Arthur's pace as he swam into the throne room of Atlantis was an infuriated one. He sped away from the disaster that was his supposed collaboration with the 'Justice League' he had unwittingly joined, utterly disappointed. His frown was so deep, so sunken on his face that it reflected his expectations of any further team-ups with his so-called friends in regards to Atlantean matters. It was most likely due to the fury on his face – the mere sight of his foul mood too obvious to ignore - that motivated Mera's use of her hydrokinesis upon his arrival.

He stomped his feet down onto the floor of the illustrious room just as the water washed over his body and exited the space. His domineering presence was felt by all, and typically, he'd try to ease himself when in the presence of the palace guards in order to avoid isolating himself from the culture he had been absent from for a great deal of his life. Thankfully, it was none other than Mera who commanded the room and delivered the order he wished to give, "Leave us."

Together, Arthur saw their aura as a terrifying entity to those who opposed them and their guards weren't so foolish to do so.

Armoured feet clamoured to vacate the throne room. Arthur stared down his greatest ally – his only one, it felt like – as he awaited for the noise to cease. Once he was certain they were alone, a heavy sigh filled his chest and spilled out while he made his way to the throne. "Today was such a disaster."

"Even with the help of your League?" Mera's mocking tone was thick enough to suffocate a person of land or sea. He knew all too well that she wasn't a fan of his home beyond the ocean, and in that moment, he couldn't be bothered to argue with her about her disfavour. Instead, he planted his trident in its stand and then moved his hands to scrub his face.

"It's because of them that I'm so…pissed!"

"What happened? Didn't they find the source of the radiation?"

Her eagerness to hear him fault the surface-dwellers only egged him on. Arthur whipped his head around and spoke to her as if he was giving a formal complaint at a Justice League meeting. "Oh, they did! Only when it almost blew up in all of our faces!"

Mera's eyes widened ever so slightly, her typically cool demeanour keeping her from emoting her shock further. Crossing her arms over her chest, she simply awaited a more detailed account of the mission he had just narrowly survived.

"They did," Arthur spoke again, calmer this time, hoping to provide a thin defence for the League before he continued to tear them apart. "But, if Bruce had kept his damn mouth shut, Wonder Woman, Superman and I could have avoided nearly dying in a nuclear explosion." He finished his response with a sardonic smile.

Before he could delve deeper, Mera held out a hand to ask him to pause. "Bruce is the one…who is called Batman." It was stated, but she was clearly asking for confirmation.

Arthur gave it to her by stepping down from the throne and referencing the hero in question.

"He's the one who was supposed to monitor the radiation from his damn plane over the water, while the three of us fought off Black Manta and his cowardly army." To think that such a wretched man had found his own minions to threaten Atlantis with boiled Arthur's blood. Cowards, they were, setting up something so vicious and deadly without any concern for the ocean Black Manta hoped to one day rule.

"Superman is more than capable of handling a bomb," Mera assumed, based on what information he had given her about his 'co-workers' over the past few months. Whether she was intentionally drawing him away from his rage or not, it worked and he awaited to hear where her train of thought was headed. "You two could have handled things on your own."

Arthur shook his head. "No, Wonder Woman was the one who came in contact with the bomb the most. That was the problem."

"I don't follow." Was her understandable response to such an odd remark.

It was Arthur's turn to cross his arms, hoping to keep his negative emotions locked up inside his burning chest. "The lives of all Atlanteans were at risk, which is why I brought in the League. The plan was to help Superman make it to the bomb so he could take it into space. We're fighting off Black Manta's soldiers while Batman was locating the bomb, telling us how much time we had before it went off and released enough nuclear energy to decimate the entire city. He even gave them both these breathing masks so they could stay underwater for a long time." For some reason, he mimicked the shape of the mask with his own hand.

Mera arched her brow at him, clearly disinterested by the means of which the League were able to do assist their Aquaman. Arthur knew that all she wanted to know was whether or not they had saved Atlantis, and the details of the land-dweller technology was not something she visibly cared for.

He chose to turn his mask-mimicking hand into a fist at his side before carrying on. "There were a lot of Manta's men, so it was an unspoken agreement that whoever got to the bomb first would at least get it to the shore as fast as they could. But!"

"But?"

"Halfway through the battle, Wonder Woman had an opening to reach the bomb. Batman knew what she was planning and started fighting with her over our communication channel, trying to coerce her to help me, or Superman, and it was so damn distracting. She lost her chance, but then she got another one, and another one, and every time she had a clear path to the bomb Batman would just scream at her and say" – in his best impression of the overtly serious man-bat did he say – "Don't you dare risk it! Leave it to Superman!"

Despite the continuation of his story, Mera's expression did not falter at all. There was a moment of silence, a beat passing between them, before she inquired, "Isn't Batman the one who hunted you down? Isn't he the one who's supposed to be running this League of yours?"

His knowledge of Mera made it so that he knew not to laugh at such a comment. "I'd say they both run it – him and Wonder Woman – since they're the ones who brought us all together."

He expected further analytics about how unintelligent Bruce was, or even for Mera to offer up a proper strategy of her own on how the battle should have gone. Instead, much to his surprise, her stance softened, her arms fell to her sides, and she uttered only a simple, "Oh."

Arthur's head reeled backwards in shock. "Oh?" He repeated her with his surprise twisted into his tone.

"Did Batman say why he was unwilling to let Wonder Woman risk her life, after providing her with the gear she needed to participate in the mission?"

"Because we don't know if she could have handled the radiation if the bomb had gone off."

"Meaning it didn't. Meaning you won. He was most likely being careful and considerate of his team's strengths and weaknesses to avoid a fatal loss."

Arthur didn't care for that mentality; as one who trusted the strength of those he fought with, that sort of hesitation was more problematic than sensible in his eyes. "Maybe he was being too-cautious and wasted more time than he should have!"

He expected Mera to acknowledge his point of view, to understand the basis for his exasperation and immediately doing what she did best in conversations such as these: lampoon those who were not of the sea. It was the reaction that was most in tune with the personality of the proud Atlantean before him.

However, much to his disappointment, she spontaneously chose to act as a devil's advocate and suggest, "Or perhaps there's more to Batman's side of the story."

"More!?" Arthur's bottled animosity nearly sent him soaring through the roof of the palace, as if the throne room was still filled with water. Nothing in his mind could possibly justify the risk Bruce had taken with his 'cautious' and 'considerate' behaviour!

Nothing!

Calmly, much more so than she'd ever spoken to him before, Mera suggested something so profound, it made Arthur's head spin. "Perhaps while you were sacred of losing our people, Batman was scared that he'd lose her." Then, her eyes became slightly hooded, implicating yet warm. There was some kind of understanding behind her pale green eyes that wouldn't reach him, as he couldn't imagine how Bruce could compare losing Diana, to him losing all of the people of Atlantis, his long-awaited home, his true family, the people that he had come to love—

Now, it was his turn to utter a very unintelligible, "Oh."

His recognition of her hidden meaning was rewarded by a rare Mera smile. Sardonic in its own way, there was a hint of something genuine witnessed only by someone who had come to know her as well as he had. She began to approach him, graceful step after graceful step, much too pleased with herself as she teased him. "They're your people too, this Justice League – if you hadn't yet noticed, I could be wrong."

"No," he answered quickly, despite how weary he now felt. "Hearing you say it like that, it suddenly makes sense… Still doesn't make all that chaos okay, though."

Arthur was surprised even more by the way Mera kindly accepted his stubbornness. While she sauntered in his direction, he realized that she wasn't walking towards him, but rather, she was exiting the throne room through one of the archways behind him. In passing him, she concluded their conversation with her final thoughts on the matter. "It doesn't, but the mission was successful, and now you can at least understand your teammate a little better."

Arthur turned to watch her leave as she spoke so high and mighty, acting as if she had solved some mystery that had been beyond the comprehension of even the heir to the throne of Atlantis. His eyes trailed over her all-knowing form until she was completely out of sight. Then, in the room vacated of both water and company, after having a bombshell of information dropped on him, Arthur smirked to himself as he had a concluding thought of his own.

Yeah, he realized, maybe I do.

((After that Batman 39 issue, I wanted to collab with fellow WonderBat fans and give us something to love about our favourite DC ship. So, trentan and I came up with a series of WonderBat's firsts! This chapter is about the first time someone noticed they were in love. Really, it's about the last person in respect to the JLU, but I didn't specify which universe this story takes place in so that any fan can enjoy. Hope you like it, and hope you look forward to part 2! ~ Maiden))