Gifts From the Sea, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo
Chapter 43 - Like the Lost Boys of Neverland (part 1) [rough draft 2]
THEN:
Dick missed the sun.
He didn't realize it for a couple of weeks, and he didn't know why he was so eager to go with King Arthur to the surface world to talk to humans about oil spills. The king did the talking. Dick sat on the balcony in his wheelchair and took off his hoodie because no one was looking. He felt the warmth on his face and bare arms and wondered why he was so happy even though after a while his skin started to itch the way it did when it got too dry.
He realized it as he was looking out over the city, watching the sort of shine and sparkle that you couldn't get deep underwater. It was the sun. It was the light, how bright and clear everything was here. He was a mer and was meant to be in the ocean, but he'd been born in a tank in the surface world, not the ocean. He hadn't even seen the ocean until Bruce had taken him away from his captors.
The ocean was in his blood but the sun was in his heart, and he suddenly knew that no matter how good Atlantis could be, it would never be his home. He had nowhere else to live, but he couldn't stay there forever. He needed the sun.
o.o.o
He realized he missed the wind, too.
Ever since he found Kori, he'd spend whole days in the surface world with her and only go back into the dark waters at night while she slept.
A lot of times when they kissed, she'd float. He started lying on her when they kissed so there was nothing to hold her to the earth, and she'd float higher and higher and sometimes she'd start to fly. And then he'd forget to keep kissing, and they'd both laugh as she swooped through the air holding him safe, and then he got the idea for her to drop him and catch him, and that was even better.
He missed the sun and the wind too much. Humans didn't want him anymore, but maybe he could find his own place in the surface world, just for him and Kori. Somewhere with light and air where they could be happy.
o.o.o
Something whooshed. Without Kori, he would have never known what it was, but she could fly fast, so they followed.
The whooshing things were a lot faster than Kori, but she was fast enough to keep her eyes on them and follow them, with Dick in her arms watching, too. The whooshing things veered, and because they weren't going straight anymore, Dick and Kori were able to catch up. They watched, hovering, as the chased whoosh suddenly lashed backward and attacked the chasing whoosh. The chased whoosh didn't stop, it whooshed away back to shore, but the chasing whoosh screamed in pain and as soon as it stopped, it sank.
Dick looked at Kori, and she looked back. "Drop me," he said, and she opened her arms. He put his own arms together to cut into the water with barely a splash, and he quickly found the fallen whoosh.
It was a person, a young human boy struggling desperately in the water. Dick grabbed the human and brought him up to the surface.
The human gasped, pushing soggy red hair out of his face. He stared at Dick, then at Kori, who'd come drifting closer. "Hi," he said.
"Hi!" Dick said. "I'm Dick. That's Kori."
"I'm Kid Flash. Um...thanks for helping me. I shouldn't have let him bait me out into deep water."
"Do you want to go to land?"
"Yes, please!"
"Do you want me to swim you or Kori to fly you?"
"Um...either? I'm just...super-hungry right now, it's hard to think about anything else..."
They got Kid Flash to shore, and Dick caught fish for him to eat and Kori cooked them with her hands. Kid Flash gulped them down fast and still looked really hungry, so Dick and Kori caught and cooked something a lot bigger. Kid Flash stared at it, but then he ate it and finally he looked better. He smiled. "Nice to meet you, by the way."
Dick smiled back. "Yeah."
o.o.o
Kid Flash's real name was Wally. Wally could run so fast, running all over the country wasn't hard for him. Kori had her spaceship, but she didn't know what to look for. Wally did. He ran all over the east coast and then the west coast, and would come back with pictures and stories for Dick and Kori. When they found a good place to live, he wanted to come with them.
They were looking at one of the places near sunset, then the sun finished setting and they were still there, so they decided to sleep on the beach because it sounded fun. Wally ran to get snacks and Kori flew away to make sure there were no humans nearby to chase them off. Dick lay on the beach and admired the sandcastle they'd built earlier.
Kori hadn't thought to start searching so close to them. Dick looked up and saw someone watching him from the top of a dune. "...Jason?" he called. Jason was dead, but this boy looked so much like him, skinny and red-haired and ragged in a hoodie with shoulders hunched like he thought someone was going to hit him.
There was a pause. "Are you a mermaid?" the boy called back. He didn't sound like Jason.
Dick waved his tail and wondered how to answer. Maybe he should escape into the ocean. A lot of humans weren't nice. "No," he called, just to see what would happen.
"Uh, you have a fish tail."
"Then why'd you ask?"
The boy slid down to the bottom of the dune and Dick hand-walked closer to the water. He lowered himself again and the edges of the waves played over his body.
"That looks kind of ridiculous," the boy said.
"What does?"
"Walking on your hands like that."
"I don't have legs to walk," Dick pointed out.
"Oh. Uh...yeah, good point." The boy tilted his head. "You must be pretty strong." He looked down at the sand, then bent over and tried to walk on his own hands. He fell.
Dick crawled closer and started explaining how to do it right. The boy tried again, but he still hadn't managed to hand-walk before Kori and Wally came back. He was able to hold a handstand for almost ten seconds, though.
"Uh, hi?" Wally said.
"H...Hi," said the boy, staring at Kori.
The boy's name was Roy, and he was sleeping on the beach, too, because his dad had kicked him out and he had nowhere else to sleep. He started sleeping in Kori's ship every night and playing with her and Dick and Wally during the day, and they decided that when they found their new home, Roy would live with them, too.
o.o.o
They found their own home near San Francisco.
It was empty, so no one would stop them from moving in, but it also had someone else's name on it, so they had to keep it secret, even from King Arthur.
The day Dick left Atlantis, Garth came with him. "I want to see what it is about the surface world you love so much," he said.
They were all strong and good, so when they saw bad things happening in town, they stopped them. It became a regular thing, and they started to find more and more people like them: young people, special, lonely, powerful. Donna came to them, shining with stars and truth. Raven and Gar, lost and alone. Vic, whose dad had been mean to him, too; who looked so relieved when they smiled at him even after seeing his silver face.
"We don't need dads," Dick said. "Or normal people. We can be our own family."
His friends smiled at him and agreed.
o.o.o
Green Lantern came first. He floated in front of them and stared. They glared back, and Kori and Raven rose up to float, too, so he wouldn't be above all of them, and Gar turned into a giraffe and loomed over him.
"You kids should go home," Hal said.
"This is home," Dick said. "Go away."
"You're a bunch of teenagers, you can't just hang out in some old S.T.A.R. Labs facility like it's a frat house."
"Yeah? Who says?" Vic growled.
Hal threw up his hands. "Whatever; I'm not a babysitter. I'm letting your actual babysitters know where you are, though."
He flew away. The next day, Wonder Woman came. She hugged Dick and smiled at the others and then went to talk to Donna alone in a room. When they came out again, Donna looked happy and Wonder Woman hugged Dick again. "I leave my sister to you," she told everyone. "Please treat her well."
"Of course!" Wally said, giving Donna a friendly punch on the arm.
Barry was the next one to come. He and Wally argued a little bit, but not too loudly. Barry looked more worried than angry. "Call me," he finally said. "Every day. And I'll be checking in regularly, too."
"Fine." They looked at each other, and their shoulders were stiff. Then Barry sagged a little and smiled, and Wally smiled back and they hugged. "See you around, Uncle Barry."
"Stay safe, kiddo."
Superman was the last one to come. He looked around the Tower and talked to all of Dick's friends, who were called the Teen Titans now. When Dick was sure Clark wasn't angry, he asked to fly, and Clark flew him very high. Dick loved it.
They came back down slowly. "Hey, kiddo," Clark said as they drifted, and now he was serious. "Your dad's not doing so great, you know. He misses you. I understand if you don't feel like you can live with him for a while, but maybe you can give him a phone call every so often?"
Dick had a phone now. Roy's dad hated him, but the credit cards still worked, and Roy had gotten phones for all the Titans who wanted one. "I don't want to call B," Dick said. "He hates me."
"He does not hate you, Dick."
"Yes, he does! He said 'Go away, Dick, I don't love you'!"
Clark gave him a look. "Did he really say that, Dickie?"
Dick pouted. Maybe not with his mouth, but he'd still said it. "He doesn't talk to me. He yells at me. I try to talk to him, but he goes away and drinks or sleeps. He doesn't hug me, even if I hug him. I said I was going away, and he said okay. He didn't want me to stay."
Clark sighed and touched his forehead to Dick's. It felt nice. "He's really sad, Dick. It really hurt him when Jason died."
"It hurt ME, too! I miss Jay and want him back! But I want to be with B so we can both hurt, but he doesn't want to! He wants to be alone!"
Clark didn't say anything for a while. Then he said, "At least call him. Even if he doesn't answer, leave a voicemail. It'll cheer him up to hear your voice." Dick was still thinking about this when Clark added, "He's already a lot better now that he's got Tim to look after. Maybe more kids will equal proportionately higher spirits?"
Dick was staring at him. "Who's Tim?"
"Oh! Of course you wouldn't know. Bruce found another one." Clark took out his phone and showed Dick a picture.
It was a picture of Bruce - and an octopus mer. The mer was very small and cute. He was giving something to Bruce, and Bruce still had hair on his face, but other than that, he didn't look like he had the last time Dick saw him. His face was gentle and full of love, and he was looking at the small new mer like he used to look at Dick.
He was looking at the octo-mer like he loved him. He didn't love Dick, but he loved this little one, and Dick was so stupid because it HAPPENED AGAIN. He thought it was a mistake last time, that Bruce hadn't really replaced Dick with Jason, that he loved them both. But...but it happened again. He hated Dick but he loved this new little one.
He'd lied. He didn't take more and more children and love all of them. He only loved one or two at a time, then he got tired of them and found a new one to replace them with. "I hate him," Dick said.
"Dick," Clark said. He didn't sound happy.
Dick threw the phone. "I hate him!"
"DICK!" Clark rush to catch the phone, which was fun, but then he glared. "Dick, if I didn't have superpowers, you would have destroyed my phone. I can't really afford to get a new one right now."
Dick flopped his tail. "I'm mad."
"I can see that..." Clark sighed. "Why did that photo make you so angry?"
"B made me go away because he's sad. But he's NOT sad, look!" He pointed at the phone.
"That little moment in time was almost a fluke, Dick. He misses Jason so much, he's so unhappy. Taking care of Tim distracts him, makes him forget about missing Jason for a little while. But he's still sad sometimes and getting a message from you would really help him a lot."
"I want B who took me to the house and loved me. I don't want this B, he hates me."
"You're just as stubborn as your dad, huh... I promise you, kiddo, Bruce loves you a lot."
Clark finally landed on the Tower and stopped talking about Bruce, and they went inside to eat and talk about better things. Dick asked for the picture, and Clark sent it to his phone. Then Clark left, and Dick looked at the picture for a long time, at Bruce's face and at the little mer who wasn't Dick.
TBC
