Nanoha Takamachi decided that today, after school, Nanoha was gonna hide in the Midori-ya today, rather than confront Arisa or Suzuka over her 'secretive activities' again for like the bajillonth time. She guesses her close friends have a reason to be worried--- afterall-- she didn't USED to be like that.
She also didn't use to have a ferret that talked and was an archelologist.
SO THUSLY, Nanoha is wrapping napkins around plastic silverware at a table in the Midori-ya for take away orders. It's busy work that isn't baking-- that isn't being done right now-- and there's plenty of help in the back that this is the only task she could do.
She has Yuuno on her shoulder, who seems to be contemplating things like Jewel Seeds and Artifacts probably. He's being intensely quiet.
Of course he's a ferret. He's supposed to be! Ferrets don't talk. Silly. >,>
Nicola Esprit decided that today, after school, Nicola was going to ask Nanoha about things. When Nanoha escapes her friends like that, it makes it easier, but the girl seems a little uncertain about trying to disturb Nanoha at what is essentially work.
So there's a nine year old girl in school uniform standing right outside Midori-ya looking quite uncertain.
Its a cloudy and cool day today for what is essentially summer. School is out and most people are off doing whatever they want. One such person is Naomi Yomada. She has decided that today, She was going to Midori-ya to get some sweets. If she can't tinker, she may as well treat.
As she enters the place she waits in line a few minutes before she orders several chocolate confectionaries, including eclairs. After all those are made of yum!
Behind her, hovering just above her shoulder is a pink panda-esque fairy She just looks at Naomi and comments, "Aren't you the least bit worried about putting on weight? Yesterday was ice cream. Today is sweets. Tomorrow what, will you be going for mochi? Keep this up you won't be able to fit in your uniform!"
Naomi rolls her eyes and glances at Lilac, "I'm a growing girl! And it sure beats not being able to tinker. I can't believe I got grounded."
Nanoha Takamachi place fork, knife, spoon, rollllll. Repeat. That's what Nanoha's doing right now. It's busy work and it's keeping her mind off things! Look at her work! It's exciting. Actually it looks monotonus and boring. She looks up andddd--- see's a fairy hovering next to a girl and she blinks and huhs a bit. She looks around because apparently she's lost awareness around her and---
Is that Nico-chan outside!? Wha!?
She turns around and walks to the door and opens it and peeks out. "Nico-chan! It's okay to come in. Come in!" she beams with a smile.
Nanoha doesn't mind being bugged at work. It's a family owned place, it's not like she's getting paid or on a clock!
"I wanted to ask you something but I didn't want to make your parents mad by distracting you from work if they were relying on you so are you sure it's okay or should I just leave now because it's okay if you think that'd be better as I really don't mind so please don't let me hold you up if it's not okay Nanoha-chan."
Nicola's Japanese has gotten better of late, and this stream of consciousness mode of talking is but one of many ways to prove it. Before, every sentence required too much thought to allow for that.
"... what's that floating next to that girl, Nanoha-chan?" She asks a question wholly unrelated, head tilted to look at the fairy Naomi has brought with her.
Naomi Yomada gathers her order as well as a drink and moves over to take a seat. She sits alone as she doesn't really know anyone here. So quietly she sits at a table and takes a bite of one of the delicious confectionaries. A smile forms on her face because, if you can't cause destruction, nomming on sweets is the next best thing.
"Well its your own fault. You shouldn't have been working on that boom box inside. It had already blown up how many times? It was a lost cause! It was destined to burn up! Just like you are destined to get fat if you keep eating the sweets!" The pink fairy comments and then sticks her tongue out.
"If you don't try how can you succeed! You are right though, I should have probably been working on that at the shop at school. Doing it at home was a pretty bad idea. I'm NOT going to get fat though!" She reaches up and flicks the fairy's nose which gets a rather dramatic crybaby act.
Nanoha Takamachi smiles a bit. "No, it's fine! I'm just doing some silly busy work anyways to keep my mind off some stuff." like overtly snoopy friends. She does notice Nicola's japanese is getting better, but there's no reason for her to bring it up. She does, however, smile a bit. "What did you wanna ask. I can answer questions, Nico-chan~" she says softly.
Oh, then Nicola brings up the girl with the fairy. "I dunno. Wanna go ask her?" she asks. "She seems to be talking to it so it's not like she can't see it!" she says with a smile. "Let's go find out." she says as she walks up to the table Naomi chose, and she adds her two cents. "Well stuff here is fattening, that's just how pastries and cakes n' candy is!" she adds to this, agreeing with the fairy.
Nicola smiles when Nanoha insists it's fine, and she heads in along with her classmate. "It's, uh... it's about Fate-chan." She says softly, looking towards Naomi a little awkwardly. It's clear this is something she doesn't feel comfortable discussing with complete strangers.
The conversation between fairy and girl causes a little giggle, but she doesn't say anything else just yet. Another voice does, <There's no magic protection against growing fat, just exercise and a sensible diet. Your companion is correct, miss> Nicola looks towards the pastries hungrily. <That's no less true for you, master>
Naomi glances up and sees two girls who are clearly well aware of the fairy with her. Naomi just looks at Lilac and shakes her head, "Yeah, yeah. You know if you are going to blow my cover all the time I'm going to have to start stuffing you in my back pack!"
The fairy sticks her tongue out at Naomi before laughing, "Told you so! You'll just have to go out and find more trouble later." She turns to the girls that have arrived, "Hello! I'm Lilac, Nice to meet you. I know not everyone can see me so, that must mean you are special too!"
Naomi smiles to the two, "Hiya, I'm Naomi! I got to Infinity U. Would you like to sit down with me?" She asks politely. "Sorry about Lilac being loud. I'm sorta grounded so I can't do what I normally would do. I guess it's just easier to eat pastries when I can't actually work on stuff." She gives a warm smile and scoots over.
Nanoha Takamachi huhs. "Special? Not really. I'm like everyone else really." she smiles softly. It's true! Well. Not everyone has a ferret archaelogist on thier shoulder and a talking device. She listens to Ruby Rose talk as she looks back at Naomi. "I'm Nanhona Takamachi. My family owns the Midori-ya, so I'm here a lot." she says softly. "We live in the apartment upstairs. Um." she looks towards Nicola as she says it's about Fate-chan.
"Oh...!" she says softly.
She looks to Naomi. "Excuse me a moment, um this is kind of personal! Hello, too Lilac!" she says.
The Ferret hops off Nanoha's shoulder onto Naomi's table as he seems to tap under his chin a bit with a tiny tiny paw. "So why do you have a fairy like that anyways?" he asks softly. Yeah the Ferret talks. It seems he'll be keeping Naomi company while Nanoha moves a few tables over for a moment to talk with Nicola about thing!
"Nice to meet you, Lilac and Naomi. I'm Nicola Esprit, fourth grade at Seishou Elementary." The foreign sounding girl bows politely, then follows Nanoha towards the spare table to ask her question. She tries to ask it in such a way Nanoha's answer doesn't have to be very big. "Do you think Fate-chan will be okay?"
Naomi Yomada nods, "Okay!" She gives a little wave to Nanoha and then nods to Nicola. "A pleasure to meet you both." All that is left is a ferret. A ferret who talks? That would be a touch unsettling she didn't have a fairy floating beside her. "Well umm, I could ask the same question about a talking ferret." Naomi comments.
Lilac giggles a little, "I help Naomi out with things. Some of the things she does are really difficult and she needs to have someone to cheer her on."
Yuuno replies. "I'm an archeologist, of sorts." he says. "I'm Nanoha's friend. I'm not her familiar." he says, as if responding to some question that is asked regularly but that Naomi didn't ask. He head tilts.
"I see. Alright." he says to Lilac with a short matter of fact nod, which looks adorable coming from a ferret with his tiny arms crossed.
Nanoha looks to Nicola and frowns. "Fate-chan will be okay. I just. Her mother isn't really a nice person. I can't prove it. But I think Fate's mom didn't treat her very well. Something is off and I guess I'm just waiting for the right time to ask." she admits. "It's a difficult to approach, because I know Fate still loves her mom a lot." she says silently.
She shakes her head. "Um.. is everything okay with her? I need to revisit her soon." she says a little sadly. "I miss her." she says.
"She seems to be sad and unsure, but I didn't know why and you seemed to know her better so I thought I'd ask and if yo uthink she'll be okay that's all I need to know I don't want to pry so please don't tell me stuff if you don't think she'll be okay with me knowing." Nicola goes full stream of conscious again.
In fact, she takes a deep gulp of breath after she said that. "Uh, let's go say high to that Naomi person?" She suggests, and without waiting for a response she bounds over that way, "Sorry, Fate-chan is a mutual friend of ours and some of these things are a little private~"
Naomi Yomada smiles a little to the ferret. "Yeah, Lilac is a friend. I'm not a witch so, no familiar. I'm... Well I'm just me." She giggles a little. Its true. Even when powered she is herself. "Lilac came to help me out when I really needed it. She teaches me stuff too. I think I'd be lost without her sometimes." She smirks, "And then she talks about me getting fat and, Well I just wanna stuff her in my backpack for a while."
Lilac seems to blush over Naomi's words. At least until she brings up the last bit. "Like you would ever! You wouldn't stick me in that stinky old bag with all your stuff. Besides it would be a shame if your moms found out about all the stuff you keep in there. Especially while grounded."
Great! Now she's being blackmailed by her fairy. What a day. Then Nicola returns and Naomi smiles to her. "Its okay! I don't know anyone named Fate. But I know how it is when you wanna talk quietly about someone close. I don't have many friends that I can do that with."
Nanoha Takamachi smiles a bit at Nicola. "Just telling you what I know Nicola-chan or feel comfortable telling you. That's not even it all." she insists. She does however, giggle a bit. "Nico-chan, it's great you're getting the hang of japanese, but if you don't take breaths you'll choke or get dizzy!" she giggles.
She returns over with Nico-chan over to Naomi and she gathers up Yuuno into her hands. "We're not witches! We're mages." she insists.
"Witches are those things that live in Labyrinths and are pretty horrible and ghastly." she insists. "I helped fight one once!" she says.
"Um. Well if your friend is helping you, you should listen." she insists matter of factly. "Yuuno taught me a lot about what I know! Raising Heart taught me the rest." she says.
"I do take breaths! Didn't you see?" Nicola objects, just sounding a little miffed to be called on it. "I just take them in between sentences even when they run a little long because it feels wrong to pause in the middle of a sentence and there's a lot to say sometimes that you can't just stop saying just because your sentence is getting a little long and so you have to keep talking if you know what I mean."
Another big breath, "See, I'm fine." She insists. She sits down at her chair, "Witches are scary. Very scary." She says softly, clearly her memories of them are unpleasant. "Ruby taught me a lot of things." She agrees with Nanoha.
Naomi Yomada blinks a few times. There are a lot of names being dropped here and she knows next to none of them. "I do listen to Lilac. She helps a lot." She smiles, "Okay who is Raising Heart and Ruby?" She looks really curious about the whole thing.
She glances down for a moment. "I met a witch. She wasn't in a labyrinth. I haven't a clue what a labyrinth is but I know we were just in a back alley. I met her and she was hurting a few people. Her and this Vampire person."
Nanoha Takamachi huhs. "A vampire?" she asks questioningly. "That's a new one. Hrm..." she thinks a bit tapping her chin. "Oh! Um... I can't take her out here, because she takes the form of like a really obvious staff but..."
She taps her pocket twice.
< < Beep > > There's a ping. "That's Raising Heart. She's quiet unless I ask her things. Or theres something wrong. She's something called an 'Intelligent Device'! Each one is a little different- they have thier own personalities. Some are more talkative and lively, others are more quiet. A friend of mines speaks in like german!" she says with a smile. "Though the german speaking ones are called 'Armed Devices', they're more suited towards combat-- they tend to be quiet and serious. Like soldiers." she insists with a matter of fact nod.
<My master refers to me. My name is Ruby Rose.> The little red bead on Nicola's necklace glows briefly when that voice comes out. Nicola smiles, "She's an intelligent device, too. Turns into a pair of guns if I need her to."
Nicola looks hungrily towards the pastries. "I hadn't planned to come here today, would've brought some money so I could buy something tasty if I had." She sounds a little upset by that omission. "I don't know anything like what you're talking about, Naomi-san, but it sounds bad."
Naomi Yomada smiles a little and does notice Nicola staring. She slides over a pastry, a chocolate eclair. "Here you go." She then takes a deep breath. "So you are special." She smiles a little. She sighs and looks a little nervous. Reaching into her pocket she pulls out a pink device with a silver heart on it boardered in red. There are also 6 gems on it. "I'm a Pretty Cure."
Nanoha Takamachi peeks toward's Nicola. "Nico-chan~ You just need to ask me if you'd like something! I can't do it everyday but like once every so often I can just give you something~" she says with a beam. "But Naomi-san seems to want to share, so that's good. Besides. If she shares, there's less for her to eat and her fairy can rest easier!" she insists.
"You know, knowing she isn't getting fat."
Nanoha is sometimes clueless. "A Pretty Cure? Oh! Um.. hrm. I think Storm Knight mentioned something like that before. Pretty Cures. But I don't know much about any of that." she says softly.