...Somehow I hadn't thought it would take me a year to add another part to this. |D

But well, better late than never?

Enjoy!

EDIT 1/10/2014: Updated to match better with Chapter 04 of this series, which is Sting's companion piece! :D

Category: Fairy Tail
Characters: Rogue Cheney, Sting Eucliffe
Genre: Gen, Friendship
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers if you haven't seen the anime/read the manga up to the end of the Grand Magic Games. Otherwise you should be good.
Summary: Drabble Series/Collection – There had been bonds in Phantom Lord, and in Sabertooth there are none at all – not even between The Strongest Five; outside of the unit that is the Twin Dragons that is and even that bond is one that Rogue doubts just a little sometimes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

- Two Sides Of A Coin -
- Part Two -

They used to be closer, Rogue sometimes dares thinking on starry nights when Sting and he are out of town for a job while he watches their campsite fire stretching the shadows long and listens to the sounds of Sting's faint snores as he keeps night watch.

(Five years ago, he would have felt the weight of his back against his outstretched leg. Nowadays, physical contact between them is more exception than rule.)

It's a ridiculous thought of course, because they are so much stronger now than they were before Sabertooth, before their devastating loss against the Young Mistress and the resulting recruitment into the guild – five years ago, they hadn't developed the fighting patterns they use now, hadn't been even near thinking of using (never mind mastering) Dragon Force or Unison Raid and if that isn't proof that they are just as close, or even closer than ever before, then Rouge doesn't know what would be.

Still, there is no denying the mannerisms they have lost since entering Sabertooth, because Rogue recalls the times when he would have answered Sting's teasing with a similar remark, when their mock arguments would have resulted in a mock-shoving match, when he would have found Sting's fingers in his hair (pulling just hard enough to bother him, but not enough to actually hurt) and his own tugging at Sting's cheek. He remembers the times afterwards when they had dissolved into laughter and reconciled through a faint touch of forehead to forehead in mutual unspoken apology.

Their first year together had been full of moments like that, a time of getting to know each other and yet also just knowing each other and just so many moments of lighthearted silliness in between that can only be found in memory anymore.

("So, since we are twins now…" he remembers Sting asking, back that evening when he had come up with that moniker, long before they had ever even heard of Sabertooth.

"Yeah?"

"Who is the older one?"

"Since we are twins, there is no older one."

"That's not how it works, stupid. There is always an older one."

"…You do remember that we aren't actually twins, right?"

"But I thought we just decided we were."

Rogue is pretty sure that that had been the moment he had first caught on properly just how much Sting likes to pick fights with him – and also other people – at times.)

The last time they had gotten into that kind of scuffle that had been normal, almost like breathing, beforehand was within their first month in Sabertooth. It's unsightly behavior for any member of the strongest guild after all.

Nowadays, when Sting teases, he quickly takes a turn into almost outright nastiness – even when it's Rogue he teases – and so Rogue has taken to shutting him off before he can get there by retreating into indifference.

(Sting used to call him on that. He rarely bothers to anymore.)

Indifference is his general state-of-being nowadays, Rogue knows, because it's the easiest to feign, and the only way to brush off all the things that bother him about Sabertooth, about the way that Sting and he himself have changed. He has learned early on that it's easier to pretend not to care whenever he witnesses a (soon former) guild mate being dressed down most literally by the Master, when he watches punishments so brutal and humiliating that he averts his eyes by the end to allow the recipient to retain at least some dignity.

He knows Sting isn't bothered by any of it, not like he is.

(Sting proves as much over and over, the first time when Marie is dismissed and every single other time when Rogue can't bring himself to hold his tongue, for all that he grows better at that as the time passes. He proves it again when they argue over Yukino's dismissal – for all that they both know that it's undeserved, for all that Rogue knows that Sting had liked her; they both had.

"She disappeared because she's weak," Sting says. "The strongest guild had no need for her, right?"

"You are on probation," Rogue doesn't say. "What will you say if it's you that gets booted out? What will you say if it's me?"

But that is an impossible thought, isn't it, because the cause of Sting's probation was bad luck and when they will be called to fight during the tag battle – as they surely will – losing will not be an option. They are their strongest together after all.)

Maybe it's because Sting has never known any guild other than Sabertooth.

Rogue hasn't either, admittedly, at least not as a member, but he vividly remembers Phantom Lord, louder and so much bigger than their guild, and fairly similar in attitude, but… there had been bonds there.

(He remembers the Element Four and how well they had been able to coordinate. He remembers the lower divisions, the laughter, the more or less friendly competition there.

He remembers Kurogane Gajeel – strongest member and right hand man of Master Jose, Dragon Slayer like him and yet so, so much stronger – leaning down and telling him to keep watch on it all while he was on mission, to watch and report him anything of importance because while Gajeel had never particular cared much for gossip it was still important to be aware of it, and who would ever dare to accuse cute, shy, wide-eyed Ryos of spying even knowing just who exactly had allowed him to hang around the guild hall in first place.

He remembers that even beneath his gruffness and outright brutality, Gajeel had cared about his guild and its members... or at least some of them. More or less.)

There had been bonds in Phantom Lord, and in Sabertooth there are none at all – not even between The Strongest Five; outside of the unit that is the Twin Dragons that is and even that bond is one that Rogue doubts just a little sometimes.

The only bond he'd never dare to doubt is his bond to Frosch and he knows for certain, Sting and Lector are the same. Their cat partners come before everything, even each other; they've decided that long before joining Sabertooth.

That night, Natsu-san storms Crocus Garden, all fire and lightning as he challenges the Master and Rogue just watches breathlessly.

"If you are a guild, take care of your comrades", he says after the Young Mistress breaks up the fight and forces him to leave, and Rogue can't help but wonder what that kind of guild might be like and never has the lack of bonds within their guild weighted more on him.

When he glances at Sting, when he wonders about his thoughts, all he sees is his partner's anticipation of the fight to come.

(Neither of them goes back to sleep that night or gets much of it the next, but for very different reasons.)

It's funny in the absolutely most unfunny way how much can change in one afternoon, after just one loss. Just one loss – utterly devastating, and in too many ways much worse than the one they had suffered against the Young Mistress – is all it takes to disgrace them to their Master and their guild in spite of five years of excellent work.

(Rogue has known that this day might come, that it might hit one of them. He's wondered what he's supposed to do if it's Sting. He's wondered what Sting will do, if it's himself.

He's never considered that it might be both of them at once.

Maybe he should have.)

It's even funnier (still in the absolutely most unfunny way) to watch the façade Sting has built in response to their guild's philosophy crumbling instantly at the loss of Lector, to see the sides of Sting that have been buried for five years, to realize that Sting cares after all (even if he might not quite realize himself, even if his method of burying it all is very different from Rogue's), that the Sting he sees right now is stronger than he's ever been.

There is absolutely nothing funny about the things that follow, about the way Minerva pushes Sting or the weight of devastation and despair that keeps his partner on his knees.

(Rogue helps him to his feet when the assembly around them finally falls apart in unease and faint confusion of what had just happened, guides him back to his room and withdraws to his own just as quick. He has Frosch to consider and staying around Sting will probably only serve as reminder of Lector's absence for them all.

They spent the next day on scheming and planning and guessing at the game to come – and though they come out of it with a strategy for Sting and a target for Rogue, he is uneasy about the day to come.

The fights ahead aren't what either of them wants, but maybe they have long gone past the point where their desires matter.)

In hindsight, the biggest joke of all is probably Rogue's fight against Gajeel though, utterly half-hearted in spite of all the time he had worked towards it and the fact that he had almost given it up, despite his resolve to do his best for Sting and Lector and for their guild – for what it might become under the Young Mistress (but who is he kidding, it will be just more of the same, won't it?), or of the challenge he speaks the moment he suggests that Gajeel might be inferior to Natsu Dragneel.

It's then that his own walls finally crumble for good, that the mask of indifference melts away and Rogue confesses his frustration and despair to the man he's always admired like no other (even during the times he's denied as much), who probably doesn't even remember a Midget as insignificant as Ryos had been and saying it all out loud is a relief like no other.

Not half a minute later, he lets his temper flare properly for the first time in years in defense of Frosch, lets it all go not two sentences later, and even though he knows that it's his loss already, Rogue doesn't mind showing that weakness or admitting that he – their whole guild really – is no match at all for Gajeel and Fairy Tail; not anymore.

(It's then that his shadow whispers in his ear for the very first time and Rogue may or may not be a little more than slightly terrified of thinking too much about the minutes he's missing from after that or about the fight there must have been between his shadow and Gajeel.

Maybe the reason he is a little reluctant to linger on it can be found with the glimpses he's seen of the injuries he's caused the older Dragon Slayer and nothing is more chilling than the idea of bringing this upon anyone without any sort of control.

It's not a thought that's all that appropriate while he watches the rest of the games with Frosch at his side, not when Gajeel has seemed to have chased away the shadow anyway.)

It's the first time in his life that a loss actually feels a little like a victory, maybe not for the guild, but definitely for Sting and Lector and maybe also for himself, for the person he wants to become.

("I want to become a man who treasures his friends," he tells Frosch, and even though his body hurts and the memory of the shadow still echoes in his thoughts, for the first time in long, Rogue feels truly at peace.)

"You look like someone put you through the meat grinder," is the very first thing that slips out of Sting's mouth after he enters Rogue's room at their lodgings and catches him right while he's examining the cut on the bridge of his nose in the mirror, bandages hanging loosely in his hands (he knows, it's going to leave a scar).

Rogue tilts his head at him in reply, one eyebrow raised ever so faintly and notes with faint amusement how that's enough to make Sting flinch just a little, but then decides to take a pity on him and try to dispel any awkwardness between them before it has any chance of forming properly. "I expect, Gajeel would appreciate the comparison."

Sting laughs at that and grins a little ruefully as he takes the two steps needed to cross the distance between them and tugs lightly at the bandage in his hands.

("Come on, lemme take care of that," he offers and Rogue would never think to decline him. Not now. Never again.)

"You were right, you know…" Sting admits quietly as they sit on his bed and he gets busy carefully wrapping the white cloth around Rogue's head, his voice so much more quiet than it usually is. "I couldn't fight like that after all."

Rogue just barely keeps himself from nodding at that; he doesn't want to destroy Sting's work and he's witnessed the whole scene across the lacrima vision after all. There is nothing for him to add to that, is there?

"I get it now, I think…" Sting continues, maybe just almost uncharacteristically uncertain in that very moment, "Why Fairy Tail and Natsu-san are so strong… what our guild has been missing… You've been saying as much all the time already."

Yes, he had, Rogue thinks, but he hadn't been consequent about it.

(But then again, that would have meant leaving the guild, leaving Sting… and that is one course of action that Rogue considers himself incapable of, no matter what differences in opinions they might have.)

"Are you mad at me?" Sting finally asks and doesn't further specify – not that he needs to (not when there are all those minor things that have been left unspoken between them in the past five years, the rift neither of them had ever been willing to acknowledge, not quite), to force him to would be nasty in ways that Rogue has never felt comfortable with and now that Sting is finished with his face, he can actually shake his head.

"No."

Sting's shoulders drop very slightly in relief (nobody else would have noticed, but after nearly seven years of his constant company, Rogue couldn't miss that if he tried), and he looks just as much at peace as Rogue has been feeling ever since the official announcement of Fairy Tail's victory.

"We lost this one pretty badly, didn't we?" he wonders with a shake of his head, while throwing himself back into a sprawl on Rogue's bed and this Rogue definitely agrees with.

"We were completely defeated."

Not just as the Twin Dragons, but also as guild. Though, even in defeat they have won something unimaginably precious, Rogue thinks, distracted as he adjusts his coat so that it won't slip from his shoulders. It's not nearly as huge a loss as one might think.

"Hey, Rogue…"

Sting's voice is much closer than he would have thought it when he speaks up again, and when Rogue turns his head to face him, he finds the other right in his personal space, foreheads touching ever so faintly in a way they haven't in about five years (Rogue actually startles, but relaxes and leans forward into the gestures before Sting can even think about withdrawing again).

"When we get home, lets make this guild into one that cares for its members."

Rogue laughs lightly and agrees easily.

"Alright."

(The weight of this touch hasn't changed at all, he doesn't say as he feels something shift in the air around them and within himself. Sting and he are in balance again in a way that Rogue hadn't even realized he's missed until right this second they'd found it again.)

"So, what are you here for anyway?" Rogue asks after the minute of comfortable peace that followed; he doubts that Sting had actually meant to help him with his wounds or for this conversation to happen right away.

"Oh yeah… the King sent a messenger earlier. Something or other about wanting all the guilds to be on alert and meet outside on the big plaza half an hour before midnight. I couldn't find the Young Mistress or the Master, so I figured I'd take that here first."

"And you took till now to find that worth mentioning?!"

"Well, you looked so troubled by that gash on your nose…"

"Sting…"

"Sorry, sorry!"

(No, he isn't sorry at all, Rogue can tell. He can always tell.)

"I do hope you actually informed someone else about this before getting here."

"Rufus was with me when the messenger got in?"

"Good. Now, come on or we are going to be late."

"What wait, do you actually have interest for once?"

"Sting."

"Hey, it's a valid question."

(Rogue feels absolutely justified in starting the two-minute-scuffle that follows that remark, even if it only delays them further.

Punctuality has never been their strong point anyway.)

- Fin -

Review, maybe? :3