"Okay, Gramps. I can explain!", Kane said, defensively, as he held up his hands.
"What is there to explain, Kane?", Makarov asked with a neutral expression. Kane hated that expression. It would have been so much easier if Gramps was just angry with him, instead of just being..disappointed.
"I know I shouldn't have run off, I know I should have listened to you, I know I.."
"Kane, Kane, stop.", Makarov said, patting the boy on the arm. "Why do you think I'm disappointed in you?"
"Because I ran off without your permission?"
"No."
"Because I...lied about it?"
"Nope."
"Then, why?", the confused boy asked.
"Why, what?"
"Why are you disappointed in me, Gramps?"
"Who said I was?"
Kane looked at the old man, bewildered.
"Kane, you know back in my day, if my master, and his closest friend, my father, may both of them rest in peace told me I was on the bench, you know what I'd do?"
"Go anyway?"
"Yep. And do the Job with style."
"So, I could have gone anyway in these ten months?", Kane asked. "And you'd be cool with it?"
"Well, I guess you could have taken some rest, considering the state you were brought home in. That's not something to be taken TOO lightly.", Makarov replied. "I thought you'd go on missions a few months later."
"I was training. I didn't want to go out there and hurt myself again the same way."
"So that's what you were doing!", Makarov laughed. "I just thought you were in the library all the time. I guessed you must have liked it there, given you used to work over there."
"I hated the library.", Kane said. "I did go there a couple times, though. I wanted to find out about some new magic. Something that I could learn without, y'know, turning my entire arms into burnt toast. Also, you knew I was out there, didn't you?"
"How do you think Laxus knew? Anyway, I guess it did help you after all.", the old man laughed, even as the boy looked down at his toes, disheartened.
"Nope. I thought it would, but then instead of Explosions, what comes out of my hand is a sparkle."
"A sparkle?"
"Yeah, that's what it was. I was thinking I was gonna kick that Weretiger's ass, but...", Kane said. "It just didn't work out."
"Well, you did complete the job, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"So I guess it's all well and good, then! And much better, you've managed to make sure you weren't hurt as bad!", Makarov said reassuringly. "That's progress."
"A weretiger and an aerophid aren't as dangerous as something that can literally take over your body and soul, Gramps. How's that progress?"
"Well, still."
"And you know something? Bickslow said I was actually really great at this stuff."
"That's great!"
"But..it didn't feel earned."
"Why do you think it didn't feel earned, son?", Makarov asked, concerned.
"The weretiger was kicking my ass, honestly. And it only stopped 'cause of Bickslow and because weretigers are idiots and get bitten by Aerophids.", Kane said. "I'm no genius, I just got lucky."
"Lucky? Kane, you went toe to toe with two extremely hostile creatures, and held your own against them. And that too, after dealing with injuries no one should be having so early in their life as a Mage."
"But, if I'm struggling with a freaking Weretiger, how can I even expect to catch up to everybody else?", Kane lamented. Makarov realized what exactly was bothering the boy, and got up.
"Everybody else?"
"Yeah, Laxus, and Fried, and Evergreen and..", Kane trailed off. "I know it's horrible, and I'm a bad person for this, but I'm jealous of them. They get to go on missions, I get to stay in bed. They get to see the world and get stronger, I get to just...be useless. I guess I'm never gonna be good en-Ow!"
Kane turned around to Makarov, who had just smacked him.
"What was that for?"
"For what you just said.", Makarov replied, curtly. "Never, ever say that you're not good enough again, okay?"
"Gramps, I-"
"No, you listen to me now, Kane.", the old Master said. "It doesn't matter, how fast you grow. It doesn't matter which way you grow. What matters is that you try your very best, everytime you go out there. You may succeed, or you may fail. But as long as you try, you are good enough."
"You don't feel disappointed in me?"
"No, of course I don't. Me and you, we might not be related by blood, but you are still every bit a grandson to me, just like Laxus is. And I'm very proud of you for training yourself single handedly for the past year."
"Thanks, Gramps."
"Keep your chin up, son."
10 July X780
"Snap out of it, kid.", Lahar said, as Kane looked at him. He must have been lost in thought, even as the Rune Knights interrogated him.
"I'm sorry, I, uh, just kind of, spaced out."
"Yeah, well, it happens.", Kinley said. "Stress can do that."
"But you don't have a reason to be stressed, do you, Kane?", Lahar added.
"I'm not stressed at all, I just blanked out.", Kane replied, wiping the sweat off of his forehead.
"Also, you've failed to share an important detail with us.", the young Rune Knight said, adjusting his glasses.
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
"Your last name.", Lahar smirked. "Kane Dreyar, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, I was adopted. And no, I don't use that name anymore. I'm just Kane now.", the young man said. "And that's how it's gonna be for the rest of my life."
"Why is that?"
"We fell out. I left home. Here I am.", Kane said, irritated by the subject. "Why do you two even want to know, huh?"
"Speak with respect, kid. We're not the ones being questioned here, you are.", Lahar said, sternly. "If you are as innocent as you claim to be, you will cooperate with this investigation."
"My partner's a bit stickler for the rules, being newly promoted and all. I'd consider not getting on his bad side.", Kinley added. However, Kane continued glaring at the bespectacled man.
"That's a lot of confidence, Dreyar.", Lahar said, relishing the fact that he had the suspect rattled, or at least appeared to.
"Don't. Call. Me. That."
Kane wanted to break the man's face in half. He knew he was innocent, and he didn't need some stuck up Rune Knight trying to lure him into confessing a crime he didn't commit. And he didn't need that same bastard try and pry into his life.
"So, I'm gonna ask-"
"No, I'm gonna ask you two something.", Kane said, jumping to his feet. "What's the proof, or reason of suspicion for me to be here, huh? That I survived? That I was the one person who escaped a horrible tragedy by the skin of my fucking teeth? Or is it because you two, desperate for promotions or glory or whatever it is you want, are trying to 'get' my former guild, and using me as a pipeline? Well, I want no part of it, at all!"
"And you know why I know I didn't do shit? Because I'm way too fucking weak to do anything. Because that's what everybody has ever told me. And that's why I left, if you want to know. So I could prove everything my "Family" and my "Friends" have thought about me. I know I'm the biggest shitter out there, but if I ever want even a tiny chance of not being one, I needed to get away from those people. There you have it, there's the answer to your question.", the blue haired Mage rambled on, growing angrier with every word that escaped his mouth.
"Now, now, no need to be agitated.", Kinley said, trying to defuse the situation.
"Oh you can be damn sure I'm gonna be agitated. I've had enough of your good cop-bad cop routine and I see right through it.", the blue haired young adult yelled. "And I don't care if you send a thousand of you after me, I'm leaving right now."
"Sit down. You're gonna leave this chamber when we tell you, and this area when we tell you.", Kinley said, dropping his polite demeanor, with a grim scowl on his face.
"Sit down? You know what I think about that?", Kane said, as he swung his fist right at the Knight, sitting in front of him.
Seven minutes later.
Kane looked up, with a black eye, and magically enchanted handcuffs, as he sat in a holding cell.
"I, Captain Dermot Kinley of the 4th Custodian division, arrest you, Kane Dreyar on the grounds of attacking a Rune Knight, and for disrupting an investigation. You will be held in a holding cell, and you will comply with us."
"My name's not Dreyar."
"You never got it legally changed, as far as we know.", Kinley said, going back to his smiling, joking demeanor. If Kane hadn't just got the wind knocked out of his sails, he'd swing again. But he knew better. And maybe he wasn't coordinated enough to launch another attack.
"We'll see you again soon."
Well, that's chapter fifteen. It's been a crazy journey so far, and once again, thanks for everyone who's been with me. I'd also like to take the opportunity to state that this fic will be on a brief hiatus which may last upto two months. But, it will return very soon, and if you've liked what you've read so far, please, do go ahead, follow and fave if you haven't already, and also do leave some reviews!