Secret Scales (Mermaid Langst)

Chapter One

Lance looked in awe at the beautiful mixes of blues and green surrounding him on the ocean floor. He looked up at his mama, who was surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of tropical fish to his young eyes. She smiled down at him and gestured for him to come closer, grinning he did just that wrapping his arms around his mother's neck. Their sapphire blue tails twirled around them in a majestic dance.

"Where did you go, Lance?" His mama suddenly asked, looking sadly down at the young boy. Lance's face twisted in confusion.

"What do you mean Mama? I'm right here," he replied looking into her eyes.

"Why did you leave us?" She asked her face coming closer to his own. Her eyes were looking blankly through him, even as he tightened his hold on her.

"Mama? Whats wrong?" he asked cradling her cheek in his palm. Suddenly he was left alone looking around at the dark ocean, no sign of anyone or anything around him.

"Mama?" he called frantically searching the black waters. He swam forward cautiously, his eyes darting back and forth.

"Lance?" He heard a voice call in the distance. His head snapped toward the sound and he quickly swam towards it.

"Maria?" He called back, recognizing the voice of his older sister. He was suddenly bombarded by the sound of various voices calling out his name; each one more panicked than the last. He continued swimming in the direction of the voices and found his family lined up in the distance. Their tails casting colours into the blue water they were swimming in; the blue water without Lance in it. They noticed him and waved him over. Lance could feel tears welling up in his eyes, even surrounded by the ocean water. He smiled widely and raced forward towards his family. He could see his mother and father holding out their arms, his siblings right behind them. Just as he could feel his parent's arms coming around him, his eyes snapped open.

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He glared at the ceiling of his room aboard the Castle, even as tears rolled down his cheeks and dampened his pillow. Gritting his teeth, he crawled out of bed and towards the bathroom to start his morning routine. He wiped his tears away and washed his face, frowning at the dry skin that came with the lack of swimming in his other form. He hated that he couldn't make use of the pool in the Castle, but with the type of people the paladins were, it wouldn't be long until his secret would be found out. He thought many times that he would tell the others his secret, but he was still unsure of how they would react. Technically he has been lying to them ever since they first met him. He pulled his clothes on and trudged towards the kitchen, still lost in thought. He looked up when he walked through the door and noticed that only Allura and Coran were missing. He plastered a smile on his face and greeted the paladins.

"Morning Lance," Hunk smiled in return. The others giving a similar greeting or a distracted nod. Before they were able to make any sort of conversation; Allura and Coran walked in wearing equally excited grins.

"Uh, whats going on?" Hunk asked hesitantly.

"And whats with those creepy grins?" Pidge added. They both huffed and dropped their grins for a moment before they crawled back up.

"We've decided that we're going to take a break for today," Allura announced. The paladins looked at her in shock.

"Did I hear that correctly?" He asked Hunk. "Did Allura say we get a break?"

"Correct young paladin," Coran confirmed happily. "And we just so happened to be near the perfect planet for this venture," He added. He pulled up a hologram of a small planet that looked to be mostly made of water.

"Crystal blue water, white sand, completely uninhabited, and the atmosphere and water are harmless to humans," he announced proudly stroking his moustache. The paladin's mouth's dropped open and they glanced at each other.

"When are we getting there?" Shiro asked.

"Quite soon, you may want to get ready to go out now," Allura suggested.

"BEACH DAY!" Lance yelled before the humans aside from Shiro were scrambling out of the room to their quarters. He turned to the two Alteans who were looking at the door where the paladins exited.

"Thank you, they really needed this," he said.

"You do too my boy, now go get ready," Coran replied before shooing him out the door. Shiro only smiled and ran out of the door as well.

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Lance looked at the clear ocean stretched out in front of him, a frown on his face. He had been so excited for the idea of swimming that he completely forgot that the team would be with him. He flinched as his teammates ran into the water, laughing and splashing each other.

"Come in Lance!" Shiro called. "The waters so nice!" Lance smiled sadly and backed up a little further.

"Um, no thanks, I think I'll stick back for a bit," he replied wrapping his arms around himself. The others frowned at each other before returning to their game. Lance watched them as they got further and further away from shore.

"Don't you want to go swimming lad?" Coran asked sidling up beside Lance. He glanced over at the man then back at the sparkling water.

"Not really," he lied through his teeth. Coran considered the young man a moment longer before turning his attention to the paladins as well.

"Did you know that this planet used to be densely populated?" Coran asked. "Well, I guess you wouldn't, but somewhere in the ten thousand years we've been asleep, everyone is gone,"

"What happened?" Lance asked.

"I'm not sure, but the royal family would visit here often and have many wonderful adventures, we believed that you would as well," Coran replied a soft smile raising on his face. A moment later the smile dropped as a scream pierced the air. The other four were desperately swimming back to shore, a dark shadow following closely behind them. Lance and Coran ran towards the shoreline to meet them as they crawled up the sand, their limbs shaking with fear and adrenaline. Keith choked out in surprise when a tentacle reached out of the water and wrapped around his ankle, quickly dragging him back out into the waves. Before Lance could process what he was doing, he sprinted into the water and dove under the surface. He felt no pain as his legs melded together and his skin split into gills, he was quickly able to catch up to the creature. Oddly enough it looked like a giant squid, however, he could see that it had much larger fangs and what looked like sharp spikes all over its body. Lance could see Keith struggling and he sunk his fangs and claws into the squid's body. It let out a shrill shriek and let go of the red paladin's body which was caught by Lance. He didn't look back to see if the creature was following him, his only goal was to get Keith back to the beach. The two breached the surface and Lance dragged Keith onto the sand. Lance sucked in breaths of air, trying to regulate his heartbeat and calm his nerves a bit. He finally realized what he did and he didn't want to look at any of his teammates. Tears began to cloud his vision as he looked down at the white sand.

"Lance?" Keith asked quietly. Lance slowly brought his head up to look into Keith's eyes, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"You weren't supposed to find out like this," Lance whispered. His shoulders started quivering as more cries made their way out of his mouth. Keith's eyes widened and he shuffled forward to put his hand on Lance's shoulder.

"Its okay Lance," he spoke softly trying to calm the distraught teen. The other paladins kneeled around the two carefully avoiding the blue tail.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Shiro asked softly. Lance turned his attention to the leader his lip quivered as he thought about his answer.

"I was scared," he admitted. "I didn't want you to hate me, or think that I was a monster,"

Hunk wrapped his arms around Lance's middle from behind him and pulled him towards his chest.

"We could never think that about you, Lance," He said tucking Lance's head underneath his chin. "No matter what you are, human or not," Lance's eyes widened and he let out another sob, Hunk only held on tighter to the other boy letting him cry out his fears with his family surrounding him.