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

4

"Hey, dude!" His voice was deep, smooth, and while not quite beastly, there was something not quite humane about it. The deep sound sent shivers down Bakugou’s spine. 

The blonde continued to stare at the red-headed boy in front of him, brows furrowed in confusion before his expression morphed into one of shock, his heart rate picking up as his eyes landed on the, what should be, legs of the other male. Instead of a pair of legs, there was what seemed to be a tail; one long limb made of shining red scales- the same ones that lined his chest and shoulders, most dense around his sides, creeping inwards the closer they got to his collarbones before growing thinner and more scattered up his boy’s neck. The scales stretched up onto his face, too, and the blonde realised he had just mistaken them for freckles moments ago, though the obvious red shine they had exposed their true nature as what they were. The light reaching in from one of the grotto’s natural windows shone down on them, and the scales reflected like rubies onto the rock walls of his current residence. 

If the ash blonde wasn’t scared out of his mind, he would probably be able to admit the beauty of the boy sitting in front of him. 

The blonde dragged his eyes down from the redhead’s chest, towards the tail that lay half in the water beneath them. Around halfway down the limb laid two dorsal fins, about the size of Katsuki's outstretched hand, pointed and curved at the end, with darkening scales that grew thicker as they reached the ending tip. The tail reflected the fins, with darkening and thickening scales the further down they went, eventually ending in a fin-like structure, two points that faded like the other points of his tail. The top fin had a small slit in it where the fin separated for, what Bakugou could only assume to be, hydrodynamics. 

It almost represented a shark's tail. 

The blonde boy continued to stare at the red limb, wide-eyed with curiosity and a little bit of fear, seeming to catch the attention of the other individual. The tail seemed to flex as the other fidgeted, slightly uncomfortable with the blonde-haired boy's consistent stare, yet his sharp-toothed smile remained on his face, highlighting his dimples, however strained it may be. The subtle shift in the tail, the flex of the muscle and the ripple of skin (scales??) caught Katsuki’s attention. 

So it's a muscle then..? Otherwise, it wouldn’t flex and move like that, right?

"Uhm, hey dude? Why are you staring like that?” That slightly inhumane voice echoes around the cavern again, the redhead tipping his head to the side slightly, with wide eyes and a splitting smile as to not seem intimidating. 

"What the fuck are you?" The question slipped out of his mouth, entirely unintentional, and the blonde subtly moved backwards slightly, attempting to force some distance between the two, not that they were sitting overly close to begin with. Bakugou found himself fearing the non-human in front of him, despite the boy’s best efforts to seem friendly. The beam faltered on the other boy’s face momentarily, and Bakugou nearly felt bad.

"What do you mean?" The smile fell from the red-heads face entirely as he realised the blonde wasn’t joking, his expression instead being replaced with a look of confusion, a brow quirked up in question. 

"Uhm, most people don't have a fucking...  what is that, it's a tail, right?" The blonde gestured to the bottom half of the half-human, a mix between confusion and curiosity lining his face. His brows were furrowed as he stared down the red head, biting the inside of his cheek as his brain ran overdrive trying to process what was happening. The other boy shifted his head, following the movement of the blonde, seeing him looking at his tail, before he smiled and turned back to the other, nodding. 

"Yeah, I guess so. We call them fins though." The corner of his eyes crinkled due to his overly-wide smile, dimples once again decorating his face, and he lifted the scaled fin off the damp, rocky surface, moving it back and forth slightly almost to confirm its genuineness. The half-fish-half-boy slowly manoeuvred himself into a lying position, his bare chest and stomach flush against the stones beneath them, with his arms holding up his head., eyes crinkling and teeth bared in a smile aimed at the blonde.