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I jumped when Gray called me, "You're time is up let's go."

"Yes sir!" I called running up towards them just as Natsu came out of the woods. I stopped and looked at him suspiciously, "Why is he here?"

"He is going to help us with your training today, since he is best equipped to fight against your magic. I suggest you behave." Gray warned.

I crossed my arms and pouted earning another slap from Erza, "You do not hold the right to an attitude right now Ayumi so I suggest you knock this off."

"When do I ever have that right around you?" I muttered.

She grabbed my arm and I cringed away from her grasp but she responded by leaning in closer to my face, "Would you like to run that by me again?" She asked dangerously.

"No ma'am." I answered.

"Then I suggest you keep your mouth shut and get to work." She ordered.

"Yes ma'am."

"Start from the first and we won't move on to the next until you master it." Gray said.

"Natsu only use defensive moves for this one, remember the closer she is to you the more this spell will affect you. So try to dodge and stay away from her but both of you stay inside the field." Gray informed.

"Got it," We answered.

"Great, then you may begin."

Natsu took off running at full speed, "Really?"

"Well I'm not supposed to make it easy on you!" He called.

I glared at Gray, stomped my feet a few times, and groaned as I took off. I chased Natsu across the field but he doubled back. Ugh this means I'm going to have to use the spell and run at the same time. Fortunately for me two out of three of the spells are of the dynamic ice-make type, which just happens to be my specialty.

My feet kept moving as my mind concentrated on the spell; I threw my right hand forward in an inward swirling motion and used my left hand to cut through the middle of it exactly where Natsu was in front of me, "Ice-make diamond cage."

Of course the first attempt didn't work out so well and all Natsu encountered was a small ring of ice that only wrapped about half way around his body. Without using magic he shrugged the ice off and it fell to the ground, "That's one." Gray called over Natsu's laughter.

One, his threat about punishing me for every failed attempt but what was he planning, "One what exactly?" I yelled.

"That's for us to know and you to find out; you're not going to like it." Erza called.

"Son of a bitch," I muttered glad that neither of them could hear me from across the field.

The second attempt resulted a little better as a sheet of ice wrapped around Natsu but it was very thin and weak and he effortlessly broke free of it by moving his arms outward, "Is that all you got?" He called.

"That's two!" Erza called.

"Damn it." Now I was getting frustrated. What were they planning? I was pretty sure I'd be on the same spell for a while and the numbers would just keep increasing, not in my favor.

I was able to get a little closer on the third try but the sheet just moved slowly and he quickly wasted it with a small flame.

"That's," Erza began.

"Three I know, thank you for the help but I am very capable of counting!" I shouted angrily.

"Come here!" She yelled. Damn it why did I always dig myself deeper. I frowned and quickly put on my most innocent look as I shuffled towards them. I approached her cautiously and dodged away from her hand, "I said come here." She pointed.

I whimpered and stood in front of her, she reached her hand out again and held my face, "I didn't get you into this situation you did, so I suggest you get out there, own up to your mistakes, and learn something useful."

"Yes ma'am." I answered.

She nodded signaling that I could leave and I backed up quickly before running off, being careful to keep my ass away from her wrath.

"Can I use other magic?" I called back to Gray.

"Well you are an ice mage, which means you use ice spells, as in plural."He said as if I was the unintelligent one.

"Now you tell me!"

Natsu getting cockier than usual wasn't that far ahead now, I took a deep breath in wrapped my hands around each other and focused my energy towards the ground, "Ice make floor!"

The ground turned into a slippery shell of icy and Natsu slid across it. Before he could regain his balance I was only about a yard away from him when I cast the other spell, "Ice make diamond cage!"

The ice wrapped around Natsu engulfing him, "Woo nice one!" Gray called.

"Yeah go Ayumi! I'm impressed!" Erza called.

I turned and saw Erza smiling and I beamed widely at her approval. I didn't get it much but when I did it was the best feeling in the world.

When the attack finally stopped Natsu laid on the ground helplessly, "I think it's s-safe to s-say that she m-mastered that one."

I smiled, "Woo next!"

"You may begin." Erza said.

With both Natsu and the ice still on the ground I quickly moved on to the next spell which was freeze. As Natsu was scrambling to leave I stood up straight with the exception of my head which was bowed and crossed my arms over my chest, "Freeze!"

The ice one again engulfed Natsu and he was frozen in place like a sculpture. Natsu used his fire energy to heat up his body and melt through, "Yay, she got another, how about this time I get a head start so I can actually move!" He yelled.

I smiled, "I like it this way better," but then I became worried again, "especially considering I really don't want to know what those numbers mean."

"Ayumi come back here, and let Natsu go." Erza instructed.

"Fine," I huffed walking slowly over.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"I said yes ma'am." I answered smiling and jogging the rest of the way.

"That's what I thought you said." Erza commented.

I rolled my eyes again and was glad she hadn't noticed this time. "I only got three so far, which I have a pretty good idea of what it's going to be but I hope it's not, can't it just be laps around the field or something, please?"

"You knew you were going to get a spanking for this so I suggest you make it easy on yourself by getting the lowest number you can." Erza said.

"But I'm doing well, and I promise I'll study and train really hard next time." I whined.

"You know you've had this coming, not just because of not studying or training, the attitude, the disobedience, and trust me whatever this number is you're getting off way lucky. I could have just pulled you over my knee right then and been done with this." Erza said.

"Then why didn't you?" I muttered. That was definitely the wrong thing to say. She grabbed my arm and swiftly landed ten sharp smacks, "Ouch Erza sorry, please ow ouch!"

"I thought this way you could get training out of the way too. But if you'd like to finish training after that's fine with me, but you won't be let off nearly as easy, is that what you want?" She asked.

I rubbed my newly stinging ass, "No ma'am."

"Then get out there, this is your last one for today." She said.

"Yes ma'am." I replied running back towards the middle of the field.

This was the last one for today but definitely the hardest, especially since Natsu was back on his feet again, but it's also one of my favorite ice spells and I've been dying to learn it.

I tried to use the ice make floor spell again but Natsu countered it with a flamethrower move, which is a way higher leveled spell and it quickly dissolved into nothing but water.

"Four!" Gray called. I glared at him angrily but wisely kept my mouth shut. Now I had to think of a way to surprise Natsu enough that I could get him.

"You might want to work on the spell itself first with this one instead of chasing him." Gray advised.

What did he mean by that? I would have no problem doing the damn spell; it was getting Natsu to stay still that was giving me trouble.

I gathered my energy and tried it, "Ice-make tiger!" A kitten formed and I picked it up happily.

"That's five!" Erza called.

"But come on it's so cute! Ice made kitten! He's adorable!" I called smiling.

The kitten latched his teeth into the palm of my hand before dissolving. I shook the water off angrily, "Son of a bitch that hurt!"

"Ayumi!" Erza yelled.

"Aw come on that hurt! Besides that shouldn't have even counted I was practicing it ahead of time like he told me to!" I whined.

"Any time you use the spell it counts because you should have already practiced it way before now, so that I only have to help out finalizing them a bit." Gray said.

"But then this would be a very short training." I said.

"No there's other things I could have you do trust me, and right now you could be practicing your next set." Gray said.

Ugh! I just want to be done with this! It was late in the afternoon now and I was getting increasingly tired as my energy decreased. Food would be good too, "Can we go to lunch or dinner or something first I'm starving?" I whined.

"You should have thought about that before you pulled this crap!" Gray called.

I whimpered, "But aren't you guys hungry?"

They looked at each other and shook their heads, "Nope!"

Probably because they haven't had to spend as much energy as I did. Wait a second Natsu did too, "Natsu aren't you hungry?" I asked.

He stopped, "Yeah I could go for some food!"

"When do you ever deny food?" Erza asked.

"Whatever just go, Ayumi doesn't need you for this one anyways, we'll know if it works by the cat's behavior." Gray said.

"Awesome catch you guys later!" Natsu called waving before he disappeared into the forest.

Damn lucky bastard. Well at least I didn't have to worry about aiming it towards him, which was one less problem for me.

"Why isn't he getting punished? He started the fight!" I whined.

"His punishment was that he had to train with you, besides Natsu is not our responsibility." Erza said.

I crossed my arms angrily, "Feeding me should be your responsibility."

"Get over here and practice!" Gray ordered.

I whimpered but obeyed anyways desperate to get this over with so that I could eat, although my just dessert I wasn't really looking forward too.

Countless times I failed, but now I was just trying to get this over with, "Nineteen." Okay so maybe it wasn't countless they seemed to be keeping up well.

The worse time so far was actually not the kitten, I sent all the anger I had at the time through and the tiger grew large and started chasing me until I put the cage around it and Gray taught me how to suck it back in.

Of course since the tiger was as angry as it was I sucked up those emotions as well so when I raised my arms again angrily, "No stop." Gray said placing one of his arms over mine, "Don't force your anger into it, you have to focus, bring the magic from within you, outside."

I thought about what he was saying and tried it. I closed my eyes and slowly but powerfully raised my arms this time, and I could feel the amount of power surging through me it was amazing. The large cat appeared and I stared into its eyes waiting out its move, it came towards me but this time slowly and respectfully.

It circled behind me and nudged my right arm with its massive head. I lifted gently allowing it to pass under and it purred in my ear awaiting my command, "Now I really wish Natsu was here."

I snuggled my head against his, "It's alright you can rest now." Then Without hesitating I sucked the magic back in, the feeling I obtained this time felt peaceful and strong, and counteracted the anger I held before from the previous try.

"Good, very good, well done." Gray complimented.

I smiled, "The animals are my favorite."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Erza smirking, but as I turned around her smile quickly faded, as did mine.

"Come here," She ordered.

I tried to plead with her as I walked, "Erza please I'm so tired and hungry…" I trailed off as I stood in front of her.

I lowered my head facing the ground as she lectured me, "I am sick of hearing you whine Ayumi, you want to go on real missions but you are not even close to being ready."

I cut her off, "But I am Erza, and I can prove it to you!"

"Don't interrupt me, you are not, you can't even keep up with your training on your own, we wasted almost all day going over things you should have mastered by now, your whining about how tired and hungry you are, wait until you are in the middle of nowhere and you run out of food, and have nowhere to sleep, or it's do dangerous for sleep, then what are you going to do huh?" She asked.

'I won't complain I promise, and I'll behave during every mission, and I will start training harder than ever, please Erza." I tried.

"We are not having this discussion right now." She said firmly.

I looked away with tears in my eyes, "Don't you trust me?"

"How can I when this is how you behave?" I tried my best not to let any tears fall, "Ayumi you need to trust me too when I say you're not ready for this yet, when you are ready I will take you with me, I promise," She pulled my face up to hers, "You have to prove yourself to me first."

A tear escaped despite my best efforts, "I will, but I don't think I can ever be as perfect as you want me to be Erza, I don't know how. I'm j-just not as good as you."

"I don't expect you to be perfect Ayumi, and I am definitely not perfect, I just expect you to do your best. Whether you like it or not you're still considered a child, and I will always think of you as that way, so you will make mistakes, and you will get into trouble like your mischievous self always winds up doing but I will always forgive you I promise." She assured me.

I desperately wanted her to hug me, and hold me, and tell me that we could just forget about this entire day but I knew that was impossible. Gray came over to stand beside Erza, "Twenty-one was the final count."

"I was going to give you double the number that you ended up with so know that I am letting you off easy, don't make me regret it," She informed me.

"Yes ma'am." I answered.

I followed them into the Gazebo, "Since you were disrespectful towards Gray earlier, and this is his training session, he should be the one to punish you."

I nodded.

"Excuse me?" Erza asked.

"Yes ma'am."

Gray grabbed the dreaded paddle that sat inside one of the drawers in his desk, and I groaned.

"Bend over the table." He instructed.

"Yes sir," I answered quickly obeying.

The first smack was harder than I anticipated and I whimpered. I didn't try to speak as he continued; I just kept my mouth shut and took the punishment. There was never any point in trying to fight it that would just get me into more trouble in the end.

I clutched the table tightly as the smacks continued. By the tenth swat tears were forming in my eyes and I tried to keep them from falling once again. But three more swats later, I could see my tears falling onto the wood of the desk. The last eight were hard and fast and I jumped with each one.

I took a minute to compose myself and wipe my tears away before turning around, and was surprised when I turned right into Gray's arms. He embraced me tightly and after a second of confusion I wrapped my arms around his waist.

He looked down at me and smiled, making me smile back, "You did very well today for not even practicing the spells once, but I'm sure you'll be ready next time right?"

I nodded, "Yes Sir."

He hugged me, "I love you little sister," He whispered, and once again I couldn't stop the tears from falling, "I love you too big brother."

He passed me off to Erza and she hugged me tightly, "Whether you believe it or not I am proud to be your guardian, and to call you my little sister, Ayumi."

She laughed as she wiped away my tears, "Would you stop crying already?"

I laughed too, "Sorry."

"Unfortunately since you are behind we will have to continue the spells tonight so that you are ready," Gray said making my hart sink, "But we can eat first." He added smiling.

"Yay, I love you, I love you, I love you!" I cheered happily.

"Yeah uh-huh we'll see about that tonight." Erza said.

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