Everyone has something they want to hide, and it is inevitable to have secrets when you want to hide something, anything, for any reason. But hiding a secret is not easy, much less if it's from the person you love most.

Because lying is inevitable when you don't want to tell the truth.

Any child would say they're tired of listening to adults repeat that they should not lie, but they themselves are the first ones to do so. People lie, hide things, change the truth and most times they do it for purely selfish reasons. You can lie for various reasons, perhaps to make fun of someone or to avoid a punishment. There are also white lies and those told for someone's safety.

But when it is your own safety it gets worse, you get to a point where you'd do anything to hide it. Anything. Even if it ends up hurting someone.

#11 LIE

From the first moment she saw them, Nanoha was fascinated by the Burgundy eyes of who now was her best friend. Those red eyes captivated her when they looked at her for the first time and from that first instant all she wanted was to know what lay behind that look.

Now, years later, she could feel proud of understanding the owner of those eyes just by looking at her. However that didn't help when Fate decided to avoid her.

Nanoha hated those moments. The looks became shifty and Fate looked for any excuse to not spend too much time by her side. On those occasions the brunette didn't know what to do or how to act and that caused a swirl of contradictory feelings that threatened to drive her crazy. On one hand she wanted to help her best friend, but on the other she felt disappointed to see that despite the years Fate was still determined to solve her problems without her. And it wasn't hard to see that something had happened, that something was tormenting the blonde, but she refused to say a word about it.

"Fate-chan, are you sure you're okay?" the girl stopped playing with the food that was still untouched and nodded. "Are you sure you're feeling ok?"

"Yeah…don't worry, I guess I just must have eaten something bad last night"

The brunette nodded, not very convinced by it. She had awakened at midnight when the sound of retching had come from the bathroom and, after getting up and running to see what had happened, she found Fate leaning over the sink, looking in the mirror with her face completely pale and sweating, and an expression of hatred towards her reflection.

Since then she had remained silent and distant. She even left to work before her.

"Hey…" Nanoha looked around the cafeteria, not knowing very well how to bring it up. "Did you… have another nightmare, by any chance?"

Fate's back stiffened and her face turned pale. She had been right.

"No" she said instead. "Of course not, you know I haven't had nightmares for a long time…"

Nanoha resisted the urge to let out an exasperated sigh and scold her friend for not counting on her at those times. She tightened her grip on the fork she had in hand to the extent that her knuckles turned white. She didn't know who Fate was trying to fool, but she was sure those nightmares still tormented her at night, especially when she returned from a long mission in which, Nanoha was sure, she had to end someone's life. Even if she didn't wake her up, even if she didn't tell her about them, Nanoha knew she had had them because the next day Fate avoided her.

Just like it was happening now.

"Yeah… sure"

She looked down at her food to avoid looking at her reproachfully. She hated it when Fate behaved that way, but Nanoha knew she couldn't do anything. Besides, this time there was something different, something that worried her more than usual. It seemed as if Fate avoided her more than ever, as if she felt uncomfortable being with her. Most of the time she was just a little quieter than usual, but she never behaved so coldly as she was doing now, as if the mere idea of being around her made her sick.

"I have to get back to work" the blue eyed girl saw her stand up and grab the intact tray of food. "Bye"

"Fate-chan…" her tone was pleading and the blonde stopped for a few seconds. "We had… we had planned to watch a movie tonight, remember?" she tried to smile but all she got was a grimace seeing that Fate didn't move. "At what time will you get home? I'll make dinner…"

She feared the answer she would get and the knot in her stomach worsen when the Enforcer's face turned slightly to look at her with an expression completely apathetic.

"I don't know at what time I'll be done, Nanoha. I have… a lot of work, you know"

She nodded and lowered her head as Fate walked away from her. The blonde was definitely stranger than usual and that worried her, it made her sad and, she stabbed a piece of potato with violence, it also made her angry.

"You are so stubborn"

-.-.-.-.-

Shamal knocked on the office door of her mistress and waited until she was allowed to pass. When Hayate saw the serious expression on the doctor's face she knew she was in trouble. She sighed, leaving the pen on top of the report she was reading, willing to endure the speech she was sure to receive from the blonde.

"Teanna and Subaru are both again in my office with their bodies full of bruises. Today I almost had to put a cast on one of Subaru's arms!" her eyes flashed and pointed at her superior with an accusing finger. "I don't care how you're going to do it but you have to stop Nanoha from trying to kill her student, she has been giving me more work than ever this whole week, and it's getting worse, Hayate!"

The lieutenant colonel raised a hand to her neck and massaged the muscle that was starting to tightened. She had been all week receiving people's complaints about the obviously aggressive behavior of her subordinate but, she sighed, what could she do against the White Devil?

"You're not the first to tell me" she said with a resigned sigh. "But you know she has to solve her problems by herself"

"You know perfectly well what the problem is. You know that for the past week Fate has been avoiding her and hardly speaks to her, and that makes Nanoha way too dangerous. When she is not acting like a lost soul, she's trying to destroy her students and of keeping it up she'll succeed in it!"

Hayate frowned. She knew Shamal was right and she considered it for a moment before making a screen appear at her side. She had waited too long.

Minutes later Shamal was gone and Hayate watched the view from her window as she thought about what she would say to her friend. She didn't even know why they had fought this time but she hated that they both were so stubborn. Someone knocked on the door and she allowed them to come in. She waited for her fried to come in and shut the door before turning to face her. Fate was sitting in the chair in front of her desk, looking at her with indifference. Hayate shivered slightly at the sight of her eyes so dull.

"What do you want?" she asked bluntly.

"What's wrong with you, Fate?"

Hayate saw her frown and look at her angrily. She noticed the small dark circles under her eyes and knew that the blonde wasn't having a better time than Nanoha.

"Nothing's wrong, is that all you called me for?" she said annoyed. "I was in the middle of a report…"

"I called you because I need to know what's wrong with you. What's wrong with both of you" the burgundy eyes narrowed at the last part. "Why did you have a fight this time?"

"We didn't have a fight"

"It's obvious that you had a fight"

"We didn't have a fight!"

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Fate stood up, slamming the table with her hands. "Nothing's wrong! And even if there was, it doesn't concern you"

They looked at each other for a moment in silence. Fate breathing hard as she looked with rage at the chestnut girl, who simply sighed and sat in her chair. If she couldn't fix it the good way…

"Well, it does concern me because you are my friends, but also because that nothing you said is happening is affecting your work, so I do care" the blonde clenched her jaw to see how Hayate had gotten on the role of 'Lieutenant Colonel of the Mobile Section Six'. "You don't stop working, not even to eat, and Nanoha…"

"If you have any complaints about me say them, but what Nanoha does, really is none of my business"

A slight twitch was seen in Hayate's eyebrow. That was it, that was the last straw.

"Are you listening to what you're saying, Fate?" she looked away. "It's none of your business? And you still dare say that nothing's wrong, that you didn't have a fight…

"We didn't have a fight…" she muttered, still with her eyes on the ground.

"I don't care, I want you to talk to her" she raised a hand to silence any complaints from Fate. "Talk to her. Do it. I do not care how or where, talk to her because if you don't do it by yourself, I'll use a spell to immobilize you and I myself will make sure to drag you all the way to talk to Nanoha Takamachi. Do I make myself clear?"

-.-.-.-.-

Nanoha wasn't surprised to find the place all dark. Fate would surely already be asleep or she would just not spend the night there, it didn't surprise her anymore because she had found the lights off for a week now. But still it hurt the feeling of loneliness she felt when opening the door and finding everything in darkness.

She went to the kitchen while unbuttoning her uniform jacket and opened the fridge to get some milk. When she turned with the bottle in hand she almost dropped it to see that there was a shadow sitting on the table. Quickly she turned the lights on and didn't know whether to let out a sigh of relief to see it was just Fate or to curse because it had to be her.

"Hayate asked me to talk to you"

Nanoha frowned as she watched her stand. Definitely, curse because it had to be her.

"Oh, so now you have to be asked so you deign to speak to me" she spoke ironically as she took a cup to fill it. "Good"

"It's not… It's not that"

"Fate" the blonde made a grimace hearing her name without the familiar suffix after it. "You've been a week without talking to me, without looking at me, you've been a week avoiding me and now you're talking to me because Hayate asked you. What, am I supposed to jump of happiness? I don't even know what I did this time!"

"You didn't do anything…"

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong…"

Nanoha left her cup of milk with a resounding hit and took two steps to stand in front of Fate. Her patience finally lost after that absurd week.

"Then why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you"

She grunted before she charged at her. Fate opened her eyes wide, surprised to see how Nanoha grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back abruptly. She took her arms instinctively and suddenly her back hit hard against the kitchen wall. She groaned.

"Don't say you're not avoiding me! Don't say nothing's wrong! Don't say that I haven't done anything!" the brunette shook her with every yell and Fate let herself be banged against the wall, still too stunned by such reaction. "Because it's not true! Because… it's not… true…"

The grip weakened and Nanoha lowered her head, completely dejected. Fate gulped when she hear a hiccup and felt her shirt getting wet.

"Na…noha?"

"What hurts me most is that you lie to me" she said in a choked whispered against the blonde's chest. "And the worst things is, that I can't understand why"

She let her go and without a word, without letting their met or give time for Fate to react, Nanoha left the kitchen. The blonde raised a hand to her head and brushed her bangs away while letting herself slide to the ground.

A slam echoed through the house.

To Be Continued…

T/N: Oh what's gonna happen, now? So much drama. I know that not much happened in this chapter, next chapter will be the last part and we'll finally know the conclusion to all this mess. And just so some of you don't get depressed about it, I'm gonna say that there's three more chapters, well kind of two and a half, until the moment we're all been waiting for, so don't stop reading and reviewing, kay? then see you all next chapter ;)