Lucy groggily woke up to the sounds of people running over top of her. She had a hard time recollecting what happened, but then it hit her and she rushed to her feet, before landing right on her face. Looking behind her to figure out what she tripped over, and saw a blue furry tail swish. "Happy..?" She sat up and moved the box that was blocking her view. When she saw Happy she noticed there were scuff marks on him.
Picking him up he started murmuring something, "Oh...I couldn't...alright just one more fish." Then drool rolled down his cheek.
"Oh Happy," Lucy chuckled and tried to pick him up. He was heavy but she managed to hold him, as she walked down the hall and toward the infirmary to place Happy down to rest. "Good Mavis, are you sure you're only eating fish?" She chuckled as she opened the infirmary door. What she saw brought her to her knees, all around her were members of the crew, some were seriously wounded while others only has a few scratches. 'All because of me?' She thought as tears unconsciously fell down get cheeks. After a moment like that her resolve came and she pushed herself up and went over to Mira. "What can I do?"
Mira smiled gently and pointed to Bisca, "just wrap up her arm. Is already been disinfected and bandaged so it just needs wrapped." Lucy nodded and turned to head to the green hair woman in the corner.
The rest of the day Lucy rushed all over the ship. If anyone needed anything she was there getting whatever they needed. She just couldn't rest knowing all the damaged and the wounds were caused because of her. Night fell and below decks there was so much laughter and cheer that one wouldn't guess that there was a fight a just that morning. Everyone was enjoying the fun except one blonde haired girl. She sat in corner onto of an empty barrel watching everyone and thinking of this morning. 'I need to get stronger I need to be able to protect myself. I can't rely on others to protect me, first Robu and his crew, now fairy tail.' Lucy got off the barrel and walked out of the mess hall and down to the training room. Opening the door she noticed no one was there and decided it was a good time to practice. She grabbed the practice sword from earlier and started swinging and jabbing at the wooden dummy in the corner. After the first swing Lucy started thinking of how she felt useless and just lost it, all the anger she has towards herself came out and she kept swinging until someone touched her shoulder. Whoever it was knew to duck because she swung that sword right around and almost hit the salmon colored hair boy with the lopsided grin.
"Yo, Luce. What are you doing?" Natsu stepped back, away from the girl and the sword.
"What does it look like Natsu? I'm training. I don't want others to get harmed because of me." With that she turned around and swung the sword hard and actually broke the sword.
"Lucci, woah. But listen you don't need to do this. You're strong enough." Natsu smiled again. "Plus we only need one Titania we don't need another one."
"How can you say that Natsu? You saw what happened this morning. The same thing happened before. I don't want that to happen. I never asked to be born as THAT. It's more trouble than its worth."
"Fine. But THAT is what made you who you are today so just view it as a stepping stone. And if you still want to protect yourself then you need to learn to fight without a sword because you're not always going to have one with you. So let me teach you." Natsu walked over and took off his captain vest and took off his sword and his gun then his gun holster.
"Wait. You are going to teach me? The captain Natsu who wouldn't even like me doing the riggings, is going to teach me to fight?!" She looked at him doubtfully.
"Yes, because if Erza did it would you be broken in a day but don't you expect me to go easy on you just cause you're my friend. Now you have to first learn stances." Natsu walked back over to Lucy and stood in front of her. "Okay, your feet should be staggered and placed slightly wider than your hips. The weight distribution between both feet should be fifty-fifty. Both feet should be angled slightly to the side and the knees should be facing in the same direction of the feet." Natsu positioned his feet to show Lucy, "The rear heel should be raised with the weight placed on the ball of the foot. The elevated heel acts as the trigger for the majority of your striking arsenal and it allows your feet to be alert and move quickly. Never stand flatfooted on both feet as your movement can easily become sluggish." He looked up at Lucy and smiled his lopsided grin, "Now you try." Lucy nodded and looked at Natsu's feet, while getting her feet the way it needed to be. "Good, now lets work with your hips and stomach. Whenever you are in a fighting stance you want a small amount of tension kept in your stomach muscles. Also it is important that your hips are positioned directly underneath your shoulders. This will allow for a stronger defense, assist you in transferring force to your extremities, and improve balance by keeping your spine in an optimal position. Take my word for it; you do not want to be hit in a relaxed stomach. Body shots have a nasty way of stealing the life from you, especially when they are met with zero resistance. Think of abdominal tension as your armor. Don't go to battle without it! On a scale of one to ten, you want your tension level at around a two. This amount of tension will aid your movements but will not subtract from your ability to move or breathe effectively." Natsu adjusted his torso to how it needed to be and waited till Lucy did it, "Okay. Now your arms, The right elbow and forearm stays close to the body and protects the solar plexus, the liver, and the ribs. The left or lead arm is placed slightly in front of the body to act as a first line of defense and offense."
Natsu showed Lucy and then walked behind her to make sure the position is on point. "Great Luce, now you have to be able to get in that stance fast, so practice."
The next hours were filled with Natsu putting up a defense stance so that Lucy could try hitting him. At the end Lucy was exhausted but proud of herself. She slowly walked to her room and once she got in she didn't even bother to change her clothes before she plopped onto her bunk. "Dear Mavis, when he said he wouldn't hold back he meant it and it's only the first day." Her last thought before she drifted off to sleep was the toothy grin of the salmon haired boy that was helping her become stronger.