swim with me? [klance au]

Ancestry

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"Yes...?" Lance replied slowly, looking at Ernesto with curiosity.

"Lance McClain?" Ernesto's hands had frozen on the boat's steering wheel.

"Yes again."

"Oh... oh, my god. Lance, you- I'm- you're so-?" Ernesto scrambled to stop the boat, hands shaking as he hurried over to Lance, who was slightly freaked out. Ernesto carefully cupped Lance's cheeks in his hands, looking at him closely. "You're really..." in a millisecond, Lance was being crushed against the man's chest, squirming a bit.

"Do I know you?" He asked, alarmed. The man pulled back, nodding. He was crying.

"It's me. Your uncle. Federico."

"What?!" Allura burst out, suddenly appearing on the deck, wearing a short sundress. Her hair was dripping over her shoulders and back.

Lance's felt like his whole head was being flipped upside down. What the hell was going on? "My uncle?" He asked, confused as hell.

"I know it sounds crazy, I do. Ms. Altea, please sit." She did quickly, taking one of Lance's hands in her own.

Ernesto- or, now Federico, talked quickly. "When I was banished, they sent me to Hawaii. I never thought I'd see my family again. So I applied to become a human. As long as I wasn't a mer, I could go anywhere I pleased. I could go back home to Santa Monica, I could live there and hope to see one of you. By a stroke of luck, I was chosen, and the witch guy, Lotor, changed me so I could come home. I've been waiting there for years, always keeping my eyes and ears open. It's been so hard, Lance, not seeing you, Carlos, Elena, your brother and sister, and everyone else in the village. But now you're here! I've missed you too much. Too much." Federico hugged Lance again, and it felt like his father. It felt so much like Carlos that Lance couldn't help but hug back, squeezing his eyes shut.

Allura was the one to break up the moment. Lance could tell that she was antsy- he didn't blame her. "I'm sorry to have to say this, but Mr. Federico, we really should get going."

Federico jumped back, embarrassed, and nodded at Allura, almost like a salute. "Yes, sure, of course, I'm sorry."

For the next few hours, Federico pelted Lance with questions, making him talk about his father, his family in general. He was mind-boggled when Lance told him how he'd been selected to stay on land, and even more surprised when Lance told him about Keith. His uncle had been completely understanding, of course, ruffling Lance's hair and saying, "You take after me."

Federico also mentioned that Lance would probably be able to change back and first as usual soon, he just had to heal some more first. "You put so much stress on your human form that your mer form started to fall into disrepair. So now that it's healing, it doesn't want to reverse the process by letting you change again. I'm sure if you really wanted to change, you could, you'd just have to do some meditation stuff and think really hard about it, I guess. I've seen it happen before, back on Hawaii." That was a relief.

The boat that the three rode in was a small motorboat with two powerful propellers, speeding across the inky, black water. Federico sat in front on a white swivel chair, hands on the wheel, and the bench that Lance and Allura sat on was on the other side of the boat, parallel. The small deck had a hatch with a ladder that led down to an even smaller cabin with a hammock and a bathroom.

They'd been going at a pretty fast pace for the past three hours, but Federico was in control, and he seemed to know exactly where he was going. However, he mentioned a few times that this was probably illegal, which was worrying.