Now that you are here, I implore you to read to the end before smacking me for writing something like this. Thank you.

Disclaimer: Anything you don't recognize as canon most likely belongs to me unless otherwise noted. Fairy Tail and all related things belong to Hiro Mashima.

Replaced
By: Saya Moonshadow

"Weak, weak, weak. Can't you do anything right?"

She stands there with her head bowed, bottom lip trembling as she bites it near hard enough to make it bleed. He doesn't see this, or perhaps he does, for his expression merely grows darker and he continues to rant.

"Seriously - all you ever do is rely completely on your Celestial Spirits to do the dirty work for you. And they get owned so easy, it makes me wanna die. Is it really so difficult for you to get off your ass and fight for yourself for a change?"

No response. She cannot respond, because she knows that if she opens her mouth and attempts to speak, she will break down. The last thing she wants is to break in front of him.

He is her hero - or one of them, to be fair. His dark-haired counterpart is her other one, as are many others in their guild, which she is still quite new to. And then there is the strongest woman in their guild, who she knows she can never measure up to, but tries anyway for reasons she's not too sure of herself. Perhaps if she can measure up to that woman, then she will finally be worthy of his notice. To have him speak of her in that almost awed tone and to have him be so sure of her power...it would be a literal dream come true.

"Well?"

Still no answer. She bites down on her lip harder as it becomes more difficult to keep the tears at bay.

He's become like this more and more often ever since she showed up, that woman he is so in awe of and the woman he speaks so highly about, and she hates it more than she can say. While he was never exactly the greatest when it came to the social aspect, at least he treated her decently before. Now, it seems that all he can do is berate her for every little thing, though she is willing to admit that this is at least deserved.

"How could you lose that fight? You had it in the bag, and then you went and fucking lost it somehow! Not even those Spirits of yours could save you, I mean, seriously, how terrible a wizard can you be?"

His dark-haired counterpart, he who has the exact opposite power, watches on from a slight distance, frowning but saying nothing. She knows that he agrees with what the Dragon Slayer is saying, because if he didn't, then he would speak up. He has no problem speaking his mind when he wants, though he can never be called the least bit talkative. Another one of her heroes who will not come to her rescue, but at least this one is not making the ache all that much worse.

"You know what? Fine. I've had enough of you."

She finally looks up, but not in relief as she had hoped. It is shock, and perhaps a little bit of fear, because she knows what is coming and it terrifies her.

No. No, please don't force her to leave the guild, it's the only family she has left, the only place she has to go to, the only place where she can feel truly safe, surrounded by so much power and people who were supposed to care about-

"You're done. She was right, we don't need weaklings like you around. Not when we got someone better, huh?"

This is spoken over his shoulder, where a beautiful young woman who she can never compete with is waiting for him. This woman gives him a sultry, encouraging smile.

"Of course. This guild has no need for weak people in its hall."

"But...but why?!" the girl cries out, no longer able to keep silent. She's aware that tears are now streaking down her face, but she can't make them stop. Her whole world is falling apart; how could she ever stop crying? "I - I've done everything you wanted! You..." And here she begins to sob, because she admires him so much and it just hurts so bad she feels like her heart is literally breaking in half, "you said you needed me on your team! You wanted me to be with you!"

"You were a replacement," he corrects, "for her." He points at the beautiful young woman who is waiting for him to finish and go to her. "Nothin' more, nothin' less. Did you really think we needed some weak-ass Celestial wizard when we got her? Seriously. We never needed you for anything, and we never will. And now that she's back, you can just leave. Not like you're a part of this guild anymore, anyway."

"Exactly!" This time, it is his little cat companion who speaks, and she feels her heart break all over again. She'd thought he, at least, might be sad about her being forced to leave, but apparently not. How could he allow his partner to do this to her? They were friends, weren't they? Or was all that just a lie, too?

She wants to scream, but her throat has locked up with uncontrollable sobs. Did she really mean so little to them? To him? Could it be true that all he needed her for was as a replacement until the person he really wanted could come back to him?

"You heard me!"

His dark-haired counterpart has turned away fully, and she can imagine the uncaring expression on his face. He was always so distant and emotionless, just like the power he controlled. But he'd been kind to her, and she is hoping against hope that he will speak up and defend her - and he does not. Nor will he, she now sees, and her despair intensifies.

"Leave! We don't need weaklings on this team or in our guild!"

"But...but! You said you-"

"That I needed you? What part of you were just a replacement did you not understand? I don't need you, and I never will. Now get out of my sight!"

Her teeth sink into her bottom lip once again, and she struggles internally with herself for a moment. She can feel the keys on her belt warming in an attempt to comfort her, but it's no use. Nothing will ever make this alright.

"I HATE YOU, STING!" she finally screams, and the shocked expression on his face at her outburst for the split second that she forces herself to look at him does not help the pain at all.

Sobbing hysterically, skin burning where the Sabertooth guild mark once lay, Yukino Aguria turns and runs away from him as Minerva covers a smirk with one elegant hand, Lector snickers, and Rogue makes no move to suggest he has heard anything at all.

AN: Um...psyche?

This was meant as a bit of a parody of all those stupid Natsu-kicks-Lucy-out-because-she-was-just-a-replac ement-for-Lisanna fics, because today while in the middle of my lunch break at work, I realized that Sting and Yukino are actually quite like the "Natsu" and "Lucy" in those fics. Celestial wizard who really looks up to the guild in question and finally got in, asshole Dragon Slayer who either kicks her out or is glad that she's gone, she was just a replacement until the person they really wanted was able to come back, yadda yadda yadda. If I didn't know any better, I'd almost say that Mashima did it on purpose.

I would love to label this with the proper characters, but that would give it all away. Ugh. Oh well. This will also probably be dismissed at a glance by most people who think it's just another one of those fics XD Goodness knows that's what I usually do by now whenever I see one that looks like that, at any rate.

Anyway, this was just a little blurb that I wrote up in less than an hour. I have to admit that the twist was probably fairly obvious, though, haha. Hope you enjoyed it, nonetheless.