Chapter 1

Sting ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. He'd been wandering around aimlessly for hours now, waiting for Rogue to finish up his shopping. He was about to make his fifth round around the shopping area when he heard a familiar voice.

"What? That's how I found her, I couldn't help any of that!" Lucy Heartfilia was arguing with a heavyset middle aged woman, who Sting assumed was her client.

Ever since Fairy Tail won the Grand Magic Games, the members had been getting a lot of personal requests for jobs despite other guilds being closer to the location. This particular job had requested Fairy Tail's Lucy Heartfilia and her Celestial Spirit, Virgo, to retrieve the client's daughter who was taken from their family restaurant. The client had requested Lucy and Virgo because the kidnapper was a Sand Magic user and was known for his underground hideouts.

"Maybe you should have gotten here quicker, you brat!" The old woman yelled at Lucy, who was taken aback by the woman's attitude.

As Sting listened, he looked over to observe the situation. Lucy and her client were standing in front of a little mom & pop restaurant in the corner of the shopping square. A small teenage girl was cowering behind the older woman. She must be the girl they're arguing about, Sting thought. She had a few bruises on her face and arms, but other than that she seemed fine. Almost as if she had just bathed, actually. Lucy, on the other hand, looked a little bit worse for wear. She wore a sleeveless, low-cut blue shirt with a black mini skirt and skin-tight black boots that ran the length of her legs. But what got him was the fact that she was covered in dirt from head to toe, and her lower arms were scratched up. Sting let his eyes linger on Lucy longer than he'd like to admit and smirked. Despite looking like she just crawled out of a hole, he had to admit she still looked better than most people on a good day.

"I left Magnolia as soon as your request came in! Please, Mrs. Mamiko, try to calm down." Lucy pleaded. "I did the best that I could. Your daughter is safe now, and that's wha—"

Mrs. Mamiko raised her hand and slapped Lucy across the face, cutting her off.

Sting furrowed his brows in frustration. He couldn't keep watching this. He was different now than he used to be—he wasn't going to just stand around and watch as another mage, especially one of Fairy Tail, was abused by a client. He walked over and grabbed the old woman's arm. "What's going on over here?" He asked, his voice firm.

"This—This tramp over here brought my beautiful Haruka back covered in bruises and expects me to still pay her. I'm not paying for such poor quality of work," Mrs. Mamiko spat as she crossed her arms and huffed.

Sting looked back and forth between Lucy and Mrs. Mamiko before he laid his eyes on the client's daughter, Haruka. She was a cute young girl with short brown hair, and her cheeks turned red as she noticed him staring at her. "You." Sting said as he stepped closer. "Did Lucy here do any of this to you?"

The girl shook her head rapidly, blushing wildly from Sting's proximity. He ignored the girl's ogling before he turned back to face Mrs. Mamiko and continued, "So I'm still not following you, lady. What's the problem here if none of this was Lucy's fault?"

Mrs. Mamiko was growing more flustered and glared again at Lucy. "I'm not going to repeat myself. The bottom line is, I'm not paying you."

As Lucy went to rebut, she stopped herself as Sting picked up Haruka and threw her over his shoulder.

At least someone is enjoying the situation, Lucy chuckled. The young girl looked as if she was on cloud nine and Lucy could have sworn she saw her eyes roll to the back of her head as she was sniffing Sting's clothes.

"Well, sounds to me like you don't really need your daughter back, then. Hey Lucy, which direction did you find her in? I'll just go put her back." Sting looked at Lucy expectantly and threw her a wink.

Completely amused by the situation now, Lucy pointed her finger to her left, earning a smirk from Sting.

"Stop! Stop! What are you doing with my beautiful daughter?! Get back here!" Mrs. Mamiko started panicking before she began chasing after her daughter.

"If your daughter means that much to you, it shouldn't be such a problem to pay the woman who saved her for you." Sting stopped walking to glare back at the old woman.

Her old, wrinkly face was scrunched with anger. She knew there wasn't anything else she could do. She was outnumbered against two powerful mages. "Fine." She snapped. "The sooner I get you two out of my hair the better, anyways. But this will be the last Fairy Tail hears of me." Noticing the different guild mark on Sting's arm, she added, "And Sabertooth as well, it seems."

Sting rolled his eyes as he swatted Haruka's hands away from his suspender buckles and let her down. Mrs. Mamiko handed a stack of jewels over to Celestial mage before she grabbed her daughter's hand and stomped away.

Lucy looked from the jewels in her hand and over to Sting, throwing her arms up in the air. "Ha!" She busted out laughing and ran over to give him a hug. "That was so great, thank you so much for your help!" She was beaming.

"Nah, it was really no big deal. That lady pissed me off." Sting rubbed the back of his head and chuckled, slightly uncomfortable from the hug since he wasn't used to such affections. He coughed as he inhaled some of the sand in her hair.

Lucy released Sting from her grip and lightly blushed, taking a couple steps back to rub the sand out of her hair and off her arms. How embarrassing! Someone helps her out and in return she shoves sand in their face. Now Lucy definitely felt obligated to make it up to him somehow. She snapped her fingers as an idea came to mind. "You hungry? Lunch is on me!" She smiled as she held up her salary from the job.

They chose a nice little burger joint on the far end of the shopping center. Lucy was really enjoying her time with Sting, which she thought was a little odd. Yeah, Fairy Tail and Sabertooth were on good terms ever since the Grand Magic Games and the whole Eclipse Project debacle, but she'd still never spent time with a Sabertooth mage if it wasn't required for a job.

Either way, Lucy found it was so easy to talk to him, almost as if they had been friends for years.

When they got to the restaurant, she ordered the biggest burger on the menu. Sting noticed the sparkle in her eyes as Lucy got her food and he chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Lucy asked as she nibbled on a couple fries.

"I just pegged you as the salad type." He teased, sticking his tongue out at her.

Lucy threw her head back and laughed with him. "I probably should be with how often Happy complains about how heavy I am to carry. But if Cana can drink barrels of alcohol a day, I can enjoy a juicy burger and fries!" She stated simply as she dug into her burger.

As they ate, Sting noticed how at ease he felt around Lucy. He was so used to people being intimidated by him, he'd never actually had a casual conversation with anyone outside of the guild. But here with her, he felt… warm. And safe. Almost as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It was a new feeling for him, and he found that he rather enjoyed it.

"So what are you doing in town today? Did you have a job as well?" Lucy asked, snapping him out of his train of thought.

"No, Rogue had to come find a new frog suit for Frosch." Sting groaned.

"Oh no, what happened to the old one?"

Sting took note of how Lucy stuck her lower lip out to pout.

"Frosch lost the damn thing." He cringed, as if recalling a nightmare.

At this, Lucy's eyebrows shot up, and she looked confused. "Lost… The frog suit?"

"Believe it or not. Frosch took a bath and the next thing you know, poor Fro is frog suit-less." He let out a light laugh. "You should have been there when Rogue found out. He almost had a meltdown. I came with him, but he was in such a bad mood I couldn't take it any longer."

Lucy took a few seconds to process the story before she busted out laughing, wrapping her arms around her abdomen. "I'm—I'm sorry, it's not funny, it's not. I'm sorry for laughing." Lucy gave a cheeky smile and tried to stop chuckling. She still had her arms wrapped around her waist, and with the outfit she was wearing, the motion accentuated her cleavage in the low-cut blue shirt she was wearing.

Sting blushed and tried not to get distracted by the view. "No, it's okay to laugh. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a pretty hilarious situation." He gave her a goofy grin, and tried to look elsewhere so as not to get caught staring.

She giggled with him for a little longer before she stopped and cradled her face in her hands. "You've got a really nice smile, you know. You should do it more often." Lucy said as she herself smiled. Sting found that he thought her smile was truly gorgeous, and felt his face heating up yet again. He looked up and got lost in her honey brown orbs, forgetting that he hadn't replied.

"Sting." Rogue called out from behind him, nodding his head in acknowledgement at Lucy. "Mission complete." He stated in his deep, calm voice as he held up a cat-sized pink frog suit.

Sting let out an internal sigh of relief. Rogue had saved the day, bless the man. He owed him a drink. Lucy had caught him off guard with her compliment about his smile. Sting had had enough of the weird warm sensations Lucy was making him feel and was eager to leave so that he could think on it. Since they had finished their food and Rogue was back, Sting got out of his chair to leave.

Lucy did the same.

"I had a really great time, Sting. Thanks again for the help with the client. And for keeping me company for lunch as well." Lucy gave another one of her signature smiles and giggled as she walked away, waving goodbye to Sting and Rogue.

As soon as Lucy was out of earshot, Sting let out the breath he had been holding, sounding defeated. He looked at Rogue, who was in turn looking at him with a raised eyebrow as if asking "Well?"

"I'll tell you about it on the way home. We had better hurry back before Lector's mental health suffers any more than it has." Sting stretched his arms and followed suit behind Rogue.

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Minerva thought as she watched Sting blush for the fifth time since he had sat down to have lunch with that blonde bimbo. She let out a growl of anger and clenched her fists by her side. When had Sting gotten so soft? The master of the Sabertooth guild should never blush. The whole situation was an embarrassment. He was making a mockery out of the guild her father had once made great. And though she was no longer a part of it, her name was still associated with that mess of a guild. There will be hell to pay, Sting Eucliffe.