Chapter Two

A Past Foretold

He had come to know about Cana's own troubled past over the past couple of years of being in a relationship with her. It was difficult for him to trust Gildarts after she had confessed how he had willingly let his wife leave him so that he could travel as he pleased. Though in truth, it was perhaps because he couldn't accept the similarities between himself and her father in that notion that he disliked him.

Her only reassurance to him had been the fact that when she finally told Gildarts of her blood relationship to him that he had made a clear effort to strengthen their father-daughter bond. She also said he had been almost overbearing with affection and they had indeed grown closer. He fondly recalled the first time he had met the man and agreed, rubbing at his chest where he had taken a bone crushing knee drop. It still left him with a sour taste in his mouth, however, though he learned to tolerate Gildarts' presence and decided that since the man was away more oft than not, it wasn't something he would concern himself with much.

But this fight was not about him. No, this was the darker side to the story. The one she would only speak of on rare occasion or when she drank more than enough. It was a deep-seeded insecurity that had taken several previous fights, like the one they were having now, to get her to finally confide in him about.

"I don't understand why this is such a big deal."

"You just asked me to call off our engagement. That's no small matter, Cana." He watched her intensely from his seat at the table as she paced back and forth across the kitchen floor.

"Look," She spun on her heel to stare at him. "You and I are both unwilling to leave our towns or join a different guild together. I was merely suggesting that we not change anything at all and simply just keep what we currently have going. It has worked for us so far, why not just do as we've been doing?"

The argument between them had gone on for a month now and what had started as a tender bruise on their relationship had manifested into an open painful sore that typically ended with one of them sleeping on the couch or leaving on the midnight train back to their town.

There was no denying that they had both stood firm in their positions of why it would be easier for one of them to move to the other's town and it had been no secret that Cana despised the notion of joining another guild, but the notion of remaining stagnant was even less appealing.

"So you would rather not live together?" He echoed her statement from a previous fight at her in hopes it would put a crack her new argument.

"Do you have any other solutions?" There was desperation deep within her voice that he could feel. He knew why she was suggesting what she was. He knew that beneath the façade of irritation, insults and constant scowl, Cana was afraid. She would never admit to it, but over their time together, he had come to know her well enough to understand the difference between when she was truly irritated and when she fought with him out of fear and insecurity.

"I don't." He confessed through gritted teeth. A hand reached up to massage his temple where he felt a headache coming on.

"This doesn't mean that I want to end our relationship." She said while leaning back against the counter beside her sink. "But if we're both so unwilling to change our lifestyles, why change?"

"So you want to call off our engagement because we can't figure out where to live?" Bacchus scowled at her and reached for his drink, finishing it s contents in a single swig.

"Unlike you I'm trying to make this easier for us!" She suddenly screamed at him. Unable to stifle his frustration any further, he slammed his cup on the table, startling her. The glass had cracked in his grip, but did not splinter.

"You're not making it easier." His voice strained to remain even. "You're only trying to choose the easiest way for you."

"For me?" Her tone had calmed before exploding once again. "This isn't just about me, Bacchus! You haven't come up with any great ideas and just go gallivanting off on jobs while I'm left here to figure all of this out on my own."

In an impulsive flash, he stood and reached out to grab her by the shoulders. He glared down at her stubborn brown depths, his temper rising all the more.

"Tell me why you really want this." He tensed his grip onto her arms and had to resist shaking her. "Look me in the eye and tell me why."

"It's better this way." Her lip trembled yet she kept her watering gaze fixed defiantly on him.

"You going to have to give me a better reason than that." He demanded of her. When she said nothing, he released her with a push, his fists still shaking. "Answer me."

"Because." A small pair of tears fell from her eyes as she struggled to find strength for her words and voice. "Because I don't think I can do what she did."

"What who did?" When she glanced away from him, he understood. "Your mother? Is that what all of this has been about?"

"He would leave her for months at a time, leaving her alone in an empty house. Alone in a town she did not know. She left her home to be with him and left her new one when she realized that he would never change. She told me it was one of the only things she ever regretted in her life. She hated him for it."

"Is that what you think I'll do to you?" He asked her in an outraged whisper, shortening the distance between them once again. "Do you truly think I would do that to you?"

She did not answer him. She did not move. As he stood there staring down at her, the insult and hurt grew, building into a mixture of self-loathing and frustration and rage. There, in the void inside his chest, he could feel it all. He wanted to hate Cana for her insecurities that made her so afraid of their relationship. He wanted to hate her father for what he had done to her and her mother. Most of all, he hated himself for being like him.

"I need to clear my head." Bacchus finally said after a moment of attempting to recompose himself.

"Where are you going?" She asked meekly as he turned to leave the kitchen. There was little strength in her nearly inaudible voice though she remained in place and her eyes fixed straight ahead.

"Out." Was all he said as he exited.

The door shut behind him gently as he left, though he had to struggle with himself to not slam it. He wasn't leaving for good. He just needed to think. He needed to breathe.

Well over an hour had passed when his temper and the little amount of alcohol in his system had finally subsided, gradually being taken over by a pained dull ache in his head. He thought of Cana and every irrational thought he could make that would jeopardize their relationship further. As he slowed his pace and calmed, he was able to ignore the reckless desires and reasoned with himself that those were the last things he needed. Feeling he had cooled down enough, he figured he should to at least begin thinking of alternatives for the two of them, as he knew he couldn't return to her without at least some sort of possible resolution.

Though, the more he tried to ponder out ideas, the more her solution was beginning to look like the only possibility. In truth, he had not completely been opposed to her proposition, but the idea of starting a new life with her yet not making any changes to their lifestyles also seemed to make little sense. He wanted to be closer to her, progress their relationship, and begin a new life together. That's why he'd asked her to marry him in the first place. But perhaps despite them wanting to take it to this next step they simply weren't ready for it.

He could acknowledge that he was being as equally stubborn about leaving his guild and the more the thought on it, the more it started to make sense for him to move in with her. His pride defeated and anger from earlier completely diminished, he supposed it was time he ought to head back and try to reason with her with a clearer head.

When he looked up from the cobbled streets, the realization that he didn't know where he was dawned on him. He had gone in no particular direction when he had stormed out and before he had noticed, he was walking down a street he wasn't familiar with. It was a part of town he had not noticed before. But, in all fairness there was much of Magnolia that he had not concerned himself with before. He eventually followed down a street he thought would lead him back to somewhere familiar only to find the edge of town instead. With a frown, he stopped to look out beyond the end of the cobbled road and was met by a small trail that had become covered by tall grasses. Too intrigued not to explore it, he followed down the overgrown path.

A small range of hills came up ahead, the trail seemingly leading over them. Curious and glad for the distraction, he continued up the hill when something below on the other side caught his attention: An old building.

It didn't appear like much, the walls were hardly standing, the roof completely gone and the wilderness around it was taking it over like a sort of massive hand reaching up from the ground, grasping it as if to pull it down into the land. It had been a dorm or living complex of sorts perhaps.

Bacchus traced with his eyes the rest of what could have been the path down to it and decided to remain where he stood, taking in the sight of the decrepit structure.

Something tingled his spine suddenly, like a finger trailing down it, making him shudder. There had been no wind or breeze that swept past him nor any reason why his covered back should have been prickled so. Suspiciously he turned to check around him, but was only faced with the dark, starry sky and the dim lights of the town behind him.

"Cana?" He called as his eyes scanned the area. He could sense her energy, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. He paused a moment to see if she would appear or answer. When she did not, he returned his attention to the site below him. He knew what she had done and that she would likely be joining him shortly.

As he returned his attention to the ruin below, he saw another in its place. The lumber was splintered, the stone crumbled into chunks of rubble and debris covered everything else. Save for the glimmering pool of blood off to some far reach that he turned his attention from. Bacchus' head pounded with a flash of blinding white pain as the flashback of his destroyed home disappeared. Despite the vision, he did not look away from it after his head cleared. Instead, another started to form before him.

"Interesting." He said to himself and sat on a large nearby rock, watching something unfold in his mind. An idea had started to click in his head for a while and before long he heard her walking through the long rustling grass up to him.