Chapter 19 – Master and Pupil

Magnolia, Summer Time,

Year X792

Natsu Dragneel

I awoke to an odd sensation of warmth beside me. Opening my eyes, hesitantly at first since both of us had forgotten to close the curtains last night and light was now streaming into the room, I saw Sting bathed in radiant glow. "Good morning" he grinned at me, face so close it was practically touching me. His hot breath came in slow puffs of heat that fell upon my cheeks.

I smiled back at him. "Good morning, Sting" I replied, "What time is it?".

The White Dragon Slayer shrugged, before turning around and looking at the clock on the wall behind him. "It's 6:30AM" he read, before turning back to me. "I think we both ended up waking early because of the light" he mused, before jabbing a thumb towards the window that was also behind him. I chuckled.

"Well… we were both tired when we went to sleep last night" I said, before multiple memories of our late-night activity sprang to my mind, "Oh… and sorry about that, I got a little carried away, even though you were so tired I still tried to do things" I apologised after a quick blush pushed its way onto my face. Sting laughed at my display of 'cuteness', before he shrugged.

"It's okay, it's not like I didn't enjoy it. Even if I wanted to go to sleep, I did agree to do whatever you wanted" he stated. I smiled happily, before moving to lay closer to him, his naked body alongside my own.

"Speaking of that, I really loved doing that to you. The noises you made were so cute and sexy" I chuckled. Sting almost blushed himself, before he smirked lewdly.

"Yeah, you know I'm gonna get you back for all that. I never thought you'd come up with such a dirty way to use your magic" he replied. I laughed a little, before wrapping an arm around his shoulders, my fingertips lightly caressing the point between his shoulder blades.

"You liked it though" I smirked. Sting pouted mockingly for a second, before giving up, the smile on his lips a far more natural look for him.

"I loved it" he admitted. Loved… that reminds me…

"Hey Sting," I began again, as a quiet lull began to spread over the still somewhat-sleepy room. The White Dragon Slayer looked directly at me, his eyes clearly showing his tiredness, but also a slight glimmer of light that always entranced me. "What is it Natsu?" he asked in an inquisitive form of vocie.

I frowned for a moment, as I tried to put into words what I wanted to tell him. "Well… what do you… feel for me?" I asked him, somewhat unsurely. Sting seemed a little confused about what I was asking him, however I could not find another way to explain, so I patiently waited to see what he would ask or respond with.

"Well" he said after a short bit of thinking time, "I like you, I know that much. I mean, I know we've only been like this for about five days, if you don't include the days before we went out on our first date… but…" Sting trailed off, looking to me to see if any of that answered my question. "Why, what are you thinking?" he asked me after a few minutes of slightly awkward silence. I pouted in thought for a moment. Should I tell him? I said to myself, I mean… if he feels this way too then it'd be okay… but… what if only I feel it? That'd make it weird, and I don't want to lose Sting yet so…

I shrugged. "I just wanted to know" I stated, in half-truth, before I sent a smile at Sting, "I like you too…" I added after a moment.

Sting looked to me suspiciously for a moment, before finally allowing his expression to relax. "I guess that's… good, then" he said, still obviously unsure about both my reasons for asking such a random question, and the thoughts currently going on in my head. After a short silence, Sting began speaking once more. "You looked really hot last night. I like it when you take a dominant role a little" he stated. I looked to him, and smiled.

"Do you want me to be more dominant the next time we do it?" I asked him. Sting smirked.

"The next time we fuck, you'll have to do what I want, like we agreed. So, you'll just have to wait and see" the White Dragon chuckled, with a slight darkness to his voice that made me want to make our 'next time' occur in the next few minutes, just to see what lewd things Sting would do.

"Does that mean that-" I began to speak, however Sting silenced me with a short kiss.

"No. We're not gonna do it this morning, it's too early for sex" he said firmly. I pouted.

"But I wanna know what you're gonna make me do" I whined. Sting smiled.

"Like I said, you're gonna have to wait and see" he stated, "We can't do it right now anyways, because there's something I'm gonna need to buy" he added with a faint smile. This had me guessing instantly as to what Sting needed; a number of quite dirty things came to my mind, some of which even I would be ashamed to admit. I could tell the blond was doing this deliberately, to try to make me guess and beg him to tell me, however I refused to give in to temptation. Instead of pleading for him to tell me, I used the hand I had on back to slowly rub circles down his spine, getting lower and lower. Sting smirked at me as he saw me do this. "Still not telling…" he chirped in a sing-song voice, before putting on a lewd grin. "Although… if you're that desperate, I could always return the favour for last night and suck you off. That wouldn't count as my side of the bet though" he chuckled.

I thought about this offer for a moment, then put on a smile. "I'll agree to that, only if you let me suck you off again as well" I stated with a darker tone to my voice. The blond smiled.

"I guess we could" he began, before a noise interrupted us. It would've been almost unheard by most people, but unfortunately for the both of us, we were Dragon Slayers; a faint but firm knock. "That was the door" Sting voiced. I nodded with a mildly annoyed expression.

"Hmph… ruining my fun" I complained, before shrugging, "I can't smell who it is from here because of the… leftover smells from last night" I added with a more matter-of-fact voice. Sting looked panicked, glancing around for a moment, before looking back to me.

"I'm gonna have to answer it. You stay hidden, we don't want people to know about us yet" he stated. I nodded in understanding.

"I'll stay in here, unless you tell me to come out or I think you're in danger. It could be a trap by one of those people that attacked us" I said. Sting nodded.

"Alright. Put your underwear at least though, I don't want you charging out naked to fight some guy" he instructed me, a faint flicker of amusement passing over his features at mentioning this.

I almost laughed, before catching myself just in time; after all, if another Dragon Slayer was at the door, it was likely that they'd hear us. "You know I'd fight naked for ya if I had to" I grinned. Sting chuckled.

"I would for you too, although… hmm… maybe we could… the next time we train…" Sting gave a dirty expression. I sighed.

"Sting, the door" I reminded him. The blond snapped out of his inappropriate thoughts and nodded.

"Right" he said, before heading out, in nothing but his underwear. I closed the door behind him, leaving it slightly ajar, enough that I could sneakily observe from the bedroom, just in case my support was needed.

/

Sting's Apartment, Summer Time,

Year X792

Sting Eucliffe

I exited the bedroom swiftly. Behind me I could feel a sudden draft as Natsu closed the door, leaving it only slightly ajar, I noticed, so that he could watch what happened. I just hope he doesn't end up jumping out because he hears something that he doesn't like. He gets angry really easy… I thought hopefully as I made my way over to the door. I tried to use my sense of smell to determine the visitor before I opened the wooden door, however all I could get was a faint, vaguely familiar, scent, which was overpowered by the lingering smell of sex that still pervaded the room. If this is Gajeel or Wendy, I think the game'll be up, there's no way they wouldn't be able to smell Natsu's presence here I added mentally to my list of worries.

After a brief pause to collect my thoughts I unlocked the door and opened it. "Who is it at this time of the morning?" I asked as I flung the piece of wood wide. "Oh… it's you Edric" I commented as I at once locked eyes with the grinning blond teenager.

"Well good morning to you too, Sting" Edric greeted me, with a pleasant, amicable smile. "May I come in? I would like to speak with you" he added after a moment. I pouted, before looking down at myself, realising I was only in my underwear I felt slightly embarrassed, although only for a moment.

Looking at Edric I moved aside to allow him entrance. Better talk with him in here, rather than be standing at the door naked I thought as I did this. Edric thanked me as he moved swiftly into my hotel room. His deep green eyes glanced amusingly across the room, before he picked out the sofa and began sitting down on it. "So, what are you doing here, Edric? It's pretty early you know" I asked him as I stood; I didn't feel comfortable sitting next to him on the relatively small sofa in my current attire (or lack thereof).

Edric smiled at me for a moment. "You're certainly jumpy. From your clothes… do you have company?" he smirked wickedly, his teenage features giving way to a slight perviness that I did not expect. I folded my arms over my chest.

"No. And I'm not 'jumpy'… is it not normal to ask a person why they are here at this time of the morning?" I replied to him, giving a little pout. Edric laughed.

"Oh, come on Sting… you know you don't have to hide back there Natsu. Why don't you put some clothes on and join us, after all I do need to speak to both of you anyways" Edric called out in a louder voice.

"Why are you calling out for Natsu?" I asked him suddenly, a little part of my chest fluttering as he gave away the presence of my supposedly secret boyfriend in the next room. Edric laughed at me, before laying back in the seat. His green eyes met my blue and for a moment there was a stand-off, before eventually I sighed in defeat. "Natsu you can come out, I guess he already know about us" I barked, causing the pinkette to appear in the bedroom doorway instantly, clad in only his underwear like I was.

Edric chuckled. "Well I suppose that is one way to come out" he mused. I narrowed my eyes at him for a moment as Natsu came to stand beside me. I noticed that the pinkette hovered exceptionally close, although he seemed to refrain from touching me.

"How did y'know I was here?" the Fire Dragon Slayer asked Edric, his tone somewhat defensive.

Edric continued grinning, clearly enjoying this whole scenario. "Do you really want to know the answer to that?" he asked in reply, before breaking out into an even wider leer, "Or are you two lovebirds just worried about how many people know about your relationship?" he continued.

I looked to Natsu for a moment, before sighing and dragging him over to sit with me on the chair beside the sofa. Whilst I sat on the chair itself, he leaned on its armrest, his hand reaching out to interlock fingers with me. "Alright, you caught us. Me and Natsu are together, and we've been worrying about getting caught because it could end up effecting our guild's reputation. It could be particularly bad for Sabertooth, what with me being their master" I explained to Edric in brief. The blond nodded, allowing his smile to recede away from his features slightly.

"Yeah, I can understand that" he stated with a nod, before his smile grew a little once again, "however, I wouldn't worry about this getting onto Sorcerer Weekly or anything, after all the only reason I was one-hundred-percent sure that Natsu was here was because I talked to Happy just a little earlier this morning, saying how Natsu had not come home last night" he grinned. I relaxed slightly at hearing this, and looked to Natsu. Like me I could see a faint blush raising to his cheeks as we both then realised that Edric knew exactly what we had been up to after we left him and the others at the bar. Or at least he had a pretty good idea. The blond teen looked at our faces for a moment, before laughing a little darkly. "He he… looks like I wasn't wrong about last night. Haruki owes me a breakfast" he giggled. I looked to him with wide eyes.

"Haruki knows too?" I asked him. Edric smiled.

"Well… I don't know how the whole guild doesn't notice you two, but somehow I haven't heard anyone suspecting you too much. Me, Medea, Haruki and Kenji all noticed… actually, just to settle another bet; did you get together before or after that beach job I suggested you go on?" Edric looked to us with amusement. Once more I glanced to Natsu, however this time the pinkette grinned.

"It was on the job that we…" he began answering, before he trailed off without finishing his sentence, as he was interrupted by Edric sighing. The blond teen then shrugged at this response.

"Huh, I thought it was after. Guess Haruki was right about that one then" Edric muttered, before he shook his head. "Anyways, I guess we should get down to business, not that I don't love hearing about your relationship" Edric stated after a moment, his tone and face each becoming more serious as he said this. Natsu and I both nodded at him; we were just glad to move the topic of conversation off of us, and onto something a little more appropriate.

"Alright, I'm guessing this is the real reason you came to see me… er… us" I corrected. Edric's face flickered into a smirk for a moment, before returning to seriousness.

"Yes" he confirmed, "I came here this early in order to quickly go over everything about last night, as well as tell you that I've already contacted Makarov, and we'll be holding a meeting in the guildhall about this a little later. Rogue's here too, it was just by chance that he came needing to speak with you Sting, but it could be useful to keep him in the loop too" Edric continued, before looking to me directly. I nodded in understanding.

"If you didn't tell Rogue, I probably would have. At least this way he will be on exactly the same page as me. A meeting is also good too, I have a couple questions I wanna ask you and your people" I stated. Edric smiled.

"I thought you might say that" he replied, before he sat forwards in his seat, looking at us a little more intently. "Anyways, as for what happened last night" he continued "After you two left, I rounded up all the people that were under that guy's spell and Thomas used his skills to subvert their consciousness for information. Turns out one or two of them have been like that for a few days, which makes me think he's been here a little while preparing for some sort of attack or plan" he explained, before taking a moment to allow this to sink in. After a couple minutes thought, I nodded.

"So… you think he might have something else up his sleeve too? That he'll try again?" I asked Edric. The blond teen shook his head.

"No. After being caught, it's unlikely he'll want to try anything again. For him and his little team, if one of their members gets caught by us, it'll be game over, because we'll be able to get all the information on them, their hideouts, escape plans and whatever else. That means it's more likely, if anything, that another member of their group may try something in their stead" Edric answered. Once more I nodded.

"Alright" I said. Natsu looked between us for a moment, before speaking.

"So, Fairy Tail isn't in any danger anymore?" he asked Edric in a slightly confused tone. The teen shrugged.

"I wouldn't say it was in danger to begin with. At most they'd have attempted to threaten you, but from the welcome we got when we arrived, I doubt they'd pose much more than a nuisance to your guild, since I'm sure you'd stomp on anyone stupid enough to threaten you without the proper powers. Which is why you attempted to stand up to us, until Arthur and the others proved to be a big enough threat to make you listen" Edric stated in a rational tone of voice. Natsu seemed pacified by this, but not completely satisfied; a sentiment I could understand, since if Sabertooth was under any kind of threat I would have been determined to prevent it too, not just as their master, but also as a proud Sabertooth wizard.

"Damn right we would" Natsu chirped up confidently. Edric laughed.

"Proving my point. There is just one more thing though…" he stated, trailing off and giving an uncharacteristic show of uncertainty. I frowned at him.

"What is it?" I asked. Edric looked to me directly.

"We think that perhaps they may attempt something similar to this at Sabertooth" he said bluntly. I took a moment to register this, before nodding.

"I thought that might happen" I confirmed, seemingly surprising the teen with my show of level-headedness.

Edric continued. "I see… then you may have also figured out that we think it may be best for you to return to Sabertooth, you see… Arthur will be heading there to deal with this issue and rather than having to involve even more people with this issue, we believe it may be better to continue using you and Natsu" the blond explained. I nodded at this, however I could feel Natsu's eyes on me. As I looked over to the pinkette I caught the glance he sent my way. Edric seemed to notice too, as he went strangely tense.

Surprisingly though, Natsu's eyes showed understanding and care, rather than the protectiveness I had expected. "You should go" he said. I looked to him intently.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" I questioned him, double checking.

Natsu nodded. "Yeah, it's your guild, right?" he said, "You should be there to protect it, and your friends too" he added with a vaguely sympathetic smile.

Edric seemed as surprised by the pinkette's sudden behaviour as me, as I saw his smile drop for the first time this conversation. He began smiling again though, as he cleared his throat. "As adorable as this is" he interjected, earning both Natsu and my attention once more, "You've miss-understood something. Sting and you, Natsu, will need to go. Like I said we want to use both of you to help deal with these people" Edric stated with a smirk. Natsu's eyes brightened at hearing this information.

"Really? So, I get to go to Sabertooth?" he asked with slight excitement now in his voice, a stark contrast to his more serious expression from only seconds ago. Edric nodded.

"Yes. It'll take both of you and Arthur to attempt to stop these people. Artie's clever, and a capable fighter, but I doubt he'd be completely fine against these people if they've managed to weave a decent enough trap. Like with Medea, Thomas and Me, you two will act as extra muscle, if that is okay?" Edric explained. Both Natsu and I smiled at this, nodding.

"Yeah it is" I said.

Edric nodded. "Anyways, that's all I need to say for now, if you have any more questions, it may be better to wait until the meeting, since Medea and Thomas have more information than me. I was too busy having to explain this all to Arthur last night, as well as clean up the mess, to have any luxuries like sleep… or that" he winked at us, before getting up. I smirked.

"So that's why you're still in that waistcoat from yesterday" I commented amusedly "I wasn't sure if it was because you were also having… fun… last night" I added as I chuckled. Edric shook his head.

"I wish" he replied, before motioning to leave. I got up to follow him to the door, however he patted me on the shoulder to make me stay. "Don't worry, I can see myself out. You two continue doing whatever it was you were doing before I rudely interrupted you. Although, I doubt that anything I've done is as rude as the stuff you're doing to each other" he said with a smirk. I pouted at him.

"Maybe we weren't doing anything, maybe you just woke us up early?" I stated. He laughed.

"If that was true then why were you two whispering before I arrived. My hearing's pretty good, so I could hear it from the door… not that I could hear any juicy details" Edric smiled cockily. I was dumbfounded for a moment that a non-Dragon Slayer could hear that distance with ease, however I recovered just as Edric was about to leave. "Oh, Edric" I caught his attention as he opened the door, "Please keep this secret, we're obviously trying to keep quiet about this until we figure some stuff out" I asked him. Edric nodded politely.

"Of course, I will, this will just stay between me, Medea, Haruki and Kenji… and Thomas, if he ever notices" Edric mused, before shrugging, "After all… relationships are a private thing, right?" he added with vague amusement, using the exact same words we too had used when he admitted to us about him and Haruki. I nodded.

"Right" I replied. Edric then began moving to leave once more. With one last smile, he began closing the door, catching it at the last minute to say one final thing.

"I almost forgot, the meeting's at 11AM. Try to be there on time" he stated, before closing the door. Once he was gone Natsu stood up behind me, his arms speedily snaking themselves around my naked torso.

"You heard him Sting, let's get back to what we were doing" the pinkette whispered in my ear from behind.

I slid around in his arms so that I was facing him. "What were we doing?" I replied, earning a slightly confused look from the other Dragon Slayer. I smiled at this expression on Natsu. "Aw… so cute, did you really think I forgot about how you were begging me to suck you off?" I cooed at him after a moment, earning a slight glare from the pinkette.

"I think you mean how you were asking for me to suck you off again" he responded cockily. I just smirked wickedly at this, before unravelling his arms from around me, and then kneeling in front of his body. I looked up to him for a moment in my new position.

"Does that mean you don't want me in this position?" I asked him with a lewd smirk. He chuckled darkly.

"Well… since you're down there…" he began. I just laughed. Too easy… I thought, before Natsu removed his underwear, Natsu is so easy to turn on…

/

Fairy Tail Guild, Summer Time,

Year X792

Natsu Dragneel

After our little bit of morning 'fun', Sting and I quickly showered, before heading off to the guild. Showering individually, it took us longer than expected to get ready, and so by the time we left Sting's apartment it was about 9AM. Entering the guild not much longer after that we were met by the stony expression of Thomas Zollzero.

"I've been waiting for you" he said as we entered the guild. I looked to Sting.

"Didn't Edric say that the meeting would be at eleven?" I asked the blond. Sting nodded.

"Yeah" he stated. Thomas sighed.

"No, it's not" he corrected us, giving us each a slightly less annoyed expression now that he understood the situation. "The meeting was to start at ten, however we started a little early to brief Makarov and Rogue properly about the events last night, then we figured we'd have you join us and go over everything else" Thomas explained, before he rolled his eyes, "I knew Edric was too tired this morning to remember all the information" he added with a tone of expectancy. I chuckled.

"Guess we can't be blamed for being late" Sting said, "Although it's still not 10AM yet" he added. Thomas shrugged.

"It didn't take as long to brief them as we expected so we've been waiting on you to arrive before we could continue" Thomas explained, before turning on the spot. With a look over his shoulder, the blond gestured for us to follow him. "If you're here now then we may continue" he stated, his voice showing that he wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer.

Sting looked to me, before shrugging and motioning to follow Thomas. I also followed, although a little unwillingingly. This was primarily because Sting and I had planned to have breakfast before the meeting, seeing as how we both thought we'd be early for once, although that plan was quickly derailed by Thomas' intervention. I leaned over to Sting as we walked to the place where the meeting was being held. "Looks like this is our second breakfast this morning that has been interrupted by a Zollzero" I whispered to him, with a grin on my face. Sting looked to me with mild surprise, before he began smiling too.

"Yeah" he agreed, "It's a very annoying habit of theirs, isn't it?" he added with a wink. I chuckled with him as we turned the last corner of the guild's corridor and saw Edric waiting outside of a room. As he saw us a smile filtered across his features.

"Sorry about the mix up" he apologised upon our approach.

Sting waved an arm passively. "It's fine. Just means we'll have to wait a bit longer for breakfast" he stated in a mild tone of voice. Edric smirked at hearing this.

"So, you didn't have breakfast after I left then?" he winked. Sting and I both narrowed our eyes at him as we moved to enter the room, Thomas opening the door. Neither of us said anything in reply to that comment, since we didn't want to give away our secret when potentially Makarov, or Rogue could hear us. I just hope our showers earlier were enough to make sure he doesn't smell anything… otherwise I wasted another opportunity to shower with Sting I thought to myself as Sting and I took seats beside Rogue, with Sting sat in the middle and Rogue and I on either side of him. Makarov was sat a chair on the opposite side of a longer wooden table, obviously designed for meetings between larger groups of people, whilst the three Zollzero children all took up positions at one end of the table. Kenji and Haruki, I noticed, were absent.

As soon as Sting and I were seated, Edric began to speak. "Right, now that were all together, we may continue. As you are now all aware of the events of last night, we need only to go over the plans to come, as well as any other relevant information about the man who we failed to apprehend yesterday" he said in a more 'business' tone of voice than the one he had used with us earlier that morning. After this short speech, Thomas stood forward, before making numerous Archive screens appear around the room, with one beside him and his siblings, as well as smaller versions showing the same information in front Makarov and our little Dragon Slayer group respectively. I glanced over the screen for a moment, which displayed several images of people, along with little boxes that seemed to have information in them. I didn't read these, I just hoped Sting would and that he would understand them better than me.

"As you may see on your screens" Thomas then began, "The people involved in this instance were all bystanders, however some of them fell under this man's curse far before others. Although this means he was able to work under our radar without us noticing, we do not think that increases his threat level too much" Thomas explained, before he stepped back and allowed Medea to take the spotlight.

"One disturbing piece of information that was gleaned, however, was the knowledge that two of the people present last night were not even from Magnolia. Rather instead they came from some place near to here" the blond woman left a moment of pause, before unveiling the key piece of information, "As may be seen, they come from Sabertooth's home town" she finished with a slightly over-dramatic tone, considering the purpose of this meeting. Sting seemed to tense a little hearing this, however he soon relaxed. Edric already told us that, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to him I thought, recalling the information and plan that the Card Mage had revealed to us earlier in the morning.

"Does that mean that they are going to strike there next?" Rogue asked the group. Edric nodded.

"Yes. I've already said this to Natsu and Sting earlier, however for the benefit of you and Makarov, I will now say that we believe that this group's objective is the disruption of the Zollzero family, by any means. This includes a directed effort against both Fairy Tail, and Sabertooth, because you are still indebted to us, and are therefore linked to us in some way" Edric stated. I noticed Makarov go a little withdrawn hearing this, although only for a moment. Gramps wouldn't let the guild be threatened, we'll deal with whatever they throw at us I thought.

"So, they intend to do what, attack us?" Makarov asked. Edric shrugged.

"Something to that effect. Rather than a direct assault, they would more likely send threats, and perhaps show up in person, however I doubt, as I said to Natsu this morning, that they would pose much of a threat to your guild as a whole" Edric commented.

Makarov nodded. "Fairy Tail does not give in to threats" he stated. Edric smiled.

"No, it doesn't" he agreed, before looking back to Rogue, "However, to answer the question I'm sure you're really wanting to know, we already have a plan to prevent them attacking Sabertooth" Edric stated to the black-haired Dragon Slayer.

Rogue looked to Sting. "Did you already discuss this with them Sting?" he asked. Sting nodded beside me.

"Yeah," he stated, "And just so you know we've already agreed to it" he added with a faint smile. Rogue gave a slightly odd look upon hearing this, before he glanced at me.

"I assume by 'we' you mean you and Natsu?" he asked. Sting nodded.

"Yup" he said in a flat tone of voice. Edric watched the discussion for a moment, before choosing an appropriate time to jump back in.

"Master Eucliffe, Natsu and I have already discussed this, but once more for the benefit of those currently present, we will now go over the plan to deal with these people" Edric stated, before looking to the Archive screen, which Thomas changed at a gesture. On the changed screen, and their two smaller copies before us, were now displayed a map of what I knew to be the hometown of the Sabertooth guild. On the map, there were several little red dots with accompanying names, one of which included the name of the very guild that Rogue and my boyfriend were from.

"The plan is a simple one. As we have now disrupted their efforts here at Fairy Tail, it is more likely that our rivals will put more effort into their attack on Sabertooth, perhaps even using all four of their members' powers" Edric began again. "This likelihood is increased by the fact that Sting, the Guildmaster of Sabertooth, now has been seen by them to have directly acted in a way that prevented them from achieving their goals" Edric added, looking to Sting. Sting smiled.

"So, they want revenge?" he asked. Edric nodded.

"Yes, and that is why this time we're going to get them at Sabertooth. In order to do this, neither me, nor Thomas, nor Medea may act, as we've already tried once, and for all of us to go to Sabertooth again may prompt our rivals to go into hiding instead of attempting to act. As such, we will only be using two people from the group that helped stopped them here at Fairy Tail, that is to say you, Sting, and you, Natsu" Edric explained, gesturing to us each individually.

Rogue furrowed his brow at this. "Would it not appear odd for Natsu to go to our guild?" he asked. Edric shook his head.

"It would seem natural, if we use our connections as Zollzero's to spread a rumour that Natsu is going to help with the debt at your end" Edric explained. Rogue nodded in receipt of this information, however Makarov then spoke up.

"So, your intention is to continue using Sting and Natsu to deal with these people, despite them having no direct connection to the Zollzero family?" he asked. Edric nodded.

"Correct, although there is more than one reason why this is beneficial. You see, if Natsu and Sting prove to be key players in defeating this group, Arthur has it in his power to remove the remainder of the debt from over Fairy Tail's and Sabertooth's heads" Edric explained in a matter-of-fact tone. Makarov seemed a little surprised by this information, however he did well not to show it; only I seemed to notice the subtle change in his scent that revealed this, as Sting and Rogue appeared to be a little preoccupied discussing something else beside me. Edric smiled at the group. "With that in mind, it would be obvious to point out then that this is also in your best interest to achieve results here" he added. Sting nodded.

"Yes, I understand that" he confirmed, before he smiled, "However I have one question to ask you about this group" he stated bluntly. Edric's face went serious.

"You know I cannot tell you about our family matters, so this question may not receive an answer" he said. Sting nodded.

"Yes, however, all I want to know is what connection Kenji has to these people. That man last night seemed very aggressive towards Kenji in particular, and I notice that Kenji is also not here today" Sting observed. Edric smirked at this question.

"In answer to that, all I can say, is that during some… familial upheaval, Kenji took one side and they took another. Before that they were his students, however with this choice they became enemies. This also resulted in them abandoning the Zollzero's for their 'freedom'. As to why Kenji and Haruki are absent, however, they were called away by our Father, and so had to leave early this morning" Edric stated, before looking to Thomas. The Archive Mage gave a harsh look to Edric and shook his head. "That is all I can say. Are there any other questions?" Edric added after a moment. With that, Sting looked to me.

"Do you have any questions Natsu? You're also going to be involved, so don't hesitate to ask" he said to me. I shook my head.

"No. I pretty much understand; we're going to Sabertooth with Rogue, we help Arthur deal with these guys, and then the debt is gone. Right?" I looked to Edric as I summed this up. The blond teen nodded.

"More or less. As for what Arthur plans, I cannot say, mostly because he didn't tell me. Medea, Thomas and I will remain here at Fairy Tail for a while to make sure they don't try anything else, then when Haruki and Kenji return we'll leave to deal with our own business, whilst they continue keeping track over your debt" Edric stated.

"Speaking of the debt, how much is still owed?" Makarov asked Edric. The blond teen shrugged and looked to Thomas.

The Archive Mage looked to Makarov. "The debt has had over half paid; however, the income has slowed as all high-paying jobs in both guilds appear to have been completed, leaving only lesser paying jobs. As it stands, Fairy Tail is over half, but is a little short of three-quarters having been paid, whilst Sabertooth is at approximately eighty-two percent, although they have more people working on their end of the debt so a faster completion rate for them was expected" Thomas stated. Makarov nodded.

"So, the majority of the debt has been paid by both guilds?" he stated in receipt of this information. Sting smiled.

"It'll be one-hundred percent paid if me and Natsu are successful" he mused. Edric chuckled.

"Well you will just have to make sure that you are" he said, before looking across the group. "If that is everything, then we can conclude the meeting?" he said to us, prompting everyone to ask any lingering questions. As everyone remained quiet, Edric nodded, and the meeting was abandoned. Thomas was the first to leave, as he deactivated his Archive, before swiftly leaving the room with Medea. Sting, Rogue and I left soon after, with Makarov and Edric staying behind to 'discuss something'.

As we left I noticed the look Rogue gave us. Feeling his dark eyes on me, I suddenly felt very self-conscious about being around Sting. Has he noticed? I worried momentarily. Once we were down the corridor we all stopped as a group.

Before I could ask what was up, or why we stopped, Rogue spoke up. "You two had sex again" he said bluntly, making me instantly panic, before he smiled. It took my mind a moment to process what he said.

Wait… Again… What's going on?!

/

Rogue smirked at Sting and me, whilst Sting just looked apologetically back towards the Shadow Dragon Slayer. "I'm sorry" he apologised. I looked to him with astonishment.

"You told Rogue about us?" I asked him. Sting looked to me and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sorry" he parroted. I sighed.

"I know you said that Rogue knew about your crush, but you never said anything about you actually telling him we were dating" I stated, in a slightly frustrated tone. Sting bowed his head apologetically.

"I know, I meant to tell you. It's just… we kinda… got… distracted…" he trailed off. I looked to him for a moment; his deep, blue eyes shone with remorseful light. What else could I do but smile when met with such a cute-yet-handsome face.

"Okay, just… when did you tell him?" I asked Sting; depending on the length I figured I might be able to get my way for at least a little while.

Sting rubbed the back of his head. "Well… do you remember when we told Happy?" he asked me. I nodded. "It was before that, Rogue was here at the guild and he kinda… smelled it… I was gonna tell you after we told Happy, however… we got… side-tracked" he smiled sheepishly. I blushed slightly at the memory.

"Oh… right. Yeah, I guess we did end up getting distracted" I admitted, avoiding using the word to describe what we actually ended up doing that day. The black-haired Mage just smiled at us.

"You also promised me that you'd try to hide it better. I know that it's not ideal, but it could end up reflecting on the guild Sting" Rogue stated. Sting nodded.

"Yeah, I know" he said, before wrapping an arm around me and pulling me close, "It's just… do you know how hard it is to keep off of someone as cute and hot as this" he squeezed me tight to him to emphasise the point. I almost felt like blushing again; seeing Sting act this way in front of another person was both embarrassing and… weirdly fulfilling... at the same time.

"I guess it's also my fault then" I added with a faint smile. Rogue sighed.

"Well whatever" he said in an almost despairing tone, "I guess it won't matter for long, since you'll be at Sabertooth for a little while, and besides me, no one else there will be able to smell that you two are together" he stated. I nodded.

"We've been careful around Wendy and Gajeel, but neither of them seemed to have noticed. If Laxus noticed, he woulda definitely said something too… so I guess it's all okay for now" I reasoned with a faint smile. Rogue nodded and returned the smile.

"Then that is fine. We should probably show our faces back at the main part of the guild now though, otherwise people might start to suspect something. I understand that everything has been kept quiet for now, about the job yesterday?" Rogue looked to us both for confirmation, as Sting allowed me to be freed from his grasp. We both nodded.

"Yeah" Sting confirmed verbally, "Should we get going then? We can have a drink and then you can catch me up on stuff at the guild whilst we're there. Natsu, do you want to see Happy, since you haven't spoken to him in a little while with everything that's been going on?" Sting looked to me with a pleasant smile.

I smiled back at him, before giving him a short kiss. I wanted to do more, but I couldn't bring myself to whilst Rogue was there. "That sounds good. We can go get breakfast after… or lunch I guess?" I said to him. Sting nodded.

"Sound's good, see you in a little while" he stated. With that I left him to walk back with Rogue whilst I charged around shouting out and looking for my furball partner.

I found him with Lucy, and we spent the next hour or so tormenting her, whilst also catching each other up on what we had been doing. I had to be careful not to spill anything secret, but other than that I found that despite the debt, and the threats to the guild, I could still enjoy stuff like I would normally.

After a little while, Sting came over to me. He and Happy shared a little smirk, however it wasn't until I stood up with him that the blue exceed lost control and ended up giggling hysterically. This confused Lucy, so with one quick motion I grabbed Happy, and then Sting and I dashed away from the guild before anyone started asking odd questions. The last thing I said to the Celestial Mage was a quick 'bye' along with the much louder; "Stupid Cat!".

/

"Happy, that was not cool" I said to my partner, as the now straight-faced feline walked, or rather flew, whilst sulking at the same time.

"You didn't have to grab me though" he retorted. Sting just sighed.

"If we hadn't people would've known something was up by your stupid laughter. Would you want to face down Lucy, or anyone else at the guild when they started asking what was u?" Sting stated, matter-of-factly. I nodded, before looking directly at Happy, our eyes meeting.

"Yeah. If Cana or Mirajane thought something was up, they'd have definitely pinned you down until they got an answer" I piled on, before giving Happy a more reasonable look; the blue exceed seemed to have been sufficiently scared by what I had said. "Now, buddy, you can either return to the guild, or do whatever you want… but me and Sting are gonna go get some lunch, since we both missed breakfast for that stupid meeting" I said in a very strict tone of voice. Happy looked to me for a moment, before considering his options carefully.

"I already ate, so I think I'm gonna go find Lisanna at the market. You two enjoy your lunch" he said, before flying slightly higher. As we watched him go, Sting looked to me.

"Are you sure that Happy isn't gonna give us away?" he asked me. I nodded and smiled.

"Although he seems childish sometimes, Happy is dependable and wouldn't break a promise he makes, at least to me anyways" I stated. Sting smirked upon hearing this.

"So, he's exactly like you then?" he mused. I frowned.

"Are you saying I'm childish?" I inquired, my arms folding and a pout forming on my face. Sting laughed.

"Yeah, I am, and you can't say you're not, when you pull faces like that" he answered. I rubbed the back of my head.

"I suppose that's true" I admitted, before shrugging, "Anyways… where'd Rogue go?" I asked Sting, trying to change the topic of conversation quickly as we walked to where I knew a lot of the cafés and restaurant were.

Sting shrugged. "He said he needed to deal with some stuff, before we leave tomorrow" Sting stated.

"Alright" I nodded.

"But it doesn't really matter, until tomorrow I can spend as much time as I want with you, so I think we should spend today doing something worthwhile together" Sting said. I smiled.

"I can think of a few things we could do" I stated. Sting laughed lowly.

"Those thing's you're think of… they can happen later. What I meant was that we can spend the time right now doing stuff like, well first lunch, then maybe… go to the market? Or how about we take a walk around town and find something fun to do?" Sting began listing possibilities.

I smiled at him. "I wasn't actually just thinking about sex you know" I stated to him, which made him smile, "However we could do that if we wanted. I wouldn't mind going around the park, but there's this really cool place near the outskirts of town where there's this hill. Sometimes Happy and me go there and nap. It looks really nice with all the fields stretching out before us beyond the forest" I explained. Sting nodded at this idea.

"That sounds good" he commented, "How about we grab some snacks from the market after lunch, then we can spend some time laying around together?" he asked. I smiled and nodded vigorously.

"That's a good plan" I said. Sting chuckled.

"Then I guess that's what we'll do" he replied.

An hour or so later, Sting and I lay out under the bright summer sun, with a few delicious treats that Sting let me pick whilst we went through the market, smiles on each of our faces.

This is great… I thought to myself as I saw Sting's bright, happy smile. I just wish all our days could be this great… although it seems like soon, after the debts gone… we're not gonna have anything to keep us together like this… and then Sting'll leave me… alone… again…

I tried not to think about it; however, losing Sting now, even after only our short time together, made a great fear rise in my chest. It was greater than any fear I had felt during a fight. That was why I resolved to make every day memorable, since after all…

I love Sting, even if I hadn't said it yet.

And I just wanted to make sure that, even if it was for only one day, he loved me too.

End of Chapter 19

Chapter Hint; A Dragon's Den