Keith

Lance had refrained from speaking with Keith for the rest of the morning. Every time Keith had made an attempt to talk to the Siren Lance would just stare at him. The first time Keith tried lance had kicked the comforter off of himself and presented himself once more. Keith ha thrown the blanket on him again only to get it shoved right back into his face which almost caused him to trip back into the pool. After that Lance had curled up under the covers and pillows so only his eyes could be seen.

And he didn't. Say. A word. And Keith was about ready to loose his shit. He'd tried being patient, he was trying to communicate. He wanted to be kind but for ever respectful gesture Keith offered it
was thrown back in his face.  It had only been an hour since he'd gotten out of the shower and he already was certain he wanted nothing to do with the Siren. He was going to speak with his father-

But he couldn't. Keith realized as he leaned against his desk, pencil clenched fiercely in hand while staring down bright ocean eyes. Lance was nothing more than a salve. He'd be handed off or worse if Keith sent him away. He'd be punished for being unruly. For being his own person. Except Keith would be sending him away because he wanted to carry out his objectifying purpose rather than fight it like a normal person.

"We're going to breakfast." Keith declared with a huff.

He went to the closet and tried to sort through and find a section of things that had been left for lance. Nothing. There was fixing nothing. He grabbed an outfit for the Siren. It wouldn't fit him well. Both tall and broader in the shoulders and curved at the waist it would be interesting to see how it worked out.

When he came back into the room and saw the Lance hadn't moved he could feel bubbling anger starting to rise out of his annoyance. Keith was both patient and oh so very much not. He'd lie spitting mad like an angry volcano that was unwilling to blow its cap.  He'd wait forever, but he was going to be far, oh so very far from happy to do so. "That wasn't a suggestion. Get up." He ordered sternly while he pressed a panel on the wall that would call the maids. Lance had gotten the bed soaked with water when he'd tried to seduce Keith the first time that morning. "You can wear these." He said setting his clothes on the table next to the bed.

Lance scowled before looking up at Keith as he emerged from his hole. "I will not wear your clothing. You have yet to claim me. I will not wear your mark if the deed is not done."

"Then what? You want to walk around naked again?" Keith asked crossing his arms.

Lance glanced back over at the blue fabric he'd been wearing the day before. Keith didn't know what was going through the Siren's mind. He looked both like he was at odds with the fabric yet appealed to it. It didn't make sense.

"Yes."

"Lance. I can't let you out if this room without something on." Keith groaned.

"Then I will stay here."

"You will not." Keith growled in warning. "You need to eat."

Lance looked away with an angry snap of his head. He didn't want anything to do with Keith.

This didn't make sense. Nothing here made sense. Lance wasn't acting like he wanted to be here. He was not treating Keith like he wanted to be a servant despite his commands to be used as intended. He'd never seen or heard of such a thing. An unruly Siren? Of course Keith had the first.

Keith realized too late that he'd been wound up in his head when he heard the telltale splash that Lance had disappeared down bellow the water. Oh no. No, no, no. Keith was far from done with this conversation.

"Lance!" Keith turned and looked down into the pool. He caught the Siren glaring up at him before snaking away. He was heading towards that opening in the wall bellow the water.

Before Keith knee what he was doing he plunging into the water.

Lance

"I'm sorry darling. There was an accident in the market square involving two kids and on the the Siren's" The King said as he entered the dinning hall. Lance looked up from his plate to catch the man leaning down to kiss his Queen's cheek. Lance wondered why a king would bother mingling amongst the commoners market.

"Nothing bad I hope," she asked looking up at him before taking a sip of some juice Lance had never had. It was delicious though.

Alfor made his rounds to his daughter and set down a small cluster of pink flowers he'd brought back with him. He smiled when he gasped and looked up at him expressing her thanks.

Allura was nice from what Lance could tell. She had spoken to him shortly after he'd sat down at Keith's side in a sour mood. Her kind smile and introduction quickly pushed away the thoughts of Lance's current predicament. She was very pretty and her smile as soft as the moon.

"Well. It was another mistreatment case. The boys were quickly told off. They hadn't done any damage, but I still had to bring the Siren in. It was clear that their placement had been misjudged. I brought them to the blades to be checked and evaluated. Hopefully that will be relocated to a safe, closely monitored home within the week." Alfor sighed as he set something down next to Keith before sitting down at the open chair at the head of the table.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Keith asked as he turned to look at the king with a baffled look.

"I don't know." The Altean said blandly, eyes trained on his son. A silent conversation passed between them leaving Lance in between the two royal men. He timidly looked ahead and met Allura's gaze. She looked on at her father and brother with keen interest before giving Lance a humored smile like she had gossip she so desperately wanted to spill to him but couldn't.

"Anyways." He pulled his eyes away from Keith when the dark haired young man have an indignant huff. "Melenor, this problem with the Siren maidens has not been growing any less conflicted. We continue to pull the maidens from their homes, but those that are already pregnant must be sent back to serve to raise and complete the quota they have been tasked with by the Siren empire. We need to create a better system for this. This isn't a task the blades are supposed to be mixed up in." The king sighed tiredly.

Lance looked over at the man with innocent curiosity. "You care about the Mers sent to your kingdom?" He asked cautiously. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to speak. He ducked his head in a small bow when the Altean's gaze turned to him.

The King nodded to him, relieving him of the gesture. "Of course I care about your kind Lance. As the king of Altea it's my duty to see that everyone is cared for, to make sure our society runs peacefully so that it is a safe place for everyone to live. Even those from the Galra or Siren empire.  If they are on our land then they will be protected. And for the maidens gifted to the Altean kingdom, you deserve more respect and care than can be stressed. You are the carriers of this countries future. The future of my people and your own." The king glanced in Keith's direction but the prince wasn't looking at him. Instead he was poking at the flaky crust of  his pastry with his fork. "I can not let my kingdom fall into the chaos it was before the enlightening. I just take the time to care for everyone if I wish to do such a thing. That is why the kingdom has laboratories set aside entirely for the reconstruction of the oceans and monitoring the climate, others to medicine and food production. It isn't an easy task, but I have thousands helping me."

"With the crisis that affects ever Empire, father and I are working to unite the Altean and Galra Empire and bring peace. And we hope that you will bring Altea the same with the Sirens so that our planet could be strong and united." Allura added with a smile directed at her plate, her thoughts else where.

"Oh." Was all Lance could say. It was a little more information than he'd bargained for. He just thought it odd the king would want to assist the Sirens. It just seemed strange to care for an intruder. Things here on the surface were far more civil than they were bellow sea waters.

"How's that?" Keith asked gruffly. The tone reminded Lance that he was still angry with him. But more concerning was that Lance had spoken what he'd meant to keep to himself. He shouldn't have opened his mouth to ask his question. To make this comment shortly after? In the Alpha's presence he could have been sent away to the guards to be felt with.

"The oceans have been poisoned.
Our societies no longer work as they once had before the rise the of my kind against land." Lance answered, weaving around the question.

"Lance, how old are you? Were you alive in the days before rise of the sirens?" Melenor asked with a soft, sugary tone. She was so gentle. The tone was a luxury that Lance hadn't heard from his mother since he was but a small pup.

Even so that didn't stop him from barking out a singing laugh at the implication he was that old just before he clamped his hands over his mouth. All four of those around him including the two guards near the exits looked at him, the natural ring of his mystics drawing them in. It was one of the most beautiful laughs any of them had ever heard. Alteans had started to loose faith in the voice of a Siren when they started moving into the empire. No Altean outside of that room had ever heard a Siren's voice. Using their natural tongues was forbidden during their service on land. No Siren has ever had difficulty with the order set upon them by the Alpha. Not until Lance. Even earlier with Keith he'd let a note slip. Lance didn't know how to keep his big mouth shut. He'd been trying so hard, he'd been doing so well.

If the found out they were going to take his baby brother. They were to kill him just like they promised they would if Lance so much as made a peep. They were going to punish him. They were going to take sway his family. This is why he should be treated so fairly. If he wasn't treated right then he'd forget his place, he'd forget his rules. The Sirens would find out and they'd remind him of their power over him. They would remind him that this was punishment, not freedom.

No. No no no nonononono.

Lance tried to press his hands harder against his mouth like somehow he could block out the panicked high whine comping from his own throat. Stinging tears quickly clouding his vision.

Not his baby brother. Not his baby brother. He was Lance's life. He was the reason he was here. His baby, not him please no. He'd been fighting to keep they young pup fed. They couldn't take him just for a tiny slip up like that. He hadn't sung, it wasn't really singing. They wouldn't count that right? They wouldn't take his family from him. They couldn't take his family. 

"Keith," someone said, writing Lance a step closer to reality. He realized he was making this god awful noise. He couldn't stop it if he tried, he was crying, body jerking and fighting for air as scenario after scenario ran through his head. The thought of his little brother, only a toddler would be slaughtered.

Keith

It was sudden and eerie the way the room seemed to drop a few degrees the moment the Siren's eyes widened, his mouth covered by his own hands that had muffled the end of the beautiful thing that had brightened Keith's very soul.

It was like watching a tower crumble. At first it was just a soft whine that at the most confused the people around the table before it morphed into an ugly, heart wrenching cry of loss. The scream that was rugged out the Siren next to Keith startled him into action. Lance was hunched over himself trying to muffle himself but it didn't work, his voice seeming to echo off of the walls and tile floor. It was one of the most horrific sounds Keith had ever witnessed. It was like hearing someone having their heart ripped out.

"Keith."  His father said, getting his attention. Alfor was already starting to get to his feet. "He's panicking."

Keith fumbled trying to figure out someway to distract Lance from whatever was tormenting him. He looked over at the two items that his father had set next to him when he'd arrived and quickly grabbed the delicate crystal guppy. He knew his father intended him t give them to lance, but surely it quite like this. Keith needed to drag Lance back into reality enough so he could  grab him and take him back to the room.

"Lance." Keith said softly, wrapping an arm gently around his scrunched shoulders. "Lance can you look at me? Can you hold something for me?" He just needed him distracted long enough to be carried somewhere private.

"I'm going to go get a doctor." Allura said before she quickly dismissed herself from the table.

Keith prayed that the argument and struggle he had with Lance earlier wouldn't be made worse by this if he tried to help. There was something going on with Lance. There was something very serious going on that he was hiding. It wasn't like he was being mysterious about it. It was in the ways he held himself back, the things he did and didn't do. They way he acted and this- this sudden mental breakdown.

"Please? Can you hold this while I take us back to the room?" Lance's hands were trembling as he reached out for the little sculpture.

He managed to get ahold of Lance and pick him up. All the while he carried Lance back to the room he cradled the sculpture to his chest and whimpered. Keith couldn't make out much of what he was saying. The only words he could understand were 'baby' and 'sorry'.

He set him down on the bed when the got in the room. The Siren didn't move. He just continued to cry and mumble so Keith sat down next to him when he wasn't angrily shoved away.

"-all my fault," Lance sobbed, cubbing the small crystalline figure to his face.

"What's all you're fault?" Keith asked softly, trying to coax the Siren to explain so that he could help.

"I sang." Lance whined, the sound so high it almost sounded mechanical before it pitched all the way out of Keith's ability to hear. He could see Lance cry but he couldn't hear him for a solid thirty seconds before the maiden choked on his own tears.

"Aren't sirens supposed to sing? Isn't that a part of what makes you so beautiful? Did it hurt?" Keith asked. Lance shook his head and pulled Keith into him, holding onto him for dear life. He needed to feel people, he was a social creature, he talked, and played, and sang, and danced but was being suppressed from being himself. All for the sake that he had wanted to save his little brother from starving.

Kieth simply held Lance, trying to take the guppie away to set aside so it wouldn't break. Lance wouldn't let go. When Keith tried to convince him he simply snapped his jaw at his fingers as he tried to take the thing clutched to the sirens chest. He finally gave up and let Lance cry into his shoulder until he was conscious no more.

For a week it was a mystery. No one understood what was going on. Lance didn't argue with Keith, he didn't show any signs of controlled energy or the urge to tantalize Keith. He just stared blankly ahead and didn't say a word unless spoken to. He didn't curiously poke around or stare out the windows. He didn't  near the water or take care of himself when he was in obvious pain from trying to adjust to living on land which left Keith feeling responsible. He didn't want the Siren. He didn't want to mate him or use him. But he was his responsibility and he was willing to accept that despite the argument he'd had over the entire ordeal when it started the day he found Lance in the halls.

He didn't understand until twelve days after the table incident when he received a package. It was for Lance, but as his master it was given to Keith.

Inside there had been large caudal fins. He identified it right way. It was the colorful fins that propelled any fish through the water. Only this pale blue set belonged to none other than a young Siren pup just hardly out of its guppie stage.

He'd dropped the box with a jolt, a bloody envelop that had been stuck in it fell out. Hand shaking was adrenaline pulled through his system as he broke the seal there was a warning.