Checking Out

A/N: Apologies for anything OOC OTL

I'm also sorry if this turns out to be really short ;_; You can say it's… nano-sized. (Okay, so it got longer than that. I just really wanted to use that pun, okay?)

"So are you going to ask her out today?"

"M– Maybe…"

"Do it, do it!" Yagami Hayate cheered her friend on, leaning over the library table in excitement.

"But what if she says no?" Takamachi Nanoha grumbled in her seat and sank into her chair with a pout.

"Perish the thought! Who would say no to you?" Hayate said as she waved her hand dismissively. "Who doesn't want to date a hot, teenage brunette?"

Nanoha stared at her friend. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were hitting on me."

The woman with shorter hair made a face. "Excuse you. I have my eyes on a blonde, thank you very much."

"You like Fate-chan too?!" Nanoha half-shouted, half-whispered in shock. "You can't do that, Hayate-chan!"

"Not her!" Hayate hissed back.

"Signum-san may be kind, but I don't think she'll appreciate it if you go after Shamal-san…" Nanoha said warningly.

"Oh my gosh, Nanoha-chan." Hayate facepalmed. "I'm talking about the blonde that's the assistant at the help desk!"

"Oh… She is kinda cute, now that I think about it…" Nanoha mused, tilting her head slightly.

"Hey, hey, stick to your blonde," Hayate said hastily.

Nanoha frowned. "But she's not mine."

"Yet," Hayate said with the air of an old, wise man. "Not yours yet. Go make your move!"

"I can't just go up to her out of the blue!" Nanoha argued.

"Fine, fine. Here, go check these out," ordered Hayate as she grabbed a seemingly random stack of books and slid them over to Nanoha.

"Okay, okay…"

A reluctant Nanoha stood up from her chair and picked the books Hayate had pushed in her direction. Moving stiffly, she made her way to the front counter and carefully placed the books down.

"Uh… I'd like to check these out," she said as she examined the librarian at work.

"Oh, hello, Nanoha," Fate T. Harlaown greeted as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Nanoha noticed how the glasses' red frame was the same shade as her eyes. "You've been coming here every day this week. Studying for Maeda-sensei's tests?"

"Nyahaha, yeah, I'm studying with Hayate-chan so we both won't fail," Nanoha answered as she scratched her cheek.

"Good luck," the blonde said warmly as she scanned the barcode of one of the books Nanoha had brought to the front.

"Say…" Nanoha enunciated slowly. "How often do you help out here?"

"Hm? Almost every day," Fate answered as she continued checking out Nanoha's selection.

Nanoha blinked. "It doesn't get in the way of school?"

"No, I manage it just–" Her fellow student suddenly paused.

Nanoha tilted her head in confusion. Following Fate's line of sight down to her hand, the brunette suddenly froze as well. Inside her head, she smacked her forehead as hard as she could, cursing her friend as she read the title of the book in Fate's hand.

"I… didn't know they had this here," Fate finally said.

"Nyahaha… Uh… Hayate-chan recommended this! I mean, she's the one who wants to read this!" Nanoha quickly said.

"R– Right." Fate nodded as she resumed checking out the copy of "The Dummies' Guide to Seducing Your Fellow Students at an All-Girls School."

The rest of their exchange was filled with awkward silence until Fate handed back the stack of books, guide included, and said, "Well, these are all due in two weeks."

"Thanks, Fate-chan," Nanoha said, looking at the counter instead of at the blonde.

"Um… Good luck to your friend," Fate said with an embarrassed smile.

"Y– Yeah…"

With that said, Nanoha quickly shuffled away with her books while feeling a pair of eyes follow her until a shelf broke their contact.

"Hayate-chan!" Nanoha hissed loudly, slamming the books down in front of the shorter teenager

"Well? Well?" Hayate's head snapped up from its napping position.

"Don't "Well?" me!" Nanoha groused. "That was so awkward!"

"Didn't my wise choice of literature give you a golden window to jump through?" Hayate argued back.

"More like a flaming hoop! I bet she thought I was a total creep until I said you wanted that book," Nanoha said with a pout.

"Hey, it's a good read," defended Hayate. "In fact, I recommend that you read it," she added with a rather devilish smile. "It might help, you know~"

Nanoha sighed. "I'm not trying to seduce her, I'm trying to date her."

"Doesn't one lead to the other eventually?" Hayate pointed out.

The taller brunette paused. "Well, okay, you have a point, but c'mon…" She sighed again and rested her head on the table.

"If you need another excuse to go up to her, just go ask for random help or something."

"And then?"

"And then ask her out, duh."

"Riiight. 'Hi, can you help me check out something? I'd like to check out you.'"

"Pfft." Hayate snorted then burst into quiet laughter. "That's actually a really good one! Go use it on her!"

"Hayate, no," Nanoha scolded.

And somehow, she winded up at the front desk again.

Fate was sitting down at the desk, wiping her glasses as the brunette approached her again. She quickly looked up and placed her glasses back on her face when Nanoha cleared her throat.

"Nanoha," she greeted again. "Need something?"

"Hi, can you help me ch– check out something?" Nanoha asked in the sweetest voice she could muster.

"What is it?" Fate prompted with a gentle smile.

"I'd like to c– check out… erm… It's… uh… Th– There's a book I can't reach," Nanoha finally stammered, chickening out of her original line.

Fate immediately stood up from her seat and went around the counter. "I'd be more than happy to help," she spoke. "Lead the way."

Mentally slapping herself, Nanoha nodded and wandered over to a random section of the library. While she was dying of embarrassment inside, she failed to notice red eyes dutifully watching the back of her head, never wavering. Nanoha had no clue where she was going, so she randomly stopped and pointed at a black book just out of her reach.

Fate, who had been standing behind Nanoha, reached right past the brunette and easily grabbed the book. Nanoha did her best to fight the shiver that creeped up her spine as the blonde's sleeve brushed past her cheek. She inhaled and detected a faint, sweet scent that radiated off the taller student's arm.

Pulling the book out, Fate glanced at the cover and slowly began to turn a subtle shade of red.

Nanoha tilted her head at the reaction before a vague sense of "oh no not again" began seeping into her brain. She slowly realized, judging by the other giggling and blushing students browsing books nearby and the sign hanging over the set of shelves, that she was in the romance section.

Dreading what she would see, she slowly turned her gaze to see what novel she had picked out. Written in bold, red letters was "Magical Girls of Love, Mature Edition." The illustration on the cover definitely was not the kind one would parade about in public.

"Well then," Nanoha said.

"Well then…" Fate repeated, in a daze as she skimmed the summary on the back. She quickly seemed to come back to her senses and said, "Uh… good choice! N– N– Not that I've read this, though, but I mean… Uh… Someone recommended it to me before, t– that's all."

"Y– Yeah, H– Hayate recommended this too."

A few shelves away, someone sneezed.

The pair made their way back to the front desk and Nanoha quietly pulled out her library card, handing it to the blonde. The checkout process was once again silent until Fate coughed and smiled.

"It's almost closing time," the blonde informed. "Anything else you need?" She graciously offered her assistance once more.

Nanoha sighed. "Not really," she said, disappointed in today's escapades and her utter lack of progress. As a bitter feeling welled up in her heart, she suddenly felt a blaze of determination to not let things end this way.

"Actually…" Nanoha said slowly. "There's a guide I'm personally looking for."

"What is it on?" Fate asked, listening intently.

Nanoha looked the blonde dead in the eyes before saying firmly, "How to ask out the really kind library assistant with the pretty eyes."

Fate frowned. "I don't think we have–" She paused as the gears began rotating in her head.

Meanwhile, Nanoha's bravado faded as her cheeks began heating up.

"Oh," Fate finally said. "Oh. Oh."

"Yeah… nyahaha," Nanoha laughed in embarrassment, ready to crawl into a hole and die.

"Well… We have no actual material on that topic... But I think you can always just ask?" Fate suggested, her smile growing wider and wider by the second.

"Then… Fate-chan, will you go out with me?" Nanoha finally asked.

"Of course," Fate nodded firmly, her eyes shining with happiness.

"Um… Dinner tonight?" Nanoha offered as she tried not to jump in glee.

"Sounds good. Meet you outside the library?"

"Yep!"

Not too far away, a certain good friend of Takamachi Nanoha began planning a wedding.

A/N: I have no idea what I was smoking when I wrote this. I didn't expect to write something so soon either LOL Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!