Chapter Text
July 1st, year 20XX
Lance stretched his arms high above his head with a satisfied groan. Feeling the cool breeze brush over his skin was wonderful. It had been so long since he'd been to the beach. His college was in the middle of a big city, there was very little plant life, let alone air so fresh. Lance had missed it. He turned back to grin over his shoulder. Pidge and Hunk stood nearby, each of them showing very different reactions to their current surroundings.
Hunk looked quite pleased, smiling over at the bright blue ocean. He was the type of person who was comfortable in all kinds of surroundings. That was why they were friends, he was chill. Pidge, however, looked very uncomfortable. Their shoulders were raised and they had their phone in their hands, furiously typing something out. They were probably tweeting about how this holiday was such a bad idea and they'd rather be sleeping. Lance understood that, but they were at the ocean.
He turned back to watching the waves rolling over the sand and inhaled deeply. The salty smell of the waters filled his lungs and he slowly exhaled. it just felt so good to be at the beach again. Away from the streets, loud traffic and assignments... a holiday was just what he needed. What they all needed, actually. Lance turned back to his friends and walked over, sporting a bright smile still.
"Can we check into the lodge yet?" he asked excitedly. He could practically feel himself vibrating. "I can't wait to see our rooms!"
Pidge adjusted their glasses. "We can in a minute or so. If we start heading up now, Allura will probably be there," they nodded along to their own words. The three of them headed back up the sand. On the side of the road was parked Hunk's car, all their stuff cramped into the back and boot. Unfortunately, Lance had somehow been convinced to sit in the cramped back seat while Pidge backseat-drove Hunk from the passenger seat. They piled in, Lance squishing back into his seat and somehow managed to pull his seatbelt on. Curse the car's pathetic boot. Once Pidge had their seatbelt on as well, Hunk turned back into the highway, speeding up to 100k's.
Watching the ocean run past and the waves crash against the white sand was relaxing to Lance. Even if Pidge turned up their poor taste in music right up. What even was it? Some kinda head-banger thing? Metal? Screamer? Lance really didn't know, and had learned to not question Pidge. Questioning them was ever a good idea. He focused on the ocean, feeling light and happy as the stared at the endless blue. It was so beautiful. Lance sighed softly as the car drove up a cliff side that overlooked the water. The view was amazing.
As they neared the top, Lance swore he saw something or someone bobbing through the water. He squinted as he tried to see what it was. It moved through the water fluidly, stopping at a small outcropping of rocks. Up it went, glistening red slipping out of the water and up onto the rocks. Lance almost choked on his own spit. "Is that a mermaid?!" he screeched.
"Huh? What are you talking about Lance?" Pidge looked out their window. "All I see is a diver."
Lance blinked several times and rubbed his eyes as well. He refocused. Oh. They were right. A perfectly normal person sat on the rocks, wringing the water out of their drenched black hair. Lance couldn't make out their face, but something did feel off. He shook it off. He was just giddy with excitement! There was no way that he actually saw a mermaid. Haha, that's just stupid...
Okay, yeah no, Lance was sure that the diver was a mermaid before. He'd seen that red tail and he'd seen the wide fins that ended it.
Hunk slowed and parked the car between white lines. "Okay guys, we're here!" he announced, turning the car keys and pulling them out. They got out of the car, and Lance quickly walked to the edge of the cliff, staring down at the diver. Was that a man or a woman? It looked like they had a mullet or something? Why would any self-respecting person have a mullet? Unless that person wasn't actually a person, but a mermaid! Ha! Lance had it all figured out! "Lance, come get your stuff before I lock the car!" Hunk yelled. Oh. Right.
He jogged back to the car and grabbed his suitcase and bag from the backseat. Once the car had been locked (and locked three more times just to be sure. Hunk said you could never be too careful) they headed over to the building. A lovely woman stood by the door, tapping away at the touch screen of her phone. A soft, love struck smile was pulled over her lips. That was probably Pidge's Best Friend™, Allura. She looked up when she noticed their presence. "Oh! Pidge! These must be your friends."
"Yeah, this is Hunk and Lance-" Pidge tried to introduce them, but Lance took long strides forward and took one of Allura's hands into his own.
"I'm Lance, but you can call me Handsome," he purred, briefly glancing down at their hands. Her pink painted finger prints bled onto his skin while his blue crept onto hers. So she wasn't his soulmate. Lance yelped to pain as Pidge gave him a sharp elbow to the side. They grabbed his arm and ripped it away from Allura, green being left in the touches' wake.
"She's already got her soulmate dumbass" Pidge hissed. Lance held his hands up in defense. Allura simply laughed awkwardly. "Anyway, Allura. Are you sure it's okay for us to stay here for free? I mean, don't you have a business to run?"
Allura smiled with her pretty dark magenta painted lips and shook her head. "No, it's fine, really. I know how broke college students are. You need a free holiday badly. It'd just weight on both mine and Shiro's conscious if we make you pay. Besides, you're by friend."
"Speaking of Shiro, where is he? I see you both kissed earlier, but I don't see him?"
A dark blush covered Allura's cheeks and she touched her lips. So this Shiro guy must have blank painted fingers. "Um, well, he's out the back, packing the last of our things in the car. He wants to make sure that we absolutely have everything."
"Ahhh, okay. Sounds like him."
"Anyway, here's the house keys. This one is for the front door, this one for the back door, and this one is for the stairs leading down the cliff," Allura explained, pointing to each key before handing them over to Pidge. She gave a smile. "I'll go tell Shiro that you're here. We'll be leaving shortly anyways."
Allura pushed open the unlocked door and walked into the house. The three trailed in after her. Wow, the inside was pretty spacious. The rooms were large and the walls were painted pale colours and covered in hand-made seashell decorations. All the curtains were pushed open to allow the afternoon sunlight to spill inside and light everything up. It was warm and reminded Lance of home. He could get used to it. Allura walked out to the back door, pushing it open and leaning out. "Shiro! Pidge and their friends are here!" she yelled.
Footsteps trudged over and a truly handsome man stepped into view, award-winning smile pulled over his face. His lips were the same shade as Allura's. There was no doubt that this guy was Shiro. Damn, Lance almost wished the guy was his soulmate. Shiro lent over to press a light peck to Allura's cheek before stepping past her and giving a light wave as he approached them. Just like Lance had thought, his fingers were black - well, the ones that weren't a prosthetic anyways. "Hey Pidge! It's been awhile."
"Hey Shiro. I haven't seen you since your wedding. Oh, this is Hunk and Lance, my friends."
"It's good to meet you both," Shiro said politely, holding his hand out.
"You too," Hunk answered as he shook Shiro's hand. Warm yellow spread and black spread.
Lance jumped as Shiro then held his hand out to him. Oh, right. Handshake. He quickly shook Shiro's hand with a grin and a 'nice to meet ya'. He often found himself getting distracted at the colours that would spread at contact. Watching it was amazing. It was like coloured dye dancing through water, even as it faded. Lance took a moment to watch as the black left on his skin faded to gray before disappearing. He tuned back in just in time to hear Allura and Shiro saying their goodbyes before they stepped out the back door. There was probably some kinda gate or something out the back that let them get there car back there. Lance wouldn't be surprised.
"I'm gonna go claim my room," Hunk announced, already walking upstairs. "The bedrooms are upstairs right?"
"Yeah, they are. But I call dibs on the master bedroom!"
"Oh no you don't!"
Somehow through the mad dash with their things upstairs and down the hall, Lance managed to burst through first and fling his things onto the double bed. Hell yeah! He'd be sleeping in luxury for the month. Hunk and Pidge both groaned in defeat as they both dragged themselves back down the hall to get their own rooms. Lance looked around the room, spotting a set of glass doors. Oooh, he had a balcony! He quickly walked over and pried the doors open. He stepped outside. Wind whipped at his face as he lend on the railing. He had a perfect view over the ocean. There was no doubt that in the morning he'd have the best view of the sunrise. That's if he managed to get up early enough to actually see it.
He gazed down at the ocean, smiling happily as he looked around. Lance could see that small outcropping of rocks from there. The one the mermaid had been on. Now there was no one there, but Lance knew what he saw! He pushed away from the railing and walked back into the room, then out and down the stairs.
"Lance? Where are you going?" Hunk called. He was in the kitchen - probably putting away the food they bought.
"I'm gonna head down to the beach!"
"Take the stairs down! Pidge left the key's in that little bowl near the front door! Also be back by six for dinner!"
"Yes mother!" Lance walked to the front door. He easily located the keys and plucked them from their place. He stepped out and closed the door behind him. As he walked towards the stairs, he squinted at he keys. Um, he thought it was the small key but now he wasn't so sure... might as well test them all. When he got to the gate that blocked him from the stairs, he aggressively stabbed each key at the keyhole until one went in. Lance stuffed them into his pocket as he headed down the stairs. Oh gods that was a lot of stairs. Well, it wasn't like he wasn't athletic or anything so he'd be fine walking down what looked like thousands of stairs. He just didn't really want to.
As he got closer to the sand under the shadow of the cliff, Lance heard something other than the sound of the rolling waves. He focused on it. It was... singing? He got to the bottom of the stairs and followed the sound. It was coming from beyond the water. With curiosity gnawing at him, Lance pulled his shirt over his head and threw it onto the sand. He quickly threw his phone and the keys over as well - didn't want to kill his phone or loose the keys. He kicked off his flip-flops and waded into the water. Lance pushed off the sand with his feet and swam with long strokes, keeping his head above the water the best he could so he could hear the voice.
He was getting closer and closer to the rocks. That was where the voice was coming from. When he reached them, he could actually make out words.
"You're dripping like a saturated sunrise, you're spilling like an overflowing sink~," Lance pulled himself up onto the rocks. The words were making his head spin and his eyesight fuzz. He looked down. "You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece, and now you're tearing through the pages and the ink~."
Lance felt himself freeze as eyes looked back up at him. He could barely make out the person's face. But he could see dark eyes framed by dark lashes and pale skin and scarlet scales. Red fingers reached up to him, and the spell was shattered. He yelped in alarm was he was pulled forward and off the rocks. Lance hit the water with a loud splash. Air was shoved from his lungs. Bubbles rushed around him as he was pushed further under water. He could barely see with the salt stinging his eyes. But he could see the purple spreading over his arm and crest from the hands pressed there. Brilliant eyes invaded and wispy black hair invaded his vision as everything darkened and faded out.
When his eyes next opened he felt horrible. He rolled over onto his side and coughed violently, water splattering onto the hot sand. Lance gasped for air as a hand rubbed circles into his back. The touch made him tingle. Very carefully, he was helped to sit up. Lance blinked several times to clear his vision. There was a hand on his chest. Soft, small blood-red scales covered the pale skin, and fingers were dyed the same colour. A beautiful purple blossomed over his chest, and ran over the underside of the hand.
His soulmate.
Lance's head shot up, but before he could see who it was his vision was covered. "No," rang out a voice that was clearly male. "It's better if you don't know."
"Huh? What does that even mean?! You're my soulmate, why can't I-."
Smack. The hand on his chest lifted instead to hit the side of his neck. Lance fell to his side and groaned in pain, hands flying up to try and mute the pain. Before he could realize what was happening, he heard a loud splash. He looked over in time to see sparkling red scales disappear under the waves. Lance took a deep, shuddering breath.
"My soulmate is a mermaid."