A/N: Hello everyone I'm sorry this took so long to get out to you, here is the third installment of my timeline series, the series started with Valentine's Day gift, and then went to White Day gift and now this one Golden Week. I'm going to try and keep this at a T rating at least until maybe next Valentine's Day then we might bump it up to an M rating. I would like to build this romance up slowly instead of hot and heavy. If you haven't read the other two you might want to as this is a series the next one after this will be in November (maybe) that will be Labor Thanksgiving Day and the last two will end up being Christmas Gift and New Year's Wish. Then were right back to Valentine's Day gift all over again.

Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha I just love writing stories about them.

This has been Beta Read.

And now without any further delay here is Golden Week third installment of my timeline series. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you. ^_^

ZR ~*


Golden Week

By

Zona Rose

Chapter 1


Nanoha's POV

Golden week has finally arrived and our trip to the Hot Springs has begun. There are a lot of us going this time not just the usual group (my family, Arisa, Suzuka, and her two maids). We also have Hayate and her knights as well as Lindy and Fate.

This is where Fate and I had our second battle a year ago and when I first met Arf. This time it's all different, as we can all relax and just have fun for the whole week.

After arriving and putting our luggage in our rooms I grabbed Fate's hand and showed her around. We came to a pretty waterfall with coy fish swimming in the pond below and stood watching the waterfall while holding each other, content in just holding the others hand.

After we got back to the lodge we all decided, evening was approaching, to play some games in the room as. Every once in a while I would catch a look on Fate's face when she didn't think anyone was watching her. She had a worried, almost scared look on her face at times. I wondered what would cause her to feel that way. Was she having second thoughts about us dating? I never had a chance to ask her that first day what was bothering her, as we went to bed pretty soon after that.

Day two begun with us all excited about finally hitting the Hot Springs, but I noticed that Fate looked uncomfortable again. As we were all getting changed to go into the Hot Springs, Fate seemed to be holding back. I told the others to go on ahead without us; I wanted to talk to Fate alone. Everyone gave us knowing smiles and winks at wanting to be alone.

"Fate, are you all right? You haven't been your cheerful self lately. Is something wrong?"

She was looking at the floor twisting her hands like she was nervous about something. "I'm nervous, Nanoha. I've never been naked around anyone else but Arf. Not only that but my back still has visible scars that the others will see when I go in there and I don't want them to start asking me a bunch of questions."

I had forgotten about the scars she had gotten from her abusive mother almost a year ago. I racked my brain for a way for Fate to come in with us where she would be a little bit more comfortable, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to do this. When an idea popped into my head, and I smiled at Fate to let her know I'd come up with a plan.

"Fate, I have an idea. They're going to end up seeing them anyways so what we say is that you were on a mission but you can't talk about it because it's classified. That should stop them from asking you questions about it.

We're going to have to make it sound really convincing or Arisa was going to chew on it and keep nagging to find out if it's true or not. It's not a lie (technically) so we don't have to worry on that front, but Arisa has a habit of being like a dog, as she does try to dig things up."

"Do you really think that will work Nanoha? Maybe I shouldn't go in it all if it's going to cause problems…"

"But if you don't go in then they're going to ask you more questions than if you do go in. Please Fate; you've got to go in, but I'll stay with you. It'll be okay I promise."

Fate sighed when she realized that she couldn't deny her girlfriend anything, and proceeded to get ready to go in after the other girls. After a short while Fate realized that Nanoha hadn't moved from where she had been standing, so she slowly looked backwards to her girlfriend's face to see if there was something wrong.

Nanoha was staring at her rather…intently, which was making Fate blush and she subconsciously start covering up her body thinking there was something wrong with it. This seemed to wake Nanoha from her daze, and she spun around to give Fate some privacy.

"I'm sorry Fate. I didn't mean to stare."

Once they had wrapped towels around themselves then they moved to the next room. Nanoha volunteered to wash Fate's back, and after she was done Fate returned the favor. When they both had finished, they moved over to the pool where the others were already basking in the hot water and warm sun.

They had picked the open air bath the weather was beautiful that day. As they enjoyed the bath they talked about nothing of any real importance; how things were going at school, Suzuka's cats, or even Arisa's dog that had just had her puppies.

Unfortunately, they could see that Arisa wanted to ask about the scars, but between Suzuka, Hayate, and Nanoha they kept steering her away from mentioning them. This worked well, until she finally blew up, turned to look at Fate and asked her what had happened.

Fate tried a couple times to tell her that it had been a classified mission, but every time she tried she would choke up thinking about it. Finally it had got too much for her as tears started to leak from her eyes she got up and left, practically running out of the room.

Nanoha glared at her Arisa before she went running after Fate to try and comfort her. Nanoha finally caught up to her in the outer room, where she was throwing on her clothes, not even trying to dry off. When Nanoha stepped in front of Fate their eyes met and Nanoha put her arms around her friend and cried into her shoulder. They stood there for a while until Fate was able to get herself under control. They dressed, left the bathhouse and went to the courtyard garden so that Fate could compose herself and gather her thoughts.

At supper time, the adults had noticed that the children were unusually quiet so Momoko pulled Nanoha over to one side and asked if something was wrong. Nanoha told her that had Arisa had asked Fate something rather personal and painful and they were trying to work it out and for the adults not to worry about it.

After they were all in their pajamas Suzuka hit Arisa, who looked at the ground in shame before speaking really softly: "Fate, I'm sorry that I asked you about something that was so obviously painful. I won't do it again, I promise."

Fate nodded her head in thanks and they all crawled into their beds. Fate and Nanoha were next to each other, Suzuka and Arisa were on the other side of Nanoha, and Hayate and Vita were near the door on Fate's side.

Nanoha reached out her hand towards Fate and she took it in her own. As the two girls fell asleep they both had smiles on their faces while they were holding hands. A few hours later Nanoha was woken up by strange noises. When she looked over she could see that Fate was having a nightmare. Nanoha climbed out of bed and went over to wake her. Once Fate was awake she clung to Nanoha and cried silently, trying not to wake the other girls in the room.

After Fate had calmed down, Nanoha got up and went to get her a glass of water. Upon her return the others were up and sitting around Fate trying to comfort her. Kneeling down in front of her she handed Fate the glass of water. She took a generous drink and sat down.

"I'm sorry for being such a bother to everyone and waking you all up in the middle of the night." Looking down at her hands she started twisting them in a nervous gesture again waiting for someone to tell her to stop being a baby, but those words never came.

"Fate, listen to me." Nanoha cupped her cheeks in her hands and tilted her head up to look Nanoha to her face. "It's going to take you a long time to get over what happened, so don't expect this to go away overnight. I will always be here for you in one way or another, so we'll get through this together, okay?"

Moving closer to Fate, Nanoha pulled her into her arms and she started to cry into her shoulder. Nanoha looked at the others and explained that what she was about to tell them was considered classified information and extremely painful to Fate.

"You all know that when Fate and I first met we were rivals, we were both looking for the artifacts. Here at the Hot Springs is where we had our second battle. Fate was under orders from her mother to find the items, and when she was unable to get more than just a few her punishment was that she was tortured.

Once I had beaten Fate in a fair fight and won the rest of the items that she had collected, we had taken her into custody. They were in the process of arresting her mother, when the b-witch's cruelty continued when she spoke to Fate. Fate couldn't take the emotional and mental torture anymore and collapsed. When she finally got up, she came to try and save her mother. Her mother chose death over being helped by a daughter that she despised and hated.

Fate still has nightmares about this. Usually when I am near she doesn't have them, so I guess I need to be right next to her in the same bed for me to truly chase them away. What I've just told you can go no further than this room. I'm sorry Hayate and Vita but you can't even tell the others about this, not even Sigmun (though I'm pretty sure Shamal already knows, or has at least worked it out). I probably could be court-martialed and thrown in the brig for even talking about this."

Looking down at the sleeping face of her friend, and love, she placed a kiss on top of her head. Nanoha shifted herself so that she was lying down with Fate still on top of her. The others covered them with the sheet and blanket and then proceeded to their own beds to go back to sleep. Nanoha lay there awake for short time and then slowly drifted off to sleep with her arms still wrapped around the girl she loved.

The next day everyone seemed to walk on eggshells around both Nanoha and Fate. This didn't go unnoticed by the adults as they tried to find out what the problem was. Again, Nanoha explained that they would work it out themselves.

By the fourth day they were all back to their usual playful selves treating each other like they had before Nanoha's explanation, and Fate was able to enjoy the Hot Springs without worrying about what the others were going to say about her scars.

That evening, Nanoha and Fate took an evening stroll to the bridge where they had had their second battle. Holding hands they both looked down at the water remembering all the things that have happened in the past year.

Nanoha turned towards Fate and cupped her face and lent down to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders and pressed their bodies together. Gently licking Fate's lips, Nanoha asked wordlessly if they could deepen the kiss, Fate opened her mouth, allowing Nanoha's tongue to slip inside and enticed Fate's tongue to do the same, as they shared their first true deep kiss.

As they continue to kiss, Nanoha's hands started to rub Fate's back, pushing their bodies even closer together. When they finally broke their kiss to take a breath they rested their foreheads against each other while they both panted breathlessly.

"That was a better memory than the last one we had here, wasn't it Nanoha?"

"Yes but that time I got to learn your name and I was able to look into your eyes even deeper than our first meeting. Eyes that use to be filled with sadness and loneliness are now full of joy and happiness for the most part."

"If I could go back and redo the past I don't know if I would want to change anything, because of what happened I was able to meet you, befriend you, and fall in love with you, so I don't think I would change the past even with all the pain and suffering I had to go through."

"Oh Fate… I love you so much, and we'll always be together. Even if we're not next to each other, in our hearts we'll always be side-by-side."

"I love you too, my Angel."

They walked back to their room hand-in-hand, and heart-to-heart. When they arrived everybody was ready for bed, as they had to get up early the next morning to head back to their everyday lives, Golden Week was over and it was time to get back to school then once Summer Vacation arrives it's time to start their cadet training.


A/N: Well I hope everybody enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you. Like I had said in the beginning this was the third installment of this series. The next installment will be Labor Thanksgiving Day unless I come up with something during their cadet training. If I do I will post it as part of this series.

I will be working on a few chapters like Lightning Fingers 9 and I'm tweaking the special chapter for A College Romance which is actually chapter 10 of that story. I will also be working on episode 2 of Red LaGooN. The poll on voting for Red LaGooN is still open if you have not voted yes or no on the question do I keep going with my mimic series of this story or not. Poll is closed.

Please review let me know what you think again I am still looking for a beta reader if you're interested please private message me and we'll talk. I have a Beta Reader.

I thank all of my readers for enjoying my work and taking the time to enjoy the read.

In Love & Light,

Zona Rose ~*