AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the wait. And, also I am sorry for how that last chapter ended. People seemed pretty upset, and I'm honestly not sure whether they were being sarcastic or not. But anyway, I hope this chapter makes it up to you guys! Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
Notice: I own nothing, for I am not Hiro Mashima. Amen.
Chapter 8: Surprise!
Rogue's head was peppered with pain from a shower of falling chestnuts. His mind completely ripped away from what he and Kagura had been just about to do, he turned in annoyance, only to get another face full of spiny chestnuts. A cacophony of high-pitched laughter came from the shadows of the ceiling. Rogue glanced back at Kagura. She was giggling. Giggling. At his expense.
Whoever was responsible for this was going to pay. Dearly.
Wait a minute… Rogue definitely recognized those laughs.
"Lector? Frosch? What the hell are you guys doing here?"
The two Exceeds floated on their wings from out of the shadows of the roof, both giggling themselves silly.
Rogue groaned. "Come on, guys, isn't it past your bedtime? Plus, this isn't like you two. Isn't this something the Salamander's cat would do? Please tell me Sabertooth Exceeds are more dignified."
Kagura started giggling even harder. Rogue was going red in the face.
"Oh, it wasn't their idea, old buddy. That honor goes to me."
Rogue's jaw dropped when he saw who had dropped from the ceiling.
"St-St-Sting? How long have you- How much did you- I mean- What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the infirmary?"
Sting was covered in bandages all around his chest and face. Despite this, he still seemed to be able to stand and move around on his own. The look on his face was one of satisfaction, as if he'd just won a bet.
Kagura stopped. She didn't look too thrilled to have another person in the cave with them.
"Eh, it was boring. When Frosch said you were going for a very special occasion, I just thought I'd stop by and add a little color to the moment, Lover Boy." He snickered.
"Sting said it was a good idea, so that's why we did it! Wasn't it funny, Rogue? You should have seen the look on your face!" Lector was doubling over in a hysterical fit of midair laughter.
Sting knelt down next to Kagura. "Hey girl," he said. The look on his face was serious, but Rogue knew him well enough to tell that Sting was trying very hard not to laugh. "If you're gonna date Rogue, there's something you should know." Sting paused gravely. "His sense of humor can be a little dark!" Sting collapsed onto the floor, rolling around and banging his fists relentlessly upon the ground. "Get it?" he panted. "Dark?"
Frosch and Lector joined in Sting's revelry, and soon Sting's laughter resonated through the walls of the cave in triplicate.
Rogue and Kagura stole a glance at each other, then both quickly looked away. Each wanted nothing more than some alone time with the other, but Sting had done a pretty good job of taking the magic right out of the moment, and now the two were awkwardly sitting three feet apart, staring at the floor.
A muscled hand pulled an even more muscled man over the ledge. His green hair was messily tied back behind a headband, and he carried a large karaoke machine over one broad shoulder. "Oi! Sting! Nice place for a party, man. Where do you want me to put this?"
Sting groaned.
"I'm still trying to block out the last memory of that awful device," said Rufus, who had just materialized on the ledge. He was soon followed by a multitude of wizards- it seemed the entire Sabertooth guild. One by one they climbed over the edge, setting up numerous tables, chairs, disco lacrima, speaker lacrima, and most importantly, alcohol. Barrels and barrels and barrels of it.
Rogue instantly found himself trapped in a throbbing revel- he was surrounded by a forest of dancing legs. His ears throbbed with the pounding of party music blasting from the speakers, and from Orga's hideous singing. And the smell- Rogue had never before been in the presence of so much alcohol at once.
"This is supposed to be Kagura's secret place. What the hell does Sting think he's doing?" Rogue muttered to himself and set off to find the man responsible.
It didn't take long to find Sting. He was sitting by himself at a table at the edge of the party, nursing a beer and wistfully staring at something out of Rogue's field of vision. Rogue was just about to go give Sting a piece of his mind when he felt a tug on his ankle.
Rogue looked down to find Frosch timidly looking up at him.
"Fro is sorry, Rogue. Fro knows you and Kagura were having a nice time, but Fro just thought… Fro thought you might not want to be Fro's friend anymore," the little Exceed sniffled.
Rogue knelt down and put a hand on Frosch's shoulder. "That's ridiculous, Frosch. Please, believe me when I say nothing is more important to me than our friendship, and whatever happens, nothing's going to change it. I forgive you."
Frosch looked up at Rogue again and smiled. "Sting's idea really was good! Everyone's having a great time!"
Rogue gazed around at the partying members of Sabertooth. Once they barely knew each other. Sabertooth had once been the most cutthroat and ruthless of all the guilds. Now look at them. Rogue barely recognized these people as the same guild he once belonged to.
"Rogue thinks so too."
It was, Rogue realized, all Sting's doing. Sting had turned the guild from one that preyed on its own members if they showed any weakness to one where everyone's strength came from their unity. Would Rogue have been able to do that? Hell, would anyone have been able to do that like Sting had?
Rogue looked back to Sting, but not with the same intent as he had originally. He finally saw what Sting was staring at. Rogue smiled. But of course. After sending Frosch to go hang out with Lector, Rogue picked his way through the partygoers to Sting's table and put an arm around his shoulder.
"Jut go after her, man," he whispered in Sting's ear. "Just do it. You won't get anywhere if you don't. You'll do great."
Sting jumped, as if he had just noticed Rogue was there. "Rogue! When did you- How did you know?"
But Rogue had already melted back into the shadows. He was going to take his own advice.
He found Kagura at a table with many of the female members of Sabertooth, who were all collapsed under the table and giggling uncontrollably. Kagura was politely attempting to refuse a drink, which was being thrust at her by a flush-faced brunette. She didn't look like a member of Sabertooth, Rogue thought, but she was oddly familiar.
His jaw dropped. "Wait. Cana? Of Fairy Tail? What the hell are you doing here?"
"Oh, don't tell me you're surprised," Cana hiccupped. "I could smell the alcohol all the way from Magnolia. Now, come on, girlie. Drink up!" She thrust the entire bottle of beer right under Kagura's nose.
"No thanks," Kagura again refused politely. "I got very… er… compromised the last time I drank."
"Nonsense! Beer is good for you! Don't be a wuss!"
Rogue attempted to tame the drunken beast that was Cana. "Um, if you'll excuse me, miss, I'd like a word with Kagura in private, please." It took a lot of coaxing and an extra barrel of alcohol, but Rogue was able to rescue Kagura from the brunette.
Rogue led Kagura back down the cliff to the beach below the Mermaid Hell guildhall. Rogue took Kagura's hand and led her as far down the beach as he could, but even at the end they could still faintly hear Orga's dreadful singing.
Kagura made the mistake of actually listening to the lyrics:
"Sabertooth! Is the best!
Better than! All the rest!
Got big muscles on my chest!
Party hard! We get no rest!"
Kagura let go of Rogue's hand and fell to her knees. "Ugh… I feel woozy."
Rogue deliberately sat down about a half foot away from her, so they were not touching, but he could feel her hair fluttering in the breeze.
"So… uh… nice night, huh?"
Kagura nodded, but did not reply.
They both fidgeted in silence. Rogue was pushing grains of sand back and forth with his boots. Kagura drew circles in the sand with her fingers. Time was moving agonizingly slowly.
Come on, Rogue. Follow your own advice. Do it do it do it do it do it do it.
"I love you."
Rogue and Kagura both looked around in a panic. How could there be an echo out here? Where did that other voice come from? Slowly they met each other's eyes and realized what they both had spoken.
"I mean… I thought you already knew," Kagura said without meeting his eyes.
"I did. I thought you did, too," Rogue murmured.
"If you did know, why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you tell me you did too?"
"I guess," said Rogue, "I guess I thought that… that you thought I liked you, and I thought that you weren't interested. But now I guess you thought that I knew and I wasn't interested. I think."
"You seem very uncertain about all of this," Kagura mused.
"Yes. I am uncertain." Rogue put a hand on her shoulder. "That's why I have to stick to what I know, not what I think. And I know I love you, Kagura."
Kagura's words caught in her throat. She didn't know what to do, to say, to feel. It was all far too good to be true.
Rogue put his head on her shoulder and his arms grasped her back tightly. "Please," he mumbled into her shoulder. "Please know… I will never run away from you again. Whatever happens, I will always stay by your side and support you through whatever hardships may befall you. Please. If you only remember one thing, let it be that. I beg of you."
Kagura pushed him off her shoulder and held him at arm's length. Rogue's eyes were wide, as if they were trying to really take in her face for the first time. "You have to stay strong for me, too, you idiot."
They stayed like that for minutes, Kagura holding Rogue up like some newborn baby, and Rogue just sitting there, oblivious to what was about to happen.
"So, uh… what exactly do we do now?" were Rogue's next words.
Kagura stared at him, dumbfounded. Did he not know… had he never… Although Kagura hadn't either, she at least knew… Or thought she did…
She remembered Rogue's story about Sting's parent dragon.
"I think I'm going to take a page out of Weisslogia's book."
In the space of a single second, Kagura pulled Rogue as close to her face as she could and smashed his mouth against hers. She pulled him deeper and deeper into the kiss, hungry for every part of Rogue she could get. She wanted to teach Rogue- and herself- how this was done properly.
Rogue did not return the kiss the entire time. The poor man was completely stupefied.
Their kiss lasted for a couple minutes, before Kagura finally had to push Rogue back a little to get some air. Only just, though. Their noses were still touching.
Kagura's mind was buzzing. She really liked that feeling, that sensation. She was completely oblivious to poor Rogue's twitching eyes, his lolling mouth, his short-circuited brain.
Soon she roughly pulled Rogue back in for another one. And another. And another.
Poor Rogue eventually warmed up to it, but there was no way he could keep up with Kagura.
That night, Rogue and Kagura catalyzed each other in an incredibly volatile way, and nobody could possibly guess how it ended up.
When they finally fell asleep, wrapped in each other's arms, not even the nightmares about Orga's karaoke could keep the smiles off their sleeping faces.
GAAAAAH! Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed. Hope it was worth all this waiting for it! ;)
ALSO. As of a couple days ago, I have a youtube channel! I'm not really planning on doing much with it, but I do make AMV's. If you like that kind of thing, you can check it out at: (type in youtube dot com, slash, then copy+paste into browser)
channel/UCXxBKh67GtU0pKKZK0Ulrtw
I'M REALLY SORRY I TRIED TO TYPE AN HTML LINK BUT IT WOULDN'T LET ME. I REALLY TRIED. :(
Now, the only ones I've gotten to post-able quality so far are for Avatar: the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, but OF COURSE I've made several Fairy Tail AMV's as well. The only problem is, I get all my footage from Youtube, and it's really hard to find stuff that's not watermarked or bad quality. REST ASSURED though, I am working on it! Let me know if you have anything you'd really like me to make, because I'm kind of stuffed with potential ideas right now and have a hard time deciding.
Anyways, thanks as always for reading. Don't forget to rate and review! Have a decently relatively comparatively superlative day.