Requested by: Kamiko_1234
Some guy at school called me emo yesterday.
Also, Deku's like 5 in this, so it's obviously platonic
Hope you all enjoy!!
---------- ☆~°+*¤ | Adopted | ¤*+°~☆ ----------
In this world, there are two kinds of people. There are Humans, which live on land and breathe air... and Merhumans, often shortened to Mer, which are very similar to the old sailor's legends of mermaids and mermen. Many different races of Mer exist, like Shark Mer, Clownfish Mer, Eel Mer, basically if you can think of a fish, chances are there's a race of Merhumans that resemble that fish.
Normally, the two races leave each other alone... but as you know, some Humans can be very evil. There are some people who will kidnap Merhumans to keep as pets. Those Mer are referred to as tankies, and are often extremely agressive towards Humans, or absolutely dependant on Humans. When they're found and rescued, they're brought to rehabilitation facilities which are dedicated to nursing and curing Merhumans, and later returning them to the sea.
"HEY KIDS!!" The golden-blonde man screamed at the class of children in front of him. "YOU READY TO SEE SOME MERHUMANS?!"
The group of kids stayed quiet.
"Maybe you should be less loud, Hizashi." The black haired woman standing next to him suggested. She crouched down so that she was at eye-level with the children, and she smiled. "Good morning, kids, and welcome to the Musutafu Merhuman Rehabilitation Centre. You can call me Miss Kayama, and this man here is Mr. Yamada! Tell me, are you kids excited to meet some Merhumans?"
"W-wait, the children will be interacting with the Mer?!" The class' teacher asked in concern. "That's horribly dangerous! A-aren't tankies agressive towards Humans?!"
"Don't worry, ma'am. I promise you the children will be safe!" Yamada assured the teacher. "The only Merhumans the kids will be interacting with are the safe ones, the ones who will be released soon and the ones who are permanent residents here due to injury. The chances of a kid getting hurt are super low!"
"...if you say so..."
"Is anybody here interested in learning about Merhumans?" Kayama asked the group of children. A kid in the very back of the group nervously raised his hand. "Really? Only one? Alright, you with the green hair, what's your name?"
"I-Izuku... Midoriya..." He nervously whispered. "I-I really like Merhumans... I t-think they're really c-cool..." He softly smiled, looking at the ground.
"I really expected more of you to be excited..." Kayama whispered. "Well then, regardless, let's start the tour! Follow me, and don't wnader off. We don't want you getting lost now, do we?"
While the rest of the children had fun playing and interacting with the safe Merhumans, Izuku snuck away from the group to explore on his own.
He climbed a set of metal stairs, all the way up to the top of the large tank, and stared down into the water.
It was hard to see because of how dark the water was, but Izuku could just barely see a Merhuman, specifically a Betta Mer, swimming around in there like it would in the wild. He stared at the water in excitement, wishing he could see the Mer up close...
And then... he fell into the water.
As the children were busy playing, the group's teacher began to panic.
"W-where's Izuku?!"
"Huh, did a kid wander off?" Yamada asked. "Don't you worry, girl! We'll find him right away!"
"HIZASHI!" A worker yelled, running up to Yamada and the teacher, panting heavily. "Someone... a kid... he fell in...to Aizawa's tank."
"Well, we have good news and bad news, ma'am!" Yamada said to the teacher. "The good news is, we found where that kid went!"
"H-HE FELL INTO A TANK?!" The teacher screamed out in concern.
"Hey, calm down missy! I'm sure he'll be fine!" Yamada tried to reassure her. "Well, actually, no that's a lie... he's almost definitely not gonna be fine..."
"WHAT?! WHY NOT?! WHY WON'T HE BE OK?!"
"Well, uh... Aizawa just so happens to be one of the more agressive tankies... he was in captivity for twelve years, and is absolutely not safe to interact with." Yamada explained. "I hate to say it, but that kid's dying today."
Yamada ran off with the other worker to assess the situation, mentally preparing themselves to see a dead child in blood-red water.
But that... isn't what they saw.
There was no blood, there was no corpse, there was no bloodthirsty Merhuman... confused, Yamada ran up the metal stairs to the top of the tank to get a better look at what was going on.
He saw something he didn't expect. Aizawa, the aggressive tankie who had injured a fair amount of Humans, was gently holding this young Human boy so that his head was above the water.
"Hi Mr. Yamada!" Izuku raised his hand out of the water, waving happily.
"Kid, can you swim?!"
"No!" He yelled back, kicking his little legs, creating ripples in the water. "I've been learning, though! And right now, he's helping me stay above water, so it's ok!"
"Alright, uh... just stay calm, kid! We'll get you out of there soon!"
After hearing that, Aizawa let go of Izuku for just a second to adjust his hold. He wrapped his arms tightly around the boy's body, glaring at Yamada.
Yamada didn't exactly know what to do. Yeah, the kid wasn't dead, and the Mer didn't seem agressive towards him, and that's obviously a good thing, but... now there was a different problem.
"Hey ma'am! I have some great news!" Yamada began. "The kid's alive!"
"Oh, thank goodness-"
"But the, uh, the bad news is... well... the tankie kinda... adopted the kid?" Yamada nervously smiled.
"...what do you mean by that?"
"Well, it's sorta acting like the child is its own... which isn't great for us, because Mer tend to be very protective of their young, so we're gonna have a hard time getting the kid out of the tank." He shot finger guns at the teacher. "But hey! He's not in any danger, and seems to be having fun, so all's well that ends well, right?!"
"What the Hell do you mean all's well that ends well?! No, you get him out of there right now! I am not going to have a child die because you misinterpreted the actions of an agressive tankie!"
"Ma'am, we're trying our best-"
"WELL TRY HARDER."
Meanwhile, Izuku was having a lot of fun!
But even so... he was starting to feel tired... and cold.
Humans can't survive in the water.
Of course Aizawa knew that. He knew that this child can't stay in the water forever, but he wanted to keep this child in this fake ocean with him... he wanted to keep his child safe.
There was a small fake island in the tank, perhaps to make it feel more like the ocean, so he sat Izuku down on that island to give him a break from the water.
Now that the two were separated, the workers assumed they'd have an easier time getting Izuku out of the tank. They were wrong.
Aizawa reacted violently whenever the workers tried to take his child away from him. There was no way they could get Izuku out of the tank without somebody getting injured.
...
Izuku has had a very long day.
He was very tired.
While everyone was talking about how to get him out of there, he decided to just go to sleep.
Really, what else is he supposed to do?
"Well, at least he isn't killing the boy..." Yamada sighed. "And hey, he seems to be comfortable around this Human kid, so that's progress, right?"
"I suppose..." Kayama said, doubtfully. "It's good that he's not being aggressive, but it's strange that he's treating the kid like his own, isn't it?"
"Oh definitely. I've heard of Merhumans sort of 'adopting' the abandoned young of other races of Mer, but I've never heard of a Merhuman adopting a Human child." Yamada said, confused. "I have no idea why this could be happening."
"Same here." Kayama said. "So what should we do about this?"
"Maybe we should wait for the Mer to go to sleep as well, and then get the kid out of there? That's the only thing I can think of."
Aizawa would not go to sleep that night. He stayed awake to make sure nobody would take his child away.
This child... his child... he knew he needed to protect him.
This child was abandoned, left to wander this facility alone. Nobody seemed to even care until he fell into the water.
This child didn't try to hurt him, he didn't panic when he saw him, he didn't scream at him...
This child was clearly one of the only good Humans.
Aizawa would protect his child with his life.