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“Y’know, Yuki?” Slurred a very, very drunk Sting as he’d stumbled away from the rowdy dancefloor just before the countdown to the start of the new year began.
“What is it, Sting?” She asked curiously, her focus casually slipping from his sweaty face to the woman sitting at the other side of the room, an unamused look plastered to her face as she surveyed the partying Sabertooth members.
“Oi, pay attention to me fr’ a second, not Minerva,” he demanded, pointing an accusing finger at her,”
“Sorry,” she muttered guiltily, her cheeks feeling like they could go up in flames at any moment.
“Av’ decided that m’ resolution ths’ year’s gonna be to make my move,” he stated matter-of-factly, looking rather proud of himself in all his completely smashed glory. Yukino brightened at this news, it’d been something that Sting had shamefully, red in the face confessed to her some years ago; that he was completely and utterly head over heels in love with his best friend, Rogue Cheney. It was then that Yukino had intern told him that she may have the hots for Minerva Orland, and Sting had laughed at how painfully similar and frustrating their predicaments were. Although in her opinion, Yukino believed Sting’s to be much worse as the two dragon slayers had been best friends pretty much for as-long-as they could remember.
“10… 9… 8,” the countdown had begun, Sting lifted his beer can and brought it to the wine glass delicately held in Yukino’s right hand.
“Here’s to another lonely year,” he hollered, but before Yukino could say anything, she was caught by surprise by a pair of slender arms wrapping around her waist. Sting groaned, downing his drink as he watched Minerva spin Yukino around and press their lips together as the guild reached zero, and began cheering like maniacs.
“Guess it’s just me,” He said with a pout, before shaking his head and ginning, sauntering his way back into the crowd and letting loose once more, a major hang over inevitably looming over his head. He secretly knew, however, that and he’d wake up to aspirin and a glass of water, along with a raven-haired dragon slayer scolding him for being too careless the night before, and that ‘you’re so lucky to have a friend like me, Sting Eucliffe.’
A year later, Sting still hadn’t come to terms with his resolution.
“You’d better not go so overboard this year,” Warned Rogue as they walked side by side in the direction of the Sabertooth guild hall. The sun was sitting low on the horizon and the yearly New Year’s Eve party was about to start.
“Hey, it wasn’t that bad,” Sting mock whined, bumping Rogue’s shoulder with his own affectionately.
“Oh, I’m sorry my mistake. I only had to drag you out of the guild at two in the morning because you could barely stand up and then you began vomiting when we made it back to your apartment, not in the toilet or sink, but all over the floor might I add. Then you just burst into tears before I put you to bed!” Rogue ranted, causing Sting to roll his eyes and rest his hands behind his head lazily.
“You can’t blame me, I’m the life of the party,” He said cockily, causing Rogue to give him a light punch on his shoulder.
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“Oh, I will.”
“Dork.”
“Nerd.” They both burst into a fit of laughter, and Sting felt his heart swell for the mage before him, his shoulder length dark hair and crimson red eyes which were crinkled with laughter looking more beautiful than ever before.
Once the boys had entered the guild, they walked straight over to where Minerva was sitting at the bar, seemingly chatting up Yukino who was giggling and blushing at something she’d said from the other side of the counter.
“Hey ladies,” Sting announced, making their presence known as Rogue felt it was his turn to roll his eyes, unsurprisingly along with Minerva, and slip into the seat next to hers.
“Hey, Sting,” Yukino said brightly, already handing him his first alcoholic beverage of the night, and the party hadn’t even formally begun yet as Orga, along with a few other members of Sabertooth were still checking the lighting. “How’ve you boys been?” She asked, despite the fact that she’d only seen them merely the day before.
“We’ve been pretty good,” Rogue answered for them both, glancing at the blonde from the corner of his eye.
“I’m sure you have been,” Minerva said, lazily bouncing her leg up and down while sipping a fancy looking cocktail. “If Sting had anything to do with anything that is,” She snorted, causing Sting to give her a half-hearted glare and Rogue to glance at her in confusion.
Just over two hours later, Sting was obviously a little more than less than sober, and had dragged Yukino to the dance floor, after being blatantly rejected by Rogue who was sitting at a table just a way away from the dance floor with Minerva.
Sting and Yukino laughed with each other, Sting spinning her around to the fast pace of the music while she beamed, enjoying herself fully.
“They look like they’re enjoying themselves,” Minerva mused, a small smile playing on her dark painted lips. Rogue nodded in agreement; ever the silent type. The dark-haired woman glanced at him, noticing how his eyes followed Sting’s every move. She shook her head, sighing an overexaggerated sigh.
“You know, if you’re going to just stare at him like a little lost puppy, you should have accepted to dance with him in the first place,” She stated matter-of-factly.
Rogue scowled down into his lap at that, his cheeks rising in heat.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” He grumbled.
“Of course you do, idiot. You’re in love with Sting and honestly I think you should just tell him and get it over and done with.”
“I do not like him like that!” He growled defensively, his cheeks growing redder. “Anyway, if I did, not that I do, he one, probably doesn’t even like guys like that, two, even if he did he’d never like me and three, he’s my best friend so it’d ruin everything.” He added grumpily.
“Oh, get over yourself,” Minerva said in exasperation. “You can’t deny it to me because I for one find you both blatantly obvious.”
Yukino and Sting were currently dancing to a much slower song. Around an hour had past and Sting had very much topped up on a bit more alcohol, although he was trying to be careful, for Rogue’s sake.
“It’s not fair, Yuki,” Sting groaned mournfully. “I made it a resolution and I was too chicken to do anything!”
“I mean, you’ve still got around just under half an hour left,” Yukino said, pitifully patting him on the back. Truth be told she felt a little guilty as she’d been with Minerva for exactly a year now, but Sting had yet to get with Rogue.
“I’ll never work up the courage,” he moaned, “He’s just never gonna like me the same way back.”
“You don’t know that,” Yukino said in her most reassuring voice, “honestly I think he likes you exactly the same way as you like him,”
“Man, he’s just so adorable and broody and beautiful and I just wanna hug him forever and ever.” He rambled on as Yukino shook her head.
“Hey, why don’t we go over and see him, you might pluck up the courage then,” she suggested, gently taking his hand and guiding him through the crowd. She hated seeing her friend like this, and honestly, she fully believed he deserved the same happiness she already had.
Meanwhile, Minerva had cracked Rogue with the help of a few drinks, and he was resting his head in his arms on the table, feeling very sorry for himself.
“Oh come on, stop being a wimp,” Minerva sighed, eyeing him from her seat.
“But I can’t. He’ll never like me back,” He whined, his voice muffled by his arms.
Yukino and Sting had just stopped a little way away from the table, and Minerva had locked eyes with Yukino, indicating for her to wait. She too had had enough.
“Rogue, how do you feel about Sting?”
“You know how I feel!” he groaned, unaware of the fact that that very person was standing in ear shot, flinching at the harshness of his best friend’s tone and bracing himself for rejection. “I hate his stupid face cause I just wanna touch it all the time, and I hate his stupid hair and his stupid everything because he’s so pretty. I just wanna hug him constantly and I want him to hug me back but he never will!”
“You may wanna rise your head,” Minerva finally said, when it was obvious Sting was just going to stand there, completely dumbfounded with wide eyes.
“What?” he asked, looking up at her with a pout, before noticing his best friend standing a few meters away, his eyes going wide with horror and his face flushing almost the same shade as his eyes.
“Sting, I didn’t mean-” he stuttered after sitting up rigid in his chair.
“Rogue-” Sting interrupted, cursing as the ten seconds until the new year count began.
“10… 9… 8…”
Before Rogue could get out of his chair and disappear into the crowd, Sting decided that there was only one thing he could do, as talking would be impossible over the noise. Quicker than he felt he’d ever moved before, Sting was beside Rogue’s chair hand had turned the boy’s face towards his own, lifting his chin up using the tip of one of his gloved fingers. He allowed a moment for Rogue to pull away if he wanted, but he never did. Sting noticed that Rogue’s eyes had so much more depth to them than he’s previously realised, there were flecks of both darker and much lighter reds, and they could only be described, in Sting’s opinion, as breath takingly beautiful. He then leaned down to press his lips to Rogue’s, just as the countdown reached zero.
Rogue’s lips soon began to respond, they were slightly chapped, a little more so than Sting’s, and he quickly brought his hand up to run it through Sting’s soft, blonde locks. The loud, obnoxious cheering of their guildmates celebrating the new year was nothing but background noise to them, as they just basked in the taste and closeness of each other.
Once they’d pulled away, Sting rested his forehead against Rogues, his hands grasping the sides of the shadow mage’s face.
“I suppose we’re just like Yukino and Minerva now, huh,” Sting chuckled blissfully, rubbing their noses together in an eskimo kiss.
“Hmm, I suppose we are,” Rogue replied with an affectionate smile, bringing his hands up to grasp the top of where Sting’s were resting.
Minerva and Yukino had since moved away, Yukino excitedly chattering away about future ‘double dates’ and what not.
“It’s gonna be so fun!” She beamed up at her girlfriend, causing Minerva to smile down, half lidded and full of fondness.
“You’re being far too adorable for me,” Minerva stated out of the blue, causing Yukino to blush and look shyly down at her feet. At that, the taller girl cupped the smaller’s face in her hands and leant down capture the familiar softness of her lips in her own, tasting the familiar taste that simply was Yukino.
On the way back to Sting’s apartment that night-Rogue had insisted Sting was too drunk to walk home alone-Sting refused to let Rogue go. He kept leaning down to nuzzle into the crook of the slightly smaller mage’s neck, until he was pushed away because ‘it’s hard to walk with you so close, you dork’. Their hands were intertwined and despite that they could see their breaths, they were warm in the company of one another.
Sting still vomited a few times when they got back, but this year it was in the toilet, and Rogue didn’t have to complain about cleaning up. This year, Sting knew that he’d wake up to aspirin and a glass of water, along with a raven-haired dragon slayer scolding him for being too careless the night before, and that ‘you’re so lucky to have a boyfriend like me, Sting Eucliffe.’