Hidden Messages [Klance AU]

16: Words You Can't Take Back

"— so then I found myself as a human. It was scary, but also felt... exciting. New. I started wandering down the beach, which eventually led me to you." Lance smiled to Keith at the memory of their first interaction. Looking back, he realized how inept he acted. The mer's cheeks flared thinking back to when Keith first saw him.

He glanced to his side at the mentioned boy. He was silent, thoughts invading his mind as he soaked in Lance's story.

"Wow."

Keith's lack of words didn't surprise Lance— he had just learnt of the existence of an entire race of mers, folk that he only suspected few to exist, if at all. Lance couldn't wait to see the look in his eyes when he told him that mers didn't only live outside these shores, but all over the planet. He thought back to the times when the Unilu Mers would visit Altea. The pirates would set up shops, "swap moons," to sell goods from their journeys. A warmth settled in his insides when he remembered when Hunk had mistaken scaultrite powder as flour for cookies. It was safe to say that it didn't end very well for their teeth.

Hunk would love human food. Guilt churned in Lance's stomach thinking of how he left his friend.

"Lance?" The mer was pulled out of his thoughts by Keith's voice. No matter, he thought, I'll just have to bring him here sometime.

"Yeah?"

"I, uh—" Keith seemed to itch to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. His hand inched closer to Lance's thigh from where he sat. Oh.

He saw.

Lance pulled his shorts to cover what Keith could see of the scars. He wasn't ready to talk about them.

But Keith was ready to listen.

"I wanted to ask about— aah!" Keith jumped when his phone dung. The sound was awful, like something from the sea monsters; Baku, as Lance's mother called them. It might as well have been, the way Keith's eyes widened when he read what was on the screen.

"Shit! Shit shit-shit-shit-shi—" Keith rambled the swear as he stood up and ran toward the door. He put on a jacket, grabbed his keys, and looked back to Lance.

"I'm late for work! Be back later!" He yelled as he closed the door. Silence filled the room. With Keith there it was comfortable, now, the room felt like a large expanse, cold and unwelcoming. Lance longed to go somewhere else.

He looked towards the ocean, curiosity filling his eyes with the memory of Keith throwing another letter beneath its surface.

~ ♆ ~

Lance ran hurriedly up the steps of the beach house. Drops of saltwater dripped from his soaked hair and clothes onto the wood. The mer only spared a look at the bikes on the porch, one rusted and old-looking. He opened and closed the front door carefully as to not let Keith know of his arrival. The mer tip-toed towards the staircase leading upstairs, being as quiet as possible so that he wouldn't wake—

"Where were you all day?"

Lance froze at the sound of Keith's voice. He'd thought his roommate had been in his room. He turned around slowly, making sure to keep the object in his hand hidden.

Keith sat on the couch. He stared at Lance with an intensity that he couldn't place— smugness, curiosity, annoyance, or all three. When he cocked an eyebrow at the bottle in Lance's hand, the latter quickly hid it behind his back.

"So? What happened to you? You're soaking wet." Come on, Keith. At least make it harder to think of a lie, Lance thought complacently.

"I went for a swim," Lance shrugged. "I was tired of that tiny bathtub of yours."