Okay. It's been a while. Sorry. Due to research and personal preferences and….realizations, I'm adjusting a few things. I'm fixing what I can, but if I miss them please forgive me. Frosch is female, Ryos is 14, Wendy is 13. Numbers were tweaked based on pictures of the characters as children and my refusal to be restricted by nebulous manga math. If you don't like my ages...well sorry. Too bad. I refuse to apologise. It's not like it really changes much anyway.

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July 29th 9:19 PM

Alanza cocked her head as she watched Wendy fix Vander's nose. He was...older than she had expected him to be pre-Tenrou. Her age, maybe a little older. Not a grown man yet, but plenty sexy. The sexy thing she had expected. "I would have thought...your reflexes would be better."

"They would have been if I knew you were so needlessly violent." Vander snickered and Alanza snorted at him. "Bixy made you sound so nice and sweet."

Alanza laughed at that. "He calls me 'Spices'. Is that not a clue?"

"Sugar and spice and everything nice and tasty?"

"No." She grinned in a way that made Elfman shift away from her.

Wendy sighed as she pulled her hand away from Vander's nose. "There. Not as...neat as the magic I feel working in your arm...but it will do."

Alanza arched a brow. "Cris?"

Vander nodded. "There was a...thing." He eyed Alanza with an intensity that didn't quite match his flirtatious smile. "Big brother is a little jumpy. Understandable, but we didn't expect it to be quite as extreme as it was."

Alanza felt relief flood her and her eyes closed for a moment. "You got him out."

Vander nodded. "We did. Dad...the whole family. We're grateful to you for your help. Who knows if we would have ever found him without your call."

Alanza shrugged, uncomfortable with the praise. "You would have. I just gave you a head start." She blinked at him. "Wait, why are you here instead of with the family?" She was frantically shuffling cards in her head, trying to figure out what was wrong.

Vander grinned. "Thought I'd come see how you all were doing before Bixy and crew wore holes in the floor pacing. Laxus said something about a war at home and Bix got all nervous about the weather." His eyes turned to Juvia and he winked.

Juvia turned pink and began to steam. "J-Juvia has only made it rain a few times. Is Bickslow well? Is he safe? Did the Thunder Legion get injured? Juvia and Fairy Tail worried." The guild murmured and nodded in agreement.

"Did my grandson do anything stupid?"

"Was the mission successful?"

"Did Laxus and Freed say anything about chess club?"

"Did you find any dragons?"

"Is Pergrande going to retaliate?"

"How did you get into the Guildhall?"

"ENOUGH!" The guild fell silent and went completely still at Erza's bellow. "He can only answer one question at a time." She glared at the guild as a whole.

Vander snickered. "They're fine. Laxus made a scene, but Emzadi made a bigger one so it's fine. Freed played chess with Farron on the way there, we had a successful mission with minimal injuries, and saw no dragons in Pergrande. You'd have to ask my dad about what we expect from them next. As for me being here...I'm awesome. That's how."

There was silence for a few moments before Natsu grinned and leaned forward. "How awesome? Fight me!"

"No!" Wendy snapped, glaring at Natsu. "He's still healing."

"He looks fine."

"I. Said. No." The two stared at each other till Alanza spoke up.

"Vander came for information exchange purposes. Not to kick anybody's ass. Mira? Can I have more coffee?"

"Sure thing!"

Alanza slid back into her seat, Juvia joining her. "So. The war at home. We did that. You can tell the Thunder Legion we are all...fine. Right guys?" Alanza looked at the others. Lucy shuddered and looked away and Levy curled into Gajeel's side, but there were nods from around the guilds and comments on the 'war'.

Vander laughed and talked with the guild for a while. The Phantom 'war' was retold, along with the legal details of the guild's disbandment and Jose Porla's arrest. Vander told what was probably an extremely toned down version of the destruction of Sky Reach. Natsu was told on no uncertain terms by several people that, no, he couldn't go to Bosco and fight Emzadi no matter how awesome she sounded. The most amusing part of the evening for Alanza was when a comment about the way Vander smelled resulted in the shadowquip hand feeding Ryos into a purring puddle of magic high teenage dragon.

Later in the night Vander got a distant look on his face going silent for a few moments before he rolled his eyes. He had apparently left without telling anyone and gotten scolded over the family link. After that messages were passed..through his head. Gratitude was expressed again and Alanza hid behind Juvia. Bix and Vander made Juvia steam, though how much of that was which Pradesh nobody on the Fairy Tail side knew. The Pradesh family was taking the long, slow road home since Bickslow couldn't cross the border into Bosco. Once the Saberfox reached Bosco the Thunder Legion would be coming home.

As people started going home for the night Vander and Ryos both...dropped into the shadows much to the amusement of Alanza, the disturbance of Gajeel, and the embarrassment of Wendy.

"I just...are they…" Wendy's face was a bright pink.

"Don't be silly, Child." Carla was still glaring at where Vander had been seated.

Alanza snorted. "Having sex? I guarantee it. Ryos was all but in Vander's lap licking him when they left."

Gajeel growled as Wendy blushed darker. "He's a kid."

Alanza snorted and shook his head. "He is old enough, Gajeel, and a slayer. He's past his first heat by now, right?" Gajeel paled a little, but nodded. "Vander will take good care of him, respect the fact that he's young and Fioran. He'll be fine. Maybe a little...too relaxed tomorrow, but fine." Alanza hummed and eyed Wendy. "You know...we should ask about you visiting Bosco. You could work with Cristoff and Xally a little. It would be good for you."

"Absolutely not!" Carla bristled. "You can't send her to that….that place!"

Alanza actually sneered when Wendy's excited expression melted into disappointment. "Carla. You and I will be having a looong chat if you don't wake the hell up. Not tonight though because I'm not awake enough to be at all polite tonight." She tossed back her drink and stood. "Wendy needs this, and you need to accept some shit before you fuck the whole damn guild over." She headed for the door, waving over her shoulder. "Night. See people in the morning."

July 30th 10:27 AM

Levy carefully drew the last rune across the doorway and sighed. "I'm afraid that's the best ward I can do until Freed comes back. We just have too many other projects for me to do as much research as I'd need to make this any tighter."

Mira giggled as she swept through the runes and into the new Hall of Secrets to set a tray of snacks on their temporary table. "It'll do fine, Levy. Freed will likely spend days rewriting the guild wards once he gets back. Getting jobs done is a higher priority right now unless we want the guild to lose standing." Downstairs mages and teams were squabbling over jobs on the brand new board. Seemed like everyone wanted to get out of town now that Gramps had cleared them to take jobs again. "I'm sure the boys will have something picked out by the time we are done with our meeting."

Alanza snorted, holding one end of the corkboard steady for Erza to nail it to the wall. "I'm personally hoping for a bit of a vacation. You guys are all more than welcome to run off and make money. Means whoever I train with next will be less...driven."

Lucy grinned. "You really expect us to believe Macao was pushing you that hard?"

"Not Macao. Laki has been literally kicking my ass with giant wooden feet. You have no idea how...disturbing our sessions sometimes get. Love the girl, but there is a place for feet!" Cana laughed, setting her cards down so her distraction wouldn't mess with her reading. "Shut your face or I'll swap your booze for tea."

"Hey! I've been cutting back, ya' know. Don't make me put Carla's fur in your shampoo!"

"As long as you don't tell Wendy…" The girls all snickered at Mystogan's quietly muttered words. Everyone with eyes had seen how much he disliked his little sister's furry best friend.

"Alright Brats!" The door slammed shut behind Makarov. "I've got letters written to the guildmasters we trust and I'll be traveling to speak to our potential allies in Era myself. Since Laxus is away one of you will need to visit Quatro Cerberus."

Cana's hand shot up and she grinned. "Oh, please send me!"

"You'll need to take a team, child. I'm still not comfortable with anyone traveling alone."

Cana made grabby hands for the stack of letters. "Who else is delivering? I can let the cards make team suggestions."

"Alanza has asked to visit Master Bob-"

"You brave soul…" Erza was pale and looked a little sick. Alanza rolled her eyes. Surely Ichiya wasn't as bad as Erza made him seem.

"I took Wendy to visit Porlyusica and spoke with her briefly. She said...she would survive visiting if she had to." Mystogan stripped out of his 'disguise' and began setting up the timeline. Alanza scowled and began scratching at the chalkboard, listing 'missions' they needed to talk about today. The Tower, the letters, dragon slayer instincts. Seriously. Carla or Wendy or both needed to be educated.

"So we'll need two teams. One to go with Cana to Quatro Cerberus, one to go with Alanza to Blue Pegasus." Erza shivered and looked away. "I could go with Cana. I've had dealings with their guild before." Cana made a whining sound at the idea of having a chastity defending babysitter during her visit to the 'go wild' guild.

Mystogan hummed as he studied the lists on the chalkboard. "We should send a delegation with Master Makarov. This is more than just him visiting. At least one S-class mage should be with him. Laxus isn't available and I can't be seen until the Fernandez situation is taken care of. Besides which I need to get back out on the road as soon as possible. That leaves Mira or Erza."

Mira sighed. "I'm afraid that these days I just don't have the same sort of commanding presence that Erza does."

Levy nibbled on her pen and scowled. "True. Master and Erza...but who to round out the team?" Erza started to gesture at Lucy, but Lucy cut her off.

"Yeah, no. You take me then Natsu will go. Happy goes everywhere he goes and you know Gray wouldn't want to be left out We do *not* want to take Natsu, Gray and Happy to a meeting with the Magic Council." Makarov made an agonized noise and turned a pale green color. "We need someone calm and composed enough to make a good impression."

Levy groaned. "Calm Fairy Tail Mages are hard to find. I could go, but I'm not impressive in the least, especially not next to Erza."

Alanza took a slow sip of her coffee before speaking. "Someone to compliment Erza's fighting style in case trouble happens might be a good idea. We also have the option of sending Natsu and Gray on other missions." She pointed at the board.

"Let's see what the cards give us!" Cana placed the cards of those already assigned to these missions face up on the table. Era and Gramps, Alanza, Cana, and Mystogan for his traipsing. Then began to shuffle the rest. "Erza. Cut." Cana began holding out the cards then yaked them back. "Not with a blade. Just…like cards." Erza blushed and did so, then leaned forward to watch as Cana's fingers flicked almost faster than Alanza could see, cards sliding over the table to land in five different groups. "Huh. Didn't mean to do that." She pointed at the larger pile that was distanced from the face up cards. The whole table stared at the pile warily for a long minute. Oddly enough Cana seemed the most nervous of the whole lot.

Alanza sighed and snatched up the cards. "Scaredy Fairies. Waiting doesn't change the cards once they are dealt." She ignored her own nerves and slapped the first card onto the table face up. "...Well at least we know Frosch won't be alone on this trip? I thought she and Ryos were sharing a card."

"I changed it since we had the Exceeds training separately from their partners. Mostly because I hoped it would separate Wendy from Carla." Mystogan and Levy both smirked in that quiet and scary manner they had.

"Makes sense." Alanza flipped the next card. Gajeel. "Oh good. An adult. Sort of." Levy giggled. "And Happy. Do we *want* Gajeel to bite off his tail? Wendy. Happy will survive when Gajeel bites him." Lucy's attempt not to laugh had her making tiny snorting noises. "Ryos, Natsu-"

"Noooooo. We can't send them all out together! The damages!" Erza held Gramps up when he started looking melty.

"-and Carla. So...all the slayers and Exceeds currently in the guild. That...works? I mean, they need to have a good old fashioned 'talk' before Carla cripples Wendy's dragon or she gets her first heat."

Erza flinched. "She's so...young. I remember Natsu at that age though. I expect Wendy's heats aren't any more avoidable?" Mystogan started making this terrible wheezing noise. Alanza made a strangled noise herself as she stared at Erza. The implications of Erza gaining that knowledge… Were Natsu Dragneel and Erza Scarlet heat fuck buddies?!

Lucy cleared her throat and tapped a nail on the table. "I...um...did some research with Grampa Crux...about dragons once I realized Natsu basically was one. Heats are...designed to strongly encourage reproduction and finding a life-mate, right?" Mystogan's noises got worse.

Levy took a deep breath. "That's...what I've gathered from what few books talk about them. There aren't many resources out there."

Alanza patted Mystogan on the shoulder, hoping that the idea of his little sister having sex didn't actually kill him. "If I understand correctly mates are a soul bond. You can't just choose your favorite flavor of mate off the shelf. Heats are, I think, a week of being horny enough to kill for sex. I could be wrong. Laxus might know better, but he hasn't been very in touch with his inner dragon lately. We could ask Gajeel, or we could send a message to the Thunder Legion to talk to… Bickslow has siblings who would know better than we do." Vander had been long gone by the time the sun rose, much to Carla's vocal relief, so that would be a lacrima call.

"I'll...send a message." Gramps was still staring at the pile of dragon slayer cards. "This is something the...slayers need to handle properly."

Alanza nodded. "And on that note. We're missing one." She handed a paper to Cana that had a description of Sting and Lector on it. "Sting Eucliffe, the White Dragon Slayer. White being the color, light, and holy magics as I understood it at the time. It was confusing. He's the same age as Ryos. If I'm right at about this time he's settled into his partnership with Lector and he idolizes Natsu."

"Always forget he's famous." Levy mutters around her pen.

"Trust me." Lucy gave a long sigh. "It's not something to get excited about."

Mira giggled and tapped on the pile of cards. "We can send them hunting for Sting. That should be a good bonding experience for them."

Mystogan smirked. "Gives them a way to compete that isn't trying to bash each other's brains out."

Cana stood, a quickly sketched out card of a blond boy and a red cat between her fingers. "Let's see if we can give them a direction." A flick of her wrist had the card sticking to the new map on the wall. "A good bit west of Crocus, still this side of Dawn City. Small towns, large grasslands, some swamps. Lots of monsters out there especially closer to the mountains and it does look like he might be heading south. Less chance of them making a huge mess I think. You know. Comparatively. Master?"

Makarov hummed thoughtfully and glanced around the room before nodding. "We will send them to find the boy. If they aren't back by the time Laxus returns we'll have him join them." Mira nodded and began drawing the retrieval up as an official mission...with no monetary reward.

Levy reached for the next group of cards. "Let's see if Mystogan can tolerate the people the cards want to go with him. Bisca, Alzack, Laki. Well. That'll be an exercise in linguistics."

Mystogan chuckled and shrugged a shoulder. "Good mages. Patient, relatively quiet, seem to have a steady head. If they're okay with it and still here I'm willing to take them. There is honestly no telling when we will be back though." He looked up at the Edolas marker on the corkboard.

Alanza nudged his shoulder and grinned. "They are smart too. You could always tell them about the Anima project and see if they have ideas. If you wanted to. If not, they'll at least be good company. Laki's a sweetie." She also seemed to want into Mystogan's pants, but Alanza wasn't going to tell the man that. She was pretty sure there was a sister rule about that somewhere.

Myst gave her a small smile and nodded. Alanza decided that his eyes were officially a dark green, at least when he was happy. "I admit...it's been nice not to be alone." Alanza had the sudden impulse to call Juvia up so the man could be on the receiving end of a good hug.

Erza nodded. "Since Team Natsu formed I've never really wanted to go back to solo work."

"And on that note." Cana grinned wickedly. "Let's see who Gramps and Erza are taking to Era with them. Hey look! The cards agree with Erza. Guess since Natsu will be busy Lucy can go."

"We should send that group out first then so Natsu doesn't throw a fit." Lucy's voice had an annoyed tone to it, but her expression was fond.

"Agreed."

"Loke." Cana arched a brow. "I guess he can be smooth when he wants to be." Alanza's shoulders relaxed a little. Leo needed to stay close to Lucy right now. "And….Macao? You want another pervy old drunk on this trip Gramps?" Cana looked faintly worried.

"I might just be offended, my dear."

Alanza snorted. "He's one of our oldest, most...correction, least excitable mages. Besides...there was a situation at one point that left him in charge of the guild for an extended period of time. May as well run him through the tutorial program just in case."

Makarov sighed. "That...does not sound promising. I do think Macao is steady and reliable enough to be of help on this mission."

"With a little help he will even look respectable." Erza's firm nod had Alanza feeling sorry for the man.

Lucy's cackle as she scooped up Cana's team was a little...dark. "Aaaand the party crowd. Mickey. Good choice. Girl likes to go all out and have fun. Gray. That's good. It'll keep him from feeling left out or getting bored. And...Elfman. The man thing."

Alanza tried her best to remember Bacchus and Elfman's interactions and could only remember how Elfman had managed to pull a draw out of that fight. "Maybe...if Bacchus is around, see if you can get Elfman to spar with him."

Erza arched a brow. "Bacchus Groh is an S-class mage."

"Oh dear." Mira looked worried. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Well…" Alanza blinked a couple times. "No? I'm not certain of anything. I just remember an interaction that helped Elfman grow as a mage and since we skipped his breakthrough during the Phantom War…" She shrugged.

Erza sighed. "Bacchus isn't a...bad man. He's an admirable wizard. A friendly sparring session shouldn't cause any harm."

Mira reluctantly nodded and reached for the last team. "Blue Pegasus has many fine m-wizards."

Cana snorted. "Pretty boys. I prefer my men a little more rugged."

Mira smirked. "Which is why you are going to visit the Dogs and Alanza is taking...Shadowgear with her."

Levy made a squeaking sound. "Me? I mean, us? Why!"

Alanza snorted. "Probably because one of the reasons I requested this assignment was so I could talk to their Archive Mage. Hibiki has something we are going to need."

"Hibiki Lates? He's the best Archive Mage in Fiore. What I wouldn't give to get into his-"

"Oh my Mavis, Lil Blue!" Cana cackled. "You cum over this guy's bookshelf I'm never letting you forget it!"

"It's not a bookshelf!" Levy and Lucy seemed equally affronted by that idea.

Mystogan leaned close and murmured in Alanza's ear. "Goog thing Freed isn't here. He and Levy might have a cat fight for the right to go play with Hibiki's magic for a night."

Alanza choked on her coffee, turning to gape at the mage beside her. "Oh my Mavis. Was that innuendo, your Highness?" Mystogan just grinned at her.

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