Chapter Text
Izuku dropped his backpack off as he made his way around the back of the aquarium, setting it in the employees' locker room and changing into his wetsuit before making his way to the large central tank. Sitting on the rim and dipping his feet in, he trailed his fingertips over the surface, waiting.
While he waited, a small shark came up and rubbed against his hand, earning a careful scratch from dull nails behind its gills and along its dorsal fin before it splashed him and dove down again. He was laughing and wiping the water from his face when he felt a hand on his knee and looked down with a smile again. “Hello, Shou-chan,” he greeted.
Wide, mismatched eyes looked up at him before a small, shy smile twisted beautiful lips, “Hello, Izuku,” the man greeted in return.
Izuku gently brushed a few strands of long red and white hair out of his eyes. “Would you like to come up?”
The man shook his head, the fluke of his tail breaking the surface and sending a spray of water over them both.
Izuku shrieked in surprise and laughed. “That’s rude. Do you want me to come in with you, then?”
The other nodded, leaning back and tugging on Izuku’s hand until he let himself slide off the ledge and into the large aquarium with a small splash, explosive green curls much flatter when he surfaced again for a breath, the other’s arms around his neck, a long tail wrapped around his legs loosely, helping him float high enough in the water to breathe. Wide emerald eyes met ever-inquisitive mismatched ones, and he softly splashed the merman, earning a high screech in return with its own splash before playfully tugging him under the surface again.
Izuku laughed when he broke the surface again, treading his way over to the other and letting himself be supported again. “Did you have a good day?” he asked, arms resting lightly on the merman’s shoulders, careful not to hurt either of them on his scales.
Shoto nodded, his own arms around the human’s waist. “It was… pleasant,” he agreed softly. “There was another school class that came to learn about what you do here.”
Izuku hummed. “Oh? Did you hide this time or interact with the kids.”
Shoto shook his head, “The… teacher? The adult in charge, she reminded me of someone. The fry…. children. The children seemed to think I was some performer and not real.”
Izuku smiled, “Some aquariums hire people to pretend to be merfolk to help with their appeal, to draw more people so they can afford to take better care of the animals,” he explained. “I thought I told you this before.”
Shoto shook his head again. “Not that I recall. What about you, how were your classes?”
And so Izuku regaled his friend with stories of his day, telling him what he’d learned in some classes, and taught in the ones he was assisting in, what his friends and he did during lunch and how they wanted to come this weekend.
“Is there something special about this weekend?” Shoto asked with a cocked head, pausing where he’d been swimming around his floating human, stretching out cramping muscles again.
Izuku flipped over, swimming toward him, “You don’t know? It’s the anniversary of your arrival here. You’ve been here a year.”
Shoto hummed slightly, “I couldn’t tell, the water here always tastes the same, there are no seasons in the pool,” he said sadly.
Izuku looked at him sympathetically, reaching out to tuck some hair behind a pointed, webbed ear, “Not much longer now, then you can go home,” he said softly.
Shoto leaned into his touch, looking at the human with unblinking eyes, trying to memorize everything he could about him. He hadn’t realized how little time was left.
