CHAPTER 1

Sting rubbed his eyes in annoyance. When he had become Master of Sabertooth he hadn't realized the amount of paperwork that would follow. He was used to going on missions with Rogue and putting his all into a fight. Now…now he was putting his all in to finishing the guild's paperwork. He really needed a new adventure to come along, he was going stir crazy.

"Sting, are you available or preoccupied with paperwork?" Rufus questioned, walking into the new Master's office. Sting looked at him with a brow raised, when was he ever not occupied with paperwork?

"What's up, Rufus?" Sting asked, as he stood up from his chair and stretched his arms above his head. It felt as if his whole spine popped back into place. Even his body was protesting doing this mundane work.

"There is a girl downstairs who wishes to speak with you. I couldn't tell if she was a fangirl or a girl you…spent the night with. You're going to have to handle this one on your own. She's sitting at a table by herself. It looks like she has an exceed, shouldn't be hard for you to spot." Rufus's feathered hat flowed behind him as he strode out of the room. Sting never could understand how the guy always seemed to have a graceful gait.

Lately, Sting had been so occupied with running the guild that he hadn't 'spent the night' with any girls as Rufus so eloquently put it. So he wasn't sure who could possibly be asking for him. His curiosity was peaked; he couldn't stop himself from making his way out of his office. The guild was rather loud, meaning that a majority of the members were in the guild hall. He wasn't sure if that was a good our bad thing. They would just love to tease him about any drama they might witness.

Standing at the top of the stairs Sting was able to get a good view of the entire guild. People were crowded around the bar and the rest were dispersed at different tables. Sting's eye zeroed in on Rogue sitting at a table with Frosch and Lector. Ever since the Grand Magic Games, Sting always had to check that they were okay. Lector dying in front of him still plagued his nightmares. Rogue was still trying to deal with what happened with his future self and because of this Sting kept a close eye on him. If his partner needed him, then he was going to be there for him. Rogue was always terrible at asking for help though. Sting pulled himself from those thoughts, because he came here with a purpose. Where was the girl who was looking for him?

It didn't take long to find her. She was just as Rufus had described. She was sitting at a table with just a purple exceed sitting on the table in front of her. The girl's head was bowed, long blond hair pooling around her, with the exceed talking to her. With all the noise, Sting couldn't hear what the exceed was saying to its companion, but it looked like the little cat was trying to offer comfort. Before Sting reached the bottom of the stairs Rogue, Lector and Frosch had made their way over and were waiting for him.

"Rufus tell you what's going on?" Rogue asked, his arms crossed as he stared intently at Sting.

"All he told me was that there was a girl wanting to talk to me. Has she said anything that you could eavesdrop on?" Sting questioned, hoping to have some idea on what he was walking in to.

"No, there's too many people here today. I couldn't get close enough without being suspicious. She doesn't seem like a fangirl though. How do you want to handle this?" Sting really wasn't sure what approach to take. He was just going to have to go over there and find out what she wanted.

"Hang back. I don't want her to think we are ambushing her. I'm just going to talk to her and see what she wants." Sting didn't give Rogue a chance to reply and headed towards the blond girl. She appeared to be a petite thing. She also did a good job of making herself appear small so she didn't draw attention to herself. Some of the world's greatest assassins could look the way she did now: small, meek, and unimportant. It would be a mistake not to have a guard up with her.

The purple exceed noticed him first. Up close it was obvious that the cat was a girl. She had a bow on one ear and light pink dress on. Her big eyes studied him as he approached. "Rose, I think Sting is here," the tinkling voice of the exceed spoke to her companion. This caused a reaction in the girl as her head whipped around towards him. Wide blue eyes stared back at him as if in awe. Her eyes were striking, and if Sting had ever met her before he felt that he would have remembered her. Those eyes seemed to speak volumes yet gave nothing away.

"Are you the one that's asking for me?" Sting questioned, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he looked down at the girl. She continued to stare at him for a moment before she stood up, and started to wring her hands nervously.

"Sting?" The girl's voice was soft, and surprisingly soothing to the dragon slayer. It unnerved Sting how her voice struck a chord in him, but he wasn't sure why.

"Yeah, that's me. What can I do for you?" Sting didn't want the girl to know that she had an effect on him, so he tried to come across as nonchalant. The look of awe that had been in her eyes seemed to disappear and became replaced with uncertainty. Sting's chest tightened in a way he wasn't used to and he felt the urge to rub it.

"Do…Do you recognize…me?" The girl dropped her eyes and started to wring her hands. Sting didn't need to pick up her scent to know that she was nervous. Her body language screamed it to him.

The girl looked ready to crumble and that made Sting reluctant to respond. What was going to happen when he told her that he had no idea who she was? He didn't want to hurt her if he didn't have to.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are." The girl seemed to freeze on the spot and there was a moment of silence. She dropped her hands to her side, and just stared at the ground. Sting wanted to reach out to her, but felt uncomfortable doing so. What could he possibly offer a girl he knew nothing about? The dragon slayer felt ready to burst from nerves when the girl finally looked up. There was a big smile plastered on her face, like she was the happiest girl in the world, but there were tears in the corner of her eyes. Sting's heart broke instantly.

"I see. I'm sorry for wasting your time then. Have a good day!" With that the girl turned, snatched up the exceed still sitting on the table, and started toward the guild entrance. Sting felt like he had been smacked in the face. That was not the response he had been expecting.

"Wait! Aren't you going to tell me who you are?! Have you met before? You could at least try to jog my memory!" Sting yelled, quickly closing the distance between him and the retreating girl. The girl wasn't stopping though, and just kept going.

"Just forget you saw me today. I'm not anyone important," she said, turning back to him with that same smile before she exited the guild and continued down the road.

Sting stood there, completely confused and upset with how things had gone. Why would a girl come here, request him, and then just turn away without giving him more information? Sting was floored and his hands pulled at his hair in frustration.

"Sting?" Roque questioned, trying to draw his partner's attention. Rogue had stood back, watching and listening to the whole thing. It appeared that Sting hadn't picked up on the same things that Rogue had and he wanted to run those details by him.

"What the hell was that Rogue?! She sits down and waits to speak to me for who knows how long, then leaves after asking one question! Then she doesn't even explain anything! I don't understand what just happened, but something is wrong. I swear-"

"Sting?" Rogue tried to interrupt, but his friend didn't seem to hear him.

"Did you see her face?"

"Sting…"

"She just puts on a big smile but it was obvious she was upset! Then she just-"

"STING!"

"WHAT?!" The dragon slayer roared at his friend, his chest heaving from the exertion of venting his thoughts.

"You were too caught up in what that girl was saying to pick up on anything else. First off, her name is Rose. The exceed said it when you were walking up to their table. Second, I would also like to point out some certain traits that she had before I ask you a very important question. Rose had blond hair, blue eyes, and her scent had a…unique smell to it. It was her scent that really got to me."

Sting was frustrated and didn't have the patience to try and understand what Rogue was trying to tell him. "Rogue, get to the point!"

"She smelled like you! Well not just like you. She had her own scent but it's really similar to yours."

"What are you trying to say?" Sting asked, staring intently at his partner.

"Try not to freak out but Sting…do you have a sister?"


Rose's POV

Tears burned my cheeks as they fell. I kept walking away from Sabertooth, trying put distance between us. Violet silently walked beside me, her ears flattened against her head. I knew she was afraid to say anything. She didn't want to upset me more. I had been separated from Sting when we were children. I couldn't remember what had happened for us to get separated, but I never forgot my brother. He was older than me by a couple years, and when we were young he was always beside me, holding my hand. Back then I had been too young to go searching for my brother, but I had never forgotten him. For the last several years I had traveled across the world, hoping to get some kind of information on the whereabouts of my brother.

I knew that years had passed and that it was possible my brother didn't remember me. That didn't stop me from searching though. I wanted to know that my brother was still out there, and okay. I had decided long before I found him that if he didn't remember me I would walk away. My brother had built a life for himself, I didn't want to upheave that by telling him he had a long-lost sister.

I walked into that guild knowing that it wasn't likely my brother knew who I was, but it didn't lessen the pain I felt now. I couldn't handle my emotions anymore and crumpled on a bench. I tugged Violet close to me and sobbed into her. It felt like my chest had been ripped open and was being crushed at the same time. I didn't want to accept that I would have to go through life knowing I had a brother, but didn't have a relationship with him.

"I love you Rose," Violet said softly, rubbing her face against my cheek. I knew Violet wanted to comfort me, but there was only so much she could do.

"I love you too Violet, so much," I replied, pulling the exceed even closer. I took some deep breaths and started to collect myself. Violet was quite sensitive, so I needed to pull myself together. "Well, where should we go now?"

"The first thing we need to do is get you some food!" Violet exclaimed, pulling back from me and giving me a stern look.

I sighed before replying, "I told you I'm alright Violet. We need to save as much as we can. We don't have much left."

"You say that but you always buy food for me!"

I couldn't argue with that. I hated seeing her go hungry. "How about we go look for a map? There's probably a stream nearby. We could get some fish from it and look for some berries or nuts."

"But Rose-"

"Don't worry about me, Violet. We've been through worse than this. We'll be alright. Now where do you think we should go to get a map?" I asked, standing up with Violet in my arms. She still had an uncertain look in her eyes but she started surveying the area, trying to figure out where we should go.

"How about we go-"

"ROSALIE!" I spun around, shocked to hear someone shouting my full name. Nobody knew my full name except Violet. I always introduced myself as Rose.

Sprinting towards us was nonother than Sting himself. There was a look of pure determination in his eyes. I didn't even have time to think as he quickly closed the distance between us. Violet jumped from my arms right before I was enveloped by Sting. He tucked my head under his chin as his arms tightened around. I didn't know what to do. Sting was here.

"Sting?" I asked hesitantly, fisting his shirt in my hands.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry Rosalie! I didn't mean to forget! I don't know how I forgot. Please don't go! Stay here with me," Sting pleaded, barely pulling back enough for me to look at him. There were tears in his eyes and I could feel my own tears from earlier returning. This was my brother. Years had passed, neither one of us looked the same, neither one of us acted the same, but it didn't matter. His eyes were the same. I could see my brother in his eyes.

"You…you remember me?" I asked hesitantly, afraid that this moment was just an illusion and it was going to slip away.


Hey guys! I'm looking for a beta who will proof read and let me know that I'm keeping everyone in character. Anyone interested?