AN: So! A reviewer for Used to be begged for an update for her birthday today. Unfortunately, work has kept me pretty swamped, and I was unable to deliver said update. However, I do have this silly little one shot, Christmas themed, that I hope will make up for it. I give you some ridiculously silly/fluffy Nanofate, and hope you all enjoy it. To ElementalMiko12, Happy Birthday!

It's Tradition

"And you're sure about this?" Nanoha questioned, worrying her lower lip between her teeth, brow arched as her friend teetered precariously on the top of a step-stool.

"It's fine, it's fine." Hayate said, with a dismissive wave of her hand, an action that sent Nanoha scrambling to steady her legs. "Thanks. Tack?"

Nanoha obediently passed a thumbtack up to Hayate, still apprehensive as the woman shoved the pin through the tiny sprig of mistletoe.

Signum rounded the corner, coffee in hand, pausing before the archway in which the two women huddled. Sharp blue eyes flickered up towards the mistletoe, and then back to Hayate and Nanoha.

"You. Not a word." Hayate warned from atop her lofty perch, wobbling precariously despite Nanoha's best efforts.

The knight merely shrugged. Living in the Yagami household for so many years had taught her that some battles were worth fighting. Others? The corners of her mouth quirked up into a smirk as she recalled her first encounter with the strange little Christmas plant. Well. Sometimes it was just best to walk away. She did just that, opting to go the long way 'round, leaving the two mages to their own devices.

"That's what I thought." Hayate called triumphantly at Signum's retreating back, climbing down from the stool, much to her friend's relief, and craning her neck up to admire her handiwork.

"I still don't know." Nanoha began, frowning worriedly. "Fate-chan is just so shy..."

"It's starting to look like you're the one with the problem." the commander teased, ribbing her with an elbow to the side.

"The only one with problems here is you." the ace huffed, batting her arm away with a scowl.

"You'll be thanking me later, when you're deep in the throes of passion!"

"Throes of..." Nanoha's cheeks reddened.

"Passion." Hayate repeated, rolling her shoulders to loosen stiff joints. "You know, you give her a little smooch, she gets all red-faced and adorable, and then, all those years of sexual tension will just explode, especially when you throw her down and rip off her…"

"Hayate!"

"Oh come on." A wide grin was cast in Nanoha's direction, but it did nothing to help the sinking, queasy feeling she was experiencing. "It's all part of the plan, right?"

"This is a bad plan."

"No, this is a fantastic plan. You just have a bad attitude."

"You want to see a bad attitude?" Nanoha growled.

"That's just your nerves talking. Do you want to know what would help?"

"I'm pretty sure I don't."

Hayate held her arms out and gave Nanoha a lecherous wink. "Practice."

From her seat at the kitchen table, Signum immediately felt a deep sense of foreboding, as if all of the dark forces in the universe had suddenly converged upon a single point in time and space, only fifty meters from her chair. Beside her, Vita shuddered, as though the cold hand of death had gripped her shoulder.

"N-Nanoha…I was…I was only kidding. Nanoha, come on, put down the…"

Signum only flinched a little at the shriek that pierced the once calm and peaceful atmosphere of their quiet family home, wincing a bit as it was immediately followed by the sounds of crashing objects and things breaking. This Christmas was starting to look an awful lot like all the Christmases before it, and compared to all of the odd little holiday movies Hayate had made the Wolkenritter watch over the years, it was nothing like the films made it out to be.

Vita released a long, drawn out sigh. "Shamal is going to be pissed."

Signum grinned. It was so much better.

Fate was the last to arrive to the party, and judging by the laughter heard from the far end of the street, it was already in full swing. She barely had the chance to slip off her shoes and brush the snow off the shoulders of her coat before she was twirled around in a ridiculous haphazard circle, made more disorienting by the arm looped around her neck. Stumbling a bit, Fate struggled to keep both her and Hayate's footing, already flustered as she patted the shorter woman's back.

"Fate-chaaaan!" Hayate sang out cheerily, tightening her hold. "I missed you!"

"You just saw me this morning."

"But that was then, this is now." The brunette declared, thrusting a glass full of a dubious looking concoction under the enforcer's nose. "For you!"

Dark eyes flickered over the glass suspiciously. How she had managed to not spill a drop with her enthusiastic greeting would never be known. Fate's nose crinkled up, the smell already giving away what she already feared. "I…I don't think I want that."

"It's just some eggnog." Hayate replied, with a grin that discredited her innocent tone. "Come on, Christmas tradition!"

"I don't ever remember doing this before…" Fate tried, but the glass was shoved in her direction once more, and with a sigh of defeat, she resigned herself to her inevitable doom. She could feel rather than see the grin on Hayate widening as she screwed her eyes shut and took a long swig, an impressive maneuver, considering Hayate was still hanging off of her like an extra appendage.

The first thing that hit her was the taste, definitely eggnog, but an extra kick had been added, one that burned a trail of warmth from her throat all the way down to her belly. She blinked rapidly, eyes almost watering, and shuddered at the strange sensation.

"Good?"

"I should have known better." Fate rasped, her features twisting up as her tongue burned.

"What? It's eggnog! Well…mostly. Sort of."

The enforcer fixed her with a flat look.

"Okay, okay, so it's mostly rum. But still."

"You are ridiculous."

"Nanoha likes it." Hayate drawled, pointing with her free arm across the living room and under the archway near the stairs, where the brunette was chatting animatedly with Vita. "You should go say hi." The arm around Fate loosened, and she was shifted further into the house with a gentle push in the ace's direction.

Nanoha had been acutely aware of Fate's presence ever since she entered the door, and now, her nerves were wreaking havoc on her heart rate. This was a bad plan. This was a ridiculous plan. What in the hell had Hayate been thinking? More importantly, why in the hell was she going along with it? A quick side glance confirmed what she already knew; Fate was walking towards her, and it was going to be now or never.

A warm hand touched her shoulder, and Nanoha could swear she felt nothing but butterflies. "Hey."

Nanoha smiled up at Fate, hoping the panic wasn't written all over her face, and it certainly didn't help matters when off in the distance, just over the enforcer's shoulder, Hayate began twirling a candy cane around one finger and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Had she mentioned that this was a terrible plan?

"I see you got caught up in the Christmas tradition." Fate said quietly, gesturing to the glass in Nanoha's hand with a nod of her head. "Funny how this one seemed to just start this year though…"

"A-ah, well, you know she is with traditions…" Nanoha replied with a nervous grin. "Bad luck and all that if you don't follow them."

"Speaking of traditions," Hayate called out, drawing the attention of every single person in the room, "You're breaking one right now!"

Nanoha froze. She wouldn't.

"Come on," Hayate cried, pointing above their heads, while beside her, Signum buried her face into the palm of her hand. "Don't keep us waiting!"

Of course she would.

Russet eyes flickered upwards, spying the tiny sprig of mistletoe, and Nanoha felt her face turn about a thousand shades of red. There was no way she could do this, not now, not with Fate looking so adorably confused and…

"What is that?"

"M-mistletoe." Nanoha replied weakly. Time slowed as the longest, most painfully nerve wracking moment of the instructor's life dragged on into infinity. She knew Fate had never encountered the plant before, and the odds of her knowing the implications of their positions under the archway were slim to absolutely none. What should she do? Go for it? Laugh it off, flee into a far safer part of the house? As she agonized over her options, the enforcer cut the silence, her husky voice low.

"Alright." Fate murmured, taking the glass from Nanoha's hands and turning to Vita, holding out the glasses towards the redhead leaning against the stairway banister. "Hang on to these for a moment?"

Cobalt blue eyes widened as Nanoha's heart slammed to a stop. "Huh?"

The Vice-Captain nodded slowly, not quite sure where this was going, but complied. All this secretive planning and scheming that had been going on between Nanoha and Hayate was about to come to a head, and though she would never admit it aloud, she was interested to see where it would go.

Fate turned back towards the now extremely confused instructor, and slid an arm around her waist. "Tradition, right?" Nanoha was about to reply, but anything she would have said was cut off when the blonde reached up with her free hand and gave a gentle tug to Nanoha's hair ribbon, setting long auburn locks free, the ribbon slipping through Fate's fingers and fluttering to the ground. That hand was threading through her hair now, a thumb affectionately grazing her cheek, and Nanoha's world was quite literally knocked out from under her when the enforcer gave her a crooked grin, the arm around her waist tightened, and she was tipped back into a dip that left her head spinning when she realized that there were warm lips caressing hers. Immediately her arms went around Fate's neck with a tiny exclamation of surprise, and as her lips parted, her brain ceased to function.

Fate was impossibly warm, though her hair still carried the faint scent of winter, bringing with it fond memories of crisp snow and long nights under the stars. Her kiss was soft and gentle, much like the enforcer herself, but the taste was sweet and intoxicating, with just a hint of spiced rum. Nanoha's blood pounded through every vein, and as she was righted once more, weak-kneed and fairly dizzy, she let out a quiet exhale of breath. She wasn't sure her pulse would ever return to normal.

It didn't help when Fate swept the bangs out of her eyes and placed one final kiss on the tip of her nose with an impish smile. "Merry Christmas, Nanoha."

Her mind raced frantically to find something to say, and she knew from the way her face was heating up that she must be the color of a tomato.

Fate reached a hand out to a slack-jawed Vita and retrieved her eggnog, raising it towards the Vice-Captain in a silent salute.

Nanoha remained frozen in place there under the archway, when Fate made her way over to Hayate, plucked the candy-cane from her limp hand, and slid it into her back pocket, the perfect image of the job title she carried, cool and collected. Hayate could only gape openly at the blonde, acting like she hadn't just planted the hottest kiss the commander had ever seen on one of her oldest and dearest friends.

Beside her, Signum nodded mutely, fistbumping the enforcer with a proud grin.

"Y…you." Hayate stammered, wide-eyed as she pointed an accusing finger up at the knight. "You tipped her off!"

Fate shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey, you've teased us for years, taking advantage of our lack of familiarity with local culture."

The knight smirked. "We were bound to launch our own offensive."

"I…I don't even know what to say." Hayate admitted, recovering quickly as she slung an arm over Fate's shoulder and leaned in close. "But after that little show, I do know that I want a turn."

This snapped Nanoha out of her Fate induced stupor, and the fire lit up in her eyes. "Hey! Hands off, Hayate!"

Signum's gaze darted nervously between the women, and she wisely took several steps back. Maybe Shamal needed help in the kitchen? Nanoha was stalking over, looking like a woman on a mission, and it was enough to make Fate laugh nervously and squirm out of Hayate's embrace. Yes, Signum decided, the kitchen was probably a far safer alternative. Besides, someone would probably need to help the medic administer some first aid after…

Nanoha gripped the front of Fate's jacket, twisting it up in her fist, and yanked her forward, planting a kiss on the enforcer that made Hayate blush. Just as quickly as it had started, it was over, and Fate was left stuttering helplessly, her cool demeanor vanishing completely under this turn of events.

"Mine." Nanoha announced, winding her arms around the blonde. "Got that? Mine."

Hayate decided that it was best not to argue, while Fate was torn between giggling like a school girl and mentally debating on which present would be best to repay Signum's sage advice from earlier that day. She took a sip of her accursed eggnog, wincing again at the taste but drinking it down anyway. After all, who was she to argue with Christmas tradition?

Nanoha smiled up at her affectionately, cheeks dusted a light shade of pink as she reached up with one hand and smoothed out Fate's crinkled brow. "Silly. Don't drink it then."

"I'm not about to start mocking tradition now." Fate replied in all seriousness. "If a tiny plant can encourage me to do something I was too shy to do for years, can you imagine what Hayate's concoction could do?"

"Aw…"

"Wait, just wait." Hayate cut in. "Before you two do anything else, like, say, another super sexy make-out session, just let me go get my camera and…"

From beside Shamal, in the safety of the kitchen, Signum suddenly shuddered, dropping the kitchen knife she had been so expertely wielding only moments before.

"Signum?" Shamal questioned worriedly, "Is everything…"

A piercing shriek followed by uproarious laughter cut the silent and serene atmosphere of the cozy family home, and Signum let out a long sigh. "It's fine. It's just the Christmas spirit."