Even The Dragon King Has Feelings

by Don Cheadle

The Alvarez War is over. He used everything he had to get everyone home, whether it be those damns seeds inside him, or even his very soul. In the peace that follows, one thing becomes clear; Fairy Tail won. Natsu lost. (AU)

17. Seventeen

By the time Natsu summed up all the events that lead up to him gifting Erza the dragon tooth sword, Sting had downed an entire bag of shredded cheese, and was making steady progress on a jug of strawberry milk.

Sitting atop the bar counter top with his legs crossed, Sting stifled a rather sour burp and exhaled, "Well, you're in quite the pickle here bud."

Natsu had busied himself flinging rubber bands at a red plastic cup he had set up on a table across the guild hall.

Sting watched Natsu continue to whiff, the pile of rubbers bands next to him slowly thinning.

"Sorry, I know it's a lot to dump on you." Natsu mumbled.

Sting blew air through his nose in a laugh, "Nah, don't be sorry, something interesting is finally going on."

The dulcet silence that had settled since Natsu finished the story was interrupted every so often by the soft 'thwap' of rubber bands bouncing off the tables and floors.

Sting clinked his canines together, forcing the whistling engines powering his train of thought to work overtime.

He knew exactly what his thoughts were, but he needed to find a way to express them in a way that could be constructive.

There were a few parts that didn't add up to Sting, like why Natsu got into an argument with Erza and how that led up to her and Mirajane challenging Gray, or why Natsu felt as if he needed to apologize to and reassure Erza.

Hell, he was still flabbergasted Natsu had actually expressed what was bothering him.

Nothing really bothered Natsu, not for very long, and when something did, he was always very animated about it.

Seeing him like this, quiet and troubled, it felt so… alien to Sting.

All of this, it still didn't feel real.

"If I'm being completely honest, I don't think this is gonna be a comfortable conversation for you." Sting admitted eventually, "I know we operate with no filters, but I wanna help, not start an argument."

"You were right before, the best part about us talking is we don't tip toe, I never have with you, please don't with me. Be straight with me, Sting."

At that, Sting tilted his head back, "Alrighty then. Give me a minute so I can figure out how to word this."

Natsu hissed in frustration when one of his rubber band shots grazed the plastic cup, and hurriedly put more bands down range in an attempt to recreate his near success.

"In the meantime, I gotta few questions." Sting revealed.

Natsu grunted, "Yep."

"First off, where the hell is Elfman? His sister gets her lunch money taken from her in front of an entire crowd, and he doesn't do anything about it?"

Natsu closed one eye, careful with his aim, "Mira said he's out training, fortunately."

"Fortunately?"

Natsu fired yet another shot that came excruciatingly close to hitting his target.

"Uh huh, he would have made things even messier. Gildarts would've had to step in."

Sting sucked in a tight breath through his teeth, "Seriously? He's that strong."

Natsu half shrugged, "I have no idea how strong he is man, but I know when someone's holding back, and he did a lot of that during the war, from what little I could see."

"He's been training nonstop ever since Lis got sucked to Edolas, so yeah, who knows what his limits are."

Sting made a face, "Huh." he rubbed his arm, "If that's the case, why did you never send an invitation to boy's night his way?"

Natsu lowered his cocked rubber band to send Sting an almost sardonic glance.

"You do realize how wild the uh… like the notion of boy's night is, right?"

Sting's mouth hung open, "Uhhh…"

"Dude, we go into the middle of nowhere and beat the crap out of each for 8 hours straight."

Sting's lips pursed into a tight line, "When ya put it like that, yeah, it's a bit reckless. Doesn't pan out on paper."

"It was fun though," he added, full of earnestness, "Training with you, Gajeel and Gray, I loved it. Rouge did too."

Those were fond memories, precious even.

They were five guys, young and stupid, looking to get strong quick.

And get strong they did, they made years of progress in just months of spending night after night locked in non-stop combat.

To most, it should have been hell, unending sparring through broken bones and bruised organs alike.

But to Sting, he was just spending time goofing around and wrestling with his brothers.

Since the war had ended, Sting found it hard to find any way of training that could possibly compare.

He had evolved in every single metric as a warrior, from his strength to his technique, there were many times where he found himself stronger than he ever thought possible.

"Sting bud, we knocked the snot out of each other, I don't think there was ever a boy's night where we didn't end up fighting through somethin' nasty." Natsu said as he fired yet another rubber band, this one falling a few feet short of the table the cup sat on.

"Think Elfman couldn't have handled it?" Sting came to the assumption, despite it being one he didn't like.

"Nah," Natsu swallowed, speaking so softly his sound was almost to himself, "I would have had a hard time hitting him."

"I loved boy's night, but I always had to deal with the fact we were super close to killing each other. That part, not so fun."

Sting shuffled, "W-well yeah-"

"Sting, do you really think you could fight Elfman like that?" the bluntness of Natsu's question smacked him back into uneasy silence.

His interactions with Elfman were few, but they always involved Elfman clapping his back with the bear claw he had for hand, booming merrily that 'guildmastering was manly!'.

"Yeah," Sting croaked, "He's too nice, I couldn't do it."

"Not to mention, I don't think Lis or Mira would be too happy about it." Natsu added, adjusting his posture for a better shot.

"I would have liked him there though, he's too much fun," Sting thought to himself, "He's like Orga, except he doesn't steal my orange juice like a-"

Yet again, Sting was cut off, this time by the sharp 'thwack' of a rubber band smacking into plastic. He looked over to see the red plastic cup roll off the side of the table, falling to the floor.

Natsu shot to his feet, hands raised in victory, "Ah hah! Ha ha ha! Ha ha!"

Natsu swung around to face Sting, "Ha!"

"I win! I get to name your first born now!" he whispered excitedly.

Sting choked on a brewing cough, "W-what!? Why?"

Natsu pointed to the fallen cup, "Cuz I hit it. Them da rules."

"What rules? There are no rules!" Sting protested, apprehension cranking the pitch of his voice high.

"Sounds like a big load of not my problem." Natsu waved him off, the anarchic twitch of his lips showing he could barely fight a smile.

Sting threw a throaty scoff his way, running a hand along his face.

"Aight, fine, whaddya got?"

Natsu slumped back down into his stool, eyes narrowed with focus Sting hadn't seen all night.

"I was thinkin'..." he paused, smiling and nodding to himself with gleeful approval, "Todd."

Sting gagged.

"Hey! Todd's a handsome name!"

With both hands clasped tight over his mouth, Sting turned away and groaned, "God my kid's gonna get his ass beat." his remark came muffled.

"Okay then, what lame name did you have in mind?" Natsu challenged with an impatient huff.

Sting stopped trying to get rid of the bile in his mouth and cleared his throat, falling silent for a few tense moments.

"Micheal."

Natsu choked, grousing a little too loudly, "Ugh, really? Dude, that's so nerdy."

"Says the guy who gave me Todd." Sting added a nasally whine to his last word for emphasis.

"What if I have a daughter, huh? Then what?"

At the expectant stare he was given, Natsu blew air from his nose, his battle damaged profile twisting with thought.

Natsu finally landed on a name, "Yukino Jr."

"Ground breaking." Sting said.

A part of Sting's gut, still left shriveled from a few of Natsu's previous remarks out on the street, stretching soothingly at the sight of Natsu's scarred cheeks swelling with a smile.

His eyes caught that dark deep ravine on Natsu's right cheek, longer and crueler than the other ones.

"Hey Sting?"

"Mmm?" Sting broke off his staring, "What's up?"

"Are you… thinking about that sorta stuff?" Natsu was yet again, oddly tentative as he asked, "Thinking about kids n' all that stuff? I know Levy is pregnant, but…"

Sting's golden brows popped up into arches as he whistled, "Whew, man, kids? I-i mean…."

"Kinda." he muttered, staring down at the countertop he sat on, "After hearing about Levy, it's hard not to."

"That's more me just worrying about her and Gajeel though." Sting reasoned.

"Heard? What, Gajeel didn't tell ya?" Natsu asked.

Blonde bristles of hair swayed as Sting shook his head, "Not really, not at first. We heard about it, literally."

"A few weeks after the war was over, one night the Fairy Tail guild hall's roof almost exploded. They were cheering up a riot." he explained, his stare flicking back to Natsu, who couldn't seem to decide which way to lean in his seat.

"Huh."

"Wait, you weren't there that night?"

"Uh, no, no I wasn't."

"Then how'd you know Levy was pregnant?" Sting pressed.

Natsu shrugged, answering with a languid motion to his nose.

"Her scent was a bit different than usual before the war. Even I could piece together that puzzle."

Sting's head tilted a few degrees, "How'd you catch that? If I don't focus on what I'm smelling, I get overwhelmed with a whole bunch of scents."

"I was just checking on her quickly after the war, making sure she wasn't sick or anything. I did that with everyone." Natsu informed him casually.

"Huh," Sting grunted, "You might have known she was pregnant before anyone else."

Absently winding a rubber band around one of his near mangled digits, Natsu pried, "How did you find out?"

"Word got out fast, we found out through townsfolk gossip."

Surprise painted the curves of Natsu's face, "Oh wow, what did you do when ya found out?"

At that, Sting shuffled atop the bar top, brows rising as he attempted to push some answer out the door of his lips.

"A-ah…well, it wasn't anything too major," Sting assured,

"Nothing major at all."

---

Three weeks earlier...

---

The dull thumps of knocking wood drew Levy's attention away from dinner preparation.

"I'll get it!" she hummed aloud to Gajeel, who was most likely napping in the apartment's main bedroom.

She had no idea why he was tired, all he had been doing since the war ended was follow her half the day and spend the other half playing Dad to Wendy.

She tugged off her apron and glided across their brand new flat to the front door, careful to step over unpacked boxes strewn across the floor and bundled in the room's corners.

Twisting the knob and pulling the door back revealed two figures standing in the hallway.

Sting and Rogue, donning sparkly party hats, held equally decorated balloons and wrapped gifts in their hands and arms.

Written on all the heart and star shaped party balloons was 'Congratulations!' in sparkly letters.

Together, the twin dragons of Sabertooth gestured wildly and loudly blew into the party blowouts they held with their lips in celebration.

Some of the most fearsome warriors she knew were currently making dorks out of themselves in excitement.

The shrill noise most likely woke everyone in the complex, penetrating through wooden wall after wooden wall like wet paper, but Levy was too busy having her heart melted to care.

With her hands splayed out over her open mouth, Levy crooned out, "Oh, you boys…"

Sting spat out his blowout and greeted her with a bright smile so wide and eager she practically had to squint, "There she is! The lady of the hour!"

He waved the balloons around, "We just heard the big news!"

Rouge nearly choked on the kazoo in his mouth before he eventually coughed it up to speak, "W-we immediately got together to come congratulate you. This is a wondrous occasion."

"We also stopped by a taco cart on the way here," Sting let go of the assortment of balloons, letting them float to the hallway's ceiling, all the while fishing around in his pocket.

He pulled out a giant burrito wrapped in silver, "The five meat six cheese deluxe goliath special, just for you."

Rogue filled the pause that came after with a comment, "He took a bite out of it on the way her-"

"I may have taken a bite out of it on the way here." Sting admitted all too quickly.

Levy had still been shocked into silence.

A familiar pair of squeaks brought their attention to the ground between them.

Lector and Frosch stood at their dragon slayer's feet, tailing waving like starved snakes in excitement as they beamed up at Levy.

"Me and Frosh here came togetha' to bakes ya the bestest cake in da whole wide world!" Lector's chirp was merry as he proudly held up a homemade cake almost as big as him over his head.

Frosh, waving the glowsticks clutched in his paws, nodded in agreement, "Frosch made it extra yummy!"

The cake itself was less than proper, its frosting messy and clumped, its candles crooked, and had far too many decorations shoved onto it. 'Yor preganant!' had been sloppily written in frosting at the top of the cake.

"Yea! We even added sour cream to it, dat's gotta taste good, right?" Lector announced proudly, whiskers twitching.

Rogue brought the stunned Levy's attention back his way.

"I took some time to properly formulate all the necessities needed for your parenting endeavors." Rogue began, jostling the wrapped gifts he had stuffed in his arms, "Parenting advice books, some guides for an easier birth process, developmental children's stories, I was very thorough."

Sting felt the need to chime in, "I only took a small bite."

Levy's eyes watered, emotion painted stark across her face, "Y-you boys didn't need to…" she trailed off with a sniffle.

There was an overwhelming warmth in her chest, but the warmth in the eyes of twin dragons and their exceeds was far greater, practically lighting up the hallway they stood in.

It was almost too much. All of this.

The memory of her announcing it all to her guild, her and Gajeel being together, the pregnancy, ran through Levy's head yet again.

The joyous roars of elated delight and approval from her family once they heard the news, it had been overwhelming.

The wild celebrations and downpour of happy tears that followed soon after in a commemorative typhoon had swept her and Gajeel up in its loving force.

She had been swallowed whole by hugs from her Jet and Droy, sobbing their happiness for her to the point she was drenched.

She had been danced around by a squealing and jumping Lucy, who was reduced to an overeager school girl in excitement.

She had spent almost ten minutes holding little Asuka in her lap, letting her talk to her yet to be swollen belly, her unborn child, about all the fun things they were gonna do when they were born.

The teary looks of devoted pride she had gotten from Makarov and the rest of her guild mates, the hug after hug she had received, it had made her heart swell a little too hard.

And well, the look of euphoria Wendy had given her upon informing the young dragon slayer she would be an aunt, that would forever be held close.

For the first time since the war ended, Fairy Tail's pride and joy looked truly happy, Wendy's delicate copper eyes watering as she rushed to nuzzle Levy's middle.

And Levy had wrapped that sweet little girl up in her arms and cried along with her.

It was a long jubilant night of tears and smiles as her family cheered for her fairy tale ending.

Levy wasn't sure she was ready for another flood of bliss so soon, so her lips quivered and words were impossible to put together.

Sting and Rogue's expressions softened as Levy hiccuped, overwhelmed by their display. They both reached out to lay gentle touches on her shoulder.

"We know Fairy Tail has already given you all their support and that jazz," Sting started.

"We just need to let you know you got Sabertooth's too." Rogue finished.

"You're also putting up with Gajeel, so we owe you." he added, which earned a snicker from Sting.

The Sabertooth guildmaster grabbed Levy's small hands and held them close, "We just wanted to thank you for making our little Gajeel so happy."

Levy's tears gave way for laughter as the remark broke her out of sniffling, giggles filling up the confines of her apartment.

She did her best to swallow her emotion and brought them both in for a hug. Rogue immediately dropped his armful of gifts before reciprocating, forcing the exceeds below to scatter to avoid being crushed.

"Aye! Watch it, you twos will mess up da cake!" Lector chastised hotly, sounding as if a holy artifact had almost been defiled.

As four separate arms encircled her, Levy thought to herself just how good dragon slayers were at giving hugs.

Wendy was like being clung to by a tiny angel, Natsu was like being wrapped in sun warmed concrete, even Gajeel had tempered his steel to be more tender over the years.

And now the Twin Dragons had her swept up in a hug that left her feet dangerously close to leaving the ground.

As soon as Levy parted, she could hear the creak of the floorboards and a very familiar grunt come from behind her.

"Ay shrimp, is the concept of a nap lost on ya?" Gajeel crowed as he emerged from the bedroom, his wild mane of black hair as scraggly and agitated as he was, "Lily's tryna snooze-"

Gajeel paused at the sight of his teary eyed girlfriend and imbecilic younger brothers standing across the room.

"Oh no, no, not you two wombats!" he groaned.

Sting's laugh was almost derisive, "Well if it isn't the lesser half. Morning sleepin' beauty."

"Was telling us ever on the table for you, or…?" Rogue questioned as he leaned down to gather up the wrapped gifts he had dropped.

Levy meanwhile, felt a tug on her leg, and glanced down to see little Frosch hopping up and down at her feet, arms open. She crouched down to scoop him up, cooing like a pigeon.

When Gajeel only offered a scoff, Rogue informed him, "I most certainly enjoyed finding out you were expecting a child from the man who runs the taco cart."

Levy gave an appalled gasp and rounded on Gajeel, "You didn't tell them! They are your brothers!"

"I was gonna tell them Lev, but not within 2 days of us telling the guild," Gajeel squawked, feeling cornered as Levy ushered the twin dragons inside, "We already have enough gifts to sort through. Ain't nothing wrong with waitin' for shit to die down."

To prove his point, he gestured with an open hand to their dining table, which shook under the weight of the mountain of presents they had gotten from their guild, their family.

Levy's stare of disapproval was withering.

"Babe, if I have to open another package of diapers, I'm gonna lose it." Gajeel finally admitted.

"Oh come on grumpy pants, quit yer whining!" Lector cheeped as he trotted up to Gajeel, proudly displaying the 'cake' he had made, "I'm sure you'll be singin' a different tune once ya try this!"

As Rogue dumped their gifts atop a kitchen counter, Sting leaned towards Levy, "I wouldn't touch it, Minerva is pretty sure it's radioactive." he informed with a whisper.

As Gajeel stared down at whatever that thing was, he swore it twitched.

"That looks like it would kill anyone over the age of thirty." he remarked.

"Hey, Frosch and Lector worked hard on that!" Rogue was quick to defend the exceed's efforts.

Gajeel smacked his lips, "Would ya look at the fuckin' thing Ryos? I'm pretty sure the cake just blinked at me."

Levy stopped tickling Frosch's tummy to give yet another gasp, "Gajeel Redfox, I've had it up to here with your language!"

"I certainly hope you're not using such words around Wendy." Rogue added his own warning.

"Or Asuka." Levy tacked on.

Gajeel gave a bearish groan, "God, you all sound like Salamander."

"Look, I was gonna tell em' Lev, but not right away." he began to plead his case, not too happy he was on the backfoot in his own apartment, however new it may be.

"When?" Sting asked.

"I don't know, till' the guild got their shi-" he bit his tongue, "their act together and calmed down."

Rogue tilted his head at him, "Why wait?"

"The hell ya mean 'why wait?', I knew you two would do something like…" Gajeel stared down at the cake Lector was still eagerly offering, "That. Let me guess, you guys gotta stuffed animal the size of Orga waiting for us in the hallway."

Sting stared hard at Lector, "Dude, I told ya, no yappin'!"

Lector's whiskered twitched indignantly as he fired back, "Any of this look discreet to ya wise guy!?"

Rogue dipped his head and sighed, "I'll go drag it out of the hallway, it's probably a fire hazard." he informed before slipping out the room.

"Kay, did you have a game plan for telling us, or were we just getting a post card and coupon?" Sting pressed, a rather dull edge to his voice.

"Look, I was gonna tell ya, hell, I was looking forward to it." Gajeel sounded genuine, expression twisting from annoyance to apologetic.

"Okay, but when, how?" Sting pushed, the edge in his voice receding.

Gajeel scoffed and looked around, shrugging wildly, "Hell if I know man, I was probably just gonna break it to you over a spar or some sh-"

He stopped mid-sentence, nostrils flaring.

Flooding into his nose was a sacred scent.

Sting's chuckle was devious as he pulled out the burrito from his pocket, Gajeel's expression all kinds of telling.

"That's right bucko, you can sense its presence! The number seven, extra beef-" Sting couldn't finish the sentence before Gajeel tackled him to the floor.

Like two sick men fighting over the last remaining antidote, Sting and Gajeel wrestled on the floor over the burrito.

"Give it here!" Gajeel barked.

Sting shouted back, "No! Not unless I get to name the kid!"

"We're not calling it Micheal!"

Levy stared at her brawling boyfriend and one day brother in law with resigned disappointment, "I can't believe I fell in love with one of you."

Rogue eventually returned back through the door, huffing, "I have unfortunate news, it seems the stuffed bear we purchased has lodged itself in the hallway and trapped your neighbors inside their apartments."

Levy's shoulders fell, deciding just to focus on little Frosch, whose tail had curled around her wrist, "These dragon slayers are imbeciles, huh sweetie?"

"Frosch thinks so too!" Frosch squeaked, purring in contentment at the chin scratches he received.

"Motherless behavior, I swear." Levy remarked, not in the mood to kick up a fuss.

Rogue, now entranced in watching his fellow dragon slayers roll around the wooden tiles for ownership of the burrito, felt his stomach drop at her comment.

"Gajeel, have you told Anna yet?" Rogue's question was shaky with dread.

The two bickering dragon slayers went stiff, Gajeel's head lock on Sting falling slack.

Gajeel paled as only two words could come from his lips,

"Oh shit."

---

"Yeah," Sting coughed into his fist, smiling thin at Natsu, "Nothing too big, just a giftcard and a hug, that typa' deal."

Natsu's attention was elsewhere, "Sting?"

"Hmm?"

"Why is there a giant stuffed bear the size of Elfman in that corner over there?" Natsu asked, pointing out into the empty darkness of the guild.

Sting smacked his lips a few times, "T-that…. Is a good question."

"It's umm, irrelevant though, so don't worry about it." he encouraged, picking the hem of his pants.

"Why does it say 'to Levy' on it's-"

Sting jumped down right into the stool next to Natsu, clearing his throat emphatically to cut him off, "That is semantics my friend," he informed brusquely.

Natsu swiveled his head back to regard him with an even stare, "Did it get stuck in the hallway?"

Sting pursed his lips, and after a moment of internal disdain, admitted, "Yeah."

"Other than that, it was a great night, Levy demanded we stay over for dinner." he muttered quietly, "It's just wild."

"What is?"

"Gajeel, our Gajeel, actually falling in love, starting a family." Sting explained, scratching his temple slowly, "Pretty surreal."

Natsu's eyes once again filled with warm light as he offered his agreement.

"Watching him and Levy over the years, dude, it's been great." Natsu stated, his signature earnestness brightening his tone.

Mutual memories of listening Gajeel talk and mutter things about Levy, her favorite food, her favorite book, her worries about Jet and Droy, whether or not he should consult Juvia for advice on women, they swirled silently between them.

They also remembered the endless teasing that came afterwards.

"So," Natsu coughed, "How's it feel?"

"How's what feel?"

Natsu regarded Sting with an ounce of his usual infectious enthusiasm, "You're gonna be an uncle!" he chirped.

Sting's expression was a slideshow of emotion, the lines and shapes of his face contorting in all sorts of amusing ways.

"M-me? An uncle?" he rasped.

Natsu nodded, "Rogue too."

Sting viciously attacked the itch atop his brow with his fingers, "I love the sentiment, but, Jet? Droy?"

"Dad Two and Dad Three."

Sting's feelings of unworthiness shied away as he burst out laughing, his cackles tickling the fringes of the empty guild.

He would forever be glad he moved Sabertooth to Magnolia, abandoning that fortress of stone for wood walls and ornate ceilings. Laughter bounced around its innards far easier.

And the ever growing Magnolia had been more than accommodating.

He needed the laugh too, the conversation about Gray was still wiggling around in the wrinkles of his brain.

Sting rubbed his eyes, "What about you?"

"Godfather." Natsu informed, a smidge of pride and excitement sprinkling his tone.

Sting whistled, "Oh man, godfather? You're moving up in the world."

"Well, what's it like being an uncle?"

Natsu folded his arms, "Best thing ever.

His following declaration was almost serious, "If anything happens to Asuka, I think I'm just gonna blow up Fiore."

"Yeah, yeah," Sting snickered at the sincere edict, "I'd call it a wrap too."

"I think you'll be a good uncle," Natsu shared, nudging Sting with his shoulder, "Rogue too."

Sting's face once again ran through a litany of expressions, "Pfft, I dunno man, I don't get to interact with kids a lot, Yukino maybe, but not too sure about me. Being good with children is your territory."

"So, can we expect a wedding?"

Natsu scratched his jaw, "No clue. Not sure Gajeel knows what marriage is."

"What makes you say that?" Sting questioned, confused how there could be such certainty behind Natsu's statement.

"Cuz I had no clue what it was either? Lisanna asked me to marry her when we were kids, and I said yes." Natsu told him.

Sting could hardly breath through his own wheezing laughter, "Y-you did!? Dude, what the hell did ya think it was?!"

Natsu reeled, "I don't know man, like food, a buffet or something!"

"It is medically fascinating how you can get those two things mixed up." Sting's dull jab earned Natsu's immediate ire.

"Hey! I wasn't too far off, there's snacks n' stuff at a wedding," he defended with a pout.

"Hey cheer up, there'll be stuff at the bachelor's party too." Sting reassured him by gently throwing his shoulder against Natsu's.

The clutter of scars on Natsu's forehead scrunched as he sent Sting a dazed look, "I'm guessing that's not food."

"Ha, no, it's a party friends of the bride and groom have before the wedding." Sting told him.

The concept didn't elude Natsu as he narrowed his eyes, "Huh, would I have to wear a suit?"

"Unfortunately." Sting laughed.

Natsu's groan of displeasure rattled the rafters.

"Well, all the girls will have to wear big fancy dresses, so don't feel too bad," Sting said, "got no idea what they'll be doing, probably something stupid and normal."

He gave a loud snort to himself, which earned yet another confused look from Natsu.

"What?"

"Nothing, just thinking about poor Wendy in a stuffy environment like that."

Natsu traded his befuddlement for a thin frown that straightened out the scars near his lips.

"They'll be alcohol at these parties?"

Sting sniffed, "Yeah, why?"

"Then Wendy ain't going anywhere near it. Not unless me or Lisanna are there." This time, Natsu's proclamation lacked any vestige of humor.

"Look at you, putting your foot down." Sting mused slyly, flexing his brows as he joked, "Man, I know you do it a lot, but I'm never not gonna be tickled when you act like an adult."

No part of Natsu's face twitched, "I'm not joking."

The sobering remark left Sting wincing as he rubbed his suddenly itchy neck, "Alright then,"

"Mind if I uh… ask why?" he prodded, "And why specifically you and Lisanna?"

"Cuz I know Lis won't get her drunk."

Sting took a moment to choke on his spit.

"W-what?" he breathed.

Natsu's sigh had friction to it, as if his lungs were filled with dust. He rubbed his forehead, "Look, like a month after Wendy joined the guild, a lot of us went to some spa resort for whatever reason."

"Don't sound too happy, I might mistake it for something else." Sting called out his dry tone.

Natsu's nostrils flared, and Sting halfway expected puffs of steam to shoot out.

"I never really cared much for that stuff, wear some stupid get up just to take a freakin' bath, I'd rather just jump in a river honestly." Natsu explained himself.

Sting wasn't satisfied, as that didn't answer why the mood was tittering over a cliff edge.

"Your reservations about the efficiency of bathing aside, you wanna link this back to Wendy?" he urged.

Natsu huffed and glanced away, "Somehow the girls got access to alcohol, and well…"

"They all got wasted." Sting finished, not seeing the issue, "Sounds like a wild night to me."

Natsu had no other way to put it than bluntly.

"They got Wendy drunk."

Sting's stomach and smile dropped in tandem.

His hands floated up to his forehead, his fingers gliding back across his own hair, "W-woah… dude. I'm getting all the Fairy Tail dirt tonight."

"Sting my friends got my 12 year old sister drunk." Natsu wasn't joking.

"Y-yeah, yeah, not cool." Sting nodded in breathless agreement, "I can see why you have that rule."

"Look, dude, I know how I sound," Natsu began, gesturing to himself, "I'm the biggest idiot in our guild, stupid ideas are my thing."

"But here's how I judge things. If I think something is a bad idea, then it's a really, really, bad idea." he explained.

"Nah, I get it, that's hard to excuse as just shenanigans." Sting remarked quietly, "And that's saying something, because man, you and me, we can make some pretty bad decisions."

"How'd you react?" he pressed, against his better judgment. The tight line Natsu had pressed his lips into showed he wasn't fond of speaking ill of his guild, no matter how justified it may be.

Most of the time, it was Natsu's failures and mistakes that were common topics of conversation.

"Ever yell at a room full of drunk women till they cried?"

Sting's following whistle was long and drawn out, "Whew man, can't say that I have," he breathed.

The look of guilt Natsu took sparked enough reason in Sting to gently clap his back, "Hey, just because they're your friends doesn't mean they don't do dumb crap. We should know"

"It's possibly one of the first responsible things I ever did, and it involved snapping at my drunk friends." The shame that mounted in the pit of his throat left Natsu's voice almost dulcet.

He pressed his head into his laced fingers and sighed, "I don't enjoy getting' angry. It gets old quickly."

At Sting's staunch silence, Natsu was quick to elaborate.

"I-i know that sounds dumb, havin' a short fuse is what I'm well known for, but I ain't talking Gajeel stole my fries and I'm pissed, I'm talkin'..." Natsu's sentence fizzled out like a dying candle.

"It's not fun." Sting murmured, specks of light dancing in his eyes, memories swirling in his brain, "I've been there."

"But hey, look," Sting gently shook him, his solemn expression cracking, "You put your foot down and established yourself as an adult. Sometimes it don't feel right, but it is right, get what I mean?"

"I hate it when I have to stop being Sting and be the stern guildmaster, but it needs to be done every so often. I've had to use my thundering guildmaster voice on Minerva to get her to stop punishing people on my behalf once."

Natsu shifted his weight from left to right, "I guess. But I ain't sure snapping at everybody was right."

"For getting a kid drunk? Nah, that's pretty clear cut." Sting assured, "Makes me wonder what other rules you have with Wendy."

"She doesn't exactly need help or rules, she just wants me around." Natsu laughed to himself before his expression sharpened to a razor's edge, "Although she ain't allowed to go to the beach without me or Gajeel."

A blonde eyebrow curled, "Why? Are creeps that much of a problem?"

"No, they value lives so they stay clear. It's the seagulls." Natsu informed him with a whisper.

Sting just stared at him.

"If she's alone, they might get together and try to carry her off again."

Despite the serious steel voice in which Natsu relayed the information, Sting still found himself bursting into guilty laughter.

There was no fiercer opponent than Wendy if you were an enemy mage.

But against normal threats like human bandits or wild animals, she struggled to bring herself to fight back in fear of inflicting fatal harm against people ridiculously weaker than she was.

That was Wendy. As strong as she was gentle.

Seagulls were straight assholes though so Sting didn't see the issue with blowing them away.

"Dude! I'm serious!" Natsu's hiss was serrated.

Sting did everything possible to wrangle himself together, but the mental image wouldn't stop tickling him.

Shaking his head and waving his hands, he hiccuped his apologies through his giggles.

The part of Sting that loved and adored Wendy as his little sister was nagging at his conscience with vehement disapproval.

His sense of humor however was hung up on the 'again' part.

Sting yelped when Natsu pinched a slab of tricep, "H-hey! Watch it!"

Rubbing his arm, his reluctant smile morphed into a pout, "You're a turd, ya know that? C'mon, on some level, that's pretty funny."

Natsu scoffed, "Whatever."

Sting wiped his eyes on his wrists, finally finding enough space in his lungs to breathe.

"Rogue wouldn't find this funny." Natsu mumbled curtly.

"Well yeah, because after he yelled at Wendy when Frosch got lost, you took away his Wendy privileges for a month."

Natsu, arms folded across his chest, replied almost snippily, "Interacting with Wendy is a privilege, not a right."

"Well then, do your friends have their 'Wendy privileges' back?" Sting retorted.

That gave Natsu pause, whose face fought off a frown, "Yeah, course, the girls all love her to death, and I would trust them with her life. I still have the rule cause…. Look, I'm just being careful."

Sting kicked his feet up onto the counter and leaned back, "Yeah, I get that."

"Can't blame Rogue too much though, Frosch was lost and he was wiggin' out." he tossed in a mild defense on behalf of Rogue.

Natsu's expression did not improve, "Kay', but Frosch is lost like right now, and he's too busy doing the naughty to look for him."

Sting snorted, "Really? 'The naughty'? What are ya, eighty?"

"Like c'mon, hasn't Happy ever gotten lost and you and Lisanna freaked out searching for him?"

Natsu gave a scoff, "Please, my best bud can handle anything. Sure, he got lost as a kitten once, but he was just fine."

"He got lost?"

"Yeah, he wandered into some city near the west coast, ended up becoming the leader of a street cat mafia. Me and Lis found him and his crew shaking down a local butcher shop for protection money… and sausages." Natsu relayed the story as if it was some mundane wive's tale.

"Huh," Sting gave that thought, "He always was a frugal businessman."

"Frosch can scrap too though, and Magnolia is pretty safe despite the guilds being here." Sting assured.

"Still, sorta weird though, Rogue is usually so fussy about Frosch, he and Minvera must be really pent up if they didn't notice he was missing." Natsu mumbled with his signature roll of the dice insight.

"Alright mister couples counselor, chill." there was salt on Sting's tongue as he spoke.

Natsu equipped a sly glance and sent it Sting's way, "Still worked up about them getting together, huh?"

"Pfft, no," Sting smacked his lips, huffing with put on childishness, "I'm completely fine with him ruining our dynamic."

Natsu almost gasped a laugh, "Dynamic? Again, what dynamic? Calling her 'milady' ain't anything other than giving her a nickname."

"Look, me n' Luce, that's a dynamic. I pester her, she somehow gets naked, and fate makes it so I end up coping a feel."

"Oh so we callin' it 'fate' now?" Sting retorted shrewdly.

Natsu ignored him, "Look, you call her 'Princess' too right?"

"Uh-huh."

Natsu leaned towards him, "20 jewel if you can tell me what she is the princess of." he challenged.

Sting paled.

His lips stretched and pursed as he stuttered out nonsense, "The princess… of the thing… the uh, family, of that one place… she used to…"

Sting finally crumbled under Natsu's smug squinting, "Shit." he groused as he patted his front pockets for his wallet.

He finally plunged a hand into his inner vest pocket and produced a single jewel note after a moment of rummaging, "Freakin' hell, l swear I used to know this."

Natsu snatched the bill from Sting's hands, crinkling it between his fingers tauntingly.

As he used his other hand to pluck a thick fold of leather from his own back pocket, Natsu clicked his tongue, "Quick side note, I know Wendy ain't around, but we need to talk about your languag-"

"What is that?" Sting interrupted with a fierce point to the object he had just pulled out.

Natsu's brow rumpled, puzzled, "It's my… wallet?"

"You have a wallet?" Sting asked, watching him tuck his newly earned money into one of the many creases.

"I have my own checkbook, Sting."

"You lied to me. You told me the skinwalker didn't get you." Sting gasped, practically dripping with betrayal like a filthy dog that had a bath forced onto it.

Natsu rolled his eyes at the distrustful stare he got as Sting scoured every inch of him, searching, sniffing, probing for any hint of deceit in his fellow dragon slayer's being.

"Am I not allowed to have a wallet?" Natsu asked, fiddling with it almost self consciously, turning it over and over between his scarred digits.

"Of course ya can," Sting said quickly, "It's the fact you have a checkbook, which means you have a bank account, which means the government can track you. The Natsu I know wouldn't be so reckless when it comes to taxes."

"Hey, I ain't green when it comes to this," Natsu told him, "I use fake names. I'm a complete ghost, no one in any council even knows where I live."

Sting eyed him suspiciously, rubbing his nose, "What sort of fake names?"

"Currently the kingdom knows me as Lavender Gooms. Last year I was Scooney 'U-turn' Singleton, and before that I was Gee Buttersnaps a.k.a 'The Heater'."

"That is terrifyingly well throughout." Sting said, shooting a glance back at Natsu's wallet, "Dude, that thing is way too big, give it here."

Natsu's expression soured when his wallet was snatched straight from his palm, "Hey, hey, hey, easy with it."

Sting held the wallet out in front of him, turning it over with scrutinizing fingers.

"Is this custom made?" was Sting's first question as he found Happy's face stitched into the rich yet etiolated leather, "Or does Happy suddenly have his own merch now?"

"No, Happy is into the stock market and all that business, Lisanna got me this for my birthday a while back," Natsu explained, glancing worriedly at the wallet after nearly every other word, "Careful with it."

"Well-" Sting roughly cleared his throat, "-it's pretty freaking big." he said.

Sting's eyes suddenly snapped up and over to Natsu, "Hold up, birthday? You have those?"

Sting suddenly found himself in a mad scramble, scouring the endless depots in his mind for any memory of celebrating Natsu's birthday. And much to his dismay, he returned empty handed.

He couldn't remember anyone mentioning it, let alone throwing him a party.

Which was odd, considering how much Natsu loved giving gifts. He had both heard and seen for himself just how many presents he could give out come Christmas time, all of them thoughtful, all of them wrapped with care.

Hell, Sting still used that swivel chair Natsu had gotten him for his office at his last birthday.

"I think." Natsu's shoulders fell as quickly as they rose.

Sting's head tilted, having a hard time comprehending this fact after the almost endless amounts of time he had spent chatting with Natsu.

Their discussions, if you could call them that, could cover so many topics, wild or mundane, in such a short amount of time that Sting found it impossible something as simple as his own birthday never came up.

"You think?" Sting lowered his voice in disbelief.

Sting had never even heard anything about this from Natsu's own guild.

Granted, there were a lot of members, and as such an exuberant amount of birthdays.

He had a suspicion that if he asked, Natsu could tell him the birthday of just about everyone in Fairy Tail.

"Yea, I don't know when it is." Natsu revealed, adjusting his scarf for the sake of giving his hands something to do.

Sting's brows ached at how tightly they came together to form a look of complete befuddlement.

"You don't know? Do you even know how old you are!?"

"A year older than I was last year."

Sting forced Natsu to reevaluate his answer with an unrelenting stare.

Natsu groaned wearily, "Like at least twenty one, I'm older than Lisanna cuz' I started puberty before her, but I don't know by how much."

"Ah yes, the most uncomfortable metric for finding age in the world," Sting couldn't help but sigh, "Seems like the 'being okay with things you shouldn't' deal Lisanna has rubbed off on you."

There was smidge of disapproval in the way Natsu regarded him before he asserted, "It ain't a big deal."

"Y'know what birthday is right? A party?"

"Course."

"And Wendy has a birthday?"

"Yep."

"And wouldn't you throw a huge party for her?"

"The hugiest."

"Not a word." Sting drew his fingernails over the wallet's seams with a touch that wouldn't disturb sand, "Why don't you want that for you?"

Natsu finally corrected his scarf's position to his liking, "I dunno, its just that, I-i…. I dunno." try as he might, he couldn't really find any words to justify his sentiment.

"No party?" Sting continued to press.

Natsu's head shook, "Nah, that runs the risk of giving Gajeel the opportunity to sing."

"Fair. What about presents?"

"I'm good," Natsu announced, exchanging his frown for a fresh expression of contentment, "Got all I could ever need. Besides, Lis will get me something every new year anyway."

Sting wished he knew how to make sure that look never left Natsu's face.

"I'm finding this hard to believe, there is no way Lucy and Wendy have never asked about it."

"Oh they have, and I told them the same thing I told you. I'm good."

Sting frowned, "How did they take it?"

"They weren't happy, kept insisting," Natsu responded, "They wanted to give me somethin'."

"And?"

"I gave in. Told them that all I wanted for my birthday was for them to keep putting up with me."

Sting felt his frown deepen, but he had to cast that into the ever swelling pile of things he had to bite his tongue on.

"Cake?" Sting went for a hail mary, anything in hopes of penetrating Natsu's infamous aloofness.

"That's alright, I'-" Natsu's eyes snapped to his, "Cake?"

"Y-yeah," Sting gave a slow nod, confused, "You'd get cake, at your birthday, that's usually how it works. You've had cake at birthday parties, right?"

"No, I got banned by Erza, said I'd eat too much and not leave anyone else some." Sting found himself bothered at how unconcerned Natsu was saying that.

"Well it'd be your birthday, your cake, don't think that rule would apply." Sting nudged some reason his way.

He could see Natsu slowly but surely drag all the puzzle pieces together and begin to sort them, his eyes slowly tightening into a squint.

"So what you're saying is…?"

"You'd get to have cak-"

Sting gasped as Natsu's scarred fingers curled into the fabric of his collar and shook him like a kid trying to figure out how much they had in their piggy bank.

"Sting, I need a birthday now!" Natsu exclaimed breathlessly.

Sting pushed against Natsu's shoulder with his free hand to steady himself, "You better not start droolin' on me dude."

"Quick man, lend me yours!" Natsu urged.

Sting recoiled, abhorred, "What? No! Get your own man! That would kinda ruin the whole point of it being 'your' day!"

Natsu stuttered gibberish for a second as he looked down between them, "Do you know where a guy could get a birthday?!" he inquired feverishly.

Sting was glad, really, that Natsu's usual energy was back for a moment, but he couldn't help but scoff at the question, "Oh yeah, it's real easy, swing by that mom and pop shop down by 38th and Eden and pick one right up."

"Kay could you write that down for me?"

"Natsu, sarcasm."

Natsu responded by blowing a raspberry at him, letting him go and falling back into his seat.

The two fell silent, Natsu staring hard at his lap, Sting taking the time to appreciate the detail and effort put into the stitch work of the wallet.

"Lis is a guru with stitching, ain't she?" Sting whistled in appreciation.

"Mmm?" Natsu glanced up, "Oh yeah, she usually fixes up all my dusters and vests."

"Made Happy his own little shirt onc-" Natsu stopped himself with a sharp inhale, "Dude, I just had an epic pony!"

"You mean an epiphany?" Sting corrected.

Natsu snapped his fingers and pointed at him accusingly, "Don't make up words."

"All words are made up."

"Look, ya know how Lucy and Yukino's celestial spirits are named after those star sign things?"

Sting huffed and very reluctantly jumped aboard Natsu's chaotic train of thought, "The constellations, uh huh."

"And don't people use those to like judge your month of birth or something?" Natsu asked.

"Other way around, but yeah, people get assigned a sign based on the month they were born in."

"Okay," Natsu cleared his throat, "Then if we know my star sign we could get like a range of days for when I was born, one step closer to finding my birthday, one step closer to free cake."

The logic was sound, so Sting nodded, "True, it's a start. But the thing is, do you even know your star sign? Are you an Aries?"

"No, Aries is the adorable sheep lady who is super sweet and gives the best hugs."

Sting laughed, Natsu's metric for judging people and their character somehow always hinged on their ability to give hugs.

"No, not the girl, the actual star sign," he explained.

"Oh," Natsu mumbled in understanding, answering, "Got no clue."

"There was this one time as a kid, Gray told me he knew my star sign," he added, "Apparently I'm an asparagus."

Sting went quiet, the tension that the resulting silence brought upon them was as cold as a blade to the neck.

"Never heard of that star sign, sorry man." Sting offered a hapless shrug.

The tantalizing concept of free cake became a distant dream, a blurred mirage in an endless desert, and the reality of it showed on Natsu's face as he grimaced and put a pained hand over his chest, "Goodbye free cake, you were a real one."

Silence fell, but was short lived as Sting whispered,

"Does Aries really give good hugs?"

"Yeah, she does," Natsu answered in spite of his pout dragging his entire body into a slouch, "Whenever I wanna cuddle with Luce and she's all weird about it, she brings out Aries and 'bam!', got a new cuddle buddy."

"Since when did you become a high maintenance cuddler? Ya know not everyone wants to be squished by you every second of the day?"

"Tough talk for someone within' cuddling distance."

Sting kept the resulting chuckle in his chest as tested the weight of Natsu's wallet in his palm, "Dude, this thing weighs like two pounds, what do you keep in this thing?"

Natsu, who now had his head down against the counter, mumbled lamely, "Stuff."

"I gotta open this," Sting announced.

Natsu snapped up, "No, wait-"

Sting unfolded the wallet and turned it upside down over the counter top.

Like blocky rain, more than a dozen of pictures slipped from their folds, some tumbling past Sting's lap and onto the floor, others swaying in the air as they fell like leaves.

Watching several pictures bounce on their edges across the ground, Natsu yelped like a horrified house wife, "No! They'll get dusty!"

As Natsu practically dived off his stool after them, the snickering Sting picked up a few that had landed on the counter, "I get you're a sentimental dude, but there were like two dozen pictures in there."

"Shaddup!" Natsu huffed at him as he scrounged around on his hands and knees with more urgency than a miner sifting for gold.

Sting took the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity, putting the few pictures aside to sort through what was left in the wallet.

What would a guy like Natsu even keep in his wallet anyway?

He expected pictures, he had seen Natsu's cabin, he was well aware of how he practically hoarded certain items that carried important memories.

However stupid and inaccurate the story may be, seeing all the knick knacks Natsu kept reminded Sting of the old fable of a dragon sitting atop piles of wealth and treasure.

"Alright, lets see what we got here," Sting hummed, finding a fold for cards, "You have your silly goose license, good, good."

He stopped after his fingers brushed against the cold surface of metal, "Is this your house key?"

Natsu, who was having trouble picking up the pictures that had fallen flat against the smooth tile floors, grunted, "Nah, a key to the Strauss' house."

"They weren't kidding about you being an honorary sibling." Sting said, a suggestion of a smile dancing along his lips.

"They really weren't," Natsu stopped to mutter a few child friendly profanities, unable to lift one of the pictures with his finger nail, "They told me if my cabin ever got burned down, they have a guest room waiting for me."

Sting made an odd sound that bordered between a cough and a cackle, "Dude, why do you have ketchup packets in here?"

"Never know when you'll come across some chicken nuggets."

"Fair." Sting's attention was drawn to the small bulge in one of the larger pouches.

He pulled out a small cylindrical bottle with an incomprehensible label smacked to the front of it.

"Natsu, the hell's this?" Sting held it up and swiveled on his stool to face him.

Natsu, still surveying the floor for his pictures, barely spared Sting a glance, "It's baby shampoo."

Sting's brows perked with surprise, "B-but why? Why baby shampoo?"

"It's for Wendy, she's got delicate hair." he explained, distracted.

"No, like why specifically baby shampoo?"

Natsu pinned Sting with an eye to eye stare and said with conviction, "No more tears, Sting, no more tears."

Sting wanted to be… well he wasn't sure how to describe this level of confused admiration. But in the end, he wasn't feeling whatever said emotion was.

Natsu was downright meticulous when it came to Wendy, or really anyone who filled the little sister role, which Sting found out can extend to a great range of people.

Apparently even Carla fell under that category.

All Sting could do is let out a breath and turn back to the wallet, and the quite frankly ridiculous amount of cash tucked into the wallet's main fold.

"Natsu, I'm not sure it's a good idea to carry this much dough on you," Sting couldn't help but advise, "You got almost 80,000 jewel here."

"Well, if there's one thing ya know about me Sting, it's that I constantly get mugged in alleyways." Natsu snarked, the bite of his tone muffled as he ducked under a table to retrieve one of his pictures.

Sting laughed through his nose and finally set the wallet down, turning his focus to Natsu's cause of concern, the numerous pictures scattered about the counter-top and floor.

"Am I gonna find any lewd pictures of Lucy?" Sting giggled aloud.

Natsu took a deep breath, then, "I will throw you outta orbit."

"That wasn't a no."

Natsu just gave him a toothless glare before going back to searching.

"Let's see what all the hassle is about," Sting said as he picked one up, ignoring the raucous scraping of chairs and tables against level tile floors that came from behind him.

Sting immediately understood the reason for Natsu's fuss.

The first picture was old, venerable, its edges dulled and browned, yet the color of the picture itself remained pristine and bright.

On the white spacing beneath the picture lay a title penned in sloppy handwriting.

'Family in grass hut.'

It was Natsu and Lisanna as kids, tucked inside a small shelter of thistle and brush, their faces, their wide smiles, unblemished and enthusiastic.

A tiny bundle of fur lay in Lisanna's arms. Happy as a newborn kitten, his whiskers short and tail even shorter as he slumbered peacefully in his 'mother's' embrace.

Her bright eyes and his soft fur were the exact shade of sky blue.

The two children leaned into each other, cheeks pressed together as they smiled bright up at the camera Natsu held.

A smile had clung to Sting's face without his say, the kind that made his cheeks ache, as he stared at a time in Natsu's life where he was unmarred by scars and the strength they resulted in.

Sting had heard the stories, bouncing from Lisanna to Yukino to him.

Stories about a grove asylum tucked away in the green wilds of a forest, a thicket refuge distant from the grown up world where games of pretend could be played by two children and a little kitten unabated.

Hearing that story now brought about newly awakened memories of his own, distant yet sweet, memories Sting wasn't sure about accepting.

All because of just how clean little Natsu's face looked.

No damage.

No scars.

No pain.

That face was familiar, and unfortunately, so was the one Natsu wore now.

Sting cleared this throat and pushed away what he had been fighting ever since Natsu had barged into his office.

"She was just darling as a kid wasn't she?" Sting remarked aloud, "She could rule the world with those big ole' baby blues."

The sounds of commotion behind him stopped, Natsu's tone serious as he said, "Careful with that one please."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm being gentle," Sting was quick to assure, "But man, she's just precious."

A bark of laughter burst from Natsu, robbing him of the frustration his predicament brought.

"Yeah, lil' Lis could have given Wendy and Asuka competition." he mused, "I still think she's plenty adorable though."

"True, she and Luce are the only full grown women I know who can work pigtails."

"I mean Erza's worn her hair like that before," Natsu reminded.

Sting shook his head at the thought, "Nah, it don't fit right. One pony tail is optimal for her, makes her look badass."

Sting shifted to a new photo, one of an adult Lisanna nuzzling a beaming Happy in a photo booth, sporting her own pair of white cat ears to match his.

"Ah, I've already seen this one," Sting announced as he held it in the air, "I've seen Lisanna's wallet before, nothing but pictures of Happy, so I've probably seen every snapshot of Happy to ever be taken."

"Except for that last one," he added under his breath as he threw a glance over his shoulder.

Natsu just grunted at him, squinting hard in an attempt to make out the white backs of the pictures against the equally pallid floors.

A thought struck Sting, "Wait, Lisanna can turn into anima-"

"No, she's not a skinwalker."

Sting whirled around and pointed accusingly, "How do you know? How do I know you're not covering for her!?

"Cause she's ticklish, skinwaker's aren't. You should know that." Natsu replied blankly.

"Yeah, uh huh, whatever," Sting grumbled, waving him off as he turned back around and quickly sorted through the rest of the pictures.

For the most part, they were what he expected, several pictures of Team Natsu, some around campfires, others posing in front of landmarks.

Sting couldn't help but coo as he came across one of a sleeping-probably snoring-Natsu with a massive swell puffing up his duster.

He would have questioned what that was if it wasn't for the head of dark blue hair that stuck out of his collar.

Wendy's tiny face, delicate and serene, was buried into the bend of Natsu's neck as she dozed peacefully.

Seemed that Wendy had no need for blankets when big brother was around.

"Man, can you make copies of some of these?" Sting asked.

Natsu exhaled sharp through his nose, irritation bubbling lightly in his stomach as he struggled to locate the last few pictures.

The color of the floors being the exact same as the back of the pictures, the clutter of tables and chairs, and the blankets of darkness weren't making things easier, in spite of his enhanced vision.

"Why are you so interested in my wallet anyway?" he mumbled at him, his chagrin far more muted than his normal expressive pout.

Sting held his stare and could only muster a shrug, "Not sure, just thought a guy like you wouldn't have a wallet. Mementos at home? Sure. A wallet? Out of left field."

Admittedly, out of left field was Natsu's whole angle most of the time.

Sting did what he could to straighten and brush off the rest of the pictures as he went through them; one of the Strauss family, plenty of ones with a variety of guild members, a few of him and Romeo training, and one with Asuka on his shoulders.

And another one with Asuka, this time at the park, her on a swing set being pushed by Natsu.

And another one, she was wearing his scarf, and he was wearing her cowboy hat.

And another one, her curled up napping in his lap as he lounged in a lawn chair.

"Dude, do you keep all of your pictures of Asuka on you?" Sting inquired through a laugh.

"Course," was Natsu's immediate answer, "Got 'em where I need them the most, with me every second of the day."

Natsu took one final sweep, slow and methodical, of the floors before he dragged himself back to the bar, where he plopped himself down with a huff.

His anxiousness at the prospect of leaving a picture behind was apparent by the haste in which he began to gingerly wipe the ones he had recovered with the hem of his sleeve.

"Sorry." Sting offered softly, watching Natsu carefully toil over a few pictures of him and Lucy like they were more valuable than gold.

Well they were pictures of his partner, 'his Luce', so to Natsu they probably were.

In turn, Natsu's creased brows flattened, "You're fine, I'm just being fretful."

"Ooh, new word, who taught ya that one?" Sting teased.

Natsu blew a raspberry at him before going back to inspecting his Lucy pictures.

"Okay, I'm confused about this one," Sting said as he held the photo in question up for Natsu to see.

Natsu threw it but the briefest glance before refocusing on straightening out a crooked picture of him and Lucy sharing a camp side meal, "Asuka's soccer game."

"I gathered that, but what the hell ya doing yellin' at the ref for?" Sting pressed, pointing to Bisca, who was doing everything in her power to hold the visibly upset Natsu back.

If he had to guess, it was Alzack who took the picture.

"It was a stupid call. Asuka didn't push anyone, that kid was just a wuss."

"I'm sure it was a national travesty." Sting 'agreed', voice monotone.

The two fell into silence, comfortable silence.

After the recent rough patches of conversation, from the dispiriting discussion about Lisanna, to the truly unsettling revelation about Gray, the silence felt gleaming.

Of all the things to break it, Sting was glad his chuckle was the thing to do it.

A picture of Natsu, Chelia and Wendy at a carnival was what drew his laughter.

The two tiny girls held up comically large stuff seals, prizes Natsu had no doubt won them, if the proud smile he wore as he rested hands atop their heads was anything to go bye.

Behind them was Carla, who was tearing into a turkey leg the size of her head.

"You and Chelia really do get along," Sting said, "I'm glad, she's a great kid."

Everything about Natsu brightened, his fingers moved with a bit more pep, his back straightened, and a fond smile exposed his dimples.

"Chelia's awesome, I love her to bits." Natsu crooned his praise, "She's an amazing friend to Wendy, helped her out in ways I could never. She's a real sweet girl too, I'd think she's great even if she wasn't Wendy's best friend."

"Oh, one time her and Wendy tried to get me to teach them to ice skate." he randomly blurted.

Sting genuinely had nothing for that.

Dragon Force during sex? He could calmly redirect that.

Natsu ice skating? Yeah no.

Natsu laughed through a smile at his expression, quickly sorting the pictures he had on hand.

He plucked the only non-Lucy related one from the stack and offered it to Sting, "Here, see for yourself."

Sting took it, and immediately broke into an amused wheeze at the contents of the photo.

The two poor girls obviously had no idea what they were doing, standing on legs shakier than that of a newborn deer.

The only thing that kept them from an embarrassing fall against the cold ice was Natsu. Wendy and Chelia were both clinging tight to each of his arms with their faces bright red in embarrassment.

In the background he could see Carla in tiny skates perfectly executing a mid air spin.

"Ha! When was this?"

Natsu scratched his temple, "Uhh… before Christmas I think. Lucy wanted to have a get together at her apartment, party and games n' junk, around that time. I decided to not go, and make sure Wendy didn't either."

"Why?"

"Alcohol was probably gonna be involved, so I kept her clear of that just in case." Natsu replied.

"A party eh? That probably would've been fun." Sting said as he handed the picture back.

Natsu gave a small nod to the side, "I'm sure they all had a great time, but since I saw Erza wandering home naked later that night, I think I made the right call."

"Again, fair, although who taught you to ice skate-"

Natsu held up a hand to interrupt him, "I'll save ya time, if the question is 'who taught me?' and the thing in question isn't fightin' related, the answer is always Lisanna. And sometimes Lucy."

Sting fought hard to hold back a remark about how learning about ice skating was probably just a ploy to impress Lucy.

Natsu gave the picture one last soft smile before he tucked it away, "But yeah, whenever Cheila comes to visit, I make sure she has a big brother for the day. I let them take me wherever they wanna go."

"Why? Does it let you scratch that 'big brother itch'?" Sting remarked with an impish curl of his brow.

"You know about that?" an almost diffident Natsu asked.

Sting grinned knowingly, "Rogue used to talk about it, he would almost wish some creep would try something with Yukino so he could pummel their face in."

"Uh…" Natsu blinked at him, "I was talkin' more ruffling their hair, tickling 'em, giving them piggy back rides, buying them whatever they want, n-not… that."

"C'mon, ya ain't fooling me," Sting chided, nose pruning, "Don't tell me you haven't secretly wanted some reprobate eyeing one of the girls to feel froggy so it gives you an excuse to swing?"

With Sting's expectant stare eyeing him down, Natsu found it hard to keep his tentative opinion.

"I mean, only so the message gets out that no one touches them." he admitted with a mumble.

Sting, victorious, gave a haughty laugh that was quickly squeezed into a yelp when Natsu pinched his side.

Sting pouted and let a lull form, but only so he could ask a question wildly different in tone.

"Didn't Chelia…" Sting licked his lips uncomfortably, "Lose her magic during the war, or I dunno, somethin' along those lines?"

Natsu gave a solemn nod after a moment's thought, and Sting could practically see the phantom needles jab cruelly into Natsu's heart.

"That's bad business." Sting shared his sympathies.

Natsu set the bundle of pictures he had cleaned straight against the flat counter top, declaring, "She's a tough cookie though, got no doubt in my mind she'll work to get it back."

Sting sighed, "I know she's strong, but she never should have even seen that stupid war. No kid should have been involved in that."

Natsu shared in his brutal honesty, "I get it, a part of me wished I told Wendy to get somewhere safe, out of the country, out of danger. But I knew better than to try."

"I doubt she'd have been too happy with you, keeping her from fighting for her guild like that." Sting responded to both of their remarks, "Still, that just sucks, ya'know?"

"It does. But I'm not gonna keep her from helping to protect her family." Natsu spoke with conviction he wasn't happy to have.

Natsu knew when it was time to be the big brother that held Wendy's hand, and when it was time to be the big brother that stood on the sidelines cheering for her to finish a fight.

That was when Natsu was at his most mature, in Sting's opinion at least.

Sting rubbed his brow, his curiosity just about appeased on the topic of Natsu's wallet, watching as he tucked it back into his pocket.

"I need to start keeping most of these at home with the rest of them, huh?" Natsu thought aloud.

"Yeah that seems smart, ya don't want them getting damaged." Sting agreed with a sigh, watching as Natsu gave an almost drowsy exhale of his own.

The two fell silent.

Lulls in conversation were natural, but they never happened this frequently.

The full reality of what Sting had been told about Gray was still creeping up on him, seeping through the moments of silence like a leaky boat taking water.

And he could put as many blocks of conversation between him and that flooding as he wanted, his feet were still going to get wet eventually.

Sting's thoughts drifted back to the story Natsu had told him, a story with parts he had most certainly left out, and the conclusions he himself had spent the last few minutes coming to.

"Hey Natsu," he began, the stool squeaking as he swiveled to face him, "I love pissin' away time talking to ya, catching up, all that stuff, I really do."

"But, you asked me for some thoughts on what happened with Gray, Erza, and Mira. Remember?" Sting reminded gently.

Natsu smushed his face against his forearms, looking like a student secretly slumbering at their desk, "Yep, I did."

That sight didn't sit well with Sting, but then again, so did a lot of other things he had seen and heard tonight.

Natsu withdrew himself from his arms and sat straight, "I want you to be honest, kay'?"

Sting nodded.

"Blunt and quick, like ripping off a bandaid."

"Dude, I get it," Sting assured with a small laugh.

The laugh died quick as he swallowed, blunt and quick was a nice thought, but Sting knew some of his opinions had the potential to stir an argument.

Sting normally wouldn't shy away from arguments, but given what they were about to discuss, Natsu's sheer stubborn loyalty would make it so he had a hard time thinking and not feeling.

As such, an argument with him would probably go nowhere helpful.

Sting found himself with nothing else to pad time, talks about wallets and birthdays squeezed for everything they had.

He took in a deep breath and let it loose.

"Gray was right."

If Natsu was displeased with that conclusion, he didn't show it, not a single scar on his face twitching.

Sting found it hard to elaborate and summarize at the same time, but he gave it a go, "Look, him using Wendy to make a point, not cool, like super duper not cool. But, he was right on the money on everything else, as usual."

"There's few things to pick apart here," he said, swiping away the blonde hair that slid down the sides of his forehead, "First off, that pact you made with Gray, summarize that for me."

"Oh, uh," Natsu cleared his throat, "Since we started training hard, we both agreed not to use our power to be jerks. No revenge on anyone in the guild, no treating people like crap, we'd keep each other in check."

He cringed after saying all that aloud, "I know how that sounds but-"

"Didn't Laxus try to like kill everyone in your guild once?" Sting interjected.

Natsu's lips pursed in a sour frown, "Well yeah, but that was a super long time ago-"

Sting cut him off once again with a wave of his hand, "Then I completely get it. Considering the authority figures you've had in your life, good on you for trying to be better."

"That being said, think about Gray's dilemma here," Sting began, "He has two options, roll over and take a beating, or stand up for himself."

Natsu's mouth shot open in protest.

"Ah, ah, ah," Sting beat him to it, "I know what you're gonna say man, but we both know how strong willed Mira and Erza are. Do you really think they can take no for an answer?"

"Yeah, he was stuck in a bad way," Natsu agreed quietly.

"And then you come barging in with some nasty accusations which, to be completely honest, made ya come across as a bit of a douche." Sting informed bluntly.

Once again, Natsu didn't take any offense, tilting his head expectantly.

"Again, I appreciate trying to not let power go to your head, but the 'turn the other cheek' bit can get snobby real quick." Sting threw in a laugh to try and soften his words.

It impotently bounced off Natsu's solemn expression.

"Wasn't the entire point of the pact to stop this stuff, the whole crappy treatment? Assuming the worst of someone, casting the blame immediately, all the things your guild likes to do to you?"

The ill speak of his guild caused Natsu's stare to snap up from his lap, "Hey, now wait a sec-"

Again, Sting cut him off, this time pulling no punches, "Dude, don't do that, don't get defensive."

"Deep down you know what I'm talking about, because if ya didn't, there wouldn't have been a pact made in the first place. We both know it wasn't Laxus tryin' shit in the past that created that agreement."

Natsu's mouth shriveled close as he looked away with a miffed scoff and a scowl.

Sting stared at him with a dulcet sigh, pulling up his legs to sit criss-cross on the stool.

This was the exact lane of talk he wanted to avoid. Not walking on eggshells was a nice sentiment, but this time, Natsu's stubborn love forced Sting to take a different approach.

"I really did make an idiot out of myself, didn't I?" Natsu questioned softly.

"Yep, sorry, but ya barged into a situation you knew nothing about and did exactly the sort of thing you and Gray agreed not to do." Sting told him flatly.

"Again, sorry bud, but it's another case of you acting without thinking." he added, this time much softer.

Natsu's head bobbed slightly in acknowledgement, exhaling through his nose, "Yeah, that's the same thing I came to."

"Wait, you'd already figured this all out?"

Sting wasn't too surprised by that.

Whenever Natsu made a serious mistake, he made no excuses, he took the consequences and the scoldings like he did everything else in life, on the chin.

Not a quality one would expect from someone like Natsu, but the more Sting had gotten to know him again, the more it made sense.

Natsu took being a good friend, a good guildmate, very seriously.

"Sorta," Natsu rubbed his palms into his eye sockets, stating morosely, "I knew I had goofed up pretty quick, there are just some things that still don't add up to me."

"Such as?"

Natsu frowned deeply at the newspaper they had been discussing earlier, his gaze lingering on the cover picture.

"Well, Gray to begin with," he said, his voice tinged with disappointment.

"Him using his slayer form, it was overkill, he almost never makes a scene with his power like that."

Sting was quick to counter, "Sure, he's a discreet guy, but this is Erza and Mira we're talking about here. Boy's night may have made us a crap ton stronger, but if I'm in his shoes, I ain't approaching that fight with anything less than White Drive."

"Okay, then why didn't he just use it from the start to just end the fight instantly?" Natsu questioned, "Yeah, he doesn't throw around his power but it's not exactly like he's kept that form on a tight leash."

"Because this is Erza and Mira." Sting repeated, this time with reverence.

Natsu stared at him, puzzled, "Ya already said that."

Sting gave a bantam laugh, "Think about it, Gray had to balance treating Erza and Mira like the badasses they are, and treating them like their his friends, his family."

"Gray respects their strength way too much to roll over and throw the fight, but at the end of the day, he'd gladly die for either of them. So lookin' at it like that, I get it." He offered his opinion.

"I guess that makes sense," Natsu admitted dolefully, "I wasn't fair to him, was I?"

Sting gave a slow nod.

Natsu's gaze trailed off, jumbled with a cacophony of thoughts, "I'll find a way to make it up to him." he promised, more to himself than Sting.

"Can we move on to the other parties that were involved?" Sting redirected, not wanting Natsu to drown himself with guilt.

"Huh?" Natsu squinted at him for a second before his face turned stern, "You mean Erza and Mira?"

"Yeah, we've talked about your mistakes, we talked about how Gray handled this, but we haven't talked about them."

Natsu's silence was back to being sharp.

Sting decided it was worth the risk of getting cut as he pressed, "That's what's really bothering you about all this, isn't it? How are they gonna take it?"

Sting's presumptions were confirmed when Natsu nodded with his eyes.

"Kay, look," Sting pursed his lips over and over, "We both know that if the situation was reversed, if Gray stepped to them and got whupped, there'd be nothing but crickets chirping."

"No newspapers, no rumors, I doubt we'd even be having this conversation." Sting told him, watching Natsu incessantly fidget in his seat.

"Hell, you wanna know what everybody would be talking about? That Gray deserved it, that he stepped up and lost and that's on nobody but him, that he should have known better." he continued, rant growing in momentum.

"But since it's Erza and Mira, we have everybody buzzing like the word just ende-"

"Sting, get to the point." Natsu chimed in curtly.

"Natsu, again, I get it, you adore Mira and Erza, you love them, look up to them, ya put them on this pedestal just like the rest of the world does," Sting's voice was rich with understanding.

"So let's take off the rose tinted glasses and just admit that maybe, just maybe, Erza and Mira made an iffy call." he tried to placate.

Natsu looked like he had just ingested something rotten, jaw clenched as he scoffed his disapproval through rigid mumbles.

Sting had to blankly admonish, "Dude, I said iffy. Not awful, not dumb, iffy."

"Whenever we spar or whenever all the guys get together for boy's night, you insist we book it to some distant wasteland." he recalled, "Why?"

"There's always a chance something can happen." Natsu replied immediately.

"See? If you know better, they should know better, especially given how much people berate you for this stuff." Sting pointed out.

"It wasn't the challenging Gray in of itself that was a dicey call- that's badass- Mira and Erza are hardcore, it's the forcing him into it and having the fight in front of a bunch of squishy normal people that was a bad move."

Sting could watch the mental scuffle behind the scars on Natsu's face as he went through an array of expressions like they were on a spinning carnival wheel.

Sting tried to bring it home, "We both know how strong those two are, I don't think they need you being so overprotective of them. I know I said earlier that's one of your best qualities, but there's such a thing as too much of it. "

Natsu came screeching to a halt in front of a logical conclusion as he whispered pithily, "Overprotective?"

"Kay', look, your- you're right on most of that stuff, but let's get this clear, if it was anyone else doing that to Erza and Mira, I would have put them in a wheelchair." Natsu began, his heat not soothing but scalding.

Sting flinched but, trapped, knew it was useless to try and interrupt him.

"They don't need me, none of my guild needs me, or my protection, but they are stuck with it, stuck with me." Natsu declared with raving fire.

"Yukino can kick ass, right?"

"W-well duh, yeah-"

"But wouldn't you rip the world apart to keep her safe? Cuz I know I would."

Sting stumbled his way to a response that should have come immediately, "A-again, yeah, duh, she's my girlfrien-"

"Well there ya go, I don't protect my friends cuz' they're weak, I protect em' because they are worth protecting!" Natsu's tone was dripping with his usual passion, flagrantly ignoring the early warnings of staying quiet.

There was a chatter of rattling wood overhead as the rafters shook underneath Natsu's voice.

He took a few moments to let everything sink in, let his words soak Sting before that energy slipped from his body, once more leaving him with nothing but a weary sigh.

Sting frowned, worried that just bringing back an ounce of Natsu's normal blaze left him bleary and drained.

Usually, those bouts of heated declaration continued for so long Sting worried Natsu may just set himself on fire. But whether it be snapping about Wendy, or just now, every time he sat back down in his seat he deflated like a balloon.

"When Erza and Mira were kids, a uh- I dunno how to put it- a wild… wild… A wild animal joined the guild," Natsu began, yet again, this time his voice sore and soft.

Sting watched as Natsu leaned against the counter like he was doing earlier, and decided to mimic him.

"He was just nasty, ya know? The wild animal was rude n' loud, he was always picking fights with Erza and Mira and Gray, he was just awful, feral. No manners, couldn't sit still, not too bright."

Sting's stomach turned and bristled, so much so he had to clear his throat to soothe that righteous fire that made him want to snap at Natsu that he wasn't some stray.

"When Erza found out that wild animal couldn't read or write, she didn't laugh at him like everyone else did. Wanna know what she did?" Natsu asked with a murmur, his head rested against his folded forearms.

Sting didn't bother answering.

"Despite everythin' she had been through, despite the fact she wasn't exactly good at reading and writing either, she took it upon herself to try and teach that wild animal how to read a book and write his name." he recalled with a tender smile.

It had always baffled Sting just how versatile Natsu's voice could be. Naturally, his voice was friendly, warm, playful, filled with energy and excitement for the world.

It wasn't contralto nor gravely, but it could roar like a dragon, it could boom thunder with intensity Laxus could never dream of.

It wasn't airy or light, but it could coo with such softness, it could speak words that melted in someone's hands just like Yukino and Lisanna did.

"When Mira found out that wild animal was livin' in a grass hut and having 'waking up' for breakfast, she didn't ignore him like most people." Natsu paused before repeating with an almost dopey smile, "Wanna know what she did?"

This time, Sting actually did respond on a hunch, "Honorary Strauss member?"

Natsu hummed a fond laugh at that and nodded.

"Despite the fact she was battling her own demons, or the fact she had to look after her own siblings, she let the wild animal into her home to live on her couch so she could teach him how to cook his own food."

Sting knew the other side of this story, he knew the ending, he knew the parts Natsu didn't think to tell him, he had been told straight from Lisanna herself.

But the love in Natsu's voice, the adoration that left each word glowing, made it impossible for Sting to ask how.

How had they chosen to teach him? How had they chosen to treat an admittedly rowdy young boy who thought the world of them?

"Sure," Natsu swallowed thickly, "It didn't exactly work out in the end, but uh, r-remember? Remember what I said, what I always say about trying Sting?"

"It's all anyone can do." Sting murmured.

He didn't want to admit it, but hearing this story from Natsu's angle, tickled his tear ducts in ways he did not like.

"They tried, it didn't work and Lis had to step in, but in the end, they tried."

Natsu turned his eyes to stare at the counter-top inches from his chin, no light to reflect off either of the surface, inanimate or not.

Sting could hear the thick emotion claw up Natsu's throat and choke him like it was smoke as he sent him a sidelong glance and said,

"They're my big sisters Sting."

Even under shadows, Sting had no doubt Natsu could see his eyes get glassy. Natsu cracked a tiny smile, half bitter, half sweet.

"And I'd rip apart the world to protect em'." Natsu's croak was wobbly. Unsteady. Too heavy with emotion his voice almost cracked.

Sting was knocked into silence. He had never heard Natsu sound like that.

For a moment they sat there, heads down on their arms like they were gossiping students sitting at desks.

Sting thought back to earlier, at the lake, standing in knee high fog as Erza came apart in Natsu's embrace upon receiving her gift.

Seeing her curl tight into him hiccuping and whimpering, seeing her bury her tears into the crook of his neck as he rocked her back and forth, it made Sting feel out of place.

That was a tender moment of love and trust between two close friends.

That was Erza's moment to leave Titania back at her apartment and courageously deal with emotions as no one but Erza.

That was Natsu's moment to be there to hold her as that armored bulwark broke apart, to be that pillar of warmth that he always was.

That vulnerability had come to be reserved for Natsu and Natsu only.

None of that was meant for Sting to see.

But in the end, after hearing that story from Natsu's adoring eyes, after reminding himself that everyone was delicate sometimes, even Erza, Sting was thankful to have seen it.

Because it let him know Natsu's stubbornness on this issue was earned.

"Fair enough." Sting reluctantly mumbled, quipping, "A decent enough point, your story telling could use some work though."

That drew a wheeze from Natsu. Sting let that laugh quench that dryness in his chest as he reformulated how to wrap this discussion up.

If he could give Natsu something to take away from this conversation, then Sting would consider all this a resounding success.

"You still messed up Natsu," Sting began.

"Yep."

"And you do that a lot," he continued with a twinge of humor. Natsu agreed with a soft chuff.

Sting straightened his back as he sat up, "But ya know what? You admitted it."

"I don't want praise for that." Natsu was quick to dismiss him.

"Well, too bad, you got your badass rant, now I get mine."

Natsu nearly barked a laugh, "It better be as good."

Sting licked his lips, realizing the entire night, this opportunity to truly talk with Natsu, was teetering on a knife's edge.

He gathered all of his thoughts, put on a stone hard stare, and spoke from the heart.

"Whenever you got slammed by Erza, smashed by Makarov, zapped by Laxus, did anyone ever give you a cool ass sword made from the tooth of the Dragon King?"

Natsu blinked at him.

"C-can't say I have."

"Okay, whenever you challenged the S-class and lost, did the newspapers ever start clamoring that the world had ended and that your big boy pants got taken away?" Sting pressed, intertwining his gaze with Natsu's.

The hard angles of Natsu's face deepened as he frowned, "No, look I know where this is-"

"Did anyone besides Wendy and Lisanna hang onto those losses for longer than five minutes?" Sting interrupted.

"Again, no-"

"How many times?" again, Sting cut him off, lobbing a cold question right into Natsu's lap.

Natsu blinked the silver film from his wet eyes, the tender emotion from before now absent from his face.

"How many times have you gotten your ass handed to you? Not by any dark guild, by any demon or dragon, but by your own guild?" Sting was walking into a minefield, and he knew it.

Natsu's face began to darken.

"I've heard the stories from Lisanna, hell I've seen it myself. How many times did Gildarts or Erza or Laxus or Mira or Makarov practically curbstomp you?" Sting continued to push.

The soft daze Natsu had been in as he told in his mind fond childhood stories was now gone as Natsu stated, "You're on thin ice."

Sting did not relent, "Then I guess I'mma start skating, because what is it? What's the number? Number of times you were left lying on the floor with your brains leakin' out your ears?"

"I don't really count." Natsu was expectedly curt.

"Hundreds?" Sting leaned in, practically driving the question into Natsu's face, "Thousands?"

The tension that mounted into alps in their shared gaze did little to stop Sting's momentum.

"And guess what? You took every single one of those losses, whether you deserved them or not, on. the. chin." Sting slammed the side of his palm into the counter with each word.

"You didn't mope or pout, you peeled yoursel-"

"That entire point of the pact was so that stopped!" The choleric Natsu didn't like where he thought Sting was going and sprung to his feet.

"Have ya even been listening? I don't what happened to me happen to anyone else, they shouldn't have to go through that just because they lost one fight." he hissed at him.

Sting rose to meet Natsu's height, his stare firm yet too soft to be a glare, "Regardless of how I feel about it, what happened to you made you, you!"

For a moment, Natsu's eyes darted at random nothingness around them as if trying to find the source of a grating noise.

He had never seen that look before, not on Natsu, that desperation to cling to the present as something behind his eyes tried to drag him back into his own head.

Sting had no clue what he had said to nudge Natsu to that edge, or what exact memories were leaving him teetering.

"Natsu," Sting called out softly, "do you wanna how you left everyone in the dust?"

Thankfully, this drew Natsu back to the present, and when he got there, his eyes crinkled.

"You aren't the strongest now just because ya worked circles around most of us," Sting started, throwing in a jestful smile, "Sure, it helped, but my working theory is that you cannot go more than at least a month without getting folded by someone."

"Natsu, I love ya," he placated with an affectionate hand on the shoulder, "but good lord I have never met anyone who gets their ass kicked as much as you do."

Sting's mind wandered back to boy's night.

Funny how Natsu more or less led the pack the entire time, Gajeel being never more than his equal, yet he still managed to end the night with the most bruises, sprains, tears, and breaks.

Sting knew they had all managed to narrow that gap, all of them either his equal or riding on his heels come Tartaros in spite of Natsu's own staggering growth.

But then the Fire Dragon King emerged for his last fight, and now practically everyone could barely see Natsu on the horizon ahead.

"Like holy crap it's not even close, you eat shit so freaking much, even if ya end up winning the fight you still sorta lost."

Natsu always pulled through in the end, but it was never really all that pretty.

The ice broke, as Natsu laughed soft through his nose and nudged Sting's hand away.

"It's an art form." he agreed, setting back onto his stool.

"Natsu, I could write a novel, a novel, on all the things you've taught me in one way or another," Sting peddled back from the bar counter, "And the one thing I think about most is failure."

"I mean look all around you," Sting slowly spun around on his heels, gesturing to the empty guild hall, "My guild, your guild, Magnolia, Fiore, everything is still here, after everything, it's still here."

"It's still here because you took every ass kickin' on the chin with a smile on your face." he said, letting his voice grow bubbly with admiration.

Natsu listened, but rotated his shoulders uncomfortably. He had never been that great at taking real compliments. He didn't get them a lot, most compliments that came his were usually packaged with a not so playful insult.

Adoring chirps from his Wendy as she nuzzled his cheek? He would give his usual grin and announce he was unbeatable, all so he could give his baby sister bragging rights.

Over exaggerated boasting during arguments with Gray and Gajeel? He did that a lot, so much so some people found him cocky.

Receiving genuine praise from someone? Being looked in the eye and told his hard work had left him an extraordinary warrior?

Nope, he'd look away and wave them off. After all, it was always 'we won', not 'I won'.

"I know better than just about everyone what you can push yourself to do, I know just how far your strength goes," Sting said, his austere tone climbing in volume, "I've seen it, I've felt it, I've watched how it came to be."

"You got here, to the top, because you Natsu have failed more times than just about anybody in your guild have even bothered to try." Sting announced, unashamed with the praise in his voice.

"That's only because my guild's so extraordinary, they barely lose." Natsu's mumbling deflection was predictable.

Natsu just about always smacked down any of his successes as them being out of his control.

Luck, circumstance, outside help, all things he pointed to as reasons for coming out on top.

He wondered if there were any times Natsu didn't look back and not focus on what fight he could have done better in, what aspects of him as a warrior needed improving, how much of the success was because of luck and how little he actually had to do with it.

Did Natsu even know what it felt like to be proud of himself?

Sting approached, summarizing the best way he knew how, "What makes a great warrior isn't about winning every fight, it isn't having everyone fear and respect you, it's about what we do with ourselves when we lose."

"It took your dad, what? A hundred thousand years to beat those outer space dragons? The uh... Dragon Emperors?"

Natsu bobbed his head from side to side, "Uhhhh, yeah, give or take."

"See?" Sting stressed, "If your Dad, if the Dragon King who protected the earth from all sorts of wild crap for like a gazillion years had his own fair share of ass whoopings, then what do you think that means for us?"

It was a familiar question.

Because it was the same question Natsu had proposed to him and Rogue after the Grand Magic Games.

Everyone failed. And failure…

Failure hurt.

No amount of platitudes about how it happened to everyone cushioned the blow, made the shame that came afterwards any less consuming. Sting knew that first hand.

Yet Natsu had taken it for years and never once slowed down.

In fact the opposite was true, it made him give just that much more to life, he used his experiences in failure as lessons to inform others of what Sting had reminded him.

Success was getting up one more time than you've been knocked down.

And Natsu always got back up.

Sting walked past Natsu and circled the bar yet again, "Look, I'll say it,"

"Mira and Erza lost. Bad. Ain't no two ways about it, they thought they could throw their weight around like they normally do and this time Gray didn't put up with it." he stated.

Sting grabbed that newspaper from earlier and shook it hard, "But guess what?"

Natsu was back to being anxious, his posture almost crumpling as face tightened, "W-what?"

Sting unceremoniously tossed the newspaper down to the far side of the bar where it crashed against a pile of previous week's copies.

"The world is gonna keep on turning dude." Sting really had no other way to express it.

"Here's what I think is gonna happen, Mira and Erza are gonna be knocked off their game for a little bit, which is understandable, it's perfectly normal," he explained, holding up two fingers, "but from there we got two paths."

"Is this a good ending and bad ending thing?" Natsu asked, picking at a scar curled around his jaw.

"Depends," Sting shrugged, nodding back at him, "it's all up to you."

"You can keep doing what you're doing right now, stressing over them, coddling them, giving them gifts, basically doing everything in your power to convince them they did nothing wrong." Sting laid out. He may be overindulging a little but if given time he knew Natsu would basically do all of those things.

"I only gave Erza something, I haven't gotten to Mira yet," Natsu defended, "I-"

"Yet?" Sting's tone was steeped with mirth as he stared expectantly.

Knowing he had proven the point, Natsu retreated back into silence.

"Or, you could just step back and let them do what you do. Grow." Sting offered the alternative.

"This is Erza and Mira, certified badasses, they are gonna get up, wipe the dust from their butts, and realize they might have to talk a mile in your shoes."

Sting folded his arms and looked down at Natsu with smooth reassurance in his voice, "And they'll do it. They'll forge their own path to getting stronger, just like you told em' to do."

"They've both already done their fair share of growing, they've both been through the ringer in ways neither of us can understand, so it's not like a little more growth is gonna hurt." he pointed out.

"Like ya always say Natsu," Sting mimicked Natsu's eager grin, "there's always more growing to do."

Natsu rubbed his hair with both palms, "I wasn't tryna coddle them, I-i swear, I just…" his tongue flailed in search of words.

"Do you trust them? Erza and Mira?"

Natsu's scrunched expression intensified, "What kinda question is that? Course I do, I trust them with every last bit of me."

Sting chuckled aloud, Natsu did almost everything with 'every last bit' of him.

"Then keep doing that." Sting suggested simply, "I know you know how."

He made sure to keep his grin, the grin he had seen Natsu wear so many times, the 'it's all gonna be alright' grin.

"You just need to have faith that they are gonna be alright." Sting calmly offered the main takeaway.

The way Natsu relaxed somewhat was proof that he had been receptive.

"I-i think I can do that."

"Well there ya go," Sting reached across to nudge him, "just take a step back and let things happen on their own."

Natsu's pronounced sigh was stuffed with all sorts of things, and Sting was only able to decipher a handful of them as it spilled from Natsu's mouth onto the counter top.

This was a lot, for both of them.

Sting had been working past his immediate thoughts all night, but now he picked one of many and acknowledged it.

"It's been a tense night, huh?" Sting admitted with a snort, giving gentle permission for Natsu to inevitably try and lighten the mood.

He didn't quite take it.

An almost ashamed smile poked through Natsu's cerebral grimace, "Heh, yeah, sorry if it's been a bit heavy handed."

"Don't worry about it, I wanted to help." Sting reminded reassuringly.

"Well, ya did, seriously, I just… it's just that I already know this stuff. I wish I didn't forget it just because it's about Erza and Mira."

Sting shook his head, rationalizing, "No shame in needing a reminder sometimes, there's too much to learn in life for there not to be anything we accidentally forget."

"That and… well reason has always flown out the window when you get fussy over someone in your guild."

"I ain't fussy," Natsu declared, almost pouting, "I'm never fussy, I don't get fussy."

"Oh ho ho, yes you do!" Sting chortled with a point.

"You get very fussy, Lisanna's told me all about it. When you're concerned about someone they get every last strand of your attention!"

That usually manifested in different ways depending on who, and if there were multiple people he was fretting over, he'd do his best to divide up his time between them.

So even worse, or better in this case, he was tactically fussy.

"W-well duh!" Natsu spluttered defensively, smacking Sting's finger down, "How else am I gonna make sure they're alright? I'm just being a good friend, nothin' more!"

"You have baby shampoo for Wendy in your wallet Natsu, don't think I forgot about that shit."

"Hey, hey, language!" Natsu admonished, appalled, "I told ya to tone it down."

Sting's laughter went from squeaking out his nose to wheezing from lips, "You have been neutered."

"I have not, and I'm not fussy." Natsu reaffirmed, throwing up his chin at the thought.

The only pride for himself Natsu had left, and he used it on the most mundane things.

"When Lisanna was growing up and she started getting lady cramps, who sat outside her room at night because you thought someone was punching her stomach when she was sleeping?"

Natsu's eyes went wide as he barked, "I told Rogue that in confidence!"

"Ooh, this one's still fresh." Sting rubbed his hands together, almost maniacal, "What about almost accosting a referee at a children's soccer game because they made a call you didn't like?"

"That idiot was being paid off, that's like the only explanation!" Natsu seethed, jamming his finger against the counter-top, "Asuka didn't even touch the kid, and that was their year, they had all the talent to go to the finals!"

Sting just stood back and let his point be proven on its own, all with a smile so sly it could make a fox blush.

Natsu plopped back into his seat, huffing, "But nooo, the Crocus Honeybadgers get a free ride to the championship and get demolished by those twirps from Balsam."

Sting idly cleaned up the snacks he had gotten out, silently searching for a few more examples that weren't just Natsu being reasonably protective.

The pictures? Sting couldn't knock him for it, he was the one who dumped them everywhere by accident.

"Are you still gonna go check on Mirajane?"

"Yeah, course, both Elfman and Lisanna are out of town, and I don't like the idea of her all alone in the state she's in." Natsu answered, "Might see Gray too, he's always up late."

"Huh," Sting tapped his chin with a blithe smile, "I swear there's a word for that."

"That's it!" Natsu ripped his scarf from his neck and began to twist it taut, intent on forming a whip.

Sting wisely scampered back, "Hey, hey, slow your roll bud, I'm calling ya selfless, ya always put everyone before yourself, even when it's dumb."

Natsu lowered his scarf, "How is it dumb?" he asked, slowly weaving the article back around his neck.

Sting scoffed as he slid back to where he was standing, "Because it's always about us, even when you're in danger or about to croak, you never think about yourself."

Natsu blinked at the serious response, not sure what to make of it.

"I don't get what's wrong about that," he admitted.

"Natsu man, ya can't protect anyone if you're dead, you realize that, right?" Sting dropped his sprightly tone.

"Well yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Sting frowned hard, searching for an example of how ridiculous Natsu could be.

He found one, the ultimate example of the 'fuss', and didn't think twice about sharing it.

A fatal mistake.

"After Acnologia, after everything, after the state you were in," Sting turned around to throw away an empty bag of shredded cheese, abhorrence lining his voice.

"The first thing you did when you woke up was worry about who you might've burned while you were out." Sting recalled.

He kicked open a fridge door and lazily threw a jug of milk into it, shuddering at a memory he probably should have revisited more.

"Ya gave everyone a heart attack, as usual, and you were quick to make everyone stop worrying about you, as usual."

Another pit had formed in his stomach, this one gurgling and bitter, as he slapped the fridge door shut and stared at the wall, mouth tightening.

"After all that, after Lisanna brought you to us, after your body fell apart right in front of us, it was still all about us." Sting shook his head, whether it be out of disapproval for himself or Natsu, he wasn't quite sure.

The silence told him he had made a mistake.

Silence, small lulls, they came and went so frequently on this night in particular he had begun to think little of it.

But whether it be oscillating between being comfortable and tense, he never hated it as much as he did right now.

For when he turned around, Natsu was gone.

He was still in his seat, still sitting there, alone at the bar.

But he wasn't there.

His eyes told Sting that much.

Sting had turned his back once, and those memories he saw swimming around from before had swooped in and taken Natsu from him.

He could hear Natsu's cramped heartbeat, labored and coarse, sobbing in his hollow chest.

He could smell that horrific odor that no longer wafted subtlety from Natsu, the pungent stench of burning flesh.

He could see Natsu's eyes, now so bottomless someone could drown in them, become dark and indecipherable to the point they didn't look like they belonged on a living person.

He could feel Natsu's always caged magic, vast and endless, quake in panic within its stolid containment.

Sting knew all that, but he didn't have a clue as to what was going on in Natsu's mind.

Not a fucking clue.

---

It was happening again.

'BURN!'

The past roar of his own voice shattered his own eardrums, and left his nerve endings spitting sparks as he felt just that.

The burn.

'Every!'

Natsu jolted from his chair with a gasp, staggering away on numb knees, with little breath in his boiling lungs to aid him.

'Last!'

It was too dark. Everything was too dark.

The only time he could see anything was when he blinked, and when he did the image of his own fire, thick like paint, bright like starlight, exploded across his eyes.

'Bit of me!'

It was too hot. His skin, his arms, it was bubbling again, just like last time.

Natsu stumbled to the ground, but didn't spend one second there as he scrabbled back up.

He needed to get out, get outside. He couldn't breathe.

'Everything I was!'

He couldn't make it two steps without stumbling like a drunkard or wheezing out smoke.

The ground was shaking, just like his magic once shook everything.

'Everything I am!'

That wildfire had gobbled him back up again, reminding him of the time he had done the unreasonable.

Natsu couldn't hear Sting calling.

'Everything I ever will be!'

All he could hear was space-time burning.

Reality shattering.

Fate crumbling.

Reason that held it all together falling to ash.

All beneath the immeasurable blaze that had exploded from his soul.

'No demon!'

Natsu finally hobbled to a stop, groaning and huffing, the muscles in his legs feeling like they had been seared from the bone.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't climb the mountain. Not this time.

The weight of Earthland had been shackled to his melting ankles, and with each step, the distant fuzzy door ahead leapt back out of reach.

'No dragon!'

He blindly reached out, steaming fingers finding the fine grain of a wood pillar for him to finally collapse again.

He couldn't catch his breath, no matter what he did.

He had used all of it to howl across the past, the present, and the future.

'Just ME!'

Natsu didn't care to hold back his miserable noises, piteous hiccups and gasps turning to whimpers as he curled up tight.

He wanted Lisanna.

He wanted Happy.

But he didn't even get to think of them, mind bleached with blotchy images that left him shaking.

Glowing angels wings spreading from his brother's back.

Sparkling space time, nebulous black and blue, coiled around Acnologia's form.

Golden fields of gorse, seas of silver fire, and the colossal glistening tree branched out between them.

So many stories. So many branches.

"Natsu!"

He wanted it to stop.

His scars just kept hurting.

"Natsu, breathe!"

He understood that this was his fault. He had made the decisions that led to this.

He knew he had been stupid and destructive and not thought ahead.

It was a tired tale that he kept retelling.

"Natsu, look at me bud!"

It was his fault. It always was.

He just wished he knew exactly what he had done wrong.

How could he do better if he didn't know what he did wrong?

Natsu finally registered firm hands around his biceps, and a familiar voice gently reaching out past the thick fog.

Past the impossible waves of color, past the screeches of shattered space time, past the thumping of the beating Fairy Heart.

Natsu was still stuck.

Stuck inches away from reaching Mavis before that beating stopped.

"Natsu!" someone finally barged past the fog.

Sting's pained face, twisted with worry and heart-break came into view, his mouth dancing with reassurances.

"Natsu, hey, hey, hey, look at me, it's alright, it's okay." he soothed with gentleness Natsu didn't know he had as he pulled him up into a sitting position, "Your safe bud, I'm right here with ya."

Natsu's eyes snapped to the hands on his arms, and his wailing heartbeat rumbled into a drum-roll.

He was touching him.

He was going to burn him.

He was going to burn him, just like he burned her.

Natsu bucked and thrashed in Sting's grip, his spluttering barely intelligible , "L-let go! Let go o-of me Sting, I'm gonna bur- I'm gonna burn y-you!"

Sting somehow held him still, forcing him down as his tone firmed to diamond, "Natsu, look at me."

Natsu finally did, stammering quiet nonsense, rivers of cold sweat filling the scars across his face.

"You're not gonna burn me, okay?" Sting all but declared, fingers squeezing a tad tighter to demonstrate, "You're a little toasty, but you ain't gonna hurt anyone."

"Now breathe, just breathe, it's alright." he commanded, shifting his crouch so he could grab the hem of Natsu's scarf and carefully wipe the dribbling sweat that gathered at his pink scalp.

Natsu just stared at him, breath still stuttering.

Sting, his scent, it had always been familiar. A bit like Wendy and Lucy's.

Lucy's scent got him excited, excited for more trouble and adventure, with her, his Luce. But the familiarity was distant, it was there for sure, but hazy, her scent was so recognizable because of how much time they had spent together.

On the other hand, Wendy's scent told his instincts that she was something very precious and was to be treated as such. But he felt like he had already known this, from the very first time he had seen his baby sister's trusting smile.

But Sting, Sting's was somewhere between them. Forged from experience, but still built from something innate.

He was proud of Sting like he was Wendy, but he also had the urge to be wild and goof off around him like when he was with Lucy.

His skin and the muscles stopped burning, and the unbidden memories shied away back into the depths of his aching head.

Natsu looked down at his leaden knees, watching them shudder.

"You still with me Natsu?" Sting tilted his head back into Natsu's line of sight.

Natsu caught a single breath and settled for a small nod, "Y-yeah, yeah, i-it uh… it fades, i-it's gone."

The burning never really was. Nor was the emptiness behind his chest.

The anguish calcified on Sting's face, he looked away to let out a warbly chuff before he steadied himself.

"Hey, look at me man, just for a second." he asked past the tearing in his chest, moving a hand up to squeeze Natsu's shoulder, "Be honest with me here bud."

Natsu did so, nostrils whistling under the weight of all his dolent breathing.

"Do you want me to go get Yukino?" Sting really wasn't sure what else to do, so he proposed a solution, the only solution, he could come up with.

Seeing Natsu waddle out into the darkness, stammering and staggering, calling out Lisanna and Happy's names like they were right around the corner, all told Sting he was out of his depth.

"Yukino?" Natsu croaked out, as if testing the name to see what thoughts it would bring.

Yukino. Sweet and soft spoken Yukino.

Yukino had been nothing but warm and kind to him, she wasn't bothered by his sudden hugs, she was always ecstatic to see him, she had always put him with him.

Natsu never knew why.

Sting tenderly grasped the side of Natsu's head, fingers tangled in sweaty bristles of pink, and pulled him against his shoulder.

Sting felt like he was cradling a log taken fresh from a pyre. Natsu's frame was rigid and grainy with scars and muscle, but Sting feared one more wrong move, and he would crumble to warm dust.

"Yeah, Yukino, I can go get her." his curling arms slowly brought his brother in close.

A distant part of Sting's mind noticed Natsu was thinner than he was before the war.

"D-do you want me to go get Yukino?" Sting all but insisted, pushing the idea back in front of Natsu's haze.

"Yukino." Natsu repeated blankly, mumbling into Sting's collar bone.

"Y-yeah, you two have always been smitten with each other- n-not like t-that, l-like she's always… you've… you and h-her-" Sting cut off his sloppy rambling, expression tightening.

"S-she'll be happy to see you again so soon." he rebounded weakly.

Natsu thought hard past the squeezing in his head. Sting's familiar scent helped, he was getting tired of the smell of fate catching fire.

He remembered Lisanna pulling him aside one day, and crooning to him that if he needed to, he could trust Yukino the way he trusted her.

All it took was one reminder of how Juvia's face withered with sadness and worry when she had found him in the forest for Natsu to reject the idea.

He should have known another episode was close by after that night, these attacks always came in pairs.

One where he was dragged back into the heat of past battles, and another one that drowned him in… everything else.

Natsu shook his head weakly, blanking out the idea, "N-no. I… I-i don't wanna make her… I d-don't want her t-to worry."

Sting was quiet, an unsure quiet, although his jaw tensed and his mouth opened to form the prelude to words. But they were just that, the prelude. Nothing came after.

Sting still held him tight, clinging as resolutely to his worry as the fetid scent of ash clung to Natsu's breath.

"I-i'm fine Sting, a-all… all g-good now." Natsu was still fighting, and not just for breath.

Natsu's words fruitlessly plied at Sting's strife, but they did loosen his embrace.

Sting leaned back and held Natsu still with a bloodshot stare, puffy and waxy with tears and understanding.

"I'm alrigh-" Natsu was gently cut off as Sting slowly shook his head.

There was no use covering his tracks with his tired answer.

He wasn't alright.

Natsu wasn't alright.

It was something Sting had danced around all night.

No amount of hiding beneath banter or advice could make that feeling stop creeping and scrabbling up from within.

Sting knew. So did Rogue. Yukino too.

They knew the moment Natsu walked off watching his father's chest get blown open.

They knew when he came back one year later with chunks ripped from his face and twenty pounds of muscle shoved onto his frame, smiling like nothing had changed.

They knew when he freed the world of Acnologia and Zeref and slithered off yet again before the fireworks could even dance across the skies he had once ripped open.

It made Rogue more brutal during constant yet unwanted sparring, and any and all conversations between them short.

Yukino?

Well, Sting didn't think he could take hearing his girlfriend sob prayers into the fluff of her pillow for the world to leave Natsu alone any longer.

He had no idea how Yukino had managed to let Natsu go when he had barged into their office.

And himself? What had he done?

Sting hid by gazing at the future, working tirelessly to make sure his mistake during the war never happened again.

He didn't try filling in the numerous blanks of their fight against Acnologia, he didn't try connecting with his dragon slayer siblings over their newfound shared memories, he didn't try anything.

Because it hurt too fucking much.

Before him, Natsu continued to crawl his way towards picking himself back together.

Even Sting could see he didn't know how.

"Ya know," Sting swallowed hard, "We got a uh, pretty gnarly view up on t-the roof."

Natsu's gaze slumped over to the guild hall door he had failed to reach.

"C-can I… get sum' f-fresh air?" Natsu mumbled with sheepishness, a tone largely foreign to him.

Sting rose to his feet and smiled just as bright as he once did.

No.

Even brighter.

Sting offered out a hand to his brother, who still sat there, full of exhaustion and flaw.

Natsu stared at the outstretched hand.

He knew. He knew Sting knew. He knew Sting was going to try and keep helping. Keep prying.

Juvia had tracked him down, but Sting, he was patiently waiting.

Lisanna always cooed to him that there was nothing to be ashamed of, but Natsu always found reaching out scary. Didn't matter who, as long as it wasn't Lisanna, Natsu didn't wanna.

"It's gonna be you and me bud, if you want." Sting assured assuasively.

Trust, delicate and eager, softened the dark of Natsu's eyes.

He reached out and grabbed Sting's forearm, letting himself be pulled up to his feet and held steady.

Sting didn't let go of him, and Natsu found himself glad he hadn't.

That hadn't been that scary.

Sting found himself beaming with pride as he eagerly bumped Natsu's shoulder and declared,

"It's gonna be great, up there you can watch me finally draw my name on the moon!"