Siegrain watched the rows of ruffles on Sofia's bathing suit flutter in the wind. It would be a chore to wash all the sand out of her hair later but she'd begged and begged to be at the beach. In hindsight a gift of matching buckets and tools before summer actually came had been a mistake. At three, she wasn't an altogether patient child. He stretched his feet out and dug ruts in the sand before sighing loudly.

"Tell me," Ultear said from beside him. She wasn't gentle with her words but, then, Ultear wasn't ever really very gentle about anything. He appreciated her brutal honesty – even when it left him bleeding.

"He showed me the ring."

"Jellal?"

"Who else?"

"Was it nice?" Ultear stretched out on her back and sighed. She'd never struck him as a sunbather but her sighs were always indecipherable anyway.

"Erza will love it."

"When will he ask?"

"Who knows." Siegrain scooped up a handful of sand and let the particulates dribble from between his fingers. Maybe Sofia was onto something with her sand play. "I doubt her mother will be too keen on her marrying anyone so soon."

"They've been together for an eternity already."

"I mean, so soon after graduating." Siegrain paused and raised his eyes to Sofia again. She still dug happily in the mounds of sand, completely oblivious to the wind. "I don't think she cares for Erza's career choice even though she never misses an opportunity to drop the title. Doctor Scarlet."

"I still think it's funny her last name is Scarlet."

Siegrain shrugged. "I don't think she wanted Erza to have her father's last name for whatever reason."

"Why did she keep it?"

"No clue. As you might imagine, I'm not really too fond of chatting her up."

"You're just a big chicken. I think she's great."

"You would."

"Though," Ultear said contemplatively. "I admit I don't have much of a taste for the flesh of men." Siegrain snorted. Sofia giggled raucously and stomped all over her sandcastles. "You're in such a great mood today, I'm glad I came along."

"Sorry," he muttered. As he watched Sofia's feet sink into the crumbling walls of sand an idea came to him. "Hey," he said glancing down at Ultear.

"Hm?"

"Marry me?"

"What?"

"Marry me." She didn't react at all except to readjust her body on the towel.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm gay, you fool. You don't have a single thing I want."

"That seems to be a common thing." Siegrain's gaze shifted back to his daughter. He heard Ultear groan and sit up.

"You shouldn't hold yourself up to Erza's measuring stick, Sieg. It's ridiculous."

"It's hard not to do that when she's in love with someone who is biologically identical to me."

"You need to get out more."

"I get out plenty."

Ultear was silent for several moments too long. The sound of the waves crashing and rolling up on the beach roared in his ears. He hated that he'd exposed himself to her but Ultear was truly the safest friend he had.

"I'm not talking about the usual getting out," she said in a voice barely audible above the waves. "You're never going to find what you want that way."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Siegrain stood abruptly and held out a hand for Ultear. She took it and didn't press him further.

Sofia's face pressed sleepily into the protective side of her car seat on the drive home. Jenny would be by the following morning to pick her up and Siegrain already felt the creeping emptiness his daughter left behind when she was on her mother's time.