Nanoha FanFiction Discussion

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

I'm not so sure about that. Looking at her, she can't be any older than 8 or 9, so I don't see how she could be a tyrant. History is written by the winners, so it wouldn't be a stretch for the winners to write that they considered the enemy ruler a tyrant (something her soldiers might encourage: "Fear our mighty ruler who brings life back to the dead!"). It's more likely Ix was just used, and someone else was the tyrant. She wouldn't be forced to do anything, really; just be hooked up to a sufficient power source to produce mariage cores. In that light, she's just a cog in a machine.

At least, given the lack of exact evidence spelling things out, this is the viewpoint I am taking with this fic.

Part of the problem is that this is the Nanohaverse we're talking about, where Nanoha is an incredibly mature 9 year old, so it's easy to mistake that maturity for an adult. I'm simply taking the viewpoint that, no matter how mature they may seem, there is still a kid in there.

Anyway, I'm in the process of PM'ing you, so hopefully we can work something out. I'm also in the process of rewriting parts of the fic, so don't think I'm not listening to what people are saying; I'm just trying to meld the concerns with the vision I had of where I saw things going.

OneTwo more things to take into consideration:

1. Ten-year olds in the Nanohaverse can be surprisingly mature, even if there are some moments of childishness(and the way she speaks in SSX seems to be mature too, unless I was hearing it wrong)
2. The idea of using Mariages to fight at all seems utterly repulsive for her back at SSX, and she had probably seen worse war horrors during the Belkan Civil War

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

OneTwo more things to take into consideration:

1. Ten-year olds in the Nanohaverse can be surprisingly mature, even if there are some moments of childishness(and the way she speaks in SSX seems to be mature too, unless I was hearing it wrong)
2. The idea of using Mariages to fight at all seems utterly repulsive for her back at SSX, and she had probably seen worse war horrors during the Belkan Civil War

I addressed #1 a bit, since Nanoha and Yuuno were incredibly mature for 9 year olds. As for #2, people can change, which is partly what I was going to address in Chapter 20. We have to remember we have very few scenes with Ix. A few with Subaru underground, and then one with her shortly before she falls asleep again.

Anyway, I'll post this bit. I took out some of the "mama" parts, and edited some others in minor ways. Hopefully, the more major additions below should give some insight:

Spoiler for Slightly edited parts from FT chapter 19:

Vivio smiled and hugged her mama's neck with her short arms. "It was Carim's wish that I take Ixpellia and hide at the end of the war, because the prophecy revealed how Hayate would be defeated and the Bureau returned to normal. We needed to keep Ix out of Hayate's hands and I had to fake my death and disappear, because as long as I was around, there wouldn't have been any peace between the church and the Bureau. Einhart found me not long after, and the three of us have been living here for the past twenty years as a family. Ix never had a family of her own, and since I obtained legal guardianship of her when I took her into hiding, we kinda became her family."

"Just the three of you?" Nanoha questioned. "So Ixpellia hasn't had any friends her own age?" She paused as a thought struck her. "Wait, the war ended 20 years ago, but she doesn't appear to be any older than 10 or 11!"

Vivio nodded as the two entered the garden maze, and despite the urge to fly over it, Nanoha let her daughter lead. "Biologically, she's 10, but chronologically, she's hundreds of years old. She was born back in the ancient Belka days and her body modified, like a lot of people were back in those days. Because of that, she enters periods of long sleeps where she doesn't age, basically going into stasis She woke up once a couple of years after you died in an incident I'll tell you more about later which is where we first discovered her, but went back to sleep shortly thereafter. I only had a brief video call with her at that time.

She paused for a moment, as if recalling a sad memory, before continuing. "Then, almost two years ago, she woke up again. She was so sad about people she knew and loved being gone, that Einhart and I said we'd be her family and let her live a normal childhood. The mother and daughter thing started out as a bit of a joke, but I think she really enjoys having loving parents; it's not something she ever experienced before. I think it solidified a bit though, when I was holding her one time; she remarked that it felt much like being held by her mother. I think that moment was a point in time where things changed for us both."

Like I said, the rest were minor edits for now, but I'll post this bit to see what people think. And I'll try to speed up on Chapter 20 with the PM's I get, to hopefully shed some light on how things developed.

[00-Raiser]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

I'm not so sure about that. Looking at her, she can't be any older than 8 or 9, so I don't see how she could be a tyrant.

I got the impression that Ix doesn't age period, so what she looks like hardly means anything. Compare her to Vita and Cinque whose mentality and experience hardly match their appearence.

Originally Posted by Kaijo

I addressed #1 a bit, since Nanoha and Yuuno were incredibly mature for 9 year olds. As for #2, people can change, which is partly what I was going to address in Chapter 20. We have to remember we have very few scenes with Ix. A few with Subaru underground, and then one with her shortly before she falls asleep again.

Anyway, I'll post this bit. I took out some of the "mama" parts, and edited some others in minor ways. Hopefully, the more major additions below should give some insight:

Spoiler for Slightly edited parts from FT chapter 19:

Vivio smiled and hugged her mama's neck with her short arms. "It was Carim's wish that I take Ixpellia and hide at the end of the war, because the prophecy revealed how Hayate would be defeated and the Bureau returned to normal. We needed to keep Ix out of Hayate's hands and I had to fake my death and disappear, because as long as I was around, there wouldn't have been any peace between the church and the Bureau. Einhart found me not long after, and the three of us have been living here for the past twenty years as a family. Ix never had a family of her own, and since I obtained legal guardianship of her when I took her into hiding, we kinda became her family."

"Just the three of you?" Nanoha questioned. "So Ixpellia hasn't had any friends her own age?" She paused as a thought struck her. "Wait, the war ended 20 years ago, but she doesn't appear to be any older than 10 or 11!"

Vivio nodded as the two entered the garden maze, and despite the urge to fly over it, Nanoha let her daughter lead. "Biologically, she's 10, but chronologically, she's hundreds of years old. She was born back in the ancient Belka days and her body modified, like a lot of people were back in those days. Because of that, she enters periods of long sleeps where she doesn't age, basically going into stasis She woke up once a couple of years after you died in an incident I'll tell you more about later which is where we first discovered her, but went back to sleep shortly thereafter. I only had a brief video call with her at that time.

She paused for a moment, as if recalling a sad memory, before continuing. "Then, almost two years ago, she woke up again. She was so sad about people she knew and loved being gone, that Einhart and I said we'd be her family and let her live a normal childhood. The mother and daughter thing started out as a bit of a joke, but I think she really enjoys having loving parents; it's not something she ever experienced before. I think it solidified a bit though, when I was holding her one time; she remarked that it felt much like being held by her mother. I think that moment was a point in time where things changed for us both."

Like I said, the rest were minor edits for now, but I'll post this bit to see what people think. And I'll try to speed up on Chapter 20 with the PM's I get, to hopefully shed some light on how things developed.

Better, but the "friends to parent and child" thing still doesn't sit right with me. Why would Vivio need to 'adopt' Ix in the first place? They went into hiding so it's not like they would be concerned about the legal process of it all. Also, look at Vivid. Vivio sees Ix as her friend even if she is sleeping the whole time and I image the same thing continuing even after 50 years. So what about the difference in physical age? I don't think Vivio would be able to go "She's been my friend for over 50 years, but now she'll be my daughter!" It's so much of a leap that my suspension of disbelief doesn't cover it.

Hell, just Einhart being Ix's mama would work, since Einhart had no real previous contact with Ix so their first meeting is a blank slate that could develop into any sort of relationship. But Einhart hardly seems the type to take a mother role.

If you really, really, REALLY want this whole "Vivio and Einhart have a kid just like Nanoha and Fate did!" introduce a new character instead of using Ix. Ix just doesn't fit that role.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by 00-Raiser

Hell, just Einhart being Ix's mama would work, since Einhart had no real previous contact with Ix so their first meeting is a blank slate that could develop into any sort of relationship. But Einhart hardly seems the type to take a mother role.

Actually, Ein would know Ix from her memories of Ingvalt.

[Rising Dragon]

Originally Posted by Keroko

Actually, Ein would know Ix from her memories of Ingvalt.

Hell, when she was first introduced, didn't Einhart mention she was looking for both Vivio and Ixy?

[Keroko]

Yes she did. And I doubt she was looking for a weak little 8 year old kid.

[Kaijo]

It's not quite clear that Einhart is aware that Ix is even a fighter. Indeed, we see that Ix isn't. So it's more probable that Einhart simply knew that Ix as the "Dark Queen" and heard the stories about how powerful she was, and wanted to prove herself against that. We all know how a fight would go between Einhart and Ix. If Einhart really knew what Ix was like, she'd know that Ix was actually weak.

Also, Ix certainly seems to think she's a child. She calls Vivio someone her own age and Subaru refers to Ix several times as a child (and even pokes her forehead like an adult would do to a child to punish them).

Still making changes and considering how to reword things. After listening to the tracks Ix was in, I'm not convinced she was anything but a child (as far as Nanohaverse children go), but I may look into editing specific things.

[00-Raiser]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

She calls Vivio someone her own age

And there's another reason she wouldn't view Vivio as a mother. Even with the Rip Van Winkle effect, that perception wouldn't change, or at least not very easily. Especially when, to Ix, Vivio was her age not too long ago.

[Nanya01]

Originally Posted by 00-Raiser

And there's another reason she wouldn't view Vivio as a mother. Even with the Rip Van Winkle effect, that perception wouldn't change, or at least not very easily.

Well, I thought it was just Ixy playing a part really...

You know what they say about masks...

Eventually you become the mask you wear...

So, maybe Vivio should just say that she and Einhart have just looked after Ixy like a family, and the whole "mama" thing started as a joke, but it was one that never ended, so they never stopped with it.

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by 00-Raiser

And there's another reason she wouldn't view Vivio as a mother. Even with the Rip Van Winkle effect, that perception wouldn't change, or at least not very easily. Especially when, to Ix, Vivio was her age not too long ago.

Perceptions can change, especially when it was video call of a few minutes. I'll agree with you that this is what Ix would revert to when she wakes up, but you're assuming someone can't change in the interval of two years. We see how big of a change Lutecia went through in the course of just one year, after all.

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Well, I thought it was just Ixy playing a part really...

You know what they say about masks...

Eventually you become the mask you wear...

So, maybe Vivio should just say that she and Einhart have just looked after Ixy like a family, and the whole "mama" thing started as a joke, but it was one that never ended, so they never stopped with it.

This is partly where I'm coming from in this. Never underestimate the human mind to adapt and fit the narrative, even if it was only a joke.

[spawnofthejudge]

Originally Posted by 00-Raiser

And there's another reason she wouldn't view Vivio as a mother. Even with the Rip Van Winkle effect, that perception wouldn't change, or at least not very easily. Especially when, to Ix, Vivio was her age not too long ago.

Depends on how many times she'd done the Rip Van Winkle effect such that she saw people go from child to adult quasi-"instantly". She'd recognize the changes in them over almost any amount of time was massive compared to what she experienced during any given "awake" time.

Maybe they wanted to have a family dynamic, for a little bit of normalcy where locking themselves into hiding is anything but normal. Maybe Ix wanted to have a parental figure who was more Reasonable Authority than War Leader, with the opportunity to actually be a kid, which she has been denied.

Or maybe it's like Nanya said; the mama thing came from apparent ages as a joke and sorta stuck 'cause there wasn't anyone who didn't get the joke present, ah, ever.

[00-Raiser]

I believe I suggested it being a joke that stuck before. However in that case when Nanoha goes "Mama?" Vivio should respond with a more "Oh, she's really not, it's a joke and we had no reason to stop..."

In that case I think Ix should drop the 'mamas' when she goes into 'serious mode.'

[Kaijo]

Originally Posted by 00-Raiser

I believe I suggested it being a joke that stuck before. However in that case when Nanoha goes "Mama?" Vivio should respond with a more "Oh, she's really not, it's a joke and we had no reason to stop..."

In that case I think Ix should drop the 'mamas' when she goes into 'serious mode.'

I did, actually. As soon as Einhart mentioned that a shipment came in, all trace of the childishness vanished. Ix just said she was ready. And in my rewritten scene, I made mention that it started as a joke.

There's a lot about Ix that is unknown, and various ways people can take her character. I hope I'm not trying to get across that this is the One True Way, but rather just one possibility. I can think of quite a few theories that would fit, but for now, I'll try to drop this so as to not take over the FFT, heh. Instead I'll work to complete chapter 20 soon, and hopefully the actual character development will be highlighted better. Though this is pretty much what I've done with all characters thus far; Nanoha encounters them as changed individuals, and then she learns how they changed over the years.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I'll continue to make changes, and am holding off on ff.net posting for now. Let's try to let this thread open back up for everyone else's fics, heh.

[shiroi mahotsukai]

That is one of the things that makes this series so good to write for, so much about so many is unknowm. This naturally allows for an infinite number of alternate character interpretations. That was what i assumed this whole thing about Ix was, just one more way of looking at the character from a different angle.

Also if you'd lived life the way she had and someone gave you the opportunity to revert to a child-like state and enjoy what you never had would you not play the part to the utmost? even if it was only a joke to begin with?

[00-Raiser]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

I did, actually. As soon as Einhart mentioned that a shipment came in, all trace of the childishness vanished. Ix just said she was ready. And in my rewritten scene, I made mention that it started as a joke.

But you didn't have her address either of the other two girls. Adding a line where Ix says Einhart and/or Vivio's name without the 'mama' would help things in my opinion.

[Nanya01]

Last chapter I'll have posted for a little while at least.

...

Doesn't help my muse is writing out chapters for future events before I can get to them.

ANYWAY!

Big thanks to Raiser for all his help.

Day in the Life

Chapter 41

Spoiler for Reaffirming:

Stretching as she woke up, Vivio rubbed her eyes and took a look around the guest room that she was staying in. It was right next to her parents' and siblings' rooms, so she didn't feel alone, even in the giant room. She didn't mind spending time with Yuuno-papa's family, she didn't, they were a lot of fun. Vivio giggled as she remembered Reiko, that woman was a lot of fun. She didn't know what a "bailer" was, but Reiko made crawling through it sound fun, even if she warned Vivio that it was pretty dangerous and she could get badly hurt if she tried it.

Stretching, Vivio got out of her bed and grabbed a towel, before leaving her room. Looking around, she tried to take in every sight she could, since her family would be heading back to Cranagan after breakfast. Her parents looked rather worried about something and she wasn't sure what it was, but it couldn't be good if they were looking nervous. Stopping by her siblings' room, she opened the door and blinked as she heard some fussing and squirming. "Isamu..." She gave her brother, who stopped fussing and moved around in his crib until he looked at her directly.

Giggling softly, Vivio went over to the crib and lifted her little brother out. She didn't know why, but those eyes of his were surprisingly intense whenever he looked at her.

Carrying her little brother out of the room, her nose wrinkled as she discovered just why he was fussing. "Eww..." She pouted as he giggled and slapped her face a couple of times. She was just thankful that he didn't have any real strength behind those blows. "Yeah, you think it's funny, don't you?"

Her irritation left her when all he did was smile at her. "You've got it easy, huh? All you have to do is smile, poop and crawl around and everyone thinks you're cute." Still, the smell was pretty bad and she'd have to...

"Hello, Lady Vivio." A maid smiled as she saw the young girl. "And how is Master Isamu this morning?"

"Na!" The little boy squealed, getting a chuckle from the maid.

"Here, Lady Vivio, I'll take him and get him changed." The grateful look on Vivio's face had her laughing softly.

"Um, why do you call me "Lady Vivio" and him "Master Isamu"?" She had enough trouble with people at the Saint Church, particularly Sein, Otto and Deed, calling her "Majesty" that she didn't want others to call her weird titles.

The maid smiled at her. "You are Lord Yuuno's children, are you not?" Vivio gave her a confused look as she nodded. "Oh, I'm sorry, I guess you're not too used to having servants?"

"Um, we have a house cleaner that helped raise me when I was six years old..."

The maid nodded as she rubbed Isamu's back, causing the baby to coo happily. "Yes, well, as one of the servants of the Scrya clan, it's just habit for us to call members of this clan "Master" and "Lady", that's all. The elders teach the children very early on not to let it go to their heads." She winked at Vivio. "Now, if you wish to have a morning bath, I believe I saw your mother, Lady Nanoha, heading towards the baths."

"Thank you." Vivio bowed and ran off.

"Now, as for you, stinky master, I think you need a new diaper." She smiled as she held Isamu out at arm's length.

The little boy just squealed happily.

(---)

As she relaxed in the warm waters, Nanoha smiled as she and Vivio bathed together. "How do you like it here?"

Vivio nodded and splashed the water a few times. "Yeah, it's fun. Yuuno-papa's family is a lot of fun, but..." She sighed softly and looked slightly apologetically at Nanoha. "Is it okay if I just want to go home and be with my classmates?"

She shook her head and winked at Vivio. "Actually, I miss home too, Vivio. Plus, I don't really like how all the maids call me "Lady Nanoha"." She smiled as Vivio giggled. "You too, huh?"

"Uh huh." Vivio nodded and took a breath before ducking under the water for a moment.

"Well, we're going home today then." Nanoha smiled as Vivio came back up.

"Mama..?" Vivio looked a little uncertain.

"Yes?"

"Um, I heard some of Yuuno-papa's aunts talking and one of them said something about how you, Fate-mama and Yuuno-papa didn't want any of this and are only together because of Sora, Isamu and Alicia..." Her eyes started to tear up as she thought about that. "It's not true, is it?!" She didn't like the thought that her family's happiness was a lie and they were only putting up a front for the children.

Nanoha smiled ruefully and shook her head. "Vivio... It was unexpected, but... I wouldn't give up what happened with Yuuno and Fate for the world." She then tapped Vivio on the nose. "We were stupid, we just needed something for us to get over our fears."

"You were afraid?"

Nanoha nodded and sighed softly. "I cared about them both too much... I never could choose one or the other... And having both Fate and Yuuno as my loves didn't occur to me at all."

"Is it confusing?"

Nanoha nodded at her daughter. "Yes, very confusing... Your heart, your mind, your conscience, your worries, they all work against each other and make it hard to make a choice." Seeing Vivio's confused look, Nanoha just shook her head. "It's not something you'll understand until you're older, okay?"

"..Kay..." Adults were just confusing, that's all there was to it. She'd probably understand when she got old, like say, seventeen or so.

(---)

Sighing as she sat down in the kitchen, Lindy was quite thankful that her house had been far enough away from the fires that it didn't get affected like many other houses had. The last thing she wanted was to have to move into a temporary home while she waited for her house to get re-built.

Then again, she supposed she could have moved back to Earth for awhile. She had only came back to Mid-childa to help Fate out while she was pregnant and offer help to the new parents, but she did miss Earth. Retirement was rather nice. Oh well, Chrono didn't want Amy to be on Earth when she gave birth. After all, it was easier to get to Midchilda for Chrono than to Earth to be there for the births.

She raised an eyebrow as she heard a knocking on the door. Sighing softly, she got up and walked over to the door and opened it. "Nove?" She was slightly surprised to see the short redhead.

"Can... Can I come in, please?" There was something in her tone that made Lindy wonder as she let the redhead into her home. "Thank you."

"You want some tea?" Lindy asked her as she sat Nove down. The girl was stiff, there was some tremble in her hands as she was handed a tea cup. "Nove..?"

"Sorry, I... I'm just worried about things, I guess..."

Lindy nodded and sat down. "Go on..."

Sighing, the redhead looked down. "It's just... Between Ginga leaving... This fire happening... Now Subaru left late last night and is going to be gone for awhile and Teana ended up in surgery and we still don't know if she'll pull through or not and..." She took a deep breath. "It... It just feels like Gigna's going to be gone for good, if... If Teana dies, I don't know what Subaru's going to do, and..."

Lindy sighed, Nove looked incredibly worn down and exhausted, as well as a little sad. "What will you do, Nove? If things do go that bad?"

"...I don't know..." Nove sighed as she looked at the tea cup. "I just don't know."

"Okay... So, let's say Ginga never comes back, what are you going to do?" Nove was silent and Lindy just sat there, waiting for her to say something.

"...I don't know... I... I don't want to wait forever, but... If I just give up on her that fast, it... It wouldn't be fair to her."

"What about you?" Nove looked at her, confused. "Don't you think that you're being unfair to yourself? It's important to think of others, Nove... But you need to think of yourself too. Will you really be happy if you wait too long? What about Wendi?"

Nove sighed and shook her head. "I... I don't think she'd be happy, but I can't..."

Lindy nodded and squeezed Nove's arm gently. "Relationships are never easy, Nove... You need to balance the needs of yourself with those of the people in an intimate relationship with you. It's not something everyone can do."

"I know..." Nove looked down, sighing heavily.

"Talk to Wendi... Ask her what she wants." Nove nodded and Lindy shook her head softly. "Come on, let's just have some tea and relax, okay?"

"Kay..." Nove smiled softly. Maybe she didn't know what she wanted exactly, maybe she had no answers for anyone who asked. But hopefully Wendi could help her make a full decision soon.

(---)

"Yuuno?" Fate looked at her fiancée and smiled softly as he rolled over slightly and looked at her. "Hey..." She stroked his face softly. "Thank you... For last night."

He smiled at her and ran a hand over her face gently. "You don't need to thank me for something like that, Fate."

"Still..." She blushed as she shifted her body under the sheets. "I want to thank you."

Yuuno blushed as he felt her hands run over certain parts of his body. "Okay..." He blushed as he felt Fate's naked body, though when she got naked, he wasn't sure, slid across his body. Well, if his fiancée wanted to have some fun, who was he to complain?

(---)

"Nanoha-mama?" Vivio looked at her mother when she stopped just short of opening the door to her room. The two were in clean robes and their hair was hanging down their backs loosely as they waited for it to dry. Her mother's face was slightly flushed as she stepped away from the door. "What's wrong?"

"Ah..." Nanoha coughed slightly. "Fate and Yuuno need some time alone." She winked at Vivio. "Come on, let's go check on your siblings."

As she walked with her mother, Vivio was still convinced that adults were weird. When they entered her siblings' room, her eyes lit up as she saw the maid from before still there. "Hi!"

The maid smiled at them, nodding to Nanoha as she took Isamu from her arms. "Hello, did you two have a good bath?"

Vivio nodded and smiled at her. "Uh huh... It's a big bath and it can bubble!"

The maid giggled at her. "Yes. Don't you just love how it makes soap get really frothy?"

Vivio nodded, grinning. "Yeah! That was great! It was like I was in a tub of soup or something. Is that how vegetables feel?" Her eyes seemed to go blank white as she held a finger to her lips in wonder, causing both adults to laugh at her. "Mouu... Not funny."

Nanoha giggled softly. "Sorry, Vivio, you looked too funny there."

"Um, Lady Nanoha, I know it's not my place, but maybe you should get dressed..." The maid blinked as Nanoha shook her head and blushed. "But surely, walking around in your own clothes would be better than a robe..."

"Fate and Yuuno... Um... They need some time alone." Nanoha didn't mind the thought of her lovers having sex, but taking part in it and walking in on it were two different things.

"Did you talk to them with telepathy, mama?" Vivio blinked in confusion as Nanoha shook her head. "Then... How?"

"I'm not sure... I could just... Tell, I guess. I don't know how but..."

"Ah..." The maid nodded, interrupting. "They seem to be your soul mates."

Nanoha sweat-dropped. "Actually, I'm not too sure about that."

The maid shrugged at her. "Well, it does seem that way." Her face had a small smirk on it as she looked at the increasingly flustered woman. "You three complete each other in ways that you never expected... One of you is an unstoppable force that pulls the other two along, one supports the other two silently and while the last one is there to make sure that if either of the other two falters, they'll be there to catch them while all three of you look at each other as a shining beacon of strength that gives each other the motivation and strength to move on." Seeing the stupefied look on Nanoha's face and the look on Vivio's face, the maid fought the urge to laugh.

"...How?"

The maid winked. "I've met plenty of young lovers, Lady Nanoha, they keep saying the same things to me a lot, so I begin to pick up on things like that."

"Oh..." Nanoha's face was slightly red. Though, she wasn't sure if was from what the maid had said or some sort of weird feelings she had in the back of her head.

(---)

Fate gasped as Yuuno pulled his lips away from her neck. "Yuuno..." She groaned, shifting on top of him and panting as she felt his hands over her body. "That was so good." She was blushing hard, even as she pulled her fingers away from the bed.

Smiling, he leaned up and kissed her on the lips, his hands running through her hair softly. "You were very good, Fate." Idly, he mentally winced from the pain in his back from where Fate's fingers had dug into his skin.

"Should we take a bath before Nanoha worries about us?" Fate caught a whiff of what she and Yuuno smelled like and blanched slightly. She pouted as he chuckled. "It's not that funny."

"No, but the way you're worrying about it is." Smiling, he leaned up and kissed her on the lips gently. "But, if you're worried, let's go."

"Thank you." She smiled at him as they disengaged from each other.

(---)

A few hours later, Nanoha found herself looking at a screen of Shamal with worry. "Is everything okay back there?"

The blond looked tired, but nodded. "More-or-less... Hayate's sick, but she should recover in a day, Zafira's got an injured leg, Vita's badly burned and is in need of treatments to heal, Signum looks like someone carved up some hamburger, but she'll recover too... As for Teana..." She shook her head. "I don't know, she managed to survive the operation, so she'll live, but she's out cold for now."

"You mean a coma." Nanoha said flatly as Shamal sighed.

"Yeah. Look, Nanoha... Don't think badly about her. She just got hit with some bad luck and..."

"Who says I think badly about her or what happened?" Nanoha shrugged at Shamal's look. "I'm proud of her, actually. I'm not happy that she's hurt, but she did very well."

Shamal smiled on the screen, it was one of the few smiles she had in the last few days. Well, when not around Miyuki, but even then it wasn't always smiles, especially after their talk that had lasted well into the morning. She wasn't sure what she was going to do now, but she had other worries to deal with at the moment. "She'll be glad to hear it... If she wakes up."

"How bad was her injury?"

Shamal gestured from her breast up past her shoulder. "Seperated completely, then she got slammed hard enough to bruise her spine," not to mention put her back out of alignment, which was something that was going to need to be fixed as soon as they could, "and the last attack she took nearly killed her." Still, even with all of that, Shamal wasn't sure what was the worst part, all of that, or the fact that Teana had hit her head hard enough to cause her to bleed and get a concussion.

Nanoha winced slightly. "Well, we're coming back today." Shamal nodded and the brunette sighed as she looked at her friend. "Shamal... Do me a favor and get some sleep, please?" Seeing the look on Shamal's face, Nanoha giggled. "I know, weird of me to comment on people needing to sleep and rest, but, please, Shamal, if you're tired, you won't be much help to those who need it."

Shamal sighed softly. "I know. I was planning on going back to my apartment and sleeping for a few hours."

"How is everyone else?"

"They're mostly fine. Some suffered from inhaling a bit too much smoke, but otherwise fine. They're at home or here at the hospital right now."

"Okay." Nanoha nodded at her. "That's good to know."

Shamal nodded and bid farewell as she turned the screen off. Nanoha sighed and wished that she had been there. "Seems like I'm never around when people need me lately... Some Ace of Aces I am..."

"Mama..."

"Vivio?" Nanoha turned and knelt down to look at her daughter in the eye. "What..." She blinked as Vivio slapped her cheek, not hard, but enough to get her attention. "...Vivio?"

"You're being selfish, mama!" Vivio frowned at her as she pulled her hand away. "Subaru-san, Teana-san, they're really strong. Subaru-san's sisters, Aunt Hayate and her family, they're all really strong. If they got hurt badly, what would happen if you were there?" The girl started sniffling. "I don't wanna see mama in the hospital because she fought the bad guys and they hurt her badly."

"Vivio..." Nanoha hugged her daughter tightly. "I'm sorry, Vivio... I really am. I just don't like seeing my friends get hurt."

"I don't want them to get hurt either, mama!" Vivio cried against Nanoha's shoulder. "Signum-san is strong, like mama, and she got badly hurt, what if that was you?"

"Shh... Vivio..." Nanoha whispered to her. "I'm sorry. I really am. I... I guess I'm just upset that my students and friends all got hurt when I wasn't around and I wish I had been there to help out."

After holding her for a few more moments, Vivio pulled away and blushed heavily. "I'm sorry, mama..."

"Huh?" Nanoha blinked as Vivio gently grabbed her face and kissed her on the cheek. "Oh!" Nanoha's eyes widened as she remembered what happened, before giggling. "It's okay, Vivio. I hardly felt that."

"You sure?" Vivio looked at her in concern as Nanoha nodded and smiled at her, tapping her on the nose.

"Sometimes, your parents can be big idiots, Vivio-chan... Just don't go slapping us all the time when we're being stupid." Nanoha chuckled as Vivio laughed nervously.

Even though Nanoha had been Vivio's mother for over two years now, the fact that she had two lovers, soon to be spouses and babies was still new to her. Plus, it was hard for her to go against her instincts to go out and help people as much as possible. Closing her eyes, she couldn't imagine how her family would take it if she died.

Her family... Nanoha chuckled softly and smiled at Vivio's confused look. "I'm sorry, Vivio... I was thinking how our family has grown. It's still so new to me. Please forgive me?"

"Ngh!" Vivio nodded and smiled at her mother.

Nanoha smiled and rubbed Vivio's head. She was still worried for her sister and friends back on Mid-childa, but if Shamal said that they had survived, then things were okay, even if Teana was in a coma.

(---)

Subaru looked at her camp site and nodded to herself. A couple weeks on this world would probably do her a lot of good. A chance to clear her head, vent some frustration and be alone for a bit was what she was hoping would get her back into good spirits when she got back to Mid-Childa. And hopefully Teana would be recovered by then.

Still, the weather on Vaizen was nice at least, though she wished that the sky wasn't so dark out.

Actually, now that she had some time to think about it, she hadn't heard any animals in a long while and things were calm... Too calm.

"Buddy!" Mach Calibur yelled at her from her pocket. "To the south by twenty degrees."

Turning in that direction, Subaru paled as she saw the skies twist and spin, a dark funnel of death and destruction touching down as a twister suddenly formed. "Oh gods!" It was far enough away that Subaru doubted that it would come at her, but... "Wait a second..." Her eyes widened. "Mach Calibur! Set up!"

"Standby Ready."

In a flash, Subaru was in her barrier jacket as she raced along Wing Road towards the twister. There wasn't anything she could do about the tornado itself, but she would do all that she could to save anyone who happened to be there.

Even as fast as she could move, Subaru was partially glad that the twister had disappeared as fast as it had came. Pulling shrapnel out of her body for hours on end wasn't her idea of fun.

Especially if the shrapnel hit any important systems.

As she rolled into the destroyed area, Subaru paled as she saw the village, buildings, trees, everything was destroyed. She couldn't even imagine how bad it was for anyone who lived here. Still...

She raced around the village, calling for survivors and moving debris out of the way. She just hoped that she could find someone alive. So far... Too much had been lost. "Please... Oh please... Someone... Still be alive." She whispered to herself.

Her hopes got dashed with each piece of debris that she cleared away. All she saw were more and more dead bodies, some she couldn't even identify.

"Mama... Papa..." A young voice was heard and Subaru's eyes widened as she heart that. A survivor! She couldn't help herself from hurrying up and moving debris of a small house out of the way, only to stop at what she saw. In pools of blood were a man and woman, both with shrapnel sticking out of their bodies, while a young child with sandy brown hair cried over both of them. The child turned to her, tears falling freely, and Subaru could see that the child was a young boy, just shy of being a teenager at best, and asked her one question. "Why..?"

Seeing the miserable look on his face, Subaru rolled up to him and gently dislodged him from his parents, hugging him tightly as he cried on her. She didn't know who he was, but even she wept silent tears as it started to rain on top of both of them.

As for his question...

She had no answer.

(---)

It had taken her a few hours to get him to calm down and go to sleep and find all the bodies in the village. Not being sure if she should bury the bodies or cremate them, she opted to place the bodies into a cellar that she had found, before putting a large boulder on top of it so that no one would desecrate the bodies, and sighed as she looked at the boulder and then at her clothes and grimaced. Being covered in blood wasn't her idea of fun, but as she looked at the destroyed city, she moved over to where she left the boy and sighed. Unless there were people out of the village, he really had no one left here.

Gently picking him up, she rode Wing Road back to her campsite. "To suddenly lose everyone..." She mumbled to herself as she looked at him, he was still crying in his sleep, not that she blamed him. Everything he held dear was destroyed in an instant...

Hours later, Subaru found herself looking at the fire as it crackled. She blinked as she heard a groaning sound next to her. Turning, she smiled softly as the boy sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hello..."

The boy blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, before looking at her again. Subaru shook her head slowly as his eyes watered up. "Mama... Papa..." He found himself in another hug as she was by his side in an instant, letting him bury his face into her chest as he started crying again.

As Subaru rubbed his back, she wondered what she could say, if she should say anything. Dozens of sayings ran through her head, all of them she could say, any of them she could say.

Despite all that, she just couldn't say anything. The grief she was feeling from him was too intense.

All she could do was keep quiet, rub his back while hugging him and rock him gently as he screamed into her chest.

She didn't know why, but as he calmed down, he didn't push away from her. If anything, he seemed to hug her tighter, and, despite everything, Subaru found herself smiling at that. She wasn't sure why, either. The loss of life, she shouldn't be smiling, she should be screaming in rage and sorrow, why couldn't she?

"...You're crying." He said to her and she looked down at him in confusion. He ran a hand up to her face and wiped away her tears. "Why?"

"I'm sad... For everyone who died..."

"Why are you smiling?"

She shook her head. "I don't know..." She whispered softly as the two of them held each other tightly. She wasn't sure why she was smiling, and she would never be able to answer that.

It took until the fire was almost out for the two to finally separate from each other and sit there, looking at the fire as Subaru poked the embers, trying to get them to heat up again. "…What's your name?" He asked her after several minutes of silence.

"Subaru Nakajima. I'm with the Time-Space Administration Bureau, Rescue Corps..." She then sighed and slumped heavily. "Not that I'm living up to that lately."

"I'm Touma Avenir." He got her to look at him as she nodded, her face had that kind, soft smile on it that he found himself liking, a lot. "...Thank you..." He moved towards her and hugged her again. He was still sad, his parents, his home, his whole village gone in an instant.

Even though Touma hurt, deeply, something in him wanted to make her stop hurting. He could see it in her eyes, the raw pain and sadness that was there, she was so kind... He just wanted it to stop.

Subaru closed her eyes as she hugged Touma. She didn't like the fact that he was hurting so badly. She just wished that there was some way that she could help him recover faster.

Neither of them knew when they fell over and asleep. All they knew was that they felt comforted by the presence of the other one.

They paid it no mind as tears slowly leaked out of their eyes while they slept, cuddled against each other.

[00-Raiser]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Last chapter I'll have posted for a little while at least.

...

Doesn't help my muse is writing out chapters for future events before I can get to them.

ANYWAY!

Big thanks to Raiser for all his help.

Day in the Life

Chapter 41

Spoiler for Reaffirming:

Stretching as she woke up, Vivio rubbed her eyes and took a look around the guest room that she was staying in. It was right next to her parents' and siblings' rooms, so she didn't feel alone, even in the giant room. She didn't mind spending time with Yuuno-papa's family, she didn't, they were a lot of fun. Vivio giggled as she remembered Reiko, that woman was a lot of fun. She didn't know what a "bailer" was, but Reiko made crawling through it sound fun, even if she warned Vivio that it was pretty dangerous and she could get badly hurt if she tried it.

Stretching, Vivio got out of her bed and grabbed a towel, before leaving her room. Looking around, she tried to take in every sight she could, since her family would be heading back to Cranagan after breakfast. Her parents looked rather worried about something and she wasn't sure what it was, but it couldn't be good if they were looking nervous. Stopping by her siblings' room, she opened the door and blinked as she heard some fussing and squirming. "Isamu..." She gave her brother, who stopped fussing and moved around in his crib until he looked at her directly.

Giggling softly, Vivio went over to the crib and lifted her little brother out. She didn't know why, but those eyes of his were surprisingly intense whenever he looked at her.

Carrying her little brother out of the room, her nose wrinkled as she discovered just why he was fussing. "Eww..." She pouted as he giggled and slapped her face a couple of times. She was just thankful that he didn't have any real strength behind those blows. "Yeah, you think it's funny, don't you?"

Her irritation left her when all he did was smile at her. "You've got it easy, huh? All you have to do is smile, poop and crawl around and everyone thinks you're cute." Still, the smell was pretty bad and she'd have to...

"Hello, Lady Vivio." A maid smiled as she saw the young girl. "And how is Master Isamu this morning?"

"Na!" The little boy squealed, getting a chuckle from the maid.

"Here, Lady Vivio, I'll take him and get him changed." The grateful look on Vivio's face had her laughing softly.

"Um, why do you call me "Lady Vivio" and him "Master Isamu"?" She had enough trouble with people at the Saint Church, particularly Sein, Otto and Deed, calling her "Majesty" that she didn't want others to call her weird titles.

The maid smiled at her. "You are Lord Yuuno's children, are you not?" Vivio gave her a confused look as she nodded. "Oh, I'm sorry, I guess you're not too used to having servants?"

"Um, we have a house cleaner that helped raise me when I was six years old..."

The maid nodded as she rubbed Isamu's back, causing the baby to coo happily. "Yes, well, as one of the servants of the Scrya clan, it's just habit for us to call members of this clan "Master" and "Lady", that's all. The elders teach the children very early on not to let it go to their heads." She winked at Vivio. "Now, if you wish to have a morning bath, I believe I saw your mother, Lady Nanoha, heading towards the baths."

"Thank you." Vivio bowed and ran off.

"Now, as for you, stinky master, I think you need a new diaper." She smiled as she held Isamu out at arm's length.

The little boy just squealed happily.

(---)

As she relaxed in the warm waters, Nanoha smiled as she and Vivio bathed together. "How do you like it here?"

Vivio nodded and splashed the water a few times. "Yeah, it's fun. Yuuno-papa's family is a lot of fun, but..." She sighed softly and looked slightly apologetically at Nanoha. "Is it okay if I just want to go home and be with my classmates?"

She shook her head and winked at Vivio. "Actually, I miss home too, Vivio. Plus, I don't really like how all the maids call me "Lady Nanoha"." She smiled as Vivio giggled. "You too, huh?"

"Uh huh." Vivio nodded and took a breath before ducking under the water for a moment.

"Well, we're going home today then." Nanoha smiled as Vivio came back up.

"Mama..?" Vivio looked a little uncertain.

"Yes?"

"Um, I heard some of Yuuno-papa's aunts talking and one of them said something about how you, Fate-mama and Yuuno-papa didn't want any of this and are only together because of Sora, Isamu and Alicia..." Her eyes started to tear up as she thought about that. "It's not true, is it?!" She didn't like the thought that her family's happiness was a lie and they were only putting up a front for the children.

Nanoha smiled ruefully and shook her head. "Vivio... It was unexpected, but... I wouldn't give up what happened with Yuuno and Fate for the world." She then tapped Vivio on the nose. "We were stupid, we just needed something for us to get over our fears."

"You were afraid?"

Nanoha nodded and sighed softly. "I cared about them both too much... I never could choose one or the other... And having both Fate and Yuuno as my loves didn't occur to me at all."

"Is it confusing?"

Nanoha nodded at her daughter. "Yes, very confusing... Your heart, your mind, your conscience, your worries, they all work against each other and make it hard to make a choice." Seeing Vivio's confused look, Nanoha just shook her head. "It's not something you'll understand until you're older, okay?"

"..Kay..." Adults were just confusing, that's all there was to it. She'd probably understand when she got old, like say, seventeen or so.

(---)

Sighing as she sat down in the kitchen, Lindy was quite thankful that her house had been far enough away from the fires that it didn't get affected like many other houses had. The last thing she wanted was to have to move into a temporary home while she waited for her house to get re-built.

Then again, she supposed she could have moved back to Earth for awhile. She had only came back to Mid-childa to help Fate out while she was pregnant and offer help to the new parents, but she did miss Earth. Retirement was rather nice. Oh well, Chrono didn't want Amy to be on Earth when she gave birth. After all, it was easier to get to Midchilda for Chrono than to Earth to be there for the births.

She raised an eyebrow as she heard a knocking on the door. Sighing softly, she got up and walked over to the door and opened it. "Nove?" She was slightly surprised to see the short redhead.

"Can... Can I come in, please?" There was something in her tone that made Lindy wonder as she let the redhead into her home. "Thank you."

"You want some tea?" Lindy asked her as she sat Nove down. The girl was stiff, there was some tremble in her hands as she was handed a tea cup. "Nove..?"

"Sorry, I... I'm just worried about things, I guess..."

Lindy nodded and sat down. "Go on..."

Sighing, the redhead looked down. "It's just... Between Ginga leaving... This fire happening... Now Subaru left late last night and is going to be gone for awhile and Teana ended up in surgery and we still don't know if she'll pull through or not and..." She took a deep breath. "It... It just feels like Gigna's going to be gone for good, if... If Teana dies, I don't know what Subaru's going to do, and..."

Lindy sighed, Nove looked incredibly worn down and exhausted, as well as a little sad. "What will you do, Nove? If things do go that bad?"

"...I don't know..." Nove sighed as she looked at the tea cup. "I just don't know."

"Okay... So, let's say Ginga never comes back, what are you going to do?" Nove was silent and Lindy just sat there, waiting for her to say something.

"...I don't know... I... I don't want to wait forever, but... If I just give up on her that fast, it... It wouldn't be fair to her."

"What about you?" Nove looked at her, confused. "Don't you think that you're being unfair to yourself? It's important to think of others, Nove... But you need to think of yourself too. Will you really be happy if you wait too long? What about Wendi?"

Nove sighed and shook her head. "I... I don't think she'd be happy, but I can't..."

Lindy nodded and squeezed Nove's arm gently. "Relationships are never easy, Nove... You need to balance the needs of yourself with those of the people in an intimate relationship with you. It's not something everyone can do."

"I know..." Nove looked down, sighing heavily.

"Talk to Wendi... Ask her what she wants." Nove nodded and Lindy shook her head softly. "Come on, let's just have some tea and relax, okay?"

"Kay..." Nove smiled softly. Maybe she didn't know what she wanted exactly, maybe she had no answers for anyone who asked. But hopefully Wendi could help her make a full decision soon.

(---)

"Yuuno?" Fate looked at her fiancée and smiled softly as he rolled over slightly and looked at her. "Hey..." She stroked his face softly. "Thank you... For last night."

He smiled at her and ran a hand over her face gently. "You don't need to thank me for something like that, Fate."

"Still..." She blushed as she shifted her body under the sheets. "I want to thank you."

Yuuno blushed as he felt her hands run over certain parts of his body. "Okay..." He blushed as he felt Fate's naked body, though when she got naked, he wasn't sure, slid across his body. Well, if his fiancée wanted to have some fun, who was he to complain?

(---)

"Nanoha-mama?" Vivio looked at her mother when she stopped just short of opening the door to her room. The two were in clean robes and their hair was hanging down their backs loosely as they waited for it to dry. Her mother's face was slightly flushed as she stepped away from the door. "What's wrong?"

"Ah..." Nanoha coughed slightly. "Fate and Yuuno need some time alone." She winked at Vivio. "Come on, let's go check on your siblings."

As she walked with her mother, Vivio was still convinced that adults were weird. When they entered her siblings' room, her eyes lit up as she saw the maid from before still there. "Hi!"

The maid smiled at them, nodding to Nanoha as she took Isamu from her arms. "Hello, did you two have a good bath?"

Vivio nodded and smiled at her. "Uh huh... It's a big bath and it can bubble!"

The maid giggled at her. "Yes. Don't you just love how it makes soap get really frothy?"

Vivio nodded, grinning. "Yeah! That was great! It was like I was in a tub of soup or something. Is that how vegetables feel?" Her eyes seemed to go blank white as she held a finger to her lips in wonder, causing both adults to laugh at her. "Mouu... Not funny."

Nanoha giggled softly. "Sorry, Vivio, you looked too funny there."

"Um, Lady Nanoha, I know it's not my place, but maybe you should get dressed..." The maid blinked as Nanoha shook her head and blushed. "But surely, walking around in your own clothes would be better than a robe..."

"Fate and Yuuno... Um... They need some time alone." Nanoha didn't mind the thought of her lovers having sex, but taking part in it and walking in on it were two different things.

"Did you talk to them with telepathy, mama?" Vivio blinked in confusion as Nanoha shook her head. "Then... How?"

"I'm not sure... I could just... Tell, I guess. I don't know how but..."

"Ah..." The maid nodded, interrupting. "They seem to be your soul mates."

Nanoha sweat-dropped. "Actually, I'm not too sure about that."

The maid shrugged at her. "Well, it does seem that way." Her face had a small smirk on it as she looked at the increasingly flustered woman. "You three complete each other in ways that you never expected... One of you is an unstoppable force that pulls the other two along, one supports the other two silently and while the last one is there to make sure that if either of the other two falters, they'll be there to catch them while all three of you look at each other as a shining beacon of strength that gives each other the motivation and strength to move on." Seeing the stupefied look on Nanoha's face and the look on Vivio's face, the maid fought the urge to laugh.

"...How?"

The maid winked. "I've met plenty of young lovers, Lady Nanoha, they keep saying the same things to me a lot, so I begin to pick up on things like that."

"Oh..." Nanoha's face was slightly red. Though, she wasn't sure if was from what the maid had said or some sort of weird feelings she had in the back of her head.

(---)

Fate gasped as Yuuno pulled his lips away from her neck. "Yuuno..." She groaned, shifting on top of him and panting as she felt his hands over her body. "That was so good." She was blushing hard, even as she pulled her fingers away from the bed.

Smiling, he leaned up and kissed her on the lips, his hands running through her hair softly. "You were very good, Fate." Idly, he mentally winced from the pain in his back from where Fate's fingers had dug into his skin.

"Should we take a bath before Nanoha worries about us?" Fate caught a whiff of what she and Yuuno smelled like and blanched slightly. She pouted as he chuckled. "It's not that funny."

"No, but the way you're worrying about it is." Smiling, he leaned up and kissed her on the lips gently. "But, if you're worried, let's go."

"Thank you." She smiled at him as they disengaged from each other.

(---)

A few hours later, Nanoha found herself looking at a screen of Shamal with worry. "Is everything okay back there?"

The blond looked tired, but nodded. "More-or-less... Hayate's sick, but she should recover in a day, Zafira's got an injured leg, Vita's badly burned and is in need of treatments to heal, Signum looks like someone carved up some hamburger, but she'll recover too... As for Teana..." She shook her head. "I don't know, she managed to survive the operation, so she'll live, but she's out cold for now."

"You mean a coma." Nanoha said flatly as Shamal sighed.

"Yeah. Look, Nanoha... Don't think badly about her. She just got hit with some bad luck and..."

"Who says I think badly about her or what happened?" Nanoha shrugged at Shamal's look. "I'm proud of her, actually. I'm not happy that she's hurt, but she did very well."

Shamal smiled on the screen, it was one of the few smiles she had in the last few days. Well, when not around Miyuki, but even then it wasn't always smiles, especially after their talk that had lasted well into the morning. She wasn't sure what she was going to do now, but she had other worries to deal with at the moment. "She'll be glad to hear it... If she wakes up."

"How bad was her injury?"

Shamal gestured from her breast up past her shoulder. "Seperated completely, then she got slammed hard enough to bruise her spine," not to mention put her back out of alignment, which was something that was going to need to be fixed as soon as they could, "and the last attack she took nearly killed her." Still, even with all of that, Shamal wasn't sure what was the worst part, all of that, or the fact that Teana had hit her head hard enough to cause her to bleed and get a concussion.

Nanoha winced slightly. "Well, we're coming back today." Shamal nodded and the brunette sighed as she looked at her friend. "Shamal... Do me a favor and get some sleep, please?" Seeing the look on Shamal's face, Nanoha giggled. "I know, weird of me to comment on people needing to sleep and rest, but, please, Shamal, if you're tired, you won't be much help to those who need it."

Shamal sighed softly. "I know. I was planning on going back to my apartment and sleeping for a few hours."

"How is everyone else?"

"They're mostly fine. Some suffered from inhaling a bit too much smoke, but otherwise fine. They're at home or here at the hospital right now."

"Okay." Nanoha nodded at her. "That's good to know."

Shamal nodded and bid farewell as she turned the screen off. Nanoha sighed and wished that she had been there. "Seems like I'm never around when people need me lately... Some Ace of Aces I am..."

"Mama..."

"Vivio?" Nanoha turned and knelt down to look at her daughter in the eye. "What..." She blinked as Vivio slapped her cheek, not hard, but enough to get her attention. "...Vivio?"

"You're being selfish, mama!" Vivio frowned at her as she pulled her hand away. "Subaru-san, Teana-san, they're really strong. Subaru-san's sisters, Aunt Hayate and her family, they're all really strong. If they got hurt badly, what would happen if you were there?" The girl started sniffling. "I don't wanna see mama in the hospital because she fought the bad guys and they hurt her badly."

"Vivio..." Nanoha hugged her daughter tightly. "I'm sorry, Vivio... I really am. I just don't like seeing my friends get hurt."

"I don't want them to get hurt either, mama!" Vivio cried against Nanoha's shoulder. "Signum-san is strong, like mama, and she got badly hurt, what if that was you?"

"Shh... Vivio..." Nanoha whispered to her. "I'm sorry. I really am. I... I guess I'm just upset that my students and friends all got hurt when I wasn't around and I wish I had been there to help out."

After holding her for a few more moments, Vivio pulled away and blushed heavily. "I'm sorry, mama..."

"Huh?" Nanoha blinked as Vivio gently grabbed her face and kissed her on the cheek. "Oh!" Nanoha's eyes widened as she remembered what happened, before giggling. "It's okay, Vivio. I hardly felt that."

"You sure?" Vivio looked at her in concern as Nanoha nodded and smiled at her, tapping her on the nose.

"Sometimes, your parents can be big idiots, Vivio-chan... Just don't go slapping us all the time when we're being stupid." Nanoha chuckled as Vivio laughed nervously.

Even though Nanoha had been Vivio's mother for over two years now, the fact that she had two lovers, soon to be spouses and babies was still new to her. Plus, it was hard for her to go against her instincts to go out and help people as much as possible. Closing her eyes, she couldn't imagine how her family would take it if she died.

Her family... Nanoha chuckled softly and smiled at Vivio's confused look. "I'm sorry, Vivio... I was thinking how our family has grown. It's still so new to me. Please forgive me?"

"Ngh!" Vivio nodded and smiled at her mother.

Nanoha smiled and rubbed Vivio's head. She was still worried for her sister and friends back on Mid-childa, but if Shamal said that they had survived, then things were okay, even if Teana was in a coma.

(---)

Subaru looked at her camp site and nodded to herself. A couple weeks on this world would probably do her a lot of good. A chance to clear her head, vent some frustration and be alone for a bit was what she was hoping would get her back into good spirits when she got back to Mid-Childa. And hopefully Teana would be recovered by then.

Still, the weather on Vaizen was nice at least, though she wished that the sky wasn't so dark out.

Actually, now that she had some time to think about it, she hadn't heard any animals in a long while and things were calm... Too calm.

"Buddy!" Mach Calibur yelled at her from her pocket. "To the south by twenty degrees."

Turning in that direction, Subaru paled as she saw the skies twist and spin, a dark funnel of death and destruction touching down as a twister suddenly formed. "Oh gods!" It was far enough away that Subaru doubted that it would come at her, but... "Wait a second..." Her eyes widened. "Mach Calibur! Set up!"

"Standby Ready."

In a flash, Subaru was in her barrier jacket as she raced along Wing Road towards the twister. There wasn't anything she could do about the tornado itself, but she would do all that she could to save anyone who happened to be there.

Even as fast as she could move, Subaru was partially glad that the twister had disappeared as fast as it had came. Pulling shrapnel out of her body for hours on end wasn't her idea of fun.

Especially if the shrapnel hit any important systems.

As she rolled into the destroyed area, Subaru paled as she saw the village, buildings, trees, everything was destroyed. She couldn't even imagine how bad it was for anyone who lived here. Still...

She raced around the village, calling for survivors and moving debris out of the way. She just hoped that she could find someone alive. So far... Too much had been lost. "Please... Oh please... Someone... Still be alive." She whispered to herself.

Her hopes got dashed with each piece of debris that she cleared away. All she saw were more and more dead bodies, some she couldn't even identify.

"Mama... Papa..." A young voice was heard and Subaru's eyes widened as she heart that. A survivor! She couldn't help herself from hurrying up and moving debris of a small house out of the way, only to stop at what she saw. In pools of blood were a man and woman, both with shrapnel sticking out of their bodies, while a young child with sandy brown hair cried over both of them. The child turned to her, tears falling freely, and Subaru could see that the child was a young boy, just shy of being a teenager at best, and asked her one question. "Why..?"

Seeing the miserable look on his face, Subaru rolled up to him and gently dislodged him from his parents, hugging him tightly as he cried on her. She didn't know who he was, but even she wept silent tears as it started to rain on top of both of them.

As for his question...

She had no answer.

(---)

It had taken her a few hours to get him to calm down and go to sleep and find all the bodies in the village. Not being sure if she should bury the bodies or cremate them, she opted to place the bodies into a cellar that she had found, before putting a large boulder on top of it so that no one would desecrate the bodies, and sighed as she looked at the boulder and then at her clothes and grimaced. Being covered in blood wasn't her idea of fun, but as she looked at the destroyed city, she moved over to where she left the boy and sighed. Unless there were people out of the village, he really had no one left here.

Gently picking him up, she rode Wing Road back to her campsite. "To suddenly lose everyone..." She mumbled to herself as she looked at him, he was still crying in his sleep, not that she blamed him. Everything he held dear was destroyed in an instant...

Hours later, Subaru found herself looking at the fire as it crackled. She blinked as she heard a groaning sound next to her. Turning, she smiled softly as the boy sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hello..."

The boy blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, before looking at her again. Subaru shook her head slowly as his eyes watered up. "Mama... Papa..." He found himself in another hug as she was by his side in an instant, letting him bury his face into her chest as he started crying again.

As Subaru rubbed his back, she wondered what she could say, if she should say anything. Dozens of sayings ran through her head, all of them she could say, any of them she could say.

Despite all that, she just couldn't say anything. The grief she was feeling from him was too intense.

All she could do was keep quiet, rub his back while hugging him and rock him gently as he screamed into her chest.

She didn't know why, but as he calmed down, he didn't push away from her. If anything, he seemed to hug her tighter, and, despite everything, Subaru found herself smiling at that. She wasn't sure why, either. The loss of life, she shouldn't be smiling, she should be screaming in rage and sorrow, why couldn't she?

"...You're crying." He said to her and she looked down at him in confusion. He ran a hand up to her face and wiped away her tears. "Why?"

"I'm sad... For everyone who died..."

"Why are you smiling?"

She shook her head. "I don't know..." She whispered softly as the two of them held each other tightly. She wasn't sure why she was smiling, and she would never be able to answer that.

It took until the fire was almost out for the two to finally separate from each other and sit there, looking at the fire as Subaru poked the embers, trying to get them to heat up again. "…What's your name?" He asked her after several minutes of silence.

"Subaru Nakajima. I'm with the Time-Space Administration Bureau, Rescue Corps..." She then sighed and slumped heavily. "Not that I'm living up to that lately."

"I'm Touma Avenir." He got her to look at him as she nodded, her face had that kind, soft smile on it that he found himself liking, a lot. "...Thank you..." He moved towards her and hugged her again. He was still sad, his parents, his home, his whole village gone in an instant.

Even though Touma hurt, deeply, something in him wanted to make her stop hurting. He could see it in her eyes, the raw pain and sadness that was there, she was so kind... He just wanted it to stop.

Subaru closed her eyes as she hugged Touma. She didn't like the fact that he was hurting so badly. She just wished that there was some way that she could help him recover faster.

Neither of them knew when they fell over and asleep. All they knew was that they felt comforted by the presence of the other one.

They paid it no mind as tears slowly leaked out of their eyes while they slept, cuddled against each other.

Really liked the quality time Fate and Yuuno had this chapter Everything else was good too

[vic-vic]

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Last chapter I'll have posted for a little while at least.

...

Doesn't help my muse is writing out chapters for future events before I can get to them.

ANYWAY!

Big thanks to Raiser for all his help.

Day in the Life

Chapter 41

Spoiler for Reaffirming:

Stretching as she woke up, Vivio rubbed her eyes and took a look around the guest room that she was staying in. It was right next to her parents' and siblings' rooms, so she didn't feel alone, even in the giant room. She didn't mind spending time with Yuuno-papa's family, she didn't, they were a lot of fun. Vivio giggled as she remembered Reiko, that woman was a lot of fun. She didn't know what a "bailer" was, but Reiko made crawling through it sound fun, even if she warned Vivio that it was pretty dangerous and she could get badly hurt if she tried it.

Stretching, Vivio got out of her bed and grabbed a towel, before leaving her room. Looking around, she tried to take in every sight she could, since her family would be heading back to Cranagan after breakfast. Her parents looked rather worried about something and she wasn't sure what it was, but it couldn't be good if they were looking nervous. Stopping by her siblings' room, she opened the door and blinked as she heard some fussing and squirming. "Isamu..." She gave her brother, who stopped fussing and moved around in his crib until he looked at her directly.

Giggling softly, Vivio went over to the crib and lifted her little brother out. She didn't know why, but those eyes of his were surprisingly intense whenever he looked at her.

Carrying her little brother out of the room, her nose wrinkled as she discovered just why he was fussing. "Eww..." She pouted as he giggled and slapped her face a couple of times. She was just thankful that he didn't have any real strength behind those blows. "Yeah, you think it's funny, don't you?"

Her irritation left her when all he did was smile at her. "You've got it easy, huh? All you have to do is smile, poop and crawl around and everyone thinks you're cute." Still, the smell was pretty bad and she'd have to...

"Hello, Lady Vivio." A maid smiled as she saw the young girl. "And how is Master Isamu this morning?"

"Na!" The little boy squealed, getting a chuckle from the maid.

"Here, Lady Vivio, I'll take him and get him changed." The grateful look on Vivio's face had her laughing softly.

"Um, why do you call me "Lady Vivio" and him "Master Isamu"?" She had enough trouble with people at the Saint Church, particularly Sein, Otto and Deed, calling her "Majesty" that she didn't want others to call her weird titles.

The maid smiled at her. "You are Lord Yuuno's children, are you not?" Vivio gave her a confused look as she nodded. "Oh, I'm sorry, I guess you're not too used to having servants?"

"Um, we have a house cleaner that helped raise me when I was six years old..."

The maid nodded as she rubbed Isamu's back, causing the baby to coo happily. "Yes, well, as one of the servants of the Scrya clan, it's just habit for us to call members of this clan "Master" and "Lady", that's all. The elders teach the children very early on not to let it go to their heads." She winked at Vivio. "Now, if you wish to have a morning bath, I believe I saw your mother, Lady Nanoha, heading towards the baths."

"Thank you." Vivio bowed and ran off.

"Now, as for you, stinky master, I think you need a new diaper." She smiled as she held Isamu out at arm's length.

The little boy just squealed happily.

(---)

As she relaxed in the warm waters, Nanoha smiled as she and Vivio bathed together. "How do you like it here?"

Vivio nodded and splashed the water a few times. "Yeah, it's fun. Yuuno-papa's family is a lot of fun, but..." She sighed softly and looked slightly apologetically at Nanoha. "Is it okay if I just want to go home and be with my classmates?"

She shook her head and winked at Vivio. "Actually, I miss home too, Vivio. Plus, I don't really like how all the maids call me "Lady Nanoha"." She smiled as Vivio giggled. "You too, huh?"

"Uh huh." Vivio nodded and took a breath before ducking under the water for a moment.

"Well, we're going home today then." Nanoha smiled as Vivio came back up.

"Mama..?" Vivio looked a little uncertain.

"Yes?"

"Um, I heard some of Yuuno-papa's aunts talking and one of them said something about how you, Fate-mama and Yuuno-papa didn't want any of this and are only together because of Sora, Isamu and Alicia..." Her eyes started to tear up as she thought about that. "It's not true, is it?!" She didn't like the thought that her family's happiness was a lie and they were only putting up a front for the children.

Nanoha smiled ruefully and shook her head. "Vivio... It was unexpected, but... I wouldn't give up what happened with Yuuno and Fate for the world." She then tapped Vivio on the nose. "We were stupid, we just needed something for us to get over our fears."

"You were afraid?"

Nanoha nodded and sighed softly. "I cared about them both too much... I never could choose one or the other... And having both Fate and Yuuno as my loves didn't occur to me at all."

"Is it confusing?"

Nanoha nodded at her daughter. "Yes, very confusing... Your heart, your mind, your conscience, your worries, they all work against each other and make it hard to make a choice." Seeing Vivio's confused look, Nanoha just shook her head. "It's not something you'll understand until you're older, okay?"

"..Kay..." Adults were just confusing, that's all there was to it. She'd probably understand when she got old, like say, seventeen or so.

(---)

Sighing as she sat down in the kitchen, Lindy was quite thankful that her house had been far enough away from the fires that it didn't get affected like many other houses had. The last thing she wanted was to have to move into a temporary home while she waited for her house to get re-built.

Then again, she supposed she could have moved back to Earth for awhile. She had only came back to Mid-childa to help Fate out while she was pregnant and offer help to the new parents, but she did miss Earth. Retirement was rather nice. Oh well, Chrono didn't want Amy to be on Earth when she gave birth. After all, it was easier to get to Midchilda for Chrono than to Earth to be there for the births.

She raised an eyebrow as she heard a knocking on the door. Sighing softly, she got up and walked over to the door and opened it. "Nove?" She was slightly surprised to see the short redhead.

"Can... Can I come in, please?" There was something in her tone that made Lindy wonder as she let the redhead into her home. "Thank you."

"You want some tea?" Lindy asked her as she sat Nove down. The girl was stiff, there was some tremble in her hands as she was handed a tea cup. "Nove..?"

"Sorry, I... I'm just worried about things, I guess..."

Lindy nodded and sat down. "Go on..."

Sighing, the redhead looked down. "It's just... Between Ginga leaving... This fire happening... Now Subaru left late last night and is going to be gone for awhile and Teana ended up in surgery and we still don't know if she'll pull through or not and..." She took a deep breath. "It... It just feels like Gigna's going to be gone for good, if... If Teana dies, I don't know what Subaru's going to do, and..."

Lindy sighed, Nove looked incredibly worn down and exhausted, as well as a little sad. "What will you do, Nove? If things do go that bad?"

"...I don't know..." Nove sighed as she looked at the tea cup. "I just don't know."

"Okay... So, let's say Ginga never comes back, what are you going to do?" Nove was silent and Lindy just sat there, waiting for her to say something.

"...I don't know... I... I don't want to wait forever, but... If I just give up on her that fast, it... It wouldn't be fair to her."

"What about you?" Nove looked at her, confused. "Don't you think that you're being unfair to yourself? It's important to think of others, Nove... But you need to think of yourself too. Will you really be happy if you wait too long? What about Wendi?"

Nove sighed and shook her head. "I... I don't think she'd be happy, but I can't..."

Lindy nodded and squeezed Nove's arm gently. "Relationships are never easy, Nove... You need to balance the needs of yourself with those of the people in an intimate relationship with you. It's not something everyone can do."

"I know..." Nove looked down, sighing heavily.

"Talk to Wendi... Ask her what she wants." Nove nodded and Lindy shook her head softly. "Come on, let's just have some tea and relax, okay?"

"Kay..." Nove smiled softly. Maybe she didn't know what she wanted exactly, maybe she had no answers for anyone who asked. But hopefully Wendi could help her make a full decision soon.

(---)

"Yuuno?" Fate looked at her fiancée and smiled softly as he rolled over slightly and looked at her. "Hey..." She stroked his face softly. "Thank you... For last night."

He smiled at her and ran a hand over her face gently. "You don't need to thank me for something like that, Fate."

"Still..." She blushed as she shifted her body under the sheets. "I want to thank you."

Yuuno blushed as he felt her hands run over certain parts of his body. "Okay..." He blushed as he felt Fate's naked body, though when she got naked, he wasn't sure, slid across his body. Well, if his fiancée wanted to have some fun, who was he to complain?

(---)

"Nanoha-mama?" Vivio looked at her mother when she stopped just short of opening the door to her room. The two were in clean robes and their hair was hanging down their backs loosely as they waited for it to dry. Her mother's face was slightly flushed as she stepped away from the door. "What's wrong?"

"Ah..." Nanoha coughed slightly. "Fate and Yuuno need some time alone." She winked at Vivio. "Come on, let's go check on your siblings."

As she walked with her mother, Vivio was still convinced that adults were weird. When they entered her siblings' room, her eyes lit up as she saw the maid from before still there. "Hi!"

The maid smiled at them, nodding to Nanoha as she took Isamu from her arms. "Hello, did you two have a good bath?"

Vivio nodded and smiled at her. "Uh huh... It's a big bath and it can bubble!"

The maid giggled at her. "Yes. Don't you just love how it makes soap get really frothy?"

Vivio nodded, grinning. "Yeah! That was great! It was like I was in a tub of soup or something. Is that how vegetables feel?" Her eyes seemed to go blank white as she held a finger to her lips in wonder, causing both adults to laugh at her. "Mouu... Not funny."

Nanoha giggled softly. "Sorry, Vivio, you looked too funny there."

"Um, Lady Nanoha, I know it's not my place, but maybe you should get dressed..." The maid blinked as Nanoha shook her head and blushed. "But surely, walking around in your own clothes would be better than a robe..."

"Fate and Yuuno... Um... They need some time alone." Nanoha didn't mind the thought of her lovers having sex, but taking part in it and walking in on it were two different things.

"Did you talk to them with telepathy, mama?" Vivio blinked in confusion as Nanoha shook her head. "Then... How?"

"I'm not sure... I could just... Tell, I guess. I don't know how but..."

"Ah..." The maid nodded, interrupting. "They seem to be your soul mates."

Nanoha sweat-dropped. "Actually, I'm not too sure about that."

The maid shrugged at her. "Well, it does seem that way." Her face had a small smirk on it as she looked at the increasingly flustered woman. "You three complete each other in ways that you never expected... One of you is an unstoppable force that pulls the other two along, one supports the other two silently and while the last one is there to make sure that if either of the other two falters, they'll be there to catch them while all three of you look at each other as a shining beacon of strength that gives each other the motivation and strength to move on." Seeing the stupefied look on Nanoha's face and the look on Vivio's face, the maid fought the urge to laugh.

"...How?"

The maid winked. "I've met plenty of young lovers, Lady Nanoha, they keep saying the same things to me a lot, so I begin to pick up on things like that."

"Oh..." Nanoha's face was slightly red. Though, she wasn't sure if was from what the maid had said or some sort of weird feelings she had in the back of her head.

(---)

Fate gasped as Yuuno pulled his lips away from her neck. "Yuuno..." She groaned, shifting on top of him and panting as she felt his hands over her body. "That was so good." She was blushing hard, even as she pulled her fingers away from the bed.

Smiling, he leaned up and kissed her on the lips, his hands running through her hair softly. "You were very good, Fate." Idly, he mentally winced from the pain in his back from where Fate's fingers had dug into his skin.

"Should we take a bath before Nanoha worries about us?" Fate caught a whiff of what she and Yuuno smelled like and blanched slightly. She pouted as he chuckled. "It's not that funny."

"No, but the way you're worrying about it is." Smiling, he leaned up and kissed her on the lips gently. "But, if you're worried, let's go."

"Thank you." She smiled at him as they disengaged from each other.

(---)

A few hours later, Nanoha found herself looking at a screen of Shamal with worry. "Is everything okay back there?"

The blond looked tired, but nodded. "More-or-less... Hayate's sick, but she should recover in a day, Zafira's got an injured leg, Vita's badly burned and is in need of treatments to heal, Signum looks like someone carved up some hamburger, but she'll recover too... As for Teana..." She shook her head. "I don't know, she managed to survive the operation, so she'll live, but she's out cold for now."

"You mean a coma." Nanoha said flatly as Shamal sighed.

"Yeah. Look, Nanoha... Don't think badly about her. She just got hit with some bad luck and..."

"Who says I think badly about her or what happened?" Nanoha shrugged at Shamal's look. "I'm proud of her, actually. I'm not happy that she's hurt, but she did very well."

Shamal smiled on the screen, it was one of the few smiles she had in the last few days. Well, when not around Miyuki, but even then it wasn't always smiles, especially after their talk that had lasted well into the morning. She wasn't sure what she was going to do now, but she had other worries to deal with at the moment. "She'll be glad to hear it... If she wakes up."

"How bad was her injury?"

Shamal gestured from her breast up past her shoulder. "Seperated completely, then she got slammed hard enough to bruise her spine," not to mention put her back out of alignment, which was something that was going to need to be fixed as soon as they could, "and the last attack she took nearly killed her." Still, even with all of that, Shamal wasn't sure what was the worst part, all of that, or the fact that Teana had hit her head hard enough to cause her to bleed and get a concussion.

Nanoha winced slightly. "Well, we're coming back today." Shamal nodded and the brunette sighed as she looked at her friend. "Shamal... Do me a favor and get some sleep, please?" Seeing the look on Shamal's face, Nanoha giggled. "I know, weird of me to comment on people needing to sleep and rest, but, please, Shamal, if you're tired, you won't be much help to those who need it."

Shamal sighed softly. "I know. I was planning on going back to my apartment and sleeping for a few hours."

"How is everyone else?"

"They're mostly fine. Some suffered from inhaling a bit too much smoke, but otherwise fine. They're at home or here at the hospital right now."

"Okay." Nanoha nodded at her. "That's good to know."

Shamal nodded and bid farewell as she turned the screen off. Nanoha sighed and wished that she had been there. "Seems like I'm never around when people need me lately... Some Ace of Aces I am..."

"Mama..."

"Vivio?" Nanoha turned and knelt down to look at her daughter in the eye. "What..." She blinked as Vivio slapped her cheek, not hard, but enough to get her attention. "...Vivio?"

"You're being selfish, mama!" Vivio frowned at her as she pulled her hand away. "Subaru-san, Teana-san, they're really strong. Subaru-san's sisters, Aunt Hayate and her family, they're all really strong. If they got hurt badly, what would happen if you were there?" The girl started sniffling. "I don't wanna see mama in the hospital because she fought the bad guys and they hurt her badly."

"Vivio..." Nanoha hugged her daughter tightly. "I'm sorry, Vivio... I really am. I just don't like seeing my friends get hurt."

"I don't want them to get hurt either, mama!" Vivio cried against Nanoha's shoulder. "Signum-san is strong, like mama, and she got badly hurt, what if that was you?"

"Shh... Vivio..." Nanoha whispered to her. "I'm sorry. I really am. I... I guess I'm just upset that my students and friends all got hurt when I wasn't around and I wish I had been there to help out."

After holding her for a few more moments, Vivio pulled away and blushed heavily. "I'm sorry, mama..."

"Huh?" Nanoha blinked as Vivio gently grabbed her face and kissed her on the cheek. "Oh!" Nanoha's eyes widened as she remembered what happened, before giggling. "It's okay, Vivio. I hardly felt that."

"You sure?" Vivio looked at her in concern as Nanoha nodded and smiled at her, tapping her on the nose.

"Sometimes, your parents can be big idiots, Vivio-chan... Just don't go slapping us all the time when we're being stupid." Nanoha chuckled as Vivio laughed nervously.

Even though Nanoha had been Vivio's mother for over two years now, the fact that she had two lovers, soon to be spouses and babies was still new to her. Plus, it was hard for her to go against her instincts to go out and help people as much as possible. Closing her eyes, she couldn't imagine how her family would take it if she died.

Her family... Nanoha chuckled softly and smiled at Vivio's confused look. "I'm sorry, Vivio... I was thinking how our family has grown. It's still so new to me. Please forgive me?"

"Ngh!" Vivio nodded and smiled at her mother.

Nanoha smiled and rubbed Vivio's head. She was still worried for her sister and friends back on Mid-childa, but if Shamal said that they had survived, then things were okay, even if Teana was in a coma.

(---)

Subaru looked at her camp site and nodded to herself. A couple weeks on this world would probably do her a lot of good. A chance to clear her head, vent some frustration and be alone for a bit was what she was hoping would get her back into good spirits when she got back to Mid-Childa. And hopefully Teana would be recovered by then.

Still, the weather on Vaizen was nice at least, though she wished that the sky wasn't so dark out.

Actually, now that she had some time to think about it, she hadn't heard any animals in a long while and things were calm... Too calm.

"Buddy!" Mach Calibur yelled at her from her pocket. "To the south by twenty degrees."

Turning in that direction, Subaru paled as she saw the skies twist and spin, a dark funnel of death and destruction touching down as a twister suddenly formed. "Oh gods!" It was far enough away that Subaru doubted that it would come at her, but... "Wait a second..." Her eyes widened. "Mach Calibur! Set up!"

"Standby Ready."

In a flash, Subaru was in her barrier jacket as she raced along Wing Road towards the twister. There wasn't anything she could do about the tornado itself, but she would do all that she could to save anyone who happened to be there.

Even as fast as she could move, Subaru was partially glad that the twister had disappeared as fast as it had came. Pulling shrapnel out of her body for hours on end wasn't her idea of fun.

Especially if the shrapnel hit any important systems.

As she rolled into the destroyed area, Subaru paled as she saw the village, buildings, trees, everything was destroyed. She couldn't even imagine how bad it was for anyone who lived here. Still...

She raced around the village, calling for survivors and moving debris out of the way. She just hoped that she could find someone alive. So far... Too much had been lost. "Please... Oh please... Someone... Still be alive." She whispered to herself.

Her hopes got dashed with each piece of debris that she cleared away. All she saw were more and more dead bodies, some she couldn't even identify.

"Mama... Papa..." A young voice was heard and Subaru's eyes widened as she heart that. A survivor! She couldn't help herself from hurrying up and moving debris of a small house out of the way, only to stop at what she saw. In pools of blood were a man and woman, both with shrapnel sticking out of their bodies, while a young child with sandy brown hair cried over both of them. The child turned to her, tears falling freely, and Subaru could see that the child was a young boy, just shy of being a teenager at best, and asked her one question. "Why..?"

Seeing the miserable look on his face, Subaru rolled up to him and gently dislodged him from his parents, hugging him tightly as he cried on her. She didn't know who he was, but even she wept silent tears as it started to rain on top of both of them.

As for his question...

She had no answer.

(---)

It had taken her a few hours to get him to calm down and go to sleep and find all the bodies in the village. Not being sure if she should bury the bodies or cremate them, she opted to place the bodies into a cellar that she had found, before putting a large boulder on top of it so that no one would desecrate the bodies, and sighed as she looked at the boulder and then at her clothes and grimaced. Being covered in blood wasn't her idea of fun, but as she looked at the destroyed city, she moved over to where she left the boy and sighed. Unless there were people out of the village, he really had no one left here.

Gently picking him up, she rode Wing Road back to her campsite. "To suddenly lose everyone..." She mumbled to herself as she looked at him, he was still crying in his sleep, not that she blamed him. Everything he held dear was destroyed in an instant...

Hours later, Subaru found herself looking at the fire as it crackled. She blinked as she heard a groaning sound next to her. Turning, she smiled softly as the boy sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hello..."

The boy blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, before looking at her again. Subaru shook her head slowly as his eyes watered up. "Mama... Papa..." He found himself in another hug as she was by his side in an instant, letting him bury his face into her chest as he started crying again.

As Subaru rubbed his back, she wondered what she could say, if she should say anything. Dozens of sayings ran through her head, all of them she could say, any of them she could say.

Despite all that, she just couldn't say anything. The grief she was feeling from him was too intense.

All she could do was keep quiet, rub his back while hugging him and rock him gently as he screamed into her chest.

She didn't know why, but as he calmed down, he didn't push away from her. If anything, he seemed to hug her tighter, and, despite everything, Subaru found herself smiling at that. She wasn't sure why, either. The loss of life, she shouldn't be smiling, she should be screaming in rage and sorrow, why couldn't she?

"...You're crying." He said to her and she looked down at him in confusion. He ran a hand up to her face and wiped away her tears. "Why?"

"I'm sad... For everyone who died..."

"Why are you smiling?"

She shook her head. "I don't know..." She whispered softly as the two of them held each other tightly. She wasn't sure why she was smiling, and she would never be able to answer that.

It took until the fire was almost out for the two to finally separate from each other and sit there, looking at the fire as Subaru poked the embers, trying to get them to heat up again. "…What's your name?" He asked her after several minutes of silence.

"Subaru Nakajima. I'm with the Time-Space Administration Bureau, Rescue Corps..." She then sighed and slumped heavily. "Not that I'm living up to that lately."

"I'm Touma Avenir." He got her to look at him as she nodded, her face had that kind, soft smile on it that he found himself liking, a lot. "...Thank you..." He moved towards her and hugged her again. He was still sad, his parents, his home, his whole village gone in an instant.

Even though Touma hurt, deeply, something in him wanted to make her stop hurting. He could see it in her eyes, the raw pain and sadness that was there, she was so kind... He just wanted it to stop.

Subaru closed her eyes as she hugged Touma. She didn't like the fact that he was hurting so badly. She just wished that there was some way that she could help him recover faster.

Neither of them knew when they fell over and asleep. All they knew was that they felt comforted by the presence of the other one.

They paid it no mind as tears slowly leaked out of their eyes while they slept, cuddled against each other.

Fate and Yuuno so cute together, and quirky maid are pure win. Interesting how hertwarming and heartwrenching Subaru/Touma interaction can be...

[Nanya01]

Einhart and Vivio have promised to get the plot back to ViVid.

Or at least, that's what they tell themselves.

[SNobleJr]

Originally Posted by Kaijo

Future Tense

Chapter 19: Family, Part 1

In which Nanoha meets some interesting people, and learns a shocking truth behind Carim's desperate gamble...

Previous chapters can be found here.

Spoiler for Future Tense, Chapter 19: Family, Part 1:

-snip-

Spoiler for Comments:

Damn. Hell of a moment of realization there once one connects the dots between the prophecy, the corpse shipments, and Ixpellia. I've said this before, but I need to say it again: things ain't gonna be pretty once the uprising starts.

And I'm personally of the opinion that it's believable for Ixy to jump at an opportunity to live like a kid after never having that chance in her early life. Doesn't feel too OOC to me, especially after the tweaks.

Originally Posted by Tempy

Hey Nanya. You asked for it, so here it is.

Spoiler for Side Due X:

-snip-

Ahh, compromising positions. Always such a goldmine for comedy.

Not to mention Due gnawing on Kevin's ear. And his reaction.

Originally Posted by Nanya01

ANYWAY!

BIG thanks to Raiser for his help.

For everyone waiting...

Day in the Life...

Chapter 40...

The title is...

Spoiler for Death:

-snip-

Spoiler for Notes:

No, it's not the end of Day in the Life, not yet at least. But there's no cliff-hangers for this chapter, surprising, huh?

What? You thought I was going to kill Miyuki off?

To be honest, I was seriously considering doing just that. Killing her off completely. In fact, when it came time to do it, I actually had to flip a coin to choose.

She got lucky.

Spoiler for Comments:

Hrm... something of an odd chapter. I'm not really sure what to think of the overtly supernatural angle here, unless this is meant to be just a hallucination on Miyuki's part while she's on the brink of death - though I'm not sure why she'd hallucinate Due, of all people.

Originally Posted by Nanya01

Last chapter I'll have posted for a little while at least.

...

Doesn't help my muse is writing out chapters for future events before I can get to them.

ANYWAY!

Big thanks to Raiser for all his help.

Day in the Life

Chapter 41

Spoiler for Reaffirming:

-snip-

Spoiler for Comments:

And so Touma makes his entrance. Great scene between him and Subaru - very tearjerking and heartwarming at the same time.