Chapter 1: Förlust
Chapter Text
The soft pitter patter of the rain on the black umbrella he held was the only sound that Lance could hear. He could see the drops entering the almost still water of the ocean before him, but their sound couldn’t reach his ears. His mind had all but shut down after the events of that day.
It hurt, to say the least.
Looking out over the grey water, reflecting the sky above it as the heavens seemed to cry for what had been lost, Lance stepped a little closer to the pier. A part of him was afraid to go any farther, the memories that the rickety wood held being almost too much for his heartbroken mind to comprehend.
The funeral had been that day. He still wore the dark suit that his mother had picked out. It had to be returned in a few days, since he had only been renting it. There was a light breeze, and it picked up the hem of the jacket, sending a wave of cold up his back.
What am I even doing here…? Its not gonna bring her back. That thought send a stab of guilt through Lance’s chest. No, she wasn’t coming back. Not anymore. Not after he...Lance shook his head. Placing the guilt on himself and going down that road wasn’t going to help anything.
He fiddled with the key-chain in his pants pocket, thumb sliding over the slick surface of the metal backing.
Sighing, the brunet took another few steps forward. He had come to the docks, to the lagoon that was nearby, for a reason. He wasn’t going to give up on the one thing they has asked of him before they died. No, he was going to accomplish this one thing, even if it meant tearing his heart to pieces.
As he got closer to the splintered wood of the pier, Lance kept his eyes on the ground, on the rain that turned the normally well packed dirt into muddy puddles.
“Some days, I wish I could die.”
The words were spoken so softly, Lance almost didn’t hear them. Eyes rising slowly, Lance caught sight of someone already standing at the ends of the docs. The umbrella the person held at their should obscured most of their back, and the brunet could really only see the long, white shirt and dark slacks they wore. They had no shoes.
What are they doing? Why did they say that?
These questions were not answered.
A sudden large gust of wind blew towards them, knocking the umbrella from the stranger’s hands and sending his hair flying about. His, because Lance was able to tell from his vantage point that the person was male, or at least that he appeared to be.
As the umbrella tumbled off into the waves, the man picked up a hand to tuck some of those wild, raven tresses behind his ear.
“I hear you; I’m coming.”
Again the voice was so soft, almost musical. It seemed to draw Lance in, one word at a time, a step for every utterance. He could hear the soft cadence of sadness in the man’s voice. But who was he talking to? It couldn’t have been Lance; he hadn’t even said anything, and he was fairly certain that the raven-haired man didn’t even know he was there.
And then, out of nowhere, the man was diving into the water.
“Wait!” Lance yelled as he stumbled into a run, trying to get to the edge of the pier. He dropped his umbrella and it tumbled off the edge to sit with the other that had been abandoned only moments before. He can’t just jump in there right now! It’s too dangerous. But as the brunet fell to his knees on the edge of the pier and looked over, the man was nowhere to be found.
Lance’s eyes might have been deceiving him, but something caught his attention. A glow, and then shimmering red, like scales. As whatever it was rose further towards the surface, Lance saw the shimmering morph into a shape, an outline. The outline of a person, but only half of it looked...human.
What...is that…? Lance’s thoughts stuttered. He couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.
Because right in front of him, swimming further out to sea, was a mermaid, tail and all.
The man...was a mermaid.
~~
“I’m telling you, man! It was a mermaid!” Lance paused with his hands out in front of him, equidistant to each other, and squinted one eye. “Mer...man?” When all his friends did was exchange a look, the brunet threw up his hands and plunked back down into his seat. “Whatever you wanna call it, it was there. I saw the guy turn into a fish person when he jumped into the water.”
Sighing, Hunk gave Lance a sad look. “Are you sure you weren’t just drunk?”
Lance leaned back in the chair, an incredulous look on his face. “Why would I have been drunk?”
“You did go to a funeral yesterday,” the small blonde next to Hunk piped in, turning a page in the instruction manual they were reading.
Lance forcibly closed the manual on them and argued, “You don’t drink at funerals, Pidge. You’re thinking of wakes.” When Pidge adjusted their glasses and settled a bored look on Lance, the brunet took his hands away and crossed his arms over his chest. “I know what I saw. And I wasn’t drunk. Why would you even think that I would show up drunk at her funeral?”
Ah, shit. Lance could feel the corners of his eyes prick at the thought of the funeral. Turning his gaze away from his friends and their twin looks of concern, the tall brunet swiped a thumb at the corner of one eye.
“Lance, you know--”
“Yeah, like, that’s not what I meant,” Pidge finished, cutting off Hunk’s answer. The darker-skinned teen glanced at his partner.
“We were just trying to joke around with you.”
“Sure doesn’t seem like it,” Lance muttered out, blue eyes resting on a spot near his feet, which were tucked underneath Hunk’s desk. At that last comment, his friends went silent.
Lance knew that he was being extra defensive, that he was hurting them unnecessarily, but it hurt him, okay? Their lack of understanding when it came to her was always something that Lance couldn’t get over. They hadn’t known her like Lance had, and it destroyed him to think that she was gone. All because of…
His thoughts were cut short as a bell rang above them, signaling they end of their study period. As the brunet attempted to shove his belongings in his bag, mostly his abandoned homework for his next class, he kept his eyes glued to the floor. He didn’t want to see the looks of pity he was sure Hunk and Pidge were giving him.
Letting out a breath, Lance finally looked up at his friends. It was a little shocking to find that they had not been looking at him in pity. Instead, they wore matching looks of amusement. Drawing his brows together, Lance straightened. “What?” When they said nothing, preferring to just glance at each other, the brunet rolled his eyes. “Okay, then don’t tell me.”
“Just...just wait for it.” Pidge snorted lightly, turned their head and shoving their face into Hunk’s arm. The larger man, in turn, said nothing.
Rolling his eyes at them again, Lance turned. Whatever it was they were tying to do wasn’t gonna work on him. However, just as he thought those words and took a step forward, something yanked him back and he was flying backwards to land right back into his chair. Yelping as he fell, Lance threw his hands out, hoping to catch onto something, anything, and found nothing. Tailbone striking the hard plastic of the chair forcibly, Lance groaned.
The brunet looked down and found that, somehow, the strap of his backpack had gotten wrapped around the leg of his chair, and when he had tried to stand up, it had caught and forced him to sit once more.
His friends burst out into frenzied laughter. It wasn’t long before Lance joined in, because how the hell hadn’t he noticed that? True, the brunet could be rather...unobservant when his emotions were high, but this was a bit much.
“Jesus, did you see how fast I went down!?” he blurted out, swiping a hand through his hair and leaning his head over the back of the chair, grinning up at his friends.
Helping the brunet to stand, Hunk snorted lightly and Pidge lifted the chair so that Lance could disengage his backpack from it.
Once everything was back in its rightful place, the three headed off towards their next classes. If the exchange seemed odd, in Lance’s mind, it was pretty normal. It had always been like that between them. One of them would get upset about something, and then something funny would happen and it would be like they were never upset in the first place. It might not have been the best way to deal with his own emotions, but Lance figured it was easier than rehashing all the things that upset him. At this point in his life, that list was getting mighty long.
As he passed the window in the hallway that led to his chemistry lab, Lance glanced out over the houses and streets below that all led to the beach and the piers. Eyes locking on the one pier way out past where all the boats and beach goers normally frequented, the pier that had so many memories for him, Lance wondered if the mermaid he had seen had been real, or if it really was just his imagination.
A part of him wanted it to be just his mind playing tricks on him.
But his heart wanted it to be real.
~~
The rest of the school day had been fairly uneventful. Lance had decided to keep the whole mermaid thing in the back of his mind, needing to focus on his last few classes. He was already falling behind because of the few days he took off after...well, he needed to catch up regardless.
As soon as the last bell of the day rang, Lance was packed up and ready to book it out of there. He felt like he needed to get back to the pier, to see if what he had witnessed had actually happened.
“Lance!”
Spinning around, the brunet looked back at Hunk, who was still standing at his locker. “Where you goin’? Weren’t we gonna head out for something to eat?” Pidge popped their head out from behind Hunk and nodded in agreement.
“Uh..I’ve got some stuff to take care of, okay? Raincheck?”
He didn’t wait for their response. There was something nagging at him, some hope that he wasn’t imagining things. It nagged at him the entire way to his jeep, the entire way down to the docks. He needed to make sure that it was real.
But what if it wasn’t real? Lance asked himself as he slammed the door to his jeep and shoved his keys in his pocket. What if it had only been his grief stricken mind making things up? Maybe I should just go back and hang out with Hunk and Pidge. But he shook his head to disengage that thought. He wasn’t going to give up on this. If it was real, it was real. If it was just his imagination, he would be disappointed, but he would move on. Simple as that.
Taking a breath, the brunet stomped forward. All the rain from the day previous had dried up, as was normal. Lance could still remember the way the rain had fallen against the ground, the way the entire sky seemed to be overwhelmed in sadness. Or maybe it had just been his own mind.
His footsteps were loud against the ancient wood of the pier, the hard soles of his shoes slamming into the boards at every deliberate stride.
When Lance reached the end, there was nothing; nothing but the open ocean and the fish that glided around just below the surface. There was nothing but the sound of the waves softly lapping at the sandy beach. There wasn’t a single other soul around, and there was no glowing orb or shimmering scales.
Sighing, the brunet sat down on the edge of the pier and crossed his arms. What had he expected? Honestly? That a mythical creature would just be there waiting for him?
“Yeah, how stupid am I?” he muttered to himself, not that anyone was there to hear him anyway. He cast his eyes out onto the matching blue of the ocean before him, taking in the sights as if it was the first time. It would always feel like the first time in Lance’s mind.
He’d lived here for years, since he was still a kid, but the beauty of the ocean never ceased to amaze him. However, the depths held more than just wonder and beauty. It also held pure terror, the kind of terror Lance felt whenever he went out too far. There was so much that mankind didn’t know about the ocean. Nobody knew what could be lurking out in the depths, or even just below the surface.
Lance let out a low whistle, listening to the way the sound floated out over the still water. He loved the ocean, loved the way it could nullify the sounds around him, loved the way it made him feel when he was completely surrounded by water. Sometimes, he wondered if he was meant to be a part of the ocean instead of a part of the earth.
Untying his shoes and pulled his socks off, thought about the mermaid again. So maybe his mind had made it up because he was sad and needed a distraction, but who was to say that they didn’t exist. The ocean was huge, and so much of it hadn’t even been explored yet. He sunk his feet into the water and relished in the way it lapped against his ankles. He was thankful that the pier had sunk in recent years. When he was still in grade school, the water had been at least a foot or two below the edge of the pier, and no matter how hard Lance tried, he couldn’t reach it with his feet.
It was a nice feeling, his feet floating in open water. The water wasn’t too cold, even though summer hadn’t arrived yet. The air was still a little chilly, but it wouldn’t’ stay that way for long. It was nearing the end of April, and school would let out in a couple of months. The tourists would flock in and Lance wouldn’t have time to just sit out here anymore. He’d be forced to work at his parents’ bookstore the entire summer. And she wouldn’t be there to make it fun anymore.
Without realizing, Lance slipped his hand into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around that key-chain again. It had belonged to her, and she had given it to Lance a few weeks before she died, wanting him to hold onto it for safe keeping. It’s important, she’d told him, but she would never tell the brunet why.
Lance’s mind darkened again as he lightly pulled the warm metal from his pocket. Resting it in his palm, he tried to look at it and not let the tears come. It was small, smaller than it had looked in her hand. It was an owl, or at least if vaguely resembled one shape-wise, the white and black crystals adorning it having fallen out years ago. Sighing, the brunet closed his eyes and wrapped the key-chain in his fist. He was supposed to have thrown it into the ocean yesterday...because that’s what she had asked him to do. But he couldn’t. It was the only thing Lance had left of her. He couldn’t just...throw it away, even if she wanted him to.
Wiping the tears from his eyes with his free hand, the brunet attempted to slide the key-chain back in his pocket, but as he went to bring his hand back, it slipped through his fingers. The entire thing seemed to happen in slow motion, and Lance watched as the small, metal owl hit the pier between his legs and bounced off into the water. He’d tried to catch it, but he was too slow. It hit the surface with a light plunking sound and sunk.
“No, no, NO!” he cried out, not even thinking before he was yanking his sweater off and his shirt over his head. He was not going to lose it at a time like this, just because he was being stupid and not paying attention. Without stopping to wonder if this was actually the right thing to do, Lance was diving into the cool water.
Lance could still see the sun glinting off the metal as it sunk, and despite the stinging of the saltwater in his eyes, he kept them open. He kept his gaze on that glittering. Kicking his legs with more force, the brunet sunk deeper and deeper, the water growing darker and darker. He absently wondered how the ocean floor could be so far down when he was still relatively close to shore.
By the time the pressure in his lungs at not taking a breath became too much, Lance realized that he would not be able to reach the ground. He couldn’t. He didn’t have enough air. Ceasing in his efforts, the brunet began to swim upwards, but it was already too late. He had gone too far, past the point of return. He wouldn’t be able to make it.
And it was with that thought that he started to panic.
Now, Lance had always been at home in the water, whether it be a pool or the ocean, but he had never stopped to think about how terrifying it would be to be so far from the surface and out of air. He hadn’t ever thought that the panic he would feel at the threat of drowning would be all consuming, overpowering. But it was.
Despite that soul-wrenching panic coursing through his veins, Lance still knew that there was no hope of him surviving. So he stopped struggling. He let his limbs relax and let the air he had held in for so long go.
His vision grew darker, his mind grew groggier, but he felt weightless, like the water was taking all of his fears and guilt go. Like he could finally be at piece.
But then something caught his eye.
Even in his darkening vision, he saw an orb of red float around him, drawing his eyes. As he followed it, another color came into view. Grey, flecked with violet; two glowing orbs of violet. They looked like eyes. And as he saw those eyes, he heard...singing. However, it wasn’t in a language he knew. It was pretty, calming.
As whatever it was that owned those eyes wrapped itself around Lance’s almost lifeless body, he felt the burning in his chest recede, and it all faded into nothingness.
Chapter 2: Födelse
Summary:
Lance wakes from the slumber of near death to find a creature before him, the same one that he watched the day before pitch itself to sea.
This creature, this Siren, is nothing like the brunet has ever met before, and he feels a strange sense of familiarity with it.
Notes:
HOLY SHIT I ACTUALLY FINISHED IT.
Hey, guys! Blaine here! Jeasus, that took me flipping forever to finish this, but can I just say, I am so proud of myself for actually doing it? I loved the idea for this story, and the fact that I finally had some inspiration to write it made me so so so happy. I hope you guys like it as much as I like writing it!
Since there are going to be some rather heavy themes in here, if you guys would like me to put trigger warnings and such on the chapters in case you are sensitive to those, let me know, okay?
Chapter Text
Lance’s first thought as his mind came back into focus was, Am I dead? His second thought, No, I can’t be. My chest hurts way too much for me to be dead.
Blinking tired, stinging eyes open, Lance’s vision was still very much out of focus. Everything was too bright. Too blurry. The brunet let out a groan and tried to shift his body slightly. He could feel the old, splintering wood of the pier underneath his back and shoulder. He must have been laying on his side because, even though he couldn’t really see it, the world seemed like it was titled on its axis.
Cursing low under his breath, Lance attempted to sit up. His arms felt like jelly. After what seemed like at least four unsuccessful attempts, Lance pushed himself up into a sitting position. He put a hand to his head and let out a breath. His lungs felt like they were on fire.
How did I get back on the pier? he wondered, trying to blink the fogginess from his eyes. I was...I was drowning? Wasn’t I?
“You know, this little trinket is, like, the most idiotic reason to throw your life away.”
Yelping at the sudden voice, Lance clambered backwards and looked around quickly, trying to find the source. It took at least two rounds before his eyes landed on someone at the edge of the pier, head resting on one arm as they twirled a key-chain, Lance’s key-chain around their finger. As the brunet’s eyes finally focused, his jaw dropped.
Not only was this random person the definition of attractive with almond shaped eyes, high cheekbones, and perfectly shaped lips that were pulled up in a smirk, all framed by silken, raven locks, but he...he was also...he had…
“Is that a tail?” Lance squeaked out, cerulean eyes wide as he attempted to take in the sight before him. Flicking in and out of the water lazily, disrupting the natural flow of the waves only just, was indeed a mermaid’s tail, covered in iridescent crimson scales. Lance found himself entranced, the droplets of water that were spread over it glinting in the afternoon sun.
A snort pulled his attention away from the tail and back to the mermaid’s face. “Well, what the hell else would it be?”
Blinking at the aggression in the words, Lance drew his brows together and titled his head.
“Okay, I’ve got to be hallucinating,” the brunet muttered, eyes sliding to stare at the tail again. There was no way that this was real. It just wasn’t possible. How could there really be a mythical creature in front of him right now? It was true that he’d hoped it would be real before, but with the memory of the water filling his lungs still on the forefront, he just wanted it to be a dream.
Lance sputtered as water was suddenly thrown at his face with such force that it almost knocked him onto his back. As he wiped the salty liquid from his eyes, he saw one dark brow quirked up on the mermaid’s face, the smirk from before still present.
“What about now, lover boy? Still think its a dream?”
Lover boy? Turning his head away slightly, wariness creeping into his expression, Lance leaned forward and reached a hand out. The water in the face had been a good tactic, but he couldn’t be totally sure until he touched the being before him. The tips of his fingers brushed against the mermaid’s soft cheek, the skin still slightly damp, as if he had still been in the water until just recently. Okay, so maybe its real.
Lance yanked his hand back before shoving it under his leg. He hadn’t even asked if he could touch the mermaid or not. Like...how rude could you be? Clearing his throat, Lance kept his eyes locked on a spot somewhere to the left of where the mermaid’s tail was. “So, uh. Do you know how I got back up here? I, uh, I was...” He wasn’t sure what had happened. One moment he had been giving up on living, on surviving, and the next he was back up on the pier as if nothing had happened.
“Duh, I put you there?”
Eyes flying towards the mermaid’s face again, Lance let out a choked sound. “W-what?”
The raven-haired mermaid rolled his eyes, and something about them drew a memory from Lance’s mind. Grey orbs that glowed purple while a song surrounded him. Was that a hallucination? Something his mind conjured up as the lack of oxygen overtook him?
Letting go of the pier, the mermaid sunk back down into the water, getting his hair wet before he came back up. He then proceeded to swim in lazy circles in front of Lance, the sun shimmering over his skin and the scales of his tail as he did so.
“I was down by my rock, just minding my own business when you just show up and at first, I was just gonna let you drown, ‘cause, like, it was your own stupidity that brought you down there,” the ravenette explained, lifting his hand to spin that key-chain around his finger again.
“Hey, can I--?”
“But I decided, you know what? It would be rude to just leave you there, so I helped. Gave you some air and flopped you back outta the water. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Narrowing his eyes at the interruption, Lance stared at the way the water rippled around the mermaid’s form, only barely displacing the waves as he gracefully swung his tail through the water. The brunet had a feeling that he wasn’t going to get the metal trinket back anytime soon, so he resigned himself to sliding further towards the edge of the pier. Dipping his feet back into the water, he tried to formulate a coherent thought, his brain still muddled after the ordeal.
“Why have I never seen you before?”
Carding a hand through his dark hair, the mermaid quirked an eyebrow once again. “Do you really think that I would just let a random human see me?” the mermaid asked in favor of answering the question.
Lance opened and closed his mouth a few times, heat rising in his cheeks. He turned his eyes towards a spot down near his feet and muttered, “You did yesterday.”
The soft sloshing of the saltwater around the mermaid stopped suddenly and the mermaid’s raven-haired head popped up in between Lance’s feet. Leaning back slightly, Lance kept his eyes firmly planted on the water and not those pretty grey eyes that had once glowed purple. “What do you mean?” the mermaid asked, tilting his head to the side. The expression on his face held such innocent confusion, that Lance was tempted to poke at the creature’s cheeks. He managed to hold back the urge, but only just.
“You jumped in yesterday afternoon. You turned into a mermaid right in front of my eyes. I thought mermaids couldn’t exist out of the water?”
The innocent expression turned to an annoyed, deadpan kind of look and suddenly, the mermaid swiped his tail swiftly through the water, propelling him up. The raven-haired creature thrust his hands out and pushed back against Lance’s shoulders. The brunet’s back collided with the hard wood of the pier and his head cracked against it.
Lifting a hand to rub at the growing sore spot on the back of his head, Lance groaned and stared at the mermaid that was now laying on top of him, the crimson of his scales glimmering in the light. The mermaid slapped his hands on the pier on either side Lance’s head.
“I’m not a mermaid! I’m a Siren! Si-Ren!”
Siren? Lance had heard that term before, but wasn’t it used to describe those awful creatures that dragged sailors to their deaths?
“Well, aren’t they the same thing?” Lance wondered, not at all discontent with the heavy warmth of the creature above him.
The mer—no, the Siren let out a strangled sound and rolled off of Lance, throwing up his hands. “Of course not!”
Vaguely wondering why the sudden absence of the Siren’s warmth upset him, Lance sat up and looked down at the way those raven locks splayed out around his head. The Siren’s hands were covering his face now, and the brunet noticed that he wore a red stone on a leather cord wrapped around his wrist. Was that the source of that red that I’d seen yesterday and earlier? Shoving the thought into the metaphorical folder for topics addressed at another time, Lance pulled his legs up and crossed them. “So, what’s the difference?”
The Siren slid his hands from his face and focused his cesious eyes on Lance. At the sudden intensity of the look, Lance felt a weird shiver creep up his spine. “The difference?” the ravenette repeated, his voice dropping several octaves. He held a hand out and motioned for Lance to help him sit up. The brunet was tempted to ignore it, so he could see the Siren struggle, but opted for being nice . Pulling the other into a sitting position, Lance lifted his eyebrows, urging the raven-haired creature to continue. “The difference is that a Siren could kill you with their bare hands.” He paused and leaned forward, suddenly so close that their noses could almost touch. “ I could kill you with my bare hands,” he hissed, grey eyes sparking.
“Okay? And?” Lance was determined to not show any fear in front of the Siren. He had no doubt in his mind that the creature could kill him, but that didn’t mean that he was gonna spur the guy on.
“And what?”
“And what about mermaids?”
Rolling those cesious eyes, the Siren lifted his hand again and spun Lance’s key-chain around his finger once more. Lance was a little surprised that he was still holding onto it. “ Mermaids, ” the Siren spat, as if he hated the word and it was like poison in his mouth, “Are pretty and innocent and were born as mermaids, and they don’t exist . All those stories about mermaids are literally just stupid knock offs of what we really are.” He paused and looked out at the ocean, the annoyed expression on his face fading into something contemplative. “We aren’t innocent and full of happiness. We’re just lost. We’re lost and want our lives back, to be human again. We were made to kill, to take human lives and turn them into Sirens. We aren’t...innocent.”
As he spoke, the Siren’s voice got softer, more filled with emotion. Something in Lance screamed at him to reach out and comfort this creature, but he wasn’t sure if the Siren would let him.
Instead, the brunet reached out and ruffled the other’s raven hair, causing him to swat at Lance’s hands and emit several whiny, exasperated noises.
“Dude! Not cool!”
A smirk tugged at the corners of Lance’s mouth as he took his hands away. The Siren’s hair was now thoroughly mussed, strands sticking up in awkward intervals. “You sound pretty innocent to me,” Lance said, a chuckle painting his voice in a positive light, hoping that it would make the Siren feel a little less...whatever he was at this moment. “At least, I refuse to believe that someone without any innocence would save the life of a complete stranger.”
The more Lance thought about it, and believe you me, he was thinking about it harder than he’d ever thought about anything in his entire life, the more this entire ordeal sounded like that scene from the Little Mermaid. Well, the Disney version anyway. It almost seemed as if this Siren was Ariel and Lance was Prince Eric. The entire idea brought a bubble of almost manic laughter up his throat.
The Siren next to him angled his face away, a skeptical look rising in his face. “You’re really weird, you know that?”
Lance blinked, that laughter bubbling up again to completely spill from his lips. His hand rose to scratch at the back of his head. “Yeah, my friends tell me that a lot!” he chuckled, then winced as his fingers brushed against the knot that was forming at the back of his head from when the Siren knocked him over earlier. “Ouch. That’s gonna be a nasty bump tomorrow,” he murmured, squinting against the throbbing in his skull.
“Shit, are you okay?” The Siren suddenly surged forward, his hands sliding into Lance’s hair as if to check the wound for himself. Lance felt an urge to scramble backwards, to get as far away from this creature that had only minutes before threatened to murder him except, that’s not really how it went . However, the urge flew right out the proverbial window as soon as Lance saw the worry in those beautiful grey eyes that were so unlike any he’d seen in his life.
There was light in them, a type of life that Lance had only ever seen once before, in eyes that were so different than the ones in front of him now. Their blue hues intermingled with a strange shade of pink, all because of a weird mutation. The ones in front of him now were full of life, but also seemed just as lifeless. There was a desire for it, but no such life existed in their slate colored depths.
“You still alive in there?”
Lance’s body shook as his mind came out of his thoughts, focusing not on the contradictory nature of those eyes and instead on the look of concern that colored the Siren’s face. “Uhm. I. Just. Yes. Yeah, I’m…” The teen’s staggering words came to a stop, and something glinting in the sunlight caught his eye. The keychain .
It was still held tightly in the raven-haired Siren’s hand, but it now rested against the splintered wood beneath the two of them, having taken his hands away from Lance’s head while the brunet had been lost in his thoughts. Lance had been so set on getting it back earlier, but the longer he watched the creature play with it, flaunt it in front of the brunet, the less he really wanted it back. You were supposed to drop it in the ocean anyway . Isn’t that what she wanted? It was, but up until this point, Lance hadn’t thought about honoring her wish.
The Siren dropped his concerned gaze from Lance’s face down to the keychain as well. He blew out a puff of annoyed air and crossed his arms, taking the small, metal owl from Lance’s sight. “Alright, what is it with this thing, huh?”
Lance blinked and slowly brought his eyes back up to meet his companion’s. “Wha--?”
Words getting cut off as the ravenette dangled the keychain in front of Lance’s nose, Lance leaned back slightly.
“This!” the creature blurted, shaking it. “What is it with you and this stupid little trinket? First you almost drown yourself because of it, and now you won’t stop staring at it.” Using his opposite hand, the Siren poked Lance between his eyebrows. “What. Is. It?” Each word fell on another jab of the Siren’s finger.
“It…” Lance took a breath and brushed that painful finger from his face. “It belongs... belonged ...to a friend of mine.” Cerulean eyes turned to the side, not wanting to see those eyes that were so like hers but so different. Maybe they were the reason that, despite the implication that this creature could kill him and the fact that he shouldn’t exist , Lance felt so comfortable with the Siren, as if they had known each other for as long as they’d lived. Of course, that was impossible; logically, Lance knew that his mind was just trying to make a connection because of that soul-deep feeling of loss that persisted after her death.
“Belonged as in?” the Siren urged, wrist rolling as if to say, any day now.
Lance winced again, watching as a breeze picked up and shifted the creature’s now air dried hair over his forehead. The strands danced and circled around the Siren’s ears, and it seemed similar to the way hair moved in the water. To be honest, the brunet had always loved watching the sway of hair through the ocean waves, had spent far too many hours watching as the sea and the sun had filtered through her hair. And all the while, as the memories he had tried to keep away resurfaced as strongly as if he had seen it just the day before, Lance couldn’t get over the fact of how much he missed her. Her voice, her smile, everything. All the memories succeeded in doing was make Lance feel even more lonely than he had before he came here.
“She died.”
The statement seemed to take the creature aback, and he leaned away from Lance as if the brunet had struck him. “Oh.” That was it. That was all the Siren said as he hugged his arms over his middle and looked out at the ocean again, those slate-like eyes becoming stormy, filled with several emotions that Lance wasn’t sure he could decipher without the ravenette telling him. Even when he spoke, the Siren kept those eyes away, seemingly content to stare at the endlessness of the sea. He seemed...lonely all of a sudden, as if Lance’s confession had taken something from him.
After several minutes, the Siren’s lips parted, a stuttered breath filtering between them. “I’m...I’m sorry,” he said, putting emphasis on the words, which gave the brunet the impression that he felt particularly responsible for what Lance was feeling. Which, again, Lance knew was completely absurd, because this Siren could have had nothing to do with her death. She hadn’t drowned, so this creature couldn’t have been responsible. Almost cryptically, the Siren suddenly continued, “That must be why your heart is blue.”
“What?” My heart is blue? What the hell does that mean? Clarifying, the brunet questioned, “What do you mean by that?”
The Siren winced, as if he hadn’t meant to say anything in the first place, as if Lance wasn’t supposed to know the color of his heart , or whatever the raven-haired creature had said. “It’s...nothing. Really.” However, from the Siren’s body language, the way his body had stiffened and was now angled away from Lance, it clearly was anything but nothing . The teen felt the need to push, to figure out what the creature had meant, but logically, he knew that that wasn’t going to help. So instead, he pursed his lips and sighed.
“Welp,” Lance blurted, sitting straight and throwing a smirk at the creature, pretending that none of this had seemed weird in any shape or form. “That’s okay. It’s probably a big Siren secret and a measly human like me has no right to that information.”
A strangled chuckle drew from the raven-haired creature’s throat, and he wiped the guilty look from his face. It was very quickly replaced by that same smirk that Lance had first seen when he had woken up earlier. “You’re goddamn right, you’ve got no right.” Something flashed in his eyes then, and he rested his palms against the pier once more, leaving forward to stick his nose close to Lance’s nose, so close that they were almost touching. “Unless you’d like to trade places and become a Siren, and then I can tell you aaalll about it.”
The teen could tell that the Siren was only half joking, that he had every intention of turning Lance into a Siren, if only Lance agreed.
“Uhm, no thanks,” said Lance, scratching at his cheek. He put a mildly concerned-for-his-own-well being look on his face and continued, “As much as I love the ocean, I don’t think I’d like to become a creature that can only exist in it.”
A raven brow quirked in amusement. “ That’s the only reason you don’t want to become a Siren?”
“Apart from not wanting to drag people to their deaths at the bottom of the sea, yep.”
Laughter barked from the Siren, and the creature leaned back to flop against the pier, shaking as each laugh ripped through him. Lance watched in silence as tears sprang to the creature’s eyes, all the while trying to speak through his laughter. It wasn’t working, and even the Siren seemed to realize that, because he stopped trying.
“You...you’ve been watching too many movies!” the ravenette finally managed to blurt out once his laughter had faded somewhat. “That’s not how it works, you know!”
“How am I supposed to know that?” Lance countered, leaning forward to loom over the amused Siren. “Until yesterday, I didn’t even know you existed .”
The giggles that had been a constant for the last few minutes came to a halt, and the creature seemed to have a dawning realizing. “Shit, you’re right! My bad!”
Now, it was Lance’s turn to laugh. For a being that was supposed to be murderous in it’s seduction of the weak willed, this Siren sure seemed a little...less than all there . The teen found himself smiling fondly down at the creature, a little bit of that loneliness that had consumed him fade.
But just as he was about to pick on the Siren some more, there was an earth shattering clap of thunder above them. Both the human and the Siren jumped at the sound, and Lance found confusion being written across his features. Where only minutes before there had been soft, cloudless skies, now thick, angry storm clouds were spreading above them. “What in the hell? It’s not supposed to rain today,” Lance muttered as he watched the storm roll in.
The Siren suddenly jolted upright, a look of panic darkening his eyes as he almost headbutted Lance in the nose. “I have to go,” he blurted, throwing out his hands to push the confused brunet away from him. If it hadn’t been for the hands that Lance still had against the sun-bleached boards of the pier, he would have toppled over backwards into the water.
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
Raven hair flew as the creature shook his head quickly, shifting back away from Lance. “I just--” He slipped off into the water suddenly, tail throwing up a plume of saltwater in its wake as he pushed himself further away from the pier.
“Wait!” Lance called, scrambling to the edge and gripping at its splintered surface. “What about my keychain!”
“I have to go now !!” the Siren yelled, looking back over his shoulder. “I’m being called and if I don’t go now, it’ll only get worse!” The ravenette glanced up at the growing storm as he spoke, and the wind ripped at Lance’s only slightly damp clothing.
“But--”
“NO!!” The yell was accompanied by a burst of water that soaked Lance through once again. The Siren looked on in apology as the tide suddenly pulled outwards. “Listen! Come back tomorrow, and I’ll give it to you then! But right now I have to go .”
The waves grew choppy, and the pier pitched to the side, almost sending Lance off the edge once more. “Wh-what time!?” he questioned, lamely, knowing that the Siren wouldn’t be able to give him an actual time. But if the brunet was being honest, he didn’t really want the creature to leave, to take away a little bit of the warmth that Lance had gained just by him being there.
“Tomorrow morning! That’s all I can tell you!”
And then raven tresses ducked beneath the waves with nothing more than a slap of a crimson scaled tail against the surface of the water. The Siren was gone and Lance watched on in terrified fascination as the storm followed him out to sea, leaving the brunet as alone as he truly felt.
Chapter 3: Frysta
Summary:
The night is always hard for Lance, and thoughts of the girl he lost permeates his mind, even as he tries to think about the Siren he desperately wants to know more about.
Today is the day he will figure out who, and what, this Siren actually is...
But life always has a way of changing Lance's plans.
Notes:
Wowie...this one took me...forever. I am so sorry. Things got crazy, and this chapter was hard to write. You'll see why...
WARNINGS:
Depression, dissociating, mentions of suicide, mentions of blood, pain, self-deprecation, bullying
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Contrary to popular belief, Lance was actually a rather deep thinker. Once his mind caught onto a certain train of thought, he’d be stuck on it for hours, circling around and around until it drove him to an fitful, restless slumber.
As Lance stared out his bedroom window, focusing on the just barely visible craters on the surface of the full moon, he understood that now was one of those times. His exhausted body begged for sleep, but his confused mind wanted answers. Answers which seemed to get farther and farther from the brunet’s reach the longer he contemplated the questions he had.
Shifting from laying on his back to curling up on his side, Lance groaned at the effort. Between getting almost no sleep the night before due to the funeral, the mysterious creature and almost drowning earlier that day, Lance’s body was a wreck. And that wasn’t even counting the whole getting-thrown-into-the-pier thing.
Lance didn’t actually know how long he’d been in bed, not sure when exactly he had gone up to his room. It had to have been quite a while, though, because when he glanced over his shoulder at his Pooh Bear alarm clock (yes, laugh if you will, but he’d had it since he was a kid), it read past midnight. He stared at the glowing red display until the numbers melted together and his unblinking eyes became gritty, burning at the lack of moisture.
Confusion tainted his mind, spinning in circles as he tried to make sense of the day he’d had. Every event, every turn just coalesced into a big tangled ball of messy information that his brain just couldn’t fit together into a cohesive narrative, no matter how hard he tried. Maybe trying is what’s making it so hard. Perhaps so, but that didn’t mean he was actually going to just let the entire topic fester in the back of his head, saved for another day. No, if he really, truly cared, he’d have to try and figure out what the hell had happened.
And so Lance attempted to recall every detail he could, setting up a mental timeline. The first thing he remembered was drowning, or at least, almost drowning. He couldn’t quite get a grasp on what led to that moment; the only thing that stuck in his mind was that he’d jumped in because he’d dropped the keychain. After that, things got foggy, apart from those eyes that he remembered and that song that had sounded so sad, but had pulled him further in, leaving him wanting more.
Rolling over on his stomach, the words whispered from his lips. “A Siren’s song,” he breathed, trying to remember the words or even the melody. The words were a lost cause. They’d sounded like some fantasy language out of the Hobbit or Star Trek. The melody on the other hand, even through his muddled, exhaustion riddled brain, Lance was able to remember that with startling clarity. It filtered through his mind, relaxing his muscles and sending him into a light slumber.
Sometime later, it may have been minutes, it may have been hours, Lance startled awake, his leg jerking in that way it does when one’s brain feels the need to make sure the body is still alive.
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, fingernails scraping over his scalp as he clawed at his hair. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep, and once he had passed out, he was sure as hell that he hadn’t meant to wake up. Sighing, the brunette blinked a few times, trying to remove some of the grit that lay in the corners of his eyes. What was I doing? He honestly couldn’t remember.
It wasn’t until he had slid his hands around his head to lace his fingers together and he bumped against the rather large lump that lay there that he recalled what it had been. He’d been thinking about that Siren’s melody. Lance tried to bring it back to the forefront of his mind, but the moment he did, he felt himself falling back into the soft caress of sleep.
“Ooookay,” he mumbled, sitting up and clicking his light on. “Let’s not think about that.” He was trying to find answers; he didn’t need to pass out when he’d barely figured out a damn thing. True, he had no idea why the thought of the song was making him so tired in the first place, but that didn’t seem to be the most important of his questions. “What else happened?” he asked himself, drawing his knees up to his chest, turning eyes back to the window.
He’d almost drowned. Yes, that was the first of it. He’d almost died . But he hadn’t, because a mythical creature that wasn’t supposed to exist had decided to take pity on him. Well, maybe that wasn’t exactly how it went, but that was what Lance’s tired mind supplied. There had to be another reason for it. Sirens were murderous creatures, or...at least that’s what Lance originally believed.
The brunet hadn’t spent much time in the presence of the creature, but in the time they had spent together, Lance had felt no ill will come from the raven-haired being. No, it was more like Lance had felt as if he’d known him for far longer, that they’d spent time together in the past. But to Lance’s knowledge, he’d never seen the Siren before the day of the funeral.
Crazy to think that it was just yesterday…
It didn’t seem like it had only happened a mere day ago; it felt as if he’d skipped ahead ten years. Not in the way that the pain had faded, but in the way that it seemed to fester and rot in his mind, bringing far greater torment that it would have if it had just happened.
That pain almost reminded him of the way he had felt when he’d given up on surviving, when he’d resigned himself to his fate of drowning in the ocean he so loved. Had that been what she felt when she died? Not the pressure of the water around her, but that pain of giving up on life? Giving up on all of the dreams she had once had? Was that what it had been like? If it was, it just made Lance feel all the more guilty for not being able to help when she needed it the most.
Sighing, the brunet attempted to bring his mind around to what he had originally been trying to do as he slid back down into his blankets, ducking his head beneath his pillows. He wanted to understand more about that creature, the Siren whose name he wished he knew. Do Sirens even have names? He hadn’t thought to ask. They had been far too busy talking about other, more interesting things at the time.
But even as he thought about it, about the creature, about those eyes that seemed to hold storms within them that rivaled that freak one that had followed along as he left, the less he really understood. He tried, he really did. There was just nothing he could really figure out on his own. The brunet would have to ask the Siren himself when he went to see him the next day.
Who was to say, though, that the Siren would even show up? Maybe he had just said that to make Lance leave him alone as he tried to escape. Because that was what he had done, right? Escaped? From the questions that he probably knew that Lance would ask? For all the teen knew, the Siren could have tossed that keychain off into the water and decided never to come back, leaving Lance showing up and looking like an idiot as he waited for something that shouldn’t even exist.
Why am I so hung up on the fact that he shouldn’t exist? So what, he shouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t real.
There were dozens of things that shouldn’t be real, and yet they were. Things that should have kept existing and instead threw their lives away, and it astounded Lance that she had done so.
“Why do you have to keep haunting me?” he asked the empty air, the memories of her. “Why can’t your memory just die like the rest of you?” He was being cruel, saying things he truly didn’t mean, but pain does that to a person, takes all of their emotions and twists them into ugly, contorted versions of themselves. “If you can just leave me alone here, then why didn’t you take everything? Just leave. That’s what you wanted anyway.”
The brunet curled up into himself, his hands covering his ears, trying to get her screaming voice and shattering sobs out of his mind.
“Just leave.”
Tears slid down his face, and at first Lance wasn’t sure they were his own, because when had he started crying? When had that feeling of loss and loneliness, of abandonment and pain, welled up to spill from his own eyes? The walls felt like they were closing in around him, crushing him into a tiny square of loneliness and torment.
“Just...leave.”
The words repeated like a mantra in his brain for eternities, neverending in their circling of his psyche, spending lifetimes on his greatest fears and most intimate wants. He knew the galaxy around him was spinning just like it always did, but he felt like he was lost to the woes of space as it stuttered in its position, stuck in an atmosphere that all at once allowed him to breathe and ripped the air from his lungs. Lance knew what was happening, could hear when his door opened, could picture the look of concern on his mother’s face, knew the voices of his siblings as they tried to wake him, but there was nothing he could physically or mentally do to bring himself back into the world of understanding.
By the time that spinning, the floating finally ended, he could hear the birds chirping their morning song outside his window, could see the morning sun filter through his gauzy curtains that obscured exactly none of the light.
Lance uncurled his body, his muscles and ligaments stiff from spending so long in such a position. He wasn’t sure when the pillow had been removed from his head, maybe when his mother had come in to check on him, but it was fluffed up behind his back, almost in an attempt to take some of the weight from his spine. The tracks from his tears itched terribly, the salt cracking as he blinked tired eyes. He must have had them open the entire time, unable to see or focus on anything that had lain before him.
“Well,” he muttered, his voice sounding as if he had screamed for the last four hours at one of the loudest concerts he’d even been to. “So much for getting a full night’s sleep.” He dragged in a breath, rubbing at his eyes. “Maybe I should have let that song put me in a coma. At least I would’ve gotten some rest.”
The house around him was quiet, the breeze filtering through his window being the only thing that brought any sound towards his eardrums. The beach, although closer in proximity than when he had been at school the day before, was still a bit too far away to be able to hear the soft lapping of waves against the shore, or the gulls as they dived down to steal fries from unsuspecting victims.
Thinking about the waves brought an image to the forefront of his mind, and image of crimson scales, the light dancing over the lustrous tail that had been one of the first things to catch Lance’s eye. That’s right. He was supposed to meet the Siren that morning to get his keychain back. Glancing over at his alarm clock, he saw that it was only around 7 AM. If he left then, there wouldn’t be anyone around to catch sight of the creature, so maybe now was the best time to go see him.
Then again, he’d left his friends so suddenly yesterday; maybe he should ask if they wanted to get breakfast before he went down. They hadn’t gone to the local breakfast joint in quite some time, since way before school started the previous fall. All three of them had been busy, Lance with...well, that didn’t matter anymore. They’d just been busy, that was the truth of it, and the brunet truly didn’t want to think any more about her.
“You know what, why not.” He shuffled around in his bed for a few moments, untangling himself from the comforter and trying to find his phone all at once. Lance was one of those people that usually just tossed their phone wherever and would spend hours searching for it. “Alright, you little bastard,” he grumbled, sliding his hands along his sheets. “Where the hell are ya?”
Lance’s fingers slipped over the soft cotton with almost no resistance, the fabric warm from where he’d laid on it all night. As his fingertips brushed against the plastic case around his phone, Lance sighed in relief. He really didn’t want to be looking for it the entire morning, not when he had already settled his mind on doing something. The darker parts of his mind screamed for him to lay back down, to forget about going out into the world, to stay under his blankets until he became nothing more than a part of his bed. But he couldn’t do that. He wasn’t that far gone yet.
The brunet debated on whether to text his friends one at a time, or just to go for the group chat. He’d been avoiding it for weeks now, not wanting to deal with the memories that resided in that virtual space, her memory covering every surface. Lance couldn’t avoid it forever; realistically, he knew that. There was just something so...terrifying about stepping into that place, about resigning himself to doing something that he felt like he just wasn’t equipped to do.
In the end, he ignored the way her name winked at him as he made sure that Hunk and Pidge were online. She wouldn’t be on anymore, her name would always be greyed out, and he would have to get used to that. I could always just...kick her profile from it. That was true, he could, but did he want to? It would be like… Soiling her image, his mind supplied, but that wasn’t exactly it.
Grumbling at his own indecision, the brunet moved his thumb over the keyboard, using the Android Swype feature to its full potential as he wrote out a message to his friends, determined to just get it over with.
Sharknado: Heyyyy whose up for breakfast??
Sharknado: I’m up for breakfast
Sharknado: Wanna go get breakfast??
Lance was nervous, and he wasn’t entirely sure why. He had ignored her name, that was fine; but waiting for his friends to reply or ignore him was like torture, almost as bad as waiting for his life to run out in that water the day before. Well, maybe not. That had been pretty goddamn awful. Setting the phone down on the comforter, the brunet crossed his legs, and then his arms, then uncrossed his arms. He waited. He must have been sitting there for hours . It felt like hours.
He’d been sitting there for thirty seconds.
The triple vibrate went off and Lance snatched up the phone, excited to see Pidge’s screen name.
SaltsaV3rde: Why do you always have to send the same message in three different ways?
SaltsaV3rde: Just ask once. In one message.
Sharknado: Fine, would anyone care to break their fast with me this fine morning?
SaltsaV3rde: Way to be passive aggressive there, Lance.
TheIcredibleHunk: Lay off him pidge.
SaltsaV3rde: Yeayea
Sharknado: Thanks, buddy.
Sharknado: So about that breakfast?
TheIcredibleHunk: Srry lance. Im spendin the day wit my dad.
SaltsaV3rde: Im still doin research for that psychology report thats due next week.
TheIcredibleHunk: Car day.
SaltsaV3rde: Raincheck.
Sharknado: Jeez, way to make me feel left out guys. We never go eat out anymore.
SaltsaV3rde: We literally went out last night, but SOMEONE didn’t wanna go.
SaltsaV3rde: So if you feel left out, maybe you should have come with us.
SaltsaV3rde: Stop being so whiny.
Sharknado: Wow, okay. I’m sorry that I had stuff to do.
Sharknado: Not my fault.
TheIcredibleHunk: Guys cmon not right now pls.
SaltsaV3rde: Well now we have stuff to do.
SaltsaV3rde: Get over it.
Lance drew back away from his phone screen, bristling at the way his friend was talking to him. Sure, Pidge lived up to their screen name; they were the epitome of the phrase “salty”, but even this was a bit out of character for the blonde. The brunet’s brows drew together, a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth, as he began swiping around the keyboard, preparing to lay into Pidge.
However, he was cut off when the blonde’s screen name popped up again.
SaltsaV3rde: You know, Lance, you’ve been whinier than a two year old ever since Allura died. Like, we get it, you miss her, but stop and think about how it makes us feel? She was our friend too, and we’re not wallowing in self-pity.
SaltsaV3rde: So really, get over it.
TheIcredibleHunk : Rly pidge? That was uncalled for. Not fair to Lance at all
The brunet saw that Pidge was typing but he couldn’t focus on whatever they were saying now. Knowing Pidge, they were probably apologizing because Hunk had scolded them. But Lance didn’t care.
“What the hell,” he muttered, glaring down at the screen. He was acting like a two year old? He should just get over it? They hadn’t known her like he had. Yeah, she was their friend, but they hadn’t spent as much time with her as Lance had. How could they say that to him? After everything he’d gone through when she died?
But you know what? He wasn’t going to stand for that kind of treatment from the people that were supposed to be his friends. His only friends now that Allura was gone.
Scrolling to the group chat settings, Lance debated for only a few seconds before leaving it. He didn’t even say that he was leaving, he just did it. And now that he wasn’t a part of the chat anymore, he honestly had no real reason to keep his phone on him, so in a fit of uncharacteristic anger over being hurt, he threw his phone across the room. It bounced off the edge of his desk to land in the trashcan next to it, sinking in between little crumpled papers and Dum-Dum wrappers.
“Screw them.”
Lance rested his back against his pillows, drawing his knees up to his chest as he tried to not feel guilty about leaving the chat and ignoring his friends. Logically, he knew that Pidge probably hadn’t meant it, that they were probably exhausted after staying up for two days straight, trying to do that report. It wasn’t the first time they’d lashed out at Lance, and it most likely wouldn’t be the last. In all likelihood, that was what they had been trying to type out when the brunet had left the chat, apologizing.
And there was the guilt again. Why did his entire life have to revolve around that gut-wrenching feeling of regret that just wouldn’t leave him? Dragging his hand through his tangled hair, Lance squeezed his eyes shut. He felt himself beginning to rock slightly.
“No, nope, not today, friendo. Not today.” He yanked his hands away from his head and threw himself out of bed, shaking his limbs and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “To hell with it,” he said to the empty room, stalking over to his closet and throwing his pajamas off. “I’ll go down to the pier. At least someone there wants to talk to me.”
By the time Lance had shoved himself into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt covered by a indigo hoodie with a weird turtle insignia on it, the guilt was gnawing at the edges of his mind, far enough away to not be a focal point, but close enough to drag his mind to dark places if he let it. He wouldn’t let it. He wouldn’t let the memory of her destroy him.
Bounding down the stairs, the brunet made his way towards his kitchen. It was weird to find the house so quiet around him. Having a large family like he did always made the house seem to welcoming. There was always laughter and music, singing and soft looks between his parents. His younger siblings chasing each other as they fought over whatever it is kids fight over. His sister, Veronica, going off on him about something he should or shouldn’t have done.
The walls of that house held so many memories, so many generations, it was a wonder that there weren’t ghosts hiding around. ‘Cause hey, Sirens were apparently real, so why not ghosts?
Wonder where everyone is…
Lance swung into the normally brightly lit room, where breakfast was usually being made while his mom sung songs from her childhood, baking happily away. This morning, however, there were none of those things. Just a dark, silent room, his sockless making almost no noise as he slid over the tiled floor.
Glancing around, the brunet narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. It was early in the morning, sure, but he’d seen his parents up earlier than this before. Besides, Lance vaguely remembered hearing his mom ask him if he was okay that morning, when he was still in that trance-like state.
Disassociating… That’s what Allura had called it. Lance was no stranger to it. He’d seen it enough, in Allura’s case, and in his own more recently.
Swinging around the kitchen island, Lance looked around for any indication of where his parents and siblings could have gone. His grandparents were still on vacation in the Caribbean. It was starting to worry him that there was no sign of the rest of his family anywhere.
That was when he spied the paper tacked to the refrigerator door with Lance’s favorite shark magnet .
Lance - , the paper read.
Your father, the kids, and I have decided to take a trip to the water park that just opened a few towns over. We tried to wake up you, but you were in one of your moods again. We should be gone most of the day, and Veronica will be working a double shift.
There is lunch made in the fridge, and there is money in the jar for dinner.
Chiquito, we love you very much, and if you ever need to talk, we will be here for you. Have a good day~ xoxo
-- Mama (and Papa, too of course!)
So that’s where they went… If Lance hadn’t already had fairly important plans that day, he probably would have felt offended that his family had left without him, with just a note as a warning, but he supposed that seeing the Siren was a good enough reason to not feel put off. There was something about the entire idea that made the brunet feel excited, like a small child getting their first puppy. Or something like that. He actually wouldn’t know. They didn’t own a dog.
Pausing for a moment, the teen pulled the note down from the fridge. Lance smiled down at the paper as he brushed a finger over his mother’s flowy handwriting. He had always loved watching his mother write, the way she looped her words over one another; it had made him practice calligraphy in school. A young boy’s love for his mother had given him a reason to pursue the craft, and even now, Lance found that he rather enjoyed it. It was...therapeutic, in a way.
Maybe I’ll do some practice when I get home from the pier. The thought brought a quirk of a smile to his lips, this one a bit different from the one he’d held when he read his mom’s note. This smile...well, if anyone had been around to see it, they would have said it seemed like Lance was conspiring something. And maybe he was.
But the mystery is always the best part.
Folding the paper into a tiny triangle, Lance tucked it into the family Note Jar, where they kept all the little messages they would leave for each other. The brunet wasn’t entirely sure when that tradition had started, but it was a good memory to have.
By the time Lance had padded his way out of the kitchen into the hall, he was practically skipping. After everything that happened that morning, with Pidge and Hunk, the dissociative episode, the vague feeling of abandonment that he kept tied around him like a life-vest, Lance was ready to just get to the pier.
He had a supernatural creature to flirt with, after all.
Woah. Woah, woah.
McClain, what’s goin’ on in that head of yours, Lance thought as his movements became stilted, his shoe slipping out of his hand to land on the floor with a soft slap. “Flirt with a Siren?” he muttered, confused at his own mind. Why would he want to flirt with the creature? Okay, Lance could admit that the raven-haired scale-tail was attractive...almost alarmingly so, but that didn’t mean that Lance was actually interested in the thing...right?
“How would that even work?” Now that was a thought, getting together with a mythical creature… Pidge would flip and want to dissect him...oof . Grabbing his shoe from the floor, Lance attempted for the second time to put it on, this time getting most of his foot into it before another thought smashed through his brain. What would Allura think of me now, if she heard me talking about flirting with a stranger...a supernatural stranger at that… She would have probably laughed at him, made a joke about how he was a lost cause, but Lance knew it would have hurt her...that’s all he ever was able to do after all...hurt the ones he loved.
Okay, let’s stop thinking about it… Lance growled to himself, shoving on his other shoe and grabbing the keys to his jeep. Seriously, what was wrong with him today? He was just losing it left and right.
With the door locked behind him, his intrusive thoughts hopefully stuck inside the house, Lance breathed in the scent of the breeze, the slight salt that mixed with the sweet aroma of late spring. He would never get enough of that early morning air, when most of the town was still asleep and everything was quiet.
If the brunet could have had anything different, he wished he was a bit closer to the water.
Lance’s jeep wasn’t in the garage, where he usually put it, which meant that his parents had had to move it to get their own car out. Maybe, just maybe , Lance should have invested in a smaller car, one that didn’t take up the majority of their two car garage. But she had spoken to him . When he’d been looking for his first car a year ago, he had gone to several different dealerships, but none had had the car that he was looking for; one that he could sit in and just talk to, one that didn’t feel stifling. And Lance just couldn’t find that anywhere.
Until he had finally given up and was walking along the beach.
The jeep had been sitting behind the bait shack, its wheels crooked and the windshield missing.
And Lance knew, right then, that that was the one he wanted.
The brunet could remember bringing the jeep home, his mother’s face when she muttered a Spanish curse and said, “ Mijo, you’re going to kill yourself in that thing.” His father had been wary, but knew that Lance would never give it up now that he got his hands on it. Pidge had called him crazy. Hunk and his dad had been more than willing to help Lance fix it up.
Lance brought that jeep back from the dead, and it was his best friend.
“Alright, girl. Let’s get goin’,” Lance whispered to the blue chrome jeep, running his hands over the steering wheel with affection. He’d given up an entire summer fixing her. She was his now, and Lance would never let her decay like her previous driver. Never .
The drive down to the pier was quiet, much like the rest of Lance’s morning. Despite the cars that would speed past Lance as he slowly drove down the road, arm hanging out the window, wind blowing through his hair, Lance never once felt like there was anyone around him but the morning air and his jeep. These were the times where he felt most at peace, other than when he was in the water.
Nothing bad could reach him here.
Not even the memories of her.
Lance was glad for a reprieve. All he’d done lately was obsess over Allura and how if he had cared just a little bit more, she would still be alive. Realistically, Lance knew that nothing he could have done would have changed her mind. She was hurting, and it was a result of all the things she kept inside her own mind.
He knew that.
But it still hurt that she hadn’t even gone to him when she was in pain. They’d been together through the worse parts of their teenage lives, and yet she couldn’t trust Lance enough to let him know she needed help. And he felt betrayed. He felt like she didn’t love him the way he loved her.
And maybe she didn’t, but she’d never really told him.
But knowing the truth would have been better than living a lie.
The pier came into view, their little lagoon that Lance was still afraid to go near.
The fear froze his body, his mind, his heart. Lance loved the water, but he was terrified of the ice that fear could bring. It was a vicious cycle, one that he could never escape from.
Pulling into the parking spot he had basically designated as his own, Lance paused, unsure of what exactly he should do. Well, that wasn’t true. The teen knew what he was here to do.
He was here to see the Siren, but whether the reason being that he wanted his keychain back or he wanted to get to know the creature more, he wasn’t entirely certain. Part of him knew that he had made a promise to Allura, to throw the keychain into the ocean so the last part of her could meld with the thing he loved most. But the rest of him didn’t want to get rid of it. He hated her for leaving him, Lance loathed the fact that she had left him here by himself, with no hope of help, but she was his other half...he couldn’t just let her go.
Not completely.
But the longer Lance sat there in his jeep, staring at the calm waves of the ocean he so loved lapped against the white sand, the more he felt like he had to. The memory of her was destroying him...little by little. Eventually it would consume him and he would lose himself.
But himself was all Lance had right now.
Lance let out a frustrated breath, carding punishing fingers through his hair. He knew what he had to do. He just didn’t want to do it. Whatever...I’m not here for her. That’s right. He wasn’t. Lance was there for himself, to learn.
And that was the thought he held onto as he disembarked his vehicle and made his way over to the pier. The wood creaked under his footsteps just like it always did. The water underneath made little plunking sounds as dirt and gravel fell into the liquid, just like it had all through Lance’s childhood. The sea before him shone in the morning sun, sending crystalline sparks in the brunet’s vision.
It was all the same as he remembered it, and would probably remember it for the rest of his life.
And yet…
Something was off.
Not right.
Very, very wrong.
But Lance couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
If he thought about it hard enough, he would have likened it to the color of the world being off slightly, as if someone had put a filter on it. However, when he tried to uncover what kind of filter had been descended over the world, it escaped him. Because it wasn’t something he could see looking straight on. It was a tint around the edges, a red glow that permeated his periphery.
A glow…
A red glow…
That’s it! Lance’s mind screamed in recognition. The red glow! It was from the Siren’s pendent! The little ruby that he kept tied around his wrist, as if it held some kind of special meaning to the creature.
But where was it coming from? Tilting his head this way and that, Lance looked for the source of the glow. Maybe he’s here, and just hiding so he can mess with me? Honestly, the brunet wouldn’t put it past the creature. Lance had only known him for a day, and already he knew that the Siren would probably fuck with him every chance he could get.
And so Lance called, “Alright, I know you’re here! You can stop messing with me!”
There was no response except for the water gurgling beneath him and the cry of a gull as it dove towards the surface of the ocean.
“Hello?” Lance sang, titling his head and taking his hands from his jeans pockets. Holding his arms out he called again, “I’m right here, and you can throw water at me now, but I’ll be expecting it!”
Still no answer.
Lance stood there for several more minutes, waiting. But nothing. No Siren, no water splashing in his face, nothing.
Another few minutes passed, and Lance became worried. He could still see the glow, still had it flickering in his periphery, but no matter how much he turned, he couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Until he looked at the lagoon, the one place he had avoided settling his eyes on for fear of Allura invading his mind again. But he did look at it, and he saw the sun glint of a shining stone.
What’s he doing over there? Lance wondered to himself, wary of going to the lagoon, but knowing that if he wanted to see the Siren, he would have to put his fears aside. He set foot on the sand at the edge of the lagoon, pure white giving way to sharp cracks of slate. His boat shoes made light smacking noises as he hopped down over the rocks, finding all the footholds just like he had done a hundred times in his childhood. The brunet still knew the way down by heart, muscle memory taking over his motions.
The lagoon was always more quiet than the world around it. The water flowed through when the tide came in, but when it receded, the pool would become a calm slate, a mirror that reflected the sky and the sun. It had always fascinated Lance as a child, and to this day it took his breath away when the tide was out.
Standing on the edge of the one place Lance had sworn to never return to, the teen felt all of the emotions he had experienced when he watched Allura die in front of his eyes resurface. They crashed over him just like the waves, dragging him down under the current. It brought him to his knees, his hand coming up to cover his ears as her screams of pain and anger shattered in his eardrums.
No, he did not want this.
No, he didn’t want to think of this.
No, he wanted it to stop.
And then it did, a Lance doubled over, he caught sight of a sparkling gem, the cord it was attached to flowing freely in the water at the brunet’s feet. But why as it there, and not on the Siren’s wrist?
Lance looked further into the lagoon, and that’s when he saw red.
It was everywhere.
Red was all Lance could see as it led him further into the lagoon, drawing him closer to a shape at the very base of the cave wall that surrounded the pool. The red covered every surface, floated amidst hair that looked like swirling ink. Red scales, red stones, crimson blood that flowed from a jagged wound, mingled with the water and became grotesque patterns of pain before Lance's eyes. In the middle of it all...lay the Siren himself…
All Lance could see…
Was red.
Notes:
The song I was listening to while writing this was called Paralyzed by NF. It fits Lance and the theme of this story very well.
Also, if you didn't realize
Sharknado is Lance
SaltsaV3rde is Pidge
TheIcredibleHunk is HunkIt took me three days to come up with those.
Chapter 4: Skära
Summary:
When you meet me...
Hush my love,
Don't tell me that this depth
Makes you afraid.
That my voice is like a siren
Singing on an ocean of words.
Notes:
Bonus Chapter!!
That I've had written for like a month, and was just waiting for Chapter 3 to get finished, so here we are!!
Enoy!!
WARNINGS: Mentions of Blood, Yelling
Chapter Text
~Keith~
The early morning sun fell through the waves, casting kaleidoscopic patterns over the calm ocean floor. Swimming in lazy circles, hands laced together behind a head of raven hair, a Siren sang a soft lullaby. The language the lullaby was in was foreign to him, but he understood the meaning behind the words nonetheless. It told of the sea, of waiting for one’s lover through endless waves and moonless nights.
It wasn’t his song, which he much preferred to sing, but it was pretty, and it reminded him of a certain tawny-haired human.
Sighing, the Siren ceased in his circling, instead choosing to sink down to lay amongst the sand and the ocean-plants. What was he thinking? How stupid had he been, allowing the human to see him? Pretty damn stupid, if he was being honest. But honesty wasn’t exactly his strong suit; at least, honest with himself. He much preferred to follow his heart, and not that rules that Sirens were supposed to adhere to. Where was the fun in following the rules?
Trick question. There wasn’t any.
With that thought in mind, the Siren brought his hand up to stare at the little metal owl that he had taken from the human that refused to leave his thoughts. Just looking at it made him remember that look of pain and guilt that had flashed over the brunet’s pretty features, the way his heart had glowed a broken blue.
If it brings him that much pain that his heart remains so recently broken, why does he want it back so badly? The insistence that the human had had when asking for it back took the Siren by surprise. The person it belonged to, the person who had died, their existence (or lack thereof) had such a strong grip on the human, and the creature wished he could have taken that pain away from him. But then the dappled sunlight winked off of the keychain, taunting him, reminding him that as a Siren, he’d never be able to do such a thing.
The only thing he could offer the brunet was a chance to forget everything that made him who he was.
A frustrated, strangled sound left the Siren’s throat. What the hell was the matter with him? It was ridiculous, spending so much time on this human whose name he didn’t even know. True, he hadn’t asked , but that's besides the point.
“I should have just taken his heart when I had the chance,” the Siren muttered, but even as he spoke the words, he knew that he didn’t mean them. He didn’t want to take the human’s heart, no matter how broken it seemed. As far as this Siren was concerned, he would never take a living being’s heart, not for his own personal gain. He just...wasn’t like that. Or...that’s what he hoped. How was he to know? He couldn’t remember a single thing about being human.
In the end, the raven-haired creature hooked the keychain back onto the cord around his wrist. The last thing he wanted to do was lose that damn thing. It was his only chance at being able to see the brunet again. And what kind of loser was he if he showed up empty handed, no matter how badly he wanted to get a glimpse at the human again.
Groaning, the ravenette flicked his tail fin as he rolled over to float on his stomach. His mind was going in circles, but the focal point was always always the human and his bright, crystalline eyes that crinkled at the corners when he smiled.
Despite his insistence that he was very rarely honest with himself, the Siren found that, if he was going to be honest, he didn’t exactly want to return the keychain. It was his one link to the human and his world. If he gave it back, well, all of that would go away. The creature would be forced to slinking around just below the surface, watching the brunet from afar as he moved on with his life. He would forget all about the Siren, and the ravenette would feel that loneliness return that had been his constant companion for decades.
The Siren had finally been able to step into the human world again, been able to feel the warmth of a living body against his own. He had felt those gentle hands in his hair, trying to cheer him up, even though the human had no inclination of what the creature had actually been feeling.
Did he really want all of that to go away?
If he gave the little metal owl back to its rightful owner, it would.
He would be...alone.
Slate-colored eyes trailing over the grains of sand, the Siren began drawing convoluted patterns in the ocean floor with a lazy finger. He never brought his hand up from the sand, resting his head on his arm. The garnet and the owl danced together as the Siren’s patterns few larger, more complex, and his mind wandered to the day he’d found the stone. The day he had first seen his cerulean-eyed human.
The creature daydreamed there, drawing the patterns, for quite some time. His mind barely even registered the sun trailing over the sky, didn’t notice when it shone almost overhead. It wasn’t until a shadow loomed over him that he was broken from his daydreams.
Looking up through inky black bangs that shifted lightly in the tide, the Siren rested his stormy eyes on his friend.
“Shiro!” he called, floating upwards to smile at his fellow Siren. “How’ve you been?”
The other Siren, Shiro, crossed his arms and leveled him with a serious look. “Where the hell have you been, Keith!?” The scar across his nose wrinkled in what the other could only describe as concerned fury.
Keith, for that was the name Shiro had given him when he had first found the ravenette, dropped his smile in favor of a deadpan expression. He blinked slowly, twice, before sinking back to the ocean floor once again, turning his back on the Siren that was like a brother to him. “Around,” he answered, fiddling with a little crab that was carrying a shell far too big for its tiny body. He hated being treated like a child, and whenever Keith just so happened to disappear for a while, it was like that was Shiro’s favorite thing to do.
“Around, huh?” the other Siren said, voice flat as an accusatory stare was placed on top of Keith’s back. “You went and saw that human again, didn’t you?”
The ravenette scoffed. “What does it matter?” he muttered to the little crab, which was pulling with all its might, but had only managed to move a few centimeters. They’d had this conversation over and over again already. It wasn’t as if the Siren didn’t know that it was dangerous to get that close to shore, but after the fourth or fifth lecture, it had gotten to be more like overkill. “Not like I was hurting anyone.”
There was a sound like someone slapping their hands on their thighs. We don’t have thighs, why did it sound like that? Shiro must have thrown up his hands in exasperation.
Out of the corner of his eye, the ravenette watched as the older Siren swam around to try and get Keith to look him in the face. “Keith, listen to me --”
“I don’t need to. I already know what you’re going to say.”
“You can’t keep going to see that human!”
“Yep, knew it.” Keith sighed, pushed himself up off the sandy floor to glare up at his friend. “Shiro, I get it.”
“No, I don’t think you do!” Shiro yelled, gripping Keith’s shoulders tightly. “If you aren’t going to take his heart, then you have no reason to be so attached to him!”
The ravenette attempted to shake him off, but the scarred Siren was too strong, even in the water. Flicking his tail fin, hard, Keith tried to backpedal, but all that did was get their tails tangled. “Let me go!”
“No, I’m not going to!” Shiro brought his face closer and Keith could see the little flecks of silver in his ash colored eyes that mirrored Keith’s in shade. “You can’t keep endangering yourself for a human!”
A slow, even breath pushed itself from Keith’s lungs or however it was that Siren’s breathed underwater and he kept his expression as emotionless as he was able. He would probably regret these words, but if it was the only way to get Shiro to let him go, then so be it. “Says the Siren that’s been having a secret tryst with a human for the last five years! ”
The accusation seemed to bounce right off of Shiro’s collected exterior, the words not even making him blink. Instead, he dropped his hands into fists at his sides, ignoring the allegation.
“If you keep doing this, you are going to get hurt.”
“I can take care of myself,” Keith insisted, but something about the way the temperature of the water around them changed made him doubt his words, so he amended them. “A human can’t hurt me.”
“I wasn’t talking about him. I was talking about…”
Suddenly, Shiro’s words cut short, petered off into nothingness as his eyes, which had moments before been filled with that annoyingly concerned fury, shifted from Keith’s face to focus on something over the ravenette’s shoulder, and that concern fled, replaced with warning. He flicked his gaze back to Keith’s face for only a fraction of a second before it was back to whatever was behind the Siren.
Slowly, Keith turned and the blood in his veins turned icey with terror, the emotion matching the way his features contorted. That ice turned to pain, red hot and flaming, as it lanced down his back, ripping open his skin and staining the water around him crimson to match the scales of his tail. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came, the water around him freezing in its drifting as that same pain, like magma through his veins seared over his cheek.
It was too much, everything felt like an inferno even as chilly terror speared through his blood to settle in his heart. Logically, he knew that his body wouldn’t give up on him, that he wasn’t going to die that day, but the fear, the horror at what was being inflicted onto him, that he was going to die was like liquid nitrogen through his lungs.
From there, the last thing he could accurately remember was Shiro’s back, fading into the waves as he fled from the scene, not wanting to incur that same fate as the ravenette. Just before the darkness filled his senses, Keith was sure he heard it, heard Lance’s dancing laughter echoing through his thoughts. He held onto it, not wanting to lose that sweet sound that brought him so much joy.
Chapter 5: Avvisa
Summary:
Lance finds the Siren in the lagoon, hurt, bleeding.
He has no choice but to bring the poor creature home.
But of course, there's always more to the story that's buried underneath.
Notes:
This chapter killed me. Emotionally, mentally, hell probably even physically. I am so tired, and I feel so bad for hurting my boy like this, but goddammit, it had to be done. Idk when I'll have the next chapter out, but let's hope for a couple weeks?
Anyway, enjoy, ya filthy animals.
~Blaine
Chapter Text
If anyone were to look closely through the windshield of Lance’s blue chrome jeep, all they would see would be blind panic, pure terror.
Because in the backseat of that vehicle, wrapped in a blue flannel blanket that was quickly becoming stained crimson, was the limp, unconscious body of the Siren Lance had gone all the way to the pier to meet. Except...he wasn’t quite the Siren Lance remembered.
There was one major difference between the image of the creature Lance had in his head and the one lying in his backseat.
That Siren had had a tail…
This one did not.
Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the biggest difference between the two, but it was pretty damn significant, right? Because what was a Siren if it didn’t have their tail? Was he just a human?
No, Lance didn’t think so, if he really, really pondered the question.
If the brunet was to look back at the Siren, he could still see the shimmer of scales along the creature’s arms, which were pulled up towards his face, as if protecting himself.
He was still a Siren, but somehow, he had lost the tail that had given Lance his first clue that the ravenette was not human. Where the tail and its fins used to be was a long pair of pale legs that seemed almost translucent. They glowed in the sun, and it was an eerie sight.
When the teen had first gone into the lagoon, following after the glow of that red stone, that he was almost sure was a garnet, he hadn’t exactly been sure of what to expect, least of all an injured mythological creature. There had been so much blood, and Lance was unsure if the Siren was even alive . He had been tucked into a space between two rocks, curled in on himself, facing away from the ocean itself, away from Lance.
The viscous material that had flowed from the long, jagged wound that covered the expanse of his back had stained the saltwater a gut wrenching pink. Lance could see the wound trying to coagulate, but there was something off about it. It gave off a sickly, purple glow that reminded the brunet of the poison debuff that Pidge was always complaining about in the MMO they played. Or maybe it was a curse? Lance wasn’t entirely sure.
Lance’s first instinct was to run like hell and get help, but almost immediately, that thought was dashed when he tried to come up with where to bring the help from, where to go searching for help. Anyone that saw the Siren would probably flip out and call, like, the CDC or something. Is that the place they called in those alien movies? Lance wasn’t entirely certain, and he wasn’t going to stick around to find out.
So instead, he dashed to the Siren’s side, pulling him from the water so he could see the extent of the damage. His shoes were soaked, and his hoodie had a huge bloodstain on the front of it from when he’d carried the creature to the jeep. The raven-haired creature had been surprisingly light, and Lance had barely struggled at all as he climbed over unsteady rocks and uneven sand.
In the end, Lance’s only choice was to bring him home. Where else would he bring him?
They couldn’t go to the hospital; he didn’t even know the Siren’s name! And even if he did, they’d notice right away that what they were looking at wasn’t human. Along with the scales that covered the creature’s body, although mostly invisible to the naked eye, the Siren’s ears were tapered, curved in a way that made Lance think of fins. If those locks of silky raven hair fell over them, they’d be indistinguishable from human ears, but Lance knew better.
And so here he was, driving down Main Street as normally as he could, trying to get home as quickly as possible.
Lance had never been a particularly religious person. His family said grace at dinner, and they went to church when they had time, but Lance was never all that into it. He was more content to sit and believe in his own thing. But now, as he heard the Siren moan out a choked sob from the backseat as he accidentally drove directly into a pothole, Lance began to pray. Pray to God, to Buddha, to anyone that would listen, that the creature would be okay, that they’d make it to Lance’s home without incident. The last thing he wanted was another person’s death on his conscience, as awful as that sounded.
The gravel of his driveway crunched under the heavy wheels of the jeep as Lance pulled up and into his garage. He would need to move the car later, when his parents got home, but for now, he didn’t want anyone to see him pull the body of an unconscious man out of his backseat. His neighbors were already nosy enough as it was.
Cutting the engine, the brunet felt something he couldn’t immediately name surge in his throat. But after a moment of deliberation, he realized what it was. Fear, potent and unadulterated. That’s what he was feeling. A terror that was different from the fear of dying, this one was the fear of something else dying...again. Lance decided to take ten seconds to let the panic flow through his veins, ten seconds to imagine the worst. The horror flew through his veins like liquid magma, burning him from the inside out. His forehead thunked heavily against as he counted down from ten. As he began to hyperventilate, his vision started going black at the edges as he saw an image of Allura as she lay lifeless before him on the autopsy table. Tears flowed freely as what he saw at the lagoon pierced through his mind, sending shivers through his body. He didn’t want the Siren to die; he’d barely learned anything about him!
And then he hit one, and Lance pulled himself together, reeled in his aching emotions. Sniffling one last time, the brunet released his death grip on the steering wheel, wiped the tears from his face, and took several deep, clearing breathes.
It was over.
I’m okay, and he’s going to be okay. That’s what matters. Needless fear is not going to control me.
With that thought in mind, the brunet threw open his door and made his way to his backseat. The water in his shoes squished with every step he took, but no matter how uncomfortable it was, Lance knew he couldn’t stop to worry about it. He needed to get the Siren upstairs and into his room so he could assess the damage he had suffered, and try to stop the bleeding.
As Lance carefully slid his arms underneath the Siren, wary of the wound on his back, the raven-haired creature moaned again, and the brunet was deeply concerned that he had hurt him. But as he tugged the creature from the backseat, that lithe body collapsed against Lance’s body and clung onto him, pale fingers snagging into the teen’s hoodie. At least he has enough strength to do that… Immediately, the Siren stilled, and Lance was able to get a better grip underneath those pale legs, wrapped his arm around the creature’s shoulders as delicately as he could, being wary of the gash.
The trek through the garage and into the house was easier than the path he’d taken over the rocks of the lagoon, but something about it still made Lance feel like he was carrying fifty pound weights on his ankles. It felt like there was something trying to stop him from going any further. But that was ridiculous, and the brunet knew it. He needed to help this Siren; he didn’t know why, and he didn’t understand how he could be of any assistance, but come hell or high water, he would try. And it was the resolve of that statement that helped Lance drag his feet through the hall and up the stairs to his room.
The brunet almost tripped over the flannel blanket as he made his way as slowly and carefully as possible up those stairs. The fabric began to drag as it fell away from bony shoulders, open air hitting the jagged line that crossed from one shoulder down to the creature’s hip. The weird purple glow had seemed to dissipate slightly by that point, and the bleeding started to lessen, but just looking at it in the reflection of the picture frames along the staircase was enough to make Lance feel like he was going to throw up.
Lance had a pretty strong stomach, unlike Hunk who seemed to get nauseous over everything, but the teen had never before seen a wound so bad, not even when his sister had broke her leg and the bone had stuck through the skin. Nope, this was definitely worse.
What could have done something like that? Lance wondered as he finally set foot on the landing. He tried to hop the creature up in his arms as carefully as he could, but even that slight movement made the unconscious ravenette whine. It could have been a rock that caused it, but Lance couldn’t think of how. Unless the Siren was way out to sea, there was no way the tide would be strong enough to do that, at least not around here. Maybe it was a shark attack? But no, sharks bite; they don’t slash their prey, and Lance liked to think that the creature was smart enough to avoid a shark.
The blanket got stuck underneath Lance’s shoe, sliding against the floor so that the brunet was forced to smack his shoulder into the wall. The creature emitted a strangled sob at the motion, and Lance cursed his inability to walk straight.
Whatever it was that had caused the wound, Lance didn’t have time to worry about it now. He’d ask the Siren when he woke up. For now, he had more important things to do, like…
Lance stopped, eyes widening and then narrowing in intense concentration.
How the hell do I open the door?
How the hell indeed…
After staring at the door, contemplating all of the ways Lance could possibly open the barrier for what had to have been a solid five minutes, Lance finally ran out of options. He had to move the ravenette. There was nothing for it.
“Alright, buddy, hang on, okay?” the brunet muttered into the Siren’s hair, a scent that was a mixture of salt and sun coming off of the creature in waves, before he shifted the body in his arms. He rolled the Siren, letting his torso slide over Lance’s shoulder just enough that he could wiggle his arm around and turn the handle. Once the door slowly creaked open, Lance whispered, “Just hold on a bit more.”
He wished he knew the Siren’s name, wanted to tell him that it would be okay.
Soon , he told himself. He just had to find a way to close up that gash on the poor creature’s back. Despite taking Anatomy & Physiology and Forensics as electives, Lance was not well versed in the ways of “doctor stuff”. He could put a bandaid on like nobody’s business, but stitches and stuff? That was way out of his depth.
“I could always called Veronica,” the brunet mumbled to himself as he kicked the door closed behind him. As much as he didn’t want to for fear of getting blood on his bedspread, Lance found he didn’t have many other places to place the injured Siren other than his own mattress. So on the bed he went. “I don’t really want to call her, though.” The nurse was probably busy with her shift, and Lance didn’t want to bother her.
“Here ya go, buddy, nice and easy,” the brunet said as he softly placed the creature on his bed. Immediately, the ravenette curled back in on himself, hugging that stone to his chest. What was the significance to it? Why did the Siren seem to scared to lose it? Those questions had spun through Lance’s mind from the moment he’d tied it back around the creature’s wrist once he’d managed to get him into the car. It seemed...so important.
Once the ravenette was situated on the bed so his back was mostly facing the ceiling, Lance took a breath and slowly peeled the soiled blanket away, the blue and gray having been stained with crimson. The fabric stuck slightly to the dried blood, but Lance was finally able to pull it completely off the Siren’s body. The brunet was prepared for the worst, knew how bad it would be.
“What?”
Confusion clouded Lance’s mind, because as he stared down at the ivory back of the Siren, who just twenty minutes ago, had been bleeding out in a mirror-like pool, he saw that there was no gash there. No blood flowing freely from a jagged wound that glowed a sickly purple. Just a long, puckered scar that was smooth to the touch.
“What the hell…?”
Okay, Lance might not know the intricacies of how the body heals, but he wasn’t stupid enough to think that a wound that size that was that deep could just disappear like it was never there. Well, it was still there. There was a scar from it. But...you get the point. Even is the creature was a Siren, and he had some kind of freak healing ability, it still shouldn’t have healed that quickly.
Rocking back on his heels, Lance stared at the scar, the way it zig-zagged like a lightning bolt down the Siren’s back. It even had little offshoots that reminded Lance of the last thunderstorm they’d had, the lightning cracking into the ocean. Something had to have caused this wound, and the brunet was almost positive that it wasn’t something natural.
Crossing his arms and laying them on the mattress before him, Lance watched the Siren breathe for a while. With every stilted breath, the scar shifted and stretched, only to slide back into its original shape, and over time, the creature’s breathing went back to normal. “What could have done this to you?” Lance pondered, reaching a hand forward to trace his finger along the scar. It was a smooth as it looked, and the creature’s skin was warm against Lance’s finger.
Underneath his hand, the Siren shivered, curling further into himself.
Sighing, Lance lightly pushed himself to his feet. So he wouldn’t need to call Veronica. That was a relief. But he still had an unconscious Siren on his hands. What was he supposed to do about that ?
First things first, Lance needed to get out of this bloodstained hoodie. As he looked down at the giant splotch of crimson that had morphed into a gross shade of rusty brown, Lance felt his lip start to curl in disgust. There was no way he’d be able to get the stain out, even with the added help of his mom’s cure-all for stains. It covered too large of an area. The brunet picked at the stiffening fabric and sighed. This was one of his favorite hoodies, too…
Yanking the now offensive garment off, Lance threw it into the corner to be dealt with later. He had other things to do, namely finding some clothing for the creature that was now sleeping peacefully in Lance’s bed, curled up in the flannel blanket that Lance would also have to throw out.
Lance took the next few minutes to just...look at the Siren. Just as he had thought when he first saw him up close the day before, the raven-haired creature was rather attractive. His almond-shaped eyes were closed delicately, long lashes dusting over pale cheeks. Inky locks of raven hair curled under the Siren’s jaw, and a few strands shifted with every soft breathe the Siren took. Full lips that curled down at the edges gave him an almost permanent look of dissatisfaction, but even that just made him look even prettier.
Pretty? Is that how you’d describe something like him?
Yeah, it seemed pretty accurate in Lance’s mind. He never thought he would describe a man as pretty, but here he was. Wait, would you consider the Siren a man?
Letting out a frustrated breath, Lance raked his fingers through his hair. Too many questions and far too few answers were all that Lance had at this point. Knowing he would have to wait for the creature to actually wake up was the worst part. Lance hated waiting. It took up far too much time, and the brunet hated wasting time. There was no use for it.
The teen sighed again, shoving a hand in his jeans pocket. Leaning forward, he brushed some of the ravenette’s hair behind his ears, silken strands slipping through his fingers like the water the creature had resided in. Lance absently wondered how his hair could be so soft after spending his entire life in the ocean. The creature’s ears hadn’t lost their fish-like look, and if he squinted hard enough, Lance could still see the unnatural color shift from pale white to crimson red.
“Who are you, huh?” he whispered to the sleeping Siren’s form. Lance leaned in close, watched the creature’s eyes flick back and forth behind closed lids. He took another few strands of that raven hair in between his thumb and forefinger, rolling them against his skin.
Sinking down to rest on his haunches once again, Lance stared at the Siren.
And suddenly, slate colored eyes were blinking back at him, slowly at first, and then they widened in surprise and what Lance could have only described as terror. It wasn’t exactly the reaction he had been expecting, but it was pretty damn close.
The Siren let out a yelp, and all at once he was sitting up and backpedaling away from Lance.
“No, wai--!!” Lance tried to warn him. He had even held out his hands as if to reach forward and grab the Siren before he toppled off the bed. But it was too late. Limbs getting tangled in the flannel blanket and Lance’s comforter, raven hair went flying and scared eyes widened even farther as the creature went ass over tea kettle off the bed. As he landed, the ravenette let out a painful curse.
With his hands still held out, Lance blinked a few times, trying to commit what had just happened to memory, because there was no way he wasn’t going to laugh about this later. As the Siren’s eyes popped out above the comforter in panicked confusion, Lance dropped his hands and tried his best to think of something to say.
C’mon, McClain, anything! Say ANYTHING!
“Wow, I know I’m gorgeous, but I didn’t think you’d fall for me that quickly!”
Yeeeeah, that’s why we don’t panic speak.
The ravenette’s eyes went from wide and panicked to narrowed and annoyed. “Really?” he grumbled, rising above the mattress a little more, giving Lance a view of his extremely attractive face that now sported a rather large scar across his right cheek that led down over his shoulder. “Of all the damn things you could say, it’s gotta be some dumbass pick up line?”
Laughing nervously, Lance brought a hand up to scratch at his temple. “I mean…” he began, but his words easily slipped away as he watched a pretty eyebrow rise towards the Siren’s hairline. The brunet opened his mouth again, perfectly ready to come up with some kind of comeback to the creature’s words, but the longer he watched the ravenette, watched the way his lips twitched into an almost smile as he waited, Lance found that his brain was just...mush. “Okay, look, so maybe I don’t have an excuse,” the teen muttered in the end, flopping forward so he had his face pressed into the mattress, “But it was a pretty good line, nonetheless!”
The mattress under Lance’s nose smelled like the Siren, like sunshine and salt, with an underlying scent of metal that Lance wasn’t sure was because of the blood the creature was covered in or some other thing that he couldn’t place.
The two of them were silent for several moments. Not knowing what to do, Lance just kept his nose in that scent. He wasn’t sure if he should say anything, or if he should wait for the ravenette to speak first. If I’m being honest, he thought as he shifted his head so his chin was against the blankets, I’m scared that I’m gonna fuck something up if I try to talk to him...Isn’t that how it always goes with me?
And so, Lance watched the Siren. He waited and took in the sight of the creature before him. He looked...lost. As if he didn’t know how to exist when he wasn’t in the water. His pretty grey eyes were dark with confusion, and he looked almost pained.
“Are you alright?” Lance ended up muttering, noting the way the Siren jumped at his voice. He must have been way lost in thought.
When those same storming eyes flicked up towards Lance’s, a bit of that confusion faded, but he still looked lost. “How did I get here?” the ravenette whispered, and if Lance hadn’t been acutely tuned to everything the creature was doing, he might have missed the question.
Lance answered, “I brought you here,” as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, because really, how else would have the Siren ended up here?
“Well, yeah, I got that...but why? ”
Sighing, the brunet stood up. The Siren followed Lance with his eyes as the teen made his way around the bed to sit on the edge, close to where the creature was still huddled up on the floor. “I…” Lance began, but in all honesty, he wasn’t sure what he should say to answer that. In truth, the brunet wasn’t entirely sure why he’d brought him here. Maybe it was because it was the only place he could think of, or it could have been because he wanted to get the creature a little bit more. But in every turn of thought that he could have come up with, Lance decided that it all sounded too weird.
“You know what?” he blurted, nodding with finality. With almost no warning, he turned quickly and stuck his hand down towards the ravenette. As the creature blinked at Lance’s tanned hand, his manicured nails because Lance was nothing if not impeccable with his appearance , he yanked the blankets a little bit further up towards his face. However, as soon as the smell of his own blood reached his nose and the feeling of the stiff fabric touched him, the Siren grimaced and dropped the flannel.
“What?” the ravenette answered.
Starting slightly, Lance shook his head. That’s right. He hadn’t exactly said anything after that first sentence. Good fucking job, idiot. Mentally shaking it off, Lance plastered his best, most confident smirk on his face and said, “How about we worry about that later, and instead, we introduce ourselves first?” He waggled his eyebrows, and the Siren pursed his lips as he furrowed his own brows.
“Why?”
“You know, you sure ask that a lot,” Lance commented, wiggling his fingers in front of the other’s face. “But I guess I can oblige you this time. The reason is pretty simple, really. I keep calling you the Siren, the creature in my head. And I dunno, it seems rude, so I wanna know your name.”
“My name?” the Siren repeated.
“Yeah!” Pausing, the brunet glanced up at the ceiling for a second before narrowing his eyes and leaning toward the creature on the floor. “You do have one, don’t you?”
Without much movement at all, the Siren nodded. “Yes...I do…”
“Great!” blurted Lance, who thrust his hand back towards the Siren, even though he hadn’t really moved it at all to begin with. “I’m Lance!”
The Siren didn’t move, didn’t even react, he just continued to stare down at Lance’s hand, those stormy eyes taking in every detail of the brunet’s skin.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the creature raised those pretty eyes and brought a hand up to grasp lightly at Lance’s outstretched one. “...Keith,” he answered, his voice low, the end of the word rising up as if he wasn’t entirely sure that that was his name.
“Well, it’s nice to officially meet you, Keith!”
The Siren nodded, one corner of his lips lifting in a slight smirk. The confusion and suspicion in those orbs faded only a fraction, but he still tilted his head in what appeared to be amusement and murmured, “Likewise.”
Lance grinned back down at Keith, who carefully extricated his hand from the brunet’s grip. It seemed like he wasn’t in the mood to be touched, but truthfully, Lance understood that. He was probably still in pain, even if the wound on his back had miraculously healed.
“How’s your back?”
Keith jumped again at the question, and he seemed to fold in on himself. His hand went to his cheek as well and he winced. “Hurts…” was the only word to escape those pretty lips, and Lance wished he could do something to alleviate that pain.
Sliding off the bed to sit in front of the Siren, so he could look him in the eyes, Lance chucked Keith under the chin with a gentle finger. The brunet wasn’t entirely sure what brought about the action, but he vaguely remembered that it was something his mother used to do when he was crying. “Can you tell me what happened?”
The Siren remained silent for a moment, but he stared at Lance with watery eyes, and the teen felt like the tears had nothing to do with the pain of his back or his cheek, but something deeper. It seemed like it had something to do with a pain that was so deep in Keith’s heart that it physically hurt him to think about.
“I…” the Siren started, but he hiccuped lightly and lowered his eyes. Lance felt tears plop onto his knee.
“Hey…” Lance murmured, sliding his finger up the ravenette’s cheek to sift his hand through those silky locks. “Whatever it is...you can tell me?” Pausing, Lance scooted a little closer and lightly pulled the noirette against him. Almost instantly, fingers were grasping at the front of Lance’s t-shirt. The creature’s body shook with silent sobs. “I mean, I know we don’t really know each other, but I want to help you…”
“...ected.”
The answer was so quiet, so full of pain that Lance only caught the end of it. The rest was muffled in his shirt and warbled with tears. Those fingers that were tangled in the fabric of his shirt tightened, and Lance ran his fingers through Keith’s hair. He didn’t understand what the creature had meant, and he felt sort of bad.
“I’m sorry, Keith...I didn’t hear you…”
“It rejected me…” the ravenette said louder, and his sobs grew stronger. “The ocean rejected me!”
Okay, so that definitely hadn’t been what Lance was expecting. But then again, how could he have? Rejected by the ocean? The brunet wasn’t even sure that that was possible.
He was human, though, so the same rules didn’t apply to him that applied to the Siren, as he’d thus realized due to the rapid healing the ravenette had showcased.
The creature continued to sob into Lance’s shoulder, and he wished he could do something to make Keith stop crying, to make him feel even a little bit better, but he knew that nothing he could say would help. Nothing he said ever helped. That’s just how it was.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try, right?
If anything, Lance was more inclined to try now that he’d heard the creature cry and seen him smile, even though he didn’t have a clue what was going on.
“Hey, Keith?” the brunet muttered as he tugged the Siren into his lap, carefully encircling the man in a hug. As he began to rock slightly, this time more as a comfort for the pained creature in his arms instead of in panic, Lance continued, “I don’t really understand what you mean. And, really, that’s just me being an ignorant piece of shit, but...whatever it was that happened, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t your fault.”
The Siren didn’t respond. He just held onto Lance for dear life. O...kay, so that didn’t work. The brunet really didn’t know what else to say after that. That was pretty much the extent of what Lance was able to do without really knowing what was going on.
After a while, Keith’s sobs turned to hiccups, and then all that remained were a few sniffles. He was curled up in Lance’s lap now, arms hugged to his chest and his head on Lance’s shoulder. With his arms wrapped around the Siren, Lance felt a weird sense of calm wash over him.
And then the creature began to hum.
All at once, Lance began to feel tired. Even more tired than he’d been that morning.
Because he remembered the sound of that song...it was the same one the brunet had heard when he had almost drowned.
“Wh-what is that ?” the teen muttered, trying to hold back a yawn. “And why does it keep making me want to sleep?”
The humming cut short suddenly, and wakefulness crashed back into Lance’s system, almost knocking him over. Blinking rapidly, the brunet tried to get rid of the stars that were now circling his vision.
Rolling his cerulean eyes, Lance attempted to look down at the Siren, whose face was turned up towards his, and despite the tear tracks and red splotches on those pale cheeks, he looked every bit as pretty as he had when Lance had watched him sleep earlier. Keith’s eyes were dark with pain and sadness, and he lowered his head again, letting his body slump against the brunet’s.
“Sorry,” the creature murmured, wiping at his nose with the back of his hand. “It was my song. I forget that it makes humans tired and relaxed...it doesn’t affect Sirens, since we’re technically already doomed souls. But it always makes me feel better when I sing it...so I thought...” His sentence trailed off, and Lance didn’t press him for more.
Doomed souls, huh? That was pretty depressing, but Lance supposed that creatures that had to take broken hearts or whatever were pretty depressing creatures.
Lost in his thoughts, Lance almost didn’t notice when the Siren tried to scramble from the brunet’s lap. But as the grip on his shirt was suddenly released, the teen shook his head quickly to get back to the present. Moving his arms away, Lance let Keith slip back onto the floor.
“Sorry for breaking down like that.”
“No, no, ‘s fine!” the brunet blurted in return, waving his hands around, because careful to not hit the ravenette. “I can tell that it really hurt you…” His voice went soft, and Lance furrowed his brow. “I don’t really understand what it was, but uh...I’m sorry.”
The Siren shook his head, dismissing Lance’s misplaced apology, but Keith still picked his head up to smile sadly at the taller man. “Nothing you have to be sorry for...it’s all my fault, anyway.”
Lance was at a loss. The creature before him was hurting, and Lance could neither understand why or help him...And for some reason, that made his chest hurt.
In the end, since he really didn’t know what to do, Lance did the first thing that popped into his head. He bolted to his feet and stretched, letting out a loud groan as he did so. “Okay! Enough about that! We can talk about that later!” Leaning forward, Lance stuck his hand out again, staring down the sad Siren that was now looking at him with an expression that was a mixture of confusion and alarm. “First things first, Keith!” the brunet called. “We need to get all that blood off you, so off to the shower you go!”
“Wait...I can’t--!”
“Nonsense! You can! C’mon, I know you’re a deadly creature that dwells at the bottom of the ocean, but you can’t be afraid of a little hot water, now are you?”
“No, but--”
“No buts!” Lance interrupted...again. Maybe he was taking this all a bit far, but he was uncomfortable with the amount of emotion that had been shown between them, and he needed something to reset his mind to its factory settings. He surged forward, and as carefully as an excited Lance could be, the brunet pulled the Siren to his feet. He dropped the blanket, and if Lance hadn’t been on a roll, maybe he would have been embarrassed by the man’s sheer lack of clothing, every bit of him exposed to the teen’s eyes. But really, he had far more important things to do than let dem gay thoughts get the better of him!
It didn’t take long for Lance to drag his confused, almost unwilling victim to his bathroom and shove him under a stream of warm water.
The blood and sand slipped off of the creature to circle the drain, swirls of ghastly pink slipping through with the suds left over from Lance’s favorite shampoo and body soap, disappearing as if the creature had never been hurt at all.
Boh on Chapter 1 Wed 09 Jan 2019 05:14AM UTC
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SpaceDarling_and_GrumpyCat on Chapter 1 Wed 09 Jan 2019 05:18AM UTC
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auroraborealisjpg on Chapter 2 Thu 01 Nov 2018 08:21AM UTC
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Luma (Guest) on Chapter 2 Fri 28 Dec 2018 11:22AM UTC
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SpaceDarling_and_GrumpyCat on Chapter 2 Fri 28 Dec 2018 01:08PM UTC
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Luma (Guest) on Chapter 2 Fri 28 Dec 2018 01:10PM UTC
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Nighttyger on Chapter 4 Tue 01 Jan 2019 02:29AM UTC
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SpaceDarling_and_GrumpyCat on Chapter 4 Tue 01 Jan 2019 03:41AM UTC
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Boh on Chapter 5 Wed 09 Jan 2019 05:45AM UTC
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SpaceDarling_and_GrumpyCat on Chapter 5 Wed 09 Jan 2019 05:46AM UTC
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sharpsh0ter (Guest) on Chapter 5 Wed 09 Jan 2019 11:01AM UTC
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Nighttyger on Chapter 5 Wed 09 Jan 2019 07:00PM UTC
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SpaceDarling_and_GrumpyCat on Chapter 5 Thu 10 Jan 2019 08:42AM UTC
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Nighttyger on Chapter 5 Thu 10 Jan 2019 01:59PM UTC
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SpaceDarling_and_GrumpyCat on Chapter 5 Thu 10 Jan 2019 06:57PM UTC
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