It was odd, Sting later decided, that the first thing he noticed when he woke up wasn't how much pain he was in. Actually, what he did notice was that the cracks in the ceiling looked like a cowboy, and as he stared at them and turned his head, it almost seemed like the cowboy got up and danced. How funny.

He was twisting around in bed watching the cowboy dance in place when he noticed that, hey, he was in a bed. When had that happened? And why was that strange? The cowboy sat down and waited patiently while Sting tried to recall what happened. Right, right. The derby. He hadn't been able to get the leverage in time to toss Rogue to safety without putting himself in harm's way. That sounded bad. He hoped he hadn't died. It would explain why he didn't feel any pain.

The cowboy faded away, becoming cracks in the ceiling of the hospital room again as Sting struggled to think clearly through the painkillers. Painkillers themselves were never something that occurred to him, but he did recognize an blood transfusion bag, and realize that he was in a hospital from that. If he had died, that would be pretty frivolous to include in the afterlife, heaven, hell, or otherwise.

Fairly convinced that he was still alive, Sting shut his eyes and fell back asleep.

-o-

The next time he woke up he did notice a dull throb in his… everywhere. It was significantly less dull around his right arm, which was likely due to Rogue clutching it. With some effort, Sting turned his head to get a good look at the boy and smiled. "Hey…" No bruises. No bandages. Bump still there. "Is… Alex okay?"

Rogue's attempt to nod ended with him bursting into tears. Sting would have told him not to cry, but the truth was that since crying made Rogue let go of his arm, he didn't mind. He'd never seen Rogue crying that hard though, and it almost hurt as much as having his arm squeezed had. No matter how much the boy rubbed at his cheeks they were still soaked.

"Don't…" Sting said after a minute. "I'm alright. Don't be upset."

Rogue hiccuped and went on crying.

"Really. Don't be such a crybaby. I'm not dead."

Apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say. Rogue buried his face in his hands and wailed.

Realizing nothing he said would make Rogue stop crying, Sting shifted to a more comfortable position and reached out with the arm Rogue had been hurting, placing a bruised hand on his ex's knee. The contact made Rogue hesitate a moment, and his sobs became more controlled.

"Mr. Cheney?" Sting and Rogue looked up at a nurse who had appeared in the doorway. "Do you believe your friend is going to survive now?"

Rogue nodded.

"That's wonderful. We need you to come with us now. We have to confirm your child is alright."

With one last look at Sting, and one last tremor of a suppressed sob, Rogue got up and followed the nurse out of the room.

Sting's heart plummeted to his stomach. Was something wrong with Alex? It hadn't looked like Rogue had fallen on his stomach when he'd been thrown across the racetrack, but he hadn't exactly had enough time to asses that before getting rammed into by an armored race car. The question of how he survived whatever speed the damn thing had been going when it struck him took a backseat to the possibility that little Alex was no more.

"Alex should be fine," Natsu said. Sitting against the same wall as the headboard for Sting's bed, the blond hadn't even seen him. "They're worried about Rogue stressing himself. He's refused to leave the hospital since they started admitting visitors to your room."

"When was that?" Sting asked, trying to crane his neck to see his arch enemy.

"About six days ago. They were starting to worry that you might not wake up at this point," Natsu told him.

Six? No wonder Rogue had been so upset. And Rogue had stayed in the hospital and waited for him the whole time? Even if that couldn't be good for him, that was a sweet gesture. Sting found himself smiling despite being trapped in bed with no one but Natsu in the room.

"I suppose I should thank you," Natsu mumbled.

Well, the meant that he wasn't likely to be strangled, despite the perfect motive and opportunity. "For what?" Sting asked.

"For getting Rogue out of there. For saving my boyfriend and kid."

Sting hissed. "Alex is my daughter."

Natsu had to take a moment to get past the fact that Sting had been allowed to know the baby's gender before responding. "You should have realized that earlier. You already had your chance with Rogue. You blew it. You didn't deserve another."

"I didn't," Sting agreed, trying not to bristle and irritate his wounds as Natsu continued to aggravate him. "If Rogue had as little heart in him as he likes to pretend he does, I wouldn't. Even then, maybe he's so kind that I still don't. Whenever I go off with him, it seems like every action he makes is determined by what will hurt you the least. But you know what's weird…?"

"What?" Natsu mumbled. He wasn't going to like the answer. He didn't have to hear it. Even if Sting would say it whether he was asked or not, he could always get up and walk out of the room. But whatever Sting wanted to say, Natsu wanted to know. Anything he might be able to use later. Sting got to know Alex's gender early. He needed something, even that blond bastard's opinion of what he was doing wrong, to work with.

The blond bastard smiled and said, "I stopped trying to pick a fun date for Rogue. It's almost impossible. Nine out of ten things I'd pick with him in mind wouldn't interest him, and the last one would only work if he was in the right mood." Just thinking off how he'd nearly driven himself insane trying to please Rogue when they first started going out brought a smile to his face. "But even then, I'd never pick something he hated so obviously as he did that derby."

"If you think I was being selfish going there, he approved it. He said he wanted me to not do everything with him in mind."

"Well that's just it," Sting said. "You think I forced Rogue to cook? Maybe I never noticed just how much he didn't like it, but you can't blame me. He insisted he handle meals. You've seen what it looks like when I try, and when I offered to use most of my share of our earnings taking him out to spare him the chore more often, he called it a waste of money. I'd have kept trying to get it down, but it's a little disheartening when your new boyfriend always says you're so awful at something that they'll just do it themselves. With all the effort I put into it trying to win him back, I can see why he'd think that. Even now, after I spent months practicing, I bet you he'd still tell me I'm a safety hazard at the stove." Sting chuckled, but the motion hurt, so he didn't do it much. "You know what else he'd tell me? He told me when the date venue I picked sucked. If we'd never split up and I'd taken him to that derby, well, for starters, I'd have had to drag him there. Then, assuming I had blackmail to make him stay," which he did have, "he'd have let me know the whole time how bored he was. Not once while he sat there dying inside did he tell you it wasn't interesting to him. The most interested he looked was when he heard someone else was there."

"He said it wasn't his thing while we were on vacation." That counted.

"And he came along anyway, and did his best not to make it clear how much he hated it. He only left when we got too competitive, and I bet he was glad for the excuse to run away."

"So what?" Natsu demanded. "You think that's bad? He loves me enough to put up with things that don't interest him, and you had to try."

"No, doofus. I already said I didn't try. And Rogue was comfortable enough with our relationship to not force himself to sit through something he hated just to please me. It's weird that you two have been together more than half a year, but Rogue still feels like he needs to try and go along with what you want to make you feel secure. You ever make Rogue feel like he's not tolerant enough of some of the craziness in your guild? I bet you do. You make him try too hard to be what you want."

"Yeah? Well at least I try to do was Rogue wants."

"Well maybe you try too hard too, if Rogue has to tell you not to," Sting said.

"I don't need to hear this from you. You think you're so great, coming back and messing everything up. Rogue and I were just fine before you decided it was okay to come back and take what you left out in the rain!" Natsu hissed. "You managed to get a whole week alone with him in a hotel in a foreign country, and you ended up getting him to run home early. Even if Rogue gave you a second chance, you have no shot. Don't tell me what's wrong with how I'm doing things."

"I'm not just chasing Rogue away," Sting growled.

"You can't even get him to spend a week with you," Natsu accused. "You had years and you couldn't get him to touch you. You think you're special for being Rogue's first boyfriend? Well, I was his first time."

The only thing keeping Sting from jumping out of bed and taking a swing at Natsu was that he physically couldn't. He only managed to prop himself up and realize that his lower half wouldn't obey him at all. He still fixed Natsu with the best glare he could and said, "And who's fault is that?"

"What?"

"Who's idea was it for you two to fuck? Yours, or his?"

Natsu scowled. Rogue had been the one to insist on it, but only after having been seduced first, and he'd never refused. He'd only said there wasn't any pressure. He'd wanted it. He'd damn near forced it the second time. It wasn't until they got to the resort that Rogue had come up with the idea on his own.

"It was yours, wasn't it?" Sting asked. "It was something you wanted, and Rogue does have to try so hard to please you. In fact, I don't think I mind anymore that we haven't slept together. It means I don't have to worry that all this time, I was making him feel like he had to bend down."

"Shut up! I told him he didn't have to!"

"But you wanted it, right?" Sting taunted. "You made it clear you did, and he needed to do something to keep you from thinking he didn't care. You had sex with him. Fine. Congrats. It was your idea." He was ginning again, finding himself in an unusual spot. He could see all the awful things he'd say that would get them in trouble if he spat them out. For once, he could catch himself before he said it. He just didn't want to. "Did you know Rogue and I made out? It was the night before we told you about going to Joya. He came to see me. We ended up out in the woods. We kissed. We went back home and kept it up. You know who instigated that? The same person who decided to come pay me a surprise visit."

Clenching his teeth, Natsu rose from his chair and left.

"Have fun with the hollow sex!" Sting called after him. If the sound of nurses outside his room sputtering was anything to go by, Rogue would hear about that one soon. Oh well. It had been worth it.

-x-

STA: This chapter was mostly an argument. I tried to make Natsu and Sting both seem just as bad but… I think Sting won the jackass prize. Natsu shoulda used that one against him. Oh yeah, Sting's alive, everybody. And Rogue cares. Of course Rogue cares. Why would Rogue ever want Sting dead? (What? No, I'm not crying. I'm not… crying…)

I've been noticing some stuff I did without intending to. Like, I wanted Natsu to be upset enough about the whole 'hanging with Sting' business for it to seem like he wasn't unrealistically passive about it, but he's become increasingly anxious about it. What I think was a happier accident was that mess with Sting and sex though. Looking back, I can see that I made sex his big issue without ever realizing it. Rogue would always turn him away while they were together, then got pregnant, and Sting got paranoid about that, then all his really big screw ups where he's seriously POed Rogue since have been over the fact that Rogue was sleeping with Natsu, and for it to all wrap up in that comfortable enough to be cold to you VS eager enough to please that I'll bend over even if I'm not sure I want it bit that I had going on wrapped it all up beautifully.

*Ahem* but about Alex. I almost made her a boy, but I want Kiseki to be a boy, and Alexandria sounds cooler than Alexander. I guess this means that batty old Joyan lady was right.