-Aqualad has a nightmare and is found by his mentor.

TW for mentions of abuse-

Orin didn't realize something was wrong until his wife asked if it tasted strange to him. They'd been up late working in tandem, and Mera had noticed a new warmth and congestion in the ambient water around them. Stopping and focusing on it, he too could pick up on the flavour.

He stood, following the faint taste to the outer room. 

Mera had suggested that Kaldur, instead of spending the rest of the night getting back to his home district, simply stay with them. They boy had been incredibly flattered, and had promised to work as efficiently as possible. Kaldur was like that.

Now though, as Orin stared across the dim room to where Kaldur sat hunched in a chair facing away, Kaldur was strangely still. He didn't seem to be doing anything at all, but it was hard to tell with the room lit only by the dim light of bio luminescence seeping through the paneless window. Then he noticed the way the boy's shoulders heaved, and faint vibrations reached him as if the boy were trying to speak English through the water, but the sound couldn't carry

"Aqualad?" He asked, stepping closer. "Kaldur'ahm?" He added gently, addressing the boy by his real name for the first time in weeks. "Is everything alright?"

Kaldur turned around, standing. He looked unwell, even in the low light. His eyes were puffy and bagged and his chewed lips were trembling. "Yes sir." he said very quietly, his voice husky and cracked.

It was at that moment that Orin realized what he'd been tasting: due to living in what was essentially saline, most Atlanteans had very underdeveloped tear ducts and could not cry properly, this was not the case for Kaldur.

In the years they'd been working together, he'd only seen his apprentice cry once before; in Kaldur's first year going on land, Orin had seen a few tears had shot down his face when he was severely wounded in battle.

If Kaldur was crying enough to saturate the water around him, then something was very wrong.

"Are you crying?" it was admittedly a stupid and pointless question. The boy was crying, it was obvious.

Kaldur opened his mouth, seemed to choke on his tears, and just nodded. At least he was smart enough to be honest.

Orin stepped closer, but faltered. He knew that as a future father he'd have to get used to comforting crying children, but he hadn't expected to need those skills for at least another five months.

Kaldur stepped back, maintaining a safe distance from his boss.

"I'm sorry, sir." He said at last, eyes dropping to the floor.

"At ease." Orin soothed. "What is the matter?"

Kaldur tried and failed to make eye contact, and seeing that he was shaking the king stepped forwards again. Kaldur stepped back again, bumping into the window sill.

"Nothing, sir." He murmured.

"Nothing doesn't make you cry, I know that." Orin took the boy's trapped state to cross the rest of the room. He guided Kaldur back to his chair and reluctantly, the boy sat. Aquaman pulled up another seat for himself. "What's the matter?"

His usually stoic and thoughtful sidekick continued to be quiet and shy, looking away and conveying in practically every way that he was working hard to hide his discomfort. If Kaldur was this upset it must be really serious.

"I had a bad dream, sir." He whimpered, reaching up to cover his face as the salty congestion grew in the air around them.

Orin was surprised. "A dream? A dream's nothing to cry about."

"Yes sir. Sorry sir."

Instantly he realized he'd misspoken. The boy was now more distanced than before, outwardly composing his face into an expression of indifference as his body continued to tense. He was disconnecting, dissociating and putting on a mask because he'd just been told it wasn't safe to share. Orin backtracked: "I mean that a dream shouldn't be anything to cry about, something must be wrong for it to trigger such a reaction." Kaldur continued to stare blankly, fists tight on his lap. "Will you tell me what happened?"

Kaldur's lip trembled, but otherwise he maintained the expression of polite indifference that had gotten him so far in life. "I fell asleep while working, sir, and I was awoken by a very upsetting dream."

"What happened in the dream?"

Kaldur faltered. "I'd rather not..."

"You don't have to share, but it would help me a lot to know what exactly has upset you so much. How else can I watch for the signs in the future?"

Kaldur faltered. "Is that an order sir?"

"Only if you want it to be. I will not force you to share, but I'd like to know because I don't like seeing you upset, Kaldur, and I want to prevent it."

"I'm afraid there's no preventing something that's already happened..." Kaldur replied softly. He swallowed. "Sir... when I was in my training for the child militia, there was a certain instructor who exercised a lot of power over the soldiers..."

Orin's heart dropped like it had been sucked down by a current. "Who?"

"They... they enjoyed using their power over the soldiers, and I don't remember it fondly," he finished anticlimactically.

"Kaldur?" His king asked. "What did they do?"

"I'd rather not--"

"That's an order, Kaldur'ahm."

"Yes sir."

Kaldur paused several seconds before un-clipping his holster for his water bearers, and pulling back the arm cuff of his shirt. A deep, pink scar bulged out slightly from the skin. It was old, but not more than a couple years-- it was still actively healing.

"Kaldur..."

The boy pulled the cuff back sheepishly, eyes on the floor. "It's... not the only one, sir, and neither was I." He croaked. "They targeted boys with aquatic features, and... and would call us names and beat us if we under-performed."

The ruler's jaw hung a quarter inch open as he listened. "Why did you not say anything?"

"The person who committed these acts is quite high ranking..." Kaldur reflexively sniffed-- he was quite used to breathing air at this point. "I wanted to secure a closer position to you before I could safely inform you without..."

Without his future, family, career and safety being at risk.

"Kaldur'ahm, you should have told me sooner. Think how many more boys have suffered since you left."

"I do sir." Kaldur fought back a sob, mask faltering. "I do frequently, and I... I'm ashamed I left them to that fate."

"You didn't leave them to it. You wanted to help them, but you had to wait until you knew I'd listen. You're one of those suffering boys too. Do you blame those who were abused before you for not preventing your abuse?"

Kaldur shook his head. "It's just... I'm Aqualad. How can I claim to be a hero with their suffering on my conscience?"

"We all have others suffering on our conscience, it's part of being a hero: you can't save everyone, you can just do the best you can." Orin reached out, gently cupping the boy's shoulder. "You're dong the best you can by telling me, Kaldur. Now, tell  me who  was responsible for this."

Kaldu shook his head, shoulders shaking. "I'm sorry, it's not that easy sir... They have some political influence. They are closely related to a member of your congress."

Orin's insides sank deeper than before, drowning in guilt. Kaldur had had to regularly interact with his close associates, and regularly had their families too dine. He could have put the boy face-to-face with his abuser and never realized. "Tell me, Kaldur'ahm that's an order."

"I begged him," Kaldur hiccuped, coming down from the emotion, but body still in recovery. "I made him promise to be discrete, but he was furious."

"He cares about you," Roy said, resting a hand on Aqualad's back. They were sitting on the edge of a building peaking over the highway leading into Star. "Not everyone would care so much. Then what?"

"He stormed off to confront her." Kaldur sniffed, hugging his arms for comfort; rubbing his thumbs up and down the static fuzz of his tattoos. "She's going to know who informed him."

"You don't know that," the archer replied, "and even if she did she must be what? g=fifty now? You and the team could beat her."

"It would be cowardly to bring the team into this."

Roy, who had been fiddling in his belt for his phone to call Dinah, suddenly stopped what he was doing, taking Kaldur by the shoulders and turning the younger boy to face him. "Don't call yourself a coward. I don't want to hear you say that again." Kaldur reflexively whimpered something a lot like 'yes sir'. Roy felt bad but ignored it. "Look, I've gotta patrol, but I'll give you my phone-- I've just dialed canary-- and I'll be back to check on you in twenty minutes, kay?"

Kaldur nodded meekly, taking the phone. "Thank you."

"What are-- I mean-- no worries." Roy turned away. "Take care of yourself until I get back."