Five Minutes

Summary: Five minutes may not be a lot, but it was more than she had before.

Disclaimer: I don't own

AN: This is for the guest who gave me this idea, the one who wanted just one moment where she has hope that maybe he'll accept her- I found it really easy to work with this idea. Thank you so much, I feel like I have been in a creative rut lately and this was a nice change of pace.

It was hard to watch sometimes. To see how her father treated Natsu like the pinkette was his own son, while he barely knew she even existed. Even though she knew that it was her own fault that he didn't know who she really was to him, it didn't make things hurt any less.

It wasn't even anything in particular that made her feel so horrible. Things like how Gildarts taught Natsu how to fight or sometimes played catch with him when the weather was nice- those things didn't bother her for some reason. But when she heard him teasing Natsu about Lisanna, or how he knew that Natsu had done something specific on some job and was eager to praise him for it. He knew all about the dragon slayers likes and dislikes down to how many marshmallows he liked in his hot chocolate. He yelled at him when he screwed up and praised him when he did good. All this he knew about and did for someone else's child while he didn't even know Cana's name.

That wasn't fair and she knew it. Natsu had had a hard life, losing his father figure and she was proud of Gildarts for stepping up to fill that space in his life. Beyond that the brunette was pretty sure that nobody knew her actual name, so it really didn't count.

It was her own fault- if she wasn't so pathetic, she would have told him a long time ago. Gildarts probably wouldn't even want a weakling like her for a kid. He probably didn't even remember her mother but acknowledging that it was her own fault didn't mean that it didn't hurt.

Usually she could put it out of her mind, just take a job and put as much space as she could between herself and everybody, not today though.

This had been the first snowfall in Magnolia this year and Cana had to abide by tradition. Ever since she was little, she and her mother would make a snowman during the first snowfall- a way to ring in the season. Even though her mother had been gone for a long time she still kept up the tradition.

But it just wasn't going well this time. No matter what she tried she just couldn't get it to stand straight up. It was making her already upset mind even more frustrated- which certainly wasn't helping.

"Cana? What are you doing?"

The brunette girl stiffened, slowly turning around to face her father, who was staring at her with a raised eyebrow. All of a sudden, she was at a loss for words.

"It- it won't stay straight." She said dumbly.

The crash mage shrugged before offering," I could give you a hand if you want."

Still speechless, Cana opened and closed her mouth for a moment before nodding," I- uh, I'd like that a lot, thank you."

As the older man crouched to get a better look at the construction, he immediately noticed what the problem was," Looks like he's just a little off balance is all." He said nonchalantly as he packed snow around the middle of the snowman.

"Um- thanks." She said numbly as she helped to pack in the white fluff, inserting the buttons along the front as she went.

After they had finished the body, and set the face in place, Cana topped it off by putting the hat onto its head.

"There now- he looks rather dashing, doesn't he?" The Ace pointed out with a smile.

Cana was about to respond when a loud whistle got both of their attention, the redhead's eyes bugging out.

"Oh shit- by Cana!" He yelled over his shoulder as he desperately ran to catch his train, leaving his daughter by her completed snowman.

He had just spent five minutes of his time helping her make a snowman. That might not be much, but for Cana it was more than she'd had before. He had spent five minutes of his life acting like how she always imagined he would act if he knew that he was her dad. Like he acted with Natsu. And now she had hope that maybe, just maybe he wouldn't mind so much to have her for a daughter.

AN: If you're wondering how old she is... well you're not alone. I couldn't really pick an age that felt right, so lets just go with 'young'. If I was a little unclear, Gildarts spent five minutes of his time helping her fix something that to him probably wasn't that important, but to Cana he was taking some time to help her out with something very meaningful- acting for her like he does with Natsu. She thinks that maybe he wouldn't mind having her for a child if he's willing to do something like that when he doesn't know who she really is.