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The sun felt warm on his face. It was a nice feeling, almost nice enough to make him stop worrying. Almost but not quite.
‘Jason slow down!’ he called after his older brother.
‘Not my fault if you can’t keep up Timbo.’ Jason called back. Letting out a frustrated growl Tim propelled himself forward once again nearly colliding with the older merman in the process.
‘Gah careful.’ Jason snapped at him baring his jagged teeth as he did so. ‘You nearly dragged me backwards.’ At this Tim felt a little guilty. With Jason being part shark he was limited to which direction he swam in.
‘Well you were going to leave me behind.’ He argued ignoring that feeling of guilt. Jason sighed.
‘Fine take my arm and I’ll pull you along. But I can’t be waiting around for you we need to get back before Bruce wakes up.’ Reluctantly Tim wrapped one of his tentacles around Jason’s arm and allowed himself to be pulled along.
***
‘Where are they?’ Bruce growled as he swam from room to room.
‘They can’t have gone far.’ Dick protested as he swam after him.
‘Knowing those two they certainly could.’ Bruce sighed as he slowed to a halt. ‘You don’t think they’ve gone to the surface do you?’ Dick frowned at this.
‘I’d like to say no way. But I honestly can’t put that sort of thing past Jason. And Tim’s been acting off since Damian arrived.’ Bruce nodded. The latest hatchling to join their family was unlike the others his own flesh and blood. Whilst he himself saw no difference it was clear his subjects did.
‘If they have gone to the surface you don’t suppose they’d be foolish enough to go near a human nest?’ Dick said nothing, he didn’t need to, his silence was all the answer the merlord needed.
‘I’ll have to send a search party.’ He groaned. ‘They’re not going to like this.’
‘Then I’ll go.’ Dick offered. ‘I think I might have an idea as to where they are. Besides they’re less likely to spot just one merman swimming towards them.’ For a moment Bruce considered arguing then realised he had a point.
‘Okay but hurry about it. Remember the Captain of the guard and his daughter are coming to visit today.’ Dick nodded his cheeks flushing red and quickly swam off. Bruce couldn’t help but to smile to himself. Dick was eighteen, an age where most mermen and maids were finding a permanent mate. And whilst Bruce wasn’t one to push his children into a bonding, never having been through one himself, he couldn’t help but to think there was something between the two.
***
Tim couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A real life human nest. Large buildings taller than the castle loomed in the background, whilst smaller buildings were scattered closer to the coast. All around them strange things floated on the water.
‘Are these boats?’ he asked Jason who nodded. At this Tim pulled himself away from the boat and closer to his brothers side. Jason laughed at him though it wasn’t a cruel laugh.
‘Oh don’t worry. They’re harmless when they’re like this. As long as you’re careful not to get caught in the chains,’
‘What do you mean like this?’
‘I mean tied up, weighed down and empty. They’re only really dangerous when there are humans on board.’
‘And how do you know there’s no humans up there?’ Tim questioned.
‘You can tell by the way they move. Besides the ones who are looking for fish to catch will have left by now. These one’s won’t move until early afternoon at the least and they just sail around not really bothering to do much else.’ A little more reassured by this Tim warily released his grip on the older merman and swam up to one of the smaller boats. It was a green boat with a white trim and what he recognised as writing along the edge. Though it was in a human alphabet so he had no way of knowing what it said. These aren’t so scary, he thought to himself. He was just about to reach out and touch it when a loud Bang from somewhere nearby made him jump. In his fright he ended up releasing anther jet of water that propelled him into another boat. The commotion caused the water to swell moving more boats. Before he knew what was happening Tim was pinned between two larger boats with their chains wrapped around his tentacles. Frightened he started to thrash only half hearing his brothers cries to calm down and stay still. He wasn’t sure what if his head was going to be crushed or his legs ripped off but he knew neither was going to be pleasant. He was still thrashing when he heard a familiar chirp. He stilled and looked over in the direction it had come from. Through the churning water he could make out the silhouette of his oldest brother as he swam towards them. Dick continued to chirp softly at the frightened youngster as approached and began to quickly and carefully pull the chains off of him. As he did so Tim swore he heard what sounded like voices above him.
‘Hurry.’ He hissed earning him a warning glance from his brother. Tim swallowed but said no more. His brothers delicate fins were more likely to become damaged than his own tentacles so he had to be careful. Once free Dick gave a follow me click and dived under the water. Without much hesitation the two younger boys dove after him. As Tim propelled himself through the water he took one last glance back at the surface where he swore he saw the shadow of a human peering over the side of a boat. Clearly though the human had seen nothing more of them than a flash of tail as he quickly disappeared from sight. Once they were on the sea floor and well away from the boats Dick turned to face them.
‘What were you thinking!?’ he asked as both boys looked at each other nervously.
‘It’s my fault.’ Jason admitted. This made Tim do a double take. He hadn’t expected his brother to take any of the blame, let alone all of it.
‘Tim caught me sneaking out and demanded to know where I was going. I shouldn’t have taken him I know that.’
‘You shouldn’t have been sneaking out in the first place.’ Dick snapped before sighing. ‘Look what you two did was stupid. But you’re alive so let’s just leave it at that.’ With that he turned and started to swim again.
‘So you’re not going to tell Bruce?’ Jason called as he swam after him.
‘Oh I’m telling him you went to the surface. But we’ll leave out the bits about the human nest and Tim nearly being killed by boats shall we?’ Sheepishly the two boys nodded as their brother glanced back at them.
‘Besides I don’t want him in too bad a mood when Barbara comes over.’ At this Jason’s face broke into a grin that showed every single jagged tooth.
‘Are you planning on asking her to be your mate?’ he asked as Dick swatted him away.
‘No. I mean not today at least. Maybe in the future. If she wants too…’ his voice trailed off as he realised both his brothers were stifling back laughter.
‘Oh go sit on a pufferfish the pair of you!’ he snapped as he swam faster. Jason laughed and began to also pick up speed jeering at his brother the whole time. Tim followed after grinning despite the ordeal he’d just been through.