Disclaimer:
I do not claim ownership of the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha series or franchise. This is a non-profit fan-written story written exclusively for entertainment purposes.

{]-~*(X)*~-[}

Shortly after I'd formulated a plan of action I had gathered the courage to speak to my parents. I found them in the living room watching television together. I told them I wanted to ask them something and Mom almost immediately muted the TV. I nearly broke down under their inquisitive gazes but in the end I asked them how they'd feel about it if I used my baking skills not for the benefit of the Midori-ya but for the benefit of a different place.

This question of course sparked quite a few questions from my parents' side. In the end I told them pretty much everything. About my first visit to the Alicia 'T'-House, meeting with Fate and her mother and even about Fate's deceased twin sister Alicia.

Mom asked me if Fate was the one I'd made those scones for, which I confirmed and followed up with telling them about my meeting with Fate that morning. Pretty much the only thing I left out was my offering of my baking services to Fate.

"You really like this 'Fate' girl don't you?" Mom asked me.

"I do." I answered. More than you know.

Mom and Dad looked at each other for a moment. It was almost like they were communicating with just their eyes. They smiled at each other and turned back to me.

"We just want you to be happy dear," Mom said, "and if you think working with this Fate Testarossa will make you happy, then we will not stop you."

*~-{ Tea and Sweets }-~*
*~-{ Written by Zarosguth }-~*
*~-{ Chapter #3: Tea and Sweets }-~*

It was early morning when Fate was on her way to the Alicia 'T'-House. Once the teahouse came into view Fate saw something she hadn't dared hope she'd see that day.

She saw the familiar auburn ponytail on the left side of the head of the woman that'd been dominating her world for the past two days.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Trying not to get her hopes up too much; there was no guarantee this would be a happy visit. For all Fate knew, the brunette could've come here to tell her she had no intention of actually working for her and that she wanted to make that clear as quick as possible.

{]-~*(X)*~-[}

The clicking of heels caught Nanoha's attention and she was soon face to face with the golden blonde she couldn't stop thinking about for the past two days.

"Hey, good morning." She greeted a bit too meekly to her liking.

"Good morning Nanoha." The blonde greeted back. "What're you doing here?"

Nanoha panicked; was she not welcome here? She did say some weird things last time. Maybe Fate thought she was a freak now. Then she remembered the blonde had asked her to come over again sometime so obviously it was okay.

"Um, about yesterday…" Nanoha started.

"It's okay. I understand." Fate cut in, "You already have a job. At your parents' café no less so-"

"No!"

Nanoha's yell startled the blonde as well Nanoha herself.

"No, that's not what I'm trying to say." Nanoha continued at a more reasonable volume. "What I'm trying to say is that… my offer, to help you? It's still on the table. That is, if you'd want me." Nanoha started fidgeting as she stared at the pavement. She could now only hope Fate would actually be willing to hire her.

It stayed quiet. After what Nanoha felt was too long she started walking. It was clear to her that Fate had no intention of hiring her and was probably trying to look for a polite way of saying no.

Nanoha walked past Fate without making eye contact. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes and she didn't want the blonde to see. A hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"You know," the soft, gentle voice of a certain red-eyed blonde caused Nanoha to look up.

Violet met red.

"I let some customers try those scones you made. And they loved them. And when I saw their faces, enjoying those scones and the tea and…" Fate's voice cracked so she took a deep breath to steady herself. "I realized that was my goal. To see people enjoy some tea and sweets and… what I'm trying to say is that if you want a job- I already received a taste of what you can do so, if you want to, you're hired."

It was silent for a moment, red and violet were locked on to each other unrelentingly.

"Thank you!" Nanoha broke the silence and all but assaulted Fate as she flung her arms around the blonde. "I won't let you down!"

Fate gently wrapped her arms around Nanoha, answering the auburn-haired woman's hug with her own. "I have no doubt about that. Welcome aboard, Nanoha."

{]-~*(X)*~-[}

After the initial shock of actually getting hired, Nanoha's brain went into overdrive as Fate led her into the teahouse. As it turned out, Nanoha would have a lot of shopping to do, not to mention ask her mom about suppliers as the only ingredients available at the Alicia 'T'-House were tea ingredients.

Fate assured Nanoha she could take it easy; she didn't have to start that day. Before anything else, Fate wanted to give Nanoha the full tour of the teahouse, going through where everything was in the kitchen. Fate also wanted Nanoha to take her time and observe what a day at the teahouse was like, get a feel for the type of customers that visited and so on. While aware that the brunette was a frequent help in her parents' café, she figured there was no harm in just having Nanoha observe for a day.

Nanoha, on her part, agreed to observe for a day. And she had no regrets in doing so; she observed the way Fate acted around customers and seemed to be able to get along with pretty much everyone which only made her admire the blonde that much more.

During the quiet moments when there were no customers Fate and Nanoha sat down for some tea themselves and discussing the ideas Nanoha had for the menu. Together they tried to think of which flavours of tea would go best with which flavours of sweets.

When closing time came around Nanoha helped Fate clean up. The two of them were engaged in idle chatter when they heard the bell at the front door chime. Turning towards the door they saw something that surprised the both of them.

"Mother!" Fate.

"Mom?" Nanoha.

In had walked both Precia Testarossa and Momoko Takamachi.

"Hello dear," Precia greeted her daughter.

"Hello honey," Momoko said as she walked up to her daughter to give her a hug. "What a small world."

"Uh…" Nanoha was flabbergasted; her mom knew Fate's mother?

"So, it's your daughter that I met a few days ago." Precia said with an amused smile, noting the confusion on the younger Takamachi's face.

"You know Fate's mom?" Nanoha finally managed to ask the question that had been burning on her lips.

"That's right." Momoko confirmed.

"So when I talked to you yesterday evening-"

"Yes, it didn't take me long to figure out one of my childhood friends was involved." Momoko smiled before sharing a look with Precia.

"She came by the hospital today," Precia started explaining now, "she wanted to confirm that Fate is, indeed, my daughter."

Momoko let go of her daughter and went to stand besides Precia. She looked at Fate and spoke. "Your mother has assured me you'd take good of my daughter."

Fate nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

Momoko chuckled softly. "There's no need for that dear; you're my friend's daughter. Just call me Momoko."

A comfortable silence set in and the two older women couldn't help but notice their daughters' hands grabbing for each other and holding on. The two mothers looked at each other and laughed.

The two daughters shot each other questioning glances, wondering what their mothers found so funny.

"Well, it seems the two of you are handling things here perfectly." Precia broke the silence with a knowing smile. "Fate, dear, about tonight, will you sleep at home or will you stay here?"

"Stay here?" Nanoha asked curiously. "You live here Fate?"

"Well uh," Fate was caught off guard by her mother's sudden question; she never really commented on the fact that Fate had yet to move out and as far as Fate was concerned, that would have yet to change.

"You mean she hasn't shown you the living quarters upstairs yet?" Precia cut in raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I'd love to have a look." Momoko chimed in happily.

{]-~*(X)*~-[}

Neither Nanoha nor Fate had any idea how it all happened but somehow their mothers had set them up to where Nanoha would be staying the night over with Fate at the living quarters above the teahouse.

It all started with Precia and Fate, but mostly Precia, showing Nanoha and Momoko around the upstairs of the teahouse. The two brunettes had commented on how nice it all looked which somehow led to Precia asking if Nanoha would like to stay over with Fate which, in turn, led to Momoko being all for it, offering to bring over some clean clothes for her daughter.

Both mothers kept going on about something to do with getting Nanoha and Fate to know each other better to ensure a healthy work relationship.

Fate just was glad she already had some clothes over at the teahouse; she didn't really feel like explaining that she, despite having such a nice living space, was still sleeping at her mother's house.

Momoko and Precia had already left and Nanoha and Fate were standing in Fate's living room. Both girls felt a bit awkward to say the least.

"Uh, make yourself at home." Fate offered, motioning for the couch.

Nanoha nodded and carefully sat down, Fate sat down next to her and again they were wrapped in awkward silence.

All of a sudden Nanoha began to giggle. After a few seconds Fate followed suit. Giggling turned into chuckling and chuckling eventually turned into all-out laughter.

"Wow, our mothers are awkward aren't they?" Fate said in-between laughs.

"Tell me about it!" Nanoha answered, wiping a tear from her eye.

Once the laughter had died down Nanoha spoke up again, "But, I am kind of glad they set us up."

Shock graced the blonde's features for a second before being replaced by a gentle smile. "Me too." Fate's response was so soft Nanoha almost missed it.

The two young women looked each other in the eyes. Violet staring into burgundy, burgundy staring into violet. Fate slowly moved closer to Nanoha, their eyes never looking away from the other's.

Fate halted, mere centimetres away from Nanoha's face. Nanoha's eyes broke contact with Fate's, and instead focused on the blonde's beautiful pink lips. She wanted to feel those lips on her own.

She needed to feel those lips on her own.

Nanoha leaned forward, meeting the Fate the rest of the way. She pressed her own lips on the blonde's. The kiss was short and left both girls wanting more.

Fate brought her hands up and cupped Nanoha's cheeks. The second kiss was hungry and passionate. Fate licked Nanoha's lower lip, asking permission. Nanoha parted her lips, granting access.

Nanoha brought her hands in Fate's golden tresses and was pleasantly surprised to find that those blonde hairs were even softer and smoother than she had expected.

Tongues met each other, tasted each other and did not stop until the need for oxygen became too much and the two young women finally broke the kiss.

Violet and burgundy met again and tried to find a sense of shock, anger or uncertainty. But all they found was love, and lust.

Lips clashed again, Fate pushed Nanoha down on the couch and started trailing wet kisses along Nanoha's neck. Nanoha shivered in response and used her hands to pull Fate closer and closer, pressing their bodies into each other.

Fate worked back up again, kissing Nanoha across her jaw-line before going back to the brunette's lips where more heated kisses were exchanged between the blonde and the brunette.

Plenty of passionate kisses later, the two found themselves on the couch resting.

Fate was on her back on the couch while Nanoha lay on top of her, resting her head on the blonde's chest. Fate was absentmindedly stroking a hand through that soft auburn hair that belonged to the woman she fell in love with barely three days ago.

"I hope this doesn't affect your work performance." Fate spoke softly.

"I think this will only help motivate me to perform to the best of my abilities." Nanoha quipped back.

Fate couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sure it would."

"I love you, Fate. I love you very much. Since the moment I first saw you I knew. Maybe it was only subconsciously, but I fell in love with you on first sight." Nanoha whispered huskily.

"I love you too, Nanoha; you were the first person besides my mother I felt comfortable with talking about Alicia. You're special Nanoha. From the moment I first saw you stepping into my life, I knew you were special." Fate whispered back.

Nanoha saw tears building in the blonde's burgundy eyes. But she knew these weren't tears of sadness, but of happiness. Nanoha tightened the hold she had on Fate.

Nanoha smiled, "I suppose we should thank our moms for setting us up."

That got Fate to break out in uncontrollable laughter as it reminded her that Precia had tried that the first day she met Nanoha.

Calming down she resumed stroking her hand through Nanoha's hair.

"I suppose we should."

*~-{ End of Chapter }-~*

Afterword:
Thank you for sticking with this story until the end, I hope you've found it to have been worth your time and I hope you will also go and enjoy the extras that make up 'chapter 4'.

I thought listening to some Smooth Jazz would be the best way to go about working on a story like this. In the end I almost only listened to Power Metal instead. Heh, watch me write an action oriented story one day while only listening to some relaxing jazz. Ah whatever, doesn't matter what I listen to as long as things work out in the end right?

Again, a big thank you to everyone who read this story, followed this story, added this story to their favourites and an extra big thanks to everyone who left a review; you're all awesome and it's thanks to you all that I am able to enjoy writing as much as I do.

With that, let me leave you with my usual request and salute:

Please leave me a review telling me what you think; I love getting feedback and I don't mind people being critical. In fact, I welcome it!

*~-{ May we meet again, fare thee well! }-~*