Momoko gasped as she sat up quickly in the warm bed, and Lindy’s arm fell harmlessly onto her lap. She leaned against one arm and gently disentangled herself from the sleeping green-haired woman. However, the bed shook when she went to stand on the cold floor.
“What’s wrong?” Lindy yawned scrunching her eyes while Momoko threw on her thick robe.
“I forgot to tell Nanoha’s teacher about her getting bullied,” Momoko explained frantically, “I need to tell her before lunch!”
“I took care of that already,” mumbled Lindy, and she rolled onto her side to see the clock.
“When?”
“I talked to the headmaster after I dropped the kids off. I had to address Chrono getting into a fight on his first day of school anyway, so I explained Nanoha’s situation as well,” Lindy said as she put on her glasses to read the clock's face. The green-haired woman frowned at the time. “Momoko, it’s only nine. Let’s get a few more hours of sleep. The store’s closed, the kids are in school, and you’re exhausted. This a very rare time.”
Momoko hesitated while Lindy’s long green hair touched the bed as she sat up.
“What?” asked Lindy with a slight blush as Momoko stared hard at her with her arms folded. The brunette’s quick glance at the empty space on the bed made Lindy smile. “Haven’t you ever shared a bed with a friend before?”
Momoko’s face turned a bright red to Lindy’s amusement.
“Of course I have!” she replied and sat on the bed again, “But stay on your side this time.”
Lindy grinned and brushed her hair out of her face while placing her glasses back near the clock. She buried her face in the pillow and could feel Momoko shifting her weight by the mattress rocking slightly.
An odd feeling gripped Lindy in a way that she hadn’t experienced in years. She wanted to be close to the woman a few feet from her, but at the same time it seemed as if a part of her warned her against it. The battle between the two urges kept her still and away from sleep. She could only relax when she heard the deep, even breaths from behind her. The peaceful slumber then seemed to envelope even Lindy’s conflicted mind in a comforting warmth.
-- -- --
“And who are my clean-up helpers today?” said the cheerful Kindergarten teacher to the children at various centers around the room.
The group of twenty five-year-olds eagerly raised their hands at the request.
“Group Three,” she said to the four girls sorting counting bears by color and then adding them, “will you be in charge of the activity centers being put away nicely?”
“Yes, Ma’am!” they answered in unison.
Suzuka picked up the small plastic bears on her side of the activity carpet and dumped them into the large bucket that Fate was holding. Arisa and Nanoha visited the other four activities centers and helped them pick up the blocks and cars scattered around the classroom. After the classroom was clear of various small objects, the teacher raised her hand in the air.
“One, two, three! Eyes on me!” the teacher said sweetly, and the bundle of Kindergarten students stumbled over each other as they stood up with two fingers over their lips and other hand raised in the air. “If you have a lunch, go get it now. If you are buying lunch, line up in front of me.”
Nanoha walked with her three friends to their backpacks hanging on hooks.
“Aren’t you buying lunch today, Nanoha?” asked Arisa while pulling the small box from her backpack.
Nanoha shook her head with a smile and pulled the bento from her bookbag.
“My mom made it,” said Fate proudly, “Nanoha spent the night.”
“Why didn’t you invite me to your party?” pouted Arisa.
Nanoha cast a silencing glance at Fate. “Fate lives across my street,” she explained to Arisa while Suzuka joined the conversation with her lunchbox, “I didn’t mean to stay over, but it just happened. Next time we have a slumber party, you and Sazuka can come too.”
Arisa tried to hide the smile creeping up on her face, but the corners of her serious frown twitched which made the rest of the girls giggle.
“Group Three!” called their teacher by the door, “We’re waiting on you.”
The girls gasped and stumbled to the line of their classmates.
-- -- --
The click of the air conditioner over her head woke Lindy from her sound slumber, and immediately her bladder reminded her of the large glass of water she had during breakfast. However, the strange warmth on her back held her in her place. Momoko had shifted in her sleep so that she was curled around Lindy’s back. She could feel the tip of Momoko’s nose on the base of her neck while her bent knees touched the back side of the green-haired woman’s knees. The brunette’s forearms laid on the skin of Lindy’s back as her arms curled under the old nightshirt.
Lindy begged her bladder for five more minutes, but her full organ would not accept her pleas for negotiation. Thus, with great reluctance, Lindy pried herself away from the sleeping woman and walked to the bathroom down the hall cursing her impatient bladder.
-- -- --
“Fate,” Nanoha whispered into the blond’s ear as they walked in line to the courtyard, “don’t forget that we can’t tell anyone about our magical girl powers.”
“Sorry,” Fate blushed, “but what should we do about Yuuno and the rest of the big kids?”
Nanoha frowned as she thought, “I don’t know.”
The class of Kindergarteners rounded the corner of the building and broke into two groups: those who had their lunch went to the picnic tables in the middle of the courtyard and those who bought their lunch stood at the back of the line leading to the cafeteria. The children in the cafeteria line seemed to tremble in fear as they looked around anxiously waiting for Yuuno and his group of thugs to arrive and deprive them of their lunches.
Arisa and Suzuka already had their lunches out by the time Nanoha and Fate sat at the picnic table. Nanoha started to pull the cloth knot when she stopped abruptly.
“What’s wrong?” asked Arisa with her mouth full of the octopus-shaped hotdog.
“I don’t want her to eat alone,” replied Nanoha.
“Who?” asked Arisa while looking to Suzuka for clarification.
Suzuka smiled at her friend across the table and nodded as she looked past her to the girl sitting alone in her wheelchair.
“Why do you what to be friends with her?” asked Arisa, “She’s crazy!”
“Arisa!” scolded Suzuka, “Nanoha made friends with Fate, and now we’re all friends with Fate. We have a new friend over there, but we need to learn her name.”
“Did you not want to be my friend?” asked Fate sadly.
Nanoha giggled, “Arisa doesn’t share well.”
Arisa huffed her disapproval and took a large bite out of her lunch to disguise the blush on her cheeks.
Suzuka smiled and waved to Nanoha, “I’ll stay here with Miss Crankypants. Go greet our new friend, Nanoha.”
Nanoha nodded with a grin and picked up her lunch that she had yet to open. Fate followed the brunette pigtails that bounced closer and closer to the girl in the wheelchair.
“Hi! I’m Nanoha!” greeted Nanoha to the girl with short brown hair in the wheelchair.
The wheelchair was placed at the end of the picnic table, and Nanoha and Fate sat on either side of the girl. The girl's eyes widened in confusion as she saw the two girls open their bento boxes next to her.
“What’s your name?” asked Nanoha happily as she chomped merrily on the lunch that Lindy made. Fate gave a tiny smile in her shyness.
“H-Hayate…” the girl in the wheelchair said.
“Nice to meet you, Hayate!” grinned Nanoha who then pointed at the blond across the table, “This is Fate.”
Fate waved and smiled while picking at her lunch.
“Nice to meet you too,” stammered Hayate as her hands trembled nervously while wringing the blanket on her lap.
“Aww,” gasped Fate forgetting about her shyness while she pointed at the objects poking out from Hayate’s blanket, “Those are so cute! May I see them?”
“What?” asked Nanoha who then peered at Hayate’s lap.
“They’re…they’re my friends,” replied Hayate softly without meeting their eyes, “You’re here to make fun of me, aren’t you?”
A tear slid down Hayate’s cheek.
“No!” shouted Nanoha with all the authority the small girl could muster, “We’re here to be friends with you! Can I meet your other friends?”
Hayate’s teary eyes stared into Nanoha’s determined face, “Do you promise not to make fun of me?”
“I promise,” said Nanoha.
“Me too,” joined Fate.
Hayate pulled back the blanket on her lap to show four very old and very worn plush dolls and placed them on the table next to her barely touched lunch.
“This is Zafira,” she said while pointing to the stuffed plush dog with blue fur before holding up the three rag dolls, “The one with red hair’s name is Vita, the one with pink hair I call Signum, and the yellow and green one is Shamal.”
Hayate patted the plush dolls lovingly and placed them back on her lap.
“Wow,” said Nanoha, “They look really old.”
Hayate nodded, “My mommy made them for me before she and my daddy went to heaven.”
The smile grew on Hayate’s face, but more tears flowed from the young girl’s eyes. Hayate choked when a pair of arms tightly embraced her neck.
“She left you with very kind friends,” croaked Nanoha hugging Hayate.
-- -- --
“Lindy?”
Momoko felt the other side of the bed to find it cold and deserted. Her heart skipped a beat in an unknown fear as she forced herself awake. She grabbed her robe from the back of the chair and threw it around her as she walked out of the bedroom.
“Lindy?” she called out again with her voice lined with fear.
Her heart eased its rapid palpitations when she heard the shower running from the bathroom door in the hallway. Momoko rushed to the door and lightly knocked.
“It’s me,” Momoko called.
“Do you want to join?” Lindy answered with a laugh.
Momoko felt a hot blush rush to her cheeks, “N-n-no!”
“Just give me a few more minutes, and you can have the shower. You can use the kids’ bathroom, but Chrono still has trouble with his aim in the morning,” said the voice from behind the door.
“That’s all right,” smiled Momoko, “I’m going to run home for a bit to shower and change.”
The shower stopped.
“Are you coming back?” Lindy asked.
Momoko’s fingers traced the grooves in the wooden door while she laughed to herself, “Why? Do you have plans?”
“Well, no,” replied Lindy whose voice reflected her embarrassment, “but I thought we could go into town for a few hours. Maybe shop a bit? Grab something to eat?”
“Sounds like a date,” teased Momoko feeling playful.
No reply came from the other side of the door.
“I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” said Momoko finally breaking the silence, which was followed by the return of the sounds from the restarted shower.
Inside the spacious bathroom, Lindy sat on the floor of her shower hugging her knees. The word “date” from Momoko’s lips finally reminded her of when she had felt this feeling before, and it scared her. Behind her closed, stinging eyes, she conjured an old memory from a forgotten time. She was seventeen, and he was eighteen.
“C’mon, just one date!” said the young man in her memory to her younger self.
“I’d go on a date with a frog before I’d go anywhere with you, Clyde Harlaown!”
-- -- --
The three girls laughed loudly as they ate their lunches at the end of the picnic table.
“Hayate, tomorrow, can you sit at our table with Suzuka and Arisa?” asked Nanoha.
“They won’t make fun of me or my friends?” gulped Hayate.
“No,” replied Fate, “I just came to this school the other day, and they were very nice to me.”
“Ok,” said Hayate while twisting the edge of her blanket again.
“Hello, losers!” growled a voice behind them.
Fate and Nanoha looked at the big kid standing behind Hayate’s wheelchair with long blond hair tied back with a rubber band.
“Leave us alone, Yuuno,” yelled Fate bravely jumping from the bench, “you big…you big…MEANIE!”
“And what's a pipsqueak like you going to do about it?” sneered Yuuno before focusing on Hayate, “You know the drill, retard. Cough up your lunch, or I’ll push your cripple-wagon down the hill and into the fence.”
Hayate whimpered.
“Stop bullying her, Yunno!” yelled Nanoha angrily.
Fate’s rage at the big kid could be seen in her narrowed red eyes and clenched teeth and fists.
“Don’t you dare threaten my friends, you stupid poo-poo head!” snarled Fate.
Nanoha gasped at Fate using “stupid” and “poo-poo head” in the same sentence. She would get a time-out for sure if the teacher heard her use such language. However, the encounter was cut short by tiny drops of water falling from the black clouds in the sky.
Yuuno felt the rain and saw two other girls talking to the teacher while pointing at him. “You idiot five-year-old babies!” he yelled and quickly grabbed Hayate’s lunch and stuffed blue wolf.
“Zafira!” cried Hayate.
“This is what you get for messing with me!” he yelled and threw the old doll against the wall. The threadbare doll burst at the seams and lay in pieces on the ground while the fluff blew away in the wind.
Hayate’s sobs verge on hysterics, and it was more than Fate could stand as she lunged at the big kid with her little fists flying in fury. Yuuno easily knocked Fate to the ground, but he did not expect a hard slap across his face from a tiny hand.
“Stop being mean, Yuuno!” yelled Nanoha, “If you want something, ask nicely!”
Before Yuuno could fire off a shot at the tiny kindergartener, two teachers ran to the picnic table. They took Yuuno to the office and tried to comfort the crying Hayate but to no avail. Fate walked over the broken doll and picked up the pieces.
“Zafira,” sobbed Hayate, “I’m sorry, mommy. I broke Zafira!”
The crying girl bound to the cumbersome chair once again felt two small arms wrapped around her neck, “You didn’t break him.”
“But he’s broken!” cried Hayate.
“But my mama can fix him. She can fix everything,” said Nanoha.
-- -- --
“Thanks for walking with me,” Momoko smiled to the woman next to her.
They had stopped at one of her favorite cafes for lunch and were currently walking leisurely around the small town circle.
“Hey, Momoko,” Lindy chuckled with her eyes flickering with delight.
“What?”
“Let’s go grab a cup of coffee from Starbucks and then talk loudly about how much better your coffee is.”
Momoko burst into laughter, “You’re horrible!”
“Yes, but you can’t deny that it would be funny,” Lindy said in a teasing voice while nudging Momoko.
“No!” yelled Momoko through her laughter.
“Oh, come on. Please?”
“No!”
Lindy leaned over to Momoko till her lips brushed the brunette’s ears as she whispered into them, “I don’t see you turning around.”
Momoko’s face flushed a deep red shade, and they walked a few blocks in silence. However, the quiet tension was broken by Momoko giggling.
“What?” asked Lindy self-consciously while checking her fly and wiping her face, “Do I have something in my teeth?”
“No,” Momoko said laughing harder at Lindy’s panicked reactions. “Sometimes you just remind me of…”
“Who?”
“Never mind,” Momoko said as sadness replaced her mirth.
“Momoko,” asked Lindy cutting the woman off from her thoughts, “You left your open sign on the window.”
“I thought I flipped it before I left,” said Momoko while seeing the open sign on the large window of her shop, which was on the other side of the block from Starbucks. “Wait a minute!”
They watched as an old woman waved to someone while exiting with a travel mug in her hand.
“Is someone working?” gasped Momoko.
“I’m guessing that it’s not an elf!” grunted Lindy as she grabbed Momoko’s hand and ran toward the large window.
Momoko peered into the window and nearly collapsed at the sight. Kyoya was working the register all by himself.
2008-09-19, 15:55
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