October 21, x775

The next three days brought a lot of changes.

Cana was moved out of the orphanage two days after she'd told Gildarts. He'd been running all over Magnolia in a panic, almost destroying multiple buildings as he tried to find a better house for the both of them. He'd finally managed to find one close enough to the guild that he wouldn't destroy multiple blocks on his way there, and it didn't take long after that for Cana to leave the orphanage behind.

That isn't to say Gray and I saw her any less, we just saw Gildarts a lot more, and he was…

Overprotective might be a bit light of a word.

The morning after the reveal, Gildarts had looked at Gray and I and flared his magic with a dangerous look on his face.

"What are your intentions with my daughter?!" His face was like evil itself, his eyes glowing red and his power rising behind him menacingly. Gray and I couldn't breathe, we fell to our knees gasping desperately as Gildarts loomed over us.

"Gildarts! Dad! Stop!" As soon as Cana threw herself in front of Gildarts, the feeling stopped and we both fell on our backs breathing heavily. "Gray and Helio are my friends! They're the ones who convinced me to tell you who I was in the first place!" From what little I could see from my position, Gildarts looked suitably chastised, comically begging his daughter's forgiveness. He grabbed Gray and I under our arms and pulled us to our feet.

"Sorry about that boys, gotta keep my little girl safe, you know." He rubbed the back of his neck.

Cana rolled her eyes as Gray and I leaned into each other for support. "I was doing fine without you, ya know!." She said indignantly. Gildarts responded by hugging her.

Cana looked like she was trying not to enjoy it.

It surprisingly only took a day or so for Cana to start tiring of Gildarts' shit. She would still melt into his hugs and embraces, but she didn't take any of that overprotective crap. Thankfully, he seemed to acknowledge that members of Fairy Tail wouldn't hurt her, and instead started engaging Master Makarov in "my kid's better than yours" competitions. He compared Cana to Laxus in just about everything, and Gramps encouraged it! The only good thing that came out of this was Laxus and Cana were bonding over how horrible their parental figures were. They would huddle next to each other, faces red as their respective parent waxed lyrical about how great they were.

"God they're awful." Laxus muttered as he smacked his head against the wall. Cana nodded into her knees.

"I don't regret telling him, but does he have to be so embarrassing?" Laxus then did something I don't think anyone expected.

He laid an arm around her shoulders and nodded.

"Parents are the worst."

Not how I expected Laxus to make friends, but I'd take it.

Alongside that though, are preparations for something I'd not thought about at all.

It was October in Magnolia Town, and that meant the Harvest Festival was starting soon.

Which for Fairy Tail, meant the Fantasia parade.

According to Cana, the kids all shared a float for the parade, except for Laxus. He either rode with Gramps or by himself.

While Gildarts had been panicking about getting a house so Cana could live with him, Cana had pulled Gray and I to our usual table, and immediately started drilling me on how to implement my magic into their routine.

"I've had this planned out since Gray joined, but since you're here, we can make it even better!" She looked excited, apparently Fantasia was serious business.

She pulled a sheaf of papers out of her bag, covered in scribbles with a stick figure throwing rectangles into the air with arrows pointing to everything. I could just barely make out the handwriting detailing what each drawing was.

"God, these plans are terrible, who drew these?" Gray grumbled as he squinted at them. Cana's smile became fixed before she grabbed her bag and started beating Gray with it.

"They're perfectly understandable!" Cana yelled, as Gray started trying to duck and dodge her bag, covering his head with his hands.

"I'm sorry! Just stop hitting me!" Cana hit him a few more times before returning to her plans.

"Alright, so here's how this is going to work! We were planning an amazing dance until someone" -Gray grumbled about girliness- " threatened to drop out of the parade over it, so we planned a fireworks routine using our magic instead! With you here, we can make it even better though! So, you're going to come with me and you're going to perform all the spells you know until we find combinations that work! This is going to be the best Fantasia ever!" Cana dragged us both towards the back door, a gigawatt smile on her face. I could hear Gildarts screaming about how adorable his daughter was from over at the bar.

I have to agree with him on that one. The smile on her face was one of the most adorable things I'd ever seen.

October 28, x775

The next week was stamina training from hell, physically and magically.

The moment I finished my exercises, Cana would be standing by the gate, waving me over with a grin, and then she'd drag Gray and I straight to the guild hall for practice. Turns out that practice for Fantasia is worth losing an extra hour or two of sleep for Cana.

I saw our routine when I slept now, every step, every spell, I could hear every beat like it was my own personal metronome. I could probably do it in my sleep, but Cana was insistent on continuing to practice, wanting to ensure it was absolutely perfect.

Even though I got where she was coming from, I still felt like she was going completely overboard. She was incredibly stubborn about it though. Even Gray had given up arguing against her! He grumbled the entire way to the guild, but at least it wasn't directed at Cana anymore. I managed to keep quiet, I knew better than to voice my complaints by now.

As adorable as Cana was when she tried to lecture us on diligent rehearsal habits, I didn't want to endure another one.

Thankfully for Gray and I, today was the day of the festival and I wouldn't have to worry about the return of this hellish routine until next year.

I wasn't dumb enough to think that she wouldn't try this again, but hopefully she'd calm down a bit.

Thankfully for us though, Genkei was awesome, and knew our usual breakfasts by heart, so he had them fresh off the stove every time when we got in from Cana's hellish routine. I tore into my steak omelet more viciously than was strictly necessary, Genkei laughed.

"Cana's worked you hard then, huh?" I looked up from my breakfast and nodded. Gray snorted into his eggs.

"She's a slave driver!" He said angrily. "All this work for a damn parade, it's so stupid!" Genkei smacked him over the head with a spatula.

"Language Gray. Fantasia is a special time for Fairy Tail. It's a parade celebrating the guild and its members, why wouldn't you take that seriously?" `Gray grumbled, but he didn't say anything else.

"Yeah Gray, why wouldn't you take that seriously?" I teased. Gray glared at me.

"Shut up Helio! You hated all that practice just as much as I did!" I shrugged.

"Yeah, but I kept quiet about it." I gave him a cheeky grin as his glare intensified. Genkei smacked me over the head this time.

"Now boys, behave and eat your food. You've got to have a lot of energy for the parade today, after all!" We both nodded and went back to tearing into our food.

The Fantasia Parade was huge. I know most of the guild was injured in the one we saw in the manga and the anime, but I thought that was just a little bit smaller than the usual parade.

No, if I had to guess, that was maybe half the size of the whole thing.

Floats lined up as far as the eye could see, Fairy Tail wizards all performing final checks on their floats and costumes, some were doing a last second run through of their routines, and more than one was having a sudden attack of stage fright.

Cana had the jitters, she couldn't stay still now matter how hard she tried. We'd already warmed up, done two final dry runs of the routine, and checked over both our float and the next two in line, yet she still couldn't calm down. She looked so excited that I thought she might throw up.

"Cana, calm down. We've got this." Gray said, completely relaxed as he lounged against our float. Should have seen that one coming, really. The little showoff wouldn't know stage fright if it kicked him in the teeth. His eyes were closed as he laid back half naked…

"Gray! Clothes!" I barked. We might not have had a costume like Cana wanted due to his little stripping habit, but that didn't mean we wanted him flashing half of Magnolia!

"Again?! Shit!" Gray's calm was shattered as he scrambled around the grounds, gathering up his shirt and pants. I rolled my eyes as I turned back to Cana, who looked like she might pass out.

"Deep breaths Cana, won't be long now. Don't want to pass out in front of your adoring public, do you?" I teased, Cana nodded excitedly and closed her eyes, trying to calm down.

Considering she was still bouncing on her toes, I don't think she was succeeding.

"There's my adorable little girl!" A loud voice shouted over the din of preparations. Gildarts walked through a couple of signs, prompting squawks of indignity from the poor bastards that had been carrying them. "Look at you!" He picked her up and held her at arm's length. "You're going to be the best part of the entire parade!" He hugged her tightly. Cana tried protesting the treatment, but it was muffled by his chest. Her struggles were getting weaker, so I tried my best to distract him.

"You're going to be in the parade, Gildarts?" I asked, he loosened his grip on Cana to look down at me.

"Nah, I'd probably walk through most of the floats." He looked sheepish for a moment before his grin returned ten times brighter. "I'm gonna be watching from the sidelines." He squeezed Cana again. "Especially for my little girl!" Cana finally managed to smack him hard enough for him to notice and he released her with a wince as she started gulping down great lungfuls of air. He looked like he was about to say something else, but the music began playing and the people upfront began moving, so he simply patted Cana's head.

"Good luck you three! I'll be looking for ya!" He gave the Fairy Tail salute as he turned and somehow managed to disappear into the organized chaos as everyone started boarding their floats or lining up behind them.

It was a tense few minutes as we waited for our turn to move forward, our float was near the back, just behind Laxus but ahead of Master Makarov, and the waiting was even beginning to eat at Gray's nerves.

When at last we started to move, it was a relief for all of us. The routine had been practiced a hundred times or more by now, and getting ready to begin it helped dispel the doubts that the waiting introduced.

It was all routine now. No time for doubts or second guessing, just doing.

I took a deep breath as I counted down the seconds until we'd begin, the turn was coming up, and I could almost feel the swell of the music as it started.

3…

2..

1…

Showtime.

We rounded the corner onto Magnolia's main street, and the routine began. Cana flashed a hand of cards, casting Prayer's Fountain as solar energy flared in my hands.

"Sunny Day!" The spell shot through the fountain at its zenith, creating a cascading rainbow above our heads. Gray jumped onto the back of our float, a cold mist following him.

He didn't cast any spells, simply releasing a handful of ice energy, freezing the mist into tiny ice crystals.

Cana went again, flashing another hand as one of her new combos, Wind Edge, blew the falling crystals upwards into a cloud, just above Sunny Day. With a breath as the cloud finished forming, I cast the last spell of our performance.

"Solar Beam!" The beam shot from my hands into the night sky, absorbing the Sunny Day as it shot through it, turning the light from bright yellow to white. It pierced the cloud of ice crystals, and created a kaleidoscope of colors in the shape of the Fairy Tail guild mark, with the rest of my spell diffused into a rainbow shining in the sky above.

The crowd let out an audible ooh as the crystals melted and the spell faded. I grinned widely as I waved at the awestruck crowd, getting beside Cana as Gray stood on her other side. With linked hands, we all gave a bow to their cheers and quickly ran to reset for the next leg of the parade, grins stuck on our faces the whole time.

"I love this guild!" I shouted over the noise, Cana and Gray both beamed at me as we began the performance again.

Best. Day. Ever.

"That was exhausting. '' I moaned as the three of us slumped over the bar, a mug of hot chocolate awaiting each of us as Enno walked off to speak to Macao. Despite our physical exhaustion, the three of us were still wide awake from the excitement of the parade. We'd done that performance six times, once for each section of the parade, so that everyone there would get to see it, and my magic container was dry. Solar Beam cost a lot of magic power for a kid, and that alongside Sunny Day had me wiped out. I don't think I could cast a single spell, regardless of how little it cost.

"It was fun though!" Cana chirped happily, still all smiles and rainbows. She cast a shrewd look at Gray "Except for the third performance where you started stripping." Gray rolled his eyes and grumbled. Suddenly, she was all sunshine again. "Now we've got to plan for next year!" Gray and I both looked at her wide eyed.

"We just finished this one!" Gray and I both cried in surprise. Cana smiled as she pulled a notebook and pen from her bag.

"Exactly! It's the best time to think of something new! Now for next year I think we sho-" Cana's planning was mercifully cut off as Gildarts ran through the doors -literally- and barreled his way to the bar, scooping Cana up in a hug so tight I could almost hear her ribs creak.

"Oh my little girl's performance was the best performance of all time! Nobody could ever top it! She's so perfect!" He honest to god squealed as he raised Cana above his head. "Her act was the best! Wasn't it guys?!" Most of the guild cheered, but I doubted a lot of them knew just what they were cheering for, just that there was cheering.

"Laxus' was better!" Gramps' voice cut above the din. His words were slurred, he'd been drinking since the second he got back to the guild and it was starting to show. "My grandson was amazing out there!" He shot out a hand and laid it on top of Laxus' head. "Did me proud out there, he did!" Laxus started turning red as he ducked around the next drunken attempt at affection.

Cana quickly wriggled her way free of Gildarts' hold as he started into another "My kid's better than yours" competition and joined Laxus in the darkened corner of the guild. Gray and I shared a smirk at her reaction.

While I was all for Cana getting Gildarts to let up on the praise, neither of us would be complaining about his timing on this one. If we were lucky, her plans for next year would be postponed until at least next month.

October 29, x775

'I'm sorry, what?" I asked dumbly. Gray just blinked with a dumbfounded look on his face.

Cana rolled her eyes at us. "I'm going on a job with Laxus. Master's letting him take me to Malba City for a Search and Retrieve mission." She showed us the poster.

SEARCH AND RETRIEVE

RANK: C

Placed by: Kenneth Grayden

I need a wizard to search Malba city and its nearby surroundings for my missing crup! All non magical methods have failed and I want my best friend back!

REWARD: 40,000 Jewel

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Laxus, is going with you on a C rank job to find… a two headed dog?" Cana huffed.

"He grabbed a job for himself as well. It's just that Dad and Master won't shut up about our performances yesterday, and we both just want out of the guild for a while." I looked over at the bar, and sure enough, the two were still going at it. It was quieter than last night, but then they were a lot more sober than last night as well.

Yeah, I could see why he agreed now. I nodded at her and pulled her into a hug. "Be careful and have fun then Cana. See you when you get back." She grinned at us as Gray said his farewell.

"I'll see you in a couple days, guys!" With that, she ran to the doors where Laxus was waiting, leaning next to them and nodding his head to the beat of whatever music he was listening to. He opened his eyes as Cana approached and nodded at her before leading her out of the guild.

"Laxus never does anything with us. I'm surprised he agreed to take Cana with him." Gray said. I shrugged.

"Laxus is a big softy deep inside." Gray looked like he was legitimately worried for my mental health. "If it was you getting embarrassed like that, you'd agree to a lot of things you wouldn't normally do to get away from it." He looked conflicted still before he nodded.

"Yeah, fair enough." We sat in silence for a few moments before either of us spoke again.

"Want to go out back and spar?"

"Heck yeah I do!"

October 31 x775

I don't think Gray and I realized just how little we did together without Cana there to engage us until she was gone. We weren't awkward or anything, but the last two days had been a lot more banter and sparring instead of talking or playing. It wasn't bad, just different. I think the both of us liked just being able to sit silently for a while without saying a thing until one of us decided we should trade barbs or fight again.

Currently I was reading aloud from my lessons with Laxus while Gray listened attentively. Neither of us had been in a fighting mood, so this seemed the next best thing for now.

"When creating a new spell, one should always be careful when preparing to cast it for the first time. Ensure that standard safety procedures-" The door being opened distracted me from my reading as I looked up to see who it was.

Cana came dashing into the guild, holding in giggles as she sat with us.

"Welcome back, Cana." I said with a smile, requipping my notebook away as I threw an arm around her shoulder. "How'd the mission go?" Cana finally started laughing her tail off, either ignoring, or unable to answer our questions.

"You alright? You're being weird." Gray asked with narrowed eyes. Cana simply nodded and pointed at the still open doors.

That seemed to prompt the thing she was laughing at to enter.

Laxus walked in looking harried as he dragged a little girl in with him.

"Is this really Fairy Tail? It's so big! Look at all the mages! Wow Laxus, this place is so cool!" The little girl said all this very quickly, never pausing for breath.

Laxus let out a heavy sigh, but he answered in one of the nicest tones I think anyone had ever heard from him.

"Yeah squirt this is Fairy Tail. Welcome to the madhouse." The guild, which had been struck silent by Laxus arriving with one more child than he had left with, finally had the spell broken.

"Awww!" Seemed to be the order of the day, with a few "she's so cute" and "Laxus is being nice?!" Thrown in for good measure.

Honestly, I was stuck in both of those camps.

Partly because Laxus was being this nice to some kid he'd probably just met.

Partly because that adorable little blue haired girl could be none other than Levy McGarden.

Ladies and gentlemen, best girl has arrived.

A/N: Levy is best girl fite me irl.

That aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I was originally going to cut to November or December, but then I remembered this was October and I needed to write Helio's first Fantasia parade.

It's also a good break between arcs and lets me introduce the best girl in Fairy Tail.

Once again, shoutout to FFN user obliviousss for brainstorming on the future of the fic with me! It's a great way to get the creative juices flowing!

See y'all next time!