Cold of the Sea

Chapter Twelve: Panic

Keith awoke with a start the next morning, shocked awake by Lance poking his cheek. He glared at the tanned boy with fury, remembering how they had fallen asleep in the throws of tired conversation.

"Lance, I'm awake, you can stop poking me." A yawn broke through Keith's agitated words.

"Why would I stop poking you? It's fun. You're cheek's really soft." Lance grinned, his eyes trained on said cheek.

"Well, thanks. I really cared if my cheek was soft." Keith bit, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Excuse me, I was paying you a compliment." Lance joked, "Anyway, we should probably head down for breakfast now, we shouldn't let Shiro's imagination run wild any longer." He finished, standing up.

"Yeah, I guess... we should get changed. I don't know what clothes I have that'll fit you." Keith sighed, pushing himself out of bed languidly.

Lance sat patiently on the bed, watching Keith as he dug through his messy clothes. It took him a while, but with limited peril, Keith turned around, holding out a bundle of clothes for Lance.

"Thank you, babe." Lance hopped up from his seat on the bed and grabbed the clothes.

When Keith turned around, Lance began to change. Keith was not aware of this fact, but luckily he looked back at a time where Lance had slipped on the black skinny jeans and was just putting on a shirt. The shirt was loose on the taller one, but neither of the two seemed to mind.

Keith directed Lance to a corner, commanding him not to look before changing his own clothes. It didn't take him very long, and soon they were making their way down the stairs to the kitchen and conjoining dinning room. Shiro and Allura were already seated downstairs, eating cereal and chatting lightheartedly.

"Oh, is this who you were talking about, Shiro?" Allura asked, noticing the foreign presence.

"Wait, Allura?" Lance suddenly interjected, sounding bewildered as he saw her.

"L-Lance...?" Allura asked, shocked to recognize him.

"You two know each other?" Shiro's eyebrow rose and he set down the spoon he had been holding.

"Yes, yes we do." Allura frowned lightly, eyes still trained on Lance. "What are you doing here, Lance?" She directed to the merman.

"I'm here because there was a storm and I wanted to stay with Keith." Lance responded with slight disdain.

"I didn't know you knew Keith in that way." Allura stared at Lance, eyes guarded.

"Well I do. And there's nothing to hide between us either." Lance looked away in defiance, lips set in a hard line, his words caused Keith to blush furiously.

"You... you told him?" Allura was astonished.

"Hold on, hold on. Let's all just take it back a step. Told him what?" Shiro cut in, gaze flickering between Allura and Lance.

"Shiro... I... It's nothing... nothing... I'll tell you later." Allura looked to Shiro sadly, clearly a little more than upset.

"I'm confused. Lance, what is going on here?" Keith looked to the taller teen, crossing his arms along the way.

"Keith..." Lance trailed off, looking to Allura at the end of the word.

"Alright, okay. We can leave this room if you need." Keith suggested, catching that this wasn't something for Shiro's ears just yet.

"Please, if we could." Allura sighed, crossing her arms as the three exited the room, leaving Shiro bewildered.

"So, you wanna tell me how you know Allura?" Keith glared to Lance once they were safely away from his brother.

"Uhhh... Allura, you want to explain?" Lance glances between the two.

"Fine. Well... I'm a mermaid, in fact I'm the princess. I was forced to go up to the surface and live here because staying down there was no longer safe for me. We were under attack by a race much like us merfolk but much more ravenous and spiteful. They wish to take the throne, but now that I'm no longer there, that task is much harder. Fights have been stalled recently, so at least that's something. Anyway, I've known Lance since he was a child, his family is close friends with mine." Allura explained with a roll of her eyes.

"So what you're telling me is you've been a mermaid this entire time?" Keith clarified, eyebrow raised in question.

"Yeah." Allura answered simply.

"Well, okay... I guess." Keith shrugged, not acting like he thought much of the new development.

"Anyway, Lance, you should be getting back. I'm sure your mother is incredibly worried." Allura changed there topic, looking disapprovingly at Lance.

"Yeah, yeah, I know.... hey, sorry Keith. I really should get back or else my mom'll kill me." Lance sighed, frowning before pulling Keith into a hug.

"It's... it's okay?" Keith wasn't sure how to react.

"Alright, well, bye, I love you." Lance grinned before walking to the front door, Keith following clumsily.

"Okay... uhm, bye, Lance." Keith bid as he shut the door behind the merman.

Keith turned around and began to breath heavily as he thought over all that had happened in only the span of a few days. This was too much. Everything was overwhelming, his thoughts were scattered.

Before he could have a panic attack right in front of the two adults in his house, he ran up to his room and sat to think everything over. He wasn't ready for all this shit.

Of course, Keith had always yearned in secret for someone to love him, but this isn't what he was expecting. Lance was too much, too fast. He needed sometime to adjust. To add on to all this nonsense, merfolk exist. What the fuck.

And it's a lot more extensive than just one or two merfolk. No. There are apparently kingdoms and cities. There's even a race that threatens merfolk. Why did all of this have to reveal itself all at once? He needed to take it in small increments, or else he'd end up like he is now. Hindering on having a panic attack. Too late for that, he decided.

He tried to regulate his breathing. It was okay. He could just ask Lance to take it slow. Lance would understand, right? Keith didn't know. He had no idea about anything anymore.

He decided it would just be best to just calm down, and then eat breakfast. Once he was done with that, he'd think about how to approach this... situation.

It took him longer than expected to regain normal breathing, to ease the turmoil in his mind. When he made it downstairs for breakfast, Shiro and Allura were no where to be found. Only a simple piece of paper in their place.

It was a note, and surly it was telling Keith where they'd gone and when they'd be back. He disregarded it. He didn't care when they'd come back or what they were doing.

He simply ate his food, albeit slowly and reluctantly. His mind was blank.