Whoops, this was hella late. Sorry for the late update, but here it is! Thank you for reading!

Black Pond

This had turned into a huge inconvenience. He had a mission. A mission the princess had given him. He didn't have time to entertain some random Mer he had just met.

Said random Mer that happened to be his Glow... but that wasn't the point. Lance needed to get rid of him. Possibly for good. He already fucked up anyway. Seeing him would just remind him of how much of a screw up he was.

Which was why this mission was important. He needed to prove himself. He might be the fastest swimmer with the best nose, but if he always messed everything up, then it didn't matter.

They had swam into darker corners of the deep. Rocks and caverns canopied overhead as they, jutting up like jagged pillars. Maneuvering through them was easy when not swimming fast. Lance swam around and over different columns of spiked rocks, mostly for fun and entertaining the thought of the red Mer getting lost. If he didn't know how to get there, he wouldn't know how to come back.

"So what's this 'black pond', and why is it so important?" Asked the red Mer, er... Keith? (what kind of a name was Keith? Even his name was stupid.)

Crap, he hadn't thought that far ahead. He started twisting the fins on his wrists, trying very hard not to show the anxiousness in his face. Quick, come up with something. "It, uh, it's where Land Walkers go. Yeah, they have been interested in it and we're supposed to find out why." Nailed it.

Keith gave him a suspicious look, squinting with doubt. Keith wasn't tense, but his arms were crossed in a guarded manner. His eyes were searching Lance's, and the blue Mer knew he was caught. "Land Walkers?" His voice sounded accusatory, like the name was made up to describe something simple.

Lance had to physically stop. Did he just… Did he not know…

He was starting to believe his initial thought that this Mer did, in fact, live under a rock. "You don't know what a Land Walker is?" Lance's face was scrunched in shock, with an added tick of scrutiny.

Keith went red, taking offense to the accusation. "What? No! I mean, yes!" He flushed from the mistake. "I just didn't know you knew." He countered, his crossed arms tightening around his chest and his voice softening slightly, embarrassed. "So what, you've seen one?" He turned around on Lance, trying to sound accusatory back only it came out defensive.

Lance chuckled, puffing out his chest. "Of course I have." "They come down here all the time." He waved his hand through the water, making bubbles. "The Black Pond seems to be their current interest."

Keith's demeanor changed as he gave a shocked look. "Have they seen you?" His trill rose with alarm, with a slight hitch of fear almost hidden by the shock.

"Maybe once or twice." Lance shrugged nonchalantly, his smirk cocky. That's right, he was cool. He would show Keith how awesome he was.

Keith seemed to look irrationally mad. "Don't you think that's dangerous?!"

Lance became confused. Why was he angry? Lance could handle himself. Why would he be so worried anyway? It wasn't like Keith liked him.

Lance frowned, not wanting to admit to himself how the thought stung a little.

Keith's arms uncrossed(whoa) and he looked like he was going to grab Lance's shoulders and shake them. "What if they tried to catch you? What if they take video or something and show it to the world?!"

"Video?" What a strange Mer, he thought. Where was he from again? "What's a 'video'?"

Keith seemed to hesitate, his eyes darting away. "It's, uh, something hu-land walkers use to take...moving pictures?" Even he sounded unsure of the explanation.

Lance had no idea what he was talking about. Whatever, it doesn't matter. He rolled his eyes, landing back on Keith with a bored expression. "Look, land walkers are stupid. They can't see in the dark, and it's so obvious when they're down here." He said, counting on his fingers to get his point across.

"Obvious?" Keith sounded more confused than sarcastic.

"They need light." Lance retorted with a 'duh' sound. "So it's not like we can't avoid them."

Keith looked thoughtful, his thick eyebrow arching and his eyes drifting upward as he tapped his chin.

Lance continued like he was talking to himself. "And whenever they've seen me, it's just a glimpse. They're so easy to scare." He laughed.

Keith's cheeks puffed in annoyance. It was... cute. Lance shook his head, trying to chase away the invasive thought. He folded his arms to hide the insecurity he wanted to ignore.

Why was he giving him that look? What did he care if land walkers were so easily frightened? He wasn't a sympathizer was he? Ugh, Lance had no idea what was so special about them. They were ugly, slimy creatures with two awkward looking tails that didn't bend right for swimming and could only last down here so long. They were fragile creatures, and there was nothing interesting about them. "Anyway, so, in conclusion, we don't need to worry about them." He waved boredly, his arm fins fanning with the movement. "This is our domain, they can't survive down here without those weird tanks on their backs. So if anything gets too out of hand we can just knock them off. Boom, done. No big deal."

Keith paled. His shoulders tensed as his eyes widened and the glow of his red iris' seemed to dim. "How would you know that?" His trill seemed to squeak an octave higher.

Lance realized how that sounded and stiffened. "It's not what you think! I-I just accidentally knocked one off one time..." He looked anywhere but at Keith, his face flushed in embarrassment. He paused, realizing how that sounded, then backtracked. "B-but he got it back on! He was just...flailing for a while before he was able to grab it, heh heh…" Lance's shoulders sank in and he tried to give Keith as innocent of a smile he could.

Keith's eyes darted away nervously, not able to keep eye contact. His shoulders were still tight as he nervously spoke. "S-So, about that black pond?"

"Right!" Good, change of subject. "This way." He motioned with his tail for him to follow. They were pretty close, and Lance didn't bother zig-zagging around mounds of spiked rock anymore, and lead him straight to the sight of the Black Pond.

They emerged into open water, the flat ocean floor emptied of life. A couple of crater looking dents in the ground rose up out of the sand, but didn't have anything but hermit crabs and other crustaceans in them. They could see the pond from a distance, but they couldn't see inside until they were upon it.

Lance searched Keith's face to see his reaction. This Mer was so sheltered, he might not have seen anything like this.

And Keith looked immediately interested. "It really does look like an underwater pool." He swam a little closer, his eyes glistening with curiosity.

Lance tilted his head and looked at Keith with no understanding in his eyes. "Underwater?"

"Like where we're..." Keith looked at him, stopping like he realized what he was going to say wouldn't clarify anything. He crossed his arms again, his eyes drifting up as he searched for the words to explain what he meant. "Have you ever been to the surface?"

Lance remembered some old stories and myths about this "surface" thing, but no, he had never seen it. "Of course I have! I don't live under a rock like you!" He immediately retorted, the lie slipping out too easily, even for his taste. There had been a couple mentions recently of the surface, mainly from the Princess and the Migration Queen. Plaxum mentioned she believed Florona had ventured to it. He had no idea where it was or what it was made of. He was interested, but he still had a hard time sneaking out of the Shoal, let alone to some place called "surface".

Keith flushed, face contorting into that aggressive look. "I don't live under a rock!"

Lance scoffed. "You might as well. You didn't even know what this was!" He motioned to the pond below them.

"So what if I've never seen it…" His voice trailed off, and he looked like a child who had been caught making up stories. "I-I just never come this deep..." He sounded unsure, quieting like he was embarrassed to admit that.

Lance had to stop in thought. Never been this deep? Where exactly did he live?

He brushed the thought aside for now and focused on the silly frown Keith was giving. So he hadn't been this deep, huh? He smirked. "Why? You scared?"

Keith's face went back to red, but it was more from anger. "I'm not scared!"

Lance was starting to enjoy getting on Keith's nerves. He was fun to tease.

Keith puffed his cheeks. "So what do I need to do?" Keith growled out, crossing his arms defensively. "You said we need to figure out why the hu-land walkers are interested in this?"

Why did he keep stuttering when he said 'land walkers'? It would be one thing if he just called them something different, but why hide it?

Lance had other things to think about, like what excuse he could use to make Keith leave and not come back. He couldn't come up with anything legitimate, so he just stated the obvious. "We know they're interested in what's down there. They stick weird poles inside." He motioned with his hands like he was slipping a pole down into the black abyss.

"So we just need to see what's in there?" Keith asked, still studying the pond with focused interest. "Okay."

He is so intense with his expressions, Lance thought. "Yeah, so...wait, what?" Lance had to double take as the red Mer swam up to the pond. "What are you...?"

Keith stuck his hand in.

Lance blanched. "What are you doing!" He shrieked, grabbing his hair in tight wads. "Crabs and fish have died in there! It petrifies them! See?!" He full body motioned to the crustaceans and sea creatures on the edges of the pond, where they lay pickled.

"It doesn't hurt." Said Keith, unconcerned, pulling his hand out and examining it front to back. "I think I've heard of this. I was looking up stuff about the Gulf of Mexico and what's inside it, and there was a mention of this 'Hot Tub of Despair' or something like it." He looked at Lance, his eyebrows shot up in excitement.

Lance crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what you mean and I really don't care."

Keith puffed his cheeks in frustration again. "It means this isn't completely dangerous, it's just a higher concentration of salt, so fish and crabs just suffocate, not petrify."

"What are you talking about? How do you know this?"

Keith, again, looked like he said too much. "Just...observation."

Lance knew that Keith knew he sensed bullshit. "Whatever, I give up on trying to figure you out." He turned back to the pond, curious now that he knew just sticking his hand in wouldn't petrify it. "I wonder what's so interesting about it. I wonder what's down there."

"Hmm..." Keith swam closer, studying the black surface like it was going to form answers for him. "Maybe we can just hold our breath and swim in."

"Hold our what and do what?"

Before Lance could get an answer, Keith sucked in water through his gills and suddenly dove in.

"What the fuck!" Lance screeched. What was he doing? Was he insane?! Did he just kill himself?!

Lance was swimming in circles and pulling at his hair. "What have I done? What have I done!?" No, no, this couldn't be happening. He screwed up. He screwed up!

His eyes were starting to sting. This couldn't be happening, he wasn't trying to kill his Glow. There, he said it, his Glow! How could he screw up this bad?!

Lance's gills felt like they were closing up, like he was suffocating in water. His chest hurt, his lungs felt like they were going to cave in on themselves, he felt like the water around him was going dizzy and he wanted to breathe. Why couldn't he breathe?

Lance was suddenly knocked over when a body burst from the pool, waving their tail with strong strokes like they were swimming for their life. The Mer swung their tail to stop themself just above the bond, hacking up clouds of black water from their gills.

It was Keith. Keith was alright. How...?

Lance could feel the water flow back into his gills as anger rose in his chest. "What the hell were you doing?! Trying to kill yourself?!"

Keith looked confused at the outburst, still trying to filter the water through his gills while taking a stroke back. "I was trying to see what was down there. I thought that's what you wanted!"

"You can't just dive into something that kills things! What if that had been you!" He practically pointed all his fins and arms at the dead sea creatures.

"I told you, it was just concentrated salt." He rolled his eyes, not seeming concerned at all. "As long as I didn't breathe it in, I would be fine." Keith explained, waving his hand in a blaise gesture.

"How would you even know that?!" Lance looked at him with frustration and disbelief, the mix showing in his furrowed eyebrows and wide eyes.

"I...uh..." Keith looked stumped, his eyes darting around and his mouth moving without sound. Why couldn't he just answer the damn question? What was he hiding? "It doesn't matter, I didn't find anything anyway." He said quickly and wide eyed. Lance was suspicious, until he registered what he said.

So he went all the way down? "Did you go all the way to the bottom?"

Keith's face was trying to turn a shade that matched his scales, and he couldn't look him in the eyes. "I didn't get that far. I needed to breathe so I came back up."

Lance felt suddenly smug. "What, can't hold your breath long enough?" Keith just growled at him. "I bet I could!"

Keith scrunched his eyebrows in frustration. "What? No you can't! And even if you did, it would be too dangerous to try."

"You just did it!"

He hesitated, but his expression didn't change. "Well, I...I know what I'm doing!"

Lance made a high pitched 'ugh' trill. "Are you saying I don't?!"

"Maybe!"

Why was this Mer being so pretentious? Why did he think he was better than Lance? He hadn't even been to the ocean floor! Lance was good at swimming. He was good at tracking and speed. Keith didn't know anything about him. "I'm the one they chose for the mission! I know more about this ocean than you!" Lance knew he could do whatever this Mer thought he could. Lance wasn't inferior. Lance could do this. He could track Plaxum and bring her back to the Shoal. He could be useful. There was a place for him. He knew it.

He had to…

Lance's chest felt like it was heating up. His fists clenched. He wasn't having this. He wasn't gonna be shown up. "You can't beat me!"

"I'm not trying-"

Lance didn't hear anything else as he dived into the dark cloud of thick water, feeling like he passed some kind of barrier where everything became both lighter and heavier. It took more effort to swim, and his eyes felt like they were drying, making him blink more. But he wasn't going to lose to that...jerk! He would show him. He was better at swimming and tracking and, and, holding his breath! He would show him, then Keith would have no choice but to admit he was better than him!

He could barely see where he was going, and if he was still going down. He was trying to swim in a straight line, but the weightlessness and the pressure was confusing him. And his eyes were starting to hurt. Not like before, when they stung at the sides and lower edges, but more like a sharper pain, like someone was poking it with a sharp rock. Blinking was starting to not affect it, and his chest was starting to hurt again, but he refused to open his gills. He was going to do this, he was going to reach the bottom.

And he did, by smacking right into a squishy substance. He shook his head and tried to ignore the screaming pain of his chest and the crusting of his gills, and focus on what he swam into.

It was a petrified face. Stuck in horror and decay, scales no longer vibrant but dull, with a gleam of grime over it. The person didn't even look normal; it's skin puffy and grey. It's eyes glazed with a layer of salt crusting over them.

Lance tried to let out a scream, but all that came in was thick salt and his lungs started to burn worse. He turned to swim straight up, his mind circling and flailing in multiple images of home, his friends, his family, that petrified face, Keith…

He didn't know how far he got as the glow of his eyes started to crust over and the pain in his chest started to fade. His mind rested in a state of emptiness, and the last thing to register was the pressure of something strong wrapping around his chest.

When Lance finally started reeling back to consciousness, all that came out was heavy coughing and the stinging pain of not being able to breathe. It hurt so much, but the water was starting to flow through his gills, washing out the thick black clouds that were almost settled in his lungs. He felt the water moving faster around his gills than around his person.

When the blinking of his eyes washed the salt away and began to glow blue again, he was finally able to see what was around him. He was sitting on the sandy floor, and the water that was moving around his gills were Keith's hands flapping around them. He could still see that face. That forever frozen face in fear. He didn't recognize them, but the fact that someone was down there, dead...

Lance wanted to shake the image from his mind, but it was hard. He switched to focusing on what was going on around him.

When he realized what was happening, he was more embarrassed that Keith saw him like this than upset that he almost died. "What are you doing?!" Lance shoved him away, dragging himself across the sand to get as far as possible from him. He didn't get very far.

"I was trying to help!" Keith yelled defensively. His brows were scrunched together and his cheeks turned a little bit red. Even in concern he sounded angry. "Moving water helps sharks breathe, so I figured it would help you too!"

Again with the weird specific knowledge. Where did he learn these things? "Well I didn't need your help!"

"Clearly you did! You almost drowned!"

What did drown mean? Lance didn't care, he was still trying to get over what just happened and the embarrassment of having him save him. "Whatever! I had it under control!"

Keith crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, especially when you passed out."

"I didn't...I was…" Lance flushed. "Whatever! Why would you care anyway?!"

"I-I don't know! I couldn't...I couldn't just let you..." Keith's trills started to trail off, and he, for some reason, looked away like he was embarrassed. His arms uncrossed slightly, and for some reason the look in his eyes turned into concern.

Lance had no idea what he had to be embarrassed about. And right now, he didn't care. He didn't want him to see him like this. Vulnerable, helpless, weak... Lance wanted to prove he was strong enough. He wanted to show he was...worthy. Not to this Mer, but to everyone.

Right?

He was more angry at himself than he was Keith. Why was he so weak? Why couldn't he show him, er, everyone that he could do it. That he could be useful and strong. That he could handle the mission.

If he couldn't even show Keith he was strong, what would he think of him?

No, Lance wasn't going to admit that he cared what Keith thought. This wasn't about him, it was about Lance, and Keith was just another person to prove. And he wasn't going to take the blame for this. "This is all your fault!" He caught himself saying before he could control the chirps coming out of his mouth. "If you weren't bothering me, I could be completing my mission right now!"

Keith's shoulders tensed and his brows furrowed. But the look in his eyes portrayed hurt. "I-I was trying to help!"

Lance didn't seem to care, he was still coughing up black clouds of salt and he didn't have the strength to get up. He was still shaken by the loss of breath and the image of that Mer. He had never experienced something that made him need to hold his breath, let alone choking on it. He clenched his fist above his heart, still feeling the ghost of pains in his chest. He looked tired, but his anger clearly showed in his eyes. If Keith hadn't been such an asshole and acted all superior, he wouldn't have thought about going in the pond. "And you almost got me killed!"

The silence that followed was expressed in Keith's face with hurt, physically making him snapback. Then it changed to anger as his fists clenched, then a combination of both. "I was trying to help..." He gritted through his teeth, but Lance heard him loud and clear. "Fine! I don't care about your stupid mission! Forget this! I'm out!" He threw his hands up in the water in frustration and turned around with a flick of his tail.

Lance watched the other Mer swim away, Keith's fins flicking and twitching with agitation as he disappeared into the darkness of the open ocean. Lance didn't know how he felt about seeing him go. On one hand, he accomplished his goal of making Keith leave, and he would probably never see him again.

But all he could feel was an emptiness form a hole inside his heart.

TBC

Hope you liked it!