A Little Bit Terrifying

Chapter 01

Her knuckles were white as she curled them into tight little fists. Palms sweaty, throat dry, heart rate through the roof, panicked adrenaline burning through her system. She wanted to run, she really really badly wanted to run. She also wanted to hit something. While instincts of fight and flight struggled for dominance within her, the introductions went on. The parade of names marched ever closer to the second desk from the back, right next to the window.

The description 'scared' just didn't do this little thirteen year old soul justice. To be totally fair to her, she was never one to let fear rule her. Very few people could experience as much utter terror as she was right then and still be able to function.

She was going to have to stand, and speak, to a room full of strangers. Alicia-onee-sama wasn't even there to help. Curse you Al Hazard Middle School, both your incredible educational opportunities and for not accepting my application. What should she do? Oh, please, would someone just tell her what do? Okay yes, she did actually have instructions to carry out, among them being to stand and introduce herself to the class, but, but, but… couldn't they be slightly less terrifying instructions?

No, no. She had to calm down. Fate needed to get a hold of herself and remember that she was thirteen, damn it. Far too old to be needing someone's hand, and far far too in a public place to run screaming for her sister to make everything better. Now was the time to get a grip, and-

Oh god, the brown haired girl in front was already giving her introduction. "Hello! My name is Takamachi Nanoha,my family runs a bakery, and I look forward to having a good year with you all." And, oh god no, it was Fate's turn and everyone was staring at her and why isn't Alicia here? Save me, Onee-Sama!

"Hey, you're next," the girl in front, Nanoha (who was far too quick to introduce herself), whispered to Fate now with a friendly smile. There was the sudden realisation that she'd been sitting there in frozen horror for many a long and awkward second.

Jerking upwards, making her seat scrape awkwardly on the floor, Fate let loose her eloquently planned introduction. "HelloI'mFateTestarossaIhaveatwinandIhopetohaveagoodyearwithyouall."

Silence. Not the comforting kind.

The teacher, Shamal who was far too quick to make Fate introduce herself to a hoard of strangers, gave Fate a confused look. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that? And in Japanese for those of us who don't speak English?"

Oh god, that easily made it into the top ten list of worst introductions Fate had made. She couldn't even remember the last time she reverted to another language. "F-f-fate. T-test-t-tarossa F-f-fate." She choked out, this time certain she was speaking the right language for the ethnicity she was addressing. "P-please take care of me."

She immediately fell down into her chair and buried her face in her arms, desperately wishing she had a truckload of soil she could actually bury herself with.

"...Moving on." Shamal said after a moment. Yes that would be for the best, thank you. "Lucky Last miss…?"

"Bannings Alisa. I look forward to making friends with all of you, and I hope the language barrier won't be an issue," she joked lightly, but her words had all the weight of a right hook from heavyweight boxer in a bare knuckle match.

No doubt if this was an actual fight, Fate would be coughing up blood as her manager threw in the towel right about now. Sadly however, this was Middle School, and there was no such towel.

Nanoha knew that according to the laws of physics, it was impossible for an object to travel at the speed of light without infinite mass and infinite energy. Still, she was impressed by just how close Testarossa-san got as the blur of blonde blitzed out the door and into the hallways the moment homeroom ended.

Like, wow… That girl can really book it.

Shamal-Sensei didn't even have time to tell her, "No running in the halls!" Before she was out of sight and on her way to first period.

Someone really needs to write her a speeding ticket.

"Looks like we know who the fastest in the year is," Alisa commented idly stepping forward to stand at the shoulder of her best friend. "She must be super shy."

Nanoha mhmmed, guiltily amused by Testarossa's evident struggling despite herself. So cute. "Do you know who she is?"

Alisa shrugged. "I've never met her, but I've heard of her mother."

"Oh?" Nanoha looked across at her friend from Primary School, as they left the class and headed for first period maths.

"Precia Testarossa, a geneticist doing research on organ cloning and transplants. My parents went to a charity fundraising event for her research once. Apparently she raves like a mad scientist after too much wine."

Nanoha was silent in thought for a moment. "I think we should try to be friends with her."

"Oh, who does Nanoha want to fight now?" Suzuka asked, joining the conversation, having left her own homeroom and joining them in the halls.

"I don't want to fight anyone!"

"Testarossa-san," Alisa answered, ignoring her brown haired friend's annoyed wail.

"I don't make all my friends by fighting them!" Nanoha pouted.

"I'm sorry, did I just hear you say you wanted to fight Testarossa-san?" One boy suddenly asked, a look of awe on his face as he looked at Nanoha. "As in, Testarossa Fate-san?"

"We were joking about it!" Nanoha mewled. "I don't want to fight anyone!"

"Oh, okay, that makes more sense." The boy sounded… relieved? Pushing his glasses up, he smiled at the three girls. "I was about to say, there are far better ways to die."

"What do you mean by-" She cut herself off with an apology as she stepped past someone to enter the math room. "Sumimasen," she tilted her head briefly, before turning back to the boy. "What do you mean by that… Scrya-san?" Nanoha couldn't help but be proud she remembered his name from the introduction.

"Please." The boy smiled at her while pushing up the glasses which had been knocked slightly askew as they squeezed through the door. "Call me Yuuno, Takamachi-san."

"Yunno-kun." Nanoha smiled as she corrected herself, before elbowing Alicia and giving her a pouty glare. "See? New friend, no fight."

"But it is true that most of your friends are people you've fought," Suzuka pointed out.

"No it isn't!"

"It really is."

"Girls!" An authoritative voice interrupted their conversation. All three of them turned to face the speaker, and found an annoyed looking green haired teacher looking at them. "Please, take a seat. I'm sure you can plan your battle royale later."

Blushing, three girls and one Yuuno quickly hurried to take a seat.

Nanoha found herself sitting next to the blonde boy as she pulled out her notebook. "I would under no circumstances recommend fighting Fate Testarossa." He continued in a hushed voice. "Even if less than half the rumors about her are true, she's still a black belt in most conventional martial arts."

Nanoha blinked in surprise. "Wait, really?"

He nodded. "And that's not even mentioning the fact that I know for a fact in her third year of primary school she defeated a grown man in a straight up fight."

Nanoha blinked incredulously. "That can't be true. She seems so shy."

"Oh, she is. She can barely function without Alicia around-" He cut off with a yelp as a piece of chalk bounced off his forehead. Rubbing it in surprise, he looked forward to see the teacher glaring at him. "Sorry sensei," he blushed.

And with that, the conversation was over. Nanoha couldn't help but cast a glance around to try and find Testarossa-san. As if she had a sixth sense, Fate stiffened and looked over her shoulder. Red eyes met Nanoha's blue, before Fate's cheeks soon blushed enough to match her eye colour. Fate turned around very sharply and began furiously scribbling down her notes, determined to ignore her watcher.

So cute, Nanoha thought for a moment, before starting her own work.

It's never a good thing when the person in your reflection looks panicked, disheveled, and like they're about to cut a path to the nearest exit. Even more terrifying, Fate was actually considering that as an option, which did not bode well for the health of any student of Mid Childa that stood in the way of her fighting retreat.

It really was a good thing for everyone involved that the bathroom was empty. If anyone had interrupted right then, Fate wasn't sure if she'd scream and hide in a stall or immediately enact operation "Evacuate the Building No Matter the Collateral Damage".

It's just that... people were terrifying.

For all that Fate could break the majority of a man's ribs in the same time it'd take most people to put on a coat, she understand one very important thing: that wasn't an important skill in the modern world. In this day and age, if you really needed your fists to hurt someone, you weren't very good at modern combat. It wasn't just the gun which had rendered hand to hand largely obsolete, the simple truth was that in the majority of modern society, as tools of the subtle battle, your tongue and your wits were far more useful.

Fate had always been shy where her sister was precocious, quiet when she should have been loud and all too happy to hide behind her twin in the absence of her mother. What had been an aide for a young girl that was the less loved of a pair of siblings soon became a crutch, and now she was crippled without it.

How could she talk to strangers when she could barely work up the nerve to converse with her own mother?

"Testarossa-san?"

Fate was surprised she didn't actually shriek in utter horror, but still felt disappointed by the whimper that fled her throat and made for the exit before the rest of her could follow. The traitor. Before she turned to face her social assailant, Fate took a calming breath, plastered a smile on her face that wasn't at all creepy, and turned around.

"Are you okay?" Blue eyes, the same that had been watching her during math class. What did they want?

"I'm fine, thank you." No hitch in her voice, no hint of the terror lurking beneath the surface. She was doing well.

"Are you sure?" And then the eyes moved closer, hands reaching out for-

Fate wasn't there anymore. Fast as she could move (very), she'd slipped past that searching hand and bolted out the door.

"Wait!" Blue Eyes called, ignored.

One more period, science, then recess, thank god. There wasn't much more she had to endure before she could get away from all these damned people. Surely there was a roof somewhere, or if she could claim a table before anyone else did, surely she could be alone somewhere in this damned school.

She wasn't first in the science room, but she was assigned a good bench near the back. Not so close to the teacher that she was likely to be called on, and close to the exit so she could leave when the bell rang (within 1.5 seconds of, assuming no student obstacles were between her and the door).

Fate found herself calming, breathing out in relief. Yes, this would be easy. Just had to follow the instructions, answer questions, and take notes. No complex social minutiae, no icy blue eyes burning a hole in her back, just questions, answers, and then a break.

Easy.

Taking out her notebook and a blue pen, she stiffened when the stool next to her was pushed out and a weight settled down onto it. No, no reason to panic just yet. They were just another student, and there to sit through science as well. Just ignore them, and be ignored in turn.

Fate glanced across, and nearly fell out of her seat. "Blue eyes," she whimpered in horror. Did she have a stalker? Was it rude of her to think of another student like that? What if she was a stalker, though?

"You ran out before I could introduce myself." Blue Eyes, no, Takamachi, some part of her recalled. "I'm Nanoha, looks like we'll be lab partners for the year."

"Y-yes. Partners. Nanoha." Fate said, unsure how to respond so simply started stating facts. After a moment, she blinked and corrected herself. "Nanoha-san." Didn't want to be rude.

"Your Fate-chan, right?" Chan?! The horrified wailing in her brain doubled. Blue Eyes White Uniform leaned in closer. "Are you okay? You look… um… flustered."

"Flustered." Fate nodded slowly, taking the opportunity to swallow nervously. "Yes. Flustered. Um…" She pointed at the teacher. "Work?" Please?

The terrifying, Lovecraftian entity known to Fate as Blue Eyes White Uniform, and by some mad depraved middle schoolers as Takamachi Nanoha-chan, blinked in confusion at the strangely begging tone Fate spoke with. "Uh, sure. Let's work together."

"Together." Fate parroted while simultaneously dying a little inside.

This being only her first year of Middle School and first time in a science lab, Nanoha knew she didn't have a lot of experience to judge by, but she still estimated Fate to be a somewhat terrible lab partner. Not that she regretted being at the same desk as the blonde, just… maybe it would be better if Nanoha took the lead in any dissections they may or may not be doing in the future.

It wasn't that the girl didn't seem smart, just that she flinched a lot. As in, if Nanoha so much as moved Fate would startle back like she was expecting some kind of attack. Honestly, the girl was so ridiculously timid that Nanoha had a lot of trouble believing she was even remotely capable of hurting someone.

And yet… when she'd reached forward in the bathroom it had been like a flash of lightning. One moment Fate was there, and in the next the door to the bathroom was swinging shut. She barely had time to blurt 'Wait!' before the blonde was out of sight. If the girl really could keep that same movement speed in a fight, well…

Yes, now that she thought about it, Nanoha could see the potential. That didn't change the fact that Fate reminded Nanoha of a wild rabbit. With her two pig tails kinda like floppy bunny ears, the way she jumped whenever someone glanced at her, and even the way she kept biting her lower lip and glancing around nervously.

So cute.

Nanoha wanted to reach out and start petting her, but at the same time she was pretty sure the best possible outcome of that would be paralysing Fate in sheer terror.

"Hey, Fate-chan," Nanoha leaned a little closer, and suddenly Fate reminded her of Bambi being caught in the headlights of a semi trailer. "Would you like to eat with me and my friends?"

Her mouth flapped open and closed a few times before she finally managed to get it to work. "N-no, thank you."

"Oh," Nanoha pouted. "Are you sure? Do you have someone else to sit with?"

"...Y-yes." And it was official. Fate was the least convincing liar Nanoha had ever met.

Smiling to herself, so cute, Nanoha probed a little further. "Oh? Who is it? Maybe I've met them."

"I-I don't think you know them." Fate said quietly, while shooting a pleading look, begging her to stop asking.

"Oh? What are their names."

"...F-ferrari and- um… and Angelina?"

Those are just cars! Nanoha cheered for herself. "Oh? Are they in this class?"

Fate shook her head, desperately avoiding eye contact.

"Is that because they don't exist?" She had to fight the urge to cackle evilly at the way Fate stiffened suddenly.

"N-no, it's just, uh… Well, you see, I'm sorry!" Fate bowed her head, stammering out another apology. "I'm really sorry, but-but-"

"It was really mean of you to lie to me, Fate-chan." Nanoha continued over the top of her. "I was starting to think you didn't want to be my friend."

"No!" Fate protested, "I did, but-"

"Oh? So you did want to eat lunch with me?"

Fate nodded enthusiastically, until she realised what she was agreeing to. "Wait, I-"

"That's great!" Nanoha smiled in a way that wasn't at all predatory, before taking advantage of Fate's state of helpless terror by grabbing her hands. "I hope we can be good friends!"

"F-friends?" Fate repeated, looking up at Nanoha with slightly teary, frightened eyes.

"Mmhm!" Nanoha answered cheerily, before finally taking pity, and easing off on the social domination. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have lots of fun together."

"Fun?" Fate repeated, sounding dubious.

"Yes." Nanoha agreed, then firmly added. "Lots of fun." And if Fate whimpered a little at that, as far as Nanoha was concerned it only served to make her all the more adorable.

AN: Fate Testarossa is an absolute prodigy of combat. No, really, and I don't mean in this story, but the original show. Think about it, Fate was only ten years old when she fought Signum to a standstill, with a scythe. Actually consider that. A scythe is a terrible weapon by any measurable standard, but she was able to fight Signum for almost a full twenty minutes (going by the episode length) despite not having a weapon that was inferior in every way and lacked cartridges. It should be pointed out that Signum is, well… Signum. She has literal a millenia of combat experience, and is an S ranked mage. In fact, Fate wasn't even ten years old when she fought her, and only AA ranked. Due to being a clone she was probably closer to three or four years old at the time, and I highly doubt Precia would have been training Alicia in advanced combat techniques, so all of Fates skills are hers, and not shared memories.

Nanoha undeniably has more talent at magic than Fate, but as far as weapon skill goes I have no doubt that Fate is miles and miles ahead of anyone except Signum or maybe Zest. It's shame for Fate's sake that magical skill is evidently more important in a mage fight than weapon skill.