Second Session

Fate was picking up the stuff from her locker. Due to the end of year, the school's hallways were practically deserted, of people certainly, but not of garbage. The carelessness of boys and girls equally was visible. Broken pencils, wide-open notebooks with shoe prints on them and torn pages and even some forgotten sweaters decorated the floor. You could even say that the level of mess was directly proportional to their enthusiasm for the end of the school year.

Fate sighed feeling a little dejected. She didn't know why she felt most of her classmates were too immature for her. Truth be told, deep down she knew. She had had to grow up faster than many of the other kids her age, since still being very young, she had lived experiences she wouldn't wish for anyone. She also had a lot of duties and responsibilities as active personnel of the TSAB. All of these clearly explained why she had a different perspective of the world than most teenagers.

At the other side of the hallway, Nanoha caught sight of her. She hadn't expected to see her now, but before she even realized, her feet were already moving towards Fate's direction.

"H-Hi...Fate-chan."

The blonde turned around to see her, a little startled as her thoughts had been interrupted. A sweet smile drew in her lips as she greeted her.

"I didn't expect to see you today."

"I had to return ahead of time. Since the school-year is coming to an end, I had some issues to deal with some of the professors. I'm way behind in a lot of homeworks since this time I was away for too long. Most of the teachers are unhappy with this situation and I have to take a lot of tests. I think I will have more than the ones I can handle in one day."

"Oh, yes. I have your notes here. Do you need help with anything else?"

"I think I've got it covered. Thanks anyway."

"You know... on Saturday we are having junior prom."

"So I've heard. I think this time I was really uncommunicated. So, finally did you decide who you were going with?" Fate asked and as soon as the words came out, she mentally chastised herself for asking. She had had the firm conviction of not asking her a thing. If she had decided to distance herself, that was her choice. She was not going to beg. But here she was, and even against her own will, she had asked and now she'll have to deal with the answer.

"I...ahhh..." Nanoha hesitated, a little surprised that Fate knew she had several options.

"I bumped into Hayate this morning. It seems rather amusing to her that you have some many candidates to choose from. She wouldn't stop talking to me about it." Fate somehow guessed what Nanoha was thinking and felt the need to justify herself.

Nanoha slightly blushed. The last weeks without Fate had been extremely weird not only because what had happened between them, but because all the boys around here seemed to notice that distance between her and Fate and, as fast as bees over honey had overwhelmed her with invitations to dinner and actual dates. But that wasn't it. To increase her confusion, she had also been asked out by two girls from her Literature class. For some reason, she rejected them immediately.

In those hazy days, full of doubts and questions, she accepted to go out on dates, and yet none of them was what she expected. With most of the boys she had had nothing to talk about. They had been, the majority of them, nice and attentive but she could never pay them the attention they deserved. Her mind would always drift away to other places, to another person in particular. Although there had also been the one who had wanted a little more action and the only thing he got in return was his dignity, and probably his crotch, a little more bruised than he would have expected.

Fate finished emptying her locker and, accepting the silence that had grown, shut it close.

"I guess I'll see you later," she excused herself.

She walked towards the main door while Nanoha stood still where she had left her. A few seconds later she felt her wrist being pulled and found herself entering in the first available door.

"Nanoha!?"

Fate was convinced that such things only happened on TV when, when someone was pulled into a door at random it turned out to be the janitor's closet. The mop and broom showing behind Nanoha's head and the smell of cheap disinfectant cleared all possible doubts about where they were.

"I need to talk to you."

"In here?"

Nanoha gasped, offended.

"I don't care about the place."

"Then why don't we go somewhere else?"

"Would you let me say what I need to say?"

Fate dropped her arms to the sides, almost a sign of defeat, and got prepared to listen.

"What do you need to say?

"You didn't give me a chance to answer..."

"Answer, what?" Fate asked, a little desperate already.

"Who I was going to the prom."

"Oh, that. Well I guess it's not a big deal. Nor is it my business anyways."

"You don't care who I'm going with?"

Fate was positively sure she had just discovered a new allergy to one of those cleaners in that closet, which would explain the sudden discomfort in her eyes.

"To which one of your numerous proposals did you say yes?"

"Are you crying?"

"Of course I'm not crying, it's the chlorine!"

"Well, actually... what I wanted to tell you is that..." Nanoha started to clumsily play with her fingers as if they were little legs, walking from one of the shelves and into Fate's arm. "That I really missed you when you were not here..."

Within five seconds and thanks to the warm touch of her fingers against her skin, Fate's exasperation disappeared. The lousy mood she had carried for the past ten weeks vanished. Her crimson eyes lingered curiously on Nanoha and following her game, she started to walk her fingers through Nanoha's navel and upward.

"Is that so?" She asked with her eyes set on her. "And how much did you miss me?"

"A lot..."

"And what did you miss about me?"

"Everything..."

"Everything, like what?"

"You smile, your eyes, your voice, your hugs..." Her fingers were already traveling the long length of Fate's arm, although her eyes were fixed on her own shoes.

"I see... anything else?"

"Yes...I also missed... your kisses..." She answered in a whisper Fate could barely hear, trying to hide the warmth in her cheeks.

Fate pushed her hands against Nanoha's stomach and slid them to her back, pulling her against her own body. She found no resistance from her.

"These hugs?" Fate whispered, leaning her head to her shoulder and started caressing the skin of her neck with her lips. "These kisses?" She asked again, as she moved up to her mouth and felt Nanoha slightly nodding .

"Ah, ah..aha..." She muttered, with her heart racing.

Fate was about to reach her mouth and when she was barely brushing her lips, she stopped and locked her eyes with hers.

"What about your doubts?"

"I... I don't know if it's normal," the auburn-haired girl sighed confused. "Doesn't it worry you?"

Fate shook her head, and placing her forehead against hers, asked.

"What is normal?"

"I shouldn't feel this way about a girl."

Fate sighed bewildered, trying to find the words that could let her know how she perceived their situation.

"By now you should have already realized that normal doesn't apply to either of us. Besides I don't see you as a girl, I mean you are obviously a girl, but that doesn't make a difference whatsoever for me. You are just Nanoha, my Nanoha. I like being with you, it makes me happy being with you. I don't understand why there has to be any more to it." She answered, stroking the reddish locks of hair falling over her eyes.

"And you are my Fate-chan. It also makes me happy being with you. Will you be patient with me?"

Fate took Nanoha's hands and placed her delicate palms against hers, her own fingers a bit longer than the other girls'.

"Does that mean I can't go out with anyone else?"

Nanoha looked at her confused. She didn't want her dating anyone else.

"Do you... want to date someone else?"

"Of course not, you dummy. Although I should, considering you had all those hot dates."

"Mou, Fate-chan. I didn't have any hot dates. Are you jealous?"

"Should I?" She asked, shaking her head.

"I would if I were you."

"Then I deserve a reward for not making you go through such experience," Fate answered as she got closer to her. "And for not being a jealous maniac."

Nanoha placed her hands behind Fate's neck and pulled her close, playfully brushing her lips against the smiling blonde's.

"Are you dumping your date for the prom?" She managed to ask as they kissed.

"Why would I want to do that?"

Fate pulled backwards as if she had just received a surge of electricity.

"Who are you going with?" She demanded to know, visibly upset.

"With you! I want to go with you. I didn't say yes to anyone...because the only one I wanted to go with, is you."

"For heaven's sake Nanoha, why didn't you start with that since the beginning?"

"I wasn't sure if Fate-chan wanted to know anything about me after me being so stupid."

"One day you are going to make me crazy. I know." She answered as she hugged her tightly. "Smooth ways of asking me to go to the prom with you."


"And that was our first fight."

"Along with the first time we made up again."

"Oh yes, I remember those days. I always wondered how you had resolved your differences. It's good to know, after all these years, that the little pushes I gave to each actually worked. Wait, the first?

"Of course. You wouldn't think everything has been all nice and fluffiness."

"Well it kind of destroys my image of you two."

Fate cracked in laughter.

"We've had our misunderstandings. Lots of it. But we've worked on them, because despite everything we might not agree about, ever since that day we understood there was something bigger than anything else..."

"Nothing or no one would ever break us apart," Nanoha completed.

"Oh, aren't you the cutest ever!"

"Aren't you supposed to be impartial, Hayate?"

"Doctor Hayate for you while we are on therapy."

"Nanoha, do you really think we should encourage her with this? I think she's going bananas for real."

"You know how Hayate is. Don't take her too seriously."

Why are they again speaking to each other as if I wasn't here?

"Alright, but I really think she's the one that should go to therapy or something. I mean, just in case."

And they have the nerve to call me crazy, to my face!

"But who knows, what will happen if they start her on medication and dope her and she stops being our Hayate or they lock her down?"

"Don't exaggerate so much..."

"You know, if they actually declare her insanity..."

That's too much already. I should see them out now before I forget I'm a person of light and peace.