This part's art was done by staydetermined21 on tumblr.

xXx

Lance stared at the hand in front of him. "Is that some kind of human greeting? 'Keith'?"

Keith blushed and pulled back his hand. "That's my name. I mean, I'm Keith." He cleared his throat. He would have to get water soon if he was going to keep this conversation going much longer.

Lance made a face. "Keith. That's a gross name."

Keith looked back at the mermaid. "What kind of a name is Lance?"

He sighed. "My mom wanted to name me Pike, but my dad was like, 'Nooo, that name's too popular. I've heard of a human invention that's similar to a pike. Let's call him Lance.'" He flung his arms in the air, inadvertently splashing Keith. "So now I'm named after a human object that I don't even know what is."

Keith flinched away from the water as it hit his face, then wiped it off. "Look, can you take me to shore? I need to get fresh water soon, and..." He trailed off as he saw that Lance was preoccupied with examining his soggy clothes.

"What is this material?" the mermaid asked curiously, rubbing his shirt between his fingers. "It's so weird!"

Keith blinked in surprise. "It's... cotton." He coughed again. "Look, I need water. We can talk more about my clothes and stuff later."

Lance pouted, then sighed. "Fine. Hold on to something." He moved to the back of the boat.

"Wait, what do you--" He was cut off when the boat suddenly lurched forward, sending him falling back off of his seat. Once he'd recovered his dignity, he turned to look back at Lance. He was bracing his arms against the flat stern, propelling them forward with slow but steady strokes of his glimmering blue tail. The movement was hypnotic as his scales shimmered in the afternoon light, the reflection of the sun traveling down the length of the extremity with each movement.

Lance appeared totally absorbed in pushing the boat, not seeming to notice or care about their surroundings. Once, they passed through an outcropping of rocks protruding from the water, and on either side, Keith couldn't have put his hand on the edge of the boat without getting his fingers crushed by the stones. It took about three more happenings of a similar sort for him to realize that he was completely aware of how close they came; he was just confident enough in his navigating abilities to not care about Keith's concern. Once Keith accepted that, he was somewhat able to relax and enjoy the pleasant breeze.

It was about ten minutes before land came into view. About two minutes later, Lance had driven the boat into the beach, where it got stuck neatly in the sand. The water slowly ebbed away as the tide receded, and a set of footprints led to the large, lazy river that flowed into the sea.

Keith lifted what must have been the hundredth handful of water to his lips. The cool, clean liquid rejuvenated his parched throat and salty tongue, and he didn't care that he was probably drinking too much too fast. It felt so relieving, and as he splashed his face, he could start to think more in the long term. His crew was captured by pirates, and who knew how long they would be kept alive. He would have to rescue them soon, but first, he had to find something to eat.

He held his face in his water-filled hands for a moment, then rubbed the salt out of his eyes. When he lowered his hands, he could see Lance reclining in the deeper water of the center of the river, occasionally flicking his tail to push back against the slow current. Noticing his gaze, the mermaid grinned cheekily and swam a bit closer.

"Were you watching me the whole time?" Keith asked uncomfortably as he squeezed the water out of his freshly-rinsed hair.

Lance nodded, apparently not noticing his discomfort. "Yeah. Humans are fascinating."

"What's so fascinating about us?" Keith asked, trying to draw Lance's attention from scrutinizing him.

Lance shrugged, his mouth barely above the water. "Everything. Your ways are so strange. Why do you wear clothing like you do? Why do you travel over the water if it's so dangerous? And why can't you just drink saltwater?"

Keith stood up and strode away from the river, looking for something edible. "If you don't know, I can't tell you."

Lance frowned, then turned around and swam with the current to the sea twenty feet away. He swam parallel to the shore, following Keith. "What are you doing now?" he asked curiously.

"Looking for something to eat," Keith answered absentmindedly. "Why, do you not eat?"

Lance grinned. "Of course I eat. But do you want something more substantial than those plants?" he asked, referring to the wild berries Keith was eyeing.

Keith raised an eyebrow. "Why? Do you have something better?" Lance smirked, then disappeared with a flick of his tail and a small splash. Keith sighed quietly. "There goes my company," he muttered as he went back to looking for consumables.

Once he'd gathered a few handfuls of plant life, he sat down on the beach and watched the seabirds dive down and scoop up fish in their bills.

He sighed and ate a handful of the berries. They were sour, not quite ripe, but he supposed they were edible.

He scrambled back in surprise when two fish the approximate size and shape of dinner plates suddenly landed almost right in his lap. When he finished staring at them flopping in the sand, he looked to the water where they'd come from and saw a mischievous grin. "Lance!" he snapped. "What's the big deal?"

Lance swam closer so he was about three feet from shore. "I got you food, didn't I?" His gaze went from the fish to the sand-covered berries and roots on the ground to Keith. He raised an eyebrow pointedly.

Keith sighed and picked them up by their tails. "Fine. But don't you have a thing against eating fish? Like, aren't they your friends or something?"

Lance shrugged. "Most fish, yeah. But those are triggerfish. They're some of the dumbest fish I know, and they also taste good."

Keith looked from Lance to the fish and back again. "Really?" Lance nodded. After another moment, Keith asked, "Do you have a knife I can use to clean them? I got mine taken away."

Lance looked confused, but tossed his knife to shore. It seemed to be made of a sharpened shard of shell of some creature that Keith didn't recognize, but it felt incredibly strong. Stronger, maybe, than some of the metal knives he'd seen.

Once he'd rinsed the sand off the knife in the river, he cleaned the fish and put them on a piece of wood lying by the water, then wandered along the beach to collect driftwood. Once he'd gathered enough to start a small fire, he piled up the smaller bits and suddenly realized he didn't have anything to start it with.

He went back to wandering along the beach, looking for a piece of flint or something that could possibly work. Lance swam alongside him.

After a while of quiet, Lance finally asked, "What are you looking for?"

Keith didn't look up. "Something to start a fire," he said simply.

"What's a fire?" Lance asked.

Keith had been expecting as much. "It's this hot thing that glows really bright and turns stuff into ash."

"Oh, I know that!" Keith stopped dead in his tracks. "I do that all the time with my scales that fall off."

Keith turned to him in surprise. "Really?"

Lance nodded and grabbed one from a sash around his waist. He tossed it to the sailor. "There. Try that."

Keith caught it and looked at what almost looked like a piece of brilliant blue stained glass. "Are all your scales this see-through?" he asked.

Lance shook his head and lifted the end of his tail out of the water. "Just the ones here."

"Oh." He crouched next to the pile of wood and used the scale to magnify the sunlight. It didn't take long for the wood to ignite, and Keith piled more on top.

"Why did you need the... fire?" Lance asked.

"To cook the fish," Keith answered as he placed the meat, wrapped in damp leaves, in the coals.

Lance shook his head, laughing quietly. "I'll never understand you humans," he chuckled.

This time, Keith ignored him. He made sure the fish were going to cook properly, then leaned back. "If you want to learn about people, now's your chance. While I'm not eating."

Lance eagerly moved closer to shore. "What are those thick cords you use called? The ones made of all those intertwined fibers?"

Keith blinked in surprise. "You mean rope?"

Lance shrugged. "Yeah?" he said uncertainly. "I thought you were supposed to know these things."

"Well, yeah, I mean..." Keith shifted his weight uncomfortably. "That description... wasn't really... that obvious."

Lance raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Sure." Looking at the boat, he quickly asked his next question. "What are those flat pieces of wood called? The ones you use to propel the boats?"

Keith glanced where he was looking. "Oars. Or, depending on who you ask, paddles."

Taking no time to think, Lance held out his arms as if there was a barrel around his middle. "What do you call the giant clothing that people wear on top of everything, with the thick fabric and the big pockets?"

"I think you're thinking of coats."

He was on a roll now. "What are those round bits of metal that are always on sunken ships? They seem to have some kind of value, since they're almost always in locked chests."

Keith blinked with surprise. "Wait, mermaids don't have coins? No system of currency?" He frowned. "Do you even have an economy?"

Lance looked offended. "It's based on trade!" he said indignantly.

Keith held up his hands in surrender, chuckling. "All right, calm down!" He stood up and walked to the fire. "The fish should be done now," he said hopefully.

"I still don't get why you can't just eat it as it is," Lance muttered.

Keith grabbed a stick and carefully pulled each of the wrapped fish out. He unwrapped one, careful not to burn his fingers, and watched the steam rise from the cooked meat. He took a deep breath of the vapors, relaxing as he smelled the delicious odor of the cooked fish. He turned to let Lance see the meat resting on the ground. "Because it's so much better like this," he said with a grin. Sure, that was only part of it, but it was a part that he could get Lance to understand.

Lance, laying on his belly in the shallows, looked curiously at the fish. "Really?" he asked.

Keith made a face. "Well, it would be better if Hunk had made it. I make it good enough to eat, and that's it. But Hunk--" He stopped suddenly. He grabbed a slice of the fish and took a bite, chewing and swallowing hard.

Lance tilted his head. "Hunk?" he prompted.

Keith sighed and slid the unopened package toward Lance, taking another bite of his own. "He was the cook on our ship. He could make a feast out of biscuits and stale water," he chuckled. "He would always help Pidge work on the ship when he wasn't in the galley. Allura was our navigator, and Coran was on lookout." He got a faraway look in his eyes. "We had some of the craziest times on our trading route. Once, we had to go undercover at a port that Coran swore three times over was populated by thieves and scoundrels, but when we got there, it was just like any other place we'd been."

Lance couldn't help but smile as Keith described his misadventures with his crew. He clearly had a close bond with them all. When he finally stopped with watery eyes (though Lance didn't notice), the mermaid asked, "So, were you the... what's your word... captain?"

Keith found a sudden interest in the fire as it slowly consumed itself. "No. I wasn't the captain. That honor is reserved for Shiro."

Lance nodded. "I see. So what happened to the crew? Did they go down with your ship? If they did, I didn't see any of them."

Keith wrapped his arms around one knee, fiddling with a piece of the long grass that grew all around the area. "No, they're alive. At least, last I knew. They were captured by the same pirates that tied me to the mast and sank the ship."

Lance nodded, realization dawning on his face. "I was wondering how you came to be in that position."

Keith glared at him for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah. That's how. We got overrun by pirates." He ripped the grass in half. "Which we could have avoided if I'd just decided to go to shore after losing our captain instead of--" He cut himself off.

"Wait, what happened to--" Lance stopped upon seeing Keith's expression. "I see. Enough backstory for today, then." He pulled himself to the edge of the waves and picked at the leaf  wrappings. "So you just..." With two fingers, he peeled it away, revealing the fish inside. He picked up a piece and gingerly bit off a piece with his front teeth. He chewed it for a moment, making strange faces, then swallowed with a most curious expression.

Keith, glad for a change of subject, turned to him. "What do you think?"

Lance didn't say anything; rather, he gave the fish held between his fingers a most peculiar look, then put the entire piece in his mouth. Keith gaped at him. That was an enormous piece of fish, and he just--

Lance licked his lips with a delighted grin across his face. He ate the other piece in the wrap in a similar fashion, then licked his fingers and looked at Keith hopefully.

Keith stared at him speechlessly. A few sounds that resembled the beginnings of words escaped, but none seemed to commit. After he'd stuttered for about ten full seconds, he managed to spit out, "How?"

Lance looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Keith managed to compose himself. "That was, like, half a fish that you just ate in one bite! What do you mean, what do I mean?"

Lance blinked several times. "You mean you can't do that?"

Keith shook his head. "No. No normal human being can do that."  He looked away for a moment, blinking hard to clear his mind of the image. "I hope not, anyway."

Lance frowned. "Then how do you ever eat enough?"

"Slowly!" He took another bite of his own fish to prove his point.

Lance was aghast. "That looks like it takes forever!"

Keith decided to ignore Lance until he finished his dinner. Once the mermaid realized what was happening, he stopped babbling and swam off to entertain himself. Keith settled smugly into the sand, watching the sun as it dipped toward the horizon and starting to plan.