Summary: How I think Lucy learnt to use a whip.

Pairings: Lucy/Aquarius friendship, implied Layla/Aquarius friendship, and brief mention of Scorpio/Aquarius.

YouTube Prompt: A Natsu/Lucy tribute to 'You and Me' by Lifehouse.

"Why are we outside Aquarius?"

Aquarius turned round and eyed the child in disdain. She was a skinny little brat, and despite only being thirteen, she seemed flat as a board, weak, and pathetic. To think hundreds of years ago her masters at the age of thirteen used to be busty, strong, mothers, not pathetic little children. Lucy blinked her dark, sad, eyes and Aquarius resisted the urge to smack her.

Did she think she was the only one upset?

The rain fitted more than Aquarius magic. It fitted her sad, mournful, mood. They were all miserable.

"Lessons," she snapped in reply to her master's question. "I'm sick and tired of you being unable to defend yourself and calling me or Cancer to fight your battles. You know we do have lives. I have a boyfriend I'd much rather spend time with."

"What sort of lessons?" Lucy asked apprehensively. "I mean….there's no such thing a tail karate is there?"

Aquarius gritted her teeth and tried to remind herself that the child was spoilt. Of course, she was clueless.

"Nothing involving your body," she said, "As if I want to touch that." She motioned to Lucy's body in disgust. She was certain the brat wasn't eating properly and that was why she was flat, skinny, and nothing. "Besides I can't exactly teach you how to kick. No you need a weapon since you're so useless on your own."

"What sort of weapon?"

It was then when Aquarius produced her present out of thin air. She had given it some thought. She doubted Lucy could be trusted with a gun or a knife of some sort. Knowing the stupid brat she would accidentally kill herself or injure herself badly. She was certain an axe like Taurus' would make the girl fall backwards and give herself a concussion. The same with any blunt weapon. She had considered archery but she wasn't very good at it herself, if only Lucy could go out and find Sagittarius, he would ensure she was well learned in the art. She found slingshots childish, and anything that consisted waving a spiked ball around, or throwing something far too dangerous for the clumsy waste of space.

So that left just one thing. And it was something that Aquarius excelled at…though that wasn't a use she was going to teach a child.

"A whip?!" Lucy screeched as her cheeks turned red. "Do I look like a freakish dominatrix to you?!"

"What are you implying?" Aquarius growled. "And what sort of books have you been reading?!" she demanded to know. Inwardly she cursed Jude Heartfilla for leaving such books in a place that Lucy could find them. She already knew he wasn't the best father (just look at the skinny brat and you can see it easily) but she didn't think he was so piss poor that he would let her master's innocence get tarnished in such a matter.

"None!" Lucy lied.

"Lying brat!" Aquarius cracked the whip. "First lesson, how to hold a whip properly."

And thus started the longest, most boring, and tiresome day of Aquarius' very long life. It took almost an hour to get Lucy to hold the damn thing properly. A quarter just spent persuading the brat to hold it. Then it took hours until the stupid child could make a proper cracking noise with her whip against the stone pavement.

The child seriously needed to build her strength or she would look ridiculous when trying to whip her kidnappers.

Once assured that Lucy could hold and hit with the damn thing. Aquarius taught her the most important move of all….disarming. She demonstrated on how to wrap the whip around a person's wrist, using one of the many waste of space statues that took up the garden, and how to pull them down. She then got Lucy to practise on her because, which she was quickly proven right, she knew the brat couldn't inflict any damage on her.

"Again!" she ordered when Lucy's first attempt didn't even capture her wrist.

"Pathetic," she sneered when Lucy's eighteenth attempt resulted in the brat slapping herself with the whip (Spirit King knows how…), and leaving a painful red mark on her face. Aquarius resisted the urge to add to it as a reminder why the brat should be more careful.

"Come on!" Aquarius snarled at the forty fifth most pathetic attempt in the world. She was now tried, grumpy, missing her gorgeous boyfriend, and wanting so much to go home and have a cuddle with him. "Even Crux could do a better job than that," she jeered.

At first it seemed enough to spur Lucy on. She stood her ground, clenched her whip tightly, and looked determined, but on the very last minute Aquarius was able to pull the girl forward and the stupid brat stumbled, tripped, and landed face first into a puddle of wet mud.

"Get up," Aquarius ordered. The girl moaned but didn't obey the mermaid's order, instead she just lifted her face up enough to stare into the mud. "You spineless worm!" Aquarius screamed, having lost all patience. "GET UP!"

"I'm tried Aquarius," Lucy moaned pathetically. "Please…." She pleaded, and much to Aquarius' disgust, there were tears in her eyes.

"You're so disgustingly pathetic," Aquarius sneered. "You'll never be a Fairy Tail Wizard."

Lucy glared at her, and for a moment, Aquarius was taken aback. Never before had her master looked at her like that before. Her dark eyes were blazing with a fire that the passive girl had never shown, a fire like Layla's, and with a small growl, the girl jumped to her feet, flicked her whip artlessly, wrapped it round Aquarius wrist, and managed to pull Aquarius down from the fountain and onto the muddy, disgusting, ground.

Aquarius couldn't entirely repress the twitch of amusement. "Better," she said coolly, "Keep practicing."

And with that she disappeared back into the Spirit World for a much needed rest and cuddle with her lovely boyfriend.