Chapter Text
A splash of water, a massive flop, and violent snarling. The men were all suddenly soaked as the mer glared at them all, lips pulled back into a sneer as the deep, vicious rumble came from his chest. Inky black locks fell in front of his eyes, but he didn’t move to fix it. No, he was too busy sinking his rather impressive claws into the wood of the ship.
“We got ourselves a prize, boys!” One man yelled, and the others cheered even as they kept their weapons pointed at the furious mer. Only one man wasn’t excited, and he stood off to the side as the other men tried to get closer.
“If you want him to stay, get him a tank of water,” the man pointed out, lighting his pipe and taking a long pull from it.
The men were quiet, waiting for their captain’s orders. “Well, you heard the man! Get the tank ready!” All of the men quickly began to move before the captain could even yell again. “Put a net over him first!” he shouted as the mer made a dash for the starboard side.
Slade moved faster though, stepping on the mer’s impressive tail fin and stopping him from successfully getting back into the ocean. The mer whipped around, another snarl ripping from his throat as Slade removed his sword and held it against his throat.
Immediately, the fight was lost from the mer as he continued to stare into Slade’s one good eye. The other was covered with an old leather patch, one he refused to take off for anyone or anything. Even though Slade was confused as to what the mer’s tactic was, he didn’t give him the benefit of a doubt. No, he kept the sword right against his pulse point even as he straightened out.
“How long, Cobblepot?” Slade called, glancing at the captain who was watching with prime interest. With his pipe in his mouth, his accent slipped out, the drawl thickening his words.
“You tell me, Mr. Mermaid Killer,” Cobblepot purred. The words were meant to upset the mer, and he was, but he turned towards the captain when he snarled which pressed Slade’s sword firmer against his neck. Very odd behavior, Slade noted, but it wasn’t the first time he saw a mer calculating who to go after. It just wasn’t usual for them to not focus on the one with the sword against their neck. “My, my, you are a feisty one,” Cobblepot chuckled. “Have you ever seen one this wound up?”
Slade hummed, and slowly he withdrew his sword. The movement caused the mer to return his attention to him, and it almost appeared as though he smiled at him. Disgusting . “Not quite. The snarling and the fighting is obvious. The staring and stopping, not really.”
Another commotion distracted the mer as the deck began to open and a tank began raising from the hold. Slade didn't bother to look and instead kept his attention on the mer. They were often slippery and hard to pin down; he was just waiting for this one to try and make a run for it again.
Even as the tank rose, the mer didn’t move to escape. He actually seemed to move closer to Slade. The man huffed, blowing out smoke from his most recent drag. He knew merfolk to be curious creatures, but he wasn’t expecting this one to be so enraptured by the smoke. A trill left the mer as he stretched to reach for the cloud, and Slade fought the flinch that wanted to appear at the sound.
Merfolk had such horrendous voices. The sounds they made were far too high pitched. It felt as though he was dragging glass through his eardrum. Cobblepot hated it as well since he whacked the mer with his cane as he passed.
Another high-pitched sound left him that sounded oddly like a yelp until the most vicious of snarls came from him. “Oh, you may be a pretty thing, but everything else about you is dreadful,” Cobblepot said offhandedly before barking another order at his men.
Slade’s lips twitched with amusement (not that anyone could tell) before he flinched as water seeped into his pant leg. “What the-” And there was the mer, hugging his leg and making a new awful sound that was setting Slade’s teeth on edge.
“Well, he sure does like you,” Cobblepot purred as Slade pushed the mer away. A grunt left the hunter as the mer immediately came back, and he attempted to push him away again. “Looks like you gained a little friend.”
If looks could kill, Cobblepot would be ash. Instead, he laughed as he moved back to the captain’s quarters. “Help the boys get him in the tank,” he threw over his shoulder just before he slipped through the door and disappeared.
A man approached the hunter, who sent a new type of glare his way. Shrinking back, the man stumbled through his words. “Uh… Mr. Wilson… what should we do with the tank now…?”
“Fill it with water,” the man huffed, trying again to push the mer off his leg.
The man looked confused as he looked around. “We… don’t have enough water on the ship for that.”
Slade felt a sharp pain at his temples and quickly released that he was going to have a fun rest of his trip. “We’re on the ocean. Merfolk come from the ocean. Use the fucking ocean water,” growled the white-haired man as he tried to stalk away. Sadly, the mer was still clinging to his leg like a large, wet, petulant child, and he couldn’t get far. The man glanced at the mer, and Slade growled himself: “Just fill the fucking tank.”
Once the mer was set in the water ( Slade had the fun task of doing since no one else was allowed within four feet of the mer without full risk of bodily harm), the stupid fish seemed to realize that he still wasn’t free. Slade had never seen a mer so large, which made the tank much too small for him.
Sitting in his tank, the mer frowned as he tried to move. His tail couldn’t stretch out, and he actually had to keep from his shoulders up out of the water to even appear comfortable. Slade though rolled his eyes, stalking away to dry off his clothes. Stupid fish.
Every day when Slade passed the tank the mer would make more awful sounds at him. They sounded like they were supposed to be happy, but Slade always ignored him. He always ignored him, but it wasn’t always successful. Whether the mer was busy trying to rip someone’s hand off, snarling and whacking his tail against his tank, or splashing the hunter with water, he always caught Slade’s eye several times a day.
At the end of the fifth day, when the fish had been cooked, Slade took his meal and went back to his place at the forecastle deck. He settled himself down and began to pull the fish apart. After a few moments, a new sound reached his ears.
He glanced in the direction of the mer, and he wasn’t surprised to see him as close as he could get to him (that fish was always trying to get to him), but he wasn’t expecting the sadness on his face and the pleading look in his eyes. A soft, longing whine came from the mer, and Slade only raised a brow. “What do you want?”
The mer was clearly speaking, but Slade couldn’t hear anything, so he ignored him, starting in on a second fish. Another, louder whine reached him. “What?”
Webbed fingers came up as the mer pressed on his stomach before pointing at his mouth. “Ah,” Slade hummed before returning to his food. It wasn’t his job to keep the fish alive. Hell, the fish was going to get slaughtered once they got it to al Ghul anyways.
As he ate, the mer continued to whine, and Slade felt his irritation grow. He’d never dealt with such a talkative mer. Hell, once he caught one, he never saw them usually. It was the way he liked it. Stay away from the damned bastards until he got his coin.
Then again… merfolk were worth a lot more when they were still alive. And given the fins and scales on this one, he’d catch a very, very nice price for him. Still, he ignored the mer, and he continued to do so until the rest of the crew was asleep, and he was on watch again.
After the mer whined again, Slade glanced at him before looking back at the line he had set up earlier. “Wait.” Never once did the mer quiet until the line was pulled up and a fresh wriggling Mackeral appeared.
The mer perked up, pushing himself out of the water and watching Slade with his unnaturally bright cerulean eyes. The fins that replaced his ears flexed and the tail behind him was swishing slightly. All signs that he was excited.
Slade rolled his eyes before taking the fish off and dropping the line back into the ocean. “Look, I’m only doing this because you’re worth more to me alive than dead. al Ghul is a finicky bastard like that.”
A sound left the mer, and Slade thought it was a trill, and he may have called it that if it didn’t sound like the screeching metal. “Just eat your fish,” he said as he tossed it towards the other.
It was snatched in mid-air, and the mer immediately sunk his teeth into it, tearing into the flesh and beginning to chew. Slade let a hum slip as he turned back to watch the water. “You’re still an annoying bastard.”
Things were fine for about a week and a half. Slade was continuing to fish and feed the mer every night, and the mer continued to try and splash him with water as he happily devoured the entirety of it while trilling and purring. Yes, Slade had officially labeled them as such because even though he hated it, it was the only thing that matched with his stupid smile.
The mer had gotten excessively more clingy, however, to the point that he once even tried to pull Slade under the water and kiss him. That had caused a fight between them where Slade gained scratches down his forearms, and the mer gained bruises around his neck. No food was given to the boy for three days until he was practically crying in his tank.
Everything was fine. Until it wasn’t.
About two weeks into their journey, a naval vessel appeared on the horizon. Slade had snapped at Cobblepot to move the damn ship towards land, but the captain didn’t care. It didn’t matter that they were pirates and that fishing for merfolk was illegal and punishable by death. No, Cobblepot assured him that his ship was fast enough.
It obviously wasn’t.
The naval vessel was within cannon distance, and Slade could see the men getting ready. He grabbed his things, fixing his gun powder on his hip while grabbing both of his swords and even the harpoon that he kept around just in case.
When the first cannon hit, the ship rocked, and the hunter growled as he moved closer to the mer. He always finished his assignments, and this one specifically asked him for a mer.
What he wasn’t expecting was that when he drew his blunderbuss, aiming it for the first soldier that was coming his way, he suddenly was knocked over the boat and into the water. They were moving quickly, so quickly that Slade didn’t know what had happened until they were already on land.
The mer was lying in his lap, arms snuggly around the hunter’s hips as he tried to return his breathing to normal. “What the…” he started, looking off to the right to see that well over a mile away the ships were locked in a fight.
The mer let out a little happy chirp, smiling widely and showing off his vicious teeth. “Where the fuck did you take me?” Slade frowned before realizing how the mer was attached to him and trying to push him off again. “And stop touching me.”
With a pout (What the fuck was with this mer? He was nothing like the others he had hunted), the mer reached out and tried to tug Slade into the water. “No,” he growled. “You already fucked up my gunpowder. I’m not getting back in the water.” That gunpowder was expensive - only the best for his weapons - and now it was utterly useless to him.
The struggle continued, the mer constantly pulling down and the human pulling up. They battled, and every time that Slade got close enough to the water, the boy was trying to kiss him. Just as he was about to pull out his knife from the sheath on his ankle, the boy gave a harder tug and managed to get Slade’s face underneath and get his lips on his.
Slade ripped away, pulling the knife out and pressing it directly against the mer’s jugular, right under his fins. “Don’t fucking do that ever again,” he growled, glaring at the boy.
The mer sighed happily, reaching out to touch the wet hair against Slade’s cheek with no regard to the weapon threatening his life. “You’re even more handsome when you’re angry,” he said with another toothy smile.
Silence.
Slade stared at the mer, trying not to show his confusion as to why he was now speaking in perfect English. The mer giggled, pushing the knife away before stretching up and nuzzling his jaw with a much more human purr. “Really, that angry little furrow between your brows is adorable.”
Shoving the boy off again, the hunter moved farther back on the sand. “Why the fuck are you talking like a human?”
Even though he was pouting, the mer set his chin in his hands, his tail flicking water up along his body to keep himself moist. “I always have been. You just couldn’t understand me.”
“You spoke like a fucking whale.”
“I did not!” The mer huffed. “Whales make a very different sound.” And then he attempted to make the sound of a whale to which Slade immediately threw the first thing he could at him, which happened to be his useless blunderbuss.
“Don’t throw things at me, Slade!” the boy cried as he caught the gun and attempted to figure out how to hold it. The webbing between his fingers made it far too difficult, and Slade snatched it back up.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?” the boy pouted. “It’s your name.”
“Call me Wilson.”
“Wilson?” The face the mer made didn’t show any of his usual beauty before he shook his head. “No. I don’t like that. I like Slade better.”
“I don’t care what you like better, fish. Don’t call me that.”
“My name isn’t Fish, you know,” the boy sassed, flicking his tail more violently and getting Slade with several drops. “It’s Dick.”
“You mean Richard?” Slade asked as he stood up and shook himself out. All of his clothing was soaked to the bone, so he began to untie his things to hang them on a nearby piece of driftwood.
The mer shivered before making a retching sound. “Ew, don’t call me that. Everyone calls me Dick.”
“I’ll call you that unless you revise the name you’ve decided to call me.”
“Hmmm,” Dick hummed, tapping his chin as he watched the man undress. First, it was the long orange piece of fabric he used as a bandana, then it was the large leather belt around his waist. The mer had completely forgotten what he was going to say when the black shirt slipped down muscular shoulders to reveal more bare skin covered in scars and fine white hair.
Slade glanced over his shoulder, raising one brow. Dick was busy staring at the bit of the man’s chest he could see. “Yes, Slade?” the mer finally answered, blinking happily up at the man. His eyes immediately dropped to see the faded marking on his arm. It looked a bit like Roy’s really, but Roy’s had more angles and shapes while Slade’s looked more blocky from what he could see.
The man rolled his eyes before sliding off his boots and leaving them to dry as well. He pretended to not notice the mer’s pout as he sat on a different washed up log on the sand. Dick pout deepened when the man wouldn't come closer - or finish taking off his clothes - before he huffed and started dragging himself up the sand to be closer to the other.
“If you get stuck and can’t get back in the water, I’m not helping you.”
“Like I need help getting to the ocean,” Dick scoffed, rolling his eyes.
The mer moved until he could get back into Slade’s lap. “Get off,” the man growled, pushing at the boy. He didn’t understand why he was so... clingy . Top ocean predatory, my ass, he thought.
“But why?” Dick whined. “That stupid tank kept me too far from you.”
“That tank kept your hands to yourself,” Slade growled as he successfully got the boy’s hands off of him.
“Why would I keep them to myself when they’d be better on you,” Dick purred, reaching for the man’s knee.
Slade scoffed. “And why would I want a fish’s hand on me?”
Dick pouted. “I am not a fish,” he reminded him with a roll of his eyes before returning to the annoying, flirty tone. “Because you’re my One.”
Silence fell between them again.
“What?” Slade asked, his tone firm as he stared emotionlessly at the mer.
“My One!” Dick chirped, a smile twisting his face with joy. “My brothers have all found theirs, and my father has too, but I’ve been on my own for a while… That’s why you caught me where you did. I’m not supposed to be that close to humans, but I was just so bored...”
Slade continued to say nothing and just stared.
“Jeez, Slade, lighten up,” Dick huffed, fixing his hair. “I’m sure you humans have something like it. I think I’ve heard people talk about it. Some sailors called it… soul… mates? Yes, that’s it. Soul mate!”
Dick continued to smile, waiting for the man to respond. This was a good thing! They should both be happy and celebrating. Preferably with Slade taking the rest of his human clothes off.
The human pulled his knife again, pressing it into the boy’s throat as he growled. “I am not, and I never will be, your soulmate.”
The mer blinked in confusion. This wasn’t what he was expecting… but if he remembered correctly, Jason tried to stab Roy several times when they had first found each other. “But… it’s destined to be! Shouldn’t you be happy?”
“Happy?” Slade asked, his voice growing cold. It sent a shiver up Dick’s spine, and he even backed off just a bit, the blade moving away from his throat. “Why? Why would I be happy to be stuck with a mer? Why would I want to be with the very thing that drowned my children and caused my wife to throw herself from a cliff?”
Dick blinked. His one was married? No… it wasn’t supposed to be like that! No, no, they were supposed to be happy and in love together. He didn’t care if they fought like Jason and Roy or if they were affectionate like Tim and Connor. No, all he wanted was someone to love. Someone that was made to be his and his alone. He didn’t even care if he got a romance as weird as Damian and Jon’s!
Slade rolled his eye and shoved the boy away again. “Go bother someone else, kid.”
The wave of emotion that crashed over Dick was one he was familiar with: sadness, pain, loneliness, even rejection. This time though it hurt so much more.
“You… really didn’t feel anything?” he asked, voice soft and quivering. His eyes began to sting, and he thought he needed to return to the ocean, but no, when he pulled his hand away from rubbing it, drops of water were there. Oh… he forgot he could cry… Forgot what it was like to…
“No,” Slade said, now staring out at the ocean. “As if I would ever even consider a fish."
Dick nodded, shifting down the sand to give the man some space. It didn’t fit. Didn’t fit at all. He sat by the edge of the ocean, letting the waves tickle his fins and dampen his scales. All his family got to be happy. All of them. Why didn’t he get the same? Because you’re not a real merman , a voice in his head whispered, and he scoffed as he wiped more tears from his face.
It didn’t matter now though. He glanced back at Slade one last time before he slipped into the ocean. Time to continue living alone, he thought, swimming and spinning into the dark shadows.
Slade sat on the beach on the beach for a few hours. He spent the first hour looking for a way out, but really, there was nothing but sand and a few bits of driftwood around him. He growled as he set up a fire using the driftwood. He knew it wasn’t a good idea. He’d heard of plenty of pirates, fishermen, and sailors dying because of the fumes from driftwood, but with the sun quickly setting, he decided to take the chance.
The second hour, the fire was going, and Slade stayed far enough away that the fumes and smell died down. Then he went and sat by the fire, finally drying his pants and moving the rest of his clothes over.
Third hour? The fish came back.
“What do you want?” he drawled, fixing the stones and jewels within his earring.
“I… I know you probably don’t want to see me-”
“I don’t.”
“-but I brought you some food.” Dick continued, ignoring when the man butted in. Slade rolled his eye and didn’t even bother to look up as he kept working. A large tuna was dropped on the other side of the fire, and it flailed wildly in the sand. “I mean… it’s nothing like what you got me, but… I couldn’t just leave you without something to eat.”
Slade eyed the tuna. It looked like one of the ones that were often on al Ghul’s table when he was showing off. One of the ones with the rich swirls of fat, and truthfully, the best tasting tuna in the world. He only hummed though, still ignoring the mer and his find.
Dick was chewing on his lip which almost immediately started to bleed. “I… I’m sorry,” Dick said softly. “Please… eat it?”
He was going to refuse, but Slade was tired of mackerel and the other cheap fish that they got on the boat. “Fine.”
It took about an hour for the fish to be prepared. Slade decided to cook some as he ate some raw. He even allowed the mer to eat as well (as long as he didn’t start ripping it with his teeth like the mackerels) since it was far too large for just him. Especially since he was planning on hiking through the woods tomorrow to get to land.
“Is it better cooked?” Dick asked, watching as Slade slowly turned the tuna over his fire.
“Less likely to get sick.”
Dick bristled. “I wouldn’t feed you something bad!”
Slade raised a brow. “You eat a mackerel's head as if it’s an apple.”
The mer blinked. “An apple? I… don’t remember if I ever had an apple before…”
“I doubt it,” Slade said, slicing a piece of tuna off the body and eating it. “Apples don’t grow near the water, and they don’t survive high salt concentrations.”
“Oh, well I know I’ve never had one in the ocean, but I meant I couldn’t remember if I had them when I was human.”
Slade turned to stare at the boy as he pursed his lips while thinking. “What do you mean ‘when you were human’?”
Dick blinked and turned towards the man. “I was born a human. The sea spared me and turned me into a merman.” With a scoff, Slade went back to eating. “What?” Dick frowned. “You’ve never heard of the sea’s kindness?”
“What kindness?” Slade said. “I lived my life on the sea. She’s never shown me any ‘kindness’.”
“The sea is a complicated being,” Dick said. “You can’t just expect her to do anything for you.”
“No, but you can expect her to take everything from you.”
Dick growled softly, the first time he ever had towards Slade. “She loves her creatures, and she even loves humans. She doesn’t love humans stealing and killing her creatures for no reason!”
“But she does nothing to stop her creatures from killing innocent humans. Innocent children !”
“That’s not true!” Dick snapped. “We have rules, just like you. We aren’t allowed to attack humans that are not proking us. Some merfolk don’t follow the rules, just like there are humans that don’t follow theirs.” He gave a pointed look at Slade before shaking his head. “We banish those that don’t follow our laws, and the sea decides their fate.”
Slade scoffed. “It’s true!” Dick shouted, his teeth glittering in the firelight. “I’ve heard of a story. A legend we use to teach people to not break our laws. It may be the mermaid you’re talking about.” He looked away, frowning at the idea as his eyes closed. “There was a young mermaid. She had found her One earlier, and together they had two sons. They were a wonderful family, but her One never fully followed the rules. He would attack humans, drag them down into the ocean for sport. No reason except because he thought it was fun ,” he spat. “The sea swept him away, took him too far out during a storm. He drowned, and yes, that may sound funny to you, but we can. She took his life because of the lives he claimed. The mermaid went crazy… Especially since the sea had taken her sons as well. We don’t know why, but she did. She has a reason for everything she does.
But that mermaid lost her family that day. Filled with grief, she was always trying to steal children away from their parents. The other merfolk were furious, and she was exiled to the edge of our territory. No one ever thought it would end up the way it did…” Dick sighed sadly before looking back towards Slade. “I’m sorry that she attacked you. That she stole your children away. I can’t seek forgiveness for her, and I know that you already got revenge.” A glance was spared at the tie on Slade’s pants, at the dried and crystalline mer ear-fins that glistened in the light. “And I know you’ve taken the lives of others but not all of us do such things.”
Slade looked away, staring out into the sea as memories of that day began to return. He was home, having just retired from the Imperial Navy. The long journeys had put a strain on his marriage, and he had told Adeline that he would try to be home more. It didn’t last long though.
The first time he took the boys out on a sail, just a trip around the harbor, so they could experience their father’s love of the ocean, it happened. They were in the middle of the open harbor, Grant was laughing and looking over the edge while Joey was practically clinging to the mast. Slade had steered them to follow the wind, and he moved over to catch Grant before he fell off. “Stay in, boys. Your mother will kill me if you get wet.”
Grant laughed, and Joey came to cling onto Slade’s leg. Shaking his blonde hair out of his eyes, Slade leaned down to hug Joey closer. “You doing alright?” he asked, to which the boy nodded quickly. The man laughed again at the way the boy’s hair fell into his face, so he ripped a piece of the orange cloth he kept on his boat and tired his son’s hair back. “Better?”
Joey smiled as bright as the sun, hugging Slade tighter before moving closer to the edge to see what his big brother was looking at. “Daddy, what was that?” Grant asked, pointing at the ocean.
“Probably just a fish,” Slade said, dusting his pants off as he came up to see. “Maybe we can stop and catch one for Mommy tonight.”
“Yay!” Both boys cheered, smiling widely before everything changed. A horrific, ear-bleeding shriek came from their right, and before Slade could do anything, he was getting pushed out of the way. Joey cried as the fish grabbed him, and Slade immediately launched into action.
He had no idea what he was fighting, only grabbed the harpoon he kept with him and swung at the fish. He wasn’t expecting a hand to grab it. Teal, bloodshot eyes glared at him before another shriek was let out, and he was flung backward.
He lunged again, knocking Joey free, and it was then he realized he was facing a mermaid. Her long, greenish-yellow hair was matted, and she screamed and swiped for him. Slade used all of his training to fight her until she reached out with nails like daggers and clawed at his right eye.
“Fuck!” he screamed, covering his eye with his hands in a moment of agony. And that one moment was enough.
The mermaid snatched Grant this time as he tried to protect his brother, and then she got Joey as well. “Don’t you dare touch them!” Slade shouted as he moved forward again.
“Daddy!” Both boys screamed, reaching out for him, but now blind in one eye, Slade couldn’t coordinate his movements well, and his swing was off, allowing the mermaid to sink deeper into the water.
“No!” Slade jumped in after them. The stinging from his eye as saltwater rushed into his wound was nothing compared to the panic filling his chest as he watched her swim so much faster than him with both of his sons fighting against her.
He couldn’t stop fighting, wouldn’t stop. It was like swimming with anchors tied to his ankles, and he watched in horror as they got smaller and smaller. Having to come up for air, Slade looked around before noticing the wind was going in his direction. He got on his boat again and immediately sailed in her direction, but as he grew closer, he noticed the last thing he ever wanted to see. Two small bodies were floating in the water. “No, no,” he told himself quickly. When he got there, even as he saw the blonde hair with the white shirt and the brown hair in blue, he couldn’t believe it.
He pulled them both out of the water with trembling hands. Joey and Grant were laid on his deck, and he quickly tried to resuscitate them. He kept going until the sun began to go down. “No,” he whispered, looking down at their white faces and blue lips.
The thing that brought Slade back was not what he was expecting. A hand was gently brushing his cheek to which he immediately batted it away. The mer whined softly. “I’m so sorry for what she did to you. What she did to them.”
Slade shook his head, returning to his usual stony expression. It wasn’t good to dwell on the past. No, he became stronger from it. He found that mermaid, and he slaughtered her for her crimes, and he had no qualms with doing it to the other mers, especially if he was given a contract and a large sum for it.
Dick frowned, resting on his hands by the man. “It doesn’t make you weak to talk about it.”
“Whoever said I was weak?”
“No one,” Dick said. “At least as far as I can tell, everyone on that ship was terrified of you. Judging from your jewelry, you’ve killed a fair few of us. But has it made a difference? Do you feel better?”
Slade stayed silent, ignoring the boy. “I know it’s hard to talk about the ones you lose…” Dick continued, staring off towards the water. “I was a human. I lived with my parents, and we traveled a lot, performing shows for nobles and even a few royal families. My dad wanted to take us out, to show us the water, since he knew how much I loved it, but something went wrong… I don’t know how, but we ended up trapped. Dad wasn’t moving, and Mom wasn’t either really at first. The water was moving so fast… I remember being so scared, trying to wake my dad up. Mom eventually got us out the window, and we were trying to swim. I kept crying for Dad… I didn’t know why he wasn’t moving. I didn’t even notice Mom and I were bleeding. It’s like every time we tried to move, everything just got farther away. The shore was so far away…” Dick trailed off, and he didn’t notice the attention he had gained from the man beside him. “All I remember after that is a man, and Mom begging for me to be saved, for me to live. Next thing I knew I woke up in a cave underwater. I panicked, but then Bruce was there. Bruce is my adoptive father, and he told me what happened, and I didn’t even notice that he was a merman until he told me about what happened to me.”
Dick laughed softly, shaking his head. “I was kinda dumb, and I freaked out when I saw that my legs had become this,” he said, flipping his tail and making a heavy thump against the sand. “But B told me the sea had spared me. That my mother was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Her life for mine, and that the sea decided to give me a second chance at life. A chance with her.”
Slade shook his head. “You can say it all sounds ridiculous, but I have scars from the accident.” Suddenly long, toned arms were set in Slade’s face, and instead of pushing the kid away again, he actually looked, seeing the small white scars that littered his tan skin. Then he just stared at the boy, who pouted at him.
“Why don’t you care that I killed your kind?” Slade asked after several minutes of silence.
“I do care,” Dick said softly, looking back over his shoulder and seeing the crystalized ear fins of his fellow merfolk. “But you have your reasons for hating us even if I don’t agree.”
“Hm,” Slade responded, falling quiet again.
Dick made an uncomfortable sound as he tried to move his tail again. Slade glanced and watched him struggle. “I already told you you’re on your own if you get stuck up here.”
“I know,” the mer grumbled before trying to get towards the water. Sadly, since his fins and scales were drying up, it was more difficult to move. He ended up flopped on his back, already tired from the struggling. Sighing, Slade stood, grabbed the boy by the arm, and began dragging him towards the ocean. “I thought you said you wouldn’t help me.”
“I’m not helping you. I’m getting rid of a nuisance.”
It was Dick’s turn to scoff which quickly changed into a yelp as he was dropped into the water. Slade watched as the boy rolled deeper into the ocean and began to move and stretch out his fins and tail. When he got closer with a smile on his face, the hunter rolled his eye.
“I thought you were leaving and staying away this time.”
“Well, I’m sure you need company to get to land,” Dick said, smiling wider. All he received was a raised brow. “What? I have a boat that you can take! I already looked around, and… this is an island…” He gave another smile, clearly trying to appease the glaring man.
“You stranded me on an island?”
“I saved your life!”
“You ruined my gun.”
“Guns are barbaric,” Dick shrugged. “Do you want the boat and my help or not?”
Slade fought his immediate urge to roll his eye. “Where is this boat?”
“Oh, it’s not far from here. A few miles maybe?”
“Are we only a few miles from shore?”
“Oh! No. The boat’s only a few miles out.”
Slade raised a brow before looking around the ocean. “You can’t see it,” Dick hummed, suddenly picking something out of his nails. “It’s underwater.”
“I’m not getting in a boat that’s underwater .”
“Why not?!” Dick protested, sitting up straighter and pouting at the man.
“Boat’s aren’t meant to be underwater,” Slade drawled. “Obviously.”
“There’s nothing wrong with it!”
“If it’s underwater, something is surely wrong.”
“No,” Dick huffed. Slade shook his head before rolling his eye. “Really! Just you wait, I’ll bring it to you in the morning, and you’ll see.”
“Alright, fish. Morning it is.”
When the sun rose and Slade pushed himself up from the sand, he was not expecting a happily humming merman to be shredding a fish to bits and leaning against a rowboat. He shook his head, getting the sand out of his hair and off his back.
“You’re up!” Dick chirped, smiling at him. It would have looked better if there wasn’t blood clinging to his bottom lip and between his teeth. “I brought food!”
Slade grunted and sat up enough to sit on the log he dragged over earlier. A few fish and a bundle of seaweed were hanging over his long-dead fire. He immediately pushed the seaweed to the side before grabbing a fish to start skinning it.
Dick finished up his own fish, bones and all, before watching the man work. “I brought the boat,” he hummed after several minutes of silence where he watched Slade pick out bones and remove the fish skin.
“Brought the wood, I see,” Slade responded, slicing a piece of raw fish and eating it.
The mer stole the skin that the hunter went to toss and swallowed it down before responding. “I told you it has no holes, and it will float.”
“I highly doubt it will.”
It took a bit before Slade finished his meal and stood up to inspect the boat. And… he didn’t see a single hole. He didn’t even see damage on it. Sure, barnacles were growing around and inside of it, but the wood still appeared in good condition. Hell, it even had its oars. “I told you that there’s nothing wrong with it,” Dick smirked.
“Doesn’t mean it will float.”
It was the mer’s turn to roll his eyes before he held on the one end and began dragging it towards the water. Slade stood and watched him struggle to get towards the water before stepping in. He wasn’t about to die on this stupid island because of a hellbent, demanding fish.
Problem was, when Slade got the boat in the water, the fucking thing floated. Dick was grinning like a cat that caught a bird for lunch while he tested the strength of the boat. Even with him pushing his weight into it, it continued to stay afloat.
“It sunk because of a storm,” Dick pointed out. “Nothing’s wrong with it. Just fell into the water, filled up, and sunk.”
“And you would know this, why?”
“Because a lot of others came back and said that it was a lot of fun to play with!”
“Of course,” Slade huffed before dragging the boat back onto the sand.
“Why are you doing that? I thought we were leaving.”
“I need my clothes and weapons.”
Dick pouted, but this time, he decided to stay closer to the water, lying on the sand and letting the waves rush over his fins and back. Slade was thankful that the fish decided to give him some space for once. What he didn’t realize was that from his position, Dick had a wonderful view of the man.
Miles of tanned skin with various white scars glistened in the early morning light. White hair covered his arms and chest and parts of his back. It was weird for Dick to see hair in places besides one’s head since all mers were smooth-skinned on their bodies and arms, but he knew that humans tended to be hairy, and he actually really liked it on Slade.
Slade shook his hair out again before pulling on his shirt. It was hotter today, so when he put on his leather belt, he left his chest revealed down to his navel. He also put on his leather wristlets and retied the orange band around his forehead before checking his earring and the tie on his belt with his mer ears.
He put all of his weapons back in their proper places: guns on his hips, knives tucked into his belt and boots, and the harpoon on his back. He looked exactly as he did the day Dick had met him, and the boy couldn’t help but smile. “Are you ready now?”
The human shot him a glare, but the merman only continued to smile a sweet, happy little grin as he flicked water onto his scales. “I think I’m going gray over here.”
With a roll of his eye, Slade kicked some sand into the fire to put it out before walking towards the mer and the ridiculous little paddle boat. Dick immediately perked up, pushing himself onto his hands as he approached.
Nothing was said as Slade began to push the boat out and give it another once over. “I’ll push you out if you don’t want to get wet,” the mer offered. Debating it for a moment, Slade climbed into the boat, setting the paddle in his lap. Better to test and see if keeping the annoying kid around was going to be worth it sooner rather than later.
Once he was situated, Dick began to push on the boat with a surprising amount of strength, and in half the time it would have taken Slade, they were already far enough from the shore that he could begin to row. He started the motions, and the mer swam beside him, his long and ornate fins moving beautifully in the water. Slade turned his sights back onto the horizon. Time to get away from this island and the stupid fish that stranded him there.