Keith's laughter was so quick to consume him and so raw that Shiro couldn't help but admire him. His laughter enveloped and shook his entire 
body so much so that he struggled to breathe and he leaked from his eyes. So many strange and wonderful things were happening to the man that Shiro couldn't pull his eyes away. His own laughter had died down and he was left grinning and watching the other man.

Something dark surrounded this man, Shiro could sense it. It wasn't a darkness from within, rather it was a darkness that had been placed upon him and it hung like a millstone around his neck. Even now, as his voice caught and echoed in Shiro's head, Shiro could sense this darkness within him. He couldn't help but want to help lift it from his shoulders.

Shiro dropped his head, still grinning brightly and listened once again as Keith repeated his name. Shiro was still giddy with laughter and perhaps the excess oxygen around him was contributing to the lightheaded feeling of happiness he was experiencing. He wasn't ready to practise with complete seriousness, but wanted desperately to see the smile stay on this dark creature's face. It lit up his whole being as well as those purple eyes that bored into him with such intensity. Shiro repeated the word quickly, "Keese." He couldn't master the quick movement of his tongue to form the 'th' and he shook his head, content with what he had so far. He envisioned himself spending the rest of the night practising, probably until they met again, and hoped that the next time it would be perfect. He said it one last time, lowering his voice and narrowing his eyes as he listened to himself saying it, "Keys." He raised an eyebrow, looking to the man with a look that told Keith that he knew it was wrong, but asked for him to accept it as his final attempt for now. He was drawn to Keith and wanted to know him. He knew what his name sounded like, he wanted to know more.

He searched quickly for an idea to communicate more with him and flicked his head from side to side. He wanted to know more about this person, who he was, where he was from but their worlds were so different that he couldn't envisage something that he could use to share such information between them. He let out a soft click of frustration before an idea took hold. He slipped beneath the water and dove down to the sea bed. It was closer than he was used to here and as he dove, his spine curved into his tail seamlessly above the water before his tail broke the surface and the dark plastic fin he had attached to it with ropes, hooks and kelp sprayed water with a lack of Shiro's usual grace. He scooped up a handful of stones from the bed and brought them up to the surface, breaking the surface with an excitable splash but reaching up and taking hold of the dock without so much as a gasp. He dropped the stones at Keith's feet and smoothed his hair back over his head then looked up at Keith with determination in his eyes.

His gills worked silently, opening and closing as they regulated his breathing for him. Like that of a shark, the skin forming them was thick and pale, with thin membranes beneath them. These membranes were pale pink in colour and they shimmered with water as they worked. Shiro picked out a bright white stone and set it down, then shivered and held his arms. He then took a yellow-coloured stone and stopped shivering, instead sighing in pretend relief that it was warm again. He glanced up at Keith, hoping that he wasn't lost. He set both stones down and laid out 26 plain grey rocks in front of the cold white stone and 27 plain grey rocks in front of the warm yellow stone. He laid them out to show how many summers and winters he had seen. If it meant anything to Keith, he hoped that he would show it in his face, because Shiro wasn't sure how else he could do it. He didn't even know whether Keith's species acknowledged the passage of time enough to have counted the summers and the winters. Or if Keith would even understand what he was trying to communicate.