"It's not…" Natsu took a deep breath to keep himself from punching the thing closest to him, a precaution he wouldn't have bothered with if that thing weren't Rogue. "It's not that I don't mind you going anywhere with a friend," which was a lie, "But you do know that we've had hotel reservations for the same week since early last fall."

From the look on Rogue's face, he'd completely forgotten.

"You can give the room to me," Sting suggested.

Rogue smacked his arm.

Rubbing his injury, Sting said, "Well, the place is nice because you don't need to wait half a year to get into it. I can arrange for next week instead."

"You do that," Natsu told him in a voice that clearly meant he didn't want Sting to book a hotel room at all.

Sting nodded, then smiled at Rogue, saying, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't want you two fighting, but I can honestly say I don't want to cause you trouble. I'll leave you be until he's calmed down."

Although hearing Sting put it that way seemed to only make Natsu madder. Rogue sighed and waved as Sting ran out the door.

"I'm not…" Rogue started, still facing the door even after it was shut. "I… didn't mean to upset you… I…"

"Well, you picked one hell of a way to accidentally upset me," Natsu growled. "A vacation with Sting? If you want to go back to him so badly, stop pretending and go!"

"That's not it!" Rogue insisted, turning to meet Natsu's glare. "I like you! I do!"

"Then why the hell are you sneaking away from me to spend the night with him?" Natsu demanded.

"I…" Rogue looked away. "I… I don't… know." He sighed. "I don't know. You know me well enough to know that relationships aren't something my mind is wired for. I don't get the point of all that mushy hand holding and eating out that you and Sting always hype up. I don't get why I can't just look at the two of you and know for sure what I think. I meant what I said before. Between you and Sting, you're the one who I feel more comfortable with without considering the baby, but even then I'm taking past incidents and weighing them like they're numeric values. It's not… I'm not someone who can just 'follow their heart', I don't even get how a person would do that." He met Natsu's gaze again. "So I'm trying to use my head to sort this out. I don't want to stay with you because I've mixed gratitude for you helping me with real feelings. I don't want to leave you and learn I did care about you more than Sting. I know this sounds horrible—I know, but I want to be able to really compare the two of you. Please."

This time it was Natsu who looked away, unable to come up with any other way of hiding his expression from Rogue. "So you can't say you love me?"

"I couldn't," Rogue confirmed. "I'm certain I like you, and that I could live with you for much longer, but… it's not a word I could use so easily."

It should have come easily to him. Natsu didn't get it. He'd tried really hard. He'd done everything he could to please Rogue for months. He'd poured all his energy into being a good boyfriend, and all his brainpower into learning to be a good father. How did Sting get Rogue's attention so easily?

"Natsu?"

"I love you…"

Rogue nodded, not sure if Natsu meant it sincerely, or if he placed such a strong word on a weaker feeling that he'd mistake for love. "I don't love Sting, either," was the only verbal response he could come up with.

"Say you love me."

"It wouldn't be sincere if-"

"Say it!" Natsu cried. "Please!"

Rogue bit his lip. "I…" He didn't want to make Natsu cry. "I love you," he said.

"Really?"

"Yes."

It was insincere. After the speech he'd given, neither doubted it was, if nothing else, flawed. But it calmed Natsu, if only a little.

"And you're not going to run away with Sting on this trip?"

"The trip is already running away with Sting on its own," Rogue said, "But I promise I'll come back."

Natsu nodded, still unable to look at Rogue.

Taking a deep breath and bracing himself for a few months that would be too touchy feely, Rogue stepped forward and grabbed Natsu, pulling him into a hug. "I'm sorry, Natsu. You really do mean a lot to me. Really. I'm sorry I'm putting you through this."

"It's fine," Natsu muttered. "You can hold me for a minute but… I need to make dinner soon. What… what do you want?"

"I can cook," Rogue offered. "I've been a rotten boyfriend. You're not allowed to treat me, alright?"

"But…" But if he couldn't cook for Rogue, then what was he offering that Rogue couldn't go back to Sting for?

"Get out," Rogue told him.

"G-get-?"

"Get out," he repeated, resting his forehead against Natsu's and dropping to a whisper. "If I'm going to make this up to you it needs to be a surprise. I can't surprise you if you watch me set it up."

It took a second for Natsu to figure out why that sounded so familiar, but when he did he broke into a grin. A real grin. A grin Rogue had thought he might have barred himself from seeing again.

He laughed. "Okay. But so you know, I don't want lamb."

"Noted."

Moving Rogue's arms away, Natsu kissed his boyfriend, then kissed him one more time to assure himself that he could still do that. "I might make you do something special all the way up to your trip," Natsu warned.

"You'll make me work while I'm on vacation with you?"

"You can make that week afterward."

"You're not leaving," Rogue pointed out.

"Huh? Oh! Right. The surprise. I'll be at the guild," Natsu told Rogue. "Send Frosch when you're ready."

Frosch? When had Frosch gotten there? Rogue glanced around as Natsu ran out the door and saw that Frosch had indeed been in the room the whole time. Neither he nor Happy had dared say a word while everything came dangerously close to imploding right in front of them.

"Happy, why don't you go with Natsu?" Rogue suggested. "I don't trust you to keep a secret from him."

Happy nodded and waddled over to the door, stopping before he left and looking back to Rogue.

"You don't love Natsu?"

"At this point, I like him as much as I could anyone."

-o-

"So he at least doesn't like Sting more," Gray said, rubbing Natsu's back consolingly. It wasn't a position he'd ever envisioned himself in, but the roset had come in that afternoon sulking to an almost empty guild. When Natsu had sunk down on the bar counter, burying his head in his arms, Gray had decided he needed to move in. Mira had taken a day off to go off with Lisanna and Elfman on a skiing trip, and Erza had taken Lucy on a girls only mission so she wouldn't be evicted. Someone had to talk to the guy.

He hadn't been surprised to hear it was about Sting again, but it had been a surprise when he heard Rogue's part in it. A vacation with Sting? That was definitely pushing it. Pushing it over a cliff and into a pit of hellish fire, considering Rogue had already been accused of cheating by Sting.

"But you still get your week with him. Undo whatever damage Sting's week did-or set up some preventative measures. If Rogue wants to know you better before using the L word, spend the week getting to know one another better. And challenge Sting to blow him away with some great recipe. Reminding him that the competition can burn food by mixing cold ingredients can't hurt."

Natsu nodded. "So if I stop catering and just… act like I do around everyone else at the guild-"

"Except me."

"-And the other idiots who take jobs here, then that would help?"

"…"

"Gray?"

"H-hey… I didn't have to give you this advice, you know."

"Well I can't treat him like Gajeel either, can I?"

Gray sighed. "Just pretend he's Lucy."

"I don't want to sleep with Lucy."

This time it was Happy who patted Gray's back consolingly before looking up at Natsu and saying, "That was too much information."

"How so?" Natsu asked, trying to figure out what he'd done wrong. "I don't think of Lucy that way."

"I meant treat him like a friend!" Gray cried. "Be casual around him! If he doesn't think you're putting effort into being what he wants, then he can make a better judgment in this stupid mess you've gotten yourself mixed up in."

"Gotten myself mixed up in? I had no part in it. It's all Sting's fault! He's the one who thought he could waltz in and take back the guy he kicked out in the rain."

"And you're the one who asked out a pregnant boy who wasn't over an ex that he broke up with over a stupid confusion."

"Well why wouldn't I have? He's great! And he needed someone there for him!" Natsu screamed.

"Fro thinks so too."

Natsu blinked and turned around. Frosch, the only person who hadn't fled upstairs when his temper flared, had seated herself on the table behind him. "How long have you been there." What was she, some sort of ninja?

"Fro came in when Natsu said he wants to sleep with Rogue," Frosch confessed. "Rogue wanted Fro to come say dinner is ready, but Fro wanted to know what Natsu had to say first."

"O-oh…"

"So… Natsu loves Rogue?"

"Yeah…"

Fro nodded. "Rogue loves Natsu too, Fro's sure. But because Rogue didn't stop loving Sting, he's confused now."

"Hm." Natsu grunted.

"So Natsu should go home. Rogue wanted Fro and Happy to stay with Lucy for the night."

"Lucy's gone," Happy let Frosch know.

Frosch looked distressed. Rogue wanted to make a romantic evening for him and Natsu. She couldn't interrupt a romantic evening, and she couldn't let Happy interrupt it either.

"She keeps the window over her bed unlocked. Let yourselves in," Natsu told them. The window saw more use than her door anyway. "I'll come get you guys when Rogue and I are done."

-o-

Rogue had taken one extra step to imitate Natsu's apology meal and left a window open to waft the scent out. Natsu smelled pork as he approached his house, and was drooling by the time he made it inside.

He didn't see pork. Instead, the table held two bowls of soup. All the normal lights in the house had been turned off, and candles at the table and atop a few other furnishings lit the room. Rogue sat at the far end, waiting for Natsu to come in.

"Our the candles part of the meal?"

"You shouldn't eat wax," Rogue replied.

Laughing, Natsu sat down at grabbed a spoon, testing the soup. Chicken of some sort, although he could still smell pork. It was driving him nuts. Would it be rude if he didn't show interest in the meal Rogue had made? Probably. It was something he might do to Lucy, but Natsu couldn't bring himself to take Gray's advice. Rogue wasn't half as tolerant as Lucy.

So he ate the soup. It became more bearable as he tuned out the scent of pork and noticed all the spices mixed into the chicken broth. It wasn't bad, it was just light.

Rogue had finished off his bowl before Natsu—somehow—and took the dish before Natsu could insist that he was capable of cleaning. He came back with two more plates. This time is was pork. Roasted in a vinegar based sauce.

"Usually the flavor is stronger, but I didn't have enough time to let the meat soak in the sauce before it had to cook," Rogue apologized.

"I woubn' haf known it coub be bettew if you hadn' said so," Natsu told him mid mouthful.

"Thanks."

Natsu grinned and went back to stuffing his face, this time finishing before Rogue.

"Ah… man, that was good." Natsu laughed. "You set out that soup first just to torture me, didn't you. I thought I'd go crazy smelling that pork."

"The idea was that you'd like the soup too." Rogue tried to keep his voice dry, but the corners of his lips twitched up against his will. "Give me a second." He popped the last bite into his mouth and got up to take the plates again, coming back with a third dish.

Natsu grinned. Ice cream was far from his favorite treat, especially in winter, but this hadn't just been scooped out of a bin. Rogue had garnished it with a mint leaf and thin chopped almonds.

"What flavor is that?" Natsu asked as he held a spoon over the bowl, ready to strike.

"Blueberry. It's not a flavor I've ever mixed to make ice cream before, but I think it came out alright."

The spoon froze mid swing. "Mixed?"

"I can teach you how to do it."

"Why… If you hate cooking then why do you know how to make ice cream."

"Sting and I had a bet back when we were twelve or so. He said you couldn't get ice cream in every flavor, and if I could prove him wrong he'd do our next job in a skirt, but if I couldn't find the flavor he picked—"

"You'd wear a skirt instead."

"We were little. It was the worst punishment we could think of. He wanted thyme flavored ice cream. I couldn't find any, and even now cooking beats cross dressing so learning to make it myself was the logical solution."

"So no maternity dresses when you outgrow the clothes you have now."

"I borrowed this from Elfman. If I outgrow them then I doubt a maternity dress would do any better a job of keeping me covered."

Yeah. Those clothes looked big enough to be Elfman's. One of Rogue's shoulders almost poked out of the neck hole. Natsu eyed it a moment. What was it he'd said to freak Gray out? He didn't want to sleep with Lucy? Right. The issue there was unrelated to Lucy. Gray had been bothered by the implication that he wanted to sleep with Rogue. Again. And he did. Maybe the soup wasn't torture, but surely Rogue knew what it looked like to expose that much skin.

Before digging into the ice cream, Natsu opened his mouth and inhaled, drawing in the embers of the candles on the table. Rogue didn't comment as the room became slightly darker, waiting for Natsu to take a bite before eating his own dish.

Knowing that more care had gone into the dessert that simply dishing it up, Natsu took his time eating it, and since he doubted Rogue had planned a course after that, took both bowls to the sink before Rogue had the chance. He came back to the table afterward, sitting down on Rogue's side and laying an arm on his shoulder.

"That was great."

"Thanks."

"Yeah. Thank you too," Natsu murmured, leaning over and kissing Rogue. He could do that as many damn times as he pleased. Rogue was his boyfriend. Sting's scent had no business being on those lip, and Natsu licked the offending scent off before kissing Rogue again to get the taste it left out of his mouth completely.

"You're not mad at me?"

"Not you," Natsu assured Rogue. Reaching out, he wrapped his other arm around Rogue's stomach and said, "Even if you were the one who really got me riled up, you're too cute to stay mad at."

"Cute?"

"Sure. Not girly, but there's a lot about you that 'attractive' doesn't cover. Even if attractive describes you pretty well."

"A beer gut is attractive?"

"It's a baby bump," Natsu reminded Rogue. "And yeah, you look good with it."

"Do I?"

"You do."

Rogue closed his eyes and debated elbowing Natsu in the gut as his boyfriend licked his neck. He knew where this was going, and he didn't want anything going anywhere until he knew who he was going with. But would a physical attack be too strong of a no? He didn't want to send any message besides 'nothing in bed'.

"That was a great meal. Let's make the rest of the night even better. Look how pretty it is. It would be a shame to waste it."

Rogue glanced at the window, which was almost too dark to see out of. Snowflakes collected in the corners of the glass and reflected the flickering candle light. That did set about as good a mood as red sheets and rose petals, but…

"I don't know…"

"Why not? The books said this can't harm the baby, so this just has to do with me. Was I bad last time?"

"No…"

Natsu's tongue ran the length of Rogue's shoulder, trailing up to his ear and making the boy shiver. "So?"

Rogue shut his eyes. "Your bed this time."

-x-

STA: Everything in my outline for this chapter was covered in the first 201 words, more or less. The rest was me making sure Natsu gets the attention he deserves. Also, I never had a really good spot planned for Natsu and Rogue actually arguing about the triangle. It kind of bothered me to see Natsu never confronting Rogue about it. Especially because there's a point later where it seems like a lot of feeling came out of the blue if Natsu doesn't get this out now.

Moving Natsu from the guild back to his house gave me trouble. I hope it doesn't look forced.