After a warm meal and a moderate night's sleep Rogue had recovered from the initial shock of having been kicked to the curb, but after a hearty breakfast he still wasn't quite ready to set foot in Fairy Tail.

"This won't be an issue? Sabertooth gave your guild a lot of trouble."

"And now you're in trouble, and they'll be happy to help."

Rogue braced himself for when the boisterous guild would grow quiet after seeing him in the doorway, and was completely unprepared for the powerful scent of dust and alcohol that the building belched out instead. No one even paid him much heed aside from to wave or to maybe ask if he wasn't about to be sick.

Once he'd recovered from the smell, Natsu led Rogue up to the bar counter, where Makarov was polishing up the old, dull wood. He smiled up at Natsu as the two approached, but frowned when he noticed Rogue.

"Does Sabertooth have a problem with us?" Makarov asked. "We haven't had anything to do with them since the Games ended."

"He's here for work," Natsu corrected. "He can't stay at Sabertooth."

To Rogue's relief, Natsu took care of all the explaining for him. Makarov also recalled that one Jellal something or other had also wound up pregnant from that mishap, and looked increasingly sympathetic as Natsu laid things out for him. If the flash of pure pity when Natsu had mention Sting booting him from their house had made bile rise in Rogue's throat, well, at least it meant he was guaranteed the job, even if it was for no reason other than pure pity.

It wasn't until he was led off by Mirajane and handed a tray of drinks that he realized he'd signed up to serve people who had been his rivals less than twenty-four hours ago.

-o-

Fairy Tail was growing again, but it wasn't huge yet, and Rogue still had some settling in to do, so after spending the morning getting instructions and trying his hand at taking and carrying orders for people at lunch Rogue was given the rest of the day off. Mattress hunting and sheet purchasing only took an hour, leaving Rogue with the rest of the afternoon to find something to do while Natsu went off with his teammates and hunted selkie.

When he got the mattress back to Natsu's house he hit a snag and found a solution. There was no good place to set his temporary bed, so why not clean up? He just needed to empty out a corner, and then he'd have a nice little clean sanctuary to keep to for the rest of his pregnancy.

That didn't take as long as he'd hoped it would. He set the mattress down and got his bedding all set up, then sat there for a minute, wondering what to do next.

Dishes?

Then maybe get Natsu's training equipment in order.

What about all the haphazardly strewn books?

And now that he looked at it, some of the kitchen equipment looked like it could use some tightened screws and a bit of polish.

By the time Natsu came home three days later his house was spotless.

-o-

The first week passed without a snag. Even when he started working full shifts Rogue had enough time to keep the house cleaned to his satisfaction and still browse through the book collection that he determined had actually been stolen from Lucy, learn his way around town, and find a few spots to sneak off to incase he ever desperately needed to be alone.

Then Natsu had to go and suggest something sensible.

"We should pick up your things."

"My things?" Rogue asked, dread growing in the pit of his stomach as he tried to stop himself from realizing what Natsu had implied.

"From your old place. I mean, you and Sting must have shared a lot of stuff, but I doubt you shared a toothbrush and you shouldn't have to replace the stuff you can transport easily. And you can get your savings, and your clothes, and Frosch."

The last one was the only reason Rogue agreed to go. Facing Sting again was the absolute last thing he wanted to do, but another night without Frosch was pretty low down on his list too, and it was probably rock bottom on Frosch's list. Having a change of clothes that he wasn't borrowing from Natsu would also be nice.

With only one exceed between the two of them, they took a train. There was nothing Rogue loved more than riding a train, especially when he already had morning sickness for the motion sickness to add too.

The ticket taker lent him a bucket.

Neither of them could have gotten off of the train any faster than they did. A few people at the station gave them odd looks, but it wasn't until a few people greeted him that Rogue realized they were all directed at Natsu.

So Sting hadn't told anyone yet. Of course not. Sting thought Rogue was a cheating whore, and he wasn't going to walk into a room and announce that he'd been played. No one would hear about their split until someone twisted Sting's arm to force him to explain why they hadn't seen Rogue around recently.

That made the walk through town easier. Questions about why he was consorting with a Fairy were easy to brush off. Jibes about his condition or accusations about him being unfaithful wouldn't have been.

And that was what he knew was coming when he stood in front of the building that, just a week ago, had been a safe, private place to be with his beloved.

His beloved growled when he opened the door.

"We're just here to get Rogue's things," Natsu informed him, slipping past Sting and into the house.

"You really have some nerve, coming back," Sting said, stepping aside and letting Rogue follow Natsu in. "And what's with the 'we' there? Don't you dare tell me he's the one you were sleeping with."

Rogue looked away.

"Well?"

Rather than answer, he made a dash for the stairs.

Sting turned to glare at Natsu. "What are you doing with Rogue?"

"He moved in with me," Natsu answered honestly. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with taking in someone who needed help.

"Of course he did," Sting grumbled, leaning up against the wall. Silence followed. The sounds of Frosch's delighted squeal drifted downstairs before he spoke again. "So… did you?"

"Did I what?"

Sting hesitated before asking it. "Sleep with Rogue?"

"Yeah. Last week we-"

"I don't want the details," Sting hissed.

Natsu shrugged. There was nothing dirty about it. It was just that between the two of them there had only been one place suited for sleeping in. He chocked Sting's behavior down to being overly conservative, which made it odd that the dumb blond liked such revealing clothes, and let the topic drop.

Standing around in the entryway got awkward. He went to help Rogue pack his things.

Up in his room Rogue was stuffing clothes haphazardly into a suitcase. Natsu wasn't much of an expert at keeping things orderly, but when Rogue ran out of the room to grab some other possessions he took it upon himself to pull the clothes back up and fold them so there would be room for everything else.

Seeing the clothes folded reminded Rogue to keep his head while he gathered everything. Breakable objects were tucked between fabric like it was padding. Natsu didn't comment on the number of photos Rogue had chosen to bring with him. He was just helping Rogue until the boy could take care of himself again. He didn't need to give advice on handling a bad breakup.

He still felt like he had to do something when Rogue suddenly started crying.

"Do you have everything?"

Rogue nodded.

"Why don't we go then?"

Rogue kept his head bowed on the walk back to the train station. It was just as well that he wasn't paying any attention when Natsu purchased tickets, because that would make his spur of the moment surprise more of a surprise.

-o-

If he'd gotten motion sick again on the train ride back to Magnolia, Rogue had been too wrapped up in thought to notice. It wasn't until the train pulled into the station and he got off that he looked up and realized, "This isn't Magnolia."

"I thought you needed cheering up," Natsu told him.

The grin Natsu was sporting, which spread from ear to ear, did lighten Rogue's heart a little, but he still felt he needed to point out a flaw in Natsu's idea. "You do realize that all of these rides will have a warning not to get on them if pregnant, don't you?"

The grin slipped.

"Even if I weren't pregnant, I'm not interested in amusement parks. You can't expect me to believe you wouldn't get sick on anything here, can you?"

The grin completely vanished. Natsu looked to the amusement park, then to Rogue, then back to the park, and when he looked at Rogue again he shrugged and went up to the ticket booth, purchasing two tickets for one day entry.

"Come on!"

Rolling his eyes, Rogue gave up and followed Natsu into the park.

"Rogue, can Fro go on any of the rides," Frosch asked. "Fro's never been to an amusement park before."

Rogue hadn't spent much time in them himself, but it was to his understanding that you had to be a certain height to get on the rides, and Frosch wasn't really any height.

"We can go on the teacups," Happy told Frosch. "Lucy took me on them the last time we were here."

Frosch have Rogue the most adorable pleading look she could muster.

"You two have fun."

"You don't want to come?"

"It doesn't interest me."

"You're gloomy," Natsu let Rogue know.

Rogue shrugged, watching the exceed run off to enjoy the park that they hadn't been charged a single jewel to enter before asking Natsu "What do you expect us to do here?"

"Well, rides aren't an option. Usually these places have someone who draws caricatures."

"Not interested."

"Well, I think there's a fountain play area too."

"Not interested."

"Um… there's an open air theatre area. They have magic displays and animal shows throughout the day."

"Not interested."

"You can get your photo taken with one of the mascots."

"I'm not five."

"Forget gloomy, you're just boring." Natsu decided, giving up. "I think there's a churro vendor somewhere around here…" He'd just get himself one and find the cats. If Rogue didn't want to be cheered up then he could sulk by the gate.

"That doesn't sound awful."

"Churros?" Rogue wanted food? It was getting close to dinner time. "Well… how about we go to the food court instead? That's by the theater so if you want you can see the show and if what they're doing really isn't interesting we can just ignore it and get snow cones." He thought about it for a second. "No. Snow cones either way. They'll just come faster if the show's no good."

Rogue nodded. He could deal with a bad show in the background. Right then he wanted nothing more than to stuff his face with fatty food and forget that he'd been accused of sleeping with Natsu a little over an hour ago.

If it occurred to Natsu that Rogue may have had such a thought process he didn't do anything about it. They got burgers and, after they polished those off and Rogue hinted that he wouldn't mind staying for Natsu to finish watching the show, a two person pizza. Both boys were licking the grease off their fingers when Happy and Frosch returned, upset to have missed dinner. A second pizza was purchased, which Natsu finished off when neither of the cats were able to eat it all.

As promised they got snow cones after that, even though it was now cool enough that there wasn't any great need for them. Rogue was ready to go home after that, but didn't want to tell Natsu he'd purchased expensive park tickets just to pay for overpriced junk food. He let Natsu drag him to some of the game booths as well.

"You just throw the darts and try to pop balloons," Natsu explains.

"I know how this game works," Rogue retorted. It was called Balloon Popping: 5 Darts for 100 Jewels. That was pretty self-explanatory, really.

Natsu tried it out first, and ended up with a sports team pennant that had been on the prize wrack since 767. Rogue threw less haphazardly, a big improvement from earlier in the day, and earned a teddy bear for his efforts.

"I don't suppose you have a guild mate who might want this," he said as they walked away.

"Lucy probably likes cute stuff like that," Happy suggested.

Natsu nodded. "I bet she does, but you should keep it, Rogue."

"I don't want a stuffed bear."

"But your kid might," Natsu pointed out.

That shut Rogue up.

He stayed silent, lost in thought, while Natsu, Happy, and Frosch all joked about him not having thought of that. Why should he have? He'd only found out he was pregnant a day before he told Sting. That whole time had been spent trying to figure out how to tell Sting, and since telling him he'd been focusing on thinking about the whole mess as little as possible, Sting, pregnancy, and all.

He was going to have a child in just eight months. The thought almost made him short of breath.

But… that wasn't bad was it? Frosch was cute but took a bit of work, and he loved her to pieces. An infant would be more work, but as long as he knew what it took it couldn't be too much for him to handle, could it? He was sure he'd cherish the baby-at least when they weren't crying. How often did they cry? Probably a lot.

"You listening?"

"Hm?"

Natsu laughed. "Nope. I was asking if you had a good time."

"Oh. Sure."

"Sure? You're just saying that so I'll think you had a good time."

"Thank you for your efforts," Rogue told him. "I will keep the bear."

Natsu nodded. "That'll make her happy."

"Her?"

"Your daughter."

"Is Fro getting a sister?"

"No," Rogue snapped, though he then had to amend that and say, "I don't know. It's too soon to tell the gender."

Frosch's persistent questions as they moved on to the next game were enough to draw a smile from Rogue, which warmed Natsu's heart to see. It fought of the chill that had settled in Natsu after seeing Sting. After seeing the way Sting had hissed and snapped at Rogue despite it being obvious that the poor thing was in no shape to be subjected to that. That had just been cruel.

But for whatever reason, what chilled Natsu the most hadn't been the cold way that Sting had spoken, but the look in his eyes. There'd been no coldness in his eyes. No jealousy. No hate. All Natsu had seen in Sting's eyes was pain.

-x-

STA: Dun-dun-DUUUUN. Haha, no. Not really. That's probably the least dramatic end I've ever written that was still intended to sound dramatic. I've got a tough balancing act here with making Sting seem cruel enough to drive Rogue to Natsu, but still have him care enough about Rogue that when he comes back into the story it can believably be written so that it will be hard to tell who Rogue is actually going to go for. I really hate when it's obvious who the victor will be. Like if you ever read the Half Prince manhua, did you think Xiao Lan was going to go with the childhood friend who appeared several chapters in and she was more willing to assume had a thing for her brother than for her, or for the guy who she was talking about on page one well before they even introduced the premise?

Yeah. No dramatic tension there. Just some sympathy for the unlucky childhood friend. Or maybe not, considering that Xiao Lan ends up forcing mpreg on her husband XD

Best series ever. After anything Hiro Mashima did, of course. And… maybe also after Hilari Bell's works. And Harry Potter, and… okay. It sn't the best, but it's a good series.