Bringing Home Brother
Hellboy belongs to Mike Mignola. Movie verse. Hellboy has his first encounter with his counterpart. Set whenever they found the fish man, so Broom in this fic will be… forty-eight, and Hellboy will be the equivalent of seven, just for the heck of it. Arnold is mine. Let's go!
"We found him under St. Trinian's hospital in Washington. The only thing we could find to identify it was a tag. Said 'Act…'-" Arnold stumbled over the word, rubbing his temple in concentration. "Ic-thyyyoooo Sapien. Also had the date Abraham Lincoln died written on it. I'm pretty sure it's dead, but it's in good condition. You can get a good look at it while you can."
Professor Broom nodded, face focused on nothing while he thought. "A shame. Sapien, eh? Do you think it might be sentient?"
"Don't know," Arnold admitted. "It's… kinda dead."
"He might not be, Arnold. Remember who you work for."
"Yeah." Arnold sighed. "You know, if you want, we can run a-"
Broom held up a hand. "Thank you, Arnold."
Shaking himself from his reverie, Trevor Bruttenholm reached down and stroked his son's horns, producing a giggle from the boy demon. "Hellboy?"
Hellboy looked innocently up to the aged professor. "Yeah, father?"
"Were you paying attention?"
"No."
Broom was going to miss the days when Hellboy didn't know how to lie. He instead shook his weary head and rested his hand on Hellboy's crown.
"I need you to be on your best behavior in the observation room," his father warned him. "We have no idea what this creature might do-"
"Creature?" Hellboy's eyes lit up. "What creature?"
Arnold's face went pale. "Uh oh."
Hellboy's tale began to wag, and his fists clenched excitedly. His trench coat ruffled. "Does he look like me?"
"Now, Hellboy-" warned the professor, "You need to stay-"
"CREATURE!"
Without warning, Hellboy was halfway down the hall and breaking down the door to the observation room. Arnold and Broom rushed after him, each trying to call Hellboy to the other without raising their voices, they stumbled into the room-
And there was Hellboy, standing in front of a giant tank of blue water.
And staring back at him was the icthyo sapien.
He was floating with his face at Hellboy's eye level, the rest of his body pointing upwards as a result of swimming down from the top of the tank. He stared into the tiny yellow eyes of the demon child, his own onyx orbs neglecting to blink.
Hellboy, on the other hand, had his face scrunched curiously, and seemed to be studying the creature's entire body. For a moment, his eyes settled on the creature's undulating gills, and his breathing became more pronounced and moved to match the fish man's rhythm. Mirroring the actions of his father, Hellboy placed his hands flat on the tank and leaned forward in concentration, eyes furrowing tightly while his jaw jutted out. In response, the fish man nervously backed away, leaving the same amount of space between them as before.
Broom almost laughed when Hellboy scratched his chin. The demon boy cocked his head to the side, and the fish man copied the motion. His body flowed behind him like a goldfish tail, eventually coming to rest on its side. Intrigued, Hellboy put his head back up; fish man righted himself almost immediately with a flick of his wrist.
Arnold covered his mouth to hide the snickering. The sight of the decidedly alien, but obviously adult creature mindlessly mimicking the actions of a young child touched the part of his soul that made him giggle uncontrollably. Hellboy put his left hand on the glass. The fish man pressed his right palm against Hellboy's, but twitched and quickly replaced it with his left.
Hellboy let out a light chuckle. Suddenly, he turned his back to the glass and bent backwards, anchoring his horns on the glass to look at his new friend upside-down.
Abe pushed the water with one long, graceful stroke. He was upside-down alongside the demon.
The demon laughed again. He stood up and stretched, then put his head between his legs. With his tail, he gathered up the tails of his short coat and pushed them out of his vision. He was met by the sight of his friend, right side up (meaning upside-down in reality), with his head between his knees. Finally, Hellboy let out one loud howl of a laugh and fell forward, flattening out on the floor in a giddy haze.
The fish man flipped over and floated parallel to the cold steel of the tank bottom. With a quick glance back to the boy, he pushed himself down to the bottom, lying on the floor just like Hellboy.
The demon pressed his nose against the tank. "Welcome home, brother!"
"Brother?" Arnold whispered. Bruttenholm shushed him hurriedly.
"Hello," the fish man replied, swimming back to the tank wall and putting his hand against the glass. Hellboy placed his stone hand against the fish man's palm. "Am I your brother?"
Hellboy cocked his head again. "I dunno. I guess so. I mean, you're not a human, brother, so you must be a one of me."
"Ah." He paddled his feet, keeping his knees off of the cold floor. "So what are you?"
"I dunno, brother." Hellboy kicked his bare, cloven foot. "I know I'm Hellboy. Who're you?"
Broom felt the need to intervene; he could vaguely picture the poor creature opening his mouth to answer, only to pause in agony in realizing he didn't have a name. He stepped forward. "I was hoping to hea-"
The fish man gasped and flitted to the back of the tank. Hellboy cried in a confused, distressed kind of growl and knocked on the glass with his stone hand. "Hey! Hey, come back!"
"Hellboy!" Arnold snatched the child and pulled him away. "You can't hit the glass! You'll hurt his ears!"
The knowledge seemed to stop Hellboy in his tracks. He slumped lifelessly in Arnold's hands, staring at the ground in thought.
"Really?"
"Yes, Hellboy," said Bruttenholm.
"Oh." Hellboy called to the tank. "Hey, brother, I'm sorry I hurt you're ears, Mr. … what's your name?"
For a few seconds, nothing happened, but then the creature's blue face crept back towards the glass, eyes now sternly focused on Professor Bruttenholm. He pushed his palm against the glass, fingers spreading wide. "Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, head of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, favorite snack food is Baby Ruth candy bars, which you wish you had right now because you forgot to eat lunch."
It was quiet.
Hellboy took a deep breath. "You've got the same name as my father!"
"How did it know that?" Arnold asked Bruttenholm while pointing at the monster.
"He…" Broom whispered. "Not 'it'."
The fish man shrugged his shoulders. "I thank you, sir, for defending my gender."
Bruttenholm stared at the fish man for a moment, mouth agape… then smiled warmly. Hellboy wiggled happily out of Arnold's arms and went back to the tank, touching his forehead softly on the glass. "I think we are going to be good friends, sir."
The creature spread his hand against the glass again, eyes traveling to and from the humans in the room and eventually settling on Hellboy. "Abraham."
Arnold twitched. "What?"
"That name. I like it. Is it mine? I would like it to be." He gestured dramatically with his free hand, mirroring a Shakespearian performer. "I feel… a certain importance about that name.
"Abraham…" The fish man finished. He spotted Hellboy and put his head against his new friend's. "Abraham Sapien…"
&&&
Abe's eyes fluttered open, and met with a pair of yellow orbs. Hellboy let out a toothy smile and rumbled, "Wakey-wakey."
Abe pushed away from the tube softly, his various IV needles and heart monitors rattling. "I was wondering when you were coming to visit."
Hellboy put a warm, flesh hand on the hospital glass (the other was currently holding a half-eaten submarine sandwich), and Abe copied. After noticing Hellboy's raised eyebrow, he switched hands. The two monsters sat on the floor of their respective worlds, Hellboy immersed in a sandwich and Abe playing balloon-bounce with his Rubix cube.
With one last gulp, Hellboy turned back to the glass. Abe closed his eyes and touched his forehead to the wall, Hellboy following. With a long stretch of his gills, Abe let out a contended sigh.
"It feels good to see you again," Abe murmured.
Hellboy purred, "Welcome home, brother."
Okay, done.