Looking Out

The front door closed with an odd sound, making Lindy look up from where she was preparing dinner. She knew that Fate had called and was going home with Nanoha after school and that Amy was at work, so that left Chrono.

Indeed, she saw her son slinking down the hallway in a half-hearted effort to avoid her scrutiny. "Chrono?"

Chrono winced and sighed, coming into the kitchen without protest. He sat on one of the stools by the counter, and Lindy saw the state of his hands. She turned off the stove and headed over to pull the first aid kit out of one of the cabinets. "What happened?" Lindy nodded at Chrono's raw knuckles.

"I got into a fight," was his simple reply.

She handed the kit to him, knowing that he wouldn't like being fussed over, and waited for him to tell her more. Chrono dabbed at his hands with an alcohol wipe, scrunching the sheet up before saying in a tone darker than his usual serious voice, "You should tell Fate to find Nanoha before she starts walking home."

"Why?" Lindy resumed her cooking, keeping an attentive eye on Chrono, who was briskly wrapping a light layer of gauze over his torn skin.

"There are some middle-school boys who are picking on the elementary kids," Chrono growled, holding the gauze strip taut with his teeth as he tore some medical tape with his other hand. "The shy ones, making them run errands or just scaring them for fun. Fate is too quiet to stand up for herself."

"Should I tell the principal?" Lindy asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Chrono said, finished with patching himself up and began to gather the torn wrappers up, scooping them into his less-bruised hand. "They weren't doing anything too bad before, from the information I had dug up, but…" He hesitated, then admitted, "Today, I caught one of them trying to grab Fate by the waist."

"Did he want—"

"No, I don't think it was that bad…he was just mean. I hit him and got Fate away, and after I told her to go home with Nanoha," now Chrono looked mildly embarrassed, muttering, "I went back…and told them to stop or I'll do something."

They must have done something, Lindy surmised, as she knew that her otherwise gentle son would never have started a fight. But he was a good boy, and he wouldn't let cruelty go without exacting justice. She didn't doubt the outcome, but asked anyways. "So you fought with them?"

"Then I took them all home one by one." Chrono crossed his arms, scowling, but not at her. "I told their parents what happened, and what they were doing. Most of them were angry at their kids, but, um…you might be getting a phone call from a Satou-san…"

"I believe you," Lindy smiled, patting him on the shoulder. "Don't worry."

He blushed and tried to cover it up, grumbling, "They were just kids, it wasn't hard to stop them—just hard to do it without hurting them too much."

"Maybe I should speak with Fate about it," worried Lindy, pausing in her chopping. "She seems more cheerful since she started going to school with Nanoha, I don't want to see her get upset…"

Chrono shrugged, but Lindy knew his real concern when he said, "I think she's more upset about some of what they were saying to her…things like how she's not your daughter, that her real mother is a criminal…"

Lindy sighed. They had tried to keep Fate's official documents as honest and straight as possible to avoid complications, but it seems that even now Precia's actions would follow her poor daughter around. "Poor girl…"

"I hit that guy extra hard," Chrono confessed, smirking slightly cruelly. "Then I told him that I'll hit him again if he says things like that to my sister again."

"I'm sure Fate was really happy to hear that," Lindy smiled, and chuckled as Chrono went red again.

The front door jangled as someone struggled to unlock it. Amy called out cheerfully through the wood, "I'm home!"

Lindy cast a look at Chrono, who had shot up and looked panicked, tucking his hands inside his pockets and turning even redder. "Go on up," she said to him sympathetically. "I'll tell her what happened for you."

"Thanks," muttered her son as he fled, embarrassed at his good deed.

"I'm home," a softer voice called from behind Amy, and Fate blinked as they caught the blur of Chrono's rapid escape, both girls looking up the stairs in confusion.

"What's that all about?" Amy inquired as she set her briefcase down.

Lindy chuckled and smiled at her family. "Come on over, and I'll tell you."

Author's Note: This takes place sometime during A's, in case it wasn't clear. I really like Chrono and Fate sibling-fluff, as you may have noticed already! =) Just another short about the Harlaown family!