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Chapter Text

It was just a little spot at first. Allura noticed it while she was feeding Shiro and Keith—Shiro had a small laceration on his fin. Probably from swimming around the tank too fast, or from… mating too aggressively. Allura always tried to give her mers plenty of privacy when they were paired, but now she worried that they were being too enthusiastic.

“How did you get injured?” she asked Shiro as she signed to him through the glass. He shoved his piece of food into his mouth so he could sign with his free hand, which made both Allura and Keith laugh.

“I wasn’t looking and hit the cave wall,” Shiro signed back. “I’m okay.”

Allura made him promise to keep it clean and let her look at it once in a while, and he agreed. She was tempted to increase the frequency of the filter cycles, but she knew the filter frightened Shiro, and she didn’t want to cause her injured mer any undue stress.

The laceration was healing slower than she would like, though. She tried to warn Shiro not to stress his fin, but even with a plethora of mental stimulation, Shiro was an active mer. He swam laps often, now while chatting with Keith, and Allura found them playing games together sometimes, giving chase and swimming around the tank, taking turns hiding from each other. It was sweet, but Allura was worried.

Then, the day came when Shiro didn’t emerge from his cave for feeding. Keith swam up to the surface, which he was much better at doing now, and took his and Shiro’s portions before swimming right back to the cave. Allura could only guess that Shiro wasn’t feeling well, especially if he and Keith were still in their cave at this hour.

Allura called Hunk, who agreed to come over and give Shiro a check-up. He confirmed her fears that Shiro was likely suffering an infection that was slowing him down and making him feel sick. Allura paced nervously, worried for her mer, while she waited for Hunk to arrive.

Allura wasn’t one to intervene with her mers—especially Shiro. He had been through so much in his life, and her father had always impressed upon her how intelligent mers were, that with gentle suggestion they were more than capable of taking care of themselves. But a sickness like this was beyond the capacity of mers living in captivity—in the wild, the family group would have one or two members trained to heal. In Allura’s tank… it was only Keith, unequipped to treat his ailing mate. She could only imagine how scared they both were.

When Hunk arrived, Allura showed Hunk how neither of the mers would come at her signal, even when she signaled that she had food.

“If I brought him back to the lab, I have mers who could look after him,” Hunk said, adjusting his headband. “But it would require separating him from his mate, and transporting him… I’m worried the stress would be too much.”

“I agree,” Allura said, wringing her hands. “He trusts me… so I think I can get away with intervening myself. It’s Keith I’m worried about. He’s quite protective.”

Hunk nodded, mirroring her concern. “If you take care of Keith, I’ll get Shiro looked at and treated. Let’s set up the other tank and get the water treatment going.”

She and Hunk went about their work in tense quiet, setting up one of Allura’s smaller tanks for triage, with a hefty filter that would hopefully keep bad bacteria from affecting her sick mer. It wouldn’t be comfortable for Shiro to be out of his familiar tank, but Allura knew he would heal much faster in a cleaner environment.

It was agonizing to make the decision to disrupt Shiro and Keith’s cave to try to retrieve the mers. Allura never wanted to mess with her mers’ home environment or invade their space, but this was a matter of Shiro’s life. She hoped he would understand.

When she went to lift the magnetic lid off the cave, a flash of red flew out of the entrance, and she barely registered the sight of Keith before a sharp pain lanced through her finger. Keith was clamped down, wriggling like he was trying to tear flesh, and it took all of Allura’s fortitude not to jerk her hand away and potentially hurt Keith. After a moment of holding still, Keith pulled away and swam back into the cave, leaving a trail of Allura’s blood in the water behind him.

“Ouch—did Keith get you?” Hunk asked as Allura inspected her injury under a light. “What a bite. He almost took the whole chunk.”

“He hasn’t bitten me in months,” Allura said. “Not since before I transferred him to Shiro’s tank. He must be very frightened to do such a thing. Shiro may be worse off than we thought.”

Hunk gave her a sympathetic look as he bandaged her finger, and found her a thick glove that would protect her from Keith’s teeth. “We’ll get him fixed up, Allura,” Hunk said gently. “Don’t you worry.”

The second time, Keith bit her just as before, his fins up in an aggressive display while he wriggled and writhed and tried his best to rend the glove’s material. Allura’s heart broke at his frightened aggression, but she knew she had to cause him a little bit of stress to make sure his mate lived.

Revealing their living space made her heart sink. Keith had torn apart the plants in their tank to make a soft bed of leaves for Shiro to lay on, and the evidence of Keith’s attempts to make a poultice were scattered all over the floor of their cave.

Shiro looked worse than Allura had feared. He had almost completely lost his color, and Allura could barely see his gills move with shallow breaths. She could see the poultice Keith had fashioned, and she was impressed—it was something not all mers knew how to make, and she wondered who had taught him. But with all of the plants in their tank lacking medicinal qualities, it was a covering and nothing more. She dreaded to see the wound hidden beneath.

Keith had almost made his way through the glove, ripping and tearing and trying to find purchase on the rubber. But when it became clear Allura wasn’t deterred, he gave up and swam back to Shiro’s side. He puffed himself up in the most aggressive display possible, baring his teeth, his eyes wide and wild and slitted in terror. Allura’s heart broke for him—she should have intervened sooner, so he wouldn’t have had to nurse Shiro on his own.

“Keith, please,” Allura signed desperately. “I want to help him.”

But Keith just wrapped himself around Shiro, coiling his tail around him protectively and baring his teeth. Shiro was completely limp in his hold, his head flopping against Keith’s shoulder. Allura feared he had hours if they didn’t intervene.

“I’m so sorry, Keith,” Allura murmured, as she gently scooped her hand under both of them. “I’m going to save your mate.”

Keith released Shiro to try biting again, and it gave Allura the opportunity to scoop Shiro out of the tank and hand him to Hunk. As soon as Shiro left the water, Keith went wild—throwing himself against the glass, biting and tearing at Allura’s hand. She wanted to leave him in his familiar tank, where he could at least have the comfort of home, but she was worried now that he might hurt himself in his stress, and she couldn’t handle two injured mers.

“GIVE BACK,” Keith was signing, in between biting at Allura’s gloved hand. “NEVER FORGIVE. GIVE BACK.”

Keith’s sign language wasn’t quite as robust as Shiro’s, but Allura got the message all the same. She glanced at Hunk where he was bent over the triage tank. She knew putting Keith in with Shiro would mean a fight every time they needed to treat him. But they were so closely bonded, Allura feared the negative effects to both of them if she kept them apart. After Shiro’s previous experience, she didn’t want him to lose his fight if Keith wasn’t near.

She grabbed a glass fishbowl she’d been using as decoration—a gag gift from Coran—and emptied it of its contents, washing it out thoroughly and dipping it into Shiro and Keith’s tank to fill it with their water.

“If you want to see Shiro,” she signed to Keith, “get in.”

Keith eyed her with suspicion, but after a hesitant moment, he swam into the bowl. She lifted him out and brought him to the counter where Shiro was laying in the triage tank, pressing the bowl up against the glass. Keith swam to the edge of the bowl, singing out desperately to his mate, and becoming increasingly distressed when Shiro didn’t move.

Hunk had removed the makeshift poultice, and Allura gasped at the injury. What had been a small pink laceration on Shiro’s fin was now swollen and white, with an angry infected yellow pus leaking from it. In such a small body, the infection had to be wreaking havoc, and Hunk confirmed that Shiro had an incredibly high fever.

“Keith,” Allura signed to him until she had his attention. “Please. We are trying to save him. I couldn’t forgive myself if you became injured, too. I promise we will care for your mate. I would never do anything to hurt him—you know that.”

Keith looked skeptical and distressed, swimming around in anxious loops while he thought over her words. He stopped in every lap to press against the bowl and look at Shiro through the glass, and she could see his gills working with frantic breaths.

“You might have to give him something,” Hunk said sadly as he cleaned Shiro’s wound. “He could hurt himself if he’s that agitated.”

“I couldn’t do that to him,” Allura said. “He would never trust me again.”

“Keith please,” she signed again. “I know you’re frightened, but please try to stay calm.”

“HE SCARED,” Keith signed back frantically. “DOESN’T LIKE TO BE ALONE WHEN HE SCARED.”

“I know,” Allura signed back. “And you are such a wonderful mate… you never leave him alone when he needs you. I know that. But we need to treat his wound. He won’t make it if we don’t treat him.”

Keith swam a few more anxious loops, his chest heaving with panicked breaths, and Allura wished there was more to do to comfort him. If their positions were reversed, she knew Shiro would trust her with the safety of his mate, but she and Keith didn’t have that trust yet.

“I HELP,” Keith signed, banging his fist on the glass. “LET ME IN. I HELP. I MAKE POULTICE.”

“Shiro needs more than a poultice now, Keith,” she said gently. “He’s very sick. He needs medicine.”

“Allura,” Hunk said, and Allura and Keith both looked over. Shiro was refusing the dropper of medicine, even in his weakened state. He was turning his head away from Hunk’s gentle hands, writhing on his bed of leaves and dislodging the delicate bandage Hunk had put on his wound.

“I HELP,” Keith demanded again, and Allura looked at him through the glass, kneeling down to his level.

“If you promise to let Hunk work,” she said. “Shiro needs lots of help right now, and we need to be able to touch and move him. I will only let you in if you promise to let us help him.”

Keith shuddered with stress, and he swam one anxious circle before coming back to Allura and signing “PROMISE.”

Allura lifted the bowl to attempt to submerge it and let Keith swim out, but the moment the bowl was level with the lid of the triage tank, Keith made a swim for it and leapt from the bowl, arcing into the air and diving into the triage tank.

“Whoa—I’ve never seen a mer leap that far!” Hunk laughed incredulously, watching Keith swim down and wrap Shiro up in his arms and tail. He pushed the bandage back onto Shiro’s wound, and his gentle touches made Shiro settle back down almost immediately.

Allura’s heart broke for them. They were so closely bonded, more so than any other mer pair she’d seen. She couldn’t imagine the stress Keith was under, watching his mate waste away like this, and even now that they were reunited, Keith’s distress was obvious.

“Keith,” Allura signed. “Help us give Shiro medicine?”

Hunk presented the dropper again, pressing it to Shiro’s mouth, but the mer wriggled away again, refusing to open up. Allura didn’t know all of Shiro’s past, but she knew that after he was rescued from the oil spill, he had been kept in uncomfortable conditions in a lab while he rehabilitated, and while he watched his previous mate pass away. Shiro hated most medical equipment, loud filters, and confining tanks. She hated the idea that she might be traumatizing him by trying to save his life.

But Keith did as he had promised. He comforted Shiro so gently, kissing him and holding him close until Shiro settled. He motioned for Hunk to bring the dropper back, and Keith tenderly coaxed Shiro’s mouth open with his fingers, stroking Shiro’s hair as he guided the dropper in. Hunk was careful to administer the medicine slowly, but soon it was all gone, and Hunk pulled his hand out of the tank as Keith wrapped Shiro up, holding him close.

“What now?” Allura asked, wringing her hands.

“The medicine should take effect in the next twenty minutes,” Hunk said, sighing. “I’ll have to check his temperature every half hour or so—it should go down as the medicine does its job. We just have to trust the bandage, and… trust that Shiro will fight.”

Allura sighed, pulling up a chair to sit beside the triage tank. It was starkly empty compared to their home tank, with no decorations around to add bacteria to the water. Keith had lulled Shiro back into something that was close to sleep, and he stayed wrapped tightly around Shiro as he rested, stroking his hair and singing to him softly.

Allura didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep on her folded arms until Hunk accidentally bumped her while he reached in to take Shiro’s temperature. She had called Hunk right after dinner, but between getting the tanks ready, fighting with Keith, and treating Shiro, it was long past her bedtime. She asked Hunk to go home for the night but he refused, saying he would take catnaps on her couch between checking on Shiro. She knew he would also cook her a wonderful breakfast in the morning no matter how tired he was, because he was Hunk, and she owed him so much.

Each time Allura woke with Hunk to check on Shiro, she found Keith still awake in the tank—soothing Shiro through a fever dream, or simply holding him as he slept. “You’re a good mate,” she signed to him, but he ignored her, pouting into Shiro’s hair.

“His fever’s down,” Hunk reported happily at 2am, yawning around his hand. “I’ll give him another dose in an hour or so, and we’ll go from there.”

Allura agreed and sent Hunk to her bed for an hour nap, while she stayed in her chair and watched over her mers. Shiro hadn’t gained back any color, but she had to have faith in Hunk, and in Shiro. He’d pulled through so much in the past, and she had to believe he would pull through this.

Another dose of medicine and a few hours later, and Shiro’s fever had broken. The sun was starting to creep through the blinds, as Allura got a feeding dropper ready for Shiro, but Keith pushed the dropper away, motioning for solid food instead.

“He can’t chew right now,” Allura signed to Keith tiredly. “He needs to eat to get his strength back.”

“I FEED HIM,” Keith insisted, and Allura gave him the solid food hesitantly. He began to munch on it, and Allura knew she couldn’t blame him—he likely hadn’t eaten in hours—but before he swallowed, he pulled the chewed food back out of his mouth in small bits, and tenderly pushed them between Shiro’s lips, stroking his throat to help him swallow. He continued, tiny bite after tiny bite, chewing everything before carefully feeding it to his mate.

“You must have done this before,” Allura said, watching them in sleepy fascination. “Your poultice was excellent.”

Keith ignored her until more than half of the food she’d given him was gone, and Shiro was turning his head away from Keith’s fingers.

“MOTHER COULD DO BETTER,” he finally signed back to her.

Allura hadn’t been aware Keith knew his mother, coming from where he had. But she had a feeling she wouldn’t get his life story out of him now, and she left him to quietly feed his mate.

The filter cycle woke her from a nap she hadn’t realized she’d slipped into, and she looked up to see Keith comforting Shiro, who clung to him with his one arm, his tail twitching limply. Shiro had gotten better about filter noises with Keith around, but his defenses were lowered here, and this filter was louder than their normal one.

He seemed to be at least semi-conscious, with the way he was holding on to Keith, and Allura’s stomach unknotted at the knowledge that he’d made it safely through the night. Perhaps all thanks to Keith’s gentle attentions.

“MORE FOOD,” Keith signed to her, and she brought him more solid food, which he carefully chewed most of before feeding it to Shiro, slowly and patiently.

“Morning,” Hunk yawned as he padded into the room. “How’s Shiro?”

“I think he’s conscious,” Allura said, watching them with soft eyes. “Keith fed Shiro a few hours ago, and he’s helping him eat again now. I haven’t checked his bandage yet.”

“Oh wow,” Hunk said, watching them over Allura’s shoulder. “I’ve seen rescued mers do this before—it’s usually a behavior learned in the wild. Where did you say Keith was from?”

Allura shook her head. “He’s never told me. The rescue center I got him from said he was found washed up on a beach. But he said his mother taught him this.”

“Definitely born in the ocean then,” Hunk marveled. “Poor guy. Wonder if his family’s still in the wild.” He patted her back gently. “I’m gonna make omelettes. You want cheddar and apple?”

Allura smiled softly. “That’s my favorite,” she said, her heart warming for Hunk’s sweetness.

“Coming right up,” he chuckled, kissing her head before heading back out to her kitchen.

She watched Shiro and Keith for a little longer, observing as Keith fed Shiro until he refused another bite, before eating a little himself. She would have to address Keith’s health after all this, to make sure he wasn’t underfed from worrying about Shiro.

“Keith,” she signed after a while of quiet. “Where is your mother now?”

Keith was still for a long time, just holding Shiro close and kissing in his hair. Just when she thought he was going to ignore her, he lifted one hand.

“DON’T KNOW,” he signed, and left it at that.

A few hours later, and Shiro was finally conscious again. He was still sluggish and weak, his color not quite returned, and he could only sign a couple words at a time before his arm became tired.

“Okay,” he signed to Allura, the first thing he’d said to her in days. “Thank you.”

Allura urged him to take his time, rest with Keith, and that she would return them to their tank as soon as she was sure he was safe. He simply signed an agreement and nestled back into Keith’s arms, falling into sleep once more.

It only took a couple of days before Shiro was making slow, careful laps around the triage tank, with Keith’s arms around him to help him float. He was still weak, that much was clear, but his wound was healthy and pink as his scales slowly grew in over it, and he was well enough to sign and eat on his own. Keith stayed glued to his side, never moving his tail from its position twined around Shiro’s. He had lost a small amount of weight from stress and neglecting his own diet, and Allura could see that he was shedding scales, likely also from stress; Shiro was too tired and out of it to notice, but she hoped Keith would recoup on his own once Shiro was well. He was a strong mer, and he’d never been healthier than when he and Shiro had started to share a tank, and look after each other.

Transferring them both back to their own tank was a bit stressful in itself, and Allura had to coach them both for the short trip to ensure neither of them became injured again. But this time she supplied their tank with more plants, some having medicinal or pain-relieving properties, so that Keith’s small amount of medicinal knowledge would allow him to prevent these outcomes in the future. Keith didn’t say as much, but he seemed grateful when he noticed them, as he herded Shiro back into their cave, home at last.

She gave them space after that. With no hiding places in the triage tank, they’d both been exposed and on display for days, and Allura knew that tended to wear on a mer, especially in a mated pair. Keith let her throw food into the tank, coming out to retrieve it once she had left the room, but he and Shiro made more and more frequent laps around the tank until Shiro was back to his old self, signing through the glass and asking for puzzles.

Allura nearly had a heart attack a few days later when Keith came out of the cave without Shiro to retrieve food. Seeing her concern, Keith signed to her quickly. “SHIRO NAPPING,” he said. “PUSHED TOO HARD DURING MORNING SWIM.”

Allura breathed a sigh, preparing to simply drop the food in, but Keith swam up to meet her hand. She was faintly surprised, as she was sure she had broken her trust with him, but she was nonetheless grateful. He even touched her with his tiny hand-fin, giving her healing pink bite mark a little lick of apology.

She smiled, handing him the food gently. “I’m just glad you both are alright,” she signed to him. “I care about both of you. And I know how much you care for him.”

“THANK YOU FOR HELP SHIRO,” he signed back meekly, holding his and Shiro’s food under one arm.

“I’m always here to help,” Allura promised, smiling at him gently through the glass. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said, Keith. About your mother. If you don’t mind sharing, I would love to know what she was like.”

Keith seemed to think for a long moment, nibbling at his portion of the food. It was heartening to see him eating again, filling back out to his previous healthy weight.

“WAS SOLITARY,” he finally signed. “CAME BACK AFTER FATHER WAS KILLED. TRIED TO SAVE ME WHEN HUMANS CAME, BUT COULD NOT. DO NOT KNOW WHERE IS NOW.”

Allura softened, wondering if Keith thought of his family often. He seemed so happy here with Shiro, she would have never imagined he had family in the ocean. She could only imagine that the ‘humans’ he mentioned were traffickers, who hunted and captured mers from the ocean to sell in the illegal pet trade. If Keith’s school was captured, she knew his mother was unlikely to still be in the wild. She wondered how he got away.

“You have such pretty color,” she said, smiling as he blushed. “I bet your mother was just as lovely.”

Keith hesitated again, fidgeting with the food.

“PURPLE,” he finally said.

Allura was shocked. Purple mers were exquisitely rare, and almost never spotted in the wild. She had seen them more often in illegal pet trade, or even stuffed and mounted in horrific collections. If Keith’s mother was solitary and a rare purple, she was surprised he had known her at all.

Her stomach churned with indecision. She was honored Keith had shared even this much with her, and she didn’t want to pry. But if others of Keith’s school had ended up on the black market, she could only imagine what would have become of his mother if she had been captured.

“She was quite special then,” Allura finally said, seeing how Keith had become wary in her thoughtful silence. “I’m sorry, Keith—I simply know too much about how horribly humans can treat mers. I worry your mother’s rarity would make her a prize catch, especially if she was with your school.”

Keith tensed, but she could tell he’d had this thought before. She didn’t want to distress him, especially not when Shiro had just begun to fully recover.

“I know many people who are undercover in the illegal pet trade,” she said quickly. “They make sure mers are rescued and put into proper homes, or released if they can be. I will inquire if anyone has seen a purple mer. If she isn’t in the ocean, we will find her.”

Keith’s eyes were wide and wet, and he looked up at her with a wounded expression. Very few humans, it seemed, had ever shown Keith kindness, and Allura’s still took him by surprise at times.

“THANK YOU,” he signed, swimming back up to the surface. She reached her hand back into the water, and he touched her knuckle gently, his face a storm of emotions.

“I’m sorry,” she signed. “I shouldn’t have interrupted your day with this distressing news. Please, enjoy your meal with Shiro. Look after him. I’ll take care of everything. Just worry about yourself and your mate right now.”

Keith seemed to try to gather himself, giving a firm nod before swimming back down to their cave with the food. Allura felt lingering guilt for putting added stress onto Keith, but she hoped he would take her word and try to focus on himself.

But now, with her precious mer out of danger and on his way back to perfect health, she had a new objective.

She had a purple mer to find.

Chapter Text

Shiro wasn’t in the cave when Keith woke up that morning. He woke up before Keith often, but usually stayed with him unless he slept through breakfast. But when Keith sat up, he noticed an odd pile of leaves and rocks in the corner next to where they slept, and he wondered what Shiro had been up to while he’d been asleep.

He wandered out to find Shiro swimming between their tank plants, humming to himself and inspecting leaves one by one before pulling his favorites off their stalks. He was wearing his necklace today, which always made Keith’s heart beat hard and fast in his chest.

“Morning, love,” Keith hummed as he swam up behind Shiro, careful to be heard, before sliding his tail against Shiro’s. “Did I sleep through breakfast?”

Shiro looked at him as if he were surprised to see him, almost in a sort of haze. Keith suddenly feared Shiro was in pain again, or sick, but then he smiled and pulled Keith in for a little kiss.

“Morning,” he hummed back. “You didn’t. I was just…”

He went quiet, looking at the leaves he’d tucked into the pouch he had to make up for his missing arm. Keith could see a few rocks inside, too, weighing it down against his tail. He seemed so far away, so strange, and Keith was worried.

“Shiro?” he asked, touching Shiro’s face with his finger. Shiro looked up, eyes wide, like he’d drifted off again.

“Keith,” he sighed.

“You were just what?” Keith asked gently, taking Shiro’s hand. “Is this… about what you were doing in the cave?”

Shiro looked nervous, disoriented almost, and he tugged his hand out of Keith’s to rub his eyes. “I’m sorry, Keith,” he murmured, but Keith hushed him gently.

“Sorry for what?” he asked, wrapping an arm around Shiro. “What is it, Shiro?”

“I w-was… I was nesting…” Shiro looked at him with wide, teary eyes, as if he’d just realized it himself.

Keith wasn’t quite old enough for the nesting instinct to have taken over, but he knew that a mer only got the nesting instinct when they were mated, and when they felt safe and settled, or when one of the pair was pregnant. Keith took a moment to feel honored that Shiro felt safe enough to nest, and that he trusted Keith to protect him and a hypothetical egg. Even if they couldn’t have one together.

“Shiro,” he sang, twining his tail around Shiro. “My star. It’s okay… You can nest if you need to. I’ll help you. I’ve heard the instinct usually fades after a little while.”

Shiro didn’t seem comforted, instead seeming like he was still in his head. Keith knew there was a filter cycle in only a few minutes, so he gently tugged Shiro back towards their cave.

Shiro placed the leaves and stones in his pouch on the little nest tenderly, arranging each item with care, but he still looked so upset, as if he was frustrated with himself for giving into the instinct. But Keith had always been taught that there was nothing wrong with giving into it, even if a mated pair couldn’t have an egg.

“Shiro,” he said again, curling up next to Shiro on the cave floor, in front of the nest.

“The last time I nested,” he murmured softly. “I was in the ocean. I was with my--with Adam--”

Keith understood now. Shiro still missed the ocean--just as Keith did--but memories of his former mate were even harder, and this was probably something he hadn’t thought he would have to relive. Keith wrapped his arms around Shiro, tugging him in close, and Shiro trembled faintly as he clung to Keith. He could only imagine how hard it was for Shiro to have lost his mate… especially when he’d wanted to raise an egg with him.

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for, my star,” Keith murmured, kissing in his hair.

“There is,” Shiro insisted. “I haven’t… I haven’t been honest with you, Keith. I’m not just nesting because you’re here. I’m… I’m nesting because I…”

Keith squeezed Shiro close, a little pit of sadness forming in his stomach.

“Because you want an egg,” he said softly.

Shiro’s only confirmation was a squeeze, and Keith squeezed right back. Keith didn’t know what to say--what did it matter if he also wanted an egg with Shiro? In the ocean, they at least had a chance of taking an unwanted egg, but in here…

His chest bloomed with grief. He guided Shiro back to their own bed, and laid him down gently, holding him. The filter came on outside, and neither of them moved, wrapped up in each other and silently processing the knowledge that Shiro was preparing a nest that would always be empty.

“Pidge, if you don’t get this door open in ten seconds, that’s two years of work down the drain. Please.”

“He has more firewalls than I predicted, Matt! Just give me a second!”

“Guys,” N7 said through their comm link, her voice nervous. “They’re headed your way, Matt.”

“Pidge!”

“I got it, I got it!”

“Matt!” N7 cried in a hushed voice.

“It’s open!” Pidge shouted. “Go!”

Matt slammed the key card through the slot and slipped through the door sideways, closing it behind him as fast and as quietly as he could. He held his breath as the guard’s boots clicked closer to the door, and then passed without breaking stride.

“Why is there even a guard, anyway?” Pidge asked, as Matt caught his breath. “I thought this was a private residence. Isn’t that why you’re undercover in the first place?”

“Sendak is a gazillionaire, Pidge,” Matt whispered, as he tiptoed further into the room. “The only thing guys like him care about is protecting their property and making sure they stay gazillionaires.”

“Piece of shit,” N7 hissed. “Matt, tell me you’ve found it.”

Matt walked up to the wall behind Sendak’s polished mahogany desk, and took a breath, looking for the switch he knew was hidden there. It turned out to be a book--a copy of Moby Dick--that Matt pulled out of its place, only to hear the click of the latch as the bookshelf slid away into a hidden pocket in the wall.

If Matt hadn’t spent two years undercover as Sendak’s PA, trying to put him away for wildlife trafficking, he’d have to admit that was pretty damn cool.

“Matt?” N7 prompted again, her voice nervous. But Matt could hardly respond when faced with what he was seeing.

An entire wall, floor to ceiling, divided up into tanks housing hundreds of rare mers. One protected mer was enough to get someone a fine in the quintuple digits and guaranteed jail time; hundreds of mers would put Sendak away for life.

“Jackpot,” Matt whispered, hearing the girls whoop and cheer in his comm as he whipped out his phone and started taking pictures. The mers were mostly hiding, likely frightened of anyone who might open this hidden compartment, but the few brave mers who were engaging in threat displays allowed Matt more than enough evidence. He uploaded the photos straight to his contact point with his boss, pausing at one of the tanks. The mer inside had her fins up in a threat display, her gorgeous scales glimmering in the gallery lights meant to show off Sendak’s ill-gotten prizes.

“I’ll get you out of here,” he whispered to her through the glass. “I promise.”

Very few things Matt had ever done in his life were as satisfying as the moment he got to flash his DOJ badge at Sendak, before opening the door to let half a dozen Fish & Wildlife agents into his private study, where his hundreds of trafficked mers were on display.

Matt prayed some of the mers would be able to go back to the ocean. Because their fins were so delicate, many trafficked mers were injured when they were captured, by uncaring traffickers just looking for money. It was more about color and virility than making sure a mer was intact and healthy. So many had to go to rescues, or be taken in by generous vetted enthusiasts who would keep the mers in comfort to live out their days in tanks.

“Matt,” N7 commed, from where she was outside coordinating other evidence gathering. “Don’t forget Allura’s purple.”

“Oh, right,” Matt said, smiling to himself. “What would I do without you, babe?”

“Forget everything,” she answered simply.

Allura had taken in so many of their most troubled mers, ones who couldn’t be released or even donated to preserves or aquariums. Her father had had friends in Fish & Wildlife, and had taught Allura how to care for rescued mers since she was young. Matt was grateful to call her a friend.

She had a mer who claimed his mother was a solitary purple. Even an avid collector like Sendak would be lucky to find a purple on the black market, and Matt had only seen one or two come out of collections like these in his eight years working for the DOJ.

He managed to wheedle one of the Fish & Wildlife agents into letting him see the inventory, as so many of the mers had already been sealed away in the tanks they would use to transport them.

Lots of cobalts and star whites, which were a staple in illegal collections. A few reds, two very rare jets…

Purple (f).............1

Matt was shocked. Sendak had to have friends deeply entrenched in the black market to get his hands on a female purple. If nothing else, it meant he might give some of them up in exchange for a small reduction to his prison sentence, and that alone had Matt dancing for joy.

He couldn’t wait to message Allura. He’d found her a purple.

Allura ran her fingers around the corner of the photograph nervously. She had received word a few days ago from her friend Matt that his latest bust had turned up a purple mer female, like the one she was looking for. It had taken him until now to get her a photograph, as all of the mers in his perp’s collection had to be processed.

She was stunning. Like all purple mers, her coloring wasn’t simply in her scales--her flesh was also a beautiful lavender, and she kept her deep violet hair in a simple shorn cut. She was making a threat display to the camera, and Allura could see all of her brilliant purple fins.

She had promised Keith that she would look for his mother, but now that she had this photograph, she had so many fears. What if it wasn’t her, and she broke Keith’s heart? What if it was her, and she failed to convince the Department of Fish and Wildlife that she could give the beautiful mer a proper home? What if it was her, and she was well enough to be released into the ocean?

Still, Allura knew that no matter what, Keith would want to know that his mother was alive. She would feel the same way, if it was her father. She took a deep breath and walked into the room with her tanks.

Shiro came out to greet her, as he tended to, expecting a puzzle. He turned his head inquisitively when he saw the back of the photograph clutched in her hand.

“Keith?” she signed to him, and he turned and swam into their cave, returning with Keith. The two of them clearly were nervous, and she wasn't sure how to put them at ease. Her news could be good, or it could be bad, and she wouldn't have answers either way for a while.

“Puzzle?” Shiro signed to her, and she sighed.

“Not today,” she signed back. “I’m sorry. I have news. Keith, a friend of mine has found a purple female in a private collection. I want to show you a picture of her, to see if it’s your mother.”

Keith immediately pressed himself to the glass, his eyes wide. She knelt down, frowning at him.

“If it is her,” she signed. “I will do my best to bring her back to you. But she may be well enough to go back to the ocean, and I will have to let them release her. Do you understand?”

Keith nodded quickly, signing clumsily. “YES, UNDERSTAND. PLEASE SHOW.”

Allura sighed again, turning the photo around and pressing it to the glass. The change in Keith was immediate--his tail and fins shuddered, and he plastered himself to the glass, as if he might be able to touch the mer in the photograph if he tried hard enough. Shiro swam up to him hesitantly, and Keith turned into his arms, shivering as Shiro held him and wrapped their tails together.

“Keith?” Allura signed.

Keith and Shiro sang to each other for a moment, curled in each others’ arms. Shiro lifted his eyes to Allura, and signed to her with his one hand. “It is her,” he said.

“I know you’re not sneaking out of here with a couple thousand dollars worth of my equipment.”

Lance winced, his shoe squeaking on the linoleum as his narrow escape ground to a halt. One of the many downsides of working with his sister was that any sneaking skills he’d mastered in their childhood home correlated to the trouble radar that Veronica had honed in the very same place.

“You… wanted me to get footage for that… educational thing they’re doing. That’s where I’m taking it.”

“You wouldn’t need the full carrying case and two charged batteries if you were just taking it down the hall to the mer tank,” Veronica said, finally turning her swivel chair around to level a disbelieving look at him. Suspiciously like a supervillain--all she needed was a fluffy cat in her lap.

“I’m taking precautions,” Lance hedged.

“Yeah right,” Veronica huffed. “It’s my super-advanced camera. I deserve to know where you’re really taking it.”

Lance glared right back. “Our mers here at the aquarium get constant enrichment. Don’t you think a couple mers we settled through the Program would benefit from something like this? In their tiny little tanks? No other fish to play with?”

“Sure,” Veronica shrugged. “Now look me in the eyes without blinking and tell me this isn’t an elaborate excuse for you to go see Allura.”

Lance didn’t know when the last time was that he’d blinked, but suddenly his eyes felt dry. “It’s not,” he said.

“You hesitated,” Veronica said.

“Fine! I think her mers would be great for the footage you need.”

“And you want to hover around her and pretend like you’re drumming up the courage to ask her out to dinner. Hey, don’t let me stop you. Just sign the damn camera out instead of trying to sneak it out under my nose. I would have called security on you.”

“I’ll ask her out!” Lance argued, as Veronica went back to her computers.

“Uh-huh,” she answered.

Allura had noticed things were a little off with her bonded pair.

They were both such energetic mers, but recently they hadn’t been playing quite as much, or singing to each other as they swam around their tank. It had been days since Shiro had asked for a puzzle.

She didn’t want to pry--sometimes even mers had… well, marital problems. Perhaps they were simply sad, about something or another. She tried to confirm that neither of them was sick or injured, but they didn’t seem up to talking.

And then she realized why.

She glimpsed their nest when she was cleaning the glass of their tank. One of them had been nesting, but there wouldn’t be an egg to put in the nest. Not between two males in captivity. Mers were known to rear children in groups, and pregnant mers who didn’t want their eggs freely offered them to same-sex mated pairs or unbonded mers who wanted to raise babies. But the other mers in Allura’s care were too young to be making eggs, and were unlikely to mate with each other. She had no eggs to offer them.

The egg-shaped rock they’d settled in the middle of their nest as a placeholder nearly made her cry.

There was a chance that it was simply the nesting instinct, which would explain their sadness. She knew Shiro had never nested in his time alone, since his previous mate had died. She imagined it had to bring up a lot of painful memories, and serve to remind them that they couldn’t return to the ocean.

But there was also a chance… that they did want an egg. They were the most closely-bonded pair of mers Allura had ever seen, and were both sweet and nurturing enough that she was sure they would make wonderful parents.

The only matter, then, was how to get them an egg, and whether they would want one.

“Shiro,” she signed to him the next day, as she brought them food. “I… noticed you were nesting with Keith.”

She knew she was right about the cause of the couple’s somber mood, simply from the way Shiro wilted as she called him out.

“Yes,” he signed back simply.

“Do you two… want to raise an egg?” she asked carefully.

Shiro looked at her, a little wounded and sad. “Yes,” he signed again. “We have talked about wanting an egg. But we cannot.”

Allura smiled softly through the glass at her poor mer. He’d been through so much, and he had made himself content with his lot, finding the small joys in tank life and in sharing that life with Keith. He rarely asked for more, even when Allura wanted to give him everything.

“Shiro,” she signed slowly. “I have many friends who keep rehabilitated mers, just as I do. If I ask around, I bet someone would be able to find me an egg.”

Shiro dropped the food he’d taken from her fingers, and it drifted to the tank floor. “You would find an egg for us?” he signed, his hand-fins shaking a little.

Allura smiled. “If you are both sure you want an egg, I will start looking,” she promised.

Shiro swam a few tight, excited circles, before swimming right down to their cave to find Keith--only to stop halfway, and swim back to the surface to sign to her.

“Yes, yes!” he signed. “Yes, please Allura! Thank you! Yes! I will tell Keith! Thank you!”

She giggled as he turned to swim back down to the cave, darting right in, the dropped food forgotten.

She had asked so much of her network lately, between getting help with Shiro’s injury and her search for Keith’s mother. But she had a feeling that for her two little lovebirds, her friends might be willing to help out one more time.

“What did you say this was for again?” Allura asked, hovering a little more than she knew she should. She trusted Lance, of course--he knew his way around mers--but she still worried for her little friends.

“The Aquarium’s Animal Ambassador program is putting together some educational films about mer behavior. Research is saying that if we show mers in captivity and teach people about how they live in the wild, it will help with the trafficking problem.” He flicked on a small button, and the battery pack he’d stashed under the table began to glow green. “There we go!” he said. “All ready.”

“I’ll get them to come out for you,” Allura said, but Lance just smiled.

“No need!” he said. “We want them to interact with it totally naturally. Just like wild mers would with a foreign object.” He rolled the small, ball-shaped camera in his hand, before holding it over the gap in the lid that Allura had opened for him. With one last nod of consent from Allura, he dropped it in, and they both watched it sink to the bottom of the tank.

Nadia came out first, always the boldest, to investigate the camera. Lance had set up a tablet with the recording facing away from the tank, and Allura watched in fond amusement as Nadia circled it, her curious expression captured on film.

Ina was next, always attached to Nadia’s fin, and she inspected it from the other side, rolling it over in the gravel. The camera had a gyroscope, so the view was always pointing at the mers, even as they amused themselves with rolling it along the floor of the tank.

James and Ryan came out before long, and the four of them began tapping the new object, lifting it, tossing it between them. Allura gave them puzzles often, just as she did for Shiro, but with their combined curiosity and never-ending energy, they tended to solve them rather quickly. They weren’t unlike cats, Allura thought in amusement, as she watched them throw the camera-ball through their reed forest. Even if she bought them expensive enrichment toys, the four of them could find just as much amusement with the box.

She looked over to find Lance staring at her, but he averted his gaze quickly, clearing his throat. Allura knew he had plenty of mers at his disposal for this kind of thing, and she didn’t quite buy the story that her mers were uniquely qualified to educate the masses. But she didn’t mind the company, and Lance was sweet.

“This is all, uh, great stuff,” Lance said, moving around her in the tight space to watch the feed on the tablet. “They seem like they’re having fun.”

Ryan had lifted the camera and began peering into the lens, following the others around with it as if in a game of tag.

“They are,” Allura hummed. “They’re a fun little pod.”

“Where are your other ones?” Lance asked, gesturing to Shiro and Keith’s tank. Usually the two would be making laps, playing, singing to each other, but the tank was quiet. Allura pictured them huddled in their cave around an empty nest, and her heart ached.

“Nesting,” she sighed, crossing her arms. “Poor things. I know Shiro desperately wants an egg, but… most of the other mer owners I know don’t have breeding pairs at the moment. It’s proving difficult to find them one.”

Lance bit his lip. “Maybe the aquarium can help,” he shrugged.

“Lance… you release your newborns into the wild. It’s where they should be--I wouldn’t want to take a wild mer--”

“Not even for your favorite pair?” Lance said with a little smile, knowing Allura would do just about anything for her mers. Especially Shiro. The first time they’d met, she’d talked Lance’s ear off about Shiro’s rescue and recovery, how proud she was of him for overcoming such adversity and adjusting to tank life.

Allura sighed, watching the young ones play with the camera. “I’m just not sure,” she said. “If I knew a breeding pair in captivity with eggs to spare, it might be different. But an egg from your Program…”

“Then I’ll… I’ll reach out. The Aquarium knows plenty of people. Sometimes we get calls about trafficked collections… eventually, someone will have an egg that needs a home. I’ll put you on our list to call.”

Allura smiled at Lance, grateful that he was so willing to help. Even though her list of trusted mer-owning friends was dedicated, it was short. Having the Aquarium as a resource would greatly expand her search area, and gave her some hope for her favorite pair.

“Thank you, Lance,” she said softly. “That means a lot.”

Lance beamed, his cheeks flushing adorably. “‘Course,” he said. “No problem.”

“I’ll probably have to work on finding a larger tank, if the boys are going to grow their family,” Allura sighed. “This whole room could use a facelift.”

Lance kicked a piece of the thin linoleum tile that was coming up near his sneaker. “Don’t you get a stipend from the program?” he asked.

“It goes to food, supplements, enrichment… I have a little saved up, but not enough to do everything.”

“I could help,” Lance said quickly. “I mean--cutting labor costs can help bring the budget down. I used to help out with my uncle’s deck business in the summers in high school, so I can… swing a hammer.”

Allura chuckled. “You don’t have to do such a thing,” she said. “I’ll find a way.”

“You don’t have to,” Lance argued, a little more gently. “I’d be happy to help. I bet Hunk would, too. We know how important your mers are to you. They deserve a good environment.”

Allura looked back up at Lance, touched by his words. “The best we can give them,” she agreed, echoing words her father used to say. She pictured him bent over these tanks at her side, showing her the wonder of mers, their intelligence and kindness and ingenuity. She held no illusions that she could do the necessary renovations on her own… but if an egg was coming, let alone another mer, she would need to be ready to give them the best home she could.

Lance smiled at her, a tender thing that almost took her breath away. “I can start next weekend,” he said. “I’ll borrow some tools from my uncle. He may even have some wood we can use, to build some tank stands.”

Allura returned his smile, and this time the flush was in her cheeks. “Thank you, Lance,” she said, touching his arm gently. “You’re the best.”

“N-no problem,” he said, clearing his throat again, as Allura hid a giggle behind her hand.

Chapter Text

Shiro couldn’t remember his tank being this quiet since before Keith had arrived. Keith wasn’t exactly a chatterbox, and sometimes the two of them sat in comfortable silence together watching the sun set outside Allura’s windows. But this was not that same comfortable silence.

Keith had withdrawn after he’d seen the photo Allura showed him of his mother. He had been swimming laps with Shiro, eating with him as they always did, but… he felt far away. Shiro found him gazing off at nothing sometimes, lost in the motions of brushing out his hair, or eating, or preening his fins.

Shiro wanted to help, but he still struggled every day with his nesting instincts, which had only become more difficult to manage now that he had the glimmer of hope that they might get an egg from Allura. Every time she walked into the room, Shiro’s heart leapt, wondering if this would be the day he and Keith would be gifted the egg she had said she would look for. But more than a moon cycle had passed since she’d made that promise, and while Shiro trusted her… the wait was eating away at him. Keith often had to tug him gently away from rearranging the nest around their placeholder egg, preening the leaves to make them soft and comfortable. Sometimes he didn’t even realize he was doing it, and he knew it upset Keith to see him that way.

The water between them was heavy with unspoken wants and wishes that neither of them would to put to words, frightened that they may never come true.

When Allura came by with their food that evening, Shiro asked again, throwing caution to the wind. “Egg?” he signed, as she came close. Her face immediately fell, and Shiro was struck with guilt. He knew she was trying her best.

“I am sorry,” she signed back. “Not yet. We are looking.”

Shiro nodded, giving her a little smile and touching her hand as it dipped in to give them dinner. He knew that if she could, she would have given them an egg the first time they asked. He just… had to be patient. It was no different than waiting for a laying, he told himself. These things took time, and rushing them didn’t help anyone.

Still. He longed, and he swam back to their cave with his food, ignoring the look he knew Keith was giving him.

“Shiro,” Keith sang, as he followed him in, finding him curled up next to their nest.

“It’s fine,” Shiro replied, knowing what Keith was going to say. “I’m just being impatient, I know I am.”

Keith appeared before him, his food set aside, his face lined with worry. “You’re sad,” Keith cooed. “I can see it, my star. It’s okay to be sad. To wish things would get better.”

It didn’t feel fair. Keith was dealing with his own feelings over seeing his mother, and Allura had already done so much for them. She had saved his life, more than once. Who was he to ask for more?

“I’m fine,” Shiro repeated, and this time Keith nudged his fingers under Shiro’s chin, tilting his head up. Shiro didn’t feel the true weight of his sadness until he blinked up at Keith’s concerned expression.

“You aren’t,” Keith insisted gently. “You can be honest with me, my love.”

“Allura’s trying her best,” Shiro argued back, shaking his head, but Keith held him fast.

“I’m not blaming Allura,” Keith said. “I’m saying that we want an egg. And it’s hard to wait. It hurts, not knowing if or when it’s coming.”

It was the first time Keith had said ‘we’ in their conversations about their egg. Shiro knew he wanted one, he had assured Shiro of that… but he didn’t know Keith was also feeling the pain of anticipation, and it caught him off guard.

“...It hurts,” he finally agreed, letting all of his fear and sadness bubble up to the surface. “What if she never finds an egg, Keith? What if--if I’m a bad father, and we lose the pup? What if--”

“Shiro--”

“--If I lose you like I lost--”

“Shiro.” Keith took Shiro’s face in both his hands, touching their foreheads. Shiro could feel his breaths, the way the water moved between them, Keith’s warm skin against his, their scales sliding together.

“Allura will find us an egg. She is a good human, and if she is well-connected enough to find my mother, then she can find us an egg.”

Shiro took in a breath, nodding in Keith’s hold. He knew Keith was right, but… the wait was so painful. Would it be another moon cycle? Another three moon cycles? Would he be old by the time he became a father?

“She will find us an egg. A good, healthy egg. And she will look after us so that we can look after our pup. We will be a family.” His arms slipped around Shiro’s shoulders, and Shiro went into Keith’s hold eagerly, needing the comfort. He wanted so badly to believe Keith… but Shiro had seen so many loved ones die. He didn’t know if he could survive losing a baby, or another mate--especially not one as perfect as Keith.

“I know you’re scared,” Keith hummed to him, “but it will be okay. It would take all of the gods of the ocean to tear me away from you and our pup. Everything will be okay.”

That, Shiro could believe, and he chuckled past the lump in his throat. His mate was nothing if not stubborn, and he imagined even the combined might of the gods might not stand up to Keith once he’d put his mind to something.

“I’ll be right here,” Keith promised, kissing Shiro’s temple. “Always.”

Shiro wanted to believe it, and for now… he would. He took a deep breath, holding his mate close and forcing himself to let go of his fear. He let himself trust his mate, losing himself to the comfort of his sweet promises, hoping with all of his heart that they would come true.



Even without looking for her anywhere else, Matt had a feeling he would find N7 in warm storage with all of the mers--and as he rounded the corner and heard her fingers clicking away on her keyboard, he knew he was right.

Sendak’s full collection had been seized, and Matt had the privilege of watching him be escorted, clad in prison orange, into and out of his first pre-trial hearing. Being the court rep for Fish & Wildlife wasn’t his favorite work duty, but damn if it wasn’t satisfying to watch the bastards he caught get convicted in real time.

But now the hard work of rehabilitating, releasing, and rehoming all of Sendak’s exotic trafficked pets was ahead of them. Specimen inspections took time, especially since they didn’t want to hurt or stress the animals any more than they already had been. Matt was just glad they’d already passed off Sendak’s taxidermy collection; no matter how many preserved mers in jars he’d seen, their glassy eyes always made him nauseous.

Sendak’s seized mers had been moved into larger tanks, much more comfortable than the cramped tanks he had them sorted into--featureless glass boxes without any enrichment or hiding places. Many of them, under close observation by the rehabilitators, had begun to form a temporary school, caring for the injured and the elderly, herding the young into groups so that they could be looked after by pairs or trios of older mers.

It made Matt immeasurably happy to see them swimming around their huge tank, playing with toys, darting in and out of real tank plants, and singing away to each other.

“How’s it going?” he asked N7 as he strolled alongside the tank, moving carefully so he wouldn’t startle any of the mers.

“Slow,” N7 lamented. “Olia called in sick this morning, so we only got three check-ups done.”

“And?”

“Out of the fifteen first-round check-ups we’ve completed, only two mers are fit to be released.”

“Shit,” Matt hissed, combing his hand through his hair. “These damn traffickers… you’d think a collector like Sendak would want his mers intact. For the money he’s paying, for fuck’s sake--”

“I know,” N7 said, barely looking up from her spreadsheet. “But there’s nothing we can do about that now. We just have to focus on getting them home.”

Matt scratched at his five-o’clock shadow, looking back at the tank. Even if they were fully healthy, it was hard to release some extremely rare mers back into the ocean. Depending on which schools they were placed with, releasing them was almost a guarantee they would be poached again, leading to further possibility that they would be injured or killed. It was a hard line to walk, but Matt wondered if he could give N7 and himself at least one easy win today.

“What about Allura’s purple?” he asked.

“She’s only gone through one first-round check-up,” N7 sighed, sitting back in her chair. “So far, one major tear in her left anterior dorsal, and possible bone damage in her tail. Could have been broken and re-healed wrong. She’s a fighter, though--bit the shit out of Olia during her check-up, and then bit Rolo three more times when he went in for other individuals.”

“She’s a solitary, though,” Matt said curiously, perching at the edge of N7’s desk.

“But she’s had a clutch. Allura’s mer is her pup, right? Even solitary mers may still act on their parental instincts with other members of their school, especially juveniles. She’s been forced into close quarters, so her instinct for solitude may have been eclipsed.”

“Huh,” Matt said, gazing over at the tank. The purple was nowhere to be seen, but that was to be expected. Even if they stayed with a school, solitary mers needed lots of time alone.

“The chances that we’ll be able to rehome her with Allura are slim, Matt,” N7 said, her professional facade dropping away for a moment as she rested her hand over his on the desk. “Rehoming a rare mer like her… Allura will have to pass a hefty inspection with the Bureau to prove she can care for a mer like that. And the background check alone could take weeks.”

Matt hummed. He’d known that from the start. Releasing the purple would have surely been painful for Allura and her little mer, but the rehoming process would be arduous, and no doubt stressful for everyone involved.

“Still,” Matt said. “Everyone knows how amazing Allura is--even the Bureau. And if she already has a member of the school with her, it’ll be an argument for an easier transition. She’s brought mers back from the brink of death to full health and happiness. They won’t find a spot on her record.”

N7 sighed again. “I know. I just don’t want to get her hopes up.”

Matt nodded, turning his hand over to squeeze hers. “I know, babe. I won’t make any promises I can’t keep. Just… keep the purple high on your list, if you can. Okay?”

“I’ll try,” she said. “We have a lot of adolescents, though. They’ll need to go through second round check-ups ahead of the others.”

“I know,” Matt said, leaning over to kiss N7’s head. “Just do your best. I’ll keep Allura updated. You’re amazing.”

“You’re amazing,” N7 said back, and Matt could hear the fondness in her voice.

Matt opened his phone as she went back to typing, swiping past a few messages from Pidge to pull up his conversation with Allura. He wasn’t going to give her any false hope, as he’d promised… but the idea that they could reunite members of a family group was undeniably exciting. He just hoped he could pull enough strings to make it happen.



Hunk showed up bright and early, as promised, the day of the tank room remodel.

She had tried to warn her mers about what was going to happen, to help reduce their stress, but she worried about them--especially her bonded pair--as they moved the tanks out into the next room. The mers pressed themselves to the glass, interested in the new view, and Allura watched each of them for a few minutes to be sure they were alright.

“How is your pair doing, anyway?” Hunk asked, as the two of them moved old cardboard boxes of tank stones and food out into the driveway to make space. “Shiro still feeling okay?”

Allura sighed. It broke her heart every day to show up with their meals and no egg, nor any news of Keith’s mother. But neither could be rushed, and she hoped they trusted her to bring them news in time.

“Shiro seems to be struggling,” she finally said. “His nesting instinct isn’t fading with time… likely because I told them I would try to find them an egg. It seems painful for him to keep nesting with no promise of a pup… but Keith is helping keep his spirits up. I just worry.”

“Shiro’s been through a lot,” Hunk said, taking an old, dusty tank filter from her and putting it aside. “It might feel like he’s vulnerable, but I think that experience makes him strong. And this time, he’s not alone. He has you, and Keith, and you’re both taking good care of him.”

Allura hoped so. She was passionate about giving her mers the best lives they could possibly have, but it was hard not to feel helpless with things like this; things that couldn’t be fixed with medicine.

Together, she and Hunk dusted every corner of the room, moving the tables and pulling up the old linoleum flooring tiles. There was, blessedly, still wood flooring underneath, and Hunk had brought over the tools to get it shining again.

Just after lunch, Lance drove up with the new tanks. They were from a defunct Aquarium display, and much larger than her previous tanks. Allura hoped that they may make room for her little school to do some more growing, and for her bonded pair to expand their family. With any luck, they would even leave room for a couple more additions.

The three of them spread out in the sunshine to clean the new tanks, apply new silicone sealant to the corners, and install the new features Allura had bought for some of them. A new, quieter filter would be going to her pair, to help with Shiro’s tank stress, and the school would be getting an enrichment tube system which would allow them to play, as well as find some quiet away from their tank mates when needed.

“Do you think I’m doing the right thing, Lance?” Allura asked, chewing her thumbnail as Hunk fiddled with the new filter system.

“What do you mean? Your mers are gonna love the bigger space. Are you kidding?”

“Not that,” Allura sighed. “I meant with Shiro and Keith. With the egg, and Keith’s mother… it’s so much for them both to handle.”

Lance let out a breath, setting aside the tangled filter cords he was working on and touching her knee. “They’ll be fine,” he assured her, his voice gentle. “Things feel hard right now, but you’re doing what’s best for them in the long run. We’ll find them an egg soon, I promise.”

Hunk made a sound of triumph as he got the filter hooked up, and the three of them set about getting the tank filled with sand and enrichment items. Allura had splurged on more plants and tank features for the boys, but she couldn’t bear to make them part with their old cave, so she left a space for it to be put on the tank floor in the back corner. They would want the privacy once they had a family.

She looked at the smaller tank to the left, and the tube attachment she’d bought to allow travel between the tanks. It had been a hopeful, preemptive purchase, but she hoped Matt’s efforts on her behalf would allow it to be put to good use before long.



Lance had never gotten up and out the door for work so quickly in his life.

An early email from Shay told him there was a pod of rescued mers coming in, and they would have some sorting to do. Lance had scrolled through the email casually as he munched his morning toast, until he got to a bullet point that made his heart jump:

“- 2 orphaned eggs (source carers? No capacity in BT 2)”

Lance had dropped the rest of his toast, gulped his coffee fast enough to burn his throat, and run out the door as fast as he could. He had to get to the Aquarium as fast as he could, before Shay--the efficient early-bird she was--gave away both the eggs.

The Aquarium was sleepy this early, with so many hours to go before they were open to the public. The penguins greeted him with eager squawks, anticipating breakfast, but he just waved to them in apology as he sped back towards the labs behind Big Tank 2, where the mers swam in a fantastic, multicolored school.

“Don’t move those eggs!” he shouted as he burst into the lab, and Shay jumped, the food scoop in her hand going flying along with its contents.

“Lance!” she exclaimed, practically trembling from the shock of his entrance. “Gods, where did you come from? You’re early!”

Lance leaned his hands on his knees to catch his breath, dropping his jacket and messenger bag unceremoniously on the floor. “Don’t,” he huffed, “give away the eggs yet.”

She sighed, going to her knees to clean up the spilled food, as a couple of the mers in their rehabilitation tanks pressed their faces to the glass in fascination, singing back and forth.

“I wasn’t going to give the eggs away,” she said, sweeping up the spilled food. “I sent that email forty-five minutes ago, for pity’s sake. The pod has barely been inventoried.”

“Allura needs an egg,” he continued, his lungs still burning from his run between the train and the Aquarium entrance. “She has a mated pair that have been nesting for almost two months. And--and she just updated her tank setup, she has plenty of room for another mer--she’s worked so hard--”

“Lance,” Shay said, standing again to set the food aside. “Slow down. Breathe.”

Her huge hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he did as instructed, finally catching his breath. He wiped sweat from his brow, lifting his head, and found her smiling at him like an incredibly tall, buff angel.

“I know you trust Allura,” she said kindly. “And I know she’s a great carer. As long as the eggs don’t have any pressing issues, I’ll try to get her to the top of the list.”

“Shay,” Lance said, resting his hand on hers. “I hope you don’t take this the wrong way. But I could kiss you right now.”

“Please don’t,” she said nervously, as Lance picked up his things and hurried to put them in his cubby by the door.

“What do we need to do to finish inventory?” he asked, already scrubbing up. Shay looked at him, surprised, and he knew he’d never come into work any time other than fashionably late. She could judge him if she wanted--even though he knew Shay would never--but he would come into work as early as he needed to get Allura her egg.

“Um…” Shay said, looking around for a clipboard she’d tossed aside. “Well… the adult males need their final check-ups. They all need to be acclimated--they’re still in the temp sea tanks. And we need to candle the eggs, and confirm that they’re orphaned.”

“I’m your guy,” Lance said immediately, taking the clipboard from her and heading right back to the sea tanks. The sooner he got this pod through their intake, the sooner he could put Allura’s name on the list.



Allura had run from the house quickly enough that morning that the slamming of the door had woken Keith. He was careful not to disturb Shiro as he swam out of their cave, watching the first rays of sunlight peek over the edge of the window as he slowly swam around the edge of their new tank.

It was significantly larger than their last one, with a new wealth of luscious plants and moss, some of which Keith recognized from the ocean, and which gave their water the comforting, briny smell of home. There were new rocks and logs to explore, new dark places to swim into, and a better view of the room around them, as well as the tank across the way. And best of all, the new filter was much quieter, only making a soft humming sound as it made bubbles on the surface of their water. Keith had never been more grateful for anything Allura had given them. With Shiro’s nesting instincts still stressing him out, the relief of not having to be vigilant in their wait for the filter cycle had taken a huge burden off their minds. The newfound freedom of being able to swim their tank at any hour had put them both in good spirits.

There was a new tank as well, adjoining theirs, but it lay empty and dry, and Keith wondered if Allura planned to bring another mer into her collection. At first, he’d felt hopeful that it meant she had found his mother, but after a couple more weeks of no news, he had forced himself to let the hope go. It would do nothing but poison him if it turned out his mother was well enough to go home.

He’d taken to doing circuits of the new tank--not just to explore their new habitat, but to quiet the feeling inside him that compelled him to patrol for danger. Keith knew there was nowhere safer than their tank, under Allura’s kindly watchful eye, but after so long of watching Shiro nest, it was only a matter of time before his own parental instincts began to take over. He inspected every dark hiding place, every plant, every corner and nook of their tank for signs of predators. There never were any, of course, but it quieted his soul to carry out the patrols anyway. If nothing else, he was grateful that Shiro wasn’t the only one being subjected to his parental instinct, and he hoped that watching him patrol put Shiro at ease as well. Even with no real threats, Shiro deserved to feel protected by his mate.

He found a perch on top of a rock at the far end of their tank, and watched clouds move across the sky outside the window for a long while. His thoughts always drifted to his mother these days, whenever things were quiet and calm. He thought of the last time he’d seen her, swimming along beside him, desperate to deter the humans scooping members of their school into clear bags and carrying them away. His bloody fight to escape the humans’ clutches and free his schoolmates had been the end of his life in the ocean--his mother had stayed behind to save those remaining, and get them to safety. He knew that the safety of the school was more important than his life, and that she probably hadn’t even known he’d been set adrift, left for dead to wash up on shore. He hoped she didn’t regret turning away from him to save the others; even if he had once been hurt by the thought of it, in the end, it had brought him to Shiro. To his star, his mate, and this quiet life. He didn’t regret a moment of it.

“It is very early for you to be thinking so hard,” came Shiro’s sweet song, and Keith turned to him with a smile. He held out his arm, and Shiro swam into it, tucking what was left of his own arm over Keith’s shoulder.

“It’s not that early, sleepyhead,” Keith laughed, tucking his head into Shiro’s neck.

“Too early for that look in your eyes,” Shiro said, and Keith hummed in reply. Shiro didn’t push, though--they’d both been plenty preoccupied lately. Shiro trusted Keith to talk if he needed to.

“Breakfast?” Shiro asked after a while of silence while they both watched sunbeams and clouds in their slow progress across the blue sky.

“Allura left early,” Keith answered. “She seemed to be in a hurry. I’m sure she’ll be back soon.”

Shiro hummed in acknowledgement. Another perk of living in Allura’s home--the feeling of dread after a failed hunt, of ignoring their hunger to allow other schoolmates to feed, was a distant memory to them both. Even if they skipped one meal here or there, Allura never allowed them to go hungry.

The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a while longer, before, as if summoned, Allura walked through the door. The two of them lifted themselves up--though not before Keith left a warm kiss on Shiro’s cheek to say good morning--in anticipation of the arrival of their breakfast.

Instead, a bustle of activity was what greeted them. Allura was there, talking animatedly, and the irritating man in the blue uniform was with her, beaming like the sun. Keith was wary of his presence, hanging back in the reeds, though he hoped his arrival meant something fun for Shiro to do. His mate deserved a nice distraction.

The other pod had also swam up to get food, but Allura went straight for Keith’s and Shiro’s tank, her face alight with excitement. Without his permission, Keith’s heart leapt.

“Keith?” Allura signed to Shiro, and Keith heard his mate singing for him. Still keeping an eye on the uniformed man, Keith came out of hiding, joining Shiro. Only one of Allura’s hands was visible, the other tucked behind her, and her one-handed signing, unlike Shiro’s, was slow.

“I… have… surprise. Are… you… ready?”

Shiro signed back to her eagerly ‘yes yes yes,’ and Keith could see the anticipation in his love’s face. He prayed and prayed to the spirits of the sea that he wasn’t about to be let down.

Allura produced a container from behind her, which seemed to be empty at first glance--but Keith realized there was water sloshing inside. His heart picked up, and he could feel Shiro warming up with excitement beside him.

“Keith,” Shiro hummed in a thick voice. “Keith… is it…?”

Allura reached up to partially submerge the container, and from up close, through the foggy plastic barrier, Keith saw the tiniest white orb floating at the bottom.

“Keith--!” Shiro cried, and Keith felt his whole body light up. Shiro had his arm around him, and Keith held him tightly, gazing in awe at the egg in front of them. Their egg.

Allura lifted the container back out of their water, and Shiro almost swam up and out to follow it.

Allura set the container down gently to better sign to them, but Shiro was hardly paying attention, swimming down to keep his eyes on it. “The egg will need to come to temperature slowly, but I will give it to you as soon as I can,” she said, and Keith nodded to her, so she would know someone was listening. He didn’t quite understand, but he knew eggs were fragile things, and trusted that she was acting out of an abundance of caution.

She and the uniformed man put together some sort of contraption to clip the container to the edge of their tank, partially submerging it so that the water the egg was in could start to warm up to their water’s temperature. Shiro pressed himself to the plastic wall of the container, watching their egg drift about in its isolated habitat. Keith pressed in right alongside him, putting his arm around Shiro’s waist and feeling his ragged breaths.

“Keith… it’s our egg,” he sang, his voice wobbling. “It’s our pup.”

Keith snuggled in close, kissing Shiro’s cheek, finally tearing his eyes away from their egg to look at his mate’s face. He was flushed, grinning from ear to ear, his eyes wide and full of wonder. Keith didn’t think he could possibly love him any more.

“It is,” Keith hummed, squeezing Shiro. “I told you it would come.”

Shiro just chuckled softly, uncaring of the soft hum of the filter, or the bustle of activity caused by Allura and her friend.

Their whole world, in just a moment, had been reduced to this: their little tank, and their little egg, and the thin plastic barrier that was all that separated them from their future.



The wait was agony. Allura checked the water often, using an instrument of some kind to measure the water of their tank, and then their egg’s tank. Every time she did so, Shiro popped his head above the surface of the water, eager for the go-ahead from Allura. But she tested it many times before she did anything but walk away afterwards.

Shiro thought the wait to get their egg would be the worst wait, and now he was sure that the wait to finally touch it would be what killed him. Keith tried to placate him with gentle touches and words, but it had been far too long that he’d waited to start his family. He didn’t want to wait another second.

Finally, Allura unclipped the container from the edge of their tank, lifting it out and grabbing a familiar tool from the drawer below. It was the same kind of net she had used to lower Keith into Shiro’s tank the first time--the net he had almost chewed through to finally take Shiro into his arms, to feel him and sing to him and be with him. Shiro had been given his beautiful mate by such a net, and now it would also convey their first egg--the start of their family.

Allura was achingly gentle as she coaxed the egg into the net, and she took her time lowering it into their tank, her face full of anticipation. Shiro wanted nothing more than to rip open the net, just as Keith had done, to finally hold their egg in his arms--but he knew he, too, had to be careful. It was clear that the egg had hardened, that in this stage it was a bit more impervious to life’s bumps and bruises, but the last thing he wanted to do was harm their precious new life.

He swam into the net slowly, and Keith helped with a bit of gentle pushing from below, allowing Shiro to pluck their egg from the net and swim back out into his mate’s arms. The egg was the perfect temperature, and nestled into Shiro’s arm, it felt like it had been made to rest there, in the crook of his elbow. Keith wrapped both of them up, their egg pressed between their chests, and they shared a look of deep fondness and excitement. Shiro knew Keith had been excited, but now he could see it in his mate’s eyes, sparkling brighter than the sun.

He gently deposited the egg into Keith’s hands, swimming up to catch Allura before she pulled back. He rested his hand on hers, utterly dwarfed by her gentle fingers, and sang her a song of thanks, signing to make sure she understood.

“Thank you,” he signed. “Thank you. Thank you.”

Allura smiled at him, and he knew she understood--she had cared for him for so long, and he had come to love her so dearly, but even he had never thought she would make such a dream come true for him. He didn’t know what or where he would be without her kindness.

“You are happy, so I am happy,” Allura signed back to him. “Please tell me if you need anything.”

Shiro promised that they would, and with a gentle arm around Keith, they took their egg home.

It felt like an eternity had passed since Keith had helped him place the stone in their nest, both of them hoping that its presence would help assuage the pain of unfulfilled nesting instincts. Shiro hadn’t let himself imagine the joy of finally removing the rock to replace it with their egg, but it was that exact joy that bubbled up in him as he fluffed the leaves and moss of the nest, making it as soft as he could for their little one.

Together, they rested their egg in the nest, and something deep in Shiro’s heart, something he’d thought would never heal after the tragedy of his lost mate, finally stitched itself back together. He put his arm around Keith, who held and kissed him joyfully, and basked in the utter peace of finally being surrounded by his family.



Allura wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye as her little mated pair finally swam into their cave with their new egg. Lance didn’t push, only rubbed her back gently as she collected herself.

“Thank you,” she said to him, wondering if he could possibly know how happy his call had made her. Getting to give this gift to her mers was one of the greatest joys she’d felt since taking in her first mer.

Lance looked at her, and her heart fluttered at the feeling of his gaze, so warm and gentle. His hand on her arm suddenly felt electric, and she found she couldn’t pull her eyes away.

“You’re welcome,” he said to her, and they both smiled.

Chapter Text

“Can you state your name for the record, please?”

“Allura Raimonson,” Allura said, clasping her hands nervously on the particle board desktop.

The woman across from her had a fairly severe face, and her resting expression was a serious one. It did nothing to calm Allura’s nerves. She knew Matt was fighting for her to be the one to rehome Keith’s mother, but the Bureau didn’t have an overwhelming interest in favoring certain carers, even if it meant reuniting families. Allura knew it would be her privilege to take any of the confiscated mers into her care, and she would do so with pleasure. But it would break her heart to bring home a mer that wasn’t Keith’s mother, and hurt her little friend in the process.

“My name is Merla,” the woman said, “and I’m with Fish and Wildlife. This is a rehoming candidacy interview, and this recording will only be used for the benefit of the Bureau’s redistribution of specimens seized under our jurisdiction.”

It was said for the benefit of the little recorder on the table between them, and Allura tried to look past how dry the procedure was.

“You have an impressive history of successful rehoming,” Merla said, looking over the dossier in her hand. “Can you tell us a bit about your history with mers?”

Allura nodded, and gave Merla her biggest, warmest smile. “Of course. My father had a close relationship with many people at the Aquarium’s Rehabilitation center, and through him I have been around mers for most of my life. I started helping him care for his pods when I was thirteen, and I inherited two of his individuals after he passed away, when I was nineteen. Those two sadly passed of old age, and I waited a couple of years to save up for a proper tank for my own home before taking in a mer of my own. He had been gravely injured, and I received him from a Mer Rescue my father had worked with. I have been able to teach him to sign, and we have become good friends.”

Merla raised her eyebrows as she took notes, and Allura took it as a sign that she was impressed. It bolstered her as she went on.

“Since then, I have taken in another pod of four, from the same Rescue. With the help of my first mer, Shiro, they all adjusted to tank life nicely. And then, at the end of last year, I took in my latest mer. He was with a friend of mine in Mer Rescue, but his temperament was very difficult, so I volunteered to take him on. Shiro, thankfully, helped to get him adjusted, and the two became a bonded pair. They just welcomed their first egg.”

Merla nodded, taking notes in a slanted, scripted hand that Allura couldn’t hope to read upside down. She could tell from the dossier that she had top marks as a carer, but the Bureau’s network of carers was broad, and her friendships with Matt and N7 wouldn’t get her as far here as they did at the Aquarium.

“Do you feel you have space for another mer, both physically and financially?” Merla asked, clinical but without judgment.

“Yes,” Allura said, letting excitement bleed into her voice. “I have just made a large upgrade to my tanks, which I have dedicated space for in my home. My bonded pair have upgraded from a 170 to a 220-gallon tank, and my pod of four are in 400 gallons. I repurposed the 170-gallon tank with the intention of housing one more mer, ideally a solitary one. I receive care stipends from the Rescue program, but I am gainfully employed full time. To be honest, I spend my money on little else besides things for my mers.”

It was a little bit of vulnerable honesty, but Merla didn’t have the response Allura was hoping for. She simply nodded and kept writing her notes. Allura tried not to tell herself that this was going badly.

“And what is your capacity to care for injured and disabled mers?” Merla asked.

“I have extensive experience with mer illness and injury,” Allura reassured her. “I have triage certification, and am in close contact with two veterinary experts in aquatic species. One of them, a friend from the Rescue, lives only a few minutes away. I have called on him in the past--he’s very reliable.”

Merla nodded again. Allura picked at a hangnail nervously.

“And on what grounds did you notify the Bureau of your willingness to rehome a confiscated mer?” Merla asked.

Allura sighed softly. “To be honest,” she said, “my latest rescue was telling me about his family. He mentioned in passing that his mother was a solitary purple, and that he hadn’t seen her since the incident that almost cost him his life. He and his mate… have both been through so much. I felt I owed it to him to explore the possibility that his mother may be out there, in human hands.” She let out a breath, determined. “Mers are my lifelong passion. Even if I cannot bring Keith’s mother home, knowing that she is alive and well-cared for is enough. I see this application as a new opportunity to give a good home to a mer who has suffered in human hands. For all we have done to their species, they deserve that much.”

Merla looked at her, a flicker of something crossing her face for just a moment before she went back to her notes.

“Thank you for your interest in our Rehoming program,” Merla said, and then reached over to shut off the recorder. She put down her pen and stacked Allura’s dossier back in its folder, before turning a warm smile towards Allura--the first she’d given since they’d come into the conference room. It transformed her severe face into something much more welcoming.

“Well,” she said, “you did great! They didn’t tell me you are seeking a family member of one of your rescues. That’s so special!”

Allura was a little deterred by the sudden change in Merla’s temperament, but not enough to keep her from returning Merla’s smile. “It is,” she agreed. “I feel very lucky to have found her.”

“I obviously can’t promise that you’ll be the one we rehome her with,” Merla said, a little despondent. “The Rehoming Committee has to look at all the dossiers and pick the carer with the right background. But I’ve made sure to emphasize your experience, and the possible health benefits of rehoming a mer with their own schoolmates.”

Allura felt as though she’d been given a gift, and she beamed, resisting the urge to take Merla’s hand and squeeze it. “Thank you,” she said. “It really would mean so much to Keith. Especially now that his own family is growing.”

Merla smiled again. “Well, you’re certainly on the list, Allura. We’ll keep you apprised of your progress through our system, and let you know as soon as we’ve made an assignment.”

It wasn’t a guarantee, or a promise. It was a sliver of hope, held in a gentle hand. But Allura would take it.





If Shiro’s nesting instincts had been strong before, they were overwhelming now that they finally had their egg.

Keith hadn’t been around nesting parents since he’d been in the ocean, and even then he had been too young to truly understand the nesting instinct, or even take note of it. But Keith saw the way Shiro’s attention, his time, his entire being, had shifted to focus on their egg. Keith would have been a little jealous… except that his mate was too adorable to allow such negative feelings to take root.

Shiro fluffed the nest incessantly. He made sure to turn the egg at regular intervals, even waking himself up in the night to do so. He checked each of the few soft spots in the shell a few times a day, rubbing them gently with specific leaves to encourage them to harden up, nice and strong. And he would hold their egg to the first cutting beams of dawn sunlight, double- and triple-checking that their little pup was still wriggling inside, little arms and little tail all developing nicely.

It helped that Allura’s nice friend, the friend who had brought Keith to her, came over once every few days to hold a strong light to their egg, to check it with a glass that he held to his eye, and make sure everything was going well. Each signed signal of ‘all good’ that he gave to them took weight off Shiro’s shoulders.

It was understandable. They’d been lucky to get this egg at all, and there would be little hope of another if anything went wrong. It was normal for a nesting parent to be hyper aware of their egg at all times--even Keith knew that much.

He just wished his mate would rest.

“Shiro, my star,” Keith huffed, holding out his arms as Shiro cradled their egg for the fifth time in an hour. “Give her to me.”

“I’ve got him,” Shiro argued. “I’m fine.”

The argument over their pup’s gender had started as a musing conversation about what they might be expecting. Their relentlessly competitive and playful natures had turned it into a contest--one which they were both determined they would win.

“I know you’re fine,” Keith said, playfully exasperated. “But I want to hold our pup. Please?”

Shiro looked cowed, at least, and he came over to Keith, finally depositing their egg in Keith’s arms. It had gotten heavy in the twelve or so days since Allura had given it to them, straining his arms more and more as he held it. They had no way of knowing how far along their little one was, but Keith guessed from his examinations of it in the light that they had at least another one and a half moon cycles before their pup would start her fight out of the egg.

“Careful, that spot is soft,” Shiro said, hovering anxiously. Keith rolled his eyes.

“I know, my star. Will you sit with me? Please? You’re making my heart race.”

Shiro finally gave in and came to rest beside Keith, his eyes never leaving their egg as his head came to rest on Keith’s shoulder. Keith knew Shiro trusted him with the egg--he had even let Keith be the one to get up for some turning the past few nights. But Shiro couldn’t help acting nervous. A parent’s protective instincts over their pup were some of the strongest in the ocean.

“Sorry,” Shiro said softly, the beginning of what was a rote conversation at this point.

“Don’t apologize,” Keith said, as always. “You worry over her. It’s natural.”

“He’s just so fragile right now,” Shiro lamented, pouting. “One tiny crack, and he could…” He gestured uselessly with the end of his severed arm.

Keith’s stomach ached for a moment. Shiro knew what it was to try to live a life without the abilities of a healthy mer. Of course he didn’t wish such a struggle on their pup, and neither did Keith. But they weren’t in the ocean. No matter what happened to their pup, she wouldn’t struggle. She wouldn’t suffer. They would make sure of that, and so would Allura. Keith trusted their human caretaker enough to know that.

“Even if she did,” Keith said gently. “Even if something happened. We would never leave our pup. We would take care of her, here in our home, for the rest of our lives. Wouldn’t we?”

Shiro looked up at him, his eyes vulnerable, but trusting. In the end, Keith was right, and Shiro knew it.

“Of course we would,” Shiro said, resting his palm on their egg for a moment. “We would never leave him.”

“Exactly,” Keith said, nuzzling his face into his mate’s hair as their fingers intertwined on the surface of their egg. “We’ll love her forever. No matter what.”

“No matter what,” Shiro agreed, and Keith smiled.

For what felt like the millionth time, Keith thought of his mother. When Keith was just an egg, his father had left their school to be with his mother as they nursed their growing pup together. It wasn’t unusual for a solitary mer to find a mate, or have pups--but it was rare for a solitary mer to stay with that mate, or return to a school to raise a child. But Keith’s father had never doubted Krolia’s love--he had always said so to Keith, with a shine in his eyes.

“She wanted to meet you,” he always told Keith. “I knew she couldn’t stay, but she wanted to know you, even just for a little while. She loves you more than anything. She loves us both.”

Keith wanted to know their pup, more than anything. He wondered what she dreamed of, in the cozy confines of her shell. He wondered what their voices sounded like to her, through the filter of the sac that kept her safe. He wondered what color her eyes would be, what color her scales would be. Whether she would be quiet like him, or friendly and sweet like Shiro. No matter who she was, Keith couldn’t wait to know her. He’d never felt closer to his mother than he did now, knowing that she had wondered the same things about him.

He felt a shift, and looked over to realize Shiro had fallen asleep on his shoulder. His poor love had been sleeping so little these days, and Keith felt a breath of relief fill him at the sight of Shiro finally getting some rest.

He knew it wouldn’t last. It would be time to turn their egg soon, or fluff the nest, and Shiro would be back up and swimming the nervous laps of an anxious new parent.

But for now, Keith would savor every moment of the quiet. He would hold this space, safe and still with his precious new family surrounding him.





“The stress of it will be too much,” Allura said, worrying a soy sauce packet between her fingers. The takeout had arrived half an hour ago, and she’d barely picked at her plate. “For all of them. She’ll be adjusting to a new environment, and the distraction could cause the boys to neglect the egg, and--”

“Shiro wouldn’t let that happen,” Hunk said gently. “Not after he waited so long. Besides, Keith’s mother has whelped at least once. She wouldn’t let them neglect it.”

Allura sighed, setting the sauce packet back down on the table. “If she doesn’t take to the tank…”

“She will,” Hunk said. “You’ve set up a wonderful environment for her. If Keith could adjust, so can she. And she’ll have her pup to help her.”

Allura picked at a spring roll, clearly lost in a spiral of worry. Hunk didn’t know how to help, other than to let her speak her fears aloud, and soothe each one as it came.

“If she doesn’t adjust,” Allura said again, “it’ll break Keith.”

“He’s stronger than that,” Hunk assured her. “He’s tough as nails. And he knows how all this works. He’d never want his mother to stay somewhere she would be unhappy. He has his own family now--he can lean on that if the worst should happen.”

Sending her back to the Rescue Program wasn’t the worst that could happen. But Allura wouldn’t allow space in her brain to think about the worst that could happen.

Hunk reached across the table and placed his hand over hers, soothing her fingers as they picked at a hang nail.

“There’s no point in worrying now,” he said, though he knew it was the pot calling the kettle black. He’d had anxious stomach pains for her, for days since the Bureau’s last call telling her she was eligible to rehome a rescued mer. “You don’t even know if she’ll be placed with you. If they tell you that, then you can worry.”

“You’re right,” Allura said, exasperated, though it didn’t look like she could let it all go that easily. “We all have to do what’s best for the mers, in the end.”

It was something Alfor had impressed on Allura often when she was young, and Hunk heard her say it all the time. He’d never met Alfor, but he could only imagine that he’d been a wonderful person, to have raised such a caring, compassionate child, and one with a passion for rescuing one of the most fragile species in the ocean.

“No matter what happens,” Hunk said kindly. “We’ll figure it out together. The folks at Fish & Wildlife want what’s best for Keith’s mom, just like you do. Whatever happens, we’ll help you out, and N7 and Matt won’t leave you hanging.”

Allura turned her hand over, holding Hunk’s fondly, the warmth of his palm just as comforting as the warmth of his reassurances and easy smile. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “I know I’ve been rather unbearable lately--” Hunk scoffed, shaking his head. “--But I’m so grateful that you’ve been here. I wouldn’t be half the caretaker I am without your assistance. Shiro wouldn’t be alive without you.”

Hunk flushed, bashful at being complimented. “Wasn’t a problem,” he said easily. “You know I’d do anything for them. And for you.”

Allura knew this. It gave her great comfort, when she laid awake at night worrying about her mers, to know that Hunk was only a phone call away, and that he had--and would--drop everything to care for a mer, whether it was his own, or Allura’s. She owed him so much, owed all of the people who had helped her become a great mer caregiver. Perhaps when her newest mer was settled, whoever it was, she could think of a way to celebrate all of the support she’d been given.

“Thank you, Hunk,” she said again. “You’re right. Whatever happens, we’ll make sure it’s what’s best for the mers.”

Hunk smiled, nodding definitively. “Always,” he promised.

Allura sighed, feeling the knot in her stomach loosen for the first time in weeks. Everything would work out, and she would do everything she could to make her mers happy. She knew, in that capacity, she would never fail them.

Just as her muscles relaxed, though, her phone rang.

Chapter Text

r/mercare - Posted by u/a.raimonson28 2 days ago

Integrating New Solitary Mer into Tank with Mated Pair

Hello all! I was recently given the gift of being allowed to rehome a rescued, rare mer from the illegal trade. She is a solitary purple, and, by a magical twist of fate, the mother of one of the mers already in my care!

I have very little direct experience with solitary mers, but I have set up a tank for her that will keep her separated, with a plastic channel that will allow her to visit her pup. There is plenty of foliage and enrichment to give her privacy, but I am very eager to reunite her with her pup.

However, there is another wrinkle, which is that this incoming mer’s pup is part of a mated pair, who live in their own tank, and have just welcomed an egg. They are probably a couple of weeks away from their hatch date, but it’s a lot of chaos, to which I will be adding this new mer.

Any advice on this would be welcome!!

36 Comments Share Save Hide Report

| biggaboii1837 236 points 2 days ago

WOW, congrats on being able to reunite a family!! I don’t need to tell you that it’s almost unheard of in the rescue community, and it must be such a special experience!

I have a bg of about 7 years of caring for 2 solitary mers in adjoining tanks, so here’s my take: no matter how you do it, there will be growing pains. Solitary mers don’t tend to be aggressive in groups, but they will be standoffish, picky, and may suffer health consequences, especially in captivity. They need more time than the average mer to adjust to a new tank. If your other mers take a few days to get comfortable after a cleaning or tank upgrade, I would expect her to take more like a week and a half.

That being said, having her pup on hand is a huge boon! I can’t really say from experience whether she will still need all of that time, but the best thing you can do for an adjusting mer is to give them a task that acclimates them to their new surroundings, so I would think that reuniting with a pup and helping them whelp would be a great way to help get her adjusted!!

My PMs are open if you have any questions, and congrats again on your new addition!

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| Xx_pink_lady_xX 48 points 2 days ago

I agree with everything said above! I grew up with a solitary, and keeping them busy is really important. My solitary absolutely hated her filter, so we actually helped give her the tools to clean her own tank, and she loved it!! I think she cleaned better than the filter…

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| bnash_h81 8 points 2 days ago

yo, seriously?? I’ve never heard of that. It must have been a small tank if she kept up with it…

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| Xx_pink_lady_xX 16 points 2 days ago

Not too small… probably 65 or 70 gal? We had sight hounds too, so we kept her up high so they wouldn’t bark at her through the glass…. OTL

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| BloodBathandBeyond 229 points 42 hours ago

omg @a.raimonson28 I am so excited for you!! Rehoming is so important, and so many solitary mers get passed up because of the tank requirements. Kudos to you for taking her in!

I’ve had my solitary mer for going on a decade now. He came to me at only 2 years old from a seashore rescue group down in Myrtle Beach, and he has pretty bad fin damage that makes swimming hard. His adjustment period was really really rough, and I almost returned him to the rescue. He shed pretty badly (which I’ve since learned is normal when the pH difference between tanks is high) and wasn’t eating. My daughter, who was six at the time (showing me up ever since) suggested we give him “Mer TV,” the way that some people play videos of birds for their cats. We started him with ocean videos, just ASMR compilations she found on YouTube, but eventually he looked interested in other stuff. Before long, we’d rearranged his tank so he could watch TV with us. He loves it! Especially physical comedies, nature shows, and other things he can follow without hearing the dialogue. My husband watches How It’s Made with him every night!

I’m sure this exact solution wouldn’t work for every mer, but solitaries especially are underestimated for their intelligence. Like any introverted human, they spend a lot of time thinking about things, building tools, and foraging in the wild. Without that stimulus, they can have a hard time adjusting. Having her own pup nearby and the activity of a new egg could certainly help, but I would suggest giving her plenty of quiet enrichment, away from the couple, in case she gets overwhelmed.

Best of luck!!

God bless - “She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.” Proverbs 31:25

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| philandering_phrog 89 points 39 hours ago

MER TV?? You’re a genius. *runs to put my iPad next to my tank*

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| kndyrosi3847382938 -25 points 30 hours ago

your crazy for having plastic tank attachments. bpa kills mers idiot, get the glass ones

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Mod | UrsulasLipstickPop [score hidden] 29 hours ago

Please keep negativity out of the advice threads! Constructive criticism is welcome, but we do not allow shame or hate comments on advice posts.

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| kndyrosi3847382938 [score hidden] 27 hours ago

[comment deleted]

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| delegata_nervosa_ontwitch 38 points 22 hours ago

Huge congrats on your newest addition!! As a veteran of this subreddit, I know you’re an amazing mer caretaker with so much insight and passion for mers, and I know that you are going to give this solitary an amazing home!!

I don’t have much advice for solitary care, but here’s a link to a mer rescue org that takes in confiscated mers from the illegal trade, like the one Allura is describing. Donate if you can, because they do incredible work!

http://theredkelpproject.org/donate

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| Casey.Beau.6787 30 points 20 hours ago

I volunteered with the Red Kelp Project for two years in college, and they are some of the most compassionate people I’ve ever met! Definitely donate if you can, they deserve it!

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| burratababay69 16 points 19 hours ago

Donated!

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| helen_of_troy_280 14 points 18 hours ago

thanks for the link!

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| 8bouncyballs8 12 points 18 hours ago

donated

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It had been a busy couple of moon cycles for the pod. Allura had updated their tank, giving them a bunch more space, and an amazing tube system to explore, which looped through and around the tank. The boys liked to chase each other through it, trying to lose each other by making tight turns and popping in and out of the different openings. Ina liked going into the tubes and letting the lazy water flow by her, giving her a little peace and quiet away from the others. Nadia liked the tubes just fine, but the stuff beyond the tank was much more interesting.

The new guy had been living in Shiro’s tank for a long time now, and Nadia knew they were bonded. She didn’t really begrudge the fact that Allura paid most of her attention to them--the pod could take care of themselves and each other, but poor Shiro was all alone, and missing an arm. Allura had brought Shiro into their tank a few times, and he’d been kind to all of them, but Nadia could tell he wasn’t into the pod life.

He seemed happy with his new mate, though. And ever since Ina had spotted them carrying an egg, it had become routine for the pod to watch the tank across the room, looking for signs of a new pup.

Allura had been helping the bonded pair a lot more often, sitting in front of their tank for hours with little pieces of paper that she showed to Shiro and his mate, signing back and forth with them. Nadia knew plenty of Allura’s signing language, but it was hard to see when Allura’s back was turned. She only caught snippets here and there.

“--when the egg cracks--”

“--pup in warm water--”

“--plenty of food--”

“--sure it is healthy--”

“It seems they’re preparing for the hatch,” Ina observed, watching Allura flip between the pieces of paper. Nadia was a nosy mer by nature, but Ina was far more observant. She saw things happening in the other tank that Nadia never would have noticed.

“You think it’ll happen soon?” Nadia asked excitedly.

“Judging by the last lighting of the egg, maybe another half a moon cycle.”

“I wonder what the pup will look like!” Nadia exclaimed. Anything new in the tank room was overwhelmingly exciting. Allura kept them busy with toys and puzzles, but it didn’t compare to the ever-changing environment of the ocean and all its wonders. Nadia loved having new things to do and see, and a pup would certainly bring such new things.

“If Small Tank ends up being the pup’s mother, we’ll find out soon,” Ryan said.

‘Small Tank’ was what they’d taken to calling the mer that would eventually move into the tank that sat empty next to Shiro’s. Allura hadn’t given any hints as to who it would be, but the two tanks were connected by tubes like the ones the pod had, which had spawned all manner of theories. James believed Small Tank would be one of Shiro’s long-lost schoolmates from the ocean. Ryan thought maybe Allura was bringing in a female with whelping experience to help raise the pup. Nadia, for her part, wanted to believe that the egg’s mother would be coming to stay, to raise her pup once the couple had taken care of the delicate egg stage and helped the pup hatch.

“I think it will be someone from Keith’s school,” Ina said curiously. Nadia hadn’t heard this theory before, and she whirled on Ina excitedly, fins trembling.

“Really?” she asked. “Why?”

“Keith is territorial,” Ina observed, without any malice. “That’s why he doesn’t live in our tank. If Small Tank is going to be free to come and go, it would have to be someone Keith trusts. Otherwise, Allura wouldn’t have put in the tubes.” They were all staring at her, and she flushed when she noticed. “Also, the theory about it being Shiro’s schoolmate was already taken.”

Nadia couldn’t imagine Keith having a family; he was colored like a solitary, even though he hadn’t let Shiro out of his sight since Allura had put them in the same tank. Nadia had guessed that Keith had left his school once he was weaned, but given that they’d spent all of their time next to Keith’s transition tank in a territorial standoff, rather than getting to know him, it was all based on conjecture. The thought that Small Tank could be Keith’s schoolmate hadn’t even occurred to her, but the idea was intriguing.

Just then, Shiro emerged from his cave carrying the egg, and the pod gathered close to watch him dip in and out of the plants in his swim across the tank. He seemed to be speaking to the egg, and the fond look on his face made Nadia’s heart feel so warm.

“Can pups hear through their egg shell?” Nadia asked, but no one answered as Shiro swam up to the rock in the corner of his tank, holding up his egg to the sun. It was hard to see across the room, but the pod pressed their faces to the glass to see if they could spy the wiggling motions of the pup inside the egg.

“It’s moving!” Ryan hummed in quiet awe, and they all took breaths of relief. It was funny how invested they’d gotten in the wellbeing of a pup they knew nothing about.

“It’s getting so big,” James said. “You can barely see the sun through the egg anymore.”

“Definitely half a moon cycle,” Ina confirmed, squinting at the egg as Shiro lowered it back into his arm. “Maybe a few days less than that.”

“I can’t wait to meet it!” Nadia cooed. “Think Allura will let us meet it?”

“Allura, maybe,” Ryan said sagely. “Shiro’s mate, no.”

“Awwww,” Nadia whined. “I just want to say hi!”

The boys went back to arguing their theories about who would be moving into the small tank, drifting back towards the cave. Ina hovered by Nadia, the two of them watching Shiro as he gazed at his egg, holding it so lovingly. Keith popped out from the vegetation then, resting one hand on Shiro’s lower back and the other on their egg, looking up at Shiro in utter adoration. They shared a nuzzle, exchanging soft words over their egg in a shaft of warm morning sunlight.

“They’ll be good parents,” Nadia said.

“How can you tell?” Ina asked.

“...I can just tell,” Nadia said, her heart filling with warmth at the sight of them. Their pup may not grow up knowing the ocean, but it would be a lucky pup nonetheless.

Chapter Text

Allura had never been this nervous when receiving a mer.

Receiving Shiro, her first mer that she would take care of on her own, had been nerve-wracking. She wanted to live up to her father’s legacy, to put to good use everything he’d taught her.

Once she had helped Shiro make the tank transition and survive the loss of a mate, taking in her pod of four had seemed a simple task. They were all healthy and well-adjusted, and bonded amongst themselves in a way that ensured their wellbeing.

Keith’s transition had been difficult, but that difficulty was short-lived thanks to Shiro.

But this time, her years of experience didn’t give her comfort. Nor did the tireless chats with other caretakers on message boards, nor the late night phone conversations with Fish & Wildlife.

Keith’s mother’s chances of adjustment to a tank were a gamble. And Allura hadn’t been able to stop herself from questioning whether that gamble would pay off.

Lance went over her checklist one more time as she wrung her sweaty hands. Hunk was triple-checking the temperature of the tank water, making sure it was as close to the transition tank’s temperature as possible.

Fish & Wildlife had released the mer to Allura a couple of days ago, but with Matt’s help, the mer had spent those days being very carefully transitioned away from the temporary school at the rescue, and transferred to a transition tank, where she could be moved to Allura’s home. Matt had warned her that the mer was showing signs of despondency and aggression, but that it wasn’t anything he hadn’t expected, given what she had been through.

Allura’s father had taught her so much about the way mers experienced things, their bonds to their school, the trauma of injury or poaching, or even tank anxiety. Allura had cried for the little creatures when she was small, begging her father to help her save all the mers, so that none of them would be sad ever again.

Thinking of this mer’s suffering, even now, made Allura want to cry. Without language, she wouldn’t know why she’d been taken away from her new school, why she’d been in a dark tank with little enrichment for days while Allura had prepared her new home.

She could only hope that having Keith there for her would make it all easier.

“Tank’s as ready as it will ever be,” Hunk said, coming out of the tank room to stand next to Allura, as she looked anxiously at the small transition tank, where it sat on the table covered in a towel. Fish & Wildlife had recommended they keep the mer in the dark, literally, to help keep her anxiety at a minimum, but Allura’s heart raced at the thought of the mer remembering her previous captivity, in a similarly small and featureless box in the dark, seeing the light only when her captor had wanted to show her off to his greedy friends.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to be calm, and Lance rubbed her back a little bit. She was so grateful that her friends were here, and that Matt had stayed all morning to ensure the mer was as calm and safe as she could be.

“Let’s move her,” Allura said finally, bolstered by her friends’ presence.

The boys helped her move the tank, as smoothly as possible, into the other room. The pod was pressed to the corner of their tank, fins flapping excitedly, as they watched the new addition being brought in. Shiro and Keith had observed curiously as Allura had filled the tank the evening before, adding plants and enrichment. She was sure they were both wondering who was moving in, and she hoped it wasn’t putting stress on them as new parents. If she believed this could have waited until their egg hatched, she might have delayed the move, but…

No. She had to believe she was doing the right thing. The new mer would, with any luck, help with the hatching, and her presence may even ease the parents-to-be.

When the towel came off the new tank, the mer was in a full threat display, her stunning purple fins feathered out like a peacock tail, her tiny sharp teeth bared. Allura could see the tear that she’d been told about in one of the fins, its delicate tissue sliced in half by rough handling. All she could do was prevent further injury in the transition, and she steeled herself to do just that.

Allura donned her gloves and used a clean cup to, with some difficulty, retrieve the new mer from her transition tank. Being careful not to catch a fin or a limb, Allura scooped her from the tail tip up, taking as much tank water with her as she could to cushion the motion. She tried not to panic as the mer thrashed, but she moved, decisively and gently, to submerge the cup in the new tank, letting her swim out and down into the thick foliage.

“She’s in,” Allura breathed, shaking with relief, and Lance and Hunk shared her deep sigh.

“Good,” Hunk said. “Now all we have to do is monitor.”

Allura bit her lip, looking over to her bonded pair’s tank, where there was no movement. The boys were in their cave with their egg, as they often were, and Allura was relieved that it had spared them from seeing Keith’s mother in distress.

“How long should I wait?” she asked Hunk, and then glanced at Lance, willing to take any advice she could get.

“Not long,” Lance assured her. “Let her catch her breath, then we’ll open it.”

Allura nodded. Not long… not long before she learned whether she had done the right thing by her mers.

There had been lots of motion in the tank room today, but Keith knew it was just Allura getting the other tank ready. Shiro guessed they probably had a new mer coming in, and Keith tried to keep his heart from coming up into his throat, not wanting to get his hopes up.

Unfortunately, whatever the commotion was had brought Allura’s annoying uniformed friend, as well as Keith’s former caretaker into the room. Keith had learned to trust Allura and Hunk around their egg, but this many humans made him nervous, and Shiro agreed to stay with him in the cave until the noise was gone.

Their egg had doubled in weight since they’d gotten it, and Keith liked to hold it when he wanted to relax, to focus on the tiny movements inside, their little pup swimming about and learning her new fins and arms. He and Shiro took turns talking and singing to her, while Keith ran careful fingers over the surface of the shell to check for soft spots.

The noise outside hadn’t stopped, but Keith was calm with his family close by.

After a while, Keith heard Allura calling their names in her human tongue. Shiro picked up his head, and they exchanged a glance.

“I’ll go see what she needs,” Shiro volunteered, giving Keith a soft nuzzle before swimming out of their cave. Keith’s heart was hammering, he couldn’t make it stop, and he hoped he wasn’t scaring his pup in her egg with the feeling of it beating against her shell.

“Keith,” Shiro sang, as he swam back into the cave. “Keith, she’s opening the hole.”

Keith jolted with a spike of anxiety and fear. There was some sort of connection between their tank and the next, but there had been a cover on the hole since they’d been moved into it. If Allura was removing the cover, it meant that the new mer could come into their tank, and their egg--

Keith swam to Shiro and put the egg in Shiro’s arms. His protective instincts filled him from head to tail, like ink filling water, and he puffed his fins as he moved to put himself between the cave opening and his family.

“I’ll check it out,” he said, not ready to let Shiro be put in harm’s way. “I’ll call for you once I know it’s safe.”

Shiro looked ready to protest, but Keith herded him to the back of their cave before swimming out to the hole’s opening. Sure enough, Allura’s hand was disappearing out of the surface of their water with the black cover in her hand, and Keith could feel the slightly cooler water flowing into their tank through the connection.

Allura wouldn’t expose them to danger like this. She was a good human, and she cared for them. She’d gotten them an egg, kept Shiro healthy and safe…

Keith swam through the short tube connecting the tanks, puffing himself up on the other end of the tunnel. Blocking the entrance.

“Hello?” he sang, hoping to sound threatening to anything, any mer, that might threaten his territory. He waved his fins, hoping that the new mer would peek through the reeds and see his red scales flash and know that he meant danger.

His heart beat hard in his ears over the silence of the new tank, and he trilled his fins for the benefit of anyone watching--including Allura.

“I will not let you pass,” he said, projecting his song through the water. “My mate is whelping, and I cannot allow you to--”

He heard another song, thrumming under the noise of his own. When he paused, he only heard silence, and he wondered if he had imagined it, before a mer was revealed in a parting of the seaweed a few reaches away.

She was not as he remembered her. Her beautiful hair had been cut short, and her scales were dull with shed, their luster foggy and grey where they were loosening from her brilliant tail. Her fins were flared, as if she had just been preparing her own threat, but her face betrayed her shock and terror.

“Keith?” she sang, uncertain. He hated to hear her strong, sure voice so filled with fear, to see her gills trembling with heavy breaths.

But despite all of these things, he knew in a moment that it was her. Even though her face had become clouded in his dreams, he would know his mother in any water.

“Mom,” he gasped, and they were swimming to each other, her arms and tail wrapping around him in desperation as she cried out.

He held her, as well, his arms going further around her waist than he remembered. He must have grown, and he wondered how different he looked to her now, so many moons later.

“Keith,” she said, her breathing ragged. “Is it you? Is it really my pup?”

Keith nuzzled his face into her neck, feeling her mirror the motion and take in the scent of him. She smelled so different, of foreign waters and strange mers, of pain and grief and stress, but beneath it all was the undeniable smell of his mother, and his tail tightened around hers.

“It’s me,” he murmured. “Mom…”

“I thought I would never see you again,” she gasped. “Keith, how did I--”

“Allura,” Keith said, as the truth flooded through him. Allura had found her, brought her to him, given them a way to be together, knowing that Keith would always take care of her. “The human. She takes care of us here. She brought you to me.”

Krolia didn’t know how to take in the information, and her face pinched at the idea. Keith would have felt the same, before knowing Allura; a human showing benevolence and care towards a mer, beyond maintaining their basic health, had been unthinkable. But he’d learned so much from Allura, from Shiro, about the kindness humans were capable of, and he hoped one day he could show his mother the same thing.

“You’re here now,” he said, not wanting her to worry about what the humans had or hadn’t done to her. He had thought often about where she might have ended up after their abduction from the sea, and his mind had supplied an endless number of unthinkable horrors. Just seeing her alive, healthy, was far better than his worst fears had told him to expect.

“Here?” Krolia asked, looking lost.

“My home,” Keith assured her, looking around this new tank. It was foreign to him in its depth and breadth, but the sand that brushed his tail tip, the foliage blooming around them, was all familiar. It made this tank feel like home, even though it was all new.

Krolia held him, looking around herself at her new space, and Keith let her have a moment to adjust to the idea.

“Mom,” he finally said. “We’re safe here. I promise. My mate and I have lived here a long time now, and we’re happy.”

“Your mate?” Krolia asked, her distracted eyes finally finding his. “My son… you are bonded?”

Keith’s soft smile turned into a beaming one, and he nodded. “Yes. He is everything to me. We have--Allura brought us an egg. We are going to be parents.”

Krolia seemed overwhelmed by it all, but Keith knew how that felt. To come from the horrible places human hands could devise, cramped tanks and cold water, sunless places of terror… it made a place like this feel like a dream. Like one might wake up, and be back in those nightmares. The warm, sunny waters and plentiful food had felt like a trick to Keith in the beginning, something to lull him into comfort before a human’s hands sliced him open for food or amusement. But Allura had showed him something better, kinder, and he was determined to show it to Krolia now.

“Can I introduce you?” he asked, eager as a child to have his two most important people finally meet. He had only dreamed of this day, but he was giddy as he realized it was finally happening.

Krolia was visibly overwhelmed, but she took his offered hand and nodded.

“Shiro!” Keith sang, loud enough to be heard through the tank connection. “It’s safe, my star!”

It took a moment, and Keith could imagine Shiro was settling their egg in her nest, fussing over her for a moment before finally coming out. His white hair peeked out of the entrance to the connection, and Keith beamed, waving him over. Shiro swam through the tunnel cautiously, and Keith gently pulled Krolia to close the gap.

“Shiro,” he cooed, keeping Krolia’s hand clasped in his. “It’s her. This is my mother.”

Shiro stared at Krolia in awe, and then his eyes filled, and he reached out to her with a wobbling lip. “Hello,” he sang to her, a slightly formal song that conveyed his respect for her, in spite of his trembling voice. “Keith’s mother. I am Shiro.”

Krolia reached out, tracing her fingers on his palm, measuring him. It wasn’t unkind, but Krolia had always been cautious, and that caution had kept her safe in the ocean.

Somewhere in Shiro’s face, Krolia found something she approved of. “Shiro,” she sang back, an acceptance. “I am Krolia.”

“Krolia,” Shiro sang, beaming at her. “We… I mean, Allura told us she would try to find you. To make sure you were okay. Keith--we didn’t dream you would--”

“I never thought I would see you again,” Keith clarified, squeezing his mother gently, echoing her words. “But Allura and her friends found you. She said you might have been able to go back to the sea, but…”

He hadn’t forgotten that promise, or that his mother was born of the sea, just as he was. It was never a mer’s dream to live out their days in a tank, but Keith was selfishly overjoyed to see his mother again, and he prayed she would stay.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he finally said, smiling at her. At this, she smiled as well, pulling him into another firm hug.

“I am glad you’re here,” she agreed, squeezing him tight. “I love you, my pup.”

“I love you, mom.”

Chapter Text

Shiro had woken him up frantically in the middle of the night, and both of them had stared in enraptured wonder as their little one poked her first hole in the shell of her egg.

Allura had done so much to prepare them for this moment, letting them know what to expect, and Keith’s mother had given them basic instructions for what to do if there were problems with the hatch. But even as their pup made steady, small noises inside her shell, signs of her vitality, Keith felt overtaken by instincts. He could tell Shiro was too, the way he cradled the egg in his elbow, nosing broken pieces of shell aside and cooing softly to their pup.

Once she realized what was happening, Krolia had brought over a calming salve for Shiro, something to rub on his chest to help him relax. He seemed resistant at first, but Krolia and Keith both encouraged him back into his and Keith’s nest, giving him the salve and letting him hold their little one tight. Keith eventually curled up around Shiro, his protective instincts keeping him in a vice grip, demanding he keep his mate and their egg safe during this delicate time.

Krolia gave them space, coming back every little while to check on them and the egg. Keith and Shiro watched in near silence as their pup nudged little shards of egg away at a time, taking long breaks to rest in between and often cooing her tiny little song out at them through the punctured membrane. They sang back to her, eager to encourage her and give her the energy to finish the hatch, letting her know they were there for her once she emerged.

Keith had never seen a hatch this close, or paid attention to hatching much, but he was rapt with wonder and fascination, in awe of how strong their pup was already. Even so small, she had the strength to push out of her shell, to sing, and he watched each little tiny flutter of her gills through the thin membrane as she breathed, gathering strength.

“He’s doing so well,” Shiro cooed to Keith, looking up at him in wonder. Keith pressed kisses to his mate’s face, glad that the salve had worked him down from panic. Keith was nervous too, of course he was, but he couldn’t be too afraid with his mate in his arms, and his mother so close by, ready to help.

“She is,” he replied. “She’s so strong.” He leaned down over Shiro’s shoulder, licking at the membrane under the cracked shell, feeling their pup’s heart beating so close and listening to her little peeps as her father helped her to emerge. Allura had said something about their licking instinct helping to dissolve the membrane, but it just felt right to Keith to let their little one know he was there. They would help her clean once she was out, and this was his promise to do so, something to help her persist.

Keith felt his mate’s gills fluttering, his body trembling against him, and he gave Shiro a squeeze, trying to soothe him. “It’s going to be okay,” he murmured, nuzzling in Shiro’s hair.

“I know, I know,” Shiro breathed, turning his face to nuzzle Keith back. “I just… when I lost A-Adam, I never thought I would… that I w-would be able to…” His song clicked as he swallowed, and Keith wrapped both arms around his mate and their egg, squeezing them tight to his chest.

“You’re here, my star,” Keith soothed, and their pup joined in with a little note, as if also eager to reassure her parent. “We have each other, and we have our pup. She’s almost here, and we’ll all be together.”

“Keith,” Shiro cooed, and Keith rewarded him with a tender kiss. “I love you more than the ocean.”

“More than the ocean,” Keith agreed, smiling down at his little family, his whole body warming with love and pride.

It was hours before their pup made it halfway across the outside of the shell, poking away little shards one at a time, and Keith sat patiently with Shiro through all of it, holding him close and reassuring him when their little one went still to rest.

But as the sun streamed into the entrance of their cave, their little one seemed to find her resolve. The membrane fluttered as she turned and wriggled inside her shell, and the egg rocked in Shiro’s arm, as if she were banging impatiently at the walls.

“It’s okay, little star, it’s okay,” Shiro soothed, adjusting the egg in his arm. Keith moved around him to transfer it over to his own hold, keeping the egg pressed close to Shiro’s side but letting him rest his arm for a bit. “You’re so close. Just keep going.”

Another bit of the shell broke off defiantly, and the membrane stretched as their pup poked herself another hole. She was gulping in water now, using her gills for the first time.

“That’s it,” Keith murmured, leaning down to lick the membrane again, widening the hole she’d made. He felt her move under his tongue, and she let out an impatient little note.

She broke three more holes in the shell within minutes, rocking the egg so hard that Keith struggled to hold onto it. When she finally took a break to breathe and rest, Shiro and Keith joined in song together, telling her how much they loved her and couldn't wait to see her.

“How is it doing?” Krolia asked from their cave entrance, more harvested leaves in her arms. She was smiling, glowing almost, and Keith could tell that, while it had been a shock to learn that he was alive and mated with an egg on the way, the excitement of bringing a new little one into the family had overcome any nerves about being in a new place. Her brilliant purple scales had grown back in healthy, and it brought Keith so much comfort and joy to see his mother whole and happy, her glittering color a reassurance that nestled into his heart.

“Great,” Keith replied, tilting his arm slightly to show her all the egg shards that had been chipped away. “She’s almost there.”

Krolia came closer, inspecting the egg shards approvingly and gently smelling the egg for signs of a healthy pup. She beamed at them, brushing her fingers over Keith’s hair.

“Your father would be so proud of you,” she said gently.

It was something Keith hadn’t heard her say since she’d moved in, and he hadn’t realized he’d needed to hear it until she said it. His heart expanded, filling with adoration for his family–family lost, and family found.

“Thanks, mom,” he said, grinning back at her.

Their pup let out another impatient sound, pushing at her membrane and causing a loud cracking sound to come from the egg. Sensing that it was her last big push, Shiro’s eyes filled with tears and Keith held him and their pup as he sang to her encouragingly, brushing his fingertip across her through the punctured membrane.

With a squirm, their pup snapped the egg shell in half, finally freeing her to uncurl her body from the little knot it had been inside her egg all those long days. She slumped in the bend of Keith’s arm, exhausted and panting from her effort, and Shiro let out a soft sob as they both helped ease the egg shell halves away from her, freeing her at last.

Her scales were a stunning deep blue, like the depths of the coolest ocean, dark and mysterious. Her perfect little fins uncurled around the end of her tail, gossamer and delicate in their newness. She flailed two perfect little arms, curling fists of ten perfect little webbed fingers. She blinked up at them with two perfect eyes, huge and gray, and they both smiled back at her, their hearts full.

“Told you it’d be a ‘she,’” Keith teased, reaching around with his free hand to peel back a piece of membrane that was stuck to her cheek.

“She’s perfect,” Shiro cried, curling over to nuzzle his nose against her face, passing fingers over her short hair to clear it of any egg debris. Their pup cooed softly, exhausted, and her parents sang back to her, welcoming her.

Krolia approached carefully with a leaf she had harvested, helping the new parents wrap their pup in it, nice and cozy. “It will help her skin adapt to the water, and give her a little energy,” she explained, placing their bundled pup right back into Shiro’s good arm. “She’ll rest for a few hours while she learns to breathe.”

“Thank you, mom,” Keith said, taking her hand and squeezing. “Thank you for staying.”

Krolia bent down to kiss Keith’s head, smiling tenderly at him. “Of course, love,” she cooed. “I’ll leave you to rest. You know where I am.”

Keith curled up around Shiro and their drowsy pup, watching her struggle to keep her eyes open and take in the world around her. She let out soft notes of curiosity and warmth, and Shiro nuzzled her again, cradling her close to his chest so she would hear his heartbeat. “Sleep, littlest star,” he sang to her, pressing his cheek to her little round head. “We’re so happy you’re here. Get some rest.”

Keith wrapped a strong arm around them both, so in love with their pup and desperate to protect her and Shiro from the world. For now it was just them in their little cave, in a perfect bubble of love and happiness, and he wanted to keep them here as long as he could.

“Keith,” Shiro breathed. “What do we name her?”

Keith chuckled, looking down at their pup and then back to his mate. “I don’t know,” he breathed, overwhelmed. “We could wait and see if she tells us what she wants to be called?”

Shiro laughed. “It’s bad luck for a pup to not have a name,” he scolded playfully, though that wasn’t a tradition Keith remembered from his school. Maybe it had come from Shiro’s side of the ocean.

“Okay, my star,” Keith chuckled, kissing Shiro’s head. “We’ll think of a name. I promise.”

“It has to be perfect,” Shiro said, gazing down at their little one. She was finally letting go and drifting off to sleep, lulled by the sound of her fathers’ voices.

“It will be,” Keith soothed, laying Shiro back in their nest, their pup nestled against this broad chest. “A perfect name for a perfect little pup.”

Epilogue (3 months later)

Shiro realized as he opened his eyes that he’d slept in, as the warm bodies of his little family weren’t nearby. He sat up and stretched lazily, preening his tail a bit, before a sudden harsh cry rent him from his leisure and drew him out of the cave.

“What happened??” he sang, as he wove through the reeds to where Keith was cradling their pup in his arms, kissing her head. She’d grown so much since she’d hatched, but she was still so tiny and gossamer, and Shiro couldn’t believe how cute she was.

Keith was smiling as he rocked her in his arms, so Shiro knew everything was okay. “She got going too fast and bonked into the glass,” he said, soothing her with little kisses. Shiro cooed, holding out his arm, and their little one swam to him, curling up in the crook of his arm and nuzzling at him.

“Aww,” he hummed. “Poor little Koga. Such a strong swimmer already, hmm?”

“Papa,” Koga lamented, rubbing a reddening spot on her forehead.

“You’re alright, little star,” he cooed to her, kissing the spot. “Just be careful, okay?” He brushed her dark hair away from her face with gentle fingers, nuzzling her with his nose until her pout turned into a reluctant little smile.

Keith’s head turned at the sound of a door, and Shiro knew it was time for breakfast. He’d noticed how much braver Keith had become with Allura, taking food and medicine from her while they slowly introduced Koga to the concept of their caretaker. Shiro was grateful his mate trusted Allura with the health of their pup, and watching their relationship grow since Koga hatched had filled his heart with joy.

“Time to eat,” Shiro murmured to Koga, and they all swam together towards the front of the tank.

“Show Allura your sign, little star,” Keith encouraged, buoying her up a little with his arm so Allura could see her.

‘FOOD,’ Koga signed slowly, her tiny fingers still clumsy around the shapes. Shiro could see Allura smile through the glass, mimicking the sign and then lowering her hand into the water with their food. Keith left Koga in Shiro’s arms to fetch it for them.

“Is it okay if Hunk comes for a check up tomorrow?” Allura signed through the glass, and Shiro nodded, signing back an affirmative. So far Koga’s checkups had mostly been guided through the glass of the tank, with Hunk or Allura asking Shiro and Keith to check Koga all over, telling them what to look for. It was soothing to Shiro, because he could do it on his own as well, when the humans weren’t there, making sure their pup was as healthy as could be.

‘HUNK’ Koga signed, drawing the shape of the human’s headband across her forehead, and Keith laughed softly, nuzzling her.

“Three moons old today!” Allura signed to them, grinning before going to feed the other mers. Shiro had been aware of that, but the reminder sank in as he watched Keith break off little pieces of food for Koga to nibble. Their little pup had been with them for three moons, but it already felt like a lifetime. She brought them so much joy every single day, and watching her discover their little world had given Shiro a new appreciation for all that they had. Safety, food, a home. Each other.

“Three moons old,” Shiro murmured, and Keith smiled at him, nudging Koga over to him. Shiro cradled her in his arm, her growing hair tickling his nose as he nuzzled and kissed her. “Already such a big girl.”

“Big!” Koga chirped happily, flapping her fins. “Big like papa!”

“One day,” Keith laughed, wrapping his arms around both of them and pressing Koga between their chests. “One day you’ll be big, just like your papa. Don’t rush it, little star. You’ll get there.”

Koga giggled, her fingers curling into Shiro’s bond necklace, her favorite toy. Seeing the shell held in her tiny fist, a perfect reminder of Keith’s promise to always protect and love him, cradled in the palm of their sweet little pup… it filled Shiro’s heart with so much emotion that his throat went thick, and he bent down to press his forehead to Keith’s.

“You okay, my star?” Keith asked, bringing a hand up to brush his fingers across Shiro’s cheek.

“Mm,” Shiro sang, a soft note of complete contentment. “Just happy.”

Keith smiled, his eyes sparkling brighter than the sun on the waves. “Me too,” he murmured, holding his family close.