Chapter 3

I opened my eyes to find light peeking through the gaps in the blinds, one of them shining right in my eyes. Closing my eyes tightly, I rolled over and snuggled into the pillow next to me. As I pressed myself against it, I realised that it felt hard for some reason.

"Good Morning to you too, Raiko." I blinked in surprise and looked up. The 'pillow' I had been snuggling up against turned out to be Sting. Still not registering just what this meant, I put my head back on his chest.

"You make a great pillow."

"Not the response I expected."

"What did you expect?" I asked looking up at him.

"I expected you to slap me and yell 'pervert!'." He replied, giving me a sly smile. It was then that my brain finally picked up on what was happening and where it was happening.

"Pervert!" I screamed, leaping out of the bed. Sting just chuckled and got out of the bed as well.

"Go have a shower. I'll get you your clothes for the competition." I grabbed some underwear and a towel and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door. After stripping, I turned on the water and stepped under the steady flow. As I showered, I considered what Mira said last night. Sting doesn't seem to really be taking advantage of this situation as much as I thought he would be. He wasn't treating me like his slave, maid or anything like that. He was treating me like a princess, if anything.

"Oi Raiko, stop daydreaming, we have places to be in the next, like, 40 minutes."

"If you're in such a rush, why don't you just have a shower with me?" I grumbled, forgetting that he had enhanced hearing. As if on que, the door to the bathroom slammed open and Sting entered. I felt heat rise to my face and I spun around, turning away from him. As I stood there, I felt the flow of water stop and a towel being wrapped around my shoulders.

"Sting, what are you…" My question died in my throat as I felt Sting's arm's close around my waist. I gulped, feeling his hard body against me was making feel uncomfortable.

"Sting, are you drunk?"

"On you, maybe."

"Idiot."

"You really are cute when you're annoyed." "Is that why you're trying to piss me off?" I retort, and he lets out a laugh. When all I do is huff and turn away from him more, he sighs.

"Go get dressed. Your clothes are on the bed. I'll see you in the lobby." I wrapped the towel around me and walked out into the bedroom. I looked at the bed and spotted the outfit that Sting had chosen for me. It looked almost identical to the one I wore yesterday, except the dress part split down the front around halfway down my thighs and on one arm it had a silver and black kimono sleeve, while the other side was sleeveless to show off the Sabertooth guild mark on my left forearm. I walked down into the lobby after tying my hair up into a braid so that it didn't fall into my face during fights.

Once I reached the lobby, I spotted Orga, Rogue, Rufus and Minerva standing near the doors waiting for me.

"Yukino isn't participating this year?"

"Nah, she's more focused on damage control." Called back Orga.

"Why is that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because Fairy Tail's entire team is dragon slayers." I whistled at that.

"Who is on the team?"

"Natsu, Gajeel, Laxus and two guys I have never heard of before." I had a pretty solid idea of who he was talking about, and if I was right then the wider public would be in for a surprise.

"I know who they are. If Wendy isn't joining in and is instead going to be healing any members after they finish their fights, then the remaining slayers would make exactly five."

"Who would these two other slayers be? It would be advantageous to know what we are up against." Rufus pointed out. Orga snorted.

"It's not like Rogue and Raiko will have much time to put that information to use."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Because this year they are jumping right into the main event instead of making the crowd wait through some boring foot race." Interjected Minerva.

"What are they starting with?"

"A battle royale in teams of two, which for us is you and Rogue" I whirled around and saw Sting standing there in the most ridiculous outfit I had ever seen him wear, and that was saying something. He wore something between a typical samurai costume without armour, and the outfit he normally wore. It had the dress/pant things from the samurai costume and his regular 'shirt' with a samurai style vest over the top. Frankly, I thought he looked ridiculous. Trying to hold in a giggle, and I could see the others trying not to laugh as well, I walked up to him and cocked my hip to the side, resting my hands on my hips.

"You look ridiculous."

"I didn't choose to wear this."

"You're the guild master and I think I would remember making you wear that if you lost one of our bets."

"Your right. It wasn't you winning a bet and I am guild master, but the magic council is forcing this on me. They don't want me walking around 'scantily clad' as they put it."

"I kind of liked the old outfit." I said pouting. Sting laughed.

"Why? Because you could see more of 'this'?" Asked Sting teasingly gesturing to himself in general. That seemed to be Orga's breaking point. He began guffawing and was quickly joined by Minerva and Rufus. Rogue just grinned at us. Sting coughed loudly.

"That'll be enough out of you lot. We have tournament to win." As we all left for the arena, Rufus came up next to me.

"You said you knew who the other two members of Fairy Tail's team were. Would you mind sharing that information?" I nodded and noticed that Rogue seemed to be paying more attention to our conversation than he normally did to his other guild mate's conversations. Make's sense. After all we could be fighting either of these people in a few minutes.

"Kurokage and Erik. I don't know all that much about Kurokage, but Erik is another story."

"Who is Erik and why do you sound kind of anxious about him?"

"He's the poison dragon slayer and he also uses sound magic to predict his opponent's attacks. You probably know him by his other name."

"What would that be?"

"Cobra of the Oracion Seis."

Once we reached the arena, the group split up with Sting, Rufus, Orga and Minerva going to the spectator area while Rogue and I went down towards the battlefield. Once we stepped onto the field, we were met by a round of applause and a view of all our opponents. Quattro Cerberus had chosen Bacchus and some guy in a punk jacket, Lamia Scale had chosen Jura and Lyon, Mermaid Heel had Kagura and Millianna and Fairy Tail had Gajeel and Cobra. Almost the moment the bell sounded Bacchus, Kagura and Cobra were all on the move. Cobra headed for Blue Pegasus' rep's taking them both out without much effort before turning his attention to Bacchus' partner. Kagura made a beeline for Rogue and I heard the exchange a small amount of chat before they began exchanging blows.

"Just because I feel this way about you doesn't mean I'll hold back." Whispered Kagura.

"Same here. Shadow Dragon Roar!" I stared across the field at Gajeel who had taken up a ridiculous pose with his hands together over his head and his legs bent at the knee, kind of like a sumo wrestler. When I noticed Cobra moving off to the side, I realised what he was going for. I leapt into the sky, gold markings appearing on my body as I activated dragon force and a pair of golden fairy wings sprouting from my back.

"Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Karma Demon Iron God Sword!" I pivoted in the air, sending my magic coursing through my body aiming straight for Gajeel since he couldn't really move while using this particular secret art.

"Fairy Dragon Dance!" Before I could reach Gajeel though, I felt a massive amount of magic power in the air even as Gajeel brought his sword down, cleaving through the competition.

"Crumbling Fuji!" When I realised what was happening, I quickly changed spells.

"Fairy Sphere!" I called, a magic sphere emblazoned with the Fairy Tail guild mark appearing around me as Jura's attack enveloped everyone else. When the dust cleared, I found everyone bar Lyon, who had shielded himself by encasing himself in ice, Gajeel, who still had his god sword out but his iron scales were covering his body and Rogue, who was holding Kagura's unconscious body, black markings covering his body telling me that he had activated his dragon force as well. What worried me was that I couldn't see Cobra anywhere. As I sniffed, trying to catch a whiff of the poison dragon, I heard something behind me. Spinning in the air, I found Cobra behind me and I realised that when he had realised what Jura was doing he had looked for a way to protect himself and had heard my thoughts and gotten behind me inside of Fairy Sphere to protect himself from Jura's spell.

"Poison Dragon…" Cobra drew in a breath large breath with purple gas visible around the corners of his mouth,

"Roar!" As he roared, the purple gas from his attack filled up Fairy Sphere, not giving me any air to breathe. I desperately held my breath, knowing that if I breathed in any of Cobra's poison, I wouldn't last much longer in a fight. Dispelling my shield, I went to fly out of the cloud of poison, but before I could, Cobra punched me hard in the gut, causing me to gasp for air but instead got a lungful of Cobra's poison. As I coughed, trying to get the poison out of my lungs, I fell to the ground landing hard, my dragon force dissipating once I landed. Cobra landed beside me and took off towards Jura and Lyon who both seemed to be waiting for him. Looking around, I saw Rogue and Gajeel fighting, with neither of them really able to gain the upper hand. Still coughing, I got to my feet and headed off in the direction of Rogue and Gajeel, but before I went more than a few metres a wall of ice appeared around me, preventing me from going anywhere. I turned and saw Lyon heading towards me. Behind him I could see Jura and Cobra fighting. Cobra was dodging all of Jura's attacks but his movements had slowed, telling me that Jura had successfully hit him a couple of times and Jura had the tell-tale bags under his eyes, telling me that he had been infected by Cobra's poison like me. For them it was just a matter of time until the two of them collapsed. Turning my attention to Lyon. I picked myself up before settling into a fighting stance.

"Ice Make Eagles!" I sent my magic flowing through my body as I prepared to launch a counter attack.

"Fairy Dragon Dance!" I let my magic launch me through Lyon's attack. I literally danced through the ice birds that Lyon sent flying at me. I landed in front of Lyon and sent my power flowing into my fist.

"Fairy Dragon Talon!" I smashed my hand into Lyon's gut and forced upwards, sending him flying into the air. Lyon smashed into his own ice wall and I leapt up and released my dragon force, my wings flashing into existence.

"Fairy Dragon Sky Flash!" I spun around, smashing my magic into Lyon's body, shattering the ice behind him and slamming him into the ground. The moment I landed, a wave of nausea overtook me and I collapsed onto the ground. I heard the bell go off and the commentator announce the end of the battle, but then everything went black.

I woke to find Sting carrying me, I assumed, in the direction of the infirmary. Sting kicked down the door and yelled at Wendy for her to help me.

"Sting…" He looked down at me, a look of relief passing over his face before it hardened again and he went back to yelling at Wendy

"… stop." I finished my sentence and Sting's head whipped around as he looked down at me.

"Why should I stop? You could die, Raiko!"

"Listen kid, your girlfriend isn't going to die." Sting looked over and I saw Cobra and Kinana walk into the infirmary, Kinana supporting the dragon slayer.

"Why are you even here?!" Sting yelled at Cobra but before Cobra could answer Kinana slapped Sting, hard.

"Erik is here to help! He just finished removing the poison from everyone else he fought today and he came looking for Raiko to help her." Cobra squeezed Kinana's shoulder letting her know that he was thankful for her doing that. Cobra gestured towards a bed.

"Put her down on the bed and I'll do what I came here to do. Also, could you keep it down? You know that the girl you're trying to save has sensitive hearing, and mine is even more so." Sting sighed and put me down. After Cobra removed the poison he and Kinana left, saying that he had to recover his strength for the rest of the games, I went to get off the bed I was lying on but before I could, Sting grabbed me and pulled me into his arms.

"Sting…" He wasn't holding me bridal style like he normally did. He was hugging me tightly to his chest, like he was afraid I would float away.

I opened my mouth to say something, but I saw tears glistening at the edges of Sting's eyes.

"I'm never letting you go again."

"What?"

"I'm not letting you get into a fight like that again."

"Sting, I'm not some damsel in distress." He then mumbled something under his breath and even from how close I was to him I still couldn't hear him, even with my dragon slayer hearing.

"Sting, for Christ's sake, I'm not made of fucking glass!" Sting looked at me and smiled when he saw the light blush on my cheeks.

"I love you." Before I even had time to fully register what Sting just told me, his lips crashed into mine. This wasn't a teasing kiss like the one he had given me last night at the party or like the one he had given me a few weeks ago on a job. This one was fire, hot and passionate. When Sting pulled back, I was breathing hard and my face felt like it was going to burst into flames.

"I love you." I reached up and whacked him on the head.

"Idiot." Sting laughed and led me out of the infirmary, his hand possessively around my waist. Once we reached the Sabertooth guild spectator box, I got a look at the scores. Fairy Tail had 10 points, Lamia Scale had 8 points, we had 4 points, Quattro Cerberus had 2 points and Mermaid Heel and Blue Pegasus both were tied at 0 points. Not the best start. We'll start racking up points in the solo matches. This year, Sabertooth is going to win!

AUTHORS NOTE: Both me and my editor will be in Japan without access to a computer to write more chapters. This trip will be from 29/11/2018 till 23/12/2018.