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In Greek mythology, sirens were considered as dangerous creatures.
They lured humans to their deaths by using their ominously enchanting songs.
They weren’t real.
Right?
Keith wasn’t sure.
It was driving him insane.
He knew that mythology was called so for a reason.
They were myths.
Fiction, stories, imaginary.
Keith still wasn’t sure.
The first time he heard it, he was wandering the castle late at night.
He couldn’t sleep, and decided to take a walk to expel the excess energy.
It wasn’t noticeable at first.
Just a whisper, a faint tune in the distance that he didn’t notice at first.
“You and I have made this far oh baby on our own.”
“We’ve been rowing boat as lover still we lost the oar.”
Keith had turned a corner, drifting towards the song.
His ears picked up the notes, and tugged him closer.
“Letting stars and rain to fall on us and we hoped.”
“That the flowers and the sun will cherish us forever.”
The echoing threw his direction off, and Keith never found the source of that sweet song.
He found himself humming it to himself subconsciously.
During training.
During patrolling.
During meals.
He would try to place the name of the song.
Always failing.
No one said anything to him about it.
They had figured it was just a tick Keith had.
The second time he heard it, it was after weeks of humming.
It was just as soft and charming.
Out during the mission at the Balmera, when he was scanning the tunnels for signs of life.
Again, it echoed.
“You and I have made a perfect pair to live along.”
“Trying too hard not to realize we can’t live for long.”
Was he the only one who could hear it?
It didn’t mean himself.
It couldn’t.
Right?
“Only now it’s clear enough for us to,”
“Imagine how much pain we’ve hidden till now.”
Keith couldn’t follow the sound, no matter how much he wanted to.
And he desperately wanted to.
The mission comes first.
Somehow, Keith knew he’d hear it again.
Although, it wasn’t in the way he expected.
The third time he heard it, it was the same as the first.
But in broad daylight.
“On my own, sounds a little colder.”
“On my own, seems a lot more wider.”
Keith tracked the melody.
It felt like the time when Red first spoke to him in the Galra ship.
Not a direct thought,
Just an idea put into his head of where to go.
Keith followed it blindly.
“On my own, can it be a brand new start.”
“To live on my own.”
It grew louder, and louder.
With every step Keith took, his heart beat another time quicker.
His feet walked on their own accord.
They took him up to one of the observing levels.
Rooms of pure glass with an uninterrupted sight at the stars.
Then Keith stopped.
The voice was just beyond the door.
“Bruising, baby we’ve got to stop this cruising.”
“Cause it only takes us nowhere.”
Keith’s breath shook, and his heart stopped.
He knew that voice.
It was the very voice he found on his nerves after a long day.
It was the same voice he knew too well from shouting over it.
It was that voice that drove him nuts when it walked through doorways.
It was his voice, that sang through the air.
Lance.
His name rolled off Keith’s tongue with a breath.
“We are bleeding, we did try our best so don’t go pleading.”
“Let it washed away as we kiss for the last.”
What?
Keith’s head raced with questions.
How was this Lance’s voice?
Where did he learn to sing?
Why was Lance singing?
Why did it drag Keith in?
He left with a huff, and Lance never knew he had an audience.
Lance was human.
Since sirens weren’t real.
Keith still wasn’t sure.
There was nothing, be it human or alien, that could pull Keith in like that.
So, were sirens real?
Keith had his doubts.
But they were faltering.
He found himself with sleepless nights and blurry days.
That song wouldn’t leave his head.
Neither would Lance.
Keith found his gaze following the blue paladin around.
He tried to stop.
Nothing worked.
It’s almost like his heart was separate from his mind.
It desired what his head convinced itself it couldn’t have.
That song was a drug.
Keith needed to hear it.
Every night he would now stay up for a little longer, seeing if Lance was up too.
Out singing.
Days passed of this with nothing to show for it.
Until the one time it needed to happen.
“We could learn the same but words came out so different.”
“Once upon a time don’t always have the happy end.”
Keith had to get the answers.
His heart told him so.
There was no way he was letting Lance get away.
He knew that Lance was bothersome.
He knew that Lance was obnoxious.
He knew that Lance was flirtatious.
Keith knew,
And he didn’t care.
The heart wants what it wants.
Keith was too impulsive to stop it anyways.
This siren had caught its prey.
“But I never felt the way I did with you and,”
“It’s a shame that only silence is where it’s heading for.”
A thump of a heartbeat.
A quick breath of air.
A quiet and quick footstep.
Keith found Lance right up where he found the truth.
In the observation deck.
A mullet peered past the doorway, violet eyes spotting its calling.
He faced away from the door, his head tilted towards the stars.
“We could make it last I’ll tell you that we still can do.”
“Though it’s not the type of future we wanted or knew.”
Keith’s doubts were washed away as he gazed at the boy lit in starlight.
Sirens were not a part of mythology.
Sirens were very real.
He should know now, there was one right in front of him.
His past thoughts on Lance were somehow gone.
All of the arguments.
All of the jokes.
All of the disagreements.
Keith found Lance endearing.
He saw the kind soul who wanted to save the universe.
He saw the lonely soul who missed his family.
He saw the soul who sang.
“But the scars of love won’t fade away soon.”
“Imagine how much pain we’ve hidden till now.”
Silent steps took Keith closer until he stood behind Lance.
Where he looked at a solemn face with closed eyes.
“On my own taste a little biting.”
“On my own feels like Cimmerian night.”
There wasn’t an escape for Keith.
If he left now, nothing would change.
If he stayed now, everything would change.
Sirens really were dangerous.
Although, not deadly.
“On my own can it be a brand new start.”
“To live on my own.”
So, Keith sat down behind Lance.
Letting his own eyes fall shut in the presence of the siren.
His thoughts took him in.
Greek mythology has said that sirens brought sailors to their deaths.
By luring them underwater to die.
Keith knew this wasn’t all true.
It may have been different for sailors, but sirens did not only live in the water.
The ones on the land drowned their prey not in water.
Keith felt like he was drowning.
The tightness of the chest, making it difficult to breath.
The odd vision that singled out objects.
“Bruising, baby we’ve got to stop this cruising.”
“Cause it only takes us nowhere.”
Keith was drowning, but it was not water.
It was Lance.
“We are bleeding, we did try our best so don’t go pleading.”
“Let it washed away as kiss for the last time.”
Keith reached out with a gentle hand, almost letting his presence known.
He wasn’t going to let Lance go now.
Somehow, Keith knew that Lance was thinking about him.
How else would the siren spell work on only Keith?
Hunk was Lance’s best friend, but wasn’t the adventure.
Pidge was Lance’s safety, but wasn’t the discovery.
Shiro was Lance’s guide, but wasn’t the spirit.
Keith was Lance’s partner, and was everything.
“Baby we’ve got to stop this cruising.”
“Let it washed away as we kiss for the last.”
His hand laid carefully on Lance’s back, gentle and knowing.
Lance sighed at his touch, almost like he knew Keith was there.
Words were spoken, softly, and caring.
Keith knew.
Lance knew.
One turned to meet the others gaze, ocean blue meeting galaxy violet.
Unspoken words were said when Lance gave Keith a sweet smile.
The siren had caught its prey.
And its prey went willingly.
Maybe sirens weren’t as dangerous as Keith thought.
Keith was sure.