Wicked Witch of the West Side Cliffs

- T H R E E -

"What?" Denki stared. 

"I lured him off of that cliff." 

Denki heard the words but he still didn't believe them. "I still think you're leaving out a lot of the story but if you don't want to tell me, I understand. I'm just a stranger right now. That's okay. And, even if you did lure him to his death or off of this cliff or whatever," Denki shrugged. "That was a long time ago, wasn't it? I'm new here. I only want to focus on the fut-" 

Shinso lifted his hand to take off his mask. His two glowing eyes were bright red peering out of black pits. Those dark eye sockets seemed to leak onto his face with specks of purple dust resting on his cheeks. His forehead looked as if it had cracks in it. 

Denki froze, staring at his face, and leaned forward just enough to hold it in his hands. "You're so beautiful." 

"You can't be serious," Shinso snorted. "Beautiful? Any normal human would've run away by now." 

"Then they don't know what they're missing." 

"You...are serious..." Shinso stared into Denki's eyes, trying to figure him out. He couldn't. 

Denki slipped, falling too far forward and into the water. The waves tossed him about but he felt those octopus arms wrap around him again. He stared at Shinso's eyes, glowing in the darkness of the water, as bubbles left his mouth and traveled to the surface. 

"You seriously need to learn how to be more careful," Shinso's voice echoed in his thoughts. His face moved closer to his own and their lips touched. Air flooded Denki's lungs once again as Shinso turned and swam toward the very base of the cliffs. Denki held the air he'd just got and tried to pay attention to where they were headed. 

Once inside a cave of some sort, Denki was placed on the edge. He could breathe now. The cave was expansive, going every which direction, Denki got confused just looking at it. "This is where I live," Shinso hung his mask on the side of the cave. "You can get back to the palace from here, and it's much safer for you than walking those edges all of the time. Maybe you'll finally stop jumping. I'm not always going to be there to catch you." 

"You...kissed me..." Denki felt his lips with his hand, trying not to get too flustered. 

"I gave you air. I hardly kissed you. You're a married man that likes to jump off cliffs." 

"Our lips touched. You kissed me." Denki said but then shook his head. "No, you're right. I can't call that a kiss. I'm technically married." Denki sighed, hugging his knees. "It's arranged though. He doesn't care for me." 

"Katsuki?" Shinso laughed. "I imagine he doesn't. He doesn't care for anyone." 

"You know him?" Denki looked up. 

"Something like that." 

"What about you?" Denki asked. "Are you married?" 

"Me?" Shinso snorted. "People don't exactly want to marry the 'Wicked Witch'." 

"So you're single?" Denki was relieved. 

"Something like that," Shinso nudged Denki with one of his octopus arms and pointed with another one to the inside of the cave. "If you follow the blue paint, you'll be back at the top of the cliff in no time." 

"What if I get lost?" 

Shinso sighed, reaching up to one of the shelves he'd built. He dug around with one of his octopus arms and grabbed something. "Here," he held it out to Denki. It was a shell necklace. "If you get lost or need help or whatever else, just open this shell and I'll come to help you right away. But only if you really need to, okay? Otherwise just talk to the shell. I'll be able to hear your voice." 

"Like with what happened earlier?" Denki stared up at Shinso with awe. 

"Yeah, yeah, just go already before you freak someone out." 

"No one cares about me." 

"Trust me," Shinso placed his hand over his chest. "Katsuki and Eijirou care about you a lot more than you think. They warned you, didn't they? So they have to care enough to do that." 

"I still don't see why you're so dangerous." 

"And hopefully, you'll never have to learn," Shinso smirked.

...

"You went back there, didn't you?" Eijirou sighed. 

"What?" 

"You smell like the sea," Eijirou grabbed Denki's shoulders and led him to the bathhouse. He stripped him in a rush and threw him into the hot spring. "If you're really going to not heed our warnings you have to at least bathe before you return. Prince Bakugo might get more strict with you if he knows you're going to keep returning." 

"Why would he care so much?" Denki sighed, sinking into the hot water. He held the shell necklace around his neck and looked up at the sky. Remembering that he was supposed to be able to talk to Shinso with this...he held it to his lips and whispered, "Testing, testing..." When nothing happened he sighed and floated on his back in the water. 

You're an idiot. Shinso replied. 

Denki sat up and stared at the shell, confused that it worked. He should've known that it would. Why would Shinso give him something that didn't? Don't come back to the cliffs. Shinso said. 

"What? Why?" 

Not regularly, anyway, you have to be careful. Walk around to various places for a few days so they get used to you being out. If Katsuki finds out you're not listening to him he is going to have a fit.

"You two must've been close, huh?" Denki muttered to the shell and sunk back into the bathwater. 

"Did you say something?" Eijirou poked his head out from the bathhouse. Denki shook his head. 

"No, I didn't."