Hello everyone! This is the story that I want to take up when I finish Nigrum Sanguis. As you can tell, it's going to be Klance again with a smidgeon of Shallura (another one of my favourite ships). This is also a mermaid AU, so it may resemble PFTones3482's story Cove at first (I would highly recommend it to all you Klance fans!). But I can assure you that the plot I have in mind is very different. Enjoy!

There were too many voices saying too many things. The words did not register as he struggled to escape the net. He clawed and bit at the tough ropes, but they refused to break. He was dumped onto the deck of the humans' floating death trap. He looked up and saw a group of shadowy figures surround him, blocking the sharp rain from his exposed body. He hissed at them, hoping that his sharp teeth would frighten off these pathetic creatures – it made them more interested in him instead, so he began to flail around desperately. He slid around the deck as the vessel rocked from side to side violently, threatening to cast off her crew and cargo. The men stumbled and veered as they approached him, and even in the darkness, he could their maleficent grins of glee and greed.

What is to become of me? He thought fearfully. Sea food? Dissection? Some freak show for humans to pay to ogle at?

There was no clear answer. But there was one thing that he knew for sure; he would never see his home again! His brother would be left all alone, wondering what had happened to him. Why didn't he just stay at home today? Why didn't he just listen to his brother and stayed away from the surface?

Icy fear urged him to flop and buck even more with the aim of flinging himself over the edge and back into the ocean. However, gluttonous hands grabbed at his cage and dragged him further away from his freedom. He was turned over to his front roughly and large hands pressed down on his shoulders, back and arms to prevent him from snapping at his captors. His flailing limb was untangled from the net and held down tightly. He could feel others stroking it like a precious treasure, which made him feel disgusted and caused him to struggle harder. Tears were squeezed from his eyes – a warm contrast to the freezing rain lashing at his skin. He wanted to sob, to grieve for his stolen liberty, but fate seemed to be feeling merciful on this particular night.

The vessel suddenly shuddered like an earthquake and rapidly tipped to the side. The legged creatures all shrieked in terror and grasped around for anything to keep them steady. This allowed him to fall down to the vessel's edge. This was his only chance to escape before the boat righted itself, so, without thinking, he flung himself overboard with his upper half still tangled in the net.

He had hoped to have a free fall straight into the safety of the sea, but he was suddenly slammed back into reality. Or rather, he slammed himself into a set of protruding rocks. His head smacked off one with a muffled and sickening crack.

Pain blossomed all over! Everywhere hurt! His arms, his chest, his head, his…

He couldn't think where…

He couldn't think…

He couldn't…

Everything hurt. There was a high-pitched ringing in his ears. He was floating away.

Then everything went black.

Lance loved the rain.

He was currently sat on his house porch overlooking the beach. The storm was hurling rain and hail further out from the coast, so here there was only a light drizzle. He could see the raindrops diving to the ground through the beam that shone from the porch light.

Lance would be in a heap of trouble if his Mama caught him now. After all, it was around two in the morning and Mama was very strict about her children being in bed on time and not getting up before their alarms rang. To make matters worse, she also had the ears of a bat and picked up every little sound in the house while she slept. This was why it had taken Lance about half-an-hour to tip-toe along the hallway, down the stairs and out the door – all in the dark as well!

Back in the present, Lance pulled a large hand torch from his hoodie pocket and slowly swept it from side to side so that the beam stroked the beach like a lighthouse. He could see the rain falling, and Lance felt a surge of satisfaction and relaxation course through him. Many people found it weird that he loved the rain so much. He loved the pitter-patters as the rain hit the ground or the window. He loved splashing in puddles and feeling the cold drops trickle down his face and catch in his eyelashes. But most of all, Lance loved walking along the beach in the rain. This is because no one else would come to the beach during this time, so Lance was able to enjoy a nice stroll alone. This didn't mean that Lance liked being alone though. In fact, he hated it! But that was when it was completely silent. At least the sounds of the rain, wind and thunder accompanied him. It was enough for him to think about whatever he wanted to think about without being interrupted by one of his many siblings. He'd perch himself on the large rock near their house and overlook the grey sea and moody sky with only an umbrella to shelter him from the clouds' tears.

Lance now noticed that his light was lingering on his perch rock. He was about to move it again when he spotted a lump next to the rock. Lance knows this beach like the back of his hand, and he knows that there isn't supposed to be a lump in that space.

Slowly and warily, Lance stood up and took small steps towards the foreign object. The sand was lumpy and damp beneath his bare feet. His breath came out in misty puffs in front of his face, but they did not distract his gaze from the strange lump. Upon closer inspection, he saw pale skin and raven hair wrapped in orange rope.

"Dios mío!" Lance exclaimed.

Lance leapt forwards like a lion and laid a hand on the man's shoulder. He gasped when he realised that the man was shirtless and felt how freezing his skin was. The strange man may as well have been made from ice! Lance began patting the man in search of injuries. After feeling his head, his hand came away red, but it washed away quickly in the rain. He found more red near the man's waist and followed it down towards his-

Wait…

This guy…he doesn't have any legs.

Lance shined the light further down to reveal a single limb that began from the man's waist. It was longer than a human's leg and had a solid shine to it. The red didn't seem to be blood, but rather, scales. In fact, Lance was pretty sure that it resembled a fish's tail!

But that was preposterous! Because if this was true, then that means that he's found…

Lance reeled back slightly in shocking awareness. This was a mermaid! Or merman? The creature before him certainly resembled a man with his flat chest and firm muscles.

What should I do? Lance thought. He's injured. I can't just leave him! But I can't call anyone either. Who knows what would happen to him?

After a little bit of debating and planning, Lance concluded that his best course of action was to take the merperson to the rockpools at the end of the beach and hide him in the cave. He could then better assess the injuries. With a huff, Lance switched around his flashlight for a headlight (he always kept it in his pocket, just in case) and knelt down in the sand. He carefully untangled the merperson from the net and tossed it to the side. He then slid one arm beneath the shoulders and another under the tail. He found this difficult because the tail was extremely slippery, but he eventually managed to get a firm grip on it. He heaved the person up and groaned a bit in exertion. The top half was fine, but the tail was quite heavy! Luckily, Lance's excessive swimming had paid off.

Lance slowly and carefully trudged down the beach towards the caves. He remained wary of rocks glass when he reached the cavern. He squatted slightly to prevent himself from banging his head and shuffled further into the cave. When he came to the back wall, he settled the merperson down on the rock. From what he could see, the only injuries he had were a cut on his brow and a few smaller bruises and scratches on his abdomen. He then lifted the tail up to look around and almost dropped it when he saw a large cut in the area where the thigh would normally be. It bled slowly, but it was wide and could allow an infection to settle if left untreated.

As Lance turned to go fetch the med-kit from his kitchen, he strongly hoped that the merperson wouldn't wake up and leave. He sprinted down the beach and managed to reach his porch in under a minute. He carefully turned the doorknob and reached a hand to grab the green box from next to the doorway. He also gently opened the draw in the counter underneath and took out a roll of clingfilm. He then closed the door with similar care and sprinted back down the beach to the cave. He was relieved to find that the merperson hadn't moved an inch.

Lance started off by bandaging the head wound. The raven hair was long – probably to his shoulders – and matted. While he wrapped the cut, he took time to inspect merperson's face. The face was definitely a male's; the cheeks and jaw did not hold the curves of a female's. He also looked young as well – at least by human standards, he seemed to be about Lance's age. His ears were also much larger than a human's. It almost looked like a butterfly's wing. Red skin was stretched thinly over the structure. It looked kind of pretty. He also observed cuts on the sides of his neck, but they weren't bleeding. Lance knew that these were gills from all the times when he went fishing.

Once Lance tied off the bandage, he moved down towards the wound on the tail. The bleeding had stopped now. Lance uncapped the bottle of clean water and wet a gauze with it. He then delicately dabbed the wound with it. Despite his gentle actions, the merman moaned at the contact. Lance startled slightly at the sound and looked at the face again. The eyes remained closed, so Lance continued to clean the wound. When he couldn't see any small pieces of rock or sand in the wound, he took out the alcohol from the kit and wet the gauze with it. Internally, he prayed that merpeople were not allergic to alcohol and pressed it against the wound to disinfect it.

This time, the merman hissed, and his body tensed. When his head fell back to the ground, his eyelids began to blink open. Lance held his breath and awaited the merman's reaction. When violet eyes landed on the tanned human, the merman spat threateningly and thrashed away. Lance tumbled backwards and raised his hands up as if surrendering. The merman bared his sharp canines and narrowed his eyes in hatred and distrust.

"Woah! Easy there!" Lance tried to calm the merman. "I wasn't trying to hurt you! I just want to help!"

The merman just snarled.

"All humans just want to hurt." He seethed. "Why should you be any different? All humans are pathetic and stupid."

"Ouch!" Lance groaned. "I save you and you thank me by insulting me? I feel kind of hurt!"

"I don't care!" The merman snapped. "Now get out of my way before I rip your throat out!"

"So you'll rip my throat out and jump into the water. Then what?" Lance asked. "You've injured your tail. I don't think you'll be swimming anywhere any time soon."

The merman glanced down at the wound. His eyes widened in surprise when he realised the extent of the damage. He looked afraid too. Not that Lance could blame him – he was trapped after all. The merman looked back up at the human angrily.

"I don't care!" He snarled. "I'll still make it back home! And if you ever want to go back to yours, you'll let me pass immediately!"

Any other human would have just cowered away from the intimidating creature and left it be. But not Lance. No, Lance was the oldest of seven children. He was used to having to put his foot down and say, 'not happening'. Lance crossed his arms determinedly and stared long and hard at the merman.

"Here's what's going to happen." Lance said calmly and sternly. "You are going to sit still and let me finish treating your wound. Then you're going stay here and rest for as long as you need to."

"Why the Hell should I listen to you?" The merman yelled aggressively. Honestly! Who did this human think he was? How dare he tell him what to do?

Keith launched himself forwards to incapacitate the foolish human and leap into the water, but his tail stung sharply at his movements and he fell to the ground with a pathetic whine. He waited for the human to laugh at him, but none came. Instead, he felt two soft hands pick him up gently and lay him up against the wall. The human was now looking at him with pity and a hint of smugness.

"I told you!" He said triumphantly. "Now, just sit still and let me finish."

"And why should I trust you?" The merman asked again.

Lance looked at the merman in the eye so that he could see that he was telling the truth.

"I found you on the beach." He said. "I could have easily left you there for someone else to find. I could have called marine biologists to pick you up. Of course, they would have helped you. But you know as well as I that they would have kept you. So instead, I carried you down the beach to hide you in these caves. I'm using my family's med-kit to treat you and I have ran back and forth in the rain to tend to you. I've already done your head. I can assure you that I have no intentions of telling anyone about you. Besides, everyone would think that I'm either insane or exaggerating another one of my stories."

The merman reached up to feel the bandage on his head. He relaxed a bit but remained on guard. So what if this human hadn't given him up to scientists? There was no guarantee that the human would keep his promise. However, it would seem that he had no choice but to trust this human for the time being.

"Fine." He unwillingly conceded. "Just get it over with!"

He crossed his arms and turned away as the human shuffled closer and laid his tail in his lap. The merman shuddered slightly when he felt the human's bare skin on his scales. It was rather soft and squishy. He snuck a small glance downwards and saw some weird things poking out from underneath the human's crossed legs. They wiggled slightly as the human worked. He hoped that his staring would remain unnoticed.

"You seem rather interested in my toes." Lance observed.

The merman jumped and blushed.

"Well, pardon me human, but I've never seen one of your kind this close before!" He defended himself indignantly. He yelped again when the human brought the stinging liquid back to his wound.

"Sorry." Lance muttered. "And my name's Lance, by the way."

One of the merman's ears twitched.

"Lance." He tested the name. "What an odd name."

"Are you saying that your name is better?" Lance teased.

The merman fell silent. Clearly, he didn't want to reveal his name.

"Oh, come one!" Lance all but begged him. "You're gonna be stuck with me for a while, and I don't want to have to keep on referring to you as 'the merman'."

The merman sighed, but remained silent.

"Alright then." Lance said as he lifted the tail with a knee in order to wrap the bandage around the wound. "If you won't tell me your name, then I'll just have to guess. Hmm…George?"

The merman just stared at him.

"Okay then, not George. Sebastian?"

Silence again.

"Kaltnecker? Nemo? Barry? Nelson? Quincy? Sherman? Alfred? Anderson? Montgomery?"

"Just stop!" The merman suddenly exploded. "My name's Keith, alright? Just stop guessing, please!"

Keith panted and fell back against the wall, rubbing both hands over his face.

"Keith, huh?" Lance repeated. "That's a nice name."

Keith peeked at Lance from behind his hands, but said nothing. The two sat in silence. Once Lance had tied off the other bandage, he reached for the cling film and wrapped it around the tail's bandage.

"What's that for?" Keith asked him quietly.

"When one of my brothers broke his ankle," Lance replied. "We would wrap cling film over his bandage so that he could go into the sea without it getting wet. I'm assuming that you can't stay out of the water the whole time you're recovering."

Now that Lance mentioned it, Keith could feel that his gills were a little sticky against his neck. He had probably about an hour before he needed to go back underwater.

"The rockpools here are quite shallow." Lance continued. "You should be able to lay down and sit up in them easily."

Lance tore off the roll of clingfilm and pressed the edge down. He admired his handiwork and felt a small sense of pride at how neat it all looked!

"Hey," Keith said. "Can I go in the water now?"

Lance felt like reprobating the merman for his lack of manners, but decided against it. After all, Keith was still nervous and afraid. Manners were the last thing on his mind. Alternatively, Lance bent down and picked Keith up again. Keith yelled in surprise as he was lifted up and wrapped his arms around Lance's neck to keep him from falling. Lance gently lowered Keith into the rockpool.

"The way back to the sea is blocked by too many rocks." Lance warned him when the merman was settled. "You wouldn't be able to climb over all of the rocks. I know that you don't like it, but you'll have to stay here until you're healed."

Keith looked away and pouted angrily, but did not argue. He was right. His attention was instantaneously grasped when a weird moan came from the human's mouth. His mouth opened wide and he exhaled loudly. Lance caught the merman looking at him, his head tilted and his ear twitching again. Lance mused that Keith's ear twitched whenever he was curious.

"That was a yawn." Lance answered the silent question. "It's something humans do when they're tired. I'm gonna head back to sleep now. What do you eat?"

"Raw fish." Keith replied. "Seaweed. Mussels."

"I'll bring some fish for you tomorrow." Lance said as he turned away. "I'll see you in the morning Keith."

Keith didn't reply. He watched the human's retreating back until he was gone from view. Then Keith curled up, feeling sleep beckoning him as well. He laid down beneath the water and snuggled into the sand. Just before he fell asleep, he briefly thought about his brother. Was he okay?

"I'll be home soon Kashi." Keith mumbled tiredly.

Then he succumbed to sleep.

Princess Allura was annoyed.

Her eyes followed her Captain and Champion, who swam back and forth across the grand hall. His hands were clasped tightly behind his back as his black tail moved endlessly. His eyes were trained on the floor, but they were also distant. He was worried. No, more than worried. He was anxious and on the border of a panic attack. Allura's fingers tapped the arm of her throne to try and keep her patient, but eventually, she felt to agitated. She slammed her fist down and rose from her throne yelling: "Shiro, that's enough!"

Shiro startled slightly and his eyes shot to the Princess. His anxious swimming continued.

"Sorry Allura." Shiro apologised. "It's just that Keith has never stayed out this late! What if something has happened to him? What if he's been eaten by a shark or gotten lost?"

He suddenly froze and his eyes widened in horror.

"Oh God! What if he's been taken by humans!?"

Allura sighed again. This time, it was filled with sympathy. Though she didn't want to admit it, she was worried too. Keith was like a younger brother to her as well and it hurt to see Shiro so distraught.

"I'm sure Keith is fine." She assured him, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. "If he's not back by morning, then I will send a search party out for him. But you've got to let up on him a little! He's not a child anymore, and he's certainly not defenceless."

"I know." Shiro exhaled. "But that doesn't mean he's completely safe from everything! I promised myself that I would keep him safe. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he got hurt!"

Allura was going to kill Keith when he got back. He knows how easily worried Shiro is!

"He'll come back Takashi." Allura said assertively. "And when he does, you can give him a long lecture about staying out past curfew."

Shiro took a few long and deep breaths. When he turned to the Princess, he appeared to be a bit more relaxed.

"You're right Princess," He said. "As usual."

From behind one of the pillars, a dark figure grinned evilly. This was the moment they had been waiting for! Without hesitation, they darted away to give their Master the news.

Welp, that's your preview! So, what did you all think? Let me know! This is a story idea that I have been mulling over for quite a while. I've never written about mermaids before, so this is going to be very interesting!

Until after Nigrum Sanguis my wonderful readers!

WarrynSparklegem