41 Chapter Forty One - Cana and Her Father

I laid in bed next to the nude form of Cana. She was curled up against me, sleeping, soft breaths escaping her lips as she rested her cheek against my torso. I gently caressed her hair, running my fingers through the dark locks, and she let out a little noise, nuzzling all the harder against my chest.

Juvia was bobbing up and down my cock furiously, as that was how she woke me up, and I turned my attention back down to her to help calm her jealousy by some small degree. Despite looking down at her - even offering a warm smile of my own - my thoughts were on Cana.

Canonically, her issues with her father caused significant troubles during the S-Class qualification trials. Obviously, since she was now my lover, I should do something to help her deal with them, now, if at all possible. But if she was going to have her problems fixed by somebody just talking to her, then she already would have, as 'hey, your dad's love is not reliant on you becoming an S-Class Wizard at age 18. If it was, then he would be a shitty dad,' is a quite obvious conclusion for anybody who's had a conversation lasting longer than thirty seconds with somebody on the subject.

Well, I'd just talk to her about it when she woke up. That would be the simplest solution. If that didn't work, then I would go talk to her father, since we were on pretty decent terms. He'd be able to reassure his daughter that he loved her, or else, he'd be a really crappy dad anyway.

I reached down for Juvia's head, guiding her to increase her pace bobbing up and down my cock - inside a minute, I was groaning and ejaculating in her mouth, Juvia furiously pumping my cock with her hands, staring up at me all the while, as I came all over her eager tongue. When I finished in her mouth, she popped off, just happily swilling my cum around and around in her mouth, idly chewing and playing with it, humming in delight at the opportunity to get my cum.

"Why don't you go make us breakfast, Juvia?"

"Yes, my beloved Lee!" Juvia declared, hopping up to her feet, collecting her clothes, and dashing off. The noise of her doing as much, loudly leaping and running all over the place, was enough to wake Cana up, the woman pressed against me groaning as her brain restarted slowly.

"Nnn... who's the stud..." she mumbled, turning her head up. "Oh right. Lee." She let out a soft breath, transfixing me for a long moment. "Hey... nnn..." she rolled onto me, just flopping her chin onto my chest, my cock winding up in between her thighs - and she promptly started to gently tease my dick with said thighs. "What would you do... if I left the guild?"

"I would be sad," I told her. "As you are a beautiful woman, and a valued member of the guild, who has many friends inside of it."

She sighed at that, tilting her head downward to just sort of mush her nose into my chest. "Nnn... I'm starting to think I should, though," she said, twisting even further to push her forehead against my chest, her gorgeous naked body softly mashing against my own. "The whole reason I joined was to..." She trailed off. "Well, I don't think it'll happen..."

"What was it?" I asked, gingerly running my fingers through Cana's soft, dark hair. "Come on. Tell me, Cana. I care about you, as I care about all my lovers." She let out a lazy snort at that, twisting her head up to look at me.

"It's my dad..." She began. "He's Gildarts. I joined the guild to try to get close to him, but he seems further away than ever, every passing year..." She explained how she'd sought out her father, but never quite managed to explain to him her feelings, or her identity as his daughter. She'd planned to tell him after becoming an S-Class Wizard, but had failed to reach that level for so long, making her start to feel like giving up. I nodded along to her story, pretending like I didn't remember it from watching the Fairy Tail anime years ago, as I tried to carefully calibrate exactly how to respond to her heartfelt words.

"I have a question for you, Cana."

"I'm a 60H," Cana responded, with a smirk.

"I already knew that," I told her. "No, my question is simple: if you told your father who you were now, what do you think would happen?"

"I don't know... I mean, a lot of things could happen."

"Name two," I told her, making her let out a small laugh.

"He could reject me... or he could like me."

"I see." I idly slid my hand from her hair down to her cheek, gently cupping it as I looked down at her. "So. Suppose he rejected you, because you weren't an S-Class Wizard. Would you say he was a good father, in that scenario?"

"...no," she admitted. "No! I want him to be proud of me, Lee!" She declared, leaning up suddenly, pointing down at me, her naked body on full, utterly shameless display. "It's not like you're insinuating at all."

"Do you think that he wouldn't be proud of you now?" I asked her.

"I don't know. How could I know?"

"Yes, it is impossible to know how another person will react to you," I replied, nodding along. Unless you had access to secret future knowledge and knew that Gildarts was the sort of guy who would be overjoyed to know he had a secret daughter. Of course, I was not that sort of man - because I wanted all the women I had ever been with to be part of my life indefinitely, as my harem! "But perhaps there is a way to get a special insight, Cana."

"You mean my cards? They don't really work like that."

"No, I completely forgot about your cards, actually," I responded, making Cana laugh. "It's that you are his daughter. Some part of him lives on in you. If you had a long-lost child that you didn't know about, and they came to you as a young adult, desperate for you to be proud of them - would it matter whether they were an S-Class Wizard by eighteen or not?"

Cana's lips became a thin line in response to that question, then she let out a laugh. "You're right, Lee. Heck, they could just be a top-tier chef and I'd probably be proud of them." She clambered off me, stretching, showing off her very nice rump in the process. "Thanks, Lee. It's easy to see why you've got a whole harem of girls begging for it," she said, as she collected her undergarments from where they'd been hurled around the room last night.

Juvia charged into the room at that point. "My beloved Lee! My future co-wife Cana! I brought breakfast!"

* * *

Cana had thought about what Lee had said, over the course of eating Juvia's breakfast. (She made sure to thank Juvia for her hard work. Juvia mostly seemed to focus on whether Lee would thank her and, also, whether she could have sex with Lee once he was finished eating.)

Was he right? Was she being silly? She wanted to be able to stand in front of her father and show him that she was a capable young woman... but did she have to be an S-Class wizard for that? Why had she even fixed on that as a goal?

Gildarts had bragged about how badly he'd been torn up on his quest, only to get healed by Lee, joking about losing his arm and leg. He'd just been joking and showing off for the guild members, but Cana could only think back to it and wonder. He wasn't immortal. He wouldn't be around forever...

Her hand tightened into a fist. She wanted to prove herself! She did!

"I think you should speak to your father directly," Lee said, interrupting her thoughts - or maybe reading them. With how many completely random, disconnected abilities he seemed to have, maybe he could also read minds. She sighed at his words. "You've already proven yourself to be an incredible woman, Cana," he said, patting her thigh. "In fact - we should go right now to speak to him!"

"Wh-wha?" Cana asked, bewildered as Lee practically leapt to his feet, his food only half-finished. Juvia looked at him with a pouty expression that said she really wanted to have sex with him once he was done eating.

"Yes! The longer we wait, the easier it will be for you to stew and change your mind! Let's go now!" He declared, grabbing her by the upper arm.

"I'm only in my underwear!"

"That's pretty much what you wear anyway," Lee pointed out.

"Yeah but I wear pants!" She grabbed her pants, thwacking them a couple times. "Let me put them on, at least!"

He let go of her arm. He didn't ask to confirm she was coming along - she wasn't entirely sure herself, as she slipped one leg inside, then the other. "I'm sorry, Juvia," he said. "I can't enjoy your delicious meal right now. However, I can tell you this - I will enjoy it when I get back, and thanks to my time powers, you need not worry about it going stale!"

"Ah! I'm happy you enjoy it, my beloved Lee!" Juvia said, practically swooning.

Then Cana finished pulling on her pants, and Lee dragged her out of the room. She just barely managed to get shoes on.

It was ridiculous! It wasn't like she was about to run away! She wasn't! Definitely! She wasn't going to change her mind on a dime or anything like that!

* * *

Cana could only look at her father with a painful throb in her chest as she stared up at him. He was a figure a cut above most. Not just an S-Class wizard, but an affable, competent man, and terrifying in battle. She gulped as Lee held her hand and drew her along with him, up until they were where he was seated at the bar. "Hey, Lee! Thanks again for fixing my arm and leg," he said, rolling the arm around. "You're alright in my book. And hello to you too, Cana," he said, making a small motion like miming tipping a cap at her, a casual smile on his lips.

"Cana has something she wants to say to you," Lee said, trying to prompt her to speak. Gildarts raised one eyebrow curiously in her direction.

"Gildarts, I," Cana began - and words promptly failed her.

Gildarts let out a laugh. "If you're trying to confess your love for this old coot, you'll have to get in line," he said, a wry smile on his lips, and Cana had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. She could tell he was just saying that to try to make her feel more comfortable - to make things more jocular and friendly.

"It's, ah..." She hadn't said this for twelve years. Why would it be any easier to say it now? This was moronic. She'd never manage to say it.

"Cana! If you don't say it, I will!" Lee declared, pointing at her. She let out a noise of anger at him.

"Y-you can't! I have to say it!"

"Then say it! Or I will!" Lee countered, and her hand slid down to her waist, to her deck of cards, her eyes narrowing.

"Hey, hey," Gildarts said. "No need for the two of you to fight about this," he said, standing up. "I can just go if I'm bothering you."

"You most certainly are not!" Lee declared, placing one hand on Gildarts shoulder. "In fact, this is an excellent time for you to be present. There would be no point in this conversation without your presence." He looked at Cana. "I'm going to say it in five... four... three..." Her heart froze in her chest as she stared at Lee. He absolutely would do it. "Two..." It was about to happen. "O-"

"I'm your daughter!" She yelled the words out, looking down at her feet as she pushed them out through her chest, her breath escaping her in a long motion of energetic speech. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed in anxiety, the deed just done.

Gildarts didn't say anything for a long few seconds. Then there was a loud thud, fitting exactly what one would expect to hear if Gildarts's fist had impacted Lee's stomach, and another thud about a second later, as if Lee had been hurled bodily into a wall - and, indeed, that's exactly what had happened, as far as she could tell when she raised her head up. She gulped, looking at her father properly for the first time, just staring at him, trembling. He looked at her - then wrapped her in a sudden hug, squeezing her tight in his arms.

"You're... Cornelia's, aren't you?" He asked, his voice soft and gentle, loving and sweet. She nodded quietly against you. "Want me to beat up that jerk some more? Seems like he was bullying my one and only daughter."

"It's alright... he was helping me..." Cana said, letting out a croak of a laugh as Gildarts kept her in his arms. "In his own way."

"I'm sorry. I heard that Cornelia had died, but never that she had a child. I should have... checked," he said, his voice sounding lame.

"No, I kept it a secret," she told him. Awkwardly, she gave his back a pat.

"All this time... I had a daughter..." he said, more to himself than to her, his voice trembling with emotion. "So close... yet I never realized."

"It's alright. I just wanted you to know. I'm not here to make you do anything. We can go back to how we always were."

At that, his hug suddenly grew tighter, making her let out a small noise in response, his intense strength coming to bear on her slender body. "I can't. Please, Cana - give me permission to love you, as a father."

Cana felt tears coming to her own eyes. "I- okay," she said, knowing her own voice was warbling at least as hard as her father's.

"Cana," he said, saying her name as if for the first time, trying it on his tongue. "Cana, I love you!" He hefted her up into the air, holding her under the arms and spinning her around. His face was a total mess (she was pretty sure, her own vision wasn't great), tears running down his cheeks, but a triumphant, joyous expression on his face.

"I love you too, Dad!"

Lee approached the pair of them as her father kept spinning her around, a broad smile on his face. "Once again, I have done a great deed of kindne-" he was cut off as Gildarts kicked him in the chest, sending him careening off into the wall again, only this time, he kept going through it.

"Should I stop doing that?" Gildarts asked her, and she let out a little giggle.

"No... well... do it twice more and then stop," she said, a smile on her lips.

"Understood," he said, pulling her back into a hug.

Lee did, indeed, get thrown into buildings two more times before Gildarts stopped beating him up for bullying Cana.

For Cana, she was just... truly... happy.