Day in the Life

Chapter 10

Alphine

Disclaimer: RadiantBeam and I are making no profit from these characters that we're borrowing, all demon lawyers go bug someone else!

Another short chapter. Trust me, the next one's much longer.

Lutecia blinked as there was a knock on the door. Putting down the paper, there wasn't much in terms of news anyway there, just another short story how theft crimes were still on the rise on Midchilda, she went to the door and opened it slightly, before smiling and opening it all the way. "Hayate-san, Vivio, Agito... Hello." She hadn't expected visitors, so seeing them was nice.

"Oi! Lulu! You look bored!" Agito smirked at her. "The great Agito-sama is here to make sure your boredom goes away!"

Lutecia laughed and held out her hand, delighted when Agito ignored it completely and instead landed on her shoulder. "I see," she said.

Agito crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm serious! The great Agito-sama even brought you extra company!"

Hayate and Vivio both giggled at the scene. "Hi, Cia." Vivio smiled at Lutecia.

"Vivio." She smiled and squeezed Vivio's hands as the younger girl shook hers fiercely. "I am glad to see you." She nodded at Hayate. "Hello."

"Hi, Lutecia. I thought you would enjoy some company today." Hayate smiled at the young summoner. Technically, Lutecia was supposed to be in isolation, but Hayate didn't care too much for that rule, she had business here anyway.

Lutecia's smile practically became a grin. "I was a little bored."

"See? My point exactly." On Lutecia's shoulder, Agito huffed.

As they came inside, Lutecia fell back to Vivio's side. "How are you feeling, Vivio? Caro told me you were sick."

"Mmm... I'm feeling better now. Just needed to sleep most of it off. I feel bad for Yuuno-papa though, I made his shirt all messy."

"I'm sure he forgives you." Lutecia smiled as the two of them wandered into the living room and started chatting.

Hayate smiled as she watched. Reminds me so much of Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan... Maybe she was just searching for parallels when there was none, she wasn't sure.

"I'm glad you're okay though." Lutecia smiled at Vivio softly.

Giggling the blond couldn't help but smile. "I would have called, but I was so tired that all I did was sleep."

"It's fine, you needed to recover." Lutecia chuckled. "I did the same thing when I had the stomach flu."

At that, Hayate perked up. "Jail took care of you?" She didn't think he would have, but it would have been an interesting piece of information to know.

"Hell no!" Agito flared up at that. "He wanted nothing to do with her while she was sick! Zest and I stayed with her the whole time!"

Lutecia rubbed Agito's head, getting her to calm down. "Yes, Zest and Agito took care of me and made sure I was safe." She sighed, seemingly slumping. "I wish I had listened to them about the doctor before though."

"It wasn't your fault." Hayate was quick to reassure her. "Scagiletti manipulated a lot of people to get what he wanted."

"I still hate what I did." Lutecia sighed and looked down at the floor. "I hurt a lot of people back then. Tried to kill Caro and Erio too." She blinked as Vivio hugged her tightly. "Vivio?" She blinked in surprise, though, she definitely couldn't complain about it, since it felt nice.

"You shouldn't be sad." Vivio tilted her head slightly to look up at Lutecia, smiling. "The Doctor used a lot of people to get what he wanted. You weren't the only one."

"I know." Lutecia smiled softly.

"Actually, Lutecia..." Hayate smiled at the summoner, getting her to blink at her in confusion. "I've been doing some side work lately with Admiral Lindy and Admiral Chrono. And we've managed to work your case, based on observations from the parole officers here, and well, I'll need to talk to your mother. Where is she?"

"Outside, in the garden, Garyuu is there helping her." Lutecia was slightly confused, what was Hayate up to?

At that, Hayate blinked. "Garyuu does housework?" That was interesting, she didn't think that summons liked to do stuff like that.

"He likes working in the garden. It relaxes him."

Hayate nodded to her. "Very well. I'm going to go see her then. You three have fun." She smiled and left the house.

Lutecia frowned. "Do they want Mom for something?" She hoped not. Her mother was free to leave her any time she wanted at any time after all.

At that, Agito shrugged. She knew Hayate well enough to know that the woman was pulling some serious strings for a case at the moment, but she couldn't tell what she was thinking.

Outside, Hayate walked around the house and smiled as she saw Megane and Garyuu pulling a few weeds, well, she hoped they were, out of the ground. "Hello." She called out, causing the summon and the woman to stop and look at her. "Megane Alphine, may I have a moment?"

"General." Megane rose and wiped her hands on her pants for a minute before offering a hand to Hayate, smiling. "I figured you'd come. When Lutecia told me Agito was visiting, I knew you'd probably be with her."

Smiling, Hayate shook the woman's hand. "Well, I thought Agito wouldn't mind seeing her first friend again."

Megane smiled at Hayate softly. "Thank you." She sighed slightly. "It... It's a bit hard, sometimes. Lutecia and I don't seem to connect like I want to some days."

It didn't help that the guy that was responsible for her injury and Zest's death had raised Lutecia, and then the poor girl had to go around with the undead knight for a few years, denying her a true childhood with her mother and growing up around friends. At least it was Zest, Megane knew that Zest would have taken care of Lutecia no matter what, that was the kind of person he was.

"I know... Would you like to come back to Midchilda?" Hayate asked suddenly, getting a shocked look from Megane.

Megane blinked, slowly, as if to make sure she'd heard correctly. "You... are offering to take us back?"

Hayate smiled gamely. "I know the contract says Lutecia's out here for eight years, but..."

Hayate sighed lightly and shook her head. "After talking with the parole boards for the past few weeks, we can get you and your daughter back to Midchilda, granted, your daughter will be under some heavy surveillance, her limiter still on, but we can at least integrate her into society. If you want to that is."

"How... How did you get them to agree to that?" Megane asked, surprised at what Hayate had said.

Smirking, Hayate started to chuckle. "I threatened to sick my Knight Vita on them after keeping away her sweets for a month if they didn't at least give the option."

Megane blinked. "That's... that's all you did?"

Hayate pondered it for a moment. "Well, that and I set up one of the member's daughters on a date with Yuuno." She smirked as she remembered how easily she'd tricked the man into playing into her scheme. "She liked him, but needless to say, the aftermath of that little date gave them all a pretty good idea of what would happen if I sent Fate-chan and Nanoha-chan after them instead of Vita."

Okay, it was cruel of her to do that to everyone involved. At least Fate and Nanoha had forgiven her... Kind of, she still owed them a night on the town over that incident.

"I... See..." Megane blinked and sighed. "Hayate, I... I thank you for the offer but I don't know."

"You don't have to give me a response right now." She smiled lightly at the other woman. "If you want to move back to Midchilda, give me a call anytime and I'll arrange for transport for you."

Megane hesitated before nodding. "I will, thank you." At the sound of laughter, her eyes drifted towards the house, and she smiled. "You brought Vivio."

"Yeah, well..." Hayate smiled sheepishly. "She begged, and I promised her I'd bring her out one of these days."

"Thank you." Megane closed her eyes, happy to hear her daughter laughing again. "I'm glad every time I see her smile, laugh and be happy. Vivio makes her so happy..." Megane sighed heavily, slumping a bit. "Some parent I am, huh?"

Hayate didn't hesitate, lightly patting Megane on the shoulder. "You can't blame yourself," she murmured. "In your condition, there was no way you could have stopped Jail from using her the way he did."

"She didn't have a childhood." Megane's eyes hardened, chilled. "He robbed her of her childhood." If it hadn't been for him, Lutecia would be living happily on Midchilda instead of being forced to live on this penal colony.

"Yeah." Hayate smiled sadly. "She'll probably never need you the way she would've if he hadn't. But Megane, you have to remember... she was willing to break her own soul to save you. That has to mean something." It really did, Hayate wasn't just saying it to make Megane feel better.

Megane sighed and closed her eyes. "Hayate, she never knew me when she was little. She didn't even know if I was her real mother or not. She... She told me one time that she... That she only did it because she was tired of being lonely. What am I supposed to do, Hayate? She cares for me, but, I'm worried that she doesn't really love me like she would if I had been there for her."

"Megane..." Hayate frowned lightly and squeezed the distraught woman's shoulder.

"I can't really connect to her like I would like to. I know she's trying her best, but I think that there's this invisible wall that keeps us from connecting."

Hayate hesitated only a moment before speaking.

"Megane, I can't say you're wrong. Considering how she was raised, it's only natural that Lutecia wanted to save you because she felt she had to, or because she was lonely. But I think... I think somewhere along the line, she genuinely believed in what she was doing. Somewhere, somehow, she began to believe you were her mother, and that if she saved you everything would be okay. She wanted to save you because... because in the end, she needed you more than anything. I know she doesn't express it well, but she wanted to save you so badly at the end."

Hayate smiled as Megane blinked at her in confusion. "This isn't something that's well-known, but when she was fighting against Caro and Erio, she said she was only doing it because she wanted to save you, because she wanted to have someone precious that could take away her loneliness. I think you're giving yourself too little credit, Megane."

Megane hesitated a moment before she smiled, slowly and almost timidly. "I... I suppose so." She paused. "Hayate..."

"Yes?"

"The one who looked after Lutecia... Zest, not Agito. I know you didn't see them often, but did he seem to look after her well?"

Hayate shook her head slightly. "I never saw them interact. From what Agito's said though, he tried his best to keep her from seeing the nastier side of things, did his best to help her find a way to heal you, and tried to get her to stop following Scagiletti."

"Oh." Megane had been hoping that Hayate knew anything personally.

"To be honest, the only people that your daughter was seen associating with was Agito, Sein, Deed, Otto and her summons. But I'd like to think that Zest managed to save some of Lutecia's innocence." She was still surprised that there hadn't been a single casualty that day, she had come so close to losing Rein, Shamal, Zafira and Vita that day that it still scared her when she thought about it.

Hayate paused, thinking. "Well, actually..."

Megane blinked. "Yes?"

"Agito mentioned it briefly inside, but when she heard that Vivio had the stomach flu for the first time she went off into a story about the time Lutecia got sick with it." Hayate smiled slightly. "She said Zest never left Lutecia's side, unless he absolutely had to, and stayed up with her all night when she was having a rough time."

"R...Really?"

"You'll have to ask Agito for all the details, but that's what she told me." There was another sound of laughter from inside, getting a smile from both women.

"Vivio's a good girl." Megane smiled softly as Hayate nodded.

"She has good family and friends supporting her. Whatever she wants to do in life, I'm sure she'll go far." Of that, Hayate was certain. Vivio was too much like Nanoha for her to not go far.

Megane smiled sheepishly. "I know what I'm about to say will sound selfish, but I hope that wherever Vivio's going Lutecia can follow her. She considers Vivio one of her closest friends, with Erio, Caro, and Agito."

Hayate chuckled at hearing that. "Oh, I think that wherever Vivio decides to go, people are going to follow her. If Lutecia wants to follow her where she goes, I don't think Vivio would stop her." Heck, if Vivio was like Nanoha, she would probably grab Lutecia's hands and drag her, kicking and screaming to wherever she went.

Megane smiled. "That's a relief."

Hayate sighed sadly. "Unfortunately, we cannot stay too long." It was a problem with going anywhere when she was busy being a high-ranking member of the military.

"I understand." Megane nodded to her before wincing slightly. "My body still isn't up to par for doing much these days anyway." She still needed her wheelchair once-in-awhile. At least it had gotten down to the point where she only needed it when she got tired, not because her muscles couldn't help her walk anymore.

Off to the side, Garyuu sat, quiet, though he was just glad that his mistress was happy.

I swear! The next chapter will be longer! But I thought it would be nice for Vivio and Lutecia to talk a bit and be friendly. Plus it gives us an excuse to have Hayate get more screen time.