Disclaimer: I don't own the characters but I do own the story and the built-in world

Here's the next chapter! I already had it written because I started posting this on Ao3. I don't have anything after chapter 3 yet, so it'll be a little longer to update.

Chapter Two: Venomous

Keith's lips had become raw from chewing, and at some point he tasted the metallic flavor of blood; but he only noticed so long. He was stuck staring at his computer, twisting his wrist and leaning carefully on the arm with the cast. If it hurt, he didn't notice. He was too occupied with what was on his screen.

He had been home for a couple of days after the accident. He didn't go anywhere and barely left his room. It was his coping mechanism. He could only be out with people for so long before he needed a break to recharge. He was getting anxious within the last couple of hours, he would be seeking interaction soon. For now, he was distracted by his computer.

He hadn't heard Shiro appear at the door, but he sort of just knew he was there. He didn't look away from his computer when his brother walked over. "I see you've been occupying yourself."

"Did you know Hippos stay out of deep waters because they aren't good swimmers? They make porpoise-like leaps when they are. That's why their ears, eyes, and noses are on top of their head."

Shiro smiled, used to receiving detailed information from some random interest Keith had found interesting. He always came back to hippos. He could probably recite the whole wikipedia page from how often Keith talked about them.

His eyes ventured to the scattered, empty water bottles crowding the floor around the overflowing trash bin. He gave Keith a worried look. "How have you been? You've been drinking a lot of water lately. When's the last time you emptied out your trashcan?"

"This morning." Keith answered without looking up from his computer. He took a swig of water from his nearly empty bottle. He skipped to a new tab with more info about hippos. There were at least six tabs open. "I've been thirsty."

"I can see that." He shifted his gaze around to observe more of Keith. He was wearing his gloves. Normally he did because he didn't like certain textures, but he was never bothered by his keyboard. He usually didn't like wearing them while typing, because it was harder to type with them. He wore a long sleeve shirt and sweatpants, the same clothes as yesterday, and his hair was starting to get greasy. He didn't know what to do. If Keith wasn't going to talk about what was wrong, then there was no point in asking. He didn't think getting bitten had affected him, at least not mentally. He acted normal enough, besides the physical differences. "Maybe you should take a shower. Freshen up and we can grab something to eat in town."

"Eh."

Shiro sighed. "Just to get out of the house for a bit. Then you can come back and research more about hippos all you want." Keith didn't move for a couple of seconds, then he turned and headed for the door in silent compliance.

Keith scratched at his arms as he walked into the bathroom and took off his shirt. His skin was flaking, like he had gotten a sunburn and was trying to peel. He pulled his greasy hair out of his ponytail, shivering a little as it touched the back of his neck. He hopped in the shower and turned the water down as cold as he could stand it.

He knew something was wrong. Shiro had a right to worry. Ever since the accident, he constantly felt dehydrated and dizzy. His skin itched and flaked like it was drying out.

He didn't stay in the shower long. When he first got back he hopped in as soon as they got home, but he didn't last when he started feeling dizzy and out of breath. Strange rashes or red bumps started littering his skin, and they almost looked like scales. They had some sort of shine to them, and it freaked him out that he avoided touching water since. He was out of the shower in 5 minutes, speed washing so he wouldn't start to feel heavy again. The water irritated his skin and made him want to scratch it some more, but he settled for rubbing his towel as harshly over his skin as he could stand it. It still made everything red, only this was more of a rug burn.

Luckily, the little shiny bumps went away as soon as he dried himself. If they had stayed, he would have reluctantly gone to Shiro about it, but he wanted to handle this himself.

He slathered Aloe all over his skin and let it dry before throwing his clothes on. He wore the same long-sleeve, red and grey baseball shirt, but changed into jeans. With his hair clean, he left it down, less bothered by it touching his neck when it was clean.

Shiro lifted an eyebrow when he entered the living room. "Aren't you hot?"

"No." He was.

Shiro gave him a look like he heard the latter answer. He let it slide for now. "Well, where would you like to eat? Want to head into town or walk down to the Pier?"

He actually had to debate. He should pick town, because he would be riding in air condition. But being near the ocean sounded so enticing, he answered before he could critically think about it. "The Pier."

Shiro smiled, thinking that was more of a Keith answer, because he liked going to the Pier often. His worry wasn't completely sated, but it was content for now.

Keith always wore his boots, but today he opted for sandals. Why did this worry Shiro? Because he didn't have sandals. Keith had borrowed his. Listening to them flop behind him because they were too big was a little distracting. "They just opened up a new steak house by the Pier. Do you want to try it?"

"I'm kinda feeling fish."

Shiro lifted and eyebrow. "Okay…Syrberg's then?"

"That's a shitty chain restaurant, don't we have something local?" Keith and Shiro had lived in Galveston, Texas, for at least ten years now, and never had he wanted seafood. Which was why he didn't know the local restaurants. How long was Shiro going to let his worry go?

"Well Matt and I like to go to Kuso's Seafood and Steak. He's more of the seafood kind."

"Do they have shark?"

"Have you ever eaten shark?"

"I want to try it."

"Keith, seriously, I'm worried." He stopped Keith when he grabbed his arm, and noticed how damp it was with sweat. "If you're hot, why are you wearing a long sleeve shirt?" Shiro paused, like the answer came to him the moment he asked it, and pulled his sleeve up. His skin looked all scratched up. "Are those rashes?"

"It's just dry, that's all." He growled, pulling away like he had been burned.

"Keith, this has to be an infection or something. We need to take you to the doctor."

"I said I was fine." He didn't wait for Shiro to let it go or ask more questions, and instead stomped off in his loud, floppy sandals, ruining the moment. Shiro started after him, but Keith took off. He knew this would happen. He knew Shiro would want him to go to the hospital, maybe even the ER. He hated hospitals. He had been in one too many as a kid, but that wasn't the reason he didn't like it. It was the smell. The smell bothered him.

When he had gone to the doctor to get a proper cast put on, he literally got Shiro to give him a nose plug. He couldn't stand the old bleach smell, it overstimulated his senses. If he didn't have to go to the hospital, then he wouldn't.

Even though all reason told him he really should go.

Running was making him hot. He stopped to catch a breath, but he felt like he was suffocating. Why wouldn't the air flow properly?

A strong smell drifted to his nose, making him exhale to get it out. He looked over to see people swimming in a public pool. It was chlorine. The smell hadn't bothered him this much before.

However, a strange sensation came over him as he stared at the blue waters splashing every time someone swam or jumped in. He never wanted to be around weird smells, but for some reason he NEEDED to get in the pool.

He ignored one of the lifeguards yelling about not paying when he climbed the fence and headed to the enticing water. People looked up when they heard the commotion, and watched as the fully clothes 19-year-old fell into the pool.

Relief. It's what he should have felt. Water surrounding him, hydrating him, cooling him from the hot summer heat. It shouldn't matter what kind of water it was, even shower water, for how uncomfortable it was, was better than nothing.

Instead, he got searing pain and a mouth full of screams.

—

"-mical burns."

"He's never been allergic to chlorine before."

"Well he is now." Keith didn't have to recognize the voice to recognize the sarcasm. It was like the bite all over again. He already knew who was in the room. "Hey, I think he's waking up."

His vision wasn't as blurry when he finally opened his eyes, and he was relieved to see Shiro above him. "Hey, how do you feel?"

"You should know the answer to that."

He heard Pidge chuckle. "He's fine, at least mentally."

"We're worried about that bite you got." Shiro said, speaking directly to Keith like he was purposely ignoring Pidge. Funny story, he didn't do it on purpose.

So many things were wrong, and Keith knew he couldn't avoid it anymore.

He sat up against Shiro's protests. "I feel fine." He snapped before anyone could say anything.

"You're still covered in rashes." Said Matt, standing at the other side of his bed.

Keith's casted arm looked normal, but that was because it was covered. His other arm looked like he had been eaten by fire ants. "What are those?"

"Chemical burns. From the Chlorine." Answered Matt.

Shiro's statement about never being allergic before rang through his head. "Are…are they going to keep me here?" He knew he should be in the hospital. So many things were wrong. The allergic reaction to chlorine, the dehydration, the dry skin, the dizziness when being in normal water, the weird shiny bumps that disappeared when he dried off. There weren't any on him now, he could tell because they looked different than the rashes. They were…prettier… He didn't know if they had been on him when they pulled him out of the water. If they had, they would have probably been overlooked from the rashes. He must have been red all over.

"We're not going to let them." Pidge said in a hushed voice.

"Pidge, we have to find out what's going on with him, and a hospital is the only way to do that." Said Shiro, folding his arms in the 'I'm the dad I'm the reasonable one so listen to me' gesture.

"I can analyze his blood better than anyone else."

"You're not a doctor."

"I don't have to be. I can just make a computer that can read it for me."

Shiro rolled his eyes, but Matt stepped in. "Look, Shiro, we know how this is gonna go down. They're going to take him in for studying, and we don't know when we're going to see him again. We had to lie about where he got the bite from in the first place, because they took that creature from us once we reached the mainland."

Keith remembered that. They had no idea how whoever they were(they were dressed in suits, so he could guess) found out about the mermaid-looking-thing. Everyone on the crew was forced to sign a waiver stating they would never say anything about their fine unless they wanted to go to prison for 'false accusations against the government'. Keith was always the conspiracy theorist, and this wasn't helping his obsessions. Shiro usually indulged him but never really believed(and knew it despite Shiro denying it) but there was no way he could overlook it this time.

Shiro sighed. "Okay, yes, I think there's something fishy-" Pidge and Matt snorted, Shiro gave them a "Look" and they shut up. "And I don't want anything happening to Keith, but we still don't know what kind of infection or virus he has and we really need professionals to look at it."

"Come on, Shiro, this is like the time the Garrison tried to hide when the Kerberos Mission was hijacked by the GHS and you got tortured for information." Said Matt. Shiro flinched, his hand going directly to his metallic arm.

"I looked for you guys for two years!" Said Pidge. "If I hadn't found Matt's radio signal, you'd still be on that stupid island!"

Shiro shut his mouth. The GHS (Galra Homeland Security) were apart of the government specialized in public security, when in reality they were a military division used to control the media. They had the public deceived thinking they were 'protecting the country' from outside forces. They thought the Kerberos mission was an attempt to contact other countries to conspire against them. They bought their silence when Pidge built a devise that located them from the crappily built radio box Matt made, sending a code only he could make up. If the Garrison had helped her instead of rejecting her attempts, they would have had evidence to expose them. Instead, Matt was enlisted as an 'Encryption Specialist', which was another word for Professional Hacker, and Pidge became a Computer Science Specialist without needing seniority or work experience. And, of course, Shiro was made Senior Commander of the Garrison.

That was a hellish two years. Keith had wanted to do something about it, but it would have made things worse.

They were the ones that must have picked up the mermaid. Keith was always hostile towards them, but Shiro held him back and made sure they didn't see his bandaged arm. It was rough.

It was also during the time Keith dropped out for 'disciplinary issues.' He had helped Pidge with his paranoid 'Crazy Wall' to find them.

Shiro finally conceded. "Alright, I'll get the doctor to sign the release form and we'll leave."

Keith turned to the two siblings. "Should I be worried about the GHS coming after me?"

"Nah, they just think you had chemical burns. If the doctor says something about the bite, they might get suspicious, but I can hack their system and rewrite whatever they have on you to throw them off." Keith sighed. It was always great to have geniuses on his side.

—

Shiro looked to Keith's room and saw the light was still on from the crack under the door. It was getting close to midnight, and while he really didn't need to be anywhere, he was ready for bed. He figured he'd say goodnight to Keith.

When he opened the door, however, he was met with a familiar messy wall covered in string. He sighed, he should have seen this coming. "What do you have here, Keith?"

Keith looked up from his computer, which had maybe twenty tabs open and was currently on one with a lot of text. He stood, suddenly filled with enthusiasm. "Shiro! I need to show you this." He walked over to the board and pointed to the center where a picture of a mermaid was. Shiro braced himself. "I've been looking up things about mermaid lore and I think maybe what's going on is I'm turning into one."

Shiro choked on air. "You what?"

"Hear me out!" He pointed to several marked places connected to the mermaid and listed as different cultures. "Mermaids are everywhere in folklore, and they were written about by cultures that hadn't discovered each other yet. There were myths in Africa, China, Japan, Greece, Ireland—just everywhere."

Shiro folded his arms. "Yes…"

"It must be because they were everywhere. And there are so many myths about mermaids turning human and vice versa."

"Yes, but that's usually by magic or death." He paused. "You don't think you…"

"No, I don't think I died." He assured. He pointed to other places around the board, but they weren't pictures of mermaids, they were pictures of…werewolves and vampires? "What if it's like lycanthrope, and people turn into them when bitten. It happens with vampires and werewolves."

"But those are myths."

"And mermaids are obviously not."

Shiro couldn't argue. "Are you saying there are werewolves and vampires now?"

"What? No, that's not what I—though that would be interesting—I was getting at that there are so many myths that there has to be some form of truth. Humans turning into mermaids? Mermaids able to walk on land? They have a human form, just like myths about werewolves, and it would make sense that maybe they're a type of Lycan, like how there are werecats and wererats, sort of like that."

Shiro was finally beginning to understand. "So they would actually be werefish."

Keith shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"Okay, but you aren't turning into a fish when you get wet, and in fact you had an allergic reaction to water."

"An allergic reaction to chlorine." He jumped to another part of the wall, where information about fish were. "First of all, fish would die almost immediately when submerged in chlorinated water. Since I'm human, that probably translates to an allergic reaction. And look." He pulled his sleeve back where his cast should have been(how did Shiro not notice that?) and revealed a perfectly fine arm. The only indicator he had been bitten were the white, dotted teeth marks in his skin. "Just like when someone gets bitten by a werewolf."

"That's mostly pop culture."

"But it has to come from—"

"Yes, I know."

"Anyway, saltwater fish can't go in fresh water, and I think that's why I get over hydrated in the shower."

"You what? When did this happen? I thought you were dehydrated."

"When I'm not in water." Keith was starting to get complicated. He was going so fast, Shiro decided to let him just info dump until he was done. "When I'm out of water, I get dehydrated and have to drink a lot of water. And, when I get wet, weird scaly things appear on my skin."

"Wait, I didn't…never mind, go on."

"Maybe if I submerged myself, I can see if I change."

"Into a mermaid." Keith nodded. He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. How could he disbelieve him? All of his evidence made sense, and if he hadn't seen a mermaid for himself he would be worried about Keith's mental health. But turning into a mermaid? This was a little much. "Okay, this is a lot of information at once. Why don't we get some rest and talk about this in the morning."

"Maybe I could just go to the Pier and—"

"It's midnight, let's worry about that tomorrow."

"But night's the best—"

"Keith. Please." He put his hand on his little brother's shoulder. "You look tired. Get some rest."

Keith sighed and gave in. "Alright." Shiro pulled him into a hug, and he returned it, feeling safe. Shiro was right, he should get some sleep. He said his goodnights and crawled into bed.

But he couldn't sleep.

Almost half an hour went by and he started getting hot and dizzy. He felt like his mouth was dry, just all over his body. He reached for a bottle on his night stand, but there wasn't one there. He sighed, resigning himself to get up and grab a couple so he could semi-sleep through the night.

He only got half way to opening the fridge when he looked out the windows to the beach near the Pier. He was close, and no one would be around. Mostly. He could test his theory.

He left. When Keith made up his mind, he acted on impulse and headed straight down the street towards the docks.

The docks were filled with yachts and boats. There weren't any beaches in this side of town he could walk into the water to. He would have to walk through the docks to find a place to jump in. He didn't think passed that.

It was midnight, but it was hot. The ocean usually blew a cool breeze, but the night was still and heavy. There was little moisture in the air, and even if there was, it wasn't enough to keep him from sweating. He should have brought a water bottle or two.

It was beginning to look further away the closer he got. He started jogging, hoping to get there before he passed out. He didn't need to dry up in the middle of the street.

Finally it started getting closer, but he was getting out of breath. Why was he being affected in this stupid way? He never had a problem with endurance or stamina. He was active and even took some fencing and martial arts classes. Jogging to the Pier should have been an easy trip.

But his vision was blurring, and his heart was pumping faster in his chest. He was so dry, he didn't even sweat. He was beginning to fear he might shrivel up before he got there.

He pushed himself. He was almost there, just a little further. He forced his legs to run without loosing balance, but they were starting to wobble. He made it to the docks. Just a little further, near the end.

He collapsed. No, he was so close. He could barely make out the water, or even where he was. He felt dizzy, and confused. He had to strain his brain just to remember what he was doing there.

The smell of the ocean lifted to him, and he felt a little bit of determination come back. He needed to be in the waters. He felt so heavy, it was hard to even lift himself up. All he could feel was the painful breathing from his chest. It was like he wasn't getting any air.

Water… He pulled himself forward, but only a little. He needed the ocean…

The air, the dryness, the heat…it was too much. He was so close…Just a little further…

He couldn't do it. His lungs were screaming and he was barely conscious enough to know where he was. He fell back to the docks, heaving and trying to get anything into his lungs. His arm draped just over the edge, barely scraping the water.

It was cool. The touch of saltwater to the skin was more refreshing than fresh, cold water after working for seven hours on a hot summer day. It was like stepping into air-conditioning from running ten miles. Just a single touch, and he felt a chill of strength go up his spine.

He lifted his hand out of the water, seeing red sparkly scales and webbing between his fingers. He was right…

He had to get into the water. His hand was the only thing that felt refreshed, and he pulled himself with what little strength he had till the weight of his body was enough to topple him into the water.

All he remembered was the splash of relief he felt when his face hit the water.

Well, I hope you guys liked it! I'm trying my hand at writing autistic Keith, and I hope it's believable. Let me know if it's not. Thanks!