Part Of Their World // KLANCE & LOTURA

BRIGHT & WARM & YELLOW

"Lance, why are you so fascinated with the surface?"

Allura turned to Lance, a flash of concern in her beautiful blue eyes. The Princess sighed and placed a hand on Lance's shoulder. "It's dangerous up there. Why would you want to throw away what you have down here to go up there?" she asked, a look of concern furrowing her brows. Lance sighed. Would Allura ever understand? Would anyone ever truly understand?

"Don't think of it that way, 'Llura," Lance shook his head in dismay. He removed his sister's feminine hand from his shoulder. "It would be my greatest adventure yet! And, besides, I have a tail. So I wouldn't even be able to go that far.. And Pidge would be coming with me! I couldn't get hurt. There's no way." he rambled, stopping once he noticed that he was doing so.

Allura frowned. "Accidents happen, you know. No one wants to be hurt unknowingly." Looking into Lance's bright blue eyes, which now seemed so much sadder than usual, hurt her heart. "..I only want for you to be safe." the mermaid added carefully, not wanting to upset her brother any more. Lance turned to face his older sister fully, a pout on his tan face. Allura had always fallen for the 'pout look' that Lance pulled off surprisingly well. "You can go, but only if you take me with you."

Lance didn't want to take her, but he knew he'd have to if he wanted to see the surface. "Fine. But Pidge is coming too," Lance said. "What about your friend Hunk?" Allura inquired, a puzzled look on her face. Her pink markings, the ones on her tan cheeks, glowed beautifully under the water. As did Lance's blue ones. "He's not coming. Said he's busy, but I think he's just scared of the surface." Lance chuckled, adding a shrug that, to Allura, implied that this was common for Hunk to do.

****

Allura trained her eyes on Lance and Pidge. Allura wasn't used to sneaking off without telling their parents. Their parents, who were likely worried sick. If they were caught and were acting suspicious, Allura could probably come up with some reasonable excuse to cover them, though she didn't like to lie. So, hopefully it would never come to that.

"I see it! The yellow thing!" Lance exclaimed, excitedly pointing upwards. For lack of better words to use, Lance and Pidge had always referred to the bright and warm thing in the sky (the sun) as 'the yellow thing.' Pidge laughed in response, clearly just as excited as her close friend. Within seconds, Lance and Pidge had reached the surface. "Are you ready?" Pidge asked, turning to Lance with one eyebrow raised. Lance nodded almost immediately after the words left Pidge's mouth. The two friends, almost hesitantly, swam up til they could feel the sun on their faces for real. Allura followed soon after, though she seemed less excited and more cautious.

****

Keith stepped off the ship and onto the warm sand. He kicked off his boots and, for once in a long time, smiled. "Is that a smile I see, Kogane?" Lotor seemed to have appeared from thin air, startling Keith. But he would never admit it to his arrogant crewmate. "No." Keith glared daggers at Lotor for a moment before looking away.

"Oi, Lotor, quit bothering my brother." Shiro called out from the ship. Lotor sighed. Everyone listened to Shiro. And if you didn't? Well, then you'd be sure to regret it. Lotor walked off without another word to Keith.

Keith turned to say 'thank you' to Shiro, but he was already gone; probably off helping someone else somewhere on the ship. Keith picked up his boots from where they were lying in the sand and ran to the very end of the island, which wasn't actually as far as he'd originally thought. He didn't want to leave any of his things around his crewmates, or else they might take them thinking that they're theirs. He let his feet dangle off the edge. The water around his ankles was cold but refreshing, considering how hot it was and had been all of this time.

****

Allura expected for Lance and Pidge to get over their apparently overwhelming amazement within a few minutes and then return underwater, back to safety. But they didn't. She was so very wrong. Lance and Pidge, upon overcoming their excitement, swam off at the speed of light, giggling like little children. "Lance! Pidge!" Allura hollered, her voice sounding strange without the tone of a proper Princess included forcefully. Allura swam in the direction that they were headed in, panicking on the inside. If she returned without Lance and Pidge, she'd have to explain herself to hers and Lance's parents, which wouldn't end well no matter how she tried to tell them. The most she could do was wander in the directions she prayed her younger brother and his friend had swam in, hoping to find them eventually.

****

Lance wasn't used to doing anything without Allura's sparkling eyes staring into his. So, swimming off with Pidge with the sun in his eyes rather than underwater with Allura constantly breathing down his neck was new. And it was great. Lance and Pidge were laughing and pointing to different things excitedly when suddenly Pidge stopped moving. She had yet to even make a sound. Lance turned around, as his eyes met his childhood friend's. "What is it?" he asked.

Pidge didn't say a word. She slowly raised her arm and shakily pointed straight ahead. "Island," was all Pidge managed to say. Mermaids and mermen weren't designed to know many 'human' words, such as any kinds of body parts. But they were all aware of land. The surface. Islands. Humans. "What if there's humans there?!" Pidge sounded both frightened and excited. She spoke in a tone that confused Lance; what was she even feeling?

"We should go there," Lance blurted out without thinking. "I doubt there are humans there anyway. I just.. I really want to see what it looks like! We could... oh, I don't know, but wouldn't it be cool? To finally know?" Lance looked to his smaller friend who still seemed unsure. She had the same expression on her rather pale face that Allura often made when she was thinking, really thinking hard about something. "What's the worst that could happen?" Pidge was clearly not liking the sound of this far too reckless idea, but no one really knew how to say 'no' to Lance.

And with that, the two friends made their way towards the island.

****

Allura had finally come across something. She remembered reading something about it.. oh, what was it called? The fairly young Princess could not recall the name, but she did recall that it was said to be dangerous; especially for merpeople like herself. Still, the Princess approached. She (hesitantly) grew closer, and closer, and closer, and closer until she could physically touch the land. Where were Lance and Pidge?