An unexpected guest

As the day went on, many of the men came back in for sessions.

Ignazio figured that they were more willing to work with him, mostly due to trust. After all, Erza came in saying she trusted him about 90%, and it seemed like Levy had almost full trust in him.

But he understood why the girls might be wary. After all, he WAS planning on exploiting his control over them. It's not like they were wrong. But the guys, rightfully, realized they didn't particularly have to worry about that, and simply came to him in private for help.

Elfmann wanted help controlling his full takeover.

Makarov wanted basically the same thing as Erza.

Alzack wanted to be able to better display his emotions.

Every guy had something they wanted. And Ignazio was more than happy to help. But for every one he entranced, he increased his influence over the guild.

And thankfully, today, Natsu was finally convinced to come in to curb his destructive nature - which was apparently Erza's influence.

Still, that left Happy, Gray, and Gajeel. And he knew Gajeel would be a difficult get.

Even so. What he really wanted was more of the women. At this point, he had almost free reign with the guys. They'd basically ignore anything weird going on. Some of them had even commented about Erza and Levy's new looks without so much as a negative connotation.

And, as luck would have it, he hooked one.

He heard a knock at his door.

"It's open!" He called... And the door didn't open. Either they didn't hear him, or they were hesitating.

He heard the knob turn slightly, then return to normal

"There's no need to be nervous. Come on in."

The knob slowly turned again, and Cana entered. Her eyes puffy and red.

"Hey..." She muttered.

"Cana! Are you alright?" He asked, genuinely concerned. Something which apparently caught her off guard.

She entered and sat down.

"I'm fine" she said bluntly... But he knew it was a lie.

"Cana." He prodded.

"Look. I've been... Thinking. Earlier. I said that... That I would make it up to you, right?"

"Cana. There's nothing to make up--"

"There is for me!" She snapped. Ignazio went quiet. He decided to just let her speak.

"Sorry... Look I... I know Erza wants me to stop drinking. Or at least drink less. Is that... What you want too?"

He sighed

"Cana. I just wanna help you guys out. I've been helping Elfmann control his transformation, for example. If you want to stop drinking, I'll help. But I won't **** it on you."

"But do you want me to stop?"

He didn't reply. He just thought.

"You know... I don't remember you being a heavy drinker back in the day. Sure you started a little uh... Young. But it was never as bad as it is now."

Cana froze up, swallowing hard.

"Yeah well... That was before..."

He sighed

"You started because of me?"

"I started because I liked it. I... Kept going because of you"

"Cana" he finally said, sternly "Do you want to stop."

"YES YOU IDIOT!" She snapped, her eyes welling up with tears. "I never wanted to fall this far down into a bottle but... It was the only way I could forget."

She fell backwards into the chair, sobbing. Ignazio stood, walking around his desk and kneeling down, now face to face with her. He reached up and wiped away her tears.

"That's all I needed to hear" he said warmly.

Cana froze. She was completely stunned. Seemingly unable to take all of this in.

"B-but... I still owe you..." She stammered, her voice shaky from crying.

"I know" he joked "we can work something out after we fix your drinking problem."

She let out a little laugh.

"Deal. So how does this work? I know you can't just fix me right away right?"

"Yeah. It'll take a few sessions. As for how it works..."

He held up his watch, then stopped.

"Actually..."

He quickly rushed out, getting a barrel with a little bit of **** in it, a bottle of ****, and a funnel.

"Uh... I thought the idea was for me to stop drinking?"

"It is. But just trust me."

She smiled

"I do. So... Do whatever it is you're doing"

He was relieved. She said she trusted him with almost no hesitation, and unlike Erza, it wasn't veiled in professionalism. This could make things easier.