Chapter Text
“May I get the minute of your time?”
“Later, sorry. Need to pack for the next job—get back here, stripper! Still haven’t kicked your ugly mug enough.”
Cana clicks her tongue upon hearing that.
Watching Zeref’s numerous sad attempts at talking with the resident fire dragon slayer result in absentminded rejections gets more and more annoying each time it happens. It’s been months since this has started, and it’s not even funny anymore. Creepy maybe, especially when the dark wizard pouts— pouts!
A grown ass man, old enough to be someone’s great-great-great—who knows how many more ‘greats’— grandfather, projecting resignation and despair that diffuse through space around him. Even Cana, a shitty enough sensor, can feel the magic dispersed with uncontrollable emotion settle over the crowded hall, creeping into the shadows like bugs spreading over the floor, and carrying wrongness to each dark corner.
It’s even worse because the man is who he is and everything is freaking amplified with him—it’s not exactly his fault but experiencing the resulting gloom and doom stuffing the guildhall is really tedious.
Cana drinks her mug dry then slams it on the bar countertop, jolting Mirajane into giving her a wide-eyed look and scaring the heck out of a few other members who lounged around the bar to gossip. She gets up to do something about it.
Instead of being of any use besides low-level drinking buddies, Makao and Wakaba hide in the shadowed corner of the room. Pussies, all of them. Don’t let her get started about that iron moron Gajeel. Getting your ass handed to you because your working one and a half brain cell did not stop you from challenging one of the strongest men walking on Earth Land does not mean you’re excused from helping the said man. If nothing, just so the rest of them don’t have to be inadvertently exposed to the feeling of death’s probing fingers slithering down their backs each time Natsu—dear oblivious Natsu—completely and utterly shuts every sincere effort at spending time together his unintentionally baleful brother attempts.
Ah, he’s making that face. Cana purses her lips as she watches Zeref look like a lost puppy. A very bloodthirsty puppy considering that the feeling of doom and gloom switched to bloodlust. That won’t do.
After a nod to Mira, which the woman immediately interprets and nods back, Cana is hurrying to Zeref’s side. Telegraphing her movement, she takes hold of his upper arm and guides him to sit at the table tucked right next to the exit leading to the western storage space. She hopes that being somewhat distanced from people would help. It doesn’t always, but sometimes you can see clearly that Zeref is used to being alone. When the tremors start as people close around him and his hands shake as though years have truly caught up with him, most of Cana’s inner circle of friends know what to do. Tugging him aside with a gentle hand and giving him something to ground himself with is enough to pull him back to the surface. His eyes stop being so wild.
Today seems to be a good day. He’s normal—as normal as a 400-year-old dark wizard can be. Doesn’t look like there’s going to be any noteworthy issues, but Cana is glad when a cup of steaming green tea arrives. Mira places it in front of Zeref and leaves with a smile, Zeref’s soft words of appreciation calling after her.
While Cana's intervention might have been unnecessary, watching him enjoy the tea is an unquestionable bonus. She still can’t believe worrying about an immortal terrorist (is he even a terrorist? If you asked the Council, they’d certainly call him so.) is what her life has come to.
“Okay,” she says when it looks like Zeref won’t talk anytime soon. He has that pinched expression on his face and that won’t do. “We need to do something about this.”
He startles like he hasn’t realized she’s there, then eyes her for a long moment before sighing and shifting to look at the warm brew in his hand.
“There is nothing to be done,” he says like he’s pulling it from somewhere deep inside. Like he forgot to speak for a moment, lost in his own head. It also sounds like he’s far more tired than the nearly imperceptible circles under his eyes would indicate.
The defeatist mindset contained in those calmly spoken words is exactly what Cana came to get rid of.
“There is always something to be done,” she says and narrows her eyes at him. “Like finding out when exactly Natsu will have free time.”
Zeref sighs again, deeply, like the old man he is. Honestly, is he purposely being like this?
“It won’t matter. He doesn't need me in his life,” he mutters, his tone hinting at more than he reveals as he continues watching the tea as though the secrets of the universe would be unveiled.
Cana feels like sighing herself but slaps the urge mentally a few times until it goes away. Instead, she sends him a disparaging look which the man doesn’t see with all the gawking at the cup in hand. Really? Challenge accepted. Let no one convince you Cana breaks her promises, and this is a promise. She’ll drag him off to speak with Natsu with her own bare hands. Might even slap him over the head for being stupid, too. Might do the same to Natsu, considering the bumbling idiot is so. Damn. Oblivious.
Ah, enough thinking about it. She’s going to give herself an ulcer. So, she takes a deep breath, cracks a smirk, and drawls, “Well, did you try talking to him about his interests?”
Zeref blinks, slowly, like Cana has learned he does when someone offers him information he didn’t consider. Then, he tilts his head to look at her, eyes flashing curious. “His interests?”
Hook, line, and sinker. Honestly, men are so simple.
“Yeah, don’t just ask if he’s free. Be here when he comes back from the job, bring him food, and broach any subject Natsu likes talking about.”
Zeref frowns slightly, his body coiled like he’s waiting for a hit, apprehensive still, and pulls at the white fabric of his toga with twitchy fingers. “You think that will work?” He doesn’t sound convinced at all. And it’s kind of unthinkable, considering the way Zeref can string words in general. How he easily negotiates and manipulates, yet talking to his own brother (if anyone didn’t believe the initial revelation sure does now after seeing him bumble about after Natsu for months) is apparently impossible.
Cana snorts and waves her hand around. “Knowing Natsu, you won’t be able to get rid of him once you feed him. He’ll come back just like stray cats do.”
“I know he likes talking about his dragon slayer magic,” Zeref says after a moment of contemplating the idea.
“About fighting as well. You could give him some tips,” Cana adds, observing how life finally seeps back into his eyes.
Zeref hums and drinks his tea.
The man is usually quiet, so the silence isn’t awkward. The background noise of the rest of the guildmates’ chatter is familiar, ever grounding to Cana who has been part of the Guild for the better part of her life. They sit there through several of her beers and one more cup of tea, for the whole afternoon until the sky darkens and stars dot the horizon. It’s pleasant.
***
When two days later Natsu barges through the large doors, loud as ever with a big smile on his face, Zeref takes a plate of food to Natsu before the rest can swarm him. They start talking and continue for a good three hours or so. Seems two of them are off to a good start.
Cana smiles behind a bottle of wine.
***
The day Natsu arrives back from another mission, petrichor and ozone waft through the air.
Zeref has been fretting the whole morning due to a potential thunderstorm catching his brother on his way back to the guild as though Natsu is a child, not someone with over half a dozen years of experience running jobs under Fairy Tail’s name. Cana has ignored his fidgeting and, unrelated to any of that, predicted a disaster.
“Oh, man! That was awesome. Hey Zeref, that idea was wicked, dude!”
The main door snapped open, followed by loud jovial words, making Cana look up from her cards. Natsu enters the guild like he does everything else—that is to say noisily. One should be more concerned when they see Natsu but don’t hear clamor and racket, so Cana doesn’t have a particular reaction, more troubled with what her cards are showing.
Zeref, finally not pursing his lips and fiddling with the fine china set Mirajane had unearthed from somewhere deep in the storage when she realized the man will drink an obscene amount of tea, is smiling softly as he listens to Natsu’s lively recounting of an explosion and fire and whatever else. Good, they’re talking again and Natsu is the one to start it this time. Progress, fucking yeay. While it makes her glad to see them bond, Cana can’t stop the feeling of dread coming back from where it pulled back. She leaves them be and turns back to her cards with a deep furrow in her brow. Something not being right would be an understatement.
She doesn’t always divinate, but every so often she checks what fate has in store for them and consequently for the area around the Guild. Magnolia is their place as much as the guild is. Without it, the guild wouldn’t be. Being concerned is warranted, from what she sees.
Natsu is so loud she can’t not hear something about running around the whole night and almost being late for something, so she snaps towards them, “Pipe down,” which merely results in odd looks sent her way. By other people present, not her targets, who are absorbed in their conversation. She ignores them back by turning to her cards.
The Tower lays there on the wooden bench. It draws attention as it sits in the middle, surrounded by other cards, leading to only one meaning: destruction. Now, Cana isn’t stupid and knows that divination cards merely show the potential possibilities, but she’s been shuffling the deck for the whole damn morning and the result still hasn’t changed.
Well, fuck. Either there will be another attack on the Guild, maybe Magnolia itself, or some surrounding area. Although, she can’t fathom why anyone would attack Hargeon or Onibus. Anything other than the Guild that would make sense should be the capital due to its importance, but that’s too far away for her divination to pick upon.
Or there’s some imperceptible force driving the predictions depicted by her cards completely unreliable. Well, that won’t do. Cana relies on the readings, and the Guild relies on her. So it would be greatly preferable to whatever shit managed to get snagged into the readout to blow over before she goes crazy with its interpretation. Blow over is, of course, the preferable outcome, but in her experience, it’s usually something that explodes in their faces. Such is life.
“Natsu,” screeches Lucy, stomping into the guild hall after the aforementioned wizard, eyes wild and body language screaming of anger. She’s also covered in soot, gray and black besmirching her face and hands, hair in disarray, clothes ripped in several places.
Cana’s instinct itches to pay attention, so she does. This is bound to be good.
To be fair, if anyone was ignoring Natsu making the commotion, they were eagerly watching the unfolding events now. Everyone knows that when things start getting louder than usual, higher are the chances of something juicy happening.
Last time it was a bar fight in which Erza broke out her new armor to chase Elfman around the hall, jumping over the tables and destroying nearly everything in her way. The resulting bar fight was one of the best ones, with glasses flying, tables either in states of disrepair or broken in pieces, and lots of other destroyed things.
Before that, Natsu had almost destroyed the building by accidentally lighting on fire one of the wooden decorations on the wall with Gray coming to the rescue, extinguishing it, but misplacing his clothes during the process. Nothing new seeing Gray walking around naked, but Juvia had somehow gotten so flustered that she managed to summon an enormous wave of water, flooding the guild. Cana climbed to the upper floor and watched the chaos unfold.
“Ah, Luce,” Natsu says as he turns to shoot her a cocky smile. “Did you see! It was epic.”
“Oh, I saw,” Lucy drawls and starts walking towards him like a wolf would stalk its prey. It doesn’t seem that Natsu caught on to the danger he’s in. Lucy grabs the lapels of his black waistcoat and shakes him. “What is wrong with you? No, don’t answer that. This is the second time you blew up Hargeon since we met—the first one was an unfortunate situation with that Bora prick, the second time is one too many!”
Cana looks down at her cards, then back up at the racket the two wizards are making right in the middle of the Guild. She blinks.
Oh.
“Mah—” Natsu waives Lucy’s complaints off. “—no one got hurt.”
Happy flies in through the window near the job board just to agree with a loud, "Aye, sir," then promptly swivels around as he sees Lucy's facial expression and hides behind Wendy.
Lucy hisses at that. “There were buildings in piles of rubble,” she adds angrily, though it seems to fall on deaf ears.
Oh.
“So,” Zeref cuts in before Lucy can start strangling the oblivious dragon slayer. “Was the hypothesis that combining two sources of fire magic rotating in opposing directions would result in an explosion accurate?”
Natsu shifts so he can beam at the man. “Hell yeah! It was so cool.”
“It was not cool,” Lucy mutters darkly and proceeds with an attempt to throttle Natsu for real, though he merely grabs her hands and holds them in his own, almost absentmindedly going through motions while not even bothering to look away from his brother.
“Nice,” Zeref says with a small smile like he doesn’t know he’s adding flames to a fire.
Lucy seems to realize she’s fighting a losing battle, tugs her hands free, and rounds on Zeref. She points a finger at his chest, snapping, “ You are forbidden from giving him more ideas! ”
Which merely results in a blink, then two, then Zeref says, “That reminds me, I have some theories about celestial magic I’d like to confirm. Also, some ideas on how to harness it more optimally.”
And goddammit, when did that man become silver-tongued? Cana thinks it’s not fair that someone so socially stunted in most ways should be granted the ability to avoid repercussions in this case. Like he’s literally being a little shit and fanning the flames because he’s obviously finding it amusing, and now he’s shifting focus so smoothly while dampening Lucy’s ire.
And, would you look at that, Lucy falters in her obvious anger. Something akin to curiosity battles with suspicion on her face. “Ideas, you say?”
“Of course, Zeref here has many interesting ideas!” Natsu says, slapping Lucy on the back, still entirely ignoring the fact that she tried to strangle him just a few short minutes before. Or it could be that he's truly ignorant. One can never be too sure.
Lucy clucks her tongue. “You just say that because you got to explode stuff.”
“That too,” Natsu agrees easily.
“Agh, I’m gonna sic Gray on you,” Lucy tells him in what Cana assumes is supposed to be a threatening tone. Good luck with that, Luce, Cana thinks, those two will enjoy it.
The bickering continues, though it’s mainly Natsu excitedly recounting how he got to level one-fifth of Hargeon again, with a few more details like that, fortunately, only nearly empty warehouses were affected, not the residential part of the town. Lucy slaps him across his head and yells that he should learn some restraint several times in succession. Zeref interrupts at random to get more details from Natsu, face carved out of serious granite that doesn't so much imply he’s actually fanning the flames and enjoying the resulting mess, but Cana has learned to read some of his cues. The man is a menace when it comes to subtly stirring up chaos.
The Tower isn’t the most prominent card in the next divination, as everything falls into place. Cana gathers her cards with a smile stretching her lips. No one will know of her involvement in demolishing the coastal town, least of all Lucy, who would rip her a new one. Or maybe try to strangle her in retaliation for the failed attempt with the resident dragon slayer—Lucy can be vicious and hold a grudge for quite some time, don’t let the bubbly front deceive you.
Cana is, however, happy to see her advice pay off. Zeref sure looks delighted in his own, utterly bland way, sowing chaos as though he was born to do so.
…
Well, that wasn’t the best comparison, considering everything.