They had paused by the koi pond, Nanoha aware that neither Ginga nor Rein possessed the impossible skill of wearing a kimono in less than half an hour. Word had already spread through the compound that a new heir had been appointed and the deference shown to Nanoha from each staff they came across was jarring to the Japanese woman.
Chancing upon one such staff preparing to feed the fishes, Nanoha asked the woman what portions should be given and requested her guidance. Bowing low, the staff explained in rapid japanese, handing the container of dried food to Nanoha. Lips quirking into that lopsided smile, the heir poured a palmful of flakes into her perplexed companion's hand.
"Nanoha-san, wh…"
"Shh, don't scare them. Come." Gently leading Fate closer to the waters, she knelt carefully, drawing the blonde down with her. At the water's edge, the muted, rhythmic clack of the bamboo fountain punctuated breath-held silence. Nanoha took the blonde's hand in hers and lowered it palm up under the shimmering pool's surface.
As one, swimming jewels flashed in a sudden riot of pearlescent whites, glowing oranges, prosperous reds and midnight blacks. Fate felt the curiously ticklish touch of a multitude of mouths lipping at her palm for a treat. Giggling at the unexpected sensation, she turned eyes bright with wonder upon the woman beside her.
Nanoha had been observing the dazzling blonde as she knelt in utter grace, moving as if she had worn a kimono her whole life. Her heart skipped multiple beats to hear that chiming laugh in a voice she knew better than her own, and she felt anew the sudden pain of losing that old Fate like a stab in her gut. 'Be fair. Don't measure her next to her past self.' She hid her faltering smile, merely nodding encouragingly for Fate to receive another palmful of food to lower back into the waters.
Nanoha nudged playfully at one of the larger, rounder koi, "Oh, this one is a piggy. G'wan now, let your smaller friends have a bite." The slightly rotund koi swam away with an indignant flick of its tail and Fate laughed again, "You know them?"
"Mmhmm, some here are older than we are."
Prompted by the mention of age, Fate smiled, "I heard we're both pigs." She wasn't expecting the startled glance from Nanoha. Again, that faintly cautious air settled over the woman's shoulders, "Where… did you hear that from?"
A thin line appeared between the blonde's pale brows, "Your mother and sister." Realising she may have been prying, her eyes dropped, "I was curious why you'd left your home. Y-Your family loves you."
Noticing Fate's guilty look, Nanoha kicked herself, "Sorry, I'm feeling a little sensitive." Handing the canister of fish food back to the staff, she stood and accepted the warmed, wet towel from the woman with a dip of her head and a murmured word of thanks. Taking her cue from the Takamachi heir, Fate rose as well and found her chilled hand being carefully cleaned by the executive.
"How do you feel?" Fate asked the new heir quietly. Even with only one hand free, Nanoha was being very thorough to ensure the blonde's hand didn't remain cold from the pond's waters. Eyes fixed to the appendage she was tending to, Nanoha didn't have an immediate reply to the woman's question. "This was never in my calculations," she admitted at last, "I've been used to being invisible for a long time."
"Do you plan for everything?" Fate asked, voice a little breathless when Nanoha began running her fingers over the blonde's hand to check if it was still wet. The executive needed to stop; she was completely oblivious to the effect her simple touches were having on Fate. Handing the towel back to the staff, Nanoha offered her arm to the blonde once more and proceeded at their slow pace towards where the cars were parked.
"I try to." Gravity etched itself in the chiselled lines of the heir's expression, "Bad things happen when I don't." Her eyes flicked over in a swift glance at the blonde, and Fate caught a hint of sorrow and guilt in their azure depths. Both were masked when a male staff approached. With a deep bow, he held forth a haori, or outer jacket, explaining that he had been instructed to dress the heir in it.
"Please help me into this, Fate-san." The man, understanding the heir's intent, bowed to the blonde and lifted the garment for her to retrieve it from him. It was a simple sleeved jacket with no closures.
The pattern was a match for the white diamonds imprinted into Nanoha's kimono, its long sleeves terminating halfway down the woman's forearms. At even intervals, the family crest was embroidered into the cloth, but with an added detail to indicate that it was the heir's personal crest: the Nanohana, the flower that Nanoha had been named after. One crest was below each shoulder, two more at the outward facing side of the voluminous sleeves, and the largest in the middle of the back. Without words, Shiro was announcing to the world that this was the Takamachi heir.
Recognising the ceremonial importance of this moment, Fate solemnly slipped Nanoha's right arm through the first sleeve before moving around to drape her left shoulder with the other. Shifting to stand facing the woman, Fate took a moment to straighten the luxurious drape of heavy silk over Nanoha's chest. An image of the same woman in a suit overtook the reality before her and Fate's hands instinctively knotted into the fabric under her fingers. She could see her own hands superimposed over them, tying a black tie around Nanoha's neck, and the corresponding emotions that flooded her left the blonde gasping.
"Fate-san? Fate-san!" Recognising the onset of another attack, Nanoha dropped her shinai to wrap her arm around the blonde's middle, clamping the swaying woman to herself. Teeth gritting, she forced strength into her limbs and held Fate to a body locked rigidly upright through sheer cussedness. "Fate!" Her geta scraped loudly on the flagstones as she fought for purchase, the executive refusing to allow gravity to steal the blonde from her.
Chest heaving, Fate took gulping breaths, her palms laid flat over someone's very warm, very solid torso. A familiar voice was calling urgently for her, and she had to respond. Blinking away the afterimages, heart threatening to hammer its way out of her rib-cage, she stared into eyes so distant but still dark with concern. "Fate-san, are you okay?"
"I'm… I'm fine." Inhaling shakily, the blonde worked to get her geta under herself, realising that the poor executive was again the only one keeping her off the ground. "I'm sorry, I just felt something and it surprised me." Nanoha hadn't relinquished her hold on the blonde, unwilling to trust that the woman was truly all right to stand on her own. The feeling was so achingly familiar that Fate wanted to clasp the woman back and never let go.
"Take your time." It was still happening. They really needed to get out of Japan and back to Singapore. The claws of Fate's hands were still tangled in the edges of her haori and Nanoha gave the staff still present quick instructions to help support the blonde. Slowly unhooking one hand, then the next from her haori, Nanoha used her one free hand to chafe at Fate's fingers that had gone icy cold, trying to warm them back up.
Those words triggered yet another memory, this time the sulphurous scent of a hot spring surrounded Fate, waters cast in silver and black, warm and inviting. The sensation of bare skin against hers while she fought for air.
"Maybe we should do lunch another time," Nanoha studied the blonde worriedly.
"No!" Fate said in almost a yell. Modulating her volume, she shook her head, "This is an important time for you. Please, I'm fine. I just, let's just get to the car?" Studying the woman from beneath furrowed brows, Nanoha gave a slight, reluctant nod and instructed the staff to help the woman to the car. Out of the blonde's sight, Nanoha tucked her geta's lip under her fallen shinai, kicking it back up into the air for her to deftly catch by the hilt. Eyes fixed on the blonde's back, the heir followed from behind, her expression troubled.
A limousine that easily fit all who were present for the ceremony awaited them in the back compound. Helped inside by the chauffeur, Nanoha sat with an armrest between herself and the blonde. Fate was suppressing her urge to nibble on her bottom lip and her wine-shaded eyes were staring into the far distance. She could feel the executive's concerned gaze flickering to glance at her now and again, but she wasn't ready to discuss what memories had returned to her just yet.
Unwilling to press Fate about what she had recalled for fear that it might set off yet another episode, Nanoha simply remained silent, appreciating the steady presence of her father and brother who had returned from their short sojourn to the clan shrine. Shiro had nodded approvingly at the sight of the heir's haori upon Nanoha and Fate's arrival and Nanoha wondered for how long had her parents been keeping the garments locked away. These garments were not something one simply purchased off a rack in any clothing store and the quality spoke of months of artisanal work.
The clan head's declarations had been so far from everything Nanoha had known that it would likely take her weeks, if not months, to process everything. She knew she had vastly disappointed him, and his cold distance at the revelation of her relationship with Ginga back then spoke volumes to the teenaged Nanoha.
That stoic wall of silence hurt as much as she had expected it would, but just because she was prepared didn't mean she had not shrivelled from the rejection by one of the pillars in her life. Her mother's disappointment was far softer, malleable to Nanoha's pleas for understanding. Ultimately, it was Ginga breaking up with her that had precipitated her master class lessons in pain. A lesson that Yuuno's death had engraved into her soul.
By the time the secret world her clan and those linked to it could react to both her proclivities and the Scrya heir's demise, Nanoha had been far past caring. It was right for her to take the blame. She had chased too hard, wanted too much, become greedy for things she had no right to ask for. In her sheer hubris, it was the ones she cared for the most that paid the price.
Her family was a hair's breadth away from losing all standing. Ginga was locked into a loveless match, the very thought of another's hands on the girl she still loved enough to send Nanoha careening into the nearest toilet stall to heave up the contents of her stomach. And Yuuno. Dear, sweet Yuuno, who loved her, and whom she had loved in her own way, had been sliced in twain for her. For her to continue living a life devoid of colour.
A deep-seated fear accompanied her acceptance back into the Takamachi clan. Was she being greedy again? Who would suffer this time for her audacity? Fate was already suffering, with years lost and a mind that fought her every step of the way back to normalcy. At least Nanoha had plans to cut short that purgatory. The blonde need never know and it would be for the best.
"Tou-chan," Nanoha's voice fell heavily into the silence of the limousine, "I wish to appoint Nii-chan as my stand-in for when I'm not in Japan."
"I have made arrangements for such," Shiro replied, earning a side glance from his youngest. Lips thinned into a small smile, he enjoyed his child's well-hidden surprise at his easy capitulation after all that had been done.
"You have made a life elsewhere. I would not presume that you would drop everything to return immediately." He leaned back into the soft leather of his seat, arms crossing to tuck his hands into the folds of his kimono. "Though I do ask that you consider, perhaps in the future, to spend some time out of the year back home."
"That is… extremely generous of you, Tou-chan."
"Think about it, Na-chan. I miss sparring with you. Mi-chan's hardly a challenge…"
"Who's not a challenge?" Glasses glinting dangerously, Miyuki appeared, having opened the door for the remainder of the party to enter. Settling next to her brother, the elder Takamachi daughter elbowed him hard in the sternum, causing the man to cough out a strangled breath.
Smirking at her sibling's antics, Nanoha had leaned over to translate what had transpired between herself and her family to the blonde. Fate was touched that her boss bothered to keep her informed when she was but a mere outsider.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Kyo-chan, Mi-chan, please behave. Is first time having meal outside as family in long time." Momoko scolded the pair and smiled at the rest, "Sorry for wait, must dress nicely, hai?" After her came Rein in a silver kimono.
It was less elaborate than what Fate wore, but the simplicity of its design brought forth the sheer quality of its make. Delicately sewn poppies populated the field of her garment, the ensemble arrested by a contrasting obi of charcoal grey. Her hair was in a simple side plait, the woman requesting it remain unadorned which only accentuated the spare beauty of her angular features. The woman moved gracefully in her geta, leaning on her natural athleticism to enter the low-roofed vehicle without issue.
"You clean up nice, Rein," Nanoha complimented her bodyguard, who replied with a smirk, "While you look better dirty." Just to continue tweaking Fate and Ginga.
And tweaked they were. Fate's contemplation about the few glimpses of her past she had just excavated came to a rude and abrupt stop when the two women flirted lightly at the other and she once more wondered what sort of a relationship they were in. Certainly, it couldn't just be professional. She hated how easily her mind recalled the lingering touches Rein left on her boss' waist. Wallowing in uncertainty, she hardly noticed her own bodyguard's arrival.
Evoking the cherry blossoms of spring, Ginga's kimono enchanted with swirls of pink and white, setting off the rich green of her eyes and contrasting beautifully with her purple hair. The gold of her obi cemented the bodyguard's look with surprising harmony and the stiff, wide sash did nothing to conceal the woman's large bosom. She smiled to see Nanoha look away, heartened that the executive was not entirely unaffected by her. Inwardly, however, she pouted over having to compete with the gorgeous blonde and her own quietly beautiful boss.
Feeling as if she were betraying Fate somehow if she stared at her ex-lover, Nanoha turned to look out the window instead, completely missing her mother's calculating look. Now that her child was heir, her eligibility rating was through the roof and instinct told Momoko that offers would begin arriving at their doorstep for omiai meetings very soon once word of Nanoha's status spread.
Once settled in a traditional restaurant whose walls sported numerous framed pictures of various sumo wrestlers posing outside the establishment, Nanoha bowed at the waist to the rest seated at the table. "I am undeserving of your regard," she intoned in her rich alto, the formal words taking on a decidedly sincere inflection when she raised her head, eyes settled on their blonde guest first, before moving to Ginga, and then Rein.
Paying no mind to her mother's objections, she hid a wince and once again released her left arm from its protective confines within her kimono. With both hands, she raised herself to her knees and began pouring saké for everyone barring herself. First for her parents, then her siblings, after which Fate, Ginga and Rein's cups were filled. Settling back down on her heels, she left her shoulder exposed, wearing her wound with a warrior's pride.
Shiro took it upon himself to fill Nanoha's cup, and as one the group toasted the new heir. "To the rebirth of my heir," he said, and then his eyes crinkled at the corners, "Now your mother can stop nagging me and start nagging you."
"Shi-chan, why warn her?" Momoko complained, sipping sedately at her saké.
About to protest this plan to nag, Nanoha snapped her mouth closed as platter after platter of sushi began arriving. Once the servers had departed, the auburn-haired woman sighed, "Kaa-chan, I have only just come home. What could I have even done to deserve nagging?" Refusing to act as the guest of honour, she waited for everyone to begin eating before picking up a piece for herself.
For some reason, Fate felt confident when the food arrived, as if she knew what was needed to do. And indeed, she did, displaying perfect etiquette in consuming a piece of nigiri. At some point, she had learned how to eat this properly. If only she could remember when, and how.
"Na-chan, is not what you done, is what you not done," Momoko scolded. "When is Na-chan going to give me grandbabies?" The matriarch deliberately stuck to using english, wanting to see the reactions of the three potential candidates she'd already in her frankly, quite scary sights.
In the middle of enjoying a nice amaebi, or sweet shrimp nigiri, Nanoha almost choked on the shrimp tail at her mother's preposterous question. Seated to the left of Nanoha, Fate patted at the woman's back, the warmth emanating from her boss' uncovered side almost overpowering the heat that had invaded the blonde's porcelain pale cheeks.
Spitting out the shell of the shrimp tail, Nanoha dabbed at her mouth, throwing Fate a quick glance of thanks for the help. "Kaa-chan, you know what the doctors said the last time I was in the hospital," the fine arches of her brows were lowered, voice foreboding and dark. Why was her mother bringing this up in front of outsiders?
Unfazed, Momoko straightened a fold of her kimono, "Is why find healthy wives with nice hips. Technology very advanced now, hai? Kyo-chan can help." Down the table, Nanoha could hear similar choking sounds to hers, along with her sister's giggles.
"Oh my gods…" Wishing for the ground beneath her to open and swallow her whole, Nanoha gave their guests an apologetic look, feeling a flush creeping down her neck. "Mothers," she said weakly, "You can't bring them anywhere."
Momoko paid no mind to her child's sass, instead eyeing the three beauties at the tables. Fate's extreme blushes boded well for her daughter's chances, and Ginga was just as red, though much less subtle about making gooey eyes at the Takamachi heir. Curiously, the cool silver-haired woman's ears were the tiniest bit reddened, revealed as they were by her plaited hair.
In an attempt to placate the determined matriarch, Nanoha held up her hand, "Kaa-chan, I haven't returned a day, and I'm much too young to be thinking about starting a family. I'm not even seeing anyone."
"Nonsense. Haya-chan say you see many, you just never keep one," Momoko scoffed, "I was your age when have you. Already had Kyo-chan and Mi-chan. Na-chan osoi~!" You're being slow!
Looking away, Nanoha fiddled with her saké cup, "Well, I'm not as lucky as you or Tou-chan." She said quietly. Finishing her drink, she slapped it down onto the table, "Can we PLEASE not discuss this? You're embarrassing our guests."
"Hmm, only because you ask nice. But we will talk later." With that ominous threat hanging over her head, Momoko beamed at the three, to her own mind, prospective candidates. "What honoured guest think? Isn't my Na-chan handsome enough to find someone?"
With a loud groan, Nanoha buried her face in her one free hand, "Kill me now."
Shiro refilled Nanoha's cup then sipped judiciously at his. Best his heir get used to the duties the position entailed, up to and including producing offspring by hook or by crook to pass the Arts down to.
All three women made some sounds indicating to the effect that Nanoha was, indeed, rather handsome though none were able to meet anyone's eyes either when saying so. "Don't let her put you on the spot," Nanoha told their guests, throwing her mother a dirty look.
"Maa~ I only seek impartial opinion."
"Haha ue, leave it," the heir's voice hardened, pulling Momoko up short with her use of the much more formal word for mother. Ah, there was so much of her Shi-chan in her youngest, it was stunning when she cared to show it.
"Please forgive my mother's impropriety," Nanoha bowed to the trio of women, "The happiness of this occasion has her being a little silly." Murmuring that it was all right to the bowing woman, the three busied themselves with the rest of the meal.
Excusing herself, Nanoha rose smoothly at the cost of easily hidden pain and left to get some fresh air. The restaurant felt stifling under her mother's constantly weighing looks. Not to mention the memory of being told that bearing children of her own was not likely in the cards for her had caused her mood to darken considerably.
She bumped into some other customers entering the restaurant on her way out and nodded a polite greeting to them. The girl in the group stared openly at the male cut of Nanoha's kimono, blushing when she spotted that the left side had been drawn down, exposing half of the woman's torso. Her outer jacket aided in maintaining some semblance of modesty but it didn't cover everything. Fortunately, the restaurant also received regular business from the underworld, rendering the executive's odd mode of dress less notable.
Massaging absently at the aches in that shoulder, Nanoha took stock of her recovery, pondering when would be the earliest date they would be able to fly back to Singapore. Pulling out her phone from her hakama's pocket, Nanoha made a quick call.
"Vita, it's good to hear you."
Back home in Singapore, Vita jolted upright in her seat, gasping, "Nanoha!"
"Get me four one-ways for this coming Friday, Haneda to Changi. I'll forward you the deets."
"...That soon?"
Her boss sounded puzzled over the line, "Is it? I know work is piling up."
"Granscenic can handle it."
"I don't trust him as far as I can throw him, and I can't throw much right now."
"Well, yea, it's why I thought you would take more time to recover…"
"I'm not made of glass, Vita. I just have one more surgery in Japan, then I'll channel the rest to Mount E.," Nanoha used the local term for Mount Elizabeth, one of the top hospitals in Singapore.
"Um, I'm… gunnarunitbyHaya-chanfirstokaybye."
The sound of an ended call filled Nanoha's ear and she stared at her phone, brows drawn. The heck?
It was into this that Rein appeared, movements still quietly deadly even while bound and tied up in a formal kimono. She spied the few clan guards scattered around outside of the restaurant, all of them taking turns scanning the surrounding area and eyeing their new Ojou-sama with marked respect.
"You've been out here a while," she observed, neither an accusation nor a question.
"Was trying to book us a Friday flight. Seems I don't have final say about that." Nanoha shoved her phone back into her pocket, "Sorry again about my mum. I don't know what's gotten into her."
"Oh, I'm pretty sure I do." Nanoha cast a questioning look at her bodyguard who simply shrugged, "She wants to secure the clan's future using its most eligible bachelorette." It seemed so glaringly obvious, Rein wondered why her client couldn't see the forest for the trees. Perhaps that was part of her innate charm, being completely ignorant of her own desirability.
"Yes, well, I'm not going to saddle some poor sap with a beat-up workaholic insomniac. Sorry about that, by the way." She cast an apologetic glance at her bodyguard, "You don't really need to watch me in the compound. No one is that suicidal."
"I don't find it a burden," Rein brushed off the woman's apology. "Let me cover that back up," she nodded to the shoulder clad so thinly in just Nanoha's outer jacket, "The cold can't be good for it."
"I need my arm free to pour for others." Rein clucked her tongue, ignoring the woman's argument, "Let Fate pour for you. Seems like she wants to do all kinds of things for you." Allowing the bodyguard to draw the layers back over her shoulder, Nanoha threw the woman a sharp look, "A misguided sentiment, and probably because I'm the only person she sort of knows here."
"And still that person is avoiding her. How do you think it makes her feel?"
Eyes bleak, Nanoha accepted the criticism. What was one more guilt heaped atop the rest? "She'll thank me for that later." Her body swayed while Rein tugged firmly at the layers to neaten them under her sash and hakama, so she placed her hand on her bodyguard's shoulder to remain steady. Again, the v-opening of her kimono dipped low but it was the best one could expect without a full re-tie.
Glancing surreptitiously back at their table, Rein chuckled under her breath, "Your mother is watching your girls watching you, by the way."
"I have no girls…" Nanoha muttered dryly, then tilted her head, "But, are they now?"
"Mmmhmm," Rein could see a calculating glint in blue eyes suddenly so near to her that they filled her vision. "Forgive me, then…" Head tilting a little more, the heir brushed her lips over the silver-haired woman's own, their heights so similar that Nanoha only had to lean forward slightly for that brief kiss.
"Are they still looking?" The alto husk did primordial things to the normally collected bodyguard that had nothing to do with feelings or emotion, simply pure animal instinct, and Rein automatically closed her hands around the other woman's waist. "Staring," she answered, her own voice dropping a register. As far as assignments went, this was certainly one of the most pleasant she could call to mind.
And so Nanoha moved to kiss her again, her good arm draping around the back of Rein's neck as if to deepen a kiss that remained purely surface level and no more. But from the table's angle, the pair appeared to be going at it with quite some heat. Drawing back slightly, the heir's eyes slid to the side, catching the denizens of the table doing their utmost to look anywhere but at the restaurant's entrance window.
Sighing heavily, Nanoha slid out of the bodyguard's hands, "You put on a good show, Eins." Voice kept under her breath, lips hardly moving, the heir pretended a reluctance she didn't feel to pull away from Rein, "Apologies for dragging you into this."
"I perform better with an audience," the woman said, licking her lips. It was easy to see why Ginga couldn't forget this woman, or why the blonde was so easily taken despite the lack of any memories made with TSAB's EVP of Operations.
Nanoha blew out an exasperated breath, "Not funny, Rein."
"It's not, since I wasn't joking." Lips twitching, the Takamachi heir gave the woman's shoulder a grateful squeeze for her steady help before dropping her arm entirely, "You'd drive Haya-chan crazy."
"Haya-chan?"
"Yagami Hayate. Everything's a joke to her. Quite the opposite of you."
"Ah, Miss Hayate. I recall her. Your safety was not a joke to her, however."
"Everyone worries too much," Nanoha muttered sourly, still not over the fact that Vita wouldn't book her tickets at her request.
"For good reason. You're the sort to lead from the front." The auburn-haired woman demonstrated that accusation to be accurate by ducking back into the restaurant without waiting for Rein to help open the door for her.
Nanoha snorted, "What's the point of leading if not from there?" Hiding a smile, Rein left a guiding hand in the small of Nanoha's back to support her while she made her way back up onto the tatami platform to re-take her seat.
The table was silent to the point where one could hear a pin drop. Feeling no need to fill it with senseless chatter, the heir simply resumed her meal. The quiet hurt she could sense emanating from Fate and Ginga were things she had no control over. Perception was everything, and the sooner both women found comfort in each other, or so Nanoha hoped, the better for everyone involved.