The best time to sneak away had been when Natsu and Happy were both focused on Asuka. Rogue had covered Frosch's mouth with his hand and tiptoed out of the guild. Not that he didn't enjoy the little girl's company, or that it wasn't adorable to see Natsu try and keep her pleased. What he didn't enjoy was Natsu's insistence that keeping a young girl amused for the day while her parents took advantage of the free babysitting couldn't be too different from caring for a baby.

"Are we going home?" Frosch asked.

Rogue thought about it for a minute. Natsu couldn't up and leave while a child was in his care-he and Asuka's parents and been very stern about that after the first time. He might bring Asuka with him in search of Rogue, but if she didn't want to walk across town then he'd stay at the guild. That would make for a good few hour reprieve, but if she wanted to go on an adventure with her babysitter then not only would home not be a safe haven from Natsu's overenthusiastic babysitting. It would also mean he had to take over Natsu's job while Natsu skimmed all of Sting's books and asked Rogue to clarify on what they said.

Was it unfair to avoid Natsu for doing what Rogue had wanted? Not at all. Rogue certainly liked people who were on the energetic side, but the energy Natsu poured into learning about infants—and the lack of results he had to show for it—was driving Rogue up the wall.

"Maybe… Sting's house," Rogue decided. He was allowed to visit Sting, wasn't he? He hadn't, sure, but there were no rules against it. Natsu broke into Lucy's house all the time, and Sting came over to visit once or twice or seven times a week anyway, so it wasn't like he wouldn't see the one person Natsu so despised otherwise.

"Fro gets to play with Lector?"

"Yeah." Rogue held Frosch up. "Any chance you could fly me? I know you can't carry two people, but I'm only two and three quarters right now."

"Fro will do her best!"

"Thank you." Motion sickness was bad enough when it wasn't awkward to try and curl up in a fetal position. And he didn't want to imagine what it would be like if Alex had a burst of activity while all he could think of was how badly he wished his stomach would stay still.

Releasing Frosch up above him, the frog-cat did a loop in the air and came back down, grabbing Rogue and lifting her up with him this time.

"We're going home!" she cheered.

Rogue didn't bother to correct her. It had been their home for a long time, after all.

-o-

She could carry him most of the way, but he did weigh more than he had last summer. When Frosch mentioned that her wings were getting tired, Rogue assured her that he could walk the rest of the way. They touched down a quarter mile from their old town.

"Fro just wants to sleep now…"

"You do that," Rogue told her, allowing Frosch to lie in his arms as he set off through painfully familiar grassland.

With the exception that there was snow now, the town didn't look any different than it had that summer. Of course it snowed every February, but Rogue's life hadn't flipped upside-down last winter. It had flipped upside-down last summer.

The last time he was there it was Natsu everyone had looked at. No one had thought it was odd when he'd been gone for a week. This time not only was there not a Fairy to stare at, there was a prominent baby bump to draw the eyes of everyone he passed by.

It wasn't like it had only been him and that Jellal person. There had been plenty of people in the arena when things went south and Rogue had ended up with the last condition he'd ever expected to have. If a few of the other unfortunate souls who learned about their bundles of joy with only a few months to go had decided to be more public about their pregnancies than Rogue had been, then that was their choice. He could still hate them for giving everyone he passed by all the pieces they needed to puzzle out what had happened to him. More than once he had to send a silencing glare at someone who dared laugh.

During the middle of the day Sting would most likely be in the Sabertooth guildhall. Doubly so if Rogue hadn't been back at their house insisting that he wasn't interested in hanging out at the guild and showing off. It might be much easier on his pride to go wait for Sting at home, but…

Steeling himself, Rogue turned onto the guild's street. He had to steel himself again to walk the final block, and once more to actually open the door to the guildhall.

Ah. Now there was the sudden hush he'd been expecting when he first came to Fairy Tail. Rogue wondered if it would be too absurd for him to shut the door and leave, but clearly everyone had seen him already, so he had nothing to lose from staying.

"Is Sting here?" he asked.

Silence.

"Alright." He started to shut the door.

"Wait," Rufus called out. "I don't remember that. Rogue… when did you put on so much weight?"

"When he stopped working," Orga laughed.

"No you idiot, look! He's pregnant."

Rogue didn't know who had shouted that out, but he wasn't going to thank them for breaking that awful silence. Not when he got the whole guild laughing.

"Pregnant?"

"Rogue?"

"That poor kid. I can only imagine what it would be like to have Rogue for a mom."

"No wonder he hasn't shown his face."

"I'm amazed he even had the guts to come."

"Sting should have kept him locked up."

"Ha! Rogue! A mom!"

"Oy! Sting? You aren't the dad, are you? I knew you two had one of those special connections, but you don't think this is taking it too far?"

"You really should have stayed home. When the guild master sees that, you're going to be booted from the guild."

"Rogue already left the guild," Sting declared, finally drawing attention to himself. Like he was supposed to. That was the unspoken deal. He was supposed to get all the notice and not turn attention back to Rogue by asking, "Did something happen?"

"I… mm…" Rogue looked away, knowing that everyone in the guild was keenly aware of how his hair was used to hide his embarrassment.

No. This time it was shame.

Why did they all need to stare at him? He knew it would be noticed, but this was too much. At least his baggy clothes hid the Fairy Tail guild mark on his arm.

"Lector, come over here. Let's go," Sting said, weaving through the crowd to Rogue. "You didn't need to come when everyone was going to stare."

"Although we appreciated the free freak show," someone added. Rogue was still averting his gaze, but from the sounds of flesh on flesh, breaking woods, and shouts of surprise, he guessed that Sting had struck the speaker.

Then Sting was in front of him, leaning over to whisper into his ear, "Come on. Let's get you away from them."

Rogue nodded and followed Sting and Lector away from the guild.

They were silent walking down the streets. Rogue kept his head hung low. He'd thought he had nothing to lose going into the guild, but he'd forgotten that he still had a self-image for his former guild mates to shatter. He couldn't bring himself to notice the stares of civilians now. At least Frosch had slept through that terrible moment.

"Well…" Sting said after the silence had gone one long enough, "One of them was right. You should have stayed home. Or at least gone back to our… my place. Ha… It's just been my place for a while, but I'm really not used to calling it that."

"He tells people that 'our' means me and him," Lector added.

"Yeah," Sting laughed. "But I never took your key from you, did I?"

"I threw it out," Rogue confessed. "The same night you got rid of me. I tossed it out the window while I was on the train to Magnolia."

"Oh… is that so? Well… sorry. For that, and for the guild." He stopped, turning and initiating physical contact by placing a hand beneath Rogue's chin. "Hey, look up. So they were a bunch of asses. You're a Fairy right now. You don't have to deal with them unless you go out of your way. Just forget about them."

Sting was holding his chin in place, but Rogue could still move his eyes elsewhere.

"Nevermind. You can be stubborn about the weirdest things. If you came all the way here, is this good or bad news? How's Alex? Is-" Sting caught himself before he could accidentally give away the gender. "Are they moving?"

"Not much." Rogue held his head up when Sting let go of it. "Alex squirms a little, from time to time, but I haven't felt much movement today." Rogue ran his hand over his stomach. "I could try and get them moving."

"There's a way to do that?"

"Sort of. Alex always seems a lot more active after I-"

"There!"

Both dragon slayers looked back to see a group of guild members, maybe twenty, fanning out in the street. Rogue didn't recognize any of them. New recruits since he left?

"Hey, hey, hey!" The one in the middle of the group said, pointing to Sting. "You think you can go around beating up members of my team just because you're one of the guild master's favorites? We'll show him you aren't worth your top spot."

Sting scoffed. "You need this many people on jobs with you to pull them off?"

To his still capable of fighting eyes, none of them looked tough, but a quick glance Rogue's way showed that his ex was sizing them up differently. Beating up twenty people wasn't difficult, but keeping all of them away from Rogue and the baby might be harder. He grabbed Rogue's hand and took in a deep breath.

"You think I couldn't take you one on-"

Twisting so that his laser struck all their feet, Sting used the moment he already had from the attack to spin around completely and take off running, dragging Rogue with him. Rogue dropped Frosch in surprise, but Lector caught her as he flew after them.

"Give me the frog," Sting told Lector. "You fly Rogue out of here. I'll follow."

Frosch, who was now groggily trying to figure out what was going on, squealed as she was tossed through the air. Rogue's hand was let go of to catch his friend, but no sooner had one hand released his than had two more gotten under his arms and lifted him from the ground.

"I'll take him into the woods," Lector let Sting know before speeding away.

"Right behind you!" Sting called after them as he turned a completely different direction.

The idiot newbies chose to follow the one that it didn't take wings to reach, and found that just around the corner Sting had stopped completely, waiting for them.

"Now, let's demonstrate why I'm at the top."

-o-

It didn't take long for Rogue to figure out that Sting had stayed to fight. He could only guess that it had taken less time for Sting to win the fight, given how soon after he and Lector landed that Sting caught up to them with Frosch in hand.

"Sorry," Sting said as he passed the last tree between him and Rogue. "It's been a long time… since anyone was dumb enough… to pull that with either of us."

Rogue nodded. "You ran here?"

"Yeah. Give me… a minute… I just need to… catch my breath." Sting took a deep breath, straightening his posture a bit. "Are you… you're not hurt?"

"No?"

"Alex?"

"Pretty excited," Rogue reported. "I think they liked me running. I don't do a lot of that anymore."

"No… I wouldn't think so. You're getting big." He hadn't meant that as an insult, and was glad to see that Rogue didn't react to it as such. "Is it awkward to walk, or is Alex not big enough for that yet?"

"I think I've been waddling for a while," Rogue admitted, "But I wouldn't mind walking."

"Alright, let's see if we can't sneak you back to our… to my house," Sting decided. He waved to the exceed, letting them know they could go back on their own if they wanted to get out of the snow faster. The two, tired from flying a heavy pregnant boy, were happy for the excuse not to stay out in the cold. As they flew off Sting and Rogue started walking the same direction.

They'd only made it ten feet when Rogue tripped over a root.

"Whoa!" Sting snapped forward and grabbed him with one hand, securing himself to a tree with the other so Rogue wouldn't pull them both down. "You okay?" he asked as he pulled Rogue upright.

"Y-yeah. Thanks."

Sting nodded. "Your center of balance is off thanks to the kid, so be careful, okay? Since you're putting so much effort into getting along with that idiot, I won't always be there to catch you…" He looked away, hiding a blush. He didn't usually say such mushy things, but while he was at it he couldn't help but add, "But I will do my best to keep you safe."

Rogue blushed too. "Th-that's-"

"So what did you come for again?" Sting asked, not even trying to hide that he was changing the subject.

Rogue did hide his disappointment at that. "Nothing," he said. "I wanted to get away from Natsu, and I thought I might see you."

"Is that so?" Sting tried to keep his voice neutral, but he didn't need to look at Rogue to know he'd failed. Still, coming to see him when getting away from Natsu. That couldn't be a bad sign. "What was Natsu doing?"

"Just… trying too hard. He's reading up on parenting. I do appreciate the effort, but it gets tiring when he keeps it up too long. I can't convince him to take it easy, because he's determined to 'beat' you as a boyfriend," Rogue explained, making sure to get the message across that he wasn't in the mood for Sting trying anything either.

"Well, you can have a low key day here," Sting offered. "I guess you like people cooking for you, but I'm no good at that. I can at least make instant hot chocolate. When we get back I can boil water and get a fire going and you can relax all you want."

Rogue nodded. That sounded nice. His coat and baby fat kept him warm, but sitting in front of a fire during the winter, mug of hot chocolate in hand, maybe a blanket draped around his shoulder… that sounded nice. Why just one shoulder? He might have imagined the other end of the blanket covering Sting. That was no good. He couldn't fantasize about snuggling with his ex while still with Natsu.

Though for as often as he saw Sting, it almost felt like he was just as close to both of them by that point.

"Are you cold?" Rogue asked.

Sting shrugged. Maybe he was a little chilly. He had the sense not to show his stomach off in the middle of winter, but his clothes still weren't as thick as Rogue's.

"I can lend you my scarf."

"I'm fine," Sting insisted.

"Hold still," Rogue ordered. Sting obliged, not bothering to protest when Rogue removed his scarf and lifted it over Sting's head. "Do you need me to tie it for you?"

"You don't need to do this at all," Sting grumbled. Sure, Rogue's scarf was warm, and it was nice to have something that smelled like Rogue so close. His scent had been wearing off of the house and it was getting even more lonely and sometime he wanted to just go and—Rogue absolutely should not have been giving away his own protection from the cold. "It's fine."

Rogue ignored Sting, leaning forward a bit to loop the scarf around his neck once more. "Here. This way it can cover the lower half of your face too."

Speaking of faces, Rogue suddenly noticed how close his was to Sting's. The blond's mouth was now covered, but a blush that was too strong to just be from the cold crept over the top of the scarf. Rogue wondered if the heat in his cheeks could be passed off as cold, or if Sting could see it too.

"Uh…" Sting took a page from Rogue's book and looked away without turning his head.

So he didn't see it.

He just felt Rogue pull the scarf back down from his mouth.

But he did look back when he felt lips against his own.

Then he closed his eyes, taking in Rogue's scent and kissing back. Maybe the fireplace would have been a more comfortable place for it, but if this was where Rogue wanted to do something, then after half a year of wondering if they'd ever be so close again Sting wasn't going to complain. He ran a hand through Rogue's hair and held the other on the boy's waist, holding him firm while Rogue got his own grip on Sting.

"I missed you," Sting murmured when Rogue broke away for a second to take a quick breath of air.

"Later," Rogue replied, kissing again.

Sure. Why not? If Rogue had come all the way to see him, then they'd have plenty of time to talk, right? Why not enjoy a moment that, by all means, he shouldn't have had another chance to have? Sting was content just then to indulge Rogue, be it hormones or fond memories and feelings that had caused the sudden affection.

He wasn't tracking how long it lasted, but it didn't matter. Even if they had gone on for days, Rogue would have pulled away too soon.

"I'm a horrible person," Rogue declared.

"I promise you can still come inside. I've already kicked you out once for that, so we can call it even," Sting joked.

Rogue laughed despite himself. "Yeah. Fireplace? That sounds nice. Let's go. We can get Lector and Frosch to bed. They only saw us acting like friends. If we keep anything up while we're warmer, Frosch won't tell anyone."

It wasn't that Sting wanted to encourage Rogue to be exactly what he'd rejected Rogue for not actually being. It was just that Sting couldn't turn down the idea after getting to taste his beloved again.

-o-

After a round of hot chocolate, his beloved tasted surprisingly like hot chocolate. Sting mentioned that, and Rogue asked if there had been any alcohol in his drink.

"We just haven't had a moment like this in a long time. Something where we're not just friends," Sting said.

"Yeah…"

"I know I shouldn't ask this while you're still with Natsu, but… I had money set aside for a trip. I was going to take you to Joya…"

"I heard."

"You did? Geeze. I shouldn't have trusted that girl."

"I heard from you," Rogue clarified. "But I would assume anything Mira hears will be common knowledge by the end of the day."

"A-ah." Sting cleared his throat. "Well, I set aside some money for a trip to Joya. As an apology for what happened. A much better one then just getting on my knees. If… Natsu doesn't take it the wrong way…"

Sting didn't really care what Natsu thought of it. Rogue knew that. This was Sting trying to be sensitive to what Rogue wanted, just like him making instant hot chocolate rather than setting out milk and cocoa and telling Rogue to do it was him acknowledging that his ex didn't like standing over a stove.

So now Natsu was going over the top trying to be a good dad, and Sting was calming down almost to the point that Rogue thought he might have a fever trying to be a nice boyfriend. As for Rogue, he'd be lying if he said spending time with Sting was a part of it, but he could honestly tell Natsu that he'd wanted for a long time to go to Joya for the sake of seeing Joya.

"I'll ask. We might have to bring someone along to prove we're not doing anything," Rogue said. Just to counter himself, he stretched up and kissed Sting again. He'd just have to be better about humoring Natsu's enthusiasm for parenting in exchange. Really sit down and talk him through the points he didn't get.

"Not anything?" Sting teased.

"Today is an exception."

"Alright. I know a hotel that doesn't let you reserve more than a few weeks out. I can get you there by the end of the month."

"Sounds great."

-o-

STA: A hotel in February? Why does that sound familiar?

*cricket chirp*

Bah. It's not like most of the people reading this are reading chapter 1 through 17 all in one go. Even if they were, remembering stuff from way back towards the beginning of the story… isn't something I see a lot of fan fiction asking you to do. I'm trying to get better about it, but then it really bothers me the times I don't call attention to it and nobody calls it out.

Well, next chapter will have to be Natsu-centric to make up for this. I was thinking of this as a sort of balance for Natsu and Rogue sleeping together, but that was a little while ago now. Either boy could potentially end up with Rogue still, so I can't have one getting too much attention over the other.