Summary: Gildarts comes home to find that his little sleeping beauty needs protecting.

Pairings: Parental Gildarts/Cana, implied Mirajane/Cana friendship, and some one-sided Wakaba/Cana.

YouTube Prompt: tribute to the parental relationships between Lucy/Jude, Cana/Gildarts, and Laxus/Iva to 'Perfect' by Simple Plan.

It was an hour so late that it was virtually morning now.

The only people left in the guild were Wakaba, smoking one of his cigars and staring dreamily at nothing, Master, who was silently weeping over the latest pile paperwork, Mirajane, who was cleaning the bar, and Cana.

Cana had finally, it seemed, to have drunk herself into a complete stupor as she crashed out on top of a table, her hair covering her face and arms, and the unmistakable noise of a faint snore coming out from beneath the luscious brown locks.

This was the sight that greeted Gildarts as he came home.

(Very carefully, there was no one awake to operate the town's secret ability to move up a level.)

His face lit up at the sight of his little girl though it melted when he realised how much pain she'll be in when she wakes up in the morning. He ran a hand through her hair and glanced at Mirajane "How long has she been here?" he asked.

"Since this morning," Mira said grimly, "at first she was just on orange juice – not that Kinana and I would ever let her drink anything else before noon – but….well the later you were the more barrels she had."

Gildarts grimaced. He hadn't meant to be late, he fully intended to keep his promise and be home by three in the afternoon but some bandits had attacked a group of young ladies no older than Cana, and then some children had gone missing in the village he was walking through, and then some arseholes attempted to beat him up, and then finally the forest Vulcans decided to try and get their revenge on him.

It had been a very rough day but he had battled through it all in order to see his little girl's smile.

"She can't stay like this," he muttered, "she'll wake up with a stiff neck and back."

"If you want," Wakaba leered, "I can take her home."

Gildarts punched him without a second thought. There was no way in hell he was going to let any pervert carry Cana and take her home, where they could then take advantage of her or rummage through her underwear drawer, or undress her, or…..well the point was he wasn't letting any guy near his baby girl, whether or not they were Fairy Tail.

"Master, I'm taking my baby girl home," he said shortly. The elderly man barely paid him any attention he was too busy whimpering over the Wakaba shaped hole in the wall. "I'll make my report in the morning."

And at that he swept his child into his arms and cradled her gently as possible before he marched determinedly on to Cana's apartment.

He hated the fact she was living on her own, hate it even more that she had spent so many years alone when she could have lived with him, he had suggested that she could move into his but the fact he lived in a grungy, small, house that was barely bigger than Natsu's shack of a cottage, had her flatly refuse.

She also dismissed the idea that they should find a new place together.

And then she firmly shut down the idea that she should at least move back into Fairy Hills. Apparently the last time she lived there it ended with a big showdown between her, Evergreen, and Erza, and there was no way she was going through that hell again.

So sadly, he had to resign himself to the fact Cana was still living in her far too small, too messy, apartment in a rather rundown area of the town.

It really didn't help his nerves that her door was easy to break into (he couldn't find her keys), or that there was no anti-intruder wards or alarms set up.

He decided he'll have words with her about that in the morning, instead he just carried her to her bedroom, and then gently laid her onto her unmade bed.

Gildarts then pressed a loving kiss on Cana's forehead before he draped the duvet over her and quietly, as possible for someone with his power (trust him it took a lot of concentration), he crept out of the door.

Cana turned and grinned into her pillow.