Day in the Life

Chapter Two

Telling

Co-Written with RadiantBeam

Disclaimer: We own none of the characters involved.

Note: I'll admit, I should have put "Relationships", "Family" and "Concessions" as one story instead of three. Though, to be honest, those three are stand-alone stories. You don't need to read all three to understand what's happening between them. They just help clear up the mess that's going on. "Pregnancy" though, I will admit, should have been another chapter to "Family". For those annoyed by that, I apologize.

This could have been another chapter to "Family" as well, I guess. Anyway, I messed up, and I apologize to those it annoyed (rightfully so, I guess). I'll work on combining "Family" and "Pregnancy" together into one story and keeping the reviews.


"You ready for this, Yuuno?"

Yuuno smiled shakily even as Arf squared her shoulders, looking like a soldier going off to war. "If I said no?"

"You'd still have to do it, anyway." Arf's eyes softened slightly as she looked up at the man. "Yuuno, come on. You know they won't like it either way, but they'll hate you if you hide and get killed on a mission."

Yuuno blew out a long breath. "Good point."

Of course, being ready mentally and physically was really blown out the window as he was tackled to the ground. "N...Nanoha?!"

"Hi!" She smiled at him, a very... Seductive look on her face as she ran her fingers through his long hair. "Mmm... You look good enough to eat right now..." She whispered to him and kissed him on the lips fully.

Arf stared at the two, she hadn't expected the flying tackle greeting. At the rate she's going, he'll be naked and in bed with her before he can tell her. She thought and sighed before clearing her throat.

It didn't help as Nanoha was trying to get Yuuno's shirt off of him.

Arf blushed, while she could handle the talk, she REALLY didn't want to watch Fate's lovers go at it. "Nanoha!" She yelled, getting the brunette to stop and look at her. "uhh..." Arf's eyes widened and she backed up from the glare that she was receiving.

"Nanoha..." Yuuno gasped for air. "Please... I... I need to tell you something."

Blinking, she pouted at him. "Mouuu... And I was all ready for some fun too!"

"That's obvious." Arf muttered, gulping as Nanoha turned to look at her again. "Nothing, nothing!" She laughed nervously, closing her eyes and rubbing the back of her head.

Quite suddenly, Arf felt Yuuno deserved far more credit than he got. Any man who could come home to that and still live to tell the tale was made of the stuff that inspired legends!

"As interesting as this is to watch..." Arf coughed as Nanoha glared at her again. "Can we come inside? Yuuno and I need to talk to you and Fate."

Nanoha continued to glare a moment longer, but when it became obvious Arf wasn't going to go away she grumbled and lifted herself away from Yuuno. "Darn it," she muttered, and shot a look at Yuuno. "When she leaves, Yuuno-kun, you're mine."

Yuuno gulped. Whatever Nanoha had planned for him, he desperately hoped she'd talked it over with Fate.

"Nanoha? Nanoha, don't tell me you're tackling Yuuno again..."

Fate came out of the front door, took one look at her two lovers, and sighed. Noticing Arf, she blinked in surprise before smiling.

"Arf! Long time no see. What brings you here?"

She smiled, though it was a little strained considering that she thought the wrath of god (or the white devil) was about to crash down on her. "Well, Fate... Yuuno and I... We need to tell you something..."

"You two aren't secretly lovers are you?"

Arf face-faulted. "How did you get THAT?!"

Fate blinked a few times before laughing in relief. "Oh thank goodness, I knew those rumors were wrong."

Yuuno rubbed his head. "You two need to stop by more often so those rumors don't start up..."

Arf shot him a look once they got inside. "Um, Fate, Nanoha... How much do you two know about what's going on with our superiors?"

Arf and Yuuno both noticed two distinctly different reactions to the question.

Fate stiffened. Went completely stiff and still, and a worried look entered her gaze that hadn't been there before.

Nanoha, on the other hand, just blinked curiously. "What about our superiors?"

Seeing the three look at her, Nanoha got the feeling she really didn't want to know.

(---)

After making sure that she was sitting down and everything was explained to her, carefully, it really didn't surprise Yuuno that Nanoha grabbed him and hugged him tightly. "Can't... Breath..." Okay, maybe a little too tightly.

"Nanoha!" Fate yelped as she loosened the hold her female lover had on Yuuno, who took a deep breath of air when Nanoha's death grip loosened.

"Won't let them, no. Won't let them take you." She rocked back and forth, trembling. "What will happen if you get injured, or worse?" She still hated what happened to her father and how bad it had been for her and her family afterwords.

The more Arf watched this, the more she got impressed with Yuuno.

Yuuno took another deep, cleansing breath of air. As much as he loved Nanoha, her pregnancy had made her amazingly clingy.

"I won't be alone," he managed to wheeze out. "Arf wants to come with me."

"Yeah." Arf grinned. "I'll back his butt up so he doesn't come home in a body bag. Besides..." She shrugged. "We're talking worse case scenario, Yuuno gets sent out. Lindy and Chrono are fighting against it, so it might not even happen."

"But, in order to protect him..." Fate began as realization dawned on her.

Arf nodded. "I'll need more of your mana to get back to my adult form. I'll still use my puppy form so that I can conserve more energy, but, is it okay?"

Fate smiled at her softly. "Arf, if you're there, I won't worry as much..." Both Arf and Yuuno let out sighs of relief. "That doesn't mean that I still don't worry about you though." She pulled her small familiar into a hug. "You were always looking out for me... I just don't want you hurt."

"I know." Arf sighed as she hugged Fate. "But let me look out for you this way too. I don't want to see you cry because Yuuno got badly hurt. At least I can be there to make sure that he stays safe."

Nanoha sighed and loosened her grip on Yuuno. "I... I can't talk you out of this, can I?" She slumped in her seat, depression covering her practically palatable in the intensity around her.

"It isn't me," Yuuno murmured. "It's the higher-ups. They've been putting pressure on everyone lately."

Arf nodded quietly, but even as she did so something hit Fate; a belated realization:

Even if Arf went with Yuuno, that didn't mean he'd be safe. If anything, he could easily die trying to protect her.

He could...

"Yuuno." Fate motioned for him with her hand, glancing at Nanoha as she rose. "Can we talk?"

Yuuno nodded and followed his lovers into the privacy of the living room. Arf raised a brow.

"... Good luck, ferret-boy." She sighed. "You're going to need it."

Sitting down on the floor and leaning against the wall, Arf looked up at the ceiling wearily. Why does everything have to be so dammed complicated? She wondered, ironically mimicking what she had said years ago about the Book of Darkness.

(---)

Yuuno looked at Fate, he couldn't recall a time that she had been so, so emotionally drained. "..I take it that your talk with your brother didn't turn out quite as well as you had hoped, huh?" Seeing her eyes narrow at him, he held up his hands. "Sorry, Fate. I haven't had to deal with the top brass too much, so them asking me to go back out onto the field was rather surprising to me." Especially since he had gotten that information only a couple of days ago.

Fate slowly relaxed. "You probably just saved your life right there," she murmured.

Yuuno believed it. He really, truly did.

"Yuuno-kun?" Nanoha's voice was uncertain. "These missions... you'd keep yourself safe as top prority, right?"

He cringed at that.

"I..." Oh, hell, he couldn't lie. "I'd try," he said at last. "I'd act as a guardian, not a fighter, so I'd mainly protect the mages. If I had to..." He shrugged helplessly. "That's what the higher-ups said."

"But, you wouldn't hesitate to protect them, would you?" Seeing him shake his head, Nanoha sighed. "You always were good about protecting those around you, Yuuno." She smiled softly at him. "Even when we were kids, you always tried to protect me."

"Nanoha, I... Believe me, I'd rather be either at the library or here at home."

"We know." She had a small, sad smile on her face, one that ate at him even worse than if she had been angry. "I know that you would rather stay at home and help raise our children... And I know that you wouldn't want what's going to happen to happen..."

"But we are part of the military..." Fate sighed sadly. "Missions like this happens a lot..."

"Even if we don't like it." Nanoha finished that sentence. There were a LOT of times in the past that she, Fate and Hayate had to skip school and miss social gatherings simply because of missions that popped up, they knew how bad it could get.

They disliked it then...

They really hated it now.

"Fate, Nanoha... I can only promise you that I'll do everything I can to make sure that Arf, myself and everyone I'm with comes back safe and sound." If he had to go, he was going to make sure that he did all he could to ensure the safety of everyone around him.

"I'll hold you to it, Yuuno-kun."

Nanoha rose, took two steps towards the kitchen, and hesitated. "Oh, hell." She whirled on her heel and tackled Yuuno, sobbing.

"Dammit, I don't know what's worse," she whispered. "Knowing what could happen to you, or knowing that it hurts so badly! It didn't hurt like this before!!"

Hugging her back, Yuuno didn't know what to say. He honestly didn't. "Nanoha..." He whispered to her, holding her tightly, protectively.

A moment later, another pair of arms wrapped around the both of them, as Fate rested her head against Yuuno as well, silent tears falling down her face as Nanoha and Yuuno wrapped an arm around her, holding her close.

Not a word was said between them for a long while.

Peeking around the corner, Arf narrowed her eyes as she watched. Even if she got badly hurt or worse, she would make sure that Yuuno came home. The thought of Fate being in more pain than she had been as a child was like an ice stake through her heart. And she couldn't stand that thought.

"Yuuno, Nanoha..." Fate murmured, before she kissed Nanoha on the lips, then kissed Yuuno on the lips as well. "It hurts me too... My heart... It feels like someone stabbed me with a cold blade and twists it each time I think about what could happen to you."

Yuuno didn't know what to say. He'd always known, of course, that Nanoha and Fate loved him; and he knew that sometimes, for them, it was hard to show it. Seeing them now, it truly hit him.

"I'll come home." Yuuno's voice was soft. "I don't know how, or what I'll have to do, but I'll definitely come home."

Nanoha looked at him, tears glistening in her eyes. "I... I don't like being alone... Yuuno-kun... Fate-chan..." When their arms tightened their hug on her, she leaned up and kissed Yuuno on the lips, before kissing Fate. "Please... Don't leave me alone."

"We won't." Fate whispered to her. "We'll never leave you alone, Nanoha."

Around the corner, Arf quietly slumped against the wall, resting her head in her hands. She took a deep breath and stood up, darting out of the kitchen into the bedroom, knowing that was where Fate kept all her communication stuff. In only a few minutes, she summoned up a contact screen.

"Arf?" Lindy blinked at her, confusion written all over her face. "Is something wrong?"

Arf was suddenly grateful that Vivio had gone to visit Momoko and Shiro; she didn't need to see this. "Lindy, that thing you and Chrono are fighting the superiors about... how's it going?"

"They're stubborn." She admitted after a short while. "It's not easy."

"Lindy, please..." Arf wasn't used to begging, even if she was a puppy at times. "It's tearing them apart." Tears welled up in her eyes. "It hurts to watch them right now. You... You have to do something."

"Arf, please calm down." The green-haired woman clearly didn't like what was happening either. "Besides, don't you think that I've got a plan?"

The small familiar blinked in confusion at her. "Lindy?"

Lindy smiled. "I don't pick my fights unless I have a good plan to back me up," she said simply. "I can't say much more than that, but Chrono and Amy are pulling some strings."

"But... Lindy, I don't understand."

"It's simple." The green-haired woman blinked thoughtfully. "The superiors want to send Yuuno out into the field, right?"

Arf nodded.

"But they seem to have forgotten that whenever he was out fighting in the past, Nanoha, Fate, or both were with him."

Arf nodded again; suddenly, it dawned on her.

"Don't tell me... you're going to threaten the higher-ups with Nanoha and Fate?"

The older woman winked at her. "Possibly." She smiled at Arf giggled at the thought. "My daughter is rather scary when she gets upset. I think Signum still flinches around paint."

Smiling as Arf fell to the floor giggling, Lindy couldn't help a rather dark thought come to her mind. I know that the younger mages need support, mentoring, and actual experience even Nanoha and Fate had that phase. She just hoped that she could keep all the younger, inexperienced mages from any real dangers for awhile. It wasn't just Yuuno, she had seen the reports of the newest recruits and even the three Admirals agreed with her on keeping them away from the more dangerous stuff.

She just hoped it was enough.

"Hey, Lindy..."

"Yes, Arf?"

"If Yuuno does go out into the field, I'm going to go with him."

"Arf?" Lindy blinked as the little familiar got a determined look in her eyes.

"Fate will worry about Yuuno, so will Nanoha. If I can help him so that he can go home every day, I will."

Lindy blinked again; after a moment, she chuckled.

"I expected you'd say that," she murmured.

Arf shrugged. "What can I say, I like the kid."

The green-haired woman smiled. "Yes, I know." She hesitated. "Arf?"

"Yes?"

"How did they take the news? Nanoha and Fate, I mean."

"Like I said, it's tearing them up inside..." She sighed. "Lindy, please... Remember how bad it was for Fate when Nanoha got badly hurt? Fate and Nanoha... They're clinging to Yuuno... Trying to keep strong but..."

Lindy was silent, but nodded. "Very well."

"They don't like it," Arf mumbled. "They don't like it, but they're trying to accept it... since it's the brass that's giving orders."

Lindy nodded. "I'll keep doing what I can. You make sure that they stay safe."

Arf nodded as Lindy smiled and said goodbye before hanging up.

"Fate... If he is sent out, I'll keep him safe, I promise you." Arf swore to herself softly.


As for what will happen next, wait and see.

On that note, RadiantBeam is going off to college and so, my work on this series will most likely slow down (It doesn't help that I'm going back to work soon as well.). I doubt we'll stop, but it'll just slow down is all.