For the next week, life for Rogue fell into a snug routine of being completely coddled. Natsu and Sting conceded that he was well enough to eat things that weren't soup again, and he enjoyed a normal, solid breakfast and dinner with both of them, while Natsu was always around for lunch—even if he spent a few hours each day at the guild. Happy was ever present, and when Sting thought they could get away with it, Frosch and Lector would stay with Natsu "to show him around" while Sting worked. If Sting felt uncomfortable one night letting Rogue sleep upstairs, then Natsu would sleep downstairs with him.

Even when he was allowed to shower, Natsu convinced Frosch to go in with Rogue. Endearing as he found her, Rogue had wanted to pitch a fit at that one. He had exactly no alone time whatsoever, and couldn't even have some privacy in the bathroom. But he supposed he at least ought to appreciate that it was now Natsu nudging for the zero privacy rule rather than Sting. (Unless they colluded while away from Rogue to have Natsu be the bad guy for such insistences.) He'd acted out of desperation too many times while people's guards were down, and Natsu had kept his word and not told Sting about him coaxing Happy into drugging him, so Rogue bit his tongue and didn't resist their rules.

Besides, it could be worse. Happy wasn't terrible company, and Natsu was pleasant, and Frosh and Lector and Sting were dear and comforting. There was no time when Rogue wasn't with someone who treated him well. Compared to what it had been like in prison, that was a blessing. Even before his arrest, trying to assure Sting that everything was okay and the way people treated him wasn't killing him inside, Rogue had spent a considerable amount of time trying to put on a brave face and be a pillar of support for Frosch. Guilty as he felt leaning on her instead, There was certainly a sense of relief in being able to count on everyone else to handle things while he focused on not suffering a full on breakdown.

Sting promised they could move him to the guild within a month, and that he'd found someone else who could have another room set up that Sting would take within a few weeks of that. Rogue always lit up at that, because Natsu warned that he could only be there a few weeks, and for as much as Rogue wished for a little privacy, he dreaded being left alone. His hand still twitched down to his leg whenever his shadow started mocking him, desperate to do something to block the voice out so he wouldn't open himself to it again, and it was only because others were there to block out the noise and look sadly at him when they thought he was about to hurt himself again that he refrained. He was already going to have one hell of a scar on his right leg on top of all the mental scarring he would no doubt carry forevermore from the whole ordeal. No sense is leaving any more marks.

Moving to the guild would also be nice for the simple fact that he'd be able to hear familiar voices again. He would need to be careful to keep quiet during the day, but Rogue's hearing was much sharper than that of his former guildmates, and he looked forward to listening to them and pretending that he was actually up on the first flood interacting with people, rather than hidden away in a basement.

It was cushy and comfortable and all in all almost bearable, and it took Rogue completely by surprise when Natsu ran downstairs for lunch grinning from ear to ear with the news "Jellal made contact!"

There had been more attacks in the past week, which Rogue hadn't paid much heed. His world consisted of Sting's house—and mostly the basement of it at that. He had bigger worries than things happening outside of his world. But he'd known that Natsu was getting anxious. The more serious things got without hearing from his friend, the more likely it was that his friend was among the Councilors who had already been killed, but not yet found. Confirmation that Jellal was alive meant there was now a total off two Councilors not confirmed dead. The former chairman had gone missing several days earlier.

Rogue smiled for Natsu and said, "That's wonderful," before remembering that Natsu had asked Jellal about him. "What did he say?"

"He's got into a fight with those Oracion Seis guys. Remember them?"

"No?" Rogue was sure he'd heard the name come up somewhere recently, but he'd never paid much attention to anything

Natsu paused, surprised by this, then shrugged. "Guess you would have been a kid last time Jellal had anything to do with them. Anyway, they're all good now, but Jellal took some damage in the fight, and when Tartaros found him, he only got out alright because the Oracion guys had his back. He found out why they're killing everyone though."

"What? They spent so much time gloating about their evil plans that the person they were about to murder found a way to thwart them."

"Probably. You'd be surprised how often bad guys do that. Anyway, it's bad. Really bad. The kind of bad where if the Council were still around, they'd probably offer to protect Jellal with no strings attached, just to stop this. Well, maybe not if he negotiated with four-eyes, but Doranbolt would be all for it. Except he's asking Fairy Tail for help instead, and Erza said there were a couple Sabertooth people who wanted to speak with him, and he's fine with that, so long as you're fine with putting yourself in close proximity with someone who's likely to be attacked at any moment."

"I'm being targeted," Rogue reminded Natsu. "It doesn't really matter to me at this point if I get close to someone a dark guild doesn't like. You know officers from Era?"

"Yeah. We deal with them a lot," Natsu said. From what all Rogue remembered about Fairy Tail, he took this to be an understatement. "Doranbolt just got out of the hospital and Wendy made me go see him. He was there for the bombing. Four-eyes was off looking for you. He's the one who arrested Jellal last time, and he's a hard-ass, so we're going to avoid him, because he won't care if Shade made you kill those people or if Sting's going to seal Shade away. He'll just wanna arrest whoever he was told to."

"And he will care that Sting has no idea how to deal with Shade." Rogue tried not to sound tart when he said it, but when he closed his mouth he could taste the tartness of his words.

"Yeah. He's a jerk like that," Natsu said, missing the tone entirely. "We have Jellal's location, and two days to get there. You can't take the train, so how's Frosch for flying?"

"She's better than Lector," Rogue said.

"Great. Sting's working on some excuse to be away from the guild right now. We'll head out tonight. Pack anything of yours that you… um…" Natsu glanced around at the basement, which wouldn't look lived in if it weren't for the disheveled mattress on the floor. Now that there was someone who could safely go upstairs in broad daylight, Rogue didn't leave any of Sting's books lying around, and between the break-in at his house and his arrest not long after, he was short on personal possessions. "I'll pack stuff to eat."

"If there's anything I can do to help…"

"Nah. You and Happy take it easy."

'You're staying down here with Happy, where you're safe from the world and vice-versa, and he can alert me if you're about to do something crazy.' Maybe Natsu didn't meant it like that, but that was how Rogue heard it.

Maybe he also meant nothing more than exactly what he said when he told Rogue, "I have it covered."

But Rogue still heard, 'I'm not entirely willing to overlook Shade and Sting's grasping at straws either.'

-o-

Rogue told himself over and over as they snuck out of town that it was only his imagination making him suspect that Natsu meant to say as much. He wasn't invited to help because people would see him from the window, and Happy was there out of consideration so he wouldn't feel lonely.

Realistically, he knew Happy was probably on duty making sure he didn't tear his ears off again, but telling himself otherwise served as a nice distraction as they made their way to Crime Sorciere's hiding place. All those weeks under Sting's neurotic care had made Rogue as anxious about the possibility of discovery as Sting was. Even if he wore a hooded cloak and even if he had only lingered outside Sting's door for a moment before Frosch grabbed him and took off, part of him still worried that he worried that a neighbor might report suspicious activity around Sting's house.

Lector's endurance being what it was, they landed a few miles outside of town, feet crunching down in the snow. It took Rogue by surprise, somehow, that it was winter. He'd discounted the growing cold as a mix of being trapped in a basement and worsening depression making the environment seem more miserable. Sting dressed as lightly in his house as he did in mid-summer, and even bundled up in thick comforters, Rogue had never given any thought to the possibility that the cold might exist outside of his own little world.

What month was it? How many days did they have left before when he was supposed to kill Sting? There might only be half a year to seal his shadow before Sting died and he was possessed for good, which was as good as dying, save for the part where his body would still run around killing people. Unless the changes his future self caused led him to be possessed earlier.

Rogue glanced nervously at his shadow, and regretted it.

Scared? I'm not scary, Rogue. I'm you. You're not losing yourself to anyone but yourself.

"Can we talk?" Rogue asked Sting.

"Sh. There's a lot of country homes out here. Wait until we're past them."

You seem to be annoying him. Well, he's already burdened by trying to keep a murderer safe. I can only imagine how obnoxious it must be to have you thwart all his efforts.

"Please, Sting."

"Seriously. It's not safe."

We could land him in jail. Alert everyone then slip into the shadows while he tried to flee the authorities.

A plea to hear any voice but Shade's died in Rogue's throat. Whether his shadow was trying to stop him from finding distractions or not, he didn't know. Either way, Rogue would rather deal with the voice than drag Sting down with him.

If you really wanted to do what's best for Sting, you would sneak away now. Those two are focused on the path. You can slip into the trees, melt into the shadows, and disappear completely.

And in doing so, effectively hand himself over to his shadow. Rogue bit his lip and resisted the urge to shake his head. Going by Sting's theory of how the possessions were facilitated, he couldn't talk back. He couldn't acknowledge the shadow. Whether that applied to verbal acknowledgements only or not, Rogue didn't dare test.

You're afraid you'll kill Sting, yes? Then I promise no harm will come to him tonight. We can kill Natsu instead.

Rogue quickened his steps to catch up to Sting and Natsu. If they all had to play mute, then maybe their presences would at least help to keep him from completely losing it.

Good idea. It will be easier to take them by surprise when there's less ground to cover.

"You know what? Let's just talk, and if anyone reports us, then we run," Rogue said.

"Rogue—"

"I'd rather hear your voice."

Sting grimaced, picking up on the implication, and nodded. "We all have good ears. It should be alright if we keep our voices down. And… Seriously, speak up whenever that's a problem."

"It's always a problem," Rogue muttered.

"We have a ways to go still, so let's try and be less gloomy about it," Natsu said.

"We're sneaking out to meet a fugitive because everyone wants me dead and he might be able to keep me from eventually wanting everyone dead in return. How does that not warrant gloom?"

"Because you don't want everyone dead and Jellal's a dork. Remember the first day of the games, when one of our competitors suddenly started laughing and forfeited? That was Jellal. We had a member who looked like him, so we let him sneak in under their name."

"Why?" Sting asked.

"He wanted to investigate something. And Gramps thought it would help to have a former Wizard Saint on our team, except then he lost in the most embarrassing way possible. He swore up and down afterward that Meredy and Ul… that Meredy was messing with him so he wouldn't blow his cover."

It was hardly a tactful attempt to avoid mentioning Rogue's would-be murderer among Crime Sorciere. Fortunately, Happy had something valuable to contribute before any awkward silence could settle over the conversation.

"I've seen him do worse than laugh himself to defeat," Happy said, a devious grin on his little kitty face. "You know he likes Erza, right?"

"Kinda," Natsu said, curiosity alight in his eyes. "I knew Erza liked him."

"Well, did Erza tell you about what happened the time they kissed?"

-x-

STA: Clearly i r on tap uv theens.

So yeah. Sorry for not updating for... what? Three and a half months. Yeah. Basically since around when school started back up. I'd love to say "I was really, really busy with school, guys!" but tbh it's a mix of that and "I got totally engrossed in an original story I was working on and spent what little time wasn't swallowed up by school on that."

Except for last week. Last week was consumed by Zelda. Sorry.