The sound of waves crashing against the cave woke Keith up. He opened his eyes to the same cold, grey ceiling of his shelter. It's been forever since he's had chicken. He liked chicken. Chicken was good. Also lasagna, Keith loved lasagna. As well as sandwiches, and hot dogs, and-
His stomach growled.
So... maybe he was hungry. He'd take anything over plant crap at this point.
"Hey Keith!" He turned his head and saw Lance with more of that oh so delicious goo.
"Hi." He muttered, not bothering to move from the ground.
Lance sat up at the edge of the pool. "Hey, you don't look so good, you okay?"
"Oh, well I guess being stranded in a cave after I was thrown into the ocean by some big ass storm and not being able to have any actual food and barely any water for days on end has left me looking a little under the weather."
"...sorry I asked."
Too tired to retaliate, Keith merely closed his eyes, still not bothering to move. "What am I doing? I mean it's pointless to just sit here, but I have no idea what else I can do."
"Well, your leg is healing pretty well, maybe you'll recognize something if you swim out there."
"Absolutely not. No way am I going in that death trap."
"You don't have to worry about the storm, I doubt it'll come back anytime soon."
"It's not the-" Keith shut his eyes tighter, "-the storm isn't what I'm worried about."
"Then what is it?" Lance laid on his stomach to be closer to Keith.
"...no. It's stupid."
"You can tell me." Without thinking, Lance pressed his hand on top of Keith's for comfort.
Although the action surprised him, Keith didn't pull away. "Okay... for starters, I can't swim."
"I thought humans were aquatic?"
"We are, just... this human isn't. I hate the water, so I never learned to swim."
"But the ocean is awesome!" Keith lifted his head to raise a brow at Lance, and the merman cleared his throat. "Right, I'm comforting you. So if you don't like water, then why were you out here?"
The ravenette finally sat up and hugged his knees. "I was... my brother... he was supposed to leave so we wanted to spend more time together."
"Why was he leaving?"
"He's being deployed." Lance's brow creased, and Keith explained, "...it's a term we use in the military." Lance was still confused. "Um, like is a bunch of soldiers..."
"Ooh! Like warriors, defending their people."
"There you go. Anyway, when a soldier is deployed, it means they are being sent out for duty."
Lance tilted his head. "Duty as in... fighting?"
"Depends where he goes."
"Why does he do this? It obviously upsets you, does he know how much pain you're being put through?" Lance followed Keith's action so they could sit next to each other.
"No, he knows. I always give him crap for it, but it's what he loves. That, and it pays well. He and I have lived together since I was born; though, with him gone now, it's usually just me."
"So he does this for your benefit." Lance concluded gently, noticing how sensitive Keith was becoming.
"Yeah... I guess so." Lance held his arms up, offering a hug, but Keith snorted. "I'm good. You're all wet and cold."
