Rogue gave Natsu a goodbye kiss before watching him step out to face certain doom.
Once the train Natsu had boarded was out of sight he gestured for Frosch to follow him out of the station. Just thinking about the torture device Natsu was trapped in made Rogue feel queasy.
"Does Rogue have work day?"
"Yeah."
"Oh! Fro remembers! Rogue is helping serve food for the party tonight," Fro said. "But will Rogue be okay? The last time the guild celebrated-"
"It's a party for Cana," Rogue replied stubbornly. "No one will pay much attention to me."
"So attention's still a problem for you, huh?"
Rogue sighed, unsure if he should be relived or anxious to have Sting appear out of nowhere at his side. He settled for being annoyed that the blond had obviously waited until Natsu was gone before moving in. "Yes."
Sting chuckled. "That's…" A red-eyed warning look from Rogue killed the word 'cute' in his throat, and he coughed and tried again, "And it won't be a problem for you today?"
"No."
He nodded, not the slightest bit fazed by the customary curt response. "So… if you don't mind me asking… how are things between you and Natsu? You two are… um… dating?"
"Yes. Natsu and I are together."
"I… I see…"
"He's the second person I've ever been with," Rogue continued.
"Right."
"Who I started seeing after you kicked me out."
"I get it!" Sting's growl melted into a sigh, and he buried his face in his hands. "I get it… I screwed up."
Rogue nodded, and stole a glance at Sting from behind his mess of hair. The blond kept pace with Rogue, gaze focused on the ground, shoulder's slumped. He had all the same features as before, but somehow he didn't look like himself with that posture.
They were halfway to Natsu's when Sting spoke up again. "I guess there's no way you'd give me another chance…"
"Not while I'm still with Natsu," Rogue assured him.
Sting nodded. "Right. Because… you're not the sort of person who'd… I'm sorry…"
"I know, and apologizing doesn't change that it happened."
"And it won't change your mind either," Sting agreed. "So I guess there's no chance you'd go with me to one of our old date sites."
"They're too far away."
Sting couldn't help but chuckle at that being what Rogue took issue with. "Right. One train ride a day is enough."
Oh. So he hadn't been hanging around for when Natsu left after all. "You came this morning?"
"Yeah… well… if you don't want me around…" Sting looked back to the train station. "Maybe I shoulda brought Lector along…"
"One train ride a day is enough," Rogue told him. "Natsu's gone for the week, and if you're not going to press for me to cheat with you then I don't mind you staying."
"Eh? The whole week? I saw him getting on the train when I left, but I thought he'd be staying home as much as he could while you were pregnant."
"I'm not crippled. My center of balance is just a little off. I can still take care of myself."
That time Sting cringed. "You look… um…"
"Fat?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks."
Speaking up for the first time since her old friend showed up, Fro said, "Sting should have to buy Rogue lunch as punishment for being so mean."
"N-no he shouldn't!" Rogue stuttered. Natsu had treated the last time like a date. He couldn't do something that would be taken wrong right after trying to put his foot down with Sting.
"But Natsu was so busy this morning when Lucy came over with their job that he didn't make Rogue lunch. Are we eating at the guild? Fro thought we weren't going until evening so we didn't have to help put up decorations."
Rogue bit his lip. He was already past half way home, and pretty sure that there was still food in Natsu's house. It wasn't like he'd forgotten how to cook in just a few months after having been the one to handle meals the whole time he'd lived with Sting. Still… he had enjoyed not having to deal with that particular chore.
So would he rather be lazy… or give Sting another shot at pleading his case?
No! That wasn't it! Lazy or raise concerns for Natsu!
And also give Sting a chance to plead his case.
Rogue sighed.
"If you're still taking food bribes I'm willing to settle for that," Sting told him. "I'm banned from that diner now, but there must be another place here that you like."
Rough hmmed and thought about it for a moment. Where had that sweet and sour place he'd vetoed with Natsu been?
-o-
"Geeze, do they need to actually put the words 'sweet and sour' on every dish they serve?" Sting tossed the menu down. "What a waste of ink. I don't have to say that with my order, do I? It should just be implied."
"It doesn't list any of the drinks as sweet and sour," Frosch told him.
Rogue shook his head and held his copy of the menu out, pointing to a drink that did say that.
Sting leaned over and read the beverage's information. "Prelude to Love. It's sweet yet sour rush hits you like Cupid's arrow. We're… uh… not getting that, right?"
"I wanted something sweet and sour," Rogue told him. "That's why we're here."
"Alright then… One Prelude to Love it is."
"You can only order them in pairs," a passing waitress told them.
Sting groaned and facedesked. He was stumbling over himself trying not to do anything couple-ish. Hadn't Rogue been the one to say that was off limits?
Although… Rogue was the one insisting they order it. Sting looked back up and studied Rogue's face, which wasn't quite as impassive as normal as he scanned the menu, trying to pick from all the great choices. Realizing he needed to order too, Sting picked his menu back up and tried to find something bearable. He ended up going with a pork noodle dish while Rogue ordered a plate with chicken and rice. The Prelude to Love set, or course, was also ordered. Frosch asked for a fish platter with the sauce to the side. Before Sting could think to adjust his order and follow the little idiot's brilliant idea, the waitress left.
"So… have you heard the gender yet?" Sting asked as soon as she was gone.
Rogue shook his head. "They don't check until next week, and in any case I've asked not to be told."
"O-oh." Sting slumped back in his seat, pouting until the next point he'd meant to get to returned to him. "About the name, though. I told you we should call the baby Alex, right? Alexander's sorta cool, and Alexandria's nice, and either way Alex works."
"I'll consider it."
He nodded, satisfied to have gotten the idea out. He couldn't put up a huge fight for a baby name when he wasn't even going to be a huge part of the child's life.
The reminder chilled him, and he slumped back, not speaking again.
Rogue noticed the sudden change in Sting's demeanor, but decided not to point it out. He didn't want to know the answer, and if they could just get through the meal without having to address anything uncomfortable…
"Why is Sting sad?" Frosch asked.
"I'm… It's nothing," Sting insisted, putting on the same indifferent face he saw on Rogue so often and straightening back up. "I'm fine."
"Don't lie to Frosch. She'll believe you," Rogue told him.
"That's… the whole point of lying."
"Fro thinks so too!"
Rogue sighed and leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling. He hadn't expected Sting to be acting so awkward when he agreed to this. Usually he was so overly confident of his every action that it took some restraint on Rogue's part not to stab him with a butter knife when they ate out. The worst time was when they'd gone to a high class place for their fifth anniversary as a couple. That butter had been decorated with a large bead, which made it pretty but hard to grip. Despite that, he'd been testing it's weight in his hand when he realized how expensive it would be to pay the restaurant for any stains in the rug and begrudgingly aborted his plan to murder his boyfriend. It had been a fun evening.
When had they last gone out to a restaurant on a date? Not the other week. Whatever Natsu thought, Rogue refused to call that a date. They hadn't done anything since… not since before the Grand Magic Games. Afterward he'd been too disoriented from the spell that had left him in his current predicament to do much. Sting had taken a solo job to pay the bills, and by the time he came back Rogue was beginning to develop early symptoms of pregnancy. He'd been so determined to overcome whatever weird bug he'd caught that he all but put himself on bed rest, at least until the symptoms persisted long enough that he couldn't put off going to a hospital, and then…
He looked back down at Sting, who was no longer blatantly hiding that he was thinking about the same rift between the two of them. Although he wasn't obviously showing it either. In fact, he was just staring at…
Rogue blushed and moved his hands off of his stomach. When had those gotten there?
"Does the baby kick yet?" Sting asked.
"If it does, I haven't notice."
"Oh." Sting sighed. "Well… you have to let me feel it when it does, okay? Even if I don't get to be the father, I am the father, right? I… still want to be a part of our child's life."
"My eyes are up here," Rogue informed Sting, snapping the blond's attention off of his stomach, "And I have no intention of keeping you from seeing the child. If Natsu doesn't like that then hell have to learn to live with it."
Sting nodded.
"So if you wanted to have lunch with me again, I suppose you wanted to talk about how things have been with you, too?"
-o-
Sting was only halfway through the tale of one of his latest jobs when their food and drinks arrived. If he noticed he didn't even miss a beat in his story, carrying on as he embellished his many feats to the point that it was almost comical. He was to into it too stop and eat, making grand, sweeping gestures as he described it all. The light in his eyes made Rogue envious of him for still being able to work. If only Sting had been the one pregnant with his kid instead. He felt a pang of jealousy for Sting still having his nice physique. And… something else?
Nostalgia? Maybe? Rogue didn't want to use the word love. Not while he was devoting himself to Natsu, but seeing Sting like that again, not on his knees begging for forgiveness, not awkwardly trying to avoid anything, not trying his hardest to pretend nothing was there, just being himself and getting caught up in his little battles. That pure energy, like a light shining as bright as the sun…
That was the same sort of thing he'd been drawn to in Natsu, wasn't it?
He paused, sucking on a piece of chicken still attached to his fork while he processed that. He'd decided he liked Natsu… for the same trait he was trying not to say he loved Sting for.
And he'd be trying not to think about that too!
But as Sting wrapped up his story, which had somehow missed the detail of how he'd escaped the dark guild's torture chamber after having been captured, (Rogue would have guessed Sting would skip over the capture and glorify his escape) he couldn't help but blush at the stupid grin on Sting's face.
"Oh, when did our orders get here?"
"When Sting was talking about how he took out the giant with iron-make magic," Frosch told him.
"Huh." Sting shrugged and took a bite. It wasn't as bad as he'd been dreading. Still not his favorite flavor but… he looked up at the blush still lingering on Rogue's face. If the meal made the one with cravings happy, then at least he'd done something Rogue had liked. Sting could suffer the food too, incase seeing that the restaurant choice had really been that unpopular with him made Rogue upset again. That was really too cute a blush to let fade.
Did Natsu see it whenever he cooked for Rogue? The question was forced down alongside a bite of pork. He wasn't going to think about it. And he was going to learn to cook, if Rogue liked to be the one who had meals prepared for him. He wasn't going to come out and tell Rogue to dump Natsu, but he wasn't going to let that idiot be the clear choice either. Overcoming that incident was already a huge hurdle Sting had to deal with. If Natsu showed him up in any other area... well, he didn't even need to think about how badly that could go for him, because he wouldn't let it happen.
Rogue rolled his eyes at the intense glare Sting was giving his food. (If Sting was that opposed to it he could have said so! He would have been fine with getting burgers.) Finishing off his own meal, Rogue picked up his drink, which was a nice, masculine shade of pink, and took a sip.
When he lowered the glass he saw that Sting, who had been overpowered by the gooey sauce, was also drinking.
Interesting.
He watched Sting eat, waiting carefully for him to lift his drink again before picking his own up and taking the same light sip as Sting. He managed to do so twice more before Sting noticed.
"I wasn't doing that on purpose," he insisted. He couldn't afford to have Rogue think he was setting up any sappy-
"I was."
Sappy… uh…
No wonder Natsu had thought they were on a date. Did Rogue try other ooey gooey things that had always missed Sting's notice before? Did he show an interest in drinks with two straws? Feeding one another? That cliche where you slurp the same pasta noodle?
No, that was all ridiculous. Rogue would usually choose death over something so emotional. His cute moments were few and far between, and really, Sting liked them that way. That just made it that much cuter when Rogue timed their drinks and slipped so delicately.
What had possessed him to give that guy up? Rogue didn't even realize how precious his behavior was, lips pouting just the slightest bit, almost imperceptible even to someone who was used to reading his face, waiting for Sting to lift his drink again.
Prelude to Love, huh? Sting picked the glass back up and downed it.
When he checked again Rogue's glass was also empty. A thin pink coating had appeared over his upper lip.
This was the point where he would lick it off, turn that into a kiss, and then offer to extend their date. Maybe go for a walk or check out the theater to see if there was anything good to ignore while they made out in the back row. Sting clenched his fists, leaning forward an inch before catching himself.
It wasn't a date.
It was just two friends eating together, avoiding mention of how one had betrayed the other.
It wasn't a date.
He sat back again, careful not to slump this time.
It wasn't a date.
"Are you done?" Rogue asked, misreading Sting's body language.
"Uh… Mm." Sting nodded.
"Alright. Frosch?"
"Fro's all full!"
Rogue turned and flagged down their waitress, asking for the check. When she left he looked up at a clock, then back down to Sting. "I have a few more hours to kill before I need to be at Fairy Tail. There's a movie playing that I thought looked interesting. About a girl saving a knight from a dragon. If you're paying for lunch, I can buy your ticket."
Oh he did not realize what he was doing. Not at all.
Sting shook his head. "This isn't a date, right?"
Rogue blinked, then nodded. "Right. Of course."
Although it could have been if Sting had just held his tongue and let Rogue get tickets. They could have had a full date like they always would, and it would be like normal again. And then Rogue really would be cheating too. Sting sighed and handed Rogue a napkin to wipe the Prelude to Love off his lip. "Maybe with some other guild members of yours. A group thing."
"With Mira tomorrow," Rogue decided. She'd be eager to go and make sure Sting wasn't trying to start anything behind Natsu's back, and if Natsu smelled Sting around then after how his last relationship ended Rogue couldn't help but wanted someone to vouch for him. "Is that alright with you?"
"It's a… plan."
A plan. Not a date.
It wouldn't be until he found a way to end the situation with Natsu.
-x-
STA: So there's this one game I really like called Rune Factory 3…
But about the chapter, Rogue wasn't too OOC, was he? I felt like that drink thing might have been pushing it… I was trying to make it seem like he was falling back into an old pattern without noticing, but I may have gotten a little too into it. I hope not. It was still pretty fun to write. My only other concern is... was the butter knife a good stabbing weapon? I almost went with a spoon, but that seemed like a bit much.