Hayate sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror, then shook her head and finished drying her hair. One of the advantages of short hair; she had no idea how her friends managed to keep their hair so well-kept ... maybe some kind of magic? The smile that thought brought to her lips was short-lived, however, when she thought again about Flandre. She hadn't thought that the girl might not realize she was doing something wrong, hadn't considered how her attitude might be interpreted, hadn't even remotely conceived of the notion that she could have gotten her friends killed because of her poor choice of words. "I'm ... really not cut out for this, am I?" She shook her head, took a deep breath, held it, and slowly exhaled. "Right. Back to work." She finished getting dressed and entered her room, only to stare confusedly as Fate and Nanoha lounged on her bed. "Aah ...."
"Oh, Hayate, you're finally out," Fate said, smiling.
"Mm, we were starting to get worried," Nanoha added. Then she rolled off the bed and stood up. Hayate winced, and Nanoha smiled. "Don't worry, Shamal already looked at it; as long as I don't do any running in the next few days, it'll be fine. And Laevateinn should be repaired in two days, maybe three. We're both fine. More importantly, though, Fate and I need to talk to you."
"Eh? But I have -"
"Your work can wait for a bit," Fate interrupted, shaking her head, "and Vita, Rein, and Signum can handle instructions for a while. Come on, sit down." She patted the bed beside her. Hayate hesitated, and Nanoha sighed and stepped forward, grabbed her superior's arm and hauled her to the bed.
"Uuh~ So mean ...," Hayate grumbled half-heartedly as Nanoha sat down next to her. "Alright, I'll talk, I'll talk."
"Well, the first thing is that you really didn't do anything wrong with Flandre," Fate began, and shrugged when Hayate blinked at her. "We took a look at the recording, and while you probably should have let her finish her sentence instead of interrupting, but that doesn't make what you said wrong. And you didn't kick her out, or really try to alienate her - she overreacted to your explanation of what she was doing wrong." She sighed. "Well, differently. It seems like no one's bothered teaching her how the Bureau operates."
"And you're right about not needing the distractions," Nanoha continued. "She doesn't think about other people, it seems, but we have to, and it's bad enough for the kids to see us making time for her when we're supposed to be teaching them - if we started letting her practice with us just because she wants to, it would really cause problems for them. Especially Teana, I think, but all of them would be affected by it. If we could use her in something - like a demonstration of how teamwork can allow weaker individuals to defeat someone who's stronger than they are - it would be one thing, but she just wants attention. And especially now, that's not something we can give her, so making her understand that was a good thing. ... Well, if she actually thinks about what you said, instead of what she thinks you said." Nanoha leaned over and started pulling Hayate's jacket off.
"Ah! Hey, Nanoha! Fate!"
"Now, just hold still, or we'll have to get rough," Fate said seriously as she held Hayate's legs down. Nanoha finally succeeded in removing the jacket, then put one hand on the back of Hayate's neck ... and began kneading it. Hayate tensed, then relaxed as her friend worked her neck and shoulders.
"Jeez~ You could have just said ...," she muttered into the blanket.
"Hehe. Wouldn't have been as much fun." She poked Hayate in the side. "Don't fall asleep! We aren't finished, you know."
"Alright, what else have I missed?" Fate poked her other side.
"Well, whether we want to use Flandre, for one," she began, and Hayate turned her head as much as she could to look at her. "She's ... well, for one thing, she is lonely, and I don't think the Ground Forces really know what to do with someone as powerful as she is, or even much about her. And she is powerful, so making a deal with the Ground Forces might help smooth out relations with them, as well as give us someone else who can help stop Scaglietti. It's just ... I'm not sure about her. I think I understand how Vita feels about her - she's dangerous, and she certainly knows it, loves it, and probably doesn't want to change. If she won't ... she'd just be an unrepentant criminal, and we should do something about her." Hayate frowned.
"Really? I'd have thought you'd want us to make her feel at home ... ah!" Hayate flinched as Nanoha drove her fingers into her ribs.
"Flandre may act childish - and she may not be capable of changing that - but she certainly understands the concepts of right and wrong, and what we consider them to be, that we can treat her as an adult. We should, in fact; treating her as an adult might make her start acting like one, instead of a child who throws temper tantrums whenever she's denied a treat."
"Hmm ...." Hayate thought about that for a moment. "Though, if I heard Shari's gossip correctly, she's had almost as much trouble getting a Device to work as I did, and she has had to work around this situation she probably doesn't even understand properly, so I think that she's been fairly well-behaved ... most of the time, at least."
"Around us, at least; Ginga said the unit she's with is getting a little ... weird. In any case, what we need is for her to not be a problem until we've finished with Scaglietti. Whether that means working with her, finding another way to pacify her, locking her up, or something else." Nanoha finally leaned back, and Hayate stretched in relief.
"Yeah ... thank you, both of you. I ...." She trailed off, then shook her head. "I guess I was thinking about things the wrong way."
"Hmph. One more thing," Nanoha said, smiling, and Hayate looked over at her. "You're free, tomorrow, right?"
"Eh? No, I have a meeting with Carim -"
"Cancelled," Fate interrupted. "All your meetings and conferences tomorrow have been cancelled." Hayate looked at her, stunned, then slowly turned to look back at Nanoha, who was still smiling.
"See? You're free tomorrow. And Fate, Signum, and Vita will handle the kids tomorrow, since I won't be able to. It'll be just the two of us!"
"No ..." Hayate whimpered.
"Yup! A full day of training under the famous Takamachi Nanoha, all for you! I'll be sure to exhaust you thoroughly, so you won't have time to worry about Flandre!" Hayate looked back and forth at her two best friends.
Fuck, this is going to be long ...
