~Sting's POV~
Sting was sleeping when he felt something brush against his forehead. He could smell vanilla, strawberries, and something salty… tears maybe? Smiling he opened his eyes to meet big honey brown ones. The afternoon sunlight set them ablaze, and caused the woman's golden hair to shine.
Lucy was smiling softly, concern dancing across her face, but she wasn't looking at Sting. She must have been lost in her thoughts. Not wanting her to retreat Sting said nothing as she continued stroking his hair.
Sting wasn't a huge fan of the scam he was playing in, but Rouge and Yukino insisted. This wasn't really Sting's style, he'd rather confront Fairytail head on and give them a fighting chance. This all felt… never mind what Sting felt. His opinions on the situation didn't matter. A lot of work went into this plan and it was a huge pain to deal with.
But...getting fawn over by this babe was a huge plus.
Sting was glad Lucy Heartfilia was attractive, sure as hell made things a whole lot easier.
"Do you think… it's ok for me to fall in love with you?" Lucy spoke so softly, Sting wouldn't have been able to hear if he didn't have dragon slayer senses.
"Is that even a question? Hell yes." Sting grinned at Lucy's startled face and her cheeks flushed red.
He enjoyed her reactions, Sting doesn't think he'll ever get tired of seeing them.
"Hey…" Yanking her hand back Lucy forced a smile. "You feeling better now?"
Sting frowned when she stopped touching his hair but forced himself to sit up. His body was sore and he felt exhausted. Rouge insisted on having him stay awake for days with little food to really sell the "I can't live without you" part. Jackass.
"My head is killing me, but" flashing a charming smile to Lucy he winked "I'll be fine."
Lucy smiled politely and Sting could see the sadness in her eyes. It bothered him for some reason. Back when he saw her last she didn't look sad, flustered and shy maybe but definitely not sad.
"What… happened?" Sting was careful to wear a mask of confusion and concern.
"You don't remember?" Lucy bit her lip worriedly. He tried to ignore looking at her lips for the time being. He's supposed to be confused right now damn it.
Frowning and pretending to be deep in thought. Sting recalled the events that led up to this. Trying to find a good spot in his memory to pick up off of.
"I remember staying in Mongolia for a few days, after I came to see you again… but after about the third day…" he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I dunno it starts to get a little fuzzy…"
That was a lie. Sting remembered everything. He had to constantly be growling and angry all the time. It was exhausting, he didn't know how Natsu could do it.
"Where are we?" Sting looked back at Lucy who, to his surprise looked at him with pity. He had completely wrecked Mongolia and yet she looked at him with pity.
Why isn't she angry right now? Shouldn't she be yelling at him regardless if he remembered anything?
Lucy reached over and held his hand. Her hands were small and soft, much different than Sting's own. The comforting touch made him uncomfortable. He suddenly felt agitated but he couldn't risk Lucy seeing it.
"You… weren't in your right mind." She spoke softly, carefully picking her words. "Rouge said your dragon instincts took control and you went a little… crazy…"
Sting frowned and stared at her intently. 'A little crazy' was the biggest understatement of the year. The city was utterly destroyed, it was hard work to cause that much damage. Give him some credit would ya?
"Lucy." Sting lifted her chin up and forced her to look at him. He wanted to hear her tell him the truth, despite already knowing what happened.
"What did I-"
"Do?" A rough voice came from the room doorway.
Sting looked over and saw Natsu, almost instantly he scowled. How long had he been there?. "You tore up our city, you perverted psycho."
The dying sun no longer hugged the room with a golden hue, almost as if affected by Natsu's very presence the room turned blood red. The walls looked like they were on fire. Natsu's black eyes rivaled the growing shadows in the room.
Lucy began to pull back away from Sting but he held onto her hand firmly. Quietly satisfied when he saw jealousy flicker in his rival's eyes.
"And what do you mean by that?" Gritting his teeth Sting tried hard not to smile mockingly. He used to look up to the great Salamander back when he was a kid. His life goal was to surpass him, but right now he'll have to settle for poking his buttons instead. Natsu got riled up so easily, it was hilarious.
"Exactly what I mean." The heat that radiated off of Natsu began to burn as he walked forward.
"Natsu." Lucy sounded tired.
"No Lucy, he asked so we should tell him." Natsu crossed his arms and stared at Sting with pure unbridled hatred. This is how she should've reacted...Sting felt satisfied since he was able to accomplish one of his goals.
"Natsu…" Lucy's voice came in a warning. She pulled away from Sting and stood in front of him, blocking Natsu's view. Sting blinked in surprise. "Stop, he's tired. And he wasn't in his right mind at the time-"
"Why are you protecting him?" Natsu growled. His scowl didn't change when he locked eyes with the celestial mage. A lesser man would have trembled at the glare he gave but not Lucy. She didn't even flinch.
"I'm not." Sting could hear Lucy's heart rate increase. She was getting angry. "It's not fair for you to be mad at him right now. He doesn't remember what happened. He wasn't in control."
Sting raised his eyebrows and studied the blond silky hair in front of him. She was standing up for him? Against her partner?
Natsu laughed sarcastically.
"Not fair? NOT FUCKING FAIR?!" Lucy flinched when he yelled at her, Sting started to growl unknowingly. "LUCY- do you think it's fair what he did to our city? He destroyed people's homes, their jobs. And you say it's not FAIR?!"
"YES!" Lucy yelled back she clenched her fists. "Just… who do you… think you are? You've done the same exact thing before" her voice was quite. It trembled from anger as she looked at the ground. She clearly didn't want to see him right now. But somehow that quite voice did more damage than the celestial mage could ever do by yelling.
The look on Natsu's face was priceless. Sting wished he had a lacrima. Shock, confusion, hurt were all replaced by the look of rage.
"I was doing my job." Sting felt the temperature in the room rise and saw sweat began to form on Lucy's skin. But she refused to stand down. "I wasn't throwing a tantrum." Natsu's dark eyes glanced at Sting.
Sting smirked at him.
Big mistake.
Sting was sitting on the hospital bed one minute and on the floor getting pummeled the next.
"NATSU STOP IT!" Lucy threw herself onto Natsu and hugged him from behind before pulling him back. Natsu forced himself to hold back now that Lucy was near him. But the murderous scowl didn't leave his face. Once Lucy thought he was calm enough she let him go and opened the hospital room door.
"Natsu go home." The Celestial mage was now trembling, angry and frustrated tears slid down her face. She didn't look at Natsu as he silently stared at her.
Sting could hardly register what was happening himself, but he could clearly see Natsu clenched his fists before stalking out of the room. Lucy wiped her tears as she closed the door and made herself over to Sting who was trying to stand up. She helped him back on the bed.
"Well… ain't he something" sting tried sounding light hearted but winced in pain instead. He expected nothing less from the infamous Salamander. The pink haired fire hazard packed quite the punch.
"I'm sorry." Lucy sniffed and gave him an apologetic smile."Natsu's just… very protective of his… friends."
A gentle smile conflicted with the sadness in her eyes. Dumbfounded Sting's fingers brushed her cheeks. She was smiling? Not only that but she apologized for Natsu… the people Sting knew wouldn't have hesitated to bad mouth the person they were just arguing with behind their back.
For some reason this frustrated him.
This chick was crazy weird…
————
~Lucy's POV~
Lucy could feel Sting's eyes following her like a hawk. Sting had insisted that she sit on the hospital bed with him.
"Sting could you stop staring at me-" Lucy half heartedly laughed "you're making me nervous."
Sting shook his head before moving to sit closer to Lucy.
She was only gone for five minutes.
This is going to get old fast…
"Where did you go?" His voice was gentle, showing that he wasn't angry. Sting carefully wrapped his hand around Lucy's. Blue eyes shone with questions and concern.
He had dozed off but when he opened his eyes again the blonde mage wasn't in the room.
"The bathroom. Man I wish I knew we were going to stay here overnight." Lucy tried to keep her voice light hearted but felt self conscious under Sting's intense gaze.
Lucy blushed at Sting and shyly pulled away from him.
He grinned at her and scooted closer.
"Me too." He raised an eyebrow "if I knew you were going to spend the night with me I would have come prepared" Sting purred as he leaned closer to Lucy's face.
Flustered Lucy put both of her hands over his mouth. he looked disappointed that she'd stop him.
"Eh?! That's a little- EEPPPP" Lucy yanked her hands away.
He licked her!
Sting laughed at her as she sputtered to form a coherent sentence. Ah. She's definitely a virgin…
"Blonde you're so cute!" Sting rubbed his nose to her flushed cheek. Lucy whimpered embarrassed.
He's so touchy feely! If Lucy didn't know she was his mate she would have punched him several times by now.
"Look Sting" Lucy figeted as she pushed Sting back a little. "I know I'm your ...uh mate or whatever but I still barely know you."
Sting pouted obviously a little hurt that she kept him at arms distance.
"You see- I've!" Lucy looked away from the Blonde dragon slayer while fiddling with her fingers. "I've never even had a boyfriend before so-so"
"What?! Really?" Sting gave her a once over "But you're hot!"
"Er thanks? Anyways this is all very new to me and - and I was wondering if we could…maybe... take things slow?" Lucy peeked at him through her eyelashes.
Sting sat quietly thinking for a minute.
He grinned at her.
"Alright yeah."
Lucy felt a moment of relief but it was short lived as Sting wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her down on the bed with him.
"Sure let's take things slow- I really like being your first!" He laughed as Lucy struggled to break free from his bear hug.
Lucy thought her heart was going to leap out of her chest. When he snuggled closer to her he buried his face in her hair. He inhaled deeply much to Lucy's embarrassment. a content sigh brushed against the skin of her neck
He had wrapped a leg around one of Lucy's own and was hugging her from behind successfully trapping her by his side.
"I thought we agreed to take things slow!" She yelped when he kissed her neck softly. She could feel him smile into her skin.
"We are starshine." His voice was low and husky. "Trust me I wanna do so much more than this right now…" Lucy's face couldn't have turn any redder if she tried. "But we'll take things slow. So for now I'll just settle for cuddling."
Lucy was annoyed, she just knew he was smirking at her. The nerve of this guy!
"Just go to sleep!" Lucy hissed. He laughed as sleep began to wash over them.