Angel Rose

Chapter 6

"Hey! Focus! Where's your head at?!" Gajeel shouted when I had just barely managed to dodge an iron club he'd thrown at me.

"I keep thinking about Ama and my necklace."

"You can think about that later! Like when you actually follow your dragon instincts instead of fighting them! Dodging clubs should be child's play after three weeks of training them!"

"Just give me a second!" I yelled back, grabbing a blub and throwing it back at him without thinking.

"Whoa! What were you thinking of just now?"

"Uh, nothing. Just that I wanted this to stop."

"Heh, we found your trigger."

"My trigger?"

"Dragon instincts are triggered differently for all of us. Mine when I'm angry, Natsu when someone insults his family, Rogue when someone hurts Frosch... you see where I'm going with this?"

"So... my trigger is what, annoyance?"

"Looks like it. We'll work on it. For now, we'll use your trigger to our advantage."

"And how do you expect to keep me annoyed the whole time we're training?"

"Easy. Tell me about those traumas you were talking about when you nearly barbequed me and bolt-face."

"No way in hell." I snapped, lightning crackling around my arms.

"Ooh, a sore spot. Come on, our dragons were mates, that basically makes me your brother. We're family."

"Shut up, Gajeel!" I threw the club he sent at me back at him, barely missing his face.

"Hey, if you can't talk to family, who can you talk to?"

"I said to shut up! I've never had a family!" I dodged a large club and ran at him.

"You do now! I'm your brother! And Fairy Tail isn't just a guild, we're a family!" He shouted, blocking my electrified fist with his scaled arm. "Bolt-face is the one you should be practicing attacks with. That was pitiful." My foot skid along the grass when he pushed me back.

"Argh!" I ran at him, ducking under the arm he planned to clothesline me with and punched at his thigh, swinging my leg through his ot make him drop. When he fell back on his back, I stood over him, my fist crackling with lightning. "How's that for pathetic, Gajeel?"

"Gihihi..." Gajeel's arm swept my feet out from under me and our positions were switched.

"Don't gloat until you're sure your opponent is down and out. But you did pretty good." I accepted he hand he offered and let him pull me to my feet. "Now let's go eat. I'm starved and bolt-face said something about picking up some iron in town."

"Come on, hit me!" Laxus shouted at me.

"I'm trying! I'm still not adjusted to seeing all of your movements!"

"No excuses! Aim for where I'm going to be, not where you see me in the moment." Laxus was currently zipping around our practice field in lightning form, training me to hit a moving target. "Come on! Didn't 'Ama' teach you this?!"

"You know I can't remember!"

"Come on, Angel. You have to stop trying so hard. Lightning has to be able to flow; it's a force of nature. It can't be tamped down!" God, I wish he would shut up! I watched him continue to zip around until I started noticing a pattern in his movements. Lightning Dragon Raging Bolt! I threw my hand out and a brilliant show of lightning danced out of it and struck Laxus, sending him tumbling to the ground.

"Yes! I knew it!" I gave myself a moment to do a happy dance and turned just in time to eat lightning that Laxus had tried to retaliate with. Wow, that actually tastes pretty good. I wonder what wild lightning tastes like. "Now I understand what Natsu means about a 'fire in his belly'. This feels amazing!" I spun around, throwing my arms over my head.

"Hey!" Laxus grabbed me and held me still. "Calm the fuck down before you end up summoning a storm. We don't need it raining on our camp."

"Jeez, I can't celebrate at all with you two." I mumbled.

"You can celebrate when you're done with your training."

"Fine. You wanna let me go now?" Laxus dropped my arms and I let them fall to my sides as I took a step away. "Are we done for today? I really wanna take a bath."

"Ugh... go on. Be back in time for dinner."

"You got it."