Alright, so the funny idea I had is that because the dragons are alive and kicking, and because their kids are all hanging around on Igneel's turf, that as a result, they all live just outside of the city. There's honestly no room to be housing five dragons inside the city, so the east forest is just a much better place for them to be.

So…the best way to make things even more awkward…is to stuff all six of them into the same house. Much more convenient for their dragon parents whenever they want to hang out with their dragon slayer foster kids.

Plus, just think of all the unfortunate accidents that could happen!


Rogue's P.O.V.

"Your opponent is me."

Sting freezes as he looks at her, disbelief obvious on his face. "Say what now?"

"You heard me." She puts her hands on her hips, further exposing her bare arms now that her jacket has been removed. "I'm the one you'll be fighting."

This is certainly a twist that Sting wasn't expecting. To me, it's not so surprising. After what Gray told me earlier, I suppose that I should have had enough sense to warn Sting that this could happen. That, or he should have had enough sense not to come on so strong to a girl who is clearly not interested in dating him. Unfortunately, the harder they are to get, the more Sting gets interested.

Sting laughs uncertainly. "You sure? I mean, I was expecting to fight Natsu, or someone I can go all out against."

"Well, you had better go all out against me, unless you really do what to end up in the infirmary on your first day." She cracks her knuckles, smirking knowingly at Sting. "You asked me if I manage the club, and I suppose that's true enough. But more than that, I'm one of the strongest members. I'd have expected you to figure that out, considering that I eat lunch in the S-Class lounge with Erza and Mira. You would be wise not to underestimate what that means."

All she's done so far is talk, but I get the feeling that her confidence is well-warranted. There's just something about the way she carries herself. Proud and confident, but calm and collected as well. She knows her own power, and she's not afraid to take on Sting, even though she hasn't seen his power yet.

If her attitude is a true indication of her skill and power, I can see why we're doing this outside. "Sting…be careful." I don't know why I'm bothering trying to warn him. It's not like he's going to listen to me.

Sting shrugs slightly. "Alright, if that's the way you want to play this, I can do that. Don't worry, though, I promise that I'll go easy on you."

"Inadvisable, considering that it's supposed to be the other way around." She pushes her left hand into her right, cracking all of the joints in her hand, before repeating the gesture with her right. "But if you want to go and underestimate me, then be my guest. I'll just have to show you firsthand that I didn't earn my S-Class rank the easy way."

Sting grins easily, lazily. He obviously doesn't really think that this is going to be much of a fight. He got very used to being at the top at our old school. But I'm worried that he might just be getting in over his head with this girl.

All of the spectators move to the outside of the arena, settling themselves safely behind the barricades. I join them, not particularly eager to get involved in this fight, even by accident. And personally, I would rather know exactly what we're getting ourselves into before testing my luck. Sting, on the other hand, has no such inhibitions.

The barriers start to hum, and light green magic shoots out of them, rising into the sky and covering the arena in a protective dome. This must be for containing the magic. They must want to avoid there being any damage done to the buildings. And it's something they're going to need, if the fact that there's two dragon slayers in there is anything to judge by.

Sting's relaxed grin stands in stark contrast to Ciara's wry smile and look of irritated determination. "So, wanna get started, sweetheart?"

"Whenever you're ready." She gestures to him. "Challenger gets the first move."

"Well, I was going to say ladies first, but if you insist…" Sting bends at the knees a little, his tell for when he's going to try and go for a fast knock-out. Usually, he likes playing with an opponent for a while, but he probably just wants to end this quickly because he thinks that he's going to hurt her otherwise.

As expected, Sting springs at her, almost faster than the eye can see. Speed is something that the two of us have trained hard to acquire. Mostly because I'm under the belief that sheer strength isn't the only way to win a fight. If the first attack hits, the battle can be over in an instant.

However, as Sting's glowing hand descends towards Ciara, it would appear that I'm not the only one who believes that speed is important. It's so fast that I barely catch it, even out of the corner of my eye. A split second before Sting's strike is due to connect, Ciara vanishes into thin air, leaving Sting to crash unceremoniously into the ground, dazed and bewildered by the lack of contact with a human body.

"What the…?" He pulls his hand out of the crack in the ground, shaking out the pain in his hand. "Where'd she…?" He spins around, his eyes flicking everywhere as he searches for her. "Don't tell me that I vaporized her!"

He sniffs the air worriedly, and my own nose guides my eyes upward. You have got to be kidding me… At least now I know how and why she managed to come in through the window this morning. About twenty feet above our heads, Ciara is hanging in the air, surrounded by short, powerful gusts of wind that are keeping her afloat.

"Hm…you're a fast one." A slight smile curves her lips. "Unfortunately for you, speed is my specialty." Again, a fact that makes a lot of sense. I should have guessed that a user of wind magic would specialize in speed.

In a flash, she hits the ground, the springs towards Sting, sweeping his legs out from under him before he can blink. Fortunately for my numbskull of a partner, this is hardly the first time he's seen that move. And almost by instinct, he reaches his hands back, slamming them into the ground as he flips head over heels, avoiding the nearly inevitable crash that would have befallen him, had he employed less reliable reflexes.

In that instant, the look in Sting's eyes changes. This is no longer a fun game that he could end in one hit, this is a serious fight. It's clear that he's realized that if he doesn't take the opponent in front of him seriously, he's going to end up getting his ass kicked.

He shoots towards her again, faster this time, with a bright white light enveloping his hands and feet. He punches straight at her head, prompting her to block the strike and send it up above her head. He takes her moment of distraction to aim another punch at her hip, hoping to catch her off guard.

Instead, she rolls into the strike, letting it pass right over her waist as she turns her back to Sting, their bodies only inches apart. "Good moves. But, not good enough." She sweeps her right leg back, hooking it behind Sting's ankle. With a firm tug, she sets him off balance, and uses her own body weight to fall back into him, slamming her left hand into the ground as she elbows him in the gut, driving him deeper into the dirt before backing off again, letting Sting pick himself up out of the dirt.

The girl from earlier, Cana, I think her name was, nudges me in the side. "Your friend isn't too bright, is he?"

"That, he is not…" No matter what she's referring to, it's true that Sting can be very dense at times. And I often have to clean up his messes. "Mind telling me why, while your friend is beating mine to a pulp?" It surprised me a little when Ciara let Sting get back up, but if she's looking more for a thrilling fight, then it would be against her desires to let the fight end now.

Cana grins eagerly at me. "Well, this is a pretty common sight. In fact, I'm surprised that your friend has lasted this long. Most guys who end up fighting her go down in less than a minute. And it's already passed the one minute mark. Usually, we'd be betting on a match like this, but since Ciara doesn't lose, everyone stopped betting against her. This is how she goes about shooting down the persistent guys."

"I see…" A shiver goes down my spine at the news. It's easy to see that she's strong, but to think that she never loses is a whole other level of intimidating. "Should I be prepared to drag Sting to the infirmary?"

Cana frowns a little, humming as she tries to come up with an answer. "From the looks of it, I'd say she's going easy on him. But if they decide to start breaking out the big guns, I would definitely be prepared to at least have to drag him out of the arena."

"Noted…" I turn my eyes back on the fight, which has gotten increasingly violent as little spurts of magic power start to fly everywhere. I have to admit that I'm impressed with her skills. She's easily taking on Sting in hand to hand combat, and it's something that we've both been studying since we were kids. It's very rare that we ever find anyone able to keep up with us. But then again, I suppose that I should expect no less from a fellow dragon slayer.

Sweat drips down Sting's face, and his right hand glows brighter, while the light around all of his other limbs dims. Reaching forward, he produces a familiar strike. "White Dragon's Claw!" He swipes at Ciara, obviously trying to stop her from moving by marking her with a stigma.

It backfires badly. Not only does his attack fail to hit, but she knocks his hand up and out of the way, grabs onto his wrist, and yanks him close to her as she grins. "Wind Dragon's Shining Claws." She draws her hand back, wind swirling around it, before slamming her palm into Sting's stomach, sending him flying as the impact rips his arm from her grasp.

Sting hits one of the barricades and slides to the ground in a heap. That puts a huge grin on Cana's face. "Looks like she went for mercy this time. I remember her fight with Gajeel, and man did those two forget how to hold back." She taps the barrier, and it lowers, the light green magic flowing back into the stone blocks that line the arena.

Cheers start going up on all sides, and Natsu jumps over the barricades, heading straight for his sister. I, on the other hand, slide over the barricade in front of me and walk over to where Sting is collapsed on the ground. "You still conscious?"

He twitches a little, then starts groaning. "Ugh…I feel like I got hit by a train…"

A small smile curls the corner of my lips. If he can make jokes like that, then he's going to be just fine. My gaze wanders over to the other combatant, who is surrounded by people, though looks like she's trying to extricate herself. If this was just a match for fun, I wonder how strong she would be in a real fight…

It takes a few minutes, but the crowd starts to dissipate. Most of the students head back inside to pick up their things, or off to various club meetings, while some just make a beeline straight for the gates to freedom.

Eventually, only a few scattered people are left behind, including a few gossiping girls, insistent on pointing at me and Sting. From the sounds of it, they're finding it funny that Sting challenged one of the school idols, but I could swear that I heard them throw the words hot and cute around a few times.

Thankfully, this little disaster looks to be over. The only problem is that if I drag Sting through the school to the infirmary, we'll attract a whole lot of attention that I just don't want. The best thing to do would be to head home and tend to him there. The problem is, I have no idea where our new place is, since the two of us moved out of the Sabertooth dorms in order to come to this school. Our dads arranged something for us, and there was a note with an address on it delivered to the hotel we stayed at for the night, with directions on where to go after school.

While I'm stuck in my thoughts, a head of pink hair saunters over to me, and Natsu grins at me with a smile brighter than Sting's magic. "So, what are you two doing later? It'd be great to show you how the practice dummies work!"

I glance at my best friend and partner, who is sitting around, rubbing places that are surely going to bruise. "Well, Sting and I have to figure out where we're headed, so…" I pull a piece of paper out of my pocket, peering carefully at it. "I was hoping to find a map of the city and try to find out where our new place is. Skiadrum and Weisslogia arranged it…"

"Let me see that." Natsu snatches the piece of paper out of my hand and stares at it. A second later, his eyes widen comically. "No way…"

"What's wrong, Natsu?" Ciara peers over his shoulder, her own eyes focusing on the address before her. And like her brother, her eyes widen as well, though not nearly as much. "Well, that's a surprise. Though I guess that it probably shouldn't be."

"What are you talking about?" Bewilderment flashes through me as I take in their expressions. "Do you know where this is?"

"Yeah, we know that place well." She turns her head and yells over to Gajeel, who's been hanging around the area since the match started. "Hey! Get Wendy and take her home, will ya? Me and Natsu are gonna be escorting these two to their new place!"

Gajeel narrows his eyes suspiciously at her, before flicking them to me, a knowing grin growing on his face. "Yeah, sure. I'll take care of the kid."

"Thank you!" Ciara grins a little, before turning back to us, her eyes finding Sting sitting on the ground, still pouting. "Get up, Lightbulb, it's time to head home." I wonder how long it took her to come up with that nickname…and how long it'll take Sting to get sick of it…

Sting raises his head, his eyebrows furrowed as his eyes lock on her. "Home?"

"Yeah." She walks over to the side of the arena and picks up her pack. "I'd been wondering who was moving in when Natsu and I were unpacking. Guess now we know."

A shiver goes down my spine at her words. "Wait, unpacking?"

"Yeah." Her grin grows wider as her eyes bore holes through me. "I'm guessing that S.E. stands for Sting Eucliffe, and that R.C. stands for Rogue Cheney. The boxes arrived from your dorm late last night. Igneel told us that we were getting two new house mates, and to get everything unpacked and set up for you two." She kicks Natsu, who yelps and rubs his sore bottom. "That's why Natsu was so sleepy this morning. He and Gajeel were up really late sorting out Sting's room, because they kept getting distracted and started arguing over dumb shit."

"What!? You guys touched my stuff!?" Sting starts seething, but is quickly silenced by Ciara's glare. A glare that has probably silenced many an unruly tongue.

I swallow nervously. "I see…" She's thrown a whole lot of information at us at once, and it throws me off a little. Especially the part about them unpacking our stuff. Typically, I never let anyone touch my stuff, even Sting. "So…if Natsu and Gajeel were doing Sting's room…"

"Me and Wendy set up yours. That includes all of your books. We even had to get Gajeel to carry one of the bookshelves down from the storage room in the library." Ciara's grin turns into a smirk. "Though, imagine my surprise when I found a pair of black boxers with a little purple dragon on them. They were so cute…"

My face starts burning immediately. "You went through my underwear!?" She must have done it on purpose, just to embarrass me. This girl is turning out to be more and more like Sting every second. Only scarier.

She chuckles mischievously. "Wendy and I did unpack every single box in under two hours." She starts walking off towards the school gates, before stopping for a second. "Oh, and I'm guessing that the two new cats are yours? We left them at home to get acquainted with the others."

"Others?" Sting perks up a little, despite the embarrassment radiating off him. "What others?"

Natsu grins and jogs over to join his sister. "Come on, we'll show you when we get there!"

I glance at Sting, locking eyes with him for a moment. "I suppose we should go."

"Might as well." Sting shrugs, neither of us entirely sure what to expect this afternoon.

Ciara waves us over as she and Natsu get to the gate. "Come on! If we beat Wendy and Gajeel home, we get to pick what's on the menu tonight!" Wait, Gajeel lives with them as well!?

Sting bounces to his feet, the mere mention of food quickly getting his spirits up. "Alright! Let's go!"

It's finally time to go and check out our new home. And from the looks of it, we're going to be far from alone. Not with four other dragon slayers living with us in the same house.