Lucy vividly remembers the time she had learned what soulmate timers were.

"Wha's t'at?" she recalls her pudgy four-year-old self asking her father on one of the rare days he wasn't busy, pointing at the ticking numbers on her wrist. She wasn't old enough to know how to count or what number were, really, but she had eyes and could see the way it was always changing. To her, the shifting black lines moving across her skin were simply fascinating.

"This?" her father asked, kneeling down in front of her, the lines of his face still kind and smiling. "Why, this is your soulmate timer."

Little Lucy scrunched her eyebrows, confused at the foreign term. "Wha's t'at?" she asked again.

Her father chuckled and proceeded to explain in simple terms that would be understandable to her. "Those lines are numbers. The numbers are counting down – they are telling you when you will meet your soulmate." Seeing his daughter puffing her cheeks, ready to ask another question, he forestalled it with an answer. "A soulmate is someone who you will love and who will always be at your side. You will spend your whole life with them and you will be happy, the way me and your mother are."

Lucy gaped at this, awestruck not only by her father's amazing ability to tell what she had been about to ask, but also the concept of her also having someone the way her mother and her father had each other. As far as she was concerned, her parents were more in love than any princess and her prince could be and just the thought of having that for herself was making her excited.

Practically bouncing in place, "Wha' the num'e's mean?" she demanded.

Her father swept his calloused yet kind hands over the swarming lines with a smile. "Well…" he began, pointing at the first of the bunch, the unmoving 14. "This means that you will meet your soulmate in fourteen years." Indicating another number, a 07, he continued, "And this means that you will meet them in seven more months." Moving on, a 21. "And twenty-one days." And then right after each other: 04, 57, and 10. "And four hours, fifty-seven minutes and ten seconds. So you will be eighteen years old when you meet them."

For a few second, Lucy is fascinated as she gazed down, waiting out eleven seconds.

14:07:21:04:56:59

Then her father offered his own wrist for inspection, showing her the perfect line of green zeroes that told the world he had met his own soulmate.

Her face was a beaming picture of happiness as she offered her father a toothy grin. "T'at's so cool!" she exclaimed clumsily. Then her face set into a stubborn expression that would soon become her trademark. "I wanna lea'n the num'ers!" she demanded.

Her father just chuckled and acquiesced without complaint, pride shining in his eyes.

After he told Layla of what had happened, she laughed at her clever little daughter before petting her hair and telling her she would be an amazing, smart and independent woman when she met her soulmate, ignoring Jude's light-hearted protests about her always staying his little girl. Lucy had giggled and hid behind her mother, sticking her tongue out at her father and proclaiming that she would be smarter than him at that age, which led to the normally stoic man playfully chasing her around the house while she shrieked in delight.

Later that night, Lucy stayed up late with her mother and an old book, Layla teaching her all about the fables surrounding the mythical timers, the ways that different colors meant different things. For example, Layla's and Jude's timers had turned green when they met. Green was universally acknowledged to be a sign of a peaceful and balanced relationship, given the color's place in the middle of the color spectrum and its role in nature.

There were other colors too, of course. Red meant a passionate and lively relationship rife with conflict would be in store, while blue told of a quiet and dignified union in which it would usually be hard to tell the two cared for each other; orange told of two people who mostly had fun when they were together, while purple meant the two would be romantic to the point of absurdity. It wasn't just singular, though; there were different shades of different colors and sometimes a bi-colored one appeared. It seemed that meaning were much similar to astrological signs in that they were more based in myth than any fact.

This did not stop mother and daughter from giggling about the possibilities and making up dozens of different possible soulmates for Lucy before the moon was at its peak and Layla ushered her daughter into bed, turning off the light and watching Lucy drift off with a peaceful smile before returning to her husband to hug him and feel thankful for where life had led her.

Six years later, when Lucy learned to read the numbers on her wrist and even more about math besides in an effort to make her capable of running a company, the word "soulmate" or anything of the sort became taboo in the house as Jude's numbers changed into nothing but an empty gray line, symbolizing the loss of his wife. Lucy watched her father's transformation from a stern yet caring man to a stoic and withdrawn one who guarded his heart like no one else and had the thought that perhaps soulmates were not just a happily ever after and that they brought more tragedy than joy.

Shaking that thought away, Lucy frowned in determination, her face as stubborn as it was the day she demanded her father teach her how to read the numbers on her wrist. She would not let anything take her own soulmate away from her when she met them.

.

Rogue was born without a timer on his wrist and for the first five years of his life, was unaware that anything of the sort existed. His life was dedicated to learning from Skiadrum and after that he struggled with his mentor's illness and finally, with what were his mentor's last moments.

It was only after he had started paying attention to the world around him following his grief and disorientation after this event that he realized something foreign had appeared on his wrist. Bringing it closer, he inspected the numbers which had made their home there suspiciously.

07:02:19:12:44

Skiadrum had not neglected academical teachings and so Rogue knew how to read numbers, yet he was baffled by this. And not only that, but the numbers were counting down. He was beyond confused.

He put it out of his mind until he met Sting, who became his new friend. It took a little while to work up the courage, but eventually he asked, "Do you know what this is?" Sting shook his head, confessing that he had no idea either and that they had just mysteriously appeared on his wrist as well after they had been forced to kill their partners.

Eventually, by sheer luck, a woman happened to tell them a month or two later, revealing that they counted down to when they would meet their soulmate before gushing about how amazing soulmates were and how perfect they would be. Rogue himself was skeptical, but it wasn't long before he was infected by her cheer. Later that night, he would think of Gajeel, his role model, and feel excitement at the prospect of someone as cool becoming his soulmate, a partner until the end of days.

He did the math and calculated that he would meet his soulmate when he was twelve years old, which causes anxious butterflies to scatter around his stomach. Would he be ready? At the same time, there is a little bit of smug pride at the fact that according to Sting's timer, his friend would have to wait an entire thirteen years, until he would be eighteen, to meet his own partner.

It was almost seven years later, when there was less than a year left on Rogue's timer, that it suddenly stopped. It did not fade away, did not become a grey line symbolizing the death of his soulmate, just… stopped. Froze in place.

00:02:29:11:33:11

Those numbers seemed to mock him as they stared up at him. Of course, Rogue had not noticed when exactly they paused, as he actually spent his time training to be as great as Gajeel, but if he cared to, he could calculate exactly when it had paused (he had long since marked the date he would meet his soulmate in the calendar).

The next day, it still didn't move.

Neither did it the day after that.

Three days after his timer had frozen, Rogue received the news that the Fairy Tail guild's most famous mages had disappeared.

A little less than three months later, the date he had meticulously marked on the calendar, the exact time he had marked went by with his timer still frozen in that one position.

The day after, the missing Fairy Tail members officially became presumed dead.

The day after he was supposed to meet his soulmate became the day something ugly and angry coiled in Rogue's gut and hugged him tight, quenching his sorrow and grief. He gave up on relying on people he had never met, a mage he had looked up to and a soulmate he would probably never meet, instead focusing on coordinating attacks with his best friend, who was right there.

He focused on training so much he only ended up crying into Frosch's fur two or three times.

.

When Lucy woke up on the island, it was with a sense of joy and something like disbelief at being alive. She pressed a hand to her heart as if to reassure herself it was still beating before checking the soulmate timer on her wrist, exactly in the same position she had left it, before exhaling a sigh of relief. She wouldn't want to cause grief to whoever was on the other side of the timer by dying. Honestly, she herself would be angry at them if they pulled that stunt, especially with less than three months left, and wouldn't blame her soulmate for cursing her out for doing the same.

Then her attention was consumed by celebration and reunions and-

Wait, what?!

She had been asleep for seven years?

But… why was her timer the exact same, after seven years?

Before she could question it, though, three days of partying occurred and catching up became more important than a person she had never met. Eventually, she concluded that the timer must have frozen or something while she was in stasis. Given that she hadn't aged a day, that would make sense, right?

With a wince, Lucy sent a quick prayer that the frozen timer was only on her end and not her soulmate's, otherwise she would have a lot of apologizing and explaining to do. However, then she is informed of the Grand Magic Games and with a sense of determination throws herself headlong into training.

Somewhere along the way, she realizes belatedly, her guild became more important than the person that would give her eternal happiness. When had that happened?

.

Rogue is in the middle of filling out a report about a recently completed mission when he hears a gasp from his side where Frosch normally dozes. Looking to the side, he instead finds her standing and wide-eyed, looking at something under his arm. The paperwork, perhaps? No, that has never interested her.

"What is it?" he asks, his gruff voice gentle as always when talking to his partner in private.

"That!" Frosch doesn't bother with even attempting clear articulation, excited words bouncing from her. "Rogue's wrist, look!"

Bemused, Rogue twists his wrist around to bring it to eye level and instantly freezes because his timer is counting down again.

Seven years.

It was still for seven years.

And now it's counting down again.

Rogue doesn't know what to feel, doesn't know whether it's anger or happiness or sorrow or disbelief tangling his chest into knots. He stares at the ticking numbers for a good minute or two before he is capable of coherent thought.

He lets out a slow and deep breath and winces when it stutters. He closes his eyes and thinks. He does not know what to feel. He wants to be angry, to be furious. He wants to find his soulmate and shake them until they tell him why they left him alone for seven long years, why they made him think he was damaged.

On the other hand, memories of Sting and Yukino, one of their newer members, burn bright and clear in his mind, the soft smiles they send each other and the white zeroes on their wrists, apparently symbolizing a pureness and simplicity in their relationship, if Rogue remembers Sting's boasting correctly.

Does he want that with someone?

The dragon inside him doesn't even hesitate before roaring out a loud and definitive yes. Rogue carefully considers, and his logical mind finds a clear plan of action.

He will wait. He will wait out the incomplete three months and until he meets his soulmate. He will demand to know why the timer stopped because after all these long years of agonizing he is certain the fault was on the other end. He will wait and ask and if the answer is satisfactory and if the other person is a worthy mate, he will accept them not out of desperation or fate, but because he will choose them to make him happy.

It does not escape his notice that the date is a day before the beginning of the Grand Magic Games.

He will be nineteen, then, five days before the Games begin. He idly wonders how old his soulmate will be before returning to his paperwork and willing way tears that would be tinged with something a little like euphoria.

.

Lucy openly gapes at Crocus, having never seen such a magnificent, let alone huge, city before. Magnolia is beautiful, yes, but it has nothing on this. She has been wandering around for a good two hours now, Natsu in tow, and she still manages to find things that amaze her. In one storefront, she saw a floating hat that would apparently keep levitating a foot from the wearer's head. At the top of a house, she saw a metal rooster that was charmed to cry out at random intervals.

And now, she is looking at a dancing flower. An entire dancing squadron of flowers.

"So cool," Natsu murmurs and Lucy has to agree.

Five minutes later though, something else has caught their interest and they are darting toward another of the numerous town squares within the city when a ruckus and a crowd catches their attention.

Natsu, of course, immediately barrels toward it and Lucy bites down on a very unladylike curse, which honestly just proves she has been spending too much time around Cana, before running after her empty-headed teammate. A little despairingly, she sends a prayer to the heavens asking why she ever agreed to partner up with such an idiot. The heavens do not provide an answer.

She lets out a sigh as she sees that Natsu managed to fall flat on his face in front of whatever was causing the ruckus. Resigned, she follows as best she can, but stops short when she sees the scene unfolding in front of her.

There are two mages with a symbol that is new to her, yet she recognizes as the new guild she was warned about, Sabertooth. It looks like the one in front, the loud blond is taunting Natsu, which is… honestly not a good sign. Lucy is pretty sure everyone who has ever taunted Natsu has ended up smashed against the ground, with perhaps the exception of Gray, although both of them get pummeled on a daily basis by Erza, so the point is pretty moot there.

Moving on from the loud one, her eyes move to his partner, who seems considerably quieter, yet no less arrogant.

However, she barely has enough time to take in his dark color scheme before her eyes are meeting his red ones and it suddenly feels like someone has either poured ice cold water beneath Lucy's skin, either that or lava because she doesn't know if she's freezing or burning up, her body singing with something like enjoyable pain. (Which is definitely a new thing, Lucy isn't a masochist, thank you very much.)

She feels herself grimace and flinch and sees a similar reaction in the other and confusion sets in for a moment before a scratching on her wrist prompts her to lift it up and- oh.

Lucy completely forgot.

She completely forgot that today was the day she was supposed to meet her soulmate.

Peripherally, she was aware of it, but as she explored the city and was awed by its sights, she forgot to count down the minutes and seconds.

It feels like time has frozen, as if she and those red eyes are locked in a dimension of their own, as if Natsu isn't yelling something right between them at the other's partner.

And then, all of a sudden, it is gone. She sees and hears the man respond to his partner's comment about this man having apparently looked up to Gajeel and- wait a second, everything is happening too fast.

But then-

"Unlike you, we could actually slay Acnologia."

Lucy feels her blood boil at that one comment, at the casual way the blond man utters it. They weren't there. They didn't see what that dragon could do. They didn't end up missing seven years because of it and return to find their father dead.

"Well, maybe you would be telling a different story if you were actually there," she snaps. She hears Happy chip in and feels a flash of fondness for the cat before she hears the other two Exceeds – wait, there are more of them, where did they come from? – straight up bully her friend. Lucy has never wanted to hurt a small, fluffy animal as much as she has in this moment.

"It doesn't matter if we were there or not." Lucy's attention shifts to the brunet (her soulmate!) as he gives his own input. She meets his gaze again, and disappointment mixed with fury arise as she realizes that he is condescending. He is looking at her like she is a stain at the bottom of his shoe and that? That is honestly the worst thing he could have done, for his own health. If there wasn't a crowd of spectators here, she would not hesitate to kick him through a wall. Sadly, it seems it will have to wait for some time when she manages to corner him in a nice and secluded alleyway.

The blond proclaims that they are superior to Natsu and Gajeel, her guildmates, with as much certainly as if he were declaring that the sun will rise tomorrow. Lucy thought her ire couldn't grow anymore but oh wow, was she wrong.

That little rag of an Exceed proceeds to explain the way that these two, Sting and Rogue apparently, and honestly, could they have chosen more edgy names? He explains the way that not only were Sting and Rogue apparently trained by dragons, they also had Lacrimas implanted inside of them. At this, Lucy doesn't know whether she feels fear or disgust; on one hand, they sound like very dangerous opponents. On the other, she cannot imagine a Dragon Slayer disrespecting their father figure by using something as artificial as a Lacrima.

Her thoughts are only interrupted by Natsu asking the crucial question – when did their dragons disappear?

However, something about the reactions to that question seems completely and utterly off.

The blond, Sting, responds, "Yeah, you could say that." There appears to be smugness and pride in his expression, which is so completely out of place that it almost gives Lucy whiplash.

"More to the point, they died," adds the brunet, Rogue. (Her soulmate! her mind keeps yelling at her.) The way he says it though… at the words, Lucy wants to feel sympathy, but something in the emotionless tone prevents her from doing so. "After the creatures passed down their Dragon Slayer techniques to us, we eliminated them with our own hands, so that we could earn the title of true Dragon Slayers."

In that one single moment, all Lucy can do is apologize to her mother's memory because it is at this moment that she becomes sure her soulmate will never make her happy.

She thinks she feels sick as she processes that information and numbness spreads inside her. She thinks Natsu must feel the same way beyond his instant anger because from everything her teammate has told her, this wasn't- this wasn't- this wasn't right. The dragons were father figures. She imagines murdering her own father just for an arbitrary title and the numbness inside her grows.

Lucy does not really remember what happens next. All she knows is that one moment she is trailing behind Natsu as he storms away from the confrontation and the next she is wandering by herself in a part of the city she has not visited yet.

Suddenly feeling too weary, Lucy takes slow steps to a bench that is along a waterway which cuts through the city and surveys her surroundings. There is a cobbled path along the water with pretty orange stones that probably sparkle in the day, but are now dark. Next to the road, a row of houses sprawls, each building different than the other, their occupants no doubt doing their best to make their abode stand out from all the others. This view stretches on both sides of her and it would probably be beautiful in any other scenario, but now it just makes Lucy feel trapped.

With shaking hands, she lifts her wrist up to inspect it for the first time since that awful meeting. She sees the row of zeros that now sit nestled on her skin and with a touch of something like amusement notes that they have taken on a pink color, only a few shades darker than her guild tattoo. She wonders if her soulmate has realized yet how much his mark clashes with his aesthetic and viciously hopes he gets mocked.

It is instinct that makes her turn, something she has developed since Tenrou island, and see the figure approaching.

She does not know if it is fear or excitement that makes her heart hammer in her chest when she sees who it is, sees the man who has managed to turn all her expectation upside now in such a short amount of time. He, Rogue, pauses on the path, a good distance from the bench where she sits, and, sensing a challenge, Lucy stands up and lifts her head up confrontationally, as if bracing herself.

For a minute or two, they just stand there, staring at each other, locked in a silent staring contest.

Finally, sick of it, Lucy raises her wrist to show the line of zeroes. She does not do this the way she normally would, extending her arm horizontally as if handing something, but instead raises it up vertically so that her wrist is at the same level as her face, staring him down challengingly.

Something flashes in his eyes, some emotion that Lucy can't name and hopes she will never be able to before he raises his own wrist in kind and she sees an identical mark there to her own.

Gleefully, she notices that the pink clashes with his color scheme just as much as she had hoped it would.

Now, they are once again at an impasse, still staring at each other. Lucy locks her jaw. She was the one to make the first move by showing her wrist, now he must be the first to speak. She will not give more ground before he proves he's willing to do the same.

The silence is deafening for the short eternity they stand there like that.

"You are from Fairy Tail," he notes coolly, lowering his arm. Lucy, likewise, puts down her own appendage.

"And you're a genius," comes the automatic retort before Lucy can even think about it.

Another few moments of nothing. "I have a duty to defeat you. For the duration of the Grand Magic Games, we are enemies," he intones in a voice that is not quite emotionless.

Lucy snorts. Why does he keep stating the obvious? "Yeah," she responds bitingly, "I kind of figured that from the way you did your best to either taunt or humiliate my teammate. Couldn't really tell which one, what with the brooding air you've got." She watches sharply for a reaction, but only gets a twitch around his left eyebrow, which honestly doesn't tell her anything.

"As long as you remember we are enemies for these Games," he emphasizes, then pauses, as if wondering how to phrase his next statement. "Therefore, neither one of us should acknowledge this until they are over, and we beat you." Lucy's eye gains a tic on reflex. "Also, you being from Fairy Tail certainly explains the way my timer froze for seven years."

Lucy winces and lets out a curse that she heard Cana say a week or two ago and which seems anatomically very impossible but summarizes her feelings at the moment quite well. She puts a hand on her forehead because no matter how much of a jerk this guy is, she cannot imagine a timer just freezing for an entire seven years.

"I'm… genuinely sorry about that." The words aren't as hard to say as she thought they would be. "I didn't know it would happen, but- but I know that isn't an excuse." Internally, she grimaces at the way she stuttered, but soldiers on. "I can't imagine going through that and, and I apologize." With that, she bows, low and sincere the way her father taught her, and stays there for an entire five seconds that feel like they stretch forever. When she rises up again, she meets Rogue's eyes and thinks she sees surprise there before his expression becomes unreadable once more.

He does not say she is forgiven. He does not even accept her apology. Instead, he just dips his head and says, "Thank you for the apology."

It is with that that he turns around and starts walking away. Lucy suddenly remembers something.

"Wait!" she calls. He pauses, quizzical, and turns halfway to survey her. Lucy smirks. "I like the way your timer goes with your clothes."

She sees his eyes narrows and his mouth pull down into a frown before he does a dramatic turn that sends his cape sweeping and him marching off in a way possibly only a king does. She snorts at the overdramatic display and goes back to her bench to reflect on this encounter, unaware of the fact that a smirk sits on Rogue's face as he walks away.

And if, back at his own room, he internally kicks himself for forgetting to ask her name? Well, it's not like nobody else knows. And besides, he's sure there will be many more chances to learn it during the Games.

It is as he is considering these thoughts that the clock strikes midnight and the Grand Magic Games of the year X791 begin.

Author's note:

Hello, old and new readers alike! This is a rewrite of an old story, Him and Her: Confidential. Sorry this took so long, but I'm on it now and I'll do my best not to disappoint.

There WILL be an update schedule for this, with this being updated at least once every week. However, this will only go into effect three weeks or so from now, during July. Right now, here's the short-term plan: this week, prepare to see a lot of chapters being posted right after each other, after which I'll go AWOL for fourteen days as I go on vacation without internet :( After that, though, a regular schedule will happen.

Okay! So I want to try something. I've seen authors doing Question of the Day, so I want to do a Question of the Week. Well, for now it will be a QOTD, but in a few weeks it will be a QOTW so I'll be calling it that because it's easier.

QOTW: Why do you keep up with/are interested in Fairy Tail? What draws you to the fandom?

Thank you for your time, lovely readers.