Chapter Text
“Oh man, this is pathetic. A week of hard travel and these guys aren’t even a challenge,” Sting asked as their latest challengers fell to the ground.
“Anybody else? These guys are beneath us…Literally.” Lector called out, smirking at the scene in front of him.
It had taken them much longer than planned to reach the capital, and almost as soon as they reached the city people had started challenging them to pointless duels. None of them had stood a change.
“Fro-Sama!”
Sting and Rogue stood up from their last duelist dusting themselves off as a pink haired man crawled through the crowd to them.
“You!”
“Natsu Dragneel,” Rogue drawled out, crossing his arms.
“Cats!” The blue cat with him crawled out.
“What’s with this stupid looking cat?” Lector muttered, staring at it.
“They talk!”
“Who the hell are you!?” Natsu called out, staring at them.
“Hey! Haven’t you heard of Sabretooth’s twin dragon slayers, Sting and Rogue!” One of the audience members called out, causing Sting to smirk a bit.
“They’re the cornerstone of Fiore’s strongest guild!”
“Then these two are Sabretooth, huh,” Natsu muttered to himself.
“Rumor has it that you’re gonna be in the Grand Magic Games. Is that true,” Sting asked, walking towards him.
“You know about me?” Natsu asked, sounding a bit surprised.
“Acnologia,” Sting said simply.
Natsu grimaced a bit.
“You’re the dragon slayer who couldn’t slay a dragon, right?” Sting sneered, getting in Natsu’s face. “Are you sure you should keep calling yourself a dragon slayer?”
Sting straightened himself back up as Rogue watched quietly.
“You know, I jused to look up to you. Incidently, this guy was into Gajeel,” Sting said, amused as he gestured to Rogue.
“I was just interested as a fellow dragon slayer,” Rogue muttered stiffly.
“Dragon Slayer? Both of you?” Natsu asked.
“Maybe you oughta call us true dragon slayers. We would have beaten Acnologia.”
“That’s easy for you to say when you’ve never laid eyes on Acnologia,” a young blond girl cried out angrily.
“That’s right!” said the cat.
“You don’t seem too bright, cat.” Lector said to him.
“Lector is smart right?”
“It doesn’t matter if we’ve seen it nor not. The point here is our aptitude as dragon slayers.” Sting told him.
Natsu stood up, seeming to be interested in what Sting was saying.
“I’ll explain,” Lector cut in. “You and the other two are first generation dragon slayers, having learned from dragons. Laxus and Cobra from Oracion Seis got their powers from lacrimas, becoming second generation dragon slayers. Sting and Rogue were raised by dragons, but also have a dragon lacrima inside their bodies. They are third generation dragon slayers.”
“Third generation,” Natsu echoed.
“IN other words, they are the strongest of dragon slayers,” Lector said proudly.
“Strong dragon slayers you say,” Natsu asked, as if it were a challenge.
“There’s a world of difference in ability between the second and third generation. It’s not even worth talking about,” Lector said dryly.
“Did your dragons disappear in the year 777, too.”
“Well in a manner of speaking,” Sting told him.
“I’ll give it to you straight. The dragons who taught us dragon slayer magic were slain by our own hand, so we could become true dragon slayers,” Rogue told him coldly.
“You killed dragons,” The blond asked in disbelief.
“Humans killing dragons,” the cat asked in surprise.
“You murdered your own parents?!” Natsu asked them in anger.
“Well if we get to fight each other during the games, I’ll show you the power that can slay a real dragon,” Sting told him with a smirk.
“Let’s go. I’m not interested in the older generation,” Rogue told him turning away.
“Both the outdated dragon slayer and his companion are lame-os.” Lector called out.
“Fro-sama!”
Sting and Rogue walked away, disappearing into the crowd quickly, and Sting put his hand on Rogue’s shoulder slowly, looking at the other dragon slayer in concern.
“You alright?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“It’s not like you to mention our dragons so casually,” Sting commented, frowning at Rogue shrugged his hand off his arm.
“It’s true, isn’t it? We’re dragon slayers, and we slayed the dragons. That’s what we do. If Natsu Dragneel doesn’t understand that, then he’s not much of a dragon slayer is he? Which explains why he couldn’t slay Acnologia.”
Sting paused, before following Rogue slowly. While he agreed that dragon slayers were meant to slay dragons, it didn’t sound like something Rogue would ever say. He knew how much having to kill Weislogia had haunted Rogue. The other dragon slayer still had nightmares about that day. It wasn’t like him to go bragging about killing the dragon who had raised him. He barely ever spoke about their dragons.
“Sting! Rogue! There you guys are! Everyone was worried.”
Sting groaned as he recognized the voice. Of course Yukino would hunt them down.
Rogue turned to her with a frown before gesturing to Sting.
“This one drug us into a job that was a lot more difficult than it sounded on the request board.”
“All the request said was they wanted their village to be protected. How was I supposed to know a hundred or so Vulcans would show up?!”
“A hundred Vulcans?!”
“Something like that,” Rogue muttered, shifting his bag on his shoulder. “Is the hotel nearby? I am exhausted. It feels like we’ve been walking for ages.”
“Yeah, it’s only a couple of blocks away. I’ll show you.” She told him with a small smile, leading him down the street.
Rogue picked up the pace, following behind her with Frosch perched on his shoulder.
Sting gaped after them for a bit, before looking down at Lector.
“Dude, Rogue said he wasn’t interested in her right?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Then why does it feel like I was just ditched?”
“Cause, you kinda were.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. He…just forgot I was standing here.”
“You gonna be okay Sting?”
“Yeah…yeah, we better catch up to them so we can find the hotel.” He muttered, sniffing the air to catch Yukino and Rogue’s scents.
He wasn’t sure why the other dragon slayer had just left them behind, but he was definitely going to find out.
“You okay Rogue? You seem a bit out of sorts.”
“Yeah, I just haven’t been sleeping well is all.”
“Is it anything I can help you with?” Yukino asked, looking at him in concern.
“No. I’m just having some really weird dreams.” He told her, giving her a small smile. “I’ll be okay.”
“Good. By the way, I should tell you. The rule book this year says we have to be in our hotel rooms by midnight. No one really knows why. Jiemma was getting really upset about you guys not being here. Especially since I’m already filling in for Minerva.”
“Well, we’re here now. And really, you’ll be find. You’re a very talented magician.”
“Thanks Rogue,” She said softly, cheeks turning pink.
Rogue shrugged, picking Frosh up as they walked into the hotel.
“Our rooms are upstairs. Jiemma has you and Sting rooming together, as usual. I assume that’s okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Rogue asked her raising an eyebrow.
“Well, I know you two are pretty inseparable,” She said softly, causing Rogue to turn and look at her. “N..not that there’s anything wrong with that! You know I’m not upset with that. I just wasn’t sure if things had changed recently….”
“Nothing happened when we were gone,” Rogue told her dryly, beginning to walk up the stairs.
“What do you mean nothing happened!?”
“Exactly what I said. Nothing happened between us. It never came up. I guess you were wrong.”
“Never came up? Or you never brought it up?”
“If Sting had feelings for me, he would have told me by now.”
“Not if he thought you weren’t interested! Rogue, you need to tell him!”
“Why do you even care Yukino?” He asked turning to her, throwing his hand in the air in frustration.
“Because! You’re my friend and I you to be happy?”
“Well, you know what would make me happy right now? You showing me to our rooms so I can get some rest. I’m exhausted.”
Yukino grumped under her breath showing Rogue to a room down the hall where he promptly shut the door in her face.
“There you are! I was wondering where you disappeared to!”
Sting paused at the base of the steps biting back a groan. Didn’t she ever go away?
“Well you two took off pretty quickly. I didn’t want to interrupt anything personal.”
Yukino rolled her eyes walking up to him.
“You already know it wasn’t anything like that.”
“Do I?” Sting asked, raising an eyebrow. “Really? Because it’s certainly getting hard to tell.”
“My god, you two are ridiculous!” Yukino cried throwing her hands in the air.
“What the hell does that mean?!”
“It means what I said. You two are beyond ridiculous. Pining over each other like this intead of just talking! Why is it so hard for you two just to having a conversation!?”
“I’m not pining over anyone.”
“Are you sure about that? Cause I’m pretty sure you are.”
“Well you’re wrong. Where is Rogue anyway?”
“Sleeping I assume. He went up to your guys’ room as soon as he got here and locked himself in. He said something about not sleeping well.”
“He told you about his nightmares?” Sting asked.
“Well, he just said he had some really weird dreams and it was affecting his sleep,” she said with a frown. “It wasn’t anything very specific.”
“That’s one way to describe it.” Sting muttered. “He was up screaming every night. Has for a few nights now. He won’t talk about them.”
“That sounds awful.”
“Maybe I should check on him,” he said softly, heading up the stairs.
“Sting, you’ll wake him up. If he’s sleeping as poorly as you say, he needs all the sleep he can get.”
Sting frowned, looking away from her. He knew she was right, but he didn’t want to admit it to her.
“You mean I should leave him alone?”
“Look. I know you care about Rogue. More than you admit, or at least more than you realize but waking him up won’t do you any good. Sit with me and talk.”
“What in the hell would you want to talk to me about?”
“Your feelings for Rogue.”
Sting gaped at her. He was sure it wasn’t a very attractive look, he was sure. But he couldn’t believe those things just came out of her mouth.
“What are you talking about? I don’t have feelings for Rogue.”
“Really? Cause the way you react to him sure suggests the exact opposite.”
“What reactions?”
“Oh I don’t know…Your jealously over our friendship? The bond between you two? The way you don’t want to be around anyone but him. Listen, I didn’t want to say anything and I’m sure Rogue will be angry I did, but it’s obviously upsetting him.”
Sting stared at her in confusion.
“Yukino…Dragon slayers don’t develop feelings like that for people. We have mates. There’s only one person in the world we’ll ever have feelings for. It’s just how things are.”
“Unless you’re trying to tell me you’ve already found that one person, or that dragon slayers can’t be mates of each other, I don’t see why that matters.”
“I…” Sting opened and shut his mouth. For once he didn’t have any response to give her. “I’m just gonna go lay down.”
“Sting!” Yukino called after him as he walked the rest of the way up the stairs, but he ignored her, following Rogue’s scent to what he assumed would be their shared room.
"So, any guesses on why we all have to be ready for this years games at midnight," Yukino asked as they all gathered in common room of their hotel suite.
"Who knows," Sting muttered sitting in a chair next to the window Rogue was standing at.
Rogue still hadn't said much to him since he'd woken up. He was beginning to think that Rogue was angry at him over something, but he was almost too scared to ask. Something seemed pretty off between the two of them since they'd left on their jobs.
"Hey, Rogue," he started quietly.
"Yeah?"
Sting opened his mouth, unsure what he was going to lead with when a loud voice cut him off.
“Everyone in the guilds who has gathered for the Grand Magic Games, Good Morning!”
Sting paused, his eyes widening as he took in the sight outside of their window. He knew the Grand Magic Games could get a bit extreme, but he had never seen Mato floating in the sky, blown up to enormous proportions.
“What the hell are they doing this year,” he muttered, walking to the window with Rogue.
“Beginning now, we’re going to take the 113 participating teams and have an elimination round to pare them down to 8!”
“113 guids?! I didn’t even know that many guilds existed in Fiore!” Yukino gasped walking over to them, causing Sting to grit his teeth.
“Every year the number of guilds increases, and it was pointed out that the events were getting stale. This year, there will only be eight teams competing in the official games.”
“If memory serves, he has mentioned that already.”
“You know how Mato gets. His mind runs away with him in the excitement,” Orga said, patting Rufus on the back.
“The elimination rules are simple,” the pumpkin continued, as he pointed towards them.
Sting held his hands out to balance himself as the floor of the room began to shake as if they were experiencing an earth quake.
“What in the hell?” Rogue exclaimed.
“What’s going on?” Yukino exclaimed.
“The goal is the games arena Dormis Flau. The first eight teams to arrive there will go on. You’re free to use your magic,” the pumpkin stated as stairways began appearing, connecting to the windows of hotel rooms throughout the city. “But remember! Only the first eight teams to get to the gal will survive this round. However, all five members must arrive together or it doesn’t count.”
“Floating maze in the middle of the sky, full of wizards who want to show off? What could possible go wrong,” Rogue muttered under his breath. “I swear who ever designs these games has lost his mind.”
“And one more thing! We take no responsibility for lives lost in the labyrinth!”
“They’re joking, right?” Yukino gasped.
“Yukino, it’s okay.”
“But…he just said…”
“He’s just trying to get people interested. No one is going to die in the maze.” Rogue assured her.
“If memories serves properly, and we know it does, no one has died in the Grand Magic Games in the seven years they’ve been held.”
“What if he’s not just runnin’ his mouth,” Sting asked, raising an eyebrow, turning to the others. The mascot had said that people were losing interest in the games. He wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to shake things up by making them more dangerous.
Rogue opened his mouth to respond, but closed it turning back to the window.
“That’s actually a good point.”
Sting fought the very confusing urge to preen understand the praise turned to the others.
“Then it’s going to be an interesting week,” Rufus said with a small smirk.
“The Grand Magic Games Elimination Round: Sky Labyrinth Begin!”