Love Deeper than the Ocean | IzuOcha Mermaid AU

Chapter 13 | Sunset

Ochaco's Pov.

  "Izuku... I had a great time with you today," they were walking along a seemingly deserted part of the beach, close to where their hangout was.

  Their entwined fingers were more of a distraction so that everyone knew that they were walking together when in reality she was doing this half so Izuku didn't fall over or lose each other in a crowd. The other half of the reason was that... She felt comfortable. She felt safe being so close to him. 

  "Me too... I'd love to come on land again," Izuku told her, "It's just amazing!"

  "I'm glad you think so," she smiled at him, "I wish every day could be as wonderful as this one..."

  They sat on a rock in their hangout. 

  She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, resting there for a moment.

  "Maybe next time you can meet all of my friends and not just Momo and Mina," Ochaco suggested.

  "Sure, you met my friend. It's only fair that I meet yours," he agreed.

  The clouds had a white to light pink fade, but the colors of the sky were something out of a fairy tale! Near the center, where the sun was fading, there was this goldenrod yellow, that went to fiery orange, that faded to a light cherry red, then to a cherry blossom pink, which went into a mix of a lavender violet, and then finally the dark blue sky.

  "Wow! What's this called Ochaco?" he pointed at the sunset.

  "You've never seen a sunset?" she wondered.

  "Not really... In the ocean, we can only tell when it's night and day. Once and a while there's an orange tint, but this..! It's something a wish every siren could see," he told her in an excited voice, "Breaking the rules to come to the surface would've been worth it just to see this! But I have you too! It's like a dream come true just being here!"

  How long had he gone without seeing this? How old was he..? In fact... Did sirens have a longer life expectancy? 

  "Izuku... I have a question..." Ochaco started. "Tell me if I'm being rude, okay?"

  "Okay," he nodded his head. "What is it?"

  She sat up, letting go of his hand and taking 

  "What is your life expectancy as a siren?" her tone was more of a hushed whisper rather than asking a question. She felt kind of silly asking that... But she still wanted to know... 

  "A few hundred years. Why?" he asked.

  She didn't know what to say. She couldn't respond. How was that possible?

  "Ochaco..?" he called her name after a few moments.

  "It's just that... Humans have a sub-century life expectancy..." she explained, "I... I won't be able to do always be there for you..."

  "Actually... Ochaco, there's something I need to tell you..." Izuku gave her a sad smile.

  She looked into his bright emerald eyes, waiting for his next statement. 

  "I-" he was cut off.

  "Ochaco! There you are!" 

Izuku's Pov. 

  "Ochaco! There you are!" a girl came running toward them. Izuku recognized her as one of Ochaco's friends. He couldn't place her name though... 

  "I told you she was okay," a girl with green hair assured her. He was sure this girl was called Tsu. 

  "Who's that?" another girl with short dark hair pointed at him. This was a name that was harder to place... Maybe her name was Jira?

  "This Izuku, he's-"

  "You seriously left us to meet your stalker?" Jira (if that was her name) interrupted.

  "Why do your friends always say I'm your stalker immediately after you introduce me?" he couldn't believe they all did that... It was kind of sad. 

   "I'm sorry! It slipped!" she apologized again.

  "Five times?" he questioned. She obviously just told them that he stalked her...

  "No, just once. We're all staying with Momo in the beach house," she explained.

  "I guess that's better than if you told them individually..." he muttered. 

  "Anyway, are you going to come back to the beach house any time soon?" the girl that interrupted him before (he was going to call her girl one until she gave him a name) wondered, "You can bring your stalker boyfriend along if you want."

  There were two things in common that all the girls said. The first was that he was stalking Ochaco, and the other one (that isn't by any means true!) was to ask if they were dating! Why did they keep thinking that!?

  "We're not dating!" he blurted.

  "I swear... It feels like everyone's getting a significant other except me..." girl one crossed her arms, "Jiro's dating some guy with yellow hair, you're dating Izuku, Momo told us recently that she was dating someone! Why am I alone!?"

  So her name was Jiro? He was close enough.

  "I'm not dating Kaminari!" Jiro shouted at her friend, crossing her arms and looking away. 

  It seemed that Toru's dating accusations were built on assumptions. Although, she was right about the fact that Momo was dating someone. 

  He knew that Momo was dating Todoroki, but he definitely wasn't dating Ochaco!

  "We're not dating," Ochaco replied to them in a calm voice. 

  "Really?" Tsu commented. 

  "Okay, Toru, Tsu, Jiro," she pointed to them respectively to their names. "So you know what to call them." 

  Toru! Now that she said it, that girl's name made perfect sense. "Tsu" he got right. "Jiro" was something he found out during the conversation, so that didn't really count as getting her name right. 

  "Thanks," he rubbed the back of his head and gave them an awkward smile. He didn't really know what to say to them. Especially the one with dark hair (called Jiro) who obviously disapproved of their friendship. 

  "Yeah, Izuku can come with us..." Jiro continued to glower at him. "We can get to know each other better."

  "I really should be going..." Izuku jumped down from the rock.

  "No, I insist," the girl with the green hair called Tsu seemed like she was actually trying to be nice and invite him over. 

  "Maybe for a little while..." he nodded in agreement. His mom was going to be worried sick... But he needed to face those consequences. He was going to have to get on her friends' good side if he ever wanted to stay friends with Ochaco. Or date her... Which that second thing probably wasn't going to happen!

  They lead him to the beach house. He was nervous out of his mind. 

  "You don't need to do this y'know," she whispered to him.

  "I'm doing this so that they see they can trust me," he responded.