Ginga adjusted the surgical mask over her face. It was odd going back to wearing them after traipsing around Singapore maskless this past year. Stepping out of the elevator, her boots clicked mutely over the linoleum. The last time she'd been here, she had been rejected from the room she had tried to visit. Her mind thought back to those faces of friends, expressions closed off, silently accusing, even though the one in the hospital bed had never blamed her for a thing.
Her personal phone was blowing up after she had filed for divorce a week ago. With no heir produced, even her soon-to-be ex-husband's side was protesting the move, but Ginga was past the point of caring. Saying goodbye to Nanoha was the worst mistake she had ever made and the regret ate at her constantly.
Feigning cheerfulness while she attempted to reconnect with the woman was wearing on her and at this point, she was ready to just throw herself at the auburn woman's feet and just beg for forgiveness. But how did one beg for such, when blame had never been placed on her in the first place? It would have been far easier if Nanoha hated her. At least that would've meant there were still enough feelings to warrant hate.
To hear that TSAB had hired Rein and herself to guard the executive and her AVP seemed like a perfect opportunity to truly mend the bridge she had lit up in flames over a decade ago. While she knew she had to remain professional, surely all this time in close contact would garner her some good will from Nanoha? She could only hope.
Spotting the head of her agency, she approached the silver-haired woman. Rein was leaning back in her foldable chair, and two men who appeared to be standard issue government agents were positioned on the other side of the room's door. All wore surgical masks as mandated by the Japanese government.
"Heya, how's things?" She asked quietly, keenly aware of the sort of costs TSAB was incurring to have Nanoha in a room of her own, not to mention the engagement of their agency for such a protracted period of time. Yagami Hayate was taking no chances with her oldest friend.
"Ginga," Rein greeted, "It's been quiet. She's been in and out of surgery but the doctors say she's recovering. The last op was reconstructive. I'd imagine due to the gunshot wounds. Did you get any rest?"
Ginga's face tightened at the mention of gunshot wounds. "Slept on the flight. I can trade places…" Ginga hesitated, "After I visit her? Scout's honour I will keep it professional."
Rein eyed her subordinate for a few beats, then nodded. "She already has a visitor," she warned mildly. Not catching that warning tone, Ginga nodded and slipped silently into the room.
Her forward progress was arrested by the scene she had come upon. The blonde she had only seen in the assignment package was positioned behind the head of the hospital bed. Nanoha, barely recognisable in all her casts and bandages, not to mention a ventilator mask, was supine on the bed. The head of the bed's mattress had an oddly-shaped tray placed on it under Nanoha's head, meant to allow a bedridden patient's hair to be washed.
A matronly-looking nurse was next to the blonde, walking her through the steps needed to shampoo and rinse Nanoha's thick auburn hair. A faint line was between the blonde's pale brows while she concentrated on following the nurse's instructions. Nanoha's eyes were closed as she haltingly helped translate the nurse's instructions to english for the blonde's benefit.
The executive looked pale and gaunt. Her injuries and all the surgeries had clearly taken their toll on the woman and the normally fit figure seemed small, surrounded by all the monitoring machines and the ventilator.
To a martial artist like Nanoha, the head was a sensitive thing, something that needed constant vigilance and protection. Ginga knew this from back when they had been training together in the Takamachi dojo, more so when they had begun dating. There was never a time when she was allowed to touch Nanoha's head or hair without clear and conscious consent from the Takamachi scion.
Yet, here was her agency's second client, washing the woman's hair, evidently with Nanoha's permission. Remaining in the shadows of the entrance, Ginga studied the blonde. She vaguely recalled hearing the woman's voice from inside her office the last time she had met Nanoha for their disastrous dinner at the Turkish restaurant.
"Just an acquisition from a previous account," Ginga recalled Nanoha saying, when she had asked who it was on the intercom. She never elaborated how the acquisition was actual royalty from another country, or how beautiful said royalty really was. Past all the lines of pain and stress etched into her face, the lavender-haired woman could tell Nanoha seemed almost… content to submit to the AVP's touch. 'Nanoha-chan', the woman had called the EVP of Operations.
The tip of Fate's tongue peeked out past the corner of her lips as she worked to prevent water from spilling into Nanoha's eyes, or out of the tub-like attachment that was affixed to the bed under the executive's head. Nanoha had risked a glance up at the blonde hovering over her and had caught sight of that adorable look, her own expression softening in defiance of a mind that kept reminding her to keep her distance.
Soon, however, her senses picked up the presence of another, and Nanoha kept her reactions firmly in check when she realised who that additional person in the room was. 'When it rains, it pours…' Her mind thought with morbid humour. Here was her ex-girlfriend, watching her beat-up self being tended to by the angel who haunted Nanoha's dreams and waking thoughts, to the point where the stabbing pain of their broken relationship didn't even register in the executive's heart any longer.
Knowing Nanoha had noticed her, Ginga stepped out of the shadows to approach the little tableau. Fate glanced up from her work in surprise to find a full-figured woman with long lavender hair plaited tightly. She was dressed in a suit identical to what Rein wore and though Fate had never seen the woman before, the blonde felt reticent towards her, as if she'd had a bad impression of her before.
Did she know this person then forgot who she was? The woman looking at her didn't seem to recognise her either, however. Stopping two paces from the bed, the woman bowed formally, "Nakajima Ginga desu~ I will be assisting Rein on this assignment. Dozo yoroshiku onegai itashimasu~"
On one hand, Nanoha felt ridiculously exposed, lying in a thin hospital gown, shampoo suds in her hair, both nurse and her AVP staring at the stranger who had once ripped her insides to shreds. On the other hand, Ginga's formal greeting insinuated that she meant to remain professional in their dealings with one another. Time would tell when it came to this unpredictable woman. Nanoha had learned the hard way to expect the unexpected from this woman.
"Kochi… rakoso, onegai… shimasu~" Naturally taking the lead in the situation, Nanoha responded to the woman on Fate's behalf. Her normally strong alto was low but projected itself sufficiently to inform Ginga that Nanoha was keeping a cautious eye on her. She cast a questioning glance up at Fate who was still coming to terms with the odd mix of emotions the new bodyguard's appearance had elicited in her, "Rein?"
"Oh, yes, you had not woken when Rein was in here. She mentioned a Yagami person had contracted her agency," Fate explained to the executive who appeared troubled to be missing important information. The blonde could see the excuse of having been in multiple surgeries was far from sufficient for the auburn-haired woman to let herself off the hook. "I apologise for forgetting to inform you of the arrangement."
Nanoha waved off the blonde's apology with her one arm that was not in a sling, "No... I have… much to catch… up on."
"Not as much as I," Fate pointed out dryly as she, with the nurse's help, began rinsing away the suds in the executive's hair. Nanoha wanted to kick herself for reminding Fate about her missing memories. Fortunately, the blonde appeared rather sanguine about the entire thing, open to picking up where she had left off and filling things in as and when she could.
It was that flexible mindset that had first drawn the EVP to consider hiring the woman to begin with, and Nanoha was once again grateful that Fate seemed the same regardless of the memories she had lost or retained. The only problem was the Fate-shaped hole in her heart and that was something that was up to Nanoha and Nanoha alone to deal with.
Ginga had been briefed on the blonde's memory loss, though not how or why it had happened. There had been no details explaining the state Nanoha was in either, only that the executive had spearheaded the extraction team that had tracked down and saved the Midchildan princess. Ginga had no doubt the Takamachi clan had been involved, since the Nakajima clan had ancient ties to Nanoha's family dating back to the Sengoku, or Warring States period.
In another time and place, Ginga could've been attached to the Takamachi scion as her vassal. Here, the bodyguard would only be serving the pair for a few months. The continued wariness in Nanoha's demeanour was to be expected, but to feel the same coming from the blonde was not. Curious.
It was upsetting to see Nanoha in such a state and Ginga had to sternly reign in any impulses to fuss over the executive, knowing that it wouldn't endear herself to the injured woman. Instead, she dipped her head respectfully, "Please do not hesitate to call if assistance is required." With that, she turned on her heel and left to relieve Rein of her post to give her superior a break from her duties.
Rein had her ears peeled for any sounds of raised voices, and was impressed when her subordinate returned with nary a peep from their clients inside. To her experienced eye, she could tell Ginga had been hard-pressed to keep her initial urges in check and she felt some small hope that the woman was finally learning that less was more.
"And she looked much worse yesterday," The silver-haired woman shared. Ginga's face twisted in unvoiced emotion. Casting a look over her shoulder at the government agents, her subordinate grabbed Rein by the arm and pulled her a distance away from the men. "Update me, please," she asked urgently. Remembering her manners, she released Rein's arm and listened while her boss outlined the extent of Nanoha's injuries.
Lips thinning to a grim line, Ginga then pursed them while she considered Nanoha's cool demeanour, split equally between herself and the blonde who'd been assisting her. It was difficult to imagine the coldly calculative assassin eating such tactically unsound injuries for a mission.
The goal was always to get in, and get out in one piece. How else would they report back to their masters if they were to die while performing their duty? This insane result reeked of all-in, last ditch, ends justified the means, berserker behaviour. For what? A new AVP fresh off of an account from a few months back? Nothing added up.
Such unbridled emotionality had bled away from the auburn-haired woman after they had broken up. Or so Ginga had thought. It'd always been part of the guilt she carried, dulling the consuming passions of the vivacious seventeen year old with her actions, and then the accident involving Nanoha and Yuuno had effectively snuffed the remaining embers out for good.
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"I'm informing you so that you know what care we must take in ensuring their safety," Rein articulated quietly, out of the agents' hearing. "As you can tell, there is no doubt Takamachi Nanoha will take personal action if the princess is endangered once more, and in her state, that will most certainly cause irreparable harm." Red eyes pinned Ginga where she stood, "This is the complication of our assignment. We must guard one to within an inch of our lives, to ensure the other doesn't throw hers away."
Leaving her subordinate to ponder the implications of her revelations, Rein stretched as she made her way to the cafes below to grab a break. Hopefully she'd be able to find a good brew before she had to return to her post.
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It was impossible to get a moment alone with Nanoha and Ginga slammed a fist into the nearby wall in mute frustration. Rein was still on her break but their blonde client appeared to have taken it upon herself to be the auburn-haired woman's primary caretaker. Weren't they just colleagues? On top of that, the princess had no memory of her past collaboration with the executive. Was she sucking up to her new boss?
Ginga had ducked her head back into the room only to find Fate brushing out the woman's still damp hair while the two watched some random travelogue show about Singapore and its iconic sights. Nanoha remained aloof and only replied to the blonde when spoken to, so it couldn't be that she was making the royal feel welcome.
Sighing, she ducked back out and settled down into her foldable chair to bide her time.
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Nanoha's eyes were half-closed while the programme played. The nurse had left once the blonde was done rinsing out the conditioner she'd applied to the auburn-haired woman's hair. Depressing the controls to tilt herself up to an incline, Nanoha had flipped idly through the channels until she had found one about their adopted country.
Fate had been towelling her hair, pressing the absorbent artificial chamois material into the executive's scalp to get the woman's hair as dry as she could before she began brushing it. The woman had remained silent throughout the rest of the procedure. Fortunately there hadn't been much more for her to translate and the nurse had simply patted Fate's hand approvingly and left with the washing apparatus in tow.
"This is where TSAB's Southeast Asian headquarters is located?" Fate asked while she began finger combing through the executive's thick tresses, carefully untangling as she went to allow for a smoother, painless brushing experience.
"Mmmhmm." Nanoha was fighting a losing battle with utter relaxation. Tucked snugly under her blankets with the feeling of the blonde's fingers in her hair, the injured woman could feel Morpheus' hands slowly tugging her towards sleep. Stubbornly, she clung to consciousness, not knowing when she'd ever be pampered by the AVP again.
"What's Singapore like?"
"Hot all year," Nanoha drawled sleepily. Her voice had smoothened out the more she spoke, and the regular pauses Fate took to offer the executive water had also helped. As Fate had suspected, the executive's lower register was warmly vibrant, a marked contrast to the rest of the Japanese women Fate had met thus far, and it curled pleasingly in the blonde's ear.
"Do you like the heat?" Fate took up the new brush the hospital had provided and began with the ends of the woman's long hair.
Nanoha made a thoughtful sound, "I do. It keeps people devoid of pretensions. It's too warm to keep up appearances. You'd see people in cut-offs and flip-flops in the most expensive restaurants, in a suit and tie in the humblest neighbourhood coffeeshops, or kopitiam, as they're known there."
Fate hummed, considering the woman's reply. So the executive didn't appreciate pretentiousness. She filed that into her very thin, very sparse file on Nanoha. This was the most the woman had said since Fate had gotten to know her, again. "What's that boat-shaped building?" Fate asked, pointing the brush at the flashy structure now on screen.
Nanoha felt a twinge at the question, recalling the dinner and chocolate buffet she had brought Fate to early in their friendship. "Marina Bay Sands, one of the two places with casinos in the country. There are free laser shows at night." Memories of that innocent time on the river taxi with Fate played through the executive's mind, the impromptu outing prompted by none other than the lavender-haired bodyguard outside her room.
It was a challenge to get Nanoha to talk, the executive a lot more close-lipped than anyone else Fate had ever met. That she could remember meeting. Listening to the woman's pithy insights appealed a lot to the blonde, however, and what better way to get to know her new boss than to talk about something innocuous like the country they worked in, and work itself?
"How was I hired?"
The burr in Nanoha's voice grew more pronounced the sleepier she got. Lunch and her meds were over an hour ago, and the soft touches in her hair and scalp were truly testing the limits of her very, very minute pool of stamina. "TSAB acquired Testarossa Inc. I needed t' make the num'ers fit t' avoid layoffs. You helped… fir'd y'self an' your sis..." Nanoha gave a jaw popping yawn, scrunching herself down where she lay to get more comfortable. "I knew I wanted you…" She yawned again, eyes drifting closed.
Fate listened to the executive slowly dropping off into slumber while she spoke, finding the slurring and yawns inordinately cute. Wait, did she just use the word 'cute' to apply to her boss? She shook herself out of that crazy thought, only to find herself freezing again when the woman, who was obviously losing her grip on consciousness, said that she wanted Fate. 'She must have meant she wanted me for TSAB.'
Peering around the head of the bed, she smiled to see the woman fallen into deep slumber. Nanoha needed as much rest as possible, and it heartened the blonde that as cool and professionally distant as the executive was, she didn't feel… heartless. That had been one of Fate's worries working in such an immense company. Many had to give up their humanity to climb that high, and it wouldn't have been surprising if the Takamachi had done so, too.
'I can work with her, I think.' Feeling better about her position in life, Fate turned off the television and lowered Nanoha's bed back down. Stowing the bed's remote near the woman's good hand, Fate resumed brushing the executive's hair dry, static causing the strands to keep clinging to her hands.
"Goodness, this hair…" Fate chuckled, quickly plaiting Nanoha's hair and securing it with the simple black tie the nurse had given her. She admired the fiery highlights now visible in the healthy shine of the executive's auburn tresses, so much more colourful than her boring pale blonde.
Checking the time, she noted that it was a little past two in the afternoon. Feeling a little tired herself, Fate pulled her visitor's chair closer to the side of the bed and found a space for her to lay her head down on to take a little nap.
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Nanoha's rest was fitful and it wasn't more than an hour when another disturbing dream jolted her back awake. The sharpened edges of her fading nightmare were difficult to grasp, not that Nanoha even wanted to remember. Consciously slowing her breathing to a controlled rhythm, she willed her heart rate to fall in line.
It was hard to tell the position of the sun. Fading in and out of consciousness since Fate's rescue had caused the executive to lose all track of what day it was, let alone the time. Especially since the blinds had been drawn in her room. Her right arm felt oddly warm and she lolled her head to the side to find a golden spill of hair blanketing her limb.
She held her breath, not wanting to wake the peacefully slumbering blonde. Interesting how the bands around her chest loosened once she knew Fate was close by. "Tenshi…"
The light click of her room's door opening alerted Nanoha to the entry of someone and any lingering sleep left her eyes as she tensed, sharp gaze seeking out the possible intruder. Holding back a sigh, she tried to shed her assassin instincts, a difficult prospect when Fate was resting defenceless at her bedside.
Ginga paused to find razor-sharp flint pinning her where she stood. Even with all the casts and bandages, lying prone and hooked up to a ventilator, she could feel the spike of killing intent being sent her way before Nanoha recognised her and tamped her instincts down. Still, the wariness was evident and the bodyguard couldn't blame the woman. In her misguided attempts to make-up with Nanoha, she had done some questionable things she sorely regretted. 'Just add it to the pile of regrets I've already collected.'
Approaching the other side of Nanoha's bed, her eyes flicked to the sleeping AVP and keeping her voice low, greeted the executive. "How are you doing?" She asked in japanese.
Casting her own glance to the sleeping blonde, Nanoha replied in a voice soft enough to almost be a whisper, "Well enough." Ginga could see the executive keeping her arm deathly still to avoid disturbing Fate.
Hayate must've been in urgent need to be hiring Ginga for this assignment, which was all that was keeping Nanoha civil with the bodyguard. That didn't mean she would be making this any easier for the woman who'd been a source of torment and baggage for far too long. Truth be told, Nanoha had slowly been tossing some of that baggage overboard under the gently shining sunlight of Fate's friendship, and she had never hated the woman. It was just so tiring to deal with her.
The auburn-haired woman was not going to make this easy for Ginga, was she? Ginga knew she was reaping what she sowed, and soldiered on, "Look, I just wanted to apologise." The wariness in Nanoha's gaze never lessened, though she seemed willing to listen, "The last time we spoke… I was out of line with what I did. I apologise."
Not expecting an apology, Nanoha stared at the woman holding a deep bow to her. "It's in the past," she murmured, trying to brush off that forced kiss.
"I've filed for divorce," Ginga blurted. That got a reaction from the executive as blue eyes widened in shock. "I don't want to subject a child to life in a broken home." The bodyguard continued, "Regardless, I've come to realise there are more important things than fulfilling my family's expectations." Verdant green eyes stared down into deep blue that were still wide in shock.
"...Why are y-you telling me this?" Nanoha choked out in a strangled whisper, still extremely conscious of the sleeping blonde on the other side of her bed.
Ginga's hand twitched. She wanted so much to cup that beautiful face, to make her see, but she had sworn to be professional. "You know why. I want to look after you, protect you…" She cast a pained look at the executive's mangled form, "Look at the state you're in!"
Expression growing hard, Nanoha growled lowly through clenched teeth, "My state has nothing to do with you." The hand hidden under Fate's thick fall of gold clenched into a trembling fist, "I've fought too long to have you, or anyone else, second guess my decisions."
For all that Nanoha was lying prone, hooked up to wires and tubes, her blazing, implacable will loomed larger than the room could contain, and Ginga stepped back a pace from the force of the woman's whispered words. The sledgehammer of that teenaged passion had never been gone. Instead, it'd been honed into a blade so sharp that it could slice away all extraneous foolishness to cut deep to the very heart of Nanoha's goals.
What an utter fool she had been. How could she have given this up? "Nanoha…" Voice hushed, she approached once more with caution, "It just hurts that you value your own safety so lowly…"
The auburn-haired woman gave a faint sound of wearied amusement, "Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather," she whispered the old adage dryly, "Don't worry, I won't let myself die."
"It was duty then? To lay your life on the line for this one?" Ginga's eyes flickered to the resting blonde, the woman's breath even as she lay oblivious to the quiet conversation the Japanese women were having.
Blue eyes bleakly reminiscent of those Ginga had caught a glimpse of after Nanoha had first been discharged from the hospital after her accident, slipped to the side, not meeting hers. "I was overconfident. The price was mine to pay."
Her lavender plait shook with the movement of her head, "I do not understand…"
"You need not…" Those eyes rose to pin her where she stood, hardened sapphires glinting in the dim confines of the hospital ward, "All you need to do… is to protect her."
Rein was correct, damn her.
"The contract was for the both of you." Ginga murmured. "Nanoha, I know… I don't deserve a second chance." She licked her lips, "But I'm begging you, please… I would do anything… I miss you." Her eyes hid nothing as she pleaded with the executive.
Nanoha couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. So all it took was almost dying again for Ginga to get real with her? It was so ridiculous to be missing the blonde sleeping AT HER ELBOW so much that she would even consider getting back with her old flame. Torn, she looked away, "I… I…"
"You don't have to answer right away," Ginga could see the woman struggling and allowed a faint bit of hope to blossom in her chest, "Just promise me you'll think about it."
Closing her eyes, Nanoha exhaled softly, the fog of her long breath dampening the breathing apparatus she was hooked up to. She nodded mutely, refusing to look at the face that had once consumed her every waking thought. Blinking away the threat of tears, Ginga bowed and left to return to her post outside the ward's entrance.
Left with her own thoughts of what once was and what could have been, mourning the death of a friendship more precious to her than life itself, Nanoha stared up at the ceiling, feeling too broken to even weep.