AN: Hey guys! Time for another chapter! Hope you enjoy this one. Not much else to say here, but look at the bottom for some cool stuff!

Notice: I own nothing, for I am not Hiro Mashima. Amen.

Chapter 10: Just Kidding! (Kind of)

Rogue's eyes slowly widened as they began to take in the first rays of sunlight for the day. He smiled, but yawned in the middle of it. Honestly, as much as Rogue loved his shadows… it was still hard not to appreciate a good sunrise.

Rogue tried to get up to go enjoy the view, but as he tried to rise he noticed a dangling weight looped right around his neck. Suddenly Rogue felt a certain warmth spread throughout his body, and a pleasurable numbness un-focusing the new day's energy from his brain. Suddenly the sunrise was the last thing Rogue wanted to appreciate.

Kagura shifted and murmured in her sleep, but her left arm remained hooked around Rogue's shoulders, and she stayed snuggled against Rogue's chest. Rogue chuckled to himself as he watched her sleep- this was the only time of day when she wasn't scary, and for that reason Rogue wasn't the least bit embarrassed despite their proximity.

If only I'd be as comfortable as this when she's awake…

Kagura started, jerking violently, and thrust her arms out, creating a bit of a vacuum between her and Rogue. She was still asleep, and clearly her dreams had taken a turn for the worse. Rogue still hadn't gotten up the courage to ask Kagura what her nightmares were about, but he knew she had them, and he had a sneaking suspicion they were somehow getting worse.

Kagura's mumblings became more and more coherent, until Rogue actually recognized one of the words she mumbled.

"Simon…"

Rogue grimaced and pulled her close again.

Kagura walked to and fro across her kitchen, preparing her morning coffee and Frosch's breakfast. She was in high spirits. Nothing was quite better than waking up pressed against Rogue's chest.

Plus, since she'd started sleeping with Rogue, the nightmares hadn't been quite so bad.

Rogue yawned and ambled sluggishly into the kitchen. He looked adorably un-Rogue in his pajamas decorated with little cartoons of Natsu and Gajeel. "What's for breakfast?"

Kagura was careful not to impose herself on Rogue, however irresistible he was in those adorable pajamas. "I'm making pancakes!" She smiled. "High five!"

Rogue gave her a strange look before bewilderedly returning the high five.

Kagura blushed in embarrassment. Okay, maybe that was a little too obviously not-romantic. Maybe I should- Oh, he looks so cute when he makes that face! Wait. Stop it, Kagura. Play it cool. Make the damn pancakes. You have to make Rogue feel comfortable, he's an awkward guy.

Rogue awkwardly muttered a quick thanks for the pancakes and uncomfortably sat down at the table. He didn't really register any of Kagura's internal antics, for he was too busy thinking about her nightmares and how best to bring up the subject with her. He didn't want to risk making her upset. He remembered how the other day she'd cried when she just mentioned Simon's name. It was extremely thin ice Rogue was treading on.

"Fro wants to high five too!"

Kagura laughed and knelt down to give Frosch a high five. "How are you doing, Frosch? Did you sleep well?"

"Fro thinks so- But Fro… Fro feels there's something he should be remembering. But Fro can't recall…"

Kagura patted his head. "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually." She turned back to the stove and continued pouring out the pancake batter.

When the pancakes were finally ready, she put them all in a huge stack and placed the stack on the table. Rogue had not said a word the entire time. "Hey, Rogue…" Kagura ventured. "You hungry?" She smiled at him, but at first he did not look back at her. He was staring at the table, evidently lost in thought.

Is he thinking about Shadow again…?

Rogue suddenly realized he'd been asked a question and snapped out of his trance. "Oh! Uh… yes! Yes, I'm really hungry! Thanks so much for the pancakes, Kagura!" Rogue got up and kissed her on the cheek. He grinned a little bit to himself. He was getting a lot better at this, much more confident. He didn't even hesitate at all.

That's good, because I can't have her getting suspicious…

I'd better act normal, so he doesn't guess I've figured out he's thinking about Shadow again…

The two ate in silence, too busy stuffing their faces with Kagura's delicious pancakes to talk. Frosch more than made up for their silence, exclaiming "Fro thinks this is delicious!" after each and every bite.

Finally, there were no more pancakes left, and Rogue and Kagura leaned back in their chairs, their stomachs full and their hearts' content.

"Fro remembers!"

Rogue and Kagura both sat up with a start, then relaxed once they realized Frosch's exclamation did not hint at any present danger. "Oh? What did you remember, Frosch?"

"Sting said he wanted to see you, Rogue. He said it was a matter of life or death." Frosch's face did not change expression, suggesting that he had no idea what he was really saying.

Rogue barged into Sting's office. He'd shadow-traveled here in a hurry, agitated by Sting's vague and urgent message. Sting swiveled his chair around and grinned when he saw Rogue.

"Hey, man! Glad you could make it! How's… the lady?" he winked.

"What? Sting! You said there was something really important we needed to talk about!" Rogue panted.

Sting made a psh motion with his right hand. "Ah, come on, man, you know I just did that so you'd get here faster. Listen, I get a day off tomorrow and I was thinking I was gonna take Yukino to the beach. You catch my drift?"

"Sting. You are the Master of Sabertooth. You can't just go telling people there's a crisis when you really just want to go to the beach! Do you have any idea how unprofessional-"

"Jeez, Rogue. Spare me the lecture. I'm trying to help you out here. Look, do you want to spend the day with Kagura in a bikini, or not?"

Rogue's rant instantly evaporated and steamed out his bright red ears. Rogue tried to reply but all his retorts came as incoherent babbling.

Sting smirked triumphantly. He knew he'd won Rogue over.

"Go on, man. Go get your girl and we'll meet you at the beach. Cool?"

Inside an abandoned warehouse long-since buried by the earth, five figures, their faces shrouded in darkness, sat and plotted around a large, circular table.

"That's excellent news," growled a low, gruff voice. "I myself didn't expect Sting to take the bait."

"Oh, what did you expect, Fang?" purred the seductive voice of a young woman. "He's not exactly the sharpest tool in the box, you know. Our plan may be even easier to execute than we initially expected."

"About that," said the voice of another man. "I have a serious problem with sneaking up and ambushing the wizards. How can we expect Honor to forgive us when our actions fly in the very face of His will?"

"Oh, shut up, Zao, will you? The wonders of magical science have proven that there exists no god in this world. Furthermore, if there were such a being, he certainly would not be the representative of Honor, and more than he would be Greed or Hatred. To prove this, we need simply look at Bartimaeus' theorem, which clearly states that..."

Three loud groans.

"So, boss… What do you think?" snarled the gruff voice. "You like the plan?"

Silence.

Then a faint rumble shook the meetingplace. Little pieces of dirt and gravel began to levitate in the prescence of the man sitting at the end of the table. The hum of his incredible magic power ceased all at once, and in a deep, resounding bellow, the earth itself began to speak.

"I think I'm going to enjoy catching tigers."

So. Sorry for the short-ish chapter, guys, and also for the random introduction of the cliche villain association. It appears this story has kind of gotten away from me. I meant this to be a sort of simple-ish little story, but apparently I am physically incapable of writing stories without at least five OC villains and a billion chapters. God, what is wrong with me? Must be that old Y chromosome.

Anyway, I'm toying with the idea of starting a drabble-ish series. Only, these aren't drabbles in that traditional relations hippy sense of the word, they're more about... backstories. Man, I love me a good backstory. And in Fairy Tail, a whole lot of the characters have really rich, detailed backstories that continue to define their character and decisions to the present day. But the thing is, there are a whole lot of really interesting characters that have little to no explanation as to how they got that way. Why does Azuma like fighting so much? Why is Fukuro so obsessed with justice? Why is Orga such a terrible singer? How did Yukino get her gold keys, Celestial powers, join Sabertooth and all that? *cough*Angel*cough*. What was Ivan like before he got kicked out of Fairy Tail, and for that matter, what did he do? How the fuck is Gildarts so ridiculously strong? All of these are things I'd like to explore with this kind of thing. So, I'm thinking about writing a series of unrelated one-shots about the backstories of various FT characters. Now, I could of course also write some for characters who already have backstories, and I think I will probably also do that.

TL;DR version: I'm making a series of short backstory pieces about various Fairy Tail characters. If you'd be interested in that or have any characters in particular you'd really like to see, PLEASE let me know via PM or review. I'm very interested in you guys' opinions on the whole thing.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Have a sweet day! (Yes, I know that's kind of lame, but I'm tired, OK?)

Oh, one last thing. My youtube page url was posted a couple chapters back. I put up a Fairy Tail AMV. If you like Jellal and/or Linkin Park, you should definitely check it out.

Alright. I'm done. Peace!