Let's be honest: this one is pretty much a giant training montage. I personally recommend Guano Apes "Open Your Eyes" mainly because it's my favorite fight song.

I own nothing except my awesome sparring moves.

Lucy blocked Loke's punch but missed his round kick. It tossed her back and she cursed as she crashed onto the ground. Her abdomen hurt. Then again, she was at the point that most of her body hurt. Muscles that hadn't been used since that ill-advised training session with Erza screamed in protest.

"Again," Capricorn said.

"Give her a second or she'll be too sore to hold your gate open."

They'd learned during those first few days that when she was too exhausted from training that she couldn't keep the gates open even if she still had the magic. It annoyed her to no end.

"No," she said, getting up slowly. "He's right. I need to get better at holding the gates open despite being exhausted."

"Fine," Loke said grudgingly. "One more round and then we stop for dinner."

"Okay."

They punched and parried blows until Loke tried the reverse round kick again. Seeing it coming, Lucy blocked it with her forearm turning into it further and elbowing striking his cheek.

"Oi," he said, jumping back. "Watch the face."

"Oh please. What girls are you trying to woo out here?" Lucy asked, her hands on her hips.

"Well my princess is out here," he said, giving her his usual roguish smirk.

"Whatever," she said with a roll of her eyes. Noting the distance between them, she used the space to gain momentum for a jump side kick. The move surprised him enough that he accidentally disappeared back to Celestial Realm. However, it messed up her trajectory and sent her tumbling into a tree. Her tailbone crashed into the unforgiving wood, leaving her legs against the trunk. She blinked slowly to reorient herself before tipping her head back to look at Capricorn. "Does that count?"

A few feet away, Draco chuckled. The sound sent vibrations through the ground. "It works for me," he said.

After the first few days of physical training, Lucy demanded to know when she'd learn to become a dragon slayer. Draco's response was 'not until she was ready.' After that first week, she'd asked when they'd move past hand-to-hand combat. Loke said when she knocked him to the ground.

"We'll still be doing hand-to-hand," Capricorn said in his prim voice, "But I suppose we can toss your weapons in now. In any case, I'll take my leave. Good night, Lady Lucy."

"Thanks, Capricorn," she said with a big smile.

It had been three weeks since she'd come to Draco to learn to be a dragon slayer and a routine had slowly formed. No one forced her up early, knowing the sunlight would eventually awaken her. After breakfast, she stretched, ran, and whatever new torture techniques in the name of fitness that Capricorn came up with. After lunch, she'd spar against Loke with Capricorn supervising. After sparring, she meditated. With the exception of summoning Capricorn, it was the only magic she used. Capricorn only stayed with her through meditations during that first week. It was the one bit of training that she'd have done on her own.

Saturday, tomorrow, would be her off day. It wasn't spent physically training but instead she fished, scavenged for fruits and vegetables, and prepared food for the rest of the week. When she returned to Crocus, she was never going to complain about shopping again. And when Natsu returns, I won't- She stopped that thought. One, because she knew what followed would be a lie. Two, because the training had her eating twice as much as before so she was beginning to understand why he ate so much. And three, the ever-present reason. She didn't want to think about him.

"Ugh!" Lucy screeched, flopping backwards.

Draco stared at the hatchling. She should still be meditating. "What's wrong?"

"Damn idiot getting stuck in my head," she mumbled, not caring if Draco heard her or understood the ranting.

"Ah. Igneel's boy, right?"

"Yeah."

"You like him," he said, his gravelly voice unable to pull of Happy's trill, but was still sufficiently obnoxious.

"Shut up ya damn dragon." She was too comfortable to get up and kick him, but she thought about it. Instead, she threw a stick that her fingers found but didn't watch to see if it made contact. It didn't.

"Tell me a story." She smiled and thought of one she hadn't told him yet. She then proceeded to tell him about the jiggle butt gang. "I did not need that. Now I'm going to have nightmares."

She laughed. "Tell me about it. I couldn't get the smell out of my nose for days."

It was only fairly recently that she'd realized why he asked her about the guild and the adventures they'd gone on. Between the seclusion and the training, the pain had lessened which was good but it made her forget what she was fighting for. She couldn't quite picture the shade of red that Erza's hair was or the sound of Mira's giggling. Gajeel's singing was unfortunately engraved in her memory though she wished it wasn't.

Finally, she stood and trudged her way into a cave not far from where Draco slept. It was too small for him to fit but during a bad storm, he'd stuck his head in to block the rain. It wasn't especially homey, but it did the trick. Loke and Virgo had supplied some extra blankets as well as new clothes since the ones that she'd brought weren't great for training.

Saturday passed uneventfully. She'd fished for most of the morning then looked for wild vegetables. It was nice to eat fresh fish instead of the smoked that she made in a smaller cave. She missed heavier meats but not enough to skin an animal herself and didn't like the disgust on Loke's face when he did it for her. Both admitted later that they should've asked Virgo to do it.

"Open the gate of the goat! Capricorn!"

"Hello, Lady Lucy," Capricorn said when he appeared, bowing to her slightly. "If you don't mind, please summon Virgo."

"Um…Okay." Lucy took out Virgo's key. "Open gate of the virgin! Virgo!" Virgo's face was her usual mask of apathy, but there seemed to be a sense of giddiness in her eyes.

"While we do plan on continuing your training with the fleuve d'étoiles as your long-range weapon, we want to introduce you to a new weapon: the rantai," Capricorn said. Lucy slowly walked forward and looked at the chain in Virgo's hands. It was folded but looked like a long necklace that even going over her breasts would reach her belly button. The metal looked like a cross between gold and silver. "The rantai may not look like much, but when used properly, it can slice through wood. Virgo, if don't mind."

Virgo handed Capricorn then pulled out a ball of wood from a mysterious pocket in her dress. She then threw the ball as hard as she could. All Lucy saw was a flash of gold and the ball was sliced cleanly in half.

"It can also be used offensively against certain types of magic," Capricorn added.

"Also, Princess, you could wear it as an accessory since you do get kidnapped a lot and go undercover." Lucy flushed, but she did agree that it would look good on her. "I personally recommend you wear it was a bracelet. Easier access."

"Thank you, Virgo. You may go now."

For the next few hours, Lucy and Capricorn practiced swinging the chain. They found the biggest tree, which annoyed Draco since it meant he couldn't watch, and Lucy practiced slicing the tree. By the end of the day, Lucy had sufficiently sliced up the tree.

The following day, Capricorn had Lucy summon Aries. For the following week, her mornings were spent trying slice wool balls. The best she could do with most of those was knock them off course. It didn't stop her from doing a little happy dance when she successfully sliced one.

The afternoons were spent sparring with Loke. Now, he was training her how to fight in close combat with the rantai. That, she picked up a bit quicker. A fact that was getting progressively more painful for Loke.

On the fourth day of training, Lucy had caught Loke's head in the chain. His eyes widened for a second before he disappeared back to the Celestial Realm. Realizing how badly she'd hurt her friend, she refused to train for the rest of the day.

"Child, are you going to sulk there forever?" Draco asked, sticking his snout into Lucy cave. His hot breath in the confines of the cave made her glare at him. She was huddled on her blankets, her knees to her chest, and her head on her knees.

"Yes. I could have killed him. If he'd have been one of my guildmates, it would have. He's my friend and I hurt him."

"Does the fact that he's not angry at you mean nothing?"

"Yes! No! I don't know!"

"Lucy Heartfilia, you will come out of this cave right now."

"Excuse me?" Lucy said, jumping up with her hands on her hips.

Oops, Draco thought. He'd known enough Heartfilias in his time to know that look in her eyes. She'd stay in the cave for a week, just to spite him. "Fine. You have a reprieve. Just Lucy, remember. This is training. You're supposed to make mistakes. And honestly, child, that wouldn't have killed a mage. A normal person, maybe. But not a mage."

She stayed in that cave for the rest of the night, ignoring Draco's attempts to get her to at least tell him a story.

The subsequent days followed a similar pattern. Running, push-ups, crunches, and stretches as warm ups. Followed by training with Aries. Then sparring with Loke, but without the rantai.

Aries threw the ball at Lucy and immediately, Lucy realized how dense this particular ball was by how straight it flew. There was only a second for her to cringe once it was passed her chain.

"I'm sorry, Miss Lucy!" Aries cried as Lucy dropped to the ground.

"It's alright, Aries. Please calm down." If anything, her words made Aries cry more.

Capricorn lifted her chin to inspect the damage. "You'll have a black eye. Shame your ice wizard isn't here."

"Yeah. It would help."

"Do you want to continue today?"

"Yeah, but I'd like a break. I need to mentally prepare myself for dealing with Loke."

Capricorn chuckled. "Yes, Lady Lucy."

Lucy walked over to Aries and hugged her tight. "Don't worry. I'm fine." She released her and stepped back. "Go on home. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes, Miss Lucy," Aries said with a watery smile.

"You know," Draco said when it was just the two of them, "that's not much different than you hurting Leo."

"It is. It's very different. I have a bruise. I hurt him bad enough that he had to go to the Celestial Realm to recover."

He sighed, knowing that part of the problem was that she was still learning to use the weapon. As evidenced by how often she failed to slice through the wool balls.

"My love! What happened to your face!" Loke asked, running up to her.

"You know, it would be much better practice if you let me summon you instead of popping up whenever you want," she said with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "But I love seeing your face…though maybe not as much right now."

"Thanks. Can we train now?"

"Whatever you want, Princess. But wouldn't you rather go cuddle in-" he said, dropping his hand on her shoulders.

"Hands off, Leo," Draco grumbled.

"Aye, sir!" he replied, hands in the air.

"Aren't you supposed to be the big bad Leo, leader of the zodiac?" Lucy said, a hint of flirtation in her teasing.

"He's a dragon. He could sit on me."

"Are you calling me fat?" Draco asked.

"What? Of course not! You're uh big boned."

"That sounded convincing," he said, getting up.

"Lucy, help," Loke said out of the corner of his mouth.

"Nope," she replied, leaning against a tree.

Draco caught the lion spirit by the back of his coat and picked him up in his snout then walked over to the lake and dropped him in. Then slowly walked back but settled down facing the lake so that he could watch as Loke scrambled to the surface. Lucy started giggling which turned into riotous laughter as Loke trudged out of the water. His clothes were soaked and noticeably weighing him down. His hair was plastered down making his cat ears stick out more.

"Now you're a wet kitty cat," Lucy said between laughs.

"Ha ha. I'm gonna go change- unless you'd like to see me nak-" Draco growled. "Never mind!" Loke disappeared.

"Thanks. I needed that," Lucy said, settling down next to Draco, leaning against his leg.

"It's good to hear you laugh. It seems like it's been too long."

"Sorry."

"Just remember, they're your friends. They don't like hurting you anymore than you like hurting them. Accidents happen."

"I know."

"Luckily, you won't be as accident prone the Igneel's boy. Or any of the others, really."

"You mean when I become a dragon slayer?"

"Yes."

"You're not gonna put a lacrima in me, are you?"

"No."

"You're also not gonna tell me what it'll take to become your dragon slayer today, are you?"

"No."

"Didn't think so."

Loke summoned himself and Lucy stood to go train with him.

The next few days pass normally enough. Virgo had the idea to introduce a plain chain that was a similar weight to the rantai for Lucy's training with Loke. It broke a lot but they found that the heat Loke summoned from Regulus worked fairly well at repairing it. To make up for lost time, she trained until it was simply too dark to continue.

On Monday, Lucy was training with Aries when an almost unfamiliar voice rang through the valley. They stopped and looked at the path. Carefully climbing down was Yukino.

"Yukino! Oh my goodness! Was I expecting you?" Lucy asked, running and hugging the other celestial mage.

"I said I was coming back in a month."

Lucy's jaw dropped. She hadn't realized that she'd been there an entire month already. Or maybe, it felt like she'd been there longer.

"And I brought the job you asked for. Seventy-thousand jewel to catch some bandits."

"Seriously?" Lucy asked, snatching the paper from her hands before remembering that she didn't need to pay rent anymore. "Wait, I didn't ask for a job."

"I did," Capricorn said. Yukino bowed slightly to the spirit before giving him an inquisitive look. "I know you are holding back in sparring sessions with Leo so I thought it might be good training for you. Besides, you'll need money when you get back to Crocus or Magnolia."

Lucy gawked at him. She'd forgotten that, at some point, she'd have to head back. "Okay," she said, smiling at Capricorn then turning her attention to Yukino. "Do you need a break or do you wanna leave today?"

"It's early. We can leave now." Unlike when Yukino had initially brought Lucy, when it started to get dark, she'd stopped for the night.

"Okay. Let me get my stuff." Lucy ran to her cave and quickly stuffed the necessities into her bag.

"Make sure you bring the real rantai," Draco said, Aries and Capricorn having already returned to the Celestial Realm.

"Rantai?" Yukino asked.

"I'll tell you everything on the way," Lucy assured her as they prepared to leave.