Rogue's POV
I walked with Sting, occasionally glancing over at my friend's dreamlike daze.
"Sting?" I called out, looking over at the pile of desk work sitting before me, all of which was undone.
"Sting?" I asked again, getting slightly annoyed. I once again glanced over at the papers, they were just calling out to be done. Agitated, I yelled out in his ear, knowing that his dragon senses would pick it up.
"STING!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. I got a positive reaction, Sting's head perking up as sparkles that once surrounded his angel like aura now disappearing. Sting looked over, still in a happy mood, not even mentioning the rude way I woke him up,
"Ne, Rogue, let's go on a mission! Oh, yeah, we can go on one of those big inter team ones! Yeah, an exciting one to be sure!" Sting exclaimed, getting up, the sparkles surrounding him once again as he nodded to himself, as if he just thought of a brilliant idea. Sighing inwardly, I grabbed his wrist, sat him down, and let my inner dragon come out as I scolded him.
"You IDIOT! Do you not see the pile of paperwork here?! We are NOT going on a mission. You are going to do YOUR deskwork. And I'M going to do what I need to. So, suck it up, stop PROCRASTINATING, and DO. YOUR. WORK. YOU. IMBECILE!" I shouted, a deathly aura emitting from me as my usual calm complexion twisted into one of utter and complete annoyance. I was only like this with Sting, letting my real feelings show. Well, not anymore, a tiny voice in my head spoke up, making me recall a blonde celestial spirit mage.
"Hey, if I finish this, can we go on a mission with Lucy?" Sting piped up, all of a sudden springing bac into action from the scolding. Thinking about it, it wasn't a bad idea, and it would also motivate Sting to do all of his work. Grunting, I silently nodded as I picked up my book and went to sit in the corner of the room to read, looking over occasionally to make sure that Sting did his work.
Sting's POV
With this new motivation, I started to work, and I went through the pile of papers as quick as a true tiger. One of another, the papers started to vanish as they were stamped, approved, and billed for as they went, being shoved into the transportation lacrima. I was so serious that I woke up my Dragon Force, and the papers went flying even quicker than they had before. In mere minutes, the once cluttered room was now sparkling clean, being rid of all of the bills and paperwork.
"Done!" I exclaimed, earning a stare from a wide eyed Rogue. Rogue just sighed, and just closed his book.
"I'll go buy some supplies and ask Lucy to join us" was his reply, and he stood up and left me there, apparently to choose the job. Seeing that Rogue always chose the job, I was excited.
"Woo-hoo!" I shouted happily to myself, running down to the main hall to choose some exciting job.
~At the Guild Hall~
I looked over the request board, when I spotted something that caught my eye.
A group of mages have been attacking the town. Take them down and we'll offer a reward of 50,000,000 Jewel. Under the King's name, the royal family asks for assistance.
Taking the flyer, I just walked out the hall, not needing anyone to approve my missions. As I headed out, I called over my shoulder, "While I'm gone, I make Minerva in charge! See ya fools later!" I stuck my hands in my pants pockets, and continued to walk, my nose leading me to a nearby coffee shop.
Lucy's POV
I was laughing with everyone in the guild, as usual, and everyone were throwing chairs and tables at each other, getting into brawls, and just laughing everyone else like fools they were. I smiled as I sat down at the bar, getting my usual as I sparked up a conversation with Levy about my novel.
"So, Lu-Chan, about your novel-"her voice was cut off as the guild doors bust open, and a shadow dragon slayer stepped into view. Everyone quieted down, that was, at least until everyone started to shout greetings at Rogue, before continuing their usual boisterous attitude.
Rogue morphed into the shadows, wanting to avoid the commotion, and appeared next to me, earning a shriek from Levy, a gasp from Mira, and some wide eyed stares from everyone else.
"Woah! He just freaking teleported!" Romeo shouted, never having seen Rogue's power up close. Laughing, Macao put his hand around the said boy and replied, "Well, that's Rogue for you. Pretty cool, eh?" He earned a cheer from the mages, and everyone started to pipe in.
"Rogue is a MAN!" shouted you know who.
"GAAAAH! HE'S SO COOL! HE WOULD BE THE PERFECT HUSBAND FOR…" shouted from also you know who.
"He seems like he can enjoy a good book" Levy said, nodding Rogue's way as she quickly returned to her own literature.
"Rogue, fight me!" Natsu shouted, his hands being set aflame. Rogue politely bowed to everyone, declined their offers for fight and entertainment, and started his way towards me again.
Sighing and fiddling with a piece of his hair, Rogue's eyes met mine as he took a deep breath.
"Sting and I want you to come one an inter guild mission with us" Rogue said, sticking his hands in his pockets, looking away. Nodding excitedly, I grinned.
"Sure, why not? I also need some rent money for this month" I replied, touching my keys and rearing my whip. I heard cries of protest from Team Natsu, but I waved them off and took Rogue's hand.
"Bye, guys! See you later!" And with that, I tugged him, and we ran away from the protesting guild as the doors shut behind us.
Natsu's POV
I don't know what just happened.
Sting's POV
I don't what had happened, but when I saw Lucy holding Rogue's hand, I got angry. Not wanting to lash out at my best friend, though, I just held the flyer up, putting on a forced smile.
"I found a job to kick some bad ass butt. If you wanted to compare the group we're after to anyone else, it's gotta be… The Oracion Seis" Sting said, breaking out of the thinking pose he held. Lucy laughed at his childish antics, and took the flyer out of his hands, examining it. She grinned when she looked at the reward money. I could hear her mutter under her breath, "Thank God these two aren't Natsu" I knew what she meant by that and sweat dropped. The idiot probably used all of the reward money to pay for the damage, I thought, face palming. As my thought reeled on, I began to think about why I even invited Lucy. Frowning, I dismissed all thought of being in…love, and I thought that maybe it was because she was a good friend. Yeah, yeah, that's probably it. I make friends easily. No way would the Great Sting Eucliffe fall in love. If anything, she's fallen for me, and probably gave me some weird potion in my food or something. Nodding my head in satisfaction, I continued along my way, only just realizing that I had stopped midway, and that Lucy and Rogue were far ahead of me. Running to catch up, I smiled to myself. This is going to be fun.
Lucy's POV
I laughed as I watched Sting suffer from his motion sickness, and watched as Rogue rubbing his temples and clenched his fists, probably not wanting to look indecent in front of me. Chuckling, I placed Rogue's head on my shoulder, where he leaned in comfortably, not even questioning it. I then placed Sting's head on my lap, and began to play with his soft, blonde hair. He fell asleep (woah, that was fast) and started to snore quietly. Rogue started to nod off as well, and I smiled at the two's innocent expressions. When I finally came to terms with reality, though, I realized the position that I was in. When did I become a resting place for dragon slayers?
Natsu' POV
The rest of Team Natsu and I silently made our way onto the train, where the thought of motion itself almost made me throw up. Toughing it out, though, I looked for signs of Lucy and the other two. We had secretly followed them because the way that they suddenly requested to go on a mission was weird, and we wanted to know what was up. Oh, and also, there was no way I was letting that lightbulb and emo dragon slayers take away MY Luce.
"Do you smell her?" Erza asked, also on the lookout.
"I don't know where she could be" replied Gray, who was calmly kicking down doors of train cabins and bathrooms. Sniffing the air, I caught her scent, and when the others noticed it, they silently followed me. I smelt her, she was so close. I grinned to myself. Not even having to look, we sat in the booth across and up one from where Lucy was sitting. The others followed suit, but when they looked behind me, they turned pale.
"What? What's the matter?" I questioned, frowning. I thought this was going to be more epic, and little fun, maybe. But the looks that my friends were giving me obviously told otherwise. I turned around, with a bunch of loud protests from Gray, threats from Erza, and snickering from Happy, and, ignoring them, my eyes turned wide.
In MY special spot on MY Luce's lap, there was Sting freaking Eucliffe, nuzzling closer to her and even haing the nerve to wrap his arms around her waist. And on MY Luce's shoulder was Rogue freaking Cheney, his head comfortably nuzzled into her neck, as he purred in his sleep and basically had her sitting on his lap. I growled, but Erza restrained me, but, seeing that there was no other way to go about it, which there probably was, she knocked me out cold.
Erza's POV
Once Natsu was out cold, I looked over to Lucy, who still hadn't realized we were there. I smiled a bit at the scene, the dragon slayers leaning on her actually made a pretty cute sight, and the way she was smiling made the picture all the sweeter. I couldn't feel mad at the dragon slayers, and I wasn't as overprotective as usual. Then, I realized something, and then regained my usual composure, glaring their way. What if they're using her just for her body? I mean, the way he's grabbing her waist should imply it all. And, if I say so myself, Lucy's pretty smoking hot. They're probably going to knock her out during the mission and tie her up. Tie her up…? Oh my god, they're totally going to… Erza pictured the dirty scene in her mind, and gasped in horror. "ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod" I muttered under my breath, earning strange looks from the other conscious two. Clearing my throat, I focused in on Lucy once more and just kept watching her intently, occasionally hiding my face behind a magazine every time she turned around.
Lucy's POV
We finally reached our destination, where the other two groggily got off and stretched their sore limbs. As I looked around, I sensed a strong magical energy coming from the forest, and the dragon slayers perked up as well, also probably sensing the enormous power radiating off of the forest. They nodded at me, and we started to run into the foliage, swift and unknown, silent as the trees covered our backs. Before I could run any further, though, Rogue stopped me by tugging my hand. He pointed to a cave, and suggested that we set up a camp, seeing that we arrived very late anyway. I saw his point, and I just followed him, along with Rogue, as we cleared out a space to set up our stuff.
It was really dark now, and Rogue was contently humming to himself in a corner, while his partner was whining about how dark it was, the only source of light that we had coming off of his magical energy.
"Sting, you should stop doing that, you'll drain all of your energy" I said, noticing that he was beginning to pale. As he shook his head weakly, the light went out, leaving us in pitch darkness.
"Star Dress Requip: Saggitarius" I summoned my star dress, and using one of my arrows, I shot one at its quickest speed, immediately lighting a fire due to the intense friction.
Looking at me, smirking, Sting gave me a thumbs up, in which I gave back in return. Changing to my normal clothes, I shifted through my pack until I found some meat that I had bought from the store earlier today, and I began cooking it over the fire, occasionally turning over the make shift spit that I had created. As the meat cooked, I got some spices I brought from home and began to season the food, also chopping up some vegetables to roast. With the smell of food wafting through the air, the two dragon slayers immediately perked up, looking around for the source of the smell. Sting was drooling as he spotted the cooking meat, and Rogue just sighed, scooting over to me as he examined my handiwork.
"You know, you could've woken me up to help. I'm pretty good at these things" Rogue made a point, sounding a little offended that I hadn't asked for his help. Laughing, I waved off his offer.
"Yeah, whatever. You guys needed the rest, so I let you have it" I replied, taking the meat off of the fire and picking up some leaves, cleaning them with water to make temporary plates. As I plated the food, I heard Rogue's stomach growled, in which I responded with a giggle. I handed the food to the other two, and took my own helping, breaking off pieces of meat slowly.
We all ate our food in silence, grateful that at least someone had remembered to bring some food rations. As I chewed my food, I looked out of the opening of the cave, the outside being completely covered in darkness, the fire casting but a soft glow outside the cave's mouth. I brushed my hands across my keys, knowing that they would keep me safe, despite the dangers that we would have to face outside eventually. We all sat in a comfortable silence, which was soon disrupted, though, by a rustling sound. We all immediately jumped to our feet, Sting and Rogue having already immersed their body in their magic, while I held out my keys and reared my whip defensively. I looked over to the guys, and nodded slowly. And, as if on cue, we all bolted, tackling the mysterious figure we caught watching us with all of our force.
The person chuckled, and they were obviously a man. As he stripped off his cloak, I saw his eyes were pitch black, while strange markings were etched into his face.
"Stars! Combine with my strength, and shine on brightly… I call forth the power of the spirits, I am your true ruler, and my aspect is purity. Radiate! Tatalus Extoria!" I yelled out the new spell that I had acquired a while back, a huge, gold magic circle appearing under my feet. As soon as the spell was cast, my clothes melted to gold armor, similar to my Leo Star Dress transformation, but more intricate, with silver lining and a sword to fit in my hand. As a huge beam of celestial energy shot up, and before the man could move away, Sting hit him with his stigma, rendering him paralyzed. A humungous beam shot forth, almost blinding my friends, but it hit the enemy square in the chest, sending him flying. I was still cautious, so I sent myself forward, slashing the man with my sword multiple times, knocking him down every time he tried to stand back up. I was unwilling to let myself be tricked again by leaving the enemy alone. Grabbing the man's collar, I stared into his black orbs, not once flinching or looking away. I ignored he stares of my teammates as I pushed him against a tree. Whispering so that my voice was barely audible, I threatened him.
"Who are you and where do you come from? Where are the others, If you don't tell me, I think you're smart enough to figure out what'll happen to you" Rearing back my glowing fist, my voice filled with an unfamiliar malice no one has ever heard before.
"We're…we're Death Reaper…the…the others are hiding in a, in a cave nearby somewhere. Th-they are probably moving, since they are being aware of my defeat. We..we just want to be known for something. We-we were all outcasts, in t-the shadows of everyone else, never noticed. W-we just wanted a-a chance in the spotlight" the man said weakly, blood making its way down his chin. My gaze softening at his heartfelt story, I loosened my grip, and propped him up properly against the tree.
"And what may your name be?" I asked, my voice kinder, knowing that the mage didn't have a lot o time left. As I tried to talk to him to get his mind off of the pain, I used the soul searching magic that I learned from a friend, and began to try and uncover the secrets behind the man's past.
"M-my name is Aleci" Aleci said, coughing up even more blood. Tears pooled at the corners of his eyes, and I wiped them away softly with my thumb. Hearing Aleci's breathing soften, and then finally hearing it fade, I closed his eyes with my forefinger, and whispered a goodbye, paying my respects to the life I had just taken. I had killed before, but I learned that life was precious, and needed to be respected.
I picked up some nearby flowers and leaves, and made an arrangement of sorts, covering Aleci's body with the colorful beauties, and making a sort of gravesite for the poor fellow. After hearing his story, I felt bad for him, I really did. But that doesn't mean what they're doing is right I hought to myself, fixing my priorities. I stood up, only to see Sting and Rogue with their heads down, also paying respects fro the man. Once they were done, we quietly made our way back to camp to decide what our next move was going to be.
At the Cave
We sat in a circle over the fire, huddling together as the sun rose outside. As Rogue and Sting were trying to decide whether to sneak or barge into the enemy's base, I rolled my eyes and reminded them, "We have to find the base first, you idiots" Rogue blushed and mumbled an apology, while Sting looked confused for a moment, before responding.
Tapping his fist against the flat of his palm, he seemed to understand what I said.
"Oh, that's right. You know, finding their base isn't such a bad idea" Sting pointed out, smiling happily as if he was the smartest person in the world. Both Rogue and I looked at him, thinking, How are you such an idiot, idiot?
I quickly pulled out some bacon that I brought over, and setting out some cooking tools, I started to cook some bacon, while making a fruit arrangement out of berries and plants that I found outside. As the bacon was cooking, I stepped outside to the mouth of the cave, and quickly picked some strawberries and mint that I found from a bush nearby. As I took a knife from out of my pocket, I chopped up the strawberries, and then summoned Virgo, who took the fruit and returned from the spirit world. I realized that I could've asked her to make breakfast, but I just shrugged. A few seconds later, Virgo came with an extra large strawberry smoothie, and some mint gum that she quickly whipped up (In which I have no idea how she did that but I was grateful nonetheless since my breath was really stinky. I finished cooking the food and handed it out, also giving the boys some of the gum to have to freshen up their breaths later, as well as kindly offering them to share some of my smoothie. As the boys began to bicker once again, I finished up eating, and quietly walked to a nearby lake to wash up. I thought of Virgo, and she appeared, bath robe in hand as well as my hair cosmetics and light makeup, and then she disappeared, not forgetting the usual, "Punishment, Princess?" I smiled as I thought of all the new skills I gained, while stepping into the surprisingly warm water as I began to wash myself, enjoying the soak.
Time Skip
I changed after the bathe, and returned to camp, only o find the two boys waiting for me, secretly helping them selves to more of my smoothie. They retreated not s subtly as I came back, but I shrugged it off as I let my hair down from the usual side pony tail. Feeling the wind in my hair was great, ad I smiled at the two, excited to share the new idea that I came up with during my bath.
"Hey, guys…" I trailed off, catching their attention. Smiling to myself, I continued.
"I think I know how to defeat Death Reaper"
Sorry that I didn't update the last couple of days. I had a lot of performances, and my computer's data was also full, so had to switch the computer that I was originally working on for this story. I have midwinter break now, though, so I'll be sure to get a lot of writing in. Thanks for being patient.
~FatedGateway