Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
December, x777.
The next morning, Cana slowly opened her eyes in an unfamiliar room. While she was confused at first, her mind quickly rebooted, allowing her to remember where she was. The fact that there was another person latched onto her while drooling on her chest also helped her recollect the memories from the night before.
"That's right, I slept over at Fonzie and Lici's new house." Cana said quietly. Then, a silly smile found its way onto her face. "And Lici told me that I could be Fonzie's girlfriend."
A moment later, however, that smile turned into a sigh.
"But I have to share him." Cana said, still a bit conflicted about the conversation she had with Elicia in the bath last night. "I agreed on the spur of the moment, but I'm not sure how things will turn out in the long run."
After a few more moments of contemplation, Cana tried, and failed, to shrug her shoulders.
"She's so much smaller than me." Cana said with awry smile on her face. "How in the world is Lici this strong?"
"Hey, I'm heading to the guild!" Alfonzo shouted from the bottom of the steps. "Don't sleep in too long, or you'll miss breakfast."
As soon as Alfonzo's words ended, Elicia's eyes opened wide.
"No! Absolutely not!" Elicia shouted as she let go of Cana and sat up in the bed."
A moment later, Elicia looked left then right with confusion written all over her face.
"What's wrong, Lici?" Cana asked with concern. "Did you have a bad dream?"
"I think so." Elicia said while shaking her head. "I thought I heard that I was going to miss Fonzie's breakfast."
'She didn't even twitch when I tried to move earlier.' Cana thought to herself. 'But as soon as the possibility of not getting Fonzie's cooking was mentioned, she woke up immediately. What kind of glutton is she?'
"That wasn't a dream, Lici.' Cana said with a wry smile on her face. "Fonzie just said he was gonna leave for the guild to take his shift in the kitchen."
Before Cana began to speak, Elicia was in the process of laying back down. However, as soon as Cana said her piece, Elicia froze in a weird position. Then, using her core muscles, she sat back up.
"Then, what are we waiting for?" Elicia asked frantically. "We can't miss breakfast."
After that, Elicia grabbed Cana by the hand. Then, she rushed them both into the bathroom. After spending about half an hour getting ready, they both emerged from the bathroom wearing towels, with Cana looking a bit embarrassed.
"What's wrong, Cana?" Elicia asked after noticing Cana's expression.
"I didn't bring a change of clothes." Cana said bashfully.
"Oh, don't worry about that." Elicia said dismissively. "I have a few of the clothes I designed for you in one of the closets in me and Fonzie's room. You can just wear some of those."
Like that, Elicia and Cana started moving toward the master bedroom.
Meanwhile, in the guild hall, Alfonzo had already started taking breakfast orders. At the same time, Makarov and Ur were talking to Gildarts, who like Cana had rushed back after completing his quest.
"How early did you get back?" Ur asked curiously. "I didn't even hear the announcement for the Gildarts shift."
"It was pretty early." Gildarts said. "The sun hadn't even risen yet. But to think you slept through everything. You must have been exhausted after your quest."
"Yeah." Ur replied with a nod. "Right after we got back, Ultear, Gray, Cana, and I went to Alfonzo and Elicia's new house. Then, we had dinner and played around in their game room for a while."
"Oh, so you saw it, too.?" Makarov asked with a smile. "The house is quite impressive."
"It is." Ur replied, nodding once again. "But the main event of last night was the dinner."
"Oh, what did the kid cook?" Gildarts asked curiously.
"Searing Bull ribeye." Ur said with a smug smile.
Hearing that, both Makarov and Gildarts gasped in surprise.
"Damn it!" Gildarts exclaimed. "I knew I should have just destroyed that whole town where those dark wizards were hiding. Then, I might have made it back soon enough to have dinner with you guys, too."
*Bang!*
Immediately after Gildarts' words ended, he was slapped in the back of the head by Makarov's giant palm, causing his head to crash into the bar top.
"You damned brat!" Makarov shouted. "Are you trying to bankrupt the guild?"
"Damn it, Old Man." Gildarts muttered while rubbing his bruised face. "Stop pretending that you would have done anything different if you knew you could have a Searing Bull ribeye that the kid made."
Looking away with a blush, Makarov could no longer make eye contact with Gildarts because he knew that the younger man was right.
"Anyway." Ur said, deciding to continue her story with a mischievous grin on her face. "When it got late, I took Ultear and Gray back home. But Cana decided to spend the night at Alfonzo and Elicia's place."
Immediately, the atmosphere in the guild hall changed. Then, a powerful aura covered the entire hall, causing all the rowdiness to stop immediately.
A moment later, Alfonso walked out of the kitchen, carrying Gildarts order of Eggs Benedict.
"Damn it, Ur." Alfonzo's voice sounded from the kitchen. "Why the hell would you say that?"
"I was just telling the rest of my story." Ur said with an innocent smile on her face. "But I don't' know what happened after we left."
Gildarts, who was already glaring at Alfonzo from the moment he left the kitchen, started mixing bloodlust in to his glare when he heard Ur's insinuation.
"What did you do to my princess, you little bastard?" Gildarts asked as he jumped over the bar and picked up Alfonzo by the front of his shirt.
Take it easy, Old Man." Alfonzo said, not even trying to free himself from Gildarts grasp. "You should have asked that before---"
"Cut the shit, Kid." Gildarts snarled. "Just answer the question."
"You know, you really should get rid of that tunnel vision of yours, Old Man." Alfonzo said with a smirk on his face.
"I said just---" Gildarts said, even more anger filling his tone.
"Dad! What are you doing to Fonzie?" Cana's shrill cry cut through the otherwise silent guild hall.
Quickly turning his head toward the guild hall's entrance, Gildarts saw Cana, who was standing next to Elicia, with the rays of the morning sun shining behind her. However, he could not help but start to shudder when he saw the anger in his little girl's eyes.
"Hey, Sweetie, good morning." Gildarts said, with cold sweat trickling down his forehead. "I heard you just got back from a quest yesterday. How did it go?"
"Dad. What. Are. You. Doing. To. Fonzie?" Cana asked, emphasizing every word as she and Elicia began walking toward the bar.
"Oh… Haha… We were just talking about the new house." Gildarts said nervously.
"Really?" Cana asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she arrived in front of the bar. "Then, why are you holding Fonzie up by his shirt?"
"Oh… Um… Right!" Gildarts said. "Alfonzo was about to tell me a secret about the house. So, I brought him closer so that n o one else would be able to hear us, right?"
While Gildarts stared at Alfonzo with pleading eyes, Elicia, Makarov, Cana, and Ur deadpanned, unable to believe how the man in front of them could be so shameless.
"Actually…" Alfonzo said, giving Gildarts a reassuring smile that made him relax, only to mercilessly crush any sense of security he might have been feeling. "Gildarts thought I did something inappropriate to you when you spent the night at our house. And he was going to force me to spit it out. Probably with the use of violence."
Immediately, the relieved expression on Gildarts face froze. Then, he looked at Alfonzo with disbelief,
'How could he betray me like that?' Gildarts asked himself. 'Especially after all the things I've done for him. Like that time I… Hmm… Now that I think about it, him betraying me makes perfect sense. All I ever do is try to beat him up whenever he gets to close to Cana. Damn it, I brought this on myself, didn't I?'
"Dad." Cana said in a low, menacing tone.
"Y-Yes, Princess?" Gildarts stuttered out.
"Is that true?" Cana asked, already knowing the answer to her question.
"I mean, kinda?" Gildarts said, scratching his head with his free hand.
"And why are you still holding Fonzie like that?" Cana asked with her eyebrows twitching.
"Oh… Whoops…" Gildarts said as he slowly lowered Alfonzo to the floor.
When Alfonzo's feet were firmly planted on the floor, Gildarts released his hold on Alfonso's shirt. Then, after noticing a wrinkle in the location where he had grabbed the shirt, Gildarts did his best to smooth out the fabric.
"There, good as new." Gildarts said with a stiff smile.
Then, Gildarts hopped over the bar, landing in front of Cana, who was still glaring at him unhappily.
"I missed you, Princess." Gildarts said, opening his arms wide.
When he noticed that Cana made no move to enter his embrace, Gildarts stepped forward, intending to wrap his arms around his daughter. Unfortunately, before he could close his arms around Cana she took a step back.
"Dad, we need to talk." Cana said without changing her expression.
Once again, Gildarts froze due to Cana's words. And this time, he had a really bad feeling about what she wanted to say.
"What's up, Princess?" Gildarts asked, trying his best to put on a smile.
As a matter of fact, Cana did not know what she was going to follow up that statement with. She was angry at seeing her father treating Alfonzo like that… again. So, she let her emotions guide her speech. However, as soon as Gildarts asked her what she wanted to say, she had nothing. However, she knew she could not remain silent. So…
"I'm gonna move in with Fonzie and Lici." Cana said.
… she let her heightened emotions speak for her again, surprising not only herself, but Alfonzo, Makarov, Ur, and almost everyone who was watching the drama unfold.
While Elicia was also surprised, she smiled happily. Meanwhile, Gildarts paled rapidly. Then, he threw a death glare at Alfonzo. However, that did not last for very long as he could see that Alfonzo was just as taken aback as he was.
"After we're done with training, we'll go pack my stuff." Cana said, making tears start to form in Gildarts eyes.
"No, you can't." Gildarts said frantically. "Oh, I know! If I destroy the house, then you'll have no choice but to stay with Daddy!"
Before anyone could respond to Gildarts desperate cry, An extremely sinister aura began oozing out of Elicia while she switched between glaring at Gildarts' face and his crotch. All the while, she repeatedly opened and closed her fists.
"What was that?" Elicia said in an ominous tone. "I don't think I heard you properly. Would you care to repeat that?"
"*Gulp* Haha… Nothing… Nothing at all." Gildarts stammered as he took a step back. "It was just a joke. You know I would never do something like that to my best friend's kids, right?"
As if it were never there, Elicia's dark aura disappeared. Then, with a relieved expression on her face, Elicia patted her chest.
"*Sigh* You shouldn't make jokes like that." Elicia said, looking genuinely relieved. "You really scared me just now."
'I scared you? Yeah fucking right.' Gildarts thought to himself while his eyebrows twitched. 'I thought my soul was going to jump out of my body for a second there. And you say I scared you?'
"Haha… Sorry about that." Gildarts said, forcing a smile. "I hope you can forgive your Uncle Gildarts."
Just like that, the tense atmosphere disappeared. While Elicia and Cana happily discussed Cana becoming a new resident at the mansion, Gildarts did his best to dissuade his daughter while shedding manly tears.
"Holy shit…" Alfonzo muttered as he watched the three people on the other side of the bar. "Lici really became Gildarts hard counter with a single punch to the junk."
"I wish Bianca were here to see this." Ur said, wiping the tears from suppressing her laughter out of her eyes. "I can just imagine her rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically at Gildarts' expression."
"Yeah, me too." Alfonzo and Makarov replied simultaneously.