It had been a week since the harvest festival ended and the town was sorting itself out, calming down and returning to normal. Everyone was shocked in their own way after learning that Laxus was kicked out of the guild. Natsu in particular threw a big tantrum.

"I can't accept this, Gramps! Why did you kick Laxus out?!" Natsu shouted, "He's one of us, you know! Just because he started a fight doesn't change that!"

"Enough, Natsu!" Erza intervened.

"I still gotta square off with him again!" Natsu exclaimed, "I'm gonna get strong enough to beat him all by myself next time!"

"That's enough!" Erza repeated, putting a hand on Natsu's shoulder. "Put yourself in Master's shoes! Do you honestly think he wanted to expel Laxus?!"

"But...!"

Happy appeared at his shoulder, "It turns out Laxus is a Dragon Slayer just like Natsu, you see..." he tried to explain.

"No." Master denied, "He is not a Dragon Slayer."

For those who were present and listening to Master Makarov's explanation, it came as a bit of a shock to discover that Laxus wasn't an actual Dragon Slayer like Natsu, Dealana, and Gajeel. Laxus had been weak as a child, so his father, Ivan, implanted a lacrima in his body that lets him utilize Dragon Slayer Magic.

"A Dragon Slayer lacrima...I never knew such a thing existed..." Happy had been the first to comment.

A close call happened when Master Makarov tried to retire early and pass on the mantle of Guild Master to someone else, claiming that he was taking responsibility for what Laxus had done. It was Freed, with his new hair cut that managed to convince the old man to stay.

Speaking of Freed, the Thunder Legion had begun getting back into the good graces of the other guild members, befriending them after everything that happened. Dealana had also started making amends with the Thunder Legion as well. The rest of the guild didn't know a whole lot about her relationships with them prior to the battle, but way back when she was still single-digit in age, she would accompany them on jobs to observe and train. It was a little weird at first seeing the sky-blunette talk to them casually.

"Dealana, you have to let me take you shopping! You are in desperate need of a new wardrobe!" Evergreen had been saying. Her offers had fallen on deaf ears as Dealana refused to go shopping again.

"No."

"Oh, come on! You used to love going shopping with me!" Evergreen protested. This comment caught the attention of a few people who knew for a fact that Dealana hated shopping.

Dealana groaned and nearly slammed her head on the table, "That's because it was just you trying on clothes while I took a nap in the pile of outfits you didn't want. I was also, like, seven!"

"And you haven't gotten any better style since then!" Evergreen countered.

"Actually, Evergreen, you should've seen the dress Dealana was wearing during the Battle of Fairy Tail." Happy interjected with a rather smug smirk, "It's a shame you missed seeing her wear it."

"What!? No! Dealana put on the dress again! I need to see!" Evergreen whined.

The Storm Dragon Slayer was quick to deny the request, "No way!"

"Don't worry, Evergreen, Reedus painted a portrait for the archives. You can always ask him to see it." Mira offered causing both a blush and a murderous look cross Dealana's features. But in the end, it did get Evergreen off of Dealana's back so she didn't complain...much.

"Little Lana! Little Lana!" Dealana sighed and looked up at the familiar echo of Bickslow's puppets. The guy seemed to love teasing Dealana about the scar she gave him during their fight. Dealana was quick to shut him up on that by showing him part of her own scar, which caused quite a few laughs with the other guild members when Bickslow fell quiet in defeat.

"Alright, Scar-buddy, I've got to somewhere else now." she decided, "Anywhere but here." Dealana flicked her wrist and hopped on a newly formed cloud to float idly in the air near Freed, who she'd been working with to further understand Dragon Force and how she'd been able to enter it.

According to Erza before she went into her emo corner about Mystogan, Natsu entered a similar state when he ate literal Ethernano. With this information, the blue and green detective duo deduced that high amounts of magic energy consumed can temporarily activate Dragon Force. Dealana still had a lot to learn and training to do before she would ever be able to activate it at will, but she would work harder.

➵

Dealana had been napping peacefully in the air above the rest of the guild. Key words being had been. Erza woke the sleeping Dragon Slayer saying something about makeup and hair.

"Erza, what are you doing?" she asked the requip mage before nearly dying on the spot when she caught sight of the stern glare Erza gave her, "Nevermind, you do you." Dealana put her hands in mock surrender before she overheard the reason behind both Erza and apparently Gajeel's strange behavior.

"You haven't heard?" Mira asked Lucy. Dealana's ears perked up a bit and she drifted closer to them on her cloud, "A reported from Sorceror Weekly is coming here today!"

"Sorcerer Weekly!?" Lucy gasped.

"They're doing a special feature on Fairy Tail!" Mira elaborated. Lucy began to freak out over some fateful encounter and the reporter guy in a jumbled mess that Dealana couldn't even begin to try and translate. The Storm Dragon Slayer opted to confirm a few details with Mira.

"When is the guy coming?"

Mira smiled, "Oh? Are you interested too? He won't be here for a few hours, I think." she revealed.

Dealana scoffed, "I'm only interested in getting as far away as possible. I'm out of here. See ya!" she jumped to the ground, her cloud dissipating afterwards. Mira and Cana watched the retreating form of the sky-blunette as she left the guild hall before turning back to the muttering mess of a celestial wizard.

➵

Apparently, Dealana's trip to the bakery to get some muffins hadn't spent as much time away from the guild hall as she needed to in order to avoid the Sorcerer Weekly reporter, Jason. As soon as her ears picked up on the questions being asked left and right to her guild mates, Dealana summoned a cloud and floated in the air level with the second floor.

"Cool! Cool! Cool! Fairy Tail's Tempest!"

Upon hearing that, Dealana groaned and was about to maneuver her cloud out of range before Erza called up to her saying, "Dealana, at least answer a few questions,"

"I'd rather not." Dealana complained as she was level with Erza and Jason, who quickly snapped a few pictures, much to Dealana's annoyance.

Jason ignored this comment and began asking questions anyways, "What made you start using magic again?"

Dealana frowned but answered the question, "I had some creeps to deal with." she shrugged before Jason asked her another question.

"Do you have something against chairs cause you always sit on your clouds?" upon hearing the question, Dealana paused and even Lucy, who'd been frantically trying to get even a sliver of Jason's attention from behind them, was curious about the answer.

"I don't like staying still for longer than I need to," Dealana reluctantly admitted, "My clouds are comfier too." Dealana's brief time with Arashi was almost always spent moving and Dealana rarely ever stayed still, a habit that only continued as she joined Fairy Tail and was swept up in their frequent antics.

"Cool! Last question!" Jason squealed after jotting down her response, "Would you consider dating anyone?"

The bystanders went quiet.

In a split second, Jason went flying backwards with his hair all over the place due to static electricity that crackled along Dealana's arms as she yelled, "That's enough! I'm twelve, you idiot!" She ignored his undefeated enthusiasm and floated over to the Thunder Legion with a huff and groan as Bickslow laughed openly at the interaction.

Dealana kept her face buried in her cloud, blindly swatting at the Seith Mage saying, "Shut up, Bickslow!"

➵

Dealana wandered along the streets of Magnolia, her hands resting in the pocket of her maroon sleeveless hoodie. The Dragon Slayer was replaying the events of the Battle of Fairy Tail and her fight with Bickslow. Wincing slightly, Dealana reached up to place a hand on her right shoulder where the pinkish-white jagged scar started and traveled along her back.

'Wait...since I beat Laxus, does that mean I'm technically the strongest member of Fairy Tail in accordance to the rules?' she realized. 'Not that it matters, since Laxus was a jerk.'

Being wrapped up in her thoughts, Dealana collided with someone coming around the corner and out of instinct caught the person before they fell over. She had long dark blue hair and brown eyes that were wide in surprise.

"I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going!" the girl was quick to sputter out an apology after Dealana helped her to her feet.

Dealana sighed, "Don't be sorry, it was probably my fault to begin with." The sky blunette looked at the stranger only to find her staring back at her. More specifically at Dealana's eyes. Her heterochromia often got odd looks when she was still new to Magnolia, but by now, the residents knew who she was, which meant that the strange girl wasn't from around here.

"Heterochromia," Dealana commented snapping the girl back into reality, "Looks weird, doesn't it?"

"N-No! Not at all...it's really pretty actually," the girl remarked, "It reminds me of something..."

Dealana cracked a bit of a smile, "Oh yeah?" Dealana never really made a lot of friends her age, Erza would be proud of her if she wasn't being emo about Mystogan-Jellal-whoever he was and worried about the reporter from Sorcerer Weekly.

"I just can't remember what it was..." the girl replied looked a little embarrassed. Something about her felt odd, but in a good way.

Dealana shrugged saying, "That's alright, I'm sure it'll come back to you. Hey, I never asked your name. I'm Dealana." she introduced with a small smile.

"Oh! My name is Wendy." the dark blunette replied, "I'm not really from around here..." she admitted sheepishly.

Dealana only smiled something about Wendy filling her chest with a warm familiar feeling that she had when she was with Arashi, "I could tell." at Wendy's blush of embarrassment Dealana laugh a bit before offering, "Why don't I show you around Magnolia for a bit?"

Wendy's eyes widened and she shook her head, "N-No, that's alright! You don't have to, you're probably busy with something else..."

Dealana cut her off, "Nah, I'm actually avoiding my guild for a bit until the whole reporter thing blows over and I can take a nap in peace."

"You're in a guild?" Wendy asked. Dealana showed her black Fairy Tail guild mark that was prominent on the inside of her right wrist.

"Yep, see?" Dealana had already seen Wendy's guild mark on her shoulder, but didn't recognize the guild she was from, "What guild are you apart of?"

"I-I'm from the Caitshelter Guild," Wendy revealed.

Dealana paused before admitting, "I don't think I've heard of that one before. How about I show you the best places in Magnolia and you can tell me about your guild?" a warm buzzing sensation in Dealana's chest brought the girl to smile as Wendy accepted the invitation and they spent the next few hours waling around the city and just talking.

Dealana was so caught up in actually hanging out with someone her age that she missed seeing Lucy walking past as she helped Wendy carry the bags and boxes on one of her clouds. The two girls easily became quick friends, which confused the sky blunette. Being around Wendy felt familiar, yet she only met her a few hours earlier, there was also the fact that being around her reminded Dealana of her time with Arashi.

After saying goodbye to Wendy that evening, Dealana returned to the guild hall for a quick bite to eat before heading to her cave. Mira noticed the genuine smile the sky blunette wore and it quickly spread to the white-haired beauty.

"What's got you all happy?" Mira finally asked.

Dealana soft smile never faltered as she replied, "I think I made a new friend."

Mira's eyes widened before she listened to Dealana tell her all about her fun afternoon with Wendy. Mira Jane had never seen Dealana so happy about a friendship since her time with Lisanna and while slightly bittersweet, Mira was excited that Dealana was beginning to open herself up again especially with someone her own age. She knew Dealana would need a close friend.

➵

This chapter was a bit challenging for me to write, not because of the complexity, but rather actually sitting down to write it out. I'm not sure how I feel about how it came out, but I'm happy about being able to include your questions for Dealana from before in here with Jason's interview.

I also included Wendy! She had a few cameos in the episode and I had space to fill since I didn't want to include all of Jason's interview with Fairy Tail, plus this marks the beginnings of their friendship. Dealana needs a friend around her age after being around Fairy Tail for so long, and Wendy is just that friend. Any theories for what's to come?