Cold of the Sea

Chapter Three: Fear

Midnight came quickly, and Keith really wasn't ready to visit the beach again. He had no idea why he thought this was a good idea. The second he started climbing out his second story window, warning sirens should have been going off, but no. They weren't.

He'd chosen to exit via the window when he realized Shiro and Allura were still downstairs, watching some weird show. He knew that if he passed them to leave, they'd question him and then probably end up going with him. That would only get in the way of his objective.

At least he had practice jumping from the roof, he'd done so many times as a kid. He landed on the soft grass of his backyard, and slipped out the back gate. It seemed that Shiro hadn't noticed his departure, and he wasn't surprised. Shiro had never noticed when he'd disappear into the night.

His walk was short, too short. He wanted more time to talk himself out of doing this. He hadn't even been able to form a proper argument against his actions.

His eyes scanned the beach as he neared it, noting that no one else was around. He snuck out to visit the ocean many times in his life, and people were rarely out here this late. Only once had he found people here, but they had been easily avoidable and were most likely drunk and/or high at the time.

He remembered the group of teen's uncoordinated actions and obnoxious voices with ease. He slipped his feet from his shoes and pulled off his shirt. This time he had been prepared, and had worn swim trunks.

Taking a deep breath in efforts to psych himself up, he began to run to the familiar sound of crashing waves. His eyes closed just before he dived, swimming out far before popping back up for air.

He wasn't particularly fond of water, he much rather preferred fire. Even so, he enjoyed the surreptitiousness of the sea, the lure it held. To add to that, swimming was the closest Keith could probably get to zero-g. That was why he had taken advantage of its closeness to him, why he swam so much long ago.

Keith tread the water, watching around him for a sign of, well, anything. Why did he even think something would be out here? It was probably just someone that had seen him floating around and decided to save his stupid ass; then couldn't stick around because they had something to do.

Despite the much more rational explanation he had come up with, some small part of him kept him in the water; kept him hoping, believing something would happen. His eyes traveled to the sky, again looking at the stars and moon with jealousy.

Why did his life have to turn out like this? Such a terribly boring, useless existence shouldn't be allowed on this planet; this beautiful planet. His mind began to drift, his reality disappearing as he zoned out.

In that moment, he felt the same brush of clawed fingers, but this time on his ankle. His foot flailed out and he backed away, splashing the water a bit. He was now hyper aware of his surroundings.

"Jeez, I didn't know you were so skittish." A cocky voice joked from behind Keith.

Keith turned around, fear overtaking his body, his eyes wide. His heart pounded in his chest as he saw the owner of the voice. In the low light of the late night sky, only a few silhouetted details could be made out.

He seemed to be tanned, his brown hair short and a smirk played at his lips. An eyebrow raised, decorating his thin face with a playful look. The most alarming feature of the man seemed to be glowing patches of something on his shoulders, continuing down his arms and on his sides. To Keith, it looked like glowing blue scales.

Keith's eyes traveled down, finding a bright blue blob floating around underwater. He was beyond confused and incredibly fearful so he wasn't positive what he saw was real.

"Oh, come on, eyes up here darling." The man? in front of Keith teased.

"Who the hell are you-- what the hell are you?" Keith backed away more.

"I thought you'd be more welcoming of me." The man pouted, sounding disappointed.

"W-what?" Keith stuttered out, hands shaking uncontrollably.

"The name's Lance, and I'm what you'd call a merman." The weird man supplied.

"Merman?" Keith's eyebrows furrowed and his lips formed a frown.

"Yeah, at least that's what you humans call us." Lance breathed a bit of a laugh.

"Why are you here? H-how?" Keith asked, shaking his head, somehow finding it hard to believe.

"Please, hun, I've seen you believe some ridiculous things in your life. You gotta believe something right in front of your eyes." Lance smiled, moving closer to the human.

"I-I don't know how to react." Keith uttered.

"Of course you don't, love. What's your name?" Lance's smile widened.

"My name's.... Keith." The human of the two looked away bashfully.

"Keith. That's surly a cute name." Lance crossed his arms over his bare chest.

"Now that you know my name, can you stop using pet names?" Keith pouted, obviously embarrassed.

"What? You got a problem with it baby?" Lance quipped impishly.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do." Keith stood his ground, well, he wasn't really on ground, but if he was he would've stood his ground.

"Aww then too bad sweetheart, you're stuck with it." Lance laughed.

"What are you even doing here? Aren't merfolk supposed to keep their existence secret?" Keith rolled his eyes.

"Well duh, that's how the stupid humans never found us." Lance leaned back, an action that suggested comfort in his situation.

"Then why did you so easily reveal yourself to me, you idiot?" Keith scowled, annoyed by Lance's stupidity.

"Because, my dear Cuttlefish-- oh, I like that one, I think that'll stick-- I believe I can trust you." Lance's smile fell back into it's smirk.

"How can you trust a person you just met?" Keith was bewildered by Lance's answer.

To that comment, Lance clammed up a bit and looked away, pink lining his cheeks.

"I-I may have been watching you as a kid..." Lance admitted.

"What the fuck? I don't even know what to say to that. What kind of seriously dedicated stalker are you?" Keith exclaimed, backing away again and looking at Lance madly.

"I'm n-not a stalker! Uhh... alright, maybe I am but I swear it wasn't in... a bad way?" Lance tried to help the situation.

"How is stalking someone not bad?" Keith inquired, proving Lance's flimsy point wrong.

"I only stalked because I was scared to approach! And remember that time you got caught in a riptide! Yeah! I was the one who helped you out! And-and when you fell asleep out here last night! That was me who pulled you ashore and folded your clothes and brought them to you!!" Lance yelled frantically, obviously getting defensive.

"Okay, okay. Fine. Maybe you stalked me with good intentions, but why did you only build up the nerve to come up to me now?" Keith raised an eyebrow.

"It... it seemed like you were ready, like it was the right time." Lance spoke, his words quickening as they neared the end of his explanation.

Keith sighed as he looked Lance right in his pretty blue eyes. This was certainly some mess he had gotten himself into.