Magnolia was currently having a rare rainy day, which could only mean that Dealana was out of town. It was funny how the citizens could tell this kind of thing by following the weather patterns. They would know when she left as the clouds would be off, they would know when she returned when the weather would slowly change to match the stereotypical expectation for the particular season.

With all the happenings with Phantom Lord, Dealana's outburst of magic, and the Battle of Fairy Tail, the sky-blunette hadn't taken a job in quite some time. Naturally, she didn't have rent to pay so she didn't need to frequently take jobs, but she was getting close to dipping into her savings, which meant she had some work to do.

"Hey, Gramps," Dealana had greeted the day before as she wandered over to the bar from the job request board with a flyer in hand, "I'd like to take this job if you don't mind."

Makarov had opened one eye to glance at the flyer she showed him before closing it again and nodding. He hummed knowingly as he said, "I was wondering how long it would be before you took a job."

"Yeah," Dealana sighed, "a lot of things happened that became my first priority."

"Well, good luck, child,"

Dealana offered a smile before turning on her heel, waving a hand behind her, "Thanks, I should be back soon!"

➵

The Storm Dragon Slayer's different colored eyes observed her surroundings as she walked into the bar named Bittercress Rose. A mixture of scents reached her nose, from the smell of people, to the various alcohol varieties. There weren't a lot of people inside and only one person stood behind the bar, cleaning a crystalline mug.

Dealana's nose crinkled at the attention her presence brought her but shrugged any nervousness away and made her way straight for the bar where a magenta-haired young woman stood eyeing the newcomer with intrigue shining in her deep maroon eyes.

"Heterochromia and hair the color of the sky," the bartender began, "Dealana Ka'ino, the Tempest of Fairy Tail."

"You know my name, congratulations." Dealana replied dryly hopping onto one of the stools, noting the crystal that made up the legs and many of the additions to the bar, "Are you expecting a gold star?"

The woman laughed and set the mug down beside a row of freshly clean mugs. "Now that," she said as she continued chuckling, "is some spunk. I like you, Tempest."

"Thanks, but I still don't know your name or any background information for the request you put in." Dealana responded. The first part of accepting jobs always reminded Dealana of her people skills, or rather...her lack thereof. The woman behind the bar, however, didn't seem to mind at all, as she seemed to find humor in Dealana's otherwise snarky manner.

"My name is Cress Roselyn, I own the bar, tavern, inn, whatever you want to call my second home." she introduced with obvious pride in what she'd built. "See, I put in the request because there's a rare ingredient I've been looking for in the mountains nearby, but I can go there myself because of a traditional ceremony with my family coming up soon."

"Couldn't you just get this ingredient after whatever this ceremony is?" Dealana questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"That's the thing, this flower only blooms once a year, and I've missed it for the past three years of trying to get it, and I really don't want to have to wait another year." Cress revealed.

"Alright, I'm down for a little ingredient hunt," Dealana shrugged, "Tell me, what exactly am I looking for?" Cress only grinned in response.

➵

"Arashi! When can I learn a new spell?" a much younger Dealana inquired, looking at the large silver grey dragon in front of her.

"You can learn a new spell when you've mastered the one I gave you to work on." came his reply, not opening his eyes as he tried to take a nap.

"But I have!" she replied with a frown.

"No, you haven't."

"Yes I have."

"No."

"Yes."

"Yes."

"No!" Dealana exclaimed before realization dawned on her, "Hey! That's no fair, you big lizard!" The sound of Arashi's deep laughter filled the young Dragon Slayer's ears. It was a rare sound but one that Dealana adored as it sounded like thunderclouds rolling in with loud booming noises.

"Dealana, do you wish to learn Storm Dragon Magic?" Arashi asked opening a single golden yellow eye to peer at his foster daughter.

The sky-blunette thought about it for a second before nodding, "I wanna learn!"

"Then you need to master each spell, one at a time. Storm Magic, not just Storm Dragon Magic is very temperamental––"

"Like you?"

"Hush," Arashi scolded, ignoring the stifled giggles of the girl in front of him, "it's very temperamental and not having the right control or mastery can cause a lot of destruction and do more harm than good. You must learn to control it."

Dealana paused to let her foster father's words sink in, "That sounds like a lot of work," she commented.

"Which is why trying to learn two spells at once would be much too difficult, even for people bigger than you." Arashi nodded, "But once you've master the basic spell, you can alter parts of it to fit your own style of magic. You could even combine two spells to create a whole new one if you wanted to, but first a storm mage must master the basic control."

"Whoa! Really?" Dealana gasped in awe, "I guess I have a lot of work to do mastering this spell first then." she stated before turning on her heel and running back to the torn up practice ground.

➵

Dealana continued up the mountain as she neared the summit, having exited the forested part and was now floating up the rocky cliffside via cloud elevator. The Dragon Slayer reached a wide, flat slab of stone with a single deep blue rose sprouting from a crack in the rocks.

"Riverfrost Rose, only blooms once a year one this day. A rare ingredient apparently for drink-making," Dealana muttered to herself. She waved her hand and hopped off the cloud, it dissipating behind her. She took only a few steps forward before she sniffed the air, and took in her surroundings.

In a split second, Dealana jumped to the side with a roll as thorny vines burst from the ground in the exact spot Dealana once stood.

"It's always too good to be true. Why does it always have to be too good to be true." she frowned and got into a better position to fight whatever these vines were. The plants erupted once more from the ground beneath her and wrapped around her ankles lifting her into the air upside down. "Come on!" Dealana shouted in anger before conjuring lightning storms on her arms. It was that moment the Battle of Fairy Tail replayed in flashes.

She froze. She couldn't get her storm-covered arms to move. Images of her and Laxus fighting came to mind and she just barely managed to grab hold of the vines reaching for her wrists and shocking the heck out of them until she felt them loosen.

Upon hitting the ground, Dealana wasted no time and leapt back into the air aiming her hands at the ground, a magic seal appearing in front. A puffy white cloud appeared and the girl landed on top before moving higher up to study the area a bit more.

She noticed how the vines curled up and around to form a sort of shield around the rose. The vines from below continued to shoot up in an attempt to grab Dealana. She kept her cloud just out of reach while she caught her breath and figured out what happened.

She tried summoning another lightning storm on her arms again before it seemed to fizzle out as her mind traveled back to the Battle of Fairy Tail. "This didn't happen before, and it's been almost a month since then..." Dealana whispered to herself, "Why is this happening now?"

Glancing at the sun's position, Dealana guessed she had a few hours before the flower was gone and she failed her first job in months. If she couldn't use her magic aside from her clouds, what could she do. Dealana groaned at her luck and fell back into her cloud looking at the great blue sky.

➵

"Hey Laxus?" a younger Dealana questioned floating on a cloud next to the spiky blonde, "How can you use lightning magic for defensive spells?"

Laxus raised an eyebrow in response, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when you're dealing with lots of attacks and you can't keep up, how you use your lightning magic for defense and stuff?" Dealana elaborated playing with her empty cup.

"You think I can't keep up with my opponents?" Laxus asked, "Dealana, lightning is one of the fastest elements of magic." he watched the young Dragon Slayer frown, a faint blush of embarrassment. "Here, come with me for a little bit, I want to show you something."

The two went out into the East Forest and once they found a suitable clearing, Laxus turned to Dealana saying, "Hit me."

Dealana blinked and looked at Laxus like he was crazy. In her mind, he seemed like it with that kind of request. "W-What?" she sputtered. Laxus smirked before saying, "What? Think you can't hit me?"

"More like I know I can't," she muttered before taking a deep breath. Holding her hands out on either side of her, two magic seals flashing momentarily before she pushed her hands forward. The familiar sound of crackling lightning filled the air before a bright bolt shot towards Laxus. The spiky blond simply stepped to the side and gave Dealana a look.

"What?" she asked, "I can't hit you with lightning if you're a lightning mage. It's impossible." Dealana complained.

"Then don't hit me with lightning. You're a Storm Dragon Slayer." he told her.

"But––"

"Arashi didn't just teach you lightning." Laxus cut her off, "I know this because you told me. You showed my the book he gave you, which, by the way, makes no sense if he was as big as you say he was."

Dealana gave him a look. However, Laxus was unrelenting in whatever lesson he was trying to teach her. "Fine," Dealana frowned. She had only been using her cloud spell and her lightning storm based ones since joining Fairy Tail. She'd mastered them, but neglected the other sides of her magic.

She mastered them...an idea came to mind making young Dealana grin.

➵

Dealana's two colored eyes snapped open and a familiar grin spread across her face. Sitting up, Dealana squinted at the slowly setting sun. Looking back to the flower, she noticed the vines still swirling around, as if sensing her presence even in the air.

The Storm Dragon Slayer, without another thought, moved her cloud platform closer, jumping to the ground with a roll just as the vines wrapped around the fluffy platform with a deadly squeeze. Before anything else happened, Dealana shot her arm out, her open palm facing the cloud. The temperature dropped around her arm and an icy mist appeared in wisps. A bolt of pure ice storm soared through the air and shot into the cloud's center.

While Dealana jumped and dodged more incoming vines, the cloud being restrained by the thorn-covered plants turned into a raging blizzard that froze over the vines down to the roots bringing her vegetative opponents to a halt. With a sigh of relief, Dealana walked forward and smashed vines covering the rose, the frozen pieces shattering easily before she plucked the rose before it completely froze along with its annoying defense system.

Upon returning to the tavern later that night, and Cress was the only one inside, seeing as she closed for the night with her family's ceremony. Her deep maroon eyes lit up in excitement seeing Dealana walk in with the blue rose.

"The Riverfrost Rose, you got it!"she exclaimed, "Thank you so much!"

Dealana nodded, resisting the urge to yawn as she replied, "Yeah, you could've warned me about the security system though. It was annoying."

Cress sheepishly scratched the back of her head, "I could've sworn I did...I guess with everything going on recently it slipped my mind. Sorry about that." Dealana sighed and held out the rose, which Cress took and quickly brought it behind the bar, pausing at the swinging gate. "You wanna learn how to make a few drinks?" she asked with a smirk.

"Pretty sure that's not supposed to be allowed," Dealana trailed off seeing Cress raise an eyebrow, "alright, fine, teach me how to make some drinks."

➵

Dealana summoned a cloud to float in a ring around Laxus before shooting a burst of ice storm inside to create a flurry ring. The air around began to drop in temperature and snow and ice shot out in multiple directions, a majority aimed towards Laxus.

The storm dragon slayer's confident smile dropped as Laxus escaped the attack with his lightning body. "I call cheating!" Dealana immediately protested before she felt herself lifted into the air by her ankle. Her different colored eyes met laughing grey ones.

"That is one of my defenses using Lightning Magic." Laxus told her, "And that spell you just used, is something that you can use instead of lightning." Seeing Dealana still pouting like the stubborn child she was, he sighed saying, "Come on, runt, I'm in the mood for ice cream now, you in?"

Dealana's expression immediately brightened before Laxus simply let go of her ankle. With a startled yelp, she barely caught herself with a cloud before she went followed after a departing Laxus.

➵

When Dealana returned to Fairy Tail the next morning, she found several of Erza's swords impaled in a pillar, Makarov nursing a massive hangover, Cana passed out on a table, a dejected looking Juvia, and Max and Warren looking completely warn out. Setting her duffel bag on the table, Dealana looked around in bewilderment.

"What in Fiore happened while I was out on a job?" she asked out loud. Max and Warren groaned looking at her.

"You don't wanna know, Dealana, you don't wanna know."

Dealana quirked an eyebrow before grinning, "You two look like you could use a drink. Come on, I learned how to make some." she told them retrieving the extra ingredients Cress sent the girl home with.

➵

Because I needed a bit of Pre-Rebellious Phase! Laxus and Dealana. :)