Chapter Text
Dick grew up, like everyone else, being warned away from the sea.
"It's not safe," he was always told, "The mers don't come near shore often, but you can't risk it."
He knew they were right, but he couldn't resist.
He'd picked up the hobby when he was about 16- he would tell his dad that he was going to spend the day with friends, then he would drive out, about an hour away to a smaller town where the water was a little cleaner, park himself on a cliff overlooking the sea, and try to get a glimpse of a mer. He only saw them from a distance, it was true that they rarely came to shore, but even from afar, he could tell they were beautiful, and huge. Their size was what made them so dangerous, even if they meant no harm, if they were just curious, if one grabbed you it could crush your spine without even meaning to. But their size was also what made them so fascinating.
Seeing one was enough to take anyone's breath away, and he knew from the first time he spotted one, seeing those giants breaching the waves was too enthralling to give up. Enough so that, when he got old enough to leave home and move out, he knew there was no place he'd rather be than that little town by the sea.
Years later, he still couldn't stop himself.
It was raining pretty hard that day, so he was, of course, perched on the cliff, his usual spot, a towel wrapped around his head and shoulders to protect him from the rain, looking out over the water.
Heavy rain was a surprisingly good time to spot mers. They would rise to the surface of the water and raise their hands and faces to the sky. The ones doing this were always small (for mers, anyways), by his estimate they were usually 50 feet long or smaller. Juveniles, probably. Full-grown mers were almost always at least 80 feet.
He hadn't seen any today, though… and he could already hear thunder rolling in. He groaned in disappointment, knowing he couldn't stay out if there would be lightning. Even he wasn't that foolhardy. He picked himself up and started towards his van.
After a few steps, he turned to look back- out of the corner of his eye, he had seen something on the beach below; something rolling inland, pushed onto the sand by the harsh waves. It came to a gentle stop in the middle of the beach. Dick looked up at the sky; he hadn't seen any lightning yet. He crept back towards the edge of the cliff and looked down to the shore below.
His first thought was that it was just a rock. A really big, round, smooth rock, but the more he looked at it, the more off it felt. It was too smooth, and it was a bright white color, not to mention he'd never seen a rock so big wash up on shore like that, even during a storm- it had to be at least a foot in diameter.
He glanced back at his van, then turned his gaze back at the object. He heard a distant clap of thunder and saw the sky light up.
He sighed, stood up, and headed towards the steep trail leading down to the beach.
It was becoming more and more obvious the closer he got to the object. This wasn't a rock, or a ball that ended up in the ocean before getting washed ashore again. When he knelt down in front of it and gently touched his hands to the object's hard, but fragile surface, his suspicions were confirmed.
It was an egg.
And an egg this size could only be…
He looked out over the sea. There was no sign of any adult mers, no massive sea creatures rushing towards the shore to chase him away from their egg. Would its parents eventually show up if he left the egg here? Or would it dry out if left on land for too long? He couldn't put it back in the water, not with this storm raging and no way to know it would be protected. Would it stand a chance if he just left it here?
… Would it stand a chance if he took it home?
He had a pretty big fish tank in his apartment. The last fish he got for it had died about a month ago, but he'd still changed the water a couple times, so it would be ready if he impulse-bought more fish or something, so it would at least be clean enough. He'd have to figure out something else once the egg actually hatched- he wasn't sure how big newborn mers were, exactly, but he didn't think one would be able to thrive for very long in his 60-gallon fish tank- but maybe he could take it to… an aquarium, or something? Some kind of marine wildlife rehabilitation center? There had to be something.
Another clap of thunder, and lightning striking the water- much too nearby for comfort. Dick couldn't stall this decision any longer. He wrapped the wet towel that had been draped over his head around the egg, and rushed with it back to the van.
Thankfully, he ran into no one as he made his way home. The other townsfolk tolerated his strange hobby without much more than some raised eyebrows, but there would be far more questions if they saw him soaking wet, holding an egg bigger than his head, and he did not feel like answering any of them.
Which made it all the more enraging when he opened the door to his apartment, and the first thing he saw was an all-too-familiar face surrounded by curls of dark hair.
"Jason." Dick said, "What are you doing here."
"Making toast." His brother responded.
"In my apartment?"
"Power's out at my place. And Tim got into an argument with Dad."
"Tim?"
Another voice piped up from the living room- Jesus, Dick hadn't even seen him- "Uh, what is that?"
"It's none of your business, Tim, now both of you go home." Dick nudged past Jason to get to his living room.
"But our toast isn't ready."
"I don't care about your toast, I have bigger things to worry about right now." He set the egg down, gently, in the fish tank. He kept it partly wrapped in the towel, even though it was surrounded by water now. It just felt right.
"No kidding." Jason stepped behind him. "Is that… real?"
Dick nodded. "I mean, I think it is. I saw it wash up on the beach. If it's fake, someone went to a lot of trouble to make it seem real."
"What were you doing on the beach?"
Dick rolled his eyes, Jason knew exactly what he was doing on the beach. "Your toast is burning."
"Oh, shit."
Jason hurried back to the kitchen, and Tim took his place next to Dick, staring at the massive egg.
"Tim, you're smart. Do you have any idea what my next move is?"
"Uh... Actually, maybe?" Tim knit his eyebrows. "I think I read about an aquarium in California that found a mer egg washed up like this once. It didn't end up hatching, though, it died in the egg."
Dick felt his heart sink a little bit- if an aquarium with actual resources and experts couldn't keep a mer egg alive, what chance did he have?
But Tim continued, "They eventually realized where they'd messed up, though. They didn't keep the water it was in warm enough."
Dick perked up a little bit. He could work with that.
"Jason!" He called out to the kitchen, "You and Tim keep an eye on this thing for me for a little."
"Why do we have to babysit your egg?" Jason replied through a mouthful of half-burnt toast.
"You broke into my apartment and stole my bread." Dick said as he headed to the door. "Also, don't call it my egg, that's weird."
One trip to the pet store and a brand new aquarium heater later, Dick was starting to feel like he had half a prayer at making this work.