Let Your Heart Be Light

Shadowlight Week 2019

Prompt: Candlelight

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima

"This does not look at all like the picture you showed me," Rogue Cheney whined desperately into his personal lacrima.

"Come on, it was simple, how bad can it be?" Minerva Orland rolled her eyes at her friend. "Just send me a picture."

A minute later she received a picture of a slightly singed amorphous blob that indeed looked nothing like what she had shown her friend. "It's not so bad," she lied, trying not to let her internal wince show on her face but knew she had failed when she saw the panic settle on Rogue's face.

"I don't have any more ingredients, the whole night is going to be ruined now," Rogue placed his hand over his face.

"Okay, you've been hanging around your boyfriend too much. The drama queen act doesn't suit you," Minerva looked at her watch, "I finished my job earlier than I thought, why don't I run to the store to get the ingredients and I'll help you, okay?"

Rogue gave her one of his rare smiles, and she instantly found herself smiling in return. It was so much nicer to have friends, instead of rivals. She was a lot happier now, and a large part of that had been thanks to the Twin Dragons and Fairy Tail.

"Thank you so much, Minerva! You really are a lifesaver."

"No worries, I'll get in touch with Yukino and get her to stall Sting. I'll be at your place in thirty minutes."

She hung up her personal lacrima and made a quick call to Yukino, who would enlist the others to help. Once done with that she headed to the nearest grocery store.

O-o

Sting looked at the mound of paperwork that was sitting on his desk and once again wondered if he'd done the right thing in accepting the role of Guild Master.

Until recently, he'd only been considered acting Guild Master as the Magic Council ran their investigation on Jiemma's disappearance after the Grand Magic Games. To his surprise, none of his guildmates had mentioned his fight with the previous Master, and so the Magic Council had cleared them of any wrongdoing and had pronounced Sting as the real deal.

It wasn't a bad gig, but he wasn't one to enjoy sitting still for long periods or attending meetings, not to mention dealing with the Magic Council. He'd much rather be out there going on jobs and spending time with Rogue and their Exceeds.

He hummed to himself as he thought about how little time he and his partner had been able to spend together lately. Rogue was still able to go on jobs, and although he helped Sting on occasion with his more boring tasks, those weren't precisely dates.

Although they tried to make more time for each other, the fact was that by the time Sting got home on most nights he was exhausted. At best he was up for some cuddles before bed; usually, he just went straight to bed. He had faith that their relationship was strong enough to endure this adjustment period, but he wished he could do better for his partner. Gods knew Rogue deserved it for putting up with him most of the time.

He looked at his desktop calendar and with a jolt realized today was the anniversary of when they had started dating. Rogue wasn't really one for romantic overtures, but still, the more Sting thought about it, the more he was determined that today was the perfect day to make an extra effort to get home early. They could spend some time together and maybe send the Exceeds away so they could get some private time. With that thought, he tackled his paperwork cheerfully daydreaming of the evening ahead.