"I called my boss last night." Clark dragged his pocketknife through the flesh of an apple, the peel falling off in a swirl.

"Hm? What about?" Bruce replied, picking bones out of a fish he'd caught, feeding bits of the meat to Dick.

"I'm switching to remote work until Dick goes back to his pod. So I'll be here everyday instead of just the weekends."

The large mer raised an eyebrow. "You don't think I can take care of a kid on my own?"

"How many kids have you had?"

Bruce paused at the abruptness of the question. "I'm sorry, what?"

"How many kids have you had?" Clark repeated. "Or just, how many have you raised?"

Bruce scowled, handing Dick another chunk of fish. "I fail to see what that's got to do with anything."

"You can hardly function in the water. What help are you going to be?" Dick munched on his dinner, gazing up at the human.

"My point is," Clark finished peeling his apple and began slicing chunks out of it. He passed the first one to Bruce. "I have access to the internet, which has information on how to raise a mer pup. You've got personal experience being a mer." He took a bite of his own apple slice. "This will be a lot easier if we work together."

"I say we don't need your help." Dick accepted another chunk of fish meat from Bruce. "Human." He spat the word out like it left a tangible taste in his mouth.

"Dick, be nice." Bruce frowned down at the pup.

"What? He is." Dick shrugged. He reached for another bit of fish, but Bruce moved it out of his reach, staring at him in disapproval.

"Be nice to Clark. Like it or not, he's helping you get back to your pod."

Dick scowled and dropped his hands back into the water with twin splashes. "Not like I asked him to." He grumbled.

"Dick." Bruce's voice took on a warning tone, and the pup huffed and eyed the half eaten fish in his hands.

"... Fine."

"'Fine' you'll be nice to Clark?"

"Fine I'll be nice to Clark." Dick growled, glaring in a very *not* nice way at Clark.

"Thank you." Clark didn't pay the attitude any mind. He knew Dick might never warm up to him, given that humans had been the ones to take his family from him in the first place. "Here." He passed Bruce another slice of his apple.

"Thanks. Are you sure about this, though? Your work won't suffer due to distance?"

Clark shook his head. "I've worked remotely before. So long as I'm able to connect to the internet I'll be alright."

Dick muttered something under his breath that Clark wasn't able to catch, but apparently Bruce was, because he reached up, handing the fish Clark and grabbed Dick by the arm.

"Alright, that's it. You're in timeout." He hauled the pup over to the closest tree and lifted him out of the water, setting him up on top of the roots that hovered just above the waterline.

"For what?!" Dick demanded, doing his best to twist free. "I didn't do anything!"

"Dick, I am not going to tolerate this kind of behavior from you, do you understand?"

"No! Leave me alone!" Dick managed to break free and dropped back down into the water. As soon as he did, he slapped his tail against the surface and splashed Bruce before making his getaway to the other side of the lagoon.

"Are you okay?" Clark asked as Bruce swam back to the dock.

"Yeah." The mer shook his head. "Maybe I do need your help with him. I understand his hatred of humans, given what happened to his family, but it won't do him any good if he's this openly hostile with every human he comes across. Besides, I don't like him talking to you like that… what?"

Clark knew he was staring, but he couldn't look away.

"It's staring at me."

Bruce blinked and raised an incredulous eyebrow at his friend. "It's… a fish, Clark "

"Why did you hand me your fish?"

"If you don't want it, then why did you take it?"

Clark still couldn't look away, the hollow, dead eye boring into his soul. "I don't know. You handed it to me, so I grabbed it."

"Clark, it's a fish."

"It's staring at me."

"It's *dead*."

"It's *staring* at me."

"I swear I'm dealing with two damn kids."

Yyyyy

"What are you doing?"

Clark straightened, pulled his earbud out, and leaned on his shovel.

"Realizing I… might have been living… in the city too long." He took a few long breaths to try and stop panting. "I'm digging a trench. Ma wants piping laid down so she can fill our old pond back up."

Dick tilted his head. "Why did you leave your pod?"

"What?"

Dick pointed up the trail to the Kent farmhouse. "You pod lives there, right? But you don't. Why?"

"Ah." Clark stretched his arms above his head and popped his back. "That. The simple answer is that human culture is different than mer culture. I grew up, got a job in the city, and moved out."

"You… got a new pod?" He tilted his head the other way.

"Not… exactly. I have friends at work, but other than that, I live alone."

"Why?"

"Because I make enough money to cover the rent by myself."

Dick frowned. "Don't you get lonely?"

"Ehh, not really. I come home every weekend to hang out with Ma, Pa, and Bruce."

The young mer didn't respond to that. He looked down at the water almost sadly.

"You alright?"

Dick crossed his arms and turned away. "Do you think they miss me? I mean, I know they left me and all, but there was a poacher."

Clark set the shovel down and came closer, sitting on a boulder sticking out of the water. "Hey, look at me. There is no doubt in my mind that your pod misses you very much."

Dick shrugged, still gazing down at the water.

"Do you miss them?" Clark guessed.

Dick nodded and blinked, tears welling up on his eyes, though he fought to keep them at bay. "I tried to find them. Mom and Dad always told me, if anything ever happened, stick with the pod. A- and I *tried*." He rubbed his eye with a fist. "I tried. I looked everywhere. They were just gone."

Clark felt his heart clench and wished he could whisk the pup into a tight hug and just make everything better. But, while Dick had grown less hostile towards him over the past month, he still didn't hesitate to bare his teeth or throw things if Clark got too close.

"Well, they're coming back for you. And you'll get to see them again in just a few months."

"What if… what if they forget me?" He whispered.

"Hey, no. That's not going to happen. I'm sure your pod misses you very much."

Dick didn't look convinced, but right then, they heard a splash from the inlet.

"Bruce is back with food." Dick announced, acting like the previous conversation had never happened.

Clark watched him swim off with mixed feelings. Dick was a handful on the best of days. He was stubborn, moody, intentionally rude and very hyperactive, in addition to the issues that had sprung up due to witnessing his parents being murdered.

But Clark had slowly started noticing that he was growing fond of him. And, he knew without a doubt, that it was getting harder by the day to imagine him leaving. He didn't want to say goodbye.