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“Alright, gotta say the hot dogs were the best part,” Sero hums happily, “Lots of condiments and right up on the pier? He’s a real businessman.”
“You thought the hot dogs were the best part? Kaminari threw a sand dollar like a frisbee!!” Mina hops, wrapping her arm around Kaminari’s shoulders, laughing as she jostles him.
“Listen! I don’t go to the beach, for obvious reasons! I didn’t realize they’re alive!” He tries to defend himself, pouting a little, “I panicked.”
The three of them laugh it off and tease Kaminari a little more for it. It had honestly been pretty funny.
“Oi, Bakugou, what was your favorite part?” Mina calls ahead at their friend walking up the beach towards the wood stairs to the road. His arms are up, hands behind his head.
Glancing over his shoulder at them, he hums a little, “The sun.”
“Oh, that’s boring! What a cop out answer!” she chides, the humor in her voice clear.
Bakugou puts his arms down, half turning to look at them as he walks sideways a few steps, turning around to walk backwards to snarl at the three of them, “What’s so boring about it? Who asked you?”
“You can get sun anywhere, dude,” Sero snickers, shaking his head at their antics.
“And you can get a hot dog anywhere, you bastard. I thought the sun was nice, bite me!”
Their laughter echoes across the beach, out over the water. The sun streaks fire across the water, shimmering orange and gold and red. The clouds coming in are a good indicator it’ll rain tonight. For the last day of their break from training, it was a good day.
Up on the road, Kaminari, Mina and Sero are talking about getting back to classes, to their hero studies, and about the next time they’re all going to have time to get together like this. Bakugou thinks he might hear something about seeing a movie this weekend, but something else has his attention.
He walks slower, along the wooden railing that gates the hill the beach is just past from the road, and from here they can see the boats in the water. One coming in has a hell of a lot of commotion, a lot of yelling. Bakugou stops to watch and the others slow to a stop.
“What’s up, Bakugou?” Kaminari asks, squinting a little out at the boat.
“They’re makin’ a fuckin’ racket,” he grumbles.
“Yeah?” Sero asks, quirking a curious brow. “What about it?”
The four of them stand and watch, and the boat turns enough that they can see the huge hook and net, bowed hard with a heavy catch. It’s tangled to hell, and rather than just a vast amount of fish squirming about, it’s… not.
“What is that?” Mina asks, her voice hushed.
In the net, thrashing hard enough to bend the hook’s arm outstretched over the water, there’s some huge red creature. It’s hard to hear exactly what’s being said by the fishermen, but one of them pulls a harpoon and in a fit of frustration, stabs at the creature in the net. He misses the first time, but manages to clip it in the arm the second time. It lets out an unholy screech, thrashing harder.
The hook creaks with the weight of it, the way it moves, and it slams hard against the side of the ship trying to pull it in.
“It’s a merman,” Sero says quietly.
“Funny, dude,” Kaminari winces at the noises, “That kinda thing doesn’t exist.”
They try to jab at it again with the harpoon and it snarls and screeches. None of them moves, watching what’s going on.
“We have to help,” Bakugou announces.
Before the others really know what’s going on, he’s hopping over the fence, sliding down the side of the hill back towards the beach. It’s steep and the grass is patchy, trying to grow at the edge of the sand. The others lean on the railing at first and call after him, but they know him well enough to know it’s not going to deter him when he’s on a mission, and hop the fence too, sliding down the hill after him.
They all stumble to a jog across the sand and Bakugou raises his voice above all the commotion, “HEY! What do you think you’re doing?!”
The fishermen on the boat spot the students running at the shore, still a ways out in the water, but more importantly than that, the merman spots them. Closer now, it’s clear that’s what this creature is. It’s surreal to look at, honestly. It’s like the stuff in storybooks and movies, but ever so slightly uncanny.
A strong jaw and the same ruddy streaks at the throat. A cut chest, wide shoulders, a tapered waist. The same streaks drag along its ribcage. Its arms are just a little enviable. And a tail. Long and thick, red like blood, not bright, but deep. The placement of the fins, and the shine of teeth in its mouth bring to mind one thing.
A shark.
When it sees the four of them, it stops moving. It stops thrashing and watches them. The fishermen’s attention is turned, and it takes the opportunity without much hesitation. Its arms and chest, down along its tail, all at once look jagged and sharp, and when it thashes, the edges of its hardened skin catch the ropes. A few hard thrashes and a few of the ropes break with loud pops.
They all give pause at the noise of the tension snapping, staring, but the merman doesn’t waste time, and with one last hard thrash, it breaks the net and falls into the water, splashing hard and heavy. The fishermen curse and scramble and snarl insults at the students, but the four of them grin with satisfied smiles.
They flip off the fishermen, scouring the water to see if they can spot it anywhere in the water. It had been bleeding pretty badly from a few nasty wounds from the harpoon.
Mina makes a face at the boat before nodding her head subtly, “Later!”
The captain snarls off the side of the deck, “You fuckin’ kids! Get back here!”
The four of them scatter up the beach, following behind Mina.
“Did you see it? Did it go this way?” Kaminari urges, watching the water. He doesn’t want to go near, but he knows it wouldn’t have been smart to be so obvious around the fishermen. If they think they can still catch it, they’d probably try. Better that they think it got away.
“It went this way. We’ll see if we can’t spot it off the rocks,” Mina points.
The beach bends around and soon enough the boat is out of line of sight. The four of them clamber up onto the rocks out over the water and watch to see if they can’t find the glimpses of the merman in the water.
It’s a long few moments of held breath, and then something breaks the surface farther down the beach. The high noise of claws on rock draws their attention. It’s struggling to keep itself stable against another outcrop of rocks, blood streaking through the water with each wave.
“There it is!” Sero points, and this time, Bakugou takes point, running hard across the sand.
He doesn’t hesitate approaching it fast where the other three hang back a little, wary, worried. It’s little more than a wild animal, they should think, even if it looks like a man. Well, mostly.
Bakugou lets the water rinse sand off his hands before he helps ease the creature a little higher onto the beach where the water won’t drag it away and he heaves a sigh at all the blood, “Jesus. Alright. There’s… there’s a first aid kit in the trunk.”
“Are you gonna give the fish stitches, Bakugou?”
Snapping his head up to look at them, “You wanna leave it to bleed out on the damn beach?”
Sero watches for a long moment before looping an arm around Kaminari’s waist. He wraps his arms around his friend’s shoulders on instinct, and with a loop of tape, Sero drags them quickly up the beach towards the road. The truck is parked in the lot off the road, they’ll be back.
Mina kneels in the sand next to the two of them, helping Bakugou settle the shark.
“Can you talk?” She asks, pulling seaweed off its tail.
It doesn’t seem to acknowledge she said anything, so either its in too much pain, too overwhelmed by everything going on, or it just doesn’t understand.
With its head in Bakugou’s lap, it’s clear that it’s not enjoying this. But it’s not fighting. Its gills are along its throat and down the curve of its ribs. When they shudder and fluttery, Bakugou can see the soft filaments inside. They look soft. What a dumb vulnerability for a predator like this. Thankfully, despite not being in the water, it doesn’t look like its struggling to breathe. It must also have lungs.
The big gash in the arm looks painful, but there’s a stab wound at the hip, just above the tail, that’s bleeding a lot.
“Put pressure on it, Mina.”
She does, even as it snarls and squirms. It still doesn’t fight though. They could hope that it understands they’re trying to help.
“Hey, chill the hell out, will you?” Bakugou snarls, but it doesn’t have the venom or anger. It’s simply firm enough to catch the merman’s attention.
“Did you think this is what being a hero was gonna be like?” She asks gently, keeping an ear out for Sero and Kaminari, or the fishermen and their boat.
“Kind of, yeah,” Bakugou answers just as quietly. The worry is clear in the knit of his brows and the way he takes control of the situation. Bakugou can be kind of abrasive, and he’s absolutely a stubborn asshole on a good day, but he’s a hero too. They’re still learning, all of them, but he’s a good man, with a good heart. And this? This whole situation just speaks volumes of that good heart.
“We got it!” Sero calls from the top of the hill, and Kaminari waves the case before they both come sliding back down to jog across the beach.
They all kneel around the merman and it balks a little at all of them, stilling. It can’t honestly be afraid of them, it’s a huge predator with a ton of razor sharp teeth! And yet, it’s helpless and injured, and its body language reflects that.
Mina pulls her hands back and they open the case in the sand to dig through it. They clean the wounds, Sero and Bakugou holding its shoulders while Mina and Kaminari wipe the sand away from the injuries and pour peroxide on them to be sure. It hurts, the bubbles of the chemicals taking care of the dirt are obvious enough.
It doesn’t thrash hard, even if it does squirm. A needle and thread and Kaminari makes quick work of the deeper wound at the hip, closing the injury so nothing else will get into it. He can’t imagine what getting an infection in the ocean would be like. He doesn’t wanna think about it.
The injury at the arm gets the same treatment, and the merman turns its head into Bakugou’s lap, gritting its teeth. Bakugou’s hands stay settled on its arm and head, doing what he can to keep it stable, and keep it from squirming and hurting any of them or itself.
When all is said and done, the four of them sit, not really sure how to process what’s happening, or what they’re doing. They’re helping an injured merman! He pants hard in Bakugou’s lap, eyes hazy and far away. Mina gently scoops water up higher on his tail to try to keep him wet.
“What… what do we do now?” Sero asks gently, chewing on his lip.
Bakugou’s expression is solid, even as the three of his friends look to him for answers. He’s the leader of their ragtag mess more often than not, but right now, he isn’t sure either.
“We can’t just put him back, can we?” Kaminari asks, watching the ocean push and pull up the length of the beach.
“Where would we put him otherwise?” Mina points out, still scooping water up onto his tail.
The bleeding has stopped thankfully. They did a good job. Kaminari is quietly glad for his course in emergency medical care. Being a hero is more than just punching bad guys, and they all know it. Today just helps prove that point. None of them is really sure if they could say this creature is a man, but the way they jumped in says more than they could decide. He needed help. They came to help.
The shift from it to he, even if it might not be totally accurate, is smooth. They’re helping a person.
“We can’t put him in a bathtub, it’s too small. He’s huge. A pool would mean chemicals and shit,” Bakugou muses, stumped. He tries to puzzle it out.
Water.
Four sets of shoulders stiffen, a sensation like silk dragging over their minds, cool and soft, is beyond jarring. They all cast their eyes down at the shark. His eyes are sharp, those of a wounded animal, a predator, and something powerful.
Mina’s voice shakes a little as she glances at the boys, and then back down at the merman, “Do you… do you want us to put you back in the water?”
It’s strange to think that’s what the intrusive feeling had been, the word heard but not with ears- it was the merman. He pants through his teeth, and the words come again.
Please.
They all exchange one more look before they’re working to pick him up, feet unsteady in the sand. As they work to get him back into the water though, a voice calls from down the beach.
“Hey! You kids better get lost!”
The fishermen in their coats and waders and boots stomp through the sand, men on a mission.
“Go fuck yourself,” Bakugou barks, leaving the merman to his friends, putting himself between him and the men looking to hurt him. His palms spark and sizzle.
“You don’t have a clue what you’re getting yourself into, you punks. We can call the cops and have the four’a you taken in for this! We’re trying to work, and you’re makin’ that hard!”
“Work? This is work?” Sero calls after them, “You’re nothing but a bunch of poachers!”
“And what’s your point, kid? You wanna eat? Something’s gotta get culled,” another fisherman steps in.
“You’re not gonna eat him! Are you crazy?” Mina is on her feet now too.
The captain steps through the workers. He’s tall, and has an obvious quirk. Skin thick and grey, he’s got webbing between his fingers then he points at the merman.
“You’ve got no standing interfering in our work, kids. And that,” he points with webbed fingers, “is our work. We’re just doin’ business. You don’t want to get into this.”
Bakugou takes another step, baring his teeth a little in a snarl at the man. He’s got quite a few inches on Bakugou, but he’s not scared. He’s not scared of anything. He stands his ground for a few long moments before slowly, he backs down.
“Dude!” Kaminari calls, seeing the way he pulls back, “We can’t just-”
“We’ll have our licenses revoked if we harass civilians.” Bakugou growls gently, “Even if they’re lying about all this, we’ve got no proof. If we get the cops called on us and we’re wrong, we’ll be suspended. And then what good are we gonna be?”
Sero’s voice is small and desperate, “Bakugou-”
“Shut up, Sero!” He heaves a sigh and they can all see the way his shoulders shake. He doesn’t want to be backing down from this anymore than they want to.
This man is in need. He needs heroes. And because they don’t have all the information, because they don’t know who he is, if he’s a civilian, or some kind of creature, they don’t know how to proceed. They might be adults, but they’ve still got a lot to learn.
Bakugou takes a step back, and the captain smirks a little, “That’s a good lad.”
“Don’t patronize me, you slimeball,” he snaps, but it’s still reserved. Backing down is all they can do right now.
No!
The shark thrashes hard, his trail smashing into Mina’s side, his claws dragging through the packed sand. Panic in his eyes and his teeth bared in defiance, in a threat display.
Don’t do this!
Bakugou’s shoulders stiffen and he stands his ground again, resolve renewed. The captain holds his hand out for the phone that another of his workers sets in it, lifting it to his ear.
“Wait!” Sero calls, standing up. He’s got a set of claw marks on his arm, not deep, but bleeding now, “Wait, just wait.”
“We’re not playing with you kids anymore,” the captain presses.
The merman’s panic boils over and despite trying to hold him steady, both Mina and Kaminari are thrown off him. His skin hardens, fingers sharp shards of rock as he claws his way back into the water. His dark hair plastered to his head, the injuries leaking blood across the sand from moving too much, the fishermen step forward to try to stop him from escaping, but with Bakugou and Sero in the way, and then Mina and Kaminari behind them, they don’t make it through in time to catch the merman before he disappears into the water.
“Damn you!” the captain snarls, a finger in Bakugou’s face. He has half a mind to bite it off. “You’re gonna pay for this.”
“Bring it on, asshole,” he challenges, slamming his fist into his palm, “Civilian or not, you come at me, I can fight back. Back off!”
The captain looks them over and despite the jeers and complaints from the workers about these stupid kids and their catch, he backs down too. Now that he’s gotten away, the best thing they could do is to get back to the boat and give chase.
They leave the four of them standing on the beach and it’s Sero who heaves a sigh first, sweat beading on his brow as he relaxes against one of the big rocks, “What a mess.”
Kaminari shakes his head as he crouches to pick up what he can salvage of the first aid kit the merman had scattered in his panicked escape. Mina’s shoulders tense and high until she pops with a hell, turning and kicking the waves coming in for something to take the frustration out on.
“What are we supposed to do now?” She asks, and the three of them look to Bakugou.
His back still to them, stubborn and stalwart against the poachers.
“What more can we even do?” Kaminari asks, clipping the case closed. “He swam off. If he’s smart, he won’t get caught again.”
“He’s injured, Kaminari. What’s gonna happen if they catch him again?” The distress in Mina’s voice is enough to make Bakugou tuck his head down, chin against his chest.
“Son of a bitch…”
They lapse into silence, unsure of what to do to help him, if they could even find him again.
There’s hardly any light left, the sun having set, leaving them in the dark, the street lights up the hill their only light. The lights of the boat drift by, the sounds of the workers griping too far to discern.
“We go home.”
“Bakugou, you can’t be serious!” Mina urges, “We have to help him!”
He turns quickly, gesturing to the waters, “What do you want us to do, Mina? Huh? You got scuba gear and night vision goggles? And if we did find him, what more are you gonna do that we didn’t already do? We patched him up! He got away! Whatever happens now is on him! If he’s stupid enough to get himself caught a second time, well then that’s his fault.”
Mina’s lips purse, unhappy with the turn of events, but… he’s right, and she knows it. There’s not much they can do now but hope the merman got away, and heals alright.
“We’re going home,” Bakugou says again.
The trudge back up the beach is silent and tense, just as much as the car ride back to their university. When they part ways to their dorms for the night, it’s without so much as a goodnight.
Ever since the encounter with the merman, Bakugou and his friends have been on edge. Tense and worried, but without proper means to do much about it all, they can only really… accept what happened that evening. In their own time they’ve all been back to the beach to look for him, to see if they can’t spot him off the shore. He’d be an idiot to have stuck around with the fishermen looking for him, but still, they have hope.
Their classes go about as well as they did before, if not just a little better, with a renewed sense of what it means to be a hero, to help people, to do the right thing. None of them is happy about having back down in the face of the threat of police, but if they’d lost their licenses, they wouldn’t be able to help anyone else either.
The wheels of Bakugou’s skateboard rattle along the sidewalk as he winds and weaves through the back end of town. He should have been home an hour ago and he knows he’s past curfew for their dorms and he’ll catch hell for it, but it’s not the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last.
Stopping at a crosswalk, popping his board up into his hand, Bakugou scuffs the sidewalk, kicking a couple pebbles into the gutter while he waits for the light. A businessman with his stupid little briefcase stands on the same corner, and the way he inches away from Bakugou and sneers a little only make Bakugou bare his teeth in the same kind of sneer. He tosses his board down before the light properly changes and calls over his shoulder, “Get hit, old man!”
He rolls over pavement and down through the alleyways, rolling his eyes at the stupid old man. Like he gives half a shit what some white collar asshole thinks. Probably gonna go home to his one room apartment and complain about delinquents and cry his ass to sleep. Pathetic.
Left.
Bakugou eases his board left.
He should stop at the corner store and grab a drink, he’s got a lot of homework to do when he gets back.
Don’t go back.
Or maybe he’ll kick it around town tonight. He never has before, and it’s getting late, even for him, but why the hell not? He doesn’t have class tomorrow, so it’s not like he’s got anything better to do.
He pats himself down for his wallet and phone to be sure he’d be able to get in and out of a bar if he wanted to-
The brick building on the corner. Behind you.
Bakugou brings his board to a stop, stumbling a few steps before he turns around, looking up the street. There’s no one. Of course there’s no one. But this seems familiar. It feels like he knows this voice. This sensation. The street lights are coming on, but there’s hardly any traffic either. Blinking slowly, his eyes settle on a red brick building on the corner across the street from where he’s standing.
Move.
It hits him like a truck all at once. This is familiar for a damn good reason! He knows this voice! It’s the merman! He’s sure of it!
He feels like he’s in a haze. Like he’s moving without really doing it. His board under his arm feels heavy, way too heavy, like he might drop it. He doesn’t, though. The world swims like he’s seeing it through a fisheye.
The hold on him, on his mind, on the way his body doesn’t move the way he tells it- it’d be easier if he just let him move of his own volition! He’ll come help if the stupid fish let’s go!
Come on. Please.
He moves quicker, jogging directly across the intersection instead of taking the crosswalks. There’s no cars, but he’s not that reckless. The building looms above him, imposing. He doesn’t have a clue what this building even is. It looks like a warehouse, and given it’s in a quiet, empty district, there’s a good chance it is.
The door.
Bakugou’s hand reaches, and he clenches his fingers, only to watch them close slowly.
He might hate the sensation, the crushing feeling of everything, pulling, tugging, pushing, urging him to move, but he lets it wash over him. If he doesn’t push back against it, it might mean that the shark will let go sooner. He’s got to be in here somewhere. How the damn thing managed to get himself captured again is beyond him, but Bakugou is going to do what he can to help, just like last time.
The cool air washes over him from the building as he opens the door. It’s dark, too dark to see properly inside, but his feet move, and he can’t do much but follow along.
The lights come on as he moves through the building, loud clicks of power rerouting, echoing in the empty building. It’s a warehouse, alright. It’s spacious with high ceilings. His mind wanders, taking in all he sees, because at least he has that, if he has no control of his body, he can at least take in as much about his surroundings as possible.
Huge glass containers, reminiscent of an aquarium, all filled with water. When the lights come on overhead, casting shadows in the room and in the tanks, it does little to illuminate the deep tanks. He swears for just a moment he sees a shadow move in the dark. He squints a little, and whatever it was, whether it was something, or it was a trick of the light, is gone. Gone deeper, if it were there at all, and he’s still being pulled along!
He’s not a dog! He doesn’t have a leash! He’s totally willing to help!
Baring his teeth against nothing and doing his damndest to pull and tug and wrench himself free from the grip on his mind, on his limbs, Bakugou growls in frustration.
The lights wash over him, and the last casts just enough light into the tank he’s brought to a halt in front of. He doesn’t feel he has control over himself, not yet, but he doesn’t feel the incessant, nagging feeling overwhelming him. There’s a pressure, but it’s static.
I need your help.
The water moves and shimmers and Bakugou stares, waiting, chest heaving a little with the adrenaline rushing through him.
The merman approaches the glass, and for a moment, Bakugou isn’t sure what to make of what he’s looking at. Before, the merman had dark hair, dripping and stuck to the sides of his face. Now it’s red, brighter than his tail and gills, weightless around him in the water.
Hands press against the glass, easing in to get a closer look at Bakugou, and just the same, Bakugou leans in too, stumbling over himself to take a step. He isn’t sure if it’s him or the merman moving him because everything still feels like a fog, but the world falls away behind him, and all he can do is stare.
You gape like a fish, dude.
Bakugou’s teeth slam shut and he snarls. The corner of his lips twitch in annoyance at the mouth on this fish! He holds himself wider, more boldly, than he did before. Bakugou isn’t sure if it’s because he’s in the water, or what, but it’s a strange change in demeanor. The wounds on his hip and shoulder have healed into angry pink lines, well on their way to scars, but clean. Kaminari did a good job stitching him up.
“You changed your hair.”
The merman lifts a hand to card fingers through it, turning his head a little.
You like it?
The question takes him by surprise, not really expecting something like that. The words prickle goosebumps down his arms and he can feel the heat rise in his face. What a stupid question. The way the shark grins down at him from the vast tank with all those menacing teeth says a lot about the look Bakugou probably has on his face.
“You got yourself caught again!”
The smile falls from his lips and he watches into the dark warehouse, brows knit. A little rush of bubbles filters out of the gills open along his ribs.
I fought, I swear! They caught me while I was sleeping.
Bakugou almost chokes on a laugh, “You’re a shark! You got kidnapped in your sleep?”
Dude, come on!
Heaving a sigh of his own, Bakugou lets his shoulders relax. He finally has a full grasp of himself beyond the hold the merman had on him. He looks around the warehouse, as much as he can with how dark it is in here, and then back up at the tank.
“What do you expect me to do about it?”
Shifting and swimming along the side of the glass, his tail flicks hard.
You did something last time. It was pretty heroic.
Blinking slowly, Bakugou’s hands open and close a few times. So maybe he might be a huge sucker. And maybe he might be an absolute idiot for entertaining this shit. But the fish has a point. He and his friends had done what they’d done in an attempt to do right. To be the heroes they were training to be.
He wonders idly if the merman knows he puts so much stock in his own heroics and the help he can offer people, and is using that to garner sympathy. He wonders if he’s that smart.
“So you want me to stick my neck out and help you again? You’re in a tank. In a warehouse. Uptown. How do you think I’m gonna get you back to the ocean?” Bakugou presses, trying to see if the merman has any ideas. It’s not that he doesn’t want to help, but he honestly doesn’t have much of an idea how to help.
Swimming circles along the length of the wall, the light only illuminates the water so much, so when he’s farther along the wall, he’s cast in shadow, which really only makes this whole situation, and him as a predator, that much more intimidating. He stops in the middle.
What’s your name?
Tilting his chin up to look at the merman, he squints a little before speaking up, “Bakugou. Katsuki Bakugou.”
Mine’s Kirishima. Eijirou Kirishima. It’s nice to meet you.
The merman smiles a little, confident but reassuring. It makes Bakugou’s face hot again. He doesn’t know if it’s embarrassment that he’s talking to a fish and the fish is being nice, or-
“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbles, reaching to rub the back of his neck, shaking it off.
Alright, Bakugou. I’ve got an idea.
Brows scrunching together, Bakugou lifts his arms, crossing them over his chest to stare into the tank at the shark. He moves so fluidly, weaving weightless through the water. He has scars littering his tail and torso. Bakugou can’t help but wonder what some of them are from. He can respect something this powerful, this resilient. Despite being capture by the fishermen, he has no doubt this guy’s a fighter.
“I’m listening.”
There’s a retractable grate on the tank. I can get out if you can open that. If you have a…
He pauses, puzzled, lips pursed in concentration.
I don’t know what they’re called. I’ve seen them.
Bakugou squints a little in confusion, trying to figure out what the merman is trying to get at. He think hard about it, and about how they could manage getting him from point A to point B. Initially he’d been thinking too much about a tank of water they could move, but now…
“You mean a car? A vehicle?”
Kirishima squints a little, shrugging.
They’re loud on the trails on the shore?
“Yeah, a car. Big box with wheels?” He puts his hands up to indicate a wheel, pointer fingers turning over one another.
His face lights up and he sets his hand against the glass, easing closer, nodding.
Yes, those! We can do this if we have one of those!
Jaw twitching a little, lips pursed, Bakugou paces, thinking, trying to puzzle this all out.
“I have a truck-” he corrects himself, “There’s a truck I can use. A pick up truck. How long can you survive without water? If you dry out, are you gonna die?”
How far are we from water?
He rubs his chin to think about it, “If we did it at night, there’s not so much traffic, so… twenty minutes?”
Kirishima winds through the water, determination written across his face.
I can do that!
“So, we get the truck, get you in the truck, drive you back out to the ocean,” Bakugou muses. He stops his pacing to looking back up at the merman in the tank, “It can’t be that easy, can it?”
No clue!
His tone is way too chipper for the shit they’re talking about doing. It’s still such a weird sensation, words in his mind but not in his ears. It’s especially jarring because Bakugou is sure that even without his hearing aids, he’d hear it, and that’s really something that tugs something deep in his gut.
If they got him out of here, and took him back to the ocean, they’d be running the risk of those fishermen being right about this being something they were legally allowed to do. And again, they’d circle back around to the fact that this might be something they’d be in the wrong for stepping in on, regardless of their moral standings on if it’s right or wrong. There’s plenty of shit Bakugou doesn’t think is right but are legal in technical senses. If he tried to strongarm every situation he didn’t agree with regardless of the law, he’d not only have his license revoked, but he’d be a laughing stock and the reputation he’s cultivating dragged through the mud.
He drags a hand through his hair hard, growling a soft noise of frustration.
Kirishima knocks his knuckles against the glass and Bakugou snaps back to attention.
“What?”
There’s not a lot of time to stand around, man. It’s now or never.
“Now?” Bakugou jolts, “Are they coming back?” He turns quickly to look into the dark of the warehouse behind them, listening hard to see if he can’t hear a vehicle or people.
I don’t know. I don’t know why they wouldn’t. I don’t know what they’re planning on doing. I’ve heard the things they do to my kind. I don’t want to risk it.
Slowly he looks back up at Kirishima, and the merman looks… sad? Bakugou isn’t sure. Kirishima’s black and red eyes flick back up to look at him.
I don’t know if it’s fate that you found me the first time, and you were riding by now, but I don’t think it was coincidence, Bakugou. You’re a hero. Even if you didn’t know to come here tonight, this is happening.
“What do you know about heroes?” Bakugou stops again, taking a step closer to the tank.
You think heroes are universal to humans?
The grin and amused quirk of brow on Kirishima’s face puts Bakgou in his place. This stupid fish.
I know you and your friends do what’s right, even if it’s hard. This is what’s right, and you know it. You just have to do it.
Bakugou heaves a sigh, picking his hands up to press against his temples, “Shut up, will you? I’m trying to think.”
Kirishima does as he’s asked, but he swims circles to keep up with Bakugou’s pacing.
He’s right. He’s right, and they both know it. It’s the right thing to do. To help him get free.
Digging his phone out of his pocket, Bakugou chews on the side of his thumbnail while he flicks through his contacts and makes the call.
It rings twice before it connects.
“Hey Bakugou, what’s up, man?”
“Sero, I need your help with something,” Bakugou gets right down to business, “I found the merman.”
There’s shuffling and moving on the other side, “Oh shit! Oh! You found him?! Bakugou, that’s great. Is he alright?”
“Well,” Bakugou looks over his shoulder at Kirishima in the tank, “He’s alive.”
Sero is quiet for a long moment, “That’s… not really reassuring, man.”
“The fishermen caught him. He’s in a big tank in a warehouse blah and blah. We need to get him back to the ocean.” Bakugou’s tone doesn’t leave a lot to be questioned, and when it comes to his little ragtag group of friends, it’s not often that they do question him. He’s got a good head on his shoulders, even if he’s sometimes rash and impulsive with his decisions.
“Alright. I’ll get Kaminari and Mina. We’ll be there as soon as we can. Do we need to bring anything?”
Bakugou hisses a sigh through his teeth, “Is your tape waterproof?”
“Waterproof? I mean… it’s less sticky, but it’s not like it disintegrates, if that’s what you mean?” Sero sounds so lost.
“That’s good enough. We’re wingin’ this. The truck and the crew. We don’t have a lot of time.” Bakugou urges.
“We’ll be there.”
The line goes dead and Bakugou appreciates that Sero understands they don’t have time for pleasantries right now.
He holds the phone, tapping the corner of it against his forehead before turning to look up at Kirishima who’s watching him with curious eyes.
“Alright, here’s the plan!”
The sound of the truck rumbling outside draws both Bakugou and Kirishima’s attention. He’d settled himself to sitting with his back to the tank so he’d stop pacing. The two of them hadn’t said much past what had been said about the plan and how Bakugou was planning this to happen.
He stands up quickly, pointing at Kirishima, “Don’t go anywhere!”
Kirishima hisses something between a snarl and a laugh, showing his teeth in a grin too menacing to be humor alone, waving him off. Of course he’s not going anywhere.
Bakugou jogs back towards the door and is almost bowled over when the three of his friends burst through the door, three calls of, “Bakugou!”
He rights himself, “You guys almost killed me! Come on!”
They all weave through the looming tanks back through to the one Kirishima’s being kept in, and marvel a little when they see him. He gives them a little wave.
Hey, guys.
“You changed your hair!” Mina chirps happily, “It looks good!”
Kirishima grins wide, a blush high on his cheeks.
“Alright, can we get the truck in here? Can we open the bay from in here?” Bakugou is already getting down to business. Neither he or Kirishima really knows when the poachers might be back, but neither of them wants to take any chances.
“Uh, Bakugou,” Kaminari starts, turning a little to look at the warehouse, but mostly the ceiling, “Are you sure there’s no cameras in here?”
Bakugou turns sharp to look at him, “What? I don’t know. Why the fuck do you care?”
Kaminari points to a red dot at the corner post of one of the rafters. Bakugou stares up at it, and it might be too dark to see properly, but there’s no doubt that’s a camera surveying the warehouse.
“If that’s got a live feed, they could be onto us. They could know it’s us. That’s incriminating evidence.”
Growling a little, Bakugou rakes a hand through his hair, “If you get up there, can you see if it’s remote or live feed?”
Kaminari purses his lips, shrugging a shoulder, “I don’t know, man, I’d have to see it first.”
“Can you disable it?”
His glasses perched on his forehead, he looks back up at the red light in the rafters, “I can sure try.”
“Sero!” Bakugou calls, and Sero looks over his shoulder from where he’s looking at the tank, trying to figure the best way to get the merman out. “Can you get Kaminari up there?”
He points at the high ceilings and Sero looks Kaminari over before nodding quickly, stepping up to wrap an arm around his waist. Just like before, Kaminari’s arms are around his shoulders on reflex before Sero loops tape around the beams stretched across the ceiling. It takes leveraging, but he pull them both up. Kaminari and Sero work on the camera while Bakugou turns to Mina.
“We need to get the truck in here. We can’t carry him out to the truck.”
You’ll hurt my feelings, Bakugou.
Kirishima grins, shoulders shaking a little. Bakugou can’t hear the laugh, but he waves the shark off, “Nobody asked you, shitty hair.”
Mina jogs out towards the front of the warehouse to look for a larger door they must have used to get these big tanks in here, calling over her shoulder, “We brought a tarp just in case. If we stretch it across the bed, we can get some water in it too, keep him as wet as possible while we drive!”
Bakugou is right on her heels, barking a laugh, “That’s a good idea.”
Grinning for him, Mina salutes a little, “Of course it was, it was mine!”
They get the doors open and Bakugou has Sero drop him the keys so he can back the truck in. Thankfully, it’s more or less a straight shot to the tank Kirishima’s being held in.
When Sero and Kaminari are safe on the ground again, Kaminari flexes a little, “Hell yeah! They were remote with a black box. Fried the box! Nobody’s gonna know a thing!”
Mina offers him a high five and Sero grips his shoulder.
Bakugou stands in the bed of the truck now that it’s nearly flush to the tank, looking up at the vast vat of water and the merman swimming anxious circles against the glass.
Kirishima stops and looks them all over, one at a time, and despite the pressure on all of them right now, the looming threat of being caught, ghosts his voice through their minds.
What are your names?
“Mina! Mina Ashido!” she supplies, waving a hand for him.
“Hanta Sero,” he smiles, “Nice meeting you!”
“And I’m Denki Kaminari!” and then follows up with, “What’s yours, man?”
Eijirou Kirishima!
The way his shoulders relax has a feeling of ease washing over all of them. They’re going to rock this. They’re gonna be heroes.
Ready when you are!
Sero nods, taking no time to stall before he starts up the stairs along the side of the tank. There’s a little control panel and he pushes the button for the retractable metal grate on top. Kirishima is at the lip of the tank to greet him with a grin when the grate pulls away.
“Alright, I’m gonna pull some tape across the rafters over the truck, and then around you, and it’ll be like a pulley system, okay? We’ll pull the rope and pull you out of the top of the tank, and then lower you into the back of the truck.”
Kirishima nods, pounding his fists together.
Looping and pulling tape, Sero sets up a system, pulling it a little to be sure it’s smooth and strong before he lets loose a good portion more and gives another end to Kirishima in the water. He doesn’t need instruction before he’s working to tie it to himself in a way that will support him without injury.
When it’s all secure, he waits at the front top lip of the tank so there’s as little distance to pull as possible. The four of them stand two on each side of the truck at the bottom and grab a section of the tape before in unison, giving a big tug.
It takes some doing, but they get him up and over the edge of the tank, and ease him down, slowly, into the back of the truck onto the tarp. He’s dripping wet, so water collects in the tarp under him. It’s not the best solution in the world, and it wouldn’t work for more than twenty minutes, but it’s all they’ve got right now, so it’ll have to do.
Kaminari steps up to try to help steady him and Kirishima flinches back hard, staring at him. Blinking quickly, Kaminari glances at the others.
“You good, dude?”
Dangerous.
Before, Kirishima had been too panicked and injured to act on it, but now he can. Kaminari looks taken back for a long moment before Bakugou slaps the roof of the truck, “Your quirk, idiot.”
Kaminari stares for a long moment before jolting, “Oh! Shit! You’re right!”
Bakugou slaps a hand onto his shoulder, “You’re driving. Don’t need you accidentally electrocuting anybody with all the water.”
He grimaces a little but accepts it with a defeated sigh, “Yeah, yeah.”
Mina hums gently, clearly trying not to smile, “We still loooove yoooou Denkiii.”
His face reddens, “Even after I drive us into a pole?”
Bakugou’s grip on his shoulder tightens a little, “No.”
Kaminari’s face somehow gets redder, “Alright!”
“Quit yappin’, get driving!” Bakugou urges, climbing up onto the back of the truck to settle in. “You good?”
Kirishima looks out of his element in more ways than one but he turns to look at Bakugou when he’s addressed and gives him a curt nod. His gills are clamped shut and his chest is rising and falling a little harder, but it might be the adrenaline of escaping from containment like this.
Making sure Sero and Mina are ready, Bakugou turns and slaps the roof of the truck, “Let’s go, Sparky!”
Kaminari puts the truck in gear, the radio kicking on.
“Goooood eeeevening!! Present Mic on the Mic with one hell of a line up tonight! Buckle in, we’re rockin’ this house!”
The music starts just a moment after, pumping through the empty warehouse as Mina and Sero whoop excitedly. Kirishima sits up pulling himself towards the side of the bed of the truck, and as Kaminari puts the pedal to the metal and they floor it out of the warehouse, he sticks his arm out. It hardens, jagged and rocklike, and as they peel out, his arm smashes into each tank on at side of the truck.
It’s a resounding cascade of glass and the roaring rush of water, and the truck barely avoids getting swept away by the ensuing tsunami that comes rushing out of the warehouse doors.
Their hollars only pitch in volume at such a display, and the grin Kirishima gives them is nothing but pride and spite for his captors.
They tear through the streets, headed for the oceanfront. It’s true it’s going to be at least fifteen minutes, but they’re going to make good time. Bakugou’s standing with his hands on the top of the truck, because at this point, they’re already breaking a ton of other laws, why not live a little?
The sound of sirens behind them make them all whip their heads around to look, the flashing lights urging them to pull over.
They all pale, and for a moment Kaminari slows just a little. Bakugou slaps the top of the truck, “What are you doing?!”
“What are we supposed to do?” he begs. He’s got the wheel in a death grip.
“Floor it, Kaminari! We’ve got places to be!”
“Bakugou!” Mina calls, and he turns to look to see the single car it had been is now three, and they’re coming in fast on their bumper. “They’re trying to ram us!”
Snarling, hands popping with little explosions, he calls, “Mina, Sero, get ‘em off us!”
The two of them look to Bakugou, then the merman in the middle who’s really just looking lost and panicked again, eyes wide, and they move to the end of the bed. Mina puts her hand around her fingers in a cone to spray a diluted acid out at the tires, and Sero shoots off tape in short bursts at windshields.
Kirishima’s claws are like spires of rock dug into the metal bed of the truck, and if they weren’t on the run, Bakugou might comment that a quirk like that is impressive. Maybe later.
Kaminari takes a turn hard and sends everyone against the side of the truck. Kirishima hisses and pulls himself up against the back door of the bed, showing all of his teeth.
Stop!
All at once the cop cars skid to a stop, the flanking two ramming into the front car, piling up in the middle of the road. The truck barrels our and around the road, headed for the ocean.
“Holy shit,” Sero says gently, looking at the merman.
Kirishima doesn’t seem bothered by what he did. It’s not likely that the policemen are too injured, and even then, when his survival is on the line, the shark doesn’t have a lot of regard for people like cops and poachers. If he’d been able to get his hands on the fishermen, there’d been eviscerated, and looking at his claws, the craggy angles of his hardened skin, and the way he pants just a little, all of his teeth on display, the crew understands that acutely. As much as they’re helping him to freedom, he really is a predator.
Kaminari takes another bend hard calls loudly, “Hold onto your asses, guys!” and drives the truck down the hill to the beach. It gets a lot harder to drive then, the scrap heap not really suited for this kind of driving, and when they get stuck, he slams a hand on the wheel, “That’s it! That’s all she’s got.”
Bakugou slaps the top of the truck again, “That’s good! We’re close enough! Good work, Kaminari!”
He all but melts out of the driver’s seat, shutting the door behind him.
Mina and Sero hop out, letting down the back door of the bed.
“Alright, we’re all gonna grab a corner of the tarp, and we’re gonna carry him out,” Bakugou instructs, untying the tarp from the corners of the bed. “Mina, Sero, pull it that way so Kaminari and I can get a grip on these other corners.”
Carefully they do just that, an efficient team with a clear leader. They pull the tarp along the bed, and Kirishima jolts a little with it, unsteady. He tries not to put too many more holes in the tarp or the truck. When they have him almost at the end of the bed, Kaminari and Bakugou can come up along the sides and pick up the other two corners, lifting and pulling him down off the truck into the sand. There’s hardly any water in the tarp now, between the holes the shark’s claws put in it, the way they were all sloshed and jostled around in the back, and pulling out out over the sand, but if that were a problem, they’re sure Kirishima would make it a pressing matter.
He doesn’t though, and just hangs on. He still looks wide eyed and upset.
“Almost there,” Mina assures. He can’t stop staring at the ocean just 30 meters away.
“On three, lift,” Bakugou tells them, taking the front with Kaminari to carry Kirishima closer to the shore, and on his count, they all hoist up the tarp and waddle through the sand towards the water.
It’s perhaps not the most glorious rescue, or even the most heroic- it’s certainly not well planned- but when they get him to the water’s edge, and Kirishima scrambles, pulling himself easily over the packed sand and into the water, they know they did well.
The four of them pant and heave a few sighs, relieved it’s done.
When Kirishima surfaces again a little distance out, with enough room to move, Mina plops back onto her ass, “Thank God.”
Kaminari crumples a little, legs jelly after all the stress. He definitely hadn’t expected to be running from the cops tonight. None of them did, really.
Bakugou looks them over before he wades out into the water with Kirishima, determined to make sure this guppy understands they can’t keep saving his ass from the chopping block like this.
“Listen here, you damn fish,” Bakugou starts, trudging through the water, “We’re not your knights in shining armor, and we’re not-”
Not only does the merman not know what a knight in shining armor even is, he doesn’t particularly care for the way Bakugou flaps his lips. So instead of letting him ramble on about whatever ever bullshit Kirishima has heard him growl about already, he grabs the front of his shirt, tugging him through the water.
He glances back up at the shore and the three humans who are checking on each other and catching their breath, and before Bakugou has a chance to squawk his indignation, he pulls him under the waves. The cold water hits him hard, but already up to his hips in it, Bakugou adjusts easily, only thrashing a little.
Kirishima holds him under with him, and though Bakugou can’t see anything, he can feel. He has to hold his breath, but he can feel Kirishima’s hands on his arms, squeezing just a little, the prickle of claws, dangerous even if they aren’t breaking skin. The way his hair filters around him through the water, tickling against Bakugou’s face, his tail coiling around his legs.
Panic starts to bubble up in his chest, from the predator dragging him under, and the lack of oxygen in his lungs-
And then there’s lips against his, impossible to deny, gentle and sweet.
His chest aches, but he opens his mouth anyway, and Kirishima takes the kiss deeper, both too greedy not to indulge.
Bakugou can feel the edge of teeth against his lips, and a couple of them leave little nicks against his soft lips. Warmer than the water, a tongue laps out to lick up the blood before letting him go. The tail unwinds, the arms push him back towards the surface, and there’s a distinct moment Bakugou is lost, weightless in the water, before he’s pulling himself back towards the surface.
When he breaks the surface, Sero calls, “There he is!”
“Are you okay, Bakugou?” Mina calls, hands cupped around her mouth.
He gives them a wave, treading water as he pushes himself back towards the shore. He’d been dragged out quite a ways, but the waves help ease him back to the beach and his friends.
Red and black eyes break the surface, the deep crimson hair sitting on top of the water, as Kirishima stares after him, barely out of the water. Bakugou stares back, captivated.
See you around, Bakugou.
He gapes like a fish, just like the shark had said earlier, and Kirishima rises just enough that Bakugou sees the wicked smirk on his lips and the edge of blood on his teeth. His hand raises to his lips and he hisses at the sting of the little cuts. With a heavy rush of water, the shark disappears into the inky black waters.
“Come on, Bakugou! You’re gonna catch a cold, dude.” Kaminari urges, still sitting on his ass in the sand.
He stares after the shark for another long moment, and surely he’s gone, but Bakugou doesn’t really know what to do with himself now. He comes back to himself a little at a time, still treading water. The chill of the ocean this late at night starts to seep into his bones though, and he splashes hard when he turns to swim back to shore.
Dragging himself up onto the beach, clothes hanging heavy from his frame, the three of them slap him on the back, checking to make sure he’s alright.
“Did he drag you under?” Sero asks, helping ease him up.
The three of them see the shallow cuts on his lips and give each other a look, from concern to knowing, from confusion to sly.
He looks at all their faces and shows his own teeth with a growl, “Stop fuckin’ touchin’ me! I wanna go home. Stupid fuckin’ fish.”
Bakugou shrugs them all off, but his mouth still tastes like salt and blood and danger, and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t want to dive back in for more.