Let Your Heart Be Light

"Yukino?" Sting walked over to her with concern, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Yukino sniffled, "I'll be fine, I'm sure you have better things to do than listen to me."

"Not at all, come on let's go to my office so we can talk." And with that, he led her back to the room he had just exited.

"This is so embarrassing, " Yukino grabbed a tissue from Sting's desk and blew her nose daintily.

"Don't be ridiculous, we're friends," Sting smiled at her encouragingly, "You can tell me anything."

"It's about Minerva," Yukino was suddenly shy as her cheeks flushed.

"Minerva?" Sting was confused, "What about her?"

"I think I might like her...."

Sting stared at his friend open-mouthed, he had not been expecting that at all. He would have to handle this delicately.

O-o

"How did you do that?" Rogue asked, mouth agape in wonder at how in a short time Minerva had managed to create what had taken him hours to attempt, and hers looked even better than the picture.

Minerva shrugged, "A lot of practice I guess, it's not like I get invited out a lot. People are still scared of me."

"Just give them time, soon they'll see you the way Sting and I do," Rogue assured her.

"If you say so," Minerva didn't seem convinced, but she also didn't look very bothered by it.

"Well, this looks amazing, and your food is always delicious," Rogue complimented her, "If the whole magic thing doesn't work out, you could probably open a restaurant. If nothing else it would make your father roll over in his grave.

They both laughed at the thought.

"Are you doing anything for ambiance?" Minerva asked as she looked around the spartan apartment.

Rogue looked around too with a slight flush to his cheeks, they hadn't had it for long, and with Sting taking on the role of Master and most of their jewels going into rebuilding the guild, he knew it was quite bare.

"No need to look so embarrassed, Rogue, " Minerva commented as she thought. "You don't need much, you guys have some candles?"

"Oh yeah, we've been having some power issues, and Sting gets tired of glowing all the time, " Rogue snickered.

Minerva giggled, "Well that's all you need then!"

O-o

After a long talk with Yukino about her feelings and how she might best be able to let Minerva know about them, Sting was beginning to feel tired. Surely, he could go home now, he thought, but before they'd even gotten to the door of his office, there was a knock.

"Come in," Sting said with a sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

He groaned when Rufus came in carrying some paperwork that needed correcting.

"Oh come on, are you sure we can't do it tomorrow?" Sting whined.

"You agreed to do it today, and this batch is due tomorrow." Rufus reminded him.

"I have no memory of saying such a thing," Sting retorted earning him a surprised look from the Memory Make mage that slowly turned into an amused smile.

"Fine fine, let's get it over with."

O-o

"Everything smells great," Rogue complimented Minerva, "You didn't have to make us dinner too, you know. I was just going to order out."