Chapter Text
"Are you sure this will work?"
"I'm confident." Kaldur lead the way down the dock, deserted in the late evening air. He had to admit that he was beyond excited to share this with his friends.
He sat on the edge of the dock and slid himself into the water, briefly disappearing from sight. Finally, he resurfaced. "They have learned to to play away from land to avoid fishing, however, I can feel them coming."
Artemis dropped down besides him, perched on the last board of the dock, watching the water intently, though she had to squint through the reflections for the fast setting sun.
"Are you SURE this is safe?" Wally asked intentionally lagging a few paces behind his friends.
"You've been watching too many movies." Artemis told him.
"Well, there are attacks!"
"They aren't 'attacks' they're 'encounters', and we kill them a lot more than they bite us." Dick said, joining the blondes at the end of the dock.
"They've never wanted to eat humans," Conner added, sitting with the others. His feet were dangling over the water like he wasn't even bothered. "Humans aren't good meals unless you have appendages to tear the flesh off. if you don't, humans are too crunchy and difficult to eat."
Dick beckoned the redhead over. "Like Kaldur always says: they mean us no harm."
"You're all stupid." Wally said.
"Are we really gonna see them, Kaldur?" M'gann asked eagerly, she too had lagged behind like Wally, but make no mistake: She was ecstatic.
Kaldur paused. "Remain still, here is one now." He reached underwater and, gradually, he teased a large, slippery form to the surface. "They are what you might call a..." He thought for a minute. "What you might call a basking shark."
Artemis gasped, turning to Dick. "That's the one with the big mouth!"
Dick grinned. "Gulp Gulp."
Kaldur chuckled, sweeping the shark's head up near the surface So it may see his friends. Sharks were so very friendly, though he hoped he wouldn't run into the king shark... there was some tension at the moment that Kaldur did not wish to be inserted into them.
Superboy reached out and touched the creature, before quickly withdrawing to ask conset: "can I touch you?"
Kaldur smiled, struggling with the shark like a large dog. "Under the mouth or over the eyes is most comfortable for them. Don't touch the gills."
Conner eagerly reaching out, pausing when Wally squeaked. "Why are you scared? it's MY hand." He reached out and touched its rubbery skin, petting back to front. "He's soft."
"Really!" Artemis leaned forwards, her one hand gripping the edge of the splintery dock, she let her fingers of the other play over the blubbery skin. "Wow! He IS really soft! ...that's what she said..."
"you stole my joke!" Robin teased. "Lemme touch him!" He clambered over the archer, carefully poking under the shark's fin. "Wow, look who's beautiful!"
"There are more here." Kaldur let go of the Shark who, enjoying the attention, hung near the surface for them. Kaldur reached over and pulled a long, pointy face out of the water. "Ah." He said a few words in general Atlantean. "A... a..."
"Blue shark." Conner replied.
"I'm not sure of the English word, but I trust you are correct," Kaldur replied. "A Blue Shark. With them, you will want to touch their back very gently. In this direction." Kaldur gently brushed up the shark's cartilage. "like you're petting wolf, Wolf doesn't like it when you pet him the wrong way."
"Counterpoint: Wolf is a big doofus puppy." Wally replied.
Conner frowned. "Wolf is a Wolf. He is a predator." He pet the shark up its back.
"If it makes you feel better, Wally, the only time Blue Sharks could ever eat human meat is if they're trying to feed on bodies that are already very deceased." Kaldur assured.
"That doesn't make me feel better, man."
"He's so pretty!" M'gann stroked the shark gently.
Kaldur released the creature and re-submerged himself. He bobbed up again eagerly. "We have a few variations with us, but we have something coming that I know will impress you."
"What?" Artemis ordered.
"The shark meant to be in that film we watched."
"Jaws?" Robin asked.
"Yes! Jaws!"
Wally's eyes were like plates. "A great white shark?"
"A white shark. They will be harder to stroke, they need to keep moving in order to breathe."
"Nope. Nope. Hell no, I'm out!" the redhead threw his arms up, pacing the dock anxiously, but not actually leaving.
"Don't be a coward." Artemis scoffed.
"I'm not a coward, I'm smart. You know what's better than petting a great white? Living until old age!"
"Please! You work with the justice league, you won't live until old age!" Dick teased. "Where is he, Kal?"
Kaldur held out his hand and a fin breached over the water, brushing his fingers. "Here they are."
"Well, how do we pet them?" Artemis asked, squinting at the water, leaning over the end of the dock.
"M'gann, did you bring Wolf's food?" The martian nodded and passed him a ziplock with a few cuts of beef in it. Kaldur removed a piece and dropped it in the water about an arm's width away. "The tide has come in, without the currents they should smell this quickly."
They watched the spot intently for any sign of life. Kaldur shot back a little to make room, just as a dark shape cut in front of him. He ducked under the water to see what was happening.
"This is a bad idea. Don't fuck with sharks." Wally said.
Kaldur resurfaced, shaking out his head. "They found their food. They seemed to like it, but we're more familiar with aquatic meats, not land ones."
The waters were quiet for a minute.
SPLASH
Artemis and Dick shot back, off the edge, eyes shuddering. Huge jaws clamped around the third, slower, teen's leg Leg, yanking him into the water.
"CONNER!" M'gann shrieked.
They thrashed in the shallow water, the only noise being the splashing and Conner's shouting.
"Don't move! It irritates them!"
A nose surfaced, just over a huge upper jaw of fangs. Two beady eyes focussed as it hurried through the water at Conner.
"He's back!" Wally yelled.
"They just want to play, she thought it was fun when you were thrashing in their mouth."
"This is stupid." wally peaked through his fingers.
"Get my phone- GET MY PHONE!" Dick ordered. He opened the camera and started filming; he had to put flash on just to see the battle in the water.
"Are they okay?" Artemis asked.
"Don't worry, they are both being very gentle." Kaldur assured, watching the two ravage each other.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Dick chanted.
"Go Conner!" M'gann shouted.
"Go Shark!" Artemis cheered, pumping her fist.
"This is dumb!" Wally said, but he came to the edge of the dock with them.
"Someone's not scared." Artemis pointed out, tickling the back of his knees.
Wally kicked her. "If that thing eats Con, it'll be too full to eat me." He exclaimed. "Also Con could beat up a shark."
Artemis cackled, watching the brawl in the ocean. "No he couldn't, it's going easy on him."
Conner's head popped over the tide for a second, only to be yanked back under. "I'm bringing Them back over." Kaldur said. He effortlessly bopped the sharks gills and pulled Conner out of its jaws, returning him to the dock.
Conner squinted as Dick's camera flash turned on him, his clothes were torn to ragged strips, but he seemed relatively chipper. Well, as chipper as he got.
"Are you alright, man?" Dick shifted over to make room for the sopping wet kryptonian.
"Fine, but now I have to resew my pants again." Conner said moodily.
"I'm sorry, The were playing." Kaldur explained. "They wanted more food."
"Well, of everyone to play with, I'm the least likely to be injured."
"Conner, are you bleeding?" M'gann asked, worriedly.
"Maybe a scratch, but I doubt he wants Kryptonian blood."
"She doesn't." Kaldur corrected, resurfacing from feeding the shark more steak. "I'm not sure what Pronoun they want, but they are a female shark."
"Why is she circling us, Kal?" Artemis asked unsurely.
"She has to keep moving, but she wants to stay with us." Kaldur explained. "She does not want us as her prey, she just likes us. Look." He put his hand out, and a fin once again breached out and tapped it. Conner held his hand out and his new friend allowed him to briefly pet her. Artemis went next, gently running her finger up the sharks back.
"Is she chill now?" Dick asked.
"Yeah!"
Dick stroked her fin as she re-emerged from under the dock. "She's a beauty!"
"Kaldur'ahm! Megan Morse! Wally! What are you doing down here?" The teens turned to see Black Canary jogging down the hill. The only things she was missing were the hair curlers, robe, and the rolling pin. "It's past your non-mission curfew."
"Kaldur's letting us meet sharks." M'gann explained.
"Down at a public dock? At 10:15 pm?"
"Well, you did say that you didn't want us eavesdropping on the meeting." Dick pointed out, scrubbing over his awesome shark-fight footage to make sure it was legible.
"Well, the meeting is over now." She looked over the teens with affectionate disapproval. "Conner, what did you do?"
"He was playing with the great white." Wally reported.
Dinah let out a deep sigh. "Conner, go get changed. Kaldur, did you encourage this?"
Kaldur watched Conner drag himself away and tried not to look guilty. "Since it seemed unlikely Conner would be hurt, or that he might hurt the animal, I thought it was better not to interfere with his explorations."
"So yes or no?"
"I don't consider it within that binary." Kaldur admitted. "Yes, conditionally."
"It's no big." Artemis rolled her eyes. "I mean, hey! I got to pet a shark."
"Don't tell your mother that happened on our watch." The woman groaned. "You too, Robin." Dinah said, pulling the two upright.
"I told them not to." Wally said, jogging after Dinah while she escorted the gothamites up the mountain.
"Tattle! That's only because you were scared!" Artemis taunted.
"I was not!"
"Come on, your mentors are waiting for you." Dinah scanned into the mountainside hanger door. "You'd better explain yourselves."
"You're the best." Artemis pleaded, forcing a smile. "Actually, you're my favorite adult."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, you're still in trouble."