It was becoming a bi-weekly thing for them to go down to the lake and watch the sunset, though Rogue now had to put on a jacket before comfortably going out (which wouldn't have been so unpleasant if his jacket didn't stretch so tight over his stomach.) Rogue had stopped leaning on Natsu automatically whenever they were down there, he no longer had to try quite so hard to please, but he did allow for more contact than normal. If Natsu took his hand for a moment while they were talking or cupped his cheek he wouldn't object.

"Although I don't know why you need to look at my face so often," Rogue said once when Natsu pointed all of that out.

"You have a nice face," Natsu insisted, brushing aside Rogue's hair. Sometimes he went so long without seeing Rogue's right eye that he began to worry he'd forget what color it was.

Rogue scowled and turned away, letting his hair fall back into its usual place. He had trouble coming up with a response for comments like that. Sting had always laughed and started opening himself up for more praise-or a kick to the nuts-when he was complimented, but blushing and sounding grateful wasn't Rogue's style, and acting haughty about his looks was even further from how Rogue liked to compose himself. He just stood back and looked out at everything with disinterest. When something, or someone, not only held his interest but forced him out front and center, he got lost.

But a kuudere wasn't the type of person Natsu was used to. When Rogue reacted to his compliment by turning away his heart sank into his stomach. It had been a few weeks since he'd seen Sting around, but that didn't mean it wasn't ever on him mind that Rogue had agreed to get lunch with his ex-no matter how Rogue chose to describe the situation.

"Rogue?" Natsu asked. Rogue looked over at him. "You… like me, don't you?"

"You're nice," was Rogue's response. "All of Fairy Tail is."

His heart sank a little lower. "But that's not what I meant."

And Rogue had known that. He sighed and leaned forward, resting his forehead on his knees since he was afraid to lean over far enough to touch his chin. He certainly did like Natsu, as a human being, as someone who he spent time with, even as a boyfriend. That way? It was hard to say. He hadn't even thought of it.

From under his hair he stole a glance at Natsu, who seemed a bit paler than normal as he looked back at Rogue. That wasn't right. Just seeing that distressed look on Natsu's face made Rogue feel like he was at the lake to drown puppies rather than to sit and have some quiet time with his boyfriend. Natsu wasn't supposed to look like that. He was supposed to be all smiles, and even when he wasn't happy there was a righteousness to his fury, and those were the only two emotions he regularly showed. He was… energetic. Much more so than Rogue. Natsu was almost like a bonfire.

Rogue, on the other hand, was a shadow. If you wanted a good, solid shadow, then you needed something bright to cast it.

"Yes," Rogue decided. "I like you."

Like, not love. He wasn't going to declare his love for someone he'd only known a few months.

But would he say he still loved someone who had caused him so much grief? Rogue shoved the idea away and leaned against Natsu to reassure him of the statement, to reassure himself of his own choice. He'd told Sting he was with Natsu. He couldn't allow himself to regret that choice now.

"I like you too," Natsu told him. "You're kinda cool. You're different from most of my friends."

"Mm," Rogue grunted, letting his eyes droop a little.

"I think… I'm not happy with what Sting did… but I feel like it was really lucky for me. Otherwise I'd never have gotten to know you so well."

A little insensitive, but also sweet. Rogue sighed and shut his eyes.

"O-oy! Are you falling asleep while I spill my heart?"

"You wear it on your sleeves as it is," Rogue told him. "And no, I'm perfectly awake. I was just enjoying the moment."

"Oh… I'm enjoying this moment too, then."

Rogue chuckled at that. "We came down here too early this time."

"Did we?"

"Look. It's been half an hour, and the sun's still too high." He almost added that they were missing dinner, but a growl from his stomach pointed that out for him.

To Rogue's embarrassment Natsu threw his head back and laughed. "Okay. Let's go home then. We had our quiet time, and we've seen the sunset before. You need food."

"Natsu," Rogue growled.

"Right. Right. No teasing. Don't worry about it. I'm getting hungry too."

Rogue searched Natsu's face for any signs that his boyfriend was still trying not to laugh, but found none. That was… unusually sweet of him. Natsu rarely kept his opinions in check just because someone was a little embarrassed. Natsu also didn't know many people who could be as intolerant as Rogue, but Rogue didn't like to think of himself as intolerant so it he never noticed that there were so few people Natsu needed to be careful around.

Natsu got up and pulled Rogue to his feet. "Come on. Anything in particular you want tonight?"

"Chocolate."

"Um… I don't think I have enough of that to make a dinner out of. How about… pasta, and chocolate for desert."

Rogue nodded. "I can live with that."

-o-

If Rogue had been embarrassed to have his stomach growl at the lake he was positively mortified by how loud it became once he could smell ground turkey meat and tomato paste cooking. The scent of each spice Natsu thought to add to the sauce was mocking him. He decided to shower while the meal cooked in the hopes that the sound of running water would drown out his stomach.

The bathroom was surprisingly large, when you considered the rest of Natsu's house, which was to say that it wasn't so cramped that there was no room to stand outside of the shower-tub combo. Rogue covered the unfogged glass window looking out into the back yard with the clothes he tossed off and got into the shower, turning up the hot water. Even if Natsu's house was small, and a bit out of the way of absolutely everything, it always had hot water. Best perk of living with a wizard specializing in fire.

He leaned back, enjoying the feel of it running over his cold skin and weighing down his hair. If he missed having his own room, for as little privacy as Sting had allowed it to offer him, he still got to have moments all to himself from time to time, and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to appreciate them.

No one was looking, so he allowed himself a small pleasure he denied around others and ran his hands across his stomach. The baby was finally big enough that he couldn't be mistaken for simply being overweight even if you hadn't heard about him being pregnant, and while he didn't quite enjoy the increase in clothes sizes, he was beginning to anticipate the birth. Why not? It was going to happen anyway, and he had someone sweet and sensitive as… he couldn't quite finish that thought. Sensitive wasn't the right word for Natsu, but he did try his best, and he kept Rogue from worrying about single parenthood. With that weight off his mind he could focus more on the child itself. Taking little moments to imagine he was bonding with the baby as he glided his fingers over the bump covering his child. What gender would it be? Would the child take to working in a guild like him? What would the baby look like?

How much like Sting would he or she look?

His mind screeched to a halt, wrapping completely around the reminder that it was Sting's child inside him. Sting's, not Natsu's. That would never change, no matter how many times Natsu called himself the father.

Rogue blocked out any further thoughts about the child, shoving them away to be ignored until that idea had been given sufficient time to fade. He washed off with the scentless soaps Natsu liked to buy, wrapped a towel around himself, and came out, half naked and ringing out his hair.

Natsu looked over at Rogue as he stepped out of the bathroom, eyes glued to his stomach. Rogue shrugged and walked over to his corner of the room, dressing at whatever pace he felt like. The bump already showed through his shirt. Why bother hiding it any longer?

"So I'm allowed to see you almost naked now?" Natsu asked.

"Only if you keep feeding me," Rogue informed him.

Natsu laughed at that and dumped spaghetti noodles onto a large plate. A large, clean plate, which he easily found. For as much as he hated the rules Rogue imposed about keeping the place in order, he did have to admit that it made things easier. He drizzled the meat and tomato sauce onto the noodle next, making a show of it and privately enjoying how the sight made Rogue drool. Not for the first time he wondered if the boy had been so food oriented before becoming pregnant. Erza visited Jellal regularly and reported on his condition, but he didn't remember her ever talking about his appetite. Maybe she never thought to mention it, or maybe Rogue had just always been a glutton. In six and a half months Natsu would know which was the case.

"Natsu, is that all for you?" Happy asked when Natsu turned around and revealed just how large a plate he'd chosen to use for dishing up.

"I thought we could all share," Natsu said.

Happy shrugged and picked up a fork, digging in when Natsu set the plate down. Frosch waited for Rogue to start, which was normal. What was strange was to see Natsu also waiting for Rogue before taking a bite, but Rogue didn't comment on that. The food looked to good to waste any time asking Natsu if something was wrong.

"You should make this with cod," Happy recommended between mouthfuls.

"But then I'd need to learn a new recipe for the sauce," Natsu told them. He was eating abnormally slow. It was beginning to bother Rogue.

"Fro wants cod, too."

"Then we'll have fish tomorrow," Natsu dismissed, leaning to the side and gazing intensely at the pasta before looking up to Rogue.

O…kay… Rogue was officially weirded out.

Watching Natsu for any sudden movements, Rogue reached down and scooped up a bite of pasta, attempting to twist it around his fork without actually looking. Natsu's shoulders sagged.

The roset leaned forward hopefully when Rogue reached for a second bite, then sagged again. On the third bite after Natsu's odd behavior really got under way when he snapped forward, catching noodles with his own fork and holding them up triumphantly.

A single noodle stretched from Rogue's fork to Natsu's. Rogue gave the utensil a light tug and the noodle snapped.

"Uwah! Why did you do that?" Natsu cried.

"It was caught on both of our forks," Rogue responded, confused.

Natsu sighed. "Fine. I'll find another noodle that goes across the place. Don't do that again."

"Natsu, what are you doing?" Rogue demanded.

"I'm looking for a noodle," Natsu reminded him, bending over to inspect the other side of the plate.

"It seems he's been watching too many movies recently," Happy said, turning his paws up in an exaggerated shrug and sighing.

"Fro thinks so, too."

"Movies?" Rogue asked.

"Aye." Happy nodded. "He's been going to Levy's and Bisca's while you're working and asking to borrow romance stories. Sometime they have movies for him to watch too."

"That's…" sweet in a hilariously misguided way, but saying all of that out loud might have been a bit rude, so Rogue let the sentence trail off. "So what is he doing?"

"I told you," Natsu growled, "I'm looking for-"

"He wants the two of you to slurp up the same noodle so your lips touch," Happy explained.

"Our… our lips?" Rogue forced back a blush. Of course he'd kissed before, but with someone who wasn't Sting…

"Ah! Happy, you weren't supposed to tell him, it needs to happen by surprise," Natsu said.

"Your behavior was surprising," Rogue told him in a half-hearted effort to be consoling.

Natsu sighed and set his fork down, folding his arms on the knee high table and burying his head in them. "Never mind. Just forget I even made dinner."

"Okay!" Frosch chirped. "Rogue, how long until we eat?"

"You're allowed to remember dinner," Rogue informed her. "Natsu, if you don't eat your share, I'm taking it."

"Go ahead. I'm going to go bury myself in rubbish and die." Natsu lifted his head and looked around for a suitable pile of trash to hide his embarrassment in, but thanks to Rogue there weren't any around the house. He settled for crawling under the table.

"It wasn't that bad," Rogue assured him. "The dinner taste great, and the attempt to get a kiss out of it was… interesting." He didn't think Natsu would take well to cute, and the other word that described it, quirky, wasn't what you called someone when comforting them.

"It was horrible. I'm sleeping here tonight."

"Natsu, get out from under the table," Rogue ordered.

Natsu grumbled and obeyed him, crawling out on Frosch's side and sitting himself up in front of Rogue. "Happy?"

"Aye?"

"Are you happy?" Natsu clarified.

Rogue looked Natsu up and down, then nodded his approval and leaned forward, giving Natsu's lips just a brief peck. "For your efforts."

-o-

STA: Yay. I'm wrote this instead of Inhuman. The chapter I'm working on there was giving me a lot of trouble, so I'm just taking some time away from it. If it takes too long I'll force something to happen, but until then I'm hoping that taking a step back will help me see what should be happening. I'm also reviewing and posting it now instead of correcting my schedule for the semester because it seems the student site froze up again just a few minutes after they let everyone back on for the new year. I was in the middle of adjusting everything, so now I'm not registered for enough classes to be a full time student. I'm a little scared to go to bed before filling my schedule back up, so I'm just check back in every couple minute.

But enough about my real world problems. The relationship progressing, but Sting still an obstacle. To be a larger obstacle as of… next chappie. Whoo! After posting this I need to update my profile. I always try to have a "Next Time" thing set up there, so I need to get in the habit of looking at it often.