Rogue stepped back, carefully weaving between the guild hall tables while keeping an eye on the growing fight. Part of him itched to get in on it. To do something after so many week of taking it easy. The rest of him had gone full maternal, and was more concerned with making sure he got himself out of there without and harm coming to his stomach.
He should have known better than to let Sting come to the guild. Not that he'd gone and outright invited Sting, but it wouldn't have hurt to discourage him at some point when Natsu wasn't there. They were bound to meet in the one place in town where they couldn't be banned for starting a full on brawl eventually. At least the master didn't seem to concerned. He was still napping.
Rogue climbed up to the second floor and watched Sting and Natsu, secretly rooting for Elfman to pull out from behind. He had a prime spot for watching, with all visible from his private perch and no one else up there. That didn't mean he was thrilled to see the fight. It would be nice if those idiots didn't need to get physical whenever they saw the other with him. Rogue was wondering what sort of ultimatum he could give for that when he felt the muscle in his stomach clench.
He gasped, bending over and clutching his belly and taking deep breaths until the pain faded. What was that? A contraction? It was too soon! He was only half way through the pregnancy!
He looked back at the stairs, which looked much too long as the muscles clenched again. He groaned and waddled awkwardly over to them, whimpering when another wave hit mid step and his legs nearly gave out beneath him.
Someone who'd been thrown into a nearby table looked up and saw Rogue, pale and sweating, and rolled onto their feet. "You okay?" Gray asked.
Rogue shook his head. Too focused on keeping from hyperventilating to say anything more.
Gray cursed and ran up to Rogue, first feeling the boy's stomach-since he was clutching it so tightly-then helping hold him steady once he felt the muscles beneath Rogue's skin ripple. "Braxton hicks? Seems soon."
"I know," Rogue grunted. "If it's the real thing…"
Gray looked at the ongoing brawl. Would either of Rogue's suitors notice if he called out and said the boy they were fighting over was in trouble? Maybe, but then they'd just fight over who got to help him.
"Here," Gray said, sweeping Rogue up bridal style. "I'll get you to the hospital."
Now was hardly a time to worry about how pathetic he must have looked. Rogue nodded weakly let himself go limp in his savior's arms.
-o-
"I can't believe I was shown up by Gray…" Natsu muttered.
Sting grunted. He wasn't upset about Gray particularly. Natsu was the only one in Fairy Tail he had a rivalry with. His issue was just that someone other than him had been the one to come to Rogue's aid. He'd rather have that than no one noticing Rogue was in pain-he knew Natsu felt the same-but he still couldn't help but wonder how poorly the day's incident must have reflected on him.
A doctor stepped out of Rogue's room, and they both stood. The man smiled at them and nodded. "He's fine. Just a series of oddly times cramps with a helpful does of panic. We're going to keep him for the night to make sure there really aren't any contractions, but he should be out tomorrow morning. You can go see him, if you'd-" Natsu and Sting rushed past, bickering over who went through the doorway first. "…If you'd like…" the doctor coughed and stood back, deciding he might need to listen from outside incase the two caused any trouble.
Inside his room, Rogue watched with a mix of amusement and annoyance as the two tried to shove one another out of the way and squeeze through the door first. In the end they tumbled to the tiled floor in unison.
"Good job," he told them.
"Fro thinks so too," Frosch cheered. She'd rushed to the hospital when Happy flew home and reported what happened. Since the doctors had only been able to get a grasp on her when she flew into Rogue's arms-and he hadn't let her go-they'd given up on keeping her out while they ran a checkup on him.
Natsu and Sting picked themselves up, blushing as the brushed off their clothes and walked more calmly to his bedside.
"Sorry," Natsu said first. "I should have… been paying more attention. You were hurt and… I'll be better in the future."
Sting nodded, chewing on his lip and averting his gaze.
Rogue, on the other hand, lit up like a lamp. What a perfect chance to compare them on even ground.
"It's alright," he told them. "It turned out not to be serious."
"So the baby's fine?" Sting asked over Natsu's next apology. "It's not in any danger after that scare, right?"
Rogue shook his head, but Frosch was the one who answered. "They said Fro's little brother or sister is still okay. Rogue thinks they're happy to get all the attention."
Rogue blushed.
"Happy?" Natsu asked. "How could you even tell?" He didn't get that at all.
But Sting did. His eyes lit up and he leaned forward, grabbing Rogue's hand and asking, "Are they moving? You can feel the baby moving?"
Rogue nodded.
"Rogue's been feeling the baby all week," Fro reported cheerfully.
"If you ask to touch my stomach, I will remove your hand," Rogue added, giving Natsu and Sting each a warning look.
Sting's shoulders slumped, a comical look of defeat on his face. Natsu shrugged. Rogue had already given up on hiding his stomach. If he pressed, Rogue would probably give up on his hands off policy too.
"So you're alright?" Sting verified. "You aren't uncomfortable or sick or-"
"I'm pregnant. Of course I'm uncomfortable." To Rogue's dismay, both boys laughed at that. His misery was not a joke!
"And hospitals are never fun either," Natsu added for Rogue. "This place smells awful. If this happens again, maybe I can just take you home to rest. I'm carrying you in the future."
"That hospital bed probably isn't helping…" Sting noted, trying his best to ignore that last declaration. "Can I bring you something? A pillow that isn't half plastic?"
"That would be nice."
Not about to be shown up, Natsu leaned over Rogue's bed, putting his weight on it as he said, "I can still visit in a few hours, right? Hospital food is always disgusting. They aren't letting you leave tonight, so I can bring you dinner."
Sting ched and looked away. Dinner would easily trump a pillow. He was still losing when it came to meals.
Rogue nodded, biting down on his tongue to keep himself from looking too excited by that. He needed to keep things even here, so no showing that he was more excited to hear about the meal.
Natsu was halfway out the door with Frosch asked, "Does Fro get hurt to for wanting to feel Rogue's tummy? It was okay yesterday."
Rogue smiled, picking the cat up and placing her on his stomach. "There you go."
Natsu and Sting both watched, learning for the first time just how jealous one could be of a cat, regardless of whether or not they thought they'd get to feel the baby move later. Rogue had gone from thanking them for their offers to help to focusing solely on the pink, frog shaped object resting on top of him, scratching behind Frosch's ear through her costume as she lay down and moved her paws around to try and find places where the baby might be kicking. It was a much less successful endeavor than Frosch's excited giggles made it seem. Very few of the child's movements were already strong enough to be felt from the outside.
Swallowing, Natsu left to make sure he had a nice meal ready for Rogue before visiting hours ended. If it meant leaving Rogue with Sting for a few hours… hopefully the meal would make up for any damage that did. If he was really lucky, Sting would go to get that pillow.
Sting wasn't going to waste all his (mostly) alone time with Rogue making a purchase though. With Natsu gone he stepped forward, brushing a few strands of hair out of Rogue's face and asking for what Rogue felt was the hundredth time, "You're sure nothing's wrong?"
"They didn't find any problems." Rogue glanced up that the clock, still scratching Frosch's ear absentmindedly. "They wanted to run an additional checkup on the baby in about ten minutes. If…" he paused. Was he really going to offer this?
Sting pressed his lips tight, worry becoming evident on his features. "You'll let me know if they find something wrong?"
How odd… Sting hadn't said a word about his failure to help Rogue when the false labor had been going on, but then Natsu hadn't asked about the baby at all. Now if only one of them could care about both parts…
Rogue sighed. If Sting was the one who was more focused on the kid, then why not make the offer? "They're going to do an ultrasound. If you want to know the baby's gender, feel free to stay and ask them. I'll let the doctor know it's alright. But if you tell me, I'll throttle you." Thus the reason he wouldn't even dream of giving Natsu the chance to know before him.
Sting laughed, relief and anticipation lightening his mood considerably. "Alright then. After that, I'll run out and get you some nicer stuff to sleep with. Not all of us can get comfortable as easily as Frosch.
Frosch? Rogue looked down to his stomach, where the little frog-cat had curled up and fallen asleep. "Mm… that's an envious skill."
-x-
STA: Frooooooooosch! I'm really bad at remembering to include exceeds, so I was happy to have her come up so many times in this chapter. It's shorter than what I like to do for this story, so sorry about that. The last chapter was shorter too, wasn't it? Hopefully I'll get on top of that soon. I'm good at taking time developing the beginning of my chapter plans, but for some reason the second half I just breeze through.
Hah... I said I'd update slower now that school was in session, but at the same time I had a really good idea for the next chapter of this story. I'm keeping a much smaller buffer for Cue the Storm than I am with Inhuman (4 chapters) so it's not exactly the next chapter, but it's a coming soon chapter. I finally got a full on Stingue moment. Not just them acting awkward and not wanting to mess up the relationship with Natsu. Not that I don't love writing Rogue with either character.
Oh yeah-also. I made a tumblr account. The url for my blog is serpenttailedangel. tumblr. (without the space, and with a com afterward, obviously. This site's url censor is a pain. I can't even write the site's name.) I post about the stuff as I'm writing it there, so it might be a little spoilery.