You and I, We Mer-Maid for Each Other

≋ chapter two: a series of strange meetings

The moment Keith arrived back home he was tackled at high speed by a ball of black fluff.

Kosmo, the family dog, was well-behaved, but he loved Keith and hated that he had to go to work. And so he always jumped on Keith as soon as he got home. Keith had gotten so used to it that it no longer knocked him off of his feet. And he was pretty proud of that. Kosmo was a large and athletic dog.

As soon as he'd calmed the dog down, the two of them headed into the kitchen. Keith's older brother was seated at the kitchen table with a newspaper. Adam was busy cooking and nodded in his direction. Shiro smiled when he saw him.

"Keith! You're home early."

"So are you. I got a lot done fast," Keith said with a shrug. He gave Shiro a casual slap across his shoulder as he ran past him to go to his room. He almost always showered right after his work shifts. As soon as that was over and done with, he returned to the kitchen, hair still dripping slightly as he tied it into a hairband.

Adam, as he often did, had cooked dinner. And Kosmo, as usual, hovered by his feet as he scooped his latest creation onto three plates, hoping to catch a stray noodle or dropped piece of beef.

The three of them usually talked about their days over dinner. Shiro had to deal with a lot of people on the funding end of things and usually represented the public face of his little mission. It wasn't especially hard for him, since he was a well-put together and charming sort, but his workload was often heavy and it was a relief for him to share his occasional frustrations with his family. Keith rarely had any exciting stories. Sometimes he found something weird or valuable in the sand, but that was about it. Adam, meanwhile, took care of the household, handled a lot of the phone calls and paperwork, and did some athletics in his spare time.

Keith let Shiro talk about work for a while, and he reminded him that there was a meeting coming up. Keith had to attend those like everybody else, as Shiro didn't treat the manual workers like second-class citizens compared to the scientists. There was typically some kind of meeting every month where everyone got to go over their progress and catch up with one another. Not that Keith was close to many of his coworkers.

"And you?" Shiro asked when he was done. Adam sensed Keith struggling for a response and filled in the blank himself. He'd spent the afternoon swimming laps in their pool, and Kosmo had made a new friend on his afternoon walk. He also said something about a call from someone that Shiro seemed to avoid. But that was all that Adam had to report, so the conversation circled back to Keith once more.

"...I don't know. It was weird," Keith said. Shiro raised an eyebrow.

"What was weird?"

"Not the job, I mean. Everything was fine, nothing out of the ordinary. But there was some guy. He was weird."

"Weird how?"

"I don't really know how to explain it. He kind of popped out of nowhere, he was really excitable, and he talked like he was an alien or something."

"An alien?" Adam echoed, smirking slightly. Keith groaned.

"Yeah. You know. In TV shows, when aliens try to blend in, and they know some things but don't sound convincing? Like that."

Keith described the conversation about as well as he could, and Shiro agreed that it was definitely strange. When the food was done Shiro offered to do the dishes, but Adam sent him to bed. Shiro rarely tried to disobey him.

"...What was that phone call about?" Keith asked when Shiro was out of earshot.

"Don't know why he avoided it... I think maybe he doesn't want to get your hopes up if it doesn't work out," he answered over the clatter of dishes. Keith frowned.