"Tedium in Blue" Bakugou x Reader Merman! AU

Chapter 17: A Small Venture

NOTES ON THIS CHAPTER: Enough people want a small side chapter to continue the story a bit, and of course I had to oblige. This chapter takes place a while after the ending of Chapter 16. There will be an Epilogue which takes place even farther out in the future, so please watch out for that in the coming months! I hope you enjoy this small extra snippet I've decided to add to the story!

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Tonight was the night. You'd been planning this for a few weeks: asked off time for work, cleaned your apartment from ceiling to floor, and bought enough food to last about week in addition to investing in some tools to, hopefully, make things a bit easier for this extremely risky venture.

The weather looked a bit cloudy, which set the beach and roads darker with shadow than usual even though it was nearly midnight: perfect. By this point you'd written up a detailed schedule of when all the shops in the area closed and the observable routes of street patrols to make sure you could sneak around unseen. Getting caught this time would leave no room for an escape route, so careful planning was absolutely necessary.

You told Katsuki to meet you farther down the beach than normal, about half a mile away from the pier on a part of the shore that had just a few too many broken lamps. Although he had no way of telling time like you did with a watch or phone, Katsuki could read the position of the moon or slight temperature shift of the water to know the right time to show up.

"C'mon...where are you?" you mumbled while kneeling down in the sand and scanning the water for movement. Sure enough, a few minutes later a shape popped out of the water, his silhouette unmistakable. After looking around to make sure no one was watching gestured for him to swim forward towards the shore.

You held up a finger to your mouth, signaling for him to keep quiet as he pulled himself up into the sand where you could see him properly. His face held a mixture of nervousness and excitement at the prospect of, for the first time in his life, experiencing somewhere outside of his oceanic confines.

Last month you proposed bringing him away from the ocean for the first time in his life to be with you in your apartment for a while. It took a lot of planning to make sure things would be as comfortable as you could provide, but Katsuki was eager and excited to actually see where you lived, to explore dry land, to be able to spend more than just evenings with you.

Still, it carried a heavy risk: if anyone saw him, it would all be over. Humans didn't know merpeople existed, and anyone with common sense would probably freak out and cause a panic, drawing unwanted attention to the both of you. All you had to do was get him from here to your apartment - that was the difficult bit. Once there you'd be behind closed doors and wouldn't have to worry until you took him back to the ocean when he was ready.

"You ready?" you whispered while giving him a quick peck on the cheek. Katsuki just smirked before stealing a kiss of his own, this time on the lips. The idea of outgrowing or tiring of his affection never crossed your mind.

"Is it safe?" he asked while trying to keep any tension out of his raspy voice.

You hummed in response. "As safe as I can make it. I can't account for the unexpected, so we just have to be extra careful not to be seen or heard."

Katuski knew that if he was nervous, you'd also be nervous - so he put on a brave front and instead thought of how the night might play out if everything went perfectly. "Fine. Well? What're we waiting for?" Katsuki held out his arms with a smug look on his face knowing what you needed to do. With a sigh you bent down into the water and hooked one arm under his tail and the other behind his torso as he wrapped his arms around your neck. His scales were slippery and cold but you were careful to maintain a good grip, and your clothes were already wet but that wasn't a huge deal.