Hey I'm back, did you miss me? 'Course you did, y'all want your next fix of The Faerie's Dragon!
Special thanks to xxXMidnight BlazeXxx for making the new cover for this story. Why don't you guys go check out their Stories!
ROMANTIC FLUFF AND SHIPPING BELOW. Read at your own risk fangirls. ;)
This entire chapter will be focusing on Sting/Yukino and Rogue/Kagura just letting you know. I did my best with the romantic parts, but hey, may not be the greatest. – AMS
Seeing as it was a reasonable hour for a midday meal, the four infiltrators of Crocus agreed they would go scout the local markets for famous Fiorian treats. Frosch was looking forward to trying a moon melon, a fruit that reportedly had silver flesh and a light sweet flavor, Rogue and Lector each wanted to have one of Crocus' legendary cream and raspberry jam filled pastries known as a Sunrise crumpet. Sting acted uninterested in trying out Friore's sweets and culinary treats, though equally enthusiastic about getting his hands on a Sugar Belle, a sweet of honey flavored spun sugar and candy pearls in the shape of a rose.
The four companions walked through the winding paths between stalls, tents and carts of various sizes set up in a large square in the capital's northern section. Sting and Rogue had to admit it was very pleasant, the air was clean, the food smelled delicious, tents and stalls were all painted bright colors; and the assorted faeries and other creatures selling their wares were polite and not too pushy.
It was busy but it wasn't crowded, and in no time at all they found a stall with some reasonably priced bistro. The four of them split it for lunch off to the side near a fountain where the grounds of the market were not as crowded.
As they ate, they admired the fountain whose base the rested on. It was a veined marble sculpture about 12 feet high, including the 5 ft. pedestal it sat on in the base full of cool water. The sculpture was curiously one of a rearing dragon in its true form, wings spread wide, tail wrapped around its hind legs, forelegs stretching out with curled claws. But most curious was the dragon's expression. It's eyes were open wide with an expression of wonder; as if gazing out onto a night with a full moon surrounded by dazzling stars. But its mouth was open in a roar of defiance, the two real dragons sitting below its feet knew its features well enough to tell by the curled lips, and the flared nose. Water spouted from the open maw and from jets set into the pedestal around the dragon's feet; splashing into the foot deep waters that surrounded it.
The likeness to a real dragon was certainly uncanny, both Sting and Rogue agreed. Whoever the artist was had to have been incredibly familiar with Dragon anatomy, perhaps a subject expert, or perhaps….. Perhaps this fountain was an ancient relic. One of the few from the ancient era, in which every creature of Earthland lived together without conflict, one of the few that had survived unscathed from the wars of the world in the past hundreds of thousands years since the dragons secluded themselves to the mountains and the lands beyond.
In any case, it was making the dragons, but not so much the exceeds, extremely uncomfortable and wary that anyone would make the connection between them and the subject immortalized in the fountain's statue.
They quickly finished up their lunch and began to wander around to try and find their respective desired treats. "I don't see anyone selling sun crumpets around here," Complained Lector. "Why don't we split up and meet back by the statue in a half hour." He suggested. Sting and Rogue looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure." Sting said. "That'll work." Rogue agreed. "I can go with Frosch, so she doesn't get lost." Rogue sent Sting a dark look when he snickered, who tried to cover it up by coughing violently. Rogue turned to Lector and tossed him a few gold coins. "Lector, why don't you go buy those sun crumpets; then fly over to meet up with me and Frosch."
"I think it's a great plan!" Frosch cried, raising her hand with a smile. "'Course you do." Sting muttered, earning him another dark look from Rogue. Raising his hands in defense sting backed up a few steps before turning and sauntering off; calling back over his shoulders "Okay, okay! I'm off to satisfy my sweet tooth!" With those clever parting words, Sting turned a corner and disappeared from view.
Yukino Agria, Lt. of the Fiore royal army was in a very good mood. She had day off, so she slept in, her hair was behaving for once, the sun was shining so she decided to go down to the market grounds to grab something sweet for herself. Dressed in a white and blue dress and cloak with a blue rose in her silver hair, she wandered through the vendors' stalls, looking for one that sold the treat she was craving, sugar belles.
After a short while, Yukino finally found a green cart selling the spun sugar treats, every other stall and stand happened to be out. A cloaked elfish looking man with spikey blonde hair was already there, talking to the vendor, so she stood politely behind him, waiting for him to finish his purchase. There was a jingle of coins, and the young man turned around with 2 sugar belles in his hand. "'Excuse me," He muttered, slowly stepping past Yukino without so much as a glance.
Yukino stepped forward, but was halted as the vendor shook his head and placed a sign infront of his cart. They were out of Sugar belles, the blonde young man from earlier had taken the last two. "What?" Yukino blinked confused. "B-But you can't be out!" She protested. The vendor shook his head. "Sorry, ma'am, but he just got the last of 'em." He nodded towards the blonde's retreating form.
"But-But, everyone else is out too!" She exclaimed. The vendor gave her an annoyed look. "Listen lady; I don't got any, so just leave me alone." "But-" "Leave if I can't interest you in something else! I don't got no more of those!" He yelled.
Yukino flinched backwards, shocked by his rudeness. "Alright then!" She said angrily, but was jolted out of her rage by a hand being laid on her shoulder. "Now, ma'am, I'm sure there's some way this can be solved." A young male voice came from the owner of the hand. "As I'm guilty of buying the last, I can share one with you, how's that sound?" The young man continued kindly.
"Oh?" Yukino turned her head to look at the young man in surprise, who jerked backwards as if her tail had stung him when he saw her face. Wide-eyed, he stared back at her in shock as she continued. "Really?" He numbly nodded. "Well, thank you very much then." She giggled slightly at the expression still frozen on his face.
He quickly dropped his hand from her shoulder and looked away. "Well, it's the least anyone c-could do…" He mumbled, holding out one of the sugar belles to her. "Thank you." She smiled, reaching up to take it from him. As her fingers curled around the 'stem' of the rose, their fingers touched for just the briefest of moments. But it was enough. The blonde snatched his hand back, face turning bright red as his jaw clenched tersely.
Stepping towards him, Yukino got her first good look at him. He was taller than her, but not by a lot, his light blonde hair was short and spikey; his eyes were a deep shade of blue that she could get hopelessly lost in—'No, no, bad Yukino!' She chided herself. 'Don't go there, you barely just met the guy!' Moving forward; over his right eye there was a small diagonal scar that cut through his eyebrow and into his temple. And she couldn't help but notice, as his lips were slightly parted, that his canines were longer and sharper than average.
At last she noticed he was making a strange face and he was turning a very interesting shade of purple. "Um, Sir?" She asked hesitantly. "A-are you alright?" At this he coughed a few times and his face returned to its normal shade. "Y-yeah…" He breathed shakily. "It's just that I've never seen an Angel before." He said quickly before his face turned a brilliant shade of scarlet again and he looked down bashfully.
Yukino blinked in surprise before smiling self-consciously, turning pink; no one had ever flirted with her before. "Um, T-Thank y-you…" She mumbled softly. "No one's ever said anything like that to me before!" She squealed, burying her face into her hands.
He put a hand on her upper arm, leading her away from the vendors and more into open space as the crowd began to thicken. "Really?" He asked mentally pep-talking himself. 'Come on Sting you can do it, just compliment her! She'll have no idea you've never done this before, neither has she!' He swallowed nervously before saying: "You're so beautiful though, miss." She peeked up at him through her fingers, biting her lip. "Truly?" She asked shyly, to which he nodded. "And m-my name is Yukino Agria, sir." He smiled widely. 'Yes!' He mentally fist-pumped. 'I know her full name now!' "Sting. Sting Eucliffe" He introduced himself, holding out a hand for Yukino to shake.
Taking her hands away from her face, she bashfully took his hand in her own and gave it a firm shake. "It's a pleasure to meet you," She said, and quickly dropped her hand to her side as she saw him turning a deeper shade of red. "Sorry." "No, it's fine," He gave her a small smirk. "Yukino." His voice saying her name sent shivers down her spine and she flushed dark pink. Her heart gave a little jolt as he sent a roguish wink in her direction.
Kagura Mikazuchi. The iron willed, determined, unshakable Captain of the Royal Army, who was master of swordsmanship, hand-to-hand combat, who knew thirty different ways to incapacitate the strongest of faeries, centaurs and the like; Kagura Mikazuchi, the unbeatable, the stone-faced Captain; was currently squealing in delight and hugging a small green and pink exceed, and cooing over its apparent adorableness.
Several members of the crowd sweat-dropped at the odd sight, before hurrying on their way. Meanwhile, two of the throng of fae and other creatures, pushed forwards in a panic, trying to find the other member of their party, whom had somehow gotten lost, even with the Dragon next to her and her fellow exceed flying just ahead of them.
"Frosch!?" Called Lector, flying over the crowd trying to pick out any green and pink. "Frosch! Where are you!?" Yelled Rogue, frantically pushing through the crowds to find his friend. Whipping his head back and forth to search for a flash of green accompanied by pink, Rogue felt a familiar anxiety fill up his stomach. Frosch was gone in a busy market place of an enemy nation. With the exception of the apocalypse, Rogue was certainly feeling that things couldn't have gotten worse.
"Hmmmph!" Frosch squirmed, trying in vain to get out of the dark haired she-elf's arms. She sternly squared her gaze onto the brunette's and crossed her arms, firmly ordering; "You have to let me go now Miss." When Kagura only raised an eyebrow to Frosch's demands, the frog-obsessed exceed elaborated. "Rogue-kun get very worried when Frosch goes missing, and he doesn't know where I am right now."
"Oh." Kagura said, relaxing her grip and allowing Frosch to slip out of her arms and hover in front of her, wings extended. The crowd still weaved and moved around them, but gave a wide berth to the two. It may have been something to do with the sheathed sword hanging from Kagura's waist. Resting a hand on the pommel of her sword, Kagura leaned back and asked. "So, if you are lost, do you know where you will meet up with this 'Rogue'?"
Frosch opened her mouth to answer but paused and her face fell. "No…" She said remorsefully. "I don't remember." Kagura 'hmm'-ed and nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I work with the Royal Army. I could help you find this—" "Rogue!" Frosch exclaimed happily and launched herself over a slightly stunned Kagura's shoulder into the shadow dragon's open arms.
"Lector!" Frosch greeted excitedly, jumping out of Rogue's arms and into the arms of a maroon exceed flying above their heads. As the two exceeds hugged it out, Rogue, with a smile on his face, turned from the touching moment to Kagura, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Giving her a closed eye smile of gratitude, he said; "Thank you so much for holding on to Frosch for us! She gets lost so easily, and—" He froze, jaw hanging open as he opened his eyes and truly saw her face for the first time.
Kagura took the chance and admired him as he stood there unmoving, staring at her in open disbelief, a light pink blush, which she found to be adorable, coming to his face. Long, shaggy black hair reaching almost to his shoulders covered part of his face, and one of his red eyes, which she also found to be rather cute. His red eyes were crimson, and the pupils were black slits. He wore a long dark grey cloak with brown pants and traveling boots underneath.
"I-it's you!" He exclaimed, starting into motion once again and his tense shoulders relaxed. Kagura raised an eyebrow a leaned forwards. She was honestly curious about this strange young man. "It's me what?" She asked quietly.
Aaannd, Scene! Sorry to leave you with Rogue and Kagura there, But we are gathered here today, because somebody, *glares at dead plot bunny* Couldn't stay alive. But yeah, so that ended. Sorry. Tell me how you think I should continue that conversation later in the comments! Thank you once again for reading! – AMS