Phoenix

Frustrations

"Sting what the hell?"

Sting was pacing in his room. He had been pacing for two hours once they arrived back at the inn and refused to talk at all. Lector sat in a corner of the room holding his paws together. The blond dragon slayer looked up at Rogue quickly before putting his head down again and continuing to pace. Suddenly, Sting stopped pacing, pulled his hair and groaned before mumbling something incoherent.

"Sting you're going to have to talk at some point."

"For three years I've been looking for her everywhere. Three years. I would make us take jobs in towns all over the place to look for her. Now they tell me she's been in Hargeon the entire time? We've been there so many times. I've looked there so many times and I couldn't smell her at all!"

Rogue looks at his partner and sighed. Sting continued to rant.

"And now she's with Fairy Tail of all things. How the hell am I supposed to take her away from them? You saw them; there was no way they'd let her leave."

"I believe," Rogue calmly explained, "that it's because Fairy Tail is a guild that's quite different from ours. They see each other as family, and they probably feel like they definitely can't abandon their family, especially to someone that they disapprove of."

"How am I supposed to help her remember if they won't let me near her!"

"You'll find a way. I know it because you are a stubborn man and don't know how to stop even if you wanted to. Now," Rogue looked at him, "why exactly have you never told me that you mated with someone?"

"I was going to tell you when I found her."

"You've been acting strange since we joined Sabertooth. Now I know why. You've been looking this entire time."

"Why couldn't I smell her?" Sting let out a loud groan in frustration. "I was able to smell her clearly today and when you came back from that job, so why couldn't I smell her for the past three years? Ugh! This is way too frustrating."

Rogue felt pity for the other dragon slayer; he knew how strong a dragon's bond is with their mate, and he knew that it was killing Sting inside to finally find her just to discover that she can't remember him.

"Sting! I have an idea. We should..."

"Kidnap her! Lector you're absolutely right!"

Rogue looked between the two with a worried look, before stuttering, "Um, Sting. Maybe you shouldn't—"

"Fro thinks so, too!"

"Frosch! Why are you encouraging them?"

"It's settled," Lector declared, "We'll kidnap her tomorrow once the competitions are over!"

———————————-

"You okay?"

Laxus had slowly stepped to the bed where Emi had buried herself under the covers. She was facing away from the door and made the blankets into a cocoon of sorts. The woman let out a small noise to show that she was listening.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Emi stayed quiet. Laxus sat down gently onto the empty side of the bed and let silence fill the room. Emi eventually poked her head from the blanket and looked up at the lightning dragon slayer.

"Is it true? Do I really know them? Am I really..."

"As far as I know, yes."

"How come you never told me if you knew?"

Laxus sighed before explaining, "I had no clue who you were mated to and you couldn't remember. I wanted you to see who it was before I went all around trying to find a random dragon slayer."

Emi hummed before slipping her hand out of the sack of blankets and grabbed his wrist.

"So," Emi laughed, seeming to have recovered from her shock, "we're dating, huh?"

Laxus snorted in response before ruffling her hair. Laxus looked down at Emi, joking, "At least they found out before actually planning our wedding. Mira can be quite the...romantic."

"We should've gone through with it. Then we would've gotten all the wedding shower gifts. Then we would both say no at the altar and shock the shit out of everyone."

Laxus's laugh echoed through the room.

——————————

"So like," Lisanna asked, "what do we do now?"

"We kick their asses!"

"But Natsu," Happy interjected, shocking everyone that he wasn't agreeing, "she's bonded with him. Shouldn't we let him help her?"

"No way, Happy! That guy's bad news."

Ezra looked at Natsu and said, "I agree. This is a lot to take in, but I do think that we should at least allow him to help. No matter how much we don't like him, he and Emi have a bond that shouldn't be broken. And I would hate to be the one to keep them apart. We all care about Emi a lot, and I think we all want her to regain her memories. If he is able to help her then we should let him."

Everyone looked at Erza before reluctantly agreeing.