Chapter Text
The next morning, Lance got up and made his way to the dining hall, as was his new usual. He didn't expect to see the whole team sitting there at the table, waiting for him to come in, staring at him as he entered the room. He felt like he was entering an interrogation or intervention.
"Lance, sit down." Allura said, seriously.
Lance smiled nervously, "What's up?" He could see Pidge and Hunk who looked like they were both on the verge of tears.
"It's come to our attention that you have been keeping something from the rest of the team." The blood drained from Lance's face, did they know? He quickly scanned around the table, and saw that Keith was looking sheepishly down at his lap. Oh.
"Yeah um- what about it?" Lance didn't know exactly what Keith had told them, or if that was exactly what they were even talking about it, so keeping it vague was his best bet.
"How could you keep this from us?" Hunk looked heartbroken.
"How did we not pick up on it?" Pidge looked like they were searching the archives of their brain, searching for answers.
"I just didn't know how to bring it up." Lance said, still trying to keep it vague, having them fill in the blanks of what they were on about.
Shiro then spoke up, "Well we'll have to keep it in mind, when it comes to planning missions. We'll have to make sure that you don't have to deal with water planets, but, Lance, what exactly would be the best for you do you think."
Lance looked silently at Shiro for a few seconds, "Um, yeah I guess just making sure that I'm not in places where I'll get water on me. That would be great."
"Okay, but don't be afraid to let us know if there's anything else that you need. Okay Lance?"
Lance nodded, he just went along with whatever they had in their minds. Most likely that he was afraid of water, because it looked like Keith had definitely told someone, probably Shiro about it. He was to afraid to go straight out and say that he was a fucking merman, because what would they say then. That's a whole other can of worms. At least this way, he has some more time to figure out what he was going to do.
They finished their breakfast, with some small talk. Lance staying uncharacteristically quiet for most of it. As he went to leave, Coran pulled him aside, letting him know that he would like to start having sessions with Lance to help him work through it. Lance just agreed to this, because what else could he do?
.
It was the middle of the night. Lance was on a mission to sneak down to the pool. It was silent around the castle. Pidge was probably in their room up late fiddling with their tech. Keith was either in his room or late night training (Shiro has caught him a few times and told him off at breakfast). The rest would most certainly be in their rooms, asleep by now. This was his best chance at going for a lowkey swim.
He entered the pool room, having not bumped into anyone on the way. He locked the door and let out a deep breath. Now he can finally relax. He dropped his towel to the ground, running over to the pool and diving into the pool. After gliding under the water for a few metres, his bright blue tail formed behind him. He did a few spins in the water before resurfacing. He floated on his back, soaking in the feeling of the water around him.
His heart skipped and he quickly sunk into the water, when he heard the sound of a door opening. What the heck!? Did he lock the door? He remembered doing that, so how is someone in here!? It was difficult to look at what was happening, while Lance was hiding at the bottom of the pool. After a few minutes of him not seeing anything, he decided to pop his head up just enough to have a peak to see if anyone was still in the room. He slowly swam up and had a peak. That is when he saw the open door of the change rooms, and saw fully clothed Keith standing by the locked door of the pool room, with a duffel bag over his shoulder. Keith looked confused, and was glancing over at Lance's towel on the floor.
Keith's head started to turn to look around the room, and Lance quickly ducked himself down, creating a small splash which Keith noticed rippling in the water. He curiously walked over to the side of the pool and peered over the edge. The pool was deep enough that it was hard to see what was at the bottom, but Keith could still see the vague outline of something at the bottom of the pool. He internally freaked out and thought that maybe Lance had come into the pool room again, without him noticing, and had maybe fallen into the pool! Keith dropped his things and dived into the pool.
Keith swam down to the bottom of the pool, and opened his eyes. He was looking straight at Lance's eyes, which were open wide in shock. Keith, being an oblivious king, wasn't able to see very clearly under the water, so he simply grabbed Lance's arm and started swimming up to the surface.
When they surfaced, Keith took a few moments to catch his breath, "Are you okay? Did you fall in?"
Lance stared at Keith, frozen in shock from: 1) Keith spotting him in the water, 2) Keith jumping in and dragging him up, 3) Someone fucking finding him while he was in his mermaid form!
Keith was holding onto the edge of the pool with one hand, and used the other to cup Lance's cheek, as he was looking in his direction, but looked like he was staring through him. "Lance?"
"I'm sorry."
"Huh?"
"I'm sorry for lying."
Keith was very confused, "I don't know what you're apologising for, but we need to get you out of the pool and warmed up. You feel freezing."
Lance started to come out of his dissociated state, "You haven't noticed, have you?"
Keith seemed to ignore this as he put his hand around Lance's waist and started to move them towards the stairs of the pool. Lance followed along, and let Keith bring them to the stairs. He turned back confused when Lance wasn't standing up more in the shallow water. That's when he noticed the bright blue colour under the water, and the outline of what looked like a... "what the heck... a fish tail?"
"Rude!"
Keith looked up at him with a concerned face, "Did this happen during a mission or something?" He was trying not to stare at Lance's tail, but he kept taking glances.
"Errr... no um..." Lance looked like he was breaking under the stress weighing on him.
Keith guided Lance to sit on the stair leading out of the pool, "It's okay, you can tell me."
Lance leaned his head back and closed his eyes, he can't get out of this. "I was born this way. I hadn't told anyone because of how we had to keep it a secret on Earth." Keith sat there patiently and listened. "I was scared to tell anyone, because I wasn't used to being in a place where I could."
"Who's 'we'?"
"Huh?"
"You said 'we had to keep it a secret'. Who is 'we'? Did Hunk and Pidge know?"
"No, they didn't know. By 'we', I meant my family. I don't know if there was anyone else out there, but it has been passed down from my mum's side of the family for as long as they know."
"I'm glad you told me, Lance." Keith leaned his head down at him and smiled softly.
Lance smiled back, glad that Keith had taken this quite well. He hoped that the rest of the team would react this nicely. Oh god. He has to still tell the rest of the team! Pidge will probably throw a tantrum that Lance didn't tell them earlier, and Hunk would probably not say it, but he would know that he was disappointed that he didn't tell them.
Lance shook himself out of his thoughts and brought his attention back to Keith, who was straight up staring at his tail.
"You're allowed to touch it," Lance said, gesturing for the go ahead.
"Really!?" Keith looked like an excited but shy puppy.
"Yes," Lance lifted his tail up in front of Keith, who warily brought his hand forward to feel the scales.
"Feels kind of bumpy," That served Keith with a wack in the face with Lance's tail.
"Not my fault that I haven't been able to take care of my tail for a few weeks. I wasn't planning on being shot out into space." Lance turned his head up, crossing his arms.
"Sorry, sorry." Keith apologised profusely.
Lance dropped the act and laughed, "You're fine. I'm just messing around with you. But it's true. I need to up my tail-care again."
"It's pretty late. How are you planning on getting out of the pool? Like, how do you undo the tailness?"
"Wow, we love the technically wording there, mullet. Well, I get a tail when I get water on me, and I get my legs again when I have dried the water off."
"Okay, but how were you planning on getting out of the pool." Keith raised an eyebrow.
"Pffft, I dunno. Probably just lift myself out of the side of the pool and shuffle over to my towel. Easy done."
"Mmmm, I'm sure that would be 'easy done'. I can carry you to one of the benches and bring you your towel, you know."
"Nah, I totally got this." Lance being his stubborn self. He swam back into the pool and over to the pool's edge. He kicked his tail, lifting himself and twisting to sit on the pool's edge, lifting his tail around. He started a slow shuffle towards his towel, which was still by the door. Keith got out of the pool and was slowly walking along with Lance.
Just as Lance's towel was in his reach, Keith grabbed his towel and walked away with it.
"Hey!"