I Loved The Boy In The Sea

The name's Lance

Lance's POV:

Keith stared at Lance with widened, dumbfounded eyes. He had his hands clamped over his own mouth, but still occasionally thrashed violently to battle the water he accidentally breathed in. His face clearly read that he thought he must be hallucinating or something, but then his eyes suddenly rolled to the back of his head.

They started to look out of focus. Keith's hands loosened, lifted up to the surface as one, single bubble of air floated out of his slowly separating lips.

Keith was loosing consciousness.

Without a moment to waste, Lance grabbed Keith by the shoulders, and pulled him in close, and slammed his lips into Keith's. Lance sucked out all the sea water from his lungs, and replaced it by forcing down air into Keith's lungs instead.

Lance knew it wasn't enough.

So Lance did something unforgivable.

Lance pulled away, hesitated, but then carefully held the sides of Keith's face as Lance delicately leaned in forward to kiss Keith's nose. A soft glow of blue shimmered from Keith's nose, and sunk down visibly to his mouth, and to down his throat.

Keith winced, his nose scrunching up with pain. Keith let out a pained hiss, then started to thrash again.

"Hey, hey- you're going to be okay," Lance comforted. "It's going to hurt for a second, but it'll go away soon, I promise."

This was a lie. It's going to hurt a lot more than a second.

After all, Keith's body was now forcefully adjusting to his new ability to breath underwater.

A gift only Lance could give.

Keith suddenly coughed, doubling over with his hands reaching to his throat and coughed again multiple times, his eyes slammed shut. No bubbles floated up to the surface as he did this.

"My neck, my chest, my nose... they all hurt like a bitch," Keith strangled out through a gap in between his coughing. "What's going... on?"

Keith's eyes suddenly caught Lance's. He paused, opened his mouth a little, closed it, and reopened it.

Lance could practically see Keith's swirl of confused thoughts.

"Nice to meet you Keith," Lance grinned, going with it. "We've never formally met before, have we?"

Keith still was opening and closing his mouth, words failing him.

Lance sighed. "Do you need a minute?"

Keith vigorously nodded.

"Well, I hate to say this, but you better have that minute above water," Lance smiled sheepishly. "This is as far as I can go. People will start to worry if you're underwater for too long."

Keith visibly flinched, whipping his head up to see he was very much still underwater.

"Wait- how...?" Keith muttered, before awkwardly looking back at Lance. "Am I dead?"

Lance burst out laughing, confusing poor Keith even more.

"No, not yet you're not," Lance half-smiled. "I don't think you'd believe me if I just tell you what's happening, so you'll have to figure everything out on your own, as difficult as that is."

Without warning, Lance latched onto Keith's arm, and in a flash, Keith and Lance were at the surface, at the very edge. Just enough so Keith could bob his head out of the sea, but just enough that Lance's head still was submerged.

Lance pulled Keith's face underwater once more, getting some startled resistance, but none of the less compliance from the mullet.

"You can't tell anyone about this," Lance quickly started. "They'd all think you've gone mad."

Keith looked as if he was going to say something, but before he was given the chance to as so much even open his mouth, Lance shoved him above water.

He then let himself blend back into the water, disappearing.

Lance was just about going to dive back under the cruise, when Keith plunged himself back down.

"Wait!" Keith shouted, before slapping his hands over his mouth.

Keith was freaked out, realizing he could speak clearly underwater.

He closed his eyes, and swallowed hard. "Will I ever see you again?" Keith coughed out uncomfortably, squirming as the feeling of breathing underwater was unusual.

Plus, Keith is still in pain, so it wasn't helping.

Lance smiled softly, as inward screaming rattled on inside Lance's head, still cursing at him for what he had just done to a mortal, who had no business with such a gift like that.

"Find me in the water," Lance called out. "I'll come to you. Call out for me, and no matter where you are, I'll find you."

Lance cringed at himself, knowing he must sound super creepy, especially since Keith can't see him.

Keith blinked, before nodding. "Mm hm," Was the only thing he managed to say, as he let himself float up to the top.

Lance watched as Keith's head looked blurry out of the water, Keith's hair whipping from side to side, water droplets splashing back into the ocean.

Well, I think I just traumatized him, Lance gulped, face palming as he sunk down to the bottom of the ocean. He's never going to step into the sea ever again, is he?

Though gaps in his fingers, Lance's eye caught a sea slug, inching across the sea floor.

Lance carefully plucked the slug off the sand, sighing. "What am I going to do, Mr. Slug?"

Apparently, sea slugs suck to have conversations with, since all Mr. Slug did was blink and look half dead. He didn't seem like much of a talker.

"AW, SHOOT!" Lance suddenly jolted, nearly sending Mr. Slug flying. "How could I forget?!"

Specks of sand were lifted from the floor as Lance started to kick.

"I didn't tell him my name!" Lance groaned. "How is he supposed to call me in the water, if he doesn't even know my name?"

Mr. Slug looked annoyed since he was nearly yeeted, but Lance continued on anyway.

"If he even goes INTO the water, that is," Lance's head resting in the sand, sulking at the thought. "I doubt it."

Lance put down the poor sea slug, as he had begun fiddling with some strands of his hair, twisting it in between his fingers.

"I could've handled the situation more differently. If only I could've introduced myself in a more... different situation? Preferably one where Keith wasn't fucking drowning," Lance muttered bitterly. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! 'Nice to meet you, Keith', what kind of first meeting is that?!"

Lance furiously kicked a pebble. "Oh, you know, I know you literally were just drowning a second ago, but 'nice to meet you'!"

Hey... why am I getting so worked up over this? Lance paused, thinking to himself.

"The name's Lance," Lance slowly started, rethinking in his head different scenarios. "Yeah... yeah, I could've said that instead."

Lance sighed again, for the one millionth time. He tilted his head up to the surface, but made no effort to actually leave the sea floor.

"I wonder how he's doing...?" Lance thought out loud.

"...I do hope I see you again, Keith."