A Merfolk's Tale

Chapter Five

Izuku shifted his position on his bed with a smile, eyes still closed as his body yearned for sleep-- for some funny reason, his usually sturdy and lumpy clam bed felt soft and comfortable that all he wanted was to lie on his bed the whole day.

But he knew he couldn't and any minute now he knew Katsuki would be barging in if he still took his time. Time to wake up now, I guess. He thought and fluttered his sleepy eyes open.

The first thing that he saw was a white ceiling. Eh? Since when has my ceiling been white? And... where are the cracks? Did we do a renovation overnight? What is going on?

Slowly Izuku sat up but froze at the next thing he saw-- human legs. L-legs...? W-what's going on?  Izuku thought as he slowly tried to shift away from the human's lower half, only to be followed by the legs themselves and realization his Izuku like a tidal wave-- these were his legs.

Carefully putting a hand on one of his legs, Izuku stared at it with wide eyes. I transformed overnight...? Eh? But would that mean that I won't be able to breathe underwater? Or won't I? Is this some sort of freaky ability?

"You're finally awake," A voice spoke and Izuku's head snapped up to see a boy around his age with a great scar on the left side of his face and hair as white as snow on the right portion then red as blood on the left side.

Izuku examined his face before his eyes trailed down the boy's lower body and see legs-- he was human. Confusion occurred in Izuku's mind as he tried to rack his brain of any activities he did before he passed out. Yesterday we were having a lesson on how to transform... Ochako-san was helping me and then--

His eyes widened and fear dilated them as he remembered everything as fast as the underwater current. His breathing hitched as he looked up at the boy in fear, trying to back away from him.

The boy sensed his fear and approached him, but Izuku panicked and fell out of the bed with a cry-- or he would have but no voice or sound came out. But fear was wrapping around his mind and he fought to stand up before feeling a sharp pain on his left leg, causing him to buckle and fall on the floor-- only to be caught by firm arms before he hit his head.

"You're okay... calm down... nobody here would hurt you," A soothing husky voice cooed over his ear and panic left Izuku's system and he remembered who this boy was-- he was the one who saw him that night when he tried to bring the ball back home for Ochako to see, he was the one who brought him out of Gamma Cove and shooed the humans away, he was the one who rode that white funny looking creature to a structure as huge as the fortress they were residing.

I-I'm Shoto, what's your name?

With a jolt, Izuku remembered the boy's name and looked up to meet his heterochromatic eyes-- his green eyes full of wonder and curiosity and Shoto looked relieved when he sensed that Izuku had finally calmed down. Slowly, he helped Izuku up and brought him back to bed.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, you must've been through a lot to get spooked by that," Shoto said then gestured for Momo to enter the room.

The black-haired maid slowly entered with a reassuring smile on his face, but Izuku was still frightened about what was happening around him that he unconsciously gripped Shoto's cloth, causing the latter to look down.

"You've passed out yesterday and had only woken up, I'm sure you're very hungry," Momo said as she put down the tray of food on the bedside table and took the lid off-- letting the aroma of food float its way towards Izuku's nose.

His stomach gave out a loud grumble and both Shoto and Momo had to hide a smile as the greenhead's face slowly turned pink from embarrassment.

"Well that answered the question whether you were hungry or not," Momo said, then curtsied towards Shoto before taking his leave.