Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail or Blue Exorcist

With his recovery rate, Rin didn't take long to heal from his injuries and return to the guild. However, that didn't mean his mood had improved. He had nightmares when he slept, and the oddest things would make him remember being there, with Grim's master. Rin wasn't able to shake the feeling that he'd come back, despite having watched Zeref's magic swallow him whole. No one survived that magic, so Rin should have been assured that the man was gone, but it still unnerved him with how dazed he had been at the end.

If that wasn't enough, Rin's memories were back. He thought he'd be thrilled to remember, but in a weird way, it made things worse. When he first got here, he knew that the old man had died. Yet, he hadn't been able to remember much other than the fact that Father Fujimoto had raised him. Now, Rin could remember dinners with the priest, and the way he'd always supported Rin even when he got angry and downright violent with the man raising him. He'd sent Father Fujimoto to the hospital, and the priest had still been smiling despite of all of that. Yet…now he was gone. Rin had hardly taken the time to mourn the man that raised him, because he lacked the memories to know what he was missing. Now, he had them. He knew exactly what he had lost…and he knew that there was still a brother waiting for him, somewhere.

Those thoughts only fueled his desire to get back, somehow. Really, the only idea he had was to find Zeref again, and demand that the wizard send him back. Though, exactly how he was going to convince Zeref to do that was a different story. Fairy Tail had lifted a lot of the restrictions on him for taking jobs, but that didn't mean he had gone on any yet since recovering. He'd spent time in the guild hall, watching the usual antics of Natsu and Gray, with Lucy struggling to stay out of their mess. Gildarts had returned to his job, since apparently Makarov had interrupted it to go rescue Rin. Mira was bartending once more, and things seemed relatively normal.

"So, what's on your mind, Rin?" Mira smiled at him, leaning over the counter as she got a break from serving others. Glancing towards her, Rin frowned, focusing on the counter.

"Nothing. Just…thinking."

She chuckled, shaking her head. "Well, that's not like you at all. I thought you'd be eager to jump right back into proving to Natsu that you haven't gotten any weaker after all this time. Yet, here you are…just watching. I don't think I've seen you so still in this guild hall since the day you arrived. Even then, you only were that still because you exhausted yourself with endless spars against other wizards."

He had somewhat gone overboard then, but it didn't change much. Mira had been treating him like nothing had happened since then. She'd listened to him, and just let him cry out all of his frustrations until exhaustion took over and he fell asleep. Gildarts had acted weird around him, almost as if he knew something that Rin didn't. Yet, the crush wizard never said a thing, and he didn't stop treating Rin as a friend. Porlyusica had shooed him away the second he was ready to be back on his feet. Erza had begged for his forgiveness for failing to locate him fast enough, and before he'd been able to respond, she had acted as a sort of bodyguard to stop Gray and Natsu from getting anywhere near him for spars. So, really, Mira was the only person who hadn't changed how she acted around him as a result.

"You know Erza won't let that happen. I'm apparently still too weak to do anything but sit around in her eyes."

Mira shook her head at him. "Well, you were in pretty bad shape before. Unlike some people around here, Erza doesn't realize there's a reason behind how fast you can heal, Rin. She means well, right?"

He nodded, glancing over towards the scarlet haired wizard. She'd just stopped Natsu's fight again, and was returning to enjoy her strawberry cake. "I guess." He sighed, leaning forward on the bar counter. "So…have you been doing anything interesting lately? I didn't know if you coming to rescue me meant you were taking jobs again or not."

"I did consider it." She glanced towards the stairs, before slowly shaking her head. "But honestly, I'm happier like this. You'd be surprised at how stressed Master really gets with the stuff he has to handle for all of us. There's more involved in running a guild than you'd think, and while it seems easy as a normal wizard, I'm in a unique position to see both sides of how things work." She smiled at him, clasping her hands in front of her. "Was there a reason for your interest?" Her tone shifted, to one he usually heard her using around Lucy when trying to get her involved with some guy around the guild. Blinking, Rin wondered exactly what she thought he meant. "I'm getting the feeling you're trying to invite me along on a job, Rin. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you wanted to spend more time alone with me."

Oh. Rin's cheeks felt hot and he quickly buried his head in his arms. Mira laughed at his reaction, patting the back of his head while Rin grumbled into his arms. "It's not like that!" That only made her laugh harder, and Rin sighed and twisted his neck, looking up again. "I just…you're the only one who still treats me normally right now. With everything that happened…I kinda need that. It helps me focus on something else, you know?" Really, she was the person who's attitude should have changed more than anyone else. Yet, she was more pleasant with him than ever before.

"I'm certain Master doesn't treat you any differently. It wasn't your fault that you got captured."

"And like I'd hang out with an old pervert like that!" Rin's head snapped up completely at that, shaking his head. "No way, I'm sticking to people my own age now. Makarov's busy, Gildarts is hiding something from me, and Porlyusica just hates everyone."

"According to her, she does hate you less than others. She says your not completely human, after all." She kept her voice lower with that, but her smile still remained.

Sighing, Rin shook his head. At least she'd dropped her teasing. Then again, his heart had been pounding with her words. Mira was…kinda cute. But he wasn't thinking about that! No, he had to get back home to Yukio, so he didn't have time to be worried about girls and stuff. "It still doesn't change the fact that she's terrified of me burning her house down." Mira giggled, shaking her head. She walked away for a moment after that, serving someone who was looking for another drink for a moment. Before long, she had come back over, smiling at Rin.

"Have you been feeling better?" Rin frowned at her, watching as her smile softened, her eyes studying his closely. "With your homesickness. I know it isn't as easy as it seems to make missing your family go away."

Swallowing, Rin stared at his hands. This was his chance…to actually bring up the truth with her. "Uh…sorta. But…there's probably something about that I should mention." She tilted her head at him, while Rin looked up. "I told you I wanted to go home, and that still hasn't changed. You aren't going to like this, but I was thinking that maybe Zeref might know a way—"

"You're thinking of going to him? Rin, I thought we went over this already." Mira let out a deep breath, shaking her head. "Zeref only wants to use you, Rin. It won't end well if you try going to him for anything. He even admitted that he was the one—"

"Who took me from my family?" Mira went quiet, while Rin clenched his hands into fists. "I know that. I know it…yet, he also saved me. He saved me in more ways than one, so I really do owe him, even if he only did it for selfish reasons, Mira. If it wasn't for him…" He trailed off, thinking of falling into the Gehenna Gate. If Zeref hadn't interfered, he'd have been with his real father. Satan would have won…and he'd likely be far closer to an actual demon than he'd like to admit. "Maybe I should start before this. It…it isn't going to make sense, starting here."

"With what, Rin?"

Looking up, Rin sighed and scratched his head. "You know how Zeref said my memories were gone because he was in my head?" She nodded, and Rin gave her a weak smile. "Well, once he was gone…my memories came back. I remember everything again, Mira…along with what was going on before I ended up in Fiore at all."

"Wait, you're from another country?" Mira frowned. "I thought Gildarts said you two found your family in Pine Village."

"We found Rin Huldra's family, yes." Rin met her eyes, smiling faintly. "But that's not me. I'm Rin Okumura…so that means my brother is still alive."

"That's great, Rin!" She smiled at him, while Rin kept avoiding her gaze. "I'm really happy for you…but why do you need Zeref to get to him? If you can't afford the travel, I'm certain you can make the funds by taking a few jobs or something."

"I need magic, Mira. I'm not just from another country." He met her gaze. "I…this might be hard to believe, but I think I came from another world entirely. There's…a lot of stuff that's different here." Like the lack of electricity, for one. Sure, magic made a decent substitute, but it wasn't the same. Plus, magic itself was absurd…if Rin hadn't arrived without memories, he would have thought Gildarts was crazy for referring to anything as magic.

"That doesn't necessarily mean you're in a different world, Rin. I mean, a lot of cultures have different aspects to them, and different countries progress at different rates—"

"The last thing I remembered before arriving here was being dragged into a portal that was supposed to take me to another dimension." Mira went quiet, while Rin met her gaze. "It wasn't supposed to bring me here, Mira. My birth father, he wanted to take me to his world…a world known as Gehenna. My old man didn't get to explain much about it to me before…" He broke off, swallowing. "Before Satan came. All I can say is that my old world was connected to Gehenna somehow, and that whatever Zeref did interfered with the portal and brought me here instead. That's why I need him. If anyone knows how to send me back, it'd be him."

Mira was quiet for a moment, watching him. Slowly, she walked out from behind the counter, reaching towards him. Rin frowned as she grabbed his wrist, pulling him up from his seat and after her. "Come on, Rin." He frowned at the back of her head, walking through the crowd of wizards inside the guild hall. "If…if you want to get back so badly…I'll help you instead." He blinked at her, seeing Mira pause in front of the door to the library of the guild. "Can…can you trust that I'll be able to help you too, Rin? I might not be Zeref, but I'd like to think that…we at least were friends, after all this time."

What made her think they weren't? Then Rin paused. He was talking to her, pleading with her to understand his reasoning for wanting to leave. He was begging his friend…to never see her again. Swallowing, he stared down at his feet. This…this wasn't going to be easy at all. "Of course we are." He was quiet, hearing the door open in front of them. "You're probably my closest friend here, Mira." Then, he felt his cheeks grow warm. He didn't talk to girls that often…and he had a feeling he'd just said something stupid. "Is…was that weird? I don't normally have to explain stuff like this…I mean, I know we started off fighting a lot, but even back then, I could see you cared. Like, you yelled at me a lot, but it was because you wanted to help. And, even after that…stuff with your family, you tried to avoid taking it out on me. That's why you got all quiet around me then, and I'll admit, I was relieved that you weren't gonna just yell at me all the time anymore—"

"Rin." Mira interrupted him, turning around with a smile. "It wasn't weird until you tried to explain it." His cheeks felt even warmer, and Mira laughed, shaking her head. "Though, even then…it is still a good kind of weird." Her head turned away, leading him into the library behind her. "I was always worried you took that too personally, Rin. I know it was never your fault, but when you lose someone that close to you…it's just hard to accept that there's no one to blame, no one at fault to be angry with. And you…you were always angry with the world, so it made it easy to be angry at you…"

"Nah, I wasn't angry." She blinked at him, while Rin grinned. "I just got annoyed a lot. I tend to overreact and complain, it's kind a bad habit of mine." He walked past her, scanning the shelves. "But, I guess I could get a bit of a temper sometimes." Glancing up, he frowned. "I take it we're trying to do some research in here, then? Because I'm kinda an idiot when it comes to figuring out magic at all. The gravity magic was just me getting lucky, and the fire isn't exactly magic, as you now know."

Smiling, Mira walked forward and nodded. "Of course! Right this way. We actually have this library fairly well organized by subject. The books over here should focus on teleportation magic, which should serve as the basis for traveling, at the very least. From there…hmm, I'd have to think of what would help get into another dimension, but that's what the research is for, right?"

She was still smiling, but Rin could see some of the light had faded from her eyes. He watched her pull down a book as he nodded, and she slowly began to read. Yet, the more immersed she was in the book, the less she seemed to become aware of her surroundings. Her smile faded, and Rin saw her hand closing into a fist on the table. Sitting down next to her, he started reading himself, reaching over to gently cover her hand with his own. Mira…wasn't happy about this. Yet, she wasn't fighting him about it either. Part of Rin wondered if she understood so well because she would have done the same, if Lisanna were involved. Yet, the subject was too personal to ask about. So, he settled with just rubbing the back of her hand, hoping to reassure her that he'd stick by her side until he had an answer, because there was no one in this world he'd rather have as his closest friend.

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