"Those were really good waffles!" Lector says walking out of the small restaurant next to Sting. 

"Frosch thinks so too!" Frosch agreed, flying around Rogue's head. 

"Umm Sting, isn't that Pretty Thang's brother?" Lector ask pointing not too far in front of the group. Laxus appeared to be waiting for someone. Sting stopped to face Laxus, with Rogue doing the same.

"Pretty thang? That's the kind of lame shit my sister falls for.. really?" Laxus ask walking forward. "I need to speak to you. Alone."

"Lector, go with Rogue and Frosch." Sting demanded casually, not taking his eyes off of Laxus.

"Sting are you serious man?" Lector asked, "I wanna see the fight!"

"No fight to see buddy. I'll find you when we're done." Sting replied back, finally looking to his beloved exceed for a second before meeting Laxus' glare again.

Rogue looked over his friend to make sure he should really leave. Once he felt it was the right, he turned around walking away, "Come on Lector."

"We need to talk in private. You're coming with me back to the inn, WITHOUT my sister knowing." and with that the pair began the walk back. Once they reached Fairy Tail's designated inn, the Thunder Legion made sure they went unnoticed as they headed up to Laxus room. 

"I'm going to tell you some things that I don't tell a lot of people." Laxus started, leaning against the wall, arms crossed and one knee bent. "And you're going to respect that it shouldn't be common knowledge or taken lightly." His eyes narrowed.

"You have my attention." Sting replied, motioning his hand to the couch across from his chair. Laxus sighed and took a seat. He put on leg across his lap and leaned on his arm. 

"When I was younger my father implanted a lacrima inside me, to help me get stronger. Or at least that's what we believed at the time. It was excruciating. When my sister turned 4, my father started talking about powering her up too. I was terrified for her. I couldn't see my baby sister, still too young to realize what we were even discussing, go through all that pain. Gramps was against it. He fought my dad about it all he could. I thought he didn't want to see her suffer like me, but later I realized he had begun to catch onto the monster my father was becoming. He was trying to protect her in a way that he couldn't protect me, by stopping the lacrima procedure."

Stings eyes widened at his realization. "She has the lacrima though. How?"

"(Y/n) didn't get much time with our mom. Barely remembers her. Naturally she became a daddy's girl. When she was 6 years old my father took her away for a weekend. Said he was taking her to go see the castle for her birthday. She was obsessed with the idea of being a princess at that age and he knew some of the royal family from a past job. I stayed with Gramps at the guild. It wasn't my style. Princesses and castles sounded like torture to me. I regret that every day.

When they returned he was carrying her into the guild. She was turning gray in skin tone, covered in bruises, eyes swollen shut from crying. She was too weak to move and kept passing out from exhaustion. Her throat was raw from screaming - she was spitting up small amounts of blood and couldn't talk above a whisper. She was worse than I ever imagined. My sweet, innocent baby sister had been put through torture too young and away from everyone she trusted. As if inserting a lacrima wasn't bad enough, he chose a dark one. Took the sweetest little girl anyone had ever met and implanted darkness into her every way that he could. Unforgivable..."

Sting noticed that at this point in the conversation Laxus whole body was tensed up, but he continued.

"The first thing she did was ask for me. Gramps wouldn't let me see her. Guess the Geezer was trying to protect me from seeing the extent of what my father would do to his own children. Gramps and dad were getting into it pretty bad in the office, so I snuck in the infirmary to see her. I laid with her and hugged her until she fell asleep from crying. She kept telling my she missed me and wanted to stay with me from now on. She told me she wanted to be more like me, and that she no longer wanted to be a princess. That piece of shit told her that you have to go through that to become a princess. He took a little girl's innocent dreams and used them to take advantage of her. He never even took her to a castle. She almost died! She survived, but a part of her innocence was dead. He killed her childhood. She spent 2 weeks in the infirmary and then 2 months in a deep depression. Ever seen a 6 year old that forgot how to laugh? It's sickening.

We're lucky, she eventually got back to normal. We helped her with her magic and eventually everything seemed to be going good again. My father did what he did best and ruined that. Got himself expelled from Fairy Tail. Gramps refused to let him take us with him. He started Raven Tail and now he's thriving off of evil. He's made it very clear time and time again that he gave us the lacrimas so he could use us as he pleases one day.

Today down in the arena he told me he would use (y/n) to make me talk. He thinks I know secrets about the guild because I grew up grandson of the master. He's been gone so long he doesn't realize how rocky my relationship with the old Geezer is. Gramps hasn't told me shit, but he doesn't believe that. Today I realized how far he would go. You know, as well as I do, that if you kill a dragon slayer, you take their power. Now I know why he was so set on giving (Y/n) a lacrima. He gave her the power he's always wanted. Sting.. he would kill her for it. In a heartbeat. He won't kill me first. He can't obviously. She would be much easier to defeat. That's the magic he needs to take me down and take my powers. The ultimate Dragon Slayer in one body. That's what he wants from us.

Sting stared at Laxus in shock. He knew Laxus was a jerk and that (Y/n)'s family was a bit much, but he didn't realize it was this much of a tragedy.

"I protect her because I love her. I'm over the top because that monster has hurt her enough. Now he wants to kill her for personal gains. I don't let my guard down because I can't. I couldn't be there for her back then, but I damn sure will be there for her this time."

Laxus leaned forward, both legs both on the ground now with forearms resting on them, giving a death glare towards the light Dragon Slayer. "Don't persue my sister if you don't plan on sticking around. Don't complicate what's left of her life if you're not serious. She's been through enough and you'll just hurt her in more ways than you realize playing with her like a toy."

"Right. That's sweet of you, but, who said I was playing around?" Sting replied back now leaning forward the same as Laxus, dead-panning his expression.

With this Laxus sat back and added, "I have 3 rules if you really want to be with my sister. 1) don't tell her my fathers plans. she doesn't need to know. She knows he's bad, she knows not to trust him, and she knows who her real family is. That's good enough. It would crush her, and terrify her. Protect what innocence she has left in the matter."

"Sounds great to me. Now rules 2 and 3?" Sting asked sitting back up as well.

"Rule 2, No tears. Make her cry and it'll be the last thing you see. If someone else makes her cry, you do the same as I would. Make her happy again, & then make them regret it."

"I like that one." Sting added, motioning for Laxus to continue.

"Rule 3, Respect. her, her family, her guild, everything and anything she respects, you do too."

"This is not at all how I thought this was going to go. Nonetheless, heard you loud and clear. I accept the terms. Now, am I free to go start my life with her?" Sting ask, grinning ear to ear.

"Last, I reserve the right to kick your ass whenever I see fit." Laxus says, not joking one bit.

"Just so were clear.. I'm not scared." Sting said as both boys stood up, walking out the door and making their way down the back stairs.

"Well Bolt Boy, this has been a real fun time, but now there's something I need to do. Where's she at?" Sting asked looking around, rubbing his knuckles.

"She isn't supposed to know we talked you dim-wit. Go home. She's upset right now anyways." Laxus grumbled walking him towards the back entrance.

"Rule Number 2: If someone else makes her cry, do the same as I would. Make her happy again." Sting replied back, challenging Laxus.

"Why does she like you so much?" Laxus said to himself, looking away in annoyance.

"Oh does she? Good to know." Sting smirked. "I get the feeling it's because we're a lot more alike than you think, Thunder Cloud." Sting smirked.

Laxus let out a 'tch' and then stopped walking. "If you want to see her then you'll have to act like you snuck in, so go up the back ladders through to the window. 15 MINUTES after I see you reach the window. Not a minute longer, i'll be checking."

"Fine. 15 minutes is all I need." Sting replied with that cocky grin appearing on his face. Laxus growled slightly in response. "To make her happy again. Perve." With that, Sting was out the back door. Laxus gave the slightest smile, once Sting was out of view. He leaned out the door and waited for the thumbs up from Sting above before heading in to look at the time on the clock in the main foyer of the inn.

"You're not as grumpy as I expected you to be." Evergreen greeted him.

"Kid wasn't as annoying as I expected him to be." he mumbled in reply.

"Does this means our baby sister is growing up?" Freed added.

"I never said I was letting that happen yet." Laxus replied leading the Thunder Legion to the bar for a drink.