"Sting, where are you going? We should return to the balcony."
Rogue could see that Sting had a small stream of blood dripping from his ear, which troubled him. Sting was the first of the pair to be able to stand again after their defeat. Rogue noticed that he stood rather quickly and didn't have the strength to stay upright for long, let alone walk. Yet here he was, dragging Rogue towards an unknown location.
"Where are we going?"
Sting's ears were pierced with pain as he felt the blood drip down the side of his face. Rogue planted his feet and stopped the blond dragon slayer from going any further.
"Sting, I'm not going to be dragged somewhere when you won't speak."
Sting faced the shadow dragon slayer, ready to yell at him. Instead, he hissed as he fell to his knees. He could feel the overwhelming pain in his ears as he listened to her screams. Sting looked up to make eye contact with his partner.
"How can you not hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Seriously?!"
Sting stopped yelling as he was hit with another wave of pain. Rogue watched as his partner continued to hiss, obviously extremely uncomfortable. He would suggest that he go to the infirmary, but there were two problems with that. The first was that Sting was on a one track mindset right now and would refuse to get any medical attention until he was finished with whatever he was trying to do. The other was that even if he agreed to go to the infirmary, Sabertooth didn't have one. Master Jiemma believed that no member should ever be hurt enough to need one.
"Sting, maybe you shouldn't--"
Sting forced himself back up and weakly continued on his path.
"Do what you want. I don't care if you come or not."
Rogue sighed before taking Sting by his side and helping him stand up. He let Sting lean to him in order to help him walk. The two started walking to an unknown direction, Sting wincing every so often.
-------------------------------------
"Damn. She's loud."
"Natsu!" Lucy scolded. "She's in pain."
"Yeah but like, how much pain is that to make her scream like that?"
Laxus stayed silent as he sat by the bed.
"Hey Laxus," Natsu started as he moved closer to the bed, "do you think that--"
"Don't touch her."
Natsu, Lucy and Elfman looked at him astonished. They had never seen the wizard so territorial.
Porlyusica spoke up next, "Are you her mate, boy?"
"No, I am."
Everyone looked to the voice to see that the twin dragons of Sabertooth were leaning in the doorway. Elfman stood up to say something when Natsu moved and stood in front of them, blocking Sting and Rouge from entering. Sting went to push through when Natsu crossed his arms.
"No tigers allowed!"
"What did you say, fairy?"
Lucy could sense the tension in the air and decided to speak up.
"Um, guys? Maybe not now."
"Will you just let me through already? She going to start--"
Emi started writhing in pain and shrieked again, shaking the room. Natsu finally turned around from his position to look at her, and Lucy and Elfman had wide eyes once again. Sting hissed again and fell a little before Rogue steadying him. Sting used his free hand to cover one of his ears.
Porlyusica looked at his bleeding ear before turning to Natsu.
"You would be wise to let the boy through."
"What? Why would I do that?"
Laxus finally stood up from his seat next to the bed and appeared behind Natsu. He quickly picked him up and placed him down off to the side and nodded for the twin dragons to enter.
"Hey!"
Sting slowly made his way over to Emi's side and sat down in the seat Laxus had previously occupied. Just as Laxus did, Sting grabbed one of Emi's hands. He started to rub her hand with his thumb. Emi started to calm down, her screams muted. Sting leaned towards one of Emi's bleeding ears and whispered something. Her breathing steadied and her shaking stopped. Everyone looked on in wonder as they watched how thirty seconds with the dragon slayer seemed to help her more than the half hour they spent with her.
"Porlyusica," Lucy questioned, "what's happening? Why is she calming down now?"
"She must've remembered the bond shared between a dragon slayer and their mate."
"What the hell does that mean?" Natsu shouted.
"It means," Laxus irritably replied at the clueless dragon slayer, "that she probably recovered her memories."
"No way! That's super cool!"
They looked over towards Emi to see her start to mumble.
"S...Sting."
Said dragon slayer softly smiled as he continued to rub her hand.
"Should we, like, give them the room or something?" Lucy asked.
"No way! I'm not leaving until Emi feels better!"
Emi's grip on Sting's hand tightened. She squeezed her eyes together before slowly opening them. She scanned the room to see Lucy, Natsu, Elfman, Laxus and Rogue. She looked at them all confused. She continued to scan the room, looking for someone. Sting let out a soft chuckle before gently squeezing her hand.
"Looking for someone?" Sting asked playfully.
Emi quickly snapped her eyes towards the talking figure who she didn't see before. She smiled before she started to cry. She sat up slowly and leaned over to the blond dragon slayer.
"You're bleeding..."
Sting puffed out his chest, declaring, "Oh this? This is nothing!"
Rogue rolled his eyes, remembering the immense pain Sting was in earlier. Emi's eyes bore into Sting's before he gently touched his ears. Sting hissed and tried to pull away on instinct.
"Nothing, huh? You're so reckless."
She could feel everyone looking at her, so she lifted her gaze to the others in the room.
"Um, I'm really sorry for scaring you like that."
"What even happened? Everyone said that you just collapsed and started bleeding and screaming."
"Bleeding?" Emi lifted her hand up to her ears before pulling away and seeing dried blood. "I'm really sorry I made you worry."
"So tell us!" Natsu shouted, making both Sting and Emi wince. "What did you remember?"
"Well, I really only remember the past four years. Since I was eighteen. I remember after Sting and I became, um, mates."
Emi blushed as she spoke and turned towards Sting to see that he was asleep with his head by her side and his hand holding hers. Rogue decided to explain.
"He was beaten up pretty badly in the team battles, but he rushed over here right after. He could barely walk on his own, but he insisted."
Emi smiled softly as she looked down at the sleeping dragon slayer. She started to rub his head as she looked back up to continue the conversation.
"Figures. He has a lot of extra energy, so he can be hard to subdue when he puts his mind to something."
Rogue groaned before responding, "Tell me about it."
Emi looked down, her face holding a small frown. She seemed to be remembering something again, but she didn't feel pain, signally that she had already been aware of it when her most recent memories resurfaced. She looked to Sting before addressing Rogue.
"You're in the same guild as him. When did he join?"
Rogue looked up before telling her that he had joined around the same time he did about two years ago. Emi nodded.
"Wait! You mean he wasn't always with Sabertooth?" Natsu and Lucy ask in unison.
"He's a fairly recent member. He joined as Sabertooth started to soar in power."
"A strong guild, huh. I wonder..."
Everyone looked to Emi for her to finish, but they saw that she had turned her attention to the sleeping dragon slayer again. Her frown resurfaced as she spoke towards his unconscious figure.
"I'm sorry."