I do not own Fairy Tail, all rights go to Hiro Mashima. All copyright laws apply

Natsu's POV

I walked out of the guild hall, my absence not even being noticed by Lucy. What the heck? Someone who used to be the enemy is now the center of attention? And he's hanging out with my Luce? Damn, it! Wait, what? My Luce? No, she's not mine. I knew she had feelings for me before, yet i trampled all over them. What's wrong with me? Yet, i can't shake off this lingering feeling...What could it be? Regret? No, no, no, this can't be happening to me right now. I have Lisa-

"Natsu" a familiar voice clouded over my thoughts. I looked up to see Lisanna, a serious expression on her face as she looked at me.

"Oh, hey. I was going home just now since I was pretty tired. I've been using a lot of magic up recently" I lied, laughing nervously while rubbing the back of my neck.

"Natsu, don't even try to lie to me. I've known you for too long to know when you're bluffing" Lisanna replied, the matter of factly.

Chuckling, I raised my hands and admitted defeat. "Okay, you've got me. Now, why don't we go sit over there and talk?" I offered, pointing to an empty spot on a cliff overlooking the city. Lisanna, spotting the view, nodded excitedly, then returned to the rigid, serious facade she had on earlier.

"You've been underestimating me," Lisanna said, looking at the city lights flickering on and off below us. Confused, I tore my eyes away from the scenery to look at her, a small smile on her lips.
She took a deep breath and began her explanation. "This whole time, you've been avoiding Lucy, right?" she asked, in which I replied by nodding glumly.

"Well, I don't want that. I'm not the jealous type of girl, you know that, right? I'm happy that you were thinking of me, but..." Lisanna trailed off, a sad look in her eyes. "This wasn't what I wanted. I wanted for us to be together, though our relationship may have changed, i didn't want anything to bedifferent from before. Yet, you go around ignoring Lucy and Happy, making the guild angry by hurting them deliberately, and now you're here, finally realizing the feelings you've held for Lucy."

I blushed, looking away. I told myself that I couldn't love Lucy, not in a million years, but now look at where I am...I really am a hopeless, dense idiot after all, aren't I? I laughed bitterly, recalling all of the times that I had hurt Lucy, consciously and unconsciously.

"Lucy's still family, yet you hurt her, just because you thought that I was too weak to handle the truth. I thought that you trusted me, and I thought that you knew that I trusted you. But you threw all of that away, and now look at what you've put your best friends through." Lisanna continued, her voice slowly turning cold, the small smile she had now gone.

"I...know. I should've known that this was how things were going to end up" I replied, hiding my face. I couldn't bear to meet her eyes. I've never seen Lisanna like this before. Then, I heard her voice crack as she said the next few sentences.

"Well, to be honest... I'm not exactly in the right here either. The truth is... I can't dedicate all my heart into this relationship. That's because... because of someone that I met" Lisanna ended the last few words in a whisper, and it was her who couldn't meet my eyes now. Shee turned to look at me, and I leaned in for one last kiss. Our lips met one last time as i whispered to her, "I'll always love you. Don't forget that" She smiled as we stood up together, and took our own paths. Our journey together was going to stay at a halt for now. I'm happy that i was able to get that out of my system.

I walked home, the stars gazing upon me, telling me that this was finally the right answer.

Lucy's POV

I blushed as Sting walked me home, silently holding my hand. We walked in silence, but it was a comfortable one. I never thought that someone could make me blush this much, and upon that thought, I just blushed even harder, avoiding Sting's clear blue eyes. Seeing my face, Sting chuckled.

"Well, well, Blondie, I never knew that you would think such dirty things," he said, watching in amusement as my face rivaled a tomato.

"Yeah, yeah. We get it, you're the Great Sting Eucliffe" I muttered, my blush, thankfully, going down a tone.

"Right on the mark, baby!" Sting exclaimed as we, unknowingly, passed by my apartment for the 7th time.

I smiled as he started to ramble on about how great he was when I swore that I could've heard a rustle behind us.

Tugging on his hand, i whispered quietly,"We're being watched"

Sting just grinned, a knowing look in his eye as he replied softly, "You think that I, the Great Sting Eucliffe, didn't know?" Chuckling, we sped up the pace, taking a detour and heading towards Sabertooth. When we heard the rustle again, Sting turned around, annoyed, and shot a holy ray towards the sound, obliterating everything in his path in a 50 foot radius. Natsu then popped up from the bushes, his hands up, and tried to calm down a clearly annoyed Sting, while saying, "Relax, relax. It's just me!" Natsu explained, flashing his signature toothy grin.

I looked up, so surprised from the sudden blast that I didn't notice I was still clinging onto Sting's arm while he held the other arm around me protectively.

"W-what are you doing here?" I questioned as i pulled away, noticing Natsu glare at our position. H then said, cheerfully, "Well, I'm here to take MY Luce home" putting emphasis on the word my. Sting sighed, dropped his arm, and then kissed me on the cheek. Before Natsu could glare even harder, and before i could blush even wilder, Sting ran off, shooting a peace sign and sticking his tongue out at the dragon slayer.

I sighed as Sting's figure retreated into the night, and smiled brightly at Natsu, for some reason feeling the tense atmosphere between us now gone.

"What's up?" I managed to choke out the words, looking at Natsu as he looked up. The sudden eye contact made me blush, and I kept my head down as he started to say something.

"I broke up with Lisanna" He said nonchalantly, not missing a single beat as he kept up his fast-paced walking, his face void of any sadness or negative emotions. I was shocked. And here i was beginning to think that they were a pretty good couple. I grew angry, though, as i remembered what heartbreak he put me through, only to disband it like it was nothing only a month later?!

"...Why? You guys were a perfect couple. Everyone in the guild knew it. So why did you break up?!" I said, trying to control the wave of emotions threatening to take over while clenching my fists, my voice rising with every word I spoke. Natsu looked at me for a second, smiled bitterly, then looked forward as if he was searching for something distant, something far off in the future.

"We were lying to each other, and to ourselves" was his simple reply, canceling out all of Lucy's anger and depression, and just leaving her void of emotions.

"O-oh" was all she could stutter out, only to realize that they had reached her apartment. Natsu saw this as well and smiled before waving.

"Bye Luce. See you tomorrow"

"Bye Natsu"

With those simple goodbyes, Lucy felt as if though everything was back to normal, and here they were just Team Natsu again; just friends.

Sting's POV

A Week Later

I felt my heart sink as i realized what day it was. Today's the last day of Lucy's job here at Sabertooth. I never realized how i got used to the perky blonde waiting for me in the guild every morning, or giving me all of my now new favorite dishes. I couldn't sleep, so I woke up earlier than usual, hoping to spend as much time as possible by Lucy's side.Wait, what am i thinking?! Is this...love? No, no, no! The Great Sting Eucliffe doesn't fall in love with girls! NO, it's the girls who fall in love with Sting. The thought was too complicated to process, and i started down the guild hall stairs from my dorm. What i saw was a sight to behold.

I see Lucy, with butter on her nose, and then i see Rufus, the same Rufus who never laughs, laugh hysterically at Lucy, who was now pouting adorably. Rufus finally calmed down, and he wiped the butter off of Blondie's (I was relieved to start calling her Blondie again ,as usual) nose, which in turn made her blush. I grew jealous at the thought of other guys touching her, but i restrained myself. If i did something, then Rufus would surely remember, and use it against me somehow in the future. I clenched my fists, and i could've sworn that i saw Rufus glance at me evilly for a second before continuing to put his arm around Lucy (I started calling her Lucy again, dammit. What was wrong with me today?!).

After Rufus (finally) left, i made my way towards her, only to see Rogue appear next to her. and in the next instant, a stampede of Saber members was stomping me down, only before pushing me out of the way, just to add that on. Everyone surrounded Lucy and started to eat their special breakfast that she made today, and I decided to just saunter down casually, as if i didn't just have a near death experience.

It didn't quite work out as planned, though, and i ended up tripping and falling straight into a face plant into the hard, wooden floor boards. Everybody ignored me, but Lucy came to me, worried. I gave a weak smile, only to see that after helping me up, she was trying to hold in a laugh. I took out the pocket mirror i always had and groaned. My bedhead had managed to pop back into place. As i started to fix it, i heard a camera shot and i looked up to see Lucy walking away slowly, whistling her way through the crowds. Licking my lips in anticipation for the fun chase to come, i shouted, "Come back here, Blondie" I tried to sound angry, but i just couldn't, not at her.

Rogue's POV
I watched as my partner was laughing hysterically, a huge grin plastered on his face as he chased after Lucy, who was pretty fast. I smiled a bit, too, at my friend's childish antics, and as I was about to turn around, i felt a tug at the bottom of my pants.

Sighing, I picked up the exceed and propped him (Anyone know Frosch's Gender?) up on my shoulder. "Do you need something, Frosch?" I asked, petting the cute exceed's head.

"Ne, ne. Fro wants to play, too!" I looked over to where Fro was pointing, only to see Sting standing victoriously over Lucy, Lector praising him, and a photograph in his hands. Smiling to myself, i whispered, "Okay, let's play"

Morphing into the shadows, i appeared and snatched the picture out of Sting's hands, only to be blessed with the sight of an embarrassing photo so funny that it made me laugh. Sting and Lucy stared at me wide- eyed since they never head me laugh, but decided to join in, too, and soon, we were all laughing. With all of the chaos, i slightly tugged Lucy's hand, and made some gestures, which she understood. The same evil smile graced both of our lips as we snuck away, only to leave Sting, Lector, and Fro laughing by themselves until they perked up and said in unison, "Eh?"

We ran to the Fairy Tail guild, where everyone stared at us and then greeted me politely. Lucy pulled out one of the lacrimas that she always carried around, and plugged the photo into lacrima vision. The guild stared for a moment, before erupting into laughter .Snickering, Lucy inserted the photo that she took from last time, too, only to get an even bigger response from the audience. If there's one thing we have in common, it's that we both love to embarrass Sting, I thought, flashing a smile her way. She blushed a little, and it caused something in me to move. I need to make her blush again, i immediately thought to myself, only to shake away the thoughts and blush at my reaction. I glanced over to the side where Lucy was smiling brightly. Stuffing my hands into my pockets, i shrugged. Damn, this woman made me laugh two times today, and made me smile in a way i never thought possible. Not even Sting could do that. With this in mind, i decided on one thing. Lucy' s light was way brighter than Sting's. And it stirred something within him, something that took away the emotionless facade that thee well known Rogue Cheney had pulled off since forever. He smiled to himself once more, knowing that they would be great friends ins the future.