A/N: Yay! Another update has arisen!~ Thank you for those who have reviewed and added this as your favorite, alert, etc. Are you excited to read this next chapter? I hope so~ sit back and enjoy. :3

~o*O*O*o~

To Love A Vampire

Chapter 2

By: Fate

~o*O*O*o~

I took my time to walk from school to work. My family wouldn't mind, I mean it wouldn't be a busy day today because today's Friday. Tomorrow will be the busiest day, but not more so than Sunday when everyone is off from work, school and what-not. Looking at the sky, I couldn't help but smile to myself. Today was such a beautiful day, nothing can go wrong.

I opened the jingly door and what caught my eyes were not of the customers waiting in line, but of a certain blonde who held the huge line behind her while ordering whatever she saw that she was fascinated by. To my surprise, all of our goodies that my mom made were gone and Miyuki looked like she was amazed but frightened of how the blonde would eat all of the sweet sugars by herself.

As I approached my sister, walking to the back, she stopped me and told me that she would help mom bake while I take care of the customers. I believe a sweat dropped at the side of my face because I didn't want to face the huge crowd of customers, but I still turned around to the cashier, smiling. As soon as I met bright, stunning crimson orbs, my breath hitched in my throat. She tilted her head slightly and smiled at me. I mentally slapped myself for keeping the customers waiting.

"A-ah... I'm sorry, what was your order?" I barely managed out, looking anywhere but at her eyes, but still managed to glance at her every now and then. She looked at me for a second before responding, her eyes sparkling at each word she said, like she couldn't wait to eat all of the things she had ordered. I chuckled inwardly. I've never seen someone this excited about food before. I mean, food is good, don't get me wrong, but it's just that I hadn't encountered anyone who sparkled this brightly just by the mere word of any food.

When she was done reciting what she had ordered before, I told her the price and she handed me the money, with a little extra change; scratch that, it was more than just a little, it was over a thousand yen. I refused to take it when she said that I should just keep the change, but reluctantly took it when she kept smiling at me and waving her hands, pushing the change back into my hand. I bowed slightly and thanked her.

"It's no problem."

Her voice was so soft; firm but soft. I wonder what her voice would sound like if she was yelling. Would it still be soft, but loud at the same time? I wonder... it'd be interesting to find out. "You wouldn't mind to wait for awhile while they bake all of the things you ordered, right?" I asked after awhile of pondering on her voice.

She shook her head along with her hand and told me that she could wait, but I bet she can't wait any longer to just devour the goodies. I nodded and we just stared at each other, for it seemed like forever; I don't even know how much time has passed since we've been staring at each other. I don't know if I should start a conversation to get this boring atmosphere of waiting to disappear from my thoughts.

As if on cue, Miyuki decided to barge in at that time and dump a whole load of yummy baked goodies in two boxes. 'That was fast!' I swear my mouth dropped and my eyes were wide. She was going to eat all of those? I thought she was just kidding when she said twenty each. What big appetite and stomach she has. I don't think I can eat all of that in a few days; it would probably take me a few weeks. She's something alright. Unless she's giving them to her family as well then that would be a different story; yeah, let's just go with that, she's going to give them to her family. I laughed nervously and smiled crookedly at her.

"Well, you're good to go; have a nice day," I said as she smiled once more at me. She nodded and grabbed the boxes, stacking them first of course. I couldn't help but watch her retreating back until she turned around and looked at me again; I averted my gaze, a light blush spreading on my cheeks for getting caught staring.

"Have a wonderful day." And with that, she left.

Taking care of the long line of customers wasn't what I was expecting on a Friday evening, but the encounter of a gorgeous blonde just made my day. We closed a little early today due to someone buying all of our products in one go. A clean sweep I tell you. You don't just get random people coming in and buying everything that you have on display, leaving you empty handed with more customers disappointed and waiting for the next batch of baked goodies.

I wasn't complaining though, we did make every customer satisfied after that blonde left. Even though she gave us that big amount of change, I couldn't help but want to meet her again. She seems like she would come back for more. I mean, come on, didn't you see how she was acting when she was telling me what she wanted? She looked like a little kid at a candy store pondering on which many sweets to experiment.

I wouldn't be surprised if she came back tomorrow. A small chuckle came to my lips and I closed the doors to Midori-ya, locking it. Since my family already left home a few minutes before me, I had to walk home alone. I'm not as scared of the dark as people would be. I can protect myself; my dad taught me how to fight to protect myself. He taught me every move that he himself knew. This one time, I had to fight against him and it turned out to be so intense that I accidentally kicked him where the sun wouldn't shine for awhile. Nyahaha, I felt bad, but he said that I was becoming stronger. A small smile formed on my lips as I was recalling on the bittersweet memory.

As I reached home a tug came to my chest. I grabbed onto my shirt, clawing where my heart is. I felt like my whole body was being squeezed up or shaken rather roughly. Stagger breathing came and I reached for the gates leading into my house. Upon touching it, I felt another tug and my eyes shut closed tightly. My hand went to my handbag and opened it, but by the time I knew it, my body collapsed through the open gate and onto the hard tile floor leading to the door. My head throbbed and my vision suddenly became blurry. All I heard was my heavy breathing before passing out.

~o*O*O*o~

11:39 PM.

My eyes opened groggily and a felt sweaty. I made out the stuff around me with the small light from the night lamp on a desk and noticed that I was in my room. "...Nanoha!" I heard Miyuki's voice ring into my head and winced slightly. "I'll go get mom," She said softer this time, before leaving my room. I looked around slowly, careful about the pain in my chest and head.

"What..." I managed to squeak out. "...happened?" Slowly recalling fainting in front of the house, I sank low into my bed. 'I'm such an idiot for not paying attention to the time...' I reached for my head and winced. "O-ow... a bandage? Wha..."

I heard the door open and it brought me back from my thoughts. "Nanoha sweety." I heard mom say before walking over to my bed. I just looked up at her and smiled, even though it looked like a weak smile to her, I tried my best to make it seem like I was just tired. Although, thinking about it, I am kind of tired now. "You should know better than to skip."

'I know...' I merely nodded weakly. She took my hand into her own and sat down on the side of my bed. "...oh my gosh! You're hot and sweaty!" She ran to the bathroom to retrieve a bowl with cold water and a small towel, placing the cold damp towel on my forehead. Closing my eyes, I thought about sleeping but then my mom's voice rang into my head again. "Sweety, we need to take you to the hospital tomorrow, alright?" Even though she said it as a question, I know that she was stating it as usual. She's going to take me anyway, so I just nodded. "Well, you need some sleep tonight, so I'll let you rest. Good night, Nanoha. Rest well." I nodded after she kissed the towel on my forehead.

"Night mom..." I said tiredly with a yawn. The lamp flicked off and the door shut closed, leaving me in darkness and sleep waiting to take over my body.

~o*O*O*o~

After the hospital, I had to stay home; I couldn't even go to school, but guess what? I went. Breaking mom's orders of staying home, I left the house when they went to work. I couldn't miss a day of school, no matter what condition I was in. As crazy as it sounds, I wanted to meet that girl again, that blonde.

School went rather... iffy. I couldn't really concentrate much to my displeasure. I'm so glad that Arisa-chan took notes and such for me. She seemed pretty mad when she found out that I was sick again. I couldn't help it, I had to come to school, but she said that I had to at least rest for once and let them handle things from there. Suzuka-chan even took her side as well. I don't want to rest on our last year of school before college.

I couldn't possibly just let them, even if it's just once in a while; it's too much to ask for. There wasn't an option today though. My mind was somewhere and earth wasn't one of the places. I'm just glad that school ended well; well, not "well", but better than I had thought it would turn out to be... at least.

Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan walked me all the way home, making sure that I didn't go to the shop today and offered to help in my place. Pouting was all that I could afford to do in my case; it didn't help me though. On the way home however, I told them about the blonde that I met the other day, yesterday actually. They gave me the disbelief look when I told them about all of the bakeries that she bought, I then pouted again.

After awhile of telling them about her, they left me in my room and went back up the small hill to the café. I lay on my bed, thinking of how to get to the shop of course; to be able to see the blonde again would be great. It would probably make my pain go away, how she catches my breath. I clutched my shirt tightly. My chest was hurting again and this time my breathing was more staggered than before.

'...I have to do something!'

~o*O*O*o~

A/N: Curious? Want to know what Nanoha's condition is? Well, read more chapters to find out. :P Thank you for those who are following me, I appreciate it, it means a lot to me. :3 Please keep reading and reviewing! It helps a lot that I get as much motivations and muse back. :)

~Fate

Updated: 04/10/2012