by Mell Eight
Never before had the front lawn of a house looked so damned inviting, but Dane's house with the awkwardly boarded up window and the torn grass from Mercury's claws was a welcome sight.
"That was fun," Nickel lied darkly with a growl.
"What… what happened?" Mercury asked. He slowly slid to the ground as his knees finally gave out. Dane slid to the ground next to him, and Mercury couldn't help leaning against him for support.
"Three of them tried to jump me," Nickel grumbled. "As if that's enough to catch me. When they failed, they left. I guess they decided that if they couldn't take me in, they would let me die with this kit," he finished with a wave of his hand towards Zinc. She was looking around them with awe in her shining eyes. Mercury didn't want to know how long it had been since she had seen the sky or any trees. He really, really didn't, yet at the same time he knew he would eventually have to ask her for all the information on their enemies she could provide.
"Why would they try to capture you?" Dane asked curiously.
"He's one of the original kits," Mercury replied when Nickel just scowled darkly. "Eggs are always guarded by their parents, but kits are left to run around as they please. We think the scientists originally grabbed a few kits from each element for their initial experiments and only once they got a little braver," and perhaps a little stronger thanks to their first experiments with stealing dragon magic, "were they able to start working with eggs. Nickel, Copper, and probably Zinc too, were all also changed and strengthened by those original experiments. The enemy would take any of them back in a heartbeat if they thought they could."
"Yet they left Zinc behind to die?" Dane asked.
"I was bait," Zinc answered pragmatically. "I also wasn't the only older dragon there. Platinum was taken when they cleared out the facility. They didn't need me any more." Which meant there were still dragons in need of rescue.
"We'll go through Jacobson's notes again. See what we can find," Dane insisted, no doubt reading Mercury's fears on his face.
"There's nothing else there," Nickel snarled. "We've been through them enough times that even I know that. That warehouse was the only viable location he mentioned." Probably for a reason, Mercury realized, since it set up such a convenient trap.
The front door of the house was flung open before anyone found a reply. Chrome and 'Ron rushed out.
"You're back!" Chrome yelled happily. "Why'd you bring back a girl?"
"Yay!" 'Ron exclaimed. She skidded to a stop in front of Zinc. "Hi, I'm 'Ron. Who're you?"
"This is Zinc," Mercury explained when Zinc appeared to be overwhelmed with 'Ron's exuberance. "She needs food and a bath. Will you make sure she gets both?"
'Ron immediately reached out to yank on Zinc's arm. "Come on. I'll show you the kitchen. We can't use the oven, but Miss Daisy left lots of cereal to crunch." Zinc let herself be pulled to her feet, but she stumbled at the first step and fell back down into the grass. Nickel sighed, but he lent Zinc his shoulder as they headed into the house.
Mercury turned to look at Dane now that they were alone and found Lumie standing between Dane's legs. Dane's look of disconcerted surprise was priceless.
"You'll get used to it eventually," Mercury said with a laugh. He reached out to pull Lumie into a hug.
"Cin Bomb?" Lumie asked, looking at Dane expectantly.
Dane laughed and reached out to ruffle Lumie's hair. "I don't have any right now. I'll give you two in the morning, okay?"
Lumie tilted his head as he thought this offer through, then nodded in apparent agreement. He pulled out of Mercury's arms and followed the other kits into the house.
Now finally and actually alone, Mercury let himself relax exhaustedly against Dane's shoulder. "I don't want to think right now," he insisted. He didn't want to think about the enemy or the dragons they still held captive. He didn't even want to think about the growing possibility that he and Dane might be starting a relationship of sorts.
"So don't," Dane replied with a shrug that nearly dislodged Mercury. "You're still recovering. We don't know where to find the next clue to the enemy's location, which means there isn't anything more we can do today. Let's eat something and go to sleep." He hesitated, then turned his body so Mercury was leaning against his chest instead of his shoulder. When Dane bent down, Mercury was happy to surge upwards. Their lips met and this time Mercury definitely saw fireworks.
Of course, that might have been caused by whatever had also made a terrible crashing noise from inside the house. 'Ron was screaming in fury and Chrome laughing hysterically, so Mercury didn't worry. It was just business as usual for his kits. He pressed his lips against Dane's one last time before sighing and climbing to his feet.
"I think it's naptime for some unruly kits too," he grumbled, stalking into the house with Dane beside him.
EPILOGUE
Mercury was still sleeping when Dane's alarm went off first thing Monday morning. All Dane wanted to do was curl closer to Mercury's warm body. Maybe Dane could wake him up with a kiss, or by doing something even more fun, but the clock told Dane that if he didn't get into the shower now he would be late, again, and Becky would laugh at him, again. Besides, Dane wasn't going to wake Mercury up with a blowjob until after he had ensured that Lumie wasn't hiding somewhere, about to be scarred for life. Searching for Lumie required that Dane get out of bed anyway, so he climbed out from under the covers and slumped his way into the bathroom.
It hadn't taken long to convince Mercury to switch bedrooms and join Dane in the other wing of Dane's house. Mostly it was that Mercury wanted to share his life with Dane, which included sharing a bed, but the fact that all of his kits had rooms on the other side of the house had also played a part in his decision. Dane couldn't resent Mercury for that given how much magic Dane was using to ensure they didn't bring his house down around their own ears. Zinc had fit right in with the insanity, of course. She and Copper were in some sort of feud, which only made Mercury snicker and say something about Copper combining with Zinc to make Brass, which made absolutely no sense.
Dane finished his shower and toweled dry quickly. He got dressed in the dim bedroom while Mercury slept on. Dane couldn't leave without at least saying goodbye; he walked over to Mercury's side of the bed, leaned over him, and pressed his lips to Mercury's.
"Mmm, morning," Mercury rumbled as his eyes blinked slowly open.
"Morning," Dane replied. "I'm about to go get breakfast. Want to come?"
"Not a chance," Mercury replied immediately without even glancing at the clock. "You have fun. I'll see you tonight," he added with a grin that made Dane's pants feel a little too tight.
"Your loss," Dane joked, but he let Mercury go back to sleep without protest. Dane had to pause by the door to readjust himself in his pants before opening the door and heading downstairs to the kitchen.
Lumie was standing in the middle of the kitchen waiting for Dane. When Dane walked in, he immediately held out his red plastic bowl. Lumie's favorite cereal had a lot of cinnamon in it, not that Dane was in any way surprised when he learned that fact. Dane dug it out of the cabinet and the milk out of the fridge. He filled Lumie's bowl and handed him a spoon before turning back to the cabinets to find his own bowl and cereal.
"You coming to work with me again?" Dane asked as he filled his bowl with cereal that contained a lot less sugar than Lumie's did.
"I think we both are," Nickel answered as he joined them in the kitchen. Nickel was determined to find the missing dragons and had apparently decided that working as Dane's sidekick at Dane's consulting firm was the answer. Lumie was Lumie; Dane had no idea what, if anything, went through his head. Sometimes he joined Dane at work with Nickel and other times Dane didn't see him for an entire day. The kits certainly made Dane's life interesting, which he couldn't complain about in the least.
When they finished eating, Dane helped Nickel and Lumie rinse their bowls and put them in the dishwasher. Mercury and Daisy were working on teaching the kits how to do chore
s in order to instill some sense of responsibility into the otherwise crazy creatures. It was a fool's errand as far as Dane was concerned as Copper, Nickel, and Zinc were barely old enough to understand why, but Mercury persisted with it, so Dane had to support his efforts.
Lumie latched onto Dane's leg, his arms and legs wrapped around Dane's ankle as he used Dane's foot for a seat. Nickel just put his hand on Dane's elbow. Dane let his magic sweep them away. They reappeared inside Dane's office a moment later.
A new, child-sized desk had appeared in one corner of the room a few weeks ago. Dane didn't know when Becky had gotten it, but it was covered with Nickel's paperwork. Becky had him doing research for some of Dane's own cases, which he tackled with the same persistence as he had his continuing search for the dragons. Lumie also detached himself from Dane's leg. He hurried over to Becky and stuck one hand out.
"There's a man on hold on line two," Becky told Dane as she dug into a candy jar that had also appeared on her desk in recent weeks. "He insisted on waiting until you got to the office." She turned to Lumie as Dane walked into his private office. "What do we say?"
"Please!" Lumie chirped with a grin. Becky immediately grinned back and dropped a wrapped Cinnamon Bomb into Lumie's outstretched hand. "Thanks!"
"You're very welcome, Lumie," Becky replied.
Lumie took his sweet off to a corner to suck on. Dane closed his office door, sat down in his plush chair, and picked up the phone.
"This is Dane. How may I help you today?" he asked politely into the receiver.
"My name is Ames Stockton. I'm the regional deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Supernatural Investigations. As I'm sure you saw on the news, the body of Miles Jacobson, the regional director, was found last week. Your agency comes highly recommended in these sorts of issues and I was wondering if we could hire you to supplement our own investigation." Stockton's voice was deep and gravelly. Dane thought he had met Stockton once at a SupFeds convention. He was a big man with deep black skin and sharp eyes. Dane didn't remember Stockton being as idiotic as Jacobson. If he were the one promoted to director, which was very possible, Dane could expect a very different relationship between the SupFeds and his firm. Dane needed to tread carefully here, yet he was also holding back ironic laughter. Not too long ago he remembered thinking to himself that Jacobson's successor would be calling to have Dane investigate Jacobson's death. Dane never thought at the time that he would be the one who killed Jacobson, or why.
"I'm not going to take that case," Dane began. There was no way he was going to investigate himself, but he couldn't leave Stockton hanging after their first business conversation. Dane still wanted Stockton to call back with a different case. "But I will give you some free advice. Have you read the news reports on the magical earthquake that destroyed a large part of the pier along the Chesapeake Bay about two months back?"
"I have," Stockton replied slowly as if he were wondering where Dane was going with this and why.
"Some stations and papers have also started reporting about one warehouse where what appears to be a lab and some jail cells were hidden below," Dane continued despite Stockton's growing distrust.
"Those news agencies believe that the government has been hiding the fact that they've been doing illegal experiments on dragons." Stockton's voice sounded scathingly disbelieving.
"Those news agencies aren't wrong." Something Dane knew they had gotten correct because he was the one who had leaked that tidbit of information to them. "All of Quicksilver's attacks on government labs have been to save dragons that were being experimented on in secret. You might want to look into Jacobson's involvement in those labs as I'm certain that is why he was killed."
"Experimenting on dragons," Stockton scoffed. "You really expect me to believe that?"
"When you find the connection between Jacobson and those labs, I would appreciate it if you could forward me a copy of those findings. I'm trying to find the rest of the dragons they have imprisoned."
"Why do I think you had a hand in Jacobson's death and now you're trying to distract me from the truth with this fool's errand?" Stockton snarled. The phone clicked as he hung up on Dane.
Dane sat back in his chair and smiled. Skeptic or not, half correct or not, Stockton would still have someone look into what Dane had said if only to disprove him. When Stockton found the evidence, he would call back. Dane had no doubt of that.
With that handled, Dane pulled forward the paperwork Nickel had left him for Madame Boothby and her molting son. Spending the afternoon trying to figure out how to tell her that her son was experiencing the normal male pattern baldness that came with hitting middle age was going to be an interesting, and aggravating, task for the afternoon.
Luckily, Mercury was waiting for Dane at home. Dane smiled involuntarily and picked up the phone to call Madame Boothby's secretary to set up a meeting.
FIN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When Mell Eight was in high school she wrote a short story for an English class. The assignment was for no more than five pages, yet she had turned in ten and the story wasn’t completed. Her teacher was impressed, but writing stories for fun was her main source of procrastination from homework; handing in an assignment that actually asked her to write fiction was too good to pass up. Since then Mell has continued writing, posting in many online communities for fanfiction and original fiction and eventually branching into slash fiction. She mostly writes paranormal or fantasy stories, but has been seen exploring the real world once or twice.
For more information on Mell’s stories and future writing plans, visit her website:
http://melleightfiction.weebly.com/