IDYLLIC || STING EUCLIFFE

30

"YOU HATE BEING IN THE COLD. FOR YOU TO BE HERE .. EVEN IF LUCY JUST GAVE BIRTH AND ALL .. SHOULDN'T YOU BE WITH HER?" Sting stood side by side with the man he once looked up to as a role model and now as a semi-equal. Natsu ate the flames of a torch as the two of them conversed. The war was over. It had been several months but it was over.

Having Natsu pull through in the last bits of the fight helped morale.

Sting wasn't sure why the man was there actually. He nor anyone else had received any prior word of it, but even Gajeel joined him.

"I kinda owe Faye, everything." Natsu began as he put down the charred wooden end of the stick. The blonde raised a brow.

He heard stories of their childhood. Everything from their first bath together to Christmas eves at Fairy Tail and even New Years morning where they'd all make their resolutions and bets for the year. Things like how Faye would wipe away Lisanna's tears when she was sad or bandage Natsu and Gray after they'd gotten beaten by Erza or Mirajane, even how she cracked through Laxus's exterior just for a bit. Even how she and Cana always ended up falling asleep in the hot springs together and had to be dragged out by the land lady at the time.

"Hey, you love her right?"

"Course I do." He scoffed at the question.

Natsu stood up. "Then .. hear her out."

That was the last he'd heard of the male nicknamed Salamander.

The hill was familiar, walking up the steep slope. He didn't remember the last time he heard the peaceful chirping of birds or such greenery.

After being up in the north for so long, all his eyes adjusted to was the white sheets of snow.

Even approaching the door made his heart beat a bit faster. Knocking a few times, there was aggressive stomping and then a halt. A large eye magnified through the peephole as he chuckled a bit.

The girls gave him quite the welcome. Meanwhile Lyam gave him the stink eye, but regardless, he acknowledged the man's return.

There was one person who he hadn't been greeted by yet and when he slipped into their bedroom gently .. he realized why.

"You're still sleeping at this hour? Have you eaten lunch yet?" There was a dip in the mattress with his added weight. "Maybe I shouldn't have started with that, huh." He continued to talk to himself.

Sting played with a piece of her hair and began to tickle her cheeks with the ends of it until she finally began to stir. The seafoam orbs rushed to life, staring straight into him, blinking a few times before she dropped her head back down on the pillow. "This stupid dream."

The blonde laughed at her sleepy disdain. "A dream? I guess I do look like that." The man ran his hand down her arm and to her waist as her eyes opened again. "You took forever, you know .. What if I brought another man into the house in your place?" Faye asked softly, wrapping her arms around him. Sting pulled her body on top of his own, drawing circles on her back.

"Is that the right suggestion to be saying to someone who just came back from war?"

The woman let out a giggle. "Is there any other man as terribly brave as you though?" Faye's hands trailed down his chest and began to pull his shirt over his head. Her eyes skimmed the outline of his body that she'd missed so much. The definition of his muscles .. the new scars, especially those.