Gifts From the Sea, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo
Chapter 43 - Like the Lost Boys of Neverland (part 2) [rough draft 2]
THEN:
Kori was angry, angry, and Dick knew that if he didn't get on her ship quick enough, she'd take off without him. He shoved the wheels of his chair hard and was grateful when Wally pushed him the rest of the way. Roy was the last one, stumbling up the ramp as it started to lift, and then the ship took off.
They followed the sound of Kori's shouting voice to the front and watched as she chased her sister. The ship dipped and swooped so violently that Dick was thrown from his chair, but was caught by Vic before he hit the floor. The mer smiled at him in thanks.
They were halfway across the world before they finally caught up to Blackfire's ship. Kori slammed a button and ran to fling herself out of a hatch, and the Titans clustered at the window to watch as the two Tamaranean princesses battled high above the ocean.
Blackfire got some good hits in, but Kori was winning. Dick's eyes were fixed on her, excited and worried and proud as he watched her fight, and Garth had to call him twice before Dick heard him. "What?"
"There is something flying."
The Titans moved to the other side of the bridge and saw a large red creature gliding in a wide circle, its attention on the Tamaraneans.
"There are people on its back," Roy noted.
"Two of 'em, both kids," said Vic.
Dick looked at Raven. "Can you fly me?"
As always, the feeling of moving so high in the air was amazing, like nothing else he could describe. Dick wanted to bask in it, in the excitement of his body thinking it was in extreme danger while his mind knew he was safe with his friends, but he needed to pay attention.
The children on the flying beast were shouting. Then Dick got close enough to hear one of them yelling his name. "Dick! What the hell are you doing here?!"
"JASON!" Dick yelled back, overjoyed and super-confused. He stretched out his arms as if that could make them go faster, then Raven got close enough and he leaped out of her grasp, tackling his little brother right off the furry dragon.
Jason screamed as they plummeted - apparently he only felt the 'thinking he was in extreme danger' part, not the 'knowing he was safe with friends' part.
Kori caught them a minute later, holding Dick in one arm and Jason in the other. "Did you win?" Dick asked, and she smiled back at him.
"Of course. Kom will not come back, Earth is mine."
"Good job," he said, and kissed her. "This is my brother, Jason." He turned to the selkie. "Jay, this is Kori! She's my girlfriend."
"WHAT THE FUCK, DICK, ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!" Jason shrieked.
"It's okay, my friends can fly!"
"PUT ME BACK! PUT ME BACK ON THE FUCKING DRAGON, YOU PSYCHO FISH!"
They put Jason back on the furry red dragon so he'd stop screaming, then Dick sat in Kori's arms and begged for explanations.
"Perhaps we ought to do this on the ship," Raven said.
Which meant more waiting while the Titans who could fly went back on the ship with the Titans who couldn't, and Jason yelled some more because someone had to carry him from the dragon again, and then the little boy who was with Jason stood very straight and looked at them all and said, "My name is Damian al Ghul, heir of the Demon's Head, son of Talia al Ghul and Bruce Wayne of Gotham, and I am going to rule the world one day."
Bruce Wayne was Dick's dad's- Dick's human's name. "What?"
"He's from a cult," Jason said. "His grandpa is a crazy megalomaniac."
"Do not speak to disrespectfully of Grandfather!"
"Why not?! He's not here to hurt us anymore!"
"No one can escape the reach of the Demon's Head! And he deserves respect anyway because he is a great man!"
"That's just the cult talking."
Dick didn't understand what they were talking about, and he didn't care about it, either. "B is mine. Not yours." Bruce might hate him now, but if he didn't want to be Dick's dad, then he shouldn't be anyone else's dad, either. Because if he wanted to be other people's dad but not Dick's, that would hurt even more and Dick didn't want that. So Bruce was just Bruce, no one's dad, and especially not this little kid who came out of nowhere.
"He said he can prove that Bruce is his dad," Jason snorted.
"I can! I simply need a DNA sample from Father and the proper equipment."
There was more arguing, almost the whole way back to the Tower. Dick didn't like it. He wanted to be happy and hug Jason because his brother was back, but Jason was ignoring him to argue with the little boy who came out of nowhere and they were arguing about Bruce who didn't want to do anything now except cry and drink from smelly bottles and yell at Dick because he hated him, and he said he was sad because Jason was dead but Jason wasn't dead, he was here right now with his bright red hoodie and his bright blue eyes yelling at the little boy from nowhere, and why had Bruce said that Jason was dead when he really wasn't? He said he was sad because Jason was dead, but Jason wasn't dead, so Bruce couldn't have been sad. He just wanted to get rid of Dick and Jason, because they weren't small and cute and helpless anymore. So he'd gotten rid of Dick and Jason and found a new sea baby to be small and cute and helpless for him. He was probably happy now that he was alone except for the little octopus. Happy without Dick.
Which was fine, because DICK was happy now, too, because he wasn't alone, he had friends, lots and lots of friends. He had Kori, who loved him and held him and was beautiful and smiled a lot; and he had Wally, who smiled even more and ran around so fast they couldn't see him sometimes because he wanted to do so many things, just like Dick; and he had Donna, who was so smart and strong like a rock in a storm; and Garth, who knew the song of the sea and could teach Dick all the things the humans had stolen from him when they locked him tanks; and Roy and Vic, who knew exactly what it was like to have fathers who didn't care about them; and Raven and Gar, all his friends who were family now...
Bruce was happy with his new baby and Dick was happy with people who loved him, and it was fine. And Bruce hated Jason, too, but it was okay because Jason could come live with them and be safe, and if the little boy from nowhere stopped yelling at everyone then he could stay, too.
They got to the Tower and Wally and Gar started making food for everyone, and Kori tried to make food, too, but she made alien food that no one else liked, but that was okay because she liked it enough to eat it all.
They all went to eat in the living room with the TV on like usual, but the children Bruce threw away stayed in the kitchen because that's where the table was and Damian didn't want to eat off of anything that wasn't a table, and he and Jason wouldn't stop talking to each other, and Dick still wanted to talk to Jason. Damian kept bragging and Jason kept saying the things he was proud of weren't good and then Damian would get mad and then Jason would get mad back, and Dick was tired of it.
"Stop yelling!" he yelled. "Jay, you were gone! You were gone a long time!"
"Yeah! They fucking sold me to that cult, and they kept me locked up in a room and took my pelt, but finally we escaped. Dick, why are you here?! Why aren't you with Dad?"
"B doesn't love us anymore."
Jason stared at him. "What?"
"He doesn't want us anymore. So I went away. We're too big and ugly."
"What?!"
"Look." Dick took out his phone and scrolled to the picture of Bruce and the octo-mer. He looked at it sometimes to remember why he shouldn't miss Bruce or want to go home. It was good to look at that picture of Bruce being so happy with the little octopus and remember that Dick didn't make Bruce happy anymore.
"What the hell is that?!"
"B got tired of us. He said you were dead even though you weren't, because he didn't want you anymore; and he stopped talking to me except he yelled at me when I poked him too much, and when I said I'd go away, he didn't care. So I went away. And he never tried to get me back because he doesn't want me back, he has a new boy now."
Jason was still staring at the picture. Damian tried to grab the phone out of his hands, but Jason wouldn't let go of it, so Damian held it between them so they could both look. "He said I was dead?" Jason finally whispered.
"Yes. I don't know why."
Finally, Jason's mouth tightened. "He just wanted an excuse to get rid of me."
That sounded right. "Yes."
"He just...he never wanted me. Or he got tired of me. So he just left me there and adopted some little- He'd rather have a half-octopus freak than me!"
"The new one is small and cute," Dick explained.
Jason let go of the phone so that only Damian was holding it, and he got up and stomped out of the room.
Dick looked at Damian. Damian kept looking at the phone, but then he looked at Dick. "Father likes very young mer?" he asked.
"Yes."
"What about very young people who can take the form of a mer?"
Dick tilted his head, trying to figure out what Damian was asking.
"Do you think he will accept me if I present myself to him, or does he require a test of worth first?"
Dick didn't know what he was talking about. He thought maybe Damian wanted Bruce to be his dad, but was scared. "You shouldn't talk to B. You're small and cute, but you'll get bigger and he won't like you anymore."
"He will if I prove I have redeeming qualities." Damian got up and left, too.
Dick felt suddenly lonely and angry and sad, so he went to be with his friends. They always made him forget to feel like that.
o.o.o
Jason came to talk to him again when Dick was trying to sleep. "Go away," Dick signed, and rolled over.
Jason couldn't talk to him when he was a seal, so he started nudging him and then ramming him until Dick finally surged to the surface. "What?!" he yelled.
Jason threw back his hood. "If Damian really is Bruce's kid - his bio-kid - will Bruce want him?"
"I don't know," Dick pouted. "I don't want him to say 'New baby!' now and then 'I don't want him anymore' later."
"Did Bruce already know about him and just not want him or something?"
"I don't know!" It sounded right, except that Damian was still small and cute. He wasn't a sea child, though. Maybe Bruce only liked small and cute sea children, not small and cute humans.
Jason hit the water with his fists and yelled. Then he asked, "Can we live here with you?"
"Yes." Dick thought Jason knew this already.
"I mean, like...it's only Bruce who doesn't want me, right? I mean, not that you have to want me, but you're not gonna kick me out, right?"
"I love you, Jason," Dick said, and hugged him. Jason squirmed and struggled, but not very hard. "I missed you a lot."
Jason went still. "I missed you, too," he said softly. "I thought about you a lot. I don't want that cult to ever get their hands on you. They do horrible things to sea people."
"I'll keep you safe," Dick promised.
"I can take care of myself. But...thanks." Jason put his hood back on and they fell asleep close together.
o.o.o
The Justice League members still came to visit sometimes. Jason wouldn't come out for any of them, even Wonder Woman. "They're his friends," he hissed. "They only liked me when he liked me."
Dick was about to agree, but then he stopped to think. "C'ark likes me," he said. "They're still nice. But they like B, too. They make me mad sometimes."
Jason huffed. "Don't tell them I'm here, okay? I don't want Bruce to find out where I am now."
"Okay."
Damian wanted to be a secret, too. "I won't see him until I make sure he'll be pleased. If I'm perfect, he won't have any reason to find fault with me."
"You shouldn't have to be perfect just for your dad to like you," Jason said angrily.
"Maybe by your plebeian standards, Jason, but I am an al Ghul. I refuse to shame my family."
It was good for a while. They fought bad guys and had fun. But then Raven said someone was coming, and Vic checked the security system and said Bruce Wayne was on the island, trying to get into the building. There was a creature in his suitcase, probably the octo-mer.
Jason hid in his room.
Bruce came and they yelled and yelled at each other, and...and he said he loved Dick. He didn't look like he did in the picture, he looked horrible, his eyes all dark and hurt-looking. He looked sad and hurt and he said he loved Dick.
But...but he had the new baby with him. And he'd lied about Jason being dead. And all those times he threw Dick away...when he yelled at him to go away and left him behind in Atlantis and left him behind in the ocean when he was still small and didn't know how to take care of himself...
Dick didn't understand. And it was too much, too much to see Bruce in so much pain but also feel so much pain himself, and things didn't make sense, Bruce said one thing but did another. He was probably lying again. Dick wouldn't let Bruce trick him this time, and he wouldn't let Bruce hurt Jason or Damian. Dick wouldn't let his brothers be hurt the way he was hurt.
o.o.o
Days passed.
Dick thought his friends were on his side, that they loved him. But one by one...they started to love Bruce instead.
"I dunno, Dick," Vic said. He and Damian were sitting in chairs and the rest of them were piled on Jason's bed or on the floor so they could watch a movie, but no one was paying much attention to the movie. "Is he really that bad? He was nice to me, at least..."
"He does that!" Dick stormed. "He's nice nice nice and then NOT! He was nice but then threw me away! Three times!"
"The first time was not his fault, though," Raven said. "If his employer was forcing him, there wasn't anything he could do, and he did come back for you afterward."
"He hurts us!" Dick yelled at her. "Don't be nice to him!"
They said they'd try, but it didn't work. Even Damian wanted to make Bruce happy instead of stay away from him and be safe. Even Goliath was friendly to Bruce instead of trying to protect his human.
Dick held Jason's hand and Roy's. They looked at each other. It was just the three of them now, alone. "We have to be strong," Dick said.
"Hah. Don't have to tell me twice," Jason said. His face looked strange, not quite angry and not quite sad, but also both of them at the same time.
"I'm with you no matter what," Roy said. "You gave me a home; he didn't. I'm not gonna turn traitor just 'cause he talks pretty."
"Thanks, Roy," Jason said, soft.
o.o.o
Jason hid for almost two weeks. Then he got too angry to keep hiding.
Dick watched them screaming at each other, and...it hurt. It hurt to see Jason and Bruce be so hurt. Both of them were crying tears that made him think their hearts were bleeding. Bruce was so desperate, and...he loved Jason. Dick didn't know why he lied about Jason being dead, or why he'd chosen the octo-mer over him. But he loved Jason. He wouldn't be so hurt if he didn't love Jason.
Dick didn't understand. Why would Bruce act like he didn't want Jason anymore but then act like he still loved Jason?
He didn't understand.
TBC
