Little Merman - Klance Mermaid AU

Chapter Two

A/N: WARNING: ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AHEAD!!!!!!!!

Lance had always been used to a minimal amount of attention. Growing up with a ton of siblings and cousins in a single house had that effect, but it didn't make it any better. He was always ignored, unless it was when he did something stupid. Most of his time was spent on the beach with his guitar, playing sad music and singing in Spanish about all of his sorrows.

Honestly, the only things that kept him sane were Hunk and Pidge. He had met the both of them in elementary school, and even though Pidge is a full two years younger than Hunk and Lance, she was in the same grade, having skipped a couple. They were all best friends instantly.

They may have helped, but they didn't stop the ache in Lance's heart whenever his parents would ignore him mid-sentence to see what his little sister was saying or doing. When his aunt would shoo him out of the kitchen, even though he could cook well, in favor of letting his older sister help. When he could disappear for four hours on the beach and no one would notice.

One day, he had had enough. His whole family had forgotten about him when they went to the family picnic, so he shut himself up in his room and wrote his note. It took all day, but, when it was ready, he put it on the fridge and left the house at midnight.

Standing above the sea, the waves crashing dangerously below, he began to have second thoughts. What would Pidge and Hunk do? Who would take care of his little sister? How would his family fare? All of these thoughts swirled in his head, but he still took his shoes off, looking towards the waves with a blank expression.

Before he could even think, he jumped, hitting the water with a crash. He knew how to swim, but he didn't move, letting the water fold in around him and steal his breath. The last of his air came out of his mouth in small bubbles as he closed his eyes, letting himself drift out of consciousness.

Suddenly, he woke up on the beach, his whole body numb and cold, but still very much alive. The sun was beginning to rise, and he was definitely on the beach he's usually on, but he shouldn't've been alive.

"Who-? What-? Where-?" he stuttered, looking around.

Lance's eyes landed on someone next to him, but it didn't look like a normal human, not even human at all. Little, dark red markings were at the top of its cheek bones, matching what looked like a fish tail below its waist. Its skin was pale, contrasting with its long, dark hair. It was definitely freaky.

Lance jumped back, nearly flying five feet in the air and back. The thing huffed and crawled forward, dragging its body across the sand with its arms. Lance kept going back, fear thudding through his veins.

The thing sat back on its haunches, and huffed, crossing its scaly arms. "I just saved you, so a little respect might be nice," he snapped, looking at him with a sort of betrayal.

"Who and what are you?" Lance exclaimed, eyeing the thing with fear and apprehension. The more he looked at him, the more he started to look like a merman.

At that, it sat up straight and spoke with a sort of flourish. "I'm Keith, mer-prince of the aquatic kingdom, Altea," he finished proudly, looking Lance directly in the eye.

Lance was completely stunned at that. He had asked a weird creature who and what he was and he went off on this long tangent about his whole title.

All that came out of his was mouth was, "That's long," It was stupid, but that's all he could think of at the time. Another thought came to his mind when he said that.

"And what do you mean you...?" he asked, but trailed off when he realized the situation. He had just tried to drown himself and this merman, who could obviously swim, was sitting next to him when he woke up on the beach.

He brought his knees up to his chest and buried his face into them. "You brought me here after I jumped, didn't you?" he asked, shame now fueling his body.

Keith seemed to scoot closer, then a wet hand came down on Lance's shoulder. It was cold, but he didn't shy away. He rather liked the attention, even looking up after a minute.

"Why did you jump?" the merman asked, tilting his head to the side.

Lance took a deep breath at that, not really feeling completely comfortable with sharing his inner workings with someone. He didn't even share that kind of stuff with Hunk or Pidge. But, maybe talking about it would help.

"Well," Lance began, scooting closer to Keith, "I have a really big family, a lot of siblings and cousins in one house,"

Keith nodded and tilted his head to look him in the eyes. Lance noticed that he had the prettiest indigo eyes that sparkled with curiosity.

"Because of this, I don't get a lot of attention, which didn't exactly help my self esteem," He could feel tears forming in his eyes, but he kept them at bay. Crying wouldn't help a single thing that was happening to him.

"But you have friends that help," Keith said, saying it more like a fact than a question.

Lance nodded, swallowing a lump in his throat. "I do, but they can't stop what it feels like to be ignored by the people you love the most,"

Keith nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted when a loud barking echoed through the little pocket of beach they were in. Lance looked up and saw Pidge's dog, a little Dachshund named Rover, barking at them from the top of the dune separating the beach from the rest of the town. He quickly looked back and saw that Keith wasn't there anymore. A loud splash caught his attention, and he looked toward the ocean. A flash of red disappeared beneath the waves and the water became the normal crashing of waves it had been the day before.

"Lance!" Pidge's voice shouted from behind him, worry laced into her tone.

"Dude, we were so worried, we thought you really died!" Hunk yelled, his large arms lifting Lance off the sand. Lance spared the ocean one last glance, then turned towards his friends.

They were still in their nightclothes, Pidge's glasses were tucked into the pocket of her night dress, and Hunk's headband wasn't even present. Their hair was mushed up in all different ways, like they had just jumped out of bed, and their eyes shone with worry.

"I'm fine," Lance mumbled, leaning into Hunk's hug, "Just wanted to do something, but was stopped,"

Hunk and Pidge exchanged nervous glances, but said nothing, merely ushering Lance up towards his house, where his family was sat, worried out of their mind. Before he left, Lance spared one last glance towards the ocean, and saw a small bit of black floating above the waves before disappearing.

A/N: Is it sad that I used my own experiences with having a lot of siblings to use in this? I was never abandoned before a picnic, but all the other things happened. At least I have Voltron to dull the pain. *stares wistfully into a grass field*