Meeting Her Father

The couple are on their way to meet Gildarts. Loke's nervous and Cana tries to calm him down. Modern AU.

Loke has always been confident about his ability to appeal to the ladies. It all came naturally to him: how to act, how to behave, what to say and when to say it... everything was all easy. He was good at telling them what they want to hear, getting them to like him and accept his dinner invitations...maybe even something more for later in the night. But this, this was something entirely new to him, something he never thought he would have to do until he met the brunette who was currently sitting on the passenger seat.

"Loke, just... relax." Cana sighs, watching him continuously tap on the steering wheel with his fingers. He's been at it ever since they've started their trip. His jaw was set, eyes fixated on the road and she can feel his nervousness from a mile away as if he was going to have a breakdown any moment now.

He runs a finger through his hair. "I know but I just can't. What if he doesn't like me?"

The girl snorts beside him. "As if he'll ever like anyone I introduce to him, you know how he is." She glances at him and his face was still as stiff. "Come on, he'll like you if you just show how sincere you are."

"You just said he'll never like anyone." He says pointedly. He takes a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves but it did little to slow down his heartbeat or untangle the knot in his stomach.

"Hey, where's the confident guy with no shame in his body whom I met before?" She says, hinting back to the time he walked up to her in the club, spouting cheesy nonsense as he tried to secure a date. She rejected him back then, not really in the mood to flirt back as she had just broken up with Bacchus. Little did she know that he would play a bigger part in her life in the future.

"He's gone. Dead. Left in a ditch somewhere." The girl rolled her eyes at him. He's always been dramatic and it's always amusing to watch him exaggerate everything, not now though, it's only getting him more nervous than he already is.

"Just... think of him as a girl you want to pick up or something." She was running out of options, she'd been calming him down since the moment he picked her up from her flat. If he stays like this, he wouldn't be able to make it to Gildart's.

"Cana, he's your dad. I'm not here to ask him to sleep with me, I'm here to be introduced as your boyfriend and tell him I'm serious about us."

She goes silent, cheeks warming up. Having Loke as a friend for years gave her the ability to discern when he was being flirty and playful and when he was being sincere. She was used to him saying things to her and taking care of her in a platonic sense but when they got together, it was the first time she's seen him this affectionate and loving, like he would do anything to protect her and her happiness. She was still not used to it and it still catches her off-guard until now.

She coughs, clearing her throat. "I think he'll be okay with anyone very important to me."

"Will he really? Remember Bacchus?" Ah yes, her ex-boyfriend from college. To be fair, she didn't really introduce him, Gildarts just found out. That was a huge mess back then, something she didn't want a repeat of.

"He's a good judge of character." She mutters, knowing that Loke is different from her ex-boyfriend and that he is better, more genuine. Of course, Loke isn't exactly comforted by this, with what he was well known for was something he wishes hasn't reached her father's ears yet. He's changed but that doesn't mean his reputation will quickly take a turn.

"Well for what it's worth, if he doesn't like you, I'll still be here." She places a hand on his lap and he stops with his tapping. He gives her a quick glance, his eyes holding so much emotion that it fills her chest with warmth, swelling, expanding... filling her up with so much love she was about to drown in it.

"I love you." He mutters as his eyes went back on the road ahead.

She smiles, noting the sincerity of his statement. "I love you too."

A/N: I just really needed to write a Loke x Cana fic because the pairing has been stuck in my head for a few months now while I was doing some planning for Begin Again, my currently on-going work.