AN: I'm fired up about this idea. LET'S GOOOOO!
Today's song: Into Yesterday by Sugar Ray.
Happy reading~ :D
The Ocean's Treasure
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Deep in the ocean's floor, in a realm no human could enter - a young mermaid argues with her father, the King, over how she wants to live her own life.
"I'm sorry but I don't love him!"
"This is about your duty to the crown! Not to your heart!"
"A life without love is not a life worth living!"
"My dear child, please understand…"
"No!" her breath shuddered as she cried while swimming away.
No matter how much she explains herself, her father would never understand.
Princess Ochako longs for, yearns for, wishes to discover love.
She's only ever seen it once when her family had just returned from their travels from the Atlantic ocean back home to the Pacific. Ever eager to go people-watching after not being able to while away from her familiar waters, she secretly snuck out of the palace and found herself following a pod of dolphins who were squeaking about joining in on the fun to go play with their favorite person near a small town's beach.
It was there that the young mermaid hid behind a large red buoy and peeked her head above the water to watch what the pod was doing.
A young couple - a blonde female and a taller brunet male gazed over the glistening setting sunset as they watched their only son swim and play with the dolphins.
It was in the way that the boy cared for the mammals that something just clicked. Her youthful, mesmerized brown eyes switched between watching the couple curled into each other standing on the pier and the way their eyes filled with love for the small boy that she wondered why they did what they were doing. Unafraid that their son would be harmed, of course the dolphins would never.
It was just curious to her.
The boy wore a scowl when his parents took out a small rectangular device out of their pockets and flashed a small white light with a 'clicking' sound in his direction but the dolphins reacted differently and encouraged the boy's mood to shift as she heard him laugh for a second later.
It was then and there that she found humans, especially this young boy fascinating.
She vowed that she'd find whatever that expression was for herself someday. Being one-hundred percent sure it was the old pirate's tales of what 'love' is. And she wanted it with that boy. Whom, over the years, she secretly watched grow into a young man who remained passionate about sea life and the ocean to her delight.
"I can't stay here" she tells herself as her tears, appearing as tiny air bubbles in the water drift away with her speed. She swims to her room and fetches her pearl necklace, the one thing to remind her of home before she runs away.
It's just her luck that in her saddened state, she failed to feel the tides beneath her skin. On her way to wherever her fins would take her, she wasn't expecting to make her way towards the shores of the small little town in coastal Japan. At least not yet.
She wasn't brave enough to go onto land, knowing she could from what her best friend shared the one and only time the purple-tailed mermaid returned home. Her friend was happy living amongst the humans and still felt the life of the ocean's currents in her veins. She had comforted Ochako with her tales and gently encouraged her to try it herself one day in order to be with the one she loves on land. But the young man doesn't even know about her existence and she feared that he'd have a bad reaction to her being a 'fish' despite how close of a relationship to the ocean he shared.
With the full moon out, the tides grew higher and stronger as she fumbled in the waves herself and ended up accidentally bumping into someone in the water. In that moment of confusion, she didn't even think to wonder who would be crazy enough to surf in this weather no matter how beautiful the water glowed surrounded in tiny bioluminescent organisms.
The waves roughly crashed against each other and in their force, she ended up being swept and dumped into a swimming pool. Not knowing she was trapped in there along with what else was brought in from the ocean as her eyes grew heavy and she blacked out.
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The thundering storm raged on outside, growing angrier by the minute as Izuku and Melissa slowly began tuning it out as they both drifted off to sleep. Not even the soft murmuring of the tv could keep them awake.
That is until Izuku jolted from the clutches of sleep and jostled the blonde at his side by having the pillows on his side collapse and cave in on the girl. They had created a makeshift pillow fort on the wooden floor. Blankets and pillows surrounded the floor in whichever way they could be held up.
"Heeeeeyyyyy… Izu-chan" Melissa groans as she lazily pushes the pillows toppling her to the side, "what gives?" she asks as she blinks her sleepy blue eyes to see her cousin frantically rummaging through his closet.
"My mom's sailboat! I forgot to put it in the garage!" he hurriedly tells her as he hops around putting on his rain boots on, not bothering to get a coat.
Melissa took one look out the abysmally black window only being able to hear the downpour and not liking their odds of going out there.
"I'm sure it'll be fine, Uncle Toshi always anchors it down during the storms" she reminds him, hoping it'd change his mind about going outside.
"I need to do this, Mel" he shakes his head, "otherwise, I won't be able to sleep"
She knows she can't stop him. As afraid of the water as he is, he's more afraid of losing his mother's belongings more.
"I'll go with you" she volunteers as she gets up and goes to her own room to find her pair of rain boots.
Both teens try to be as discreet as possible, taking each creaky floorboard one at a time as they descend down the stairs. They both know that Toshinori was out as a light with the way the house rumbled with his orchestra of snores but David was another problem. Rain or shine, he was unfazed by these tropical storms and was usually found still awake and working into the late hours of the night.
As they finally reached the final step, both grew relieved after having a brief chill run down their spines at the silhouette of a slumped over male in the dining room. It was just David who fell asleep at the table while working at his laptop.
They entered the extended kitchen, going into the café side of the home and out the entrance there. Once they successfully managed to get out, Izuku let out his breath that he had been holding.
"Oh, you so owe me for this!" Melissa yells as the wind howls around them.
Izuku silently gives her a thumbs up as he takes her free hand, the one not trying to protect her face from the gushing winds and pin-prickling rain drops. They go together, fighting wind, rain, and their balances on the muddy sand out towards the beach's low-level docks where several boats were parked, rocking crazily in the waves as occasional big waves swept over them.
The green-haired male shook, both from his fear and the cold weather. Melissa squeezed his hand tightly to assure him that she wasn't going to let go as they braved the weather until they were abruptly stopped by large chunks of driftwood hurdling their way.
"Izu, we can't!" Melissa pulls him back after dodging a beach umbrella.
"But –" he wanted to say that they were so close, he could clearly see the boats but couldn't see well enough to count how many there were.
Reluctantly, he nodded as they returned to their home. He'd just have to check in the morning once the storm passed. As they entered the front of the café, making their way past the fallen over café menu sign and tilted over beach chairs by the pool, Izuku failed to see the pile of slippery seaweed in the way and tripped backwards straight into the swimming pool with Melissa in tow as they made a decent size splash.
Melissa quickly resurfaced as she called out for her cousin who seemed to be still under. She took in a large breath of fresh air and dived back under to find him in the tangle of bulbous kelp heads, leafy seaweed, and various small fishes. She spread her arms wide opened swimming in a butterfly stroke in order to push things away as she tried to keep calm and not panic.
She needed to get Izuku out.
Izuku floated underwater, eyes closed and slowly losing oxygen as tiny air bubbles traveled up above him. Surrounded by what felt like the ocean's floor as it was pitch dark around him. He fluttered his eyes opened once he regained consciousness and tried not to flail around as he couldn't tell how deep the pool had filled itself with ocean water and marine life.
It's in those precious few seconds that he's alone shrouded in darkness that he feels as if he's not alone when something in what seems like a muted pink color slithers by the tall stalks of seaweed as if circling around him.
He wants to scream but can't knowing he needs to find the courage to swim back up.
When he finds that courage as he hears his heart rapidly beating against his throat as his body begs him for air, he's about to move his limbs to propel himself upwards when a hand comes out of nowhere and tightly grips around his wrist.
Izuku screams when he feels something cold and slimy, rough yet smooth hold him. It's definitely not human.
Before he knows it, he's back up above the water's surface as he clings onto the edge of the pool while coughing out the excess salty water from his lungs. He doesn't waste time to lift his upper body right out of the pool on shaking arms that feel like jellyfishes.
"Oh, you're alright!" he hears Melissa call out as she desperately pants, trying to regain her breath as she swims towards him, "Don't scare me like that!" she halfheartedly lectures, taking his offered hand to help her get out of the pool.
"Mel, did you save me?" Izuku cautiously asks as he watches his cousin quirk an eyebrow and frowns. "I thought you were the one to find me first? I felt you tap my shoulder to resurface" she tells him right as they both give each other a look. One that tells them that something was off.
"Mel, that wasn't me" he confirms with quivering lips, right as they continue their stare down.
As they stared at each other with wide eyes, they whip their heads at the first sound they hear, ignoring the rumbling storm around them to focus on the swimming pool itself. The swimming pool was long and has a standard size of depth. One part of the pool was partially blocked by the damaged solar cover and the rest of the pool was shrouded in filth and marine life.
Izuku and Melissa had fallen in the middle and it wasn't until they were both seated at the edge that they noticed the tiny flickering lights of a few organisms that got swept into the pool as a flip of a fin - a shade of pink creates a small wave before the creature submerges itself into the mysterious dark waters again.
"What was that?!" Izuku tries to keep his voice in check, not wanting to sound paranoid put he couldn't help feel jumpy. Melissa gulps at his side and doesn't answer as she adjusts her body to lay down on her stomach feeling the wet pool tiles cause her skin to crawl.
He wanted to ask her what she thinks she's doing but lost his voice as soon as she scooted her face closer to the water for a better look. Izuku could only shakily grip onto the back of her drenched pajama camisole to keep her in place while she investigates.
They wait with anxious energy, waiting for what they hope isn't a shark to make noise again.
In a flash, two hands reach out of the dark pool as they grab hold of the sides of Melissa's face bringing her closer to the water as a pair of cold lips press against hers.
Melissa had no time to scream and pull away as her blue eyes stared back into very human-like brown eyes before the female let go and went back underneath the water.
Izuku, paralyzed at his cousin's side saw everything. A female with short brown hair had pulled herself from the water, wearing what appeared to be giant pink scallop shells for a bra but her torso. Her torso and below is what had paralyzed and instilled fear into him as her navel region was littered in tiny glittering pink scales as they grew bigger and formed a tail. In his shock, he couldn't process any of this nor any other details on this creature.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" he screams bloody murder as he scrapes his inner palms to backpedal himself away from the pool's edge feeling as if his soul was about to seep out of his body. "We need to leave! We need to go back inside!" Izuku starts to panickily reason with himself as he sees the blonde, still frozen in place by the pool not making any signs of moving as he.
"MEL!" yells, snapping her out of her own shock as he grabs the bend of her elbow to lift her up.
Melissa doesn't know what just happened to her, unable to process that a fish creature had kissed her. Only that it looked human-like and the kiss still lingered on her lips with how cold they were.
She knew Izuku was talking to her, trying to get her to leave the pool but she had so many questions. As a future marine biologist, part of her wanted her to dive back into the pool but couldn't. She wouldn't freak out her cousin more than he already is as his muffled voice of reason becomes clearer in her head as she quickly follows him back into their home.
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In the morning, Izuku and Melissa were awoken by the sounds of men talking and working outside along with the beeps and suctioning noises of a machine.
Their night felt like a blur, a fever dream that they were sure wasn't real. But both their skins still felt clammy and hair damp. Izuku's room was littered with used bathroom towels and their rain boots still had droplets on them. The pillow fort they had created was abandoned for an actual bed.
"Easy now, Katsuki, don't want the machine getting clogged now" they hear Toshinori's booming voice advice as they hear another, a younger gruff voice reply that he wasn't stupid, knowing exactly what he was doing.
They continue to hear a machine suction for what felt like thirty minutes before it gets clogged.
"Shitty fuckin' machine got clogged!" the gruff male yells, "And it wasn't my fault!" he defends himself a second later as they hear Toshinori tell him that he knows with a light laugh. There's just simply too much ocean debris that it was bound to happen.
"Mmm… must Kacchan be so damn loud in the morning?" Izuku groans as he rises like a mummy out of his bed, his unruly green hair mushed on the left side from where his head was on the pillow with the right side pointing in all directions.
"Wonder what…" Melissa, who's still laying at his side on the bed yawns, "they're doing?" she questions as she momentarily snuggles against her own pillow before remembering everything that occurred during the stormy night. "The girl!" she gasps as she rolls out of the bed in a loud thud.
Izuku had almost forgotten, practically hoping that it was just some wild dream he had after they binge watched classic sea monster movies such as, 'The creature from the Oki mariner, Selkie' and, 'I know what Sirius did last summer.'
"Uhh… I'm pretty sure if a girl washed up from a wreckage and by whatever miracle ended up in our pool that my dad and Uncle Dave would've said something by now, even get the harbormaster down here" Izuku tries to make sense of things as he's convinced that whatever they had encountered in the pool wasn't fully human.
"You're right but we won't find out anything by staying in your room!" she says as she gets up from the floor and runs out of his room to return to her own to change into dry gym shorts and a hoodie while fetching a long beach towel.
"Why the towel?" he asks when she returns to wait for him to get out of bed.
"The girl might need this" she turns around from his door's entrance and starts making her way downstairs knowing that he wouldn't keep her waiting for long.
She hears him a few seconds later coming down the creaky steps and catches up to her pace. He changed into a fresh t-shirt and shorts, carrying an extra towel in case they need it.
"Morning you two!" Toshinori greets them as he inspects a long tube, digging out trash out of it to unclog the machine.
Katsuki huffs rolling his eyes, saying nothing to the duo as he shovels out seaweed and trash from inside the shallow pool water.
"Hey… uhh… dad, did you happen to see anyone else here?" Izuku vaguely asks as he looks around the pretty beaten up café court for any signs of a half girl-half fish creature.
"Nope! Just been here with Katsuki and Dave who's out getting coffee for us" he tells his son, curious about what he meant, "why, were you hoping to catch a mermaid?" he jokes as it makes both teens freeze up.
"EHHH?! A ME-MER-MERMAID!" Izuku hysterically swipes his arms in an x-formation in front of him as he starts laughing like a mad man.
"Chill the fuck out, dweeb!" Katsuki calls out from the pool's floor as he pauses his shoveling, "He's joking, everyone knows mermaids don't exist"
"You're just saying that because you've never been kissed by one!" Melissa winks at the blond as he quirks an eyebrow giving her a look.
"You're both fuckin' weird!" he comments with a shake of his head as he got back to work.
"C'mon, Izu-chan!" she weaves her fingers with izuku's hand, "We'll help out and check out the shack, Uncle Toshi!" she tells the burly man as he laughs and thanks them.
She leads Izuku towards the closed shack, the one they use for selling and renting out swimming equipment for the pool, outdoor beach activities, along with souvenirs and small snacks. It was honestly the only place she could think of looking for the mysterious girl, a bit worried for her health. Melissa was no fool, after digesting her shock, she knew they definitely found a mermaid and was kissed by one.
They weren't supposed to exist but then again neither were monster-sized cephalopods and their deep-sea gigantism.
Moving a turned over chair in the way, Melissa tip-toed to reach for a rusty top hook near the door to get the key hidden behind a gold bell hanging on jute rope. Slowly, she opened the door to let out any water from the storm that might've seeped in.
"Hello! Is anyone in here?" she calls out as she carefully maneuvers through the fallen over racks of goods as she lifts up and straightens up what she can to further get into the small shack.
"We're not going to hurt you! We just want to talk!" she calls out again as she feels Izuku, who's right behind her tug her back.
"Mel!" Izuku sharply whispers, pinching the fabric of her hoodie again to stop her when she wasn't listening as she turns around to silently ask him what's gotten into him.
Izuku takes out his phone from his pocket and turns on the flashlight app so they can better see. He flashes his light onto a spot that he saw slight movement coming from when Melissa had moved the racks of postcards, souvenir magnets, and bottle openers out of the way.
It's then that they both pause as they see a young woman, maybe younger or about Izuku's age curled up into herself as she covered her face. Her neck shimmered from her pearl necklace but she was looking away from them. Huddled up by the corner of the small shack's wall.
She was shivering and shaking like a leaf. On her right shoulder blade, she has a medium sized tattoo of camellia roses made out of tiny pink scales. Her short brown hair and bangs damp and crumpled, wearing a pink scallop shell bra, and completely nude from the waist down with very much human anatomy.
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Done! To be continued.
Uhuhu, the real fun begins next chap! I hope y'all enjoy my version of mermaid!Ochako.
Until next time!
You know the drill! Please R&R – it's greatly appreciated and I always get a kick out of reading your reviews/feedback. And again, please don't be afraid to – I can fluently read Spanish and partial French! Thankies~ :D
