Sick Day

Nanoha covered her head with her pillow to try and drown out the sound of movement in the house. In the kitchen the clattering of dishes sounded like someone was ringing a bell right in her ears serving only to increase the pain being caused by already severe headache. Eventually she heard Vivio's voice presumably in response to Fate telling her to get her things for school. Seconds later the sound of her footsteps could be heard heading towards her room. Then she heard much lighter and slower footsteps that were much closer. They stopped somewhere near her and then she felt something put weight on the bed.

"Nanoha why are you still in bed? Are you not going to work today?" Fate tried to pull the sheets down that were covering her but Nanoha had a death grip on them.

"I'm gonna stay home today Fate. I don't feel so good."

"I told you about being out in the cold! Here let me take a look at you." After a bit of tug of war, Nanoha gave in and let Fate pull the sheets back. She rolled over on her back and put the pillow back under her head.

A look of worry was on Fate's face. "Nanoha honey you look terrible!" She placed a hand on her forehead pushing aside a few strands of red hair. "And you're burning up! Nanoha why didn't you say anything sooner?"

Nanoha shrugged which made Fate sigh irritably. She stood up and grabbed her cellphone from the nightstand. Quickly dialing a number she stepped out of the room and into the hallway. Nanoha could only pick up bits of the conversation.

"Yes this is Fate Harlaown. I'm calling on behalf of Nanoha Takamachi. I'm afraid she is not coming in today."

She watched Fate pace back and forth a flash of yellow filling her vision each time she passed the doorway.

"She is very ill." She sighed irritably again. "Yes I know today is important but they'll just have to get along without her!"

Fate paused again obviously listening to what the person on the other end of the line was saying. Nanoha couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for getting Fate so riled up this early but she loved that she always got so passionate about anything that involved her.

"Well it gets worse because I'm not coming in today either." She paused yet again this time clenching her fist in the air as if choking an imaginary person. "Because she is sick and she needs someone to look after her! I can't very well ask you to do it can I?" Lowering the phone from her ear she looked at Nanoha and made a neck snapping motion. "Look I want you to go in the system and take us both off of active duty for today."

Nanoha giggled a little. She also felt sorry for the person on the other end of the phone call.

"I don't care about your stripe! It'll be your ass if you don't do it!" She seemed to be calming down. "Ok good. Thank you for all of your help!" She abruptly hung up the phone and put it down on the nightstand again. "Ugh I hate dealing with people like that!"

"Let me guess, newbies?"

Fate nodded while placing her hands on her hips.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Look I'm gonna run Vivio to school and pick up some stuff for you on the way back. You stay in this bed and rest Nanoha you got me?"

"Fate you should go to work. You do know that you could get in trouble for what you just did."

Fate casually waved her hand in the air. "What are they going to do? Fire the best enforcer they have?"

"You have a point there," Nanoha said with smile.

Vivio then came bouncing into the room with her backpack on and smiling wide. "I'm ready to go!" One look at Nanoha still in bed robbed her of her sunny disposition. "Mama are you ok?"

"Yeah baby I'm just a little under the weather. But Fate is gonna stay here and take care of me today so you don't have to worry."

"Right," said Fate taking Vivio's hand. "No let's get off to school. Nanoha I'll be back in a bit ok?"

Nanoha smiled and nodded as Fate led Vivio out of the bedroom and then out of the house. She listened for the sound of Fate's car outside then once it was gone fell back into the bed and shut her eyes. Despite her headache threatening to split her skull open, she managed to doze off for a bit.

The sound of Fate's car and the front door opening and closing woke her up. Nanoha raised her head as best she could and looked at the clock. "9:30? Fate sure can move fast when she wants too." She heard the sound of footsteps getting louder and closer.

"Ok Nanoha I bought some soup for you eat as well as cold medicine. I also got ginger ale and some herbal tea."

She could hear Fate moving around in the room and the rustling of plastic bags. "Herbal tea?"

"Yes," Fate answered. "It's flavored and it's good for you. It'll help with your head." She finished what she was doing and walked over to the bed. "Come Nanoha you need to try and sit up."

Nanoha groaned in protest but still managed to sit up to look at Fate. She had changed out of her uniform for work and was wearing a dark blue t-shirt and jeans. She held her hand out to Nanoha beckoning her to take the two small pills resting in her palm. "I hate taking medicine."

"Oh suck it up you big baby," said Fate playfully. "I'll get you some water."

"I hope you remembered to pack Vivio's lunch for her Fate!"

There was a brief silence and Nanoha thought she heard Fate curse in the other room. "I take it that's a no?"

Fate came walking back in with a small glass of water and handed it to her. "I did forget but I made sure to give her lunch money instead. It was cool with her because she said they were serving pizza in the cafeteria."

Nanoha took the pills and gulped down the water. Handing the glass back to Fate she fell back on the bed and pulled the covers up to her neck. "Can you read me story mama Fate?"

Fate giggled and turned to leave. "Read your own damn story."

"But I'm sick. You're supposed to take care of me Fate."

"Fair enough. Hey tell you what, I'll show you my latest project. Hang on." Fate left the room and after a few moments returned with her laptop. "There is this new software that they installed on the main computers that we enforcers use. It stores all known data about every registered mage. Watch I'll pull up my page." A few clicks later a full page appeared on the screen showing pictures of Fate from the front, the left and right sides, and behind.

"Wow it has everything about you Fate. You're birthday, height and weight, measurements and even a detailed physical description."

"I know right?"

Nanoha then cut her eyes at her partner. "Why does it use the word voluptuous?"

"Because I'm voluptuous babe. People love me," Fate said proudly.

"Uh huh…anyway what else does it have? It has to be more than a personnel file right?"

"Of course my dear Nanoha," Fate said. She scrolled the page down. "It even has descriptions, both written and visual of each mage's known attacks and abilities."

Nanoha leaned over to see better. "Cool. Am I in there too?"

"Of course you are. It has every known mage. And the system can even run mock simulated battles based solely on the recorded data."

"How does it do that?" asked Nanoha.

"Well each mage is given a letter grade that is basically their combat rating. The system just takes their abilities, both magical and physical, combined with the biological aspects, psychological, and everything in between and runs a simulation based on it."

Nanoha put a hand up to her mouth to stifle a cough. "Can you run a simulation of…me vs Hayate?"

"Hmm…interesting choice. Sure why not?" Fate pulled up both of their pages and ran the sim. The numbers scrolled across the screen for several seconds before the sim finished. "Wow…according to the system you could beat Hayate blindfolded honey."

"Well she is very powerful but she kinda sucks at fighting."

"That's because she isn't a combat specialist Nanoha," said Fate.

"I guess your right. Anyway can I have that soup now?"

"Sure. Hold on babe." Fate sat her computer down on the bed and headed into the kitchen.

Waiting until she was out of sight, Nanoha grabbed Fate's computer and quickly did a different simulation. She ran the results of it a few times before Fate finally returned with a bowl of soup for her. "What are you up to you naughty little mage?"

Nanoha smiled and turned the computer so Fate could see it. "According to this new system I beat you 9 times out of 10 Fate."

Fate sat the bowl of soup down on the nightstand. "I'll let the tech guys know about that error tomorrow."

"Ha, you're so funny," Nanoha said closing the laptop.

Fate smiled and leaned in to kiss Nanoha.

"Stop you'll catch my cold Fate."

"Then I'll have an excuse for not going in tomorrow either," she said pressing her lips against her partner's lovingly.

Word of advice, don't get in Fate's way when Nanoha is involved lol. God I love these two.

Anyways enjoy and please comment guys! Thanks again!