swim with me? [klance au]

Mi Hijo

"I'm home!" Lance called as he entered his family's cove. He placed his satchel on the rack and swam through the cove to the dining room, where people were talking loudly. As he entered, he immediately noticed the two mers out of place.

"Ulaz! Thace!" Lance bolted to their chairs and slung his arms around each of their shoulders. Thace chuckled warmly, ruffling Lance's hair.

"Hello, Lance. Long time no see, eh?" Lance grinned at him. Ulaz and Thace, husbands of the Northern clan up near the border of Canada and the States, were close friends of the family via connection to Lance's mom and the council, and they always had stories and laughs to share with the Mcclain cove. Lance thought of them as uncles, extended family, and admired their strong marriage despite original distaste from the elders of their community. Apparently, they were more strict up North.

"Ah, mi hijo, sit down, we can talk while we eat, por favor." Lance nodded at his mom as she came from the kitchen, holding long metal skewers with shrimp, fish, and other assorted food kebab-ed onto them.

"Hola, padre," Lance told his father as he passed to go back to his seat, and waved goofily to the twins who sat across the table.

"How's the surface, Lance?" Carlos responded, looking pointedly at his son. Lance knew his father's distaste for the human world after the incident with his brother, but that didn't disturb Lance's daily visits. Carlos was forever curious though as if wanting Lance to screw up somehow so that he could have an excuse to keep his son safe in the deep. Lance's relationship with his father was complex. They loved each other as a son and a father should, but Carlos had been distant, maybe colder, since his brother was exiled, and Lance's adventures only stressed him out more.

Added to the fact that, while Carlos supported Lance in almost every way possible, he came from a traditional family with traditional values, and bisexual wasn't necessarily one of them. So, as expected, the mer was on edge with Ulaz and Thace visiting. Lance didn't mind. He knew that whoever he chose to spend the rest of his life with, it would be his decision and not his father's.

As soon as they began eating, the twins launched into stories of their days, and Lance knew that once they had started, they wouldn't stop until the end of dinner, so he waited patiently until the end of dinner to talk with Ulaz and Thace. As the twins got ready for bed by an ushering mother, and Carlos disappeared into his room to unwind, Lance and Ulaz and Thace slipped out of the cove and swam up past the school to the coral coves, a large, open area where they could see from the light of the fleeting sunset and soon, the moon. Plus, some of the coral was bioluminescent, so they stuck by those patches in order to see better. Finding seats on the floor of the cove, they settle, Ulaz leaning up against Thace comfortably. Lance perched on a rock slab.

Since the last time that Lance had seen them, the husbands had pretty much stayed the same. Because of their hardcore warrior tribe, the Marmora, their tales had been dyed deep indigo with two fluorescent stripes that were a staple of the community. The two also had a strange tribal tattoo on their bulging biceps, symbolizing their high ranks. Even though they had their tails colored, their fins were still unique. While Ulaz's was feathery at the end, whispy even, Thace's was strong and sharp, a more classic fishtail look. Their spines were retracted for now, but their sails were larger than most, even if they weren't native to the rougher waters on the other side of the country. Apparently, they sharpened the spines and used them as blades in battle. Their deadly combat skills gave their tribe the name 'the blades of Marmora'. Badass as fuck.

What was even more amazing about their appearances were their battle scars. The last sheath of webbing connecting Ulaz's last two spines was ripped raggedly, the result of a dangerous mer with fishhook nails. Ulaz also had a very thin waist with scars of lacerations down his ribs, the result of rapid weight and muscle loss when he was captured and kept captive when he was younger. Because of mermaid anatomy and the fact that his structure was still developing when he was jailed, it was hard to gain back weight after losing it- there weren't many fatty foods under the sea and being starved to near death was basically a death wish if a mer was to live in society- it was hard enough to find enough food to fuel their hard-working bodies, let alone catch up after a year in captivity. Under Ulaz's special circumstances, he'd been sent to live on land for several months to regain a better diet, consuming fatty foods one after the other until he was fit to return to a normal diet in the sea. His broad chest was strong though, and his frail torso didn't stop him from kicking ass in combat.