Okay, Everyone, before reading this chapter go find the song Leave the Pieces. I got it stuck in my head at least five times over while writing this.

Forget all those miserable train rides and boat trips and even that time that Genma had tied him up and left him on the floor of a magic four wheeler while he tested it out as punishment for… ah, heck. Rogue couldn't even remember why that had happened. It didn't matter. For as awful as he'd felt all those times, he couldn't have been more pleased with dragon slayer induced motion sickness just then. Pushing Sting's wheelchair was a riot. And as an added bonus, he was doing something with Sting that didn't upset Natsu. In fact, Natsu seemed almost sympathetic to Sting as he curled up on himself in the chair and tried not to throw up in his lap.

Sadistically pleased as he was, Rogue wasn't completely cruel. Once he'd wheeled Sting a few yards away from the hospital door he stopped and let the blond catch his breath.

"Recovery… is going… to suck…" Sting gasped.

"At least the doctor didn't think you'd have any permanent disabilities," Lector reminded him, skimming over the details of just how long Sting was supposed to be on house rest.

"Other than brain damage," Natsu mumbled.

Sting didn't even bother to glare. For starters, there was only a possibility of brain damage, and they'd just look into it if he noticed any impaired function around the house. And Natsu had taken so many cheap shots at him the past few weeks anyway that Sting was pretty sure the roset had stopped working entirely just to hang out in his hospital room and harass him.

Well two could play at that. "So Rogue," Sting twisted around in his wheelchair, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, to face the brunet and say, "Who do you think was more impressive, just overall, on that boring date Natsu picked?"

"The one who didn't leave me scared half to death for a week after," Rogue replied without missing a beat.

Sting sighed. "That's harsh."

"Maybe." Rogue gave the wheelchair a light shove, making Sting gag. Seeing Sting wince as he straightened out to take pressure off his stomach, Rogue asked, "How are you going to manage by yourself?"

"How mean!" Lector cried. "I can take care of Sting."

"Fro thinks so too!"

"Aye."

Rogue shot Happy a look for getting in on the cat fest, then sized Lector up. There… wasn't much size to do that with. He didn't doubt that Lector would try his best to help Sting while he was still recovering but… maybe… it couldn't hurt if—

"Go ahead," Natsu said.

Rogue looked to him. "What?"

"You're going to move back in with him, right? Go ahead. Be my guest. Maybe then he can be the one freaking out every time you mention wanting to see me. Just go back to the house he locked you out of before. I'm sure you'll take good care of him while he puts you through hell." Without another word, Natsu turned and stormed off down the street.

Rogue gave the wheelchair another push to stop Sting before he could yell that he did get uneasy with Rogue being around Natsu. Giving the cats a look to let them know to keep an eye on the blond, Rogue then ran after his boyfriend. Natsu was his boyfriend. Whether or not Sting needed help, he needed to keep that in mind.

When Natsu heard Rogue following after him, he considered running. Would Rogue still chase him then? Probably… not. Rogue had taken to fussing about having to walk with Alex. Natsu didn't know when the last time Rogue had needed to move fast was.

He stopped, turned, and waited for Rogue to catch up to him

"Natsu, are you alright?" Rogue asked as he closed the distance between the two of them. "You've been acting weird and… I'm allowed to care about my friend getting hospitalized, if that's what this is about."

"But you're not allowed to make out with him," Natsu replied. "You did, right? You kissed Sting."

Rogue's mouth wasn't hanging open because he was shocked Natsu found out. It was hanging open because he'd forgotten what words he'd tried to speak before knowing how to respond to that.

"If you were dating Sting instead, would you do that to him?" Natsu asked. "Would you sneak away and make out with me?"

"It wasn't… I didn't plan to," Rogue mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"Would you?"

"Would I what?" Rogue asked. "Cheat on Sting with you?"

"You wouldn't," Natsu told him. "You just… even when you're with me, you go out of your way to let him know he can still come around. If I locked you out—my house has a lock now—and you went to Sting for a place to spend the night, would you take me back if I came begging?"

"If you're kicking me out, I've earned it."

Natsu looked Rogue in the eye, searching for any signs of fear. Desperation. Any clue that he was lying. That he wished he was lying. Nothing.

"I'm not," Natsu told him, "But I don't think you want to stay. I don't think you ever wanted me over Sting. I know you said you're no good with this kind of situation, and I'm not either, but I've been struggling with this enough that I didn't really need Sting shoving it in my face that you still like him. You're going to still like him, aren't you? Even if you stay with me and we do get married and go back to that diner during our honeymoon, you'd still like Sting."

Rogue broke eye contact. He'd never noticed before how fascinating Natsu's sandals were.

"So you like me enough to stay with me," Natsu continued, "But not enough for just me. I just… I can't do this. I can't keep trying my all, or trying my all not to try my all, and getting no further for it than Sting does by walking in and telling you you're fat."

The words 'I am fat' rose in Rogue's throat, but he swallowed them back. It felt weird. His throat felt weird. His head was spinning. His chest hurt. He did like Natsu. Not being the one to end things between them was a relief, but having someone he liked tell him he was too much to be with... wasn't.

"Right." Was this how Sting had felt, the morning after he slept with Natsu. Accusing him of doing it as payback. Something that could feel like a slap on the face, possibly even a dark truth being aired, with just enough fact to it so that it wouldn't be a slanderous insult. "You're right. Even if I do like you, there's no confusing gratitude with feelings any more. I owe both of you now." And I like Sting more. He had enough restraint not to add that on to the end, but looking back up at Natsu, he could see he hadn't needed to. "I'm sorry," he added lamely. "I didn't think I still would when I agreed to go out with you. I thought I'd get over him."

"The sun will go out before that happens."

Rogue smiled at that. If Sting ever stopped being so brilliant, he might just change his mind, but brilliance was at the core of Sting's character, even if he wasn't the brightest bulb out there. "I guess so. I'm sorry, Natsu."

"Yeah." Natsu turned away. "My offer stands. I'm not kicking you out because we broke up."

Because there was nothing more saintly than offering to let your cheating ex stay with you an extra month. Rogue sighed. But he'd known that Natsu was the sweeter of the two since the day he'd shown up at Natsu's doorstep. Since there was also nothing lower than mooching off the man you strung along and pressed to the point of needing to break things off with you, he shook his head. "I'll be fine."

"You're going back to Sabertooth then?"

"I can… but I like Fairy Tail. You don't mind if I stay with the guild, do you?" If Natsu said yes, he'd leave. He wasn't so awful that he'd stay if it was too much for Natsu to see him around.

"Some of my friends might. I think they were all taking bets on who you'd go with. They might be mad, but they'll get over it."

So he got to stay. "That's good. I have enough saved up that I can move into my own apartment."

"The one across the street from Lucy's opened up."

"I'll look at it," Rogue lied.

He couldn't bring himself to be rotten enough to ask the next question, but when the silence stretched on too long and Natsu glanced back, he could guess it easily. "Bring Sting if you want. Gray likes him, and I think Mira was hoping he'd win. She likes me more with Lucy anyway, for some reason. He's going to need someone pushing that evil chair anyway. The guild will forgive you faster than him, but he'll fit in sooner or later."

"You don't mind?" Stupid question. Of course Natsu would mind.

"Let me push him around a bit when he moves in and we'll call it even. He's never been a better punching bag than he is right now."

Rogue couldn't help but let a snicker slip through at that one. If Natsu could find some way to look at it positively, then he'd be fine. After a while. Maybe once the guild forgave him and Rogue. He could only imagine how furious Erza might be with him for hurting Natsu. She'd had a former flame go off and get engaged, he'd been told. For her it would be personal.

"I'm not sure he'd like that…"

"All the more reason too." Natsu held his hand up, waving half-heartedly. "You can come collect your things whenever. Take the mattress too. I don't need it. Wheel him onto the next train and get him home. Let him know I wish him luck getting the guild to forgive him. Until then, I'll be in on the hazing. If you tell him nothing else, tell him that last one."

Rogue put a bit more effort into his wave, but his nod was a stiff one and, he couldn't bring himself to say anything in response. Natsu turned and left.

When he came back to the front of the hospital he saw Sting so close to the edge of his seat the he might fall out. That was okay. To anxious looking nurses were watching from the window, even after Rogue pushed Sting back into the chair.

"You ran after him."

"I did."

"You don't…" Sting bit his lip. "You can't… really… want him more, right? Rogue."

Aw, that was the same distressed look Sting had given him when he first thought he'd been cheated on. Rogue smiled blankly at it for a moment, not sure what to do. It wasn't a 'I want my beloved to be happy, go catch him,' speech, but it was something. It was some doubt that he did care for Sting as much. Well, Sting had at least three months of needing help getting around for Rogue to convince him otherwise. Three months of just one guy wanting his love. Three months of not having to hold back with anyone to spare someone else's feelings. No more confusion over his own.

Life flooded into Rogue's smile, and he grabbed the wheelchair, giving it a rough shove that sent Sting back twenty feet. "Honestly," he teased, "I don't even get a chance to declare us official before you accuse me of being unfaithful again."

-o-

STA: It's odd… I started this story really intending to make it a RoNa where Sting was just one of the obstacles they faced (with other obstacles being things like Rogue hating being in the spotlight while Natsu drew it like a magnet, and so on) but then when I was doing some planning and testing out scenes I got to this one point where Sting took me by surprise and just really impressed me, and then I couldn't not give him a shot, and at the end it was like: Huh. Well that's what I get for making my OTP one of the possible endings. I've pretty much been set on Stingue since Rogue and Natsu first slept together, but there were still little blips here and there were I was on Team Natsu for some time. Tough luck for him that I didn't write this on such a day.

Well, it's not really luck. Natsu sort of lost any chance after I noticed how hard he was trying. He and Rogue hooked up in late August/early October. It's April now. He shouldn't have been getting a lecture from Gray about being more like himself, and Rogue shouldn't have been threatening to leave him just to make him pick a restaurant on his own. The more I wrote it, the less healthy it felt, and even when they were sweet, it felt like too much effort went into it. Writing Sting teasing Rogue for wetting his pants and moaning over Rogue socking him for it was a lot less sweet, but it felt more… real. Like they didn't have to be lovey dovey or even appear to get along to really get along with one another.

Just one more chapter. I was planning to end here, but I wanna take a shot at Sting and Rogue being parents. No labor scene, sorry. We're skipping from this to post birth. I'm doing Jellal's misadventures with pregnancy next and I'm planning to do a labor scene with him. Nothing as fun as trapping Lucia in a wine cellar or Sting in an enemy camp, but I'll think of something to torture him.

(Oh, and I know this is a stupidly long author's note, but I wanted to add that Rogue compares Sting to the sun. He likens Natsu to a bonfire in chapter 7 and Sting to the sun in 8. I was sort of referencing back to that in this chapter, but I was worried it was too obscure, so if anyone got lost with that 'sun goes out' comment, that's what it was about.)