Title: After The Sun Shined

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of any of the characters in this fanfiction. Please credit the Tales group and Namco.

Pairing: Emil x Marta

Rating: T

Author's Note: Sorry it's so late guys! Midterms really suck…but I've gotten all A's and B's so far and, as soon as these are over, that mans I can crank out more stories! Woo-hoo!

-START-

Dear journal,

It's Marta again! I was just reading over some of our old entries from long ago. Emil and I started sharing this book so long ago…it's so funny to think about those days when we first met. Back then, we were incredibly close. It astonishes me that we were able to get any closer.

It's been a while, but so much has happened. It would take me years to explain it all. I gave birth to twins yesterday. We couldn't take them home because the birth took place sooner than expected, so they wanted to monitor the babies. I wasn't really listening to the doctor. I was crying and sobbing the whole time, just like a little kid! I was happy.

I don't know if Emil cried or not. When I opened my eyes he was sitting beside me, clutching my hand. It was at that point that he thanked me and held me so tightly. It hurt a little, but I didn't care. Next, he asked me about names. I told him I wasn't sure, but that I thought Aster was a good name for the boy. The girl's name we're still thinking about. We have lots of ideas, though, so we'll have to think about it. Tomorrow we'll go in and see them again! They're cute and fat and round! They both have blond hair and blue eyes. It was surreal to stare at them and see myself in their faces. I think I cried even more after that.

I can't write too much, but I hope I'll be able to continue this diary again! I'm so happy that I can hardly keep my hand from shaking as I write.

Marta

One boy and one girl.

Everyone seemed so elated. Even the doctor, who had no attachment to the couple, seemed to be smiling more than usual. Emil and Marta didn't notice, but it gave Lloyd a bad feeling. It was a notion he couldn't shake. Had the doctor been expecting something to go wrong?

He turned to his fiancée and asked her. Both of them were waiting for Emil and Marta in the lobby of the office. The two couples had decided to meet and see the children together. All the others were supposed to arrive as well, especially Zelos. He was incredibly interested in how advanced technology had found its way into a Slyvaranti establishment.

"That's odd," Lloyd muttered under his breath. He hadn't meant to talk aloud.

"Huh? What is?" Colette asked, blinking her large eyes.

"I was just thinking about the technology here. How in the world can they have access to the equipment needed for birthing children? Everyone in Iselia always had their babies at home in a bed, from what I heard."

That sentence hit Colette oddly hard. For a moment, she appeared startled. The blond angel looked at the ground. Irving noticed and cocked his head at her reaction. He didn't think he'd said anything to set the always cheerful Colette off.

"H-Hey," Lloyd asked, nudging her small shoulder. "W-What did I say? Something bad?"

"N-No…I'm fine. But I'm worried. You reminded me of something I'd been thinking about before we came here."

"Worried? About what? Emil and Marta's babies? The doctor said everything went well! There wasn't a single hitch. You told me both were healthy and that Marta did great."

She nodded, remembering her words after Marta was released from the hospital. The twins had been fine. Marta had fallen asleep and was taken to another room. All the while, Colette had stayed back to give her privacy. On her way out, she'd overheard the doctor talking with one of the nurses. "I…just remembered what he said to a nurse. I don't think they wanted me to hear, but I listened because he was acting so strangely."

"Strangely?"

Lloyd didn't like where this was going.

"Yes," she told him, eyes still downcast. Both her hands rested on top of her fiancée's lap. "He was talking about how early Marta was. She's so thin and frail, after all. That fact combined with her early labor, and she was having twins…"

His eyes widened. She was right. However, it wasn't Marta that concerned the swordsman. "Are you saying that…there might be a chance that…"

"He thought so," Colette said. "He didn't expect both babies to be alive, I suppose. When everything went smoothly, I don't know..."

"That would explain why he was so icy when he talked with us."

"Exactly."

They sat in silence, staring at each other for a long while. Lloyd was the first to turn away and grimace, anger rising in his gut. Colette was right. Combining all factors of Marta's pregnancy and the doctor's expectation that something would go wrong made him feel enraged. It seemed incredibly unfair. Colette noticed that her future husband was angry and tried to comfort him by taking his hand and placing a gentle kiss his palm. The action awoke him from his daydream and made him cast his eyes to her curiously.

"It'll be okay," she told him with a smile. "It's over now. Both babies are born and alive. The doctor said they're in good health and, as soon as Emil and Marta get here, we'll be able to see it for ourselves."

Irving nodded slowly and commenced to lean in and kiss her when an idea crashed through his mind. "Wait. If Emil is technically Summon Spirit, and Marta is just a human…what does that make their children?"

One could have heard a pin drop between the two adults.

Colette struggled to answer, but managed a cheap smile. She even giggled, which gave Lloyd an instant alert that she was lying. "It'll be okay. It has to!"

"I hope you're right, Colette."

For some reason, her words didn't comfort him. They seemed empty and lacked promise. His stubborn mind wouldn't let him forget those words and the idea that had been implanted. Even when Marta and Emil approached them cheerfully with smiles on their tired faces, the notion refused to fade.

Lloyd hoped the Emil's family wouldn't be broken apart like his was.

XOXOXOXOXO

"So, the boy will be named Aster and the girl will be named Thea?" the doctor confirmed, scribbling the names onto a thick packet of paper. The couple nodded happily and confirmed the names of their two twins. Colette and Lloyd watched from afar, the angel smiling merrily and the swordsman cocking his head in worry and a slight amount of befuddlement. He tapped his fiancée on the shoulder and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "Hey, Colette, where did the name Thea come from?"

"It's a popular girl's name up north," she said with a grin. "It kind of sounds like Tenebrae's name, doesn't it?"

"Huh? Oh…I guess it does! That's actually kind of cute. Tenebrae must feel honored."

Said cloud of black smoke suddenly swirled above Lloyd's head of spiky brown hair and leaned down to run his cold nose against the back of his neck. "Although honored is a fine word, I would much prefer you use the term delighted. I'm not a completely heartless creature, you know."

The man stumbled forward and yelped comically, tumbling to the ground. Invisible to everyone else, Tenebrae swiftly leaped through the air and sat on the doorway, watching as a crowd of confused onlookers stared at Lloyd. Emil gave the Centurion a discouraging stare as Marta was led into the nursery by a nurse. They would bring out the babies while Emil waited with Lloyd and Colette for the others to show up.

"Sorry, Lloyd," Castagnier said, offering the older man a hand to help him stand up. "Tenebrae, you shouldn't play pranks on people like that in public!"

"Yeah," Lloyd returned, making sure all the onlookers had left before he continued to talk with the translucent canine. "Screaming and falling over randomly in public isn't going to help me recover my reputation anytime soon."

"Oh please," the smooth-talking creature replied. "You talk as if my pranks can even compare to the disaster in Flanoir or in Palmacoasta. My little pranks are nothing compared the Decus' antics."

"But nobody else knows that," Irving continued to explain, sighed deeply in defeat when Tenebrae offered his only a chuckle in return. It was truly impossible to fight against the Centurion. "Okay, fine. I give up. You're ruthless, you know that?"

"He's not ruthless," Colette said, brushing some dust from Lloyd's shoulder. "Tenebrae is…simply misunderstood."

"That doesn't even mean the same thing!"

"But that's what Professor Sage told me!" Colette replied with a lifted brown. "She says Tenebrae may seem a little snarky at times, but that's that just makes him more majestic. We're simply unable to understand how amazing Centurions like him are!"

"Of course she said that…" Lloyd exhaled in exasperation.

Emil listened to the three of them talk until the sound of footsteps came down the hallway. He turned to see a crowd of familiar faces coming down the stark hallway. All the faces were alight with smiles of different kinds. Some were overjoyed. Some were gleeful. One appeared to be hiding something. As Genis and Presea came forward to look at the babies through the nursery's window, Raine and Sheena went to Tenebrae and Colette. Regal sauntered over to Lloyd and asked him about the unusual red bump on the back of his head.

The final member of the group, Zelos, casually walked towards Emil. Before the young man even had a chance to greet the redheaded Chosen, Zelos reached out and ruffled his blond hair until it was a scruffy mess. "Hey there, Bud #2! I heard your kids were finally born!"

"Y-Yes," he responded with a gasp, trying to comb his hair down as Zelos cackled at how silly the man looked. "Just yesterday. I almost came by myself, but Marta said she was strong enough and wanted to come with me to see them."

Blue eyes sparked with sudden interest. "Oh, then Marta is here after all. Where is she?"

"She's with the nurse," he responded slowly, mint eyes looking through the window to see the two women huddle over two small, adjacent cradles. Zelos followed his gaze and bit his bottom lip. It was easy to see that the Chosen clearly had something unpleasant on his mind. Emil curiously looked back and forth until he realized what emotion was on Zelos' face. It was a mixture of confusion and fear. It was an emotional mixture that Emil was all too familiar with after his inconsistent past. "Hey, Zelos? Is something wrong?"

"Hm…? What do you mean?"

"It's nothing specific. You just seem a little…fidgety, is all. Are you worried about something?"

Zelos shrugged and turned around, scanning the Sylvaranti establishment. While the building appeared crisp and white, there wasn't much in the way of technology. The hospitals in Tethe'alla were far more advanced and, while not only being incredibly clean, were also incredibly successful in terms of births and surgeries. Even Zelos, who was growing fonder of Sylvarant day by day, had to admit that the lesser world possessed more in the way of quaint charm over technology and scientific progression. "Not really. I was just taking a look around this place."

The excuse was fine, but Emil didn't believe him. The tone he used was uncommonly associated with the genial Chosen. It was analytical and laced with a thin layer of worry. The man wanted to push the issue, but before the words could come out, the doors opened and Marta was holding both of their children, smiling so widely that her cheeks were red. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

At that moment, all questions melted away and were forgotten.

-END-

Next chapter will be up super soon! Sorry for keeping you all waiting, but I want to know I appreciate you guys and your support.

Stay awesome.

Oh, and Emil is a popular name in Norway. Thea is a popular girl's name that just happened to sound like Tenebrae's name, so I went with it. It reminds me a little of Tea from Yu-Gi-Oh.

Ah, memories and nostalgia.