Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Characters: Hanta Sero, Ochako Uraraka

Additional Tags: Mermaid AU

"Needless to say, I keep her in check! She was a bad-bad, nevertheless-! Callin' it quits, da dunna dun duh…" Hanta sang along to the music pumping in his headphones as he jaunted along the concrete sidewalk. He punctuated the words with very exaggerated motions, earning him quite a few concerned glances from passersby; not that he noticed, because he had his eyes closed as he skipped a few steps flapping his arms like a chicken. "Then you're left in the dust-! Unless I stuck by yaaaaaaa! You're a sunflowwwwwwer! I think your love would be too much!" he yowled and spun around a light pole on the corner before hopping off and scooting a few more steps down the sloping sidewalk.

It was about seven o'clock in the evening, and Hanta was on his way home from a riotous day of videogames at Denki's house. Hanta had proudly obliterated Denki, Katsuki, Eijirou, and surprise guest Fumikage at Super Smash Bros. Needless to say, he was still riding the victory high- so much so that he had elected to walk home rather than take the bus. The night was pleasantly chilly, just enough to stave off the heat from all his wild dancing, and a few of the stars were visible between the wispy gray clouds trawling over the inky expanse of the night sky. The evening was still young, so as he jitterbugged his way through town, he distantly wondered what he was going to do for the rest of it.

"I can hear you tellin' me to turn around! Fightin' for my trust, and you won't back down! Da dunna dun duh, da dunna dun da…" he clumsily sang as he hopped over the curb to jaywalk across an empty street. He trotted down another incline, which led to his shortcut- a waterway that traveled the length of a series of highway overpasses. The watercourse siphoned excess water away from the city reservoir; it had rained a considerable amount lately, so the freshwater was lapping up at the edges of the levee. The splashing and gurgling of the water served as an accompaniment to his performance while he strolled along, occasionally stopping to kick his legs or punch the air energetically. "You're the sunflowwwwwer! You're the sunflower!" he howled again, skipping to the edge of the levee and shaking his hips, before the song ended. He then wrenched his headphones off his ears to rest them around his neck and released a self-satisfied sigh, placing his hands on his hips and staring out at the canal.

Hanta always took a moment to appreciate the view when he came this way, if the water level was high enough. It was extraordinarily breathtaking when the stars were out. Light sparkled across the gently sloshing waves like millions of diamonds. Just above the concrete slopes of the other side of the levee, through a rusted chain-link fence, spread the expanse of the city; gold lights floated like orbs in the distance, emanating from streetlights and houses and businesses. If he squinted, he could make out the reds and green of traffic stops as well, or the flickering neon flashes of animated billboards. He could not hear the deafening noise pollution of civilization, though, aside from the humming of car engines bouncing down from the highway half a mile from where he stood. No, the sounds of nature reigned- the babbling of the water, the chirping of the crickets in the bunches of weeds springing up from the cracked sidewalk, the baying of stray hounds and the hooting of the barn owl that nested in the crooked old tree beyond the fence. He closed his eyes as he drank it all in. The bubbling. The chirping. The howling. The hooting. The little muffled whimpers for help-

Wait a second.

Hanta's eyes snapped open, and he strained his ears to make sure he had indeed heard what he thought he had. Sure enough, floating down the waterway from his right were small, stifled squeaks and sobs. Someone needs help! He took off down the sidewalk, whipping out his phone to turn on the flashlight. A bright circle of white illuminated the stone construct before him, and he swung his phone side to side wildly to check every square inch of space.

"Hello? Who's out here? Do you need help?" he called, cupping a hand to his mouth to increase the volume. The noises ceased for a moment, and he worried that he might have frightened them off. "Don't be scared! I just wanna help you!" He remained still aside from his slightly ragged breaths, eyes searching the dark and ears straining the fresh night air for any sound, any at all.

"… Please help me." The plea was meek, but close, close enough for him to tell it was a girl. A million deplorable scenarios flew through his mind at once, but he forbade himself to settle on any of them; instead, he focused on picking his way down the slick slope to where he thought the voice originated from. Suddenly, the disc of light from his phone's flashlight puddled over a caramel-haired, brown-eyed girl with her body half in the water.

"What the shit?!" Hanta panted under his breath. He cried out as the sole of his sneaker slipped over the wet rock, and he sank into a split. He let out a shrill whine as his thigh and groin muscles strained way past the point they were naturally meant to. His feet scrabbled against the slimy, rocky levee wall until he managed to regain his footing again. Hugging the levee surface, he allowed gravity to slide him the rest of the way down the slope until the toes of his sneakers barely breached the rippling surface of the water. "Don't worry, miss, I gotcha," he reassured the frightened girl as she shied away from his sudden presence. He held his phone up so that the light illuminated her fully but also fell on him so she could see his kind smile. "We're gonna get you back up just… just… fine…"

His words trailed off when he happened to look down at her lower half, which rested in the water. It was just instinctual. He hadn't been sure what he had been expecting, given the situation; he could have discovered any number of sickening or unsavory things. What he discovered was not sickening or unsavory, but downright befuddling. Rather than human legs, the lower half of the girl's body was in the form of a bubblegum pink, scaly fishtail, with thin, curving fins like a flying fish. Hanta stared incredulously at the appendage for a few seconds before he realized why the girl- mermaid, rather- had been crying out for help. Wrapped around her tail were industrial-sized plastic rings. The hard edges were digging into the flesh, slicing right through the hard scales to cause blood and effluent to ooze out. The mermaid stared fearfully at him the entire time.

"Right! Uh, knife, I need a knife," he mumbled and began patting his pockets in search of his Swiss Army knife. One never knew when one needed a particular tool, so Hanta had always made a point to keep one on his person. He never dreamed he would be using it to cut some plastic off a mermaid, though.

"Ah-ha!" he grinned triumphantly when he finally tugged it out of his back pocket. He flashed a reassuring smile at the mermaid. "Don't worry, Miss Mermaid. I'mma have you free in a jiffy."

"Erm… Thank you," she flushed shyly and dropped her gaze. Hanta then realized he would need two hands to cut her free, so he grinned bashfully at her.

"Er, would you mind, uh, holding this for me?" he asked with a shake of his smartphone. She stared curiously at the device and gave an unsure nod, reaching up with her small hands to take it. "Just keep that light pointed on your tail- Jesus Christ, she has a tail- uh, keep it pointed there so I can see." Obediently, she turned the phone so that the flashlight kept her tail illuminated. Hanta bit down on his bottom lip as he hunched over the appendage to begin cutting the plastic loose.

Some areas were more accessible than others; in several places, the plastic was lodged half an inch down in the meat of her tail. He felt pangs of guilt every time the poor thing yelped with pain when he would dig his fingertip into the gaping wound to pry it out. She began to squirm around and sob pitifully, so he decided to try and distract her from the discomfort. "My name's Hanta. Sero Hanta," he informed her with a quick smile. "What about you? Do you have a name like humans?"

"In your language, it would be Ochako. Uraraka Ochako."

"Cute name, cute name." He winced when she whimpered again, for he was digging into a rather deep laceration to force out some clinging particles of the stretchy plastic. "How did you even do this?" he muttered disparagingly. He glanced at her face to see her eyes tearing up and a self-pitying pout making her lips quiver.

"I just swam into it like a big dummy… I freaked out trying to get it off, and next thing I knew, I was up in this channel. I got it all tangled with my fins, so it was getting hard to swim…" She used to her free hand to wipe at the tears glittering on her brown lashes. "I thought I was gonna be stuck here forever…"

"Hey, hey, don't worry about it! Good thing I happened upon you, huh?" he interjected as she began to cry piteously. He probably shouldn't have delved too much into the backstory. A bright idea struck him like a thunderbolt, and he wrenched off his headphones to stick them over her ears. "Here! Listen to this, and it won't hurt as much," he instructed her and tapped on his phone screen to restart the music. Her eyes went wider than the full moon above as the music began blasting in her ears. The tears ceased leaking down, and slowly, she began bobbing her head a little. Hanta beamed widely, pleased his clever plan worked, and resumed cutting at the plastic. He gave the mermaid an amused side-eye as she began humming along to the tune.

Once he had tossed the last bit of the plastic up onto the top of the levee, Ochako gave her tail an experimental flap. She flushed pink and slapped her hand to her mouth as she involuntarily splashed water all down his front and into his face. "Don't worry, don't worry, it's just water," he laughed mirthfully when she began to squeak apologies. "It'll dry," he purred and wrung out his shirt. The water gushed down onto the stone levee with spattering splashes. "Anyway, do you think you can swim now?"

"Yes, I do," she agreed and lowered the headphones from her ears to glance gratefully down at her tail. Thin lacerations painted red cross-crossing lines in the bright pink flesh, but her fins now fluttered freely. He gawked in awe at the realization she could manipulate each one of them voluntarily. She noticed him staring and giggled. "Would you like to touch it?"

"Is that weird?"

"No. Go ahead," she chuckled. Hanta immediately splayed his palms out over the fishy tail, dark eyes going wide. It wasn't nearly as slimy as he thought it would be. The scales were a little soft and pliant, feeling like thin discs rolling under his skin. The membranes of her fins were so delicate-looking that he was scared to touch them, but when he did, pinching them between the pads of his forefinger and thumb, they felt like the sheerest lace.

"It's beautiful," he murmured on reflex. He looked up to see Ochako blushing and bashfully holding a hand to her reddening cheek. Realizing just how embarrassing that was, he hastily retracted his hands and straightened up. "Anywa- Ack!" He had put too much force in the movement and essentially flung himself. He slipped down the rest of the levee to land with a splash in the water. The bank was only about two feet deep, so he could sit there on his rump in the water and grin shyly at the concerned mermaid. "Well, guess now we really don't have to worry about you splashing me, huh?"

"No," she agreed with a girlish giggle that made Hanta feel all dreamy-like. Sighing contentedly, he crawled back up onto the levee and reclined against the slope on his back, putting his hands behind his head and bending one knee. "Well, this isn't how I expected to spend my Saturday night," he chuckled.

"Me neither," she laughed and stretched out on her belly beside him. She raised her tail, and as it caught the moonlight, the scales shimmered like thousands of pink opals. Water cascaded down from it like liquid crystal to plop in the water below. Hanta caught himself staring again and returned his attention to her face, finding her smiling warmly.

"I'm sorry. I've just never seen a girl- mermaid- as pretty as you."

"I'm the only mermaid you've ever seen."

"That automatically makes you the prettiest, though!" Ochako laughed loudly at his explanation. He found himself savoring her laugh. It rang out like bright bells, full of cheer and goodness. He rolled onto his side, resting a cheek in his hand. He ignored the way the rough stone scraped his elbow, because he just wanted to keep looking at her. He knew he would probably never see her again, so he sought to get his fill. Ochako tilted her head to the side coyly.

"Hanta?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about the human world."

So he did. He told her everything his spastic little brain could think of- cars, trains, movie theaters, bubble tea, traffic stops, coffee, videogames, the little old lady next door with the Chihuahua he swore was the spawn of Satan. The amount of information that tumbled from his mouth was disgustingly overwhelming and mind-numbingly mundane. Still, Ochako hung onto every word with the most rapturous expression on her round face. Hanta found himself getting pointlessly excited about it all and was soon sitting straight up, gesturing wildly with his hands. Occasionally, Ochako would pipe up about a counterpart they possessed in the underwater realm, and they would gush about it for a few minutes. They didn't notice the moon swiftly traveling across the sky, nor the golden lights of the city flickering out one by one. For that brief period, it seemed like time did not exist at all; that waterway was theirs and theirs alone. That little stretch of levee was a dimension beyond all responsibility and borders. They were perfectly content to waste the night away until the dawn came creeping in, flooding the world with its warm light.

The bubble burst when Hanta's phone began to ring. He grimaced when he noticed it was his mother, and hurriedly picked up, because he'd never hear the end of it if he rejected her call.

"Yeah. Yeah, Mom, I got caught up at Denki's. I'm all right. I'll be home soon. Bye." Ochako was staring at the phone like it was its own life form when he hung up. She then frowned sadly.

"Does this mean you have to go?"

"Unfortunately so," he sighed heavily and rubbed the back of his neck, then smiled sheepishly at her. "This might sound corny and all, but I'll never forget you."

"Why do you say that like you'll never see me again?" she asked, looking hurt. He blinked stupidly at her and then flushed.

"Well… I mean… Isn't it dangerous for you to swim up in the canal? You know, getting kidnapped by humans and sold off to a circus and all that?"

"Yeah, but I don't care." He reeled in her utter disregard for her safety. She gave him a roguish smile that was ridiculously cute on her round face. "I'll come back tomorrow!" Hanta made a mental check of his plans to ensure that an excursion to the channel was indeed feasible before nodding excitedly.

"Yeah! But be careful," he grimaced. She giggled coquettishly and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"It's sweet that you're worried about me."

"Well, I am a gentleman," he huffed, puffing out his chest and closing his eyes with a self-possessed smirk. Ochako took advantage of his lapse in security, and the next thing he knew, she had her lips pressed up against his cheek. All his mental processes screeched to a jarring halt, and he just gawked open-mouthed at her with a brainless "Uhhhhhh…" rumbling in his throat. Ochako giggled at his bashful response and shot him another flirty smile.

"See you around. And thanks again!" Before he could think of anything intelligent to say, she dove off the levee into the water. He tried to scramble to his feet. He only succeeded in tumbling back into the water again, this time with his phone in his pocket. His headphones just barely avoided suffering water damage, and he wrenched his phone out of his pocket to hold it aloft, praying that it was true that it was waterproof. He just barely caught a glimpse of Ochako's bright pink tail swaying underneath the surface of the glittering black water before it faded into the shadows.

"See ya," he called softly. Though it was impossible, he still fancied that she heard him.

Groaning, he climbed back up the slope of the levee to the flat sidewalk. He shook himself out like a shaggy dog and wrung as much as the water as he could from his clothes, then placed the headphones snugly over his ears. His phone was thankfully working just fine. He started his music back up and began swaying to the beat a little, then took off in a jog down the path leading home.

"Even if we gotta risk it all right now, oh-!I know you're scared of the unknown!
You don't wanna be alone! Da da dun dunna dun dun dun… You're my sunflowwwwer…"

When his mother inquired what the big smile on his face was for, he merely replied that his Saturday night hadn't been a wasted one.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to "Sunflower." The song belongs to Post Malone.