[A/N]: Next is the penultimate installation...Let me know what you think, I always love to hear it! All day today, I was smiling like an idiot, nothing could bring me down! You all make me so happy with your reactions, and I really, truly appreciate all of you who have read, reviewed, and/or favorited!

Cana ran. She fled from Laxus, from how much she had loved him (how much she still loved him). She just kept running, even once the guild was out of sight. On and on. She took the stairs in threes when she reached her apartment. How had he even done it? A week ago her armor had been impenetrable, but now what he was back, she was a mess. How the fuck had he gotten under her skin so quickly?

Cana was so scared. She didn't want to get hurt like that ever again. She had trusted him, given more of herself to Laxus than to anyone else and he just─

But he seemed so...so purely honest, raw and truthful. He bared his soul to her, the way she thought he never would again. But was she willing to take the leap? She didn't think she could. Cana was desperate; she needed to know what would happen. She needed to know it was safe. She returned home, clutching her tarot cards like a lifeline, and fell to her knees just inside the door as it slammed shut. She cast the cards right onto the floor, reading them anxiously.

Tower

Reversed Judgment

Reversed World

Strength

Eight of Wands

"No!" Cana snatched up her cards and shuffled them frantically. Dealing again, she drew the same damned hand. "Please! Give me something, anything!"

The Fool

Important decisions. Well, at least it was something.

The Tower

Laxus, as always. The cards would tell her Laxus, Laxus, Laxus until she had done something. Wait─the reading wanted two more cards. She bit her lip, picking up the suit deck, just as her instincts commanded. Shaking hands drew the next card.

Three of Swords

Heartbreak.

"No." Cana's voice broke. Mind racing, she sat back and stared at the cards, feeling sick. An important decision about Laxus...and it would lead to heartbreak.

Her hand moved with a will of its own, drawing the final, essential card. Oh my god, not another one, please─

Ace of Cups

Cana's breath caught. Faithfulness.

She bowed her head over her reading, her shoulders shaking. "What do you mean? Please, tell me!" Torn, she reviewed the cards.

The Three of Swords and Ace of Cups neatly contradicted each other. What the hell was she supposed to do? It wasn't fair, she just needed help─

Her hand found The Fool and she stared at the obnoxiously whimsical drawing. Slowly, another meaning came into her head unbidden.

Risk.

…

His stomach roiled, angry and unsatisfied. He gazed over the lake without really seeing it, seeing only the fear in her eyes as─

"Laxus?"

He looked up, but the soft voice was Mirajane's, not Cana's. He looked away again.

She sat beside him on the guild's back steps. "Where is she?"

"I don't know," he muttered gruffly.

Mirajane folded her hands and looked up at him, her eyes soft. "May I ask─?"

"She's afraid of me," Laxus uttered shortly. His shoulders hunched as he said it. She was afraid. Of him. His fate was as good as sealed.

But Mirajane shook her head. "No, she isn't. She's afraid of what you might do."

"But I won't! And she won't believe me!"

"She needs time, Laxus."

He shot to his feet. "She's the one who dumped me!" he yelled, like it was somehow Mirajane's fault, that Cana would come back if he yelled at the pretty barmaid, that everything would be better if he just yelled.

"She was more invested in the relationship than you were," Mira told him sharply, rising to her feet. "She's loved you a lot longer than you might think."

"I─"

"You had an affair with Evergreen, a fellow guildmate, not just some random skank, and you expect her to just be okay with it, knowing how much she cared about you?" Mirajane demanded. Her hands tightened into fists.

"No, of course not! Isn't it enough for her to know that I regret it? I wish I'd never even looked at Ever the wrong way!" Laxus shouted.

"That's not good enough for her!" Mirajane shrieked. "You don't get it, do you, Laxus? You tore her apart when you slept with Evergreen, and now you're asking her to just forget the agony you put her through, to get back together when she can't possibly be sure if you won't do it again? Don't say a word," she warned him fiercely when he opened his mouth. "You need to understand what you did to her, Laxus, what she went through and how much she suffered!"

"AND I DIDN'T SUFFER TOO?" he bellowed back. Lightning crackled through the air. "Why the fuck do you think I would avoid my own damned home, my own fucking family and friends, if I wasn't hurting too?!"

"You knew that the end was coming, Laxus! You slept with another woman, and you expected that you'd stay with Cana? You blindsided her, coming out of nowhere with this cheating bullshit!"

Laxus looked away, at a loss for words. "I never thought of it that way. I thought─"

"No, you didn't. You didn't think at all, Laxus," Mirajane said tartly. She sighed. "I suggest you give her some space, Laxus, at least until she figures out what she wants. She'll come to you when she's ready."

He knew she was right. No matter her decision, Cana would make sure to let him know. Mirajane was completely right; as he realized it, his anger subsided. There was nothing he could do; nothing to change her mind, nothing to ease the pain of the past. All he could do was keep pain out of her future.

Laxus glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and gave his friend a small smile by way of apology. "You know, I think she's starting to rub off on you."