Whelp I did say on plurk that I'd write this. Also, building this up as Drabble Collection because I have so many ideas for drabbles for those two. /sob

Enjoy?

Category: Fairy Tail
Characters: Rogue and Sting
Genre: Gen, Friendship
Rating: PG
Warnings: Not really? I think?
Summary: Drabble Series/Collection - It takes years until Rogue wonders if they had always been intended to be a matched set.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

- Two Sides Of A Coin -
- Part One -

It takes years until Rogue wonders if they had always been intended to be a matched set, if Weißlogia and Skiadrum had known from the start that one day they would find each other, and that once that happened they would fall into place like they had never been apart. They must have, because among the last things that Skiadrum had taught him before illness had wasted her to the point where it hadn't been a question of 'if' but of 'when', had been about the ways that light and shadow could overlap, about the fact that shadow and light always come as a set, that there can never be one without another and that if combined correctly there was nothing stronger than light and shadow bound together into one.

He hadn't given it much thought after his foster parent's death, had rather buried his grief and guilt and gone out to see the world, to chase after Phantom Lord and Gajeel, had spent a year more or less under the wing of the elder Dragon Slayer, fearing and admiring him alike, and drifted onto wandering again the moment Phantom fell apart and Gajeel moved on to Fairy Tail for reasons that Ryos wouldn't understand until a name change, a furred and winged cat-partner, years spent in the same guild and team and not one but two fights that had gotten him his ass handed later.

Falling into step had never been a problem, not in the early days - before Sabertooth, before the Twin Dragons had become well known all across Fiore - and certainly not later, because for all that they had both changed, for all they had to adapt to their new home, they will always be the Twin Dragons and they've known that from the very moment they first met.

(For better or worse, they will always be two sides of the same coin.)

He can still remember the smell of decaying linen, faint smoke and cheap beer that had clung to the small room they'd both ended up being stuck together into, the cheapest room of the cheapest inn of Magnolia, six months after the main force of Fairy Tail had disappeared, and he remembers the faint sounds of Lector ranting upon realizing that he and Sting had gotten roommates forced upon them ("Sting-kun shouldn't have to put up with this!") , but what he remembers most is the expression on Stings face.

It had probably mirrored his own, puzzlement and confusion at this sense of familiarity slowly giving way to understanding - they are the same - and he remembers Sting grinning at him, small fangs gleaming - there is another Dragon Slayer, it's not just him - while he shushes Lector with a gesture and says: "Fancy meeting you here."

And Rogue can feel the corners of his lips tugging up into a smile that he usually reserves for Frosch as he replies: "Yeah... Fancy that."

From that night on it's impossible to think of them as anything but together anymore - not after that night, not after all the things they'd shared then and the decisions they made that night on a rooftop in Magnolia and from the next day on they are leaving the town and the past behind them and are facing the path of becoming Dragon Slayers in their own right.

(Natsu and Gajeel are no longer there and now they are all that is left of the Dragon Slayer. Their future is all of their own making from now on.)

Everything changes when they are sought out and challenged by Minerva one day and do well enough in that fight to be asked to join Sabertooth, so that they can help it rise to greatness.

(It's the very first time their team work fails, that fighting together becomes a handicap rather than an asset and despite the invitation that follows, the defeat is bitter and they both swear to themselves and to each other that they will never will be used against another that way ever again.)

It's strange and exciting to be part of a guild now, and admittedly Rogue may or may not have yearned just a little for the moment they find one that suits them, because he remembers Gajeel and Phantom Lord and thinking that he just wishes he was old enough to join. It's different too, because for all that he might have hoped for easy acceptance - they are all mages here, right? - they are met with wariness, looked at with scrutiny despite the fact that it was the Young Mistress that brought them in and it isn't until the very first Grand Magical Games they enter that that changes.

It's that moment down in the arena, when they enter the tag team battle on the very last day, fully knowing that this is their turn to fight, to cement Sabertooth's reputation as the very strongest and for all that they might lack in age and experience they bring in will - they are Dragon Slayers after all. It's that moment, that victory that brings them their name and their reputation - the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth - that wins them their guild mates respect and Sabertooth the seat of the strongest of Fiore, and Rogue smiles while Sting laughs loudly and punches up into the sky. There is no stopping them now.

(It's their time to soar in the heavens and roar with pride.)

- FIN -

As already said, there will likely be more sometimes... idek I have ideas for that rooftop conversation in Magnolia and also some other stuff. Please leave a review? :3