Cold of the Sea

Chapter Seven: Worry

Keith awoke slowly, his mind was completely blank. He had fallen asleep while watching X-Files with Pidge, and had some of the best rest he'd had in a long time. He was reluctant to wake himself up, but after a while of laying in bed his eyes opened.

He moved his arm to reach for his phone, which he hoped was somewhere near him. After feeling around for a few minutes, he finally felt the hard, cold glass of his screen. As he brought the phone into his view, and turned it on, he noticed the time.

It was 1:27 am.

Shit... He thought, jumping out of bed and pulling on a random pair of shorts. He was over an hour late for his meeting with Lance. He remembered with spasmodic movements, as he was already making his way out of the window, that he had to grab an extra pair of pants.

He groaned, climbing back in and started digging through the mess of clothes littering his floor for his tightest bottoms. He managed to find a pair from years before, ones that no longer neared fitting him, and he again made his way out of the window.

When he was on the ground, he was off. He hated that he was so late, why did he oversleep so much? At least he didn't sleep even later, though. He should have set an alarm.

Keith sprinted to the forest, shocked by how dark it was that night, and having to resort to pulling out his phone's flashlight to see. He jumped and raced through the woods, feeling a burn build up in his calves and thighs. He really needed to work out more.

Keith was totally wiped out as he finally made it out of the woods, tripping and falling onto the soft sand. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, eyes surveying the beach quickly. He started to panic as he saw no one around, but soon was relieved to see Lance sat on the beach curled into himself.

"Lance!" Keith called, scrambling to get up and run to said merman.

"Keith...?" Came Lance's voice as he turned his beautiful blue eyes to see if it was really who he thought.

Keith's heart broke at the expression on Lances face, he looked beyond sad and disappointed. Disbelief clouded his eyes before excitement and surprise took over. The taller jumped up, pulling Keith into an unexpected hug.

"I thought you weren't going to come..." Lance mumbled, sounding dejected.

"I'm so sorry, I overslept and I-I..." Keith tried to apologize, but was cut off as he felt Lance tighten his grip and heard a quiet whimper.

"L-Lance..? Are you... are you crying?" Keith asked, forcing his arms to move around and comfort the thinner boy.

Keith really had no idea what to do or say. He wasn't the most experienced in consoling people. Lance seemed to appreciate Keith's returning the hug, though, as he leaned further into him.

A few minutes passed with Keith simply holding onto Lance as he let out all his tears onto the human's bare back. Keith was beginning to worry, but decided it was best to stay silent and wait for Lance to calm down.

"I-I'm so-sorry..." Lance suddenly spoke up, voice shaky, as his head raised to look at Keith.

"It's fine..." Keith's eyebrows furrowed, looking at Lance's red and puffy face, tears still rolling down his cheeks. "I'm the one who should be sorry." He added, feeling incredibly guilty.

"I just... I t-thought you weren't go-going to come!" Lance exclaimed, stuttering wildly.

"Of course I'd come! I... I'm really sorry... I should have set an alarm, or better yet just not have fallen asleep..." Keith began to ramble, looking away anxiously.

"No, no! Humans need sleep! I'm glad you got sleep..." Lance shook his head rapidly, eyes looking determinedly at Keith.

"Why did you wait for so long?" Keith asked, attempting to change the topic.

"Because I had hope you'd come! And you did! So it was worth it!" Lance grinned, letting go of Keith, stepping back and setting his hands in his hips in a can-do manner.

Keith sighed and looked at Lance, worried about what else he might do. Keith, being Keith, crossed his arms and decided not to question it further.

"Was there anything you specifically wanted to talk about now?" Keith asked, again changing the subject.

"No, not really, I'm just happy to be around you, babe." Lance's grin changed into a smirk as one of his hands dropped.

That was the moment where Keith actually realized that Lance was wearing the same swim trunks from the day before and had legs.

"Yeah, uhh, I brought a better pair of shorts for you... I kinda dropped them further up the beach, though." Keith blushed, obviously flustered as he began a walk to grab the aforementioned clothing item.

"Ooo! Thanks hun!" Lance called enthusiastically.

Keith blushed more as he picked up the shorts, shaking them free of any sand. He sauntered back, tossing the bottoms to Lance and turning around. In contrast to the last time, Lance changed rather expediently, and soon was handing the other pair of swim trunks to Keith.

"So... uhmm.... how do those fit?" Keith questioned sounding uncomfortable.

"They fit a lot better, I think." Lance smiled.

"That's good." Keith nodded with a small frown.

"Well... this is more awkward than I assumed it would be..." Keith commented after a long silence.

"Yeah..." Lance agreed helplessly.

"How's... how's the... ocean going...?" Keith offered aimlessly.

"The ocean?" Lance laughed. "It's good, I guess. As good as the ocean can get?" He shrugged.

"Uhmmm, that's... good?" Keith raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. It is." Lance smirked trying to think of a way to carry the falling apart conversation.

"Wanna just go for a swim?" Lance suddenly piped up after a long stretch of time where they just stared at each other.

"Yeah... let's do that." Keith consented almost forcefully and began to walk to the ocean side by side with Lance.

Lance reminded Keith that he had to take the shorts off, prompting Keith to turn around and make sure to not look. It took a bit before Lance called to Keith that he was in the water and thus no longer indecent. Keith sighed when he heard the voice, turning back and beginning to enter the water.

It was freezing. More freezing than it had been the past few nights. When he entered he immediately grabbed onto his arms, rubbing them to gain some fleeting warmth. Despite the piercing cold, Keith continued into the violently crashing waves, knowing that he would eventually get used to the temperature. What he was doing was very dangerous.

"Lance?" Keith shouted once he was in calmer waters, noticing the the merman was nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah? I'm right here." Lance announced, popping up behind Keith.

"I wasn't sure where you'd gone." Keith all but pouted and turned around to see the stunning merman.

"Don't worry, my Cuttlefish, I would never dare to leave you without proper reasoning." Lance leaned forward, swinging his arms around Keith's shoulders.

"Uhhh.... Lance.... why are you t-touching me? Is this... is this what friends do?" Keith questioned, not knowing any better.

"Yeah, uhmm, yep. This is what friends do." Lance looked confused, but he wasn't going to pass up to opportunity to openly get close to Keith, the human he had loved so dearly for so many years.

"Okay..." Keith assented, sounding unsure. The only friend Keith had had was Pidge, and they weren't the best example.

They spoke for a few hours, before they had to part, albeit reluctantly. Keith didn't know how to make sense of it, but his attachment to Lance was growing.