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Right after they had first mated, before they had a cave to call home, before Lance had really started making money off of his bubble farm, they had had to drift through the waters at night. It could be dangerous—who knew where there were sharks lurking. Of course there were safe waters, areas where plenty of mer’s drifted about as they slept. Or they could even stay with either Lance’s family, or Keith’s. But they had both wanted a place that was just theirs so they searched for a cave that didn’t belong to anyone else. Which involved traveling pretty far from familiar waters.
At night they linked tails in order to keep each other from drifting away.
Keith wrapped his tail tightly around the middle section of Lance’s; Lance wrapped as much of his tail as he could around the lower parts of Keith’s. They wrapped their arms around each other, Lance clasping his forearms near Keith’s lower back and Keith threading his fingers together behind Lance’s neck.
It was the most comfortable position Keith had ever slept in, tangled with his mate. He kept his face near Lance’s mating mark; listened to Lance’s heartbeat to fall asleep.
Mer’s are not traditionally warm creatures, but with Lance’s chest pressed against his own, it was like sleeping in the sunlight.
As much as Lance wanted to settle down with Keith, he knew that would mean sleeping like this less. It left them vulnerable, but it was such an intimate position, and he loved waking up connected to Keith.
And sleeping like this really did mean they woke up together. As one stirred the other would respond to the restlessness. One would blink open his eyes, and then the other would, and they would float there for a moment or two longer just watching each other wake up.
<I love you> Keith would always tell Lance when the blue mer had shaken off the last of his sleep.
<I love you more> Lance would always respond.