Waves of Grey - The Harem and the Guard

Chapter 13

Keith

"This is it. You can see the shore just over that ridge. It shouldn't be more than five minutes and we can stop just before we go in." Keith breathed heavily after their last heavy treck. He didn't know that there was a steep hill that encompassed the cove on all sides. I mean obviously, he knew that there was a small cliff surrounding that hid the cove out of sight if you weren't purposefully looking for it. He just hadn't been aware that the entire coast was a bowl like valley pouring down into the secluded calm waters.

"If I weren't wearing clothes I could get us there faster," Lance huffed as he stepped up behind Keith to look over his shoulder at where they were going. He wasn't even out of breath in the slightest. Keith decided that it was because the siren had monstrously long legs for being hardly taller than Keith. No. He wasn't taller than Keith, they were the same size . . . And Keith wasn't just thinking that to make himself feel better.

He was just so damn tired of being small. Smallest galra, small for a male Altean too. The woman-man-genderless thing with him had been nearly four and a half feet taller than him when he first caught sight of him before he's shrunk down . . . Keith hadn't quite figured that one out yet but he'd decided a while ago that he didn't want to know.

"And we don't need a break. It's hardly a hike down." Lance said passively and turned away to start down the steep hill. Keith stared after him blankly before he full on glared at the back of Lance's head.

"We don't need a break. It's hardly a hike down." He mocked quietly in a higher pitch to mimic Lance's tone once the siren was out of earshot.

"Keith!" Lance called back from a quarter ways down the hill. He looked up at his pale companion expectantly, impatience written all over his antsy movements.

"Yeah, I'm coming! Keep for pants on for quiznacks sake. I'm coming." Keith snapped back as he started down the hill. "Just keep going, If I fall and crack my head open just wait for me to roll to the bottom and then you can eat me or give me an ocean burial whatever have you."

"That's not funny!" Lance yelled over the wind as it picked up. They were leaving the dark forests behind and entering a stretch of hilly grasslands that led down to the ocean. The sunlight as almost agonizing on Keith's eyes after how long he'd been surrounded by the darkness of the forest with only glowing creatures and plants to light their paths.

Keith simply hummed in response. There was no way for Lance to hear him so he waited patiently for Keith who passed him without a word. They continued and finally reached the sandy beach all the while Lance nervously chattered. It only got worse the closer to the water they got until Lance all but fell quiet when his borrowed shoes touched the sand.

"Keith?" The siren said his name with a small tone. It made the prince pause to turn around and face him. Lance hadn't moved from the outer edge of the beach.

He frowned and scanned Lance's furrowed expression. "Yeah?" He asked with no hint of the antagonistic tone he's used a good ways back.

"If we make it back-"

"When we make it back." Keith corrected. Lance glanced away almost shyly at Keith's cut in.

"When we get back," he continued, "will you tell me about you? You know so much about me and I guess I've never given you the chance to speak for yourself if you wanted to. Will you tell me about your family? . . . Your real family?"

Normally if someone would have ever stated it that way Keith would have had them by the throat before they could blink. But Lance wasn't using the statement maliciously. He was confused and curious about the man who owned him. Who had agreed to go out of his way to help a harem. To help someone who was supposed to be nothing other than a hole to fuck and a carrier for the next generations ruler. But Keith didn't want them like that. He wouldn't want anyone that way.