Disclaimer: The characters belongs to Hiro Mashima

Couldn't let the Stingue week pass by my side, right?

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AU

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Once upon a time, there was a small house in the middle of a big forest. It was placed at a clearing, with a beautiful view of all the evergreen trees surrounding it. Someone could have thought it was a house like any other one, but don't be fooled by shallow overviews because this one was a special house. When you got closer to it, you could see how all of it, its walls and windows, its roof and door, everything, was made of candies.

The walls were made of ginger cookies, and so was the roof which was also covered in white icing. The door was a few shades darker, probably a chocolate cookie crowned with a jawbreaker doorknob. As for the windows, two massive pockys shaped as a cross were placed on each one, caramel curtains obscuring the view from the inside and more icing decorated the window's frame.

The whole house was covered in different kind of candies, in all shapes and flavours. Candy beans were spread all around the roof and the walls, as well as some taffys, meringues and marshmallows. You could easily point out strawberry, peppermint, apple, pineapple and cherry flavoured ones, and also a few tricky ones which you would need to taste to be sure.

A sweet scent filled the whole clearing, its thick tendrils spreading around to attract any traveler who happened to wander close enough to find such a wonder. And those seemed to accomplish their goal, since, a bit after midday, two figures made their way through the forest to the lollipop fenced path that led to the door.

One of them, the better-looking one, quickly moved towards the path that led to the house. His steps soon left the forest's grass to enter the chocolate ground that made the path until the door.

"What are you doing, Sting?" asked the boring one, while the first one busied himself picking lollipops from the fence that surrounded the path.

"What do you think?! Free lollipops! You can't pass up an opportunity like this!" He said, as he kept putting lollipops in his pockets and getting closer to the house's door while he did so.

His friend followed him with caution, eyeing both the house and the surroundings with suspicion. He found the whole situation strange, but nothing had happened yet, so there was no way he could convince Sting to stop stealing candies from the house. The blond had already moved to the walls, and was trying to take away some beans near the door.

"I'm not sure this is hygienic enough." His friend said, trying to at least make him slow down. "Besides you don't know who lives in that house."

Sting turned to look at him, one of the lollipops in his mouth, making it hard to understand his next words.

"Come on, Rogue, no one could live this deep in the forest." Just after the blond said that, the door behind his back opened with a creaky sound.

Both men turned towards it, However, the only one there was a beautiful woman, with long black hair, who greeted them cheerfully.

"Oh, hello, hello! It seems we have visitors! Come in, come in, I'm always happy to have visitors!" The woman opened the door wide, making gestures for both of them to enter. "I have more treats inside!"

Sting, of course, entered the house with no hesitation whatsoever when he heard those words. His friend took a few steps after him, but stopped near the frame. There was something weird with all of this.

"What are you waiting for, Rogue?" The blond said and, with no other option, his friend followed him inside. The door closing behind him made him feel a strange dread, which he disregarded when he saw Sting already sitting at the couch with no need for an invitation. Rogue was about to scold him when the woman talked again.

"Oh, dear, you seem to like my house." She said, moving around to what seemed to be the kitchen. "I built it myself!"

"Oh, did you?" Sting said. "How do you make a house just from candies?"

"Of course! You just need dedication." The woman came back with two bowls, both of them full with even more candies. She gave one to each one, and Sting didn't doubt to dive into his plate with no decency. Rogue wasn't surprised tho, since from what he could see, his bowl was full with white chocolate, sugar coated almonds, mint beans, pineapple gummy bears, and other things Rogue wasn't sure he could identify. Not that it mattered too much, considering how fast they disappeared inside Sting's mouth.

The woman smiled at Rogue, and he looked at his own bowl to avoid her eyes. He may have even eaten some of the candies that were inside. You can't blame him, those looked tasty and way more hygienic that the ones outside.

"Uhm, so what are you-?" He tried to ask, but Sting interrupted him half way into his question.

"Can you give me more of these? They're great!" He said, with a big smile. Rogue wanted to smack him for his rudeness, but the woman just laughed and gave him more things.

"It's not often we have visitors!" she said then, eyeing them with a strange emotion on her gaze. "What are you doing so deep in the forest, my dears?"

"We were traveling and took a shortcut." Sting said, his mouth full of food.

"He made us lose the way." Rogue answered at the same time, with way more propriety.

"So, no one at home waiting for you?" There was, again, a strange flick in her eyes, but it quickly disappeared. "You could stay with me, then. It's very late to be out in the woods, you know?"

"I'm not sure…" Rogue tried, but again, Sting was faster than him.

"Can we get more candies if we stay? I mean, it is late indeed." This time, Rogue actually smacked his head, before trying to apologize to the woman.

"I'm very sorry, please forgive him." He said, utterly embarrassed.

"Ah, no worries dear, I offered, didn't I?" She seemed pleased instead of angry, which was a bit hard for Rogue to understand. She turned to face Sting before adding. "And yeah, of course you can. Would you like something else with them? What can we offer you? Tea, milk, coffee?"

"Milk would be nice, thanks." The blond said, the blow apparently remembering some of his manners. The woman looked at Rogue, and he nodded, to at least take her off their backs for a moment.

She went to the kitchen, and meanwhile Rogue tried to talk some sense into Sting.

"What are you doing?! Don't you think it's at least a bit weird?" He whispered to his friend shaking his shoulder a bit to distract him from the candies.

"Uh? Why should it be?" Was the only answer the blond gave him.

"Because she is too nice and doesn't even know us? And it's a goddamn candy house in the middle of a forest? What about it is not weird?" Rogue tried very hard to keep his voice low enough, to avoid being heard by the woman in the kitchen.

" Oh" Sting thought for a moment. "Now that you say it like that… But it's okay! She's right, it's late. We can leave tomorrow and forget about this."

"I'm still not sure." Rogue sighed with defeat. "But okay. I guess it won't be that bad if it's just one night."

Just as he said that, the woman came back, carrying two big vases filled with white milk.

"Make sure to drink it all, dears. It will help you to… sleep." She smiled as she said it.

Rogue took a small sip of the milk, but there was no weird taste and he didn't die immediately, so he drank it slowly while Sting and the woman talked about nothing interesting. The light died outside the house, and Rogue felt himself yawning. The blond seemed to be tired too, since he was rubbing his eyes and had finally put down the candies bowl. The woman, who still hadn't said her name, showed them a small guest room with two beds.

The beds were a bit small, but since he was a visitor, Rogue didn't have any right to complain. Sting had dropped dead over the bed, and was already snoring when the woman wished them a good night. Rogue thought it would take him some time to actually fall asleep, since he usually had a bit of a routine before going to bed, but not even five minutes later sleep claimed him with no mercy.

He woke up some time later, not sure how many hours had passed, while being half-dragged half-carried out of the room. His mind was fuzzy, so it took him a moment to understand what was wrong with the situation. Once he could focus enough, he felt his blood run cold. The house was dark, it was the middle of the night and someone was dragging his body out of the room. He tried to fight them, but his body failed to do anything else than struggle weakly

"So you are awake. We told you to drink all the milk, bad boy." It was, of course, the woman. Rogue wanted to kick himself for being so stupid, after everything he had said before. He had avoided the candies outside, barely bite a few of the ones offered inside, but when he faced the oldest and most obvious trap in the world, he fell for it.

Then, like a knight in a shiny armor, Sting appeared at the bedroom door, more awake than Rogue would have thought he could be at whatever time in the morning.

"What are you doing?" He said, looking confused and worried about the scene in front of his eyes. He got the drill fast enough, his body already on guard.

"Another bad boy!" The woman screamed. "We were sure you had drunk all my potion! You didn't seem too smart, you know?"

"Of course I didn't drink it. I'm not as naive as some people think I am." Rogue could feel his eyes on him, but carefully ignored them, focusing instead on trying to clear his head and do something.

The woman was very strong, considering how frail she looked. Her arm surrounded his chest with an iron grip, and Rogue wasn't sure how to avoid it. His fuzzy head didn't help, although adrenaline was doing its best to help him with that.

"Let him go." Sting said, taking a step towards them. The woman snarled and an energy bolt appeared on her left hand, the one that wasn't holding Rogue. It attacked the blond, who barely managed to avoid it.

"None of you are leaving here! I'll eat you both to the bones!" Rogue couldn't see what face she was making, but Sting seemed to be horrified enough for both of them. The witch kept dragging his body closer to the stove with every step. Its door was open, and Rogue could see the flames burning inside. The woman was surely prepared enough to accomplish her evil plans.

"Let him go." Sting tried again, following them, but keeping enough distance to avoid more bolts. "We'll leave and no one has to know about this. You can stay in your tasty house."

"We said no one is leaving!" She took a step back, her voice bordering on hysteria.

They were just at the side of the stove and Rogue could feel her grip loosening a bit, surely confident she had already won. His head was clearer than before, so he tried to make a plan. He didn't move just yet, waiting for his chance, as well as giving her a false sense of reassurance. They were short on time, however, so Rogue looked at Sting's eyes, trying to make him understand. There was a flicker in the blue eyes, and then the blond turned his concentration to the witch again. Rogue seriously hoped it would be enough.

Summoning all his strength, he dived down, out of the woman's grip. Her long nails leaving a red trail on his neck and face, but the man didn't have time to care about it. Meanwhile, Sting had charged with all his strength towards the woman, crushing into her and sending her body right into the still open oven.

Rogue caught him from the back before he stumbled inside too, and closed the stove's door as fast as he could. The woman inside screeched, pounding hard at the door, trying to open it. Rogue rested all his body over it, the heat burning his hands, and Sting joined with his own weight over him. The shrieks and pounding didn't stop for a long time, so long that it felt like years for the two men.

Once the witch stopped screaming and the house fell silent, Rogue took a step back and raised his eyes to look at Sting.

"I told you there was something weird."

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Year x799. Sabertooth's Guild Hall.

"And so, the two handsome men defeated the evil witch and burnt the house to ashes." Sting finished his story, getting a few cheers from his audience. Which happened to be two little kids, sitting on the ground in front his chair, as well as half the guild who were pretending to mind their own business while not so subtly eavesdropping on them. Minerva was staring at him, her face not even attempting to hide her annoyance.

One of the kids, the boy, raised his hand and asked.

"Why did the woman want to eat them?" He asked, clearly confused, even if he didn't question it before. "What did she win from doing that?"

"Oh, she ate people for fun. The witch was beautiful, but hid a demon inside." Sting winked toward Minerva, and she huffed before saying to the blond.

"You are lucky the kids are with you." The deadpan voice made Sting shudder, but he kept his playful manners and laughed.

Minerva looked at her nails with feigned indifference, but Sting could see a hidden fondness on her face. Guess the years were softening all of them.

Just a moment later, the guild's door opened and someone entered the hall. It wasn't as if Sting needed to turn around to see who it was, but if he had any doubt, the happy squeals of his children made it clear enough.

Both of them ran towards the door, and Sting moved a bit to watch them make their way. Once they got to the man standing there, they latched onto his legs with no hesitation, raising their face to look at him.

"Daddy!" They screamed with their high pitched voices. "You're back!"

"Hi kids. What a nice welcome! Maybe I should leave for a few days more often." Rogue seemed just a bit surprised, mostly because he wasn't expecting to see the kids at the guild.

"Noooo, we missed you!" The kids pouted at the same time, and Sting muffled a laugh, while Rogue looked more touched than anything else.

"I missed you too. What are you doing here?"

"We came here with Dad!" The boy said proudly.

"He said we could have fun here while we waited for you!" The girl also said, while doing grabbing hands to Rogue.

"Oh?" He lifted both kids, and carried one in each arm. "What did you do while you waited?"

"He told us the story of a candy house! It's was horrible!" The girl said, throwing her arms around her father's neck.

"There was a beautiful evil witch!" The boy added, bouncing a bit on Rogue's arm.

"Really?" The shadow mage asked, a smile on his lips, while he looked at Sting, who was still sitting on the chair, his body twisted to gaze at them.

The sight in front the blond's eyes filled his chest with peace and warmth. Rogue and their children, talking in the guild hall, while their guild mates shared amused looks and pretended to ignore them. Sting sighed content, his chin resting on the chair's back. He couldn't help but get lost in thoughts.

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This is our happily ever after.