"You're late." David informed Marcus when he walked through the door.

Marcus checked his watch, frowning. "School isn't even out yet." He disagreed. "I'm early."

"You didn't even go to school today." David reminded him. "Which, by the way, as your employer I can't condone."

"Wait a minute." Marcus said slowly. "Why aren't you in school?"

David's ears reddened slightly and he shrugged. "I didn't feel like going." He said dismissively.

"Then don't give me any shit for not going either." Marcus told him, happy to let it go at that. "I had… business to attend to. Kind of."

"Well, try not to let it happen again." David told him, just as happy to let the matter drop at that. "And would you mind changing your shirt? The one you're wearing has dirt all over it."

"Oh, yeah. No problem." Marcus said having temporarily forgotten that he had just gone rock climbing. "Where are they?"

"Back room." David jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "They're in a big blue crate. Can't miss it."

"Alright, be back in a flash." Marcus ducked into the back room and immediately stopped, frowning at what he saw. Stacked up around him were no less than a dozen blue crates, all of them identical. He glanced back towards the main area and shook his head at David though he knew the man couldn't see him. "What are the odds that all of these crates have shirts in them?"

Most of the crates held merchandise, mostly bracelets and other small knick-knacks, but he discovered that others actually had drink mixes in them. He was especially wary of them just in case it turned out that they were water based. He still hadn't worked out just what it was that would make him transform. He knew that water was a given, but he wasn't certain on anything else. The juice that Ondina poured on him by all accounts should have transformed him, but it didn't. Nonetheless he knew that he had to be on his guard at the café. One false move and he could accidentally reveal just what he had assured the others he would protect for them. He gave a soft sound of triumph when he opened the second to last crate and found a pile of shirts identical to the one that David had been wearing. Quickly searching out his size, Marcus pulled off the shirt he was wearing and folded it before setting it on top of one of the crates. He walked out of the back room just as he pulled on the shirt and realized instantly why David had not attended school that day. Clearly oblivious to the unexpected intrusion, David and Serena sat at a table staring dreamily into one another's eyes.

Marcus chuckled softly to himself as he went behind the counter and searched for a pair of disposable gloves. To his delight, he found such a pair and pulled them on. He wiped down the counter with a clean rag and hot water, keeping an eye on the lovebirds. When it became clear that they were too lost in their own little world to notice anyone other than each other, Marcus called over and said, "You know, according to legend a mermaid's kiss can prevent a man from drowning."

That snapped them out of their reverie. David's head snapped around, his face crimson. Marcus suspected that Serena was also crimson, but the woman had vanished the second Marcus spoke. "So that's why you didn't want to go to school today." Marcus said slyly, leaning on the counter with one arm. "Can't blame you."

David's mouth opened and closed several times like a fish out of water but no sound came forth.

Marcus raised an eyebrow, a slow grin spreading across his face. He liked David, he seemed to be a very friendly person. He wasn't entirely sure of Serena, but out of all the mermaids she struck him as the least likely to do something drastic. Marcus finished wiping off the counter with a flourish and tossed the rag into the sink. "I'm going to go get some fresh air." He told his boss. "Serena, you can stop being invisible by the way. I know you are there."

She either was too mortified by his intrusion to listen to him or had actually already left the café. Regardless, Marcus strolled out of the café and began to walk down the boardwalk. He made his way to the end of the pier and leaned on the wooden barrier. He smiled out at the open ocean, enjoying the sea breeze on his face. For a moment, he had a crazy idea to simply leap over the barrier and give his tail a test run. He had no idea what it would be like to swim through the sea as a merman, and indeed the idea appealed greatly to him. Even as a human he had loved the sea, often spending his breaks from school alone on his family's private island in the Caribbean. But the urge passed and Marcus gave a sad little sigh, wishing that he could actually go through with such an action. He wished dearly that he could, and in time he knew the temptation would prove too strong to resist, but for now he decided that swimming where the others could see him would be a costly mistake. Unless… He thought to himself. Marcus stuck his hands in his pockets and strolled away from the end of the pier, making his way behind the café and out of sight from anyone. He glanced around quickly before taking a deep breath and concentrating. Serena had made it look so easy, maybe it wasn't a very hard thing to do…

He focused on his hand first, urging it to disappear. It was just as easy as Serena made it look, much to Marcus's delight. His hand disappeared immediately and it took very little effort for Marcus to extend the effect to his entire body. He glanced down, looking for any lingering parts of him that had not been cloaked by his invisibility. But as far as he could tell there were so such outliers. And now to test it. Marcus thought to himself. He crept around the front of the café and walked up to the motion detectors. He frowned when he realized that they were rendered useless by his invisibility. He glanced around again before letting a single phase back into the visible spectrum. The motion detected sliding doors registered the digit and swung open smoothly. Marcus hid his finger again and stepped through just as the doors slid closed behind him. David and Serena had continued their gazing into each other's eyes and Marcus shook his head at them. He leaned against the counter, and gazed down at his invisible hands. Since he was figuring these things out alone, he wasn't entirely sure what the cost would be to using magic. He felt relatively good for the moment, but he had a sneaking suspicion that magic was not an infinite resource. He crept into the backroom, closing the door behind him very quietly. He sat down on a crate and sat there, hidden from the eyes of the world. He had been there for no more than fifteen minutes when he was very certain that magic did indeed have a cost. He was breathing hard as his hold on the spell wavered.

With a gasp, he became visible again unable to hold the spell any longer. He wasn't physically fatigued, not in the slightest, but he felt empty somehow. It was almost as though the spell had used some form of energy that Marcus didn't rely on very often. Magic. Marcus knew as he stood up. So there are rules to using it.