Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) do NOT own Fairy Tail or any of the characters. I only am responsible for the (albeit poorly written and devised) plot
Hi guys. Been a long time, huh?
I've been gone for so long, I kind of lost the flow of the story. I had some things to sort out about myself, and I still haven't really figured it all out. I stopped writing completely, I kind of gave up for a while.
But here I am, months later.
I won't apologize for needing to sort myself out, but I will apologize for leaving you all waiting for so long without even so much as a word.
This chapter was kind of hard to write since it's been so long, but I hope you like it.
ALSO I DON'T WANT ROGUE TO BE MATELESS SO TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS THINK I SHOULD DO (either recommend a character for the Fairy Tail universe OR should I do an OC? bc as of right now I was gonna write him in with Kagura from Mermaid Heel but I don't know if I'll even go super into that relationship/be able to even write her in character?)
Laxus' eyebrows arched at Mira's sudden outburst, as the whole room went silent (minus Gajeel, of course, who was suffering the rather uncomfortable feeling of whiskey having gone down the wrong pipe). His large hands, calloused and rough, came to grip the table so intensely that Mira feared that it would break under his iron grip.
Her hands, tiny and pale and undoubtedly powerful enough to crush a man's skull should she feel like it, came over the table and grasped his wrists.
"Laxus," she said in a low, odd voice. he would have relaxed at the sound of her voice, it was a calming effect that Mates held over one another, but there was something odd about her tone-
"...are you freaking kidding me?"
Despite the burning trail of pain from his mouth to his stomach, Gajeel coughed out a raspy laugh.
"Ah that's our Mirajane, ever the lady."
When the possessive snarl that escaped Laxus reached the ears of the other three Dragon Slayers present, Rough not so subtly stifled a laugh. (Clearly, someone else using the word our in regards to Mira had Laxus very upset.)
Laxus chucked an empty glass at him.
Mira turned to Wendy, wondering what she'd missed.
Rogue sighed.
Mirajane, having been worked into an absolute frenzy, was storming down to the room with a fierce determination set in her blue eyes. Gajeel, trailing behind her was nervously trying to talk her out of the really stupid head that she'd taken hold of.
"Mira, really, it's kind of a Dragon Slayer thing so you wouldn't really understand but- you're not allowed to interfere with mates and honestly if you're going to do it wait for things to calm down Sting's probably in a really bad place right now and-"
"Well then!" Mira cried shrilly. "I'm going to find Yukino because she's been in love with Sting for Mavis knows how long and I'm at least going to help her feel better until those two idiots get it together and figure all this out and argh!" She cried, throwing her hands up when she felt tentative hands winding around her waist.
"Mira, I know it's really frustrating and super annoying and I would have helped earlier if I knew that Yukino liked him too but the older girls don't really tell me anything-" Wendy was rambling into Mira's back, trying to stop her from committing one of the biggest taboos that they had.
"Surely if it's for a good cause guys; come on!" Mira argued. Rogue shuffled his feet, looking down awkwardly.
"For a good cause, maybe, but tonight, Sting really needs to be alone and if he and Yukino are still talking right now, because Yukino really is a good person and she'll want to talk it out even though Sting will want nothing more than to be swallowed up by the earth and die-"
Rogue's eyes widened, and he winced when a less than pleasant thought hit him like a ton of bricks.
"One second thought, go. Now," he growled suddenly, pushing past Mira roughly and sprinting down the hallway.
Laxus began chasing after him, having followed his line of thought and drawing to the same conclusion.
"What the hell?" Mira asked, running alongside Gajeel just behind the other two, with Wendy trailing behind.
"Sting's probably hysterical," Rogue panted out, as they rounded the corner. "He's probably hysterical and lonely and he's probably considering doing some very stupid things such as reckless endangerment and believe me- especially back from before when Minerva was around- Sting knows how to pick a fight. And the more dangerous the person the better so we have to go!" Rogue said again, spitting it all out in one frantic breath.
"It's how he copes," Rogue spit when Mira tried to tell him to calm down. "It's how Sting deals when he freaks out; like Natsu he goes and picks a fight that he usually has little chance of winning but ends up winning somehow but right about now he'll have an actual death wish and oh god," Rogue groaned when the door was locked.
"Open up!" Rogue said; going to kick the door for it to go flying in with no resistance.
The room was empty.
"Crap," he swore, barging into the room.
"Check her room," Laxus suddenly said, his head shooting up. "If it ended badly maybe one of them went back to their room."
And then they were flying through the stairwell again, and Rogue was bashing in Yukino's door while Laxus pounded at Rogue and Sting's door.
"Umm Laxus?" Wendy asked timidly. "I'm pretty sure Rogue has the key to his own room..."
And with a twist of the doorknob Mira proved that they should have checked if the door was actually locked or not.
Wendy peeked in, her small frame slipping through the open for easily.
And then she came running back out, having bolted like a bat out of hell.
She looked sick.
"They're in there" she managed as she appeared to be physically restraining herself from vomiting. "Y-yeah I think we should go now."
Wendy was shaking.
Mira was concerned.
And Rogue seemed to be having a panic attack as the horrible scenarios ran through his head.
Are they both in there? Are they both crying or are they in separate corners refusing to talk to each other. I guess that's better then Sting picking a fight and dying but oh god what if Sting's in there and he's dead? Or what if Yukino's dead and then by extension Sting would probably have died and they both just look like they're sleeping? Oh god what if there are two dead bodies in there and they both just look like they're sleeping?
"I think Sting and Yukino are kissing and it is so so so gross!" Wendy finally squealed, jumping from one foot to the other and slapping a hand over her mouth like she's just admitted to murder.
Mira broke the silence with a slightly hysterical laugh.
"There he goes," Gajeel said with a smirk, even going as far as to grab Laxus into a bear/man-hug.
"The first of us to make it," Laxus said in an uncharacteristically enthusiastic voice, slapping Gajeel on the back.
Wendy looked like she wanted to sink into the floor and die.
Rogue chuckled weakly.
She pulled back from the kiss, with their cheeks wet and a smile on her face.
"I am so happy to have met you," she breathed, eyes full of wonder. "I am so sorry that it took so long for us to find this."
"Me too," he said softly. Pulling her to him and snaking an arm around her waist, he tilted his head with a smile. "But now that I've got you don't expect me to let you out of my sight ever again."
"I don't plan on going anywhere you can't see me," Yukino admitted, looking down wearing an expression akin to 'embarrassed.'
"You know I love you, I love you and I would go through all those years of pain from the old master and humiliation after my failure and everything else all over again just to have this," she said quietly, playing with a strand of his hair.
"And I would go through all that heartache to have you here with me in a heartbeat."
He woke to thunder.
It was an occupational habit; waking up at the slightest sounds or movements was something that was ingrained in nearly every Dragon Slayer by the time they hit puberty, and it was a skill that had proved very helpful on missions. It was an instinct that really only went away after huge battles that left them sleeping in near-coma states for over 48 hours sometimes.
Sting jerked up, the muscles in his back tensing as he exhaled sharply. He lunged forward, immediately forming a human shield around the sleeping form next to him.
With his mind having leapt into his 'battle mode' so to speak, it took him a moment to realize that no, this was not a surprise attack (those seemed to happen to him an awful lot, now that he thought about it), and that Rogue was, unsurprisingly, not stirring. (Rogue, while he was better at keeping night watch, usually reacted much slower than his brother who was a light sleeper. It wasn't uncommon that when being attacked while sleeping, Sting would react first and yank his brother under him to keep him form being mauled in his sleep.)
(Which also meant that during false alarms, Sting and Rogue ended up in seemingly compromising positions, ones that Juvia had had the misfortune of walking in on that one time.)
Puzzled, Sting stared down at his very lazy brother wrapped in his blanket before taking a deep sniff and rearing his head back, firmly concluding that no, this was certainly, 100% not his twin brother.
At least, if he had reacted to the smell of his brother like was did in the moment, there would have been some serious concerns they would need to address in their relationship.
Like, why his mouth was suddenly so dry or why he was unable to string enough words together to form a coherent statement. (aka why he was suddenly unable to get enough blood from his groin to his head).
And then Yukino emerged, and his suddenly lack of mental bandwidth made a lot of sense.
She stared up at him sleepily.
"G'morning," she mumbled.
Sting felt his mouth crack into the most obnoxious, genuine, mega-watt smile that had ever graced his face and really couldn't bring himself to care how out of character it looked.
"G'morning beautiful," he almost crooned, and Yukino giggled.
"You're disgusting," she said with another laugh, latching her arms around his neck and pulling him down to her. Bumping their noses together, Yukino sighed contentedly. When a flash of lighting followed by a resounding 'crack' flashed just outside their window, Yukino flinched in spite of herself.
Sting's body, still hovering over Yukino's, tightened protectively.
"Wow that was... odd," Yukino said, a lilting laugh escaping her.
"I'm kind of obligated to protect you," Sting admitted. "My body is gonna react when I see or feel you distressed and when we officially become mates we're only gonna get more sensitive to each other's emotions."
"Can't wait," Yukino said dryly, thinking forward to all the weird mood swings he'd be reacting to. Oh yeah. It was gonna be a fun time.
Natsu and Lucy stayed in the Spirit world for two whole hours. 120 minutes to make sure Lucy soaked up enough energy form the Spirit World to avoid her last incident.
When they returned to Earthland, a week had passed. (Again, I did the math. 1 hour is 3.5 days)
Before they'd even taken three steps into the hotel lobby, Natsu suddenly stopped, with Lucy's hand clutched tightly in his.
"Something's changed," he declared after a minute, his nose in the air. Inhaling deeply, his nostrils flaring, Natsu took a tentative sniff before his face broke into a sly grin.
"Atta boy!" Natsu suddenly crowed, a hearty-albeit surprised- laugh escaping form his mouth. Suddenly Gajeel was lazily walking over, saluting Natsu with a shark-like grin on his face.
"Good to see you dude!" Gajeel said, and Lucy's eyebrows climbed up her forehead when he even went so far as to wrestle Natsu into something vaguely resembling a bear hug, clapping him on the back. (Honestly, more like a 'I'm-gonna-try-and-slap-you-so-hard-your-intestines-come-out-of-your-mouth' kind of hit and even with a newly improved Spirit body, Lucy couldn't believe how rough boys were.)
Pulling back, Gajeel flashed that sharp-toothed grin again, his eyes flashing with the most pleasant expression Lucy personally had ever seen him wear.
"You can feel it, right? And the smell," Gajeel said, the wicked smile still plastered over his face. "He's everywhere."
"I'm sorry, what going on?" Lucy finally asked, brows furrowed.
"A new mating bond," Natsu said, turning to her with a smile. "When a Dragon Slayer 'claims' his mate, his scent, his pheromones are especially strong for the first few days or so, initially to ward off other Slayers; to show that their Mate was spoken for. And someone-" he said, wiggling his eyebrows. "-someone's scent seems to be especially strong around here." He inhaled again, and then coughed.
"Ugh, maybe excessively strong, Mavis I think he's going a little overboard," Natsu said, his nose wrinkling.
"Well I mean, I think they only made it official a few days ago," Gajeel said, leaning back onto the table.
"What. Is. Happening." Lucy deadpanned.
"Sting's scent seems to be extremely strong this fine morning," Natsu said, as he rocked back onto his heels waiting for it so sink in.
One...
Two...
Three...
Lucy's eyes went wide.
"Ohmygod," she said, her face brightening. "You mean Yukino-"
"Yep," Natsu said, beaming at her. Lucy then hesitated.
"Wait, when you said making it official you mean-"
Gajeel interrupted her with a chuckle when Natsu flushed.
"If you mean 'doing the dirty' then nah not yet," Gajeel said, his hand coming to ruffle Natsu's hair. "But I meant they officially became a couple. If it had been the official thing, Sting probably wouldn't let her out of his sight for the first 24 hours. What he's doing is just laying a claim, it's a territorial thing."
And then the heavens looked down upon them and took mercy on them, as they were all saved from an awkward silence that would have carried on for several eons, when Yukino bounded down the stairs and caught sight of her recovered Spirit friend.
"Lucy!" Yukino squealed, bounding over to her friend, wrapping her tightly in a hug.
Lucy coughed.
"Ah," Lucy said, wrinkling her nose and pulling slightly back from the hug. "I heard the news! I'm so so so happy for you!" Lucy squealed, squeezing her tighter. "And Mavis Yukino, you stink," Lucy said, her voice light to show she was teasing. (Only kind of kidding though, while it wasn't necessarily a bad smell it was just very pungent). Yukino was positively beaming, albeit at least a touch embarrassed.
"Yeah, uh, so I've heard," Yukino said sheepishly. "I heard that Sting might have gone a little overboard with the whole 'scenting' thing," she said with a laugh. "Gajeel won't even come within three or four feet me it's so strong. Rogue's whole face kinda pinches up whenever I touch him," she fondly. "Pretty funny actually."
Lucy leaned in again, tentatively sniffing at Yukino's pale blue hair.
"I mean," she began, tapping a finger to her lips as she thought of the best way to explain it. "You know when you have perfume or cologne or something, and while the smell isn't exactly unpleasant on it's own, if you rub too much yourself it's kind of awful?" Yukino nodded.
"Yeah wel it's kinda like that except it's like you emptied the whole bottle on yourself," Lucy said, giving Yukino and apologetic look before stepping back a few inches.
"Wow that's... huh, that sounds pretty awful for you guys actually," Yukino said, cheeks flushed.
"Nah, I mean we'll put up with it because we love you," Lucy said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Careful with the 'L' word," Gajeel advised- still a safe distance form Yukino- with a strangely serious look. "Regardless of who it's from, any Slayer would go a little ballistic if they hear someone else say it to their mate within the first few days of the mating process."
"Ah, gotcha," Lucy said, stepping back when catching sight of the blonde approaching form over Yukino's shoulder. Confused at her friends sudden step back, Yukino was confused for about .6 seconds before she felt a familiar pair of arms wind around her waist.
"Hey Lucy," Sting greeted casually, perching his head on Yukino's shoulder. "You feeling any better?"
Lucy nodded, still smiling wide and unabashedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Heard about the big news though, and I'm very happy for the both of you!"
Sting smiled, canines sharp.
"Thanks for that Lucy, appreciate it."
"Though honestly you really must be some sort of idiot. And that goes for you too Yukino," Lucy suddenly continued. "You're both some real self-sacrificing pieces of wok, I gotta say."
Sting chuckled.
"This coming from a member of Fairy Tail? I don't believe it," Sting teased.
Lucy laughed, admitting that yes, perhaps he did have a point, before stilling.
"Huh. I'm not really sure you can say that anymore," Lucy said scratching her head in deep thought. "Technically, I belong to Yukino and she's a member of Sabertooth so..."
"Oh," Natsu said, eyes widening. "We never really... All of us never really talked about it; what happens now."
"Well both of our guilds pulled out of the Games," Gajeel interjected, coming forward to join the discussion, his nose pinched between his two fingers. Lucy looked at him in surprise.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah, most of us have mainly been sticking it out here to spectate that Games, but the whole point of joining the Games was to try and get everyone's fighting spirit back since your... y'know, departing," Gajeel said, well aware of how taught Natsu's back had become at the mention of their reason for joining the Games. "-but now that you're back we obviously don't really need that anymore, and we don't really have anything to prove so... it was kinda the most logical choice."
"We're all gonna stick around for a little while longer, some of us are even taking missions in the area but after this, I have no clue what happens next."
"I go with Yukino," Lucy said softly.
It was silent for a few moments, as the implications of what was to come sunk in for everyone.
"And I go with Lucy," Natsu said, linking hands with Lucy. She looked at him sadly.
"Natsu, you've spent almost your whole life - minus the years with Igneel- in Fairy Tail. That's your home," Lucy said, looking down at her feet. "That's ou- your family," Lucy said sadly.
"But they're your family too," Natsu protested weakly. "And Luce I- you're my mate," he said, visibly becoming increasingly distressed. "Lucy I'm never gonna let you get away again, do you know how hard it was for me? Constantly dreaming about your death"
Everyone had gone silent, racking their brains for something to say.
"I know," Lucy said, squeezing his hand. "And I don't plan on leaving you any time soon. Just... Natsu how is this gonna work? Yukino holds my key, not to mention all of my Sp- my old Spirits," Lucy said, curing herself for slipping up yet again.
"And there aren't any Celestial Wizards to hand your key over to," Yukino said, her finger absentmindedly tracing Andromeda's key dangling from her waist.
No one said anything for a few moments.
"Well," Sting said, clearing his throat. "How about we do a joint mission? Sabertooth just got a huge one, and SS-Calss Job that'll require a pretty big team. We could bring a lot of mages to make it easier, and if anything I think it would be more of a bonding thing than anything else. The pay isn't bad even when split between a pretty decent amount of people, and it'd be nice to fight alongside each other again, wouldn't it?"
"That would... yeah that might work," Gajeel said, after a few seconds of silence. "That way, we have time to think of a solution and get to fight alongside each other again."
"Wait," Lucy interjected. "An SS-Class job? That requires extremely powerful S-Class Mages and we don't even have that many in our Guild-"
"Actually," Natsu cut in. "You were kind of uhm, away but a lot of us in Fairy Tail got promoted to S-Class Mages because we took on like, a lot of jobs," he said, refusing to meet anyone's eye.
Of course they'd taken on hundreds of jobs combined, they were devastated and there wasn't much else to do that felt quite as good as bringing down hoards of enemies with their bare hands. Sting thought to himself, making eye contact with Gajeel.
"We obviously thought that going to Tenrou was a bad idea after what happened last time, and none of us really cared but Master saw a few of us fit to be promoted plus we could get better jobs being referred to the guild"
"And I had a little chat with Virgo and Loke," Yukino suddenly recalled. "And while you technically qualify automatically if I go, since I'm S-Class too, I could see that you might be worried because you'd never taken on a mission like this before. But according to them and from what I've seen, with your new powers you'd be much better equipped for this kind of mission with your new powers."
"...let's do it," Lucy said after a moment of consideration.
"I feel like I haven't fought alongside you guys in forever, and I was practically asleep for most of me being away," Lucy admitted.
"And I think it'll be fun, not so much stressful because with the amount of people we're taking our Team will be over qualified. Especially if we also take the rest of Team Natsu," Sting said, dryly, playfully punching Natsu in the arm. "You just had to go and name a whole team after yourself huh?"
Natsu shoved him back with equal force (that is to say, not very much at all) and continued.
"What do you guys say, let's do it?" Natsu said. "I'm down, and honestly, I think we'll have fun."
"Hell yeah!"
"Good," Sting said with a smile, eyes bright.
"Because we leave tomorrow."
(This was not very good I am so sorry I will try harder next time)
-Pyro