The Blue Pheasant Flies On
Chapter 13: Day in the Life of…
The Dragneel/Alberona/Strauss House
"NAAAAAATTTSSSUUUUU!"
Cana refused to open her eyes as she heard Mira's yell echo throughout their house. She refused to give the white-haired wannabe-delinquent the satisfaction. That had to be the only reason she still made a huge deal every time she found that Lisanna had snuck out of her room to go sleep in Natsu's bed with him and Happy—which was often. Seriously, Lisanna spent more time in Natsu's bed than she did her own. You'd think Mira would get over it already.
Not even Natsu's screams of terror and the sound of various things breaking could rouse Cana from her bed. This was why she didn't drink too hard before bed. The first and only time she had been hungover for their routine had nearly split her head in two and ended with her trying to kill Natsu and Mira. Gildarts had made the three of them rebuild the destroyed walls when he saw what happened and she didn't feel like getting her hair coated in plaster again.
A soft knock was heard at her door and Cana let out a moan in response. Taking that as permission, Elfman eased the door open and stuck his head inside. "Cana, breakfast will be ready soon. Don't be late."
Cana threw a pillow at him before pulling the covers up over her head to hide from the light coming in through the door. "Wha fer brefass?" she mumbled out.
"Neesan said that she was going to make pancakes before she went to check on Lisanna but…" he trailed off to listen to the commotion going on in the rest of the house. Natsu let out a high-pitched scream of terror that was abruptly cut off. "Okay, she caught Natsu, so they won't be too long, and I have the bacon cooking now." The large white-haired teen carefully moved the empty bottles out of the way as he went to open the curtains. Cana groaned at the natural light in her room but Elfman ignored her as he stopped at the foot of her bed and looked at the lump under all the covers. "Come on, Cana. You love bacon."
The lump made a positive noise.
"Better hurry up before Natsu eats them all," Elfman reasoned.
The lump moved around a little.
"Now that Natsu's been caught you only have so long until Lisanna talks Neesan out of killing him and then she'll get into the shower and you know how long she takes."
"Alright, alright, I'm up!" Cana declared as she threw off the covers. The brunette glared at Elfman's smug smile. She pointed an accusing finger at him, "This isn't your doing, it's because Lisanna uses up all the hot water."
Elfman wisely decided not to answer and left the room to go make sure the bacon wasn't burning. Cana watched him go with a glare before stretching out with a yawn. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she gathered her things and headed to the bathroom on her and Natsu's side of the house. When Gildarts had built the addition onto the house when he was made the Strauss's caretaker he had made sure that all the plumbing and electricity ran through both sides of the new building. Unfortunately, Cana quickly discovered that meant that Lisanna would use up all the hot water if she let her go first, and of course the two older Strauss siblings had only seen fit to warn them about Lisanna's bathing habits after they had gone first. Natsu might be able to heat up his own water, but Cana had had a rather short and cold shower that day. She made it a point to always wake up early enough to get into the shower before Lisanna after that.
Once she was clean, Cana headed downstairs to the chaos that was their breakfast table. Mira was in a pink apron that Lisanna had bought her and waving her spatula at a flying Happy while yelling for him to "Sit his cat-ass down!" as she finished up the pancakes. Elfman was swapping out the bacon for eggs and humming to himself as he cooked in a matching apron. Lisanna was offering a mug to comfort a bruised Natsu that was lying with his head down on the table and groaning in pain. Cana could see the lump on his head from the doorway. She stopped to grab a piece of toast before sliding into her seat next to Natsu and swiping his mug before he could take a sip of it.
"Hey!" the Dragon Slayer cried in protest, his injuries forgotten in favor of his breakfast.
"You know the rules: no coffee. We don't need you bouncing off the walls and burning the house down," Cana reminded him. That hadn't been a fun morning. Natsu had bounced off the walls worse than normal and no matter how hard Mira hit him he kept getting back up. He also kept trying to pick a fight with Mira and had set the table and curtains on fire in his enthusiasm. The worse part of the whole ordeal was that Natsu discovered that he liked coffee, so now they had to constantly keep an eye on the pot to make sure he didn't get his hands on any. Lisanna certainly didn't help matters by trying to help him sneak a cup or two. Cana swore that she spoiled the Dragon Slayer.
Cana pulled out her hipflask and poured it into her confiscated mug. "Leave the coffee to those of us that are responsible enough to handle it." Huh, her flask felt a little light. She'd have to get it refilled at the guild today.
Natsu looked like he wanted to protest, but Lisanna patted him on the shoulder and he admitted defeat. After that breakfast was served and the room was soon filled with chatter and the sound of clinking silverware. Things were getting too quiet, so Cana brought up this morning's escapades. "Got Lisanna into your bed again, Natsu? That's the fifth time this week. Why don't you two just share a room already?"
It had the desired effect. Natsu got all flustered and spluttered out denials while Lisanna looked giddy at the idea. Elfman looked uncomfortable, but wisely stayed silent while Happy let out his usual cheerful "Aye!" of agreement. Mira's reaction was the best, as usual.
"No way in Hell!" she loudly declared and slammed her foot on the table. She glared down at the now pale-faced Dragon Slayer. "Natsu! I'm not letting you corrupt my innocent little sister anymore!"
"But Mira-nee, Natsu's so nice to sleep next to. He's like a personal heater," Lisanna protested, and Cana wasn't sure if she was purposefully screwing with Mira or was just too naïve to realize what her words were going to do to the elder Strauss. "Plus, when he holds me I feel so safe and warm," she said while reaching out to pull one of Natsu's arms over her shoulder and hugging the pink-haired soon-to-be-dead man.
Cana felt a grin stretch across her face. Scratch that, Lisanna knew exactly what she was doing. And judging by how Mira was shaking the entire table with repressed fury she was about to hit her breaking point. Cana picked up her plate and pushed her chair back so that she'd be out of the crossfire. She didn't stop eating though. Mira made really good pancakes.
"THAT'S IT! You're dead, Natsu!" Mira howled in fury before grabbing one of the knives off of the table and lunging for him. The mighty Dragon Slayer ended up on his back with both hands barely holding off Mira and her knife.
Thankfully, before Mira could make good on her threat, Gildarts threw open the door with a shout, "Morning, kids! I brought doughnuts!" The adult stopped when he caught the scene of Natsu trying to hold off a knife-wielding Mira while Elfman and Lisanna struggled to hold her back, Happy floated over the whole spectacle giggling, and Cana ate pancakes in the back while watching everything. Gildarts blinked in surprise. "Huh, I thought you guys would've woken up earlier. Late night?"
With Gildarts's presence, everything settled down and they finished up their breakfast.
"Hey! There's only six doughnuts in here!" Cana said in outrage.
The six kids looked at Gildarts, who was wolfing down the last of the bacon and coffee. He paused midbite to look at them. "What?" he asked, the picture of innocence except for one small detail.
Cana pointed to her cheek and said, "You've got a little something right there."
Gildarts rubbed at his face and managed to wipe the last of the powdered sugar off his stubble. "Heh, heh," he chuckled at his kids' unamused faces. "Well, Mira, Elfman, breakfast was delicious as always. Let's throw these dishes into the sink and get started training.
After the teens finished their doughnuts and made Gildarts do the dishes as punishment for eating the other half dozen, they went out to the section of the forest Gildarts had cleared behind their house for their training. Lisanna had recently taken over a bird and was practicing her flying with Happy above the tree line. Elfman still struggled with his Full-Body Takeover, so Gildarts was having him focus on just making progress. He had recently moved beyond his right hand to his right forearm and now he wanted him to see if he could transform his entire arm. Mira had recently taken over a strong demon that she was calling her Satan Soul and was easily outpacing the rest of the group in combat, so Gildarts was having her spar with Natsu as a warmup before he started putting her through her paces to see what her new form could do. Cana was practicing her accuracy and speed by throwing cards at targets that Gildarts had set up and was manipulating.
The Card Mage did her best to ignore the sounds of combat, yells of exertion, and excited cheers echoing around the clearing and focused on the targets. A barrel rolled past and earned itself three cards. A plank was thrown through the air that took two to the center, but the third missed because the first two knocked the plank off kilter. Cana clicked her tongue in frustration but stayed focused and put the next four into a human shaped target. Five disks came flying over her shoulders and she managed to get four of them with the cards in her right hand but that left the fifth. She rushed her throws and ended up missing with her next two before the disk landed. She swore in frustration and only went one for four on the next target, hitting the wood outside of the target area. Too far into the set to quit, she ended up missing a few more times before calming down and finishing strong.
Once the targets stopped moving, Cana took the time to kick the dirt and swear some more before sitting down and pulling out her flask. She was just about to take a swig from it when she heard Gildarts approach her from behind. "What?" she asked and winced. That had come out sharper than she intended, but she was pissed at her shit performance, so sue her.
"Whatcha doing there?" Gildarts asked, making sure to keep any judgment out of his voice.
"Having a drink," Cana responded, though she hadn't taken a sip yet, the flask was still unscrewed and in her hand.
"Why?"
Cana rolled her eyes but didn't look back. "Cuz I'm thirsty."
"No you're not," Gildarts told her. He walked forward and sat down next to the brooding brunette. "You're drinking because you're pissed."
He was right, but Cana wasn't going to tell him that. "So?" she petulantly asked. She could be both. To prove it, she started to lift the flask up to show him, but Gildarts reached out and took the flask. "Hey! Give it back."
"Maybe you should cut back on the drinking," he told her in concern.
"Why? You said you started drinking before you were my age," Cana shot back. "And you're the one that's been letting me drink in the first place. Pretty hypocritical to tell me to stop now."
"I wasn't drinking before noon, Cana," he told her.
Cana sneered at the concern in his eyes. Now he wanted to act like a dad? Fuck him. She started to get to her feet, but Gildarts put his hand onto her shoulder and held her in place. "What now?" she snapped.
Gildarts got to his feet and pulled her up with him. "Come here," he told her calmly, yet firmly. Cana scowled, but followed him. He gathered up all the targets and lined them up in front of her in order of their appearance. "What do you see?"
Cana glared at the targets. Her cards were still sticking out of the boards, all of them deep enough for a corner to stick out from the backs of the boards, but not all on target and a few of the boards were empty. It wasn't her best work and she told Gildarts as much. "I see a shit job."
"That's not what I see," he calmly responded. "I see a good start, a shaky middle, and then a good finish." Cana snorted at his words, making Gildarts sigh. Seems that he'd have to walk her through it. "What happened in the middle?"
"I sucked." Cana wanted to leave it at that, but the look on Gildarts's face told her he wasn't going to let her. She sighed before elaborating. "I rushed a throw and missed, then got pissed and started missing a lot."
"But then you stopped missing and started hitting them all again. Why?"
Cana was going to give him a smart remark but knew that would be immature. Instead she stopped to think about the question before saying, "I realized that I was rushing and made myself slow down and concentrate on hitting the targets."
She nearly fell over when Gildarts suddenly clapped her on the back. "And that's something to be proud of!" he told her. She looked at him in confusion, so he elaborated. "Cana, you saw what you were doing wrong and corrected it without anyone else's input. That's a sign of real maturity. Hell, I know more than one person that would just keep banging their head against the wall once something went wrong."
Unbidden, the two simultaneously turned to watch Natsu get knocked back by Mira's tail before rushing in with flaming hands to try again with the same result.
Gildarts coughed into his fist to bring them back to the conversation. "My point is that I'm proud of you. You're smart and mature for your age and I've been willing to give you a lot of freedom because of that, but lately I might've been giving you too much freedom." Cana had a warm feeling in her chest that quickly turned to anger at his last words. Gildarts knelt down in front of her and put his hand on her shoulder. "I've been focusing too much on Natsu, Mira, and Elfman lately and that's left you and Lisanna alone. Now I know that Lisanna's probably fine with it because she has her siblings, but you've just got yourself and sometimes Natsu. But we both know that he's not really the kind of guy you can turn to about this kind of thing." Cana felt the blood rush to her face in embarrassment and she saw that Gildarts had a bit of a blush too. He absently scratched his chin. "I'm not really good at this. My point is: I'm sorry I left you alone. I got too distracted by the others and just assumed that since you weren't making as much noise you were fine. I'm going to try to be better about that, but if you think that I'm ignoring you again just tell me. Okay?"
Instead of answering, Cana jumped forward and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug, wrapping her hands in the cloak on his back and holding tight. Gildarts was surprised at first but quickly got over it and awkwardly returned the hug and patted her back. They stayed that way for a bit before Cana let go. She wiped a hand across her eyes and held out a hand. Gildarts at first reached for her flask, but stopped when she shook her head. His brow furrowed in confusion before he realized what he wanted and grabbed her hand with his own. "Deal," Cana told him. The warm feeling had returned and now she felt lighter, as if a weight she hadn't known she had been carrying had been lifted off her shoulders.
Gildarts smiled at her and gave Cana her flask back. She hesitantly reached for it, and once she saw that he wasn't going to hold it back, accepted it. "You still thirsty?"
Cana looked down at the flask for a moment before screwing the cap back on. "No."
Gildarts smiled at her and got to his feet. "Good. Now it looks like Mira's hit her groove smacking Natsu around so I'm going to go make sure she doesn't get too comfortable. I'll send Natsu over to help you with the targets."
Cana started to pull her cards out of the targets only to stop when Gildarts said, "Oh, and Cana?" She looked up to him and was startled at the serious, almost pained look in his eyes. "Try to keep your drinking for happy things. Parties, celebrations, hanging out in the guild. Not for the bad times," Gildarts seemed to age in front of her eyes as he looked off past her to some where she couldn't see. "That's a slippery slope that's hard to get off and only has one stop."
Gildarts was silent for a moment, then it passed, and he was back to his usual self. He gave her a smile and started walking towards Mira and Natsu's fight. "Keep up the good work!"
Cana was left staring at his back as usual, but now she had a strange mixture of lightness in her chest and a heavy weight on her hip. For the first time in a long time she wondered if she really needed to become an S-Class mage before telling Gildarts the truth, but as usual she let the thought pass. She had made a deal with herself and she wasn't going to risk it by backing out now. So she turned back to the targets and finished collecting her cards.
After spending an afternoon at the guild, the seven of them went back to their cobbled together house and played cards. It was the usual loud affair with Natsu accusing Cana of cheating, Cana lying about not cheating, Lisanna telling Natsu off for being mean to Cana, and Mira telling them to shut up and play the damn game over Gildarts's laughter. They eventually ran out of steam and Natsu, Lisanna, and Happy fell asleep together on the couch. The four older mages all shared a warm smile as they looked at the adorable picture in front of them. Natsu's head lying on top of Lisanna's while she rested hers on his shoulder and Happy sleeping across their laps.
"Ain't that cute," Gildarts whispered. He then got to his feet and stretched out. "Well, it's getting late. Try not to stay up too late tonight, you three. We've got to get those jobs done tomorrow so we can go camping this weekend," he reminded them. He whispered goodnight and left the house.
"I'll put them to bed," Elfman volunteered. He was the only one able to carry them all comfortably without magic. "Then I think I'll go to bed myself."
"Thanks, Elfman," Cana flashed him a thumbs up. "G'night."
"Elfman," Mira stopped him before he left. "Put them all in Natsu's room." The other two stared at Mira in surprise and she blushed and refused to meet their eyes. "It's just because his room's closer and separating them will wake them up. Don't read into it."
Cana and Elfman shared a look but chose not to comment. Elfman silently took them away and Cana stopped by the fridge to grab a couple of bottles before heading out to the porch that Gildarts had added after Lisanna gave him a dose of her baby blue puppy dog eyes. Mira joined her shortly after and they both leaned against the railing.
"Beer?" Cana asked while holding out a bottle. Mira hesitated for a minute before accepting the drink. Cana grabbed herself a new bottle and the two opened them in sync.
Mira took a sip and made a face at the taste. "Ugh, it's so bitter. How do you drink this stuff?"
Cana shrugged. "You get used to it."
"I don't think that's necessarily a good thing," Mira told her, earning herself another shrug.
They stood their and silently enjoyed each other's company for a few minutes before Mira broke the silence. "Why do you drink so much?"
"Huh?" Cana said in surprise. "Why do you wanna know?"
"I'm just curious," Mira said. "It's just, this stuff doesn't taste very good and you agreed—at least at one point—so why do you keep drinking it?"
Cana stopped and stared at her bottle for a bit. No one had really asked her why she drank before. They mostly just told her to stop. "At first it was just a rebellion thing, I think. Macao and Wakaba gave me a drink at a party and I didn't think it was that great, but it made me feel good inside, so I drank the whole thing. That pissed Ur off and she ended up freezing the two of them in a giant ice cube, which was hilarious. But then she read me the riot act about drinking and how bad it was, which I thought was stupid since her and Kuzan and Gildarts were drinking all the time. So, I wanted to feel that buzz again and stick it to Ur at the same time. When Gildarts found out I was afraid that he'd react the same way, but he just laughed and let me keep going. Then it kind of became our thing, you know? When we were on missions with Gildarts and away from Ur we—Natsu and I—could drink as much as we wanted without getting in trouble and nobody was willing to give Gildarts shit about us drinking because, well, he's Gildarts. Then I started drinking in the guild to see if I could do it without getting caught and that became part of the fun." Cana idly spun swirled the bottle in her hand and listened to the beer slosh around inside. She frowned at the bottle, "Lately, I've been drinking to feel good again."
Mira looked at her in concern. She opened her mouth to say something before closing it and thinking about how to word her question. "Do you… do you feel bad without the alcohol?"
Cana thought about it for a minute before giving Mira a half-smile. "Nah, I think I've got it taken care of now."
Mira slung an arm around Cana's shoulders and brought her in for a noogie. "Good! Otherwise I'd have to beat the stupid out of you for thinking that."
"Get off!" Cana playfully pushed at Mira and the older girl let her go. Cana blew a strand of hair out of her face and gave it up for a lost cause. She'd fix it in the morning. "What about you?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. You got me to talk about something deep and personal, now it's your turn." Cana told her.
"Well, what do you want to know?" Mira asked, willing to humor her.
Cana hummed in thought for a moment before looking Mira up and down. She had changed back into the short-shorts, thigh-highs, and crop-top she liked to wear outside of the guild where Ur couldn't force her into pants, boots, and a shirt that covered her stomach. "Why do you dress like that?" she asked while gesturing to Mira's outfit. "You know that Ur will give you shit for it if you get caught and I know you only hate the pants and boots because she makes you wear them. So what's the deal with them?"
Mira looked out over the porch and played with her bangs, twirling them into a small ponytail on top of her head for a moment before letting them fall back over her forehead and repeating the process while she mulled over how to answer. Of all the things she thought Cana would ask about, her clothes weren't on the list. "They make me feel pretty," Mira finally admitted with a blush.
Cana gaped at her in surprise. She hadn't been expecting that. "S-seriously?"
Mira scowled at her. "You wanted the reason and you got it. If you're going to laugh then fuck off,"
Cana held up her hands and tried to calm her down, "No, no, I'm not gonna laugh. It's just, I was surprised. I thought you were going to say because it made you feel tough or something, not… pretty."
"Yeah, well, they do," Mira said sullenly. The anger drained out of her posture and she slumped against the railing. "You remember how when I first got here I'd never take that sheet off and always hid in the back?" Cana nodded. She had wondered what happened to make Mira go from a wallflower to a tomboy willing to throw down with Erza. "It's cuz I couldn't control my magic and my arm was stuck as a demon. It got me a lot of shit back home and on our way to Fairy Tail, even though I got it by saving the town. People always looked at me in disgust and horror. Like there was something fucking wrong with me!" she spat out. Mira closed her eyes and remembered the looks, the whispers, the disgust. "The worst part was that I believed them."
Cana went over and awkwardly grabbed her shoulder. "Well they were wrong. There's nothing wrong with you."
"Yeah, it took Lisanna and Elfman learning to use Takeover Magic to make me realize that." She shook her head and shrugged off Cana's hand. "Anyways, after that I found a magazine with girls dressed like this," she gestured to her outfit. "And I thought they looked awesome. They were so confident while they were practically naked and most of their magazines were sold so they must have been popular, and I wanted that. Admiration about my looks instead of disgust and enough confidence to face anyone who said otherwise so I decided that I was going to be that. So I got Gildarts to buy me clothes that they wore, but not as skimpy. I'm not that confident." She smiled at the memory, "He started sweating bullets when I told him what I wanted and turned this bright red when I showed him the magazine I was talking about. He tried to talk me out of it but I wouldn't budge." She chuckled, "I don't think Ur's ever stopped giving him shit for that."
Cana leaned back and ran her eyes down Mira's body. "They do show off how nice your butt and legs are," she agreed with a smile.
Mira playfully bumped her hips into Cana's, "Stop that. I won't be able to get in the hot springs with you if you keep that up."
"I tell it like it is."
Mira rolled her eyes at Cana and looked away to hide the red on her cheeks. That may have been the point of wearing those shorts, but that didn't mean she actually got those compliments. Most people were too busy looking down on her for being a kid and once they got past that they were too busy being scared of her magic.
There was silence for a bit, then Cana brought up something that had been bothering her. "Hey, does Gildarts seem… I don't know, Different?"
Mira thought for a minute then said, "No. Why? Has he seemed different to you?"
"Yes? No? I'm not sure," Cana admitted with a puff of air that blew her bangs up. Ever since Ur and Kuzan left and came back with him smelling like a bar something had changed, but she didn't know how to describe it. "He talked to me about cutting back on my drinking today."
"Can't say that I disagree, but yeah, that's weird," Mira said. "I always thought he was the reason you started drinking."
"Actually, that was Macao and Wakaba," Cana corrected. "But Gildarts is the one who let me keep doing it. But today he was talking about only drinking for good times, not when I'm mad or unhappy."
"Isn't that why the adults drink half the time?" Mira asked. She knew that it was at least why Kuzan and Ur drank outside of a party. Gramps was a little more up in the air, but everyone in the guild knew about his rocky relationship with Laxus and if they hadn't been there for Ivan's expulsion they'd been told enough about it to know not to bring him up. That and the way he was constantly complaining about all the bills the Council was sending him had to contribute to why he was always sitting on the bar.
"Yeah," Cana sullenly replied as she titled her bottle back and forth on the railing to watch the alcohol inside slosh around. "I don't know. He said… he said he was proud of me today. When I managed to get control of my temper during practice. Then he told me to keep up the good work. He's never done that before. Usually he just looks at the results and goes off of that, but he actually watched me today. He hasn't done that since I figured out the right way to flick my wrist."
Mira had a thoughtful look as she thought back over the day. "Yeah. He told both me and Elfman that breakfast was great. Usually he doesn't say our names. He even broke our practice off early to go spend some more time with Lisanna. He normally just gives her a brief onceover and asks if she wants any help."
"It's like… it's like he's…" Cana struggled to come up with an appropriate analogy, but Mira didn't.
"It's like he's trying to be a dad."
The two fell silent after that, lost in their thoughts about Gildarts trying to be a father. For Mira, it was strange to think about. As the oldest, she remembered her parents the best out of her siblings and the thought of replacing them with Gildarts seemed wrong. He was more of the fun uncle that you loved hanging out with but was best in small doses and that's what Gildarts had been. Sure, he acted like a dad sometimes when he came by to check up on them and took them out on what were essentially family trips, but there was always something parental that was lacking about the way he did that and she had been okay with it. The thought of Gildarts suddenly taking up that role left an uncomfortable knot in her stomach. While they had never talked about it, she knew that her siblings saw Gildarts in the same way she did, just maybe not as strongly. As for Natsu, there was no mistaking his feelings. The pink-haired boy would shout from the rooftops that Igneel was his dad and he was going to find him. She glanced aside at the brunette who was deep in thought. Cana, on the other hand, had grown up without a father. There was a likely chance that the girl wanted Gildarts to fill that role in her life. Cana and Gildarts as father and daughter, she could kinda see it. Mostly in the face.
While Mira idly considered the possibility of Gildarts and Cana being a father and daughter, Cana struggled with the fact that she was Gildarts's daughter. Why was Gildarts acting like this now? Did he know? How could he, she never told him and he hadn't given any indication that he recognized her for six years, why would he change now? It had to be a coincidence. He was only taking care of her because Ur and Kuzan hadn't wanted to take custody of Natsu and no one in the guild had wanted to leave her—the only child without a guardian—hanging out to dry. "But what if he did?" The thought echoed inside her mind. Was this a subtle way of letting her know? Was she reading too much into it? Should she tell him?
As quickly as that last thought appeared, Cana banished it from her mind. No. She had made a deal with herself: become an S-Class mage and prove that she was a strong mage then tell Gildarts the truth. She couldn't back out of that now. What if she ruined everything by spilling the beans? She liked what she had with Natsu and the Strausses and didn't want to mess that up.
Unbidden, her gaze slid over to Mira. She had made the deal to only tell Gildarts after she became S-Class. That said nothing about telling someone else…
The two mulled over their thoughts in silence and eventually reached their own conclusions. The tension on the porch eased away and they were able to enjoy the sounds of forest nightlife and stargaze together. Eventually, Mira stretched her arms above her head and let out a yawn while her back cracked. "Well, I'm going to head in. You staying up much later?"
"Nah, I'll probably just finish this and head in," Cana said as she sloshed her bottle around. There was only really a swig left in it, two if she made them small. "I don't have to get up early to yell at Natsu," she said with a smirk.
"I'll give him a pass tomorrow. Besides," Mira sniffed in disdain, "I wouldn't have to beat him up if he just admitted he liked sleeping with Lisanna. Everyone can see that they like each other, I don't know why he's so against it."
"Probably because her older sister keeps beating the crap out of him for sleeping in the same bed as her when she's the one that crawls in to sleep with him," Cana suggested.
"Hmph! If he doesn't like Lisanna enough to stand up to me then he's not good enough for her," Mira declared.
"They already treat Happy like their kid and Lisanna's basically declared that they're going to get married when they're older. I think that's a lost cause," Cana pointed out.
"Regardless, as the big sister I have to look out for my little sister."
"Then you'll understand if I do the same for my little brother," Cana said.
Mira furrowed her brow in confusion, "But you and Natsu are the same age. In fact, isn't he older than you?"
"We're not sure. Natsu's age is weird since he doesn't know his real birthday and just goes off of the day Igneel found him," Cana explained. "Since I've been in Fairy Tail the longest I have seniority. And do you really think Natsu would work as the elder brother?"
"True. He does have that foolish little brother air about him," Mira admitted. "But that's not the point! You can't tell him to stand up to me. That's cheating!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Cana waved off her concerns. "How about this: I won't tell him unless he comes asking me for help. Deal?"
"Deal," Mira agreed with a cocky grin. "Knowing Natsu, he'll beat me in a fight before he thinks to ask for help."
"True." Cana lifted her bottle, "To our younger siblings."
"Cheers," Mira said as she clinked her mostly full bottle with Cana's. She winced as she took a swig. "Still tastes like shit."
"If you're not going to finish it then leave it here. I'll take care of it," Cana told her.
Mira handed the bottle over and Cana happily took a sip from it. She could taste the white-haired girl's lipstick on the bottle. It tasted like honey. She silently watched the older teen head inside and called out just before she closed the door behind her, "Mira, wait."
The white-haired mage paused and looked back. Cana mentally struggled with what she wanted to say, how to bring Mira in on the secret that she had been keeping to herself for six years before settling on, "Good night."
"Night, Cana."
The door closed with what seemed like a resounding bang as Cana listened to Mira's footsteps disappear into the house and just stood there and let the sounds of the night wash over her while she idly swirled her bottle around.
She stared at her distorted reflection before saying, "Fucking coward," and started chugging.
Kuzan's House
Kuzan woke up at six in the morning as usual when he heard Erza get out of bed and get ready for the day. He used his Haki to do a sweep of the house and perimeter before tracking Erza as she went about her morning routine to make sure nothing was wrong. Once he sensed her start to practice out back, he allowed himself to relax and quickly fall back to sleep. It was a pretty easy transition since he hadn't even needed to open his eyes beneath his sleep mask.
Two hours later he woke up and reluctantly decided to start his day. Thirty minutes after that he finally got out of bed and into the bathroom. Four more gray hairs and a shave later he headed down to start his stretches and go spar with Erza.
Levy woke up around ten after a full six hours of sleep and made her way down to the kitchen with bleary eyes and started making eggs. Erza and Kuzan were drawn in by the smell of breakfast and the trio had a silent meal where Levy was half asleep and Erza was tired from her earlier exercises. Kuzan just didn't want to talk to himself. After their quick breakfast, Erza went to use the shower while Kuzan and Levy went back outside so she could practice the basic punches and kicks Kuzan taught her and get her daily exercise in. Erza came out to bring them tea around an hour later and Kuzan called it for the day. The three drank their tea in silence before Levy headed inside to clean up.
Kuzan then went through his personal exercises while Erza watched, enraptured by the display of strength and skill and eager to reach that point herself, especially the way Kuzan was able to seemingly teleport across the backyard. She had asked him to teach her that magic once and had been stunned to learn that it wasn't magic, but actually pure physical ability. She had resolved to learn how to replicate the technique herself and had nearly burnt herself out in secret attempts until Kuzan caught her. He had forbidden her from practicing that on her own but had promised to teach her his speed technique and a few others after she achieved S-Class.
Levy finished cleaning up and getting ready for the day a few minutes before Kuzan was done and sat with Erza to discuss the latest development in their book and the most recent guild gossip while Kuzan went through his cooldown. He then went inside to get cleaned up himself. Once he came back out, the three headed to the guild with Levy hanging off of Kuzan's arm as he swung her back and force and Erza doing her best to look mature. An attempt that was made even harder since Kuzan insisted on rubbing her head and messing up her hair whenever he caught her glancing at Levy.
They arrived at the guild and quickly took up their usual places. Erza and Levy went over to the Kid's Corner and started playing with the other guild kids. The sound of Erza and Mira's arguing along with the click of Levy and Cana playing chess was added into the general din that filled Fairy Tail on a daily basis. Kuzan grabbed a coffee and slipped into his usual seat with the standard greeting to Gildarts and Ur.
"Morning," he told them.
"It's noon," they dutifully replied in sync.
And so the day began.
"I've been trying to give more individual support to the kids and I think that it's helping," Gildarts was telling the other two. "I'm thinking of taking them camping this weekend. Try and use the time to connect with them individually while we're out there."
"Seems like a good idea," Ur said. "Can't go wrong with a little family bonding."
"Yeah," Gildarts nodded in agreement. "Plus, it'll give us a chance to unwind without the other kids around egging them on."
"I don't think they're that bad," Ur reasoned.
"Yours aren't. Kuzan's on the other hand," he said with a significant look at the older mage.
"You're exaggerating," said mage claimed without looking up from his paper.
"Hmm?!" Gildarts grunted, pointing to where Erza and Mira were trying to push the other's hands back as they butted heads and traded insults.
"Oh, that's not so bad."
"Hmmmmm?" Gildarts repeated, gesturing to where Levy and Cana had started playing speed chess with the timer set to a second. Their hands were nothing more than pale blurs as they darted across the board. The appearance of captured pieces on either side the board was the only way to keep track of what was happening to anyone other than the players.
"So?"
"Hmmmmmmmmm?" Gildarts repeated even louder, emphasizing that Erza and Mira had started straight up brawling in the guild.
He would have continued, but Ur smacked the back of his head. "Alright, let's not get ridiculous. Gildarts, you're being melodramatic. Kuzan, your kids wind up Gildarts's like a jack-in-the-box. Now get them under control before they put another hole in the guild. Master doesn't need any more stress."
The properly chastised pair grumbled to themselves but dutifully broke the kids up. Kuzan froze the timer and Gildarts caught the fighting girls and threw them to opposite sides of the guild with a "Ur says to behave."
"There. Now isn't it better when we all get along?" Ur rhetorically asked.
"True," Gildarts conceded. Then a sly smile came over his face. "So, Ur, how are your kids getting along?"
The glare she gave Gildarts in response could have turned steam into ice. Kuzan snorted into his coffee and quickly found himself interested in the upside-down newspaper he was now holding to avoid Ur's glare himself.
"Actually, I've got a new training method that I think will help all three of them burn off all their extra competitive energy," Ur told him. The Wizard Saint calmly sipped her coffee, "So bite me, asshole."
Kuzan didn't manage to hold back a short bark of laughter at Gildarts's expense. He couldn't see the Crush Mage through his paper, but he didn't need Haki to know that Gildarts was expressing his opinion with a raised finger.
Gildarts checked the time and got to his feet. "Well, I've got to get going. We're having game night tonight and I don't want to run over and be late. Unless someone would be willing to cut me some slack?"
"You know the rules. If you're last you pay for everything that was ordered before you got here," Kuzan reminded him.
"We don't make the rules, we just abuse them when we can," Ur claimed with a wicked grin.
That wasn't technically true. All three of them made the rules, Gildarts just tended to forget them. "Ah, my poor wallet," he deadpanned with an exaggerated swoon. They all chuckled at his joke. Out of the three S-Class mages sitting at the table, Gildarts was far and away the wealthiest of them all, even after paying for all of his collateral damage. He grabbed his bag and gave them a brief wave, "Alright, see you guys later."
"Later," they replied. Gildarts then grabbed his kids, literally in Natsu and Mira's cases, and headed out the door.
"Think he'll be late?" Kuzan asked after Gildarts left.
"Depends on how closely Natsu ends up watching Cana. If he catches her dealing from the bottom of the deck again he'll be paying for the whole night."
"What a shame," Kuzan said in mock seriousness.
"Indeed," Ur agreed with equal seriousness.
The pair chatted a bit more until Erza interrupted them with a job flyer in hand. "Sensei, I'm taking this job."
"How long do you think you'll be gone for?" Kuzan asked more out of obligation than actual concern. Erza was a big girl and could take care of herself if he left her alone for a year, let alone a simple job request. He did give the flyer a cursory glance but found nothing concerning about it. It was just a monster elimination quest so Erza would be more than fine on her own.
"About three days," Erza responded. She doubted that it would take her more than half a day to clear out the monsters, but it was a day trip for the train to reach the mountains from Magnolia Town.
"Okay, have fun and don't forget to let Levy know that you'll be gone."
"Right!" Erza said with a clenched fist. "We will have to learn whether the brave knight and mage are able to defeat the wicked witch after I return." Gildarts made a noncommittal noise that was enough for Erza to accept as an agreement and she headed over to the stairs that would take her down to the guild library. Levy usually retreated down there if she found Gray, Jet, and Droy's competitions too overbearing.
"It must be nice to have a kid responsible enough to send off on jobs on her own," Ur wistfully said. "I was thinking of letting Gray start to do some local solo missions but…" she trailed off and waved to where a shirtless Gray was racing Jet and Droy to see who could climb up one of the guild's support pillars the fastest. Droy was winning by riding a plant to the top and the other two were calling him out on being a cheater.
"Understandable," Kuzan sympathetically said. That reminded him of something he had found earlier in the week and he rustled around in his pocket for a moment before producing a job flyer. "I picked this off of the board a few days ago. It's a sea monster extermination job at the beach. Interested?"
"Just the two of us on an empty beach together killing sea monsters?" Ur asked with a raised eyebrow. She managed to keep a straight face for a moment before letting a big grin spread across her face, "Count me in. You want to bring the food or the drinks?"
Kuzan mentally reviewed his past successes in the kitchen before answering, "Drinks."
"Alright. This weekend?"
"Originally yes, but Gildarts said he was taking his kids camping this weekend, so we'd have to have someone else watch them," he pointed out.
"Can't Master do it?" Ur asked.
"It's the Guild Masters' Meeting this weekend," Kuzan reminded her.
Ur snapped her fingers in annoyance, "Damn. I forgot. How about Tuesday then?"
"Works for me,"
"Great! It's a date," Ur told him. Kuzan nodded in agreement. "Alright, with that settled I have to get going. Need to see if this new training method will be enough to tire the terrible trio out."
Kuzan chuckled, "Heh, good luck with that."
Ur maturely stuck out her tongue at the older man and rounded up her kids before heading out. The older mage stayed at the table and finished his drink in the strange silence of Fairy Tail. Not that the guild was ever truly silent, but it just felt that way without the cacophony of sound that the kids filled it with. After noticing that it was starting to get late, Kuzan went up to the bar and ordered two dinners. He froze the plates to one hand as he made his way into the library and moved some of the books that were covering the end table aside to make room. "I brought dinner," he told the head of blue hair he could just barely see over the book in front of Levy's face. "Did Erza tell you she was heading out on a job?" The hair nodded. "Alright, then finish that chapter and we can pick up where we left off."
Levy obliged, and the pair stayed in the library till dark, reading together and letting their half-eaten food grow cold. Eventually, Gildarts told Levy it was time to head home and after three "one more chapters" the two headed back. Levy changed into her blue pajamas with orange books on them and settled into bed. Kuzan made sure that she put her book away and wasn't hiding it under the covers or her pillow. He stopped at the light switch to give her a look before telling her, "I'm going out with Ur and Gildarts tonight. I don't want to find you awake and reading when I come home, understand?"
Levy nodded, though they both knew that meant that she just had to keep an ear out for him walking through the door to turn the lights out and jump into bed before he checked on her. It was a game they both played, one where he'd be stern if she got caught but would let it go if she didn't.
Satisfied that Levy understood his meaning, Kuzan flicked off the lights and closed the door behind him. It let less light out that way. He then grabbed his keys and locked the door behind him as he headed out for the usual bar.
Once she heard the lock click into place, Levy threw back the covers, turned on the lights, and pulled her book out from under the mattress to start reading.
Ur's House
Ur woke up to her alarm at six-thirty and smacked the snooze button before falling back to sleep. Two more snoozes and a mental debate over the merits of leaving her nice, warm bed later, the Ice Mage sat on the edge of the bed with half-closed eyes still crusted with sleep. "Come on, Ur. That coffee isn't going to make itself," she muttered. With an explosive exhale she made her ice leg and left her bed. She checked on the three boys under her care and made sure they were in their rooms and sleeping soundly before starting the coffee pot. It was ready by the time she had changed into her workout clothes and she finished the pot on the way to the backyard to start her exercises.
An hour and a half later she was in the middle of her shower when she heard the telltale signs that the boys were up. How they were able to wake up and have enough energy to start yelling at the top of their lungs was a mystery. Ur contemplated just staying in the shower for the day. She could afford the water bill and she wouldn't be bothered when the hot water ran out. She could do it, she could live in the shower where there weren't any people to fail or lives to ruin with her incompetence. It'd be perfect.
Ur turned the water off and grabbed a towel.
The scene she walked in on in the kitchen made her severely regret her decision. The entire place was covered in what appeared to be a failed attempt at making pancakes. The smell of burning food filled the air and she could see something black and crispy in the pan on the stove. Flour covered anything that the batter didn't, and both ingredients covered the boys in equal measures. Gray was arguing with Jet over whose fault it was that the batter was on the ceiling while Droy had opened a window and was trying to direct the smoke out of it. Ur took a deep breath and rationally dealt with the situation.
After she had thrown out the frozen batter and ruined pancakes, Ur dispelled the ice that had covered her entire kitchen except for the ice surrounding the boys' bodies. She lined the three up in the dining room and unfroze their heads. "Talk," she commanded with crossed arms. The three immediately exploded into a flurry of excuses and explanations that mixed together in an illegible squabble.
"Stop."
The three shut up immediately. She turned to Droy on the left. "What happened?"
The young Plant Mage hurriedly complied, "Me and Jet woke up and heard the shower running so we headed into the kitchen to get some food. Gray was already there and was standing on the counter and going through the cabinets."
"No I wasn't!" Gray quickly denied. One look from Ur shut his mouth. She'd deal with him standing on the counters later.
Droy continued, "We asked what he was doing, and he said that he was going to make pancakes since you were in the shower. Jet said that he couldn't do it—"
"You did too!" the orange-haired mage interrupted. He was also silenced at a glance.
Now back under Ur's gaze, Droy amended his story, "Okay, so we both told him that he couldn't do it. Then he started insisting that he could, and we kept saying that he couldn't cuz we'd just mess it up, and we told him that we could and they'd be better than his! We were going to prove it too, but Gray said that we couldn't since he was using the kitchen, but that was just cuz he was afraid ours were going to be better! So we were gonna make them and have you judge but then we started fighting while we were making them and…" Droy trailed off and guiltily looked at the partially cleaned kitchen in the next room.
"I see," Ur said in a carefully neutral tone. "Do you have anything to add, Jet?"
The boy bite at his lip with his overly long left incisor—a nervous tic Ur had learned was a sign that he was debating something in his head—but ultimately said nothing. She turned to her student, "And you Gray?"
"I would've had breakfast made before you got out of the shower if those two hadn't butted in," he sullenly informed her while glaring at Jet and Droy. "Would've been better than what they made too," he muttered at the end, making the two boys in question bristle at the slight.
"Enough," Ur told them before another round of shouting started. She sighed in frustration. What was she going to do with the three of them? She had figured that after Lyon had—abandoned, fled, took a better option, ran away, disappeared—left Gray would appreciate having some new friends that wouldn't turn everything into a bitter competition over who was better only for him to be the one to instigate the competition. She was worried that he was learning that the only way to interact with other boys was to compete based off the way he fought with Jet, Droy, and Natsu, but not with Cana, Levy, and Lisanna. The only outlier was Elfman, and while she had been willing to chalk that up to the white-haired boy's less outgoing personality, he had started being more confident in himself lately and according to Gildarts he was starting to volunteer to spar with Natsu. Yet Gray didn't seem to be on any worse terms with him and the two were able to talk without devolving into a shouting match over who was better at whichever inane contest had popped up. It was frustrating, and Ur didn't know what to do about it.
But that was beside the point. Right now she needed to deal with the pancake fiasco. "Gray, I appreciate that you wanted to make pancakes and it was a nice gesture," the boy's face lit up at the praise, but quickly morphed into guilt when Ur finished, "but you shouldn't have dismissed Jet and Droy's help out of hand." She turned to the two and quickly wiped the smirks off their faces. "As for you two, you should know better than to keep escalating a situation. You can't solve every problem by stubbornly sticking to your guns, sometimes you have to walk away. And a petty fight over something as ridiculous as making pancakes definitely counts as something you should have walked away from."
The three properly chastised boys broke eye contact and she knew that if they weren't frozen they'd be fidgeting in place. Ur sighed and dropped her stern expression. "Not everything in life needs to be a competition, boys. There's no reward for something simple for who can make their bed the neatest." Ur froze at that thought. But what if there was a reward? What if she could channel their competitiveness into learning things like life skills? If she played her cards right she could make progress with teaching them how to both be strong fighters and responsible teens. It wasn't the most ideal solution as they'd start to see everything in life as a competition, but she could break them out of that by forcing them to play nice while at the guild and in public but let them run wild at home. Offer a reward for the "winner" and that'd be all the motivation that they'd need. She'd have to keep an eye on them though. They managed to turn her kitchen into a disaster area just by trying to make something as simple as pancakes. Yes, she could work with this.
"Boys," she said, instantly getting their attention, "Since the kitchen is still mostly a mess, we'll be eating breakfast at the guild. Wash up, get dressed, and make your beds. First one done can get an extra order of bacon."
The trio perked up at the promise of extra food and shot off to their rooms to get ready. Ur watched them leave with a smirk, but quickly realized something and shouted after them, "And if I hear any fighting you're getting breakfast broccoli!" There were three identical sounds of disgust and they continued in silence. A classic carrot and stick approach. Yes, she could definitely work with this.
After a nice day of chatting with Kuzan and Gildarts at the guild, Ur brought her boys back to the house to try their new training. She created disks of ice over their chests and had Gray face off against Jet and Droy. There was no point in having any one-on-one matches since while Jet and Droy were pretty evenly matched against each other, Gray could defeat either boy with ease. As a two-on-one, the fight would be less lopsided and it prepared Gray for fighting against multiple opponents and let Jet and Droy work on their teamwork.
"Alright, boys, this exercise is simple. You score points based on how many times you break your opponent's disk. I'll remake any that break. Whoever has the least broken has to wash the dishes tonight. Whoever has the most gets an extra cookie after dinner. If you're in the middle, well, try harder next time. I'll be keeping score and will let you know when time is up," Ur explained. "Any questions?"
"No," the three chorused. She could see the fire in their eyes as they eyed each other's disks. All of them wanted the prize, and no one wanted to be stuck with dishes duty. Jet and Droy would have a harder time scoring since they had to compete with each other, but Gray had to divide his attention between the two mages, so it evened out.
"Then go."
Ur calmly watched the three mages go at it. As usual for their spars, Gray quickly threw up a wall of ice to separate the two partners. But, since this spar focused more on breaking a target than actually beating their opponent, Jet and Droy were being more aggressive than normal. Instead of trying to regroup, Jet burst forward to press the assault. Gray was forced to turn half the field to ice to slow him down, but that let Droy get close enough to throw a handful of seeds at his feet and the Ice Mage was forced to jump away or let his disk get broken by a fist made of plants. Jet managed to use the distraction to get his feet back under him and darted forward to get the first point of the spar.
Ur marked down his point and remade the disk with a wave of her hand. The three stood around in half-ready stances, not sure if they were supposed to wait for Ur's signal or keep going. Their guardian's shout of "What are you doing? Keep going!" settled that matter and they jumped back into the fray.
The rest of the evening was spent that way, with Gray initially on the back foot due to the new fighting style Jet and Droy were using, but he managed to recover, and his superior magic power and greater experience allowed him to take the lead and finish with a win. Ur mentally made a note to make sure that he didn't get that compliant again. Maybe she'd ask Kuzan if they could do a joint training session in the future to keep the boys on their toes. Out loud, she congratulated him on his victory and informed Jet that he'd be on dishes duty tonight. Gray lit up at Ur's praise and Jet groaned at his misfortune. She made sure to praise Droy for his performance as well and encouraged him and Jet to try harder next time while warning Gray not to get cocky over one victory.
She made the boys wash up while she got dinner started and they complied with little protest. All three of them were worn out from the exercise and too tired to waste energy arguing. Ur was satisfied with the results of this new training style. She'd have to make some adjustments, of course. Make it so it wasn't always a direct fight so Gray wouldn't have a distinct advantage. Throw in some skill challenges for a change of pace and to make them more well-rounded. She'd also have to devise a way to trick them into doing chores. Maybe make a chart and keep track of who did which chores to her satisfaction without needing to be reminded. Have a simple reward for them at the end of the month, like they'd get to pick their first job of the month or something. Kids were pretty bad at accurately scaling things, so she'd probably be able to trick them with this for a year or two. Hopefully by then they'd have either matured enough to stop the constant competition or she would have at least managed to ingrain that they shouldn't turn everything into a competition in public.
It was a work in progress, but it was significantly better than before.
After the boys had cleaned up, Ur served them a dinner and made sure to subtly control the conversation. She'd let them brag about their successes but made sure that no one's ego got too big and that they were aware of their own mistakes and the other's successes as well. Whenever it seemed that things would get too heated, she'd smoothly interrupt and change the subject by asking about their last job or the events of at the guild today. Jet and Droy were always happy to talk about Levy and her victories over Cana and Gray liked to share the latest gossip he got from Cana.
It was a nice dinner, but Ur couldn't help but look at the table and imagine two other kids sitting there as well. One was a silver-haired boy that acted like he wasn't interested, but secretly was hanging onto every word and the other was an older purple-haired girl that looked like herself and was smiling fondly at her younger brothers' antics and laughing along. Ur's knuckles went white and she felt the table start to creak under her grip. She noticed the boys glance her way at the sound and just smiled at them while forcing herself to take a deep breath and relax. She shouldn't think about what could be. Those ships had sailed. She needed to focus on the present and what she had instead of chasing after what could never be.
After dinner, the four of them played a board game together for a bit before all the exercise from earlier caught up to the boys and Ur found herself tucking the three of them into their beds for the night. She made sure to remind them all that she was going to be out and not to open the doors for any strangers. Magnolia was a mostly crime-free town with such a large and prominent guild located in town and any would-be burglar would be in for a nasty surprise if they tried to rob her house with three upcoming mages inside, but it never hurt to be careful. By the time she locked the door behind her, all three kids were out like a light.
Kuzan looked up as Ur arrived at the bar and smiled. "Arara, someone's late to the party."
Ur rolled her eyes as she returned his smile. "I'd say that you're early, but I don't think that Hell's frozen over yet," she told him as he poured her a glass of vodka. "Cheers."
"Cheers," Kuzan said as they clinked glasses. "So how'd the new training go?"
"I'll tell you all about it when Gildarts gets here so I only have to blind you with my genius once," Ur haughtily told him. Kuzan snorted at her declaration and she lightly elbowed his arm. "Until then, let's not talk about work or the kids. I come her to relax, not stress out."
"Fair," Kuzan conceded. "So how's life been for the mighty Wizard Saint?"
"Oh, don't get me started," Ur said. "You have to hear what Jose did the last time we were called together."
"Are you talking shit about Jose without me?" Gildarts asked as he approached the two mages. He took his seat to Ur's left and ordered a whiskey. "And I thought we were friends."
"Hey, Gildarts. Managed to pry yourself away from the kids before midnight I see," Kuzan snarked.
"Yeah, Natsu and Lisanna fell asleep early tonight. You should've seen it. They were sitting there with her head on his shoulder and his head resting against hers and Happy in their laps. Some of the cutest shit I've ever seen. I wish Reedus was there to paint it," Gildarts told them with a silly grin. "But enough about the kids, what's this about Jose making an ass of himself?"
Ur smiled at him. "You're just in time to buy a round and find out."
"Hey, you were going to tell Kuzan for free. That's favoritism," Gildarts accused.
"No, it's the senior citizen discount."
"Hey, I'm not lining up for the early bird special yet," Kuzan defended himself. "You're just bitter that I can still outdrink the both of you."
"Oh-ho! Those are drinking words, old man," Gildarts declared, a spark of challenge in his eyes. "Whadaya say, Ur. Should we drink him under the table before he has to head home for bed at nine?"
"I'll drink to that," the Ice Mage agreed as she held up her glass.
The other two clinked their glasses to hers and threw back the shots before Gildarts shouted, "Another round, bartender! And don't go too far away tonight!"
Omake: Use Your Head
"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!" Natsu yelled as he launched himself at Gray and nailed him in the stomach with a vicious flaming headbutt. The black-haired mage was sent flying backwards and out of the large ring that they were using as an arena. He let out a pained moan as Natsu ran around the ring with his hands in the air and laughing in triumph.
After making sure that her student was okay, Ur offered her congratulations to the Dragon Slayer. "Good job, Natsu. Gray certainly didn't expect you to use forgo freeing your hands to hit him with a headbutt. What made you think of that?"
Natsu grinned broadly at Ur. "Ha! I was just using my head like Gildarts told me!"
Ur chuckled at his response. "I think Gildarts meant to think about your strategy more, but good job anyways," she told him.
Unseen behind Natsu, Gildarts started to sweat. The pink-haired mage furrowed his brow together in confusion as he remembered when Gildarts had given him that advice.
"How the hell did you get us into this mess, Natsu?!" the older man yelled in frustration.
Gildarts, Natsu, and Cana were all trapped in thick, sticky webbing that covered the entirety of the forest. Cana was in the grip of the giant spider monstrosity that was wrapping her into a cocoon. Her screams of terror could still be heard through the webbing around her mouth. Natsu was halfway between her and Gildarts and only had his upper torso wrapped in webs. His legs were tangled up in the webbing on the ground. Gildarts was trying to make his way to the teens, but it was hard without his magic. He'd usually just crush everything in his path, but Cana was directly between him and the spider and he couldn't risk hitting her. He watched as the spider wrapped another layer around the brunette and clenched his jaw. Not yet, he silently amended.
"It's not my fault!" Natsu denied. "I tried setting everything on fire first, but these stupid webs won't burn." He visibly struggled against the webs binding his arms to his side and only succeeded in getting his legs even more tangled up. "Dammit! If only I could see the damn bug I'd burn it to hell!"
As annoying as it was to hear that Natsu had once again run headfirst into a fight with only 'Burn them all' as his plan, it did give Gildarts an idea. He released a burst of his magic to clear out the webs hanging off of him and then threw a punch to clear a path to Natsu. Knowing that they'd be back in a few seconds, he dashed over to the partially cocooned pink-haired mage and grabbed him by the head.
"Gildarts, what are you doing?!" Natsu asked in a panic as he was pulled back behind Gildarts's head.
"Teaching you how to use your head!" the Crush Mage shouted as he threw Natsu forward in a perfect spiral. "Now light it up, Natsu!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Natsu screamed as he was hurled towards the spider's abdomen. Still, he activated his flames and turned into a fiery projectile.
The spider had turned to ensure that its prey remained between itself and Gildarts, so it got a perfect view of the screaming Dragon Slayer missile that was flying at it. The last thing that went through the spider's brain was Natsu's skull as he punched through its head and out the end of its abdomen.
"Now that's using your head, Natsu!" Gildarts called out with a laugh. With the spider killed, he was now able to destroy the webs around him without worrying about it regenerating. He carefully made his way over to where Cana was tied up. Her screaming had been replaced by muffled swearing as she struggled around like a worm. It was a funny image, but Gildarts figured she'd hit him when she got free for pointing that out. He kept his silence and carefully cut Cana free with a knife.
Her mouth was freed just in time for her to shout, "—Eight-legged motherfucker! I hope you're strung up with barbed wire in hell, you fatass bitch!"
"Language, young lady," Gildarts chastised while trying to hide his smile. "What would Ur do if she heard you talking like that?"
"Fuck off! Do you know how much hair I've got stuck in these webs? Ripping it off is going to hurt like a motherfucker!" Cana cried. To demonstrate, she ripped off a small portion of the webbing covering her arm. "Shit!"
"I'll leave you to that then," Gildarts said as he wisely retreated away from the irate teenage girl. He easily found the burning trail that Natsu left through the woods and yelled into the foliage, "Natsu, you in there?"
"Yeah!"
"Well get out here. Cana's free and we have to do something about the corpse!"
"I can't!"
"Why not?"
"I'm stuck!"
Gildarts hung his head at Natsu's response. Of course he was. He carefully made his way through the trees to find Natsu upside down on the trunk of a tree covered in leaves and bark. The Dragon Slayer glared at Gildarts with twigs sticking out of his hair and said, "I don't like using my head."
"No, I'm pretty sure that—" Natsu began, only to be cut off when Gildarts put his hand over his mouth.
"Ur's right, Natsu. Still, good job on beating Gray," Gildarts told him in a voice that was desperately trying to let him know to shut up.
Natsu pulled Gildarts's hand away, "But you—"
"That's. What. I. Meant," Gildarts slowly repeated as his eyes darted over to Ur, who had raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Fortunately, that was all she did about the subject before going back to see if Gray had gotten to his feet yet despite being told not move. Gildarts breathed out a sigh of relief and pulled his saliva covered hand away from Natsu. He shook it before wiping the spit off on Natsu's hair, much to the Dragon Slayer's displeasure. He ignored his protests in favor of massaging the bridge of his nose. That had been a close one.
"Natsu! What's the first rule of going on jobs with me?" he asked.
"Don't tell Ur about all the crazy shit we get up to, so she doesn't kick your ass," Natsu automatically repeated. Gildarts had made sure to drive that point into their heads shortly after he started taking them on jobs farther than a day's walk from Magnolia.
Gildarts's brow twitched at that last part. That wasn't supposed to be there. "And what were you about to do?"
"…Tell Ur?"
"Yes,"
"Huh, I guess I was," Natsu nonchalantly said, as if he hadn't almost gotten Gildarts in a whole heap of trouble. "It worked out in the end though, so no harm done," he said while clasping his hands behind his head. "Besides, I kicked Gray's ass! That's way more important."
Gildarts ran a hand down his face in disbelief. That damn kid was going to cause his hair to go gray before Kuzan's did.
A/N: Fuck, this is long. While this chapter does technically take place shortly after the last one, I'd like to think that it's an example for the average day of the three S-Class mages and their respective kids and could take place at any time in the timeline. Happy belated New Years. Later.