Alana woke with a pounding headache and cold sweats, but even through her still closed eyes she could tell by the amount of light in her room that it was late in the day. She was surprised no one had tried to wake her yet, but since they hadn't, she pulled her covers up over her head to try and relax a bit longer.

The past week had been a whirlwind, and even for the wind mage, it was hard to keep up.

Since the night at their own training grounds, she had been avoiding Gildarts like a plague. She had absolutely no idea what came over him that brought him to kiss her, or why she allowed him to do so for the moment she did. She blamed it on the alcohol, but in the back of her mind she knew she couldn't put herself in a situation like that again, no matter how tempting. She refused to fall back into his arms; not after all this time, not after he did nothing but leave and not look back. She was better than someone like that, she knew she deserved more. She wouldn't let that oaf of a man get to her that easily.

So in order to avoid him, she focused all her energy into training for the S-Class Trials, as well as taking missions. This kept her constantly outside, and it seemed the winter colds finally got to her.

Her headache keeping her from resting any more, she decided to get up and make herself some tea. She poured the water into the kettle, turning on the stove to heat it. The green-eyed woman smirked as she used her magic to heat the fire, boiling the water almost immediately. She added the tea leaves in and waited before pouring herself a cup.

As a child, when she first learned of her magic, she was slightly disappointed with he idea of only being able to manipulate air, but her parents taught her things that she would come to appreciate as she got older. Temperature manipulation, for example, her mother taught her, or the fact that she could ride the winds with her body (that was more her father). As she matured, she realized that no other magic would have ever suited her, and she started taking jobs that would be easy thanks to her powers. It was an easy way to make money, but there weren't many jobs that paid very well given to mages who weren't affiliated with a guild. When she expressed this to her parents, her mother opposed it. She wasn't the type of mother who would attempt to control her daughter, but she had firm ideas on what a lady should be doing with her life.

Her father, however, was thrilled, as he was in a guild when he was young, before he married. He gave his daughter his blessing, and with that, she was on her way.

She was sixteen at the time, and it took her a year until she found and was accepted into the guild she would consider her home: Fairy Tail.

When she first arrived, a few people were welcoming, while some were not.

She got along well with Laxus and Mirajane right off the bat, as well as her siblings, which meant she always sided with her over Erza. Cana always sided with Erza, and that was where their dislike from each other began. As a guild, they all stood by each other if anything happened, but when it came down to it, she and Cana really did not get along.

That was before she started seeing Gildarts. No one really approved, of course, especially Cana. She used every excuse to be able to badmouth their relationship; and at first, Alana brushed the comments off, but after a while they really started getting to her.

She was crying by the river when her relationship with Cana took an unexpected turn. Gildarts had just left for yet another mission, when Cana approached her, checking to see if she was alright. The brunette had never seen the raven-haired girl cry before, so she knew it was serious.

That was when Alana told her that she was in love with Gildarts, and, for a reason she didn't know, Cana suddenly became interested in him and their relationship. From that point on, they only kept getting friendlier, and it brought them to where they were now, as best friends.

The distinct knock on the door told Alana that it was her best friend on the other side.

"Yo! Get up!" she heard, and laughed. She hadn't even realized her headache had gone away until now. She stood to open the door.

Cana made her way into the middle of the room, a beer in hand. Alana was going to make a comment about it being too early to drink, but when she looked at the clock, she noticed it was 4 in the afternoon.

"Get ready," Cana told her, "I need help with a mission."

I'm back! So much has gone on in my life since I wrote this, but I haven't stopped reading FT, and I always think of my old stories I abandoned (sorry guys!), and even though I don't have a computer anymore, I decided to type something up on my iPad to post. I thoroughly plan on continuing more, so please forgive me for this pathetic little chapter that is the first thing I have written in almost two years.

Thanks all! xoxo