A/N: I received a few requests to use Dear John in this story, so I dedicated most of this chapter to it. I tried to change as little as I had to in the letters to make it work, only omitting sentences that wouldn't make sense in the situation. Also, if anyone is worried about the genders of the characters in the story, I wouldn't be. It is their "souls" that are being written about here, not the physical forms they are contained in. I hope you enjoy this chapter, as I think it is my favorite of the story so far.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from or the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha anime, nor or any other movie, actor, song, or character referenced or stated in this story.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
by : ~Nissanity~
Chapter 9 – Blessing in Disguise
Nanoha POV
"How long until your mom comes home?" I asked Fate quietly, running my thumb along the soft skin on the palm of her hand.
"A couple of hours. She said she had to finish a project before work tomorrow," she replied, shifting up onto her elbow to look at me, as I lay on the bed next to her.
"A couple of hours?" I repeated. "I don't know, Fate-chan, that really wouldn't be enough time for us," I joked.
"Well, we are only going to get faster with lots and lots of practice, you know?" she said, raising her eyebrows at me expectantly.
I smiled at her. "Nyahaha, I wonder if you were this insatiable in all our lifetimes together?" I replied.
She laid her head onto my chest, now watching our fingers entwine back and forth, as we moved our hands slowly around each others. "Probably. Considering how, um... good, you are at it."
I glanced down to see her blushing at her own statement. "Well, between that and my cooking, I must be the perfect wife for you then, Fate-chan."
"Well, yes..." she began. "If I end up marrying you, that is," she then teased.
"What? Who else would you marry?" I demanded.
She looked up at me, her chin now resting on my chest. "No one. It's just that, marriage is a such a big commitment, you know? A whole lifetime, really," she replied, trying to hide the smile threatening to form on her lips.
"I see..." I said slowly, my eyes narrowing at her. "So you can take my virginity thousands of times throughout the course of history, but you can't be bothered to put a simple ring on my finger? I wonder what I can't be bothered with anymore, if that's the case."
Fate quickly raised her body up and repositioned herself, her head now laying on the pillow next to mine. "Yes, I'll marry you," she said, feigning desperation.
"You'd better marry me," I warned, staring intently at her. After a moment we smiled at each other, and I kissed her gently. After a few seconds though, it felt like her lips had suddenly vanished from in front of me.
I pulled back, observing Fate now with the soft glow around her, and her body beginning to fade away as it had the previous weekend. She gave a look of disappointment, and then mouthed "I'll be back" to me with a smile. I nodded my head in encouragement, trying to mask any sort of anxiety or fear I felt rising inside of me.
Fate brought her index and middle fingertips to her lips and kissed them, and then turned and pressed them against mine. I couldn't feel her touch, but her gesture was enough to comfort me, as I then watched her dissolve away completely in front of my eyes.
I sat up on her bed and pulled my knees up to my chest, curling into a ball while I waited for her to return. I held the ruby orb hanging near my chest with my fingertips, now absently running it along the chain, which was a habit I had picked up whenever I thought about her when I was alone.
I did not remember falling asleep in that position, but I was awoken suddenly as the bed shifted with Fate's sudden return. She had dropped back down onto the bed from a few feet in the air, directly onto her back next to me.
"Fate-chan!" I cried, immediately by her side, pushing her slightly sweaty bangs back from her forehead. She was breathing hard, her eyes wide as she frantically looked around the room. She finally saw my face, and after a few seconds she seemed to relax a bit.
"How long was I gone?" she asked, after calming down a little.
"I'm not sure," I replied honestly. "Not too long, I don't think."
She nodded, and then rubbed her eyes. "This was different than the time before," she informed me.
"How so?" I pressed.
She looked up at me. "During the first time, I stayed with that one scene and watched it from beginning to end. The one we reenacted earlier this week, you know? Well, this time, it was like everything was thrown at me at once. I didn't catch a lot of it."
"What do you remember?" I asked, hoping to help her find some insight.
"I know that... I was a soldier. A-And I went away to war. You were waiting back home for me, and we exchanged a few letters," she said, now beginning to stare at the wall beside her as she thought.
"Do you remember anything that was said in the letters at all?" I continued gently.
She closed her eyes. "There was something about the moon in one of them?" she replied tenatively.
I picked up my cell phone. "Do you mind if I text Ginga and ask her, to see if she knows the movie by chance?"
Fate nodded silently, and I quickly typed in my question to Ginga and sent the message. As I sent it, Fate sat up on the bed, her back now facing to me. "There is something else, Nanoha," I heard her say quietly.
"Yes?"
She looked over her shoulder at me. "They were there too," she said bluntly.
"'They'? Who are you - ?" I began, but immediately cut myself off when I realized exactly who she was talking about.
A few minutes of silence fell over us, as the enormity of her statement was allowed to sink in. If Hayate, Ginga, Teana, and Subaru had been present during this one life that Fate had just visited, it meant they had probably been with us the entire time as we lived our lives, in one form or another.
"I could be wrong," Fate said, her voice indicating she was anything but mistaken about what she had seen.
I looked at my hands. "You're probably not," I replied.
I received a notification alert on my phone, signaling that I had a reply to my message from Ginga. I opened it, and then read the answer out loud.
"Dear John," I told her, then laughed at myself a little for not recognizing the movie sooner. I sat up on my knees on the bed and hugged Fate from behind, wrapping my arms around her waist.
"What do you want to do, Fate-chan?" I asked softly next to her ear. "Do you want to try to reenact it? Or no?"
Fate nodded. "We should. It wouldn't have shown me that life for no other reason, right?"
"That's true. Alright, I'll let the girls know to be ready tomorrow for a reenactment after school," I said.
oOOOo
"There!" Fate said, pointing at the television. "Right there is where we need to start." The girls and I observed the scene in the movie where the two main characters were spending their last day together on the beach, before they had to part their separate ways for a year.
Fate and I had decided before we arrived at the clubroom that we wouldn't discuss the possibility of the other group members being involved in our previous lives, just in case Fate had been mistaken with what she saw. She and I would do our best to help them during and after the scenes, if they did end up being factors in all of it.
"Do you want to watch the rest of the movie?" Ginga asked us.
I shook my head. "We won't have to do that anymore. We are just going to relive it how it actually happened from here on out, basically. It may mirror the scenes in the movie, or it may end up being completely different."
"Do you know how many scenes you are going to end up doing?" Teana asked.
"No, not really. We figured we would just be guided through the timeline as we went," I replied.
"Are you two ready?" Hayate asked, pointing to the middle of the room, indicating it was time to start our longest reenactment to date.
I sighed, and then nodded before I slowly looked up to Fate. "I'm going to miss you..." I recited to her.
oOOOo
~South Carolina, early September, 1943~
Nanoha POV
Fate kissed the back of my head, as the smell of salt from the ocean invaded my senses. The sun was beating down warmly on us, although we still were needing to wear sweaters on that cool fall day. I opened my eyes, smiling as I looked down and saw her arms wrapped tightly around my waist from behind, myself positioned between her legs in front of her. I allowed her to rock me softly as we looked out at the crashing waves together.
"It's almost over..." I said quietly, almost hoping she would not hear what I had just said. Perhaps if she hadn't, it would somehow be less true.
"No, it's not almost over," she replied, her lips still pressed against my hair.
"Yes, it is," I responded quickly. "I leave tomorrow for school. And you..."
"What, me? No," she asked in my ear. "I was only drafted for twelve months. And then I'm back... Back for good, Nanoha."
I shook my head, swallow to keep from crying in front of her. "A lot could happen in twelve months, Fate-chan." I mentioned, trying to suppress any ideas of harm coming to the blond behind me.
"You think I don't know that?" she said quickly. I felt her turn her face to look at me, and I turned to meet her eyes as well. "I know that," she continued, pausing for a moment. "And I'm not afraid at all."
I remained silent, snuggling my head and body closer into her, and she kissed me lightly on the forehead.
"I promise you, it will all be over soon, okay?" she tried to reassure me. "And then I'll be back for good."
"You promise, Fate-chan?" I asked quietly, looking up and studying her face.
"I promise, Nanoha," she confirmed. I smiled, and then turned around to embrace her fully. I kissed her as she hugged me in return, allowing both of us to fall against the sand. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore was the background to the last intimate encounter we would have together, at least for the next twelve months.
oOOOo
~South Carolina, late September, 1943~
Nanoha POV
"Dear Fate-chan,
Two weeks together... that's all it took. Two weeks for me to fall in love with you. Now, we have one year apart. But what's one year apart after two weeks like that together? You made me a promise. A promise I know you'll keep. So I only want one more promise from you during this time we spend apart. Tell me everything. Write it all down, Fate-chan. And that way, we will be with each other all the time, even if we aren't with each other at all. That way, before we know it, I'll see you soon."
I finished my letter to Fate before my first lecture of the morning, anxious to finally have a way to communicate with her. I had received a simple telegram from the military earlier that morning, stating the address where I could now send her correspondence. It had been two weeks since I had said my final goodbye to her outside of her mother's house, the morning I departed for college. It was same day Fate was to report for enlistment, in response to the draft letter she had received the first day we had met.
Flashback ~ Two Weeks Prior
Fate burst out of the entrance of her home to greet me, as I stepped out of my vehicle in front of her house.
"I got your note!" I called out the her, referring to the short goodbye letter she had left on my door earlier that morning. She quickly ran over to me, hugging me tightly as she picked me up a few inches off the ground. My arms were wrapped around her neck as we embraced for a few seconds, before she lowered me back down.
"I didn't expect to see you again before you left," she said, searching my eyes happily as she smiled at me.
"Yeah, I'm headed off to school now," I replied, my face falling as I looked over her shoulder, seeing the packed military-issued canvas bags sitting on the porch. I then looked back at her. "I just wanted to make sure..." I began, but then trailed off.
"Make sure of what?" she replied, running her fingers through my hair. "I made you a promise, didn't I?"
"Yeah," I nodded, wrapping my arms loosely around her waist as she kissed my forehead again. I paused for a moment before I decided it was best that I just leave right away, before I started crying in front of her. "I'd better go," I told her.
Fate turned me around by the shoulders, and playfully pushed me into the driver's seat of the car. I laughed as she tickled me, as she was pretending to look for my seatbelt across my stomach and under my legs.
I kissed her one last time, before I turned the key in the ignition as she shut the car door beside me. I turned the car around in her front yard, pulling away from her house towards the street slowly. I immediately burst into tears as I watched her form getting smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror, and as I turned the car onto the street, she was then completely gone from my eyesight.
End Flashback
I slowly dropped the envelope in the steel public mailbox that was stationed near the front entrance of the college. I stared at the box blankly for a few moments, envisioning all the routes the letter would have to take to reach Fate, who was now half a world away. I shook my head quickly as a few tears escaped my eyes, knowing that it could be weeks, or maybe even a month, before the letter might be able to reach her.
I tucked my sweater around my body tightly as I began my journey back to my dorm room. Along the way, I prayed that Fate was safe and comfortable, wherever she happened to be in the world that cold September day.
oOOOo
~Italy, mid-October, 1943~
Fate POV
"Dear Nanoha,
I promise. I promise I'll see you soon, then. I promise I'll write all the time. I promise I'll tell you everything. Be patient with me. It may take a while for these letters to get back to you. We've already been deployed out on a mission. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to say where exactly it is. So all I can tell you is that the place where we've been sent makes me miss America very much, and the lack of anything resembling an ocean makes me miss South Carolina. And everything around me makes me miss you. We move around a lot, so letters tend to come late and out of order. But when they do finally get here, it's a good day. Whenever they don't, it's not. But I know they will still come, I know it."
I tucked my completed letter into the pocket of my camouflage jacket, before looking up at the fellow soldiers in my unit, whom I now considered the closest friends I've ever had. Subaru was looking wildly around her feet, having apparently lost something in the cargo plane we were traveling in. Teana was rolling her eyes at her hunched form, before she too bent over to assist in the search.
Ginga was asleep, her head resting against Hayate's shoulder. Hayate was looking across the plane at me silently, as she leaned against the shell of the plane. There was a silent understanding between her and I that the letter I had completed contained an important message for a very special person. Whenever I spoke to her about Nanoha, Hayate seemed to perfectly understand everything about the woman that had captivated my very being back home.
The five of us spent all of our time together, often finding ourselves sitting in silence in cargo planes and ships as we were transported all around Italy. A week after I had written the letter to Nanoha, I discovered the pilot of the transport plane that had just dropped us off was headed back to Milan next week. I handed him my letter over the roar of the engines of the plane, after I had exited through the cargo door.
"Can you get this sent for me?" I asked him, my eyes pleading for his assistance.
"Yeah, yeah," he replied quickly, taking the letter from hand.
I nodded. "Thanks. Don't lose it, alright?" I continued, near desperation.
"I got ya," he said, before turning to reenter the plane.
I stood next to the runway and watched the plane take off with my letter inside, on its long journey to South Carolina. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine how long it would take to reach Nanoha. I guessed about a month and a half to two months, based on all the channels it would need to go through. I squeezed my eyes tighter, straining to keep the tears from falling from them, which was something that would not be helpful for my friends to see in our current situation.
oOOOo
~Italy, late-November, 1943~
Fate POV
"Dear Nanoha,
The good news is we've been sent somewhere new. Although I can't tell you where that is, either. The bad news is, this place actually makes me miss the old place. But, it's a full moon here tonight, which makes me think of you. Because I know no matter what I'm doing, no matter where I am - - this moon will always be the same size as yours, half a world away."
I wrote Nanoha another letter while seated on the bench in the back of large military truck used to transport soldiers, using the moonlight as illumination. I knew she probably had not received my previous letter yet, but it was important that I continued communications with her when I could. Our unit had just been stationed in a small town near the war-ravaged city of Sicily. I knew the address Nanoha had been provided previously to send correspondence would no longer work, and I was desperate to find a new way for her to continue to write to me.
"Are you okay, Fate?" Hayate asked, watching me fold the letter into the envelope, as we swayed back and forth with the truck's movements.
"Yeah. I'm just writing Nanoha to let her know that I'm still okay," I told her. "Now that we are here, it will be a while before she can send me anything again."
Hayate nodded. "It's odd," she mentioned after a moment. "I really feel like I know her somehow, like I've met her. I've never had anything like that happen before."
"Well, if anything, you can meet her when we get back to the States," I said, smiling at the thought of her and Nanoha meeting for the first time. I then raised my thumb in the air and closed one eye, trying to steady it over the moon with my constant swaying, as the truck traveled along the bumpy dirt road.
"Something you two used to do?" she asked, before leaning back against the railing along the side of the truck.
I nodded. "Yeah. It is our way of being connected, no matter where we are in the world..."
oOOOo
~South Carolina, Christmas Day, 1943~
Nanoha POV
"Dear Fate-chan,
Most nights I fall asleep worrying about you, wondering where you may be out there. Not tonight. Tonight you're here with me."
Before I wrote my latest letter, I had been standing on the shore of the ocean, having placed my thumb in the air and steadying it over the moon. The motion had given me a sense of connection to Fate, as if she were right next to me with her thumb in the air as well. I sat down in the same spot on the beach where she and I had been three months prior, the day before we departed ways. I wrote the simple letter quickly, trying to capture the connection I felt to her at that moment, as best as possible.
I had received her last letter a few days prior, immediately noticing the original postmark on the envelope had been stamped in late October. I had been fortunate enough to find the letter in my school mailbox on the day I that supposed to return home for the holidays. I had initially read the letter as I walked through the courtyard, occasionally bumping into other people and not caring in the slightest.
I now held the well-worn envelope between my fingers as I pressed my palm to my forehead and cried, having lost track of how many tears I had shed in her absence. I looked over to the letter I had just written, now sitting next to me in the sand, and noted the one thing missing - - there was no destination address on the front of the envelope. The military had informed me that Fate had been transferred elsewhere in Italy, but they could not provide me with any information as to where she was, saying it was classified information.
"Please... know that I'm still waiting for you, Fate-chan," I plead quietly to the moon above me.
oOOOo
~Italy, early April, 1944~
Fate POV
"Oh my god, FATE! No! NO!" Ginga screamed next to me, as I then felt my body hit the ground hard, although I couldn't quite grasp why I had fallen down at the moment. I tried to move my body, but I found that I had no control over anything, not even to keep my eyes open for more than a few seconds.
"Ginga, go help Subaru and Teana secure that line!" Hayate yelled, pointing in the direction of our other unit members, who were currently engaged in combat with the enemy in our small town. We had been unexpectedly ambushed about thirty seconds prior, leaving us all scrambling for cover and hard pressed to fight back.
Ginga ran and crouched next to them behind the wall of sandbags, placing her rifle on top and attempting to take aim at the enemy as well. She yelled something to Teana and Subaru, who looked backwards, and were now both screaming as they looked over in my direction.
Hayate leaned over me, struggling to pick me up and sit me upright against the building I was laying next to. As soon as she had me upright, we were inundated with empty shell cases flying towards us, as Teana and Subaru began unloading their automatic weapons wildly across the line.
"Fate! Listen to me, Fate!" Hayate yelled in front of me. I tried to focus on her face, but it was starting to become fuzzy and my ears were slightly ringing. She patted my chest, just above the inner pocket of my jacket. "You just got that letter from Nanoha! She is still waiting for you! So, don't you give up now, okay?!"
I nodded my head to her as I began to tremble, a cold sensation suddenly overtaking my body. Hayate stood over me and began signaling to something out of my range of vision, and I felt myself slump back down to the ground, with my back still against the wall. The very last thing that came to my mind, before everything faded to black, was Nanoha's smiling face in front of me.
oOOOo
~South Carolina, June 6th, 1944~
Nanoha POV
"Dear Fate-chan,
I know it's been way too long since I last wrote you. I've been staring at this blank page for the last two hours. Well, if I'm being honest, I've been staring at it for the last two months. Please forgive me for what I'm about to say, and know this is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. My life without you has no meaning, and I cannot live without you."
I listened to the radio as the stories of the battles raging in France flooded across the airwaves. I held the envelope that contained my final letter in my hand, my head on my arm resting across the table in front of me. I had not received a letter from Fate in three months, and in the beginning of April, there had been a sudden change that had overtaken me. It was a feeling as if she were suddenly gone, the invisible connection I wasn't even aware we had built together, destroyed in an instant.
I had the address the military had last provided me written on the front of the envelope, although I was certain that my letter would never reach her. I felt compelled to send it out into the world anyway, to an unknown final destination, and I awaited the arrival of our postman that day to hand it to him personally.
"American casualties are continuing to rise as..." I heard from the radio behind me, before I tuned it out again. If by some chance Fate was not dead by now, the chances of her making it out alive after this invasion were slim to none. I knew she had been in Italy the whole time we had written, but a transfer to France would fully explain her lack of correspondence.
The knock on the door brought me out of my assumptive thoughts, as the postman I had been expecting had finally made his arrival at my house. I walked slowly to the entrance, and carefully placed the envelope on the small table in the hallway.
"Nanoha..." I heard softly as I opened the door.
I gripped the frame of the doorway, blinking my eyes as I took in the sight of Fate in her military uniform, inexplicably standing on the porch in front of me. She had a cane in her right hand, and her body leaned to the left slightly, but otherwise she was just as I remembered.
"I see..." I began. "Are you here to keep your promise to me, Fate-chan?" I asked her after a moment, now leaning my weight fully against the doorway for support, as my knees has just buckled.
She smiled. "Yeah...I am, Nanoha. I'm back for good, and I'm even a little early in delivering on my promise," she replied, winking at me.
I bit my lip and nodded quickly while looking down, before removing myself from the doorway and throwing my arms around her neck. I was crying as I kissed her, my lips unable to press hard enough against hers in that moment. Despite her injuries, she picked me up a few inches off the ground as she kissed me just as passionately in return. Eventually she lowered me back down, and I pulled my face away from hers and searched her eyes frantically, still trying to confirm that she was indeed alive and standing in front of me.
"Ahem," I heard come from behind us. I pulled back from Fate a little, not realizing that anyone had been standing behind her. There were four members of her unit standing in the front yard, all blushing a little as they tried not to stare directly at us.
Fate looked at them and nodded. "Nanoha," she said as she turned back to me, "there are some really important people I would like for you to meet..."
oOOOo
~Present Day~
Nanoha POV
"Is everyone okay?" I asked softly to the silent clubroom, after we had been deposited back into it.
No one responded or moved around me, so I sat up from my position on the ground and looked across the room. My five fellow club members were motionless, staring across the floor or up to the ceiling, undoubtedly replaying the traumatic memories of their previous lives in their heads.
Hayate was the first to rise up slowly from the floor. "So... we are all a part of this as well, then," she said quietly, mostly to herself I was sure.
I crawled over to my best friend and hugged her close to me. "Thank you, Hayate," I whispered to her, beginning to cry into her shoulder. "You were there protecting Fate-chan, when she..." I began, but was unable to finish the sentence, as I started crying harder.
"They all were," Fate said from beside me. "They all saved my life that day. Well, everyday we were over there together, really."
"This really changes everything," Teana said, looking around at all of us.
"It does," I confirmed. "Fate and I are going to continue to explore our other lives as we are directed to do so, and its inevitable that you guys will be involved as well. It's not something we can change, unfortunately."
"That's okay," Subaru responded. "It was our lives too, after all. As hard as that was to go through, I'm also really glad that we did."
"Me too," Ginga said. Hayate and Teana nodded their heads in confirmation as well.
"Well, it's getting late everyone, let's head back home. We'll talk about this more tomorrow," I said, concluding our evening together.
oOOOo
"Mom, we're home!" Fate yelled as we entered through the doorway of her house that evening. The previous day, I had asked permission from my parents to stay at Fate's house that night and, with a bit of Lindy's help, they agreed. I told them I had to study Greek mythology for school, and that Lindy was an expert on the subject. I was eased of some of the guilt of lying to them, as it actually was partially true in this situation.
Lindy was sitting on the couch, papers and books strewn across the coffee table. She didn't hear us when we initially came in, as she was engrossed in a large book in front of her.
"Mom?" Fate repeated, coming to kneel directly beside her.
"Oh, Fate!" she yelled in surprise. She put her hand to her heart and leaned back, closing her eyes. "You scared me half to death," she said.
"What are you up to?" Fate then asked, turning her head sideways to see what her mother had been reading.
"Fate, Nanoha," she began. "I think I have figured out some more information, although I should tell you up front, not all of it is good news."
I nodded my head. "I knew at some point we were bound for something bad to come up."
"How did it go with the others?" she asked first. "Are they involved as well?"
Fate nodded. "Yes. In that life, the five of us were in the war together, and Nanoha was waiting for me to return," she responded. I then observed her pale a little, undoubtedly remembering having been shot, and she opted to not disclose that information to her mother.
"I see..." her mother responded slowly, looking back down at the books in front of her, now a little concerned. Fate and I sat down on the furniture in front of her and waited. Lindy didn't continue to speak, as she seemed to have gotten lost again in the text in front of her, so I thought I would trying to refocus her attention.
"So, Lindy-san... the news you mentioned before?" I asked.
"Oh, yes! Right," she responded, and then pushed some papers off of a large book that was resting on the corner of the table.
"So, you remember the Nine Muses, correct?" she asked us first. We both nodded.
"Well, in all of your other lifetimes," she started, "the Muses have drawn inspiration from the memories of you two, as you have lived your lives together countless times. The Muses, in turn, have inspired artists to depict your love, and the hardships you are willing to endure to obtain it.
"The thing is, though," she continued, "the Nine Muses aren't the ones who are actually guiding you together throughout each lifetime. They are but mere observers of your stories. The role to actually bring you and Fate together every time is handle by something completely different, but it does work closely with the Muses. Or, well... it did," she added quickly.
I stopped her for a second. "Lindy, I'm still confused. So you're saying there is something else besides the Nine Muses actually controlling our lives, then?" I asked.
Lindy nodded. "Yes, for the most part." She then reached over to the book on the edge of the coffee table, turning it around for Fate and I to read together.
"Have you two ever heard of 'The Fates'?" she began.
A/N: So yes, lots of things happened this time around again! I hope that those who requested Dear John are okay with me sticking with the letters part only? They were so powerful in the movie, and I liked them being the central theme around Nanoha and Fate's life during WWII. Well, until next time! ~Nissanity~
