The beginning refers to chapter 16. The poll is still open until the next chapter, please vote.

He could remember the day he took her to the seamstress' shop and made her model for the woman working there like it was just a few hours ago.

Ms. Greeney had taken care of him and Lector ever since he was younger, her's was one of his go-to-shelters when he was in town and had no interest in booking into an inn. She was like an aunt to him, the nonjudgmental one who never doubted he killed his dragon parent. That was probably why he felt a such a strong pull tugging at his chest when he saw her staring into the glass display- whether or not she was dazing off or not.

That dress, as it turned out, was a piece the old seamstress had worked on for years on end; for one of her richer clients who according to her, never really fit in with her family. Sting had spent years listening to the old woman talk about one Lady Lilian Orelohr, who with her curly blond hair and teal eyes immediately latched onto the woman's affections quickly. It irked the white dragon slayer, who never met the other object of Ms. Greeney's affections, to know that the year his caretaker was finally finished with the dress- the girl disappeared never to be heard again for the next five years.

So when he caught Lily in front of the shop, he felt himself smirk a cheshire grin and lead her inside. Telling himself that he would not let Ms. Greeney's masterpiece go to waste.

And he didn't.

She was the perfect fit as he predicted. Lily was basically the personification of the dress already- with her long messy pink hair and teal eyes. Putting it on only sealed the deal. She was basically the ballroom dress that his caretaker created for the ungrateful Lilian Orelohr in human form.

He felt like another weight was lifted off his chest as he watched the older woman squeal at the sight and go look for her camera.

Lily, on the other hand, didn't share their joy.

"I look like a reverse cupcake," he remembered hearing her whisper, as if he wasn't standing beside her at all. She had stopped twirling around in bless in favor of letting whatever despair seep in and kill the wonderful air around them. He watched as she pushed back her bangs and tried to find something to tie it up with.

As if he was going to let that happen.

Ever since Longhorn had unmasked the girl under the white-pink hood, the white dragon slayer felt an immediate attachment to her hair.

It's actually not as weird as it sounded- sure he was always curious of who the hooded mage was. Everyone was curious to some degree. But her hair. To have hair that pink, and to that certain shade too.

He felt his blood boil as he remembered his promise with Lector. He was going to defeat Salamander to prove to the world that his exceed was not a liar.

And the girl with the same pink hair like one Natsu Dragneel's? She was going to be his trigger to constantly remind him of his vengeance. Whether she knew it or not.

Sting didn't count on his plan smacking him right back in his face though when he slowly became more involved with the pink haired girl- with Lily.

She was a weak thing; clumsy and had mad mood swings. Almost as if she as pregnant- sometimes he could've sworn she was starting to spot a lump. Not like he would actually say that out loud though... he heard pregnant women were capable of murder.

He wasn't going to take his chances.

When he finally did meet Lilian Orelohr on the other hand, he could feel his blood boil- for a whole new reason.

When I finally did come to, my fingers were being torn from my throat with a loud and angry voice yelling from above me.

"WHAFUWONGYOUFING-" I slumped back into the bed as I watched the owner of the voice- who I immediately recognized as En, hover over me screaming in such an angry rage that his words were slurred into nonsense. "DAAHPIDIRLFUCK!"

My head was starting to spin as I stayed still and tried to stay calm as I was showered in his spit. I shut my eyes and tried to sink deeper into the bed and loll my head to the side when it was clear he wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

"Do you know how worried we were," I was just about to fall back to sleep when he finally managed to utter something comprehensible. "We found you a bloody mess in some corner of a freaking alleyway!"

He let go of my wrists in favor of cupping his head as he sat beside me on the ground. I shifted uncomfortable as I rolled around in the bed to face him tiredly. I opened my mouth to chastise him only for a loud croak to leak out, followed by a series of painfully dry coughs.

Beside me, En sighed and helped me up from the bed. Not even caring that I was still wheezing and I was a bit sloppy on my feet. I was halfway through the doorway when I realized I was still bleeding and En had not bothered to close the big gash running from my breast to stomach. I winced a bit when I felt the cold metal of the doorknob stab me gently as En lazily pushed me along.

"Stop being such a baby," he complained as he led me to the stairs and gave me a big shove, watching dumbly as I rolled down the stairs leaving a trail of blood in my wake, "I know you've endured worst."

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I screamed in disbelief as I disentangled myself at the base of the stairs, getting ready to pounce on the marksman as he strolled down the steps. My throat burned immediately after I let those words slip from my mouth and I started coughing. Slumping onto the ground and feeling a bit lightheaded as I tried to close the wound.

"Would you get over yourself, Lilian" I could practically hear his eyes roll as he approached me and lifted my hand away from the gash. "It doesn't hurt that much."

I let out a frustrated grunt as I pulled my knee up and awkwardly connected it with his shin. Watching in amusement as he cursed and paused as I crawled my way closer to the wall.

I couldn't believe the complete 360 of his personality, I swear- one minute he could be such an angel and the next he was the devil's spawn. I felt my blood boil as I glared at him from my spot near the wall, "what's with you?! I'm not Lil-"

I stopped myself and we both stared at each other in confusion- or half confusion and half seething pain. What was I about to say? All I could remember last was being cornered by Rufus and

"If you don't believe me, then just look!"

I didn't even get a chance to protest before the shirt I was wearing was being torn away from my body and I was lying on the ground in a mess of blond ringlets half bare in front of En. En who was holding onto my shirt with a ticked off expression on his face.

I felt all the blood rush to my face as I covered my body from him and aimed upwards with my foot. There was a cry of pain and a loud thud as I continued to crawl my way down the long hallway on the hardwood floor.

My head was still pounding painfully as I stopped army crawling, lying face first on the ground as I sighed.

I felt sore all over, I was still bleeding all over the place and in addition to my dry throat, the outer skin felt like it was red and tender. I looked at my fingers in a daze and realized without another second to spare that my nails were filled with red flesh.

Seeing the bile spew out from my mouth at this ungodly hour was not something that I'd like to experience again.

"Ew! Lector, the smell!" I heard a shrill voice cry out. I groaned a bit as I tried to crawl away from the puddle of bile when I heard a door opening and the voice was there again, "Lector!"

I shut my eyes and wished the earth could just swallow me up when I heard the soft padding of feet come towards my head and a cool pink hand pat my forehead silently, "why are you sleeping in front of Lily's door?"

I groaned in response as I heard the quiet flapping of wings and the red exceed's disgusted banter, "ew, Fro! The smell!"

"What smell, Lector?"

"That smell!"

"That smell?"

"THAT smell!"

"Are you sick, lady?" I opened my eyes again to stare at the two Exceeds, only to find that nothing was there. I was about to get up when I felt something cold trail my stomach and I shivered, falling back onto the ground with a shudder as two voices filled my ears again.

"Why do you have green string coming out from your stomach?"

"You're copying Sting's style!"

"Are you a teddy bear?"

"Take off that top at once!"

String? I felt around my stomach curiously, ignoring the headache and sure enough I felt the familiar feeling of the stitches that had been knitted onto my stomach meet my fingers. I lay slumped on the ground and if possible, I would've deflated as I realized that I had freaked out at En for no apparent reason.

But the blood?

Getting up slowly, I turned to look down the hallway and found that there actually was no blood trail that followed me. I sat there on the ground and stared in confusion as I tried to gather what I just learnt.

Illusions.

My head spun once again with the realization, it must've been a lasting effect from Rufus' revenge. I groaned and heaved myself up and true to the marksman's words, I was actually ok.

Well... mostly ok.

I must've stretched my head up a bit too far when I got up; I could feel the skin getting irritated as the skin pulled and the cuts reopened. I pushed many sickening thoughts back as I let loose another series of coughs. The balls of my feet hurt, like I was getting blisters and I winced inwardly as I tried to walk away. I didn't get as far as I wanted though because the moment the two exceeds saw that I was about to move away and step into the pool of bile, I felt my knees buckle and I was sent meeting with the ground again.

We all went down with a thud, and before I got a chance to complain, I heard a series of thundering steps and suddenly I was met with the sight of black steel toe boots.

I swallowed and laid face first flat onto the ground, pretending that I was still in bed and wishing that I was still in the trashcan/garbage bag/puddle of blood that En and them found me in.

"What's with all the noise, we're collecting Lily's stuff and-"

Oh.

This was the hotel I checked into earlier this week.

The place where my room was still checked under the name Lily Harvard.

This was my hotel room door.

Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.

Why couldn't the earth just swallow me up now? Or have Emily turn invisible and lie on top of me and try to make me invisible too as awkward as that sounded. Why not?

"... sweet! A drunk person," Sting's voice cheeped all of a sudden, disregarding the throw up completely as the two exceeds leaped off of me. "put her on the bed, I don't think Lily would mind."

There was a pause and suddenly I heard Lector perk up,

"But where?"

Then there was a collective pause of which I felt something being dropped on me and I lifted my head up in embarrassment. Of course, the one moment I was in his presence, I had to be wearing a sports bra out of all things.

Curse En. May he never father any children.

"I'm ok," I said meekly and shifted so that my arms were under me as I pushed myself up onto my knees. I should probably just quickly get up and run now, never to see him again like we originally planned. Never to talk. Never to know the other.

I felt him take the crook of my arm and heave me up, steadying me against his side as he walked me into my old hotel room, careful not to irritate anything. I could've heard him mutter how annoying drunk people were when he turned around to face his and his dragon slayer partner's exceeds, "clean that up, would you?"

Then we headed inside and almost immediately when he was sure I was comfortable on the bed, he threw a punch into a pillow close to my head, "you piss me off."

"You didn't need to help me, I was fine." I countered evenly and awkwardly looked away. Pretending that his angry comment didn't hurt me at all. I was trying to avoid it for a while now, but deep down I knew that I still looked at him like how I used to look at him when I was Lily. Frowning, I turned my attention to scan the room. After a while, I realized that not far from the bed was my suitcase, with a big pile of clothes right beside it and a dress half folded laid on the opening. My heart sank a bit at the sight.

Sting sighed and walked away, leaving the room with an exasperated sigh and I debated whether or not I should just leave. I was about to get back up when he returned and I immediately grabbed onto a pillow out of impulse. A part of me getting ready to throw it at him out of pure habit when I realized we were two complete strangers now. He gave me a sort of constipated look and sat down beside me on the bed.

"Rufus didn't get you too bad, did he?" He asked, pulling the pillow out of my reach and handing me a pink hairband. I took it gratefully as I pulled my blond bangs out of my face.

"No, but he's probably going to torture me for the next seven days or something..." I answered evenly as I sat up on the bed, fixing the pillows and played with the stitches quietly. Whether or not Sting found it weird, he didn't say.

"Your magic?"

I shook my head, "there might be a chance that I will lose it completely when the scar closes."

"Then keep it open."

I smiled at his suggestion, "and have my guys spewing out everywhere? No thanks."

We both laughed at that until we heard the door close and the two shrill voices of the exceeds coming closer to the bedroom. I looked at him evenly and he stared out the window with a scowl on his face. Neither of us saying anything as we waited for the grand entrance of the two exceeds when suddenly I blurted out,

"C-can we meet after this?"

His head snapped at me, his expression unreadable as the two exceeds entered the room like we proceeded. I panicked at his silence and started to flail around, getting up and bowing.

"W-what am I saying! O-of course, we can't. This was a just a pure coincidence." I laughed nervously and scratched the back of my head, b-lining to the door, "this wasn't supposed to happen anyways. Bye!"

And I jolted down the hall, outrunning the surprised exceeds and dragon slayer. Quickly limping down the hall until I knew I had lost them and almost tripped over the annoyed sitting En, who had his arms crossed and looked all the while unimpressed.

I swallowed as I stood in front of him, heaving loud dry breathes as he raised an eyebrow.

"I want to talk to Krued." I croaked with clenched fists and a red face. En just nodded.

This is such a bad chapter... my best friend just moved away and I've been in such a pissy mood lately. I just wanted a way to release some stress.