Lonely No More
by Cyberchao X

Chapter 2

Oh, dear, looks like I may need to create OCs…

Disclaimer: Some characters not property of me.

*New Year's Eve, six years after the events of A's*

"All by yourself today, Bannings-san?" asked the Tsukimura maid, Noel.

"Y-yeah…I've never been much good with the opposite sex. Well, not since the age where the best way to impress a boy was to beat him up, anyway."

"Well, I hope that won't make your New Year's too disappointing."

"I'll be fine."

"Will you, now?" asked Suzuka's own personal maid, Farin, after Noel had left. "Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan aren't here this year."

"…Rare for you to actually be the more observant one."

"As my personal maid, Farin-san has more contact with my friends than Noel-san, and so therefore she knows them better," Suzuka said, while Farin pouted at the insult. "Although it wouldn't take very much observational skill to figure out your tendencies."

"You're so mean!"

"No, I wasn't saying that you're not that observant…it's just that Arisa-chan's preferences are pretty obvious if you spend any significant amount of time with her."

"And what about you, Suzuka-chan?" Arisa asked, enough of a whisper that Farin couldn't hear. "I see you have a date for the night."

"Arranged by my parents, of course," Suzuka replied. "I don't really mind, but…I'd rather have a girl's lips against mine at midnight."

"Preferrably Hayate-chan's, right?"

"…Yeah." "Or yours," she thought.

"Well, if you really need a girl, I'm always available for you."

"That's…sweet, but right now I need to keep up appearances. Even if Hayate-chan were still here, I'd probably wait until later to give her her New Year's smooch."

Arisa sighed, no longer bothering to whisper. "I'm glad I don't have any arranged dates."

"Well, it was just because I was single. Obviously if I had a boyfriend, my parents wouldn't have done this." The underlying message was perfectly clear—Arisa had definitely made the right move by whispering, because Suzuka was still very much in the closet and seeing as how this year's Christmas gathering, at which Suzuka had been open about her sexuality, had been at Hayate's apartment, where the only "adults" were magical constructs who followed Hayate to Mid-Childa, Arisa was the only one on Earth who knew the truth.

Midnight came around, and Arisa watched Suzuka and her date kiss. "How does she do it? She makes it look so believable…even if it had been on the lips, I might have thought it looked genuine." (A/N: I only remembered right as I was getting to this scene that kissing is a much bigger deal in Japanese culture than it is in American culture—to the point that many anime/manga kind of overexaggerate just how casually Americans will kiss each other—so I had to change it. I started to change the earlier part as well, but Suzuka already kissed Hayate in "Last Christmas" so I left it as it was.) "I could never be that affectionate to someone I didn't really feel that way about. Suzuka-chan…you look so lovely…" Arisa stopped and thought about this statement. Was she serious? Yes, Suzuka looked absolutely wonderful in her kimono, and Arisa had jokingly offered up her lips to Suzuka…but would she really do that? With Suzuka? The two of them hadn't even really been that close; mostly it was their common feelings for Nanoha that had kept them together and strengthened that bond. It became even stronger once Hayate, whom Suzuka had befriended even before learning about magic, turned out to be a magical girl as well and got close with Nanoha and Fate, but…it was really only now, with the other three members of their group all gone, that Arisa felt as though Suzuka was someone she truly wanted to keep close to her. Someone she really wanted to get close to. Someone she wanted to get close w—"Happy New Year, Arisa-chan!"

"Wah! Suzuka-chan… Happy New Year."

"Something wrong?"

"What? No, I'm just fine," Arisa lied.

"She's probably lonely without a date for New Year's. I'll leave you to comfort your friend, Tsukimura-san."

"What? No, Arisa-chan's a strong girl; she'll be fine. Stay, Kushimoto-san; I brought you over here to introduce the two of you, not to leave you to be with her." She put one arm around Arisa while she reached out to grab Kushimoto's hand with her other.

Arisa ducked out from Suzuka's grasp. "Get your arm off of me, Suzuka-san," she said, trying not to blush.

Suzuka laughed. "What did I tell you? Arisa-chan is much too independent to let something like this bother her."

The festivities over, Arisa retreated to Suzuka's room, having made arrangements to stay there in advance. Arisa hadn't been all that terribly dressed up, relatively speaking, and was out of her kimono and into a nightgown before Suzuka had even finished getting all of the pins out of her hair. "I hope that wasn't too harsh," Suzuka said.

"What; you playing the 'good date' instead of 'consoling' me after midnight? I wouldn't have it any other way, Suzuka-chan."

"Of course you wouldn't," Suzuka replied with a grin. "Hey, could you help me with this?" She motioned to her back, where her kimono was tied with a big bow.

"Isn't this what she has Farin-san for?" Arisa thought as she untied it, though subconsciously she was thinking that it's not really that hard to reach just behind your waist the way it would be for the center of your back, and as such, getting out of the kimono really shouldn't have needed any assistance at all. This thought had been unable to properly form at the time, though, because the layers of silk slipped off of Suzuka's body, leaving Arisa staring at the backside of a girl who was naked from about mid-calf on up. Arisa turned away as Suzuka nonchalantly sat down on her bed to remove the accompanying socks. "It looked very nice on you," she said. "You always look great all dressed up."

"So do you," Suzuka replied, pulling on a pair of panties.

"You're just saying that. I don't really like getting dressed up, so I always look uncomfortable."

"You look fine," Suzuka insisted, walking up behind Arisa and giving her a hug. "Just because you still look tough enough to punch out any guy who tries to hit on you doesn't make you any less pretty."

Arisa's face turned bright red, and the rest of her body seemed a bit flushed as well. "Suzuka…" she was so flustered that she forgot the honorific, "could you please put on a nightgown before doing that?"

"What? Weren't you in need of a 'happy new year'? You even offered me your lips for the traditional New Year's kiss; I would've thought you'd like this." She loosened her grip so that her nearly-naked body was no longer pressed up against Arisa, but she kissed the back of Arisa's head before walking away to get something else to wear.

"I wasn't being serious when I said that. You're a really good friend, Suzuka-chan; with everyone else gone now, I don't want to mess that up with relationship drama. Besides…does anyone else who is still on Earth even know that you're a lesbian?" Arisa thought about this for a brief moment, and before Suzuka could even respond, she added, "Are you even a full-fledged lesbian? Because you looked awfully convincing with Kushimoto-san there. I thought, I don't know, maybe you go both ways…"

This gave Suzuka pause. "That's…a good question. I certainly haven't minded when boys gave me love letters. Being around such strong girls as the four of you, any feelings I might have had for any boys would've been drowned out anyway, so…I guess it's possible… And, yes, you're the only person still on Earth that knows that I'm anything other than completely straight."

"Exactly, so…maybe it's better if you keep up the pretense of being straight for the time being." Meanwhile, Arisa's mind was keying on the words "the four of you". So, Suzuka considered her to be on the same plane as the three magical girls… What if she wasn't just trying to be nice? What if Suzuka was trying to tell her something? The violet-haired girl was indeed quite pretty, though she was nowhere near as cool as Nanoha and Fate… But then again, Nanoha and Fate were both magical girls. Suzuka was just another ordinary girl, same as Arisa—and a kind of shy, gentle one at that. While Fate had a similarly soft-spoken personality, she was still by far the stronger of the two. With Suzuka, Arisa would be the strong one. Something about that sounded kind of appealing to her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. You may act like a boy a lot, Arisa-chan, but it still might be kind of hard to pretend that you are one." She paused. "Although maybe if you cut your hair short…"

Arisa looked down at her body. "Shut up, Suzuka-baka! You're not exactly curvy yourself!"

Suzuka gave Arisa another kiss, this time on her forehead. "I'm sorry, Arisa-chan. You're right; that was very rude of me."

Arisa blushed. "I-It's…that is…just don't do it again, okay?"

Suzuka chuckled. "Okay."

CCX: Well, I got out of that more easily than I expected. Only one OC, and I didn't even have to give him a full name. And a chapter of decent length, too, on the back of another update to my oeuvre…though I suppose I would've rather had this chapter finished by the end of December. Still, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be set, so if I continue to attempt synchronization with the actual calendar, I may still have plenty of time! Cyberchao X, signing off.