AH JEEZ. THIS HASN'T BEEN UPDATED IN FOREVER OH GEE GOLLY GOSH.

Thisiswhathappenswhenyouhavewaytoomanybooks ;^;

I hope I'm forgiven with this chapter! ;-;

*Pssst, Hunger Games spoilers, well, more so*

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~Reader's P.O.V.~

"Say it," Sting hissed into your ear.  Your face grew hot with embarrassment.

"Never," you growled back.  Sting gave you a toothy smirk.  You quietly notice that he has canine-like teeth.

"You know it's inevitable," he whispered.  "Why not save time?"  You could feel his hot breath tickle your neck, making your face flush even more, but yet, you still refused to give in.

"No."  Sting cocked his eyebrows in amusement, his smirk widening.

"Aren't you a little feisty one?" he chuckled, his deep voice warm and tempting.  "C'mon, if you don't say it, there will be consequences..I'm sure you know what they are."  You squirmed, but you couldn't bare the consequences that would happen if you don't say what the blond wanted.

"..Fine," you grumbled.  "Sting...could you please..."

"Please...?" Sting said impatiently, his smirk just mocking you.

"Could you please.." you murmured, heat creeping up your ears, "..show me the way to school?" Sting doubled over laughing as soon, obviously enjoying your embarrassment. Your face grew even hotter and you gritted your teeth as he held his stomach and almost cried laughing too hard. You impatiently looked at your (f/c) wristwatch and realized that if you loitered outside of Sting's house any longer, there was a 100% chance you'll be late. "Okay, I said it," you growled, shifting the weight of your backpack to the other shoulder. "Now can you please hurry up and tell me how to get to school??" Sting held up a finger to rudely tell you to wait. He let out his last couple of laughs and straightened up.

"Hahaha...worth it," he sighed in content, wiping the tears in the corner of his eyes shortly after. You clenched your fists. If steam could come out of your ears, it would.

"Sting, we are going to be late," you hiss, hoping the venom in your voice would poison the infuriating blond already.

"Hehe, alright alright," Sting chuckled and pointed his thumb backwards. "We just gotta go down a block, turn right, and go all the way down. School should be there the--" Sting didn't even finish his sentence before you bolted past him.

'Down a block, right all the way. Down a block, right all the way,' you remind yourself over and over again as you ran, your (h/c) whipping past you.

"Wait, (y/n)!!!" You could faintly hear Sting yelling for you, but you were so done with his goddamn jokes and, really, everything about him. Besides, a good jog is what you need to get your sore leg better again.

~✺~

"Oh sweet lord thank you," you breathed out as you got through the doors of the Sabertooth Academy. You were heavily breathing and your uniform was most likely messy and you probably looked nowhere near what someone going to an expensive and prestige school should look like, but right now you were happy that you weren't late. Taking a deep breath, you smoothed out the wrinkles of your uniform, ran a hand through your (h/c) hair, and started walking into your first class. This time, it was advanced math. Perhaps this time, Sting would not take this class with you; he didn't seem to have the brain capacity for calculus anyways.

Getting to your locker, you absentmindedly shoved your things into it. You lazily took out the things you needed for math, as well as your book. Oh, your sweet, sweet book. You almost felt like kissing the cover of the book, but you were well aware that there were still people who would give you a weird glance if you did so. With a feeling of content, you held the book along with your other things and gently closed your locker. With that, you walked down the hall, quietly humming "The Hanging Tree" to yourself.

"Are you, are you, coming to the tree?"

You thought to yourself about how even though the lyrics were quite dark, you kind of liked it, meaning and all.

You swiftly walked into your math classroom, not even trying to make contact with anything or anyone who was in your class. You sat down on a desk in the far forgotten corner of the room. You let out a tiny sigh of satisfaction when you settled into your seat. You pulled out your book and pulled out your bookmark. How you have missed the feeling of sitting down in a quiet room and being able to let a book give you a ride with its words. Granted, you could faintly hear the chatter of people around you, but you managed to tune them out and get back to Finnick's horrible death.

But unfortunately, your quiet and peaceful reading time was cut off when you felt something tap your shoulder and pull you back into reality. You were pretty sure you knew who it was as you curse under your breath and snapped your head to whoever was behind you.

"What??" you snapped, quite annoyed with whoever messed with your private time.

"Oh jeez, sorry." Your eyes widened as you realized that it wasn't that annoying blond that wouldn't leave you alone. Rather, it was that black-haired boy with bright red eyes that had gently touched your shoulder. You blinked as you realized it was the guy who was Sting's friend. What was his name again? It was on the tip of your tongue, but you couldn't find the right name.. Rolland? Ew, no. Rouge? That sounded right, but yet...

"Um..." you sweatdrop. "You're...Sting's friend, right?" He raised an eyebrow over the other.  You knew he was waiting for you to say his name, and you sighed in exasperation.  "It was, um, was..." You tapped your chin and groaned. Just yesterday you knew it! Had you hit your head during the slutty girls ambush..?

"Rogue," he said for you, his red eyes glaring at you in amusement. "From yesterday?"

"Right! Right, yeah," you nodded, and gave a sheepish look. "Sorry, I uh, um...I apologize for forgetting." You were going to tell him that you had an accident of sorts, but you thought that sounded weird and decided not to say anything. Rogue shrugged.

"It's fine," he said nonchalantly, sitting down in the desk beside you. He placed his elbow on the table and rested his chin on the palm of his hand. You glance at him with a cocked eyebrow, but decide that his abrupt appearance wasn't really worth asking. It didn't matter if you talked to him anyways, however, because he started talking first. "So, where's Sting?" he asked boredly, looking right into your (e/c) eyes. You note that his red eyes always seemed to pierce right into your soul whenever you looked at him. Perhaps that's because his eyes really stood out compared with his lightly paled face and black hair.

"Why would I know?" you ask calmly, slipping your bookmark back into your book and gently setting it down on your desk. Rogue lazily lifted his shoulders.

"Mmm, Sting told me you were staying at his house 'cause you were attacked," he replied. You stiffened, and he noticed. Smiling at your reaction, he added, "But hey, Sting's a weird guy (which I bet you know by now), so you never know." You could feel your cheeks grow hot, but you try not to let it show.

"...When did he tell you that?" you murmur. You wanted to know so that you could smash his skull in at that exact time. For the third time, Rogue shrugged.

"Around midnight, I guess," he replied, flipping pieces of his black hair away from his glowing red eyes. "He said something along the lines of 'OMG DUDE ROGUE YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED.'" You suppress a chuckle as the emo-like boy made the most silliest "Sting face" you've ever seen. You failed to hide your smile, but you guessed that wasn't so bad.

"Don't worry about it," you wave off. "S'nothing serious."

"Eh, really?" Rogue looked a bit surprised. "Guess I beat up some girls for nothing, oh well." You almost choked on air when you heard him casually say what he did. 

"W-what?!" you sputter, looking at him with shock. He didn't seem to notice the immense shock you were feeling and blew yet another piece of his hair away from his piercing red eyes.

he said, "Well yeah.  I dunno 'bout you, but I find myself quite pissed when I find out that a girl like you gets beaten up." 

"'Like me'?" It was your turn to raise an eyebrow in amusement.

"Yeah like you.  I find you quite interesting," he said coolly, placing his hands on the back of his head to act as a pillow as he leaned on the metal chair.  

"Are you flirting with me?" you ask quite bluntly.  It was better to confirm the fact that he was a playboy just like Sting rather than trying to infer it.  The black-haired boy turned his head.  One of his eyes were closed as he locked eyes with you. 

"I'm not the flirting type, if that's what you're trying to imply," he responded.  You realized that his voice always had this.. inexpressive tone to it, kinda like your own.  A quiet voice in the back of your mind reminded you that you didn't always sound so.. empty, but you ignored it.  

"Uh-huh..." You didn't sound convinced.  Rogue released his arms and went back to resting his elbow on the smooth surface of his desk, except this time he rested his cheek on it, and his head was facing you.

"I'm not lying," he deadpanned. "It's just that there aren't many things that are interesting to me in this world.  You, however, are not one of those things." 

"So everything in this world to you is either interesting or a thing," you say. 

"More or less," he replies.  "Doesn't mean I don't care about some uninteresting things though."

"Oh?" You were starting to get interested yourself in this person.  "Like what?" 

"Like our guild here," Rogue answered.  "It's small, crazy, and definitely weird, but I guess it's something that I would care about if it was gone." 

"Our, huh.." you say, looking down at your desk.  That was right, you had (forcefully) joined a so-called "guild."  You still found the whole concept quite weird.  In the end, don't all friends, no matter how close they are, betray and/or leave each other at one point or another? That was what you thought anyways.  "Aren't 'guilds' pointless?" you ask Rogue.  "I mean, you'll all go your separate ways in the end right?" His blood-red eyes slightly grew, but he shrugged once again.

"I guess you could say that.  I mean, when we leave high school, the chances of us all being in the same college are pretty slim, if we go to college anyways," he said, looking thoughtful.  "But, you know...that's how it would be for 'normal' people.  Sting, Orga, Minerva, Rufus, Yukino..well, with them, anything, good or bad, is possible." A small smile crept onto his lips.  "And, since they aren't like all the other uninteresting people, you...really treasure them."  You fiddle with your hands, absorbing all that he was telling you.

 "I thought you said that they were uninteresting," you point out.

"I said the guild was uninteresting.  A group of friends who have each others' backs? It's so common it's quite boring." A smirk formed onto Rogue's lips.  "But, I've always found toying with other people's romance life quite interesting, and a guild has make finding such things much easier." Ah. There we go.  

"You've picked the wrong person to flirt with," you scoff.  "I'm not interested." 

"Who said I was the one interested in you?  I already told you I wasn't flirting." His smirk grew wider. At first, you didn't understand what he was trying to imply, but when you did, you felt your face grow hot.  

"No," you hissed.

"Yes," he hissed back.  He was obviously enjoying this, just like how Sting was enjoying your embarrassment only a couple of minutes ago.

"There is nothing between Sting and I," you growl, the heat creeping onto the tips of your ears.

"As a third party and bystander, I beg to differ." Rogue's smug grin only grew with your protest.  You let out a huff of frustration and pick up your book.  You took your bookmark and tried to smoothly slide it away from you, but it slid an inch too far and fell to the floor.  You heard Rogue laughing at your failed attempt, and it only made the heat go higher up your body.  You grit your teeth and try to tune out everything once more so that you could calm down and return to the world of Hunger Games once more.