Hey guys! Look at this two Friday's in a row whoop! I hope you guys like this chapter it was done with my best intentions for Rogue and Minerva. Thank you so much for the recommendations guest! Can't wait to dig into them; here are a few more of my own:

Passive Aggressive Post-Its by quite-a-riot

Battle of the Pick-Up Lines by animomma

House of Aces by NeverMakesSense

Strengthening Bonds by ColoringTheLily

Chapter 43

"Do you know where we are?" Rogue whispers softly

Minerva taps her chin looking around the wilderness, stiffening at the familiar waterfall, "we are in the outskirts of Eastern Forest. My.., my father brought me here for what he called training." She turns to him and raises a brow silently asking to explain why he was bringing up this traumatic time.

He simply wraps his hand through her arm and leads her closer to the water's edge. "This is the first time I saw you."

While her expression remains unchanged, Rogue almost falls to his knees at the amount of emotion that comes crashing into him. Rogue chokes out, "so much pain, so much anguish, and so much fear."

At this Minerva looks horrified and whispers, "you…you can feel it?"

He doesn't waste another moment and wraps her in a bone crushing hug. "I didn't mean for this to hurt you. I never knew you felt everything so deeply, or is it just this was such a traumatic experience for you?"

"I don't know," she takes a slow breath trying to calm herself. "I don't know what you saw but this was one of the worst days of my life." Minerva mumbles laying her head on his chest.

Rogue squeezes are a little more firmly, "since I can feel everything you do let me try something."

Minerva stilled as a warmth seeped into her bones and filled her with a sense of love, pride, and peace. "I understand the love and peaceful feelings but where is this pride coming from?"

The shadow dragon chuckles, "I was trying for love and reassurance, but peace wasn't so far off. The pride, however, is how I always feel when I look at you." He stills at the shock coming though loud and clear through their bond. He tilts her face to look her in the eye, "you are a strong, brave dragoness Milady, how could I not feel pride when looking at you? You have overcome such awful and traumatic situations, but no one would know that looking at you. They just see this Queenly presence which is only a small glimpse of just who and what you are."

The space mage slowly relaxes in her lover's arms, Rogue isn't normally one for in depth emotional talks because he knows she understands him like no other. So, there is no need for words but just this once she'd see just what he had to say.

"You are warm, caring to the point of pain, bold, and will not stand for any injustice. I was in awe of your skill, and stunned by your beauty, but I fell in love with your darkness. You have seen the very shadow of your soul and instead of breaking or pretending it doesn't exist you stared at this with disdain and became a very self-aware person. I know this may be a difficult request, but could you show me what happened to you that day?"

"How? I know we are eventually going to develop a telepathic link, but how would I send you a memory?" She asks focusing on the how instead of the what.

"Let's try meditating and you visualize that day, trust me there is a reason I am asking." He whispers settling into the grass and holding a handout for her.

She hummed and started thinking, "let me try something." She closed her eyes and reached for his hand, "Ever the gentleman."

He smiles at her thought and replies to it with, "of course Milady."

"So, it was as simple as thinking towards you. I was worried all of our thoughts would be flooding each other." She gracefully sits next to him chuckling a little as his eyes focus on the slit of her dress.

The shadow dragon slayer shakes away his lusty thoughts to focus, "I believe normally it is, but for us instead of internal monologues we have large emotional waves. We normally tend to just say what we are thinking. Or that would be my guess?"

"Poor Yukino, Sting's thoughts are going to leak all over the place."

Rogue cringes, "more like poor us. We will all have a telepathic link together as a nest. So, more than likely we'll all have to suffer until he can get it under control."

"Well this will definitely bring us all closer, if we don't kill each other first," She scoffs sarcastically. "Alright, I've stalled long enough." She sighs adjusting her meditation pose, "walk me through what I need to do."

"Skiadrum had me speak out loud describing the events and they would just flow from my mind to his." Rogue smiled softly, "he wanted to see how I saw things. He used it to help with my training."

"Your Father sounds like a very wise dragon."

Rogue hums in agreement feeling pride swell in his chest and then an ache at his absence, "I cannot decide if it would be worse to have a kind loving father who made you think you had to kill him or if having a cruel abrasive bastard. I feel as thought your horrible monster of a father may have prepared you for the worst."

Minerva snorts, "I don't think you really know what you are asking. What I mean is I don't think you understand just what my Father has done to me. You have seen him as strict and harsh but did your father leave you in a forest full of monsters without telling you he put monster bait in your bag?"

The shadow mage's eyes widened in dawning horror.

"Did your Father kill a guildmate in front of you after pushing you to defeat him in a sparing match?"

Slowly the images passed into Rogue's mind, extremely clear for something that happened so long ago. A little version of Minerva was looking down at her reflection in the water at her feet. The aches, and pains from sparing for hours upon hours. Then her refusing to kill Needles, whom was easily three times her size. The shock and horror as her Father killed him with a look of disapproval and anger sent her way. He felt the squeeze of her stomach as she tried so awfully hard not the throw up at the smell of his incinerated body.

The dread that filled him as her Father explained there was no room for tears in their guild. The acceptance that he would kill her for her weakness, just like Needles. Her building hope as he led her down a familiar path into the forest was heart wrenching to Rogue. She thought he was taking her back to their camp site, he wouldn't kill her if he was taking her, back right? Rogue held tight to his emotions knowing it would interrupt her memory.

Once back at their camp site Father made her break down everything and pack it all away. All the while her tears never ceased, and she chocked her sobs down. She cried for the horror of watching a man burned to death, the relief that she was still alive, and the gut-wrenching guilt at being relieved while Needles was dead. Rogue watched through her eyes as they left camp to go went further and further into the forest. He felt her hope dwindle as they came upon the very waterfall, he chose for this shared dream.

Her Father thundered to cease her never ending tears or he would leave her here. And he did, he actually left her there; Rogue could not suppress the growl that reverberated through his taught frame. He watched as struggled against monster after monster all night. He felt all of her emotions drain out of her and a burning rage fill her. She det her shoulders and made her way out of the forest, calling out to unseen challengers. All the while her heart would pick up its pace and her fear would flood her system again and again only to be chased away by her fury.

Rogue opened his eyes and looked into her beautiful, honeyed gaze, "before I say anything can I show you what I saw that day?"

Minerva nods he agreement and closes her eyes determined to see just what had captivated him from one of her worst memories. Rogue smiled softly at her, it was a wonder that this courageous woman was and is his mate. Said beauty cracked an eye, "well are you going to show me just what made you fall head over heels for me or not."

"It started after Phantom Lord had been disbanded, I no longer had anywhere to go, no goal in mind."

"Pfft more like Gajeel ran off and joined Fairy Tail," Minerva's lips twitch at the unbidden thought.

Rogue sighs, "yes I was very cross with him. I thought he had just betrayed Phantom Lord by joining Fairy Tail."

Minerva felt the old anger at the memory and got a wonderfully clear picture of a petulant little Rogue. She smiled softly at the image and wrapped her arms around her middle, "maybe."

The Shadow Dragon purred at her thought, "I will love you regardless."

"I need to understand why you chose me as your mate," Minerva looks at him firmly. "From my understanding you are suppose to choose someone that can help increase the size of the nest. You…you know I can't do that."

"I'll show you," he smiled touching his forehead to hers.

She watched as Rogue leaped from shadow to shadow feeling his hurt and anger. He paused as he heard monsters roaring and someone yelling angerly back at them. He changed direction and went to see what all the noise was about. All the while wondering who would be this deep in the forest. Then he caught a whiff of a horribly delicious smell, following it and the noise to a waterfall. There he was stunned to find dozens of dead monsters and at the center he saw this little girl standing proudly looking for anymore challengers.

Hair a mess and eyes puffy from what had obviously been crying he saw a similar burning anger. His curiosity more than a little piqued, he decided to follow her. She stayed near the waterfall until well into the night before she squared her shoulders picked up her oddly smelling backpack and trudged off into the trees. He followed at a distance as monster after monster came after her. She never backed down or showed any fear just determination and anger. He slowly got closer and closer to her without realizing it until she stopped dead looking around. "Leave whatever you are unless you too wish to die," she called out.

He was stunned no one had sensed him in his shadow form before other than his Father. What an interesting human he thought easing back. For the rest of their trip through the forest he would try to sneak up on her only to have her call him out each time he got within arm's reach. With him so close to her the other monsters backed off sensing a stronger predator. He saw her nerves twitch and she would always look around for him glaring at him.

The memory faded but the lingering emotion was one of astoundment that had Rogue chuckling. He opened his eyes to see tears slowly trickling down her face. His faces her making sure to look into her eyes and says out loud, "I love you, you fascinated me from the moment I saw you. You amazed me then and you continue to do so every day. I will love you whether we have children or not, so please never think less of yourself."

Minerva smiles, "Anna and Porlyusica concocted a pregnancy prevention potion for all the girls. I didn't bother to take it, because I know I can't. Their doctor pulled me aside to discuss it with me thinking I doubted her skill." She sniffles, "however once I told her, she said she wouldn't get my hopes up, but the mating ritual is some of the most powerful creation magic out there."

The two mages grasp each other in an embrace, and with a single thought of "maybe" as they dared to hope for their future.