Super late updating? What super late?

I should note that I'll be using Japanese honorifics here. Honestly, calling everyone else with honorifics is definitely Deuce's best trait, it shows that how she always think highly of everyone.

Final Fantasy Type Zero, its' setting, and characters belongs to Square Enix.

SECOND CHAPTER: SUDDENLY, BABY!

…

"A-Ace-san…"

Ace couldn't believe his eyes.

Before him was the confused number two of Class Zero, cradling a loud, bubbly thing in her arms. That thing happened to be a baby, a human baby.

"W-What do we do..?" She asked nervously, her confused tone didn't really need to be there to show the world how confused she was already.

On the opposite side, Ace's façade was no better. In fact, you couldn't go wrong by saying that his expression was far worse than Deuce's. With his mouth agape, he shakily pointed at the baby with his index finger in shock.

"H-How in the world—"

"I-I don't understand it myself!" The green eyed female indicated the small cardboard box near her feet. "He was inside it…"

At times like this, panicking always helped, obviously.

Except the little guy was now crying loudly. Loudly as in, very loudly.

Ace gave a small 'whoa' and Deuce soon followed him with a panicked yelp before trying to persuade the baby to go back to sleep. This was the very crucial moment for the two students of the Class Zero. The card wielder, in fact, eyed every muscles of the baby to calm down at this very moment with sparkly, hopeful eyes. The flutist, on the other hand, actually did something. She tried her best to calm the baby with a well-versed lullaby.

Fortunately, the duo's effort wasn't for naught. The sweet little baby slowly drifted to his slumber.

Both Ace and Deuce let out a sigh of a relief as if they had just stopped a time bomb. Funny thing was that this situation might as well counts as one.

A pregnant pause happened as they watched the baby's peaceful snore before the brunette decided to speak.

"…What do we do with him, Ace-san?"

…

Now this was what you call true embarrassment, no doubt.

Deuce, naturally, was very kind and when she decided to take the baby to the school, Ace was mentally horrified. Sure, leaving the baby was wrong, very wrong… But taking him with them into the school, into the class was definitely not what Ace preferred as well.

Especially when the class was discussing something serious, like right now.

If he wasn't in this situation, Ace would already laugh his heart out at Kurasame's, Eight's, and Seven's face. Yeah, he was the main victim here… So he would just close his eyes and lips and say nothing. That would work, yeah. No doubt.

Ace still managed to gives a look at Deuce from the corner of his right eye, though. He muttered no words, but his glance said everything.

Say something. Please.

Deuce caught the code with the same method as her par's, and she understood the meaning of his gaze as well, yet she was in no better ideas, though.

W-What should I say here?

The blonde magician could see cold sweats dripped over her cute, pure face. Oh, is that the same sweat that trailed over his own forehead that he felt?

Anything, Deuce. Any-freaking-thing. Just don't make things more awkward than now.

That totally put Deuce in blank mind. Ace-san was asking the impossible from her! She was never the best when it comes to opening a conversation, and now he asked her to do it? She didn't really have any other choice, though. She gulped before slowly creating a gap between her lower lip and her upper lip.

"G-Good afternoon."

Ace slapped a hand to his forehead.

Like, a very hard slap.

Kurasame Susaya was the first to recover from the amazing scenery. Blinking his eyes twice, he crouched down to pick up the remaining of chalk.

"…Five minutes break. I'll get another chalk."

All of Class Zero's students sans Ace and Deuce just nodded as Kurasame passed through them in silence, with his Tonberry followed not far from its' master. If Kurasame were to be honest here, chalk wasn't the only thing he would grab from the faculty, he would visit Kazusa and ask him another migraine pill before returning.

When Kurasame was out of the room, the rest of them quickly surrounded the Acuvi duo. Well, not all of them, everyone but King, who managed to recover and calmed himself.

"How cute~" Cinque was the first to exclaim, her head tilted up and down to get a better view on the cute baby in his Deuce's arms. Cater soon followed her, trying her best not to squeal and woke the baby up. "So adorable…"

While Deuce and the thing in her arms were bombarded with joys by the giggling females, Ace was suffering. Jack and Nine already slumped their arm on Ace's shoulder, rendering him unable to run. Their smirk weren't making Ace's life easier, indeed.

"Newlyweds~" Jack smirked like a cat. "Score, Ace, score."

Ace was about to straighten things out when Nine's laugh disturbed his concentration. "Already that deep, eh, lover boy? I am sure as hell jealous here."

This is why there was a part inside Ace that was still against bringing the child here: They won't let him live it down.

Again, another voice destroyed his effort to speak, this time it was Eight chuckling. "If you wanted to make a move at Deuce, you could at least tell me, Ace."

I am going to murder all of you.

"I honestly presumed you were more… passive, Ace. Yet it seems my judgment wasn't correct again. You never cease to surprise me, my friend." Trey's remark soon followed the bandwagon. As always thought, Trey never meant any harm, and not to mention, always backfired. Ace could swear his face was about to explode from all the reds on it, due to embarrassment and anger inside him.

I am going to murder all of you. Nastily.

Before Ace could put his extreme plan in motion, the ever so talkative Trey returned from his thinking pose into that of a calmer one. "That aside, let's be serious for a while."

Every laughters, except Nine's, stopped as the aura around them was starting to get tense. A bit more serious than before, at the very least. This time, the 'I-give-no-fucks' King stepped in, his expression was as expressionless as ever.

"Ace." He pierced a look at the smaller blonde. "Full story, if you would."

As he felt two hands slipping out of his shoulder, Ace let out a sigh of relief. Taking a deep breath, he then relaxed himself and asked the girls to stop their chatters for a while.

"Well, actually..."

…

"I see."

King closed his eyes with his arms crossed to think. Trey followed with a nod before he was also captured in his own thought.

"This problem isn't something that we can handle easily." The archer moved a strand of his front's hair, thoughtful expression was written on his face. "Let us think together about what we should do about this little hero from now."

By 'little hero', Trey obviously meant the baby. Everybody nodded at Trey's advice. Indeed, this is the biggest (and weirdest) problem they ever faced; they were a group of warriors, one of the strongest one in the Rubrum, that is. However, in the end, they were no older than young teenagers.

Just like a pack of wolves, everyone put their finger on their each respective chin to think. Everyone but Cinque.

That wasn't left unnoticed by Queen.

"Cinque, is anything wrong?" She asked, disturbing everyone else's concentration. All eyes were now shifted to Cinque's pouting face.

"That was lame!" The mace-wielder yelled with pride. She then pointed her index finger at Deuce, who was caught by surprise. "Cinque was expecting that Ace impregnated Deuce. That would make a great tale for Cinque's granddaughter."

As if on cue, Ace's and Deuce's face turned five shades of reds in unison.

Dammit, not this again.

The 'straight people group' (King, Trey, Queen, Seven, and Eight, to mention separately) was either letting out a sigh or facepalming right now. Aside of them, though, were putting their mischievous expression on their face. Once again, Ace felt his shoulders were burdened by his friend's arms.

"That's right~ That's right~" Jack stated, his signature grin plastered on his lips. "That could be a made-up story, Ace~"

"W-Why would I—"

"That's right, hey." Nine's amusement was written on his face. "You lied, aren'tcha?"

While Ace was busy trying to tell them that was the truth, Deuce was fidgeting as hell. She wasn't put under the pressure directly by words, but Cater, Cinque, and Sice (of all people) kept poking her blushing cheeks. What Deuce could do was only looks down in embarrassment.

At that very moment, Ace had enough of holding back.

"Hold on, guys."

Just when Ace's mindset was fixed, he felt his shoulder was lighter again. Once again, Trey saved his day. The golden haired bow-user moved any obstacle that put Ace's in pressure, whether it was words or actions. Before long, he already did the same to Deuce, much to Cinque's chagrin.

When he was done with it, Trey sighed once again.

"Honestly, did no one of you know anything about human's pregnancy?" He straightened his position in dissatisfaction. "Just so you know, how every baby was born within their mother's womb isn't something that science find new. Technically, while we can't see what's inside without any exquisite equipment, every woman can easily tell it when the baby is growing bigger. In fact, haven't you ever heard the phrase 'I could feel the baby's kicking' from any adults—"

Oh boy. Here it comes, Trey's crash course.

This time, everyone –without any exception- just sighed as Trey's blabbers tortured their ears. Out of one hole, fell into another one. Ace hated his life so much right now.

After five minutes or so, Trey who was walking around in circle while explaining many obvious and unrelated things, raised his right hand to point at Cinque.

"—Hence, Cinque!" Cinque tilted her head as Trey kept his explanation intact. "Implying that Ace impregnated Deuce is, by any means, impossible! As I've said before, when a woman is pregnant, her stomach will bulge in a circular shape. Also! It takes approximately nine months before every mother can let her child break free. So as you can see… Deuce's stomach was shaping in a normal, healthy young girl so we can simply kick away that possibility. Of course, whether Ace have had sex with Deuce is another topic altoge—"

Ouch.

Way to make more misunderstandings, Trey.

If Deuce had blushed five shades of reds back there, she was definitely blushing fifty shades of reds right now. Everyone else (sans Trey, who was still bullshitting and all) couldn't hold their smirk anymore. Yes, even King and Queen were also captured in this amusement, King let out an unnatural-for-King chuckle, and Queen was giggling. No, they never had any sex.

Not yet, perhaps?

Still with a baby in her arms and blushes all over her cheeks, Deuce decided to stare at any other interesting things that weren't her teammates giving her a look. At first, the room's floors were the best option, but when a glimpse of Ace's shoes was in her eyes, her gaze slowly traveled over to his face. Despite her embarrassment, a glimpse of curiosity flashed her mind at this.

Ace-san was doing nothing but trembling.

…Now wait just a minute again. Tremble? What for?

Cautiously, the brunette's jade eyes found her way to Ace's emerald one. He wasn't paying any attention at her, he was glaring at the others instead. When Deuce took a better look of Ace's eyes once more, she noticed something weird.

Furies were in his eyes.

Furthermore, his right hand already reached the small bag on his hips, a card was captivated between his index finger and his middle finger. To make it more horrendous, his hand was glowing.

Oh, no.

Deuce wasn't the type to run away by herself, not before she could tell everyone else was safe. Sadly, in this situation, Deuce had another burden to protect: A baby, that wasn't even hers, or Ace's, or Cinque's, or everyone else from Class Zero. Conclusion? She ran away as fast as she can. Out of this room.

While Deuce managed to slip away with cold sweats and panics on her face, the rests were too late to notice how mad Ace was right now. Yelps and begs could be heard accompanying Ace's hand's motions as he held his hand over his head with his weapon of choice between his fingers.

…

How much pill was it again? Four, or five pills? Kurasame couldn't really remember the last time he had to ask Kazusa that much migraine medicine in one time. To think Ace and Deuce, of all people surprised him by bringing a baby with them… Either he was getting weak mentally, or he was already that weak thanks to his students' daily insanity. The mentor sighed beneath his deep-blue colored mask.

As he walked slowly toward Crystallium, he bumped into a running Deuce. Kurasame didn't even stumble, he was a head taller than her, so her head ended up slamming his muscular chest.

"Oof—"

Deuce lifted her head upwards to stare at the man she just crashed while the said man just emotionlessly eyeing her. His Tonberry let out an unnoticeable yelp.

Much to Kurasame's surprise, Deuce didn't apologize like she usually did; after noticing what she just did, she ducked her head a bit to ran straight past him.

Now what?

…Well, if the Icy Blade of Death might guess, Deuce was probably heading over to her 'Mother' to discuss about this. This kind of matter was definitely new.

He'll let that slide, just for this one occasion.

Soon, though, he learned how wrong his guess was. The moment he got through the Crystallium and entered his class, he didn't see anyone, anyone that was still standing at least. No, in fact, the only one who was on his seat with a book in his hand was Ace. When Kurasame shifted his head, he was then able to see the… bodies of the rest on the floor. Flames were still flickering just above their KO'd figures.

"Professor Kurasame." The sole survivor spoke, uninterestedly flipping pages of his thick books. "You're late."

Kurasame just sighed as he started to feel another migraine was coming to his head.

Today, his class was on fire.

Literally.

One does not simply mess with Ace. Oh, still remembers my notes up there about using honorifics? That'll actually play some part in later chapters.

From here onward, it'll be somewhat consisting 30% romances and 60% humors from here. The remaining ten percents? Class Zero being Class Zero. The humors, however, won't reach the point where this'll become a crackfic, character relationships and developments will still be there, as IC as possible. Also, sides note! I played Reishiki again and apparently I have no regrets saying Kurasame is now my most favorite character, he's way too cool –excuse the pun-. I am so sorry, Trey, but you'll stay on number two for now ;w;.

So, er… Review?