A/N: Hey, so this is a very dialogue heavy chapter. I'm trying to show Ultear as a person who usually gets their own way which is why she finds the fairy tail crew so frustrating. In this I have Cana giving away money to her friends and Ultear interpreting that as people spongeing off her little sister. I'm trying to show the two perspectives of 'my friends need money and I have some so I'll give it to them' and 'you are being taken advantage of'. Mira is kind of the centre of Ultears difficulty with fairy tail because they both think they are doing the right thing, and they are both so passionate people. So if I haven't integrated it properly let me know and I can work on it for later chapters. Also I like the idea of Ultear and Laxus' attitude to each other when they didn't know who the other was vs now. I had a lot of fun writing that. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter and as always, read review and enjoy!
p.s. part 2 will be short and will be Cana's day, I couldn't fit it all in together in one chapter so stay tuned!
Disclaimer: I do not own fairy tail
Day 39- part 1
The smell of breakfast lured Ultear from sleep, the nostalgic smell of Cana's pancakes spilling into the room. She groggily made her way to the kitchen where she found Cana, already showered and fully dressed in business attire, damp hair sticking to the back of her black blouse.
"Morning." Ultear said, still half asleep as she began heaping food onto a plate, ladening it with golden syrup. Cana glanced up briefly to offer a smile before staring back at the laptop in front of her before clicking frantically, a frown causing her brows to furrow beneath her glasses.
"What's up?" Ultear asked, worried that she had unknowingly walked into another disaster before Cana abated her fears.
"It's just work stuff." She said waiving a hand in the air dismissively as she picked up her phone, typing ferociously. Ultear was quite sure that it wasn't nothing but she knew better than to push Cana when it came to anything even coming close to being connected to her work. She had a feeling, well more like a tried and tested conclusion, that now the initial incident was over, Cana would bury herself in something else to avoid dealing with the problem. She began flitting around the room, collecting her things. She turned to Ultear as if to say goodbye. "So I have my doctors appointment this morning and hopefully I'll be in the clear. After that I have a meeting at work even though I'm not officially back but I might be a while. And this afternoon I have to swing by the orphanage to check in on the old man. But I should be back by tonight." Cana said, making her way towards the door before pausing and turning back. "I don't think I'll be going to the club tonight but feel free to go if you want, I'm sure there's plenty of people who'd love to see you." Cana said, dashing forward to give Ultear a quick hug but she refused to let go, forcing Cana to pry herself loose.
"Don't you think we should talk about you losing your shit last night?" Ultear asked, she failed to keep her tone neutral as distress began to creep in. Cana opened her mouth as if to snap something but thought better of it. She took a deep breath, collecting herself before putting a hand on each of Ultears shoulders, forcing her to listen carefully to each word.
"I have a million things on my mind. With work getting so hectic and the merger just around the corner, I can't get caught up in pointless drama." Cana said firmly, shaking her head in warning when Ultear attempted to object. "I was upset last night but as you can see I'm fine now. Lets just get through this visit, and then we can talk about anything you want." Cana said, her eyes searching Ultears face for a rebuttal but when she found none, she once again gave her a quick hug, this time with no resistance and promptly left the flat. Ultear pushed her food around on her plate with distaste before giving a frustrated sigh.
It was going to be a long day.
OOO
Laxus's hand reached out haphazardly searching for his phone as some imbecile had woken him up by ringing his door bell over and over. If it was anything but a life or death emergency the person at his door would soon find themselves in one. When he finally found it and saw to his dismay that it was only 9:30 in the morning, the bright light of the phone irritating his already unpleasant hang over, a rage came over him. He got to his feet, not bothering to think about what he was wearing as he barrelled towards the door, flinging it open. He paused in shock as Cana's sister stood before him, two coffee's in one hand and an assortment of donuts in the other. Before he could ask what exactly she thought she was doing at his apartment she pushed past him and placed the gifts on the kitchen bench.
"You and I need to have a conversation." She said, glancing down at his boxers, and then at the shattered glasses on the floor from the night before, then deciding to ignore both she reached out to hand him one of the coffees. He stared at her, completely astounded that she would have the nerve to wake him up at this ridiculous hour, burst into his apartment and start making demands. He considered picking her up and throwing her out of the apartment, it would definitely be satisfying but she might just come back. Or she could tell Cana…
"I don't know why you think I would ever want to talk to you again, and I don't really care. Take your crap and get the fuck out of my apartment." He snapped, still holding the door and gesturing towards the hallway with a wave of his hand. Ultear took a deep breath to stop herself from snapping something she knew would be counter productive, and then responded in the calmest possible fashion she could manage.
"Look, I'm trying to fix the mess that we both made. I've known Cana since she was 4, I know that girl inside and out. And trust me when I say this isn't going to go away. Please just let me fix this." She pleaded, nodding towards the coffee still in her outreached hand. Reluctantly Laxus closed the door and walked towards her taking the coffee. He raised it to his lips, surprised to find his to be a mocha, exactly the way he liked it.
"That's your favourite, right?" she asked, expectantly waiting for his assenting nod.
"How did you know?" he asked, slightly creeped out as he took another sip. She smiled, taking a bite of one of the pastries she'd brought.
"Cana and I talk on the phone a lot…" she said, drawing out her response as she locked gazes with him. "You're all she's been talking about for the last 6 weeks. I know more about your activities than I do my own brothers." She said with a chuckle, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Funny, she never said anything about you. Until last night I didn't even know she had a sister." Laxus replied snidely, expecting her to be hurt that she hadn't been given the same level of priority but she seemed unfazed.
"Yes, well, as you've probably guessed I'm not the most popular person. She probably avoided it in order to avoid evoking…. People." She said vaguely, but he knew at least from last night that Mira and Gildarts were definitely on the list. Laxus paused for a moment, curious about what Cana had said about him.
"What exactly is it that you think you know about me?" he asked, to which she offered an odd expression, her eyes narrowing in frustration while her mouth grinning in amusement.
"Well, I know you like mocha coffees, heavy on the chocolate and sugar. That you eat Nutella with sour worms which is a disgusting habit by the way. That you sleep like a star fish. That if someone wakes you up you tend to be in a foul mood though if this morning is any indication I think she was exaggerating. That you're only taking the job at the club as a break from touring and you'll be leaving soon. And you care about her." She said, growing concerned as his frown continued to deepen the more she spoke. "The last one was from me. That girl has never been able to gauge attachment very well." She said, thinking of poor desperate Bacchus, he really should have given up years ago.
"So you think you know me, yet you had no idea what I looked like?" he said cynically, throwing his now cold coffee in the bin. She rolled her eyes, arms crossed against her voluptuous chest.
"Yes, well, that was unfortunate." She said with a frustrated sigh.
"Why are you here again?" he asked, growing more and more impatient with each lecture point. Ultear once again buried the urge to put him in his place, a feat that was becoming increasingly difficult.
"We need to talk-" she began but was cut off.
"Yes, you said that already. What exactly do we need to talk about?" he snapped, sick of how she drew out every answer.
"Why don't you get dressed and then we can talk." She said politely, pushing the box of sweets towards him. "You're gonna want a full stomach for this." She said cryptically. Laxus glared at her, considering what would be the fastest way to eject her from his apartment. The more he thought through the different scenarios the more he came to the same conclusion- he was just going to have to hear her out. With a roll of his eyes he went into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him, the loud noise causing Ultear to jump.
OOO
Finally, Laxus clothed, the food eaten and all stall tactics exhausted, Ultear looked him straight in the eye as she began her highly scripted speech.
"I need you to hear me out before you jump to any conclusions." She said, waiting for his nod before continuing, not that he really had any choice in the matter.
"Cana can't handle drama. When something like this happens she has always done the same thing, since she was little. She'll start avoiding you. She'll create extra work for herself so she's too busy to see you. She'll only call when she knows it'll go to message bank. If you run into each other she'll act like nothings happened and as soon as she leaves it'll be like you never met." She said, Laxus finding it all a bit drastic. But the more he thought about it the more he realised he'd seen her do the same thing on a smaller scale to others.
"Cana will do anything to avoid a confrontation, but she also wont be able to let it go so she'll hold on to it until it gets resolved or she gets over it. I've seen her carry shit around for years. Hell, I've known her since she was four and I had no idea she even knew who her father was until she finished uni." She said, the admission making her sisterly concern bubble to the surface till her pragmatism overtook it.
"What I mean to say is that this isn't going away. She'll probably speed up her merger so in a couple days you'll get a voice message telling you she won't be coming to the club in a while. Then she'll stop coming all together. She wont return your calls and she'll never be home when you're free. She'll wait it out until your contract expires and then you'll never see her again." She said, the detail she was providing making Laxus actually consider that she was being earnest, panic rising in him.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked, confused as to why someone like her would insert herself into someone else's business.
"Because I care about my sister and you're important to her. I'm not going to be the reason she falls out with the first person she's gotten close to since the Mest catastrophe." She said, her ever piercing eyes gauging his reaction.
"What's the Mest catastrophe?" he asked, eyebrow raised sceptically.
"Do you know anything about my sister at all?" she exclaimed shaking her head in disbelief.
"Maybe I'm not the prying type." He replied dryly.
"Or maybe you're a coward who's afraid of what he might find out." She snapped, instantly regretting breaking her cool. "I'm sorry, not a lot of sleep." She said, abating Laxus' furious glare.
"I think I know her pretty well without knowing her private info." He said, leaving the bench to fetch them both a glass of water to escape her ever evaluating stare.
"How about we make a bet then?" she propositioned. "I'll ask you a few questions about Cana and if you can get three right I'll… do whatever you want, and if I win you have to do something I want." She asked, Laxus knew that the game was set against him but he wanted to prove her wrong just the same, he didn't even want the favour.
"Fine." He grunted, handing her the now brimming glass.
"Question 1: Name one person other than me that Cana is related to." She asked, knowing full well that he'd have no idea. But he surprised her.
"I know she has a brother and a father-" he began but was cut off.
"You have to say their names!" she replied, surprised that he knew that much. He shrugged, rolling his eyes in answer.
"Question 2: Why does Cana live at her apartment?" she asked, once again knowing that he wouldn't be able to realise the true reason.
"Well because she owns it and she wants to be close to her family." He replied, repeating Cana's rehearsed answer. But Ultear shook her head. "That's what she said?!" he insisted, becoming frustrated that she was just using this game to force him into some untenable task.
"Cana never says anything straight out, you have to read between the lines." She insisted but he didn't seem sold. "Cana owns several apartment buildings, all with tenants she's close to. She also has enough skills to make herself a wealthy woman overnight. She could be living in a place ten times better than this and still afford a chauffeur and any extras she could possibly want. Instead she lives in a shabby apartment, a few blocks away from Fairy Tail and hired Mira's brother to drive her around." Ultear tried to explain but he didn't seem to be getting the message. "Cana is verging on cash broke because all her money is tied up in her business or she gives it away." She said more bluntly. "Did you know that Cana got Mira her job, her apartment, gave her brother and sister jobs, and created a stock portfolio for her out of her own money so that Mira would have enough money to put a down payment on a flat across town she's paying off." Ultear informed him with a disapproving tone. "That's just one example of someone she supports financially." She said, trying to keep the judgmental vibe out of her voice.
"It's her money, she should be able to do what she wants with it." Laxus said, trying to appear blaze to hide his shock at a layer of Mira and Cana's relationship he hadn't even considered. He tried to imagine what it would be like if one of his friends had given him money like that. How could she stomach it? Wouldn't it hurt her pride?
"That's true, but it also means a lot of pressure. Cana has always tried to support everyone and when she couldn't… You saw what happened when that idiotic woman at her firm embezzled funds." She said, hoping that he at least knew about that. Laxus could see the connection, he himself had been worried at Cana's support of a woman who had betrayed her. Laxus didn't know how much information he should trust, not completely believing her apparently altruistic intentions.
"So, next question. Where does Cana go in her spare time other than Fairy Tail." She asked, the question confusing him.
"What?" he grunted, suspecting it was another trick question.
"If you think about it, Cana gets to work at 10 and leaves at 3-4ish, and has Tuesdays and Sundays off. That's a lot of time before Fairy Tail opens at 8." She said, watching as he became more frustrated.
"You expect me to be able to be able to account for every hour of her day? I'm not her secretary." He snapped.
"No, I expect you to know that she spends nearly all of her free time volunteering at the orphanage she grew up at." She replied, revelling as his furrowed brow. "Last question." She said, taking his roll of his eyes as her que to continue. "Why did Cana choose a job working with money when it's not important to her?" she asked. This made Laxus pause, she had already said that Cana was caught in supporting her friends and family financially, so that couldn't be all of it. What else had she mentioned? The more he thought about it the more he realised that they only ever spoke about non-consequential things. Why did he think they were so close when he really didn't know anything about her?
"I don't know. I suppose you're going to tell me." He said dryly, his distaste for her acting as a cover for his own insecurity. Ultear paused, taking a breath to stop her from lashing out before continuing.
"Cana is using her firm as a launching pad to create a privately owned independent charity financing organisation." She said, the title a mouthful. "Do you understand why I'm telling you all this?" she asked, reaching out to grab his hand but thought better of it.
"Not really." He said honestly, the information overloading him.
"My job is sending me overseas for a few months starting next week. Cana's already said she won't talk to me about it while I'm here so it's up to you to fix it." She said, her tone regretful. Laxus took her in, mulling over everything she'd said before replying.
"Why are you so concerned with me and Cana being friends? You're her sister, she'll forgive you eventually. I'm the only one who doesn't have enough standing to get through it." He said, also curious as to how she thought the information she divulged would help him earn her forgiveness, but decided to focus on one question at a time.
"Because you're the first new person Cana's opened up to since Mest." She said, once again referring to something he had no knowledge of. The name rang a bell however, he knew he'd heard it somewhere before.
"Who's Mest?" Laxus asked which made her go strangely silent. She began fiddling with her fingers, the silence dragging between them. "Well?" he insisted.
"If I tell you what happened, you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone that you know and especially that I told you." She said seriously, this time grasping his wrist without hesitation. He pulled back in shock of her sudden seriousness, but she refused to let go of him.
"Fine! Fine!" he said, finally pulling loose from her uncomfortable grasp.
"It's a very very long story but the short version is Mest was a con artist who got a job as a bouncer at the club, hoping to rip off Gildarts. To get closer to him, Mest started dating Cana, but as the months went on and he realised that targeting Gildarts wasn't going to work out, he ripped off Cana instead and disappeared." She said, walking to get a glass of whiskey as she spoke, downing it when she finished. She closed her eyes as the burning sensation slid down her throat and once again wondered why Cana liked it so much.
"Wait what? What do you mean he ripped her off?" he asked, walking to her to take the bottle of whiskey away with an irritated glare.
"He emptied nearly all of her firm's accounts," she said, reaching for the bottle despite knowing it to be futile. "if Cana wasn't as good as she is they would have shut down. They almost had to anyway…" she said, Laxus finally returning it back to her, watching as she poured an even larger portion.
"How long ago did that happen?" he asked, now pouring himself a glass, despite knowing it would only worsen his only recently receding hangover.
"A year and six weeks ago." She said before hiding her mouth behind a gulp of whiskey.
"Fucking hell." He exclaimed, more to himself than to her. If he knew that then, he would have gone easier on her. Then again, there was a lot of things he wished he knew earlier.
"That's the first thing you've said that I actually agree with." Ultear said with a laugh. Laxus ignored her, pouring himself another glass. They were silent for a while, taking each other in as they stood together in the kitchen.
"Look, I know this is insane on so many levels. But I just want my baby sister to be happy and I don't think she will be until we fix this." She said quietly, staring into her glass as she swirled the liquid around. "I know you haven't known her for very long but she's special, and she cares about you, so please-" she was about to continue but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
"I got it." He said, placing his glass on the counter before leaving her, walking towards the bedroom. When he got to the door he turned back to her. "Now get out, I'm going back to bed." He said, walking into the bedroom and closing the door behind him. Ultear was so infuriated, here she was pouring her heart out, giving him the best advice of his life and he just spoke down to her like that?! She considered 'accidentally' breaking some things before she left but thought of a much better plan to get back and the colossal asshole.
OOO
Freed and Bixlow were chatting in the hall, well more like Freed was quizzing Bixlow about his chat with Cana, of which he would reveal nothing. Freed was getting prepared to escalate his interrogation when Ultear stepped out of Laxus' apartment, a little wobbly on her feet, grasping two fairly full bottles of whiskey. She froze when she saw them but then gave them a nod and continued to the elevator, ignoring their stares piercing into her back. As she disappeared behind the metal doors the two men looked at each other.
"He wouldn't…" Bixlow said to Freed, letting his sentence trail out as doubt crept in. Freed glanced between Bixlow and the elevator doors before storming into Laxus' apartment.
"Laxus!"
