Hayate had been in a wheelchair for as long as she could remember, and always felt so lonely even when she had her mum and dad. She had a white western appearance, but she had been found all alone when she was small, left in Japan. Left with nothing she didn't even know her birth name if she had ever been given one by her birth mother.
She had always wondered who her birth mother was. Whether she was nice. Whether she had a reason to leave her all alone. But the worst thought was that she was dead. Hayate didn't give her blood-father much thought like that, but her mother. Mothers were supposed to love their daughters unconditionally. That was in the mother-daughter rule book.
When Hayate was discovered, she was taken in to child services, and luckily a very nice couple took her in to their home and loved her, looking after her very well, and they had taken great care to adopted her soon after.
However, Hayate was now twelve and was left alone in the world; her adoptive parents passing on from this world. But she had a generous weekly snippet coming in from somewhere, not completely sure on where the money came from, or who sponsored her to live alone; she was grateful, and it was generous enough to buy her what she needed, clothes, food, books and the like since she owned the house outright thankfully.
Her adoptive parents were not around anymore, so she had felt so alone in her nice suburb house. It had felt too big just for her. At least she was warm and still had a home, and wasn't in an orphanage somewhere.
Hayate tried to go to school every day to get her education, but she was sick and weak, and sometimes couldn't make it in because she needed to go to the hospital, but her doctor was really nice, and she liked her a lot.
However, when these girls and a 'dog' appeared one day: a few weeks ago, now. Everything changed, and Hayate was happy. They arrived just to look after her. Hayate felt tears in her eyes just thinking of that wonderful day and how happy the memory made her feel.
There were three girls. They were Signum: she was nice, but sharp witted sometimes. Hayate thought she worked at whatever it was she did too hard, and was about anywhere from 16 to 19; much too young to push herself so much. But Hayate appreciated everything Signum did for her and the other two, and the dog too of course.
Shamal was the oldest. Hayate thought she had to be in her early twenties: twenty-two or three at the most, and she was just as pretty as Signum. But she had a motherly big sister vibe, and looked after everyone. She was really smart and helped Hayate with her homework when she could. It was nice because it helped the wheelchair bound girl keep up with her studies-even though they weren't sure how long Hayate could continue going to school, which was a very sad thought.
Hayate did like school and some of the girls tried to be nice and help her when they could. But she supposed it could be some trouble with her wheelchair, so she couldn't blame them for wanting to run around and play without having to worry about the sick girl dragging them down. She supposed it would have been nice to make a close girl friend at school to talk with and have lots of fun, but she shouldn't get herself down; the girls at school tried their best to include her.
Then there was their dog, Zafria. She was huge; like a sabre-toothed dog or something. She had purple fur and fluffy white mane around her neck. Though she was nice too, and could actually speak like a person. But her friends didn't know Hayate knew that secret, but she had overheard her, but that was so awesome, and she wouldn't ever tell anyone.
Then last, but certainly not least was Hayate's best friend, Vita. It was great having a best friend finally. Vita worried about Hayate so much it was nice to have someone love her like that after her mum and dad – well Vita was small and feisty: quick to fight would be a great way to describe her. But she was fun and slept in Hayate's bed with her, as their house only had two bedrooms, and Signum and Shamal shared the other together while Zafria stayed in the living room area.
Hayate didn't mind sharing with Vita. She was a nice room-mate, and it was great sharing with her. Vita snuggled up to Hayate making her feel warm and comforted at night, and she found that was a nice change from being alone. It was also amusing the crazy antics that Vita managed to get up to, and didn't realise she was 'misbehaving'.
Vita was always looking out for Hayate, but she was short, and though Hayate wasn't sure how old Vita was, she must have been a few years younger than her-maybe nine if she were to guess. Hayate hadn't had the heart to ask, just in case Vita was really the same age as her, which she was certain she wasn't, but she wouldn't count out the possibility, and upsetting her was furthest thing from Hayate's mind.
They were Hayate's new family, worrying over her when they took her to see her doctor at the hospital. Though, she didn't condone lying they managed to convince the doctors that they were family, and came to take care of her. They did take care of her, but she knew they weren't related by blood or her adoption. She knew they had to lie, so that they could stay with her because to her that first day they came, they became her family.
Hayate's doctor couldn't do anything for her, not really, not even knowing what was slowly – she didn't want to think like that. Vita would be upset if she found out. It seemed all her doctor could do for her was help ease the pain with medications and treatments for things that likely weren't doing anything, but they could not just give up. She could only wish that she could move her legs a little, just a day to walk and run with Vita, and she would be happy.
"Hayate...!"
Hayate was startled as the amusing voice interrupted her as she was making dinner for everyone for the evening as they were all useless in the kitchen, and she enjoyed cooking. The house was a kitchen-diner on the ground floor opened up into the lounge, so even when someone was in the living space she could ask for help if she needed it, as her chair wasn't always high enough to reach some areas in the kitchen space.
She smiled at Vita as she charged over after closing the front door after her while Hayate sat in her wheelchair making some homemade pastries with some packet noodles, as she didn't have time to make them from scratch too or her new family would get hungry waiting.
Hayate had to admire Vita's ginger hair neatly framing her pretty face, and tied into twin braided pigtails at the back of her head to each side as they made her look cuter than anything.
"Vita...!" Hayate greeted her with a grin as the 'punk'-'Goth'-ish girl hugged her, and she laughed, hugging her in return. "...could you set the table, dinner will be ready in a bit," Hayate said checking the pastries were crisping as they should. Being Japanese, and in Japan, Hayate found that Japanese dishes got boring all of the time. So, she liked to try different things, and she came to realise that Signum was a big pastry fan, especially stake and potato.
That was why Hayate was making them as she had promised Signum that morning before she and the others took her to school. Shamal had picked her up after classes and brought her home before leaving. She needed to pick up groceries and Hayate couldn't go with her as she had dinner to prepare. Signum and Shamal were both the 'responsible' young adults who took care to be her new guardians, and she couldn't be more thankful for them becoming her new family.
Vita grinned as she looked at the pies before Hayate shooed her away to the table, closing the oven door. Vita giggled as she rushed off to finish setting the table for dinner. It was good to have a family again but Hayate was startled as she looked out of the window as it started raining and streaks of lightning crossed the sky.
Hayate always liked the rain, and thunderstorms had been comforting for some reason she couldn't understand. Maybe because they seemed to wonderfully magical. She smiled as Vita returned, looking out of the window with her. Hayate saw that look in Vita's eyes that she bravely tried to hide from her. Vita was just too adorable while she tried to pretend, she was the bravest girl on Earth.
"I hope Signum and Shamal don't get too wet. Don't worry Hayate; I'll protect you from the storm!" Vita declared, pumping her fist in triumph before she was in Hayate's lap a moment later as the sky roared and lightning flashed across the heavens.
Hayate couldn't hold in her giggle while Vita pouted at being caught out. It was obvious it was her that wanted protecting from the storm rather than Hayate. It was adorable of her, and Hayate gave her a cuddle in her arms and a loving kiss on the forehead.
"Don't worry, Vita, I've always been comforted during storms since I was little," Hayate said thoughtfully. "I don't know why, but it makes me think of home. I guess that's weird, but... everyone has to be a little weird or they'll all be boring!" she told her laughing while she sat up on Hayate's lap and laughed with her.
"Y-yeah, Hayate!" she said as she hopped off Hayate's lap with a sigh of relief and a small embarrassed blush, smiling back as she tried to be brave, but everybody had their fears. "I'll finish with the table. Don't worry; the others will be back soon."
Hayate nodded her head, smiling as she watched Vita return to the table again for a moment before getting back to checking the pasta before the pastries. They were doing well, and would hopefully taste great.
It didn't take long after that for Shamal to get home with the groceries. She had short blond hair that hung only to her neck, and had kind blue eyes. She was wearing a long green coat when she entered and was a little wet, but removing her coat and placing it with her yellow umbrella on the coat rack. She was wearing a long green skirt and a white polo jumper.
She smiled at Hayate and Vita as she carried her bags into the kitchen to put the groceries away. "Wow, that smells delicious, Hayate!" she praised, and Hayate smiled widely pleased that she liked her cooking, even if it was only the smell; that was just stage one of a praise-fix. She just had to hope that she enjoyed the meal too when she finally got to sample it.
Hayate had to grab some tomatoes and lettuce for the plates, as they hadn't any vegetables since Shamal hadn't been able to get the groceries while she was at school. But that was okay as they had some salad stuff left over from the day before when they had chicken salad. She arranged four plates before going about straining the noodles before Shamal came over.
"Let me Hayate," she said as her chair wasn't exactly high enough to reach the sink so she was pleased for the offered help, so let Shamal start dishing out some noodles for all of their plates while Hayate checked on the oven.
"Perfect!" she declared happily, as she took her oven mitts and carefully pulled out the hot tray of pies and placed it on top of the hobs as they were then off. They looked delicious and Vita rushed over to see with a hungry look on her face.
"Wow!" Vita declared while Hayate laughed at her as the front door opened and a young woman with bright red hair tied up at the crown of her head entered with a tired sigh. Her hair was in a ponytail down her back and ending at her waist.
She entered with the large 'pet' dog. They both looked soaked, but unconcerned. Fortunately, their 'pet' wasn't fussy, and a couple pies in her bowl was all she needed, as apparently, she was always eating sneakily, and she did look sheepish when Shamal had told her. She wouldn't eat most veggies or pasta anyway, so she got to get hers first while Hayate dished out for the humans.
"Feeling hungry Signum?" Hayate asked while she slumped at the table after removing her coat and shoes while Hayate finished dishing out the food, and Shamal thoughtfully placed some glasses with juice on the table.
Signum turned a grin on her, but her green eyes said she was a quite exhausted. Hayate liked her eyes as they looked kind of like hers, so it was almost as if they were related. The other two had blue so they had that in common so it was only fair, but Hayate's hair was only a brownish red, kind of auburn and not that awesome fiery colour, and Hayate's hair was short cut to her neck and clipped out of her eyes so that was different from all of them, but that was how she liked it.
Hayate went to bed later content, and tired as she snuggled up in bed with her dear beloved, Vita, and once she was asleep, her mind wandered someplace else. It was a dream. She dreamt of her again. She knew magic was real, how could she not? She was quite sure her new family came from a magical book she received one day out of the blue. But she couldn't bring herself to ask anything about it. She didn't want to lose her new family for saying the wrong thing. She loved them too much, especially Vita. She didn't think she would have the heart to survive losing her most precious people ever, and would do everything in her power to protect them, even if that meant pretending nothing was different with them.
However, since she opened the book, she dreamt every night. Not all of the dreams were good. And some of her dreams were kind of-well-really 'naughty' when she dreamt of 'her'. The Dark Fairy. The Fairy Black. That was the only way to describe 'her'. The dreams were weird. She dreamt of weird things, but 'she' was always there in the beginning. Fairy lived in a world of amazing things, in plain sight, but hidden from all but a special few.
Hayate could never see it all clearly no matter how much she wanted to. She was a light and deadly blaze of might and magical power. Too far out of Hayate's reach; like a goddess, beautiful and amazing.
This goddess. This... Titan was going somewhere new; full of magic Hayate knew, and it worried her because she didn't want to stop seeing this girl, even though she didn't know why. The Magical Girl was full of anger and hope and – Hayate couldn't tell fully, but Hayate did know that her goddess had so much love to give that she gave it in many naughty ways to other girls, embarrassing Hayate as an unintended observer, and making her hot between her own legs with her heart pounding dangerously in her chest.
But as always, the dream lasted but moments or hours before they changed. This time of darkness overcame the light, and green shadows from the night struck dangerous light across the sky through a window. Not a dream of another place she knew, but a terrible memory long since buried with time, one she dreads the truth of.
Not her memory. Hayate knew that. But of theirs. Those two adorable baby girls.
That was always when Hayate would bolt upright in bed and heard a scream so terrible it begged the world. But she knew it was her as her throat ached after she gained control over her fearful emotions, shivering with dread.
Hayate held herself up with her hands on the bed, panting in breath, sweat drenching her face and PJ's. She looked to see Vita kneeling beside her in her cute Goth-bunny PJ's looking at her in worry before Shamal and Signum burst in the room moments later. They looked as scared as they always did when she woke them like that every night, sometimes having dreamt for longer, or even just moments.
"We heard you scream?" Shamal asked in concern. She looked so afraid for Hayate it could almost break her heart to worry them all every night.
"Master Hayate!" Vita whimpered with worried tears in her eyes. She always called Hayate 'Master' when she was so concerned for her, and made Hayate feel like crying for her, and cuddling her and never letting her go. "She must have had that dream again," she said as she turned to the others, "–it could be bad-!" she said, leaving something unsaid, but Hayate wasn't stupid, but she didn't mention anything yet.
"I'm fine now Vita-chan!" Hayate quickly tried to reassure her as her pounding heart slowed its beats, she wiped her wet eyes on her sleeve, and tried to relax and regain her breath. "It's just. I saw her again and... she was going somewhere – it was a school for magic-."
"Magic!?" Vita asked not looking reassured about Hayate's dream, as Hayate knew they believed it was all real, which worried her more, as she felt concerned for a person she had never met. Because she knew deep down in her heart that she loved this girl.
"Then it was those green flashes of something and I just felt a cold dread suddenly like always," Hayate finished, explaining. "And-and those baby girls. I-I love them but... I don't know why or what happened or anything!" she cried in frustration. "But, I-I should be okay now. I don't have them more than once, but I really wish I knew what they meant," she said tiredly sliding into her pillow with a tired yawn.
"Okay," Shamal said in concern. "Get back to sleep! Do you need anything?" she asked, but Hayate just shook her head sleepily. "Vita if anything is wrong call for us, okay?" she commanded and Vita was fast to nod, as she was always worrying about Hayate.
"Of course," she agreed as she snuggled up to Hayate and pulled the covers over them both before the other two left. It wasn't the first nightmare just like it, so they shouldn't have been too concerned, as she would try to forget that dread? Was dread too gentle of a word to describe that hopeless, endless fear of what that light meant.
Death.
Hayate knew that the girl in the first vision was different; she was easy to find... but the other one? Would they find each other someday and uncover this mystery? Hayate hoped so with all of her heart, body, and soul.
That wasn't as much of a dream, but it felt like she was there, but not enough to see everything in perfect detail, or hear anything, but Hayate knew that the girl was strong, and powerful, and gay. She just knew that she would stand before the green darkness and smile, putting it in its place because that was what Hayate sensed from her.
If it was her? Hayate? She would cower, small and afraid while her Knights protected her.
Hayate paused that thought as she looked to Vita and wondered why she thought that. Vita was fast asleep, so Hayate didn't try to speak with her.
Knights...?
Were they knights? Were they her knights? They came to her when she opened the book, but she hadn't opened it since. She got a sense of danger from it. She wouldn't want to do something bad with a magic book when she didn't understand the first thing about magic. She was afraid to ask her new family in case they left her all alone again.
Hayate felt like such a wimp. She was too soft and gentle. She was too nice sometimes, but she supposed Uminari City was just really peaceful and quite most of the time. Hayate had never had any reason to be tough, and though her illness should have made her angry about how unfair it was, and that she was so young there was always someone who had it worse.
She hadn't experienced much, and Hayate accepted it, and now she had her new family she could spend what time she had left being happy with them.
Being happy for them.
Was that silly of her or not? Hayate knew she didn't have long. However, how long she had she wouldn't want to guess. She was scared, but she had to be brave for her beloved family, especially her frightened, beautiful Vita. She didn't feel that she should waste her time being angry, but living the rest of her life loving her Knights and making sure they knew how important they had become to her.
Hayate curled up and smiled as she cuddled her little Vita and kissed her lips gently just to try it as her beloved goddess seemed to enjoy kissing other girls a lot. Hayate blushed brightly as Vita returned her kiss with her little tongue brushing her lips. Hayate let her eyes close as she let Vita's tongue in for a moment before pulling back, sucking off her best friends' tongue, heart-beating dangerously. It felt better than she had dreamed, but she was glad her friend didn't wake, she didn't know whether Vita would understand the way she felt.
Hayate sighed with a sad little smile to grace her lips as she felt bad for taking advantage of her best friends state, but she still held Vita tightly and she snuggled into her chest tighter, and Hayate soon joined her best friend in more pleasant dreams where Hayate got to experience her first ever kiss over and over with her best friend awake.
Meanwhile, Shamal and Signum had left Hayate and Vita to sleep unaware of any odd feelings arising within their Masters heart.
They went to the sofa within the lounge, slumping down while Zafria sat up and watched them while they gathered themselves looking uncertain and more concerned than they ever had before.
"Mistress Hayate is starting to see beyond all of our half-truths and secrets!" Shamal said in concern. "She won't keep pretending nothing is different about her to normal people. I didn't think that she would notice anything; not this quick at least. Then filling the book... the book is refusing to take too much from the linker cores.
"It's never done that before. It used to kill, but it's still linked to Hayate, and she's just too pure that she's somehow imposing her will on it enough to stop us killing any magicians, and it's only a matter of time until she realises that the book is missing and all that is left is an illusion."
"Then what should we do?" Zafria asked in a feral female voice. "Do we explain to her what we're doing, and why?"
"She would never let us continue!" Signum said looking sick. "She could order us to return the book no matter how dangerous it is, or whether we beg her! She's too pure, good, and not to mention how kind she is... we've never had a master like her before. She would never want the power because it would mean hurting others and letting us, even if we could cure her, and fix her legs so she could finally walk. She wouldn't care, and would stop us, and be so disappointed, but I don't want to lose her."
"I know... but you know that look," Shamal said, frustrated. "Right after she wakes from those dreams-from that nightmare!" she said frowning in worry. "She looks at us as if she can see straight through the lies to the secrets we hold, and none of the previous owners of the book ever looked at us like that. They were weak and pathetic. She is not. We care about her as we never did the rest, and in return, she cares for us. We have never had a bond with our master before, and we cannot start being distant. It wouldn't be fair on her, it would be a huge lie, and Vita would never go for hurting her!"
"Then what do we do?" Signum demanded gritting her teeth in frustration, as she didn't know how to cope with the situation.
Shamal sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. "We don't do anything yet... we carry on as planned, but when she finally asks us... we tell her the truth. I heard a phrase that sits right here. 'It is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask permission'."
"Especially when you know the answer would be no...!" Signum added looking defeated. "We need to hurry; take Linker Cores from off world, animals if we need to!" she said clenching her fists, shaking as she could feel her own uncertainty. "Before Master Hayate finds out. So that we can save her!"
"Agreed," Shamal said nodding even though she felt terrible about all the lies and going against their masters wishes, but they wanted to save her so they would have forever together. But even if she hated them for it – they could live with that if only Hayate was safe and alive.