When the two woke up the next day, neither Vita nor Hayate spoke of the little conversation they had a few hours ago. While Vita tried to bring it up later in the morning, she decided against it upon seeing Hayate's expression darken in response. Instead, Vita did her best to be as calming as she could, almost apologetically so for bringing something like this up right before a big event. It's something that the little knight definitely wanted to help her master with; but it had to wait. Hayate and Vita both knew that when the big day was over, she would be mercilessly grilled for everything relating to the stress she had been holding back.
But that was to be left for another day Today, they were supposed to spend all day resting. It had been a month since the Jail Scagletti incident had been resolved, and ever since then, work had started to run dry . Because of the lack of assigned missions, their funding quickly stopped and their duties seemed to be completely relegated to that of a bureaucratic division. Everyone knew it, but nobody quite wanted to say it: Riot Force 6 was dying. Soon, they'd be disbanded and everyone would be sent back to their separate divisions again. It was simply depressing! While nothing had ever stopped them from seeing each other outside of their work, sharing that time was simply a bliss. After all, Hayate had finally been able to fulfil the promise she made to her two closest friends. They were finally all working together, undivided, under one division of the TSAB!
"Na~no-haaa~"
Hayate's rather dark mood quickly bounced away as she suddenly saw one of her best friends walk through the hallway. She was a bit surprised, as she thought only her Wolkenritter had arrived thus far, after all, it was still so early in the morning! There was still an hour left until their workday would officially start, so even with Nanoha's worrying and sometimes even frightening work-ethic, it was rather surprising to see her this early in the day. However, her slightest worries wouldn't last too much longer. Making a short hop, the Commander embraced the Captain from behind, lovingly nuzzling her cheek into her back.
Nanoha almost fell flat on her face from the quick tackle Hayate gave her, barely managing to stop herself from falling flat on her face. "A-ah, hi, Hayate!" the cheery instructor said, stepping forward to break her Commander's quick embrace before turning around and showing her a happy little smile.
Before Nanoha could continue speaking, Hayate interrupted her with a quick wave of the hand. She looked around herself to ensure nobody was watching them. She was merely pretending, however; she wouldn't approach one of her subjects like this if there was a chance of anyone being around. Hayate knew that openly being this tactile with her subjects could result in some hefty criticism "Ahem, Captain Takamachi, it's nice to see that you're here so early!" Hayate gave Nanoha a bright smile, cutely holding her arms behind her back, wrapping her legs around one-another to pose as elegantly as possible. Nanoha responded with an amused little giggle, deciding to play along with the little act. "Thank you, Commander Yagami. I do my best to work as diligently as possible! Hearing your praise is the greatest reward I could ask for." The Captain even made a quick, elegant bow as she spoke, causing Hayate to be slightly taken aback, a bit shocked by how cute the little act was.
After the fun was over, however, Nanoha glanced around herself, letting out a soft little hum before speaking. Turning back to face the much shorter girl once again, Nanoha spoke. "Hayate." She said, her tone reverting to a serious one. "Have you seen Fate around?" It was rather clear Hayate didn't quite how Nanoha had already switched the subject away, towards the blonde Enforcer. Her lips curled up into a pout and her expression turned slightly sour, but within a moment Hayate had already caught herself and forced a smile back onto her face. "Mm? I haven't," she said, her expression shifting to a slightly worried one. "Is something wrong?" A tad of uneasiness also snuck into both her expression and voice. With how much of a den mother Hayate was and how Nanoha had suddenly switched to a more serious tone, Hayate couldn't help but be a bit worried!
"Nyahaha~ oh, no, wipe that worried expression off your face, Hayate! It's nothing serious, really! She just said she'd be here to help me when she was done with Vivio. I just didn't think it would take more than an hour, so I thought I might have missed her." The Captain's pure giggle managed to clear the worries from Hayate's mind nigh-instantly, making her put on her happy smile once again, losing the worry as quick as she gained it.
"Ahaha, okay. I'll tell her if I see her." Hayate said, giving a happy little nod before quickly hopping backwards and away from her friend. "I'd love to stay and chat, Nanoha, but I have a lot of paperwork left that needs to be done before the party, so I kinda have to hurry~" the girl cooed out softly. Nanoha reached out, trying to stop her "Ah, Hayate-" she said, but the young commander had already sprinted off without letting Nanoha give a proper response. She sighed, softly. Nanoha knew exactly what Hayate was up to, but it was not up to her to stop it and snap her out of it.
The quick rate that Hayate was able to rip through tons of paperwork was one of the only reasons that Riot Force 6 was still allowed to function without any actual work left. Hayate would've definitely preferred to sit around and spend some more time with Nanoha, especially since their loads of paperwork made it quite a bit harder to spend the time together that she wanted to! It was really frustrating!
Hayate opened the door to her office, quickly shutting it behind her and flipping the lock as she went. Throwing a party for her division was, obviously, a bit expensive. While it was partially a 'thank you for the good work', considering they had gotten more done than equally-expensive divisions did in a tenth of the time, a division-wide free day might be stretching it in the eyes of her superiors. Hayate had to work as hard as she could to let her beloved division continue to prevail, especially because many higher ups would prefer to disband the Riot Force, solely because of Hayate's connection to the Book of Darkness. Nothing seemed to change this preconception, not even how admirably she tried to keep everything together.
Thus, in return for letting her little division exist, they shifted as many menial tasks onto her as possible, generally almost obscene amounts of paperwork. While she thought she had finished everything yesterday, right before her shift ended, another load of paperwork was delivered, all of which had to be finished the next day. It would've really gotten in the way of preparations for the party, so Hayate kept it secret from everyone else. If all those that were authorized to handle this put their heads together and worked for two hours straight, they'd definitely be able to get it done early. But if everyone spent that amount of time working, then there wouldn't be enough time for them to prepare properly.
This party was supposed to be a grand event for everyone involved, and it should not be littered with the stress of paperwork! Dropping all of this on the division would definitely kill the mood of the party! "Aahh..." The Commander let out a noise of complaint as she moved herself to her desk, sitting down into her chair and grabbing onto the first page of paperwork. She had gotten quite used to having to read through tonnes of this every day by now, so it wasn't like it'd take her too long, maybe three hours? Perhaps four, at most?
"Ah, Hayate~" After a few minutes of working, a playful voice rang through Hayate's office. She shifted her attention to the door, almost jumping in shock when she saw someone entering. It seemed like one of Hayate's friends had let himself into her office, disregarding her lock completely. "Stop locking yourself up, Hayate!" Verossa said with a scolding look in his eyes, crossing his arms and giving the most stern expression he could muster. "Don't you know that cute little flowers need plenty of sunlight to grow?"
Okay, hearing Verossa's little teasings had always been a bit uplifting. Hayate couldn't help but show a soft smile for a moment before sitting right back into her chair. "Sorry, Verossa... I have a lot of work to do." she sighed softly, grabbing the documents she dropped only a few seconds earlier. She thought that locking the door behind her would keep anyone from disturbing her, but it seemed like Acous had somehow managed to snatch a key to the office. However, Hayate still had her keys on her, so there's only one other person he could've stolen it from!
"Don't forget to give Rein her keys back this time. You almost gave her a heart attack the last time you stole them!" Well, it wasn't like it hadn't happened before. Acous believed deeply in sticking his nose into someone else's business the instant his little 'investigator's instinct' implied something was wrong, and there wasn't very much that could stop him from doing so. Well, that's just the sign of him being a great investigator, right? "Ahaha... I really don't have the time to play around." the Commander sternly said, grabbing onto her pen and scribbling down a few notes, noticing that her friend had no intention of leaving. "Verossa!" Hayate sighed softly. "...I need to finish all of this before today's ceremony." Her hand gestured at the large stack of paperwork.
"Then, how about I help out? If cute little Ms. Yagami can do it, I'm sure I can help~!" Verossa leaned forward, sitting down next to Hayate and moving to steal that little pen from her hand, his free hand aiming to snatch the next piece of paper in the pile, quickly moving his hands before Hayate had any time to react-
"Verossa, you can't be..." Hayate whined out, quickly standing up and latching her hand out at the paperwork that he had deftly snatched away, but Verossa easily held it out of her reach by playfully pulling it up and away every time Hayate's hands came closer. "Hey, quit it! You don't have the clearance to read that!" The little Commander continued to scold as she thrust her hands right after Verossa's, trying to snatch it right back. However, all he needed to do to keep it out of her reach was stand up, raising the document higher up into the air, quite a tad out of the reach of Hayate's arms. "Nn, and even if you did!" Hayate stood up, making a quick jump to thrust her hand at the paper as fast as she could, but the teasing investigator just casually swayed his hand to the side, leaving her hopping around frustrated. "You don't have the authorization to...!"after a few more hops, however, Hayate stopped. Her scolding stopped mid sentence as she did, her arms still raised in the air for a short moment. It had finally hit Hayate how silly this entire situation was and she froze on the spot!
Hayate dropped her arms back down to her sides, letting a soft snicker out of her lips before loudly bursting out into a joyful, happy laugh. God, it felt like she was in high school again, back when people would tease her for her petite form! "Ahaha… Verossa, you idiot." She said, showing Verossa a bright smile, moving her hand up to wipe the tears of happiness from her eyes. After a moment other hand quickly moved to jab him gently in his chest. Verossa finally let his arms down, setting that little piece of paper right back on the Commander's desk, placing his hand on her head and softly patting her. "'Hayate, a Commander shouldn't try to protect everyone by pulling all the stress onto themselves!' … is something that Chrono would say right now, isn't it?" Verossa trailed his hand down towards her cheek, giving her a gentle caress. Hayate's lips curled into a wide smile, the attention she was getting her quite emotional.
Suddenly, the office's door opened once more. "...Ah, Verossa. I was going to say that!" It was already a bit embarrassing to have Verossa come and cheer her up, but now Chrono was there, too? "Ah... Fate, Chrono." her lips curled upwards, showing a happy smile as both Chrono and his adopted sister let themselves in. "Fate told us you've seemed quite a bit off the last few days, Hayate." Chrono said, sitting himself down in front of Hayate's desk and giving her a quick little nod. It seemed like Verossa dropped by because everyone was worried. How uniquely heartwarming!
Fate followed soon after, sitting down right next to Chrono as she gave Hayate a warm smile. "Nanoha and I both noticed that you've been really bad about splitting the workload lately... you've been pulling everything onto yourself again." she said, her eyes drifting towards her adopted brother and the investigator, giving them both a quick nod, before shifting her eyes right back to her Commander, putting on a face that was just a tad scolding, to say the least.
"Knowing this little event was coming up, we figured you'd try to pull a fast one like this." Verossa also sat himself down next to Chrono before mockingly waving his hand at her, as if making fun of her for turning her brain off and trying to hide from the friends that desperately wanted to help her. "Anyway; Hayate. While I can't dismiss this paperwork or anything, I can definitely help you. Fate, too." Chrono said, causing Verossa to look sheepishly at him. Chrono responded with a quick look and a "No.", causing Verossa to react by putting on a weak, defeated expression, curling his bottom lip and pointing at his face. "...I can't?" he said, feigning an expression as sad as he possibly could before reverting to a relatively serious face but a second later.
"...By the way, where's Nanoha? I thought she'd be here, too. I'm assuming the preparations are keeping her busy?" the investigator said, instantly shifting his attention towards the blonde Enforcer, figuring she knew the answer best. Fate lifted her head away from the paperwork she just started, giving Hayate a soft look. "Well... I didn't want to put even more work on Nanoha. She already has to do most of the preparations alone because I'm here to help you, Hayate."
Hayate's stared at Fate for a moment before darkly looking down towards her desk, grabbing onto a piece of paper and starting to read with a slightly sombre expression. It took Fate a second to realise what part of her words had startled poor Hayate. "Ah, no, no, Hayate! Don't worry, don't worry. I talked to her just now, and she said she was completely fine taking over for me." Fate said in a worried tone, knowing that pushing more work onto Nanoha was one of the last things Hayate wanted to do! She really hadn't thought that through. Fate's teeth wrapped around her bottom lip as she bit down on it, softly, trying to think of a way to lighten the mood. Her attention wavered towards Verossa and her brother for a moment, but they were doing little to help. She pondered for a few moments on a way to lighten Hayate's mood, before reaching her hands forward and grabbing onto a pen and a bit of paperwork.
"Alright, Hayate! Don't worry, I'm the fastest in Riot Force 6 and all of the TSAB! We'll rip through this paperwork in no time at all!" Fate put on a triumphant tone, spinning her pen between her fingers in her best attempt to crack a joke, pushing her elbow on the desk and giving Hayate a look that tried to show how resolved she, but all she accomplished was looking really silly. All the effort Fate put into looking strong was already unintentionally hilarious alone, but it was made even worse by Fate fumbling the pen out of her fingers. Fate's 'strong' expression quickly turned to an embarrassed one, reaching down to look for the pen. Awkwardly, she did her best to salvage the situation by giggling softly, trying to pretend that this act was all as planned.
Hayate's expression switched from gloomy to surprised as Fate put on her little show before bursting out into a giggle as the usual Fate resurfaced and instantly screwed it up. It was so hilarious and cute, she could've sworn that Fate was screwing it up on purpose! She even seemed to forget why she had become upset earlier in her little giggle-fit! Even Chrono and Verossa joined in on the laughing a few seconds later, less so at Fate and more so at how quickly Fate's clumsiness dragged Hayate out of the slight slump she was starting to develop.
"Thanks, you two."
There was a short pause as silence started to fill the room. Hayate looked towards Verossa a few moments later, who had, as expected, grown a rather dejected expression himself. Were Verossa not as particular as he was, Hayate would've probably felt a bit bad for such a cruel joke. But this; this way payback for how he made fun of her height!
"You too." she said, showing him the brightest of smiles.
Having her friends worry for her so much, having them do their absolute best to get her out of her little hole... it made Hayate feel truly happy.