More Stingue fluffyness! :D Finally finished this prompt lol, and I can't wait to write more.. c:
Rated: K+
Pairing: Sting and Rogue [Stingue]
Words: 2,221
Prompt: Person A returns a library book and sheepishly tries to explain to the librarian, Person B, why the book is two years overdue.
Summary: "Is this the truth or an excuse because you didn't find the book interesting? Did you even bother reading it?" Rogue didn't feel like dealing with excuses. Truth of the matter was, this man didn't look like the reading type.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Fairy Tail. Nope.
"Hey, Rogue?" a petite blue haired girl, Levy, turned from her seat behind the library's front desk. "I've gotta go file these books back on the shelves, think you can handle check-out?"
The person in question, Rogue, a simple dressed man with dark hair tied up in a pony tail, a set of black locks covering his right eye, nodded with a small smile. He wore gray slacks that covered black shoes. He had the sleeves to his white button up shirt rolled up to the elbows, with a beige sweater vest completing the look. He sat in his own desk behind the front counter where people stood in line to check out books.
"Go ahead, I've got it covered," he turned back to face the next customer, a blonde girl with a pink-haired companion by her side. "Ready?"
The girl nodded, handing him the small handful of books, all ranging from constellations to writing tips. "Natsu, are you sure you didn't want anything?" The girl asked as Rogue began scanning the books, typing a few things into his computer, and scanning some more.
"I'm not a bookworm like you, Luce," the pink-haired answered, grinning.
"Then why'd you come?" The blonde crossed her arms.
"I wanted to hang out with you!" Natsu defended.
"Can I get your library card?" Rogue asked, interrupting the two. He knew Lucy from before, she's a regular attendant plus Levy's best friend. Lucy handed him the card, and with one more scan, their transaction was complete. "Have a nice day, Lucy."
"Thanks, Rogue!" Lucy and Natsu waved goodbye and exited the library.
"Next?" Rogue smiled at Yukino, one of his classmates, next in line.
The time flew by quickly and before he knew it, he wanted his lunch break to start already. He flipped open his copy of The Dragon Prophesy by one of his favorite authors, Arien Renae, and began reading where he left off. Mahina finally confronted Darien about his mother, the queen who robbed the world of the dragons. Darien kept his lineage secret, something Mahina felt betrayed for.
The sound of the doors opening peaked Rogue's interest enough for him to glance up, and see a blonde trying to sneak a library book back in the return slot near the first few shelves. Normally Rogue would've ignored it and kept on reading, but the particular title of the book the blonde held ignited his interest even more.
"Excuse me," he said aloud, quiet enough to keep the peace in the library, but loud enough for the man to hear him, which he did. Rogue watched as the blonde flinched, and turned his attention to the front desks, where Rogue summoned him with a wave of his finger.
The blonde sagged his shoulders and shuffled towards the front desk where Rogue stood, waiting. "Is there a problem?" the blonde was definitely nervous, but tried to play it off by acting cool. He leaned one arm over the counter and rested his chin on his fingerless-gloved palm. He wore dark green pants that were ripped over the thighs, a tight-fitting brown t-shirt with little fiery designs on it, and a spike leather vest over top. He wore metal bracelets over his wrists and chains around his waist. The blonde's hair appeared spiky and Rogue noticed he wore a lot of piercings over his ears, lip, and eyebrow. Typical punk look. The feature that intrigued Rogue the most: the bluest eyes he's ever come across, with thin slits for pupils.
"I-uh—," Rogue stuttered for a moment before clearing his throat. The blonde's appearance had caught him off guard, especially when the said man raised a single pierced eyebrow. Rogue felt the heat rushing towards his face, and inhaled deeply to calm his suddenly racing heart. "May I see the book you are returning?"
The blonde studied him for a moment before handing the book over. Rogue reached for it, making sure to keep the distance between their hands. He couldn't deny the fact he found the blonde very attractive. Anyone would be after the punk and badass aura he seemed to be radiating off him.
Holding the book into his line of view, Rogue studied the title intently and more closely. As he thought, it was Little Red, one of Arien Renae's earliest works. The library had copies of it years ago, but because hardly anyone read them, they were forced to remove the series to make room for more popular books, much to Rogue's dismay. There had been one missing, someone had surprisingly checked it out and never returned it. The series had been removed anyways, so no one cared if one went missing, but this was two years ago. Why now was this man returning it? Was he the one who checked it out in the first place?
"We don't carry this series anymore, how did you get it?" he asked the blonde, who had been staring at Rogue rather intently.
"I checked it out," the blonde shrugged, his expression bored but slightly intrigued. Seriously? Rogue figured he found the book, saw the library sticker, and thought to return it out of duty.
"We haven't carried this series for two years," Rogue stated plainly, and he almost smiled and the grimace upon the blonde's face. "This book is two years overdue."
"Y-yeah, well…," The blonde shifted his palm to cover his sudden blush. "You see, I meant to return the book, but I'm in this band—,"
"A band?" Rogue raised a skeptical eyebrow. "How does that excuse two years?"
"I planned on reading it, but it's because I'm in a band, that I can't read," the blonde used his hands in pointless gestures.
"You have the inability, or…?"
"Hey, I can read just fine!" the blonde retorted at Rogue's subtle hint. "My bandmates made fun of me the last time I read a book, so I thought I'd read it in secret, but we've been so busy—,"
"Is this the truth or an excuse because you didn't find the book interesting? Did you even bother reading it?" Rogue didn't feel like dealing with excuses. Truth of the matter was, this man didn't look like the reading type.
"Dude, I bawled by eyes out when Red's grandmother was literally torn apart right before her eyes! I've shipped Red and Kai since the beginning! Of course I read it!" The blonde appeared honestly offended. "Look—long story short, I finished reading it within the month—,"
"It took you a month to finish the book, and two years to return it?" Rogue asked, unamused.
"Y-yes, that's the thing…once I finished, I didn't want it to end, so I ended up reading it over and over again…until I remembered it's a library book and I probably have a huge overdue fee waiting for me…so, here I am," the blonde quickly released in one breath, Rogue had to backtrack to recall everything he said.
"Give me a minute," Rogue sat down and scanned the book into the system. A name popped up claiming the book, "Sting Eucliffe?" The name rolled off his tongue effortlessly.
"That's me," Sting nodded.
Rogue stared for a few seconds longer, plugging in a name to a face, before returning to the screen. Rogue almost laughed at the overall price for the fee. "The total comes to around eighty dollars, will that be a check, credit, or cash?"
If Sting didn't move, his face would get stuck and remain that way for a while. His eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets and his mouth hanging wide open, Rogue could make out two pointy fangs in his teeth. "Eighty bucks?! That's outrageous!"
"It is two years overdue," Rogue pointed out, leaning his own chin against his palm, daring to pull a small smirk.
"You said you don't carry the book anymore, which means I shouldn't have to pay it right?!" Sting looked ready to start begging. "I don't have eighty bucks to blow off on a damn book!"
Rogue sighed, "You're right, we can't force payment on books we don't have available anymore. I just thought someone who enjoyed it so much would take responsibility for your actions," he met his red eyes with Sting's blue ones. "You're off the hook, just next time you want a library book, don't take two years to return it,"
Sting didn't say anything, just stared at Rogue as he resumed typing stuff on the computer. After another minute passed with no movement from the blonde punk, so when Rogue looked up to ask him, he found Sting staring at the book Rogue left sitting beside his keyboard. The one by Arien Renae, The Dragon Prophesy.
"You like Arien Renae?" Sting asked, all panic and unease from before gone from his voice.
"S-sure," Rogue found himself nervous, no one's ever asked about the type of books he's read before.
"What's this one about?" Sting crossed his arms and leaned them over top the counter to get a closer look.
Rogue hesitated a few seconds before answering, "The main character, her village was attacked by demons, and later she finds out she's the princess of a kingdom. There's a prophesy she needs to fulfill by defeating the Lord Queen of Demons, to free the dragons the woman has captured. She just found out her lover is the son of the Demon Queen, she feels betrayed. She's conflicted on how she can kill the mother of the man she loves, knowing the truth now…,"
Rogue blinked, and glanced up at Sting with sudden warmth rising to his face. He didn't mean to go into such detail, nor did he plan on rambling on like that… "S-sorry,"
"For what?" Sting asked, smiling.
"No one's really asked me that before. This is one of my favorite works by Arien, besides Little Red,"
"You've read Little Red?" Sting asked, surprised.
Rogue nodded. "It's a prequel, you know, she meets up with a bunch of other characters from Grimm: Fairy Tales in the Grimm Warrior Chronicles. Arien takes Grimm characters and twists them in a different way. It's a really interesting read, if you want Red's story to continue,"
"Do you guys carry it here?" Sting asked, excited.
"Unfortunately, we gave that away along with Little Red, it's just too unpopular," Rogue answered, finding himself enjoying the talk between him and the blonde punk. "I have the complete series signed by Arien Renae herself back at my house."
"Seriously! You gotta let me borrow it!" Sting grinned, surprising Rogue with his happy expression.
"You…want to keep reading it?" Rogue asked, his eyes widening.
Sting stopped, blinked once, and flushed red. "W-well, I g-guess…I more or less…just wanna see more of…you?"
Now it was Rogue's turn to blush. "I-uh, h-huh?"
Sting closed his eyes. "You're really cute when you talk about books, and I do feel really bad about the fee…,"
"D-don't worry about it," Rogue answered, fiddling with the cup of paper clips to distract his shaking hands.
"How about I make it up to you?" Sting asked, causing Rogue to whip his head up at him.
"What?"
"I can tell the library doesn't give two shits about the overdue book, but I can see you are upset by it, so how about I treat you to lunch? My treat," Sting said, smiling genuinely.
"B-but," Rogue stuttered. He couldn't go out with a stranger, even if its just lunch! "We don't even know each other,"
"But we could," Sting smiled. "All friends are strangers at some point."
"F-friends?" Rogue couldn't believe this guy, they were complete opposites, there's no way they could get along to maintain a healthy friendship.
"I'm not taking no for an answer either," Sting smirked. "When do you get off? And how does Sabertooth sound? It's a local diner, best in town,"
Rogue hesitated for a moment, before something blue caught his attention. It was Levy, she waved at him from across the library, hidden from Sting's view between the shelves. She sent him two thumbs up and a smile, giving him just the courage he needed.
"Sabertooth sounds perfect, I get off in twenty," his heart skipped at Sting's grin.
"Great, I'll see you then. I look forward to hearing all about Arien Renae's work," Sting nodded as he turned to exit the library. Walking through the doors, he turned around and threw Rogue a wink and said, "Later, cutie,"
Rogue has never blushed more than in that moment.
Bonus:
"Rogue! You got a date! And with a guy!" Levy ran over and hugged the still blushing librarian. Only a few people knew about Rogue's true sexuality, Levy being one of them.
"It's no big deal," Rogue shrugged, although his heart still beat uncontrollably and his smile remained beaming.
"It's a huge deal! He's very attractive! Into books! You couldn't have snagged a better deal!" Levy then grinned her sly smirk. "You better tell me all the juicy details..and I mean all of them,"
"Levy! It's only lunch," Rogue's face burned red.
"Keep telling yourself that, hun, I know a lustful gaze when I see it," Levy wiggled her eyebrows.
"Oh my god,"
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