#mazut

I hope you like it! Thank you for the prompt!

“You look like shit.” 

He delivers the line in a bored deadpan, not like he was making any effort to reach out to her. Emerald’s first thought is that it’s typical him- he’s just making small talk because he’s bored. 

The reality of the matter was that she and Mercury hadn’t said anything to each other that wasn’t strictly work. Emerald didn’t want him around, and in the same way he didn’t want her around. The two of them were there for Cinder and both of them were more than well aware of that fact. 

However, being on the road constantly was taking its toll on them both, and they both knew that perfectly well. Emerald was exhausted, unable to settle herself enough for sleep because there was just no way to do that. Not when she was so used to running and finding the one safe place in an area to spend the night before having to do it all over again. 

Mercury hadn’t been sleeping well either, Emerald knew that. She just didn’t really care. To care too much about such a thing was vastly overstepping what their relationship was.

So when he stood there and commented to tell her that she looked like shit, Emerald couldn’t help but be unamused by the whole thing.

“Hello Mercury.” She greeted him,  standing up and stretching as she re-holstered her guns at her back. Emerald wasn’t about to go pretending like she trusted him, not now. “What do you want?”

“Someone to talk to,” The man shrugged, flopping down into a spot on the ground and making himself comfortable. “Boss hasn’t been talkative lately.”

“So you’re bothering me?”

Mercury put on this shit-eating smirk that made Emerald want to reach out and slap him for a moment. “If you don’t like it-” He paused. “Well, I don’t think it matters that much since there’s nobody else to talk to.” 

“Right.” Emerald deadpanned, glaring at him with suspicion. “I just don’t know why you suddenly care to talk to me.” 

“I wanted to figure out what you think of all of this.” Mercury replied, gesturing vaguely with a hand that never managed to leave his knee. “Pretty crazy stuff we’re looking for.” 

Emerald paused, because Mercury was right- Cinder seemed to have them chasing fairy tales and it didn’t make that much sense. If Emerald felt that she had more of a choice, she wouldn’t have agreed to going with the woman. But blackmail and a promise of food had been enough to sway her. That didn’t make her believe in all of this though.

“Yeah, it is.” She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself and peering out at the world in search of something. A distraction, mostly. “Why do you care all of a sudden?”

“Always did.” Mercury shrugged again. “It’s just with what she’s saying about us going to the White Fang tomorrow, I’m not so sure about it.” He paused. “I wanted to get your opinion on all of it.”

Emerald hesitated to give an answer, picking her head up so that she could check that Cinder wasn’t nearby. Probably off on one of her weird private calls. “I don’t like it.” Emerald finally said, keeping her voice down. “It’s suicidal.” 

“It’s work, though.” Mercury stared up at her. “You think we’ll run into trouble?”

“I don’t know.” Emerald mumbled. “If we do, it’s not like anyone will be able to do anything about it other than fight.” 

“What,” Mercury let out a barking sort of laugh. “You don’t think we can take them?”

“I don’t know,” Emerald snapped back, staring the man down. “Can we?”

“Well, while you were being a street rat, I was becoming a trained killer.” Mercury gestured nonchalantly. “I think I can take them.” 

Emerald paused, and looked back over her shoulder once more. Cinder was beginning to peek through the trees, which meant that it was time to cut this conversation short. “We’ll just have to see, I think.” Emerald muttered as she turned away from Mercury to greet Cinder. 

She tried to ignore the way that he seemed to linger a moment too long before he finally got up. 

We went on tour, 2025