Edolas: Thieves Guild Sabertooth

23

Rogue heard a commotion down at the guild, which woke him up. It had been two days since the pool incident, which Earth-Sting had admitted, out of Earth-Minerva's earshot, was something he had always dreamed of doing.

Curious, Rogue decided to get up. According to the alarm clock, it was past noon. He didn't even bother sifting through Earth-Rogue's closet, going straight to Earth-Sting's instead. He grabbed an electric blue crop-top and white trousers from there and went back to his room to grab a black button down shirt, which he buttoned halfway down and put the crop-top over. Adequately dressed, he made his way down the stairs.

Earth-Sting was talking to a tall man and a black exceed, addressing one of them as Gajeel. Rogue crept closer, but they noticed him. Earth-Sting waved him over.

"Hey, Rogue. Those are Gajeel and Panther Lily. They're from the Fairy Tail Guild. Lily is from Edolas and Gajeel has been there, so they're here to help figure out how to get you home." Earth-Sting explained. Rogue nodded, looking at them carefully.

"So you're Edolas' Rogue. The lightbulb tells me you're a criminal, so-" Gajeel started.

"Not again Gajeel! You're not even with the magic council anymore." Earth-Sting cut him off. Rogue considered using Earth-Rogue's powers to escape. He was getting pretty good at that. Instead, he decided to do what he did best. Talk.

"Yes, I commit crimes. But not in this country, so you can't do anything about it. Sorry. Speaking of which, I have a heist my guild really needs me for, so I would appreciate any help you could give us." Rogue gave Gajeel his most disarming smile. "I promise no one will get hurt if I'm involved."

There was a slight pause as Rogue gauged the effect his words had had. Gajeel seemed taken aback by his approach. Rogue decided to push a bit further.

"You'll get Earth-Rogue back if you do." He added.

"Rogue, he already agreed to help." Earth-Sting added. Better late than never.

"Oh. Nice. I'm Rogue, from Edolas. Nice to meet you." He introduced himself.

"Nice... Yeah. Damn it lightbulb, you were supposed to take care of Rogue. Now it's like there's two of you." Gajeel scolded Earth-Sting.

"Hey, I have some self control. And Rogue's the one that jumped on those jerks, it's not like I pushed him." Sting defended himself.

"Do you know what spell they used to switch them?" Gajeel ignored Earth-Sting's protests flippantly.

"No, but the bastards that did it are in Era, we could probably tell them we'll have their sentence reduced if they help us bring him back." Earth-Sting suggested.

"That'll help, yeah. Shrimp and the Bunny-girl are looking into ways of switching them back too."

-

Sting missed Rogue desperately, perhaps even more so than when he was on a job. Earth-Rogue was quieter and more dignified, and though he made sure Sting ate properly and went to bed before dawn, as well as insisting on tending to Sting's injury, Sting missed how chaotic Rogue was. He had no issue behaving in ways that would be ridiculous if done by anybody else, or even by him sometimes. He stood by Sting, even when he couldn't understand Sting's need for greatness or his inability to follow any code of honor, no matter how loose.

It was easy to admit that Sting couldn't wait for Rogue to retire, at least from long jobs, so Sting could see him every day. Would he be able to give up his ambitions for that though? In theory, it didn't matter. Rogue would stand by him no matter what, no matter how little Sting deserved it. If the bank job went well, Sting decided, he would disband the guild. He wouldn't risk what he had just for the chance of going further.

Earth-Rogue came back down the stairs into the office, quiet as a shadow. He was holding two cups of hot chocolate.

"Edo-Sting, it's midnight. And don't tell me you have work to do. I've read your paperwork, this guild has more false identities than it knows what to do with." Earth-Rogue chided him, setting the hot chocolate down in front of him. He wasn't wrong, Sting had been coming up with increasingly complex backstories for the identities he'd created while thinking about his Rogue. "You know, if crime doesn't work out for you, you could take a shot at being a writer."

"Huh?"

"The backstories are pretty creative, you should write a book." Earth-Rogue repeated, taking a sip of his drink. Sting smiled to himself.

"Maybe I will."