Aqualad One-Shots

On Stranger Tides (PREVIEW #1)

So I got ideas for several more full-blown Kaldur fanfictions (In addition to the Sword of the Lanterns series, Solstice, and "Text of Fate" which I recently published) so I will post the previews here so you guys can choose which one you want me to work on after I finish Solstice of SOTL, whichever comes first.

Here is preview of book #1, the title of which you can see in the chapter title

His head hurt.

It wasn't the first time his head hurt this way, it had certainly happened many times before, especially when you were in his line of work.

...but what was his line of work again?

"Hey, are you okay?" A voice asked, urgent and unfamiliar.

He blinked his eyes, feeling the sand falling off his face. When it has cleared enough to see, he lifted his head to look out at the rolling waves of a beautiful blue ocean.

It called to him, the waves cool and inviting, almost like home, but he was too exhausted to swim.

He let his head fall back into the sand, breathing heavily. When he opened his eyes again, a young woman was staring down at him. Dripping wet, just like he was. Her dark hair was brushed over her right shoulder, out of his face and hers. Her brown eyes stared back at him with curiosity, but her grin screamed mischief.

"Hey handsome. You doing okay?" She asked, the words echoing hollowly in his eyes.

"I-" sand that clung to his wet cheeks spilled into his mouth as he tried to talk, and he coughed them back out again. "I believe so."

A calloused hand reached out, helping him brush the sand off his face. He joined in her efforts, brushing sand off the dark, metallic, oversized suit. Clunky and clumsy, not at all meant for the dry sand, which squeezed itself into the cracks and made sitting up near impossible.

Somehow, he knew how to remove the suit, and did so deftly, tossing the pieces of armor to the side. Why he needed them he didn't know. He wouldn't burden himself with them.

Underneath the armor was a simpler, thinner suit that traced his physique. The young woman didn't seem to mind.

"So, what's a cute guy in as much armor as you doing out past the sandbar? Diving? No wonder you sank." She said, staring at the piles of armor he left on the beach.

"Sank?"

"Yeah, you were knocked out, floating to the bottom. I pulled you up onto my surfboard and brought you to shore," she jerked her thumb over her shoulder, indicating an oblong-shaped board leaning against a couple of rocks.

She squinted at him, more particularly, something on his neck.

"Unless you're an Atlantean," she said, biting her lip and pointing to that something.

He reached up a hand to feel his neck for anything strange, and fingered two strange flaps of skin, covering several air pockets on either side of his neck.

"If you will forgive me, I cannot remember if I am or not." He apologized.

She waved her hand, shaking her head. "It's fine," she said, but she didn't sound that way. Instead of flirtatious, like her greeting, or curious, she sounded the most serious she had since he woke up.

"We gotta get you indoors quick, before Maxwell Lord finds you."

"Who is Maxwell Lord?" He asked.

"Business tycoon. Justice League antagonist. Racist to any metahuman, especially Atlanteans." She pulled him to his feet, helping him gather up the pieces of armor and her surfboard so that there was no evidence of their being there.

"Tide's coming in. That'll cover our tracks." She nodded, satisfied.

"Follow me," she waved her strange new amnesiac friend after her, leading him up a dirt path carved into the side of the cliff, high above the beach. At the top, a road ran along the cliff's edge, right next to a forest of pine-green trees.

"What makes this Maxwell Lord so dangerous?" He asked.

"Well, for starters, he's been hanging around Lex Luthor, who is completely and utterly bad news no matter what his PR group says. Second, his ex-wife and one of his ex-employees both mentioned that he had the power to control minds, and both were dead within a month of staying such. Third, he controls basically everything that happens here in the Greater San Diego area." As she spoke with confident authority, she balanced herself on one of the rocks, using the surfboard to balance herself with expertise.

"I see your point." The stranger nodded, his dark-skinned face slightly pale as he kept pace with his rescuer.

She leaped down from the rocks to walk alongside him, her board now propped up on her shoulder. "Bottom line is, he totally hates the Justice League and any metahumans and Atlanteans associated with them, so he would not hesitate to make trouble for you." She summed up.

He nodded again, and the two continued walking in borderline awkward silence for a few more minutes.

"I just realized," she smacked her lips loudly to clear the air, "I never got your name. Now I know you might not remember it or anything, but is there a name you'd like me to call you?" She prompted. "My name's Lorena, by the way. Lorena Marquez."

The stranger thought for a moment, his walk slowing down. As he watched his feet parade the grassy sidewalk, he certainly noticed that his rescuer, Lorena, had slowed down as well, to be able to stick with him.

Finally, he said the name that tugged on his soul. One that he could never forget. One that had always been there for him.

"Calvin Durham."