Heh... It's been a shitty couple of months, but, I'm still hanging on. I would like to give a nice big FUCK YOU to AT&T and Samsung, because, fuck those new phone prices.

Also, Mekabella21 (and author here and A03) could use some good vibes.

I appreciate each and every one of you! You have no idea how much I enjoy getting comment notifications!

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Learn to Breathe

Chapter 15

Bakugo hid as quietly and still as he possibly could for hours, suppressing his impatient nature. He listened intently, eyes peering around in slow but steady sweeps across the barren, rocky plain. It was getting dark, the light from the sun beginning to leave the depths blackened and cold.

As a Mer, Bakugo's ability to see in the dark was far superior to that of a human, but as with all creatures whose habitat laid above the trenches of the ocean where no light ever reached, there were limits.

His heart thumped loudly in his own ears as he crept out of the suffocating cavern he'd been observing from, unease slithering in his veins. Even if he stayed so low that he could reach down and touch the sandy floor, a predator could attack him from either side or above.

A lone glow fish would be plenty sufficient to provide the light he needed to see clearly over a comfortable distance, but Bakugo wouldn't dare use one in this place. The only thing more dangerous and frightening to him than a marine predator was a terrestrial one, and the fallen Mer city of Atlantis was patrolled constantly.

Bakugo shuddered, trying to keep his uneven breathes in check once he'd managed to breach the inner confines of the once prosperous metropolis. Even with a century having passed, the devastation of the war remained on full display, haunting the young Mer.

Despite the low visibility, Bakugo could see the skeletons of his ancestors strewn about, the bones, spears, and nets only partially covered by sediment even after all the time that had passed. His fingers twitched as they grazed over the evocative remains, reminding him of what would happen if he were caught... of what had become of his family.

That was why he was here though. He was going to start a new family and searching these forsaken ruins was his last desperate attempt at finding something to help him and Deku be with their soulmates. Bakugo steeled his nerves as he silently repeated the purpose of this dangerous mission, pressing forward until he'd reached the palace.

He scaled the structure with his eyes, jaw falling slack at the immenseness of its size and grandeur; Bakugo didn't think he'd ever seen anything so large in all his life—and yet it was crumbling from damage and disuse. It didn't seem possible that such a mighty race could be brought to its knees, not with this fortress for protection. Yet every hallway he followed was left barren, scarred, and defiled by senseless violence.

It was possible this venture would end up being entirely useless now that Bakugo could see the devastation for himself; the fabled library that bookworms back at Yuuei spoke about could be nothing but a pile of fragmented, lost knowledge.

Bakugo's chest ached and burned at the thought of his home at Yuuei being reduced to this graveyard of a kingdom. With so few Mers left and defensive capabilities less than a fraction of what had been utilized here, the very last Mer city had no chance of fending off a human raid.

Todoroki and Midoriya's unexpected romance might just be the Hail Mary he'd thought would never come. He had to find something to help them so that they could help the people they were destined to govern, human and Mer. This was the only way he could protect his new Pod and he couldn't fail now.

"Deku, you really need to calm down. I'm sure Bakugo is fine... you're the one always fanboying over how good of a warrior he is." Ochaco assured, waving off his intense anxiety. "And it hasn't even been a week yet! He's probably on his way back from wherever he swam off to right now."

Maybe he was overreacting. His friend was correct, Bakugo leaving the city without explicitly stating where he was going wasn't particularly strange. Even before they'd begun slinking off to the prohibited shores of Endeavor to meet with their forbidden loves, they'd both often left Yuuei for days at a time. For Bakugo specifically, it was usually to acquire something specific, like a plant or item that wasn't native to their location so his trips often took much longer than anyone else.

"Why didn't he tell me he was leaving though?" Midoriya mumbled to himself, quickly becoming unnerved and irritated by the thought.

It had taken years, but he had finally weaseled his way past most of Bakugo's emotional walls and was privy to some of the blonde's most severe insecurities and fears... they told each other almost everything. It just didn't make sense for him to have left without warning, especially since he was considered an unofficial guard at this point. No, something was definitely wrong.

"Uh, Deku..." Ochaco called with nervousness. She, along with Iida and Tsu were looking at him with matching expressions, unsettling him further. "Is—Is there something you need to tell us...About you and Bakugo and your constant sneaking around?"

Green eyes darted around, nose twitching as his brain failed to come up with a coherent lie. All he could think about was their treasonous activities for the past couple of years. How had they found out? He and Bakugo had been so careful! "Uh, uh, uh... I don't know what... you're talking about... heh..."

Epic fail. That feeble attempt wouldn't have convinced anyone, let alone those three. Midoriya winced at the unimpressed expressions on his friends' faces but couldn't come up with anything better. Damnit. Of course, Bakugo had to be M.I.A. at the exact moment their desperately kept secret was revealed.

Iida pushed up his glasses and shook his head in disappointment. "Midoriya, it's unbecoming for the future king of our people to lie."

"Yeah, especially to us!" Ochaco agreed hotly. "We're your best friends, Deku! Did you really think we wouldn't find out?"

Molten fear scalded across Midoriya's skin, burning down into his bones only for a terrible cold to shiver through what was left. He floundered, truly terrified of what the next few minutes held in store for him. They may have already told the council of his treachery... All his plans were crumbling, ground into sand that would soon be swept away by unforgiving waves.

"Wow, Midoriya. You really didn't want us to find out about you and Bakugo, huh?" Tsu questioned. She and the other two dropped the betrayed frowns they wore, softening with apology.

Ochaco reached out and rubbed her hand soothingly on Midoriya's shoulder before tugging him into a tight hug. "Oh no, we're sorry, Deku! We didn't mean to make you upset, we just wanted you to trust us, that's all! I promise we won't tell anyone that you're courting one another!"

The young prince blinked in confusion, wrapping his mind around the development. Him and Bakugo courting one another? OH! Oh... That made more sense. All the sneaking around and disappearing together, secret conversations whispered when they thought they were alone. They'd been behaving like foolish teenagers in love—something that was true, but not in the way his friends thought.

He and Bakugo had talked about pretending to be mated to each other so that they could bind with their respective partners, but the marks would be different. If they appeared at all given their prospective mates' hybrid and human statuses, that is.

Not knowing what to say, Midoriya simply thanked them for their silence. Once Bakugo got back, they'd be able to make a plan together to fix this misunderstanding. Hopefully, anyway. "Please, come back soon, Kacchan."

Kirishima dropped heavily into a chair, exhausted after a long day of assisting palace servants and maids as they worked on completing their daily chores. Todoroki had repeatedly told him that he wasn't required to help, but he liked it. A life spent locked away in a cellar and then dungeon had really given him perspective. Anything was exciting compared to sitting alone and silent in the dark.

Not that he hadn't considered simply doing as the Prince had suggested more than once. Foolish as it was, his help had been staunchly declined for quite some time—often violently. Endeavor Palace was not a place for the weak and yet most would rather be worked to death than accept help from 'Mer filth'.

Kirishima wasn't the type to give up, however, especially not when it came to helping people whose life was probably worse than his own. All who worked within the castle's walls were slaves just as he was, and they didn't have a secretly noble prince take special interest in them.

So, he'd found ways to insert himself into the work. Carrying the heavy wooden laundry baskets for expecting mothers, making canes for the elderly, taking the blame, and subsequent beatings for children whose naivety had gotten them into trouble. Small acts that could be built upon.

"You've made quite a name for yourself, Eijiro," Todoroki chuckled. "It seems that every day you're asked to do more."

"Yeah, well, I still have a long way to go before I'm fully accepted here, I think," he replied, smiling hopefully with thoughts of the new world the four of them were going to build together.

Todoroki, however, shook his head with a proud expression. "You're not as far off as you think. Anti-Mer sentiment runs deep here in the palace, but kindness and hard work are universally admired and appreciated. You've started changing people's minds."

Sighing, the redhead leaned forward and rubbed his hands together, thinking about his place in the world. If all went well and Todoroki was able to reverse the cruel doctrines of his forefathers, then he could very well make a life for himself here. But in the water? It didn't seem to him that kindness and hard work counted much when you didn't have the physical ability to be of much help.

"Maybe, but I'm still worried about how I'll fit in with Merfolk. There isn't much of anything a Mer can't do on land just as well as a human, but it's not the same for a human in the ocean. Katsuki says I could teach his people about everything that goes on up here since that doesn't require physical acts that I'd never be able to do, but they might not even care, you know?" Kirishima explained. "Not to bash you or your race, but Mer's didn't start this war and we've been systematically hunted to the brink of extinction. Why would the few surviving Mers want anything to do with humans or their culture?"

Todoroki nodded in acknowledgment.

It was true that his forefathers had crippled the Merfolks military power and massacred a great deal of the innocent population with simultaneous blitz attacks at all the major cities, but Merfolk were anything but weak and fought back hard.

It had taken decades of non-stop raids to force the Mer's to retreat in earnest, and the oldest living generation in Yuuei were the ones that had been born at this juncture. They were the children that grew up in the open ocean rather than a protected city. Their parents, though hardened by war, didn't have the survival skills necessary to thrive in their new, unpredictable environment. Believing they'd be safe in numbers, survivors fled in large pods, not knowing that this only made them easier to track.

Between the relentless cat and mouse chase with humans and the natural danger of marine predators, whole families were wiped out in traumatizing bloodbaths. The few that survived were generally children and teenagers whose parents had sacrificed themselves so that they could get away. They managed to band together over several years to create Yuuei, but the psychological damage had already been done.

Fear and hatred were all they knew and likely the only things that had kept them alive in a world that wanted them dead. They'd made sure to pass this on to their children and grandchildren, ensuring that each generation remembered and internalized the devastation their people had endured at the hands of humans.

Then, of course, there were the newcomers that hadn't been born in Yuuei, like Bakugo and Midoriya. They were living proof of the ongoing genocide... of the hardships faced by the Mers who hadn't happened across the one safe place left for their people.

If Todoroki were a Mer raised in either of these conditions, he didn't think he'd be able to even tolerate the idea of reintegrating with the species that had destroyed so many innocent lives. It was a real testament to their character that Midoriya and Bakugo had looked past the sins of their people.

"Perhaps you're right, Eijiro," he hummed. "But there are things they'd want to know, I'm sure. Updates on our new boats and weapons, maps of charted islands, and other facts that could be presented as survival knowledge."

"Er, yeah, but I don't know anything about that stuff!" Kirishima snorted.

Todoroki rolled his eyes and chuckled while he got out a quill and parchment, scribbling. "I'm a prince, Eijiro. I have access to everything you need to know, remember? Take this list to the library and tell them I've requested these documents. We can go over them together each night."

"For real?" Kirishima nearly shouted, bounding from his seat to see what all he'd be getting. "Thank you, Shoto! Thank you so much!"

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