swim with me? [klance au]

The Harbor

Lance slowly lifted the necklace from Allura's palm, eyes wide. He didn't even know that it was in her family. Coran was Alfor's personal guard, and he'd become Allura's teacher when she was born. Lance had never really asked if Allura had a guard too- he just assumed that Coran would be "passed down" as the family's guard.

But now Allura was giving him the necklace, The Necklace, and he was almost afraid to touch it. This had been passed down for as long as the Altean line had been around, the family crest. It was simple, really, a 'V', but the tops of the points extended in. Lance had seen it drawn everywhere through his life. In the coral reef, a gifted mermaid once grew a patch of flowers and seagrass into the shape.

Lance had learned in History class- nearly 1/8 of the major mermaidian communities across the ocean were led by a descendant of the original Altean family. It was an ancient bloodline filled with the luminescence of leaders. Lance had laughed at the thought of a family reunion.

The job of a personal guard was given to the closest, worthiest friend of the leader of a community and their line. They were to protect and honor the bloodline, serve (but not in a weird way). And now Allura was asking Lance to be her guard and he really didn't know if she was asking the right person.

"Lance?" Allura asked. She looked stressed as ever, and he realized that she was waiting for his response.

"Yeah, of- I mean- Yes, yes, holy shit." Relief flooded over her face as Allura broke into a smile and pulled Lance into a hug, somehow attaching the necklace at the same time. Lance felt the weight on his collarbone and was hit with the responsibility of the whole thing. He inhaled shakily.

"Good, because I already have your trident." Lance froze, sail, flashing open.

"Are you serious?" he asked into her shoulder. Allura pulled back and grinned devilishly.

"Be right back," she said happily, then bolted into another room. Lance heard the muffled clatter of metal on stone, Allura groaning something that sounded like, "Quiznak!", and then watched her reemerge with the most beautiful trident Lance had seen.

Normally, the tridents that belonged to the guards were undecorated, straight, six-foot bars of metal with a three-pronged spear at the end. Sure, they were pretty, powerful, strong and intimidating. But the only other trident Lance had seen like this was Coran's ancient relic of a trident, engraved with seastars and bubbles and, of course, the Altean insignia.

But in Lance's opinion, this was even better. Allura placed the trident gently in his hands, then moving back to let him admire it. The metal was a shiny grey-blue, smooth and sturdy. Hues of periwinkle and sky-blue shone through as Lance twisted the trident around in his hands.

The top was the impressive part, though. Of course, it had three barbed points, dangerously sharp. Built into the prongs was the Altea crest, the V, laying in the two outermost points. There were no fancy etchings, no scratches at all, but there were pearls. Naturally a light, pastel pink, and wound by a wire around the prongs, the strands were the most beautiful adornment Lance had ever seen on a trident. He motioned for Allura to back up a little, and she did, giving him space to test it out.

The light metal made the staff easy to handle, and Lance was able to keep his light agility with the balance of the trident. Parry, thrust, duck, strike. Lance felt giddy with joy. Allura seemed pretty proud herself.

"Not to be insensitive..." she started, smiling nervously, "but we should really go."

...

"A boat?" Lance said questionably.

Allura nodded, flipping her hair out of her face. "He should be here any minute..."

The two bobbed under the water, underneath the pier in the harbor, right next to a small vessel. Above them, people walked and talked over the wooden slats of the boardwalk.