Sting has a dream about the bad moments in his past and wakes up feeling sick, Rogue is there for him. Angst at first, but then it turns into comfort floof
Thanks for the request ShadowOfNight666 I hope its okay that I had Sting having the nightmare instead of Rogue! I just didn't wanna over play the future rouge shadow trope. Also this kind of doubles for Stingue week so it's two birds with one stone! Hope you enjoy!
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Dreamers.
That's what they were. Two little boys with dreams too big for their own heads. How they'd dreamed of being like their mentors. Natsu. Gajeel. Both dragon slayers like them, but also unlike them.
Natsu and Gajeel did not have dragon lacrimas. That's why Acnologia had defeated them. Sting and Rogue would never be defeated by a dragon, for they had dragon lacrimas. They had obtained those magic lacrimas from the the dragons they had slain, Weisslogia and Skiadrum. The weight of that sin heavy on their shoulders.
"They were your parents." Natsu had snarled at them.
Parents or not they were dragons, and it was a dragon slayers job to kill dragons. It was their strength. Even if those lacrimas, that strength, had come with a terrible price.
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"B-but I don't wanna kill you!" Sting had cried, shaking his head fiercely. "I don't wanna!"
Weisslogia smiled down at him, age old eyes twinkling knowingly. "I know you don't, but you must. Those who bathe in dragon blood become stronger, and strength will protect you. It's a cruel world out there, Sting."
"The only thing that's cruel right now is you!" Stings screamed at him, pounding his fists against the dragon's scales, salty tears streaming down his face. He'd hated those tears. He'd loathed them, how they made him feel weak and powerless.
"Kill me, Sting." Weisslogia had ordered, and like a good soldier, Sting had done as told. He'd killed Weisslogia, the only father he had ever known, dead at his hands.
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Weisslogia had been the most powerful being Sting knew, and now he was dead.
Natsu had been his idol, and now he was dead. Slain by Acnologia.
The little boy let out a guttural scream and punched a tree. Screaming and screaming and screaming. Punching and punching and punching.
"S-sting? What's wrong?" Lector had asked, half hiding behind an outcropping of bricks.
Sting halted his assault, shaking from head to toe, meaty fists caked in blood and splinters. His throat was scraped raw and his eyes burned. Weisslogia had been right -the world was cruel, especially to those that were not strong.
"You just gotta get back up, Sting." A flash of pink hair and a troublemaker grin that radiated warmth. "No matter what, you always get back up. Don't let anything keep you down."
"But you let Acnologia keep you down." Sting thought bitterly, and kicked a rock. "Hypocrite."
Natsu Dragneel, the Salamander himself. Exterminated with the rest of Fairy Tail. Because they weren't strong enough.
He turned back to Lector, smile almost a perfect image of the ones from his past, except this smile didn't reach his eyes. "It's alright. I was just upset. I'm over it now."
Lector didn't look like he believed it, and neither did Sting. The young dragon went over and took the cat's paw in his hand. "I'll just have to find another way to prove myself. For you Lector. No one will ever call us liars again.
"Yeah!" Lector fist pumped his fist in the air. "We'll prove them all wrong!"
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"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Jiemma roared. "You call that magic? Show me the power of dragons you're always bragging about you brat!"
Images flashed through the Sting's head, Weisslogia's dead body, his wings crumpled, his white scales stained red. He was gone. A newspaper article, Fairy Tail Disappears After Apocalypse Dragon Attacks! They were gone. Jiemma looming over him, voice booming. "WEAKLING!!" That boy was gone. Only Sting remained, one half of the Sabertooth's twin dragons.
"I will." White power surged and blasted into his enemies, bodies littered across the ground. Life gone.
Everything was gone.
Weisslogia. Natsu. Even himself. Gone, gone, gone.
The whole world shook, the ground titling beneath his feet, a familiar voice calling out to him, calling his name. "Sting!"
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Sapphire eyes snapped open and he flew upwards, his forehead nearly colliding with Rogue's, who had luckily dodged in time.
A sheen of cool sweat coated his skin, and Sting shivered, repressed memories still echoing in his head. Weisslogia's death, Natsu disappearing, Jiemma screaming at him, telling him what a brat he was and how he would never be a real man.
A calloused hand rested on his shoulder. "Its okay, Sting it was just a dream." Rogue told him, ruby eyes searching out sapphires, but Sting refused to look at them. "Just a dream."
A god awful dream. Bile rose in his throat and Sting pressed his arms into his stomach. He was gonna be sick.
He ran for the bathroom attached to the bedroom, throwing the door open and falling to his knees in front of the toilet as the content of his stomach surged up his throat. He vomited, over and over again, not knowing whether his blurry vision was from nausea or tears.
Rogue was there a moment later, on his knees next to Sting and rubbing circles into his back. "I've gotcha. Just let it out."
Vomit and tears splashed into the toilet bowl, Sting fingers white knuckling the rim as he rode out the waves. Eventually his stomach had nothing left to give and Sting was just trembling on the bathroom floor. Pathetic. A voice snarled in his head, but Sting was too exhausted to deal with it.
"Sting?" Rogue asked, tentatively. Their face full of concern. When Sting didn't reply Rogue gently placed their hands over his, "You can let go now." They started to gently, but firmly pry his fingers from the rim, Sting having not realized he was still clutching it like a lifeline.
Rogue led him away from the toilet, guiding him to sit down on the floor mat. Sting let himself be moved, slumping against the the bathtub. Rogue say down next to him, handing him a towel. "Wanna talk about it?"
No, part of Sting said. Yes, admitted the other. The two answers counteracting each other and making him stay silent as he wiped the excess vomit off his face.
"Was it about Jiemma?" Rogue asked, voice soft, as if they was afraid of scaring him away. As if he was a skittish horse, all it took was one spook and his flight instinct had responded, he had not been brave enough to fight the problem head on, like Natsu would've done.
Sting nodded mutely, pulling his knees to his chest, dirty towel abandoned on the tile. "Jiemma, Natsu and Gajeel's disappearance and..." his voice caught on the final name. "...and Weisslogia."
Rogue's eyes softened with understanding, and they turned to so that they were completely facing Sting, bringing their hands up to either side of his face. "Who's the man?"
Sting rolled his eyes, but couldn't help the smile that tugged in his lips or the butterflies that swirled in his stomach. "I am." He answered with a puff, The question a drill Rogue had put in place for whenever Sting's dysphoria got the better of him.
Rogue nodded sharply, satisfied with the answer. "Now... why don't we move this party downstairs, we can watch a shitty movie and eat your famous burnt popcorn."
They pulled Sting to his feet, the man easily letting them. He was glad to have an excuse to not go back to sleep, where the night terrors lay, and Rogue knew that. They always had a way of knowing, fine tuned to Sting's senses like a lacrima radio.
So that's how they ended up, cuddled on the couch, with many more blankets then necessary. Sting had practically cocooned himself, contently watching the "Heathers" movie playing on the screen. Sting's head was in Rogue's laps, one of their arms hooked over his hip bone, pulling him in close, the burnt and smelly popcorn bowl cradled to his chest.
"Why is everything Veronica says so relatable?" Sting questioned as he watched Veronica angrily scribble away in her diary, a monologue about teen angst bullshit being narrated as the actress wrote.
"I don't know, she just is." Rouge replied, fingers shifting through Sting's blond locks.
Sting loudly munched on his popcorn and Rogue wrinkled their nose, not able to fathom how Sting could stand to eat popcorn that was so horribly burnt. "And Heather Chandler is a fucking queen, like she could kick my ass and I'd thank her."
"Same."
"Ugh, boo!" Sting threw popcorn at the screen as JD appeared. "Go away you manipulating bitch."
Rogue laughed, the sound like smooth velvet and they leaned down to press a kiss against Sting's temple as the man scowled at the screen. "You're cute."
Sting grinned up at them, exposing his pointy pearly whites. "I know you are but what am I?"
Rogue snorted, shaking his head at the childishness. "Extremely handsome."
"Charmer."
"Hmm." Rogue hummed, lips clamped in a thin line, trying to keep their smile suppressed. They threaded their fingers through Sting's hair, scratching at his scalp. He let out an appreciative purr at the motion, leaning into the touch.
And that's how they stayed, all night long, curled up in each other until the first lights of pink dawn filtered through the windows, illuminating the two dragons. Black and white, light and dark, two halves of one whole as they snoozed.
The first lights hoped their dreams were kept sweet. They were in each other's arms after all. Nothing was better equipped to keep the nightmares away.
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Thx for reading! Hope y'all liked it!
I tried to make Sting's reaction as realistic as possible, and there were some refs to trans dysphoria bc I headcanon Sting as a trans boy, and Rogue as nonbinary. LGBT HEADCANONS GALORE