they show all the animals that live a little deeper. There is also a floor below the first floor that they call a basement floor, where they have information on the deep-sea animals,” Shouta explained and paused for a moment, organizing all the floors in his head, “So, third floor is the floor we’re on. The floor above us has a tank tunnel of these two tanks we’re seeing. The floor below us is the second floor with a lot of sharks. The first floor has animals that live a bit deeper in the ocean. And the basement floor has things about the deep-sea.”
He paused again to let Izuku absorb that information for a moment before continuing.
“They have a little guide here of where we can go to make it more time efficient and energy efficient. From this floor, we can go up and look at the tunnel, then come back down to eat. The second option is to go up and then go to the shark floor and eat there. The third one is going through all the floors below, come up to eat at the shark floor, then look at the top floor last,” Shouta laid out the options before checking the time on his wristwatch, “Where do you want to go first, Little Shark? I think we should go up and if we get hungry, we can just come down and eat at this floor or continue to the shark floor and eat there. We still got a while before lunch time.”
Izuku paused, taking a minute to think while Shouta crouched there quietly, watching as his son carefully think through his options. As Shouta waited for his son to make a decision, a movement at the corner of his left eye caught his attention.
Shouta turned in response to the movement and nearly flinched as he came face-to-face with rows of sharp, triangle shaped teeth jutting out of the mouth below a cone-shaped snout and beady eye of a shark that was slightly bigger than he was. It swam slowly, showing off its two large dorsal fins and the light brown body and grayish white underside along with its caudal fin, which have much longer upper lobe than the lower lobe.
He could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest after coming face-to-face with the set of teeth of that particular shark and watched it swam nimbly by with apprehension.
“…What shark is that?” Shouta breathed out, some shock and wonder slipping into his voice unintentionally.
‘It’s familiar…it looks like-‘
“Oh,” Shouta started in realization, “That’s a sand tiger shark, wasn’t it?”
He remembered now. Shouta had looked up the shark when he was researching sharks and happened to click on information about sand tiger shark, since they sounded interesting. They looked quite similar to the one he had just seen.
“Glick?” Izuku clicked curiously as he watched the shark swim away.
“I think we’ll be able to find more information on sand tiger shark when we go down or maybe when we look at the tunnel,” Shouta told his son, feeling his heart beating at a calmer speed, “Did you make a decision, Little Shark?”
“Gib!” Izuku clicked as he nodded his head, before pointing at the first option excitedly.
“Alright, we’ll go up and look at the tunnel then,” Shouta agreed with a smile as he put the map away and stood up, then offer Izuku his hand to hold, “Let’s go, Little Shark.”
Shouta was able to take a picture of Izuku looking up at all the fishes swimming overhead, mouth opened in astonishment as his round eyes take in the underwater world above him. His lips quirked into an amused but fond smile at his son’s reaction as he did a quick check of the photo, making sure it wasn’t blurry.
“Cool, huh?” Shouta asked, a hand on his son’s back to prevent the boy from stumbling backward from craning his neck as Shouta pocketed his phone.
“Glick,” Izuku clicked and nodded as he continued to look around in amazement.
“Let’s go, Little Shark. We can see more as we go,”
Izuku clicked in understanding and turned to grab his hand, letting Shouta lead him through the tunnel. Shouta found a good spot where they would be out of the way, so Izuku got to look up and around to his heart’s content. The boy trilled in happiness as he looked at all the fishes in wonder, eyes focusing from one fish to another as a bright smile slowly grew on his face.
His son’s eyes sparkled when they spotted the stingray again and then widened in amazement as they followed a shark that was swimming by. Shouta’s smile was fond as he watched the boy’s expression change from wonder to shock, then to wonder again. His chest felt warm and fuzzy seeing his son enjoying this new adventure they were experiencing. He brushed strands of green curls away from the boy’s eyes, so it would be easier for Izuku to look around and discover more fishes he hadn’t seen yet while black eyes watched the round eyes sparkled.
“Gib, glick!” Izuku clicked as he pointed at a school of fish that just swam quickly by.
“Look at that coordination,” Shouta murmured, feeling quite impressed by the fishes’ coordinated movement.
He saw an episode of the fishes doing similar things on the animal channel but being there and seeing it for himself was something else.
Izuku was quite mesmerized with the tunnel, pointing out different fishes that interested him all the way to the end of it. Shouta also gave a comment on each of the fishes his son pointed out in response, feeling quite fond as his son chattered away using signs, along with his notebook and Speaker.
After the tunnel (where Izuku waved bye-bye to all the fishes), they looked at the seahorses and seadragons. Izuku’s eyes were bright with curiosity as he watched seahorses bobbing to the current as they anchored themselves to corals with their tail. Seadragons seemed to fascinate Izuku the most out of the two though, as Izuku stared at them for nearly a minute as they floated in the water among the plants before he asked Shouta to read the information board excitedly.
“Let’s see… Leafy seadragons camouflage themselves among seaweeds and seagrass beds using their plant-like appearances. Their leafy appendages are also not for swimming, only for disguise,” Shouta read the board, getting curious clicks from Izuku at what he just learned, “To move, they use their near transparent dorsal and pectoral fins.”
The two of them stared at one of the seadragon in the tank for a moment, trying to find the fins.
“…I can see the dorsal fin a little bit, but I’m not seeing the pectoral fins,” Shouta muttered, furrowing his brows, “It’s on the lower back part. But where are the pectoral fins?”
“Gib?” Izuku clicked in confusion, round eyes staring at Shouta and tilting his head.
“Are you asking about pectoral fins?”
“Glick,”
“Well, pectoral fins should be near the gills… So, I guess it’ll be close to its face,” Shouta answered as he let Izuku squeeze in to be in between Shouta and the tank.
Izuku stared at the seadragon for a moment before turning to look at him with a bright smile.
“Gib, glick,” Izuku clicked, pointing at the seadragon.
“Did you find the pectoral fins?”
“Gic,” Izuku clicked and nod as he touched around his jaw to show where the fins are.
Shouta squinted at the area around the seadragon head for a moment, finally spotting little white lines on the near-transparent fins.
“Oh, I see it now,” he announced to his son, “That’s really hard to find.”
“Gib,” Izuku clicked in agreement.
Their next destination was the shark floor instead of a restaurant, since they weren’t that hungry yet.
Shouta could just feel the excitement radiating from his son when they reached the second floor. Izuku looked like he would vibrate from all the excitement. The boy got a big smile on his face, while his round eyes take in all the sharks swimming in their giant tanks.
Izuku was very intrigued by most of the sharks, but he looked a little apprehensive with some of the bigger ones when they got close. He seemed a bit intimidated by their size from the way he watched them carefully.
Izuku was also quite interested in the nurse shark, since they looked quite different from the other sharks they saw. The shark didn’t move much, mostly staying still at the bottom of the tank, since it was a bottom feeder.
Shouta remembered when he researched a bit on this shark, it used buccal pumping to breathe. It was the same breathing strategy Izuku usually used when he didn’t move around much in the bathtub. They watched the nurse shark just relaxing at the bottom of the tank for a moment before Izuku tugged at his sleeve and asked Shouta to read the information board on them.
“Nurse sharks may look like they don’t have teeth, but they have rows of small, jagged teeth used to crush prey with hard shells. Their diet consisted of crustaceans, small stingrays, squid, bony fishes, and sea urchins,” Shouta read, watching as Izuku tilted his head in an attempt to look into the shark’s mouth, “They live in reefs and rest during the day.”
His son made an understanding noise, watching the nurse shark for a moment before turning to look at Shouta and signed ‘sleep’ as he tilted his head in question.
“I think this one’s sleeping,” Shouta answered, glancing at the shark that continued to stay still, “Want to go look at the other tanks and let him rest?”
“Gib,” Izuku clicked and nodded, so Shouta stood up and offered his son a hand to hold, preparing to continue on to the next tanks.
They stopped by a restaurant for lunch after looking at all the sharks to their heart’s content, recharging their energy to continue their adventures on the last two floors. The food was quite good; they both ate a bowl of katsudon (Izuku’s bowl was kid’s size) and Shouta was quite sure they found another food that would go into the list of Izuku’s favorite food. His son was very happy with the dish.
The next floor was about animals that live a bit deeper in the ocean, and Izuku was quite interested in the differences between the fishes. So, they ended up having a little discussion on how different they were from the other fishes he had been seeing around the aquarium.
Afterwards, they continued to the deep-sea floor, where the lights were a lot dimmer. Shouta made sure that Izuku was holding his hand as they walked in, since he didn’t want to lose sight of his little boy.
From the notes displayed in front of the entrance, there would be some live fishes that were caught by a research institution the aquarium was partnered with to study their life and in hopes of understanding the deep sea better. Some may be realistic models of some fishes that they had researched on or videos they were able to capture of certain fishes.
The first live fish they saw was the spotted ratfish. It was a pretty long fish with big eyes and had a lot of spots. They watched in interest as the fish seemed to be using just their pectoral fins to swim above the sandy ground.
“Looks like it only uses its pectoral fins to swim, huh?”
“Gib,” Izuku nodded as his round eyes watched the fish swam by curiously.
‘…It really doesn’t use its tail fin,’ Shouta thought, feeling a bit baffle as he watched the fish glided gracefully through the water.
They looked at the filetail catshark next, watching how the fish swam around for a moment before investigating the information board.
“Oh, that’s interesting. Catshark’s eyes glow when light shines on it, like cats’ do,” he informed his boy, getting an impressed click from Izuku.
After the catshark, they went to look at the spiny king crabs, which had his son staring at them quizzically. Shouta guessed it was because of their long legs.
So far, his son had been quite intrigued with all the deep-sea fishes, but the models of common fangtooth fish and fanfin anglerfish had Izuku sticking close to Shouta’s side in apprehension. His son’s brows were furrowed, and Izuku had a little unsure frown on his face as he stared at the common fangtooth model displayed in front of a dark background depicting the open sea.
“Looks pretty different from all the other fishes we saw, huh?” Shouta asked, eyes automatically identified the large, sharp teeth as dangerous.
“Glick,” Izuku clicked softly, pressing his cheek against Shouta’s right leg.
He looked down at Izuku clutching the fabric of his pants with his small hands, looking quite cautious of the fish, and gave the mop of green hair a ruffle.
“Do you want be pick up, Little Shark?” he asked gently, brushing a few strands of hair away from the boy’s eyes.
“Gic,” Izuku clicked, raising his hands up and staring up at Shouta with round eyes.
He complied with the request. Immediately, small hands clutched at his coat and Shouta felt strands of curly hair tickled at his neck.
“Do you want to go look at the other fishes now? Or do you want to look at the common fangtooth a bit longer?”
“Gib,” Izuku clicked, signing ‘stay’ to Shouta.
So, they stayed and studied the model and information boards a bit longer until Izuku gave the go-ahead to move over to the next models.
The last animal model they looked at was the Flapjack octopus, which honestly looked very cute.
They watched the video of the octopus moving through the water and settled on the sand. It took a moment before the octopus suddenly lay flat, looking round and lumpy, a bit like pour batter of pancakes or waffles.
Shouta let out a surprised chuckle, while Izuku giggled at how the octopus looked laying on the sandy floor.
“So that’s how they look when they rest, huh?” he commented, studying the octopus on the video for a moment, “Look very different from when it was moving.”
“Gic,” Izuku clicked in agreement, a big smile on his face as he watched the octopus that currently look like a lumpy pancake on the sand.
His son was quite sad that they would have to leave the aquarium soon. So, Shouta walked through the shark floor one more time, giving Izuku a chance to say goodbye to all the fish there before going up to the ground floor and stopping by the gift shop.
“We can get a little something to remember all the fishes by,” Shouta told his son, smiling a little to see Izuku with a big, excited smile on his face, “Just like when we got something from the zoo last time. You can get one thing, okay?”
“Gic,” Izuku nodded, turning left and right eagerly, studying all the items in the store.
Last time, Izuku got himself a little notebook with pictures of animals in front of it. It was currently being used to document all the animals Izuku found interesting along with little drawings of them.
They walked around the gift shop, stopping frequently in front of shelves of animal plushies that Izuku seemed to be interested in. The boy never asked to get them though, so it looked like Izuku just wanted to browse around before making his decision.
Shouta took some time looking around as they went too, trying to see if there was something that might interest his Little Shark.
Shelves of books caught his eyes, so Shouta brought Izuku over to let the boy take a look at them and see if there was anything he might like. There were a few storybooks centered around various aquatic animals along with some fun facts books that Shouta thought Izuku might be interested in.
He watched as Izuku looked at a book with an otter on it for a moment, before scanning the shelves for other books that might interest him. Shouta’s eyes were quickly drawn to giant books on different aquatic animals.
He grabbed one out of curiosity to find that it was a sticker book.
“Little Shark, look at this,” Shouta called and crouched down, taking Izuku’s attention away from the rows of books he was looking at, “This is a sticker book.”
Izuku perked up at the word ‘sticker’ before coming a little closer to Shouta. Little hands rested on Shouta’s arms as his boy looked at the book with wide eyes.
“It got these pages in here that you can stick the stickers over here with,” Shouta explained as he flipped through the pages of the book he was holding, “You can use the stickers on here or anywhere you want, of course. We can even draw something similar to these stickers and stick it in here instead, so you can use the stickers in here for other things. What do you think?”
Shouta let Izuku inspect the book, watching round eyes get wider and wider as small hand flip the pages.
“Do you like it?” he asked after a moment, getting an immediate nod and sparkling eyes in return, “Want to choose one out first? We can still look around the store, but we can grab something you like and then make the decision afterwards.”
“Glick,” Izuku clicked and nodded, raising his hands up to let Shouta know that he wanted to be pick up.
They spent a few minutes inspecting the different sticker books before Izuku chose one on various aquatic animals that live in different ocean zones. The book included stickers of colorful fish, sharks and the deep-sea creatures they had seen earlier. Afterwards, they walked around the shop, stopping a few times to look at things Izuku was curious about. Shouta had to pause as they walked by the keychains, however, since the shark keychains managed to capture his attention.
He stared at them for a moment before glancing down at Izuku, who was distracted by the otter keychains and was currently inspecting them curiously.
The shark keychains were doing a great job of reminding Shouta of his son, and he kind of wanted one now.
‘…It’ll be perfect for the house and mail keys. Or car key,’ he told himself as he crouched down to take a closer look.
After a minute of contemplating between two sharks he picked out, Shouta settled on a yellow-brown colored shark keychain, which he thought might be the lemon shark. His thought was proven right when he turned the keychain around in his hand to see ‘Lemon Shark’ engraved on the white belly.
“Gib?” Izuku clicked, looking at the keychain and then at Shouta, before signing ‘Get’ and tilted his head.
“I think I’ll get this one,” Shouta answered as he got up and offer Izuku his hand to hold, “Let’s look around a bit more, see if anything else catches your eyes.”
Izuku ended up choosing the sticker book instead of one of the various plushies he was staring at with sparkling eyes. According to Izuku’s signs and the symbols he tapped on his notebook, he already had some plushies at home and no sticker book, so he decided to get one instead.
So, they came out of the gift shop with a sticker book and a keychain in a plastic bag, feeling ready to go home now. Izuku asked to be picked up right when they walked out, just so he could wave bye-bye to the aquarium then nuzzle the crook of Shouta’s neck. He chuckled at the way the small nose and curly hair tickled him, then carded his fingers through the curls fondly.
“Had fun, Little Shark?” he asked gently as he walked, feeling Izuku giving him a nod as he clicked in answer.
Shouta glanced down at the mop of green hair for a moment, feeling small hands that grabbed at his coat and the way Izuku was completely relaxed in his hold.
“I had fun too,” he said after a moment, adjusting Izuku a little so he was more comfortable, “It’s a fun day.”
Izuku looked up, giving him a bright smile that showed all his sharp teeth. Shouta wasn’t fazed though and gave the boy a soft smile back and kissed his forehead.
‘I wonder what other adventures we’ll go on next?’ he wondered idly with a small smile.