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Once again (because I feel like doing this again) I do not own Fairy Tail... if I did, well it'd be different…just a bit!

Chapter 23
The Trainer from Hell?

"What the hell is that thing for?" Lucy glanced at her 'trainer' who was holding a padded suit out to his 'student'. He just smiled at her question, which she had been repeating for about 15 minutes, and gave her the bulky suit before standing back so she could strap the thing on.

Huffing at his silence, she tried not to show how heavy the suit felt to her. 3 minutes later, Lucy rocked back on her heels, adjusting herself to the new weight pulling her towards the stones under her feet.

"That is a suit that weighs around 3 times your body weight. I'm actually surprised you're still standing." Natsu finally answered her before he turned and beckoned her to follow. "We'll worry about your magic later. Right now, we need to work on getting some muscle on you."

At Natsu's urging, they began to do a steady jog around the high iron fence that circled the castle. By the time they made it back to the courtyard they were in before, Lucy's shoulders sagged and her legs felt like jelly. Plopping down, she grabbed one of the water bottles they had brought with them.

"Alright, 5 more minutes and then we start some basic exercises." Natsu told her as he sat casually on the ground, watching her. Sighing, Lucy began to unbuckle the straps around her. "What are you doing?"

"But you said-"

"I know what I said, but you're gonna be wearing that the entire time. It'll build up your strength faster and plus, once you get the hang of it, we can start splitting the day between exercises and magic training."

When the break was up, Natsu stretched before leading Lucy over to a small tree house. Well, it was more like a house with a tree growing in the center of it. Sprinting to it, Natsu pulled open the door and was back out with exercise equipment before Lucy was able to stroll over.

Opening a bag, he pulled out a pink dumbbell and, after handing the girly thing over, also pulled out a bigger black one. Natsu turned to watch his student as he began to show her different stances she could do to strengthen different muscles while they trained.

"Ok, Lucy. Let's take a break." She exhaled with relief as she slowly lowered her arm, which had her dumbbell balanced in the crease of her elbow. Groaning as her legs stretched out, Lucy trotted back, ready for the day to be over.

Throughout the day, the two worked out, stopping every few hours for some water. Natsu made sure that she knew what to do with each piece of equipment before letting her go off by herself. By the time they were done, Lucy was dying to get out of the stupid freaking bag she was wearing. She was tired, she was thirsty and she needed more to eat in a day then just a BLT and some apple slices.

Lucy heaved the suit over her shoulders and just lay on the grass while Natsu went through the task of putting away the equipment and hanging her special training outfit up where there was a chance it would air out. Coming out of his little hut, Natsu was stopped in his tracks.

If he didn't know who it was, he would've sworn that was an angel dozing in the grass. Her hair was splayed around her and her clothes did little to shield her from the cool night air. Pulling off his vest, Natsu gently wrapped Lucy up and walked inside, doing his best not to jostle her too much. She shivered before curling into the warmth that seeped from him.

Natsu carried her to her room, trying not to smile when she snuggled into him. His lips brushed against her cheek as he moved away, content to doze off to the sweet smell of the woman beside him.

The week passed in much the same way, Lucy in her special suit and Natsu adding more laps around the fence, along with upgrading her dumbbell. She would tire herself out and Natsu would either accompany her to her room or carry her there.

Finally, after 5 grueling days of complete misery and way too many readjustments, Natsu started their lesson by telling Lucy to get out of the weight suit. She practically jumped out the collar in her haste to get the uncomfortable thing off. By the time she finished her little hopping mess of excitement, she had a flushed face and Natsu was on the ground, barely breathing from laughing so much.

"Why did you have me take this off if all you're going to do is laugh?" Lucy sighed, waiting for him to get on with it. He rolled a little, trying to stop and explain himself.

"NATSU! Hurry up, I wanna get started!"

In her glee to get out of the suit, Lucy had neglected to notice the figure occupying one of three tables in the courtyard. Blushing, Lucy smiled at Jean, "What are you doing here?"

Coughing loudly to clear his throat, Natsu answered, "I figured your muscles are built up enough to start learning how to fight. Jean here is one of the best weaponless fighters here, right behind me of course."

This earned him a hard kick to his arm. "Watch it! I'll take you here and now if you're gonna fib like that!" Natsu rolled over before jumping to his feet.

"Ok Lucy," Jean swirled on her heel to look at the girl, trying to be serious, "this is how this is going to work. You'll be with me in the mornings, doing harder exercises and I'll be training you in hand-to-hand combat. After lunch, you'll be stuck with flame brain, working on your magic! Some days one of us may be busy, another day it's the other. On days like that we'll just get you for an entire day all to ourselves!" Not waiting for a reply, Jean bounced away, excited to have a student.

"Wow." Lucy said, not quite capable of forming intelligent words at that moment.
"Yeah," Natsu looked away as he brushed his pants off, "But she is a better hand-to-hand fighter than I am. Heck, she's never had a student before now that I think about it."

"So what are we doing today?" Lucy asked after a few minutes, toeing pebbles with her sneakers, conscious that it was just her and Natsu again.

"Well, you'll be stuck with Jean after lunch starting tomorrow, so let's start working on your magic." Not waiting for a reply, Natsu gently grabbed her hand, turning quickly so she couldn't see his blush, and pulled her along to what she now dubbed the 'tree hut'.

Leaving her outside the rickety door, Natsu proceeded to search the place so thoroughly, Lucy was certain the poor tree would fall. "What are ya doing, Lucy?"

"Happy!" Lucy turned to the little cat's voice, and then turned again when she didn't see a hint of blue. "Heehee. What's wrong? Cant find me?"

"Nope." Lucy smiled as she swiped the air behind her head, catching the end of Happy's tail as he tried to fly higher. Hanging upside down, Happy glared at the blonde. "Guess, you're gonna have to go through some training too, huh Happy?"

"I could've dodged. I could've gone down or backwards a little…WHY DID I TRY TO GO UP?!" Happy wailed and whined, kicking out with his little paws and almost catching Lucy as she listened to the many things he didn't do.

Lucy started and almost dropped Happy when a hand dropped on her shoulder. "Ok, Lucy. We're gonna start off simple." Natsu steered her over to a giant crystal sphere that was sitting beside a similarly shaped whole in the hut's wall.

"Now," Natsu said as he guided her to sit down beside the ball. "This is a lacrima. What you do is you channel your magic into it and it will change color depending on what type it is. See watch."

Natsu brought his hand up and casually allowed flames to engulf his hand. Watching Lucy's reaction, he began tossing the ball of flames from one hand to another before throwing it at the lacrima. The flames seemed to cling at the crystal until they were absorbed, turning the clear ball a bright orange with a darker red center. "You don't have to do that exactly, but you still need to find some way to channel your magic into it, ok?"

At her nod, Natsu walked up, placed his hand on top of the ball and seemed to pull the flames out using only that one hand. Smirking at the impressed look on Lucy's face, Natsu stepped back and gestured toward the lacrima.

"Your turn."

You can tell me I suck, I know I do.

I've kinda run out of ideas for this story. Don't get me wrong I WILL finish it, I know how it'll end but that's why the updates are taking longer sorry guys!

Please R&R