Chapter 9: Crashing Hard

Disclaimer: By now it should be obvious that I don't own Fairy Tail

As he expected, that plan had backfired. In retrospect, barreling through the sky at speeds fast enough to break the sound barrier just to land a more powerful hit on Gildarts wasn't the best idea to begin with. But damn, how strong does Gildarts have to be to walk away from an attack like that with nothing but a few burns.

Sitting up on the bed he's laying on, Natsu groans as he can still feel the side effects of using his healing flames. Dealing with the pain, the pinkette tries to figure out what else is still hurting. Taking a few breaths and feeling out the ribs that were broken. Touching the sensitive area, he could tell that his ribs were in fact still broken.

Looking down at his stomach and chest, Natsu could see that he still has to deal with a lot of rather nasty bruises. 'Maybe I can get Wendy to heal them, she could use the practice.' Natsu thought as he tried to get out of bed.

As soon as made the attempt, a broom smacked him on the head. "Don't even think about getting out of that bed," A stern voice said. Clutching his head, Natsu glares at an elderly lady with pink hair that is holding a broom.

"Why the hell would you hit someone in an infirmary?! And who the hell are you?!" Natsu asks angrily, only to get hit again with the broom but much harder this time. "OW!"

"That's what you get for being a rude brat! And my name is Porlyusica, that fool Makarov asked me to take care of your wounds," Porlyusica explains while glaring at the younger pinkette, her grip on the broom getting tighter. Natsu didn't know why but that sight terrified him, it reminded him of times when he pissed off Igneel or one of his other teachers. "Now stay still, while I bandage you up."

"Yes Ma'am"

Over the next few minutes, Porlyusica went over Natsu's wounds, bandaging what she could. "Here, drink this. It'll speed up your recovery," she says as she hands the younger pinkette a beaker containing a mysterious liquid.

Not wanting to piss off the healer even more, Natsu quickly complies and drinks it. As soon as he swallows it, he had to hold back the urge to start vomiting. The only way to describe the taste is that it's by far the worst thing Natsu has ever had the misfortune of tasting.

"Quit whining, that's what you deserve for challenging that fool Gildarts to a fight," Porlyusica said as she started packing away her medical supplies. "Now get out of, I'm tired of dealing with you infuriating humans."

"Fine, fine. Thanks for bandaging me up," Natsu said as he made his way to leave the infirmary. "Crazy old hag," he mutters under his breath as he reaches the door. As soon as he opens the door, the beaker the pinkette drank from crashed into the wall next to his head. "Shit!" Natsu yells as he frantically rushes through the door and slams it shut.

Hearing the door to the infirmary slam shut, everyone in the guild turned to the commotion. Seeing the pinkette with a scared look on his face, they immediately knew what happened. For most of them, the first time they met Porlyusica ended in a similar manner. "Natsu!" everyone cheers.

Hearing the cheers, Natsu calms down. One by one, everyone congratulated him on his fight. Making his way through the crowds, the pinkette finds the mage he was looking for.

Sitting at the bar is Makarov and Gildarts, both nursing their drinks with one hand and ice pack in the other pressed against their heads. "Ah; Natsu, it's good to see that you're up." Makarov said as he put his drink down.

"How you are feeling kid?" Gildarts asked.

"Like I just ran over by a train," the pinkette said as he rolled his shoulder. Despite healing his arm after that last punch and Porlyusica giving him that drink, his body was still aching. "What happened to you two?" He asked, gesturing towards their ice packs.

"Let's just say Porlyusica wasn't happy to hear that I let you fight Gildarts," Makarov answered.

"And she was less than pleased that we took the fight as far as we did," Gildarts follows up in tandem. Hearing that, Natsu understood what they meant. It seemed that no one was safe from Porlyusica's broom. "I have to hand it to you though; I don't know many mages willing to take the beating you did just to land a few punches, especially one as young as you."

"What can I say, I'm stubborn like that." Natsu said nonchalantly. "Though I wish it worked better."

"I may not approve of that line of thinking, but I won't deny that it certainly gets results." Makarov said as he reached for his drink. "Still, you should be proud of what you accomplished."

"Thanks Gramps."

"Natsu!" yelled Wendy, Sting, and Rogue simultaneously, with the former two tackling the pinkette in their excitement.

"Ow ow ow," grumbled Natsu, starting to regret not healing his heavily bruised sides. "I'm happy to see you guys to but please let me go," he said as he tried, and failed, to hide how much pain he was in.

"oh, sorry," Wendy said sheepishly as she quickly let go of the pinkette

"You have to teach me how to fight like that," Sting said excitedly, not in the least bothered by the pinkette's obvious discomfort.

"How about I teach you how to fight smart instead" Natsu replied as he rubbed his still aching side. "Trust me, treating yourself like a punching bag is a horrible idea"

"That's a good point, but it would be useful to know how to fight like that for times when it will be necessary." Rogue added. While he hid his excitement better than his blonde friend, anyone could see that he was only barely able to do so. Between them, Rogue was the calmer of the two, frequently choosing to think before acting as opposed to Sting who preferred to act first and react however necessary.

"Let's talk about this later," Natsu replied dismissively. as much as he wanted to argue with the brunette's logic, he knew fighting like that could save their lives. Unfortunately, he also knew how dangerous that training is for it to be practical .

"Come on Natsu, there's no need to be like that," Cana said happily as she wrapped an arm around the pinkette's shoulder. "We should be celebrating," her cheerfulness was infectious as even Natsu began smiling too.

"What's got you so happy" he asked, normally one of the few things that has made the card mage this happy is when she comes across a large sum of money.

"Isn't it obvious; as the person who organized all the bets, I got a nice piece of the winning bets," Cana answered.

"Of course, you did."

"If it makes you feel any better, we were spot on with our bets," Mystogan said as he and Sayla approached the group.

"It definitely made us happy" Sayla followed up happily.

Out of everyone in the guild, apart from Makarov, no one knew what Natsu was fully capable of better than them. They're teammates after all. Given how smart the two of them are, placing the correct bet was easy enough. Becoming the ace of a guild like Fairy Tail is no easy feat. Considering Mystogen's skill at accurately reading magical energy, even latent energy at that, made predicting the outcome a simple task. For Sayla, she simply relied on her intuition. She not only knew just how stubborn Natsu could be when given a difficult task but also how much of a beating he could take. Then again, this fight showed that Natsu was capable of more than she thought possible.

Where their knowledge really came in handy was for how long the fight would last for. For the most part, almost all the bets were on how long the fight would last. Some thought the fight would be over as soon as it started while others thought that it would last all day. It's thanks to their knowledge that they're now sitting on a large some of jewels.

They were both giddy with anticipation at the prospect of what they would do with their winnings. For Sayla, it's obvious what she would do with it. She could already see herself trying to talk Natsu into adding a library onto their house to store the excess books. Mystogan, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what kind of experiment he would be conducting first.

Ever since the masked mage took on a more active role as a part of the guild, he developed a hobby of running various experiments and developing different pieces of equipment. Most people within the guild, especially his team, have taken to jokingly call Mystogan a mad scientist. Though most, except for his team, aren't aware of how accurate that title is.

"Even I managed to win," Morgana chimed in as he landed on Natsu's head, salivating at the thought of how much sushi he could buy.

"Oh, hush you, the only reason why you won anything in the first place is because you waited till after the others placed their bets to place your own." Carla said as she landed in Wendy's arms

"Frosch thinks so to," Frosch adds as she and Lector approach the group.

"If you ask me, a win is a win," Lector said as he hopped onto Sting's shoulder

"At least someone gets it," Morgana said smugly, feeling as though he won this argument.

"I'm glad all of you believed in me from the start, I'm really feeling the love right now," Natsu said sarcastically.

"We believed that you would earn us some jewels, and you surpassed our expectations," Cana said happily with everyone nodding in agreement, resulting in Natsu becoming even more agitated.

"Damnit Natsu, couldn't you have lasted just a little bit longer," Mira said as her and her siblings joined the growing group.

"Don't be like that Mira, Natsu did great," Lisanna chimed in, not wanting to hurt the pinkette's feelings.

"I know, but couldn't you have lasted just a few more minutes," just another five minutes and older take over mage would be sitting on a fat sack of jewels right now.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves. How could any of you bet on a fight like this." Erza stated, tempting to take the moral high ground. How could any of them openly bet against on of their friends like they have. Especially when said friend performed as well as he did against the 'Ace of Fairy Tail'.

"Erza, you do know I'm the one in charge of the bets, right?" Cana retorted while giving the red head a flat look. The card mage knew exactly what Erza had put down on this fight. "If you want, I could remind you of what your bet was," she finished with a teasing grin.

Being called out on her own hypocrisy, Erza turned a shade of red that rivaled her hair. "I, uh, well I thought… I mean," the knight fumbled over her own words. After all, if everyone else was placing bets and Master was permitting such a thing, then why shouldn't she be able to. Everyone knows how much she loves sweets after all. "I can explain," Erza said weakly as she tried to recompose herself.

No one was buying it if their shit eating grins were anything to go buy.

"I hate all of you," Natsu stated flatly, unamused by all his friend's antics. This only resulted in everyone laughing at the pinkette's dismay. What caring and compassionate friends he has.

And with that the party got back on track. Everyone went back to partying like guild was known for. It was only a matter of time before a brawl broke out.

Time Skip

As the sun began to set, a calmness overcame Magnolia. For most people, it was their favorite time of the day. It's no different for Cana. Not long after the brawl broke out did the card mage sneak away from the guild. She needed time to herself to clear her head of some of the things that occurred during the party.

Unsurprising to no one, both Gildarts and Natsu got along amazingly. Honestly the two had so much in common that the crash mage joked about how the pinkette could be his kid. Most who found it funny added to that statement that it would make sense given how much Gildarts gets around. While amusing, it struck a certain chord with Cana.

Her whole reason for joining the guild in the first place was to find her father. Before she passed away, Cana's mother had told her all about Gildarts and where to find him.

From the moment she laid eyes on him, the card mage felt a connection to the mage. She wanted to tell him who she was to him. The problem was her own fear of how he would react. Cornelia had to leave Gildarts for a reason. While Cana was told what the reason was, she didn't fully comprehend it.

On one hand, it sounded as if her father had left mother for the guild. While on the other hand, Cornelia had left him to spare him from having to choose between herself and the guild. While her mother had enough faith in Gildarts to make the right decision, Cana felt to much fear and trepidation towards how he would react.

Would he accept her as his daughter, or would he reject her? As far Cana was concerned the risk was far to great. It was simply to much for the poor girl.

"Whew, finally got away," a voice said from behind her, bringing Cana back from her thoughts and nearly scaring the life out of her.

"Natsu! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the party?" Cana asked as she tried to regain her senses. While she did enjoy scaring people from time to time, the card mage didn't enjoy being scared nearly as much.

"I was, then Gildarts got drunk," A shiver went up Cana's spine. She's been a part of the guild long enough to know that only trouble ensues when the crash mage gets drunk.

"Oh no, what happened this time?" She dreaded hearing the answer. No matter what, it can't be good.

"He tried giving me 'the talk'"

"Of course, it would be that, you poor thing," Cana groaned out as she rubbed her temple in frustration. If there is one thing that her mother conveniently left out when telling Cana about Gildarts it was how much of a pervert, he is. No, Cana learned the hard way when she accidentally overheard one of his drunken ramblings.

"It's already bad enough that I had to have 'the talk' with a dragon and a demon." Igneel did what he was supposed to do and explain mating to a young Natsu. Though he did a good job in explaining the important stuff, everything else he included was overly excessive. Then again, what should Natsu have expected. Subtly was never something that Igneel was fond of.

If that wasn't bad enough, Igneel felt it necessary to ask one of his demon friends to help in giving Natsu the talk. The Dragon King figured that it would be more appropriate for a demon to have the talk with his son since demons are biologically closer to humans than dragons. Still, the pinkette couldn't understand why his father had to choose a raging pervert for the task. That damned one-eyed bastard, it was weeks before the blush would leave Natsu's face.

"I have a feeling I really don't want to hear this story."

"You have no idea," Natsu said as he tried to repress those memories. "So, what are you up to?"

"Oh, just trying to clear my head," Cana said nervously. Usually when the card mage is trying to figure out how to approach her father, she does so away from others. This is her problem to take care of after all.

"Is that why you snuck out of the party?" while this went unnoticed by the majority of the guild, since it's fairly common for most of the younger mages to leave the guild before the brawls get too out of hand, Natsu just barely managed to see the card mage sneak out. If it wasn't for the troubled look on her face, he wouldn't have given it a second thought.

"I, uh, don't know what you're talking about," Cana needed to think of way to change the topic and quick otherwise she'll have to explain a lot more than she wants to. As much as she trusts Natsu, this is still a personal issue for her. Unfortunately, the pinkette won't be letting that happen.

"Does it have to something to do Gildarts?" one of the many things the Dual Fire Slayer was taught was to pay attention to subtleties in actions of everyone around him. There was a something in the Cana's actions that tipped him off. Something seemed to be off with her since the Crash mage arrived.

"What, no, what makes you think that?!" Cana blurted out hastily. Wincing at her own reaction, the card mage realizes that she just gave it away. 'Damn, why did you have to be nosy?'

"Because we're friends," if a friend of his needs help than he'll go out of his way to help them in any way he can. "Want to talk about it?" even if all he can do is lend an ear.

Great, now what is she supposed to do. Should she tell the pinkette, deny everything, or just run and deal with this mess later. As far as she is concerned the latter of the two options is far more appealing. The problem is how long can she go before Natsu convinces her to come clean. With how persistent he is, it's only a matter of time before the cat comes out of the bag.

"Did I ever tell you why I joined Fairy Tail?" Cana asked, though she already knew the answer. The only living person that knows her reason is Makarov. And like Natsu, the guild master has been trying to help overcome her own fear. "I came here to find my Father" she answered as she took a seat on a nearby bench. "And I found him." The Card mage said, internally she struggles to find the right words.

"Let me guess, Gildarts is your dad and he doesn't know?" Let it be known that, like his father, subtlety was something that Natsu wasn't too good with.

"Wait, how did you know?!" how, how could he have possibly known. Her answer only came in the form of the pinkette pointing towards his nose. And like that, Cana remembers a conversation she with Natsu about how strong Dragon Slayer senses are, specifically their sense of smell in this case. Additionally, the card mage remembers the dual slayer explaining that there are a few reasons why some people share similar scents such as similar magics, certain interests/hobbies, and family ties. Of course, he would find out after catching their scents. "Wait a minute, does that mean the other Dragon Slayers know too?!" Cana's eyes widened at this realization. If Natsu was able to figure out her secret, then surely the others had to have figured it out too.

"I wouldn't worry about that. If they have, Rogue and Wendy are smart enough to not mention it. And they'll keep Sting from saying anything." Natsu said, resulting in Cana feeling both relieved that they wouldn't spill her secret and annoyed that so many people learned her secret in such a short time.

"Anyways, yeah, Gildarts is my dad." Cana said, trying to get back on track while also saving that last part for another time. "Ever since I first saw him, I've wanted to tell Gildarts that I'm his daughter. But every time I see him… I get scared and chicken out at the last minute." Every time the crash mage comes by the guild, it takes every ounce of her will power to tell him and every time her fears get the best of her. For years now, it's been one failed attempt after another.

"What's keeping you from telling him?"

"I… I don't know. Gildarts is just this huge figure. He's considered the strongest mage in the guild for a reason. I mean, would he really want someone like me for a daughter." Cana said, the sullen expression on her face tells just how much her own trepidation is affecting her.

"Why wouldn't he," Natsu said, breaking Cana out of her stupor. "You're really smart, you're a great strategist and you're easily one of the friendliest people in the guild," the pinkette listed one thing after another, resulting in the card mage blushing lightly at his compliments. "Sure, you're not as strong as Gildarts, but what do you expect? He's only that strong because of all his years of hard work. You can't really expect someone as young as you to compare to him yet."

Processing his words, Cana had to admit he has a point. On many occasions, Makarov has told her similar things in his attempts to help the poor girl. The card mage has only been training in her magic for a few years now. It would take years, maybe even decades, before she could come close to comparing to Gildarts in terms of pure skill in magic. "I know you're right, but I just don't know." Cana said, her own fears still lingering.

"Think about it this way, what's the worst that happens? Gildarts doesn't accept you're his daughter." Natsu asks, causing the brunette's eyes to widen in fear of what might happen. "If that happens then he's a bastard that's not worth getting to know, not to mention an idiot. At least you'll have some closure. Although, I doubt he would react like that. He doesn't seem like the type of person to do that."

Judging from the stories Cana heard from her mom and how he treats everyone in the guild, she doesn't think Gildarts is like that either. Admittedly her fears are unfounded to a degree and have very little, if any at all, reasoning behind them. "I know, I'm just not ready to tell him."

By this point Natsu knew that Cana just needed a little push to help get her over her fears. "Well if there's anything I can do to help just let me know. If you want to wait till you get stronger than you're more than welcome to come train with me and my team. Or if you want one of us to be there with you when you tell him just ask. You know we're more than willing to help you out. Just be sure not to take too long. With the kind of jobs Gildarts takes, you don't want to lose the chance to tell him just because something horrible happened." Was that last part the best thing to tell the card mage, probably not, especially with the look of fear that came across Cana's face. But, at the very least, it gave Cana reason to tell Gildarts sooner than later. "Obviously he's careful enough to not to let someone or something catch him off guard. But there's always an unknown factor that people can't plan for."

Cana understood what Natsu was trying to get at, he's trying to give her a reason to take a chance and tell Gildarts sooner than later. The last part of what the pinkette had said had terrified her. The prospect of loosing her dad before she has the chance to tell him she's his daughter scared the card mage more than the possibility of Gildarts flat out denying her. 'Dammit, why did he have to use such a cheap move.' Cana thought to herself.

"I'm not trying to scare you; I just don't want to see you beating yourself up over what you didn't do." Natsu said to calm down the clearly worried card mage.

If the small smile on her face was anything to go by, he succeeded at least a little bit.

"Thanks, Natsu," Cana said, giving him an appreciative smile. "I don't think I'm ready to tell Gildarts yet but I not as worried as I was earlier."

"No problem just let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Oh, by the way; if Gildarts does refuse to accept you're his daughter, I'm going to kick his ass" Natsu said, earning him an amused giggle from the brunette.

"If that fight was anything to go by, I don't know how well that'll work out for you" Cana teased the pinkette. "So, are you going to head back to the guild?"

"Nope, I'm still hiding from Gildarts. I wasn't joking when I said he was trying to give me the talk." Natsu replied, unintentionally giving Cana a reason to be disappointed in her father. "So, want to hang out for a bit before I have to run like hell."

"Sure," Cana answered, at least seeing the pinkette run from her drunk dad will be more then entertaining.

Elsewhere

In the sparsely lit hallways of the Tartaros guild, Sif made his way to the throne room. It wasn't everyday that he was summoned by Master Mard Geer. The only time he was ever summoned was when the master has a job for him, surely this time will be no different. As he walked through the halls, most of his larger figure was hidden by the ragged cloak he was wearing. The only thing visible was his face which had a few aged scars, his pitch-black eyes and long messy dark gray hair that went past his shoulders.

"Lord Mard Geer," Sif said as he arrived in the throne room and kneeled before the guild master.

"Sif," Mard Geer said as he acknowledged the demon's presence. "Mard Geer has a job for you and your hunting pack." While no where near as strong as his Nine Demon Gates, the graying demon was more than capable of carrying out the jobs the needed a touch of subtlety. Not that the etherious guild master would ever admit such a thing. Why should he. The fact that he acknowledges this lesser demon's presence should be enough.

"It has come to Mard Geer's attention that one of Lord Zeref's creations has been in the company of humans for some time. Go and retrieve our creator's wayward creation. Feel free to eliminate any human that gets in your way."

"My lord, it will be taken care of." Sif said as he made his way to leave. There was no point in staying or asking any unnecessary questions. Another demon was bound to show up shortly with the details he would need. Additionally, it's never a wise choice to waste Mard Geer's time. Those who did tended to live shorter lives.

Yay, finally done with a new chapter. Sorry, I know it's been a ridiculously long time since I updated but so many things that just keep coming up with work and personal stuff that I just didn't have any time or energy to commit to writing. That's why this chapter is a filler chapter so I can get back in the habit of writing on a somewhat regular basis. Hopefully it won't take so long to finish the next chapter. Thankfully it's a mostly action-packed chapter that I have planned out most of it so there's no reason why it should take so long. Luckily the only thing holding it up is me trying to decide how violent I want this next chapter to be. Also, Natsu and Sayla won't be the only ones doing any fighting.

Real quick, I want to give a shout out to AnonDr for suggesting a team name for Natsu, Sayla, and Mystogan. From this point forward their team name will be Team Fallen Fairy.

Quick harem update. If this part doesn't interest you go ahead and skip ahead. Someone, I don't remember who unfortunately, asked if I would consider shrinking down the harem. Originally, I wanted to keep the harem small for a couple different reasons but Fairy Tail has too many waifus. I'm not saying I'm going to shrink it down right now I'm just curious what everyone else thinks about this.

Onto the Reviews:

FT7NoX: I completely agree, as much as I love reading stories where Natsu is OP, I think it's incredibly boring when he's on par or stronger than Gildarts when he's still a kid.

Ruberforumfree: Natsu knew that the bandits weren't going to take his offer seriously, he just gave them the option in the off chance they would take it.

Carmelo Hernandez: Laxus will definitely be one of Natsu's rivals in this story, the other one will be introduced in the chapter after the next one, I'm just having trouble figuring out where to introduce the two and how to set up what I have planned them and their rivalry.

BON6379: Unfortunately, Kyouka won't be apart of the harem and won't show up until it's time for what I have planned for the Tartaros arc.

AnonDr: I really love that name and it fits really well.

Lenorebev: There are two reasons, the first one for why I don't include most of the guild is because of my inexperience in writing and I do have a hard time with having a lot of characters in a single scene without it becoming to convoluted. The second reason is that for since this is still the earlier chapters I would rather focus on the characters that will play a bigger part of the story. And unfortunately, Gray, and to the same extent Lucy, won't be playing that big of a part in this story outside of the arcs where there important.

Spartan of Rome: So do I, but I keep failing to make that happen.

Erasenpai946: now

Anyways, that's it for the reviews.

If you have any questions about the story feel free to ask it however you want. If you do so in a review I'll answer it in the next update or send a PM and I'll answer as soon as possible. Also if you want to know the status of the next chapter then feel free to ask whenever you feel like it.

Real quick, since I'm a shameless attention whore, I have another story in Fate/Stay Night. I'm currently working on the second chapter and just finished redoing the first chapter. Also I have multiple stories I'm trying to work on at the same time so keep an eye out for them.

That's it for the AN

Again sorry for the long gap in between updates and for the really short and rushed chapter

Till next time.

Mreh.