Disclaimer: I do not own ANY of the characters of Tales of Xillia...maybe except for Ami, but that's it! All the other characters belong to their rightful owners and companies and ect.

I OWN NOTHING!

Duty of the heart.


"WHHHHHHAAAAAAT?!"

Jude cringed at the loud shrieks that was everybody's reaction to him revealing little Ami to them. The gang had initially seemed relaxed but were now seriously close to toppling over like some falling dominos and falling off the sofa and hitting the floor.

The scientist clutched a startled Ami close to him, cradling her tiny body against his chest, fixing them all with a glare that was almost enough to curdle a herd of Rappigs. He realised that they were caught off guard but that didn't exactly give them the right of scaring his daughter whether it be by accident or not.

Everyone quickly realised their mistake and decided to calm down before they do something they may end up regretting.

Rowan was the one who spoke up first as he grabbed at his chest to feel his racing heart, trying to calm himself from the shock of this new revelation, and he looked at Jude incredulously. "I'm sorry, forgive our rudeness, but h-how did you...?"

Jude shook his head. He couldn't blame everybody for being startled because he supposed that this was a ginormous bombshell. He looked down at little Ami for a moment while he responded to the older tactician's inquiry with his voice wobbling with uncertainty, his intellectual cool amber eyes glimmered while he tried to keep his voice low to pacify his daughter. "I don't know. I found her a week or so ago and she had a letter on her from Muzét explaining how I got Milla pregnant, it was quite peculiar."

Leia looked thoughtful. She was still getting over the shock yet she seemed to have been trying to make her voice work, although she was taking awhile despite normally being the social butterfly of the group. Her speech fumbled and floundered about for a minute until she finally found his voice; she looked down at his lap to avert eye contact from her friend.

"Well how'd you know she's really yours?" She asked "You sure nobody just abandoned her and left her and pretended to be Muzét?"

It was only after asking that when Leia realised how dumb that sounded. Why would ANYBODY want to pretend to be Muzét and abandon their child pretending to be her? Not only did that make not a lick of logical sense but it was also crazy that anyone would wish to impersonate a great spirit, especially if they wanted to saddle a baby with Jude; and it became quickly obvious that Leia wasn't the only one that thought that about her own question. The young man furrowed a brow at his childhood friend and readjusted Ami in his arms so she could be sitting up a bit more comfortably in his arms.

"Leia, why would anyone in their right minds try to impersonate a great spirit just to leave me with a child?"

Leia was unable to answer that since she had just spotted little Ami and her heart melted into a puddle of goo when she saw the little child for the first time. A big smile spread across her face and she bent down to meet the little one on eye level and her eyes sparkled with complete adoration for the cute little bundle.

Ami, on the other hand, froze instantly when her big eyes laid upon the unfamiliar lady.

"D'awwww! Aren't you a sweet little cutie~" Leia crooned, attempting to tickle Ami's pudgy cheek. Ami's eyes were wide with fear of the strange lady and she even wriggled a bit to try and move herself away from her but she was also curious of her new surroundings at the very same time. Her big honey-coloured pools were beginning to fill with fascination and the fear began to die down, especially when she found herself liking the sensation of being tickled.

Jude was dumbfounded. Ami had seemed to warm up to Leia quite quickly! Maybe doing this won't be so hard on her, perhaps leaving her for a little bit would be easier than he had originally thought...

The little girl seemed both cautious and curious at the same time as she slowly glanced around wearily with her tiny hands gripping tight to her father's sleeve, creasing the material in her tiny pudgy digits. It was becoming clearer and clearer that the little one wanted to explore but she was just still very reluctant about all these brand new faces and seemed to feel pretty intimidated.

It seemed as though Elize had something to say but she was also getting over the shock that this child even existed at all. But she quickly shook it off as she stepped forwards and grinned in a friendly manner at the little one bundled in Jude's loving arms, her own innocent green eyes gleaming with good natured cheer.

"Hello. What's your name, little one?" She asked in a gentle tone, standing next to Leia whom was still fawning over the infant.

Jude felt more comfortable as the girls tried approaching his daughter and let a grin spread across his lips when self reassurance started to sink in. Ami was starting to become braver as she stared at the new faces whom were willing to not only get to know her but even try and earn that trust that took some time to build. His proud yet exhausted honey-coloured irises practically glowed with delight while answered the young 13-year-old spirit arte sorceress.

"Her names Ami."

Elize beamed at little Ami, quickly overcoming her initial shyness and falling for the tiny child and it was pretty quick when Teepo decided to join in and meet Jude's little daughter. The floating literate plushie flew right out of Elize's arms and bobbed in the air right in front of Ami's face

"Well, she's a cute lil' baby! She's almost as huggable as me~"

Teepo's abrupt appearance probably wasn't a fantastic idea. The plushie booster didn't nom little Ami's face but he accidentally done something that warranted a reaction unwanted by the baby to begin with.

It was right after Teepo basically popped up out of nowhere and spoke so loudly when Ami let out a startled squeal which was very quickly followed by a series of crying; the poor little child wailed in Jude's arms, and flailed her teeny arms and legs about violently to convey her distress. She cried so much and her face was reddening, her hands were flapping aimlessly around and she kicked her little legs in the air.

This prompted the alarmed Jude to try and shush his daughter while he bounced on his feet before something horrific happened. The exhaustion in his eyes started to show and he rocked Ami from side-to-side rather clumsily so the girl cried even harder, and it was this outburst that created further bedlam.

Within seconds of Ami's loud cries amplifying in volume, some small storm clouds started to gather overhead of the whole group. The dark grey puffs of cumulus almost instantly began to squeeze out some droplets of rain which had stunned everybody in the room, it began to soak everybody who had been unfortunate enough to stand beneath the instant cloud of emotional distress.

Jude continued in vain to try and calm his daughter but to no avail.

She was frightened by Teepo, that was obvious, but how could he remedy it!?

Leia and Elize and Teepo all stepped backwards and retreated from the source of the indoor rain that showered over them and the others matched their expressions of confusion and disbelief perfectly. They all seemed (unsurprisingly) stunned that not only was this a true reality but that it a little baby was making it rain inside.

It just wasn't normal!

Ami's terrified screeches caused the raindrops to thicken and feel like tiny daggers on impact. Jude couldn't help but feel each and every drop hit his body as though a knife was carefully nicking his skin in tiny piercings, it began to really sting whenever a drop of moisture touched his skin. He was also keeping a constant eye on potential flying projectile objects that he hoped wouldn't come his way.

The scientist was at a loss and he was exhausted. What could he do?

But thankfully his prayers were answered in the form of another one of his friends.

Rowan had come up towards the group, trying to ignore the rain, and took Ami out of poor Jude's arms and held her in his own embrace as he started to softly rock her from side-to-side like Jude had tried albeit calmer and softer, despite the fact that he had been rendered dampened to the bone due to the raincloud of terror hovering overhead. Unlike Jude, Rowan was much more calm and composed in his approach but he was wiser, due to his old age, and he even knew how to handle hard situations.

Besides it was clear that this little lady needed some reassurance here.

The former military tactician handled Ami gently and even bounced her up and down in his arms to soothe her. Ami's cries had dulled into sniffles and whimpers and within instants the rain had evaporated into nothingness and the cloud had vanished into thin air.

Everybody was dumbstruck.

How did Rowan just do that!?

The butler smiled softly down at little Ami and proceeded to hand her back to Jude, whom gladly accepted her back into his own arms. He was still utterly impressed that Rowan had calmed her down so fast and even cut off a tantrum from occurring. He looked at Rowan with impressed yet heavy eyes and his jaw had dropped to the ground with pure disbelief written all over his face.

"R-Rowan, that was incredible! How did you do that?" He asked.

Rowan simply shrugged "As I once told Alvin, I know how to treat a lady,"

After saying that, he stepped forwards and tickled Ami's cheek which got a slight giggle out of her. The scene was quite heartwarming to watch and made everybody smile even if they were all soaked after that little outburst a moment ago.

Elle was holding on to Rollo, who was meowing in displeasure and shivering from having dripping wet fur and she furled her arms around the chubby cat, she looked over at Elize and they both glared at Teepo.

"Teepo, scaring Ami wasn't nice! You should apologise to her!" Elize scolded.

Elle grumpily added "Yeah and everybody's all wet now!"

Teepo also was affected by the rain since he had began to get all puffy and dripping. His horns were heavy and dangling —whether it was from the wet or guilt nobody knew for certain— and his round stomach was even rounder than normal, certain areas of his stomach poked outwards to make it appear as though he had several hernias.

Nevertheless, Teepo approached Ami slower this time with his head held low. His big green eyes were glossy and his sharp teeth were somewhat dulled as he opened his mouth and closed it to try and get it to work after it became sticky. He looked apologetically at little Ami whom now seemed extremely nervous of the plush and Teepo spoke in a soft yet tried to sound as optimistic as always.

"Hey, friend...I...I'm sorry for scarin' ya."

Ami was still weary of Teepo and didn't move, clearly uncertain of what to think now. She was certainly still fearful of her new surroundings and it was then that Alvin finally spoke up and decided to point out the most obvious thing about Jude right now.

The Elympion businessman had managed to stand up from the seat he and the others had been sitting on until not too long ago and he asked Jude whilst he furrowed a curious slick brow at the scientist; the honours student had very dark circles around his eyes and he was looking awfully pale then he normally did, and he was quite naturally pale to begin with.

"Jude? Have you slept at all since you found the kid? You look as though you're gonna keel over and die from exhaustion,"

Jude frowned and slumped over with exhaustion as confirmation. It then became apparent to everybody that poor Jude hadn't been sleeping well at all lately and he really did look like he was seconds away from just passing out. The scientist tried to deny it with a brusque nod of the head but his words had decided to flow out on their own without his control.

"Yeah...I haven't...slept much...Ami keeps me up...at...night..."

Jude's eyes widened when he realised what he just said. He was now quite infuriated with himself because this was the one time he didn't want the truth to be known to spare everyone worrying over his wellbeing, it made him realise that he was probably too much of a "goody-two-shoes" good boy for his own good. He couldn't even lie if his life depended on it!

Oh no! I didn't mean for that to slip! I knew that I was too much of an honours student for my own good...

He rubbed his temple irritably and carried on cradling his daughter with a free arm but Alvin placed a hand on his shoulder. He wrapped a strong arm around his neck and was frowning sympathetically, obviously Jude hadn't been sleeping well because surely the daughter of the great spirit Maxwell could be very hard to deal with as was just demonstrated. The former mercenary gave the younger man a comforting slap to his shoulder to try and make him feel a tad better.

"Ooh. That's rough, buddy..."

Jude simply acknowledged Alvin with an incoherent mumble beneath his breath, barely noticing that everyone now shot looks of pity at him. Now they seemed awfully worried about him, and it even seemed to set off something in Leia as she just come up and decided to just rip Ami out of Jude's arms and attempt to lighten the mood.

Jude barely had time to comprehend what was happening.

"That's it!" Leia said, determined. "Jude, you should go and get a long rest and we could all look after Ami."

Everyone's reaction was simultaneous as everyone stared at the young lady as though she were insane. Eyes were wider than dinner plates and pupils shrunk into disbelieving dots, mouthes hung had open and hearts had frozen in everybody's chests. Time had stopped for everyone except Leia as they tried to absorb what she had just declared. It didn't take very long until they finally did.

"WHHHHAAAT!?"

Alvin exclaimed, horrified by the idea of babysitting. "Have you gone bonkers!?"

Elize added, her tone much softer than Alvin's. "We just discovered that Jude has a child with Milla and that she has powers! Are we even ready for something like that?"

Leia whirled on the two with her eyes practically burning with unfaltering determination and even her auburn hair blazed with equal passion; one would think that the young news journalist was about to storm out and battle an entire army by herself or something.

"Guys. Jude needs to get some rest, he looks like a zombie he's so tired!"

Jude interjected "Leia! What're you saying?! No offence or anything but I don't think you can handle such a responsibility!"

Leia shot Jude a dark scowl and frowned. Her temper was rising and she even had to resist the urge to stomp her foot in order to avoid startling Ami again, and she watched as Jude faltered a bit under her threatening glare of doom. When they were young she'd easily be able to crush him during a dual and he didn't want to risk getting every limb of his twisted and smashed by her.

Her glare intensified as her shadow loomed over the new father "Jude. You will get some take some time off and sleep, need I remind you of that promise you made? You can't keep that promise looking half dead now!"

Jude found himself unable to argue.

Even though Leia was beginning to sound very much like her own mother, she had a good point. He had promised Milla that he'd perfect Spyrite technology so Spyrix was no longer necessary and spirits would no longer be in jeopardy and he was determined to keep that promise. He was going to change the world...but he also had a daughter which he was struggling with.

He shook his head in defeat and sighed.

"Okay...fine, you can look after her for awhile."

Leia was basically bouncing with joy after hearing Jude say that. She spun around the room but her eyes were shimmering with this certain aura of satisfied triumph and readjusted Ami in her arms and held her out towards Driselle and the girls and went to talk about all the girly activities they could do with her.

Jude, all the while, was seriously beginning to wonder if he should reconsider. Once again his head hung and his posture fell so low that he was almost on the ground. What could he do? What if something happened while he was away or something? He was still new at being a parent and he didn't want anything happening to his little girl, especially after that Exodus thing not too long ago. He lifted his gaze when he felt a sudden pressure on his shoulder and he was surprised at who it was standing before him.

Rowan grinned as he lifted his hand from the young man's shoulder.

"Worry not. The little miss will be in good hands."

The Spyrite researcher sighed again "I know that...its just that..."

He trailed off as he fidgeted where he stood. His bright amber eyes were alit with anxiety while he looked off to the side absentmindedly, he was tired but he was still unsure whether everybody was up for it.

Rowan saw this and tried to put Jude's mind at peace. "I understand, I will be near and make certain that little Ami is safe and you have my solemn word."

Jude pondered on that. He knew that Rowan and the others could be trusted, and he admittedly felt ashamed for doubting them to begin with. He was just feeling a ton of pressure about his baby girl and she was no ordinary child so he feared that if he put a foot out of place around her then she'd flood all of Sharilton with her emotional outbursts. But his sleepiness was finally beginning to help sway him, and the fact that he was still cold from being wet made it even easier for him to let it go for awhile.

He sniffled and rubbed his nose with a soaking wet sleeve, shuddering from the chills of the air, and he looked at the group one last time; mostly everybody seemed to have been occupied with Ami, talking about future tea parties and dresses and other stuff, and even Elle seemed to have been fully invested along with Teepo and Rollo.

The researcher was caught off guard when Alvin snuck up behind him and wrapped his arm around his neck in a brotherly headlock. The former mercenary smiled (albeit nervously) and spoke to the shuddering young man in his normal carefree tone of voice, "You go and get some rest, kid, because I think you're gonna need a lot of it..."

Jude nodded, all the energy now being sapped from him to the point where his eyes were beginning to automatically close. He could no longer argue, he was in no state to. Besides, he felt as though he could topple straight to the ground at any moment and fall fast asleep right there and then. He had been rendered depleted. He picked up a bag from his side on the floor and passed it to Alvin and told him in as best a serious tone he could muster.

"Alright. Everything you need should be in that bag, I'll be resting at the nearby Inn for awhile..."

Alvin grinned with false confidence with the damp-with-rain bag in his arms. "Yeah, sure, okay!"

Jude headed back towards Leia and bent down to see the small child in his arms. He smiled and leaned forwards and kissed her forehead softly, making the small girl squirm a bit and gaze at him with pure confusion on her face. Ami frowned and raised a brow. Why did her daddy look so worried? She didn't understand. Little was she to know, however, was that her father prayed like crazy that she couldn't catch on to what was going on.

Jude's lips were pressed against Ami's small forehead and her wisps of silky blonde/ebony hair tickled his nose. His eyes closed as he put as much of his energy as he could into that kiss, and he also put as much adoration into it as he could as well. He felt like he just had to do this to try and get the message across that he loved her with every single bone in his body.

It was silly.

Weeks ago if you told him that he would be opening his heart so much to a small child then the scientist would have probably recommended you to seek psychological help...

Why was doing this was so morally difficult? It made his heart pound with guilt, it felt sickening to just do this no matter how hard it was. His throat was closing and his heart sunk into his stomach. He didn't want to scare his only child into thinking he was just going to abandon her, and just the thought of that sweet little face being dismayed was just heart-wrenching.

Jude then pulled away from his daughter and bid everyone goodbye...and he smiled down as best he could at the girl and spoke light-heartedly to her. "Be a good girl for daddy, Ami. I'll be back later..."

Then he began to walk away.

Away from Ami...

Away from his and Milla's treasure...

With each step he took towards the front door, a very impulsive instinct to just rush back and grab her just increased; just doing this felt so sickening for him and it made him feel just terrible. It took every shred of his willpower not to turn around and his task of walking out the door became so much harder with every step he took.

He narrowed his tired eyes. This was for Ami's own good, his own parents had to leave him at some babysitters sometime...even if his relationship with them was quite estranged, making him panic momentarily. Wait...what if his daughter grew up feeling unloved by him!? What if he buried himself into his work and didn't have time for his baby? Muzét had mentioned in her letter that Milla entrusted the baby's wellbeing to him and what if he couldn't deliver that properly?

He shook his head.

No! He had to focus on this first, besides its not like he was leaving her there forever.

He'd be coming back for her!

The task became so much tougher when he heard his daughter start whimpering and whining. The sound was high-pitched and filled with fear, it was a harrowing sound that haunted his mind and it tugged hard at his heartstrings. Those innocent yet pleading cries reverberated off the walls of the mansion. His resolve started to break and his strides were cut off when he was about to whirl around and rush right back.

He glanced back at Ami and he clenched his fists at his sides and grit his teeth hard in order to try and resist that urge that was now screaming at him to go back. Ami was reaching out desperately for him, her pudgy arms flailing about as they were outstretched towards him. Tears were streaming down her pudgy cheeks as she cried and screamed for him to come back.

She seemed to panic more and more as the distance between father and daughter grew.

Leia seemed to notice Jude stop by the door and hesitate and she gave a dismissive wave of her hand to shoo him out the door. She raised her voice so she could be heard over Ami's high-pitched cries of fear. "You dummy! Ami will be fine. Just go!"

Jude let out a heavy breath and managed to smile weakly at his friends. He was sure that the baby was in good hands, but he still fretted about something happening should Ami get anymore upset...such as a natural disaster transpiring caused by her emotional outbursts. He finally managed to get out the door without another word and he shut the door behind him, the large doors made a loud thud as they closed and the sound was so loud that it echoed throughout the entire building and even momentarily drowned out Ami's screeching:

THUD.

Now that the group were alone with little Ami, they needed to find a remedy to get her to stop crying before she made it rain indoors again...but nobody knew how they could do that.


A/N: Well, this turned out to be a fine predicament for our heroes.

Now Alvin, Elize, Teepo, Elle, Driselle, Leia and Rowan have been stuck with babysitting the tiny terror. Can they do anything to defuse the situation now that Jude had been pursuaded to take some time off? What will happen now? And it seems that little Ami suffers from separation anxiety...like our nervous wreck parent Jude.

I hope that you guys like this chapter, please review.

-Chloemcg