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Keith was not really a beach person. After so many years spent in the desert he really was not the biggest fan of sand. He was a much bigger fan of pools if we’re being completely honest, but he’d promised Shiro he would visit. The beach with him and if the crown prince wanted to go the beach then they went to the beach.
Keith was not really a beach person. After so many years spent in the desert he really was not the biggest fan of sand. He was a much bigger fan of pools if we’re being completely honest, but he’d promised Shiro he would visit. The beach with him and if the crown prince wanted to go the beach then they went to the beach. Still he was not going to be happy about it.
Keith jumped into the water with a groan. The temperature wasn’t right, the early june waters practically froze him but still he dived deeper into the spray. If he stayed under for a while he would get used to the temperature. What he wasn’t expecting was a hand to grab his foot and drag him under a little bit to completely throw off his balance. He flailed under the water for a moment trying to regain his swimming form and when that completely failed he swam back up to the surface. Keith nearly jumped out of his skin when another head popped up next to him in the water. A boy about his age, with curly brown hair, the softest looking tawny skin, and the most beautiful grin he’d ever seen. He was gone as quickly as he had appeared, but not without letting out a laughing. “Gotcha.”
Keith saw the boy’s tail fins out of the water for just a second before he dived back down under the water towards the open ocean. It’s the first time he had ever seen a mermaid but Keith will be damned if it was going to be the last. He had to find that boy again damn it. He thought about swimming after him but Shiro was already yelling for him from the shore. So reluctantly Keith swam back to the sand.
It’s a couple of weeks before he can convince Shiro to let him go back to the beach. There was stuff to do for his wedding. Shiro was going to be King in a few months time. Which was going to be hard enough, Keith already felt incredibly out of place here. He was the adopted Prince, a child of an enemy and planet earth. A boy with no place forced to be something he was not born to be. Though if you asked Shiro or their mother it was the best place for him. Still he sat in the castle frustrated and perhaps a little bit lovesick. Could you really be lovesick if a boy has just one word to you?
It’s four in the morning when Shiro’s fiance and his family are literally taking over the place that Keith’s cabin fever finally gets to him and maybe he’s a little bit impulsive and sure he definitely should not be leaving without some kind of escort. But if Keith’s anything he’s rash and impulsive so he takes a motorcycle out of the garage, sends a text to Shiro that he’ll be back in a couple of hours that’ll definitely freak Shiro out in a couple of hours and off he goes.
Almost an hour and half an energy drink later Keith is parking himself in front of the sand and pulling his jacket and shoes off. In hindsight he should have probably packed a bathing suit but instead of thinking about that he just jumps into the water completely clothed and starts swimming as fast as his arms will let him. The riptide catches him off guard, getting ahold of his foot and dragging him under the water with more force than he possibly expected. He knows you’re supposed to swim with the current but he had been dragged under by it too fast get the air he needed into his lungs for that so he fights instead. His lungs were on fire and he could not stop thrashing.
The hand on Keith’s shoulder comes as kind of a shock but he does open his eyes, an immediate mistake because the salt in the water stings and he sees that boy’s face again. There’s no mistaking it. He sputters, water filling his mouth, but the merman keeps him moving, guiding him on the current. It does not take very long until the other boy has Keith dragged up to the surface. Keith tries to say thank you for a moment but he’s too busy coughing up his watery lungs.
“You good?” The merboy asks him when Keith is finally done hacking up h2o. Keith nods, he had done all of this with the intention of seeing the boy here but now that he’s finally made it Keith does not know how to really procede. He’s always had trouble connecting with people and communicating them, he does not know how to express that he came all the way out here to try to talk to him, especially when does not know if his crush was something that went both ways.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Keith was finally able to muster out three words and he could see some relief flickering over the other’s face. Which he supposed was probably, hopefully a good sign. At least he had been worried about him. Then again he had just saved Keith from drowning of course he had to be at least worried about him. This was so difficult. “What’s your name?”
“Lance.” Okay, so he had a name to put to the face now. He was doing better than he was before. He tasted the name on his tongue, the syllables felt just right and he wants to say them every day for the rest of his life. “You’re the guy I was messing with a couple of days ago.”
“Keith, I’m Keith.” Great start, Jane Austen would be so proud. Lance let out another little laugh and Keith swears that the whole world stopped spinning as a blush spread over his cheeks. There’s a lot going on right now but he knows that he was going to spend the rest of his life trying to keep this boy at his side.