Chapter Text
This part of the beach was rarely ever used by any of the locals. The main cause for its unpopularity was the pollution left behind by negligent tourists every summer. A fact that the real estate agent had conveniently forgotten to mention in their sales pitch to the new owners of the property.
The two young brothers and their uncle looked upon the mess they had purchased in a mix of horror and disgust at the utter lack of maintenance and disrespect for the environment. It was a decent stretch of land, and beautiful too, if not for the excessive amount of litter.
"Well, my boys, looks like we've got our work cut out for us here. Maybe you'll even earn some cleaning stripes while we're at it, eh?" And with that their uncle set them to work, handing each of them a garbage bag and a pair of gloves. The mustached man kneeled on the sand to match his nephews' eye level as best he could, and with his heavy accent, he instructed them, "Alright, you two start on the right, I'll go left. Don't wander too far, stick together, and I want you to whistle for me if you find any broken glass, do not touch it! Right?"
The older of the two responded with a loud, "Yes," while the younger simply nodded.
After getting their affirmative replies, he stood up saying, "Good. Then we'll meet back up right here in about an hour and head off for dinner. Make sure to be careful." And the pair ran off, staying within shouting distance, on a mission to clean up their beach and already betting each other's dessert on who could pick up the most trash in the time limit.
This became more or less the weekend routine for Keith, his older brother, Shiro, and their Uncle Coran. The boys waited until Coran came home from work, so they could all head to the beach to clean up for an hour or two, before returning to eat.
One day, another boy visited their beach. However, this boy was quite different from the two meandering across the sand filling their garbage bags. He had smooth, tan skin that was dotted with the iridescence of still-developing scales and a short, shiny tail to match. Having got caught in a piece of plastic that was slowly being moved toward the shore by the water's push and pull, the young guppy fumbled to free himself while he was still far out enough that his presence went unnoticed by either of the brothers.
He managed to untangle the plastic from his tail, and he watched it float away to land on the beach where it was almost immediately picked up by the smaller of the two boys with more enthusiasm than expected. The now-liberated boy in the water found this rather curious. He retreated a bit to find another piece of plastic, of which there was quite an abundance, and then he swam close enough to the shore to remain hidden and still be able to direct the trash (he hadn't been formally trained yet, but he could manage that much) towards the child who looked oddly triumphant whenever he picked up a decent-sized piece.
Soon, it seemed Lance was doing half of Keith's work for him. Though he thought the boy on the beach was strange for liking the litter so much, he was happy enough to get it out of his ocean, and if he got to give it to someone who actually wanted it, well that was just a bonus.
More and more often, Keith noticed, several small piles of garbage would be dotting the shoreline, just out of reach from being washed away. He looked around curiously, but couldn't find a logical reason for the trash to have seemingly gathered itself. While he couldn't explain it, it did make picking up more garbage than Shiro and winning their bets easier.
After a few weeks, Lance wondered what else the boy on the beach, whose name he overheard as Keith, might like. He began putting more than just garbage in the piles he left for him. Though he constructed mounds of brightly colored seaweeds, and common rocks near the small heaps of litter, the boy never paid them as much mind or took any of them with him. So, Lance challenged himself to find something the other boy would like more than the everyday wastes.
Lance began collecting anything and everything he could find. He searched hard for human things, amassing quite a hoard. And when he felt like he had a sufficient number of certain things, he took them to the little beach, and left them for his new friend.
When the beach had been cleared up significantly, Keith found less piles of garbage waiting for him, but about a week's worth of random items sorted and lined up in the sand. He wasn't entirely sure what to do with all the things, and he was becoming increasingly concerned with who was leaving them, and why. So he asked Shiro.
While Shiro had no answer for Keith's questions, he did help him go through everything. They used Shiro's bag for anything they couldn't see use for, and Keith's for things that might have any sort of value. For instance, the assortment of tableware mostly went in Shiro's sack, but Keith had picked out a few especially decorative tea spoons and tiny forks that he thought were nice enough to keep.
Meanwhile, Lance watched from afar, paying close attention to the things that wound up in Keith's bag. He was surprised to see the two boys look through everything so meticulously, and he wondered about why the smaller boy only took a few of the things when they were essentially all the same. Of course, it hadn't gone unnoticed that his bag only contained the more unique-looking items of the bunches.
Gradually, the piles grew smaller and fewer in number as Lance had noticed the boy was no longer excited at finding the gifts Lance left. Keith became less careful of going through the things, and hardly any wound up in his bag. Then one day, Lance overheard him.
“How are we ever going to get the beach ready to open when all this junk just keeps appearing?” The irritation in the young boy’s voice rang sharp.
Upset that this boy didn't like his presents, Lance vowed never to leave anything for him again. If his bipedal companion couldn't appreciate the things given to him, then he wouldn't get anything more from Lance.
The first weekend that Coran and his boys showed up to an empty beach, finally free of trash and also clear of piles of random stuff, they were all quite relieved. After all their work, they finally took a minute to enjoy their little private shoreline. Keith still didn't know who had been leaving the things, or why they suddenly stopped, but he was glad to be done cleaning up the mess.
The three stopped coming for a while as Coran placed orders and prepared for when they would open the beach in the summer. He had a small storage shack and a little convenience stand built. He convinced nearby businesses to let beach-goers use their restrooms.
Once Lance realized they weren’t coming back, he, too, stopped visiting the little beach. And soon enough, he was too busy to check in on it even if he wanted too. His cousin and best friend, Hunk, was starting training and they had agreed to do it together.