The wine glass clinked on the coffee table. The last dregs of the clear liquor pooled at the bottom. Really, I would've preferred red, but Kaldur had fallen asleep next to me. I didn't want him to wake up and see red. Especially not in a glass. While there were some things he didn't tell me, there were enough clues that allowed me to put things together.

What Percy said had to be true, because none of the villains who would target them would be twisted enough to drink their blood like it's a delicacy.

Sunlight washed in through the windows, painting the floor and Kaldur with its radiance. His face twisted and he turned. Eyes once again hidden from the sun, he settled. I watched him, trying to gauge if it was safe to move. He shifted and pressed his hand against my leg. It was only a small pressure, but his fingers grasped loosely at one of the material folds. The answer was no.

Behind me, the floor creaked. Kaldur jolted. I shushed and soothed him with a hand on his back as the footsteps made their way around the couch. Roy swept up the glass and drained the last drops. He frowned.

"You need to stop drinking so much," he said.

"I'm supposed to be telling that to you." I patted the space beside me, but Roy picked up Kaldur's legs and slipped under them. They could be brothers in a different world. Or in this one if it came down to it. I had no reservations about kidnapping Kaldur if it meant keeping him safe. It wouldn't even be kidnapping. I'm one of the den mothers for the Cave, so it's my responsibility to keep him safe.  Even if it's from Orin.  "Toss me my blanket." Once he did, I tucked it around Kaldur.

These gestures were the easiest for Kaldur to accept. He might shy away from touch or verbal praise, usually with some deflection and statement about how he doesn't deserve it, but things that belong to me, that smell like me or Oliver or Roy never seem to rise a complaint from him.

He hummed and moved closer to me. And when he opened his eyes, they were alert for once, instead of the unfocused haze that had overtaken them lately. I stroked my fingers over his forehead. Maybe I need to look into getting him glasses? Did any of us think to check their eyes for any damage?

"Cute," I mumbled as he pressed into my touch like a cat.

"Okay, now this is really unfair." Roy tipped his head back. "Kaldur, you better be enjoying this because she hasn't called me cute since I was a kid." I could see him smiling despite his attempts to hide it. The smile disappeared when Kaldur struggled to sit up, and he quickly helped him. "You okay?"

"Thank you," Kaldur rasped.

"Can you go get him some water?" I eased Kaldur's head onto my shoulder. Roy nodded and went to the kitchen. "Are you feeling any better, little bird?" My voice was low, soft, and as non-confrontational as I could make it. The razor was heavy in my pocket and I wished I had thrown it away.

"Why do you call me that?"

"I just want you to feel safe. And if co-opting a nickname I usually use for Robin for you does that, I'll do it. I- I want you to be safe too, but--" I sighed. It wouldn't matter if he didn't feel like he was being protected.

He slipped his arms around me. It wasn't for him, I knew that he was doing this for me. A reassurance that he trusted me, but I didn't need that from him. I didn't want that from him. He's the child. He's the one I'm supposed to take care of. There should have been a bit of joy in the way that he didn't hesitate before offering affection, because it would help him too. But there wasn't because Kaldur constantly gives and gives and gives.

Loyal to a fault, a voice not my own whispered in my head.

"Here." Roy held a blue cup out to Kaldur. When he didn't take it, Roy placed it on the coffee table.

 I extracted myself from the thin arms. "I need to go up to the Watchtower. Roy, can you stay with him, or make sure he gets back to the Cave if he wants to head back?"

"Yep."

"No drinking while I'm gone."

"Technically, I'm not allowed even when you are here."

Rolling my eyes, I press a quick kiss to each of their foreheads. Roy would be getting a talking-to about the drinking at some point, but it could wait. Kaldur stared up at me with some look in his eyes that I couldn't place, but I took as betrayal or maybe even fear.

"You can stay here," I reassured him. His shoulder was still bony under my palm. "Oliver will be home soon, I just need to talk to a few people about a mission that's coming up." Roy raised an eyebrow; he knew I didn't have any missions, it would be stupid for me to be in danger in a situation like this. Hopefully, he wouldn't tell Kaldur that.

Once at the Watchtower, I shifted gears. Normally, I would've slowed past some of the windows taking the chance to peer down at the Earth. This time I headed straight towards where I knew Orin would be. He wasn't always at the Watchtower, but since Kaldur and Percy came home, it was a safer bet than anywhere else. Add in the message I had Ronal unceremoniously dump on him and the way I managed to get Tula to talk to Mera about this, it was a surefire way to win a hand.

He knelt at the edge of the pool in the courtyard, fingers dipped into the reflective surface. If I ignored his reflection, the stars and the space behind them went all the way down. The goldfish were like meteors as they darted under the surface. Or maybe comets, I amended, noticing a comet-tail in the mix.

"Why did you want to speak with me, Dinah?"

"I think you know."

He sighed and stood up. Water dripped from his fingers onto stone. "I understand that you have your concerns about Kaldur'ahm, but he is my protege."

"That's exactly it, Orin. He's your protege. He's a child and he's your responsibility. So why the hell am I the one he keeps coming to? Why do I have to hold him when he cries because he doesn't want you? And why does he cling to me like you've never showed him a day of affection in his entire life?"

"I have never hesitated to--"

"I know." I swallowed. My throat tightened. "I know, but that just makes it worse. This is something I'd expect to see after rescuing a kid from a trafficking ring, clinging onto me because I'm the first person they consider safe, not from a fucking seventeen year old boy who should have an entire support network."

Orin glowered. "If Kaldur does not want to be around me, then it is born out of his own actions and desires. He knows what he has done. He knows what will await him. Tell me Dinah, do you have any idea what it's like to look at a boy you've considered your son and know that he tortured his own sister? That he drowned her? Beat her? Poisoned her food because a monster told him to?"

I gritted my teeth. No wonder Kaldur doesn't want to be around Orin. If I was him I would've snapped and punched him. Oliver would've, and might still if I tell him how this played out. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be tortured? What they'll do to you?" Memories of knives and whips and--- I pulled at my hair. It wasn't a good thing to do. Unhealthy, but it was better than a panic attack in front of him.  "There are things---There are things that we better pray to God didn't happen, because otherwise, when they stop repressing them, they'll both end up dead."

His face paled, almost taking a greenish tint. "You think--"

"Don't know. I don't." I choked out the words. I wanted Oliver and his nice grounding hugs. "But it would explain why he doesn't want to be around you or his parents and why he doesn't want anyone to touch him." My arms wrapped around my middle. If dying by the lack of affection is as slow as Orin made it out to be, why would he choose that way? What if it was just a symptom and he thought his avoidance was how he was going to kill himself? "And Percy's thrust herself right into a relationship, but still doesn't trust most men, and I need to bring it up, but I don't want to because I don't think I can deal with both of them at once."

I needed to bring it up. I didn't want to.

Maybe it would be better to get some of the things that they use when asking younger kids about it, just in case. It would be an option if he couldn't talk about it. Please don't let me need it. Please let this be overthinking and worrying. Please, please oh God, please.

"I will...discuss this possibility with his mother."

"Don't let her bring it up with him."

"I do not control what she does with her children, nor do I wish to."

I was suddenly hyper-aware of the smell of the ocean. Orin glanced at the water, surface disturbed as the fish whipped into a frenzy. Neither of us said anything until they calmed.

"Maybe," I said softly, "you should if it's going to hurt them. I mean, have you seen his arms? He keeps tearing at the bracelet."

"It's to keep him safe." At my disbelieving look, he continued. "It's a monitoring bracelet, it's typically used by healers to monitor high-risk patients. This way his mother knows if he's trying to hurt himself and can talk him down." Blue eyes flick to mine. "She's a trained healer, and she's Atlantean. Let her do her job."

"Then let me do mine." A pause. "What do the colors mean? When it glows?"

He hums and sits cross-legged on the ground. This was easier for him, he could be a king telling me about something in his kingdom, rather than whatever he was to Kaldur; king, mentor, father-figure. He looked younger, though I couldn't help but notice then gray starting to show at his temples.

"Green is thinking about suicide, yellow is wanting to, red is actively trying. Purple...I hope we will not see that color. That one is if he is in danger of dying. And then I believe blue is if he is trying to remove it." He rubbed his face. "I do not like having it on him either, but if it gives him more freedom, I have to allow it. I fear he would do worse if someone were to accompany him at all times."

He wasn't wrong. He sneaked out of the Cave to see his friends. He got annoyed every time someone seemed to be hovering around him. How fast would he deteriorate if he never had privacy?

Wouldn't that be the same thing that happened when he was kidnapped?

I ran my hand through my hair, grimacing at the greasy feel of it. I'd need to get a shower. "He likes wearing stuff that smells like me." Orin looked up. "I gave him one of Oliver's jackets that I wear, and that seems to keep him grounded. He might be getting too dependent on it, but I'd rather that happen and have him alive. You can-- Give him a shirt or something." The peace offering hung between us.

He nodded, stood, and turned to leave. Pausing in the doorway, he rested his hand on the smooth frame, as if to steady himself. Or to keep him from fleeing.

"I have to distance myself from this, Dinah. If I pardon him, no matter how much I might want to, it will look like favoritism. There is unrest stirring in the deep, and that would make things worse. The Purists will say I am lifting Kaldur above the law, and there will be death." His hand clenched. A bit of the stone broke off. "If I have to sacrifice one to save hundreds, I have to do it."

I turned away and stared out into the abyss, putting my hands in my pockets. The razor was gone.

Welp, I am done with school for the semester so lets see if I can manage to get this book done

I hope you enjoy the chapter

See yah!