A/N: A silly Fate and Hayate friendship oneshot. Highschool AU. Mentions of NanoFate.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Yagami Hayate thought herself to be a patient girl. After all, she waited half her life to able to walk properly. She never once complained about the seemingly endless lunch queues. She helped out in the school library which consisted of her sitting and doing nothing for almost all the time and she always waited for her cousins to get back home to say goodnight before going to bed, no matter how late they came in.

But even Hayate, whose patience came with endless abundance, found herself rapidly running out of it when it came to dealing with her best friend Fate T. Harlaown.

It wasn't as if Hayate didn't love the girl because god knows how much Hayate valued her best friend. But it was just that Fate could be so…dense.

For example, she had no idea how popular she was. In Fate's mind, when girls and boys gathered around her desk, bought her lunch and gave her mountains of chocolates on Valentine's Day, they were just being friendly. Yes, because obviously, giving homemade heart shaped chocolates was what friends did on a daily basis.

When she received love letters and confessions, she thought they were saying 'I love you, please go out with me' as a friend. Hayate had lost count of the number of times she had had to intervene and correct Fate before her best friend went around unknowingly breaking hearts by accepting every confession.

Currently, they were discussing the topic of Fate's super crush: Takamachi Nanoha. The said brunette was almost as popular as Fate with her cheerful disposition, more than average grades, ridiculously forgiving heart, good looks and insane baking skills.

"Just ask her out," Hayate said plainly, carefully chewing her sausage. Fate nervously glanced around the cafeteria, as if afraid of Nanoha suddenly jumping out at any second and hearing their conversation. Hayate resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her friend's paranoia. She usually enjoyed teasing Fate about her crush but even that had gotten old after the hundredth time of bringing up this particular topic that day.

"I don't think she likes me that way," Fate replied after thoroughly checking that Nanoha was nowhere near the vicinity.

Hayate looked at Fate sceptically. "My dear friend, she practically eye-sexes you every time you're in the same room. If that doesn't scream 'attraction', I honestly don't know what does." At Fate's confused blink, Hayate sighed and explained, "I meant she stares at you a lot."

"Oh. Isn't that because my uniform's really well-ironed? That's what Nagato-san said when I asked her why she was staring."

The short haired brunette had a mind to find this Nagato-san and strangle the girl on the spot for making Fate's denseness even worse, if that was even possible.

Hayate tried a different tactic. "Why do you think she bakes you those pastries every week? That's obviously a sign of a crush."

Fate tilted her head. "Hayate, don't be silly. She just wants to test her pastries on me because I like eating them. She says she learns from my feed-backs."

Hayate groaned. She felt like slamming her head repeatedly on the table. "Fate, there's something called lying. It's what people do when they don't want other people to know something. In this case, Nanoha's obvious crush on you," she said carefully and slowly, as if explaining the concept of one plus one to a three year old.

"She didn't seem like she was lying though," Fate countered.

"Well maybe she's a good actress!" Hayate all but snapped as her patience dwindled. She took a deep calming breath and let out her frustration. "Sorry for snapping," she apologized.

Fate smiled kindly, "It's okay. I'm not very good at this kind of thing." She paused. Then, with a faint blush, she asked in a small voice, "Do you really think she likes me?"

"One hundred percent," Hayate immediately replied reassuringly.

"Okay. I think I'm going to ask her to a date," Fate said. Her tone was soft but determined. Hayate snapped her head to meet her friend's eyes. She broke out into a wide grin when she saw that Fate was being absolutely serious. Honestly, she was happy for her friend.

"Go for it, tiger!" she said with a thumb up. This elicited a small grin on her friend's face as she nodded. Hayate's smile slowly turned lecherous. "Remember Fate; don't do anything I wouldn't do." This time, Fate actually caught on and blushed.

"You mean, don't do anything you would do," Fate muttered. Hayate laughed heartily but did not deny the accusation.

"But what if she's just being friendly and we're reading things all wrong?" Fate asked. Hayate smile immediately slipped off her face and she was about to simply reach across and literally slap some sense into her friend until she saw a cheeky smile on the blonde's face and she realized that Fate was just joking.

"Oh har har," Hayate laughed humourlessly.

There was a comfortable silence after that, both of them turning back to their food and digging in. That was until Fate decided to interrupt the silence yet again with another question.

"But what if-"

"Fate…" Hayate warned.

"Okay, sorry. I'll stop."