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Chapter Text

It was his curiosity that finally led Dick to leave his cave. He swam slowly, wiggling his body to and from, left to right, as he swam through the tunnels- unwilling to move with the same grace and ease he had easily accomplished just months before. The deaths of his parents still weighed heavily on him, and he confined himself to what had once been their home together, the fear of predators beyond his reef drilled into his instincts and upbringing.

He didn’t know how to survive on his own, he was too young. Still just a hatchling, depending on his parents to debone his fish and lift the rocks too heavy for him to nab the crabs under them. He had tried many times after his parents were murdered, his tail thrashing in the water as he tried to lift boulders much too big, but they never budged.

Any rocks he could lift, only hid bugs below. Worms, little shrimps, small roe.

Dick’s scales were fading, flaking off. The smallest of friction against his fins would cause them to bruise, or bleed. He had made it this far eating urchins, starfish, and coral worms, but the small creatures were out of his usual diet and far too small to sustain him for a life of swimming. 

He had cut himself many times on the sharp spines of urchin, or scraped his soft skin against the corals rough exterior. He was too small to be on his own. His skin hadn't toughened yet, and he hadn't even started dropping his baby scales in preparation for adult scales.

He was starting to get desperate, and scared.

So when he heard a faint rumbling, a steady purr emanating through the water, Dick swam out of his hide excited and curious to greet the mer who had found him, who was calling to him. A mer who could take care of him, feed and protect him.

Only it wasn’t a mer. Dick... wasn’t sure what it was. It was large, and curved but also pointy. Mostly black, with some grey, and these large yellow eyes that shined beams of sun on the corals just left of where Dick cowered and watched.

It didn’t smell like fish, or mer, or shark. It had a sharp, sterile smell. A scent unlike Dick had ever smelled before- and it scared him.

Its maw opened, much too precise and slow for any fish he knew. This was a predator, its calculated slow moments told Dick it could control every inch of its body with deadly accuracy, and its size told him there would be no escaping if it spotted him. 

So he stayed hidden, and he watched as its mouth opened farther than Dick had seen from any creature. He was shivering, unable to look away but unable to move as another dark creature emerged from its mouth.

A second predator, narrow white eyes that illuminated the depths while scanning the reefs, and a shiny flat black face lacking anything but those eyes. Dick ducked back into his coral tunnel when it started to scan towards him, clinging to the rock as quietly as he could.

He stayed there for several minutes just in case before he could hear another growling sound, a higher pitched one this time. He peeked his head out and watched as the creature shrouded in black clung to the reef, a dark weapon in his hand which was the source of the purring as it pierced into the corals.

He watched, both in horror and curiosity as a shiny object was hammered into the reef, and the creature left it there, returning to be swallowed in the maw of the larger creature before both disappeared into the dark again.

From where he was, Dick inspected the object left behind. It was another creature, he realized. An unmoving black body comprising most of it, but a large sphere at the top that Dick just knew was an eye. From the side, he could see its lids blink occasionally, a whizzing sound each time it shut. It would look around sometimes, but Dick noticed it never went past a certain point, and didn’t seem like it was able to see him at all. 

He scented the currents, trying to get a feel on what this new beast was. Perhaps a parasite, deadly creatures his parents had warned him about. Sometimes so small they would look harmless, but they leeched on whatever they clung to, draining the life slowly of their victim for their own benefit.

Dick keened for the corals it was planted in. Once, his parents had brought him to a sea of white. Corals, who had once been thriving and colourful, now laid starkly bare against the sand. They had told him that parasites had destroyed them, beasts from the sky who came down and would steal from and destroy the reefs of many flora and fauna. Dick had cried for several hours when the first of his scales started to lose colour after his parents had died, memories of white corals plaguing his day thoughts and night dreams.

The parasite of grief was stealing his colour from him, and he soon would litter the ocean floor just like the corals.

His fins twitched. Air bubbled from his eyes, and floated to the surface while he cried. His home would die alongside him. From what had once been empty grey rock, his parents had meticulously crafted each winding coral system. Traveling far to other corals to gather and bring back each piece, planting and guiding to life a new reef for them to hide in. Every tunnel, every hidden cave and narrow crevice crafted specifically for them, for their small pod while his mama was still nurturing his unhatched egg.

The thought of his home dying alongside him and his parents was an unbearable thought.

With hours having passed, and no sign of the parasite, he swam cautiously out into the open waters for the first time since his parents died. His anxious heart thrummed in his chest, and he made sure to stay out of view of the parasite as he snuck up on it. He inched forwards extremely slowly, staying tucked to the corals where he would blend in, and used his hands to crawl forward ever so slowly.

He made sure to take it in small movements, just like his parents had taught him many months ago. Fast movements would shift the water, would send waves to his prey and alert them of his presence before he got close enough to pounce and drag them under him for the kill.

It took far too long for Dick’s impatient mind to creep up on the creature, but the fear of retaliation from the parasite kept him in place. He was already weak and hungry, if he messed up this hunt it could kill him, and his failure would cause the reef to die too.

He was only a few feet away, and he coiled his tail behind him tightly. He built courage for a moment, shifting in his spot slightly, before jetting his tail out and thrashing it side to side wildly behind him, claws reaching forward as he ripped into the back of the eyeball, wrapping his tail around its stem and crushing it tightly, jerking its stiff tentacles upwards out of the coral and shredding it to bits.

It was… easier than Dick thought it would be. The parasite didn’t squirm, or struggle. It didn’t claw at him or even fight back at all. 

When its weird, hard flesh fell out of his grasp, and littered the corals in fragments, Dick purred, chasing after it to pick at its insides. He sniffed each piece, a sour smell coming from it and grimaced.

It smelled yucky, but his stomach grumbled and he was hungry. He chewed on a piece of it, and spit it out almost immediately. It tasted worse than it smelled, and Dick scraped his tongue on his hands just in case the foul taste meant it was poisonous.

He was disappointed, sinking onto the reef to rest for a moment as he moped. It wouldn’t kill the reef anymore, that he was sure of, but he was still hungry and sad. He didn’t want to eat worms today. Worms were for fish, and Dick was a Mer. They were gross, and slimy, and sometimes Dick felt like he could feel them wiggling inside him long after he ate them.

He eyed the hole in the rock he had pulled the parasite from. He sang quietly in discontent for a few minutes before he scooted over to it and rummaged through the crumbling rock the eyeball creature had left behind. He ate the worms anyway.

Chapter Text

Bruce leaned back in his chair, his eyes closing in exhaustion. Another one of his cameras had gone dark, and he was really starting to get frustrated. It took an inordinate amount of resources to replace them, both in terms of time and money, but also effort. He would have to don his entire set of scuba gear, check up on his Batsub, and dedicate a day to go diving and drill a new camera into the area the old one had been destroyed.

On top of all that, he had absolutely zero idea what had caused them to keep disappearing. The lense never showed anything to hint to their destruction, and every time he poked around the reef, he never found any evidence other than the crushed and torn pieces of metal scattered on the rocks, and a jagged destroyed part of coral and rock where the camera had been before.

A month ago, Bruce had prided himself on his idea of installing surveillance in the Gotham harbour. Too many deadly operations were undergone by sea, where Batman had previously never ventured. The criminals of Gotham adapted to him in new and interesting ways seemingly every week, and Bruce had to stay on his toes to make sure they didn’t slip past him.

When an underground weapons trade had suddenly vanished, seemingly ‘taken down’ by the Batman, Bruce discovered them only months later to be operating now undersea .

This, normally, would put it in Arthur’s domain- a problem for the Aquaman. But luckily and unluckily, Arthur respected boundaries, especially Bruce's boundaries. He considered Gotham harbour part of Gotham, which it was, and left it well alone.

Bruce was both grateful Arthur stayed out of it, and also a little overwhelmed. His nightlife kept him busy already, and now he was scraping into his daytime hours to install the surveillance.

He poured himself over the footage leading up to the disconnection of every camera- now going on eight- but never found a trace of anything suspicious. Given, the range of the cameras was short- just under 150ft- but both Bruce’s manual monitoring and his programs would never pick up on anything unusual.

He was tired of staring suspiciously at pairs of eyes that would later turn out to be a squid. Or a fish. He was done with fish.

“Hungry, Master Bruce?” Bruce dropped his hand from where it was rubbing at the bridge of his nose.

“Frustrated.” He responded curtly. Alfred tilted his head up in understanding, setting a steaming plate of sautéed salmon with asparagus and lemon on the desk in front of him.

“Maybe it will feel better to eat the fish rather than study them,” Bruce gave him a pointed look, but Alfred remained as calm as ever, if not a little amused.

“Will you be going out? You have a late brunch at four with Mr. Fox concerning the Wayne Enterprises charity gala. I can call him to reschedule if you would like,” Bruce sat up to pull the plate of salmon towards himself, unceremoniously crushing it with his fork into pieces and eating it.

“Yeah. Tell him I’m sorry. I need to replace the camera before it gets dark- I have to be at the museum before Ragdoll if he decides to go after the bait we set.”

“Of course, Master Bruce. Enjoy your swim,” Alfred excused himself, and Bruce heard the clock door shut behind him a minute later. 

He watched the rest of the footage while he ate, an inky green darkness the only thing he could see other than sand and corals which remained just as uninteresting as ever.

He got to the point in the video the motion sensors had alerted him of, watching again with focused intent- for the fourth time- as nothing happened on screen but flowing currents and fish pecking at algae.

It wasn’t the most boring surveillance Bruce had done, he thought. There were several long hours at the Watchtower where he sat with whoever he was teamed with, scouring monitors that held nothing but unwavering stars and the dark abyss of space. 

At least there was something living to watch.

He shut down the feed when the motion sensors stopped transmitting warnings, and the camera became shaky- as if being hit- then turning to static.

The only thing he was sure about was that this was deliberate. Whoever was destroying his cameras knew where they were, what they were doing there, and how to avoid them before destroying them.

Bruce checked his phone, his messages to Arthur regarding any Atlanteans that may be working in connection with Gotham’s weapons traders going unanswered. It had only been a couple days, Bruce assured himself. Arthur wasn’t often on land recently, tension between Atlantis and the beasts of the trench at an all time high pulling his focus from his land-work.

Bruce could relate.

Arthur had excused himself from league business for several months, only to be messaged on the non-emergency lines (and answered whenever he could manage) or the emergency line if an all-league threat popped up.

He set his plate aside, closing out his surveillance programs and heading towards his suiting room. He ran his checking system, ensuring all of the mechanics in his scuba-suit was functional before dressing as fast as one could into armoured scuba gear and lowering himself into the batsub.

The cave had an extensive saltwater cave system. Bruce had spent many hours securing it in his earlier years to the best of his ability, mapping out each tunnel and crevice to make sure none were open to the ocean that wouldn’t have a gate and security functions to keep anything from infiltrating from the sea.

The engine rumbled and warmed quickly, not having been long since he last used it, and he was soon jetting through the darkness in the direction of the latest camera ‘malfunction’.

Chapter Text

Dick was really starting to get annoyed. His strength was dwindling with every passing day, but the parasites kept showing up. He would hide while the large beast replanted them, and later Dick would swim up and rip them from its root. 

And then another one would reappear in the next couple days.

He swam around his grove, growling. He knew he was wasting energy, his scales already scarily transparent, but he couldn’t help himself. He was angry, scared, and disregulated. His home was being invaded on a regular basis, his parents were dead, he was alone, he was hungry, he was tired and frustrated and lonely. Bubbling tears floated from his eyes many times that day.

He curled around himself on the soft sand of his grove. His waters were starting to get stuffy. The first time that happened, was when his papa had been gone, hunting larger fish in the darker colder waters Dick wasn’t allowed to go to. He had talked on ends about eating tuna with his own father, and Dick begged him to swim out with him so he could try it too, but he just promised to catch him one himself and bring it back. It had been a few days, and his mama stayed in the grove with him most of the time for safety.

When he complained about the gross smell in the water, she had just laughed, and explained that without the three of them swimming through the tunnels, the water could get stagnant and gross. She chased him all around their home that day, and the fresher smell of salty water was back after he had tired himself out and fell asleep on top of her, her tail swaying side to side to lull him to sleep.

He tried to rock himself many times since they had been gone, but he couldn’t find the rhythm, and it only made him miss her more. He knew he would never feel her arms around him again, and would never curl up to their feasting ledge while his papa deboned and fed him tuna. 

He felt dim, and hopeless.

So when the next time that the purring of the parasites host could be heard in the distance, Dick prepared. He stacked the largest rocks he could find and carry, the most impressive being larger than his torso- onto the reef outside, blocking where the parasite latched most commonly. If it wanted to burrow, it would have to move all of his big rocks first. It would buy Dick time.

He waited at the entrance to his cave, a large stick that he had scraped against the rock until it sharpened to a point in his hand. 

He would kill it, once in for all. He didn’t care if it was much bigger than him. He had seen his papa kill octopus with a wingspan much larger than him, and he knew he could do it too. Dick was small, and he used to be fast, he knew he could swim in while the beast was distracted and pierce it before it noticed him. He could channel that for another moment to dart to its underbelly and spill its guts before it could plant another parasite. He could do it, he had to. For his parents reef, for his reef.

So he waited, waited until the shadow passed over his cave and he knew it had stopped to hover the reef. He waited until he heard its mouth hiss open, and the smaller predator swam from it and latched onto the reef, preparing to break into it and plant another life sucking parasite

He waited until the purring of its weapon was loud, knowing that would mean it was distracted planting, and he crept out of his hide. He crawled along the reef, much like he had every other time hunting the parasite. But today he was hunting its parent. An ambitious hunt, but Dick could do it. It was terrifying, but it fueled him. An instinctual violent part of him being fed with the hunt. If he had his parents to guide him, they would tell him this was a part of his development. Learning to watch, to stalk . Find the perfect moment, and strike viciously. Overwhelm his prey and take it down, ensure another meal for his family.

Every foot he drew closer, his heart beat faster in his chest, and his muscles tensed in anticipation. His instincts sang, the scent of flesh buried deep below the glistening black armour spurring him on.

When he was only a short distance away, he coiled his tail under him in preparation and wiggled into position, spear clutched between his hands dangerously. He was ready.

He burst forward with lightning speed, faster than he had swam in weeks due to malnutrition, and pulled his arms back to lunge the spear towards the middle of the creature, his lips pulled back in a snarl. Clicking and hissing echoing through the water in a predatory display of aggression, meant to instill his prey with a paralyzing fear.

The creature turned at the last minute, having heard him and reacting to his snarling, but it was too late as the spear collided with its midsection- Dick cheering internally as he waited for blood to spill in the water. But it never came. The spear glanced off it’s thick scales, and he lost grip of it watching as it floated down to the reef. A moment of doubt filled him. His weapon had been torn from him easily, and he was left with only his natural defences.

The creature was slow to move, and Dick brushed off the failure and panic quickly, raking out with his claws to the neck of the beast as he slammed his tail against his midsection ferociously. He may be weapon less but he wasn’t defenceless. Mer’s were built for fighting, canines sharpened for ripping out throats, claws for tearing flesh from bone and strong muscled tails perfect for slamming the breath out of prey. He could still defeat this creature.

The scales of it were scratched under his claws, and Dick honed his entire focus on killing it. Strike after strike, he growled and snarled and slashed its neck, midsection and legs. He pounded his tail in a stun move to its head and chest, and even picked up his spear again to try stabbing it a few more times.

It seemed too dazed to move, the larger creature stunned under his strength and vulnerable to his attacks. Dick cheered internally. He was winning.

Until its arms darted out, and caught Dick in its grasp. He screamed, and growled and sang as he thrashed in its unrelenting grip, fear and determination curling through him as he tried to escape its death hold. He bucked out of the way of its mouth, trying to avoid any teeth that would sink into his neck and end his life- in the same way he watched his parents die. Caught between the crushing jaws of a monster stronger than them, subdued and ravaged until their limp bodies sank to the ocean floor.

The memories stunned him for a moment. He still fought, but his focus was gone. His parents. What he had believed was indestructible skin was pierced easily in the teeth of the mer. The larger mer. 

Dick had seen his mama and papa defeat much larger prey than that, but he had never seen them fight another mer. It’s red scales were forever burned into Dick’s memory from where he hid in his den as he watched his parents blood cloud the water and flesh be ripped from their body. He could only hyperventilate, paralysed by fear. They were dying. They were dying and there was nothing he could do. He wasn’t brave enough, wasn’t strong enough. He let his parents die.

He couldn’t even move as he watched the mer tear through their dead bodies, feeding on their flesh and chewing on their bones. The image of his mama and papa’s lifeless eyes staring at him while their bodies were mutilated was burned into his brain forever.

Bubbles floated from his eyes- he was crying in shock and desperation. He thrashed one last time, throwing his head backwards. He didn’t want to die like his parents had. He was scared.

His head hit something hard. A loud thunk echoed through the water, and Dick’s movements were dulled. His head hurt, and he could smell his own blood floating through the water.

The beast had killed him. It had sunk it’s teeth into his skull, and crushed it in its maw just like his parents. He was dying.

He sobbed, going limp in its hold as he watched the corals of his home slowly fade from his sight. He was terrified. He was scared. He was sorry .

Chapter Text

Out of everything Bruce was expecting today, nothing could have prepared him for the reality he was about to face.

Halfway through drilling a new- hopefully more secure- camera into the reef, a screeching sound caused him to turn away from his chore and scan the depths for anything that he might have to fight off. Any submarines or wildlife that interrupted him.

But it wasn’t submarines- that was for sure. Later, he would rationalize that it was shock that kept him rooted in place. It was a baby. 

A baby. Underwater with him. 

A baby, he repeated astonishingly in his mind. Except after a puzzling moment he realized it wasn’t a baby at all. It was just barely larger than his torso, maybe three feet? Three and and a half feet long? 

It’s upper half was mostly human, short dark black hair and striking blue eyes settled in a cute chubby baby face. A face that was snarling at him as it swam slowly and clumsily towards Bruce, a stick in its hands raised threateningly towards him.

What the hell?

What surprised Bruce after the initial shock was the light blue- almost clear scales covering just below its bellybutton. He could see where they wrapped around his back and joined at his shoulders. The only pale, skin like area was reserved to his head, chest and underside of his arms. The rest of him was that same scaly light blue. 

The skin looked human. The face looked human. The eyes looked human. But in place of legs were fins, and a tail.

There was no denying it, a fish baby was attacking him. 

What he supposed was meant to be a spear glanced off his armour easily, and the baby lost its grip almost immediately, the spear sinking down to the corals below. The child didn’t seem discouraged, switching to clawing at his face with its small chubby hands with pointed claws, and smacking him with its tail.

Bruce compared it to being batted by a cat. A very squishy, fish like cat.

It scratched at his armour, intent on attacking him. Bruce felt like his brain had blue-screened. He had dealt with a lot in his short career as Batman- bombings, poisonings, murders, terrorism, riddles, even aliens - but he had no idea what to do about this… this fish baby .

This child, this child , was attacking him several hundred feet below the Gotham harbour.

As far as Bruce knew, this was a new species entirely. Would Arthur have heard of them? Would anyone? He was pretty sure that any news of mermaids would be news he had heard of. This was truly something he had never encountered before.

The fish baby was thrashing against him, and Bruce snapped out of his shock. He had to do something before this little babe hurt himself. Bruce easily wrapped his arm around the middle of him to try and stop him from hurting himself against the hard shell plating of his scuba-bat-suit. He didn’t want the little… mer (?) to hurt himself on his armour. But he thrashed in Bruce’s grip, and any attempts at calming him down didn’t work at all. He was intent on escaping. Or murder- Bruce didn’t know.

The little mer crashed his head back, and Bruce couldn’t push him away in time before he heard the little fishes skull crack against the hard plating of his own suit, blue blood leaking from the wound. 

He swam back to the batsub immediately upon seeing the blood- the baby in his arms- but hesitated. What if it had parents? A family? 

The child had a human face, but the rest of it was fish. Would he be committing some kind of fish crime by taking the baby?

He knew from experience that the wound on his head was bad. The overall state of this kid was alarming, and Bruce knew in his bones he needed help. He couldn’t just leave him here. What if a shark came by? Or a boat? What if he was killed because Bruce was hesitating?

He couldn’t leave this baby alone. He wouldn’t .

He shook his head, breathing deeply to orient himself and swam towards his sub, thousands of questions still clawing at him. Could he even breathe air? 

Would Bruce kill him on accident trying to get him back to the cave for medical attention? He set the little mer baby- who was now entirely limp in his arms- in the wet-room of the sub. 

He mulled over these questions for longer than he felt happy about, and ended up draining the water in the room quickly anyway, stepping through the hatch the dry area of the sub before shutting the door behind him as fast as he could and re opening the outer doors so the water could flow back into the chamber with the mer baby.

He waited there at the glass, watching intently at the small baby just out of reach, making sure he could see his chest raise and fall- his gills opening on the side of his neck and chest- before leaving him alone. He left the baby floating in the chamber, and sat in front of the controls of his sub, opening his comms.

“Agent A,” Bruce called, his voice somewhat strained. He cleared his throat after, regaining himself. He only had to wait  a minute before he heard the line click open and Alfred’s voice filtered back through.

”Batman,” his response, addressing he had heard, and waiting for more information. A while ago, the two of them had sat down and deliberated on the proper protocol of their comm system. Bruce worried about their identities if it had ever been hacked, and Alfred had negotiated into a nickname system to ensure nothing would ever compromise either of them.

“Ran into a complication while installing, can you prepare a saltwater bath, at least 5ft by 5ft? I have an injurd…” he paused, “fish that I’m bringing back with me,” He winced internally at his own words, predicting the response already.

“A fish,” Alfred responded, his tone dry. Bruce ran a hand through his hair. He was still trying to sort through his own mind, he couldn’t detail anything to Alfred right now.

”I’ll explain when I get back. Batman out,” He disconnected his line and booted up his engine, taking a moment to orient his sub towards Gotham before speeding off through the depths back to the cave. The quiet drive helped him organize his thoughts. He enjoyed the twenty minutes of silence, but his mind couldn’t help but drift back to the baby he had in the other room while he approached the batcave.

This time, he surfaced the batsub instead of docking it in the underwater vehicle bay so he could step directly onto the shore. It was only cold stone beneath him as he walked up the stairs to the main platform.

Alfred was standing next to a kiddie pool, already half filled with water, a siphon sticking out from the sea water of the caves own pools and draining into it. It was pink with little beach balls evenly spaced around it.

“Master Bruce? Not that I disapprove of your… caring heart… but I am curious as to what happened?” Bruce tugged off his mask, shedding himself of his scuba suit and leaving it in a heap below him on the floor. He stepped out of the suit an undershirt and shorts before walking over and sticking his hand into the kiddie pool, testing its temperature.

”Honestly… I think it’s best if I just show you,” he said after a moment, his hand wading through the water.

“This should be filled enough, thank you Alfred. I’ll go get him,” Bruce wiped his hand on his shorts and turned back to the sub, descending the stairs and into it quickly.

“ Him ?” He heard Alfred’s questioning voice behind him.

In front of the wet-room, Bruce was relieved to see the child was still breathing, his chest rising and falling evenly. There didn’t seem to be any more blood drifting from his skull, which was an extremely good sign. Bruce was worried he had killed him with the amount of blood that clouded the waters earlier.

He drained the room and quickly stepped inside, cradling the finned baby in his arms and quickly stepping out of the sub and onto land, rushing as quick as he dared to as not to slip, and towards the pool.

As soon as Alfred’s eyes laid on the baby- small face pressed into Bruce’s chest with his mouth hanging open, and arms curled in close to his own chest, tail hanging over Bruce's arms- he gasped.

“How on earth did you find him? What happened? I thought you were replacing the cameras?” Alfred stepped back as Bruce lowered the child into the kiddy pool, gently letting him go until he drifted to the bottom. It was deep enough that he was fully submerged, and Bruce knew if he climbed in it would go up to his waist.

”I was… he just showed up and started clawing at me. I- I dont really know why or where to go from here,” Bruce admitted. Both of the men sat in silence for a moment, watching the peaceful face of the small boy as he laid beneath the water. Bruce broke the quiet.

“He was bleeding from his head, but it seemed to have stopped by now. He bashed it against my armour,” he winced guiltily, and Alfred comforted him with an arm on his shoulder, “I think he’s fine now? It stopped bleeding when I brought him into the sub, but he hasn’t woken up yet.”

Alfred reached his hands into the pool, delicately prodding through the dark hair of the boy as he checked for any lumps. He frowned as he pressed more specifically at a spot behind his head- the spot he had bashed against Bruce’s armour.

”There’s some swelling, but I think he will be fine Master Bruce. I’ll keep an eye on him, see if he gets any worse.” Bruce nodded, struck for words as he just watched Alfred look over the boy.

“I believe you have an appointment with a Mr. Ragdoll, if I recall correctly?” Bruce shook his head in annoyance. He had totally forgot about Ragdoll. 

To be honest, he didn’t really care anymore. Ragdoll never hurt people, only stole, and he felt like he had more important things on his mind at the moment than another precious million dollar painting.

But Batman was a responsibility, not a choice, so he steeled himself and stood anyway.

“Right” he said,  “I’ll be going out. Could you keep an eye on him? I don’t want him to hurt himself if he wakes up.” Alfred smiled up at him, a fond knowing sort of look.

“Of course, Master Bruce. Good luck. I’ll update you if anything happens.” Bruce’s lips quirked up, and nodded towards Alfred, before turning and heading back towards his suiting room to don his usual suit as Batman.

Chapter Text

When Dick was finally able to open his eyes, his head aching, everything was wrong. He couldn’t build up enough energy to move, but the pinkish walls surrounding him with the grey sky made his skin crawl. His body, his instincts screamed at him that his environment was dangerous, and he needed to get up.

But no matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t get his thoughts in order enough to piece together what had happened, what had brought him here. He was confused, and fear was starting to shiver through him. He twitched his fins, turning himself onto his stomach instead of his back after a lot of effort so he wouldn’t have to look at everything above him.

It was overwhelming.

But the floor was just as pink as the rest of his cave, little round blue balls occasionally breaking up the solid smooth surface. He was confused, and tired, and in pain and scared again. He was tired of being scared.

Small ripples dragged his attention away. The smell of flesh filtered into the water moments after, and he felt soft gentle fingers on the back of his head, pressing carefully at his sore spot, making him squirm.

Ah , he realized, calming down almost immediately. The pink was a tail. He had been taken in by a mer, and they were now tending to him. 

Maybe he had been injured? Dick didn’t really remember. He just purred and turned onto his front again, staring through the water up at the distorted image of an older mers face. He almost sobbed in relief when their eyes met. This mer would pick up those heavy rocks for him, would shell his crabs and debone his fish. He didn’t have to do it all on his own anymore.

He didn’t realize the weight that surviving had crushed him with until now, when it lifted off him all at once. It was like he had a hook in his fin that was dragging him down as he tried to swim, and all at once it was expertly taken out. He could swim freely, without worry or pain.

In his daze he wriggled as another hand came to rest below his back, lifting him through the water gently. He cooed, flaring his fins in appreciation to whoever had taken him in. The smell of fish flooded his nose, and he snapped his teeth hungrily as the mer lowered it to his mouth. He swallowed it in one gulp, singing quietly to ask for another. The hand disappeared momentarily, and fish by fish, Dick was fed in the caring embrace of this pink-tailed mer.

After a while, he was extremely full- but still accepted another fish. His stomach was starting to hurt like his head, but he had gone so long without proper food he didn’t know if he would get to eat like this, even if this mer had taken him in. His brain was frazzled, and he had a hard time focusing on anything for too long or keeping track of his thoughts.

Part of him knew he was safe, but the larger part of him remembered going hungry every night, eating worms and small sick fish he could manage to catch. He didn’t know when a meal like this was going to come again and he needed to stock up as much as he could before it disappeared.

Eventually though, the hand stopped feeding and Dick was okay with that. He felt tired, and satiated. He cuddled into the other hand that was stroking his cheek gently. Absently, he registered slightly splashing his fins in the water, but he was already drifting off- rocked gently in his mama’s hold again. He was glad she was back. He missed her.

When Dick woke next, he still wasn’t alone. His head hurt less this time, and he was able to look around enough to be aware of his surroundings. A shiny pink ocean surrounded him. He stretched out, twirling with the movements. He was almost able to relax, to be at ease. Before his mind came tumbling back to him, and the memories of the hunt, of being held down and bitten into at his reef. The thoughts flooded back to him and fear gripped at him again.

He swam fast to the surface, the only way free route could see, and tumbled over the edge of the pink ocean- already crying. In the air, his breaths sounded loud and labored in his own ears, and his crying had a wail he wasn’t familiar with hearing. His parents never let him breach the surface, but he was panicking and terrified, and he didn’t know what was watching him or from where- just that he needed to escape.

A calming, but janky sort of sound filled his ears as arms wrapped around him, and Dick buried his head into their neck while he cried, his chest heaving with each breath. He remembered his pink tailed mer, and just let himself be held by them as he cried.

They were large, Dick noticed vacantly. Much larger than him- like mama and papa had been. Part of his delirious mind reasoned that this mer had chased off the parasite attacking him and saved him, but he couldn’t remember the actual instance. His head still hurt, but it was more of a dull thud now than the piercing numbness from the first time he woke up.

“Shh… its ok my boy, you’re safe.” The unfamiliar language was starling to Dick, but not unusual. He had remembered when his papa had told him stories of his own friends, many different kinds of mers coming from all over and speaking many different tongues. He had taught him a few phrases from the different dialects, but he recognized none of them here.

“I have you now, you’ll be alright, ” He was shushed again, and Dick could recognize the gentle sound of waves being mimicked in the mer’s speech. After a while, he was able to calm down from his panic, his breathing evening and he found himself hiccuping only occasionally. After that, he sang- his voice sounding weird to himself- quieter in the air. But he sang anyway into the chest of his mer, trying to tell them how grateful he was in any way he could.

He had been so scared, he was sure he would be eaten alive by monster but this mer had saved him. 

He pulled his head back to look up at him. He was old, face sagging with age and hair greying. It only comforted Dick more. With mers, age meant strength. He had fought his way through life this far, had won every battle and Dick was sure he was capable in taking care of him.

He was picked up slowly and gently, the mer never breaking eye contact as he carried Dick over and placed him back in the pink and blue mini ocean. He swam out of his mer’s hands and circled the pool a little. He was starting to feel better, if not a little tired from crying.

The mer looked down at him from outside. Dick wondered why he didn’t get in with him, and reached out to grab at his hands. The mer let his arms dip into the pool, but remained firm other than that. Dick tried to pull him in harder, and was only met with a flashing of teeth in amusement. He growled in frustration, tugging harder. He wanted to lay on him, have him rock him to sleep again but the mer was stubbornly rooted in place, outside of his reach.

He turned to be facing away, his arms stretched and holding the larger mers hands from behind him as he swam forward with all his might for a couple seconds, grunting with the effort before sighing and letting go, dropping to the floor of the mini-ocean. He wiggled from side to side, trying to mimic the feeling of currents. He would rock himself to sleep tonight again.

Chapter Text

Alfred had always prided himself on being self-sufficient, responsible and dependable. He would easily remember all of his responsibilities and tend to them carefully, no matter the distraction. Especially after he had come into possession of Master Bruce, a small wounded but still rambunctious child that seemed to cause chaos wherever he went.

This specific situation, however, he cut himself some slack for. Despite his responsibilities in th manor, he couldn’t bring himself to leave the small dark haired child- just watching with his arm resting over the inflatable pool’s edge as the tiny child slept. He resembled Master Bruce remarkably well when he was his age. It filled Alfred with the same warm feeling he had when he first took Bruce in, the small child plagued with grief of his own reality, parentless and thinking he was alone but Alfred was able to provide him the warmth and comfort of a family. Alfred was determined to show this child a kind home as well.

He may not be the child's (both Bruce and the mers) parent, but he would care for him the best he could. It was in his nature to bring small hurt children under his wing.

He smiled as the cub twitched in his sleep, small melodic sounds drifting through the water from him as he twitched and squirmed slightly in the water. Alfred had noticed the tiny frown on the younglings face the moment it started, and reached his hands into the water to cradle the mer baby in his arms. He was careful to keep him in the water, ensuring his two sets of gills were submerged and free to breathe in the water as he rocked him in his arms. The frown was quickly replaced with a relaxed expression, and Alfred was grateful that his instincts he had used to raise Bruce seemed to transfer to here as well.

He was quite adorable, Alfred thought. Though he had many questions about the appearance of this merchild, he was at least grateful he could be a part of helping him heal while Master Bruce was otherwise occupied with the Ragdoll. It had been many years since Alfred was able to take care of a child, and as much as he loved the man Bruce had grown into, he didn’t realize he had yearned for the simplicity of comforting and providing for a child again.

When the merbaby seemed consistently content, Alfred gently lowered him to the bottom of the pool and retreated, wiping his hands on one of the towels in the stack he had set besides the pool. The child would be hungry when he woke, and Alfred walked calmly towards the landline phone sitting on the desk just to the right of the computer. There, he ordered many different types of fish- unsure what the child would be adapted to eating. 

Sardines, salmon, trout, tuna, halibut, carp, eel, bass, pike, bluegill- even shark. He wanted options, the idea of this child waking up hungry and crying for food while Alfred had nothing to feed him was something that simply could not happen. 

After a second's thought, he also ordered several types of shellfish, starfish, and vegetarian options for the mer. He was sure the child was at least a carnivore, several sharp pointy teeth in his mouth that Alfred had taken a peek at while he slept- but he ordered many different types of common vegetation options anyway just in case this mer was particular with his diet. He wanted to be prepared.

By the time the small boy woke, several containers of ice-cooled fish and vegetables surrounded the pool.  The movement of the fish turning on his stomach caught Alfred’s attention, and he gently lowered his hands into the water to brush around his head, checking the swelling of his injury. He was glad to see it was still scabbed over, hidden by hair and still not bleeding. The size of it had gone down, and after a few years of treating Master Bruce’s own head injuries, he could tell the child was healthy in his healing.

Overall, though, Alfred was worried. What he had first accepted as the mer’s colour he had soon noticed that not all of his scales were the translucent pale blue. Some were dark, an almost purpley black-blue colour. Alfred had no knowledge of this species, but he had just known that the darker scales were what his colours were supposed to be, the lighter ones hinting towards injury or disease.

The dark blue scales were overshadowed by an overwhelming amount of slightly blue tinged white ones. Even though Alfred knew nothing of the mer species, he could feel in his gut that this wasn’t good at all- this mer had been close to death when Bruce had come across him.

Bu the baby seemed to be happy enough, if not a little confused. Alfred drifted him up towards the top of the pool with his hand on his back, and the baby’s eyes tracked all over the cave as he did so. Alfred would be worried for his lack of focus, but the child was vibrating softly in his grip, quiet trilling sounds echoing through the water in what he assumed was contentment.

He knew nothing of mer biology or culture, but he knew in his gut that the child was comfortable. He lowered the first fish into the water- a skinned and deboned section of trout. Before it even reached his mouth, Alfred laughed when the child chomped its sharp teeth at open water. He dropped it into his mouth like he was a baby bird, and was only a little concerned as he didn’t seem to chew and just swallowed the fish whole.

He wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept of eating fish like this , so he just grabbed another chunk and fed him again. The fish baby didn’t struggle, but he did squirm in his hand with each fish fed to him- less of a desire to escape than the childlike desire to be moving at all times.

Alfred took the energy as a good sign, and continued feeding him until his movements started to get lethargic, and his face would scrunch up with every fish he ate. Master Bruce would make the same face when he was full, still poking around his plate to eat more and please Alfred despite his appetite being satiated.

Alfred stopped feeding him and instead stroked gently at his cheek and neck. The child’s eyes finally met his for a prolonged amount of time, and they just watched each other affectionately as the child settled from his meal, swaying him slightly in the water as Alfred watched the child’s eyes droop and eventually close. 

He smiled, setting the child at the bottom of the pool once again before drying his own hands.

Chapter Text

Batman’s encounter with Ragdoll hadn’t been specifically hard to deal with. No one was in danger, no one was dying, there were no riddles to solve- but by the end of it Bruce was exhausted. Chasing a ritches stealing meta who could contort into almost any small crevasse was stressful in its own way. Instead of watching for civilians, something large he could easily hold track of, Bruce had to keep his eye out for any nook and cranny Ragdoll could squeeze into and escape. And Gotham was full of nooks and crannies.

Which is exactly what happened tonight. He had rescued the item of interest- a painting made entirely of true metallic paints-gold and lapis and emerald- worth millions, but Ragdoll had found a sewer grate about four inches wide below a hatch below a chunk of building that had crumbled, and Batman could only glare at his enemies dissipating white eyes as he slowly slinked down the tunnel and disappeared again.

So much for his bait.

Back in the cave, he shed his bat suit and left it on the floor in a heap again- a habit Alfred had accosted him for many times- and ascended the stairs. He was eager to check on the fish he had rescued. 

Alfred had sent him a few photos on the non-emergency line, and Bruce had been grateful to see them as he let the Batmobile drive him home. He had worried the entire encounter with Ragdoll for how the child was doing, but the photos of him sleeping or eating fish had Bruce put at ease.

However, when he got into the cave he was quick to start running over the slippery stone when he heard a distinct wailing in the air. That’s where he found Alfred, sitting on the floor with the crying merbaby in his arms, face buried in his shoulder and tail trailing out from behind him and limp on the floor.

”What happened?” He demanded, worry lacing his tone. Alfred glanced over at him in surprise- he was back earlier than he usually was. 

“I’m not sure. He must be scared, the first time he woke he was still a little hazy, but his sleep must have healed him more and caused him to panic when he woke again,” Alfred explained, one of his hands wrapped around the mer’s back and the other carding through his hair.

Bruce knelt down besides the two of them, placing his own hand on the mers neck and rubbing soothingly. 

“I have you know, you’ll be alright,” Bruce affirmed. Alfred smiled slightly at him as they comforted the mercub together.

”He can breathe air, then?” Bruce questioned, after a moment of silence. The mer was still wet from the pool, and his gills were unmoving but each cry was paired with a hitch of breath and a shallow inhale.

”It appears so. I was going to put him back in the water when he first leapt out his it seems he has lungs able to breathe out here, and I didn’t want to distress him further by moving him.” Bruce nodded, switching his hand to his back to stroke comforting patterns along his scales.

”We should probably take x-rays soon. I don’t want to injure him on accident.” Alfred hummed, shushing the mer as he slowly started to relax in his grip.

After he stopped crying- oddly no tears ever falling down his face- Alfred accepted Bruce’s hand and raised to his feet, carrying the baby back over to their pool before lowering him once again into its waters. His eyes were now clear, and alert as Alfred looked down at him. He had his entire focus.

The mer broke his eye contact only to circle his pool slowly, before turning and grabbing at Alfreds hands again. Alfred smiled, glancing towards Bruce who also had a small smile playing on his lips. The mer tugged at his hands softly, seemingly trying to bring him into the water with him.

”Determined, isn’t he?” Bruce commented fondly.

”Reminds me of you when you were small, Master Bruce.” Alfred caught his eye, and Bruce smiled, looking away for a moment. When he looked back towards the pool, the mer was facing away, hands still gripped on Alfreds as he squirmed in the water and thrashed to pull him in. Bruce laughed, watching as he eventually let go then wiggled at the bottom of his tank, eyes falling shut.

”Less fishy, I hope.”

Alfred chuckled.

Chapter Text

When he woke up, it was to two sets of eyes peering down at him instead of the one he had been expecting. At first, his instincts sang at him dangerously in caution of this new threat- this new predator- but Dick eventually calmed and trusted in the other older mer to choose his company wisely. He was much better off with two mer’s taking care of him than the one, and a part of his chest constricted as he compared it to his mama and papa. 

He felt lucky, having found this new family. Dick had no way of knowing, but in the wild many mer children had starved- whining in loneliness and grief- suffering without another mer to save them once their brooders had passed and left them alone. Dick was lucky, extremely lucky , to have been rescued by this small pod.

The new mer, a younger face with his matching blue eyes and dark hair, lifted him out of the water- his gills sealing as he was exposed to air and his lungs taking over as he breathed pure oxygen. He was confused to why he was being removed from his water, but not against, as the newer and younger mer cradled him in his arms- avoiding his eye as he rocked him. He was speaking in that same weird gurly language to his other mer, who Dick could smell was near, but out of his sight range.

Dick twirled his head around to look at everything he hadn’t been able to see from his ocean as the mer carried him in his arms, propelled forward on his two long non-fin like legs. The pink and blue waters he was taken from moments ago was much different that his own reef. He had never been able to go to the surface, but both his mama and papa had told him of when they would go together. Dick wondered if this is where his papa had hunted tuna before.

His father, John Grayson, had described the endless blue darkness of his tuna hunting grounds in great detail- and Dick compared this new experience to what he had heard of from him. Endless dark rock with screeching, chittering fish on the ceiling staring at him with narrow and predatory eyes. Maybe that was tuna? Or another deep sea fish.

He couldn’t see the sky from here. His first thoughts had been this is what the surface was like , but the lack of sun made him doubt. The surface always had sun, that’s what he liked best about it. He dreamed of laying on rocky beaches and soaking in the light. His reef was close enough to the sky that the light could filter down, feeding all of the creatures with its warmth’s, but with mer’s thick skin he never felt anything but the cold currents around him. Not that Dick minded, of course, he was built for it- but it didn’t stop him from yearning.

He must be in a cave, then. There were many caves in the ocean, and he knew many of them had air pockets like this, though usually the air was supposed to be staler? Maybe this was stale air. He had never been before, once again only hearing stories.

That must be why his mer’s looked so weird. They needed their four limbs to crawl on the rocks in the stale air as well as swim. A tail wouldn’t do him much help here. He could hear and smell the cold splashing water surrounding the cave, and was only a little grumpy that they resolved to keep him in the tiny pink tide pool instead of in the real water.

The dark rock was soon replaced by the sizzling sun, light burning into his eyes that he shut almost immediately as he felt the mers set him on a cold surface. He felt them drape something heavy over his tail, his waist and chest. It was also cold.

When he opened his eyes, metal surrounded him- vibrations and whizzing sounds all around as he was moved deeper into the light-demon. He trilled in distress as he watched his mers slowly disappeared from his sight as he was swallowed, worming around on the cold waterless reef below him as the light glowed brighter and another brighter whizz filled his ears.

He yearned for his pool again, he didn’t like this light grey mouth he had been put inside- its purring only making him anxious. Was it eating him? He couldn’t see any teeth or smell any flesh, but he was slowly being slid back towards its throat.

He tried to move, but cried out in fear when his limbs wouldn’t budge and he was trapped. Panic reared full force at him, and his muscles screamed in danger, he thrashed while crying out. He didn’t like this cave anymore, he didn’t like the creature these cave-mers had put him inside and he didn’t like that he was held down in this unfamiliar area.

The experience made his old fears come back, and he once again felt the arms of the parasite around him- also cold. He was being attacked again, twice in so many days. These mer’s didn’t want to take care of him, they wanted to feed him until he was plump and aching so he would be fish food for their beast.

He cried, heavy waterless breath after breath as he thrashed in the hold of this predator and keened. Terror grew in his body, sharp and cold alongside his blood as he thrashed. He was dying; he was dying. He was dying .

He was dying again- his fate would always come for him. Dick was destined to die in a painful, agonising process. Confined to lying on his back, open and vulnerable.

He was being eaten by this grey beast, throat and stomach (the most delicate parts of him) defenseless to the creature as it swallowed and hummed at him. Dick’s heart squeezed when he though about how this is what his parents would have seen if the mer had swallowed them whole. If they were Dick’s size, they probably would’ve been.

He sang his desperate songs, pleading to the creature to let him go, to let him go . He didn’t deserve this- he had tried so hard to be good. He had listened to his parents stories and their warnings, listened aptly as they taught him how to survive- how to pounce and hide and swim away. He knew which bugs were poisonous and which were good for making traps. He had learned so much already.

But he was young, and nothing he learned was enough to save him.

He wailed, an oxygenless echo through the dry water. He wanted to go home, he missed his urchins and his worms. He wouldn’t take it for granted again. He may go to bed lonely, and hungry, but he would be alive .

This metal beast that swallowed him sucked the moisture out of him, absorbing his life slowly. His scales were drying- crunching and shrinking- they were falling away from him. He thrashed in his bonds and warbled out begs in Atlantean- desperate for anything, anyone , to understand him.

Please… please… Don’t leave me here! Don’t let me die- mama- mama please! he begged. His heavy breaths choked him. He couldn’t see anymore, black spots overtaking his vision in his panic.

Please… I’m sorry… The Black Death etched into his being.

He passed out.

Chapter Text

Bruce sighed as the boy curled away from him in the corner of his pool, his tail wrapping around himself protectively and fins blocking Bruce from seeing his face. He felt incredibly guilty after he had passed out in the MRI, and he was pretty sure the merbabies wailing cries would echo in his mind for a while.

He waved his fingers in the water lazily, trying to coax any type of movement from the boy, to reassure him that the two of them would never hurt him and that he was sorry. It only made the child curl into himself even tighter.

Bruce sighed. He couldn’t help but feel like the little trust he had started to build between them was crushed. He had only been in his care for a short while and he was already traumatizing him. A child. 

He ran a hand over his face and forced his mind to stop the spiral before it happened. He needed to do something productive other than just brooding beside his pool and hoping he would come up.

Something like… naming him. He couldn’t keep calling him ‘the child’ or ‘the merbaby’ forever. Well, he could, but he didn’t want to. 

He thought for a moment, what did he know about him? His tail was- where it was healthy at least- a dark blueish purple, almost black. When the light shined on him, his hair would shimmer in the same colour.

But it felt disingenuous to name him after his looks. Besides- what would he name him? Blueberry? While it was a fitting name for a fish it felt… condescending considering half of the child was just that- a child. 

So Bruce pivoted and focused on what else he knew of him, of his behaviour. He took a moment to cut up and dangle a strip of eel into the water as he thought back to that first day he had met him. All sharp claws, pointy spear and snarling face. He was certainly ferocious. Bruce smiled a little thinking about it.

It had been startling to hear the melodic calls echoing through the water- the growling, trilling and chirping. Almost akin to a bird he had noticed, that had perplexed him at the time. 

“Robin,” he decided. 

It fit him, he thought. While birdwatching was more Alfred’s thing, a bit of the hobby was naturally passed down to Bruce over the years, and one of the types of chirping coming from the mer reminded him most of what he remembered to be the American Robin. 

“I’m sorry Robin,” he apologized, “but it was necessary. You’re sick and injured, we just want to help you heal so you can go home.” He knew the likelihood the boy understood him was slim to none, but he felt guilty not even trying to help the boy understand the situation Bruce had forced him into.

He sighed again when he couldn’t coax him out of his ball with the strip of eel. He tossed it back onto ice and packed it away, cleaning his hands on the rag he had draped over his lap and stood up. 

He frowned down at Robin. He looked so… small. Especially now. The pool they had him in was big enough, especially considering his size, but Bruce couldn’t help but compare it to the large expanse he would have had before in the ocean. Surely trapping him in this little pool wasn’t doing much for strengthening Robin’s trust in him. 

He left the boy, keeping him in his line of sight as he sat at the batcomputer and started pulling up the map he had of his underwater cave system.

He was grateful for his earlier work on blocking exits and reinforcing areas that were in danger of collapsing. Surely he could repurpose it as a temporary home for Robin while he healed? So he would at least have some room to swim around, and even hide from them if he needed to.

The idea of Robin hiding from him made him anxious. What kind of trouble could he get into outside of Bruce’s eyes? Would he burrow into a cave and stay there until he starved? He had nothing to base a mer’s behaviour on. Maybe Bruce permanently damaged their bond and he would rather go hungry than resurface to eat.

He worried at his lip as he tracked his eyes over the schematics. The grates that blocked the entrances to the ocean- save for the solid metal door he used for his batsub- were large enough fish could swim through them, but nothing thicker than a fist. Surely Robin wouldn’t be able to survive on that alone. Could he even hunt in this condition? He was pretty slow moving in the water before. Bruce didn’t know how much of that was due to his condition or if that was normal for this age in mer development. Surely he had someone to help him hunt?

He suddenly felt overwhelmed. What was he doing? He had a species he’d never heard of and didn’t know anything about in a pool in his cave. How was he supposed to take care of him, let alone heal him? He was a vigilante, not a zookeeper. He cringed at the insensitive thought the moment he thought of it. 

Not a zookeeper… which he still wasn’t- but he supposed marine biologist would be a more accurate descriptor for the job title he was sorely lacking. He needed help. Help from someone familiar with the ocean and it’s people.

It was then that he checked his messages, relief flooding through him when he saw that Arthur had finally been able to answer him- his messages responding to Bruce’s inquiry about Atlanteans working in conjunction with Gotham’s weapons trade.

A: ehh not really, we tend to stick down where the sun don’t shine. But even for us odd ones out, Gotham’s rep goes pretty far. dont know anyone who would wanna mess with that. 

A: I’ll look into it when I can, im back on land for a few weeks but i have some shit to take care of first, so gimme a few days and ill see what I can find

B: Thank you. If you are on land for a while, I have another situation I could use your particular expertise on.

To that message, Bruce attached a photo he had taken just this morning to track Robin’s healing progress. He was curled up into a ball with most of his fins showing but his human side entirely hidden, so Bruce also attached a photo he had taken the first day of him sleeping flared out on his back in Bruce’s arms. It was the most descriptive photo in terms of displaying the whole length of his tail and upper body, and definitely wasn’t taken by Alfred because it was adorable at all. 

That’s what the seven other photos on his camera roll were for. 

B: Agent A and I gave him an MRI, he seems mostly healthy internally, but the scale colour is concerning as well as his small size. Is this unusual? Any additional information regarding health or maintenance would be appreciated. 

B: We have been feeding him an assortment of fish, he seems most appetized by shellfish, but has been accepting local fish as well. I am unsure of his dietary or habitual requirements outside of that and fresh salt-water, which we are changing regularly. Please let me know as soon as possible. 

He set his phone down and glanced back up at the quiet, unmoving pool. Not a peep, not a splash. It made Bruce feel even more guilty. He continued his work on going over the cave system, opening each program that controlled the gates and ensuring they were still functional and the motion sensors intact, checking on them with the security cameras he only had pointed at the exits.

He only had to wait twenty minutes before Arthur’s response chimed in his phone.

A: jesus where’d you find him? he looks pretty rough, his scales should not be that white. keep feeding him what he wants mers are omnivores so what you’re giving him is fine for now. give me half a day and I can be there

A: cover the pool with a sheet it might help him relax he’s pretty spooked looks like

Then, a few minutes after,

A: …do you know atlantean?

No, no he did not.

Chapter Text

When a shade passed over his tide pool and hid him completely from the cave creatures sight lines, Dick had finally allowed himself to uncurl from  his protective ball and swim around a little. He shook off the stress, both from the anxiety he held in himself while curled up and the soreness it had caused in his body. The pose came to him instinctually, protecting the vital more sensitive parts of his body with his tougher scales- but it wasn’t meant to be held for a significant amount of time. 

He didn’t have much room to swim around in, and he newly felt suffocated by the walls keeping him in such a small area. He wanted to go back home to the safety of his winding coral system, where these creatures would no longer be able find him.

He was sad again. What he had thought could be a new family just turned out to be cave mers mimicking the caring actions of one, feeding him fish until he was too full only so he could be a satisfying meal for their creature. 

He moped around his tank, swimming in circles for quite a while. He was hungry, but he didn’t want to eat. He didn’t want to try and lift the shade over him and risk drawing the attention of the cave mers, who would probably only feed him to try again with the beast. It had probably spit him back out after he passed out, still too sick and skinny to be worth eating. 

Eventually, it was surprise that interrupted his routine. There was a faint, but familiar scent that had entered the room. With the shade completely covering his tank, it was harder than usual to make out what was outside his water, but his nose was sensitive and his sense of smell strong so he focused as hard as he could on it. This scent was more of a pheromone than a smell, one of the ocean and power.

He knew he had never smelled it before, but it still tugged at him, an almost instinctual part of him recognizing it. There was a third voice in the cave that day, talking to one of the mers as he heard the two of them shuffle around the cave for quite a while. Dick pressed against the sides of the slippery tide pool, pressing his ears to the walls to try and hear more. 

It was then that he heard him approach- he was sure it was a ‘him’ even if he didn’t know why. He turned away to swim to the top and raise his head from the water, pressing his nose against the shade to try and smell more- extremely curious as to who he could be.

That was when he felt a little boop against his nose through the cloth, and he flinched back, almost dipping below the water in surprise. He heard a laugh, quiet but still boisterous and friendly sounding. 

“Hope I didn’t scare ya,” the voice said, deep and casual, but in Atlantean!

”I’m not scared,” Dick defended before he could think better about speaking back, a little embarrassed in front of this new mer that he had been in fact a little scared.

“Right, right, of course not,” Dick tried smelling the air again, trying to grasp who this mer was and why he smelled so familiar. “What’s your name?”

Dick’s mind was brought back to his parents teachings, his warnings to be careful of giving his name out to people he didn’t know. “Why? What’s your name?”

He laughed again before answering, “I just wanna see if I can help you out, I’m Arthur.” The name rang a bell, but Dick was having a hard time placing it. Arthur…

Maybe he was one of his mama’s or papa’s friends? Maybe a relative? Dick had never met any of them before but his parents talked about them often- that would certainly explain why he smelled familiar.

”Did you know my mama or papa?”

”I dunno kiddo, I know a lot of Atlanteans, what are their names?” Dick frowned. If he was here to help him but he didn’t know who he was, maybe he was a stranger. But maybe he had just never known Dick existed. Maybe his parents left to create the reef before he was an egg and none of his extended family knew about him.

”John and Mary,” he said, a little sadly. The man, Arthur, made a thinking noise.

”Doesn’t ring a bell, sorry kid.” Dick didn’t say anything back, and after a moment of silence Arthur changed to speaking in that weird rough sounding language, responding to the cave mer that had spoken to him in a voice more gravelly than usual. They exchanged a few sentences before Arthur was back to addressing him.

”Can I move the tarp? I wanna make sure you’re good in there.”

”Tarp?” He questioned. Dick hadn’t heard this word before, and wondered if maybe Arthur was just messing up how to say ‘trap’. Dick messed up with his words sometimes too. 

“Yeah this thing,” he saw as the shade indented as Arthur tapped on it. Dick raised to coil his tail under him to balance and pushed off the ‘tarp’ himself. It was lighter than he thought it would be, and slid off easily.

“Y'know you didn’t tell me your name,” Arthur said. He had tan skin and wavy dark blonde hair. He certainly looked more Atlantean than the other two mers, just judging by his hair. Dick remembered his fathers own longer hair, and the… the longer hair of the mer who had killed them. He hadn’t seen hair as short as the cave mers other than his own still growing hair.

”Richard,” he answered finally. He glanced around the room, looking for the cave mers from before when he suddenly flinched violently and hid behind Arthur to block his view of the new ominous looking creature standing a few feet away. 

“What is that ?” He demanded, a little fearfully. It was tall, shrouded in black with sharp horns on its head and glowing white eyes staring at him. The only place that was light-skin coloured was around its mouth, lips pulled tight in a frown. 

Arthur looked confused before glancing over to where Dick had been looking then started laughing loudly. Even after he stopped and looked back at Dick, he had a grin on his face.

”That’s Batman, I guess he is pretty spooky huh? We’re cool, he’s the one that saved you,” Dick frowned. How would Arthur know who saved him? He wasn’t even there.

”No he’s not.” Arthur raised an eyebrow.

”Pretty sure he is,” he said back.

”He isn’t!” Dick insisted.

”Alright, then who did?” Dick frowned. Technically, he didn’t remember who saved him, but when he had woken up, it was with the black and grey haired cave mers. 

”The cave creatures did,” he informed Arthur, who’s smile dropped a bit and he raised his eyebrow again.

”Cave creatures?” Dick nodded, glancing around Arthur to peek at the horned creature. It hadn’t moved an inch, and Dick was glad it hadn’t approached. 

”Uh huh, and they fed me fish until I was really full and then they tried to feed me to their monster but I think it spit me out, but they keep trying to feed me after so I think they’re gonna try again,” he was suddenly worried again, reminded of his fate if he didn’t get out of here soon. He grabbed at the side of the pool and tried to lift himself out of it, only for Arthur to push him back by his shoulders.

”Woah, easy there cowboy, they’re not gonna feed you to any monster. I don't really know if this will make sense but spooky over there,” he pointed with his thumb, “is just wearing a costume. He’s one of the guys who saved you, brought you here ‘cause you’re sick.” Dick glanced down at his pale fins. “Where are your parents? Did you get lost or somethin’- your scales are lookin’ pretty rough.” Dick couldn’t help the quiver that started in his lips as he stared up at Arthur at the mention of his parents. 

“They… um-“ he tried to stop the wobble in his voice, but his eyes were stinging and his throat was tightening up, “they’re not…” Arthur frowned, nodding in understanding. 

“So you were alone then, huh?” Dick nodded sadly. Arthur was silent as he thought about that for a moment.

”Are you hungry? Bats said you haven’t eaten anything in a bit.” Dick swallowed, pushing his tears away to regain his voice, grateful for the change in topic. He willed himself to be brave. 

“Cuz they’re trying to feed me to their monster! If I’m small he wont eat me and he’ll spit me back out again,” Dick argued, a little frustrated when Arthur didn’t seem to believe him. 

“Like Hansel and Gretel?” He was smirking a little, and it made Dick scowl that he wasn’t being taken seriously. 

”What’s that?”

“It’s like- this witch feeds these two kids Hansel and Gretel a bunch so she can cook and eat them.” Dick’s eyes widened in horror. They were going to feed him to a Sea Witch?? His mom told him stories of the witches in the seas, a cursed tale of a mer Ariel who lost her voice and her tail and was left beached on the sand to dry out for the sky creatures to eat.

“Yes! They’re going to eat me- you have to help!” Arthur ran a hand over his face, but Dick caught the small smile hidden behind his palm and he growled a little that Arthur wasn’t listening .

“They are!! They already tried!” He yelled.

”Ok- ok look, that’s that wasn’t a monster, I get it was scary but-“ Dick slapped his hand out to hit Arthur’s chest in frustration, his squeezing his eyes shut.

“You weren’t there!” He yelled again, “you weren’t there! It was going to eat me and they fed me to it and I tried to get them to stop but they wouldn’t listen! They never listen- you aren’t listening!” Arthur grabbed his hand gently, trying to guide it away from pounding on his chest.

”Woah, woah easy- don’t hit me, that’s rude. Look, just trust me, okay? They aren’t going to hurt you.” Dick felt blue in the face, angry and frustrated and hungry, so he flipped in the water and smacked his fin over Arthur's face before swimming away from him and curling with his back towards the annoying Atlantean.

It was silent for a while, and Dick was tense knowing Arthur was just watching him. He stayed still and refused to turn and look at him until he heard an exasperated sigh.

”Ok, ok fine. How about this, you take this little shell- and if they try to feed you to the monster you can crush it and i'll know to come over and put them in jail or something, how's that?” Dick turned, eying the small curly shell Arthur held in his palm. 

He mulled it over for a moment before swimming up and grabbing the shell from him, looking at it unimpressively.

”This is just a shell.”

“No- no, it’s a very special shell. A- uh, royal shell. It can talk to royal Atlanteans when crushed, that’s how I’ll know to come over.”

”Royal…?” Dick thought out loud.That’s- that’s what he knew his scent from! His eyes widened and he braced himself on the edge of the tide pools wall to get a closer look at the Atlantean- at the king! He had never met him before, but every ocean creature knew of Atlantis’s king- of the Ocean Master.

”You’re King Arthur!” He grinned, clutching the shell in his fist as he nearly vibrated with excitement. Arthur seemed like he was taken off guard, before nodding and returning his smile eagerly. Dick could see it now, the blond hair and jewelry adorning his hair and neck, the slight bit of tattoos peeking out from his jacket.

”Yeah… you didn’t know that?” Dick shook his head, reaching his hand out to pull at one of his necklaces, now immediately more curious. His mama had told him about the enchanted pearls King Arthur wore around his neck- one pearl for each promise he made to the sea to protect it’s people, the magic keeping him and everyone under his rule safe from evil as long as he served them as a protector. 

“Nope,” he sang, dragging him closer by the necklace so he could look at the pretty blue and green pearls. Arthur let himself be dragged closer. 

“Are these really enchanted? Is the shell really magic too, is that why it’s orange? My papa told me you can use your trident to do spells like a sea witch to turn people different colours and that’s where octopus got their colours from. Can I see the trident?” 

“Woah, one at a time buddy. How about you eat some food while I talk to Bats and then we can sit down and answer some of those questions, alright?” Dick nodded, letting Arthur detach his hand from the pearls on his necklace and stand up.

While he still wasn’t entirely convinced the cave mers hadn’t tried to feed him to a creature, he was a little more comforted knowing that as long as King Arthur was here, he wouldn’t let them hurt him anymore. He looked at the shell, rubbing his fingers over the soft surface. It was orange and red, and it reminded him of his mothers tail. 

He couldn’t feel any kind of magic coming from it, but either way it was pretty and a gift from the king so he held it carefully in his palm. He would keep it safe, just in case. 

He glanced over at the dark looming creature, meeting his eyes and shrinking in on himself a little. It’s face lightened a bit from a scowl to a soft smile before his view of him was blocked by Arthur and the two of them walked together towards the white boxes he knew they stored his food in. 

He hoped they brought the crab this time.

Chapter Text

“You don’t happen to have a cave monster that you tried to feed him to, do ya?” Bruce moved his eyes from where he had been watching Robin to meet Arthur’s with an unamused look.

”No.” Arthur shrugged, dropping down into the seat next to him as he pulled the tablet Bruce had presented to him earlier into his lap. He scrolled idly through the information while they chatted.

”He seemed pretty convinced you were fattening him up for sacrifice. He doesn’t recognize you as Batman either, were you in your civvies earlier?” Bruce nodded. He wished he was able to unmask for Robin’s sake, but with Arthur here he couldn’t reveal his identity. He trusted him, but he trusted himself more. The only person in the league who knew his identity was J’onn, but it’s hard to hide a secret identity from a telepath so Bruce figured it wasn’t the same. 

“We performed an MRI test to ensure he didn’t have any concerning internal injuries. He appeared scared and ended up hyperventilating. He’s been curled up in a ball since then. He thought it was a monster?” Bruce watched as Arthur scrolled across the MRI information, studying it with a neutral look on his face that assured Bruce he hadn’t missed anything too concerning medically.

”He thinks you and Agent A are cave creatures, I don’t think he knows what humans are,” Arthur set the tablet back onto the table. He turned his attention to crack open one of the white coolers with seafood, rummaging through it and mumbling a checklist under his breath. 

“Cave creatures?” Arthur glanced up at him briefly with an amused look on his face and pulled out a bag of clams, setting it on the desk. Bruce picked up the tablet swiftly as a fishy wet puddle started to stretch towards it, and gave him a pointed look.

”Yeah, that’s what he said. I’m assuming he’s never met many people other than his parents. You got a knife? I told him we’d feed him while we talked.” Bruce pulled an oyster shucking knife out of one of the boxes and handed it to him. He looked surprised, like he hadn’t been expecting him to actually have one, but accepted it. 

“Does he have parents?” Bruce almost didn’t want to ask. He felt like he knew the answer already.

”No, not anymore.” Arthur stood, pointedly avoiding Bruce’s eye at the sad news as he walked over to Robin’s pool. Bruce’s heart felt heavy, and he couldn’t help but look at Robin and see himself in the boy. Young, orphaned, and alone. Bruce was lucky to have Alfred in his life to scoop him up, help him heal, but Robin didn’t have anyone. He had been alone on that reef for who knows how long before Bruce found him.

”He’s letting you feed him?” Bruce changed the subject as he approached to stand behind Arthur, who nodded. He crouched at the side of the pool, and they both watched as Robin surfaced slowly, glancing between the two of them unsurely. 

Arthur said something in Atlantean to him then held up the bag, and Robin changed from looking a bit nervous to nodding his head eagerly, stretching out a small arm to reach for the bag. Arthur set the clams down and fished a few out, cracking them open and piling them three of them into his small hand. He turned his attention back to Bruce while Robin ate.

“He definitely doesn’t understand what the MRI was, he said something about being too skinny to eat so my guess was he probably avoided meals so you wouldn’t try and feed him to it again.” Bruce frowned, guilt pooling in him all over again. He knew he should have stopped the test the second he started crying, but the information it provided was extremely important and Bruce needed to make sure he didn’t have any extreme health conditions that would require his immediate attention. 

”He’s fine now, though?” Arthur shucked a few more and dropped them into his palm when Robin had finished the ones from before, letting the shells fall below him to the bottom of the pool.

”Yeah, I told him I’d arrest you if you tried to kill him. Speaking of- I also told him that the shell is magic and it’s 100% definitely just a shell, so if he ever crushes it, call me ok? I told him it would summon me. Don’t wanna get caught in a lie,” Arthur smirked at him, and Bruce bit back a smile. Arthur turned to Robin, chatting with him a bit in Atlantean as he ate. Robin seemed to do most of the talking, rambling on with food in his mouth as Arthur tried his best to keep up.

Robin glanced at Bruce a few times, and he knew he was asking Arthur questions about him. It seemed to amuse the man, though, so Bruce tried not to worry about what they were saying. He wondered what his impression of him was, standing so poised in a giant dark bat costume. He hoped he wasn’t too frightening for the child, and he wished again he could peel his mask back to show him he was just Bruce, the same man from before.

There was a moment of silence and Arthur turned to Bruce, extending the bag. “You should feed him a bit, try and get him to warm up to you a bit more. I want to go over the map of your cave system. He needs more room to swim around if he’s going to heal properly, plus he’s getting pretty bored.”

Bruce took the bag from him and kneeled beside the pool. When Arthur was turned in the other direction, he offered a small smile to Robin who had moved to float a foot away, no longer holding out his hand. Bruce could see where he clutched the shell in a tight fist at his side.

He shucked the clams just as Arthur had, and held them out, clearing his throat gently as he focused on remembering the few Atlantean phrases and words he had studied prior to Arthur’s arrival.

“Hungry?” The language sounded weird in his mouth, but he was glad he at least tried because Robin perked up a little and stretched his hand out, letting Bruce hand him more clams when he recognized the word.

Robin responded in Atlantean, but Bruce couldn't recognize any of it. He frowned and focused, trying to remember his translation for ‘I don’t understand’.

He must have butchered it because Robin gave him a confused look, and tried asking something again. Bruce glanced behind him at Arthur, who had his nose buried in the tablet. 

In English, this time, Bruce held up a handful of clams. “Clams.” Robin just stared at him for a moment, so he repeated it. “Clams.”

Robin said something in Atlantean, and Bruce just cracked open some more from the bag and handed it to him, “clams.” He hoped with enough repetition, Robin might be able to learn some English. 

He turned to Arthur, “What is the Atlantean word for clams?”

Arthur, without lifting his head, answered, “doyrin.” Bruce turned back to Robin, repeating the Atlantean word and gesturing towards the bag. He then repeated it in English as well, and Robin looked up at him with a more understanding look.

”Clayms,” he parroted, sticking his hand out and making a grabbing motion. Bruce smiled, and gave him a few more. Some of them, he would pick out the meat, but other more stubborn ones he would just pop in his mouth then spit out the empty shell into the water like a human would to watermelon seeds.

“Yes, doyrin. Clam.” Bruce offered him a few more, but Robin didn’t accept them. He wiped his hands on his tail and swam over to the edge of the pool, pointing in the general direction of Arthur, looking at Bruce.

He said a few things in Atlantean that Bruce missed, and when Robin seemed to recognize his confused face, he slowed the sentence down. He emphasized one word, pointing furiously towards the boxes. “Karkin!”

“Karkin?” He questioned. Robin nodded, and Bruce stood to drag over the few white boxes. He put the clams away, and pulled out a fish from the top, showing it to Robin.

”Is this karkin?” Robin frowned, shaking his head.

”Arh, karkin!” Bruce knew ‘arh’ at least meant no. He set the fish back, and pulled out several more in a row, asking Robin if this was the ‘karkin’ he had meant. He knew he could ask Arthur, but he liked trying to work together with Robin to figure out what it meant. Robin, however, seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated, and coiled his tail under him to launch up the side of the pool, flopping himself halfway out to try and grab at the boxes himself.

Bruce gently held his shoulders and pushed him back into the pool easily despite Robin’s wiggling to try and stay out. He scowled at him.

”Easy, we’ll get karkin, just give me a second.” He picked up another fish.

”Karkin?” Robin’s scowl deepened and he crossed his arms in front of his chest like Bruce was heavily inconveniencing him.

”Ae’ehl’ithu aekh’setae.” He pouted. Bruce’s attention was snapped away when Arthur started laughing loudly, lowering his tablet to glance over at the two of them with a big smile on his face.

”What?” Bruce questioned. Arthur only laughed harder, leaning back in his chair and shutting his eyes for a moment.

”He’s getting angry, karkin is crab. He wants crab” Arthur turned back to his tablet smiling.

”What did he say?” Bruce glanced back to Robin, who looked a little sheepish, then turned to Arthur who was still scrolling through the schematics.

“He called you an idiot. Ae’ehl’ithu.” Bruce frowned and turned to Robin.

”Don’t say that, that’s rude. Arh basheb, ae’ehl’shi.” He lectured. 

“Ae’ehl’ithi,” Arthur corrected, “and the sentence is more accurate as ‘gwenog aekh’setae dig ae’ehl’ithi’. Kind of translates to ‘kill your bad language’. Like a light scolding.”

”Gwenog aekh’setae dig ae’ehl’ithi. Don’t say that,” It was certainly a mouthful, but Robin seemed to understand enough and looked scolded.

”Werosi,” Bruce assumed it was some sort of apology from the regretful tone Robin had. He smiled, and dug through one of the boxes he hadn’t opened to pull out a bag of small soft shell crabs. He had gotten softshell so he wouldn’t have to worry about shelling them for Robin, and he handed a whole one over.

He immediately looked excited, “karkin! Neh, karkin!” Robin seemed to understand Bruce didn’t know much Atlantean, keeping his sentences short and with few words. He didn’t know what ‘Neh’ meant, but he would learn.

”Karkin, crab.” He said, watching as Robin stuck the whole thing in his mouth and crunched on it, sticking his hand out for another before he was even done chewing. Bruce handed him another and he shoveled it into his mouth alongside the first, stretching his hand out again. 

”Settle down, one at a time,” he waited until Robin had finished chewing and swallowing before handing him another. Like he was protesting the slow feeding, Robin just swallowed this one whole and stuck out his hand again, looking expectantly at Bruce. 

“Arh, chew it first, you’re going to choke,” He cut the next one in half just in case, which made Robin give a few upset clicks as he swallowed that one whole too. 

“Do mer’s normally swallow food whole?” He asked Arthur.

”Small fish, usually. Small shellfish too. They don’t need to chew and the calcium is good for their diets, but the smaller they are the more of a choking hazard it is, especially for bones. I’d keep shelling and deboning until he’s old enough to do it himself, or feed him small fish like sardines.” Bruce hummed, feeding Robin the other half of the crab.

”I’m going to take a swim around the cave system for a bit, see if anything is living down there that could hurt him.” Bruce nodded, and Arthur set the tablet aside, walking down a few steps and passing the both of them. He said some Atlantean to Robin, who nodded and watched as he climbed down to the shore and dove under the water.

He gave Robin a few more crabs, then packed the bag away when he stopped asking for more about five minutes later. Bruce glanced towards the lip of the water Arthur had disappeared under.

He looked back to Robin, and wiped his hands on the towel before gently starting to peel back his cowl. He wanted to show Robin that he didn’t need to be scared of him, and that Batman and Bruce were one in the same. He almost regretted it when a look of horror passed over Robin’s face as his cowl was lifted, but once it was fully off and hung behind him, Robin seemed to understand that it was indeed a mask, and a look of recognition passed through his eyes.

He still seemed unsure with the whole situation, frowning and floating gently near the edge of the pool. Bruce let a gloved hand fall into the water, splashing around a bit. With his other hand, he pointed to himself.

”Bruce,” he said, “anik. Name.” Robin’s fins twitched, and he adjusted how he was curled on his tail to sit back, more of his body sinking in the water. 

Bruce thought it was a rejection, but eventually, Robin echoed his name back. “Beruce.”

”Yes, nai! Bruce.” He encouraged. “You? Aekhaete?” As much as he liked calling him Robin, Bruce was sure the child would appreciate being called his own name. 

“Mik’anik Richard lud, mat’im dig anik Dick lud.” Bruce caught Richard, and Dick. Mat’im he thought he remembered might mean parent, or mother. Dick was probably a nickname given by one of them. 

He was about to respond when he heard splashing, and he tugged his cowl back up before Arthur could see. he returned faster than he thought he would, and Bruce sent a sympathetic look to Dick knowing he wouldn’t be able to explain the need for his mask just yet.

He stood, watching as Arthur walked back up the steps, dripping over his floors. 

“It looks pretty good, he shouldn’t be able to break the exits and there’s nothing down there but some small sea life. If you want to let him swim around down there, he’ll be fine. I’d keep feeding him up here, though. Socialization is important, especially since he’s so small, so if he’s going to heal well he’ll need some support. Definitely try and swim with him if you can.” Bruce nodded as Arthur walked past him, kneeling in front of the pool again.

They spoke for a while, and Bruce caught ‘gamok’, signaling Arthur was saying his goodbyes. When he stood, Bruce caught his gaze and nodded in acknowledgement of his help.

”You can let him out today. If you need anything, text me, but I’ll send over some shit you might find helpful. For now though, I gotta go.” Bruce nodded, accepting Arthurs extended hand and shaking it. He wiped the water off on his cape when Arthur turned around.

“Thank you for your help, Arthur.”

“Any time, batsy,” he headed to the far end of the cave, punching a code into the zeta beam and turning just as it fired up.

”Oh, and don’t read him any Hansel and Gretel,” Bruce was going to ask what on Earth that was supposed to mean, but he was already stepping inside and disappearing, his name and code echoing through the cave from the tube’s announcement system.

Bruce glanced back at Dick, who was looking up at him from over the lip of the pool. No Hansel and Gretel, got it.

Chapter Text

When Dick could no longer smell the Ocean Master, he peered over the ledge to see where he had gone. The large silvery tunnels looked unnatural where they were nestled firmly in the jagged stone of the cave, and even more unnatural with the lingering shimmery light coming from inside it. He wished he was able to swim over and take a look at it more closely, but he was so far restricted to this small pool.

If not for the pretty light inside, Dick would have compared it to a larger, scaled version of whatever beast they had kept in the other room and gave him to before. He wondered if they were the same, and how they worked. From here, from much farther away, it looked less imposing. It wasn’t moving at all like the other had been, and on second thought Dick saw it looked eerily similar to the monster that had initially invaded his reefs, with all the black and grey and silver. 

He eyed over at Bruce warily, debating whether or not he could slide himself out of the water without him noticing and intervening. Last time he had jumped out of the pool, he barely made it two tails before he was picked up by the older mer and eventually placed back inside. Given, at the time his goal hadn’t been distance , but the cavers were much faster than him with their legs, so he assumed it was a pointless goal. For now, at least.

It didn’t matter because Bruce- now skinned of the dark shape that covered his head- walked over to him with a small circle of something Dick couldn’t recognize (but looked almost like pearls or beads) held in one of his sharp pointy claws. 

Dick wasn’t as wary as before. He wasn’t sure if he truly believed King Arthur about the magic shell since he couldn’t feel or even smell any magic on it, but he knew the King of the Sea would never hurt him. He can’t imagine why he would be left here if these mer’s weren’t good people.

Still, he didn’t entirely hold the same hopes as before, and eyed the circle suspiciously as the mer spoke to him gently with his hand outstretched and gesturing towards Dick, holding the small beaded circle in his palm out to him. Dick let Bruce grab his arm and gently pull him through the water closer to him. He watched as he slid the circle over his wrist, and spun the beads until they sat snugly against his wrist. 

When Dick’s hand was released, he brought it up to his face to peer at. He was curious as to what it was, and when he stuck it in his mouth it tasted the same as the first gross acidic taste of the parasite he had eaten before. Bruce immediately went to pull Dick’s hand away from his mouth, but Dick beat him to it by lowering the circle from his mouth on his own disgusted accord and wrinkling his face up in displeasure.

“No, no, not food.” Dick didn’t understand him so he didn’t bother listening as he peered at the opaque but pearlescent sheen on the beads. “Uh, to help you. Help. Understand, grow, find.”

The mispronounced and jumbled Atlantean made him sound silly, and Dick couldn’t help but start to grin as he tried to figure out what Bruce was trying to say to him. Bruce just extended his hands outward towards Dick again, and he let himself be gently scooped up out of the water.

For a moment, his heart seized when their actions mimicked perfectly the first time he had been sacrificed to their silver monster, but Bruce stood and walked in the opposite direction of the opening from before, and he relaxed. Dick tried to peer around where they were going, but the hard shell of whatever skin Bruce was wearing on his arms would poke into his sore sides if he twisted too much. 

They walked down a perfectly formed cliff ramp, and Dick perked up when he was finally able to see gently lapping waves wetting the stone of the rocky beach below them. Bruce waited until he was at least waist deep in the cold water to lower Dick in as well, and the second he was out of Bruce’s arms he darted out under the water in a frantic excitement as he began swimming deeper in curiosity. 

While he fit in the tide pool from before, it felt good to properly stretch his fins. With all the energy of being hand fed several shellfish with no space to swim fasr, Dick didn’t feel as lethargic as he had before and he expended the energy swimming around the seabed of the cave, twisting himself expertly around obstacles the same way he would swim through his reef complex with his family. 

The fresh taste and smell of flowing seawater was like a cleanser to his gills, which flushed out what had before been stagnant water. A silvery sheen darted around his periphery, and it had him twisting on instinct to follow the small school of fish.

Whenever he got too close, the fish darted away at the last moment, much too fast for him to catch. The game was fun though, and since he wasn’t hungry anymore, he didn’t let it disappoint him as he chased the silvery fish through different chasms and tunnels anyway.

He was finally able to corner them when they reached a dead end in a decent sized pocket of water. The entrance was large enough for them to swim past him, but not without at least some getting in range of his tail- which he used as his weapon by somersaulting forward with and slamming his fins down through the water to stun several of the silver fish. 

He held them in one fist like he was carrying a bundle of kelp as he swam to the far end of the cave and surfaced at an air pocket. The fish were small enough he could eat them without needing them deboned, and he chewed on the rubbery tail of the largest one as he wriggled himself on shore to look farther down the cave pocket. 

Now that Bruce had released him, Dick figured he was still likely close to the surface. He knew he should get home eventually, but he didn’t see why he couldn’t at least visit the surface once before he went. He thought about his dream of lying on the sandy beaches and basking in the sun, but the farther he peered down the air-side of the chamber, the more he saw how it dropped down, instead of leading up; and he realized that this, at the very least, was not the way towards the beach- even if the inky chasm intrigued him greatly.

He ate the last two fish in his hand whole so he could use both his arms to help wriggle and slip back into the water. He looked around, admiring the gently glowing plant-life clinging to the walls and noticing how it followed down onto the floor too in a large green carpet. He was starting to get tired from all the movement, so he settled for curling up on the soft moss and kelp rather than trying to find his way back to his reef. With all the softly flowing water brushing over him and the comforting aura of the ocean, he fell asleep quickly, and at ease.