You and I, We Mer-Maid for Each Other

≋ chapter nine: love does not care about limits

Shiro adjusted to his newly acquired knowledge about merfolk surprisingly quickly. Adam, too, once Lance had ruled that it was alright for Shiro to tell his staff and his husband about him. Shiro's open suspicion of Lance faded almost overnight, as he decided that Keith had been perfectly reasonable when he'd chosen to keep certain things about their relationship quiet.

With that in mind, it became somewhat commonplace for Lance to spend the day (or the night) over if Adam and Shiro were going somewhere. Keith no longer feared the questions that would follow if they found evidence of another man's presence. Hell, Shiro actually liked Lance once he got to know him. Lance spent more than a few afternoons in the laboratory, waiting patiently as Shiro's scientists stuck little electrodes and things to his skin and jotted down complicated results in the form of numbers and wavelengths that Keith didn't understand.

It was one of those quiet nights. Keith had the place to himself. Kosmo had turned in for the night. Lance had wanted to see a certain movie that Keith had mentioned— Finding Nemo, of all things, and as expected, Lance cried. At a lot of the same parts that Shiro always did. Lance cuddled up against his side as they watched, and he joked around with Keith about how personally he could relate to the frightening nature of the shark chase. He talked about the movie for what felt like an hour after they had finished watching it. He appreciated, apparently, that humans made movies about talking animals. Merfolk, he explained, had a tendency to assume that humans couldn't relate to or sympathize with sea creatures at all. Keith grimaced at that— no amount of talking fish in movies had stopped overfishing and pollution just yet.

Keith could have scooted over, could have maintained his personal bubble if he had wanted to. He didn't. He normally wasn't one to let people touch him. Lance probably would have been surprised to hear it, seeing as they'd been holding hands when they walked for what was likely a couple of weeks now, maybe even a month. Allura had seen them like that once (a moment he would never live down) and Keith could have sworn that she was going to cry— only a short while ago, he'd been so nervous about what people would think of him that he hadn't been on a date in over a year. Now he snuggled up against Lance and let him touch his face, his hands, even his waist a couple of times. And it was nice. He wasn't sure what he'd been so afraid of.

They did part eventually. Keith stood up to stretch and yawn as soon as the ending credit roll had finished. By then, it was somewhat late, about the time that they both could have gone to bed, but they were restless. Lance suggested going for a swim in the pool and Keith took him up on that. Halfway, anyway. He picked a mood-music playlist from his phone and set up the "floating island" once more, and he swam around for only a little while before he crashed there, stretching out his limbs and taking in the sight of the canopy of stars above them through the glass ceiling panels.

For a while, they talked about nothing extraordinary. There was good news— Adam and Shiro had gotten their approval and were officially on the waiting list, and now they only had to wait until they were chosen. Lance had talked to his family about his progress and they were excited and optimistic about the future. His oldest sister had even expressed an interest in coming ashore. Lance explained that he was the only member of his family so far that had set foot on land. The rest had been too afraid. But Lance had a heart for adventure and for exploration and loved meeting new people, so it was no surprise at all that he had been the one to insist, to first break through that barrier.

Keith said something about thinking that it might be nice to meet Lance's siblings. Normally he would have feigned disinterest— or, that's what he might have done a year ago, anyway— or said something less direct, but he was tired. He didn't have the energy to put on a front. And that was when there was a moment of silence. One that lasted a bit too long.