Internet Friends

A/N: This is a work of fanfiction. Businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. I do not own any of the characters from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Chapter 36

Hayate POV

"That girl is soooo going to get it from me when she wakes up later today!" I barked.

"She did just survive another operation." Rein reminded me.

"Arrrh!" I screamed with anger as I raised my clenched fists! I turned to look at Fate.

She was still curled up in the corner… I let out a sigh and said, "Signum, can you please go get something for her hand?"

"Sure." Signum replied as she left the room.

"Let's get your hands cleaned up first, aye?" I asked as I reached for her hands. Fate quickly pulled her hands away and gripped her fists tighter. Fresh blood started to drip from her wounds again.

"Fate. Don't do this to yourself. You are not helping anyone when you act like this." Rein told Fate off.

"Do you want to read her will?" Fate just shook her head.

"You should read it… Come on…." I suggested.

Fate reached for Nanoha's will with trembling hands. The more she read it, the harder she cried. "I'm so sorry… It's all my fault…" Fate mumbled over and over again as she cried.

After Signum dressed up Fate's wounds, she asked again, "Can you please tell us what happened?"

It took a while, but Fate finally stopped crying and told us what happened in between sniffles.

"So, are you really back?" Vita-chan asked.

"I don't know." Fate replied.

"What is your last clearest memory?" Signum asked.

"Everything! Nothing!" Fate-chan snivelled.

"When did we meet you?" Rein asked.

"When I was around 9. Signum rescued me."

"Who's your father?"

"Jail Scaglietti." Fate replied without even thinking twice. All of us just let out a sigh.

"I don't know what to do… My head's so messed up… It's like both memories are true… I don't think I can trust myself to be with her ever again…" Fate admitted.

"I think that is the last thing she will ever want to hear from you when she knows that you are you again…"

"How can you be so sure that I'm me? I'm not even sure myself." Fate replied as she shook her head.

"Can you tell us how they managed to capture you?" Rein queried.

Fate went on explaining how she was captured and how she had been tortured… It was brutal… totally brutal! If Nanoha hears any of this, her heart would just break into pieces…

"Due always checks in on me… but Quattro was the executor." Fate said.

"I've never been so glad that I killed someone. Fate, she died by my hands!" Vita-chan growled.

"Thank you…" Fate replied. Even though they are dead, how I wish I could kill them over again! She seemed to have a blank in her memory… around the period of time where the false merged with the truth.

"From what you told us… I don't think there is any way of undoing it. You just have to learn what's true and what's not on your own." Rein said.

"And by cowering in this room, it's not going to help you uncover the truth." Signum said.

"Are you going to visit Nanoha-chan when she wakes up later today?"

"No." Fate replied immediately.

"Why? After all that she had done for you…"

"You care an awful lot about her, don't you? Why would you want put her in harm's way?" Fate shot back.

"I do care about her… We all do… She's family…"

"There's more to it than meets the eye. I've seen the way she acts towards you. I've seen the way you looked at her. You both care an awful lot for each other… More than normal that is… I did have a period of time where my eyes were not clouded so I could see past the front both of you put up. Plus I've also seen some pictures of both you…" Fate said.

"Why are you pointing the barrel at me? You are just trying to change the topic."

"She's much happier with you anyway. Why not make it official? She will forget about me in due time." Fate suggested.

"This is crazy! Are you hearing yourself?!" I semi-shouted.

"Rein. Haven't you ever doubted? Anyone here? Cos I had seen proof. Pictures with timestamps and all… When we were out there slaving our asses off during missions, they were back here having a good time… Even when they were younger… They always had something going on behind the scenes." Fate said heatedly.

"And where did you see those pictures, may I ask?" Shamal inquired.

"Back in the lab…" Fate replied as her voice tailed off. Everyone else just gave Fate the are-you-sure-about-this expression.

"Look, pal… Just use that stupid f-up brain of yours and think for a second! How many times had she put her life on the line just for you? If you EVER doubt her love for you, just think about that!"

All of us just stood there in silence for a moment.

"Fate. I won't deny that Nanoha and I are close. We care for each other more than friends but we were NEVER lovers. She is irreplaceable to me and vice versa. Everybody here knows that. Including Rein. What you fail to understand is that we were never an item. We never crossed any boundaries. I had the hots for Rein ever since I was 9. No one else except Nanoha knows it."

"Pfff" Vita-chan let out while restraining give a half-suppressed laugh.

I immediately turned and looked at that direction.

"It was as clear as a bell." Signum said with a titter.

"You tried so hard to hide it back then, that's why…" Shamal said as she giggled while she used a hand to cover her smile.

"I've err… always known… I wanted to explain to you but you were too young to understand…" Rein said whilst blushing, looking embarrassed and super cute.

"That's why she always kept you at a arm's length..." Vita-chan said as she laughed.

"We thought you would grow out of it." Signum added as she chuckled.

"But in the end, somehow you manage to melt her heart years down the road…" Shamal said while giving Rein a you-are-so-busted look.

Rein just blushed more and smiled shyly.

I went redder than a tomato! Snapping my head back towards Fate, and I cleared my throat. *Clears throat* "We should get Chrono to send us all the pictures they found in the lab. We will go through them 1 by 1 with you. That way, you will know which is true and which isn't." I said, steering the conversation back to business.

"Hayate… can I beg you for a favour please?" Fate plead.

-0-

Nanoha-chan woke up at 1522 that afternoon. We rushed from the cafeteria to her ward once Vita-chan called.

I walked right into her ward, went straight up to her and slapped her right across her face. She wasn't stunned by it, as if she was expecting this to happen. Nanoha-chan sat there with her head hung low and her hand on her face where I slapped her.

I threw her will at her with a scowl, "NEVER EVER pull this kind of stunt again!"

"I'm sorry…" Nanoha said.

"Have you thought about how people around you would have felt?!" I continued shouting.

"You were so damn lucky that I went down early! What would have happened if I went down to the basement late? Huh? If I was even 10 minutes later…I would have… I would have…" and I started crying.

I leaned down and all but crashed into Nanoha for a hug.

"… I would have lost you… You stupid fool…" I cried.

Nanoha just hugged me back, stroking the back of my head to comfort me, and apologised, "I'm so sorry…" and she started crying too.

After the waterworks had shut down, we rested our foreheads against each other and I scolded, "Baka!"

"I'm sorry, Hayate-chan." Nanoha-chan replied. As soon as I stood back up, Nanoha asked, "How's Fate-chan?"

"She is sort of back but still confused." Rein replied.

We explained to her what we discovered from the conversation we had in the wee hours.

"At least she's back!" Nanoha said excitedly.

I took a laptop out from my bag and handed it to Nanoha-chan.

"What's this for?" Nanoha-chan asked.

"You might want to log in tonight after your family leaves."

Nanoha instantly understood, and probed sadly, "She's not coming… is she?"

"No."