Hope of Morning || Reader x Mercury

You had wanted to be alone. Loneliness was dangerous when fighting a mental illness, the negative feelings built up so easy without the comforting noise your friends surrounded you with.

Not that many of the people here were your friends really, just people your boss wanted eradicated and hopeless. The White Fang looked down on you, despite the fact that you tirelessly worked with them to reach their goal, one that you only sort of supported. You wanted the equality of Faunus and human alike, but the violent ways they had turned to and the ruthlessness...

It scared you.

"Hey, baby girl. Roman wants you," you looked up from the grey metal of the warehouse you were currently holed up in. Your eyes blinked slowly at Mercury, who watched with a raised eyebrow. You moved your fingers, trying to count how many you could feel, trying to open your mouth to talk. The man sighed after a second, coming to kneel down in front of you. "It's been three hours since dinner," he said conversationally.

You continued to frown at him, the tingling in the middle of your forehead, the weight of your head and the numbness in your hands nearly drowning him out. "It's now nine thirty, the moon's already high up in the sky. You're wearing a rather pretty shirt today, I really like the... whattaya call it, the lace bit? Right here at the shoulder." he reached up slowly, finger trailing down the see through sleeve of your shirt.

Mercury was safe, he was here, his hand was warm. Those long fingers gently wrapped around your upper arm, and you vaguely heard the sound of a message being sent - a part of you registered it was probably aimed at Roman. "Mercury..." you managed, feeling like you were speaking through cotton and like someone had replaced your voice with someone elses.

"There's my girl," he murmured, pulling you into his broad chest. "Today we went to check out a dust shop, remember? You picked up that red one you really like, and the owner gave you it free. I think he liked your shirt too," he joked, rubbing your back gently. The buzzing moved from your forehead and reappeared at the base of your neck, slowly fading as your eyes grew heavy. "Been a long day, huh, princess?" he asked quietly, leaning his head on yours.

The silvery locks of hair tickled your nose and you huffed softly, making them bounce right back into your eyes. "Mercury, I'm tired."

"I'm sure... How 'bout we blow the old man off and get some sleep?"

"Yeah..." Sitting up took some effort, and you winced at the creaking in your joints. The tall man helped you up, an arm slung around you to hold you up. "What happened?" you asked, fearful of the answer. Mercury sighed in response, knowing exactly what you meant.

"You've just been outside, I guess. Emerald said you came out after dinner. I thought you fell asleep, I didn't think you'd been out here... ya know."

You nodded slowly as you made your way to his room. Roman and Neo were in one of the common areas, the redhead talking quietly to the quickly typin scroll user. You knew they only pretended not to hear or see you, the shuffling of your shoes were almost impossible to ignore. But they were used to it, knew that it was hard to motivate you after an episode, and you were pretty sure they cared at least a little.

Okay, it was really hard to be sure with the psychotic little woman but oh well.

"Good night, princess." you felt your eyelids flutter - when had they closed? - and you stared up at Mercury's blurry silhouette. The room was dark and you were in one of his big gray shirts, tucked under the blankets and his arm. "Shh, just sleep..."

"I lo..."

"Yeah... me too, beautiful..."