Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

No one was quite sure how Tim had ended up in the Wayne pod, Jason had simply brought him home one day, looking scared and confused, and that had been enough to melt Bruce’s heart and begin mentally claiming custody of the boy.

According to Jason, he found Tim just floating around too close to the shore for him to have been safe, alone and confused, the boy clearly wasn’t from around here, he kept muttering in a weird language that didn’t sound quite right but seemed to understand Jason fine, just unable to respond properly.

Ever since that day Tim has officially been part of the Wayne pod, the boy can speak now and is known for his cutting insults that will offend you and your mother without anyone else being privy to the deeper meaning of the comment.

He integrated fine with both Dick and Jason, in fact a fast friendship formed between the three of them and soon they were relatively inseparable, terrorising their father with some more than questionable life choices, for instance one of their favourite games was to see how close they could get to a boat of any kind before chickening out and turning back round, so far Jason held the record.

Despite the tight knitted group they found themselves becoming, no one knew anything about Tim’s past, except some general things he let slip about his 10 years before meeting the Waynes and nobody asked, not with it clearly being a touchy subject for the young mer.

It had been 4 years since “the incident” as it had started being referred to and everyone was happy, yet one thing couldn’t be explained to any of the other Waynes.

That is randomly without rhyme or rhythm and certainly not warning, Tim would disappear for whole days of the mer calendar, sometimes even weeks, and will just randomly show up to breakfast when he returns, acting like he's never left at all.

It perplexed Bruce, Alfred, Dick and Jason to no end.

Any possible reason they could come up with was either too farfetched to be possible or just downright stupid.

And sure they could just ask Tim as to why, but after the first time Jason proposed the subject at dinner one night, the younger boy froze up for a moment, turning pale, before sinking into himself and muttering a half answer about how he didn’t know what they were talking about before turning back to his meal.

Yeah it's safe to say that after that they all agreed not to talk about it anymore, whatever it was Tim clearly wasn’t comfortable with and maybe it was something that they would just have to make their peace with.

But you see every time he returned something was off about him, he seemed smaller. Not physically smaller obviously, but like his character had been dulled to the point where he was only a fraction of who he was before he left, only for his true colours to come out once again in about a week or so.

It was almost like he had to relearn how to not control and monitor his every move and action.

Like he was getting used to being free again.

See if it wasn’t for this reason there would be much less concern over these disappearances, god knows how many times Dick lost track of time with Wally or Jason decided he was going to go out by himself for a day or two without telling anyone. But all these things had an explained reason at the end and left the young mers happier, not depressed, they still gave Bruce gray hairs however.

So can you really blame them for worrying?

Or for deciding that it was a good idea to follow Tim on when he pulls his next disappearing act?

One day in the small hours of the morning, Dick finding himself unable to sleep and instead swimming aimlessly around the intricate network of underwater caves that they call home, decided to check up on his youngest brother, he had been startled awake by a nightmare were Tim was kidnapped, so sue him for being unnecessarily worried.

However it turns out that his fear wasn’t irrational, as instead of seeing the teen curled up on his bed or working at a stone slab in the corner and was dedicated to that purpose, instead of sleeping, there was just nothing.

No sign of Tim in his room at all.

In fact some of his more personal items were also missing. A bracelet that Dick made for him back when he was still a scared little guppy and his tablet and stylus all missing from their usual place.

At this moment Dick knew what he had to do, with any luck he could track and catch up to his brother, figure out what was going on even. But that was secondary, all he wanted to know was whether Tim was okay.

With that he bolted out of the cave exit, clinging on to even the faintest trace of his brother.

Maybe he should have woken the others up.

Maybe he shouldn’t have done this alone.

But to be frank he didn’t have time for rational thought.

He needed to know that Tim was okay and he needed to know as soon as possible.

Besides if he left any later he might have not been able to track the young mer.

He had to leave when he did. The others would understand.

He doesn’t know how far he swam for, or how long it had been, the only thing to mark the passage of time was the slight burning sensation in his tail that built up.

But why would that stop him?

He was on a mission and refused to be stopped for any reason, scared of losing his brother’s scent and in turn losing him for good.

Eventually Dick was abruptly broken from his trance, being met with the shore.

Yet Tim’s scent continued, seemingly breaching the water’s barrier and traveling onto the dry sand.

This of course sent Dick into another frenzy of panic.

Had Tim actually been kidnapped by poachers after all? Did he somehow have prophetic dreams?

He needed to check.

Slowly, so as to not alert any poachers if there were any, he moved along the shore, looking for a place to see onto land that was hidden and out of sight, panic wrecking his every thought as he did so. But he forced his emotions down. He was no use if he also got captured out of idiocracy.

After what felt like an eternity, but was really just a minute, he found a pile of rocks sprouting out of the ocean and with grace pulled himself up onto it, ensuring that he was as out of sight as possible.

The weak morning sunlight hit his skin and blinded his eyes, blinking rapidly to allow them to adjust to the amount of light exposure that they were unused to.

Once Dick could see, he turned his attention to the beach, however it was essentially empty apart from one young looking boy.

If Dick had to guess, he would probably say he was around 13, maybe 12 due to his height, but he knew absolutely nothing about humans let alone how their children develop so he couldn’t be sure.

The boy was young though, he had raven black hair that danced with the wind and dark blue eyes that shone like Tim’s tail did, but he wore a sorrowful expression.

The thought of his brother snapped Dick back to reality, but there was something hauntingly familiar about the boy. As Dick studied him more closely, a piece of jewellery caught his eye.

The boy wore a mer-style bracelet on his left wrist, just like Tim, in fact it looked identical to his down to the last sea-shell.

Looking back at the boy’s face once more, Dick no longer saw a random human boy, but his brother?

But how?

What happened to him that made him human?

Dick didn’t exactly know what he was going to do, in fact he didn’t have the slightest idea. He just knew that he needed help, so silently he slinked back into the water heading straight for his father.

Bruce would know what was going on. Right?

Chapter Text

Don’t go into the sea.

It was the first rule that was drilled into Tim’s head.

No matter how much you want to don’t.

He didn’t understand it, never did, but after running up to the waves, grazing at the surf, before being scooped up by the scruff of his clothing, one too many times he had resigned himself to sitting on the sand while everyone else danced in the foamy sea.

It wasn’t the worst, he still got to build sand castles, and be buried in deep pits, he still got to enjoy ice cream and running around after seagulls.

It just wasn’t what he wanted.

But he was good. He stayed diligently on the shore, even as he got older and went alone or with friends, just assuming that there was some allergy that was never named. His parents did that with a lot of things after all.

There was also the fact that he couldn’t swim, which definitely helped to keep him there once he understood the complications of what that meant.

However this did not stop him from dreaming about it.

Every couple nights or so he would fall asleep under the duvet and be transported to the ocean floor, surrounded by corals and tropical fish, the sun shimmering off the water’s surface above. It was magical, and when he awoke in the morning, he would be left depressed, grieving for something he never knew, which he did not understand in the slightest.

It was silly and childish, but the sea was everywhere, he could see it from his classroom window, he walked alongside it on the way home from school, the beach was where everyone hung out at the end of term, or just after a particularly long day, the local council would run competitions for children along the shore.

It invaded his every waking hour.

But he didn’t hate it. How could he when it was a constant reassurance in his life?

One day during the summer holidays he went there, with his friends of course, the group of them wildly stomping around, carving their names into the sand, and building sand castles that quickly turned into digging a giant hole.

It was fun, carefree, but as it got later one by one people started to leave until it was just him alone sitting in the hole by the surf.

He could stay out later than the rest, it's not like he had anyone waiting to chastise him about being late at home after all.

So he was left alone with his thoughts and the cool sea air to try and calm him down enough to try and sleep after the excitement of the evening.

He stayed like that for a while, it was only seven when everyone else left after all.

He would have gone back sooner but his mind was still buzzing, replaying every second of the last two hours on loop, analysing everything he did and trying to shut it out. At the time it was fun, but when he looked back his mind became crowded with everything that he did or said “wrong”.

Tim didn’t even notice the passage of time, the only difference in his environment was an occasional squark of a bird after all. Maybe that's why he didn’t notice the sea coming in, but one moment he was sitting on the dry sand, rubbing it mindlessly between his finger tips, and the next he was being drenched in salty water and seaweed.

All that hard work he just put in trying to calm himself was rapidly undone replaced by fear and adrenaline, as he shot up and clawed at the sand in the pit desperate to get out, to outrun the sea, but in his panic the grains just shifted under his fingertips as he could feel the water rising.

As it sunk into his skin a tingling sensation could be felt running around his body, almost like pins and needles, but it wasn’t painful, or irritating, instead the sensation had a calming effect on his body.

In fact, it felt like the exact opposite of what he expected an allergic reaction to be like.

It was at his waist now, he could feel it sinking into his bones and chilling his core, except it felt… nice? More natural than his usual warmer temperature. In fact he wouldn’t have noticed it if he couldn’t feel the difference in the temperature of his clothes.

It was up to his neck now, pooling into the hole in a ravenous stream that would soon engulf him completely.

He stopped trying to fight it long ago, instead planning to try and miraculously learn how to swim once he was fully submerged.

Yes it was a stupid idea, but in his defence he was panicking.

By the time the foamy water reached his neck he was struggling to stay afloat, kicking his legs violently trying to replicate what he had seen other people do at the pool or beach, all the while the tingling sensation was stronger, seemingly concentrating itself at the lower half of his body.

It was in his eyes now, the salt invading them and causing him to slam them shut to prevent anymore from spilling in. His breaths were ragged, swallowing mouthfulls of the salty water with every breath he took.

It was around this point that all hope was lost, thinking that he would never see his family again.

He might have been crying but he couldn’t tell, with any potential tears dissolving into the larger body of water the moment they were formed.

Soon he took his final breath, the tingling stronger than anything he had felt before, as the last of his head was submerged under a harsh wave.

Tim stayed floating for what felt like an eternity, but was definitely less than two minutes, he knew how long he could hold his breath for and he was just not that good at it.

Cautiously he opened his eyes expecting to see a dark abyss, and so for the most part he was right. It wasn’t as dark as he was expecting but he couldn’t tell which way was left or right, which way was land and which was more water, the sand was however noticeable at the bottom of the sea, so at least that was something. All he really knew however was that he wasn’t in his hole anymore.

He needed to learn how to swim and fast!

Cautiously he tried to kick his legs, but nothing happened, he could feel no movement beneath him or even a change in the flow of the water.

He tried again.

Still nothing.

It was getting peculiar now, maybe it was due to shock or anxiety?

But weirdly enough he didn’t feel either of those things anymore, in fact he felt weirdly at peace for his situation.

Looking down he decided to try and figure out what the hell was going on, he was going to run out of air soon and didn’t have the time nor the mental capacity to deal with his legs deciding that now was a good time to go on a vacation.

However when he looked he found something large and scally blocking his view of them.

On instinct he screamed, forgetting that he couldn’t breath, and causing large bubbles to ripple through the water. He also managed to move back several feet, before realising that whatever it was, was following him and screaming again, this time not correcting his mistake and letting his body breath rapidly.

Out of all the ways to go he would rather drown than be eaten by whatever was following him.

Maybe if he closed his eyes again it would go away, or at least he might be coherent enough to get himself out of the situation.

At least with his eyes closed the salt wouldn’t sting them, but he couldn’t feel that anymore. Maybe he had acclimatised or something? Tim reasons with himself while counting down from ten before opening them once more.

Shit the thing was still there.

Come to think of it, is he still breathing, and if so how? Realistically he knows that he should already be on the seafloor, ready to become the fishes' next meal. But he doesn’t let himself think about that.

Looking at it more closely, it was a deep blue colour with some scales accented as gold, it had a fin on one end that was regal in every possible way, from the colouring of the membrane like part down to how it swept through the ocean. On the other side, what was there he didn’t know, so he decided to look further down, fully expecting to see a fish face, and was shocked when it met his own torso, blending seamlessly with it.

Scales were dotted up his stomach and two red lines on either side of it seemed to be spasming, like breathing he thinks quietly to himself, as he lifts his hand in front of his face to discover his fingers knitted together with webbing, like a frog, and some long thin things, maybe fins, protruding from his elbow, floating majestically around him.

Was he a fucking mermaid?

Well merman would be a more accurate description he supposes, as he tries not to panic, instead choosing to view this new change as a gift, any further complications would be filed away for future Tim and future Tim only.

He needed to learn how to swim, if he wanted any hope of getting out of this increasingly bizarre situation, and to do that he needed a clear mind.

Attentively he tried kicking the tail again, mesmerised by the fluid movement it made that pushed him about a meter away from where he previously was.

He did that for a little while longer, slowly but surely building up confidence with his new limb, and after crashing into the seafloor only three times, he was pretty confident, spinning around as he swam, finding delight in the way his fins twirled around his body, reminding him of ribbon gymnasts.

Eventually he started to have fun, feeling more confident than he ever had before, even on land, he lost track of time swimming along the seabed, flying past schools of so many fish he couldn’t possibly count them.

At the back of his mind he knew that this couldn’t last forever, at some point he would have to wake up to the reality of his situation, that he might be trapped like this forever, unable to return home. But for the moment he just let himself be.

Except he didn’t know which way was home.
He didn’t know if he would even be able to go back onto land. If his tail was permanent or not.

Those thoughts brought up a fresh wave of panic, stopping him dead in his tracks.

His eyes were wide open now and the gills were back to spasming, as he swivelled around frantically searching for anything that could tell him what way home was.

In fact he was so engrossed in his worry that he didn’t notice another mer with a brilliant red tail approach him, startling when he felt a sharp tap on the shoulder.

The mer, Tim learned, was called Jason, and he had no clue as to how he could understand him but he did. The boy was warning him about being too close to the shore, but every time Tim asked which direction that was in Jason’s face scrunched up in confusion.

However eventually he seemed to get the idea that Tim was there all alone without a pod, and offered Tim to come back with him just for the night, saying that it was too dangerous for someone as young as him to be out by himself, which Tim took great offence to, he was incredibly independent thank you very much, he did not need to be baby sat.

But Jason couldn’t understand him when he tried to explain that, and something about the other mer seemed kind and inviting, maybe it wouldn’t hurt for him to stay just for the night and make his way back in the morning.

So out of some form of stupidity he found himself agreeing to Jason’s suggestion with a small nodd, before being led to an intricate network of caves about half an hour from where he originally was.

It was only meant to be for the night, but that night turned into two, which turned into a week, and before he knew it he had been living with the Waynes for a month, unwanted and unwilling to return to his life on land where he was alone and forgotten.

Under the sea he had brothers, a dad and an amazing grandfather, all of which cared about him. Tim had found his place there, especially once he learned how to speak the other’s language.

Yet as he sits on the beach watching the sun rise, he still had about half an hour before he was needed anywhere, he feels guilty.

Guilty that he keeps this part of himself from his family.

Guilty that he has to return to the surface whenever his parents are back in town with none of his family knowing where he is.

But how could he tell them?

They all hate humans. It was clear in the snarky tone they took up whenever humans were brought into conversation.
Telling them would mean they wouldn’t love him anymore, at the best.

No he just wouldn’t say anything, their love was too important to him.

Chapter Text

Jason was rudely awoken by Dick, flittering around the cave and smashing rocks together. In the distance he could vaguely hear Bruce’s tired grunts filling the cave as Alfred asked about the meaning of all this commotion so early in the morning. However after that the banging stopped and Jason, deciding that it is way too early to face reality, fell back into a light sleep.

The next thing he remembers was being woken up by Dick, yet again, but this time he just stuck his head through the curtain leading to the room and shouted at him until he agreed to wake up.

From there he was led into the main area of the cave, where Alfred and Bruce were both seemingly waiting for him, both having a confused expression etched into their faces, which come to think about it as did Dick’s, but his was also mixed with fear and panic.

“What's going on?”

His voice sounded feeble, drowned out by the others' quiet panicked mutterings. Then he realised that Tim wasn’t there. Surely his youngest brother should also be there if he was.

“Where’s Tim?”

“Jason, lad. Tim has disappeared again.” Bruce’s voice cut through the water, the response shocking him, even if Jason deep down had a suspicion that it was the case. “Dick tracked him, followed him, all the way to the surface, but when he saw him, Tim was on land as a human. We think this is where he has been going all this time… but the how or why still remains a mystery.”

None of it made sense.

Jason thought that Tim hated humans. So why is he pretending to be one?

How is he pretending to be one? It was common knowledge that Tim, while competent enough with magic, was nowhere near strong enough to perform that kind of magic, in fact the only mer in the near-by area who could was Alfred, who seemed just as confused as the rest of them.

Jason was left dumbfounded and confused as Alfred and Bruce explained the plan to him and Dick.

It was quite simple really, first hang around the shore looking for the boy, just in case Dick made a mistake in his exhaustion, and if that was the case simply return home and wait till Tim comes back so they can demand an explanation as to what happened.

But if Dick was right, well there was a debate between trying to get their brother’s attention while he was human catching him red handed, Alfred performing a spell to make Bruce human so he can track Tim better and figure out the cause without any need of speaking to him, but that was more of a last resort since nobody was comfortable with the idea. The final idea was to do what they had always done and just wait for Tim to return, which again wasn’t optimal.
This is how Jason found himself brushing the shore as he and his family tried to find a place to hide and observe the beach, Dick’s rock turned out to be far too small for all of them.

About five meters or so away he could hear Dick shout that he had found a new spot, just far away enough from the shore but not too hiddent that they couldn’t see the beach.

By the time he made his way over Dick had already sprawled all over the rock and Bruce had claimed a corner, Alfred was back at the cave in case something happened or Tim returned, leaving Jason a small edge to precariously purchon.

Judging by the colour of the water, it was still quite early in the day, so the beach was relatively empty, save for a few people strolling next to the serf by themselves or in groups.

They all stayed like that for a little while, aimlessly people watching, well more like Bruce was, since after about ten minutes the two teens had decided that they were bored and ended up playing a game of crab, seaweed, rock.

However, that was broken up by Bruce nudging Dick on the shoulder and pointing at a boy with black hair, trailing behind two older looking humans, listening attentively to them.

Jason couldn’t believe his eyes when Dick gave Bruce a thumbs up, signaling that is supposedly his brother.

The two didn’t look anything alike!

To start off with, Tim was a mer, he did not have two fleshy limbs coming out from his torso, he had a tail and claws and gills. He wasn’t human, okay!

But as the trio observed the human more, Jason couldn’t help but see the young guppy he rescued all those years ago in the boy. Their body language was like-for-like and the human boy seemed to be wearing Tim’s face.

Maybe that was his brother after all.

A quick glance at Bruce told him that his dad was going through the same thought process as him, for once his shock displayed plainly on his face.

Another quick glance at the boy and then all of them were nodding in agreement, it was Tim after all.

Jason doesn’t know how to feel about that, on one hand he could see why Tim had never told the pod about this, not with how clear they all made their hatred of humans, but also on the other hand he felt betrayed by his brother.

Surely Tim knew that Jason could never hate him just because he somehow chose to spend some time playing human.

On the way back to the cave to report their findings to Alfred and agree that they were going to talk to Tim while he was human, Jason noticed that Dick was most likely feeling the same way, the older mer had always worn his heart on his sleeve much more often than Bruce or Jason.

At home, they decided to leave the plan until later in the afternoon, it was midday and they needed to think of what to say to the other member of the pod when they confronted him.

But what is there to say?

“Hey why are you now a human?”

It was all too confusing and instead of sleeping until he was needed, like Jason wanted to, he found himself tossing and turning, the image of Tim as a human replaying in his mind on a loop.

Eventually he gave up and went to find Dick, who was taking his emotions out by hunting instead, even if they didn’t need the extra food it was still a much more effective outlet than Bruce’s, so Jason silently slinked next to him and helped gut and bone Dick’s most recent victim.

The two didn’t need to speak, they didn’t want to. If they did they would have to face the reality of their situation, which neither of them were ready for.

But for the moment just being together, working together for a common goal was good enough, each other's comforting presence taking their mind’s off the situation.

When they returned to the cave, their hull was in several bags that were all placed into the pantry off the side of the kitchen area. Bruce was waiting for them.

It was time to go and find Tim.

The swim back to the shore felt twice as long as it did before, but they all got there in the end. It was the early evening, the weak sun reflecting off of the ocean causing it to shimmer.

Jason had to admit that it was beautiful as his face breached the barrier between the sea and the air, before turning his attention to the beach.

It was hauntingly empty, the sand sweeping across the barren landscape. But there Tim sat by the surf so the waves wouldn’t quite reach his toes, but at the same time close enough that he could feel at home.

As the group approached, they noticed that he looked lost in thought, sad even, water was leaking out of the corners of his eyes and his nose was puffy and red.

There was nobody with him. He was alone.

That was all Bruce needed to fully breach the water, about a meter away from the boy, and say his name, startling Tim out of his trance and saying something, but it didn’t sound right to Jason. Tim’s voice was deeper and more rough, the complete opposite of what he sounded like when speaking Atlantean.

The change shocked all of them, how could he be the brother they all loved and knew?

Tim sensing his family’s confusion, held up a finger, knowing that they couldn’t understand what he was saying and that his voice could no longer pronounce the pod’s language.

Slowly he climbed onto a rock and from there slinked into the water. He was under there for about a minute, before Dick’s worry got the best of him, going back under the serf and dragging Jason by the arm with him.

Jason doesn’t know what he was expecting to see, but somehow Tim back as a mer waving shyly wasn’t it.

Bruce was also under the water now, though not as confused as his eldest and middle child were.

“Okay before you get mad, just let me explain.”

Chapter Text

Why did everything go wrong?

Why were they here?

Why didn’t they just forget about his existence for a few days like they always did when he returned to the surface?

These were some of the many questions that flashed through Tim’s mind as he heard his father’s voice, not Jack Drake’s but Bruce’s, who was a Mer who refused to even get a hundred meters near the surface out of a mixture of caution and trauma. The last person he expected to find him here.

And yet here he was above the barrier separating the sky and the sea, along with his brothers when he was like this, all just to speak to him.

At least they care about him, they went all this way just for him, while Janet and Jack didn’t even pick up the phone the first fifteen times that the hospital called when he broke his leg, or when the school called to tell them that he was the amongst the best students, or when his gymnastics coach called to tell them that he won several awards at a competition.

Noooo, why would they, they don’t even know that he hasn’t been to school for four years.

They don’t even know that he doesn’t live in their house.

Before he lived with the Waynes, Tim, for whatever reason, thought that his parent’s behaviour was normal, but after years spent in a loving family that helped him through every single one of the hurdles he faced when living with them he realised that maybe they weren’t good parents.

It was hard to realise that however, he still had happy memories of his parents. That one Christmas morning for example, when he woke up extra early to make breakfast and hot chocolate for everyone. It had been such a carefree time.

But it didn’t last and the next day his parents were gone again.

His thoughts turned back to Bruce, to his family. How was he going to explain this? He didn’t even know why it happened or how.

Maybe the show not tell method might be easier to demonstrate this ability, it’s not like Tim could communicate with them anyway, human voice boxes are not designed for Atlantean in any shape or form.

Slowly he climbed onto a rock and slinked into the sparkling water. The transformation is something that he will never get used to. One minute he has legs but as soon as a toe hits the water then it’s a numbing tingling that spreads through his body as he lowers himself further and further into the abyss, until his head goes under and he’s fully submerged, and poof he has a tail.

He has never watched what it looks like, he’s never shifted enough and honestly would rather not see whatever form of body horror that goes on during one of his transformations.

Tim hopes that the bubbles might have covered that part from his anxiously awaiting family, he does not need to traumatise them, as he floats just under the surface, waving at his two gobsmacked brothers who were frantically trying to pull their dad under.

“It’s not what it looks like!”

Why did he say that? It only makes him seem more guilty and he does not need that at the moment.

“Like what Timbers? Because to me it looks like you were just frolicking around as a human.”

Okay maybe he broke them. However none of them seem angry, in disbelief yes but anger didn’t even seem to cross their faces.

Why weren’t they angry?

They hate humans. Humans killed Bruce’s parents before their time had come, and left a young boy an orphan, and they had done the same thing to Dick. How could they be okay knowing that he was part of the same species as those beasts?

“Timmy, how is this possible?” It was Dick’s turn now to ask the questions, and in all fairness he was doing a very good job of it, controlling his emotions.

Now it was time to be honest, which after four years of lying was much harder than he thought it would be. If Tim had to be honest, he would say he liked the protection of his secret, it brought him comfort that only he knew of the two people he was. However he didn’t know why.

He schooled his voice, trying to sound as calm as possible, why worry them further.

“Okay, that's kind of a long story. Do you want the cliff notes version or not?”

It was a resounding no.

“Okay so, for context I was born human, my parents were Janet and Jack Drake, no they are not dead I just no longer consider them to be my parents that honour is now Bruce’s, when I was younger I wasn’t allowed in the ocean, I was never told why but I accepted it, until after going to the beach with some friends I almost drowned because I was stupid and didn’t remember when high tide was, the water filled in around me and the next thing I knew I was somewhere out at sea with a fish tail. Jason found me after that, when I was on the verge of having a panic attack because I didn’t know if I could ever return home or where that even was, I wasn’t planning to stay with you for the rest of my life, it just kind of happened and I am glad that it did. However, about five months after I came to live with you, I snuck off by myself to go to land. I missed it even if I thought that I was stuck as a Mer, but when I pulled myself out of the water I was back as a human, so now every time my biological parents are back in town I go back to land so they don’t suspect anything. Any questions?”

“How do the transformations work?”

Bruce, as stoic as ever, seemingly unfazed by the story but Tim knew better, he could see Bruce’s panic and confusion written into the man’s face.

“I don’t know, is the honest answer, but as soon as I am fully submerged in the sea I turn into a Mer, I don’t know why it happens just that it does.”

“That is so cool! You can be both on land and in the sea. Timmy what I wouldn’t give for that. Please tell me you punched a poacher.”

He had not, but he did punch a poachers kid when he was still in school, the little annoyance was being a brat, so figuring that counts he just nods his head to Jason’s question. Then it dawned on him.

“So you don’t hate me? Even after I lied to you.”

It was again a no, apparently they could never hate him despite the lies, they are upset that he felt as if he couldn’t tell them this, especially Bruce who started to question his parenting, but even if he was human they didn’t hate him.

The family stayed like that for a while just talking, Tim answering any questions that the others might have about land, or his ability, all the while Tim was dreading the time where he would need to leave the water and face his biological family.

He could leave them, the surface, and never return. The thought sounded incredibly appealing. Would they even notice him missing?

The sun had set by now, and Bruce seemed eager to return to the caves, but he still couldn’t decide. It’s not like it was a hard choice, a loving family or people who don’t realise he’s there half the time, but some deep part of him wanted to believe that they could still love him.

He was stalling them now, deciding to give his supposed mother and father ten more minutes to realise he was missing, before leaving them for good.

So naturally the next ten minutes felt like a lifetime, some part of him was hoping to hear his name being called through the crisp night air above him, but that never happened and the antagonising wait was over. They didn’t care about him, but looking back at Bruce, Jason and Dick he was reminded that maybe that didn’t matter because they did.

So with that thought he turned towards them and smiled, tears stinging his eyes, before shouting at his brothers that they were now racing and taking off, hearing indignant squawks of betrayal from Dick and Jason behind him slowly catching up, while Bruce’s mumbles about safety could be heard in the distance.

Bruce had lost all hope of his kids heading his warnings years ago after all, yet he always felt obligated to give them.

Tim used to find it annoying, but now it's just another reminder of how much he was loved and he couldn’t ask for anything more.

He had definitely made the right decision.