Standard issue disclaimer: Masaki Tsuzuki created, and Seven Arcs owns, Nanoha. I am not any of them. This is a parody, protected speech.

Two years later ...

Dangerous Tendencies
Chapter 5 — Subaru

0074 NC

Deep breaths. Don't panic. It was a simple, familiar routine. Tiana Lannister considered herself an expert at this, if nothing else. Deep breaths. Don't panic. Besides which, this was not such a big deal. There was no reason for her to get worked up. Deep breaths. Don't panic. It was just a procedure to relieve her of an unwanted physical condition. She shouldn't allow herself to become emotional about it. Deep breaths. Don't panic. So she'd simply lie here on her bed, in the dark and —

Then Subaru stepped out of the bathroom, backlit by the light from within so as to make her naked form seem to glisten as she smiled warmly. "Are you ready, Tia?" she asked softly.

Deep — what was the word? Why couldn't she remember the word? It was really important that she remember the word! No, why was her brain throwing up images of how this had all started instead of doing something easy like reminding her of the word? Idiot brain!

Idiot Subaru!

It was of course the idiot's fault. Tiana hadn't wanted to come along to meet with the idiot's sister, and once she had been roped into doing that, all that she'd wanted to do was exchange pleasantries and then go back to her highly cool and interesting private time in the room she was forced to share with the idiot. She certainly hadn't wanted to have a conversation with the older girl.

It would have been so so easy to just sit there, say some comforting platitudes about how well the idiot was doing, and then make her apologies and exit. But for whatever reason, Ginga had wanted to have a conversation with her. She'd asked about Tiana's family, and expressed genuine sorrow when she learned about them, mentioning what Tiana already knew about the Nakajima mother.

And then she'd started to talk about why she'd been so nervous about the idiot when she went away to the academy, clarifying some things that Tiana had been wondering — had from time to time given vague consideration. Then Ginga had gotten a little distracted when Tiana mentioned that she practiced some illusion-based magic and the older girl had affected to think that this was supremely cool. (She was really good at faking sincerity.)

But she'd gotten back on track after that, and continued talking about her concerns. "But I was a bit concerned about her leaving home for the first time, being separated from us, and what that might do to her. The possibility that she might start acting out was a real worry."

"Act out?" Tiana said, since repeating the confusing part of what someone said to confuse you was the done thing.

"Oh, I wasn't afraid that she'd hurt anyone or anything like that, just that she might become a little, well, inappropriate from time to time, " Ginga clarified.

Ah. That. Yes. "Um, no, that's, that hasn't happened, " Tiana lied even as she wondered why she was bothering to lie. Unable to find a good reason for her to engage in such deception, she backed off of her earlier negation slightly. "She has been known to, she sometimes teases the other girls in the showers, but, well, I mean, she hasn't been reprimanded for it, so, I guess, no one is complaining, " she concluded, despising her own weakness.

Ginga promptly made matters worse by taking her absurdly awkward response entirely at face value. "Oh, good. I mean, if people were getting upset at her, that would be terrible. I guess she recognizes how to choose girls who won't mind that sort of thing. What a relief."

Tiana nodded, even as she inwardly shrieked at the implication that she, the most frequent subject of the idiot's attentions, was a girl who didn't mind that sort of thing. "It's good that she understands that, " she said to fill the space, and then, for no good reason, she chose to continue. "A little surprising, honestly, since you said that she hasn't been around many people other than you."

Ginga blinked.

And a second later than she should have, she said, "I guess so."

Huh? thought Tiana, but before she could even process the strange new datum, the idiot came back with a ridiculous amount of ice cream and Ginga was enthusing to her about the cool magic that Tiana could do, and there was just no time.

Not then.

But there had been plenty of time since then.

Actually, it had only taken a few days for her to process it, come to a conclusion about it, and then decide to take action based on that conclusion. Really, it was almost bizarre the way that her thought processes were working at such speed when it came to this subject. It was as though this minor matter was somehow of utmost importance, which it certainly wasn't, not at all.

But regardless, she took action a few days later, while lying in bed and staring up at the bedboard above her own bed. "Hey," she said.

"Yes, Tia?" Subaru's voice came back politely.

"You and your sister are really close, aren't you?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," Subaru agreed enthusiastically.

Okay ... that response wasn't really what she'd been trying to achieve. Perhaps a different approach was necessary. "You ... and your sister ... are really close," she said.

"Uh-huh," Subaru agreed, enthusiasm undiminished.

No, that still wasn't it. She'd have to try again. "You and ... your sister ... are really ... close," she said.

At last, that got a different reaction out of her roommate. Silence for a moment, then a short rustling, and then Subaru's head ducking down to peer at her from the top bunk with an expression that looked more bemused than anything else. "Tia, you've asked me that three times now. The answer is not going to suddenly become different, if you keep asking the same question."

"Why are you deaf to subtext?" Tiana asked, annoyed.

"Why are you asking me questions when you already know how I'm going to answer?" Subaru answered the question with a question.

Briefly, Tiana contemplated pointing out what bad form that was, but she was perfectly aware that would lead to a very involved conversation about the absurdity of certain social conventions, which would get more ridiculous and ridiculous until she finally had no choice but to smack Subaru upside the head while the other girl just stood there and took it. Which always felt like a loss for Tiana, even though she was the one smacking the other girl upside the head.

"Do you and your sister do stuff to each other like you do to the girls here?" she blurted out.

Subaru looked surprised. Well, she should. It wasn't Tiana's way to be so direct, so blunt. She felt embarassed and annoyed at herself for doing it now. But at least the question was out there, even though the answer was bound to be -

"No, we don't do stuff like that. We've gotten past that stage," Subaru answered easily, after the surprise passed.

- something somewhat different than Tiana had been expecting. "You and she ... have gone further than that with each other?" Tiana asked, feeling faint. Well, she thought, at least I'm sort of in the right place for it if further revelations should make me lose consciousness.

Subaru simply nodded in response.

"You simply nod in response," Tiana narrated.

"Would you like me to lie to you?" Subaru asked. Then, somewhat hesitantly, "Would you like details?"

"No," Tiana answered, forcefully. "And, hell no. But ... I mean ... how ... why ..."

"That's sort of a detail, you know."

"Yes, I do know."

"Well, all right then. Um ... well, it started around the time our momma died. I was really sad and lonely, so I started sleeping in the same bed as Gin-nee, and, like I said, I was sad and lonely, so she comforted me, and one thing pretty much led to another. And that's what happened." Subaru nodded as punctuation.

"You are the worst storyteller I have ever met," Tiana said, rubbing her head to make the pain stop.

"Sorry," Subaru replied, looking abashed.

"Okay ... so you're in love with your sister, then," she continued after a moment, trying to adjust to it.

"Hrmmmmmm," the other girl hummed, as though testing the words for their taste. "I wouldn't ... I mean, I love Gin-nee. I love talking with her, sparring with her, doing this and that with her, all of it. But ... I know that she's not in love with me, and that keeps me from losing my head over her. She's after someone else, you see."

Tiana, who hadn't picked that up at all from the way Ginga had acted, blinked in confusion. "Who?" she asked, before she could stop herself.

Subaru shook her head with a pious expression on her face. "Nope," she answered. "Not my story to tell. Sorry! Anything else?"

"No," Tiana sighed. "That's enough revelation for one night, thank you very much. Good night, Subaru."

"Good night, Tia." And then her head was gone up out of sight.

But not out of mind, oh, no. Tiana couldn't possibly be that lucky. She couldn't stop thinking about it, really. Well, that was inaccurate. As long as she had something else to think about, as she did during all her training, her mind was blissfully undisturbed. But as soon as she had an idle moment - Anarch's favored ground being such moments - her thoughts drifted to the subject she'd told herself that she didn't want to think about.

Do you want details? the idiot had asked, and she'd told her no, because that was The Truth. As opposed to the truth, which was that she couldn't stop thinking about just those details.

What was it like? What did they do to one another?

The course of her thoughts first led her to envision the pair of them with their heads between each other's legs, but she promptly rejected that notion. Pee came from there, along with ... other things, and they wouldn't want to taste that. She didn't even understand why she'd thought along those lines in the first place. It made no sense.

Then, she envisioned them lying entwined face to face ... heart to heart. Yes, that made more sense. They could kiss each other's lips like that, and though Tiana knew very little about such things, she knew that kisses on the lips felt good. But who would be on top?

Oh. Of course. It would definitely be Ginga on top. Yes, she would be the one directing matters, the one kissing while Subaru would be the one being kissed, lying back and having things done to her. Yes, and then, once she'd had her fill of kissing those lips, she could move her head back and down and kiss her breasts, those unusually large breasts and their tart little nipples, which would probably excite Subaru quite a bit. Yes, and all the while, her hands would be busy, stroking her sides, and her chest, and down between her legs, just like -

And then it occurred to Tiana, as she thought about all this while enjoying a rare moment of privacy in their room, that her hands were between her own legs.

She carefully considered that fact.

It seemed important.

And then she decided to ignore what her hands were doing, and focus on her thoughts, as she envisioned being strong enough, as Ginga must be, to place the unfathomable idiotic strength of Subaru under her restraint, to hold her down as she did things to her, to have might greater than the mightiest being she had ever encountered, to

Not

Be

So

Fucking

Weak!

And then she exploded.

That was what it felt like, and when she eventually came to her senses, and her hand came up to reflexively check her head for injuries, and she smelled what was on it, she grimaced in disgust.

She had to stop thinking about this.

But how?

The solution was embarrassingly obvious, as well as embarrassing in general. Of course it was. Since this whole thing was the idiot's fault, Tiana was going to have to get the idiot to fix it. And the only way that was going to happen was if she did something embarrassing. Well, she could do that. She could do anything if it meant that she'd be free of this.

It took her a week to find the right time. Picking the right time was important. She was certainly not too embarrassed to take action, or working up the nerve to do so. Nope. Not her. No way.

She chose the moment perfectly. "Subaru," she said.

"Yes, Tia?" her roommate said, not looking up from the magazine article about a certain ace of aces she was reading while lying flat on her stomach on the floor of their room.

"We're going to have sex."

It was honestly a little disgusting, Subaru's obsession with Takamachi, the way that she was staring at the photos of her at such a point blank range, as though she had just collapsed face-first into the magazine. Which was clearly not what had happened. Nope. No way.

Eventually, the fixation passed, and Subaru lifted her head to look at Tiana with a shocked expression. "We're what now?"

"We're going to have sex," Tiana repeated herself, hating the fact that it was necessary. Why couldn't the idiot just understand her at once? "Lately I've become concerned about certain things that have been going on in this place, and this is the best way to deal with them. When you were living with your sister, how often did you two have sex?"

"Um, well, whenever we wanted," Subaru answered. "But -"

"So you were doing it all the time, then."

"... I wouldn't say th-"

"All the time, then," Tiana repeated herself again. So annoying! "But then you came here, and though you have heretofore controlled your impulses towards such behavior by sublimating them through your generally flirtatious behavior with me and others here, eventually they will express themselves in a way that could be potentially embarrassing or even dangerous. So as to prevent such a tragedy, you and I will satisfy your lusts by having sex with each other."

Subaru blinked audibly. "Tia," she said slowly. "I'm not really sure what some of those words mean. But I understand what you're saying ... and I think I have better control of myself than that."

"No you don't," Tiana disagreed.

"No, I really do think that."

Tiana started counting to ten silently. Before she reached three, she decided to the Outer Darkness with it and started talking again. "You might very well think that," she said, slowly. "But you are wrong to do so, because you don't have better control of yourself than that, or need I mention how you nearly threw me into orbit the first time we did an obstacle course?"

"You, uh, well, you just did," said Subaru, looking embarrassed and poking her fingers together in front of her face. "And, well, yes, I do sometimes have problems like that, so I guess Tia is right. So ... when are we going to do this?"

"As soon as possible," said Tiana.

That turned out to be a few days later. And now, here she was, watching Subaru come closer and closer, and she was wondering why she'd ever thought this was a good idea.

Well, this is where my plans have brought me, Tiana thought grimly as Subaru climbed into the bunk beside her, making for a rather tight squeeze as their naked bodies pressed up against each other. I have to follow them through to the bitter end. With that thought, and a sharp nod to herself, she rolled so that she was perched atop Subaru's form, and kissed her soundly.

Hm. This was strange. Subaru didn't seem to be kissing her back. Well, obviously, she was kissing her back, but her tongue wasn't involved, as Tiana's was, in exploring her partner's mouth. What was the problem, here? Did Subaru not think it was worth exploring Tiana's mouth? Was that it? Did she think her mouth was boring and uninteresting?

Tiana pulled back and took a breath to begin remonstrating with Subaru over that.

"Tia," Subaru said, sounding spooked, before Tiana could say a word. "Where did you learn to do that thing with your tongue?"

"What, is my tongue not up to your standards?" Tiana asked, changing a noun in what she'd planned to say.

"That's, that's not what I was saying," Subaru pointed out. "Where'd you learn to do that stuff?"

Tiana continued to bridle. "Do I ask you questions about your past romantic history?"

"Yes, you did," Subaru pointed out.

Crap, thought Tiana, as she remembered that doing that was, from a certain perspective, exactly what had gotten her into this situation in the first place. "Well, you have no room to judge, because I, I practiced kissing with my brother, just like you and your -"

"Tia," Subaru said, starting to look appalled. "Didn't you tell me that your brother died when you were eight?"

"So what?" someone asked. Tiana wondered who'd said that. It couldn't be her. Her voice was never that high-pitched and tearful sounding.

And then Subaru was hugging her tightly, holding her firmly, in a way that she couldn't fight against, just like no no don't think about that, not ever, holding her, holding her and talking into her ear.

"We are not going to have sex," Subaru said.

"No," Tiana said. It occurred to her abruptly that this could sound like an agreement when it wasn't supposed to be. "Your self-control -"

"I have enough self-control to hold you like this without crushing you," said Subaru, calmly, firmly, implacably. "I have enough to stop myself in other ways. I believe that. If I'm wrong ... then I'm wrong. But we are not going to have sex. Not now.

"One day. One day when you are ready, we are going to make love, and it is going to be the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to either of us. But not today. Not now. Not when you don't really want to do it."

Oh. Well. In that case ... Tiana let herself go limp. But Subaru's grip didn't falter even so.

This mighty being was most definitely not responding to her will, Tiana decided. Of course she wasn't. She was weak, and she was always going to be weak. Subaru's talk about 'one day' was just empty talk. It was never going to happen.

Never.

Nope. No way.

But ... it was a nice dream to think about as she slowly passed into unconsciousness, cradled in the other girl's arms. Even if it would never be anything more than that.

Next: Signum