Chapter Text
Star City was beautiful, Kaldur could acknowledge that even through his haze of complaints that he was quietly keeping to himself. His king, Arthur, had decided that if Kaldur was going to be his side kick then he needed more exposure to people on the surface. So Arthur had got together with another hero and sidekick pair, Green arrow and speedy, also known as Oliver and Roy, and asked then to give a tour of the surface city to which they happily obliged. Atleast the older one did, the younger seemed only to come for the food.
This was only Kaldurs fourth time in the surface and he was quickly coming to the conclusion that he HATED it. He was wearing a shirt that covered his gills and was painfully uncomfortable, he was sweating which was something he didnt even know he could do, and he was unbearably overheated. He wanted to say something but neither of the surface dweller heros nor his king seemed to be suffering in the heat so Kaldur kept his mouth shut. He didnt want to sound weak infront if these heros he had never met before.
The surface was suffocating, loud, bright, chaotic, and had so many harsh violent smells. The cars scared him, the lights hurt his eyes, and whatever this ilness was that had overcome him was sickening. Oliver walked at a fast paxe that Kaldur struggled to keep up with and he also spoke a lot of things Kaldur did not udnerstand. Still he listened politely to talk of buisnesses and hero work. Luckily Roy, the sidekick, seemed to walk at a more leisure pace that Kaldur could match. The sidekick was a boy maybe a little older than Kaldure. He was a ginger and wore a disinterested expression. He also spoke to his mentor in way that Kaldur could never imagine speaking to his king.
He couldnt think too much about it because he was still overheated and uncomfortable. His skin felt dry and itchy, his mouth felt dry, and his chest was begining to feel tight. On multiple occasions he had to remind himself to breath through his nose, not his gills.
After about thirty more minutes of walking Kaldur was hoping they would soon be able to go back to Atlantis. He didnt want to be on the surface anymore. His vision was blurring weirdly and he found himself breathing heavily. He was now struggling to even keep up with Roys leisurly pace and the ginger must have noticed because he stopped.
He sat a hand on Kaldurs shoulder and his skin felt weirdly cool against his. "Are you okay?" The boy asked but it sounded like he was talking from miles away. It was wierd. Kaldur had never experienced anything like this before and it made him confused and scared. His chest felt tight and he felt like he was gasping to breath. He wanted to answer but he couldnt form the words and the older two heros were still walkign seemed to not notice the younger men hanging behind.
"I..." he tried to think of words but couldnt get his brain to work. He squeezed his eyes closed tight grabbing onto the other sidekicks arm to try and keep his balance. He had now completely stopped walking. "It...is hot" he put his hand up to his chest pulling at the shirt lightly unable to get the words out. "I cant" he was terrified and didnt know what was happening. He had never experienced anything like this before. Suddenly he got a massive wave of dizziness and his vision went balck. He could feel his knees give out and him fall into someone.
He could hear Roy call for the mentors and a little bit of commotion following but then he passed out completely.
Kaldur woke up to the feeling of something cold on his lips. As soon as he woke up enough to recognize what was going on he drunk greedily, it was ice cold salt water. He whined as it moved away from his lips, he wanted more. He felt awful and thirtsy and still couldnt breath. "Kaldur'ahm, look at me" he heard his kings voice and weakly opened his eyes looking around.
"My king" he muttered struggling to breath. He couldnt figure out where he was, they were no longer outside but they also didnt seem to be in a building. His shirt was removed and he was laying down with his head on someones legs. He closed his eyes again confused. "I cant.." he brought his hand to his through scratching at his already irritated gills. "Cant...breath " he was gasping between every word. He felt some of the cold salt water get poured over his throat and it helped a little bit he still felt like he couldn't breath. "My king, i cant" he tried ti remeber how ti breath with his lungs but he wanted nithing more than ti be back in the water.
He felt nails scratch softly over his short hair and it was relaxing. "What is wrong with him?" The voice belonged to the other sidekick, Roy. He must be the one Kaldur was laying on. If he had been panicking less he would have been embarrassed but right now he was terrified and didnt understand what was happening.
"He's never been out of the water for so long. He must be dehydrated" he heard his kings voice and some more water poured over his throat before being put back on his lips. He drunk greedily again but still struggled to breath, his head felt like it was spinning.
He suddenly felt very nauseous "water" he groaned feeling like he would throw up.
"Then do something about it, dont just watch him struggle he's in pain!" While Kaldur would usually be disapproving of someone talking to his king that way he agreed with Roy. He was in pain and breathing hurt and he was scared. He felt himself get picked up and the scratchy shirt put back over his gills then they walked back out into the heat from whereever they were hiding.
Kaldur felt more exhausted by the minute but he could easily recognize the sound of the zeta tubes turning on. He heard some goodbyes being said and then the feeling of being teleported, which was something he was not used to and make his stomach turn. But once they were on the other side he felt water surrounding him. He felt himself get set down again and then someone tapping on his face.
"My king?" He groaned opening his eyes. Now that they were back in Atlantis he was quickly feeling better. "I am sorry, i dont know what happened" he finally found the strength the open his eyes the entire way. Arthur didnt look angry, instead he smiled.
"Thats okay my son, the surface is hot and dehydrating. You need to be careful, but dont worry too much on it. The same thing happened to me my first few times on the surface.