Fairy Tail © Mashima

A/n: hmm... I'm not really sure if I'm going to be using this or not, I don't know if it would even stand a chance at winning... but well this is my first attempt at my 500-1000 words One-shot for WEEK 4's FAIRY FEST Individual Contest.

This takes place shortly after chapter 275

Please tell me what you think of the story

COMFORT

"Laxus..." Cana somberly called out as she let herself into the lightning mage's hotel room where he had been hiding for the last few hours, after leaving the rest of their guild celebrating their losses at a nearby bar. "I need to be comforted," she sighed, flopping herself on the bed next to the aforementioned mage who, until moments earlier, had been silently sitting at one end looking over a file he had received from Freed on the other participants of the Grand Magic Games.

Laxus could smell the booze on the eighteen year old's body, not surprising given that he had last seen her at the bar shortly after she'd been challenged to a drinking contest by that Quatro Cerberus mage. "What are you wearing?" he questioned, ignoring her comment entirely as he looked the girl up and down and noticed she didn't have her usual bikini top on, but instead had Macao Conbolt's green jacket only barely covering her ample chest.

"I was defeated," Cana pouted as she rolled on to her stomach, grabbing a pillow and hugging it to her chest.

He was surprised to hear such a thing, but didn't let it show on his face and instead pretended he had no idea what it was she was talking about, it had been hours, afterall, since Laxus had left her drinking match. "I think the alcohol has got you confused. It was my team who was defeated," he replied as he turned the page in his file to the next mage his tribe had researched for him.

Cana clicked her tongue as she spun back around to face him, with the pillow still held tightly against her chest, "Che, it wasn't even your doing, it was mostly Lluvia and her crazy obsession with Gray!"

The blonde smirked. "You think it's crazy?" he questioned, amused at the seeming contradiction between her statement and what he knew about the girl. Laxus and Cana had been together since she first came to the guild at the tender age of six. He knew that she was strong and self reliant, something that he very much liked about her. But he also knew her to be a bit of a romantic. So it surprised him that she wouldn't have thought it cute how much Lluvia seemed to adore the clueless ice mage.

"It's unfeminist for a woman to be so hung up on a guy like that!" Cana explained, but the way she said it seemed unconvincing, almost as if there were a hint of admiration behind her words.

"Says the girl who crossed half the kingdom in search of a man?" Laxus countered.

Despite being such a forward girl, he knew Cana had never been one to really put her heart out there. She wasn't the shy type by any means, but there was a vulnerability to her that few people ever noticed. She was bold and unashamed of who she was, but at the same time she was timid and insecure. It was rare, especially when it came to her own feelings, that Cana would open herself up, fearful of rejection.

"That was different!" Cana protested, giving him a dirty look, before rolling back on to her side, turned away from him. "I wasn't chasing a man, I was looking for my father." Her voice dropped to a soft whisper as she said the last word. She wouldn't admit it, but the lightning mage knew how much she loved finally being able to say it. Before Lucy, Laxus had been the only other person in the guild who knew about Cana's quest to become an S-class mage in order to tell Gildarts who she was. He'd almost let her beat him the first time they took the S-class trial together, but in the end Laxus couldn't bring himself to do that to either of them. It would have been unfair for her to win without earning it, and at the time she wasn't the only one who had something to prove.

"I wasn't talking about Gildarts," Laxus smirked, tossing the file in his hand to the opposite side of the room. The documents inside fell and scattered on the floor, but he didn't care, he had found something much more amusing to occupy his time.

"What are you talking about?" Cana asked, turning back around to face him. She was still holding the pillow against her chest tightly, as if she were trying to hide and protect herself at the same time.

His smirk grew wider as he realized she really didn't know. He'd returned to fairy tail only three months earlier after having been excommunicated for six. Freed, Bixlow and Evergreen had wasted no time in informing him of everything that had gone on in the Guild during his absence, and among the most important pieces of information they conveyed to him was the fact that a certain card-wielding sorceress had been searching for him on every mission that she took. It didn't surprise him. He'd left so abruptly, without a single word of explanation or goodbye to the one person who had been his closest companion since childhood. They had drifted apart a little over the years, but Laxus had never stopped caring for her, and he had always seen her as important.

"Comfort, ay?" Laxus grinned playfully as he turned and leaned over her, noticing how tightly she was hugging the pillow to her body. "You should be more honest Cana, just say 'Laxus, I want to be held'," he teased, grinning wider as he saw the girl's face flush a dozen shades of red. "All you have to do is ask. I told you before, I'm pretty weak to sexy women..."