Training — Tag Meaning
Montage made narrative: characters drilling skills, mastering powers, or being forged by demanding mentors. Training fic spans shounen power-ups, military prep, and the patient intimacy of one character teaching another to fight, cast, or survive.
What to Expect From "Training" Fics
Expect growth through repetition and failure, mentor-student bonds, and competence payoffs earned on the page.
How to find Training fics on AO3
On AO3, click any tag to see every work that uses it, then refine with the "Filters" sidebar — combine it with your fandom or ship, set a rating, or exclude tags you don't want. See our AO3 filtering guide for the full walkthrough.
Browse "Training" works on AO3Popular Fics Tagged "Training"
Real examples from AO3's most-kudosed works:
Bear Your Soul on the Ice
by SassySalchow (diedraechin)
Run little Bunny! (Indefinite Hiatus)
by CaliMorningstar_UndeadSoldierShady
progress check
by osamugiris
Katara the Pet
by ShadyGuy
Special Brand of Care
by Sun_Spark
Twin Stars of Sun and Shadow
by MaximumFang
Related Tags
Sparring
Practice combat as plot and pretext: training mats, dojo sessions, and friendly bouts that are never entirely friendly. Fandom treats sparring as flirtation with footwork — sanctioned full-contact proximity for characters who can't otherwise admit they want to touch.
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Mentor/Protégé
The canonical tag for the teaching bond: a seasoned character investing in a younger one's becoming — training, correcting, worrying, and eventually letting go. Fanfic dwells on what canon montages skip: the slow transfer of skill and the parental shape the bond inevitably takes.
Tag guide →
Superpowers
Grants extraordinary abilities inside or outside superhero frameworks — one office worker who can stop time, a whole society of the gifted, canon characters with one new impossible trick. Distinct from the full superhero AU, this tag often runs smaller and stranger: powers as metaphor, inconvenience, or secret, rather than as a costume career.
Tag guide →
Personal Growth
A tag flagging that a character will be measurably better by the final chapter — habits broken, apologies made, emotional skills painstakingly acquired. It often marks fix-it character work for canon figures who never got development the fandom felt they earned.
Tag guide →
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