chapter fourteen: decisions

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Natsu asked.

Lucy sat up. She was in the infirmary, again. "I'm doing okay."

"That's good. Gramps has a mission for us, and we're about to head out."

"You mean you're going back there? That's crazy!" Lucy cried out.

"Don't worry. He hand-picked the strongest members of the guild to go." Natsu sat down in a chair beside her bed.

Lucy looked over at Rogue's bed and noticed it was empty. "Where's Rogue?"

"He and Sting are outside."

"Oh." Should I tell him my feelings now? Lucy thought to herself.

"Lucy, I…" Natsu whispered. She didn't hear him.

Out in the hallway, Sting and Rogue were waiting to go back in. With his exceptional hearing, Sting had heard Natsu's whisper. You have got to speak louder if you want to be heard, Natsu.

"So I guess… you're going too?" Rogue asked Sting.

"Yeah. Yukino, Rufus, and Orga will be staying here to help defend Fairy Tail."

Rogue and Sting avoided looking at each other. Man, have we ever been this awkward around each other? Sting thought to himself.

"Promise me you'll be safe," Rogue said.

"What?"

"Those men… you saw what they did to Lucy and me. They're incredibly dangerous. We can't have you guys getting imprisoned as well. There's no way that we'll be able to win then."

Sting looked at his friend. "I can't make any promises. But I will promise you that I'll come back."

Rogue lowered his head. He had doubted Sting. How could I have ever had doubts about Sting?

"Wonder what's keeping Natsu?" Sting said.

Rogue smiled. "Leave him be. It's something that we shouldn't interrupt. You two are about to go out on a dangerous mission."

Sting lowered his head. "Yeah." When I come back, I'll tell him.

"I think I should go and lay back down," Rogue said. "I'm tired."

"I'll come with you," Sting said. He pushed himself up off the wall and stretched. "I need to get Natsu, anyways."

As they walked back into the infirmary, they saw Natsu standing by a sleeping Lucy. Rogue made his way to his bed while Sting walked up to Natsu.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. I'm ready," Natsu said. He turned and headed toward the door to the infirmary. He put his hand on the knob and turned to look at Rogue. "Take care of Lucy while we're gone."

"Don't worry, I will," Rogue said.

After Natsu and Sting left, Rogue looked over at Lucy and smiled. "You can stop pretending now."

Lucy sat up in her bed. "Are you worried?" she asked him.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

Rogue got up and walked over to sit by Lucy. He wasn't lying when he had told Sting he was tired, but he wanted to talk to Lucy. His body hurt with every step; the draining of his magic had hurt him more than he first thought.

"Did you talk to Sting?" Lucy asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah. I didn't have the heart to tell him right now," Rogue said. "When he comes back, I'll tell him though."

"Yeah. You should tell him. He obviously has feelings for you too, and deserves to know how you feel," Lucy said softly.

Rogue blushed. "You think Sting likes me?"

"Yeah. I mean, it shows on his face when he looks at you that he cares about you greatly. And you obviously care about him a great deal." Lucy looked at him and gave him a small smile. "You shouldn't be afraid to tell him how you feel."

"If I could walk, I'd run and tell him now," Rogue laughed. "I'm honestly still too weak to even be up and moving around."

"I know, me too."

"So when are you going to talk to Natsu?"

"When he gets back." Lucy looked down at her hands. "He has more things to worry about right now."

"Yeah," Rogue said. "But I can tell that Natsu cares deeply for you too. He obviously would do anything for you, no matter how dangerous."

Lucy nodded and wiped away a tear. Rogue is right. Natsu does care about me.

Rogue stood up. "I'm going to go lay back down. I'll be across the room if you need me."

"Okay," Lucy said. She looked down at her right hand, which had her Fairy Tail guild mark on it, and smiled. She held up her finger and thumb in Fairy Tail's sign and held it up. Rogue looked at her funny.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"It's a thing we do in Fairy Tail," she explained. "We do this to signify that even if we can't see someone, no matter how far apart we may be, we'll always be watching over them. It's part of what makes us such a great guild."

Rogue thought over what she said and smiled. He then held up his hand and made the Fairy Tail sign. Sting, even if I can't see you, no matter how far apart we may be, I'll always be watching over you.