Hands-On Experience
by Cyberchao X
Disclaimer: All characters are not mine.
So, as, um, "promised", I'm making good on my plan to add to the regrettably small ViHart sub-section of the MSLN section. This will likely turn out poorly as I ABSOLUTELY SUCK at action scenes, but mercifully the "action" is just a framing device anyway. Enjoy!
Nanoha Takamachi and Fate Testarossa Harlaown looked on as their daughter, Vivio, sparred against her friend Einhart Stratos. The two girls were still young, not even teenagers yet, but in their Barrier Jackets they both had the bodies of fully grown women. Both were practitioners of "strike arts", magically-enhanced hand-to-hand combat. It was amazing to watch—Nanoha was glad that Vivio had found a sparring partner with a similar specialty, as Nanoha's own specialty was with ranged attacks and while the occasional mock battle would be good to allow Vivio to practice dealing with such a foe, most of the time such battles would be unproductive—fight normally, and Vivio would be unable to get close enough to practice most of her techniques; allow Vivio to get close enough, and Nanoha herself would be largely ineffective against the speedy Vivio. Fate fared marginally better as a sparring partner, but this was definitely preferable. For multiple reasons…
"Ah!" Einhart blushed. She had thrown an open-handed strike, and Vivio dodged such that it had landed squarely on the girl's left breast. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"
Vivio smiled. "It's okay if it's Ein-chan," she said, causing the older girl to blush even deeper.
"Wh-wh-what?"
"Eheheh…you're blushing." Suddenly Vivio sprung back into sparring mode, landing a kick to her partner's head and dropping her to the ground, though the follow-through dropped Vivio on top of her. "But you shouldn't get distracted while you're in battle," she teased.
"Mou…Vivio-chan, that was a dirty trick!" Einhart yelled, starting to get up and realizing that Vivio's right foot was still on top of her head and that the left was somewhere in the vicinity of her own feet. This caused her to blush yet again.
"I'm sorry…but Ein-chan is just so cute when she's flustered!"
Einhart wasn't quite sure how to react to this statement. "V-Vivio…"
"Shall we call this sparring match over?" Vivio asked, getting up and reaching down to help Einhart up.
Einhart took Vivio's hand. "…Not when it's you who's off-guard," she replied, flipping the blonde girl onto her back and following it up with an elbow strike.
Vivio's response was to kiss Einhart.
Einhart just sort of froze—didn't pull away, but didn't do anything resembling reciprocating the gesture.
Vivio eventually pulled away.
Einhart still said and did nothing.
Vivio also did nothing.
Einhart still continued to be frozen, atop Vivio, their faces still just inches apart.
The silence continued for about five minutes. Finally, Vivio said, "Ein-chan?"
"Yes, Vivio-chan?"
"Do you…feel the same way about me…that I feel about you?"
"…You mean you weren't just teasing me?"
"Well, it is fun to tease you…but that was serious."
Einhart got up off of Vivio. "…I think so."
"I thought you would say that, Ein-chan. But it still makes me so happy to hear it."
"You know, Fate-chan, Einhart-chan reminds me of you at that age—so shy and unwilling to open up."
"Speaking of the past…Vivio-chan easily could've dodged that attack, and instead, she dodged into it. I seem to remember you pulling a similar stunt with me, once upon a time."
"Nonsense. We weren't practicing strike arts until long after we'd become a couple."
"You coached Vivio-chan on what to do there, didn't you?"
"…Only the kiss. I agree; that 'dodge into being groped' maneuver isn't something she should be doing just yet. I suspect Hayate-chan's influence."
"…Why any of it? She's still just a kid!"
"Shh! You don't want them to hear us talking about this. Anyway, they're older than we were when we fell in love. Vivio-chan really likes Einhart-chan."
"What are you talking about? They're not…you have to remember that they're younger than they look in those forms. We weren't…"
"…Be honest. You and Einhart-chan both; you shy girls pretty much have to be slapped in the face with your feelings before you'll admit to them. Vivio-chan is just like me, I think: she knew right away what she wanted."
Fate started to blush. "Right…away?"
"From the moment I first laid eyes on you. I've told you that before."
"No… You haven't. How could you have known then? We were…just little kids, not even as old as Vivio-chan is now…"
"Like I said," Nanoha said. "Anyway, I just did. The moment I looked into your eyes, so beautiful yet so sad, I knew… That the only thing I wanted in life was to see happiness in those eyes."
"Na…noha…" Fate felt herself being taken back, back in time.
She and Arf had been hunting the Jewel Seeds for her mother—no, for Precia Testarossa, whose daughter Fate had been cloned from, but whom Fate herself could no longer call "mother", though she did so at the time. Precia had never been a real mother. The only people who had ever cared for her were familiars—first Precia's, and then her own familiar. But then came that girl, who was also hunting the Jewel Seeds with the help of a ferret familiar (or so she'd thought at the time; it later turned out that Yuuno Scrya was no familiar). Nanoha Takamachi.
The first time she'd seen Nanoha, she'd only seen an adversary. She'd faced adversaries far older than herself, so a girl her own age should've been no problem at all. And indeed it wasn't. Nanoha refused to even fight her. She only wished to try to solve things peacefully. A foolish notion. Yet…Nanoha continued to show nothing but care and…love, for the girl. That tenderness that Fate had never before felt. After Fate had come to terms with Precia's true nature…Nanoha was the one who was there to help pick Fate up. She wanted nothing more than to be with Nanoha forever…
It was a few years later, when they were 12 years old and still living the dual life, being ordinary schoolgirls by day and training to join the TSAB at night, that it happened. Nanoha had dodged one of Fate's attacks, successfully, but not efficiently, and she 'accidentally' dodged right into one of the long-range attacks launched by the third member of their little team, Hayate Yagami. Nanoha fell right on top of Fate, who of course blushed…and that was before Nanoha had kissed her.
"Hey, no fair, Nanoha-chan! Quit hogging Fate-chan!" Hayate yelled mockingly, jumping on top of them. Typical, perverted Hayate.
One of their other (non-magical) friends, Arisa Bannings, jumped in before anyone could stop her, though it was never quite clear who she was more jealous of—she seemed to harbor feelings for both Nanoha and Fate. "Arisa-chan, get back here! It's dangerous for us to get near them when they're using their magic!" yelled the other of their non-magical friends, Suzuka Tsukimura.
"Shut up, Suzuka-chan."
"But I'm just worried about you…"
"I said shut up, Suzuka-chan! I don't need your concern!"
"Y-yes, Arisa-chan. Come on now, let's get back over there where we can watch the battle safely…together." Arisa, surprised that Suzuka had actually come over to lead her back herself, went along with her, though she was still frowning.
It was after this incident that Nanoha had confronted Fate about her feelings, and Fate had realized just what she'd really been feeling.
"I…guess I felt something like that for you, too, back when we first met. But not right away…not until you had shown me your kindness."
"Yes, the compassion of my Starlight Breaker is legendary, is it not?" Nanoha received a light-hearted fist to the top of the head for that comment. Neither of them had noticed that not only were Vivio and Einhart no longer sparring; they were no longer even in the room.
"That was a good match, wasn't it?" Vivio asked, now back in her regular, child form.
"Indeed it was." Einhart, too, now looked like the young girl that she was.
"A productive session for other reasons, too," Vivio said, getting up and kissing Einhart. This time Einhart reciprocated, the two kissing deeply and passionately.
"I feel the same way. See you tomorrow, Vivio-chan."
"See you tomorrow, Ein-chan. …Love you," she said, still too quiet to be heard.
Ehehehe…I try to write a ViHart, and it still comes out more NanoFate than anything else. Well, on the bright side, I did accomplish what I originally planned to do, and did the fic on the subject of Nanoha having loved Fate since the moment she first laid eyes on her, and introduced a little hint of AriSuzu, another pairing that I intend to explore more fully.
Thanks to Major Mike Powell III for inspiring me to get back to working on MSLN fanfiction. Until next time, this is Cyberchao X, signing off.