Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.

It was late afternoon when Lector came knocking on Rogues door, telling him that the Guild Master wanted him to come to his office. Rogue smiled a bit fondly at the Exceeds proud voice when he said "Guild Master", both knowing that neither needed to call him that. In fact, Sting had forbidden them to call him anything associated with master or lord or any other formal naming, saying they were too close for any official titles. Rogue liked to call him that though, teasing Sting was always amusing.

He considered for a moment of changing his clothes, he had not planned on doing anything that would take him outside of his chambers so he was casually dressed in a black short sleeved T-shirt and simple pants, also black. But he decided against it since it was only Sting, he probably wanted some help with the constant load of paper work. Sting was a great Guild Master but paper work wasn't really his style, so Rogue helped him out as much as he could.

He was surprised though when he entered Stings office, without knocking, and found not only Sting, but also Yukino, Rufus and Orga inside. Lector joined Frosch were he sat on Stings desk, both looking suspiciously pleased with themselves, and Rogue looked around at the people gathered, trying not to act too self-conscious about the fact that he was so poorly dressed. He didn't mind Sting seeing him like this, but he had a reputation to keep up and it didn't fit well into his character to waltz around in sweats. When Sting didn't immediately say something he looked over to where his partner was seated behind his desk and noticed that Sting didn't quite seem like himself. For one thing he didn't sport the usual grin he always had, but there was something stiff around his shoulders as well, and Rogue didn't think it had anything to do with paperwork.

"Is something wrong?" Rogue asked when it seemed like nobody else was going to offer him an explanation. "Sting?"

Sting had been looking down at a paper lying on the desk and from the looks of it, trying to make it disappear. Rufus coughed discretely into his hand and Rogue noticed for the first time since he entered the room that the others were looking down at the floor with expressions on their faces that couldn't be described by anything other than amused. Feeling self-conscious again Rogue repeated his question once more, a little more force behind it this time.

"A new job application came in today," Sting said at last, his voice a little less cheerful than usual. Rogue decided, with a frown, that Sting sounded a bit nervous. Sting was never nervous, he was confidence embodied.

"A rather specific application," Orga added, smiling smugly at Rogue before a nudge from Yukino made him regain his earlier expression of faint amusement.

"Oh?" Rogue said, "Is there a problem, can´t we do it?" The question was directed at Sting but it was Rufus who answered.

"Oh you can do it all right." His smile matching the one Orga had plastered on his face.

Rogue felt his face heat up a bit, although he wasn't entirely sure why. Rufus answer had been innocent enough, stating that yes, Sabertooth could complete the job, but there was something in his voice that made Rogue question if his answer really had been that innocent.

"Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?" Rogue exclaimed, his frustration and discomfort over the fact that nobody would tell him anything turning his voice into an angry growl.

"They are asking for a picture of the Twin Dragon Slayers kissing."

Rogue didn't register who was finally giving him some answers because his mind had gone blank at the word kissing. This had to be some sick joke, he thought to himself. Maybe someone has found out how you really feel about your partner and is trying to make you spit it up, a little voice said in his mind. He swallowed hard at the thought, no that couldn't be true because he hadn't told anyone about it, not even Frosch, except … Levy. He was going to kill her, he decided.

The fact that she knew was only accidental, they had hung out a bit when he and Sting visited Fairy Tail, since Gajeel almost never left her side there was no choice but to befriend her too. He had been surprised to find that they had quite a bit in common, both being booklovers, but he had not taken in consideration that her ability to read could extend to people as well. He had concealed his feelings for Sting for so long that he didn't think anyone was ever going to find out and then Levy had confronted him and that illusion had gone quickly away. She had been supportive, a bit too much sometimes, and had tried to coax him into telling Sting more than once, but so far she hadn't succeeded. Now that he thought about it, the voice who had whispered in his mind sounded an awfully lot like Levy. He realized he had been silent a bit long when he felt all the eyes in the room on him, all except Sting who was still staring at the piece of paper intently. Trying to calm his furiously fluttering heart and swallowing his emotions he asked what he had been thinking.

"Is this a joke?" His voice didn't sound as bad as he had thought, he had almost believed it wouldn't bare and all he would do was croak. Maybe it was a joke and they could laugh at it all and he could return to his room and his misery and nobody would know.

"No." Sting said, opening his mouth at last. Rogues heart constricted painfully, his mind could yell at him all it wanted but reason wasn't going to erase the part of him that wanted that one kiss so badly. "You can read the application yourself," Sting said and handed him the paper he had been glaring at so fiercely, their eyes met for a second before Sting looked away. Rogue realized then that Sting didn't want to do it, he really didn't want to, perhaps it even disgusted him. It wasn't as if Rogue had thought he would have wanted to but it still stung and all he wanted to do was leave and not come back. But he could never do that. He loved Sting too much. Keeping his mind from winding down that depressing road he focused on the application instead. It wasn't long, it only stated that the client wanted a picture of the Twin Dragon Slayers kissing. Then Rogue saw what they offered in payment and he felt his jaw fall slack at the amount of zeroes.

"I see you have noticed the salary is pretty generous," Sting said drily, although Rogue could hear a small trace of humour lacing his voice.

"Do you know who ordered it?" Rogue said, not that he thought Levy would have just openly handed Sting this request.

"No," Sting said, "And honestly I´m not sure I want to know what kind of person would order something like this." Rogues heart fell more at that, Sting was disgusted with the whole ordeal.

"Well, it's not like we have to do it, we turn down jobs all the time," Rogue said lightly, trying not to think about the salary or how Stings lips would feel against his own.

"But the salary man! And it´s not that big of a deal, you practically sleep in the same bed already," Orga said and Rogue couldn't help but agree, but he would never do anything that would make Sting uncomfortable. He was about to say something but Sting beat him to it.

"I agree," Sting said and tried to make his tone light and undisturbed, "We can´t say no to a payment that big, it would be insane."

"You want to do it?" Rogue said, not a little surprised. His belly clenched in anticipation.

"It´s just a kiss," Sting answered. Maybe to Sting, Rogue thought. But it would mean so much more for him. Sting rose then from his seat and walked into the room so that he stood closer to Rouge. Not kissing close, but feet almost touching close. He could hear Rufus not so discreet cough again and tried to block out Orga's big grin.

"Is it really necessary for them to be here?" Rogue asked tensely. Normally he barely ever touched anybody in public and now he was supposed to kiss someone in front of them?

"Someone has to take the picture," Rufus said innocently and lifted a camera that had been hidden behind him.

"You need to be three to do that?" Rogue said, forcing the words out of his closed mouth, his eyebrows raised. Orga just smiled sweetly and Yukino kept her stare on the floor, clearly stating that they were not going anywhere soon.

Before he could force them out he felt a hand hugging his bicep, the touch immediately identified by Rogues brain as Sting. He shifted his gaze to him instead and wished he hadn't; Sting was looking at him with those impossibly blue eyes, his face oh so familiar, it was extremely distracting. He was usually good at hiding it, but during this circumstance he had lifted some of his restrictions and he was starting to get carried away.

"Ignore them," Sting said. He laid his other hand on Rogues other arm and stepped a tiny bit closer, their knees almost touching before Sting shifted so that he had one leg on either side of Rogues left one. He was close enough that Rogue could feel his breath mingling with his own, the smell of him overwhelming at such close distance. "You can think of something else," Sting said before he closed the distance between their mouths.

Rogues initial reaction was shock, he had not expected it so soon, had Rufus even been prepared with the camera? But then he let himself feel and god did it feel good. Sting's lips were feather light on his own, almost as if he was afraid he would break, and he could feel Stings hands tightening on his arms. Then Sting seemed to gain confidence, or he realized, just as Rogue had, that a small peck wasn't what the client wanted. The kiss turned more fierce, Stings hands moving from his arms to his neck, keeping him steady, and before he could stop himself Rogue did what he hoped Sting wanted, opened his mouth. Sting had his tongue out a moment later, meeting Rogues inside his mouth, their lips moving against each other almost fervently and Rogue could feel one of Sting's sharpened incisors biting into his lips. He almost groaned at the pleasure coursing through his body, making his body deliciously warm. But before he could step closer, taking this to a much more dangerous but pleasurable road Sting dropped his hands and stepped away. Rogue realized with a start that he had forgotten about the others, had forgotten about the mission – he had been too caught up in Sting. He wanted to disappear through the earth, he could feel his throat clog up painfully and he tried to calm his ragged breathing and rapidly beating pulse, no doubt in his mind that Sting could hear it with their enhanced hearing. He only dared a quick glance at the others direction, noticing Yukinos slightly blushed cheeks and Orgas and Rufus content smiles, before looking down at the floor. He didn't dare glance in the Exceeds direction, Frosch could probably read his face well enough to understand, and he defiantly didn't look at Sting.

"Did you get a picture?" Rogue heard Sting ask, voice controlled, as if nothing had happened. Rogues heart clenched painfully, it hadn't meant a thing to him, it was just a job done and a good amount of money earned.

"Yes," Rufus answered, "Do you want to see?"

"No it´s fine, could you send it for me?" Sting said and went back to his chair, putting his feet on his desk as if he didn't have a single care in the world.

"Are we done here? Can I leave?" Rogue interrupted whatever answer Rufus was about to give.

"Yes, you can leave if you want," Sting answered, Rogue keeping his stare into nothing, doing everything in his power not to look over at Sting. It would only make it worse. He turned quickly and was out the door before Sting had even completed the sentence.

With hurried steps he made his way through the guild to his chambers, completing with himself whether he was going to call Levy before or after he had put his heart together. Considering the pain in his chest, Rogue guessed the time it would take to mend was far longer than any of them was going to live, and so the answer was made. He picked up the small lacrima stashed on the table in the living room he shared with Sting and brought it into his bedroom where he sat down comfortably on his bed before calling on Levy. Her face almost instantly popped up on the small screen and his earlier suspicion about her being the source of the mission increased when he saw the nervous, and a little smug, expression on her face.

"Please don't kill me," she said as a way of greeting, her small hands coming up to protect her body, as if he could do anything through the lacrima anyway.

"I knew it was you," he said, narrowing his eyes at her, "I thought I had made it clear that I didn't want any advice or help."

"I´m sorry, I …" Levy began before she paused, having finally actually looked at him. He probably looked like a wreck.

"What did you think it would accomplish, huh?" He asked before she could say anything comforting and hear her pity. He didn't want pity. "It didn't mean a thing, it was just another job – with a lot more money than usual. It only made it worse because now I know how it would be, if he loved me back." He said the last part quietly, as if that would make it less true or making it hurt less.

"Oh Rogue, I really am sorry," she whispered and he saw her eyes glinting with tears, as if she could feel his pain too. "It wasn't me though."

His mind was so filled up with hurt and the traitorous thoughts reliving the kiss that he didn't register what she was saying at once. "Wait, what did you say?"

"I promised you I wouldn't do anything about it and I haven't, even though I still think you should tell him," she added with a pointing glare before continuing, "Actually I´m pretty hurt you thought I would use a plan with that many flaws, I mean that sum of money is ridiculously and impossibly high."

"But if you knew about it, why didn't you stop it? And who the hell else know about my …" he couldn't get the words out, but he thought she would get the message anyway.

"Do you know how difficult it is to say no to those big Exceed eyes? Especially when clad in a frog costume with tears in his eyes wanting to make his favourite person happy? I can tell you, although I think you already know."

"Frog costume?" he asked stupidly before realization cleared his fogged mind. "Frosch did this?" He asked disbelievingly. He loved his Exceed and had much faith in him, but if he was being completely honest his little friend could be a little absent minded sometimes and foremost; he didn't have the attention span to come up with something like this.

"He got some help from your partner's cat of course, they came to the guild asking for help about how to post a mail, and Lily and I helped them out."

"They went all the way to Fairy Tail to get help? Why didn't they ask anyone here?" he asked before realizing what she had said about Lily. "Wait, how and why did Lily get involved?"

"They said something about the other members of your guild being either too shy or too excited of making you do it, and they wanted them to be as surprised as you, so they wouldn't make you suspicious. They have given this some hard thought, I must say," she said warmly, before answering his last question. "He knows as much as your Exceeds, which is nothing. Apparently they have caught some "vibes", as Lector put it, and wants you to follow them. It doesn't apply to you only, the letter were as much for Sting as it was for you."

The innuendo she was trying to make didn't pass him, but he wasn't as excited about it as she seemed to be. The Exceeds probably just wanted them to be a family, and didn't understand the feelings underneath. He sighed deeply, turning his head away from the small lacrima screen. Levy would without doubt see the agony he was in if he faced her for another second and he couldn't stand the pity. He had always been a secluded person, never one to show feelings in public. The only ones who had seen him drop his mask were the Exceeds and Sting. A rustle in the corner of his eyes made him startle, for a second forgetting about his stupid feelings, until he recognized the familiar scent. Dread spread through his body, pulsing wildly, tightening his throat. He heard Levy exclaim a small "Oh" when she saw Sting as he emerged by the shadows of the door, and he quickly shut the lacrima off, promptly staring at a point located by Stings feet. He didn't dare look him in the eyes.

"How long have you been standing there?" he asked, voice strained.

"A while," Sting said. Rogue could feel his eyes on him, but he still wouldn't look up.

"How much did you hear?"

Rogue knew the answer, felt it in the hesitant manner Sting had and he wasn't sure he actually wanted an answer. He knew he didn't want to have this conversation and he wished he could escape into the shadow. But he couldn't, he was immobile on the bed, paralyzed by the dread coursing through his body.

"A little. Some. All of it."

Sting hadn't meant to listen in, he was merely following Rogue back to his room because there had been something there when they had kissed and Sting was both afraid and oddly excited about the whole ordeal. They had always been close, they weren't called twins for nothing, but he had never thought of their relationship as anything else than normal. Until this stupid job came in and Sting had anticipated it, wanted it, and when their lips connected it had felt as if he was home, safe and incredibly hot all over. It had taken all his self-control to break away, reminding himself of Rogues dislike of touching, even though a small voice in his head kept telling him that Rogue hadn't been all that resisting. Afterwards he had tried to act uncaring but seeing the dishevelled look on his partners face made up his mind about following him. And now, hearing the conversation between Levy and Rogue he felt as if he could breathe, his mind crystal clear, the air light in his body. He loved him. But he also saw Rogues unease, and although all he wanted was to pick up from where they left of, he had to make sure Rogue was comfortable first.

"Our Exceeds seems to have gone all out on this one," he said, trying to sound causal as he slowly made his way over to where Rogue was sitting on the side of the bed, hands clutching the covers tightly, and his eyes on his lap. He sat down, keeping his distance, resisting the urge to grasp Rogues chin and forcing him into facing him.

"Rogue," he said instead, "is it true, what you said? About us, me?" Sting was dismayed to hear his voice waver a little, if there was something he prided himself on it was his confidence, but it seemed he was slightly nervous. If he could just look at me.

Rogue looked up, the blood pulsating in his ears not loud enough to drown out the sound of Stings voice, and he was almost certain there had been uncertainty imbedded in his words. When he finally let his eyes meet his partners the intensive blue hue and fire burning in them made him slightly breathless and he almost lost himself in them. Then he saw Stings grin widen and he felt himself blush, but before he could look away Stings calloused hand reached forward and grabbed his chin gently.

"Is it true?" Sting asked again, more urgently this time.

"You heard it yourself," he whispered, carefully watching Stings face for any sign of disgust, but he didn't find anything of the likes. There was only Sting smiling at him, the fire in his eyes and his gentle hand on his chin.

"I want to hear it directly from you," Sting whispered back, releasing his grip on his chin, but only to move it onto his neck, the touch strikingly familiar from their kiss earlier. It felt like years ago. All he wanted was to do it again. And again. So Rogue gathered his courage and told him.

"I love you."

That was all Sting needed to hear before closing the gap between them, brushing a light kiss on Rogues lips, asking for permission before crushing his lips almost painfully against Rogues, nudging Rogues mouth open with his tongue, all the pent up desire in his body finally being released. Sting nudged Rogue back on the bed, climbing after to straddle him over the waist. Rogue let his hand wander at the sides of his partner, while Sting continued to press heated kisses along his jaw and down to his neck where Rogue could feel Stings slightly sharpened incisors marking him. Stings hands moved to take out the ponytail in Rogues hair, he wanted to see it fanned out underneath him, while both of them tugged at the others clothes, longing to have no more obstacles between their bodies. After that it was all a blissful blur, their hips grinding, exploring each other's mouths and bodies, pleasure building and then coming crushing down as they reached their peaks.

"I think we owe our Exceeds big time," Sting said when their breaths was starting to turn normal and their pulses had calmed down somewhat.

"We´ll let them decide what to eat for the rest of the year," Rogue agreed.

He turned his head and met the stare of his partner and he could almost not believe it. But then he felt Stings hand intertwine with his own and when Sting smiled his familiar grin he couldn't help but smiling back.