Fins | A Klance Mermaid AU

3.

Keith had been in the aquatic household for almost two months and was finally settling into the strange environment, even beginning to enjoy himself. Although he found himself wishing to return to his human form and shake off the discomfort that came with being warm blooded and trapped under the ocean, he had gotten used to the quirks of the environment and found himself enjoying the company of all his housemates, even Lance although he was loathe to admit it.

Pidge, with her familiarity and humorous attitude brought a sense of reassurance and normality to Keith's new home that he was sure it wouldn't have had without her; a piece of home in about the farthest thing from it. Hunk, with his ever abundant happiness and endless collection of strange sea recipes was the perfect housemate; always filling the glowing underwater cave with the scents of cooking food and the sounds of chatter. And then of course, there was Lance. Lance wasn't around as much as the other two, due to his job, but when he was around, he made it his point to be the center of attention, joking and arrogant, he tended to annoy Keith more than make him laugh, although the mulleted wonder had cracked a smile or two on occasion at the sheer flamboyance of Lance. And then, of course, there was Nyma. Lance and Nyma, Nyma and Lance. The two were an inseparable force and were rarely seen without each other; Nyma waiting at the cave until Lance got off of work, chatting with Keith and Pidge about Earth culture, a topic on which she was very interested. Whenever Lance was at home, Nyma was too; Keith knew that the yellow skinner mermaid had her own home but it definitely didn't seem like it. She ate dinner with them, went to parties and festivals with them and slept with Lance nearly every night. The two doted sappily on each other to a point that made the other housemates feel uncomfortable at times. At first, the relationship of the two merpeople had annoyed Keith to no end, but he had come to view it as Hunk and Pidge did, as a source of hilarity. And so things went in the convert household, until the fateful day that it no longer did.

***

Lance and Hunk had been helping Keith and Pidge formulate a plan to save the two brothers of the changelings. Thanks to Keith's' fire, they were extremely close to completing a fully formulated plan. Pidge and her genius technological mind was able to combine technology and magic to find the strain of Shiro's fire inside Keith's; easily accessible in the vial that Keith wore around his neck. Pidge isolated a bit of this strain and gave it to Lance who, in turn, took it to Allura and, under her guidance, created a tracking spell. With the spell in hand, they were easily able to find Shiro who, they assumed, would be kept in the same facility as Matt and Mr. Holt.

That afternoon, Pidge, Keith and Hunk were sitting in the kitchen around a spread of dips that Hunk was experimenting with, waiting for Lance to get home. Nyma was unusually absent, on vacation to the exotic reefs with her family. Although this separation had caused Lance to be a bit more subdued, Keith was glad that he at least wouldn't have to spend as much time in close proximity with the lovesick couple. The household group was working through some final logistics on how to break into the galra fortress, but Lance didn't like to be excluded from planning so they normally waited until he got home to do any actual work. In their spare time, like today, Hunk enjoyed testing new recipes out on the two changelings.

"This one's my favorite," Pidge pointed her spoon at a gooey purple dish. "It tastes kind of like peanut butter, but with a hint of pineapple too."

"What's peanut butter?" Hunk looked confused, having little knowledge of land foods, despite his endless repertoire of ocean foods.

Pidge clutched at her chest in mock pain, scandalized. "You've never heard of peanut butter?"

Keith shook his head, taking a bite of the yellow dip that tasted of apples, "You're missing out dude, peanut butter is epic." Then, struck by a thought, he mixed the yellow and purple pastes together and tried them, his face breaking into a slow grin. "Dude, you've got to try this," he handed his spoon to Pidge.