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Hitoshi had never understood Izuku’s fascination with humans.
Doubted he ever would.
But Hitoshi loved his boyfriend dearly and so when Izuku had asked for him to come watch the ships with him, he agreed. And if it was more to keep Izuku out of danger? Well.
Ship watching was a favourite pastime of Izuku’s.
He loved to watch the shadows of the ships travel across the surface in whatever direction they wanted and often followed them on their journeys, careful to stay out of sight.
Not that that was easy for either of them to do, Izuku being a length of 25 ft in total with Hitoshi himself coming to around 30.
Luckily the ocean was often dark and the humans had no interest in diving into her embrace so it wasn’t too difficult.
They just had to be careful to avoid the nets they cast out for the fish.
Izuku still carried the scars on his arms from when he had been caught once when he wasn’t careful enough.
Hitoshi had slaughtered everyone on board and refused to let Izuku out of his sight for a long time afterwards.
He never let Izuku do this on his own anymore. Even if he stayed out of sight of Izuku, he'd still follow along just in case.
He hated being so close to the surface, not just because of how dangerous it was in terms of the humans.
Hitoshi was from a clan of deep water Mer-Folk. He was built more for the pressure of the deeps. He could adjust to the weaker pressure of the higher waters but it was still uncomfortable. Izuku was the same, though he fared a little better due to not being made for water as deep as Hitoshi was. He didn’t seem to mind the discomfort it brought him though. Content to stay in the shallows for hours upon hours.
Izuku was in luck today it seemed, Hitoshi spotting the shape of a rather large ship making its way through the water.
Hitoshi grinned as he watched Izuku perk up, a squeak of excitement escaping him.
It was adorable.
Target found, Hitoshi settled for being dragged around by his mate for the next couple hours.
Hitoshi was more interested in Izuku than the human ship, so it was no surprise he didn’t notice something wrong until he saw Izuku frown and he turned his gaze up.
Ah.
There was a second ship.
It seemed a little larger and wider than the one they had been following.
He understood Izuku’s frown.
The ocean was vast with many different predators and plant life. It was rare for Mer-Folk to meet each other outside of their respected clans or neighbours.
Izuku and Hitoshi finding each other was a borderline miracle.
But it was because of this that things were relatively calm for them. The only thing they really had to worry about was the occasional idiot who thought it could succeed where other predators failed and tried to attack them, in which case the two of them made quick work of it and inadvertently took care of their biggest problem which was food.
(The depths weren’t exactly teeming with food sources and the things that did live there could be difficult to find, never mind catch. There was also the risk that they would run into something closer or larger than their own sizes and they’d be fucked.)
The vastness of the ocean and the lack of species interaction meant that there were little to no fights breaking out.
Humans on the other hand…
He and Izuku had seen the results of ships meeting on the water surface.
There was a 50% chance that a fight would break out.
They never knew the reason for the fighting, but it was pretty common and often ended up with the ships sinking into their domain along with anything on it which usually also included the crew.
It looked like that was what was happening now.
Hitoshi never cared much for which ship won but he usually was fine to watch from his hiding place. The ocean didn’t have a lot of entertainment honestly. So watching the ship jerk and sway from something hitting it was the best he would likely get.
Izuku always watched too though there was always this slight look of concern on his face that Hitoshi never understood. In the end though there was nothing to be done and Hitoshi watched as the ship they were originally following began to sink, pieces of debris already falling off.
The bodies followed not soon after.
Looks like they wouldn’t have to worry about food for the next few days after all.
A sound of surprise from Izuku drew him out of his musings and he turned to look at him as he felt a hand come to frantically hit at his shoulder.
“What’s got you all excited this time?”
“One of them’s alive! Hitsohi look!” He pointed somewhere above them.
Hitoshi raised an eyebrow and followed where Izuku was pointing.
Huh.
Alive they were. At least if the lack of blood in the water around them was anything to go by. Considering the fact that most humans were bloody when they came into the water, it seemed likely that they were in fact still alive.
They were quite small in comparison, all humans were, and even from so far away, Hitoshi could pick up on some unusual traits such as the split white and red hair. That was new. Usually it was brown or black or blond.
His thoughts were brought to a halt when he felt the disruption of water beside him only to be met with Izuku swimming ahead of him a second later.
Oh god damn it!
“Izuku!” Hitoshi hissed. “Izuku get back here!”
“But I have to help them!”
“You don’t have to do shit! ” With a growl Hitoshi swam after his mate. Why’d he have to fall for this idiot? Honestly, if Izuku wasn’t the death of him one day then he’d eat his own tail.
Izuku’s hands came to clasp around the human just in time for Hitoshi to arrive next to him and immediately receive a pleading look.
“No.”
Izuku pouted, eyes widening.
“No. It’s not happening.”
Izuku slumped with a sad trill.
“...Fine.” Hitoshi was not soft. He wasn’t.
Izuku immediately perked back up with a blinding smile. “We can take him to a cave with an air pocket!” he exclaimed before happily swimming away in the direction of one. Hitoshi just rolled his eyes and followed behind him.
Luckily they knew the ocean well and were able to find one relatively quickly that wasn’t too deep since, according to Izuku, humans couldn’t survive too high of a pressure and would die. Hitoshi had scoffed, mumbling about how weak humans clearly were, but was content to let Izuku carry on taking care of it.
The human had coughed up a lot of water but otherwise seemed to be fine. Well. Izuku wasn’t whining so Hitoshi assumed they were fine. Now it was just a waiting game.
As it turns out, it wasn’t until several hours later, after Hitoshi had gone and raided the ship wreckage, that the human began to stir.
Izuku was on it immediately.
“Hello? Can you hear me?”
Hitoshi didn’t bother to point out the fact that the human probably wouldn’t be able to understand them.
The human’s eyes fluttered open to reveal two different colours, one grey and the other blue.
Two colours again huh? What, was that this human’s brand or something?
Their eyes grew wide and they hurried to sit up as they finally saw the two giant Mers next to them.
Hitoshi just hoped they didn’t try anything stupid. He’d hate to make Izuku upset because Hitoshi had to kill his new pet human.