FAR OUT AT SEA
"Shiro is determined to know if the new human research base is a risk for his fellow merfolk with the help of a marine biologist and research intern Adam."
rating: T
pairing: Adam/Shiro
tags: Adam (Voltron) Shiro (Voltron), Keith for half a line but he is there, Merman Shiro, Everyone lives, First Meetings, plot-driven action, Alternate Universe Merpeople, Canon-Typical Violence
This fic is part of the Once Upon the Seashore PDF (get it for free on my Ko-fi)
Chapter 3 of 4
Or that was the plan. Unfortunately, there were cameras Shiro didn't discover on time and sensors he could not avoid. Before he could destroy more than half the machines, he was captured.
The superior officers tried to hide the havoc from the cadets, researchers, and interns. However, the damage was considerable, and, soon enough, soon enough the whole base’s personnel was moving.
With his heart about to break through his chest, Adam ran towards Shiro's quarters and found them empty. At that moment he knew that a suspicious incident down in the deepest, more classified parts of the whole facility was thanks to one single person. How could Shiro go behind Adam’s back? the one person who has been helping him, after all the things they've discovered together. But if Shiro was really involved, doing so would be more dangerous than anything they’d been discovering before. Steeling himself, Adam resorted to going with the rest of the staff and waiting, turning off any suspicions for when it would be easier to sneak around.
He didn't find anything in the higher-up offices, the security rooms, or the storage units, which made him restless. It didn't make much sense to look for Shiro deeper down the base, but since they were being so careful and all out of better ideas, Adam went there.
The way there was painfully quiet, but he knew, thanks to the planes they uncovered early on, that there was a huge walk-in fridge at the bottom of the marine biology lab internal dock, which was used to store big tanks in a queue for cleaning.
Adam almost forgot how to breathe. There were temporary cameras and alarms set in place so he could not come closer, but there was no mistake, that face was Shiro's face with pointy fins in the place of ears, sporting a very new very deep cut on the bridge of his nose. It was Shiro but all the way down in his shoulders in his arms shiny dark purple scales, all the way down to… to a lustrous dark flying fishtail. Adam had to do a mental double-take.
Mermaids were real and Shiro was one of them. Mermaids, merfolk, merpeople, a merman. In front of him.
This was beyond anything Adam could imagine or dream. It also… made sense, somehow? No wonder Shiro had so much random deep knowledge of marine life, no wonder he asked stuff about their operation. Above all, no wonder he was so invested in unveiling whatever the base was doing in the middle of the ocean. Probably this was his home first and they were invading!
Adam was still frozen in place, wishing nothing more than to see that familiar and other-worldly face up close and to be able to talk to Shiro about everything he had seen while living deep in the sea, knowing that the truth was so much wilder than anything he ever imagined. It all would have to wait, though. Shiro was bruised and seemed heavily drugged, he needed Adam's help.
The few officials with enough clearance were probably afraid and had decided to guard Shiro with machines only, probably wary of the reaction any soldier would have upon seeing a real merman. An actual merman! Adam couldn't wrap his head around it yet. Forcing himself to function, he dug in his memory for the passwords and system protocols he had learned while trying to breach the security measures with Shiro the days prior, and after a lot of tinkering and mumbled cursing, he managed to loop the key cameras and cut the flow of sedatives. Hoping Shiro was not too sensitive to changes in pH and temperature of the water, Adam connected the nearest water supply to replace the whole tank, dumping the contaminated liquid in another nearby.
Shiro stirred up after a while. He blinked heavily, disoriented, and bumped into the glass by accident, which made him scowl. Instead of trashing or causing a ruckus, though, Shiro shook his head vigorously and used his hands to explore the limits of the tank. Frozen in place, still unnoticed, Adam could see Shiro had membranes between his fingers.
It was truly incredible.
While Adam, mesmerized, stared at him, Shiro reached the upper edge of the tank and struggled to remove the lid… lid that was locked with a bolt placed outside the tank. Damn, what was Adam doing? He swiftly approached to remove the bolt, startling Shiro.
“Sorry!” Adam said, unsure of what he was apologizing for.
As soon as the lid was removed Shiro took his head out of the water.
“...Hey” he added quietly, something between a greeting and acknowledgment of the new situation between them.
Shiro got his upper half body out of the tank and quickly crawled helping himself with his hand through the shallow water, following the drain into the marine biology lab main pool. It didn't look like the first time he has gotten himself in this kind of situation, very different from the helplessly drugged-up merman Adam first saw moments ago floating in the tank but not a little less impressive. Dumbfounded, Adam followed him, mindful of not stepping on his fins.
“Do you think you can open the gate to the cetacean interaction pool?” Shiro asked once he got comfortable in the marine biology pool, "There is a hatch towards the open waters at the bottom of this, I think.”
“Takashi.”
Shiro turned to finally see him. Adam had a million questions and the full awareness of that being the worst moment to ask any of them.
“Adam, I'm sorry,” Shiro said before Adam could gather his thoughts, there was a plea in his tone “you understand why I didn't tell you, right? No one is supposed to know.”
Adam knew that was exactly the case, yet he needed to understand.
“I…” he stuttered. It was hard to find of a single thing to say, their situation was far more complicated than the unnamed thing they’d been dancing around since they met.
Then they could hear the sound of people approaching.
“Shit. I'll open the gate” Without losing a second, Adam ran towards the control panel and initiated the opening sequence. Shiro swam towards the sluice gate, ready to escape as soon as the pool got filled with enough water for the doors to open.
“They can’t find you here,” Shiro's worried tone traveled over the sound of the water rushing into the pool, “And… don't tell anybody I was an intern, they usually can’t put two and two together and realize we can shift forms.”
“Who's there?!” someone yelled from afar, “WHO IS THERE!?” the voice repeated while the footsteps came to a halt and the clicking of guns echoed in the corridor.
“GO!” Shiro shouted.
– o –
Adam could only run back inside the walk-in fridge, hiding behind all the tanks. He heard a crowd breaking into the lab, their gasps and curses upon finding Shiro, and many fierce screams and hits. There was a loud splash and many people yelled stuff like “Don't let him get away” and “Grab the UUVs.”
It was over after a few more seconds of whirring, clashing, and swearing. Curled in his hiding place, Adam couldn't help a sense of dread. Could Shiro really run away unscathed? Judging by the officer's cursing and rapid exit toward the upper levels, Shiro might have been lucky this time. When Adam determined it was safe enough to go out of hiding, the faint pink tint on the pool and the trail of blood made his stomach churn.
Adam was just an irrelevant intern, but he was determined to do everything he could to help. Lucky is not enough, He had to make sure Shiro was not followed, his secret his people were not going to be easily hunted if he could help it.
Shaking his commotion off, he ran to erase any and all evidence of Shiro's existence, both as a human and as a merman And the last two hours have to be complete confusion. He tinkered with all the cameras, he stole all the files from the archives, he threw away the clothes, the food in the fridge, he burned the notebooks and fake IDs. While wiping out any mention of Shiro from the base, he wished he could wipe his memories as well. It was the sensible thing to do. The best thing to do. Shiro was something -someone- too amazing -too special- to be forced to be apart from his true home in the name of science or in the name of Adam's dumb feelings. He would never see Shiro again, and he'd better be at peace with that reality sooner than later.
With all evidence lost, the whole ordeal was officially brushed off as a freaky accident, something about a faulty engine exploding that didn't really make sense but was better than proclaiming a mermaid had come to destroy half the equipment of a supposedly super secure military base. The mess was picked up, the very few people implicated were bribed and then relocated, and nothing was said about the incident again, going down in everyone’s memories as a cryptid sighting at best and not more serious than that.
Left adrift among all that chaos and all his plans for the future shattered, Adam ended up accepting a new position at an institute that had nothing to do with the one he originally aimed for, located on land where he could still see the shore from the lab's window.
----
Far Out at Sea is complete on PDF >> GET IT HERE <<
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no one asked but this is the post that inspired this! thank u immensely for the luv <3 number 1 comment was wondering what steve’s bids were & from his pov, so without further ado...enjoy — part one here!
—
Begrudgingly, Eddie has to admit that Robin might be right.
It’s impossible not to be looking for the bids since he brought them up to her. Even though Eddie was fully expecting to tell Robin to suck it, maybe even wager what little money he had against this working out, Eddie can’t help but watch for them in every interaction. And fuck, she’s right.
They’re little, but they’re there.
The first one Eddie would’ve missed if he wasn’t looking for it. Actually, that’s a lie; Eddie does miss it, until Robin points it out, the nosy bitch. It’s minuscule and honestly, it just seems like Steve asking his opinion — which friends do all the time! It’s why Eddie brushes right over it.
“Okay, be honest,“ Steve had said, walking and talking as he entered the living room where Robin and Eddie were sprawled across the couches. They were both waiting on him, the three of them set on heading out to the drive-in to catch a film.
Eddie can’t fathom why Steve felt the need to change his outfit for it, but when he returns, he gets it. It’s not quite the usual polo Eddie had grown to like on Steve, this one hanging a little looser, the colour a bit darker than Steve’s usual choice, the sleeves a little shorter — almost midway to a muscle tee.
Steve’s fingers fiddle with the distressed collar of the shirt, smoothing invisible wrinkles and fussing over nothing. He swishes back his floppy hair with a flick of his head. “It’s a new shirt, I know it’s a little different - but what do we think?”
He says we but he’s looking at Eddie.
Eddie, who has taken to trying to reel in his gawp because what the fuck Steve? It’s like he’s well aware of what drives Eddie insane and has specifically leaned into it. Some evil goblin in Eddie’s brain whispers think how good he’d look in your shirt and he squashes it, giving a visible twitch to shut down that train of thought.
From the other couch, Robin clears her throat loudly and smiles sweetly at her best friend. “It looks great, Steve.”
It’s sincere and Steve’s mouth tugs up, nearly a smile but his gaze fast-tracks back to Eddie. Eddie nods in agreement, a bit sluggish from his distracting thoughts and god dammit, the extra exposed skin of Steve’s arms are so not helping. “Yeah, looks... looks good, man.”
Steve smiles, lips pressed together but his shoulders curl in just a bit, deflating just a tad. From where Steve can’t see her, Robin waves her hands wildly and catches Eddie’s attention. He watches as she gestures wildly and it takes a moment to realise what’s she mouthing — ‘A bid! That’s a bid, you idiot!’
Oh fuck, Eddie thinks. Cos it totally was; the question, the focus on Eddie. He doesn’t even think about the logistics of it, of the fact Robin was right, just jumps right into picking up the bid.
“You trying a new style?” Eddie asks and then thanks whatever god invented the whole fake-it-to-you-make-it schtick because he’s feeling so far from casual or confident. “Going metal on me, big boy?”
Eddie just manages to catch the grin that breaks across Steve’s face as he turns away, giving a scoff — it comes out too soft though, giving away his complete lack of annoyance. He pulls that usual Steve Harrington pose, hands sliding onto his hips, and screws his face into some melted smiley-grimace. “Shut up, Munson.”
Eddie grins and goads on the blush that’s beginning on Steve’s neck, a glorious tinged pink colour. “If this shirt is any indication, you’d pull it off just fine.”
Eddie watches the blush climb higher as Steve ignores the comment, his smile still giving him away. He grabs his coat and pats down his jeans — ridiculous tight acid wash jeans that Eddie hates he’s somehow become attracted to — ensuring he has his keys and wallet. Once assured, he looks up at his two friends again, brows raised, and says, “Ready to rock and roll?”
That comment alone has Eddie seriously reconsidering his type in men.
There’s only a brief moment to talk about it when Eddie and Robin cajole Steve into going and getting them both popcorn to get a moment alone. Steve had scoffed, face twitching in the way it did whenever he tried to hold back a bitchy comment, but he still stomped off in the direction of the snack stand.
The moment he’s out of earshot, both voices explode in the back of Eddie’s van.
“What did I say—”
“Jesus H Christ, you were right—”
“Literally how many times do I have—”
“Oh my god, you were right—”
“ —before you realise I’m always—”
“Robin.” He cuts her off, hands landing on her shoulders. Robin eyes them warily, lips still parted from how her rant had been cut off. “Robin, I’m gonna kill you.”
“What?” Robin’s nose scrunches up. “What the hell are you—”
“Oh Christ, I can’t believe- how long have you noticed those bids?” Eddie’s aware he sounds a bit estranged, eyes probably wide and it doesn’t help when he softly shakes Robin back and forth. She lets herself be shaken, hair flying back in forth. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! You are such a bad gay friend!”
Robin smacks his hands off her shoulders with a frown, her freckly face perturbed at Eddie’s outburst. “Dude, it’s not my fault! May I remind you that until very very recently you were seeing someone else? What difference would it have made?”
Eddie waves his hand, disregarding the point with a shake of his head. His unkempt curls cover his face and Eddie sweeps them back in one motion, “What difference would it have made? Oh my, Jesus—“
Whatever long-winded sentence Eddie was about to spit out is lost by the sound of Steve’s approaching footsteps, effectively shutting both of them up.
Eddie flings himself to the other side of the van, putting an unusual amount of distance between Robin and him like they were being caught doing something they shouldn’t.
Robin frowns at him and gestures wildly with her hands in a way that means what the fuck man? Eddie gestures back, though he’s not entirely sure what his fast hand motions are supposed to mean when Steve rounds the door.
He’s got two buckets of popcorn tucked under each arm and Eddie quickly crosses his arms, tucking his hands into his armpits like his stupid hand motions will somehow give him away.
Steve looks up, stopping just a way from the edge of the van, and looks at the pair of them. His eyes track from Robin still sitting on one of the old cushions and looking two seconds from burying her face in her hands, across to Eddie. He huffs a laugh and kneels on the edge of the van.
“I know he’s gross Robin,” He begins, tone light, as he holds out one of the buckets for Robin to take. “But c’mon, is the distance really necessary?”
Robin snickers as Eddie makes an appalled noise, both of which make Steve smirk. He holds out the other for Eddie to take and Eddie snatches it, glaring at him over the buttery rim for his comment. Then takes a handful and shovels it in because he can’t think of a witty comment to retaliate. Steve crawls into the van and plops himself between them with a content sigh.
“See? Gross.” He teases, shoving his hand into Eddie’s popcorn bucket to grab a handful. Eddie scowls and chews a little faster when the flavour on his tongue seems to register in his brain.
His eyes stare at the popcorn bucket as he chews, then swallows — up the front of the van, the radio that’s tuned into the correct frequency begins playing the opening credits song as the screen changes. Silence sweeps across the drive-in but despite the sudden hush, Eddie has no qualms about breaking it.
“Sweet n’ salty flavour?” He asks Steve, only half attempting a whisper. Robin shushes him instantly, her focus already on the movie that’s beginning. Steve smiles, looking a bit sheepish beneath the glow of the drive-in screen, but he nods.
“I know you like it.” He whispers with a small shrug of his shoulders. Like it wasn’t a big deal. Fuck, Eddie thinks again and hastily feeds himself another handful of popcorn before he says anything majorly stupid in response to that, like: Oh, amazing- have you noticed the big fat crush I have on you as well?
He doesn’t even need to look at Robin to know she’s smiling, smug as ever.
—
Steve, God bless his oblivious little heart, doesn’t even realise he’s doing it.
Steve likes Eddie. Eddie is— god, Eddie is different but he’s good.
He’s this strange amalgamation of traits that Steve can’t comprehend how they fit together in one body or how Eddie manages to pull it all off completely charmingly.
He’s loud, he says rude things, he’s fucking dorky, and far too sweet on the kids — he likes to tease Steve, and yet somehow, when Eddie calls him ‘pretty boy’, Steve knows he’s not actually making fun of him.
Steve likes Eddie, likes his boyishly endearing charm, likes his touchiness towards Steve that no other boy his age is like, likes his messy curls and his ‘holier than thou’ attitude about metal music even though Steve doesn’t get it, like at all. And fuck, Steve really wants Eddie to like him.
It reminds him faintly of when he first started working alongside Robin at Scoops. That thought tickles in the back of his mind, something along the lines of how he had wanted Robin to like him for other reasons, but he doesn’t delve into it.
To Steve, it’s simple: he just wants Eddie to like him.
After the night at the drive-in, between Eddie acting strangely skittish and Robin giving more amused snorts than usual, Steve knows something is up.
He knows they must have discussed something when they sent him on popcorn duty, the bastards. He tries his best to not feel left out; god knows Robin and he have more than a dozen secrets they’ve sworn not to tell anyone but each other.
Besides, Steve trusts Robin to come and tell him if he really needs to know, even if it does worry him a bit. He bites down his anxious thoughts, even trying for a moment to see if there’s a pattern he’s been missing.
That train of thought gets derailed when Steve recalls instead Eddie’s delightful reaction to his new shirt — that Steve definitely hadn’t bought for that specific reason.
Even though Robin had given him that look when he’d first shown it to her — her bright eyes had narrowed, her smile turning a little more coy, and Steve had felt his ears get a little hotter. She hadn’t said anything though, just suggested that he should wear it tomorrow night when they were going out with Eddie.
God, he was glad she suggested it.
Rewinding over Eddie’s parted lips, the way his brown eyes had drank in the details as they trailed up his body and lingered on his arms— Steve had the sudden thought to flex the muscle, just to elicit some reaction, but it had gone out the window at Eddie’s original dismal reaction.
‘Yeah, looks... looks good, man’. Said all aloof, like he hadn’t really thought it. It was like bursting a balloon hidden behind Steve’s ribs, one he wasn’t even aware was there until it was deflating pathetically, making his shoulders sag.
Then— ‘You trying a new style? Going metal on me, big boy?’ And dammit, it’s like Eddie had clocked exactly what calling him ‘big boy’ had done the first time in the Winnebago.
Eddie had then grinned, done another once over of the new shirt, even as Steve pretended to search for his keys and wallet while saying something snarky to try to cover up the heat crawling up his neck. Yet, Steve found himself smiling too because, fuck yes, Eddie liked it too.
But, apparently, whatever Eddie and Robin had discussed wasn’t considered important enough because Robin never brought it up.
The thought and worry about it melt away in Steve’s mind until the memory of that night is about Eddie’s compliment, about his cat-like grin over the popcorn bucket, and how he had leaned over to whisper every bad joke into Steve’s ear all through the movie.
Some of them had been down-right filthy jokes which Eddie only seemed to enjoy more when Steve screwed his face up and nudged Eddie in the ribs, yet unable to hide his smile.
After the third vulgar joke and subsequent nudge, Steve had chided ‘dude’ with a poorly hidden grin. Eddie, smile all cheeky, had nudged him back with a ‘dude’ of his own.
Which, of course, ensued a nudge competition til Robin had given a shush that librarians all over the world would be jealous of. But Steve didn’t even care because he and Eddie were arm to arm, pressed close together and Eddie…didn’t move. Stayed close, like he wanted the closeness the same way Steve did.
Steve only remembers the strange drive-in moment when Robin brings it up finally, on one interesting Saturday night.
It’s not the usual routine; it’s not very often that the whole group gets together to share drinks and get rowdy.
But it was for Robin’s birthday and she’d been persuasive enough to get even the introverts, like Jonathan, to come along. Though, she was aware he’d probably spend the night on a pool lounger, stoned to high heaven. Whatever floats your boat, she’d said, happy for the company in any form.
There’s enough of them there that it almost resembles some sort of party— and makes Steve try not to think about the last small party he threw here. He can tell Nancy notices it too, eyeing the pool a bit too long in a way he’s very familiar with, then taking a swig of beer.
So, Steve heckles them inside — doing a fantastic mothering impression as he waves the group indoors with a promise of pizza, and that has both Jonathan and Argyle perking up and beginning a fast discussion on the best pizza toppings.
Eddie makes a fuss, because of course he does, and moans terribly when Steve tries to roll him off the pool lounger he’s on. He’s had a bit of a joint and some beer, and Steve’s learned that he gets adorably stubborn after some substances.
“Stevie, this is mean,” he had pouted, gripping the edges of the lounger and staring up at Steve with those big brown eyes. “You telling me I did all that bonding with you for nothing? Can’t even lounge by the pool! I’ve got a couch at homeeeee.”
Steve had sent him an amused look of disbelief, hands on his hips after his first round of flicks against Eddie’s arm were apparently fruitless to get him to move. “Really? Didn’t peg you for a gold-digger, Eds.”
Eddie had snorted at that, one hand coming to slap over his mouth. Steve couldn’t quite hear what he had said but the words pegging and anytime slipped through and Steve thinks he could get the gist of that.
“Oh for Christ’s sake,” Steve muttered, feeling the tips of his ears turn warm. He didn’t know how Eddie could be such a menace— or why he enjoyed it so much when he was. Steve waved a hand in the direction of the doors, ignoring Eddie’s delighted snickering. “If you go inside now, you can be on music, alright?”
And that had finally got them all indoors, Eddie whooping and skedaddling through the doors in an instant, with a call of ‘no take backsies!’ echoing behind him.
Inside was much cozier, the whole group a little more connected when squished up on the couches together. Eddie had taken Steve’s word and was jamming a cassette into one of the speakers when Steve made it back inside after scouting around the pool for leftover cans and butts to throw out.
He’s just been thinking about what playful jab he could make at Eddie’s music, like Eddie always did to him when Robin hollered at him from the kitchen.
“Steve!” She’d yelled excitedly and he come to find her quick, brows raised as he entered the kitchen. She was grinning, already a bit jumpy as she got when she had a bit of liquor — but apparently not enough because when Steve saw what she’d called him in for, she’d announced, “Tequila shots!”
Which lead to now. A hazy combination of beer, tequila, and a bit of weed, and Steve is feeling good. Robin had managed to hijack the music not too long ago, with a hiccup of ‘it’s my birthday’ that had Eddie surrendering with a pout.
She’d since put on a bit of everything: some Blondie for Nance, Talking Heads for Jonathan, and some Bowie, just so she and Steve could dance along to ‘Magic Dance’ and she could do all the silly little goblin voices that made them both cackle.
Steve realised at some point that Robin was playing their mixtape, the one she’d made for driving in the morning, and nearly tripped stumbling over to her in his excitement. He grabbed her shoulders, not too hard, and squeezed.
“Is it- is this our mixtape?” Steve asked, words slurring only a bit. Robin gleamed, hair bouncing with her excited nod.
“Yes!” She was already dancing, even though the tape was between songs — because she knew what song was coming. “It’s Springsteen time, Steve!”
Right as the drums to Born to Run filtered out the speaker.
And oh, Steve loves Robin so much. He loves having a best friend that knows his favourite song and gets jittery and excited because she knows it’s about to play— that she put it on this mix for him.
“You’re my best friend!” Steve says, the words bursting out like he can’t control them. He doesn’t even feel embarrassed, just happy, just drunk, and overwhelming happy to be able to have this.
And even though Robin knows this, she still beams, feet dancing along and just begins to sing along with the song, “In the days, we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream…”
It’s a brazen drunken performance from the both of them. Steve’s chest is heaving after just one chorus that he’s pretty sure he put his whole soul into and he’s so fucking happy —and it feels like pure instinct to seek out Eddie, his eyes scouring the room for him.
Eddie’s leaned up against the wall, hiding his smile behind a can and Steve doesn’t think twice about it— doesn’t think about why he’s so drawn to Eddie, why he wants to include him in this happiness — just extends his hand out and grins.
Eddie sees the bid coming this time.
Part Three.
—
yes i saw all ur lovely tags and MAYBE cried about it. but thats none of ur business.
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