Previously on…
I shivered at the thought of that punishment. I watched as Lucy began to panic as Natsu was dragged away by Erza. We followed like lambs to slaughter, knowing that to flee meant certain death, and to stay meant only a smaller chance of death. We made our way to the guild, all bracing ourselves for that punishment.
When we finally arrived at the guild, we naturally entered with a bang. "Where is Master?!", Erza demanded to know form Mirajane.
"You're finally back from your island getaway. So, how was it? Did you have fun?", Mirajane asked with a smile.
"It was work, not a vacation.", Erza stated icily. I held in a a laugh as Lcy tried to get Mirajane to shut up. Lucy didn't get it, it was not only because of Erza's anger towards us, but because of their rivalry. Mirajane liked to piss Erza off, and Erza always took the bait. Of course, it could also be said to work in reverse.
"Where is Makarov?!", Erza demanded to know once again.
"He went off for some last-minute council meeting. He's been gone since yesterday.", Macao chimed in. At the news, Gray, Natsu, Lucy, Happy, Stella, and I all let out sighs of relief. There wouldn't be that punishment, at least not today.
"Well, that was a close one.", Natsu grinned at the thought of narrowly escaping punishment.
"Yes, we won't have to deal with that until Gramps gets back!", Gray agreed.
I hide my smile at their unintentional agreement, it never ceased to amaze me when it happened on casual matters. "Thank goodness for small miracles.", I sighed in relief then patted Stella's head as she plopped down on my head.
"Aquila, I'm-", Stella was interrupted mid-sentence by a big yawn, which conveyed the rest of her message rather effectively.
"It's fine, Stella. Go home and rest, I'll be there late tonight, I'm probably going out with Cana.", I grinned as my sleepy little exceed fluttered off and out the door and almost bumped into the door.
I slid over to Cana and wrapped my arm around her shoulders, "Hey there gorgeous, how's about you and me getting a few drinks and going on a pub-crawl tonight? I could use one after the mission I've had!", I grinned at my best friend as she looked up from her beer.
"Yeah! You and I haven't gone on a pub-crawl in forever. Just let me finish this barrel or two babe, and then we are out of here!", Cana whooped as she gave me a flirtatious grin. I winked back at her with a grin. She and I made an amazing duo. I sat down next to her, and waved at Mira, who grinned and brought me a tankard of beer. I took a long draft of it as Erza started to yell at the other three. I grinned as I clinked my tankard with Cana's barrel. I had escaped her notice for now.
"Now listen up you fools! Aquila, that includes you! You broke guild rules by taking on that S-class quest, Prepare to to punished!", Erza scolded us. Gray and Natsu began to clinging to each other in fear, as I knocked back another draft. I wasn't too afraid of Erza's punishment, nothing could compare to that.
"Nice knowing you!", Wakaba yelled out from behind Erza. "It's a crying shame,those boys and Aquila are one thing but I can't believe Lucy's getting punished, too. That poor girl."
"What's that supposed to mean?", Lucy whimpered.
I shot a glare at Wakaba and he ducked behind Macao who went pale at my gaze. I was not to be lumped into Natsu and Gray's group! Natsu and Gray felt much the same apparently as they started to advance on Wakaba, only to end up arguing and fighting with each other.
"A big part of of being a man is owning up to your actions. You hear that you two? You need to man up!", Elfman as we all watched Natsu and Gray go at it, and Happy and Lucy panic at the coming punishment.
After Natsu and Gray got bored of fighting, they walked over to the job board and began to look at requests. I ignored them however and went back to talking with Cana.
"So gorgeous, you ready to get out of here?", I grinned as I drained the rest of my tankard.
"You know it, Aquila. Let's hit the bars!", Cana and I cheered and stood to walk out the door. However, I felt a icy-hot presence behind us and I turned around to see Erza there glaring at us.
"And just where do you think you're going?!", Erza thundered.
I turned a pout on my partner, "Come Erza, it's just a little pub-crawl, I'm not even leaving town!", I whined.
"No, you are to stay here until Master arrives. Cana is free to leave if she wishes, but you are to remain here!", Erza growled. I sighed, there really was no other choice in the matter. I leaned on Erza's shoulder and began to whisper in her ear. WIth each word, her face got redder and redder. When I had finished, I leaned back with a smirk and was rewarded with Erza looking like she might faint any second. Now that she was thoroughly distracted, I linked arms with Cana and we sauntered out of the guild.
"So I gotta ask, what did you say to her? It looked like her brain had melted.", Cana asked with a laugh.
I grinned in response, "I only said just a few things regarding a collection of books in her room that until now, she had no clue I knew were there.", Cana stared at me with a confused expression before it clicked.
"Oh, so Erza likes to read things, does she? Man that's awesome!", Cana let out another laugh, "Let's hit the pubs!"
I cheered as we continued down the street, heading for our favorite mage-friendly pub, Alice's Brewery. As we strode down the street, giggling like little girls in excitement, I felt somewhat nostalgic, remembering how this was was how it was on our way into the guild.
As I fell silent, I looked over at Cana, who was staring at me with a frown. "What? Why're you staring at me?", she asked.
I let out a small laugh at her frown, "Just remembering the day we met. Do you remember how excited you were to meet someone on their way to Fairy Tail?", I asked her.
"Yeah, I remember, I thought your magic was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I also remember telling you to stop telling me what to do.", Cana smirked at me as I let out a laugh.
"I remember that now, I was such a stuck-up little kid, I was all like I'm 4 years older, so I'm in charge, that makes me the boss!", I let out another burst of laughter remembering my younger self. I had been so entitled. When I had met a 6 year-old Cana on the way to Fairy Tail and invited her to join with me, I had been determined to take care of her, but only succeeded in being a complete witch!
"But, you always took care of me… I was never worried when I was with you.", Cana said in a small voice.
I gave a soft smile at her words. "Remember that night?", I asked her with a soft voice as we slowed to a stop next to the canal.
"How could I forget? From that night on, I was never ever worried with you again, I knew you'd always come through for me.", Cana whispered, then smirked, "Even if you could be a right pain in the ass sometimes."
I slung my arm around her and pulled her into a tight hug. Cana and I were the two of the three oldest members of our generation of Fairy Tail. Only Laxus had been around Fairy Tail longer than we had. I had met Cana while on the road, after… after what had happened with Isole, my dragon.
I had been walking for days now. Those with wagons wanted nothing to do with a strange kid with fangs. It had started raining, I was soaked and miserable, and more than ready to take it out on someone. Isole had provided everything for me by stealing it off of clotheslines or making it herself, so I had no money. It was while in this foul mood I came across a small girl, huddling under some trees, trying to stay dry.
I felt a sliver of pity go through me, and I walked over to the girl under the tree. "Are you lost?", I asked the girl, her eyes wide as she stared up at me. She seemed shocked, and didn't respond. I huffed and glared down at her. "Troublesome kid."
I slid down on the ground next to her, and then with only minor difficulty, I extended my magic into my arm, which turned to ice, then spread the ice in a dome over us, keeping us dry, if not a little cold. "WOW!", the little girl had exclaimed, the first words she had spoken to me. "You can do magic?!", she looked delighted at her discovery. I had to give a little smile at that, her enthusiasm was infectious.
"Yep, and I'm going to a guild!", I added with a grin.
"Me too!", the little girl exclaimed, then slid over to cuddle against me. I froze at the affection, I was unused to it. Isole hadn't… believed in physical affection. It was strange to have someone cuddle me. "You're nice. Can I stay with you?", the little girl had whispered, as she fell asleep, despite her wet clothes and the cold. I had stared down at the little girl in shock. Someone wanted to stay with me?
I nodded and whispered, "You can stay with me forever.", then hesitantly threaded my arms around the little girl, and fell asleep, my cheek resting against the top of her head.
The next morning, I had awoken and found the girl still asleep in my arms and she was burning up. I was immune to the cold, it hadn't bothered me, but I was struck with panic for this little girl who had wanted to stay with me. I didn't know how to fix it, I didn't know how to make her better.
So, with fear in my heart, I had hoisted the little girl whose name had yet to learn onto my back, and started to run. I needed to get her to a town. I was a dragon slayer, I didn't get sick from something that had to do with my element, and I didn't understand how to help a little girl. So, I pumped my legs all the harder and ran for the nearest town, that must've been at least 6 miles away.
When I got to the town, I asked for a doctor and the lady selling flowers had told me to see the Priest of the local church. I had staggered into the church while the priest was lighting candles, and I panted out, "My friend, she's, she's sick, I don't know what's wrong, help her." The priest had rushed forward and lifted the girl into his arms as I passed out on the floor of the sanctuary.
"When you woke up, all you could do was bug the priest about seeing me. You actually refused to leave me. And when you saw that I was okay, the first thing you did was pull me into a huge hug worthy of any big sister and ask me what my name was.", Cana stated softly as we stared into the canal.
"Of course, I wasn't about to leave the little girl I met on the road behind. I waited until you could leave and then we set out for Fairy Tail.", I spoke just as softly as we reminisced the day we joined the guild.
"We're here, we're here!", Cana chanted as she held my hand to keep her tethered to the surface of the planet.
"We're here.", I smiled down at the little girl that I had protected as my own on this journey of ours.
As we stood outside the entrance of the guild, the strongest wizard in Fairy Tail, Gildarts Clive walked out, pausing to look at us.
"Hey little ladies, what're you doing outside a place like this?", He asked, and Cana seemed as awestruck as I was. "Better hurry on home, hang around here too long and your close will start to reek like booze.", Gildarts said as he strode away. I huffed while Cana looked sad. I frowned at her expression and hugged her close.
"Don't listen to that still man said, Cana, we're going to go join the best guild there is!", I exclaimed with a smile. She gave me a small smile and then we entered the guild.
From there, Master met us and was happy to let us join the guild, and laughed when I whooped loudly as the guild emblem was placed on my chest, and Cana smiling when her mark was stamped on.
"Alright, enough reminiscing.", I said, and Cana gave me a small smile. "We've got a pub to drink dry.", I said with a little more enthusiasm. Cana gave a grin at that and we set off for Alice's Brewery.
A/N: Alright, alright, alright! Another chapter published, this time revealing Cana and Aquila's close bonds! Don't forget to leave me a review and tell me what you thought of it! Thanks to my reviewers, and I look forward to next week's update!