Disclaimer: I do not own MGLN.

A First Anniversary

A year, it had been almost a whole year!

Takamachi Nanoha bounded up the steps towards her girlfriend's apartment, excitement coursing through her veins, causing her nerves to tingle and providing her with the extra energy that seemed to pour from her. In her hand she had a small parcel wrapped in decorative paper and sealed with a red ribbon. It was Sunday they had the whole day off, which meant they could do all sorts of romantic stuff together. It was still a couple of days until Valentine's Day but that fell on a week day so they wouldn't be able to do much together and this was the closest Sunday to the actual day, so it would have to do. Besides, this could be their last Valentine's Day on Earth; not long ago she had taken an exam for a promotion within the TSAB, if she got it she'd have to leave for Mid-Childa.

She tried to restrain herself as she reached the door to the apartment where Fate-chan still lived with Lindy, her brother Chrono had moved out a while ago to live with his girlfriend, Amy. There had been no shortage of teasing from Lindy, Hayate or herself when he'd made the announcement, even Fate-chan had joined in.

Taking a deep breath in an effort to calm herself she reached up and rang the doorbell, it was only a couple of seconds before she could her movement on the other side. When the door opened however, it wasn't her girlfriend but Lindy who was standing on the other side; she did her best not to look disappointed.

"Oh, hello Nanoha. I take it you're here for Fate?" she asked, though it wasn't really a question.

"Mmm, we're supposed to be going out."

"I see," Lindy chuckled, "well that explains that." Nanoha just looked at her in confusion.

"Well Fate was just so full of energy during her training last night, she seemed so excited, I guess now I know why." The brunette did her best to fight down a blush at the teasing look the older woman gave her.

"Unfortunately she managed to exhaust herself," Lindy continued, "so she's still in bed. Nanoha, why don't you go an wake her up for me an I'll make the three of us some tea?" With a quick nod and an "Okay" Nanoha removed her shoes and moved with barely restrained energy at a brisk walk towards Fate's room.

When she reached the next door she knocked on it lightly and whispered:

"Fate-chan, are you awake?" When she received no answer after two seconds she decided that was sufficient cause to enter.

Slowly she pushed open the door and stepped into the room and caught sight of her girlfriend soundly asleep on the other side of the room. She placed the package she'd brought with her down on the desk near the door gently, before turning and creeping towards the bed on her toes. Once she reached it she quietly sank down to her knees and leaned over to place her mouth next to the other girl's ear.

"Fate-chan, Faaaate-chan," she sang softly, "It's time to get up." She pulled back just in time to see the corner of Fate's lips twitch and grinned.

"Oh my," she said dramatically, "Fate-chan's in such a deep sleep, what should I do? In storys it's always a charming prince who awakens the beautiful princess with a kiss. Hm, but we don't have a charming prince, oh well maybe the cute peasant girl will do?" With that she leaned forwards and gently pressed her lips against Fate's, when she pulled back she found Fate was now definitely smiling but other than that was making no other movements. The smile on Nanoha's face suddenly became quite mischievous.

"Oh dear, it didn't work. Maybe I need to try something a little more drastic?"

With that said she lifted up the covers of the bed slightly and crawled underneath them, settling herself so that she was straddling her girlfriend, next she brought up her hands and began to undo the buttons of Fate's pyjamas. She had only finished undoing the first button when she felt a light pressure around her wrists and looked up to find her lover's deep, red eyes locked onto her.

"N-Nanoha," she whispered urgently, her cheeks almost as red as her eyes, "what are you doing? Lindy-mama's home!"

"Oh, you mean Fate-chan wasn't really asleep?" Nanoha replied, slipping back out of bed.

"You knew I wasn't."

Nanoha simply smiled at her.

"You've been taking too much advice from Hayate." Fate sighed.

"Nyahaha, it's Fate-chan's own fault for being greedy."

"It's greedy to want another kiss from my girlfriend?"

"I was going to give you another kiss," Nanoha said, her mischievous smile still firmly in place.

"I meant on the lips! On the lips!" Fate's face had by this point turned a brilliant shade of scarlet, causing Nanoha to giggle, which in turn caused Fate to throw one of her pillows at her, hitting Nanoha square in the face.

"Far too much time with Hayate," Fate mumbled, a small smile creeping onto her face, "Now, stand in the hall while I get changed."

"Mou, but I want to stay and watch." Another pillow, but this time Nanoha managed to duck out of the way, hurried back towards the door and slip out into the hallway, almost crashing right into Arf.

"Lindy sent me to see if you'd managed to wake Fate up." Nanoha was suddenly apprehensive; she didn't trust the tone of laughter in the familiar's voice.

"She is," she replied, moving towards the kitchen.

"Good." Arf replied, "But just what was it you were doing that Fate had to remind you that kissing was done on the lips?" It was Nanoha's turn to go scarlet as the implications of what Arf had said and the tone she had used sunk in.

"We-we were just messing about." She protested.

"Yes," replied the familiar, somehow managing to express a naughty smile despite her dog snout, "And I remember the last time you and Fate "messed about" in her room, the two of you smelt like…hormones for the rest of the day." Nanoha spluttered and tried to say something but Arf spoke over her:

"It's like you told Fate that time, you're loud. Lindy Fate's up," she finished as they entered the kitchen, and Nanoha quickly took a seat at the kitchen table.

"Oh that's good." The older woman said as she placed Nanoha's tea down in front of her and pretended not to notice the girl's blush.

"Thank you," Nanoha mumbled. For some reason what Arf had said had stirred a memory of a couple of months ago in her mind and as she sat there drinking her tea she allowed herself to fall into it.

"Nanoha-chan, Fate-chan!" the voice of Hayate Yagami rang through the clear, morning air.

Nanoha and Fate turned to find the girl in question bounding towards them with an expression on her face that could only mean the two of them were in for some of the other girl's merciless teasing. The two of them raised there hands to return her enthusiastic greeting and slowed their pace so she could catch up; they still had plenty of time to get there before the first bell rang. Within a minute the girl was walking beside them attempting to catch her breath.

"Hayate-chan, good morning," said Nanoha.

"Good morning," she returned. Nanoha waited for the inevitable jab at her or Fate's expense but it never came; instead Hayate just stared at them, still smiling that Cheshire cat grin. Nanoha prepared herself just in case Hayate decided to make a grab at her chest; although her friend hadn't tried that for almost seven months, ever since she and Fate had started dating, apparently that made it inappropriate in her mind. It didn't stop her offering them "advice" however, and sending them lewd e-mails containing even more "instructions".

"Um, Hayate-san," Fate spoke up, clearly also having picked-up on Hayate's mood, "Do you have something to say?"

"Why, what make you ask that, Fate-chan?" she replied, in a tone that made the hairs on the back of Nanoha's neck stand up.

"Well, you're looking at us funny."

"Oh, am I?" Hayate replied, bringing a hand up to her mouth in fake surprise.

"Yes."

"Well you see, I had an interesting conversation with Arf-san yesterday." Nanoha could see Fate making a mental note to talk to Arf later.

"According to her," Hayate continued, "The two of you are no longer virgins." Immediately colour erupted on both of their faces and the two of them all but screamed in unison:

"Hayate-chan!"

"Hayate-san!"

"Oh ho, so it's true!" Hayate crowed in victory

"You-but…" Fate spluttered, "Wait, how did Arf know?"

"Mou," Nanoha said, "It's Fate-chan's fault for being so loud."

"N-Nanoha!"

"Ohhh, so Fate-chan's a screamer?" Hayate said, sounding most intrigued by the subject, while Fate was looking increasingly mortified. "Come on Nanoha-chan, give me details, details!" Nanoha ignored her, she was all for teasing her girlfriend but that would be taking it too far and Fate was giving her the classic kicked-puppy look, there was no way she could resist that. The rest of the journey was spent with resisting her friend's attempts to drag more information out of her.

The date had gone well; the two of them had gone to the cinema and seen a film Nanoha knew Fate had secretly been wanting too see. After that they had gone to the Takamachi café for lunch, then they had gone to the mall to try on clothes (and they had actually bought each other something) and gone to a karaoke boot before returning to the café for dinner. After that they had gone for a stroll in the park and now the two of them were sitting on a park bench, watching as the sun set behind the horizon, their hands intertwined together. Slowly Nanoha leaned over and rested her head on Fate's shoulder, wiggling it a bit to make herself more snug. Later the two would return to the Takamachi café for a third time, Fate would be sleeping over at Nanoha's tonight. Above them were the branches of a cherry blossom tree, whose flowers would before to long start to bloom.

"Comfortable there?" Fate said, a touch of laughter in her voice.

"Mmm," she replied, "Fate-chan's so warm." She chuckled a little as she saw Fate's cheeks turn slightly red, still way too easy to tease. The two drifted into a comfortable silence for a while before Nanoha spoke again:

"This might be our last Valentine's Day on Earth."

"Yeah." Came the eventual reply.

"If we pass then we'll be living on Mid-Childa from this summer."

"Yeah."

"I've never lived on another world before."

Fate turned to look at her girlfriend as if contemplating her response before eventually replying:

"Then I guess I'll have to teach Nanoha about the different customs on Mid-Childa until she learns everything."

"Thank you Fate-chan."

"It's okay," Fate replied, beginning to massage the back of her girlfriend's hand with her thumb, "you did the same for me." Again a comfortable silence washed over the two of them and was this time broken by Fate.

"I had fun today."

"Mmm, me too"

"I wanted to say thank you for everything you planned and for the chocolates this morning?"

"Fate-chan's being silly, she doesn't have to thank me." Nanoha giggled.

"But I want to," Fate replied, "I don't ever want to take you for granted… And I wanted to ask you something," she finished, seeming strangely hesitant.

"What."

"Well, since I'm going to be helping you get used to Mid-Childa anyway, I was wondering if you'd like to live together? At least until Nanoha learns her way around?" she finished, her face a brighter shade of red than before.

Suddenly Nanoha was sitting up straight and staring Fate right in the eyes.

"Live together?" she asked, "With you?"

"I-I can understand if you don't want to," Fate replied, looking crestfallen despite her words, "Maybe it was a stupid idea-"

"Of course I want to live with Fate-chan!"

"Really?" In response Nanoha swept forward and pressed her lips against Fate's before pulling away and reclaiming her spot on her girlfriend's shoulder; Fate looked blissfully stunned for a couple of moments before regaining her senses and resting her head atop Nanoha's.

"I guess that's settled then." Nanoha could only giggle in response.

"Should we go back now?"

"Just a couple more minutes," Nanoha replied.

"Alright."

Author's note: Some sappy Valentine's Day fluff from me.

Okay this fic was finished after the second chapter, however since this was set in the same continuity I decided it belonged here. If there are anymore updates to this story they'll probably be standalone one-shots so this story will continue to be listed as "complete".

Oh, and for those who asked about the white ribbon from the last chapter. As I understand it if a guy responds to a girl's Valentine's Day chocolates by giving her a white ribbon on white day, it's something akin to a promise to be together.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it.