Space Daddy

Wednesday: Somethin' Fishy

I'd like to formally apologize for the length of this chapter. Sorry.

On the hike to the random point Shiro had selected, Keith was taking pictures of EVERYTHING. The purple and red mountains, the golden and green fields, the verdant forest that they walked through, and even the gray clouds that had rolled in over them.
Shiro looked up at the clouds and whispered, "right on time." He turned to the others and smiled, "we're almost there, then we'll stop for lunch."
"Those clouds are pretty ominous," Hunk stated, as they walked to a clearing in the middle of the woods.
"Shiro picked a really bad day to do this," Keith pulled his big red hoodie over his head as the air began to chill and Shiro handed out the sandwiches he'd brought for lunch.
Lance flopped down in the middle of the clearing and looked up at the clouds. Shiro sat next to him, sensing that Lance was troubled by something.
"Are you ok?" Shiro finally asked, looking down at Lance.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Don't lie to me, Lance," Shiro sighed, glancing over at the others who were sitting under a big tree.
"I miss Varadero."
Shiro put his hand out as it began to rain, he smiled at Lance, "and the rain?"

Keith just happened to glance over at Lance and Shiro and tapped Pidge on the shoulder.
"What? Oh," Pidge looked at them, "I wonder why Lance is crying."
"-and onto Shiro's chest," Hunk added, as the three of them watched Lance and Shiro.
As the rain pounded down on Shiro and Lance, Lance finally stopped sobbing and laid on the cool grass letting the droplets fall on his face.

Half an hour later, the rain stopped and Shiro got the group moving again.
"Where are we going Shiro?" Lance inquired, "isn't the shuttle the other way?"
"We aren't leaving quite yet," Shiro turned around and walked backwards to address the group, "besides, I brought dinner."
Keith stopped dead in his tracks.
Pidge noticed this and asked, "what's wrong?"
"Shhhh..." Keith put a finger up to his lips, causing the rest of the group to stop. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Pidge listened carefully, "it's completly silent."
"That's right, a second ago there were bird sounds and all kinds of stuff, then they flew away," Keith whispered.
Shiro quickly made his way to the middle of the group, "get behind me. NOW!"
Four electric green eyes peered out from between two ochre-leaved trees.  They locked together with Shiro's eyes and slowly faded back into the darkness.
"Go Shiro," Lance whispered, a wave of relief washing over him.
They heard what sounded like a mix between a high-c on a trumpet, a hiss, and a lion's roar. Then the set of eyes from earlier came at them at full speed, and the creature lunged at them.
Everybody but Shiro screamed when the black feathered leopard was looming over their heads.
Shiro snapped the feline out of the air and pinned it to the ground. He grabbed the scruff and locked eyes with it once more and said quite sternly, "no." Then he threw it back to the forest.
"Shiro," Pidge was stooping over the unconcious Lance, "he passed out."
"Let's keep going," Shiro sighed, slinging Lance over his shouder and handing the backpack to Hunk.

Four miles and an hour later, Lance regained conciousness, and the group stood at the crest of the hill that bordered the beach.
Keith whistled, Pidge smirked, and Hunk whispered, "wow."
Lance was still slung over Shiro's shoulder, "what, what is it?"
"Your timing could not be more perfect, Lance." Shiro smiled setting him on his feet and turning him around.
Lance looked up at Shiro with those big blue eyes, and Shiro nodded.
"Where are you going?!" Keith yelled, chasing after Lance who was speeding down to the beach.
"Is he..." Hunk asked, watching as Lance kept running and pulled his shirt off.
"Yup," Pidge sighed, and Shiro quickly covered her eyes.
"Do you two have your swimsuits?" Shiro asked trying to ignore Lance.
"Yeah," they answered in unison.
"Do you need to change?"
"Nope!" Hunk smiled taking off towards the beach.
"At least he had his on underneath." Shiro sighed then turned to Pidge, who had pulled her sweater off to reveal her emerald green one-piece, "sunscreen?"
"No..."
Keith came back over the crest of the in his swim trunks, "I found a cave, and starfish."
"Where's the starfish?" Shiro asked suspiciously.
Keith looked about and smiled wickedly before he turned to run back down the hill.
Pidge chased after him, and yelled to Shiro, "I'll see you on the beach!"
He watched the four of them play on the beach for a moment then went to change.
He came back to find Hunk hauling what looked like a giant fish slung over his shoulder. "Shiro, look at what Pidge found!"
"A fish?" Shiro raised an eyebrow, it was obviously a fish, but why Keith was laughing hysterically behind Hunk was the real mystery.
Hunk laid the fish on the ground and stepped behind it.
Keith asked the fish that was curled up oddly on the ground, "Lance, what does a Captain Harlot look like?"
The fish uncurled and faced Shiro with closed eyes, "Keith, I've told you three times, but I'll do it again." Lance's lower half was stuck inside of a giant blue fish, his left hand was under his chin, the right slid onto where his thighs were, and he had tiny purple and blue starfish stuck on his left cheekbone. "Hi, don't mind my seductive pose, the roaring fire, or this bear skin rug," before realizing who he was addressing, he looked up at Shiro and winked. Suddenly, the color drained from his body.
Shiro face palmed and stared at Keith, who was laughing hysterically on the ground.
"Hunk," Keith gasped for air, "i-I can't breathe!"
"Hunk," Lance looked so betrayed, "you quiznak, I trusted you." Then he turned to Keith and slapped him with his newly-found tail.
"You should have known something was fishy," Hunk snickered.
Lance's tail quickly swept behind Hunk's legs and pulled forward, yanking Hunk to the ground. Lance stared at the fish that had basically swallowed his lower half, "did you read my mind?"
Shiro picked up Lance and hauled him back to the shoreline.
"Smile daddy!" Pidge smirked from behind a camera, quickly snapping several photos of Shiro carrying Lance.
Lance grabbed the two lips of the fish and scrambled out of it. The fish reduced to the size of his palm, other than the tail, which was ridiculously large.
Keith looked at the fish, which was happily blowing bubbles at Lance, then looked to the ocean.
Lance smiled, "look, Hunk, pocket sized."
"How many of them do you think there are, Shiro?"
"Probably millions," Shiro sighed.
Lance jumped out of Shiro's arms and ran to the ocean with Hunk and Keith following after him. "Pidge, I'm so glad that you behave yoursel-" he turned to look at Pidge but she wasn't there, she was helping Hunk find a fish large enough to fit around him.
"Shiro!" She waved, "come help me find an elastic fish for Hunk!"
He wasn't sure how he felt about this but he'd do anything for these guys. He ran to the water and dove in headfirst.
Everybody sped down to the spot where he'd disappeared. A few minutes later Keith tried to dive in after him, but Lance and Pidge managed to restrain him.
"I gotta help him!"
"He can hold his breath for six minutes, he's fine!" Pidge tried to reassure him, but was just as worried he was.
"Hunk," Shiro smiled putting a yellow 'elastic fish' that was as big as a coconut into his hands, "I think this one will work."
"Dad!" Pidge and Keith tackled Shiro into the water. "Don't you ever scare us like that again!"
"I was only gone for three minutes..."
"Eight minutes," Hunk corrected.
"Oh," Shiro bit his lip, "I'm sorry I made you two worry, come on, let's go have some fun." Shiro smiled reassuringly.
"Ok."

"Look!" Lance smiled, showing Keith a tiny blood red fish that had spiky black fins.
"It's so tiny," Keith whispered, cautiously accepting the fish, "how do you do it?"
Shiro sat next to him and helped Lance stretch the fish's mouth wide enough for Keith to slip in.
"Eh," Keith shuddered, "it feels weird."
"You get used to it," Lance shrugged.
"Shiro!" Pidge smiled sitting next to him, her arms were positively covered with starfish, and she'd managed to find an electric green fish that was now stretched up around her hips. "Guess what Hunk and I found!"
Hunk had a line of miniscule orange starfish wrapping around his left arm. Everybody but Shiro had a fish.
"Starfish?" He asked hopefully.
"No," she looked at her arms and Hunk's, "well, yeah, ok, that too."
Hunk had something clasped in his hands.
"Then what is it?"
"We found one that has tiger stripes!" Hunk smiled, placing a medium sized fish in Shiro's hands.
Shiro stared at the fish in his hands, he was unsure of what they wanted him to do. The fish was black with violet tiger-like stripes and opal like fins.
"Well?" Hunk asked, they'd spent an hour looking for the perfect one.
"Come on Shiro, I did it." Keith sighed, seeing Pidge's hopeful face.
"Come onnn," Lance smiled.
Shiro looked around, and realised what they wanted him to do.
He sighed and stretched the fish's lips.
"There, I'm wearing a fish, is everybody happy?" He shuddered, it was kind of slimy.
"Yup," Lance beamed.
"Keith, how about you show these guys that reef you found?" Shiro suggested.
"There's a reef?" Lance was absolutely obsessed with everything that had to do with the ocean.
"Yeah," Keith smiled, diving headfirst into the water with Lance trailing after him.
"Why aren't you going?" Shiro asked Hunk and Pidge who were staring at Shiro.
"You know they have sharks in the reef, right, Shiro?" Hunk pointed out.
"SON OF A-!" Shiro dove into the water and sped off towards the reef.
"Wanna see Shiro fight a shark?" Hunk smirked.
"What are we waiting for?" Pidge yelled, jumping into the water.

Pidge and Hunk found Lance and Keith happily swimming in and out of the many arches made by the neon and gem-tone stones and coral. They also found Shiro examining a very strange coruscant rock.
Hunk swam over and pointed to the rock.
Shiro shrugged in response. Although,  it looked familiar. He picked it up and examined it. He suddenly remembered what the sparkling black rock reminded him of, and he knocked on it.
Hunk stared intently as the rock opened up and didn't notice Pidge sticking starfish on Keith and Lance to form tattoos.
Shiro slid a yellow pearl out of the shelled creature and handed it to Hunk.
A frantic Keith grabbed Shiro's shoulders and shook him.