Alex and Amber walked in with Team Natsu and Lisanna. The guild fell silent. "Hey, everyone," Lisanna said, smiling. "I'm home."
"Seriously?" Macao asked, looking at Lisanna."You're alive?" Wakaba asked. She smiled at them before all of Fairy Tail ran up to hug her.
The Master stood up and jumped down. He walked over to Lisanna. "Lisanna. I believed you were gone. Everyone raised in this guild is a child of this guild. And what parent is there that doesn't worry about their child. And what parent is there that doesn't believe in their child? You can tell me all about what happened later." He turned to Natsu. "You too, Natsu." Natsu agreed readily. Master Makarov grinned. "Anyway, you did a good job coming home."
Lisanna smiled. "Master, I am home, aren't I?" She asked.
"That's right," Master Makarov grinned. "This will always be your home. Welcome home, Lisanna."
Lisanna cheered and hugged the Master tightly. "I'm home, Master!"
Once the guild finally calmed down and the welcome back party for Lisanna was well underway, the Master sat back down to listen to what happened to Lisanna and the adventure his children went on. "You all have done well," Makarov said to the group surrounding him. "And it looks like you brought a friend home from your travels." He looked at Amber. "And who are you?"
"Master," Alex said. "I'd like to introduce you to my little sister, Amber."
"So this is your sister?" Makarov asked Alex. He was looking at the two girls while sitting at the bar with Mira.
Alex smiled. "Yeah. I lost her a while ago. It turns out the Anima took her to Edolas much like Lisanna."
"I ended up lost and alone when I appeared in Edolas," Amber explained. "But then Laxus found me and brought me to Fairy Tail about three years ago, and I never left."
Makarov studied the two girls before smiling. "How curious she managed to find herself in Fairy Tail in her time of need, much as you did." He looked at Amber. "Though this isn't the Fairy Tail you know, I hope you will treat the members as if they were your family."
Amber smiled. "I understand. I hope to make friends with everyone here like I did on Edolas."Master Makarov nodded and stood up. "Listen up, you brats!" He shouted. When the party calmed down, he continued. "This is more than a welcome back party. We are welcoming a new member to our guild. Someone who a member of our family has missed for a long time has finally come home to her." He turned to Amber. "Meet Amber. She was with Lisanna on her journey and has finally reunited with her sister."The guild cheered loudly, welcoming the new member, and the party continued with even more gusto than before.
Alex and Amber settled down with the rest of Team Natsu. "Wow," Amber said, smiling. "This Fairy Tail is so much more rambunctious than Edolas."
"It helps that magic isn't illegal here," Gray said. He caught her staring at him. "What are you looking at?"Amber blushed and turned her head. "Sorry, not used to seeing you without five layers of clothing, let alone shirtless."
"What do you mean?" Gray asked, looking down. He groaned, annoyed. "Ah, man! Not again."Amber turned to watch the other people in the guild.
"Everyone here is so different. Natsu isn't super shy, and Lucy is so much friendlier here." She looked at her sister. "When I got to Fairy Tail in Edolas, I was surprised by how different it was from what you used to tell me about." She looked at the team in front of her. "She was kind of obsessed with Fairy Tail back home."
Gray smirked. "Is that right?" He asked. "You never told us, Alex."
Alex rolled her eyes. "I wasn't obsessed. I just really liked the characters."Erza smiled. "It is flattering to know we had fans in different worlds."
"So," Lucy looked at Amber, smiling mischievously. "Who was her favorite character?"
"Erza easily," Amber grinned, much to her sister's embarrassment. "She loved how strong and confident you always acted."
"Okay, that's enough talking about it," Alex requested her face red.
"There's nothing to be ashamed of," Erza said, smiling. "It's nice to know you think so highly of me." Alex looked like she wanted to sink into the floor.
A young girl with purple hair walked over and gave her a mango milkshake. "Here you go, Alex."
Alex smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Kinana." She turned back to the others.
"Who's that girl?" Amber asked. "And who's the guy watching her? They weren't members of Fairy Tail in Edolas."
Alex looked over to where Erik was sitting at the bar, watching Kinana and smiling. "Oh, that's Erik. He lives with us. He's on my team with the rest of the Oracion Seis. He and Kinana are dating. And Kinana joined about two weeks ago."
Natsu laughed. "You should have seen Alex when Kinana joined." His team laughed. "She shrieked."
"Why would you do something like that?" Amber asked, curious.
Alex sighed. "I didn't remember when she was found, so when my team and I came back from a job, I may have freaked out a little bit." She looked at Kinana. "When Kinana was younger, she was cursed as a snake. She met Erik when he was a prisoner on an island with Erza and some others. She was his first friend."
Amber watched Erik walk over to Kinana and start talking. "So they were friends for a while?"
"That was his one wish when he was younger," Alex confirmed. "He wanted to be able to hear his only friend. Now that she's human, he has no problem hearing her."
Amber nodded. "But that doesn't explain how they're dating. When did that happen?"
"That's a Dragon Slayer thing," Natsu said, crossing his arms and grinning. "Even though he just has a lacrima, Erik still has the basic instincts of a Dragon. Kinana is kind of like his mate. He cared for her even when she was a snake, and now that she's human, his feelings amplified."
"So Dragon Slayers have mates?" Amber asked. When Natsu nodded, she looked across the room. "Cool," She nodded. "So is that guy a Dragon Slayer?" She asked, pointing at Gajeel.
"Yeah, why?" Lucy asked, curious."He's been staring at Alex for a while," Amber said. She grinned widely. "Are you his mate?" She asked her sister.
Alex looked up, startled. "What? No" She looked mortified. "Why do you think that?"
"Well, he's staring at you. And I think it would be kind of ironic, seeing as I think I remember him being your favorite Dragon Slayer."
"What do you mean he was her favorite?" Natsu demanded. "Why would she like that metal head more than me?"
"He wasn't my favorite!" She tried to deny it, but her sister wouldn't have it.
"You had a poster of him on your wall!" She laughed. "And I'm pretty sure you had a toy version of his cat."
Alex mock glared at her sister, not that angry at her little sister. "What is this, 'make fun of Alex day'?" She looked down. "He was my favorite," she admitted reluctantly. "I used to want to braid his hair."
"Is that why you were so adamant about us leaving him alone when he got here?" Gray asked, curious. "Because you like him?"
"I don't like him," Alex insisted. "Not like that anyway. I knew he was going to be a good friend to Fairy Tail, and that's it." She rolled her eyes. "Besides, I already know who his mate is." She smiled. "And there is no way I'm getting in between those two." She stood up. "I'm going on a job," she said. "If you all want to keep on gossiping, be my guest." She turned to Amber. "I'll see you at home later, okay?" Amber smiled and nodded.
When Alex walked away, Amber turned to Team Natsu. "Alex seems stressed. What's been going on around here?"
Gray shrugged. "Besides the whole being sucked into Edolas and finding her sister, who she thought was gone forever? Nothing. Besides, she seems fine to me."
"She did think she would be traveling back to your world through the Anima," Lucy said thoughtfully. "Maybe that's the problem."
Erza shook her head. "She was disappointed, but I highly doubt that's the problem."
"Don't worry about it," Natsu said, his face serious. "She doesn't want us to know about it, or she would have told us, right?" When the others nodded, he continued. "She's going through a lot right now, and I'm sure some of it has to do with her Demon form."
"But what if she's in trouble?" Amber demanded. "She won't tell us if there's something wrong. Back home, she wouldn't even tell us if she got sick. What makes you think she'll tell you if something big is going on?"
"She promised," Natsu said, crossing his arms.
Gray nodded in agreement. "Besides, she's really opened up to us in the past couple of years. She'll tell us if she gets in over her head."Amber shook her head. "You don't know her as well as I do," She insisted. "She'll only tell you what she thinks you need to know." She looked at them. "She left Edolas Fairy Tail near the end. Did she tell anyone what she did while she was gone?"
The others looked at each other concerned. She hadn't mentioned leaving. "What are we going to do?" Lucy asked, worried. "She's already gone on a job."
"I know where she's going," Gajeel said, walking up. "I heard her talking to Mira about it before she left. She said something about a beast near the Azure mountain range."
Gray nodded. "Call Laxus. He should be able to talk her out of anything too stupid."
Erza nodded and pulled out a communication's lacrima Laxus had given her team shortly before he left. "Laxus. I know you asked us to take care of Alex for you, but we're concerned she's keeping something serious from us. We were hoping you would go talk to her."
"Where is she?" Laxus demanded, his face worried. "I haven't heard from her in a little while."
"She's not even talking to Laxus?" Gray muttered, surprised. "I thought she spoke to him almost every day."
"Then whatever is going on couldn't have anything to do with what happened on Edolas," Lucy realized.
"What's Edolas?" Laxus asked, confused. He shook his head. "Nevermind that. "Where's Alex going?"
"She's going to the Azure mountains," Erza said. "Do you think you'll be able to catch up to her?"
Laxus hummed in consideration. "I'm fairly close to there. I should be able to catch up to her. I'll make sure she doesn't do anything dumb." He looked away for a moment. "Can you not tell the old man you called me for this?" He requested. "I'd rather not have him know I was involved in whatever job she's on. She could get in trouble for getting help from someone not in the guild."
Erza nodded and smiled. "Don't worry; your involvement will be a secret."Laxus nodded and hung up the lacrima. Erza looked at her team. "Now it's up to Laxus to talk to her."
"What makes you think she'll listen to him?" Amber asked, curious.
"You remember when Flame-breath was talking about mates earlier?" Gajeel smirked.
"You heard all of that?" Amber asked, mortified. "Alex is going to kill me if she learns that."
Gajeel laughed. "Gihi, I wouldn't worry about that." He sat down in the chair Alex had vacated. "It was just a thought when I first met them, but after the Battle of Fairy Tail when Laxus refused to fight Alex when she started showing how upset he was making her, I'm sure of it. She's his mate."
Hey everyone! So this chapter kind of turned into Amber just teasing Alex. Not exactly what I was planning, but there we go. And I actually planned on Alex bringing Kinana up to the guild, but I was reminded recently she was in the guild before the Edolas arc, so I was too late for that. I hope you liked this chapter. And I plan on having a couple more chapters before continuing with the next story. Which I found was directly after the Edolas arc. I could have sworn there were a couple of filler episodes in between. Oh well, I'm looking forward to getting the next chapter up soon. Thanks for reading :)
