"I'll see what I can do, ebi."

Mercury wasn't sure what he was expecting. He knew the Twelve Zodiacs vaguely in the astronomical sense – they were star formations first and foremost – and he knew that Celestial Spirits weren't necessarily a direct representation of what they embodied. The ones that he'd seen so far were all human in shape.

So was Cancer, but…

Wasn't he a little too human?

There wasn't a single part of him that Mercury could look at and say, 'Yeah, this guy's not what he seems to be.' Even a detailed look-over revealed Cancer to just… be human. Even if he was technically a crab.

Honestly, Mercury was the slightest bit jealous. Just a little bit, though.

As he sat down in the chair, though, he realized that Cancer was every bit the gentleman that he appeared to be. The Celestial Spirit was delicate with his touches, always telling Mercury when and how he was going to touch while cutting his hair. It was more comforting than he thought it could be.

Maybe he wasn't that messed up by everything that had happened. Maybe, just maybe , he could move past the events without having to dwell on them.

The entire process took longer than he thought, but Mercury was surprisingly satisfied with the result. He'd never be getting his long hair back – at least, not for a significant amount of time – and yet he found himself not averting his eyes when he looked at the short, slightly ruffled look that Cancer had done for him. In fact, it seemed like parts of his hair had been extended. There used to be a small section on the base of his neck that had been entirely shaved, and yet there was now hair there to match the rest.

He wondered how that worked, but decided it was probably better for his sanity to not dwell on it for long. Celestial Spirits were odd creatures, after all. He'd probably never get a straight answer out of them.

"Oh, Merc!" Evergreen cried when he walked into the guild hall minutes after giving a respectful 'thank you' to Cancer. "I never thought I'd see another hairstyle look so natural on you. I thought your looks were ruined!"

"Is my hair all that matters when it comes to my appearance?" Mercury asked cynically.

"Well, no, but it certainly helps. How else are you supposed to attract someone to stay by your side?"

"... What are you insinuating?"

Evergreen's lips twisted into a smile that was neither happy nor malicious, which in itself was more worrying than if it had been the latter. She didn't elaborate. The look on her face told Mercury she never would, so he let it go, turning back to the rest of the Thunder God Tribe.

"How's it look?" He asked.

"What, were you trying to copy my style?!" Bixlow proclaimed. Behind him, his Tikis repeated, 'Copy!' and 'Style!" like a personal mantra.

… It went without saying that Mercury's hair didn't look anything like Bixlow's, but the number of people who'd actually seen Bixlow's hair could be counted on one hand, and all four of them were standing right in front of Mercury.

"It looks good," said Fried. He was the only one who had a neutral tone.

Laxus didn't say anything at all; he was too busy arguing with Natsu over something asinine, as usual. Mercury looked up to see his fists wrapped in pink hair as though he was trying to tear it from the boy's head while Natsu's fists beat against his chest.

"When is he going to learn…" Mercury trailed off. The answer was obvious – never. Dragon Slayers fighting was like a river flowing downstream; entirely natural, and you'd have to be a fool to try to stop it.

"Oh, is Cancer done?" Lucy asked upon seeing that Mercury had come out of one of the spare meeting rooms where her spirit had set up shop, so to speak. "It looks really good! You can always count on Cancer to get the job done!"

"What is this, a personal advertisement?"

"Only if you're going to be using his services frequently," Lucy declared with a wink.

"He won't be," Evergreen interrupted, "because I'm not letting anyone else damage his wonderful hair ever again. I'll miss his long, smooth ponytail, but this one's almost as good."

"Are you protecting me or just my hair?" Mercury demanded with an exaggerated eye roll. His question went unanswered as Cancer returned, drawing both girls' attention away.

… Evergreen appeared strangely interested in the Celestial Crab. Perhaps a result of both loving hair?

But didn't she already have Elfman to cling to?

"Lucy, ebi," Cancer said, approaching his master, "I have something to speak to you about. Ebi."

"Cancer? What's wrong? I said you could go back to the Celestial Spirit Realm when you were done."

"I have something to say before I go back, ebi. It's regarding him. Ebi."

To everyone's surprise, Cancer's finger was pointed right at Mercury. Even Lucy was surprised, staring between her Spirit and the blue-haired man that he was staring at.

"Me?"

" Him ?"

"Mercury!" Ah, there was Happy, joining in on conversations he had no context for. Mercury was going to push the cat away, but Lucy beat him to it, slamming her elbow into his head. Her rage had apparently been quite pent up while on their job, because the hit was so hard that Happy was momentarily stunned.

And as usual, everyone ignored him.

"Cancer, are you talking about the thing that Loke said?" Lucy asked.

That piqued Mercury's interest – he'd certainly never been clued in on anything that their former (current?) guildmate had said about him.

"It is likely, ebi."

"Wait, don't leave me out of the loop," Mercury demanded. "What're you two talking about?"

Cancer wore sunglasses, so the water mage couldn't tell where he was looking. Lucy, on the other hand, had a somewhat shifty gaze, looking from her Spirit to Mercury and then to the rest of the Thunder God Tribe.

"It was just something he mentioned the other day…" she trailed off. "He said it wasn't a big deal, though, and that I should wait until you recovered more to bring it up."

"I believe Mercury is feeling fine, Miss Lucy," Fried said, stepping forward. "He's been able to walk around more frequently, and of the last four meals he's eaten, he's been able to keep down –"

" Hey," Mercury hissed, tugging on Fried's sleeve, "she doesn't need the specifics." Did a girl care to know how many times he'd thrown up? No. (Then again, did anyone? )

Still, Lucy hesitated. Natsu was drawn in by this, and Laxus soon followed when he sensed that the air had gone somewhat bad.

"What's going on?" The elder dragon slayer asked.

Natsu perked up, going straight to Lucy's side. "These guys botherin' you, Lucy?" He ignored the fallen Happy, who was crying animatedly, and put a hand on her shoulder.

Oh, hell. This conversation was just going to turn into another argument, Mercury was sure of it. His own stress was rapidly increasing as the number of people nearby did. Being surrounded by so many people made everyone else look so big, and himself feel incredibly small, and with the way that they were blocking out the lights, it felt too dark, and –

"Let's take this conversation elsewhere," Fried suggested calmly. The comment may have been made for the group, but his eyes were solely on Mercury.

Was he too obvious about his distress, or was Fried just getting better at reading him? Mercury wasn't sure. The water mage bit his tongue, grasping it between his molars, and nodded. "Let's go outside," he said.

"You sure?" Laxus asked. He was still a worrywart – perhaps even more so than normal.

"Oh, come on. I can go outside for a couple of minutes. I'm not going to go blind ." If it came to it, he'd just close his eyes. Plus, the inside of the building was beginning to feel cramped and dreary; Mercury hadn't felt the touch of fresh air in far too long to remain cooped up inside.

Quickly, the group made their way outside. It was clear who the two parties were; the Thunder God Tribe remained clumped together as usual, remaining mostly quiet, while half of Team Natsu led the way as they chattered.

Well, Happy chattered. Lucy looked guilty, and Natsu looked oddly contemplative. Mercury expected him to be threatening the rest of them for Lucy's poor mood already, but maybe Natsu understood the situation a lot better than he gave him credit for.

As expected, the guild's doors led to something incredibly bright. It seared Mercury's eyelids like fire, and for a second, he took a step back, shading his face from the sun. Fortunately, the sunglasses were doing their job well. He wasn't nearly as overwhelmed as he thought he'd be. The sensation of sun on his skin was almost painful, but compared to the aching coldness that he had known for a long time at this point, this felt more like the gentle embrace of a warm blanket instead.

When the evening breeze tickled his face, he knew he'd be fine.

Instead of going to the front of the guild, the group made their way to the back, which contained a backyard garden of sorts. People hardly ever took advantage of the calm space. It felt too serene for most of the chaotic guild members, like something that they absolutely didn't want to disturb, so it was mostly reserved for the more bookish members, like Laki and Levy. Mercury himself had only been out here a handful of times.

"Okay," he said, trying to start the conversation, "what did Loke say about me?"

"Loke?" Laxus repeated.

"You know, the guy who was a Celestial Spirit this whole time? The womanizer?" Bixlow said while wagging his finger in front of Laxus's face as though he should know better.

"I know who he is," Laxus grumbled, "I'm just confused why he's being brought up."

"He was here a week or so ago. I remember seeing him when I was trying to get up and walk around for the first time," Mercury explained. He looked to Lucy for confirmation, who nodded, then waited for her to continue the story.

"Well," she said, hesitant. She looked towards Cancer, who nodded. Natsu put his hand on her shoulder, and she took a deep breath, looking right at Mercury. "Celestial Spirits aren't like humans. They can see things that we can't see and feel things that we can't feel because they're more connected with the laws of the universe, or something like that."

Cancer nodded. "Humans do not appear as humans to us, per say, ebi. You are more akin to flames burning brightly, which is how we can gather more information about humans before meeting them. The quality of a human flame is like a link to their personality, ebi."

It sounded kind of like how Mercury could sense magic. While he "heard" it as sound, the Celestial Spirits could see it.

"And what Loke told me is that Mercury's 'flame' looks different than it used to. It's… dimming, like it's being drawn elsewhere."

Mercury stiffened, but… that's not too far off from what he already knew. That he was dying, and his magic power was slowly fading away.

"That sounds like what I see," Bixlow said. For once, his dolls were near silent. "Sort of."

"Like what you see?" the water mage repeated. He hadn't heard of this – then again, he'd also never asked.

The man nodded, putting his hand on his chin. He flicked his visor up to reveal the wild green eyes that blazed as he stared directly at Mercury. "I see 'em as more of a solid. To me, it looks like a jigsaw, but I kinda see what you're saying, Lucy."

"Actually, it was Cancer who –"

"Yeah, yeah. Cancer, Crabser, whatever," Bixlow said, ignoring her. "It's more like a puzzle, except the corner pieces are missing and it's falling apart. It's also surprisingly rooted to his body!"

"You say that like you've tried to do something with it before…" Mercury muttered. When Bixlow didn't respond, he knew the man had, and by the dull look on Laxus and the other's faces, they weren't surprised. "... Really? "

Bixlow giggled. Giggled.

Mercury wanted to slap a hand to his face.

"Is that all you wanted to say, Cancer?" Lucy asked her spirit, who nodded. He crossed his arms before giving one long, withering look at Mercury.

"You should be careful, ebi. I'm saying this because you're Lucy's friend, but you should be careful about messing around with life and death. Ebi."

Just like that, Cancer disappeared in a flourish of magic that felt like ringing bells.

… Be careful of messing around with life and death?

"What's that about?" Laxus asked.

"Not quite sure," Mercury said truthfully. "I don't think I've ever messed around with that kind of thing."

"Maybe it's not a warning for you to avoid, but something that you should be wary of in the future," Fried mused.

Maybe it was. Maybe someone was going to try to mess with his life in the future? But Mercury didn't really have all that much life left in him, so he wasn't sure exactly how someone could mess with it.

"Er, I have one other message from Loke," Lucy said. Mercury felt himself go stiff again, but she quickly raised her hands in front of her face. "No, no, it's nothing serious like that. He just said that he understands what you're feeling and he's rooting for your recovery."

That was surprisingly nice of the Celestial Spirit. Mercury could only remember a handful of times interacting with him – under his guise as a human, of course – but appreciated the thought nonetheless.

"Oh, actually," Mercury thought of one thing he hadn't asked Lucy about. "This was quite a while ago, but do you remember when Phantom Lord attacked and I had to save you from Juvia?"

Lucy paled. "Yes."

"And you called Aquarius… and she said some stuff…"

"Oh. That ." She did not look particularly thrilled to recall that particular story.

Back when he had rescued Lucy in the alley, Aquarius had said, 'Don't you dare summon me with something like that ever again,' and Mercury hadn't thought about it since. It was only while thinking about what Loke said – that he looked different than he used to in the Spirit's eyes – that the memory of the event came back to him.

"Do you think she saw the same thing Loke saw?" Mercury asked.

"It's likely, but Loke acted like you used to look a lot better in his eyes. Aquarius might have just overreacted. She's kind of, um…"

"A bitch?" Bixlow happily supplied.

"A cunt," Evergreen suggested instead.

"A fish!" declared Happy.

For the first time, Natsu broke into a laugh – "Yeah, she sure is something!"

"... I think that she's going to drown me next time I call on her. Thanks, guys," Lucy said dejectedly.

Well, none of the descriptions were untrue. At least, Mercury thought they weren't. He'd only met the Spirit once, and she hadn't exactly been nice.

In fact, it was the only other time he had met a Celestial Spirit. Perhaps Lucy was right. Maybe whatever was happening to him truly wasn't that bad in the past. It would make sense – around the time that Phantom Lord had attacked, Mercury was certainly starting to feel the symptoms of it all, but it hadn't been particularly bad then.

"I guess the 'when' doesn't matter that much," Mercury said finally, "since we need a solution now."

Laxus nodded, crossing his arms as usual. "It's a start, at least. That's more than we've had for a month."

"You better figure it out quickly! I still need my Fantasia match with Merc," Natsu declared, and Lucy, as good at reading the situation as she was, slammed her fist into the fire dragon slayer's head. He fell to the ground, sprawled out. Even after a moment, Natsu didn't get up.

… Had she just knocked him out with a single punch?

"I think that's all the information I can provide," she said, looking apologetic. "I didn't mean to keep that kind of thing from you, but Loke said that it was better to wait."

"It's fine. I really appreciate it, actually, since this is more info than I would have gotten myself. And Laxus told me about how you helped track down Alchemist by talking with your dad's old guild, but I haven't had a chance to thank you yet," Mercury said, bowing his head.

"Oh, no, it's fine. I just did what I could to help, since it's what you would have done for us. I'll, um, get out of your hair now."

Lucy quickly departed, the atmosphere now far less tense than it had been while they were in the guild. Natsu was dragged behind her without a care. Mercury saw dirt clumping in his hair as she dragged him off by his feet, and for some reason, he didn't feel much pity. Their absence meant it was time to put the puzzle pieces that they had so luckily collected together in a way that made some sense… Since it was looking like 'some' sense was going to have to be satisfactory.

"Then let's go back to what Cancer and Bixlow said," Fried said. "I've often heard that the soul and magic power are directly related. What are the odds that what Bixlow and Celestial Spirits see are two different angles looking at the same thing?"

"Pretty likely," Mercury said. "That's what most of the books in the guild's library say, anyway."

"You actually read those things?" Laxus asked incredulously.

"Of course. What else was I supposed to do when you ran off to perform time travel shenanigans without me?"

"Get out? Touch grass? Pick up a hobby?"

"I learned how to use a sword."

"That's not –"

" Okay," Evergreen interjected. "Isn't that enough? Can't you boys go two minutes without bickering, please? We're trying to have a serious conversation here."

Mercury huffed. "Yes, mother." Unsurprisingly, Evergreen slapped him on the head in almost the exact same way that Lucy had done to Natsu moments earlier, except he didn't fall. Evergreen didn't have the strength to make it through his excessively thick skull.

… Or so Laxus likely would have said, if he wasn't dreading receiving the same treatment.

"To Fried's point, I think that both Bixlow and the Spirits are seeing the same thing. It would make sense," Mercury said, a hand clutched to his head to reduce the throbbing there. Evergreen did not hold back.

"So we have, 'a puzzle losing its pieces,' and 'a flame that's being siphoned.' The question is, what is doing the siphoning?" Evergreen summarized. "You'd have to be connected in some way to something else for it to be draining your soul, or whatever is happening, right?"

"Ah, I am."

"Huh?"

"I'm connected to something else," Mercury said. "I've mentioned it a couple of times."

Whether or not it was on the level of the "soul," or whatever esoteric concept that could be used to describe his relationship with that being, they were invariably connected by some force that was invisible to the eye. Invisible to most eyes, as it were.

"Your 'Mother'," Laxus supplied.

Mercury nodded. No matter how often he strayed from the ocean, she was always there, lingering in the back of his mind. The only time he had ever had some amount of silence between his own thoughts was when he was so far inland that her voice could physically not reach him – when he was trapped in that basement.

"Then… that's what's draining your magic?" Evergreen asked, confused.

"No, what's draining my magic is the strain of keeping my body running. It's Mother that provides that magic, I think. She's always sort of… there, " Mercury tapped his temple, right above his ear. "Being able to hear her is how I figured out how to hear magic."

"Wait, wait," Bixlow said, "souls can't just be connected like that. Not when you're two completely different individuals. It doesn't work like that."

And like a lightbulb went off in Mercury's head, everything started to make sense. Not a ton of sense, but enough sense that the puzzle pieces were at least in the right spot, just… not oriented in the correct direction.

"Maybe that's the point," he said.

Maybe they weren't individuals.

How exactly was it that Mercury and Mother were linked? It was something he'd sometimes considered just in case an opportunity came to sever that link, but was it something that could be done in the first place? How was it that, no matter how often he strayed from the ocean, it was always calling him back when he returned to Magnolia? How did it know when he was near? Why did it feel like it could react to his situation?

When he woke up in Magnolia three weeks ago, Mercury had been overwhelmed by the sheer noise of it all, but the sound wasn't exactly what he was used to. Rather than the quiet demand, the plea for him to return home, it was like the ocean was happy to see him. Relieved. Like it was saying, 'Oh, thank goodness you're back.'

Things would make more sense if Mercury considered it from the angle of, 'he and the ocean are far more strongly connected to each other than he'd ever thought.' There was no way to sever that link, because doing so was like breaking off the "piece" that was himself from the "whole."

"Bixlow, you said it's like there's pieces coming off of my soul, right?"

"Yeah?"

"I think it might be the other way around," Mercury said. "It's my soul that's tearing pieces off of something else. Off of her ."

.

.

.

In hindsight, everything felt pretty clear.

Why had he always been so terrified of returning home? The ocean was endless and deep, but it wasn't like the ocean itself had ever done something terrible to him. He hated the dark confines of the endless water and he hated the way it felt like Mother's presence thrummed in the air. He hated the thought that he might see his siblings.

But why was he instinctively afraid ?

During Fantasia, he had described it as a drug addict hitting their addiction after a long time in recovery, but that wasn't quite right. When he fought José of Phantom Lord, he had flooded the building, and it had felt so good. So fake because it was water made from his own magic, yet so blissful, like everything was right in the world. Like he was home.

Mercury knew that returning to the ocean would feel so good that he wouldn't be able to return to his life on the land. Every time he had gotten close and returned, he was given pain. The sensation like he needed to tear his own heart out of his chest had become familiar; it happened after Phantom Lord and after every time he tried to wring just a little bit more magic power out of the ocean, his chest screaming as though it were about to tear apart.

That, he thought, was his soul trying to escape from his body. His soul was trying to return to the waters it had originated from, to Mother, and yet by the time he lost his grip on it, there was no water for it to return to. It was the rebound that hurt.

The reason that he was afraid was because he didn't want those fragments he so desperately held to his chest to run off.

If he returned to the ocean, Mercury wasn't certain he would be himself anymore. He was sure it would strip him of his very being, those very fragments that had become "himself" torn away, drawn closer to the original.

Yes, in hindsight, things made perfect sense.

He and Mother were the same, and yet different. Mother was the whole, and he was the fragment; his experiences, his feelings, his dreams – his hopes, all had left their mark on the little fragment that was now called "Mercury," turning him into who he was. This tiny fragment had been so painstakingly sewn into his body that even Bixlow couldn't shift it with his dominion over souls.

When Cancer said, "messing around with life and death," it wasn't that Mercury was the one messing with it. It was Mother who had broken the natural law of the cycle of life and death. It was her who created life.

He had always known that Mother was, well… his mother. Maybe it had never been in the sense that humans used the word, but Mercury and all of his siblings had always been aware that Mother was their progenitor; all of their lives sprang forth from her. They were all the same – small fragments placed into bodies created by her.

What the hell did that mean?

Mercury couldn't wrap his mind around it no matter how long he wrestled with it. He laid on a couch, thinking. Planning. Trying to understand.

"I think you're going to have an aneurism," Laxus commented dryly. He looked about as amused as Natsu trying to read a history book.

In fact, the couch he was laying on belonged to the lightning dragon slayer himself. They were at his house because Mercury was tired of staying in the infirmary and he'd been given the okay by Wendy to start walking longer distances. Mercury didn't want to go back to his room at the guild nor his actual house – the door was still torn off from where Laxus had kicked it in, and everything of value had likely been stolen – so somehow that meant that he got to stay with Laxus.

Well, it was fine. If he'd stayed with Bixlow, he wouldn't have gotten any sleep – the man's sleeping habits were awful – and with Fried… Mercury had the feeling he'd be observed the whole night. Laxus would watch him, but he didn't have the attention span to really watch him. And, obviously , Evergreen's apartment was off limits. She might have considered Mercury the closest to "feminine" among their group of males, but she wasn't about to invite him in to stay overnight.

"I'm thinking."

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious. Didn't you say you were tired when you made me haul your ass all the way over here? Just go to sleep."

Mercury didn't have a retort for that. His energy had started running out about halfway from the guild to Laxus's house, and he'd felt a bit dizzy… so the man had taken half his weight and dragged him home. And bitched about it the whole way, as though it wasn't his idea that Mercury stay over at his house.

Laxus could certainly be a handful when he wanted to be.

But Mercury didn't want to sleep. He wanted to think. He wanted to figure all these things in his head out so that he didn't have to worry about them anymore. He wanted to put the pieces together so that he could start moving forward.

Slowly, quietly, he said, "I think I've got it mostly figured out."

"Got what figured out?" It was more of a sigh than a genuine question. Mercury knew that it wasn't that Laxus didn't care – he probably cared more than most of the other people involved in Mercury's life, if such a thing was possible. It's just that the more he got his hopes up, the more both of them would be disappointed.

"Myself," Mercury said, taking a breath, "I may have a solution."

That got Laxus's attention. He stood up straight from where he'd been leaning against the doorframe, taking a step towards the couch Mercury was occupying. "What do you mean by a solution? What type of solution?"

Mercury could sense the renewed urgency in his words. "It'll be Plan Z," he said, "for the last case scenario. I think it'll be risky."

"Risky in what way?" Knowing Laxus, his mind immediately went to the self-sacrifice heroics that Mercury tended to perform, but that wasn't it.

The only one who might have been at risk is Mercury himself, and he wouldn't be doing it for someone else. In fact, it was someone else who'd have to do something for him.

"Some part of me has always been terrified of going home. I thought it was because I was scared of having to see them again, but I'm realizing that it's because I'm scared that I'll lose myself. The ocean might rip all of 'me' away."

"But it's also the only way to recover, isn't it?"

Mercury sat up, struggling for a moment. His body was tired, and he'd soon be fading into sleep, but he wanted to get his thoughts out before they disappeared into his dreams.

"Yeah, that's the issue, and that's why it's Plan Z. Do you trust me?"

Laxus snorted, though he looked the faintest bit… uncomfortable. Like he thought the question was loaded. "Depends on what I'm trusting you with. Your track record is a bit…"

"Well, I trust you. Just like I trust Bix, Fried and Ever, and the rest of the guild, so if it comes down to it, I'll try returning. Just for a little bit. I trust you guys to remind me."

Laxus was silent.

"I'm leaving the choice up to you, Lax. If you think I'm going to die, you can –"

"You're not going to die."

"I don't want to die," Mercury agreed, "but I want this option out there just in case. Who knows what's going to happen? We still have to worry about that bastard from Alchemist as well as whatever bull the Magic Council might try to pull."

"It's not going to be an issue. Even if you can't fight, I'm strong enough for both of us, so don't even worry about it. No matter what happens I'll – we'll all protect you," Laxus said.

He said it with such determined confidence that Mercury knew what he said was the eventual outcome. They'd protect him, just as he'd tried to do to them for so long.

Mercury was more than willing to put his life in Laxus's hands.

"It's a last resort," he repeated, staring right at the dragon slayer with as intense eyes as he could muster.

A lot was said between the two without words; Mercury's trust in Laxus and Laxus's fear that Mercury would die thrummed in the air as though they were talking with their eyes alone. Both could understand what the other was thinking even without asking.

That was just the bond that the two had. Stronger than friends, they were brothers.

"Okay," Laxus said, accepting the trust that Mercury put in him. "But it's only if I say it's fine. No going off on your own again, alright?"

"Of course. My life will be in your hands," Mercury said with a smile that felt more genuine and less heavy than one he'd had in months.

.

.

.

Several days passed in the blink of an eye, simultaneously bringing them relief (in the form of a slow recovery) and intensity (in the form of an equally slow relapse). During that period, Mercury was in a pretty fragile state, but maybe that's just what came with the territory of having bones that weren't exactly bones and skin that wasn't exactly skin – he was quick to bleed in the parts of himself that were still normal, and people overreacted often about it.

"It's just a cut, man," he told whoever would listen. And it was – just a tiny, fingernail-length papercut on the underside of his pointer finger. Somehow, the page of his book had slid underneath the scales on his right hand and drawn blood, staining gray with red.

Laxus ignored him. "Where's Wendy?" he called down the stairs into the main hall. Before waiting for an answer, the dragon slayer grabbed Mercury by the wrist and tugged him to the bottom floor.

"Hey, hey, careful –" the water mage shouted as he nearly tumbled from the very top. Laxus had good intentions, but it was very clear he kept forgetting that Mercury wasn't in the shape to be doing quick movements – he seemed to be able to fall down just leaning on his leg wrong, let alone being pulled by a two hundred pound dragon slayer down a set of stairs he wasn't prepared for.

But they made it to the bottom.

Somehow.

Without breaking his neck.

The younger dragon slayer was at the bar with a cup of sweet tea in front of her. As usual, Carla accompanied her, a steaming cup of her own tea in front of her.

"Oh, Mister Laxus," Wendy said shyly. "What did you need?"

"Don't call me that. It makes me sound just as old as this guy is," Laxus scowled, turning from the man he'd dragged down the stairs to the young girl.

"Do you really need to call me 'old' in every sentence you say?" Mercury said dryly.

He was ignored. "Wendy, can you heal this guy's finger?"

He'd never say it out loud, but the dragon slayer should have mentioned how it worried him – Mercury's body would still heal on its own, albeit much more slowly than before, but every time it did, some other part of his body got worse. His fingers got slightly dustier, his cheek got darker, his chest became more numb…

It was obvious that his own natural healing was pulling magic power from elsewhere now.

"I said it's fine, Lax," Mercury whined, pulling his hand away.

"And I said it's not."

"It's my body, what the hell do you mean ' you said'?"

Carla cleared her throat. Mercury had to crane his neck to see her past the two dragon slayers, though he could tell she wasn't happy. "Will you boys stop arguing in front of Wendy? You're going to overwhelm her."

"No, Carla, it's okay, really," Wendy said. She spun around on her stool completely, ignoring her tea in favor of speaking to the two older men. "I'm just glad to see that Mister Mercury is having a good time again."

He flinched. Not at being called 'mister' – though that certainly felt out of place – but at the fact that someone had apparently noticed that he hadn't been doing so well as of late.

Sure, he was doing a lot better now that he was back home. That didn't mean he was doing well, though. There were… things that had been taken from him that he'd never get back, even if he was surrounded by people he cared for. Things had been given to him, too – Mercury was a bit skittish even when he knew there was no reason for it, and he'd become a lot more sensitive to people touching him, especially near his elbows or wrists.

And he was afraid of the dark. That was probably the most embarrassing thing that had come out of all of this, if you ignored the fact he was being waited on practically day and night.

Instead of voicing any of those thoughts, though, Mercury just said, "You don't have to call me 'mister,' either. I may be older than anyone here, but I'm still pretty young in the grand scheme of things."

Laxus snorted, "Aren't you the one who is always complaining about being mistaken for a human? You should act more like your age if you don't want that to happen."

"Whatever," the water mage scoffed. "I'm not taking this from someone who follows me to the bathroom."

"Hey, don't say that in a way that could be misconstrued –"

" Boys," Carla hissed. "I will not tolerate this behavior in front of Wendy."

Laxus and Mercury shared a look. Mercury debated whether he should laugh at the cat's pompous attitude, but eventually decided to do his best to hold it in – nothing good would come of aggravating her.

"I said it's okay, Carla. What did you two need me for?"

Only then did Laxus remember the whole reason he'd practically dragged Mercury down the stairs. "Oh, right, heal his finger, will you?"

"For fuck's sake, Lax –"

" Language!" Carla demanded – what, a thirteen year old had never heard the word 'fuck' before? Being around Gajeel as much as she was, she'd likely heard that and worse.

Ignoring her, Mercury continued, "You can't ask for a favor like that."

Laxus just gave him a little shrug.

"Don't worry about it," Wendy said with a smile. She seemed to be used to this sort of behavior. Then again, she generally worked with Natsu, Lucy, and Happy, so arguing was probably the norm for her. "What's wrong with your finger?"

"Just a little papercut. Laxus is overreacting."

"I'm not," the older dragon slayer protested. "I swear that you're so used to letting yourself get used as a pincushion that you've forgotten you're supposed to be limiting any damage. Who knows how much healing you've got left in you?"

Mercury let that hang in the air for a moment. Laxus wasn't wrong per say, but it wasn't about how much healing he was able to do; it was dependent on how much magic he was able to keep within his body, and that was what was dwindling closer to zero with every passing moment.

He'd let the comment about being a pincushion slide only because he knew Laxus was an asshole who didn't usually pay attention to what he was saying.

"Let me see it, please," Wendy said. Dutifully, he held out his right hand, pointing out the almost hidden cut.

If it were him seven years ago, or even five years ago, the cut would have been healed the moment it had been formed. Alas, his regenerative abilities had been pushed over the limit as a test subject, and they were now reduced to less than half of their original speed – probably even slower. Still much faster than a human's, but definitely not enough to be damaged as much as he used to be.

The cut was just as tiny as it had been when he'd gotten it. Much too small for Laxus to be making such a big deal out of.

Wendy's hands gave off a small, light blue glow. Within seconds, the wound had healed, leaving nothing behind but an itching sensation.

"Wow," was all Mercury could say. He brought the finger in front of his eyes to see that even the blood had already faded.

"Still don't understand how you got cut with so many damn scales," Laxus commented.

" I still don't understand how you're still so obnoxious." The tension between the two men grew, becoming almost as electric as the dragon slayer's fizzling magic.

Wendy giggled, "I've never seen Laxus as relaxed as he is with you."

Mercury's vision still wasn't at one-hundred-percent, but he was almost certain that was a blush on Laxus's face.

"Maybe so," he said with a laugh. "This guy usually looks like he's just eaten something sour, doesn't he?"

"I do not."

"You shouldn't lie to children, Laxus, didn't your grandfather teach you that?"

" No. All he taught me was how to drink alcohol without getting obnoxiously drunk like he does."

It was Mercury's turn to laugh, and Wendy joined him. Sitting side by side, they could almost be mistaken as siblings – if it was possible for one sibling to be half scaled and the other a completely ordinary human.

Well, a mostly ordinary human. Dragon slayers were in their own class.

"Still, I'm surprised to see that your magic works so well on me," Mercury said once he'd successfully gotten Laxus to stop shooting daggers at him. "I didn't think it would."

"Hmph. As if Wendy's magic wouldn't work on you just because you've got a few scales on you," Carla huffed. She held Wendy in very high regard.

"Well, there's a lot of magic that doesn't work on me because of these scales, so I think it's more than reasonable to be surprised," Mercury explained, getting uncharacteristically annoyed with the cat's banter. "Usually, magic that affects me directly just… doesn't work."

Laxus nodded. He'd seen it enough times first-hand to not doubt Mercury, though he'd also seen the opposite happen enough, too.

"It's probably because I have to tailor my magic to anyone I use it on," Wendy said. "It won't work if I just use my magic in its, um, natural form."

"You… change your magic to fit whoever you use it on? Like, change the flow and all that? Match wavelengths?"

"Yep!"

Mercury took a glance at Laxus to see if he'd picked up on how monumental that was. He hadn't, of course, because the older dragon slayer was more interested in starting an argument with Carla than listening to Wendy.

"That's kind of amazing, you know?"

"Is it?"

"Yeah – if you're having to fit your magic to everyone else's on the fly, that's pretty crazy."

She put a finger to her mouth and tilted her head. "It's really not that hard. Natsu's easy because he feels like Grandeeney – Gajeel too, but the only time I got to use magic on him was in Edolas – so it's really only… everyone else that takes a second for me to get used to."

A second? Hyperbole or not, that wasn't just amazing – it was genius level. Adapting magic to match the flow of someone else's took time, if it was even achievable in the first place; Mercury himself could only match Laxus's wavelength to that degree, and the rest of the Thunder God Tribe was still out of his reach.

As a joke, he said, "If it's that easy, you should teach me how you do it so quickly." It would definitely make his own enchantments much more effective.

Carla broke off from her staring contest with Laxus to scoff, "As if –"

"If it's Mercury, I think you could probably do it."

"Huh?" Came the water mage's refined response.

"Huh?" Came Carla and Laxus's equally refined responses.

"Matching your magic is a lot like matching Natsu's. It was pretty easy," Wendy explained. "It kind of reminds me of Grandeeney, too."

"My magic reminds you of a dragon's," Mercury repeated.

"Yes."

Well, fuck.

Something in Mercury's head clicked. Honestly, it was kind of a wonder that the pieces hadn't fallen into place earlier; he'd had three dragon slayers tell him that he reminded him of their respective dragons in the first place, and here was Wendy saying that his magic felt similar to theirs too.

What were the odds that he, too, was related to a dragon in some way?

Things lined up a little too clearly for it to be anything else. Especially if the dragon-related people were going to keep telling him that he was familiar.

"Merc?" Laxus asked. He'd finally put his grudge against the white cat down, turning to look at his partner, who was squeezing his own cheeks as though to make sure he was awake.

"Shut up – I'm thinking."

Mercury himself was certainly not a dragon. At least, to his knowledge, there was no way he could be – scales were the only thing that might have linked him to one, and he didn't have anything else that "screamed" dragon. And for as much as he wanted to deny it, his siblings were the same as him. They weren't dragons, either.

But if it was his magic that screamed "dragon"...

He had never been able to figure out what she was. Siren, mermaid, nereid – nothing seemed to match up with the description that filled his mind when he thought of Mother. She was an indistinct being that seemed to have no form other than that of the ocean itself; even thinking about her was blurry. It had been so long since Mercury had done anything other than curse her name, after all, but he could remember the feeling of her magic in his body like it was his own.

If they were the same as Mercury thought, then it would make sense for that magic to feel the same as his own. He could think of no other explanation that incorporated all the information he'd learned over the past couple of days.

Mercury kept going back to the thought that he was reminiscent of a dragon in some way. He wrestled with it, trying to get a grasp on it, until the conclusion he had been searching for finally hit him.

"Oh, shit," he said out loud, and didn't even bother listening to Carla scold him for it. He was too busy staring straight at Laxus with wide eyes.

Oh shit. Oh shit .

It was no fucking wonder that the kids all thought he was like a dragon. He wasn't, but someone close to him – not just close , entwined with him – was.

What were the odds thatMotherwas a dragon?