𝑩𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑-Tododeku(Mermaid AU)

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 12

Growing Bonds
●▬▬▬▬▬๑⇩⇩๑▬▬▬▬▬●

Izuku eyed the prince who was currently redoing the bandages wrapped tightly around his arm. Shoto seemed lost in the work, scrutinizing every detail as he applied the cold cream upon the wounds.

The mer shuddering at the contact but never bothered to question it. After some time, he actually found it more soothing and involuntarily leaned closer to the touch, which the prince took to surprise.

"Uh—I finished," Shoto commented, promptly putting the supplies back into the small box they came from. "You seem much better—you are better, right?" He questioned.

"Oh, yeah I'm better!" Izuku chirped, grinning as his tail swayed slightly in the waters. "It's not as good as the ocean, but it's better than nothing. What do you humans call this again?"

"We call it a bath, tub, or bathtub. We mainly use it to clean ourselves if we're dirty basically, for that we use various types of soaps and some mixtures for our hair, it depends on the person." Shoto described, watching the other boy's mouth drop into an 'o' shape.

"Interesting, back home we don't usually get 'dirty', I guess the water just washes it away? I mean, sometimes we'd use scrubs if we get a stain or anything like that but that's it." Izuku exclaimed, smiling warmly as he recalled when Mina got caught in squid ink.

"Do you guys have like, a home? Wait—that didn't make sense—I meant like a..." Shoto huffed angrily, before rewording his statement, "What I meant to say was, like how we have this city here, do your people have one too? A stronghold or something like that."

Izuku giggles playfully as the prince jumbled up his words, "Yes, it's nothing like this place though! I've never seen a stone like these before, plus you guys are much more decorative in style than us. Our buildings are mainly made of jumbled rocks or coral and that's it, we also don't have all these crazy colors! Back home we just have.."

Shoto listened intently as the boy muttered on, attempting to make a mental image of the boy's home, while he describe it. He would occasionally nod to Izuku's rambling, finding himself a bit too in thought until said boy started calling his name.

"Shoto, hello? Shotoo!" The boy asserted, inspecting the other's features intently. "Are you still there?"

"Huh?—Oh! Yeah, sorry was a bit lost there, but your home sounds much better than here even without these designs. If I could I'd gladly pay a visit, just the whole in the bottom of the ocean part." Shoto exclaimed, earning another set of laughs from Izuku.

"Well, here seems... Nice! I'd love to explore it, but I'm not sure how to work my 'legs'. I still can't believe how you guys do it like it's nothing!" Izuku declared openly. "Also, what's that other thing between my legs? Does everyone have it? It feels rather weird, what do you guys do with it?"

The moment those words escaped Izuku's mouth, Shoto nearly felt his soul escape his body. He may be 19 and know enough about human anatomy, but it wasn't a topic he rather prefers teaching. After regaining composure, he cleared his throat, "Uh, I'll tell you another time! Though, um—about your legs, if you want we can practice walking together?"

Izuku nodded excitingly, looking forward to learning more about this new form he got to acquire. "Sounds like fun, if I learn to walk, would I get to see around the town? I saw some peculiar objects whilst we traveled to this building-thingy, I think it's called a castle, but I also want to try some human food!" He proclaims happily.

"Oh—We don't have to now, you're already wounded and I don't want you to trip or hurt your—Hey! What are you doing!?" Shoto panicked, stopping Izuku as he was already sliding himself out of the bathtub. The prince hurriedly latched his hands onto his shoulders, pushing him securely back into the tub, Izuku reacting in a set of giggles.