Epilogue

I feel like I'll be empty when I'm done writing this (I say with like five other in progress fics at this moment in time). Sappy authors note at the bottom.

He stroked for the beach, let the ocean lift him on its crest, and flew.

Floorboards creaked under bare feet, the rocking and swaying of the vessel sending sand skittering across the wood with the smallest rustling sound. "What do you think?"

Keith, leaning against the floor from his trapdoor, water lapping the edges around him, gave a brilliant smile and looked over from where he had been gazing around the room. "It's great, Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez. Thanks."

The adults grinned down at him and Keith flushed under their gaze, leaning out further and peering around the corner at Pidge, who was busy helping Hunk set up the more mechanical aspects of the houseboat. "Pidge! What's the time?"

She glanced down at her watch and her tongue poked from her lips. "Five more minutes. Tell them to get their butts up here and recharge."

Keith chuckled and saluted with two fingers, dropping from the trapdoor and into the water below. He took a second to let his eyes adjust and spun in a circle, tail drifting lazily under him. His scar had faded entirely, leaving behind only a slightly uneven line of scales to show where the injury had been.

Lance hadn't been so lucky, and he now had a scar on his upper arm, but he wasn't mad about it. Said it made him look like a pirate or something.

When Keith swam into view, Lance glanced up from where he had been making some last adjustments to the boat and smiled warmly around the rebreather in his mouth. Keith shook his head and ducked over, curling around Lance's body and slipping his arms around his bare waist, one hand tracing the inking on his back.

"Pidge says it's time to come in and recharge," he said into the aid in Lance's ear, one that Hunk and Pidge had spent hours designing to filter out speech underwater. "Where's Mariana?"

Lance glanced about and gestured to the left, releasing his grip on the boat and pushing himself downwards, fingers sinking to tangle in Keith's hair. His free hand held onto a screwdriver, and Keith took it from him and tucked it into Lance's swim trunks, shaking his head. "You have to go get her. Come on."

His boyfriend smirked and pulled the rebreather out, pecking Keith's nose before dropping from his grasp and swimming over to where Mariana was screwing in her last panel, muscles straining to make the screw as tight as possible.

The houseboat had been repurposed and refurbished from the Sanchez's elderly neighbor, the one who owned the beach adjacent their cove. He had had the boat for years and had lost the ability to man it by himself, but had kept it in wonderful condition and, after hearing about Lance and Keith's…predicament…had given a soft smile, murmured something about knowing the feeling, and had given it to them for far less than Lance had been willing to pay.

With some sanding and several coats of paint, the inside and outside had looked as good as new. Hunk and Pidge had then proceeded to tear out specific sections of the lower deck's floor boards and fit them with trap doors and plexiglass, worked in such a way that opening the trap doors while on open water would not flood the boat or sink it. Keith didn't know the logistics, but it didn't really matter much to him.

The top floor, which led out onto the deck, had been refurbished to have more windows, all plexiglass for safety reasons, and with Coran's help, they had been able to run a series of clear piping up to the main deck and the inside of the top floor. Hoses running along the sides kept the water flowing, and the pipes opened up in three places: one on the main deck, and two inside the lower floor. Keith was able to swim comfortably through them and be pretty much anywhere on the boat, and Pidge had given it a shot as well (wearing flippers) to make sure that it worked for humans too. The only place it didn't lead was the engine room, which he didn't particularly want to get into anyway, so he wasn't bothered.

The boat was now parked at Lance's dock, and his entire family, plus Hunk, Pidge, and Coran, were all helping to bring in furniture to bolt down and decorations to make the place more homey.

Most of the lowest deck, formerly used for storage, had been flooded on purpose, carefully, and Keith had refurbished part of it into a bedroom with help from Pidge and Lance. Hunk had provided lighting to the room somehow, with lights that functioned underwater (he'd have to ask about that) and changed colors when he hit a certain button. A trapdoor led up from his bedroom ceiling and into what had become Lance's room.

No, his parents hadn't let Lance just completely abandon their summer home. But more nights than not, Lance slept curled up on the floor of his bedroom in the houseboat with his fingers dangling into the water of Keith's room, and it was honestly heartwarming to wake up to the sun shining through his porthole and see Lance sleeping above him.

Lance had one more year of school left, and Keith knew he did too, so they would both have to leave at the end of the summer and go back home. But Pidge and Hunk had both assured Keith that they were staying, seeing as they actually lived in town, and he was excited to be able to see them on the weekends.

Plus, with Coran and Allura having opened communications again, Keith had finally figured out what he wanted to do when he was done with school instead of following Shiro's tail flicks and becoming a member of the royal guard: he was going to join the human-mer collaboration group.

When he had told Lance that, the teen had nearly combusted on the spot, shrieking in delight and bouncing around in the surf on his toes. He had then proceeded to insist that Keith start early on forming communications.

And thus had begun the mildly awkward introductions to Lance's parents. Well, his mother, first. She had been remarkably calm about it, and the way her eyes sparkled (the exact color of Lance's, Keith noted) made the mer think that she had definitely had encounters with his people before. When he had asked, however, she had merely shrugged and then turned the conversation his way about school and Shiro.

After meeting Lance's father and getting approval from basically the entire family, it had been agreed upon to make it easier for Keith to hang around without having to sleep on the ground in the cave. Thus the houseboat happened, and now Pidge was setting up something called Wi-Fi for him to use whenever no one was there and he was bored. Whatever that was.

"Keith?"

He glanced up at Lance, noting that they were alone in the main room. Wet footprints indicated that Mariana had left the water and joined her parents above deck, and he and Lance were left alone in the trap door, which was the biggest one on the ship. It was probably large enough for four or five people to float comfortably, but they were pressed close together, elbows hooked onto the floor. "Hm?"

"You okay?" Lance asked, tilting his head. Seawater dripped into his eyes. "You look a little lost there."

Keith smiled and ducked his head, nodding. "Yeah," he promised, allowing his tail fins to entwine gently around Lance's ankles. The boy's breath hitched next to him. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just thinking."

"About?"

When he glanced up, Lance had a mischievous half smile on his face, and Keith splashed him indignantly. "Shut up."

Lance swung around to the front of Keith, keeping one hand on the floor and trapping him between his arms, biceps straining to keep him in one place. "Make me," he challenged.

Keith obliged, leaning forwards and capturing Lance's lower lip between his teeth, tugging back just enough that Lance was forced to float forwards or risk pulling away. His knees drifted against either side of Keith's tail and he lifted a hand, sliding it up and over Lance's chest and shoulders and letting it rest on the curve of his jaw, their hips bumping and Lance's hand releasing the side of the trap door in favor of curling around Keith's lower back.

"Ahem."

They burst apart, Lance sinking underwater with a yelp at the sudden movement. Keith pulled him up without even blinking, hand wrapped around his bicep and face burning bright red as he turned to look at Shiro, who had a shit eating smirk on his face. "Yes?" he managed to say through gritted teeth.

Lance huffed and sank purposefully up to his nose, eyebrows furrowed. Shiro laughed and shook his head. "Just wanted to know if there was anything else that needed to be done on the starboard side," he asked, handing over his screwdriver.

"Ask Pidge," Keith said, nodding towards the next room over. "She's the one who knows everything."

Shiro tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two of them. "Hands above the hips, you two."

He vanished, leaving Lance to choke on seawater and Keith to groan in mortification. "Why are we related?" he muttered.

Secretly, of course, he was grateful to his brother. After finally sitting down and hearing him out, and after the initial breathing room he gave Lance and Keith, he had come to the surface more and more often, finally meeting Pidge and Hunk properly, getting to know them, and he had admitted to Keith that he was wrong about a lot of things. He got along with the humans swimmingly, for lack of a better word, and had even had a couple suggestions for Pidge on how to make the houseboat more habitable for merpeople.

He had been the reason an underwater guest room was added to the other side of the boat, though it was going to be there to balance out Keith's bedroom anyway. He had just given Shiro the opportunity to customize it.

"Does your brother have any sense of privacy?" Lance asked.

"No more than your sister," Keith shot back, having been caught kissing Lance multiple times by Mariana.

"Touché."

Lance slid his hand down in the water and curled it around Keith's, squeezing gently and tilting his head. "Seriously though, you sure you're good?"

Keith twined his fingers through Lance's and ran his thumb over his knuckles. "I promise."

"What do you say we go top side, then?"

"Pidge's rebreather is dead," Keith pointed out, nodding to the rebreather that had been discarded on the edge of the trapdoor. She had amped them up to last 90 minutes, but it was still precarious at times.

Lance's eyes twinkled and he hoisted himself from the water, giving Keith a very nice view of his both his calves and torso. He smiled appreciatively and sank back in the water, already anticipating what Lance was going to say. "Race you."

"You're on."

Lance sprinted for the stairs and Keith dove for the pipes, shooting up them as quickly as possible and flipping through the curves to the top, popping his head out just as Lance burst out the door. He grinned and strolled over, hands in his pockets as he watched Keith slide himself out the top of the pipe and into the little seat that had been built into the railing.

The boat rocked under Lance's feet but he stayed firm, leaning against the rail next to Keith and staring out at the open water. The wind tosseled their hair and the sun beat down against their bare backs, and from the open windows below them they could hear Hunk, Pidge, Mariana, and Shiro chattering. Lance spotted his parents walking along the beach hand in hand and he smiled, latching his pinky with Keith's.

Keith glanced sideways at him, lifting an eyebrow. "Are you okay?" he retaliated, a little breathless from his swim.

Lance hummed in the back of his throat, gazing out over the ocean and leaning into Keith's shoulder. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

His eyes caressed the horizon, and after a moment of careful thought, he lifted his free hand and pointed. "There."

Keith followed his line of sight, frowning. "What?" He didn't see anything.

"Just hang on."

Within moments, the water that Lance was pointing to lifted and curled in on itself, rising and moving forwards, white crested teal crashing down and surging forwards in a wave. Keith laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. "I swear, the ocean just bends to your will sometimes."

Lance slid his gaze to Keith's with a lazy grin. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does."

These losers are my life and I am such a ridiculous fangirl and sucker for fluff (says the one who constantly and without fail writes angst for everyone and everything.

Thank you so so so so so so much to everyone who favorited and followed this story throughout it's time, and a super special thank you to everyone who reviewed (namely the ones who reviewed on almost every single chapter); you guys are the reason I feel like continuing my writing in the first place. If people hadn't reviewed, this probably wouldn't have gotten done.

That said, I'm now going to go focus my attention on From the Top and TPatSK, so leave a review and go check out one of those if you feel so obliged!