Please check out the poll on my profile; it's about what I will do with my time as a writer. I will probably not do much on FanFiction without the responses from the poll!

"Why do you keep staring at me?" Natsu asked angrily.

Sting laughed and shook his head. "I just can't get over that you're Pinkie," he said. "Lucy went on to me about you and always compared my hair to yours and now I understand."

After the explanation of all the times that Lucy had made Sting's hair pink with milkshakes and glitter and anything else sticky, everyone had a good laugh. Lucy's friends had never heard about Sting, since Lucy had hardly interacted with him before the summer. Erza vaguely remembered him from her time living in Clover, but all she remembered was that everyone made fun of him for the fancy clothes he wore to school. His parents clearly hadn't let him dress himself.

Sting was happy to be spending time with Erza, Levy, Gray, Natsu, and Lisanna. They were all pretty cool, in his opinion. Lucy mentioned them a lot, so it was nice to have a face to the name. Even better, all of his friends seemed to get along with them just fine. And, before anyone knew it, all the guys were playing video games while the girls chatted about hair and nails and whatever else came to mind.

"Sir Sting," a soft voice said, knocking on the door.

"Come in," Sting said, knowing it was just one of his maids. They were all sitting in his living room, and he never understood while the maids still felt the need to knock, since he obviously wouldn't be in any privacy-demanding situation.

The maid opened the door. "Miss Heartfilia is here to see you," she said. She stepped aside to show Lucy, who looked a little dazed.

Sting stood up, letting the controller fall to the floor. "Hey," he said gently. "What are you doing here? We all thought you were at Rogue's still." Yukino was the only one that didn't assume that, and she wasn't too happy about the news.

"Zeref drove us...We stopped and saw Mom for-" She abruptly stopped her choppy sentence. "Can I talk to you alone?"

Gray gave a worried look to Levy and Erza. They shook their heads, not knowing anything about what was going on. Angel and Yukino shared a secretly proud look, assuming Rogue and Lucy had a fight. Sting was simply concerned about Lucy, not even spending a moment considering what could be wrong with her. He put his hand on her back and led her out of the room, down the hall, and into a random guest room. He didn't think she wanted anyone to hear them, after all.

"What happened?" Sting asked. "You completely freaked out at the party and then you disappeared. We weren't sure what to think exactly."

Lucy sat down on the bed and wrung her hands together. "I don't have a very good history with Minerva and Flare," she admitted. She looked up at Sting with hopeful eyes. "Please tell me they won't be around anymore."

Sting sighed and sat down beside Lucy. "They both still live in Clover, if that's what you mean. Flare lives in town and Minerva lives on the outskirts. I'm surprised you haven't seen them around. What exactly happened?"

Lucy told Sting everything. She told him about the time they threw her favorite book out the window at school. She told him about the time they cut her hair in class and convinced everyone that she did it to herself, even though she loved her long, beautiful hair. They made fun of her, saying she was a dumb blonde bimbo, even though at the time she didn't fully understand the insult. Her first few years of school were completely ruined by the girls, and she's never told anyone from Clover but Romeo and now Sting.

"Minerva and Flare are the school's bullies," Sting explained. "I mean, they don't go around stealing lunch money, but they do some serious damage. They torment Rogue all the time, which is probably why he's so shy; he's scared to open up in case he gets picked at. While he was dating Millianna, she got bullied a lot by them. It's hard to imagine she's joined them now."

"Did Millianna really torment Rogue because of the accident?" Lucy asked.

Sting nodded. "She put all kinds of crazy ideas in his head, made him think that he was nothing but a killer. He was pretty shaken up for a while. She turned quite a bit of business from the cafe, too, by telling people that he probably uses human blood in frosting and human meat for the food there."

"That's crazy!" Lucy exclaimed. "There's no way anyone actually believed that!"

"The news spread that his father and brother died pretty fast, but not in the right ways," Sting explained. "Even without Millianna's help the rumors spread. They started to say that Rogue was just driving down the road and went into the truck to kill himself and everyone else. Some said he drove off a bridge. I can't even remember everything now."

Lucy reached out and grabbed Sting's hand. He smiled sadly at her. "I know this isn't why you pulled me to the side," he told her. "Now tell me what's really on your mind."

Lucy wasn't even sure when Sting became such a friend to her. They hated each other at first, and now here he was, comforting her. It was like one day they were throwing insults at each other and the next they were best friends. She didn't mind the change, of course, but she really did wonder how it came about.

"My dad was waiting for me in my room," Lucy began. "He wanted to scold me on my bad behavior and make me feel like scum for being with- I mean, for being around -Rogue."

"Wait," Sting interrupted. "What do you mean 'around'?"

"Nothing," she lied. "Anyways. I don't think he's going to let me back there."

"Then where will you go?" He decided that he would let her correction about being around Rogue go for now and instead worry about the bigger picture. And, with the look Lucy was giving him, he realized that the picture was about to get a lot smaller. "No. You aren't going back, are you?"

"I have nowhere else to go," Lucy said simply. Dad doesn't support me and I couldn't ask Rogue to stay with him. "The only reason I'm up here is to visit my dad. The point of the trip wasn't for me to see any of you." To love any of you.

"Lucy, no!" Sting gasped. "You can't just leave! What about us? What about Rogue?"

Lucy shook her head. "I would have had to go home eventually." She thought a moment. "Maybe being with Rogue isn't the best idea anyways."

Lucy didn't let Sting ask her more questions. She simply left the room, his footsteps quietly falling behind hers. He never tried to talk to her again for the rest of the night, which made her assume he just accepted what would happen. In reality, he just didn't think she was serious; she'd probably change her mind. He hoped she had changed her mind.

X

The next morning, Rogue went to the cafe early to help. He knew that Lucy's family and friends were going back that day, and it was only a matter of time before she showed up at the cafe to see him. She would most likely look for him, after all, and the easiest place to look was the cafe if he wasn't at his house. So, he tied up his hair and got to work.

Not long after noon, the door chimed as Lucy entered the small place. She talked animatedly with Bisca for a few minutes before Rogue made his appearance. He told Bisca that he was going to take a break, then led Lucy out of the store.

"It's so nice out," Lucy said when they stepped outside. "It's hard to believe it's August."

"It is really nice out," Rogue agreed. He slowly grabbed Lucy's hand, checking for signs of her not liking the contact. When she didn't jerk away, he entwined his fingers with hers. "Let's stop here," he said as they passed the park.

The two sat at the bench that Lucy once found him sleeping on. She had recently asked him what he was doing and he said that he sometimes had too bad of memories at his house and needed to get out. She asked him why she hadn't seen Frosch lately, as well, and he told her that he was actually a stray cat that seemed to hang around the park. Sadly, he hadn't come back one day.

"I'm sorry I have been confusing lately," Rogue apologized. He ran his thumb along the back of her hand. "I've been thinking some things over and I know what I want to do now."

Lucy used her free hand, the one that wasn't holding Rogue's, and gently moved his head so he was facing her. She gave him a light kiss at the corner of his mouth before smiling sadly at him. "I'm sorry, too," she said. "I know what I need to do as well."

Lucy stood up and walked away without another word.

Please check out the poll on my profile; it's about what I will do with my time as a writer. I will probably not do much on FanFiction without the responses from the poll!