A/N: I had to take the story down due to the rules regarding lyrics being incorporated in stories, after removing the lyrics and making some minor changes to the story I am reposting the story. I apologize to anyone who reviewed, followed or favorited the story before. I will try to fix my other story Thinking of You so it is acceptable according to guidelines and repost it soon.
Disclaimer: I don't own MGLN or the Song "Lil' Red Riding Hood" as sung by Amanda Seyfried which inspired this fanfic (pure Yuri the way she sings it), I recommend listening to the song (YouTube it baby!) while reading.
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Lil' Red Riding Hood
Best friends Hayate Yagami and Nanoha Takamachi are out at their university's annual Halloween Party. The auburn haired Nanoha really didn't want to be there but had been dragged out with a rather embarrassing costume forced upon her. While trying to determine if there were any escape routes she sees the beautiful figure of a woman across the room. The woman is wearing a corseted gold silk grown with a blood-red caped hood. At first all she can see is the bare outline of her face then the woman she is talking to flings back her hood and her face is exposed to the whole room.
She has her long hair half braided back in a renaissance braid which formed the golden tresses into a coronet with ribbons and gemstone flowers worked into it before trailing down her back. Her face is so beautiful it takes Nanoha's breath away. This living angel is standing with another blonde who had a pageboy hair cut and was wearing a black knight costume and a purple haired young woman in an enchantress gown, both of who seem to be trying to convince her to enjoy herself. She shakes her head at them and points to across the room to the bar and tables, her quest to safety has now begun. She looks around the room worriedly as she tries to cut across the edge of the packed dance floor to make her way to the seating area of the room.
Hayate smiles as she sees Nanoha's dazed look, she has become mesmerized by the blonde and the slight flush on her face makes it clear to her troublesome friend that the romantically backward girl has just fallen hard at first sight. "Ne Nano-chan, what'ch looking at, I know my dear friend isn't ogling that tasty blonde morsel over there, is she?"
The statement causes a flood of color on her face and the sapphire eyed girl pulls her own cloak tighter around her. Pulling her white hood down over her head tighter to hide the furry tufted ears that had been glued over her own and trying to not feel like the predator she had been dressed up as. She had made the mistake of letting her friend dress her for the party and when she was finally allowed to look in the mirror the sight had almost had her hiding in her closet, damn Hayate and her stupid idea of them all dressing up as apex predators. The shorter brunette was dressed as a falcon with her masquerade mask including a hooked beak. The shorter girl's gruff cousin was somewhere slinking around in a spotted Serval costume. Both of Hayate's victims had been sewn into their outfits, there would be no escape.
"Shit! Nanoha, you better go save your dinner unless you want it to get snatched by someone else," the feisty shrimp pointed out the blonde was now being accosted by a woman dressed in a purple panther costume.
"Stop talking like that!" Nanoha replied testily but began her way into the crowd to help the blonde.
Not knowing what to do but seeing the blonde really didn't want the woman's attention she decided to wing it and just opened her mouth and hoped she didn't make too much of a fool of herself. "Hey, there you are! Come on let's get a drink."
'Not bad, that could have sounded worse,' Nanoha thought to herself.
The blonde turned and looked into the sapphire eyes of her rescuer and felt her heart flip-flop, it was the one person she had wanted to meet here but hadn't dared to hope to have a chance to speak too. She smiled warmly at the shorter woman and in her even warmer lilting voice agreed before taking her protector's arm and excusing herself from her unwanted suitor.
Nanoha hadn't been able to see the blonde's eyes before but once her sapphire orbs met the blonde's wine red eyes the unaccountable attraction she already felt multiplied a hundred fold. The warm hand on her forearm felt right, it was as if this stranger was meant to be by her side. They had only gone ten feet when the crowd began to pushed them part and in her panic of losing this wonderful feeling Nanoha grasped the blonde's hand as it slipped away and pulled her close to her. Now standing face to face and sucked into the beautiful ruby orbs once more Nanoha acted without thinking. First her free arm slid around the blonde's waist and pulled her closer and then she began to dance to the slow romantic tune floating in the air. Without missing a beat the blonde fell into step with her with a small smile, "Is this how you ask a girl to dance? Or is this another ploy to protect me from the dangers around us?"
The smile on the blonde's face melted Nanoha's heart; she wanted that smile to be aimed at her for the rest of her life. The perfect pink lips looked so good that it took all of Nanoha's self control to resist kissing her. 'Don't be stupid Nanoha, you don't even know her name or anything about her, you can't go about kissing strangers!'
"Um, I…uh…well if we are dancing then we can work our way to the other side of the room. We just need to find a path between the other couples then bam you'll be free to go on your way. Nyahaha at least that's the plan," she replied nervously before ducking her head to hide the blush flooding her face.
Too bad that put her looking directly at the blonde's cleavage. Looking at the creamy flesh on display nearly gave the already over-stimulated Nanoha a nose bleed so she turned her face to search out something…anything really…to distract her from the blonde's perfect assets.
As crowd pushed them closer together again Nanoha nearly stumbled but the blonde caught her by tightening her arm around her waist and pulling close against her body. The tight embrace made them both shudder in delight as their bodies began to overheat. Nanoha quickly pulled away despite desperately wishing to be able to hold the blonde closer…perhaps with fewer clothes on too. Swallowing hard she apologized for her stumble. The blonde looked at her would-be protector and nodded it was okay, too breathless from the delightful embrace to speak.
They had made it nearly half way across the room now and the silence between them was getting awkward. Each desperate to say something, anything to hear the other's voice. Nanoha fell back on what seemed to her the obvious if somewhat lame opening, "Um, I guess I never introduced myself, my name is Nanoha, Nanoha Takamachi."
The blonde smiled at this, "I know who you are. You're rather famous on campus. My name is Fate T. Harlaown; I just transferred in at the start of the term."
Nanoha looked up at her and blushed, "I don't know about famous."
Fate smiled, "I guess it would be infamous? You have something of a reputation as a heartbreaker Miss Takamachi."
The auburn haired girl looked about panicked at this, pulling away she waved her hands before her, "It's not like that at all. I'm just not interested in dating. It's not my fault people keep confessing to me. I try to let them down gently but…"
The blonde started to laugh at this desperate exculpation. The sound made the other girl freeze and then she realized the other had been teasing her.
Pouting she said, "It's not funny Fate-chan!"
This made Fate stop giggling, 'Fate-chan? Why did that sound so good coming from this girl's mouth. Oh dear I really am hopelessly head over heels for this girl, sigh and she just stated she wasn't interested, there really is no hope.'
The red eyed girl looked away and said, "I'm sorry I just couldn't help myself, Arisa-san and Suzuka-san told me all about you. I had hoped we could be friends, it was one of the reasons why I came tonight but then they stuck me in this outfit and well…it's not really my style."
Nanoha looked her over and before she could stop herself she blurted out, "I think you look beautiful in that outfit, and it's much better than what I'm wearing."
Fate looked down the length of the other girl but the white wooly cape was secured tightly against spying eyes. "What are you wearing under that cloak? Aren't you burning up in that thing?"
Nanoha's eyes began to shift left to right as if searching for an escape but the force of her attraction to the blonde made it impossible for her to run away. Knowing she'd have to reveal herself eventually she undid all but her collar button and flung back her hood. She now stood as proudly as she could in front of the blonde in her skin tight wolf costume.
The blonde let out a quiet, "Oh my."
Nanoha looked her in the eyes at that and saw…lust? Love? She wasn't sure exactly but it was a pure reflection of her own feelings for the blonde.
Taking the blonde back in her arms as another song began to play they danced again, each with a slight flush to their cheeks and hearts pounding.
It took three more songs to make it to the other side of the room. During this time they were able to overcome their mutual embarrassment and found they had a lot in common. Fate didn't want Nanoha to leave and Nanoha didn't want to go so she sat with the blonde at one of the small tables. They ordered drinks and laughed together throughout the night. Before they left well after 2 am they exchanged cell phone numbers and emails. Something Nanoha didn't do with anyone on her first meeting with them but she felt desperate to keep in contact with the blonde.
Every day up until Christmas the two talked, texted, and emailed each other. They would meet on campus on the rare occasion they both had a free period for lunch and saw each other on their one day off a week to simply hang out. Then on Christmas Eve Nanoha saw Fate with a dark haired man on the street and felt a strange and painful sensation in her chest. She began to try to avoid Fate but on New Year's Day the blonde showed up at her apartment, angry and hurt at the auburn haired woman's behavior she confronted her.
"What the hell Nanoha? I thought we were friends, best friends. Best friends don't just flake out on someone like this. I thought I meant something to you."
Nanoha felt guilty over her behavior but was also still a little angry over seeing the blonde with someone else, especially on what was one of the most romantic days of the year. "Well, what about you, you lied to me; you told me you weren't dating anyone. You even told me you were going out of town for Christmas and that's why we couldn't be together but I saw you. I saw with…with that man!"
Fate blinked at this angry declaration, 'Man? What man? …oh shit!'
The sapphire eyed girl now had tears in her eyes and was desperately trying to hold them back.
Ruby eyes took in the other girl's dejected state, gently she said, "Nanoha, that wasn't a man, well Chrono-nii is a man but well he's my brother. We were doing some last minute shopping for our mom and his girlfriend. Um fiancée actually now, he is horrible with jewelry so he wanted my opinion…"
Nanoha looked up at her, "Brother? You never told me you have a brother. You said you only had a twin sister who died when you were nine."
Fate blushed, "Well, I'm adopted. I really don't like talking about it. My mother kind of went off the deep end after Alicia-nee died and my aunt Lindy took me in. After my mother died she adopted me, I was twelve."
Now Nanoha felt awful, she had just made her best friend mention a painful experience all because she got stupid jealous. Then the girl stiffened, realization hitting her like a ton of bricks, 'I was jealous over Fate-chan. I absolutely do not want to share her with anyone else. Just the thought of her being with someone else was the most painful thing I have ever had to deal with.'
"Fate-chan, I'm sorry for being such an idiot. I don't know if you can forgive me but I really hope we can be friends again, in fact I'd like us to be a bit more than friends."She blushed at this last bit then pressed on.
"Fate-chan will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?" Nanoha said it clumsily but coherently.
Fate couldn't believe her ears, "You want to go out with me?!"
Nanoha looked at her in surprise at her surprise. "Of course I do. I…I think…no, I know I'm in love with you Fate-chan. I can't think of anyone else who I'd want to go out with."
Fate's heart nearly exploded in happiness and she threw herself at the auburn haired girl and kissed her for all she was worth. Nanoha responded with similar gusto and was suddenly very thankful to Hayate and her stupid idea for Halloween. Smiling into the kiss she could almost hear her squirrelly friend teasing her for this development. 'Fufufu, The big bad wolf got little red riding hood in the end after all. Hmm, now how soon until you'll eat her up?'
And without a hint of bashfulness she replied to the snickering voice in her head, 'Soon, very soon.'
~Fin~