It did, in fact, take the majority of Magic Council three days to clear out, leaving Mercury two options: rot at home and spend his time repeating turbulent dreams, or risk it to travel to the outskirts of the city to do a little bit of training.

Fortunately, or perhaps it was more unfortunate that it had even come to pass in the first place, Mercury had become aware of just how 'out of shape' he was.

He shouldn't have been beaten by Gajeel, even if he was out of practice. Even Natsu had been able to take on the iron dragon slayer – albeit with the help of Lucy, if the rumors were to be believed – and Mercury was certain he was stronger than the young fire dragon slayer. For him to have struggled…

Something was wrong with his body.

Mercury's senses were nowhere as sharp as they had been. He shouldn't have been taken by surprise, especially not in the dark, and he should have been able to handle Gajeel quite easily. Hell, he should have been able to hold out against Phantom's guildmaster at least a little more easily than he had.

Frankly, it was embarrassing. Where was the Mercury who could spar with Laxus and win? Where was the Mercury who was able to keep pressing forward, even if his own actions knocked him unconscious?

But there was nothing he could do about it now – no miracle illness that was making him this way, or no miracle cure that could fix it.

He could go ask Porlyusica…

No, actually, that was a horrible idea. Mercury shook his head, telling himself that he was just imagining things. It was fine. It didn't bother him at all.

When those dreadful three days of hiding from the Magic Council were up, Mercury returned to the guild in full spirits. He didn't prefer solitude – he was just used to it – so interacting with his guildmates usually put him in a much better mood than staying alone by himself. It also helped that it prevented him from being alone with echoing thoughts or cloudy memories that were brought up when he looked at himself in the mirror.

Mercury greeted his guildmates with a broad smile, glad to see that they looked to be healing gradually. He himself had already recovered fully – no more concussion (thank Mother), no more weird marks from getting spiralized by José, no more dent in his head, just a bit of dizziness when he stood up too quickly, some nausea here and there.

He felt as normal as he had expected to get back to.

He was moderately and more than pleasantly surprised to see that Levy, Jet, and Droy were present and moving around the busy work in progress, though the three all had obvious bandages wrapped around various parts of their bodies. He was filled with relief – his failure to subdue Gajeel hadn't led to the worst outcome.

Still, Mercury wasn't planning to let it happen again.

By the time he finally sauntered in, the guild hall's rubble had already been cleared away to reveal the floor and foundations, and the walls had already been knocked over, iron pillars gone and hopefully being melted down with the help of a certain hyperactive dragon slayer to be used in rebuilding. Master was there already, too, supersized and helping lean equally tall lumber beams together in a way that looked like it might form the basis for a guild hall. As Mercury walked up, he distinctly heard Makarov huff up a storm about "arts being freedom" and "perspective in arts being archaic," or something like that.

Mercury was amused by this, and glad he was just the "paperwork and logistics" guy. He'd never be able to plan out a guild hall, at least not without dedicating a couple years to architectural study or something.

"Hey, Mercury, you're late!" Hollered Natsu as soon as the pink-haired boy saw – or, more likely, smelled – him coming. "Where were you when we were gettin' interrogated by those Council guys?"

Mercury just gave him a small smile. "What do you mean? I was there too."

"No, you weren't!"

"Yes, I was."

"No, you weren't!"

"Are you sure about that?"

"... Maybe?" The fire dragon slayer trailed off, slightly confused. Natsu was easy to talk in circles because he had a hard time thinking about more than one thing at a time, something that Mercury often considered to be the dragon slayer's biggest flaw.

… Other than his rather obvious penchant for destruction, of course.

Considering himself to have won this round, Mercury turned away, allowing Erza to tell Natsu to pick up his pace with carrying lumber, only for Gray to start making fun of him, too. Gray claimed that he could carry even more than Natsu, and yet another asinine competition was born until Erza smacked them both a little too hard. Clearly, this had not been their first warning.

Not that Mercury minded much. Things were much better lively.

The attitude of the guild was a lot better than he'd expected; there weren't any heavy faces or bodies, even from those who were still wrapped in gauze and looked like they should still be in the hospital. Even Lucy, who Mercury knew felt incredibly guilty over the situation, was giving her friends bright, wide-eyed smiles that filled her whole face. Erza was quick to put the water mage to work, huffing about his absence though not pushing any further once they shared a knowing glance.

Things were looking okay.

Things were going to be okay.

Things were not okay.

Mercury fucked up. Really fucked up. Like, possibly the worst fuck-up of his whole time in the guild, if the astonished looks of his fellow guild members were anything to go by.

It had started at the guild's bar nearly a month after the "Phantom Lord" incident, as it had been termed, and just a week since the guild hall had been declared "finished." The guild members were finally able to return to being able to take jobs again, many having rushed out the moment that Master had declared it clear to do so.

In other words, no change for Mercury. He still lounged about most days, though on some days he found himself doing actual training when he could manage to fight off the still-persistent nausea for long enough to do so.

(Should he be worried about that?)

As usual, he found himself hunched over the bar like a towel draped over a hanger to dry; he felt similarly wet and laid out. The past couple of nights had been spent finishing the paperwork that had been left in the wake of the incident. Magic Council paperwork regarding the second sham trial that they had held for the guild (though this one had seemed a lot closer to 'real', judging by the additional forms he'd had to painstakingly fill out), budget requests for all the materials they'd purchased, and, already, most astonishingly, damage reports for Team Natsu's activities.

Please, Mother, give him the strength to not pulverize this boy.

The discussion had gone from Master's trial, to José (who had been stripped of his title, and his guild forced to disband), and then to Phantom Lord's wizards and the Element Four. Surprisingly, the majority of the major players in the incident had assembled at the bar to boast.

Natsu and his group, sans Erza, were lounging around, while Elfman and Mira were casually chatting to each other across the bar. The latter kept an ear out for the conversation going on among the younger members while listening to her brother brag about his contributions with a small smile.

Elfman regaled those at the bar with the tale of his win against Sol and regaining the use of his Beast Form to save his sister ("Sol wasn't manly at all! It only took one hit!"), while Natsu boasted about beating Totomaru. Mercury made a snarky comment about him taking too long, to which he allowed the boy to smack him with a flaming fist, too tired to move out of the way despite the threat of singed hair. The water mage then claimed to have not run into Aria, instead suggesting that the mage had fled at the first sign of potential interference because all he was good for was sneak attacks.

Mira raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. Elfman didn't call him out, either.

And then Gray had mentioned his new stalker, the remaining member of the Element Four, Juvia.

Juvia.

Where Mercury's fuck-up started.

Gray had pointed out that Juvia's hair was very similar to Mercury's, to which he agreed. From the brief interaction he'd had with her in the alleyway while saving Lucy, the female water mage's hair was just a few shades of blue darker than his own; the texture was also similar, though hers was short curly while his was long and straight. He'd said as much, eyes closed and still laying down with his cheek to the grain of the bar's wood.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she had some of our blood in her," he stated, referring once more to his 'brethren'. While his kind rarely – never, actually – interacted with land dwellers, save for his exiled self, the similarities were uncanny enough that he thought it might be a possibility. Even her affinity for water magic pointed towards a possible relation. "I think the blue runs pretty strong. We all had the same hair color, but I was pretty shocked when my kid had it even though her mom had–"

Mercury cut himself off. His eyes widened, looking for any indication that the others picked up on what he'd just said.

He told them too much.

Did he… smooth it over? Keep talking, ignoring the words that slipped out? Or should he just bolt right then and there?

No, it was too late for that. Mercury saw the recognition in Gray's eyes as the boy stood up, pointing an accusatory finger at the water mage. "You – what did you just say?"

"... My family all has the same hair color?" He tried weakly.

"No, the other thing – your kid? You have a child?" Gray's voice became louder than anything else in the guild hall. Anyone else who was trying to ignore them suddenly became very, very interested in their conversation. Mercury could have heard a pin drop as the entire side of the guild closest to the bar went silent.

Fuck.

Had he really just admitted to them that he had a kid?

"Uh," Mercury stalled, at a loss for words. He was in too deep now, it seemed – there was no denying it.

"That's totally manly!" Elfman exclaimed. He stood up, putting his hands on Mercury's shoulders, which had the water mage flinching away.

The younger Take Over mage didn't take the hint.

"Does that mean you've – you've –" Why the fuck was Natsu of all people now a stuttering mess, his face a mix of flaming embarrassment and curiosity? Did he even know what he was asking?

The three younger boys began to pepper him with questions, from why he'd never said anything, to when they could meet Mercury's child. He felt like he was being interrogated. Their words were relentless, somehow incredibly intruding and pointed as though they knew just how to poke holes in him.

"Boys," Mira chided, "you should probably give him a second to answer your questions if you want to know anything. If he wants to tell you." She put her hand on Elfman's shoulder, pushing him away.

Mercury shot her a thankful glance, but he wasn't expecting the curiosity burning in her eyes, too. Was he really just that much of an enigma that even Mira got excited about it?

Er, what questions was he supposed to be answering?

"But Mira, you can't say that you're not interested in this!" Gray shouted. His back was turned to the rest of the guild, and Mercury's was not, so he could see all the gazes that were now dragging into him. Everyone, apparently, was curious.

"I may be curious," Mira said, "but if Mercury's not willing to share, we shouldn't force him to."

Right, the unspoken Fairy Tail rule – don't ask questions that other people aren't willing to answer.

It wasn't like Mercury didn't want to answer. He didn't care what his guildmates thought or knew about him. Sure, in the past, he'd told a couple of people some things, and that had backfired in his face – his fallout with Laxus was still the most explosive of these backfires – but it wasn't like the rest of the guild was prone to doing that.

He knew they wouldn't mock him for it like Laxus had.

But at the same time, telling them meant remembering – and that was what he was hesitant to do. If Mercury could forget everything entirely, he would.

"Come on, Merc, please tell us?" Elfman pleaded. "That's like, totally badass to have a kid! I never thought you were manly until right now!"

Should Mercury be insulted by that…?

He sighed deeply, shoulders slumping. "Fine. But if you ask me anything weird, I reserve the right to waterboard you."

He looked right at Natsu. He didn't even flinch.

Maybe Mercury needed to come up with more creative threats soon.

"Boy or girl?" Gray asked.

"Girl."

"What's her name?"

"Marissa. After her mom's mom."

"How old is she?"

"Well, she would have been around seventy by now. A bit too old for any of you guys," Mercury said, sigh becoming even deeper somehow. Would Marissa have inherited his longevity, too?

He wished more than anything for her to have been around to answer that.

"Oh," Mira said, putting together what Mercury meant much faster than the three boys. "Are you alright?"

Was Mercury alright? Yeah, probably. Had he always been alright when thinking about her? Definitely not.

Did it still hurt?

Yeah.

"It's fine," he explained, "it's been about that long since it happened, too."

Marissa hadn't even been one year old.

His throat suddenly had a lump in it, which he pushed down in favor of a small smile. "I never really mentioned them because I didn't think it was interesting to talk about. It's not particularly a cheerful topic."

"But…" Gray trailed off. "You still look pretty sad about it."

Did he?

Mercury thought he was doing a perfectly fine job at pretending, but then again, even Laxus had been able to see through him sometimes, and that man had the emotional intelligence of a brick. The water mage had to slip up once in a while.

Even he was not perfect.

"Like I said, it's been, like, seventy years. I think I joined Fairy Tail sometime after that?" He muttered. The details were hazy, just like everything that happened during that time period.

"And Marissa's mother…?" Mira asked.

"Gone too. Same time, but you'll have to forgive me if I don't particularly want to talk about that right now," Mercury said, his heart thundering in his ears like the roar of a waterfall.

He really didn't feel up to talking about either of them.

But Mira nodded, somehow the only one listening with a shred of tact in her body.

"So, then, you really did have –" Gray slapped a hand over Natsu's mouth, sticking his fingers in the boy's mouth to stop him from continuing his sentence. It was disgusting; Mercury never thought Gray was the type to try that.

"I swear to god, Natsu," the Ice Make mage hissed, "if you do not shut up, I am not going to be responsible for what is going to happen to you."

"What? What did he say?" Elfman asked. Then, he tried to pry Gray's arms off of Natsu, and accidentally hit the dragon slayer in the nose, leading to…

Well, the usual.

"Hey, watch it, muscle brain!"

"If it weren't for Gray –"

"I don't want to see him get waterboarded right in front of me! At least wait until I leave, please!"

"I'm not taking requests from a guy who doesn't have pants on!"

"Wait, when did I –?"

Despite himself and his shitty mood, Mercury laughed.

He couldn't stay too down around these kids for long. Their antics were amusing. Uplifting, somehow, even though they gave him enough paperwork for him to want to bash his fingers underneath a rock.

"Sorry," Mira said, now that the boys were tumbling away from the bar, "I didn't mean to ask such an insensitive question."

"It's fine. I haven't been very forthcoming about my life before Fairy Tail, so it's a pretty normal question."

"That doesn't make it right. Especially if it's hurting you."

Again, Mercury had to wonder if he looked all that hurt. He didn't feel upset.

Did he?

"I've got to learn how to answer that kind of thing at some point," Mercury conceded. "I'd rather leave it in the past, but somehow it keeps coming back to bite me in some way."

"... coming back?" Mira asked.

He hummed, "The wound I showed you – it's from not long after that happened. I've," he swallowed, wondering if he should continue, "got another one, too. It's more like an actual wound, though. A scar."

He put his hands on his stomach, feeling the ridges of the skin there through the fabric of his shirt. Mercury's fists grew tight. Mira's eyes followed the motion. At first, they were clear, then flickered with something like comprehension and sympathy.

Sympathy was fine. As long as it wasn't pity, Mercury didn't care.

"I want to forget," he admitted, "but forgetting means I'll lose the good memories, too, so I'm forced to hold on to them."

Mira agreed with a small smile, "It's hard."

But then again, what in this world wasn't hard? Life was a series of struggles, and getting over the little ups and downs was what made it interesting.

Mercury couldn't imagine his long lifespan would be much fun if nothing ever went wrong.

"Okay," Gray said as he tabbed back into the conversation, "I've gotta ask. Did your wife know you weren't human? Like, if you," he flushed, "did that, she would have had to have known, right?"

Natsu's hands were frozen together with Elfman's, Mercury noted, leading both to slam the chunks of ice into whatever they could. There were new dents on the nearby tables and chairs from their desperation to free themselves.

What was with these kids and asking about Mercury's past sex life? He cleared his throat, a small blush rising to his own cheeks, too. "I don't see how she could have not. I was, uh, kind of scaly back then.

"Like a fish?" Proclaimed Happy as he floated above them lazily.

"Yes, like a fish," he admitted.

Mercury pulled aside the thin fabric of his high-necked tank top where his shoulder met his torso, revealing a few flimsy scales that keep popping up from his skin since the Phantom Lord incident with a grimace that he hoped no one caught. He'd been trying his best to not pull them out, though the habitual urge often won out over logic, so these had only just grown in over the past few days. They were dull and thin. Still, they were shining in the dim light of the guild, reflecting their glossy, gray surface.

Mercury was careful not to pull far enough that they could see the bruise-like marking over his heart. Showing him the fledgling scales and talking about his family was enough baring his soul for the night; he didn't have the energy to explain the rest to them.

Honestly, what had prompted him to do this at all in the first place? He wasn't normally one to talk about himself.

Several exclamations of wonder came from the onlookers, including some older members who were not being sly at all about looking over at the excitement, craning their necks to get a glimpse as well. Mercury felt, for a moment, like a museum exhibit, or perhaps a caged animal at a zoo with all these eyes on him.

"How many times do I have to say it? I'm not one of you freaks," he hissed playfully. Mercury shot a pretend glare at the people watching. "You wanna see the rest of it, too?

He feigned preparing to take off his shirt, only to be stopped by Lucy and Levy's affronted shrieks because how dare a man go topless in front of them. He'd never planned to remove it in the first place, but seeing the girls' reactions made him laugh again.

Gray squealed too though, making him the second largest hypocrite in the room – after Mercury, of course. The ice mage was still missing anything shy of his underwear.

"Nah, I believed 'ya," said Natsu suddenly. "You smell kinda like Igneel."

Well, that was news to him.

"What's Igneel smell like?" Merc inquired.

"Fish – gah!" Natsu cried out when Merc's knuckles slammed into the top of the boy's head. Another fight broke out as the boy's fist, alight, swung forward to smack Mercury in return, only to singe Gray's hair, who then froze the dragon slayer's body to the stool.

That usual chaos swarmed the guild. Something in it made Mercury's chest feel warm – and not in the same way that it usually did. This chaos wasn't just exciting for him; something about it was familiar and calming.

It was a normal day in Fairy Tail.