A/N: I will be updating this story next until it's completion. I apologize for having to take a break from it for a few weeks, but I feel really motivated to continue working on it to the end from here on out :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from or the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha anime, nor any other movie, actor, song, or character referenced or stated in this story.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

by : ~Nissanity~

Chapter 26 – Birds and Bees

Nanoha POV

"That's good, Einhart. Please begin practicing your swings while I assist Vivio with her stance and grip."

I hummed a little to myself in amusement as I watched my father carefully and patiently begin to instruct Vivio and Einhart in the art of kendo. Einhart soon began to swing the shinai over her head repeatedly as instructed. He next adjusted Vivio's hands to spread them farther apart on the handle. Hayate and I attempted to be inconspicuous as we observed the first practice session from the corner of the room.

"What do you think it is all about?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

I held my hand out in front of me with my palm facing towards Vivio across the room. "The electricity thing?"

"I don't know, honestly," Hayate replied. "But Teana seems to think it's some sort of side effect. Consequences for s mother interfering with their daughter's destiny, or something like that."

"So, we are being punished by nature for saving our children? Even though it also ingrained in us to always protect them?"

Hayate sighed. "What's wrong, Nanoha? You haven't been yourself today at all."

I watched silently as Vivio began the same motions as Einhart. Visions of her having to use this training at some point to defend her life soon flooded my mind. I closed my eyes and looked away to will myself to not have such horrible thoughts.

"It seems like Vivio knows what she is doing?" Hayate mentioned after observing her for a few minutes.

I raised my head and noticed my father was now studying Vivio closely. He seemed to recognize that she could not have such control over the weapon if she had never been trained before. I was surprised myself to see her wielding the shinai so skillfully, as if the motions were completely natural to her.

"In my dream I pulled her from, she was about to be killed by a sword. So maybe she had been trained to use one in her previous life as well?" I mentioned.

"Her previous life?" Hayate replied. "You mean her real one?"

My eyes shot over to Hayate, now feeling a little disgusted. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Hayate looked to the floor and crossed her arms. "I'm scared too, Nanoha," she said quietly.

"Of what?"

"Of the inevitable."

I leaned in closer to Hayate and kept my voice down. "What is this all about? Are you trying to hurt me right now for some reason?" I asked angrily.

"No. I'm just trying to prepare you is all," she replied. "And maybe to prepare myself as well."

Fed up with the conversation, I pulled away from the wall. I turned to walk towards the front door of the dojo and Hayate began to follow me soon after.

"Where are you going, Mama?" Vivio asked when she noticed us leaving.

"Vivio?!" Einhart scolded her and looked over at my father in alarm. Vivio recognized her mistake immediately when she saw me stop in my tracks to stare at her in disbelief.

"Mama...?" my father questioned. He first narrowed his eyes at Vivio to look at her closely. He then glanced across the room at me in confusion. I looked away from him, now feeling an unbearable tension begin to fall over everyone.

"I would like an explanation, Nanoha," he then said.

"How could I even being to tell you?" I responded.

My father pointed to Vivio. "Am I really to believe that she is of our flesh and blood?"

"They both are," Hayate answered for me. "Vivio is your granddaughter, and Einhart is your great niece."

"What are you talking about? It would be impossible. And why have you not discussed it with Momoko and I before, if this were the case?"

"Would you have believed me anyway?" I asked with a raised voice."It's not like you guys have had the best track record of trusting me or anything."

My father walked a few steps towards me. "Your tone is not appreciated, Nanoha," he said.

"Well, too bad," I growled. "You don't deserve any better from me."

"Alright, that's enough, Nanoha!" Hayate said. "Shiro, I'll take her outside to cool down for a minute. Please excuse us."

Shiro wordlessly turned back to face his students in the dojo. Vivio had the shinai hanging loosely from her hand and looked upset, while Einhart nervously stared at the floor.

"Let's try something else for a little bit?" I heard my father suggest as we walked out of the dojo.

Hayate spun around once we were on the sidewalk outside. "Seriously, what is with you Nanoha?" she asked.

"I just... God, I feel like I'm losing my mind, Hayate! Suggesting that they have to go back? Why would you say that?"

"It's not a suggestion, Nanoha. It's just reality," she replied seriously.

I threw my hands up in the air. "It's not like we would know how to send them back anyway! So what is the point of discussing this?"

Hayate remained silent after my statement. I noticed she appeared conflicted, as if debating whether she should disclose information she had that I currently did not.

"What? What do you know?" I asked skeptically.

"I was showing Einhart the brown book after Fate and Vivio left the house last night. She wanted to see what Fate was reading. She read that Peter Pan story first. She then she saw their story in the book."

"And?"

"She said the second she started reading the first sentence, she felt something happening to her. She slammed the book shut before she finished reading it, but she said if she had read any further she knew something was going to happen."

I shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to destroy the book then. I don't care about it."

Hayate scoffed a little at my response. "You can't just do that! It may be the only thing keeping them alive at all at this point."

"Has it escaped your attention that we are all girls in this time period, Hayate?" I asked her. "If they go back, they can never be born and live here with us again. Can you really accept that?"

"But if we keep them here, then they won't live any other time either," Hayate countered. "They have to live properly the first time, so that they can possibly have other lives afterward."

"So I have to give her up in this life so that I can have her in others? Is that it?"

"Yes, Nanoha. That's exactly it."

I took a moment to consider her declaration. "I'm done with this conversation," I finally replied. I turned my back to her and began to walk away towards the dojo entrance again.

"You're not the only one with a daughter at stake here, you know?" Hayate added. I ignored her comment and opened the front door instead. As it was shutting behind me, I heard it reopen and Hayate follow me back inside. I glanced over to the middle of the room and noticed Vivio and Einhart practicing the very basics of Tae Kwon Do now.

My father walked across room when he saw me enter the dojo again. "So who is the father?" he asked bluntly. "Vivio won't tell me."

I groaned in frustration. "Can we just talk about this later?"

"As you wish. We will discuss this all over dinner on Saturday," he replied.

"Are you going to tell Mom?" I asked.

"I keep no secrets from my wife. I'm sure you can understand that yourself now, Nanoha."

Before I could respond to the insinuating comment, we heard louder noises come from behind us in the middle of the room. We all looked over to see Vivio and Einhart in an intense fistfight, although they were both weaving and ducking each others punches expertly.

"Can you explain that then?" my father then asked.

"Not in the slightest," I replied as I watched them in shock as well.

We all watched Vivio duck one of Einhart's swings and reach to wrap her arms around her shoulders. She used her right leg to trip Einhart and knock her to the ground with her on top. She had Einhart's arms pinned at her side to hold her down, and both were panting hard and staring at each other directly.

"How did you do that?" Einhart asked.

Vivio shook her head slowly as if she were in a daze. I gasped a little when I saw Vivio lean down to try to kiss her, but Einhart turned her head away at the last moment before she could be successful. Vivio seemed to snap out of her trance after the rejection and quickly stood up from the floor. Einhart sat up on the ground afterward and refused to look up at her.

"Uh-oh," Hayate whispered.

"Sorry!" Vivio said to her quickly. I saw her hand shaking as she reached down to help her up, but she then thought better of it and retracted her hand. "I-I'm sorry, Einhart," she then whispered.

I walked over to Vivio across the room, who now had her head sunk to face the floor. I could see the telltale sign that she was crying silently when I noticed her shoulder's shaking a little bit.

"It's okay, Vivio," I said gently. I began to reach up to comfort her but quickly remembered that I couldn't touch her anymore myself. "Why do we head back to Fate-chan's house?" I suggested instead. "We can get some dinner."

Vivo wiped her eyes and nodded at me. She turned around to exit the dojo quickly and I followed close behind her. I stopped to say goodbye to Hayate before I turned to face my father.

"I'm sorry about this, Dad. Why don't we just wait until dinner on Saturday to meet again?" I asked.

"That's fine, Nanoha. We will discuss everything then," he replied.

I waved one last time to Hayate and then ran out the front door to try to comfort my daughter through the first heartbreak of her life.

oOOOo

Fate POV

I entered in the security code to the warehouse that had once been my family's training headquarters, which had now been converted to act as a full-fledged laboratory. As I walked through the second security door, I observed my mother at the end of one of the tables in the middle of the room. Her focus was completely centered on a slide under her microscope as I approached.

"What are you looking at?" I asked her. My mother only continued to peer into the lenses as if she hadn't heard me.

"Precia?" I attempted again.

"Parthenogenesis," she murmured.

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm doing an experiment on parthenogenesis," she responded a bit louder.

"Oh, I see. But... I actually don't know what that means?" I admitted.

My mother moved her hands up to readjust the slide on the base. "It is in preparation for the cloning experiments I will be conducting next."

I finally nodded. "Ah, now I get it... Wait, what? Cloning?! What is this all about?"

"My granddaughter and niece, of course," my mother replied briskly. She shifted her eyes up to me momentarily before returning her vision to the experiment again.

"But is that even possible, though?" I asked.

"What? Cloning?" she responded. "Of course it is. It has been around for decades."

I leaned in closer to her. "Are you seriously considering cloning Vivio and Einhart?"

My mother said nothing in response to my question and instead pulled away from the microscope to cross the room to grab a new slide to study. I knew it was her method of avoiding confrontation over one of her ideas that I might not be in agreement with.

"Mother, I - " I started, but I stopped talking momentarily when I heard the the front door to the warehouse open. Soon, the second interior door opened and Quint walked inside.

"Hey, Fate," she greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Nanoha is out at the dojo with the girls for their first session with Shiro. I thought I would stop by and see how things were going here."

Quint smiled and looked around the warehouse. "This looks quite different, huh?" she mentioned.

I pointed at the microscope. "Do you know what my mother has been researching?" I asked her instead.

"Of course I do," she replied. "We both have been running experiments."

I let Quint walk past me to approach one of the tables near my mother. She retrieved her labcoat from the back of one of the chairs and put it on. "Does this bother you?" she finally asked.

"Well...?" I began. "I honestly don't know how I feel about all of it just yet."

"Why is that? Does it seem unethical?"

I shook my head. "No, it's not that. I just know that Vivio and Einhart can't have two existences here. The ones here now would have to go back to their own time and live those lives first, wouldn't they?"

"The writing is on the wall, Fate," Quint replied. "At some point, we will lose them. It's just a matter of time as to when that will be."

"How can we be so sure though?" I continued. "The electricity thing could only be temporary?"

Quint said nothing and instead started setting up a research station across from my mother. I exhaled in slight frustration at her reluctance to answer the question.

"There is a natural order to things, Fate," my mother then said. "No matter how much you want to fight it, nature always finds a way to correct itself."

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply as I contemplated life without Vivio and Einhart now. I thought of Nanoha and the maternal instincts that had become so apparent since Vivio's arrival, and how devastated she would be to lose the daughter she had just met.

"If this did work," I eventually said, "they wouldn't be the same though, right? They wouldn't have the same memories or anything?"

"That is true," Quint replied. "But they would still be Vivio and Einhart. And that is better than not having them at all. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Okay, I get it," I relented. "So how does this all work? Do you fuse my DNA with Nanoha's or something?"

My mother frowned at me. "It doesn't work like that! Did you learn nothing during sexual education in school?"

"Oh, god..." I moaned.

Quint stepped forward. "It's actually not that complicated. You take a reproductive egg from the mother and remove it's nucleus. You then take the nucleus of a skin cell from who you want to clone, which would Vivio and Einhart in this case. Then you add in some electricity to fuse the two together and start the cell division. Implant the embryo back in the mother and wah-la! You have your clone."

"Oh, god!" I yelled again. Before I could discuss the proposal with the two of them any further I felt my cellphone vibrate in my pocket, signaling that I had received a text message.

"Can you come home soon? Something happened between Vivio and Einhart D: " the text read.

"It's Nanoha," I told them. "She is back at our house. She said something happened between Vivio and Einhart. It might not be good."

"You should go then. We still have work to do here anyway," Quint replied.

I began to walk towards the door of the warehouse but stopped halfway and turned back around again. "I don't think we should tell anyone about this just yet. In case it's not possible."

"But we have to start harvesting some of Nanoha's and Ginga's eggs soon, though?" my mother protested.

I closed my eyes and looked to the ceiling. "That is probably the creepiest comment I will ever hear in my life," I muttered.

"We won't tell anyone else until we absolutely have to, okay?" Quint reassured me. "If we are going to at all."

"Alright. I'll see you back at the house?" I said to my mother, but she had already turned back to stare into the microscope once again and did not respond to me.

Quint smiled apologetically. "We will see you later, Fate," she said.

oOOOo

When I arrived at home after leaving the warehouse, I noticed the house seemed quieter and darker than usual. I soon realized that the living room light was the only one on as I shut the front door behind me. I found Nanoha sitting on the couch with Vivio, who was holding her face in her hands in despair.

"That doesn't look good," I mentioned as I came to sit in the chair beside the couch. Nanoha glanced up to me and shrugged while Vivio continued to remained motionless.

"Vivio tried to kiss Einhart today at the dojo," Nanoha finally informed me.

Vivio's hands flew away from her face. "Mama?!"

"It's okay, Vivio," she replied. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Of course I did! You saw how Einhart reacted!"

I tried to smile a little. "May I ask why you tried to do that there, Vivio?"

"I don't know, Fate-mama!" Vivio replied in frustration. "It was almost like I didn't have any control over it."

A sudden knock came to the front door, catching all three of us off guard and we jumped at the sound. I walked back to the front door to answer it.

"Hey, Fate!" Ginga greeted. She was standing behind Einhart on the front stoop, and Hayate was standing next to her. Einhart was having difficulty looking me directly in the eye and instead choose to look at the floor past me.

"Hey, guys. What's going on?"

"May we come in?" Hayate asked. "Einhart would like to speak with Vivio, please."

I opened the door wider so that they could enter. "Of course. Come on in."

I lead the three of them into the living room in silence. Einhart was the last to enter, and when Vivio saw her she looked away in embarrassment at the floor just like her.

"Einhart would like to talk, Vivio. Is that okay with you?" I asked.

Vivio closed her eyes and nodded in silent agreement. Ginga and Hayate were the first to head into the dining room to give them their privacy. I began to walk behind them as well, but was forced to stop when I noticed Nanoha not moving from the couch. I caught her eye and gestured with my head to the other room. Nanoha shook her head no at first, but then groaned and stood up from the couch to walk to join us.

"Alright, you guys," I said. "We will all just... Not, be here..." I stammered and then walked away to leave them to their conversation.

"So how was training?" I asked Nanoha once we were all in the dining room. We could all hear the faint murmurs of Einhart and Vivio in discussion in the other room.

"It was good," she replied. "They must have some experience with fighting in the past, I guess. It seemed natural to them."

"That doesn't seem surprising, considering the dreams we pulled them from," Ginga said.

"My father found out about Vivio being my daughter, though," Nanoha then mentioned.

I couldn't help but grimace. "Did that go well?"

"No," Nanoha shook her head. "Not really. And he still doesn't know you are the other parent, Fate-chan."

"You should just show him the genetic test results," Hayate suggested. "He will understand what they mean. He was a researcher like Precia and Quint before he owned the corporation, after all."

Nanoha crossed her arms and kicked at the floor. "That's not why I was hesitant to tell him," she replied. She then glanced up at me to see if I understood what she meant by that, and I could only shrug helplessly in response at her.

"How are you going to tell him about Fate's role, then?" Ginga asked.

"I'll tell everyone at dinner on Saturday. I just wanted Fate-chan by my side when I did it is all."

"That's probably a... Hey, wait a minute," Ginga then said. "It seems to have gotten a bit quieter in the living room now, don't you think?"

The four of us glanced around at each other quickly. I held up my index finger to my lips and walked towards the wall of the dining room that separated it from the living room. As I peaked around the corner, I was greeted by the sight of the Vivio and Einhart now kissing passionately on the couch. I quickly looked away and squeezed my eyes shut. I then opened my eyes to face the other parents in the dining room afterward, and I noticed Nanoha staring at me with wide eyes expectantly.

"It looks like they made up," I announced happily. Nanoha immediately started walking towards the living room after my comment, but we all grabbed her before she could reach the doorway.

"Nanoha! You're such a mom!" Ginga joked.

Nanoha sulked for a moment but then relaxed. "I guess it's not that bad of a thing to happen," she eventually said.

Ginga and I shared a knowing and impressed nod regarding our daughters' actions. Hayate rolled her eyes at us. Nanoha chose to glare at me directly in response to my smug expression.

"I guess we should head back to the living room now!" I said loudly towards the doorway. The four of us gave them a few seconds more before walking back into the living room. Both Vivio and Einhart were now on separate ends of the couch as we entered, their faces more flushed than I had ever seen before.

"So, what did you two figure out?" I asked as we returned to stand near the blushing girls.

"I was telling Vivio I was not upset with her," Einhart replied. "I just did not think the dojo was a proper venue for that sort of thing."

"And I apologized for trying to do that there," Vivio added.

"Well, all's well that ends well!" Ginga said happily. "Now let's get these two back to the house, shall we?"

Vivio and Einhart both stood up and started stepping away from the couch to leave. Nanoha quickly walked to stand by her daughter. "You're not staying here after all, Vivio?"

She blushed again and looked away in embarrassment. "I-I think I'd like to spend the night over at Quint's house with Einhart, Mama. If that's okay?"

Nanoha moaned slightly and looked away. I observed her tapping her foot against the ground as she thought about the suggestion. "Yes, I suppose that's fine, Vivio," she replied reluctantly.

The group said their goodbyes to Nanoha and me before leaving the house for the evening. After I heard the front door shut, I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong, Nanoha?" I asked.

Nanoha immediately wrapped her arms around me. "Both of them are half- Testarossa, Fate-chan. I know what you guys are all about," she moaned into my shirt.

I laughed and hugged her closer. "Yes, that's true. Neither of them stand a chance tonight."

Nanoha groaned even louder. "Fate-chan!"

I pulled Nanoha over to the couch so that we could sit down and talk. I sat down first and Nanoha followed to cuddle up next to me. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as she put her feet up on the couch to curl into a ball against me.

"I know they are young, Nanoha. But they aren't that young," I mentioned. "What bothers you so much about it?"

"I guess it all just seems so fast," she replied. "Not for them exactly, but for me."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I hadn't really thought about having children before all this. I'm still young myself. But now that this has all happened, I think it's just hard to deal with the fact I wasn't there from the beginning with her."

"You mean, that you didn't give birth to her yourself?" I ventured.

"Or to be there for her first word. Or for her first day at school. All of a sudden I have a teenage daughter, and I'm already having to wonder if she is ready for sex yet or not."

"Do you think you feel cheated, in a way?"

Nanoha turned to look up at me. "I don't know if that is the right way to phrase how I feel about it. It's more like, I wish I could have had her from the beginning. But I can't, so I just try to be grateful I have her in my life at all."

I pulled her closer and kissed her on the top of her head. "Would you do anything to have it from the beginning, if it were possible?" I asked.

"Well, of course," Nanoha replied. "Who wouldn't?"

"Including letting them go back to their own time so it could happen?"

Nanoha pulled away to looked at me in confusion and slight pain. She then moved away completely and sat on the edge of the couch with her back to me. "Why do you guys keep asking me terrible things like that today?"

"I'm sorry, Nanoha," I replied. "I didn't know someone else had said something that upset you. I wasn't trying to hurt you."

"It's not your fault," she sighed. "I guess everyone else has accepted something I'm not ready to yet, it seems."

"I don't think any of us have accepted it. We are just preparing ourselves is all. There's a difference."

"I know," Nanoha said and then leaned back to sit against me on the couch again. "But can we talk about something else instead?"

"Sure. Anything."

"Are you ready for the dinner with my family on Saturday night?" she asked.

"Not exactly," I answered honestly. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable or to be worried about me, though."

"And how do you feel about it?"

I shrugged. "I know it's important to you. So that's what matters most."

Nanoha smiled sweetly and snuggled into my shoulder. "You're just trying to sweet talk me now," she said, her breath tickling my neck a little.

"Maybe so," I laughed softly. "Is it working?"

"We will just have to see later, I guess," she replied.

I leaned over to kiss her but was interrupted when my cellphone vibrated in my pocket. I retrieved it, even though Nanoha pouted at me when she saw me reach for it instead of her. I retrieved the message as quickly as I could, and after reading it I smiled at Nanoha.

"It's from Hayate. You'll be happy to hear this," I told her.

Nanoha sat up a little. "What did she have to say?"

"She says, 'Tell Nanoha not to worry, they are sleeping in separate rooms tonight'."

"Oh, thank god!" Nanoha said in relief and clung to me again excitedly.

"Ha! You are such a mom, Nanoha!" I teased.

A/N: See you on the next update! ~Nissanity~