Chapter three is here!
In which Gildarts meets his first real challenge and defeat: how will his ego cope with such devastating development?
I hope you like it, feedback is always welcome so please let me know what you think:).
Chapter 3
Cana, completely engulfed in the story depicted by her father, almost choked on her roasted potato when he explained the embarrassing and hilarious pig story. It would normally had been hard to picture Gildarts in any kind of humiliating situation but he explained the scene so vividly and with such a wide ray of emotions added, from how foul the stinking mud had smelled, to how slippery the pigs had been. She noticed how he forgot to breathe for a second when he mentioned the first time he had eyes on her mother's smile and that made Cana feel like she was right there, standing next to the young couple and going through everything they did 29 years ago.
Gildarts took a break in his story to clean up the empty plates and bring out the cake he had prepared for dessert. Once again Cana found herself surprised and amazed at what her father could accomplish in the kitchen, it smelled divine!
Once they had settled again, this time with a big piece of chocolate cake and a cup of coffee in front of them, Gildarts resumed his story of how he came to fall in love with Cornelia, the pig woman:
It took another 6 months before he saw her again.
He had told himself over and over again that he had no interest in her. He had worked very hard to ignore every urge, every thought and every idea to go back to that town and look for her. He took a longer mission to distract himself but when it finished and he returned to the guild he had still not been able to forget that enchanting, but oh so rare smile. He found himself fantasising about that particular smile and imagining scenarios in which he could lure it out again. He wondered if the reason he was so enchanted by it was because he had only seen it once, when she forgot to have her guard up during her short presentation of herself.
He would probably never have fully admitted to himself that he was interested in the hauntingly beautiful, pig woman Cornelia if it was not for an unusually wet night spent at the guild in the company of Master Makarov, Macao and Wakaba. The four of them had celebrated Macao's successful engagement and now pending wedding and after a few drinks a certain dark-haired beauty had been mentioned in passing when Fairy Tail's most powerful mage was asked about his latest missions.
What Gildarts had not accounted for was the interest the other three seemed to have in his private life. He had been forced to spend the rest of the evening fighting of their prying questions and loud proclamations that he had to go back for her. Right now!
Later that night, when he had finally walked home to his house to crash he still could not get her out of his mind, and it frustrated him to no end. He made himself a cup of strong black coffee to clear his mind and sat down by his kitchen table. Leaning back into the chair he ran his fingers through his hair as he contemplated his situation. What should he do? He could no longer deny his interest, but should he really act on it? She had not seemed very impressed by him the last time they met and that was six months ago. She could be married and have five kids for all he knew.
His mouth dried up and he started cold sweating at the mere thought of meeting her again. Now that he had finally admitted to himself that he wanted to meet the stunning woman with the hauntingly beautiful eyes and the rare smile again he realised he was nervous and that thought actually made him chuckle, when was the last time he had been nervous about something? He could honestly not remember. But the feelings invoked, unfamiliar and enticing, the thought of meeting her again only made him more determined. In a way it was good that he had let his tongue slip in a moment of weakness. The support his friends had provided him with and their pressing demands for him deal with his feelings had finally allowed him to make up his mind…
"Um… Hi?" O hell, Gildarts cursed himself, was that really the best he could come up with?
"You? What are you doing here?" Cornelia asked cautiously. During their lunch together all those months ago he had told her that he belonged to a mage's guild located in Magnolia, which was a fair distance from her hometown. She had not expected to ever see him again and even less so for him to be standing on her front porch, leaning his ridiculously sexy body against the reeling and smiling sheepishly as if to excuse his intrusion.
"I… uh… was just in the neighbourhood. Finished another quest for the duke I helped last time and I… eh… wondered if you would like to get a cup of coffee or something like that?"
"You are kidding right? I have no time for this, now leave!" Cornelia almost yelled at him with flustered cheeks before slamming the door shut.
On the dilapidated porch a perplexed and confused mage was left standing indecisively. What the hell did just happen? He knew she was not particularly fond of him but her reaction seemed entirely exaggerated. Not sure what he should do next he concluded that a strategic retreat would be the best course of action at that point. He left the porch to find a tavern in which he could sit down with a pint of beer to analyse the situation and figure out what went wrong.
What he did not know was that he was being observed.
When she had slammed the door in his face she turned around to lean against the rough surface and slid down into a sitting position. Her heart beat so hard that it felt like it was trying to crush her chest and her cheeks burned flamingly red.
What was he doing here? She had never expected to see him again and when he had turned up on her run down porch with that sheepish grin and that hauntingly sexy body of his it had caught her completely of guard, and Cornelia was not a woman that liked to be taken off guard. Early, painful, lessons in life had taught her to never trust anyone and always be wary of others actions and intentions.
After few seconds of collecting herself again she took one deep breath, stood up and lifted the thin curtain covering the window next to the door, just enough so that she could peek out through it without being caught. She found him still standing on the porch looking very confused for a few moments before apparently making up his mind and leaving the property. She let out a small breath she had not realised she had held and turned around. That would be the last she heard from Gildarts Clive she told herself. Now maybe she could finally get him and those confusing images of his cute smile and gorgeous body out of her head…
"Mommy? What are you doing?"
