The smell of burnt wood was everywhere. Natsu had gotten a little carried away sparring with Gray, and the two had been told to stay until all the charred or shattered furniture had been cleaned up. The master didn't care if someone had a train to catch or a boyfriend with stuffed animals waiting at home for them. Well, given how embarrassed Rogue had seemed, Natsu held off on mentioning the stuffed animals, but he had told Makarov that he suspected Rogue had forgotten how to cook for himself. The two were rushing to get everything cleaned up before they might end up being late.

The smell of burnt wood was everywhere, but the smell of burnt food was strange. Mira was a good chef, and the lady Makarov had hired recently to help in the kitchen was even better. The woman had such a natural talent that she assumed people were trying to mess up when their dishes didn't come out perfect.

"You must really hate this boy, if you were cooking that for him," she was saying.

"I'm trying. It's just that I'm not used to doing this…"

Natsu bristled.

"Then I take it you've been starving yourself the past half a year?"

"No, but my food budget has tripled. Restaurants are expensive."

Gray looked up as Natsu tiptoes towards the kitchen, trembling from the effort to control himself. The last thing either of them wanted was to have even more clean up, Gray assumed, so he took it upon himself to run ahead of Natsu and preemptively defuse to explosion that was going to start ticking off any second.

"Sting," Gray called as he slid into the kitchen. "Hey, I didn't know you were here."

"Oh. Well, I was going to see Rogue, but… it seemed like a bad time." Sting sighed. "I couldn't make Lector carry me home right after we got here, and I didn't want to take a train, so I came to see if Elsa could help me learn to cook." Although Lector had gotten bored and flown home anyway, leaving him determined to see Rogue so that the train ride wouldn't be for nothing.

"I think this one might truly be a lost cause," Elsa, the new cook, said. "He's burned the chicken salad. I don't know how. I'd already cooked the chicken. All he had to do was mix mayonnaise into the meat and set it in the fridge."

"Well, let her finish making everyone's dinner," Gray said. "You can come help me and Natsu clean-" he had to raise his voice over Natsu's roar of protest "-and I wanted to talk to you anyway."

"Really?" Sting raised an eyebrow. "And you want to talk about…?"

"Uh… nothing." Gray admitted. "Come help me clean. I have a train to catch and I can't leave until Flame Brain's mess is all picked up."

Sting considered it. He did like that an insult to Natsu had been thrown in there, and the honesty was appreciated. "Fine. I owe you one for getting Rogue to the hospital anyway."

Gray nodded and led Sting out into the main room, past Natsu, and to the ground zero that was the remains of the bar that had been demolished earlier that day. "Gramps is replacing this stuff tomorrow, but he wants it cleared out tonight," Gray explained. "We just need to get it all moved behind the guild hall."

"Simple enough."

"Yes. Much simpler than mixing mayo with an already cooked bird."

Sting flipped Gray a bird of his own before picking up the nearest chunk of former table and hauling it towards the back door.

"At least I know I'll always have cooking over him," Natsu muttered, getting back to work himself.

Whatever Sting had responded with, it had been too soft for Gray to make out. He still had to leap up and stop Natsu from charging after Sting, roaring "Well you can shove that up your-"

"Clean." Gray insisted. "The sooner we get this done with, the sooner you can get back to Rogue.'

Natsu grumbled and gathered up an armful of smaller wood shards before running out after Sting.

At least one of them didn't have a compulsive need to destroy everything in sight. Sting wasn't opposed to arguing with Natsu, but he didn't take much work to keep focused on the mess they were dealing with. Natsu, on the other hand, required constant reminders that another fight would only mean he'd go longer without being able to see the one who would be fought over.

"Does Rogue wait for you?" Sting asked out of the blue. "I get that he's usually working here, but when you come back from jobs at odd hours, or on days he has off, what does he do? We never split up like that while we were together."

The words 'split up' almost made Natsu snap again, but he bit back any comments on it and answered the question as curtly as possible. "Rogue does what he wants. He might meet me at the train station. He might leave a note saying what he wants for dinner and disappear until the middle of the night." That had only happened once, but it had scared Natsu badly enough that he couldn't not use it as an example.

"Is that so…?" Sting asked.

"Of course, you didn't want him around your house, so there's no reason you should have known," Natsu added.

Gray tensed, looking to see if Sting would be provoked by that. Rather than raise a fist, the blond's shoulders sagged, if only for a moment. Sting quickly straightened and replied, "Yeah. I was stupid to think Rogue would have been unfaithful while we were together. Turns out I didn't have to worry at all about him pretending there wasn't anyone else he wanted to see." He smirked. "Too bad you can't say the same."

Natsu did launch himself at Sting, who raised the flat end of a ruined table as a makeshift shield to block the first attack. Seeing the charred edges halted Natsu before he could strike. No more messes. The sooner everything was cleaned up, the sooner he could get home to his boyfriend and work on making sure the name 'Sting' was completely wiped from Rogue's memory.

He stepped back and returned to gathering up wood fragments, but couldn't help but add, "So you still think Rogue's unfaithful? You really don't change. I don't get how Rogue thinks you might deserve to breath the same air as him. You're no good for him. Stop coming around and confusing him."

"Rogue isn't stupid," Sting said. "If I'm really so horrible, he would have told me to beat it already. He wants me to keep coming. He said so. That's not something you tell a person when your moving on. But maybe I am confusing him. You're right-I did do something awful, but I told him I was sorry and he knows I meant it. I can understand him being confused about how I could have been that stupid. I can also see you being my substitute while he works out that confusion."

That time the reminder that there was still cleaning to do wasn't enough to stop Natsu. It only took one punch to break the shield into pieces that scattered across the room. The next punch Sting blocked, but the third caught him on the chin. Dazed as Sting was, the fourth would have connected as well had Gray not intervened then.

"How about this," Gray suggested, "Sting, you go over there and start sweeping up the smaller pieces. Natsu, you help me carry the larger chunks. Nobody has to get too close to anyone they don't like, nobody will talk, and I can make my damn train. If not, while I'm stuck in town overnight I'll have plenty of time to go and let Rogue know that you're both making asses of yourselves."

Grumbling, Sting and Natsu nodded and went to work with their assigned tasks.

-o-

Sting had been roped into helping Gray pack his things in a rush, so Natsu took the chance to run home and make sure that Rogue wouldn't get any alone time with certain awful blonds. As an extra safety measure, he also searched for and made use of the lock Rogue had installed.

The stuffed animals, he couldn't help but notice, had migrated from the table to Rogue's mattress. Not wanting to be locked out again when danger could approach at any minute, Natsu didn't comment.

What he did comment on was hardly any better. "I thought you forgot how to work a stove."

"Sting would go hungry if I didn't cook," Rogue told him. "After being the one to handle meals for years, it's hard to forget in just a few months." He gestured to a bowl of a thick, mushroomy soup adjacent him at the table. "Hungry?"

Natsu nodded and took a seat across from Rogue. It smelled like a pregnant person's 'improved' recipe, but if it hadn't made Rogue sick then it was probably safe. Of course, Rogue's morning sickness had never been severe, and he hadn't shown any indication of nausea the past few months. Still, Rogue didn't seem to find the meal bad.

A sample spoonful proved the soup to actually be quite good. It had a few spices that Mira wouldn't have thought of-and thus Natsu wouldn't have been told to use, and felt heavy enough that he could understand the absence of any other dishes. Creamy broth, mushrooms, sautéed vegetables, and rice all blended perfectly in one dish.

"You… cook better than I do," Natsu mumbled.

"The effort is enough that I prefer your results," Rogue assured him. "At the risk of sounding hypocritical, why was the door locked?"

"Happy caught me in an embarrassing moment earlier," Natsu replied.

While Rogue tried to hide his blush behind his hair, Happy cried, "What? But I didn't see anything weird. Besides, I came home hours ago. You were taking too long cleaning."

"Fro thought so…"

"So what was the real reason?" Rogue asked, face still hidden.

"Um…" Natsu swallowed another mouthful while he considered hiding the truth. "Sting."

"Oh." Rogue's eyes lit up. "That's right. There was a book he meant to give me. Did you see him?"

"Yeah…" Natsu scowled. "Hey… Rogue? You know how you get weird sometimes and worry that you like me because of Sting?"

Rogue didn't know what to say to that, so he settled for nodding.

"Is that… do you have a better idea yet? Last time you brought it up, you just said that you were noticing things similar about us. You can't really think I'm like that jerk, can you?"

Rogue nodded again. "Although you're not as much of a jerk."

Natsu's shoulders slumped in relief.

"So he's still somewhat of a jerk," Happy snickered.

"Actually…" Rogue glanced up at the ceiling as he thought about it, "As far as I'm concerned, you're probably better. Between the two of you, you pay more attention to what I want or how I feel. I don't think Sting ever thought for a moment that I might not like cooking."

"So tell him to give up," Natsu said. "This is driving me insane."

"I-It's not like he's terrible at that! You're just more sensitive," Rogue insisted-despite the fact that being less sensitive than Natsu was pretty terrible in most situations. "Besides, I can't make decisions based solely on myself anymore. I have to think about how my choices affect Alex too."

"I don't mind not being the bio-something or rather father," Natsu reminded him. "We started off because I offered to help with the baby. And neither of us were raised by our original parents, so you can't tell me it matters."

"No… but…" Rogue grasped for the words for a moment before settling on pointing towards the newest book collection in Natsu's home. "Those are all on childrearing. Sting read all of them himself before giving them to me. Between the two of you… sometimes I don't think you realize what you're offering to do when you say you want to be Alex's father. Even if Sting has no more experience with it, I don't ever doubt that he's doing what he can to be a good father."

"I-I can read too!" Natsu insisted. "Just watch. I'll read through all of it! If your maternal instincts want a good dad, then I'll be the best!"

-o-

It had taken over half an hour to go to Gray's, help pack his clothes, then get to Natsu's. Why Gray had even bothered to pack clothes when he'd been naked the whole time they worked was beyond Sting, but apparently even nudists cared about having a spare set of pants.

Natsu would no doubt be home, but as long as Rogue was there then Sting was sure he could at least hold a conversation in the doorway. The light from the window looked dim, but not out. He considered going back, but waiting another half hour in dark just so he could ride a late night train wasn't worth it unless he got a few moments with Rogue.

When he knocked he wasn't surprised to see that Natsu was the one to open the door. He made a point to speak loudly enough to be heard by anyone else in the room as he said, "I wanted to see Rogue for a minute."

"He's pretending to be asleep," Natsu told him. His voice sounded a little off. Now that Sting was looking, he could see that the roset's cheek was swollen.

"Well… rats." If Rogue was in a bad mood, then neither of them would be talking to him. Sting considered seeing if Natsu was bluffing, but decided that Rogue would have already protested Natsu's claim if he were willing to talk."Here, give him this when he overacts waking up," Sting said, handing Natsu the book he'd forgotten earlier. "But hey… I know I didn't hit you. What happened?"

Natsu flipped the book open to the first page and wondered if Rogue would only get madder if he ignored the question and slammed the door on Sting's face. Probably. "Don't use the word maternal," he said. "Good night."

-x-

STA: Originally, this was supposed to happen the day after the events of the last chapter, but that didn't make much sense. Sting's been coming and going at random, and showing up two days in a row when Natsu's around to keep him from lingering too long doesn't feel right. Everyone I needed was already there, and Natsu going to pick a fight with Gray already gave me the setup to have the mess he was supposed to be cleaning. Plus, adding Gray gave me a way to add Sting to the cleanup without it feeling unnatural. What a happy coincidence that I had Natsu decide to bug him last chapter. Otherwise I'd never have thought to bring back up that Gray was the one who'd gotten Rogue to the hospital for them.