NOTE! This chapter takes place BEFORE the events of Chapters 11 and 12. This is non plot-essential fluff that I decided to write when I got…ideas…that needed to be expressed before the story's conclusion. Hopefully everyone enjoys this little snippet of everyday interaction!
The general store was crowded with tourists, families grabbing up towels and beach necessities like bottled water and sunscreen before heading back to their sky-reaching condos and preparing for a weekend at the beach. You, however, were just there grocery shopping.
"Why don't I ever make lists…? Oh, I always forget to make lists. An endless cycle…" you mumbled while leaning against the metal cart with squeaky wheels as it slid over the scuffed tiles of the floor. Food for the week? Check. Bathroom stuff? Check. That thing you don't need but it was on clearance so you immediately tossed it into your buggy? Check.
While passing by the area with new video game and movie titles your eyes wandered up to the many TV's and computers lining the wall bleached from fluorescent light. Every single one looped through the same footage of picturesque ocean views, sweeping shots of the expansive beach (though some details made it seem like a beach suspiciously different from the one down the street), and finally, underwater video of somewhere far off from the coast of hundreds of fish or breaching whales or talkative dolphins.
You were about to pass by into the next section of the store when an idea hit you, the bright saturated blues and teals of the TV screens flitting into your peripheral vision once more.
"Shit…I'm so damn smart, he'll get a kick out of this." You tossed one more impromptu item into your cart before weaving in and out of a crowd of airbrushed t-shirts and gaudy swimwear.
You rapped your knuckles against the pier. Every board, every knot, every imperfection in the weather-worn wood was intimately familiar to you at this point as you sat and waited. It didn't take long for familiar fingers to wrap themselves around your foot. Bakugou hoisted himself up out of the water like always, settling himself between your knees as he shook his hair clean of excess water.
"Stop, stop! Asshole…" You wiped your face clean of seawater but the corners of your mouth tugged into a smile knowing Bakugou still enjoyed riling you up. Pulling your bag closer you reached in to grab a towel now regularly kept at the bottom to dry yourself off from his shenanigans.
You draped the towel around your neck while Bakugou situated himself up on the pier next to you before holding out his hand expectantly. You just looked at it.
"Uh…excuse me?"
"Where's my food?" It was such a dry and casual command you couldn't help but scoff at his demanding look.
"Uh, wow? Not even a greeting today, just wanting handouts?" you questioned while fixing him with a pointed stare. His fingers opened and closed, reiterating that his palm was still empty. You just crossed your arms over your chest and ignored him. "You get nothing."
Bakugou openly gaped at your answer. "What?!" It was true that there were very rare days that you didn't hand him a free meal, so he'd just come to expect it at this point. He was spoiled rotten from your doting attention, but you wouldn't let him take advantage of your generosity without at least minimal courtesy.
"Hmm? What's that?" you asked to no one in particular while trying to ignore the incredulous look on his face; you knew he hated being ignored. "I have all this extra food and no one to feed it to, oh well I guess I'll just go home then and eat it all by myself-"
A low growl echoed from the pit of his throat before he let out a notable huff as his hands clenched and unclenched into frustrated fists; you could tell he was having an internal struggle between wanting to be defiantly obstinate and wanting to butter you up so you'd hand over the food. His manners had drastically improved since you two first met, but you'd figured out that being justly slightly demanding was a permanent personality trait. "…Please?" he muttered, one eye twitching with impatience.
"Once more and I'll give it to you."
He acted like he was about to shove you over the pier and into the water, but seemed to switch to a different idea at the last second. Bakugou leaned in close - very close - and uttered the word once more into your ear in a tone you could almost define as sultry; he knew how to push your buttons, the bastard…so you handed over the food before he made any more moves to make you melt. You could practically feel the smirk though he wasn't actually touching you as he took the box from your outstretched hand.
Bakugou turned and leaned against your shoulder while he ate and you recounted the generally boring day of casual routine. He chimed in every once in a while with questions or to offer the usual advice of "tell them to shut up" or "tch, sounds dumb." While he had his own struggles to deal with, Bakugou didn't have to go to a boring office job everyday and deal with overbearing and intrusive coworkers.
"Hey, did you have a job or a task or anything before you left? Like…what did you do, I guess is what I'm asking." You knew he sometimes avoided questions asking about his home, but maybe this one wasn't digging too deeply into wounds that you hoped were slowly closing.
He licked his fingers clean of wasabi before deciding to answer. "I gathered food, hunted with others. Trained to get strong." You could feel the muscles work between his shoulder blades as they contracted and released.
"You are strong, so the training paid off," you said, hoping to diffuse any tension Bakugou was deciding to hide.
"You not wrong." Though you couldn't see his face from this angle you could tell he was smiling as he said it. After finishing your own meal you pulled your bag to you and dug inside to grab the surprise you'd bought earlier.
"I was at the store today and saw something that I'm honestly surprised I hadn't even thought of until now," you said while pulling out a hand-sized box decorated with digitally-altered images of bubbles and pool toys. "It's sort of a gift for you I guess? But it's for me, too."
Bakugou turned around from your shoulder and promptly grabbed the cardboard box out of your hand, turning it around and analyzing the pictures and text; he couldn't read at all but even with the pictures on the front he was still lost. "What is it?" Grabbing the box back from him you opened it up and pulled out the item wrapped in plastic, tossing the trash into your bag to throw away later.
"It's an underwater camera. You can take this underwater - not super deep, though - and take pictures." You'd told him about cameras before but he wasn't particularly fond of the artificial light created from your phone screen, so you didn't often show him pictures or things on any electronic devices. It made sense that if he was used to the low-light environment underwater and natural sunlight that anything brighter might take time to adjust to, but he generally scoffed at it so you just put your phone away in your bag or pocket when the two of you were together.
"Like picture books?" Bakugou grabbed the camera back out of your hands to turn it around and analyze the water-tight hard plastic covering the black and orange camera. There was a button on the top that he pressed experimentally, earning a distinct *click* from somewhere inside the camera. You tried to take it back to show him how to use it but he just held his hand up above his head out of your reach; his arms were just slightly longer than yours. "Tell me how it work."
With a sigh you brought down your outstretched fingers; his armpit was basically in your face at this point and the opportunity was too tempting to pass up…so you wiggled your fingers under his arm in an experiment to see if he was ticklish, a base attempt to get back at all the times he'd grabbed your toes.
He jerked his arm down quickly, sandwiching your hand between his torso and arm muscles like a clamp. You didn't miss the way his lip twitched in the early stages of a laugh, however; you stowed the information away for later as you tried to wrestle your arm back.
"Give me back my hand."
"No, tell me how camera work!"
"I will if you-"
"Nope." You tried wiggling your fingers under his armpit but he clamped down harder preventing any other movement, your hand now resembling a sweaty piece of deli meat squished between two muscled pieces of bread. He held out the camera in front of him like it was no effort at all to keep you pinned to his side. "So?"
Relaxing your arm you resigned that he'd always win in a battle of strength and your hand was now trapped until you gave him what he wanted. "Alright, alright…cameras take pictures, like I said. If you press the button on top, it stores an image of whatever you see through the viewfinder -" you said, pointing with your free hand at the small window at the top of the camera, "inside the camera that can be printed out later."
Bakugou lifted the camera up to his eye and looked around across the orange and blue sea mirroring the sinking sun. Before he pressed the button on top, though, you managed to reach over and snatch it away. "Hey!"
"There aren't endless pictures on here. There are only…shit, can I have my hand back?" He just smirked and shook his head, the muscles in his arm contracting against your hand. "Fine, little shit…" You set the camera down and picked the box back out of your bag. "It only has forty pictures on here so if you waste one now, you'll have fewer to use underwater."
"Why you want pictures?" Bakugou reached across your lap - your hand still trapped under his armpit - to grab back the camera.
You hesitated a moment before answering. "Well…you see stuff that I don't get to see. Maybe I'd like to see things from your perspective. Where you sleep, or maybe you have a favorite place that you think looks cool. But if there's no picture, I probably won't ever see it since I can't breathe underwater." This was a two-way street, really; you couldn't fully immerse yourself in Bakugou's world, and he was even more limited when it came to being on land. All he knew was the pier and the beach. Sometimes you wished you could show him more because there was so much to see and experience - even if they were ordinary to you - and he just…couldn't. You were reminded of his limitations, despite integrating surprisingly quickly into your world as you taught him your language and about animals and food.
Acting like he'd read your mind he posed a question. "If I take pictures, you take pictures." He looked at you, finally loosening the grip of his arm enough for you to slide your - now sweaty - hand out. Stretching your fingers you looked between Bakugou and the camera held in his other hand.
"Uh…you want me to take pictures? Of what?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Where you sleep, eat, favorite place. Same things you want." You inwardly cringed at the idea of taking a picture of your messy bed for him…though it was honestly flattering that he was curious about the mundane things in your own life that seemed, to you, boring in comparison to the vibrancy and life beneath the waves.
"You wanna see that stuff? It probably won't be as nice to look at compared to whatever you take pictures of-"
He scoffed before pinching your cheek - not too hard, but enough to catch you off guard. "We make deal: mine for yours." You were about to reach your tongue out and lick his fingers to make him let go of your face, but thought better of it and just reached up and pinched his own cheek in retaliation.
"Fine!"
Bakugou glared as he pinched your face harder creating a tug-of-war as you both tried to pull away while neither wanted to give in. By the time you both let go your cheek was red…but so was his; you couldn't help but laugh at the agitated look on his face.
A sudden thought burst into your brain like an unexpected firework. "Bakugou…have you ever seen yourself?" Running a thumb across his cheekbone he looked over at you with a quirked eyebrow.
"What?" he asked, looking from you back down to his hands and tails. "Yeah?"
You didn't think he understood the question properly. "No, I mean, have you ever seen what your face looks like? Of course you can see everything below your head, but I mean do you know what your hair or eyes look like?" There was nothing naturally as reflective as a mirror underwater that you could think of, so unless merpeople had their own version of a mirror then this could be yet another new thing for him to discover.
He seemed to ponder the question for a moment before answering with an air of frustration at his realization. "I see me in water…that's it." Leaning in closer, though, a sudden smirk lit across his features. "I know I'm handsome." His ruby eyes bore into yours as you groaned feeling the blood rush to your ears and still-red-cheek.
"Yeah, you are, you smug-faced merman. That settles it then, I guess I'll bring a mirror tomorrow."
He didn't move away as he asked his next question. "What a mirror?"
"It's a thing humans use to look at themselves, it gives you a perfect reflection of what you look like - it doesn't move around like water does. So you get a camera and a mirror - two gifts, so don't give me an attitude about food." He scoffed at the implication of having an attitude - though you were sure he knew it was true - while turning the camera around in his hands once more and holding it up to one of his eyes, aiming the viewfinder somewhere far off in the horizon before turning and facing you, lense and plastic waterproof coating staring back at you.
Having your picture taken wasn't a favorite past time, and for some reason having Bakugou mimic capturing you in a photo, his finger hovering over the button you'd explained earlier, seemed like a moment in time suspended. Still, you smiled at the camera, a line of condos cutting the sand and road off from the darkening sky like a photoshoot backdrop. The button clicked, and Bakugou didn't mind as the number ticked down.
After a few more hours of casual conversation you stood up from the pier, dusting yourself off as it was time to head home. "Oh, one more thing. You'll have to take pictures during the day so the light is good. If it's too dark, they won't turn out that great."
He nodded while watching you pack up your things and prepare to head to your own home. "Don't forget the deal," he reminded almost ominously. You paused for a moment before remembering that you'd promised to take pictures of your own home and life.
"Yeah, it's a deal. I'll bring a mirror tomorrow like I mentioned, too." Swinging your bag over your shoulder Bakugou gazed at you from the edge of the pier with the same look he always gave as you left to go back home; normally he was an open book, his snarkiness or agitation or amusement evident on his face…but you could never quite place what he was thinking when he looked at you like he was right now, despite seeing it nearly everyday. It was intense and deep, as if memorizing your silhouette everyday was an event of deep importance…but that was just a fantasy you hoped might be true. Maybe one day he'd tell you the reason behind the look, or you'd figure it out for yourself.
"Have fun taking pictures tomorrow, I'm eager to see the things you find interesting underwater," you said before waving him off into the night, your walking shadow flickering under the cascade of yellow artificial lights dripping from metal posts tacked to the pier. You heard a familiar splash and knew he was gone.
Setting your bag down by the front door you opened it and grabbed the food waste and camera trash and tossed it into the garbage under your kitchen sink. You looked around your apartment, taking in the sparse decorations and minimal furniture. Living alone meant you didn't need to fill up space with a large couch or wide TV to suit multiple people, the loveseat and dusty television you'd had since college suiting your solitary lifestyle just fine. Still, you couldn't help but think: your place was boring.
"The hell am I supposed to take pictures of…the fridge? I don't know what he wants, but I guess anything is fine since he probably won't ever see any of it so it's all new to him, anyway." A soft purr came from your ankles, the vibrations of your cat tickling your bare skin. "You always smell the fish when I come home," you mumbled while heading into the kitchen to fix your pet some dinner. "Shit, I can take at least a few pictures of you, huh? There weren't any house cats in those picture books. I wonder if merpeople have pets…do they keep fish as pets? Like that one kid's movie? Shit, I'm getting distracted."
Your cat sniffed at the food with suspicion - as if he didn't eat the same thing everyday - until finally lapping up the canned meat mixed with some dry food. "You're just as picky as Bakugou…OK, now where to start."
It was late, but there were still a few hours before your normal bedtime so you took the opportunity to survey your apartment for anything remotely interesting while also thinking of places you could snap pictures of outside your home. Since you could just print off pictures from your phone you had no use for an old-fashioned camera bought at the store; the convenience of quickly-advancing technology was a wonder, sometimes.
Quickly making your bed into a semi-tidy state, you took a picture.
Clearing off the kitchen counter of dirty glasses and a half-eaten box of crackers, you took a picture.
Tossing your dirty clothes laying on the bathroom floor into the hamper you rarely used, you took a picture. Your shower curtain had seashells on it, the rest of your bathroom decorated with typical ocean-themed knick knacks; you knew he'd make fun of you for it.
"What was I…oh, the mirror!" You grabbed a hand mirror laying on the counter, cleaning off the remnants of toothpaste spittle and smudged fingerprints, before walking out the bathroom and tossing it into your bag. "It's a terrible idea, he'll be even more smug once he sees how damn pretty he is. Now…c'mere, you."
As if on cue your cat scuttled from the room and out of sight. "You love looking cute when I have stuff to do, but when I actually want you to do something you get shy. Typical cat." It took some coaxing with a bag of treats but eventually he made his way to the small cat tree in the corner of the living room where he dug his kitty claws into the scratching post. "Now just…stay…" You managed one picture before the scratching post was forgotten and instead he decided to make biscuits on your thigh.
"What if you met Bakugou? Would you think he's food because he kinda smells like fish? He'd be so pissed if you bit him…would make a hilarious story, though." Aiming the camera down at your lap you snapped another picture. "So…domestic. Alright, what's next…?" Standing up the cat hopped from your lap with an annoyed meow as you walked towards the back of your apartment and opened up a sliding glass door.
This side of the building faced opposite the ocean. Your apartment sat in the middle of the building - about five stories up - giving you a decent view of the city. Roads glittered with moving headlamps from cars traveling long stretches with sleeping children in the backseats and coolers stuffed with melted ice and cheap boxed lunches sloshing around in cramped car trunks. The occasional sound of laughter or yelling echoed on the sidewalks as people drunk on friendship and lust stumbled their way to unfamiliar apartments or into dirty taxi cabs. You were never one for going out to clubs or loud social events, but people watching late at night when you couldn't sleep provided entertainment when you grew tired of watching the same sitcom over and over again.
You snapped a couple of pictures, though half of the view was blocked by more new high-rise hotels and office buildings. Looking back through your phone the picture was grainy due to the low light, but it still wasn't half-bad. "I'll take another one in the morning before work, or in the afternoon."
Walking back inside you stopped at the table sitting in front of your couch and picked up a single photo stuffed into a frame you'd found on a clearance rack. It was a few years old but was one of the few physical pictures you owned. Your parents flanked either side of you, your dad with a long arm across your shoulders and your mother standing on the opposite side with that familiar smile you grew up with. They didn't live nearby so you didn't visit often, but you got along well enough. "I wonder what Bakugou's parents are like…" you mumbled, about to take a photo with your phone before it dawned on you how dumb you were. "I'm…stupid." Sliding the phone back into your pocket you opened up the back of the frame and took the picture out, sliding it into the pocket of your bag with the mirror.
After taking a few more pictures with better lighting the next morning, you grabbed the bus to work - taking a picture of the bus as well - and endured the first half of the day with minimal distractions. You couldn't take pictures of your computer or anything (company policy) and your office building was honestly too unassuming for it to be interesting. Instead you decided to head out on your lunch break to one of your favorite spots within walking distance.
The food vendor took the cash from your hand before you walked down a simple concrete path flanked by bushes sprouting a variety of flowers before you found yourself at the familiar bench underneath a shady tree sitting neatly in a corner of the small park area. This time of day few people passed by, the park hidden from the road often filled with tourists by a line of office buildings.
From this distance the smell of salt and sand was far away, but the familiar breeze of the ocean wound its way through the alleys between the offices, tickling the flowers like fairy dust. It was peaceful here.
You snapped a picture, viewing it in your phone gallery afterwards. "Glad I didn't go into photography…" you shrugged, knowing Bakugou probably wouldn't know a good picture from a bad one; or if he did, he hopefully wouldn't mind.
Before you left the park one of the flower bushes caught your eye. Among the leaves of green bloomed an unfamiliar flower with a simple pattern of petals…but the color was a brilliant crimson. Without a second thought you snatched one up and brought it back into the office.
By the time you made it home you'd managed to take the same number of pictures available on Bakugou's camera, so you two were now even in the exchange. The bookstore where you bought the picture books and a fish market with fresh fillets over ice were now included in the digital gallery. After changing clothes and packing your bag you headed down the familiar path to the pier and waited for your companion.
It didn't take long for Bakugou to show up, the gifted camera sitting in one of his hands. He actually greeted you properly while handing over the device and didn't make the same immediate demand for food as the previous day.
"Did you have fun taking pictures?" While a bit scratched, the plastic casing seemed to be holding up well, the camera still sitting dry inside. "I took the same amount so we'd be even. I'll print them out so they'll be ready to look at tomorrow."
"Mine are better than yours," he said smugly, as if anticipating he'd be a great photographer on the first try.
"Oh yeah, you think so?"
He clicked his tongue. "Tch, yes. Wasn't hard." You just hummed with raised eyebrows knowing a lack of confirmation or argument would rile him up…but you could bring him back down easily enough with the smell of sushi.
After the two of you ate you reached into your bag and pulled out the hand mirror, silently hoping seeing himself wouldn't inflate his ego too much. "OK, so…ready to see yourself?"
"Eh?" Bakugou mumbled, one finger stuck in his mouth as he licked off the last remnants of fish. You went ahead and shoved the mirror in his face. It took him a moment to react, but suddenly he snatched the hand mirror from you and held it up close as you watched his reactions.
He turned his head from side to side, analyzing the strong curve of his jaw and the cut of his cheekbones before carding his hand through his hair, crimson eyes gliding from scalp to pale blonde ends. The next thing he did was open his mouth wide to get a good look at his teeth, sticking his tongue out; from your perspective he looked like someone going to the dentist and you couldn't help but laugh causing his eyes to cut over to you, one finger still sliding over the small upper fangs before sliding into a sly grin.
"You right…I am handsome," he said while you slid a hand over your face with his confirmation. Bakugou looked at his gills and webbed ears before extending the mirror out with a straight arm and made expressions into the mirror, analyzing the way his face moved and his eyes glistened.
"Smug bastard. I know you said you don't have a mate, but I bet you at least had someone interested." You looked away to hide the way your lips tugged tightly across your teeth, something heavy and unusually cold building in the pit of your stomach as you thought of Bakugou interested in other merpeople - or others being interested in him. Jealousy wasn't something you felt often, but you knew it well enough to understand entertaining the idea of someone else trying to catch the merman's attention didn't sit well with you. But you weren't together, you weren't a couple, you were just friends - as far you knew from his perspective, anyway. You were from different worlds, so even entertaining the idea of being together in a romantic capacity seemed fruitless…right?
You didn't notice how Bakugou stilled as you made the assumption, lost in your own thoughts of wanting to keep him all to yourself while creating an inner monologue between the weight of your feelings and the realistic opportunity of acting on them.
"I turned them away," he finally said, breaking the silence and bringing your attention back to Bakugou. The mirror lay limply in his hand, his expression unreadable under the fringe of his hair.
His answer caught you by surprise. Bakugou enjoyed attention, so you'd assumed he would want to be admired or sought after by others. "Why?"
Bakugou remained still as his jaw moved as if on autopilot. "Focused on training. Getting strong…no distraction." It was simple and to the point. He'd talked the previous day about his role in their society, and his pride was nothing to scoff at; Bakugou held himself in high regard and wanted to learn quickly and be the best at whatever he set his mind to, that much was apparent. If having a mate diverted him from those goals, it made sense for him to turn them away in order to remain focused.
You mumbled the question before you could stop yourself. "Would you ever want one?"
Silence hung in the air like fog as, for what seemed like a full minute, Bakugou didn't answer. Maybe it was too personal; maybe there was someone back home he was thinking of right now that he wished he could be with and couldn't because he'd fled. His reasoning behind not having a mate was training…not that he wouldn't accept an offer at some point in the future. The assumption clouded behind your eyes like a brewing storm on the horizon.
"Maybe," was all he said, tone low and far away. You remained turned away, missing the small glimmer of crimson peeking through the damp hairs hanging over his brow fixed on you.
The rest of the night was awkward as you tried to avoid intrusive thoughts of Bakugou having someone waiting for him back home…back where he technically belonged. This was the first time he'd mentioned a mate since your disastrous non-date so long ago. It was pointless to entertain ideas of things you had no confirmation for, but you had a tendency for apocalyptic thinking which easily spiraled into unrealistic possibilities.
As you packed away your things in your bag something caught your eye, something you'd forgotten about until now: the red flower you'd picked at lunch. It sat in a side pocket to avoid being crushed by the heavier things in your bag.
You left it untouched as you said your goodbyes for the night, swallowing hard as you waved to that familiar unreadable look following your retreating silhouette into the night.
Waking up the next morning was difficult. You hadn't slept well, tossing and turning under unusually warm blankets while blurred visions danced behind your eyelids. It wasn't healthy to consider the unknowns, your conversation with Bakugou the previous evening still echoing behind your ribs like a pinball machine. Readying yourself for work as usual to keep your mind occupied, you grabbed the camera out of your bag before heading out the door an hour early to make a stop at the closest place with a photo center.
"Excuse me," you said to the back of some tired-looking teenager busy at one of the computers behind the counter. "I'd like to get some pictures developed." He turned around, eyelids heavy as if he hadn't had enough coffee yet, and gave you a bored look.
"OK," was his only response as he held out a hand for the camera. A thought struck you suddenly: you had no idea what Bakugou took pictures of. If he snapped one of himself or something other people shouldn't know about…!
"W-wait! Uh, are these confidential? Like, does anyone look at the pictures first?" Saying the words out loud made them sound…unexpectedly lewd. The teenager continued to look at you with an intensely listless expression, as if this wasn't the first time someone had asked this question.
"No, we don't look at 'em first. They'll be ready in a couple of hours." He snatched the camera from your hand and shoved a clipboard in your direction to fill out your information to pick up the developed pictures later. Your ears burned as you swore you heard him mumble "pervert" under his breath as he walked away.
While sitting on the bus you downloaded the store app to upload the photos from your phone to the same one to pick up both orders simultaneously, selecting all the photos you'd taken over the past couple of days and selecting Same Day Pickup. It was weird printing out pictures of your bedroom and bathroom, but if that's what Bakugou wanted then you'd oblige.
Picking up the photos after work was less awkward than dropping off the camera, luckily, so you headed back home with two sets of photos: one of the land, and one of the sea.
You changed clothes and packed your bag like normal, sliding your family photo into Bakugou's set as a surprise. Stuffing a clean towel in the main pocket as well you locked the door behind you, forgetting about the wilting flower sitting limply behind the black mesh.
Bakugou wasted no time in climbing up onto the pier, eager to see the results of your - and his - camera work. "Show me," he demanded, before reeling back and tacking on a lackluster "please" onto the end before you had a chance to scold him for lack of manners.
"Since you asked so nicely…oh, dry your hands first. They'll get messed up if they get wet." You handed him the towel - he wasn't a huge fan of the texture - and wiped his hands quickly before snatching the package you held out for him while simultaneously tossing the towel over your head. You noticed he was sitting almost shoulder-to-shoulder with you, a bit closer than normal; you didn't mind.
"I have no idea what order they're in, I haven't looked at them since…oh, wow." The exclamation left your lips as you looked down at the first of Bakugou's pictures. Your eyes were met with a burst of blue as clear as a freshly-cleaned window, tall stalks of teal kelp reaching up towards the sunlight streaming in from the uneven surface of water above. "What the fuck."
Bakugou snickered before looking over and outright laughing at the look on your face, eye twitching at how good the photo was. "Told you, easy." You elbowed him in the side before sliding to the next picture.
"What's this?" he asked after a minute, holding up the picture of your bedroom.
"That's where I sleep." You pointed at the bed in the middle. "Nothing fancy but it gets the job done."
"Looks…soft." He leaned over, flipping through the pictures in your hand and finding one he'd taken of his own makeshift bedroom. "I sleep on sand."
You looked at the photo with mouth agape; even where he slept was beautiful. "I mean…it's pretty, though. But yeah, no offense, I'd rather stick to my bed over sand. It looks enclosed…how do you get in and out?" The walls were solid, and you didn't see an entrance. He explained about the tunnel system that was hidden, and the skylight at the top that was too small to swim through but big enough to let in daylight from the surface.
"Woah, well that sounds cool…like a very specific type of themed hotel or something." Bakugou asked what a hotel was, and you pointed over to the tall buildings on the other side of the beach. "Honestly? People would pay money to stay where you sleep. Well, it couldn't be underwater…but still, some people would probably be excited to sleep on sand."
"With no bed?"
"Yeah, with no bed." He didn't say it out loud, but the comforts of home was admittedly something he did miss every once in a while.
Bakugou continued to flip through pictures, asking short questions and mulling over your answers, until he finally came to the ones with your cat. "Small…lion?" he asked, unsure of what else to relate it to.
The corners of your lips curled up. "He's my pet at home. I take care of him. He…reminds me a lot of you, actually. Picky eater."
"Am not."
"Demanding of my attention-"
He was about to argue but couldn't because he secretly knew it was true so just growled in response.
"Cute-" Your mouth hung open then shut abruptly, clearing your throat and occupying your hands with the next photo while avoiding Bakugou's smirk as he pushed his shoulder into yours. "Shut up…"
You were honestly amazed at how good Bakugou's pictures turned out; very few were blurry or unclear, and all of them were colorful and interesting like a packet of underwater postcards. The next one was of a pod of dolphins swimming towards water's glowing surface. "Do you see dolphins and whales often?"
Bakugou shrugged with a huff. "Yeah…they annoying. Play pranks.'
Your eyes cut to him at the irony. "Uh, you play pranks so don't even start. Also, you find everyone annoying." Maybe it was how you spoke of others, but he almost always agreed with you when agitating people came up in conversation.
"Not you," he said nonchalantly, casually, dismissively, indisputable. You were silent but couldn't help but smile.
Flipping to the next photo Bakugou stared at the gaudy shower curtain, asking what that room was for. "I uh…humans have to shower everyday. Wash ourselves with water, like how we have to wash our clothes when they're dirty."
He seemed confused at the idea of washing. "Like swimming?"
It took a minute to figure out some kind of analogy that he might understand. "Hm…more like, it rains inside, I guess. Or we'll fill up the tub there with water and just wash dirt and sweat away."
"Should have taken picture of washing." You coughed, cheeks flaring up at Bakugou suggesting pictures of you in the shower; it seemed he still didn't quite get it.
"N-no, nope. Will not take a picture of that."
"Why?"
You rubbed your eyes, feeling the tinge of a headache borne from embarrassment coming on. "People take baths without clothes on, so no, you don't get pictures of that."
He almost dropped his pictures over the pier and into the water at your statement. You'd explained the concept of modesty very vaguely a week or so ago, so Bakugou finally understood why people wore clothes and did not ask about it again. His current conclusion was that people wore clothes outside, and no clothes inside their homes for privacy - a flawless deduction based on current information.
With your eyes focused intently on the pictures in your hand as a pointed distraction from the current topic of conversation you missed the way Bakugou stealthily raked you from head to toe, letting his mind wander only briefly with what little knowledge of human anatomy he had, before darting away quickly to avoid appearing flustered.
Eventually he came to the photo you took of the park near your office, entranced by the scenery devoid of blue and instead overpowered with greens and browns and yellows and reds and whatever additional colors the flowers provided. You caught him staring, looking up from one of your own pictures.
"That place is nice, it's quiet and smells like fresh flowers and grass." Bakugou ran a thumb over the corner of the photo as if to feel the color of fresh sunshine.
"What flowers smell like?" It hadn't occurred to you that until he posed the question that his sense of smell was almost always taken up with the scent of fish and sea salt, along with the newest edition of whatever food you brought him with unfamiliar seasonings and ingredients.
A pang of guilt hit you thinking to the flower now wilted in your backpack. "They're hard to describe, but they smell fresh and clean, at least to me. Totally different from the ocean. Some flowers are sweet, others are more pungent, and some don't really have a smell at all. But overall they smell nice. I'll bring one for you next time so you can see for yourself."
"Don't forget," he said, taking one last glance at the photo before shuffling it to the back of the stack.
He answered your inquiries about his own photos, proudly pointing out shots that he considered difficult to capture; admittedly the photos were good, so this whole camera idea and exchange of environment-based memories seemed like an idea that paid off with new ones to share. Finally, a picture older than the rest came to light at the top of the pile of photos in Bakugou's hands. It was the picture of you and your parents.
"Are these…?" You nodded, confirming what you assumed he was about to ask.
"Yeah, my mom and dad. The picture is a couple years old, but I feel I haven't changed too much. Dunno why I grabbed it…it's one of the few physical pictures I have at home." Bakugou held the picture between his webbed fingers before lifting his arm and holding up the picture next to your head, eyes flitting between the crinkled photo paper and your face.
"They look like you."
"Well I'd assume so. If I didn't look like them I might be a bit concerned," you said, wondering what might be going through his mind as his ruby eyes scanned the face in the photos. "Uh, I don't think I ever asked…what are your parents like?" The question was out before you felt a pang of regret at possibly digging into a freshly-closed wound. He hadn't visited home since he left, so that meant he also hadn't seen his family in what you assumed to be months at this point. The last thing you wanted to do was make Bakugou upset or nostalgic, not now when the two of you were comfortable with conversation and mostly-innocent questions. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
He merely shrugged, however, seemingly unaffected by your probing. "They…alright. I don't miss that much." You pulled a lot of information from his short answer. Maybe he didn't have the best relationship with his parents, tension budding between family members mirroring human dynamics.
Something urged you to air out a piece of advice someone told you years ago. Your free hand moved up his neck to wind your fingers in Bakugou's hair, fingertips grazing his skin lightly in a way you knew he found comforting. He hadn't asked for the touch, but didn't move away. "Ya know…sometimes the people we call family aren't related to us at all. I think it's just the people who care about us the most, and they can be anyone. The people who don't judge you, and just accept you for who you are, flaws and all."
Bakugou sat still, processing your words, red eyes shimmering between you and the photo still gripped between his fingers. A small bit of the tension eased out of his neck and shoulders.
"I think my mom would like you, if she ever met you." You continued an attempt to erase the faraway look in his eyes and bring back a glimmer of something more mirthful. "Hypothetically, I mean. They don't live here. But…I dunno, I feel like she wouldn't mind knowing I was friends with a merman. She'd find you interesting, for sure." Bakugou looked once more between the photo in his hand and your face before holding it out for you to take, assuming it wasn't his to keep. Your hand dropped from his hair back to your lap.
"Tch, obvious. I'm likable," he finally admitted with that familiar smirk of his. You took the photo back, fingers brushing lightly against his as you slid it to the back of the stack in your lap. He'd come to the end of his photos, but you still had a couple left to look at.
Flipping to the next one you were met with your own face staring back at you. "When…dammit that's right you-"
"Mine," Bakugou snapped, suddenly snatching the picture away and hiding it somewhere in the middle of his pictures. He seemed to be back to his normal attitude, at least.
"What?! Give it!" Once again he used his slightly longer arms to keep something from you, shoving his free hand in your face as you leaned into his space to grab back the smiling photo he'd snapped of you two days earlier. Pictures of yourself were embarrassing, and you'd rather not give him reason to poke fun at your cheesy grin.
Bakugou was determined to hold onto what he considered his property. "Hell no!" He easily pushed you away as he shoved his free hand in your face, but this time you caught him off guard by sticking your tongue out and licking his hand from the dip of his palm to the tip of his middle finger. The distraction worked for a moment as his face contorted into some wretched visage of surprised embarrassment, but he managed to regain his composure and swipe your own saliva back onto your face before you lunged forward in a final attempt to grab back the photo.
"Why do you want to keep it?!" you asked. At this point his tail failed him as you managed to catch Bakugou off balance and push him over onto the pier as he struggled to hold onto the slippery stack of pictures in his hand while the other grabbed your outstretched wrist. Your fingers wiggled fruitlessly in front of his face, the whole ordeal proving gainless since you were no closer now - your body halfway on top of his - than you were a minute ago to your goal. Before you could reel back with the realization of your new position Bakugou gave a delicious curl of the mouth and stuck his own tongue out, ready to retaliate in full.
"You wouldn't," you mumbled, meeting his gaze head on. His tongue threatened to touch your hand and your fingers wiggled in an attempt to flick it away. Your face was practically buried in his chest. Had you thought about a similar scenario before?…Maybe. Was this the circumstance you'd wanted surrounding your positions? Not remotely.
"Why you want it? I took it, it mine." He was stubborn, but you could mirror his attitude right back at him.
You glared, but bit back a retort as you felt his tail move against your thigh causing you to still your movements because you let out an awkward cough. "Ya know what? Keep it, just give me my hand back." Wiggling your fingers again, your wrist still held firmly in Bakugou's cool grip, Bakugou seemed to debate actually letting you go. "C'mon, please?" One hand now belonged to Bakugou, but the other…You set your stack of pictures down and quietly snaked your now-free hand up and into his armpit once more, catching him off guard.
With the grip on your wrist he couldn't as easily protect himself as you tickled him mercilessly and without hesitation. Bakugou glowered at you as he tried to wiggle away, but now had your fingers in his face and a second set threatening to open his mouth that he was struggling to shut tightly.
Unable to hold back any longer he let out a laugh absent of ferocity and filled with joy. The sound echoed around in your chest like a song you never wanted to forget. Letting go of your wrist he clapped his hand over his mouth, freeing you from his grip.
The effect was immediate, catching him off-guard enough for you to finally seize back your hand. "Triumph, finally! Sweet, sweet revenge." You sat up on your knees while pointing a finger in his face but snatched it away before he could grab hold of it again as he came down from the high of laughter. From this angle you realized, once again, your compromising position: Bakugou lay between your legs, rubies glimmering up at you like reflective jewels through pale blonde bangs, lips pink from where he bit them trying not to laugh, his breathing evening out with the rise and fall of his chest. Tail of orange and gold shifted again under you. His eyebrow twitched. It was too dark for either of you to see a tinge of warmth budding up on all present cheekbones. He'd made no move to push you off.
"Uh, y-yeah," you managed to mumble, untangling yourself from him to sit back properly on the pier while clearing your excessively dry throat. As he sat up you chanced a look at Bakugou. He let out a heavy breath while giving you the same familiar stare that could sink you easily and unforgivingly into a bed of crimson flower petals and warmth.
"We're even." His voice of dark velvet broke the silence.
"Even…?" Rolling his eyes he reached over and grabbed the papers in your hands, flitting through quickly and handing them back with a new, unseen photo situated at the top. He smiled slyly as you took the stack and looked down.
He'd taken a fucking selfie, and looked damn proud of it, too.
"What the hell," was all you could muster as you stared at the picture.
He'd somehow managed to angle the camera in an unfairly flattering way: one hand holding the camera, the other combing through his hair and literal bedroom eyes, the corner of his lips turning up just enough to reveal the white of his teeth; it was a magazine cover if you ever saw one. Your bottom lip disappeared between your teeth and your ears burned like hot coals.
"You…sure did run away with this one, huh. It should read 'I'm a handsome shit and I fuckin' know it' at the top. So fine: I keep this one and you keep that one, is that the deal?" Without looking up you slid the photo somewhere in the middle of the stack to avoid two sets of red eyes staring at you. "I'm going to make the bold assumption that you liked taking pictures, then?"
Bakugou slid the glossy sheets of paper back into the envelope as if to keep them safe from harm and away from prying eyes as his gaze met yours. He nodded. "Deal. And yeah, wasn't boring."
You rolled your eyes knowing he was intentionally downplaying how much fun he had messing around with the camera. "What are you gonna do with them, anyway? They'll get messed up if they're water." Waving the envelope towards you he just turned his nose up like he had all the answers.
"My secret," he said before folding his arms over his chest. Once the moment passed his face settled on you once more in an attempt to see right through to every agenda and insecurity you'd tucked away neatly, pulling thread after thread in an attempt to unravel you to your most vulnerable. "Why you want your picture so bad?"
Groaning your eyes shifted over the dark water glistening with overhead moonlight. It was getting late. "Why you wanna know?"
"You got mad I want it. Why?" You knew from his stare this was yet another thing he wouldn't easily let go. With a sigh you scratched the back of your head as your chest tightened into a tangled knot.
"I'll just say…I don't like having my picture taken too often. It's not a big deal I guess, dunno why you wanted to keep it anyways…" You mumbled the last part, thinking he couldn't hear you; but he did, and answered bluntly.
"I take good pictures," he said before continuing. "You looked nice." Craning your eyes to look at him, Bakugou stared at you as if what he'd just said was as simple and true as declaring the moon hung in the sky. "You have good smile." He wasn't shy about the declaration that rolled off his tongue easily and without regret.
Your hand unconsciously gripped the slippery photos in your hand while the other searched beside you for the other paper envelope in a desperate attempt to fill the hanging silence with the sound of movement. Finally shoving the photos into the packet you folded it shut. Accepting compliments was hard, harder than you'd like to admit sometimes. Maybe, this one time, you'd swallow the voice in the back of your head that wanted to dismiss him.
"Thanks, Bakugou," you said, and smiled something as close as you could muster to the one in his photo, maybe even a bit wider and more sincere. For now, you wouldn't worry so much about whether or not he might have someone back home waiting for him; Bakugou was with you, sinking soundly into the cushion of your company, and you in his. You had his attention, held his gaze, and for now that was enough.
He memorized this one - like he did with all the other fleeting moments - and stored it away in the hollow of somewhere slowly filling up everyday, little by little, with something comforting; the picture was nice, but he was the cause of the smile staring back at him in the darkness of the seashore.
Bakugou couldn't help but smile back.