This fanwork contains references to the use of alcohol and to certain mature situations. Viewer discretion is advised.

Where the Wild Things Are
Chapter Two: Self-Indulgent Introspection

All told, the damage Cana did to the coffee shop in her fit of rage was little compared to what had been done to her pride and Fairy Tail's reputation. And my wallet, Cana thought glumly as she recalled the figure on the bill that would be sent to the guild as compensation for one of their members razing the establishment to the ground.

Looked like she'd be late paying her rent. Again.

Cana sighed and slowly turned the knob of the shower until the water trickled to a stop. It seemed like she owed a few other people apologies as well. Jason, for one, didn't seem to care when she'd muttered a sheepish apology to him as he was carried away by a team of medical mages — he'd been crowing about how cool Cana was as her magic, fuel by rage, wreaked havoc around them (it was only Bacchus pushing him out of the way of a rampaging Cana that had prevented the reporter from suffering from any serious injuries) — and when Cana had calmed down after discovering that there wasn't anymore of the coffee shop left to destroy, the proprietor of the establishment had accepted her apology much more cordially than she'd expected. Then again, it was difficult to gauge something like that when the other party was doing little more than staring in blank disbelief at the place where their business had stood mere minutes before, but all in all Cana thought it had all gone rather well.

Master Makarov would begrudgingly accept her apology, Cana knew, and would understand what had prompted her rampage in the first place, even if he'd be more ornery than usual about the whole thing. The bill for the coffee shop's reconstruction, as well as damages sustained by a few of the other shops in its immediate vicinity, was another matter entirely, but she knew he'd take that in stride as well; the knowledge did little to stave off the guilt eating away at her, however, and Cana resolved to take on as many jobs as it took to pay off that debt in its entirety.

She supposed Mirajane deserved an apology as well, if only because she really had kept Cana's personal and somewhat complicated opinions about Bacchus a secret. In typical Mirajane Strauss fashion, everything else had been a setup to get Cana and the Palm Mage together, as was usual for Fairy Tail's resident demon of a matchmaker. Her heart had been in the right place; she just hadn't gone about the doing part properly. For that, Mirajane would have to apologize to her. And Bacchus.

Bacchus Groh. Cana shivered unintentionally. Now there was a man who drove her wild. She shook her head, mentally berating herself for her choice in words as she stepped out of the small bathroom and into the equally small adjoined room of the hotel she was staying in during her stay in Crocus.

Great, Cana mused as she began pulling on her clothing. Now I'm starting to sound like one of those idiotic and overgrown puppies. Still, her mind wandered back to the Palm Mage, and once she finished getting dressed, Cana leaned back on the bed, lost in thought.

She'd be lying if she said she didn't find the older man attractive. In fact, if she were being completely honest, at least to herself, Cana would go so far as to admit that he was exactly her type: an older and powerful mage who knew how to hold his own regardless of whether he was on the field, at the counter of a bar or a seedy tavern, or (and here Cana found herself blushing profusely against her will) the bedroom. Bacchus obviously knew what he was doing, and the fact that he wasn't bad on the eyes at all certainly helped.

And it wasn't as if she loathed being around him, either. While it was true that their initial meeting had left much to be desired, it hadn't taken them long at all to resolve their personal issues and get closer to one another as drinking buddies, and not that much longer to get closer still as… "fuck buddies" was too crass a term even for Cana, and after a few moments of careful consideration she finally settled on "friends with benefits". It was hardly a fitting term, in her opinion, but it would have to do for now, and Cana brought one arm up to cover her eyes, groaning softly as her face grew warmer and her blush darkened as the memories of the first time she'd spent the night with Bacchus came back to her in explicit detail, followed soon thereafter by the second night, and then the third.

There certainly was no small amount of magic in those hands of his, that was for certain.

Four months had passed since their relationship — if it could even be considered that — first began, and while it was common knowledge to the members of Fairy Tail and anyone associated with the guild that their own Cana Alberona had become incredibly chummy with one of Goldmine's easily excited puppies (Jason's question, in fact, really had been an innocent one based on the fact that the two had been seen together so frequently in the last few months, and Cana resolved to take the reporter out drinking with her one day as a further form of apology from her) only Mirajane knew the full extent of their relationship with one another, and if anyone else had their suspicions, they were either too polite or too smart to broach the topic when Cana was around. Or they were too dumb to notice anything at all in the first place.

Knowing her fellow guild mates, however, Cana was personally inclined to believe it was that lattermost option.

Of course, that hardly applied to Mirajane; the woman hadn't earned the title of "Demon" for nothing, after all, and having been around them for so many years, she had grown adept at reading and understanding the lot of them, sometimes more so than they themselves did. It was Mirajane, in fact, who had first brought up the idea that Cana felt more for Bacchus beyond what was dictated by the rules of social drinking and casual sex. When she thought about it while sipping her fourth vodka lemonade of the day (which was really little more than lemonade-flavored vodka — she was a woman who preferred her drinks strong, after all) Cana had come to the startling conclusion that the older woman was right, and the pleasant buzz Cana had been nursing for the last few hours abruptly disappeared as she cursed loudly.

Mirajane had merely smiled at her in a pleasant, knowing sort of way, and despite the warmth of her hotel room, Cana felt the gooseflesh on her arms raise as a shiver traveled down her spine at the memory; sometimes, Mirajane was downright terrifying.

It, her relationship — fling, activities, whatever — with Bacchus had initially started out as something that was mutually understood to be strictly casual. They were both extremely busy, with little time for leisure beyond what free time between missions allowed, and even less time that could be devoted to a proper and committed relationship with someone else, but even so they were human, and as such prone to basic human needs and urges. That was why she hadn't moved away when Bacchus had leaned closer and pressed his lips against her own that night at the inn in Maple, where they had both found themselves in upon the successful completion of their individual missions, when the pair discovered themselves to be the last patrons at its bar, and why he, in turned, hardly protested when Cana had whispered, "My room, now," in his ear after their kisses had grown more heated and she'd settled herself comfortably, almost possessively, in his lap so that she could untie the piece of fabric that held back his dark hair. And after morning came and they'd gone at it again (as if whatever they'd done last night wasn't enough) Bacchus had grinned at her while helping to pick up the clothes that had been scattered haphazardly across the room in their haste the previous night.

"We should definitely do this again," he'd told her as he picked her top up from the floor and tossed it to her from across the room. "That was all kinds of wild."

With a smirk, Cana had thrown his pants at his face in response. "Give me a time and a place, and I'm in."

And she most certainly was.

Everything had been so natural with Bacchus — and not just the drinking and the sex, either, though both really were excellent as well. The conversation had been easy, the companionship greatly appreciated, and if they happened to get dinner or go to the movie lacrima theaters together, it was assumed to be little more than another aspect of the nature of their relationship. And when Mirajane had first brought up the possibility that her friend cared more for the Palm Mage than she let on, and Cana realized that her feelings for Bacchus really had grown to something no longer pertinent to someone she only drank and fooled around with, she'd done the most obvious thing.

Cana had run away. She'd woken up at the break of dawn to find Bacchus's powerful arms wrapped around her waist gently and his chin settled comfortably in the crook of her neck, and when the thought occurred to her that she wouldn't mind waking up like this every day if Bacchus was the one holding her, she'd froze. And then something else occurred to her: neither she nor Bacchus had had a single drop of alcohol the night before, and they'd still slept together anyway. So, being the coward that she was, Cana had slipped out of his embrace, picking her things up from around their room at the inn and getting dressed as quietly as she was able before exiting; she didn't even leave him a note, though she did make sure to pay for their stay before she left. She could do that much, at least. Not that it did much to alleviate her guilt; a month had passed since then, and she hadn't seen nor contacted Bacchus in any way since then, hoping that the deliberate separation on her part would help her mind and her heart sort themselves out.

Naturally, it didn't work, and as the weeks passed, Cana had been troubled to discover that she hadn't just developed a silly little crush on the Palm Mage — she had honestly and truly fallen for him, and harder than she had for any person she'd been attracted to before.

Of course, Cana found a number of ways to justify her actions. After all, she was Cana Alberona: Fairy Tail's resident tank where alcohol was concerned, who used a confident and boisterous personality as a front to mask a seemingly infinite number of personal problems where commitments and her self-confidence were concerned. Daddy issues, too, but at least those had been on the mend as of late, ever since she first revealed her identity to Gildarts. In fact, Cana had thought all of her other flaws had slowly been getting better since then — she'd finally gotten over Macao, for one, though her seven-year-long disappearance had helped with that, managed to become one of Fairy Tail's top-ranked S-class mages, and became the first person since Mavis Vermillion to properly master Fairy Glitter without the aid of any outside force.

I'd be an idiot if I thought I'd ever get a lucky break in romance.

An idea occurred to Cana, then, and she sat up abruptly, her gaze concentrated on the bag sitting on the floor on the other side of the room that contained her cards — not just the ones she used for her magic, but her prized tarot cards. They'd been a gift from her late mother, and it had been through them that Cana had begun to develop and hone her prodigious abilities in Card Magic. But even before that, she'd learnt how to utilize those same cards to perform a reading through her own skill and intuition alone, and in the years since then, her cards had never been wrong. Perhaps, if she had enough time before she had to leave for the photo shoot, she could…?

Cana glanced at the clock on the nightstand and blanched. The reading, it seemed, would have to wait; even with the extra time she'd had thanks to the destruction of the coffee shop that had cut the interview short, the photo shoot was still scheduled for that afternoon she was still running late. She jumped off the bed, hurriedly grabbing a jacket and her bag before bolting out the door. Pausing only to make sure the door was properly locked and her room key was secure in her bag, Cana continued on, forcing herself to think of nothing but reaching the studio on time for the shoot, even if that meant she had to be sober for it.

Mavis, she hoped it would be worth it.

A/N: My apologies for such a relatively "boring" chapter full of background information and such, but I guess it's a bit necessary in this case, if only to make the situation a bit more clear. That being said, the timeline of this fic is deliberately meant to be a bit unclear (though I personally see it taking place about a year or so after the GMG arc). The only "major" development, I think, is that Cana's managed to become a fully-fledged S-class mage by this point, and it shows, though she's still got some way to go regarding her take on relationships and commitments and the like. The poor dear.

The next chapter, I promise, won't be nearly as expository; simultaneously, however, it most likely won't be posted too soon, like the time span between these first two chapters (and for that, you have my apologies). Still, I think it's a good place, now, for readers to catch up and have a bit more understanding of the nuances of the situation, so. Yes. There you go!

Once again, thank you so much for reading, and any reviews or feedback anyone leaves is always greatly appreciated!