As Deep As The Ocean || •Mermaid AU• || KiriBaku

13

Silence settled over them, but Mina grew fed up rather quickly, stopping her bathing in the water and moving towards the ledge, resting her arms on them as he had seen both Denki and Kirishima do earlier. 

“So, tell me about yourself.” She flashed him a flirtatious smile, which he cocked a brow at, face impassive as he struggled to take the girl seriously. She just snickered at his serious response, pulling herself up so that her arms were fully extended, the entirety of her torso now above the water. 

“What the fuck kind of a question is that?” He asked, voice flat as he continued to just blankly stare at the octopus girl in front of him. 

“Well, you know. Just, like, who are you?” She asked, bobbing her head from side to side playfully, and Bakugou just shrugged. 

“My name is Bakugou Katsuki.” He said, and Mina laughed, the sound cheerful and melodic, echoing around the grotto. 

“No, silly. Like, what are you interested in? What do you like to do, eat, those kinds of things.” She smiled again, resting her head against her forearms that lay against the water’s edge, and to the blonde it felt physically blinding. 

“If i said my favourite food is Octopus, will you fuck off?” He asked, before laying back, stretching his arms behind him and intertwining his hands to make a makeshift pillow. God, he hasn’t had a relaxing sleep in days.

Mina hummed, before vocalising a very prominent nope, popping the ‘p’ as she did. The blonde just sighed, shutting his eyes and attempting to tune the pink girl out. After several minutes, he could feel her intense stare puncturing his side, and he sighed, again, before sitting back up and looking at the girl.  

“You’re a bitch.” He meant it. He didn’t like her. He just wanted to sleep, or to get away from this shitty grotto and this shitty redhead and his even shittier friends, but he was stuck there. So, alas, he was stuck here, being intimidated by this pink octopus extra, with sleep just out of his reach. 

“I don’t know what that means.” She hummed and smiled, before resting her chin on a closed fist and once again gazing at him again, her yellow gaze piercing. “So, what do you like to do?”

And for a moment, the blonde wasn’t going to answer; he was going to leave her in suspense and her question unanswered. But that wouldn’t make her leave. Just more adamant that she get to know him. So he relinquished, sighing again and staring her dead in the eyes, his answer on the tip of his tongue. 

“I love sailing; specifically geography and navigating. I actually left my home to be on a ship and travel around the world, because I just love going to new places and seeing their culture. I have a huge collection of outfits from different countries; it was my pride and joy. Plus, I was being given an allowance to work on the ship, so I sent that home to my parents when I didn’t need it, which was more often than not. Everything was provided to us; food, shelter, the essentials. So I only ever used it to buy clothes, the rest went back to my parents.” 

Mina just stared at him, yellow eyes wide and a ghost of a smile settling on her lips as she eagerly listened to the blonde, glad the latter actually ended up answering her question instead of ignoring her presence entirely. His own face likely held a small quirk of his lips, eyes glazed over as he remembered his time on the ship, when he felt the happiest in life, and as he rambled about his favourite things, the joy couldn’t be contained within his usual frown and grumble combo. He loved to talk about everything before his second family grew bigger, before the loneliness and the feelings of inadequacy that set in as more people joined the crew… 

For a space they were adamant was meant for everyone, Katsuki sure felt like an outsider; his experiences would never be good enough for them. 

“Why not just keep the money?” The pink girl asked, and Bakugou sighed, being brought out of his stupor that had knocked the barely-there smile from his face. 

“My mum is a seamstress. In my home village, she made all her money through selling dresses to the upper class women, or occasionally tailoring or mending clothes. But where I come from, all the rich people are assholes, and hoard their wealth, rarely splurging their money on things. They don’t even pay the proper prices for what they do buy. So, while my mum works herself to the bone, day and night, to take care of her only son, me, she's getting ripped off by wealthy extras who deem her prices ‘too high’. 

“She was forced to lower her price when our country fell into an economic depression, and we couldn’t even afford food, so she changed the prices to get more business. It worked, since now she and my father can afford food, but they’re living paycheque to paycheque. If I don't send them money, they’re usually fine, but if they’ve had a bad business month, I’m the only thing keeping them afloat. And, I guess a small part of me feels guilty, responsible almost. I mean, they raised me, taught me everything I know, and I guess this is my attempt to pay them back, almost.”

“And your dad?” Mina felt rude prying into the boy’s personal life, but the guilt quickly dispersed, nothing more than a passing thought as the blonde seemed willing to talk, almost  grateful to get the feelings off his chest more than anything. 

“He used to work in the town’s guard when I was a child. We earned a lot, actually, and we could afford to buy land and a house, thankfully, since we probably wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of living on someone else’s land, even with my contributions. He used to accompany nobles and rich people on journeys, providing protection and safe passage. He was really good at his job, one of the best in the business and earned a lot because he was highly sought after. But one day they came upon a group of thieves.”

There was a pause for a few seconds, and Mina had half a mind to tell the blonde to ‘forget it’, that it was none of her business, but then he sighed, rubbing his hands up and down the rough surface of the rock, seeming to ground himself through the painful memories. “He killed them all, luckily, but one of them stabbed him in the side, pretty deep. He was fine for a few days, it wasn’t instantly fatal or anything.” Mina breathed out in relief, grateful that this man she didn’t know managed to survive, at least. 

“One of the other soldiers they were travelling with had a minor knowledge in first aid, so the wound was wrapped up and secured. But travelling conditions aren't the best for healing a major wound, and it got infected quite badly. He developed a fever, was practically delirious I heard, so they dragged him to the nearest village, their job be damned. The doctor of that town helped him. He survived, thankfully, but the infection left him completely paralysed from the waist down. There’s nothing they could’ve done to prevent that. They eventually made it back to our town, and I actually remember my mum breaking down when she saw him, thanking the accompanying guard and kissing my dad all over. At the time, I thought it was disgusting, but now I understand why she would’ve done it. Still gross though.”

Mina giggled slightly at the blonde’s commentary, hiding her smile behind a hand that, surprisingly, was not webbed like the other’s. Maybe it’s only specific species?

“So, what happened then?” She asked, breathily as she tried to hold back her giggling a little. Bakugou smiled softly, though there was no humour behind the expression, just a pained longing. 

“The captain of the guard was not impressed at my dad and his companion’s inability to complete their mission, and threatened to execute them immediately, but then they explained that my dad nearly died, and so he spared them. Barely. They were both stripped of their rank in the guard, though, and news travelled quickly at their ‘incompetence’. Neither of them are able to find new jobs, especially not my dad. He spends all his days sitting in a chair in our living room, his companion from the job stays and takes care of him, too. His wife and kid, too. Or at least, he did last I heard.”

*****

There's a little bit of angst in this chapter. Hope you enjoyed! I should be back to regularly scheduled updates from now on :)