Bold type means the narrator is speaking.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hayate no Gotoku or any of the characters associated with it. Sometimes I wish though...if I could just get the rights to the Narrator...

Chapter 1

Diligence Pays off...Eventually Right?

The blue-haired butler-in-debt woke up even before the sun had even peeked over the horizon.

"Well time to clean up for ojou-sama and get to work."

The optimist lad got up from his fairly modest bed into a fairly normal room with a very expensive butler uniform in the closet. Of course expensive seemed to be only something in his vocabulary as Maria-san and Ojou-sama had shown him countless times in the past. Then it happened, the room suddenly grew dark and Hayate didn't even flinch when a very familiar ghost popped up in front of him. "Well hello, Ze*n Soldier-san." The ghost cried in a corner and the room became light again. "One of these days I really should get Isumi-san to take care of this before Ojou-sama sees him again." The optimistic Hayate quickly filed that observation under 'things-to-do-for-Ojou-sama' and went to get ready for the day.

We shall now skip Hayate's morning schedule and proceed on to later in the day. Unless of course you want me to show you some fan-service hummm?

"Hey! Don't look while I'm getting dressed!...By the way Narrator-sama? How would you give people fan-service in a fan-fiction? It's not like you can see anything while reading."

Oh I'm glad you asked that Hayate-kun. Even without video the human imagination is very powerful and I could tell them everything that is happening like this: Then Hayate tore off his night shirt, exposing his-

"OK STOP! Please…no more. I'm sure the readers get enough of these situations as it is. We don't want to potentially shock potential readers with erotic material."

Oh but we could have had so much fun and some people like this kind of…but anyway lets move on.

In just around two hours, the speedy and efficient butler already had an entire wing of the mansion as clean recently polished statue. Of course there were polished statues in the mansion so perhaps that wasn't the greatest of metaphors but in any case, Hayate soon found his next mission.

"Ojou-sama! It's time to get up and go to school! Ojou-sama!" Hayate knocked loudly on the huge wooden doors to Nagi's bedroom, but of course there was no response. Hayate had his hand on the door handle when Maria, Sanzenin Nagi's maid, came from down the corridor. "Ah, good-morning Maria-san!"

"Good-morning Hayate-kun." As always, Maria looked stunning in her maid outfit for a ninete-"Seventeen!" oh right, seventeen-year-old girl. "Are you going to wake up Nagi?" Being probably the closest one to Nagi, Maria had no trouble with not using any honorifics with the rich, hot-tempered, young heir to the Sanzenin estate.

"Yes Maria-san, but well…perhaps it would be better if you woke her up this morning. Every time I do it, she gets mad at me for some reason." Innocent shined from his feminine face as he spoke.

"Hayate-kun, you really still don't know the reason she gets 'mad'. But of course she's not even on your radar so you just don't really think in those terms."

"Well she does seem to trust you a lot Maria-san. You always seem so knowledgable about everything, well after all, you've had plenty of experien-"

"Oh, Hayate-kun?" Maria's face started to darken and a heavy atmosphere filled the air. "Do I really seem that I'm old enough to have had-" Thankfully, Hayate wasn't completely stupid and saw where this was heading, to a place he didn't really want to go see quite yet.

"No Maria-san! I don't think you're old enough to have had-umm…well Maria-san I'll leave her up to your capable, smooth hands." The word 'smooth' had slipped though his head at this particular moment because as he was thinking of a defense for himself, he had unconsciously held her hand while he was trying to turn her wrath away from him. Maria started to blush slightly and Hayate quickly followed her example. The very next second they were back-to-back with each other. "Well I'll get Ojou-sama's breakfast ready."

"Y-yes Hayate-kun, I'll wake up Nagi while you do that."

"Later Maria-san!" Hayate soon disappeared while Maria found herself in Nagi's room with the door behind her.

"R-really I shouldn't let such a simple thing bother me. After all we've been in much more embarrassing situations…" Of course as soon as she said that those certain embarrassing situations started to surface like the time-*cough* "Well then, time to wake up Nagi"

Typical love-comedy situation, I know. Too bad she didn't let me continue…

After some time, Hayate and Nagi found themselves at school. Amazingly she had agreed to come to school and Hayate was happy that she was getting an education and having at least some sort of a school life. School went on and Katsura-sensei was as outgoing as ever, but of course the kind of outgoing I'm talking about is not the normal kind of outgoing, but more like on the edge of insanity. The end result was Katsura-sensei trying to get money out of the class but luckily Hinagiku was happening by (I wonder why ) and out came her shinai and down went Katsura-sensei.

"Sheesh, Onee-chan! Stop trying to shake-down the students for your expenses!"

"But Hina, you keep refusing to let me borrow money! Besides, I know Ayasaki-kun is loaded." The teal-headed, eccentric teacher said as she pointed an accusing finger at the hapless butler.

"Ah I see she still hasn't forgotten about that time I had a million yen." Hayate sighed and a puff of air escaped.

"Onee-Chan! Stop trying to take advantage of Ayasaki-kun!" Hinagiku seemed to loom over her older sister like a shinigami, shinai at the ready to strike and anger waves radiated from her body.

"Ah Hina…ok I won't try to take anything, cheapskate." With Katsura-sensei effectively tamed by the Student Council President, Hinagiku had calmed down somewhat.

"Thank you Hinagiku-san. As always you have a very commanding presence and handled things quite well."

Hinagiku held back a blush and smiled, "Well I am Hakuou's Student Council President after all. Anyway Hayate-kun, would you mind going out with me after class. Hayate started to go crimson as certain thoughts temporarily found residence in his head.

"G-go out with you, well um…" Then it was Hina's turn to turn into a very cute cherry with pink icing. The entire class was watching their exchange and whispers were already flying. Plus one small, twin-tailed blonde was becoming an inferno of rage.

"No! Not like that, BAKA!" Hinagiku countered defensively, "I just want you to meet me outside after school that's all! Ugh, never mind! Just forget it Ayasaki-kun." Flustered, Hinagiku stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

"I think I made her mad again, why does this keep happening…"

Because you don't understand a girl's heart at all Hayate. Of course if he actually did, then this story[plus the anime and manga] would have ended a long time ago.

"Hay-at-te!" Nagi practically growled at him when he went back to sit down.

"Ojou-sama?" Hayate replied and then regretted looked at Nagi who at the moment didn't look at all like his master in her enraged mode. Flames seemed to be spewing out from her body, trying to surround him and smother him with their heat. "She looks almost like she's in bers**k mode right now."

"Were you thinking she was asking you on a d-d-da-" Nagi suddenly found herself unable to say the word that she loathed to say herself at the moment because of what it implied about her butler.

"Date?" He added helpfully, trying to be the perfect Sanzenin Butler. The resulting slap was loud enough for everyone to hear. "O-Ojou-sama!" Before he could do anything Nagi was already out the door with tears already forming in her eyes. Hayate could only sit there, confused. "Did I do something to anger Ojou-sama?"

Sometimes I have to wonder if his invincibility means he's actually an alien.

"Ojou-sama!" Hayate decided to go after her and left the classroom, which was silent, but only for a very short time.

"Stupid Hayate! How could even think about cheating on me and with Hinagiku! Well yes she is pretty, smart, strong, and cool but Hayate knows that it's the inside that counts and not about height!"

Seems to me that you have self-confidence issues, also who are you to talk about what's on the inside. All you ever do is play MMOs and watch anime.

"SHUT UP! Hayate wouldn't see any woman other then me!"

Trying to regain confidence in yourself?

"Is something wrong with Hayate-kun?" Nagi jumped when she heard the voice next to her and saw that it was only Isumi, who had managed to get lost but had luckily found her.

"I-Isumi! N-no nothings wrong with Hayate." Nagi gave a quick cough and thought, "I can't let Isumi think anything's wrong between us."

"Oh, well that's good…"

"Of course nothing's wrong with Hayate! Even if I did yell at him and he was thinking of another girl and things seem to happen to him all the time and I haven't seen him transform once and he hasn't learned an awesome skill yet like the Sh**l Bul**t and he keeps having run-ins with other girls, Hayate is still mine and everything is fine."

"Eh…" Isumi had very quickly lost concentration when Nagi went into her fast little rant and had no idea what she just said. Isumi brought her hand to her mouth, although the sleeve as always was too long and covered her hand completely and tried to make something out of what she said. By her rather blank face you could tell nothing was surfacing. "Well Nagi, how about we have a small break."

"Nagi brightened up at the idea, plus she had been wanting to tell Isumi about her latest manga chapters she had just finished the day before. "Alright, come on Isumi," She turned to look at a small patio set up beside one of the school buildings, "let's go over there and have some cake…" By the time she turned back, Isumi was already lost and nowhere in the vicinity. "I-Isumi…why can't she just learn to let people help her out."

Nagi sighed.

Meanwhile the Butler-in-Debt was looking for her but the school-grounds were perhaps even bigger then the Sanzenin estate itself and he was having no success. "Ojou-sama! Humm…now where would Ojou-sama have gone to." Hayate found himself in the general vicinity of the cafeteria, hoping to find her in one of the chairs outside the café where she might be eating her worries away; hopefully in a better mood as well. What he found instead were the three members of the student council who were always together: Izumi, Risa, and Miki..

"Hi Hayate!"

"How's it been going?"

"Do you think you can help us?"

Came the three welcomes from the trio. Hayate decided to go over and help them and just maybe they had seen ojou-sama. "Alright but first, have any of you seen Ojou-sama?"

"Nagi? Well I think I may have seen her ummm…" Responded the purple-haired, twin-tailed Izumi. While she racked through her memory Risa whispered to Miki, "By the way, what do we need his help for?" The blue haired girl grinned evilly at Risa,

"Just for some movie research." There was a merciless twinkle in the corner of her eye and her lips curved an evil, kuu kuu laughing, smile.

"No, I don't remember seeing her, sorry Hayata-kun."

"Oh it's alright, and really…its Hayate not Hayata. So then, what did you need me for?" It looked like Izumi was about the reply when a 'breeze' picked up her skirt and unfortunately this particular day, she was not wearing spandex.

"Nice shot." Miki gave a thumb's up to Risa while holding a camera that now contained yet another incriminating photo of Hayate. Risa gave a thumb's up back along with a small fan she had used to air up Izumi's skirt. Hayate had a look of shock and embaressment while Izumi still had her hands down to hold down her skirt and looked quite taken aback. She also was turning a cherry pink.

"Thank you Hayate, now we can continue with our club activities." Risa and Miki marched away a distraught Izumi while Hayate just stood there, still a little shocked from the whole stage-up.

You know, I'm not sure if that's just your bad luck acting up again or you're getting some good luck for a change.

"It was not GOOD!...I feel sorry for Izumi-san."

Yes and I feel sorry for you a lot of the time but not right now.

"Ayasaki-kun." A familiar pink-haired girl flooded his vision and brought Hayate back to reality.

"Oh Hinagiku-san! Umm are you still mad?"

"Am I still what Ayasaki-kun?" She suddenly loomed over him and he shrank.

"You are mad…sorry."

Hinagiku wanted to get mad at his apologizing attitude but just couldn't maintain it anymore so she sighed. "Oh it's alright Ayasaki-kun." But then a conniving thought tickled her mind. "So Hayate-kun, were you really blushing because you thought I was asking you out on a date?" She smiled disarmingly at Hayate who nearly shivered.

"No! I absolutely wasn't blushing because I thought you were asking me out on a date!"

"Oh, so you wouldn't want to go out on a date with me?" Hinagiku's sharp wit and smarts very quickly disoriented Hayate.

"Yes!" He said automatically then very quickly realized his life might be in serious danger, "I mean no! I wouldn't mind at all. But I'm sure since Hinagiku-san is so cool and smart (I see blushing) that you wouldn't want to spend time around with someone boring like me." What Hayate thought was a good life-preserver, but it turned out to still have a major hole in it, even if he did laugh at himself.

"Baka!" Hinagiku muttered and turned her eyes away from Hayate.

"Ehh?"

"Err I mean…well here is something for you." Hinagiku shoved a piece of paper into a surprised Hayate's hands. Hayate carefully un-crinkled the strip and found that it was a sort of lottery ticket.

"Well what's it for Hinagiku-san?" Hayate asked totally missing the point, as always.

"Humm…well I know its not much or anything its just that I don't need it and well, onee-chan 'borrowed' some money from me and decided to use it on a get rich quick scheme. Considering it was my money in the first place, I took it from her since I was unable to get a refund. Well, I don't really need it and well, you might as well hope for the best, right?"

"Thank you Hinagiku-san! I'll be sure to tell you if anything happens. You're always doing so much for me." Hinagiku started to get a little red again.

"Oh well it's nothing, I'm just doing the Student Council's job…and it would look bad if it was known I had gambled, even by lottery."

Come to think of it I seem to remember you winning a fairly large lottery in a chapter of the manga. Quite deceitful of you Ms. Katsura.

"Well that does make sense when I think about it."

"Well I'll see you later Hayate-kun!" Hinagiku started to walk away and waved back to Hayate who waved back and then continued on his mission to finding Nagi-ojou-sama.

"I wish I could have given Hayate what I really wanted to give him." Hinagiku sighed as she produced a small bag of cookies from her person. "Well can't let them go to waste I suppose. I could use a glass of milk to go with these though." The cookies turned out to be a little crispy.

"Ojou-sama." Hayate had been looking for quite a while but he still couldn't find the person he was indebted to. "Maybe she has gone back home by now." The thought of Nagi back in her private room, reading or playing some MMO seemed quite likely to him at the moment. Another small thought managed to slip into his preoccupied mind when he remembered the paper Hinagiku had given him. His hand absent-mindedly went into his pocket and out came the small piece of paper, what appeared to be a sort of lottery ticket with a lot of numbers on it. It wasn't any business he was familiar with though but none of that really mattered at the moment, since it was a gift from Hinagiku he might as well use it. Now the question was, where would he go to find out if he was a winner and how to collect his winnings? He decided that further examination of the ticket would give him some clues. "Winners will be announced at 10 pm tonight. Winners will then be contacted. How will they be contacted if they don't know who has the ticket? Well it's not like I'll win or anything so it probably doesn't matter."

I think you just jinxed yourself Hayate and with your luck…

"Well then, I must continue to look for Ojou-sama!" As Hayate continued to look around the school, he was interrupted by a small voice behind him.

"Hayate-sama." Came a voice from behind him. Hayate looked back and sure enough, it was the royal princess-of-being-lost-instantly herself, Isumi Saginomiya. As usual, Isumi was in her traditional clothes and she had a stole on around her shoulders. Isumi's large eyes seemed to penetrate right into his soul and with her power that might have even been possible; however, at that moment her eyes were mostly filled with concern about being in a place were she had not been trying to go.

"Ah, Isumi-san! Do you need some help getting back?" Hayate asked, feeling an instant need to perform his butler duties of helping any friend of the Sanzenin Family out. That is what he diluted himself into thinking but in actuality that was just part of his caring nature that was maybe just a bit emphasized by his status.

Isumi started to look embarrassed and tried to hide her face behind the long sleeves of her kimono, but not even her hair and wafuku could completely hide her reddened face. You could see she was struggling a bit with pride but she managed to just barely nod to Hayate, who gave her a small, knowing smile.

"Well then Isumi-san, I'll be happy to escort you back. By the way, do you know where Ojou-sama is?" Hayate grasped at that particularly thin straw as he stretched out a hand for Isumi to take.

Isumi's face started to burn brighter as she looked up at Hayate clad in his fancy uniform, arm stretched out to her with a dramatic wind ruffling their hair. The overall effect of all these factors seemed to imprint the word "hero" in her mind and a fuzzy border with random flowers and bubbles formed around Hayate's head and torso. She gently shook her head as she tentatively reached her hand out, while keeping the other one over her mouth, and her hand peeked out of the sleeve in order to grasp Hayate's inviting hand.

"Well, I thought as much. I suppose Ojou-sama will come around in a little while. Let's go back Isumi-san." As the two started making their way back to class, Isumi held back just a little behind Hayate's strides, still hiding her face behind her free arm for a while longer but eventually dropping it to her side.

"A-Ano…Hayate-sama-"

"Oh by the way Isumi-san," Hayate interrupted her very quiet words when he suddenly remembered something.

"Y-yes?" She replied weakly.

"Can I ask you a favor?" A question mark appeared over Isumi's head. "You see it seems that by bedroom is haunted and I was wondering if you could take care of it for me. He's pretty much harmless but last time Ojou-sama accidently met him while she was in my room and she was so scarred that she was shaking all over. I need to make sure that the mansion is a safe and cheerful environment for Ojou-sama."

Isumi smiled slightly, "Hmm, ghosts and spirits always did give Nagi quite a scare. Of course Hayate-sama, I'll be more then happy to help you out." A bit late, part of what Hayate had just said filter through her head. "Nagi was in your room Hayate-sama?" A bit of concern filtered into her usual, stoic face, unsure of what to make of this piece of information.

"Yes, while I was away one day, she somehow found herself in my bedroom and that is when the incident happened. I wonder why she was there in the first place?" Always the innocent one with children, Hayate really had no idea why she had been there in the first place. Instantly any slight worry that had crossed Isumi's heart had vanished like the dramatic wind that had been in the area just a few moments before. She may have resigned herself to the fact that Hayate was Nagi's hero, but she still found herself feeling great admiration for the butler that just wouldn't go away.

Soon Hayate found himself in front of Isumi's classroom, making sure that he saw her actually go in the classroom so she wouldn't get lost. Isumi let go of Hayate's hand and stood in front of the classroom door, but turned to face Hayate. "I'll see you after school then Hayate-sama."

"Yes, until then Isumi-san."

"See you…" Her soft voice faded away as she turned back to the classroom door, stepped inside and closed the sliding doors behind her.

"Well that should take care of that…AH! I better get back to class fast! I'm going to have to borrow notes for everything I've missed!" The invincible Hayate sped off at rocket speed to his own classroom to try and minimize his absence as much as possible. Not that it would help him any…

Author's Note: Yay! My first subscription so don't be too harsh but I'll accept anything that comes my way graciously. Reviews appreciated. Updates to the story will probably vary I'm afraid cause there's just so much to do, like another story I'm writting that is not a fan fic. Well I hope you liked this first chapter. Later!