Chapter Text
It had been a long day of migrating for the shoal; a long day of swimming and stopping and swimming and stopping and breaks and hiding. It had just been a long day.
And how better to top off a long day than to have your mate make a luxurious seaweed and kelp bed? At least that’s what Shiro had said when Keith had slumped, exhausted completely and utterly, into the sand. All he had to do was get them something to eat.
A half hour and an armful of oysters, Keith returned to their spot to find Shiro punching a piece of seaweed into a small divot in the bed perfect for curling into. “Can you believe that this time tomorrow we’ll have our own den?”
Could he believe it? That’s all Keith could think about while he was helping the older mer keep up with the shoal and scowling wandering guppies back into place. Tomorrow they’d be done with migrating. “How’s that nest coming along?”
From a nearby rock Keith sat back and watched as Shiro did his thing— and hoping for the best when the sides would pop up. Rather than watch his mate’s epic struggle Keith busied himself with cracking open an oyster and scraping up the meat inside with a claw. He was only half listening to Shiro mumble to himself between frustrated grunts. “…Says I can’t make a bed without mud— what does he know? I invented kelp beds!”
“You got this babe.”
“Yeah I do!”
“Come,” he called after an especially victorious grunt, curling a finger to beckon Shiro from his intense work. Shiro did and obediently opened his mouth for fresh oyster meat. The bigger mer humming happily when a hand smoothed over the lines his jaw. “How’s it coming along?”
“We only have the nicest nest in the shoal. So I’d say pretty good.”
Keith chuckled, a bit dubious but pleased with the enthusiasm, and easily split another oyster and scrape up the pulp. With a goofy look Shiro let his mate feed the food into his mouth. “Don’t make it too nice or—“
Shiro jolted suddenly, jerking back with a deep frown; “O-ow! What the…” He spat into his hand, freeing his tongue to poke around his mouth to inspect the edges of his sharp teeth. Luckily nothing seemed damaged, or if it did it didn’t dampen Shiro’s hunger as he reached for another oyster.
Curious, Keith poked at the pile of mush in his mate’s hand. It was pretty easy to find the lump that Shiro had bit into. “Oh look! You got a surprise with your dinner.”
A couple blinks gave Shiro the time to really see what he was looking at: a pearl. Having been raised in an aquarium he was no foreigner to the concept of treasure and trinkets. In fact Shiro was very familiar with pearls— though mostly the plastic kind that wouldn’t break his teeth if he was curious enough to take a bite into them. While he knew what they were he had never seen where they came from— which made sense in retrospect; if Shiro didn’t know that pearls came to oysters then he wouldn’t go around the tank splitting them open. “This one’s black. Aren’t pearls supposed to be white?”
“Pearls come in all colours and sizes.” Keith took the pearl and shined it with his fingers.
Shiro made an excited sound before darting off to the nest, reaching underneath and tugging out his dive bag: a handy place to store his findings in. A small swiped gift from a distracted scuba diver who was too busy looking at some clown fish to notice a mischievous mershark rifling through their gear. Ever since then all things shiny or pretty went right into the dive bag. By now he had a number of shells, sea glass, and a few coins.
While he fussed over his bag and tucked the pearl away safely, Keith followed up behind him and plopped into the nest with a satisfied groan and waving off Shiro’s protest with a gleeful roll in the kelp. “It’s perfect Shiro,” he said, pushing at the edge of the nest to better mould it. Shiro’s pride and puffed out chest were not lost on the smaller mer. “But it might be too perfect; I saw a certain someone swimming by earlier with an eely eye.”
“Oh no— Lance!” Shiro shot up in the nest, scowling. “Lance if you so much as touch my nest I… I’ll… you’ll have Keith to answer to!”
“Shiro!” Keith snickered, muffling his giggles with a hand. “Stop, you’ll wake up the others.”
“Like I’m scared of Keith!” Lance shouted back from somewhere not far away enough to be convincing. “Besides I don’t wanna be near your dumb, sharkey nest anyway.”
Hunk’s smaller voice quickly followed Lance’s harrumph; “Hey Shiro!”
From another part of the shoal another mer called out; “Would you two shut up! We’ve got guppies trying to sleep here.”
“You can’t come either!”
“S-stop! Babe, seriously,”
“Oh, I’m very serious. I—“ Shiro turned back to yell some more when Keith’s hand pressed over his mouth and began shushing him between chuckles. Shiro’s grin turned mischievous and his hands turned to pointed fingers jabbing playfully at Keith’s ribs. “You can’t shush me, you’re making noise too! Gosh, Keith, why do you have to be so inconsiderate?”
After a valiant effort of trying to keep quiet, Keith’s breathless laughter broke into squeaked gasps while he squirmed and pushed at Shiro’s tickling. “Shhh,” he hushed shakily.
It was cut off with a press of a finger to his lips. “Who do you think you are trying to— Keith, Keith you know you can’t stop me from— Mm!” Keith finally shushed him with a kiss, and Shiro happily accepted defeat, still huffing out the last of his silly giggles against his lips.
And, yes, Lance had set his eyes on their nest. Keith woke up the next morning with a snoring Hunk in his ear and a bright blue tail slapped to his cheek.
