Love Deeper than the Ocean | IzuOcha Mermaid AU

Chapter 3 | Ice Cream

Izuku's Pov.

  He watched Ochaco the majority of the day again. It felt much stranger this time because he actually met her, but he wasn't sure what time she meant when she wanted to meet him. She probably meant the same time as yesterday, but he couldn't take that chance!

  Soon, she was out in the water. She was sitting on something long and flat. It looked inconvenient for swimming. 

  "Boo!" he whisper-yelled, getting close to her. 

  "Agh!" she yelped, nearly falling onto the water. 

  Ochaco looked at him and her eyes widened. She glanced around and then turned back to him. 

  "Izuku, what are you doing here!? People will see you!" she whispered back.

  "Don't worry, I won't be long," he promised. "I just wanted to check what time you meant."

  Not that it mattered. He was stalking her anyway and would know when she went back over to the rocks. That sounded way more disturbing than he meant... Wait, he meant watched! He was watching her! Not stalking her!

  "I have a lunch break soon. We can meet then," she told him, "but you need to get out of here before people see you!"

  "I- Um..." he wanted to give her the bracelet right then, but couldn't bring himself to. He bought it specifically for her, so what was the problem?

  'Just give her the braclet Izuku!'

  "Bye!" he swam away even though he wanted to stay there... But she was right. He couldn't afford the other humans to see him. 

  This time instead of watching her, he left to go to the rocks. 

  He placed the bracelet on the rocks so it could dry out a little bit. She probably didn't want her bracelet to be wet. 

  Izuku didn't want to wait for her though, should he find a shell for her? Was this too much? They just met after all... Would this be creepy? A better question was: Was this creepier than when he stalked her? He meant watched! 

  "Hi Izuku!" she beamed at him, cutting off his thoughts.

  She was carrying two things in her hands. Was one of them for him? He wasn't sure what they were though... She would have to explain it to him. 

  "Hey Ochaco!" he smiled back. 

  "T-This is for you!" he blurted, holding up the bracelet. He felt heat rise to his face. 

  "Really?" she sat down in front of him. "I have something for you too!"

  She handed him one of the objects she was holding and then took the bracelet from his hand and slipped it on her wrist. So bracelets and jewelry were things that humans had too. Interesting. 

  He examined the object. There was white stuff swirled at the top in kind of a spiral and the part he was holding was a tan-ish color. 

  Izuku was about to tilt it to get a better look at it, but Ochaco stopped him. 

Ochaco's Pov.

  It seemed that the siren didn't know what ice cream was... Well, maybe that was expected. Ice cream was melty and turned into a liquid. That was probably something you couldn't bring into the sea. 

  But the bracelet that he brought her was stunning! Made up of shells, she was so happy with it! They were most likely made up of real shells too. She appreciated his gift. 

  "Izuku no!" she saw him try to tilt the ice cream to the side. That wouldn't end well! She took his hand with both of hers and kept it tilted upward. Luckily, her ice cream was fine even when she stopped him from letting his fall.

  "You can't tilt ice cream," she explained, "It'll fall off the cone."

  "Oh..." he trailed off, "Anyway, what is it?"

  "It's food," Ochaco licked her ice cream as an example.

  He stared at her for a moment before licking his own. 

  "It's really good!" he smiled. 

  She nodded with a laugh. Why was he so cute? Wait- she didn't mean that! She just meant how he was so oblivious to the food!

  "You're eating a vanilla ice cream," she told him, "There are a lot more flavors."

  "Really?" he wondered, and then took a big bite out of his ice cream.

  "Ow..." he mumbled. She guessed he was getting a brain freeze.

  "Sorry," Ochaco apologized "I should've warned you not to eat it too fast."

  "That's okay," Izuku assured her. 

  "Is your scratched healed from yesterday?" she asked.

  "Yeah," he nodded his head. "It wasn't serious or anything."

  "What is it like living in the ocean?" she wondered.

  "Kind of boring sometimes," he admitted, "It feels like it's always the same day until something really exciting happens. That's why I started stalking you-"

  'He what-'

  She felt really alarmed for a second. She felt her heart start to beat faster and her cheeks turned pink. 

  "I-I meant watching!" his face went a bright red again.   

  "So that's how you knew my name," she realized, still a little nervous, "You were stalking me so much that you heard people say my name..."

  He looked really flustered. That was probably never meant to come out of his mouth. He looked guilty and embarrassed at the same time. It seemed he couldn't speak, so she just went on. 

  "And you knew where I was because you've been watching me," she continued, "Wait, were you still stalking me even after we met?"

  "If I say yes will you still talk to me..?" he asked. She knew he was a horrible liar, but he wasn't even trying to cover this up. 

  She didn't know what to do, but didn't want to lose her new friend. 

  "Yes I'll still talk to you," she sighed, "I'm just... surprised..."

  "I'm sorry..." he rubbed the back of his head, "You're the first human I've even seen... When I came to the surface three weeks ago-"

  'He's been stalking me for that long!? That's the whole time I've been staying here!'

  "-You were the first one I saw and I haven't been able to get you off my mind since. It's a miracle that I'm even meeting you right now... I thought I'd never be able to talk to a human, but here you are. Sitting right in front of me while you eat ice cream. It's kind of like a dream come true... Oh! I'm rambling, aren't I?"

  "It's okay," she giggled. Ochaco understood where he was coming from now. 

  "I need to actually eat lunch now. I can meet you back here in a little while," she told him after finishing her ice cream, "Bye for now!"