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It wasn’t what Matt was expecting when Shiro challenged him to go fishing.
He scoffed and laughed when his colleague said he was going to spend the weekend at some cabin by a lake fishing to his hearts content, as he did every first weekend of the month (and second and sometimes third). Shiro had levelled him a look and raised an accusatory finger, pointing straight at Matt and challenging him to join Shiro for a weekend.
Matt had laughed in the face of lame hobbies and assured Shiro he could fish fine and well and it had nothing to do with his capabilities. You got a line, put some bait on, and then waited for a catch. He studied astrophysics at University. Now that was a whole other kettle of fish.
When he told his little sister she had a field day ripping into him for it. Which is why he took the whole week before they were due their weekend fishing trip away to visit the cabin and practice fishing, seeing as he’d never done it before. Shiro hadn’t ribbed him for it and instead complimented his initiative, giving him the keys to the cabin and promising to be there by the weekend.
Three days in he realised that waiting involved getting cold, that there was a reason there was so much extra equipment at the back door, and he was going to have to start making soup.
That wasn’t the surprising bit though. He sort of expected some kind of difficulty learning on his own. It was the bright violet eyes shining up at him through the water that were not what he was expecting.
“Please don’t freak out.”
Matt sucked in a long breath and then let it out.
“I…come in peace?”
“Man,” he couldn’t even dare tear his eyes away from the ethereal beauty in front of him. In the water. “Did I get my space brownies mixed up with the regular ones again?”
“What?” the face below scowled up at him. “Space brownies?”
“Yeah, you know, cause I’ve got to be tripping balls right now.”
The man in the water rolled his eyes and his brows pulled together in a frown. “Look, I’ve noticed that this week all you’ve managed to catch is a cold, considering all the tissues behind you, and I thought I’d make you a deal.”
Matt narrowed his eyes. “I’m listening.”
“I’m fond of brownies. Also, I don’t know if you have it, but I like chocolate. I can take it down below, your brownies kinda…”
“Yeah, they’re not waterproof.”
“So I figure we can strike a deal of some kind. For brownies. And chocolate.”
He pursed his lips as he looked down at the apparition in the water. “Fine. I’ll get you more brownies, and chocolate. What do I get in return?”
“I’ll catch fish for you,” the man answered. “Duh.”
“See, here’s the thing: my good man Shiro is coming to join me at the weekend, and I’m kinda supposed to be able to catch fish in front of him by that time.”
The violet eyes lit up. “Shiro’s coming?”
“Yeah, Shiro’s coming, and if I can’t fish by then he’s gonna kick my ass. Metaphorically of course.”
“Okay. If you get me more brownies for tomorrow, and chocolate by the time Shiro gets here, I’ll help you.”
Matt didn’t dare suggest they shook on it. He hadn’t seen the pasty hands come out the water yet and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. Instead he gave his verbal agreement and agreed to provide more brownies the next day before the mysterious man dived beneath the service with a sliver of scales brushing the tip of the surface for the briefest moment.
Matt decided it was time to pack up and go drink a hell of a lot of water and sleep to try get the drugs out his system.
He woke up early on the fourth day at the cabin armed with a plate of brownies that he was one hundred percent certain did not have drugs in them, and made his way down to the fishing boat tied up at the lake. He could hear his sister’s voice in the back of his head scolding him for entertaining his wild hallucinations, but gosh darnit he was a scientist, which meant he would be doing everything he could to ensure there was nothing worth studying in this lake.
He wasn’t disappointed.
Before he even managed to properly set his fishing rod up and toss the line out there was a flash of purple and red beneath the waves.
He pinched his cheek. Definitely had full feeling. Not drunk.
The next thing was the mop of wet black hair followed by bright violet eyes that slowly broke the surface. He sat on the boat and waited for the creature to fully appear and ran through a list of excuses for the bizarre creature in his head.
‘Hey,’ the man greeted. ‘You brought the goods?’
He felt like some kind of aquatic black market shop. But like for aquatic creatures, not selling them. Though there was probably money in both.
‘Yeah, I got them,’ Matt raised the plate so the man could see them.
A smile split across the man’s face and Matt swore he could see fangs. He was quickly distracted by the emergency of a long, pale arm with delicate fingers that were webbed together. His jaw fell slack as the fleshy-finny hand made grabby gestures at the sweet treats and he took his time in handing one over to best get a look at the sight.
“Stop staring and start fishing, asshole.”
“Right!” Matt dropped the plate and readied his rod. “So, what’s your name? If we’re going to be working together I need something to call you.”
“Keith.”
It suited him, for some reason. “I’m Matt. Do you…like…live here?”
Keith scowled up at him. “Yes. I live close by. Why?”
“Just curious! I’ve never met…someone like you.”
The corners of Keith’s lips turned upwards. “I would’ve never guessed.”
There were a million and one questions he had. Thousands of theories he wanted answering. But there were more pressing issues at hand. Like the matter of his pride.
Once Keith had eaten the brownie he told Matt to hold position, and reel in the fish once he felt two solid tugs on the reel, grasping the wire in his hands and pulling twice in a pattern that Matt could remember. He dived below the surface and the flick of a tail splashed enough water up that it obscured Matt’s view of the man.
He cursed as Keith disappeared from sight. He was hoping to see a little more than just a hand.
Sure enough not even two minutes later there was some movement on the fishing rod. A brief scrambling followed by two solid tugs just as Keith had demonstrated before, and he began reeling it back up.
A fish at the end greeted him. His first catch.
“I did it!” Matt cheered as he threw himself into a standing position and fist pumped the air. “Keith we got the fish! Look, look, its dead and every-!”
That’s when he learnt the most important lesson of the week: don’t rock the boat.
Keith broke the surface just in time to see Matt fly through the air and connect with the water to make a grand splash, fishing rod following close behind. Matt at least had the sense to snap his mouth shut and hold in whatever air he gasped up so he didn’t end up with a lungful of water, but the shock of meeting the cold depth was enough to throw him for a spin.
Cold fingers wrapped around his arms to stop them from flailing and he stopped dead once his eyes locked with violet orbs that almost seemed to be glowing in the water. Keith floated in the water above him, the sun shining down through the waves in patterns that framed the body that could only be described as a merperson.
Where Keith’s flesh seemed to end fins and scales started, curving round with the movement of the long tail that was decorated with shimmering purples and reds. What looked like gills decorated Keith’s sides, and strange patterns seemed etched into his skin in places.
Then he was being pulled close and upwards, his legs colliding with the scaly tail and the cold hands wrapping around his torso. The water parted around them as Keith pushed them up to the surface but Matt couldn’t break his gaze away from the glowing purple and the soft look of Keith’s skin under the water.
Beautiful…
He gasped for air as they finally reached the surface, the oxygen circling round his body as his feet began to tread water automatically once the stunned shock had worn off. He spun round to locate the boat – in tact – his fishing rod – floating further away, and were there brownies bobbing along in the water next to him?
When he turned to thank Keith, the violet eyes were downcast as he surveyed the wreckage. “The brownies…”
“I’ll make more,” Matt promised. “But I think-I think I need to-!”
A loud sneeze broke through the calm.
“Right,” Keith wrapped his arms tighter round Matt’s shoulder. “Let’s get you to shore.”
Being carried by someone else while in the water was a new experience. Keith pulled Matt’s arms round his shoulders and they swam with their sides pressed together, Keith just a little further down as he used his body to make sure Matt stayed above the water. He could feel the weight of the tail moving next to him and propelling them forward, though he finally looked away from the creature so he could see the oncoming waves and hold his breath where he needed to.
They made it to the shore and with a surge of strength Keith practically threw him onto the bank before he disappeared under the water again. Matt watched as brownies were picked out and taken under, before Keith resurfaced by the boat and threw everything back on-board before he began to guide it back to the shore.
He was pretty damn strong. Matt was feeling all aflutter.
“Thanks,” he said once the boat was back to the dock and he moved to tie it up. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“So when we’re fishing with Shiro let’s not fall out the boat, yeah?”
He had the decency to look ashamed.
Night time was easily his favourite thing about staying at the cabin. He turned off all the lights and stepped outside with his telescope, setting up and watching the stars in the sky as they twinkled fondly and kept him from feeling so lonely. Out in the middle of nowhere with no one else around helped keep the sky full of stars and constellations to map out.
“What are you doing?”
Matt shrieked as the question startled him out of his revere. He looked down to see Keith on the edge of the bank, nose buried in the arms that were propped up on the muddy edge of the lake. In the shroud of night time he could definitely see there was a glow to the purple eyes.
“Keith!” he cleared his throat in an attempt to recover. “I didn’t notice you there.”
“You’re pretty easy to sneak up on.”
“Hey! Since when?”
Keith gave a short laugh with a snort. “I’ve been stealing your brownies for how many days?”
He grumbled but sat himself down in the camping chair next to his telescope. “Touché.”
“So, what are you doing?”
“Just…stargazing,” he admitted. “I like to come out here and map the constellations. In the city you don’t get a view as nice as this.”
Keith tilted his head back to look at the sky. “Shiro mentioned that before. He said that there’s too much light pollution to see it properly.”
“Yeah, there is.”
“He’s never brought something like that though.”
Matt glanced to the telescope. “What, this? That’s cause Shiro isn’t as cool as I am. He goes fishing instead like an old man.”
“You were fishing. For four-!”
“I was proving a point,” Matt interrupted. “Badly, but I was trying and it’s the thought that counts. Do you want to look through?”
Keith ducked down as if to hide.
“I can show you the constellations I know.”
“I know constellations!” Keith defended. “What does your device show that my eyes can’t see?”
“It magnifies. You can see other planets if the location and the weather’s right.”
That was all it took to get Keith out of the water. With a heave he pushed himself onto land and bared the impressive tail to the world, glistening as water droplets fell from the scales and onto the ground below. Matt sucked in a breath and forced himself to focus on Keith’s face rather than his body; not something he had to scold himself into doing very often.
Matt guided him through the basics of the telescope, lowering the legs till it was practically on the floor. Keith leant down and looked through with a murmur of awe, and Matt finally allowed himself to take in the sight of the merman.
The tail swished at the end in the most oddly adorable way, the ends of his translucent fins sometimes making wet slapping sounds as they met the floor on a rough swish down. Matt shuffled until his legs were stretched out next to the tail, using himself as a scale to measure against and cursing his lack of hindsight in bringing a proper tape measure when he came out.
When he put his hips in line with the top of Keith’s tail where he imagined the curve of his spine would start his feet came to just before the large dancing fins started. Despite Keith’s smaller torso, the tail seemed to be longer than Matt’s legs.
He brushed the back of his hand against the purple and red scales. Smooth. Like he expected.
“Matt?”
He jumped again and looked up to meet Keith’s inquisitive gaze.
“Are you…measuring me?”
“Uh…no?” he grimaced at the deadpan look he was met with. “Yes?”
“You can just ask you know.”
“I didn’t want to be rude!”
“I think it’s ruder to try do it in secret.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I just…” he grasped at the air for words. “I love to learn. And I’ve never met anything like you! You’re like…an untapped well of interesting things that’s come out of a week that’s been so boring!”
Keith’s eyes flickered away towards his tail. “You think…I’m interesting?”
“I know you are!” Matt leant forward and grasped a webbed hand in his own. “You’re so beautiful and I want to study you so bad.”
A bright pinkish hue lit up Keith’s face. “Wha-I’m what?!”
“But you know,” he dropped the hand quickly. “In a very non-creepy way. Like I don’t want to dissect you or anything, just make diagrams and study how fast you can swim and your fish-to-human ratio and stuff like that.”
“Would it hurt?”
“No!” Matt stopped. “Well, I mean, it won’t hurt, though it might be a little uncomfortable sometimes. I’ve only ever done experiments on my baby sister and sometimes she would complain that her arms ached but it didn’t hurt her.”
“I can do whatever a human child can.”
Matt grinned wide. “I don’t doubt it for a second.”
“Alright, you can study me.”
His heart stopped. He ascended to heaven. He had been presented a silver platter and he wasn’t ready.
“If you hurt me I will bite you.”
“Of course!” he grinned wide and tried to bury the urge to hug the man. “I won’t I promise! We can start first thing tomorrow, I’ll need time to prepare some spare notebooks and equipment that I need – how long can you stay on land for?”
Keith shrugged. “A while.”
“I can fill the bathtub in the cabin. It’d be interesting to see the reactions that your scales can have verses the fleshier parts of your body-you keep playing with the telescope I’ve got to make up some notes on things I wanna try before I forget it!”
Keith did exactly that. He moved around and hummed in appreciation as he mapped out the stars with Matt cross legged on the ground next to him writing furiously in his pad. Occasionally the dark haired merman stretched over and got up in Matt’s personal space as he glared down at the paper and criticised what had been written.
They were out until the sun began to rise, and Matt felt his eyelids drooping. Keith gave him a soft smile and a nudge to wake him up properly, thanking him for showing Keith the telescope before the merman was pulling himself back to the lake and saying he would be back later.
Matt got a few hours of heavy sleep that night before the excitement of new things had his energy levels rocketing and him waiting by the dock for Keith to return.
“Right. Okay. For my first experiment, I’m going to be timing you swim.”
Keith raised a brow.
Matt scowled down at him. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Am I racing anyone?”
“No, just swimming yourself. I calculated the theoretical speed of a fish your size, and I want to see how you match up. I wish Lance was here though, he’d a strong swimmer. He could race you.”
Keith nodded, brows lowering as he put on his game face. “Got it. Where do you want me to swim to?”
Matt set the boundaries for the course before he clicked his stop watch and began to make notes. Keith had spectacular control over his movement, exceeding the calculations that Matt had on regular fish. When it came to more decorative moves the merman would stop short right before hitting a wall, a smirk on his face that suggested he was taking riskier moves than he might usually.
Jumping was something that had Matt’s heart caught in his throat. He prepared a hoop out of cardboard and tape he’d found in the cabin, holding it up for Keith to jump through as though he were a dolphin doing a performance. He moved with grace and skill, moving through dead centre every time, scales catching the light whenever he jumped out the water and let droplets fly wild.
He knew he wasn’t going to stay dry.
“Can I take you inside?” Matt asked as he tied up his note book. “I want to make a diagram of your tail.”
Keith agreed without hesitation.
He laughed when Matt attempted to carry him once they got to the steps, saying he felt bad for making Keith drag his pretty tail through the dirt. Turned out having a tail would make up for whatever weightlessness a man his size would have, leaving him far too fucking heavy.
Matt persevered and held up the end of his tail as Keith walked on his hands, wheel barrowing him into the cabin and to the mat he had laid out on the floor for Keith to lie on.
The dark haired merman lay on his front munching away on brownies as Matt sketched his tail, starting from the tip and working his way up. He brushed a hand against the fins that sprouted in places, noting their texture and thickness, running his palm from where the scales started all the way up to-!
He stopped where Keith’s thighs would start, pushing down any embarrassment. This was science. There was no room for blushing.
Yet that didn’t stop his face warming up as his eyes wandered across the rump of the tail and up to Keith’s spine, admiring the way his back curved up his shoulders moved and flexed, skin tinted with a purple hue.
“You okay?”
He startled at Keith’s voice, looking up to see furrowed brows.
“Oh, uh, yeah,” he cleared his throat. “Fine. Thank you. You’re just-you’re really pretty. It’s kind of distracting.”
He made a note of the delightful shade of plum Keith’s face went.
They continued like that for a while, Keith laughing at the occasional joke Matt made. The more time they spent together, the more Keith talked, before he was in a rant about some asshole who kept using his tunnels to move between his lake and the closest stream. He argued that he didn’t care how big his lake was, he didn’t want this asshole polluting his waters with his bullshit.
Matt asked if Keith didn’t come from the sea, given how salty he could be. He was rewarded by learning Keith’s muscles in his tail were superb and he could easily bring his fins up to smack Matt in the face.
That night saw them outside once again, Keith positioned by the telescope and Matt with his papers and notes. He took Keith’s hand and felt the webbing between his fingers and the fin that protrude from his forearm, ran his finger tips across the fluorescent markings that decorated his shoulders and neck. He noted that Keith’s skin was a lot thicker than his own.
His notes were quickly forgotten as Keith took his own chance to learn the feeling of human skin that was freckled, and sought out Matt’s pulse in his neck.
It was an intimacy that left Matt feeling dizzy, and he was sad to see Keith leave, even with the promise he’d be back first thing in the morning.
The wheel barrowing method of getting around continued. Matt managed to get Keith into the cabin for the second time and the merman demanded a tour, claiming Shiro had never taken him inside before. Matt showed him the twin room that he had been saying in, that Shiro would join him in when he arrived. He introduced the kitchen as where the magic happened, and Keith agreed with the sentiment as he acknowledged it smelt like brownies.
Explaining the bathroom was initially a little uncomfortable until he noticed the snickering Keith was doing and realised the man was winding him up. He responded by learning whether or not merfolk were ticklish.
They were.
By lunch time he had the bath full of warm water, asking Keith a variety of questions on the feeling of warm tap water over the colder lake water. Apparently the most obvious difference was the purity, something that made his skin crawl.
Their entertainment was cut short when the bathroom door opened mid splash-war.
“Uh…”
Shiro raised a brow at the scene, looking pointedly from the merman in the bathtub to his work colleague soaked from head to toe on the floor.
“Hey, Shiro,” Matt greeted with a wobbly wave. “You’re…early.”
“I see you met Keith,” he replied as he folded his arms over his chest. “And decided to…give him a bath?”
Keith practically beamed with pride when he filled Shiro in. “Matt’s studying me.”
“Keith,” Shiro grit out through his teeth. “You shouldn’t just let people study you. You don’t even know this guy!”
“He’s your friend.”
“According to him.”
“Is he…not your friend?”
Shiro flailed his arms. “Yes, he is my friend, but you didn’t know that for a fact. You can’t trust everyone, you could get yourself hurt.”
Matt chirped up. “He was very threatening on the consequences of hurting him.”
“And you can’t just go round asking random people if you can study them. Have some sense of respect.”
“I gave him brownies!” Matt defended. “It was an even trade!”
“Have you done any fishing this week, or have you been busy studying the local wildlife?”
Matt waved him off. “We all have our different ways to unwind. You fish, and I make advancements in the scientific field.”
“You’re such a nerd.”
Matt turned to Keith. “Don’t listen to him. I’m super cool I promise.”
The soft smile that Keith gave him had his heart skipping a beat. “Sure, whatever you say.”
“Seeing as you’ve met each other, I suppose we may as well go fishing together. All three of us,” Shiro’s voice held for no argument.
Matt grimaced under the harsh gaze as he remembered the initial agreement that Keith would help him fool Shiro. If only he hadn’t got so distracted by the beautiful boy, he wouldn’t be having this problem. Instead he’d be cheating his way to victory like a true man.
When he looked up at Keith the merman looked positively radiant with a smile across his face. Apparently the idea of fishing with the two humans was enough to brighten up his day. Matt couldn’t take that away from him.
“That sounds like a good idea. I can show off all the things I’ve learnt!”
“I’m sure you can.”
With Shiro there it was a lot easier to carry Keith out of the tub and back to the dock. The well built man scooped Keith into a bridal carry with all the graceful ease that Matt did not have, and the two began chatting away like old friends. He followed behind and listened as Keith told a story about a man he didn’t know, and Shiro laughed at all the right places. He was surprised to hear Shiro talk about his own every day life to an outsider, as the man never seemed overly forthcoming about personal details.
“Give us an hour to set up,” Shiro said as Keith flopped back into the water.
“Sure thing. See you soon,” Keith’s eyes flickered behind Shiro and his smile widened a fraction. “See you in a bit, Matt.”
“Yeah, see you soon!” he called back with a grin and a wave. The merman pushed off the edge of the bank and bent backwards as he dived down, the sun catching on the expanse of skin where his stomach was and making red and purple scales flash and glitter.
His heart gave a heavy beat in his chest. Watching Keith swim really was a beautiful sight.
“Alright, stop making heart eyes at the water and go get your equipment ready.”
“I-whua-I object!”
“Object all you want, it won’t change the truth.”
“This is outrageous. I feel personally attacked.”
“Don’t make me call you out again, scaley.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with Lance.”
They sat back to back on the boat, a line over either side. He successfully prepared his rod and threw the line out without and judgement from his co-worker, though the knowledge that Keith was down there amongst the two hooks was a little unsettling. From the research he’d done so far, he had little to worry about.
Silence settled between them as the competition started, broken only when Keith broke the surface in order to drop a fish into the boat before diving back down to continue.
By mid afternoon Shiro was beating him, though Keith wiped the floor with them both.
“Okay, you were right,” Matt huffed out. “It’s not that easy.”
Shiro chuckled at his words. “You just need a lot of patience.”
“I have patience!”
“You need a lot of patience.”
Matt grumbled quietly to himself something about Shiro being the dad of the group.
“I’m surprised you didn’t convince Keith to help you.”
“He was supposed to,” Matt muttered. “I even bribed him with brownies, but then…”
“You ended up using him as a science experiment instead?”
“Yeah a little bit.”
Shiro rolled his eyes and the pair turned as Keith broke the water again.
“Hey, Keith,” Matt greeted with a grin and an eyebrow waggle. “You gonna share some of those tasty fish with the rest of us?”
“I dunno. What’s in it for me?”
“Hey! How many brownies have I made you so far?”
Keith shrugged. “I’m not counting. But thirty.”
“You ungrateful little-!”
Shiro rolled his eyes. “You can share. We probably have enough here to last us a long while though. I think that’s Keith who won.”
The merman smirked up at the pair as if this was an obvious conclusion. Which, in all fairness, it was. The man was part fish himself. This was kind of his natural habitat.
It meant Keith remained at the surface and chattered away with Matt while the pair continued to fish. It gave Matt time to discover that he finally knew someone who would appreciate his witty, highly intelligent puns for what they were.
He became so wrapped up in Keith that he nearly forgot Shiro existed until he heard the man smack a palm to his forehead at a particularly cringe-worthy pickup line about noticing that Keith’s tail made him pretty so-fish-ticated.
“I don’t know about you Shiro, but I’m having a whale of a time.”
Shiro let out a long suffering groan as Keith made quiet giggling-snorting laughter noises on the other end of the boat.
The weekend passed in a similar manner. They ate the spoils of the day outside, Shiro producing a grill and cooking their meals as Keith and Matt sat on the grass chatting away as they had been. Once it was dark enough Matt fetched his telescope and the trio took turns to spy at the night sky, Shiro finding Keith’s infatuation with the instrument highly amusing.
Sunday passed and what they caught was either thrown back or kept in a cooler to take back with them. When it came to say goodbye to Keith, something that Shiro seemed a practiced hand at, it really hit Matt full force.
He kind of wanted to take Keith with him.
He sat on the bank of the lake with butterflies in his stomach and a weight in his heart, picking at the grass as he stalled. Shiro offered to pack the car himself with a knowing wink, leaving the pair to say goodbye.
“I guess I’ll see you whenever I visit next,” Matt finally said. “I can try convince Shiro to let me come back with him next time.”
Keith hummed absentmindedly, half his face buried in his arms that were folded on the side of the bank.
“Are you that glad to be rid of me?”
“No!”
He felt his cheeks heat up at the loud response. Keith looked just as shocked, but with resolve written on his face pushed forward.
“I’m gonna miss you.”
Matt felt his toes curl. “I’ll miss you too.”
There was a moment where he debated saying something, anything, admitting to the weird bubbles in his chest and the dizzying feeling he got every time he looked at Keith’s face.
He didn’t get the chance.
Shiro called for him to leave and Keith moved fast, grabbing Matt’s arm and pulling him forward. The brunette thought he was about to be pulled into the water before Keith pushed up, meeting half way and pressing their lips together.
It was damp, and Keith’s lips were cold like the rest of his skin.
“Come back soon.”
With that Matt was met with the tell tale shock of red and purple scales as the merman swam away as fast as a bullet.
Pidge was sufficiently unimpressed when she found his notes and sketchbooks. She argued that either he had just gone away for a weekend and got out of his mind drunk, or he made a spectacular discovery and didn’t even think to call his little sister to share it.
She dropped it and left when he replied with: “I guess I…kelp-ed it pretty secret, huh?”
He didn’t stop thinking about the beautiful creature of the water while he was at work. He didn’t stop thinking about him while he was at home, either. Shiro rolled his eyes when Matt finally caved four days in and approached to ask when he was going back to the cabin, claiming that fishing had really captured his heart.
More like a fish had captured his heart, but the minor details didn’t matter.
They made plans to go again the next weekend that fell apart as Matt’s team got closer to overcoming a road block in their research. On the Thursday Shiro assured him that he could always come on just the Sunday instead of both days, or that they could go the weekend after. Matt was convinced he would still make it.
On Friday it was obvious he wouldn’t.
Instead his weekend was spent doing extra hours at work while Shiro sent him a photo of him and Keith by the dock getting ready to fish, all smiles and a little text saying they wished he was there.
It made Sunday evening so much sweeter when Shiro arrived wearing his outfit from the weekend and a smile on his face as Matt finished up his work.
“Keith was asking after you.”
Matt’s head snapped up from his place at the computer. “Really? What did he say? Did you give him the brownies?”
Shiro quirked a smile. “I did, yes. He said you were the very light from heavens that shone down on the creatures below, and that without you life was meaningless and-!”
Matt slapped at Shiro’s arm. “Shut up you big meanie and tell me what he really said! Don’t play with my heart like this!”
“Alright, alright. He kinda awkwardly shuffled around the topic and denied missing your, and I quote, dumbass jokes, but considering the first thing he asked me when I arrived was ‘why didn’t you bring Matt’ I hazard a guess that he’s lying.”
He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Like a tsundere-shark. Tsundere-fish.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” he waved it off. “So, he misses me, huh?”
“You are insufferable.”
“It’s alright, I miss him too. Did you tell him that? But like, casually, like a casual kind of missing, you know, I don’t wanna come on too strong.”
Shiro’s eyes flickered away for a moment before he rolled them way too hard. “Yes, I told him. I didn’t even mention how you’ve been waxing poetic about the colour of his eyes.”
“Good. Is that good? Maybe he should know I think his eyes are worth waxing poetic about. No that’s creepy isn’t it?”
“Matt, calm down.”
“I’m going crazy here, Shiro. I wish I hadn’t had to work extra this weekend so I could’ve joined you, but we were on the cusp of a breakthrough and-!”
“It’s alright,” Shiro held up a hand to stop him. “I thought you might be upset you couldn’t go. So I brought you something as a little souvenir.”
Matt sat up straight in his seat. “Really? What is it man I love gifts.”
“Boo.”
He jumped so hard he nearly fell off the chair. Or perhaps that was the speed in which he spun it round that had him almost flying.
Standing behind him, all limbs and legs, was a familiar looking face. Wearing a grey sweater that Matt knew belonged to Shiro with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, and a pair of black ripped jeans, stood Keith. Or a version of Keith. The violet eyes that usually burnt bright seemed a little dull and bluer in the light of the office, and his skin tone had taken a moderately healthier colour to its usual fleshy pale tone.
“Keith?!”
There was a dusting of pink that spread across the man’s cheeks and he ran a hand through the back of his hair. “Hey, Matt.”
“Wha-buh-?!” he gestured to the legs that ended with converse. “How?!”
“I traded a lot of chocolate bars for one of the druid charms.”
Matt’s brain spun. He could hardly believe it.
“It makes my tail…” Keith picked up a foot and wiggled for emphasis. “Well. Into legs.”
“Woah.”
“Yeah.”
“So,” Matt finally met Keith’s eyes. “You know how you let me study your-!”
“Matt.”
He jumped at Shiro’s stern voice and spun back round. “What?! It’s science!”
“Now you’re being creepy.”
“It’s alright,” Keith cut in. “I don’t mind.”
“See, Shiro? He doesn’t mind.”
The taller man rolled his eyes again. “Great. I’m glad to have you two reacquainted. I was explaining to Keith on my way back that I won’t be able to entertain him tonight, I have to help Lance with a thing.”
Matt raised a brow. “Help Lance with…a thing?”
“Yes, Matt. A thing. You’re going to have to keep Keith company.”
Oh.
Oh.
That sneaky loveable beautiful devil.
“Right!” Matt latched on to the idea. “That thing! Of course. Yes,” he spun back round to Keith. “I will be your gracious host for the evening. We can hang out and watch movies and bake brownies or something.”
“Bake brownies?” Keith leant forward. “We can make them?”
“Yeah man! I have a super special recipe that I save only for occasions where Shiro’s not around-!”
“Please do not drug Keith.”
“-Because he’s a super lame stick in the mud.”
Keith looked up at Shiro. “I want to try the super special recipe.”
“No, you really don’t,” Shiro assured. “You nearly finished up, Matt?”
“Yeah, yup, I’m all done here I can finish the rest of the report tomorrow!”
Keith gestured to the door. “I’ll go wait outside, if that’s okay. This room is kind of stuffy.”
As soon as he was out the door Matt met Shiro with a thousand words of gratitude and a promise to engineer him the best mods for his fishing kit that the world had ever seen. Shiro assured that keeping the highs to a minimum was all the thanks he needed.
He found Keith outside glaring at the sky as if it had personally offended him. Matt approached and bumped their shoulders together in what he hoped looked like a casually friendly manner.
“What, don’t like clouds?”
“This body is colder,” Keith muttered. “Even though I can feel my skin being warm, I can feel how cold the air is.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’ve got a sweater on. Let’s get back to my place. I can put on the heating and make coffee or hot chocolate or something. Probably hot chocolate, given your sweet tooth.”
Keith lit up at that, eyes sparkling and standing close as they walked.
Matt tried to ignore the way their arms would brush against each other from standing so close, and kept his hands stuffed in his pockets to stop himself reaching out to hold Keith’s hand. They reached his apartment all too soon, and he let them both in and called out a greeting to Pidge. He was met with silence and a note on the coffee table.
Shiro’s dragged me to Lance’s place. Apparently you have someone visiting. Don’t touch my stuff.
Shiro was easily his favourite person on the planet. Or second favourite.
“Can we make brownies now?”
Brownies were somewhat of a success. He ended up with flour in his hair, and Keith had to wash his face several times from the fact he kept trying to eat the mixture before it was ready. Once they were in and baking he had to convince Keith to leave the kitchen and stop watching the oven, offering to put on a film instead and make them some quick junk food.
Keith picked Sharknado from Matt’s movie collection and Matt was not disappointed from the reactions of his companion. They paused only to retrieve the brownies once they were finished and Keith insisted on eating them straight away, only agreeing to let them sit because he burnt himself on the tray.
By the time the ending credits rolled round they were on the couch with full stomachs that were sore from laughing too much. Matt finally tore his eyes away from the TV to look at Keith, heart stopping as he noticed the violet eyes already on him.
Keith gave the smallest smile and looked back to the TV with a pleasant tinge of pink on his cheeks.
“So,” Matt started as smoothly as possible. “You went and gave up all your chocolate just to come see me?”
“Not all of it,” Keith responded. “But most of it.”
“I’m flattered. You sure know how to make a guy feel special.”
The dark haired merman shifted his weight as his eyes flickered around the room. “I was…sad that you couldn’t come to the cabin.”
Dear fuck his heart. His poor gay heart.
“So I thought maybe I could visit you instead. If…was that right?”
“Yeah,” Matt nodded. “It was. I-uh-well, missed you.”
Keith’s lips turned upwards. “I heard.”
“How long are you staying here for?”
He shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought about it. A few days maybe?”
“Well, if you don’t already have plans, it’d be pretty cool if you wanted to hang out for a couple of those days. Maybe go out and do…stuff.”
“More experiments?”
“I mean, yeah probably I’m not gonna lie, but we can do not experiment things too. Like walk in the park or go to the movies. You know. Like a date.”
His heart thundered his in chest as Keith’s eyes widened.
“If you’d do me the honour.”
The man snorted through his smile. “It’d be my pleasure.”
“Great!” Matt lit up. “That’s-wow-yeah that’s great! I mean did you have any plans already? Was there anything you wanted to do while you’re here? I could take you on a little sight-seeing tour if you wanted, show you all the cool things in town and the best burger joint, that kind of thing.”
“I want to race Lance.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but can you swim with those legs?”
“I’m gonna find out.”
By the time Pidge got home they’d progressed from awkward flirting on either end of the couch to passed out in a tangled mess of limbs, cuddling as another movie played in the background. She rolled her eyes at the sight and disappeared to Matt’s room, grabbing his duvet and laying it over the pair on the couch with the whispered promise to make him introduce her the next day.