Nurse Conners walked down the corridor, checking that no other patients had escaped their beds after she found a Dragon Slayer in the ICU. She looked into the room which was holding three mages with an eye magic that they had to be careful of, despite knowing that none of them was close to being able to wake up yet and was glad that she did. Five objects had started to float about the room, a sure sign that the blue haired mage in the room needed a top up of sedatives. It had scared the hell out of one of the other nurses the first time it had happened, but when they had asked the guild's master they had been told that the man was a telepathy mage, and he must have been doing it in his sleep.
She pulled one of the large pairs of glasses onto her face as she stepped into the room, bending down into one of the cabinets to pull out supplies. It was getting close to the time she would need to change their bandages anyway so she may as well do it while she was here. She pulled out a large needle and pressed it into the man's IV as he started to audibly moan and waited for it to take effect, watching as the medical instruments slowly floated to the floor and stop moving. She thought she saw the purple bottles that someone had placed to the side of his bed start to swirl, but put it down to the amount of work she had been doing recently.
As soon as the man was out she started to unwrap the bandages from around his eyes. He hadn't had any apparent injuries to his eyes, but as he had been found with two other victims with severe damage to their eyes they were keeping them bandaged both for his and their own safety. As soon as the bandages were removed she opened his eyelids to inspect inside only to jump back at the flashing green pupils she saw. Maybe he hadn't been knocked unconscious as quickly as she thought and she was suddenly glad she was such a stickler for the rules. As soon as she was happy his eyes were in good condition she wasted no time rebandaging them. She wasn't proud to admit it, but she was slightly creeped out by the man with his facial tattoo. She systematically checked and cleaned all of his other wounds, double checked all of his vital signs, before moving onto the next mage in the room.
The woman's eyes were definitely the most heavily injured, and Linzi didn't think she would ever forget the first time she unwrapped the bloody bandages to see the woman's eyelids sewn open underneath. The holes had healed to small scabs now, but the damage done to her eyes by the extended time held open would not heal so easily. Her pupils were a bright fluorescent green, and they had been warned that if someone were to look into them without the protection of glass they would be turned to stone until she came back around, if the mage was even able to turn them back now she wasn't able to use her eyes. That was a fate that Linzi definitely wanted to avoid. The nurse spent time cleaning all of her wounds before making a note on her charts and moving onto the last mage.
He was definitely the least injured of the three of them, his left eye had remained untouched and was a normal unfocused turquoise when Linzi had checked it. She removed the bandage over the other eye, and once again her breath was taken away when she opened it. The white of his eye had turned to a blue so dark it was almost black, and the iris and pupil looked like a galaxy. It was strangely beautiful in an odd way. She checked his vital signs, despite the damage to his eyes and his shoulders he hadn't had any physical injuries but he was suffering from severe Magic Deficiency Disease and that was what was delaying his waking up. Happy all of the mages in that room were dealt with, she headed back to her station to update their records.
Sting didn't notice anything was wrong for the longest amount of time. The lack of pillow could be easily explained away by Rogue's undeniable habit of stealing all of their bedding in the middle of the night, and at the start, all he could smell was the Shadow Dragon Slayer's scent completely enveloping him. It was only when he started to smell other Dragon Slayers along with the sharp tang of antiseptic that he realised something wasn't quite correct. He peeled his eyes open to see his partner sat next to him, fully clothed with his head resting on Sting's stomach. The White Dragon Slayer smirked, enjoying the familiar sight of the black hair fanned out across the hospital bedsheets. He could faintly remember coming across a man in the forests outside of Magnolia who matched the description of who they were looking for, a moment of blinding pain shooting through his head before he could remember nothing else. He shook his head, he could worry about that later, for now, something was much more important.
"If you really wanted to give me a good wake up you need to go a couple of inches further down."
He felt Rogue snort in amusement and was about to move his hands to entwine in his hair before the other man moved, bringing his face up to Sting's. The blonde could see that he had been crying, but before he could ask anything Rogue shot forward, taking Sting's mouth in his and kissing him desperately. The White Dragon Slayer froze. Rogue hated personal displays of affection with a passion, something really had to be wrong for him to be kissing him with other people around. He pushed that to the back of his mind, melting into his partner's kiss and bringing his hand up to rest on his cheek. The moment was ruined by an alarm blaring to the side of them as he pulled off one of his sensors, but he didn't care. He moaned when Rogue pulled away, a blush immediately covering his cheeks. Sting grinned as a nurse ran into the room and Rogue quickly apologised for the disturbance. He watched as the nurse started checking his vital signs, before turning to his guildmate.
"How's Lector? How are the rest of the guild?"
Rogue sat back in his chair, one hand resting on Sting's thigh. The nurse's eyes widened for a second, but to her credit, she continued with her job without saying a word.
"They're okay. I spoke to them a little while ago and they're eager for their Master's return."
Sting batted Rogue's hand. He was always like this, always downplaying the role he had in his own guild's lives.
"And you. They're waiting for you too."
They smiled at each other, momentarily lost in each other's eyes before the nurse coughed.
"It looks like you have recovered well, we just need to keep you here for observation for a while but you are free to dress and…"
"That won't be necessary."
Sting's voice was authoritative, his role as guild master kicking in. The nurse paused for a second, clipboard in hand.
"Thank you for all that you have done, but we will have to get back to our guild. We have a specialist in healing magic so we will be fine there."
The nurse nodded, mentioning she would go and get the papers for them to be discharged as Rogue narrowed his eyes at the man in the bed.
"We don't have a healer in our guild, Sting."
Sting smiled one of those charismatic smiles that shot straight into his soul, reaching over to his bedside table to return his earring into his ear.
"But we have books. And we have a Rufus. Are you feeling up to taking us back home or should I call him to come and get us?"
Rogue sighed, Sting was so cocky he was flippant about his own health. He nodded, knowing he could take a couple of breaks on the journey until they got there if he needed to. Sting grinned again, stepping out of bed and stripping out of his hospital robes to put on the clothes he found next to his bead. It was only then that he noticed that Rogue wasn't wearing his normal clothes, but what he was wearing was still very familiar.
"Are… are you wearing Natsu's clothes?"
Rogue blushed, and tried to pull the open coat around him to cover up his bare chest. Sting took a step closer to him and pulled his arms away so he could look down his torso. Rogue spoke quietly, almost shrinking under Sting's gaze.
"We didn't have any clothes on us so Jet went and got some clothes he found around the guild hall. He thought these would fit us."
Sting ran his fingers up Rogue's abs, contemplating them for a second before speaking up.
"You know, I don't know how I feel about that. On the one hand, it's fucking awful because it messes with your scent, but on the other, you dressing up as Natsu is… kinda hot."
Rogue's Dragon growled deep in his throat as he blushed all over. Sting grinned, leaning forward to kiss him on his nose.
"That's not funny, Sting. I know you had a crush on Natsu but…"
Sting stopped him from speaking by kissing him, before moving away and tugging at his cheek. Rogue crossed his arms again, scowling up at him.
"You're so cute when you get all jealous, Rogue."
He left Rogue sulking as he turned around, picking up the clothes he had been left and holding them up. The top was striped and pulled up over his head into a hood, and the trousers were baggy and far too long for him. He looked at them in confusion before looking back at Rogue.
"Who the fuck do these clothes even belong to? They're fucking ridiculous."
Rogue chuckled under his breath. Although he was technically taller than Rogue, he had decided against the clothes that were on offer. He would rather have clothes that fitted and barely covered his torso than clothes that were far too big. Plus, they were kind of stupid
"I think they're Freed's friend's… You know the really tall one?"
Sting's face twisted into one of disgust as he looked at them, but in the end, he started to pull them on.
"The weird one? Eurgh. I don't even want to imagine what messed up shit he has done in these."
A shiver ran through his body as he jumped back onto the bed, picking up some white metal from the bedside and tossing it into his mouth. Rogue smiled softly before joining his partner on the bed and holding onto his hand. The both of them were safe, and that's all that mattered.
After the nurse had officially discharged the both of them they started to make their way out of the hospital towards the office Fairy Tail had been using in order to call their guild and let them know they were on their way. They walked past Lucy, lying on top of Natsu fast asleep and waved back at Wendy as the young Dragon Slayer smiled at them. They turned out into the corridor and even made it to the next room along before Sting stopped, and grabbed a hold of Rogue's arm to halt him too.
"Do you smell Freed?"
Rogue sniffed at the air, managing to discern the Rune Mage now he was actively looking for him. Sting veered to the left, dragging Rogue with him to a room to the left. He checked there was no one around watching them before ducking in, closing the door behind Rogue as he made his way over to green haired mage in the furthest bed. Sting sat on one side of the bed as Rogue went to look at the vitals on the machine.
"Wow, he looks bad."
Sting nodded in agreement, leaning over to brush Freed's hair out of his face. Rogue stood next to the bed, watching the two of them before he spoke.
"We need to get going back to the guild. He has his friends here, he'll be alright."
Sting sighed. Rogue was right, like usual. He leant forward to press his lips against Freed's forehead before standing up, watching Rogue do the same before they both walked out of the room and headed towards the office.
Sting opened the door without even using any other senses to see who was behind it, a habit that Rogue absolutely despised. The door banged against the wall, and Bacchus grinned from behind the desk, slamming his hand on a communications lacrima in front of him to stop the call before waving a hand at the two Dragon Slayers.
"Yo. The fuck are you wearing?"
Sting looked at him in confusion, walking into the room slowly in case there was a threat. Better late than never Rogue thought, not surprised at the appearance of the Drunken Mage having seen him when he contacted his guild earlier in the day.
"Bickslow's clothes… what are you doing here?"
Bacchus laughed as Sting went to sit on a bed that had been dragged into the corner of the room. He'd never let anyone see, but he was still slightly worn down from having his magic taken.
"I'm helping out the fairies for the time being. Don't worry about me."
Sting looked up at him, feeling slightly awkward at what the man said. He was a guild master, Fairy Tail could use his help while theirs was off doing whatever he was doing. Bacchus must have seen what he was thinking because he spoke up.
"Don't worry about it. Your guild needs their guild master and their… whatever Rogue does." Sting was about to yell at the man for belittling his partner, but he continued with his sentence.
"You two head back. I'll call your guild now and let them know you're on the way."
Sting felt Rogue put his hand on his shoulder, and it wasn't long until he felt the familiar feeling of his shadow's enveloping them. It would take a while over such a long distance, but they were finally on their way home.
A/N ... I actually had Gajevy planned for this chapter but didn't have time to write it in the end. Forgive me?
As always, a huge thanks to the incredible Gajeelswoman for telling me how dumb I am with only the smallest amount of sass.
