Despite what Natsu had said, he'd kicked Rogue out bright and early the next morning and sent Happy to the guild, where the damn cat had then told Mira that since Rogue was going to be off active duty for some time still he ought to get more experience handling different tasks around the guild and doing more full time shifts. For the second night in a row he came home smelling like beer. Unfortunately, alcohol was only bad for the kid if it went down his throat, not if he had it splashed all over his shirt, so he couldn't excuse himself from the job.

But he had been able to make Wakaba go smoke outside. That had been rather satisfying after the man splashed beer all over his shirt.

The house had a distinct scent yet again as Rogue approached, though Natsu hadn't taken care to make sure the smell wafted out this time. Rogue didn't detect the sweet smells until he opened the door.

Warmth rolled out, greeting him as he escaped the cool outdoor air. The would have put Rogue in as good a mood as he could be in while smelling like a frat house, but the sight that Natsu had painstakingly laid out before him left him too stunned to have a mood.

Red. The whole room was very red. Sheets were draped over everything and rose petals, the kind from flowers grown to smell sweet rather than look impossibly huge, were sprinkled everywhere. Dim candle light made the room glow, flames flickering in the reflection of a bottle of sparkling grape juice. You can't get the full romantic mood when isn't supposed to be drinking any wine.

Rogue looked around, but couldn't see Natsu anywhere. Unsure of what else to do, he slunk into the bathroom and shed the dirty clothes, washing the offensive stench off of himself and wishing that Natsu bought scented soaps so he could get the smell of all those petals off his mind. He didn't know if he was more uncomfortable knowing that had been set up or bathing rather than seeing where Natsu had intended to go with that.

He was sure to shower quick so only the first one could bother him. His heart was pounding so loud as he wondered what might happen that he couldn't even hear the water pouring down on him. The hand that turned the faucet when he was done was shaky, and he slipped up a few times while trying to tie a towel around his waist, cursing himself all the while for not having thought to bring clean clothes into the bathroom with him.

Natsu's scent was all over the house, too strong after years of habitation for Rogue's nose to tell him if Natsu was there or not, and the rose petals didn't help. He settled for peeking out the bathroom door before stepping back into the main room.

This wasn't the end of the world. Sting had tried setting up romantic moods before and gotten kicked been kicked too hard in just the right spot to make anything of that mood in the past. He'd learned not to push Rogue. It must have seemed to him that he had his whole life to get that far anyway. If Natsu was denser than Sting (which might be possible, though he did seem to care more about the wants of others) then Rogue could just let Natsu know that they weren't forever guaranteed either.

His resolution of that waivered when two strong arms wrapped around his chest, and pulled him back into Natsu's. "I slipped out when I heard you coming, but I thought I'd just surprise you while you took in the scene. I never dreamed I'd get you almost naked."

Would it be too subtle if he tightened the towel? Rogue blushed and did his best not to relax or tense up. Act neutral. Act disinterested. That would make him give up. That always made people give up.

So stop blushing.

Natsu laughed. Not his usual, loud, joyful laugh. Something deeper, almost a chuckle. "Happy and Frosch are at Lucy's for the night, so there's no need to worry. Would a drink would help you relax?"

Rogue mumbled something that wasn't quite a word as Natsu pulled him over to the table, sitting him down on a plush red cushion and pouring the juice into a wine glass for him. Rogue hadn't known Natsu even owned wine glasses. He gulped and let his eyes follow the arm holding that bottle up to Natsu's face. Smirking, completely confident. Was this what he'd meant the other day?

"I-I… I'm…"

"Shh." Natsu pressed a finger gently to Rogue's lips, smirk softening slightly. "Drink."

Part of Rogue's mind reminded him that it was just juice. He couldn't smell any sort of date rape drug added into it, and Natsu probably didn't even know date rape drugs existed. That part of him allowed him to nurse the drink while the other part of his mind lamented that he couldn't just get wasted from it and not have to worry about what happened next.

He cursed when he felt a drop roll down his chin and pulled the glass back, intending to wipe it away before Natsu could pull another move he'd no doubt seen in one of those romance movies and-too late! Natsu had leaned over and licked up the juice, pausing for a moment after doing so before he moved up and kissed Rogue.

"This tastes better."

How many movies had he seen? Rogue highly doubted that the whole situation had come out of Natsu's own imagination.

And did that matter?

Rogue kissed back. There was nothing wrong with kissing. They kissed all the time. They kissed just the other night. He was not giving in.

He was on the floor beneath Natsu for the second night in a row when they stopped again, this time it was Natsu who pulled back, laughing the way he normally did.

"Got ya."

"Got… what?" Something in Rogue, something a little lower down than his heart, tugged in annoyance. "Natsu…?"

His lips were parted just the slightest bit, begging to be taken advantage of, and his usually stern expression had completely melted away. It was like his sleeping face, but even better, because this time his face was completely flushed to boot. Natsu fought of the temptation to abort his plan and carry on where he'd left off.

"I got ya. That's payback for ending our make out session last night to talk about the evil. I had to see how flustered I could get you."

When Rogue stared at him, face still red, eyes seeming to be wider than normal, Natsu felt the need to carry on. "I mean… you said you never did anything with your old boyfriend, so I figured you wouldn't let us get that far either. I wouldn't really push you. This isn't even that romantic if you knew how much it cost. Most of this was discounted for being low quality or having stains that don't show in the candle light. The roses were getting old so they were about to be thrown out. I got them for free. Happy and Frosch helped me pick all the petals off of them. I told them I was making a scented bomb as payback."

Maybe it was just that Natsu had completely shaken him out of his usual stoic act, but Rogue laughed at that. "It still looks good. It smells good too."

"Eh… really? You like roses?"

"Not that much."

He'd just never realized how enticing Natsu's scent was.

Natsu's eyes widened, realizing all too clearly that his efforts had been a bit too successful in shaking Rogue up. "O-oh. I… should clean them up then."

"Later," Rogue told him, pulling Natsu back down.

"But if you regret this afterward-I-I-I don't want to force you! You don't want to wait?"

"Screw that. I'm sick of being a pregnant virgin," Rogue told him. Natsu wasn't trying to be sexy anymore, so Rogue took over that duty, eyes drooping as he pulled Natsu into another kiss. What a nice time to have a naturally deep voice. "You want me to like you in more than just the ways I did Sting, right?"

-o-

He felt warm.

Rogue eyes drifted open lazily, mildly curious as to why he was so warm at such a late point in the year, but not overly concerned. He was greeted with Natsu's sleeping face, an innocent grin, a bit of drool seeping out onto his mattress. Rogue sighed, unable to help but smile back, and pushed himself up.

He was a little sore, but that was supposed to be normal, right? If neither of them had known exceptionally well what they were supposed to be doing, then at least neither of them knew how badly the other was screwing up.

With another sigh Rogue lay back down against Natsu, snuggling up against his boyfriend in a way he wouldn't dare were Natsu awake. It had been a good night. He'd have to pick Frosch up later.

-o-

Rogue was sleeping soundly again when Natsu woke up. If he was surprised to find the most guarded member of the guild nuzzled up against him he got over it soon enough. It did pose the problem of how to get up without waking Rogue, but maybe he didn't even want to get up. Who knew when he'd see Rogue looking so cute again? It would probably be even longer before he saw Rogue both cute and naked again. Where had his towel gone, anyway? Natsu vaguely remembered if putting out a few candles the other night as it had been tossed aside, but nothing had burned down so that hadn't been too bad of an idea.

He didn't ever tire of watching Rogue sleep, but at some point it occurred to him that if he was going all the way through with his 'romantic plans' that he'd planned to not go through with then he out to have a nice breakfast ready for Rogue, and it was getting late too. He needed to start before Rogue felt it was necessary to run straight from his bed to work.

The smell of bacon and hash browns would keep Rogue from fleeing, as well as wake him in the most appreciated way possible. Natsu was scrapping the food onto plates for the two of them when he heard Rogue fumbling around for clothes.

"You don't want to shower first?"

"Gajeel and Wendy are both on long term jobs. The scent shouldn't be strong enough for others to pick up, and my hair is always a mess anyway," Rogue told him. What was that strange note in his voice? Natsu looked over his shoulder and saw Rogue smiling. Not a quick reassuring grin. A full on, not-about-to-fade smile. Score. "In any case, it's probably not the largest indicator of what we were up to."

"So if I'm your first and only, that means I must be the dad now."

Rogue's monosyllabic laugh was muffled by the shirt he pulled over his head, his smile more of a smirk as his face emerged from the neck hole. "That only works if I'm not already pregnant."

"How are you feeling right now?"

"Good."

"Just good?"

"Nothing's bothering me at the moment." Rogue sat down at the table while Natsu poured orange juice into two regular cups. "The sheets have to go before Frosch and Happy come back, but I wouldn't mind if we kept the cushions."

"Maybe we should clean the petals up too?"

Rogue nodded and began to dig in.

Natsu waited, giving Rogue a minute to enjoy the meal. He looked a bit more eager than normal, though Natsu couldn't imagine why his appetite would have suddenly… oh.

"Sorry. I had some ingredients set aside to make a quick dinner last night, but I wasn't planning to start until after surprising you. We went to bed without eating."

Rogue nodded, but slowed down a bit when he realized how he must have looked just then. Pigging out on bacon was never good for one's image. Or waistline. He needed new clothes as it was.

"So… how was it?"

"Too crunchy this time."

An image of things snapping under his force flashed through Natsu's mind before he realized what Rogue had meant. "Not the food."

Rogue blushed. "Good."

"Just good?"

"I… don't have much to compare it too," Rogue decided. "It wasn't unenjoyable, although I'm a little uncomfortable for it now. Having gotten that out of my system… I am a bit concerned. It feels like… maybe I shouldn't have been a virgin… at that time. If I was willing to let things go so far with you, I can't understand why I always rejected Sting. I don't know if I'm trying too hard to move on… Although it feels like…" Rogue paused, seeing Natsu's slack jaw. "Sorry. I was too open with my thoughts."

"No. You've made your inner turmoil pretty clear up until now. I was just amazed to hear you say so much in one go." Natsu took a bite of bacon. "If dish ish how t' geb you t' tawk den ah need t' bah moa petawsh."

The smile turned upside-down. "We are not sleeping together whenever you want me to get talkative."

Natsu swallowed. "Kidding. Kidding. I know you're just not chatty."

The scowl faded a bit. Could he still use the afterglow to get that smile back? He sure hoped so. "Well, maybe you just never really liked Sting as much as you liked me."

Rogue laughed at that. Natsu decided to assume the boy's shoulder shaking laughter was out of relief to have an alternative theory for his behavior, and not because that he never really liked someone who's pictures Natsu still caught him staring was such an absurd suggestion.

"Maybe."

"Yeah. Sure."

"Why not?" Rogue asked. "I mean, I definitely don't dislike Sting, but it's possible that I never thought of him quite as someone I wanted to be in a sexual relationship with, and I don't like to think I'd act rashly just to get back at him or try to push him away. It could be the case."

"Maybe." Maybe not. "Or maybe it's just your pregnancy hormones."

The idea cheered Natsu up considerably, even if it kept Rogue from speaking to him for the rest of the morning.

-x-

STA: Look. That happened.

Well, now seems like a good time mention that I'm 90 % decided on who Rogue will end up with. Something could change my mind, but at this point I'm pretty confident. Until the end, though, I'll do my best to keep it 50/50. So if you prefer the pairing I'm sorta settling on, you can look forward to that after 14 to 15 more chapters of Rogue going back and forth, and if you like the other pairing, keep your hopes up, because there are 14 to 15 more chapters for me to change my mind.