THE QUICKSILVER KIDS

...

Summer looked around the room with a subdued curiosity with her hands clasped in her lap. She rolled her ankle round and round with her toe touching the ground, her shy personality so glaring that Mercury almost didn't want to look at her. What do you even do in a situation like this? He's not a father. Well, not now, but in the future he supposes, even if he still doesn't completely buy it, and she considers him as her father, despite his age.

Maybe they're all just playing a practical joke on him. He didn't know which one was worse.

"So…" He began, noting how Summer perked up but still held some unease in her eyes. He supposed he could understand why. "What do you kids like to do in your day?"

"Oh, um… well, I'm not exactly—" Summer bit her lip. "I'm not exactly a normal kid by our current day society."

Mercury raised a brow when Summer didn't continue. He resisted sighing. Talking with her was like pulling teeth. Minus the blood and saliva that dripped onto him. He'll never understand why Marcus went with that torture tactic, it's way too damn messy. "What do you like then?" She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Mercury rolled his eyes. "Come on, Kid. Anything. You're killing me here."

"Well…" Summer squeezed her knees. "Do you— do you know any good weapon stores?"

…

…

…

Walking the streets with a petite, cloak-wearing girl didn't come across as odd to him, surprisingly. Hands stuffed in his pockets, Mercury kept his head forward and his eyes on a swivel. Cinder may live in luxury, but she, like most criminals, lived in the underbelly of Vale, where it wasn't that uncommon to be threatened with a flash of the knife in broad daylight by a desperate man. A glance at his company revealed how oblivious the girl was, looking up and everywhere as they walked.

"I don't think I've ever been in this part of Vale before," Summer noted. It was the first sentence she spoke in his presence without a stutter. "W-Wait, we are in Vale, right?"

Mercury bobbed his head as an answer. "It's a bit of a walk to get to the store."

"O-Okay… what should we talk about?"

Annoyance zoomed up his throat in the form of a flippant remark, "I don't know, whenever I ask you something you turn into a stuttering mess."

Summer's face turned cherry red. She twisted her arms together and clasped her hands in what must have been an uncomfortable position and ducked her head to hide her face. Emerald's words rung through his head, and a heavy feeling dropped on his stomach. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Really? He was feeling guilt now?

Okay, question. What about… "Why'd you keep your mom's maiden name— or, her last name?" He paused as Summer peeked up at him. "Are— Are we married? Your mother and I."

Summer giggled. "Yeah, you and Momma are married. And um, you and Momma decided I should keep her name."

He furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"Well, Momma's Mom, my Grandma, her name was Summer, but she died when Momma was little. She was really close to her, and misses her a lot. So, after Pearl was born, Dad— um, I mean, you, told Momma that the next girl they have is gonna be named after her." Summer put up her hands. "And here I am."

He clenched his jaw at the mention of Pearl. "So… your sister…"

"Momma suggested the name," Summer said. "She knew you loved your mom a lot, and thought it was only right."

Mercury didn't bother to try and find a reply to that. The lump in his throat wouldn't even let him swallow. He told someone about Mom? He wouldn't do that. Even Emerald didn't know about that. But she was the one that brought her up.

"I've spent enough time with Jet to know that face." Summer poked at his arm. He flinched at the touch, an instinctive glare shot Summer's way. She recoiled. "S-S-Sorry! I didn't mean to—"

"Jet's a lot like me, huh?" Shut up about what just happened, Kid.

"Oh, yeah. He takes after Mom too, though," Summer digressed, more confident in her sentences when talking about her siblings. "Jet's really snarky and can be apathetic sometimes, but he's the best big brother I could ask for. He makes that face you made just now whenever he's thinking really hard about something." Summer bit her lip. "So, um, if you want to ask something… I-I'll try to answer. I doubt it'll mess up anything in the future."

"How much do you know about your Grandmother? My mother?" He asked before he could stop himself.

"Well, I don't know much. You always said Pearl looks a lot like her," Summer replied. Her foot caught on an uneven piece of concrete, and he found himself catching her elbow before she fell. She smiled sheepishly in thanks. "One time, when I was younger, I asked you why I never met her. You got really quiet, and Mom told me to go play with Jet. When I looked back, you were just… you looked so sad. And Mom was just hugging you." A light blush coated her cheeks. "I felt bad for making you sad, so I jumped in your lap and wouldn't let you go until you smiled." A pause. "You have that look."

The faraway look in his eyes vanished in an instant, and the shutters in his eyes snapped closed. He didn't like how this kid was reading him like a book. He didn't like how he allegedly went soft in the future and told someone about all this. He hoped it wasn't true. He hated it.

Once those DNA tests proved this kid wasn't his, she'd just be another kill in his count. He swore it to himself. He ignored the little voice in the back of his head begging to differ.

"So… um." Summer twisted her fingers together nervously. "I guess you heard that my semblance is partly to blame for us being here."

Mercury grunted. "Or all the reason."

"I swear, I didn't mean to send us back in time! My semblance has nothing to do with time dilation, not like your semblance!" Summer claimed. Christ, this kid knew his semblance too? Great. "My semblance is sort of like my great aunt's. I can open portals around the immediate area to go through. Like teleporting!" She chirped. "I've tried to go farther, but it's difficult to do. The most I can do is open a portal to Jet or Mom. And it gives me the worst migraines imaginable."

Mercury frowned. "That's not enough to send the four of you back in time."

"That's what I'm saying! I'm no expert when it comes to Semblance Theory, but I think it was because Eirian was using her semblance. Or, or maybe because Jet was using his at the same time. I-I don't know yet, but I do know it wasn't entirely my fault!"

"So. Portals."

"Yeah. Kind of like the video game." Summer stopped walking, and Mercury slowed with her. She sliced her hand in a downward motion in front of them. A pulsating orb of white with a black tendrilled center appeared before them. White rose petals surrounded them, blooming from her white cloak. She looked up at him. "I'm not sure how exactly this relates to my personality, but it helps when avoiding large, area-of-effect attacks. Or Eirian when she decides to charge at me like a raging bull."

Summer then walked into the white portal like it was nothing, urging him to follow with a wave of her hand. He hesitated for a second, but eventually shrugged and walked through after her. He walked out an identical portal to see Summer at the edge of a rooftop. Once he walked through the portal, it dissipated with a loud, air pressurizing noise. She turned and smiled at him.

"I'm surprised you followed me!" She exclaimed, a giddy look on her face. "Back in my time, or forward, I guess, it took me weeks to convince Dad to walk through one!"

Mercury scoffed, but felt himself grinning. Just a bit. It was because she was being a little cute, and he was being a little generous, and that was that. "That's because I have less of a survival instinct at this moment." Immense sarcasm coated his tone.

Summer giggled. "Yeah, you're definitely my dad."

…

…

…

"Oh, this is my favorite weapons store!"

Summer wasted no time in running into the dust and weapons shop, From Dust 'Til Dawn. Her cloak was nearly trapped by the glass door, but Mercury caught the handle right before it was snagged. Sighing in exasperation, he sauntered in after her and just followed the fading white petals.

He found her drooling over weapons catalogs. A smirk slid onto his face as he lent his shoulder against the wall and crossed his arms. She didn't know which magazine to grab first, and her fingers just ended up fluttering over the shiny covers in a fruitless frenzy.

At his huff of a laugh, she turned red and pulled her hood up onto her head. "Uh, Mom takes me here all the time. Dad tags along too, sometimes. He, you, uh, he, always jokes that we're mirroring each other when we put our headphones in and just… flip open a magazine and start reading. It's silly, but… I like it."

Mercury nodded. It was slow and exaggerated and drawn out as he thought. "Weapons geek, huh?"

Summer smiled proudly. "Oh yeah! Designed my own weapon too. I mean, it's not as impressive as Mom's, but—" She pulled out a bulky, white and grey metal contraption that expanded into a mace with a rotating dust chamber in the center of the handle. "It's just a mace, but, uh, if I hit this button—" She thumbed the button underneath the rotating dust chamber and flicked her arm out. The mace detached from the handle and swung by a silver chain. "It turns into a flail! And, um, when in mace form, if I pull the trigger here—" She tapped the red trigger on the other side of the handle, easily accessible. "The mace part flies off towards whoever I was aiming at." She drew her cloak back to reveal the multiple mace-heads on her belt. "And I have extras! I call it Summer Inferno, since I mostly just use fire dust."

The smile that crawled on his face was unconscious, but once he realized what he was doing, he decided to keep it there. "Pretty cool. And the pistol?"

"Oh, this thing?" Summer placed Summer Inferno on her back and pulled the simple, black-handled pistol from its holster. "This is something Uncle Scarlet gave to me in case of emergencies. He has something similar, but his has a handle that's also a hook that he can grab stuff with! I don't use it much, but it packs a punch."

Mercury frowned at that, and pushed off the wall to approach her. "What types of dust do you use for this?"

"Oh, well, I just, um," Summer stammered as Mercury took the pistol from her hands. He held it up and looked down the barrel. Should have decent aim. Not great, but not horrible. "I use regular caliber. No dust infusion."

"That's your first mistake there," Mercury said, weighing the weapon in the palm of his hand. Good balance. Very good craftsmanship. "One thing about weapons: the more of a punch, the more result you get from dust. You want to kill or immobilize with this thing?"

"Uh, um, kill Grimm, immobilize people?"

Mercury chuckled, and ruffled Summer's hair. "Then you might as well have a revolving chamber on this, too. It may look a little weird on a flintlock, but it'll work."

He went around the store, looking at the modifications available and sizing them with the pistol. Summer trailed behind with intense curiosity. He picked out a dual-chamber modification, silver, that was shaped like an infinity sign.

"This will do. Holds six rounds in each chamber, twelve total." He popped open the chamber. "And it's not like a revolver. This type of chamber takes out the entire cycling mechanism." He tilted the chamber, and two circles fell out, devoid of bullets. "Buy dust rounds in this packaging, it'll be easier to reload and easier to deal with whoever is giving you grief. If you want to immobilize, go for ice rounds. Should freeze 'em up, easy. And for Grimm? Go fire. Or gravity dust, but it might knock you back too."

"Oh, wow, I didn't think of that. I think I'll do that when I get back!"

Mercury handed the two items, the pistol and modification, to Summer. He fished in his pocket and retrieved his wallet and pulled out a lump of lien, slapping it in her other hand. "Go nuts."

"R-Really?!" Summer squealed, staring in awe at the lien in her hand. She impulsively jumped at Mercury and wound her arms around him, squeezing tight. "Thank you, thank you so much, Dad!"

She let go and ran to the front desk, shaking with excitement. Mercury had a smile frozen on his face. Dad. Oh Oum, that— that was a total dad thing to do. He just acted like her dad.

He scowled. He wasn't a damn dad. Once the DNA results come back, it'll show them all. After all, him? Father material? Uh-uh. He wasn't one to settle down, let alone raise four damn kids.

But something about her trotting back towards him with her purchase in a nicely packaged white tote bag made his scowl go away. His lien spent, her weapons stored away, her smile bright and loving and aimed towards him—

Oum. Oum he needed air.

"How 'bout you take another look at the magazines?" Mercury proposed. Summer didn't even notice his discomfort. She just bobbed her head in agreement.

"Okay! Thanks again, I can't wait to use it!"

She dashed off to the magazines, and he could finally feel his lungs again. They screamed for air, and he answered their demand with a huge intake of it. Dammit, what was going on with him? She was just a little brat. A little brat that called him Dad…

Stop it!

The Shopkeeper eyed him with what he labeled as pedestrian pity-concern. He ignored it, eyed one of the red chairs by the entrance, and parked in one. Hands clasped, forehead pressed on hands. Focus. Calm. Focus.

So what, he bought a weapon mod for a kid. A kid who was only two years his junior and claimed to be family, but a kid nonetheless. Nothing more to it. He wanted to try the nice thing out for once, that's it. That's it.

Ignore the surroundings. Just focus. Ignore the hum of dust machines, the flip of magazine pages. The chime of the bell opening. Focus. You're fine, you're reading into it too much. Or, or taking it too literal. Hell, I don't know.

"Um, sir? Are you okay?"

Mercury snorted. Of course someone had to be all concerned when he was having a crisis over his future fatherhood. Wait— not fatherhood. He wasn't a father. Shit.

He lifted his head to tell the person off, but stopped when he spotted silver eyes. Only, all the white and grey was replaced by red, and the top was replaced by a corset with sleeves. And instead of the black rose pin on her cloak, a silver rose pin was on her belt.

"How did you change so fast?" Mercury took in the red-dipped hair instead of silver. "And you dyed your hair?"

"Um, what? Do you have a fever?" A pale hand felt at his forehead. What the hell? "We've never met before. I just came in and you were hunched over." She flashed a bright smile. "But anyway, you seem okay. I'm Ruby."

"…What?" Mercury parroted her earlier phrase. "Am I losing my mind?"

The suddenly red-colored Summer-who-says-her-name-is-Ruby laughed. "Seems like it, friend. What's your name? I told you mine."

Mercury blinked. What the… you know what. Just play along. "It's Mercury."

"Nice to meet you," She replied cordially. "I haven't seen you around here before. I'm a regular, so I normally know everyone. Guess I'll have to add your face to the list."

"Riiiight," Mercury drawled, only to freeze at the sight he saw over Summer-Ruby's shoulder. There was Summer, frozen, staring at Summer-Ruby's back with a magazine crumpled in her hands. Oh. Oh.

"Uh, roses!" Mercury blurted out when Ruby went to turn around to see what he was staring at. Her head whipped back to him with an expectant expression. "I see you like roses." He pointed to her pin.

"Oh, yeah. Actually, it's sort of like a family emblem. Last name is Rose." She cocked her head. "Anyways, what brings you here, Mercury?"

Summer slunk behind a wall of shelves. Mercury forced himself to stay focused on Ruby, who he kind of did, kind of didn't want to know the significance of. In the back of his mind, he probably knew, but his conscious brain was a great blocker for all emotional conflict. "Just browsing. I like to see the featured weapons sometimes."

"Really? So do I!" Ruby exclaimed. "I like the student weapon showcases. You know, last issue they featured my weapon. I was so excited to see it on the front page!"

He raised his brows. "Really? April's issue, Junior Huntsmen Monthly?"

"Yup! That big ol' sniper-scythe is my pride and joy!" Ruby said proudly, hands balled on her hips. "Crescent Rose."

"Isn't that a bit big for you?"

"H-Hey! I'm more than just skin and bones!" Ruby said defiantly. "Well, in reality, I used ultralight materials and the scythe portion needs sharpening daily because of how thin the blade is. It makes it practically weightless. Can cut through anything though!"

Just then, Summer sped through the front door, nothing but a blur of white and grey. Ruby blinked.

"Well, it was nice meeting you." Mercury stood abruptly. When he looked down at her expression, she seemed almost disappointed. He tried to hide his inner panic.

"Oh, going so soon? Okay. But, next time I see you around here, I need to know a bit about those boots of yours!" Ruby bubbled up quick after the small, disappointed frown. "You hid the firing mechanisms so well, I barely caught it!"

Wait, she noticed his boots? Mercury shifted one foot. Good eye. He wanted to cut her down for a second, tell her he wasn't coming back, but… she was a carbon copy of Summer, just with a different color palette. It was freaky. "Looking forward to it, Ruby."

He maintained his cool as he walked out the door. As he waved back at the red-cloaked girl. As he crossed the street and searched for white rose petals. Once he turned the corner, a portal appeared before him. Before he could step through, Summer jumped out right in front of him, tote bag and all.

"Um, h-hi—"

"Did I just have a chat with my future wife and mother of my children?" It came out in a burst of wind.

"W-Well… yeah."

Mercury blinked, as if he didn't expect that response, but he fully knew it was coming to punch him square in the gut. It knocked the breath out of him and made his mind turn to soup. Someone was already stirring it with a wooden spoon, leaving him without coherent thought.

"Uh, I guess, me being here changed the timeline a bit," Summer admitted. "You two didn't meet that way before."

"Okay." Mercury nodded his head slow, but his eyes just looked lost. "Okay."

Summer bit her lip. He was so out of it, she didn't think he'd notice. She would her arm through his and let herself selfishly bask in the closeness of her teenage father. "Can we go home?"

"Sure… sure."

…

…

…

They reached Cinder's apartment without any incidents. Summer had eventually let go of Dad's arm so she could walk ahead, let him think, process. It felt weird, but weird was a part of her family. She could take it.

Once Summer reached the apartment complex, Dad yanked her to his side. Now that she wasn't as focused on trying to start conversation, she noticed the people in the shadows eyeing her. The dark alleys and the overflowing trash cans. This was the bad side of Vale. The seedy side. Dad draped his arm over her just how Dad from the future would have, and she felt like crying. She buried herself into his side, knowing it wasn't because he thought he was her dad, but just to make the stares get less piercing. She took the warmth anyway, even though it hurt.

The moment they walked through the threshold of Cinder's apartment, he released her. She stayed in his bubble. She didn't want to let him go just yet. His eyes looked hollow, vacant. Running into Mom was the most horrible thing that could have happened, because it was just more proof that he was a dad.

Summer pushed out a shaky sigh. "Um, Dad?"

Robotically, he looked at her. "Dove?"

She reeled back. The nickname, it was… focus! Summer cleared her throat. "Thanks for taking me out. I-I had fun. An-And…" She couldn't hold back. She pushed forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, feet dangling off the ground. One of his hands went to her lower back to stabilize her. "I-I missed you. I mean, I know, you aren't dead or anything in the future, but uh, y-you've been gone, on a mission, and uh, it was really nice to spend the evening with you and I gotta go find Jet and stuff so I'll see you later bye!"

She dashed off, down the golden hall lined with red carpet, and disappeared around the bend. Toward the rooms where all the Black-Rose siblings were staying. Oum, what was he thinking? Could they really be…?

He called her Dove. It just sort of came to him. She was just so naïve and pure and she had a white cloak that spread out like wings when the wind tousled it around. The look on her face told him she heard that name before. Oum.

"What was that?"

A swift turn. Emerald was standing behind him with an amused grin. The hollow look on his face dampened her mood. A silent brow was raised in question as she poured a gulp of cranberry juice into her mouth.

"I just met my wife."

Dark red spurted from her mouth and he was showered in spit-ridden cranberry juice.

...

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Summer and Mercury bonding time! I want to dedicate one chapter to each kiddo to establish I dynamic. I'm thinking maybe Jet next...

wolfboy . wxlf: Oh yay! I'm glad this caught your interest! I'll do my best :)

Bunny Cop: Oh my god, I love your profile picture XD! Ah, time travel is a funky thing, huh? I'm glad you're liking it so far!

Commander Indrick Boreale: Haha, glad you're enjoy it, Commander! It's a nice relief to write something light compared to Wilted!

Blu3 Fir3: Ah, I'm sure Mercury will come around and protect his little ones if it comes to that! Thanks for reading :)

Guest: Thank you!

Envoy of Torrask: Mercury is such an awkward bean!

And we spotted a wild Ruby in her natural habitat! Astounding! Thanks to all that faved, followed, and reviewed, your feedback helps a lot :)

Happy writing to all! Lonessa out.