Love Deeper than the Ocean | IzuOcha Mermaid AU

Chapter 1 | Cut

Ochaco's Pov.

  "Help!" a little boy no older than seven shouted. He was being swept away in the waves!

  She ran into the water along with Tsu to try to save him. She paddled toward him as fast as she could, but Tsu got there first.

  Ochaco breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was safe.

   She wasn't the strongest swimmer... Out of all of her friends, she was probably the weakest. Tsu was so fast in the water! She was a life-saver, literally. She was always calm under pressure and could swim like a fish (maybe even faster!!!).

  Ochaco only took this job because all her friends were in it. Momo had a gigantic beach house that she was letting them all stay in this summer, and she couldn't pass up the chance.

  She rubbed her eyes, getting sunspots, and was about to paddle back, but she saw something in the water. She didn't see exactly what it was though. It was greenish and scaly. Maybe it was a fish? But it was too big...

  "Ochaco!" Toru called her back to the shore.

  "Coming!" she started paddling back. Ochaco wondered what that was...

  "You're getting just as absent-minded as Momo," Jiro commented when she got back to shore. "She's been talking without any context to nobody lately."

  "Hehe... I guess that's just us," she pushed her index fingers together. 

  The sun was traveling across the cerulean sky slowly. Too slowly... She just wanted to get out of there and get to see what was in the water... Curiosity consumed her more and more each second! 

  And then, her shift was over!

  Afterward, she went straight back to the beach to go swimming. It wasn't late in the day yet, so she had a few hours to see what was going on!

  She jumped into the water and swam around the shallows. She didn't see anything where she was... Well, except some shells. She loved to collect them, but now definitely wasn't the time!

  Wait a minute... How deep was Ochaco when she spotted whatever she saw? She wouldn't be able to stand, right?

  She was pretty stupid, checking the water only chest down... She needed to actually swim. That wouldn't be too hard, right? She could normally swim just fine. She was a lifeguard after all.

  After taking a deep breath, she swam down farther into the ocean and glanced around.

  Nothing.

  Absolutely nothing.

  What did she expect? That some mermaid would be right in front of her? That wasn't possible...

  After getting back to the surface, she just decided to get back to the beach house. Maybe she could forget about this silly fantasy ever happening...

  Back in her room, she stared at the TV screen, trying to find something to watch. Maybe it could get her mind off things. After flipping through the channels, she just laid on her back and glanced at the ceiling instead.

  "Why can't I just get this out of my head?" she mumbled.

  Instead of doing nothing, maybe she could do something productive? A walk seemed nice... 

  After slipping sandals on and taking a small bucket with her in case she found any interesting shells, she left the beach house. 

Izuku's Pov.

  Izuku was fascinated by a human girl. She seemed friendly towards everyone. From what he could tell, her name was "Ochaco". He wanted to talk to her, but knew he couldn't since it would be breaking every law there was... Of course, he was bending the rules coming to the surface at all, but that wasn't going to let anything stop him from being where he was. 

  She left the beach and he felt lonely. Not that he was talking to her anyway, but having her within his view made him feel comfortable. 

  Later that day, she was walking near the rocks. He swam over to get a better view. 

  'Isn't this stalking..?'

  That was what his mind told him. And it kind of was... But watching her was one of the only things that made him this happy. He never wanted to be creepy, but he couldn't talk to her so this was the best he was going to get. 

  "Wow! So pretty!" her lovely voice exclaimed. She took hold of a shell nearby and placed it in a container of some sort. 

  'She likes shells?'

  Maybe he could help with that indirectly.

  He dove down and put a nice shell close to the edge. It wasn't the best, but it was all he could find at the time. 

  She walked closer to where he was and he pushed himself close against the rocks so she couldn't see him.

  Her smile was blinding. She was so happy over something he did for her. 

  And she was kind of close... He felt his heart pounded in his chest and a silly grin spread across his face. 

  Maybe he could help her out just one more time today?

  Izuku dove down to find a better shell this time, and he surfaced and pulled himself up the rocks and put the shell somewhere she could easily reach. When he tried pulling himself back to the water, he cut himself. His tail stung and a few drops of blood trickled out.

  "Ow!" he gasped. That hurt... 

  Wait! He didn't meant to make that much sound!

  "Is someone here?" her voice called for him.

  'No no no!'

  He tried to get away, but wasn't able to get back to the water in time. 

  "Are you hurt?" she must've spotted Izuku because she came running toward him. 

  "I- Um... I'm fine!" he chuckled awkwardly, hoping that the rocks hid his tail. He tried to cover his webbed hands and gills as best as possible. 

  "Are you sure?" she slowed to a walk, but continued to move toward him.  

  "Gah!" a stab of pain from his tail made him cry out. 

  That was when she ran over to him. 

  Her eyes widened when she saw his tail. She fell backward, looking kind of terrified. She wasn't trembling though, so maybe she was just surprised?

  "Don't scream!" he pleaded. If she called the attention of the other humans, who knows what could happen!

  She nodded, seemingly unable to speak.   

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Author's Note: Don't ask me why, but I used the words "stalk", "stalker" etc. a lot. I think this is mainly because Izuku watched Ochaco so much before and they talk about it frequently. So if you're sensitive to that type of thing, I just wanted to warn you. If you're fine with it, enjoy the story!

Thanks,

Mystic