Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tim leaned his forearms against the side of the ship as he stared out at the calm waves around them. It wasn’t often  that they went out to sea like this. He and his siblings were usually pretty busy and never had the time to do this. But, Tim had to admit it was nice. Cass was hiding up in the birdnest, Dick was doing tricks on the bowspirit, he was pretty sure Jason had forced Damian to swab the poop deck after he had threatened to stab Duke who was currently steering the ship. Tim, though? He was just enjoying the view, taking in the cool air that rose up from the water and enoying the freedom. They were coming up on his twentieth birthday which meant it was about to officially be time for him to start looking for a suitor. Jason and Dick had both already gotten married off, Dick to his childhood sweetheart Barbara, and Jason was currently engaged to both Koriand’r of the Southern Isles and Roy, the son of a blacksmith in a close by village. And now that Tim was of age, it was about to be time to start looking. Especially since he was the one who was expected to take the crown. Dick had abdicated the role, as had Jason which left it in Tim’s laps. Damian was only ten and Duke was only sixteen. Their father was desperate for someone to take his place, ready to throw the entire kingdom away if it meant he could retire.

“A strong wind and a following sea,” Jason said with a sigh as he stepped beside Tim and they looked out over the seas. Dick had decided that since it was the week before Tim’s birthday the siblings needed to go out on the ocean and have some fun just relaxing. “Queen Jasmine must be in a friendly mood.”

Tim looked over at his older brother and frowned. “Who’s Queen Jasmine?”

Dick landed beside him and grinned. “Ruler of the Merpeople! I thought everyone knew about her! She’s beautiful with bright teal eyes and the most beautiful red hair,” Dick said with a dreamy sigh. “I’ve only ever seen her once, and it was for just a second. She’s known as the temptress of the seas, she drags sailors to their death.”

“Don’t listen to their nautical nonsense,” Damian said with a huff. 

“It’s not nonsense Dami! I saw her! With my own eyes!” Dick argued. 

Jason just grinned. “And if you think Queen Jasmine is beautiful, they say her brother is even more amazing. Legend says that he’s to take the throne upon his twenty first birthday and that Jasmine is just holding it in place for him. He’s known as the prize of the sea,” he said. “With eyes as blue as the ocean itself and a bright green tail that nearly glows in the dark.”

“How do you guys know all of this?” Tim asked, turning to look at his brothers. Cass jumped down from the crow’s nest and smiled. 

“Legends,” she whispered, eyes bright. “Stories passed around with other sailors. No one knows for sure what’s true.”

“Can you tell me more about them? I’ve never heard about mermaids,” Tim said, fascination stirred in his gut. He hated not knowing something and this was an entire world he had never learned about or head of before. He was desperate to learn more. 

Down in the oceans below a prince let out a giggle as he snuck through the window of an old sunken ship, his bag was tied around his shoulder as he started his search for anything new, something he may not have seen the last few times he had explored the shipwreck.

“Danny, this is a terrible idea,” Tucker whispered softly, the small flounder fish swum beside Danny, looking around nervously. “Can’t we just get out here? It looks damp in here and I think I might be coming down with something.”

“Oh Tuck, don’t be such a guppy,” Danny teased before he swum down and picked up a metal thing that looked like Jazz’s trident. “You can stay here and look for sharks if you want.”

“Sharks!” He shouted, swimming closer to Danny’s side. 

“C’mon man don’t get cold fins on me now,” Danny teased, poking the end of the metal thingy mabob

“Do you really think there might be sharks?” Tucker whispered, looking around nervously, letting out a running commentary about how excited he was to be going through a terrifying, abandoned ship full of splinters and unknown monsters. 

“Tucker!” Danny finally said and pointed the metal device at Tucker and smiled. “Have you ever seen something so cool!?” He asked before he swam off and grabbed something else. 

“Danny,” Tucker whined, swimming closer. 

“Tuck, relax,” Danny said with a laugh as he looked through some strang looking device with a small hole on one side and a large opening on the other. “Nothing is going to happen,” he told him just as a shark burst through the window of the ship and Tucker let out an earpiercing scream. 

Danny turned to face the shark and gave him a look of annoyance. “Really Skulker? We’re doing this again? What happened to the whole fish are friends, not food deal we had going on?” He asked, holding Tucker in his arms as the little fish wiggled around nervously.

“You puny merman! You are nothing compared to the might of Skulker! Strongest shark in the seas!” The large tiger shark shouted before he zoomed forward to snap at Danny only for the prince to flick him, sending the shark careening away. That was the perk about being the prince of the seas. He was just a little more powerful than the overage ocean dweller.

Danny just tutted and put his newfound items in his bag as he started his swim up to the shore. If anyone would know anything about these new discoveries it would be Wes the seagull! He knew everything about human things. 

Tucker babbled on beside him as he talked about how much of a coward Skulker was and how he would beat him up next time he showed his ugly mug but Danny’s mind was elsewhere. There was a nagging suspicion that the twenty year old had forgotten something but he oculdn’t figure out what that was. Being the prince of the Infinite Sea Realms meant that he had so many duties he couldn’t keep up with. It was why he had Sam, his amazing crab who kept track of everything for him. Only, he didn’t know where Sam was either. 

It felt like he was forgetting something important, though, he just couldn’t figure out what. Which meant that it probably wasn’t important. 

He burst through the sea and found Wes laying in his nest on a rock in the middle of the sea and smiled. “Wes!” He swam closer and dumped out his bag. “Look what we found!”

“Human stuff, huh?” he asked before he picked up the metal device. “Wow, this is special, this is really unusual.”

“What is it?” Danny asked, leaning forward, looking beyond excited. 

“It’s a dinglehopper! Humans use these little babies to straighten their hair out,” he said before he ran it through Danny’s hair and grinned. “Humans love them!”

“What about this?” 

Wes took the object and looked it over. “Now this, this is a banded bulbous, snarblate. It dates back to prehistorical times when humans woudl just sit around and look at each other, got very boring. So they made this little dohicky so that when they met up-”

“Met up! Oh shoot! I have a meeting,” Danny screeched, filling his bag with all of his found objects. “I’m sorry Wes, I gotta go! Jazz is gonna kill me!” He shouted before he launched himself back into the waters. 

“That meeting was today?” Tucker asked, swimming with his best friend to get to the castle on time. Danny just felt his heart racing. He was going to die. That’s what was going to happen. 

“Yes, Hurry home, Prince, we wouldn’t want to miss your coronation meeting, now would we? Coronation indeed,” he snarled. “That should be my coronation,” he grumbled, watching as Daniel swam to the castles. 

“And now look at me, practically wasted away into nothing, banished and exiled and practically starving. While he and his flimsy fish folk celebrate. Well I’ll give them something to celebrate soon enough,” he leered, staring into his crystal ball, watching Daniel meet with his goddaughter, Jasmine. Oh Jasmine, how she looked so much like Madeline, his sweet, precious Madeline., gone too soon. 

“Flotsam, Jetsem! I want you to kep a close eye on Prince Daniel, he may be the key to the kingdom;s undoing!”

Danny stood with his head bowed as Jazz and the observants laid into him for missing the meeting. It was the first in a long series of meetings to give the crown to Danny. Jazz had never wanted the crown, she was only holding it until he was of age which now that he was twenty was soon. 

He was a year away from his coronation and he was dreading every second of it. Jazz had been ruling since Danny was only fourteen, his sister just barely eighteen at the time of their parent’s deaths. She had her own duties that she was meant to attend to. As the daughter of the King and Queen she wasn’t meant to rule. Her position was to advise her brother, and help him. Now that Danny was old enough, though, it was time for her to leave the position and let him take his rightful place to the throne. 

The problem was that Danny didn’t want that. He didn’t want to rule, he wanted freedom. To explore everything and maybe even one day gain the power to turn himself into a human and learn about the human world. That was what he wanted. To explore the world of humans and see how they survived and lived. It had to be better than life under the sea where things were just boring and the same every single day.

“I just don’t know what we’re going to do with you, Danny,” Jazz said with a sigh. “As a result of your behavior-”

“Careless and reckless behavior!” An observant shouted behind her. 

“Well, the entire meeting was ruined,” Sam said with a sigh, floating beside Danny. “We’ve been planning this for weeks, Danny. Weeks! I reminded you this morning about the meeting and everything!”

Tucker let out a whine. “It wasn’t his fault!” He shouted angrily. “First a shark chased us! And we had to fight him! And then we got away and were safe and then this seagull came and was like this is this and that is that-”

“Seagull!” Jazz shouted, looking read to pull her hair out. Danny, Tucker, and Sam gave one another a nervous look and gulped. “You went up to the surface again! Didn’t you!?”

“Nothing happened!” Danny argued.

“How many times do we have to go through this? Humans are barbarians! What would you have done if someone killed you.”

“Jazz, they’re not barbarians!”

“They’re dangerous!” Jazz argued back, her voice raising in anger. “They killed our parents, or did you just conveniently forget that? Do you think I want to see my brother killed by one of those fisheater’s hook!  To bury another member of my family?”

“I’m twenty years old! I’m not a kid!”

“Don’t even start, as long as I’m still queen, you listen to my rules and I never want to hear you going to the surface again,” Jazz snarled. Danny just glared at his sister and stormed out of the castle. Jazz slumped down in her throne and let out a sigh as she looked at Sam. “Was I too hard on him?”

“No, he needs it. He doesn’t understand the severity of his actions,” Sam said softly. “He needs to be watched until we’re sure he can commit to his position as king.”

“Good, I’m glad you agree Sam! I’m going to have you keep an eye on the little brat until we’re sure he’s not out there breaking more rules,” she said and Sam let out a groan. Great, now she was stuck babysitting her best friend, that’s exactly what she needed. 

Danny was going to kill her if he found out. 

Chapter Text

“Danny, are you okay?” Tucker asked, swimming down to his friend. Danny was laying on the ground of his little cove, a small cave deep in the ocean where he kept all of his gadgets and gizmos. He twirled the thing-a-ma-mob in his hand as he thought about the argument he had with Jazz. He just couldn’t understand it. 

“I just don’t understand how a world that makes such wonderful things, could be bad,” Danny said with a sigh, poking at the object in his hand before he set it down and started to look around at his collection of stuff. He swam up to look around his trove, thinking about all the wonders that his little cavern held. 

He had gadgets and gizmos a plenty, oozets and whatsits galore! But it wasn’t enough, none of it was ever enough. There was still so much in the world that he wanted. 

“I want more, Tuck. I wanna be where the people are! Walking around on those feet things! I mean they can jump, and dance and stroll along the street and what can I do? Swim and wiggle my tail,” Danny said with a huff. “I would give anything to live out of the sea, even if it’s just a day.”

“I know Danny but it’s just not possible,” Tucker said with a sigh as he swam beside his friend, taking in the different knick knacks that Danny had collected over the years. There were just so many, so many things he had found from shipwrecks and winds knocking things out of boats. It just wasn’t enough, though, it wasn’t the same. 

Danny hadn’t been happy in the Infinite Seas for a very long time now, even before his parents had passed away he had hated it here. He just wasn’t meant for the ocean, he was meant to be on land! Where he could tinker and build things! Where he can spend hours sunbathing without ever having to worry about something catching him.

Mermaids were supposed to stay secrets. They were legends and myths that the humans whispered to their children about before they went to bed. Or they were the sirens that the sailors used in their cautionary tales while out in the ocean. They had spent thousands of years making sure the sailors knew only legends of the secrets under the sea. It was why Jazz was so strict about Danny going up to the surface, no one was supposed to know about them. 

They were myths and nothing more. 

But Danny didn’t want that! The human world, it was beautiful! There was just so much to do, so much to see! The human world just had so many opportunities for Danny to check out and it wasn’t fair that he’d never get to experience any of it while stuck down in the depths of the ocean! 

“Danny,” Sam said, swimming into the cavern, a look of concern on her crabby little face. “Down here is our home. Not up there!”

“Yeah! Besides, Danny, we’re down here,” Tucker said with a small smile, swimming around Danny’s head and flicking his fin in his face. “Don’t you like staying down here with us fishfolk?”

“Of course I do, but there’s just so much out there that I don’t know about. And I want to know more,” Danny said wistfully, swimming closer to the top of the cave where the surface was. Sam floated in front of him and glared. 

“The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake. I know you dream about going up there but it would be such a big mistake! I know you’re under a lot of pressure but this is a lot to take in-”

“What’s that?” Danny asked, craning his head back to look up at the large shadow that had moved over them. Before Sam or Tucker could stop him he took off, swimming as fast as he could to see what was going on. Danny grinned when he saw the large boat and carefully swum the rest of the way to the surface when he head a loud bark sound through the air, it was unlike anything he had ever heard before. Danny swam to the boat and pulled himself up to look through a small window. A large furry, black thing stuck his nose at Danny and he let out a soft chuckle before he raised his hand to pet the sniffing beast. It happily licked at his hand before he turned and ran back to the humans on the ship. 

Danny peaked his head into the small window and his heart skipped a beat at what he saw. There, dancing with a blond woman was the most handsome man that Danny had ever seen in his life. He was dressed in the strange clothes these humans seemed to wear, Danny couldn’t help but wonder what they felt like, wonder what they were called! His hair was like black silk sitting messily atop his head, his eyes were the same color as the ocean, a shade that Danny knew better than any color in the world. 

He was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. 

“Alright, everyone!” A slightly older man with the same black hair and blue eyes announced, clapping his hands together. “Good ‘ole Timmy is twenty years old today! And in his honor, we had this made for him!” He said before another man with black hair and a white streak pulled a white covering off of a large rock. Danny gasped. 

It looked just like this Timmy man! Whoever had made such a wonderful thing had managed to capture Timmy’s beauty so easily in the chiseled rock. Danny smiled and rested his head on his arms as he watched the man, he later learned preferred to be called Tim laugh and rub at his neck awkwardly as the other humans teased him about the statue. 

“Don’t worry, Tim, maybe you can send it to one of your potential brides! I’m sure they’d love a hulking rock that looks just like you!” White streak said, pounding his hand on Tim’s back. Danny chuckled as he looked at the rock. A statue one of the other men had called it. 

It was beautiful but Danny didn’t know if he would ever want a giant statue that looked just like him sitting around his home. It must be pretty awkward to have something like that. He shivered as the winds around them. 

“Hurricane’s a’brewin’!” Someone shouted and Danny dropped back into the water as the humans started to prepare for the storm that was now coming their way. He stayed low, watching as the waves started to rise higher and higher and crash against the boat angrily as the winds blew harder and harder. Lighting streaked across teh sky as thunder clapped angrily. Danny watched as the ship got tossed around like nothing in the treacherous waters, the humans not knowing how to ride with the angry waves the same way that the merfolk did. Danny watched with bated breath as a large wave crashed over the boat, he watched, heart dropped in his stomach as Tim was pulled out of the boat by the large wave.

Before Danny could stop himself, he shot through the waters and quickly wrapped his arms around Tim, praying to whatever ancients would listen that the human would be okay. He wrapped Tim’s arms around his shoulders and had him lay against his back as he started swimming to the shore, hoping silently that the man didn’t drown. Danny had never swum like this above water before and he didn’t know if the human was getting enough air. 

“You’re going to be okay,” Danny told the human passed out on his back. “It’s going to be okay.”

That was important for them if he remembered right, they couldn’t survive underwater like the merfolk did. Danny held on tight, swimming faster than he had ever swum before until he finally got to the shore. He carefully waded his way up, setting Tim along the sand as he hauled himself up to stare down at him. 

He wasn’t breathing. Why wasn’t he breathing?

“Why isn’t he breathing?” Danny asked out loud to himself. “Tim, you need to wake up!”

Danny frowned as he looked at him. What could it be? Why was he not behaving the way humans were supposed to behave? He frowned and looked down at where the human’s stomach seemed to be protruding a little too much. 

“Maybe he drank too much seawater?” Danny murmured, staring down at the prince. “Wake up, please wake up.”

The merman carefully pressed his hand against the covering on Tim’s stomach before he pressed a little harder when suddenly the man let out a loud cough as water came out of him. Danny stared in surprise. What did he do? Should he stay? Introduce himself to the human? 

No, Jazz would actually scale him if he did that. Before the man could awaken fully, Danny pushed himself back into the waters and watched from a distance, just his head sticking out of the water ever so slightly as he watched. 

Tim sat up and let out a loud cough before vomiting in the sand beside him. Danny crinkled his nose in disgust. Good to know humans couldn’t ingest seawater. He’d need to know that for if he ever became a human. Somehow. Someway. 

Danny watched as Tim slowly stood up and looked around confused, a frown prominent on his beautiful face as he hobbled around the dark beaches before realizing no one else was there. Danny didn’t know how long he watched the man but eventually, Tim left the beach, leaving Danny alone once more, wishing he could follow him along the streets of the town.

Chapter Text

Danny couldn’t stop thinking about the human. About Tim! It had been about four days now and he still couldn’t get the image of Tim’s ocean-blue eyes out of his mind. 

No, not ocean blue. 

His eyes were even prettier than the ocean, they reminded Danny of the sky. Something that Danny longed to see more of. With Jazz’s newest rules after the death of their parents, merpeople weren’t allowed to swim to the surface for any reason whatsoever. It was just another risk and if they were seen, who knew what the humans would do? 

This was something he and Jazz had disagreed on quite a bit. The accident that had killed their parents were just that, an accident. The humans hadn’t meant to kill their parents, their boat had crashed in a storm, his parents had been killed by the wreckage upon trying to help them. They hadn’t been brutally murdered, they were just victims of an accident. 

Jazz didn’t see it that way, though. To her they had been brutally murdered by the monsters and their ships that had no business being in their oceans. Danny had spent days trying to convince her to not sink every ship she saw. Thankfully the council and Observants had helped back him up on this, insisting that it was a bad idea. 

“Danny,” Tucker whispered quietly to his friend, swimming close to his ear.

That was right. Danny was currently in his lectures from one of the Observants on ways to be a good and merciful king. It was the most boring thing in his life. At this point, the classes were blurred together. He couldn’t remember anything he had learned but it was whatever. Danny was already planning on winging the whole king thing anyway. 

He let out a soft hum and glanced at the little flounder. “What?”

“I found something, come on. Sam’s gonna distract Marco over there,” Tucker said. Danny grinned and saluted the crab when he saw her swim towards Marco and get his attention before he and Tucker swam off. 

Tucker led his friend down towards his favorite little cove where he kept his gadgets and gizmos. 

“I found this, and got some minnows to help move it over here,” Tucker said, beaming with pride as Danny stared at the magnificent statue that now stood in the center of the cove.

“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” Danny said with a gasp as he swum up to Tim’s head and smiled as his tail wrapped around the statue’s torso. “Why run away with you, you say? How romantic,” he purred, running a finger down Tim’s stone face.

Tucker snickered and swum forward and around Tim’s head. “I saw it and just knew that you needed to have it,” he said and winked. “And don’t worry, I made the minnows swear to secrecy when I got their help.”

“I have so many questions,” Danny said, glancing over at the fish before he looked back at the statue and just took in Tim’s features. If only it had his blue eyes, then Danny would be able to stare at the sky whenever he wanted to. “But I’m just gonna leave it alone. Thank you, Tucker. This is amazing.”

Tucker grinned and shook his little head as he watched his friend moon over the statue of his human. 

“I need to find him,” Tim said, running his fingers through his hair as he stared at the small sketch he had done of the mystery being who had saved his life. Tim was about eighty percent sure that the guy had been a merman but he wasn’t totally sure. 

All he knew is that with hazy eyes and a concussion, he had seen the most beautiful face. Eyes bluer than the ocean, with hair as dark as night and the most perfect tan he had ever seen. He had been absolutely stunning and Tim just couldn’t stop thinking about the beautiful being who had thrown a half-dazed Tim over his shoulder and swam through the dangerous waters to get him to safety.

Why would he do that? 

Why would he risk his life to go out of his way to save Tim of all people? 

If he had been a merman then he didn’t know who Tim was, he had no obligation to save him or help him. Not only that but he imagined that with the hurricane they were hit with the being had been risking his own life to save Tim. 

So why? Why would he go through all that trouble only to leave before the prince could thank him? And what could Tim do to fix this? How could he find someone that he was pretty sure was a merman? 

Would he just be stuck knowing that this beautiful being was out there somewhere and never get the chance to find him? Would he always just be stuck wondering what if?

Tim couldn’t accept that, he had to find this mystery man and at least introduce himself! Thank him for saving Tim’s life and maybe then make a move if the man or merman was interested!

“Are you still obsessing over that hallucination?” Dick asked, leaning over his brother’s shoulder. 

“He wasn’t a hallucination,” Tim snapped, folding the small paper up and slipping it back into his pocket. “He was real and he saved me.”

“There was no one there when we found you, Tim, it was just you,” Dick said with a sigh before he ruffled his brother’s hair. Tim looked up and glared at his brother. 

“That’s because he left before you got there! He’s real, though! He’s real and he’s beautiful and I’m going to find him, Dick. I don’t know how but I will,” he said before looking out over the ocean. The two were currently on the beach as Tim sat against a rock and stared out at the massive ocean that was in front of him. 

“I think you may have ingested a bit too much seawater. The only way someone could have saved you would have been if they were like a mermaid or something and,” Dick stopped and looked down at Tim who had clenched his jaw as he stared out at the ocean. “You can’t honestly tell me that you think a mermaid saved you?” he asked with a scoff before he turned to face the ocean once more.

“They aren’t real, Tim. We were giving you a hard time a few weeks ago but they’re not real,” he said, staring out at the ocean and letting out a breath. “If they were don’t you think we’d know?

“No?” Tim said honestly as he stood up to stand beside his brother. “There’s an entire ocean out there that we don’t know anything about! How could we ever expect there to be nothing out there? He’s real, Dick, and I’m telling you he’s a merman and he saved my life. And I just–I just need to find him.”

Dick turned to his brother and frowned. “Why? What is so important about this supposed mermaid that you have to find him and thank him?”

“Why are you so against the idea that he’s real, huh?” Tim countered, glaring up at the older man. 

“Because there’s so many people that you could meet instead, we just want to see you happy Tim and you’re obsessed with some hallucination! Bruce still can’t figure out why you ended it with Steph or Bernard when you were with them. And now you’re chasing after a hallucination?” He demanded, throwing his arms out wide. 

Tim scowled and shook his head as he went back to his rock and took a seat on it to stare out at the vast ocean again as he rested his chin on his knees.  “I wish you guys would quit pressuring me about this,” he said with a sigh. “He’s out there, I know he is. And something about him just feels right. I just know that he’s the one if I can just find him,” he said quietly. “He’s out there and I have to find him.”

“You’re wasting your time, Tim. I just don’t want to see you getting hurt because of this,” Dick said before he ruffled his brother’s hair again. “We care about you, little brother and we just want what’s best for you.”

Tim glared at his brother. “Then trust me,” he grumbled. “And believe me when I say he’s out there and I’m going to find him.”

Dick just shook his head at his brother and left him on the beach without another word. Which was fine, Tim didn’t need to deal with his brother’s negativity. If he couldn’t be bothered to believe Tim then what was the point in arguing with him?

He didn’t know when and he didn’t know how but something was starting and he just needed his brothers to watch and see. The merman was out there and maybe he was just as curious about Tim as he was the merman. 

Chapter Text

Jazz watched as her brother swam off with Tucker and tapped her nails against the armrest of her throne. Something was different about Danny. The last few days he had been more in his head than usual. He seemed happy. 

“He’s acting weird,” Jazz said, looking over at her baby sister who also happened to be staring after Danny in confusion. The merman was floating around lazily with Tucker, a dreamy, far-off look on his face as he played with Tucker's fins. 

“He’s in love,” Ellie said softly, her little tentacles ruffled around her as she stared after her brother. Jazz sent her little sister a small smile. Ellie had been a creation of their now-banished godfather just a few years before. He had created her to be the perfect copy of Danny only she didn’t come out the way he wanted her to. 

Not only had she turned out as a girl, but instead of a single tail like the mermaids, she had hatched with the same tentacles as Vlad did. Sure she looked like Danny from the waist up but in Vlad’s eyes, she had been seen as a failed project. 

Upon learning about the little sea witch, though, Jazz and Danny had done the hardest thing since the death of their parents and banished their godfather from their realms to live in exile. And then Jazz and Danny took the little girl in as their sister. She had been the missing piece their family truly needed. 

“What do you mean he’s in love?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Ellie shrugged her shoulders. “I mean he’s in love. Look at his face, he’s in love.”

Jazz grinned as she stared out at where Danny had disappeared a wide smile on his face as Tucker led him away. Maybe all of Dash’s flirting and floundering had paid off and Danny had finally given him the time of day. “Will you grab Sam for me? I want to ask her.”

“Aye aye, big sister!” Ellie said with a salute before her tentacles flared and she took off into the ocean to find her friend.

Soon Ellie came swimming back through the castle with the little crab in tow. “Come on! Jazz wanted to talk to you.”

Sam gave her a nervous look before she looked up at the Queen. “About what?” she asked, scuttling up the throne to sit on the armrest and look up at the queen who was giving her a shit eating smile. 

Jazz grinned. “You’ve been keeping something from me, haven’t you Sam?”

“Keeping something?” Sam squeaked, looking up at Jazz as she grinned even wider. Jazz leaned closer, grabbing the crab and holding her in her hands as she looked down at the pinchy little being. 

“About Danny?” She coaxed, trying to get it out of her friend. “In love?”

“Y-you know about the human?” She stammered, staring up at Jazz with terror in her eyes. Sam tucked in on herself, maybe she wasn't going to be super angry about it if she was already smiling about Danny being in love?

“The human? What human?” She demanded, narrowing her eyes at Sam as Ellie let out a nervous trill and swum to hide behind Jazz’s throne. 

“Oh, you don’t know? Um well never mind I’ll just-”

A hand suddenly wrapped around the small crab and the crustacean now stared at the teal eyes of her queen. 

Jazz glared down at Sam, her heart racing with anger and her eyes alight with a fire unlike any other. “Tell me everything. Now.”  

Sam gulped and reluctantly spilled everything she knew. 

“I’m just saying, Tuck, I’m gonna find him again and ask him my questions and finally get some answers! Like that big orange thing on the ship that was really hot? Was that fire? Why does it-oh what’s the word– burn? Why does it burn like that?”

Suddenly Danny noticed a shadow loom over him and slowly turned to find his sister glaring down at him with Ellie and Sam hiding behind her. 

“I consider myself a reasonable mermaid. I make rules and I expect them to be followed. Is it true that you saved a human from drowning?” She asked, glaring down at the merman, her trident held tight in her hands. 

“Jazz, I had to, he was going to die!” Danny stammered. His sister’s eyes were like embers glaring down into his very being.  She was mad, no she wasn't just mad she was livid in a way that Danny had never seen before in his life. 

“Good, that’s one less filthy human to worry about. Contact between the human world and the mer-world is strictly forbidden. Danny, you know this. Everyone knows that!” She snarled out, waving her trident through the water as she swam closer until the two merpeople were face to face. Danny refused to back down, though. He was not going to feel bad for his interests. He was not about to let his older sister make him feel guilty for his feelings. 

“You don’t even know him!” Danny argued, glaring up at his sister. Jazz just sneered at her brother, her anger all-consuming. How did he not get it? These were the same humans who had caused the shipwreck that killed their parents. The same humans who flooded their waters with their waste and trash. And here was her brother, her only brother and he wanted to give up everything for some silly human that he knew nothing about! He wanted to risk their lives for a human?

“Know him? I don’t have to know him! They’re all the same! Spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters. They’re incapable of any feeling–”

“Jazz I think he’s my soulmate!” Danny shouted before he slapped a hand over his mouth. Maybe that was too far, that would be upsetting to his sister.

“No! Have you lost your senses? He’s a human, you’re a merman-”

“I don’t care,” Danny said stubbornly, glaring back at his sister, his own anger rising up within him. He felt the water around him start to cool substantially as he stared his older sister down. 

Jazz just gritted her teeth before she raised her trident. “I’m going to get through to you one way or another, Danny. This is for your own good,” she whispered before pointing it at the statue and destroying it completely. Danny stared at his sister in surprise before he looked back at the mess of rubble that slowly floated down around them. 

“I hate you,” he whispered before swimming out of the cove as fast as his tail could get him. There was one major downfall to being a merperson; they couldn't cry. Danny felt his chest aching inside of him and his head tensing up but no tears would fall, not when he was surrounded by salt water.

Once he left, Jazz let the trident fall slack in her hands as she looked at what she had done. “What have I done?” She whispered before going to chase after her brother. 

“Leave him alone for a little bit, Jazz,” Ellie said quietly, placing a hand on her sister’s shoulder. The queen slumped her shoulders and nodded.

Meanwhile, Danny swam and swam until he didn’t know where he was before he let himself collapse in the sand beneath him and let out a sob. He buried his face in his arms as his tail scrunched underneath him.  She just didn’t understand, why didn’t she get it? He just didn’t see things the same way his sister did. 

How could a world that made such wonderful things, be bad?

“Poor sweet child,” a voice suddenly said before a tail trailed along Danny’s shoulders. Danny looked up to find his godfather’s eels leering down at him. 

“What do you want?” Danny asked, venom lacing his voice. He watched as the two eels circled around him slowly like he was something for them to sink their teeth into. 

“We just noticed you have a very serious problem,” the second one said, their tail flicking Danny’s nose softly.

“If only there were something we could do,” the first lamented, giving Danny a sad look.

“But there is something,” the other leered. “We know someone who can help you, who can make all your dreams come true. For a price,” the second eel growled, looking Danny square in the face.

“Vlad can’t give me what I want,” he said with a scoff, falling back into the sand.

“You want to be human, right?” The first one asked, giving Danny a taunting smile as they floated above him. “Vlad can do that for you, all you have to do is make a deal and sign a contract.”

That had Danny freeze. Could he really do it? Could Vlad actually turn Danny human? He had created Ellie out of just a few of Danny’s hairs and some potions. Maybe he really could turn Danny into the thing he had always dreamed out. 

“He can make all your dreams come true, just imagine, you and your prince, together, forever,” the second eel said and Danny sighed as he swam up. 

He leveled the two eels with a look and let out another huff. “Fine, take me to my godfather,” he murmured. 

The eels smiled at one another before they started to lead Danny to their master's cave. Danny stared at it warily upon arrival but streeled his shoulders and started his way through the cave slowly, taking in the scenery before he was face to face with his godfather. 

“Daniel! My dear boy,” Vlad cheered, his arms spreading before he pulled Danny closer. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” he said, folding his arms around the merman’s torso and hugged him tight. “How are you doing? How is your lovely sister?”

“She’s fine,” Danny said and pushed away to give Vlad a look. “They said you can give me what I want.”

The sea witch gave him a small smile and tilted his head to the side in curiosity. “And what might that be?” He asked that creepy smile of his wide on his face. 

“You can make me human, right?”

“Oh my dear sweet child, you know what I do,” he said, his tentacles rubbing along Danny’s tail as he circled him. “What I live for? I love to help unfortunate merfolk like yourself. Sweet souls with no one else to turn to."

“So you can do it, then? You can make me human?” Danny asked and Vlad just grinned, his fangs glinted slightly. 

“Of course, but we will need to talk about payment,” he said simply. 

“I don’t have anything,” Danny said in confusion. 

“I don’t need much, a trifle, really,” Vlad said with a grin. “All I want from you is your voice.”

“But how can I-”

“I’m sure you can figure it out, Daniel,” Vlad said, patting the young man’s hand lightly. “Now, I can make you a potion that will turn you into a human for three days. Got that? Three days. But, there will be a stipulation. If you want the change to be permanent, you have to get this dear prince of yours to fall in love with you before the sun sets on the third day. That is, he needs to kiss you. It has to be the kiss of true love. If he does kiss you before the sun sets, you’ll be human permanently. If he doesn’t, you’ll turn back into a merman and you’ll belong to me.”

Danny looked at Vlad and down at his tail for a moment. “If I become human, I’ll never see my sisters or friends again,” he said softly. Vlad leaned forward and tilted his chin up to look at him. 

“True but you’ll have the life you’ve always wanted,” he said with a tsk. “You’ve always wanted to be human, to learn what it’s like up there. This is your chance, all you have to do is make Princey boy fall in love with you.”

Danny bit his lip before he nodded. “Fine, I’ll do it,” he said just as Sam and Tucker swam into the cave. 

“Danny no!” Sam shouted before the eels wrapped them up and covered their mouths. 

“So we have a deal?” Vlad asked, producing a large scroll for Danny with a golden pen. Danny nodded and took the pen from his godfather and scribbled his name on the bottom. 

“Let’s do it,” he said softly. Vlad grinned wildly before he swam to his large cauldron and started to pour different potions together and poured them into a small vial. 

“Drink this, Daniel,” the sea witch instructed, handing the vial to his godchild. Danny nodded and took it in his hand. 

“Here goes nothing,” he murmured before he tilted his head back and drank the contents. He let out a loud, screeching cough once it slipped past his throat when a small shining orb floated from his mouth. Vlad grinned and snatched it from the boy and tucked it away into the clasp that sat on his neck. 

“Have fun,” he sang as colors and shapes swarmed around Danny. He felt his eyes grow heavy until he dropped completely. 

Chapter Text

When Danny awoke he found himself laying on a hard rock. He let out a sigh and opened his eyes as he turned around in the water before he slowly looked down at his lower half and let out a soundless gasp. He raised a single leg up in the air and looked around wildly before he found where Sam and Tucker stared at him with worry. 

Danny went to speak before he froze and a shaky, pruned hand touched his throat. Right. No voice. That was the trade for this.

“I can’t believe you did this, Danny. Out of all the stupid things you could have possibly done! You seriously traded your voice to Vlad of all people? You know he probably tricked you, right? This is probably just another one of his hair-brained schemes,” she ranted as she scuttled over to him and sat on the rock beside her friend. “Legs! Human legs!” She shouted just as Wes flew down and landed on Danny’s outstretched leg. 

“Danny! There’s something different about you,” Wes exclaimed as he looked the merman–human now up and down. Danny gave him a sly grin and wiggled his new leg around slightly. “Did you do something to your hair? You’ve been using the dinglehopper, haven’t you?”

Danny just grinned and flexed his leg carefully. 

“He has legs you idiot!” Sam finally shouted, glaring at the stupid bird. Wes scowled at her and looked down at Danny’s leg before he flew to rest on the rock. 

“I knew that, I was just testing you guys,” he said and Sam just let out a moan of despair. She couldn't believe that this was happening. She was a dead crab, that's what she was. Jazz was going to murder her for letting Danny make a stupid mistake like this. Maybe there was a way to fix this. Maybe if she and Tucker went to the queen and explained that Vlad had meddled in Danny's life she'd be able to stop this from happening!

“What is Jazz going to do when she sees this?” She whined before she looked at Danny with wide eyes. “Jazz is going to kill you, we have to tell her! She can turn you back and we can just act like all of this never happened.”

“Sam,” Tucker said, swimming closer to Danny. “Quit being such a downer. Danny’s going to get Tim to fall in love with him and they’re going to live happily ever after.”

“And Danny’s just supposed to be mute for the rest of his life?” Jazz screeched. “I’m surrounded by idiots!”

Danny glared at the crab and flicked her as he shook his head. He was not about to let any of his friends ruin this for him. If he didn’t get the chance to do this, Danny was just going to be miserable for the rest of his life. He had wanted to be in the human world for as long as he could remember and he was going to make this work. Besides, Vlad never said that being mute was permanent! Maybe he could get it back if he got Tim to kiss him!

Sam looked at him for a moment before she let out a groan. “You’d never be happy if we stopped you,” she said and Danny nodded slowly and motioned to everything around him. There was just so much for him to experience and he wasn’t even going to get the actual chance to do that! 

He had three days to get Tim to fall in love with him and he didn’t even know where to start!

“Fine, I’ll help you find him,” she said with a huff. 

“Well you can’t go like that,” Wes stated, looking Danny up and down. “Human wear these things called clothes, they don’t just let their bits hang around.”

Danny scrunched his nose and nodded before he carefully stood up on wobbly legs and fell into the water once more. He huffed as he heard Tucker let out a soft snicker and tried again, this time trying to balance on both the tips of his feet and the ends of his feet. 

He stretched out his arms as he wobbled for a moment before catching his balance. He slowly took a step forward and then another before he let out a soundless laugh and shook his head in delight. He was doing it! He was walking! On legs! On human legs. 

Oh Jazz would be pissed if she knew what he was doing. She would lose her mind. Which was a good thing no one was going to tell her that this had happened. He had to hope that Tucker would cover for them while he and Sam went looking for Tim.

Danny looked around the beach for a moment before he found a giant white cloth that looked like that big white thing that hung from Tim’s ship. With the direction of Wes, Danny slowly wrapped it around his waist until he was sure it would say and keep everything covered. 

He flipped his hair out of his face and ran a hand through it before he crinkled. Gross. The salt from the ocean had turned his hair crunchy and hard. He looked down at himself and checked the bottoms of his feet to find them wrinkly and pale. He looked at his hands and found the same thing as he carefully walked across the beach. Okay, now he just needed to teach himself to walk like an actual adult instead of a baby, surely Tim wouldn’t be impressed if Danny couldn’t even walk in a straight line! 

“Here,” Damian muttered, shoving a leash at Tim. The older prince jumped, slightly startled out of his daydream. 

“What is this for?” He asked, taking it and looked down at where Titus sat calmly. 

“Alfred said you needed to get out of the castle and get your head out of the clouds. Take Titus on a walk on the beach for me. He needs his exercise and I have classes I must get to,” he said stiffly before he spun on his heel and left Tim alone with the giant dog. 

The prince frowned. “Guess I’m taking you on a walk,” he stood from his seat and started to lead the dog out of the castle and out onto the sandy beaches. 

Once out where Titus could run free, Tim took off the leash and just let out a sigh. “They just don’t get it, Titus. He’s out there, I know he is,” he said before Titus let out a bark and took off running. 

Tim let out a curse and started running after the large beast before they came upon the most surprising thing. There in front of him stood the most beautiful man Tim had ever seen in his life. A sail wrapped around his waist as he looked around in confusion before Titus nearly tackled the poor thing and Tim regained his senses. 

“Oh! I’m so sorry about that,” Tim said, pulling Titus off of the man as he stared at him for a moment. He knew that face, he knew those eyes better than anything. This was him! This had to be the person who saved him. It looked like Dick was right, he wasn’t a merman! 

He was human and flesh and blood.

“I swear he’s just a big softy, he just got a little excited, that’s all,” Tim said once he got Titus away and held out a hand. “I’m Tim, by the way. And you?”

The man took his hand, looking confused before he mouthed something only for no sound to come out. He rubbed at his throat and shook his head at Tim. 

His shoulders slumped. “Oh, you can’t speak?” He asked and the man shook his head once again. “Then you’re not who I thought,” he mumbled. 

The prince shook his head. No matter. He still obviously needed help and Tim could do that!

“How about I take you back to the castle with me and we can get you some better clothes?” Tim asked, tilting his head to the side as he looked the man up and down, smiling a little at the way he had used to sail to cover himself. The man nodded excitedly, a wide smile spread on his face. Tim smiled before he felt a hand tug at his and looked at their interlocked hands. 

He quickly let go before he motioned for the shipwrecked person to follow him back to the castle. Hopefully they could get the poor guy some much needed help. 

Chapter Text

Danny spluttered as a bucket of water was splashed over his head, someone grabbed his arm and started scrubbing at his skin vigorously, he watched in mild curiosity as his skin turned bright red from how hard the man was scrubbing. It kinda hurt even?

“Washed up from a shipwreck,” he tsked, pouring some kind of bubbly substance into Danny’s hair and running his fingers through the black locks. It nearly turned Danny into a puddle. The way his fingers massaged into his scalp was a feeling unlike any other, it was heavenly. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay, poor thing, nearly drowned. It’s a surprise that the only thing you lost is your voice, and heavens let's hope that you get it back eventually.”

Danny just smiled and sunk down in the bath water as blew a few bubbles. 

Meanwhile, 

Sam was fighting for her goddamn life. These humans were barbarians, monsters! What the hell was wrong with them to think it was okay to eat crab? Didn’t they know that there were much meatier fish in the sea if they were that desperate to eat a sea animal? 

Crabs were crunchy and not at all delicious. But try telling that to this insane old man who was shooting at Sam! Her little crab legs scuttled across the tiled floor as fast as they could, desperate to get away from the man who was shooting at her like it was a game! 

This was just so demeaning, Sam couldn’t believe the things she went through because of Danny but someone had to be here protecting the little idiot! Besides, it was up to her and Wes to keep him safe while Tucker was on Jazz duty. 

Which poor Tucker, he was having to figure out how to keep Jazz away from the human world on her oceans-wide search to find Danny. According to the little flounder fish, Queen Jazz felt beyond guilty for how she had behaved with Danny’s collection and his admission to being in love with a human. 

So she was desperately searching the infinite seas to find Danny and bring him home. According to Tucker, though, it was to just continue to convince him that he belonged home with her and Ellie, it wasn’t to apologize to him for her behavior or to tell him that she was fine with his obsession with humans. 

It was just for her to continue to convince him to that the ocean was his home, that they had to stay together as a family. It was starting to get upsetting at this point how she just refused to see things Danny’s way. 

Sam was going to get a stronger shell and tell her off if she and Danny ever saw her again. Right now her goal was to live through this murderous experience with this chef, Alfred, and help Danny get his kiss! 

Once Danny kissed Tim and proved that it was true love, then she’d get to go home and rest.  Didn’t Danny realize she was just a crab? Sam wasn’t cut out for all this nonsense. 

The crab zoomed through the kitchen until she slid far underneath a stove and found her way out of the ancient forsaken kitchen. She scuttled into what looked like a large dining room and found Danny sitting at a table with a group of humans who all seemed to stare at him like he was a specimen rather than a person. 

Danny smiled as he took a bite of his salad after watching the others do the same. He couldn’t believe he was here! Not only that but he was learning so much already! Dinglehoppers were called forks! And they weren’t meant for brushing hair as Wes thought! 

They were to eat food! They still reminded him of tiny tridents but he digressed. 

“I’m so glad we were able to find you, young man,” the king said, giving Danny a polite smile. Danny gave him a small smile of his own and nodded once. The king’s name was Bruce, Danny had learned. Apparently, he was only home for short periods of time, most of the time he was out traveling and helping other countries, leaving Tim and his brothers to rule in his stead. 

It seemed that Prince Tim was the one to do it most often as he was the one in line to take the throne. Both Prince Jason and Prince Richard had given up their right to the throne.

“Do you remember what happened?” Richard, or as he told Danny to call him, Dick, asked stabbing at his stuffed crab and making Danny wince slightly. Yeah, even in human form like this, he was definitely still going for a more vegetarian diet. He couldn’t stomach the idea of eating his friends. All he could think of was Sam when he looked at the crab. But thankfully she was now tucked in the leg of his pants muttering to him about just how barbaric the humans were and how she still couldn’t understand why Danny was interested in them at all. He may or may not have kicked her at that suggestion. 

Danny shook his head at Dick’s question and just gave the man a sad smile as he did. 

“It must have been really traumatic,” Tim said, reaching over and pressing his hand on top of Danny’s for just a moment, making the merman’s stomach flutter in delight. “I’m just glad we found you, and please, stay as long as you need.”

“Yeah, maybe Tim over here can show you around the kingdom tomorrow, Gotham is a small island but there’s a lot to see,” Duke suggested, giving both Danny and Tim a wide grin. Danny just looked over at Tim, the question dancing in his eyes. 

The man rubbed the back of his neck and let out an awkward laugh before he nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that would be a lot of fun! I love going out in Gotham and talking with everyone. In the last decade or so, our kingdom has really become a safe haven for others to come to for refuge so we’ve got a little bit of everything here. It’s like a melting pot almost.”

Danny just smiled and nodded his head, not knowing what the fuck a melting pot was but just going along with whatever the human had to say. He would learn and understand these things eventually, the longer he was here, the more he would know. 

Like! He had only been here for one day so far and he already knew what a fork was! And he had experienced blankets, and a salad, and a bath! And baths were so much different than living in the ocean. 

Baths felt luxurious and they reminded him of home which really just made it even better. He was going to have to use that bath thing as often as he could because it was amazing. 

“We can leave at dawn tomorrow, how does that sound?”

Danny nodded, giving the human a thumbs up before Tim gave him a small, satisfied smile and turned back to his own dinner. 

That night, Danny found himself quietly exploring the castle, learning about each room and what it was as Sam sat on his shoulder, continuing to fume venomously about the evils of that chef named Alfred and how she was one day going to exact her revenge on the old man. 

Danny just silently chuckled and pattered her little head softly to appease her as they slipped into a room quietly and Danny gasped at what he found. All over the place were seashells, old starfish that had passed on, long dead clams, and even large rocks that Danny wondered if any of the humans knew of the interesting treasures hidden inside. 

He walked towards some old coral and smiled, it had been dead for what looked like decades, probably something that had washed up on the shore. He ran his fingers across it and quietly chuckled to himself. 

“I see you found my collection,” he heard someone say and turned back to find Tim walking into the room. “I have a bit of an obsession with the sea. I’ve found it interesting ever since I was a little kid. My brothers and I have gone sailing my entire life. And when I was a little boy, my parents would take me along the coastline to see if I could find anything neat,” he said, coming over to look at the coral beside Danny. “I found this the last time they took me out.”

Danny cast Tim a curious look before he pointed at a picture of Bruce hanging on a wall. Tim glanced over and let out a sad little chuckle. 

“Bruce adopted me when I was young, thirteen I think? It’s a blur nowadays. My parents died in a shipwreck. They were archeologists, studies lost and ancient civilizations. I would stay here when they left and they would come back for me months at a time. Only, one day they didn’t come back. The ocean is a treacherous thing, you know? They say its moods swing as fast as the Sea Queen herself.”

Danny snorted at that. Jazz wished she could control all of the seas. Unfortunately, those were even out of their control, just another force of nature with its own desires. 

“What? You don’t believe in the Sea Queen and the mermaids who live down below?” he asked. Danny crinkled his nose but otherwise didn’t respond to the question. 

“I didn’t know about them either,” Tim said, taking Danny’s lack of reaction as a no. “Not until a few weeks ago when my brothers told me about merpeople and their queen. Now I just want to know everything about them. I was already obsessed with the sea, but the possibility of there being life under there that we don’t know about? It would be amazing!” Tim said as he and Danny strolled through the room together. 

Danny just nodded in agreement, his heart fluttering at the fact that Tim understood, he got it! Just like Danny was obsessed with learning more about the land and the people on it, Tim was obsessed with the sea and the beings down there. It made him desperate to get his voice back so that he could tell Tim everything about his home and the world that he lived in. 

Instead, he pointed at Tim and then at a large rock sitting on a shelf. He gave Tim a devious smile. 

“Oh! I found that rock a few weeks ago on the shore, I thought it was really cool- oh be careful-” he stopped as Danny threw the large rock onto the ground and shattered it. He grinned as he bent down and showed Tim what was inside. 

The human gasped as he took in the purple crystals inside. He looked up at Danny and smiled. “How did you know about that?”

Danny just gave him that mischievous smile once more before he picked up parts of the geode and set them on the table once more. 

“I can’t believe it’s like that! All rocks aren’t like that,” Tim mused. Danny just held up the rock and ran his finger along the bumpy back. He grabbed Tim’s hand and had him do the same thing. “So that’s how you tell? By the bumps?”

Danny nodded once and set the geode down before he moved further into the room, smiling at little pieces of his own home scattered about. He ran his fingers along the prickly coral and found a small clam that hadn’t been opened. He glanced over at Tim before he pointed at it. 

“Go ahead,” he said. Danny grinned before he carefully pushed a nail in and pried it open to find a very small black pearl sitting inside. He showed it to the prince who grinned. 

“You’re just showing me everything today,” he said softly, taking the pearl in his hands. Danny gave him a wide grin before he pointed to himself and then made a swimming motion with his hand. “You’re in the water a lot?”

Danny nodded again. 

“Well, once you get your voice back, well if it comes back, I guess, I need you to tell me everything you know,” Tim said, a shine in his eyes that danced with excitement. Danny nodded, excited for the chance to do so. 

Danny laid back in the little rowboat that he and Tim had found at a grotto in the middle of the forest. He watched as Tim’s arms flexed each time he moved with the oars and smiled. The human was quite strong, it seemed, judging by the muscles that flexed from beneath his rolled-up sleeves. The day had been long, they had gone to the markets, and Tim had allowed Danny to steer the carriage for a while before declaring that Danny was never allowed to drive again. They had tried different food, Tim had even bought him a little merman figurine, saying that it reminded him of Danny for some reason, even though he couldn’t put his finger on why. 

They had traveled all over the kingdom before they had finally arrived here and wow was Danny tired. He didn’t realize that walking for so long would wind up making your feet hurt! Merpeople never had a problem like that with their tails since they were always moving, always keeping the merpeople propelled in the water, or else they’d just fall to the bottom of the ocean.  It was probably one of the best days of Danny’s life, though, and he was more than okay with some sore feet after everything he had gotten to see and experience in just a day! 

“The stars are really shining tonight, you can see a lot of constellations,” Tim said, glancing up at the sky. Danny smiled and nodded, looking up as well. He had always loved floating on his back and staring at the stars in the sky. Before Jazz had banned the merpeople from going to the surface and when their parents had still been alive, Danny’s father would point out all the constellations and tell him the stories behind them. 

He had learned then that he had gotten the name Daniel from the constellation Eridanus. According to his father, it meant river. And Jack had told him the first time he had seen Danny after he had been born, Jack knew that he would be like a river. Winding, adventurous, and full of wonder. 

He had been right, of course, and the name was more than fitting.

“You can see so many tonight, Orion, the ursas, hell, tonight is so clear you can even see Eridanus.”

Danny sat up at that and pointed at himself. Tim frowned as the merman pointed between himself and the constellation. 

“Your name is Eridanus?” Tim asked. Danny scrunched his nose and held his palms close to each other. “Eri?”

The merman shook his head at that. 

“Dan?”

Danny grinned and then widened the length between his hands slightly. 

“Dan? Daniel? Your name is Daniel?” 

Danny grinned and nodded his head and Tim smiled. “Do you go by a nickname?” he asked and Danny nodded again. “Let me guess, uh, Danny?” he asked. 

Danny grinned and clapped his hands. He had caught on faster than Danny had expected him to. It was a bit of a stretch between Eridanus and Daniel but Tim had gotten it pretty dang quick there, he had to admit. Then again, Tim was far smarter than anyone Danny had ever met, he wasn’t too surprised that he had figured it out so easily. 

“Danny, huh?” Tim said, smiling softly. “That’s a nice name.”

Danny grinned and leaned back in the boat once more as he stared up at the sky, his stomach fluttering slightly at the way his name sounded on Tim’s tongue. He had it bad for this man, that was for sure.

“I’ve had a lot of fun with you, Danny,” Tim said softly and leaned forward to take Danny’s hands in his and pulled the silent man up. “For someone who can’t speak, I feel like just the two days you’ve been here, I’ve learned so much about you. And I feel like the more I learn, well, the more I like you,” he said. 

Danny blushed and nodded his head, scooting forward until their knees were touching one another. Maybe this was it, maybe Tim would kiss him. Maybe this would be his chance to kiss Tim, to show that they were true loves and Danny would get his voice back and they would be human together. Then Danny could tell Tim all the stories of the sea, he could find a way for him to meet Sam and Tucker and they would get to explore and learn about the world and, and each other! 

He just needed to kiss him! Just needed true love’s kiss to keep him human and then everything would be perfect. 

The distance between the two slowly started to shrink and Danny’s heart was bound to beat out of his chest at any moment when the boat suddenly started to rock and the two found themselves in the water below them. 

Danny laughed softly as he and Tim tried to get out of the water and back onto land, dragging the boat behind him. It was fine, he had one more day to get that kiss and with the way things were going, there was a really high chance he was going to get it! 

“That was a close one,” Vlad snarled out, glaring at his crystal ball. “The little tramp!”

He spun around in his cave and he started grabbing potions and elixirs and started dumping them into the large cauldron. “We can’t have him getting that kiss before tomorrow night! I need him to get to that trident, to that blasted crown!”

“If we’re going to do this, we’re going to go all out,” Vlad said, looking to his eels as he mixed the new potion and took a long drink. This was what he would need to do to get Daniel in his tentacles and become king of the Infinite Seas! He would rule the oceans and have Jasmine as his bride! Everything was coming to plan and falling into place!

First, he had to get that little human brat under his spell and then Danny would be his!

Chapter Text

Wes let out a loud squawk as he ran into the window of the castle before flying in and landing in front of Danny. 

“Danny! You did it!” Wes shouted, jumping onto Danny’s body. Sam let out a groan from beneath the blankets and crawled out to glare at the bird. 

“What do you want you idiot? Can’t you see we’re sleeping?” Sam grumbled as Danny stirred from under the blankets and sat up, rubbing at his eyes tiredly. 

“Don’t act like you don’t know!” Wes crowed, bouncing on Danny’s lap excitedly. “I heard the news this morning! You’re getting hitched! There’s gonna be an engagement party tonight! Why didn’t you tell me that the prince proposed!”

“Because he hasn’t!” Sam hissed before she looked between Danny and Wes. “Maybe he’s planning on proposing this afternoon before the party?”

Danny grinned and threw the blankets off of him, throwing the bird and crab off of him as he scrambled out of bed and started throwing on a tunic and pants, slipping his shoes on quickly. He couldn’t believe this! A proposal! So soon? They hadn’t even kissed yet! Sure there was definitely some chemistry between the two of them the last two days but he hadn’t thought about the fact that there was going to be a proposal this soon. 

This was all going so fast! Were humans just different from merpeople and believed in quick marriages rather than courting and getting to know one another? Because as much as Danny liked Tim, he didn’t think he could accept a proposal after knowing Tim for two days! That was just crazy, he barely knew Tim yet! He knew that Tim was likely his soulmate because of the immediate connection but that didn’t mean he wanted marriage this fast!

He wasn’t nearly ready for that kind of commitment! He rushed down the stairs, trying to figure out how he could nicely turn Tim down when he couldn’t explain! He couldn’t speak! He wouldn’t be able to tell the poor human that two days wasn’t nearly enough time to actually get to know one another or to decide to get married! He wanted more dates and dinners and spending time together! He wanted to know more about Tim and his likes and dislikes and how he behaved as a human. Two days weren’t nearly enough for that!

Danny skidded through the dining area and found himself at the edges of the garden where he found Tim and some man standing in front of the king and his siblings. 

“I can’t believe you actually found him, I was sure you were making the entire thing up,” Dick said with a laugh as he looked over the man. Danny took in the mysterious person as his heart started to race, he couldn’t believe this. Who was this man and why was he getting married to Tim out of nowhere? 

“We want to be married immediately,” Tim said, his voice monotone and not all like the Tim that Danny had gotten to know. He usually sounded more passionate and happier than that. He sounded monotone and boring. 

“Shouldn’t we think about this? You barely know him,” Jason said softly, casting a glance over at where Danny stood, his gaze soft. 

“Tonight,” Tim insisted as the man let out a soft giggle. 

“We can wait,” the mystery man said, cuddling up to Tim who smiled and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. 

“Tonight,” Tim said once again, narrowing his eyes at his family. Tears pricked in Danny’s eyes before he pushed away from the wall and took off in a run. He couldn’t believe this. SUre he was going to turn down Tim’s proposal but he still liked him! He still wanted to get to know Tim and court him and date him and spend time with the man and now he wasn’t going to do that. 

Not only that but now he was never going to get a kiss, not now. Not when Tim was engaged to another man and apparently didn’t have any actual interest in Danny! 

He was going to be Vlad’s prisoner by the end of the night, he just knew it. Their bargain ended tonight and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He soon found himself sitting on the coast of the beach, his knees drawn up to his chest as the water splashed his toes every time the waves came in. 

“Danny,” Sam said quietly. “I’m so sorry. But maybe there’s something we can do, some way we can stop this from happening?”

Danny shook his head and rested his chin on his knees. There wasn’t any way they could stop this. Tim made his choice and it wasn’t Danny. And now he was going to have to live with the consequences. 

“Hey! Wes told me you’re getting married! Congratulations Danny!” Tucker exclaimed, popping his head out of the water. 

“Tuck, it’s someone else,” Sam said sadly, drooping down in defeat. “He’s going to be Vlad’s prisoner.”

Tucker looked between the two and his little face scowled. “No! We’re not giving up! Danny, you risked everything for this. You need to march right up to Tim and kiss Tim right on the lips. You gotta convince him that you’re the one, not this imposter!”

“He can’t just kiss him without his consent,” Sam said, glaring at the fish. “But, you’re right Tuck. We can’t just give up! We gotta do something about this. Go get Jazz and Dani, maybe they can do something about this.”

“Wait!” Wes shouted, flying down to the three sea creatures before he tumbled out of the sky and crash-landed in front of them. “That watch is a-- the guy is a watch! A witch! I saw with my own eyes!”

“What are you talking about Wes?” Sam asked with a sigh, giving the bird a look of annoyance. 

“I was flying, well, of course, I was flying, I’m a bird. But I was flying and I passed by this window and I thought I heard Danny but it wasn’t Danny! It was the it was the guy! You know the one who turned Danny human in the first place? And he was talkin’ with a stolen pair of pipes! Of Danny’s voice!”

Danny looked at his friends with wide eyes as Sam and Tucker looked at one another. 

“Tucker go grab Danny’s sisters, Danny we’ve got to stop that wedding from happening! You’re going to crash that wedding, Wes, we’re going to get that stupid necklace from Vlad; it has Danny’s voice inside. We have to get that to Danny, if we can’t get Danny to kiss Tim then we can get his voice back so he can explain. It makes sense why Tim was being so weird! He’s under Vlad’s spell.”

Sam looked at the three in front of her and glared. “Well! What are you waiting for? Go!” She shouted. 

“Got it,” Tucker shouted before jumping back into the water. Danny scrambled up out of the sand and took off running back to the castle. Sam looked at Wes and let out a sigh. 

“I need you to carry me but if you drop me, I’ll kill you,” she said simply. 

Wes sqwuaked in response and scooped her up in his mouth and started towards the castle, flapping his large wings fast. 

Danny burst into the gardens, thanking the ancients that the wedding hadn’t started and everyone was milling around. He looked around desperately before his eyes landed on where Vlad in his fake body stood, talking to some of the royals in the palace. He started towards him only for someone’s hand to grab his arm and pull him back. 

Danny whipped his head over to find Jason holding onto his arm and Duke standing beside him. 

“You know something’s wrong, don’t you?” Jason demanded, narrowing his eyes. 

Danny furrowed his brows but nodded his head once in confirmation before he tilted his head in curiosity.

Jason let out a sigh. “I know because I know there’s something different about you and that guy that Tim’s marrying.” The question must have been clear in Danny’s eyes because Jason went on to explain. “My father found me washed up on land one day. I don’t have any memories from before but I know that I used to be part of the sea in some way. I don’t know how but I was. I know you’re a merman, and that thing in human form? That’s a fuckin’ monster.”

Danny frowned before he looked at Duke who just gave him a small smile and tapped at his temple. “I’m magic,” he said with a small smile. “I can see your real form, just like I can see that guy’s real form. He calls himself Victor but I think that’s wrong. You were the one who saved him from the shipwreck. I saw you,” he said with a small smile. 

The merman gave both of them a nervous look but Jason just gave him a small smile. 

“Don’t worry, we approve. You obviously care about our brother, and he cares about you, even if it’s buried deep underneath that spell Victor has him under. Are you able to break it?”

Danny nodded and pointed to the necklace on the man’s neck. 

“You need that?” Jason asked just as a crab fell from the sky and landed on the man’s hair, eliciting a scream from him. Danny nodded once again as Wes started flapping his wings in Vlad’s face, he let out a shout, trying to fight the beasts off of him but it was just enough for Danny, Jason, and Duke to race forward. The princes grabbed each of Vlad’s arms and held them back, Danny reached a hand out and yanked the necklace off of his neck. 

“What’s going on?” Tim shouted, he and Bruce running out of the castle. Danny threw the necklace on the ground and stomped on it, a small green ball of light slowly floated out, the sound of Danny’s voice coming out of it until he entered his mouth and he let out a cough. 

“Tim!” He shouted, glancing over at the sun that was slowly starting to set. 

“No!” Vlad shouted, shoving Duke and Jason off of him. 

“Danny? You–you can talk?” Tim asked, stepping towards Danny. Danny ran towards him, throwing his arms around his shoulders and hugging him tight. 

“I know this sounds crazy, but I need you to kiss me. Right now,” Danny exclaimed, looking up at the man who stared at him like he grew a second head. 

“What’s going on? Who’s wedding is this? He asked, looking around confused, looking back down at Danny who was desperately trying to get his attention. Danny let out a sudden gasp, though as the sun finally set and a sharp, piercing pain wrenched through his spine. Suddenly legs fused together, pants ripped off of him as a long green tail replaced his bottom half and he fell to the ground, his vision going black. 

“You’re too late!” Vlad cackled, magic and wind whisked around him as his tentacles appeared once more, showing his true, witchy form before he slithered his way to Danny and wrapped his arms around the merman’s waist. 

“So long lover boy, I’ve got bigger fish to fry,” Vlad snarled, pulling Danny with him as he jumped over the balcony and landed into the ocean with the now unconscious merman. 

Tim shook himself out of shock as he ran towards the balcony wall and leaned over. “Danny?” He whispered. “I need to get him back! I already lost him once-”

“Tim, we need to leave this alone,” Bruce said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “This is something out of our control.”

Tim shoved his father off of him. “No, I’m not leaving him. He’s been right in front of me this entire time and I missed it! I have to save him,” he shouted at the man. 

“We can help,” Jason said, looking over at Duke who gave him a supportive grin and a thumbs up.

Tim gave his brothers a thankful smile before he took off running down the stairs of the castle, ready to save his soul mate. 

Chapter Text

Danny woke to cold water surrounding him and a tight tentacle wrapped around his waist, holding him in place. His vision was fuzzy but he knew he was back in the ocean once more, the last three days felt like a blur now that he was facing Vlad. He couldn’t believe he had fallen for Vlad’s scheming and tricks! He should have known better, known that Vlad’s offer was too good to be true. Of course, it was, why else would he have offered to help Danny become a human if he didn’t have some kind of trick up his sleeve? He was an evil and conniving monster and Danny fell for his tricks again.

“What the fuck Vlad, this wasn’t part of the deal? You never said you’d intervene to stop it from happening,” he shouted, glaring at the sea witch. He should have known that Vlad was going to do something like this, that he wouldn’t have just let Danny have his happy ever after without getting something in return. But what was it? Why would he do all of this? What was in it for him?

“Shut it you little rat, I have bigger fish to fry,” Vlad snarled out, glaring at the prince. “You’re just the stepping stone for me to get the trident and your sister!”

“My sister?” Danny exclaimed, trying to wriggle out of the tentacles wrapped around him. “What do you want with Jazz?”

Vlad turned and gave him a small smile. “Well isn’t it obvious, Prince Daniel? With Madeline passed away, Jasmine is the next best person to be my queen when I rule over the Infinite Seas, we will rule together as husband and wife.”

“Dude, she’s like twenty years younger than you, that’s sick,” Danny said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “And she’d never agree to that.”

Besides, Jazz was smarter than Danny, she would never fall for Vlad’s tricks, not like Danny had. She wasn’t desperate or pathetic the same way Dany was. He had been do fucking desperate to get to be with the humans and learn more about humankind that he had risked everything for it. He had fallen into Vlad’s trick so easily and now here he was stuck in a deal that hadn’t gone the way he wanted it to. He had gotten two days of pure paradise, had gotten to learn more about humans and their strange ways as well as got to know Tim! And Tim had been just as interesting as he thought he was!

He was beyond interesting, not only that but he was also just as interested in learning more about the world just like Danny was! They were kindred spirits, two giant fish in little bitty ponds. He had found his other half and then lost him without ever getting to tell the man that he cared for him, had wanted to get to know him better. 

“She will if she knew that her brother dearest would die if she didn’t,” Vlad sneered. Danny wriggled in the grip of his tentacle, trying to figure out how he could get free, his arms were trapped against his sides, unable to move. Danny bit his lip as he looked at Vlad with his ugly, stupid scheming face and then looked down at his hands. Maybe if he tried, he could freeze Vlad’s tentacle and get away from him. 

“Vladamir Masters, put my brother down!” Jazz shouted, pointing the trident at the sea witch. “Let him go,” she demanded. 

Vlad let out a loud cackle, his arms raised as he did before he looked the woman down with his evil red eyes and grinned. “No can do Jazzy Kins. He’s mine, our contract is legally binding,” he said, producing the document from thin air and showing where Danny had foolishly signed his own death sentence. 

“Jazz, I’m sorry,” Danny shouted before a tentacle moved to wrap around his mouth, keeping the merman from saying any more than he already had. Danny scowled and bit into the tentacle, causing a shout to come from the sea witch.

“You little brat,” Vlad snarled at him. 

“What will it take for you to give me my brother back?” Jazz asked, her voice cracking slightly as she lowered the trident. 

Vlad let out a purr. “Oh Jasmine, there is only two things in these wretched seas that I want. You to be my wife and that little trident of yours,” he said, swimming closer to the Queen of the Infinite Seas. “What do you say? Agree to be my queen and I’ll let your brat of a brother go, free from his agreement and all.”

Jazz gave Danny a sad look before she swam forward, the trident stretched out to give to the sea witch when a knife sailed through the ocean and landed in the tentacle wrapped around Danny’s midsection. Danny looked up in surprise to find Tim swimming just mere feet away, cheeks rounded with him holding his breath as he swam in place. His eyes narrowed, either from the salty sea water or from glaring at the sea witch in front of them. 

Vlad let out a scream and let go of Danny, allowing the merman to swim away and to Tim. 

“You have to get out of here,” he rushed out. “You’ll get hurt,” he said, dragging Tim back up to the surface where a rowboat sat with Duke and Jason both in it. “Get back to Gotham before Vlad kills you guys.”

“No can do Squirt, you’re family now,” Jason said as Tim heaved in lungfuls of air. 

“I’m not leaving you, Danny. Not after everything!” Tim exclaimed, grabbing another knife when Danny felt a tentacle wrap around his tail and drag him back into the water. 

“Sorry Brat but you’re not getting out of my clutches that easily,” Vlad snarled and Danny found Jazz being restrained by Vlad’s stupid little eels. “Now Jasmine, do we have a deal? Your brother for your hand in marriage?”

Jazz looked between Danny and Vlad and the boat that floated about them, her frown deep and sorrowful. “If it means keeping my brother safe, yes,” she whispered but Dnany let out a loud snarl and the water around them turned frigid in response. 

“No,” Danny exclaimed, freezing the tentacle wrapped around him. “You’re the one who broke our deal, I never agreed to you being allowed to interfere, the deal is off, Vlad.”

“Oh sweet child, didn’t anyone ever teach you to read the fine print before signing a contract?” Vlad asked, his attention now turned fully onto Danny, not noticing the human that was swimming down behind him, harpoon in hand. Danny held back his grin as he kept Vlad’s attention on him instead of Jazz and the eels that were now being taken care of by Jason and Duke and or on Tim who threw the harpoon with all of his might. 

“No, but didn’t anyone ever tell you that you needed to pay better attention?” Danny asked with a smirk as the harpoon sailed through the water and embedded itself in Vlad’s abdomen. Green blood leaked from the wound as Vlad’s hands went to his abdomen. A trident then soared through the air, destroying the contract before it landed in Vlad’s back, the strike killing the being instantly. 

“Danny,” Jazz said only for the merman to ignore her and swim towards Tim who was now struggling to swim back up to the surface. Danny swam towards him, hooking his arms underneath Tim’s armpits, and dragged him back to the boat just as Jason and Duke managed to climb back into the row boat. Danny glanced over at Tim in worry as Jason beat his back, helping him cough out some of the seawater as Danny pushed their boat along to the shore. 

“Thank you for your help,” Danny said softly upon arrival on the shore. “I’m sorry I caused so much trouble. I just wanted to know what life was like on land. It’s all I’ve ever wanted,” he whispered, feeling ashamed of himself for involving so many victims in his selfish ideals. He couldn’t believe he had hurt so many people, caused pain for so many people. 

“No, don’t apologize,” Tim said, leaning over the boat to take Danny’s hands in his. “I should have known you were the one who saved me as soon as I saw you, you saved my life, the least i could do was save yours back.”

Danny gave him a sad smile. “I would have very much liked to have gotten to spend more time on land with you and the others, to learn more about you. You’re amazing, Tim, and your mind? I’ve never met someone as smart as you.”

Tim squeezed his hands tight. “Will I ever see you again?” he asked. 

The merman shook his head, a single tear streamed down his face. “No, I have to stop running away. I have responsibilities, I’m a prince and I was foolish to think I could ever run from my fate. But, if you’re ever out on the sea, I’ll try my best to say hello."

“There’s got to be something, anything, Danny i just found you, I don’t want to lose you again,” Tim said quietly. Danny let out a soft sob and rested his head on the side of the boat, not caring that they had an audience of Duke and Jason watching their entire interaction. He didn’t care, he was watching his happy ever after being ripped away from him once more, all because of his own stupidity. He couldn’t believe he had done all this and for what? 

To end up in sadness and alone? He should have never started looking at human things in the first place. Then he would have never known about what he was losing in the first place. 

“I know, and I don’t want to lose you either. But we’re not made for each other's worlds and I’m so sorry I dragged you into my mess,” Danny whispered. Oh, how he had longed to be a part of Tim’s world.

Jazz watched as Danny leaned against the boat, talking to those humans, he had a look of longing on his face as he spoke with them, about what, she couldn’t hear. But just from that look on her baby brother’s face, she knew that she had a decision to make. One that was going to hurt her more than she would ever like to admit. 

“He really does love him, doesn’t he?” She said softly. 

“It looks like it, yeah,” Ellie said, sticking her head out of the water to look out at their brother. She looked up at Jazz. “What are you going to do?”

“Let him be happy,” Jazz murmured, resting her trident on the water, sending a jolt of power across the water, and watched as it hit Danny in the middle of his back. 

“But what about him taking over so that you didn’t have to be queen anymore?” Ellie asked, a frown on her face. “You didn’t want to be queen.”

Jazz smiled as she watched her brother let out a scream of joy and the humans lifted him over, the one that Danny was in love with blushing and spluttering at Danny’s nudity. 

“We can figure something out. Being queen isn’t nearly as terrible as I thought it would be, and besides, I already have an heir,” she said, ruffling Ellie’s soaking-wet hair. Ellie screwed up her nose in displeasure. 

“I dunno about that,” she mumbled, shaking her head. Jazz just let out a soft laugh as she swung her arm over Ellie’s shoulder and watched as her brother turned and waved at them, the widest smile she had ever seen sat prominently on his face. Yes, she was going to miss her brother dearly, but this is where he was meant to be. 

Chapter Text

“Bruce, I would like for you to officially meet my boyfriend,” Tim said with a wide smile as he and Danny walked into the dining room together. Danny’s stomach was tied up in knots and he was pretty sure he was going to throw up at any moment but he was trying his very best to stay calm and keep his head about him. It had been a week since Danny had fought against Vlad and was given the gift of legs by his sister once more. 

In that time, Danny and Tim had finally started to take the time to better get to know one another. They had gone on dates and talked about their dreams and desires. Danny had shared quite a lot about the ocean with Tim who had been dying with curiosity from the moment he had learned that Danny was of the sea. 

And in return, Tim had promised to take Danny to explore the world, to learn about cultures and traditions, to learn how to dance and run. He was going to even take Danny to sail on a boat which was going to be an exciting experience! He knew from his short time in the rowboats he had been in that it was definitely a different sensation than just swimming in the water but he wasn’t sure how different!

“Prince Daniel Fenton of the Infinite Seas,” Tim said, motioning to Danny who gave a polite bow to the king in front of him. 

“It’s an honor to meet you, your majesty,” Danny said with a small smile. 

Bruce stood from his seat and came over to shake Danny’s hand. “It’s nice to be able to actually communicate with you, Young Man. I hear that Tim is quite smitten with you.”

At that Danny and Tim both blushed and looked at one another in embarrassment. “I’m just as smitten with him, sir,” he said softly. 

The King let out a laugh and pulled Danny in for a hug before he pulled away and looked between the two. “I believe this may be the beginning of a brand new era,” he said with a small smile. 

And it was. When Jazz had used the trident to turn Danny into a human she had not only gifted him with legs but the ability to change between the forms at will, giving him the choice to come home whenever he wanted. Not only that but he still had his ice powers even in his new human form which had made for a lot of fun when helping Tim mess with his brothers and sister. 

It had also turned him into the go-between for the Queen of the Seas and the King of Gotham for a new allyship between them. Bruce had met with Jazz and the two had come to an agreement to work together to clean the trash and debris from the sea. In return, they would help one another whenever they needed it. It had become the perfect alliance and had even kickstarted Jason’s desire to learn where he had come from. 

Once Danny had no longer been stressed about his deal and trying to get a kiss before the sunset on the third day, he had looked at Jason long enough to figure out what he was! Jason had no memories except for the fact that he had washed up on the shore one day and everyone had assumed he had washed up from a shipwreck but that had not been the case at all. 

It had turned out that Jason had been a selkie who had been abandoned by his herd. So Danny started to work with him to learn how he could change his shape after managing to find the skin of a selkie long past while teasing Duke relentlessly. The poor guy could see people’s true forms but never once did he question or mention the fact that Jason’s true form was that of a selkie. He had just accepted it and moved on without another thought. 

Which, Jason definitely gave him shit over. 

“So you’ve decided then? To officially court one another?” Bruce asked, looking between the two young men. Tim took Danny’s hand in his own and gave him a small smile, his eyes shone with love and excitement for their future to come. 

“Yes, we are,” Tim told him. “We have plans, though. I want to learn more about the oceans and the secrets down there and Danny wants to learn more about the land. So before I take my place on the throne, we want to go on an expedition together. Queen Jazz has even given permission for me to explore the depths of the sea at a later time. We want to try to learn as much as possible before we settle down.”

“And when that happens the two of you will be ruling the land and seas? Together?” Bruce asked, looking between the two. 

Danny nodded. “Yes, Sir. Jazz has never wanted to be queen, she was only holding the spot until I became of age. Now that I am and we are to be wed, we thought that this would be the best option. I’ll be going between the two but I’ll also still be here with Tim to help rule Gotham just as he will help rule the Infinite Seas. This will be marking a new era for both of our people.”

“I look forward to seeing our futures together, then,” Bruce said and looked at their intertwined hands. “When are you leaving?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Tim said. “We hope to explore for six months before we come back and depending on how things go along the way.”

“We may be doing a lot more than courting,” Danny finished, pressing a soft kiss to Tim’s lips. 

“I’m okay with that,” he murmured, holding Danny close, relishing in the fact that he was here and he was real and he was right here in Tim’s arms where he would never lose him again. Meanwhile, Danny was struck by the fact that he was here, he was human, or well, half human and he was finally part of the world he had always longed for.