AN: Having made it through round one (yay!) I now have to brave round two of litashe's Writing Challenge: Macao x Cana, a pairing I know very little of. Oh well, here goes nothing!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Fairy Tail. Though maybe you already guessed that.

Another day, another drinking contest.

Oh, and another fight between Gray and Natsu. Due to Erza's presence and lack of cake, however, they resorted to another form of competition- they decided to join in on Cana's daily drinking contest.

At first, it had been fine. They got through the first few drinks with pretty much no problems. But then they started to show signs of drunkenness which became extreme- Natsu missed his mouth and poured beer on his scarf, whilst Grey dumped his over his shoulder and onto a rather unfortunate Juvia.

And then the singing. Oh god, the singing.

Of course, those two never gave up. Therefore, idiotic duo were now passed out on the table, reeking of alcohol. Only a few people spared them a glance- they had all seen it coming.

"Tsk. Kids." The woman tutted in disapproval (fully aware that she was the same age as them) before taking another swig of her barrel. Her drinking partner grinned, leaning his elbow on Natsu's head.

"Eh, gotta love 'em anyway." Macao said, downing another beer.

Cana raised an eyebrow. "Do me a favour and make sure Romeo doesn't end up a lightweight." She droned.

"He won't. I'm sure of it."

"Good. Fairy Tail needs less dumbasses."

This was followed by a silence. A long silence, yet a comfortable one. The two shared that very rare breed of relationship in which words aren't necessary nor are actions; they communicated through that other sense, intuition. Simply being in each other's presence could say much, much more than one might have thought.

And then Macao spoke up, saying something that made Cana gag on her beer.

"You know, Romeo keeps saying that he wants you to be his mom."

He then proceeded to pound the woman on the back as she wheezed and choked.

"W-What the…?" she spluttered in disbelief (that is, disbelief that Romeo wanted her to be his parent and disbelief that she had actually gagged on alcohol, her one true love)

"Well… that's what he said…"

She full-on slammed her head onto the table, flabbergasted:

"…I wouldn't mind, you know."

At this, Cana fell off her stool and onto the floor. For a second, she thought that she might have actually got drunk (for the first time) and was hallucinating. This was something she had never, ever envisioned happening, and she had no idea what to say. It wasn't like telling Gildarts he was her father- she had been planning that confrontation for years, had it sussed out (even though it didn't entirely go to plan…). This, on the other hand, was like sticking somebody in a cage with a wild lion and ordering them to tame it. Like telling a mathematician to write romantic love poetry.

Just as she was coming up with numerous weird and wonderful theories as to how to heck this could have been happening, Macao burst out laughing.

Which he came to regret as he was whacked around the face with a beer keg.

"What the hell?" Cana snapped, heaving herself up with a thunderous face, slapping away the hand he offered her. "What was that, some kind of sick joke?"

"Not completely…" he dodged another attack.

Now on her feet, Cana seated herself on her stool once again, legs crossed and arms folded indignantly. She looked as though she was prepared to murder puppies. To murder Macao. He flinched and took a step back.

"Well… the part about Romeo was true…but the second part wasn't."

At that point, her anger boiled over, the flame of her anger snuffed out by the sinking feeling in her stomach. She looked at the ground, wondering why such an emotion as disappointment had come over her.

Macao grinned goofily. "After all, even if we did like each other, it's not like it would work out or anything."

"…Yeah." Was her simple reply. And then they went back to drinking as though nothing had happened.

Except something had. It wasn't much, but both of them felt as though their relationship had taken that one, tiny step forward. Not even a step, a shuffle. But that was still progress.

Cana wasn't an idiot, and neither was Macao. Both were aware of the age gap between them, of the invisible walls in their way. But, over time, the walls would wear away, eroded by the wind and rain. And as those walls came down, the age gap would become irrelevant. Everything would pale in the face of their loyalty, of their undying feeling, powerful in their subtlety.

Maybe that time would come. Maybe it wouldn't.

But, in the meantime, they'd blame it on the alcohol.

AN: …Epic fail is an epic fail. I can't write this pairing and I certainly suck at romance in general. Pardon the absolutely crap story. I don't think I'll ever look at this again out of shame.

~Meg