I do not own Nanoha though I sometimes wish I had an Intelligence Device.

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Alone in a crowd

Stars shone down brightly on the world of Mid-childa. The glaring, man-made lights of the city competed with the stars for dominance, seeking to drown out the night. The dark city line loomed on the horizon like an army. At first glance, the place would resemble a highly populated earth. Then a bright streak of a mage on a late night errand would flash overhead and you would be forced to reconsider.

There was a building. A certain building, well known by book lovers all over Mid-Childa and the officials of the TSAB, The Infinity Library, a massive stronghold of knowledge. Every record that ever existed lay entombed there. Records of distant civilizations that long fell to dust. In a way, it might be considered the root of everything. This was all well and good if someone could only FIND what they were looking for in the disorganized mess.

However, thanks to several years of sleepless nights, a brilliant young archeologist final put the shelves in order. For the first time in Mid Childan history, the library worked.

Requests for information ran day and night through this information central. Steady streams of aides and secretaries flowed through the archives, punctuated by odd groups of civilians.

Shifts of librarians worked the lower levels, assisting the public and lower level information requests. Yet despite that the library closed promptly at nine 'o clock every day and all the employees were sent home. Even after all workers had been evicted the lights of the library burned long into the night, most of the time never turning off. Only one person ever remained after hours.

The one employee that hardly ever left.

It was rare to see the lights in the library truly turn off but It came as no surprise when the internal lights flickered off at eleven o' clock. Most people knew this happened every three days or so, when it was compulsory for it to properly close to avoid burning out the power supply.

The shadow of a man slipped out the door and punched in a security code with the defeated air of having done so one time too many. He ignored the familiar hum as the security wards activated, continuing toward the street. The library was quite well defended, considering the amount of confidential information it held. All kinds of wards protected the building, from hostile sensors to physical defense shields.

As the man set foot on the street a streetlight flared his haggard features into focus.

A dark green overcoat was hanging limply on a thin frame. He was skinny, frightfully so, from the long shifts that were required of him. Meals were often skipped to accommodate his work. Long blond hair had been tied back into a thin ponytail to keep hair out of his face. He had no time to cut his hair and it had gradually grown out over the years.

Three days ago, when his long shift had started, his hair had been pulled back neatly. Now, several locks had escaped the ribbon and fell messily into his face. Normally he wouldn't like to look untidy but today he was too tired to care.

Defeated emerald eyes stared at the pavement, shadowed by his crooked glasses. Idly, he wondered how long he could keep this up. Sooner or later, he knew, his body would give out due to the immense stress he placed on it.

Yuuno didn't mind.

People needed information now to help save lives. If he could save people with his information then so be it.

He doubted anyone would remember him when he finally reached his limit. Over the years his friends had drifted apart from him, only ever calling on official business. He didn't mind, they had more important things to do, but every now and then he would wish that they would talk to him again. The only one who would still come to talk to him was Hayate.

For some unknown reason, the brown haired commander insisted on coming for her information personally. She would make him smile with her wild antics, ask how he was doing, the only person who ever did so anymore. Sometimes one of the Wolkenritter would accompany her or, as of recently, Vivio.

Vita still held a grudge from their first match, when she couldn't break his shield. She liked to pester him but he was fine with that, at least she cared. She was the regular one that would accompany Hayate.

Vivio was hyper, but a good listener. She loved listening about Ancient Belkan history and stories about the person she was based off of, Saint Kaiser. He enjoyed her company. Her child innocence would rub off on him and he would feel a lot better for a few days.

It was only due to sheer willpower that He was still going.

Bleary with lack of sleep he stumbled along, finding energy to give any passerby a pleasant smile. At last, the welcoming neon sign of his destination came into view. He slumped inside the small diner.

Instantly a waitress was by his elbow, guiding him to his usual seat at the counter. He didn't have to say anything anymore because he came here too often. A bowl of soup slid to a stop before him. Though he was exhausted he knew he had to eat something before heading back to work the next day.

He slowly began to slurp down the soup welcoming the warmth. The staff was giving him sympathetic looks. He was a regular. Every few nights when he got off shift he would come down here and have a bowl of soup. Each night they would see him getting worse and worse.

It was disturbing to watch someone you knew slowing deteriorating. Even a random customer who had gradually wormed his way, unknowingly, into the hearts of the staff. The bartender had tried to get him on solid food a couple months back but he had declined the sandwich with that quiet sad smile of his. The cook had created a special soup for the ragged man, made specifically to provide him with all the nutrients he lacked in one concentrated bowl without him knowing. The waitress had taken it upon herself to always escort him in when he was near collapse and make sure his seat was free.

Trying to pull him out of his slowly spiraling self destruction had become an important project to them, made all the more difficult because he had a tendency to refuse help of all sorts. They had gotten him to sleep for fourteen hours in the back room once but in the morning he was gone once again only to show up four days after, barely managing to stagger in.

The waitress slammed a glass of milk down on the table, causing him to start with surprise. Even as he opened his mouth to protest, the brunette's glare made it clear that there was to be no argument. Sensing a lost cause he meekly accepted the warm drink, unaware of the identical smiles of relief spreading across the three's faces.

A concerned voice started him out of his haze of exhaustion.

"Yuuno!"

The head of the Infinity Library stared blankly at the familiar brown haired commander for a few seconds before he recognized whom he was staring at.

"Hayate?"

She looked tired, but not as bad as he was. Her exhaustion was the tiredness of a stressful day, easily fixed with a few hours sleep. He absently noted with a dark chuckle, he had long gone past that point. Part of him was glad that she wasn't overworking herself to the point of collapse like he was. Concerned blue eyes studied him.

"Are you okay, Yuuno?"

He forced a smile to his face.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You don't look too well…"

He shook his head resolutely "I'm just tired, forget about it."

He drained his bowl and dropped his money on the counter. The bartender shook his head.

"Its on us."

"Keep it." He insisted and rose unsteadily off of his stool.

He turned to the door, only to see the world blur suddenly. He swayed, his knees weak. To his surprise, Hayate threw his hand over her shoulder and let him lean on her.

"I'm fine…" slipped past his lips in a tired sigh.

"Yuuno!" She sounded like she was about to cry.

He pushed her away, attempting to stand on his own; he wobbled for a grand total of five seconds before he collapsed.

"Let me help you!"

He grit his teeth, ignoring her plaintive cry.

"I…can still go on…"

At her limit of watching her friend's pain, she darted forward catching his weight. As he opened his mouth to protest, she snapped.

"Just shut up and let me help you."

Supporting Yuuno she dragged him off to his apartment, sending a notice to her knights.

Sorry guys, I don't think I'll be home this evening. I ran into Yuuno, he's in bad shape. Shamal, can I get you to stop by in the morning?

Of course, Hayate. You will be sleeping over by Yuuno-kun I assume?

Yeah. I don't think I can trust this idiot to not do something stupid.

A mental sigh.

Okay then.

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Hayate's Pov

I cut off the conversation and gave my childhood friend a sidelong glance. He was a wreck. His normally neat hair was frazzled and unkempt. Knowing him the last time he had eaten anything was probably several days ago. I was both worried and terrified for him, he was more like the others than he realized. Them won't admit they're hurting until something serious happens.

It was like he was wasting away before my very eyes. Each time I saw him he was getting thinner and thinner. A defeated exhaustion had set in. He was slowly killing himself, knew it and accepted his fate. He had no more strength to fight.

It was as if all his will to live was gone.

Don't get me wrong, It wasn't as if he was blatantly suicidal. He was of the worse kind, the quiet ones who did things slowly and by the time you know what happened it would be at the funeral. He would work himself into an early grave, like the over enthusiastic Nanoha.

Dragging his flagging carcass up the stairs to his apartment was difficult but not impossible. Using the handrails to drag us up, We gradually inched upwards to his second floor apartment.

I wondered why he lived out here, alone on the city's edge. The building was a uniform dull gray but appeared to be pleasantly habitable. It looked like a place that a lower ranked mage would occupy not the place that a high ranking, well paid Head Librarian would take up residence.

Somewhere along the way Yuuno gave up on fighting against my grip, deciding it was not worth the struggle to escape in his state.

We halted before a nondescript door will a dull brass number attached.

"Can you stand?" I ask him gently.

Wow.

The dull light of the corridor really threw his face into the worse light. There were deep purple bags under his eyes that fairly shouted the amount of sleep that he had gotten these past few days. None.

If it wasn't for those nifty hygiene spells he might have reeked a lot worse but as it was, he was smelling pretty bad. Dented glasses were dangling off his nose, moments away from falling off completely but he didn't seem to care too much.

To my surprise, his green greatcoat was stylish but as I held onto the material I could feel the months of wear and tear on the fabric. The thing was tattered and...ew...was that an ink stain?

Okay, I have experience with looking after five family members. Having another one shouldn't prove to be too difficult. None of them had ever been this bad off however...

Something inside me twisted painfully as Yuuno nodded tiredly and adjusted his weight. I slowly released him, ready to catch him if he fell again. He smiled that quiet smile of his but stood, swaying precariously, on his own two feet.

Digging in his pocket, he fished out a single key. With exhausted fingers, he jammed in the lock and turned. The plain door swung inwards. He took one step into his apartment and dropped like a rock. I let out a panicked cry.

"Yuuno!"

I knelt down and rolled him over with quivering hands. A quick check of his pulse assured me that the head librarian was still among the land of the living. Relief flooded through me as I felt over his heart. Then I frowned and counted his heartbeat rate. It fluttered faintly under my fingertips.

From what I knew from first aid, one's heart was not supposed to be beating that slowly or that quietly.

Dismissing the problem for now, I hoisted him up again and dragged him towards the couch. Despite his lack of size he was quite heavy while unconscious. I rested him down and looked around the place I assume he called 'home'.

It was a regular apartment, nothing special. The place was too clean though. There were no obvious signs of habitation and it looked vaguely deserted.

I spied a door off to the side and my curiosity got the better of me. Cautiously, I opened the door. The sheets were neatly folded and a stack of books perched precariously on a table. My eyes widened as they fell on a single framed picture.

It was a picture of us, not long after the Book of Darkness incident. Everyone was stuffed into the frame grinning and smiling at the photographer. I was still immobilized in my wheelchair in the center, holding my tome and staff on my lap. Yuuno was out to the side but the expression on his face was one I hadn't seen in years. Pure happiness.

I tore myself away from the memories and picked up the blankets on the bed. Stepping carefully into the kitchen I pried oven the fridge door. Empty, as I expected, save for a single bottle of water.

"Arg! Yuuno, why do you have no food!?"

I could've done with something warm…

With a suffering sigh, I snatched up the bottle and started to open it. My easy steps echoed in the ghostly apartment. I took a quick sip of water before carefully putting it down on the dusty coffee table.

I approached the slumped body of my friend cautiously. Slack in unconsciousness, his face looked years younger. It did nothing to diminish the bags under his eyes though. Curiously, I noted a blemish on his face and leaned closer. With a delicate finger, I traced the thin scar on the side of his face.

"When did he get this?" I wondered with worry.

How could I not notice such an obvious head injury? I mean, I only stopped by once a week or so, something like this would've been obvious! Shoving that rather puzzling matter aside, I slipped off his heavy coat, struggling to pull it off of his comatose body. Rather simple in design with pale green edging, the dark green helped him cut an imposing figure. When he was not passed out from fatigue that is. As it was, without it he looked surprisingly small.

A quick glance to his exposed forearms made me let out a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't suicidal. A secondary glance revealed another lengthy scar of a similar manner to the one on his head running along the back of his hand.

"Where did he GET all these?"

With a shake of my head, the coat was quickly picked up from the floor. I stared at the positively filthy thing.

"Is it standing up on its own?"

Sad to say, the poor coat had reached such an unfortunate stage in neglect that It was as stiff as a board. Holding it as far away from myself as possible I carefully located the washing machine and dumped it in.

hm...Settings, settings. Small, medium, large, mud, blood, library uniform, coat...

"-The hell?"

I stared at the modified washing machine, vaguely remembering that Shari had installed a blood washing cycle on my own washing machine. Mud I could understand but blood? Yuuno wasn't a fighter by any means! The last time he truly fought was years ago!

"...I suppose its the Coat."

I didn't even bother to question WHY there was a setting especially for Yuuno's work clothes or his coat. Sometimes you just don't want to know these things.

Throwing a blanket over Yuuno's unconscious form as I passed, I made for the bathroom. Thankfully he had soap and clean towels. The bathroom was quite small, as it was only an apartment, with the walls painted a plain blue. Everything was clean and out of all the rooms in the entire residence, the bathroom showed most signs of life. It was clean, lacking the dust that the other rooms had to begin with.

The shower itself had a sizable amount of grit around the drain that I stared at with amusement. How much dust can he collect in one day?!

I had a relaxing steaming shower, making sure to scrub away all the stress of such a hectic day at work. My day was bad, but facing Yuuno like that...

Well It made my 'bad day' seem like a walk in the park. I pulled spare clothes from storage on my device and dressed quickly.

My knights knew I was fine and wouldn't be coming after Yuuno with a shotgun any time soon. Well…Zafira might…

…

I pity Yuuno if that happens. Zafira can get scary even IF I'm his mistress. I have no idea how he developed an overprotective father attitude towards any male that attempted to talk to me. He actually DID scare off the last guy trying to ask me out on a date with an archaic shotgun he bought at an antiques store. It had no ammo but the poor guy didn't know that.

…

Its kind of sad when things like that become the norm around here.

I think this qualifies for a day off tomorrow. Yuuno needs some rest and I'm going to make sure he goes NOWHERE tomorrow. Short of tying him to a chair, which would admittedly be fun but not good for his health, he was going to attempt to go back to work. Time to plot...

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There it is! I've also had this buried in my archive of written stuff for a while so I figured I'd post it!

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NB- I rewrote some of it to make it longer and better! (I hope anyway)