"Show! Show!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming."
"Show! Show!"
"God, you're persistent!" Izuku laughed as he dragged away the curtains and unlatched the sealed windows.
Instead of revealing a beautiful landscape of the coast and the big, blue sea, a misty fog shrouded the town and only gave Izuku a hint of the bare, naked trees scattered around the area. Winter was coming. Two more days remained until it was Izumi's birthday.
"Show! Show!" the cockatoo squawked. He ruffled his tail feathers and leaned further out the window. "Show! Show!" he repeated again.
"Oliver, stop that," Izuku petted him with fondness.
Oliver was his first pet, and he treasured him as if he was his own coat. Life as a human was lonely. Izuku took up Iida's offer to buy a pet, and though he could have gotten a cat or a dog or a fish, when he made eye contact with the wallowing cockatoo at the time, there was a connection between them, a connection he couldn't identify. During the days Izuku felt homesick and spent his time in the ocean, Iida or Kirishima would babysit Oliver until he returned.
Speaking of Kirishima, he seemed to have brightened even more, like a sunflower basking in the sun, ever since Mina lived with him. They were a lovely couple, always visiting his home to perform karaoke or drink themselves silly. As expected, Mina was the champion of high notes, her singsong voice beckoning the men to drown themselves in her music until they realized they weren't at the ocean.
It was amazing how quickly their friendship bloomed. Izuku chuckled as he petted Oliver with a melancholic air and a wistful, ancient expression on his face. How many times must he learn the same lesson? He told himself over and over to be wary whenever he befriended ephemeral beings, and with Mina's permanent decision to be human, she aged alongside her lover.
He was going to miss them after they died.
The wind whipped his hair with a howl, and it slashed against his cheek, leaving him cold and shivering. He held his clothes close and shooed Oliver to hop back inside before the wind blew him away. He closed the windows with another shiver and grabbed his kettle to brew himself a cup of tea. He worked in silence, and it unnerved him, as if Oliver knew the state of disarray in his mind.
Two more days, he told himself with a sense of dread.
Two days felt too close.
However, Izuku saw Katsuki that same day, and nothing, not even the impending deaths of his beloved friends, could keep him depressed. Despite the blistering winds and the freezing waters, he needed to see him. He must. His heart ached as they embraced each other, Katsuki's fingers gripping the back of his sweater tight. His cheek rubbed against the crook of his neck, and they stayed there, scared and lost and afraid of the unknown.
"Tomorrow," Izuku said with a shudder, "I'll go see Aizawa."
Katsuki hitched his breath and pulled away with concern masking his face.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
His webbed fingers lightly touched his cheek, and by habit, Izuku lowered his face and pressed back against Katsuki's hand, relishing the merman's caress. He trembled, and as much as he would like to imagine it, it was not because of the cold temperature. Sure, some species of seals traveled south during the winter, but Izuku was a full-fledged selkie. A bit of cold water wouldn't deter him from having this.
Katsuki bit his bottom lip; the question left on his tongue. His tail swished nervously, understanding the purpose of this meeting. He also knew that discouraging Izuku from meeting the sea witch was not on the table.
Izuku's eyes flickered to the horizon. "Yes," he answered. The love he had for his son was never a burden even though he sacrificed so much.
His eyes then flickered back to Katsuki. He placed his hands on Katsuki's cheeks and kissed him, warmth traveling through his veins and salt coating his tongue. Their bodies were intertwined, bonded together in unbreakable ties.
"Please," Izuku asked of him and kissed him again to chisel the enormity of his request. "Come with me when I go see him," he said. "I don't want to be alone."
"I promise," Katsuki leaned forward and pressed his lips softly against Izuku's eyelids.
His heart was heavy, and he was afraid of the cost. However, Katsuki would be there through thick and thin. His presence would be the soothing factor Izuku needed to overcome his doubts. Together they agreed to meet again at this exact spot tomorrow at noon. After they separated, Katsuki swam back home to notify the other merfolk of his absence in advance. Hopefully Uraraka would be in an appeasing mood to take care of his rounds and was mentally preparing for the seashells he would have to collect as payment.
However, his plotting was interrupted by an eerie whistle, a high-pitched noise that bothered his webbed ears. A pod of dolphins blocked his way, and even worse, this was not out of their free will. For intelligent creatures, they knew better than to get involved with the merfolk and swam in their own business.
An ugly merman was among them, his face blackened and burnt by unknown horrors. The fin of his tail was dotted with holes and tattered at the edges, giving him the look of disease and infection. His hollow, sunken eyes were lifeless, as if he saw shit unimaginable to man; he was right, for the pain he experienced was a pain only his people faced.
"Dabi," Katsuki growled with his haunches raised.
His fingers twitched for his gift, but he was all out of juice. This was going to be a tough battle.
"Get out of my territory."
The rouge merman simply smirked. It was a smile reserved only for victory.
"Your territory?" he tried to be coy.
He outspread his arms with an army of other sea creatures in his wake.
"I live to disagree," he said as his smile grew wider.
Katsuki fought with tooth and nail until reinforcements arrived with ammo and willpower that even Dabi couldn't resist. A bite to his side. A burn mark to his chest. Those injuries were nothing to the blow he received as they reached the last stretch.
Before Katsuki toppled Dabi completely with the mermaids rooting for him to finish the job, a whirlpool of black wisps engulfed him, immediately transporting him to unknown waters and unknown places. The temperature of the water was too warm. The coral and sea life here had a different vibe. Even though he was not placed into the artic, he felt ice in his blood.
He frantically swam as much as he could, relentlessly pushing himself to the limit until he collapsed onto the ocean bed and crawled his way back home.
Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, his mind would repeat like a mantra. Izuku, Izuku, Izuku, his heart hammered along with the rhythm of his song. His fears became reality once he found Uraraka.
He embraced her, afraid he lost the rest of them in his absence, but they were strong. Their territory was safe, and Dabi would wreak havoc no more.
"Don't worry, Katsuki," she held his weary body and twirled him around. "We won! We overpowered Dabi and captured his elusive friend."
She puffed out her chest. "They won't bother us anymore."
Yet, their victory was not his priority, and that became clear to Uraraka as Katsuki shook and grasped her shoulders so tight, she winced from the claws digging into her skin. Yes, he was happy his friends were safe, but at what cost? What price?
"How many days?"
"Huh?"
"How many days have I been gone?!" he screamed, his heart shattering with each second.
There was a crazed look in his eyes, as if he had gone mad from the excursion. He was mad indeed, for only a man madly in love would feel the same sinking feeling in his chest.
"For two days…" Uraraka said, confirming his fears, which meant that Izuku was gone.
Katsuki felt the onset of dizziness, his breathing quickened until he couldn't tell the difference between the living and the dead. Before he knew it, he blacked out from both the exhaustion and heartbreak.
Izuku, he calls him. He calls him for hours stacked upon hours because Katsuki promised. He promised to be that anchor for him as he made his wish, but when the sun dipped low into the horizon and marked the end of the day, Izuku had to go. Loneliness was a feeling Izuku does not miss, but he continued on without looking back. His anxiety rose, for he was scared for Katsuki's well-being. The urge to make an excuse and plunge himself into the ocean to search for his love was strong, but Katsuki would never forgive him if he abandoned his son.
He doesn't know if he has the heart to forgive himself either, abandoning Izumi again, so he went with his gut and swam to a path he was all too familiar with. As if the sea witch had foreseen this visit, he waited for him at the entrance with a foreboding expression.
"What is your wish?" Aizawa asked him, cutting right to the chase.
The need for formalities was gone. There was only Izuku's wish and the sea witch who would grant it.
"My son," Izuku answered and bowed low, the lowest a seal of his size could prostrate before a powerful sea witch.
His tail brushed against the grainy sand, and Izuku thought of Katsuki's mark etched into his fur, into his skin, pushing him to be braver, stronger. He was ready, he told himself. He was ready to lose his arms if he must.
"Please," he begged. "Please let me save him. He doesn't know anything," Izuku pleaded with fear gripping his heart, envisioning his poor, sickly young boy grasping for the straws of life.
Without the ocean, he would experience a pain far greater than starvation and thirst, weakening him into a whisper. His hunger for the ocean would follow him into the afterlife, even if he was forever separated from his rightful home. His soul would continue to wander with unrest, the yearning in his heart never ceasing. He would be left in an excruciating, tortuous limbo, and no selkie, no matter how crude and vile they were, deserved such a cruel fate.
Aizawa watched Izuku with overwhelming sadness and regretted his next words.
"I can grant you that wish, but…"
The sea witch clenched his fists. His tentacles were taut with guilt. The consequences were pried through gritted teeth.
"In order to hold onto something dear to you…"
Aizawa turned away, unable to see Izuku's heartbreak, for he knew what came next, for he experienced a pain much similar to this. The ocean made its demand, and Aizawa wondered why so many of their kind continue to return to such an awful, fickle being.
"In order to hold onto your son," Aizawa said past the lump in his throat, "You have to let the other one go."
Izuku stilled.
To let the other one go.
"No," Izuku said, eyes hardened with grief. "Anything but that."
Flashes of Katsuki's smile, brazen and sharp, flittered in his mind.
"No, no, please," the selkie choked out. He shucked off his coat like a shell and gripped Aizawa's shoulders tight.
Snippets of Katsuki's voice poured into his ears like honey, and Izuku sobbed in his human form, not caring if he looked pitiful and naked in front of the sea witch. He doesn't care if he drowned.
"Take my hands, take my legs, but please," Izuku's thoughts slammed into Aizawa, pounding against his mind with a viciousness that could rival a hurricane.
The sea witch sorrowfully peeled Izuku's hands away. "Your memories of him would be wiped away," he explained. "You'll live with your son in bliss."
However, the unsaid, "Without him," was louder than anything else.
Izuku hugged his coat tight, but even with the solace of his greatest treasure, it did nothing to comfort him. Katsuki would have embraced him, placed his head into his chest and allowed the vibrations of his diaphragm rock him to sleep as he sung a sailor's tune. He would have known what to do, or at least attempted to haggle the price. He would have kissed him fiercely, all teeth and tongue, to remind him of their pure and unadulterated love. He would have understood Izuku's decision to go through great lengths to save his son.
Izuku wished he could kiss him goodbye. He wished he could have introduced Izumi to the merman who captured his heart.
But most of all, he wished that Katsuki would never find him, to forget about him and their wonderful memories together, for the ocean was never kind, never merciful. If Katsuki ventured back to Aizawa to find him, Izuku was afraid of the price, for true love was nothing in the sea's eyes.