Hello, universe! College has started back up, my thought process for my works in progress are still on vacation, yet here I am with another new story! Basically I think I'm trying to kickstart my creative writing process back to life, so this could probably be considered a writing exercise for me.

Oh well! Hope you enjoy!

Sting was on a warpath.

…is what he would've liked to say to describe just how frustrated he was. But pacing the floor back in forth in front of a blackboard in the common area of the top floor of the guild didn't really fit the expression.

Sting couldn't help it though. He had known everything—planned everything with that knowledge, from wake-up time to job hunting to even the second the man would seek his approval to take said job. From there, Sting brought his subordinate out to that crepe stand at a time when hardly anyone would be around for good measure. It was going to be a perfectly normal morning between a guild master and his friend eating crepes before a job while Lector would be hidden with a camera nearby.

Everything was going according to plan…but then a certain bastard decided to blast it to smithereens.

Clearly Sting had every right to be pissed off!

"Right, so what do we know about our resident recluse?" Sting asked.

"No one's ever seen him eat at the guild," Lector supplied. Sting stopped dramatically before the board to scrawl 'NEVER EATS'. "And he wore that mask when we had that pool party, too." 'EVEN SWIMMING' quickly found its place on the board as well.

"And whatever he's hiding made the shop girl go lovey-dovey," Orga snorted. At this, Sting wrote 'APPARENTLY HOT' and furiously underlined it three times. "Jealous much, Sting?"

"I had it all worked out." Sting kept his back to his audience as he held up the chalk with a shaking hand. "I was going to be the first to solve the biggest mystery in this guild—" The White Dragon Slayer whirled on the spot and brandished the chalk at Orga like he was holding a knife. "And you just had to ruin it all, damn it!"

"How the hell was I supposed to know you were going to be in way when the wagon rolled down the road?!" Orga defended.

"We wouldn't be having this problem if you hadn't leaned against it in the first place!" Sting screamed, throwing the chalk at Orga.

In retaliation Orga sent a spark of black lightning at Sting, who ducked and the spell made the blackboard spin between its reverse side and the side he'd been writing on. Sting immediately charged, tackling Orga to the ground as the two were lost in a cloud of smoke and lightning.

Before they knew it, the two were pulled apart from each other and left to dangle as a familiar spiral of magic held them by their ankles. "I wondered why it was so loud out here," Minerva chided as she approached the men. Behind her, Rogue and Frosch came out of their dorm while Rufus surveyed the scene. "I don't suppose the children want to explain why they were fighting?"

Sting and Orga immediately pointed at each other. "He started it!" They both exclaimed.

Minerva closed her eyes and simply sighed. "Typical children."

"What were you doing, Sting?" Rogue stopped at the blackboard as it spun back onto the side Sting had written on. "And who's 'apparently hot'?" he read aloud.

"Evidently someone very attractive if the emphasis is anything to go by," Rufus chuckled, pointing to the three lines Sting had drawn.

"Fro thinks so too."

Sting and Orga grunted as Minerva dropped them in favor of examining the blackboard. "Was the argument over a woman, by any chance?"

"Of course not!" Orga yelled.

"I should hope so, especially not over a woman who never eats," Minerva remarked as she read the top line, "which is incredibly concerning."

"It's not a woman, it's one of our own members." Sting pulled himself to his feet and brushed himself off. "I mean, we see him almost everyday and hasn't anyone ever wondered about it?"

"About what?" Rogue asked.

"Come on, it's the greatest mystery of all!" Lector added.

"Would you like to give more details then?" Rufus inquired curiously.

"Or maybe cut to the chase?" Minerva drawled.

"Fro thinks so too!"

"You all know what it is!" Sting spun the blackboard before he stopped it on its reverse, which displayed a head with the lower half of its face drawn over and question marks surrounding it. "I'm talking about whatever the hell's under Dobengal's mask!"