Mickey was burning.

Mickey was burning. Illuminated by blue flames, blinding even in the daylight.

Mickey was burning and Pi-chan was gone. A coffin of blue flames had engulfed them both, scattering the opposing magic with something like a roat.

For a moment the world was silent.

Then the flames erupted.

Wings of flame, the same fire that Pi-chan had always turned into when he wanted to hit one of the other guild members with a mild burn during a brawl, had erupted from Mickey's back, spiky and eerily substantial, around them the air rippled like a mirage. It wasn't just the wings, Mickey was engulfed by the flames.

It was almost too bright but Gisela couldn't stop looking. Transformation sequence achieved? Just as soon as the thought came it was gone.

It didn't matter.

Mickey did.

Suddenly the flames lashed out, shattering what had been a somewhat peaceful moment. Mickey was a blur.

She had always been dangerous with her hand to hand, lethal even. Now, aided by the fire that surrounded her Mickey was something else.

It was over quickly, the lighting mage taken out in a blur of speed and quick movements. The ice mage took a bit longer, his constructs apparently had something like a heat resistance, but not long.

Soon they were both unconscious on the ground.

Mickey was still burning, standing over the two bodies. She was a predator, just waiting for them to get up and try to fight her again.

They didn't.

Gisela felt frozen. How did I miss this? She knew Mickey, Mickey was her partner who yelled and shouted and got into brawls with everyone but was actually really nice and willing to put up with all of Gisela's bullshit and failures and-

"Mickey". It was barely a whisper. It was enough. Mickey turned and suddenly she was next to Gisela, flames banked but present.

"You're awake".

"Yeah. You're", Gisela groped for what to say, "blue", she tried to wave her hand to indicate the fire. It was still too floppy. "Is Pi-chan okay?".

"Yeah", Mickey stuttered, "he's here". Mickey glowed for a moment, once more encased in flames.

Then was a bird at Mickey's side.

He did not look like Pi-chan. Pi-chan had always been the cartoon representation of a bird, a cute round face and body, not even mentioning the witch's hat he wore sometimes in complement to Mickey's occasional demon horns.

Someday Gisela needed to find out the story behind those things.

But this was not that Pi-chan. Not the Pi-chan Gisela knew.

This bird had feathers made of fire, rippling along in ever changing patterns. It was leaner, elegant where Pi-chan had been cute. Deadly. This Pi-chan was a predator as well.

Whimsically, Gisela was reminded of pokemon. You're Pi-chan has evolved! Congrats, you have a, what was the firebird called again?, Gisela couldn't remember.

"You guys okay?".

"Yeah. I'll say it again. I'm not the one who got stuck by lighting".

"Pi-chan too?".

"Yeah", Mickey's expression turned awkward, "this is just another form".

"Safe?".

There was something in Mickey's expresion, Gisela thought. Something. Maybe. It was hard though.

Gisela was just so tired. Maybe its just flickers from the heat.

Everything just burned.

One thing still mattered though.

Are we safe? Gisela lifted her head to check, ignoring the pounding soreness and the even more unnerving numbness as she tried to see behind her partners.

Behind Mickey Gisela could vaguely make out the mages that had attacked them. They were both down for the count.

Gisela was so tired. Everything ached. She let the world fade from around her, embracing the blackness she had been fighting since the first burst of pain. It was nice in the darkness. Velvet.

Everything else could wait for later. Distantly Gisela could hear Mickey shouting something. It was okay though, they were both okay.

Mickey was safe and Pi-chan was safe, even if he looked different. Everything else could wait for later.

The problem with later was that it always came, no matter how much one wanted it to go away. Gisela was, rather unpleasantly, reminded of that fact as she woke up once more.

Coming to consciousness always sucked. Her headache and everything somehow felt floppy and tense at the same time, like someone had taken rubber and then wound it into a million knots before trying to stretch it once more.

It was not a pleasant way to feel. Gisela did not recommend it. At all.

The worst part was that they had no choice but to keep walking. Their best bet was dropping off the two mages at the National Branch Council for Fiore, well, that or hoping they could summon the Rune Knights at the next town.

Either way, the two mages got to come with them, still unconscious, thankfully.

It was that, leaving the two hostile and deadly mages knocked out in a field to come back after them, or taking them back to the town that they had passed on the way in.

None of them were great options. "I could fly us", Gisela offered as they walked, unconscious bodies on her clouds.

"No. You've already done enough silly, besides, do you really want to ride on the same cloud as them? Me and Pi-chan don't, right?".

"Exactly, exactly".

"What if we sent Pi-chan on?".

"Sent him on?".

"Yeah, could he take a message to the Rune Knights, you know he flies fast and then they could meet us on the way. We don't have what we need to transport them well long term", Gisela saw something in Mickey's face and hastened to add, "only if that's okay. I don't-".

"Nope", Mickey said, smacking her fist into her other palm, "that's a great plan". In short order the letter was written and sent, a blue blur in the distance. Is he even faster than before? Pi-chan always knew how to move but that was just impressive. Gisela already couldn't see him. Their group of three was down too two.

Gisela hesitated before plunging forward. "Are you okay?".

"I'm good. Did you see how I kicked those guys' butts. It was easy", Mickey exclaimed.

"Yeah. It was awesome". It had been, but the awesome didn't help the fear tugging at Gisela's bones. Didn't help the fact that she didn't know what had happened. What was happening to her partner.

They didn't talk after that through, there was no bragging. No explanation for what the blue flames had been.

It didn't feel right. Either way, Gisela just didn't have the energy to argue. She was too busy watching Mickey.

Pi-chan hadn't gone back to his small bird form. Well, he was a bird. Just not the bird he had been. Mickey had done something in those moments during the fight.

Something big. Something that might be irreversible.

Magic didn't just power up like that. Something had happened.

And Gisela couldn't shake the feeling that it hadn't been something that Mickey hadn't wanted. She seems okay, Gisela tried to convince herself as she plodded along next to her partner, trying her best to keep the steady pace they needed to keep.

She isn't crying or screaming or anything like that. She made a joke earlier too.

Well, it was sort of a joke. Gisela was counting it as a win even if it was really just a case of trying to be nice to Gisela because she was the one who got knocked out before the fight even started.

"-okay? Don't need to stop for a bit or anything".

"I'm fine". I don't want to slow you down anymore. Gisela just could not stop thinking. That fight had been her fault, if she had just been more alert, more prepared. If she had just been better.

If.

Then something else hit her. Something worse. One of the mages had been a lighting mage. Was lighting the only thing she could do?

It was a creeping thought, insidious as they walked, because there was no reason why the mage couldn't have been a weather mage with a habit of only using lighting. Would have made her a better mage than me.

Gisela had tried other forms of weather magic, back when she was first learning. They had never worked.

A cloud mage she was and a cloud mage she would be. It was what it was.

That storm might have been untratural. And Gisela hadn't noticed. Had just thought that the weather changed on her. So that's twice I was not alert enough, once with the lighting, once with the rain.

Mickey paid the price.

They kept walking.

One of the mages started to moan. Normally Gisela would have felt bad about hitting someone while they were down, it wasn't exactly an example of fair play after all.

They didn't have any of the tools necessary for fair play.

It sucked.

Gisela ached everywhere. The only good thing was that she didn't have the energy to keep thinking, all of her focus had to go into maintaining the cloud that they were using as a prison cart or a prison cloud as it was.

Just keep going. Just keep going. Just keep going.

It was as good a mantra as any. All Gisela had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. She had messed a lot of other stuff up but she could walk.

She was able to do that much at least. She had too.

Just keep going. Just keep going. Just keep going.

Mickey froze. Gisela's feet kept pushing on for a few more steps before she realized that Mickey was still.

"What's wrong?", Gisela tried to ask, it came out a mumble.

"I see some people up ahead". It looked like one of them was still capable of paying attention.

"Safe?".

"I think they're the Rune Knights".

Gisela hoped they were. It wasn't like she could do much if they weren't, she was even more useless than she normally was.

They were. Gisela almost wanted to cry as the knights arrived. It was all a blur but she didn't have to hold the cloud and Mickey was being awesome and dealing with the head knight, Gisela wasn't sure if she knew him or not, something about him was familiar, and just being an awesome partner with Pi-chan while she sat.

The ringing in her head was almost becoming a pleasant melody. Sitting down was nice, it was almost like she was floating. There was probably something that she needed to do. Someone she was failing.

It was just so hard to care. Sleep was beckoning.

I'll worry about everything in the morning.

Blackness was nice. Gisela really did not appreciate it enough.

Soft.

Gisela cracked her eyes open. She was inside, not outside. She was in a bed, the covers pulled up around it.

It did not look like a hospital.

She did not see Mickey.

Gisela felt herself shoot upright, ignoring the way that everything protested as she tried to figure out where she had ended up.

Everything just felt flopping.

The door opened. "You're awake!", Mickey shouted, "don't you ever do that again". The punch to the shoulder wasn't hard. It still hurt.

So did Pi-chan's pecks.

Gisela's eyes burned. What had she done now? "Why?", she managed to ask.

Then Mickey was hugging her. Gisela could feel the pressure of Mickey's arms wrapped around her, warm. "You had magical deficiency disease. It looked pretty minor but I wasn't sure if we were gonna have to take you to the doctors or something. You need to tell me!".

"How long has it been?"

"Only a day, we're fine. That's not the point through. You always end up in the hospital".

"No I-". Gisela thought about it for a moment. "Sorry".

"Just do better. You're no use if you are always passing out like a limp noodle".

"I'll try". Still Gisela needed to know, "how long until we can get going?".

"Once you can walk again", Gisela opened her mouth, "and no flying. No more clouds unless you need to. Why didn't you tell me you were so low on magic". Mickey was back to being accusatory.

Gisela tried to remember the rest of that day. It was all a blur of pain, everything except Mickey and Pi-chan. "I was just walking, one step in front of the other. I wasn't", wasn't thinking, she added silently.

"Next time pay more attention, if we had known then we could have stopped, Mest teleports so we could have stopped".

"Is that how they got to us so quick?".

"Yup. Pi-chan is the best!". Mickey ran her fingers through Pi-chan's flame feathers.

"Thank you, thank you", the bird chirupted, for all the world like nothing had changed.

Gisela just laid back down, tense muscles relaxing into the sheets.

Mickey fidgeted. "Are you going to ask?".

"Ask what?".

"About Pi-chan and me, about what happened. You want to know, right?".

Gisela did. She did want to know what had happened and what Mickey and Pi-chan had sacrificed because Gisela was weak and always ended up in the hospital with them picking up the slack. Mickey didn't look like she wanted to say anything through, maybe that was what she was avoiding before? It was as good a guess as any. "You've never asked me".

"Asked you?".

"Asked me about where I'm from. It wouldn't", Gisela said, groping for words and cursing the sleepy fog in her brain, "wouldn't feel right. If you don't want to tell me that fine".

"What if I do?".

"Then you can, but Mickey, only if you want to". Gisela didn't like this Mickey, Mickey was brash and got into fights and laughed and didn't glance around, nervous and-

Mickey didn't act like Gisela. She shouldn't.

"When we're done, okay. When we get back home. Then I'm going to tell you. Hold me to that, okay?".

"I can't-".

"I need you to, I'm not going to run away from this anymore", Mickey reached down, petting the bird settled in her lap, "right Pi-chan. We decided during that fight. We're done running". Mickey's eyes were solid as they caught Gisela's steady.

"Okay". Gisela found herself saying. "I'll do that. It's a promise". Someday maybe I can do the same for you. Gisela wasn't ready yet. She wasn't ready to see her partner's face when Mickey found out what Gisela had done and how badly she had messed up.

The problem with dramatic promises was that they really did not leave anywhere for the conversation to go. They had talked. They had promised. Gisela was still too messed up to get out of the bed at the clinic/hospital thingy that Gisela and Mickey had been dropped off at. Because Gisela was too messed up to get up there was no way to have the dramatic walk off scene.

So instead of the drama it was an awkward sit off.

They did try, Mickey caught Gisela up on the Rune Knights and all the paperwork that had been taken care off, in exquisite detail because, "if I had to suffer through it then so do you", and checking how far they were away from Crocus.

It continued to be awkward, the remnants of a half finished conversation lingering in the gaps between their words, no matter how hard they tried to shake them.

The road helped. The road helped a lot.

"I could-".

"Nope".

"Are you sure?".

"Nope".

"I would tell-".

"Gisela, you wouldn't, you just demonstrated that you would not tell me. We are going to walk our asses to Crocus and to the guy who gets this damn map. Okay. No more passing out. No more dramatic rescues. We are going to walk".

They kept walking. Guilt a sinking stone in Gisela's stomach.

"I'm sorry".

"Just do better next time, pushing yourself is okay. Hell, pushing yourself is the Fairy Tail way. Passing out like that because you didn't bring up how low on magic you are. Dumb. I'm the brash one in this partnership, not you".

"I'll do better next time".

"You'd better".

It was a good conversation Gisela supposed. Mickey did make some good points about how much of a failure Gisela was. It just also had the side effect of making the next few hours of walking super awkward.

Again.

World's most awkward trip. They kept going, even through the once again awkward silence.

I could leave. It was only a stray thought, a quick one. I could leave. She could. She had a guild stamp and that would make things harder but-

I'm not going too. It didn't matter how much easier it would be if she wasn't always disappointing people and messing up.

It didn't. Because Gisela had promises that she had to keep. Mickey had a story to tell her, Mio was learning magic. She was helping Macao with paperwork and budgeting. She had even promised, sort of, to go to that meet up thingy. So long as it wasn't at a bar, Gisela drew the line at non Fairy Tail bars.

When did that happen?

Gisela hadn't gone to Fairy Tail to make promises.

She hadn't meant to end up at Fairy Tail at all. How long am I planning to stay for. Canon?

She pushed that thought away and kept walking. There had been too much philosophy already.

Finally they made it to Crocus, there had been no more distractions, not vulcan, Gisela was still surprised they had been able to avoid the bloody monkey thingys, mage, once per trip was enough in Gisela's opinion, or otherwise. They were in Crocus now. They were practically there.

Once more Gisela felt the dower mood that had engulfed her start to lift as they wove through the crowded streets.

The market was loud and almost overwhelming, but it was fun to watch Pi-chan preen as people pointed and stared at him.

Mickey was sort of preening as well. Gisela decided to be a good partner and not bring that up. Besides, Gisela did have to admit. Pi-chan before had been cute, now the bird was impressive. She didn't blame the people of Crocus for being impressed.

Finally they made it.

The first sign was how Mickey froze when she saw Jude.

The second was how Jude froze when he saw the mark on her arm.

Then Gisela remembered, because of course she would only remember why Jude and Fairy Tail were not a good mix when it was too late for it to actually matter. That was how it always worked. She had just done a Fairy Tail job for Jude Heartfilia, antagonists extrordinaire of one of the first arcs of Fairy Tail. She rushed through the paperwork, Mickey nearly vibrating beside her.

Jude couldn't meet her eyes. Just get through this.

The only good thing was that it was just a drop off. If it had been anymore Gisela had no idea what she would have had to do. There was literally no good option, she could feel both gazes burning what felt like litteral holes in each other whenever they slid the wrong way.

Finally they made it out.

Mickey didn't explain anything. Gisela wanted to ask. She just didn't know how. Beside's, this trip was awkward enough as it was.

Gisela knew she should ask. Knew she should explain why she sort of liked this Jude, because she knew what it was like to make mistake after mistake with family and not realize that they were mistakes until it was too late and not be able to fix them and-

She just didn't have the energy. The lump in her throat was too big.

They headed back. It was a relief to be out of the city, even if Gisela felt a slight disappointment that she hadn't had a chance to see if any of the Rune Knights that she had worked with were still there.

It didn't really matter. Whatever Mickey wanted to tell Gisela was weighing on her, Gisela could tell, and Gisela just wanted Mickey to have the whole thing over with.

Gisela almost wanted to cry when they made it back to Magnolia. Mickey had just gotten more and more tense on the way back, withdrawing into herself.

"I'll check in with the guild", Gisela offered as they crossed into Magnolia. "You can just get the house opened up and ready".

"I can't-".

"You did all the Rune Knight paperwork before, let me do this".

Mickey laughed and Gisela felt something inside of her unclench. "Right. Have fun", Mickey called as she turned away.

It only sounded slightly broken.

Doing the paperwork passed too quickly and not fast enough. Max asked her where Mickey was, Kianna too.

Gisela told them the truth, that Mickey had ditched her to do the paperwork for the duo.

The sympathy was nice and Gisela accepted it with what she hoped was enough contrition. She could just tell everyone, Gisela knew that,

She also knew that Mickey was upset and Gisela didn't know what her partner was okay with her saying.

Gisela was just proud of how she made it out of the guildhall paperwork done and nobody the wiser.

It was even nice to make the walk back and see the lights on. It was only once she got inside that the tension returned, tying knots in her stomach.

Mickey was sitting at the table, Pi-chan perched on the chair, still burning. There were cups of water already set out.

"Let me tell you the story of how I murdered my cousin".