"I'm home…" Lindy heard the meek voice of her daughter call.

"Welcome home, F…" The moment Lindy saw the elementary schooler her mommy alarm went off. Fate had been acting a bit down for a few days now but this time it was considerably worse. Her little girl's slightly puffy eyes were filled with sadness and cast towards the floor. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Fate quickly said back. "I… I'm just a bit tired…"

If Fate was anything, she was a bad liar. However Lindy knew not to push too hard and to wait for Fate to open up.

"Okay then." Lindy smiled softly. "How was school?"

At the mention of 'school' Fate visible stiffened.

"It was fun." She said.

'So that's where the problem lies.' Lindy mused. "Well Chrono and Amy are at work and Arf went to go help Yuuno at the library. They won't be back until late, so it's just the two of us for the evening. It's been awhile so why don't we go have a bath together before dinner?"

"No!" Fate said a bit too sharply. She realised her mistake immediately and looked away. "I mean, it's okay, I'll take one by myself…"

"Is that so? Then what would you like for dinner? I'll make whatever you want."

"I'm fine with anything. You should make what you want."

"I want to make what you want." Lindy kept smiling.

"Then…" Fate glanced around for no particular purpose. "Spaghetti."

"Spaghetti it is then." Lindy nodded. 'As expected she picked something that wouldn't be much trouble to make.'

Fate went off to have her bath while Lindy stood in the kitchen. While gathering ingredients she pondered just how much to push with Fate. Dealing with Chrono was pretty straight forward but her daughter required much more delicacy. The one thing Lindy knew for certain was that she couldn't allow Fate to withdraw into her shell.

When dinner was ready and Fate was all clean, the two females took their places at the table. Lindy noted how Fate had changed into rather loose fitting clothes. She recognised the black t-shirt as one of Chrono's.

"So what happened at school today?" Lindy asked.

"Oh, well… The usual… Classes, lunch time with Nanoha and the others, more classes, came back home…"

"Hm, I see. That's good." Lindy went back to her food but didn't fail to notice Fate's slightly surprised looked. "Do you have much homework tonight?"

"Huh?" Fate blinked. "Oh, no, I don't have any homework."

"Really? Great!" Lindy beamed. "Then how about tonight we watch a movie? Let's put on your favourite."

"Actually I was just going to go to my room and…"

"Please, Fate. Wouldn't it be nice to have some mother-daughter time?"

Fate opened her mouth but then closed it again. Normally she would love to but…

"O-Okay…" Fate relented despite herself.

After dinner they cleaned the dishes together and then Lindy made some popcorn. The pair headed to the couch and settled down for the movie. Lindy only half paid attention to the images of the screen and kept a close eye on Fate's mannerisms. Though the girl cracked a ghost of a smile a few times, it was brief and her mood didn't appear to improve. She also kept a fair amount of space between them.

The movie felt like it ended far too quickly and Fate announced her intent to go to bed.

"It's still pretty early." Lindy said.

"I know, but like I said before I'm pretty tired." Fate gave the best smile she could. "Good night."

"Good night, dear." Lindy frowned when Fate disappeared up the stairs. She got up and headed to the bathroom with the intent of pondering a game plan while she took her bath.

Lindy towelled off, put on her sleepwear, and then headed to Fate's room. The lights were off and Fate was already curled up in her bed.

"Fate, are you still awake?"

A reflexive jerk indicated she was. Lindy walked to the bed and pulled back the covers before gingerly climbing in.

"What are…?"

"I just feel like sleeping with my daughter." Lindy said. "Am I being a bother?"

"N-No…" Fate whispered before attempting to slide away. She didn't get very far before Lindy trapped her in a hug from behind.

"You've been acting strangely all night." Lindy said softly. "If something is bothering you, you can talk to me about me any time."

"It… It's nothing. I don't want to trouble you with it…"

"You've always been like that and it's an admirable trait, but you know what? Kids are allowed to cause their parents trouble. If you have a problem you can go to them for help. That's what they're there for. I won't force you, but please let me know what happened."

There was silence until Lindy heard soft sniffling.

"But I'm weird!" Fate finally said. "There's something wrong with me… I don't think I deserve your kindness…"

"That's not true." Lindy held her closer. "Even if you are different you're just as deserving of kindness as anyone else."

"But…"

"What could make you think there's something wrong with you anyways?"

"My body is weird." Fate said as she turned around. "I'm taller than the other kids and the boys make fun of me for it. My… My chest too… It keeps getting bigger and the other girls give me dirty looks… Why am I like this? Is it because of how I was born? Am I not a proper person after all? I don't want to be like this! Why can't I be like everyone else?"

"Fate, shhh…" Lindy stroked the crying girl's hair. "There is nothing wrong with you Fate. You're at the age when your body goes through all sorts of changes that has nothing to do with how you were born. It's perfectly natural, but it's just that you're blooming earlier than everyone else."

"R-Really?"

"Yes. You shouldn't be ashamed of your body but instead it's something to celebrate! My little girl is becoming a young woman! The others kids might act that way towards you now but soon they'll begin to change too. The boys will stop making fun of you and will probably want to get close to you instead. The others girls might still be jealous of you, but Nanoha and your other friends will always stand by you."

"So… I'm normal?" Fate asked hopefully.

"Yes, you're normal." Lindy smiled.

"I'm so glad…" Lindy could feel the tension drain out of her daughter's body.

"I have an idea." She said. "How about tomorrow the two of us go shopping? We can get you some new outfits, complete with a cute bra or two, and maybe even a little makeup too. What do you think?"

"I'd like that." Fate smiled. "Thank you."

"Anytime, sweetie. Now let's get to sleep. Good night, Fate."

"Good night, mom."

Apologies if this comes across as sexist or stereotypical. Since I'm a guy I don't know much about female rites of passage so the shopping thing was all I could think of to kind of celebrate Fate's growing up. I suppose Fate's reaction could be too overblown, but I figured her origin would make things worse since she feels different enough already.

Anyways, I wrote this fic for deathcurse as part of a little bet wherein I guessed that her Vivio/Hayate fics would be more popular than my Vivio/Yuuno stuff. I'm pretty sure I lost that bet but we decided to write stuff for each other regardless. Not that I minded in any way since I'm quite fond of deathcurse and would write something for her if she asked :) Her request was a heart warming mother-daughter moment between Fate and Lindy. Hopefully I delivered.