Prologue|First Session

If you are anything like me at all, it's very likely you have a job that consumes most of your time. Or maybe you have to go to school. When I was a student, I had to juggle between homework and actual work. Total madness, I can assure you. I guess that somehow trained me to the madness that would continue now, in my bureaucratic-government type of life I lead now. And please, don't get me wrong, I do love my job but that doesn't stop me from remembering there is a world, in fact many worlds, out there.

So, what do you do when you are not dedicating hour after hour to your never-ending job? I'm sure you have your "special thing" to which you dedicate part of whatever free time you have left. There's people who love to cook, others love to paint or write or practice some extreme sports. You see, the options are pretty much unlimited, but there's some of us who just love to go from one project to another just to keep our sanity at bay. Speaking about sanity, I should probably tell you that I've been attending some lectures on psychology and psychotherapy and I've decided to use all my recently acquired knowledge to set up a blog. It's not really that much knowledge I acquired, I'm certainly not an expert on that topic, but that's beside the point. I don't know a thing about blogging either. The thing is, this is my new project. I have my mind set on it. Of course, to write a blog one must have a topic, and after quite a brainstorming session, I finally pinpointed my topic.

I have decided that my new project will turn around my long-time best friends. You might have heard of them, the notoriously famous Tactical Flight & Aerial Combat Instructor, Takamachi Nanoha and renowned Navy Enforcer, Fate T. Harlaown. You might wonder what my intentions are with them. Well, let me enlighten you. My idea is to have them participate in regular sessions for couples therapy, not that I think they need it, of course, least of all conducted by me, but that's not going to stop me anyway.

I don't know how I'm going to be able to have them participate from their own free will on this. I know how Fate keeps to herself almost everything that has to do with her, and don't get started on her relationship with Nanoha because then she's even worse. I will have to find a way to have Nanoha participate so Fate will have no other choice than to participate as well. I do know how my beloved friends work after all this years friendship, it'd be a shame if I didn't.

Blackmail them? No, it wouldn't be my style.

I could make a bet with Nanoha. I do not understand why that girl is so keen on bets, but if I do I must make sure it has to be one I'm bound to win. I must offer her a very tempting reward, otherwise she won't agree on telling me all her stories. Although I do think that with the idea of a bet, I'll already have her halfway there. We could go to those popular places where people gamble, but on second thought, I'd rather not. What do I do if she stays hooked? Fate would have my skin in a second or how would I tell Vivio that her mother become a compulsive gambler because of me? No Hayate, forget about taking Nanoha to such places. Nothing good can come out of that even if at first it seems funny.

So, getting back to our topic... oh yes, our leading couple. They really have an interesting story. I don't mean to spoil all the fun beforehand, but I can tell you a little about them. Just a little bit, because the purpose of this is to have them tell their own stories. The truth is that, up to this day, I see them as one of the most stable couples I have ever met, which is hilarious if you consider the fact that the first time they met they were ready to kill each other, literally. And then, an unbreakable bond was what followed up to that ferocious introduction.

It would seem that Nanoha resorts to befriending with pure raw brute force. It's ironic, since she's the warmest sweetest person ever. Her method is certainly unorthodox, but so far, it's been effective, there's no doubt about that.

So, the idea is to do this properly. First of all I have to determine the interview zone, I mean, the counseling office. Well my office will have to suit for that. It gives the proper formal tone required. The office is almost always empty on Friday afternoons since we only have a half-day schedule, so I don't have to worry about us being interrupted. It's just on rare occasions when I have to work on something on Friday afternoons. I've also noticed that Fate recently has managed to adjust her schedule to come back home always on Friday, since she spends most of her time out of planet. Yeah, Friday's should probably work out. Place? Check. Date? Check. Well almost positive about that.

Now, the next step is to get my guinea pig - mind me, my guinea friend, Nanoha. If I'm not very much mistaken she must be right now at home preparing dinner for Vivio. She's such a home person. Let's see if my theory is correct. I'll activate the screen-com.

"Nanoha, hi!"

"Hayate-Chan! What a surprise!"

"What's up?"

"Nothing much. I was about to cook dinner for Vivio."

I do know my people. There's no doubt about that,

"What do you say to me taking you both to dinner?"

"Now?"

"Sure, nothing too fancy. We can go to one of those fast-food places where we'll enjoy pseudo food and Vivio will have a little toy with her meal."

"We are going to McDonald's?" Vivio appeared on the screen, her bi-colored eyes shining with delight.

"Hayate! You know I don't like Vivio eating junk food from those kinds of places."

"Oh come on, Nanoha. Besides, Fate always takes Vivio when you are not around."

"Say, what?!"

Oops, my bad. I probably shouldn't have said that. Now they are ignoring me and both Takamachi girls are arguing with each other.

"Hey, girls? I'm still here, hello?"

Nanoha must have activated the muting for the communicator because I can't hear a thing. I can only see them moving. Nanoha waves her arms, and Vivio laughs. Nanoha is out of the screen now. Oh, here they are again.

"Okay Hayate. At what time do you want us to meet?"

Nanoha agreed with a very-proud-of-herself smiled Vivio.

"I'm off to pick you two right this moment"


"Oh come on, Fate, it's not that bad."

"Mou, Nanoha, you could, at least, have talked to me first."

"Ne, Fate-chan. I didn't think I was going to lose, besides this thing with Hayate sounds like fun."

"First of all you never actually think you can lose. And second, fun? Geez Nanoha, sometimes I'm worried about your concept of 'fun'."

"Now it turns out you don't have fun with me."

"I never said that."

"Well Fate-chan if the first session turns out to be beyond all bearing to you..."

Nanoha left her phrase mid-air and completed it by very suggestively biting her bottom lip in such a way that had Fate flustering in no time.

Wow, Nanoha, you are a box full of surprises. Who would have thought you actually blackmailed Fate in such ways. But you see now? That's the kind of interaction I've been talking about. Now I can enjoy myself observing and documenting them. They have an outstanding ability to neglect the world around them when they are like this. Here I am, having both of them arguing with each other and it's as if I wasn't even here at all. I'm pretty sure I could stand on my head and dance the can-can half-naked and these two would never notice.

It probably would be much wiser to remind them I'm here with more conventional ways.

"Ehem, ehem. What do you say if we start already?" They both looked at me as if I had not been sitting behind my desk all the time and I had just magically appeared there. "First of all I want to thank you both for participating."

"I didn't have much choice," Fate protested.

"Now, easy Fate, Nanoha already made it clear that she'll make it up for you, so be nice."

The blush in my blonde friend's cheek appeared almost by command.

"Let's start then the first session for my Couples Counseling Chronicles for Pocket Aces."

"What do you mean by couples counseling?" Fate was again interrupting me and Nanoha just laughed out loud. "We do not need counseling."

"It's the name I chose for it. Sounds good."

"It makes no sense," my blond friend replied.

"Let's start with the basics. Please state your name and age."

"Don't be ridiculous, you know perfectly how old we are."

Fate seems to be feisty today.

"I need to follow the procedure."

"Takamachi Nanoha and Fate Testarossa Harlaown. We are both twenty four years old," Nanoha answered slightly elbowing Fate so she would settle down.

"Right. And how long have you two been together?"

At this moment, things started to get interesting. Fate immediately answered fifteen years, while Nanoha answered at the same time, but ten years. They looked at each other and then back to me.

"That's alright. We'll get into that later. The general idea is for us to have weekly sessions where we will cover some topic and you'll tell me something about your lives that has to do with said topic."

"What kind of topics?"

"The newsworthy ones, of course. Sex."

I could see Fate's temper rising again.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Fine. Not for a start, though," I answered trying to muffle a burst of laughter. Now I understand why Vita enjoys teasing her so much. I have no idea how I missed this unparalleled source of unlimited fun. We'll talk about the real topics covered in actual couples counseling therapy. Jealousy, arguments, break-ups, how you raise Vivio, how it affects you both having Fate working out so much. That kind of stuff. The truth is I've seen you all these years, and despite your youth, you have been together for so long and have made your relationship work. So it's like Inverse Couples Counseling, if you get my drift. Do you like the idea?"

"It doesn't sound half-bad at all," Fate finally accepted. "Wait a second Hayate. Who is going to know about this?"

That brain of hers never stops picking around stuff. No wonder she's such a good Enforcer, but she's running my project!

"Don't worry about that. I won't disclose your stories raw like that. I'll basically use them as inspiration and to draw conclusions from them. Your privacy is guaranteed."

"So what are we going to start with?" Nanoha asked, sounding really interested.

"Your bed stories are a no-go, then?"

I didn't know Fate could actually growl.

"I can tell you a bed story, if that's what you want."

"Nanoha!"

"Come on, Fate-chan. Trust me. Let me remember when this happened. Yes, of course, we had been at Riot Force for one...or two months tops."


"Are you staying up much longer?"

Nanoha kept checking out the training videos, and Fate was already comfortably enjoying their bed under the sheets.

"I just want to..."

Nanoha didn't complete her sentence. Something on the video had gotten her full attention.

Fate waited a few seconds more to see if Nanoha would actually finish her phrase. There was no answer. She was deep on her thoughts again. Fate fluffed her pillow, and moved around until she finally settled and closed her eyes.

Forty minutes later, Nanoha was still taking notes. She felt her neck a little stiff and when she took a moment to stretch her arms, she realized how late it was. She decided to wrap up for today.

Carefully she got into bed, and hugged herself to the blonde's back.

"Hmm, you are a hopeless workaholic..." Fate told her with a more sleepy than awake voice.

"Do you want to know what else I'm addicted to?" she asked, rubbing the tip of her nose against Fate's neck just by the hairline of that golden hair of hers.

"Mou, your nose is freezing cold," Fate answered with a low giggle.

"It's not the only thing." And to prove her point, she flexed her knees and touched her lover's calves with her feet.

Fate reacted at the touch and rolled over to get face to face with her.

"You. Mischievous!" Grabbing her by the ribs she started tickling her all over. The first ones over the clothes, the next ones, skillfully under the clothes .

"No, no! Wait, stop!" Nanoha whimpered in between laughs as they both rolled on their bed. One trying to escape, the other determined not to let the other escape.

"Oh no. Now you will pay the consequences, Instructor."


"That's a bed story?" I asked, pretty frustrated.

"Well, it had me and Fate. In bed. I thought that's what you wanted."

It seems she's getting back at me for picking on Fate. I guess I had it coming. Her snicker confirms my thoughts.

"Very funny Nanoha-chan. I don't think the story ended there, though."

"It does, as far as you and this session are concerned,"

Defeated on my own game, but for the first session it wasn't that bad at all. I think I have their cooperation. I know I've always had it, but maybe I pushed the limits a bit when I asked them to participate. I am naughty. Yeah, I know. But I do know they will enjoy this as well. It's always funny to remember past stories.

I bid farewell to my friends and we agree to meet here, next week.

You must be wondering how I persuaded Nanoha in the first place... well, that's something the world probably will never know, since, you know, the best mages out there never reveal their secrets.