Love Deeper than the Ocean | IzuOcha Mermaid AU

Chapter 5 | Conch

Ochaco's Pov.

  She didn't get ice cream for Izuku this time. She didn't want to spend all her money. She brought french fries from her lunch with her though. Maybe he would like them. 

  It was a few days since they met and her friends were getting extremely suspicious of her... Luckily they weren't following her or anything. 

  Suddenly, she ran into a boy with spiky blonde hair. The impact made her stumble backward. She nearly spilled the french fries, but they were safe. 

  "Sorry!" she apologized.

  "Tch, whatever," he walked past her. 

  She continued on her merry way to meet Izuku. 

  "I brought you something," they said in unison. They laughed and exchanged gifts. 

  "Is this a conch!?" she examined the shell. She noticed his nervous face when she glanced back at him. Why was he so tense?

  "Yeah," he nodded. "I found it recently."

  His face was turning pinker and pinker by the second. 

  "I do! Thanks!" she smiled at him, putting it back down. 

  "What are these?" he picked up one of the french fries. 

  "French fries," she told him. "I know it's not ice cream, but you might like it."

  He did like the french fries. They talked for a little while. Izuku's world sounded... Amazing! It sounded beautiful and colorful and she wanted to see it! But... That probably wasn't going to happen. 

  "I'm coming in the water," she told after a minute. 

  "Why?" he questioned.

  "It's really hot," she explained. She was prepared for this and was wearing a bathing suit under her clothing.

  She took off her shirt and shorts before slipping into the water. She put her bracelet with the rest of her clothing (and the conch) so she didn't lose it. 

  "Do you like swimming?" he asked as she found a place where she could sit in the water.

  "I do, but not as much as Tsu," she told Izuku.

  "Who's that?" he pondered. Although, he didn't seem as confused as she thought he'd be at her friend's name. Perhaps he was checking the relationship they had. 

  "One of my friends," she replied, "We're visiting Momo's beach house for the summer."

  "Only for the summer?" he seemed disappointed. 

  "Yeah, I have school," she told him.

  "Humans have schools of people?" he wondered.

  "Probably not what you're thinking. It's not like a school of fish, that just means they're in a group. For humans, it's where a bunch of people your age go to learn about certain topics," she tried to explain, "But it's mostly when we're younger."

  "Interesting... But I don't want you to leave me once summer's over..." he sighed.

  "I don't want to either. In fact, I kind of want to stay here," she smiled at him, "but..."

  "But what?" he urged her to continue.

  "I can't just leave... If Momo asks me to come back next summer, I would love to," she took one of his hands, "I would talk to you all the hours in a day every day, but I can't do that."

  "There is one way that you can talk to me even from far away," Izuku pointed to the shell he gave her, "I have a matching conch, which means that I can talk to you through it. Matching conches can be hard to come by, but I already had one of them, see?" he showed her the necklace he was wearing. He was right. They were matching. "So what do you think?"

  "I'm glad that you found this! It means I can talk to you any time!" she threw her arms around his neck.

Izuku's Pov.

  'She's hugging me! She's hugging me! She's hugging me!'

  He felt his face go red. His heart was racing and he hoped she didn't hear it. Why did he have to have a crush on a human? A wonderful, bubbly, kindhearted human that had all his best interests in mind... Ochaco wasn't just a human to him... She was special. That was why he gave her his matching conch... Was that the wrong decision though? Well... It's not like she knew any siren customs... 

  Izuku hugged her back, wishing they could just be alone together forever so they could talk about their very different worlds. He wanted to show her the wonders of the sea. Well, maybe he could. But that would take a lot of time to do... All the ingredients he'd need to find... But he'd do it for her.

  He pulled away from her a few moments later.

  "Could you get me back to that rock," she asked, pointed at the underwater ledge she was sitting on until she jumped off it to hug him. 

  He swam over and set her on the rock. It seemed inconvenient to have legs. Wait, why didn't she just go back to the rock on her own? Couldn't she swim?

  "I wish there was a way for me to come up on land..." he sighed.

  "I wish there was a way for me to explore the ocean with you," she admitted.

  There was a way... Should he tell her? Ochaco may not like what she had to do to go through with this though...

  "Is there a way? If there are conch shells to communicate with each other, is there a way for me to breathe underwater?" she wondered.

  "Only if you're willing to try a solution made up of a bunch of seaweed and my saliva," he responded.

  Her disgusted face said it all. But he couldn't blame her. Who wanted to drink someone else's spit?

  "I would do it," she hesitated but said it. 

  "Wait... Really?" he looked back up to her, "Even if it only lasts a few hours?"

  She nodded after a moment. 

  "Then I think this could work..." he smiled at her, "I think I can pull together everything by a few days if I start now."

  After they said their goodbyes, he went to work. There was a trench not too far from the coral reef. It wasn't too deep, but he was sure it had one of the seaweed on the list. In truth, he memorized the recipe just in case Ochaco agreed to this... 

  He swam down, feeling the temperature drop. He shivered. It was eerie and freezing. Looking around, he didn't see anything. Maybe he should've brought a fluorescent rock with him. 

  Here he was almost in the twilight zone (it only just barely reached this zone)... He hoped that he could get the most out of exploring with Ochaco. He hoped she liked spending time in his world.